December 18, 2025 • 41 mins
Big Ben talks about the Knicks rejecting the NBA's request for them to hang an NBA Cup Championship banner, Rams WR Puka Nacua calling out NFL referees for making calls to be on TV, Maller to the Third Degree, #AskBen, and more!
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it again, back in in the saddle again and know
what a story it is our lead this hour from Gotham,
(02:07):
a follow up follow up to a previous Malard monologue.
After winning the universally agreed upon Fugasey NBA Cup the
other day, the New York Knickerbockers shocked the basketball world
in a good way. Did you hear what they did?
(02:29):
Did you know? You didn't see it? Okay, you didn't
see this. So after a brief deliberation the New York Dings,
even though coach Mike Brown was pumping his chest out
about how they were gonna put a little banner up
there at the garden, the Knicks decided X nay on
the banner. A no, no, no, no no. They they
blocked it like more Tomball back in the day. The
(02:51):
next decided they will not raise a painter at Madison
Square Garden to commemorate the NBA Cup championship. Now, keep
in mind the Lakers. The Bucks did this, they hung
actual banners for the NBA Cup, and it took the
(03:17):
Knicks to say no, Wow. Is that a great jumping
off point? So let us discuss the question for the class,
and you're part of the class. What is the word?
What is the word for the Knicks rejecting the NBA's
request to hang a cup banner at Madison Square Garden.
(03:38):
So I've got my thoughts on this. I've got AirPods,
banana cream pie, and Instagram filters, and we'll combine all
of these things together and we are going to make
some delicious cinnamon rolls. I don't know anyone that doesn't
like cinnam rolls. If you ever meet someone that doesn't
(03:58):
like cinnamon rolls, bad people, bad people, all right? So
a my word again, the question was, what's the word
for the Knicks rejecting the NBA's request to hang a
cup banner? My word is gravitas. That's my word. Good
job by James Dolan, the mercenary ooder of the New
York Knicks. James Dolan, credit to him, He's the adult
(04:21):
in the room. He didn't bite the cheese, he didn't
do it. I get the Lakers in Bucks hung banners
for the NBA Cup, And you know, dumb that that's
like going to Augusta and winning the par three contest
and saying, hey, can I have one of those green jackets? Well,
(04:43):
well no, that's not that's not the Masters. But I
won the par three I know, but that's we don't
do the par three. We don't give out the green jacketman.
But no, no, no, I want a green jacket. I needed. No,
you don't get a green jacket. It's a par three,
but nobody I deserve one. No, you don't, dummy. If
you go out win the Augusta Masters, will give you
a green jake. But no, I want to have one.
(05:04):
I want my I want my green jacket. Or how
about like if Duke won the Maui Invitational and said,
you know what, why don't we hang a championship banner
up there? And you're all those coach k championships and
all that right there at Cameron Indoor. No, No, have
some have some shame, right uh? And Massive Square Garden
(05:27):
is not your little scrap book. Now. They don't win
a lot there. They don't win a lot, but they
take a lot of those wall street. Weasels money. They
buy those tickets, right, all those fortune five hundred dopes,
they buy those tickets. The Cathedral there, the Mecca in
midtown Manhattan, right over Penn Station there. And so saying
no to this banner for the Knicks two words dragon balls,
(05:51):
all right, dragon balls. That the air pods are playing
rage against the machine, fight the machine. It's a beautiful world.
And this tells you everything about where the Knicks think
they're going now. They like they won't win the championship.
They think they're going to win the championship. They have
bigger goals on their mind, right, and they want something
(06:13):
a little bigger than that no aluminum foil trophy. It's
so great, and it's good for Jaialen Brunson. You know,
you don't want to be the nick that raised that
stupid I mean, it's so dumb. You're not there to
collect little trinkets and all that stuff. You're chasing some
kind of history. And so there will be a muted
(06:33):
their quiet celebration. You celebrate quietly, and you win loudly.
And so the malor verdict on this one that is
adult behavior. Good job, buy the Knicks. And it's also
Ton because page two, as we take a deeper dive,
and we dive a little bit deeper, here the question
(06:54):
who's the biggest loser? Who's the biggest loser from the
Knicks and their owner James Dolan, their stiff arming the
NBA Cup banner at MSG so spoiler alert, spoiler alert,
it is not Adam Silver, half man, half alien, who
(07:14):
he and his lizard people friends live out in the
ocean somewhere. But it's not Adam Silver. I know that
this is Adam Silver's pride and joy. This is his baby,
it's his little baby. It's his Frankenstein monster that he's
stitched together, ripping off global soccer, not realizing that that
doesn't play in the US of A. I'm pretty sure
(07:35):
that Adam Silver will live. He'll probably live forever because
he's half man, half alien. The real casualty in this
Genie Buss, the outgoing Laker owner. Remember the strategic leak
from the Lakers a couple of years ago, Well, yeah,
they put out there in the cosmos and they use
(07:56):
whispers to useful idiots, and there's a lot of useful
idiot that love the Lakers. They slobber all over the
Lakers man. They love those historians. So the useful idiots
in the media they repeated the company line from the Lakers,
as we understand it, and the company line was something
to the effect is we we had no choice. The
league made us do it. The League made us do it.
(08:17):
Well well well, well, well well well looky LOOKI here
can we cue the price is right? Loser horn loser
with the capital L. Turns out that that reporting, which
more likely than not came from the Lakers, was bullpucky,
just absolute bullpucky. Jason proves, because you see James Dolan,
(08:43):
he just proved beyond a reasonable doubt. We have actual data,
actual evidence here, empirical evidence that you don't have to
put the bann up. Those are optional. These banners are optional.
And the nick said, now we're good, don't need that. Meanwhile,
the Lakers hung a certificate of participation like it was
(09:05):
some kind of purple heart, which is not surprising because
that's really the Lakers are in such a deep dark place,
a broken franchise. They celebrate that. You talk about the
most ridiculous championship, that COVID bull crap at the Mickey
Mouse Resort, the easiest championship ever in the history of sports.
And they hung that up, and so of course they're
going to hang up the dumb NBA Cup thing. And
(09:27):
then of course that people called them on. I said, well, no,
you've got actual championships. Back a year and years ago
when Jerry Busk, you know, was hanging out with all
young women, you had that, and so what are you doing?
And as well, we had to do it, and we
hang we had no true, no, you had a choice.
You have you had a choice. You had a choice
the Knicks. The Knicks said, no, this is a banana
cream pie, right to the face, right to the face
(09:50):
there of Jeanie Buss and the Lakers. And if you
use Malormath, ninety nine percent of the people that consume
the product, they view the NBA Cup as meaningless. I
don't know anyone. I've not met a single person who's
real who thinks that's worth their time. I just haven't.
(10:11):
It's a marketing gimmick. Adults know that. Smart people, though
you put the corporate name in front of it. It's
like a freak tote bag you never use. You sign
up for some credit card, they give you a tote bag.
You don't really use it, but you're like, it's free,
I'll take it. Why not? So what the Lakers do?
They took what we were all told its sacred real
(10:31):
estate right the hallowed rafters where the ghosts hangout, and
they slapped a turn Burger right next to the work
of magic and Kareem and Kobe Bryant. They didn't honor
their history. They spat a giant logi, a big fat
(10:54):
mucus phil logai from Jennie Buss because they put that
little Cup champion Chip Hoop and the Knicks of all people,
the New York Knicks, who haven't won bupkiss in over
fifty years, and they said, no, no, no, we're we're
grown ups. We're adults here. We don't do that. What
are we doing here? It's so great, So congratulations by
(11:17):
not even playing in the NBA Cup. The Lakers are
the laughing stock of the NBA. Everyone pointing their finger
like Nelson from The Simpsons and going haha, so great?
Oh is that good man? I love that? All right. Meanwhile,
let's get back to business here the NFL. There's a
story that's gone viral here from a documentary that has
(11:41):
people buzzing. So I would like to address the snuffleovcus.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
In the room.
Speaker 1 (11:45):
We go to the Beltway where the Commanders are a
bad football team vanishing into the abyss or the swamp
in DC. They have been struggling on and on and
on and on back to the old Commanders. These are
Dan Snyder's commanders this year, the Redskins or whatever. But anyway,
I bring this up because head coach head coach Dan Quinn.
(12:09):
Dan Quinn told his players in a video clip that
has gone viral from this documentary. He went full tilt
buggy buggy boggie, he did the boogie woogie, and he
told his players that Giants quarterback Jackson Dart is basically
a running back at that well, no, he's a quarterback, no.
Speaker 4 (12:28):
No.
Speaker 1 (12:28):
Quinn said that Dart does not go out of bounds
and that the players on his team should take shots
at him because he doesn't give up, but he doesn't
run out of bounds. So this is all from an
NFL film's documentary. The people, I believe it, HBO and
Hard Knocks Hard Knocks got together and so they produced this.
(12:50):
It's in season with the NFC. East is the name
of the documentary. Now, the money quote again from dan
Quinn is he is a running back first. He is
a running back first. Oh my god, I can't believe
he said that. The faux outrage machine was activated. So
(13:12):
the question do you have a problem do you have
a problem with Washington coach Dan Quinn tagging the Giants
rookie quarterback Jackson Dart out of Old miss as a
running back as a running back first? Anyway? All right,
so I'll go, I'm gonna go. I'm gonna go. N
(13:32):
and O put those together. I'll go. No, I don't
have a problem. I think this is actually pretty wonderful. Again,
as we like to say, I am a talk show host.
I have a daily talk show to do, and so
when you have these moments where you get the naked truth,
you embrace it. This would be one of those moments.
It's in the raw. I love it, no Instagram filter.
(13:56):
I will tell you that somewhat in NFL films will
be getting a call from the league office saying what
the effort you're doing. They'll be complaints filed by the commanders.
You're making us look bad. But we just put the
video up on what your coach said but yeah, that
wasn't supposed to be for public consumption. Which is surprising
this got out because typically these things are so edited
(14:17):
and so filtered that you rarely ever see anything that
could be even low on the spectrum of going viral.
They really do just cover everything in terms of putting
a nice coat of cologne on it so it doesn't
get out. And here we have this coach of the
Washington Commanders saying, hey, yeah, Jackson Dart, he's a running
(14:40):
back first, and that's where we are on that. And
keep in mind, this is not just the Commanders. While
the video said just the Commanders, the Commanders are not
the only team that feels this way. Dan Quinn just
spelled out the scouting report on Jackson Dart, which is
likely shared by the rest of the NFL. And so
(15:00):
now the ball is in Jackson's court to prove that
this is not the case, and to prove that he's
not just a running back playing quarterback, and to show
that he can throw the ball consistently. Now keep in mind,
I've been doing this job for a while. These claims
have always been made about running quarterbacks. Normally they are
(15:22):
weaponized by race baders. When you know it's a black quarterback.
Jackson starts a white guy. So I guess it's just
x's and o's and all that. So there's not quite
the big hull of baloo that there has been in
years past when this this thing comes up. But the NFL,
as a rule, NFL coaches when they see a quarterback
that runs, runs, runs, runs, runs, and they that's what
they say. He's a running back. He's not. He's not
(15:44):
a guy that hucks the ball. He's a running back.
You have to prove that you are more than just
a running quarterback and able in order to change the narrative. Right,
that's just you know, the dog eat dog world. That's
kind of how that works. It's kind of how that works.
Speaker 2 (16:02):
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Hey Is Covino and Rich from Fox Sports Radio. Now.
In addition to hearing us live weekdays from five to
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Speaker 1 (16:48):
And where are we going? How about we go to
La La Land early l I am. They're taking on
the Seattle SEAHAWKSY say, kind of a big game. Told,
it's a big deal. It's the Thursday night NFL game.
That game, though, taking a back seat to the subplot.
And as the Rams had their flight delayed, were supposed
(17:10):
to have I think Mike said prayer for the Rams.
I mean they had set on a plane has some
mechanical issues that never happens when you travel it never
I've never had any issues traveling. Planes have always been
on time. I've never had to sit at airports and
wait for plants at all. Anyway, get to the point,
so the Rams are in Seattle now show down with
(17:31):
the Seahawks on Thursday night. They made headlines on the socials. Well,
I say they at one of their players did at
least Pooka Nakua guy came out of nowhere, and it's like,
did this guy dial the wrong number? Who's Pooka Nakua?
This guy's not that good? Well he is that good
ball of fire for the alrms and apparently a ball
(17:52):
of fire off the field as well as if you
have not heard yet and perhaps perhaps not rams wide
receiver Pooka taking aim at NFL officials, calling them the worst.
He did this all on camera. Now, was this on ESPN?
Was this on Fox? Was this on CBS or NBC
(18:13):
or Amazon? No? He did it on an internet stream
a couple of internet streamers no one's ever heard of.
They're like fake stars. Anyway, he went on a rant.
Do we have the rant? I think we might have
the rent. I don't know, let's see what we do.
The reps are the worst because there's just some of
the rules, aren't that. Like these guys want to be
(18:34):
These guys are lawyers and like real they want to
be on.
Speaker 2 (18:36):
TV too, brother, like the game, you don't think he's
he's texting his friends in the group.
Speaker 1 (18:41):
Chat, like yo, you guys just saw me Sunday night football?
Like that that wasn't p I like, but I called
it was seriously, did you do that? I mean, these
guys are noble human beings too, all right, So that
was that was most of it, if you could understand.
He see the rest of the worst. These guys are lawyers.
They want to be on TV too, Like Pooko was like, ah,
they're in group text and like, hey, you see me
(19:03):
on Sunday Night Football. All right. So one of the
hosts also mentioned that Pooka could be fine for saying
what he said, and very calmly, Puka Naku responded to
one hundred percent. So that is a good jumping off point.
This stuff's gone viral. So let's discuss the question rams
wide receiver Puka Nicou going off the reservation calling NFL
(19:26):
referees the worst, saying that they make calls to be
seen on television. Can you unscramble this one as we
attempt to seize the hour to win the hour. So
my observations, I have CBS, neon highlighter, and shrimp cocktail,
and we will combine all of these things together and
(19:50):
we are going to be honor bound as we play
Connect three. That's what we're going to do. So Number said,
Number one. All right, So Puka Nakua did not break news.
He did not he broke the fourth wall, mom man
the fourth wall. He got all slobbery, slapper slapper slobbery,
(20:12):
calling NFL referees the worst. That is not some kind
of scandal. It is a confession. It is a trip
to the confessional booth. We're not talking about a modern
day Watergate here. It was human nature with a Wi
Fi signal. Right. Officials are people too. They're not gas pumps.
(20:33):
They're actual people. They have egos, they have friends, they
have text messages, they have social media, they're in group chats,
they have mirrors, and they have a deep desire to
be seen. Now a lot of them serve as mouthpieces
for the NFL. That's fine, but anyone pretending otherwise is
selling air fried food. Puka just said the quiet part
(20:58):
into a live stream, well chasing. See. The thing that's
interesting is not that he said this, it's the way
that he said it, trying to get some clout, some
cool points. It was like a like a puppy dog
chasing a laser pointer. And he was he wasn't auditing
(21:18):
the officiating. He was auditing or I guess Auditioning is
the word for the for the Internet. He wanted to
he wanted to be popular. He's clearly a major fanboy
for these I don't know who these two Jabroni's are,
but he's a big fanboy for these guys, these Internet streamers.
And you got an NFL star, a top level wide receiver,
(21:39):
one of the five top receivers in the NFL. Pookin
Nakua trying to sit with the cool kids, and in
his mind, football players are not cool. He'd much rather
be a streamer. So he gets to sit down and
have a lunch date with these two guys, nodding along,
laughing out loud, hoping that he'll be accepted by these
two hopes. So it's so good. It wasn't really rebellion.
(22:05):
It was in doctrination into the matrix. Pooka such a
fan of these Internet streamers that he went down to
the local CBS pharmacy and he got his prescription and
swallowed the red pill. And the rabbit hole has been entered,
and wonder Land is unlocked for Pooka, and the Rams
knew about it. Sean McVay, the Ram head coach, crossed
(22:29):
his arms like a bouncer guarding bottle service as Pooka
attempted to bring the influencers into the RAM facility, and
McVeigh said, ix nay on the influencer a short week,
no content farm at the facility and football first. You
can chase clout later. So Puka Nakua said, Okay, you
(22:53):
don't want him there, I'll just go I'll go meet
him somewhere else. And Pookah's right though. Referees obviously they
loved the spotlight. And there's some referees you see on TV.
You know when they're doing a game, there's going to
be twelve to fifteen penalties in that game. Of course,
the argument has always been that you can buy the
letter of the law call the penalty on every play.
(23:15):
In the NFL, at least one person is effing up
on every play, So it becomes a case of do
you go by the spirital law or the letter of
the law. By the letter of the law, you can
tear up the dance floor and call penalties on every
play because somebody's holding, somebody's grabbing, someone's lined up the
wrong way. There's all those little the minutia of the
(23:37):
rule book where you can call penalties on everything. Now,
obviously you can't do that because the game will go
on forever. So there's this this yin and yang. There's
this nip and talk about how much do you call?
What do you do? It's like a game of tug
of war? How far do you go? And then, of
course the other argument is if the referees called no penalties,
they'd get in trouble, wouldn't they. Now if the NFL
(24:00):
officials said we're not, And there have been there have
been one. There was one game earlier this year where
there's hardly any penalties called and like nobody died. It
was everything was okay, life went on. There's this like
you have to be justified for your salary because they
get paid a lot of it's part time job, but
they get paid a lot of money. They get travel
expenses paid for and all that stuff. So it's it's
(24:20):
one of those it's like, well, okay, so you've got
to justify the amount of money that you're you're being
paid even though it's a part time gig, and so
you have to call penalties and all that stuff. And uh, anyway,
the endgame on this, uh, well right now you can
get a fine, a tax deductible donation to an NFL
charity of your choice. And the refs do love the spotlight.
(24:44):
They just don't love being told told that, so they'll
be a fine now, Page two, continuing the Hour of Pooka, Puka, Puka, Pooka.
All right, so pin the tail on the Pooka. What's
the fallout from ram wide receiver Puka Nakua and his
referee ran Now we mentioned there'll be a donation, small
(25:04):
donation to NFL charities there attacked deductible. But this was
an Emmy winning performance that nobody asked for. Now, Yeah,
I have no problem with this kind of stuff I get.
I always say this. I put this qualifier that I
have a daily talk show to do every night I
come in here, and if everyone just did what they're
supposed to do, what fun would this job be? It
(25:25):
wouldn't be any flight at all. So it's an Emmy
Award winning performance by Pooka as in mental error me
mental error unforced, self inflicted, self inflicted. It's kind of
like spiking the ball on first down? What are you doing?
What are you doing? And he didn't pull any punches here,
Pooka he ignored the Teddy Roosevelt rule book, talk softly,
(25:49):
carry a big stick. Instead, he grabbed a megaphone and
was tap dancing on top of a rake and said,
look at me, everybody, I'm the clown. Look at me.
I'm gung Oh, here we go. I'm juggling. I'm juggling.
I'm joggling, all right. So he obviously wanted again these
internet streamers love. He chased that streamer Poka Nakoa, and
(26:11):
he ended up spilling some tea to try to get
in the good graces with these two people I've never
heard of. And now now he has just put a
neon green highlighter on his jersey. Spotlight blazing, spotlight blazing,
big brother. The league office, they pay attention to this stuff,
the officials, you know, they heard about it. So Pooka's
(26:34):
tempting fate here. You just did the belly whopper into
the divil whiteout pool, the deep end of the Diva
whiteout pool. So no lifeguard on duty. Move on over,
old Dell Beckham. There's a new character actor in town,
and his name is Pooka. And now we love the player.
(26:54):
He's a great ballplayer, good game, all that stuff. We
love the quirks. He doesn't like vegetables. I don't like vegetables.
He doesn't even like fruit. I'm okay with most fruit,
but he didn't like fruit either. He's on the chuck
e cheese diet is what he's on there, or some
kind of Neanderthal diet. As for the fall out, we
mentioned the fine there. If Puka balls out in the
(27:14):
game here on Thursday night and the Rams win, this
story fades away. It fades into thin air. It's a
cute little sidebar. And that's that. If they lose, or
if Puka plays poorly and they win, it will be well,
he slapped the whammy. No whammy, no whammy, big money,
(27:36):
big money, and no whamy. Stop. Well, if they lose,
then it's like, well he put the whammy on the season,
and I will get wrong team, mark it down. I
will guarantee you that that happened. Like they'll say, oh,
the Rams lost because of Puka going on a live stream,
which like ninety eight percent of football fans don't watch,
and so it's not real crossover crowd the people that
(27:58):
have season tickets to NFL games and the people watching
internet streamers. But if it does happen to like the
jinx is applied. Season karma in a negative way has
been activated. I ready know. I'll tell you right now.
No Stradinas has those comments saved in his draft on
his X. He's got those ready to go. He's gonna
fire those off as soon as the game ends, as
(28:20):
he'll be like, okay, let's set time to jump through
the hoop here and try to bust malards balls. All right,
final point, We move away from Pooa and we head
to VVA Las Vegas. VVA Las Vegas. As we we
raised a mile a minute, we go to Vegas where
Geno Smith of the Raiders, who currently would have the
(28:41):
number one overallenho Gino Smith addressed the long standing chatter
that's been going on for a couple months now. Is
Gino actually going to be a one and done Raider?
His time with the Raiders has not gone very well.
He was asked about staying in Lost Wages, Nevada for
(29:01):
the duration of his contract, as the Raiders are the
worst team in football right now. He said, quote, he
is expecting to win a lot of games here. He said,
I'm expecting to win a lot of games here. Close quote.
All right, So the question how do you evaluate Geno
Smiths status with the Raiders? All right? So here here's
(29:27):
how I would evaluate. This is a it's a storm.
It's stormy with a splash of shrimp cocktail, looks fancy,
smells fishy and risky, Gino. In Vegas, if there's anyone
there with a pulse, and who knows if there is
(29:47):
anyone with a pulse. The way the Raiders are being
run by Tom Brady, it doesn't look like there's anyone
there that knows what they're doing. Man the lifeboats. The
ship be sinking anyway. Gino, if you look at what
he's done here, you got to think that in Vegas,
this is the last supper before the buffet closes, and
certainly not the start of some kind of great dynasty.
(30:08):
This is not a charity. I believe it's not a charity.
The Raiders are not a mean the witness protection program
for quarterbacks who ran out of runway, and so they'll
just pick up another suckbag quarterback and try to get
lightning in a bottle. We'll call it what it is.
Gino does not have not a leg to stand on.
(30:30):
He does not have a Pro football reference page or
a Wikipedia page to fall back on. Under any and
I mean any reasonable measurement, Gino Smith stinks. He does
thirty third rand quarterback. You don't need the rankings. You
just watch the games. Just pay attention to the games.
(30:50):
If you're blind, just listen to the games. Gino Smith
is worse than a handful of quarterbacks who've already been benched.
They've already been demoted for malfeasan to a tongue of
eye loa more on him later. He was benched by
the Dolphins, justin fields with the Jets, he's out. Spencer Rattler,
New Orleans got benched, Kyler Murray got benched, and they
(31:12):
all had better numbers than Geno Smith. So's it's like
finishing last in a race and you finished last and
half the field pulled hamstrings. Well, how did you finish
last when half the people just pulled It doesn't make
any sense. They pulled the hamstrings. This theme song is
from the trash Men. For Geno Smith, the bird is
(31:35):
the word. The bird is the word, and that's what
he did. He gave the raider fans the bird on
his way off the field. And that's the signature moment
of Geno Smith. If this was a Vegas residency, If
Geno Smith was a Vegas residency like Penn and Teller,
Carrott Top or something like that, they would have to
(31:56):
offer refunds after day three. And let's give money back
day three. Here Gino got his shot and he was
the flavor of the week, and he fetched it all away.
The dew hickey did not work. And if this thing
goes sideways anymore, it's already gone sideways. Tom Brady should
(32:17):
go down to Low's. My advice, professional advice from overnight
Talk Radio. Tom Brady should go down to Low's in
a fever pitch and buy a giant gas powered leaf
blower and clean away all the leaves and all the
things around his house. There, loud and proud, with zero sentiment,
(32:37):
zero sentiment, and just go for it. Just go for it.
It's just such a bleeping mess. I just a bleeping mess.
And Tom Brady, he's seeking El Dorado with the raiders.
I'm gonna figure this thing out. I'm gonna find my
pot of gold and not the case.
Speaker 2 (32:58):
Be sure to catch live editions The Ben Maler Show
weekdays at two am eastern eleven pm Pacific.
Speaker 1 (33:03):
By the main time shifted to the third degree. Yeah,
this is one big ben gets grilled, all right, cool, I've.
Speaker 4 (33:13):
Been this season seemingly more than other seasons. There have
been a lot of teams that have fallen way below
their high expectations. Which of those teams do you think
has been the biggest disappointment?
Speaker 1 (33:25):
Well, I would say that the Baltimore Ravens, who are
looking like they're not going to make the playoffs. In
Kansas City, those are the top two teams. Kansas City.
Everyone'sho or Kansas City. Kansas City can and they should
be in the playoffs. It's embarrassing they've fallen this far,
but they're not going to make the playoffs. But I
to me Baltimore because Kansas City a lot of people
expected them to have a falloff because they didn't really
(33:46):
improve the roster and some guys got old there. But Baltimore,
this was still supposed to be their window. And Lamar
Jackson misses practice all the time. He's not played very
well in these games. So I to me, Baltimore's got
to be high up there along with Kansas City. Neck
and Neck As a mono Abato if you, and with
(34:07):
a wink and a nod to the Detroit Lions that
have fallen off, they're no longer biting mee caps.
Speaker 4 (34:11):
Next, a Warriors fan leaked an email between himself and
team owner Joe lacub where Lacomb admitted his frustrations with
the team and cited complications such as coaches desires regarding players. Now,
Steve Kerr was asked about this, and he said, it's
not a big deal. Is it a big deal?
Speaker 1 (34:29):
Ben? Yeah, I don't think he's that big deal. I
saw this. I didn't I was gonna mention it in a monologue.
I didn't think it was that big a deal. I
think it's kind of cool that Joe lacob broke back.
He didn't really say much, I thought in the email,
but it does show you that he cares and he
is annoyed. He knows that the product's not good. You know,
a lot of the Warrior fans are having problems dealing
(34:50):
with the fact they're just they've fallen off. Alamedahlu and
those guys that love the Warriors. This is what happens.
It happens to all the teams that have great runs.
The The Lakers went through this, the Celtics when they've
had great teams, the Pistons, you're really good for a while,
and then you hold on to those veteran players and
it's you're not terrible, but you're not a legitimate championship team,
(35:12):
and you're stuck in this twilight zone. And obviously coaches
have favorite players. That's not a secret. Steve Kerr liked
certain kind of players, just like whoever your favorite coach does.
That's the way it works. Next.
Speaker 4 (35:25):
Adam Silver said on Tuesday that the NBA will make
a decision on expansion in twenty twenty six, and he
specifically mentioned Las Vegas and Seattle, Ben do you think
both of those cities will get a team?
Speaker 1 (35:36):
Well, so I heard from a little birdie. This was
several years back, Coop, that Seattle was definitely getting a
team and the plan was to go to Vegas. That
was in twenty nineteen. It's twenty twenty five. They had
Now the argument, the reason we have an ad expansion
is because we had the pandemic that delayed things, and
(35:58):
then the television contracts where now they're on Amazon and
NBC and all that, So that stuff's taken care of.
The problem is though, you got to cut up that
pie and the slices get a little bit smaller for
the Knickerbockers and the Timberwolves and the Rockets and all that.
But they're gonna have two teams, and you got to
bring back the Sonic name. They did it with the
(36:20):
Hornets and Charlotte. Bring back the SuperSonics and and have
a gambling name for the team in Vegas, having the
slot machines or something like that. And they're gonna lean
into the gambling. And why not. Chauncey Phillips led it.
He leaned into the gambling. All right there it is
Mallard of the third degree.
Speaker 4 (36:35):
How did we do you pass this edition?
Speaker 1 (36:38):
There's a win I want.
Speaker 2 (36:40):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at Foxsports Radio
dot com and within the iHeartRadio app. Search FSR to
listen live.
Speaker 1 (36:53):
It's now time for time. Horry, Harry Honey Waite, Ask Twitter.
Send us your questions on Twitter now and it is
ask Ben. Your questions are answers for the rest of
the hour. The rest of the hour and for the
reading of the questions. We head over to the kupoloup.
Speaker 4 (37:16):
All right, we're gonna start off with a question from Gunner.
Speaker 1 (37:19):
Hi Gunner.
Speaker 4 (37:20):
Gunnar would like to know what's your favorite kind of
French fry.
Speaker 1 (37:26):
I like the kind of fries I eat after watching
the Carolina Panthers lose to the New Orleans Saints. Gunner,
that's the kind of fries that I like a lot.
Those are really really good.
Speaker 4 (37:36):
No.
Speaker 1 (37:36):
I like curly fries, but they don't give you enough
in the little basket. And like RB's curly fries are
really good. McDonald's fries or Salid. I'm a big fry guy.
I love fries. It's hard to f up fries. I'll
even eat soggy fries. I don't enjoy soggy fries, but
I'll eat them because I love fries. What about you,
Lorena Ooh, it's so.
Speaker 6 (37:54):
Hard with the fry because there is so many different varieties.
But I like the ka that kind of a shoe stringy,
but a little fatter than that, and you can leave
them in your steak juice and they soak up nicely.
Speaker 1 (38:06):
What about a potato wedge that's too big for you?
Speaker 6 (38:09):
Too fat?
Speaker 1 (38:10):
Yeah, you're anti fat? I got it, I got you,
I cooplelop I.
Speaker 4 (38:15):
I'm kind of with Lorraina. I do like just you know,
the regular.
Speaker 1 (38:19):
You know, but basic b with a fry.
Speaker 4 (38:22):
Yeah, but I also do enjoy crinkle cut a lot.
Speaker 1 (38:26):
What about the curly? You don't like the curly? What's
wrong with the curly?
Speaker 4 (38:29):
It's being wrong with the curly. It's just not, you know,
not my favorite. I do enjoy curly fries though.
Speaker 1 (38:34):
Okay, all right, fair enough? What's next? Here? It's ask Ben?
Your questions are answers.
Speaker 4 (38:42):
This question is just for you, Ben. It is from
Bill on Twitter.
Speaker 1 (38:47):
Hi Bill.
Speaker 4 (38:48):
He wants to know do you give Christmas gifts to
your non Jewish friends?
Speaker 1 (38:53):
Uh? Yeah, I mean, I'm I'm. My problem is I
lose track of time. I'm just so worried about the show.
Every day I spend all my time on that. I forget,
like I don't even know what day it is most
of the time. But yeah, I'll give out stuff to
random people. Usually my wife handles most of that crap though,
but I don't. Yeah, the answer is yes, next, What's next?
(39:13):
What I got?
Speaker 4 (39:14):
This question is from Donkey Sausage.
Speaker 1 (39:16):
Hide Donkey Hie Donkey.
Speaker 4 (39:18):
Wants to know, do you have any allergies?
Speaker 1 (39:22):
Uh? Yeah, I am allergic to penicillin. That's about I
think that's the only one. I thought, like a year ago,
I was allergic to something else, but it turned out
I was not. I think that's the only one I
really have at this point, Loraina.
Speaker 6 (39:36):
Any allergies, Loraina, Well, I don't want anyone to go
and put anything in my food that might harm me.
But sometimes I have allergic reaction to eating bread and
I get a weird rash on the top of my mouth.
Speaker 1 (39:48):
Also, you have a gluten allergy. I don't know if
it's the gluten analergy. What Bread's gluten?
Speaker 6 (39:52):
Yeah, but there's other things in bread too that could
cause it.
Speaker 1 (39:56):
What else is there?
Speaker 6 (39:56):
I don't know, But it doesn't always happen.
Speaker 4 (39:58):
That's the weird part.
Speaker 6 (39:59):
So like I can have regular sandwiches, but sometimes if
I have like like I've had a bagel before, that
does it to my mouth. I don't know.
Speaker 4 (40:06):
It's weird. But no medicine. I'm not allergic to medicine
that I know of.
Speaker 1 (40:10):
There's gluten and everything though, just about avoid the gluten.
Speaker 6 (40:14):
And that's the thing. If it was everything then I
would wouldn't be able to eat anything.
Speaker 4 (40:19):
I wasn't thinking about medication, but since you brought it up,
I am allergic to uh doxy cycling. That's a h
A type of a sillin. It's a you know what,
antibiotic or antibiotic and to sneeze, okay uh. And then
also I have a few different nut allergies like mcadami nut,
(40:43):
hazel nuts. It's not that bad. I still bless you.
You have a mic.
Speaker 1 (40:46):
Thanks for not turning the mic up. Appreciate that time.
Speaker 4 (40:50):
I still eat them. My throat just gets a little scratchy,
but you know they're delicious, so I still do it.
And then leechy that one I cannot eat, don't I
love a good LEECHI all.
Speaker 1 (40:59):
Right, fair enough? What's say is ask Ben? Your questions
are answers for the rest of the hour. Your questions
hashtag ask Ben. If you like it, we do it
every weekend about this time. If you don't like it,
we do it once a week. So who the hell
care is chill out?
Speaker 4 (41:11):
The King Rory would like to know what is your
favorite dairy product?
Speaker 1 (41:16):
Lately it's been ice cream. Lately, it's been like an
ice cream sandwich, Lorena. Yeah, I'm right there with you.
Ice cream, all right? Cool?
Speaker 4 (41:24):
Might have to go cream cheese. Love me some cream cheese.
Speaker 1 (41:28):
So that's a bad answer. Next, it's ask Ben eat
that off my finger?
Speaker 4 (41:32):
This morning. Alf wants to know are all of you
as amped up as I am for the Benny Cup
mid season award show.
Speaker 1 (41:41):
Yeah, that'll be Christmas night, Alf, I can't wait for that, right,
that'll be a big ratings winner. Wait till you hear
the Year in review on the Ben Malor Show. It's
gonna break records for downloads, scoop. It's gonna be amazing
that episode
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 Benmathers 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 Mahler Show on
Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
A Bayner kind of a day. Welcome in the beginning
of another hour of the Benmahlor Show.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
We are in the air every just in the night
audio Buddies, as we attempt to hit the sweet spot
coast to coast, border to border and beyond on the
vast and enormously powerful microphones of FSR, amminating live from
(01:18):
the Spark as we are your spark plug from the
world famous Fox Sports Radio Studios, and Blaredmaine reminds us
that this portion of the show made possible by our
friends at ti Iraq. For over forty years, ty Iraq
has been helping customers like Malard, prop Guy Alf and
Ferg Dog find the right tires for how, what and
(01:39):
where they drive. Ship fast and free back by free road.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
Hazard protection with convenient installation options like mobile tire installation
which mister Nicekey likes a lot tire raq dot com
the way the tire buying showy. And we're back at
it again, back in in the saddle again and know
what a story it is our lead this hour from Gotham,
(02:07):
a follow up follow up to a previous Malard monologue.
After winning the universally agreed upon Fugasey NBA Cup the
other day, the New York Knickerbockers shocked the basketball world
in a good way. Did you hear what they did?
(02:29):
Did you know? You didn't see it? Okay, you didn't
see this. So after a brief deliberation the New York Dings,
even though coach Mike Brown was pumping his chest out
about how they were gonna put a little banner up
there at the garden, the Knicks decided X nay on
the banner. A no, no, no, no no. They they
blocked it like more Tomball back in the day. The
(02:51):
next decided they will not raise a painter at Madison
Square Garden to commemorate the NBA Cup championship. Now, keep
in mind the Lakers. The Bucks did this, they hung
actual banners for the NBA Cup, and it took the
(03:17):
Knicks to say no, Wow. Is that a great jumping
off point? So let us discuss the question for the class,
and you're part of the class. What is the word?
What is the word for the Knicks rejecting the NBA's
request to hang a cup banner at Madison Square Garden.
(03:38):
So I've got my thoughts on this. I've got AirPods,
banana cream pie, and Instagram filters, and we'll combine all
of these things together and we are going to make
some delicious cinnamon rolls. I don't know anyone that doesn't
like cinnam rolls. If you ever meet someone that doesn't
(03:58):
like cinnamon rolls, bad people, bad people, all right? So
a my word again, the question was, what's the word
for the Knicks rejecting the NBA's request to hang a
cup banner? My word is gravitas. That's my word. Good
job by James Dolan, the mercenary ooder of the New
York Knicks. James Dolan, credit to him, He's the adult
(04:21):
in the room. He didn't bite the cheese, he didn't
do it. I get the Lakers in Bucks hung banners
for the NBA Cup, And you know, dumb that that's
like going to Augusta and winning the par three contest
and saying, hey, can I have one of those green jackets? Well,
(04:43):
well no, that's not that's not the Masters. But I
won the par three I know, but that's we don't
do the par three. We don't give out the green jacketman.
But no, no, no, I want a green jacket. I needed. No,
you don't get a green jacket. It's a par three,
but nobody I deserve one. No, you don't, dummy. If
you go out win the Augusta Masters, will give you
a green jake. But no, I want to have one.
(05:04):
I want my I want my green jacket. Or how
about like if Duke won the Maui Invitational and said,
you know what, why don't we hang a championship banner
up there? And you're all those coach k championships and
all that right there at Cameron Indoor. No, No, have
some have some shame, right uh? And Massive Square Garden
(05:27):
is not your little scrap book. Now. They don't win
a lot there. They don't win a lot, but they
take a lot of those wall street. Weasels money. They
buy those tickets, right, all those fortune five hundred dopes,
they buy those tickets. The Cathedral there, the Mecca in
midtown Manhattan, right over Penn Station there. And so saying
no to this banner for the Knicks two words dragon balls,
(05:51):
all right, dragon balls. That the air pods are playing
rage against the machine, fight the machine. It's a beautiful world.
And this tells you everything about where the Knicks think
they're going now. They like they won't win the championship.
They think they're going to win the championship. They have
bigger goals on their mind, right, and they want something
(06:13):
a little bigger than that no aluminum foil trophy. It's
so great, and it's good for Jaialen Brunson. You know,
you don't want to be the nick that raised that
stupid I mean, it's so dumb. You're not there to
collect little trinkets and all that stuff. You're chasing some
kind of history. And so there will be a muted
(06:33):
their quiet celebration. You celebrate quietly, and you win loudly.
And so the malor verdict on this one that is
adult behavior. Good job, buy the Knicks. And it's also
Ton because page two, as we take a deeper dive,
and we dive a little bit deeper, here the question
(06:54):
who's the biggest loser? Who's the biggest loser from the
Knicks and their owner James Dolan, their stiff arming the
NBA Cup banner at MSG so spoiler alert, spoiler alert,
it is not Adam Silver, half man, half alien, who
(07:14):
he and his lizard people friends live out in the
ocean somewhere. But it's not Adam Silver. I know that
this is Adam Silver's pride and joy. This is his baby,
it's his little baby. It's his Frankenstein monster that he's
stitched together, ripping off global soccer, not realizing that that
doesn't play in the US of A. I'm pretty sure
(07:35):
that Adam Silver will live. He'll probably live forever because
he's half man, half alien. The real casualty in this
Genie Buss, the outgoing Laker owner. Remember the strategic leak
from the Lakers a couple of years ago, Well, yeah,
they put out there in the cosmos and they use
(07:56):
whispers to useful idiots, and there's a lot of useful
idiot that love the Lakers. They slobber all over the
Lakers man. They love those historians. So the useful idiots
in the media they repeated the company line from the Lakers,
as we understand it, and the company line was something
to the effect is we we had no choice. The
league made us do it. The League made us do it.
(08:17):
Well well well, well, well well well looky LOOKI here
can we cue the price is right? Loser horn loser
with the capital L. Turns out that that reporting, which
more likely than not came from the Lakers, was bullpucky,
just absolute bullpucky. Jason proves, because you see James Dolan,
(08:43):
he just proved beyond a reasonable doubt. We have actual data,
actual evidence here, empirical evidence that you don't have to
put the bann up. Those are optional. These banners are optional.
And the nick said, now we're good, don't need that. Meanwhile,
the Lakers hung a certificate of participation like it was
(09:05):
some kind of purple heart, which is not surprising because
that's really the Lakers are in such a deep dark place,
a broken franchise. They celebrate that. You talk about the
most ridiculous championship, that COVID bull crap at the Mickey
Mouse Resort, the easiest championship ever in the history of sports.
And they hung that up, and so of course they're
going to hang up the dumb NBA Cup thing. And
(09:27):
then of course that people called them on. I said, well, no,
you've got actual championships. Back a year and years ago
when Jerry Busk, you know, was hanging out with all
young women, you had that, and so what are you doing?
And as well, we had to do it, and we
hang we had no true, no, you had a choice.
You have you had a choice. You had a choice
the Knicks. The Knicks said, no, this is a banana
cream pie, right to the face, right to the face
(09:50):
there of Jeanie Buss and the Lakers. And if you
use Malormath, ninety nine percent of the people that consume
the product, they view the NBA Cup as meaningless. I
don't know anyone. I've not met a single person who's
real who thinks that's worth their time. I just haven't.
(10:11):
It's a marketing gimmick. Adults know that. Smart people, though
you put the corporate name in front of it. It's
like a freak tote bag you never use. You sign
up for some credit card, they give you a tote bag.
You don't really use it, but you're like, it's free,
I'll take it. Why not? So what the Lakers do?
They took what we were all told its sacred real
(10:31):
estate right the hallowed rafters where the ghosts hangout, and
they slapped a turn Burger right next to the work
of magic and Kareem and Kobe Bryant. They didn't honor
their history. They spat a giant logi, a big fat
(10:54):
mucus phil logai from Jennie Buss because they put that
little Cup champion Chip Hoop and the Knicks of all people,
the New York Knicks, who haven't won bupkiss in over
fifty years, and they said, no, no, no, we're we're
grown ups. We're adults here. We don't do that. What
are we doing here? It's so great, So congratulations by
(11:17):
not even playing in the NBA Cup. The Lakers are
the laughing stock of the NBA. Everyone pointing their finger
like Nelson from The Simpsons and going haha, so great?
Oh is that good man? I love that? All right. Meanwhile,
let's get back to business here the NFL. There's a
story that's gone viral here from a documentary that has
(11:41):
people buzzing. So I would like to address the snuffleovcus.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
In the room.
Speaker 1 (11:45):
We go to the Beltway where the Commanders are a
bad football team vanishing into the abyss or the swamp
in DC. They have been struggling on and on and
on and on back to the old Commanders. These are
Dan Snyder's commanders this year, the Redskins or whatever. But anyway,
I bring this up because head coach head coach Dan Quinn.
(12:09):
Dan Quinn told his players in a video clip that
has gone viral from this documentary. He went full tilt
buggy buggy boggie, he did the boogie woogie, and he
told his players that Giants quarterback Jackson Dart is basically
a running back at that well, no, he's a quarterback, no.
Speaker 4 (12:28):
No.
Speaker 1 (12:28):
Quinn said that Dart does not go out of bounds
and that the players on his team should take shots
at him because he doesn't give up, but he doesn't
run out of bounds. So this is all from an
NFL film's documentary. The people, I believe it, HBO and
Hard Knocks Hard Knocks got together and so they produced this.
(12:50):
It's in season with the NFC. East is the name
of the documentary. Now, the money quote again from dan
Quinn is he is a running back first. He is
a running back first. Oh my god, I can't believe
he said that. The faux outrage machine was activated. So
(13:12):
the question do you have a problem do you have
a problem with Washington coach Dan Quinn tagging the Giants
rookie quarterback Jackson Dart out of Old miss as a
running back as a running back first? Anyway? All right,
so I'll go, I'm gonna go. I'm gonna go. N
(13:32):
and O put those together. I'll go. No, I don't
have a problem. I think this is actually pretty wonderful. Again,
as we like to say, I am a talk show host.
I have a daily talk show to do, and so
when you have these moments where you get the naked truth,
you embrace it. This would be one of those moments.
It's in the raw. I love it, no Instagram filter.
(13:56):
I will tell you that somewhat in NFL films will
be getting a call from the league office saying what
the effort you're doing. They'll be complaints filed by the commanders.
You're making us look bad. But we just put the
video up on what your coach said but yeah, that
wasn't supposed to be for public consumption. Which is surprising
this got out because typically these things are so edited
(14:17):
and so filtered that you rarely ever see anything that
could be even low on the spectrum of going viral.
They really do just cover everything in terms of putting
a nice coat of cologne on it so it doesn't
get out. And here we have this coach of the
Washington Commanders saying, hey, yeah, Jackson Dart, he's a running
(14:40):
back first, and that's where we are on that. And
keep in mind, this is not just the Commanders. While
the video said just the Commanders, the Commanders are not
the only team that feels this way. Dan Quinn just
spelled out the scouting report on Jackson Dart, which is
likely shared by the rest of the NFL. And so
(15:00):
now the ball is in Jackson's court to prove that
this is not the case, and to prove that he's
not just a running back playing quarterback, and to show
that he can throw the ball consistently. Now keep in mind,
I've been doing this job for a while. These claims
have always been made about running quarterbacks. Normally they are
(15:22):
weaponized by race baders. When you know it's a black quarterback.
Jackson starts a white guy. So I guess it's just
x's and o's and all that. So there's not quite
the big hull of baloo that there has been in
years past when this this thing comes up. But the NFL,
as a rule, NFL coaches when they see a quarterback
that runs, runs, runs, runs, runs, and they that's what
they say. He's a running back. He's not. He's not
(15:44):
a guy that hucks the ball. He's a running back.
You have to prove that you are more than just
a running quarterback and able in order to change the narrative. Right,
that's just you know, the dog eat dog world. That's
kind of how that works. It's kind of how that works.
Speaker 2 (16:02):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Ben Maler
Show weekdays at two am Eastern eleven pm Pacific on
Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (16:11):
Hey Is Covino and Rich from Fox Sports Radio. Now.
In addition to hearing us live weekdays from five to
seven pm Eastern two to four Pacific on Fox Sports Radio,
We're excited to announce a brand new YouTube channel for
the show. Yup, that's right.
Speaker 5 (16:25):
You can now watch Covino and Rich live on YouTube
every day. All you gotta do search Covino and Rich
FSR on YouTube again, go to YouTube search Covino and
Rich FSR. Check us out on YouTube, Subscribe, hit that
thumbs up icon. Comment away, as we bulldoze time and
space and we are back at it again here this hour.
Speaker 1 (16:48):
And where are we going? How about we go to
La La Land early l I am. They're taking on
the Seattle SEAHAWKSY say, kind of a big game. Told,
it's a big deal. It's the Thursday night NFL game.
That game, though, taking a back seat to the subplot.
And as the Rams had their flight delayed, were supposed
(17:10):
to have I think Mike said prayer for the Rams.
I mean they had set on a plane has some
mechanical issues that never happens when you travel it never
I've never had any issues traveling. Planes have always been
on time. I've never had to sit at airports and
wait for plants at all. Anyway, get to the point,
so the Rams are in Seattle now show down with
(17:31):
the Seahawks on Thursday night. They made headlines on the socials. Well,
I say they at one of their players did at
least Pooka Nakua guy came out of nowhere, and it's like,
did this guy dial the wrong number? Who's Pooka Nakua?
This guy's not that good? Well he is that good
ball of fire for the alrms and apparently a ball
(17:52):
of fire off the field as well as if you
have not heard yet and perhaps perhaps not rams wide
receiver Pooka taking aim at NFL officials, calling them the worst.
He did this all on camera. Now, was this on ESPN?
Was this on Fox? Was this on CBS or NBC
(18:13):
or Amazon? No? He did it on an internet stream
a couple of internet streamers no one's ever heard of.
They're like fake stars. Anyway, he went on a rant.
Do we have the rant? I think we might have
the rent. I don't know, let's see what we do.
The reps are the worst because there's just some of
the rules, aren't that. Like these guys want to be
(18:34):
These guys are lawyers and like real they want to
be on.
Speaker 2 (18:36):
TV too, brother, like the game, you don't think he's
he's texting his friends in the group.
Speaker 1 (18:41):
Chat, like yo, you guys just saw me Sunday night football?
Like that that wasn't p I like, but I called
it was seriously, did you do that? I mean, these
guys are noble human beings too, all right, So that
was that was most of it, if you could understand.
He see the rest of the worst. These guys are lawyers.
They want to be on TV too, Like Pooko was like, ah,
they're in group text and like, hey, you see me
(19:03):
on Sunday Night Football. All right. So one of the
hosts also mentioned that Pooka could be fine for saying
what he said, and very calmly, Puka Naku responded to
one hundred percent. So that is a good jumping off point.
This stuff's gone viral. So let's discuss the question rams
wide receiver Puka Nicou going off the reservation calling NFL
(19:26):
referees the worst, saying that they make calls to be
seen on television. Can you unscramble this one as we
attempt to seize the hour to win the hour. So
my observations, I have CBS, neon highlighter, and shrimp cocktail,
and we will combine all of these things together and
(19:50):
we are going to be honor bound as we play
Connect three. That's what we're going to do. So Number said,
Number one. All right, So Puka Nakua did not break news.
He did not he broke the fourth wall, mom man
the fourth wall. He got all slobbery, slapper slapper slobbery,
(20:12):
calling NFL referees the worst. That is not some kind
of scandal. It is a confession. It is a trip
to the confessional booth. We're not talking about a modern
day Watergate here. It was human nature with a Wi
Fi signal. Right. Officials are people too. They're not gas pumps.
(20:33):
They're actual people. They have egos, they have friends, they
have text messages, they have social media, they're in group chats,
they have mirrors, and they have a deep desire to
be seen. Now a lot of them serve as mouthpieces
for the NFL. That's fine, but anyone pretending otherwise is
selling air fried food. Puka just said the quiet part
(20:58):
into a live stream, well chasing. See. The thing that's
interesting is not that he said this, it's the way
that he said it, trying to get some clout, some
cool points. It was like a like a puppy dog
chasing a laser pointer. And he was he wasn't auditing
(21:18):
the officiating. He was auditing or I guess Auditioning is
the word for the for the Internet. He wanted to
he wanted to be popular. He's clearly a major fanboy
for these I don't know who these two Jabroni's are,
but he's a big fanboy for these guys, these Internet streamers.
And you got an NFL star, a top level wide receiver,
(21:39):
one of the five top receivers in the NFL. Pookin
Nakua trying to sit with the cool kids, and in
his mind, football players are not cool. He'd much rather
be a streamer. So he gets to sit down and
have a lunch date with these two guys, nodding along,
laughing out loud, hoping that he'll be accepted by these
two hopes. So it's so good. It wasn't really rebellion.
(22:05):
It was in doctrination into the matrix. Pooka such a
fan of these Internet streamers that he went down to
the local CBS pharmacy and he got his prescription and
swallowed the red pill. And the rabbit hole has been entered,
and wonder Land is unlocked for Pooka, and the Rams
knew about it. Sean McVay, the Ram head coach, crossed
(22:29):
his arms like a bouncer guarding bottle service as Pooka
attempted to bring the influencers into the RAM facility, and
McVeigh said, ix nay on the influencer a short week,
no content farm at the facility and football first. You
can chase clout later. So Puka Nakua said, Okay, you
(22:53):
don't want him there, I'll just go I'll go meet
him somewhere else. And Pookah's right though. Referees obviously they
loved the spotlight. And there's some referees you see on TV.
You know when they're doing a game, there's going to
be twelve to fifteen penalties in that game. Of course,
the argument has always been that you can buy the
letter of the law call the penalty on every play.
(23:15):
In the NFL, at least one person is effing up
on every play, So it becomes a case of do
you go by the spirital law or the letter of
the law. By the letter of the law, you can
tear up the dance floor and call penalties on every
play because somebody's holding, somebody's grabbing, someone's lined up the
wrong way. There's all those little the minutia of the
(23:37):
rule book where you can call penalties on everything. Now,
obviously you can't do that because the game will go
on forever. So there's this this yin and yang. There's
this nip and talk about how much do you call?
What do you do? It's like a game of tug
of war? How far do you go? And then, of
course the other argument is if the referees called no penalties,
they'd get in trouble, wouldn't they. Now if the NFL
(24:00):
officials said we're not, And there have been there have
been one. There was one game earlier this year where
there's hardly any penalties called and like nobody died. It
was everything was okay, life went on. There's this like
you have to be justified for your salary because they
get paid a lot of it's part time job, but
they get paid a lot of money. They get travel
expenses paid for and all that stuff. So it's it's
(24:20):
one of those it's like, well, okay, so you've got
to justify the amount of money that you're you're being
paid even though it's a part time gig, and so
you have to call penalties and all that stuff. And uh, anyway,
the endgame on this, uh, well right now you can
get a fine, a tax deductible donation to an NFL
charity of your choice. And the refs do love the spotlight.
(24:44):
They just don't love being told told that, so they'll
be a fine now, Page two, continuing the Hour of Pooka, Puka, Puka, Pooka.
All right, so pin the tail on the Pooka. What's
the fallout from ram wide receiver Puka Nakua and his
referee ran Now we mentioned there'll be a donation, small
(25:04):
donation to NFL charities there attacked deductible. But this was
an Emmy winning performance that nobody asked for. Now, Yeah,
I have no problem with this kind of stuff I get.
I always say this. I put this qualifier that I
have a daily talk show to do every night I
come in here, and if everyone just did what they're
supposed to do, what fun would this job be? It
(25:25):
wouldn't be any flight at all. So it's an Emmy
Award winning performance by Pooka as in mental error me
mental error unforced, self inflicted, self inflicted. It's kind of
like spiking the ball on first down? What are you doing?
What are you doing? And he didn't pull any punches here,
Pooka he ignored the Teddy Roosevelt rule book, talk softly,
(25:49):
carry a big stick. Instead, he grabbed a megaphone and
was tap dancing on top of a rake and said,
look at me, everybody, I'm the clown. Look at me.
I'm gung Oh, here we go. I'm juggling. I'm juggling.
I'm joggling, all right. So he obviously wanted again these
internet streamers love. He chased that streamer Poka Nakoa, and
(26:11):
he ended up spilling some tea to try to get
in the good graces with these two people I've never
heard of. And now now he has just put a
neon green highlighter on his jersey. Spotlight blazing, spotlight blazing,
big brother. The league office, they pay attention to this stuff,
the officials, you know, they heard about it. So Pooka's
(26:34):
tempting fate here. You just did the belly whopper into
the divil whiteout pool, the deep end of the Diva
whiteout pool. So no lifeguard on duty. Move on over,
old Dell Beckham. There's a new character actor in town,
and his name is Pooka. And now we love the player.
(26:54):
He's a great ballplayer, good game, all that stuff. We
love the quirks. He doesn't like vegetables. I don't like vegetables.
He doesn't even like fruit. I'm okay with most fruit,
but he didn't like fruit either. He's on the chuck
e cheese diet is what he's on there, or some
kind of Neanderthal diet. As for the fall out, we
mentioned the fine there. If Puka balls out in the
(27:14):
game here on Thursday night and the Rams win, this
story fades away. It fades into thin air. It's a
cute little sidebar. And that's that. If they lose, or
if Puka plays poorly and they win, it will be well,
he slapped the whammy. No whammy, no whammy, big money,
(27:36):
big money, and no whamy. Stop. Well, if they lose,
then it's like, well he put the whammy on the season,
and I will get wrong team, mark it down. I
will guarantee you that that happened. Like they'll say, oh,
the Rams lost because of Puka going on a live stream,
which like ninety eight percent of football fans don't watch,
and so it's not real crossover crowd the people that
(27:58):
have season tickets to NFL games and the people watching
internet streamers. But if it does happen to like the
jinx is applied. Season karma in a negative way has
been activated. I ready know. I'll tell you right now.
No Stradinas has those comments saved in his draft on
his X. He's got those ready to go. He's gonna
fire those off as soon as the game ends, as
(28:20):
he'll be like, okay, let's set time to jump through
the hoop here and try to bust malards balls. All right,
final point, We move away from Pooa and we head
to VVA Las Vegas. VVA Las Vegas. As we we
raised a mile a minute, we go to Vegas where
Geno Smith of the Raiders, who currently would have the
(28:41):
number one overallenho Gino Smith addressed the long standing chatter
that's been going on for a couple months now. Is
Gino actually going to be a one and done Raider?
His time with the Raiders has not gone very well.
He was asked about staying in Lost Wages, Nevada for
(29:01):
the duration of his contract, as the Raiders are the
worst team in football right now. He said, quote, he
is expecting to win a lot of games here. He said,
I'm expecting to win a lot of games here. Close quote.
All right, So the question how do you evaluate Geno
Smiths status with the Raiders? All right? So here here's
(29:27):
how I would evaluate. This is a it's a storm.
It's stormy with a splash of shrimp cocktail, looks fancy,
smells fishy and risky, Gino. In Vegas, if there's anyone
there with a pulse, and who knows if there is
(29:47):
anyone with a pulse. The way the Raiders are being
run by Tom Brady, it doesn't look like there's anyone
there that knows what they're doing. Man the lifeboats. The
ship be sinking anyway. Gino, if you look at what
he's done here, you got to think that in Vegas,
this is the last supper before the buffet closes, and
certainly not the start of some kind of great dynasty.
(30:08):
This is not a charity. I believe it's not a charity.
The Raiders are not a mean the witness protection program
for quarterbacks who ran out of runway, and so they'll
just pick up another suckbag quarterback and try to get
lightning in a bottle. We'll call it what it is.
Gino does not have not a leg to stand on.
(30:30):
He does not have a Pro football reference page or
a Wikipedia page to fall back on. Under any and
I mean any reasonable measurement, Gino Smith stinks. He does
thirty third rand quarterback. You don't need the rankings. You
just watch the games. Just pay attention to the games.
(30:50):
If you're blind, just listen to the games. Gino Smith
is worse than a handful of quarterbacks who've already been benched.
They've already been demoted for malfeasan to a tongue of
eye loa more on him later. He was benched by
the Dolphins, justin fields with the Jets, he's out. Spencer Rattler,
New Orleans got benched, Kyler Murray got benched, and they
(31:12):
all had better numbers than Geno Smith. So's it's like
finishing last in a race and you finished last and
half the field pulled hamstrings. Well, how did you finish
last when half the people just pulled It doesn't make
any sense. They pulled the hamstrings. This theme song is
from the trash Men. For Geno Smith, the bird is
(31:35):
the word. The bird is the word, and that's what
he did. He gave the raider fans the bird on
his way off the field. And that's the signature moment
of Geno Smith. If this was a Vegas residency, If
Geno Smith was a Vegas residency like Penn and Teller,
Carrott Top or something like that, they would have to
(31:56):
offer refunds after day three. And let's give money back
day three. Here Gino got his shot and he was
the flavor of the week, and he fetched it all away.
The dew hickey did not work. And if this thing
goes sideways anymore, it's already gone sideways. Tom Brady should
(32:17):
go down to Low's. My advice, professional advice from overnight
Talk Radio. Tom Brady should go down to Low's in
a fever pitch and buy a giant gas powered leaf
blower and clean away all the leaves and all the
things around his house. There, loud and proud, with zero sentiment,
(32:37):
zero sentiment, and just go for it. Just go for it.
It's just such a bleeping mess. I just a bleeping mess.
And Tom Brady, he's seeking El Dorado with the raiders.
I'm gonna figure this thing out. I'm gonna find my
pot of gold and not the case.
Speaker 2 (32:58):
Be sure to catch live editions The Ben Maler Show
weekdays at two am eastern eleven pm Pacific.
Speaker 1 (33:03):
By the main time shifted to the third degree. Yeah,
this is one big ben gets grilled, all right, cool, I've.
Speaker 4 (33:13):
Been this season seemingly more than other seasons. There have
been a lot of teams that have fallen way below
their high expectations. Which of those teams do you think
has been the biggest disappointment?
Speaker 1 (33:25):
Well, I would say that the Baltimore Ravens, who are
looking like they're not going to make the playoffs. In
Kansas City, those are the top two teams. Kansas City.
Everyone'sho or Kansas City. Kansas City can and they should
be in the playoffs. It's embarrassing they've fallen this far,
but they're not going to make the playoffs. But I
to me Baltimore because Kansas City a lot of people
expected them to have a falloff because they didn't really
(33:46):
improve the roster and some guys got old there. But Baltimore,
this was still supposed to be their window. And Lamar
Jackson misses practice all the time. He's not played very
well in these games. So I to me, Baltimore's got
to be high up there along with Kansas City. Neck
and Neck As a mono Abato if you, and with
(34:07):
a wink and a nod to the Detroit Lions that
have fallen off, they're no longer biting mee caps.
Speaker 4 (34:11):
Next, a Warriors fan leaked an email between himself and
team owner Joe lacub where Lacomb admitted his frustrations with
the team and cited complications such as coaches desires regarding players. Now,
Steve Kerr was asked about this, and he said, it's
not a big deal. Is it a big deal?
Speaker 1 (34:29):
Ben? Yeah, I don't think he's that big deal. I
saw this. I didn't I was gonna mention it in a monologue.
I didn't think it was that big a deal. I
think it's kind of cool that Joe lacob broke back.
He didn't really say much, I thought in the email,
but it does show you that he cares and he
is annoyed. He knows that the product's not good. You know,
a lot of the Warrior fans are having problems dealing
(34:50):
with the fact they're just they've fallen off. Alamedahlu and
those guys that love the Warriors. This is what happens.
It happens to all the teams that have great runs.
The The Lakers went through this, the Celtics when they've
had great teams, the Pistons, you're really good for a while,
and then you hold on to those veteran players and
it's you're not terrible, but you're not a legitimate championship team,
(35:12):
and you're stuck in this twilight zone. And obviously coaches
have favorite players. That's not a secret. Steve Kerr liked
certain kind of players, just like whoever your favorite coach does.
That's the way it works. Next.
Speaker 4 (35:25):
Adam Silver said on Tuesday that the NBA will make
a decision on expansion in twenty twenty six, and he
specifically mentioned Las Vegas and Seattle, Ben do you think
both of those cities will get a team?
Speaker 1 (35:36):
Well, so I heard from a little birdie. This was
several years back, Coop, that Seattle was definitely getting a
team and the plan was to go to Vegas. That
was in twenty nineteen. It's twenty twenty five. They had
Now the argument, the reason we have an ad expansion
is because we had the pandemic that delayed things, and
(35:58):
then the television contracts where now they're on Amazon and
NBC and all that, So that stuff's taken care of.
The problem is though, you got to cut up that
pie and the slices get a little bit smaller for
the Knickerbockers and the Timberwolves and the Rockets and all that.
But they're gonna have two teams, and you got to
bring back the Sonic name. They did it with the
(36:20):
Hornets and Charlotte. Bring back the SuperSonics and and have
a gambling name for the team in Vegas, having the
slot machines or something like that. And they're gonna lean
into the gambling. And why not. Chauncey Phillips led it.
He leaned into the gambling. All right there it is
Mallard of the third degree.
Speaker 4 (36:35):
How did we do you pass this edition?
Speaker 1 (36:38):
There's a win I want.
Speaker 2 (36:40):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at Foxsports Radio
dot com and within the iHeartRadio app. Search FSR to
listen live.
Speaker 1 (36:53):
It's now time for time. Horry, Harry Honey Waite, Ask Twitter.
Send us your questions on Twitter now and it is
ask Ben. Your questions are answers for the rest of
the hour. The rest of the hour and for the
reading of the questions. We head over to the kupoloup.
Speaker 4 (37:16):
All right, we're gonna start off with a question from Gunner.
Speaker 1 (37:19):
Hi Gunner.
Speaker 4 (37:20):
Gunnar would like to know what's your favorite kind of
French fry.
Speaker 1 (37:26):
I like the kind of fries I eat after watching
the Carolina Panthers lose to the New Orleans Saints. Gunner,
that's the kind of fries that I like a lot.
Those are really really good.
Speaker 4 (37:36):
No.
Speaker 1 (37:36):
I like curly fries, but they don't give you enough
in the little basket. And like RB's curly fries are
really good. McDonald's fries or Salid. I'm a big fry guy.
I love fries. It's hard to f up fries. I'll
even eat soggy fries. I don't enjoy soggy fries, but
I'll eat them because I love fries. What about you,
Lorena Ooh, it's so.
Speaker 6 (37:54):
Hard with the fry because there is so many different varieties.
But I like the ka that kind of a shoe stringy,
but a little fatter than that, and you can leave
them in your steak juice and they soak up nicely.
Speaker 1 (38:06):
What about a potato wedge that's too big for you?
Speaker 6 (38:09):
Too fat?
Speaker 1 (38:10):
Yeah, you're anti fat? I got it, I got you,
I cooplelop I.
Speaker 4 (38:15):
I'm kind of with Lorraina. I do like just you know,
the regular.
Speaker 1 (38:19):
You know, but basic b with a fry.
Speaker 4 (38:22):
Yeah, but I also do enjoy crinkle cut a lot.
Speaker 1 (38:26):
What about the curly? You don't like the curly? What's
wrong with the curly?
Speaker 4 (38:29):
It's being wrong with the curly. It's just not, you know,
not my favorite. I do enjoy curly fries though.
Speaker 1 (38:34):
Okay, all right, fair enough? What's next? Here? It's ask Ben?
Your questions are answers.
Speaker 4 (38:42):
This question is just for you, Ben. It is from
Bill on Twitter.
Speaker 1 (38:47):
Hi Bill.
Speaker 4 (38:48):
He wants to know do you give Christmas gifts to
your non Jewish friends?
Speaker 1 (38:53):
Uh? Yeah, I mean, I'm I'm. My problem is I
lose track of time. I'm just so worried about the show.
Every day I spend all my time on that. I forget,
like I don't even know what day it is most
of the time. But yeah, I'll give out stuff to
random people. Usually my wife handles most of that crap though,
but I don't. Yeah, the answer is yes, next, What's next?
(39:13):
What I got?
Speaker 4 (39:14):
This question is from Donkey Sausage.
Speaker 1 (39:16):
Hide Donkey Hie Donkey.
Speaker 4 (39:18):
Wants to know, do you have any allergies?
Speaker 1 (39:22):
Uh? Yeah, I am allergic to penicillin. That's about I
think that's the only one. I thought, like a year ago,
I was allergic to something else, but it turned out
I was not. I think that's the only one I
really have at this point, Loraina.
Speaker 6 (39:36):
Any allergies, Loraina, Well, I don't want anyone to go
and put anything in my food that might harm me.
But sometimes I have allergic reaction to eating bread and
I get a weird rash on the top of my mouth.
Speaker 1 (39:48):
Also, you have a gluten allergy. I don't know if
it's the gluten analergy. What Bread's gluten?
Speaker 6 (39:52):
Yeah, but there's other things in bread too that could
cause it.
Speaker 1 (39:56):
What else is there?
Speaker 6 (39:56):
I don't know, But it doesn't always happen.
Speaker 4 (39:58):
That's the weird part.
Speaker 6 (39:59):
So like I can have regular sandwiches, but sometimes if
I have like like I've had a bagel before, that
does it to my mouth. I don't know.
Speaker 4 (40:06):
It's weird. But no medicine. I'm not allergic to medicine
that I know of.
Speaker 1 (40:10):
There's gluten and everything though, just about avoid the gluten.
Speaker 6 (40:14):
And that's the thing. If it was everything then I
would wouldn't be able to eat anything.
Speaker 4 (40:19):
I wasn't thinking about medication, but since you brought it up,
I am allergic to uh doxy cycling. That's a h
A type of a sillin. It's a you know what,
antibiotic or antibiotic and to sneeze, okay uh. And then
also I have a few different nut allergies like mcadami nut,
(40:43):
hazel nuts. It's not that bad. I still bless you.
You have a mic.
Speaker 1 (40:46):
Thanks for not turning the mic up. Appreciate that time.
Speaker 4 (40:50):
I still eat them. My throat just gets a little scratchy,
but you know they're delicious, so I still do it.
And then leechy that one I cannot eat, don't I
love a good LEECHI all.
Speaker 1 (40:59):
Right, fair enough? What's say is ask Ben? Your questions
are answers for the rest of the hour. Your questions
hashtag ask Ben. If you like it, we do it
every weekend about this time. If you don't like it,
we do it once a week. So who the hell
care is chill out?
Speaker 4 (41:11):
The King Rory would like to know what is your
favorite dairy product?
Speaker 1 (41:16):
Lately it's been ice cream. Lately, it's been like an
ice cream sandwich, Lorena. Yeah, I'm right there with you.
Ice cream, all right? Cool?
Speaker 4 (41:24):
Might have to go cream cheese. Love me some cream cheese.
Speaker 1 (41:28):
So that's a bad answer. Next, it's ask Ben eat
that off my finger?
Speaker 4 (41:32):
This morning. Alf wants to know are all of you
as amped up as I am for the Benny Cup
mid season award show.
Speaker 1 (41:41):
Yeah, that'll be Christmas night, Alf, I can't wait for that, right,
that'll be a big ratings winner. Wait till you hear
the Year in review on the Ben Malor Show. It's
gonna break records for downloads, scoop. It's gonna be amazing
that episode
Host
Ben Maller
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