The Fellas with Anthony Gargano & Kevin Figgers: World Cup Fallout, LeBron’s Next Stop & NFL Preview

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Don't listening to Fox Sports.

Speaker 2 (00:02):
Radio Radio two over Kansas City. Well, good, good evening,
good evee Haavy habby Fox Sports Sunday. A little Fella
is reunion for you. I'm Anthony Yorkano. He's Kevin Figures Figuring. Brother.
It is a minute.

Speaker 3 (00:23):
First of all, I'm glad to talk to you during
a more godly hour than we used to. I'll say that,
you know, it's actually light outside when I was speaking
to you for once.

Speaker 2 (00:31):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (00:32):
But on top of that, I feel like it's been
like fifteen years since I talked to you, brother.

Speaker 2 (00:36):
What's going on?

Speaker 4 (00:37):
Uh?

Speaker 2 (00:37):
Yeah, for those people figuring I worked together for years
and years when the fellas did a lot of work together.
Meet him and Lincoln and then uh when Lincoln stepped
aside and me and him and we had we've always
had a blast together.

Speaker 4 (00:50):
Yeah there guy Jason fitz stepped in for a bit.

Speaker 2 (00:52):
Yes, yes, Fitzy, that's right. Yeah, it's wild wild. Uh
you're I was so excited when and our fearless leader
Scott said that.

Speaker 5 (01:03):
You were gonna come in the night.

Speaker 2 (01:04):
So I was like, oh, my main man, Figgie, this
will be great. Like I haven't talked a little bit
in a minute. And how's the baby.

Speaker 3 (01:12):
Oh, the baby will not stop moving, will not stop growing,
climbing on everything, learning new words every other day. I'm
losing weight, trying to keep up with the man. You
know how that goes, brother, But it's been a fun experience. Man,
I would not trade it for anything in the world.

Speaker 4 (01:25):
It's been phenomenal.

Speaker 2 (01:27):
Ah, that's beautiful, brother, that's beautiful. He's gonna be someday
like mine. He'll be bigger than you.

Speaker 5 (01:34):
All right.

Speaker 4 (01:35):
He's on his way.

Speaker 3 (01:36):
Matter of fact, he had a doctor's appointment last week
and he is in the greater than ninety ninth percentile
for height.

Speaker 2 (01:41):
Yeah, greater than ninety nine.

Speaker 4 (01:43):
Like people think he's all in a half.

Speaker 2 (01:45):
He needs two. He just turned two in April. Hey,
what are you ticketing for? You got you got Lakers?
Order Raiders? Where you going? Or the Dodgers?

Speaker 4 (01:56):
Yeah, I mean who knows? I mean the sky's the women?

Speaker 3 (01:58):
Hell the way, play some soccer, all of us be
a striker, you know, out there and kill it out
there on the pitch.

Speaker 5 (02:04):
And he like the Viking, you know.

Speaker 3 (02:09):
So the battle now is between my wife and I
because my wife, she played Division one volleyball that shows like, hey,
get I'm out throwing the volleyball court and I'm like, hey,
you know what, maybe we can meet in the middle somewhere.
Get a little chase butdinger where you can play ten
years in the league, get paid, and then go play
on the av B Tour for about seven eight years
and do it in the middle.

Speaker 4 (02:24):
You know, maybe do something like.

Speaker 5 (02:25):
He perfect, that's perfect as well.

Speaker 3 (02:28):
See but he already has the sports bug and you'll
love this. I mean, he runs into a room and
he'll look up soccer. He'll run in and anything that's
baseball related is Dodgers. My wife has fully indocunated him
into being a Dodger fan. At this point in time.
He doesn't know any of the players names. He knows
Dave Roberts. He'll running is a Dave Roberts. Somehow he
learned Dave Roberts before we learned anybody else. But anytime

(02:49):
he wants, he runs in the room, there's a baseball
game on, it's Dodgers. And he said he definitely knows soccer.
He got the the World Cup fever like many of
us did.

Speaker 5 (02:59):
Oh that's great.

Speaker 2 (02:59):
Well, listen, now that he's you know, he's now at
the age where it's stuff's starting to kind of he's
starting to understand it, pay attention to it, and starts.
It's he's starting to become a little guy. And it's perfect.
So this, this whole thing, you're right, is indoctrinated him
into it.

Speaker 5 (03:15):
And it's funny.

Speaker 2 (03:16):
It's over, and you know, everybody, our fine production team,
everybody's gonna miss it. Man, it was. It was a
great World Cup. It was it was excellent.

Speaker 4 (03:28):
It was so entertaining.

Speaker 3 (03:29):
And I know a lot of people, you know, smarting
from the United States, they thought that we would make
a little bit deeper of a run than we did
this year. But I mean, lest I have a very
pessimistic attitude. I mean, we kind of expected this to
happen to a certain degree, right, So I can't be
too disappointed in Team USA.

Speaker 4 (03:43):
It's like, you know, if they go far, great, let's
sherry on top.

Speaker 3 (03:46):
I really didn't expect much out of them, but the
tournament as a whole, I don't know how you can
ask for anymore. And I and I will be and
I always talking to Mary Maco off the air about
this too. Is like I'm pretty much a casual. I'm
a guy that jumps in every four years. I watch
a little bit of Premier League here and there, but
I'm certainly not an expert. But to see the best
players on the highest level play at the highest level,
there's there's nothing that beats it, whether you're a soccer

(04:08):
fan or not. As you would say, if you are
a fan of sport, there's no way that you could
have not gotten into this tournament and be excited about
what happened.

Speaker 2 (04:15):
That's exactly it. That, that's it, that's it. We're we're
sports people. Listen, the World Cup. We do what we
did during the World Cup as a host country.

Speaker 5 (04:26):
You know, we just do things the right way when
it comes to sports. We know sports.

Speaker 2 (04:30):
Listen.

Speaker 5 (04:30):
I'll give the rest of the world credit.

Speaker 2 (04:31):
They got us on food, They got us on you know,
beautiful old buildings and architecture and that stuff.

Speaker 5 (04:41):
They don't have us in sport. Sport is us all right?

Speaker 2 (04:44):
We love we don't we know how to how to
do it, we know how to celebrate it. It was
uh and we took the world's game and we americanized
it and everybody fell in love with us, right Yeah,
the Scots fell in love with us, right.

Speaker 5 (04:57):
I mean it was amazing.

Speaker 2 (04:58):
I was in a host city, Philadelphia, where a couple
is getting married and married right on Broad Street, which
is the main thoroughfare in Philadelphia.

Speaker 5 (05:08):
And they got totally swung.

Speaker 2 (05:11):
There's thousands of Croatian fans that came in and hijacked
the wedding party, and everybody loved it. It was the
greatest time. People were like going bananas. They fell in love.
I mean, you saw every country kind of have its
way and have its moment, have its connection. And I
always say this figure you heard me say before that

(05:32):
sports builds churches, and I think no other than in
this tournament where you know, we see.

Speaker 5 (05:37):
The people connect.

Speaker 2 (05:38):
We connected with everybody, like everyone connected over this stuff.

Speaker 5 (05:42):
It was It was beautiful.

Speaker 2 (05:44):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (05:44):
No matter how much strife you have, you know, throughout
the world or within your individual countries, it's things like
this that bring a lot of people with a lot
of different opinions, different backgrounds all together to.

Speaker 4 (05:54):
Rally around one thing.

Speaker 3 (05:55):
And even if you aren't a fan of a particular country,
just you know, you use the exact up in the Philadelphia.
It happened out here in Inglewood too, where a bunch
of Bosnian fans took over the streets of Inglewood. And now,
granted I don't live in Inglewood, and it was probably
a giant inconvenience for a certain amount of people in
the area, but to see the amount of passion and
the fervor around it, it was incredible. Did you see
the videos of what happened in Times Square last night?

(06:17):
The way the Argentina fans took over Times Square, shooting
off fireworks and playing music. Yes, that's incredible. That's what
sports is supposed to be about. That was absolutely awesome
to see.

Speaker 5 (06:28):
Yeah, it was funny.

Speaker 2 (06:30):
That whole thing was incredible in Times Square. And listen,
I mean, what what defect?

Speaker 5 (06:37):
It was all chalk?

Speaker 2 (06:39):
Yeah, it didn't even bother me. It was It was
great soccer. I mean I railed Saturday morning with Jeff Schwartz.
I railed against the third place game was on show.
That's right, right, Like, I mean the two of us,
I mean, because we're back to back on Saturdays, right,
I mean I hate it, right, I hate the idea

(07:00):
of it. And it turned out to be incredible.

Speaker 3 (07:03):
Well, I'll say this to I mean, the final score
was great and I would say, and again I am
not some sort of soccer officionado or snob, but the
fact that a team goes down four nil then another
team comes back from a four nil deficit to make
it four to three. I don't know if it was
the most well played soccer game, right, but it was
definitely one of the most entertaining, probably the most entertaining
match of the entire tournament.

Speaker 4 (07:25):
I'll certainly say that that was incredible.

Speaker 2 (07:27):
Yeah, I mean, listen, I mean, you know there's nothing
on the line. You can play loosey goosey, right, yeah,
I mean there's no cane the whole Jude came in late.

Speaker 3 (07:35):
But I mention and your take though when it comes
to the third place game, because I have this exact
take on my show, Like you said that Prezech precede
you on Saturday Mornings.

Speaker 4 (07:42):
I understand it.

Speaker 3 (07:43):
In the Olympics, you know, getting a bronze medal means
something and a lot. There's a lot of like studies
that say athletes to get a bronze are actually happier
than athletes that get a silver, because you're happy to
at least gotten a medal, as opposed to saying, like man,
we were just that close to getting a goal. But
when it's the World Cup, what difference does it make
if you it a third place finish? Who cares? Especially
if you're a blue blood like England or France. You know,

(08:05):
if you're a I want to say, a fledgling country,
but an up and coming country, maybe it means something
for your mental or your morale or something like that.
But generally speaking, I don't want to play in a
third play. Terry Kanye was sitting on the bench, for
God's sakes, that's how unimportant that match was.

Speaker 5 (08:19):
Dude, I'm with you. I'm when it comes like team sports.

Speaker 2 (08:23):
Listen, the Olympics is different, right, Like you have you know,
some some event and the event takes place, and then
you have first, second, and third and that event usually
speed race or whatever.

Speaker 5 (08:35):
But in this tournament.

Speaker 2 (08:37):
A great example is having the loser from the AFC
championship game play the loser from the NFC Championship game,
and nobody would watch that. I mean weird. We would
watch it because we're football junkies, but it doesn't matter.

Speaker 5 (08:51):
Nobody wouldn't play it.

Speaker 2 (08:52):
It just you can't play it.

Speaker 4 (08:54):
It's the facto. A preseason game at that point in time.
They even said it.

Speaker 3 (08:57):
I think they use that exact comparison on the telecast
on Saturday. As a matter of fact, it was like,
imagine if the two losers of the conference championship game
played each other, That's what this would be, to which
I said, Okay, then why the hell we play this game?
What difference does it make? And why would anybody put
themselves at risk of injury? Why would I put my
you know, starting left tackle out there in a game
that literally means nothing and he can tear his ACL

(09:17):
and not play all of next year.

Speaker 4 (09:19):
That makes no sense to me. So what are you're
playing for? Pride?

Speaker 3 (09:22):
England and France don't need the pride of finishing in
third place of the World Cup.

Speaker 4 (09:26):
That means nothing for them.

Speaker 5 (09:27):
Nah.

Speaker 2 (09:28):
Now, well, the final happened today and it was wild,
I mean absolutely wild. Spain out shoots Argentina twenty to
nothing and.

Speaker 5 (09:40):
Twenty to zero.

Speaker 2 (09:42):
They had the ball the entire match, the entirement up
until the second half of extra time, they held the
ball and they finally break through. It was just an incredible,
incredible match. You know, Argentina was trying to thug it
up right, Oh yeah, yeah, like they had your maul

(10:06):
and they were rough with your mouth, bumping all They
reminded me like a pat Riley coach to tea.

Speaker 3 (10:15):
Yeah, I mean that's kind of the equalizer for them.
They almost had to play that way. And this is
the way that Spain has pretty much played the entire tournament.
Like they played defense, but they're not going to sit
back on their heels and just guard the goal.

Speaker 4 (10:25):
Their defense is their offense, you know.

Speaker 3 (10:27):
And they just kept the pressure on the entire time,
and anytime Argentina got any sort of press or any
sort of push, they just knocked it right back into
their zone and kept the pressure on it. It's a
very unique way of playing defense. Our offense is our defense.
We're just gonna keep the ball in your zone literally
the entire match and forced you guys to try to
keep up and they couldn't do it.

Speaker 5 (10:46):
Yeah, there was nuts too, is that you know.

Speaker 2 (10:49):
I see as you started to get to the second
half of the extra time, of the overtime or I
guess what's the.

Speaker 4 (11:00):
I guess you'll call it extra time. You got two
extra periods.

Speaker 2 (11:03):
So you're in the second half of it, and you
started to go, Wow, you know, the whole goal for
Argentina to get the penalty kicks right, because Spain is
not good in penalty kicks and Argentina is right, Argentina
is like, that's it, Like, that's.

Speaker 4 (11:20):
Yeah right.

Speaker 5 (11:21):
I mean, you know Messi and Alvarez.

Speaker 2 (11:24):
I mean, you got guys that could score, and you
just got that feeling like this. They're a vampire team.
They've been a vampire team old tournament long. And you
thought they're going to get to overtime, to penalty kicks
and they're gonna win it in Pekse.

Speaker 3 (11:42):
And they I think that still Holding even brought that
up on the broadcasts, just like and Spain knows that.

Speaker 4 (11:47):
So they're going to ratchet up their pressure.

Speaker 3 (11:48):
Even more to make sure that they find a way
to score a goal before we even get to that point.
But this is not something that should be surprising if
you've watched Spain the entire tournament, because this is what
they've literally done to everyone, even going back all the
way to their very first match, when everybody was concerned
about them because they tied neil nil against kate Verde,
and we end up finding out how great kate Verd
was and how how great of a run that they

(12:09):
had in this tournament too. Spain is just taking the
air out of the ball. Literally the entire tournament. They've
allowed what they allowed what one goal the entire tournament.
Absolutely insane. They I saw they had allowed an average
of one point four shots on goal the entire tournament.

Speaker 2 (12:24):
One point four.

Speaker 5 (12:24):
That's insane, that's stupid.

Speaker 3 (12:26):
Yeah, that tells you how dominant of a defensive performers
they've put on this entire tournament.

Speaker 2 (12:30):
Yeah, and and like to your point, it's when you
control the ball. Yeah, that's what happens, right, Like they
they control the ball. You know, it's interesting when they
did finally break through. Now you know again Argentina is
up against it because you had a red card, so
you had to play the rest of regulation with a

(12:52):
man short and then all in the in the extra period.
And I'm thinking of myself, like you finally break through
with score and then they allow Argentina, they back it in,
pack it in, and they allow Argentina to.

Speaker 5 (13:11):
Control the ball. And they almost twice.

Speaker 2 (13:15):
They had two ridiculous opportunities. That one, I mean, he
had old day to set up, the ball was on
the hot, he kicked it over the net right, the
other one was just ahead or or it was actually
a crosser that went over across the net and he
had it and he just went wide, like they were

(13:37):
that close to tie in that game.

Speaker 3 (13:38):
I mean within a couple of inches or a couple
of feet, I should say. And like you said, Argentina's
played this way the entire tournament, and this is what
And i'verly I'm not a big conspiracy theorist. I don't
say that, Oh, FIFA wanted Argentina in the final, they
wanted Messi to be there.

Speaker 4 (13:50):
I mean, look, do they want them there?

Speaker 5 (13:52):
Sure?

Speaker 4 (13:53):
Do they want them there to the to.

Speaker 3 (13:54):
The point where they're gonna actually try to manipulate games
and see if they can find a way to get
them there. I'm not gonna go that far where they're
questionable call. Sure, but if you look at any tournament,
any game, there's gonna be a questionable call or two.
But this is the way Argentina's played literally the entire tournament.
And so it looked as if, to your point, we
were on the there on the door, knocking you on
the door, on the verge of having that happen yet
again again against the Spain team that had dominated the

(14:15):
entire time. It was very reminiscent of the end of
the game against England when England had pretty much dominated.

Speaker 4 (14:20):
Although England I mean took their foot off the gas
the last half hour.

Speaker 2 (14:24):
I mean, tell me, the first thing that came to
your mind wasn't prevent defense to prevent you from winning?

Speaker 3 (14:31):
Yep, absolute hundred percent, that's right. That's exactly what parking
the bus as they call it in soccer vernacular. I
believe when you stop being aggressive and just fall back
on your heels and just try to be protective against
of a lead. You just can't do that against a
team that's as talented offensively as Argentina as you can't
do that.

Speaker 2 (14:47):
No, And they did it so early, right, you know,
it's like it would be like the second quarter and
you're going to run the ball the ball, And I complain.

Speaker 3 (14:55):
That way the entire first half too, by the way,
and like I know it was it was scoreless at
the half, but England was controlling that match the entire
first half.

Speaker 4 (15:02):
Very reminiscent of what was happening earlier this afternoon. But
they keep the pressure on.

Speaker 3 (15:07):
They score their first goal and then all of a sudden,
they think they can just hold on or not let
go of the rope for the last thirty minutes.

Speaker 4 (15:12):
You can't do that against the team that's this talented.

Speaker 2 (15:14):
You can't do it now, Isn't it not like the
that adage of sitting on a lead.

Speaker 5 (15:21):
It doesn't matter what sport it is.

Speaker 2 (15:24):
Yeah, look, obviously basketball you have a shot clock, right,
so that's all.

Speaker 5 (15:27):
You know, it's just so much you're gonna do.

Speaker 2 (15:29):
But you know, there is something to be said for
how you play with the lead and how you protect
the lead. And you know baseball, right, like you know
you still you can't you have to have.

Speaker 5 (15:43):
Tack on runs. Right in baseball, you got to tack on.

Speaker 2 (15:47):
You just can't go through the motions once you get
a lead and just protect it to wish against the
clock or wish against the whish the game away.

Speaker 4 (15:55):
Yeah, the NFL, you talk about like, you know, four
minute offense.

Speaker 3 (15:57):
We have a lead, how do we play with the
lead and make sure that we're aggressive enough but not
over aggressive but being assertive? However you want to mince
those two words together, you know, I think of you know,
it seemed that problem.

Speaker 4 (16:07):
There are situations where being conservative is the right call.

Speaker 3 (16:10):
I mean, even go back to the you know, the
infamous Atlanta Falcon Newland Patriots Super Bowl their last two drives,
they probably could have still to have been more conservative
the Falcons, to be honest.

Speaker 4 (16:18):
With you, in that situation, that they weren't.

Speaker 3 (16:20):
Yeah, But I feel like, more often than an Anthony,
I'm just a big proponent of, you know.

Speaker 4 (16:24):
Work with what got you there.

Speaker 3 (16:26):
If it's been successful to this point, why would you
stop doing that the last eight minutes of the game
when it's worked for you the first forty five?

Speaker 4 (16:33):
Well, just that makes no sense whatsoever. Right, being aggressive
has worked in your favor, So why would all of
a sudden it not work in your favor?

Speaker 5 (16:40):
Right? I never I never understand that. I never do.

Speaker 2 (16:46):
Like when teams just turtle up like that, and again
it wound up playing out that way with England or
else you know, who knows, like they should have been here,
like they they should have been here, Yeah, in the
final and it was it was it was kind of
locked in for him.

Speaker 3 (17:04):
And instead they go home with the heartbreak in you know,
I mentioned I was being pessimistic, as you know, United
States soccer fans there are fewer people that are more
pessimistic than England soccer fans, even with the team that
had as high as expectations as they did this year.
I mean, if you shake social media, some ma of
you of the fans are saying, we'll find a way
to screw it up. I'll believe it when I see it.
It's just because they've been knocking on the door. They've
been so talented for so long, and it's been since

(17:25):
the early sixties that they've won a World Cup, and.

Speaker 4 (17:28):
Yet here they are, haven't a way yet again.

Speaker 3 (17:30):
And this time they had it, they had it in
their hands and found a way to let it slip away.

Speaker 5 (17:34):
Right right, you know, to get to the final. Get it.
They were right there for the final.

Speaker 2 (17:39):
Yeah, my only I would have give you one last
thing on that, on that third place game, like it's
great and Bape's unbelievable, like a great, great player, great
great player. But the stats should not count in the
third place game to win the Golden Boot hmmm, because

(18:01):
the circumstances are completely different than MESSI like, you're playing
in a game that matters, so it's not gonna be
opened up.

Speaker 5 (18:10):
You get out.

Speaker 2 (18:12):
I mean let's phase it like that game was was
was basically.

Speaker 5 (18:16):
A playground game, right, Yeah, that's what that was.

Speaker 4 (18:20):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (18:20):
And in a playground game where a pop hockey for
your use in hockey, right terminology, where everything's open up,
and that's not fair.

Speaker 5 (18:29):
That wasn't fair to messy.

Speaker 3 (18:30):
Yeah, the stakes are not as high, but I mean, look,
if you're gonna have the third players game, I guess
I understand having the rules or having the all of
the statistics line up with each other. So it's no
different than andre the Heisman trophies or water before a
bowl season. But it's the stats that you accumulate in
your bowl game, whether it's the Rollers Bowl or the
Caesars Pizza Bowl, they all count towards your final stat line.

(18:52):
We can agree or disagree whether that should be the case,
but that's if it's sanctioned within the tournament. I don't
necessarily have a problem with the goals being counted that way.

Speaker 2 (18:59):
It does about me as I at least I don't
really care because, like you know, it doesn't really matter.
It's messy or you know again, I'm I'm kinda I
watched I watch the tournament just as a sports fan. Right,
Like I don't really have, you know, I guess I like.
I liked Yamal a lot. I think he's really creative

(19:23):
slip I obviously it was incredible.

Speaker 5 (19:27):
I like the Viking, like the get Like.

Speaker 2 (19:29):
I liked him because he reminded me of a tight end,
like you know what I mean, Like he's that six six.

Speaker 5 (19:37):
Five tight end or edge guy.

Speaker 2 (19:39):
He might a little bit MaTx Crosby, right, like coming
off the edge or you know, going down the scene
and catching the touchdown like that's what that's what.

Speaker 5 (19:48):
He reminded me of.

Speaker 4 (19:49):
A little bit of grit to him too. Yeah, yeah,
I can appreciate that for sure.

Speaker 5 (19:54):
But so I was kind of looking for root for
him a little bit.

Speaker 3 (19:57):
Yeah, I mean the thing for MESSI I mean outside
of winning, you know, winning the Golden Booth this year,
after he won the World Cup four years ago, there's
really nothing left for him to do. This would have
kind of been a cherry on top. So there's a
part of me that actually wanted Spain to win. I
love when people have an opportunity. Yeah, I be able
to put something on their mantle.

Speaker 2 (20:14):
There's nothing they deserved to win too, Like they dominate
the game like they deserve.

Speaker 3 (20:18):
They dominated the game, and they dominated pretty much this
entire tournament. Even though the stats, as far as you know,
the gold differential might not show it. They've dominated pretty
much every game that they played in from start to finish.

Speaker 5 (20:27):
Yeah, that Lamina Mile is incredible.

Speaker 2 (20:31):
He's amazing.

Speaker 4 (20:32):
Nineteen We got.

Speaker 2 (20:32):
Two kids, two kids, nineteen eighteen to nineteen playing like
that's amazing. Two teenagers playing on that team. Incredible. All right,
we're gonna take quick too. We'll come back. I want
to ask the question. Now the tournament's over a couple
of things. One tonight we're gonna go over the future
of USA soccer and is it as bleak as it

(20:56):
seemed like? Do we have to rip this thing up?
I'm gonna get your opinion on that. Hey, listen, I
love this. This was a lot of fun. You know
where I'm going.

Speaker 4 (21:09):
Oh, the pads are on Yeah maybe yeah, pads.

Speaker 2 (21:13):
Are on.

Speaker 4 (21:15):
San Francisco.

Speaker 2 (21:15):
And be right, because the true football, the real football,
is about to commence, and all due respect, there's nothing
close to football. We'll discuss all kinds of things Baseball
wrap up off of today. This is Fox Sports Sunday

(21:39):
with Kevin figures a great figure. I'm Anthony Gargano, Figgie
hanging right here on Fox Sports Radio.

Speaker 6 (21:47):
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Speaker 2 (22:00):
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All right, uh USA soccer, fig Yeah, you know so

(22:42):
much with that, With the way it ended against Belgium
in that game.

Speaker 5 (22:49):
It was more like it was it was funny.

Speaker 2 (22:51):
I was talking to a friend of mine, was watching
the game and Pull six commercial came on and I
was like, my man, they got to cancel that commercial.

Speaker 4 (23:00):
The last person's face. I want to see it right now.

Speaker 5 (23:01):
Brother, Yeah, I mean respect, I mean like I know
you got hurt.

Speaker 4 (23:06):
Yeah, yeah, I mean before he got hurt.

Speaker 3 (23:08):
You know, people, yeah, have sympathy for the guy, and
the injury was more severe than we thought initially. But
what happened before that, right into the eighty minutes before
the injury, you.

Speaker 2 (23:18):
Know, you know, I mean he came up we were small, man,
came up weak.

Speaker 4 (23:23):
We weren't prepared. It looked like we were mentally we
were to the moment was too big for us, for
lack of a better term, for whatever reason.

Speaker 3 (23:31):
And people are trying to use the excuse like, oh,
Balligan played and you know that was a distraction.

Speaker 4 (23:35):
It was like, so, let me get this straight. Getting
your best goal scorer back was that negative? Like, what
what the hell are you talking about?

Speaker 3 (23:42):
No, with all due respect, no, I know there might
have been politics around it and all that, but once
you were on the pitch and your guys are out
there and you're playing, you're playing, none of.

Speaker 4 (23:51):
The other stuff matters.

Speaker 3 (23:53):
And it looked like at the very beginning of that
match there was a thousand places they would rather be
than in that match on that pitch against Belgium. For
whatever reason, maybe the expectations got to them.

Speaker 2 (24:02):
Man, I don't know, I mean, that's what it looked like.
It looked like it was It's like the spotlight was squat.
Now here's the thing. You're in Seattle, right, you got
the twelfth Man Rights.

Speaker 4 (24:16):
One of the best soccer cities in the country, right, Like.

Speaker 2 (24:20):
And this scene was amazing, Like you can't go wrong
with Like that's why that it should have I get
being nervous and you know the whole thing, but man,
this is where you know you gotta compete. Like I listen,
if you're if you're this supreme athlete, you know this
is not the first big game you're playing in your life.

Speaker 4 (24:41):
I will never understand.

Speaker 3 (24:42):
And maybe there's like a sports psychologist or something that
can explain it, but like how you can come out
flat in an environment like that. It was almost reminiscent
of that playoff game between the Packers and the Cowboys
a couple of years ago. The Cowboys are hosting the
Packers and it was Jordan Love's first playoff game.

Speaker 4 (24:57):
Yes, and they just came in and blew the doors off.
From there was like we ate nothing in the first quarter.
You're like, what the bleep happened? How is this even possible?

Speaker 2 (25:05):
Yeah, that's what it looked like I was the last
playoff games we love played well.

Speaker 3 (25:09):
And exactly, it was just like it just doesn't add up.
Something just doesn't make sense. It really doesn't. Uh, and
it looks And it was one of the few occasions
where Team USA it was actually favored, were favorite.

Speaker 4 (25:21):
To be Belgium.

Speaker 3 (25:22):
It's not like you know, you know, we were underdogs,
and yeah we had the home field advantage, but it
was a team we would have been over matched against.
Even even before Baligan played Anthony, we were still favorite
to win that game.

Speaker 4 (25:32):
So without our best goalscorer.

Speaker 3 (25:34):
In the lineup, the United States was supposed to win
and we came out flat and lost. That was that.
It was just an embarrassing effort. It was so here's
the question.

Speaker 2 (25:45):
Now, Now I do remember what the coach was saying,
because Infantinohatino excuse me, said I was watching him to
give up the you know, the trophy.

Speaker 4 (25:59):
The trophy.

Speaker 2 (25:59):
Yeah. Uh. We talked about their mentality and it was interesting.
He's a good coach. I guess you're not gonna bring
it back.

Speaker 4 (26:07):
But I mean, he's his contract is up.

Speaker 3 (26:09):
I think they want him back, but he's made it
seem as if he wants to go back to coaching
in the in the in the Premier League.

Speaker 2 (26:16):
It sounds like like he he you could see he's
a good coach.

Speaker 5 (26:19):
He's like, I had to make them lose that mentality.

Speaker 2 (26:22):
They had this mentality where he's you know, basically called
him soft.

Speaker 5 (26:27):
He said, you know, elite.

Speaker 2 (26:28):
Athletes, the whole thing, but you know, he felt like
they were they were a bit soft.

Speaker 3 (26:34):
Yeah, and look the previous coach when he tried to
turn the program around, Urian Kleinsman about a decade and
a half ago, did the exact same thing, and they
started turning in the corner.

Speaker 4 (26:41):
Things kind of bottomed out at that point. But I
would say, at the very least, and listening to all
the experts that followed the United States and the recruitment
of all their players over the past few years, this
is the most talent, as far from a raw talent standpoint,
the most talented roster that we have.

Speaker 3 (26:56):
So what would seem that the future is bright based
on that? The problem is if you're gonna end up
losing Pocatino back to the Premier League and now you're
bringing somebody else that has completely different mentality and a
different program. That's where the issue might pop up. Even
as as disappointing as we were in the way that
things ended in this cycle, you can kind of see
the seeds of change coming in a little bit. And

(27:18):
I just wonder if we might take a step or
two backwards if Pocatino leaves and somebody else ends up
coming in.

Speaker 5 (27:24):
I wish he stays because I liked him.

Speaker 2 (27:27):
I thought I know what happened, but I thought he
had them going in the right direction, and I was
gonna give you this in the end. I don't know
that they are that far away, right, I don't think
they're light years away. I really don't, now you tell me,
Let me listen. I'm not I don't want to front
like you know. I know football and I know basketball

(27:51):
at baseball and hockey right like you know. So I
don't want to be like I'm you know, mister soccer
expert Hall. You know I've educated myself You're not going
and had.

Speaker 4 (28:00):
To head with Terryan Ree arguing about soccer.

Speaker 2 (28:02):
Right.

Speaker 5 (28:03):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (28:03):
So, but I mean, if you look around now, you
have your your elites, and we saw the elites France
and England, Argentina.

Speaker 5 (28:14):
You throw Brazil in there right, so you have.

Speaker 2 (28:19):
You know, a couple other of those countries. But I
mean after that, like that next tier tier you know,
seven eight nine, there's no reason why they couldn't reach
that height.

Speaker 4 (28:31):
No.

Speaker 3 (28:31):
Well, look if that had they beaten Belgium, they would
have faced Spain, I believe in that very next game,
and we kind of know how that probably would have
susted itself out. And I don't think anybody really would
have been disappointed because we knew that's the Spain was
a bit of a machine. So that's what wouldn't have been.
But you couldn't have lost. Here's the thing, Anthony, I'll
say too. Let's say they lose to Belgium, but it's
a close game. It's a nip and tuck. You know,

(28:53):
something happens and all of a sudden he goes the
penalty kickser goes to extra time, and you.

Speaker 4 (28:57):
Lose a heartbreaker.

Speaker 3 (28:58):
People will still be disappoin they'd be like, you know, what,
things happen. You can't just go in, as you mentioned
in Soccer City out there in Seattle with your home
crowd and get the doors blown off of you.

Speaker 4 (29:09):
The way you lose. Matters and situations like this too.

Speaker 3 (29:12):
It'd be forgivable if you And Belgium is, by the way,
even though we were favored over them, they're not some
you know also ran country. They're very good more often
than not.

Speaker 5 (29:19):
You're right, you're you're a legitimate euro.

Speaker 2 (29:21):
I mean, yeah, exactly.

Speaker 3 (29:22):
So it wouldn't be an mL It wouldn't be a
total embarrassment if you lost to them by any stretch.

Speaker 2 (29:26):
But you can't lose that way to them. Well, and
that's that's so true. Like you remember how Mexico lost
to England. They went out on their shields, right, and
I know England had ten it was down to ten
men and and Mexico was pat burn home. It was
stormy night. You know, they played their heart out all night.

(29:47):
They played tough, right, And I know as Teck is
different and they're more of an elite than the United States.
But if you went out in similar fashion like Mexico
did against England, you know your point, you get celebrated.

Speaker 5 (30:02):
I give you standing ovation, right.

Speaker 4 (30:05):
Great effort. You know you played your tail off.

Speaker 3 (30:07):
You know our expectations are a little bit higher, but
we understand this can happen. It's a talent another talented
team that you're planning over there. Fine things happen. This
is not that things happen. This is a what the
hell is going on with you guys? Like something needs
to something needs to change, either in your mentality, because
again it's not talent I don't even think it's tactics
Anthony either. To your point, Pokatino, I think is a

(30:29):
very good coach and placed them in positions to be
able to play well.

Speaker 4 (30:32):
They just didn't play well.

Speaker 3 (30:33):
And another thing that just didn't sit well with a
lot of people is the fact that Polisic and you know,
his face is plastered all over these ads, you know,
a month after the team has already been eliminated and
we still have.

Speaker 4 (30:42):
To look at his face.

Speaker 3 (30:43):
The lack of accountability as one of the faces, if
not the face of the team, and to say like,
oh you know what, now I get to arrest my ankle. Look,
we understand that you're hurt. Yeah, I agree with what
Carly Lloyd said. It's like, look, man, nobody wants to
hear that even if you are even.

Speaker 4 (30:58):
If you are injured. You know, we didn't get it done.
We sucked.

Speaker 3 (31:01):
We came up small and a big moment we hold
ourselves to a higher standard.

Speaker 4 (31:05):
We're gonna be better next time around. Just say that.

Speaker 3 (31:08):
Take some accountability, own you the little brother, he did nothing.
He did nothing of the sort, and I think that's
what sticks in the crawl of a lot of people
more than anything else.

Speaker 2 (31:16):
You spot on as always, baby, Hey, listen, the excitement
of the FIFA World Cup is now streaming live on
Fox one, the official streaming platform to catch all the
unforgettable moments from the past from this tournament. Fox one
brought the action right tr screen. You never missed a goal.

(31:37):
Download Fox one and experience FIFA World Cup the way
it was never featured before.

Speaker 5 (31:44):
All the great program then happens. That's right.

Speaker 2 (31:47):
Uh, let's go to Steve. You gotta forgive me, Stevie.
I'm not used to Saturday mornings. We have tighth.

Speaker 1 (31:54):
Updates listening to Fox Sports Radio Radio.

Speaker 2 (32:00):
Thank you, buddy, appreciate it. All right, we're gonna come
back in just a moment. And there's one reason I'll
ask you, fag that if if this country could ever
reach that elite, I still have my doubts, but we'll
talk about it, fellas. Excuse me right here, it's Fox

(32:20):
Sports Sunday with Kevin Figures. I'm Anthony Gargano, Fox Sports Radio.

Speaker 1 (32:28):
Listening to Fox Sports Radio Radio.

Speaker 2 (32:31):
Welcome back Fox Sports Sunday, Figure and Aunt with you
a Fellas production. So let me ask you a question.
Are we expect too much from the program?

Speaker 5 (32:52):
Now?

Speaker 2 (32:52):
I'm not saying they don't need to be better and
they don't need to reach, you know, a top ten status,
because we should. But are we ever going to be
in the elites of the England, Spain, France, Argentina and
Brazil and that in that elite level? Because look in
those countries and in ninety percent of the world, you

(33:16):
grow up and you're kicking soccer ball when you're three,
when you're when all the boys like your son's age
right right, are kicking soccer ball. And that's all they
do every day all day. I got two sons, you
know that fig right right, They play baseball, football, basketball.

(33:37):
The in fact, when they were little, they both played
like a little soccer, you know, because the little k
we they were very little, right and then and then
it was football, baseball, basketball.

Speaker 3 (33:48):
Now won't started ron Kruber recently too, I believe, So yes,
they start doing five seven different things, and these kids
like Jamal for Spain, was playing like, you know, a
semi club ball. He was eight eight, Right, if they
get these kids into these academies when they're ten years old,
and that's literally what they do from the time that
they're a child, and they know they're they're basically a

(34:09):
semi professional before they before they're a teenager. So for
that reason, it's gonna make it extremely difficult for us
to be able to catch up consistently on a world
stage like that, maybe we catch lightning in a bottle.
I think this may have been one of those years where,
like you know what, the group broke a certain way,
the initial bracket broke a certain way where we could
have made it to the quarterfinal and probably gotten blown

(34:30):
out or gotten beaten by Spain.

Speaker 4 (34:32):
You know.

Speaker 3 (34:33):
So I think we're one of those programs where we're
just gonna have to continue to try to find the
best talent that we possibly can. And you know, if
we get some some birthright citizens in there, like Battlegan
catch Lightning in a bottle, maybe we have an exceptional player.
Although you know this past tournament, you know here or
there when it comes to polistic although.

Speaker 4 (34:50):
He battle some injuries someone like that to kind of
step through.

Speaker 2 (34:53):
The cracks and Sullivan Brothers and the one cave and
it's like really good. I mean, he's he's and he's
a big right, so he has chanced to be special.

Speaker 3 (35:04):
But it's it seems like until we get like the
guys who you know, the Odell Beckhams, the I guess
Lebron James is like the best because Beckham, who apparently
was a standout soccer player and kind of out a
soccer scholarship, like those sorts of athletes consistently playing soccer,
I think it's going to be very difficult for us
to actually dominate and be consistent on the world stage
as to be thought of as England or France or

(35:26):
Argentina or Spain, to be thought of in that oak.

Speaker 4 (35:29):
I just don't know if the way that we are
built as.

Speaker 3 (35:31):
A country in our sports landscape, if we're just built
to do that.

Speaker 2 (35:35):
Right now, I'm with you, and you know, it's so
funny because you talk to the soccer people and you know,
and I feel bad because you know, we did extensive
soccer coverage on you know, my show and during the
week and then the weekends here at Fox, and the
coverage was sensational. It's amazing, And all the soccer people

(35:57):
are like, hey, you know this, this is great because
we need to.

Speaker 5 (36:00):
Grow the game.

Speaker 2 (36:01):
And everybody's gotten owt to commit to playing soccer, right,
And it's like, well, huh, you know, I don't know
that that's reality, right, Like your best athletes are still
going to be you know, football, basketball and baseball. I
mean I still believed to some extent that that's kind
of how it's going to be.

Speaker 4 (36:21):
And the money in sports affects it too.

Speaker 3 (36:23):
I saw an interview landon Donovan did a few weeks
ago saying like, you know, I, you know, me breaking
into soccer back in the day when I did, my
mom was single, raising three kids by herself on like
making thirty five grand a year. You know the way
like AAU basketball is like it now, to travel baseball
is like it too. It's like, if you don't have
the money to play on a club that's actually going
to refine your skills, you probably don't even have a shot.
So how many kids who are uper talented just don't

(36:46):
have the resources to be able to be put in
a position to compete to play on a team and
I think that's something that's happened over the past I'd
say fifteen years too. That's affecting not only soccer but
other sports in this country too.

Speaker 2 (36:56):
Oh dude, why do you I said to Scott, Hey,
you need any filling man picking up exactly.

Speaker 5 (37:04):
Let me know.

Speaker 2 (37:05):
I just went to I got a travel baseball player
and he's thirteen. You right where you play? Thirteen you
I help coach, but we go everywhere. I mean, IT'SI
fig his bat his bat bag is worth more than
my car.

Speaker 4 (37:20):
I believe it. It's absolutely insane, you know, it really is.
And you're paying for hotel rooms and food and travel.
All that stuff is not taken care of when you
have to play. Just a fee to play for the
damn club too.

Speaker 2 (37:30):
On top of it, well, right, he covers the tournaments,
is what it does. All right, We'll be back obviously,
big hour. We're coming up next. Fella's right here. Fox
Sports Radio, Fox Sports Radio Radio, Welcome Evening, Evening, Evening,

(37:51):
Heavy Habby Sunday to all Kevin Figures, Anthony Garganot want
a Fox Sports Sunday reacting to the World Cup and
Spain Chaps of the World Cup how much void fig
will you have? Like, you know, there's gonna be like

(38:13):
anytime something like this ends, because there were games every day.

Speaker 5 (38:17):
It was in the afternoon, right like morning for you all.

Speaker 2 (38:21):
Day right like I mean, it was just an awesome,
fun kind of thing where there was games every day,
and now all of a sudden it's over. So there's
gonna be that morning period.

Speaker 3 (38:31):
Yeah, you have a little bit of an NCAA tournament
vibe come down from the first couple of weekends where
you know, from a West Coast standpoint, you literally wake
up to basketball and you go to bad to basketball,
and so, like I said, you feel a really big void.

Speaker 4 (38:44):
I'm kind of glad that it came to a crescendo
like it did.

Speaker 3 (38:47):
I mean, ultimately, I think most of us, I certainly
know the TV networks were rooting for a potential Imbape
versus MESSI final.

Speaker 4 (38:54):
That's kind of what Fox wanted. Didn't get it, but
still just.

Speaker 3 (38:57):
Got as epic and entertaining as a finished as we
possibly could have.

Speaker 4 (39:00):
But yeah, there's a little bit of a comdown.

Speaker 3 (39:01):
I'm a little disappointed, but there's a certain degree of
me that tells me, you know, what we got something
to kind of bridge the gap through the majority of
the dog days of summer. Yeah, because now I look
at my as I look at my calendar, it is
July nineteenth, July twentieth, and that means training camps are
basically a week away from opening up around the NFL.

Speaker 5 (39:18):
Amen.

Speaker 2 (39:19):
Brother, Amen, it's been a long, harduous weight. It kills
me every year. Now, you're right, it's been. It's been
a blast. It's been so much fun. You're talking over
a month of games and you know, something to do.
It's been just a normally a dead period of time, right,

(39:42):
So it's been such a good time, and there is
a calm down fact that when you have it. And
the coverage was great, you know, it's funny think out
about you. But I felt Fox and not because we're
Fox Sports Radio, because I would rip it if I
if I oh yeah, if I felt that way, and
we have so exactly. The coverage was excellent, spectacular, it

(40:04):
was sp it was it was spit. The pregame shows,
the analysts, the play by play, like everything about it,
from the studio shows to the game coverage to the
stories were excellent. It was just great sports television that
bled into stories and you really got a sense of

(40:28):
the game and education it was.

Speaker 5 (40:31):
It was just presented spectacularly.

Speaker 3 (40:34):
You mentioned the word education because there's a lot of people,
and I mentioned myself as one of them to a
certain degree. I don't follow soccer super closely on a
day in, day out basis. So to have guys like Landon, Donovan, Enters,
lots On, you know, go up to the board and
kind of tell you about certain formations and how things
are going.

Speaker 4 (40:49):
I think that was excellent.

Speaker 3 (40:50):
And somebody's like, oh, you're pandering or you don't know
exactly what. If you are a soccer snob, you roll
your eyes at it and say, well, obviously, but they were.

Speaker 4 (40:58):
They're trying to appeal.

Speaker 3 (40:58):
To the masses, and if you're at the masses in
a situation like this, I don't think Fox could have
done a better job.

Speaker 4 (41:03):
Than they did throughout this entire tournament. You're right, it
was spectacular.

Speaker 2 (41:07):
And if you're if you're a soccer uh, you know,
expert and this is your world, you should be happy. Yes,
the whole point is about growing the game and get
into it, and you know that's where this whole thing
was great for it. It was amazing for the game, man,
Like you know, I love one when sports blows up

(41:29):
like that, like it's one of the things. And you
can attest to this that I used to always talk
about the NFL going international, right, do you remember?

Speaker 3 (41:39):
You have always been one of the biggest supporters of
the NFL going international, and I've always always been a
little more lukewarm to it.

Speaker 4 (41:45):
You're right, right, I had many a debate about it.

Speaker 5 (41:47):
What do I say, manifest destiny? Exactly right?

Speaker 2 (41:54):
I want to be I want football to reach the
world heights, right, because it's the greatest game I and we.

Speaker 4 (42:01):
Do want a World Cup of Football at one point.

Speaker 3 (42:03):
That's part of the greater Anthony Gargano plan, right there.

Speaker 4 (42:06):
A World Cup of Football.

Speaker 2 (42:07):
You're right then, and you know I've given you my
plans and a lot of them have a lot of
it has calmed to fruition, including what's going to happen
to double by the extended season right going into the
President's Day weekend.

Speaker 5 (42:23):
All that stuff's happened. Brother, it is.

Speaker 4 (42:25):
It is the ever expanding like I understand it to
a certain degree. I get it, and that's fine.

Speaker 3 (42:30):
The International series, I think, for the most part, has
been in success, it's been great. I just don't want
to get too much, too deep into it where teams
are losing home games. And if it gets to a
point where you add an additional game to the schedule
and everybody plays internationally, sure, but the idea a situation
that we had last season where a bunch of Charger
fans were upset because they lost a game to Brazil
and the team and the league didn't even give them

(42:51):
an avenue to be able to get tickets fairly, things
like that, I just hate to see this. There is
such a dearth of games as to begin with. You're
getting eight to nine home games to begin with. Don't
take one away and then take away the opportunity for
fans to be able to actually go and see the game.

Speaker 4 (43:05):
That's where the issue comes in for me.

Speaker 3 (43:07):
I'll try to expand the game to the greater detriment
of your home base.

Speaker 2 (43:11):
Yes, yeah, that's completely fair. Well I have another idea.
All right, here we go, all right, let's go, and
I have figure it all the time. So this whole
tournament's incredible, and they expanded to forty eight teams, the
whole thing, and it was it was awesome. Yep. So
I want to what I want to do, I'm gonna

(43:33):
use college football, all right, So college football is my canvas, okay, and.

Speaker 5 (43:40):
I'm gonna have my power for.

Speaker 2 (43:44):
I'm gonna break them into the like an AFC and
an NFC. So if you want to call it big
ten SCC and have the other ones mergent, whatever you
want to call it. But you're gonna have the You're
gonna have two major conferences. They're gonna be huge conferences, right.

Speaker 4 (44:01):
Make a conference like twenty four conference team.

Speaker 2 (44:03):
Conference, yes, with with divisions, right, so you could get
a handle on travel. You You're then going to create
a second and this conference, this super super af C
NFC conference will then will be the elite. That's the

(44:24):
Premier league. Right. Then there will be a secondary league,
my Champions League. Well that would be what do they
call is that's what they call.

Speaker 4 (44:34):
The champions right, the division below Premiere right.

Speaker 2 (44:38):
Right, I think the champions I don't know.

Speaker 3 (44:41):
I think there's like five six divisions underneath Premiere that
you have to you know, work your way up, work
your way up, work your way.

Speaker 2 (44:47):
Up, you know, right right, right, So there would be
that league and that would be your Tulsa's.

Speaker 4 (44:55):
Right, twelve, You're right, like you know sun Belt.

Speaker 2 (44:58):
Exactly, you know Army Navy, you'd have you know Temple
all that would that would be the secondary.

Speaker 3 (45:06):
Basically on the old group of five they used to
call it. You would have the Power five back in
the day, now power four. But now you would take
like the group of five conferences and put them in
that division.

Speaker 2 (45:15):
Yes, and then you could probably have a third but
then I would have relegation from the top conference of
the secondary conference. I would also move bowl season from
the end of the season to the beginning of the season.

Speaker 4 (45:33):
Just speaking my language, like sands the.

Speaker 2 (45:37):
Uh you know the playoff games, right, because you want
the playoff games to be part of the Rose Bowl
and that, but the meaningless razically the other balls. I
want them to be played at the beginning of the year.
I would start the season in earlier in August. I

(45:58):
would start the season like third week of August. Like
right now they have week zero. I would probably start
the season the week before Week zero with a series
of bowl games that would be got every day leading

(46:18):
up through Labor Day, right, because I have the football
world at that point leading up to the NFL which
starts the Thursday after Labor Day, So leading through Labor Day,
I would have big Bowl games of I have those
Bowl games being played in the summertime, so it's holiday week,

(46:41):
the last week of August leading into Labor Day. As
I play them during the day, I play one at
during the day, one at night. Right, So I would
stagger them and have this whole kind of preseason Bowl
tournament of games. And because I've expanded the playoff field,
I suffer a loss, it's not devastating. Correct, If I

(47:03):
lose in August, teams.

Speaker 3 (47:04):
Will be more willing to schedule boldly and don't care
as much if they lose a game early on, no doubt.

Speaker 2 (47:09):
Hey we're gonna pay you. You're gonna generate real revenue
to help towards nil. Oh yeah, with this new TV
Bowl season at the beginning where you're gonna get your ratings,
think about the ratings that you would get in August
as opposed to January or late the week December, between

(47:32):
December and Christmas and the years.

Speaker 3 (47:33):
Well, just imagine if, like if Michigan State is playing
like I don't know, the Ole miss or something, and
the Capitol One Bowl in August as opposed to January,
when in January you have no idea who's healthy, who's playing.
It's not a playoff game, so does it really matter.
Both teams are getting paid for being there anyway, But
now there's intrigue. It's at the beginning of the season.

(47:55):
You know, everybody's excited, everybody's optimistic. You don't know what's
gonna happen. You get paid.

Speaker 4 (47:59):
It's a neutral game.

Speaker 3 (48:00):
What it is it turns into it's no different than
these neutral side games that kick off the season every
year at Jerry's World or in Vegas at the at
the Stadium.

Speaker 2 (48:08):
It's exactly.

Speaker 3 (48:09):
It's literally right the college basketball up games to start
off the season in a non conference it's the exact
same thing, only in reverse. I'm a thousand percent with
you on That makes all the sense in the world
to do that. And the bulls can still maintain themselves,
they'll still be there, they'll still generate revenue. So you're
not killing the balls, you're just moving the bulls. It
makes all the sense in the world.

Speaker 5 (48:29):
Right, And what you're gonna wind up doing.

Speaker 2 (48:33):
If you think about ratis because people are like, once
once you hit August, people become like the football stuff
becomes insatiable.

Speaker 5 (48:41):
Right right, like oh my god, let's go.

Speaker 2 (48:43):
Let's go and preseason games. Nobody likes preseason games.

Speaker 4 (48:47):
After the first quarter or the first preseason game, right
come out?

Speaker 2 (48:51):
Yeah, exactly right, So you're like, h right, one of
the funds flunds footballs, so you get real football between
Christmas and New Years. Really, it's the the second week
of December and New Year's Day for those antellary balls.

Speaker 5 (49:04):
And let's let's be real.

Speaker 2 (49:06):
They're not getting big ratings like you got you got
some goofballs like me and you that love it, right
Capitol One Bowl week, like we love that stuff. But
if this shows you, this World Cup shows you that
sports is so big right now, Like if I'm a streamer,

(49:26):
I I go to college those conferences, I go to
all the power for conferences, and I create my own
deal with them.

Speaker 5 (49:35):
Like if I'm.

Speaker 2 (49:36):
Apple, I'm Netflix, I'm any of these streamers, I'm going
and going, all right, I'm going to recreate the balls
and I don't even need to call that. I could
just tie my own kind of tournament, right, and I'm
gonna do it in August. Yo, guys, you want to play.
Here's what I'm writing checks fat checks, and you know they're.

Speaker 4 (49:57):
Gonna play absolutely Well, here's the thing to add an
extra layer to it. Because you said only weirdos like
you and I are gonna watch those meaningless games the
couple of weeks before New Year's Day that aren't playoff games.
So what you do and your promotion and relegation situation
is you take those promotion relegation games that are essentially
basically playoff games. I mean, these teams are playing for

(50:19):
their lives. You win, you move up, you lose, you
move down.

Speaker 3 (50:23):
You put those games in between in the interim where
you're not playing playoff games, because those games matter too.

Speaker 5 (50:29):
They have steak.

Speaker 4 (50:30):
So you might not be an Oregon State or a Tulsa.

Speaker 3 (50:33):
Fan, but if they're playing each other and the winner
goes up and the loser goes down, there's something on
the line. There's actual stakes there. It's a game that
has some meaning. You'd be willing to watch that on
a night where there's not an actual playoff game. That's
the way you get around that. So you still fill
your TV windows that need to be filled during the
holiday season, and you're still gonna get your high ratings
because now you're playing games that people actually care about.

Speaker 5 (50:56):
I mean, that's why you're my deputy commissioner.

Speaker 4 (50:58):
Man, I'm in, let's go.

Speaker 5 (51:00):
That's just genius. It's like it makes too.

Speaker 4 (51:03):
Much sense not to do too much.

Speaker 2 (51:05):
It's not to do right, but you know it's out
there perfect in college football. If I have to look
at a sport that has more growth potential, right, like
the NFL is just the NFL, right.

Speaker 5 (51:24):
It's king Baseball is doing well.

Speaker 2 (51:27):
Now we'll worry about the lockout, but right now, it's
it's on a hot it's on a heater.

Speaker 4 (51:33):
You know, has had its highest ratings in the past decade.

Speaker 2 (51:36):
This past year, yeah, I mean said, the Knicks thing
is great. It's funny if they can just figure out
the regular season.

Speaker 3 (51:43):
But even yeah, even the regular season, as much as
was complaining about it, again, the ratings are up right
significantly this year.

Speaker 5 (51:49):
I don't get it.

Speaker 2 (51:51):
I mean, I listen, I watch it, but somebody somewhere
likes it. Yeah, I mean, I guess it's nuts. But
college football to me has a huge growth potential, bigger
more than any more than any of the major sports.

Speaker 4 (52:11):
No doubt, no doubt that.

Speaker 3 (52:12):
The issue you're going to find and getting all these
teams on board with there's will one. We have to
centralize everything, which is going to be difficult. That's the
impetus of this entire situation we're dealing with now. You know,
as far as the TV and you know how the
contracts play themselves out, and Congress is trying to get involved.
If we already get that all mess sorted out, get
ourselves a commissioner, get everything all under one umbrella, then

(52:35):
we can start parceling out and talking about how we
want to stack a potential promotion relegation. But the problem
is too if for some ungodly reason, let's say Ohio
State finds themselves being relegated, Oh my god, so much
money yeah, into the world, so much money that they're
losing TV revenue that they're losing. Yeah, Like, would they
be willing to all the off chance that that would

(52:58):
ever happen, Would they be willing to subjugate themselves to
be able to be in that sort of position? And
I don't know if power brokers like them on Michigan
or l s U or Alabama would be willing to
do something like that.

Speaker 4 (53:10):
Yeah, that's the only issue.

Speaker 5 (53:12):
Yeah, I hear you. I do fear that.

Speaker 2 (53:15):
When I look at college college sports period, I just
think we're headed. You know, you saw that new lawsuit
that challenged the the eligibility for the eleven guys.

Speaker 4 (53:29):
Uh yes, yeah, from earlier this week.

Speaker 2 (53:32):
Yeah, until there is a union and a CBA, that's
how it's gonna end.

Speaker 5 (53:39):
Yeah. I don't know how you escape the courts.

Speaker 2 (53:42):
You can. You can tell that these are the rules,
this is what it is. They're gonna get challenges at court. Yeah,
I mean, it's just the bottom line.

Speaker 4 (53:49):
And I challenge it in state court, all right. If not,
I'll go to federal court.

Speaker 1 (53:52):
Oh.

Speaker 3 (53:52):
I got this Texas Tech guy who's a who's an alumni,
who's a judge. Hell, I'll throw him a couple of
shels and he'll he bypass it and make me eligible.

Speaker 4 (54:00):
Like, this is not gonna go away.

Speaker 3 (54:02):
None of this is ever gonna go away, to your point,
unless it gets collectively bargained and eventually, I know the
schools don't want to do it, the ads don't want
to do it. But if we haven't already, we were
getting to a day of reckoning where it's just gonna
become untenable.

Speaker 4 (54:14):
It really is.

Speaker 2 (54:15):
It's gonna happen to have to You're gonna have wind
up leasing I here's I say it. You're gonna wind
up having universities lease their sports programs to private equity
wealthy individuals owners.

Speaker 4 (54:30):
It's kind of happened. Then the University of Utah do that,
I believe, or something similar to.

Speaker 5 (54:34):
That, got private equity money.

Speaker 4 (54:36):
Yeah, right, right, so it's already started.

Speaker 2 (54:39):
So they're gonna be individual people that are going to own.
They're gonna lease the University of Michigan football, and you know,
Duke basketball.

Speaker 5 (54:48):
I mean, you know, I mean, if you, if you're
the think about this.

Speaker 2 (54:53):
If you're the university and you put duke basketball up forbid, okay, ridiculous.

Speaker 5 (55:05):
And here's how I would do it.

Speaker 2 (55:07):
You get to own Duke basketball, and we get our
proceeds and everything else. But you're gonna build your business
out of the whole thing. You get to lease. You
don't own it out right, you lease it from us
for a ten year period.

Speaker 3 (55:21):
I mean, I mean, I'm imagining Screws McDuck jumping into
a pile of gold coins.

Speaker 4 (55:27):
I mean, come on, ridiculous.

Speaker 2 (55:29):
I mean, if you put the lease out so you
can lease it for ten years.

Speaker 3 (55:34):
Right, and I'm imagining, here's your Duke Blue Devils presented
by a state farm and that's how you have to
introduce them, no matter where they show up, no matter
who they're playing for that there's a Jersey patch on
there like all of that.

Speaker 4 (55:48):
How much money so you could program get from that.

Speaker 2 (55:52):
Right, Jerry Jones lease is at Arkansas Football, right, yeah, right, right, imagine.

Speaker 5 (56:02):
I mean I think that's kind of how the future
is going to be.

Speaker 3 (56:06):
I mean, we're in this nil era, and especially with
and I know they were supposed to be the collective
and they're supposed to try to get all this money
together and place a limit on how much money these
kids can you know, sign for.

Speaker 4 (56:17):
But every team hasn't signed off on it.

Speaker 3 (56:19):
So it is really the wild West more so now
because it's all above board, so teams can now actually
have a pool of money to pay their players, and
it's essentially unlimited because it's unregulated, so they can have
their rules in place. But if nobody's bound to it
and have to follow it, there, what difference does it make?
So Cody Campbell can put however, many billions of dollars
into Texas Tech football as he wants, because there's no

(56:40):
regulatory body to actually stop them.

Speaker 4 (56:42):
The NCAA is feckless. They're techless, they have none, they
can't do anything.

Speaker 2 (56:46):
Yes, yes, that's right, All right, let's take a quick too,
we'll come right back. Well we begin another Monday tomorrow.
When will Lebron Jamee means, tell.

Speaker 4 (57:01):
Us trust the process?

Speaker 2 (57:03):
Ant Oh, don't tease me, Please, don't tease me. I
gotta ask you. When will Lebron let us know it's
coming up next? Kevin figures Anthony Gargano on a Fox
Sports Sunday.

Speaker 6 (57:22):
the nation. Catch all of our shows at Foxsports Radio
listen live.

Speaker 2 (57:35):
Welcome back, I'm aunt, He's figure. Kevin figures Anthony Gargano
on a Fox Sports Sunday reacting to the World Cup
and the big win Spain over Argentina and they're out
shooting him twenty to nothing. Pretty dominating performance. Don't forget

(58:01):
With the iHeart app, you can stream us wherever you are.
Catch us all of our Fox Sports Radio show US
Live twenty four to seven and the new and improved
iHeart app. Just search Fox Sports Radio in the app.
Stream US Live every day all day. Be sure to
select Fox Sports Radio as one of your presets any
iHeart app so it always pops up at the top

(58:22):
of your screen. Again, just search Fox Sports Radio in
the iHeart app. All right, coming up, We're gonna find
out now if the World Cup is over, will Lebron?
Let's say Tuesday, because tomorrow people will still be reacting
to the World Cup and what transpired Tuesday. Bron can

(58:48):
have the world. Nothing's going on, it's his will. We
find out where Bron goes this week Tuesday Wednesday.

Speaker 5 (59:04):
First, let's get an update.

Speaker 6 (59:07):
the nation. Catch all of our shows at foxsports Radio
dot com and within the iHeartRadio app, search FSR to
listen live.

Speaker 4 (59:19):
Those pesky, scrappy little Dodgers there, how about that time
first and foremost exactly Steve de Sega. Incredible an underdog
story if there ever was one of the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Speaker 2 (59:31):
And Edmund was hitting for Rojas pinch hit home run.

Speaker 4 (59:35):
Yeah, incredible.

Speaker 5 (59:36):
By the way, your Boys come to town. That's right.

Speaker 2 (59:39):
This week from Yankee Stadium to Philadelphia and the site
of the All Star Game, Dodgers Phillies the Battle of
the National League preview of October like it was last October.

Speaker 3 (59:53):
Yes, it was a very very epic, very ugly, very
ugly finished for Philadelphia Phillies fans.

Speaker 4 (59:59):
Last I actually fell for you. The way that that
ended that was that was pretty painful.

Speaker 2 (01:00:05):
I'm not gonna lie Steve cackling, Hey, we'll get to baseball,
because I do want to touch on some baseball, but uh,
I got to ask it.

Speaker 5 (01:00:18):
We're gonna fight out this week seriously.

Speaker 3 (01:00:21):
I mean, if not now when Like I remember a
few couple of months ago, Lebron James is doing his
podcast with Steve Nash, and Steve asked him, like, when
are you gonna make your decision as to what you're
gonna do moving forward as far as free agency, and
he said, you know what, I'll take some time off.
I'll figure sometime in July or August. And at the time,
I was like August, like free agency is the first

(01:00:42):
week of July, like team and you know how free
agency goes in the NBA Midnight strikes or noon strikes
or whenever the moratorium opens and contracts start flying in
like gangbusters. So you gotta make a decision faster than
August to Yet here we are July nineteenth, and he's
still sitting out there to your the World Cup is over.
We do know that Lebron James loves some of Lebron

(01:01:03):
James to give himself a little bit of spotlight. If
not now, I do not know when, and I do
realize and I talked about this on my show on
Saturday Morning too. Those are going to be a camp
of people who believe Lebron James just wants to spotlight
and he's all about himself and he's dragging this out
so people like you and I can sit here on
forums like this and talk about him and speculate where

(01:01:24):
he wants to go. I fall into the camp Anthony
of there might be a little bit of that, But
I truly don't know that he knows where he wants
to go yet, because there's a lot of competing factors.
He's talked about wanting to be happy, he's talked about
wanting to be able to win.

Speaker 4 (01:01:38):
He's talked about recently about his.

Speaker 3 (01:01:40):
Daughter, wanting her to be happy and what her situation
is going to be, and his family. So, of all
the different options that are currently laid out there for him,
I don't know if one that sits out there checks
all of those boxes. So he's going to have to
sacrifice something that he's looking for in whatever decision that
he makes. So I am more apt to lean on
the side of Lebron James truly does not know.

Speaker 4 (01:02:01):
Where he wants to go and is mulling it over over.

Speaker 3 (01:02:04):
The thought that he's just sitting here so he can
just wallow and listen to everybody talk about and speculate
where he wants to go because it's an ego play
on his part.

Speaker 5 (01:02:14):
Well, it's interesting because I do think he knows where
he wants to go.

Speaker 2 (01:02:19):
Oh so you think he's already made a decision, you
know again, do I think it's you know, all ego.
I think there's a method to all this stuff, and
I think you know, there's other people involved, right, Like
you know, I think his camp is legit and it
says he listen man, like you know, this is all

(01:02:40):
part of the brand, like we got a stake to
you know, it's I don't even think it's like as
much as it's an ego ego kind of play, is
more of it's like, this is kind of what you do, right,
like when you when you have when you're bigger than
the league, right, yeah, how you do it like you.

(01:03:01):
I'm not begrudging it. I don't think it's all like
oh me, me, me, me me. I don't think it's that.
I just think this is what happens when you've reached
those heights that you do only because and here's why.
Here's why. I think he already knows. Listen, there's only
four places you're going to go, right. It's not like

(01:03:22):
he's gonna go Wow, Chicago, Chicago, Right, He's gonna go
to four places. He's going to go to Cleveland, back
home to make the the ending of the story, right,
Miami because he respects pat Riley. He loves Spolstra. He
played there before you can play with the honest, right,

(01:03:44):
he got a shot to win and there is and
he loves it there.

Speaker 4 (01:03:49):
Familiarity there, Yeah, yeah, he loves it, loves.

Speaker 2 (01:03:52):
The heat, loves the whole people. The people all think
he's gonna go to uh, go to Golden State play
with Steph.

Speaker 4 (01:03:58):
Play with his buddies and Draymond right, I'd.

Speaker 5 (01:04:00):
Be the uh.

Speaker 2 (01:04:02):
He can play the role of the expendables, like you know,
perfect right to movie the whole thing.

Speaker 3 (01:04:09):
How's he No, by the way, make that move and
know you're not going to win a championship, but just
have some fun with your buddies on the way out.

Speaker 4 (01:04:15):
It's how I will look at it.

Speaker 2 (01:04:17):
And then you got Philadelphia, Like at one point it
would have been in New York, but New York broke
the drought, so he's not going to go there. Philadelphia
is in the drought since nineteen eighty three. He is
very close with Tyrese Maxi. He he likes Joel and
Beat a lot, and he would have a great now

(01:04:40):
that now that Jalen Brown is there, he would have
a great chance to win, Like they could easily win
the East. There's also on the floor a gigantic cult
the fore spot. Like you want to talk about a
perfect basketball fit, he slides right in to the four spot.
He also like he doesn't have to worry about handling

(01:05:01):
the scoring load because he's got Maxie Brown, Edgecombe Embiid.
In fact, he could do what he loves best, which
is facilitating because there's not really a league guard on
the Sixers. I mean, Max, he's more of a Hell's
a combo, but he's more of a two than he
is a one, and Lebron could could do a lot

(01:05:24):
of that. So it's a great basketball fit and you
have a chance to win. I think it stows four options,
and I think he went over his mind, like all right, Cleveland,
Golden State, Miami, Philadelphia. I mean, there's really not much
more to think about. I'm sure he's already thought about
this stuff the minute Jaylen Brown got traded.

Speaker 5 (01:05:46):
Philolphie came into the picture.

Speaker 3 (01:05:48):
Absolutely no doubt, And how could it not for all
the reasons that you just gave to a degree and
even going to Philadelphia, whether he doesn't need to, I
don't know if he has the sort of energy at
this point in his career to be the head of
the snake as far as facilitating the offense. But the
Lakers at one point in March they went fifteen and two,
I believe, and he basically played a Draymond Green type
of role on steroids. Think of like Draymond Green, if

(01:06:09):
he had like offensive skill. That was kind of the
role that Lebron played at that point, and he played
it's perfection, and he can play that's a similar type
of role in Philadelphia and fit in beautifully. I just
and maybe it's because you mentioned the World Cup and
he doesn't want to steal a spotlight away from it,
or he's waiting to have his own moment in the sun.
I guess the issue with that is if he has

(01:06:29):
already made up his mind, and not that he owes
anything to anybody.

Speaker 4 (01:06:32):
He is a free agent.

Speaker 3 (01:06:33):
He can do whatever he wants on whatever timeline that
he wants. But there's a lot of other people that
are affected by what his decision is or isn't that
are all in limbo right now, like what happens with
Johnathan Kaminga. Who knows the other names that are out
there who are potentially on the trade market. Who knows
what the Sixers, the Heat, the Cavaliers who are in
a luxury tax conundrum at this point in time, what

(01:06:54):
trickle down moves are going to be made, whether he
decides to stay there or sign there or go elsewhere.
Commission Adams, I think somewhat tongue in cheek, but someone
seriously earlier last week was like, hey man, we have
to set our TV schedule and we can't do that
until we know where Lebron is going, So hurry the
hell up, you know, Like, so there are other people
who are being affected in this situation other than Lebron James. Again,

(01:07:16):
he doesn't necessarily owe anything to anybody, but Iffie indeed.

Speaker 4 (01:07:19):
Does know exactly where he's going to go.

Speaker 3 (01:07:21):
I think it'll be better for him and for everybody
else involved to do it as soon as possible so
people can kind of move on with the rest of
their off season.

Speaker 5 (01:07:28):
So he wasn't going to do it at the Fanatics event.

Speaker 2 (01:07:32):
It's not his event, Like yeah, I mean that makes sense,
I get it, but you're not going to do it.
You got Brady's there, like all these people are there, right,
like it's the who's who of the sports world is convened, Like.

Speaker 5 (01:07:42):
So he's not. It's the perfect place to tease more
than anything.

Speaker 4 (01:07:47):
And that he did, yes, I mean.

Speaker 2 (01:07:49):
He did right Like Friday, He's like, you gotta trust
the process, and everybody was like, oh, but then.

Speaker 3 (01:07:55):
He tried to act like he said that like tongue
in like it was an accident or he's like all've
been saying that my whole career, like Lebron is too
smart for me to assume that that just happened to
slip out, you know what I.

Speaker 2 (01:08:05):
Mean exactly he was, you know, like you know, he smirked,
and you know he he knows the deal and even.

Speaker 3 (01:08:12):
Recording his podcast not to cut you off with Tarre's
Halliburton and HALLI Burton was like, do you know where
you're going? He was like, man, we talked about this
in the back. You think that wasn't choreographed. He didn't
tell Halliburton to say that dumb right, you know, right right?

Speaker 5 (01:08:25):
Well, I mean you know he listened.

Speaker 2 (01:08:27):
I mean, you believe that that.

Speaker 5 (01:08:31):
Logan Paul and Tom are going to go at it?

Speaker 3 (01:08:35):
Yeah, you know, right, but I kind of I mean yeah,
I mean, I mean, Tom, I think talked about in
our previous interview talking about how much you love the
w w E and wanted to be involved in it.
So he at least kind of planted a seed for
that anyway, So we kind of saw all that coming.

Speaker 5 (01:08:51):
Yes, yeah, not as big.

Speaker 4 (01:08:53):
A surprised when it comes to that, right, right.

Speaker 5 (01:08:55):
I'm a Tom fan, so you know whatever I mean.

Speaker 4 (01:09:00):
I don't bugarage guys.

Speaker 5 (01:09:01):
If you're you want to do that, go consider yourself.

Speaker 4 (01:09:04):
Unless, you know, unless you're a camp'scatabuy and you're on
crutches and you're shoving a guy out of the front row.
You know, three weeks after you broke your leg, you
probably shouldn't have done that.

Speaker 2 (01:09:13):
You know.

Speaker 4 (01:09:15):
Outside of that, you know, do your WWE thing.

Speaker 3 (01:09:18):
I don't care Karl Anthony Towns wants to choke slam
somebody whatever.

Speaker 4 (01:09:21):
It's not that big of a deal. I don't care
about that part of.

Speaker 2 (01:09:23):
It, all right. So coming up, I want to get
back to Lebron. Do you believe in the prediction markets?
Because they went upside down? And I'm curious to see
if you think that matters. By the way, Showhy just
struck out two on one out top of the eight
tie game. Oh Todi strikes out?

Speaker 4 (01:09:48):
Washed up? Trade him, trade him and his bum, Kny
get out of town.

Speaker 5 (01:09:58):
And Figgie Hanging Five Sports Radio.

Speaker 2 (01:10:04):
Sports Radio, Welcome back, Kevin Figures, Anthony Garganto, Fox Sports Sunday,
Hope you enjoyed every second of the FIFA World Cup
streaming live on Fox one, the officials English streaming platform
that caught every unforgettable moment. Fox one brought it. They

(01:10:27):
brought the action straight to your screen. You never missed
a goal. Listen for all things Sports, download Fox one
and experience the power of sports and Fox one just
great stuff. Uh we'll get back to the World Cup
coming up in just a moment. But I gotta ask you,
do you believe Figgy in the prediction market spill on

(01:10:50):
Calshi at one point last week because I checked this daily,
I'm curious, right, like I get obviously.

Speaker 4 (01:11:00):
Lee, you have a vested interest in this speek.

Speaker 2 (01:11:02):
Yes it's sixer guy.

Speaker 5 (01:11:04):
Oh oh god, here we go.

Speaker 2 (01:11:08):
So at one point, fig the Cleveland was the runaway favorite,
runaway favorite, Miami, I mean, Golden State was second, Miami,
Philadelphia was third, at Miami was fourth.

Speaker 5 (01:11:29):
Now I've seen all counts of iterations of the four.

Speaker 2 (01:11:33):
Okay, Philadelpia was as much as twenty two percent.

Speaker 5 (01:11:39):
Cleveland was as high as in the fifty high.

Speaker 2 (01:11:42):
Fifty eight percent right now as we speak, Miami forty
nine percent the favorite, Cleveland thirty one percent, Golden State
thirteen percent, Philadelphia eight percent. Interesting, and that's after the

(01:12:06):
trust to processed line. Right, And I checked it earlier
tonight and it was at twelve percent.

Speaker 5 (01:12:14):
It's down to eight.

Speaker 3 (01:12:16):
I mean, and this is all based off of what
or all the money is going, right, This is a
speculation market. So it's like there's a house that's setting
some sort of line when it comes to this sort
of thing, right, I don't know exactly what's happening To
influence public opinion, it would usually obviously be a lot
of reporting and speculation.

Speaker 4 (01:12:32):
I guess my thought is the longer and longer this
thing drags.

Speaker 3 (01:12:35):
Out, you know, the more and more people lean towards,
you know, leaning towards him returning back to Cleveland.

Speaker 4 (01:12:41):
I guess I don't know.

Speaker 5 (01:12:43):
Do you believe in insider trading?

Speaker 4 (01:12:46):
Oh, a thousand percent without a doubt?

Speaker 5 (01:12:48):
I mean, we just have a doubt.

Speaker 2 (01:12:50):
Ay a uh speech not writer, but the uh, the
the guy put it on the screen, get get jammed up, right,
so huh right, Like, listen, this stuff happens, and especially
something like.

Speaker 4 (01:13:08):
That, something something that this is easily manipulatable.

Speaker 2 (01:13:11):
Right, like somebody, you know, Lebron's people like, I'm like,
you know, let me listen. I don't think runs anybody,
but somebody's making him some money. That's just you've been around,
you kind of smell it right, right.

Speaker 5 (01:13:24):
So that's why when.

Speaker 2 (01:13:26):
I see like dramatic movement, something feels fishy, like the
idea that Miami is now the overwhelming favorite over Cleveland.

Speaker 5 (01:13:38):
All along, I thought he was going to Cleveland.

Speaker 3 (01:13:41):
So did I To be honest with you, that was
my Actually, at the very very beginning, I thought it
would be Golden State, And then the more I thought
about it, I thought Cleveland like, well, familiar territory, you
can end at home. They were just in the Eastern
Conference finals, so you can try to justify it and
say I'm going to a place that can potentially win, right,
So you know there are a lot of boxes would
have been checked if you went to Cleveland.

Speaker 5 (01:14:01):
I mean I thought the same thing.

Speaker 2 (01:14:04):
I thought, the saving theat thing.

Speaker 3 (01:14:06):
Cleveland's it right now, It would have make sense to me, Anthony,
if the odds would have flipped significantly, like right after
the heat acquired Giannis. But the fact that it didn't
happen like overnight and it took a little while, that's
what kind of makes me raise an eyebrow or two.

Speaker 2 (01:14:21):
Right, And it's been like this for a minute like
this is it flipped on Friday.

Speaker 4 (01:14:28):
It flipped to Miami, and I believe was that Friday
was the day. I believe that Pat Riley had the
press conference with the honest if I remember correctly, I
don't know if that was Thursday or Friday, and Pat
made the quote, we landed one plane, We're just waiting
for the other.

Speaker 2 (01:14:39):
You know. Yeah, but you know it was interesting because
it landed there, It landed and landed.

Speaker 5 (01:14:49):
It happened.

Speaker 2 (01:14:50):
Then it flopped right at that. You know, I don't know,
it just feels some somebody knows something. I just think
he knows where he's going, Like, you know, he's gonna
wake up, but go, yeah, it's Cleveland.

Speaker 4 (01:15:06):
I would say that's highly highly unlikely.

Speaker 5 (01:15:08):
Right, you know what, forget that it's Philadelphia. We're the Fellas.

Speaker 6 (01:15:15):
the nation. Catch all of our shows at Foxsports Radio
listen live.

Speaker 2 (01:15:28):
All right, Welcome back, good evening, good evening.

Speaker 5 (01:15:32):
A happy happy Fox Sunday night.

Speaker 2 (01:15:35):
Big day today as Spain wins the World Cup Final happens,
a lot of fansvent perfect day here on the East Coast,
A beautiful suns flash day, low humidity, big time. They
took a page out of us, out of our super
Bowl at the big halftime show. Yeah, the whole thing,

(01:15:57):
Kevin figures Anthony gargantto although apparently.

Speaker 4 (01:16:00):
Wayne Wayne Rooney hated the halftime show. I don't know
if you saw that.

Speaker 3 (01:16:04):
Oh rep it, he says. I love the artist, but
I hated the show. And I was like, I don't know,
it could have been worse. That didn't mind it too.

Speaker 2 (01:16:09):
Much, you know, I I love it, you know why,
because that's kind of that's me when it comes to
super Bowl.

Speaker 4 (01:16:17):
That's our thing. Yeah, I hate this.

Speaker 2 (01:16:18):
I hate this super Bowl vibe. Right, I hate the
halftime show. I've always hated halftime you know, except for
Janet Jackson.

Speaker 5 (01:16:27):
There's been enough like that came of it, right.

Speaker 4 (01:16:31):
Like anything crazy or unique happened in that show.

Speaker 7 (01:16:34):
You guys didn't see the Muppets.

Speaker 3 (01:16:35):
I did love the you know, Mary. I was watching
with my wife and I was just like, you know,
my son was taking a nap, but I was like,
he would have loved this. His miss Peggy and Kermit.

Speaker 4 (01:16:43):
How do you beat that?

Speaker 7 (01:16:43):
I just it's kind of crazy, Like why am I?
Why am I watching Madonna in twenty twenty six?

Speaker 4 (01:16:48):
You know what I'm saying? Yeah, crazy, good points.

Speaker 7 (01:16:50):
Yes, why are we doing that just to be written
and perform anything but a freaking a cappella and acoustic
version of Hallelujah?

Speaker 2 (01:16:57):
Like what are we doing?

Speaker 4 (01:16:58):
She cared, though she cries Shakira do thing and bts
is big. They did their things well.

Speaker 2 (01:17:04):
The world co queen, So that's true. I don't mind her.
She made the anthem with Berna Boyd.

Speaker 7 (01:17:08):
Yeah, it doesn't top walka Walker though.

Speaker 4 (01:17:15):
So as halftime shows go, you know, I didn't. I
didn't mind it at all. Way Rooney is like he
hated it.

Speaker 2 (01:17:21):
It was fine.

Speaker 4 (01:17:21):
It wasn't the greatest show ever, but it was okay.

Speaker 5 (01:17:24):
I just found it interesting that they did.

Speaker 2 (01:17:26):
Like if I'm Wayne Rooney, I hate it too, because
that that's it's like, yo, mane, you're you're following the
American lead right, like you're you're gonna go to the
super Bowl league And it was funny.

Speaker 8 (01:17:39):
And in the second half, I forget who brought up
one of the guys brought up the halftime and the
whole thing and what you know, Hey, well the long
halftime would it help them?

Speaker 2 (01:17:52):
Because he in the NFL is different, but it's so
in soccer, you know, give you a little more.

Speaker 4 (01:18:00):
Rest, Yeah, elextra extended time, you will take it.

Speaker 3 (01:18:03):
You're not worried about losing momentum, You're worried about getting
some extra wind. So it actually I worked to an
advantage to a certain degree. Yeah, but it it messes
up your routine, regardless if you're used to, you know,
twenty minutes and all of a sudden it's forty five.
I'm exaggerating obviously. You know that that changes things a
little bit, right if I get.

Speaker 5 (01:18:18):
It right, right, But I found it.

Speaker 2 (01:18:21):
I thought it was It was fascinating that they actually
took a page out of our book and then this
big grand halftime show. Ted Lasso was there.

Speaker 4 (01:18:29):
Yeah, I like that. So the Ted last O such
introducing Justin Bieber. To Mary's point, I think Bieber, if
he was going to perform, could have performed something a
little more lively for lack of a better term, you know, yes,
real kind of brought brought the vibes down a little bit.

Speaker 2 (01:18:42):
Yes, yes, but secure brought him back up.

Speaker 4 (01:18:46):
Oh great, transition though, does she ever?

Speaker 2 (01:18:52):
So here's the thing. It was a great day, great sports,
saying international day, right, we had to start it out
with the British Open. By the way, could you say
this to you because Ryan Fox wins it and no, Yeah,
the British Open was terrible. You know why because the courses,
if it's not windy and raining, it's it's the course
is ugly.

Speaker 4 (01:19:12):
It almost always is. Yeah, it always is, Mike, this
is we get. This is what you get with the Open.
But it's this way.

Speaker 2 (01:19:19):
But it's gotta be rainy and windy. Well, there's definitely
win worth it.

Speaker 3 (01:19:23):
It wasn't as much of us rain this year, but
there was definitely a certain amount of win and I
think that's why you saw a certain amount of guys
really struggling to a degree you.

Speaker 2 (01:19:30):
Know, yeah, but what there was no uh you know
that that vicious gale winds that come in with the
rain sideways where where you know you're struggling to shoot
par right, Like that's that's what I like.

Speaker 5 (01:19:46):
That's the British Open. I want to see them belting
with rain.

Speaker 3 (01:19:49):
Well, certain guys certainly did, I mean after Bryson and
Hishingan agains on Friday and when it turned into Saturday
and then Sunday.

Speaker 4 (01:19:55):
But by Sunday he was totally off the grid, totally
off the grid.

Speaker 3 (01:19:59):
He was by the back nine. Yeah, poetic justice. Some
people were calling it.

Speaker 5 (01:20:03):
Yes, yeah, be cool.

Speaker 2 (01:20:05):
You're cheating, dude, I mean intentional or not cheating if
I don't know, only he knows if you did it
on purpose.

Speaker 3 (01:20:13):
But then the grand stand and go out there and
start cursing at officials.

Speaker 4 (01:20:16):
And I'm not gonna play tomorrow?

Speaker 2 (01:20:18):
Was all right, man, cal him down, exactly, bro, you
moved the ball, like what are you going to stay? Man?
That's what it is. But the course what when it's
it was so dry and it was it was just horrible.

Speaker 4 (01:20:32):
It was to a certain degree unbecoming.

Speaker 5 (01:20:33):
It was.

Speaker 3 (01:20:34):
It was much a prettier for lack of a better term,
than you're typically getting the British Open.

Speaker 2 (01:20:38):
I'll say that, right, that's all. That's why it was
just you know, it was it was And plus I
got crushed in my uh I'm in a in a
golf pool, oh okay with Bobby Fairley, a great director, right, So.

Speaker 5 (01:20:58):
So it was my first like I was excited. He
might have been coming to the pool.

Speaker 2 (01:21:02):
I'm like, yeah, man, I'm in sweet all right, So
I've been studied every tournam I suck right, Like you know,
a couple of couple ones I was like in the twenties, right,
and then the last one I was this one.

Speaker 5 (01:21:17):
I just got smashed.

Speaker 2 (01:21:19):
I wasn't even close.

Speaker 3 (01:21:21):
Well, I feel like you probably, I highly doubt that
your top three would have included Fox, Cameron Young, and
Sam Burns.

Speaker 4 (01:21:27):
Maybe Cameron Young because he's not going to over the
last couple of years.

Speaker 3 (01:21:30):
But outside of that, I don't think you had Ryan
Fox or Sam Burns in your top three.

Speaker 4 (01:21:34):
So no, it probably wasn't just you getting crushed. I'll
put it that way.

Speaker 2 (01:21:38):
Yeah, but the standing I was finished in the out
of one hundred and twenty two people, I think I
finished eighty something. So it was not a good showing.
And I was trying to impress Bobby, you know what
I mean, like like the sports guy, right, you know
where did do you know where Bobby finished?

Speaker 4 (01:21:59):
Where did he finish?

Speaker 5 (01:22:01):
I don't know, but I don't know.

Speaker 3 (01:22:03):
Probably considerably higher than you am assuming, Yeah, yeah, a
grizzle Vett obviously when it comes to me so right.

Speaker 2 (01:22:10):
Right exactly. But he's also you know, I mean he's
a film director, right like I'm the sports guy. That's
how it always works.

Speaker 3 (01:22:18):
I will never forget North Carolina won the national championship
in college basketball. It was this seven years ago whatever
it was, and we had a mini office pool at
our local affiliate A and five seventy LA Sports, and
one of our tech producers, who admittedly is not the
biggest sports fan, she picked North Carolina to win the
national championship because she thought the mascot looked cute.

Speaker 2 (01:22:39):
Wow, And she won the pool wow.

Speaker 4 (01:22:42):
Just based on that.

Speaker 3 (01:22:44):
It is stuff like that happens more often than you think. Yes,
So you have guys like me who are sitting here
watching a random North Carolina versus Wake Forest game in February,
you know, and breaking all this down in bracketology this
and Ken Palm THATTT and then that's basically how I
lost because quote unquote, I like the cute little Rammy mascot.

Speaker 4 (01:23:05):
Is exactly what she told me. So you know these
things happened, Anthony.

Speaker 2 (01:23:09):
Yeah, we're studying you know, K Pop is studying it.
Like I know, I know, I watch every game I
watch it. It all I know it it's hysterical. So
it was a it was a you know, a great
a great week it was.

Speaker 5 (01:23:28):
It started off with the All Star Game.

Speaker 2 (01:23:32):
The home Run Derby a week ago tomorrow was tremendous,
probably the best derby ever.

Speaker 4 (01:23:39):
Right, the derby was better than the game. I'll say that.
I think that.

Speaker 3 (01:23:43):
I don't think that's you can argue against that. The
actual All Star Game was a dud this year.

Speaker 2 (01:23:47):
Yes, it was. It was very much a dune. It
really was. It was bad.

Speaker 3 (01:23:51):
And the thing about the Home Run Derby, and I'm
sure it probably has to do with the fact that
was on Netflix and maybe a lot of the older
demographic was phased out, but it was the lowest rated
home run Derby since two thousand and three. That's a
little surprised.

Speaker 2 (01:24:04):
It's got it has to be, because I'll be honest
with you, I loved it great though. It was incredible now,
you know, I mean I was there. It was just
it was in my town. It was just something spectacular,
like it was just fun. Like they're booing, you know,
the crowd. My people showed up right.

Speaker 4 (01:24:25):
Of course, as as they do, you know, you know.

Speaker 2 (01:24:27):
Like they were the kids dropping the balls. The balls,
you know, got to show up as much as they
were b Jordan Walker, his dad, they were, they were
making a big.

Speaker 5 (01:24:40):
Fuss over him.

Speaker 2 (01:24:41):
It was not when he won it and came back
and beached Warber and an incredible finish, they gave him
lots of love. It was. It was kind of it was.
It was very nice. It was great.

Speaker 3 (01:24:51):
Yeah, And I have been critical of the Home Run
Derby the last few years, not because of the derby itself,
in the format, whether it's time to whether it's amount
of swings, that's fine, it's just the amount of stars
that don't participate. I'm glad that schwore Ber, I'm glad
that Harper participated in it. I would just love more
face of the sports type of guys if they were
to participate in this, in that sort of tournament, because

(01:25:11):
I think that's what's hurt the Dunk Contest too. You
have like a two way G League guy winning the
win the Dunk Contest every other year.

Speaker 4 (01:25:18):
It's like that.

Speaker 3 (01:25:18):
I don't think people were to show up to want
to see that. But the way that the derby ended
it was spectacular. You couldn't ask for much more.

Speaker 5 (01:25:25):
So, Yes, and you're right.

Speaker 2 (01:25:27):
The the game itself was not good, although the Sandlot
stuff was great, Like, I love the Sandlot attribute to sandline.
I thought that was quite of cool.

Speaker 5 (01:25:37):
Yeah, but you're right. The game.

Speaker 2 (01:25:38):
The game was the game was attracted. It was a
great celebration of baseball though. The red carpet and oh
it's great, you know, the whole nine.

Speaker 3 (01:25:45):
Like I have micing guys up. Sometimes it works. Last
year I thought it were great. They miked up Clayton
Kershaw and his last All Star starred and you know, yes,
he's talking to Smoltzy and Smolts throw a splitter and
he's like, I don't throw a splitter, Smoltzy stuff like
that's great.

Speaker 5 (01:25:59):
You know.

Speaker 3 (01:25:59):
They tried to bike up Pete Croel Armstrong, who has
been a firecracker getting into it with other players and
getting into it with the fans, and it just was drab.
You know, that was a swing and a miss, but
you had to you to try it. It was he
just didn't say.

Speaker 4 (01:26:11):
Much of anything.

Speaker 3 (01:26:11):
They're like, oh, I played soccer when I was a kid.
It was just there was nothing there.

Speaker 2 (01:26:15):
I feel you're talking about the Schwarber. When the ear
piece came out, Oh no, and he was cursing. Yeah,
that was great.

Speaker 3 (01:26:22):
But they they miked up Peak pel Armstrong when he
was in center field. I think, like I heard it,
he said he was talking about being a Bears fan.

Speaker 5 (01:26:29):
Yeah he was.

Speaker 3 (01:26:30):
It was It was okay. There was just not a
whole lot there. I thought that might be a little
more charisma mixed in there somewhere.

Speaker 2 (01:26:35):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:26:35):
You never know what you're gonna get in situations like
that too.

Speaker 5 (01:26:38):
I did think he.

Speaker 3 (01:26:40):
Came he came off in that situation as very likable
when he generally does not.

Speaker 4 (01:26:43):
And again, I think the reason that he doesn't, he
doesn't come off.

Speaker 3 (01:26:46):
As likable, which is probably why Fox wanted to make
him up.

Speaker 4 (01:26:49):
So it was totally justified. I just don't think it hit.
But you're not gonna hit on everything either.

Speaker 3 (01:26:54):
So last year's All Star Game was phenomenal, and you
ended with the swing off and the schwarbur and all
that was great.

Speaker 4 (01:26:59):
So it's one off.

Speaker 2 (01:27:00):
I'm not like the pitchers like the pictures and the
catchers that are going all right, nice making me work
like he had done that was good. Like I love
the what kind of pictures throwing? I'm want to hit
him up. I'm gonna go with you know, splitter, I'm
gonna go with the schlur. I'm gonna go do this.

(01:27:21):
It's gonna be up and out, like yeah, I love
that stuff Like that's that actually works?

Speaker 4 (01:27:26):
You know that was interesting? Well, like having Harper miked
up for is That Bet?

Speaker 3 (01:27:30):
It's really hard to have a conversation with a guy
who's even though it was an All Star game, he's
still trying to concentrate. You figure out what he's doing
in Is That Bet? So that didn't do justice to anybody.
So to have him miked up in that situation.

Speaker 5 (01:27:41):
Yeah, yeah, no, no, that's true.

Speaker 2 (01:27:43):
But it was a it was a great It was
a big week, right, like you know, they al say,
lots of fanfare Netflix, and we had the semi finals
of the World Cup and then the finals today and
and uh and Spain beats Argentina and all that stuff happens, right,

(01:28:04):
and it was all fine, except none of it is
gonna be what takes place.

Speaker 5 (01:28:09):
Coming up shortly.

Speaker 2 (01:28:11):
So I segue because you and I have not spoken
about this coming season and what to expect.

Speaker 5 (01:28:23):
So I'm going to give you.

Speaker 2 (01:28:24):
You have to take at least three to five teams
because I convolute everything and of course in each conference
upset A B one A uh.

Speaker 5 (01:28:35):
I want to pick three to five teams.

Speaker 2 (01:28:37):
We'll both we'll both do the exercise, pending on time
and because you know, sometimes it can drag on uhm,
and we're gonna go up or down like the biggest
either surprises in your minds for the good or for
the bad. It could have a meteoc rise or a tumble.

(01:29:02):
All right, So I'll go first just to give you
kind of what I'm looking at. So as much as
it pains me to say this, I'm kind of afraid
of the Cowboys. M h. I think the Cowboys are
going to have a big year. I think I love

(01:29:25):
their defensive quote. I know Christian Parker, who came from
a Yes, real sharp guy, young dude, sharp the whole
nose of stuff.

Speaker 5 (01:29:34):
They got better. I couldn't get any worse.

Speaker 2 (01:29:36):
They got better defensively, right, you got more athletic, and
you know, listen to one thing I liked about the
Jeremy Fowler list was I appreciated where Dak Prescott was
because I thought he was in a perfect spot. He
needs to get love. He has become a terrific quardu.

(01:29:59):
So whatever you want about playoffs and whatever. In regular
season last year when he's healthy, I mean, he played
great quarterback, got the ball out, he's he's always accurate,
he knows what he's looking at. He great at reading
the defense, and he gets the ball out fast and accurate.

Speaker 4 (01:30:19):
Yep, I cannot disagree with any of that.

Speaker 3 (01:30:21):
He's been one of the best regular season quarterbacks the
past six or seven years when he's been healthy. So
all the Dallas Cowboys were missing with some consistency on
the defensive side, and has some talent, and they've revamped
that talent defensively. Like you mentioned, they've brought in a
different defensive coordinator. Uh So, the sky's the limit for them.
So I actually think they have a phenomenal chance of
winning the NFC East. So they are most definitely on

(01:30:43):
a risers list for me, one thousand percent.

Speaker 4 (01:30:45):
I agree with you on that.

Speaker 2 (01:30:47):
All right, Who Now, I say anybody to win the East,
let's got bad. I can give him that because I
just there.

Speaker 3 (01:30:54):
He's okay, So I'm not gonna say that they're going
to drastically fall and disappoint anybody. But I don't know
about your Philadelphia Eagles and that offense that they're installing.
The whether or not it's an offense that Jalen Hurts
can thrive in. I'm not saying that he can't do it.
I'm just saying that that's not the typical style of
offense that he has thrived.

Speaker 4 (01:31:11):
In in his career.

Speaker 3 (01:31:12):
I need to see him do it before I can
believe that he can do it. So I'm not gonna
say they're gonna have some meteoric drop from eleven to
six and missed the playoffs or anything. But if you
tell me that they're battling for a wild card spot
or not locking in and actually winning the NFC East,
I don't think that's unfathomable to me. Well, I have
Dallas Rising, I think I have your Philadelphia Eagles. They

(01:31:33):
dropping this Midge or two. I know Sack Grilge. I'm
sure I gotta see it at I gotta see it.

Speaker 2 (01:31:40):
I mean, I think it's fair. As much as I
makes me lose my breath, I think it's fair. I
will say that. Listen, the offense stuff's real. Like they
have a new coordinator, Sean Mannion's coming in. He's gonna
have Jalen do a lot more different stuff, a lot

(01:32:00):
of under center, a lot of play action. Right, it's
gonna look different. He was always RPO and read option
and that was the you know that co That's what
he ran in Alabama, That's when he ran in Oklahoma,
and that's what he ran for the most point most

(01:32:20):
of his pro career. But they tried to do a
little wrinkles with it, but mostly that's been the basis
of the offense. That's gonna change.

Speaker 5 (01:32:28):
And you're right, there's no a J. Brown.

Speaker 2 (01:32:30):
I don't know if that's better because there was a
lot of push and pull between those two.

Speaker 4 (01:32:35):
As you know, could be additioned by some traction who knows, yes.

Speaker 2 (01:32:40):
But you lose a great player. AJ Brown is a
great player, no matter what you say. He was a
great player. And you know, DeVante Smith is gonna have
to set up step up now. Their old line is
healthy and should be back to being really good, which
means you should be able to run the ball at Saquon, who,
by the way, had at home last night. Scary.

Speaker 4 (01:33:02):
Yeah, I did see that story. Thankfully he and his
family were safe.

Speaker 3 (01:33:05):
But they attempted, I'll say, attempt to break in somebody
actually got into the house.

Speaker 4 (01:33:09):
From what I understood, very scary, awful, absolutely awful. Thankfully
they're okay, that's scary.

Speaker 2 (01:33:15):
Yeah, uh, but you know, there are a lot of
question marks and I don't know that he's I don't
know that Jalen's going to thrive. Like I know he's
open for it like I open to it, and he's
embracing it and he's been working on it. You know,
we'll see. I feel you, uh, he should be ranked
higher than seventeen, but whatever.

Speaker 5 (01:33:37):
Yeah. Uh. Defensively, they're spectacular.

Speaker 4 (01:33:41):
No doubt, I'll give them that.

Speaker 2 (01:33:43):
Spectacularly, they're spectacular defense, and they're just young in their prime.

Speaker 5 (01:33:48):
They fly around.

Speaker 2 (01:33:49):
They have one tiny hole and that's safety when they're
not in base because Cooper Degen plays safety in basse.
But when they're in nickel, I mean, you know, you
got to I mean world second year guy, uh now,
and he was hurt last year. So we'll see. But
other than that, they're just they're nasty.

Speaker 5 (01:34:08):
They come out. You know, their front is nasty.

Speaker 2 (01:34:11):
They have great cornerback play, right like your secondary between
Quinnyon and Cooper is nasty. So I think they're I
think they're pretty I think they're pretty stacked. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:34:22):
Yeah, again, I don't think they're going to be terrible,
but I just don't know if I necessarily would pick
them to win the East over Dallas as it currently
sits right now for me, all.

Speaker 5 (01:34:29):
Right, let's stay in the NFC. Take a quick to you.

Speaker 2 (01:34:32):
Yep.

Speaker 5 (01:34:33):
We'll do two more teams and then we'll go to
the AFC.

Speaker 2 (01:34:38):
But right now, my eye own somebody as a riser.
They rose last year, but I think they're even rising higher. Okay,
we'll talk about it. Kevin Figures, Anthony Guargana. It's a
Fox Sports subday.

Speaker 1 (01:34:55):
Sports Radio.

Speaker 2 (01:34:58):
Welcome back, k fig and all that on a Fox
Sports Sunday. Your squad went down tonight, Yankees hold on
the wind to one.

Speaker 4 (01:35:11):
Saw that the bullpen game for both teams.

Speaker 3 (01:35:14):
As Steve Sager has been pointing out, Yeah, Dodgers took
the series.

Speaker 2 (01:35:17):
Yes, they will lose tomorrow against Christopher Sanchez. Will say
she and against Sanchaz tomorrow.

Speaker 3 (01:35:27):
Yeah, I think the odds are in the Phillies favor
when it comes to that, when she And has not
been the most consistent, to say the.

Speaker 2 (01:35:32):
Least undecided against Zach Wheeler on Tuesday, it's not good yep.
And Wednesday, Wednesday is Sazaki against Noah.

Speaker 4 (01:35:50):
Yes, Wednesday was supposed to be Shohail Tani's first start
since early since.

Speaker 3 (01:35:55):
June, but that has been pushed back and he is
now out indefinitely in terms of being on the mound.
No return date schedule currently as he deals with the
k the issue. So that is a of some concern
for the Dodgers for sure.

Speaker 2 (01:36:08):
Yeah, but you're sitting at sixty three thirty seven.

Speaker 5 (01:36:10):
Oh yeah, to trust me.

Speaker 4 (01:36:11):
Yeah, first world problems.

Speaker 2 (01:36:13):
Yeah, you're you're fined. You're just going to slow play
until the playoffs anyway when it matters and pretty much yeah,
and then win. That's kind of how it works, all right.
Coming up, Uh, let's get a couple more NFC teams
first though, Let's get to Stevie with the update.

Speaker 1 (01:36:33):
You don't listening to Fox Sports Radio Radio.

Speaker 2 (01:36:37):
Oh thanks, well, I appreciate it. Kevin Figures Anthony Gargana.
It's a Fox Sports someday and don't forget me. You
miss any of today's show, you'll get the podcast check
it out search Fox Sports ready wherever you get your podcasts.
Right after the show, Today's posted. This show gets posted,
the podcast is up thanks to Mayor be sure to
follow the podcast rated five stars. You get even in

(01:36:59):
the post review again just shots Fox Sports Ready to
wherever you podcasts. Follow the feed you'll find today's full
show poster right after we get off the air. Bears Buddy,
I love the Bears. I love Caleb Ben Johnson. It
shows you what coaches, what coaches mean to this thing.

(01:37:21):
Ben Johnson did an incredible job with Caleb. Caleb is
going to be special. He was freakish during the playoffs,
and I just think, hey, wrote keeps it rolling.

Speaker 4 (01:37:33):
He does.

Speaker 3 (01:37:33):
And that is a very tough division because I look
at that division you're talking.

Speaker 4 (01:37:36):
About, like arrow up, arrow down.

Speaker 3 (01:37:39):
I Mean, I know it's impossible, but I feel like
the arrow is up for literally everybody. Like if you're
Green Bay, you're expecting to get Micah Parsons back at
some point earlier in the season and hope to keep
your core healthy.

Speaker 4 (01:37:49):
Minnesota.

Speaker 3 (01:37:49):
I love Kevin O'Connell and what the potential he can
do with Kyler Murray.

Speaker 5 (01:37:54):
Dude, you're speaking my language with that.

Speaker 3 (01:37:56):
Who I assume Kyler Murray's going to be the starter
and we've seen what he's done in flashes.

Speaker 5 (01:38:00):
I'll put it.

Speaker 3 (01:38:00):
If Kyler Murray can't get it done this year with Koc,
it ain't happening. So and they're just as talented as
they fish. They absolutely could. And then a lot of
people and I'm interested to see your take on this.
A lot of people are down on the Detroit Lions
and people are saying like their window was closed, and
it was like, how is your window closed? Where you
have one of the greatest offensive legion of offensive talents

(01:38:21):
in the entire league.

Speaker 4 (01:38:22):
I mean, you have Jamiir Gibbs.

Speaker 3 (01:38:23):
Yes, you lost Dave Montgomery, but you're brought in Isaiah
Pacheco as a change of pace, heavy duty guy who
can carry that void. You still have Saint Brown and
Jamison Williams. Tesla's good defensively, You're going to be back
healthy again. Now the offensive coordinator situation with Drew Petsing
will have to see how that works out. But that's
really what the genesis of them taking a step back
was to begin with.

Speaker 4 (01:38:42):
They lost Ben Johnson.

Speaker 3 (01:38:43):
They were kind of influx with John Morton and Matt
Campbell or Dan Campbell excuse me calling plays last year,
if Petsy can kind of get them back to where
they were before. The idea that their window was closed
is ridiculous to me. So I'm looking at a division
last year in the NFC North where eleven wins by
the Bears, where he's able to win the division, but
you had three teams that won nine games. I can
see that division being neck and neck all the way

(01:39:03):
throughout the season again, just like it was last year.
So as odd as it sounds and as improbable as
it is, you know, obviously injuries notwithstanding, my arrow is
kind of pointing up for all four teams in.

Speaker 4 (01:39:14):
That entire division.

Speaker 5 (01:39:16):
Yeah, I agree.

Speaker 2 (01:39:17):
Uh, you know one of the things that killed the
Lion season was Ragnow were retiring. Yeah before the year
right center at All World Center. You know that hurt
and yeah, you know then and and then the best
left tackle on football gets hurt. Right, So Soul's back,
which is huge.

Speaker 5 (01:39:37):
Uh, you're good.

Speaker 2 (01:39:38):
On the other side with Blake Miller, I mean I
think you know, I think you should be fine. You
got to protect I mean, everything's about protecting golf. If
you could protect golf, I think you're good. I agree
with you. You know, their defense maybe I'll stay healthy
for the first time in five years.

Speaker 4 (01:39:54):
Yeah, that will be the thing.

Speaker 3 (01:39:55):
You know, the only reason they didn't win a couple
of years ago is because literally all their best defensive
players got hurt from what week sixteen on. Like, it
was just horrible timing from a health standpoint. So if
I had to choose one of the teams to make
it fair, I'm gonna choose my arrow up on the
Detroit Lions because so many people are down on them.
I can easily see them being neck and neck with
the Chicago Bears and determining who wins that division when
it's all said and done.

Speaker 2 (01:40:16):
I like it.

Speaker 5 (01:40:17):
I like it. I like it.

Speaker 2 (01:40:18):
I think it's good. Right, let's go to the AFC.
And the AFC is completely fascinating because new coach in Buffalo,
new coach in Baltimore both are the favorites in the
conference with new coaches.

Speaker 4 (01:40:39):
Doesn't happen very often.

Speaker 2 (01:40:40):
No, And you got Allen and you got Lamar, So
I get it. Lamar's got to have a better year
to the last year first.

Speaker 4 (01:40:46):
Time head coaches, by the way, for on both of
those fronts.

Speaker 2 (01:40:49):
Yeah, and I think you're gonna miss Sean McDermott. I
think you've missed showing it in a big way. Sean
mick der was an excellent coach.

Speaker 3 (01:40:58):
Yeah, and the thing is you were promote from within,
so it's not like you're, you know, upsetting the applecart
too much. There's gonna be a level of consistency there.
So I don't know if they just wanted to get
a different voice in the room and they felt that
mcdermot's voice got stale, which sometimes could happen, I guess,
But there's not gonna be wholesale changes offensively. Granted, you
bring in DJ more, that's gonna help. That's gonna given
a legitimate target for Jock Kellen.

Speaker 2 (01:41:17):
The failed them, I mean enough weapons.

Speaker 4 (01:41:23):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:41:23):
Well, apparently the GM has the ear of the ownership
more than Sean Dermott did, So you know, those those
political battles can go sometimes unfortunately, and I believe that
Dermott got there before before being did, which makes the
dynamic even more interesting.

Speaker 4 (01:41:37):
So I think.

Speaker 3 (01:41:37):
But well, here's the thing that I think universally most
people agree on, which kind of gets me.

Speaker 4 (01:41:42):
Kind of skeptical about this.

Speaker 3 (01:41:43):
Take the fact that the Patriots are going to take
a step back because it just seems obvious that they are.
You know, they don't have a super easy schedule like
they did last season. Yes, they have aj Brown, but
the fact that they're and even through their easy schedule,
it's not like they were running everybody off the field
at times either. They had some fortunate some fortunate breaks.
I mean, case in point, the ANFC Championship game. You're

(01:42:03):
playing against the backup quarterback, so they had a lot
of things that broke their way. I'm not saying that
Drake may can't improve and won't improve. He can still improve,
while the team as a whole can take a little
bit of half a step back.

Speaker 4 (01:42:15):
So that doesn't mean they're going to miss the postseason.

Speaker 3 (01:42:17):
But thirteen fourteen wins again, I don't see that happening
for the Patriots.

Speaker 2 (01:42:21):
Agreed. Now, let me throw this at you. Let's look
at the West m because there's two teams I want
to talk about with you. Okay, one, listen, I hear
my man is already running seven on seven and looks great.

Speaker 4 (01:42:42):
Yep, Patrick mahomes the master deal.

Speaker 2 (01:42:46):
Now I will say they lost a little defense, sure did,
and I might have been with my man spags.

Speaker 4 (01:42:54):
Oh okay, give me some insight over the week.

Speaker 2 (01:42:57):
During the week we meet him and Baldy went the
long and you know, again, they're gonna be young, Like,
you know, this is what he does, right Spa. Yeah,
you know, you have these secondaries where these kids are
young and he kind of comes in. He gets them
into shape and the whole thing understanding the system and
he's got to redo it.

Speaker 5 (01:43:16):
You lost too, you know, you lost two really good ones.

Speaker 4 (01:43:20):
Who starting cornerbacks, right, Like, what what does that happen?

Speaker 2 (01:43:24):
Right?

Speaker 4 (01:43:25):
Almost never?

Speaker 2 (01:43:26):
Now the old lines healthy and that's a big deal
for that for sure. I think offensively, they're gonna be back.
And he also is going to uh like he's feeling
it this year, like he's going to.

Speaker 5 (01:43:40):
Go like all the stuff that he did.

Speaker 2 (01:43:42):
You know, they won a lot of games and he
changed things around. He's going back to the old ways.
So I think they're gonna be it. I think they're
gonna be I think that division is gonna be really good.
I like the charges a ton. I mean, I think
McDaniel with Herbert is going to work. Yep.

Speaker 3 (01:44:04):
I give mc daniel with Herbert is kind of a
kind of what I was talking about a little bit
earlier with Kevin O'Connell teaming up with Jill Kyler Murray.
You know, yes, so there might be something there where
Justin Herbert can take a next step Kansas City. I'm
a little bit down on just and I look, I
love Spags too, I love him to death.

Speaker 4 (01:44:20):
He's but he's done a phenomenal job.

Speaker 3 (01:44:22):
Wherever he's been, and I know he's been able to
do this for the better part of a decade with
Kansas City, where you're turning guys in and out, and
maybe it's just I'm just skeptical that he can continue
to do it at a high level where you just
have to cycle it in and out.

Speaker 4 (01:44:33):
So many great players.

Speaker 3 (01:44:34):
You still have Chris Jones up front, that's great, and
Carlofta's upfront two and you drafted the kid that I
know they like, a Loi Delaney. But at a certain point,
it's got to catch up to you, I would think.
And this defense has been carrying this team for the
past what three seasons. As great as Mahomes is. I mean,
they don't win the Super Bowl, the last super Bowl
that they won if it wasn't for the dominance of
their defense.

Speaker 2 (01:44:53):
So agreed, I think this is the year of their
offense gets back it better is kind of what I
look at it.

Speaker 3 (01:45:00):
Damn well better, Yes, you know, I still don't like
the receiver position, to be honest with you, Travis Kelce
is a.

Speaker 4 (01:45:06):
Year older you mittioned.

Speaker 3 (01:45:08):
Patrick Mahomes is coming off of an injury, so how
well can he actually use his legs which has been
a huge part of their offense and him being able
to do either create second second reaction plays in the
pocket or be able to run for first downs.

Speaker 4 (01:45:19):
Kenneth Walker is great.

Speaker 3 (01:45:20):
That's a great addition for them, and I'm hoping for
their sake that Andy as much as we love Andy,
but we've been critical of him too and not leaning
on the run game enough. If there's ever going to
be a year where you need to run the ball
and really commit to running the ball consistently, it needs
to be this year. You've got to protect Pat Mahomes
and not have him drop back multiple times a game
to try to get you to win football games. But

(01:45:41):
there's so many unknowns when it comes to that. I
have to be down on Kansas City this year. I
don't see it. I still see it. The division probably
shakes out the exact same way it shook out last year.
Maybe the charges of Broncos flip flop. I do like
the charges enough that I can see that potentially taking
him a little bit of a jump up and jumping
the Denver Broncos, who.

Speaker 4 (01:45:58):
I also like, by the way, and have gotting worse.

Speaker 5 (01:46:00):
See, I'm not a fan of the quarterback.

Speaker 4 (01:46:03):
No, so you don't like bo Nicks. Okay, yeah, I see.

Speaker 3 (01:46:06):
I don't think I don't love bow Knicks, But considering
what he has around him, I think he's a guy
that you can win with as your starting quarterback. You
have a dominant defense, you added a legit deep threat,
and even more so than a deep threat, I think
Jalen Waddall is kind of one of those guys you
can throw a short cross or two when he can
take it to the house. I think you have enough
offensive talent around him to where he doesn't need to

(01:46:27):
carry you. And he made enough plays last season clutch plays.
I think he had more comeback wins or as many
comeback wins as any other quarterback in the league last season.
In crunch time, I do like Denver. I think the
Chargers are I like him a little bit better. But
I think deff is gonna be good again this year.

Speaker 2 (01:46:41):
I do.

Speaker 5 (01:46:42):
I don't like him.

Speaker 2 (01:46:42):
I did something about that team.

Speaker 5 (01:46:44):
I just.

Speaker 2 (01:46:46):
You know, I like their defense. I don't like their
offense a little bit?

Speaker 4 (01:46:49):
Is it because of Sean Payton? And he looks like
he's from Whoville? Is that what it is?

Speaker 2 (01:46:54):
You know?

Speaker 4 (01:46:54):
That's what you're I'm not. I've never been.

Speaker 2 (01:46:57):
He's a great coach, great coach, great coach. Uh we
should joke about that a lot of times. Ah, wes
joke about that. Uh hey, let's say quick t o
we'll come back and uh our final folts on that?
The World Cup everything else here on a Fox Sports
Sunday sports Welcome back Fox Sports Sunday.

Speaker 5 (01:47:26):
Anthony Gargan, Kevin figures Hey.

Speaker 2 (01:47:30):
The excitement of FIFA World Cup was spectacular. I hope
we caught it streaming live on Fox one, the official
English streaming platform. That you caught every unforgettable moment. Fox
one brought the action straight to your screen. You never
missed a goal. Download Fox one experience all the great

(01:47:54):
sports that Fox one has to offer. And uh, we
crowned the champ today. We crowned the Spain and then
we enjoyed it. We enjoyed that being the host and
hosting this World Cup, it was spectacular.

Speaker 5 (01:48:10):
One other team, fag Cincinnati.

Speaker 4 (01:48:15):
Man, oh you had that's that's the one that I
had picked out.

Speaker 2 (01:48:18):
I'm rushy with you.

Speaker 5 (01:48:19):
Ah, you go, I'm with you.

Speaker 4 (01:48:23):
We obviously see it all about the offense.

Speaker 3 (01:48:25):
You'll have Joe Burrow back healthy, all the receiving talent,
you know, that's a given. But defensively, they went out
and overhauled a lot of their defensive roster, trading for
Dexter Lawrence uh Sonnie Jonathan Allen, Brian Cook, another guy
from the Chief second secondary that they lost.

Speaker 4 (01:48:40):
They brought in Kyle Duggar.

Speaker 3 (01:48:41):
I love the drafting of catches how I think he
could be an immediate impact guy for them. So they
revamped their entire defense, and I think they're They're not
going to be dominant. I'm not saying they're gonna be
the eighty five Bears or anything, but when you have
an offense of that dynamic, you just need to be respectable.
And I do think their defense is going to be respectable.
This see respectable enough that it wouldn't surprise me, Anthony

(01:49:03):
if they found a way to jump up and win
the AFC North because nobody in the North, even the
Baltimore Ravens, nobody scares me.

Speaker 2 (01:49:11):
Dude, I was gonna say the same thing, you and
I right there together, right there, I see the same thing.
I look at at Baltimore again, new coach, new offense
for Lamar. All Right, you'renna miss man, You're gonna miss horrorball.
And here's the thing about Lamar. I love Lamar. He
did not play well last year. No he didn't.

Speaker 5 (01:49:33):
He was static.

Speaker 4 (01:49:35):
His stads might say differently, but if you actually watched
him play, it was not a good performance at all.

Speaker 2 (01:49:40):
He didn't have the burst out. I hope he comes
back and he has his usual burst. I love the guy, right,
I love Oh. I think he's a warrior whole thing. Yeah,
he just he didn't play, but he wasn't superman, right like.
And he still doesn't have enough around him. You got
a diminutive one to throw to.

Speaker 5 (01:50:01):
That's it.

Speaker 3 (01:50:02):
Yeah, And I like yeah, but I just don't know
if he's the if he's the number one for you
like that. Mark Andrews right kind of lost a lost
a half step, you know. So defensively, I think they're
going to be back. You get from a Metabaka comes back.
You know, defensively, they'll be fine. You know, jesse Minzer
was a Baltimore guy. He knows how, he knows their culture.

(01:50:23):
I'm not worried about their defense, but the offensive situation
is the one that bears monitoring. You mentioned Lamar Jackson.
You know, he's getting older. You're not gonna get you know,
more twitchy or more athletic, all the all the things
that he's losing he's not going to gain back. As
he inches closer to thirty here and he's twenty nine.
I think he'll be thirty at the start of next
season or midway through next season. So I don't see

(01:50:44):
him improving. When it comes to his running ability, that's
something that's going to continue to decline, which means he's
going to have to rely on passing the ball. And
he's a better passer, pure passer that people give him
credit for, but to your point, good enough with the
weapons that he has around him that I'm not sure about.
So I just have too many questions about Baltimore, and
same questions when it comes to Pittsburgh. You know, McCarthy

(01:51:05):
not the biggest fan of Brow. Did they improve the
receiver position with one, Yes, yes, they've improved that receiver,
but even Rogers is not what he once was. So
I have questions about Pittsburgh too.

Speaker 5 (01:51:16):
Yep, yep.

Speaker 2 (01:51:17):
That's why I look at Cincinnati and they go, man,
I can't. They could take it easily.

Speaker 5 (01:51:21):
I can easily see them win that division, no.

Speaker 2 (01:51:24):
Doubt, no doubt easily.

Speaker 4 (01:51:25):
I don't know where the odds currently sit.

Speaker 3 (01:51:27):
But if for my money right now, if I had
to pick a division winner in the AFC North, my
money would go with the Cincinnati Bengals.

Speaker 4 (01:51:33):
And I went think twice about it.

Speaker 5 (01:51:34):
Yeah, yeah, I kind of see it the same way.

Speaker 2 (01:51:38):
And I do think just because we're looking at the South,
just because we went over every division. Yeah, I mean,
I again, this could be the year where Sunshine finally
is the guy I'm looking for.

Speaker 3 (01:51:54):
Gotta put together back to back seasons. But Houston's not
going anywhere. And it's a big year for CJ.

Speaker 4 (01:51:58):
Stroud.

Speaker 3 (01:51:58):
It's a make or break year for him because Houston
has all the makings of a championship roster got to
get there.

Speaker 2 (01:52:04):
I thought it was gonna happen last year. I was
all they got hot when reeling off wins. I'm like,
Houston is gonna win the Super Bowl.

Speaker 3 (01:52:10):
And as poorly as he played in that game against
the Patriots, they still were down by one possession going
into the fourth quarter.

Speaker 4 (01:52:16):
I believe it was.

Speaker 3 (01:52:17):
Yeah, tells you how good the infrastructure around him is.
They just need more from CJ at the quarterback position.

Speaker 5 (01:52:23):
Yeah, yeah, and this is it. That's right.

Speaker 2 (01:52:26):
All right, Well, plenty of football that we're gonna all
this World cups up. It was great because the weather,
our appetite for football, it's coming. A lot of fun. Everybody,
facts are hanging with us. We appreciate love you guys.
Have a great week.

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