September 10, 2026 • 34 mins
After 213 days... WE ARE BACK BABY! Jason Smith and Mike Harmon celebrated real NFL football on real TV. And the guys remembered Legendary ESPN hockey analyst Barry Melrose who passed away at age 70.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for listening to the Jason Smith Show with Mike
Harmon podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weeknight,
10 p.m.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
To 2 a.m.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
Eastern, 7 to 11 p.m. Pacific on Fox Sports Radio.
Find your local station for the Jason Smith Show with
Mike Harmon at foxsportsradio.com or stream us live every night
on the iHeartRadio app by searching FSR. Now let's get
this party started. You're listening to Fox Sports Radio. Hello,
(00:28):
welcome inside. Happy NFL Christmas. Well, at least we have
the game. How it's going, Al? It's broke. It's broke.
A little bit of a different story. You work in logistics,
you know nothing moves without you. Companies need skilled people now,
and Express Employment Professionals can help you find contractor full-time
work that fits at no cost to you. Visit ExpressPros.com,
(00:52):
get support, get options, and get to work. Well, as
we normally do on Mondays, Thursdays, and now on the
odd Wednesday we start the season, we jump right in.
12.5 to go in the third quarter. New England leads
Seattle 7-0, and already two large injuries in this game.
(01:12):
We'll get to the Sam Darnold injury in a moment,
but seconds ago, New England has the football, and A.J.
Brown goes down with an ankle injury. It looked like
his ankle was landed on by a knee. Wasn't a
dirty play, just going for the ball. It happens in
the course of a game. He was holding his ankle.
He was taken off. No update on A.J. Brown, but
(01:35):
he has not come back in the game because New
England got the football back after roughing the kicker penalty
on a punt. So the Patriots still have the football
right now just inside of midfield, but A.J. Brown hurt,
and of course Sam Darnold going out earlier in the
game with a hip injury.
Speaker 3 (01:50):
This has been, well, it's 7-0. So if you've had
the under, you're feeling pretty good. But we've seen a
couple of big plays, some big penalties. But the two
injuries are the story of this game, right? For Sam
Darnold coming off the Super Bowl run, it's the full-off
season of, well, what do you do for an encore?
And he's going to evade a rush. And down he goes.
(02:11):
And now A.J. Brown going to the turf trying to
make a catch. Gets caught up. As you said, the
defender into him a bit. He'd drawn a big pass
interference play earlier in the game, so making his presence
known early. And now we just wait. Is it an
ankle sprain? Because all the internet doctors have plenty of
(02:33):
diagnoses at the ready.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
This is one where you go, okay. Not a great
start to go Marv Albert on you. Not exactly what
the NFL had in mind. But it's the NFL. It's
on television. The games count. Yeah. Counts for fantasy. Counts
for you.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
So.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
The NFL is back.
Speaker 3 (02:52):
The first of 272 glorious regular season games. One thing
I know for certain watching this, and you're not going
to face a defensive front like Seattle each and every week,
but Drake May is going to be yelling hot route
a lot behind that offensive line.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
Now the two injuries first. Let's work backwards here. You know,
the A.J. Brown, the big move in the offseason, you know,
They made a couple of moves, but this was the
big one, right? Getting A.J. Brown from the Eagles. He
was going to be the guy to help take Drake
May to the next level. Diggs was fine enough last year.
Brown is better. In theory, the Patriots often should be better.
(03:28):
He is officially questionable to return, although I have a
hard time believing with an ankle injury he's going to
come back into the game. Uh, that's what we're just
getting in right now. I mean, when you have an
ankle injury and you roll it and you hold it
and you come off the field that way, it's week one,
you're a brand new acquisition. You are prize. I don't
think he's going to come back into the game, but
this is, you know, this is the guy that was
(03:49):
going to come in and make the offense go. This
was the guy come. Okay. How are we going to
continue to unlock Drake? May continue to keep him an
MVP candidate. and the Patriots doing the right things. Let's
keep getting our young quarterback help. We see how good
he is, and yeah, can he make guys around him better? Yes.
You watch Drake May go through his progressions, and that's
the most fun thing about him is that, boy, he
always seems to find the right guy. He never panics,
(04:12):
but getting him more help, okay, they went out and
got a couple of guys this offseason. But A.J. Brown's
the guy that's supposed to make this offense go. And
you're already without Travion Henderson. Okay. Now, no Henderson, no A.J. Brown.
As high as I was on the Patriots coming into
this game tonight, and I picked them to win tonight, 27-17.
That was the official pick from last night. Like, if
(04:33):
they're without these guys, this start could get really difficult
really fast. Again, we don't know where they're at. But, again,
no Henderson. He hasn't practiced since August 24th. It's been
a while, yeah. It's been a minute. And now A.J. Brown,
who knows? If it's a high ankle, if it's something
that keeps him out, these are two playmakers that it's
going to be really tough to move on without for
the first three, four games of the season.
Speaker 3 (04:55):
When you talk about the explosiveness of Henderson, and certainly
Ramon Darius-Stevenson has had stretches of his Patriots run where
he's been fantastic. He's also had stretches where he's really
had trouble moving. carrying the football and holding on to it,
which means, you know, you're always doing the old movie
and TV bit of duct taping the football in his hands.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
Don't drop this. This is precious. 42 carries. If he
has 42 carries tonight, he will run for 100 yards.
How about that? He is on pace for 100 yards.
He needs 42 carries to get there.
Speaker 3 (05:24):
Yeah, it goes back to that offensive line thing I
was talking about a little bit earlier. A little bit
concerning there. But, yeah, losing Brown, you brought in Romeo Dobbs,
so you paid him. They brought in two wideouts for
the bookends. But you got Demario Douglas, Kyle Williams, Mack Hollins.
That's basically your squad right there. And then, obviously, Hunter
(05:48):
Henry and your touchdown scorer today, Eli Raritan, the third-round
pick out of Notre Dame. But, yeah, you're suddenly missing
that dynamic threat downfield.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
And Douglas.
Speaker 3 (06:01):
is a guy they were kind of high on a
year ago that maybe he would break through as a
deep ball threat, but no proof of concept at this point.
And for Drake May, a lot of it is going
to be improvisational. Maybe that helps. if Brown has to
miss any significant time, that these other guys that he
(06:22):
doesn't have necessarily the same rhythm with working through the
offseason because of Brown's addition, that perhaps his ability to
move in the pocket, because he's going to have to,
is going to be the thing that can uncork some
big plays, but it's going to be all off script
and certainly not the way Vrabel has historically tried to
(06:43):
run his squads, either here or in Tennessee.
Speaker 1 (06:47):
Now, the other injury, obviously the big one. He's been
ruled out tonight. Sam Darnold with a hip injury. He
was hurt early in the first quarter. And this is
the play. That did it for Sam Darnold. That forced
him to the blue tent and out of the game.
The snap to Darnold.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
He takes it.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
He's back. Patriots with a blitz. Darnold is hit.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
He reloads.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
He's running to his left. He's sat from behind.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
And Draymond Jones got him. That's the way to pitch
it up.
Speaker 1 (07:12):
Initially, the linebacker on the quarterback's face forced the reset.
Darnold tried to escape to the left. The Patriots come
up with a sack. And Seattle will have the greatest
Super Bowl champion quarterback ever to live. down with a
hip injury? There was a call. Westwood won. Initially, it
was reported it was a knee injury because he comes
down pretty hard on his right knee. But it wasn't
(07:33):
that hard. When I saw it, I said, oh, man,
something might have really happened because it didn't look like
it was that bad. He's jogging off the field, then
you see him all of a sudden start to give
that little bit of a limp. He goes right to
the blue tent, he goes out of the game, and
we get the diagnosis from the Seahawks locker room that
it is in fact a hip injury that is keeping
him out. He's ruled out for the game. And look,
(07:56):
you're going to play two quarterbacks in the NFL every year, right?
It's the way it goes. We know at some point
you're going to have your backup starting a couple of games.
That's why every year 55 guys play. start at least
one game in the NFL. I think, was it 40
players start more than one? Like, that's a big number. Obviously,
you're thinking, okay, not game one, not quarter one, not
(08:16):
the second possession for the Seattle Seahawks. But, I mean,
this team, if you had any question about Sam Darnold's
level of accuracy, how good a player he is, and still,
Darnold is a guy that doesn't get a lot of
credit after he won the Super Bowl. Like, Darnold could have, like,
four Super Bowls. People are going, yeah, you know, I
don't know about the guy. He's got four Super Bowls, but,
you know, Brady's got six, and, you know, Bradshaw's got four.
It was a different era. But you can see that
(08:39):
this— and I know it's going to be rough early because
of the lack of cohesion, the amount of reps you
play together. The NFL is always ugly the first couple
of weeks of the season— but man, this Seahawks offense
is going absolutely nowhere under Drew Locke, and you gain
a better sense of respect of just what Sam Darnold
means to this team. Now, is he someone that's going
to always come out and gunsling his way and win games? No,
(09:01):
but is he someone that knows where to go with
the football? The system works for him, and he makes
it work? Yeah, he makes it work. So if you
have any doubt about Sam, sometimes you need to see
a team play without a guy to understand just, wow,
how ugly it can get, and that's what you're seeing
tonight with the Seahawks.
Speaker 3 (09:15):
Yeah, but you look at a guy in Sam Darnold,
and he's never going to erase fully in people's minds
what happened with the Jets. And all the stops in between, learning, growing,
you know, like most folks do in their careers or
series of jobs in some if you're taking opportunities and
moving about. But for Sam Darnold, yeah, he commits turnovers,
(09:38):
but he keeps firing. Like he's... The greatest example, I think,
these last couple of years of the NFL of what
it once was. If you push the ball downfield, you
were going to make mistakes. Now here it's so much
maligned because we got the touchdown interception ratio gets spouted
(09:58):
out so frequently. The fact that completion percentage is such
a big deal. You and I growing up as the
league transitioned and you needed a guy to take shots downfield.
A lot of 50-50 balls that went up there. Go
back to some of your best quarterbacks, guys that are
in the Hall of Fame. Go back and look at
their touchdown-interception ratio. It ain't so great. It ain't so great,
(10:20):
but they were pushing the ball downfield, and Sam Darnold
does that. Does he make a bad decision now and
again that you really go back to the All-22 and say,
I have no idea what he's seeing here?
Speaker 1 (10:30):
Absolutely. But the.
Speaker 3 (10:32):
drop down to, and Drew Locke, we're going to get
to see, right? He's been in the league since 2019. Obviously,
someone still thinks he's got... It's been a league eight
years now, man.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
It's been a long time. Drew Locke's been around a
long time, right?
Speaker 3 (10:44):
So he's a guy that's going to come in and
in week one against what is a good Patriots defense,
I don't know that I would have expected him to
come in and do quite so well. We didn't have great,
you know, high hopes for what Sam Darnold was going
to do tonight either, right, when you look at it
on the grand scales. But, you know, if you're Jacoby Brissett,
you look at some of these quarterbacks that are placeholders
(11:06):
for the new– Shiny new guy. I mean, we await
word of what Darnold's injury truly is. Some talking about
the hip socket and all of those kind of questions
that come up with his departure.
Speaker 1 (11:18):
Mike, that's future Jets Hall of Famer, Drew Locke. Wow.
I thought you were going to say future Jets Hall
of Famer Sam Darnold. That's a Super Bowl champion and
the greatest quarterback to ever live. That is true. He is,
outside of Namath, he is the most decorated quarterback that
we have ever had. That is true. Well, we had Favre. Okay,
(11:39):
so it goes that way. So it goes. And we
had Rodgers.
Speaker 3 (11:41):
Yeah, but those guys had achieved all their stuff before
they showed up as a Jet.
Speaker 1 (11:45):
Yeah, that's true. He achieved his stuff after he left
the Jets. Yeah, you want to talk about an alpha,
he overcame the Jets, man. Yeah, no, it is tough.
It is tough to overcome the Jets. Like, that's like
the biggest thing in the way of him is what
he's got to overcome as a pro. And you see
pros and cons on the side is, you know, read
through his progressions, you know, get rid of the football
fast footwork. But for Darnold, it's overcome the Jets. Like,
(12:07):
that's the only thing. Overcome the Jets.
Speaker 3 (12:09):
How do I get that jammed in between the Lifetime
and Hallmark holiday movies that we get the Sam Darnold story? Oh, oh.
Speaker 1 (12:16):
Because it truly is a story of overcoming adversity.
Speaker 2 (12:19):
It is.
Speaker 1 (12:20):
It is. And again, it's not that it was just
the Jets that he stunk at. He stunk a couple
other places, too. It was just it was very high profile. Oh,
the Jets stunk on him.
Speaker 2 (12:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (12:28):
Well, the Jets stink. You can't just say that it's
just him. The Jets stink with everybody. It takes a
long time for that stink to occur. There's everybody in
that pool. Like, if the jet stink is a pool, like,
everybody's in it, man. Everybody's in it. We're doing laps.
We're hanging out. We're sunbathing. We're doing the extended adult swim.
Why is the jet corner all dark blue? Like the
(12:50):
scene from Grown Ups. And the final thing is like, obviously, look,
the NFL's back. It's exciting. It just sucks that here's
the NFL back. And is the game great?
Speaker 3 (13:01):
No.
Speaker 1 (13:01):
But now you have two big injuries, including your Super
Bowl winning quarterback, who's one of the best story in
the NFL the last couple of years. Boy, to start
like this, I don't want to say it's an omen because, oh,
you knew it was going to happen. But really, this
should be your celebration of the game. Here are your
two best teams. And instead, the biggest stories are the
quarterbacks hurt, and now you have the big-time acquisition for
(13:24):
the Patriots is hurt. Of the four people on the
field tonight, the four most high-profile people on the field,
two of them have left the game now with an injury.
Speaker 3 (13:34):
Right?
Speaker 1 (13:34):
I mean, that's kind of where you're looking at right
now with those guys. It's a really, really difficult start. But, hey, again,
we're still playing. But it's only 10-0. NFL is back.
It's going to be close. It's going to be close late. Yeah, well,
in theory, it's close right now. I mean, how many
more three and outs do you see by the Seahawks? Well,
I don't know. How many more? Look, the defense takes over.
(13:54):
See what I did there?
Speaker 3 (13:55):
Defense takes over with the Patriots pinned in their own play.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
Dude, Russell Wilson's doing high knees at 30,000 feet right now.
He's got another kid coming. No, he's on a private
plane right now to Seattle going, can you get me there?
I can land for the fourth quarter. I can get
in there. There's nine and a half minutes left to go.
I'm doing high knees.
Speaker 2 (14:10):
Unlimited. Don't worry.
Speaker 1 (14:11):
I still have my uniform, and I have all my pads.
So I'll just put them right on. I'll just go
right to the game and come right in and be
able to play right away. Just go right on there.
Look what you did there. Oh, man.
Speaker 3 (14:22):
I'm talking about potential that you start looking around at
teams that stockpiled an extra veteran they don't need. You
just said, let's just bring, Russ has another mouth to feed,
so get him back in uni.
Speaker 2 (14:33):
Be sure to catch live editions of the Jason Smith
Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at 10 p.m. Eastern, 7 p.m.
Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app. It's broke.
Speaker 1 (14:44):
Fox Sports Radio, the Jason Smith Show with my best friend,
Mike Harmon. Yeah, buddy.
Speaker 2 (14:49):
Well-dressed hobo.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
Four and a half to go in the third quarter.
No Sam Darnold, no A.J.
Speaker 2 (14:53):
Brown.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
The Patriots lead the Seahawks 10-0 opening night in the NFL.
More on this game as it goes on. Maybe Seahawks
could be... at the point where potentially they could maybe
drive and put a couple of plays together and maybe
threaten the scoreboard. I mean, I don't want to go
crazy here, Mike Harmon, but potentially they could as they're
inside the 20-yard line right now with about, again, under
(15:18):
four minutes to go In the third quarter, 10-0 lead
for New England. Big play.
Speaker 3 (15:23):
Drew Locke dropping it into the basket. One-arm catch. Cooper
Cupp going to the turf. Brings it in and puts
him in business.
Speaker 1 (15:31):
So we'll have more on this. Monty Bolaños, we'll have
more on the game and what's trending coming up in
a few minutes. But, you know, really a story that
just hit me between the eyes when I came into
work today. Barry Melrose has passed away at the age
of 70. Former L.A. Kings head coach. famously in the
Stanley Cup final with the Kings in the mid-90s and
(15:51):
the McSorley stick, and then his career as a broadcaster
at ESPN. He passes away earlier today at the age
of 70. He was diagnosed with Parkinson's a few years ago,
and it's a really, really sad day Barry was such
a good guy to work with and to talk about
the impact that he had. I'll talk about it. Then
(16:13):
I'll tell you, then I'll tell you the best Barry
Melrose story ever. Hockey in the United States went from
being a cult sport as far into the mainstream as
it could be. And a lot of it is due
to two things. Barry Melrose did. The Kings get Wayne Gretzky,
they go to the Stanley Cup final. Suddenly, on the
heels of the Rangers winning the Stanley Cup for the
(16:34):
first time since 1940, you're talking about almost back-to-back with that.
So that really helped the popularity of hockey. But the
second thing is, Barry being on ESPN and talking to
us all about hockey for as many years as he did,
it's that Bill Maher statement where he says, I can't
(16:56):
prove it, I only know that it's true. I can't
quantify it, I only know that it's true that hockey...
The popularity of the sport increased because the way Barry
talked to us about the sport. He never broke down
the sport, never broke down what went on, talking over
anybody's heads. He was able to connect with the person
(17:16):
who was the average hockey fan, who didn't really follow hockey,
or who was the big hockey fan. He found a
way to appeal to everyone. There's a reason why he
was ESPN's hockey department, right? He was the guy, right?
He was on the air for everything ESPN did hockey.
It was Barry Melrose, and the way he was able
to come across so personable to talk about it on
any level where you can respect what he had to
(17:39):
say and everybody got something different from him the way
he would break down the game. Not many people can
do that. You have guys, hey, he talks about the
game on a level that I can't even understand. Boy,
that's fun. We hear Bill Belichick talk about punting. Like, okay,
that's great. You're losing me on it, Bill, but okay, great.
And then you have the analyst that can say, hey,
I'm going to appeal to the meat and potatoes fan. Hey,
(18:01):
this is what you want to know. This is what
we need to talk about. Barry could do that in
one 30-second rip. Like, I remember him talking about the
change to four-on-four in overtime for the NHL a few
years ago and how excited he was about it. And
in 30 seconds, he broke it down on every level
for everybody to understand. And that's what he was able
to do. And again, there's a reason why he was
(18:21):
on the air for so long. And people grew to
love hockey more because of the way Barry Melrose talked
to us about it. And off camera, I got to
tell you, when I was at ESPN, I worked with
him on NHL Tonight for a couple of years before
I moved out and became a talent. And working on
that show every day with him, he was probably, I
(18:44):
think on a short list of maybe three or four
people in my life that when I was a production assistant,
people who were 22, 23, 24 years old, just starting
out in the business or starting out. Barry was interested
in your life. He would ask you questions about what
you did yesterday and be interested in the answer. Like
I remember one time when I was away, I went
away for three days. Pam and I, we just started dating.
(19:06):
We went away for a vacation and he was gone
and he came back to work. He says, hey, How
was your holiday? I said, what do you mean holiday?
He goes, you were off, right? I go, what do
you mean holiday? I was off for three days. He goes, Jason, Jason,
it's a holiday. You only go for a few days.
It's a holiday. How was your holiday? And I said, oh,
it was really good. He goes, and you and your
girlfriend doing good? I go, yeah. He goes, where'd you go?
(19:27):
I said, we went to Newport. Oh, they have the great,
did you go to the International Tennis Hall of Fame Museum? No,
I didn't. No, that's all right. But it was good.
You had good weather? Yeah. And like, he's interested. That
was the thing that first came up. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:37):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (19:38):
Well, you know, but I'm sad. I can't remember a
lot of that. I remember asking me about caring and
our relationship and he really cared. And it wasn't just me.
It was other people that he would talk to like
that as well. Like when you go into a rundown.
meeting to talk about the show and, and a lot
of times, you know, you're 22, 23, you're sitting in
a room and here's your talent and you know, Here's
Dan and Keith and Chris Berman. You're like, I'm just
(19:59):
going to stay quiet, not say anything. And, you know,
you're in the rundown. I mean, I was never that guy, obviously. But, like,
you know, you could see where that could be intimidating.
But Barry always made everybody feel welcome in the meeting.
And he would say stuff like, and if he knew
somebody was doing fantasy and somebody had a bad night,
like they would, you know, the producer would say something
like this. Okay, so we're going to do the Flames
(20:19):
game here, and Barry would go, oh, hey, hey, Eric, Eric,
Eric Sparks, yeah, yeah, Eric, go, hey, boy, Trevor Kitsch
sucked for you last night, didn't he? Wow, how many
goals did he give up in the third period? Five?
He was like, ah, come on. Like, Barry was that
kind of guy. He was just a fun guy to
be around. He made the shows more fun. He cared
about you. He talked like, again, there's lots of NFL
(20:40):
analysts who do a great job. There's lots of MLB
analysts who do a great job. You're thinking in the
pantheon of great hockey analysts of all time like there's
not even a mount rushmore it's like there's you know
maybe half a mount rushmore it's.
Speaker 3 (20:52):
Him and don cherry like those are the two guys
that define don cherry.
Speaker 1 (20:56):
Was canada and barry melrose of the united states and
and that that's really what he was and yeah and
of course if you put him on you got to
have the mullet right you got to have the mullet
on their form that that's got.
Speaker 3 (21:05):
To be it no 100 right like that's that's the
thing the you you go back to the mid 90s
and and hockey trying to break through you needed a
voice And you needed a guy that had that catch.
And certainly spending time out here in L.A. and bringing
a victory. And Gretzky, some of the quotes from him
today as he remembered those times, just absolutely huge. But
(21:27):
for Barry Melrose, broke it down. It's like a very
easy segment because hockey– Look, we talk about it here
on the show, but it doesn't get to the A
block a ton over the course of a year unless
you've got a tremendous run by one of the big
teams or one of the heavyweight players or you're deep
in the playoffs, right?
Speaker 1 (21:47):
That's the only way it's cutting through. But for Barry Melrose,
he made it to where it's like, all right. Come
on in for a minute. Yeah. Learn a little bit
so you can be at the water cooler. You felt comfortable. Yeah.
It felt like I'm not in here. I don't feel cold.
I don't not know what's going on. Oh, I'm in.
I'm in here.
Speaker 3 (22:03):
But it's like, and look, working as long as you
and I have done in this business, there's guys that
can try to stop. keep you at arm's distance, right?
The ex-NFL players, ex-NBA players, like, you don't know. And
they make you feel like you don't know. I was like, okay,
thanks for making that a very uncomfortable 10 minutes for everybody.
But for Barry Melrose, from the stories that you've told
(22:25):
me through the years and certainly the remembrances we're seeing
tonight and me from my couch all those years, it was,
all right, he was one of the, could make you
feel like one of the guys and make you feel
like you knew more than you did. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (22:39):
And look, everybody's got great Barry Melrose stories. And I
know I have a great one that I'll tell you
right now that it was, it was just, I still
think about this from time to time. I think about
how I can't believe this actually happened.
Speaker 3 (22:51):
Right.
Speaker 1 (22:52):
So NHL, every, everybody's clothes were on Frostburg. Everything was fine.
Everything was good. Everything's good. That's normally where you would
add as far as you know. So NHL tonight was
on ESPN. It was a brand new show in the nineties.
And now they have, you know, NHL shows on all
the time. And, During the playoffs, NHL Tonight on ESPN2
(23:12):
was a really big deal because we showed really long highlights. Like,
you know, SportsCenter would show, you know, eight seconds of
a hockey highlight, right? Hey, it's a game-winning goal, and
that's it. We had, like, four-minute—it's like primetime, NFL primetime
for NHL. You got to do a super cut. Oh, yeah, oh,
the big game tonight. Oh, Canadians, Penguins. Yeah, four minutes
for that highlight. Okay, great, right? So it was an
entire night. But the thing is, is that when there was—
(23:33):
when in the playoffs and ESPN had the hockey contracts,
like there was a seven 30 game and then there
was a 10 30 game.
Speaker 3 (23:40):
Right.
Speaker 1 (23:40):
So, and so when there was that, we had the
double header. We didn't go on until after the late
game was over. So there's times where, you know, okay,
we're going on generally one 30 in the morning, but.
When playoff games and overtime and you have to wait,
sometimes we didn't go on until 2.30, quarter to three
in the morning. We've been at work now for like 14,
(24:01):
15 hours, but we don't because you got to wait
till the game ends. And the reason we have to,
we have to do the show because it airs all
the next day going into, you know, the next day's action, right?
Like here's NHL, here's all the stuff you need. So
it was one of those nights where we had a
double header and it was a 7.30 game and a
10.30 game. And the 10.30 game went to overtime. And
it wasn't one of the crazy games where it was
(24:21):
like three or four overtimes, but it went to overtime.
So we don't go on the air until I think
it's like a quarter to two in the morning. And
the first highlight is, you know, like, again, three, four
minute highlight. And Bill Pito is the talent, right? So
it's Bill Pito and Barry Mellis who did the show
together for so long.
Speaker 2 (24:36):
And....
Speaker 1 (24:38):
Pito does the highlight, and the final shot in the
highlight was of some kid at the game with a
crazy haircut. I don't know what it was. I don't
know if it was a mohawk, but he had a
crazy head, and that was the final shot was this
kid clapping after a goal. So that's the final shot
in the highlight. Hey, this kid happened, and Bill Pito,
they finish, and so now the camera cuts out to
Bill and and Barry on camera so they can talk
(25:00):
about the game, right? Like, okay, so Islanders beat the
Rangers in this, you know, or whatever it was. Okay, Barry,
and just to kick it to Barry, Bill says, so Barry,
what did you think about that kid at the end
of that holly? Would you ever get a hairstyle like that? Because,
you know, Barry had the mullet his entire life. And
Barry Melrose says, because, you know, it's 2 in the
(25:21):
morning and we're all punchy because we've all been at work, again,
for 15 hours waiting to do a show, right? And
Bill Pito says, would you ever get a hairstyle like that, Barry?
And he goes, what, so I can look blanky on
the air? Except he doesn't say blanky.
Speaker 2 (25:36):
No, clearly.
Speaker 1 (25:37):
He says the word that begins with an S and
ends in a Y. He goes, so I can look
blanky on the air? And everybody just stops. We're all
in the control and we all look and go– Did
he just say that on the air? And Pito didn't
know what to say. He just goes, uh, and then
Barry realizes what he says and he just cackles and
turns bright red. He goes, so I can look blanky
(25:57):
on the air? So he does a full Leota. And
Barry's laughing and Bill Peter doesn't know what to do.
And I'm going, oh my God, a talent just said
the S word on ESPN.
Speaker 2 (26:08):
Like, oh my God.
Speaker 1 (26:09):
Like now, I mean, you know, it happens all the time,
you know, when ESPN had standards and stuff. Like, it
was like, oh, whoa, whoa. And I'm going, oh. Okay,
so this went over the air like, is the FCC
going to get in trouble for this? Because they're not
able to bleep it out. I don't know if they
bleeped it out. And he just turned so red after
he said that. And it was awesome because he just
(26:31):
laughing going, I just said it. He just starts cackling
like he's a villain, like a super villain. Not like, hey,
I got away with it. I'm so stunned I did that.
And as much as I remember him saying the S word,
I remember him cackling. And we're all in the studio going, oh,
my God, he just said that. Like he was Smithers
from The Simpsons? He just said it. Just laughing. Oh,
(26:54):
my goodness. Oh, I love it. He laughed. That was Barry. Oh, yeah.
The way he had a great laugh and he would
cackle when he would– when something would be, would, would
be amusing to him. Like he was, he was a
really great dad. Look, I haven't worked with the guy
in 25 years, you know, maybe not so much. No, he,
I had him on all night in the early 2000s. So,
you know, 20 years, probably I'm getting to that point,
but you know, working with him those, those couple of
(27:17):
years at ESPN and seeing him be the hockey department and, and,
and be the guy that brought hockey to everybody and
increased the popularity and got more people watching. Like it was,
it really was something to see him have that kind
of career. You talk about pillars of the sport, it's
Barry Melrose, right? Because you're right, the two people, not
(27:37):
even a Mount Rushmore, just a Mount Two person, it's
Don Cherry and it's Barry. And it's probably Grapes just
staring at Melrose, like his fist in front of him,
and Barry Melrose just looking back at him with his
hair just flying in the wind. That would be the thing.
But that's it.
Speaker 3 (27:52):
You had Don Cherry in his suits. And, you know,
he said some things through the years. And then you've
got the mullet on the other side. That is one
hell of a Mount Rushmore.
Speaker 1 (28:01):
Yeah, the suits and the mullet. Suits and the mullet.
That's what it was. It was awesome. Rest in peace,
Barry Melrose, 70 years old.
Speaker 2 (28:07):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at 10 p.m. Eastern, 7 p.m. Pacific.
Speaker 1 (28:14):
Fox Sports Radio, the Jason Smith Show with my best friend,
Mike Harmon.
Speaker 2 (28:18):
Well-dressed hobo.
Speaker 1 (28:19):
You miss any of today's show, be sure to catch
the podcast. Just search Jason Smith and Mike Harmon wherever
you get your podcasts. Follow the podcast, rate it five stars,
provide a review. Again, just search Jason Smith and Mike
Harmon wherever you get your podcasts. You'll find today's full
show and a best-of version posted right after we get
off the air. Well, as we like to say, sometimes
(28:40):
it doesn't matter if the game is good. It just
matters that the game is close. And we have a
now close game. Wednesday night football. It was all Patriots.
The Seahawks could do nothing right. Sam Darnold's injury. He's
knocked out of the game early with a hip injury.
He has not come back. Drew Locke is gone the
rest of the way, a quarterback for Seattle. Meanwhile, A.J. Brown,
(29:02):
an ankle injury at least. He left the game earlier,
likely not coming back as well. So it was a
nice 10-0 lead for New England. They're probably thinking, hey,
we just got to kind of hang out and we're
good and we're going to just extend this game and
just continue to play defense and go on and win.
Drew Locke finally is able to get the team in
field goal position. They get a field goal, and now
(29:23):
it is tied at 10 apiece after an interception. Everybody's
favorite fantasy wide receiver decides to say, listen, just pass
to me as close to the line of scrimmage as possible,
and I'll do the rest. Mike Tirico, NBC on the call.
(29:49):
JSN just catches a nice little hitch a few yards
off the line of scrimmage. Picks his way through the
rest of the secondary. He goes in for the touchdown.
The extra point ties the game at 10 apiece. And
all of a sudden... JSN goes from, man, he's killing
me in fantasy. He's only worth like nine points now. Oh,
(30:10):
now he's 111 in the touchdown. Why does he keep
throwing it to Cooper Cup? What the hell?
Speaker 3 (30:14):
Even with that touchdown that got wiped out earlier, like, hey,
this is the guy that he's targeting.
Speaker 1 (30:19):
It was a fourth and one call. Yeah. Complete sellout, right?
Speaker 3 (30:23):
You fake a little bit to swing out to the
running back, but JSN's.
Speaker 1 (30:28):
All by himself.
Speaker 3 (30:29):
Absolute jailbreak by the Patriots, lets him sit down, and
then you got defensive linemen trying to chase him down.
Speaker 1 (30:36):
For those final 20 yards. Not going to happen. I mean, look,
now that's the big play, obviously, because that ties the
game and turns it into something new. But for all
of the talk, we wonder, like, how's this team going
to be without Sam Darnold in the long haul? Like,
I mean, who knows? Who knows how long he's out for?
Hopefully it's just the rest of the game tonight and
they're being careful. You've got 12 days until your next game.
(31:00):
But this defense looks like it has just picked up
right where it left off last year. And they seem
to be doing the same kind of things they did
in the Super Bowl. You're seeing blitzes coming from the
slot and Drake May being forced outside. and being able
to move him out where he's not in a comfort zone.
He hasn't really been in a comfort zone most of
(31:22):
the night. And look, they've held the Patriots down the
entire second half. May threw a pick that allowed the
Seahawks to get that last touchdown. He has just been
picked off again, throwing into double coverage. Now the Seahawks
have the ball. They are in business against the Patriots.
Nine and a half to go. I mean, we come
(31:44):
off that last year and go, man, the defense in
the NFL, how great the Seahawks were, how great the
Broncos were. But sometimes it's tough to bring that great
defense from year to year when you have defections. It's
easier to keep an offense humming as long as your
quarterback is back, you're bringing the right receivers back. But
sometimes defense is difficult because sometimes hey, this defensive tackle left,
(32:04):
or hey, they're really up to our scheme. They know
what we like to do now. They know where we
like to blitz from. But so far tonight, this is
a Super Bowl team that the Seahawks defense looks like
we are picking up right where we left off against
this team eight months ago.
Speaker 3 (32:17):
And you're missing a couple of safeties, right? Eamon Warrie's
not playing tonight, one of the big absences here. I
like that you're doing the finger counting to make sure.
Speaker 1 (32:25):
Well, that's eight months ago.
Speaker 2 (32:27):
That was good.
Speaker 1 (32:27):
Eight months from the Super Bowl to now. Yeah, okay,
very good.
Speaker 3 (32:29):
You had a massive drop along the sideline that would
have been about a 40-yard gain by Dobbs. Instead, it
goes off his hands. which leads to the next play
where Douglas falls down, allowing Love to come over the
top for the interception.
Speaker 1 (32:43):
I mean, that was, you talk about this game in
two plays, like that should have been a near 40-yard completion.
But he just, he's got it. Like, Dobbs has it.
It's like he tries to turn before he secures the ball,
and he drops it, and then the next play you see,
not a great play throwing into that double coverage, but clearly,
(33:04):
you know, Douglas falling down made the interception easier, but... Again,
not a great decision. I'm sure there's some frustration with
Drake May and the Patriots' offense not being able to
do anything. But, wow, you look at this drop, and
you can just see that Dobbs just took his eye
off the ball. As soon as it touched his hand,
he was looking upfield before he secured it. And, I mean,
you're talking about a 40-yard play and then an interception.
(33:25):
We talk about field position getting flipped. That's a huge
flip right there. Absolutely huge.
Speaker 3 (33:31):
Now on the plus side of the 50 as Drew Locke.
and the Seahawks take possession.
Speaker 1 (33:37):
That's where we're sitting right now. Again, the Seahawks with
the football. 10-10, just over nine minutes left to go,
and all of a sudden, you look at the numbers
for Drew Locke, and they don't look that bad. Granted,
he's only throwing the ball like two yards past the
line of scrimmage.
Speaker 2 (33:52):
Hey, you know what?
Speaker 1 (33:53):
Scheme it up yeah 13 out of 17 for a
buck 56 and a touchdown and hey it looked like
a 50 yard bomb in the box score but still
he's doing what he needs to do getting a little
more comfortable with the more reps he's had here and
now the offense is looking a little bit more recognizable.
Speaker 3 (34:09):
Scheme him to get open and then you look at
price and hulani will be big here in these final
eight minutes.
Speaker 1 (34:15):
So again, doesn't have to be great, just has to
be close. We have more on the Seahawks and the
Patriots and other big NFL news ahead of week one
coming up next. Jason and Mike, Fox Sports Radio.
Thanks for listening to the Jason Smith Show with Mike
Harmon podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weeknight,
10 p.m.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
To 2 a.m.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
Eastern, 7 to 11 p.m. Pacific on Fox Sports Radio.
Find your local station for the Jason Smith Show with
Mike Harmon at foxsportsradio.com or stream us live every night
on the iHeartRadio app by searching FSR. Now let's get
this party started. You're listening to Fox Sports Radio. Hello,
(00:28):
welcome inside. Happy NFL Christmas. Well, at least we have
the game. How it's going, Al? It's broke. It's broke.
A little bit of a different story. You work in logistics,
you know nothing moves without you. Companies need skilled people now,
and Express Employment Professionals can help you find contractor full-time
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(00:52):
get support, get options, and get to work. Well, as
we normally do on Mondays, Thursdays, and now on the
odd Wednesday we start the season, we jump right in.
12.5 to go in the third quarter. New England leads
Seattle 7-0, and already two large injuries in this game.
(01:12):
We'll get to the Sam Darnold injury in a moment,
but seconds ago, New England has the football, and A.J.
Brown goes down with an ankle injury. It looked like
his ankle was landed on by a knee. Wasn't a
dirty play, just going for the ball. It happens in
the course of a game. He was holding his ankle.
He was taken off. No update on A.J. Brown, but
(01:35):
he has not come back in the game because New
England got the football back after roughing the kicker penalty
on a punt. So the Patriots still have the football
right now just inside of midfield, but A.J. Brown hurt,
and of course Sam Darnold going out earlier in the
game with a hip injury.
Speaker 3 (01:50):
This has been, well, it's 7-0. So if you've had
the under, you're feeling pretty good. But we've seen a
couple of big plays, some big penalties. But the two
injuries are the story of this game, right? For Sam
Darnold coming off the Super Bowl run, it's the full-off
season of, well, what do you do for an encore?
And he's going to evade a rush. And down he goes.
(02:11):
And now A.J. Brown going to the turf trying to
make a catch. Gets caught up. As you said, the
defender into him a bit. He'd drawn a big pass
interference play earlier in the game, so making his presence
known early. And now we just wait. Is it an
ankle sprain? Because all the internet doctors have plenty of
(02:33):
diagnoses at the ready.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
This is one where you go, okay. Not a great
start to go Marv Albert on you. Not exactly what
the NFL had in mind. But it's the NFL. It's
on television. The games count. Yeah. Counts for fantasy. Counts
for you.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
So.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
The NFL is back.
Speaker 3 (02:52):
The first of 272 glorious regular season games. One thing
I know for certain watching this, and you're not going
to face a defensive front like Seattle each and every week,
but Drake May is going to be yelling hot route
a lot behind that offensive line.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
Now the two injuries first. Let's work backwards here. You know,
the A.J. Brown, the big move in the offseason, you know,
They made a couple of moves, but this was the
big one, right? Getting A.J. Brown from the Eagles. He
was going to be the guy to help take Drake
May to the next level. Diggs was fine enough last year.
Brown is better. In theory, the Patriots often should be better.
(03:28):
He is officially questionable to return, although I have a
hard time believing with an ankle injury he's going to
come back into the game. Uh, that's what we're just
getting in right now. I mean, when you have an
ankle injury and you roll it and you hold it
and you come off the field that way, it's week one,
you're a brand new acquisition. You are prize. I don't
think he's going to come back into the game, but
this is, you know, this is the guy that was
(03:49):
going to come in and make the offense go. This
was the guy come. Okay. How are we going to
continue to unlock Drake? May continue to keep him an
MVP candidate. and the Patriots doing the right things. Let's
keep getting our young quarterback help. We see how good
he is, and yeah, can he make guys around him better? Yes.
You watch Drake May go through his progressions, and that's
the most fun thing about him is that, boy, he
always seems to find the right guy. He never panics,
(04:12):
but getting him more help, okay, they went out and
got a couple of guys this offseason. But A.J. Brown's
the guy that's supposed to make this offense go. And
you're already without Travion Henderson. Okay. Now, no Henderson, no A.J. Brown.
As high as I was on the Patriots coming into
this game tonight, and I picked them to win tonight, 27-17.
That was the official pick from last night. Like, if
(04:33):
they're without these guys, this start could get really difficult
really fast. Again, we don't know where they're at. But, again,
no Henderson. He hasn't practiced since August 24th. It's been
a while, yeah. It's been a minute. And now A.J. Brown,
who knows? If it's a high ankle, if it's something
that keeps him out, these are two playmakers that it's
going to be really tough to move on without for
the first three, four games of the season.
Speaker 3 (04:55):
When you talk about the explosiveness of Henderson, and certainly
Ramon Darius-Stevenson has had stretches of his Patriots run where
he's been fantastic. He's also had stretches where he's really
had trouble moving. carrying the football and holding on to it,
which means, you know, you're always doing the old movie
and TV bit of duct taping the football in his hands.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
Don't drop this. This is precious. 42 carries. If he
has 42 carries tonight, he will run for 100 yards.
How about that? He is on pace for 100 yards.
He needs 42 carries to get there.
Speaker 3 (05:24):
Yeah, it goes back to that offensive line thing I
was talking about a little bit earlier. A little bit
concerning there. But, yeah, losing Brown, you brought in Romeo Dobbs,
so you paid him. They brought in two wideouts for
the bookends. But you got Demario Douglas, Kyle Williams, Mack Hollins.
That's basically your squad right there. And then, obviously, Hunter
(05:48):
Henry and your touchdown scorer today, Eli Raritan, the third-round
pick out of Notre Dame. But, yeah, you're suddenly missing
that dynamic threat downfield.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
And Douglas.
Speaker 3 (06:01):
is a guy they were kind of high on a
year ago that maybe he would break through as a
deep ball threat, but no proof of concept at this point.
And for Drake May, a lot of it is going
to be improvisational. Maybe that helps. if Brown has to
miss any significant time, that these other guys that he
(06:22):
doesn't have necessarily the same rhythm with working through the
offseason because of Brown's addition, that perhaps his ability to
move in the pocket, because he's going to have to,
is going to be the thing that can uncork some
big plays, but it's going to be all off script
and certainly not the way Vrabel has historically tried to
(06:43):
run his squads, either here or in Tennessee.
Speaker 1 (06:47):
Now, the other injury, obviously the big one. He's been
ruled out tonight. Sam Darnold with a hip injury. He
was hurt early in the first quarter. And this is
the play. That did it for Sam Darnold. That forced
him to the blue tent and out of the game.
The snap to Darnold.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
He takes it.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
He's back. Patriots with a blitz. Darnold is hit.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
He reloads.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
He's running to his left. He's sat from behind.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
And Draymond Jones got him. That's the way to pitch
it up.
Speaker 1 (07:12):
Initially, the linebacker on the quarterback's face forced the reset.
Darnold tried to escape to the left. The Patriots come
up with a sack. And Seattle will have the greatest
Super Bowl champion quarterback ever to live. down with a
hip injury? There was a call. Westwood won. Initially, it
was reported it was a knee injury because he comes
down pretty hard on his right knee. But it wasn't
(07:33):
that hard. When I saw it, I said, oh, man,
something might have really happened because it didn't look like
it was that bad. He's jogging off the field, then
you see him all of a sudden start to give
that little bit of a limp. He goes right to
the blue tent, he goes out of the game, and
we get the diagnosis from the Seahawks locker room that
it is in fact a hip injury that is keeping
him out. He's ruled out for the game. And look,
(07:56):
you're going to play two quarterbacks in the NFL every year, right?
It's the way it goes. We know at some point
you're going to have your backup starting a couple of games.
That's why every year 55 guys play. start at least
one game in the NFL. I think, was it 40
players start more than one? Like, that's a big number. Obviously,
you're thinking, okay, not game one, not quarter one, not
(08:16):
the second possession for the Seattle Seahawks. But, I mean,
this team, if you had any question about Sam Darnold's
level of accuracy, how good a player he is, and still,
Darnold is a guy that doesn't get a lot of
credit after he won the Super Bowl. Like, Darnold could have, like,
four Super Bowls. People are going, yeah, you know, I
don't know about the guy. He's got four Super Bowls, but,
you know, Brady's got six, and, you know, Bradshaw's got four.
It was a different era. But you can see that
(08:39):
this— and I know it's going to be rough early because
of the lack of cohesion, the amount of reps you
play together. The NFL is always ugly the first couple
of weeks of the season— but man, this Seahawks offense
is going absolutely nowhere under Drew Locke, and you gain
a better sense of respect of just what Sam Darnold
means to this team. Now, is he someone that's going
to always come out and gunsling his way and win games? No,
(09:01):
but is he someone that knows where to go with
the football? The system works for him, and he makes
it work? Yeah, he makes it work. So if you
have any doubt about Sam, sometimes you need to see
a team play without a guy to understand just, wow,
how ugly it can get, and that's what you're seeing
tonight with the Seahawks.
Speaker 3 (09:15):
Yeah, but you look at a guy in Sam Darnold,
and he's never going to erase fully in people's minds
what happened with the Jets. And all the stops in between, learning, growing,
you know, like most folks do in their careers or
series of jobs in some if you're taking opportunities and
moving about. But for Sam Darnold, yeah, he commits turnovers,
(09:38):
but he keeps firing. Like he's... The greatest example, I think,
these last couple of years of the NFL of what
it once was. If you push the ball downfield, you
were going to make mistakes. Now here it's so much
maligned because we got the touchdown interception ratio gets spouted
(09:58):
out so frequently. The fact that completion percentage is such
a big deal. You and I growing up as the
league transitioned and you needed a guy to take shots downfield.
A lot of 50-50 balls that went up there. Go
back to some of your best quarterbacks, guys that are
in the Hall of Fame. Go back and look at
their touchdown-interception ratio. It ain't so great. It ain't so great,
(10:20):
but they were pushing the ball downfield, and Sam Darnold
does that. Does he make a bad decision now and
again that you really go back to the All-22 and say,
I have no idea what he's seeing here?
Speaker 1 (10:30):
Absolutely. But the.
Speaker 3 (10:32):
drop down to, and Drew Locke, we're going to get
to see, right? He's been in the league since 2019. Obviously,
someone still thinks he's got... It's been a league eight
years now, man.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
It's been a long time. Drew Locke's been around a
long time, right?
Speaker 3 (10:44):
So he's a guy that's going to come in and
in week one against what is a good Patriots defense,
I don't know that I would have expected him to
come in and do quite so well. We didn't have great,
you know, high hopes for what Sam Darnold was going
to do tonight either, right, when you look at it
on the grand scales. But, you know, if you're Jacoby Brissett,
you look at some of these quarterbacks that are placeholders
(11:06):
for the new– Shiny new guy. I mean, we await
word of what Darnold's injury truly is. Some talking about
the hip socket and all of those kind of questions
that come up with his departure.
Speaker 1 (11:18):
Mike, that's future Jets Hall of Famer, Drew Locke. Wow.
I thought you were going to say future Jets Hall
of Famer Sam Darnold. That's a Super Bowl champion and
the greatest quarterback to ever live. That is true. He is,
outside of Namath, he is the most decorated quarterback that
we have ever had. That is true. Well, we had Favre. Okay,
(11:39):
so it goes that way. So it goes. And we
had Rodgers.
Speaker 3 (11:41):
Yeah, but those guys had achieved all their stuff before
they showed up as a Jet.
Speaker 1 (11:45):
Yeah, that's true. He achieved his stuff after he left
the Jets. Yeah, you want to talk about an alpha,
he overcame the Jets, man. Yeah, no, it is tough.
It is tough to overcome the Jets. Like, that's like
the biggest thing in the way of him is what
he's got to overcome as a pro. And you see
pros and cons on the side is, you know, read
through his progressions, you know, get rid of the football
fast footwork. But for Darnold, it's overcome the Jets. Like,
(12:07):
that's the only thing. Overcome the Jets.
Speaker 3 (12:09):
How do I get that jammed in between the Lifetime
and Hallmark holiday movies that we get the Sam Darnold story? Oh, oh.
Speaker 1 (12:16):
Because it truly is a story of overcoming adversity.
Speaker 2 (12:19):
It is.
Speaker 1 (12:20):
It is. And again, it's not that it was just
the Jets that he stunk at. He stunk a couple
other places, too. It was just it was very high profile. Oh,
the Jets stunk on him.
Speaker 2 (12:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (12:28):
Well, the Jets stink. You can't just say that it's
just him. The Jets stink with everybody. It takes a
long time for that stink to occur. There's everybody in
that pool. Like, if the jet stink is a pool, like,
everybody's in it, man. Everybody's in it. We're doing laps.
We're hanging out. We're sunbathing. We're doing the extended adult swim.
Why is the jet corner all dark blue? Like the
(12:50):
scene from Grown Ups. And the final thing is like, obviously, look,
the NFL's back. It's exciting. It just sucks that here's
the NFL back. And is the game great?
Speaker 3 (13:01):
No.
Speaker 1 (13:01):
But now you have two big injuries, including your Super
Bowl winning quarterback, who's one of the best story in
the NFL the last couple of years. Boy, to start
like this, I don't want to say it's an omen because, oh,
you knew it was going to happen. But really, this
should be your celebration of the game. Here are your
two best teams. And instead, the biggest stories are the
quarterbacks hurt, and now you have the big-time acquisition for
(13:24):
the Patriots is hurt. Of the four people on the
field tonight, the four most high-profile people on the field,
two of them have left the game now with an injury.
Speaker 3 (13:34):
Right?
Speaker 1 (13:34):
I mean, that's kind of where you're looking at right
now with those guys. It's a really, really difficult start. But, hey, again,
we're still playing. But it's only 10-0. NFL is back.
It's going to be close. It's going to be close late. Yeah, well,
in theory, it's close right now. I mean, how many
more three and outs do you see by the Seahawks? Well,
I don't know. How many more? Look, the defense takes over.
(13:54):
See what I did there?
Speaker 3 (13:55):
Defense takes over with the Patriots pinned in their own play.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
Dude, Russell Wilson's doing high knees at 30,000 feet right now.
He's got another kid coming. No, he's on a private
plane right now to Seattle going, can you get me there?
I can land for the fourth quarter. I can get
in there. There's nine and a half minutes left to go.
I'm doing high knees.
Speaker 2 (14:10):
Unlimited. Don't worry.
Speaker 1 (14:11):
I still have my uniform, and I have all my pads.
So I'll just put them right on. I'll just go
right to the game and come right in and be
able to play right away. Just go right on there.
Look what you did there. Oh, man.
Speaker 3 (14:22):
I'm talking about potential that you start looking around at
teams that stockpiled an extra veteran they don't need. You
just said, let's just bring, Russ has another mouth to feed,
so get him back in uni.
Speaker 2 (14:33):
Be sure to catch live editions of the Jason Smith
Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at 10 p.m. Eastern, 7 p.m.
Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app. It's broke.
Speaker 1 (14:44):
Fox Sports Radio, the Jason Smith Show with my best friend,
Mike Harmon. Yeah, buddy.
Speaker 2 (14:49):
Well-dressed hobo.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
Four and a half to go in the third quarter.
No Sam Darnold, no A.J.
Speaker 2 (14:53):
Brown.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
The Patriots lead the Seahawks 10-0 opening night in the NFL.
More on this game as it goes on. Maybe Seahawks
could be... at the point where potentially they could maybe
drive and put a couple of plays together and maybe
threaten the scoreboard. I mean, I don't want to go
crazy here, Mike Harmon, but potentially they could as they're
inside the 20-yard line right now with about, again, under
(15:18):
four minutes to go In the third quarter, 10-0 lead
for New England. Big play.
Speaker 3 (15:23):
Drew Locke dropping it into the basket. One-arm catch. Cooper
Cupp going to the turf. Brings it in and puts
him in business.
Speaker 1 (15:31):
So we'll have more on this. Monty Bolaños, we'll have
more on the game and what's trending coming up in
a few minutes. But, you know, really a story that
just hit me between the eyes when I came into
work today. Barry Melrose has passed away at the age
of 70. Former L.A. Kings head coach. famously in the
Stanley Cup final with the Kings in the mid-90s and
(15:51):
the McSorley stick, and then his career as a broadcaster
at ESPN. He passes away earlier today at the age
of 70. He was diagnosed with Parkinson's a few years ago,
and it's a really, really sad day Barry was such
a good guy to work with and to talk about
the impact that he had. I'll talk about it. Then
(16:13):
I'll tell you, then I'll tell you the best Barry
Melrose story ever. Hockey in the United States went from
being a cult sport as far into the mainstream as
it could be. And a lot of it is due
to two things. Barry Melrose did. The Kings get Wayne Gretzky,
they go to the Stanley Cup final. Suddenly, on the
heels of the Rangers winning the Stanley Cup for the
(16:34):
first time since 1940, you're talking about almost back-to-back with that.
So that really helped the popularity of hockey. But the
second thing is, Barry being on ESPN and talking to
us all about hockey for as many years as he did,
it's that Bill Maher statement where he says, I can't
(16:56):
prove it, I only know that it's true. I can't
quantify it, I only know that it's true that hockey...
The popularity of the sport increased because the way Barry
talked to us about the sport. He never broke down
the sport, never broke down what went on, talking over
anybody's heads. He was able to connect with the person
(17:16):
who was the average hockey fan, who didn't really follow hockey,
or who was the big hockey fan. He found a
way to appeal to everyone. There's a reason why he
was ESPN's hockey department, right? He was the guy, right?
He was on the air for everything ESPN did hockey.
It was Barry Melrose, and the way he was able
to come across so personable to talk about it on
any level where you can respect what he had to
(17:39):
say and everybody got something different from him the way
he would break down the game. Not many people can
do that. You have guys, hey, he talks about the
game on a level that I can't even understand. Boy,
that's fun. We hear Bill Belichick talk about punting. Like, okay,
that's great. You're losing me on it, Bill, but okay, great.
And then you have the analyst that can say, hey,
I'm going to appeal to the meat and potatoes fan. Hey,
(18:01):
this is what you want to know. This is what
we need to talk about. Barry could do that in
one 30-second rip. Like, I remember him talking about the
change to four-on-four in overtime for the NHL a few
years ago and how excited he was about it. And
in 30 seconds, he broke it down on every level
for everybody to understand. And that's what he was able
to do. And again, there's a reason why he was
(18:21):
on the air for so long. And people grew to
love hockey more because of the way Barry Melrose talked
to us about it. And off camera, I got to
tell you, when I was at ESPN, I worked with
him on NHL Tonight for a couple of years before
I moved out and became a talent. And working on
that show every day with him, he was probably, I
(18:44):
think on a short list of maybe three or four
people in my life that when I was a production assistant,
people who were 22, 23, 24 years old, just starting
out in the business or starting out. Barry was interested
in your life. He would ask you questions about what
you did yesterday and be interested in the answer. Like
I remember one time when I was away, I went
away for three days. Pam and I, we just started dating.
(19:06):
We went away for a vacation and he was gone
and he came back to work. He says, hey, How
was your holiday? I said, what do you mean holiday?
He goes, you were off, right? I go, what do
you mean holiday? I was off for three days. He goes, Jason, Jason,
it's a holiday. You only go for a few days.
It's a holiday. How was your holiday? And I said, oh,
it was really good. He goes, and you and your
girlfriend doing good? I go, yeah. He goes, where'd you go?
(19:27):
I said, we went to Newport. Oh, they have the great,
did you go to the International Tennis Hall of Fame Museum? No,
I didn't. No, that's all right. But it was good.
You had good weather? Yeah. And like, he's interested. That
was the thing that first came up. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:37):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (19:38):
Well, you know, but I'm sad. I can't remember a
lot of that. I remember asking me about caring and
our relationship and he really cared. And it wasn't just me.
It was other people that he would talk to like
that as well. Like when you go into a rundown.
meeting to talk about the show and, and a lot
of times, you know, you're 22, 23, you're sitting in
a room and here's your talent and you know, Here's
Dan and Keith and Chris Berman. You're like, I'm just
(19:59):
going to stay quiet, not say anything. And, you know,
you're in the rundown. I mean, I was never that guy, obviously. But, like,
you know, you could see where that could be intimidating.
But Barry always made everybody feel welcome in the meeting.
And he would say stuff like, and if he knew
somebody was doing fantasy and somebody had a bad night,
like they would, you know, the producer would say something
like this. Okay, so we're going to do the Flames
(20:19):
game here, and Barry would go, oh, hey, hey, Eric, Eric,
Eric Sparks, yeah, yeah, Eric, go, hey, boy, Trevor Kitsch
sucked for you last night, didn't he? Wow, how many
goals did he give up in the third period? Five?
He was like, ah, come on. Like, Barry was that
kind of guy. He was just a fun guy to
be around. He made the shows more fun. He cared
about you. He talked like, again, there's lots of NFL
(20:40):
analysts who do a great job. There's lots of MLB
analysts who do a great job. You're thinking in the
pantheon of great hockey analysts of all time like there's
not even a mount rushmore it's like there's you know
maybe half a mount rushmore it's.
Speaker 3 (20:52):
Him and don cherry like those are the two guys
that define don cherry.
Speaker 1 (20:56):
Was canada and barry melrose of the united states and
and that that's really what he was and yeah and
of course if you put him on you got to
have the mullet right you got to have the mullet
on their form that that's got.
Speaker 3 (21:05):
To be it no 100 right like that's that's the
thing the you you go back to the mid 90s
and and hockey trying to break through you needed a
voice And you needed a guy that had that catch.
And certainly spending time out here in L.A. and bringing
a victory. And Gretzky, some of the quotes from him
today as he remembered those times, just absolutely huge. But
(21:27):
for Barry Melrose, broke it down. It's like a very
easy segment because hockey– Look, we talk about it here
on the show, but it doesn't get to the A
block a ton over the course of a year unless
you've got a tremendous run by one of the big
teams or one of the heavyweight players or you're deep
in the playoffs, right?
Speaker 1 (21:47):
That's the only way it's cutting through. But for Barry Melrose,
he made it to where it's like, all right. Come
on in for a minute. Yeah. Learn a little bit
so you can be at the water cooler. You felt comfortable. Yeah.
It felt like I'm not in here. I don't feel cold.
I don't not know what's going on. Oh, I'm in.
I'm in here.
Speaker 3 (22:03):
But it's like, and look, working as long as you
and I have done in this business, there's guys that
can try to stop. keep you at arm's distance, right?
The ex-NFL players, ex-NBA players, like, you don't know. And
they make you feel like you don't know. I was like, okay,
thanks for making that a very uncomfortable 10 minutes for everybody.
But for Barry Melrose, from the stories that you've told
(22:25):
me through the years and certainly the remembrances we're seeing
tonight and me from my couch all those years, it was,
all right, he was one of the, could make you
feel like one of the guys and make you feel
like you knew more than you did. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (22:39):
And look, everybody's got great Barry Melrose stories. And I
know I have a great one that I'll tell you
right now that it was, it was just, I still
think about this from time to time. I think about
how I can't believe this actually happened.
Speaker 3 (22:51):
Right.
Speaker 1 (22:52):
So NHL, every, everybody's clothes were on Frostburg. Everything was fine.
Everything was good. Everything's good. That's normally where you would
add as far as you know. So NHL tonight was
on ESPN. It was a brand new show in the nineties.
And now they have, you know, NHL shows on all
the time. And, During the playoffs, NHL Tonight on ESPN2
(23:12):
was a really big deal because we showed really long highlights. Like,
you know, SportsCenter would show, you know, eight seconds of
a hockey highlight, right? Hey, it's a game-winning goal, and
that's it. We had, like, four-minute—it's like primetime, NFL primetime
for NHL. You got to do a super cut. Oh, yeah, oh,
the big game tonight. Oh, Canadians, Penguins. Yeah, four minutes
for that highlight. Okay, great, right? So it was an
entire night. But the thing is, is that when there was—
(23:33):
when in the playoffs and ESPN had the hockey contracts,
like there was a seven 30 game and then there
was a 10 30 game.
Speaker 3 (23:40):
Right.
Speaker 1 (23:40):
So, and so when there was that, we had the
double header. We didn't go on until after the late
game was over. So there's times where, you know, okay,
we're going on generally one 30 in the morning, but.
When playoff games and overtime and you have to wait,
sometimes we didn't go on until 2.30, quarter to three
in the morning. We've been at work now for like 14,
(24:01):
15 hours, but we don't because you got to wait
till the game ends. And the reason we have to,
we have to do the show because it airs all
the next day going into, you know, the next day's action, right?
Like here's NHL, here's all the stuff you need. So
it was one of those nights where we had a
double header and it was a 7.30 game and a
10.30 game. And the 10.30 game went to overtime. And
it wasn't one of the crazy games where it was
(24:21):
like three or four overtimes, but it went to overtime.
So we don't go on the air until I think
it's like a quarter to two in the morning. And
the first highlight is, you know, like, again, three, four
minute highlight. And Bill Pito is the talent, right? So
it's Bill Pito and Barry Mellis who did the show
together for so long.
Speaker 2 (24:36):
And....
Speaker 1 (24:38):
Pito does the highlight, and the final shot in the
highlight was of some kid at the game with a
crazy haircut. I don't know what it was. I don't
know if it was a mohawk, but he had a
crazy head, and that was the final shot was this
kid clapping after a goal. So that's the final shot
in the highlight. Hey, this kid happened, and Bill Pito,
they finish, and so now the camera cuts out to
Bill and and Barry on camera so they can talk
(25:00):
about the game, right? Like, okay, so Islanders beat the
Rangers in this, you know, or whatever it was. Okay, Barry,
and just to kick it to Barry, Bill says, so Barry,
what did you think about that kid at the end
of that holly? Would you ever get a hairstyle like that? Because,
you know, Barry had the mullet his entire life. And
Barry Melrose says, because, you know, it's 2 in the
(25:21):
morning and we're all punchy because we've all been at work, again,
for 15 hours waiting to do a show, right? And
Bill Pito says, would you ever get a hairstyle like that, Barry?
And he goes, what, so I can look blanky on
the air? Except he doesn't say blanky.
Speaker 2 (25:36):
No, clearly.
Speaker 1 (25:37):
He says the word that begins with an S and
ends in a Y. He goes, so I can look
blanky on the air? And everybody just stops. We're all
in the control and we all look and go– Did
he just say that on the air? And Pito didn't
know what to say. He just goes, uh, and then
Barry realizes what he says and he just cackles and
turns bright red. He goes, so I can look blanky
(25:57):
on the air? So he does a full Leota. And
Barry's laughing and Bill Peter doesn't know what to do.
And I'm going, oh my God, a talent just said
the S word on ESPN.
Speaker 2 (26:08):
Like, oh my God.
Speaker 1 (26:09):
Like now, I mean, you know, it happens all the time,
you know, when ESPN had standards and stuff. Like, it
was like, oh, whoa, whoa. And I'm going, oh. Okay,
so this went over the air like, is the FCC
going to get in trouble for this? Because they're not
able to bleep it out. I don't know if they
bleeped it out. And he just turned so red after
he said that. And it was awesome because he just
(26:31):
laughing going, I just said it. He just starts cackling
like he's a villain, like a super villain. Not like, hey,
I got away with it. I'm so stunned I did that.
And as much as I remember him saying the S word,
I remember him cackling. And we're all in the studio going, oh,
my God, he just said that. Like he was Smithers
from The Simpsons? He just said it. Just laughing. Oh,
(26:54):
my goodness. Oh, I love it. He laughed. That was Barry. Oh, yeah.
The way he had a great laugh and he would
cackle when he would– when something would be, would, would
be amusing to him. Like he was, he was a
really great dad. Look, I haven't worked with the guy
in 25 years, you know, maybe not so much. No, he,
I had him on all night in the early 2000s. So,
you know, 20 years, probably I'm getting to that point,
but you know, working with him those, those couple of
(27:17):
years at ESPN and seeing him be the hockey department and, and,
and be the guy that brought hockey to everybody and
increased the popularity and got more people watching. Like it was,
it really was something to see him have that kind
of career. You talk about pillars of the sport, it's
Barry Melrose, right? Because you're right, the two people, not
(27:37):
even a Mount Rushmore, just a Mount Two person, it's
Don Cherry and it's Barry. And it's probably Grapes just
staring at Melrose, like his fist in front of him,
and Barry Melrose just looking back at him with his
hair just flying in the wind. That would be the thing.
But that's it.
Speaker 3 (27:52):
You had Don Cherry in his suits. And, you know,
he said some things through the years. And then you've
got the mullet on the other side. That is one
hell of a Mount Rushmore.
Speaker 1 (28:01):
Yeah, the suits and the mullet. Suits and the mullet.
That's what it was. It was awesome. Rest in peace,
Barry Melrose, 70 years old.
Speaker 2 (28:07):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at 10 p.m. Eastern, 7 p.m. Pacific.
Speaker 1 (28:14):
Fox Sports Radio, the Jason Smith Show with my best friend,
Mike Harmon.
Speaker 2 (28:18):
Well-dressed hobo.
Speaker 1 (28:19):
You miss any of today's show, be sure to catch
the podcast. Just search Jason Smith and Mike Harmon wherever
you get your podcasts. Follow the podcast, rate it five stars,
provide a review. Again, just search Jason Smith and Mike
Harmon wherever you get your podcasts. You'll find today's full
show and a best-of version posted right after we get
off the air. Well, as we like to say, sometimes
(28:40):
it doesn't matter if the game is good. It just
matters that the game is close. And we have a
now close game. Wednesday night football. It was all Patriots.
The Seahawks could do nothing right. Sam Darnold's injury. He's
knocked out of the game early with a hip injury.
He has not come back. Drew Locke is gone the
rest of the way, a quarterback for Seattle. Meanwhile, A.J. Brown,
(29:02):
an ankle injury at least. He left the game earlier,
likely not coming back as well. So it was a
nice 10-0 lead for New England. They're probably thinking, hey,
we just got to kind of hang out and we're
good and we're going to just extend this game and
just continue to play defense and go on and win.
Drew Locke finally is able to get the team in
field goal position. They get a field goal, and now
(29:23):
it is tied at 10 apiece after an interception. Everybody's
favorite fantasy wide receiver decides to say, listen, just pass
to me as close to the line of scrimmage as possible,
and I'll do the rest. Mike Tirico, NBC on the call.
(29:49):
JSN just catches a nice little hitch a few yards
off the line of scrimmage. Picks his way through the
rest of the secondary. He goes in for the touchdown.
The extra point ties the game at 10 apiece. And
all of a sudden... JSN goes from, man, he's killing
me in fantasy. He's only worth like nine points now. Oh,
(30:10):
now he's 111 in the touchdown. Why does he keep
throwing it to Cooper Cup? What the hell?
Speaker 3 (30:14):
Even with that touchdown that got wiped out earlier, like, hey,
this is the guy that he's targeting.
Speaker 1 (30:19):
It was a fourth and one call. Yeah. Complete sellout, right?
Speaker 3 (30:23):
You fake a little bit to swing out to the
running back, but JSN's.
Speaker 1 (30:28):
All by himself.
Speaker 3 (30:29):
Absolute jailbreak by the Patriots, lets him sit down, and
then you got defensive linemen trying to chase him down.
Speaker 1 (30:36):
For those final 20 yards. Not going to happen. I mean, look,
now that's the big play, obviously, because that ties the
game and turns it into something new. But for all
of the talk, we wonder, like, how's this team going
to be without Sam Darnold in the long haul? Like,
I mean, who knows? Who knows how long he's out for?
Hopefully it's just the rest of the game tonight and
they're being careful. You've got 12 days until your next game.
(31:00):
But this defense looks like it has just picked up
right where it left off last year. And they seem
to be doing the same kind of things they did
in the Super Bowl. You're seeing blitzes coming from the
slot and Drake May being forced outside. and being able
to move him out where he's not in a comfort zone.
He hasn't really been in a comfort zone most of
(31:22):
the night. And look, they've held the Patriots down the
entire second half. May threw a pick that allowed the
Seahawks to get that last touchdown. He has just been
picked off again, throwing into double coverage. Now the Seahawks
have the ball. They are in business against the Patriots.
Nine and a half to go. I mean, we come
(31:44):
off that last year and go, man, the defense in
the NFL, how great the Seahawks were, how great the
Broncos were. But sometimes it's tough to bring that great
defense from year to year when you have defections. It's
easier to keep an offense humming as long as your
quarterback is back, you're bringing the right receivers back. But
sometimes defense is difficult because sometimes hey, this defensive tackle left,
(32:04):
or hey, they're really up to our scheme. They know
what we like to do now. They know where we
like to blitz from. But so far tonight, this is
a Super Bowl team that the Seahawks defense looks like
we are picking up right where we left off against
this team eight months ago.
Speaker 3 (32:17):
And you're missing a couple of safeties, right? Eamon Warrie's
not playing tonight, one of the big absences here. I
like that you're doing the finger counting to make sure.
Speaker 1 (32:25):
Well, that's eight months ago.
Speaker 2 (32:27):
That was good.
Speaker 1 (32:27):
Eight months from the Super Bowl to now. Yeah, okay,
very good.
Speaker 3 (32:29):
You had a massive drop along the sideline that would
have been about a 40-yard gain by Dobbs. Instead, it
goes off his hands. which leads to the next play
where Douglas falls down, allowing Love to come over the
top for the interception.
Speaker 1 (32:43):
I mean, that was, you talk about this game in
two plays, like that should have been a near 40-yard completion.
But he just, he's got it. Like, Dobbs has it.
It's like he tries to turn before he secures the ball,
and he drops it, and then the next play you see,
not a great play throwing into that double coverage, but clearly,
(33:04):
you know, Douglas falling down made the interception easier, but... Again,
not a great decision. I'm sure there's some frustration with
Drake May and the Patriots' offense not being able to
do anything. But, wow, you look at this drop, and
you can just see that Dobbs just took his eye
off the ball. As soon as it touched his hand,
he was looking upfield before he secured it. And, I mean,
you're talking about a 40-yard play and then an interception.
(33:25):
We talk about field position getting flipped. That's a huge
flip right there. Absolutely huge.
Speaker 3 (33:31):
Now on the plus side of the 50 as Drew Locke.
and the Seahawks take possession.
Speaker 1 (33:37):
That's where we're sitting right now. Again, the Seahawks with
the football. 10-10, just over nine minutes left to go,
and all of a sudden, you look at the numbers
for Drew Locke, and they don't look that bad. Granted,
he's only throwing the ball like two yards past the
line of scrimmage.
Speaker 2 (33:52):
Hey, you know what?
Speaker 1 (33:53):
Scheme it up yeah 13 out of 17 for a
buck 56 and a touchdown and hey it looked like
a 50 yard bomb in the box score but still
he's doing what he needs to do getting a little
more comfortable with the more reps he's had here and
now the offense is looking a little bit more recognizable.
Speaker 3 (34:09):
Scheme him to get open and then you look at
price and hulani will be big here in these final
eight minutes.
Speaker 1 (34:15):
So again, doesn't have to be great, just has to
be close. We have more on the Seahawks and the
Patriots and other big NFL news ahead of week one
coming up next. Jason and Mike, Fox Sports Radio.
Hosts And Creators
Jason Smith
Mike Harmon
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