August 11, 2026 • 43 mins
On this edition of Stugotz and Company LIVE!: Dan Beyer and Monse Bolanos filling in for Stugotz and the guys as they react to the NBA's announcement that Lebron James and his new Sixers' team will play in New York to play the Knicks on Opening Night. Dan and Monse talk about the story involving a golfer faking a hole in one. Plus, Dan and Monse welcome former Bears' All-Pro Lance Briggs onto the show.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for listening to the best of Stegotson Company Live podcast.
Find your local station for Stug Gottson Company Live at
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Speaker 2 (00:14):
This is the best of Stu Gotson Company Live on
Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 3 (00:20):
Why would you do this, NBA? Seriously? Why would you
do this? So much goodwill towards the association? Mancy Belanos
with the NBA has done one team very very.
Speaker 4 (00:34):
Wrong, acting like there's only one game in the season, right,
like that's it.
Speaker 5 (00:38):
It's one game and you have to do it all today.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
That's it. All of the eggs in this basket, this basket,
October twentieth, all of them, all.
Speaker 5 (00:47):
Of it, all the good put it in there.
Speaker 3 (00:49):
If you think that we are crazy, if you're trying
to figure out what we're talking about, Josh Hart is
in the same boat as we are. Josh Hart is
riding show gun with us. If you remember Josh Hart,
a member of that NBA championship winning team in New York,
the Knicks, your NBA champions the highest of highs, Mancy,
(01:15):
and we knew, we knew that the New York Knicks
would be opening up the NBA season. We knew that
was going to be the case. Let's unfurl the banner,
Let's raise it up to the rafters. Let's get our
one last ounce of juice out of an NBA championship.
But the NBA says, not only that we are going
(01:38):
to completely overshadow all of the Knicks accomplishments that they
accomplished during that magnificent playoff run, we are going to
completely overshadow that by bringing in Lebron James and the
Philadelphia seventy six ers. What a slap in the face
to the New York Knicks.
Speaker 4 (01:56):
Absolutely audacity to do this, especially after seeing how much
attention was taken by Lebron James's decision that we were
all waiting for for weeks. It felt like, and now
to do this. Honestly, if I'm the Knicks, I'm like, Okay,
we are not raising our banner the first night.
Speaker 5 (02:14):
Guess what we're doing. Guess what we're not. We're not
doing that.
Speaker 4 (02:18):
We're gonna do it this second game that we play
here at Madison Square Garden, because clearly you want us
to focus on Lebron James's first game as the Philadelphia
seventy six er, like this is so rude. I would
be so mad. Also because I feel like the Knicks
were unlucky in the sense that the World Cup came
in and kind of took the shine away so fast
(02:40):
from the Knicks. The World Cup got so exciting, so
quickly we stopped talking about the Knicks way earlier than
I thought we were gonna.
Speaker 5 (02:47):
Stop talking about that.
Speaker 4 (02:49):
So I feel like they did not get to, you know,
have the glory and enjoy the moment. And then the
World Cup ended, and it was kind of weird to
go back into the Knicks right like It's like it
felt so far away and now here you are you
get to go back into in having the glory of
winning the NBA Championship, and they said, oh, but we
(03:10):
actually we actually care more about this.
Speaker 3 (03:12):
I think there's also there wasn't even just the World Cup,
which was great. There was the Yannis move, move, you
mentioned the Lebron situation. You even had the Kawhi trade,
which we don't know how, but it did allow us
to move on quicker from the postseason on Knicks fans
not the case. They have continued to celebrate, but it's
(03:33):
also the opportunity. It's your last chance to really celebrate
that championship. And I think that the NBA did this
at the expense of the Knicks. I mentioned Josh Hart,
he wrote, can't lie. I'm extremely shocked. This is the
slate and I am shocked as well. And I think
it's the NBA being so fearful of the National Football
(03:55):
League there are now they are now getting drunk on
the success of the Knicks that they ended up hurting
the Knicks, that they are obsessed with the number Monzie.
They wanted to get the biggest number that they could
get so they could say Opening Nights in the NBA
had thirty two million viewers on NBC watching the Knicks
(04:16):
unveil their banner with Lebron James playing his first game
against Philadelphia. In a way, I almost feel like it's
short changing Lebron in a little bit in that he
isn't the focus, or the seventy six ers aren't the
focus in their own game. But this is more of
a Knix conversation than anything else. It's the NBA trying
(04:36):
to what they think is maximizing their output or trying
to strive for that number trying to max out instead
of doing three reps of ten. It's max out day
for the NBA. They wanted to get the maximum amount
of viewers you could in that one window, all of
those eggs in that basket, and by doing so, they
completely rain on the parade of the New York Knicks
(04:58):
getting one last op coortunity to celebrate that magical championship.
And it's really too bad, it really is. You could
have put anything, You could have put Giannis there. It's
not going to overshadow Jiannis and the heat coming to town.
I think that's enough reason to watch. The Knicks are
enough of a reason to watch, Manzi. They are enough
of a reason to watch. But the NBA shows otherwise.
Speaker 5 (05:17):
That's what I was just about to say.
Speaker 4 (05:18):
I was like, this is major mismanagement because if you
were paying attention, the Knicks were loved by majority. The
Knicks were not a controversial winner. We've had that in
recent years, but the Knicks. I jumped on that bandwagon.
A lot of people did. Like you said, you didn't
need to do much. The Knicks would have been enough.
(05:39):
You could have had them play the Lakers in Luka
Dancic and that would not that would have brought in
so many eyeballs because people want to see what the
Lakers are gonna do now with thought Lebron James, and
not take away from what the Knicks were doing. It
just feels like if you would have put another team,
like you said, the Miami Heat a perfect one, it
does feel like we could have separate the two events
(06:01):
that would have been happening on Opening night at Madison
Square Garden, and now you can't separate it now. Lebron
James's debut with the Philadelphia seventy six ers, because of
how big he still is in this league, is definitely
going to bleed into the celebration that is for the Knicks,
and when we've had eight different champions in the Eastern Conference,
(06:23):
this might be the only chance they get to do this,
like a major mismanagement.
Speaker 5 (06:27):
Also, NFL is king there's nothing you can do about it.
Speaker 3 (06:30):
Well, the Christmas Day Slate reveals that the NBA says,
all right, we're going to try to challenge your Christmas
Day slate, and the NFL Christmas Slate is really good.
And for me, it's highlighted by the Seahawks and Rams
in a game that I mean last year it ended
up being the super Bowl of the season, but the
(06:51):
NBA tried to counter act what the NFL is doing
on Christmas Day. I don't have as much of a
problem of that, Manzi, because the NBA is trying to
take back Christmas Day, and I feel that the opening
night is more of the Knicks. And I think last
year the NBA had a pretty good Christmas Day if
(07:12):
I remember, and I can't remember exactly what transpired, so
maybe that tells me something. But yeah, it was a
bigger deal than what it was. But the NBA is
going to have to go up against Packers at Bears,
Bills at Broncos in the aforementioned Rams Seahawks matchup. This
is what they've done for Christmas Day. Spurs at the Knicks,
(07:33):
NBA Finals rematch, Heat at the Celtics, Giannis going to Boston,
seventy six Ers at the Lakers lebron returns to LA.
I'm not mad at that game at all.
Speaker 5 (07:43):
I think that's a good spot for it.
Speaker 3 (07:44):
That's that's fine. It's it is the only trip obviously
that the Sixers will make to LA. That will be
a must have ticket in l A thunder at Timberwolves,
Nuggets at Warriors. Those are all fine matchups. The seventy
six Ers and Lakers, one I think is the is
the really go to. But that also tells you something
that even on a Christmas Day, Manzi the Knicks, who
(08:05):
will play usually in that early in that first game,
that even as NBA champions, I still don't think that
they are the marquee game on the schedule. So the
marquee for the NBA tells you that it is Lebron
James at a seventy six Ers uniform. And if the
Knicks aren't your main draw this year, that's what makes
it worse that you couldn't even allow them to have
their day that you had to bring in your big draw, Lebron,
(08:26):
and bring them in, have Lebron open the next night
right against any other team in the NBA except the
New York Knicks. Like that's all that you had to do, NBA,
But it's a disrespect in New York. Lebron is going
to overtake the moments, and it may be there for
Knicks fans that night, but the buy and large the
topic of conversation will be the Philadelphia seventy six Ers.
Speaker 4 (08:45):
And with that logic, again, this is mismanagement at the top, because,
like you said, you could have just done this day
two and then you would have had two really good
days of numbers. Because I have a hard time believing
that on opening night everybody was not going to and
I mean everybody who's already into the NBA right was
not going to tune into the Knicks because I feel
like the Knicks people were happy that majority of the
(09:07):
country was not hating on the Knicks when they won,
so they were going to tune in.
Speaker 5 (09:11):
The Knicks, like you said, were enough of a draw.
Speaker 4 (09:13):
You could have had back to back nights that made
people tune in, but instead you put.
Speaker 5 (09:17):
As we set up start show, you put literally every
single egg in this one basket on the first night.
Slap in the face, disrespectful and.
Speaker 4 (09:26):
Mismanagement because you could you could have spread the eggs
out and made it benefit the league. This doesn't make
sense in so many different ways. I understand what Josh
Hard is feeling.
Speaker 3 (09:35):
I hate the disrespect to the next. Jason Stewart is
our executive producer. Jason, what's going on?
Speaker 6 (09:40):
I think what you just said, I didn't even think
of this point but let's drove down on this. So
it's the NBA telling us, the media and the world
that the Lebron James is the marketing name and not
the Knicks, and it kind of speaks to maybe we're
overthinking the Knicks interest level. I think it was a
(10:00):
big deal because Knicks fans are so obnoxious. I think
the Knicks have maybe the largest fan base, loudest fan base,
and they were starving. But maybe we overvalued what the
Knicks winning the NBA championship meant to the MBA. Maybe
that's what we were overvalue. And I do think that
this definitely cuts under their celebration. But I think the
(10:21):
point you just made is important. This is the NBA saying, yeah,
Jalen Brunson, Josh Hart, the Q rating isn't that high.
Speaker 3 (10:29):
Yeah, And I think that's what it is. This is
for the sake of a number. This is a sake
for how many millions of viewers they will get and
what that rating is. That's what this is about. I
would tune in to watch the Knicks raise that man
aah right, Like that's they didn't win it at home,
they didn't win it in New York, so that this
(10:49):
is that carryover and that's what I want to see, Like,
I want to see that at Madison Square Garden. I
don't want it to be hijacked by Lebron James of
the Philadelphia seventy six is. By the way, Hey, it's
not even Lebron's fault. We blame Lebron for a lot
of stuff. This is totally the NBA trying to figure
out it's overshadowing Spurs Thunder, which is the nightcap of
(11:10):
that opening night game as well, which is a great
rematch of the Western Conference Final and probably the best
rivalry that we've got maybe right now in the NBA.
But there's it's not even Lebron's fault for that matter,
it's the NBA trying to get greedy, trying to It's
like they're they're drunk off that high of the Knicks
getting the numbers that they did. They loved hearing us
(11:32):
report what Game one got, what Game two? The highest
rated series since nineteen ninety eight. They loved all of
that stuff and they couldn't get They can't get enough
of it. So how do you do it. Let's throw
Lebron James and his new team into the mix. When
it really should have been let's just honor the New
York Knicks, give them their night, their one last night,
and then we'll let the Lebron train take over some
(11:54):
other time.
Speaker 4 (11:55):
I don't know if I agree with you, Jason, I
understand what you're pointing out. I I honestly don't think
the number would have been that much lower without Lebron James.
I agree that this is the league trying to get
the highest possible number for this game. That's clearly what
they care about. But I really do think that most
(12:16):
people embraced the Knicks. It wasn't like when we saw
the Thunder win Man. The Thunder were not embraced in
any way, shape or form, and so I feel like
the shift was so big that most people were really
okay with the Knicks winning. And it was maybe because
they hated the Thunder so much. That is just anyone
but the Thunder, anyone but the Thunder. So I feel
(12:36):
like that number without Lebron James would still be a
really good number.
Speaker 5 (12:42):
This is going to be a bigger number, of course
it is, but not for the right reasons, and that's
what sucks about it.
Speaker 3 (12:47):
There was a Christmas Day game in two thousand and
four between the Lakers and the Heat that had about
thirteen million viewers to it. That's pretty big for a
regular season game that was twenty two years ago, when
our viewing habits were different. I think that's what the
NBA wants to do, is that's what they want us
saying the next day. Is they want us to say
(13:08):
fifteen million people watch the seventy six ers and Nicks
on Opening night. What it should be is eight million
people watch the next raise their banner on Opening night,
like that's that's what it is. I understand coming out
with a bang. There were other intriguing matchups. You could
You could have done a finals rematch if you wanted to.
There's different ways to do it. But I do think
(13:32):
the number is going to be less if the Knicks
would have played one of those other opponents. But to me,
it's not about the number. It's about the moment. It's
about what the Knicks we're going to be able to do.
And if Josh Hart is taken aback by it, sure,
Josh Hart thought to himself, well, any other team but
the seventy six Ers will probably be our opponent. And
(13:53):
that wasn't the case. I don't know if it's if
you got fifteen million to watch this game, if it
would have been ten, or if it would have been
five without Lebron. But what the Christmas Day slate tells
me is, I know the Knicks have their traditional spot,
just like the Lakers have their traditional spot in the
Christmas Day lineup. But there's no doubt that Sixers at
Lakers is way more compelling than Spurs at Knicks, which
(14:15):
is a finals rematch. So that tells me that the
NBA recognizes that Lebron in the new uniform is the
biggest cash cow, and we're going to try to cash
in those chips night one at the expense of the
New York Knicks. And that's just too bad.
Speaker 5 (14:27):
Yeah, I'm telling you.
Speaker 4 (14:28):
If I'm New York, I'm like, we're not doing the
chip that, We're not raising the banner today.
Speaker 5 (14:32):
Why would we do this today?
Speaker 4 (14:33):
This makes no sense for us and our fans. If
I'm supposed to care about our fans, as Jason pointed out,
so obnoxious, so loud, we heard about them for weeks
during the NBA Finals. If I'm the Knicks, I'm like,
this is about the fans, we're not doing this today.
Speaker 3 (14:48):
Knicks fans join us Saturday night when the Washington Wizards
come to Madison Square Garden where it's banter and ring night,
that's at Zora Banner and get their championship rings in
front of the home fans here at MSG.
Speaker 5 (15:02):
And all the fans could get wild, have the best time.
They're not worried about having to beat a team. They
don't have to worry about Lebron. They can just go
and beat.
Speaker 4 (15:10):
Themselves and probably win the game. Unless everyone's getting too drunk.
Speaker 3 (15:14):
They should Unveilabanna. That just says psych psych right, see
you tomorrow Joint Saturday. Ben Stiller would have it on
his camera phone. He would be filming it. But this
is either it just is I'm sticking up for the Knicks. Yeah,
like I am. And I think that the Knicks realize
that Lebron is the big ticket here the NBA. The
(15:36):
NBA is trying to tackle the NFL in the best
ways that they feel possible. It's an impossible task. It's
not going to be able to be done. I think
the NFL is gonna beat the NBA pretty well on
Christmas Day. Sands that seventy six Ers Lakers game. But
when you have Packers Bears and you have Rams Seahawks
(15:57):
sandwiched around Bill's Broncos, that's the NFL playing, you know,
meaning business, and the NBA can only do so much,
and so they decided, well, let's try to also then
dominate Opening Night. And it's too bad because it's it
comes at the expense of the Knickerbockers. I can't believe
I'm feeling bad for New York knick fans. But that's
where we are here on Stu Gotson Company Life. Maybe
(16:19):
Taylor Vipolis is in Stuc Gotts are rubbing off on me.
She's Manci Bologhos hit her up at Monzi Bolangios. You
can find me at Dan Byer on Fox.
Speaker 2 (16:27):
Be sure to catch live editions of Stu Gotson Company
Live weekdays at three pm Eastern twelve pm Pacific on
Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 3 (16:39):
Cheating has gone to a whole nother level. I don't
even want to call it cheating. Monte Bolangio says, We're
about to dive into the story that has escaped from
the world of golf and has hit the mainstream.
Speaker 4 (16:50):
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Speaker 3 (17:10):
This is a story that not everybody can relate to
on the surface, but once you get into the the good,
the guts of it, everybody can relate to because it's
not just cheating. And the story stems from a member
member golf tournament taking place in Missouri, and this is
(17:32):
at wing Haven Country Club where Zach Holland has been
in the news for the last week, involved in one
of the biggest cheating scandals that golf has ever seen.
And we're not why does that always happen? Why does
that always?
Speaker 2 (17:49):
I keep thinking the bed is done on putting the
a surf back up, which is how we run our automation.
Speaker 3 (17:54):
In the first hour is like three five minutes long. Yeah,
it's a it's a long song. At wing Haven Country
Club in Missouri, Zach Holland was playing in a member
member golf tournament. I understand people don't necessarily relate to
everybody or to golf tournaments and country clubs and how
they work. But you team up with another member, try
(18:18):
to shoot the lowest score you can. Prizes are abound,
everybody has fun until you cheat. And within the golf community, Manzi,
there is this this portion of the golf world that
loves to point out scores that are just impossible. Like
if the four of us are playing me, you, Jason,
(18:38):
and Chris Purfat and heck, guys that can come along
as well, we can make it a five sum. If
we're playing around a golf and we're trying to play
our best ball, we're going to try to shoot significantly
under par, like you really should birdy every single hole.
If everybody is that's what you would think. Some guys
are that would be eighteen under par. Some people are like, yeah,
we shot twenty five under. You're like, there's no way
(19:00):
that happened. There's just no possible way. There's no way
that you guys shot forty eight on this course. That
just there's no way. And within the golf communities you're
having this these people being ridiculed amongst their peers for
lying about their scores because nobody else was coming close
to those scores. It was very insular. If you will,
(19:22):
This story featuring Zach Collind and his member member guest
tournament or member member tournament has I think broken through
the world of golf so much so that you had
an opinion about it. Many others have had opinion about it,
and it's made it to the mainstream. This is what happened.
The first story is this Zach Collind was playing in
a group of three players playing with another member. Took
(19:44):
a phone call at the third hole, said guys, I'm
going to go tee off on four. I got to
take this phone call and meet you up at the green.
Ended up taking the phone call, and I think it
was maybe for the health of a family member or something,
is what his story said. When he met up with
his players on the fourth at the fourth hole, they
all hit their shots and they asked him where his one.
He says, I didn't see it. He goes, I thinned it.
(20:05):
I didn't see it. Lo and behold they go on
the green and there's a ball mark on the green
and the ball is in the hole. Oh my goodness.
Zach Holland a two handicap, which is a very very
good player. He played collegiately. The lower the handicap number,
the better you are. A two handicap just ace the
par three fourth hole at wing Haven Country Club. That
(20:27):
is what he made you believe. As it turns out,
this tournament had a prize pot for a hole in one,
so there's money involved in this. There's also a competition.
If you're playing in a member member a tournament, you're
playing against other members. Getting a hole in one on
a par three you a lot really help your score.
But more importantly, it will really help you win that
(20:50):
prize spot because guess what you can cash in the
only problem is is the fourth hole at cameras. So
while Zach collind didn't see where his ball went, the
cameras did, and what the camera saw was Zach Holland,
hours before the tournament starts, knowing that his group was
going out first, that no other group would be ahead
(21:10):
of him, drove up to the fourth green, made a
ball mark in the green, and placed his golf ball
in the hole. So the ball was sitting in the
fourth hole for an hour or two before the tournament
started because he placed it there knowing full well that
this was going to be his plan. He then had
a phone call arranged to have somebody call him. He
(21:32):
took the phone call, then made up the story. The
three other members of his group were none the wiser.
They all celebrated thought he had a hole in one,
but the video showed otherwise. Zach Holland busted for cheating.
I would say, Monci, it's much more than cheating. But
before we get your thoughts, I want to hear from
(21:53):
Zach Holland, Okay, because he did speak with ESPN Radio
in Saint Louis after being busted for what I feel
is much more than cheating. Zach, what was what was
the motivation? I?
Speaker 7 (22:05):
Yeah, I don't really know. I've I've talked to the
people and there really is no motivation and just complete
stupidity and giving. We were giving two shots back to
the field, and that's not an excuse.
Speaker 3 (22:20):
There's no excuse.
Speaker 7 (22:21):
For for what happened. But to answer your question, you know,
we we were giving two shots back to the field,
and I went about it just completely and utterly.
Speaker 3 (22:31):
They go out and round and so what he's saying
with that is that they were pretty good, because they
were pretty good players, that there were worse golfers behind
them that were going to be getting more strokes and
it was going to be easier for those other groups.
So he wasn't doing it trying to win. That was.
That was Zach Collins's explanation.
Speaker 5 (22:48):
That wasn't an explanation. No, no, no, no no.
Speaker 4 (22:50):
You went out to the golf course ahead of time
and you placed your ball in a spot to get
a hole in one.
Speaker 5 (22:57):
This was calculated. You thought about this, there were things
you had to do. There's no that was. That was
not an explanation. He did not know what to say.
Speaker 4 (23:06):
Also, how stupid do you have to be to not
know that there's cameras everywhere? Like when I went, that's
how he got caught. I thought it was going to
be I thought he came clean because he felt bad.
There were cameras. Duh, are you stupid? Like I cannot
believe that that is how he got caught. But this
is so calculated. And also another side of the stupid.
(23:28):
A hole in one is so rare you don't hear
about it. So if you get a hole in one,
it brings a lot of attention to it. People are
gonna want to see it over and over again. I
want to see it on my timeline over and over
because you don't see it. So to think that he
was just gonna be able to say like, oh, yeah,
I got a hole in one. You get you, you
get some money, but no one's gonna like talk about
(23:50):
it or want to see it or how did it go?
Speaker 5 (23:52):
How did it look? How was that fort shot?
Speaker 8 (23:54):
Idiot?
Speaker 3 (23:55):
MANSI The worst thing in golf for anybody to have
is a hole in one when you're playing by yourself,
because no one will believe you. Jason Stewart, Am I
right with that? Like you need to have someone there
with you playing to corroborate yes, because otherwise no one
will believe you.
Speaker 5 (24:13):
Sure, yeah, it makes perfect sense.
Speaker 3 (24:14):
So none of these three guys saw it right right,
So right, So like he's going to carry on on
that lie. This would be the this would be the
worst thing that would happen. His explanation there says a
lot because he's trying to legitimize or he's trying to
say like we weren't going to gain much on the field.
It's not about the field, it's about the prize pod.
(24:37):
And that's why I don't think he was cheating I
think it's theft. I think he was stealing from the
country club, from the members, whatever the prize pot. However
the prize pot was built, he wanted to do it
for the money. And it's not a golf cheating story.
A golf cheating story is me marking my ball two
inches ahead of where it actually landed. When I replaced
my ballmarker me cheating, and golf is swinging, missing the
(25:01):
ball completely and telling my playing partner from thirty yards
away that it was a practice swing. Me cheating is
if the ball is on the out of bounds line
and me actually hitting it instead of calling it out
of bounds and taking the aforemen or the penalty that
is needed, and instead just saying that that is my
second shot. That is cheating. This is theft. This isn't
(25:22):
altering your score playing around within the rules of golf.
This is trying to take money from something that is
not yours and from a group that is not yours.
What about if somebody else hit a hole in one,
Now you're splitting a prize pot earlier. It's out of
their pocket, it's out of anybody's pocket. It's out of
the pocket of the person actually does hit the hole
in one and ends up getting the prize pot. He
is getting off easy. Now. The country club ended up
(25:43):
kicking him out, but it has become a story that
for some reason, and I think it's because of the
theft angle and maybe the depth and maybe the cameras
that I'm thank goodness it broke out of the golf
world because it's absolutely ridiculous to me. Jason Stewart, First of.
Speaker 6 (25:59):
All, I want to say on the air that this,
this story should be called a hole in one. And
Dan Byers, Dan is very familiar with my favorite cheating
story in sports of all time. You're very familiar with this, Yes, Marathon,
Oh yes she took a taxi cab to the finish line. Yes,
(26:22):
But but like I think this is equal in stupidity.
I know you're you're focused on the theft and not
the cheating, but like how these people thought or think
they can get away with this, And I mean if
he nailed anything, he said that, there's no motivation. This
is just stupidity. He's talking about getting caught for it.
Like he he now could say it was stupid because
(26:45):
he got caught, but he went through a lot to
do this which he thought. He probably thought he was
ahead of any kind of getting caught or anything like that.
I mean, if I'm a member of the four some
er of the threesome or what have you, and somebody
gets a hole in one that I didn't witness, the
t shot of that should have like shot up red
(27:05):
flags as opposed to a celebration thing. You think those
guys are a little weary of this, well, I would
think so. And I think that they're superintendent. I think
they may have contacted not the superintendent of the golf,
the head pro and brought it to his attention. But
I think that it's it's being categorized as as just
(27:29):
a cheating thing of something that happens within golf. And
this doesn't happen within golf. And so you're talking about
the lengths that he goes to. This is the length
that you go to to steal something from someone, exactly right, So,
like you have to plan it out, like you don't.
Speaker 3 (27:43):
You don't plan that you're gonna take an a legal
drop on the sixth hole. You know, you don't think
of it like when I don't clear the water, I'm
gonna pretend that I didn't I'm going to take a
drop and then like there's none of that, like there's
you know, that's not how you cheat in golf, it
just isn't. But this is how you would steal something
from someone, and that's what he's doing. And even it's
(28:05):
so insulting to hear him say, like, I mean, we
were giving shots back to the field, not that it matters.
It's not about that. It's not about winning the tournament.
It's not about which it would have gone a bit
of a longer way of putting a one down on
your scorecard. But that's neither here nor there. It's he's
trying to justify it in a way that's somewhere in
his mind he thinks of what he did was cheating
(28:26):
the actual tournament, and it's not. It's cheating to get
the money that you would get from the hole in one.
Speaker 4 (28:34):
His response also annoys me, irks me, because he makes
it seem like it's.
Speaker 5 (28:38):
Not a big deal. As you're saying.
Speaker 4 (28:39):
His response is very like, oh, it was just stupidity,
Like in reality, there's nothing he can say to make
it better, But there are things that he could have
said and not sound like it's is a huge deal, dude,
like a huge deal.
Speaker 5 (28:55):
And you're making it seem like it's not.
Speaker 4 (28:56):
That adds to my annoyance on the whole thing, and
not that he could have said things to make it
go away, but to go about it as you just
sist like it's not a big deal, like they didn't
gain anything.
Speaker 5 (29:09):
It's like, no, your group didn't gain anything.
Speaker 4 (29:10):
We're talking about you specifically what you did, like, don't
even include the.
Speaker 5 (29:15):
Others the field. No, this isn't about that. It's about you.
Speaker 4 (29:18):
You calculated this and then you hit a whole hold
on one and you acted casually like you didn't know.
Speaker 3 (29:22):
Oh my goodness, I hit it thin. I hit it thin,
and I didn't see where it went.
Speaker 5 (29:28):
First of all, what does that mean?
Speaker 3 (29:30):
So it usually means that you hit it on the
bottom of the club and instead of like smack dab
in the sweet spot, it would be like down here,
so you'd hit it thin. If you hit it like
kind of on the top, you probably hit it fat
because he got a lot of the ground.
Speaker 5 (29:43):
I get that. I died that.
Speaker 3 (29:44):
She's she's learning folk, she's doing She's.
Speaker 5 (29:47):
I hit it thin a lot at a top golf
the other day.
Speaker 3 (29:50):
The other. The other thing about like this scenario as
it sets up, if Jason and I are playing and
we're teeing off on a par four and we're hitting
a drive into the sun, we say where to go,
I don't know, I lost it. And it's because you're
hitting it two hundred and thirty or two hundred and
fifty yards, maybe some a little some, maybe a little more.
(30:14):
You very rarely lose your ball on a par three.
That's the other part where it just like his excuse
for it doesn't make a lot of sense because the
par three and I'm not sure how far the I
probably look it up quick on how far the par
three is. But unless it's two hundred and thirty yards,
which still you kind of have an eye on it,
(30:34):
and you're not hitting driver at that point. If you're
hitting an iron, the ball is probably going straight unless
you blocked it right. You're not hitting a big slice
and not seeing it. If you're hitting it thin, if anything,
it maybe went long on the direction you could say,
you know, is the direction of the pin. But to
lose sight of the ball and a par three, this
is kind of a bad excuse. You could do it
on a par four and a dog leg. I don't know,
(30:55):
I don't know if it made it past that tree
or not. But even the excuse on him losing it
and the caliber player that he is, he's not hitting
the type of shot where you would be like, I
lost it and then oh my goodness, it's in the hole,
Like it's lost it. Oh guess what. It's in the bush,
you know, on the way to the fifty. Like that's
the sort of losing it you have. So it didn't
(31:16):
even make sense when he was explaining it. It's also
why I think it fell apart pretty quickly. They're like, okay,
well none of you guys saw it. Let's go just
check the cameras just to make sure, and then they're
rewinding it and seeing it two hours later, his car
maybe pulling up on the road, him getting out. He
thought about it so much that he made a ball mark.
Speaker 6 (31:35):
Yeah, oh yeah, he put evidence.
Speaker 3 (31:38):
It's like that.
Speaker 6 (31:38):
It's like when the when the cop shoots the wrong
guy and then like like shoots into the wall to
create a bullet hole or something. It was he was
he thought that far ahead to cover it.
Speaker 3 (31:48):
Up, to make sure that the evidence would be there,
and that's why it just doesn't. It's so much bigger,
and it falls. I think it's falling under a golf
cheating sort of story and the links to it. But
to me, it's theft. I'd follow misdemeanor, theft charge attempted
theft if you're wing having country club. By the way,
(32:09):
there's no other country club that will now take this guy.
Speaker 5 (32:11):
Right, you just ruined so much good. What was the money?
Do you know the pod?
Speaker 2 (32:16):
No?
Speaker 3 (32:16):
I don't want. Was it worth it?
Speaker 5 (32:18):
It wasn't worth it. No matter what you're about to
tell me, career done. You're you.
Speaker 4 (32:23):
You're gonna be the laughing stock for anybody who plays golf.
Speaker 5 (32:27):
You can never go back to a golf course.
Speaker 6 (32:29):
Unless the damage for damage.
Speaker 5 (32:32):
He can never say his name at a golf course.
Speaker 4 (32:33):
He would have to go somewhere and have a different
name and have a disguise in order for him to
be able to do this. Because you've ruined everything. And
you said that he was pretty good. That's even worse.
Speaker 3 (32:42):
Handy like, what are we doing? Yeah, I don't buy
any of this. And I looked up the scorecard from
the tips. It's two hundred and three yards. I would
probably play it from what is the blue teas here
at one hundred and sixty eight yards? Now, I'm like
a sixteen handicap, so I'm not that great. I'm not
a two handicap. He may have been playing from from
the tips, but it wasn't like it was two hundred
(33:03):
and forty yards. You still see the ball at you know,
two hundred By the way, if it's in the morning,
which they because they went off first. Easier to see
the ball in the morning unless the hole is like
right into the rising sun at some point. So even
like that portion of it, there are times where you're
just like, dude, I lost it in the sky. I
don't know how it is. But none of the lies.
(33:26):
That's why the story crumbled apart. I feel bad for
his family. He asked that people he understands, he says,
of taking the heat for it, which I really don't
think that he does. But he asked for people to
lay off. Is his wife and kids, and it sucks
that they have to hear from that, but he's the
one that put them in this situation.
Speaker 4 (33:44):
Yeah, it's like, again, are you new to this world,
to this live to the cameras, to how social media
is to you? Thinking that you were just going to
do this, get caught and nobody would talk about it.
Speaker 3 (33:52):
They should again, it should be the golf's theft scandal,
not a cheating scandal that Unuzak collind Gotta find a
place to play.
Speaker 2 (34:00):
Be sure to catch live editions of Stu Gotson Company
Live weekdays at three pm Eastern twelve pm Pacific.
Speaker 3 (34:09):
Stu Gotson Company Live here on Fox Sports Radio. She's
Monty Belango. So I'm Dan Byer. We are joined by
one of the greats of the NFL. Or Is your boyfriend?
Sean said? What when you told them?
Speaker 6 (34:20):
Now?
Speaker 5 (34:20):
We were talking at Lance Briggs. He's like, oh, he
was the man for several seasons.
Speaker 3 (34:24):
Yes, two time first team All Pro, perennial Pro bowler,
one of the one hundred greatest Chicago Bears, linebacker Lance
Briggs joins the program today. Lance, how are you? Thanks
so much for coming on.
Speaker 8 (34:37):
I appreciate you. Thanks for having me on. Feeling good,
feeling good, staying busy.
Speaker 3 (34:42):
We're gonna we're gonna be asking you know all things NFL.
A lot happening, a lot happening in your former division,
the NFC North, but you are teaming up with USAA.
What it's what brings you on the program today? How
exactly are you teaming up with USAA.
Speaker 8 (34:56):
Well, let's solute the service. We have a Bear boot
camp that was held in the Walter Peyton Center and
it was a great opportunity to mix a mingle with
with our military as they were participating in some football
related combine drills. You know. So I got to see
(35:18):
some of the some some good, some good arms, some
decent arms, some not so good arms. You know. We
saw some decent speed, some good speed, some and some
slow slow.
Speaker 3 (35:32):
Well, it's great. It's it's great that you're you're teaming
up with them, and we we appreciate the chance to
uh to talk to you here on Fox Sports Radio.
So I know that I got a lot of Bear stuff.
But Monci wants to deal with the news of the
day because it deals with the Bears rival.
Speaker 5 (35:46):
It sure does.
Speaker 4 (35:47):
We have to discuss Minnesota finally announcing that their starting
quarterback is going to be Kyler Murray not JJ McCarthy.
Are you surprised at the news or were you expecting this?
Speaker 8 (35:59):
No, I'm I'm not surprised because at this point now
he was supposed to be running away with the with
the starting job. I think Minnesota kind of dropped the
ball when they had a playoff well super Bowl convinding quarterback.
(36:19):
You know, that was right there in their lap, and
they chose potential over what over the reality of what
they had. And now you know they're they're they're scrambling
or they were scrambling to find someone and to compete
with JJ to push him, and now it looks like
they pushed him a little too far.
Speaker 3 (36:39):
All Pro linebacker Lance Briggs joining us. Not only is
he teaming up with US a A also you can
see him on HG O doing some Bears coverage there.
We're going to get to the Bears in a second.
But I want to stay in the NFC North because
it is a theme with Ben Johnson. He is not
shied away from it by any means. And it's the
rivalry with the Green Bay Packers. How much did you
(37:00):
hate the Green Bay Packers when you were in your
playing days in Chicago.
Speaker 8 (37:04):
I mean I have a growing of always growing the
distaste for them. You know, I just taste that team
from up north.
Speaker 3 (37:15):
Is there is there is there more to it with
Ben Johnson did other ten years in Chicago, maybe not
make this rivalry as important because I remember, listen, I
grew up in north central Wisconsin. I had a front
row seat to the Charles Martin, Jim McMahon incident, all
of that the late eighties. I understand what's going on.
(37:37):
But I feel that this rivalry ebbed and flowed, and
I feel that it kind of hit a high point
when you were in your playing days, and it's hitting
a really high point right now with Ben Johnson. Why
is that? Why do you think that Ben Johnson has
made this such a focal point during his short tenure
so far with the Bears.
Speaker 8 (37:55):
Well, Roberarwick is better when both teams are competitive, you know,
And you know, for a short period while I was
a Bear, you know, we were getting wins against them,
and we were chipping away a little bit. But you
know that also got away from us as well. So
it's hard to maintain a rivalry when it's so one sided.
(38:18):
So right now you have you have a very good,
very good Bears team. You have a very good practice team.
Both teams are picked to be you know, on the
in the in the in the in the top ten.
I'd say, you know, probably in as far as power
rankings go. That creates a lot more emotional tie, you know,
(38:39):
to the rivalry because both teams have an equal chance
of coming out on top.
Speaker 4 (38:45):
You know, everyone in the NFC North, I think, thinks
they can win the division this year. Bears won it
last year. Some people think there's going to be a
regression maybe this coming season. How do you see Caleb
Williams and Chicago tackling more pressure on this new season.
Speaker 8 (39:01):
Well, the the Bears have done what they haven't done
in a long time. You know, They've really invested in
the old line, you know, the people that are up
front now. Unfortunately we won't see Ozzy Trapilo for for
you know, some time. But with that being said, they've
put pieces in play, you know, to really make that
(39:24):
move to be dangerous. You know, I think when you
look at the Bears, you're like, man, there they're they
look very dangerous and there are things that we have
to do and if we don't, we're gonna find ourselves
in the danger zone. So it's it's a fun place.
It's a fun time to be a Bear fan because
the expectations are really high. You know, we have a
(39:45):
coach that really fits this this team and this city.
That's something that we also you know, haven't had, you
know since Rylory Lovey Smith.
Speaker 3 (39:57):
Former Bears All Pro linebacker Lance Briggs joining up here
on behalf of U s a A. On Stut gottson
Company Live on Fox Sports Radio. She's Monty Blagos. I'm
Dan Beyer. One of the changes is there is no
DJ Moore anymore in Chicago, So now it's up to
Romadunje and I know Luther Burden the thirds a little
bit dinged up, But what is the expectation specifically for
(40:18):
those two guys to now replace DJ Moore who's in Buffalo.
Speaker 8 (40:23):
Well, time to carry the torch. You know, DJ was
was wonderful. I lose one of my favorite players, very tough,
fought through injury, you know, was very clutch, and a
lot of situations. But it's a great opportunity for for
Rome and for Luthor, for this group to uh to
(40:43):
show what they can do. I think that we've seen
enough from them to know, Okay, the torch can be
I mean, the torch can be path We've we've seen
big flashes from Luther. Luther's playmaking ability, so now just
getting the ball into his heyst allowing him to go
to work. Is I think if you look around the
(41:05):
Bears offense, you can talk about the offense, the receivers,
you can talk about the tight ends, you can talk
about the running backs, you can talk about the quarterback,
you can talk about the offensive lines. There isn't a
position on the offense that you know that doesn't demand
some sort of conversation when it comes to why this
offense or why this offense is exciting or or or
(41:29):
the excitement that they that that's been built for them
for this year.
Speaker 4 (41:33):
Lance, one more question from us. Aaron Donald unretiring.
Speaker 5 (41:38):
Are you for it? Are you against it? How do
you feel about it?
Speaker 8 (41:42):
I support? I mean, shoot, if the guy wants to play,
he can play. He's kept his his body in hip
top shape, so you know, it's it's one of those
deals I can tell you who really like the la Ram,
really want him to come out of retirement, you know,
And it's been clear. You know, obviously they brought Miles
Garrett over there, but and with both of them, I mean,
(42:06):
just having Miles over there, you know, create some issues
for everybody in that division. You put Aaron in there
with Miles look out like, you know, the Bears might
have the danger zone on the office side, but the
Rams definitely have it on the deep subside. With an
Aaron Donald.
Speaker 3 (42:24):
Well, we may be headed to another Bears Rams rematch
at some point in the NFL playoffs, and if that happens,
we know they gut to reach out to Lance Briggs. Lance,
thanks so much for the time. Great work with the USA,
and we'll talk to you later on on the season.
Thanks so much.
Speaker 8 (42:37):
All right, you got it.
Speaker 3 (42:38):
Take Lance Briggs joining us here on Stu gottson Company
Live on Fox Sports Radio. She's Monty Belanos. I'm Dan Byer.
Great conversation with the first team All pro.
Speaker 4 (42:47):
Absolutely, he definitely sounds like he's pro Aaron Donald, which
is nice to hear on a player who retired also,
you know, late in his career in a tough position,
and that he was like, I'm all for it, all right,
if that's how he and Aaron Donald's by like I
can do it.
Speaker 3 (43:02):
Well, Aaron Donald is coming back. We say goodbye to
a good friend. She's Monty. I'm Dan Infrastue. Next on
Fox Sports Radio,
Thanks for listening to the best of Stegotson Company Live podcast.
Find your local station for Stug Gottson Company Live at
foxsports Radio dot com, or stream us live every day
on the iHeartRadio app by searching FSR.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
This is the best of Stu Gotson Company Live on
Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 3 (00:20):
Why would you do this, NBA? Seriously? Why would you
do this? So much goodwill towards the association? Mancy Belanos
with the NBA has done one team very very.
Speaker 4 (00:34):
Wrong, acting like there's only one game in the season, right,
like that's it.
Speaker 5 (00:38):
It's one game and you have to do it all today.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
That's it. All of the eggs in this basket, this basket,
October twentieth, all of them, all.
Speaker 5 (00:47):
Of it, all the good put it in there.
Speaker 3 (00:49):
If you think that we are crazy, if you're trying
to figure out what we're talking about, Josh Hart is
in the same boat as we are. Josh Hart is
riding show gun with us. If you remember Josh Hart,
a member of that NBA championship winning team in New York,
the Knicks, your NBA champions the highest of highs, Mancy,
(01:15):
and we knew, we knew that the New York Knicks
would be opening up the NBA season. We knew that
was going to be the case. Let's unfurl the banner,
Let's raise it up to the rafters. Let's get our
one last ounce of juice out of an NBA championship.
But the NBA says, not only that we are going
(01:38):
to completely overshadow all of the Knicks accomplishments that they
accomplished during that magnificent playoff run, we are going to
completely overshadow that by bringing in Lebron James and the
Philadelphia seventy six ers. What a slap in the face
to the New York Knicks.
Speaker 4 (01:56):
Absolutely audacity to do this, especially after seeing how much
attention was taken by Lebron James's decision that we were
all waiting for for weeks. It felt like, and now
to do this. Honestly, if I'm the Knicks, I'm like, Okay,
we are not raising our banner the first night.
Speaker 5 (02:14):
Guess what we're doing. Guess what we're not. We're not
doing that.
Speaker 4 (02:18):
We're gonna do it this second game that we play
here at Madison Square Garden, because clearly you want us
to focus on Lebron James's first game as the Philadelphia
seventy six er, like this is so rude. I would
be so mad. Also because I feel like the Knicks
were unlucky in the sense that the World Cup came
in and kind of took the shine away so fast
(02:40):
from the Knicks. The World Cup got so exciting, so
quickly we stopped talking about the Knicks way earlier than
I thought we were gonna.
Speaker 5 (02:47):
Stop talking about that.
Speaker 4 (02:49):
So I feel like they did not get to, you know,
have the glory and enjoy the moment. And then the
World Cup ended, and it was kind of weird to
go back into the Knicks right like It's like it
felt so far away and now here you are you
get to go back into in having the glory of
winning the NBA Championship, and they said, oh, but we
(03:10):
actually we actually care more about this.
Speaker 3 (03:12):
I think there's also there wasn't even just the World Cup,
which was great. There was the Yannis move, move, you
mentioned the Lebron situation. You even had the Kawhi trade,
which we don't know how, but it did allow us
to move on quicker from the postseason on Knicks fans
not the case. They have continued to celebrate, but it's
(03:33):
also the opportunity. It's your last chance to really celebrate
that championship. And I think that the NBA did this
at the expense of the Knicks. I mentioned Josh Hart,
he wrote, can't lie. I'm extremely shocked. This is the
slate and I am shocked as well. And I think
it's the NBA being so fearful of the National Football
(03:55):
League there are now they are now getting drunk on
the success of the Knicks that they ended up hurting
the Knicks, that they are obsessed with the number Monzie.
They wanted to get the biggest number that they could
get so they could say Opening Nights in the NBA
had thirty two million viewers on NBC watching the Knicks
(04:16):
unveil their banner with Lebron James playing his first game
against Philadelphia. In a way, I almost feel like it's
short changing Lebron in a little bit in that he
isn't the focus, or the seventy six ers aren't the
focus in their own game. But this is more of
a Knix conversation than anything else. It's the NBA trying
(04:36):
to what they think is maximizing their output or trying
to strive for that number trying to max out instead
of doing three reps of ten. It's max out day
for the NBA. They wanted to get the maximum amount
of viewers you could in that one window, all of
those eggs in that basket, and by doing so, they
completely rain on the parade of the New York Knicks
(04:58):
getting one last op coortunity to celebrate that magical championship.
And it's really too bad, it really is. You could
have put anything, You could have put Giannis there. It's
not going to overshadow Jiannis and the heat coming to town.
I think that's enough reason to watch. The Knicks are
enough of a reason to watch, Manzi. They are enough
of a reason to watch. But the NBA shows otherwise.
Speaker 5 (05:17):
That's what I was just about to say.
Speaker 4 (05:18):
I was like, this is major mismanagement because if you
were paying attention, the Knicks were loved by majority. The
Knicks were not a controversial winner. We've had that in
recent years, but the Knicks. I jumped on that bandwagon.
A lot of people did. Like you said, you didn't
need to do much. The Knicks would have been enough.
(05:39):
You could have had them play the Lakers in Luka
Dancic and that would not that would have brought in
so many eyeballs because people want to see what the
Lakers are gonna do now with thought Lebron James, and
not take away from what the Knicks were doing. It
just feels like if you would have put another team,
like you said, the Miami Heat a perfect one, it
does feel like we could have separate the two events
(06:01):
that would have been happening on Opening night at Madison
Square Garden, and now you can't separate it now. Lebron
James's debut with the Philadelphia seventy six ers, because of
how big he still is in this league, is definitely
going to bleed into the celebration that is for the Knicks,
and when we've had eight different champions in the Eastern Conference,
(06:23):
this might be the only chance they get to do this,
like a major mismanagement.
Speaker 5 (06:27):
Also, NFL is king there's nothing you can do about it.
Speaker 3 (06:30):
Well, the Christmas Day Slate reveals that the NBA says,
all right, we're going to try to challenge your Christmas
Day slate, and the NFL Christmas Slate is really good.
And for me, it's highlighted by the Seahawks and Rams
in a game that I mean last year it ended
up being the super Bowl of the season, but the
(06:51):
NBA tried to counter act what the NFL is doing
on Christmas Day. I don't have as much of a
problem of that, Manzi, because the NBA is trying to
take back Christmas Day, and I feel that the opening
night is more of the Knicks. And I think last
year the NBA had a pretty good Christmas Day if
(07:12):
I remember, and I can't remember exactly what transpired, so
maybe that tells me something. But yeah, it was a
bigger deal than what it was. But the NBA is
going to have to go up against Packers at Bears,
Bills at Broncos in the aforementioned Rams Seahawks matchup. This
is what they've done for Christmas Day. Spurs at the Knicks,
(07:33):
NBA Finals rematch, Heat at the Celtics, Giannis going to Boston,
seventy six Ers at the Lakers lebron returns to LA.
I'm not mad at that game at all.
Speaker 5 (07:43):
I think that's a good spot for it.
Speaker 3 (07:44):
That's that's fine. It's it is the only trip obviously
that the Sixers will make to LA. That will be
a must have ticket in l A thunder at Timberwolves,
Nuggets at Warriors. Those are all fine matchups. The seventy
six Ers and Lakers, one I think is the is
the really go to. But that also tells you something
that even on a Christmas Day, Manzi the Knicks, who
(08:05):
will play usually in that early in that first game,
that even as NBA champions, I still don't think that
they are the marquee game on the schedule. So the
marquee for the NBA tells you that it is Lebron
James at a seventy six Ers uniform. And if the
Knicks aren't your main draw this year, that's what makes
it worse that you couldn't even allow them to have
their day that you had to bring in your big draw, Lebron,
(08:26):
and bring them in, have Lebron open the next night
right against any other team in the NBA except the
New York Knicks. Like that's all that you had to do, NBA,
But it's a disrespect in New York. Lebron is going
to overtake the moments, and it may be there for
Knicks fans that night, but the buy and large the
topic of conversation will be the Philadelphia seventy six Ers.
Speaker 4 (08:45):
And with that logic, again, this is mismanagement at the top, because,
like you said, you could have just done this day
two and then you would have had two really good
days of numbers. Because I have a hard time believing
that on opening night everybody was not going to and
I mean everybody who's already into the NBA right was
not going to tune into the Knicks because I feel
like the Knicks people were happy that majority of the
(09:07):
country was not hating on the Knicks when they won,
so they were going to tune in.
Speaker 5 (09:11):
The Knicks, like you said, were enough of a draw.
Speaker 4 (09:13):
You could have had back to back nights that made
people tune in, but instead you put.
Speaker 5 (09:17):
As we set up start show, you put literally every
single egg in this one basket on the first night.
Slap in the face, disrespectful and.
Speaker 4 (09:26):
Mismanagement because you could you could have spread the eggs
out and made it benefit the league. This doesn't make
sense in so many different ways. I understand what Josh
Hard is feeling.
Speaker 3 (09:35):
I hate the disrespect to the next. Jason Stewart is
our executive producer. Jason, what's going on?
Speaker 6 (09:40):
I think what you just said, I didn't even think
of this point but let's drove down on this. So
it's the NBA telling us, the media and the world
that the Lebron James is the marketing name and not
the Knicks, and it kind of speaks to maybe we're
overthinking the Knicks interest level. I think it was a
(10:00):
big deal because Knicks fans are so obnoxious. I think
the Knicks have maybe the largest fan base, loudest fan base,
and they were starving. But maybe we overvalued what the
Knicks winning the NBA championship meant to the MBA. Maybe
that's what we were overvalue. And I do think that
this definitely cuts under their celebration. But I think the
(10:21):
point you just made is important. This is the NBA saying, yeah,
Jalen Brunson, Josh Hart, the Q rating isn't that high.
Speaker 3 (10:29):
Yeah, And I think that's what it is. This is
for the sake of a number. This is a sake
for how many millions of viewers they will get and
what that rating is. That's what this is about. I
would tune in to watch the Knicks raise that man
aah right, Like that's they didn't win it at home,
they didn't win it in New York, so that this
(10:49):
is that carryover and that's what I want to see, Like,
I want to see that at Madison Square Garden. I
don't want it to be hijacked by Lebron James of
the Philadelphia seventy six is. By the way, Hey, it's
not even Lebron's fault. We blame Lebron for a lot
of stuff. This is totally the NBA trying to figure
out it's overshadowing Spurs Thunder, which is the nightcap of
(11:10):
that opening night game as well, which is a great
rematch of the Western Conference Final and probably the best
rivalry that we've got maybe right now in the NBA.
But there's it's not even Lebron's fault for that matter,
it's the NBA trying to get greedy, trying to It's
like they're they're drunk off that high of the Knicks
getting the numbers that they did. They loved hearing us
(11:32):
report what Game one got, what Game two? The highest
rated series since nineteen ninety eight. They loved all of
that stuff and they couldn't get They can't get enough
of it. So how do you do it. Let's throw
Lebron James and his new team into the mix. When
it really should have been let's just honor the New
York Knicks, give them their night, their one last night,
and then we'll let the Lebron train take over some
(11:54):
other time.
Speaker 4 (11:55):
I don't know if I agree with you, Jason, I
understand what you're pointing out. I I honestly don't think
the number would have been that much lower without Lebron James.
I agree that this is the league trying to get
the highest possible number for this game. That's clearly what
they care about. But I really do think that most
(12:16):
people embraced the Knicks. It wasn't like when we saw
the Thunder win Man. The Thunder were not embraced in
any way, shape or form, and so I feel like
the shift was so big that most people were really
okay with the Knicks winning. And it was maybe because
they hated the Thunder so much. That is just anyone
but the Thunder, anyone but the Thunder. So I feel
(12:36):
like that number without Lebron James would still be a
really good number.
Speaker 5 (12:42):
This is going to be a bigger number, of course
it is, but not for the right reasons, and that's
what sucks about it.
Speaker 3 (12:47):
There was a Christmas Day game in two thousand and
four between the Lakers and the Heat that had about
thirteen million viewers to it. That's pretty big for a
regular season game that was twenty two years ago, when
our viewing habits were different. I think that's what the
NBA wants to do, is that's what they want us
saying the next day. Is they want us to say
(13:08):
fifteen million people watch the seventy six ers and Nicks
on Opening night. What it should be is eight million
people watch the next raise their banner on Opening night,
like that's that's what it is. I understand coming out
with a bang. There were other intriguing matchups. You could
You could have done a finals rematch if you wanted to.
There's different ways to do it. But I do think
(13:32):
the number is going to be less if the Knicks
would have played one of those other opponents. But to me,
it's not about the number. It's about the moment. It's
about what the Knicks we're going to be able to do.
And if Josh Hart is taken aback by it, sure,
Josh Hart thought to himself, well, any other team but
the seventy six Ers will probably be our opponent. And
(13:53):
that wasn't the case. I don't know if it's if
you got fifteen million to watch this game, if it
would have been ten, or if it would have been
five without Lebron. But what the Christmas Day slate tells
me is, I know the Knicks have their traditional spot,
just like the Lakers have their traditional spot in the
Christmas Day lineup. But there's no doubt that Sixers at
Lakers is way more compelling than Spurs at Knicks, which
(14:15):
is a finals rematch. So that tells me that the
NBA recognizes that Lebron in the new uniform is the
biggest cash cow, and we're going to try to cash
in those chips night one at the expense of the
New York Knicks. And that's just too bad.
Speaker 5 (14:27):
Yeah, I'm telling you.
Speaker 4 (14:28):
If I'm New York, I'm like, we're not doing the
chip that, We're not raising the banner today.
Speaker 5 (14:32):
Why would we do this today?
Speaker 4 (14:33):
This makes no sense for us and our fans. If
I'm supposed to care about our fans, as Jason pointed out,
so obnoxious, so loud, we heard about them for weeks
during the NBA Finals. If I'm the Knicks, I'm like,
this is about the fans, we're not doing this today.
Speaker 3 (14:48):
Knicks fans join us Saturday night when the Washington Wizards
come to Madison Square Garden where it's banter and ring night,
that's at Zora Banner and get their championship rings in
front of the home fans here at MSG.
Speaker 5 (15:02):
And all the fans could get wild, have the best time.
They're not worried about having to beat a team. They
don't have to worry about Lebron. They can just go
and beat.
Speaker 4 (15:10):
Themselves and probably win the game. Unless everyone's getting too drunk.
Speaker 3 (15:14):
They should Unveilabanna. That just says psych psych right, see
you tomorrow Joint Saturday. Ben Stiller would have it on
his camera phone. He would be filming it. But this
is either it just is I'm sticking up for the Knicks. Yeah,
like I am. And I think that the Knicks realize
that Lebron is the big ticket here the NBA. The
(15:36):
NBA is trying to tackle the NFL in the best
ways that they feel possible. It's an impossible task. It's
not going to be able to be done. I think
the NFL is gonna beat the NBA pretty well on
Christmas Day. Sands that seventy six Ers Lakers game. But
when you have Packers Bears and you have Rams Seahawks
(15:57):
sandwiched around Bill's Broncos, that's the NFL playing, you know,
meaning business, and the NBA can only do so much,
and so they decided, well, let's try to also then
dominate Opening Night. And it's too bad because it's it
comes at the expense of the Knickerbockers. I can't believe
I'm feeling bad for New York knick fans. But that's
where we are here on Stu Gotson Company Life. Maybe
(16:19):
Taylor Vipolis is in Stuc Gotts are rubbing off on me.
She's Manci Bologhos hit her up at Monzi Bolangios. You
can find me at Dan Byer on Fox.
Speaker 2 (16:27):
Be sure to catch live editions of Stu Gotson Company
Live weekdays at three pm Eastern twelve pm Pacific on
Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 3 (16:39):
Cheating has gone to a whole nother level. I don't
even want to call it cheating. Monte Bolangio says, We're
about to dive into the story that has escaped from
the world of golf and has hit the mainstream.
Speaker 4 (16:50):
Yeah, this guy might actually need Express Pros. If you
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Speaker 3 (17:10):
This is a story that not everybody can relate to
on the surface, but once you get into the the good,
the guts of it, everybody can relate to because it's
not just cheating. And the story stems from a member
member golf tournament taking place in Missouri, and this is
(17:32):
at wing Haven Country Club where Zach Holland has been
in the news for the last week, involved in one
of the biggest cheating scandals that golf has ever seen.
And we're not why does that always happen? Why does
that always?
Speaker 2 (17:49):
I keep thinking the bed is done on putting the
a surf back up, which is how we run our automation.
Speaker 3 (17:54):
In the first hour is like three five minutes long. Yeah,
it's a it's a long song. At wing Haven Country
Club in Missouri, Zach Holland was playing in a member
member golf tournament. I understand people don't necessarily relate to
everybody or to golf tournaments and country clubs and how
they work. But you team up with another member, try
(18:18):
to shoot the lowest score you can. Prizes are abound,
everybody has fun until you cheat. And within the golf community, Manzi,
there is this this portion of the golf world that
loves to point out scores that are just impossible. Like
if the four of us are playing me, you, Jason,
(18:38):
and Chris Purfat and heck, guys that can come along
as well, we can make it a five sum. If
we're playing around a golf and we're trying to play
our best ball, we're going to try to shoot significantly
under par, like you really should birdy every single hole.
If everybody is that's what you would think. Some guys
are that would be eighteen under par. Some people are like, yeah,
we shot twenty five under. You're like, there's no way
(19:00):
that happened. There's just no possible way. There's no way
that you guys shot forty eight on this course. That
just there's no way. And within the golf communities you're
having this these people being ridiculed amongst their peers for
lying about their scores because nobody else was coming close
to those scores. It was very insular. If you will,
(19:22):
This story featuring Zach Collind and his member member guest
tournament or member member tournament has I think broken through
the world of golf so much so that you had
an opinion about it. Many others have had opinion about it,
and it's made it to the mainstream. This is what happened.
The first story is this Zach Collind was playing in
a group of three players playing with another member. Took
(19:44):
a phone call at the third hole, said guys, I'm
going to go tee off on four. I got to
take this phone call and meet you up at the green.
Ended up taking the phone call, and I think it
was maybe for the health of a family member or something,
is what his story said. When he met up with
his players on the fourth at the fourth hole, they
all hit their shots and they asked him where his one.
He says, I didn't see it. He goes, I thinned it.
(20:05):
I didn't see it. Lo and behold they go on
the green and there's a ball mark on the green
and the ball is in the hole. Oh my goodness.
Zach Holland a two handicap, which is a very very
good player. He played collegiately. The lower the handicap number,
the better you are. A two handicap just ace the
par three fourth hole at wing Haven Country Club. That
(20:27):
is what he made you believe. As it turns out,
this tournament had a prize pot for a hole in one,
so there's money involved in this. There's also a competition.
If you're playing in a member member a tournament, you're
playing against other members. Getting a hole in one on
a par three you a lot really help your score.
But more importantly, it will really help you win that
(20:50):
prize spot because guess what you can cash in the
only problem is is the fourth hole at cameras. So
while Zach collind didn't see where his ball went, the
cameras did, and what the camera saw was Zach Holland,
hours before the tournament starts, knowing that his group was
going out first, that no other group would be ahead
(21:10):
of him, drove up to the fourth green, made a
ball mark in the green, and placed his golf ball
in the hole. So the ball was sitting in the
fourth hole for an hour or two before the tournament
started because he placed it there knowing full well that
this was going to be his plan. He then had
a phone call arranged to have somebody call him. He
(21:32):
took the phone call, then made up the story. The
three other members of his group were none the wiser.
They all celebrated thought he had a hole in one,
but the video showed otherwise. Zach Holland busted for cheating.
I would say, Monci, it's much more than cheating. But
before we get your thoughts, I want to hear from
(21:53):
Zach Holland, Okay, because he did speak with ESPN Radio
in Saint Louis after being busted for what I feel
is much more than cheating. Zach, what was what was
the motivation? I?
Speaker 7 (22:05):
Yeah, I don't really know. I've I've talked to the
people and there really is no motivation and just complete
stupidity and giving. We were giving two shots back to
the field, and that's not an excuse.
Speaker 3 (22:20):
There's no excuse.
Speaker 7 (22:21):
For for what happened. But to answer your question, you know,
we we were giving two shots back to the field,
and I went about it just completely and utterly.
Speaker 3 (22:31):
They go out and round and so what he's saying
with that is that they were pretty good, because they
were pretty good players, that there were worse golfers behind
them that were going to be getting more strokes and
it was going to be easier for those other groups.
So he wasn't doing it trying to win. That was.
That was Zach Collins's explanation.
Speaker 5 (22:48):
That wasn't an explanation. No, no, no, no no.
Speaker 4 (22:50):
You went out to the golf course ahead of time
and you placed your ball in a spot to get
a hole in one.
Speaker 5 (22:57):
This was calculated. You thought about this, there were things
you had to do. There's no that was. That was
not an explanation. He did not know what to say.
Speaker 4 (23:06):
Also, how stupid do you have to be to not
know that there's cameras everywhere? Like when I went, that's
how he got caught. I thought it was going to
be I thought he came clean because he felt bad.
There were cameras. Duh, are you stupid? Like I cannot
believe that that is how he got caught. But this
is so calculated. And also another side of the stupid.
(23:28):
A hole in one is so rare you don't hear
about it. So if you get a hole in one,
it brings a lot of attention to it. People are
gonna want to see it over and over again. I
want to see it on my timeline over and over
because you don't see it. So to think that he
was just gonna be able to say like, oh, yeah,
I got a hole in one. You get you, you
get some money, but no one's gonna like talk about
(23:50):
it or want to see it or how did it go?
Speaker 5 (23:52):
How did it look? How was that fort shot?
Speaker 8 (23:54):
Idiot?
Speaker 3 (23:55):
MANSI The worst thing in golf for anybody to have
is a hole in one when you're playing by yourself,
because no one will believe you. Jason Stewart, Am I
right with that? Like you need to have someone there
with you playing to corroborate yes, because otherwise no one
will believe you.
Speaker 5 (24:13):
Sure, yeah, it makes perfect sense.
Speaker 3 (24:14):
So none of these three guys saw it right right,
So right, So like he's going to carry on on
that lie. This would be the this would be the
worst thing that would happen. His explanation there says a
lot because he's trying to legitimize or he's trying to
say like we weren't going to gain much on the field.
It's not about the field, it's about the prize pod.
(24:37):
And that's why I don't think he was cheating I
think it's theft. I think he was stealing from the
country club, from the members, whatever the prize pot. However
the prize pot was built, he wanted to do it
for the money. And it's not a golf cheating story.
A golf cheating story is me marking my ball two
inches ahead of where it actually landed. When I replaced
my ballmarker me cheating, and golf is swinging, missing the
(25:01):
ball completely and telling my playing partner from thirty yards
away that it was a practice swing. Me cheating is
if the ball is on the out of bounds line
and me actually hitting it instead of calling it out
of bounds and taking the aforemen or the penalty that
is needed, and instead just saying that that is my
second shot. That is cheating. This is theft. This isn't
(25:22):
altering your score playing around within the rules of golf.
This is trying to take money from something that is
not yours and from a group that is not yours.
What about if somebody else hit a hole in one,
Now you're splitting a prize pot earlier. It's out of
their pocket, it's out of anybody's pocket. It's out of
the pocket of the person actually does hit the hole
in one and ends up getting the prize pot. He
is getting off easy. Now. The country club ended up
(25:43):
kicking him out, but it has become a story that
for some reason, and I think it's because of the
theft angle and maybe the depth and maybe the cameras
that I'm thank goodness it broke out of the golf
world because it's absolutely ridiculous to me. Jason Stewart, First of.
Speaker 6 (25:59):
All, I want to say on the air that this,
this story should be called a hole in one. And
Dan Byers, Dan is very familiar with my favorite cheating
story in sports of all time. You're very familiar with this, Yes, Marathon,
Oh yes she took a taxi cab to the finish line. Yes,
(26:22):
But but like I think this is equal in stupidity.
I know you're you're focused on the theft and not
the cheating, but like how these people thought or think
they can get away with this, And I mean if
he nailed anything, he said that, there's no motivation. This
is just stupidity. He's talking about getting caught for it.
Like he he now could say it was stupid because
(26:45):
he got caught, but he went through a lot to
do this which he thought. He probably thought he was
ahead of any kind of getting caught or anything like that.
I mean, if I'm a member of the four some
er of the threesome or what have you, and somebody
gets a hole in one that I didn't witness, the
t shot of that should have like shot up red
(27:05):
flags as opposed to a celebration thing. You think those
guys are a little weary of this, well, I would
think so. And I think that they're superintendent. I think
they may have contacted not the superintendent of the golf,
the head pro and brought it to his attention. But
I think that it's it's being categorized as as just
(27:29):
a cheating thing of something that happens within golf. And
this doesn't happen within golf. And so you're talking about
the lengths that he goes to. This is the length
that you go to to steal something from someone, exactly right, So,
like you have to plan it out, like you don't.
Speaker 3 (27:43):
You don't plan that you're gonna take an a legal
drop on the sixth hole. You know, you don't think
of it like when I don't clear the water, I'm
gonna pretend that I didn't I'm going to take a
drop and then like there's none of that, like there's
you know, that's not how you cheat in golf, it
just isn't. But this is how you would steal something
from someone, and that's what he's doing. And even it's
(28:05):
so insulting to hear him say, like, I mean, we
were giving shots back to the field, not that it matters.
It's not about that. It's not about winning the tournament.
It's not about which it would have gone a bit
of a longer way of putting a one down on
your scorecard. But that's neither here nor there. It's he's
trying to justify it in a way that's somewhere in
his mind he thinks of what he did was cheating
(28:26):
the actual tournament, and it's not. It's cheating to get
the money that you would get from the hole in one.
Speaker 4 (28:34):
His response also annoys me, irks me, because he makes
it seem like it's.
Speaker 5 (28:38):
Not a big deal. As you're saying.
Speaker 4 (28:39):
His response is very like, oh, it was just stupidity,
Like in reality, there's nothing he can say to make
it better, But there are things that he could have
said and not sound like it's is a huge deal, dude,
like a huge deal.
Speaker 5 (28:55):
And you're making it seem like it's not.
Speaker 4 (28:56):
That adds to my annoyance on the whole thing, and
not that he could have said things to make it
go away, but to go about it as you just
sist like it's not a big deal, like they didn't
gain anything.
Speaker 5 (29:09):
It's like, no, your group didn't gain anything.
Speaker 4 (29:10):
We're talking about you specifically what you did, like, don't
even include the.
Speaker 5 (29:15):
Others the field. No, this isn't about that. It's about you.
Speaker 4 (29:18):
You calculated this and then you hit a whole hold
on one and you acted casually like you didn't know.
Speaker 3 (29:22):
Oh my goodness, I hit it thin. I hit it thin,
and I didn't see where it went.
Speaker 5 (29:28):
First of all, what does that mean?
Speaker 3 (29:30):
So it usually means that you hit it on the
bottom of the club and instead of like smack dab
in the sweet spot, it would be like down here,
so you'd hit it thin. If you hit it like
kind of on the top, you probably hit it fat
because he got a lot of the ground.
Speaker 5 (29:43):
I get that. I died that.
Speaker 3 (29:44):
She's she's learning folk, she's doing She's.
Speaker 5 (29:47):
I hit it thin a lot at a top golf
the other day.
Speaker 3 (29:50):
The other. The other thing about like this scenario as
it sets up, if Jason and I are playing and
we're teeing off on a par four and we're hitting
a drive into the sun, we say where to go,
I don't know, I lost it. And it's because you're
hitting it two hundred and thirty or two hundred and
fifty yards, maybe some a little some, maybe a little more.
(30:14):
You very rarely lose your ball on a par three.
That's the other part where it just like his excuse
for it doesn't make a lot of sense because the
par three and I'm not sure how far the I
probably look it up quick on how far the par
three is. But unless it's two hundred and thirty yards,
which still you kind of have an eye on it,
(30:34):
and you're not hitting driver at that point. If you're
hitting an iron, the ball is probably going straight unless
you blocked it right. You're not hitting a big slice
and not seeing it. If you're hitting it thin, if anything,
it maybe went long on the direction you could say,
you know, is the direction of the pin. But to
lose sight of the ball and a par three, this
is kind of a bad excuse. You could do it
on a par four and a dog leg. I don't know,
(30:55):
I don't know if it made it past that tree
or not. But even the excuse on him losing it
and the caliber player that he is, he's not hitting
the type of shot where you would be like, I
lost it and then oh my goodness, it's in the hole,
Like it's lost it. Oh guess what. It's in the bush,
you know, on the way to the fifty. Like that's
the sort of losing it you have. So it didn't
(31:16):
even make sense when he was explaining it. It's also
why I think it fell apart pretty quickly. They're like, okay,
well none of you guys saw it. Let's go just
check the cameras just to make sure, and then they're
rewinding it and seeing it two hours later, his car
maybe pulling up on the road, him getting out. He
thought about it so much that he made a ball mark.
Speaker 6 (31:35):
Yeah, oh yeah, he put evidence.
Speaker 3 (31:38):
It's like that.
Speaker 6 (31:38):
It's like when the when the cop shoots the wrong
guy and then like like shoots into the wall to
create a bullet hole or something. It was he was
he thought that far ahead to cover it.
Speaker 3 (31:48):
Up, to make sure that the evidence would be there,
and that's why it just doesn't. It's so much bigger,
and it falls. I think it's falling under a golf
cheating sort of story and the links to it. But
to me, it's theft. I'd follow misdemeanor, theft charge attempted
theft if you're wing having country club. By the way,
(32:09):
there's no other country club that will now take this guy.
Speaker 5 (32:11):
Right, you just ruined so much good. What was the money?
Do you know the pod?
Speaker 2 (32:16):
No?
Speaker 3 (32:16):
I don't want. Was it worth it?
Speaker 5 (32:18):
It wasn't worth it. No matter what you're about to
tell me, career done. You're you.
Speaker 4 (32:23):
You're gonna be the laughing stock for anybody who plays golf.
Speaker 5 (32:27):
You can never go back to a golf course.
Speaker 6 (32:29):
Unless the damage for damage.
Speaker 5 (32:32):
He can never say his name at a golf course.
Speaker 4 (32:33):
He would have to go somewhere and have a different
name and have a disguise in order for him to
be able to do this. Because you've ruined everything. And
you said that he was pretty good. That's even worse.
Speaker 3 (32:42):
Handy like, what are we doing? Yeah, I don't buy
any of this. And I looked up the scorecard from
the tips. It's two hundred and three yards. I would
probably play it from what is the blue teas here
at one hundred and sixty eight yards? Now, I'm like
a sixteen handicap, so I'm not that great. I'm not
a two handicap. He may have been playing from from
the tips, but it wasn't like it was two hundred
(33:03):
and forty yards. You still see the ball at you know,
two hundred By the way, if it's in the morning,
which they because they went off first. Easier to see
the ball in the morning unless the hole is like
right into the rising sun at some point. So even
like that portion of it, there are times where you're
just like, dude, I lost it in the sky. I
don't know how it is. But none of the lies.
(33:26):
That's why the story crumbled apart. I feel bad for
his family. He asked that people he understands, he says,
of taking the heat for it, which I really don't
think that he does. But he asked for people to
lay off. Is his wife and kids, and it sucks
that they have to hear from that, but he's the
one that put them in this situation.
Speaker 4 (33:44):
Yeah, it's like, again, are you new to this world,
to this live to the cameras, to how social media
is to you? Thinking that you were just going to
do this, get caught and nobody would talk about it.
Speaker 3 (33:52):
They should again, it should be the golf's theft scandal,
not a cheating scandal that Unuzak collind Gotta find a
place to play.
Speaker 2 (34:00):
Be sure to catch live editions of Stu Gotson Company
Live weekdays at three pm Eastern twelve pm Pacific.
Speaker 3 (34:09):
Stu Gotson Company Live here on Fox Sports Radio. She's
Monty Belango. So I'm Dan Byer. We are joined by
one of the greats of the NFL. Or Is your boyfriend?
Sean said? What when you told them?
Speaker 6 (34:20):
Now?
Speaker 5 (34:20):
We were talking at Lance Briggs. He's like, oh, he
was the man for several seasons.
Speaker 3 (34:24):
Yes, two time first team All Pro, perennial Pro bowler,
one of the one hundred greatest Chicago Bears, linebacker Lance
Briggs joins the program today. Lance, how are you? Thanks
so much for coming on.
Speaker 8 (34:37):
I appreciate you. Thanks for having me on. Feeling good,
feeling good, staying busy.
Speaker 3 (34:42):
We're gonna we're gonna be asking you know all things NFL.
A lot happening, a lot happening in your former division,
the NFC North, but you are teaming up with USAA.
What it's what brings you on the program today? How
exactly are you teaming up with USAA.
Speaker 8 (34:56):
Well, let's solute the service. We have a Bear boot
camp that was held in the Walter Peyton Center and
it was a great opportunity to mix a mingle with
with our military as they were participating in some football
related combine drills. You know. So I got to see
(35:18):
some of the some some good, some good arms, some
decent arms, some not so good arms. You know. We
saw some decent speed, some good speed, some and some
slow slow.
Speaker 3 (35:32):
Well, it's great. It's it's great that you're you're teaming
up with them, and we we appreciate the chance to
uh to talk to you here on Fox Sports Radio.
So I know that I got a lot of Bear stuff.
But Monci wants to deal with the news of the
day because it deals with the Bears rival.
Speaker 5 (35:46):
It sure does.
Speaker 4 (35:47):
We have to discuss Minnesota finally announcing that their starting
quarterback is going to be Kyler Murray not JJ McCarthy.
Are you surprised at the news or were you expecting this?
Speaker 8 (35:59):
No, I'm I'm not surprised because at this point now
he was supposed to be running away with the with
the starting job. I think Minnesota kind of dropped the
ball when they had a playoff well super Bowl convinding quarterback.
(36:19):
You know, that was right there in their lap, and
they chose potential over what over the reality of what
they had. And now you know they're they're they're scrambling
or they were scrambling to find someone and to compete
with JJ to push him, and now it looks like
they pushed him a little too far.
Speaker 3 (36:39):
All Pro linebacker Lance Briggs joining us. Not only is
he teaming up with US a A also you can
see him on HG O doing some Bears coverage there.
We're going to get to the Bears in a second.
But I want to stay in the NFC North because
it is a theme with Ben Johnson. He is not
shied away from it by any means. And it's the
rivalry with the Green Bay Packers. How much did you
(37:00):
hate the Green Bay Packers when you were in your
playing days in Chicago.
Speaker 8 (37:04):
I mean I have a growing of always growing the
distaste for them. You know, I just taste that team
from up north.
Speaker 3 (37:15):
Is there is there is there more to it with
Ben Johnson did other ten years in Chicago, maybe not
make this rivalry as important because I remember, listen, I
grew up in north central Wisconsin. I had a front
row seat to the Charles Martin, Jim McMahon incident, all
of that the late eighties. I understand what's going on.
(37:37):
But I feel that this rivalry ebbed and flowed, and
I feel that it kind of hit a high point
when you were in your playing days, and it's hitting
a really high point right now with Ben Johnson. Why
is that? Why do you think that Ben Johnson has
made this such a focal point during his short tenure
so far with the Bears.
Speaker 8 (37:55):
Well, Roberarwick is better when both teams are competitive, you know,
And you know, for a short period while I was
a Bear, you know, we were getting wins against them,
and we were chipping away a little bit. But you
know that also got away from us as well. So
it's hard to maintain a rivalry when it's so one sided.
(38:18):
So right now you have you have a very good,
very good Bears team. You have a very good practice team.
Both teams are picked to be you know, on the
in the in the in the in the top ten.
I'd say, you know, probably in as far as power
rankings go. That creates a lot more emotional tie, you know,
(38:39):
to the rivalry because both teams have an equal chance
of coming out on top.
Speaker 4 (38:45):
You know, everyone in the NFC North, I think, thinks
they can win the division this year. Bears won it
last year. Some people think there's going to be a
regression maybe this coming season. How do you see Caleb
Williams and Chicago tackling more pressure on this new season.
Speaker 8 (39:01):
Well, the the Bears have done what they haven't done
in a long time. You know, They've really invested in
the old line, you know, the people that are up
front now. Unfortunately we won't see Ozzy Trapilo for for
you know, some time. But with that being said, they've
put pieces in play, you know, to really make that
(39:24):
move to be dangerous. You know, I think when you
look at the Bears, you're like, man, there they're they
look very dangerous and there are things that we have
to do and if we don't, we're gonna find ourselves
in the danger zone. So it's it's a fun place.
It's a fun time to be a Bear fan because
the expectations are really high. You know, we have a
(39:45):
coach that really fits this this team and this city.
That's something that we also you know, haven't had, you
know since Rylory Lovey Smith.
Speaker 3 (39:57):
Former Bears All Pro linebacker Lance Briggs joining up here
on behalf of U s a A. On Stut gottson
Company Live on Fox Sports Radio. She's Monty Blagos. I'm
Dan Beyer. One of the changes is there is no
DJ Moore anymore in Chicago, So now it's up to
Romadunje and I know Luther Burden the thirds a little
bit dinged up, But what is the expectation specifically for
(40:18):
those two guys to now replace DJ Moore who's in Buffalo.
Speaker 8 (40:23):
Well, time to carry the torch. You know, DJ was
was wonderful. I lose one of my favorite players, very tough,
fought through injury, you know, was very clutch, and a
lot of situations. But it's a great opportunity for for
Rome and for Luthor, for this group to uh to
(40:43):
show what they can do. I think that we've seen
enough from them to know, Okay, the torch can be
I mean, the torch can be path We've we've seen
big flashes from Luther. Luther's playmaking ability, so now just
getting the ball into his heyst allowing him to go
to work. Is I think if you look around the
(41:05):
Bears offense, you can talk about the offense, the receivers,
you can talk about the tight ends, you can talk
about the running backs, you can talk about the quarterback,
you can talk about the offensive lines. There isn't a
position on the offense that you know that doesn't demand
some sort of conversation when it comes to why this
offense or why this offense is exciting or or or
(41:29):
the excitement that they that that's been built for them
for this year.
Speaker 4 (41:33):
Lance, one more question from us. Aaron Donald unretiring.
Speaker 5 (41:38):
Are you for it? Are you against it? How do
you feel about it?
Speaker 8 (41:42):
I support? I mean, shoot, if the guy wants to play,
he can play. He's kept his his body in hip
top shape, so you know, it's it's one of those
deals I can tell you who really like the la Ram,
really want him to come out of retirement, you know,
And it's been clear. You know, obviously they brought Miles
Garrett over there, but and with both of them, I mean,
(42:06):
just having Miles over there, you know, create some issues
for everybody in that division. You put Aaron in there
with Miles look out like, you know, the Bears might
have the danger zone on the office side, but the
Rams definitely have it on the deep subside. With an
Aaron Donald.
Speaker 3 (42:24):
Well, we may be headed to another Bears Rams rematch
at some point in the NFL playoffs, and if that happens,
we know they gut to reach out to Lance Briggs. Lance,
thanks so much for the time. Great work with the USA,
and we'll talk to you later on on the season.
Thanks so much.
Speaker 8 (42:37):
All right, you got it.
Speaker 3 (42:38):
Take Lance Briggs joining us here on Stu gottson Company
Live on Fox Sports Radio. She's Monty Belanos. I'm Dan Byer.
Great conversation with the first team All pro.
Speaker 4 (42:47):
Absolutely, he definitely sounds like he's pro Aaron Donald, which
is nice to hear on a player who retired also,
you know, late in his career in a tough position,
and that he was like, I'm all for it, all right,
if that's how he and Aaron Donald's by like I
can do it.
Speaker 3 (43:02):
Well, Aaron Donald is coming back. We say goodbye to
a good friend. She's Monty. I'm Dan Infrastue. Next on
Fox Sports Radio,
Host
Doug Gottlieb
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