September 10, 2026 • 39 mins
Big Ben talks about Drake Maye's terrible performance for the Patriots in their season opening loss to the Seahawks, Raiders coach Klint Kubiak lying about the injury to TE Brock Bowers, Benny vs. The Penny TNF Edition, and much more!
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
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(00:20):
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Speaker 2 (00:23):
This is the best of the Ben Maller Show on
Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
So our lead this hour. Don't bury the lead, my man!
I think you know where the lead is. There's only
one thing. We've been waiting for months and months and months.
It keeps the lights on around here. What is it
that keeps the lights on around here? Well, that would
be the National Football League, and it was a Humpty Dance,
the traditional Wednesday opener, unless there's nothing traditional about a
(00:55):
Wednesday opener, but they played it. They started it because
they had this Fugazi game, and Melbourne, Australia. So they
had to accommodate the good people of Melbourne. So instead
of starting on Thursday, which is normally what happens now,
we had the Wednesday kickoff. But the curtain did go
up on the 2026 NFL regular season, a rematch. of
(01:17):
Super Bowl 60, which wasn't very good, and this game
wasn't very good. So Patriots and Seahawks, they get together.
Not good football. The end of the game was fine,
but the balance of the game, which is like three
hours and whatever, not very good. Not very good. Oh,
you're not supposed to say that, Maller. You're supposed to
(01:38):
drink the NFL Kool-Aid. Okay, fine. Whatever you want. Well,
it was a hump day special there, so I assume
you watched or heard it on some kind of transistor radio,
but perhaps not. Perhaps not. So the backup quarterback, the
backup quarterback, Drew Locke. Lock it in. Drew Locke, a
(01:59):
couple of late scoring drives, and the Seattle Seahawks. getting
a lot of help from the 12th man, not the fans.
That would be Drake May, who should be getting a
12 jersey and be part of the pregame festivities in
years to come. They should bring Drake May to Seattle
and have him do that little thing that Richard Sherman
(02:20):
was doing before the game. So Drake May had three
interceptions in the fourth quarter, which I'm told is not good. Now,
I didn't play in the NFL, but I'm told that's
not good. And that allowed Seattle to get over the
hump on hump day. And without Sam Darnold, that's not
(02:41):
really much of a loss. But anyway, listen, so Seattle
came back. They win the game 13-10. The better story, though,
is in... The losing locker room, Mike Vrabel, when he's
not playing footsie with NFL insiders. He's coaching the Patriots.
Here is Mike Vrabel commenting on his quarterback who had
(03:04):
a three-interception night. Here's Coach Vrabel. Take a listen.
Speaker 3 (03:08):
It's just a long season.
Speaker 1 (03:09):
You know what I mean?
Speaker 4 (03:09):
Like, we're going to hold our head up high, and
we have nothing but the Upmost confidence in him and
everybody on this football team, and he's going.
Speaker 5 (03:20):
To make a lot of plays for us. I mean,
you can't throw three interceptions.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
Drake knows that. Oh, they said Drake. There he goes, Drake.
Speaker 5 (03:26):
We put ourselves in some long yardage situations on the one.
That would probably force, and I think the guy made
a great play on the last one.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
Well, it's going to be a long season if he
keeps playing like that. It's going to get people fired,
Drake May. Holy crap. My God. All right, so that
is a good jumping-off point. The better story is obviously
in the losing locker room. That's where the story is.
The Patriots, this is an embarrassing day for the New
England Patriots franchise. It is. The game was right there.
(03:58):
You gave the game away. You just gave the game away,
and that's on you. Seattle didn't deserve this win, and
that seems to happen a lot to that team. Have
you noticed? Like, something's going on there. I mean, some
kind of, Faustian bargain, the Seattle Seahawks. Anyways, good jumping
off point. Let us discuss the question, what happened to
(04:20):
Patriots quarterback Drake May here in the lid lifter on
the NFL season? So I've got Mater D, Spinach, and Fuzzy.
And we'll combine all of these things together, and we
are going to grab some supper and work out the kinks,
which is what Drake May needs to do. So, A, listen,
(04:43):
Drake May was, I determined as I was watching the game,
and I didn't know this prior to the game, but
he was administered an IV drip. Did you know that? Yeah,
I saw it in a cartoon bubble in my head.
So Drake May was administered an IV drip, and it
contained a mixture of saline and suck. And I guess
they left the saline out, so it was just suck,
(05:04):
an IV drip of suck for Drake May.
Speaker 3 (05:09):
And in a flash.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
Drake May went from the 2025 MVP runner-up to the
football equivalent of tossing cookies as you sit on the
porcelain pony, if you know what I mean. My God.
That was disgusting. Absolutely disgusting. We have some more audio.
Here's Drake May pointing out that what he did is
(05:34):
a felony. Take a listen. Yeah, I think we had
the game under control.
Speaker 3 (05:37):
You know, I thought we had a good.
Speaker 6 (05:38):
I planned to try to start chipping away and be patient, and, yeah,
I lost patience and it costed us. I think it just,
you know, decisions that cost us the game, you know.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
On my part and my end.
Speaker 6 (05:50):
And, you know, I vowed to myself to be better
and realize it's, you know, it's a long season, but
at the same time you can't have those. You can't
have those, and it's unacceptable. And I know that it'll
get you back to work because, you know, that wasn't,
you know, how I play football and how I want
to represent, you know, my game and, you know, playing
quarterback for the Patriots.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
So Drake, in the middle of that, he's like, all right,
what cliches can I sew together? And let me get
my sewing machine out. Let me put the cliches together.
And here we go. So he did get an upgrade, though.
That's nice when you get an upgrade. You travel. Patriots
are on the road. He got an upgrade there. He
moved from coach to first class. And then they moved
(06:29):
him all the way up to the cockpit. And he said, boy,
I'm in the cockpit. This is great. He said, well, yeah,
it's actually not a plane. It's the Vomit Comet. And
he rode the Vomit Comet straight into Puget Sound. Kaboom!
So the Seahawks offense produced, if my math is correct here,
three points outside of Drake May's tax-deductible charitable donation from
(06:52):
his foundation. So the Patriots, on that final possession for
New England, they had a tie in the back. They
were in chip shot field goal range. At worst, you
go to overtime. And Drake May marked it return to
sender at the very end there.
Speaker 3 (07:09):
The game was in his hands.
Speaker 1 (07:12):
And he said, let me go over to that Walmart
Express here. I'm going to hand deliver the game to
the people of Seattle. So I'm going to do that.
And he did. coughed up a hairball when the Patriots
needed him to purr. And he chose not to purr here.
So really what he did, he did some cosplay. He
was playing the Mater D. Drake May was playing the
Mater D here of interceptions at the Pike Place Market,
(07:34):
the famous tourist trap there in Seattle. And he simply
tapped out. Good afternoon, good evening, and good night. A
passer rating in the 50s. And the Patriots just terrible.
nine drives three interceptions uh one field goal one touchdown
(07:56):
everything else was a punt for the Patriots now page
two outside of Drake May give me a phrase give
me a phrase to describe the wide receiver Romeo Dobbs
debut with the Patriots because this was a big story
here Romeo Dobbs and his performance here so the phrase
(08:17):
I will use it's actually I'm going to use a
name I'm going to use a name It's a musician,
Jerry Lee Lewis. That's the name I'm going to use.
Dobbs wrote a parody song of Jerry Lee Lewis's, you know,
that famous Goodness Gracious, Great Balls of Fire. And his
spin on it, and it is original because you normally
don't want this kind of thing in your first performance
(08:38):
with a new employer. So he sang a parody song,
Romeo Dobbs, Goodness Gracious, Great Balls of Suck. And that
was his version. And I believe the family of Jerry
Lee Lewis is demanding royalties, I think. So New England,
I read, remember this offseason, we talked about it, $ 39
million guaranteed for Romeo Dobbs. $ 39 million guaranteed. And he
(09:05):
opened up his Patriots career here in prime time like
a guy that won a contract in a radio giveaway.
Caller number 17. You're going to win a chance to
play wide receiver for the New England Patriots. So what
a name, right?
Speaker 2 (09:22):
Romeo.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
What a great name, Romeo. Romeo Dobbs. Patriots fans wanted
Romeo and Juliet. Instead, they've got Romeo and drop it
is what they got. So you only get one chance,
I'm told, to make a first impression. And Romeo Dobbs
showed up there. First impression in a real game with
the Patriots. And he had spinach in his teeth. He
had B.O. and his fly was down. Other than that,
(09:47):
everything was good.
Speaker 3 (09:48):
Everything was good.
Speaker 1 (09:49):
So with A.J. Brown dinged up, more on that later,
Brown knocked out of the game and he did not return.
And the second half there did not do much. A.J. Brown,
when he was out there, it was... time for Dobbs
to step up at the big boy table there for
Drake May. And what did Dobbs do instead? He decided
(10:09):
to curl into the fetal position and take a nap.
And it was a good nap. He felt pretty good
after that. Now, his play sucked, but he was not
a security blanket. If anything, Romeo Dobbs was an electric
blanket that was tossed into a bathtub, which I don't recommend.
That's not a good thing. So he was targeted three times.
(10:32):
That's it. Three times. And Dobbs had zero catches. He
had as many as Mike the Leprechaun and Hollering James. Zippo.
And then to make it even more embarrassing, he's got
that that extra large pad on the helmet, which just
makes you stand out like it's just I there were
(10:54):
people will say, well, it's safer and all that, but
it just makes you look so terrible. It's just so bad.
And especially when you play like that, you're like, oh,
my God, it's like a throbbing swollen thumb. And you
just stand out your eyes. I don't know if you
watch football like me. There's a couple of guys on
the Patriots that have it. And you see these teams
(11:15):
around the league that have the puffy helmet. And I
gravitate towards those people because it's like what doesn't belong. Well,
the person with the extra padding thing on the helmet
doesn't belong. And then Dobbs in this game, he stands out.
So you're gravitating your eyes to see the guy with
the funny hat on the clown costume. And then he
(11:37):
decided to open up the Candyman concession, which was kind
of nice to do that. The Candyman concession stand. And unfortunately,
they didn't have any Snickers. They didn't have any. three
musketeers there were no m & ms no reese's pieces
they only had butterfingers that's it the candy man concession
stand and so dropped pass by dobbs there was an
(11:58):
interception where he didn't fight for the ball you could
have knocked the ball conceivably away it was just horrific
all right last word to the seattle side of things
So there's already a pet peeve here. We're one game
into the NFL season. So the Seahawks lost starting quarterback
Sam Darnold after the first drive of the night. Oh,
(12:21):
my aching hip. Oh, my hip. Oh, my God. So
the backup, Drew Locke, came in. And seeing all this
nonsense from the establishment football media that Drew Locke was
the hero and, If you do believe the NFL media elites,
(12:41):
that is how that played out. Now, Mike McDonald had
a farm EIEIO. And then on that farm, he said
initial tests showed that Sam Donald did not break a bone.
He said that was positive news. There'll be some more tests,
we understand, for. Sam Darnold, so they'll spend some money
on that. The story, though, is about the backup and
(13:01):
the way this is getting covered. So the question, are
the Seahawks in good hands if Darnold is out with
Drew Locke replacing Sam Darnold? Are they in good hands?
So let's call a spade a spade. This is not
an Allstate commercial. We would not exactly say anyone here
(13:23):
at the quarterback position, is in good hands. Seattle wasn't
in good hands with Sam Darnold. Now, you can lie
to yourself and tell you that they're really in great
shape when Darnold plays. That would be a lie. And
if you want to lie to yourself, feel free. I'm
not going to stop you. But going from Sam Darnold
to Drew Locke, it is obviously not an upgrade. I
will be fair. It is not an upgrade. I would
(13:44):
argue it is not a downgrade. This is a tick-tock
dance routine. It is a sideways shuffle. The sideways shuffle.
That's what this is going from Sam Darnold to Drew Locke. Darnold,
while he is not at the top, they're certainly not elite. Neither,
of course, is Drew Locke. Darnold to Locke is the
(14:04):
NFL equivalent of checking out of your roach-infested Motel 6
hotel on the wrong side of the tracks and going
to Sodom and Gomorrah and checking into the Super 8
Motel and then bragging to all your friends about the upgrade.
I don't know that I would brag about that, so
(14:24):
The narrative of a heroic Drew Locke comeback story. To
that I say, talk to the hand. I just talk
to the hand. Drew Locke looked completely out of sync
the first four drives. I don't know what he was
doing before the game. I don't know. It certainly didn't
seem like he was ready to come in there. And
(14:44):
they all ended up on punts. For those of you
a little slow, that was a drive one punt. Drive two, punt.
Drive three, punt. How about drive four?
Speaker 2 (14:56):
Punt.
Speaker 3 (14:57):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (14:57):
So the real reason Seattle won this game, Seattle won
because of the fuzzy. The lucky fuzzy dice. And somehow, someway,
every single red light turned green. Yet again. Yet again.
And Drake May, Drake May had a name change. He
went down to the courthouse and had his name changed.
(15:18):
He now identifies as Drek May. Because he just, that
was Drek. What he did was Drek. When it truly mattered.
Speaker 2 (15:28):
Be sure to catch live editions of the Ben Maler
Show weekdays at 2 a.m. Eastern, 11 p.m. Pacific on
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Speaker 1 (15:42):
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Speaker 7 (15:45):
Hit that subscribe button and smash that notification bell and
catch all the videos from your favorite shows. So our
lead this hour, we'll get back to the lid lifter
on the NFL season as the Seattle football team getting
help from the 12th man.
Speaker 1 (16:19):
As Drek May, three interceptions in a row to close
the game. Interception, interception, interception, turn at the lights, the
party's over. Yeah, that's it. So the Seahawks, yet again,
not all that great, but they end up getting the
(16:42):
win as they get some help there from the 12th man,
Drek May getting her done, getting her done. I was
going to point this out last hour. I did not
point it out last hour. That's a bad job by me.
But did you know the Drek effect, the Drek effect?
So the Seattle Seahawks, in these last two matchups against
(17:02):
the Patriots, the Seahawks have now scored more points off
Drek May turnovers in two games. They scored 27 total
points in the Super Bowl and this game off Drek
May turnovers. Then the Patriots have scored in total. The
Patriots have 23 points in those two games combined, and
the Seattle football team, thanks to the generosity of Mayday, Mayday, Mayday,
(17:28):
27 points. The Seattle offense, without Drake May interceptions, without
the Drek, they ended up getting a grand total of
three points. But I got to hear all this propaganda about, oh,
the Seahawks defense was so good.
Speaker 4 (17:42):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (17:42):
Well, if you throw the ball to the other team,
just hush down, okay? But our lead, we're going to
go to Vegas because I saw this story and I thought, oh,
my God, this is so good. This is so good.
And it does not necessarily directly involve Brock Bowers, basically.
It's about him, but it's not about him. So let
me explain. So Brock Bowers is the only player worth
(18:04):
watching on the Raiders. All the other players blow. And
the ones that don't blow suck. So the Raiders star
tight end Brock Bowers underwent a meniscus trim. Trim, trim, trim, trim, trim, trim, trim.
That happened on Tuesday in Dallas. Suffered the injury during
training camp. Bowers expected to be out a couple of weeks.
He'll miss the opener of the season here against the
(18:26):
Miami Dolphins. So you may have heard about that, perhaps not.
The bigger story, though, to me, is how the Raiders
handled the news. In one of the all-time F-ups you
could possibly have as a head coach, Clint Kubiak, who
already looks like he's in over his head. That didn't
take very long. Another terrible hire by Tom Brady. Where
(18:49):
have we seen that before? I'm not impressed so far
with Clint Kubiak. So Clint Kubiak said on Wednesday... quote,
we're expecting to have all of our guys ready for Sunday.
He was asked about Max Crosby and Brock Bowers. He said,
we're expecting to have all of our guys ready for Sunday. Now,
Bowers had undergone surgery the day before. The day before,
(19:13):
Clint Kubiak said, we expect to have all of our
guys ready for Sunday. obviously raising questions about the credibility
and the integrity of Clint Kubiak as a man and
why he suggested that Bowers would be available when he
obviously had no chance of playing in the game against
(19:33):
the Miami football team. So that is a good jumping
off point. Let us discuss the question. Give me your
reaction to Raiders coach Clint Kubiak speaking with a forked
tongue on tight end Brent. Bowers there, Brock Bowers. Who's Brent?
I don't know who Brent is. Brock Bowers and his injury.
(19:56):
So I've got hula hoops, pistachio cream, and homecoming dance.
And we will combine all of these things together, and
we are going to play rock, paper, scissors. That's what
we're going to play. But we always start out, even
in dark days when you're attacked by a cockroach, we
always start out with number one.
Speaker 7 (20:18):
Number one.
Speaker 3 (20:19):
One, one, one, one, one, one, one, one, one.
Speaker 1 (20:21):
Number one.
Speaker 3 (20:23):
Number one.
Speaker 6 (20:24):
All right.
Speaker 1 (20:25):
So Brock Bauer. All right. Stop. Brock Bowers did not
walk into Lowry's and say, hey, can you use that
knife at the carving station and trim the meniscus like
it's a nice piece of roast beef? Could you? No,
he didn't do that. You don't just randomly walk in
and have a meniscus operation unless you're in a car accident.
(20:47):
You don't just end up flying into Dallas getting an
operation like it's a wrong turn trying to find a Starbucks.
It's just so good. And yet Clint Kubiak served the
media a Vegas buffet of bologna. So there he was,
(21:10):
the Raider coach. That's a temp job, being coach of
the Raiders. Kubiak jumping through hula hoops with the injury report,
ensuring the truth never made it through. That truth hula
hoop never happened. Never happened. There were roughly 10 ways,
10 ways, 10 clean ways that Clint Kubiak, the coach
(21:33):
of the Raiders, could have answered the questions about his
star players, and instead he chose Pinocchio, capital P, Pinocchio,
for a self-proclaimed member of the God Squad. And we
hear a lot about that from Clint Kubiak. Good for him.
He's part of the God Squad. He clearly skipped the
chapter that said, thou shall not lie. He must have
(21:56):
missed that one. And this was not gamesmanship. This was
a slow drive down, not Las Vegas Boulevard. It's a
little cutoff street there. Lye Boulevard. It's right next to Tropicana.
Lye Boulevard. Just say, I'm not discussing injuries. The injury
(22:17):
report will be out later. Why make yourself look ridiculous?
Does he not know people keep track of this stuff
and they take notes and whatnot? And keep in mind,
20 years ago, this would have just been cute and
you would have been like, okay, that's funny, you know,
and all that. But we live in the age where
(22:39):
the NFL is a conduit to the sports book. They're
in business with the bookies. The NFL is a business
partner with the gamblers. And I'm a gambler. So that's
just the way it is. And in 2026, hiding gambling data,
it's not just some kind of coaching trick anymore when
(23:01):
it comes to injuries. It is a full-blown integrity issue.
And It's a findable offense for Kubiak. It's not the
first time he's done this. He hasn't even coached a
real game with the Raiders yet. And the Ashton Genting
thing where they had a prayer circle around him because
of a high ankle sprain. And now you've got Brock Bowers,
(23:25):
the tight end of the Raiders, who the day before
was in Dallas having his meniscus trimmed like a piece
of beef at Lowry's. And the day after, Kubiak's like, well,
we got all our guys. We think we'll have all
our guys. Dum-da-dum-dum-dum. Now, speaking of dum-da-dum-dum-dum, we go to
the courthouse, and an old friend is back, Antonio Brown.
(23:47):
You see this?
Speaker 7 (23:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (23:50):
So Antonio Brown in a whole lot of trouble, and
he's in a little less trouble now. The alleged victim
of the former NFL player, Mr. Big Chest there, Antonio Brown,
who is facing attempted murder charges, Antonio Brown, attempted murder charges.
(24:12):
Now that the person who is the alleged victim says
he no longer wants to participate in the prosecution there
in South Florida, with his attorney calling it a, quote,
deeply personal decision to forgive Antonio Brown over what happened.
That was back in May of 2025 in Miami. It
(24:32):
was a wild and wacky weekend there for Antonio Brown. Now,
Brown's attorney, what do you think he's saying? So Brown's
attorney hopes that prosecutors, of course, will drop the case.
That's it. Just drop the case. Though he does not
expect an immediate dismissal for Antonio Brown. Brown is 38 now.
(24:54):
He has claimed through his attorneys that he's innocent. He
is seeking dismissal under Florida's Stand your ground law. If convicted,
Antonio Brown facing up to 30 years in prison. Now,
the number that you have to worry about, it's not
(25:15):
the 30 years because it's always up to that's it's
got some wiggle room. It's the 20-year mandatory minimum that
one has to worry about. That's the guarantee. You get convicted,
you're going to jail for 20 years. Antonio Brown won't
be out. They haven't gotten trial yet. But he wouldn't
be out until he's almost, do the math on that,
(25:36):
almost 60. Yeah, so there you go. Question. We know
the alleged victim in the former Steelers star Antonio Brown's
second-degree murder, attempted murder, attempted murder. case is okay listen
i've decided to not participate in the case we know
that's that's going on so the alleged victim of this
(25:58):
antonio brown second degree attempted murder case deciding not to
participate why the change of heart now let me preface
this with a qualifier we don't know whether nickel changed
hands or not however You're allowed to notice the sudden
(26:18):
outbreak of compassion is awfully convenient for Antonio Brown. It
does make you wonder what's going on behind the curtain.
And I've known and we all know it's one of
the things about being human. We all have a price.
Everyone has a price. And apparently forgiveness now comes with
a suggested retail price, retail value price. Somewhere, I imagine,
(26:42):
at least in my head, that cartoon bubble in my head,
there's a let's make a deal money booth with imaginary
$ 100 bills swirling around while everyone insists there's nothing interesting
to see here. So Brown, he ends up going and
spending six months eating Dubai chocolates with extra pistachio cream.
(27:06):
Remember when he was on the lam in Dubai and
then he came back and now he's facing 20 years
minimum if convicted. That's the minimum, 20 years in prison.
And suddenly he discovers the joys of charitable living and giving.
It's amazing what a couple of decades in the who's
(27:28):
gal can do for your portfolio of generosity. So we'd
love to see the itemized receipt for this great spiritual
awakening by Antonio Brown. Now, the problem is the alleged
victim can forgive Antonio Brown all he wants. He doesn't
have the power, though, to pardon him. It just makes
(27:50):
things more difficult for the prosecution. Prosecutors don't have to
kind of pack up everything and leave the courthouse and
say that's it. Because all of this has been documented
on cell phone cameras, and there's a lot of different
angles of it. A lot of different angles of what
happened that night in Miami. So forgiveness might close the
(28:12):
victim's playbook, but it does not close the state's case.
And the state does not, from what we understand, accept coupons.
Antonio Brown, he's bad. buddies with the president. Maybe the
president makes a phone call on behalf of Antonio Brown
and says, hey, help my guy out a little bit.
Speaker 2 (28:33):
All right, final point.
Speaker 1 (28:35):
To the boob tube we go, and that is where
Mike Tomlin was over there on NBC, and he mispronounced Jackson, Smith,
and Jigba, which upset a few people. God forbid you
don't speak the king's language, but I thought Tomlin was fine.
I enjoy his work. Much better than some of those
(28:56):
other stooges he's around. Anyway, Mike Tomlin not ruling out
a return to NFL coaching video at 11. It's after
leaving the Steelers and going over to television there at NBC.
Asked directly this week whether he might coach again, Tomlin answered, quote,
it's certainly not a 32-team league for me, he said.
(29:21):
But I've also learned to never say never. Tomlin said
he still loves the coach, including the profession's challenges, developing
young players, and the weekly seven-day competitive cycle. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
At the same time, though, Tomlin did say that he
is enjoyed the six months away from coaching and he
(29:44):
said the lifestyle on the other side that he previously
did not know so the question how do you decode
Mike Tomlin's comments here on his NFL future So Mike Tomlin,
the way I see it on this side of the microphone,
Mike Tomlin is on a coaching sabbatical with NBC paying
(30:10):
for the books. They're paying for the textbooks here. It's
been whispered in hushed tones that Tomlin is following the
Sean Payton mantra. Remember Sean Payton? After a long run
in the bayou, he left the Saints. And then went
to Fox for a little bit. And then now he's
with the Denver Broncos. So I look at what Tomlin did.
(30:32):
It's like a dog whistle. He's sitting there like now
on TV. He's the prettiest girl at the homecoming dance,
Mike Tomlin. All dolled up there, got all the makeup
on and all that. And there's a bunch of nervous owners,
these aristocrats. Watching from luxury suites, window shopping, every time
(30:52):
he's on NBC and every big game on Sunday night.
And Tomlin's just sitting there on the desk and he's
got this Svengali effect going. Not on the sidelines. You
put on that TV makeup. You put on the IFB
and you get the little microphone thingamajig there. And suddenly
everyone is hypnotized and mesmerized. They forget all the bad
(31:18):
stuff and all the teams that underachieved in the playoffs
for Tomlin for so many years, and you overlooked that. Now, Tomlin,
what he did here is he cracked the door open
just enough, just enough to guarantee his name becomes a
fixture on the coaching carousel, which, oh, by the way,
(31:39):
it was going to be anyway. Every high-profile vacancy will
generate speculation until he definitely says no. And the only
coach that I can recall who was as Popular as Tomlin,
who didn't come back to coach, is Bill Cowher. And
that cursed every man, woman, and child that's watched CBS.
Cowher is not only on TV, he's terrible. Horrific. And
(32:03):
the fact that he's, I believe, still on CBS, and
Dungy was just as bad. They finally got rid of
Dungy over there at NBC, but my God. Anyway, Tomlin
isn't looking for just any job. Teams are going to
be auditioning for Mike Tomlin. For Mike Thum, because he
has earned the right, considering his resume, to handpick the
(32:25):
groceries and the kitchen he wants to work in, and
he can handpick the restaurant manager, all of that stuff.
All of that stuff.
Speaker 2 (32:36):
Be sure to catch live editions of the Ben Maller
Show weekdays at 2 a.m. Eastern, 11 p.m.
Speaker 1 (32:41):
Pacific. Here we go. Let's get to it. Welcome, players.
You're welcome.
Speaker 5 (32:45):
Are you up for more Maller Mail?
Speaker 1 (32:49):
It's time now.
Speaker 2 (32:50):
Benny versus the Penny.
Speaker 1 (32:53):
Back where it all started many years ago. Benny versus
the Penny, our triumphant return to network radio after getting
a tease with that big TV money. Here we are.
All right, let's get to it. It is the Thursday
night special here on the 10th of September. The 49ers
and the Rams, NFC West rivaled. And they kick off
their seasons together 8,000 miles away in Melbourne, Australia. The
(33:17):
Rams on DraftKings, a three-and-a-half-point favorite. And by the way,
the wait is over. Football's here, and so is DraftKings.
DraftKings is now live in all 50 states. One app,
every sport, all 50 states right now use the promo
code MALLER to claim DraftKings. Your special offer at DraftKings. Again,
that's promo code MALLER at DraftKings. The crown is yours. So, again, Rams,
(33:39):
minus 3.5. Rams are the consensus with the public. They
are a popular pick by popular people. Public betting leaning
towards the Rams here as the public buying into the
media hype that the Rams will win this game and
cover that 3.5. although it did open closer to 2.5
and then moved because of all the transactions the Rams made.
(34:02):
The Sharps, on the other hand, leaning towards the 49ers.
And after a long analysis, I am going to take, again,
I like the Rams. The Rams will win the game,
but I'm going to take the 49ers to cover the
spread here. It's going to take a little while to
get that sink in sync for Stafford and Puka Nakua
and whatnot here. And so these games are generally close
divisional games. The 49ers are healthy for the most part
(34:25):
with Nick Bosa, George Kittle, and McCaffrey all in the lineup.
And those guys will be hurt as the season goes on.
So they're all there. It's mostly healthy versus mostly healthy.
So I'm going to take the three and a half
points there. And I will take the 49ers. Rams win.
Niners cover the spread. And the penny picks. Here we go.
(34:46):
First time for this Ram 49er game. In the air everywhere.
Koopa Loop representing the penny. What do we got?
Speaker 3 (34:53):
Well, the Penny landed on tails, and if my memory serves,
that means the away team.
Speaker 1 (34:58):
Yes.
Speaker 3 (34:58):
So they, too.
Speaker 1 (34:59):
They're both away teams, though.
Speaker 3 (35:01):
Oh, that's a good point. But I think the Rams
are considered the home team, right?
Speaker 1 (35:05):
Okay, so the 49ers?
Speaker 7 (35:07):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (35:07):
Well, there we go. We're two games in. This is
the second. Yesterday, the same thing happened. So both like
the Niners. Penny versus the Penny.
Speaker 2 (35:16):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at foxsportsradio.com. And
within the iHeartRadio app, search FSR to listen live.
Speaker 1 (35:28):
It's now time for. Time for.
Speaker 7 (35:31):
Hurry, hurry, I can hardly wait.
Speaker 1 (35:33):
Ask Ben.
Speaker 7 (35:33):
Twitter.
Speaker 2 (35:34):
Send us your questions on Twitter now.
Speaker 1 (35:37):
And away we go. It's Ask Ben. Your questions, our answers.
For the rest of the hour, the reading of the questions.
It will not sound like he's reading. We head over
to the coop-a-loop. Justin Cooper.
Speaker 3 (35:52):
All right, we are going to start off with a
question from... Hmm, who do I like better here? I
don't know. I'm dying to find out. All right, let's
start with JT the Wingman.
Speaker 1 (36:07):
I had him on the mailbag. He's good.
Speaker 3 (36:10):
Do you ever go to farmer's markets?
Speaker 1 (36:14):
Uh, I never went to, well, that's not true. I
used to live near the OG Farmer's Market in L.A., where,
was it the Grove is there now? But it's still there,
the Farmer's Market. I used to go to that. But
for the most part, that only really started when I
got married. So I do. But before that, not much.
What about you, Lorena?
Speaker 3 (36:35):
Not down here, but in my hometown, yeah, I go
to the Farmer's Market every Saturday. It's kind of like
the communal watering hole.
Speaker 1 (36:43):
The only store to shop at. What about you, Koopaloop?
Speaker 3 (36:46):
No, not really.
Speaker 1 (36:48):
No? I mean, like, I think there's... Support local business
and all.
Speaker 3 (36:53):
That. Yeah, I mean, I don't know. I've... I've walked
through plenty of farmer's markets. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (36:59):
You don't want some guy trying to sell you a
$ 20 thing of honey?
Speaker 3 (37:03):
You're not interested in that? The honey is one thing,
but I don't know. They've got all this fruit, and
it's on the floor. I don't know.
Speaker 1 (37:12):
There's always the person with the kettle corn stand there.
What's next? What do we got? It's Ask Ben and
Friends for the rest of the hour.
Speaker 3 (37:21):
Stevie Meatballs would like to know.
Speaker 1 (37:22):
Hi, Stevie Meatballs.
Speaker 3 (37:24):
What is your pillow situation when you sleep?
Speaker 1 (37:27):
How many?
Speaker 3 (37:27):
Where do they go? Are any of them long body pillows?
Speaker 1 (37:31):
All right. First of all, you're very creepy asking about
a man's pillow. That's very creepy. I usually have two
to three pillows at any time. The main one, I'm
a side sleeper, so the main one is the small
one I can kind of wrap my arm around my head.
It's hard to find a good pillow for that. If
somebody has a recommendation, let me know. Because it's got
to be soft. I like a cooling pillow. But I
(37:53):
usually have three, but one's the main one, the small
one that I put, wrap my arm around. What about you, Lorena?
Speaker 3 (37:59):
I have so many pillows, you can barely see my bed.
Speaker 6 (38:03):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (38:04):
I got you.
Speaker 2 (38:04):
Coop?
Speaker 3 (38:05):
I used to be a two-pillow guy, but now I
just have the one nice memory foam pillow.
Speaker 1 (38:12):
You're downsizing. I'm shocked how expensive pillows are. I went
to buy a pillow a while back. They're really pricey.
Speaker 3 (38:17):
That's why I used to be too pillow guy, because
I would get crappy $ 10 pillows, but now I got
an expensive one.
Speaker 1 (38:23):
You get a bougie one, man.
Speaker 3 (38:25):
Those things are expensive.
Speaker 1 (38:25):
What's next? What do we got?
Speaker 3 (38:26):
Georgia Boy would like to know, better donut filling, jelly
or cream?
Speaker 1 (38:32):
Oh, that's tough. I'm actually going to go cream because
the fruit stuff's a little tit and miss. What about you, Lorena?
Speaker 3 (38:40):
I do love a good lemon filling, but the Bavarian
cream steals my heart.
Speaker 2 (38:46):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (38:47):
I think the jelly is where it's at.
Speaker 1 (38:50):
No, it's inconsistent, the jelly. I feel like the cream
is more consistent. I'm team cream. Easier to... Well, that sounded...
That did.
Speaker 3 (38:56):
Not sound good.
Speaker 1 (38:59):
We'll delete that in post. That did not.
Thanks for listening to the best of the Ben Maller
Show podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weeknight
from 2 to 6 Eastern, 11 p.m. to 3 a.m.
Pacific on Fox Sports Radio. And to find your local
station for the Ben Maller Show at foxsportsradio.com. You can
find it there or stream us live every night on
(00:20):
the iHeartRadio app by searching FSR.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
This is the best of the Ben Maller Show on
Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
So our lead this hour. Don't bury the lead, my man!
I think you know where the lead is. There's only
one thing. We've been waiting for months and months and months.
It keeps the lights on around here. What is it
that keeps the lights on around here? Well, that would
be the National Football League, and it was a Humpty Dance,
the traditional Wednesday opener, unless there's nothing traditional about a
(00:55):
Wednesday opener, but they played it. They started it because
they had this Fugazi game, and Melbourne, Australia. So they
had to accommodate the good people of Melbourne. So instead
of starting on Thursday, which is normally what happens now,
we had the Wednesday kickoff. But the curtain did go
up on the 2026 NFL regular season, a rematch. of
(01:17):
Super Bowl 60, which wasn't very good, and this game
wasn't very good. So Patriots and Seahawks, they get together.
Not good football. The end of the game was fine,
but the balance of the game, which is like three
hours and whatever, not very good. Not very good. Oh,
you're not supposed to say that, Maller. You're supposed to
(01:38):
drink the NFL Kool-Aid. Okay, fine. Whatever you want. Well,
it was a hump day special there, so I assume
you watched or heard it on some kind of transistor radio,
but perhaps not. Perhaps not. So the backup quarterback, the
backup quarterback, Drew Locke. Lock it in. Drew Locke, a
(01:59):
couple of late scoring drives, and the Seattle Seahawks. getting
a lot of help from the 12th man, not the fans.
That would be Drake May, who should be getting a
12 jersey and be part of the pregame festivities in
years to come. They should bring Drake May to Seattle
and have him do that little thing that Richard Sherman
(02:20):
was doing before the game. So Drake May had three
interceptions in the fourth quarter, which I'm told is not good. Now,
I didn't play in the NFL, but I'm told that's
not good. And that allowed Seattle to get over the
hump on hump day. And without Sam Darnold, that's not
(02:41):
really much of a loss. But anyway, listen, so Seattle
came back. They win the game 13-10. The better story, though,
is in... The losing locker room, Mike Vrabel, when he's
not playing footsie with NFL insiders. He's coaching the Patriots.
Here is Mike Vrabel commenting on his quarterback who had
(03:04):
a three-interception night. Here's Coach Vrabel. Take a listen.
Speaker 3 (03:08):
It's just a long season.
Speaker 1 (03:09):
You know what I mean?
Speaker 4 (03:09):
Like, we're going to hold our head up high, and
we have nothing but the Upmost confidence in him and
everybody on this football team, and he's going.
Speaker 5 (03:20):
To make a lot of plays for us. I mean,
you can't throw three interceptions.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
Drake knows that. Oh, they said Drake. There he goes, Drake.
Speaker 5 (03:26):
We put ourselves in some long yardage situations on the one.
That would probably force, and I think the guy made
a great play on the last one.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
Well, it's going to be a long season if he
keeps playing like that. It's going to get people fired,
Drake May. Holy crap. My God. All right, so that
is a good jumping-off point. The better story is obviously
in the losing locker room. That's where the story is.
The Patriots, this is an embarrassing day for the New
England Patriots franchise. It is. The game was right there.
(03:58):
You gave the game away. You just gave the game away,
and that's on you. Seattle didn't deserve this win, and
that seems to happen a lot to that team. Have
you noticed? Like, something's going on there. I mean, some
kind of, Faustian bargain, the Seattle Seahawks. Anyways, good jumping
off point. Let us discuss the question, what happened to
(04:20):
Patriots quarterback Drake May here in the lid lifter on
the NFL season? So I've got Mater D, Spinach, and Fuzzy.
And we'll combine all of these things together, and we
are going to grab some supper and work out the kinks,
which is what Drake May needs to do. So, A, listen,
(04:43):
Drake May was, I determined as I was watching the game,
and I didn't know this prior to the game, but
he was administered an IV drip. Did you know that? Yeah,
I saw it in a cartoon bubble in my head.
So Drake May was administered an IV drip, and it
contained a mixture of saline and suck. And I guess
they left the saline out, so it was just suck,
(05:04):
an IV drip of suck for Drake May.
Speaker 3 (05:09):
And in a flash.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
Drake May went from the 2025 MVP runner-up to the
football equivalent of tossing cookies as you sit on the
porcelain pony, if you know what I mean. My God.
That was disgusting. Absolutely disgusting. We have some more audio.
Here's Drake May pointing out that what he did is
(05:34):
a felony. Take a listen. Yeah, I think we had
the game under control.
Speaker 3 (05:37):
You know, I thought we had a good.
Speaker 6 (05:38):
I planned to try to start chipping away and be patient, and, yeah,
I lost patience and it costed us. I think it just,
you know, decisions that cost us the game, you know.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
On my part and my end.
Speaker 6 (05:50):
And, you know, I vowed to myself to be better
and realize it's, you know, it's a long season, but
at the same time you can't have those. You can't
have those, and it's unacceptable. And I know that it'll
get you back to work because, you know, that wasn't,
you know, how I play football and how I want
to represent, you know, my game and, you know, playing
quarterback for the Patriots.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
So Drake, in the middle of that, he's like, all right,
what cliches can I sew together? And let me get
my sewing machine out. Let me put the cliches together.
And here we go. So he did get an upgrade, though.
That's nice when you get an upgrade. You travel. Patriots
are on the road. He got an upgrade there. He
moved from coach to first class. And then they moved
(06:29):
him all the way up to the cockpit. And he said, boy,
I'm in the cockpit. This is great. He said, well, yeah,
it's actually not a plane. It's the Vomit Comet. And
he rode the Vomit Comet straight into Puget Sound. Kaboom!
So the Seahawks offense produced, if my math is correct here,
three points outside of Drake May's tax-deductible charitable donation from
(06:52):
his foundation. So the Patriots, on that final possession for
New England, they had a tie in the back. They
were in chip shot field goal range. At worst, you
go to overtime. And Drake May marked it return to
sender at the very end there.
Speaker 3 (07:09):
The game was in his hands.
Speaker 1 (07:12):
And he said, let me go over to that Walmart
Express here. I'm going to hand deliver the game to
the people of Seattle. So I'm going to do that.
And he did. coughed up a hairball when the Patriots
needed him to purr. And he chose not to purr here.
So really what he did, he did some cosplay. He
was playing the Mater D. Drake May was playing the
Mater D here of interceptions at the Pike Place Market,
(07:34):
the famous tourist trap there in Seattle. And he simply
tapped out. Good afternoon, good evening, and good night. A
passer rating in the 50s. And the Patriots just terrible.
nine drives three interceptions uh one field goal one touchdown
(07:56):
everything else was a punt for the Patriots now page
two outside of Drake May give me a phrase give
me a phrase to describe the wide receiver Romeo Dobbs
debut with the Patriots because this was a big story
here Romeo Dobbs and his performance here so the phrase
(08:17):
I will use it's actually I'm going to use a
name I'm going to use a name It's a musician,
Jerry Lee Lewis. That's the name I'm going to use.
Dobbs wrote a parody song of Jerry Lee Lewis's, you know,
that famous Goodness Gracious, Great Balls of Fire. And his
spin on it, and it is original because you normally
don't want this kind of thing in your first performance
(08:38):
with a new employer. So he sang a parody song,
Romeo Dobbs, Goodness Gracious, Great Balls of Suck. And that
was his version. And I believe the family of Jerry
Lee Lewis is demanding royalties, I think. So New England,
I read, remember this offseason, we talked about it, $ 39
million guaranteed for Romeo Dobbs. $ 39 million guaranteed. And he
(09:05):
opened up his Patriots career here in prime time like
a guy that won a contract in a radio giveaway.
Caller number 17. You're going to win a chance to
play wide receiver for the New England Patriots. So what
a name, right?
Speaker 2 (09:22):
Romeo.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
What a great name, Romeo. Romeo Dobbs. Patriots fans wanted
Romeo and Juliet. Instead, they've got Romeo and drop it
is what they got. So you only get one chance,
I'm told, to make a first impression. And Romeo Dobbs
showed up there. First impression in a real game with
the Patriots. And he had spinach in his teeth. He
had B.O. and his fly was down. Other than that,
(09:47):
everything was good.
Speaker 3 (09:48):
Everything was good.
Speaker 1 (09:49):
So with A.J. Brown dinged up, more on that later,
Brown knocked out of the game and he did not return.
And the second half there did not do much. A.J. Brown,
when he was out there, it was... time for Dobbs
to step up at the big boy table there for
Drake May. And what did Dobbs do instead? He decided
(10:09):
to curl into the fetal position and take a nap.
And it was a good nap. He felt pretty good
after that. Now, his play sucked, but he was not
a security blanket. If anything, Romeo Dobbs was an electric
blanket that was tossed into a bathtub, which I don't recommend.
That's not a good thing. So he was targeted three times.
(10:32):
That's it. Three times. And Dobbs had zero catches. He
had as many as Mike the Leprechaun and Hollering James. Zippo.
And then to make it even more embarrassing, he's got
that that extra large pad on the helmet, which just
makes you stand out like it's just I there were
(10:54):
people will say, well, it's safer and all that, but
it just makes you look so terrible. It's just so bad.
And especially when you play like that, you're like, oh,
my God, it's like a throbbing swollen thumb. And you
just stand out your eyes. I don't know if you
watch football like me. There's a couple of guys on
the Patriots that have it. And you see these teams
(11:15):
around the league that have the puffy helmet. And I
gravitate towards those people because it's like what doesn't belong. Well,
the person with the extra padding thing on the helmet
doesn't belong. And then Dobbs in this game, he stands out.
So you're gravitating your eyes to see the guy with
the funny hat on the clown costume. And then he
(11:37):
decided to open up the Candyman concession, which was kind
of nice to do that. The Candyman concession stand. And unfortunately,
they didn't have any Snickers. They didn't have any. three
musketeers there were no m & ms no reese's pieces
they only had butterfingers that's it the candy man concession
stand and so dropped pass by dobbs there was an
(11:58):
interception where he didn't fight for the ball you could
have knocked the ball conceivably away it was just horrific
all right last word to the seattle side of things
So there's already a pet peeve here. We're one game
into the NFL season. So the Seahawks lost starting quarterback
Sam Darnold after the first drive of the night. Oh,
(12:21):
my aching hip. Oh, my hip. Oh, my God. So
the backup, Drew Locke, came in. And seeing all this
nonsense from the establishment football media that Drew Locke was
the hero and, If you do believe the NFL media elites,
(12:41):
that is how that played out. Now, Mike McDonald had
a farm EIEIO. And then on that farm, he said
initial tests showed that Sam Donald did not break a bone.
He said that was positive news. There'll be some more tests,
we understand, for. Sam Darnold, so they'll spend some money
on that. The story, though, is about the backup and
(13:01):
the way this is getting covered. So the question, are
the Seahawks in good hands if Darnold is out with
Drew Locke replacing Sam Darnold? Are they in good hands?
So let's call a spade a spade. This is not
an Allstate commercial. We would not exactly say anyone here
(13:23):
at the quarterback position, is in good hands. Seattle wasn't
in good hands with Sam Darnold. Now, you can lie
to yourself and tell you that they're really in great
shape when Darnold plays. That would be a lie. And
if you want to lie to yourself, feel free. I'm
not going to stop you. But going from Sam Darnold
to Drew Locke, it is obviously not an upgrade. I
will be fair. It is not an upgrade. I would
(13:44):
argue it is not a downgrade. This is a tick-tock
dance routine. It is a sideways shuffle. The sideways shuffle.
That's what this is going from Sam Darnold to Drew Locke. Darnold,
while he is not at the top, they're certainly not elite. Neither,
of course, is Drew Locke. Darnold to Locke is the
(14:04):
NFL equivalent of checking out of your roach-infested Motel 6
hotel on the wrong side of the tracks and going
to Sodom and Gomorrah and checking into the Super 8
Motel and then bragging to all your friends about the upgrade.
I don't know that I would brag about that, so
(14:24):
The narrative of a heroic Drew Locke comeback story. To
that I say, talk to the hand. I just talk
to the hand. Drew Locke looked completely out of sync
the first four drives. I don't know what he was
doing before the game. I don't know. It certainly didn't
seem like he was ready to come in there. And
(14:44):
they all ended up on punts. For those of you
a little slow, that was a drive one punt. Drive two, punt.
Drive three, punt. How about drive four?
Speaker 2 (14:56):
Punt.
Speaker 3 (14:57):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (14:57):
So the real reason Seattle won this game, Seattle won
because of the fuzzy. The lucky fuzzy dice. And somehow, someway,
every single red light turned green. Yet again. Yet again.
And Drake May, Drake May had a name change. He
went down to the courthouse and had his name changed.
(15:18):
He now identifies as Drek May. Because he just, that
was Drek. What he did was Drek. When it truly mattered.
Speaker 2 (15:28):
Be sure to catch live editions of the Ben Maler
Show weekdays at 2 a.m. Eastern, 11 p.m. Pacific on
Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app. Fox Sports Radio
is taking over YouTube, and you can be a part
of it.
Speaker 1 (15:42):
Just go to YouTube and search Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 7 (15:45):
Hit that subscribe button and smash that notification bell and
catch all the videos from your favorite shows. So our
lead this hour, we'll get back to the lid lifter
on the NFL season as the Seattle football team getting
help from the 12th man.
Speaker 1 (16:19):
As Drek May, three interceptions in a row to close
the game. Interception, interception, interception, turn at the lights, the
party's over. Yeah, that's it. So the Seahawks, yet again,
not all that great, but they end up getting the
(16:42):
win as they get some help there from the 12th man,
Drek May getting her done, getting her done. I was
going to point this out last hour. I did not
point it out last hour. That's a bad job by me.
But did you know the Drek effect, the Drek effect?
So the Seattle Seahawks, in these last two matchups against
(17:02):
the Patriots, the Seahawks have now scored more points off
Drek May turnovers in two games. They scored 27 total
points in the Super Bowl and this game off Drek
May turnovers. Then the Patriots have scored in total. The
Patriots have 23 points in those two games combined, and
the Seattle football team, thanks to the generosity of Mayday, Mayday, Mayday,
(17:28):
27 points. The Seattle offense, without Drake May interceptions, without
the Drek, they ended up getting a grand total of
three points. But I got to hear all this propaganda about, oh,
the Seahawks defense was so good.
Speaker 4 (17:42):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (17:42):
Well, if you throw the ball to the other team,
just hush down, okay? But our lead, we're going to
go to Vegas because I saw this story and I thought, oh,
my God, this is so good. This is so good.
And it does not necessarily directly involve Brock Bowers, basically.
It's about him, but it's not about him. So let
me explain. So Brock Bowers is the only player worth
(18:04):
watching on the Raiders. All the other players blow. And
the ones that don't blow suck. So the Raiders star
tight end Brock Bowers underwent a meniscus trim. Trim, trim, trim, trim, trim, trim, trim.
That happened on Tuesday in Dallas. Suffered the injury during
training camp. Bowers expected to be out a couple of weeks.
He'll miss the opener of the season here against the
(18:26):
Miami Dolphins. So you may have heard about that, perhaps not.
The bigger story, though, to me, is how the Raiders
handled the news. In one of the all-time F-ups you
could possibly have as a head coach, Clint Kubiak, who
already looks like he's in over his head. That didn't
take very long. Another terrible hire by Tom Brady. Where
(18:49):
have we seen that before? I'm not impressed so far
with Clint Kubiak. So Clint Kubiak said on Wednesday... quote,
we're expecting to have all of our guys ready for Sunday.
He was asked about Max Crosby and Brock Bowers. He said,
we're expecting to have all of our guys ready for Sunday. Now,
Bowers had undergone surgery the day before. The day before,
(19:13):
Clint Kubiak said, we expect to have all of our
guys ready for Sunday. obviously raising questions about the credibility
and the integrity of Clint Kubiak as a man and
why he suggested that Bowers would be available when he
obviously had no chance of playing in the game against
(19:33):
the Miami football team. So that is a good jumping
off point. Let us discuss the question. Give me your
reaction to Raiders coach Clint Kubiak speaking with a forked
tongue on tight end Brent. Bowers there, Brock Bowers. Who's Brent?
I don't know who Brent is. Brock Bowers and his injury.
(19:56):
So I've got hula hoops, pistachio cream, and homecoming dance.
And we will combine all of these things together, and
we are going to play rock, paper, scissors. That's what
we're going to play. But we always start out, even
in dark days when you're attacked by a cockroach, we
always start out with number one.
Speaker 7 (20:18):
Number one.
Speaker 3 (20:19):
One, one, one, one, one, one, one, one, one.
Speaker 1 (20:21):
Number one.
Speaker 3 (20:23):
Number one.
Speaker 6 (20:24):
All right.
Speaker 1 (20:25):
So Brock Bauer. All right. Stop. Brock Bowers did not
walk into Lowry's and say, hey, can you use that
knife at the carving station and trim the meniscus like
it's a nice piece of roast beef? Could you? No,
he didn't do that. You don't just randomly walk in
and have a meniscus operation unless you're in a car accident.
(20:47):
You don't just end up flying into Dallas getting an
operation like it's a wrong turn trying to find a Starbucks.
It's just so good. And yet Clint Kubiak served the
media a Vegas buffet of bologna. So there he was,
(21:10):
the Raider coach. That's a temp job, being coach of
the Raiders. Kubiak jumping through hula hoops with the injury report,
ensuring the truth never made it through. That truth hula
hoop never happened. Never happened. There were roughly 10 ways,
10 ways, 10 clean ways that Clint Kubiak, the coach
(21:33):
of the Raiders, could have answered the questions about his
star players, and instead he chose Pinocchio, capital P, Pinocchio,
for a self-proclaimed member of the God Squad. And we
hear a lot about that from Clint Kubiak. Good for him.
He's part of the God Squad. He clearly skipped the
chapter that said, thou shall not lie. He must have
(21:56):
missed that one. And this was not gamesmanship. This was
a slow drive down, not Las Vegas Boulevard. It's a
little cutoff street there. Lye Boulevard. It's right next to Tropicana.
Lye Boulevard. Just say, I'm not discussing injuries. The injury
(22:17):
report will be out later. Why make yourself look ridiculous?
Does he not know people keep track of this stuff
and they take notes and whatnot? And keep in mind,
20 years ago, this would have just been cute and
you would have been like, okay, that's funny, you know,
and all that. But we live in the age where
(22:39):
the NFL is a conduit to the sports book. They're
in business with the bookies. The NFL is a business
partner with the gamblers. And I'm a gambler. So that's
just the way it is. And in 2026, hiding gambling data,
it's not just some kind of coaching trick anymore when
(23:01):
it comes to injuries. It is a full-blown integrity issue.
And It's a findable offense for Kubiak. It's not the
first time he's done this. He hasn't even coached a
real game with the Raiders yet. And the Ashton Genting
thing where they had a prayer circle around him because
of a high ankle sprain. And now you've got Brock Bowers,
(23:25):
the tight end of the Raiders, who the day before
was in Dallas having his meniscus trimmed like a piece
of beef at Lowry's. And the day after, Kubiak's like, well,
we got all our guys. We think we'll have all
our guys. Dum-da-dum-dum-dum. Now, speaking of dum-da-dum-dum-dum, we go to
the courthouse, and an old friend is back, Antonio Brown.
(23:47):
You see this?
Speaker 7 (23:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (23:50):
So Antonio Brown in a whole lot of trouble, and
he's in a little less trouble now. The alleged victim
of the former NFL player, Mr. Big Chest there, Antonio Brown,
who is facing attempted murder charges, Antonio Brown, attempted murder charges.
(24:12):
Now that the person who is the alleged victim says
he no longer wants to participate in the prosecution there
in South Florida, with his attorney calling it a, quote,
deeply personal decision to forgive Antonio Brown over what happened.
That was back in May of 2025 in Miami. It
(24:32):
was a wild and wacky weekend there for Antonio Brown. Now,
Brown's attorney, what do you think he's saying? So Brown's
attorney hopes that prosecutors, of course, will drop the case.
That's it. Just drop the case. Though he does not
expect an immediate dismissal for Antonio Brown. Brown is 38 now.
(24:54):
He has claimed through his attorneys that he's innocent. He
is seeking dismissal under Florida's Stand your ground law. If convicted,
Antonio Brown facing up to 30 years in prison. Now,
the number that you have to worry about, it's not
(25:15):
the 30 years because it's always up to that's it's
got some wiggle room. It's the 20-year mandatory minimum that
one has to worry about. That's the guarantee. You get convicted,
you're going to jail for 20 years. Antonio Brown won't
be out. They haven't gotten trial yet. But he wouldn't
be out until he's almost, do the math on that,
(25:36):
almost 60. Yeah, so there you go. Question. We know
the alleged victim in the former Steelers star Antonio Brown's
second-degree murder, attempted murder, attempted murder. case is okay listen
i've decided to not participate in the case we know
that's that's going on so the alleged victim of this
(25:58):
antonio brown second degree attempted murder case deciding not to
participate why the change of heart now let me preface
this with a qualifier we don't know whether nickel changed
hands or not however You're allowed to notice the sudden
(26:18):
outbreak of compassion is awfully convenient for Antonio Brown. It
does make you wonder what's going on behind the curtain.
And I've known and we all know it's one of
the things about being human. We all have a price.
Everyone has a price. And apparently forgiveness now comes with
a suggested retail price, retail value price. Somewhere, I imagine,
(26:42):
at least in my head, that cartoon bubble in my head,
there's a let's make a deal money booth with imaginary
$ 100 bills swirling around while everyone insists there's nothing interesting
to see here. So Brown, he ends up going and
spending six months eating Dubai chocolates with extra pistachio cream.
(27:06):
Remember when he was on the lam in Dubai and
then he came back and now he's facing 20 years
minimum if convicted. That's the minimum, 20 years in prison.
And suddenly he discovers the joys of charitable living and giving.
It's amazing what a couple of decades in the who's
(27:28):
gal can do for your portfolio of generosity. So we'd
love to see the itemized receipt for this great spiritual
awakening by Antonio Brown. Now, the problem is the alleged
victim can forgive Antonio Brown all he wants. He doesn't
have the power, though, to pardon him. It just makes
(27:50):
things more difficult for the prosecution. Prosecutors don't have to
kind of pack up everything and leave the courthouse and
say that's it. Because all of this has been documented
on cell phone cameras, and there's a lot of different
angles of it. A lot of different angles of what
happened that night in Miami. So forgiveness might close the
(28:12):
victim's playbook, but it does not close the state's case.
And the state does not, from what we understand, accept coupons.
Antonio Brown, he's bad. buddies with the president. Maybe the
president makes a phone call on behalf of Antonio Brown
and says, hey, help my guy out a little bit.
Speaker 2 (28:33):
All right, final point.
Speaker 1 (28:35):
To the boob tube we go, and that is where
Mike Tomlin was over there on NBC, and he mispronounced Jackson, Smith,
and Jigba, which upset a few people. God forbid you
don't speak the king's language, but I thought Tomlin was fine.
I enjoy his work. Much better than some of those
(28:56):
other stooges he's around. Anyway, Mike Tomlin not ruling out
a return to NFL coaching video at 11. It's after
leaving the Steelers and going over to television there at NBC.
Asked directly this week whether he might coach again, Tomlin answered, quote,
it's certainly not a 32-team league for me, he said.
(29:21):
But I've also learned to never say never. Tomlin said
he still loves the coach, including the profession's challenges, developing
young players, and the weekly seven-day competitive cycle. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
At the same time, though, Tomlin did say that he
is enjoyed the six months away from coaching and he
(29:44):
said the lifestyle on the other side that he previously
did not know so the question how do you decode
Mike Tomlin's comments here on his NFL future So Mike Tomlin,
the way I see it on this side of the microphone,
Mike Tomlin is on a coaching sabbatical with NBC paying
(30:10):
for the books. They're paying for the textbooks here. It's
been whispered in hushed tones that Tomlin is following the
Sean Payton mantra. Remember Sean Payton? After a long run
in the bayou, he left the Saints. And then went
to Fox for a little bit. And then now he's
with the Denver Broncos. So I look at what Tomlin did.
(30:32):
It's like a dog whistle. He's sitting there like now
on TV. He's the prettiest girl at the homecoming dance,
Mike Tomlin. All dolled up there, got all the makeup
on and all that. And there's a bunch of nervous owners,
these aristocrats. Watching from luxury suites, window shopping, every time
(30:52):
he's on NBC and every big game on Sunday night.
And Tomlin's just sitting there on the desk and he's
got this Svengali effect going. Not on the sidelines. You
put on that TV makeup. You put on the IFB
and you get the little microphone thingamajig there. And suddenly
everyone is hypnotized and mesmerized. They forget all the bad
(31:18):
stuff and all the teams that underachieved in the playoffs
for Tomlin for so many years, and you overlooked that. Now, Tomlin,
what he did here is he cracked the door open
just enough, just enough to guarantee his name becomes a
fixture on the coaching carousel, which, oh, by the way,
(31:39):
it was going to be anyway. Every high-profile vacancy will
generate speculation until he definitely says no. And the only
coach that I can recall who was as Popular as Tomlin,
who didn't come back to coach, is Bill Cowher. And
that cursed every man, woman, and child that's watched CBS.
Cowher is not only on TV, he's terrible. Horrific. And
(32:03):
the fact that he's, I believe, still on CBS, and
Dungy was just as bad. They finally got rid of
Dungy over there at NBC, but my God. Anyway, Tomlin
isn't looking for just any job. Teams are going to
be auditioning for Mike Tomlin. For Mike Thum, because he
has earned the right, considering his resume, to handpick the
(32:25):
groceries and the kitchen he wants to work in, and
he can handpick the restaurant manager, all of that stuff.
All of that stuff.
Speaker 2 (32:36):
Be sure to catch live editions of the Ben Maller
Show weekdays at 2 a.m. Eastern, 11 p.m.
Speaker 1 (32:41):
Pacific. Here we go. Let's get to it. Welcome, players.
You're welcome.
Speaker 5 (32:45):
Are you up for more Maller Mail?
Speaker 1 (32:49):
It's time now.
Speaker 2 (32:50):
Benny versus the Penny.
Speaker 1 (32:53):
Back where it all started many years ago. Benny versus
the Penny, our triumphant return to network radio after getting
a tease with that big TV money. Here we are.
All right, let's get to it. It is the Thursday
night special here on the 10th of September. The 49ers
and the Rams, NFC West rivaled. And they kick off
their seasons together 8,000 miles away in Melbourne, Australia. The
(33:17):
Rams on DraftKings, a three-and-a-half-point favorite. And by the way,
the wait is over. Football's here, and so is DraftKings.
DraftKings is now live in all 50 states. One app,
every sport, all 50 states right now use the promo
code MALLER to claim DraftKings. Your special offer at DraftKings. Again,
that's promo code MALLER at DraftKings. The crown is yours. So, again, Rams,
(33:39):
minus 3.5. Rams are the consensus with the public. They
are a popular pick by popular people. Public betting leaning
towards the Rams here as the public buying into the
media hype that the Rams will win this game and
cover that 3.5. although it did open closer to 2.5
and then moved because of all the transactions the Rams made.
(34:02):
The Sharps, on the other hand, leaning towards the 49ers.
And after a long analysis, I am going to take, again,
I like the Rams. The Rams will win the game,
but I'm going to take the 49ers to cover the
spread here. It's going to take a little while to
get that sink in sync for Stafford and Puka Nakua
and whatnot here. And so these games are generally close
divisional games. The 49ers are healthy for the most part
(34:25):
with Nick Bosa, George Kittle, and McCaffrey all in the lineup.
And those guys will be hurt as the season goes on.
So they're all there. It's mostly healthy versus mostly healthy.
So I'm going to take the three and a half
points there. And I will take the 49ers. Rams win.
Niners cover the spread. And the penny picks. Here we go.
(34:46):
First time for this Ram 49er game. In the air everywhere.
Koopa Loop representing the penny. What do we got?
Speaker 3 (34:53):
Well, the Penny landed on tails, and if my memory serves,
that means the away team.
Speaker 1 (34:58):
Yes.
Speaker 3 (34:58):
So they, too.
Speaker 1 (34:59):
They're both away teams, though.
Speaker 3 (35:01):
Oh, that's a good point. But I think the Rams
are considered the home team, right?
Speaker 1 (35:05):
Okay, so the 49ers?
Speaker 7 (35:07):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (35:07):
Well, there we go. We're two games in. This is
the second. Yesterday, the same thing happened. So both like
the Niners. Penny versus the Penny.
Speaker 2 (35:16):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at foxsportsradio.com. And
within the iHeartRadio app, search FSR to listen live.
Speaker 1 (35:28):
It's now time for. Time for.
Speaker 7 (35:31):
Hurry, hurry, I can hardly wait.
Speaker 1 (35:33):
Ask Ben.
Speaker 7 (35:33):
Twitter.
Speaker 2 (35:34):
Send us your questions on Twitter now.
Speaker 1 (35:37):
And away we go. It's Ask Ben. Your questions, our answers.
For the rest of the hour, the reading of the questions.
It will not sound like he's reading. We head over
to the coop-a-loop. Justin Cooper.
Speaker 3 (35:52):
All right, we are going to start off with a
question from... Hmm, who do I like better here? I
don't know. I'm dying to find out. All right, let's
start with JT the Wingman.
Speaker 1 (36:07):
I had him on the mailbag. He's good.
Speaker 3 (36:10):
Do you ever go to farmer's markets?
Speaker 1 (36:14):
Uh, I never went to, well, that's not true. I
used to live near the OG Farmer's Market in L.A., where,
was it the Grove is there now? But it's still there,
the Farmer's Market. I used to go to that. But
for the most part, that only really started when I
got married. So I do. But before that, not much.
What about you, Lorena?
Speaker 3 (36:35):
Not down here, but in my hometown, yeah, I go
to the Farmer's Market every Saturday. It's kind of like
the communal watering hole.
Speaker 1 (36:43):
The only store to shop at. What about you, Koopaloop?
Speaker 3 (36:46):
No, not really.
Speaker 1 (36:48):
No? I mean, like, I think there's... Support local business
and all.
Speaker 3 (36:53):
That. Yeah, I mean, I don't know. I've... I've walked
through plenty of farmer's markets. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (36:59):
You don't want some guy trying to sell you a
$ 20 thing of honey?
Speaker 3 (37:03):
You're not interested in that? The honey is one thing,
but I don't know. They've got all this fruit, and
it's on the floor. I don't know.
Speaker 1 (37:12):
There's always the person with the kettle corn stand there.
What's next? What do we got? It's Ask Ben and
Friends for the rest of the hour.
Speaker 3 (37:21):
Stevie Meatballs would like to know.
Speaker 1 (37:22):
Hi, Stevie Meatballs.
Speaker 3 (37:24):
What is your pillow situation when you sleep?
Speaker 1 (37:27):
How many?
Speaker 3 (37:27):
Where do they go? Are any of them long body pillows?
Speaker 1 (37:31):
All right. First of all, you're very creepy asking about
a man's pillow. That's very creepy. I usually have two
to three pillows at any time. The main one, I'm
a side sleeper, so the main one is the small
one I can kind of wrap my arm around my head.
It's hard to find a good pillow for that. If
somebody has a recommendation, let me know. Because it's got
to be soft. I like a cooling pillow. But I
(37:53):
usually have three, but one's the main one, the small
one that I put, wrap my arm around. What about you, Lorena?
Speaker 3 (37:59):
I have so many pillows, you can barely see my bed.
Speaker 6 (38:03):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (38:04):
I got you.
Speaker 2 (38:04):
Coop?
Speaker 3 (38:05):
I used to be a two-pillow guy, but now I
just have the one nice memory foam pillow.
Speaker 1 (38:12):
You're downsizing. I'm shocked how expensive pillows are. I went
to buy a pillow a while back. They're really pricey.
Speaker 3 (38:17):
That's why I used to be too pillow guy, because
I would get crappy $ 10 pillows, but now I got
an expensive one.
Speaker 1 (38:23):
You get a bougie one, man.
Speaker 3 (38:25):
Those things are expensive.
Speaker 1 (38:25):
What's next? What do we got?
Speaker 3 (38:26):
Georgia Boy would like to know, better donut filling, jelly
or cream?
Speaker 1 (38:32):
Oh, that's tough. I'm actually going to go cream because
the fruit stuff's a little tit and miss. What about you, Lorena?
Speaker 3 (38:40):
I do love a good lemon filling, but the Bavarian
cream steals my heart.
Speaker 2 (38:46):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (38:47):
I think the jelly is where it's at.
Speaker 1 (38:50):
No, it's inconsistent, the jelly. I feel like the cream
is more consistent. I'm team cream. Easier to... Well, that sounded...
That did.
Speaker 3 (38:56):
Not sound good.
Speaker 1 (38:59):
We'll delete that in post. That did not.
Host
Ben Maller
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