December 12, 2025 • 42 mins
Big Ben talks about Baker Mayfield and the Tampa Bay Bucs getting upset by the Atlanta Falcons on TNF, Ja'Marr Chase blaming the media for making it seem like Joe Burrow is not happy with the Bengals, Maller to the Third Degree, Lame Jokes of the Week, and more!
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
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Speaker 2 (00:24):
This is the best of the Ben Maler Show on
Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
Well in pirate lingo, you'd say, there she blows. Well,
come in the beginning of another night of the Benmahler Show.
Just one after another. They keep happening. We can't stop
them from happening. Well, we don't want to stop them
from happening, as we are cheek to cheek and we
serve well seasoned meals, balanced diet of sports takes here
(00:56):
coast to coast, border to border and beyond on the
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from the Donkey as we play Pin the Tail on
the Donkey from the world famous Fox Sports Radio Studios
(01:17):
and this portion of the Ben Malach Show as told
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dot com. We are back at it inside the Magic
Radio Box as we chop down the overnight hours in
the NFL weekend underway in our lead this hour, we're
(02:23):
going to start out in Tampa, week fifteen of the
NFL season. They're kicking off at the stadium I think
still called Raymond James Stadium. All these stadiums changed names
in a million times, but fire the cannons e NFC
South barn Burner between the visiting Falcons playing out the
string against the Buccaneers who still have a lot to
(02:45):
play for Falcons with Kirk Cousins, who's toiling away there
in the atail and the Baker mayfield for the Buccaneers.
You had al Michaels and Herbie in the Amazon on
the call. So I don't know if you're watching this
game or not. Perhaps you miss it. I don't knows
you would be watching. Maybe he's weren't watching anything. But
here's the deal, Kirk Cousins, wake up the echoes. Kirk Cousins,
(03:09):
not one, not two, Three touchdown passes in a primetime game.
Remember the curse of Cousins in primetime games back in
his Minnesota days. But he looked good in this game.
Three touchdown passes, a bunch of yards. Of the touchdown
passes all to Kyle Pitts, the tight end, built like
a Donnis. He often plays like a Pip Squeak, but
(03:32):
not on this game. Not in this game. And Zane Gonzalez,
the idiot kicker, booted a forty three yard field goal
as time expired. Good afternoon, good evening, and good night,
and Atlanta rallies from two touchdowns down and they get
the one point win over the team from Floresta. Atlanta
gets the win there and the highlight of the night
(03:54):
was not on the field, Say well, what about that
Zane Gonzales kicking no, no, no. For our purposes in
talk radio, the highlight was thirty seconds. It's a postgame
clip of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers coach Todd Bowles. Now,
Todd Bowles has coached multiple NFL teams over the years,
and none of them have been very good. Yeah, he
(04:16):
occasionally will give us solid gold. He will, and he
gave us that unleashing the beast as Todd Bowles. Every
once in a while you get a coach that's at
the end of the rope and decides to let you
know what they really think of their football team. And
let's go to the audio tape. Here is Todd Bowles
breaking down what's wrong with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Speaker 3 (04:40):
It's an excuseable. You don't make excuses. You got enough words,
you got care enough for it, got something to you.
It's more than a job. How well do you know
your job? How well can you do your job?
Speaker 2 (04:56):
Well?
Speaker 3 (04:56):
You can't, sugar coach, it was a usable man, because
it's for that's for no excuse for it.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
That's what you're telling them. A look, yeah, I don't
know who edited that, but way too too long. The
bleeps were too long. But it's unfortunate. Go to social
media get the actual cutakes. We're not we're not grown
ups here in overnight radio to play the right butt.
But listen, I know you can't to play bad words,
but you can. There's ways you get edited. But he
said the F word seven times, the S word four times.
(05:25):
The key parts of that inexcusable, and it's your e
fing livelihood. I mean, we couldnt even get a little
taste of the F word in that. I mean, my god,
just the F at the beginning. Holy crap. I gotta
teach you editing now. I'll had that to my resume,
all right. So that's a good jumping off point. Let
us discuss the question what did Bucks coach Todd Bowles.
You barely hurt any of it because of the tremendous
(05:47):
editing job, but what did Bucks coach Todd Bowles postgame
rant reveal? So my thoughts on this, I've got a
three by three Walgreens and Pink Paradise, and we will
combine all of these things together and we are going
to make a Cuban sandwich, which is the sandwich of
choice in the greater Tampa area, or so I am told,
(06:10):
and some Cuban cigars, which is also very popular there
in the greater Tampa Saint Pete area. So A, this
wasn't coaching. What are you talking about, He's a coach.
It wasn't coaching. This was a hostage video by Todd Bowles.
This is why I do this job, Like these kind
of rants. If everyone just said the same boring crap,
(06:31):
which they do ninety eight percent of the time, what's
the point of doing this? Every once in a while,
someone's loud and proud, and that would be Todd Bowles. Here.
It was thirty seconds of pure, uncut rage rage. I
love it. No pr polish, no media training, just Todd
Bowles and a microphone. And it was cartoonish. As we
(06:56):
like to say on this show from time to time
when someone has a rant like this, say it's just
like Popeye. That's all I can stands and I can't
stands no more. Now, what did it reveal? What did
it real Well, it revealed simply that Todd Bowles just
let you know that behind the curtain, behind the locker
room doors, he believes his players are lazy. He's not
(07:18):
coaching them to play that way. They've checked out. That's
what I took from that. That's what I took Todd
Bowles is announcing, listen, these guys are so stupid. My
players I tell them to do, they don't listen to me.
The Marans, I don't know what they're doing. And it's
because of that. He just finally was at the end
of it. And you know, if guys were doing what
(07:39):
they were supposed to do and grinding away, you don't
have to scream about their effing livelihood. You don't. You know,
you scream about someone else, you'll scream about that. Well,
that's we know they take this seriously, that this is
a last ditch flare gun fired straight up in the
dark night sky, and it's it's a three by served
(08:01):
up piping hot by Todd Bowles. You've got the unfiltered meltdown, crude,
raw and soaked and desperation. That's the three by three crude,
raw and soaked in desperation, and Todd Bowles is fed up. Obviously,
he blew up a gasket because he knows the math.
(08:22):
And they do have some games coming up with Carolina.
There's only three games to go for the Buccaneers where
they have a couple of games I believe still both
games with Carolina. So there's no sugar coating, no corporate speak.
He cut through. He took his the chainsaw and he
just cut through the bull crap is what he does. Yeah,
(08:42):
and here's the irony, Like, I really wish Todd Bowles
was a good coach. I do. He's been around for
a long time, coach the Cardinals and the Jets, and
I wish he was good because he's a hell of
a sound bite. He really is good. Good sound That's
all I care about. I'm a talk shows. I care
about sound bites. He's really good. Unfortunately, bites don't win
championships and they don't fix game management. And people were
(09:05):
ranting and raving about the time out strategy. There were
four options that Bucks had on that Falcons final drive
and he picked the worst possible one. It's kind of
like grabbing the mystery box on let's make a deal,
and that's what he did. You bought fourteen point lead,
a fourteen point lead against that Atlanta team. Wow, wow,
(09:28):
you and you was back to back at home to
the Saints and the Falcons. That is a fireable offense,
is what that is? Atlanta, they tried to give wrap
the game. They had a turnover palooza. Well not by
the penalty. Turnovers were also a little spice on top
of mostly penalties and the whole NBA jam combo and
(09:49):
Tampa went. They went like NBA jam. They rejected it
like spam mail and fans are angry, right, Oh, he
should be gone defense. He's a defensive guy. The buck
defense is twenty fourth in points allowed. The microwave is on,
the heat is up in the microwave. And that rant.
That was a man who knows he is coaching for
(10:11):
his job and not his team. You know, his team
will have jobs in the NFL. He's not gonna have
that job if this continues the way it's going there
in Buckland. Because wow, I mean, yeah, you're in control
and then you lose at home to the Saints and
the Falcons and you blow a lead to the Atlanta Falcons.
That is embarrassing. That is I mean even people that
(10:35):
know football. No, that's embarrassing, right, that is bad? All right,
now turning the page, but not very far. He's gonna
keep with the theme of the hour. Baker Mayfield has
entered the chat. Yep, that Baker Mayfield. It's a time
honored tradition. When a team loses, you play the SoundBite
of their quarterback as well as their head coach. We've
already done the head coach thing. So Baker Mayfield attempting
(10:56):
to shoulder literally shoulder the blame as he had had
a gut punch interception in late in the game, he
did ride the vomit comet. And here is Baker Mayfield
who's trying to take full ownership of his part of
the blame. Pie for the Bucks. Take a listen.
Speaker 4 (11:15):
Disappointing obviously, but falls on my shoulders. Can't can't turn
the ball over, can't have that interception, got to hit
mecans tride on that third down. Listen. You can say
what you want about being up two scores and the
defense right there, but we have to be better on offense.
And it comes down to how I play this one.
This one's gonna haunt me. This this falls on my shoulders.
Speaker 1 (11:37):
So some pearls of wisdom there. The question Baker Mayfield
saying that his Tampa Bay Buccaneers lost the loss he
quarterback there is going to haunt him? Is that inbounds
or out of bounds? So the pearls of wisdom from
Baker Mayfield after a minutes long Mallard deliberation are totally inbounds.
(12:01):
This was a textbook quarterback confessional, is what this was.
The quarterback steps in front of the firing squad. You're
supposed to eat the blame, enjoy the blame. You're responsible.
You hope the bullets stopped flying. The boilerplate. It was
that sure, it was a boilerplate response. Nevertheless, this one
(12:25):
does have a long receipt alongside. Like Baker Mayfield earned
every ounce of the Haunted House talk. And again we
like the gumption, the grit and all that stuff. Baker
the old lunch pale guy, and he's a sledgehammer out there.
Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah. However, on this night,
and really the last month plus, Baker Mayfield has been
(12:49):
Baker the headache maker and needs to go down to
Walgreens and get a large container of pharmacy grade ibuprofen
to hand out to the buccaneer backers. I hope I
got TJ. Reeves is okay? The Bucks sideline guy there,
My goodness. I did see him on TV briefly. It
was wringing the full ensemble. The Bucks were dressed for success.
They had the creamsicle uniforms on the classic throwback uniforms.
(13:12):
Unfortunately they did not perform up to that standard, which
you generally don't like. You generally don't like that. So anyway,
the Bucks, they get twenty eight points to say, that
should be enough to win. They still left points on
the table and they left those around like abandoned luggage
at pick your favorite airport JFK or Hare or Lax
(13:34):
or whatever. And Mayfield, I wouldn't say it was bad.
He wasn't bad. He wanted to bundle of joy. He
was okay, he was fine, just fine, nothing screenshot worthy,
nothing to put on the gram or TikTok or any
that stuff. And when the lights got hottest late in
the fourth quarter, Baker melted like cheap wax. He was
(13:57):
not up for the combat, the hand to hand combat,
and to be outplayed by the fossilized remains of Kirk Cousins.
You were out performed by Kirk Cousins. Let that settle in. Wow.
I think Cousins I saw at one point there, and
maybe it was my imagination, he actually had a walker
(14:17):
between snaps, he hit a walker. Cousins had fifteen bad plays.
Fifteen bad plays in this game. Baker Mayfield had twenty one.
And that's a minus six swing in a what turned
out to be a razor thin margin game. And so
six more negative plays by Baker Mayfield, especially the late
(14:40):
interception which set the dirty Birds up to get the
ball back and to go down knowing they were only
down by two points and they could end up winning
the game with the field goal. But that that's the
malord math on that kid's now the Petridge Farm remembers
moment of the night. I'm old enough, and I don't
know if you're old enough. You're probably not old. But
(15:00):
I'm old enough to remember when Baker Mayfield was the
front runner after Week four for the Most Valuable Player
award in the NFL. Now, let's take a look. Let's
peak at Baker Mayfield. So Baker Mayfield the last five games.
The last five games, Baker Mayfield one hundred and sixty
(15:21):
one yards per game on average, six touchdowns, five interceptions,
a passer rating which I think is slightly above a
gas station microwave, I think. And yeah, so this loss
will be the Haunted Mansion and it's not over. The
Bucks still have two couple of matchups with Carolina and
(15:42):
they can take care of that. And certainly Carolina is
no good. They're not a great team or anything like that.
But that's not Melo drama. That's more of an accountability
from Baker Mayfield. All right, Now, last word, we go
to the winning locker room, which is not not the
better story, but it is a story. It is a story.
And the question what does this dramatic last second win
(16:08):
do for the equally and battered Falcons coach Raheem Morris.
So they can't tank to get a higher draft pick.
They don't have a first round pick, so you're not
doing that. You're trying to play to win the game
and all that stuff, and so it but it does
on my scorecard, and you can chime in when we
give out the number in a few but on my scorecard,
(16:29):
it buys Raheem Morris. A weekend pass, not a season ticket.
A weekend pass like this is a temporary reprieve from
the Pink Paradise, which is known as the Pink Slip
is in the mail for right now. The package has
been delayed. The package has been delayed. But this was
(16:50):
an island game and Atlanta got bonked on the head
with a coconut and they still won the game anywhere,
all right, So let's not throw a parade down Petche
Street yet because the Falcons. If anything, this game was
more of a reminder of what a terrible job Raheem
Morris has done as a head coach. Let me make
my elevator pitch on that. You look at how the
(17:12):
Falcons were moving the ball, and a lot of that
was because of the Bucks defense, but still there were
legitimate flashes that this could have been a fairy tale
season in Atlanta and instead it's like a broken strobe
light in a dive bar. That's the fact, Kyle pits
we've mocked many a night. The draftis, Oh my god,
(17:34):
they got all horney of their pants down because Kyle
Pitts is built like a Donnis and he finally looked
like the unicorn all you idiots said he was going
to be. He looked like the player that he was
advertised as. Eleven catches on twelve targets, eleven out of
twelve on the targets, one hundred and sixty six yards
and three touchdowns. And if you look at the box score,
(17:55):
a partridge in a pear tree, so a grown man
playing against it looked like a bunch of middle schoolers
who were on sleeping medication. And he had Jon Robinson
Electric Electric one hundred and seventy five total yards in
this game, dancing through defenders like it was open mic Knight.
And we mentioned Kirk Cousins dusting off the Minnesota Sizzle
(18:18):
reel from Back in the Day throwback performance by Kirk Cousins.
And yet even with that, they were down fourteen, they
being Atlanta in the fourth quarter and needed Baker Mayfield
to f up Baker the headache maker for you to
have a shot to kick a field goal to win
the game. And nineteen penalties, So what do we like
(18:39):
to say, you're either coaching it or you're allowing it
to happen. Nineteen penalties a record for this season. And
I believe a franchise record for the Falcons, and they've
had some really bad teams. Nineteen penalties, one hundred and
seventy five yards. It's like a team that can't walk
in chew gum at the same time, and they still
won the game. So even though Rawhie Morris gets a
(18:59):
tempt reprieve when you do inventory at the end of
the season and you look back, you're like, well, wait
a minute, we've got some real prime rib talent, and
why are we serving beyond burger? Who wants a burger
with no meat?
Speaker 3 (19:12):
Right?
Speaker 1 (19:13):
We're prime rib? What are we doing? It was the
this team is the quintessential meh team m eh matt
as in mediocre efforts, hopeless, often hopeless, and so this
wain feel good for a night and all that stuff.
It's a band aid on a bullet hole, a reminder
that with a little bit better coaching, this team could have,
(19:37):
should have and would have been something special. But they're not.
They are not. Sorry.
Speaker 2 (19:45):
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Had a compelling Thursday night NFL game to kick off
Week fifteen, and had no skin in the game. We
did give the right pickout on Benny versus the penny.
We're happy about that. We did not expect Atlanta actually
(20:39):
win the game. We thought they would just cover the spread,
but they won the game outright on a last second
field goals time ran out there. So Atlanta playing the
role of spoiler and now Carolina controls their own destiny.
So I'm told, if Carolina beats the Saints in Louisiana
this weekend, if they win that game and they only
(21:00):
have to win one of the two against the Tampa
Bay Buccaneers and then they're in they win the division.
So that's where it's at in terms of the NFC South.
Todd Bowles had a potty mouth ramt which I loved,
loved Todd Bowles, which he was a better coach. But
our lead this hour is from Cincinadi, where the Bengals
(21:23):
are playing out the string on another failed season wide receiver.
Jamar Chase like a knight in shining armor, running to
save his damsel in distress, or in this case, his quarterback,
and he believes the narrative that Joe Burrow is losing
his love of football is false. Now, how do we
(21:43):
know Jamar Chase believes that is a false narrative. If
you didn't see this, perhaps not Chase his weekly media availability.
He attempted to put the fire out. He wanted to
set the record straight. Here is Jamar Chase explaining that
all those stories that are all over the interweb and
social media about Joe Burrow not being happy, I don't
(22:07):
know if i'd believe that. Take a listen, he smiles
every day.
Speaker 4 (22:10):
Like the narrative that y'all trying to paint on him.
Speaker 3 (22:15):
Right now, I don't see it.
Speaker 1 (22:16):
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3 (22:16):
At the end of the day, he's the same person
every day he comes to work.
Speaker 2 (22:19):
He loves work, he loves the guy in the locker room.
Speaker 3 (22:21):
So he's pretty positive to me.
Speaker 1 (22:23):
Arts we'll just ask some questions, just with them for
a little bit of narratives. That's okay, Okay, just asking questions.
Don't be upset to me. I love you. I have
all your your football cards. Okay. So that's a good
jumping off point. Let us discuss the question, Jamar Chase,
you heard it blaming the media for making it seem
(22:43):
like Joe Burrow is not happy with the Bengals, saying
that's the narrative there. How much weight does this have?
So I've got deck, Picasso, and carrot top, and we
will combine all of these things together and we are
going to make some spaghetti and meatballs, is what we're
(23:03):
going to make. So number Jamar Chase is attempting with
this interaction with the fourth estate. He is attempting to
play human for Breeze. What He's going to clean the
air around the Ben Gals franchise because if you if
(23:26):
you sniff, there's a bit of a stench around there. Now,
Chase implies, the media is out there stirring the pot.
You media troublemakers. If it wasn't for you, meddling media losers,
then none of this would happen. So it's like they're
stirring the pot. They being the media because I'm not
part of the mainstream. I do overnight. Overnight's not part
of the mainstream. Mainstream is daytime. I'm not daytime. I'm overnight,
(23:49):
so I'm not part of the media. I'm overnight radio,
not mainstream media. So anyway, Chase is this saying, Oh,
you guys are stirring the pot. You're splitting some hot
sauce on Joe Burrow. Every syllable that Joe Burrow rows
out blah blah blah blah blah. So corner Chase, Joey
b is smiling and skipping and whistling in the locker rooms.
(24:10):
Zippity dude, das zippity day. Hey, I love playing with
the Bengals because we blow. Yeah, it's like he's starring
in a Disney musical. Everything's fine, nothing to see here. Yeah, Unfortunately,
I'm not a country bumpkin, so I don't buy it.
Maybe cardiac. Stanley buys it, but I don't buy it.
(24:30):
This carries the weight of a feather in a hurricane.
It does, and so Chase, I know what he's doing,
Jamar Chase. He's playing the blame the media spin card
from the bottom of the deck right, a classic deflection,
classic deflection grade a victimhood developing hot dot dot dot.
Distrust of the media is the easiest scapegoat since blaming
(24:55):
the dog for not turning in your homework. The dog
ate my home work. Okay, but here's the rub dumbo.
Joe Burrow said the quiet part out loud. In a
previous episode of The Ben Mathers Show, we highlighted some audio.
The man literally walked up to a hot microphone surrounded
(25:16):
by reporters in a news conference environment, unprovoked. Unprovoked, okay,
and he delivered a Shakespearean in cleete soliloquy about joy
fading and football not being fun? Why am I doing this?
Speaker 4 (25:33):
Right?
Speaker 1 (25:33):
As his quote was, if it's not fun, then what
am I doing it for? That wasn't taken out of context,
Jamar Chase. It was the context that was literally the context.
So spare me the media boogeyman. Bull crap. This is
Joe Burrow. That's what he said. That's the essence of
Joe Burrow. This is a Burrow problem. It's not the
(25:55):
beat writers problem. It sounds like the beat writers are
fanboys the way they attempted to I'm just asking questions,
just asking question all right now, Page two to Indianapolis,
the game that everyone will be watching like we're rubbernecking
driving down the highway and there's an accident and you
can't stop. Look so Indy going to Seattle and Philip
(26:17):
Rivers back in the NFL with the Colts after five
years on the sidelines as a high school football coach
in Alabama, and that means that he is back in
the game. EA Sports. The EA Madden rating is out.
They revealed this week that Rivers will have a seventy
(26:38):
overall rating in Madden NFL twenty six. A seventy rating,
He'll have an eighty three throw power rating, a eighty
six short throw accuracy rating, and a fifty nine rating
for speed. If that does something for you, congratulations, Now
the question Let's just look at the big picture here.
So Philip Rivers with a seventy overall rating in the
(27:01):
updated Madden NFL twenty six game. Are you okay with that? So, yeah,
I'm fine with I think of this like a like
a Picasso hanging crooked in a dimly lit bar in Gary, Indiana,
and then they moved it over to French Lick, Indiana.
(27:22):
So can't close the deal. Neil and his relatives can
go check it out. Like opinions are paintings. I you me,
the Madden rating adjusters, whoever comes up with that. We're
all staring at the same brushstrokes and all that, and
somehow we see different different things. Much like I've pointed
(27:45):
out in the past, which upsets people like Justin and
Cincinnati and Robbie the Mariner fan and others, that a
social media post is like a painting. It is a
subjective situation. Now, objectively, Rivers has not thrown an NFL
pass since people still were buying NFTs. Remember it when
(28:05):
like for a year people, Oh, I gotta buy an
NFT It's the biggest thing in the world. And when's
the last time you heard about NFTs? Now subjectively, subjectively,
Philip Rivers strolls back in the league with a higher rating.
How about this? He has not played in five years,
he's forty four years old. He's a grandfather. And Philip
Rivers has a higher rating than Russell Wilson, should Dur Sanders,
(28:28):
Shaud Dur Sanders, and Tyrod Taylor, and also Kenny Pickett,
who's expected to start for the Raiders this weekend. So
that's not analytics, that's just EA Sports firing up the
nostalgic machine. And it's like a leaf blower at six am.
Now you're not supposed to use that until like nine am.
Why you're doing it at six am? Rivers is essentially
(28:50):
Uncle Rico from Napoleon Dynamite, and he's slinging memories and
not missiles, talking about how he could have taken state
at a at a house somewhere in the sticks out
in Indiana and tossing a nice steak across the yard.
But what the Madden ecosystem. It's a cocktail of math myth.
(29:13):
There's marketing involved, so you got to take that into account.
And I use malor math. They use their own math there.
But the ratings methinks are inflated. I believe they're inflated. Now,
final point to Vegas we go, that's right, to Vegas
Viva Las Vegas, the Raiders. Are we going to talk
(29:35):
about Geno Smith being sent to the showers? No, no,
we're not. It's an injury, allegedly an injury. But the
second consecutive year, the Raiders have done something right. They
have done something right. What have they done well? They
certainly haven't brought the razzle dazzle to the field. They
don't have that. The season has been yet aget a
boondoggle in Vegas. But for the second consecutive year, the
(29:58):
people that build Board magazine, yes, that's apparently still in business.
They have ranked a llegiant stadium, the Rumba on your
way into Vegas. The Rumba in Vegas as the top
grossing stadium in the United States from the Atlantic to
the Pacific. It is at the very top. It is
(30:20):
number one. The home of the Las Vegas Raiders is
the top grossing stadium in the US. The report indicated
that they the gross revenue they made over gross revenue
over two hundred and eighty one million between October of
twenty twenty four and September of twenty twenty five. That
(30:42):
figure also placed the venue second in the world. As
in the Blue Marble, we all share every man, woman
and child. The matter of your religion, doesn't matter, your makeup,
your language. We all share it, right, We all share
the same dumb plan. So the question the Raiders the
(31:04):
Raiders Allegiant Stadium, I mean, I know Scrooge is very happy.
Manuel and Guardina, they're beaming with pride. Just great moments
in Raider history. Great moments in Raider history. The Raiders
Allegiant Stadium, though, being named the highest grossing US venue
for the second year, is blank. I need a word
(31:24):
or words to fill in the blank. So the Raiders
Allegiant Stadium being the second highest grossing US venue for
the second year is blank. I need a blank or blank?
I need two words or one word. So my words
I jotted down here bargain shopping, as in a Faustian bargain,
meaning that Mark Davis and we talked about this last
(31:48):
night with our buddy from the Bay Area. That Mark
Davis strolls up to the crossroads. There he hands over
the franchisees soul and he tells the dark Lord. He says,
back up the brains truck, Bang bang. Two hundred and
eighty one million dollars later, the mission has accomplished. The
place is printing money. However, the Raider identity, like the
(32:13):
Raider identity, the black Hole menace, the grit, the grime,
the prison yard aura of the Raiders, gone gone gone.
It vaporized in my life, my entire childhood, growing up
and as an adult. The Raiders were always just They
(32:33):
were the baddest sobs around. They were, and that fan
base has gotten old. They've been replaced by tourists and influencers,
the worst possible people. Influencers, guys who think a turnover
chain is something you can buy at the gift shop
at Caesar's Palace. You walk around a Legion stadium now
(32:55):
and it feels less like the Oakland Raiders or even
the la Raiders, and more like you're waiting for Carrot
Top to come roaring out with a trunk of props
all kinds of crap and holding it up right, or
for Penn and Teller to make the defense disappear. Which, oh,
by the way, I think they've done that already. The
Raiders beat Penn and Teller, They've already made their defense disappear.
(33:17):
So is it a commercial success? Apps are freaking loutely
off the charts. Off the charts for Releegian Stadium. The
soul of the franchise, what was the Raiders? What made
the Raiders great? The fans commitment to excellence, that's gone,
that's on the clearance rack. And you got Tom Brady
(33:39):
who doesn't know what he's doing, but everyone's afraid to
rip Tom Brady because he's a god in football. You
can't criticize Tom Brady even though he's done worse than
Michael Jordan did when he ran NBA teams. And so
what Mark Davis did. He cashed in and he's like, again,
it made a Faustian bargain. He cashed in. You're not
a football team anymore. The Raiders are a Vegas residency.
(34:03):
That's what they've become. Yeah, they wear shoulder pads and
they wear a helmet, and they have cleats on and
things like that, but they're Vegas residency. The residency doesn't
settle in the Vegas. They're just passing through Vegas and
given enough time, we might not make it. You know,
twenty thirty years down the line, a Legion Stadium will
be old and the Raiders somebody will be like, hey,
(34:25):
why do you come back to La or go back
to Oakland, or somebody will be I want to I
grew up a Raider fan, and I don't want the
Raiders back. And that's what the Raiders do every thirty
years or so. They just moved to a new town,
and that's how they're gonna I imagine Mark Davis will
be gone by them. But somebody else. I don't know
if he has any know he can't. Do you have kids?
I don't think he has kids. Someone's going to get
(34:46):
the team and they'll be like, Hey, I want to
go back down memory Lane and go someplace else.
Speaker 2 (34:51):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Ben Meller
Show weekdays at two am Eastern eleven pm Pacific.
Speaker 1 (34:56):
Here we go, Here we go, Here we go, Here
we how about that? To the third degree? This is
one big Ben gets quilled Google loop.
Speaker 5 (35:08):
It was reported on Wednesday that there are people around
the league who believe that Eagle GM Howie Roseman could
draft a quarterback quote fairly early in the twenty twenty
six NFL draft.
Speaker 1 (35:17):
Ben, are you buying that? Yeah? It makes sense. If
you have a good quarterback, you draft one, and then
if you need him, that's great. If not, you can
trade them. And the Green Bay Packers used to do
this when they had Brett Farb and even Aaron Rodgers.
So it's it's smart business. I don't know why you
wouldn't draft a quarterback.
Speaker 5 (35:33):
Next, as the Bears prepared to face off against the
Browns this weekend, Caleb Williams told reporters that he's gonna
try to make sure that Miles Garrett doesn't get the
sack record on us and on me. Ben Garrett is
at twenty he needs three more to have sole possession
of the record. Do you think he does it against Chicago?
Speaker 1 (35:49):
Well? Not if they run the ball every play. There
is a way to avoid Miles Garrett getting sacks. Just
don't throw the ball. He can't get a sack. And yeah,
I know he's gonna get the record, but if Caleb
willum should get ride a ball quickly that's what you're
supposed to do, he will not get it against the Bears.
Speaker 5 (36:04):
Next, the NFL CBA with the officials expires this offseason,
and something we're heading towards replacement refs again. The NFL
is reportedly pushing for performance based contracts and the referees
associations pushing back on that. How do you think this
plays out?
Speaker 1 (36:16):
Ben, I kind of understand why they're coming up. It's
very subjective officiating, so I understand why the officials referee,
like the Referee Association is upset by that. Because the
NFL is a crooked operation. There'll be some funny business.
They'll work it out, obviously in the end they'll get
a deal done. But man, it's a mess. How do
we doubt you pass?
Speaker 3 (36:35):
There? It is?
Speaker 1 (36:35):
Put it on the board. I won the game.
Speaker 2 (36:41):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at Foxsports Radio
dot com and within the iHeartRadio app search FSR to
listen live. Wait, blame we too.
Speaker 1 (36:54):
It's Big Ben's lame joke of the week. Yeah, let's
do it. Big Ben's Lame Jokes the Week? And weed Man?
Are you there? Weed Man Hippie? Hello? Weed Yeah? How
you doing? How you doing there? I love you? Make
me laugh, Hollywood floor to the great weed Man Hippie.
These are actual jokes by actual listeners. Care of the
Ben Maler Show at gmail dot com. Benmallershow at gmail
(37:16):
dot com. What does Weedman Hippie heave in common with
Christmas decorations. What they both stay lit all night long.
That's that's a good joke. George and Uvalde, Texas bringing
the heat this week. Why did the homeless Weedman hippie
(37:36):
always have viagra in his power?
Speaker 3 (37:39):
Why?
Speaker 1 (37:40):
Well, if the weather got bad, he could always just
pitch a tent. That's all he needed to do.
Speaker 4 (37:45):
And U.
Speaker 1 (37:49):
Joe in Virginia Beach? Who sent that one in? What
was what was one reason why Weedman Hippie's business failed? Why? Well,
unfortunately he offered and entered into he entered into joint
ventures that went up and smoked. That's a George and
Yuvaldi textas FedEx Mike just sent this one in at
the last minute. FedEx Mike asked, why did weed Man
(38:13):
get fired from the eminem factory? You remember why you
got fired from the eminem factory? Why you kept throwing
away all the w's man? What's up with that? Dude?
Oldie but a goodie has weed man hip? He ever
received any ceremony awards or distinctions or any peace prize
(38:34):
medallions for his earnest attempts to change the world? Wow,
I really should Well you haven't, weed Man, because you
don't have an address, So that's why you've not received
that's the hut Hut specialist. But did you hear the
news this week that Philip Rivers was asked head to
(38:55):
the Indianapolis Colts. Yeah, And a related story, weed Man
Hippie was asked ahead to the Miami Better Business Bureau.
That's from Gordon. Could to see Gordon's name again in
the jokes? Gordon, a prolific joke writer over the year,
is gonna see his name still in the mix there?
Why is weed Man the smartest person in the room.
(39:18):
Why because he's the only person in the room. That's why.
That's Noah in Austin A right, Well, what did the
genie in the bottle grant weed Man when he asked
for BMW's Wow, what Ben Mahler weed and the show?
(39:39):
Let's see what Ben Maller weed? That's Chip in Maine.
Who sent that one? And who is weed Man's favorite
all time actor? Who Humphrey beau Guard bow Garden? That
was not from That was not from blond Scott. That
was Brendan from Boston. Brandon from Boston. Uh see, I
think this one's not bad. What is weed Man's version
(39:59):
of a pill fight. What two homeless dudes hitting each
other with cardboard boxes over the head. That's a that's
a that's Mike the Leprechaun out of Boston. Who sent
that one in? Why did Santa skip weed man Hippies
place last year? Why? Because weed Man's feet were still
in his Christmas stockings? That's why. That's a Gordon in Tacoba.
(40:25):
It's Big Ben's lame jokes league. What's the difference between
e dogg and blind Scott? What E dog gets women? Oh? Wow,
all right, that's a Noah in Austin. Why didn't a
young Ben Maler like to play with tops during Hanukkah? Why? Well,
he thought it was very dre dole. That's a minute.
Speaker 5 (40:50):
He got his jokes over there, coup Uh. Yeah, they're
the same ones that you have. But I don't think
you didn't read this one yet. It's from Mike the Leprechaun.
Why did weed Man vote for Obama?
Speaker 1 (41:02):
I don't know.
Speaker 5 (41:04):
Obama promised he would bring some change to the country.
Speaker 1 (41:10):
How about this one. I think it's a pretty good joke.
I think this is a joke that the boys will
be repeating this week. Who is the best fit for
Sharon Moore's next job. The former Michigan coach the USC Trojans. Trojans,
that's Chip and Maine. Who sent that one? Well, apparently not.
(41:32):
But when I was earlier, my raider caer Tony Bruno
sent me to the USC Oregon State game because it
was the Trojans versus the Beavers, and he wanted to
do the joke. So I always an Oregon State was
terrible in those days, but I always did the joke.
Let's see here, did you hear that Blind Scott's blind
wife finally left him. It's bad news, but at least
(41:54):
she's not seeing anyone news, so there's not you know,
there's that. That's Michael Michael Lepper. All right, I think
we'll get out on that. Thank you so much, Weed Man,
I appreciate that. Good job by you. Big Ben's lame
jokes of the Week.
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 Benmatherers Show at Foxsports Radio dot Com.
You can find it there or stream us live every
night on the iHeartRadio app by searching FSR.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
This is the best of the Ben Maler Show on
Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
Well in pirate lingo, you'd say, there she blows. Well,
come in the beginning of another night of the Benmahler Show.
Just one after another. They keep happening. We can't stop
them from happening. Well, we don't want to stop them
from happening, as we are cheek to cheek and we
serve well seasoned meals, balanced diet of sports takes here
(00:56):
coast to coast, border to border and beyond on the
VA and robustly powerful microphones of fsre am monating live
from the Donkey as we play Pin the Tail on
the Donkey from the world famous Fox Sports Radio Studios
(01:17):
and this portion of the Ben Malach Show as told
by Kevin and Florida, whose son shares my birthday. For
over forty years, tire Rack has been helping customers find
the right tires for how, what and where they drive,
ship fast and free back by free road hazard protection
with convenient installation options like mobile tire installation tire rac
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dot com. The way tire bond should be in ferg
Dog says, Hey, Alf wants you to know, and malve
prop guy said, what about haley On? Well, guys, every
goal starts with an assist on and off the field.
That's why Haleyon and US Soccer are launching for the Assist,
a celebration of everyday acts of support that help people
(01:59):
achieve their goals with iconic brands like Centidine, Thoms, voltairean
Andville and Centrum. To learn more, go to Haleyon Assist
dot com. We are back at it inside the Magic
Radio Box as we chop down the overnight hours in
the NFL weekend underway in our lead this hour, we're
(02:23):
going to start out in Tampa, week fifteen of the
NFL season. They're kicking off at the stadium I think
still called Raymond James Stadium. All these stadiums changed names
in a million times, but fire the cannons e NFC
South barn Burner between the visiting Falcons playing out the
string against the Buccaneers who still have a lot to
(02:45):
play for Falcons with Kirk Cousins, who's toiling away there
in the atail and the Baker mayfield for the Buccaneers.
You had al Michaels and Herbie in the Amazon on
the call. So I don't know if you're watching this
game or not. Perhaps you miss it. I don't knows
you would be watching. Maybe he's weren't watching anything. But
here's the deal, Kirk Cousins, wake up the echoes. Kirk Cousins,
(03:09):
not one, not two, Three touchdown passes in a primetime game.
Remember the curse of Cousins in primetime games back in
his Minnesota days. But he looked good in this game.
Three touchdown passes, a bunch of yards. Of the touchdown
passes all to Kyle Pitts, the tight end, built like
a Donnis. He often plays like a Pip Squeak, but
(03:32):
not on this game. Not in this game. And Zane Gonzalez,
the idiot kicker, booted a forty three yard field goal
as time expired. Good afternoon, good evening, and good night,
and Atlanta rallies from two touchdowns down and they get
the one point win over the team from Floresta. Atlanta
gets the win there and the highlight of the night
(03:54):
was not on the field, Say well, what about that
Zane Gonzales kicking no, no, no. For our purposes in
talk radio, the highlight was thirty seconds. It's a postgame
clip of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers coach Todd Bowles. Now,
Todd Bowles has coached multiple NFL teams over the years,
and none of them have been very good. Yeah, he
(04:16):
occasionally will give us solid gold. He will, and he
gave us that unleashing the beast as Todd Bowles. Every
once in a while you get a coach that's at
the end of the rope and decides to let you
know what they really think of their football team. And
let's go to the audio tape. Here is Todd Bowles
breaking down what's wrong with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Speaker 3 (04:40):
It's an excuseable. You don't make excuses. You got enough words,
you got care enough for it, got something to you.
It's more than a job. How well do you know
your job? How well can you do your job?
Speaker 2 (04:56):
Well?
Speaker 3 (04:56):
You can't, sugar coach, it was a usable man, because
it's for that's for no excuse for it.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
That's what you're telling them. A look, yeah, I don't
know who edited that, but way too too long. The
bleeps were too long. But it's unfortunate. Go to social
media get the actual cutakes. We're not we're not grown
ups here in overnight radio to play the right butt.
But listen, I know you can't to play bad words,
but you can. There's ways you get edited. But he
said the F word seven times, the S word four times.
(05:25):
The key parts of that inexcusable, and it's your e
fing livelihood. I mean, we couldnt even get a little
taste of the F word in that. I mean, my god,
just the F at the beginning. Holy crap. I gotta
teach you editing now. I'll had that to my resume,
all right. So that's a good jumping off point. Let
us discuss the question what did Bucks coach Todd Bowles.
You barely hurt any of it because of the tremendous
(05:47):
editing job, but what did Bucks coach Todd Bowles postgame
rant reveal? So my thoughts on this, I've got a
three by three Walgreens and Pink Paradise, and we will
combine all of these things together and we are going
to make a Cuban sandwich, which is the sandwich of
choice in the greater Tampa area, or so I am told,
(06:10):
and some Cuban cigars, which is also very popular there
in the greater Tampa Saint Pete area. So A, this
wasn't coaching. What are you talking about, He's a coach.
It wasn't coaching. This was a hostage video by Todd Bowles.
This is why I do this job, Like these kind
of rants. If everyone just said the same boring crap,
(06:31):
which they do ninety eight percent of the time, what's
the point of doing this? Every once in a while,
someone's loud and proud, and that would be Todd Bowles. Here.
It was thirty seconds of pure, uncut rage rage. I
love it. No pr polish, no media training, just Todd
Bowles and a microphone. And it was cartoonish. As we
(06:56):
like to say on this show from time to time
when someone has a rant like this, say it's just
like Popeye. That's all I can stands and I can't
stands no more. Now, what did it reveal? What did
it real Well, it revealed simply that Todd Bowles just
let you know that behind the curtain, behind the locker
room doors, he believes his players are lazy. He's not
(07:18):
coaching them to play that way. They've checked out. That's
what I took from that. That's what I took Todd
Bowles is announcing, listen, these guys are so stupid. My
players I tell them to do, they don't listen to me.
The Marans, I don't know what they're doing. And it's
because of that. He just finally was at the end
of it. And you know, if guys were doing what
(07:39):
they were supposed to do and grinding away, you don't
have to scream about their effing livelihood. You don't. You know,
you scream about someone else, you'll scream about that. Well,
that's we know they take this seriously, that this is
a last ditch flare gun fired straight up in the
dark night sky, and it's it's a three by served
(08:01):
up piping hot by Todd Bowles. You've got the unfiltered meltdown, crude,
raw and soaked and desperation. That's the three by three crude,
raw and soaked in desperation, and Todd Bowles is fed up. Obviously,
he blew up a gasket because he knows the math.
(08:22):
And they do have some games coming up with Carolina.
There's only three games to go for the Buccaneers where
they have a couple of games I believe still both
games with Carolina. So there's no sugar coating, no corporate speak.
He cut through. He took his the chainsaw and he
just cut through the bull crap is what he does. Yeah,
(08:42):
and here's the irony, Like, I really wish Todd Bowles
was a good coach. I do. He's been around for
a long time, coach the Cardinals and the Jets, and
I wish he was good because he's a hell of
a sound bite. He really is good. Good sound That's
all I care about. I'm a talk shows. I care
about sound bites. He's really good. Unfortunately, bites don't win
championships and they don't fix game management. And people were
(09:05):
ranting and raving about the time out strategy. There were
four options that Bucks had on that Falcons final drive
and he picked the worst possible one. It's kind of
like grabbing the mystery box on let's make a deal,
and that's what he did. You bought fourteen point lead,
a fourteen point lead against that Atlanta team. Wow, wow,
(09:28):
you and you was back to back at home to
the Saints and the Falcons. That is a fireable offense,
is what that is? Atlanta, they tried to give wrap
the game. They had a turnover palooza. Well not by
the penalty. Turnovers were also a little spice on top
of mostly penalties and the whole NBA jam combo and
(09:49):
Tampa went. They went like NBA jam. They rejected it
like spam mail and fans are angry, right, Oh, he
should be gone defense. He's a defensive guy. The buck
defense is twenty fourth in points allowed. The microwave is on,
the heat is up in the microwave. And that rant.
That was a man who knows he is coaching for
(10:11):
his job and not his team. You know, his team
will have jobs in the NFL. He's not gonna have
that job if this continues the way it's going there
in Buckland. Because wow, I mean, yeah, you're in control
and then you lose at home to the Saints and
the Falcons and you blow a lead to the Atlanta Falcons.
That is embarrassing. That is I mean even people that
(10:35):
know football. No, that's embarrassing, right, that is bad? All right,
now turning the page, but not very far. He's gonna
keep with the theme of the hour. Baker Mayfield has
entered the chat. Yep, that Baker Mayfield. It's a time
honored tradition. When a team loses, you play the SoundBite
of their quarterback as well as their head coach. We've
already done the head coach thing. So Baker Mayfield attempting
(10:56):
to shoulder literally shoulder the blame as he had had
a gut punch interception in late in the game, he
did ride the vomit comet. And here is Baker Mayfield
who's trying to take full ownership of his part of
the blame. Pie for the Bucks. Take a listen.
Speaker 4 (11:15):
Disappointing obviously, but falls on my shoulders. Can't can't turn
the ball over, can't have that interception, got to hit
mecans tride on that third down. Listen. You can say
what you want about being up two scores and the
defense right there, but we have to be better on offense.
And it comes down to how I play this one.
This one's gonna haunt me. This this falls on my shoulders.
Speaker 1 (11:37):
So some pearls of wisdom there. The question Baker Mayfield
saying that his Tampa Bay Buccaneers lost the loss he
quarterback there is going to haunt him? Is that inbounds
or out of bounds? So the pearls of wisdom from
Baker Mayfield after a minutes long Mallard deliberation are totally inbounds.
(12:01):
This was a textbook quarterback confessional, is what this was.
The quarterback steps in front of the firing squad. You're
supposed to eat the blame, enjoy the blame. You're responsible.
You hope the bullets stopped flying. The boilerplate. It was
that sure, it was a boilerplate response. Nevertheless, this one
(12:25):
does have a long receipt alongside. Like Baker Mayfield earned
every ounce of the Haunted House talk. And again we
like the gumption, the grit and all that stuff. Baker
the old lunch pale guy, and he's a sledgehammer out there.
Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah. However, on this night,
and really the last month plus, Baker Mayfield has been
(12:49):
Baker the headache maker and needs to go down to
Walgreens and get a large container of pharmacy grade ibuprofen
to hand out to the buccaneer backers. I hope I
got TJ. Reeves is okay? The Bucks sideline guy there,
My goodness. I did see him on TV briefly. It
was wringing the full ensemble. The Bucks were dressed for success.
They had the creamsicle uniforms on the classic throwback uniforms.
(13:12):
Unfortunately they did not perform up to that standard, which
you generally don't like. You generally don't like that. So anyway,
the Bucks, they get twenty eight points to say, that
should be enough to win. They still left points on
the table and they left those around like abandoned luggage
at pick your favorite airport JFK or Hare or Lax
(13:34):
or whatever. And Mayfield, I wouldn't say it was bad.
He wasn't bad. He wanted to bundle of joy. He
was okay, he was fine, just fine, nothing screenshot worthy,
nothing to put on the gram or TikTok or any
that stuff. And when the lights got hottest late in
the fourth quarter, Baker melted like cheap wax. He was
(13:57):
not up for the combat, the hand to hand combat,
and to be outplayed by the fossilized remains of Kirk Cousins.
You were out performed by Kirk Cousins. Let that settle in. Wow.
I think Cousins I saw at one point there, and
maybe it was my imagination, he actually had a walker
(14:17):
between snaps, he hit a walker. Cousins had fifteen bad plays.
Fifteen bad plays in this game. Baker Mayfield had twenty one.
And that's a minus six swing in a what turned
out to be a razor thin margin game. And so
six more negative plays by Baker Mayfield, especially the late
(14:40):
interception which set the dirty Birds up to get the
ball back and to go down knowing they were only
down by two points and they could end up winning
the game with the field goal. But that that's the
malord math on that kid's now the Petridge Farm remembers
moment of the night. I'm old enough, and I don't
know if you're old enough. You're probably not old. But
(15:00):
I'm old enough to remember when Baker Mayfield was the
front runner after Week four for the Most Valuable Player
award in the NFL. Now, let's take a look. Let's
peak at Baker Mayfield. So Baker Mayfield the last five games.
The last five games, Baker Mayfield one hundred and sixty
(15:21):
one yards per game on average, six touchdowns, five interceptions,
a passer rating which I think is slightly above a
gas station microwave, I think. And yeah, so this loss
will be the Haunted Mansion and it's not over. The
Bucks still have two couple of matchups with Carolina and
(15:42):
they can take care of that. And certainly Carolina is
no good. They're not a great team or anything like that.
But that's not Melo drama. That's more of an accountability
from Baker Mayfield. All right, Now, last word, we go
to the winning locker room, which is not not the
better story, but it is a story. It is a story.
And the question what does this dramatic last second win
(16:08):
do for the equally and battered Falcons coach Raheem Morris.
So they can't tank to get a higher draft pick.
They don't have a first round pick, so you're not
doing that. You're trying to play to win the game
and all that stuff, and so it but it does
on my scorecard, and you can chime in when we
give out the number in a few but on my scorecard,
(16:29):
it buys Raheem Morris. A weekend pass, not a season ticket.
A weekend pass like this is a temporary reprieve from
the Pink Paradise, which is known as the Pink Slip
is in the mail for right now. The package has
been delayed. The package has been delayed. But this was
(16:50):
an island game and Atlanta got bonked on the head
with a coconut and they still won the game anywhere,
all right, So let's not throw a parade down Petche
Street yet because the Falcons. If anything, this game was
more of a reminder of what a terrible job Raheem
Morris has done as a head coach. Let me make
my elevator pitch on that. You look at how the
(17:12):
Falcons were moving the ball, and a lot of that
was because of the Bucks defense, but still there were
legitimate flashes that this could have been a fairy tale
season in Atlanta and instead it's like a broken strobe
light in a dive bar. That's the fact, Kyle pits
we've mocked many a night. The draftis, Oh my god,
(17:34):
they got all horney of their pants down because Kyle
Pitts is built like a Donnis and he finally looked
like the unicorn all you idiots said he was going
to be. He looked like the player that he was
advertised as. Eleven catches on twelve targets, eleven out of
twelve on the targets, one hundred and sixty six yards
and three touchdowns. And if you look at the box score,
(17:55):
a partridge in a pear tree, so a grown man
playing against it looked like a bunch of middle schoolers
who were on sleeping medication. And he had Jon Robinson
Electric Electric one hundred and seventy five total yards in
this game, dancing through defenders like it was open mic Knight.
And we mentioned Kirk Cousins dusting off the Minnesota Sizzle
(18:18):
reel from Back in the Day throwback performance by Kirk Cousins.
And yet even with that, they were down fourteen, they
being Atlanta in the fourth quarter and needed Baker Mayfield
to f up Baker the headache maker for you to
have a shot to kick a field goal to win
the game. And nineteen penalties, So what do we like
(18:39):
to say, you're either coaching it or you're allowing it
to happen. Nineteen penalties a record for this season. And
I believe a franchise record for the Falcons, and they've
had some really bad teams. Nineteen penalties, one hundred and
seventy five yards. It's like a team that can't walk
in chew gum at the same time, and they still
won the game. So even though Rawhie Morris gets a
(18:59):
tempt reprieve when you do inventory at the end of
the season and you look back, you're like, well, wait
a minute, we've got some real prime rib talent, and
why are we serving beyond burger? Who wants a burger
with no meat?
Speaker 3 (19:12):
Right?
Speaker 1 (19:13):
We're prime rib? What are we doing? It was the
this team is the quintessential meh team m eh matt
as in mediocre efforts, hopeless, often hopeless, and so this
wain feel good for a night and all that stuff.
It's a band aid on a bullet hole, a reminder
that with a little bit better coaching, this team could have,
(19:37):
should have and would have been something special. But they're not.
They are not. Sorry.
Speaker 2 (19:45):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Ben Maller
Show weekdays at two am Eastern eleven pm Pacific on
Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app. Fox Sports Radio
was taking over YouTube and you can be a part
of it. Juch and just go the YouTube and search
Fox Sports Radio. Hit that subscribe button and smash that
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(20:07):
Two Pros and a Cup of Joe, Dan Patrick, Colin Coward,
Doug Gottlieb Cavino, w and Rich, The Odd Couple with
Rob Parker and Kelvin Washington, The Jason Smith Show with
Mike Harmon, and The Ben Maler.
Speaker 1 (20:18):
Show Fox Sports Radio on YouTube. Subscribe, hit that thumbs
up icon and comment away, and we are back at it.
Had a compelling Thursday night NFL game to kick off
Week fifteen, and had no skin in the game. We
did give the right pickout on Benny versus the penny.
We're happy about that. We did not expect Atlanta actually
(20:39):
win the game. We thought they would just cover the spread,
but they won the game outright on a last second
field goals time ran out there. So Atlanta playing the
role of spoiler and now Carolina controls their own destiny.
So I'm told, if Carolina beats the Saints in Louisiana
this weekend, if they win that game and they only
(21:00):
have to win one of the two against the Tampa
Bay Buccaneers and then they're in they win the division.
So that's where it's at in terms of the NFC South.
Todd Bowles had a potty mouth ramt which I loved,
loved Todd Bowles, which he was a better coach. But
our lead this hour is from Cincinadi, where the Bengals
(21:23):
are playing out the string on another failed season wide receiver.
Jamar Chase like a knight in shining armor, running to
save his damsel in distress, or in this case, his quarterback,
and he believes the narrative that Joe Burrow is losing
his love of football is false. Now, how do we
(21:43):
know Jamar Chase believes that is a false narrative. If
you didn't see this, perhaps not Chase his weekly media availability.
He attempted to put the fire out. He wanted to
set the record straight. Here is Jamar Chase explaining that
all those stories that are all over the interweb and
social media about Joe Burrow not being happy, I don't
(22:07):
know if i'd believe that. Take a listen, he smiles
every day.
Speaker 4 (22:10):
Like the narrative that y'all trying to paint on him.
Speaker 3 (22:15):
Right now, I don't see it.
Speaker 1 (22:16):
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3 (22:16):
At the end of the day, he's the same person
every day he comes to work.
Speaker 2 (22:19):
He loves work, he loves the guy in the locker room.
Speaker 3 (22:21):
So he's pretty positive to me.
Speaker 1 (22:23):
Arts we'll just ask some questions, just with them for
a little bit of narratives. That's okay, Okay, just asking questions.
Don't be upset to me. I love you. I have
all your your football cards. Okay. So that's a good
jumping off point. Let us discuss the question, Jamar Chase,
you heard it blaming the media for making it seem
(22:43):
like Joe Burrow is not happy with the Bengals, saying
that's the narrative there. How much weight does this have?
So I've got deck, Picasso, and carrot top, and we
will combine all of these things together and we are
going to make some spaghetti and meatballs, is what we're
(23:03):
going to make. So number Jamar Chase is attempting with
this interaction with the fourth estate. He is attempting to
play human for Breeze. What He's going to clean the
air around the Ben Gals franchise because if you if
(23:26):
you sniff, there's a bit of a stench around there. Now,
Chase implies, the media is out there stirring the pot.
You media troublemakers. If it wasn't for you, meddling media losers,
then none of this would happen. So it's like they're
stirring the pot. They being the media because I'm not
part of the mainstream. I do overnight. Overnight's not part
of the mainstream. Mainstream is daytime. I'm not daytime. I'm overnight,
(23:49):
so I'm not part of the media. I'm overnight radio,
not mainstream media. So anyway, Chase is this saying, Oh,
you guys are stirring the pot. You're splitting some hot
sauce on Joe Burrow. Every syllable that Joe Burrow rows
out blah blah blah blah blah. So corner Chase, Joey
b is smiling and skipping and whistling in the locker rooms.
(24:10):
Zippity dude, das zippity day. Hey, I love playing with
the Bengals because we blow. Yeah, it's like he's starring
in a Disney musical. Everything's fine, nothing to see here. Yeah, Unfortunately,
I'm not a country bumpkin, so I don't buy it.
Maybe cardiac. Stanley buys it, but I don't buy it.
(24:30):
This carries the weight of a feather in a hurricane.
It does, and so Chase, I know what he's doing,
Jamar Chase. He's playing the blame the media spin card
from the bottom of the deck right, a classic deflection,
classic deflection grade a victimhood developing hot dot dot dot.
Distrust of the media is the easiest scapegoat since blaming
(24:55):
the dog for not turning in your homework. The dog
ate my home work. Okay, but here's the rub dumbo.
Joe Burrow said the quiet part out loud. In a
previous episode of The Ben Mathers Show, we highlighted some audio.
The man literally walked up to a hot microphone surrounded
(25:16):
by reporters in a news conference environment, unprovoked. Unprovoked, okay,
and he delivered a Shakespearean in cleete soliloquy about joy
fading and football not being fun? Why am I doing this?
Speaker 4 (25:33):
Right?
Speaker 1 (25:33):
As his quote was, if it's not fun, then what
am I doing it for? That wasn't taken out of context,
Jamar Chase. It was the context that was literally the context.
So spare me the media boogeyman. Bull crap. This is
Joe Burrow. That's what he said. That's the essence of
Joe Burrow. This is a Burrow problem. It's not the
(25:55):
beat writers problem. It sounds like the beat writers are
fanboys the way they attempted to I'm just asking questions,
just asking question all right now, Page two to Indianapolis,
the game that everyone will be watching like we're rubbernecking
driving down the highway and there's an accident and you
can't stop. Look so Indy going to Seattle and Philip
(26:17):
Rivers back in the NFL with the Colts after five
years on the sidelines as a high school football coach
in Alabama, and that means that he is back in
the game. EA Sports. The EA Madden rating is out.
They revealed this week that Rivers will have a seventy
(26:38):
overall rating in Madden NFL twenty six. A seventy rating,
He'll have an eighty three throw power rating, a eighty
six short throw accuracy rating, and a fifty nine rating
for speed. If that does something for you, congratulations, Now
the question Let's just look at the big picture here.
So Philip Rivers with a seventy overall rating in the
(27:01):
updated Madden NFL twenty six game. Are you okay with that? So, yeah,
I'm fine with I think of this like a like
a Picasso hanging crooked in a dimly lit bar in Gary, Indiana,
and then they moved it over to French Lick, Indiana.
(27:22):
So can't close the deal. Neil and his relatives can
go check it out. Like opinions are paintings. I you me,
the Madden rating adjusters, whoever comes up with that. We're
all staring at the same brushstrokes and all that, and
somehow we see different different things. Much like I've pointed
(27:45):
out in the past, which upsets people like Justin and
Cincinnati and Robbie the Mariner fan and others, that a
social media post is like a painting. It is a
subjective situation. Now, objectively, Rivers has not thrown an NFL
pass since people still were buying NFTs. Remember it when
(28:05):
like for a year people, Oh, I gotta buy an
NFT It's the biggest thing in the world. And when's
the last time you heard about NFTs? Now subjectively, subjectively,
Philip Rivers strolls back in the league with a higher rating.
How about this? He has not played in five years,
he's forty four years old. He's a grandfather. And Philip
Rivers has a higher rating than Russell Wilson, should Dur Sanders,
(28:28):
Shaud Dur Sanders, and Tyrod Taylor, and also Kenny Pickett,
who's expected to start for the Raiders this weekend. So
that's not analytics, that's just EA Sports firing up the
nostalgic machine. And it's like a leaf blower at six am.
Now you're not supposed to use that until like nine am.
Why you're doing it at six am? Rivers is essentially
(28:50):
Uncle Rico from Napoleon Dynamite, and he's slinging memories and
not missiles, talking about how he could have taken state
at a at a house somewhere in the sticks out
in Indiana and tossing a nice steak across the yard.
But what the Madden ecosystem. It's a cocktail of math myth.
(29:13):
There's marketing involved, so you got to take that into account.
And I use malor math. They use their own math there.
But the ratings methinks are inflated. I believe they're inflated. Now,
final point to Vegas we go, that's right, to Vegas
Viva Las Vegas, the Raiders. Are we going to talk
(29:35):
about Geno Smith being sent to the showers? No, no,
we're not. It's an injury, allegedly an injury. But the
second consecutive year, the Raiders have done something right. They
have done something right. What have they done well? They
certainly haven't brought the razzle dazzle to the field. They
don't have that. The season has been yet aget a
boondoggle in Vegas. But for the second consecutive year, the
(29:58):
people that build Board magazine, yes, that's apparently still in business.
They have ranked a llegiant stadium, the Rumba on your
way into Vegas. The Rumba in Vegas as the top
grossing stadium in the United States from the Atlantic to
the Pacific. It is at the very top. It is
(30:20):
number one. The home of the Las Vegas Raiders is
the top grossing stadium in the US. The report indicated
that they the gross revenue they made over gross revenue
over two hundred and eighty one million between October of
twenty twenty four and September of twenty twenty five. That
(30:42):
figure also placed the venue second in the world. As
in the Blue Marble, we all share every man, woman
and child. The matter of your religion, doesn't matter, your makeup,
your language. We all share it, right, We all share
the same dumb plan. So the question the Raiders the
(31:04):
Raiders Allegiant Stadium, I mean, I know Scrooge is very happy.
Manuel and Guardina, they're beaming with pride. Just great moments
in Raider history. Great moments in Raider history. The Raiders
Allegiant Stadium, though, being named the highest grossing US venue
for the second year, is blank. I need a word
(31:24):
or words to fill in the blank. So the Raiders
Allegiant Stadium being the second highest grossing US venue for
the second year is blank. I need a blank or blank?
I need two words or one word. So my words
I jotted down here bargain shopping, as in a Faustian bargain,
meaning that Mark Davis and we talked about this last
(31:48):
night with our buddy from the Bay Area. That Mark
Davis strolls up to the crossroads. There he hands over
the franchisees soul and he tells the dark Lord. He says,
back up the brains truck, Bang bang. Two hundred and
eighty one million dollars later, the mission has accomplished. The
place is printing money. However, the Raider identity, like the
(32:13):
Raider identity, the black Hole menace, the grit, the grime,
the prison yard aura of the Raiders, gone gone gone.
It vaporized in my life, my entire childhood, growing up
and as an adult. The Raiders were always just They
(32:33):
were the baddest sobs around. They were, and that fan
base has gotten old. They've been replaced by tourists and influencers,
the worst possible people. Influencers, guys who think a turnover
chain is something you can buy at the gift shop
at Caesar's Palace. You walk around a Legion stadium now
(32:55):
and it feels less like the Oakland Raiders or even
the la Raiders, and more like you're waiting for Carrot
Top to come roaring out with a trunk of props
all kinds of crap and holding it up right, or
for Penn and Teller to make the defense disappear. Which, oh,
by the way, I think they've done that already. The
Raiders beat Penn and Teller, They've already made their defense disappear.
(33:17):
So is it a commercial success? Apps are freaking loutely
off the charts. Off the charts for Releegian Stadium. The
soul of the franchise, what was the Raiders? What made
the Raiders great? The fans commitment to excellence, that's gone,
that's on the clearance rack. And you got Tom Brady
(33:39):
who doesn't know what he's doing, but everyone's afraid to
rip Tom Brady because he's a god in football. You
can't criticize Tom Brady even though he's done worse than
Michael Jordan did when he ran NBA teams. And so
what Mark Davis did. He cashed in and he's like, again,
it made a Faustian bargain. He cashed in. You're not
a football team anymore. The Raiders are a Vegas residency.
(34:03):
That's what they've become. Yeah, they wear shoulder pads and
they wear a helmet, and they have cleats on and
things like that, but they're Vegas residency. The residency doesn't
settle in the Vegas. They're just passing through Vegas and
given enough time, we might not make it. You know,
twenty thirty years down the line, a Legion Stadium will
be old and the Raiders somebody will be like, hey,
(34:25):
why do you come back to La or go back
to Oakland, or somebody will be I want to I
grew up a Raider fan, and I don't want the
Raiders back. And that's what the Raiders do every thirty
years or so. They just moved to a new town,
and that's how they're gonna I imagine Mark Davis will
be gone by them. But somebody else. I don't know
if he has any know he can't. Do you have kids?
I don't think he has kids. Someone's going to get
(34:46):
the team and they'll be like, Hey, I want to
go back down memory Lane and go someplace else.
Speaker 2 (34:51):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Ben Meller
Show weekdays at two am Eastern eleven pm Pacific.
Speaker 1 (34:56):
Here we go, Here we go, Here we go, Here
we how about that? To the third degree? This is
one big Ben gets quilled Google loop.
Speaker 5 (35:08):
It was reported on Wednesday that there are people around
the league who believe that Eagle GM Howie Roseman could
draft a quarterback quote fairly early in the twenty twenty
six NFL draft.
Speaker 1 (35:17):
Ben, are you buying that? Yeah? It makes sense. If
you have a good quarterback, you draft one, and then
if you need him, that's great. If not, you can
trade them. And the Green Bay Packers used to do
this when they had Brett Farb and even Aaron Rodgers.
So it's it's smart business. I don't know why you
wouldn't draft a quarterback.
Speaker 5 (35:33):
Next, as the Bears prepared to face off against the
Browns this weekend, Caleb Williams told reporters that he's gonna
try to make sure that Miles Garrett doesn't get the
sack record on us and on me. Ben Garrett is
at twenty he needs three more to have sole possession
of the record. Do you think he does it against Chicago?
Speaker 1 (35:49):
Well? Not if they run the ball every play. There
is a way to avoid Miles Garrett getting sacks. Just
don't throw the ball. He can't get a sack. And yeah,
I know he's gonna get the record, but if Caleb
willum should get ride a ball quickly that's what you're
supposed to do, he will not get it against the Bears.
Speaker 5 (36:04):
Next, the NFL CBA with the officials expires this offseason,
and something we're heading towards replacement refs again. The NFL
is reportedly pushing for performance based contracts and the referees
associations pushing back on that. How do you think this
plays out?
Speaker 1 (36:16):
Ben, I kind of understand why they're coming up. It's
very subjective officiating, so I understand why the officials referee,
like the Referee Association is upset by that. Because the
NFL is a crooked operation. There'll be some funny business.
They'll work it out, obviously in the end they'll get
a deal done. But man, it's a mess. How do
we doubt you pass?
Speaker 3 (36:35):
There? It is?
Speaker 1 (36:35):
Put it on the board. I won the game.
Speaker 2 (36:41):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at Foxsports Radio
dot com and within the iHeartRadio app search FSR to
listen live. Wait, blame we too.
Speaker 1 (36:54):
It's Big Ben's lame joke of the week. Yeah, let's
do it. Big Ben's Lame Jokes the Week? And weed Man?
Are you there? Weed Man Hippie? Hello? Weed Yeah? How
you doing? How you doing there? I love you? Make
me laugh, Hollywood floor to the great weed Man Hippie.
These are actual jokes by actual listeners. Care of the
Ben Maler Show at gmail dot com. Benmallershow at gmail
(37:16):
dot com. What does Weedman Hippie heave in common with
Christmas decorations. What they both stay lit all night long.
That's that's a good joke. George and Uvalde, Texas bringing
the heat this week. Why did the homeless Weedman hippie
(37:36):
always have viagra in his power?
Speaker 3 (37:39):
Why?
Speaker 1 (37:40):
Well, if the weather got bad, he could always just
pitch a tent. That's all he needed to do.
Speaker 4 (37:45):
And U.
Speaker 1 (37:49):
Joe in Virginia Beach? Who sent that one in? What
was what was one reason why Weedman Hippie's business failed? Why? Well,
unfortunately he offered and entered into he entered into joint
ventures that went up and smoked. That's a George and
Yuvaldi textas FedEx Mike just sent this one in at
the last minute. FedEx Mike asked, why did weed Man
(38:13):
get fired from the eminem factory? You remember why you
got fired from the eminem factory? Why you kept throwing
away all the w's man? What's up with that? Dude?
Oldie but a goodie has weed man hip? He ever
received any ceremony awards or distinctions or any peace prize
(38:34):
medallions for his earnest attempts to change the world? Wow,
I really should Well you haven't, weed Man, because you
don't have an address, So that's why you've not received
that's the hut Hut specialist. But did you hear the
news this week that Philip Rivers was asked head to
(38:55):
the Indianapolis Colts. Yeah, And a related story, weed Man
Hippie was asked ahead to the Miami Better Business Bureau.
That's from Gordon. Could to see Gordon's name again in
the jokes? Gordon, a prolific joke writer over the year,
is gonna see his name still in the mix there?
Why is weed Man the smartest person in the room.
(39:18):
Why because he's the only person in the room. That's why.
That's Noah in Austin A right, Well, what did the
genie in the bottle grant weed Man when he asked
for BMW's Wow, what Ben Mahler weed and the show?
(39:39):
Let's see what Ben Maller weed? That's Chip in Maine.
Who sent that one? And who is weed Man's favorite
all time actor? Who Humphrey beau Guard bow Garden? That
was not from That was not from blond Scott. That
was Brendan from Boston. Brandon from Boston. Uh see, I
think this one's not bad. What is weed Man's version
(39:59):
of a pill fight. What two homeless dudes hitting each
other with cardboard boxes over the head. That's a that's
a that's Mike the Leprechaun out of Boston. Who sent
that one in? Why did Santa skip weed man Hippies
place last year? Why? Because weed Man's feet were still
in his Christmas stockings? That's why. That's a Gordon in Tacoba.
(40:25):
It's Big Ben's lame jokes league. What's the difference between
e dogg and blind Scott? What E dog gets women? Oh? Wow,
all right, that's a Noah in Austin. Why didn't a
young Ben Maler like to play with tops during Hanukkah? Why? Well,
he thought it was very dre dole. That's a minute.
Speaker 5 (40:50):
He got his jokes over there, coup Uh. Yeah, they're
the same ones that you have. But I don't think
you didn't read this one yet. It's from Mike the Leprechaun.
Why did weed Man vote for Obama?
Speaker 1 (41:02):
I don't know.
Speaker 5 (41:04):
Obama promised he would bring some change to the country.
Speaker 1 (41:10):
How about this one. I think it's a pretty good joke.
I think this is a joke that the boys will
be repeating this week. Who is the best fit for
Sharon Moore's next job. The former Michigan coach the USC Trojans. Trojans,
that's Chip and Maine. Who sent that one? Well, apparently not.
(41:32):
But when I was earlier, my raider caer Tony Bruno
sent me to the USC Oregon State game because it
was the Trojans versus the Beavers, and he wanted to
do the joke. So I always an Oregon State was
terrible in those days, but I always did the joke.
Let's see here, did you hear that Blind Scott's blind
wife finally left him. It's bad news, but at least
(41:54):
she's not seeing anyone news, so there's not you know,
there's that. That's Michael Michael Lepper. All right, I think
we'll get out on that. Thank you so much, Weed Man,
I appreciate that. Good job by you. Big Ben's lame
jokes of the Week.
Host
Ben Maller
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