March 27, 2025 • 34 mins
Big Ben talks about a number of comments made by LeBron James during his sit-down interview with Pat McAfee, why the Vikings didn't rule out a pursuit of Aaron Rodgers, Maller to the Third Degree, another edition of #AskBen, and more!
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
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(00:20):
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Speaker 2 (00:24):
This is the best of the Ben Mahler Show on
Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
The talk of the town, well kind of the talk
of the town. Welcome in the begating of another night
of the Benmahler Show. We are in the air Everywhere
Cohorts as we embark on a dreamy voyage coast to coast,
(01:05):
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there and unmatched selection, fast, free shipping, free road hazard protection,
(01:29):
over ten thousand recommended installers. Our guy Van, the One
Legged Bama Man, loves that number. Ten thousand. Tire rack
dot Com the way tire buying showb and so we
were back at it based on the listener feedback that
we get. And not that I write back to any
(01:51):
of you losers, but you just send me email during
the day and they give me feedback, and I try
to say, off the social media, that's the devil's playground.
But I did get a lot of a commentary about
something that happened in Indianapolis, and it wasn't about what
happened at night. I guess it was an all day affair.
(02:11):
It was a Lebron Day in the Hoosier State. I
don't know if the governor declared it Lebron Day, but
apparently it was. I didn't get that memo. So anyway,
Lebron James capping off his day with a buzzer beater,
a Obama like bailout of the Lakers, a ten point
(02:35):
fourth cord of Luca had missed what was supposed to
be the game winning shot. He had thirty four points
of Lakers barely got by the Indiana Pacers by a whisker.
Not impressed. That is a bad win for the Lakers,
who are clearly in trouble. The real ones know that
the Lakers are not going anywhere. But that was the undercart, right,
So that was the undercart and everyone was he happened
(02:59):
about the underc not the main event. So what was it?
I'll tell you. So Lebron James did an interview. Wow,
who knew? So Lebron went in studio with Pat McAfee
and he hammed it up on the YouTube Influencers show
(03:19):
with his pals. Oh, I was so excited. You see
any of this? No, well probably not, probably missed it.
So some of the talking points here and I could
do the whole thing, but I'll give you some of
them that you were like, did you see what Lebron did?
I believe Lebron did that. Lebron ripped the rotund Brian
(03:39):
Windhorse saying the NBA reporter, well, brother, let me tell you.
Let's hear Lebron himself. Here's Lebron commenting on Windy, a
longtime NBA reporter who went to the same high school
as Lebron in Ohio.
Speaker 3 (03:54):
I see a lot of too, Like I've seen Brian
Wainhurst one of these shows not too long ago.
Speaker 4 (03:58):
Like you played you guys played together.
Speaker 3 (04:03):
Guy was like you know, says he's like my best friend,
and these guys are just just weird.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
Just weird, all right, So someone say Lebron's weird?
Speaker 4 (04:11):
Here is Lebron?
Speaker 1 (04:12):
Also, he talked back and forth about Stephen A. Smith.
He compared Stephen A. Smith to well to Taylor Swift.
He went on on that rant, said that he's on
a Taylor Swift like tour run. With this particular point,
he also explained why he stepped in to honor his
son and his teammate there when things got off the rails,
(04:37):
and uh, here's a little taste of what that was.
Speaker 5 (04:39):
Like.
Speaker 3 (04:40):
He's like on a Taylor Swift tour run right now,
we're watching. If there's one person Kelsey couldn't wait to
the video to drop so you can address it, is
your ass. Like seriously, he completely like missed the whole point.
Never would I ever not allow people to talk about
the sport, criticize players about what they do on the court.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
That is your job.
Speaker 3 (05:04):
But when you take it and you get personal with it,
it's my job to not only protect my damn household,
but protect the players.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
Yeah, well, do that in public. You could have done
that in private. But wait, there's more. Lebron also broke
down his relationship with Michael Jordan. Spoiler alert, he says
he has none, says that's not going to happen till
Jordan retires. Also double spoiler alert, they ain't hanging out
when when he retires Lebron retires either. But wait, there's more.
(05:34):
Lebron also suggesting the twenty oh three lottery, that the
draft lottery that saw the Hometown Cadavers win the Lebron sweepstakes,
that that was a rigged deal. That he implied that
that was rig So let us discuss the question what
(05:55):
vibe did you get from the very lengthy n on
James fireside chat with Pat McAfee. So I've got Egyptian
roller coaster and Mick millions, and we will combine all
of these things together and we are going to make
a mirror. Because there's one thing Lebron loves more than anything,
(06:20):
and it's glazing at himself in the mirror. He loves it,
all right. So A obviously there's a lot to chew
on here. And I did watch a big chunk of
this was I was on the treadmill and I wanted
to poke my eyes out till they started bleeding. But
the big takeaway is this was obviously an oasis or Lebron.
(06:42):
A couple of years ago the very popular term safe space.
This was a safe space for Lebron, a very secure environment.
And watching the YouTube clip and then hearing the audio
and putting everything together, it reminded me of ancient ship,
ancient Egypt, the ancient Egyptians. And you see some of
(07:04):
the drawings they left behind from ancient Egypt and the hieroglyphs,
and imagine, if you will, in the cartoon bubble above
your head, because this is what I was envisioning. Lebron
is a pharaoh and he's sitting on the Pat McAfee pedestal,
surrounded by McAfee fan bearers, and they use those Ostrich
(07:24):
feathers because that's what they did in Egypt. They use
those Ostrich feathers and they fan Lebron to comfort him.
And if that doesn't work for you, you could go more
like a more modern reference that Lebron was at a
seven to eleven and the only item that he was
getting from the McAfee crew was the slur Peit. It
was a slurp fest. Slurp, slurp, slurp, slurp even at
(07:48):
Rich Paul, the right hand man for Lebron, the deal
maker who was in the studio making sure that everything
went just as planned. Don't ask about that. Don't ask
about that. Be careful what you talk about all right now?
Page two. So, how did Lebron's general commentary about his
(08:08):
NBA journey striking? Because a lot of it was fluff
about Lebron the kid from Akron, blah blah blah blah.
So that part of it was like a roller coaster ride.
And I'm not talking about a real white knuckle roller coaster.
I'm talking about Dumbo, the flying elephant, and the Lebron
(08:29):
half man, half elephant. He's got the memory of an elephant.
He never seems to forget near photographic memory for those
who have taken shots at him. Now, the part that
I liked the most was he's still bitter. All these
years later, it's almost been a generation, and Lebron's still
bitter about people pointing out how absurd that WHU gayzy
(08:51):
decision thing was in Connecticut and how absurd that was,
and he claimed, well, that was the turning point, you know,
That's when I realized that I didn't like that media.
You know, and really Lebron's not all that special. He's
just your classic grudge holder. And this is a diamond dozen.
As I have said for many, many years, my position
has not changed. The most important element in sport is
(09:15):
the critic. Because every team that wins, every player, even
a guy like Lebron James who's been dominating the regular
season for years and then usually screws up in the playffs.
But Lebron still has that chip on his shoulder because
of the critic. Right, he retains all those negative comments
and he just stews in those juices. He just stews
(09:39):
in them. He's determined to prove the doubter is wrong,
and even when it's manufactured outrage, it doesn't seem to
matter all right now, last word here, So is there
a deeper meaning? Let's get to that. What I thought
was the most interesting part of this was Lebron James
implying that their draft lottery has regularly been rigged, and
(10:03):
it certainly was rigged when the Calves picked him back
in three. So yeah, yeah, there is a deeper me.
I think this is a big deal, and it's one
thing for Joe Blow talk show host to say it's
rig It's another thing for some dopey bot or algorithm
on social media to say it's rigged. But this is
(10:24):
the bloody face of the league who seemingly believes that
the NBA is a corrupt organization. How else could you
take that? It seems like that's gonna have legs. Keep
in mind that this storyline is as old as time.
Is old as time, and I remember the former commissioner,
(10:46):
the late Great Venerable David Stern, who dealt with this
because he was the commissioner when they first rigged the
lottery for Patrick Ewing in the nineteen eighties. And David
Stern dismissed it at the time. In fact, he said
he didn't really care as long as people were talking
about the NBA. Yeah, but now we're in the age
(11:09):
where you shouldn't talk about us because I don't like
what you're saying. But back then they're like, oh, how
long you're talking about it? Now? There obviously is no
hard evidence, meaning no one's come out. There's no whistleblower
that has said, yeah, the lottery's rigged and here's how
they did it. There's none of that. There's no hard evidence.
There's a lot of circumstantial clues. There's many convenient outcomes
(11:34):
that have driven the conversation, such as Lebron referenced when
he won, or his team the Cavaliers, his local team,
you know from Ackman over in Cleveland. One in three
hometown kids stays in Cleveland. The Chicago Bulls got their
local hero Derek Rose in eight and I believe they
(11:54):
had a less than two percent chance that year of
winning the draft lottery. And then the other thing is
when Lebron left for Miami, the conspiracy was, well, to
make things better for the Cavaliers and Dan Gilbert the older,
We'll make sure that you get some good players in there.
So the Cavaliers in the span of you know, how
(12:15):
long was Lebron in Miami four years or something like that,
the Cavaliers got three number one picks in that time
while Lebron was in South Florida twenty eleven, twenty thirteen
to twenty fourteen. And so that raised some mybro I said,
wait a minute, what's going on with that? Trying to
set the calves up? And like the league took care
(12:36):
of Cleveland because they lost Lebron, and that lost a
lot of capital. Nobody wanted to go to those games.
The draft lottery truthers will point to these patterns and
also the ultimate storyline. It's a TV show. You need
good stories for a TV show, even though it's supposed
to be real, and you know, you do the whole
(12:58):
fiction nonfiction thing's supposed to be real. However, you know
you gotta have storylines and if you need to nudge
those along a little bit, and it helps the revenue,
it helps the bottom line, you do it. And the
idea that it's impossible that there's too many people loved
to hear that a lot. But remember that that mcmillions.
(13:18):
I saw that documentary a few years ago. It's great.
I recommend it. It's still around. You can find it if
you know where to look. But that was the one
where they rigged the much beloved McDonald's monopoly game, and
so they if you can rig that, and they got
away with it for a very long time before before
somebody stepped in there. I guess I remember Uncle Jerry.
(13:40):
If you saw the documentary, Uncle Jerry, some mob guy
was setting it up. But since the weighted system started
in nineteen ninety, so that's that's almost thirty almost thirty
five years of the draft lottery, the team with the
top odds has one the number one overall pick about
(14:05):
twenty five percent of the time, about twenty five percent
of the time. And the nerds, the people that are
good at math, will say, well, that's that's right on
par with the probabilities. So that's there's nothing there's nothing
wrong with that. That's that's all good. But the theory
is that you don't manipulate it every year, because not
every year is they're a generational player. There just isn't right.
(14:28):
There's a lot of years there's like suck bag guys.
You know, some dude from France you've never heard of,
who will who will not sell a single ticket, So
you don't really rig it for that who cares? But
when it's rare and appropriate that you can help a
storyline along and listen, I buy it. I buy it.
And I have worked over the years with some people
(14:48):
that were part of that famous nineteen eighty five draft
lottery where the Knickerbocker's got Patrick Ewing, and based on
what they have said, uh and others I have spoken
to totally now you know there, I don't think you
do it every year but rare and appropriate. There's some
funny business that goes on.
Speaker 2 (15:06):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Ben Meller
Show weekdays at two am Eastern eleven pm Pacific on
Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (15:15):
So our lead this hour, as we slide into our
number two, the word salad. Now, I am an anti
salad guy. I think that vegetables should should live a
full life, and I don't want to see any vegetables
killed for someone's pleasure for food. So I don't eat.
I don't eat salad, and I have that in common
(15:37):
with al Michaels and Pokinnakua. We don't eat salad. But
our lead this hour is from Minnesota Quarterback Room upset department,
the Minnesota Vikings, who do not have an established quarterback.
They didn't have one last year in Sam Darnold, and
they won a bunch of games. Right worked out pretty well.
(16:00):
She didn't work out very well at the end in
the final couple games. But the GM of the Vikings
quasy adolpho mensa. That's a mouthful, quazy adolpha mensa. Now
he confirmed that Aaron Rogers and Kevin O'Connell. That's the
coach had a powwow. They in fact a lot of conversations,
(16:22):
and that prompted in organizational dialogue about Rogers. Now, what
is this all about?
Speaker 2 (16:29):
You?
Speaker 1 (16:29):
I don't if you heard the rest of this. The
GM there, Adolpho Mensa, said, it's a new thing to
talk about a player at that caliber, sounding giddy, sounding excited.
The GM said that about Rogers. Now, Udolpha Mensa, the
GM in Minnesota said that he did not rule out
eventually circling back to Rogers. However, he said, quote right now,
(16:54):
we're really happy with our quarterback room. Both quote all right,
So let us discuss question why didn't the Vikings general
manager Quazy Adolpha Mensa, Why didn't this guy rule out
the pursuit of Aaron Rodgers. So I've got Bruno, Mars,
Evil Twin and Rodent. We'll combine all these things together.
(17:19):
We're gonna make a juicy Lucy that is the go
to food and delicious in Minnesota's absolutely wonderful. So number wa,
I said number. So the GM of the Vikings here,
it's weasel terminology, right, corporate speak. The GM here at
(17:41):
Adolpha Mensa. Now, he said the Vikings were very happy
with their quarterback room. But if you listen closely, you
could hear a Bruno Mars song leave the door open,
Like that's what he's said, leaving the door open. The
Minnesota GM added the stipulation right now, right like, I'm
full right now, but I could be hungry. I might
(18:04):
be hungry later and I'll probably but right now I'm full.
I can't guarantee I'm gonna be full an hour from now,
two hours from now. So there's some fine print. Now,
Aaron Rodgers is running the four corners offense, and he
is dragging this out. And remember that our friend Andrea,
the sports astrology lady Virgo and service there on X.
(18:28):
She says that Rogers is likely waiting as close as
he can to mercury, getting out of retrograde, but it'll
still be in retro shade. But that's April seven, so
we've got I think it's April SI, we got some time.
It's in early April, so we got some time before
we get to that point. We assume he's inching closer
to Pittsburgh, could be walking there. So until he's off
(18:51):
the board, you're saying there's a chance the Minnesota will
add a veteran to the mix at some point. They
have to. And if the GM of the Vikings thinks
the quarterback room of Brett Rippon and JJ McCarthy is good,
if that's a good mix, then he must be having
some really good acid. My god, you are tripping if
(19:13):
you think Brett Rippon is good. Now, Hey, I'm a poet.
I don't even know it now. We also hear that internally,
there's some chatter the reason the Vikings were even contemplating
bringing in Aaron Rodgers is despite the exterior of JJ
McCarthy being pretty solid, right, there's some questions about how
mature he is behind the scenes there. Apparently he's got
(19:35):
some some things you gotta work through, is every young
player does, and so there's some issues about that inside
the building. Now, McCarthy is currently recovered from snap crackle
Poppy had pornnisse, oh my oh, my name, my meniscus.
He suffered that just before the start of last season.
Remember had that big preseason game and then and then
(19:56):
that was it. So certainly McCarthy's in the pole position,
but you I can't eliminate Rogers until he goes and
signs and he hasn't signed with Pittsburgh yet, And every
day that goes by, there's more of a chance that
he will not go to Pitchman, even though it seems
like it's guaranteed. Maybe he's on vacation somewhere. He might
be out in the Amazon drinking some ayahuasca with Joe Rogan.
Who knows all right now, page two to Jersey we
(20:19):
go now. One day, just one day after agreeing to
a deal, Russell Wilson came out and announced that he
expects to be the Giants starting quarterback in twenty twenty five.
Wilson got a one year deal with ten and a
half million dollars guaranteed. It's loaded with incentives. It must
(20:41):
be nice. Here is Russ letting the world know, letting
you know that he's locked in on this. Yeah.
Speaker 5 (20:49):
I expect to get get started and coming here and
be rated rock and roll every day to build a lead.
I think this team's really looking for somebody to lead
them in every way in terms of the process, you know,
in the off season, during the seat, in our habits
and our thought process and how we create you know,
a great winning culture and how do we continue to
establish that and and to really build on all the
things that we do well and the things that we
(21:10):
continue to need to do.
Speaker 1 (21:13):
So as you know, uh Russ, Well, I'll get into
it in a minute. But Russell Wilson, boy, listen to
him talk how uplifting. So Russell Wilson says, as you
heard there, he expects to be the giants. QB Number one,
are you surprised? So obviously you roll your eyes. And
(21:33):
why would you be surprised? Right? Remember Eric Spolsro years
ago said I wouldn't have it any other way, and
Russ would say I wouldn't have it any other way.
And here's why blame Russell Wilson's evil twin, mister mister unlimited,
Mister unlimited Russell Wilson. That's his alter ego, Total jack
(21:54):
Wagon sprinkles the clown. Now, financially, Russell Wilson needs to
play so he can make an extra ten and a
half million dollars. Otherwise he's going to have to be
down at the soup kitchen and he won't be able
to pay his mortgage. So there's a variety of incentives
and escalators, and of course, if you don't don't play
those escalators become elevators, and they only go down. They
(22:18):
only go down. Now we are hearing that the carrot
on the stick. Here, the Giant's front office insinuated that
Russell Wilson would get the first crack at the starting job.
Wilson is joined by Tommy Cutlass, Tommy DeVito, folk hero
who's hanging on by a thread, and also fellow free
agent Jamis Winston on the depth chart. Now, Winston is
(22:41):
being paid a backup contract, so it's more likely he's
not there. The Veto's toast. If the Giants draft a
quarterback high and so, what I would do is I
would pencil in Russell Wilson on your depth chart. I
would pencil him in with a number two pencil with
a nice eraser, and I would not use ballpoint pen.
I would avoid a ballpoint pan. I wouldn't use a
(23:02):
ballpoint pen. There's no need for a ballpoint pan because
it's subject to change. I would go with Jameis Winston
would side by side. I would rather play Jameis Winston.
You're gonna suck either way, right, All roads lead to Suckville.
But I'd rather go to Suckville on the Jameis Winston
Trade the one man band, mister fun. Russell Wilson's not fun.
(23:27):
What does he know about winning? I mean, Russell Wilson
jumped on the backs of the legion of boom defense
in Seattle, and since he left Seattle it's been a
hot mess all right. Now. Final point to the rules
of the game. The rules of the game. So after
much debate in past years, it appears that the NFL
(23:48):
will not be tinkering with one of the worst parts
of the sport. They are satisfied to keep one of
the worst worst parts of the sport as it is now.
The NFL executive president of Football Ops, Troy Vincent, used
to play back in the day he announced that the
league will not be overhauling the on side kick play,
(24:10):
which is a nothing burger. Vincent saying that all this
talk of different gimmicky ideas that the NFL decided these
are not up to standard for the National Football League
like it somehow is below the billion dollar babies to
have a play that actually has a chance of succeeding
(24:33):
where the current setup does not. So question for the
esteem panel, what will it take for the NFL to
consider a quote gimmicky on sidekick alternative, what would it take.
So I've got Rodents, lab Rats and we'll mix those together,
(24:55):
and that is what's gonna take. Because you've got the
Canadian Football League and the UFL. I don't even know
what you I think the UFL is what the XFL
used to be and another league and they mor merged together.
I don't know, I don't watch it. So if you
take the Canadian Football leage on one side, and then
you mix together in a mixing bowl, a stand mixer,
and you put the Canadian Football League in the UFL
(25:16):
together and he was put in there like the BC
Lions and the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, and you put them
in there and you experiment with the recipe. You gotta
do some beta testing now. I remember years ago when
Vince McMahon was in good standing and the professional wrestling
operations started the XFL, the original XFL. They had strippers
(25:38):
and hot tubs in the end zone. They had he
Hate Me. It was wild, and the NFL people just
snubbed their nose, you know that West of the four
h five elitist attitude. They were just we're so we're
so much better for snickety and it turned out that
a couple of the ideas that the XFL were testing,
(25:58):
they were doing the beta testing lone it came to
the NFL. They fetched around, and so that's what it's
gonna take. That then the NFL can see I recommend
a fourth down and fifteen play one play to get
a first down, and if you get it, you get
to keep possession of the ball. I think that'd be
a lot of fun. I think that'd be great. It's
(26:19):
rather pointless. It's a futile act. The on side kick
the way it is right now, these minor league organizations
are the test kitchen for the NFL, and you see
if what you're serving up people like, and then the
NFL gets off their high horse and they're like, all right,
well maybe we'll do it, but we didn't test it out.
(26:39):
Same thing happens in television and a buddy of mine
worked on They should be a show at Fox called
the best damned sports Show period, and it was mocked
and ridiculed back in the day. But they tried different stuff,
and some of the things on that show that were
experimental have become over the years, they become standard. But
they were the first ones to do it. They were
(27:00):
the guinea pig. They tested it out, and that's usually
how it works. It's normally how that operation goes.
Speaker 2 (27:07):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Ben Meller
Show weekdays at two am Eastern eleven pm Pacific.
Speaker 1 (27:14):
It's mallard. How about that?
Speaker 2 (27:16):
To the third degree, this is one big Ben gets grilled.
Speaker 1 (27:22):
Probably.
Speaker 4 (27:23):
Damian Lillard was diagnosed diagnosed with deep vein thrombosis on Thursday.
On Tuesday, and he was ruled out indefinitely. Now, Ben,
is this essentially a death knell to the Bucks season?
Speaker 1 (27:35):
No, because they were already dead. They hired Doc Rivers
as the coach, So, uh, it doesn't matter, right, I mean,
I hope Lillard obviously can come back. I mean it
sounds like he's gonna miss the rest of the year
and all that, and they got to get that straight
in the way, obviously, because that can kill you. But no,
he's uh, it's not the kill. The Bucks have already
been killed. They hired Doc Rivers. Now, maybe they'll win
(27:57):
three games in a playoff series and it'll take credit
for it. They'll lose, But no, the Bucks weren't going
anywhere anyway.
Speaker 4 (28:02):
Next Luca Donzik's father did an interview with a TV
news station in Slovenia. Lately and watching Slovenia news coop, Yeah,
that's one of my favorite pastimes. He talked about Lucas
trade to LA and he went on to say, I,
and this is translated by the way, I just believe
that he is born for this city and this city
has made for him. I won't say literally, but it
fits with his character. I believe he'll succeed there. Ben,
(28:25):
what do you think the odds are that Lucas stays
with LA pass his current contract.
Speaker 1 (28:28):
Well, based on recent history, it's not as great as
it used to be. But money talks and loyalty walks,
and as long as the money's there, Lucas like an
LA guy. People that Laker historians kiss his ass. So
I think he'll stay. I would be shocked if he left.
I think it was a ninety five percent chance, he states.
Speaker 4 (28:46):
Next, it's being reported that Texas quarterback quin Youwrs is
drawing steady interest from the New Orleans Saints and that
other NFL teams were impressed with his pro day, Ben,
do you think a team could be getting a steal
with yours in the second or third round.
Speaker 1 (28:57):
Well, no, I don't think he's that good, so I'm
gonna go. Know, Coop, that's a win for me. I won,
Faya Lorena said, I won. I won. That's a win
for me. I got the cabbage.
Speaker 2 (29:09):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at foxsports Radio
dot com and within the iHeartRadio app. Search f s
R to listen live.
Speaker 1 (29:21):
It's now time for It's time for Horry Horry. Ask Ben.
Twitter said this your questions on Twitter? Now, Hey, no,
way we go. It is asked Ben and friends. Your
questions are answers for the rest of the hour, just
to work him play exactly. All right, Well, let's get
(29:46):
to it here with the reading of the questions as
I will take the high ground and I will pass
the baton and the relay race of talk radio to
the Kooper loop. Go ahead, cool, all right.
Speaker 4 (29:55):
Ben, We're gonna start off with a question from ferg Dog.
Speaker 1 (29:58):
Hi Fergie, he wants no, it's.
Speaker 4 (30:01):
A question for everybody. When's the last time you've been
on a boat?
Speaker 1 (30:06):
Oh? Maybe try to think. I like to go on
boats when I go places. I'm trying to think that.
I think the last time I was on a boat
was God, it's been a while. Oh you know. No,
it was in Charleston. I went on one in Charleston.
We went a little boat tour around Charleston. And then
before that was in Minnesota. We went to Lake Superior
and took a boat ride around the Brown Water to
(30:29):
Lake Superior. It was beautiful, very cold, but it was beautiful.
Speaker 4 (30:32):
What about you, Lorraina, Oh goodness, it was just a
couple of weeks months ago.
Speaker 1 (30:38):
I was on the Queen Mary for brunch.
Speaker 4 (30:41):
That's a ship.
Speaker 1 (30:42):
That's not a moraina that it's not really it's a hotel.
Speaker 4 (30:46):
Yeah, that's a ship.
Speaker 1 (30:46):
It's not and it doesn't it doesn't know. It doesn't
go anywhere. That doesn't count. It is landlocked the sense
I know it's in the water, but it doesn't go
out to see it doesn't know.
Speaker 4 (30:58):
Well, that's my answer. That's yeah, that doesn't count. No,
it'she the last time you were on a boat, like
a boat.
Speaker 1 (31:05):
Actually had went out in the ocean.
Speaker 4 (31:09):
It was like a year ago. Okay, that I mean,
that's also a ship.
Speaker 1 (31:15):
But okay, where did you go on the cruise?
Speaker 4 (31:18):
We did the port of Mexico stuff.
Speaker 1 (31:20):
Yeah, okay, cool, God, terrible answer.
Speaker 4 (31:23):
You're a terrible answer.
Speaker 1 (31:25):
The last time I was at least at least you know,
place for the Seahawks.
Speaker 4 (31:31):
The last time I was on a boat was last
July in Chicago. I went on the architectural like river boat.
Speaker 1 (31:42):
Oh I've done that. That's cool.
Speaker 4 (31:44):
Yeah, it was really cool.
Speaker 1 (31:44):
There's some really neat It was on that.
Speaker 4 (31:46):
One boat in Louisiana.
Speaker 1 (31:48):
In New Orleans, I did the boat with the crocodiles.
Alloted time to the honorable Larina. We moved on to
your time as ad the air boat.
Speaker 4 (31:57):
Yes, that counts as a boat. Anyway, Moving on, JT
the Wingman would like to know IJT. Since it's opening
day in Major League Baseball, what is your favorite ballpark food?
Speaker 1 (32:13):
So? I love the pretzel, the soft pretzel, But it
can't be one of those I don't want to name
him because they might be a sponsor at some point here.
But there's a national pretzel chain which doesn't make very
good ballpark pretzels. But if you're in a town that
has good pretzels, like Philadelphia or New York or somewhere
like that, I love a ballpark soft pretzel nachos and
(32:36):
a bag of peanuts. I'm good and in San Francisco
garlic fries, but that's about it. What about you lorrain
hot dog all day?
Speaker 4 (32:46):
Yes, most of.
Speaker 1 (32:47):
The ballpark hot dogs suck. Only a few of them
have been good. Cleveland's got good hot dogs, Boston's got
good hot dog. What about you?
Speaker 4 (32:52):
Google loop nachos? But not not just like the regular
like nacho cheese and you know the round chip nachos.
I mean like with meat and sour cream, and you
want to mean guacamole. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (33:08):
My only problem with nachos is the same problem I
have with cereal. You've got to eat it fast, and
every second that goes by with your out eating the
nachos or the cereal, it becomes a lesser meal. Like cereal,
I used to like it when I was a kid,
but I had to eat it so fast because it
becomes soggy. And the same thing with nachos. You have
to eat it very fast or it's soggy. It's not
that good anyway. What is next?
Speaker 4 (33:28):
What are we at all right now? This one seems
like it was gonna be a good question, but I
think it ends up not being a good question because
I think it's obvious.
Speaker 1 (33:35):
Make it a good question.
Speaker 4 (33:36):
Well, well, Chicago Bears twenty four.
Speaker 1 (33:41):
He wants to know he's in Nebraska.
Speaker 4 (33:43):
Would you rather taste everything your hands touch or everything
your feet touch? That's an obvious one, right.
Speaker 1 (33:50):
Yeah, I mean yeah, unless you're you're just walking. No,
I don't know what you would be walking on and
you want to yeah I can hands.
Speaker 4 (33:58):
Yeah, yeah, all right, let's gut skip ahead of that.
Speaker 1 (34:01):
That's gotta be the dumbest question we've ever been asked.
Speaker 4 (34:05):
I mean it was getting creative, which is good. I
like that, but then it was just too easy.
Speaker 1 (34:09):
I just gave up at the end.
Speaker 4 (34:10):
Yeah. Out the wants to know what was your go
to beverage growing up, excluding soda.
Speaker 1 (34:18):
I'll give you one. It's tang. I meant when I
was a kid, my mom so oh, this is the
stuff astronauts were drinking in space, and it was just
like like sugar tang. What about you voted a quick
like Tampico Tampico cool loop I liked. I remember when
Snapple took off. There was a period where Snapple everyone
(34:41):
was drinking three bottles a day. Oh man, so popular.
Remember that that when you took the lid off, That
that snap sound, that's the name
Thanks for listening to the best of the Ben Mahler
Show podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weeknight
from two to six Eastern eleven pm to three am
Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and to find your local
station for the Benmatherershow at Foxsports Radio dot Com. You
can find it there or stream us live every night
(00:20):
on the iHeartRadio app by searching FSR.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
This is the best of the Ben Mahler Show on
Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
The talk of the town, well kind of the talk
of the town. Welcome in the begating of another night
of the Benmahler Show. We are in the air Everywhere
Cohorts as we embark on a dreamy voyage coast to coast,
(01:05):
border to moorter and beyond on the vast and boomingly
powerful microphones of FSR ammndating live from the Bliss the
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dot Com studios. Tyrack dot Com will help you get
there and unmatched selection, fast, free shipping, free road hazard protection,
(01:29):
over ten thousand recommended installers. Our guy Van, the One
Legged Bama Man, loves that number. Ten thousand. Tire rack
dot Com the way tire buying showb and so we
were back at it based on the listener feedback that
we get. And not that I write back to any
(01:51):
of you losers, but you just send me email during
the day and they give me feedback, and I try
to say, off the social media, that's the devil's playground.
But I did get a lot of a commentary about
something that happened in Indianapolis, and it wasn't about what
happened at night. I guess it was an all day affair.
(02:11):
It was a Lebron Day in the Hoosier State. I
don't know if the governor declared it Lebron Day, but
apparently it was. I didn't get that memo. So anyway,
Lebron James capping off his day with a buzzer beater,
a Obama like bailout of the Lakers, a ten point
(02:35):
fourth cord of Luca had missed what was supposed to
be the game winning shot. He had thirty four points
of Lakers barely got by the Indiana Pacers by a whisker.
Not impressed. That is a bad win for the Lakers,
who are clearly in trouble. The real ones know that
the Lakers are not going anywhere. But that was the undercart, right,
So that was the undercart and everyone was he happened
(02:59):
about the underc not the main event. So what was it?
I'll tell you. So Lebron James did an interview. Wow,
who knew? So Lebron went in studio with Pat McAfee
and he hammed it up on the YouTube Influencers show
(03:19):
with his pals. Oh, I was so excited. You see
any of this? No, well probably not, probably missed it.
So some of the talking points here and I could
do the whole thing, but I'll give you some of
them that you were like, did you see what Lebron did?
I believe Lebron did that. Lebron ripped the rotund Brian
(03:39):
Windhorse saying the NBA reporter, well, brother, let me tell you.
Let's hear Lebron himself. Here's Lebron commenting on Windy, a
longtime NBA reporter who went to the same high school
as Lebron in Ohio.
Speaker 3 (03:54):
I see a lot of too, Like I've seen Brian
Wainhurst one of these shows not too long ago.
Speaker 4 (03:58):
Like you played you guys played together.
Speaker 3 (04:03):
Guy was like you know, says he's like my best friend,
and these guys are just just weird.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
Just weird, all right, So someone say Lebron's weird?
Speaker 4 (04:11):
Here is Lebron?
Speaker 1 (04:12):
Also, he talked back and forth about Stephen A. Smith.
He compared Stephen A. Smith to well to Taylor Swift.
He went on on that rant, said that he's on
a Taylor Swift like tour run. With this particular point,
he also explained why he stepped in to honor his
son and his teammate there when things got off the rails,
(04:37):
and uh, here's a little taste of what that was.
Speaker 5 (04:39):
Like.
Speaker 3 (04:40):
He's like on a Taylor Swift tour run right now,
we're watching. If there's one person Kelsey couldn't wait to
the video to drop so you can address it, is
your ass. Like seriously, he completely like missed the whole point.
Never would I ever not allow people to talk about
the sport, criticize players about what they do on the court.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
That is your job.
Speaker 3 (05:04):
But when you take it and you get personal with it,
it's my job to not only protect my damn household,
but protect the players.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
Yeah, well, do that in public. You could have done
that in private. But wait, there's more. Lebron also broke
down his relationship with Michael Jordan. Spoiler alert, he says
he has none, says that's not going to happen till
Jordan retires. Also double spoiler alert, they ain't hanging out
when when he retires Lebron retires either. But wait, there's more.
(05:34):
Lebron also suggesting the twenty oh three lottery, that the
draft lottery that saw the Hometown Cadavers win the Lebron sweepstakes,
that that was a rigged deal. That he implied that
that was rig So let us discuss the question what
(05:55):
vibe did you get from the very lengthy n on
James fireside chat with Pat McAfee. So I've got Egyptian
roller coaster and Mick millions, and we will combine all
of these things together and we are going to make
a mirror. Because there's one thing Lebron loves more than anything,
(06:20):
and it's glazing at himself in the mirror. He loves it,
all right. So A obviously there's a lot to chew
on here. And I did watch a big chunk of
this was I was on the treadmill and I wanted
to poke my eyes out till they started bleeding. But
the big takeaway is this was obviously an oasis or Lebron.
(06:42):
A couple of years ago the very popular term safe space.
This was a safe space for Lebron, a very secure environment.
And watching the YouTube clip and then hearing the audio
and putting everything together, it reminded me of ancient ship,
ancient Egypt, the ancient Egyptians. And you see some of
(07:04):
the drawings they left behind from ancient Egypt and the hieroglyphs,
and imagine, if you will, in the cartoon bubble above
your head, because this is what I was envisioning. Lebron
is a pharaoh and he's sitting on the Pat McAfee pedestal,
surrounded by McAfee fan bearers, and they use those Ostrich
(07:24):
feathers because that's what they did in Egypt. They use
those Ostrich feathers and they fan Lebron to comfort him.
And if that doesn't work for you, you could go more
like a more modern reference that Lebron was at a
seven to eleven and the only item that he was
getting from the McAfee crew was the slur Peit. It
was a slurp fest. Slurp, slurp, slurp, slurp even at
(07:48):
Rich Paul, the right hand man for Lebron, the deal
maker who was in the studio making sure that everything
went just as planned. Don't ask about that. Don't ask
about that. Be careful what you talk about all right now?
Page two. So, how did Lebron's general commentary about his
(08:08):
NBA journey striking? Because a lot of it was fluff
about Lebron the kid from Akron, blah blah blah blah.
So that part of it was like a roller coaster ride.
And I'm not talking about a real white knuckle roller coaster.
I'm talking about Dumbo, the flying elephant, and the Lebron
(08:29):
half man, half elephant. He's got the memory of an elephant.
He never seems to forget near photographic memory for those
who have taken shots at him. Now, the part that
I liked the most was he's still bitter. All these
years later, it's almost been a generation, and Lebron's still
bitter about people pointing out how absurd that WHU gayzy
(08:51):
decision thing was in Connecticut and how absurd that was,
and he claimed, well, that was the turning point, you know,
That's when I realized that I didn't like that media.
You know, and really Lebron's not all that special. He's
just your classic grudge holder. And this is a diamond dozen.
As I have said for many, many years, my position
has not changed. The most important element in sport is
(09:15):
the critic. Because every team that wins, every player, even
a guy like Lebron James who's been dominating the regular
season for years and then usually screws up in the playffs.
But Lebron still has that chip on his shoulder because
of the critic. Right, he retains all those negative comments
and he just stews in those juices. He just stews
(09:39):
in them. He's determined to prove the doubter is wrong,
and even when it's manufactured outrage, it doesn't seem to
matter all right now, last word here, So is there
a deeper meaning? Let's get to that. What I thought
was the most interesting part of this was Lebron James
implying that their draft lottery has regularly been rigged, and
(10:03):
it certainly was rigged when the Calves picked him back
in three. So yeah, yeah, there is a deeper me.
I think this is a big deal, and it's one
thing for Joe Blow talk show host to say it's
rig It's another thing for some dopey bot or algorithm
on social media to say it's rigged. But this is
(10:24):
the bloody face of the league who seemingly believes that
the NBA is a corrupt organization. How else could you
take that? It seems like that's gonna have legs. Keep
in mind that this storyline is as old as time.
Is old as time, and I remember the former commissioner,
(10:46):
the late Great Venerable David Stern, who dealt with this
because he was the commissioner when they first rigged the
lottery for Patrick Ewing in the nineteen eighties. And David
Stern dismissed it at the time. In fact, he said
he didn't really care as long as people were talking
about the NBA. Yeah, but now we're in the age
(11:09):
where you shouldn't talk about us because I don't like
what you're saying. But back then they're like, oh, how
long you're talking about it? Now? There obviously is no
hard evidence, meaning no one's come out. There's no whistleblower
that has said, yeah, the lottery's rigged and here's how
they did it. There's none of that. There's no hard evidence.
There's a lot of circumstantial clues. There's many convenient outcomes
(11:34):
that have driven the conversation, such as Lebron referenced when
he won, or his team the Cavaliers, his local team,
you know from Ackman over in Cleveland. One in three
hometown kids stays in Cleveland. The Chicago Bulls got their
local hero Derek Rose in eight and I believe they
(11:54):
had a less than two percent chance that year of
winning the draft lottery. And then the other thing is
when Lebron left for Miami, the conspiracy was, well, to
make things better for the Cavaliers and Dan Gilbert the older,
We'll make sure that you get some good players in there.
So the Cavaliers in the span of you know, how
(12:15):
long was Lebron in Miami four years or something like that,
the Cavaliers got three number one picks in that time
while Lebron was in South Florida twenty eleven, twenty thirteen
to twenty fourteen. And so that raised some mybro I said,
wait a minute, what's going on with that? Trying to
set the calves up? And like the league took care
(12:36):
of Cleveland because they lost Lebron, and that lost a
lot of capital. Nobody wanted to go to those games.
The draft lottery truthers will point to these patterns and
also the ultimate storyline. It's a TV show. You need
good stories for a TV show, even though it's supposed
to be real, and you know, you do the whole
(12:58):
fiction nonfiction thing's supposed to be real. However, you know
you gotta have storylines and if you need to nudge
those along a little bit, and it helps the revenue,
it helps the bottom line, you do it. And the
idea that it's impossible that there's too many people loved
to hear that a lot. But remember that that mcmillions.
(13:18):
I saw that documentary a few years ago. It's great.
I recommend it. It's still around. You can find it if
you know where to look. But that was the one
where they rigged the much beloved McDonald's monopoly game, and
so they if you can rig that, and they got
away with it for a very long time before before
somebody stepped in there. I guess I remember Uncle Jerry.
(13:40):
If you saw the documentary, Uncle Jerry, some mob guy
was setting it up. But since the weighted system started
in nineteen ninety, so that's that's almost thirty almost thirty
five years of the draft lottery, the team with the
top odds has one the number one overall pick about
(14:05):
twenty five percent of the time, about twenty five percent
of the time. And the nerds, the people that are
good at math, will say, well, that's that's right on
par with the probabilities. So that's there's nothing there's nothing
wrong with that. That's that's all good. But the theory
is that you don't manipulate it every year, because not
every year is they're a generational player. There just isn't right.
(14:28):
There's a lot of years there's like suck bag guys.
You know, some dude from France you've never heard of,
who will who will not sell a single ticket, So
you don't really rig it for that who cares? But
when it's rare and appropriate that you can help a
storyline along and listen, I buy it. I buy it.
And I have worked over the years with some people
(14:48):
that were part of that famous nineteen eighty five draft
lottery where the Knickerbocker's got Patrick Ewing, and based on
what they have said, uh and others I have spoken
to totally now you know there, I don't think you
do it every year but rare and appropriate. There's some
funny business that goes on.
Speaker 2 (15:06):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Ben Meller
Show weekdays at two am Eastern eleven pm Pacific on
Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (15:15):
So our lead this hour, as we slide into our
number two, the word salad. Now, I am an anti
salad guy. I think that vegetables should should live a
full life, and I don't want to see any vegetables
killed for someone's pleasure for food. So I don't eat.
I don't eat salad, and I have that in common
(15:37):
with al Michaels and Pokinnakua. We don't eat salad. But
our lead this hour is from Minnesota Quarterback Room upset department,
the Minnesota Vikings, who do not have an established quarterback.
They didn't have one last year in Sam Darnold, and
they won a bunch of games. Right worked out pretty well.
(16:00):
She didn't work out very well at the end in
the final couple games. But the GM of the Vikings
quasy adolpho mensa. That's a mouthful, quazy adolpha mensa. Now
he confirmed that Aaron Rogers and Kevin O'Connell. That's the
coach had a powwow. They in fact a lot of conversations,
(16:22):
and that prompted in organizational dialogue about Rogers. Now, what
is this all about?
Speaker 2 (16:29):
You?
Speaker 1 (16:29):
I don't if you heard the rest of this. The
GM there, Adolpho Mensa, said, it's a new thing to
talk about a player at that caliber, sounding giddy, sounding excited.
The GM said that about Rogers. Now, Udolpha Mensa, the
GM in Minnesota said that he did not rule out
eventually circling back to Rogers. However, he said, quote right now,
(16:54):
we're really happy with our quarterback room. Both quote all right,
So let us discuss question why didn't the Vikings general
manager Quazy Adolpha Mensa, Why didn't this guy rule out
the pursuit of Aaron Rodgers. So I've got Bruno, Mars,
Evil Twin and Rodent. We'll combine all these things together.
(17:19):
We're gonna make a juicy Lucy that is the go
to food and delicious in Minnesota's absolutely wonderful. So number wa,
I said number. So the GM of the Vikings here,
it's weasel terminology, right, corporate speak. The GM here at
(17:41):
Adolpha Mensa. Now, he said the Vikings were very happy
with their quarterback room. But if you listen closely, you
could hear a Bruno Mars song leave the door open,
Like that's what he's said, leaving the door open. The
Minnesota GM added the stipulation right now, right like, I'm
full right now, but I could be hungry. I might
(18:04):
be hungry later and I'll probably but right now I'm full.
I can't guarantee I'm gonna be full an hour from now,
two hours from now. So there's some fine print. Now,
Aaron Rodgers is running the four corners offense, and he
is dragging this out. And remember that our friend Andrea,
the sports astrology lady Virgo and service there on X.
(18:28):
She says that Rogers is likely waiting as close as
he can to mercury, getting out of retrograde, but it'll
still be in retro shade. But that's April seven, so
we've got I think it's April SI, we got some time.
It's in early April, so we got some time before
we get to that point. We assume he's inching closer
to Pittsburgh, could be walking there. So until he's off
(18:51):
the board, you're saying there's a chance the Minnesota will
add a veteran to the mix at some point. They
have to. And if the GM of the Vikings thinks
the quarterback room of Brett Rippon and JJ McCarthy is good,
if that's a good mix, then he must be having
some really good acid. My god, you are tripping if
(19:13):
you think Brett Rippon is good. Now, Hey, I'm a poet.
I don't even know it now. We also hear that internally,
there's some chatter the reason the Vikings were even contemplating
bringing in Aaron Rodgers is despite the exterior of JJ
McCarthy being pretty solid, right, there's some questions about how
mature he is behind the scenes there. Apparently he's got
(19:35):
some some things you gotta work through, is every young
player does, and so there's some issues about that inside
the building. Now, McCarthy is currently recovered from snap crackle
Poppy had pornnisse, oh my oh, my name, my meniscus.
He suffered that just before the start of last season.
Remember had that big preseason game and then and then
(19:56):
that was it. So certainly McCarthy's in the pole position,
but you I can't eliminate Rogers until he goes and
signs and he hasn't signed with Pittsburgh yet, And every
day that goes by, there's more of a chance that
he will not go to Pitchman, even though it seems
like it's guaranteed. Maybe he's on vacation somewhere. He might
be out in the Amazon drinking some ayahuasca with Joe Rogan.
Who knows all right now, page two to Jersey we
(20:19):
go now. One day, just one day after agreeing to
a deal, Russell Wilson came out and announced that he
expects to be the Giants starting quarterback in twenty twenty five.
Wilson got a one year deal with ten and a
half million dollars guaranteed. It's loaded with incentives. It must
(20:41):
be nice. Here is Russ letting the world know, letting
you know that he's locked in on this. Yeah.
Speaker 5 (20:49):
I expect to get get started and coming here and
be rated rock and roll every day to build a lead.
I think this team's really looking for somebody to lead
them in every way in terms of the process, you know,
in the off season, during the seat, in our habits
and our thought process and how we create you know,
a great winning culture and how do we continue to
establish that and and to really build on all the
things that we do well and the things that we
(21:10):
continue to need to do.
Speaker 1 (21:13):
So as you know, uh Russ, Well, I'll get into
it in a minute. But Russell Wilson, boy, listen to
him talk how uplifting. So Russell Wilson says, as you
heard there, he expects to be the giants. QB Number one,
are you surprised? So obviously you roll your eyes. And
(21:33):
why would you be surprised? Right? Remember Eric Spolsro years
ago said I wouldn't have it any other way, and
Russ would say I wouldn't have it any other way.
And here's why blame Russell Wilson's evil twin, mister mister unlimited,
Mister unlimited Russell Wilson. That's his alter ego, Total jack
(21:54):
Wagon sprinkles the clown. Now, financially, Russell Wilson needs to
play so he can make an extra ten and a
half million dollars. Otherwise he's going to have to be
down at the soup kitchen and he won't be able
to pay his mortgage. So there's a variety of incentives
and escalators, and of course, if you don't don't play
those escalators become elevators, and they only go down. They
(22:18):
only go down. Now we are hearing that the carrot
on the stick. Here, the Giant's front office insinuated that
Russell Wilson would get the first crack at the starting job.
Wilson is joined by Tommy Cutlass, Tommy DeVito, folk hero
who's hanging on by a thread, and also fellow free
agent Jamis Winston on the depth chart. Now, Winston is
(22:41):
being paid a backup contract, so it's more likely he's
not there. The Veto's toast. If the Giants draft a
quarterback high and so, what I would do is I
would pencil in Russell Wilson on your depth chart. I
would pencil him in with a number two pencil with
a nice eraser, and I would not use ballpoint pen.
I would avoid a ballpoint pan. I wouldn't use a
(23:02):
ballpoint pen. There's no need for a ballpoint pan because
it's subject to change. I would go with Jameis Winston
would side by side. I would rather play Jameis Winston.
You're gonna suck either way, right, All roads lead to Suckville.
But I'd rather go to Suckville on the Jameis Winston
Trade the one man band, mister fun. Russell Wilson's not fun.
(23:27):
What does he know about winning? I mean, Russell Wilson
jumped on the backs of the legion of boom defense
in Seattle, and since he left Seattle it's been a
hot mess all right. Now. Final point to the rules
of the game. The rules of the game. So after
much debate in past years, it appears that the NFL
(23:48):
will not be tinkering with one of the worst parts
of the sport. They are satisfied to keep one of
the worst worst parts of the sport as it is now.
The NFL executive president of Football Ops, Troy Vincent, used
to play back in the day he announced that the
league will not be overhauling the on side kick play,
(24:10):
which is a nothing burger. Vincent saying that all this
talk of different gimmicky ideas that the NFL decided these
are not up to standard for the National Football League
like it somehow is below the billion dollar babies to
have a play that actually has a chance of succeeding
(24:33):
where the current setup does not. So question for the
esteem panel, what will it take for the NFL to
consider a quote gimmicky on sidekick alternative, what would it take.
So I've got Rodents, lab Rats and we'll mix those together,
(24:55):
and that is what's gonna take. Because you've got the
Canadian Football League and the UFL. I don't even know
what you I think the UFL is what the XFL
used to be and another league and they mor merged together.
I don't know, I don't watch it. So if you
take the Canadian Football leage on one side, and then
you mix together in a mixing bowl, a stand mixer,
and you put the Canadian Football League in the UFL
(25:16):
together and he was put in there like the BC
Lions and the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, and you put them
in there and you experiment with the recipe. You gotta
do some beta testing now. I remember years ago when
Vince McMahon was in good standing and the professional wrestling
operations started the XFL, the original XFL. They had strippers
(25:38):
and hot tubs in the end zone. They had he
Hate Me. It was wild, and the NFL people just
snubbed their nose, you know that West of the four
h five elitist attitude. They were just we're so we're
so much better for snickety and it turned out that
a couple of the ideas that the XFL were testing,
(25:58):
they were doing the beta testing lone it came to
the NFL. They fetched around, and so that's what it's
gonna take. That then the NFL can see I recommend
a fourth down and fifteen play one play to get
a first down, and if you get it, you get
to keep possession of the ball. I think that'd be
a lot of fun. I think that'd be great. It's
(26:19):
rather pointless. It's a futile act. The on side kick
the way it is right now, these minor league organizations
are the test kitchen for the NFL, and you see
if what you're serving up people like, and then the
NFL gets off their high horse and they're like, all right,
well maybe we'll do it, but we didn't test it out.
(26:39):
Same thing happens in television and a buddy of mine
worked on They should be a show at Fox called
the best damned sports Show period, and it was mocked
and ridiculed back in the day. But they tried different stuff,
and some of the things on that show that were
experimental have become over the years, they become standard. But
they were the first ones to do it. They were
(27:00):
the guinea pig. They tested it out, and that's usually
how it works. It's normally how that operation goes.
Speaker 2 (27:07):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Ben Meller
Show weekdays at two am Eastern eleven pm Pacific.
Speaker 1 (27:14):
It's mallard. How about that?
Speaker 2 (27:16):
To the third degree, this is one big Ben gets grilled.
Speaker 1 (27:22):
Probably.
Speaker 4 (27:23):
Damian Lillard was diagnosed diagnosed with deep vein thrombosis on Thursday.
On Tuesday, and he was ruled out indefinitely. Now, Ben,
is this essentially a death knell to the Bucks season?
Speaker 1 (27:35):
No, because they were already dead. They hired Doc Rivers
as the coach, So, uh, it doesn't matter, right, I mean,
I hope Lillard obviously can come back. I mean it
sounds like he's gonna miss the rest of the year
and all that, and they got to get that straight
in the way, obviously, because that can kill you. But no,
he's uh, it's not the kill. The Bucks have already
been killed. They hired Doc Rivers. Now, maybe they'll win
(27:57):
three games in a playoff series and it'll take credit
for it. They'll lose, But no, the Bucks weren't going
anywhere anyway.
Speaker 4 (28:02):
Next Luca Donzik's father did an interview with a TV
news station in Slovenia. Lately and watching Slovenia news coop, Yeah,
that's one of my favorite pastimes. He talked about Lucas
trade to LA and he went on to say, I,
and this is translated by the way, I just believe
that he is born for this city and this city
has made for him. I won't say literally, but it
fits with his character. I believe he'll succeed there. Ben,
(28:25):
what do you think the odds are that Lucas stays
with LA pass his current contract.
Speaker 1 (28:28):
Well, based on recent history, it's not as great as
it used to be. But money talks and loyalty walks,
and as long as the money's there, Lucas like an
LA guy. People that Laker historians kiss his ass. So
I think he'll stay. I would be shocked if he left.
I think it was a ninety five percent chance, he states.
Speaker 4 (28:46):
Next, it's being reported that Texas quarterback quin Youwrs is
drawing steady interest from the New Orleans Saints and that
other NFL teams were impressed with his pro day, Ben,
do you think a team could be getting a steal
with yours in the second or third round.
Speaker 1 (28:57):
Well, no, I don't think he's that good, so I'm
gonna go. Know, Coop, that's a win for me. I won,
Faya Lorena said, I won. I won. That's a win
for me. I got the cabbage.
Speaker 2 (29:09):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at foxsports Radio
dot com and within the iHeartRadio app. Search f s
R to listen live.
Speaker 1 (29:21):
It's now time for It's time for Horry Horry. Ask Ben.
Twitter said this your questions on Twitter? Now, Hey, no,
way we go. It is asked Ben and friends. Your
questions are answers for the rest of the hour, just
to work him play exactly. All right, Well, let's get
(29:46):
to it here with the reading of the questions as
I will take the high ground and I will pass
the baton and the relay race of talk radio to
the Kooper loop. Go ahead, cool, all right.
Speaker 4 (29:55):
Ben, We're gonna start off with a question from ferg Dog.
Speaker 1 (29:58):
Hi Fergie, he wants no, it's.
Speaker 4 (30:01):
A question for everybody. When's the last time you've been
on a boat?
Speaker 1 (30:06):
Oh? Maybe try to think. I like to go on
boats when I go places. I'm trying to think that.
I think the last time I was on a boat
was God, it's been a while. Oh you know. No,
it was in Charleston. I went on one in Charleston.
We went a little boat tour around Charleston. And then
before that was in Minnesota. We went to Lake Superior
and took a boat ride around the Brown Water to
(30:29):
Lake Superior. It was beautiful, very cold, but it was beautiful.
Speaker 4 (30:32):
What about you, Lorraina, Oh goodness, it was just a
couple of weeks months ago.
Speaker 1 (30:38):
I was on the Queen Mary for brunch.
Speaker 4 (30:41):
That's a ship.
Speaker 1 (30:42):
That's not a moraina that it's not really it's a hotel.
Speaker 4 (30:46):
Yeah, that's a ship.
Speaker 1 (30:46):
It's not and it doesn't it doesn't know. It doesn't
go anywhere. That doesn't count. It is landlocked the sense
I know it's in the water, but it doesn't go
out to see it doesn't know.
Speaker 4 (30:58):
Well, that's my answer. That's yeah, that doesn't count. No,
it'she the last time you were on a boat, like
a boat.
Speaker 1 (31:05):
Actually had went out in the ocean.
Speaker 4 (31:09):
It was like a year ago. Okay, that I mean,
that's also a ship.
Speaker 1 (31:15):
But okay, where did you go on the cruise?
Speaker 4 (31:18):
We did the port of Mexico stuff.
Speaker 1 (31:20):
Yeah, okay, cool, God, terrible answer.
Speaker 4 (31:23):
You're a terrible answer.
Speaker 1 (31:25):
The last time I was at least at least you know,
place for the Seahawks.
Speaker 4 (31:31):
The last time I was on a boat was last
July in Chicago. I went on the architectural like river boat.
Speaker 1 (31:42):
Oh I've done that. That's cool.
Speaker 4 (31:44):
Yeah, it was really cool.
Speaker 1 (31:44):
There's some really neat It was on that.
Speaker 4 (31:46):
One boat in Louisiana.
Speaker 1 (31:48):
In New Orleans, I did the boat with the crocodiles.
Alloted time to the honorable Larina. We moved on to
your time as ad the air boat.
Speaker 4 (31:57):
Yes, that counts as a boat. Anyway, Moving on, JT
the Wingman would like to know IJT. Since it's opening
day in Major League Baseball, what is your favorite ballpark food?
Speaker 1 (32:13):
So? I love the pretzel, the soft pretzel, But it
can't be one of those I don't want to name
him because they might be a sponsor at some point here.
But there's a national pretzel chain which doesn't make very
good ballpark pretzels. But if you're in a town that
has good pretzels, like Philadelphia or New York or somewhere
like that, I love a ballpark soft pretzel nachos and
(32:36):
a bag of peanuts. I'm good and in San Francisco
garlic fries, but that's about it. What about you lorrain
hot dog all day?
Speaker 4 (32:46):
Yes, most of.
Speaker 1 (32:47):
The ballpark hot dogs suck. Only a few of them
have been good. Cleveland's got good hot dogs, Boston's got
good hot dog. What about you?
Speaker 4 (32:52):
Google loop nachos? But not not just like the regular
like nacho cheese and you know the round chip nachos.
I mean like with meat and sour cream, and you
want to mean guacamole. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (33:08):
My only problem with nachos is the same problem I
have with cereal. You've got to eat it fast, and
every second that goes by with your out eating the
nachos or the cereal, it becomes a lesser meal. Like cereal,
I used to like it when I was a kid,
but I had to eat it so fast because it
becomes soggy. And the same thing with nachos. You have
to eat it very fast or it's soggy. It's not
that good anyway. What is next?
Speaker 4 (33:28):
What are we at all right now? This one seems
like it was gonna be a good question, but I
think it ends up not being a good question because
I think it's obvious.
Speaker 1 (33:35):
Make it a good question.
Speaker 4 (33:36):
Well, well, Chicago Bears twenty four.
Speaker 1 (33:41):
He wants to know he's in Nebraska.
Speaker 4 (33:43):
Would you rather taste everything your hands touch or everything
your feet touch? That's an obvious one, right.
Speaker 1 (33:50):
Yeah, I mean yeah, unless you're you're just walking. No,
I don't know what you would be walking on and
you want to yeah I can hands.
Speaker 4 (33:58):
Yeah, yeah, all right, let's gut skip ahead of that.
Speaker 1 (34:01):
That's gotta be the dumbest question we've ever been asked.
Speaker 4 (34:05):
I mean it was getting creative, which is good. I
like that, but then it was just too easy.
Speaker 1 (34:09):
I just gave up at the end.
Speaker 4 (34:10):
Yeah. Out the wants to know what was your go
to beverage growing up, excluding soda.
Speaker 1 (34:18):
I'll give you one. It's tang. I meant when I
was a kid, my mom so oh, this is the
stuff astronauts were drinking in space, and it was just
like like sugar tang. What about you voted a quick
like Tampico Tampico cool loop I liked. I remember when
Snapple took off. There was a period where Snapple everyone
(34:41):
was drinking three bottles a day. Oh man, so popular.
Remember that that when you took the lid off, That
that snap sound, that's the name
Host
Ben Maller
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