Steve Hartman and Aaron Torres talk US Men's Basketball and the CFP!

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
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(00:23):
should be. Who should walk in today? Aaron Torres in
the house. Aaron, what's up. I've done a lot of
shows over the years. Man, they're spaced out too much though,
me and you. Yeah, I mean, you know, I enjoy
going down the Aeron Torres path.

Speaker 2 (00:41):
Well, here's the thing, your buddy Rich Hornberger, he's too responsible.
He shows up every week. That's the problem.

Speaker 1 (00:46):
You gotta get a more irresponsible co host. Well, I
mean he normally does. He'd be down in San Diego.
Aaron is here today and we got a lot of
ground to cover. Look, I want to get this out
of the way right now. Okay, let's do it. So
we have Chris Purfett. He is the resident Olympic fanatic.
You know, when we talked about there's a difference to

(01:07):
me between fan which is short for fanatic, and an
actual fanatic. He is a fanatic about the Olympics. We
had a heated discussion yesterday, much to the chagrin of Patrick,
our producer, who basically gave it a cease and desist,
stop it, stop it right now. But Chris explain to Aaron,

(01:30):
because Aaron, I would imagine you're pretty much like me.
You'll sample the little Olympic, you know, once in a while.
It's great background noise, so to speak.

Speaker 2 (01:40):
That was exactly how I described it on my Saturday
show last night, is that I don't watch it outside
of maybe a t USA basketball game, expecting to have
to talk about it on air. So it's fun you
kind of have it onto the background. But it sounds
like Chris Purfett does not live.

Speaker 1 (01:52):
The no no. This man literally if he had a
ticket to, as you've told me, Chris, any single Olympic event,
no matter what the sport is, if you were to
hand him a ticket, he would go, you know what's
crazy about that?

Speaker 2 (02:06):
We had it on in the studio last night and
I actually went and googled because a few weeks ago
it came out all the different venues for the Los
Angeles Olympics in twenty twenty eight. You know they're gonna
have swimming at so far whatever. You know, I a
million years ago, believe it or not, I actually covered cycling,
so Velodrome is gonna have sight and I literally I
was like, when the Olympics are in La, I'm gonna

(02:29):
go to as much of it as I can. So
I'm on team Perfet on this one. But I'm not
gonna be sitting. You know, I'm not gonna you know,
if they legalize sports betting by that, I'm not gonna
be betting on the Croatian cyclist to beat the Lithuanian girl.

Speaker 3 (02:43):
You know, it's like I like it. I enjoyed it,
but go ahead. Yeah, I'm quick, quick background. I've been
to two in my life and my father. I've been
into Atlanta when I was ten, in Sydney, which was
the formative one for me when I was fourteen. My
dad's also been to those, plus Munich, Soul, Los Angeles
and Barcelona. So Olympics kind of runs in my family.
But you're not far off from the mark is when

(03:04):
I was in Sydney, it was very much so Adhd.
It was we're checking out this event this one day.
We're walking halfway across Sydney to go check out this thing.
Go over here for table Tennishich. By the way, if
I can only go to one Olympic event, it would
be table tennis. That is insane.

Speaker 1 (03:19):
Yesterday I said, hey, who's winning the ping pong match
table te No, No, it's that's still ping pong to me.

Speaker 3 (03:31):
But there's there's so much to do.

Speaker 2 (03:34):
And but why do you say that ping pong, table tennis,
whatever the professional term is, Why is that the one event?

Speaker 3 (03:41):
The atmosphere is extremely energetic there, and just the he
and I coordination that has to go into this is insane.
I love a lot of stuff there. I love swimming,
I love handball. I love the inclusion of skateboarding and rugby.
That they've made the.

Speaker 1 (03:56):
Breaks break dancing in another new event this. I'm going
to check that out. I am also very big on
Olympic judo. That has always been a pristine sport that
I loved. I actually saw yesterday the women's judo, going
on to watch some of that a little bit yesterday.
Look here here's my thing and Chris, God bless you.
I'm glad, you know, like I said, I'm a fan
of the Olympics as anyone that grew up. Here's the thing.

(04:18):
Forty years ago, when LA hosted the Olympics, I had
just started working for the Raiders. My first day working
for the Raiders was July twentieth, and then the Olympics
started right after that. And then, of course, amazingly we
our home games were at the Coliseum, so that nineteen
eighty four season it was fully decorated, all the pastel

(04:40):
decorations of the coliseum coming off of the Olympics. So
I was there obviously, and I did not attend a
single event. The good thing about those two.

Speaker 3 (04:51):
Weeks was there was zero traffic in l e That's
like it, I mean, like famous Dad tells the whole
story too.

Speaker 1 (04:57):
Yeah, it was. You know how we had the shutdown
in twenty Ton with the COVID where all the freeways
especially shut down for That's exactly what was happening in
nineteen eighty four. People, but we're predicting it was going
to be a nightmare, like a whole world's coming into
LA and nope, it was the exactly It's like everybody
left down. It was eerie, like the first time I
was driving from my parents' house in Woodland Hills to

(05:20):
the Raider offices which are in Elsa Gundel, which is
right near Lax and there wasn't a soul on the road. Wow,
middle of the day. But you didn't go to any events.
You know, well, you're just starting the job. Your ear's
I'm I'm gonna repeat this on the Olympics. So I'm
really old school to me. The Olympics were about two

(05:41):
sports when I grew up, and I go back to
Mexico City sixty eight when I was ten years old,
it's swimming the first week, in track and field the
second week. I had no interest in any other sports.
Gymnastics sort of came into the fold in seventy two
with Olga Corbett. She was the one that really launched it.
Than not to Yo Komeni h And I mentioned that
Mary Retins of the world now to the Simone Biles

(06:02):
of the world. But I say this when you talk
and I'm gonna exclude and that snubbing. I'm just excluding
the smaller sports. But when we talk about sports like swimming,
track and field and gymnastics. Your career is based on
your Olympics success, no doubt. I mean, you don't talk

(06:23):
about the World Championships. You don't talk about those things.
Those sports are defined by what you do in the Olympics.
Then you had the other sports like basketball and golf
and tennis, and you go down the list soccer, where
what you do in the Olympics is secondary. No one
takes a look at Carmelo Anthony and say, well, he
was one of the all time greats. He won three

(06:44):
gold medals.

Speaker 3 (06:45):
No one says that in soccer, don't even send their
best athletes as an under twenty three Comps's exactly championship.

Speaker 1 (06:51):
My daughter's boyfriend is a soccer player, and we were
talking about it last night. I mean it's I said,
who is favorite? He goes, I have no idea, because
you've got teams that are they have age limits. You know,
with a very few exceptions, you really don't have the
kind of full scale teams that you would have in
the World Cup. It's a completely different thing. I mean,

(07:12):
you talk about the basketball, Aaron, don't get me started.
Let me ask you a question, though, Don't get me
started about Olympic basketball.

Speaker 3 (07:21):
But I do think that is the one exception in
that like unlike you know, baseball that now has the
World Baseball Classic soccer that is the World Cup.

Speaker 1 (07:29):
Hockey.

Speaker 3 (07:29):
I guess maybe you can say Olympics, but that's always
dependent on if NHL players play in the ice hockey
and the Winter Olympics with basketball is the only one
that at least for an international competition where the Olympics
still has some relevance as far as representing your country.

Speaker 1 (07:44):
But the only relevance in Olympic basketball is if the
United States loses. That's that's the only thing. I mean,
if they win, Okay, shouldn't we win? But we found
out aaron when the team you know, completely folded and
lost three games, got blown out by Puerto Rico by

(08:06):
nineteen in that first game, and ended up with the
bronze medal. But there's almost there's zero to gain for
the US men in the Olympics. Is only lose. That's it.
Because again, nobody, when you evaluate somebody's Hall of Fame
status for the basketball Hall of Fame is saying, well,
how many gold medals did you win? No one's saying that.

Speaker 2 (08:29):
Yeah, No, I mean, listen, I think it's I think
it's probably the only and specifically in this Olympics, because
there is no Michael Phelps, because there is no Usain Bolt.
Unless something weird happens, you know, like what was it
like Ryan Lockey, Like would he get arrested or something
like that in Rio?

Speaker 3 (08:47):
Yeah, he made up a story about being mugged. Came
out as a lie or something. I was insane.

Speaker 2 (08:52):
Yeah, I think he was ping on the side of
a building. Neither here nor there. Yes, something weird happened.
So unless something weird like that happens, I will say
basketball is the only thing mainstream. But then yes, to
your point, Steve, it's only if they lose, or I
would say if they struggle. There there were some there
were some hot takes thrown around after a close loss
to Germany.

Speaker 1 (09:09):
I was, you know, I was. You might have been.
Were you on air during the South Sudan games, we were,
and let's face it, we were all rooting for South
Sedan to win. Really, I mean it wasn't an Olympic game,
and it was an exhibition game, but I mean when
you saw this team that's a forty three point underdog
and by the way, on the very after the misshot

(09:31):
and then the two Sedan players ran in each other.
Of course I missed the rebound. Then it was picked
up by the Sudan player who lifted his arms and
he got hacked. Wow. So anti American hate the Olympics
runing say something now, And I know I shouldn't, but
I'm gonna say it anyway. I don't like where this
is going. Okay, here's my feeling about h Okay. For

(10:00):
first of all, anyone's listened to me over the years
knows that I despise Steve Kerr. I mean, I mean
I I have despised Steve Kerr from the get go
to me, he literally defines a four letter word smug.

Speaker 4 (10:17):
He is.

Speaker 1 (10:18):
Smug he is. But when you look at anyone that
wants to make you know their political positions or whatever
it may be on their time, so to speak, go
for it. I could care less. But when you're the
coach of the United States Olympic team, I agree on this,
and you take a side in the upcoming presidential election

(10:39):
one way or the other, but you take a side
at the Olympics. At the Olympics, when you are the
coach of the United States Olympic Jersey. Sorry, yeah, you
are representing all the United States and in the in
the political arena that we have these days, where it's
a very fifty five situation to take a side and

(11:03):
use the platform of the Olympics to express that. When
you're the coach of the United States team. This is
not the coach of the Golden State Warriors, this is
not a private citizen. You can do that anytime you want,
but when you coach the United States of America, you
represent all of the United States of America. And I
just thought it was incredibly inappropriate. Not shocking because he

(11:27):
is smug and that's who Steve Kerr is, but I
thought it was inappropriate to take a political side using
the Olympics as a platform.

Speaker 2 (11:38):
So I jumped in there because, and I apologize, you
got me so fired up on this on a Sunday
morning here on the West Coast. I agree with you.
And you know what I thought about it was, I mean,
listen the jersey. I think it says USA, but United
States United.

Speaker 1 (11:54):
Is part of that.

Speaker 2 (11:56):
And by giving political opinions, and I'll be honest, this
is bad of me.

Speaker 1 (12:01):
Maybe I'm a little bit unprepared.

Speaker 2 (12:03):
I don't know the exact context of what was he
asked about it, did he just bring it up himself, whatever,
But the bottom line is I just think there are
so many better ways to handle it. You could just
sit there and say, listen, you know, we all have
political opinions, but we are here representing the entire country,
and listen, no matter what you think about either candidate,
either candidate is going to get tens of millions of votes,

(12:26):
meaning that there are tens of millions of people that
will disagree with whatever you say. And so that is
it was incredibly frustrating to me because I do think
there is a time and a place and to your point,
if you want to do it on your own social media,
you know whatever, I don't know where where would be
for Steve Kerr specifically the appropriate place to do it,

(12:48):
you know, if you want to get back at tend
to rally whatever, that's one thing. But like as a
representative of the United States, for the people of the
United States, I agree that it was a really bad.

Speaker 1 (12:58):
I have a different standard for him because people say
Steph Curry also made his thoughts known. Steve Kerr is
the coach leader, right, He's the coach of the team.
I honestly, I have different rules for the athletes as
opposed to the coaches. You're coaching a national team. So
I just wanted to get that out of the way

(13:18):
because it has been bothering me. And I'm not rooting
against USA ever, But if this team comes up short
and kerk couts hunder fire for that getting this team
ready to win an Olympic gold medal, I'll be right
there just laughing away. Man, this smug Steve Kerr, and
what I will By the way, Spolster should be the

(13:39):
coach of the team. He's a better coach. Well, I
was gonna say. The one thing I will say is
if this team loses, it ain't gonna be on Lebron.
It will be it'll fall on Steve Kerr because listen,
oh yes, Mbat actually played well today, but he has struggled.
You know, I think most people think Anthony Davis should
be the starter or should be playing the majority of
the minutes at the five. Jason Tatum, by the way,

(14:01):
did not play in the opener today. As of right now,
there's no injury, there's no illness, nothing that we're aware of.
So I will say if if they lose, it is
gonna fall on Steve Kerr. And I'll tell you this,
I'm not anti American either, but I did think it
was a bad look and I think he's gonna take
a lot of But by the way, you know people say,
oh Lebrone, whenever Lebron's on your team, he gets all

(14:23):
the credit and one the blame.

Speaker 2 (14:24):
Well, he's been carrying that team through about the five
or six exhibition games.

Speaker 1 (14:28):
What he's doing is unbelievable. I mean seriously, when you
watch Lebron James, he's one of those athletes much like
a Tom Brady or others, where you know, twenty years
from now, you're gonna look back saying like did this
guy actually exists? It's like what we do with wil Chamberlain,
Like you see the numbers and like was there actually
a player that did this? And that's how it's gonna

(14:50):
be with Lebron Jains. By the way, our thanks to
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All right. Coming up on the other side, Aaron and
I are going to get into some college football because
the landscape for twenty twenty four has changed dramatically over

(15:31):
anything we've seen for more than one hundred years. We'll
tell you why this is Fox Sports Sunday.

Speaker 5 (15:38):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
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Speaker 3 (15:50):
Hey, we're Cavino and Rich Fox Sports Radio every day
five to seven pm Eastern.

Speaker 1 (15:55):
But here's the thing. We never have enough time to
get to everything we want to get.

Speaker 6 (15:58):
To and that's why we have a brand new podcast
called over Promised. You see, we're having so much fun
in our two hour show. We never get to everything, honestly,
because this guy is over promising things we never have
time for.

Speaker 1 (16:11):
Yeah, you blubber lit lame in me. Well, you know
what it's called over promise. You should be good at
it because you've been over promising women for years.

Speaker 6 (16:17):
Well, it's a Covino and Rich after show, and we
want you to be a part of it. We're gonna
be talking sports, of course, but we're also gonna talk
life and relationships. And if Rich and I are arguing
about something or we didn't have enough time, it will
continue on our after show called over Promised. Well, if
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check out over Promised and also Uncensored by the way,
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(16:38):
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Speaker 1 (16:52):
Steve Harvin Aaron tours here at Fox Sports Sunday. We
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(17:14):
off the air. All right, So, Aaron, obviously we got
a lot of NFL we're going to get into as
well today with training camps opening and all kinds of
speculation about you know who's going to be this year's
Houston Texans or you know which team is going to
fall into the base. It happens every year. Teams have
far exceed expectations and then those fall way short of expectations.

(17:37):
So we'll get into that. But you and I do
share a passion for college sports and college football, and
I said this throughout the twenty twenty three season. Take
a good look, because what you see in twenty twenty
three is gone forever once we hit twenty twenty four.
And here we are. We're weeks away as we get
ready for the start of the college football season and

(18:01):
a new twist to something that we're going to talk
about a little bit later on. But I just I
want to get your thoughts right now on where we're
at in college football in terms of the expansion of
the SEC, the Big Ten obviously inheriting four schools formerly
out of the PAC twelve and where we are in

(18:22):
twenty twenty four in terms of the expanded playoff with
twelve schools instead of four, our first real playoff that
we've ever had in college football history. Is this moving
the sport forward? Where exactly are we going with college football?

Speaker 6 (18:40):
So?

Speaker 2 (18:40):
I think it is confirming the sport is what we
always knew what it was, which is minor league NFL.

Speaker 1 (18:48):
You and I are both traditionalists.

Speaker 2 (18:49):
By the way, I'm still waiting for you to help
me get that Heisman vote and a big deal. You've been
promising me that for about ten years.

Speaker 1 (18:54):
But that's okay. Neither here nor you have voted Penix
like I did. It was only the third time I
ever picked a guy that did not win the h Heisman.

Speaker 2 (19:00):
I think I probably would have voted Jaden Daniels.

Speaker 1 (19:04):
My point is always this, and this is my thinking
about the Heisman. I always say this, what did you
do in the biggest game on your schedule? And he
beat Oregon twice Jade and Daniels' biggest game on his schedule, well,
the four games that he had, three of them were losses.

Speaker 2 (19:19):
Well, but he also put up like forty nine points
against Ole Miss and a loss, and I looked it
up the other day. I think it was like forty nine,
twenty eight and twenty eight points in the losses. So
was his heisman moment six hundred six yards of total
offense against Florida, which I think is an all time record.
Now maybe I'm biased because I was on air and
every time I looked up he was running for seventy

(19:40):
yards on time.

Speaker 1 (19:41):
Not anti Jaden Daniels, But my point about voting for
Panics was is that in the two biggest games of
his career, where the two matchups against Oregon, he outplayed
Bodnicks that won those games.

Speaker 2 (19:54):
Look first of all, producer Boll, I mean, we got
a guy, this guy over here, he's anti American and
jad and Daniels is from the your anti California now too.

Speaker 1 (20:02):
You don't like SOCl or Oh you know that is
not the case.

Speaker 2 (20:05):
No, My argument against two things is one because this
was a big thing.

Speaker 1 (20:10):
Well, LSU went nine and three.

Speaker 2 (20:13):
It's like, yeah, and they would have gone probably six
and six if they got even average quarterback play instead
of elite quarterback play. So that's one, and then two
with Pennix, if I remember correctly, I don't have I
mean I could look it up very easily. But a
lot of close games, a lot of close, low scoring games.
Out to the credit they won, they won, they did
win them. Yeah, but you know the idea that you
know he was thrown for seven hundred yards every week,

(20:35):
it's just factually not correct.

Speaker 5 (20:37):
You know.

Speaker 2 (20:37):
Again, part of it is that I'm on air Saturday,
so I'm a little bit biased.

Speaker 1 (20:40):
Well, Daniels had better numbers. I'm not arguing that fact.
But like I said, when it comes down to the
final vote, it's only a third time ever I voted
for someone that did not actually win the Heisman.

Speaker 2 (20:51):
But all right, well, fifteen points against Arizona State at home,
we have, you know, seven point win over Utah.

Speaker 1 (21:00):
The biggest games on the schedule he won. But yeah,
especially after the last game against Oregon. Well, and I
think that the perception two changed. I feel like we
can get back on track here in a second.

Speaker 2 (21:12):
But no, no, no, because I think even a lot, like
a lot of college football fans watched that big Pac
twelve championship game, but the playoff game against Texas was
when people were like, uh, we might have made a mistake.

Speaker 1 (21:26):
He was so good in that game.

Speaker 2 (21:28):
I mean again another game I was just happened to
be in the studios and I mean he's just dropping
dimes in between four different uh you know, defensive backs
and he was unbelieva.

Speaker 1 (21:39):
Let me ask you this, Are you a proponent of
moving the heisman until after all the game?

Speaker 2 (21:43):
Because I think we would, because people can say all
the right things, we would default to the best player
on the best team, you know.

Speaker 1 (21:49):
And it's like, well, and to be like, what did
the last It's always that last moment to remember? And
of course that's what I'm saying. You know, when Bryce
Young engineered that upset of Alabama over Georgia and the
se championship game, that was a very close race. Yeah,
and you know, Aiden Hutchinson was definitely in the mix
after his three sacking and against Ohio State, and I
was on the bubble to the end and that was it.

(22:10):
Look at Bryce Young, he.

Speaker 2 (22:11):
Didn't play well in the championship game against Georgia. That
would have been absolutely held against him. I don't even
know who he was queshed up against, you know, But
it's like, you know, and I think the other thing too,
is especially in this twelve team playoff era, if you
do have the year where there is a player that
is exceptionally good that isn't in the playoffs. So like
you go back to the ear, Lamar Jackson won it.
He was so good that year, but he would have

(22:32):
been out of site, out of mind for four weeks.
And whoever, again, I don't remember who was in second
or third place that year, but if they're the best
player on the best of Sean Watson was, Oh I've
heard of him.

Speaker 1 (22:41):
Yeah. In fact, there goes then and they went on
to win the national championship. A lot of people said
they had regrets that they voted for Lamar Jackson. I did.
I voted for Lamar Jackson because of what DeShawn did it.

Speaker 2 (22:54):
But again, I mean, it's a regular season award that
I'm with you one hundred percent.

Speaker 1 (22:57):
All right, we are going to get promise stay on
track next time. My apologize, but we need to find
out what is trending right now. Martin is in the house. Martin,
what's going on? Steve?

Speaker 4 (23:09):
I hate to offend your on American sensibilities a little
k if I update the Olympic.

Speaker 1 (23:14):
Scores, yeah, I give more anti Steve Kerr than you are.
I'm exactly I am not. I'm never anti America. I'm
certainly not against our men playing for the Olympics. Big
fans of all of them. But Steve Kerr should never
have been Eric Spolzer should have been the coach of
the national team, not Steve Kerr.

Speaker 4 (23:34):
I mean, I agree with you there, I just you know, yeah,
it's good that we're gonna get Dan Hurley as the
head coach.

Speaker 1 (23:38):
Feng Dan Hurley, either anybody but mister smug Steve, anybody.

Speaker 4 (23:43):
You know a g to your point, I know you're
college basketball locked in Dan Hurley being the coach. I
called her when I was on the a couple a
couple of days ago. Uh, I said, Mike, Mike Krzyzewski
ran a much tighter ship about Team USA basketball, And
it made me think maybe because Mike Krzyzewski doesn't have
to deal with anybody from Team USA, you know, during
the regular season of his name.

Speaker 1 (24:05):
Point, you know, you know, like Steve Cole look at Brown,
who is one of my favorite people on the planet.
Going back to my UCLA days, it was a disaster
in two thousand one, I mean an absolute disaster and
they ended up losing the gold medal, and we don't
ever want to go there again. But again, if you're
going to pick an NBA coach, in my opinion, the

(24:26):
best coach in the NBA is Eric Spulzer.

Speaker 4 (24:29):
Yeah, I don't think there's much disagreement about that. It's
definitely not Steve Kerr. But the team, the men's team
did win today one ten to eighty four. Kevin Durant
coming off the bench with twenty three points, five for
five from three. That's his first action of the Olympics
as he was not cleared from his capturing until earlier today.
Lebron had twenty one points, eight rebounds, nine assists, just

(24:50):
sort of a triple double. Nikola Jokic twenty points, five rebounds,
eight assists.

Speaker 1 (24:54):
I saw so where he was.

Speaker 4 (24:55):
Serbia was minus nine in the like seven minutes. He
didn't play in this game, and he ended up being
a plus minus of zero. So it's pretty much Jokic
and the Pips in terms of Serbia basketball. Coco Golf
one of the two FLA bearers of the United States.
She made her Olympic debut today, defeating her first round
opponent in straight sets.

Speaker 1 (25:13):
Did not lose a single game.

Speaker 4 (25:15):
Simone Biles qualified for the all around gymnastics final despite
battling left calf discomfort.

Speaker 1 (25:21):
Biles and soon E Lee, who's.

Speaker 4 (25:23):
The reigning gold medal winner in the all around, will
represent the United States and the event. Team USA Gymnastics
also qualified for the team final. Women's mountain biking saw
the best result we've seen for the United States. Haley
Batton took home the silver medal. Men's water polo lost
in group play to Italy twelve to eight, and women's
soccer stars group play against Germany in about half an hour.

(25:45):
Lawrence Scruggs won the semifinal bout in fencing. She earned
the chance to compete for the gold in the individual foil.
It's her Olympic debut as well. Scrugs only twenty one
years old and one a few, I think so as
one male and one female blacks to have the opportunity
to qualify for a gold medal, Lawrence Ruggs is one
of them.

Speaker 1 (26:04):
Back to the wh Wow. Interesting by the way, Marshawn,
the French swimmer who broke many of the records. He's
ready to get into the pool right now. Oh, there
you go. See and you said there were no stars. Well,
I mean I only heard about this guy because he's
broken a lot of Phelps's records. I guess he broke
the last record that Phelps held. The Swimming's weird. They

(26:28):
constantly break records like it never ends. It just break record,
break record, break record constantly. It's not like track and field,
where some records will stand for Like, is anyone ever
going to break nine point five to eight in the
one hundred meters, which is the world record by Usain Bold?
I doubt it, probably not. And Leon Marshaun, Yeah, so
this guy is expected to win a lot of gold

(26:50):
at these games in his home country of France. Martin,
thanks so much. We'll check in with you a little
bit later. On Steve Hartman, Aaron Toarres here Fox Sports Sunday,
we're talking to some college football. We went down a
little rabbit hole with the Heisman Trophy again. I could
do that all day, all night, but I want to
get back to just the basics of what we should

(27:11):
expect in twenty twenty four and whether or not because
this is something near and dear to me and you,
and that is college football and its future. Is this direction,
which is a stark misdirection from where we've been in
the past. Ultimately good for the sport.

Speaker 2 (27:34):
It's tough, like I think it's go. You know, it
certainly modernized the sport. As you said, this is the
first year there is a true playoff, and listen, I
think the postseason is going to be really, really.

Speaker 1 (27:47):
Really awesome. I can't wait.

Speaker 2 (27:48):
But I also don't think there's any way you can
heighten the postseason without in some way taking away from
the regular season. And so this has been a topic
since playoff expansion started. I get it, we're here. I'm
not complaining about it, but it is a reality. Is
and I've said this on my Saturday show a million times,
is every other sport in America except for the NFL,

(28:13):
is trying to figure out ways to get you interested
in their postseason. We have the NBA mid season tournament.
We have baseball changing basically every rule in the history
of or whatever we have. I mean, you know, WNBA
doing whatever. College and by the way, in college basketball,
I love college basketball, but I know that nobody watches
college basketball till March. Because I remember I uce to

(28:34):
get in this argument every year with Arnie Spaniard. We
would fill in during December, right around Christmas. Ah, these
ball games are too much blah blah blah blah blah.
And and make the playoff bigger. And I'm like, you
make the playoff bigger, You're you're gonna devalue the regular
season now, I'm And he's like, well, you love college bass,
and I'm like, yes, in college basketball is now a
postseason sport where we only care when the postseason begins.

(28:57):
I don't think college football is going to get the
But again, by definition, when you expand the playoff, when
you make it more about the postseason, there's no way
the regular season would be is meaning let me.

Speaker 1 (29:09):
Interject a second on We have and have had an
expansion of the nca basketball teram is called the conference tournaments.
How many schools are not eligible for their conference tournament?
What are the percentage of schools that are not eligible
for the conference tournaments? Every team enters March with a

(29:32):
chance to win the national tach every single team, every
single team. You could win your conference tournament to qualify
for the nca tournament. Look, we had a Yukon team
go five games and five nights to win a big
East Tournament and then rattle off six straight wins to
win the national championship. So this idea of expanding the
nca basketball tournament, you don't have to. You already have

(29:55):
an expansion. It's called the conference tournaments, where everybody has
a chance if they win their conference tournament to earn
a chance to be in the Big Dance. So, I
mean that's always been a ridiculous argument because you already
have a fully expanded college basketball all right. So getting
back to the college football scene, one of the things

(30:17):
I really want to get into with you, Aaron, is tradition,
rivalry sarch oh Okay, So when we think about college football,
college football, for most of his existence is very regional,
very regional. One of the exceptions of that was the

(30:38):
USC Notre Dame Gee which was created by new Rockney,
his wife like coming to California, right, and his dear
friend Howard Jones, who had been the coach at Iowa
before coming to the University of Southern California and making
them a powerhouse. And new Rockney was so ahead of
his time. I mean he understood for this little school

(30:58):
in South Bend, Indiana to get noticed that he needed
to take it on the road, and so they would
play Army in New York and he would go anywhere.
But he created this rivalry coming to southern California with
the help of his dear friend Howard Jones, to create
what is if you look at the history of this

(31:19):
rivalry is on par with obviously, I mean there's great
you know Auburn, Alabama, and you know Ohio State, Michigan,
all these great rivalries, but Notre Dame US. He is
very unique. And now now Lincoln Riley, the coach of USC,
is starting to cast some doubt about the future if
you were to take away these rivalries. I remember Oklahoma

(31:41):
Nebraska when I grew up with certainly it was the
Big Eight championship for years and years and it was
a huge rivalry. Nebraska bolted for the money in the
Big Ten and that game was gone. So if we
do see the elimination of some of these rivalries which
are a big part of the tradition of that score, right,
could it be? Because people will make the argument and

(32:03):
people say, just make new rivalries? Who cares about that?

Speaker 2 (32:08):
Well I could agree, but no, you're right. I mean, listen,
and I'll say this. It takes another sport. I'm a
Yukon guy. Biggest rival Yukon has ever had in basketball
is Syracuse.

Speaker 1 (32:19):
They don't play Syracuse anymore. It sucks.

Speaker 2 (32:21):
And you can't just well, they're in the Big East. Now,
Creton's good, Oh, Creighton's arrival. No, it doesn't work like that.
And it's and you know, and and that's where I
think it is interesting. Like you look at these Big
Ten schedules, it's like, yes, it's cool that Penn State
is playing at USC, that Ohio State is playing at Oregon,
that Oregon is playing at Michigan. But but it like

(32:44):
it's cool, it doesn't mean that it's not gonna take
some getting used to that that's a conference game that
Ohio State in Oregon or Oregon in Michigan or Michigan
in USC could play for the Big Ten championship. And
I do think again, a lot of what makes us
law sports it is regional. It is the rivalries and
those are going away. You mentioned Oklahoma Nebraska. How about

(33:05):
Oklahoma Oklahoma State? As Chris Blank about that, that's out
the door. In football, you know they're gonna still play
the Apple Cup in the Civil War in Oregon, in
Washington or Washington Oregon, respectfully, they're at the beginning of
the year.

Speaker 1 (33:18):
They're like week three.

Speaker 2 (33:19):
It's not the same as like I think two years
ago or a few years ago, Oregon State knocking Oregon
out of the Pac twelve Championship game.

Speaker 1 (33:26):
It's just not the same. And so it's the new world.

Speaker 2 (33:31):
As I said a minute ago before we got to Martin,
it's the evolution. This is professional sports on a minor
league level. But I do think the fan is the
one that suffers more than anybody.

Speaker 1 (33:42):
All Right, coming up on the other side, I want
to get to a decision that was made and the
impact it's going to have, not just on college football,
but just college sports in general and ultimately Olympic sports
as well. This is Fox Sports Sunday, Steve hartin tours here.
Fox Sports Sunday. Got some swimming.

Speaker 2 (34:05):
Going on right now, saw some team handball, men's men's
field hockey, yes, women's soccer Group B.

Speaker 1 (34:14):
So we got the Olympics on in the background, but
right now we are focused in on Well, I'll tell
you what. This part of the story could have a
major impact on Olympic sports as we move forward. So
there was this ruling, and long story short, basically, they
were trying to set some guidelines in terms of money

(34:36):
to be distributed equally from university to university in terms
of their collegiate athletics, also limits on scholarships. And well,
hold on, let me preface this by saying it actually
wasn't limits on scholarships. We'm talking about college football. It

(34:56):
was limits on roster size. Sure, So to give you
an example, they had roster limits or scholarship limits of
eighty five. And maybe you had one hundred five players
on the teams. He had twenty walk ons. So they
didn't say, all right, we're raising the scholarships to one
hundred and five. They didn't say that. What they said

(35:16):
was your roster sizes one hundred five. Now, if you
do decide to have one hundred and five scholarship players, great.
And so, when we talk about revenue generating sports which
have kept alive, Olympic sports generate zero revenue. It's all

(35:38):
about money, folks and duch as. It pains me to
say that that's exactly what it's always been about. But
think about it. If you have an opportunity with this
money to buy yourself a five star quarterback to put
your football team over the top, and the amount of
revenue that would ultimately generate for the university. You're going

(35:59):
to do that, and what then happens to the non
gen revenue sports. I mean, it's it could be a
catastrophe at the collegiate level for these Olympic sports that
have survived because of the revenue generating sports all these years.

Speaker 2 (36:18):
This is you know, listen about four or five years ago,
and I think you and I neither of us is
anti paying college players. It's just but anyone who just
screamed just pay them and figure it out, Well, you
got what you wanted. And anybody who knows college sports
the way that you do, the way that I do,
you knew there were going to be unintended consequences. And

(36:39):
this is one thing that I remember saying in like
twenty seventeen twenty eighteen, when it became clear that we
were head of this direction. It's like, Okay, that booster
that now gave say two million dollars a year, be
nice to have that money. I don't whatever, but say
you gave two million dollars a year, that might fund
the entire softball team all season.

Speaker 1 (36:57):
Long. Well, now that's going on.

Speaker 2 (37:00):
Pay the quarterback because I'm at an SEC school and
I don't want my team to fall behind, so screw softball.
And so these were the unintended consequences. And I'm so
fascinated as these Olympics get underway. You know, I can't
speak for every swimmer, every diver, every field hockey player,
every whatever, but my guess is that most of them
came through the collegiate system, most of them. Thankfully we're

(37:22):
able to get scholarships, and I just don't know that
those opportunities are going to be there going forward.

Speaker 1 (37:26):
So we everybody wanted to pay the players. Pay the players,
pay the players.

Speaker 2 (37:29):
That's fine, but there are unintended consequences, and that's one
of them.

Speaker 1 (37:32):
Well, and then you also have title nine. Yeah, on
the books. I'm confused about that, and Title nine is
very simple. It's been read the same way for fifty years,
equal on both sides. Well, when you weren't paying anybody, well,
neither side's getting paid. Yeah, I mean there was under
the table stup, but I mean board. Now, the way
I look at it is, if you have twenty million

(37:53):
dollars and you are spending that if I'm the ladies,
I'm saying, fine, ten million for US ten million for
the men. Look, unless you have a Caitlin Clark who
obviously becomes the biggest revenue generator for your university, I'm sorry.
And then what they're gonna do is simply this because
everything has to be equal. So if we need to

(38:14):
eliminate programs, they're gonna be on both sides. So if
we realize we have a lot of women's sports that
aren't generating any revenue, we have a lot of men's sports,
they're just gonna hack hack hack hack, and all of
these sports are gonna come off the books. It just again,
I when this started in California and people are like, wow,

(38:36):
it's going to be isolated. Yeah, maybe USC is going
to have an advantage. They'll be able to pay their
isolated What are you talking about? This is gonna go explode.
Pandora's box has been opened and there's no going back. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (38:52):
I think there's two sides to it. Is we're all
for people getting paid. There were clearly unattended consequences. I
will say a lot of this is on the end.
Though they had years where they were in court fighting
this knowing it was coming, and I just remember it
was about you know, I think it was July one
of twenty twenty one, the date was coming, and about
June twenty eighth, they just threw up their hands and said, okay,

(39:14):
nil's allowed. And there was no rules and there's no this,
and there's no that. And what's been crazy is they've
tried to implement guidelines. You know, it can't be paid
for play, then it can be paid for play.

Speaker 1 (39:25):
You can't get.

Speaker 2 (39:25):
Paid directly from the schools, the schools can't be involved
in the collectives. Now they are, and so it has
been fascinating. It has been frustrating, and I know, you
know college sports, it's like I think the frustration from
coaches whatever is that every six months something's changing. First
there was a one time transfer. Now it's an unlimited transfer.
You just go on and on and on down the list.

Speaker 1 (39:46):
Here we are crazy, which is why Nick Saban's on
the sidelines and j Wright and coach k and Roy Williams.
I think there's a couple other guys that aren't far
behind either. It has changed dramatically. I mean, I honestly,
when you think abou it in college or or you
have the good fortune of the University of Texas. So

(40:06):
arch Manning is still on the bench sure, and most likely,
barring injury, is going to spend another year on the bench.
Two years on the bench when you're the number one
high school quarterback in the country. How's that possible for Texas? Simple?
Their money is parking with a ton of money to
stay sure, and they can afford to do that. I

(40:28):
don't think it's necessarily bad. I guess people are just
having to understand. But when you when you have to
recruit a high school class and then you also have
to figure out which recruits you're going to keep, and
then you're going in the transfer portal to get other
I mean that is well, that's a lot.

Speaker 2 (40:43):
And Mark Stoop said this this week. I disagreed with Lapa.
What he said is accurate. Every player is a free agent.
Every six months that opens and every player is a
free agent, and every player now has an agent and
they're coming back to the school asking for more money.
It's crazy, world, Be nice, be nice, if we had
that all right coming down in there, so we will
get back to the college football playoff.

Speaker 1 (41:02):
Because there's certain aspects of the college football playoff that
I think people really didn't think about the idea of
a real playoff. Thumbs up, But how we get there
might be a little more complicated. Plus we got a
lot more on NFL training camps. Keep it right here.
This is Fox Sports Sunday rolling along here on a

(41:22):
busy sports Sunday. Fox Sports Sunday broadcasting live from the
ti i rack dot Com studios ty rack dot com.
We're gonna help get you there in unmatched selection, fast
free shipping. Free road has a protection over ten thousand
recommended installers. Ti iraq dot com. The Way tire buying
should be coming up on our next hour. John Paul Morosi,
our Fox Sports Radio MLB insider, will be joining us

(41:43):
all the latest. With the trade deadline counting down here
in Major League Baseball, we're gonna have any blockbuster deals.
Sometimes they come out of left field. You don't see
him coming.

Speaker 2 (41:53):
It seems like every time I look up, I see
one of the insiders tweeting about something. So it seems
like it's an active trade deadline.

Speaker 1 (41:59):
It will be, and we got some NFL to get
to now with training camps opening up, can you believe it? Folks?
The Hall of Fame game is Thursday. It's crazy. Oh,
you're like, wait a second, we just started training camp
and the Hall of Fame game is this Thursday. I
will say this.

Speaker 2 (42:17):
It feels like because we were talking about this on
our show on Saturday with the Olympics about you know,
is the Olympics as important blah blah blah. But part
of it is there's just so much sports on now
where I just remember it used to be, even like
ten years ago, NBA Finals would end June twenty fourth,
and then you're just doing nothing for like seven weeks.
And this year, I know it's a little bit different

(42:39):
because but Summer League is a thing. It's on every night,
you're something to watch whatever. We had the COPA Tournament
this summer, which was actually very entertaining. It's just like,
I don't feel like there was this this major gap
where there was nothing to talk about.

Speaker 1 (42:53):
It's just it's crazy how much the sports calendar is change.
You should have been around the days that I remember
when NFL training camp started the beginning of July. Wow, okay,
that's good. Two a days. In fact, you know, I
was in the nineties at the legendary six ninety we
were the flagship of the Chargers. Sure, and we would
do our broadcast from Charger training camp during the week

(43:15):
out at UC San Diego every day sitting on some men.
We have a canopy so we don't bake in the sun,
and they would have two a days. And this is
the whole month of July. Wow, they have a full
month of full blown before you even got to the preseason.

Speaker 2 (43:30):
I thought you were just I thought radio back like
thirty years ago, is just you just argued about Pete
Rose being the Hall of Fame for the entire month
of July.

Speaker 1 (43:38):
That was all you did. I did that with my
old partner, Philly Billy Warrendelle, although we were on the
same side of that back in the day. Let's get
let's get back to this college football playoff for a moment. Here.
Here's something I was thinking about, and I talked about
this over the last couple of years. So let's okay,
you got a college football playoff, and I understand that
players are getting paid nil, but this still gets a

(44:00):
little tricky to navigate. Let's say, for instance, let's use
LSU from a year ago. Let's say instead of nine
to three, they were ten and two. Sure, And let's
say that LSU, with their Heisman Trophy winning quarterback Jaden
Daniels projected to be a high pick in the draft,
is the five seed. Sure. So in order to get

(44:23):
to the championship or win the championship, they would have
to play four games. So you know, the top four
teams will goe to buy and that's the way it works.
And I'm Jadeen Daniels thinking, do I really want to
play four more games? You're gonna have to up the
ante because actually I've decided I'm not going to risk

(44:43):
it because I'm getting ready for the NFL drafts. So
good luck on your way. I'll be rooting for you.
But you want I don't think, Well, I know this.
If I were a top level quarterback, I would have
it structured in my nil money. That's why to get
now that we have that twenty million in the bank,

(45:04):
all right, for every game I play and win, there's
another million dollars in my bank account because that's how
much money is being generated for the university. So I'm
your star quarterback and you're asking me to win four
games to win a national championship. I'll tell you what
before we even play that first game, we're gonna have

(45:24):
a financial understanding that for every game I play, because
I'm putting myself at risk that I ultimate play in
the NFL. But again that's different.

Speaker 2 (45:34):
That might be put into contracts, like the way a coach,
you know, if you win the SEC regular season, if
you win the SEC. You know in basketball, if you
make an Elite eight, if you make a Final four,
theirs bonuses.

Speaker 1 (45:45):
I could see that.

Speaker 2 (45:46):
The opposite reason is why I don't think guys are
going to opt out of the playoff is I think
it's going to be structured into contracts, like, hey, you
gotta play through the end of the season. What I
thought you were gonna go with when you started with
all the extra game Big Ten media days today or
this week?

Speaker 1 (46:02):
Excuse me.

Speaker 2 (46:03):
A couple of those coaches were pretty vocal about, you know,
if it gets late into the year, right, so remember
the four teams that win the conference get get the
first round by so like hypothetically, let's say Ohio State
is undefeated going into the Michigan game this year, and
they know that they're in the Big Ten championship game,

(46:24):
and even if they lose, the Big Ten championship game,
they're gonna be in the college football playoff, Like are
you now resting guys for the Michigan game to get
ready for the Big Ten championship game because you know
you get the first round by.

Speaker 1 (46:35):
So coaches were all asked about that.

Speaker 2 (46:37):
That was another one where Lincoln Riley kind of put
his foot in his mouth, but essentially they all kind
of said, like, it's stuff that we're monitoring, like you know,
it might come down to a week. And by the way,
I think this is also why Lincoln Riley doesn't want
to play Notre Dame last game of the season. But
it's stuff that they're monitoring of like, hey, if we
got two or three guys that could probably go. But
we know we're in the conference championship game, and we

(46:58):
know we're gonna be in the playoff. Even if we
lose this game, we might turn our attention to the
conference samionship game. And I know you led the segment
by talking about unintended consequences of an expanded playoff. What
you're talking about when I'm talking about these are certainly
some of them. Oh yeah, I mean again, think about it.
If you play in your conference Curnam a championship.

Speaker 1 (47:17):
Game, that's thirteen. And then you lose that game. Now
all of a sudden, you don't get a first out
by and you that's four more. Guess, seventeen game seventeen
game season. We're already there in the NFL, but the NFL.
Remember when the NFL eventually goes to eighteen games, there
will be two by weeks. I promise you it's going

(47:38):
to be eighteen games over twenty weeks. You're expanding how
many weeks of regular season football for the networks? They'll
eat it up college football? I mean with you do
they still go to class? Well, well, it's so funny.
Is that still in the equation anymore?

Speaker 2 (47:53):
Well that's the crazy part about Like, first of all,
you mentioned an intended consequences.

Speaker 1 (47:58):
This is all them.

Speaker 2 (47:59):
But yes, it is funny like we talk about, you know,
even like the transfer policy. Oh if if they're not happy,
let them go. It's like, okay, cool, you go to
three four colleges. Guess what a lot of us did.
I transferred to college credits. Don't transfer you go to
three or four? And you know, of course if you
mentioned this and oh you oh, pretend you're pretending like
you care about the kids.

Speaker 1 (48:19):
You don't care about the kids. But it's like it's
the truth of like, if you're Steve.

Speaker 2 (48:23):
Hartman, you're a five star quarterback, doesn't work out at UCLA,
You transfer up to Washington, doesn't work out there, Like
you're gonna le, You're gonna run out of eligibility without
getting your degree. And so I always joke because it
does feel like we kind of forgot that this is
ultimately supposed to be some level of an academic enterprise.
Now to your point, you're playing sixteen seventeen games. Uh,

(48:44):
you could be on.

Speaker 1 (48:45):
The road for all.

Speaker 2 (48:46):
And by the way, this was this was a big
reason why they didn't expand previously was because that three
to four week stretch in December. The reason we didn't
play any games during that stretch is because there's these
crazy things, Steve.

Speaker 1 (48:58):
They're called, uh finals, it's finals week.

Speaker 2 (49:01):
And graduation time, and a lot of guys graduated at
the semester breaks. So hey, you know who needs a
degree when you could go travel up to play Penn
State on Saturday?

Speaker 7 (49:10):
Right?

Speaker 1 (49:10):
You know what I'm saying. When I was sports editor
of the Daily Bruin, our UCLA basketball team with our
first year coach Larry Brown, was not expected to get
out of the first round. We were going to have
a matchup against number one to Paul Mark McGuire that
that team, and we pulled the upset. And the next
week was the regional finals, which were in a Tempee

(49:32):
or Tucson. They were actually in Tucson, and so I
couldn't go even all those sports out of the paper
because it was finals week. Sure, and so I didn't
expect them to win anyway. Clark Kellag Ohio State was
playing them in the sweet six. Team thought they would lose,
and they won. Next thing, you know, I'm on a
flight to Indianapolis for the Final four and it was

(49:53):
very exciting. But I just remember there was a lot
of logistics because of the final schedule. Mike, I can't
I got to actually take finals. I can't pee. I'd
love to be there, but I can't do that. Here.
Here's another thing when we talk about just how this
works in terms of this college football playoff, So the

(50:16):
idea that more schools get an opportunity to get into
the mix, sure, this is one of the big arguments.
In other words, by expanding the tournament. Now more schools
than ever will have that opportunity to get to the top.
And I remember when they went from the BCS Championship
game to the made for TV Four School Playoff and

(50:37):
I said, I said, it went before before it even started.
I said, I know where this is going. So first
of all, we're not necessarily going to get the four
best schools. They're going to be hand picked who is
going to get the most eyeballs. It was a made
for TV event, which is fine. Potentially got some great matchups,

(50:58):
other times not so much. But the teams that are
there the very first year Alabama, Ohio State, Clemson, and
what happened if you look at the history of the
four School Playoff, what three teams were most dominant during
that time? Alabama, Clemson. I mean Clemson literally was put

(51:20):
on the map. It's not that Clemson football didn't exist
before I did, but their inclusion in these early playoffs
set in motion Clemson to somehow become a superpower in
college football. And now with the expanded playoffs, I think
it's going to narrow the field even more in terms
of what schools ultimately can win a national championship.

Speaker 2 (51:42):
So I agree one thousand percent. And that was the
funny part. First of all, most years of the four
team college football Playoff, we couldn't even find four teams
that were good enough to win a championship. I mean,
there would be like you said that one dud. Every
year Alabama plays Michigan State, it's a route. Alabama plays Cincinnati,
it's a route, Ohio State play whatever.

Speaker 1 (51:59):
Notre Dame.

Speaker 2 (52:00):
Yeah, Notre Dame was on the wrong side of a
couple of those routes. So yes, you know, and so
like so that that's a fact. But then you look
ahead and one, first of all, that was just fundamentally false.
Like I'll give you an example. Last year, the team
that finished in eleventh place in the final standings was
Ole Miss Okay, great season, ten and two whatever, oh

(52:21):
twelve team playoff.

Speaker 1 (52:22):
They're in. They got a shot. You know.

Speaker 2 (52:24):
The two losses were two got destroyed by Georgia and
got destroyed by Alabama. Well, those are the two best
teams of the SEC. We don't need an expanded playoff.
But what I think you're not what I think what
you're saying, and what I think that the audience misses
is that more games doesn't mean more teams really have

(52:46):
a chance, because ultimately, in reality, it's actually the opposite.
Exactly what you just said is, now you have to
get through four postseason games, five if you include a
conference championship game, if you don't win it, and the body,
the wear and tear on your body. There's just not
enough teams that are built to win all those games.
You know, you look at TCU a few years ago.
They beat Michigan. It's a thriller. Oh my god, they're

(53:07):
playing for a championship and they get smoked by Georgia.

Speaker 1 (53:12):
But let's say they beat Georgia.

Speaker 2 (53:13):
Now they gotta go play Ohio State, or they gotta
go play Alabama, they gotta go play LSU. So it
it's expanded. I'm not complaining. I'm over it. But all
of the reasons that they said they were expanding, you
could kind of punch a hole in every single argument.

Speaker 1 (53:27):
I also think about when I was in Glendale, Arizona,
January two thousand and seven for the Fiesta Bowl between
Boise State and Oklahoma, and I was there because Vinnie Peretta,
one of the players for Boise State who would actually
play a big rollie through the pass on like an
half back option to win that game, and of course

(53:48):
one of the most remarkable games in college football history.
Would that game still have the same impact if Boise
State was in a playoff where the next week they
had played Florida exactly and gotten forty one and nothing well,
and that has actually been my argument against expanding the playoff.

Speaker 2 (54:06):
Right, So this bowl system that we had, including even
including the fourteen playoff. But you take a team, so
I'm trying to think of who won all the big
bowl games last year outside of you know, Ole Miss
is a great example, right, Uh, they win ten games
in the regular season. You know, they lose to Alabama,
they lose to whatever, but then they go to the

(54:27):
Peach Bowl and annihilate freaking Penn State.

Speaker 1 (54:32):
Or look a few years ago, Ohio State.

Speaker 2 (54:35):
They lose to Michigan, they're frustrated, whatever, They go to
the Rose Bowl, they play Utah in that thriller that's
back and forth video game, and they have some positive
momentum going into next year.

Speaker 1 (54:45):
Ohio State is probably not a good example.

Speaker 2 (54:46):
But Ole Miss last year, or Baylor the year remember
Baylor went, they win the Big Twelve, they go to
the Sugar Bowl, they beat Ole Miss that year. They
feel good about themselves, they feel great, they go into
the offseason. There's momentum, there's this, there's that. Now, compare
it to the twelve team playoff era, where oh, you
win your conference, You're You're in the Big twelve, You're
in the twelve.

Speaker 1 (55:07):
Everybody's so happy.

Speaker 2 (55:08):
Squashed like a bug on a windshield by Alabama.

Speaker 1 (55:11):
Well, and use the nca basketball tournament for an example,
and coaches that complain this forever. You have a thirty
win season, you get upset in the second round of
the playoffs. Nobody remembers thirty game season that you won
the conference conference. Nobody remembers any of that. What did
you do in the NCAA tournament, Honey's the only thing
that they remember. And I was, you know for years,
I did you know I would go to the final four.

(55:33):
The NABC obviously would have their conventions. You see all
these coaches. That's way back in the day when we
actually had access to all these coaches, and they every
one of them would come by. Of course, obviously they've
all been eliminated, they're not in the final four, and
they would just complain about how unfair. It was. We
had a tremendous season. We had one bad night in
the NCAA tournament, and that's all the people remember. Oh yeah,

(55:54):
I remember that year you lost in the second round. Yeah,
we won thirty games, he won the conference chant and
we put up ninety lesson that. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (56:04):
I mean, Rick Barnes is still known because he didn't
make the Sweet sixteen with Kevin Durant. That was like
right fifteen years ago.

Speaker 1 (56:09):
Yeah, and that's what's gonna happen now in college football.
Great call, So that's what's gonna happen there all right,
coming up in there said let's switch gears to the NFL.
I'm gonna throw something. I've been throwing this out as
one of the all time dark horses, because could anyone
have predicted at this time of year ago the Houston
Texans would make the playoffs? Come on, now, Houston Decks
are gonna make that. Even the Rams think the Rams

(56:31):
are gonna make the playoffs. But things can happen. Pukin Nakua,
Kiram Williams, no one believes these things that happen. I
have a team that I am touting that will make
the playoffs. Oh, Wow, make the playoffs that nobody's say.
We'll find out who that is. And then obviously Aaron
will have some choices of his own of surprise teams
to watch in twenty twenty four. This is Fox Sports Sunday,

(56:52):
Steve Harman, Aaron Torres. Here, Fox Sports Sunday. We are
live from the tire iraq dot com studios. All right,
let's talk a little NFL football right now. And this
is a thing a lot of people do. And again,
can you believe Hall of Fame game coming up here
on Thursday? So the season very much upon is So

(57:13):
it happens every year. Every single year there is a
team or two or three that is on nobody's radar
in terms of making the playoffs, and they make the playoffs.
I mean last year, I predict that we have a

(57:33):
master list here of all of our preseason NFL predictions,
and one of the NFL predictions is who will have
the worst record in the NFL. Okay, My prediction was
based on a conversation that I actually had with a
member of that team and that was the Rams. Oh,
and I was at sure Rams were coming off a

(57:55):
bad season. They were in cap hell because they had
spent everything to win a Super Bowl, which they got.
Matthew Stafford appeared to be in decline and they had
no depth. I mean that was the knock on the Rams.
They literally, because of the roster and the cap restrictions,

(58:16):
had lost all depth, any injuries at all, forget it.
They're wiped out. So I predicted Rams would have the
worst season of any team they made the playoffs, not
only the playoffs. What happened Pooka Nakua? Anybody have him
to be Rookie of the Year or certainly setting wreckers
from wide receiver Kyron Williams. Could anyone have predicted he

(58:38):
would actually end up leading the NFL in yards rushing
per game. Nope, that Matthew Stafford would make his first
legitimate Pro Bowl. The only other Pro Bowl he made
was as an alternate. Oh I don't know. So this
is his first time that Matthew Stafford in his entire
career actually got named to the Pro Bowl. No one
could have predicted that. So based on that, I'm looking

(59:00):
at the roster of teams and there was one team
who won eight games last year and they're over under
this year is five and a half. So that is
a team obviously trending in the wrong direction, and this
team I believe is going to make the playoffs. Can

(59:20):
I guess or said, go, let's see your guess Denver Broncos,
Denver Broncos, and I'll tell you why. There's so many
reasons why. Okay, let's talk about a year ago, Sean
Payton takes over. We know he's not comfortable with Russell Wilson.
We also know three games into the season they not
only have the worst defense in the NFL, they're historic

(59:43):
after giving up seventy to Miami, and yet by the
season's end, that team's defense was in the upper echelon
of defenses in the NFL. They flipped that entire defense,
and even though Russell Wilson put up respectable numbers, it
was clear I'm the get go And ultimately the way
it played out that John Payton had no confidence, no

(01:00:05):
interest in keeping him as his quarterback. So now they
draft Bo Nicks. Bownicks started a record sixty one games
in what I still term his Division one football That
is the all time record, sure five years as a starter,
three in the SEC two years at Oregon, so his

(01:00:28):
experience is very unique for any player coming in. But
obviously he has a skill set that John Payton can
work with. And the thing about Sean Payton is not
only did he rid of himself of Russell Wilson, by
by Jerry Judy. In other words, I'm putting he has
more power than any other coach in this league. The

(01:00:49):
Walton family gave him whatever he wanted to take that job.
He has complete control to form that team in his manner.
So they won eight games last year? Is it saying
too much in a division that has a Raiders team
that is nondescript right now we still don't even know
who their starting quarterback is. And I'm a Jim Harbaugh fan,

(01:01:09):
but it's a mess with the Charger. It's gonna take
a couple of years. People say, well, you know, he's
always had immediate turnarounds everywhere he's gone. Really, he lost
six straight years to Ohio State before he won it.
That was not an immediate turn win total. But yeah,
but they were still on the same level where Brady
Hoak was his first year at Michigan and they and
they leveled off for those six years. You can't say

(01:01:32):
that's sixth year. They were two and four ress I
mean they ow w in six against Ohio State.

Speaker 2 (01:01:39):
I don't have to say any year two they were
a bad spot away from beating him. But oh and
it took a while.

Speaker 1 (01:01:46):
Okay, it's got much more challenging, uh for the Chargers.
So there are a couple of years away. He'll get
the job done a couple of years away. So then
I'm like, in looking, they're not going to beat the Chiefs,
but could they win nine or ten games and sneak
in as a wild car. Absolutely, So that is my team,
the Denver Broncos. I ain't gonna call them the surprise

(01:02:06):
team again. The over runners five and a half over
over over. I have faith that Sean Payton will figure
this out. And by the way, the last team that
got rid of Russell Wilson was predicted to be awful.
That was the Hobby and then Gino Smith comes off
the scrap heap and they made the playoffs. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:02:22):
I didn't understand the bow Knicks backlash the day after
the draft. I think people were just looking for something
to complain about, and so bow Nicks just took the arrows.

Speaker 1 (01:02:30):
But I didn't understand it. So what is there not
to like about what bow Knicks did at Oregon, completing
almost what passes. He had like fourteen rushing touchdowns.

Speaker 2 (01:02:39):
He's I think he's gonna be excellent, and I think
he fits what Sean Payton wants.

Speaker 1 (01:02:42):
So did you do you want my team?

Speaker 2 (01:02:44):
So I'll be so I have two, but I'll be
quick on the first one because it's pseudo obvious.

Speaker 1 (01:02:49):
I hold it right now, I got it. I mean
I can't wade. I gotta tease this, Aaron. This is
what I got to do and got two teams. Pull
out your app all right, let's find out what is
a trending right now? Is Martin is here to give
us every single happening at these Olympic Games.

Speaker 4 (01:03:11):
And also first I'm going to give you a little
bit of my opinion here too, Aaron. The reason why
I think people were really crushing on bow Knicks. Bow
Knicks caught a lot of strays, but it was more
seeing six quarterbacks taken in the top twelve picks, like, but.

Speaker 2 (01:03:24):
Everybody was projecting that going into the draft, maybe not
top twelve, but like first round, everybody was saying those
guys were gonna go first round. I think people thought
bo Nicks was back half a first round.

Speaker 1 (01:03:34):
But I think that's what it is. It's like, you mean,
with the twelve overall, Denver was going to take a quarterback.
I hear you. I'm just saying, I'm just trying to explain.
That's all. That's all I'm trying to do, and I'm
not trying to attest all. Right, let's ask the Michigan
guy who is going to have a better NFL career,
JJ McCarthy or bow Knicks bow knicks Wow from the
Michigan I will say the.

Speaker 2 (01:03:55):
One thing about JJ, I think there's too much slander
because the one thing that nobody accounts for is that
in half of his season, his head coach was not
available to him, who was also a former NFL quarterback.
And it's like the two biggest games of the year,
the play the primary play caller became head coach an
hour before the game against the best defense in the country,

(01:04:17):
and they found a way to win. So I don't
think both JJ McCarthy's gonna be great. I don't think
he gets enough credit for what he actually did last season.

Speaker 1 (01:04:24):
I mean, I'm not knocking the kid.

Speaker 4 (01:04:26):
I just watched every game last year and found myself
getting increasingly more and more upset.

Speaker 1 (01:04:30):
When they dropped back to pass.

Speaker 2 (01:04:31):
He had a lot of fluky stuff like that crossbody
throw against Ohio State.

Speaker 1 (01:04:36):
But still when they needed him to make plays because
they were blowing people out, you know, all over the place.
But when they needed him to make a play, he
made a play.

Speaker 4 (01:04:45):
Very much like if Kevin Durrant shoe was smaller, who
knows where the Brooklyn nets would have been, If Caleb
Downs Shoe was smaller, who knows how to rosebow would
have went. Because that first pass he threw to Caleb Downs, look,
Caleb Downs with the intended target, JJ McCarthy tried his
best to throw it a deception and on the very
first snap that he threw the ball on and after that,
I was this.

Speaker 1 (01:05:05):
Guy came win a championship. First name, the most baby.
Then he was unbelievable. After that, man, Sam Darnol's about
to be the starter of Minnesota. So there you go.

Speaker 4 (01:05:14):
Women's soccer right now, tied with Germany in Germany tied
in a twenty second minute the fencing foil of the
fencing final in Foil, say that five times fast. The
fencing final in foil between USA is Moren scrugg and
Lee Keefer assured the United States a silver and gold medal.
Only question is who's taking which one home. Keiefer is
the defending gold medalist. Scruggs in her Olympic debut, American

(01:05:37):
women finished first and second and a hundred meter butterfly,
with Tory Husky taking the gold.

Speaker 1 (01:05:41):
Gretchen Walsh took the silver. You can't tell if that's
any relation to VJ. Husky. I was wondering. I was
actually asking that seems like the spelling is the same.
Though what I think swimming, I think VJ. Coco.

Speaker 4 (01:05:55):
I'll let you have that one, said Cocoa. Go Off
is one of the two flag bears for the United State.
She made her Olympic debut today. Her first round opponent,
she beat him in straight sets without losing a single game.
Men's Olympic basketball started off pool player with the one
ten to eighty four went over. Serbia kd off the
bench with twenty three five for five from the floor
a five to five for three rather than Lebron twenty

(01:06:16):
one points, eight rebounds, nine assists. Jokis twenty five and
eight in the loss. Someone Biles qualified for the All
Around Gymnastics final despite fighting off some left calf discomfort
her and soon e Lee will represent the US and
the event. Soon he lead the reigning gold medalist Team USA.
Women's gymnastics also qualified for the team final. Women's dodges.

(01:06:37):
Never mind, just updated that score. It's one to one
right now. Men's water polo lost to Italy twelve to
eight in group play, and women's mountain biking Haley Batton
took home the silver medal. That's the best sash that
women's mountain biking has seen in the Olympics thus far
for the United States. Hey go back to you guys.

Speaker 1 (01:06:54):
Marden keeping track of all that, Martin no easy task,
but as usually all you do it. Fwallow. Once again,
Steve Haarbinaron tours with you Fox Sports Sunny. We're a
live from the tire rack dot Com studios and by
the way, Fox Sports Radars teamed up with tire rack
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(01:07:17):
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(01:07:39):
Visit Fox sports radio dot com furnished by tire rack
dot Com. The way tire buying should be all right.
So we're making predictions on teams that are not on
the radar of most people to end up in the
postseason twenty twenty four NFL season. I have made it
clear over the last several weeks at the Denver Broncos
are my pick. Now we're gonna find out who Aaron

(01:08:01):
Torres says is a team that nobody's talking about, but
they should be in terms of being a playoff contender.

Speaker 2 (01:08:08):
I have two One isn't really fit that mold of
what you just said, but I think the narrative around
them is wrong, controversial.

Speaker 1 (01:08:16):
The New York Jets, Oh, I'm with you.

Speaker 2 (01:08:19):
People are like, I mean, look at the offense. Aaron
Rodgers he was in Egypt. It's like, first of all,
does everybody come down? They won ten games last year.
I would add, if you look at the schedule, Okay,
so obviously there were two teams from their division that
made the playoffs last year. One I love too. I'm
happy he got paid, but I think it's worth noting one.

(01:08:40):
They kind of melted down down the stretch last year.
Two kind of melted down. How about losing at home
in the last game. They really melted down.

Speaker 1 (01:08:48):
So it's like you have that.

Speaker 2 (01:08:50):
I think Miami is probably like like what I would
say about two of it. Nobody wishes injuries upon anybody,
but last year being healthy was actually the outlier season.
Like history tells us that he's not making it through
a seventeen game regular season. I think the Dolphins take
a little bit of a step back. Then you look
at the schedule. Everyone's so focused on Week one at
San Francisco. Week two, Titans, Okay, well, levis is he

(01:09:14):
an NFL quarterback? Week three? Patriots rookie quarterback? Week four,
Your Denver Broncos rookie quarterback. Week five, Minnesota Vikings potential
rookie quarterback with JJ McCarthy I know Sam Donald, to
Martin's point, is starting so a very nice start for them.
I think they can start probably four and one and
then it's go time. And I just think there's gonna
be a little bit of a regression from the Dolphins's team.

(01:09:37):
The defense carried him last year to seven wins, and
I'm not I don't think they can win a super
Bowl because there's too many other good quarterbacks in the
AFC to get to a super Bowl. But I think
they're gonna be the playoffs this year. The Jets, that's
not a hot one though. I got a real point,
But first of all, I am not a Jets believer.
Oh you hate it at all. And again, if you.

Speaker 1 (01:10:03):
Were to take a look at a team's quarterback statistics
year to year, sure from twenty twenty two to twenty
twenty three, the team that may have had the biggest
upgrade at quarterback a year ago was the Green Bay Packers.
If you look at the numbers, he was hurt the
year before, which that was he hurt. Everyone said he

(01:10:25):
was hurt the year before, really, because what I saw
was a guy that lost zip on the fastball, that
he was making throws that I had never seen Aaron
Rodgers make in the past where he was late on throws.
There's only so many he throws in an arm. It
varies from guy to guy. Tom Brady is an outlier.

(01:10:46):
I know that Drew Brees at the end they had
a constant restructure of the offense because he literally could
not throw the ball down the field. I don't think
Aaron Rodgers. It was interesting. I just saw an interview
with Aaron Rodgers two days ago on the NFL Network
and it was talking about throwing the ball to Wilson
and that he was under throwing him like he had
to get used to his speed. It almost sounded like

(01:11:07):
he was saying, there's gonna be ups and downs. His words,
They're gonna be ups and downs with our team. You know,
I believe there'll be more ups than downs. But I
don't think that the Jets. Everyone talks about their defense.
Final and again, Robert Sala, does he impress you as
a good head coach? I know he's really respected as
a defensive coordinator. I don't see it. I think the

(01:11:29):
Bills obviously are the favorites, and I think Miami's still
better than the Jets.

Speaker 2 (01:11:34):
Yeah, I will just disagree on that one because I
listen when I say improved, I think they're playoff team.
I think they're a wildcard team, maybe get to seven
eight wins. But I think part of it is the schedule.

Speaker 1 (01:11:42):
They think that Aaron Rodgers is gonna stay up right
for seventeen games this year after blown achilles a year ago.
I mean, yeah, and you just said two years ago
your spin on him, his subpart play was his injuries.
And now he's forty years old. He's thirty nine.

Speaker 2 (01:11:56):
He won't be four. He's not forty just yet. But
the other one, how about this one? Real quick?

Speaker 1 (01:12:00):
Yes, and this is partly again schedule, by the way.

Speaker 2 (01:12:04):
The Jets, by the way, play two teams outside of
their division that made the playoffs last year, one this week,
one at San Francisco, the other one. I think they
sneak in as a wildcard because I hate one team
in the division.

Speaker 1 (01:12:15):
And another way. Excuse me, Aaron Rodgers turned forty last December.
Oh okay, yeah, I'll actually be forty one.

Speaker 2 (01:12:22):
Yeah that's what I thought. You said, forty one. I couldn't,
you know, I'm getting old.

Speaker 1 (01:12:25):
I couldn't.

Speaker 2 (01:12:26):
Yeah, I'm almost forty one. I couldn't hear that the
other one? Tell me if I'm crazy. Okay, the man
that Steve Hartman refused to vote for for Heisman Trophy
last year, Jayden Daniels and the Washington Commanders bottom line, Yeah,
here's why. Okay, it's because you're gonna beat Giants twice.
You have a last play schedule.

Speaker 4 (01:12:45):
That all.

Speaker 1 (01:12:46):
That's the part that nobody ever talks about.

Speaker 2 (01:12:49):
You don't have to be like significantly better if you're
playing all of the worst teams. And so look, you
play the Titans, you play the Saints, you play the Falcons,
who I don't believe in. You play the Panthers, you
play the Cardinals like like their wins on the schedule,
two wins against the Giants, And I think this, this
Dallas thing is a ticking time bomb.

Speaker 1 (01:13:09):
I know they've won twelve twelve.

Speaker 2 (01:13:10):
Games three years in a row. They're incredible paid tack
pay everybody. I think they knows dive. I think Washington
goes like ten and seven to mixed playoffs. I think
they make the plaff.

Speaker 1 (01:13:19):
You're a believer in dan Quinn.

Speaker 2 (01:13:21):
I am a believer in dan Quinn being a CEO
and letting Cliff Kingsbury run the offense because remember when
Kyle Shanahan was running his offense.

Speaker 1 (01:13:30):
Uh, there was a Super Bowl? All right. I will
give you a team. I'm not one hundred percent with
this team, but I'll give you a team that I
think actually has a better chance of making the playoffs
than the Washington Commanders in the division. The New York Giants. No, okay,
good because I don't have a Carolina Panthers. Ew why
because the division is because of their division. I'm with

(01:13:51):
you on Atlanta. I don't see it. The Saints. What
are the Saints? I don't even know what they are? Yeah, Tampa,
where are they? I mean, I mean Baker Mayfield has
this habit of having these big seasons when he needs
it to keep his career alive, and then all of
a sudden he takes a step back. Plus he lost
his offensive coordinator to by the way, the Carolina Panthers

(01:14:14):
their new coach. I think that I'm still a believer
in Bryce Yew Okay, I'm still obviously you're not. No, no, no,
it's not that. And when when people bring up sides,
I harke him back in two thousand and one. I'm
down in San Diego and they had drafted Drew Brees

(01:14:34):
heard of him in the second round, but they needed
a veteran quarterback and they signed Doug Flutie, who started
every game by the way the year for the Chargers.
So I had many conversations with Doug Flutie and this
is you know, he'd already he's seventeen years removed from
winning the icemand trophy. You know, it failed start in
the NFL, It goes up to Canada, comes back with it,

(01:14:55):
it makes a Pro Bowl. I mean, it was unbelievable, right,
And I'm standing there because I'm five eleven, you know,
I'm looking. I'm like, how tall is this guy? Really?
You know, he's a shade under five to nine. And
what I remember in the conversations with him was, how
do you see? I mean literally, you've got offensive lineman
six foot five across the board. How can you actually

(01:15:17):
see down the field? And he says, we have to
understand this. I've always been this hype. Yeah, so my
perspective on the field has never changed from high school
to college of the NFL. Everyone in front of me
is taller. Same thing with Bryce Young when we talk
about his stature, his size and everything else. He's always
been this size and he's had success everywhere. I thought

(01:15:39):
it was a horrific situation. Frank Reich was not the
right coach for him last year. I think that they
have a chance in that division. I mean, you can
win that division at eight to nine. Ah, that division works.
I think it's a possibility. I got a thought on
that we can all right, Well, on the other side,
will continue on as we're talking a little NFL. We'll
get excited about the season. Keep it here. This is
Fox Sports Sunday, Steve Harmin and Aaron Torres here Fox

(01:16:01):
Sports Sunday. We're live from the tirerac dot Com studios.
So we're just throwing you know what at the fan
these No, we're not well. I mean we're trying to
reason because we do know that a team is good team.
One or two teams is literally not on the radar

(01:16:22):
right now to be in the playoffs, and they're gonna
make it. You're right. I don't remember any of us
sitting down saying, oh yeah, c J. Stroud, first year
head coach. No names in terms of you know, skilled guys,
I mean, nobody, nobody, nobody, picked the Houston Texas make well,

(01:16:43):
so every year there is that team. So I threw
out the Denver Broncos. You countered with the Washington Commander.
I immediately said, well, I'll tell you if you're gonna
go there, I actually think the Carolina Panthers because of
the division they play in, because I still believe Van
Bryce Young could actually have a better chance than the Commanders.
Then you were ready to jump on that, and well

(01:17:05):
we had to take a brief break.

Speaker 2 (01:17:06):
So you said, you're not a believer in the Jets.
And this doesn't really have to do with it, but
Jets have basically been irrelevant, you know, more or less.
You know my whole life, right, Yeah, what is the
one constant of late It's Woody Johnson. And so I
bring it up because Dave Tepper third third head coach
in three years. And you can argue you you said
Frank Greg wasn't the right guy for the job. Whatever,

(01:17:28):
but first year head coach Dave Tepper is a mess.
I mean every day he's like the the Jackson Mahomes
of owners. He's just in the headlines every single week
for doing somewhere on Tepper one n And so I
just think there's a lot of chaos and like, okay,
if the art okay, so let me let me put
it this way. If the argument is the division stinks, okay,

(01:17:50):
but like the Washington Commanders, in my opinion, like they
did get better, improvement at quarterback, improvement at head coach,
improvement at offensive coordinator. Where did Carolina get better? And
I'm not being a jerk, maybe I'm missing something, but
where do you believe they got better? Or is it
just a division?

Speaker 1 (01:18:06):
So again, when we talk about the most inep offense
we had seen in the National Football League and I
don't know forever, like I say, it really has to
do more with the division. I think the problem with
the Commanders right now, even though I'm with you on
the Cowboys. First of all, they haven't had a repeat
division winner in twenty years since Andy Reid and the

(01:18:27):
Eagles rattled out four in a row from zero one
to four. You also have to figure out the Giants.
They're so bad. They are bad, but they weren't that bad.
I mean, you have a head coach of the Giants
that was one of the most highly touted head coaching
hires in the league a year ago and then the

(01:18:49):
Giants get into the playoffs and they win a playoff
game on the road, no less, and then a year
later the whole franchise is right into the You know what,
I don't know I have I feel like I have
a better feeling about the Commanders, and this has nothing
with Jade and Daniels. I think Jadan Daniels has a

(01:19:09):
bright future in the NFL. I don't know what to
make of the Giants. Yeah, are they as bad as
they were a year ago? And then sa Quan's gone,
and you know everyone's like, you know, Daniel Jones, man,
he sucks. I don't know. Well, one, Daniel Jones does suck.

Speaker 2 (01:19:23):
But two, let me ask you a quick question is
do you think the Hard Knocks is Like I think
that one, it's obviously a distraction, but two they were
bad and I don't think it's helping the perception right now.
I still don't understand why Hard Knocks is still on
the air well the off season. Hard Knocks is great, though, Yeah,

(01:19:44):
but every week it's giving us some story. It's not
raising the profile the NFL, is it. It's hurting the
profile the Giants is what I think.

Speaker 1 (01:19:52):
Everybody say, Like dope. No team wants to be part
of it. Whether it's the end season, nobody wants a
part of and what is it doing to help the profile?
I understand when they launched it, it was sort of
pull back the curtain, even though it was very contrived
in the way it was produced almost from the get go.

Speaker 2 (01:20:09):
I don't understand why it's still around the off season.
Hard Knocks is great because it's over like a six
month period. Now, the Trading Camp one kind of stinks
because it's like almost in real time this one, though, No,
but I do think there's something too. It's just like
I actually feel bad for the Giants, the GM and
Brian Dable because every week it's just like negative headline
after negative headline after negative headline. This is supposed to

(01:20:31):
be the time of year where everybody's excited about your
team and you gotta go to the podium and answer
questions about Hard Knocks from four months ago when say
Kwon Barkley left.

Speaker 1 (01:20:40):
All right, so you're what the commanders said, Yeah, that's
my team. It's a squad. They're gonna make the play.
They have to win ten games right.

Speaker 2 (01:20:47):
Two against the Giants, split with the Cowboys, and then
it's a mediocre schedule from there. The last play schedule
is part of it. They play your Carolina Panthers, Gonna
beat them.

Speaker 1 (01:21:00):
Bryce, Bryce Young will be the most improved player in
the league this year. Okay, now, let's write it down.
I just said that I'd be as it came out
of my mouth. They didn't say, yeah, you were, you
were chuckling. I was just trying to defend my Panthers.
I'm not picking the Panthers. I'm packing the Denver Broncos
with offensive Rookie of the Year bow Nicks coming up.
On the other side, the Chiefs are still on top.

(01:21:20):
Can they win a third straight Super Bowl? Make history?
This is Fox Sports Sunday. Oh hav a lot of
fun here on another busy sports Sunday. Fox Sports Sunday.
We're broadcasting live from the tire rack dot Com studios
tyre rat dot Com. We're gonna help get you there,
and I'm Matt selection fast Ree shipping free road acid protection,
over ten thousand recommending installers tire rack dot Com. The

(01:21:42):
Way tire buying should be coming up here in about
seventeen minutes. John Paul Morosi or Fox Sports Radio MLB
Insider will be joining us. He'll give us all the
latest on the hot trade rumors around Major League Baseball.
This week is the week of the trade deadlines. A
lot of things going on right now. Of course, you
mentioned the fact that the NFL Hall of Fame Game

(01:22:06):
is Thursday, and by the way, we're gonna get to
see Caleb Williams. I would imagine this is one of
the most bizarre things that happened. Headlines that I saw
over the last month or so is that Eberflus was
the favorite to win NFL Coach of the Year. Because
when I saw he was the odds on favorite, just

(01:22:26):
that part of it, I thought, odds on favorite to
not last beyond this year. He's the odds on favorite
to be fired okay, either during or at the end
of the twenty twenty four season, and he may still
well be that yep. And yet at the same time
he is also the favorite to win NFL Coach of

(01:22:47):
the Year. Well, the only time way that's going to
happen is if the Bears win ten games and actually
make it into the playoffs. You've seen as much of
Caleb Williams, more so than I have, so You've watched
a lot of Caleb william I feel like your husband, Well,
I watched plenty of him, But I want to get
your perspective here, because again we saw him at Oklahoma.

(01:23:08):
He put Rattler on the bench, and then the next
thing you know, he shows up at USC made about
ten million dollars. I had two years there and well
worth it in terms of winning a Heisman Trophy. And
then it's hard when you have to spot a team
fifty points every week, as sc did a year ago.
You know, the comparisons are made about him and Patrick Mahomes.

(01:23:31):
By the way, he was the first, the only other
player other than Patrick Mahomes I believed to have at
least thirty touchdowns and ten rushing touchdowns in consecutive years.
Mahomes doing that at Texas Tech. So are you a
believer that Caleb Williams This is the graveyard at quarterbacks.
They haven't had a quarterback make the Pro Bowls since
Jim McMahon, wow, some forty years ago. So is Caleb

(01:23:53):
Williams going to break that trend for the Bears and
lead them to the Promised Land.

Speaker 2 (01:23:57):
My thought is he will be a go pro. I
don't like this argument. Oh, this is the best situation
that any rookie quarterback has ever walked into, because, as
you said, coach on the hot seat, defensive head coach,
and I know they've restructured the offensive staff, but it's
like it's like, you know, he could be with a
second head coach and a second play caller next year

(01:24:19):
going into this. So I don't believe it's the best
situation ever. I do think he I think he took
too much criticism for these struggles of USC last year
because you go back and look at his stats. Okay,
and I remember talking about this around the draft, but
the guy that everybody told me was wildly overrated a
year ago, Okay, this is what he did last year

(01:24:41):
in the season we deemed him wildly overrated. You referenced
a lot of these stats he finished, how about this
little ho hum sixty eight percent percent.

Speaker 1 (01:24:51):
Okay, that's not that big of a deal.

Speaker 2 (01:24:53):
Thirty touchdowns, five interceptions, eleven rushing touchdowns.

Speaker 1 (01:24:58):
And those numbers were down significantly for the year before.

Speaker 2 (01:25:00):
Seventy two total passing touchdowns in two years at SC
twenty one total rushing touchdowns. And here's the kicker that
nobody really talks about. Okay, last year they the year
one they had Jordan Addison. Okay, yeah, year two they
had we should reference this. First off, they had the
one hundred and nineteenth ranked total defense in all of

(01:25:22):
college football, So that's out of one hundred thirty three teams.

Speaker 1 (01:25:27):
Not good.

Speaker 2 (01:25:28):
And they had one offensive player drafted in the first
two rounds besides him, and that was a running back
at pick number eighty eight. So the offensive line stunk,
he had no go to wide receivers, the defense was
historically bad, and so like you know, I was on
air for a lot of those games he lost to
Notre Dame, when he lost to Washington, and I said,

(01:25:50):
I've never encouraged a player to opt out, but I said,
his team's letting him down. Is he just supposed to
sit back there and get the crap kicked? And he
did to his credits. So I think it's going to
be a lot better than people. I don't understand the
criticism of he's overrated. I don't know if he's generational.
I hate anyone comparing him to Patrick Mahomes. I don't

(01:26:10):
even know if he's you know, in that Andrew luck
Tier but I think he's gonna be a really good info.
I agree with you, he has obvious talent.

Speaker 1 (01:26:17):
An eyeball test, Yes, what happened the eyeball I'm a
stat fanatic, but sometimes I take the step back and
I just used the eyeball test. When I watch Caleb Williams,
I see a guy that can literally do anything he
wants on the football field if given that opportunity. You
mentioned the offensive line was subpar a year ago, and

(01:26:39):
just the pressure of knowing that we almost have to
score every time we have the ball in order to
keep up with that historically bad defense.

Speaker 2 (01:26:46):
How about by the way, they went one in five
down the stretch. Okay, last year, the one game that
they won, they beat that was Cal. They beat Cal
fifty to forty nine. Fifty to forty nine, because that
was the game, because I vividly remember I remember that
game like it might have been out of the studio.
But they had lost too in a row, so they're

(01:27:07):
they're they're basically out of everything.

Speaker 1 (01:27:09):
Yeah, and.

Speaker 2 (01:27:11):
Everyone's like, oh, Caleb Williams quit on the team and
I watching them, and every single possession, like I said,
he's just throwing ninety yards down the field.

Speaker 1 (01:27:19):
That is not exactly a talented cal offense, by the way, exactly,
I mean, it was just it was ridiculous. Yes, And
by the way, that's on Lincoln Riley. I I Lincoln
Riley to me is Cliff Kingsbury. Sure when people were
saying Lincoln Riley a head coach in the NFL, no, No,
he's a quarterback coach, that's what he is. For them
to go into last season with the reigning Heisman Trophy

(01:27:42):
winner and all the expectations, knowing they needed to upgrade
that defense and instead put it in reverse, that's on
a hick final three wins for USC last year gave
up forty nine points forty one point points. Those are
in the wins, in the wins. This is the university
than California. You can't get any defensive talent. Really. All right,

(01:28:04):
let's quickly switch gears and talk about the AFC right now,
the real Patrick Mahomes not together. So the real Patrick
Mahomes has a chance to make history. The Chiefs are
the nineteen to win back to back Super Bowls. The
other eight failed to make it three in a row.
Some came close, some not. So when you look at

(01:28:25):
this season coming up. The Chiefs to me are still
the clear favorite. Yes, the guy was on record two
years ago when Tyreek Hill left for Miami that that
was the last we're going to hear of the Chiefs.

Speaker 2 (01:28:36):
I hate to say I still get emails about that,
but yes, yes, I said bye bye because I thought,
all right, well now you can you used to you
had to pick your poison, Kelsey.

Speaker 1 (01:28:44):
Tyreek, which where you're going to go? Now you can
forget that Mahomes. In my mind, I was trying to
downplay Mahomes. He is the franchise quarterback of this league
right now. But that being said, you look at the
AFC right now. I'll give you three teams. You got
the Ravens, you got the Bills, and you got the Bengals.

(01:29:05):
One of those teams most likely is going to face
off against the Chiefs in an AFC championship game. The
question I ask you, Aaron Tarres, which one will it be?
Or do you have another team instead? The Jets? No, no, no,
not the Jets.

Speaker 2 (01:29:23):
But download the podcast we just talked about JA So
this is fascinating because listen why it's a fascinating question.
You could punch holes in all three. Yeah, I will
say a couple of things. I'm out on the Bills
more so because of McDermott than i am because of
Josh Allen. There's only so many big games in a

(01:29:44):
row that you don't win it. Josh Allen was pretty
good in that game last year against the against the Chiefs.
By the way, Lamar Jackson, I'll defend him. I thought
Todd Munkett just choked offensive court. Well, it was the
worst game plan. You wouldn't or even guys like you
and I can see. Well, I'm sitting here with Kerrie Rhodse, Yes,
Louisville guy.

Speaker 1 (01:30:04):
He had talked to Lamar Jackson that week, so we
were ties because you've talked to Lamar? How does he feel?
And we were saying, the one thing you do not
want to do is you know, match, you're not going
to do out do mahomes doing mahomes. Okay, we know
they're not going to do that. That would be ridiculous. Yep.
And that's exactly what they did. I know in a

(01:30:24):
one score game. It wasn't like they were down three
touchdowns where hey, we gotta we gotta throw the football.
That was it was the worst game plan.

Speaker 2 (01:30:33):
Yeah, and when when guys like you and I could
just sit on the couch and see, like what are
you doing?

Speaker 1 (01:30:38):
Like you don't need to be an next player next?
It was so obvious. So I defend I defend Lamar.

Speaker 2 (01:30:44):
I think that the Lamar narrative is nonsense because I
think he got you know, his his coaching staff failed
him last year. I don't buy McDermott. I think mcdermom
should have been out whatever. So the answer to me
is Joe Burrow, and I understand that the listen, the
argument's one way or the other. Obvi, the argument against
Joe Burrow kind of gets hurt a lot. Two of
is what four full seasons in the NFL he has

(01:31:06):
not finished. The counter is, uh, beat him head to
head and went and and just straight up. I mean
that AFC Championship game where he lost was an all
time classic. So that's my answer. But if you're asking me,
do I feel really good about it? Am I pushing
all the chips in the middle that that this is
gonna happen? I can't say that I'm going to I'm.

Speaker 1 (01:31:24):
With you, I'm with you, I am I agree with you.
I mean the bills you know again, I you know,
when when teams seem to just plateau, which is where
the Bills have been. Yeah, I mean we've been talking
about the Bills now for four years like they're they're
on the cusp. Their best win is a close loss.
That's a fact. They shootout against the Chiefs. So McDermott

(01:31:48):
has not, for whatever reason, been able to get them
to that next level. The Lamar Jackson situation. Again, he's
what two and four now in playoff games, He's Dak Prescott.
Oh wow, Well you got to do it on the
biggest stage. Joe Burrow won at Kansas City, he did

(01:32:14):
in an AFC championship game, and easily could have won
another one too. Right, So I agree with you. But
as far as Burrow's health is concern, it's gonna be
in question. There's no question about that, all right. Coming
up on the other side, we're gonna switch gears. I
had a question for you, Yes, oh no, no, no,
we covered it all right, We have it on the
other side. But on the other side, we're gonna switch gears.
Get ready for the MLB trade deadline just days away.

(01:32:38):
What blockbuster trades could be made our MLB insider John
Paul Morosi will tell us. This is Fox Sports Sunday,
Steve Harbin and air tours. Here Fox Sports Sunday. We
are live from the tai Iraq dot Com studios. All right,
a lot of things going on. We have the Olympic
Games going on right now. The NFL Hall of Fame

(01:32:58):
Game is Thursday, and oh yeah, Major League Baseball is
zeroing in on the trade deadline. Are we going to
see a blockbuster deal? We're going to see a game
changing deal to alter the course of the remainder of
the MLB season. One guy knows the answers to all
those questions and more. He is our MLB insider here

(01:33:19):
at Fox Sports Radio, the one, the only, the Great,
John Paul Morossi. So, JP, let's get right to it.
What are you hearing? Are we going to see any
kind We've seen some trades already been made. Uh, but
are we going to see that big blockbuster trade that
every once in a while actually happens at the trade deadline?

Speaker 7 (01:33:38):
Well, Steeven Aaron Happy trade deadline weekend and week of
course it is six pm Eastern Time Tuesday, three pm
Pacific Tuesday. I think we've already seen some impactful moves.
Randy or Rosarina going to Seattle really stands out to me.
The Orioles adding Zach Eflin to help their rotation are

(01:33:59):
pretty interesting thing. Contender with contender trade between the Phillies
and Orioles as well. But I'll say this, it would
not surprise me if the biggest name who has moved
between now and Tuesday is Blake Snell, the reigning Cyung
Award winner. Of course, he's now pitching for the Giants. Now,
if you look at his era for the full season,

(01:34:22):
it is deceiving because he wasn't really one hundred percent
ready to go when the season began because of being
late signing and getting started, and then he had a
physical ailment that he had to work through. But his
last four starts have been magnificent. Yesterday he struck out
fifteen batters in six innings, which means only three batters

(01:34:45):
were as talented enough to actually record it out on
a ball hit in play. So he is dealing on
a level that we have rarely seen in baseball this
season from anybody. And now the Giants, who would look
like sellers, they could be to move his contract, which
interestingly has a twenty twenty five component to it at

(01:35:06):
thirty million dollars, but he can opt out of it
after this season, so that might make it a little
bit unique for teams to have to navigate to know
that he could opt out. But in general, I think
Blake Snell's market has really developed in recent days, whereas
I think it's becoming very unlikely that Garrett Crochet of

(01:35:27):
the White Sox is going anywhere.

Speaker 2 (01:35:28):
So what would be a couple teams that are realistic
for Blake Snell.

Speaker 7 (01:35:32):
JP Well, I think the Yankees, we know Aaron. They
had a lot of dialogue with Blake Snell's camp during
the offseason. I think they are one team to watch.
The Houston Astros are another team to watch. It's interesting.
I would not necessarily expect him to go back to
the Padres. The Padres, as you know, are always up
to make a trade, but in this case, I don't

(01:35:53):
think he would go back to San Diego after leaving
their last off season. One team that I don't think
will get Snell, but will likely get a starting pitcher
of some quality would be the Milwaukee Brewers. They have
been able to be the leaders in the nation League Central,
despite a lot of injuries for them with their pitching

(01:36:13):
staff this season. So I think the Brewers could make
us splash. The Twins could make us splash as well,
though I doubt the Twins would be in the market
for Blake Stell, and I think both of those teams
might be a little more amenable to a Jack Flaherty
from the Tigers or a yuse Kakuchi from the Blue Jays,
both of whom are going to be free agents when
this season is over.

Speaker 1 (01:36:33):
Well, one team that knows the pressures on is the Dodgers.
I mean when you when you lay out over a
billion dollars worth of new contracts in the offseason, coming
off disastrous first round losses each of the last year
two years to in division rivals winning the World Series
or else, and there's been so much uncertainty with this

(01:36:56):
Dodger pitching, still a lot of question marks moving far forward.
So do you expect them to try to make a
deal to add to their pitching or are they satisfied
with the idea that those guys that have been on
the sidelines are on the man will be back in
the fold in time for the postseason.

Speaker 7 (01:37:14):
Well, I do think that they will look to add
one more starter, although you've got a credit River Ryan
out there again today fitching with a lead now against
the Houston Astros, another quality start for the rookie at
twenty five years of age. The River Ryan might be
part of the answer that they do hope to get
continued quality from Glass now and kershaw Stone obviously has

(01:37:35):
been one of their more consistent arms, and which is
why they were comfortable moving on from James Packson, who
was dealt back to the Boston Red Sox. I think
those Theeves, they have to find a way to get
one more arm. Maybe it's not going to be as
splashy as a Trek Scooble, but I would think that
Eric Fetti from the Chicago from the Chicago White Sox
could be an option. I think they're a team the
White Sox that I mentioned a moment ago, Garrett Crochet

(01:37:58):
and likely not getting moved. But Eric Fetti, because of
the consistency that he brings, I think he's a really
interesting pitcher for a lot of teams to look at.
And so in general, my point of the Dodgers is
exactly what you're describing. They have been so aggressive in
spending in the offseason that you almost to justify the
previous spending, you have to keep spending. I'm not sure

(01:38:20):
that actually works in real life, but it does work
in baseball to an extent. And if the Dodgers are
intent on maximizing this window to your point, I don't
know what they can expect to get from Yamamoto or
anybody else's coming back from the IL. Bobby Biller is
still in the minor leagues. Walker Bueler is not yet
close to getting back to the big league, So I
think they have to find a way to add one

(01:38:42):
more arm, whether it's Flaherty or Kakuchi or potentially again.
I'd be really surprised if they went with the Blakes now,
just based on being in the same division and art rivals.
But I do think Eric Fetti and the Dodgers could
be another really good combination.

Speaker 1 (01:38:56):
Jap let me ask you, maybe an inderer question.

Speaker 2 (01:39:00):
Every time I log on social media, I'm being told
how terrible Aaron Boone is as the manager of the
New York Yankees. Now, I understand they just got swept
by the Mets, but you know, a game out of
first place comfortably in a spot for a wild card.
They make the playoffs basically every year that he's there.
Why is there so much disdain with him, or seemingly

(01:39:20):
so much disdain with him.

Speaker 1 (01:39:21):
In New York?

Speaker 7 (01:39:22):
Well, Aaron, I think it just has to do with
with the demands of the New York fans more than
anything else. I'm a big believer in Aaron Boone. And
one of the reasons that I'm a big believer in
Aaron Boone is that Aaron Judge is a big believer
in Aaron Boone. And Juan Soto has come in and
had a phenomenal year, And so I look to those
types of players and say, is there a good environment

(01:39:45):
for the elite players to thrive? And the answer is yes.
The people that really make the big decisions, those who
are the drivers of the culture.

Speaker 1 (01:39:54):
There.

Speaker 7 (01:39:54):
Garrett Cole is one more example. They're on board with
Aaron Boone. The issue with the with the Yankees is
that their lineup revolves so much around Judge and Soto. Now,
of course, with the addition of Jazzism, maybe that role
and the responsibility are going to be evened out a
bit more. But in general, Aaron Boone has gotten his

(01:40:15):
guys to play, and Aaron Boone is not to blame
for the diminishment in Glabor Torres, the diminishment in DJ Lemayhew,
Anthony Rizzo being hurt a lot. These things are not
his fault. And if I was looking at this team
and saying, Wow, they're totally listless, they're not playing hard,
they don't have it, they're not cohesive, it'd be a

(01:40:36):
different story. I think they are. They have been, in
a lot of ways doomed by two things, a bullpen
that's been inconsistent and a lineup that really is too
dependent on two players. And I really have a hard
time blaming Aaron Boom for either of those things. If
he had the Nasty Boys reincarnate in the back end

(01:40:57):
of the bullpen from nineteen ninety and then it was
the best play than ever and he was continually misusing them,
I would have a different answer for you. But I
just think that he's actually done pretty well with what
he's with what he's had, and he can handle the
pressure of New York. Whether he's won a World Series,
obviously he has not been to one in his tenure
as the Yankee manager, but he has consistently gotten this

(01:41:19):
team to the dance, and there's as much as there's
a high standard on this team and people Yankee fans
expecting a lot from them. When I think back at
the Boone era, so from twenty eighteen to now, I
really can't come up with many years in which they
were knocked out by a team that I thought was

(01:41:39):
clearly inferior to them. Most of the times that they've
been knocked out, it's been against the team that I
thought was clearly better or at least as good and
was on a mission. And that again is what I'm
seeing from the New York Yankees. They look like they're,
unfortunately for them, somewhat poised to have a similar fate.
But the part of their salvation here is the Baltimore

(01:42:01):
Orioles have come back to the tack a little bit too,
while the Red Sox have surged. So I think we're
all of a sudden looking at a really fascinating three
team race down the stretch of the American League East.

Speaker 1 (01:42:11):
Well, JP, it's always amazing we're up against it, but
I know we know at this point if you say
we always had that snapshot, like, well, if the playoffs
started today, this team is in or this team is out.
We know that at this time every year there's a
team not in the playoffs that once we get the
playoff time, they're in the playoffs. So over the next

(01:42:31):
couple of weeks, we'll see how it shakes out with
the trade deadline, will start zeroing in on teams maybe
poised to make a run over the last couple of
months of the regular season. JP, great stuff. We'll see
what happens with the big trade deadline coming up on Tuesday.

Speaker 7 (01:42:45):
You got it, my friends. And by the way, four
good candidates for that status Red Sox, Mariners, Mets, and Cardinals.
None would be in the playoffs that they begin today.
It's pretty good case that all of them could could
find their way into the dance. So wild card races
are going to be amazing the stretch this year.

Speaker 1 (01:43:00):
I love the Mariners to eighteen team batting average to eighteen.

Speaker 7 (01:43:05):
We'll get better. Add one more bat Jerry to Poto
do it in the next thirty six hours.

Speaker 1 (01:43:10):
Wow man, all right, man, Hi jape w. Well, see
how it shakes out. Thanks so much for checking with
you next week.

Speaker 7 (01:43:15):
Looking forward to it. Thanks.

Speaker 1 (01:43:16):
That's Sean Paul Morosi, our Fox Sports Radio MLB insider. Now,
speaking of insiders, let's find out what is a trending
right now. A man that has been immersed in thousands,
literally thousands of medals being handed out at these Olympic.

Speaker 4 (01:43:32):
Games, a lot of them going to Americans too, Steve
Ryan Murphy. He advanced to the men's one hundred meters
backstroke finals. USA is Lily King moving on to the
women's hundred meter breaststroke finals. If she's able to get
a medal, it'll be her third in a row, taking
the bronze in Tokyo and the Golden Rio. So we'll
see if the American can make it three for three.
US women's soccer leads Germany three to one in the

(01:43:55):
second half. Leif Keefer has defended her gold medal in
the fencing individual foils, beat American Lawrence Scruggs, who took
home the silver in her Olympic debut. Usa is Nick
Fink ties for silver in the men's one hundred meter breastroke.

Speaker 1 (01:44:08):
Great Britain also finished the second place.

Speaker 4 (01:44:10):
Italy won the gold, American women finished first and second,
and a hundred meter butterfly Tory Husky gold medal Gretchen Waltz,
the silver Coco golf, made her Olympic debut today. She
defeated the first round her first round opponent and straight
sets without losing a single game. The United States Men's
Olympic basketball team started pool play with an eighth one
ten to eighty four went over Serbia.

Speaker 1 (01:44:31):
Kevin Durant, in his first Olympic.

Speaker 4 (01:44:33):
Action so far, looked great, twenty three points, five for
five from three off the bench.

Speaker 1 (01:44:38):
Lebron twenty one to eight to nine.

Speaker 4 (01:44:39):
Jokic for the losing side, had twenty points, five rebounds
and eight assists. Simobiles qualified for the all around final
despite dealing with left calf dis comfort. Files and soon
e Lee will represent the United States in the events won.
He lead the reigning gold medal winner Team USA is
also qualified for the team Women's of NASA's final. Women's
mountain biking saw the best result we've in the United

(01:45:00):
States history. Haley Batton took home the silver medal. Men's
water polo lost to Italy twelve to eight in group play.

Speaker 1 (01:45:07):
And there you go. That's all. I got a lot
of different things going on.

Speaker 4 (01:45:12):
That's it, I know, right Well, Beach volleyball is going
on right now, the United States with a one two
game lead.

Speaker 1 (01:45:20):
Here, I said, one game in and they're eight to
five in the second set. Here here you I think,
I'm not exactly sure if beach.

Speaker 4 (01:45:29):
Volleyball goes by the same rules as tennis. All these
scores with you know, different frames. Give me a clock,
Steve and points, and that's how I know how to
keep track. O.

Speaker 1 (01:45:39):
The worst is the judges cards, those sports that are
incited by judges cards. That's where really really is unbelievable.
All right, thank you Martin, so much good news. There
By the way, quick reminded Fox Sports Radios teamed up
with tire rack dot comda giveaway a set of four
brand new tires fight up to fifteen one hundred dollars

(01:46:00):
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(01:46:20):
and August twenty fifth for a set of four brand
new tires. Danner get Rules is at Fox sportswadio dot com,
furnished by tire rack dot com The way tire buying
should be. All right, I am going to ask you
a question, and I've been meaning to do this knowing
that you were going to be here today about somebody
that you know well, and that is John Caliperry sure

(01:46:42):
who is now the head coach at Arkansas for exiting Kentucky.
And I saw an interview that he did a few
days ago and words came out of his mouth that
I just was stune. He actually said that more players,
speaking of college basketball players should stay in school. Now,

(01:47:04):
this is a guy who literally when he went to
Kentucky told Boogie Cousins and John Wall you're out. And
the part was Boogie Cousins wanted to actually stay, and.

Speaker 2 (01:47:17):
Boogie Cousins before the final road trip, said don't give
away my scholarship.

Speaker 1 (01:47:21):
I'm coming back, and he tore you know, yeah, that's
a fact. And and it's a fact that Cali Perry said, no,
you're leaving. Yes, yes, So this guy obviously has been
a big proponent of the one and done. He did
admit last year's team was, even by his standards, insanely young,
and he paid the price. Especially now with nil money

(01:47:42):
being handed out, more and more players are staying the
extra year of college. Look at Haimi hake as a
UCLA great example. Uh look how dicidingful he was by
staying and increases draft stock and obviously to pay dividends
with a great rookie season with the heat. So we're
gonna see more and more veteran teams and look at

(01:48:03):
the final force the last couple of years. Look at
that San Diego State team that made it the championship game.
I got a six years. It was ridiculous.

Speaker 7 (01:48:13):
But is that.

Speaker 1 (01:48:16):
The way we're moving forward? If a Cali Perry is
now saying I need guys to stay in school, encouraging
guys to stay in school, and now we can because
we can legally pay them, is I mean? Because it's
been frustrating to me as a college basketball fan, especially
coming from a school like UCLA, the one and Dunn's
and just the constant turnover of talent that we've seen

(01:48:38):
in Bass college basketball for years and years and years.
Are those days over?

Speaker 2 (01:48:43):
So it's funny, and I know I'm the college hoops guy,
but I think there was about a six to seven
year stretch where it wasn't cool to be a college
basketball player. You come and then the second that you're
even considered a pro prospect, even in the second round,
you gotta go to make your money.

Speaker 1 (01:49:01):
Now I think it has completely flipped the other way.

Speaker 2 (01:49:04):
We're listen the guys that are no doubt about it,
first round guys, not not first round, like top fifteen
guys like yeah, you gotta go, Like Paolo Bankaro was
awesome at Duke ched Holmgren was awesome at Gonzaga. Even
this year reached Sheppard. I think there was a half
a second where he thought about coming back, but he
had to go. I think those guys if because if

(01:49:26):
you're like a top ten, top fifteen pick, it really
is life changing money that even nil can't pay. Right
and you can even go back to remember the NFL Draft,
there was like a half a second where people were
like Marvin Harrison, could he stay nil? And it was
like when you really broke down what a rookie contract
was gonna be for Marvin Harrison. It was like, yeah,
Ohio State, even Ohio State can't compete with that. Where

(01:49:47):
I think it gets interesting is late first round, early
second round. You're not guaranteed to get a first round selection,
you're not guaranteed money. Then the whole calculus changes. I'll
use my alma mater as an example. Alex Caraban was
like the fourth leading scorer on this year's team this
university Connecticut. I think he would have certainly been drafted,

(01:50:08):
and I don't think it's out of the rum of
possibility that he would have been a first rounder. But
at the same time, he didn't know he was going
to be a first rounder. He's a semester away from
his degree, and so for him, he sat there and said,
I can go, but I'm not guaranteed money. I'll come
back to Yukon. You know, Yukon doesn't have the nil
war chest that some of these other schools have, but

(01:50:29):
they he's not. You know, you know, he's doing okay,
he's doing just fine. So he's making money. He can
develop at his own pace. He was a little bit
banged up this year. He didn't really put his best
foot forward, and I think We are seeing that in
both college football and even college basketball. Even college football
as well. I mean you look at Ohio State. Will Howard,

(01:50:49):
the quarterback that transferred there could have been maybe a
six to seventh round pick, goes to Ohio State. Riley
Leonard the new quarterback at Notre Dame. He was projected
as a first rounder at Duke. He gets hurt, his
coach leaves. He says, let me come back to college
for another year. So I have been a little bit
negative on NIL because I think it has become a
thing that it wasn't supposed to be. But that's a

(01:51:10):
very long winded way of me saying I think it's
helping kids stay in school longer than they would have otherwise,
and I like that.

Speaker 1 (01:51:17):
Of concern to me, though, is the transfer portal? Well,
that's what I was gonna say. So where are we
going with that? I mean, what is the idea of
literally total free agency whenever you want, if you want
to play five schools in five years. It's we've got
to figure out a better way than that, well really quick.
So two things.

Speaker 2 (01:51:38):
One, it was funny because you said I didn't like
where college basketball was with all these guys leaving college.
It's like, well, now they're coming back. You just got
to understand that they still might only be at your
school for one year.

Speaker 1 (01:51:47):
So that's that. But I will say, by the way,
I am happy that of the transfer portal to rebuild
mc cronin's UCLA program. Oh yeah, now when the players
are good, you know, mind that's funny. Let all the
Euros go and say except for the seven three guy Marrow,
but I've read something he said bye bye and have
you know, don't let the door hitch on the way out.

Speaker 2 (01:52:05):
We're going to bring in an entire new team. Well
it was funny when you said, oh I don't like
the one and done. It's like, I bet you liked
it the year that Lonzo was there and they won
thirty games. But right, anyway, so the portal is interesting,
and listen, I don't think there's anything they can do
until athletes actually become literal employees of a university because
the NCAA.

Speaker 1 (01:52:25):
Listen, everybody wants to blame the NCAA. The NCAA follows the.

Speaker 2 (01:52:30):
Supervision of you know, the coaches are the ones that
vote on this stuff and put this stuff into place.

Speaker 1 (01:52:35):
So all the coaches wanted the one time transfer.

Speaker 2 (01:52:38):
Then all of a sudden, they got a guy who's
transferred for a second time, he's not eligible.

Speaker 1 (01:52:43):
They start throwing fits.

Speaker 7 (01:52:44):
You know.

Speaker 2 (01:52:44):
I think the best example of that it was funny
this week at ACC Media Days, Mac Brown comes out
and says college sports isn't even recognizable. There's been more
change in the last three years than in my first
forty seven. Okay, Mac Brown, Well, guess what the NCAA
tried to put into one time transfer rule last year.
You had a wide receiver named tes Walker who was awesome,

(01:53:05):
who was ineligible, and you threw a fit and you
went on every national talk You know, Ben Mallard could
have gotten him at three am to do an interview
because he was on every talk show that he possibly
could have. That's not a shot at Ben Mallard's just
Mac Brown would have woken up at two am to
do an interview because he was so mad about it.
So blame some of the coaches, But as far as
the portal is concerned, nothing's changing until these players are

(01:53:29):
actual employees. Because you can just use the whole you know,
whatever the term is. I don't even know the legal
term that there's it holds him backs.

Speaker 1 (01:53:39):
Well. I used to say this about coaches, the elite
coaches in college football and college basketball, that if you
get to that level, he used to be the cushiest
job in America. I mean, from a recruiting standpoint, maybe
there are one or two five star recruits that need
to close the door and you walk in. Paterno did

(01:54:00):
this at Penn State. I remember talking to Freema McNeil,
former Jet running back, great player at UCLA. Woody Hayes
showed up as his house in Banning, California. Sure, but
that was it. The assistants did the majority of the group. Now,
there is so much on your plate to be a

(01:54:20):
head coach of these schools, and it's so competitive. Don't
be surprised again, for you know, Mac Brown came out
of retirement, already inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame,
to return to North Carolina. He's not long for the
It's tough. If you're openly complaining about it, you're gone. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:54:39):
I was talking to head coach Power four. I guess
it's now Power four Conference. He said that since he's
going on vacation this week, and he said it's the
first vacation I've had since before last season started, because
the season starts and then you immediately have to go
into the portal stuff. Then you immediately have to go
into summer recruiting. You get your team back on campus.

(01:55:01):
Now you can have eight weeks of practice. So August
is the first time that he has had a vacation
since last dougs. Now, maybe you know he got away
for a day or two fourth of July. I don't
want to oversell it, but first time that he's been
away for more than two or three days for non
work related stuff in a year.

Speaker 1 (01:55:15):
Well as someone that did a seven day work week
for over two years. You know, it's not a bad thing.
You gotta have something to do, you know. On the
other side, what kind of week ahead is it going
to be? In a very very busy, busy sports week.
We're gonna break it down for you. This is Fox
Sports Sunday, Steve Harvin airon Tourist, Fox Sports Sunday Live

(01:55:35):
from the tai Iraq dot Com studios. Want to thank
our fearless crew today Martin jumping in all over those
Olympic results that will be going on for the next
couple of weeks VJ. Husky's cousin won some sort of VJ. Yes,
exactly in swimming, no less, yeah, exactly associate the Husky
family with swimming. But that shows you, well, you know Chris.

(01:55:57):
I got to ask Chris who is I mean, he
is the real deal when it comes to fandom for
the Olympic Games. So have the games been up to
the level you would expect being a connoisseur of the
Olympic Games?

Speaker 3 (01:56:14):
I think there is something to be said that it
is in our time zone makes it a little bit
easier to not quite our time zone, but at least
more tolerable than some past years, like Beijing Tokyo. Like
Beijing Tokyo, those are rough when that all comes on.
You know, it's twelve hours a were oute away from
East Coast time.

Speaker 1 (01:56:31):
Or Citney was tough, but you were there. I was six,
I was fourteen. He dropped that early. Oh yeah, I was.
By the way, it's funny I think the Sydney Games
were in because obviously their seasons are different. Was that late?
That was late September two? About this, So in fifty
six the Summer Games are in Melbourne. They were in
December in fact, Bill Russell, having just won the national

(01:56:52):
championship at the University of San Francisco back to back years,
he wanted to be on the Olympic team the latest corotar.
So that's why if you look at the record books,
he missed over thirty games.

Speaker 6 (01:57:04):
Wow.

Speaker 1 (01:57:05):
Now he ultimately won the championship that year. But that
is why Tommy Heinz and his teammate and not Bill Russell,
was named the NBA Rookie of the Year because he
actually played a full year. Bill Russell did not because
he had to wait for the Olympics that weren't until December.

Speaker 3 (01:57:19):
It's going to be interesting because I don't think they're
doing that offset at all for Brisbane, which is coming
up after the LA Olympics, so it might be very
cold down there. But no, I think Paris is completely
as a venue has lived up to it. I really
wish we had could have seen Tokyo with people there. Yeah,
I think that would have been fantastic. I still love

(01:57:40):
that they had a giant Gundam hanging over the cycling
course and everything on the streets.

Speaker 1 (01:57:44):
But Paris has been It's Paris. You really cannot compete
with Paris. Paris is an incredibly beautiful city. One of
the reasons my daughter is named Paris. And by the way, Bo,
you heard earlier Aaron taut the Washington Commanders as a
possible upset team to make it into the postseason. As

(01:58:08):
our resident Eagle fan, Uh, do you have that kind
of belief in the Commanders being approved? With Jade and Daners,
can you also share your thoughts on him? We have
a big contry.

Speaker 8 (01:58:18):
You kind of stole my flow word for word on
the Carolina Panthers because we did this. We did this
with VJ a couple of weeks ago, and everything you
said about the Panthers is what I said about the Panthers.

Speaker 1 (01:58:27):
Well, but you did. And then what added to it
was what Jeff Short said yesterday. So Jeff obviously living
down there in the Carolina area, and we were talking
about teams that could surprise, and he brought up the
Panthers as well.

Speaker 8 (01:58:42):
I think we're all just scared of Big Mike and
his Panthers fandom, so we don't want to upset him
Big Micah.

Speaker 1 (01:58:47):
But you have to understand, and Aaron's right on with this,
Tepper is oh nightmare.

Speaker 8 (01:58:52):
He might be the worst owner in sports.

Speaker 1 (01:58:53):
I mean, it hasn't taken long for him to be
like Daniel Snyder et. I mean, throwing ice and drinks
at fans like to.

Speaker 3 (01:59:02):
Think you had a very easy role. Just come over
and take over from Jerry Riggs, and you've ruined it.

Speaker 1 (01:59:10):
I mean, the guy is a disaster. Oh you're right,
that's a great point, Professor. The bar was so low
post Terry Vituals.

Speaker 8 (01:59:16):
I will say, though, the one thing I disagree with
Aaron on with the Commanders is the division games are
never gimmes. Ever, so it's tough for me to say like, oh, yeah,
they're gonna win too, They're gonna sweet Giants, and they could.
They could because they almost did last year, and but
and they could beat the Cowboys, and.

Speaker 1 (01:59:33):
The possibility, in your guys opinion that the Giants are
not going to be the absolute disaster that everyone thinks
are going to be awful. They're there's nothing lost it.

Speaker 3 (01:59:45):
I mean, the guy was the most highly data coach
in the league year. I still think he's a good coach.
But they have just tied their They've tied their roster
to these just anchor Stones and Daniel Jones and these
got that deal.

Speaker 1 (01:59:58):
Because Brian Dable, who's convinced he was that guy.

Speaker 8 (02:00:02):
I feel like the maybe Dable like didn't quite make
Josh Allen. Maybe Josh Allen made Brian Dable.

Speaker 1 (02:00:09):
Well that that's the reverse of what everyone thought. Because obviously,
when you look at what Josh Allen had been for
two years in Buffalo, we've never seen a quarterback who
through college in his first two years was a blow
sixty percent passer and then in one year suddenly he's
completing sixty eight percent of his pass The thing it
has never happened.

Speaker 2 (02:00:29):
The thing that's unfortunate is every guy that has come
out since is like, well, you know, I mean this
guy completed fifty four percent of his passes at Purdue,
but I mean, you know Josh Allen did it.

Speaker 1 (02:00:38):
It's like, yeah, there's an exception to every rule, and
the exception of the rule makes the rule. There's all
you want Josh Allen is there is There is no
no player, no quarterback with a statistical comparison of Josh Allen.
It's complete anomaly out there, all right. So this week,
sure Fame game, does this have more interest because of Cayler?

(02:01:04):
Better play least a series I would assume he won.
I think he's going to play quite a bit in
this preseason. That's a new system he's got to get
used to, right. I'll be there Thursday watching football's back, baby.
It is all right. And with that and all the
other news, including all your Olympic news, keep it right here.
This is Fox Sports Radio.

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