Steve Hartman and Aaron Torres Talk the Start of College Football

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio. Well, actually it's Fox
Sports Sunday right now. Good morning, everybody, Steve Harvon Aaron
Taurs with the air from the Fox Sports Radio studios.
I don't want to get people disoriented here on a
Sunday morning. I feel like it's a continuation of what
we're doing yesterday, with the the exception of the man

(00:22):
sitting next to me right now. They always busy, They
always involved, They always very much on top of everything
happening on the sports world. Aaron Taurus is here, Aaron, Well,
I will say, you know, I kind of am on
the window where Fox Sports Saturday bleeds into Fox Sports
Sunday ten pm to two a m. Eastern. So I
took us into Fox Sports Sunday last night. Rich Orenberger

(00:44):
is traveling right now. So it is a privilege and
an honor to be sitting in the Fox Sports Radio
studios next to you. Steve. How are you, man? I'm
doing great, Aaron. I'm a little anxious about a couple
of things. Very excited that we got Week zero under
our belt, leven games on the FPS level yesterday, get
a little taste of some college football. I don't know
what the future is going to be for one Scott Frost.

(01:04):
We'll get to that at some point today. But also
I'm a little frustrated right now. And this started a
year ago when the NFL expanded its schedule from sixteen
to seventeen games, which, by the way, is never a
bad thing. More NFL, the better for me. But what
I don't understand is, as we wrap up the preseason today,
how is it that we have a bye week next

(01:25):
week for the NFL. This started last year. I was
a little disoriented. I'm like, wait a second, the preseasons over.
Why are we not playing NFL games last year? And
apparently this is the new norm where we get a
bye week out of the preseason before we actually get
the NFL season started. Why are we doing this? Well,

(01:47):
let me ask you. See, I actually did not notice this.
I had I'm so here's the thing. You know, I
love college football. I'm so locked in to college football
being the sole focus on Labor Day weekend. So you're
telling me we had preseason games on Labor Day weekend
previously and I just don't remember. Maybe here's here's what happened.
So they basically what they did was they wanted to

(02:08):
keep the Super Bowl in February. Word, they want to
extend the season. So when you went from a four
game preseason too a three game season, they didn't adjust
the schedule. In other words, they just eliminated that fourth
week and replaced it with a bye week for the NFL, which,
by the way, which by the way, for you and
I and such college football fans as we are, does

(02:32):
give Week one of the college football season the absolute spotlight,
which is never a bad thing. And we got a
lot of games we're gonna get to a little bit
later on, alright. So I didn't realize that. I didn't.
I don't remember them playing into Labor Day weekend where
all the games like Thursday Friday, because I feel like
that Labor Day Saturday is college football. Then we have
the one game Sunday, the one game Monday that's into

(02:54):
Week one of the NFL. Right, So this this happened
last year, and I'm like, OK, why do we not
have any NFL games this week? No preseason or regular season?
So that means our focus really can be college Football's
ready for Week one next Saturday. Um, all right, let's
get to this right now, right out of the box.
By the way, we got a lot of stories Bruin

(03:14):
right now. We'll get to the h the Matter rises
story coming up a little bit later on. Also some
interesting comments by Aaron Rodgers about his whole vaccination situation.
But I want to start things off Aaron, because you
and I talked on Friday about this college football season.
There's a lot of intrigue this year for some of
that has followed college footballs literally since eighteen sixty nine.

(03:37):
I was, I was there with it was unbelievable. I
was like, this is gonna work. I really feel it.
Roon was as good as as everyone says he was.
Pudge heffle Finger was unbelievable. First professional football player. Uh,
but you know, we know there's a lot of intrigue
this year. We talked about the transfer portal, but the
the pressure to win has never been more intent. And

(04:00):
you know, Scott Frost came to Nebraska with the promise
that he was going to restore order at the University
of Nebraska. This is a school between nineteen sixty nine
and two thousand one had thirty three consecutive seasons with
at least nine wins. Back when they had an eleven
game schedule, thirty three straight years of at least nine

(04:22):
wins when they had eleven games schedules, and then remember
the Bill Callahan disaster. And then they hired Bo Polini
seven years. He won nine or ten games all seven years,
and they booted him. They were like, you can't win
more than nine games. They bring in Mike Riley, who's
the nicest coach on the planet, didn't work out, and

(04:43):
then they welcome Scott Frost home after yesterday has lost
the Northwestern He is fifteen and thirty in Nebraska and
worse in one score games eight points or less. He
is five in twenty one. Is it fixable anybody? Or
as Nebraska football as a power extinguished forever. Well, that's

(05:05):
an interesting twist on it because I think last night
kind of like Scott Frosh just isn't the guy. And
I listen, you know everyone's doing this revisionist history. Like
our buddy Tim Brando. I feel bad. You know he
had a quote on Paul fine Bomb. This is Nebraska's
Nick Saban when he was hired. Everyone's doing this revisionist
history thing that they didn't love the higher. I mean,
he's coming off a thirteen and no season at Central

(05:27):
Florida beats all burning and I think it was the
Peach Bowl claiming the national championship. But it's like the
idea that anyone didn't think this was gonna be a
huge success is you know, they're they're lying to you.
But anyway, so I was thinking about this morning. I
actually tweeted it out is I think I think there's
this weird narrative with Nebraska where, um, everybody in the

(05:48):
media is like, oh, they'll never get back to where
they were, and like, yeah, well, will they ever get
back to three championships in four years? The Nebraska that
when I first started watching college football. I don't mean
a date you, Steve m but when I first started
walking to watch the college football it was Nebraska, Nebraska, Nebraska.
I don't they'll ever get back there. I do think,
as we discussed on your show on Friday, in this

(06:09):
new world of the transfer portal though, I mean their
starting quarterback was a Texas last year, two best wide
receivers at LSU in Texas, uh defensive back at Alabama.
I do think there's a world where, especially if we
expand this playoff, can they be what Wisconsin is can
they be what Iowa's Can they get to ten and
two and in a sixteen team playoff b D the
twelve seed? I think they can. I don't think it's

(06:31):
gonna be under Scott Frost go ahead, all right, But
at the same time, the Big Ten, you would have
to be it's gonna get even more competitive for truths
once USC and U c l A Are added to
that conference, and of course now the ceiling can be
as many as twenties schools joined in the Big Ten.
The competition is going to be fearce and what this
requires now and I I laugh at this whole transfer

(06:51):
portal thing and the you know, name image likeness, because
when this first came down, it seems like forever ago.
It was only a couple of years ago that finally
got a green light here in California. I remember people
because immediately my reaction was you just opened Pandora's box,
and everyone's like, oh no, how many players? Is this
gonna affect? Maybe a couple of star quarterbacks. It's not

(07:14):
even gonna be nationally Are you high? What do you
think You don't think that if USC as a ticket
to offer money through name image and likeness to a recruit.
They're not going to have an advantage over a school
that doesn't have that. This is gonna sweep the nation
and we'll see how this all plays out. Well, now
it's a runaway train. Money is being thrown all over

(07:35):
the place. First it started with these collectives and even
that wasn't enough money. So now they're they're being subsidized
by all these different alumni groups and everything else. Money
is pouring into these universities. So for a school like Nebraska,
their history really means nothing at this point. It's like
Texas A and M, where all this money is pouring

(07:57):
into Texas A and M, and Jimbo Fisher suddenly is
sitting on a pot of gold and they're throwing money
around like there's no tomorrow to get the top recruise
to either sign out of high school or transfer into
Texas A and M. This is where we are. So
unless you have that money being funneled into university, I'm sorry,
you're just not gonna be able to compete for the

(08:17):
top talent. Well, and that's why I like, you know,
Nick Saban got a lot of heat this summer. And
listen when Nick Saban said about Jimbo Fisher. I understand
I wasn't like people there was this weird like mad
at Jimbo Fisher. It's like, well, it's all allegations, and
Nick Saban spoke about it as if it was fact.
But Nick Saban's points and he said this, I saw
him in an interview this week, still talking about it
is Listen, you think there's not parody, now wait until

(08:40):
there's four or five six schools that can simply just
bid more on players than than anybody else. And so
it's a changing world in college football. Um, But to
answer what you said, I'm still not sold that again.
And I know the Big ten's gonna get tougher. We're
gonna get to a twelve sixteen team playoff here pretty soon.
I mean, the powers that be are hinting at it.
And and you know that that means the money, money, money,

(09:02):
for all the money where are the money can be made,
they're gonna go. And so again I do think with
the right guy, you talk about five and whatever and
one score games. They had the talent to beat everybody
on their schedule last year, even Ohio State. They were
driving to take the lead at against Ohio State at
home late in that game, And so I just bring
it up because I don't think the gap between them

(09:25):
and the top of the say the Big Ten is
as big as people think it is now. The gap
between them and Alabama is still huge, But the gap
between Alabama and everybody is huge. So I don't think
they're dead as a program. But you know, as far
as Scott Frost is concerned, fifteen and thirty, as you said,
UM five and whatever. In close games at some point,
when you lose so many close games one after the other,

(09:48):
that's a direct reflection of the coach more than anything else.
All right, So are the elite powers in college football
further separating them from everybody else. If you look at
the preseason a p pole, you have alabamat number one,
Notre Dames at number five. Notre Dame is a seventeen
point underdog in their opening game of the season at

(10:09):
Ohio State. Does that illustrate the separation of the elite
from the ULSA rans. We're gonna break down where we
are in terms of two and which schools are really
in the chase for a national championship. Coming up next,
Steve Harmon, Aaron torres Heara, Fox Sports Sunday, the first
Saturday of college football is in the books, and of

(10:32):
course next week we get to a fully loaded college
football schedule, and with no NFL football next weekend, college
football will take center stage. I know, and I have
talked about this time and again Aaron of of why
I am so unamored with college football. And it's certainly
no knock in the NFL, because obviously I follow the

(10:54):
NFL religiously like everybody else. But to me, there's still
something separates the college game from the NFL game, and
and really the dynamic of the two sports cannot be
more different. Uh, the NFL is exactly what it is,
the absolute elite players, and there's a certain formula of

(11:14):
playing in the NFL. Some play, you know, some teams
do it better than others, and that's how it all works.
In the NFL. College football, still it is very regional.
There's certain differences and styles of play, different philosophies on
how to be successful at the college level. You have
you get the iconic coaches that are at one institution

(11:37):
of a long time. Look at Iowa, Sam he wants
to give a Kirk ference another twenty or extension at
Iowa the way absolutely, So, I mean there is something
he said. I'm Nick Saban obviously at Alabama, Davo Sweeney
at Clemson. Can I jump in? Are you afraid with
all of these moves USC and U c l A
to the Big Ten, Texas, Oklahoma to the SEC? As

(11:59):
you reference, we could get more teams to the Big
ten soon, which probably makes the sect you know react
in their own way. Are you worried that we're losing
a little bit of that in college football? No? And
and this is old school guy talking about new school
right now. Okay, So, as someone that grew up on
the days back in you know, in the sixties and
seventies where you only saw a few of the elite

(12:20):
programs ever on television before they open the floodgates, the
idea even showing like you never saw a home game
because they always thought no one's gonna show up. So
back in the days when it was Michigan, Ohio State,
U s C, U c l A, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Texas,
we only saw a few schools out there. Here's what
I recognized. So when you say I remember, like when

(12:40):
Nebraska leaves the Big twelve, to go to the big tent.
I'm like, what's happening here? Oh, when Penn State moved
in the Big ten, they were an independent all those years.
You think this doesn't look right, but then you're reminded
again ten years from now you have a whole different
generation of viewers don't don't even remember when it was
anything different from what they're seeing. So no, I don't
think it's an it's it's I think what's happening right

(13:03):
now though, is And we've heard a lot of these
high price coaches bitch and a moaning about all these
changes and everything else. Well, I think what we're gonna
find out is we're gonna see a separation of coaching.
You know, you you look at Lincoln Riley here at
US see whether they got over twenty transfer players coming
in this year. They have almost an entire new roster

(13:24):
that doesn't include obviously their incoming freshman class. So you're
gonna have to figure out a way to get all
the pieces to fit in a very short amount of time.
So if anything, some of these long time coaches that
just kicked back have there sitizens bringing their five star
recruits and they don't even have a headset on during
the game. I think those days are over. I think

(13:45):
the premium on coaching is more pronounced now than it's
ever been, and I think coaches are smarter to write
where it's like, you know, we always talk about for players,
so you know, players have started saying the last decade
or so, it's a business. This is a business to
ASI and this is why I'm going to this school.
This is why I'm transferring respect my decision. I think
coaches are realizing that too. Where Lincoln Riley was like,

(14:07):
you know, and this something we talked about on your
show the other day. But I can stay at Oklahoma,
very very good program historically, but they're going into the SEC.
What does the next ten years look like? Or I
can go to USC. Now he didn't know us he
was going to the Big ten. But I can go
to USC where the ceiling is higher. Brian Kelly leaves
Notre Dame because he believes I have tapped out what
I can do it. Notre Dame l s U. Louisiana

(14:29):
per capita produces more NFL players than any other state
in the country. So I think that's an interesting development
as well. Is the idea that any like I think,
and it depends on the school, but I think the
idea that anyone is off the table at this point
in a coaching move becomes very, very, very interesting because
I do think the coaches, like the players, are now saying,
this is a business. Y'all fire me after two bad years.

(14:51):
So I'm gonna do what's best for myself. And it's
easier now with the transferport. When they introduced the playoff,
I remember at the time, the argument was, well, this
will give war schools an opportunity when the national championship,
and all I kept thinking is, no, it's not, because
it's only going to give more exposure to Alabama, more
exposure to Clemson. Now we're gonna see a greater separation

(15:13):
of the elite, elite programs because they're getting more exposure
by being in that playoff every single year. And that's
exactly what happened. Alabama Clemson have dominated along with Ohio State,
and they have separated themselves from the rest. Now Georgia
at least temporarily, maybe much like LSU a couple of
years ago. I mean, every once in a while, some

(15:34):
will crash the party. But when you look at Ohio State, Alabama,
and Clemson. They have separated themselves from the rest of
the pack as we get into two. And let me
ask you this, because you're talking about the inevitable expansion
of the college football playoff for financial purposes alone, because
there is so much I mean, it's staggering when you

(15:55):
think if you want to a sixteen school playoff like
they have at every other level, whether it's the FCS
or Division two divisions, really off sixteen school playoffs. The
money is mind boggling. But again, if you do that,
are you going to actually create a competitive balance in
college football or are these elite programs even going to

(16:17):
further separate themselves from the other schools. So this has
been my argument forever and people don't want to hear it. Um.
First of all, like you said, I think it's funny
with the four team playoff. We have never had a
playoff and this is now year nine, year eight, whatever
it is, where all four teams were good enough to
win it, like you said, because now you gotta get
there and you gotta be two elite teams, not just one.
How many of those semis have been blowouts, like more

(16:40):
than I mean, how many? But let's put it this way.
How many have been great games? I mean there was
the Ohio are the Oklahoma, Uh, Georgia Rose School everybody.
All these other games are dogs. I mean I was,
I was in this studio for Alabama, Cincinnati will first drive,
Alabama runs the ball. I think ten out of eleven plays,
Georgia Michigan. Yeah, well that's what I'm so out and

(17:02):
so so people don't want to hear this. I don't
think it's going to do anything. And I think an
expanded playoff is going to hurt fandom in college football.
I'll give you a a quick example. I'll try not to
be long here, but think about somebody like ole Miss.
Last year, right, Ole Miss finishes with ten wins, they
go to the Sugar Bowl as the you know, best
team from the SEC, not in the playoff. They lost
the Sugar Bowl, but there was injuries, whatever. But I

(17:23):
think Old Miss can come out of last season. We
made the Sugar Bowl, were excited, we had a good season. Well,
now if there's an expanded playoff, you know they're gonna
play Alabama. They already played Alabama. They lost by thirty
to Alabama in the regular season. And so my question is,
under the current structure right now, does an old Miss
fan come out of last year happier, going to the
Sugar Bowl, having a great season and calling it a day,

(17:47):
or now everyone's like, well, you made the playoff. It's like, yeah,
but if you lost by forty to Alabama just shows
you how far away you truly are. I think it's
gonna hurt more than it helps. Nobody really wants to
listen to me though right now. One recent phenomenon that
I think she will revert back to the way it
used to be is elite players playing in bowl games
so well in what happened was guys that we're gonna

(18:08):
get into the NFL draft, Suddenly we're taking seasons off.
Remember ja David Clowney essentially took off that year after
his big sophomore year. Uh, this has been going on.
McCaffrey didn't play in his bowl game. But now a name,
image and likeness, because if you haven't expanded playoff, right
and you have let's say, a starf quarterback that's projected

(18:29):
to be a top three pick in the NFL draft,
and you're saying, I gotta play four more games. Sorry,
good luck. I wish you guys the best. I'm backing
out of the entire playoff, unless, of course, you put
money in my pocket. And now they're allowed to actually
do this, so we're gonna see guys extend their college careers.

(18:49):
I think you're now actually gonna get I mean, think
about this. You have Bryce Young and c J Straw
who were not eligible, by the way, obviously for the
NFL draft. And we'll get into that whole dynamic how
the NFL may be effective in their approach based on
what's happening at the college football level. But what do
you think they're making this year? I mean, how much
money is being poured into the pocket of Bryce Young?

(19:12):
Remember last year Nick Saban said he was making seven
figures he never even started a game. How about is
a reigning Heisman Trophy winner, c J? How much money
are these guys making this year? Well, and I'll just
quickly flip it to college basketball. The reigning National Player
of the Year Oscar Shebway not really cut out for
the NBA six ft eight power forward. You know whatever,
He's gonna make more money in Kentucky this year than

(19:33):
he would is a professional basketball player. And so you
flip it back to football. Now, Yeah, CJ. Stroud, Bryce Young,
those guys are going to be high level NFL quarterbacks.
But for the guys that aren't, and I'm trying to
think of an example off the top of my head,
you know, like a Sam Ellinger type, Like maybe that
does keep that kind of player in school where you're
gonna be like a fourth fifth round pick and you're
gonna be fighting for your job or you could be

(19:54):
the Texas quarterback or the Georgia quarterback or the Alabama
quarterback and make who knows how much. So I do
think that element of it, the n i L aspect
of it, I think will help college sports were in
the early stages, but I think it will well since
that COVID free season still in play. The how many
six year players we have this year? A ton of
six year players on the college football scene, so real quick,

(20:16):
I was gonna say, that's what made last year so fascinating,
Like why we're Ohio State, Oklahoma, whoever, Clemson all down?
Well they lost all their guys in the NFL. Everybody
they're playing was able to bring back all their veterans.
I think it's gonna start to even out. But that
was an interesting dynamic from last year. All right, So
on the other side, we'll talk about the NFL how
do they adjust to what's going on on the college

(20:38):
football scene. But first let's find out what's trending right now.
Fan is in the house, Hype, Brian Aared and Steve
Good to talk to you guys on this Sunday. So
the Jets as they are in an NFL preseason game
right now, adjusting with Joe Flacco as their quarterback right now? Yeah,
how's that going? Well? A fumble in a punts the

(20:59):
first to drive for the Jets against the Giants. No
score here, as this one's about seven twenty five remaining
in the first quarter Giants and Jets. So Flaco five
of nine through the air, sixty three yards, five completions.
But here's a good statis completed the past of five
different guys, so he's spreading the rock around a little bit.
Michael Carter did fumble on the first drive or the

(21:20):
Jets were on the move, and Tyrod Taylor, who was
starting quarterback for the Giants, has already gotten sacked. Coming
up later on tonight or this afternoon, depending upon what
coast you're on. Its Lions and Steelers at four thirty eastern.
Tim Boyle will start a quarterback for the Lion. Yes, yeah,
he's somewhere way deep down on the depth chart there.

(21:40):
Aaron and then Mr Robinsky who seemingly is the guy
and will be the starting QB for Pittsburgh and this one,
although Kenny Pickett is starting to put some pressure on
Trabsky Packers quarterback. Aaron Rodgers went on the Joe Rogan podcast,
and here's a bit where Rogers explains what was going
on behind the scenes during the nfl is early implementation

(22:01):
of COVID nineteen protocols. They scared teams and said, if
you had an outbreak caused by a non VACK same player,
you not only forfeit that game, but you wouldn't get
paid for that week. And I got COVID from a
fully backed individual who only got vacks to keep his
potential up being a part of the NFL. Meanwhile, in

(22:22):
Major League Baseball, the Dodgers are owning a three to
one lead against the Marlins in Miami. Top of the
fourth Dan Mookie Betts has already gone. Yard Tour Championship
is happening. Final round. Scottie Scheffler is set to t
off He's leading by six shots. He said to having
about twenty minutes. He has at twenty three under overall
and is yeah, that six shot lead overs Ander Shoffley

(22:44):
and Rory McElroy, who are tied in second with one
round to go. They had to start up Steve and
Aaron part of the third round and finish it up
today because of weather yesterday. But hopefully they can get
everything in golf wise and have a champ for that
Tour Championship. Let's get it back to the pride of
u c l A and the pride of Yukon in
Steve Hartman and Aaron Torres respectively. All Right, Brian, thank

(23:07):
you very much. We will check in with you a
little bit later on. Alright, we're talking about the evolution
of college football and now how does it affect the
future of the NFL. So the NFL obviously wants to
get their hands on the elite talent out of their
free minor league system a k a. College football as
soon as it's available. But now, all of a sudden,

(23:29):
there's a certain amount of leverage that these top college
scars have because of name, image, likeness, and the fact
that professionalism is now part of the college football scene.
I mean, think about it. Aaron Way. Back in the day,
a guy like John Elway said I don't want to
play for the Colts, forced them to make a trade
of the Broncos, or I'm gonna play baseball, or Eli

(23:49):
Manny he didn't want to play for the Chargers, forced
the trade. But now, if you look at the lineup
as we get ready for the NFL Draft, if you're
an underclassman and you're let's just let's just say, use
Bryce Young and c J. Stroud as examples, So they
would still be underclassmen heading into the NFL Draft. But
if either one of them decides, looking at the top

(24:11):
couple of picks of the draft, I have no interest
in playing for those teams. They don't have to because,
believe me, if you think they're making a lot of money.
Now can you imagine, it's like, you know, the alums
come in and say, hey, c J, love to have
you back for another season in Ohio State. Bryce, how

(24:32):
about another year Obama, here's a boatload of money to
stay instead of jumping in the NFL. If if playing
the NFL really is just about making coin. If that's
really what your motivation is beyond anything else. Hey, there's
more money to be had potentially for these guys to
stay in college an extra year. My only thought on

(24:54):
that is, I think it's an interesting idea. I guess
my only argument would be one, it's not like Kyle
ch basketball, where you have all this time to decide
if you want to stay in the draft or go.
I mean, what do you have a couple of weeks
and then it's kind of like that's the deadline you
gotta be in. But does anybody really have any real
say other than the guy that is going to be
the definitive number one pick, Like if you're the top

(25:16):
wide receiver on the board and you're gonna go top five, Um,
you know, I don't know if it feels like something
if you're Trevor Lawrence, everybody knows you're going number one
and you just don't want to go to Jacksonville. Remember
there was the report that year he doesn't want to
play for the Jets, right? Could he have used that
as leverage in an I O world? Maybe? I just
don't know how many guys will really realistically have that option. Well,

(25:37):
I mean, again, if their dream is to play in
the NFL. You're right, but there could be exceptions, again
based on potentially the team they go to. Because I've
said this for years and years and years about the
National Football leag If you look at the Pro Football
Hall of Fame, Aaron, half the players that are in
there are there simply because they were the best players.
The other half right team, right place, right time, right system. Um,

(26:00):
And we know that there's been a lot of elite
college talent that has not panned out in the NFL,
and we're like, wow, they were bust or they were overrated.
Not necessarily they were in the wrong system, especially when
it comes to quarterbacks. So I think it's a potential situation. Now,
how does the NFL counter that? So remember after Sam

(26:20):
Bradford made that huge, you know, bonanza money coming out
of Oklahoma, they changed the salary structure and put a
cap and essentially slotted which rookie you know, salary you
make based on where you're taking the NFL draft, they
may have to take a look at that. They may
be forced if do they do suddenly get some elite

(26:41):
quarterbacks or elite talent saying you know what I think
I'm gonna stay in school another year. They may say,
whoa whoa, whoa whoa whoa, We may need to make
an adjustment. So I think the NFL is very curious
how this is gonna play out, and I think their
first big test could be coming up in next year's draft.
It was funny as soon as this converens, you should
started immediately looked to see what Trevor Lawrence made as

(27:03):
a as an NFL rookie last year. And you know,
he signed a whatever you know deal worth about thirty
plus million dollars. It comes out to about nine million
a year. By the way, that's five year control though
they have over him, you know. So one I think
it's interesting. Let me ask you a question, now that
we talk it out, and now that we mentioned how
many guys are failures strictly because of the system that

(27:25):
they're in. And I say that all the time, Like
people ask me around an NBA draft time, well what
about this guy? And I said, well, what team is
he getting drafted by? Like if Draymond Green gets drafted
by the Sacramento Kings, you know, he's selling car insurance somewhere.
Like it's just the truth. Like, it's not not Condraymond,
It's just the reality. So I only bring it up
because I was gonna ask you, are you surprised in
hindsight now as you just said, the number of guys

(27:47):
that end up being bus We have the jets on
here in studio three, four or five guys have come
through there. None of them will work because of organizational dysfunction.
Are you surprised that more guys don't do what Eli
manning it? I mean, Eli was really kind of the
last one that just flat out said I'm not playing
for your organization. Am I missing anybody since then? Well? No,
But I mean here, here's the thing, and why we

(28:10):
see so many star players at the collegiate level that
we all assume are going to be starts at the
NFL fall short. And it really comes back to the
mindset of head coaches and coordinators that they can take
a player that played in one system in college and
put them in a different system and they're gonna have
the same level of s And I always go back

(28:32):
to Belichick and the New England Patriots and why they've
had sustained success all these years. They do something that's
so obvious and yet so novel in the NFL, because
what they do is identify what it is you do best,
and then get this, they actually put you in a
position to succeed. We're gonna take what you do best,

(28:55):
and then we're gonna use what you do best and
put it into our game play and to put you
into position to utilize your best talent. Now this seems
so obvious, but you would be stunned how many teams,
how many coaches are absolutely convinced, all right, we know
he did this well, but he's gonna be able to

(29:15):
do this in our system and it doesn't fit. And
this happens over and over over again the NFL. The
Patriots do it a different way. And by the way,
the other thing the Pageots do better than any other
organization of the last twenty years. They don't hit on everybody,
whether it's a high price free agent or someone they
picked on the draft, and they identify a mistake early

(29:39):
and they get rid of it. They're not one of
those well we're still convinced this could work. They don't
do that. They recognize instantly, all right, we made a
mistake here, gone, we'll move on. Um. That's why they're
so successful. It's so interesting because I was thinking about
this not the other day. Actually, is that that has
to be the number one change since I've started watching

(30:00):
football is the old school coach that says, you know,
we do it my way, and this is how it's
gonna be. Remember the conversations that used to happen Steve
when guys came into the NFL. I remember it was
with Jared Goff specifically, well, he's never taken a snap
under center? Well, what is he? What are we gonna
do he's never Well, I don't know how about don't
put him under center if you're gonna draft him. It
doesn't seem that complicated to me, Like I'm sorry, you know,

(30:21):
I haven't ground my way up from the tape room
to be a head coach to say don't put him
under center if he's never been under center. So I
don't know, if you know, Belichick is a good example.
But I think I think a lot of it is
these new younger coaches. And I know, you know, everyone
likes to make the big Sean McVeigh and he's boy
genius and all that. I do think the infiltration of
younger guys that kind of get just because it's been

(30:43):
done this way doesn't mean that it has to be
done the same way going forward. I think that has
to be part of it, because you look at all
these young guys, all these young head coaches that are
sitting there saying, this isn't my system, this isn't the
team system. Let's, as you said, Steve, put a guy
that's comfortable. Let's make a comfortable doing what he is
comfortable doing, as opposed to forcing him to do something

(31:04):
that we're comfortable with. I had a chance to sit
down with Sean McVeigh before his first season. I had
a friend of mine, this was this was interesting. A
friend of mine was part of a speaking tour and
Sean McVeigh and Less snead we're gonna be coming in
to speak, and he arranged for me to have a
sit down one on one with this new hire of

(31:27):
the Rams, Sean McVeigh, thirty years old. Right. I'm looking
at this guy thinking to myself, I was working for
the Raiders when this guy was born. Okay, so the
first question, obviously I have was golf, because he was
owing seven as a starter. He was so overwhelmed his
rookie year. It just looked like and you had traded
two ones, two twos, two threes to get him, and

(31:48):
he doesn't look like he can play in this league.
So it was I sat down this thirty year old
Sean McVeigh and let's sneat was sitting right there. I'm like,
what is what is your game plan with this guy?
And and he he didn't even blink. He's like, first
of all, we have to race last year, and we
got to make him comfortable in the situation. One of

(32:09):
the things they done did they brought in a former
teammate of his, like a backup quarterback at Berkeley. There
was a buddy of his sort of just to be there,
somebody that he sort of felt comfortable around. He was
gonna play for the team, but he was gonna be there.
And I'm looking at this thinking, all right, we'll tell
you what if you can if you can turn this
guy around, because I don't see anything in this guy,

(32:29):
but if you can turn this thing around, And what
happened Boom there in the playoffs and he looked like
a completely different quarterback. So again, putting players in positions
to succeed based on the talents they have again seems
so obvious, but it's so rare in the NFL because
everybody's a I can make this guy what I want
him to be, and that just doesn't play out. Yeah,

(32:52):
I heard, uh, our buddy concow Heart had Kevin O'Connell,
the new Vikings head coach, on his one of his
shows this week, and he Kevin O'Connell said, you know,
that was my number one thing with Kirk Cousins, making
him comfortable with me. We meet one on one, What worked,
what didn't. This isn't my offense. If he sees something
that we're not asking him to call every play of
every game. I'm paraphrasing what he said, but I'm not.

(33:13):
We're not asking him to call every play of every game,
but we want to put him in positions where he's
most comfortable. And this is a veteran quarterback. So imagine
being Zach Wilson twenty one years old, Trey Lance coming
from the FCS level, whoever Jared Goff early in his career.
I just think it's a complete change in the last
four or five years because I was thinking about it.
Remember this was the problem with Robert Griffin. The third

(33:34):
Mike Shanahan didn't really want him and did had to
put him under center, And obviously anybody who watched RG
three knew that wasn't where he was going to have success.
So r G three wasn't that long ago. Was about
seven eight years ago. It's amazing how quickly this has changed.
All Right, you mentioned young coaches coming in the league.
How about Matt Laflour. I mean he comes into Green
Bay with the Aaron Rodgers and suddenly he's won more

(33:55):
games than his first three years as a head coach.
Andy coach in the history of the National Upball League.
By the way, speaking of Aaron Rodgers, we got some
sound for you to share. Aaron Rodgers smartest guy in
the room, or so he thinks. Coming up next, Hey,
it's me Rob Parker. Check out my weekly MLB podcast,
Inside the Parker for twenty two minutes of piping hot

(34:18):
baseball talk, featuring the biggest name the newsmakers in the sport.
Whether you believe in analytics or the I Test, We've
got all the bases covered. New episodes drop every Thursday,
So do your soap of favor and listen to Inside
the Parker with Rob Parker on the I Heart radio
app or wherever you get your podcast. Steve Harvan, Aaron

(34:40):
torres here, Fox Sports Sunday, Aaron Rodgers. Are you an
Aaron Rodgers fan? And I take that two ways. As
a player, we obviously admire a four time, two time
raining NFL m v P. But that aside, do you
like Aaron Rodgers? I have no problem with anybody who

(35:01):
is a free thinker. Um, and I actually listened to
a lot of what we're gonna talk about right now.
I do have a he's a little smartie and like
I'm smarter than you, kind of waste of that part.
I don't like. I do like that he pushes, he
pushes challenges, pushes the norms. If that makes yeah, I don't.
I don't. The Nick Cage impersonations, that's fun, That's that's
fun stuff. But okay, so he was on the Joe

(35:24):
Rogan Experience. Now, when you go on the Joe Rogan experience,
much like if you want on Howard Stern, right, you
know you're gonna ask be asked direct questions and you're
expected to answer those questions because you have a huge,
huge audience. Certainly that with the Joe Rogan podcast. So
here was Aaron Rodgers when he was pressed about this

(35:45):
whole idea that he sort of deceived people about his
vaccination status. I've been ready the entire time for this
question and had thought about how I wanted to answer it,
and I had come to clusion I'm gonna say I've
been immunized, and if there's a follow up, then talk
about my process. But I thought there's a possibility that

(36:07):
I say I'm immunized. Maybe they understand what that means,
maybe they don't, maybe they follow up. They didn't follow up,
so then I go the season them thinking some of
them that I was vaccinated because they fall The only
follow up they asked was basically asking me to rip
on my teammates, Like what do you say to your
teammates are vaccinated? Like what kind of example do you
feel like you're setting, you know, to your teammates are

(36:30):
in vaccine. I said, it's everybody's own decision with their body,
and we're super healthy individuals. We take care of ourselves,
we understand what goes in their bodies, and I don't
have any judgment on any decision that a guy makes
with their own body. Right. So, in other words, by
using the word immunized. He is immunized for could be anything.
I mean, you have, We'll all been immunized as kids

(36:52):
and everything else. So he was trying to play with words,
and it really was on the media. I don't blame him.
Nobody asked me a follow up question, like what do
you mean by immunized? Nobody asked him so And this
was my exact point. When this came up last year,
people were like, Oh, he deceived everybody. I'm like he
you asked if he was vaccinated. He responded, I'm immunized.

(37:15):
That is not an answer to the question that you asked. Okay,
so and again now I'm in more of the radio
podcast space. I went to school for I'm one of
the few people in the media. I went to school
for journalism. Like you know, I wear my big Jay
hat sometimes and like, that would be the first thing
I would before you passed the mic. You've been in
press conferences before you passed the mic to the next person. Oh,

(37:36):
so I said, are you vaccinated? You said, are you immunized?
Can you it? Does that mean you have not gotten
the vaccination? Per Like that is such a natural follow
up question. And I was so shocked when people. And
maybe it's just because it's people in our media, in
our business that always wanted to defend other people in
our business. But when I saw the video dating back
to training camp of last year and people were mad

(37:58):
at Aaron Rodgers because he answered the question the way
he did, I'm with you, Steve. He answered your question.
It's on you to follow up if there's any clarification
that needs to be had. Right, And he's right about
the idea of when he was being asked questions about
teammates and everything else. Hey, they make their own choices.
What else am I gonna say. I'm not gonna speak
for somebody else. You want to know why they haven't
been vaccinated, you ask them why they haven't been vaccaid.

(38:21):
Don't ask me as their quarterback, as their teammates. They're
making their own personal choices. So yeah, And in this case,
because I am bothered like a lot of people, and
Aaron Rodgers certainly gets and believe me, you've run into
people like this over the years. We run into it.
It's it's very small percentage. You know, most athletes are coaches,

(38:42):
even at an elite level, are just like everybody else.
There's always gonna be exceptions, those that have a certain
level of attitude, those that look pot down upon others.
I don't think Aaron Rodgers is that to an extreme,
but I do think he enjoys the process of playing
mind games. It's just the way his brain works, and
he enjoys doing some of that. Just to follow up though,

(39:04):
on something we're talking about in the previous segment, though,
when you had a guy like Matt Lafleur having to
deal with that guy, Aaron Rodgers at a time when
it appeared maybe Aaron Rodgers was on the downside, and
for Matt la floor to jump in and get on
the same page with this guy rattle off thirty nine

(39:24):
regular season wins in three years, back to back m
v P awards for Aaron Rodgers, all the other noise
that's been going on, that's pretty good coaching job, well
and really quick. It goes back a little bit to
a big conversation this preseason about what's going on in
Dallas is that I think we now realize Mike McCarthy
was a lot bigger part of the problem than Aaron
Rodgers was actually declining, no different than Tom Brady when

(39:46):
we thought he was done in New England. As it
turns out, maybe b Belichick didn't just surround him with
the best talent. Don't get me started McCarthy again. But
I tell you what, he's working for the right guy.
Because Jerry Jones tends to stick with coaches. He's not
big the firing coaches. Uh. He may have a second
thoughts on McCarthy after this season. All right, Coming up
on the other side, it's a big story out of Buffalo.

(40:08):
They cut their punter. What is next for Matt Riza.
We'll tell you coming up next. Fox Sports Radio has
the best sports talk lineup in the nation. Catch all
of our shows at Fox Sports Radio dot com and
within the I Heart Radio app. Search f s R
to listen live. Steve Hartman and Aaron Torres here on

(40:29):
this Sunday, I wish we had NFL football next Sunday.
We don't. We don't. It'll be the following Thursday. On
the Super Bowl, Champion Rams take on the Buffalo Bills,
which some people think might be a previewer this year's
Super Bowl. One other thing, Yes, why do we have
on a Sunday the last couple of Sundays of the

(40:49):
summer when everybody wants to go to the beach. You know,
the NFL is so smart about everything. Why do we
have two preseason games at whatever this is one Eastern
and four thirty? Can we get an eight pm Eastern game? Like,
I don't the NFL is so smart about everything. I
just don't understand why they're playing games in the middle
of the afternoon on Sundays in August. It makes no

(41:10):
sense to all, Right, well, actually it's two o'clock Eastern,
Well now it is, but this started at one p m.
I understand, And I'm trying to think the same thing, Like,
I'm watching this Jets Giants game, and the only thing
that's going through my mind is why yes, Because the
only thing that could come out of this game of
any substance is somebody getting hurt. Now, yesterday, if you

(41:31):
looked at some of these games, there was nobody playing.
I mean nobody playing. Guys that literally are gonna be
putting on an NFL uniform for the last time before
they get released by these organizations. So what is the
purpose of these games? There was a couple interesting things
that happened yesterday because I hosting I looked through all
these box scores last night to a completed two. It

(41:53):
was played with Tyreek Hill. Tyreek Hill had two catches
for sixty four yards and to a average like thirteen
yards per complete Do you think that means anything at all?
It means something to me because it only proves that
I've been saying all along, and that is is that
Tyreek Hill a is is a difference maker on any
teams that he plays on, because a lot of people

(42:15):
are trying to downplay the loss of Tyreek Hill for
the cheese or overplay the impact he's gonna have on
this Dolphins offense. The other thing that comes to mind
with to a tongue of l and when I watched
him in Alabama, the first thing that impressed me from
his touchdown past the DeVante Smith the freshman to freshman
pass and won a national championship, and throughout his Alabama

(42:37):
career because I was concerned about his size and durability,
But the one thing that always impressed me about Tah
was his accuracy and throwing the deep ball. And now
you have the ultimate deep threat and Tyreek Kill not
just because of his speed, his ability to adjust his
ability to catch the ball to jump over the defenders.

(42:58):
It is going to be a ben as if they
can keep both those guys on the field. Okay, So
you and I man, we vibe so hard and I don't.
We don't plan any of this before the show. This
is my big take for the preseason in the NFL.
I think the Chiefs finish in last place in the
a f C West. Now, last place in the a
f C West is different than the NFC East. I'm
not talking three and fourteen, but ten and seven. Not

(43:22):
maybe not ten and seven, maybe nine and eight. You
can finish in last place in that division. And part
of the reason was, First of all, Patrick Mahomes is
in the Steph Curry. Nobody can ever criticize him for
anything phase of his career. It's unbelievable. The offense was
abysmal for like six straight weeks last year, fell a
part in the NFC a FC Championship game in the
second half. I think Tyreek Hill is one of one,
and I think there's this notion of, well, you know,

(43:43):
we live in a world where you just lose a
star receiver, Uh, you just pick up another one, right,
The Titans trade a J. Brown, they draft another one.
Everything's gonna be fine. I think Tyreek Hill is one
of one. I don't think you can replace the guy
that's five eight and significantly faster than every other person
in the NFL. And when you don't have that weapon,
it doesn't make Patrick Kelsey, Patrick Kelsey, Travis Kelsey is dangerous.

(44:06):
It doesn't make the other wide receivers is dangerous. That
is my bold prediction because I believe in Tyreek Hill
that much. Why did the Chiefs move up to draft
Patrick Mahomes? Was it because he had some superstar career
in Texas Tech? Know what they had was Alex Smith,
who is honestly one of the most underrated quarterbacks in
the last decade of the NFL. Look at his wins

(44:27):
and losses because that's really what it comes down to.
But why did they want to replace Alex Smith and
Patrick Mahomes. The answer was Tyreek Hill. We have this talent.
Because there were all these questions about character and everything
else we do. A lot of teams just passed on
Tyreek Hill because they didn't even think he would stick
in the league. But after two years, when it was
apparent that he was, you know, he's gonna stay on

(44:49):
the straight and narrow and he has a supreme talent.
We need a quarterback that can get the ball down
the field and allow us to utilize the full extent
of Tyreek Hill's talent. And that's exactly what happened with
Patrick Mahomes. Look, every team that has played the Chiefs
over the last several years, it's pick your poison. Am
I gonna focus on Kelsey or I'm gonna focus on

(45:11):
Tyreek Hill. They're not saying, gee, do we focus on
Kelsey or Juju Smith, Shusey or or me Cole Hardman. Basically,
he has been a bus So my my point is
is that I'm looking I'm with you when I'm not
convinced about in the a f C West is the
status of Russell Wilson with I. He might prove me wrong,

(45:35):
but he took a lot of punishment in Seattle, a
lot of it self induced. Because when you're extending plays
and you're getting sacked away Russell Wilson was, and you're
leading her team and rushing, you're logging a lot of
extra miles on your body. So I'm not quite sure
what we're gonna see with Russell Wilson and the Broncos

(45:55):
but right now, I know a lot of people are
back and forth on the Rates and I saw, you know,
the Vegas Overrunners eight and a half for a team
the won ten games. I'm like, how are the Davante Adams.
You have Josh McDaniels, but I've been hearing things about
their offensive line and maybe they have some problems. And
the argument with the Chargers is simply this, I'll believe

(46:17):
it when I see. Yes, the other thing I'll say
about the Charger with but the Chiefs, by the way,
their schedule is also worth noting. Their first so they
play at Arizona Chargers, Colts, Bucks, Raiders, Bills, Forty, Niners, Titan,
so that is two, four, six, eight. Seven of their
first eight games are against teams that made the playoffs

(46:38):
last year. The one that isn't is the Chargers, So
that that's part of the Chiefs thing with me too.
Really quickly with the Chargers, I think you can make
the argument I think no person in the NFL, and
this is kind of half baked. I haven't thought about
every single person in the NFL. I think no person
in the NFL has more pressure on him this year
than Brandon's Daley because the reason being is that I

(47:01):
think last year the analytics thing was, oh, it's always
so quirky, and he's going forward in his own territory
and what's he doing. And then it was Week eighteen
against the Raiders with a playoff game on the line,
playoff spot on the line, and we all saw it
with our own eyes, like this analytics thing is cool,
but it's a piece of the puzzle. It is not

(47:22):
the entire puzzle. You can't put a numeric value on
going for it on third and nine and crushing your
team spirit. Go ahead, all right. So Matt money Smith,
the voice of the Chargers with the NFL network, I
had him on my show last week and I I've
been bringing up this whole Brandon Staley thing from the
get go, and you know, you go back. We had

(47:43):
Austin eckleron we were in the Super Bowl, you know,
and radio Row and Austin Ekeler came by and that
last game against the Raiders, winner, the game goes to
the post. Actually re membery could have been it in
a tie. But you have a third quarter situation, Raiders
are leading by three, fourth and two inside your own
twenty yard line. You go for it. Now if your

(48:03):
argument is, well, I have a lot of faith in
my quarterback, that's one thing. That's not what they did.
They hand the ball off to Eckler. Got stuff. We
asked Austin Ekeler about that play. His eyeballs rolled, like
basically he likes the aggressive nature, I'm sure as an
offensive player, but even he was stunned when he got
into that hut and we're gonna we're gonna hand a

(48:24):
straight hand up up the middle, which got stuffed. By
the way, the Raiders end up getting a field goal.
Defense actually tied up. But getting back to Matt money
Smith because he's a big defender of Brandon Staley, and
he said something which is a feasible argument of why
Staley did what he did a year ago. And it
has nothing to do with that stupid Brown's game where

(48:44):
you know they was just back and forth and he
was going for it like crazy against the Brown's team
that had no defense. The problem was the Raider The
Chargers had no defense. The Chargers defense was awful last year.
So where is the strength of your team. The strength
of your team a year ago is in your quarterback.
So the idea of going forward on four down in

(49:07):
situations where you're saying, what the hell are you doing?
Was really based and again this, according to the voice
of the Chargers, a complete lack of faith in their defense.
Now the thinking is going into this year with the
addition of Khalil Mac and all the other additions that
they made to their defense, is that they're gonna have
a vastly improved defense. So do not expect the Chargers

(49:31):
to have the same mindset of, Hey, it doesn't matter
the situation or where we are on the field, We're
just gonna go forun and fourth down. He basically indicated
that was a product of what happened defensively a year ago.
So that's interesting. Um, And you know it's funny, right
because I guess my question would be. And it's funny
because it does remind me a little bit of last

(49:53):
yesterday when Scott Frost had the onside kick for Nebraska
when they're up, and I think part of it was
in his head He's like, my defense is getting run
over right now, and if I can take a three
score lead, then that puts me in a position where
Northwestern has to pass the ball. They become one dimensional.
So I bring it up with the Chargers, because my
question would be does it change the offensive analytics? If

(50:16):
defensively like like, because the offensive analytics supposedly and I'm
not an expert right if I was at be an
NFL head coach, but the concept is it doesn't matter
because the data says that in this spot, at this
moment in time, whatever, we're gonna get it fifty of
the time, and so it makes it worth going. Do
the analytics change if the defense is better? That part?

(50:39):
I don't know because you would think that in theory
it shouldn't, right, like if if you're if the numbers
say that the offense converts this play on you know whatever,
and that makes it worthwhile? What does that have to
do with the defense? So I guess what I would
say is I'm not gonna say that I know more
than the voice of the Charges, because I certainly don't.
I just don't know that it improved defense changes the

(51:02):
offensive analytics all that much. And what they what what
the offensive analytics will say about opportunities like what we've
been and putting faith in your quarterback is one thing,
but putting him in a position where it's the old
risk reward is the risk work the reward If the
risk is, hey, we turn the ball over in our

(51:22):
own territory, and the reward is simply getting a first down,
that doesn't make any sense. Uh, And so we'll see
how I'm with you on this one. But that was
the argument made of why the Chargers and Brandon Staley
made all those crazy calls on fourth down a year ago.
All right, on the other side, how much value does
a punter have to an NFL team. We'll give you

(51:46):
the latest on the matter Rises situation coming up next,
Steve Irvan aeron Torres, Fox Sports Sunday. Well, one of
the big stories out of the NFL today, the Buffalo
Bills decided really no surprise to release mattter rise Up
in light of all the looming legal problems that he

(52:07):
may be facing and is facing right now. After all,
he's just a punter. Um and I have a couple
of thoughts. I'm a little closer to this than some
because I'm in San Diego and Uh, I worked for
a station that carry San Diego State football, and so
Matta rise Uh was on our show several times last year,

(52:31):
including the day he received the rape guy award as
the nation's top punter. Um before we get to the
legal aspect of his situation, the question about can a
punter make a difference? There was a legendary story involving
the organization I used to work for, far behind earlier

(52:51):
than I was working there. The nineteen seventy three NFL Draft.
John Madden was the coach of the Raiders, Al Davis
obviously running the draft, and the Raiders decided in the
first round to select Ray Guy at a southern Mississippi
who also played safety by the way in college, but
he was drafted to be a punter, having led the

(53:12):
nation and punting, and the word was is that John
Madden was so angry that he stormed out of the
room like he couldn't believe that the Raiders had wasted
a first round pick on a punter. He changes tune
immediately upon the arrival of Ray Guy because in just

(53:34):
terms of yards per punt, his rookie season was eight
yards greater than the punter they had released. And it's
about field position. And Ray Guy, who's the only pure
punter in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, is there
because he was one of the first, if not the
first where he really changed the dynamic in terms of

(53:58):
field position. Is a billy need to just boom the
ball and shift an entire field. The Raiders recognized that.
Al Davis, always ahead of his time, recognized that. And
that's why Ray guys in the Hall of Fame. Was
a difference maker. Which brings us to a guy like
Matta risa matter Rise a year ago at San Diego State.
San Diego State didn't have a much of an offense

(54:20):
that had some defensive talent, but the reason they won
a school record twelve games last year was Matta Rice
of their punter, and he became legendary last year. I
mean there was no doubt. I mean he was getting
national coverage and sports solicitor, I mean people are writing
about this freak that ended up setting the all time
single season record for putting average. So matter Rising is

(54:43):
a difference maker as a punter. Now this brings up
the big question, Well, if he's such a difference maker,
if he was so much better than everyone else, why
was he the third punter taken this year's draft. We
had thought, honestly, Aaron, that he was probably gonna go
third to fourth round because of his exceptional talent, and
he fell to the sixth round, and I thought, what

(55:05):
the hell are we missing something here? Well, apparently now
it's leaking out that indeed there were some teams that
were already hearing some noise that there could be some
legal trouble for matter Riza. The Bills claimed they had
heard no such noise grabbed him in the sixth round,

(55:26):
he had that eighty two yard punt that we all
saw that literally the ball left his foot inside his
own ten yard line and it was a touchback. So
now the Bills decided that we're gonna release him. So
where do we stand with matter Riza? So the story
is a serious story, obviously, and involves a seventeen year

(55:49):
old girl and matter Riza, who apparently is admitting that
he did have some kind of sexual encounter with a
seventeen year old, which obviously is against the law in
the state of California. And we don't know what's gonna
happen here for the Bills. They don't strike me as
a team where their season is gonna make or break
based on a punter, you know. I mean, the Bills

(56:11):
are the favorite to win the Super Bowl this year,
So I understand this. But the problem here is for
them sort of being in this gray area is that
because this alleged crime happened prior to him being drafted
into the NFL, they don't have the same jurisdiction over
him as opposed to had it happened after he had

(56:34):
been in the NFL. Think of the Joe Mixon situation
and the punch that he delivered on that girl, that
that video came out two years after the fact when
he was at the University of Oklahoma. The NFL had
nothing to do with that, and Joe Mixon obviously still
making a very comfortable living in the NFL. So my
guess is simply this now again the rise of claims,

(56:56):
and he'll get his day in court. That the idea
that there was some gang rape situation or some you know,
way over the top situation too or not, and I'm
certainly not here to pass judgment. We'll see how this
all plays out. But if somehow he is cleared of
any charges or whatever happens, he has such extreme talent

(57:17):
that at some point, believe me, talent always wins out
in the NFL, and he'll get his chance to prove
himself at the NFL level at some point. Well, if
he's cleared, if he's cleared, yeah, and that's that's yeah.
Well it's a big so let me ask you dumb question. Though,
he did still break a law in the state of California,
so he hasn't in charge with a crime yet, but

(57:38):
it would be a crime. But he admitted to consists.
Apparently there's some kind of audio where he basically admits, yes,
I did have a sexual encounter with the girl, but
as far as the extenuating circumstances illegal though, well it
is illegal, so won't he because he hasn't actually been charging.
Actually Sam's on top of this, So Sam, there is

(57:59):
a civil suit that was filed. Now, this alleged situation
happened last October, so we're talking now ten months ago
that this actually occurred, right, So that the alleged victims
father said that they filed the civil suit to get
actually get sort of the ball rolling because the San
Diego State University Police Department and the San Diego Police

(58:21):
Department had not filed charges yet. So and they were
like and they were like, well, why the girl had
reported this the next day and nothing had happened until
now and even the San Diego Uh, some of the
police departments down there in San Diego told the university
to hold off on an investigation just until this past July.
Well something, you're just played, all right, Let's let's let's

(58:44):
play worst case scenario format of rising here. Let's say
he is convicted of a crime. Let's say he even
does time for this crime. If he comes out of
that crime. And we saw this with Michael Vick, who
served about a year and a half in prison. Did
you ever think, honestly, Michael Vick would ever see the
light of day in the NFL? Again, I didn't. I

(59:05):
thought there's no chance of Michael Vick will ever play,
especially when it was involving animals and everything else that said,
there's no chance if he hell, it will always win
out time. But if he shows up and he's still
booming the ball eighty yards, now it's worth it for
a punter? Is it worth it for a punter? And
it would have to be a certain team, right, I mean,

(59:26):
if it's um, you know, let's just use the team.
We're just talking about the Los Angeles Chargers. You know
that the Brandon Staley starts to and you know like
it's just it has to I don't think so. I
actually disagree with you on this. I think that we've
reached a moment in time where I think ten years ago,
it was you made a mistake, you served your time,

(59:46):
you served your punishment. Everybody is allowed to make a living.
That was the case with Michael Vick. I don't know
if that's the case now. I really don't what is
your stance on the Deshaun Watson situation. There's for two things. One,
there's a difference between my stance my stances. I'd be
fine if he never played again, but he wasn't. You're
talking about charged with the crime, potential jail time. We

(01:00:08):
have thirty plus women that filed civil suits against him
and claimed, according to the New York Post, over sixty
william no men were involved. I get it, but there
was no crime. You're talking about a scenario where he
is charged with a crime. Now if he's not charged
with a crime, Well, there may have been a crime,
but he wasn't charged with a crime, is what you're saying.
I mean you could Ben Watson was involved. I don't

(01:00:31):
know what's your definition of Oh. I think I think
he was. I think the Sue Robinson case basically confirmed
that I've said it on these airwaves, like Sue Robinson
basically confirmed the guy is at worst a serial sexual
harasser of women and much worse. But he wasn't charged
with a crime. You're talking about a scenario where Matter
rises charge of the crime, potentially goes to jail. I

(01:00:52):
don't think in the world that we live in now
that if you get out of jail, if your talent,
if you're that talented, that somebody's gonna take a shot
on you. I don't. Again, we're talking a punter. We're
not talking about a quarterback. We're talking about a punter.
But as I pointed out, how much value does a
punter have. Well, if he's a rare talent punter like

(01:01:14):
Matter Risa is, he has value. Believe me, he has
value in the NFL. ME real quick, do you remember
I'm trying to remember the kid's name, Luke Heimlick. Do
you remember the Luke Heimlick story? Okay, National Picture of
the Year at Oregon State. Uh. Somehow a report gets
out that when he was a child, he committed some

(01:01:35):
kind of sexual whatever, and he confessed to it to
get his record expunged at eighteen. Somehow it comes out anyway.
He claims that he he only confessed to it to
get his record expunged. Never got a chance in in
in any level of professional baseball. But it's worked both ways.
I mean, we mentioned Tyreek Hill earlier. There was all
kinds of stuff on Tyreek Hill for you know what

(01:01:58):
I would say. The difference is that happened like before
he was in the national spotlight, like you know what
I mean, Like now it becomes he's the dude, like
Matt Matt arises the dude that in the NFL. This
came out if this happened when he was sixteen, which
I guess it might not be a crime. And then
he goes to college and then whatever that's different to

(01:02:18):
me than it coming out when he's already in the NFL. Well,
again a matter whyse it was an elite quarterback, it
would be a different story. And and we go back
to Jimmy Haslum in his big speech, you know about
after the punishment was laid down on Deshaun Watson saying, well,
the fact that he's a quarterback, Yeah, that's a little
different situation. That is fair. I mean Haslem said that

(01:02:38):
he was right. Would this be the same play if
he was Joe Nobody? No, he's a star quarterback, so yeah, Um,
all right, we got much more on all this, but
first let's find out what's trending right now. We welcome
back a guy that's never involved in too much controversy.
I see too much because there's always a level of controversy, uh,
surrounding Brian Femla. But do you like that? I mean,

(01:02:59):
you like this? Starting to drink a little bit, you know,
it makes for invigorating sports talk. You gotta have differing opinions.
But to your point about San Diego State in matter
rise his former teammate Daniel Bellinger, who is now with
the Giants, and they're playing the Jets right now in
a preseason game. Bellingers being evaluated for a concussion while
Braxton Barrios is funding success Mike White out of the

(01:03:23):
shotgun wide receiver screen pot Pie Barrios breaks a tack
on once left to the ten front left pylon riches
He's got a Jet touchdown. Jets Radio New worked The
score currently seventeen to ten Jets over the Giants. Mike
White has had two touchdown throws coming in and backup
duty after Joe Flacca who got the start through a

(01:03:43):
pick six White one forty two yards through the air,
two touchdowns and the Giants what was starter Tyrod Taylor
at the QWI position and he took a huge hit
and then was taken off the field and then carded
into the locker room, and the card he was on
nearly ran over a secure already guard on the way
into the tunnel. And there's a video all over social
media of that. They're calling it a back injury for Taylor.

(01:04:07):
His return is questionable. Lions and stealers are gonna get
started here for more. Preseason played four thirty Eastern. Tim
Boyle starting at QB for the Detroit Lions and Mr
Whisky will get the start at QB for Pittsburgh. NFL
Network reporting Vikings wide receiver B. C. Johnson will miss
the twenty two campaign after tearing his a c L
in last night's preseason game. He tore his a c

(01:04:28):
L in the other knee in training camp last season.
ESPN notes former Patriots and Lions defensive end Tree Flowers
as a deal in place with the Miami Dolphins. In
college football, Auburn choosing T. J. Finley, not Finley Finley
no relation as Auburn starting quarterback, according to Brian Harson,
who said to make that announcement official within the next

(01:04:51):
twenty four hours quickly. In Major League Baseball, one score
to mention here, the Dodgers are up six to one
against the Marlon Julio Urius. They starting pitcher for Los
Ange Angelists out after six sittings, seven strikeouts, one hit aloud,
yes six one at the bottom of the seventh. Now
so good pitching for l A. And finally, the tour
championship is at it. Scottie Scheffler is your leader, and

(01:05:13):
he is through three holes right now and as plus one,
but twenty two under overall of four shot lead over
Someng j M who is solo second. Two guys that
are always first. When it comes to sports radio and
mutterings about sports chatter, it's Aaron Torres saying the great
Steve Hartman muttering well, I mean muttering well, I mean

(01:05:33):
on an elite level. That meant we were muttering the
same as mumbling like I don't think I go long
on some answers. I don't think I'm mumbled though, well,
we're both capable of filling a lot of air time
despite talking. Yes, absolutely. One. One thing that there's a
common denominator of most people that engage in this activity

(01:05:53):
as we do, is that we really are enamored with
the sound of our own voice. Um, I mean, it's
amazing seen. Believe me. I have said many things over
these many years that I can look back upon, like
what was I thinking? But I really wasn't at the time.
I'm I'm always convinced everything that's coming out of my
mouth is literally the truth of truth. I mean, people

(01:06:14):
are saying, well, do you just say things for you know,
shock purposes and everything else. I'm like, no, I say
things that are on my mind and I believe everything
I'm saying, and at the time, I'm always convinced that
what I'm saying is the absolute truth. People get so mad,
They're like, you can't possibly believe that. I'm like why not?
Like why not? I'm making an argument exactly. Everything is

(01:06:36):
about backing up whatever you're saying and make an argument
of why you believe what you believe, and let me
ask you this. So I'm sitting here with Jeff Schwartz,
a couple of weeks ago, and Jeff, we're talking about
preseason football and why we even still have preseason football.
You know, have preseason football in high school. You don't
have preseason football in college. This is this is going

(01:06:59):
back to the day ease when the NFL was trying
to get guys into that football shape because they had
offseason jobs and they weren't training three sixty five days
a year. And Jeff said, well, I mean, how many
times do you have a quarterback hurt in the preseason? Well,
the answers, if you're the Carolina Panthers, apparently every week.
So they lose Matt Corral for the season. And now

(01:07:22):
this ankle injury that Sam Donald suffered is extensive and
could keep him out of least four to six weeks
according to Matt rule, which now leaves them with one quarterback,
Maker Mayfield, and a former XFL quarterbacks a P. J.
Walker or whatever. So the idea that you can't get

(01:07:42):
a quarterback hurt in the preseason is ridiculous. It happens
all the time, and for the Carolina Panthers, it happened
to to their quarterbacks, which leaves, by the way, Baker
Mayfield is last man standing. I want to ask you
about Mayfield because I'm always intrigued by this guy. I'm
a may Feel fan. I know he's done some things

(01:08:02):
that are, you know, a little off the wall. I
get it, but this guy was a walk on twice
in college and ended up walking away with a deserved
honor of winning the Heisman Trophy. The thing that always
gets me about Baker Mayfield is any time you put
him in a situation where you say he can't, he does.

(01:08:26):
And a year ago was not a fair test or Mayfield.
He was never healthy, he tried to fight through it.
It was extenuating circumstances. The Browns show no faith. So
now he gets this one year opportunity with the Panthers,
and who knows. If he has a great year, maybe
he stays a Panther. If if he doesn't, he's gonna
find a look for work. Maybe he ends up as

(01:08:47):
a career backup. But I would not bet against Baker Mayfield.
I mean, McCaffrey obviously has to stay healthy for that
offense to click, but this is a guy that you
keep saying he can't, he constantly finds a way to
prove that he can and I've said this many times
on these air waves, is I think he took too
many arrows for some of the things that Kevin Stefanski

(01:09:10):
did last year. So I remember the if you remember,
the Browns played the Packers on Christmas Day last year,
and I remember because Christmas Day was a Saturday. Myself
Jason Martin were in either right after that game or
maybe during the middle of it, and it was the
It was the game where everybody jumped off the ship
with Baker Mayfield, where Aaron Rodgers did not play that well,

(01:09:31):
and they kept giving the Browns opportunities to get back
in the game, and Mayfield through interceptions and made bad plays,
and everybody turned on the guy. And I said, but
at the same time, you could see that he wasn't healthy.
You could see that he probably shouldn't even be playing.
And it was on Kevin Stefanski to say, look, you're
starting quarterback in the NFL. We're you're not gonna pull yourself.

(01:09:54):
And so, like you said, he's been doubted. But when
he was healthy, lad the Browns to a lot of
wins in that rookie season. Of course, that there was
chaos that second year, and then they made the playoffs
the third year, and by the way, had that they
won a game and they had the Chiefs on the
brink in those playoffs. I just bring it up to say,
I think he took way too many arrows last year.
He wasn't healthy, He shouldn't have been playing. He tried

(01:10:14):
to tough it out for the good of the team.
Some of it is on the coaching staff to say, listen,
you're a professional athlete. You're not gonna pull yourself. I
need to do this for you. So I'm with you
on Baker Mayfield. The only thing that makes me nervous
is Matt Rule. Another guy that came in with all
this hype the new ownership of the Panthers was you know,
I'm all in with Matt Rule despite the fact that

(01:10:34):
he's a college guy as he ready for the NFL.
It has not panned out. Now. It's a fair trying
to keep McCaffrey healthy. Obviously, when Christian McCaffrey is healthy,
he is an elite running back. But if he's not,
the line of piece of no use to you. So
I'm I'm Panther. There's a lot of teams that I'm very,
very curious about how their seasons are gonna play out,

(01:10:56):
and the Panthers are certainly Now what do you what
are you making the noise that if it doesn't work
out with Baker Mayfield, that the Panthers might give Cam
Newton a call and bring him back. I mean, they
gotta sell tickets if they're gonna fire the coach and
they're not winning very many games, right, So, uh, you know,
I I don't know, man. I guess I would probably
see that when I believe it, But I think Camp

(01:11:16):
still wants to play. Obviously he got limited opportunities last
year in the regular season, But now I don't I
don't you know. I mean, if he got hurt, that's
a different story, But I don't think that, Like, I
don't see that happening. Well, that would be the act
of a desperate coach that probably is going to be
shown the door if it doesn't pan out this year
in Carolina. All Right, I'm gonna take a little bit
of an early break because on the other side, I

(01:11:37):
want to get into another big quarterback decision in the
NFL and why this team decided to go in a
direction that nobody could have predicted. Coming up next, Steve
Harman Aaron Torres here, Fox Sports Sunday Week zero in
college football? Why do they call it weeks zero? I'm

(01:11:58):
come on now, zero? I mean there was like a game,
but I mean because he used to have what the
the kickoff class again East Rutherford years ago and then
what what it was was what happened yesterday was they
play like a random game in Australia or something. I
remember Stanford played in Australia one year for some reason.
So I don't know. There were eleven games evolving FBS schools.
Yesterday should be weak one. But anyway, technically Week one

(01:12:21):
is coming up. We're gonna get to some of that,
but we're all all have our mindset as some of
the final pieces are in place, wrapping up the NFL
preseason today and then we gotta wait. We gotta wait
ten more days until we get the debut of the
NFL season. We got no NFL next week, all about
college football. Yeah, I was gonna say, we got Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday,

(01:12:43):
Monday college football. So I mean, and and we like
that right, yes? And I was gonna say the one
thing you mentioned earlier, the NFL kind of acknowledging that
college football is its feeder system. I think the NFL
is smart enough to say, college football, you take this weekend,
We're gonna take every Sunday and everything that matters from
here on out. Unlike the NBA, which does not seem
to realize that college basketball is a great product that

(01:13:05):
helps grow their game. But I think the NFL is
smart enough to be like, you know what, let's just
not play any games. Let's let everybody focus on college football,
get to know these guys, and then we'll kick off
the phone, and that's exactly where we're gonna be next weekend.
All right. So let's get back to another NFL story
that emerged, a quarterback controversy that honestly, I didn't think
was a controversy, but the way it ended up shocked

(01:13:27):
a lot of people. And that's the Seattle Seahawks announcing
that Geno Smith has beaten out Drew Lock for the
quarterback position. Now, Gino has been in Seattle for a
couple of years, so he knew the system a little
bit better. And then we had Drew Lock. I think
he had a COVID situation. He might have missed a
little time, like I I every time I say Geno Smith,

(01:13:48):
I I told you about this one, Aaron, So was
the alarm? No, I'm in New Orleans for the Super Bowl, uh,
the year the Ravens beat the forty Niners. And we're
also out the backdrop of the upcoming NFL Draft, which
was still, you know, three months away, and Gino Smith
was making the rounds because he was going to be
in that draft. So Pat uh Brian, Pat O'Brian and

(01:14:11):
I were doing the show and Pat had some kind
of interview because they had scheduled, uh, an interview with
Gino Smith off air that we were gonna tape and
then play on the air, and Pat had to be
somewhere else, so I said, look, I'll just do a
one on one with Gino Smith. So, you know, coming
out of West Virginia, there was all kinds of questions
about Geno Smith, uh and it seemed like his stock

(01:14:33):
capital was dropping a little bit. But but finally I
sit down with Geno Smith and I'm recording interview and
I asked him this, So, Gino, where do you expect
to go in the draft? And he he gives me
this blank look. I said, have you been contacted by
any teams, and he looks at me, goes, do you

(01:14:56):
not follow sports? And I'm looking at him like, have
I missed something? He goes the fact that I'm going
to be the first pick in the draft, and I
mean he is saying, like, are you the only person
on the planet that has not heard that I'm already
locked into the number one overall pick in this draft.

(01:15:17):
I mean he was I thought he was joking, but
it turned out he would literally like look at me like,
you are the dumbest person I've ever done an interview with.
So I'm like, wow, so you've already talked to people.
He goes, I don't and he goes and basically he
almost entered the interview as a turnout. Of course, he
was the thirty ninth pick in that draft, and uh

(01:15:37):
it was the only guy sitting in that green room
at the end of day one. It was very embarrassing situation.
So every time I hear about Geno Smith, I can't
think about anything other than that and the fact that
basically he built his numbers at West Virginia throwing five
yard bubble screens to Tavon Austin, who would then go
eight yards for a touchdown and pad uh Gino's numbers,

(01:15:58):
remember that little bubbles? Yeah, Tavon Austin. So why why
do you believe ultimately he won this job Because from
what I'm understanding, the reason he won his job is
that Drew Lock lost the job. Like, Drew Lock, is
that bad that he lost this job to Gino Smith? Yeah?

(01:16:19):
First of all, I'm going through that draft and I
remember it at the time being like, you know, oh,
Geno smiths a lot, and I was like, why why
is he a Lock? Like, you know, it wasn't at
the manual year where he was the first quarterback taken. Well,
Eric Fisher went number one overall, right, luke joke number two, No,
Tavon Austin. As you said, let's see, the first quarterback
off the board was EJ Manuel over all the Bills.

(01:16:43):
So with the Seahawks, Um, yeah, it's just been a
weird summer, right, I mean, like, so you trade patrimas,
you trade Russell Wilson and Pete Carroll. I mean this
guy has been gassing up Drew Lock, Like oh my good. No,
you know, we really liked Drew Luck. We really like
dr Lock. So what does it really mean, I don't know.

(01:17:06):
I think they're probably Like, what is it fair to say?
Are they the least relevant team in the NFL? Like,
I don't know one reason other than to watch the
other team that I'm gonna be excited to watch. They're
relevant in terms of what's coming up for sure, of course,
so you pick up extra draft capital in dealing off
Russell Wilson, they're overrun. Our wins is five and a half.

(01:17:27):
I mean, it could be a real uglier in Seattle.
But is that by plan? It feels like it. I mean,
I go back to the Indianapolis Colts when they conveniently
after Peyton Manny had to sit out a year, bottomed out,
ended up with the number one pick in the draft,
got Andrew Luck, and we're right back in the playoffs.

(01:17:48):
You know, it's a little weird because you have a
seventy year old coach and Pete Carroll, but you know,
he sort of defies his age a little bit here.
But if you look at Seattle situation with Bryce Young
and c J. Strou and other quarterbacks due to be
high draft picks a year from now, is it the
worst thing for them to know them out? Because let's
say the even in a position where that maybe you're

(01:18:09):
the fifth or sixth pick in the draft, but remember
you add a draft capital where you can move up
if you slots to get the first or second pick
in the draft. Somehow I got a feeling, as bad
as this year projects to be for the Seahawks, come three,
it's gonna work out for them. Well, they're definitely gonna
have a rookie quarterback. And I think the other thing
too is people are saying, and I hate this talk,

(01:18:31):
but you know that this quarterback draft is so deep,
not just with Bryce Young and c J. Stroud, but
there's other guys Tyler van Dyke from Miami, uh will
leave us, from Kentucky whatever. So you don't even have
to be the worst team, right, Like there's certain years
like Trevor Lawrence is the guy, there's only one team
that's gonna take them. So they are irrelevant for They're
relevant for the reason that they are trying to be irrelevant.

(01:18:52):
So I think that makes them interesting. But I look
at everybody else, right Like I still think like everyone
except for maybe the Falcons, Like like the Panthers are
trying to win the Saints with Jamis Winston are trying
to win. The Jets might stink, but they're trying to win.
Jacksonville is trying to win. Uh. The Seahawks seemed to be,
maybe along with Atlanta, the only team that's like, yeah,
you know whatever, Well, we'll see where the season takes us.

(01:19:14):
So I really couldn't care less about this quarterback spot.
But it is interesting Gino Smith, your buddy winning the job.
Probably not a good side because we saw Geno Smith
last year. We saw him last year and we saw
what he is and is not capable of. It was
funny when, by the way, when Russ Wilson got hurt
on that Thursday night game, when all of America had
the same reaction of oh I didn't know Gino Smith

(01:19:34):
was still in the league when he came in for
Russell Wilson. It was unbelievable. Everyone had the same Remember
the Giants ended Eli Manning's Street because they had to
put Gino Smith at that started. Dino has had an
interesting career. I have to say, but I any time
I see this guy, anytime I hear the name I,
I had the look on his face to me like

(01:19:55):
when I asked him, so, any idea where you're gonna
be in the draft. And remember when he missed up
mess up as alarm clock because he didn't understand time zones.
That was an all time excuse for being late. All right,
John Paul Morosi's gonna join us in the next hour
talk some MLB and what's the latest news out of
the NBA. We got that coming up next. Fox Sports

(01:20:15):
Radio has the best sports talk lineup in the nation.
Catch all of our shows at Fox Sports Radio dot
com and within the I Heart Radio app search f
s R to listen live. Rolling on here on a
beautiful Sunday, Steve Harbin and Aaron Torres with you. I'm
actually looking at the leader board right now. Find a
round of this Tour Championship, eighteen million dollars at steak

(01:20:39):
for the winner. And I thought Scottie Scheffler was like
a lock, and all of a sudden he's coming back
to the pack. This lead is just two over m
right now, and there's Rory McElroy can't lay chaffle Man.
It's pretty good finished there for a little golf today,
so very quickly. I don't mind that. Yes, where are
you at on live golf? My my attitude about golf

(01:21:00):
is simply this. I think Live Golf has already sparked
uh the PGA Tour to do a few things, the
idea that now you will not walk away empty handed
if you miss the cut, and this has been always
the crazy thing about golf. There's no sport like it
where you literally have to earn your money. Um, you
don't make a good you get nothing, and you pay
for your own travel and you pay for your own

(01:21:21):
travel and everything else. So I think the Live Tour
is forcing the p g A to make some changes.
I understand right now Jamnahan, the head of the PGA Tour, saying, well,
we're not bringing guys back that are suing us, but
I would maybe even be able to get out of
their lift golf contracts. I don't think they would. I
like at some point, I think because you you don't

(01:21:45):
want to be losing elite players if you're the p
g A Tour all of them, and again a lot
of it also depends on what stands the major's take
next year. That's such a big time so the you know,
when the Major Golf championships, and it's gonna be a
domino effect because they're all independent of the PGA Tour,
the Lived or the European Tour. They're all independent. They

(01:22:07):
have no direct hie to any of the tours out there,
and you just see that, you know, and each one
or individuals each other. So whatever they decide, because that's legacy,
that's that's that's I mean, there's money and then there's legacy.
And legacy is built on how you play in major
golf championships. When I so, I was always a believer.

(01:22:29):
Once the first guy goes in, takes the arrows for
everybody else, then other guys will follow. That's exactly what
happened Phil Nixon. But when I was convinced that they
were gonna be able to get players was when I
found out that they're still allowed to play in the
major championships. I said, no, listen, no disrespect. I grew
up in Connecticut. We have the Travelers Championship every year.
It's a great event. Nobody cares about the Travelers Championship.

(01:22:52):
Nobody cares about I can't even name events that aren't.
Is that the Firestone Classics still a thing in acron
Nobody really care is about that. They care about the
US Open, the Masters. I still called the British Open,
I don't called the Open Championship whatever, they care about that,
and if they're still gonna be able to play in it,
oh so I can go make generational money over there

(01:23:13):
and still play in the tournaments that the average fan
cares about. Uh, sign me up. And so that was
where I was curious, was if at any point the
you know, Augusta National, the U S Open, somebody would
step in and not allow them to play in those events.
My guess is is that these major golf championships, which
depends on the idea that the best of the best

(01:23:35):
are competing for the biggest championships, they're not gonna expel
the live golfers. They're just not. Do you have many
former Masters champions now are on the Live Tour, and remember,
you win a Masters, you have a lifetime ticket to
play in the Masters. You're gonna eliminate all those people,
No way, no way. So my guess is that at

(01:23:55):
some point the Live Tour and the PGA Tour and
the European Tour whatever it's called these days, they're gonna
have to figure out how to coexist and they're gonna
compete for talent based on how much money they are
throwing out there. And by the way, this is nothing
new in sports. We've had renegade leagues go up against

(01:24:15):
the NBA and the NFL weigh in the past, and
how did they get off the ground. They offered more
money to try to get talent. So this is nothing new. Um.
So the PGA Tour just has to accept the fact
that a the Lift Tour is not going anywhere. And ultimately,
if the major Golf Championships decide, hey we're good, everybody's

(01:24:36):
welcome to qualify. Now the other thing is the World
Golf rankings. Right now, the World Golf rankings do not
recognize the Live Tour. Well, if you're on the Lift
Tour and your World Golf ranking, which in a lot
of cases determines whether you qualify to play in a
major golf championship if you fall off the map. There,
that's the different stories. An I was just gonna say,

(01:24:58):
I didn't realize how many former UH Master's champions are
on the tour. So two thousand eleven Charles Schwarzer wins
he's on the Lift Tour, twelve, Bubble Watson, fourteen Bubble Watson, seventeen,
Sergio Garcia eighteen, Patrick read one, Dustin Johnson. That's incredible. Yeah,
I didn't realize that now. I mean, that's a lot
of And you forgot Phil Nicholson. Well, Phil was you know,

(01:25:19):
back in the day two thousand ten, So two thousand ten.
So since two thousand ten, there's been one to three, four, five, six, seven,
seven of what eleven twelve because there was no masters technically,
So yeah, I my guess is they're gonna force the

(01:25:40):
PGA Tour to make decisions. They're not gonna make it
for them. All right, I want to talk because we're
gonna have John Paul MORROSSI coming up here around next segment,
get to some major league baseball talk. But I wanted
to talk to you about the current situation with the
Brooklyn Nets. Sure, so when it came out that you know,
Eyrie Irving was still in limbo, they hadn't picked up

(01:26:02):
his player option, and there was all this buzz that
he was going to become a Los Angeles Laker, and
suddenly Kyrie gets his option picked up by or you know,
by the Nets. And immediately Kevin Durant said, why want out?
Even though he has four years remaining on his contract,
and I'm I'm I'm arguing with people on the eiroll.

(01:26:25):
That's it. He'll get traded. I'm like, why Joe sid
paid a record three point three billion dollars to buy
the Brooklyn Nets, and he did so to play the game.
What did he do? He immediately got Durandy, got Kyrie Irving,
he got James Harden, ended up trading Harden to get
Ben Simmons. Whatever. This guy is not just you know,

(01:26:48):
talking to talk, He's walking the walk. He wants to
win an NBA championship. Why would he trade Kevin Durant.
What is he going to get in return that's the
equal of Kevin Durant. Well, he's got a trade him,
because Durant wants to get traded, not en less they
get Oh you'll see, they'll trade him. What's it been

(01:27:09):
four months now? Kevin Durant is still very much a Net.
So is Kyrie Irving, So is Ben Simmons. Right now,
they're not going anywhere. What do you make of this situation? So,
first of all, I felt like, you know, everyone in
our business were quick to overreact to everything. I was
kind of surprised. I felt like there was an under
reaction to Kevin Durant just literally getting dunked on by

(01:27:30):
his owner and just he goes to his owner, I
want to be traded. Owner says no, Well I'll stay
if you fire the GM and the coach. The owner
says no. And then a month later he kind of Okay,
we're gonna work on this together. And it's like you
just got dumpd on, like your owner just you know,
kind of push in your place. So I'm not surprised.
A couple of things stand out what I I do
think I was surprised by Steve. First of all, I

(01:27:52):
hate to pat myself on the back. I don't hate
to pat. I love to pat myself on the But
I was on air with Jason Martin during Game three
of the ultimate sweep against the Celtics, and I did
say at that time, I said, the player powerman era,
it's dead. Lakers are out of the playoffs, Clippers are
out of the playoffs, never made the playoffs. Both in
both cases Nets are about to get swept. The era
of just giving over your entire team, your entire organization

(01:28:13):
of superstars, I think it's done. I've been proven correct.
What I have been surprised by with the Kevin Durant stuff.
And maybe I shouldn't be, but I am is the
other teams that are seemingly not willing to just give
up because I think they see other teams see Golden State,
they see Boston, they see Memphis, a cohesive group on
the court that believes in the front office, believes in

(01:28:35):
the coaching staff, believes in the vision that has been
put in place for them. And so I know there
were certain trade restrictions and this guy couldn't get traded
because of Ben Simmons and whatever. I am surprised that
other teams basically said, Kevin Durant might be the most
talented basketball player on the planet right now, but we're
not blowing this thing up because he has a track
record of being unhappy after one year and then we're

(01:28:55):
gonna have to blow up whatever we've built to get him,
and then we're gonna have to blow it up again
in a year or two when he's unhappy. Well, and on,
let's go back when he said I want to be
a Phoenix Sun, And I'm thinking to myself, why would
the Phoenix Suns literally got their entire roster except for
Chris Paul and Devin Booker to get Kevin Durank. They
won sixty four games last year. If you honestly think

(01:29:16):
they get rid of everybody else on their roster whatever
is necessary. Plus you know their drafts for the next
you know, six years, because you can't trade consecutive number
one picks. It's like you gotta skip a year and
the flipping of picks and everything else. Why would they
do that? Does that make him up? Well, you know,
Kevin Durank could be a difference maker. And I'm like,
the last time I saw Kevin Durant on the court,

(01:29:39):
his team got swept by the Celtics and they neutralized
them in that series. Well, don't tell me about that.
And by the way, the team that he did win
a championship with a team that was I mean, when
you look at the Warriors winning the championship, Steph Curry
is past his prime, Clay Thompson hadn't played in two
full years, Draymond Green is on his last breath, and

(01:30:02):
they still want a championship. And you know why they
won the championship though, It's because they had a decision
to make like the Lakers and like some of these
other teams have had a decision to make where they
were starting to lose. They were starting to guys were
starting to get hurt. Clay is out for a year,
then he's out for another year. Steph is out for
extended period of time, and they could have made the decision.
We got all these draft picks, if it was Lebron,

(01:30:25):
if it was Katie, if it was whoever, trade them all.
Get me this guy. I want to win right now.
And I give the Warriors so much credit. I've been
critical of the Warriors through the years, but I give
them so much credit. They had a plan, they stuck
to it. We're gonna draft young guys. We're gonna get
get these young guys in to you know, add fresh
legs to to give you guys a little bit of
a break. I give him a ton of credit. Let

(01:30:46):
me ask you this, players win championships or organizations win championships.
You know you you have to have a baseline level
of talent. I leaned towards organizations. I mean, there is
a reason why certain or organization's win, including the Dodgers.
There's an organization that seems to be pushing all the
right button. We're talking about earlier with quarterbacks. I mean,

(01:31:08):
how many quarterbacks do the Jets have to draft before
we realize it's not Zack Wilson, it's not Sam Donald,
it's not this guy. Maybe it's the Jets, Maybe it's
the Jaguars. Why are the same four or five teams
drafting a quarterback every three years? All right, we're gonna
flip the page and talk some Major League Baseball. On
the other side, we're gonna check in with our Fox
Sports Radio MLB insider John Paul Morossy will join us.

(01:31:30):
Coming up next, Steve Harmon and Aaron Torres. Here. By
the way, it's getting a little tighter in golf right now.
Cheffer's lead is down to one m and Rory McElroy golf.
I know golf, we got some big names out here,
But Scotty Cheffler, what do you have, like a five
shot league going into today, World's number one ready to cash.

(01:31:53):
That's a lot of money, though, when you think about
eighteen million dollars, it's good, good, chunky, little extra change
in your pocket. That just seems staggering to me. You
play any golf play I'm one of those I actually
heard again in that Kevin O'Connell interview that that that
Colin did with the Minnesota Vikings coach. They asked about
Sean McVeigh and he said, Sean McVeigh doesn't play golf

(01:32:15):
because he's so competitive that if he can't be good,
then and I'm the same way. It's like, if I'm
not if there's not a window to me to get
really good at it, I'm just not doing it all right? Well,
he has this guy has is good at everything he
does because he wears a multituda hats. He works at
the MLB network, he works with the NHL network. Every
once in a while, he humbles himself to be part

(01:32:37):
of Fox Sports Radio as our MLB insider, and then
further humbles himself by coming on this radio program every
single Sunday, and we are in dark indeed honored every
time he comes on the one the only John paulma
Rosy am I right, JP. I mean, you have a
lot of things going on in your life, but to

(01:32:57):
take a little time out of your Sunday to hang
with us. Now, are you and Williams parts still you
still hanging out with a Little League World Series? That's
a great question, guys. And first of all, I really
appreciate the invitation and the kind and introduction as you
always provide two kind my friends. It's always great catching
up with you, Steven Aaron, but I am not there

(01:33:18):
right now. I spent the weekend there. Last weekend Little
League Classic was extraordinary, loved it. I got a chance
that on Monday to do the Subway Series in New York,
so that was another dream come true to be there.
But I know it's been a great tournament there in
Williams Sport, certainly a great championship game going today. And
I also Aaron's got a big week and head right

(01:33:38):
now with College Fool starting up. So I'm really excited
that that Notre Dame, Ohio State game for a for
a Midwesterner like myself, I'm gonna be watching that game
very carefully Saturday night. I know what a special game
it's gonna be. For the great Marcus Freeman. I think
he's an outstanding choice to lead Notre Dame and for
him to be coaching against his alma mater in his
first regular season game leading the Irish pretty special. So

(01:34:01):
that's gonna be a great match up there. On Saturday night,
we were talking earlier, Aaron I JP about organizations versus talent.
I mean they sort of seem to go hand in hand,
organizations recognizing talent, putting the right pieces together. But right
now you look at a Major League Baseball and there
are just certain organizations running away with things. I mean

(01:34:22):
it starts with the Dodgers. I mean, the Mets this
year are thirty six games over five hundred, the Astros
are thirty four games over five hundred, the Yankees at
one point, we're well over that mark. When it comes
to success in baseball, how much is it just talent
and how much is it really at the top. Do

(01:34:44):
organizations really dictate the way they run the success the
team ultimately has. I think they do. And that's why
here we are hiring season again from Major League Baseball,
And the big question would be o can be found
and hired at a spot like the Detroit Tigers that

(01:35:05):
they're looking for a GM And when the Angels are
sold and when the Nationals are sold, what are their
guiding principles going to be? And what what makes an
organization special like the Dodgers. I think everybody wants to
be Dodgers. Not everybody has the Dodgers. They roll and resources,
but they all want to be able to to build

(01:35:26):
players and develop players like the Dodgers do. And that's
why they've been close to unbeatable, not in an individual game,
but just all over over time over a decade, have
been the best team in baseball over the last decade.
The reason is they can spend on the right free agents.
They can trade for trade Turner, they can sign for
any freeman they can trade for Bettman, sign them, and

(01:35:47):
and they constantly have the prospects you need to make
trade and then the budget you need to sign a
Freddy Freeman. And when you do those two things, it's
sustainable success. And I think one thing that the Dodgers
have done, they broadly speaking around the game, if they
have made sustainable success cool. There used to be a

(01:36:10):
time where it was all about and Boston and try
to win the championships. Go all in for it and
win it and then tear it down if you have to.
And that's not the way the Dodgers have done things.
They have said no to something. They've been in there
pursuing players, whether it was a Wan Soto in a
trade or Bryce Harper in free agency or years gone

(01:36:30):
by and cool hamileson in a trade. Well, the reason
why they didn't get Hambles was was the Phillies wanted
some combination of Rias, Bellinger and Seeger. Well, now we
know why didn't make the drink. So I think that
discipline is what plays, and and developing your own players
is what play. The Dodgers do that I believe better
than any other team, and the results are there. They've

(01:36:52):
made the playoffs every year and they've got a World
championship in the mix there to to hang their hount on.
So that is what everybody who is trying to rebuild
a retool, that's what all of them eventually want to
achieve when it's easier set than done, because very few teams,
maybe even only the Yankees and Mets, have that same

(01:37:13):
level of financial resources plus the potential infrastructure to build
from within. And I would say the Dodgers have greater
organizational depth than either the Yankees or the Mets. JP
Steve mentioned a bunch of teams running away with their divisions,
including the Mets. For people who don't follow this stuff
on a day to day basis, like you, you you know,
the Yankees is pretty self explanatory right, Aaron Judge stand

(01:37:37):
in Garrett Cole, high price free agents. Dodgers have been
doing this for a while. The Mets, we know they
added buckshow Walter, you know as a manager in the
off season. Obviously Max Schers are coming in. What has
been the secret sauce for the Mets to allow them
to have this drastic, incredible turnaround. Great pitching, and I
think Max Sers been part of that, but not the
only reason why. Taiwan Walker has been there and I

(01:37:59):
think been a reliable armed for them during the force
of the season. When he's been healthy, they've been able
to get by for a long period of time where
they didn't have necessarily as sure as her into ground
all of the same time. But Chris Baston has got
a pretty solid year for the New York Mets, and
when d As in the bullpen, I think is having
what you would describe as an m VP candidate type

(01:38:22):
of a year. I don't think he'll win it, but
I think that he might get votes. And if you
look at it, and if you were to ask someone
who's around the mess every day, who has been the
most important player on your roster all season long? The
answer to that question might well be Edwin d It's
not a classic m v P argument, necessarily because we

(01:38:44):
usually talk about games played and in the way that
we usually abulate, whether it's starts by a starter or
or runs better in for a for a position player traditionally.
But I think d as what he has done and
given them that consistency has and as important as almost
any other player. And of course you've got Pete Alonzo,
who you really rely on for his run production has

(01:39:07):
been up there and in the league leaders both at
home runs in RBI this season. I think he's probably
been their offensive m v P, and I love that
when you look at the Mets, Francisco Lindora has not
had to carry the team. He's been a piece. He's
been part of why they've been good. Brandon Nemo is
always on base, Jeff McNeil gives you a really, really
good at bat from the left side. So it hasn't been,

(01:39:30):
i think, aside from Alonzo player with eye popping offensive numbers.
But it's been a deep rotation, a lights out top
of the line closer and Diaz and then a really
solid run producer Pete Alonso surrounded by what I think
has been a pretty deep offense. Nineteen thirty seven, that
was the last time a nationally player won the Triple Crown.

(01:39:51):
Your favorite player, my favorite player JP. That was Joe
Medwick back in the day, great Hall of Famer H
Ducky wucky U Medwick Um. Paul Goldschmith now is in
a position where he might become the first nationally player
to win the Triple Crown since nineteen thirty seven. Can
you put a little perspective on the career of Paul Goldschmidt,

(01:40:12):
who obviously right now is a runaway favorite to win
his first m VP Award. He's been second in that
voting a couple of times, he's been third. He's had
a lot on his resume. But give us a little
perspective on the career to date of Paul Goldschmidt. I
think Steve for me, he is on his way to
the Hall of Fame. He has put together a first

(01:40:33):
chapter of his career that is worthy of the Hall. Uh.
It's a crowded position uh around the major leagues right
now when you think about potential Hall of famers. Miguel
Cabrero spent a lot of his career at first base
he'll go to the Hall of Fame. I believe Joey
Vato will as well. But gold Schmiant I think one
of the key things about his career that stands out

(01:40:54):
to me has always been his base running. He has
been an excellent base runner. So you add in it's
been an elite defense in my opinion, Swart player, great
run producer, Durahle player for a long time power and
then you add on top of that great bass runner.
So I think for me, whenever you're in the Triple

(01:41:14):
Crown conversation on the team that's gonna win their division,
because as you've seen since the trade deadline, the Cardinals
have really distanced themselves from the Milwaukee Brewers. He's checked
every box, and so the way that he's gotten about
it has been maybe a little subtle. He's never been
someone that's commanded a lot of headlines in terms of
the way he plays the game. He's someone that the

(01:41:34):
more you watch him, the more you appreciate him. And
I think on that score, um, now you you look
up and see where he ranks among the career leaders
of that position, at least among players this century, let's say.
And he's been a first class person on and off
the field, so a lot of admiration for Goldschmith, and
to win a triple crown I think would just get

(01:41:55):
the attention more focused on what is all around excellence
always has been last one for me. J P. I'm
gonna throw a little bit of a proverbial curveball at you.
You know, Steve said you're great at many things, and
you brought up college football, so, uh, you live in Michigan.
I'm not asking you for any crazy insight, but did
you see the story where Jim Hardball plans on starting

(01:42:17):
two different quarterbacks in week one and week two, Kate
mcmaron week one, j J McCarthy in week two, and
then making a decision after that? Do you have any
thoughts as a guy who lives in Michigan. I know
you love Michigan, has a die hard fan. I know
he's on the road too. I know you're you're doing
the baseball thing, so it's not as though you have
time to to over analyze the depth chart, But I

(01:42:37):
was just curious for your thoughts on that. JP. It's
a really interesting decision and a couple of things stand
out to number one in in mcnamary. You've got your captain,
so it'd be hard for him to be elected captain
by the players and not beyond the field when you
begin you're season at Michigan Stadium. That's one for me.
The other part of it it was McCarthy, was you

(01:43:00):
different luck? And I think that it allows Michigan And
I think it's part of this is they're not playing
Notre Dame to begin the season, They're not playing Ohio
State in their first game. They should be able to
get good looks at both quarterbacks and see what they
can do. It allows you to get sort of good
tape out there, so to speak, on both of them,

(01:43:20):
and that way the vincive coordinators have more in their
mind have to prepare for. You're sort of putting different
looks out there that other teams have to happen find
all the season long. I think that's a positive thing.
And I also think on some level, Aaron and you
noticed because of of how close you've cover the college
game with with transferring being there and and the the
ease of the transfer portals, and you've got a player

(01:43:43):
in McCarthy is a talented player. He would probably start
at of universities across UM the f B S right now,
give him a start. I mean, I mean, at some
level you've got good players play him. And I think
that nowadays, when you look at how much has changed
in college athletics and transferport all the um the name,

(01:44:04):
image and like, it's all those different dynamics, it's a
different game. Players have more say than they've ever had,
which I think is a good thing. And so when
you look at that and you have to adjust, it
can't just be well, adjusting for a coach can't just
be well, but we've got a two different packages with
a ten position in a twelve formation whenever you know,
it can't just be the schematic thumf. You have to

(01:44:26):
handle your players differently. This is probably not how Jim
Arba would analysted twenty years ago, but guess what, it's
not twenty years ago. It's a it's a different world
that we're in, and so I think from that perspective,
he's handling it the right way. A little more transparency
is good to get your players involved. And I'm a
big believer that in sports, you have a you have
good chemistry when everybody on your roster within reason feels

(01:44:50):
like they've got ownership of how things are going. And
I think rather than having McCarthy be bummed out after
the first announcement and and sort of there being a
skis them in your dress the room, you've got a
better a better feeling. Now you're really gonna get their opportunity.
So I think it's a unique way to do it
when you look at the history of the game. But
I think that this is Jim Harbon doing a pretty
good job of adjusting to his present reality. Well, Jp,

(01:45:13):
when we check in with you next week, I'm gonna
predict that your Wolverines will have at least one victory
under their belt. Twenty seven point favorites at home against
Colorado State, all right, so you should have that victory
under your belt when we talk next week, I would
say so. And I think I'm telling you that to
see Ohio State Notre Dame playing as well, it's just

(01:45:33):
it's it's great. It's great theater. That's a rivalry that
has never really had the chance to develop because the
Wilds they've never really wanted to schedule Notre Dame. Because
of the number of Notre Dame fans of living on
Island ever really wanted to sort of leave in the state,
if you will, and so to see that game scheduled
out because people who appreciate the history of the game, guys,
as we all do, it's special and I'm excited for

(01:45:54):
that game on Saturday night as well. JP. As always,
you are the best of the best. We appreciated every
single Sunday. We'll talk to you next week. All the best, guys.
Thank you. It really joined the conversation. Thanks. John Paul Morosi.
Now he is a Michigan man through and through, but
he took a dtour in college. Uh he ended up
having to settle to go to Harvard. Oh really, yeah,

(01:46:16):
John Paul want to Harvard. I didn't know that. Yeah,
he he he want to Harvard, but he almost never
mentions it. Like he is a Michigan Wolverine fan through
and through. He's a big Tigers guy. He's a Mischigan
man through and through. He just said he did a
little four year detour and went to Harvard and then
came home. You know. So, by the way, did you
see the schedule where the quarterback will be decided Game three?

(01:46:40):
When you have two quarterbacks, you have no quarterbacks right,
isn't that what the old is? I do think this
is sort of the exception, and I think JP My
analysis of it is the same as his is you
have the established starter, the other guy has the higher upside,
and then you gotta be careful if you don't play
him at all. He hits the portal. But Game three,
when the decision will be made, that's when the Yukon

(01:47:01):
Huskies very quickly. How stunned are you under Jim Harbaugh
that there hasn't been any standout quarterback at Michigan? I mean,
they just have guys. I mean, that's That's the one
thing we assumed Jim Harbaugh was going to bring to
the University of Michigan was a little higher level of
quarterback play. At least to this point, we haven't seen it.

(01:47:22):
And what's wild is Ohio State, which was kind of
a ground and pound team for so long, they've turned
into quarterback you with obviously unfortunately the late Dwayne Haskins
justin fields and now C J. Stroud the potential number
one pick next year. All right, let's find out what's
training right now? A guy that excels just like JP.
I don't know, if you want to Harvard the way
he did. Where don't you go, Fenley Memphis? So I

(01:47:44):
worked in local television in Memphis, but I actually went
to college at u n C Greensboro. They are the Spartans. Yea, yeah,
they should have wanted Yea. How dare you take Michigan State?
I mean, Michigan State took that mascot from us. I mean,
let's be honest. I don't forget about San Jose State.
Oh yes, do they go to reform as sparty? The

(01:48:07):
Spartans do somewhat, they don't go to it as often fun.
They've had decent basketball. They almost beat Gonzaga a couple
of years ago in the n C Double A Tournament,
and our head coach West Miller went over to Cincinnati. Hey, Finley,
what's your connection to Old miss I always wanted yes,
so my sister and my dad went there, So yeah,
I can pick it up in his accent, Brian Finley

(01:48:30):
a lot of Mississippi. And yet, well, you guys brought
up Harvard Old miss is Oldness is considered the Harvard
of the South. And I'm not just making that up. Yeah,
the Harvard of Oxford, Mississippi is that we all come
from somewhere, don't we. Yes, we all come from Yes,

(01:48:50):
So NFL preseason. We're wrapping things up here on that
front today. And the Giants are currently leading to seventeen
again the Jets inside nine minutes ago in the fourth quarter. Now,
this despite the fact that Tyrond Taylory we started the
game at quarterback for the Giants, got knocked out of
this game early with a back injury. Davis Webb stepping

(01:49:12):
in and doing a pretty admirable job one hundred thirty
nine yards passing one touchdown throw. Joe Flacco started for
the Jets, and well, he threw a pick six, and
when he gets out of the pocket, that seems to
be what happens, and that's what definitely was the case here. Now.
Mike White played a significant amount of time in this
one and seventeen as far as his completions and one

(01:49:35):
hundred seventy yards and two scores, one of Jeff Smith
and the other to Braxton Barrios. There is another game tonight,
four thirty Eastern time tonight, if you're more so on
the East coast, four thirty eastern, it's Lions in Steelers.
Tim Boyle the pride of Aaron Torres and yeah, yeah,
he's gonna be the quarterback for Detroit and this one
starting and then m R. Bisky starting at QB for Pittsburgh.

(01:49:58):
As far as Major League Baseball, all we do have
a couple of games of notable status that are going on.
The Rays are leading eight to three against the Red
Sox with Isaac Pretis with two home runs top of
the sixth. There the Angels all over the Blue Jays
three to one. That ball game is at the top
of the seventh. Max Schers are pitching a gym. He's
got ten strikeouts here for the Mets and they though

(01:50:21):
are trailing one nothing to the Rockies. And also trailing
would be the Phillies. Noah synder Guard nine hits, allowed
five urn runs and the Pirates. Yeah, the Pirates are
beating the Phillies five to nothing in the top or
the bottom of the sixth and one notable final, the
Dodgers just devour the Marlins eight to one. Four hits

(01:50:44):
for l A and how many did Miami have? Just
two as Julio Urius pitched a one hit, six hitting
affair and got the win easily. There Also, as Steve
brought up. The tour Championship is in progress since Scottie
Scheffler has gotten a birdie picked up a birdie on eight,

(01:51:04):
so now he's got a one shot lead of Rory McElroy.
For a while, they were both tied at twenty under
overall in this final round. But McElroy is there on
a tear through this front nine. Stephen Aaron three under
threw eight. Scheffler is plus two through eight. And keep
in mind that Jeffler had to finish up his third
round today because of weather yesterday, so he's playing more
than eighteen holes. But can I see and can we

(01:51:27):
all see? As I set it back to Steve Hartman
and Aaron Torres Scheffler, will he pull it out the
world number one? And for now, guys, he's in on
the PGA Tour, not live, so hopefully we'll see what happens.
But eighteen million dollars if he pulls this out, not
a well, that's not a bad gig. I mean, they
got some great pay days obviously, especially in advance money

(01:51:49):
for some of these golfers, and you know they hand
Scotty Cheffer. I don't a hundred million dollars just to
join the tour. But eighteen million dollars is at stake
today and Scheffler, yeah, after getting caught by McElroy reassumes
a one shot late. We're watching the golf right now.
So thank you. Brian has always appreciate your input. All right.

(01:52:11):
Coming up on the other side, I don't know if
you know this, Aaron, I did not know that, But
I don't know if you know this, But I have
a Heisman vote now. I rarely have ever ever talked
about my status as a Heisman voter. Actually I do
it every second of every day. Um. I I want
to get your thoughts though as we head into the
college football season. Uh, in terms of dark horses, because

(01:52:35):
on the other side, I'll explain why everyone you think
should win the Heisman in two will not win the Heisman.
Coming up next, Steve Harman Aaron Torres here on Fox
Sports Sunday. So, if you're a college football fan, next
week is your week. No NFL football, Thursday, Friday, Saturday,

(01:52:59):
Sunday a Monday, all college football, no interruption from the NFL. So, uh,
we get ready to start this two season. There's always
things we talked about before the season begins. Which teams
will end up in the college football Playoff and who
will hoist the most recognizable sports trophy in America, which

(01:53:22):
is the Heisman Trophy. Do you think anybody could see
a picture of Heisman Trophy and not know the actual trophy?
If you're a sports fan, then the answer is no.
I mean, it is the most recognizable actual trophy, uh,
in American sports. So I looked back and I've been
voting since Cam Newton's year, But since two thousand and nine,

(01:53:46):
the last thirteen winners of the Heisman Trophy only two
Marcus Mariota and Baker Mayfield in ten. We're on anybody's
preseason lit as a prime contender to win the Heisman Trophy.
The rest mark ingram in two thousand nine, Cam Newton

(01:54:07):
in r G three, Johnny Manzel, Jamis Winston, Derrick Henry
Lamar Jackson, and your last four winners Kyler Murray, Joe Burrow,
Davante Smith, Bryce Young. None of these guys we're considered
favorites or even on the radar to win the Heisman Trophy.

(01:54:28):
So odds are as we look at the odds with
Bryce Young and c J. Stroud, Uh, you know will Anderson.
I mean, there's some names on this list that are
showing up everywhere. Caleb Williams transferring from Oaklahoma the USC.
So you follow the college game closely. I want to
get your thoughts because I just showed you what what

(01:54:50):
can happen here somebody that just is not on the
radar that at the season ends gonna be handed a
giant trophy. Can you see such a play here this year? Well,
that's not on the radar. I don't know about not
on the radar. I think there's some guys, you know,
I think part of it is and the thing with
the heisman is the story, right, it's you know, you

(01:55:11):
have to have great numbers. But the Joe Joe Burrow
story was incredible. Johnny Manzel story was incredible. So you know,
I look at the the long shot odds. I mean
a couple of guys that stand out to me and
they're not that long shot Jackson Smith and Jig But
the wide receiver at at Ohio State. Do you remember
the Rose Bowls Steve Hartman, guy had three hundred fifty
yards receiving and that was after they lost two first rounders.

(01:55:35):
And those two guys a lave and Garrett Wilson said
he was the best guy in that receiver room. Right.
They have plenty of talent around him. But I could
just see the scenario where he goes crazy starting Week
one against Notre Dame. And by the way, a lot
of people say, well, wait a second, if he has
those kind of numbers, it's really in the wheelhouse for
uh for Stroud. But look what happening of the Davonte

(01:55:55):
Smith mac Jones was first team All American. He almost
said a record that year for completion percentage, but Davonte
Smith's numbers were so extraordinary he got the votes instead
of his quarterback. Yeah, I agree. Dylan Gabriel thirty two one,
the quarterback at Oklahoma, I don't think people realize so.
First of all, the same coordinator that he has at

(01:56:16):
Oklahoma basically was his coordinator when he was at Central Florida.
Last time he played college football for a full season,
COVID year wasn't even a full season. Ten games, thirty
two touchdowns yards passing. You do some quick math there, Steve,
that's what three and a half touchdowns a game, three
d fifty yards per game. Oh, by the way, you're
at Oklahoma you have more talent than ever. And I
think that's a team that could just generally be pretty good.

(01:56:38):
So those are two that stand out. The quarterback at Miami,
Tyler Van Dyke is interesting, Connecticut kid, no big deal, um,
but are they gonna win enough games? I don't know.
I'm not a huge Mario Christal ball guy. Remember he
had justin Herbert didn't win very much with him. So
my guests would be those are some of the guys
that stand out to me as long shot as all right,
So in voting for the Heisman Trophy, actually, the way

(01:56:59):
my final ballot ended up was exactly the final ballot
one to three. Uh. And it came down of the
final week and really of the votes will come in late.
And let's talk about will Anderson here for a second,
because a year ago Aidan Hutchinson finished runner up for
the Heisman Trophy. Remember he had that huge game against

(01:57:20):
Ohio State, didn't do a whole lot in the Big
Ten championship game. Well, the reason that Bryce Young ended
up winning this thing, he did the seemingly impossible and
he lit up at Georgia defense, that historic Georgia defense
in the SEC Championship game, but when you look at
the trophy itself and again, it can be a collegiate

(01:57:41):
player at any level, any level. All it simply says
is best college football player for that season. It's not
a career award. It's a season award and has become
much more so over the years. But can you see
any scenario We're a defensive player like Will Anderson Jr.

(01:58:04):
Can walk away? Because even Charles Woodson when he won
the Heisman, Michigan used him a little at wide receiver.
It was a little bit of a hybrid. He was
a punt return everything else. The closes a pure defensive players.
Come was man Tito, who, by the way, did get
my vote over Johnny Manzel that we had no By
the way, do you see that? Not yet? You need to.
I am telling you you have to watch that because

(01:58:27):
if your question at that whole time was how could
he be so dumb not to understand when he was
being catfish, it'll explain everything to you. It's unbelievable. But
cannot wait you, um, can you see a scenario word
guy like Will Anderson Jr. Couldn't actually walk away with
the Heisman Trophy? Well, I bet him when I was
in Vegas at thirty to one. I'm looking at one
sports book he's down a sixteen one. So I don't

(01:58:47):
want to say that I moved the number, and a
lot of people are writing that, though, well, I'll just
say really quick, Heisman is about a story. This was
a guy that statistically was better in every category last
year than Aidan Hutchinson. Aidan Hutchinson finn his number two. Uh,
and I think Alabama fans were mad at the time.
He's gonna put up incredible numbers. The only question from
my perspective, I told you on your Friday show. We

(01:59:08):
saw it a few years with TA. Alabama is so
dominant in so many games that they pull their stars
out early. I think that could impact his stats. But yes,
I could, because I think there will be momentum off
of last year where people thought he should have been
in New York, and if he puts up those same stats,
I think he's gonna be there with a chance to win. Well,
that's the whole point, though seventeen and a half sacks

(01:59:28):
he led the nation a year ago. In order for
him to win the Heisman, he has to be as
good and probably better than he was a year ago,
plus the whole Bryce Young dynamic. As the reigning Heisman
Trophy winner, He's the eleventh returney. None of them have
repeated since Archie Griffin and boy I could go back

(01:59:49):
in time and how if we had the same voting
rules then as we have now, how many guys would
have won the Heisman instead of the guys that did
win the Heisman? Interesting used to be a mail in valid.
They actually announced highschool winters before the games were even
all played back in the day. By the way, Nick Saban,
how much longer is he gonna stay at Alabama? We

(02:00:10):
got the latest coming up next. Fox Sports Radio has
the best sports talk lineup in the nation. Catch all
of our shows at Fox Sports Radio dot com and
within the I Heart Radio app search f s R
to listen live. Rolling along here Steve Hartban and Aaron Torres.
Were you on Fox Sports Sunday? And we are continuing

(02:00:30):
the count down to full blown football? Yeah? I know,
September is around the corner. We'll get down the stretch
of Major League Baseball. NBA's around the corner. What about
college basketball? Your bread and butter? Where are we on
the college basketball schedule right now? Well? I'll tell you
we don't have to spend too much some of it.
But once every four years these schools are allowed summer

(02:00:52):
tours to go overseas. And what ended up happening was
there is obviously none in because of COVID last year,
you really couldn't travel abroad audit this time, so you
had a bunch of teams take summer tours. Some of
them were broadcast at least you could get highlights. But
Kentucky took one, Auburn took one, Alabama, Arkansas, Wisconsin, Virginia,
a couple others, so you actually got to see them

(02:01:15):
in games against professional players. It was fun. Uh, Chad
Homegren season any injury. We saw this with Blake Griffin
before his rookie year. Julius Rando member first game of
the year, he lost his rookie season. Um, yeah, a
little basketball talk, how I mean obviously Homegun came in
with a lot of hype. We saw a lot from
him as a freshman. He obviously has a body that

(02:01:38):
is gonna have to fill out if he's gonna survive
eighty two plus games in the NBA. The skill set
is there this year off that he's gonna have now
before he starts his NBA career, could this actually work
for him? Well, the problem is it's a foot injury,
so it's not like it's your off shooting hand or
something like. I don't know. People are like, oh, I'll

(02:01:58):
be able to just get in the him and focus
on his game and gaining weight. And I'm like, well,
if you can't like put weight on your foot for
the next Like every time I hear foot, I think
about my dear friend Bill Walton. Sure, I mean it
ended his career. Honestly, at the height of his career
that foot injury. He was able to have a brief
comeback with the Celtics off the bench, but that pretty

(02:02:21):
much ended Bill Walton. And it's so funny, right because
I think we live in this world where if you
make certain opinions or you have certain assumptions, you kind
of get made fun of. It's like, oh, you're all, oh,
that's such like nineteen eighties thinking you don't know what
you're talking about. Like, And that was the conversation with
chet Holmgren was like, oh, if you still are worried

(02:02:41):
about body type with NBA nutrition and NBA this and
NBA that and I'm like, I'm not a doctor. We
just have a pretty good track record that if you're
over seven foot, over seven ft, under a certain weight,
and even if you're not under a certain weight, it's
hard to stay healthy. And we have the the track
record Greg Odin, Bill walt In, uh Sam Booie, like,

(02:03:04):
there is a pretty big track record, and it's just
simple physics, right, your body is not supposed to be
that big. That's a lot of weight to put on
your shoulders, your your shoulders, your feet, your ankles, your knees,
like and so like you know, you have myself whoever
saying this could be a problem in people, Oh my god,
that's that's so nineteen. It's like, no, this is like

(02:03:26):
it's a thing. And I hope I'm wrong and I
hope he has success. But we have like a fifty
year track record. If you're seven feet, it's you're not
probably not gonna play twenty years in the league. Well,
and there's also the reverse of that carrying a lot
of weight, like Zion Williams said, you know, you blow
through your shoe and you're looking at a guy who
at age nineteen is naturally two eighty pounds now I

(02:03:48):
don't know what you wait at nineteen. My guess is
at night twenty one or twenty two. As you mature,
your body matures, you just put on natural wits, which
is natural for everybody. Uh. And when you are at
a starting point, like Zion Williamson, it's a point. Um
I was I I mean, I look, I recognized the talent,
but I'm like, how can you count on this guy

(02:04:09):
being healthy? I mean, were you just blown away the
game of this huge contract extension after sitting out an
entire year. So two things on Zion. One what cracked
me up? And again this is my background in college athletics,
is like you had this narrative, and I think if
you ask somebody like Doug Gottlieb, who's around college sports
all the time, there was this narrative of well, you know,
well wait till he gets into an NBA strength and

(02:04:31):
conditioning program and he'll he'll trim that body fat, no problem.
It's like, you do understand, Duke is like basically an
NBA team, Like like every nutrition meal plan, weight room, facility, recovery.
I guarantee you Duke has better facilities and and trainers
and nutritionists and everything than some NBA teams. Now, if

(02:04:52):
he had gone to fill in the blank, you know,
if he had gone to uh Butler, then yes, he
probably doesn't have access to the same but Duke he
has access to everything. So the idea that they didn't
have a weight room at Duke and they didn't have
a nutritionist at Duke, and they didn't have a guy
you know, counting every calorie, so that was dumped. Now
to the extension part. I did find that part interesting

(02:05:13):
because on the one hand, I totally get it. I
did get a little annoyed though, in the lead up
to the extension of you know, them asking him and
him being like, well, this is where I want to be,
and I understand whatever. But at the same time, it's like,
the team just made the playoffs without you, brandon Ingram
established himself as an All Star without you, Herb Jones

(02:05:33):
is one of the best young players without you. If
I was Zion and they're asking me about an extension,
my answer probably would have been, listen, I just want
to get back on the court and help my team win.
And the way he answered those questions kind of bothered me.
I know, he's young years old, same birthdays me, by
the way, no big deal. Um, I just I don't
know something about it. Was just like, dude, you haven't

(02:05:54):
done anything to contribute pretty much anything. I know he
was an All Star, but didn't impact winning. Just focus
on getting health the end, Like, I don't know that
that part worked me a little bit. All right, Uh, well,
I'm gonna stay with the NBA for a second here
with you because I'm gonna take full advantage of your
knowledge of it, and certainly a guy that you have
followed since his college days, Anthony Davis. Sure. So all
the noise about the Lakers and giving Lebron the extension

(02:06:16):
and look, Lebron is Lebron, and I would never bet
against Lebron James. To me, it's like you would never
bet against Tom Brady. I mean, the guy average over
thirty points a game last year on a bad basketball team.
So Lebron is always gonna show up. But all this
noise about Kyrie Irving or they gonna keep Russell Westbrook
now they made the deal to bring in Patrick Beverly

(02:06:36):
and his defense. To me, I'm like, none of this matters.
None of this matters unless Anthony Davis is on the
court now. You've known him since his college days at
Kentucky or days that one year spectacular season. By the way,
if you look at the m O p s of
the final four since Anthony Davis, it literally is a
who's who of who's that? Excuse yeah, I mean, I

(02:07:01):
mean it's really anonymous guys in terms of what they
did in the n b A. But explain to us
when when you hear the Knox on Anthony Davis, who,
by the way, was named to the seventy fifth Anniversary
team of the n b A, that he doesn't have
the offseason commitments to keep himself physically ready to endure

(02:07:24):
in an eight two game season, which he's never come
close to playing eight two games in the season, even
going back to his days of the Pelicans. What can
you tell us about Anthony Davis? Well, to me, and
this isn't as much with the college stuff, but like
you know, was Bill Parcel say, you are what your records,
you are, what your record says you are. His track
record is can't stay healthy? And I think we have

(02:07:46):
increasing information now that what you just said that he
doesn't work that hard in the off season. And listen,
you could criticize Lebron for a lot of things. There
is no doubt about his commitment to the game of basketball.
Kevin Durant we talked about, you know, some of the
off the stuff. There's no doubt about his commitment to basketball.
Janice gets better every year, Luca don chet gets better
every year, even though he's not in the greatest shape.

(02:08:08):
Andy Davis literally said, I haven't touched basketball in two months,
like like, so to me, Um, you know, I don't know.
There's nothing else to say. Is that again, he's about
seven feet hasn't had a track record is staying healthy
as we just discussed a minute ago with chet Um,
and I just think at this point, you're he's twenty
nine years old. I mean, you're not twenty three anymore.

(02:08:28):
You've been around the all time grades, You've been around Lebron.
You played in the Olympics with Kobe and Katie and
all those guys. You know what it takes to be
at the highest level. And one thing I will say,
I did get this right. I did get this right,
but you can't see it here in the Fox Sports
radio studios. My microphone just fell. I remember in that
NBA Finals that they won in the bubble. I said,

(02:08:49):
they better win it now because they're never gonna have
a four month break before the playoffs for Anthony Davis
to get healthy. So maybe this year is the anomaly.
But he's twenty nine years old. He based he can't
stay healthy, He has no he has limited commitment in
the off season. I think you are what your record says.
You're at this point, all right, do you believe the
Russell west Brook will be a Laker this season? I

(02:09:11):
doesn't doesn't feel like anybody else wants him. That's the problem. Um,
no one's willing to pick up even if it's a
you know, buyout and all that buy us dump forty
seven million. I mean, there is ways around a picking
up a salary right that and getting rid of it.
So here's my thing. I brought this up with producer Bo,
who's a die hard Lakers fan, Uh, the other day.

(02:09:32):
I don't know if anybody wants him for this reason.
If you're good, he's gonna do what he did if
as a team. If you're good as a team, he's
gonna do what he did with the Lakers last year,
which is he's gonna come in. He thinks you should
be the focal point. It's gonna screw everything up. If
you're bad, you're probably trying to lose games, and he
plays so hard that you're going to win games. Right.
He goes to the Wizards for one year and they

(02:09:53):
make the playoffs. He you know, Oklahoma City, they always
made the playoffs. And so that's why I do wonder
if there's the market for him, because he wants to
be a superstar. He wants to have the ball in
his hand. And I don't know. I do think though
they're their their comments and their actions this offseason, most
recently trading for Patrick Beverly make me seem to think

(02:10:13):
it's almost like one of those like, I know, I know,
it's been a while since you were in high school.
Me too. Actually, Unfortunately, it's like in high school when
you you're in a relationship for the first time and
you want to break up, but you've never broken up
with somebody, you don't know how, so you keep just
trying to push them away so they'll do it. That's
kind of what I feel like the Lakers are doing
right now with with with russ Is, like, Okay, we
can't find somebody, so we're just gonna make it so

(02:10:33):
awful for you here that you just decide to take
a buy out or whatever. Your high school experience a
little different than mine. I was in high school when
Nixon resigned. Okay, so it's been so that's what you
talked about. By the way, the day that Nixon resigned
was the day that Derek Fisher was born. Wow. I
I looked that up one time. No. I I look
at this whole situation plus the interesting dynamic of Patrick Beverley,

(02:10:56):
because I think we all agree Beverly is one of
those guys you hate un he's on your team and
he's like a Draymond Green. You want to have that
kind of guy in your team. But he has a
history with Russell. What I mean, I mean they can
possibly coexist. I I don't know that maybe they can,
but they the whole dynamic of that team, especially because
I've I've heard the theory that Lebron is gonna come

(02:11:18):
in and say, I want Beverly to start. I want
to be on the court with Beverly, not with Russell Westbrook.
M No, I don't. I don't think there's any doubt
that that move is not Like if in the NBA,
right and we talked about with Kevin durantt. You try
to acquiesce to your superstars. What do you want? How
are we gonna do this? What kind of guys do
you want to play with? This feels like the exact

(02:11:38):
opposite of that. I mean, we know Westbrook and Patrick
Beverley have have a history together, and now again, I
just I think it makes it clear they don't want
them there. I just don't know who's gonna take if
there was a market for Russell Westbrook. Don't you think
keep be gone by now? By the way, with the
dismissal of th HT and the deal for Patrick Beverley,
they have cleared the books. They only have two players,

(02:11:59):
Lebron of this contract extension and Anthony Davis on payroll
starting next year, So they've cleared the books. So I
don't know, do you sacrifice a year with the idea?
Then I'm looking at potential free agents though in two years,
and to be honest with you, I don't see a
whole lot. And here's the other thing. You have no
draft picks, right, you know, like you can trade. That's see,

(02:12:22):
this is the gift in the cursor, Lebron. It's what
I told you before, is that you bring in these superstars,
you gotta give, give, give, right now, I give. I
give the Warriors credit. I give the Warriors credit. Nine
years since uh Dr Bus passed away. Nine years seven
losing seasons, one first round loss, and a championship in
the bubble. What did you say earlier? Is it players

(02:12:44):
or is it organizations? Does that not prove it? Right? There?
It does? And that's all due respect. Like, I consider
Genie Buss a friend, but uh you know Arnie Spanier
once dated in high school. Right, No, I'm just kidding,
but he likes that. He likes to say that. Well,
I know a few guys. She's a sweetheart. I've known
her a long time. I wish her all the best.

(02:13:05):
Have you been watching the documentary series on the Lakers?
So you're answered to Winning Time? You know. I think
they're upset that my voice is part of that Winning
Time situation. But the bottom line is they seem to
have come back with a bus version of Laker history.
So you know this, Uh we the tourist family recently
just got a puppy, So that's basically taking up any

(02:13:25):
ounce of free time that I have at this moment.
So I need you have to see that. You know
what I have seen that I actually do like. And
I'm not a Yankees fan. I've been watching The Captain.
I do enjoy The Captain. I'm in episode six of
seven right now. All right, you need to watch the
Laker series. I'm up to date on that. By the way,
I've been watching Hard Knocks. I like it. The Lions
actually been a pretty entertaining story. I've said this on

(02:13:48):
these airwaves. I was out on Hard Knocks for about
four or five years. Dan Campbell single handley brought me back. Yeah,
he brings them back. But that man tight tail, do
not waste another week. You have to see that, all right.
Coming up on the other side, Nick save It says
he's feeling good at age seventy. He could be the
Alabama good for a long time or will he be
the latest? Coming up next? I'm happy as hell. Steve Harband,

(02:14:11):
Aaron Torres, Fox Sports Sunday. So yeah, Aaron's got a
lot of catching up to do and some must watch.
I'm missing everything. Cockapoo. It's a little tiny thing. It's cute,
it's adorable, it's just it's just it's a puppy a
lot of it's let me give this p s a.

(02:14:33):
I'm gonna go Bob Barker here for a second. You
want to have your pet Spader Nooter two puppies are cute.
If you're not ready to put in the work, do
not get a puppy. Doesn't I don't, don't look at
the pictures. It is a lot of work, getting up
in the middle of the night, entertaining during the day.
My wife doesn't work from home every day. Of course
I do because I work in sports, so I can

(02:14:55):
just do everything from home. I love my wife, but
it's a lot of work, so just be just think
about out that when you think you want a puppy.
If you want a dog, get an older one that's
house trained, sleeps through the day. This thing is just
on the clock twenty four hours a day. It's unbelievable.
We have three dogs now. When I stay, we meaning
me and my ex wife, and as you know, on

(02:15:16):
the weekends, I come up and stay at my house
where my ex wife and my three children live along
with three dogs. When they when the kids move out,
are you just gonna reclaim that like like a conquering
hero or what he's gonna I haven't decided yet. I
I am a low you know, I'm a minimalist to
the extreme. I mean this is well documented. I maintain

(02:15:40):
my little apartment down in San Diego Monday through Friday.
Don't have a trash bag, do not walk the trash
out every day. There is nothing in my fridge, there's
nothing in my cupboards. I don't keep anything around. I
literally have eliminated anything. Just think of yourself, like, uh
I remember I had a conversation with buzz Aldren. Okay, okay,

(02:16:05):
I mean this is a pretty random thing. You got
a lot of stories, man. So buzz Aldren was in
a Toyota celebrity race that I was also racing in,
and I'm sitting there talking to one of the first
two human beings to walk on the Moon, and he
was telling me that as they were designing the lunar
module to land on the Moon, because I understand this,
that thing had to land on flat ground and then

(02:16:28):
be able to take off to get back to the
main module to get back to Earth. So there's a
lot at stake here, and one of the things they
realized almost instantly was this thing way too much. So
they had to keep eliminating things, and so they said,
there are no seats on this thing. I mean it
was down to bare minimum. The exterior was literally like foil. Okay,

(02:16:50):
so that's how I sort of lived my life. I've
extinguished everything and this you're you're gonna find this out, Aaron,
in time, as you get older and you experience life
and you try things. That's part of life, right, I
want to try this, run to try, and then you
you whittle it down to the things you actually realize
you actually need show. But it's from a dog's standpoint.

(02:17:12):
They're just like children. I always say this about being
a parent. I have three amazing kids in their twenties.
But if I had that much impact as their parents
or their mother had as and her parents, would they
all be the same In what way? Personalities is you
have no real control over You have no control. You
create life, You support them, you love them, hopefully, you know,

(02:17:36):
without any restrictions. But they're gonna follow their own path.
Dogs are the same way. Like we have one dog,
she's our oldest, and she still does their thing in
the house. That's not acceptable, yeah acceptable in the Taurus household. Yeah,
it's not the other two of the younger dogs, they
understand the whole process. But she she's gonna be twelve

(02:17:59):
years old tomorrow. Say, can't teach an old dog new
trich Exactly the point. So I understand what you're going
through right now. Still you need to watch this stuff.
All right. I want to talk about the biggest name
in college football. His name is Nick Saban. Nick Saban,
I'm always laughing when people talk about the Belichick coaching
tree that they've all been bust. I mean, there's one

(02:18:21):
guy that wasn't a bust. His defensive coordinator when he
was the head coach of the Cleveland Browns was a
guy named Nick Saban. So when they talk about Charlie Wise,
or they talk about Patricia Aerobic Cannell, this endless dream,
every one of his guys have been a bust. Well
that not true. Maybe under his new England Patriots coaching tree,

(02:18:43):
but not when he was the coach of the Browns
because his defensive coordinator, Nick Saban's turned out to be
a pretty good coach. But he came out the other
day Aaron and he talked about that he's never he's invigorating,
he's all psyched, up at age seventy. But the game
is changing, and you know he's throwing stuff out there
about Jimbo Fisher and you know he's buying players and

(02:19:06):
everything else. Well, I got news for Nick. This is
where we are now, name, image and likeness no longer.
Can you just roll out the idea that hey, you're
gonna come to Alabama and you're gonna be playing for
national championships. That's not the way it works anymore. I
want to know how much money gonna put in my
son's pocket, and you better come up with some pretty
good coin because that guy is offering us more money.

(02:19:27):
So when Nick Saban feels like, hey, I got a
lot of coaching left in me, do you think that
if he does get challenge where suddenly Alabama is an
automatic into the national championship game. I mean, this is
like Belichick right now, where you're no longer competing for
Super Bowls. You're just trying to be get too back

(02:19:47):
to that. Can you see Nick Saban powering through a
period like that. He may not be there yet, but
maybe he will be at that point. Would he do
what's necessary if he falls off that pinnacle to fight
to get back to that point. So it's funny because
you and I were talking off air before the show
about you know, you work seven days a week obviously
in San Diego. Then you're on these Fox Sports airwaves

(02:20:08):
on Saturday and Sunday. You said, but this is what
I love to do. And so by all accounts by
the people that are around him every day that I
talked to in Alabama, they say that this guy he
genuinely he genuinely loves five am to ten pm or
whatever his schedule is. He loves going into the home
of high school players. He loves selling the vision of

(02:20:29):
getting you to the NFL. And I guess I didn't
hear this, but I guess he was on Dan Patrick
the other day and and he was asked about retirement,
and he kind of said the same thing. But he
also said, you know, I don't have to quit my
job to still do the things that I want to do.
I can go play golf once or twice a week,
or I can still travel during the summer. So I

(02:20:49):
do believe that. Now. What I also believe is exactly
what you said. Now it is almost like Belichick where
other people have his blueprint. Kirby Smart was with him
for ten years. Kirby Smart has the blue print at Georgia, younger, invigorated,
maybe he's quicker to to adjust to this new world.
Jimbo Fisher has the blueprint. Lane Kiffin has the blueprint.
Steve Sarkisian has the blueprint. So if it isn't that

(02:21:11):
automatic eleven and one, twelve and oh, it's easy to
say on Dan Patrick, I love what I do. I
can't see myself walking away. It's another thing when all
of a sudden, Jimbo Fisher has just as much talent
or Kirby Smart has just as much talent, and it
isn't that cake walked to a championship. I'll be curious.
I did think this summer some of the comments that
I was like, he's on his way out, there's no

(02:21:32):
way he's gonna keep doing this. But he signs the
extension and it seems as though he wants to keep
coaching as long as he can. It's amazing when you
think about the money he makes. I don't know what
is it about ten million years over eleven over eleven
now and he's still grossly underpaid, grossly underpaid in terms
of what he brings to that state. The amount of

(02:21:52):
revenue generated by a powerhouse Alabama football program, eleven million
is way underpaid. I am so happy. My favorite thing
about n I L is that we now no longer
hear people complaining about how much that the head coaches
make because one thing could be true to the players
get more sure. But the Nick Saban's value to the

(02:22:15):
University of Alabama to as you said, the city of
Tuscaloosa to the state of Alabama is so huge. To
give you a quickside story, I know we gotta get defendly.
I have an intern goes to Alabama. He's from the
state of New York. Why do you choose Alabama? Because
he watched him every Saturday and he was like, that's
an awesome place. That looks like a fun place to
go to go to college for four years. If if

(02:22:35):
Alabama is going five and seven in the stadium is
half full because Nick Saban isn't the head coach. Is
that kid making the same decision? Probably not. By the
way Harvard, Yale and then Princeton back in the late
eighteen hundreds when they really created college football the beginnings,
it was all about recruitment for students. Interesting, so from

(02:22:58):
the earliest days of college football. Good football teams are
the ultimate recruiting tools for these universe interesting and this
is how Yale and Harvard got into it with this
college football. Princeton saw that, Hey, if we get into
this college football team season and this whole venue, then

(02:23:20):
it's gonna help us recruiting students into our university. So
that has always been a part of college football. Ass
Notre Dame. Whoever heard of Notre Dame before New Rockney
showed up and created a football team. All right, let's
find out what's uh, what's out there right now, Let's
let's find out what's trending. And I know when you
went to UNC Greensboro, same situation drawn by their football program,

(02:23:44):
Bryan family. So the football team that is undefeated since
eighteen they have been an institution since the late eighteen
hundreds and have never fielded a football team that did
that bother you at all in college who it did not.
I did not get into Wake Forest, and so I
was like, I want to go to Greensboro because I

(02:24:06):
have family in the area and knew that they played
decent basketball. And so on my twentieth birthday when UNC
Greensboro played Duke at Cameron and Door. I borrowed my
friends I d who was a student of Duke, and
I went in cheering on you n c G in
the Cameron Crazy section, and I knew players on the

(02:24:27):
team and they were looking at me like, Brian, what
are you doing an enemy territory. I was like, I'm
here to support you. Our team was up to to
nothing in that game and we never led the rest
of the way. Isn't that interesting? Worked out like they
had no fan support. They were all traders like you exactly. Yeah.
So speaking of names you might not know of but
are starting to. Robert Sala, of course, the head coach

(02:24:50):
of the Jets. He is calling his third string quarterback,
Chris Traveler, having one of the greatest preseasons in the
history of football, and from what we saw today, he
might have a good reason and excuse for why Chris
Struckler and the shotgun he Rhan to his right, takes
the snap drops back, labs want backlift for the answer.

(02:25:10):
That's a Jet touchdown. Calvin checkson. That gets the Jets
to leave Jets Radio Network. So they come back and
win this game against the Giants, and it was a
contest thirty one to twenty seven. The final score where
at once again highlights what Streveler has done in the preseason.
He has led Aaron and Steve touchdown winning drives in

(02:25:34):
every single one of the Jets preseason games this year.
They finished the preseason three and oh and it was
all because of Straveler acting late in ball games and
getting scores. Whatever that means and if it ever could
ever translate to the regular season that will soon be determined,
but good for him on that part. Giants quarterback Tyrod
Taylor actually got carded off the field and taking to

(02:25:56):
the locker room after taking a big hit in the
first half with what they're calling is a back injury,
lines and dealers. The preseason game about to get started
here at four thirty Eastern. Also, the Seahawks, according to
NFL Network, placing defensive act Tray Brown on the physically
unable to perform list Aburn according to reports, naming t. J.
Finley as their starting quarterback. No no relation. It's an

(02:26:19):
eye instead of it Ian Finley. Although I always will
root anybody that has a name similar to mine. As
far as Major League Baseball is concerned. Some notable stories here,
including Astro's pitcher Justin Verlander, leaving the game for Houston
after three innings and sixty pitches with what the team
is calling it right calf discomfort that ball game is

(02:26:41):
scoreless against the Orioles in the bottom of the seventh.
Also the Rays scoring four runs of the eight they've
extended that leade twelve to four against the Red Sox.
Mike Trout another day, another home run for him. The
Angels are all over the Blue Jays eight to two,
top of the ninth. There padres of fallen behind against
the Royals nine to four, and while they in San

(02:27:02):
Diego are second in the NLS, the Dodgers are firmly
in first, and they got it done today eight to
one against the Marlins as Mookie Bets with a leadoff
home run for the Dodgers, and they had seven times
as many hits as Miami fourteen to two. And lastly,
Aaron and Steve. The Tour Championship is going on right

(02:27:23):
now and Scottie Scheffler on the back nine, has relinquished
sole possession of first. He is in a tie with
Rory McElroy, both or under twenty one under overall, and
both are through twelve holes. Mcarroy minus four today and
Scheffler plus two. So we're gonna be very interesting Aaron

(02:27:44):
and Seed to see how this thing matriculates here as
we've got a dog fight in this final nine. Well,
and it's like good dream for the PGA Tour, right
all the noise from the Lift Tour. Here you are.
We're the biggest single paid day by far of the
PGA season on the line. And he got Scottie Sheffield
the world's number one, and Rory McIlroy tied right now

(02:28:05):
with six holes to play. I mean, this could not
play out any better for the p G. A so
I saw we're Roy just missed a putt right now.
So anyway, great stuff has always Brian Finley, by the way,
quick quick question, do you Brian? So you mentioned that
a Finley is close to a Finley and I don't know,

(02:28:28):
maybe I'm wrong. There are more Finlay's than Finlay's, correct,
and there are many professional athletes with the last named Finley.
Is there is there a possibility in your family tree
that at some point somebody misspelled Finley and put an
e instead of an eye, probably because suddenly Finley became
Finly because there's all these Finlay's that are pro athletes,

(02:28:49):
Michael Finley, Chuck Finley, Steve Finley, and I'm thinking to myself,
why can't there be a Finley? And I think, well,
maybe I've hope because I'm distant relatives today, a Finley
out there, or somebody give me some athletic jeens. Yeah,
I mean, well, I believe me. I know the feeling.
I know the Unfortunately for my children, I actually married

(02:29:10):
somebody that had athletic genes. So my kids, especially my daughter,
my youngest insane athlete, it was all foreign to me.
I was like, Aaron Torres, you know, I'm just a
little uh. My wife is uh, we're not producing any
NFL play. It was funny. I was talking to somebody
about this the other day. Is like the whole we
don't have kids, but it's like the whole, oh, can

(02:29:30):
kids play football? I'm like, if my son wants to
play football, like, the only way you're gonna have long
term problems is if you're playing until you're thirty five
and have a fifteen year NFL career. If you saw
my wife, she's about five ft one, I'm like five
ft ten. I don't think we're producing the next uh
you know, Ezekiel Elliott out of hard gene pool here.
So I think you never know, you never know. Look
at my my I'm five eleven. My dad was five eleven,

(02:29:54):
My grandfather was five eleven. I'm probably shrinking now at
this point in my life. I have one son that's
six three. The there's six too, and they're both you know,
but they're feeding, but they're My father in law was
six three six four, so I was always hoped. My
biggest fear about having two sons, especially that since they're
only nineteen months apart, is that one's going to be tall.

(02:30:15):
My mom was five one, so I was, you know,
fearing that, you know what if they get the Lieberman
gene as we call it my mom's mom's side of
the family. I wore my sons, I go, it's floating
out there. You never know. That must have been a
you must add a lot of holes in the wall
from nineteen months apart. Yeah, yeah, we were. Well, I
tell you what, when you and your wife start having children,

(02:30:37):
that is in the in the works eventually. I mean,
you're you're going through the puppy stage. I understand we
did the same thing. We had the dog and he
had a chocolate lab and he was adorable, but he's
a lot of work, so a lot of words got
to drain him and everything else. When you finally go
and decide all right, okay, we're ready. Uh, once you have,
you gotta get pump them out. Just you know, just

(02:30:59):
you go through the baby stage. You know, we had
three kids within four or someven years. There seven straight
years of diapers, that kind of thing. At the time,
it seems endless, but believe me, it'll be like a
blank Well that's why with the dog, not to make
this a you know, puppy hour with right now. No,
it's it is very relatable, is that. You know, I

(02:31:20):
was told a long time ago enjoy the process. So
right now she hasn't had all her shots, she can't
even really go outside. I'm just you know, I'm like,
in two weeks we'll be able to take her for walks.
It'll be better. Blah blah blah. So I'm trying not
to be that guy that's like I just need to
get her to this phase. I need to get into
that phase. And I'm just trying to enjoy the moment.
But I also, you know, I got bills to pay

(02:31:40):
two here, you know, a little lady, so I need
you to go lay over there so I can get
a little work. Yeah, I will warn you that when
you have children. Uh and I always like this when
they say, well, you know, when they turn eighteen, they're
on their own, not in this world. No, No, they're
all still living at home. Well how's the oldest. He'll
be twenty six in October? Tough? Yeah, I got about.

(02:32:01):
He just he just wrapped up seven years of college
and his brother who is about to start his seventh
year of college. Now, my daughters like, you know, four
and done, she's she will my youngest will actually graduate
college before her brothers. Yeah. Yeah, but yes, that is accurate.
And uh yeah, I'm still paying all the bills. Oh

(02:32:22):
my goodness. Yeah, you gotta put put these people to
work so easier. You work seven days a week, so
they work zero. I get it. Yeah, that's in that
great All right. Coming up on the other side, where
are we going to be a week from now? What
is going to be the biggest story out of sports
generated this coming week? We're gonna tell you. Coming up next,

(02:32:43):
Steve Hartman, Aaron Torres, Fox Sports Sunday. I want to
thank the crew today Iowa, Sam, Sam, Are you excited
about an all college football weekend next weekend? Definitely? Yeah? Uh.
Iowa opens up with who they got the jack Rabbits
of South Dakota State. That's right top three in the FCS.

(02:33:05):
See when I see SD s U, I'm thinking San
Diego State University, but it's not. It's South Dakotas, the
real powers up there in the Dakotas, and they are good. Yeah,
they are not afraid of Kinnick Stadium. So Kirk Ferrens
started kicking off another season at IOWA. So we will
have a college football next weekend. That's going to be exciting.

(02:33:25):
Ryan family. Of course, as we found out, maybe it's
Finley and just got changed the family at some point,
but related to t J. Finley, Finley potentially to move
started quarterback out of them and Brian with a why.
I mean, there's a lot about your name I don't know,
not going on. Brian is actually my middle name full disclosure, Yeah,
first name it's Joseph, but it's just j period, so

(02:33:49):
very confusing. I don't know what my parents why didn't
you go with J. Brian Finley? Well, I do, like
that's what it says on like anything I hold, like
as a title holder for anything. Always like that, when
somebody decides they're gonna use their middle name as their
you know, street name, so to speak, and they always
put the letter period representing their first name, like you know, uh,

(02:34:12):
and and that you could go with that, so J
Bryan family. So if you go and you look at
my driver's license, that's exactly how it reads. And so
I get people calling me at the airport check and hey, J,
are you around? Nobody calls me J. But yes, that
that would be the case. Sam cannot resist to follow
up to that. I can't. Just the other day, I
learned that Ben Affleck's real name is Benjamin Geza Affleck Bolt.

(02:34:36):
Do you guys have any idea about that? Never? Yeah,
I don't even know how to pronounce his middle name
is like Geza. All right, Well, people call me Steve Hartman.
Let you know what my real name is, Steve Hartman.
Steve Hartman. So there it is. Although there's been there's
some people that look like they have made up names.
Remember the the actor ripped torn Sure, right, His actual

(02:34:58):
name is ripped Horn. That was his name. I mean,
it sounds like such a creative name right stage name,
but no, it's really that was his actual name, Ripped Torn.
How about well remember Dick Hammer, the Sam Donald's grandfather.
That's what I remember. But he was like a US
Olympian played at USC. I think I can't remember. There

(02:35:18):
was the Marlboro Man, Marlboro Man, Yes, see Sam. What
about the NASCAR driver Dick Trickle. There you go, real
real name, Dick Trickle. Yeah, what a name it is.
What a name it is? How about you? Ryan? Is
your name? Yeah? That is his actual name. Yeah, that's

(02:35:38):
not your middle name. That's your actual name. Ryan Bursh's.
Actually his first name is is Ichabod. Little known fact
my my former broadcast partner, Michael Thompson, you know father Clay.
And by the way, how about Trace Thompson. Ever since
he put on a Dodger uniform, his youngest son all
of a sudden doing it. Michael was born with a

(02:35:59):
name spelled like a normal Michael m I c h
a e L. He changed the spelling of his own
name to m y c h a L. I used
to give him grief. I go, why would you change
their name to my shall? He goes, that's Michael. I go, no,
m y c h a L is my shall. I mean,

(02:36:19):
if you wanted Michael with a y, how about m
y k E L Like that would be like Michael, right,
m y c h L is my shall. So why
did he change it? Though? Because he didn't want to
be like every other Michael. He said, Mike, Mike, look
at with all due respect to my beloved friend Michael Thompson.
He's a strange guy. Being six ft ten didn't make

(02:36:42):
him unlike all the other Michaels. You want to hear
a great Michael Thompson's story. So I did an interview
once with his former Laker teammate Byron Scott, and this
was for some TV show I was working for, and
he knew I was working with Michael. And he goes,
did you know that I once and knocked my go out?
I said, when you means knocked him out? He goes, no,

(02:37:03):
I like I knocked him out. So he told me
the story that Michael Thompson at six ten, he was
just one of those guys in the locker room, was
always talking everything else, and he goes because you know
Byron Scott's and Inglewood kid like he's a street tough guy.
And Michael Thompson used to send He's from the Bahamas, like,

(02:37:25):
you know, it's pretty so and Michael would he would
put his arm out like with my reach man, you
couldn't even come close to me. And he kept putting
his the old extended arm in his face. This according
to Byron Scott. And Byron finally had enough of it.
He just took one punch and he put him down.
So I told this story to Michael Thompson's that never happened.

(02:37:49):
Never happened. So I called Byron. I said, hey, Byron,
how would you like to be a surprise guest on
our radio show? So we're doing the show and I said,
oh hey, we got a special guest. Uh special guest welcome.
How are you today? And Byron comes off and he goes,

(02:38:09):
I knocked you out, Michael? And what did Michael say? Uh? Yeah?
So anyway, so I learned today even interview Byron Scott
buzz Aldrin. Buzz Aldrin, Yeah, that was the most random
one of all. See see, you're like the anti Arnie Spaniard.
Arnie Spaniard has got a lot of stories, but none
of them are good. Gears are actually good. Like, oh,

(02:38:30):
I'm at Buzz Aldrin one time when you talked about
walking on the moon. Yeah, that's pretty cool. Well, he
was talking about when I was with Buzz talking about
he and Neil Armstrong are trying to land this lunar
module and they overshot their landing point. I mean, these
are the first two right, and they've got to land
this thing flat. And as they're trying to get this
thing down, they have X amount of fuel to get

(02:38:52):
it down, they can't exceed that. So they're literally on
a countdown and Neil Armstrong is trying to navigate this thing,
trying to find out all the Buzz says, all I
see below us is rocks, like just rocks everywhere, and
he's thinking, I can't scream at Neil. They're like, dude,
get this thing down. I gotta play it cool. And

(02:39:14):
we got forty seconds to go, and he says, Neil
is not even Sweaty's just looking around. Like finally he's
like he starts to bring it down. They're like ten
seconds and this thing lands like at five on the
only flat spot without rocks on the entire surface. There
you go. You talking about pressure. Yeah, they call that

(02:39:35):
the right stuff. That is quarterbacks that have it and
that have that don't have it. Uh. Neil Armstrong has it,
is what you're telling me. Neil Armstrong had it. Uh
and so do Buzz Aldrin. And No, it wasn't stage
in some Hollywood studio. Okay, I know that, Sam, You're
you're a big guy. I'm believing in that. Like and no,
I was saying, thank you for mentioning that, Aaron, great

(02:39:59):
stuff when you may. I can't wait till our next
time to hang it out. Hey, just keep it right here.
More coming on Fox Sports Radio

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Steve Hartman and Aaron Torres Talk the Start of College Football