May 15, 2026 • 30 mins
On today’s episode, Jason discusses all the biggest headlines to come out of NFL Schedule Release Day, including: how the NFL’s insistence on putting their best teams on standalone games has killed the Sunday afternoon window, whether the Chicago Bears are even worthy of playing on both Thanksgiving and Christmas after just one season of solid football, how big of a factor the Mike Vrabel-Dianna Russini scandal was when it came to scheduling the New England Patriots on primetime, why the NFL insists on adding more international games every year, and much more!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
This is Straight Fire with Jason McIntire.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
What is up, Drake Fire. It's me Jason McIntire, Straight
Lawyer or Friday, May the fifteenth, Quick programming note. So,
I've been, dude, so many podcasts. I think we're over
like twelve hundred in the last I don't know. We've
been doing this since I think twenty twenty one, maybe
twenty twenty, I don't know, five years, six, whatever the
(00:32):
number is. But my chord broke right before I was
going to record this, so I'm doing it. Maybe there'll
be a slight different audio volume. I'm doing it off
my computer, so hopefully it sounds good. Don't worry. Thanks
to the beautiful nature of Amazon, you can get a
chord overnight and we'll be fine for next week. But
(00:53):
just want to put that out there in case you hate,
like some kind of echo. But don't worry. Also, Rob
g is an expert at this kind of thing. He
can just make me sound amazing because I needed uh So,
thankfully no NBA on Thursday. We got a brief respite,
got to hang out with my fam, got to actually
do stuff in life as opposed to watch NBA, which
I love. But the big story on Thursday was the
(01:15):
NFL schedule comes out, And of course there's all these
leaks leading up to it, and there's some things I
love and some things I don't love. I think and
I love to guess the talking points. You know, you
guys get this in the morning, you're walking your dog,
you're driving your kid to school. I've been noticed the
F bombs have been limited because I got some Ay,
my kid laughs when you drop F bombs? Can I
not make your mom jokes either? And so I will
(01:39):
say the NFL very clearly this season has made it
a point our standalone product has to be amazing, because folks,
when you start looking at the Thanksgiving lineup and the
Christmas lineup, the NFL has made it very clear we
want to put the best teams at night in time
(02:00):
obviously because they're driving. They want to drive big ratings,
you know, Goodell's and talks with the leagues about the
new TV deal they are maximizing as well they should
business now, I will say the problem with this, of course,
is that the real bread and butter of the NFL
is Sunday, where you're camped out on the East Coast
(02:20):
from one to seven fifteen ish enjoying wall to wall
football and then the overlapping, the witching hour red zonus chaotic.
That to me is the essence of the NFL. You
know what, because it's fricking seventeen Sundays in a row
and there's I mean, even if I'm coaching my kids
in sports or whatever, I've got the phone and I'm
(02:42):
watching it. That's how good that is. And to me,
that's the essence of the NFL. But you guys got
to remember, the NFL's a business, and what do businesses
want to do? Maximize profits. How do you maximize profits?
You put the best games in primetime, you drive TV ratings,
and then you go to Amazon and Peacock and Amazon
and Apple and all these they say, hey, we're just
(03:03):
gonna cost it's gonna cost more to put your game
on Netflix because look at these ratings. That's where we
can get huge numbers. So yes, I understand the business model,
but I also kind of sort of am like, damn,
there's coulda be some really weak one pm slates, There's
going to be some really light four pm slates. And
I totally understand it. It's a business. The NFL is
(03:24):
doing smart business, but they're also kind of hurting the fans. Now,
fams also win when you've got the Thanksgiving Eve game
with Packers and Rams, which I mean, folks, that could
easily be an NFC championship game preview, and then the
next day on Thanksgiving Bear's Lions, two of the top
(03:44):
five teams in the NFC, Eagles, Cowboys needs no introduction,
and then Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen at night like
that's an incredible lineup. And then because you've gorged yourself
on food and football, Black Friday as Bronco Steelers not
as attractive, but we'll see if Aaron Rodgers plays. Otherwise
that's you know, Bo Nick's against Will Howard or something.
(04:06):
But this is where it gets crazy. So everybody gets,
oh my gosh, I'm rock hard over this Thanksgiving lineup.
That's great, okay, But what gets crazy is when you
look at the Christmas lineup. Now, Christmas has long been
the NFL's start of the season. Unofficially, here's the Christmas
NFL lineup Packers, Bears, Bills, Broncos, Rams, Seahawks. Folks, the
(04:35):
Packers are playing on Thanksgiving Eve and Christmas. The Bears
are playing on Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day. The Bills
are playing on Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day. The Broncos
are playing on Thanksgiving, Thanksgivings, Black Friday, and Christmas Day.
The Rams Thanksgiving Eve and Christmas Day. Like, what exactly
(04:57):
are we doing here? The Eagles, by the way, I
forgot goals, play Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve. Like essentially, you're saying,
these are like eight of the ten best teams. We
want you glued to the TV on Christmas. That's fine,
Oh listen, I don't really care about the whole ratings thing. Fortunately,
I have this thing called a remote control, very novel concept,
and I've got this thing called multiple televisions, and you've
(05:19):
got that you can easily watch NFL and NBA the same.
It's not a big deal now. If you guys remember
last year, the Christmas light was supposed to be awesome,
and like, five quarterbacks are down and ain't nobody watching
backup quarterbacks on Christmas? Okay, sure, fantasy gambling, but I
mean I'm watching good nball, healthy players on Christmas over
backup quarterbacks. So I don't know. I mean, there's a
(05:42):
lot of stuff happening. You don't want to overreact. We're
talking about games that aren't happening for another six or
seven months. Sorry, can't get two worked up, rob g Though,
I know you've already flagged the Christmas schedule in your
shared calendar with your wife and you told her to listen, bib,
I gotta watch these game and so I'm sorry, I'm
locked in.
Speaker 3 (06:02):
Yeah, that's exactly what I said.
Speaker 4 (06:03):
I said, Hey, I know we're going to Hawaii the
day after Christmas, already gone for like ten days. Wow,
that's great, and it's a lot of family time. But
the day before we leave, I'm locked in. I'm not
spending time with the rest of the fam. Screw them, kids,
We're gonna have a whole week at the beach. Let
them relax because today dad's watching football.
Speaker 3 (06:19):
Uh No.
Speaker 4 (06:20):
But in all seriousness, I might be the only person
who works in sports media and consumes sports at a
very high clip that isn't too jazzed about what the
NFL is doing and has been doing over the last
few years. Because maybe it's that I'm getting older. Maybe
it's because you mentioned I got two kids. I got
a family, you know, I got other things I have
to do. But I really enjoyed back in the day
(06:43):
Christmas Day, I'm watching basketball like it's tradition. I'm going
to see the Lakers in the in the afternoon game.
I'm gonna see the Knicks or the Celtics in the
morning game for me in the West Coast, and it's
gonna set up the rest of my day.
Speaker 3 (06:55):
It'll build around there.
Speaker 4 (06:57):
What the NFL is doing is they're making me have
to choose, and I don't like that. I mean, I
know that we have phones and tablets and I got
multiple TVs and that's great, but called me old fashioned.
I enjoy just watching a game, unless it's NFL Sunday,
where for gambling or for me fantasy purposes, I'm gonna
have multiple screens, so I have to watch them all
(07:17):
at once. There's something to be said about sitting there
and just enjoying the product and enjoying what I'm seeing,
and enjoying watching a Patrick Mahomes versus Josh Allen four
quarters of magic like that's great. And the fact that
this is gonna happen again, where the NFL has decided,
not only are you gonna have to choose between your
(07:38):
favorite team, which is my Lakers and a better TV product,
which is football. But I'm also gonna have to be
able to consume it at a rate so that number one,
I'm avoiding family interaction, but number two, I have to
be able to consume it so that I can talk
about it on the Straight Fire podcast or prep the
radio show on Fox Sports Radio, or now my own
podcast for Cliner Media Network. Like at some point the
(08:01):
NFL is gonna get to a point in time where
they are overwhelming us with content, Like eventually the bubble
is going to burst. You got to reel it in
a little bit. There's something to be said about a
little bit of scarcity every now and again, and the
NFL has decided that they do not believe in that,
and that's a little bit frustrating for me.
Speaker 2 (08:23):
One of the things, yeah, I think that is lost
in this whole Christmas thing is like, bro, do you
really want to be on Christmas Eve setting your fantasy lineup?
Christmas week? You're navigating? I mean, you're a baller, You're
going on white Christmas. That's expensive as hell. You know,
you know, people boarding flights traveling to see their family,
pick airport pickups, and you've got to juggle the fantasy
(08:45):
waiver wire. I personally don't love that because you know,
I only care because my fantasy team will still be
in the mix. A lot of you guys just don't
know how to manage fantasy and you'll be out who cares.
By the way, Rob, I just got an invite from
a buddy. Faithful listener of the podcast has asked multiple times,
I wonder what Rob he looks like? What's he like? Anyway?
He invited me to a one thousand dollars fantasy football league.
(09:07):
One thousand dollars buy him? So I got to make
sure the particulars are good for me. But I'm probably
gonna do it very excited. Who I mean, fantasy leagues
are great. I'll tell you see stuff like Malik Neighbors
just had a second surgery.
Speaker 3 (09:21):
Shouldn't be good for week What?
Speaker 2 (09:22):
What a cl and then a cleanup? I mean anyways,
I just went off on our tangent.
Speaker 4 (09:28):
If if you're gonna do the league that big, make
sure you look at the scoring details first.
Speaker 3 (09:32):
I made that mistake last year.
Speaker 4 (09:33):
My big money league had the Wonkee scoring system, where
I should have ran a train through that league, and
I ended up barely making the playoffs.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
But like, in all honesty, the schedule release is kind
of a cool, big deal, and you can start to
see some teams right out the gate who were like, oh,
that's gonna be trouble. You know. For instance, the Washington
Commanders in their first nine weeks have games against the Rams,
the Eagles, the Niners, the Seahawks, the Eagles. Like, I'm sorry,
(10:02):
but that's at least four or five losses right there,
and you could say, oh, Washington's rebuilt, okay, sure, good
luck both games against the Eagles in the first nine weeks,
first eight weeks technically, like you can start to write
some teams off. I will be doing the newsletter where
I'm next week and this weekend. Fortunately I don't have
a lot of stuff this weekend, so I'll be able
to send my teeth into what's going on with some
(10:24):
of these schedules. Some win totals I'm seeing some week
one lines. We're sixteen weeks away the NFL opens, Patriots
at Seahawks. Patriots are plus four. I don't know if
aj Brown going there on June one or June two.
We'll move that to three and a half. Excuse me,
but I will not be laying the lumber yet on
(10:47):
that game, but I would definitely lean to the underdog
in a revenge spot Seattle of what they're getting their
rings new OC, a lot of newness probably be going.
Patriots are taking the points.
Speaker 1 (10:57):
Rob 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 4 (11:10):
Yeah, that makes sense. And it's speaking of Week one.
The game that I'm looking forward to is for a
totally different reason. Broncos and Chiefs and I for what,
I don't know about you, but I was absolutely floored
that the NFL decided to make Chiefs their Week one
Monday Night game because as far as I know, I know,
we're still middle May.
Speaker 3 (11:27):
We don't know what Patrick Mahomes.
Speaker 4 (11:29):
Is going to look like, we don't know if he's
even going to be available. I'm assuming if they did that,
they assume that they know he's going to be able
to play. But you're not going to get the All
Caps Superman version of Patrick Mahomes even if he is
out there.
Speaker 3 (11:41):
So for them to waste.
Speaker 4 (11:43):
A Monday night game on a limited Patrick Mahomes, I
think is a little short sighting.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
Well that I totally would agree with that, So you weren't,
I think you were out. But I'm ran into Patrick
Mahomes at this event.
Speaker 3 (11:57):
Yes. I heard about that, Yes, and.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
I had been like, well, Mahomes will start the season
on the pup list and all that, and then you
talk to him and you see him move and obviously
he's not doing football moves.
Speaker 3 (12:08):
Let's say you see him at a party. Yeah, same
thing as an NFL.
Speaker 2 (12:11):
Talking and you're like, how you know, I'm of the
belief based on that encounter and some stuff he was saying,
like he will one hundred percent be healthy. Now willly
be one hundred percent like Patrick Mahomes? Probably not, but
I'm almost certain. Yeah, they would not have put this
game in if the Chiefs didn't say he's gonna be fine,
which is bad news for the rest of the league.
(12:31):
I don't know why the Chiefs get a home game
against a divisional opponent in Week one. Plus bo Nix
is coming off of surgery. Remember he ended the season rough.
By the way, If you're curious, my Jets one and
a half point dogs at cam Ward Robert saah in
a revenge game and Brian Dable. Now we haven't seen
the one pm window, but this is the crap I
(12:53):
was talking about. Right, So Rob Patriot Seahawks is on
a Wednesday, right, I think San Fran Rams is the
Australia game is that Thursday? That is Thursday, Okay, so
they need to give the Times teams time to come back.
By the way, big Niner fan texted me, hey, did
you hear the Rams were fine with this being their
(13:14):
home game against the divisional opponent in Australia because they
didn't want so far to be seventy nine Ers fans.
I was like, damn, Now, I don't I don't know
if he's spot on on that. It sounds good, makes
it good for a good SoundBite, But that game's Thursday,
and this is presumably the one o'clock lineup. Brown's Jags,
(13:34):
I mean, maybe shitdo or get you excited? Bucks Bengals
Baker versus Burrow's not terrible Ravens against the Colts, and
the Colts will not have Daniel Jones Falcon Steelers. That's
a crap game. Bill's Houston. I mean, that's two playoff
teams Bears, Carolina. There are two playoff teams, but nobody
(13:55):
cares about Carolina. Jets Titans, that's a really bad game.
Saints Lions, and like, these are the one PM windows.
This is the problem when you move all the top
games to Island games, you don't get a lot of
great in the one PM window. Now, everybody should be
healthy quarterback wise or this early in the season, so
(14:15):
it shouldn't be a problem. But man, you start getting
like Week ten, but we got like four or five
backup quarterbacks and you're like, ooh, it's one pm. Slate
is dog water?
Speaker 3 (14:25):
Yeah, And I'll tell you what.
Speaker 4 (14:26):
I don't know if we wanted to get on this now,
but I'm looking at the schedule and it just popped
it into my head to circle back to the Christmas
Thanksgiving in those Marquee games. So that's obviously what anybody's
going to be talking about here on Friday. It's no
surprise you got the Rams on there a couple of times,
the Bills on there a couple of times. You know,
the Broncos just made the SC Championship game what I
(14:48):
always look to and maybe this is a bad example
because they did make a playoff run. But I always
look to is there's one team that kind of always
stands out from the rest as a team that you
know that the NFL schedule makers, the decision makers there
have pinpointed as this is the next team, this is
the team that we think is gonna pop. This is
the team that we're gonna get ahead on because we
(15:09):
believe that they're gonna take the next step in the
hierarchy of NFL football. A couple of years ago as
Detroy Lions, remember they closed the season with like six
of seven wins, and then the very next year they
had like seven primetime games. So the expectation was the
Lions were gonna be that team. I think just by
looking at this Thanksgiving and Christmas late, the team that
(15:30):
stands out in that regard to me is the Chicago Bears.
Because the Chicago Bears had a lot of very impressive
come from behind wins last season. And you and I
are both you know, you from a gambling perspective, more
so me from a family perspective. For more so, we
believe in the law of averages, like, hey, my team
(15:51):
has not covered the spread or they lost turnover battle.
This tends evened out. So next season you're gonna see
it happen. Talked about the Kansas City Chiefs coming into
last season. They want all the he's one score games.
This is gonna average out. You picked them to miss
the playoffs. The Chicago Bears, if the NFL is leaning
on them to be this kind of marquee program, could
(16:12):
be that version of the Chiefs because.
Speaker 3 (16:15):
All of their wins.
Speaker 4 (16:16):
Anything anyone's talking about is the Houdini. Caleb Williams, he
can be Tim Tebow asked for three and a half quarters,
you know, seven of twenty two with two to interceptions,
but in the last eight minutes he'll go twelve for
twelve for a bucks seventy five and three scores, and
what do you know, Chicago Bears win again. So could
you imagine this scenario. Maybe not by Thanksgiving that might
(16:38):
be a little too early in the season, but by Christmas.
Roger Goodell and the powers that be are looking at
the slay and they say, Golye, we got the Packers
and the Bears on Christmas.
Speaker 3 (16:46):
The Bears have just lost four straight.
Speaker 4 (16:48):
Caleb Williams, even though he has a lot of touchdowns,
has a lot of turnovers.
Speaker 3 (16:51):
As well. What do you think about that?
Speaker 2 (16:53):
J Mac? Yeah, No, I'm with you. It's a little
prematurn to write them off.
Speaker 4 (16:58):
I'm not taking to write them off, but I'm saying
it's define in the realm of possibility.
Speaker 2 (17:01):
Yeah. Yeah, So last year, what was it, Ravens? I mean,
I had the Bengals in the Super Bowl or something
stupid like that. The Ravens, miss Bengals, miss Chiefs, miss
anybody in the NFC total.
Speaker 3 (17:13):
Oh, the Lions, Yeah, the Lions.
Speaker 2 (17:16):
Lions were so like, it's gonna happen this year, somebody's
gonna fall off. I think Niners are in the mix
to fall off. Schedule is just devastating. And you're right,
the Bear's schedule is brutal. I like last year there
was something about the Chiefs. I said they would miss
the playoffs and one of like the seven points was
bro they're playing on like five days of the week
or four or five days. It is just not fair.
(17:37):
And you're right now, the team they're just shoving down
our throats and all these primetime games as Bears, and
remember these primetime games, like the one o'clock games kind
of get buried in the deck. These primetime games you're
doing media before it significantly. It changes your whole schedule.
Like a lot of these bad teams playing at one pm,
they're used to playing at one pm. You get you
get comfortable with this schedule. Was it Kirk Cousins. Was
(18:00):
he the guy who was like, yeah, man, you get
off your schedule. I gotta play these these night games.
I mean, there's there's some history there that actually is
backed up by data of teams just not being good
under the bright lights. It's tough, and you're right, the Bears,
that's not a bad team to pick on. But who
so who wins the division there?
Speaker 4 (18:19):
I mean you you would like to imagine the lines
are going to bounce back, right like, because even though
it was a down year for them, they still beat
the doors off the Bears each time they played them.
They just tricked away games they weren't supposed to.
Speaker 3 (18:29):
We'll see what's going on with the Packers.
Speaker 4 (18:32):
You know, whether or not you believe in Jordan Love
as a quarterback, you know, because he seems to only
be good during Toyotafon. I don't know if you saw
that on Twitter, what toyota f on? Like when you
get to like November one and on he turns it
on the way that's the same thing Toyota Fawn starts.
I don't know why that is a thing. You know,
Michael Parson is coming off an injury. That division is
(18:53):
going to be a bear like it has been for
a few years. No one pun intended. So you could
tell me that the Minnesota Vikings bounce back and win
twelve thirteen games, I wouldn't be surprised. And you could also,
on the flip side, tell me that Minnesota has another
down year because JJ McCarthy and Kyler Murray and those
guys are not good at all, and they win five
or six games. Like you could make that case for
(19:13):
basically every team in that division. I would say, save
for the Detroit Lions only because their style of play
lends it to their you know, they're gonna have minimum
be a five hundred team. So that's just the tricky situation.
Speaker 2 (19:25):
I know it's a little conspiracy theorist when it comes
to the schedule, but just you know, not every year
do they do the Super Bowl rematch in Week one.
Usually they do a Super Bowl team, the winner, and
then another good team. Many people think the Patriots will
fall off of it. I totally get the Seahawks playing Rob.
(19:48):
This is a little conspiracy theorist. Do you think the
NFL capitalized on? Hey, super Bowl wasn't a banger, But
you know who's had a wild off season? Who's in
the news going from just NFL to sports at large.
Entire media knows this story. Your mom, your grandma might
know this story because everybody's seen it. Non NFL fans know.
(20:11):
The casuals will be roped in. Let's get like Vrabel
in that season opener. Let's capitalize on the Russini Vrabel drama.
And folks, I don't know if you realize because we
haven't talked about it much. The paparazzi are still following
Vrabel around. They seemingly are at Diana Russini's house, just
camped out waiting for that Mother's Day photo. You know,
(20:33):
like it's everybody knows. It's big business. When Rob puts
in the headline of the pod Diana Ruscini drama, there
are more downloads. This is how it works, guys. It's
not right, That's just how it is. People are interested.
What news is out there? Did I miss a colonel?
Is there another, is there any photos from twenty twenty
three pop up? Like I think the NFL kind of
(20:55):
sort of wedged in the Patriots there, because haven't the
Chiefs opened the season like three or four years in
a row?
Speaker 3 (21:00):
Oh them? Or the Eagles? Yeah?
Speaker 4 (21:02):
Yeah, yeah, I'll tell you what, Jam, I could not
agree with you more. You're so right, you can't turn left.
And to a fact, I actually thought that I was
moderately surprised when I saw the Thanksgiving and Christmas games
that the Patriots were not on there because I expected,
like you, that they were going to lean into. Hey,
we've got a whole new segment of the audience now
(21:25):
because this story is no longer just a sports story.
It's being covered by People magazine, it's being covered by MSN,
it's being covered by real TMZ, not just TMZ Sports.
So you're going to have a large segment similar to
the Taylor Swift factor. You're gonna have a female viewership
that you may or may not have had, or at
least an interest level that you may not have had
before in this scandal. So you mean it tell me
(21:48):
that you couldn't get you know, my mom who barely
likes football to be like, hey, is that the one
of the coach who's you know, sleeping with that one woman? Yeah,
that's them there. They're down fourteen to three right now.
But like I assume that was going to happen. Maybe
they believe Opening night will or maybe the opposite. They'll say,
we'll get it opening night, get it out of the way.
They don't worry about it anymore.
Speaker 5 (22:07):
Well, it's possible, I mean that that by late in
the season, the Patriots aren't great, you know, and this
story is dead because it'll be so much later, right,
It'll be like seven months have past.
Speaker 3 (22:18):
And a lot of execs are picking them to have
to fall back this year.
Speaker 2 (22:21):
Fall back, yes, sir. Last year they had like the
easiest schedule in the last twenty five years. So they're
not gonna be as relevant late in the season. But
I wonder if Dina Rassini's seeing this decides wait, wait,
why would I come out on a podcast and tell
my side of the story? Now? Why don't I just
capitalize when the NFL season started, and then by then
maybe she has her own website up and running for news,
(22:44):
or maybe she has her own podcast, Like she's got
plenty of time and she should capitalize too, right, I mean,
you know, if they're gonna try to capitalize off the story,
why don't you try to? I mean it's you're the
one involved, unless you, you know, want to bury the story.
I don't know, Rob, I just got a little tinfoil
hattie there. I like that, of course you do. I
(23:04):
know what you like?
Speaker 3 (23:05):
Bro?
Speaker 2 (23:05):
Uh to anything else you see that jumps out at you.
Speaker 1 (23:10):
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 4 (23:22):
This is more of a macro thing than than just
one individual game. Am I the only person who hates
the NFL International slate?
Speaker 2 (23:31):
I haven't seen it.
Speaker 4 (23:33):
So it's nine games across four continents and seven countries. Okay,
and the Rams face excuse me, not the Rams. The
uh it is the Rams. The Rams famously played two
international games. So my issue again is not necessarily the matchups.
The matchups're finding at Niners Rams. You got you know,
Ravens Cowboys in Rio, you got a Colts Commanders, And
(23:55):
maybe that's that's bad, you know, but you know, Eagles, Jags,
not that excited about that one tech since Jags always
get a couple of Internet.
Speaker 2 (24:01):
So the Jags got the back to back Okay, but
I just pulled it up because they had to get
back to back in London again.
Speaker 3 (24:07):
Yeah, Bengals Falcons.
Speaker 4 (24:09):
That could be good. That could be fun game. I
don't know if it be a good game, be a
fun game. You know, like it's fine the Niners player
the ones played, not the Rams they play in Mexico City.
But my issue is who asked for this right, Like, like,
if you don't like football by now across the world,
you're not gonna like it, right if it hasn't taken
a foothold by now, if NFL Europe had to fail
(24:32):
already whatever twenty years ago. I don't see a world
where American football becomes that big of a deal where
we need to have nine different international games because all
it does is to mess with these guys body clocks.
It's usually not a great game because these guys are
worried about travel and their sleep schedule and sight seeing.
You know that it's not typically a good game. So
(24:54):
it's like, who's it?
Speaker 2 (24:55):
Four?
Speaker 3 (24:55):
Don't I don't need to see a five thirty am
football game.
Speaker 2 (24:58):
I would guess it's it's for the standalone ratings aspect,
which again and this.
Speaker 3 (25:03):
Takes they sticking on NFL network.
Speaker 4 (25:05):
Nobody's watching that, like not the same as you weren't
on Fox or CBS or NBC.
Speaker 2 (25:10):
Well, it's stand up I mean, so there's nothing else
on when these games are playing. It's going up against
like literally nothing Sunday mornings, right, I think.
Speaker 3 (25:17):
Great Fantasy football preview is what is going up against?
Speaker 2 (25:20):
Yeah, which is you know nothing, And it's like, I mean,
I don't hate it out here in LA. You wake
up and a game's already underway.
Speaker 3 (25:27):
It's hot, tad, but.
Speaker 2 (25:29):
You notice there's a lot less crap teams. Like I
thought the Jets would be getting exported. Nope, I thought
that the Cardinals would be Nope. Who are the other
terrible teams with the lowest win totals. They're not sending
them out there. Dolphins are not anywhere. So it is
interesting if they're really And this has to do with
the TV deal that's coming up. I'm sure they want
(25:53):
primetime standalone games to be bangers, and it's going to
take away from the one pm.
Speaker 4 (25:57):
S late rob Yeah, I think that's the general theme
of what we're discussing here. With the schedule, I think
you are so on on with that.
Speaker 2 (26:03):
We can wrap up and head into the weekend. Two
Pivotal Game six is tonight in the NBA. Very exciting
that the Calves go home with a chance to close
it out at three and a half point favorites. Wolves
are hosting the Spurs Spurs four and a half point
favorites on the road. Of note, they get an extra
(26:24):
day off there, which is great for Weeban Yama but
also great for Anthony Edwards more likely to get the DUB.
I actually think the Spurs are more likely to win
on the road than the Calves at home. As excited
as I was, and I got some funny DMS from
you guys, I was excited about the Caves. The more
I let it I think about it, I'm like, oh,
(26:44):
you guys digging it. There's a decent chance they choke
it away. I mean, hell, Orlando was up twenty four
with a chance to close it out and totally blew it.
And I don't want to hear what the Calves are
in Orlando? Are we sure? I mean, go look at
James Harden in close out games, you know, turns back
into Rob's guy, Jim Harden. So I'm not going to
count Kake cunning him out. I don't know how the
(27:05):
Pistons turn around. I'm really curious about that game. Rob,
Like Jalen Duran, they're all NBA guy, their second best
player all season was benched in the fourth quarter in overtime,
Like he's having a brutal series. What do you do?
And Evan Mobley seems to be unlocked in like a
Karl Anthony Towns role. So, I mean, Calves look good,
but they could easily blow it. I just think the
(27:26):
Spurs with that extra day, the young guys, I hope
they close it out, because again, I don't need Anthony
Edwards going nuclear in game seven. We saw him win
at Denver in game seven. I'm rooting heavily Calves and
Spurs tonight.
Speaker 4 (27:40):
Yeah, you know, I got it leaning with the Pistons,
you know, just because they've I've been rolling with them
since the middle of spring, and I kind of have
to stick with it at this point. I'm not a
fan of slim Jim Harden. I know he's played well
the last couple of games, but I just feel like
he's due for another clunker because that happens to them
every single year, and every single series.
Speaker 3 (27:57):
Maybe got him out of the way. I hope not.
Speaker 4 (27:59):
But as far as the Western Conference, yes, at this point,
give me Spurs Thunder. That is going to be the
most anticipated non finals matchup probably what in the last
twenty years, Monny. I mean, I gotta really rack my
brain for it, you know what I mean. Like, but
the last time you would be this excited for a
(28:20):
non finals matchup is what the Heat Celtics back in
the day with Lebron.
Speaker 3 (28:24):
Like I how far back Warriors Thunder when it was
Steph versus.
Speaker 2 (28:30):
Kd All right, so I'll go ooh, you might be
honest something. So Western Conference Finals last year, Thunder smoked
the Wolves in five. The year before Dallas that Dallas
smokes the Wolves in five, Nuggets sweep the Lakers. Warriors
in twenty two for to one over Luca Sons beat
the Clippers for two. I don't even remember that series.
(28:53):
Lakers beat the Nuggets for to one in the bubble,
I believe the year before that, Warriors sweep the Blazers.
Year before that, Oh, that's right, it was Rockets Warriors
that went seven with Kevin Durant. That was a great
game seven in Houston, I believe yea in Houston and
that was pretty epic. And before that, yeah, oh oh
(29:15):
the Warriors beat the thunder Remember that one the KD
Russell Weston that was a great one twenty sixteen. But Dan,
you're right a lot.
Speaker 4 (29:21):
But either either way, it's up there this series in
terms of what you're looking forward to, because I think
we all can agree this is similar to to bring
out the football Niners, Rams or ram Seahawks and a
few times your game this couple last year, like were
you knew whoever wins this game should win the Super Bowl?
Whoever wins thunder Spurs, Yeah, should win the NBA Finals.
Speaker 2 (29:43):
Yes, but remember the Knicks should be playing a beaten
down warn team. Og should be healthy, so the Knicks
could roll and then wait for those two to slug
it out and Knicks maybe steal game one. I don't
know I'm saying. I would say yes, they'd be favored,
but I'm counting the Knicks out, man. They are. They're
playing so.
Speaker 4 (30:02):
Good so of all the teams that are left, just
in hypothetical, any series matchup. Is there a series you'd
rather see than Thunder Spurs even more than Spurs Nicks
or Knicks Thunder.
Speaker 2 (30:13):
Well, I'm a Knicks fan, so I want to see
Nick Spurs in the finals. Okay, but I really want
Spurs Thunder, so the Spurs could knock them off.
Speaker 3 (30:20):
That's what I want.
Speaker 2 (30:21):
I don't want. I'm sick of this SGA crap and
one of the best teams of all time. They're they're
they're good, guys. They needed seven to beat the Pacers
in the finals. And if Haliburton doesn't go down, who knows.
I mean, we've been over this. I know you guys
want to crown them. What was the lot to crown
their ass? But I can't wait for the Spurs to
take them down.
Speaker 3 (30:42):
I'm with you.
Speaker 2 (30:42):
That's a lengthy Friday pod. We are back next week.
Got a couple of good interviews lined up, Conference finals
nearly upon us See you guys Monday.
This is Straight Fire with Jason McIntire.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
What is up, Drake Fire. It's me Jason McIntire, Straight
Lawyer or Friday, May the fifteenth, Quick programming note. So,
I've been, dude, so many podcasts. I think we're over
like twelve hundred in the last I don't know. We've
been doing this since I think twenty twenty one, maybe
twenty twenty, I don't know, five years, six, whatever the
(00:32):
number is. But my chord broke right before I was
going to record this, so I'm doing it. Maybe there'll
be a slight different audio volume. I'm doing it off
my computer, so hopefully it sounds good. Don't worry. Thanks
to the beautiful nature of Amazon, you can get a
chord overnight and we'll be fine for next week. But
(00:53):
just want to put that out there in case you hate,
like some kind of echo. But don't worry. Also, Rob
g is an expert at this kind of thing. He
can just make me sound amazing because I needed uh So,
thankfully no NBA on Thursday. We got a brief respite,
got to hang out with my fam, got to actually
do stuff in life as opposed to watch NBA, which
I love. But the big story on Thursday was the
(01:15):
NFL schedule comes out, And of course there's all these
leaks leading up to it, and there's some things I
love and some things I don't love. I think and
I love to guess the talking points. You know, you
guys get this in the morning, you're walking your dog,
you're driving your kid to school. I've been noticed the
F bombs have been limited because I got some Ay,
my kid laughs when you drop F bombs? Can I
not make your mom jokes either? And so I will
(01:39):
say the NFL very clearly this season has made it
a point our standalone product has to be amazing, because folks,
when you start looking at the Thanksgiving lineup and the
Christmas lineup, the NFL has made it very clear we
want to put the best teams at night in time
(02:00):
obviously because they're driving. They want to drive big ratings,
you know, Goodell's and talks with the leagues about the
new TV deal they are maximizing as well they should
business now, I will say the problem with this, of course,
is that the real bread and butter of the NFL
is Sunday, where you're camped out on the East Coast
(02:20):
from one to seven fifteen ish enjoying wall to wall
football and then the overlapping, the witching hour red zonus chaotic.
That to me is the essence of the NFL. You
know what, because it's fricking seventeen Sundays in a row
and there's I mean, even if I'm coaching my kids
in sports or whatever, I've got the phone and I'm
(02:42):
watching it. That's how good that is. And to me,
that's the essence of the NFL. But you guys got
to remember, the NFL's a business, and what do businesses
want to do? Maximize profits. How do you maximize profits?
You put the best games in primetime, you drive TV ratings,
and then you go to Amazon and Peacock and Amazon
and Apple and all these they say, hey, we're just
(03:03):
gonna cost it's gonna cost more to put your game
on Netflix because look at these ratings. That's where we
can get huge numbers. So yes, I understand the business model,
but I also kind of sort of am like, damn,
there's coulda be some really weak one pm slates, There's
going to be some really light four pm slates. And
I totally understand it. It's a business. The NFL is
(03:24):
doing smart business, but they're also kind of hurting the fans. Now,
fams also win when you've got the Thanksgiving Eve game
with Packers and Rams, which I mean, folks, that could
easily be an NFC championship game preview, and then the
next day on Thanksgiving Bear's Lions, two of the top
(03:44):
five teams in the NFC, Eagles, Cowboys needs no introduction,
and then Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen at night like
that's an incredible lineup. And then because you've gorged yourself
on food and football, Black Friday as Bronco Steelers not
as attractive, but we'll see if Aaron Rodgers plays. Otherwise
that's you know, Bo Nick's against Will Howard or something.
(04:06):
But this is where it gets crazy. So everybody gets,
oh my gosh, I'm rock hard over this Thanksgiving lineup.
That's great, okay, But what gets crazy is when you
look at the Christmas lineup. Now, Christmas has long been
the NFL's start of the season. Unofficially, here's the Christmas
NFL lineup Packers, Bears, Bills, Broncos, Rams, Seahawks. Folks, the
(04:35):
Packers are playing on Thanksgiving Eve and Christmas. The Bears
are playing on Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day. The Bills
are playing on Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day. The Broncos
are playing on Thanksgiving, Thanksgivings, Black Friday, and Christmas Day.
The Rams Thanksgiving Eve and Christmas Day. Like, what exactly
(04:57):
are we doing here? The Eagles, by the way, I
forgot goals, play Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve. Like essentially, you're saying,
these are like eight of the ten best teams. We
want you glued to the TV on Christmas. That's fine,
Oh listen, I don't really care about the whole ratings thing. Fortunately,
I have this thing called a remote control, very novel concept,
and I've got this thing called multiple televisions, and you've
(05:19):
got that you can easily watch NFL and NBA the same.
It's not a big deal now. If you guys remember
last year, the Christmas light was supposed to be awesome,
and like, five quarterbacks are down and ain't nobody watching
backup quarterbacks on Christmas? Okay, sure, fantasy gambling, but I
mean I'm watching good nball, healthy players on Christmas over
backup quarterbacks. So I don't know. I mean, there's a
(05:42):
lot of stuff happening. You don't want to overreact. We're
talking about games that aren't happening for another six or
seven months. Sorry, can't get two worked up, rob g Though,
I know you've already flagged the Christmas schedule in your
shared calendar with your wife and you told her to listen, bib,
I gotta watch these game and so I'm sorry, I'm
locked in.
Speaker 3 (06:02):
Yeah, that's exactly what I said.
Speaker 4 (06:03):
I said, Hey, I know we're going to Hawaii the
day after Christmas, already gone for like ten days. Wow,
that's great, and it's a lot of family time. But
the day before we leave, I'm locked in. I'm not
spending time with the rest of the fam. Screw them, kids,
We're gonna have a whole week at the beach. Let
them relax because today dad's watching football.
Speaker 3 (06:19):
Uh No.
Speaker 4 (06:20):
But in all seriousness, I might be the only person
who works in sports media and consumes sports at a
very high clip that isn't too jazzed about what the
NFL is doing and has been doing over the last
few years. Because maybe it's that I'm getting older. Maybe
it's because you mentioned I got two kids. I got
a family, you know, I got other things I have
to do. But I really enjoyed back in the day
(06:43):
Christmas Day, I'm watching basketball like it's tradition. I'm going
to see the Lakers in the in the afternoon game.
I'm gonna see the Knicks or the Celtics in the
morning game for me in the West Coast, and it's
gonna set up the rest of my day.
Speaker 3 (06:55):
It'll build around there.
Speaker 4 (06:57):
What the NFL is doing is they're making me have
to choose, and I don't like that. I mean, I
know that we have phones and tablets and I got
multiple TVs and that's great, but called me old fashioned.
I enjoy just watching a game, unless it's NFL Sunday,
where for gambling or for me fantasy purposes, I'm gonna
have multiple screens, so I have to watch them all
(07:17):
at once. There's something to be said about sitting there
and just enjoying the product and enjoying what I'm seeing,
and enjoying watching a Patrick Mahomes versus Josh Allen four
quarters of magic like that's great. And the fact that
this is gonna happen again, where the NFL has decided,
not only are you gonna have to choose between your
(07:38):
favorite team, which is my Lakers and a better TV product,
which is football. But I'm also gonna have to be
able to consume it at a rate so that number one,
I'm avoiding family interaction, but number two, I have to
be able to consume it so that I can talk
about it on the Straight Fire podcast or prep the
radio show on Fox Sports Radio, or now my own
podcast for Cliner Media Network. Like at some point the
(08:01):
NFL is gonna get to a point in time where
they are overwhelming us with content, Like eventually the bubble
is going to burst. You got to reel it in
a little bit. There's something to be said about a
little bit of scarcity every now and again, and the
NFL has decided that they do not believe in that,
and that's a little bit frustrating for me.
Speaker 2 (08:23):
One of the things, yeah, I think that is lost
in this whole Christmas thing is like, bro, do you
really want to be on Christmas Eve setting your fantasy lineup?
Christmas week? You're navigating? I mean, you're a baller, You're
going on white Christmas. That's expensive as hell. You know,
you know, people boarding flights traveling to see their family,
pick airport pickups, and you've got to juggle the fantasy
(08:45):
waiver wire. I personally don't love that because you know,
I only care because my fantasy team will still be
in the mix. A lot of you guys just don't
know how to manage fantasy and you'll be out who cares.
By the way, Rob, I just got an invite from
a buddy. Faithful listener of the podcast has asked multiple times,
I wonder what Rob he looks like? What's he like? Anyway?
He invited me to a one thousand dollars fantasy football league.
(09:07):
One thousand dollars buy him? So I got to make
sure the particulars are good for me. But I'm probably
gonna do it very excited. Who I mean, fantasy leagues
are great. I'll tell you see stuff like Malik Neighbors
just had a second surgery.
Speaker 3 (09:21):
Shouldn't be good for week What?
Speaker 2 (09:22):
What a cl and then a cleanup? I mean anyways,
I just went off on our tangent.
Speaker 4 (09:28):
If if you're gonna do the league that big, make
sure you look at the scoring details first.
Speaker 3 (09:32):
I made that mistake last year.
Speaker 4 (09:33):
My big money league had the Wonkee scoring system, where
I should have ran a train through that league, and
I ended up barely making the playoffs.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
But like, in all honesty, the schedule release is kind
of a cool, big deal, and you can start to
see some teams right out the gate who were like, oh,
that's gonna be trouble. You know. For instance, the Washington
Commanders in their first nine weeks have games against the Rams,
the Eagles, the Niners, the Seahawks, the Eagles. Like, I'm sorry,
(10:02):
but that's at least four or five losses right there,
and you could say, oh, Washington's rebuilt, okay, sure, good
luck both games against the Eagles in the first nine weeks,
first eight weeks technically, like you can start to write
some teams off. I will be doing the newsletter where
I'm next week and this weekend. Fortunately I don't have
a lot of stuff this weekend, so I'll be able
to send my teeth into what's going on with some
(10:24):
of these schedules. Some win totals I'm seeing some week
one lines. We're sixteen weeks away the NFL opens, Patriots
at Seahawks. Patriots are plus four. I don't know if
aj Brown going there on June one or June two.
We'll move that to three and a half. Excuse me,
but I will not be laying the lumber yet on
(10:47):
that game, but I would definitely lean to the underdog
in a revenge spot Seattle of what they're getting their
rings new OC, a lot of newness probably be going.
Patriots are taking the points.
Speaker 1 (10:57):
Rob 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 4 (11:10):
Yeah, that makes sense. And it's speaking of Week one.
The game that I'm looking forward to is for a
totally different reason. Broncos and Chiefs and I for what,
I don't know about you, but I was absolutely floored
that the NFL decided to make Chiefs their Week one
Monday Night game because as far as I know, I know,
we're still middle May.
Speaker 3 (11:27):
We don't know what Patrick Mahomes.
Speaker 4 (11:29):
Is going to look like, we don't know if he's
even going to be available. I'm assuming if they did that,
they assume that they know he's going to be able
to play. But you're not going to get the All
Caps Superman version of Patrick Mahomes even if he is
out there.
Speaker 3 (11:41):
So for them to waste.
Speaker 4 (11:43):
A Monday night game on a limited Patrick Mahomes, I
think is a little short sighting.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
Well that I totally would agree with that, So you weren't,
I think you were out. But I'm ran into Patrick
Mahomes at this event.
Speaker 3 (11:57):
Yes. I heard about that, Yes, and.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
I had been like, well, Mahomes will start the season
on the pup list and all that, and then you
talk to him and you see him move and obviously
he's not doing football moves.
Speaker 3 (12:08):
Let's say you see him at a party. Yeah, same
thing as an NFL.
Speaker 2 (12:11):
Talking and you're like, how you know, I'm of the
belief based on that encounter and some stuff he was saying,
like he will one hundred percent be healthy. Now willly
be one hundred percent like Patrick Mahomes? Probably not, but
I'm almost certain. Yeah, they would not have put this
game in if the Chiefs didn't say he's gonna be fine,
which is bad news for the rest of the league.
(12:31):
I don't know why the Chiefs get a home game
against a divisional opponent in Week one. Plus bo Nix
is coming off of surgery. Remember he ended the season rough.
By the way, If you're curious, my Jets one and
a half point dogs at cam Ward Robert saah in
a revenge game and Brian Dable. Now we haven't seen
the one pm window, but this is the crap I
(12:53):
was talking about. Right, So Rob Patriot Seahawks is on
a Wednesday, right, I think San Fran Rams is the
Australia game is that Thursday? That is Thursday, Okay, so
they need to give the Times teams time to come back.
By the way, big Niner fan texted me, hey, did
you hear the Rams were fine with this being their
(13:14):
home game against the divisional opponent in Australia because they
didn't want so far to be seventy nine Ers fans.
I was like, damn, Now, I don't I don't know
if he's spot on on that. It sounds good, makes
it good for a good SoundBite, But that game's Thursday,
and this is presumably the one o'clock lineup. Brown's Jags,
(13:34):
I mean, maybe shitdo or get you excited? Bucks Bengals
Baker versus Burrow's not terrible Ravens against the Colts, and
the Colts will not have Daniel Jones Falcon Steelers. That's
a crap game. Bill's Houston. I mean, that's two playoff
teams Bears, Carolina. There are two playoff teams, but nobody
(13:55):
cares about Carolina. Jets Titans, that's a really bad game.
Saints Lions, and like, these are the one PM windows.
This is the problem when you move all the top
games to Island games, you don't get a lot of
great in the one PM window. Now, everybody should be
healthy quarterback wise or this early in the season, so
(14:15):
it shouldn't be a problem. But man, you start getting
like Week ten, but we got like four or five
backup quarterbacks and you're like, ooh, it's one pm. Slate
is dog water?
Speaker 3 (14:25):
Yeah, And I'll tell you what.
Speaker 4 (14:26):
I don't know if we wanted to get on this now,
but I'm looking at the schedule and it just popped
it into my head to circle back to the Christmas
Thanksgiving in those Marquee games. So that's obviously what anybody's
going to be talking about here on Friday. It's no
surprise you got the Rams on there a couple of times,
the Bills on there a couple of times. You know,
the Broncos just made the SC Championship game what I
(14:48):
always look to and maybe this is a bad example
because they did make a playoff run. But I always
look to is there's one team that kind of always
stands out from the rest as a team that you
know that the NFL schedule makers, the decision makers there
have pinpointed as this is the next team, this is
the team that we think is gonna pop. This is
the team that we're gonna get ahead on because we
(15:09):
believe that they're gonna take the next step in the
hierarchy of NFL football. A couple of years ago as
Detroy Lions, remember they closed the season with like six
of seven wins, and then the very next year they
had like seven primetime games. So the expectation was the
Lions were gonna be that team. I think just by
looking at this Thanksgiving and Christmas late, the team that
(15:30):
stands out in that regard to me is the Chicago Bears.
Because the Chicago Bears had a lot of very impressive
come from behind wins last season. And you and I
are both you know, you from a gambling perspective, more
so me from a family perspective. For more so, we
believe in the law of averages, like, hey, my team
(15:51):
has not covered the spread or they lost turnover battle.
This tends evened out. So next season you're gonna see
it happen. Talked about the Kansas City Chiefs coming into
last season. They want all the he's one score games.
This is gonna average out. You picked them to miss
the playoffs. The Chicago Bears, if the NFL is leaning
on them to be this kind of marquee program, could
(16:12):
be that version of the Chiefs because.
Speaker 3 (16:15):
All of their wins.
Speaker 4 (16:16):
Anything anyone's talking about is the Houdini. Caleb Williams, he
can be Tim Tebow asked for three and a half quarters,
you know, seven of twenty two with two to interceptions,
but in the last eight minutes he'll go twelve for
twelve for a bucks seventy five and three scores, and
what do you know, Chicago Bears win again. So could
you imagine this scenario. Maybe not by Thanksgiving that might
(16:38):
be a little too early in the season, but by Christmas.
Roger Goodell and the powers that be are looking at
the slay and they say, Golye, we got the Packers
and the Bears on Christmas.
Speaker 3 (16:46):
The Bears have just lost four straight.
Speaker 4 (16:48):
Caleb Williams, even though he has a lot of touchdowns,
has a lot of turnovers.
Speaker 3 (16:51):
As well. What do you think about that?
Speaker 2 (16:53):
J Mac? Yeah, No, I'm with you. It's a little
prematurn to write them off.
Speaker 4 (16:58):
I'm not taking to write them off, but I'm saying
it's define in the realm of possibility.
Speaker 2 (17:01):
Yeah. Yeah, So last year, what was it, Ravens? I mean,
I had the Bengals in the Super Bowl or something
stupid like that. The Ravens, miss Bengals, miss Chiefs, miss
anybody in the NFC total.
Speaker 3 (17:13):
Oh, the Lions, Yeah, the Lions.
Speaker 2 (17:16):
Lions were so like, it's gonna happen this year, somebody's
gonna fall off. I think Niners are in the mix
to fall off. Schedule is just devastating. And you're right,
the Bear's schedule is brutal. I like last year there
was something about the Chiefs. I said they would miss
the playoffs and one of like the seven points was
bro they're playing on like five days of the week
or four or five days. It is just not fair.
(17:37):
And you're right now, the team they're just shoving down
our throats and all these primetime games as Bears, and
remember these primetime games, like the one o'clock games kind
of get buried in the deck. These primetime games you're
doing media before it significantly. It changes your whole schedule.
Like a lot of these bad teams playing at one pm,
they're used to playing at one pm. You get you
get comfortable with this schedule. Was it Kirk Cousins. Was
(18:00):
he the guy who was like, yeah, man, you get
off your schedule. I gotta play these these night games.
I mean, there's there's some history there that actually is
backed up by data of teams just not being good
under the bright lights. It's tough, and you're right, the Bears,
that's not a bad team to pick on. But who
so who wins the division there?
Speaker 4 (18:19):
I mean you you would like to imagine the lines
are going to bounce back, right like, because even though
it was a down year for them, they still beat
the doors off the Bears each time they played them.
They just tricked away games they weren't supposed to.
Speaker 3 (18:29):
We'll see what's going on with the Packers.
Speaker 4 (18:32):
You know, whether or not you believe in Jordan Love
as a quarterback, you know, because he seems to only
be good during Toyotafon. I don't know if you saw
that on Twitter, what toyota f on? Like when you
get to like November one and on he turns it
on the way that's the same thing Toyota Fawn starts.
I don't know why that is a thing. You know,
Michael Parson is coming off an injury. That division is
(18:53):
going to be a bear like it has been for
a few years. No one pun intended. So you could
tell me that the Minnesota Vikings bounce back and win
twelve thirteen games, I wouldn't be surprised. And you could also,
on the flip side, tell me that Minnesota has another
down year because JJ McCarthy and Kyler Murray and those
guys are not good at all, and they win five
or six games. Like you could make that case for
(19:13):
basically every team in that division. I would say, save
for the Detroit Lions only because their style of play
lends it to their you know, they're gonna have minimum
be a five hundred team. So that's just the tricky situation.
Speaker 2 (19:25):
I know it's a little conspiracy theorist when it comes
to the schedule, but just you know, not every year
do they do the Super Bowl rematch in Week one.
Usually they do a Super Bowl team, the winner, and
then another good team. Many people think the Patriots will
fall off of it. I totally get the Seahawks playing Rob.
(19:48):
This is a little conspiracy theorist. Do you think the
NFL capitalized on? Hey, super Bowl wasn't a banger, But
you know who's had a wild off season? Who's in
the news going from just NFL to sports at large.
Entire media knows this story. Your mom, your grandma might
know this story because everybody's seen it. Non NFL fans know.
(20:11):
The casuals will be roped in. Let's get like Vrabel
in that season opener. Let's capitalize on the Russini Vrabel drama.
And folks, I don't know if you realize because we
haven't talked about it much. The paparazzi are still following
Vrabel around. They seemingly are at Diana Russini's house, just
camped out waiting for that Mother's Day photo. You know,
(20:33):
like it's everybody knows. It's big business. When Rob puts
in the headline of the pod Diana Ruscini drama, there
are more downloads. This is how it works, guys. It's
not right, That's just how it is. People are interested.
What news is out there? Did I miss a colonel?
Is there another, is there any photos from twenty twenty
three pop up? Like I think the NFL kind of
(20:55):
sort of wedged in the Patriots there, because haven't the
Chiefs opened the season like three or four years in
a row?
Speaker 3 (21:00):
Oh them? Or the Eagles? Yeah?
Speaker 4 (21:02):
Yeah, yeah, I'll tell you what, Jam, I could not
agree with you more. You're so right, you can't turn left.
And to a fact, I actually thought that I was
moderately surprised when I saw the Thanksgiving and Christmas games
that the Patriots were not on there because I expected,
like you, that they were going to lean into. Hey,
we've got a whole new segment of the audience now
(21:25):
because this story is no longer just a sports story.
It's being covered by People magazine, it's being covered by MSN,
it's being covered by real TMZ, not just TMZ Sports.
So you're going to have a large segment similar to
the Taylor Swift factor. You're gonna have a female viewership
that you may or may not have had, or at
least an interest level that you may not have had
before in this scandal. So you mean it tell me
(21:48):
that you couldn't get you know, my mom who barely
likes football to be like, hey, is that the one
of the coach who's you know, sleeping with that one woman? Yeah,
that's them there. They're down fourteen to three right now.
But like I assume that was going to happen. Maybe
they believe Opening night will or maybe the opposite. They'll say,
we'll get it opening night, get it out of the way.
They don't worry about it anymore.
Speaker 5 (22:07):
Well, it's possible, I mean that that by late in
the season, the Patriots aren't great, you know, and this
story is dead because it'll be so much later, right,
It'll be like seven months have past.
Speaker 3 (22:18):
And a lot of execs are picking them to have
to fall back this year.
Speaker 2 (22:21):
Fall back, yes, sir. Last year they had like the
easiest schedule in the last twenty five years. So they're
not gonna be as relevant late in the season. But
I wonder if Dina Rassini's seeing this decides wait, wait,
why would I come out on a podcast and tell
my side of the story? Now? Why don't I just
capitalize when the NFL season started, and then by then
maybe she has her own website up and running for news,
(22:44):
or maybe she has her own podcast, Like she's got
plenty of time and she should capitalize too, right, I mean,
you know, if they're gonna try to capitalize off the story,
why don't you try to? I mean it's you're the
one involved, unless you, you know, want to bury the story.
I don't know, Rob, I just got a little tinfoil
hattie there. I like that, of course you do. I
(23:04):
know what you like?
Speaker 3 (23:05):
Bro?
Speaker 2 (23:05):
Uh to anything else you see that jumps out at you.
Speaker 1 (23:10):
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 4 (23:22):
This is more of a macro thing than than just
one individual game. Am I the only person who hates
the NFL International slate?
Speaker 2 (23:31):
I haven't seen it.
Speaker 4 (23:33):
So it's nine games across four continents and seven countries. Okay,
and the Rams face excuse me, not the Rams. The
uh it is the Rams. The Rams famously played two
international games. So my issue again is not necessarily the matchups.
The matchups're finding at Niners Rams. You got you know,
Ravens Cowboys in Rio, you got a Colts Commanders, And
(23:55):
maybe that's that's bad, you know, but you know, Eagles, Jags,
not that excited about that one tech since Jags always
get a couple of Internet.
Speaker 2 (24:01):
So the Jags got the back to back Okay, but
I just pulled it up because they had to get
back to back in London again.
Speaker 3 (24:07):
Yeah, Bengals Falcons.
Speaker 4 (24:09):
That could be good. That could be fun game. I
don't know if it be a good game, be a
fun game. You know, like it's fine the Niners player
the ones played, not the Rams they play in Mexico City.
But my issue is who asked for this right, Like, like,
if you don't like football by now across the world,
you're not gonna like it, right if it hasn't taken
a foothold by now, if NFL Europe had to fail
(24:32):
already whatever twenty years ago. I don't see a world
where American football becomes that big of a deal where
we need to have nine different international games because all
it does is to mess with these guys body clocks.
It's usually not a great game because these guys are
worried about travel and their sleep schedule and sight seeing.
You know that it's not typically a good game. So
(24:54):
it's like, who's it?
Speaker 2 (24:55):
Four?
Speaker 3 (24:55):
Don't I don't need to see a five thirty am
football game.
Speaker 2 (24:58):
I would guess it's it's for the standalone ratings aspect,
which again and this.
Speaker 3 (25:03):
Takes they sticking on NFL network.
Speaker 4 (25:05):
Nobody's watching that, like not the same as you weren't
on Fox or CBS or NBC.
Speaker 2 (25:10):
Well, it's stand up I mean, so there's nothing else
on when these games are playing. It's going up against
like literally nothing Sunday mornings, right, I think.
Speaker 3 (25:17):
Great Fantasy football preview is what is going up against?
Speaker 2 (25:20):
Yeah, which is you know nothing, And it's like, I mean,
I don't hate it out here in LA. You wake
up and a game's already underway.
Speaker 3 (25:27):
It's hot, tad, but.
Speaker 2 (25:29):
You notice there's a lot less crap teams. Like I
thought the Jets would be getting exported. Nope, I thought
that the Cardinals would be Nope. Who are the other
terrible teams with the lowest win totals. They're not sending
them out there. Dolphins are not anywhere. So it is
interesting if they're really And this has to do with
the TV deal that's coming up. I'm sure they want
(25:53):
primetime standalone games to be bangers, and it's going to
take away from the one pm.
Speaker 4 (25:57):
S late rob Yeah, I think that's the general theme
of what we're discussing here. With the schedule, I think
you are so on on with that.
Speaker 2 (26:03):
We can wrap up and head into the weekend. Two
Pivotal Game six is tonight in the NBA. Very exciting
that the Calves go home with a chance to close
it out at three and a half point favorites. Wolves
are hosting the Spurs Spurs four and a half point
favorites on the road. Of note, they get an extra
(26:24):
day off there, which is great for Weeban Yama but
also great for Anthony Edwards more likely to get the DUB.
I actually think the Spurs are more likely to win
on the road than the Calves at home. As excited
as I was, and I got some funny DMS from
you guys, I was excited about the Caves. The more
I let it I think about it, I'm like, oh,
(26:44):
you guys digging it. There's a decent chance they choke
it away. I mean, hell, Orlando was up twenty four
with a chance to close it out and totally blew it.
And I don't want to hear what the Calves are
in Orlando? Are we sure? I mean, go look at
James Harden in close out games, you know, turns back
into Rob's guy, Jim Harden. So I'm not going to
count Kake cunning him out. I don't know how the
(27:05):
Pistons turn around. I'm really curious about that game. Rob,
Like Jalen Duran, they're all NBA guy, their second best
player all season was benched in the fourth quarter in overtime,
Like he's having a brutal series. What do you do?
And Evan Mobley seems to be unlocked in like a
Karl Anthony Towns role. So, I mean, Calves look good,
but they could easily blow it. I just think the
(27:26):
Spurs with that extra day, the young guys, I hope
they close it out, because again, I don't need Anthony
Edwards going nuclear in game seven. We saw him win
at Denver in game seven. I'm rooting heavily Calves and
Spurs tonight.
Speaker 4 (27:40):
Yeah, you know, I got it leaning with the Pistons,
you know, just because they've I've been rolling with them
since the middle of spring, and I kind of have
to stick with it at this point. I'm not a
fan of slim Jim Harden. I know he's played well
the last couple of games, but I just feel like
he's due for another clunker because that happens to them
every single year, and every single series.
Speaker 3 (27:57):
Maybe got him out of the way. I hope not.
Speaker 4 (27:59):
But as far as the Western Conference, yes, at this point,
give me Spurs Thunder. That is going to be the
most anticipated non finals matchup probably what in the last
twenty years, Monny. I mean, I gotta really rack my
brain for it, you know what I mean. Like, but
the last time you would be this excited for a
(28:20):
non finals matchup is what the Heat Celtics back in
the day with Lebron.
Speaker 3 (28:24):
Like I how far back Warriors Thunder when it was
Steph versus.
Speaker 2 (28:30):
Kd All right, so I'll go ooh, you might be
honest something. So Western Conference Finals last year, Thunder smoked
the Wolves in five. The year before Dallas that Dallas
smokes the Wolves in five, Nuggets sweep the Lakers. Warriors
in twenty two for to one over Luca Sons beat
the Clippers for two. I don't even remember that series.
(28:53):
Lakers beat the Nuggets for to one in the bubble,
I believe the year before that, Warriors sweep the Blazers.
Year before that, Oh, that's right, it was Rockets Warriors
that went seven with Kevin Durant. That was a great
game seven in Houston, I believe yea in Houston and
that was pretty epic. And before that, yeah, oh oh
(29:15):
the Warriors beat the thunder Remember that one the KD
Russell Weston that was a great one twenty sixteen. But Dan,
you're right a lot.
Speaker 4 (29:21):
But either either way, it's up there this series in
terms of what you're looking forward to, because I think
we all can agree this is similar to to bring
out the football Niners, Rams or ram Seahawks and a
few times your game this couple last year, like were
you knew whoever wins this game should win the Super Bowl?
Whoever wins thunder Spurs, Yeah, should win the NBA Finals.
Speaker 2 (29:43):
Yes, but remember the Knicks should be playing a beaten
down warn team. Og should be healthy, so the Knicks
could roll and then wait for those two to slug
it out and Knicks maybe steal game one. I don't
know I'm saying. I would say yes, they'd be favored,
but I'm counting the Knicks out, man. They are. They're
playing so.
Speaker 4 (30:02):
Good so of all the teams that are left, just
in hypothetical, any series matchup. Is there a series you'd
rather see than Thunder Spurs even more than Spurs Nicks
or Knicks Thunder.
Speaker 2 (30:13):
Well, I'm a Knicks fan, so I want to see
Nick Spurs in the finals. Okay, but I really want
Spurs Thunder, so the Spurs could knock them off.
Speaker 3 (30:20):
That's what I want.
Speaker 2 (30:21):
I don't want. I'm sick of this SGA crap and
one of the best teams of all time. They're they're
they're good, guys. They needed seven to beat the Pacers
in the finals. And if Haliburton doesn't go down, who knows.
I mean, we've been over this. I know you guys
want to crown them. What was the lot to crown
their ass? But I can't wait for the Spurs to
take them down.
Speaker 3 (30:42):
I'm with you.
Speaker 2 (30:42):
That's a lengthy Friday pod. We are back next week.
Got a couple of good interviews lined up, Conference finals
nearly upon us See you guys Monday.
Fox Sports Radio News
Host
Jonas Knox
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