Steve Hartman and Zach Harper discuss Kawhi Leonard and the Clippers scandal, NFL training camp, and MORE!

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio Radio Sega living the
dream once again here on a fully loaded Sports Saturday.
This is Fox Sports Saturday. Steve Harbin, Zach Harper with
you were broadcasting live from the Fox Sports Radio studios,
and Zach, I have looking forward to this opportunity to

(00:23):
hang out with you. I've seen you around here, passing
by every once in a while, but today we get
a chance to hang out here for a few hours.
It's great to see you, by the way. Congratulations on
all your success. Man, it's been an amazing run. I
was talking to Zach before the show. If you don't
know Zach, I mean, then you don't follow the NBA,
because Zach is mister NBA. And I always amaze now

(00:45):
in this ever evolving business that we're in, just how
somebody basically steps out of dare I say, obscurity and
then actually finds himself in the mix.

Speaker 2 (00:58):
It's still feels like I'm grifting. It feels it still
feels fake. But I'm gonna ride this grift as long
as I can. Yeah, I mean, it's it's funny. I
never took a journalism class in my life, dropped out
of college, have spoken to journalism schools before and and
you know, hey, so what's your path, wind, I tell them,
And then like, so your journalism, I was, I've never

(01:18):
taken a class like you guys should. I don't recommend
this path for everyone, but uh but yeah, I mean,
this is the best job in the world.

Speaker 1 (01:25):
It is, I mean, and hanging out today, we got
lots of covery. We will get to some NBA news obviously,
but like everyone else, right now, I am thinking about
the National Football League after that Hall of Fame game
on Thursday. Now, look, I'm not going to overplay any
individual performance. I mean, suddenly they wanted to put a
bus of Carson back at there in cant Ohile. Let's

(01:45):
hold the horses on that one. But at the very least,
my walk away from the Hall of Fame game is
just a reminder that football is right around the corner. Now.
We just found out again off air that you know,
people know me about my Raider connection. That always gets
sick and tire when I referenced my raided years back
in the eighties, like you know that stone age stuff.

(02:06):
I get it, But you actually had a little connection
with the Raiders, did I did?

Speaker 2 (02:10):
I worked for the Raiders the year that they went
to the Super Bowl and lost to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
I was working for their merchandises, so they opened up
all these Raider image stores of San Diego for the
Super Bowl, and I sat next to Axl Rose quite
like he was like three seats down for me.

Speaker 1 (02:28):
Yeah. It was pretty cool.

Speaker 2 (02:30):
Yeah, but not a Raider fan, forty nine er fan,
so I had to hide. I literally had to hide
my forty nine er fandom. I had to like take
a quiz about the Raiders in my job interview. It
was the time where Philip Buchanan had just been drafted,
so I had to like I came with all this
knowledge about Philip Buchannan that I just memorized as quickly

(02:50):
as I could. It was a weird experience, but you know,
I got to run to Al Davis once or twice,
and it was it was pretty cool.

Speaker 1 (02:56):
Yeah. I wish I could say I only ran into him. Yeah,
you know, you know it's funny. I grew up hating
the Raiders. Hating the Raiders, you know, when I was
a kid. Obviously they had the great rivalry with the Chiefs.
Going back to the AFL days I was a John
Madden fan. I wasn't a Raider fan. In fact, when
they the ironic thing was when they won Super Bowl eighteen,

(03:17):
blowing out the Washington then Redskins thirty eight to nine.
I was watching that game with my buddies and thinking,
oh guy, I hate this Raiders. And now they're the
LA Raiders. Six months later, I'm working for them. You know,
It's just amazing how things all work out. But you know,
when I'm watching this preseason football, that's the only thing
that goes through my mind right now is the fact

(03:38):
that it's a reminder that the NFL season is right
around the corner. I assure everybody everyone gets high. That's
the greatest preseason game I've ever seen in my life. Okay,
well that's that's fine. I'm glad you were entertained. But understand,
nothing that happened in that game has any bearing on
any decisions of any team. This is how it works
around the National Football League. Is you get into training

(04:01):
camp at the most, at the most, there may be
four spots open on any roster, four spots maybe for grabs.
Everything else has been predetermined. Obviously, injuries can happen. Everything else.
But basically the rosters are set. Maybe they leave a
couple positions open. You know, you bring in some free
agent rookies. Obviously you're drafting guys for three rounds. You're

(04:23):
expecting them to make the team. If they don't, it's
a disaster. After that, you know, it's just a crap shoot.
You're trying to fill rosters. So you know, eventually, Zach
as we get into the expansion of the NFL season
and they're still negotiations going on between the players union
and the owners to get it up to eighteen games.
And you know, my guess is what they're gonna do
is they're going to eighteen games over twenty weeks. So

(04:44):
you're selling the networks, not just seven. You go from
literally selling a eighteen week season to a twenty week season.
A couple of buys probably expand the rosters a little bit,
few more jobs. You know, you're gonna give some concessions
to the players. But the other thing is just eliminate preseason.
I mean, there's just I mean, do we have preseason
high school games? Do we have preseason college games? Is

(05:05):
there any other level of football that has preseason games? No?
Because it's bad for you. You don't want to play
as many.

Speaker 2 (05:16):
Happen, No, I think it, you know, if they are
going to go to eighteen games, and it does seem
like they will, I think a twenty week season make
with a couple of buys makes so much sense and
eliminating the preseason as much as you possibly can. I'm
guessing you still have the Hall of Fame game, Like
maybe you have a week of it right right, Hall
of Fame game. Not that it's a big deal, but
it's like are dipping the toes back into the pro

(05:37):
football water, right, I think for what this would do, like,
if anything, it maybe training camp becomes a little bit
more important. Maybe that becomes, as you know, even more
expanded with that and expanding the rosters, But the majority
of the work it's done in training camp anyway. Yeah,
Like so, I you know, I've been around football teams,
I've been around people who work for and they're like,

(05:58):
it's you know, don't expect much each other's preseason game. Yes,
guys can make the roster from that. We've seen that
plenty of times. But in terms of the actual work
that happens to get ready for the games, that's all
in training camp, right exactly.

Speaker 1 (06:13):
And of course training camps way back in the day
used to start at the beginning of July, July beginning
of July, so they've cut way back obviously with you
know concerns. I mean, it's so crazy now. I mean,
back in the days with the Raiders, imagine this. So
we would have a game and then the players you
would literally see the players dragging their bodies in Monday,

(06:33):
dragging their bodies in the day after the game. Yeah,
and they would see the medical staff and they would
take a look. And in those days, you know, they
just take some pills. You'll be over sure, and then
Tuesday would be their day off. Wednesday Thursday are full
pad practices all all season long. Hit their quarterback the

(06:53):
till and then you know, Friday would be a lesser
load of Saturday walk through and then you play the
game again. I mean, it was just it was it
was different and obviously paid the price. Unfortunately, so many
of the Raided players that I worked with back in
the agies are no longer with us. You know, three
of the players that I played ended up with als. Yeah,
you know, so, I mean and now today, Roger, you

(07:17):
know that he has dementia. Obviously, a dear friend of mine,
Billy ray Smith, who I worked with the years ago
in radio, great great college player, great San Diego Charger Boyer,
passes away with dementia at age sixty four. And so
these are genuine concerns. So I get that. But we
also learned something in the COVID year. We didn't have
a preseason. In the COVID year, everything worked out and

(07:39):
guess what they looked. Okay, Week one maybe a little rusty,
but it only took a couple of weeks to really
get in the full swing of things. What the coaches
will tell you is is that the controlled scrimmages are
far more beneficial. Look, we're working on this. We need
some help with this. Okay, we're working on this. And

(08:00):
so you have these controlled scrimmages where you actually have
design drills to work on specific things that you want
to work on against a team where you have an
agreement back and forth. They are far more beneficial, but
beneficial as you get ready for the start of the
season than these preseason games, which of course you're charging
your season ticket holders full prices for these tickets. I mean,

(08:22):
just gouging them for more and more money. So I'm hoping,
hoping that with the expansion, the anticipated expansion, it's not
going to be next year, but it's going to happen
probably by the end of the decade. Eighteen games over
twenty weeks, and that should be good for the NFL.

Speaker 2 (08:38):
What if it gets to a point where it is
eighteen games but they don't add a second five, maybe
they expand the rosters and everything, and they're.

Speaker 1 (08:45):
Like, look were happening. That wouldn't happen because you, again,
you're trying to sell to the networks. You're expanding your
schedule from will be seventeen game season over eighteen weeks
to an eighteen game schedule over twenty weeks. Now you're
selling twenty weeks of regular season football. Now when you
start the season that you know you're going to have
to move it.

Speaker 2 (09:04):
Up because I mean, the Super Bowl is already We're
halfway into February next year.

Speaker 1 (09:09):
Right, super Bowls are now February, righty, it's time that
this one's like show you how crazy think about this?
So John Mannen won his one Super Bowl was Super
Bowl eleven and it was nineteen seventy seven. The game
was in seventy seven. The date of the game was
January ninth, and they had three rounds of playoffs. Right,

(09:32):
They didn't have a wild card round, but you had
a division round, you had the conference championship games, and
then you had the Super Bowl. The game was played
on January ninth, which is the earliest date for any
Super Bowl. So we've gone from that to where are
we mid February? Now February this year?

Speaker 2 (09:48):
I believe because because I know the NBA is not
happy about this bump up in the schedule because it's
eaten right into All Star weekend. Okay, which already has
its issues, but you don't need the Super Bowl messing
with this either.

Speaker 1 (09:59):
All Right, I'm going to I'm going to have a
suggestion for you as an NBA guy. You ready for
this on the other side, all right, So we're just
getting started here, Steve Hartman and Zach Harper, Harr and Horror,
Harr and Harror. Okay, Hartman and Harper with you right
here on a very loaded Saturday, we'll have the latest
on the Pro Football Hall of Fame induction ceremonies. Already

(10:19):
a sneak peak of who should be in the Pro
Football Hall of Fame next year and down the road.
Also talk about those Dodgers. Yeah, the team that everybody hates. Well,
they win another game. Are the baseball gods getting back
at the team that everyone deemed that ruined the game
of baseball. This is Fox Sports.

Speaker 3 (10:40):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
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Speaker 1 (10:52):
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Speaker 4 (10:57):
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Speaker 1 (11:27):
Steve Harbin Zach Harper with you Fox Sports Saturday. Once again.
We're in the Fox Sports Radio studios, and be sure
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Sports Radio on YouTube and subscribe. All right, well, once

(11:52):
again we are covering a multitude of subjects right now.
Today was induction day into the Pro Football Hall of Fame,
and they have a problem this year because Bill Belichick
was not part of the class and it was a
screw up with the new voting system they put in
a couple of years ago. So it used to be

(12:12):
that they would have three senior candidates, a contributor candidate,
and they would have a coach candidate, and they would
be all voted on individually. So if you got eighty
percent of the vote, you're in. That's why you had
full classes every year, because they would vote on everybody individually.
They decided, well, we're overstacking the Hall of Fame, so

(12:35):
let's do this. You vote for three of the five
and then you still have to get eighty percent. Well,
there's simple math involved here. And I have a friend
of mine who happens to be on the screening committee
for one of those senior committees, and he knew instantly
this is going to be an absolute you know what show.

(12:55):
And he's absolutely right because the last two years, one
out of five both years have gotten in. You know,
two years ago was Sterling Sharp and last year, of course,
this year was Roger Craig and the coach is home.
Gering got ousted, and this year Belichick. So there's been
discussion this weekend. They were going to talk about reforming

(13:15):
the voting process because now you have a backlog of coaches.
You know, when you look at Mike Holmgren, in my opinion, yes,
that's a Hall of Fame coach, and then you've got
guys that have won multiple Super Bowls. You got Tom Coughlin,
you got Mike Shanahan, You've got other coaches that are
sort of backloaded here, and they're all going to have

(13:36):
to wait because you can't pass on Belichick. If you're
only gonna have one coach candidate, who do you think
is going to be next season? It's got to be Belichick. Again.
I understand you don't want to have.

Speaker 2 (13:47):
Too many people getting in, but if you're preventing people
from getting in, who are going to get in eventually,
your system's kind of dumb. Like to just have one guy,
one coach getting it like. There are multiple coaches that
deserve to be in probably every single year, I guess,
depending on what you what you're gonna do with the

(14:08):
class or who's eligible whatever.

Speaker 1 (14:09):
But when it comes to coaches, they're all.

Speaker 2 (14:12):
Eligible, right, they like they this is it's there are
times we try to like galaxy brain, this thing, the
collective we U when it comes to all kinds of
voting systems and everything in sports, it was fine the
way it was.

Speaker 1 (14:27):
Okay, here, here's my thing about it. You want to
simplify any hall of fame, Here's how every hall of
fame should work, all of them. You ready for this,
all right? So you have the five year waiting room.
That's legit, right, you have five years if you're voting,
if you're one of those people voting, that's because you're
supposed to be someone that actually knows it, all right.
That's how you get to that position where you have

(14:48):
a Hall of Fame vote. Is that we are assuming
you actually know what you're talking about, right, all right.
So the way I would do it is everybody that's
eligible after a five year waiting period goes on one ballot.
There's no holdovers from the previous year. It's that one year. Now.
I'm a believer in second chances. So five years later

(15:11):
that group that did not get in from five years
earlier will get one last chance. Maybe you miss somebody, sure,
but if you didn't get at that point, Here's what
I always say if I give you a name. In fact,
I'm going to give you some names right now. Okat
ready for this? All right? So this is this is
first year eligible's coming up next year for the Pro

(15:32):
Football Hall of Fame. All right, So I'm going to
get your reaction right now, Zach and say I do
Adrian Peterson's Rob Gronkowski's in. Ben Roethlisberger don't like him,
but he's in Canton. I he's the first ballot guy,
I think. So Richard Sherman, Yeah, Antonio Brown no, why no?

(16:00):
I think.

Speaker 2 (16:02):
His run as a top receiver or the top receiver
was a little too short for me.

Speaker 1 (16:08):
Because he has actually as many All Pros as Randy
Moss had.

Speaker 2 (16:13):
Yeah, but like accolades are great, But you know, between
the two of those, undoubtedly who's who's a Hall of
Famer and who who isn't? Right, Like, if you're going
to I'm not saying you have to pick between Randy
and Antonio, but and I'm not even talking about like
all the off the field stuff. And I just think
that his run was just a little too short.

Speaker 1 (16:32):
Would you put Eric Weddle in the Hall of Fame? No,
how about Leveon Bell now Andrew Whitworth. Yeah, it's definitely. Okay.
So these are all first year eligibles, yeh okay, So
you have to limit how many first year eligible vote
for all those guys?

Speaker 3 (16:50):
No?

Speaker 1 (16:50):
No, no, under my rules, you could vote for all
of those guys, which is the whole point, because they're
all I mean the ones. See. My point is this,
if you give me a name and I have to
think about it, they're not a Hall of Famer Hall
of Fame, just like you say, Adrian Peterson, you know,
look next, you know, you know Rob Gronkowski next. If

(17:11):
I have to convince you that someone is in the
Hall of Fame, they're not a Hall of Famer. To me,
my halls of Fame would be far more exclusive.

Speaker 2 (17:20):
I believe when it comes to especially the basketball Hall
of Fame.

Speaker 1 (17:24):
Oh don't get we should we should have a one in,
one out rule. Okay, First, of all, can I I'm
I know I'm exhausting people with my Hall of Fame,
but I'm passionate. Oh this is good. Okay, okay. First
of all, understand this. There is no NBA Hall of Fame.
There is a Women's Basketball Hall of Fame. There is
a college basketball Hall of Fame, there is a FIFA,

(17:46):
there's an International Basketball Hall of Fame. All these all
these different they all have their own halls of fame
except the NBA. There's no NBA Hall of Fame. So
the NBA players have to get lumped in with everybody else.
Think about this. This year, one NBA player was put

(18:06):
in Amari Stodenmarch. Three WNBA players are put in. Yeah,
am I missing something? Three w NBA players are going
in the Hall of Fame. One NBA player going into
the Hall of Fame. You could argue Amari borderline, borderline.
And so the other part of it is there is
almost as many coaches in the basketball Hall of Fame

(18:28):
as are players. Imagine that in pro football or in baseball,
there's like twenty managers, and they have almost as many coaches.
And not just any coaches, they have high school coaches.
They had a junior college coach. Junior college coach put
into the Basketball Hall of Fame alongside NBA coaches and

(18:49):
top level Division one coaches, all sharing the same podium
at the same time. I mean, this thing is an
absolute nightmare. The problem was they started the Basketball Hall
of Fame before the the NBA had even taken root.
The first class was in nineteen fifty nine, the NBA
was a decade old. George Miken was put in the
first class, classified as a college player. They didn't even

(19:10):
count that he played in the NBA. So here I
give him my ten guys. This how if we had
an inaugural ten player class in the NBA, right, you
got to go to the roots. This would be my
inaugural class, and then I would add five players each
year for a certain amount of time to catch up,
then probably reduce it to like three. But my initial

(19:31):
ten would be the two biggest stars of the early NBA,
which were George Mike and Bob Goosey. Those two, Bill
Russell and Wilt Chamberlain, Jerry West and Oscar Robertson, Kareem
abdul Jabbar, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, and Michael Jordan. Those
would be my first ten. Those are like the pioneers. Okay,
now obviously there's done a lot of great players, and
then you know, the second class could be like doctor

(19:53):
j and Elgim Baylor and you know, Bob Patted, you know,
and some other of the greats, and then you start
catching up up, you know, to the modern guys. That's
how I would do. Uh. An NBA Hall of Fame
coach Cal got in and like twelve years ago, right

(20:14):
he's still coaching. Oh, Rick Betino got in, and then
the you know, you know what hit the fan at level,
like I don't think any current coach should be allowed
to be in.

Speaker 2 (20:24):
Like the fact that Doc Rivers, who gets in this weekend,
this coming weekend, uh could go and get a job
tomorrow in the NBA is insane.

Speaker 1 (20:33):
Well, he actually got fired after he got elected to
the Hall of Fame. The most overrated coach of all time.
I was just unbelievable. That guy. It's a great guy.
I mean put it this way. I was covering a
lot of I was doing a lot of TV work
when when Doc came to the Clippers and Mike Tantoni
was with the Lakers who pick shirk Oh Mike. I

(20:56):
love Michael. He is a jerk, but I like jerks. Yeah. Uh,
I'll tell you the guy that was really my first
starring radio, pat Riley, was still the coach of the Lakers.
His arrogance was just beyond belief. Yeah. He was the
kind of guy that you had, like a group of
media guys would stand around and if you asked him
a question, he just did not like the question. He

(21:17):
would do the staredown on you in front of everybody.
And of course I was like, I'm looking at him
like did I are you not clear of my question?
And then I really got him angry and that kind
of stuff. He was a pill.

Speaker 2 (21:30):
What's funny to me is the whole like, you know,
getting popped by Greg Popitch when he was coaching, And
it happened to me a couple of times. And the
first time it happened to me, I'm in Minneapolis, I'm
at the Target Center Spurs Wolves pregame and everyone goes
over to him in the hallway and people are like
not really asking questions. You can tell they're intimidated. It's
in like the real height of media people getting getting popped.

(21:51):
And so I asked him something about like corner three
point defense or something. I'm trying to sound smart and everything.
Ask him a question and he looks at me. He goes,
do you think if I knew that answer, I would
tell you. I'm like, I thought it was kind of funny.
I like, look around, everyone's got their head down, and
I'm like, and so I kind of like he's just
like staring and I was like, that's nicely he like
gave a little smile and he walked away. Be goes,

(22:11):
I were done, and he walked away, and I was like, nobody,
you're all sketic.

Speaker 1 (22:15):
This is even on TV. It's so unnecessary. It's unnecessary
for me, It's really unnecessary. I mean, you know, Phil
Jackson was someone that was Phil never blamed himself for
anything ever, even even a hint of like maybe I
screwed up, or a hint that maybe I made the
wrong decision, or even even a sliver of hint. Never

(22:40):
if things are going bad, it was all on the players. Absolutely,
Probably Scottie Pippin with the Lakers, well, he had his
whipping boys that were there all right. Once again, for
the best pregame show every weekend, be sure to tune
into Fox Sports Radios Countdown presented by BET MGM every
Saturday and Sunday morning from not empt to New Eastern

(23:00):
six to ninety m Pacific. We're going to count on
all the biggest games of the weekend. Tune in the
Countdown presented by BED MGM every Saturday and Sunday morning
right here on Fox Sports Radio. Okay, let's find out
what is trending right now and a true legend of
the game. Who I've known, you say, a couple of

(23:25):
years at least fun? Yeah, at least fun. Here's the
thing we can actually, mister disaga. We can talk in
terms of score. Okay, you know, like four score and
seven years ago. We can talk in terms of score.

Speaker 5 (23:37):
Not that we both go back to Lincoln.

Speaker 1 (23:39):
Yes, we have to use the terminology. We can use
the term score.

Speaker 5 (23:42):
By the way, as you mentioned Phil Jackson there, reminding
me that sometimes Phil Jackson would not call a time
out when there was a bad run going up against
his team because his philosophy was they got in this mess,
get out of it.

Speaker 1 (23:53):
He was definitely about players being responsible for their own actions,
no question.

Speaker 5 (23:58):
Let's start with the NFL's We do have a breaking
news eit of for Mike Garrafullo NFL Network. The Commanders
left tackle Laramie Tunsel, a five time pro bowler, suffered
a torn triceps in practice today during drills and will
likely require surgery, so he will quote miss at least
a significant portion of the regular season. Eagles right tackle

(24:19):
Lane Johnson says this will likely be his final NFL
season fourteenth year in the league. Kyle Shanahan of the
forty nine Ers will coach next week's preseason opener. He's
been limited in camp after a last month's car accident.
Ravens wide receiver Za Flowers is day to day with
a bruce quad after a collision at practice. He just
signed a four year extension this week. Bears wide receiver

(24:41):
Luther Burden left practice after being tangled up with a
defensive back in the end zone, and the Raiders sat
quarterback Kirk Cousins and defensive lineman Max Crosby after they
scuffled on Friday. The two did not practice today and
you reference this. New Hall of Famer Roger Craig revealed
in a video speech he has vascular dementia. This year's
class also included Drew Breathes, Larry Fitzgerald, Adam Vin Cherry,

(25:05):
and Luke Keighley. The induction ceremony was today in Canton,
bo hostlers tied for the golf lead in Greensboro, Indy
car schedule resumes on Sunday on Fox TV from Portland, Oregon.
In the WNBA, Indiana was a winner at Chicago ninety
to eighty six, twenty six points for Caitlin Clark. She
got her eighth technical of the year, which would have

(25:26):
meant a one game suspension. Automatically, that tea has been rescinded.
In Major League Baseball, the Yankees were home winners over Atlanta,
five to four. Atlanta had won eighth straight until Friday's loss.
Former pitcher Tommy John did not attend the Yankees Old
Timers Day. He posted a goodbye as he battles health problems.
In Florida, the A's were winners at Boston seven to three.

(25:48):
The Red Sox had won nine in a row the
as snap of nine game losing streak. Miami shut out
the Angels seven nothing. The Halos have the worst record
in the Majors forty five and seventy two. Max Yours
was the starting pitcher for Toronto. Tonight had a two
to nothing lead. Philly scored four in the six, now
lead four to two going to the eighth inning. Sures
are allowed back to back homers before he left. In

(26:11):
the six long balls from Trey Turner and Bryce Harper.
It's the Pirates still eight nothing over the Mets. In
the bottom of the six, Nationals lead the Reds six
to two. That's what Chase burns on the mountain. He's
charged with the first five runs in five and a
third era up over two point six to oh Now
and the Cubs, who won five in a row, are
losing sixth inning at Kansas City Royals four to two

(26:33):
over Chicago. The Brewers, with the best record in the Majors,
are tied with the Twins three to three in the
bottom of the fourth inning, and the game on Fox
TV tonight battle for the lead in the Al Central
Guardians at White Sox scoreless and the fourth Back to you.

Speaker 1 (26:48):
This Tommy John Farewell letter. Did you see this did
not vague? Okay, this is crazy, Steve, thanks for the
update there. So they had the old Timers Day and
he sent a letter. I'll read. It's a very short letter.
He goes, I want to thank the Yankees organization, the

(27:08):
Steinbrenner family for giving me this opportunity to say goodbye
to everyone, along with all the friends and fans who
followed me through my twenty six year career. Thanks to
doctor Job who saved my arm and made it possible
for me to continue pitching. That surgery has since gone
on to save the careers of countless pitchers, including many
of the very best in the game today. Thank you
to all the fans who supported me and my teammates

(27:31):
for twenty six years. I will never forget you. He's
in hospice care right now and he's been battling bladder cancer,
other ailments. There's no clear indication, but wow, I met
Tommy John years ago, a great guy. And of course
he's such a legendary name, and it's like you have
your name connecta, and yet here's a guy who pitched

(27:52):
twenty six years when two hundred and eighty eight games
in his career, and he's not in the Hall of Fame.

Speaker 2 (27:59):
The Baseball Hall of Fame. I got issues with two
their voting process. Yes, I to your point about guys
become eligible. You make the vote, you know you don't
make it the first time. All right, let's wait five years.
You're in your perfect world.

Speaker 1 (28:14):
Yeah, in my perfect way, you get a second chance.

Speaker 2 (28:18):
The idea in baseball that these six seven times you're
not a Hall of Famer, but on the eighth time,
we're gonna let you in. Right, you're the Hall of
Famer or not correct. And to your point, I do
think if you have to really think about.

Speaker 1 (28:32):
It, when you were watching the career of Scott Rowland,
you're like, oh, that's a Hall of Fame. That's a
Hall of Famer. No nobody, nobody ever referenced when he
was coming up we thought he was gonna be a
Hall of Famer. Was like nobody had somebody ever thought
of him as a future Hall of Fame? No, nobody, No,
it's so they you know, like John Palmer ROSSI dear

(28:54):
friend of mine, and he has a vote, and we
get into it, and you know, we were talking about
Jeff Kent this year, and I go, you know, pretty
interesting that, you know, the whole Bay area was infiltrated
by uh, you know, PDS at the time, the Giambie brothers,
obviously Miguelta Hot, Barry Bond supposedly, but the one guy,
even though he had this incredible power searcher in those

(29:16):
six years he's with the Giants, Jeff can he never
even sniffed the stuff, right, So he went from like
a fifteen home run hitter with the Mats to hitting
thirty home runs a year with the Giants. And they
left the Giants, he was no longer hitting thirty home
runs anyway. Yeah, but he's clean, he's I'm sure. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (29:33):
He also he also broke his arm or whatever falling
off his truck while watching it. Yeah, nothing else, by
the way you.

Speaker 1 (29:37):
Talk about it. A jackass, I mean he was the worst.
I mean Barry I never had a problem with Barry Bonds.
If you were covering the Giants in those days and
you said say hi to Bonds, he'd say hi to you.
He'd sort of sit off in his corner. But he
wasn't like nasty. The two guys that were nasty were
Jeff Cannon, Matt Matt Williams. Matt Williams man was he bad? Wow?

(30:01):
All right, I have a suggestion for you. So you
were talking about the concerns earlier about the expanding NFL
season as it infiltrates on the NBA I've been saying
this for a couple of years. I'm going to get
your thoughts because I do love the NBA. I love basketball, okay,
and I want the NBA to play long into the future.

(30:23):
I'm not wild about their commissioner because I'm sort of
a David Stern guy. Stern is spinning in his grave
right now. But that's a whole different story. I had
Adam Silver's handling things. But anyway, the NBA season should
start on Christmas Day. It should go from December to August.
If you think about it, if the NBA Finals were

(30:43):
in the end of August, mid to late August, you
have no competition, you have nothing. You know, it's dog
days of summer, September October. Fine, that belongs to whatever
Baseball can get away from the NFL. But you know,
the idea of starting in October just doesn't make sense anymore.
And so for a lot of people, people don't even
I mean, i mean the NBA Cup, come on, I'm employees.

(31:06):
I mean it's just at first of all, I can't
even watch the games with those courts. I mean, they're unwatchable.
Did they even think about how they look on TV?
They look awful, Zach. But that's what I would do.
Instead of October to June, I would have a December
to August schedule for the NBA.

Speaker 2 (31:21):
Your thoughts, I do think it makes way more sense.
And the issue that they have is they are so
worried about always going up against the NFL. Well, get
you're not going to win that battle. And this is
something that I I struggle with a lot, because, like you,
I'm a David Stern guy. Like that's who I grew up,

(31:42):
you know, running the NBA and everything. And I, while
I recognize his shortcomings as a person who handled things delicately,
I also don't mind that, right. I don't mind someone
yelling at me if I've done something.

Speaker 1 (31:55):
You like this. When I was working with Michael Thompson, Okay,
so we had stirred on quite a bit. Yeah, And
when they had the new rule about attire after the
Allen Iverson situation, we had stern on and I literally
this is exactly what I asked him on the air.
I say, Commissioner, I have a question for you. Are
you drunk with power? Now? The thing about Stern was

(32:16):
he would not he wouldn't laugh at that. His mediate
is because I know how he he goes. If you're
asking me if I'm going to do what's best for
the league, Yes, so I'm going to do what's best
for the league. Yeah. I mean that's the kind of
guy he was. You know, I loved him. I loved
him too, and I and my issue with but he
was a bad guy in a lot of ways for sure. Absolutely.
And what he did is the league's attorney to Connie Hawkins.

Speaker 2 (32:38):
Yeah, no, I mean he's he's a ruthless yeah, you know,
litigator like I mean, this is a guy who knew
knew how to run that league with an iron fist.
My issue with Adam Silver is you're a little too
worried about what everyone else is doing. You're a little
too worried about what everybody else thinks. Yeah, you can't
be friends with the owners and the players and the

(32:59):
refs and the fans and the broadcast. Like that's just
not feasible. So you've got to pick. This is what
I'm going to concentrate on. He gets asked about things
all the time. He's like, well, you know, the NFL
does this, and the NHL does this, and Baseball does this,
And my answer would have been I just signed a
seventy six billion dollar media rights deal, and I would
have shot one of those money guns in the air and.

Speaker 1 (33:18):
Said, I'm not worried about your criticism right now.

Speaker 2 (33:21):
Like you, at a certain point, you just have to say,
I've got the biggest bank role out of all of this.

Speaker 1 (33:27):
We're doing pretty well. Are their issues? Yeah, we'll try
to fix them. Okay. So the biggest issue obviously keeping
guys on the court. Michael Jordan's final year with the Wizards,
a little puffy around the middle, forty years old, played
all eighty two games with knee ten tonight us both years,
all eighty two games.

Speaker 6 (33:48):
Yeah, I think, how do we get into this mess
where we have to change rules for eligibility for postseason
honors based on how many games you play?

Speaker 1 (33:58):
How did we get to this point. I don't think
you have to do any of that.

Speaker 2 (34:01):
I think it's the what Adam Silver was doing was
trying to assure the new media rights partners NBC and Amazon, Hey,
you spent a lot of money, We're gonna have guys
on the court. So here's what I'm gonna do. I'm
gonna make sure they want awards, they're gonna do like
that's all this was. It was negotiating for the media.

Speaker 1 (34:18):
Rights well as far as the all NBA teams are concerned.
That's directly tied to how much money is the absolutely,
and I.

Speaker 2 (34:24):
Think the issue is at a certain point you just
got to hammer the teams. I don't believe this is
a player issue. I talked to enough players, I've talked
to enough executives. I do not believe this is a
player I think players want to play. I think more
I would say ninety percent of the time of players
sitting out it is they are told you're out tonight,

(34:45):
not like, hey, you know, my knees sore.

Speaker 1 (34:48):
I think I should take tonight off. I don't really
feel like playing.

Speaker 2 (34:50):
It's no we'd We've looked at the schedule, We've looked
at the numbers, We've looked at all this stuff. As
much as the league wants to deny that these studies
exists and have real data and everything, that teams believe
it because that's how they're running their rosters and their rotations,
and so it's not we got to make sure these
guys are available in May and June, and so they've
gotten into this load management thing, which was also a disaster,

(35:13):
and just how it was presented, it should have always been, yeah,
this is injury management if you like, I truly believe
changing load management to injury management at the start would
have cut so much of the discourse about it out
of the out of the equation because they're like, oh, yeah,
they're managing injuries. Kawhi Leonard wants to play, Joel Embiid

(35:34):
wants to play. Their knees are bags of soup, like
they just like they don't have structure in their knee
at all. And so the issue is like, yes you can.
There are some players who maybe, oh, man, I can't
believe I got to play tonight. David cern will be like,
that's what the money's for. Like, we didn't have this
issue running rampant, rampant, you know and wild in the

(35:55):
NBA until Adam Silver was the commissioner, because David Stern
would have been like, no guys are playing. We're going
to figure out ways to incentivize this or more to
punish this, and it should be punishing the teams however
they need to.

Speaker 1 (36:08):
Yeah, it's just unfortunate that and I know it's a cliche.
People don't like the term inmates running the asylum. But
the bottom line is is that let's go back to
when Adam Silver became commissioner and they had the Donald
Sterling situation where Lebron and other top players in the
league said, if this guy is an out of the league,
we're out of the window. Yeah, and he caved. Unfortunately

(36:30):
for the league, a guy like Steve Bomber paid four
times the asking price and raised the value of every
team around the NBA coming up on the other side, though,
I want to get into the whole situation with Kwhi Leonard.
Is he actually going to return to Toronto? Is he
going to be a member of that team? What kind
of punishment is going to be handed down to an owner,

(36:52):
the Clippers owner, mister Bomber, who, by the way, has
enough money to buy literally the entire league and change
it into the National Bomber Association. Tomorrow, we'll hear what
Zach has to say. This is Fox Sports said, you're
listening to Fox Sports Radio Radio, Fox Sports Saturday, Steve Harbin,

(37:17):
Zach Harper with you once again in the Fox Sports
Radio studios. All right, What's what's gonna be the end result? Here.
As far as the Kawhi Leonard's situation, this investigation, actually
it's been a one man on a mission to take down.
I don't know what he's trying to take down, but
he's he's determined to take down something here. I've maintained

(37:37):
all along, and I don't think the NBA is gonna
mess too heartily with Steve Bomber and take him at
his word. That's saying I had. Look, I got screwed
out of seventy million dollars I lost with this company.
But what do you think ultimately is going to happen
as far as Kawhi Leonard, does it affect at all
his situation with Toronto at.

Speaker 2 (37:54):
This Up until this week, I thought it'll be a
slap on the rest. Bomber maybe get suspended for six months,
Lawrence Frank maybe gets suspended for a year whatever that
maximum find is, which is nothing to Steve Bomber. I
don't think they'll maybe they take a draft pick or
two and then give it back later on. I don't
think anything's gonna happen with Kawhi if these latest allegations
of pablotory has has unveiled with the Daktronics Scoreboard, Jumbo

(38:20):
Tron company. If that's true, I don't think you can
just say like it's going to be a slap on
the wrist anymore. I think the trade to Toronto if like,
if this allegation is true, the trade to Toronto can't
happen because I legitimately think you could see Kauhai suspended
for an extended period of time, if not a full season.

(38:40):
But again, like, I don't know when this is going
to end, because let's say they wrapped it today, Pablotoria,
make sure Pablo's look he's going for a second pulitzer.
I guess I don't know. But let's say it ended today,
the league would review all the information, they'd have a ruling.
We're still going to arbitration, and if there is a
severe against Kawhi, the players union.

Speaker 1 (39:03):
Is going to appeal.

Speaker 2 (39:05):
Like that, I mean, this is probably at best two
two and a half months away from actually having a
conclusion if it If the investigation ended today, the league
is back in training camp late September. I don't know
how Toronto can just say like, okay, yeah, like we're

(39:25):
gonna keep this trade on hold and bring him in.
If he gets suspended if he gets well, even if
he doesn't at this point, if this investigation isn't going
to end before the season starts, which I always thought
was ridiculous, but now it seems, yeah, this is a
real possibility. I think the trade has to be off.
I just I and it sounds like it might be.
Like it sounds like there is a good chance that

(39:48):
Toronto will say, Okay, no trade.

Speaker 1 (39:50):
It's just amazing to me that the richest owner by
leap years in the NBA, literally one of the ten
wealthiest people in the world, would look at some kind
of way to shirk the salary. I mean, this is
chump change for this guy. I mean, look, you know,

(40:13):
we can go back in time about the worst trade
in NBA history that the you know, the Clippers got
involved with to get Paul George in order to get
Kawhi Leonard. But if you look back in the context
of when they did this deal, it was not outrageous. No,
they were trying to keep him because Kawhy's coming off
a championship season to Toronto. Paul George is coming off
a season where he was third in the MVP voting.

(40:35):
The idea of teaming them together in their prime made
a lot of sense, put you on the map. But
that being said, it just seems crazy to me that
Bomber in any way could be involved in something like
this when it would be completely unnecessary and honestly, with
all due respect to pabulatory easy to figure out along
the way. All right, we've got much more coming up
as far as the NBA with of course Zac, but

(40:56):
also we're going to get into the Dodgers situation. Are
are they actually ever going to win another? By rolling
along here on a very busy sports Saturday, once again,
we're broadcasting live from the Fox Sports Radio studios. All right,
we got much more to talk about NBA related I'm
going to take full advantage of having Zach Harper here
with me today. I just love your passion. Thank you.

(41:19):
So I have a son of mine who is he's
twenty eight years old, twenty eight years old, and he
has a very similar passion for the NBA, Like the
NBA is everything everything to him. And he's one of
those guys that plays what's the two K? I mean,

(41:41):
like he'll literally redo teams a thousand times and then
you know, win sixty nine and three you know, sure,
thirteen seventy seven win teams, you know, create these monster teams.
Is there a spot from that guy for something like that?
Can you always use people that just I mean really
are in. I mean, that's that's how I got started, right,

(42:02):
It's like whole point. I was twenty five when I
started my website. Like you know, I think if you
have a.

Speaker 2 (42:09):
Passion for it, that that alone, Like the two things
I always tell people is like, all right, you're gonna
do it, start now.

Speaker 1 (42:15):
Yeah, and don't quit that you can't quit, Like that's
the thing. I mean.

Speaker 2 (42:19):
I went years where no one read me, no one
listened to me, and you just like that's frustrating. You
feel like, oh, I did some good work here and
then no one cares about it. But the point is
you're getting reps. It's like working out. It's like working
on your jump shot. It's all that. Like, it's all
it is is reps. And so the good the bad
of it. I mean there are days now like I'll
write something like, well that sucked, like I know that

(42:42):
that was not good, and that there are days that
I write something like I'm a genius.

Speaker 1 (42:46):
I figured it out.

Speaker 2 (42:47):
And and it's all it all works in the same tandem.
It like it's a symbiotic relationship where all it is
is just furthering your passion, continuing, continuing the work, and.

Speaker 1 (42:58):
All you have to do is start. That's the hardest part.
I'm going to ask you a question, and I know
it's a slippery slope, and I'm gonna ask it anyway,
because they're in the news right now and I'm talking
about these high priced insiders and for all sports, and
I'm not going to name names because you know all
the names out there, and you know, I tell people

(43:23):
because I know a lot of these people, you know,
and to maintain their high paying jobs, I mean, you
have to deliver. The pressure to deliver is immense, and
I know that some people have really been put in
compromise situations where like, if you don't start delivering more news,

(43:44):
we'll find somebody that will. And that puts yourself in
a real precarious situation. And so the way you have
to go about this, obviously, is you have to get
in tight with people around the players. You know, it's
hard to get it directly from players. You want to
have a friendly relationship with them. It's people around them.

(44:06):
And these players are surrounded by entourage and that's how
they get the information. The problem, course is there's a
trade out. Sure there, sure is. I mean, okay, sure
I'll work with you, but you gotta agreece for me too.
You know. Let's I mean, let's go back to the
Lebron situation with Rich Paul. So, Rich Paul has done

(44:31):
Lebron good. It's been a good relationship for but Rich
Paul would never be never seen the light of day
had it not been his association with Lebron James. So
the little guy found a way to ride the coattails
of Lebron James. And he has done that by doing
exactly what it is Lebron wants them to do. So

(44:52):
this was one of the great comedy routines of all
time because here was an unrestrictive free agent. Anybody could
talk about him. It wasn't like there was any tampering
involved or anything else. He's an unrestricted free agent. And
yet there wasn't a single GM on record, even with

(45:14):
a hint that they were interested in Lebron James. No,
you're to you know, we'd like to add some places. Oh,
but Rich Paul's got voice messages. Let me get this straight.
So this was at all time. So let me get
this straight. A GM is calling you or player's calling you,
and you're put in straight to voicemail. Really really, it's

(45:35):
like that. How unbelievable was that? So every story about
all the interests I mean literally maybe not the Lakers,
but you know, and the Lakers wanted him, but you know,
we decided it was time to move on. Sure. Uh,
I just found it just comical. So it's someone like
yourself that obviously is going through a lot of different

(45:56):
sources to compose whatever it is that you want to
get across to your audience about what is actually happened
in the NBA. How do you go through the garbage
and actually find out what the reality is as close
as you can actually find out. I don't.

Speaker 2 (46:14):
I mean, look probably to my you know, my despair
at times, I don't do the whole like, oh yeah,
you give me some informational scratch. I don't do that,
like we can talk, we can not talk. I'm going
to form my opinion regardless it's going to be either
super informed or informed enough that I feel like, all right,
I can say this, yeah right, and you make relationships

(46:38):
over you know, I've been doing this eighteen nineteen years
at this point, and you form relationships with people you
know who you can trust. You know when someone's feeding
you bs, you know when someone's feeding you the truth.
For the most part, you get an instinct for it.
And I put it all together and I think, like,
all right, is this is what I'm about to say, plausible, smart,

(47:02):
you know, entertaining, whatever is, there's something to it, and
and if not, then I'm very honest about that, like, hey,
this is me just guessing here. I don't know, like
I don't know what's going on right or if I
have some information, I will put it in a way.
But I don't like reporting, like I only report a
couple times a year. I'll do it around the trade deadline,
I'll do around the draft, free agency. But to me,

(47:23):
that is the part of the game of media where
it is so much scratch my back, I'll scratch yours
like I had last summer. I had a GM or
I'm an agent of a guy who's going to be
in the Hall of Fame. Randomly hit me up like hey, man,
would love to meet, would love to talk or whatever,
and I just you know, I don't really do the

(47:45):
agent game. Like that's just not what I do, you know,
So I'm no disrespect but like I just I'm not
going to do that, like because to me, you know,
I talked about this all the time with people I've
I've gotten rid of as much much biased as you
possibly can when it comes to basketball, when it comes
to the NBA, when it comes to the job because
my own vanity, I would rather be right than like

(48:07):
do a favor kind of thing, because to me, that
is what ultimately I'll be judged on. And so I've
become friendly with coaches, with players with GMS before and
sometimes that's endured and sometimes it has gone completely away
because I said some stuff because they started being bad
at the job, right, And so you either you just

(48:27):
have to make that decision of like what that's going
to mean for you. But in terms of like sifting
through the bs, it's always why does this benefit this,
you know me to have this information? Why why is
this get out?

Speaker 1 (48:39):
So during the whole Lebron James thing, and this actually
went back to the beginning of the season when he
was sitting out with that sudden about with sciatica.

Speaker 2 (48:47):
As someone who's had sciatica. Yeah, I knew he wasn't.

Speaker 1 (48:51):
Playing the second they introduced that. Well, I mean, uh,
and again, Lebron's been pretty good about playing when he can't.
You know, he's not a looad man management guy. Yeah,
all right. But that being said, I really felt before
the season began that the Lebron had two teams he
wanted or had interested in, and that was Cleveland and
New York. I felt like those were two teams where

(49:12):
he felt like, I have interest in playing for them,
and it was not reciprocated. They weren't at that time
interested in the we're not getting our No, that's not
happening to add a fifty million dollars to our payroll.
So when the season ended and he was officially parted
ways with the like as I always like his response,
Oh no, no, thank you, thank you, thank you got it.

(49:34):
It's good manners. Yeah. So to me, it was always
about Cleveland. I mean, Cleveland is the team that makes
the most sense. Of course, he voluntarily left Cleveland twice. Yeah,
it's not like they owe him anything. Let's see, you
ditched this once. Oh that's why you ditched this twice?
Him a championship. Yeah he did. Okay, so he delivered
the championship. You did that, great, We're not bringing it

(49:56):
back for their day. I don't think it as much
as he wanted to go to Cleveland. I just I've
always feelt like Cleveland's like, you know what, We're okay,
We're okay, we have a young team. We just, by
the way, clobbered Detroit on the road in Game seven. Yeah,
cobbed them by thirty. Why are we going to just

(50:18):
put everything on hold essentially for a year to bring
in Lebron James when we're already making progress. I don't
think that Cleveland was ever ever as interested in bringing
back Lebron as Lebron was interested in finishing his career
with the Calves. Oh, I think they were dying too.
I think they were dying. I think that, and they
couldn't come up with minimum wage like the Sixers did.

Speaker 2 (50:40):
I think I think he looked at it as like, oh, yeah,
they're not winning. Oh really yeah, and Philly is they
got a better chance? Oh blah, let's let's hold on
this second. Okay, let's let's go back. Let's go back
to Joel Embiid. You see he's going to stay up
right through the playoffs. No, but I don't think he will.
I know Cleveland has flamed out dramatically in four straight postings,

(51:06):
not that Philly hasn't, But I think you add Jalen
Brown to the makes he's like, all right, that's good,
I'll do that.

Speaker 1 (51:11):
Don't you feel like the Knicks ultimately were just a
team of destiny? Yes? I mean think about this. They
had three consecutive series against teams that won Game seven
on the road. Think about that. Yeah, they get Philly,
who beats Boston on the road. They get Cleveland, who
beats Detroit down the road. They get San Antonio beats
OKAC on the road in a game seven. In other words,

(51:31):
they weren't supposed to play those teams. They were supposed
to play Boston, they were supposed to play Detroit, they
were supposed to play the defending champions, and they got
the other team. I mean, in all three rounds.

Speaker 2 (51:42):
I think I I Lebron would have gone to New
York if they hadn't won the championship.

Speaker 1 (51:47):
For sure.

Speaker 2 (51:47):
You can't just go join New York in that situation.
And in terms of Cleveland, that team is a mess. Internally,
And I think, I mean, if I know that, Lebron knows,
and so I think he looked at that, looked at
the situation, and yes, I think, I mean New York
was a better team.

Speaker 1 (52:06):
Go back last season, Cleveland flames out. No one's ready
to play. Go back.

Speaker 2 (52:10):
The season before that, they blame injuries. That team flamed out.
That season before that, they flamed out. Like this is
just not a playoff team. They're regular season team. They're
not a playoff team. They have so much talent, nobody
wants to play in the playoffs.

Speaker 1 (52:21):
All right. On the other side, I want you to
look at the Sixers and I want you to look
into your crystal ball, Zach Okay. I want you to
project what's going to happen for a franchise that hasn't
won an NBA championship since Moses Malone uttered the words
faux fo full nineteen eighty three, nineteen faux full full. Yeah,
I was watching that Nightmare series. I knew the la

(52:42):
I said, no chance, vaux fofo. And I want to
hear exactly what kind of dynamic you foresee on the
court for that team? What kind of basketball are we
going to see? This is Fox Sports Saturday, listening to
Fox Sports Radio, Harbor and Harper. Right here Fox Sports Saturday,

(53:07):
once again here in the Fox Sports Radio studios. Right,
we'll get back to, Uh, do you really want to
talk preseason NFL football? I know you want to talk
NFL football. We are going to get to a little
NFL football because there's a lot of things happening in
training camps right now as we get ready for the
first full week of preseason football. The thing that really
kills me, Zach is how they have the bye week. Now.

(53:31):
I mean, I'm sort of cool because I love college football,
and they sort of get the stage. I'm like, when
did this start where you have the last preseason game
and then there's a bye week before we actually get
to the first week of the regular season.

Speaker 2 (53:44):
I'd like that because it does show an appreciation for like, Look,
this is this is how we dominate every weekend, right,
m H got them on Saturday, you got us on
Sundays and obviously some other days.

Speaker 1 (53:55):
But it's also their free minor league. Yes, free minor league,
and well it's not free. Well it's still free for them,
it's not for anybody else anymore. But I liked that.

Speaker 2 (54:03):
They're like, yeah, we're they're gonna have an opening weekend
and then we're gonna have an opening.

Speaker 1 (54:07):
I love it. It's great. All right, So we are
talking about Lebron James, who is now a member of
the Philadelphia seventy six ers. Let's go back to the
Jalen Brown deal for Paul George. Okay, what happened there, Well,
the Celtics made Jayleen Brown mad by dangling him out.

Speaker 2 (54:25):
There for Giannis. Right, Johannis got trade to Miami.

Speaker 1 (54:29):
Why would he be upset about being dangled for a
player that's better than him? Ego? Okay, yeah, you know.

Speaker 2 (54:37):
And then it came down to, all right, JB's gonna
be a little more difficult. He's very outspoken, especially now
that he's a Twitch streamer. This is, you know, something
that is something we got to manage. Oh, by the way,
he's up for a two year, one and forty two
million dollar extension that would push him to like three
fifty over five years with his current deal or something

(54:58):
like that. Something ridiculous like that.

Speaker 1 (55:00):
And then you want to pay it.

Speaker 2 (55:01):
So they said, all right, we're going to make sure
our house is in order financially, under this new second
apron system, and we're going to make sure that we're
out of that and we can build around Jason Tatum
again before his prime is up. Okay, So basically they
didn't want to pay him once he got mad about
the trade.

Speaker 1 (55:18):
All right. So this is a team that obviously unveiled
one of the top rookies in the league in Edgecombe
last week. Yes, here, and you're excited about that, like so,
but now all of a sudden, you bring in Jalen
Brown and you bring in Lebron James. You're trying to
keep em bead upright, Yes, And they have Maxi, who,

(55:39):
by the way, is a clutch guy. I see. This
is another factor is that a lot of teams don't
want to deal with clutch. But the Sixers already are
with Tyreese Maxi, so it's not like it's someone that's
new to the party. All right. So let's let's just
take a look at those five guys and how you
see them machine on the court.

Speaker 2 (56:00):
I think because the two old guys, and we're just
gonna call Joel Embid an old guy because he moves
like an old guy at this point. The two old guys,
your job, get a rebound, get the ball up Edge Combe,
Jaylen Brown, especially Tyres MAXI I think those guys are
gonna flap the court. I think they're going to try
to run a lot with the two old guys hanging back.
Oh we don't get something in transition, Well, here come

(56:20):
Lebron and Embiid, and now we can run something in
the half court. I think that's going to be the
plan pretty much every night against most teams, unless there's
a team that also likes to run, and then I
think you have to be way more you know, kind
of judicious about that.

Speaker 1 (56:35):
Okay, All time leading NBA points per game list. Number
one is Michael Jordan. He made sure to stay that
take ahead, built Chambers down to the stretch of the
Wizards last year. Did not I want to fall into
number two. Number three is Luca Number five is elgem Baylor.

(56:55):
Number four is Joel Embiid. Yeah, Joel Embiid has the
four the highest career scoring average in the history of
the NBA. But you don't see that as his role
this year?

Speaker 2 (57:09):
No, I think, I mean, you can't just run every
single possession. I think they'll try to. They'll try to
push the tempo as much as possible. There's gonna be
out of one hundred possession possessions in a game, sixty
of them, seventy of them in which, all right, we
gotta get something in a half court. And that's whe
Joel Embiid comes to playing. Because even last year, as
limited as he was, he still scored a point a minute,

(57:29):
more than point a minute. I believe, like, I mean,
he's still put up at like he you can't really
stop him from scoring unless you're his body. Than it
stops him from playing in quite a big games. But
I also think the plan is and I don't think
they necessarily have the front court depth to do this
at you know, right away. But the plan is going
to be like, let's just get him to April. If

(57:51):
he plays thirty games this year, but he's healthy in April,
I don't think they care.

Speaker 1 (57:54):
Well, I agree with you one hundred percent. No, no, no,
that I agree with you. I mean because again we
can talk about cats role in the Nicks winning a championship,
and he did play a vital role. Absolutely, he was great,
and you have to have your big show up if
you're going to go all the way through the playoffs
and come out on top. Your big has to play

(58:16):
well and he's got to stay in the court. So
they have to figure out a way to keep and
be healthy enough so that he is serviceable through four
runs of the playoffs, right, which is no easy task.
All Right, So Lebron James, points, rebounds, assists, What kind
of numbers will show at the end of the regular season.

Speaker 2 (58:35):
I would guess somewhere in the eighteen to twenty points
a game, seven, eight assists, six rebounds, something.

Speaker 1 (58:42):
And you're getting for the same price he gave KCP. Yeah, Yeah,
we put three points seventy.

Speaker 2 (58:47):
Five because he looked at the lay of the land
and of those six teams that let's just say, the
six teams that were in consideration, though I'm not sure Denver,
Minnesota were all that in consideration. I think they're good
ideas Golden states in the West. We know how that looks. Miami,
great organization, they have very little in terms of death,

(59:09):
and I think Lebron was going to have to do
a lot more physically than he probably is able to do,
and I think he's very aware of that. At this point,
you had Cleveland, which I'm telling you like that team
cannot compete in the playoffs. I know they just made
the conference finals. That was because the East is the
East and it's going to be way tougher this year.
And then Philly was the best holdover of all those options.

(59:31):
I don't think he thinks, oh, I'm going to win
a championship with Philly. I think he looked at it
was like, that's probably the best play, the best chance
of winning a championship. I truly believe that. I think
it's about possibility rather than likelihood.

Speaker 1 (59:42):
All right, So VJ. Husky and I do our Sunday
show together. He is a really not a Lebron guy. Sure,
lot of them out here. We got a lot here
at Fox Sports. Bernie Fratto. I love listening to Bernie's
late night show because I get off TV late at
night and I can hear Bernie do his one hour
call in. He'll have three questions, every one of them
every night, every Saturday night, he has some question, some

(01:00:05):
spin on Lebron James to get it shot in on
on look. I looked at Lebron James two ways. I mean,
there's you know, there's there's Lebron James, the person who
by the way, has never had any scandals or anything else.
He seems by all means a solid family guy, loves
his wife and kids, and been great politically. Look, that's

(01:00:26):
my thing about politics is you believe what you want
to believe. I'll believe what I want to believe. I
don't hold that against anybody. As far as his career
is concerned. You know, it's funny for years when people
would talk about the greatest player of all time, I'm like,
why is Kareem not in the conversation? Yeah, I mean
I don't get it. By the way, he won six
MVP awards all when the players used to vote, The

(01:00:47):
last year of the players voted was the year he
won his six MVP in nineteen eighty. The media took
over the MVP vote in eighty one, so his own
peers voted him MVP six times. Okay, he obviously won
six championships, won in Milwaukee, was the ultimme leading scorer
in NBA history. I'm like, why is he not in
the conversation? And that's that's sort of my thing with Lebron.
Lebron has raised the bar to such levels. No one's

(01:01:08):
going to score forty thousand points no one. No, that
would load management. They're not going to so no one's
ever going to approach forty thousand points or whatever. He
pushes that number two. Eventually his numbers, I mean, all nbas,
all Star Games, these are We're going into a twenty
four season in the NBA. Yeah, so you know, and
people are like, well, you know, you know, Michael Jordan

(01:01:28):
was six or six. Actually, I go, no, he was
six or fifteen. He played fifteen years in the NBA.
He wasn't six or six. Yeah, he's six or six
in the NBA finals. And oh, by the way, the
Bulls are favored, big favorites in all six of those
NBA finals. Well, Michael Jordan and Lebron in his ten
NBA finals was only favorite three times and he actually

(01:01:49):
won four only three times. One team that it was
favored to lose was obviously the first year of Miami
against Dallas. But he was the underdog obviously when they
won in Cleveland, and he was underdog one of the
years when they went to Milwaukee. They had to pay
it back against San Antonio. So, I mean, and then
when people say, well, he's just chasing the rings, I'm like, okay,

(01:02:11):
but that's the dynamic we've created in the NBA. You
now have this free wheeling, you know, go wherever you
want to go. Really started when Kevin Durant ditched OKC
to go to the Warriors, jumped aboard, won a couple
of rings, and then left. I mean, this is the
Adam Silver NBA that he has created, where these players
have the freedom to go wherever they want to go,

(01:02:31):
whenever they want to go, and there's nothing holding them back.
So if you have that kind of freedom to basically
choose where you want to play, especially if you're an
elite player in the league, why would you not want
to go to a team that gives you the best
opportunity to win a championship? And if you do win
a championship with that team, why would you downplay it?

Speaker 2 (01:02:51):
This is my thing Lebron, Like you mentioned, Lebron is
entering a twenty fourth season. Yeah, and by the way,
he's going to play a twenty fifth like he's gonna
have played a quarter of a century at least when
it's all said and done.

Speaker 1 (01:03:06):
If you are still.

Speaker 2 (01:03:08):
Nitpicking, like, oh, well, he's just trying to get a ring,
it's his twenty fourth season. I'd like, I'm at a
point where I don't. I don't think Lebron's the greatest
of all time.

Speaker 1 (01:03:18):
I'm with you.

Speaker 2 (01:03:18):
I think it's a it should be a three person
race for me, Michael Jordan's greatest player of all time.
If you think it's Kareem I don't fault you. If
you think it's Lebron, I don't fault you. For me,
it's Michael Jordan. But the idea that's like, is Lebron
ring chasing? I would hope so in a twenty fourth season,
I would hope he's ring chasing, because otherwise, what else
are you playing for? He's he's put all the records

(01:03:39):
out out of reach. No one's ever going to touch that.
And at this point, the longevity is impressed, like he's
still this good with that mileage in a he's.

Speaker 1 (01:03:51):
Still a top twenty five player in this league.

Speaker 2 (01:03:56):
Yeah, if you if you go on top twenty five,
I think so. But it's I don't know, like it's questionable.
How much to do count on the defensive end? Not
a lot, not a lot. I think if you need
him to get a stop, he can get a stop.
I think for the most part, and this is where
my concern is with Philly. Defensively, they are going to
be a mess.

Speaker 1 (01:04:13):
Max.

Speaker 2 (01:04:13):
He's not a good defender. He tries me, he's not good.
VJ will be a very good defender, but still he's
gonna be second year player. Jalen Brown's one of the
best defenders in the league. Lebron can't do that anymore.
They're gonna have to play drop coverage with Duell Embiid
and he can't move. It's gonna be bad defensively. Just
the hope is offensively they pulled together.

Speaker 1 (01:04:32):
Yeah, all right, there you go. I just wanted to
clear that out. But now we need to find out
what is trending. As Steve de Sager is back once again.
Do you believe the Dodgers will lose out every game
the rest of the year if they hit like this?
It is possible. I mean, I was at the TV
station last night and I could not believe that walk off,

(01:04:55):
especially after the uh painful your backup catcher drop the ball,
try to throw somebody out on the previous pitch at
second and the next pitch.

Speaker 5 (01:05:04):
Dodgers acquired two backup catchers at the trade deadline, and
they have to use both of them, and they are
batting them both ninth because they can't bat them tenth.

Speaker 2 (01:05:14):
And you're saying that's a problem. This is a problem.

Speaker 5 (01:05:17):
This and a week ago when they literally did not
have a starting rotation for the week also a problem.
So even when you've got a great pitcher like Yamamoto
going tonight, Okay, so how's the Dodger offense doing? That
would be one for fourteen against Brandon Fott in Arizona.
It's scoreless going to the six. Yes, Yamamoto's been fine.

Speaker 1 (01:05:38):
Thank you.

Speaker 5 (01:05:38):
Six strikeouts in five innings. Can I just say, while
you were talking basketball, thank you for bringing up Kareem's
name in the whole conversation. This is not a thing
about age. It's just if somebody's talking about the best
in history at anything, you need to know your history.

Speaker 1 (01:05:55):
Thank you.

Speaker 5 (01:05:55):
So immediately. People who say, well, Michael Jordan's best because
he won six in titles, yes he did, and that's
quite impressive. How many NBA titles did Kareem win? The
answer is six.

Speaker 2 (01:06:07):
And I know we're talking NBA here, but when they're
changing rules at the amateur level because you're too.

Speaker 1 (01:06:12):
Good, yeah, out line there, Yeah, outlawed the dunk after
his sophomore season.

Speaker 5 (01:06:18):
And then people will say, well, Michael Jordan was league
MVP five times, Kareem was league MVP six times.

Speaker 1 (01:06:24):
And as I mentioned, that's when the players voted, it's
not the media, and I assume longer career. I mean
Kareem was passing twenty years. Yeah, yeah, after playing four
years at UCLA ineligible as a freshman.

Speaker 5 (01:06:36):
The course, yes, although he didn't he have that what
fifty sixty point game at poly Pavilion and the freshman team, yes, Jens,
the varsity.

Speaker 1 (01:06:44):
Yes, the the defending back to back nca champion basketball
team played the freshman team in the first game ever
played at the brand new poly Pavilion, got blown off
the court because it's not a good start for John Wooden.
You're coming up back to back national championships and your
back to back champions get run off the court by
your freshman team freshman night eligible.

Speaker 5 (01:07:06):
Then Bill Walton, as I recall freshman year, I have
not play, not playing, I have three years. Well, let's
get to the baseball scoreboard. I mean mention, the Dodgers
are scoreless in the six Padres are leading three win
over over Houston in the top of the eighth inning.
The San Diego Padres could still make the playoffs. People
two games out of the last NL wildcard behind Philadelphia

(01:07:26):
and Arizona. The Phillies have just fallen behind. Bottom of
the tenth. It's Blue Jays leading at Philly five to four.
In this game, Max schurz Or was the Blue Jays starter.
He is now tenth all time in strikeouts three thousand
and five sixteen. The Cubs have won five in a row,
but at Kansas City, it's Royals over the Cubs in
the top of the ninth, six to three. Brewers have

(01:07:46):
the best record in the Majors, but they're tied at
home against the Twins in the top of the eighth
three three. Tigers two to one, leaders against the Orioles
in the top of the eighth in the AL West,
Houston a game and a half ahead of Texas on
Fox TV in a battle for the AL Central lead.
The White Sox at Homer ahead five to two over
the Guardians in the top of the seven, and it's

(01:08:07):
the Tigers leading in the nine seven nothing at San Francisco.
Earlier wins for Miami and Washington, Pittsburgh into the four
game skid, shutting out the Mets nine to nothing. Yankees
beat Atlanta five to four. That was Garrett Cole over
Chris Sale, and the A's ended Boston's nine game winning
streaks seven to three. A reminder, the IndyCar schedule resumed

(01:08:28):
Sunday on Fox TV from Portland, Oregon, and a WNBA
notes Indiana now twenty and twelve got the win at
Chicago today ninety to eighty six Caitlin Clark twenty six points.

Speaker 1 (01:08:39):
The league quickly rescinded.

Speaker 5 (01:08:40):
Her eighth technical of the year, which would have meant
a one game suspension. She had eleven assists six turnovers today.

Speaker 1 (01:08:46):
Back to you all right, Steve, Thank you very much,
mister de Sega, doing the great job as he always do.
Once again. Company live from the Fox Sports Radio studios
and with the iHeartRadio app, you can stream us wherever
you happen to be. Catch us all of your Fox
Sports Radio shows live twenty four to seven and the
new and approved iHeartRadio app just searched Fox Sports Radio
and the app to stream us live all day, every day,

(01:09:08):
and be sure to select Fox Sports Radio as one
of your presets in the iHeart app so it always
pop up at the top of your screen. So, as
we spoke before the show, Zach, you made it clear
to me your NFL allegiance belongs to the San Francisco
forty nine Ers. Kyle Shanahan I was introduced to on
the day that we introduced as fathers the new coach

(01:09:28):
of the Raiders, Mike Shanahan, who then introduced me to
his eight year old son, Kyle. So that's how far
back I go with Kyle Shanahan. So what did you
make of this whole story that was kept in the dark,
Getting back to what I was talking about earlier about
insiders keeping information away at the request of others. You

(01:09:51):
can justify by saying, well, he didn't want people to know, Okay, Well,
I just don't understand how Kyle Shanahan could be involved
in in an accident that involved the police and it
not get out in the news. And then it turns
out that there were people that knew about this story.
They just weren't going to tell anybody about the story

(01:10:11):
until the forty nine ers actually made it public ten
days after the accident actually occurred.

Speaker 2 (01:10:17):
And then he he came out and you know, took
responsibility for it.

Speaker 5 (01:10:22):
Right.

Speaker 1 (01:10:22):
Well, the story leaked out that the girl was at fault,
this twenty one year old girl, and then he came
out and said, no, no, no, that's completely wrong. It was
my fault. My phone slipped down into the crevice and
I reached down. I looked up and I had crossed
the line.

Speaker 2 (01:10:36):
It's it's part of the you know, part of what
we talked about earlier, the doing favors and stuff like that.
It's the part I don't love about the industry. It
makes me uncomfortable. I also understand the ecosystem of it
and why it exists. It with something like this, it's
always interesting to me. Like a player does something off

(01:11:00):
the field, we're quick to report that immediately, right coach
does something who's well liked. I think Kyle Shannan is
a great guy and everything, and we're going to do
that favor. And to me, that's not really the job.
The job is to report the news. And if you
have the news and it's not like this is oh
maybe a trade that might happen or something like this
is you know, public record. On some level, I think

(01:11:24):
like that's a pretty big disservice as much as I
like Kyle Shanahan, I want the forty nine ers to
win and everything, it's kind of slimy that this came
out the way.

Speaker 1 (01:11:33):
Well how did it happen? I mean, think about it.
As soon as we had the Romos story immediately right,
I mean, any player, even at the most obscure players
in the NFL or any other sport, the second they're
involved in a dui or any kind of act, we
know immediately, yeah, comes out instantly. And this is one

(01:11:53):
of the top coaches in the NFL and no public
reporting for ten days. This is crazy.

Speaker 2 (01:12:01):
This isn't great analysis. It's weird, Like it's super weird.
Like when I first started hit when I because the
first I saw of it was when he took responsibility
for it, right, or maybe there's been a little bit
of word that there was an accident, but he comes
out to taking responsibility for it. I was like, oh god,
this just happened. And it's like, oh no, this happened
like ten days. We was gonna half ago. Yeah, Like, oh, well,

(01:12:22):
is everyone okay?

Speaker 1 (01:12:24):
Yeah? I was just very yes smash stitches.

Speaker 2 (01:12:27):
Very confused by it all. But I don't know, like
I genuinely. I wish I had an answer. I don't
know how this goes ten days without being reported.

Speaker 1 (01:12:35):
All right, let's talk about your forty nine er tu
a moment. I find them as one of the more
interesting teams, uh in the league. So they had sort
of a bounce back year last year, but not really
because they didn't go anywhere in the postseason. Right And
you know when we look at the Rams right now
and we're still waiting word on Aaron Donald, that's another

(01:12:58):
story that just doesn't make any sense. Why would and
Donald come back?

Speaker 3 (01:13:01):
Why?

Speaker 1 (01:13:01):
I mean, I the think about this. You've already had
a perfect career, perfect career, ten years. You go out
with your sanity, You've all Pro eight times, you won
a Super but you did checked every box, three time
defensive player, first ballot Hall of Famer. By the way,
he has already elected this year in the College Football
Hall of Fame, where to be eligible you need to

(01:13:22):
be ten years and move from college and retired from
the pro range. No, I don't, but I mean, and
he's been out for two full years. I mean, I
you know, like Sean McVay is never going to say
no obviously to Aaron Donald. If you want to come back,
We'll find a spot for you. I just want to
know why he wants to come back. Well, and like,

(01:13:44):
is he just playing home games? Is he?

Speaker 2 (01:13:46):
Is he gonna full seventeen? But I'll tell you what
it is. Dude's ring chase it, but he already has
a ring.

Speaker 1 (01:13:55):
Also, it doesn't change if he gets a second thing.
It's not gonna say Wow Donald, now now you can
put him down as one of the all time greats.
I'm with you, but I also like, I think he retired.
I'm like, I think he's bored. He was like this sucks. Okay,
I'm okay. Look, he's a physical Like I said, I

(01:14:17):
I have been in many many NFL locker rooms. I
have never seen a defensive linement like this guy.

Speaker 2 (01:14:21):
One of my verse see one of my favorite interviews
is like he's being interviewed with DK Metcalf and they're like, well,
how much can you bench? And DK's like, I think
bench more than Aaron Donald? Like how much he bench?
He goes five, like five hundred, And you see the
look on DK Metcalf's face, whose physical.

Speaker 1 (01:14:38):
Defensive tackles are not chiseled. Heiled, He's chiseled, I mean,
and his look at the greatest interior defensive tackle I
saw in recent years of John Randall, who was a
very similar, undersized guy that just couldn't handle anybody and
just absolutely dominate and get to the quarterback. And that's
that's what's so incredible about a guy like Aaron Donald

(01:14:58):
is double digit Saxomon and hereire defensive line that just
doesn't happen. All right, So when I look at where
the Rams are, in fact, I want to do this
on the other side because I'm gonna give you some thought,
okus right now. So my question to you is going
to be this, Have the forty nine ers narrowed the
gap between them, the Seahawks and the Rams or is

(01:15:19):
that gap greater going into the twenty twenty six season.
We'll have Zach's answer. This is Fox Sports Saturday.

Speaker 3 (01:15:28):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at Foxsports Radio
dot com and within the iHeartRadio app search FSR to
listen live.

Speaker 1 (01:15:42):
Fox Sports Saturday. Having a great time. As always, once again,
we're live from the Fox Sports Radio studios talking about
the forty nine Ers. Right now, I think one of
the more interesting teams heading into this twenty twenty six season.
All right, So you have the defending champion Seattle Seahawks,
and nobody seems to be buying into I think they are.
Last time I saw, their odds are like number six

(01:16:05):
on the list. I don't like Buffalo's favored out of
the AFC. I it's just a it's a hey, maybe
this is the year with the new coach and everything.
We do this with Buffalo, by the way, it's amazing
because the top two teams they have in the AFC
are the Bills and the Ravens, and they both have
new coaches, so I guess they're Bamie McDermott and a
guy that I've fought for years is one of the
most overrated coaches in the NFL. And John Harbaugh great guy,

(01:16:29):
great guy, but not a great coach anyway. All Right,
So the forty nine ers, in your opinion right now
as we head into the twenty twenty six season, have
they narrowed the gap with those two teams, or are
those two teams beginning to leave the forty nine ers
in their dust?

Speaker 2 (01:16:48):
Can we turn injuries offuries off?

Speaker 1 (01:16:52):
I'm I'm just saying, look at everything, like I said
before last year, Okay, it's all about McCaffrey. You got it.
Their offense does not operate without Christian McCaffrey. If you
can keep McCaffrey on the field, then brock Party is
an above average quarterback. With him I not on the field,
brock Party looks like a guy that was mister irrelevant.

Speaker 2 (01:17:12):
Well it everything's gonna be, you know, when things fell apart,
it's Trent Williams's hurt, Christian McCaffrey's hurt. Obviously Kittle blows
out his achilles at one point. But if Trent, if
you know, if the offensive line is sound, I think
brock Purty's great decision maker. When Christian McCaffrey's on the

(01:17:32):
on the field and George Kittle's on the field, he's
an elite quarterback because he knows, oh those guys got
me right, Like just like most quarterbacks are a lot
better when their two best weapons are out there. The
problem with the forty nine ers is they still have
guys coming back from major injuries last year that are
not healthy. They're on the pup list, and they've got
both sides. Yeah, on both sides of the ball, like,

(01:17:54):
all right, Nick Bose is going to be back, do
we know that he's healthy? No, like you know Michael
William out. They like they have so many significant injuries already.
And an interesting theory that I saw, I believe last
year or the year before. I can't remember which season,
but I think it was last year, was the forty
nine Ers do tend to have more injuries, more significant

(01:18:15):
injuries to significant players than most of these other teams.
And a lot of it is the Kyle Shanahan practice,
like he has them practicing more than most teams, and
these guys more than most, and so it wears down,
wears down, wears down, which I also think is when
they are healthy, they're as good as anybody, but you
can't stay healthy. So I think if they were, if
this roster was healthy, bringing in Mike Evans right, I

(01:18:37):
think that they could absolutely be on par with Seattle
and with Saint Louis or with the Los Angeles Rams.
I think they can be on par with those two teams.
The issue is the second that starts to crumble a
little bit, they can't handle it in the way the
Rams or the Seahawks can make up for it.

Speaker 1 (01:18:56):
Well, the wide receiver corps is a big question mark. Uh,
you bring Deebo back. Deebo is like a one year winder.
Let's face it, two and a half years he was
a Mike McDaniel creation. Sure, yeah, absolutely, you know, this
hybrid running back receiver had a phenomenal year that year.
And then you have Ayuk who supposedly is party's number

(01:19:23):
one target. Right remember that they were like, that's his guy. Yeah,
not right, he's not.

Speaker 4 (01:19:31):
You.

Speaker 1 (01:19:32):
I mean, yeah, there's a lot of Bucks fans stop me.
Have you heard this before.

Speaker 2 (01:19:36):
If Mike Evans is healthy, yeah, that's your number one target,
even at this point in his career, that's your number
one target.

Speaker 1 (01:19:42):
The problem is he's already hurt. You know, Mike Evans
is an interesting guy. I'm sure he'll be in the
Hall of Fame someday, but he's not He's not a
dominant receiver. He's a he's a wildly consistent Obviously, last
year finally snapped his streak a thousand yard years. Yeah. Well,
when you think about it, remember he eaked over a
thought a thousand yards in seventeen games. You know what,
you're averaging like fifty eight yards a game. That's not

(01:20:04):
that's not frontline. You know.

Speaker 2 (01:20:07):
No, No, we got to I get it. It's a
big round number. We gotta we got to move these.

Speaker 1 (01:20:11):
Yeah, it's it should be to me, it's more like
about fifteen hundred yards, right, you know.

Speaker 2 (01:20:16):
Also, I don't want to hear any more about this
guy broke the record. If you're not doing it in
sixteen games, I'm not interested in you breaking the record.

Speaker 1 (01:20:22):
Well, this is this is near and dear to me
and my my dear friend Eric Dickerson. Eric and I
have known each other really dear friends all these years,
and his record of two thousand and one oh five
still stands in a sixteen game season. He'll be the
first one to say, OJ did two thousand and three
and fourteen games. Yeah, okay, he did two thousand and

(01:20:43):
three and fourteen games. I did one hundred and two
more yards in two extra games. Do the math yards
per game? The record is held by Oh Jay Simpson,
and he'll be first to tell you. But it's too
complicated for that, so they just say, ay, he broke record.
It broke all these records and everything else. So all
these records have to be always in the context of
when you played, you know, the style of plays change,

(01:21:05):
and this is a two of any sport, you know.
He's just like, did you dominate amongst your peers? Is
how I judge? All Right, much more coming up. This
is Fox Sports having too much fun on this big
Saturday in the sports. We all Fox Sports Saturday, Hartman
and Harper with you, and we're having out, having a

(01:21:26):
good time once again, live from the Fox Sports Radio studios,
keeping our eye right now on this Dodgers Arizona Diamondbacks game.
No score. Now, we're still in let's say we're in
the seventh inning right now. Yamamoto pitching very well. He
ended up with five and two thirds, gave up three hits,
no runs. They have taken him out of the game.

(01:21:47):
But the Dodgers' offense is just non existent today. They
have two hits in this game, both by Andy pa Hes.
So here we had Trek's school traded to the Dodgers
for three minor leaguers and they weren't even like top

(01:22:08):
Dodger minor leaguers. So MLB dot Com ranks all the
prospects for all the teams in the major leagues. The
three guys that the Dodgers traded. Amongst Dodger prospects were
ranked fifth, seventh, and seventeenth for the best left hander
in baseball. So the immediate response was predictable. You know,

(01:22:28):
they've ruined baseball. Well, now you've guaranteed we're gonna have
a complete shutdown of baseball because the Dodgers. And I'm like,
well wait a second. Nobody else could come up with
a better deal than that. What was this deal done
on a Saturday? The trade deadline's money. If ever a
deal was going to be waited to the last second,
it would be the schoobl deal. To see the most
you can absolutely get if indeed you're going to trade

(01:22:51):
Trek Schouble, I mean, you're gonna get as much as
you possibly can. So there was a lot of weird
things about that. But here's here's what's happened. Since Dodgers
hadn't won a game since that deal in which they
ruined I mean the baseball gods or whatever. So I
want to get your thoughts on this whole dynamic with

(01:23:11):
this Dodgers dominant sore, you know, because for us there
are old people that remember this is the same thing
they happened when free agency began in the mid seventies.
The Yankees took full advantage. They went out and got
Reggie Jackson, they got Goose Gossage, they got Dave Winfield.
They just were collecting all the top free agents, paying
them more money, and everyone hated the Yankees for doing that.

(01:23:33):
They won a couple of championships. They also lost a
lot of seasons. There's no guarantee of anything. I remind everyone.
If you look at the last two years, the Dodgers
have dominated baseball opening series. Two years against the Padres,
they had two games and won the best of five series.
Game four is at Peco. They are ready to celebrate
in the gas lamp because the Dodgers have a bullpen

(01:23:55):
day in a game they have to win on the road,
and they did. And last year, last year, Miggie Rojas
two outs away from losing the series, Meggie Rojas hits
all home run, biggest home run in Dodgers history. For sorry,
Kirk Gibson and I was at that game. Sorry, this
was the biggest home run in Dodgers' history. Saved the

(01:24:15):
day ninth innying two outs away from losing the World Series.
So if those things don't happen. You know, we're not
even talking anything about the Dodgers, so well, you think
this is overplayed about one team's dominance in terms of
acquiring top talent. That is a ruin an entire sport.

Speaker 2 (01:24:32):
I don't know that it's ruined the sport. I do think,
and look, it's within the rules. So at a certain
point you just be like, it's allowed, right, I think
when you're doing the we're playing we're paying show hey
two million a year and then it's gonna be sixty
eight on the back end or what you know.

Speaker 1 (01:24:48):
And by the way, they did that also with the
Kyle Tucker contract with the Edwin Diaz con all deferred money.

Speaker 2 (01:24:55):
I think I'll be like, as a baseball fan, I
think that sucks. I think I think that's I also
think it's allowed. You could be like, why are they
Why aren't other teams doing it? Sure, the Dodgers obviously
have a money advantage over a lot of other teams.
There are also a lot of other teams that don't
spend as much as they could, right, And I know

(01:25:15):
things have become more complicated with tax and everything, but
I don't love it. As a baseball fan. I also recognize, like,
to your point, this unbeatable team in baseball that's ruined baseball.
Damn near lost one of the greatest World Series ever.

Speaker 1 (01:25:32):
Absolutely well, I mean.

Speaker 2 (01:25:33):
Arguably the greatest World Series we've seen, definitely in a
long time. But yeah, they're, you know, a swing in
the bat away from not not winning a championship last year, right,
And so I think I think baseball has a lot
more problems than just what the Dodgers are doing. But
at the same time, I don't fault them for it.
I don't like it. The Scoople trade is simply to me,

(01:25:57):
the reason there wasn't a better offer is because everyone
thinks it's a rent so you're not gonna give up
all these prospects.

Speaker 1 (01:26:02):
By the way, he may still be a rental school.
Keeps talking about the fact I never wanted to lead Detroit. Right,
I mean, they still pay he's going to go back, right,
which seems weird if you're I mean, they were screwing
him on the uh the arbitration thing where they were
thirteen million apart and he ended up lose. They ended
up losing. Obviously he won. You wouldn't pay him now,

(01:26:23):
but you'll pay him next year.

Speaker 2 (01:26:24):
Right, like to me people who were mad about the
schoobl acquisition. And I'm not a Dodger fan by any means,
like I don't want the Dodgers to win. I don't
like I'm not this person who moved to la and
decides like, oh, make the Dodgers my team. That Like, No,
I'm I'm an Atlanta Braves fan. I have been my
whole life. My dad's from Atlanta. Like I watched them
on TBS growing up. That's who I love. Right at

(01:26:46):
the same time, I don't. I didn't look at the
school train and go, oh, the Dodgers are ruining baseball.
I thought, all right, no one else wants to offer
more than that. It's not like the Tigers, Like, how
do we get him to the Dodgers? It was we
got to bring in prospects for a market that shockingly
is not very high.

Speaker 1 (01:27:03):
But how did the Brewers and the Rays, the other
two teams that everyone pointed to is the most likely
destination for school not come up with a decent when
that was it?

Speaker 2 (01:27:12):
Like, you want to talk about the Tucker deal. You
want to talk about the Show Hate deal. I think
that sucks. I think it sucks for baseball. You want
to talk about the school trade. That's just no one
else stepped up that I don't find, like, there's no
part of me. It's like this is bs. The Dodgers
are ruining baseball. I don't look at that at all.
I think the Show Hey thing sucks in terms of
how the contract is structured, but also it's allowed they

(01:27:35):
were smarter.

Speaker 1 (01:27:36):
I just think it sucks, all right. Speaking of Show
Hey a Tani, he has been the overwhelming favorite to
win MVP again, and it's always hard to argue against him.
I mean, he has an OPS well above nine hundred
and an ERA below two. I mean, so there is
no one to compare him to. It does come to
the point, like with Michael Jordan, where they decided, wow,

(01:27:56):
we just can't give it to him every year. We'll
give it to Charles Barklan one year, karm alone one year,
and it's like, that's ridiculous. Wayne Gretzky won eight straight
MVP Awards in the NHL, as he should, right, he's
the most valuable player in the league. All right, that's
the idea. So I never I did, but now all
of a sudden, they're coming up with this idea that
Pete Crow Armstrong because he has a high war and

(01:28:18):
I still don't understand the dynamics of war is now
according to the odds makers actually past show Hey in
terms of the odds to win the MVP Award. It
could be fatigued by the way Otani not only has
won four MVP Awards, all of them unanimous. Think about this.
Even Barry Bonds, who won seven m vps, only once
was he unanimous only. No one's ever been unanimous more

(01:28:39):
than once, and this guy's been four times. But there
could be a disqualifier for Pete Crow Armstrong. I saw
this interview because I saw the quote and I said,
all right, somebody took this out of context, okay, And
then I saw the interview. So he was doing an
interview and the name of Babe Ruth came up, and
he said that he spoke to someone who made a

(01:29:02):
serious argument that he buys into that Babe Ruth actually
never existed. There was no such person as Babe Ruth,
that baby, there was no George Herman. Babe Ruth never
actually existed. Okay, So no matter how much film there
is of the Babe, whether it's playing for the Yankees,

(01:29:23):
or when he had the throat cancer and he could
barely talk at his farewell at Yankee statement. All fake,
all fake and he was dead, Seriah, because I wanted
to see It's like, are you laughing like that? Like
you know, like you know the idea, you see the
numbers and like there's no way this guy, the guy
like that existed or was in that kind of No,
He's he's dead serious. Pete crow Armstrong believes that Babe

(01:29:46):
Ruth never existed. So would that be a disqualifier for
you if you're filling at your MVP vote ballot for
Pete crow Armstrong.

Speaker 2 (01:29:57):
I believe that shohe O Tani is the best player
in baseball, maybe the best player we've ever seen, right,
Like I I mean to me, he's the best player
I've ever seen.

Speaker 1 (01:30:06):
Well, there's no one to compare him to him. And
when people try to make the Babe Ruth comparison, it's
ridiculous because Baby Ruth was a pitcher and then he
became an outfield right. The idea he may have there
may have been like his last year with the Red Sox,
there was a little overlap, but not in an entire career,
which is what we've seen was showhand right.

Speaker 2 (01:30:24):
And so to me, Shoeo Tani is one hundred percent MVP. Like,
so this wouldn't affect how I vote yes for or
against Pete crow Armstrong what I would say, And I'm
saying this as respectfully as I possibly can. I am
not interested in a twenty four year old's opinion of
what happened over one hundred years ago. There is no

(01:30:47):
part like in the NBA, we went through this with
Tyler Hero. Tyler Herro was like, oh, there's some history
things like shut up. Okay, I like, there's no part
of me that because Pete crow Armstrong heard a convincing
argument that Babe Ruth wasn't.

Speaker 1 (01:31:02):
Real right, never existed.

Speaker 2 (01:31:06):
I hate when people do this, Okay, I hate when
someone says an NBA player says something to go, you
know what, shut up and dribble. In this case, I
will make an exception. Just shut up and go play
basebent like that is so stupid. Oh he was dead serious.

(01:31:28):
How about this?

Speaker 1 (01:31:29):
You run to hear this? Don Mattingly when Don Maddingly
had his first breakout year with the Yankees in nineteen
eighty four, when the batting title of that year. He
played a little bit, but this was his first full year.
When's a batting title. This is a true story. He's
so branded by New York media and they are telling
him that you may be the best first base when

(01:31:53):
the Yankees have had since lou Garrick. And he said who.
He was dead serious as a kid from Indiana. Yeah,
And they're like they were laughing at first, and he
was looking at him like did I say something funny?

(01:32:15):
And they're like, you've been with the Yankees for this year,
thirty year, You've never heard of lou garreck. You never
looked out at the numbers that are out there. He's
on first base. He literally had no idea who Luke
Gerrick was, zero idea. I look at one of the

(01:32:36):
things I've appreciated over the years as athletes that know
their stuff. I had the good fortune in nineteen eighty
nine when Pete Rose the investigation began on Pete Rose gambling.
He was the manager of the Reds at the time,
and I knew he knew my partner at the time,
So I went down to Dodgers Stadium, introduced myself, told

(01:32:57):
him my partner. He's like Oh, how's the steamer doing?
Pete could have been nicer. The next day, I was
back at the ballpark and I'm trying to get an
interview with Pete. But I'm standing. It's before the game.
He's talking to the media. All these national media people
are falling around with cameras and everything else, and Pete's
just sitting in the dugout talking to somebody. And I'm
all the way down at the end of the end

(01:33:18):
of the reds of the visiting dugout Dodger Stadium, by
the batreck, Pete gets up. He walks right by me
without even hesitating. He goes, hey, Steve, how are you doing?
Like how does he remember my name? I mean, I
know I introduced myself yesterday, but I you know, And
I looked at him. I said, Pete, you have some
time to talk some baseball. He goes, come with me, kid.

(01:33:42):
So we go into the office, the visiting manager's office.
He closes the door, I turn on my tape recorder
and we talk baseball. Now I'm a stats right overthing.
He knew every number, Like, I mean, he wasn't making
up stuff. I know when people are guessing. Yeah, Pete
was like he knew at his numbers, he knew. I mean,

(01:34:04):
everything was right on c I'm like in dreamland talking
to Pete. Finally get to the end of the interview.
I'm like, so, Pete, it must be very satisfying for
you that you have so much support right now. And
he goes, oh, why wouldn't. I haven't done anything wrong.
So there's my very first radio on air radio job,
right in nineteen eighty nine, Little Kate Fox Radio. So
he finished the interview and I opened the door and

(01:34:28):
it is like fifty people deep with media people and
I'm completely anonymous, and I'm like getting my way through
this crowd, and they're like yelling out Pete, Pete, Pete, Pete,
and Pete says, I just did my one interview for
the day. And everyone's turning around like who are you?
And I'm like, Steve Hartman, Kate Fox Radio. I love Pete.

(01:34:56):
My love of that man was you know, knew no boundaries. Yeah,
I never forgot that.

Speaker 2 (01:35:03):
I don't just because you play baseball and you're a
great baseball player, I don't expect you to know everything.

Speaker 1 (01:35:07):
I don't expect you to know the history should have
at least an appreciation agree, most do, Yes, most Toby
did Lebron does Jordan. I think they appreciate those that
were before them.

Speaker 2 (01:35:19):
You know what, because this has been an issue in
the NBA, where like you have a lot of you know,
retired players taking cracks at today's game and everything. And
someone I genuinely appreciate so much is Alan Iverson. Yeah,
Alan Iverson, I loves the hell out of some current
basketball Like he appreciates the talent.

Speaker 1 (01:35:37):
He's not threatened by did the guy that size average
over forty one minutes a game for his entire career.
It's a warrior like he like, he's just unbelievable. I
think he's one of the most underrated players in the
history there.

Speaker 2 (01:35:47):
Absolutely, But what I love about it is there is,
like you said, there's this appreciation of what came before
you and what has come after you, which I think
is so big for sports. Whether you're a baseball player,
NFL player, NBA player, doesn't matter. I think you should
have that because who set the stage for you and
who you're sitting in the stage for all that matters.
It's all this big relationship that works together. But there

(01:36:09):
is this thing and I know it's just an internet
rage bait thing. But in the case of Pete Crow
Armstrong saying like I've heard that baby Ruth doesn't it
wasn't real, and I believe it. There is this thing
where it's like, ooh, younger player or a younger person
discovers player from twenty five years ago, and it's like, oh,

(01:36:30):
let's see if they can impress me. And I know
it is just trying to elicit a reaction that then
you yell at the person online and all this. I
understand that whole thing, but there's a part of me
it's like and no offense to anyone. There might be
plenty of younger people out there who are way smarter
this than I am.

Speaker 1 (01:36:48):
I'm not interested.

Speaker 2 (01:36:49):
I'm just not like You've got to go through a
certain level of studying this stuff and being crazy about
this stuff before, Like I'm going to hear your theory
about payproof.

Speaker 1 (01:37:00):
Didn't actually exist.

Speaker 2 (01:37:02):
You want to question because we don't have like video
of Wilt's one underd point game, I'll have a conversation
with you. I don't think they made it up. I
also don't think it was some great heroic hit. Like
everyone's mad at bam about a biole. It's like I,
by all accounts, they were doing the same thing for Will. Yeah,
like that's how we got to Honey exactly. I don't

(01:37:22):
like that.

Speaker 1 (01:37:23):
In Hershey, Pennsylvania, a neutral court, it's fifteen people.

Speaker 2 (01:37:27):
It's amazing how many people claim claimed they were there. Yeah,
it's about fifteen hundred people. But yeah, like this whole
idea of like, I don't and I also think part
of it and Grant, I don't know what this interview
was where this came from.

Speaker 1 (01:37:39):
Part of it is like, all right, we're gonna ask
about the history. Like that's not Pete crow.

Speaker 2 (01:37:43):
Armstrong's job, right, I would prefer you don't say something
stupid like that when asked. But that's also like his
jobs to hit a baseball right now, and he's really
good at that. But no, this would not prevent me
from voting him MVP. If I had a vote? What
would prevent me from voting him MVP? Show TONI exists?

Speaker 1 (01:38:01):
All right, so Tani is in. But yes, I did
see the interview, and I thought it was a joke
until I saw the interview and I'm like, wow, Pete
the pride of Harvard Westlake, one of the premier high
schools here in southern California. Maybe that history department, he's
a little updates. I need to check that out. All right,
we uh, we get back to the NFL. Yes, we

(01:38:22):
have twenty camps opening around the league. We well, we're
getting into the first full week of preseason football. What
do we need to see happen between now and the
start of the season, especially with some of the new
coaches and the new systems that are being put into place.
I got one quarterback in mind that needs to show
something dramatically different to be considered elite. Who is he?

(01:38:46):
You'll find out. This is Fox Sports. You're listening to
Fox Sports Radio. Steve Harbin, Zach Harper with you here
Fox Sports Saturday. Just having a good time, hanging out
talking sports. That's what we do, talk of sports all day.
People asked me, do you ever get tired about talking
of sports? Though? No, no, no, it's the best job.

(01:39:10):
I'm getting tired of talking sports, I people, I understand.
It's it's funny. We do the Sunday Show, which when
we were into the nfls it's our end zone radio.
I mean, you talk about your dream like Okay, so
we got multiple games on here in the studios, and
my job is to update you on the games. Okay,

(01:39:34):
that's not really a job something for free, right If
I if I had multiple TVs at home, I'd be
doing this at home. But I'm just have the mic
on so everything else. Speaking of the NFL, there is
one player, by the way, is in the news as
of recently because he just got engaged in Madison beer,

(01:39:54):
which is not a bad thing. That's Justin Herbert. And
and you know, Justin Herbert was very interesting to me
when he was at Oregon his senior year, they went
to the Rose Bowl and he didn't finish top ten
in the Heisman voting. I thought that weird. I have
a Heisman vote and had to have had one for years,
and I thought, that's why didn't he get more support? Yeah,

(01:40:17):
you know, he's like a three year starter at that point.
And by the way, every year new offensive coordinator had
a different system, coaches were coming and going at Oregon
at the time, and everything else. I thought, this guy's
held up pretty good. And then I remember watching somebody
break down Herbert during his time at Oregon on what

(01:40:38):
was wrong with Justin Herbert because you look at this,
you know, six', six, god you know the type of,
guy big, arm the, holds and this guy had the multiple,
plays pressure, plays pressure passes where he was off on
these passes he's either behind the receiver laid on the.
Throw just a myriad of throws that, way you just cherry,

(01:41:00):
picking you, know like bath. THROWS i, mean everyone's got bad.
Throws seemed to be a pattern. Here so now we
Have Justin herbert in THE. Nfl when people talk about
the top five quarterbacks in the, league everyone always Includes Justin. Herbert.
Always it's, like you, know sit, there you got my,
homes you Got, kelly you Got Lamar, jackson you Got Joe,

(01:41:21):
burrow you Got Justin, Herbert, Reilly Justin. Herbert have you
seen his three playoff games he's. Had i'm, sorry AM i? AM?
I AM i missing something right?

Speaker 2 (01:41:32):
Now that that's pretty. Incredible you've seen his three playoff?

Speaker 1 (01:41:35):
Games? YEAH i mean you, know at some point you're,
like this is year seven for him now in THE.
NFL h, yeah year? Seven, yeah, okay so, yeah big
thumbs up On Madison, beer no question about. That that's

(01:41:56):
a completed. Pass but at some point if you're going
to be in the conversation with the best quarterbacks in
THE nfl at least one playoff. WIN i, MEAN i
sort of kidded a couple of years ago he's turning
Into Philip rivers two point. Zero AND i Love philip
on a personal. LEVEL i Knew philip for many years

(01:42:17):
and he's a he's a great guy to engage. With
but you, know the fact, was and he never missed a.
Start that was the amazing thought About. Rivers Never literally
from the first start that he had as a quarterback
with The try had never missed a single. Game but
during the decade of the twenty, tens he had a
losing record for an entire. Decade how can you be

(01:42:38):
an elite quarterback when you have a losing record for
an entire.

Speaker 2 (01:42:42):
DECADE i let's say he didn't contribute to, this but
he was in a lot of situations like all, right
you got fifty, seconds you're on your own twenty, yeah no,
timeouts go, ahead.

Speaker 1 (01:42:52):
Yeah go do. It. Yeah it's like well, again, YEAH i,
mean you could say he didn't have great. Players that's all, Fine, okay,
yeah that's. Fine BUT i, mean, honestly Justin herbert compared
To Philip rivers at this, point it's Like rivers looks
Like Tom. Brady so AM i off on? This are
you one of those guys that, said well FORGET i
just you know eyeball. Tests watch him throw the, ball

(01:43:14):
watch what he can do on the. Field, yes he
is an elite quarterback and to, me at some, point you,
know the results have to match the.

Speaker 2 (01:43:25):
Hype, YEAH i completely. AGREE i mean his first three
years were. Great, yes his first THREE i, mean at
least in terms of the numbers he was putting up.
Right playoffs there was no success there and he barely was.

Speaker 1 (01:43:38):
There but, no he was in That jacksonville, game the biggest.

Speaker 2 (01:43:41):
COLLAPSE i, mean he has more interceptions than he has
playoff games. Played, yes let, alone he hasn't won a.
GAME i think the idea Of Justin herbert's.

Speaker 1 (01:43:51):
Awesome that's a perfect way to say, It, zach the
idea Of justin.

Speaker 2 (01:43:57):
AND i think that's where this year With mike McDaniel
taking over the, offense.

Speaker 1 (01:44:02):
And there you are changing that offense dramatically as you have,
to the idea of making When miami was. Clicking, yeah
is get rid of the ball? QUICK i mean that's
the whole. Thing and you could break a big. Play of,
course when you have A Tyreek, hill ye to break big.
Plays and they don't Have Tyrek. Hill you know they
have some no one Asked Tyreek. Hill but, anyway but,

(01:44:25):
ALSO i Mean tua was not a guy with a big,
arm you, know but he was about accurate, passes you,
know getting guys on the. RUN i mean that Was
that's the Whole West coast. OFFENSE i mean that's What
Joe montana. Did you, know Get rice And daylor crossing
and get him on the right spot so they can
run with the. Ball that's what they're working on right.

Speaker 2 (01:44:44):
Now, YEAH i Think herbert has the chance to really
prove something this. Year of, like, yes all this hype is,
legitimate AND i do think system. Matters coach, matters offensive coordinator.
Matters teammates obviously, matter but there's a certain, part like
you to, win you gotta win some playoff. Game what
you got to get to, plaoffs but you got to
win some playoff.

Speaker 1 (01:45:03):
Games, yeah and you have a great coach And Jim.

Speaker 2 (01:45:05):
Harborough, yeah And i'm not A mike McDaniel guy as
a head, coach but.

Speaker 1 (01:45:11):
He did wonders what the forty Nine, YEAH i mean
he Made Deebo Samuel. Superstar.

Speaker 2 (01:45:17):
Yeah and so if he if it doesn't come together
this year and it's not because oh the team got
a bunch of. Injuries, yeah, Yeah like that's A i
mean you you now get into is he just a you,
Know Kirk cousins with better pr at that? Point, LIKE
i like that may be the case For Justin herbert
if they if they don't show that they're part of

(01:45:38):
THAT afc.

Speaker 1 (01:45:39):
Company on the other, SIDE i want to get your
power rankings in THE, Afc but first let's find out
what is trending right. Now With steve De.

Speaker 5 (01:45:47):
Seger we get an update On Dodgers diamondbacks in a.
Moment one THING i would, add AND i think it's
two separate conversations With Justin. Herbert, no he's not a
top five and of course results need to. Come WHAT
i object to not with this, conversation BUT i constantly
Hear herbert's not good because he hasn't won a playoff.
Game so what you're saying is he's responsible for all

(01:46:08):
the playoff. Losses that's not close to true because that
first playoff game they had At jacksonville one of the
biggest blown leads in postseason. History the quarterback had thirty
points scored on the road and he didn't have an interception.
Thrown SO i Think Brandon stay's defense literally not getting
a single stop the entire second.

Speaker 1 (01:46:30):
Half SO i understand what you're saying about that playoff. Loss,
Right So i'm, saying if you wanted to do you
say he played? Well, No, No i'm going back to
WHAT i keep hearing they're, saying because he hasn't won
a single playoff, game he's not. Good i'm.

Speaker 5 (01:46:45):
Saying, so so if the field goal at the end
By jacksonville was missed at that playoff, game then you're
not talking at.

Speaker 2 (01:46:51):
All.

Speaker 1 (01:46:52):
Here here's what's always interesting to me about THE. Nfl
for some, reason quarterback is the only position where they
have the win. Losses what what? Happened that's to get
credit for a week or the. Kickers and the amazing thing,
is Like Tom brady remember the air where he got
hurt in the opening. Game they won that, game he
gets one To, Oh it's, like, WAIT i mean he threw.

Speaker 5 (01:47:14):
Up he didn't pitch five, innings he.

Speaker 1 (01:47:17):
Didn't get the Five how does he get credit for that?
Win the most ridiculous stat in? FOOTBALL i.

Speaker 5 (01:47:23):
AGREE i wish the, conversation like you spent time on this,
COVER i wish more, conversations not just About herbert anything
actually had some. Details because you can't say he's responsible
for all the, losses because that leads me to believe
you either don't remember or didn't see that playoff. Game
there was an obvious reason why they Love.

Speaker 1 (01:47:44):
But even in That jacksonville, game when the wheels fell,
off he had opportunities to make plays in the second
half to write the, ship and he wasn't able to
do it.

Speaker 5 (01:47:52):
RIGHT i still say a defense that literally doesn't get
a single stop the entire second, half that's, tough even
more responsible for.

Speaker 1 (01:48:01):
That Long but they had a defensive genius as their
head coach at the. TIME i remember.

Speaker 5 (01:48:05):
That do you remember That Brandon staley who had never
been a head coach and was given a four year.
Contract needless to, say he didn't make it to hear.
Four do you remember that he kept firing the people
around him on his staff and on his, defense and
kept himself as the defensive play.

Speaker 1 (01:48:19):
Card do you KNOW i was at his final? GAME
i took my boys To vegas because they wanted to
see The. Chargers Both charger fans In vegas gave up
sixty and the first half was what forty forty two,
NOTHEEN i. Believe and this is the worst. Part it's
one thing to get ras when you're deck out In
chargers gear by The raider, fans but even worse is

(01:48:40):
to have them say we're so, sorry like feeling gotten.
Dimpathy that's the meanest trash dog you can. Have that
was the low of, lows like they're, like, Oh we're so, sorry.

Speaker 5 (01:48:51):
Which actually brings a bigger point to play. Here after
The chargers have moved To Los, Angeles i'm tempted to
say it is night and the spending that has gone
on with this franchise of what they've become that they
weren't In San, diego clearly they are a more valuable.

Speaker 1 (01:49:10):
Franchise that is because the. League first of, all do
you understand The Dean spanos had no say in The
Jim harbaugh hiring that the league demanded that he make
that higher to send any. Curb and by the, Way
Jim harbaugh was walking out the door because they weren't
going to give him what he, wanted and the league
stepped in and told The, chargers you're not blowing this.

(01:49:32):
League that's why at the introductory press conference For Jim,
Harbaugh Dean spanis looked like he was going to throw
up BECAUSE i couldn't believe what he was going to
have to pay out of his pocket for that.

Speaker 5 (01:49:41):
Year the spending that it has gone on is not Just.
Harbor it's like The bosa contract or the people they've
paid on the current roster creating their own which they you,
know years they really didn't have their own practice place
In San, diego and now BY La airport they have
a great place with offices and practice and all of this.
Spending only as they're The Los Angeles. Chargers and then

(01:50:04):
there's The Los Angeles, dodgers who have lost seven games
in a. Row Had Yoshinobu yamamoto on the mound tonight
one hundred and seven pitches, thrown came out throwing scoreless
ball in the sixth. Inning dodgers finally take the lead
after he leaves on A Kyle tucker home run in
the top of the. Eighth it's now one NOTHING la At.
Arizona Kyle tucker's on.

Speaker 1 (01:50:26):
Fire by the, way he's getting paid eighty one million
dollars next year according To Baseball. Reference of, course most
of its, deferred but oh, okay now it has eighty
one million.

Speaker 5 (01:50:36):
Dollars, yes he'll he'll get up close to twoin fifty
with the batting.

Speaker 1 (01:50:39):
Average by the end of the.

Speaker 5 (01:50:40):
Season The White sox have won six to three at
home Over. Cleveland The White sox in THE Al central
had entered with just a two game edge Over cleveland And.
Minnesota as for the Other lake, game and this is
really going to go on a. While seattle at the
end of two is up one nothing on The Tampa Bay,
rays now The rays of the first place team in

(01:51:01):
THE Al. East The yankees were four and a half
back to start the, Day boston was five. Back a's
Beat boston seven to, three ending The Red sox nine
game winning. Streak yankees Over, atlanta five For toronto one
in eleven innings At, philadelphia seven to five wins For
milwaukee And Kansas, city wins for The padres And. TEXAS
wnba victories From minnesota And, indiana And Washington commanders Tackle

(01:51:25):
Laramie tunsel suffered at torn triceps during a drill in,
practice he will likely need.

Speaker 1 (01:51:30):
Surgery like to, you all, right mister De, SEGA a
great job is always appreciate your time hanging out with us.
Today and by the, way if you missed any of today's,
show we want to catch the. Podcast just Search Fox
Sports radio wherever you gets. Podcasts right after the, show
today's podcast will be. Posted to be sure to follow
the podcast rated five. Stars you can even provide a. Review,

(01:51:50):
again just Search Fox Sports radio where every goods podcasts
and Five today's full show posted right after we get
off the. Air all, Right, Zach so right, now when
you look at the AFC, af give me your top,
three top five as far as your personal favorites to
reach The Super, BOWL i mean number, One i'm Going.

Speaker 2 (01:52:10):
PATRIOTS i know that's not fun for a lot of,
people BUT i love THE Aj, brown you, know as
long as he.

Speaker 1 (01:52:16):
PLAYS i love THE Aj.

Speaker 2 (01:52:17):
Brown, ADDITION i think the pass rush is gonna be.
Great drake may another, Year LIKE i just. THAT i
think that is the best.

Speaker 1 (01:52:23):
Thing all. Right so you think The rabel off season
stuff is a zero.

Speaker 2 (01:52:26):
FACTOR i don't think those guys. CARE i don't think
that organization. CARES i think it's.

Speaker 1 (01:52:33):
The media, cares and they'll continue to bring it up media.

Speaker 2 (01:52:37):
Cares but there is a great like that organization had
scandal after scandal after scandal for, years, right they have
always managed to put it behind.

Speaker 1 (01:52:47):
Him.

Speaker 2 (01:52:47):
Now, Granted rabel is different Than, belichick And Drake may
is No Tom, brady BUT i think that the culture
within that organization will find a way to just we're
gonna come. Partmentalized THAT i believe In New.

Speaker 1 (01:53:01):
ENGLAND i, mean my gut feeling is they'll take a
step back before they take a step. FORWARD i remember
the forty Nine ers when they won their First Super.
Bowl the next year strike short and hear they were
three and, six and the next year back right back
in the playoffs and rattled it. OFF i guess the
big question is, scheduled because obviously last year they were
afforded no fall though of their. Own these the scheduling
any team had since the ninety Nine, rams who of

(01:53:21):
course went on to win The Super bowl that. Year
and then obviously their offense in the postseason going against
better defense has really.

Speaker 2 (01:53:29):
Struggled, Absolutely BUT i would expect that out of a young.
QUARTERBACK i think now with the. EXPERIENCE i just think
that experience.

Speaker 1 (01:53:34):
Matters, yes they're all, Right, WELL i love the fact
you Got New england number. One all, right who's number?

Speaker 2 (01:53:38):
TWO i think talent, wise ALTHOUGH i do not believe
in them in a playoff setting, necessarily BUT i Think
buffalo's just got to be, there Like buffalo is in the.

Speaker 1 (01:53:48):
Mix and then number, THREE i gotta.

Speaker 2 (01:53:53):
GO i Think Patrick mahomes is still the. BEST i
was gonna, SAY i, GO i gotta, go like they
just had such bad luck games last. YEAR a, right
So kelsey should not be playing. Anymore he's got the dad.

Speaker 1 (01:54:03):
Bod now everyone's talked about the DAD i, mean and
he's made No his offseason has been he got, married
he's been, partying he's doing his, podcast everything. Else he's
not in shape obviously to play football right. Now Andy
read's not too concerned about. It BUT i guess the
question BECAUSE i, SAID i said before The chiefs loss

(01:54:26):
of The, eagles first of, ALL i predicted they would
get blown out in that. Game before the. Game, Yeah
and but for that, GAME i, said not only will
The chiefs lose big, tomorrow this will be the Last
Super bowl game That Patrick mahomes ever plays.

Speaker 2 (01:54:40):
IT i think he's too. GOOD i just think he's
too good for that to be. True i'm not saying
they win THAT thefc this. YEAR i just think he was.

Speaker 1 (01:54:47):
Supporting cast has diminished dramatically. Absolutely and here's the. Thing
Tom brady was able to take obscure Players Julian edelman
OR i mean it doesn't matter and only make him.
Stars and, Look Patrick mahomes was afforded the dynamic due
Of kelsey And Tyreek hill to begin his. CAREER i,

(01:55:09):
mean you pick your. POISON i, mean how do you
prepare for that back in the. Day but it just
seems like BECAUSE i just don't think he has enough
supporting cast around.

Speaker 2 (01:55:19):
HIM i gotta have. Weapons i'm worried about the. DEFENSE i, think,
well this is a big. Eth If Xavier worthy can
just stay on the, FIELD i think his, talent LIKE
i Think Patrick mahomes can make him a massive, weapon
a massive. Weapon the problem is like he injured his
shoulder every damn day and like you just you, know

(01:55:40):
he can't stay on the. FIELD i think they have
enough for him to work with as long as the
offensive line has.

Speaker 1 (01:55:45):
Sound, well when you look at that, division right. Now,
yeah we were talking about The. Chargers denver's obviously. Incredible,
well you know what's interesting if you look at The
Vegas odds top seven, teams meaning the teams you expect
to make the, playoffs they don't Have denver in the
top set of. Them how's that? Possible forget forget the
whole Bow knicks. Thing and by the, way The broncras
have been my favorite because two years AGO i predicted

(01:56:07):
The broncos to make the playoffs with their rookie quarterback vote,
next one of my few predictions that was. Right i'm
one of the worst prognosticators in, ratio well, Documented BUT
i don't understand because they have the. Defense, YEAH i
mean they unfortunately lost their starting. Quarterback for. That you
don't think they would have beaten The patriots at home
if they had their starting. Quarterback, absolutely the way that

(01:56:29):
game was, played, yeah come.

Speaker 2 (01:56:30):
On AND i like adding jayde And wattle like that's
that that. Matters he's, Good like he's another another one
of those. Guys you, know consistency has not been his,
friend but with him with sudden, like there's enough there
That i'm shocked at how many people think like oh,
yeah this team's Gonna.

Speaker 1 (01:56:48):
So you see three teams coming out of THE Afc.
West i'm not convinced The chargers are gonna be Really.
YEAH i think they've GOT i think they're really. GOOD
i think they've got a great. Chance BUT i get
the sense you're not gonna Make Mike daniel.

Speaker 2 (01:57:00):
FAN i, KNOW i BELIEVE i believe in him as a.
COORDINATOR i don't believe him as a head.

Speaker 1 (01:57:04):
COACH i, mean, well, okay well he's the, coordinator yeah for.
Sure they brought him. In, yeah and then they're bringing
him in with basically an open wallet to do whatever
he wants to do in terms of changes and everything.
Else let's see if he does it the first. YEAR
i think you need a little bit more. Time they're
doing that right. Now all, right coming over with the other,
side some predictions for the upcoming. Week this Is.

Speaker 3 (01:57:25):
Fox Fox Sports radio has the best sports talk lineup
in the. Nation catch all of our shows at Foxsports
radio dot com and within The iHeartRadio. App SEARCH fsr
to listen Live.

Speaker 1 (01:57:38):
Fox Sports saturday once again live from The Fox Sports radio.
Studios all, right so The dodgers trying to snap this
streak at seven. Games are we still in that?

Speaker 4 (01:57:51):
Game?

Speaker 1 (01:57:51):
THERE i guess we. Are dodgers thought they had the
game last. NIGHT i know a lot of people out
there rooting for The dodgers to lose them All Ruin
Major League, baseball this is the. Formula though right didn't
lose seven to row at some point last, year they
did as a matter of. Fact in, fact that seven
game losing streak started with an eighteen to one loss
to The astros eighteen to, One astros had a ten

(01:58:14):
run any and you follow that up with six more
losses in a row and everyone's, Like i'm not this
year and they end up winning The World. Series so all,
Right so now are? You are you a gambler at? All?
NO i don't do sports. Gambling it Doesn't it just
does not appeal to. Me thank. You i'm Glad i'm
not alone. HERE i feel like a lot of Times

(01:58:35):
i'm alone in.

Speaker 2 (01:58:35):
That, No LIKE i, Like i'll play, Blackjack i'll play,
Roulette i'll gamble my sports. Gambling they JUST i want
to enjoy what's. HAPPENING i don't want to root for
LIKE i need, THIS i need this parlay, COVER i
need this over LIKE i think it's.

Speaker 1 (01:58:52):
See my excuse for making so many bad predictions over
the years is, that you, know the more you, know
the less you. Know sure they try that, Line, yes
that's great. One the mari you, know the less you.

Speaker 2 (01:59:02):
Know, okay people are, like, hey who do you think
someone is?

Speaker 1 (01:59:07):
Bad don't ask, ME i. Don't my late great, Partner chet,
forty one of the old time, legends was a compulsive.
Gambler he was DIRECTING nba basketball FOR abc during the. Sixties,
wow in the you know seventies when it was first you,
KNOW nba was just trying to take root a little,
bit and he was betting on every single game he,

(01:59:29):
broadcast and you, know you talk about insider. Information he
had this one game where he talked about where he
found out last second is they were always doing The
celtics or The, lakers and That Jerry west was sitting
out a game that nobody had this. Information nobody had this.
Information it's going to be a you, know game time

(01:59:50):
decision And wess is not going to be out. There
but he knew ahead of, time so he just bounds
the other. Team jerry's. Out, yeah The lakers won the
game and he lost the Boat LOAN i said to.
SEE i, mean just that insider information is not going
to help on any of. That, HEY i wanted to
ask you a little bit ABOUT nil right now because

(02:00:12):
it's obviously had a major impact in college football BECAUSE
i and for good. Reasons, well because you see these quarterbacks. Stay.
YEAH i, mean you Know pavia was able to eat
out of next year of college eligibility when you know
he got paid a mint And vanderbilt because he wasn't
going to make any money in THE, nfl like At
shambliss's situation With Ole. Miss you, know these guys are

(02:00:32):
extending their stay AND i think that's. GOOD i want
them to get as much college experience as possible so
that they're better prepared for THE. Nfl do you think
it's had any impact as far as THE nba is,
concerned THE nil money it's being keaped upon these college basketball. Players,
YEAH i think you're seeing guys who are not first
round picks. STAY i THINK i Mean Haimy hawks is

(02:00:53):
a prime example of staying in next YEAR. UCLA i
think it benefit, well and he's a very SOLID nba. Player,
YEAH i think down the line we will see.

Speaker 2 (02:01:03):
It but this idea that every once in a while they're,
like you know this projected number one, pick he's Gonna,
no he's always going to make more money at THE nba.
Level that's never going to be something that affects. It
but the later parts of the draft absolutely affects.

Speaker 1 (02:01:14):
You you Think peterson is going to be a, Star, yeah for.
Sure he's that kicking. Hoop he's. Unbelievable so load management
on the college level didn't bother. YOU i think it bothered,
me BUT i know it Bothered bill. Self, Hey, zach
great job is Always thanks so, much

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