December 24, 2025 • 40 mins
Jason Fitz & Buck Reising, in for Jason Smith and Mike Harmon, talk about the suddenly awful slate of NFL football on Christmas Day, if the NBA has a chance to take the day back, the Chiefs move to Kansas and the Bears possible move to Indiana, and more!
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Episode Transcript
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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
ten pm to two am Eastern seven to eleven pm
Pacific on Fox Sports Radio. Find your local station for
The Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon at Foxsports Radio
dot com, or stream us live every night on the
iHeartRadio app by searching FSR.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
If you're listening to Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 3 (00:28):
They spend months working on the perfect NFL schedule, they
spend weeks hyping it. I want to remind everybody we
will know on the very last day of the regular
season every single opponent. And despite the fact that we'll
know every single opponent home and away for every single team,
we will still flock to a wildly unnecessary multi hour
special in the middle of spring to tell us the
(00:50):
NFL schedule. And one of the biggest days of that schedule,
for sure, was bound to be Christmas Day with three
games on Netflix. And just when you thought the NFL
could do no wrong, they end up with three matchups
that look tragically bad. What does it mean for the
future of Christmas football? It's bucket rising, bucket rising, good lord,
(01:11):
it's fucking fits I've given him ball.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
That's fine, that's fine. There we go, That's there we go.
I try that all again.
Speaker 3 (01:16):
He's Buck Rising, got Jason Fitz We're in for Jason
Smith and Mike Harmon all the way up until two
am Eastern.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
I'll be honest, you know, Buck, I had my first
energy drink in like a month right before we did this.
So things could get rude, things could get bubbly.
Speaker 4 (01:32):
I bubbly, you know what at this at this point
in the in the calendar, at this point in the
holiday season, as we get ready for all of the
fun that is gonna or if you've already started the fun,
whether you're celebrating Hanika, whether you're celebrating Christmas, whatever you're celebrating,
I think bubbly is the appropriate tone. I could do
a little bubbly. Also, you're a hater. You're a hater.
(01:54):
There's nothing wrong with these games. These games are perfect.
These games. These games are beautifully, beautifully disgusting.
Speaker 5 (02:01):
In what I'm looking forward to.
Speaker 4 (02:03):
I just watched the Chiefs third string quarterback come to
Nashville and lose a game twenty six to nine to
the Tennessee Titans, who are a three and twelve football team. Okay,
I want that for America. I sat through that on
Sunday afternoon in week sixteen. I am built for this.
Jason Fitz, I cover the Tennessee Titans. I haven't covered
(02:23):
a meaningful game and at least three and a half seasons.
I am built for this kind of football. I can't
wait for the rest of you to have to sink
into it with me.
Speaker 5 (02:33):
On Christmas Day's going to beautiful.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
You're putting this out to the world like I'm the villain,
Like I'm coming in and everything's bad. And if you
break down what you just said, what you just said
is I have to watch terrible football. So I can't
wait for everybody to join me in those same murky waters.
Like that's not the hero's mindset. You're not coming in
hoping everybody gets great football. You're just hoping everybody is
(02:57):
as miserable on Christmas Day as you are every single
week covering the Titans. Is I am every single week
watching my beloved Raiders. You are hoping for shared misery.
That is that that's the most grit. You are the Grench.
You are beginning of the special Yeah hours or we're
(03:18):
coming down from Mount Crumpet.
Speaker 4 (03:20):
It's actually Nissan Stadium down the road in Nashville, Tennessee,
where I'm hanging out this evening or sliding down the hill.
You're my You're my reindeer. Will strap Uh, you know
mac Antler, You're Max. We're gonna strap an ant ant well,
an elk Antler, that's what I'm looking for.
Speaker 5 (03:39):
Onto your head.
Speaker 4 (03:39):
We're gonna ride down this mountain and we're gonna just
deliver the gift of terrible, terrible football to America.
Speaker 5 (03:47):
I can't wait.
Speaker 4 (03:48):
Six eight and one Cowboys a tie on that record
versus Marcus Mariota and the Washington Commanders at four to eleven.
Speaker 5 (03:56):
Uh, it's a Christmas miracle.
Speaker 4 (03:59):
It's a feace, a spectacularly fecal feast of football on
Christmas Day.
Speaker 5 (04:06):
Congratulations, Netflix, you got what you paid for.
Speaker 3 (04:09):
A spectacularly fecal feast. Is the best thing you have
ever said in the history of radio.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
That is spectaculars.
Speaker 5 (04:17):
I couldn't get elka Antler out of my mouth fast enough.
Speaker 3 (04:20):
I do like the thought of little ant Antler, so
like little tiny ants got a little tiny Antlers. The
irony of all of this is I'm calling you the
Grinch while I'm literally sitting here in a Grinch hoodie. Okay,
you've come in in all black and you're just like
morning the Christmas season. I'm here in a Grinch hoodie.
I just took off my root off the reindeer hat.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
Like you know.
Speaker 3 (04:39):
The dichotomy of what the two of us are bringing
to this, it's wildly different. You are the Grinch at
the beginning of the special. I'm the Grinch at the
end of the special. I wanted everybody to get Dallas
versus Washington, where it was this meaningful game and Jayden
Daniels was gonna go out and be the best of himself.
I want everybody to get Detroit, Minnesota, where we're sitting
here saying could this before the division in it's Is
(05:01):
this the week that we finally leave Detroit for dead?
And even the last game to your point, Denver in
Kansas City, Oh, there's no way that's a bad game.
Until we're sitting around saying, wait, who's the quarterback for Kansas?
This is like the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, the
Holy Trinity in honor of Christmas, of just a sea
of suck all in one day of games.
Speaker 4 (05:20):
Don't you talk about Chris so Lodocoon like that. Don't
you talk about that man that way. That man's a
professional athlete. He played NFL quarterback on Sunday.
Speaker 5 (05:29):
I watched it. I know I was there. It was glorious.
Speaker 4 (05:32):
I can't wait, I can't wait. I was looking forward
to the Gardner Minshew experience and fincy. That might have
been the highlight of my year to see Gardner Minshew
go out there and sling it, and instead he gets
like a well, I guess it's not technically an ACL tear, right,
that's the reporting around it.
Speaker 5 (05:46):
They've shut him down for the season anyway. But it's the.
Speaker 4 (05:49):
Third play of the game. The third play of the game,
Gardner Minshew blows his knee in some form or fashion,
and then we are given that for the remainder of
the process where the Chiefs fall to six and nine.
But like, in all seriousness, okay, Netflix once in on
the NFL. The NFL wants it on Christmas Day. Everybody
(06:09):
is getting what they wanted in this particular situation. It's
just so happens that in this year where we are
doing this really for the first time, right, we had
Christmas Netflix games last year. I think it went reasonably well.
What was it the Ravens and the Texans at the time.
I think the Chiefs were also a part of it.
I can't remember the exact games that we got on
(06:30):
Netflix last year. But the streamers, I mean, did you
see that who just picked up the right to stream
the Oscars? The Oscars are no longer going to be
on ABC for the first time. This it's like going
to be in nineteen seventies YouTube, right, the streamers one
in on live rights. Okay, this is a part of
the pivot that we're all going to make. It just
(06:50):
so happens in this year where Netflix has a full
slate of Christmas NFL games, that all of these teams
except for the Broncos, who, by the way, just cut
their acts, just got their teeth kicked in by the
Jacksonville Jaguars in ways that I didn't think anybody expected
this past Sunday.
Speaker 5 (07:08):
So they're reeling even a little bit.
Speaker 4 (07:10):
And frankly, they don't play a very aesthetically pleasing style
of football. So the best team on Netflix is the Broncos,
and even then you have some questions about them.
Speaker 5 (07:19):
These games, these.
Speaker 4 (07:20):
Games were done they did the deals for these games
far in advance. This just so happened to be a
very unlucky situation where if you looked at these games
at the start of the year, like you said, when
the NFL schedule is distributed, you would have said, that's awesome.
That is going to be a full day, an actual
football feast like Thanksgiving Day is. That's basically what they're creating.
(07:43):
They're creating a second version, a second institution of football
and family holidays.
Speaker 5 (07:49):
Right. They can't get enough of it.
Speaker 4 (07:50):
They can't get enough of us after we've stuffed our
faces sitting in front of the television and watching their
product for hours on end. They had the right idea.
It's just everything fell apart. I mean, think about the
trajectories of these six teams.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
Honestly, it's the cost is what is the standard?
Speaker 3 (08:09):
Like Netflix paid according to Google, about one hundred and
fifty million bucks for these two games on Christmas Day,
So about seventy five million bucks a day a game
is what they paid for.
Speaker 5 (08:19):
The problem They've got three games.
Speaker 3 (08:21):
They've got two. Amazon Prime has the third one. Oh
I'm sorry, yeah, so about seventy five million bucks per
game is what Netflix. Netflix paid the NFL. Now, that
doesn't include the talent that they're putting in, the studio,
cost that they're putting in the production.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
All of the other things.
Speaker 3 (08:36):
So you're going to quickly get into that that eighty
ninety million dollar range per game that they paid to
get eyeballs on Netflix specifically all day.
Speaker 5 (08:47):
Right.
Speaker 3 (08:47):
And one of the things that truly makes this portion
of broadcasting the NFL very interesting is that on any
given Sunday, as you and I know, if it's a
bad game, most people just flip to another one, right,
Like in a red zone world, more people are watching
Red Zone on Sunday than you know, sitting there watching
if it's a terrible game, like the Giants Raiders game
(09:08):
for the first pick in the draft, which I'm anxiously
waiting on Sunday, most people aren't gonna sit there and
watch all of that game.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
They're gonna flip through or they're gonna look at it
for a minute or two.
Speaker 3 (09:17):
This day because it's three standalone games and they're on
standalone platforms, becomes sort of a You've got to make
a conscious decision to go to Netflix, and then once
you're in Netflix, you're stuck in Netflix as opposed to
just like I'm gonna flip around and see what else
is on I'm gonna multi view this thing. You're not
gonna have any of those options. I do think it's
because I still think the number is gonna crush. Look
(09:38):
at Jake Paul fight. That wasn't worth the dam pulled
thirty three million viewers according to that, but it was.
Speaker 5 (09:44):
Worth it to see him get his job broke. It
was worth it.
Speaker 3 (09:47):
Is that why everybody thirty three million people just wanted
to watch him get his ask kick?
Speaker 2 (09:50):
Was that the big I've had.
Speaker 5 (09:51):
Those people just wanted to see him get his ass kick.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
One hundred percent. And now so they get the thirty
three million views.
Speaker 3 (09:57):
I don't know exactly how they calculate what counts his
view on Netflix all these things, but they report thirty
three million views. I'm sure they're still gonna put up
wild numbers for this, but it is interesting to me,
Like I do think there is a little bit of
a proof of concept on what happens when it's not
your starting quarterbacks, because even on broadcast TV in the past,
we've seen ratings dip when it's lesser names at the
(10:19):
quarterback position, Like this is a natural thing. When we
get to week eighteen, nobody's watching. If there's that fantasy
going on, there's not as much gambling going on, you're
dealing with third string quarterbacks. The overall interest feels like
it dies off a little bit in that week seventeen
eighteen range.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
For a lot of teams.
Speaker 3 (10:33):
I don't know what it means for Netflix that they're
gonna have standalone must log in, must watch it here.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
Oh, and by the way, the game's gonna suck.
Speaker 5 (10:42):
I mean, does it have to mean anything? Honestly?
Speaker 4 (10:44):
Like they took a swing on their return to watch though,
Like do you think I'm gonna watch?
Speaker 5 (10:50):
What?
Speaker 4 (10:50):
Am I gonna watch? What would I watch instead of
the NBA?
Speaker 5 (10:54):
No? Come on, I mean it's.
Speaker 2 (10:56):
Fine, that's my great point. That's the bread question.
Speaker 5 (11:00):
I feel like, I don't know.
Speaker 4 (11:01):
Maybe it's just because of the part of the country
that I live in in in the Southeast, the only
thing that matters in a consequential way of football, Like
I would probably watch ball games over the NBA. And
that's and that's like, and I'm a basketball fan, like
I love college I love college basketball. I'm not necessarily
out on the NBA or anything like that.
Speaker 5 (11:18):
But I didn't.
Speaker 4 (11:19):
I I don't want to complain about things like the
NBA Cup because I didn't watch the NBA Cup. You
know what I'm saying. It wasn't a draw for me.
I heard for people who did seek it out that
they felt like it was an interesting thing to have
a game with stakes and for the Knicks to kind
of have a big moment the way that they did.
Speaker 5 (11:34):
It's like, these.
Speaker 4 (11:35):
These things are these things have I think an appeal
to maybe some some sports fans out there, But for
the most part, aren't people just gonna want want to
watch football, Like, even if it's bad football, we watch football.
That's just what it is. So there's nothing scientific about it.
(11:57):
I don't think that it's going to have such a
massive packed on their subscribers, for example, the way that
they wanted it to. But if you have Netflix, as
the vast majority of US do, I would imagine I
don't know what the percentage of the country that has
a Netflix account or who's sharing a Netflix account or
whatever that looks like right now, but I'm assuming that
if people have access to football, they'll just throw on
the football game. They don't have to pay that close
(12:18):
attention to it. It could just be background. Noers, for
God's sakes, that's all the NFL cares about.
Speaker 2 (12:23):
Yeah, one hundred percent.
Speaker 3 (12:24):
And look, I think that's what According to a quick
Google search here, sixty four percent.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
Of US households have access to Netflix right now.
Speaker 5 (12:32):
You're right.
Speaker 3 (12:33):
I think at the end of the day, everybody's gonna
flock to it. The question is what's it mean for
the NBA. We'll answer that on the other side. Because
Christmas Day for years was all about the NBA, and
now it's not. Is there an actual opportunity to get
everybody back on board with Christmas Day being a day
for the NBA.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
We'll answer that question for you. Next, he's Buck Rising.
I'm Jason Fitz.
Speaker 6 (12:53):
We're hanging out with you on Fox Sports Radio. Be
sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith Show
with Mike Harmon weekdays on PM Eastern seven pm Pacific
on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
Pally Fools Go Ahead with Tony Fosco.
Speaker 6 (13:08):
Yeah.
Speaker 7 (13:08):
As everybody knows, we're the hosts of the award winning
Polly and Tony Foodsco Show.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
Yeah, but instead of us telling you how great we are.
Speaker 7 (13:14):
Here's how Dan Fackrick described us when he came on
our show.
Speaker 4 (13:17):
Quick, knowledgeable and funny, opinionated.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
What are you doing interrupting our promo? Yeah, you wasn't
talking about you.
Speaker 6 (13:25):
You took those clips totally out of context.
Speaker 7 (13:28):
Oh yeah, well after this promo, I'm gonna take you
out and beat you.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
Let me put this into context. Shut up.
Speaker 7 (13:35):
Yeah, anyway, just listening to the Polly and Tony Fosco
Show on iHeartRadio, Apple podcasts O wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 3 (13:41):
Yea, it's a Jason Smith show with Mike Harmon on
Fox Sports Radio. But it's a Bucking Fitz takeover Buck Rising.
I'm Jason Fitz hanging out with you. Be sure to
check out our brand new YouTube channel.
Speaker 2 (13:53):
For the show.
Speaker 3 (13:53):
Just search Jason Smith's Show on YouTube again. That's Jason
Smith Show. Be sure to hit the subscribe button. Tune
don't stop there, hit that thumbs up icon.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
Comment away.
Speaker 3 (14:03):
Let us know which of you would go, Which takes
you like, which takes you don't go? Check out a
brand new channel on YouTube again. Just search Jason Smith's
show and subscribe. You know, don't count us against the boys, though,
you know, it's just come at us, that's all I say.
At Buck Rising, at Jason Fitz that's razing. I mean,
just like, you know, come up me, bro. There we go, uh,
(14:24):
never not making it any better. All right, let's the
other side of the Christmas equation. We were just talking
about how bad the Christmas Day games are for the NFL,
and here here's the weird thing. Like this is where
the NBA, I think, should be livid that these games
are on streaming services, not on terrestrial TV. Because if
the NFL games we're on YouTube TV. For example, when
I wake up on Christmas Day around noon, I could
(14:47):
open up YouTube and it would just give me a
dou a box right like it automatically would tell me, hey,
we're gonna put the basketball game in the football game together.
Can't do that though, when we're talking about games that
are on streaming platforms instead. So the NBA, which for
a generation owned Christmas Day, I think this year could
have had an actual opportunity to try and win back
some of Christmas Day. And that feels like it's lost
(15:10):
only because you still, like, if you decide you're going
to watch football, you literally then can't watch the Christmas
Day games unless you bring a second TV in, which
feels like it's not likely to happen. So even though
they've given us what they feel like a marquee matchups,
every single person that chooses to watch the NFL on
Christmas Day simply won't be able to watch the NBA
(15:33):
unless they have a second TV altogether.
Speaker 5 (15:36):
Which you know is not outside the relevant possibility.
Speaker 4 (15:39):
I'm sure there are some people that your family holiday celebration.
Speaker 5 (15:42):
That would probably frown upon the idea of.
Speaker 4 (15:44):
Just plastering the wall with multiple screens while Grandma is
trying to present you with the knit sweater that she
got you for Christmas, or whatever the case may be.
Speaker 5 (15:54):
So I don't know if it's quite that that all.
Speaker 4 (15:58):
In on Christmas Day, though I'm sure there be some
degenerates out there wagering whatever was in their Christmas cards
this year on all of these games, as many games
as they can get, whether they be Bowl games, NBA games,
or the NFL. I So, I wonder how you look
at these matchups and you would say, like, even if
(16:19):
you're not dialed in to regular season NBA basketball, and
admittedly I am not somebody at this time of the
year while football season is still going on, that is
dialed into NBA basketball. But if you told me that
I would be getting these kind of matchups, the Knicks
and the Calves, You've got the Golden State Warriors and
the Mavericks. You've got the Lakers and the Rockets, the
(16:40):
Nuggets and the Timberwolves, if you told me, and obviously
the Thunder and the Spurs, which is always going to
be a drawn. And even if you're not paying that
close attention to the NBA, you know that the Thunder
are an absolute wagon again and they are potentially one
of the best teams that we've ever seen in modern
basketball with the way with the rate that they can
continue to win at objectively, if I didn't have the
(17:05):
option of football fitsie, I'd say, yeah, I'm in on that.
That will be one of the days during the football
season where I sit down and I watch basketball, because
my preference would be football in those situations, even if
the football's bad. But I'm not gonna turn my nose
up at some of those matchups. I'm gonna enjoy that.
I'll see where these teams are, I'll check in and
(17:26):
then maybe a couple, you know, a couple of weeks
from now, I'll have another day where I watch a
full slate of basketball and be like, oh, okay, that
was fun.
Speaker 5 (17:34):
I might do that more often. I don't know if
I would or not, but.
Speaker 4 (17:37):
That was always my Christmas Day relationship with the NBA.
Like that's what's on, I'm gonna watch it. I'll enjoy
it because it's pro sports, and you know, you got
time to kind of sink into it a little bit.
If I've got football, though, even bad football, I'm gonna
watch football.
Speaker 2 (17:54):
That's the thing that I think.
Speaker 3 (17:56):
That's just blatant honesty, right, And the fact is I
do for you out Who' sports Daly. We talk a
lot of NBA, so I've had my head in a
lot of this already. But what's interesting is that, you know,
Cleveland's not any good, but it's against the Knicks, so
that would be a draw, right, Like Golden State's not
really good this year and Dallas is trying to figure
it out, but it's Cooper flag Golden State. That should
(18:16):
be a draw, Like we would see that, Like, I'm
not sure. Once the Lakers started playing the meat of
their schedule, they were actually any good. And let's see
how they compete against Houston. Fine, the one game that
actually is like Wenby versus Oklahoma City coming off of
San Antonio taking down Oklahoma City in the NBA Cup.
Speaker 2 (18:33):
Okay, SE's only lost three games all year. That's the thing.
That's the thing, And I just keep looking and say, well,
what's he gonna take?
Speaker 3 (18:39):
What does it take to have a transformative, oh my
god moment you know where everybody stops.
Speaker 2 (18:44):
And pays attention to it.
Speaker 3 (18:45):
And frankly, I've said this to you before book, but
I do. I blame the entire cycle of the way
we cover the NBA for why the NBA is meaningless,
Because every former NBA player that sits up on first
take and says, well, only matters how many championships you Okay,
every time we sit there and we listen to a
barbershop debate of the greatness of any two players in
a second, there's only about the championships you want. Every
(19:07):
time we see a young team rise, I don't care
until I've seen it in the playoffs. We've spent ten
years at least shaping all of these narratives about what
truly means something in the NBA, and every one of
those narratives has actually devalued. Like I said it, even
when I worked at ESPN for years, if we as
a brand partner to the NBA at the time, if
(19:27):
I spend most of my shows saying the only thing
that matters is the playoffs in the championship, how am
I supposed to make a random Tuesday night game in
December actually matter to anybody other than gamblers and the assos.
Speaker 2 (19:38):
It can't.
Speaker 4 (19:40):
Yeah, And a part of that, FITZI and I don't
you know, It's not like you can't just decide that
you're gonna start caring about something that way. But I
feel like I am not even consciously doing that, doing
the thing that you've just described, which is like.
Speaker 5 (19:56):
Yeah, it'll matter later in the year, and.
Speaker 4 (19:59):
I'll check back in then and I'll have a great
time watching playoffs and stuff like that. I've almost conditioned
myself because I don't you know, I'm not doing a
national Yahoo show like you are. I'm not talking about
the NBA five days a week you and I do.
I mean, obviously we're on during a weeknight tonight filling
in for the boys, But you and I are on
a weekends. We're spending most of our time reacting college football.
Speaker 5 (20:19):
I'm in the Southeast.
Speaker 4 (20:20):
No big of a damn about the NBA down here
other than the you know, the screaming yell about Lebron
James because they don't like Lebron because of what, you know,
whatever the relationship is with China.
Speaker 5 (20:30):
Like that's the dialogue.
Speaker 4 (20:31):
Around the NBA down here, unless Jaw has a gun
scandal on Instagram and then everybody's paying attention to the Grizzlies.
Like that's just kind of what it is in this
part of the country. So I'm not spending the I'm
not devoting the kind of space that I might otherwise
just have casually to the NBA. I think there's a
whole part of the country that feels that way about
(20:53):
the NBA that has, to your point, been so conditioned
from hearing people say, well, the regular season doesn't actually
there's too many games. Okay, then I'm just not going
to spend my time with it. I've got other things,
for God's sakes. I'll throw on an episode of Player
of Us if I want to before before I start
in on an NBA regular season game. Just in terms
of the pecking order, because I feel like I've been
(21:15):
conditioned to think that it doesn't actually matter right now.
Speaker 3 (21:21):
It's fair it doesn't, and I think the only way
it matters is when you see something you've never seen before.
So Wemby, I think, starts to become a sensation because
we've never seen somebody with his level of athleticism and
size shoot from where he shoots from right, So like
that's a thing We're all gonna pay attention to.
Speaker 2 (21:38):
Wemby.
Speaker 3 (21:38):
That's why I'm long since convinced that the best thing
that could happen to the NBA right now, not maybe
long term, but right now is Okay Seeds turning around
and going on the type of run we've never seen before.
Just absolutely crushing Golden State's all time wins record in
the season, Crush the Red, don't lose a single game
in the postseason, go win a championship with a roster
that's wildly young, and make everybody turn around and say,
(22:00):
oh my god, look at how young these guys are.
Speaker 2 (22:02):
This gonna be my favorite team.
Speaker 3 (22:03):
Like I do believe in ten years, fans will walk
around wearing Oklahoma City Thunder jerseys. Then the way they
walk around with Warriors jerseys. Now, I'm old enough to
remember when nobody gave a damn about Golden State, right,
I think all of these things can happen. I don't
know how you make it happen like this is where
the NFL was just so brilliant, because wildly, if these
games that were only okay were put on Fox, NBC,
(22:27):
and CBS on Christmas Day, I do think that we
would see better ratings for the NBA than we expected,
and maybe slightly lower ratings for the NFL. But your
point is a valid one for most of the country,
particularly right now. Man, nobody gives it damn about basketball
like they want to watch a football game.
Speaker 4 (22:43):
Well, and I just I don't know when that happened
like that. And again, I'm just running this through my prism.
I know that I probably don't speak for the vast
majority of people that are listening to us nationwide on
Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 5 (22:55):
I understand that.
Speaker 4 (22:55):
I'm just approaching this in the best way that I
can to explain why the hell I would put on
an eight and seven Lions team against a seven and
eight Vikings team instead of watching whatever NBA game is.
Speaker 5 (23:06):
On at the exact same time. Now.
Speaker 4 (23:08):
The thing that I will agree with you on absolutely
is that Wembin Yama versus the Thunder, an incredible team
that plays such a perfect style of team basketball with
a superstar in their own with several stars in their
own right, versus the kind of player that almost doesn't
have a precedent with the way that he plays, the
(23:29):
style that he plays, with the physical traits that just
he wows you, right, he wows you every time you
see him out there, whether it be highlights, whether you're
watching actual Spurs games, whatever the case may be. I
need something transcendent to refixate me on the NBA, if
that makes sense, and when Ben Yama, frankly and the
(23:49):
Thunder have the ability to do that, I just don't
know if if everybody else has caught up to how
spectacular that that.
Speaker 5 (23:58):
What they're watching is.
Speaker 4 (23:59):
I mean, you and I talked about this with when
the Pacers and the Thunder were in the finals and
some of the we knew that the ratings were going
to be what they were, right, and we understand the
kind of market size and all these I mean, there's
a million different factors as to why people weren't as
dialed in on that. I just think that for example,
okay see is just going to have to win at
a rate that is so outrageous, which they are currently
(24:20):
doing to continue basically to force people's attention in that spot.
Speaker 3 (24:24):
I mean, at the end of the day, all of
these are like great Batman movies. You have to have
a perfect Batman. You have to have a perfect villain.
You need a joker, you need a Batman. You need
the good and the bad all to come together at once.
Steve Disager, get us updated and on what's going on
right now across the landscape of the scoreboard, and then
we'll get more into it after the break.
Speaker 8 (24:43):
All right, we'll start with the NFL. The two game
suspension of Steelers wide receiver DK Metcalf was upheld. He
had appealed. He loses two game checks and reportedly forty
five million dollars in future guarantees in his contract. The
two game suspension of Chargers linebacker Denzel Paraman was also
so upheld. The Cardinals signed former Rams kicker Joshua Carty.
(25:03):
Buffalo tried out three kickers but did not sign any
of them. Today, starter Matt Prater still has a quad injury.
Bill's quarterback Josh Allen says he will play this weekend
despite the foot injury. Cleveland running back quin Shawn Jugkins
had surgery on his broken leg and dislocated ankle. The
Browns officially will not activate quarterback to Shaun Watson this year.
He had a second achilles surgery last January and has
(25:26):
one year left on that guaranteed contract. The Ravens listed
quarterback Lamar Jackson with his bruise back as a non
participant on today's practice report. The Colts will start quarterback
Philip Rivers again, with Riley Leonard as backup. The Jets
play quarterback Justin Fields on ir with his knee injury.
Quarterback JJ McCarthy of the Vikings will miss the Christmas
(25:47):
game against the Lions. He has a hairline fracture in
his right hand, fourth injury in his two years there.
Rookie quarterback Max Brosmer will start, and quarterback Brett Rippon
was claimed off waivers by Minnesota from the Colts. Lions
running back David Montgomery did not practice today due to illness.
Washington quarterback Marcus Mariota missed another walk through due to
hand and quad injuries. The Commander's host Dallas on Christmas.
(26:11):
Green Bay starting quarterback Jordan Love was limited at practice.
He's still in concussion protocol, and his backup QB Malik
Willis was limited with a sore shoulder. Patriots running back
Traveon Henderson is in concussion protocol, as is wide receiver
Kashawn Woody and running back Kimani Vidella. The Chargers missed
practice with a neck injury. The Chargers host the Texans
(26:32):
this Saturday. Chargers running back Jared Patterson was activated three
college football bowl games, including the late one now at halftime.
This is in Frisco, Texas. It's Ohio U six nothing
over UNLV Louisville beat Toledo and the Boca Raton Bowl
twenty seven to twenty two. Western Kentucky with two touchdowns
(26:54):
in the last eight minutes, beat Southern Miss twenty seven
sixteen at the New Orleans Bowl. Hawaii hosts the Hawaii
Bow on Christmas Eve against Cal Wednesday night. In the NBA,
Dallas has beaten Denver one thirty one to one thirty
Cooper flag thirty three points. Cleveland got twenty seven from
Donovan Mitchell and dominated New Orleans one forty one to
one eighteen. New Orleans had won five in a row.
(27:16):
Milwaukee sent Indiana to a sixth straight loss, one eleven
to ninety four. Among the games just finishing, Minnesota gets
a win at home over New York one fifteen to
one oh four despite forty points from Karl Anthony Towns,
and in Phoenix not even mid third quarter yet, the
Suns are ripping the Lakers eighty nine to sixty four
(27:37):
for La Luka. Doncicic's out with a bruised calf. Off
the bench. Austin Reeves has returned from injury thirteen points
in fourteen minutes, four fouls, as well. College hoops wins
for Villanova and Saint John's. NHL Detroit in overtime beat
Dallas fourth three.
Speaker 2 (27:53):
Back to you, he's Buck Rising.
Speaker 3 (27:56):
I'm Jason fitz Buckin fitz hanging out with you on
Fox Sports Radio. Guys, Buck, you cover a bad football team.
You get to cover a bad football team every every
single day you cover the tennis.
Speaker 2 (28:07):
Anyone that isn't aware.
Speaker 3 (28:10):
I was just listening to Steve's update, and one of
the things that I think is hysterical is how often
you hear media members fans. Everybody talking about guys just
sitting at the end of the year and like it's
the craziest thing. I made no secrets of the fact
that I'm a fan of a terrible football team in
the Raiders, right and so I see Twitter right now
(28:30):
going absolutely nuts about, well, it's important that.
Speaker 2 (28:33):
The Raiders lose these games. I get it. For me
as a fan, I want the Raiders to have the
first overall pick.
Speaker 3 (28:37):
I understand that there's never going to be a world
where anybody inside those halls is sitting around like none
of the players on the field. Max Crosby isn't suddenly
worried about the Raiders having the first pick. He answered
a question pretty aggressively about that. Geno answered the question
pretty aggressively. You're in the Titans locker room, like, do
you feel like there's a spot here where players are
just sitting around saying, you know what, it's probably better
(28:58):
for our draft pick next year if we don't play.
Speaker 2 (29:00):
So I'm just going to take this week off.
Speaker 4 (29:03):
Never never, I mean, we we've gone through this with
Jeffrey Simmons here locally, who is not quite of I mean, listen,
if you if you haven't seen what Jeff Simmons is
doing this week.
Speaker 5 (29:14):
This is so far this season.
Speaker 4 (29:16):
I understand not a lot of people are watching the
three and twelve Titans football team to watch interior defensive
line play, but just's been awesome.
Speaker 5 (29:23):
Like he's He's.
Speaker 4 (29:24):
Not Miles Garrett, but he is the best interior defensive
lineman in the sport this year, and he's doing it
for a terrible football team. So many times we have
asked him and cam Ward last.
Speaker 5 (29:34):
Year's number one overall pick. I guess technically still this
year's number one overall pick.
Speaker 4 (29:39):
The question of well the fan base wants one thing,
and this was before the Raiders.
Speaker 5 (29:46):
Were clearly and obviously tracking Fitsy. I mean they your
football team.
Speaker 4 (29:49):
WoT that number one overall pick?
Speaker 2 (29:54):
Don't be honest with like they got the Giants this weekend.
I'm not sure. I don't know the Giants are bad too.
Speaker 3 (29:59):
I want to I've never I'm forty eight years old,
I have never rooted for my favorite football team to
lose a football game, truly, never shiver. Ever, I've always said, man, like,
let's be real, I don't even know if I'm gona
be alive next season. I want to see a Raiders win, right, Like,
that's just the way the world works. I want to
see my favorite football team win. Sunday will be the
first time ever that I've sat there and said.
Speaker 2 (30:19):
You know what, might as well lose this one. I'm in,
let's lose. Let's go ahead. I want the first of
all pick. I guess that doesn't fix it.
Speaker 4 (30:26):
That doesn't fix it. The Patriots picked fourth last year,
look at them. Well, the Giants pick third. Look how
much better they are for it. I mean, my god,
it doesn't fix the things as definitively as fans seem
to think that it does.
Speaker 5 (30:40):
It gives you a great chance.
Speaker 3 (30:42):
Well, here's my thing. If I could know right now,
this is my caveat. I think you'll understand this from
my standpoint. If I knew that Dante Moore was also
coming out, Like if Dante Moore had already announced it,
he's coming out. If we had a real indication that
there were at least two quarters in this draft coming out,
then I don't care wherever you pick, You're gonna be fine.
Speaker 2 (31:04):
Like, I really don't believe.
Speaker 3 (31:05):
That there's demonstrable difference between Fernando Mendoza or Dante more
who knows, Like I think it's all crapshoot anyway, in
the draft, I'm just worried that if the Raiders pick second,
they're just not gonna have a shot at a quarterback.
And you're right, picking first doesn't fix anything. I just
don't want to sit here and never have a shot
at a quarterback. And I mean, they rolled the dice
on Geno and he looks washed, so maybe there's another
(31:27):
way to do it. But that's where my that's where
my fear comes from. It's not because I want the
first overall pick because it fixes anything. I don't want
Fernando Mendoza to come into the draft and then Dante
More decides he's not, Ty Simpson decides he's not, and
all of a sudden, maybe the next best quarterback is
Garrett Nesmeyer, like a likely a second or third.
Speaker 2 (31:46):
Round pick, you know what I mean. So I just
want a quarterback, that's why.
Speaker 4 (31:50):
Sure, But I mean and this, you know, this gets
into a deeper fundamental roster building discussion, which most people
in America are. I mean, I don't know about half
the teams in the league at this point. We're not
quite to the point where everybody's been eliminated, and we
don't have the postseason definitively set.
Speaker 5 (32:08):
But a lot of people are thinking about draft to
order as much.
Speaker 4 (32:10):
As they're thinking about postseason football at this point in time.
It doesn't really matter if you draft Fernando Mendoza and
you drop him into a situation like, for example, what
I'm covering right now, which is cam Ward and his
offensive line doesn't get it together until Week sixteen. They
haven't looked like a normal NFL football team until basically the.
Speaker 5 (32:30):
Last three weeks.
Speaker 4 (32:31):
FITZI, that's how long it took for them to be
able to function at an even remotely operable level. And
I mean, I know what the situation is in Vegas
with that offensive line unit. I don't think that Geno's washed.
I think that they have washed him.
Speaker 2 (32:45):
That's fair in my mind.
Speaker 3 (32:46):
When you have one hundred million dollars to spend, hopefully
you can find some of those pieces.
Speaker 2 (32:50):
Look, but I will never question.
Speaker 3 (32:52):
Like if you told me that every single pick for
the Raiders in this year's draft was a fat guy.
Speaker 2 (32:56):
That played on either offensive or defensive line, I'm in.
I'm in on that. I'm in on that totally.
Speaker 3 (33:01):
It's just I think the interesting thing is when you
see guys like like Joe Burrow being asked like is
he gonna play and Bengals fans turning around and say, well,
I don't want to risk his injury.
Speaker 2 (33:10):
Questions about whether or not Dak.
Speaker 3 (33:12):
Was gonna play the last couple of games because they
don't matter for the Cowboys. I just I think we
forget as a society sometimes that this isn't a video game,
Like these are real people that work their whole lives
to get this opportunity to play this sport, and at
the end of the day, they want to play this sport.
That's the thing I think we forget sometimes is that
the draft status, for example, when everybody sits there and says, well,
(33:33):
it's better for our draft. Well, coaches don't know if
they're going to be around next year for that version
of it. Players don't know if they're still gonna be
on the roster, like they do not care what next
year looks like going into Week seventeen. They're paid to
play football. It's what they do, it's what they want
to do, it's what they love to do. I just
I think we should kill the question of why are
they playing that player even though it puts guys like
(33:55):
Burrow at risk for you know, God forbid, there's an
injury that impacts next season. You can't think that way
and run a football organization.
Speaker 5 (34:02):
Well beyond that incentives, like, guys have money they want
to make.
Speaker 4 (34:05):
You know what I'm saying, that's fancy to me.
Speaker 5 (34:09):
I mean, you know, honest to god, I'm sure at
a certain.
Speaker 4 (34:12):
Point, I've covered enough bad football teams at this point
in my life that I know a lot of those
guys would rather just be like, yeah, I'm good, just
let's go let's go ahead and uh and have that
hamstring that's been bothering me. Let's go ahead and have
that shut me down for the foreseeable future. But they've
got you know, they've got tackle incentives to it, They've
got rushing, touchdowns, receptions, all these different things. I think
(34:32):
it's a lovely way to look at it. And I'm
sure there is some level of they are football players,
they want to go out there, but I think a
lot of them are like, yeah.
Speaker 5 (34:40):
Let me get my money and then we can move
on from this whole thing.
Speaker 3 (34:43):
I do think I think, you know, if you play
for business. There's a reason you want to play. If
you play for love of the game, there's a reason
you want to play. I don't think there are many guys,
and if you're hurt, certainly, then it's like, yeah, let's
mail it in. Let's just let's just get I'm not
going to push through something I don't need to push through.
I just think if you're healthy and your coach comes
and says, yeah, we're not gonna play you this week
because we're gonna check out the young guys.
Speaker 2 (35:04):
I think most of the league just sort of rolls
their eyes to that.
Speaker 3 (35:08):
Speaking of rolling their eyes, everybody's rolling their eyes about
news in Kansas City, about the Chiefs in.
Speaker 2 (35:13):
Their future home. We'll tell you about it next.
Speaker 3 (35:15):
He's Buck Rising out Jason Fitz hanging out with you,
Buck and Fits on Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 6 (35:18):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven
pm Pacific.
Speaker 2 (35:25):
God, it really is it just is tell me more. Oh,
he's done, He's done.
Speaker 3 (35:30):
It's the Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon, although it's
neither of them. It's Buck Rising, Jason Tip Fits, Bucking Fits,
hanging out with you on Fox Sports Radio on this
Christmas Adam edition. I had a friend for years in
Nashville whose daughter always called it Christmas Adam because Adam
came before Eve. So Christmas Adam, then Christmas Eve and
then Christmas Day. And it's adorable because it came from
(35:51):
a child. But I've always kept it Christmas Adam. So
a happy Christmas Adam to you. But feel free to
steal that and start using that with the friends.
Speaker 5 (35:57):
No, I don't think I will.
Speaker 2 (36:00):
I didn't even think about it, like. There wasn't even
a thank you so much.
Speaker 5 (36:03):
It was a moment.
Speaker 2 (36:04):
I'm good.
Speaker 4 (36:05):
I don't want It's perfect, okay, an obscure Adam and
Eve referee, thank.
Speaker 2 (36:11):
You so much? All right for the tyrack player of
the day.
Speaker 3 (36:14):
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right tires for how, what and where they drive.
Speaker 2 (36:19):
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Speaker 3 (36:20):
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with convenient installation options like mobile tire installation tirack dot
com the way tire buying should be.
Speaker 6 (36:29):
Let's check it out, Davis, he's feeling it with six
to shoot.
Speaker 2 (36:32):
Here comes to.
Speaker 9 (36:33):
Double from Jokics out to flag three to shoot top
of the York three, huge three pointer, a season high
four three point shot, his third game of thirty or
more this year.
Speaker 3 (36:47):
Cooper fag having yet another big moment there for him.
So congratulations on that. That's a Tirak play of the
day happening for you.
Speaker 2 (36:55):
Hanging out. He's Buck Rising. I'm Jason Fitz.
Speaker 5 (36:57):
We're gotcha, guard.
Speaker 2 (36:59):
I was looking for the see I was talling.
Speaker 4 (37:00):
For ninety seven point one the Eagle, Mavericks Radio Network.
Speaker 2 (37:05):
Look at that ninety seven point one the Eagle. There
we go.
Speaker 3 (37:08):
Look at you that Buck. That's called great teamwork. I
appreciate that. We've got great teamwork happening right now. Terrible
segue between the State of Kansas, all right and the
Kansas City Chiefs.
Speaker 2 (37:20):
Here's yeah, here's a little geography.
Speaker 4 (37:24):
I'm not being a very good teammate to you, to
be honest with you. He came out with the Christmas
Adam thing. I shot you down. I dead fished you,
all right, that's dead fish. I wanted to you know,
I'm giving you a hard time, but I swear, buddy,
I'm here for you for the next Yeah, it's three hours.
Speaker 5 (37:41):
I'm here for you.
Speaker 2 (37:42):
All right.
Speaker 3 (37:43):
Look, but we're gonna this show is going to see
Christmas Adam turn it into Christmas Eve.
Speaker 2 (37:47):
I'm gonna need a little bit more.
Speaker 3 (37:48):
Holly and a hell of a lot more jolly out
of you. All Right, you've already got the fat man
of the beard. I just need you to bring in
a little bit. Only immediate look on his.
Speaker 2 (37:58):
Face made it worth it. The entire setup was absolutely we.
Speaker 5 (38:02):
Were in Connecticut.
Speaker 4 (38:03):
I would take this red pen and thank you, stake
it somewhere.
Speaker 2 (38:08):
I'm like everybody on Twitter, I'm a keyboard warrior right now.
Because you can't. You can't do it anything. You can't
dek me all.
Speaker 10 (38:15):
Right, Uh, as I mentioned, uh, the Kansas City Chiefs
are moving to Kansas because Kansas City Chiefs Arrowhead is
in Missouri.
Speaker 2 (38:26):
Now. In full disclosure, here I was.
Speaker 3 (38:29):
I was hosting Yahoo Sports Daily the other day in
Carolyn Fenton, my co host is from Saint Louis, and
she laughed when we were like.
Speaker 2 (38:37):
Wow, that's a big deal.
Speaker 3 (38:37):
She laughed because she's like, look, the city of Kansas City,
part of it is in Kansas and part of it
is in Missouri. Like this, this these are two neighboring places.
In a level like we hear, oh my god, they're moving,
not really moving. I would remind everybody the Giants and
the Jets play in New Jersey, right, So that's what
we're seeing here. They're they're moving the stadium to a
different state for because frankly, the state of Zouri didn't
(39:00):
want to pay a bunch of money, and the state
of Kansas has given what people are right now saying
is the friendliest stadium deal in the history of stadium deals,
which is saying something to get the Chiefs to move
across the state lines. Now this comes on the heels
only days removed from the Bears talking about moving to
Indiana because Chicago doesn't want to foot a bunch of
(39:21):
a huge bill and they're just gonna move to Indiana. Again,
it doesn't mean they're going to become the Indiana Bears,
but it does mean that they're deciding that, hey, there's
a neighboring area, we're gonna put our stadium where we want.
It gets really contentious book, because this is that age
old argument. Should states be giving tax credits to billionaires?
(39:41):
Should they be giving flat out money to billionaires? Basically
to build free stadiums.
Speaker 4 (39:46):
No Ah, But that's just a matter of what the
situation is and how good this NFL teams leverage, Like
how much does your NFL franchise actually mean to the
city and the finances that it plays in. Chicago is
a huge place. There are a million different things going on.
I'm not saying that the Chicago that Chicago would be
no worse than the state of Illinois would be no
(40:08):
worse for letting the Bears go or anything like that.
But Nashville, the Titans just got a new stadium, because
that would be pretty significant to the economy to get
the kind of venue that can host international events, the
super Bowl, WrestleMania, you know, college football, playoff games, all
these different kinds of things that it didn't previously have.
Speaker 5 (40:27):
So I think it's very very specific to the situation.
Speaker 3 (40:30):
It's the hard part on this is that everybody feels
like it's cut and dry, and it isn't. I'm a
fan of a team that's relocated multiple times. I've seen
relocation in sports all over the place. I lived in Nashville,
as you do right now. In a place that thought
they were going to lose their hockey club at one point.
Relocation is a part of sports, but there's a reason why.
(40:51):
It's more complicated than you think, and I'll tell you
what that reason is.
Speaker 2 (40:53):
Next, he's Buck Rising.
Speaker 3 (40:55):
I'm Jason fitzwer hanging out with de bucking Fits on
a Fox Sports radio takeover.
Thanks for listening to The Jason Smith Show with Mike
Harmon podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weeknight
ten pm to two am Eastern seven to eleven pm
Pacific on Fox Sports Radio. Find your local station for
The Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon at Foxsports Radio
dot com, or stream us live every night on the
iHeartRadio app by searching FSR.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
If you're listening to Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 3 (00:28):
They spend months working on the perfect NFL schedule, they
spend weeks hyping it. I want to remind everybody we
will know on the very last day of the regular
season every single opponent. And despite the fact that we'll
know every single opponent home and away for every single team,
we will still flock to a wildly unnecessary multi hour
special in the middle of spring to tell us the
(00:50):
NFL schedule. And one of the biggest days of that schedule,
for sure, was bound to be Christmas Day with three
games on Netflix. And just when you thought the NFL
could do no wrong, they end up with three matchups
that look tragically bad. What does it mean for the
future of Christmas football? It's bucket rising, bucket rising, good lord,
(01:11):
it's fucking fits I've given him ball.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
That's fine, that's fine. There we go, That's there we go.
I try that all again.
Speaker 3 (01:16):
He's Buck Rising, got Jason Fitz We're in for Jason
Smith and Mike Harmon all the way up until two
am Eastern.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
I'll be honest, you know, Buck, I had my first
energy drink in like a month right before we did this.
So things could get rude, things could get bubbly.
Speaker 4 (01:32):
I bubbly, you know what at this at this point
in the in the calendar, at this point in the
holiday season, as we get ready for all of the
fun that is gonna or if you've already started the fun,
whether you're celebrating Hanika, whether you're celebrating Christmas, whatever you're celebrating,
I think bubbly is the appropriate tone. I could do
a little bubbly. Also, you're a hater. You're a hater.
(01:54):
There's nothing wrong with these games. These games are perfect.
These games. These games are beautifully, beautifully disgusting.
Speaker 5 (02:01):
In what I'm looking forward to.
Speaker 4 (02:03):
I just watched the Chiefs third string quarterback come to
Nashville and lose a game twenty six to nine to
the Tennessee Titans, who are a three and twelve football team. Okay,
I want that for America. I sat through that on
Sunday afternoon in week sixteen. I am built for this.
Jason Fitz, I cover the Tennessee Titans. I haven't covered
(02:23):
a meaningful game and at least three and a half seasons.
I am built for this kind of football. I can't
wait for the rest of you to have to sink
into it with me.
Speaker 5 (02:33):
On Christmas Day's going to beautiful.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
You're putting this out to the world like I'm the villain,
Like I'm coming in and everything's bad. And if you
break down what you just said, what you just said
is I have to watch terrible football. So I can't
wait for everybody to join me in those same murky waters.
Like that's not the hero's mindset. You're not coming in
hoping everybody gets great football. You're just hoping everybody is
(02:57):
as miserable on Christmas Day as you are every single
week covering the Titans. Is I am every single week
watching my beloved Raiders. You are hoping for shared misery.
That is that that's the most grit. You are the Grench.
You are beginning of the special Yeah hours or we're
(03:18):
coming down from Mount Crumpet.
Speaker 4 (03:20):
It's actually Nissan Stadium down the road in Nashville, Tennessee,
where I'm hanging out this evening or sliding down the hill.
You're my You're my reindeer. Will strap Uh, you know
mac Antler, You're Max. We're gonna strap an ant ant well,
an elk Antler, that's what I'm looking for.
Speaker 5 (03:39):
Onto your head.
Speaker 4 (03:39):
We're gonna ride down this mountain and we're gonna just
deliver the gift of terrible, terrible football to America.
Speaker 5 (03:47):
I can't wait.
Speaker 4 (03:48):
Six eight and one Cowboys a tie on that record
versus Marcus Mariota and the Washington Commanders at four to eleven.
Speaker 5 (03:56):
Uh, it's a Christmas miracle.
Speaker 4 (03:59):
It's a feace, a spectacularly fecal feast of football on
Christmas Day.
Speaker 5 (04:06):
Congratulations, Netflix, you got what you paid for.
Speaker 3 (04:09):
A spectacularly fecal feast. Is the best thing you have
ever said in the history of radio.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
That is spectaculars.
Speaker 5 (04:17):
I couldn't get elka Antler out of my mouth fast enough.
Speaker 3 (04:20):
I do like the thought of little ant Antler, so
like little tiny ants got a little tiny Antlers. The
irony of all of this is I'm calling you the
Grinch while I'm literally sitting here in a Grinch hoodie. Okay,
you've come in in all black and you're just like
morning the Christmas season. I'm here in a Grinch hoodie.
I just took off my root off the reindeer hat.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
Like you know.
Speaker 3 (04:39):
The dichotomy of what the two of us are bringing
to this, it's wildly different. You are the Grinch at
the beginning of the special. I'm the Grinch at the
end of the special. I wanted everybody to get Dallas
versus Washington, where it was this meaningful game and Jayden
Daniels was gonna go out and be the best of himself.
I want everybody to get Detroit, Minnesota, where we're sitting
here saying could this before the division in it's Is
(05:01):
this the week that we finally leave Detroit for dead?
And even the last game to your point, Denver in
Kansas City, Oh, there's no way that's a bad game.
Until we're sitting around saying, wait, who's the quarterback for Kansas?
This is like the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, the
Holy Trinity in honor of Christmas, of just a sea
of suck all in one day of games.
Speaker 4 (05:20):
Don't you talk about Chris so Lodocoon like that. Don't
you talk about that man that way. That man's a
professional athlete. He played NFL quarterback on Sunday.
Speaker 5 (05:29):
I watched it. I know I was there. It was glorious.
Speaker 4 (05:32):
I can't wait, I can't wait. I was looking forward
to the Gardner Minshew experience and fincy. That might have
been the highlight of my year to see Gardner Minshew
go out there and sling it, and instead he gets
like a well, I guess it's not technically an ACL tear, right,
that's the reporting around it.
Speaker 5 (05:46):
They've shut him down for the season anyway. But it's the.
Speaker 4 (05:49):
Third play of the game. The third play of the game,
Gardner Minshew blows his knee in some form or fashion,
and then we are given that for the remainder of
the process where the Chiefs fall to six and nine.
But like, in all seriousness, okay, Netflix once in on
the NFL. The NFL wants it on Christmas Day. Everybody
(06:09):
is getting what they wanted in this particular situation. It's
just so happens that in this year where we are
doing this really for the first time, right, we had
Christmas Netflix games last year. I think it went reasonably well.
What was it the Ravens and the Texans at the time.
I think the Chiefs were also a part of it.
I can't remember the exact games that we got on
(06:30):
Netflix last year. But the streamers, I mean, did you
see that who just picked up the right to stream
the Oscars? The Oscars are no longer going to be
on ABC for the first time. This it's like going
to be in nineteen seventies YouTube, right, the streamers one
in on live rights. Okay, this is a part of
the pivot that we're all going to make. It just
(06:50):
so happens in this year where Netflix has a full
slate of Christmas NFL games, that all of these teams
except for the Broncos, who, by the way, just cut
their acts, just got their teeth kicked in by the
Jacksonville Jaguars in ways that I didn't think anybody expected
this past Sunday.
Speaker 5 (07:08):
So they're reeling even a little bit.
Speaker 4 (07:10):
And frankly, they don't play a very aesthetically pleasing style
of football. So the best team on Netflix is the Broncos,
and even then you have some questions about them.
Speaker 5 (07:19):
These games, these.
Speaker 4 (07:20):
Games were done they did the deals for these games
far in advance. This just so happened to be a
very unlucky situation where if you looked at these games
at the start of the year, like you said, when
the NFL schedule is distributed, you would have said, that's awesome.
That is going to be a full day, an actual
football feast like Thanksgiving Day is. That's basically what they're creating.
(07:43):
They're creating a second version, a second institution of football
and family holidays.
Speaker 5 (07:49):
Right. They can't get enough of it.
Speaker 4 (07:50):
They can't get enough of us after we've stuffed our
faces sitting in front of the television and watching their
product for hours on end. They had the right idea.
It's just everything fell apart. I mean, think about the
trajectories of these six teams.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
Honestly, it's the cost is what is the standard?
Speaker 3 (08:09):
Like Netflix paid according to Google, about one hundred and
fifty million bucks for these two games on Christmas Day,
So about seventy five million bucks a day a game
is what they paid for.
Speaker 5 (08:19):
The problem They've got three games.
Speaker 3 (08:21):
They've got two. Amazon Prime has the third one. Oh
I'm sorry, yeah, so about seventy five million bucks per
game is what Netflix. Netflix paid the NFL. Now, that
doesn't include the talent that they're putting in, the studio,
cost that they're putting in the production.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
All of the other things.
Speaker 3 (08:36):
So you're going to quickly get into that that eighty
ninety million dollar range per game that they paid to
get eyeballs on Netflix specifically all day.
Speaker 5 (08:47):
Right.
Speaker 3 (08:47):
And one of the things that truly makes this portion
of broadcasting the NFL very interesting is that on any
given Sunday, as you and I know, if it's a
bad game, most people just flip to another one, right,
Like in a red zone world, more people are watching
Red Zone on Sunday than you know, sitting there watching
if it's a terrible game, like the Giants Raiders game
(09:08):
for the first pick in the draft, which I'm anxiously
waiting on Sunday, most people aren't gonna sit there and
watch all of that game.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
They're gonna flip through or they're gonna look at it
for a minute or two.
Speaker 3 (09:17):
This day because it's three standalone games and they're on
standalone platforms, becomes sort of a You've got to make
a conscious decision to go to Netflix, and then once
you're in Netflix, you're stuck in Netflix as opposed to
just like I'm gonna flip around and see what else
is on I'm gonna multi view this thing. You're not
gonna have any of those options. I do think it's
because I still think the number is gonna crush. Look
(09:38):
at Jake Paul fight. That wasn't worth the dam pulled
thirty three million viewers according to that, but it was.
Speaker 5 (09:44):
Worth it to see him get his job broke. It
was worth it.
Speaker 3 (09:47):
Is that why everybody thirty three million people just wanted
to watch him get his ask kick?
Speaker 2 (09:50):
Was that the big I've had.
Speaker 5 (09:51):
Those people just wanted to see him get his ass kick.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
One hundred percent. And now so they get the thirty
three million views.
Speaker 3 (09:57):
I don't know exactly how they calculate what counts his
view on Netflix all these things, but they report thirty
three million views. I'm sure they're still gonna put up
wild numbers for this, but it is interesting to me,
Like I do think there is a little bit of
a proof of concept on what happens when it's not
your starting quarterbacks, because even on broadcast TV in the past,
we've seen ratings dip when it's lesser names at the
(10:19):
quarterback position, Like this is a natural thing. When we
get to week eighteen, nobody's watching. If there's that fantasy
going on, there's not as much gambling going on, you're
dealing with third string quarterbacks. The overall interest feels like
it dies off a little bit in that week seventeen
eighteen range.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
For a lot of teams.
Speaker 3 (10:33):
I don't know what it means for Netflix that they're
gonna have standalone must log in, must watch it here.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
Oh, and by the way, the game's gonna suck.
Speaker 5 (10:42):
I mean, does it have to mean anything? Honestly?
Speaker 4 (10:44):
Like they took a swing on their return to watch though,
Like do you think I'm gonna watch?
Speaker 5 (10:50):
What?
Speaker 4 (10:50):
Am I gonna watch? What would I watch instead of
the NBA?
Speaker 5 (10:54):
No? Come on, I mean it's.
Speaker 2 (10:56):
Fine, that's my great point. That's the bread question.
Speaker 5 (11:00):
I feel like, I don't know.
Speaker 4 (11:01):
Maybe it's just because of the part of the country
that I live in in in the Southeast, the only
thing that matters in a consequential way of football, Like
I would probably watch ball games over the NBA. And
that's and that's like, and I'm a basketball fan, like
I love college I love college basketball. I'm not necessarily
out on the NBA or anything like that.
Speaker 5 (11:18):
But I didn't.
Speaker 4 (11:19):
I I don't want to complain about things like the
NBA Cup because I didn't watch the NBA Cup. You
know what I'm saying. It wasn't a draw for me.
I heard for people who did seek it out that
they felt like it was an interesting thing to have
a game with stakes and for the Knicks to kind
of have a big moment the way that they did.
Speaker 5 (11:34):
It's like, these.
Speaker 4 (11:35):
These things are these things have I think an appeal
to maybe some some sports fans out there, But for
the most part, aren't people just gonna want want to
watch football, Like, even if it's bad football, we watch football.
That's just what it is. So there's nothing scientific about it.
(11:57):
I don't think that it's going to have such a
massive packed on their subscribers, for example, the way that
they wanted it to. But if you have Netflix, as
the vast majority of US do, I would imagine I
don't know what the percentage of the country that has
a Netflix account or who's sharing a Netflix account or
whatever that looks like right now, but I'm assuming that
if people have access to football, they'll just throw on
the football game. They don't have to pay that close
(12:18):
attention to it. It could just be background. Noers, for
God's sakes, that's all the NFL cares about.
Speaker 2 (12:23):
Yeah, one hundred percent.
Speaker 3 (12:24):
And look, I think that's what According to a quick
Google search here, sixty four percent.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
Of US households have access to Netflix right now.
Speaker 5 (12:32):
You're right.
Speaker 3 (12:33):
I think at the end of the day, everybody's gonna
flock to it. The question is what's it mean for
the NBA. We'll answer that on the other side. Because
Christmas Day for years was all about the NBA, and
now it's not. Is there an actual opportunity to get
everybody back on board with Christmas Day being a day
for the NBA.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
We'll answer that question for you. Next, he's Buck Rising.
I'm Jason Fitz.
Speaker 6 (12:53):
We're hanging out with you on Fox Sports Radio. Be
sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith Show
with Mike Harmon weekdays on PM Eastern seven pm Pacific
on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
Pally Fools Go Ahead with Tony Fosco.
Speaker 6 (13:08):
Yeah.
Speaker 7 (13:08):
As everybody knows, we're the hosts of the award winning
Polly and Tony Foodsco Show.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
Yeah, but instead of us telling you how great we are.
Speaker 7 (13:14):
Here's how Dan Fackrick described us when he came on
our show.
Speaker 4 (13:17):
Quick, knowledgeable and funny, opinionated.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
What are you doing interrupting our promo? Yeah, you wasn't
talking about you.
Speaker 6 (13:25):
You took those clips totally out of context.
Speaker 7 (13:28):
Oh yeah, well after this promo, I'm gonna take you
out and beat you.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
Let me put this into context. Shut up.
Speaker 7 (13:35):
Yeah, anyway, just listening to the Polly and Tony Fosco
Show on iHeartRadio, Apple podcasts O wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 3 (13:41):
Yea, it's a Jason Smith show with Mike Harmon on
Fox Sports Radio. But it's a Bucking Fitz takeover Buck Rising.
I'm Jason Fitz hanging out with you. Be sure to
check out our brand new YouTube channel.
Speaker 2 (13:53):
For the show.
Speaker 3 (13:53):
Just search Jason Smith's Show on YouTube again. That's Jason
Smith Show. Be sure to hit the subscribe button. Tune
don't stop there, hit that thumbs up icon.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
Comment away.
Speaker 3 (14:03):
Let us know which of you would go, Which takes
you like, which takes you don't go? Check out a
brand new channel on YouTube again. Just search Jason Smith's
show and subscribe. You know, don't count us against the boys, though,
you know, it's just come at us, that's all I say.
At Buck Rising, at Jason Fitz that's razing. I mean,
just like, you know, come up me, bro. There we go, uh,
(14:24):
never not making it any better. All right, let's the
other side of the Christmas equation. We were just talking
about how bad the Christmas Day games are for the NFL,
and here here's the weird thing. Like this is where
the NBA, I think, should be livid that these games
are on streaming services, not on terrestrial TV. Because if
the NFL games we're on YouTube TV. For example, when
I wake up on Christmas Day around noon, I could
(14:47):
open up YouTube and it would just give me a
dou a box right like it automatically would tell me, hey,
we're gonna put the basketball game in the football game together.
Can't do that though, when we're talking about games that
are on streaming platforms instead. So the NBA, which for
a generation owned Christmas Day, I think this year could
have had an actual opportunity to try and win back
some of Christmas Day. And that feels like it's lost
(15:10):
only because you still, like, if you decide you're going
to watch football, you literally then can't watch the Christmas
Day games unless you bring a second TV in, which
feels like it's not likely to happen. So even though
they've given us what they feel like a marquee matchups,
every single person that chooses to watch the NFL on
Christmas Day simply won't be able to watch the NBA
(15:33):
unless they have a second TV altogether.
Speaker 5 (15:36):
Which you know is not outside the relevant possibility.
Speaker 4 (15:39):
I'm sure there are some people that your family holiday celebration.
Speaker 5 (15:42):
That would probably frown upon the idea of.
Speaker 4 (15:44):
Just plastering the wall with multiple screens while Grandma is
trying to present you with the knit sweater that she
got you for Christmas, or whatever the case may be.
Speaker 5 (15:54):
So I don't know if it's quite that that all.
Speaker 4 (15:58):
In on Christmas Day, though I'm sure there be some
degenerates out there wagering whatever was in their Christmas cards
this year on all of these games, as many games
as they can get, whether they be Bowl games, NBA games,
or the NFL. I So, I wonder how you look
at these matchups and you would say, like, even if
(16:19):
you're not dialed in to regular season NBA basketball, and
admittedly I am not somebody at this time of the
year while football season is still going on, that is
dialed into NBA basketball. But if you told me that
I would be getting these kind of matchups, the Knicks
and the Calves, You've got the Golden State Warriors and
the Mavericks. You've got the Lakers and the Rockets, the
(16:40):
Nuggets and the Timberwolves, if you told me, and obviously
the Thunder and the Spurs, which is always going to
be a drawn. And even if you're not paying that
close attention to the NBA, you know that the Thunder
are an absolute wagon again and they are potentially one
of the best teams that we've ever seen in modern
basketball with the way with the rate that they can
continue to win at objectively, if I didn't have the
(17:05):
option of football fitsie, I'd say, yeah, I'm in on that.
That will be one of the days during the football
season where I sit down and I watch basketball, because
my preference would be football in those situations, even if
the football's bad. But I'm not gonna turn my nose
up at some of those matchups. I'm gonna enjoy that.
I'll see where these teams are, I'll check in and
(17:26):
then maybe a couple, you know, a couple of weeks
from now, I'll have another day where I watch a
full slate of basketball and be like, oh, okay, that
was fun.
Speaker 5 (17:34):
I might do that more often. I don't know if
I would or not, but.
Speaker 4 (17:37):
That was always my Christmas Day relationship with the NBA.
Like that's what's on, I'm gonna watch it. I'll enjoy
it because it's pro sports, and you know, you got
time to kind of sink into it a little bit.
If I've got football, though, even bad football, I'm gonna
watch football.
Speaker 2 (17:54):
That's the thing that I think.
Speaker 3 (17:56):
That's just blatant honesty, right, And the fact is I
do for you out Who' sports Daly. We talk a
lot of NBA, so I've had my head in a
lot of this already. But what's interesting is that, you know,
Cleveland's not any good, but it's against the Knicks, so
that would be a draw, right, Like Golden State's not
really good this year and Dallas is trying to figure
it out, but it's Cooper flag Golden State. That should
(18:16):
be a draw, Like we would see that, Like, I'm
not sure. Once the Lakers started playing the meat of
their schedule, they were actually any good. And let's see
how they compete against Houston. Fine, the one game that
actually is like Wenby versus Oklahoma City coming off of
San Antonio taking down Oklahoma City in the NBA Cup.
Speaker 2 (18:33):
Okay, SE's only lost three games all year. That's the thing.
That's the thing, And I just keep looking and say, well,
what's he gonna take?
Speaker 3 (18:39):
What does it take to have a transformative, oh my
god moment you know where everybody stops.
Speaker 2 (18:44):
And pays attention to it.
Speaker 3 (18:45):
And frankly, I've said this to you before book, but
I do. I blame the entire cycle of the way
we cover the NBA for why the NBA is meaningless,
Because every former NBA player that sits up on first
take and says, well, only matters how many championships you Okay,
every time we sit there and we listen to a
barbershop debate of the greatness of any two players in
a second, there's only about the championships you want. Every
(19:07):
time we see a young team rise, I don't care
until I've seen it in the playoffs. We've spent ten
years at least shaping all of these narratives about what
truly means something in the NBA, and every one of
those narratives has actually devalued. Like I said it, even
when I worked at ESPN for years, if we as
a brand partner to the NBA at the time, if
(19:27):
I spend most of my shows saying the only thing
that matters is the playoffs in the championship, how am
I supposed to make a random Tuesday night game in
December actually matter to anybody other than gamblers and the assos.
Speaker 2 (19:38):
It can't.
Speaker 4 (19:40):
Yeah, And a part of that, FITZI and I don't
you know, It's not like you can't just decide that
you're gonna start caring about something that way. But I
feel like I am not even consciously doing that, doing
the thing that you've just described, which is like.
Speaker 5 (19:56):
Yeah, it'll matter later in the year, and.
Speaker 4 (19:59):
I'll check back in then and I'll have a great
time watching playoffs and stuff like that. I've almost conditioned
myself because I don't you know, I'm not doing a
national Yahoo show like you are. I'm not talking about
the NBA five days a week you and I do.
I mean, obviously we're on during a weeknight tonight filling
in for the boys, But you and I are on
a weekends. We're spending most of our time reacting college football.
Speaker 5 (20:19):
I'm in the Southeast.
Speaker 4 (20:20):
No big of a damn about the NBA down here
other than the you know, the screaming yell about Lebron
James because they don't like Lebron because of what, you know,
whatever the relationship is with China.
Speaker 5 (20:30):
Like that's the dialogue.
Speaker 4 (20:31):
Around the NBA down here, unless Jaw has a gun
scandal on Instagram and then everybody's paying attention to the Grizzlies.
Like that's just kind of what it is in this
part of the country. So I'm not spending the I'm
not devoting the kind of space that I might otherwise
just have casually to the NBA. I think there's a
whole part of the country that feels that way about
(20:53):
the NBA that has, to your point, been so conditioned
from hearing people say, well, the regular season doesn't actually
there's too many games. Okay, then I'm just not going
to spend my time with it. I've got other things,
for God's sakes. I'll throw on an episode of Player
of Us if I want to before before I start
in on an NBA regular season game. Just in terms
of the pecking order, because I feel like I've been
(21:15):
conditioned to think that it doesn't actually matter right now.
Speaker 3 (21:21):
It's fair it doesn't, and I think the only way
it matters is when you see something you've never seen before.
So Wemby, I think, starts to become a sensation because
we've never seen somebody with his level of athleticism and
size shoot from where he shoots from right, So like
that's a thing We're all gonna pay attention to.
Speaker 2 (21:38):
Wemby.
Speaker 3 (21:38):
That's why I'm long since convinced that the best thing
that could happen to the NBA right now, not maybe
long term, but right now is Okay Seeds turning around
and going on the type of run we've never seen before.
Just absolutely crushing Golden State's all time wins record in
the season, Crush the Red, don't lose a single game
in the postseason, go win a championship with a roster
that's wildly young, and make everybody turn around and say,
(22:00):
oh my god, look at how young these guys are.
Speaker 2 (22:02):
This gonna be my favorite team.
Speaker 3 (22:03):
Like I do believe in ten years, fans will walk
around wearing Oklahoma City Thunder jerseys. Then the way they
walk around with Warriors jerseys. Now, I'm old enough to
remember when nobody gave a damn about Golden State, right,
I think all of these things can happen. I don't
know how you make it happen like this is where
the NFL was just so brilliant, because wildly, if these
games that were only okay were put on Fox, NBC,
(22:27):
and CBS on Christmas Day, I do think that we
would see better ratings for the NBA than we expected,
and maybe slightly lower ratings for the NFL. But your
point is a valid one for most of the country,
particularly right now. Man, nobody gives it damn about basketball
like they want to watch a football game.
Speaker 4 (22:43):
Well, and I just I don't know when that happened
like that. And again, I'm just running this through my prism.
I know that I probably don't speak for the vast
majority of people that are listening to us nationwide on
Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 5 (22:55):
I understand that.
Speaker 4 (22:55):
I'm just approaching this in the best way that I
can to explain why the hell I would put on
an eight and seven Lions team against a seven and
eight Vikings team instead of watching whatever NBA game is.
Speaker 5 (23:06):
On at the exact same time. Now.
Speaker 4 (23:08):
The thing that I will agree with you on absolutely
is that Wembin Yama versus the Thunder, an incredible team
that plays such a perfect style of team basketball with
a superstar in their own with several stars in their
own right, versus the kind of player that almost doesn't
have a precedent with the way that he plays, the
(23:29):
style that he plays, with the physical traits that just
he wows you, right, he wows you every time you
see him out there, whether it be highlights, whether you're
watching actual Spurs games, whatever the case may be. I
need something transcendent to refixate me on the NBA, if
that makes sense, and when Ben Yama, frankly and the
(23:49):
Thunder have the ability to do that, I just don't
know if if everybody else has caught up to how
spectacular that that.
Speaker 5 (23:58):
What they're watching is.
Speaker 4 (23:59):
I mean, you and I talked about this with when
the Pacers and the Thunder were in the finals and
some of the we knew that the ratings were going
to be what they were, right, and we understand the
kind of market size and all these I mean, there's
a million different factors as to why people weren't as
dialed in on that. I just think that for example,
okay see is just going to have to win at
a rate that is so outrageous, which they are currently
(24:20):
doing to continue basically to force people's attention in that spot.
Speaker 3 (24:24):
I mean, at the end of the day, all of
these are like great Batman movies. You have to have
a perfect Batman. You have to have a perfect villain.
You need a joker, you need a Batman. You need
the good and the bad all to come together at once.
Steve Disager, get us updated and on what's going on
right now across the landscape of the scoreboard, and then
we'll get more into it after the break.
Speaker 8 (24:43):
All right, we'll start with the NFL. The two game
suspension of Steelers wide receiver DK Metcalf was upheld. He
had appealed. He loses two game checks and reportedly forty
five million dollars in future guarantees in his contract. The
two game suspension of Chargers linebacker Denzel Paraman was also
so upheld. The Cardinals signed former Rams kicker Joshua Carty.
(25:03):
Buffalo tried out three kickers but did not sign any
of them. Today, starter Matt Prater still has a quad injury.
Bill's quarterback Josh Allen says he will play this weekend
despite the foot injury. Cleveland running back quin Shawn Jugkins
had surgery on his broken leg and dislocated ankle. The
Browns officially will not activate quarterback to Shaun Watson this year.
He had a second achilles surgery last January and has
(25:26):
one year left on that guaranteed contract. The Ravens listed
quarterback Lamar Jackson with his bruise back as a non
participant on today's practice report. The Colts will start quarterback
Philip Rivers again, with Riley Leonard as backup. The Jets
play quarterback Justin Fields on ir with his knee injury.
Quarterback JJ McCarthy of the Vikings will miss the Christmas
(25:47):
game against the Lions. He has a hairline fracture in
his right hand, fourth injury in his two years there.
Rookie quarterback Max Brosmer will start, and quarterback Brett Rippon
was claimed off waivers by Minnesota from the Colts. Lions
running back David Montgomery did not practice today due to illness.
Washington quarterback Marcus Mariota missed another walk through due to
hand and quad injuries. The Commander's host Dallas on Christmas.
(26:11):
Green Bay starting quarterback Jordan Love was limited at practice.
He's still in concussion protocol, and his backup QB Malik
Willis was limited with a sore shoulder. Patriots running back
Traveon Henderson is in concussion protocol, as is wide receiver
Kashawn Woody and running back Kimani Vidella. The Chargers missed
practice with a neck injury. The Chargers host the Texans
(26:32):
this Saturday. Chargers running back Jared Patterson was activated three
college football bowl games, including the late one now at halftime.
This is in Frisco, Texas. It's Ohio U six nothing
over UNLV Louisville beat Toledo and the Boca Raton Bowl
twenty seven to twenty two. Western Kentucky with two touchdowns
(26:54):
in the last eight minutes, beat Southern Miss twenty seven
sixteen at the New Orleans Bowl. Hawaii hosts the Hawaii
Bow on Christmas Eve against Cal Wednesday night. In the NBA,
Dallas has beaten Denver one thirty one to one thirty
Cooper flag thirty three points. Cleveland got twenty seven from
Donovan Mitchell and dominated New Orleans one forty one to
one eighteen. New Orleans had won five in a row.
(27:16):
Milwaukee sent Indiana to a sixth straight loss, one eleven
to ninety four. Among the games just finishing, Minnesota gets
a win at home over New York one fifteen to
one oh four despite forty points from Karl Anthony Towns,
and in Phoenix not even mid third quarter yet, the
Suns are ripping the Lakers eighty nine to sixty four
(27:37):
for La Luka. Doncicic's out with a bruised calf. Off
the bench. Austin Reeves has returned from injury thirteen points
in fourteen minutes, four fouls, as well. College hoops wins
for Villanova and Saint John's. NHL Detroit in overtime beat
Dallas fourth three.
Speaker 2 (27:53):
Back to you, he's Buck Rising.
Speaker 3 (27:56):
I'm Jason fitz Buckin fitz hanging out with you on
Fox Sports Radio. Guys, Buck, you cover a bad football team.
You get to cover a bad football team every every
single day you cover the tennis.
Speaker 2 (28:07):
Anyone that isn't aware.
Speaker 3 (28:10):
I was just listening to Steve's update, and one of
the things that I think is hysterical is how often
you hear media members fans. Everybody talking about guys just
sitting at the end of the year and like it's
the craziest thing. I made no secrets of the fact
that I'm a fan of a terrible football team in
the Raiders, right and so I see Twitter right now
(28:30):
going absolutely nuts about, well, it's important that.
Speaker 2 (28:33):
The Raiders lose these games. I get it. For me
as a fan, I want the Raiders to have the
first overall pick.
Speaker 3 (28:37):
I understand that there's never going to be a world
where anybody inside those halls is sitting around like none
of the players on the field. Max Crosby isn't suddenly
worried about the Raiders having the first pick. He answered
a question pretty aggressively about that. Geno answered the question
pretty aggressively. You're in the Titans locker room, like, do
you feel like there's a spot here where players are
just sitting around saying, you know what, it's probably better
(28:58):
for our draft pick next year if we don't play.
Speaker 2 (29:00):
So I'm just going to take this week off.
Speaker 4 (29:03):
Never never, I mean, we we've gone through this with
Jeffrey Simmons here locally, who is not quite of I mean, listen,
if you if you haven't seen what Jeff Simmons is
doing this week.
Speaker 5 (29:14):
This is so far this season.
Speaker 4 (29:16):
I understand not a lot of people are watching the
three and twelve Titans football team to watch interior defensive
line play, but just's been awesome.
Speaker 5 (29:23):
Like he's He's.
Speaker 4 (29:24):
Not Miles Garrett, but he is the best interior defensive
lineman in the sport this year, and he's doing it
for a terrible football team. So many times we have
asked him and cam Ward last.
Speaker 5 (29:34):
Year's number one overall pick. I guess technically still this
year's number one overall pick.
Speaker 4 (29:39):
The question of well the fan base wants one thing,
and this was before the Raiders.
Speaker 5 (29:46):
Were clearly and obviously tracking Fitsy. I mean they your
football team.
Speaker 4 (29:49):
WoT that number one overall pick?
Speaker 2 (29:54):
Don't be honest with like they got the Giants this weekend.
I'm not sure. I don't know the Giants are bad too.
Speaker 3 (29:59):
I want to I've never I'm forty eight years old,
I have never rooted for my favorite football team to
lose a football game, truly, never shiver. Ever, I've always said, man, like,
let's be real, I don't even know if I'm gona
be alive next season. I want to see a Raiders win, right, Like,
that's just the way the world works. I want to
see my favorite football team win. Sunday will be the
first time ever that I've sat there and said.
Speaker 2 (30:19):
You know what, might as well lose this one. I'm in,
let's lose. Let's go ahead. I want the first of
all pick. I guess that doesn't fix it.
Speaker 4 (30:26):
That doesn't fix it. The Patriots picked fourth last year,
look at them. Well, the Giants pick third. Look how
much better they are for it. I mean, my god,
it doesn't fix the things as definitively as fans seem
to think that it does.
Speaker 5 (30:40):
It gives you a great chance.
Speaker 3 (30:42):
Well, here's my thing. If I could know right now,
this is my caveat. I think you'll understand this from
my standpoint. If I knew that Dante Moore was also
coming out, Like if Dante Moore had already announced it,
he's coming out. If we had a real indication that
there were at least two quarters in this draft coming out,
then I don't care wherever you pick, You're gonna be fine.
Speaker 2 (31:04):
Like, I really don't believe.
Speaker 3 (31:05):
That there's demonstrable difference between Fernando Mendoza or Dante more
who knows, Like I think it's all crapshoot anyway, in
the draft, I'm just worried that if the Raiders pick second,
they're just not gonna have a shot at a quarterback.
And you're right, picking first doesn't fix anything. I just
don't want to sit here and never have a shot
at a quarterback. And I mean, they rolled the dice
on Geno and he looks washed, so maybe there's another
(31:27):
way to do it. But that's where my that's where
my fear comes from. It's not because I want the
first overall pick because it fixes anything. I don't want
Fernando Mendoza to come into the draft and then Dante
More decides he's not, Ty Simpson decides he's not, and
all of a sudden, maybe the next best quarterback is
Garrett Nesmeyer, like a likely a second or third.
Speaker 2 (31:46):
Round pick, you know what I mean. So I just
want a quarterback, that's why.
Speaker 4 (31:50):
Sure, But I mean and this, you know, this gets
into a deeper fundamental roster building discussion, which most people
in America are. I mean, I don't know about half
the teams in the league at this point. We're not
quite to the point where everybody's been eliminated, and we
don't have the postseason definitively set.
Speaker 5 (32:08):
But a lot of people are thinking about draft to
order as much.
Speaker 4 (32:10):
As they're thinking about postseason football at this point in time.
It doesn't really matter if you draft Fernando Mendoza and
you drop him into a situation like, for example, what
I'm covering right now, which is cam Ward and his
offensive line doesn't get it together until Week sixteen. They
haven't looked like a normal NFL football team until basically the.
Speaker 5 (32:30):
Last three weeks.
Speaker 4 (32:31):
FITZI, that's how long it took for them to be
able to function at an even remotely operable level. And
I mean, I know what the situation is in Vegas
with that offensive line unit. I don't think that Geno's washed.
I think that they have washed him.
Speaker 2 (32:45):
That's fair in my mind.
Speaker 3 (32:46):
When you have one hundred million dollars to spend, hopefully
you can find some of those pieces.
Speaker 2 (32:50):
Look, but I will never question.
Speaker 3 (32:52):
Like if you told me that every single pick for
the Raiders in this year's draft was a fat guy.
Speaker 2 (32:56):
That played on either offensive or defensive line, I'm in.
I'm in on that. I'm in on that totally.
Speaker 3 (33:01):
It's just I think the interesting thing is when you
see guys like like Joe Burrow being asked like is
he gonna play and Bengals fans turning around and say, well,
I don't want to risk his injury.
Speaker 2 (33:10):
Questions about whether or not Dak.
Speaker 3 (33:12):
Was gonna play the last couple of games because they
don't matter for the Cowboys. I just I think we
forget as a society sometimes that this isn't a video game,
Like these are real people that work their whole lives
to get this opportunity to play this sport, and at
the end of the day, they want to play this sport.
That's the thing I think we forget sometimes is that
the draft status, for example, when everybody sits there and says, well,
(33:33):
it's better for our draft. Well, coaches don't know if
they're going to be around next year for that version
of it. Players don't know if they're still gonna be
on the roster, like they do not care what next
year looks like going into Week seventeen. They're paid to
play football. It's what they do, it's what they want
to do, it's what they love to do. I just
I think we should kill the question of why are
they playing that player even though it puts guys like
(33:55):
Burrow at risk for you know, God forbid, there's an
injury that impacts next season. You can't think that way
and run a football organization.
Speaker 5 (34:02):
Well beyond that incentives, like, guys have money they want
to make.
Speaker 4 (34:05):
You know what I'm saying, that's fancy to me.
Speaker 5 (34:09):
I mean, you know, honest to god, I'm sure at
a certain.
Speaker 4 (34:12):
Point, I've covered enough bad football teams at this point
in my life that I know a lot of those
guys would rather just be like, yeah, I'm good, just
let's go let's go ahead and uh and have that
hamstring that's been bothering me. Let's go ahead and have
that shut me down for the foreseeable future. But they've
got you know, they've got tackle incentives to it, They've
got rushing, touchdowns, receptions, all these different things. I think
(34:32):
it's a lovely way to look at it. And I'm
sure there is some level of they are football players,
they want to go out there, but I think a
lot of them are like, yeah.
Speaker 5 (34:40):
Let me get my money and then we can move
on from this whole thing.
Speaker 3 (34:43):
I do think I think, you know, if you play
for business. There's a reason you want to play. If
you play for love of the game, there's a reason
you want to play. I don't think there are many guys,
and if you're hurt, certainly, then it's like, yeah, let's
mail it in. Let's just let's just get I'm not
going to push through something I don't need to push through.
I just think if you're healthy and your coach comes
and says, yeah, we're not gonna play you this week
because we're gonna check out the young guys.
Speaker 2 (35:04):
I think most of the league just sort of rolls
their eyes to that.
Speaker 3 (35:08):
Speaking of rolling their eyes, everybody's rolling their eyes about
news in Kansas City, about the Chiefs in.
Speaker 2 (35:13):
Their future home. We'll tell you about it next.
Speaker 3 (35:15):
He's Buck Rising out Jason Fitz hanging out with you,
Buck and Fits on Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 6 (35:18):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven
pm Pacific.
Speaker 2 (35:25):
God, it really is it just is tell me more. Oh,
he's done, He's done.
Speaker 3 (35:30):
It's the Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon, although it's
neither of them. It's Buck Rising, Jason Tip Fits, Bucking Fits,
hanging out with you on Fox Sports Radio on this
Christmas Adam edition. I had a friend for years in
Nashville whose daughter always called it Christmas Adam because Adam
came before Eve. So Christmas Adam, then Christmas Eve and
then Christmas Day. And it's adorable because it came from
(35:51):
a child. But I've always kept it Christmas Adam. So
a happy Christmas Adam to you. But feel free to
steal that and start using that with the friends.
Speaker 5 (35:57):
No, I don't think I will.
Speaker 2 (36:00):
I didn't even think about it, like. There wasn't even
a thank you so much.
Speaker 5 (36:03):
It was a moment.
Speaker 2 (36:04):
I'm good.
Speaker 4 (36:05):
I don't want It's perfect, okay, an obscure Adam and
Eve referee, thank.
Speaker 2 (36:11):
You so much? All right for the tyrack player of
the day.
Speaker 3 (36:14):
For over forty years, Tyrak's been helping customers find the
right tires for how, what and where they drive.
Speaker 2 (36:19):
Shipped fast and free.
Speaker 3 (36:20):
Who doesn't love that back by free road hazard protection
with convenient installation options like mobile tire installation tirack dot
com the way tire buying should be.
Speaker 6 (36:29):
Let's check it out, Davis, he's feeling it with six
to shoot.
Speaker 2 (36:32):
Here comes to.
Speaker 9 (36:33):
Double from Jokics out to flag three to shoot top
of the York three, huge three pointer, a season high
four three point shot, his third game of thirty or
more this year.
Speaker 3 (36:47):
Cooper fag having yet another big moment there for him.
So congratulations on that. That's a Tirak play of the
day happening for you.
Speaker 2 (36:55):
Hanging out. He's Buck Rising. I'm Jason Fitz.
Speaker 5 (36:57):
We're gotcha, guard.
Speaker 2 (36:59):
I was looking for the see I was talling.
Speaker 4 (37:00):
For ninety seven point one the Eagle, Mavericks Radio Network.
Speaker 2 (37:05):
Look at that ninety seven point one the Eagle. There
we go.
Speaker 3 (37:08):
Look at you that Buck. That's called great teamwork. I
appreciate that. We've got great teamwork happening right now. Terrible
segue between the State of Kansas, all right and the
Kansas City Chiefs.
Speaker 2 (37:20):
Here's yeah, here's a little geography.
Speaker 4 (37:24):
I'm not being a very good teammate to you, to
be honest with you. He came out with the Christmas
Adam thing. I shot you down. I dead fished you,
all right, that's dead fish. I wanted to you know,
I'm giving you a hard time, but I swear, buddy,
I'm here for you for the next Yeah, it's three hours.
Speaker 5 (37:41):
I'm here for you.
Speaker 2 (37:42):
All right.
Speaker 3 (37:43):
Look, but we're gonna this show is going to see
Christmas Adam turn it into Christmas Eve.
Speaker 2 (37:47):
I'm gonna need a little bit more.
Speaker 3 (37:48):
Holly and a hell of a lot more jolly out
of you. All Right, you've already got the fat man
of the beard. I just need you to bring in
a little bit. Only immediate look on his.
Speaker 2 (37:58):
Face made it worth it. The entire setup was absolutely we.
Speaker 5 (38:02):
Were in Connecticut.
Speaker 4 (38:03):
I would take this red pen and thank you, stake
it somewhere.
Speaker 2 (38:08):
I'm like everybody on Twitter, I'm a keyboard warrior right now.
Because you can't. You can't do it anything. You can't
dek me all.
Speaker 10 (38:15):
Right, Uh, as I mentioned, uh, the Kansas City Chiefs
are moving to Kansas because Kansas City Chiefs Arrowhead is
in Missouri.
Speaker 2 (38:26):
Now. In full disclosure, here I was.
Speaker 3 (38:29):
I was hosting Yahoo Sports Daily the other day in
Carolyn Fenton, my co host is from Saint Louis, and
she laughed when we were like.
Speaker 2 (38:37):
Wow, that's a big deal.
Speaker 3 (38:37):
She laughed because she's like, look, the city of Kansas City,
part of it is in Kansas and part of it
is in Missouri. Like this, this these are two neighboring places.
In a level like we hear, oh my god, they're moving,
not really moving. I would remind everybody the Giants and
the Jets play in New Jersey, right, So that's what
we're seeing here. They're they're moving the stadium to a
different state for because frankly, the state of Zouri didn't
(39:00):
want to pay a bunch of money, and the state
of Kansas has given what people are right now saying
is the friendliest stadium deal in the history of stadium deals,
which is saying something to get the Chiefs to move
across the state lines. Now this comes on the heels
only days removed from the Bears talking about moving to
Indiana because Chicago doesn't want to foot a bunch of
(39:21):
a huge bill and they're just gonna move to Indiana. Again,
it doesn't mean they're going to become the Indiana Bears,
but it does mean that they're deciding that, hey, there's
a neighboring area, we're gonna put our stadium where we want.
It gets really contentious book, because this is that age
old argument. Should states be giving tax credits to billionaires?
(39:41):
Should they be giving flat out money to billionaires? Basically
to build free stadiums.
Speaker 4 (39:46):
No Ah, But that's just a matter of what the
situation is and how good this NFL teams leverage, Like
how much does your NFL franchise actually mean to the
city and the finances that it plays in. Chicago is
a huge place. There are a million different things going on.
I'm not saying that the Chicago that Chicago would be
no worse than the state of Illinois would be no
(40:08):
worse for letting the Bears go or anything like that.
But Nashville, the Titans just got a new stadium, because
that would be pretty significant to the economy to get
the kind of venue that can host international events, the
super Bowl, WrestleMania, you know, college football, playoff games, all
these different kinds of things that it didn't previously have.
Speaker 5 (40:27):
So I think it's very very specific to the situation.
Speaker 3 (40:30):
It's the hard part on this is that everybody feels
like it's cut and dry, and it isn't. I'm a
fan of a team that's relocated multiple times. I've seen
relocation in sports all over the place. I lived in Nashville,
as you do right now. In a place that thought
they were going to lose their hockey club at one point.
Relocation is a part of sports, but there's a reason why.
(40:51):
It's more complicated than you think, and I'll tell you
what that reason is.
Speaker 2 (40:53):
Next, he's Buck Rising.
Speaker 3 (40:55):
I'm Jason fitzwer hanging out with de bucking Fits on
a Fox Sports radio takeover.
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Jason Smith
Mike Harmon
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