December 10, 2022 • 34 mins
Jason Smith and Mike Harmon discuss the shocking and tragic death of longtime US soccer writer Grant Wahl in Qatar. The guys also talk about more from the World Cup and how a lot of the favorites are OUT! Plus, Jason and Mike have more to talk about from the NFL!
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should be well something to begin with tonight. Not at
all what I thought we were going to talk about,
fast becoming unfortunately the biggest story in the world. Grant
Wall soccer journalist, college basketball journalist. If you've listened to
(01:05):
the Sports Talk radio for any time in the last
fifteen years, you know his name. He's come on our
show plenty of times. Uh. He died earlier today in
Qatar covering the World Cup covering Netherlands match against Argentina.
These are some of the facts as we know them
at this time, as they have come in. It was
(01:29):
a situation in which he was covering the game. He
was tweeting about the game he was His last tweet
was about the great set piece Netherlands ran for a
goal uh to tie the game against Argentina, and shortly
after that he collapsed. He was taken to a hospital
and he was shortly pronounced dead thereafter. His brother has
put a message on social media that he believes his
(01:50):
brother was murdered. Grant Wall was very critical of the
Qatari regime for the World Cup. He put out a
story just yesterday about how Qatar doesn't care about the
worker deaths that have been taken place over the course
of the past few months and getting ready for the
World Cup. He has a quote from some organizers saying,
why are you asking me this question? There is I mean,
(02:10):
we we're putting on. Yes, people died, but you know,
our hearts go out to their family. But this is
the World Cup. Why is this your first question? Uh?
There is no evidence for anything at this point other
than what we have heard from his brother and this
story that he has out there. He has been very
critical of the Qatari recently. So now this has become
something that's not that's that's that's begun being a tragedy,
(02:34):
and who knows what it is after this. Now you
know there's going to be an investigation, there's going to
be all kinds of of looking into this. So I
am comfort and knowing we're going to get the final
story on this, but it's just such a shocker. Mike
Grant Wall with someone who you know, everybody's got great
stories about him. You're seeing them on the internet right now,
and you've seen them all over social media. He was
(02:55):
a guide. He's been on our show so many times
in the last few years. The the story that I
could tell about him is that wherever he was in
the world, he would come on the show. And this
is where the time difference could mean. It could be
seven o'clock in the morning, it could be two o'clock
in the morning. But over the course of the years
we've had him on talking soccer with us. He was
at Fox for a long time as well. Wherever he was,
(03:17):
Hey can you come on and talk about this game? Yeah,
we really Yes, it's two o'clock in the morning. I'm good,
I'm good, I'll come on. He was fun, he was engaging,
and all the stories you're getting from him about the
kind journalists that he was always would help people. And
I can't tell you how many people I've seen saying
he helped me, and he didn't have to write like
he helped people. That wasn't like I'm gonna help you
and you're gonna do something for me. He helped me
(03:38):
when he didn't have to. And that's the kind of
guy he was, and and from our perspective, that's what
we knew as Hey, I know it's six thirty in
the morning. Yeah, oh yeah, I'm ready. I'm ready. I'll
come on. I'll come on and talk with whether it's
the United States game or or in Argentina or whatever
it was. He would always do that and Grant while
it was just forty seven years old, and I know
we're all just reeling and shocked by this story, and
(03:59):
it's in fancy still has this story is about less
than forty five minutes old right now. Yeah, there's a
couple of pieces to it. Number one, his his widow.
It sounds so strange to say this for a guy
that's been part of the coverage and a guy that
we've known here on the show. The widow um quote,
I'm so thankful for the support of my husband, soccer
family have so many friends who've reached out tonight. I'm
(04:21):
in complete shock. Um. She put that as part of
the US Soccer statement on Grant's death. Dr Selene Gonder,
who is a medicine, infectious disease and epidemiology expert. Um
Whall on Monday had talked about visiting a hospital while
(04:41):
in uh Qatar. Quote, my body finally broke down on me.
Three weeks a little sleep, high stress, and lots of
work can do that to you. What had been a
cold over the last ten days turned into something more
severe on the night of the US Netherlands game, and
I can feel my upper chest take on a new
level of pressure and discomfort. I didn't have COVID, but
I went into the medical clinic at the main media
(05:03):
center today and they said I probably have bronchitis. They
gave me a course of antibiotics and some heavy duty
cough syrup and I'm feeling a bit better just a
few hours later, but still no bueno. So an illness
uh that had afflicted him going on the better of
a week and a half as well high stress. And
remember he was detained trying to enter UM one of
(05:26):
the facilities with a the Rainbow as as part of
its shirts UM design and eventually was led into the game.
But you know, right now, just a lot of speculation
and you never want to get caught up in that
until there's more facts on the case. We understand brothers
frustration and certainly so much that's been written about, talked
(05:49):
about for many years since this game's was awarded uh
to to Qatar. And obviously you can watch all of
the documentaries about the Chicane or e Shenanigan's corruption and
just abject failure on a million levels in terms of
the administration leading to this this set of games. And
we've been thrilled by the action on the pitch, but
(06:12):
it all stops on a dive here with this news. Yeah,
it's and and you're going to read a lot of
things on social media and and and like I said,
the best thing is we're going to get to the
bottom of whatever it is. We're going to get an answer,
and and that's I know we want answers. Now, we
want it right away. What happened. We're going to get answers,
but they take time. Right I see the picture of
(06:32):
him all over social media that his brother posted the
rainbow t shirt wearing to get in standing up for
l g B t Q rights, which Qatari there aren't
that many of them. Um, his brother said, Hey, I'm gay.
He was standing up for me. And I want to
get to the bottom of this, and and everybody wants
to get to the bottom and we will. And and
that's the one thing is that we just have to
(06:53):
hold on. This is fresh, it's just happened, and we're
going to get answers on it. But for Grant Wallam's self,
just for a couple of minutes, you know, there's you know,
when he would come on with us. And I'm not
saying that we knew him off the air. I knew
him as as a as a radio guest and coming
on the show, and you know, you etun know people
a little bit over over the course of that. Um,
(07:14):
Pete few Tech is gonna come on with us later
on in the show. And I've been talking We've been
talking to Pete few Tech for I've been talking to
him for fifteen years, and we've been talking to him
for ten years. I know Pete few tech right, even
though we haven't met. But the one thing that would
always come across with Grant Wall and and this is
and this is a big difference in when you you
can hear the genuine voice in someone who who works
(07:38):
in sports for a living. You can tell when somebody
loves sports and loves what they're doing, and you can
tell when someone treats sports as a business. Hey, I
like sports, but I figured out a way to make
money at it, and I figured out a way to
be to be a difference maker, and I figured out
a way to be a voice even though you can
tell as sports really aren't my thing. Grant Wall is
(07:59):
a guy who loved sports. He loved soccer, the passion
which he would talk about soccer with us, the off
the cuff words he would say. You could tell this
is a guy that absolutely loved what he did. Right
now he was working. Uh, he was, he was employing
himself and he was he was he's a subscription based
model for his work and he was. Uh. He would
(08:20):
put out and say, hey, you can support me either
with a free subscription or with a paid subscription. This
is this is my venture now in life. Please I
I hope you can follow me on this. And this
is a guy basically he was saying, I paid to
go to Qatar by myself, right Like that's basically what
he's saying is I paid for this whole trip by
myself because I want to go and cover this because
I know that I have something to add and I
have something to to bring the world in in my takes,
(08:43):
and and and I want to go there for this.
And you could tell that always in how he spoke
with a soccer wise, just the passion that came through.
And those are the best guys in the world, the
guys that that that talk about sports, that love it.
You know, I I don't want anybody to do anything
for a living they don't love because you know, there's
no passion and and and really it comes across and
you you can tell there's people who have done really
(09:03):
well in our business. It's do really well right now.
You can tell you really like sports? Are you kind
of done with it? Have you ever really been into it?
Or do you only know? Like the top three guys
in the NFL and the NBA. Right, it's one of
those things. But Grant Wall just went right away and
he was he was very charismatic, someone that drew you in,
and even if you met him for the first time,
(09:24):
he was someone that you probably would be really close
with having a conversation. He would draw you right in.
And I say this about him, and if you asked
him about me or us, he would say, oh, yeah,
I kind of know those guys, right, because he does
this all you know, this is what he does for
a living. This shows you the impact that he had
to We can remember and and and see what he
(09:44):
was able to do and how he's able to affect
the world, the soccer world and the sporting world Sports
Illustrated nineties one and the other responsibilities including Fox Sports UM.
He had noted during the games he was honored i
FIFA for having attended and covered eight or more World Cups.
(10:04):
Like they went back and looked at the longevity and
how much UM coverage that they'd had the breath through
the years and and I mean think about that. That's uh,
that's a long long time. So um my, my best
wishes and sympathies to his family, friends, those that knew
him well, and our extended radio family who got to
(10:26):
know him through the interviews like we do here and
and all his media appearances. But to your point, Yeah,
he truly loved the game of soccer and part of
that education process is just so huge and one of
the great ambassadors for it. What he got frost And
he wasn't just a soccer guy. Remember he wrote the
huge story for S I called the Chosen One that
(10:48):
landed Lebron on the cover of S he covered. He
had the big one for John Wall too. I remember
it was Grant Wall writing about John Wall was like
a Wall and Wall is a whole big differently too,
you know, you just change it along the time. And
he was a big colleague. He covered a lot of
college basketball, the n c A tournaments that he covered
for Sports Illustrated throughout the time. Yes, I mean you
(11:11):
could tell. I mean you could tell the passion and
watching sports and reporting on it and covering it is
something that he absolutely loved. And there is I mean,
it's there's a huge void right now because of what
happened to Grant Wall. Again, Grant wall Uh, who has
died at the age of forty eight in Qatar, Uh,
circumstances are being investigated as to what actually happened, but
(11:33):
what we know right now is, again, if you're just
tuning in, UH, he collapsed while covering Argentina's match earlier
today against the Netherlands, and there's some questions by family
members knows, notably his brother, that potentially they think there
for some kind of foul play involved, as he was
very critical of the Qatari government going into the World
Cup and their lack of of human rights decisions to
(11:55):
UH have any kind of responsibility for the workers who
died in the World Cup. He wore a rainbow shirt,
was detained from getting into the stadium one day because
wearing a support of l g B t Q people
who aren't very welcomed UH there, and also in potential
support of his brother, who he says, hey, I'm gay
and he was supporting me as well. So we will
have more on Grant Wall as details become available throughout
(12:19):
the night here on Fox Sports Radio. Be sure to
catch live editions of The Jason Smith Show with Mike
Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern seven pm Pacific on
Fox Sports Radio and the I Heart Radio app. Alright,
at least it's a Christmas song. Okay, it's a holiday song.
What can I do? Fox Sports Radio The Jason Smith
Show with my best friend Mike Harmon. It is a
(12:41):
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Hey Jason, Yeah, what you got froms? We know what
we should cook on a Big Green Egg tonight? What
(13:02):
should we cook? Some Brazilian steaks? Oh? You know, we're
gonna get to that in a second. But there's actually
an on field, incredibly large soccer headline that I need
to make sure you guys all know about. The Brazil sucks.
Well we have that too, yes, and they knocked us
out of our World Cup to all the all the
great teams we had in our World Cup tournament. Uh,
(13:22):
guess who's playing in the n c A Championship Division
One Soccer On Monday, Syracuse Orange. They beat Craton three
to two, it was. It was so flipping exciting, and
they player, we don't even have it on here. It's ESPN.
You still exists. Yeah, you kidding, we don't have that.
It's it's it's it's it's no. Actually, Jason Bateman does
(13:45):
do on air stuff for ESPN. You know. It was,
it was. It was flipping exciting. I mean, I wish
it looked less like a rivalry football game on a
Friday night from an average high school. But uh, Syracuse beats.
They scored in the eighty five minute and had to
hold on. Oh my goodness. And here's the best part.
We get to play the winner of Indiana and Pittsburgh,
(14:06):
which right now I believe Indiana was leading one nothing
at halftime. Uh so we could get a rematch the
eight seven national title game in college hoops. You'll be now, No,
we get a revenge on Indiana. I'm excited. Yeah, Indiana
has now gone up to no minute at the second half. Indiana,
(14:26):
I'm big a nerd in my name one, I don't
know anybody, but it's exciting. What does it matter? Hey, hey,
it's all about the dame on the front of the jersey.
Frostper doesn't matter. That was exciting. Man, are you kidding?
I didn't. It doesn't matter, do I do? I have
to know that to be excited by the game of
reading the box course exciting, of course, not what. No,
(14:46):
watching the game was excited. You watch the game? It
was again. Okay, let me go back clean the wax
out of your ears on ESP and you before I
came in, the game ended like twenty minutes for I
had to get in the car to leave. Do you
want me to make your candle a candle with nail
polished by three? Uh? Oh, this is gonna be Uh,
this is gonna be outstanding. This is really what's gonna be.
(15:08):
Syracuse Indiana for all the marbles, and then maybe at
the end, Syracuse is gonna miss a penalty, and then
Indiana will make one at the very end, and Syracuse
will try to call time out for one final play
and the clock will take all the way down and
we'll lose. Maybe that's what's gonna happen. Oh I hope not. Well,
I mean, the beautiful thing is, you know a lot
about low scoring games, So right up, and your Jets fandom,
(15:34):
your Knicks fandom, and all and all kind of blends together.
But Leo, let me just say this right now. Look,
the World Cup had two incredible games to unbelievable games
that both get decided in penalties. By the way, Brazil,
I like that landing Donovan kept calling out, do they
want to win this game? Brazil didn't want to win
this game. Brazil is. Brazil is like they're like the
(15:55):
green Bay Packers of soccer. Like every time there's a
big turn where it's the World Copper year or something,
it's all Brazil, the brill Brazil is gonna look how
good Brazil, and Brazil finds a way to lose before
the final. I mean you say, they have everything, they
have star power, they are everything they need, and they
always find a way to not win. Right. They're they're
they're the Packers, They're the Buffalo But I can't say
(16:16):
the Buffalo Bills because that's like, that's like too far
back down. I gotta go back a couple of years
of teams that are really good that you think have
everything to make it to the super Bowl and can't
do it. They're the green Bay Packers. They're like green Bay.
They're like USC. Oh, you know they're gonna find They're
so talented Caleb Williams, They're gonna find a way to lose.
They're gonna find a way hurt us Brazil. That's to Brazil.
(16:39):
Is there there that they're always so incredibly talented, but
how many how often do they win? Not very much?
Why now they find o Yeah, they went the World
Cup twenty years ago, twenty years ago, and this is
when they had the greatest player in the world and
finally they were able to break through. But every year
is what happened to Brazil? What happened? But I actually
got a great hot take for you. You ready for this.
(17:00):
If I was the coach of No No, No, no,
no no. If I was the coach of Brazil, Brazil
would still be playing. Well if I was well, he
kind of said he was quitting, he was fired. He
was kind of, hey, I think this is He kind
of said, I think this is my last World Cup
and then after the game was yes, this is my
last World Cup right just because of this, right, and
(17:22):
this is you're talking about a guy that has coached
youth soccer for the past years at a decently high level,
not at the high you know, huge travel level where
you know we're playing national champion, just but you know,
at a pretty decent level. And even I know, right,
I know, when it comes to a shootout, what do
you do your first three? Your first three takers are
your best three players always, because those are the only
(17:45):
ones that are guaranteed you. You're not guaranteed to get
to your fourth and fifth shooter because that's not how
the math works, because it's out of five. And for
Brazil to have Neymark going fiveth he never even got
a chance because Brazil lost in the fourth round. Right,
what did Argentina do? Hey, Leonel Messi is first, we're
into the five. Leonel Messi his first goal, and how
(18:08):
do you save Naymar? And the coach and Tita said afterwards,
well a lot of pressure. We want to make sure
our best pressure players are taking the fourth and fifth kicks.
What are you crazy? No, it's good in theory. What
what are you in serious? No? No, no, look at
the logic. The logic kind of works is except you
actually have to play the game. Yeah, you actually have
to make sure your guy gets on the pitch to
(18:29):
make a difference, and he didn't. It's why your star pitcher. Yeah,
you'd love to have him for game seven. But you
throw him in game one and then you see how
it goes the rest of the way. I was stunned.
I'm like, really, Neymar is not he's not he's fifth, okay,
and it didn't get there, And I said that is
typically you know, that is that is karma coming back
(18:49):
and getting you saying yeah, because you wanted to outthink things, Oh,
we need someone who was fifth. You're not guaranteed to
get there, you think I have I know what the
outcome is going to be. We're gonna get to the
fourth and fifth round. Um, yeah, not so much. And
now you have to go and lose and say I
had my best player who didn't get to kick. And
it's one thing if he wasn't a great penalty taker,
(19:09):
because not every great score is a great penalty taker.
That that's just the way it goes. But most of
the time they are all right, Harry Kane always takes
the first penalty for England, right, messy takes and we're
not they all tell you all and Daymar is a
great penalty taker. Hey, I got him, I got him fifth.
Wa Well, he's not even guaranteed to get in. What
are you doing? Well? I mean I saw that. I said,
if I'm coaching, if I if you had like a
(19:31):
freaky Friday situation where my head hits the coach's head
and he's in my body, going, boy, I'm sitting here
eating a sandwich in Subway at twelve thirty. What what
am I doing? And I'm suddenly out there in the
World Cup and I'm so I'm saying, theymar no, your first,
We're gonna we're gonna knock everybody down to pick name.
Are you go first? Maybe they're still playing because maybe
they got one more goal instead of getting eliminated in
(19:51):
the fourth round. I don't understand that. I don't I
don't understand how you had your best places. I'm saving him.
You're saving him so he doesn't get on the pitch.
It's my mom's old line, right, it comes back again.
I'm saving him for good. Sometimes good never comes. The
other thing that that you have to go through in
this process is watching Brazil is the way they played
(20:12):
this game. And I've seen so many respected soccer journalists
choke jobs and everything being ascribed to it. But in
in watching the match, number of opportunities to where it's like,
all right, you don't stop stop trying to push it
in the eighteen. They gave you space to shoot the ball.
You can shoot the ball. You're a pro, right, you're
highly defined athlete who's going through all the academies whatever else.
(20:36):
Why are you trying to line it up for the
perfect shot because guess what that second and third guys
is gonna close back in on you. Not to mention
in the grand scheme of things. Now, I've only seen
Croatia play a few games, but I think I've seen
enough to know that Lavakovich, their goalie, is their best player.
Oh sure, he's outstanding, right, I mean he was just
(20:57):
said he's like a check a right tight shot in
my right though. I mean, in watching this team, not
not to take anything away from the the position players
running back and forth at any level, that their goalie
was outstanding and has been phenomenal this entire tournament to date.
(21:17):
So to say, hey, you know what, we're gonna go
and beat that guy to the point where our best
player doesn't need to shoot till till late is just assinine. Well.
I think the biggest issue with Brazil too, it's arrogance. Honestly,
they're the always the number one ranked team going into
any of these tournaments. And the thing I always notice
is that they always think they're gonna win. And it's
funny to me because Croatia two people don't know this,
(21:37):
but everything they've done for Pak's, especially up to this
definitive point, I would have took Croatia against Brazil if
it went to Pak's and it didn't, and look how
it turned out. Well, anytime you go to Pak's it's
it's a toss up, not against them, because Brazil proves it.
Look at you just said, but they had him fifth Jason, Yeah,
I'm feeling good. No, but normally that I mean, that's
the big that's the big field leveler is when you
(21:57):
go to penalties. When you go to penalties, the team
that should win feels more pressure and the team that
that has a chance to win. We played this way, Hey,
whatever it is, we can play loose. So it becomes
a toss up at that point. It's you know, you
you could you could hit the you could hit the crossbar,
you could hit you could you could kick one wide,
you can yanket and you can get you can get
a great save, doesn't matter. I mean, that's why you
(22:19):
want to avoid shootouts if you can, especially if you're
the the favorite team. But for a team like I
mean Brazil had it, I mean they had not only
did they were they able to you know, were not
able to convert in in penalties? Is that all you
gotta do is protect a one goal lead for like
five minutes and they still were playing fast and free
and and loosen up up across the field. I'm like,
(22:40):
how do you not park the bus and and make
sure you have more players back and not let them
play four on four on the back end? What are
you doing? What are you doing? What? What is happening here?
I meet up my Carmen if I was the head
coach of Brazil. No, no, no, I mean like if
you put me in like right before the big mistakes
for me, like right after name our scored, like right
(23:01):
if you put me right after that, just I was
just clear on that right after that, then they would
still be playing and they would go and it would
I would be a Disney movie. Look at this guy. Man,
he had heads with Lindsay Lohan, who had heads with
Jamie Lee Curtis, who had heads with the with Tita,
And now look at this now he's got his team
in the semifinals of the World Cup and and they're
not banging heads to get back together. I would be
that quasi motto on the pitch. I would be that guy. Yeah.
(23:24):
The fact that you have that many extra that much
an extra time as a whole other philosophical thing about
the game that I think, uh leaves folks scratching their head.
But you know what you played in the final whistle.
They did not twitter? And how about a fresca. Mike
gets swollen on the Jason Smith Show with my best
friend Mike Harmon. Now what this means, unfortunately, is you
(23:46):
and I are out of the World Cup pool. Here
at work. All the great teams we had, they all suck. Brazil,
they sucked, Germany, they suck, United States, they suck however
else we had to lost their first time. They suck.
We love. I thought we got all these great teams,
We're gonna win. And now Frostburg's gonna win. I'll be
(24:07):
eating Brazilian steaks. He's got Argentine your money. He hasn't
even paid all Frostburg. All he did was com proud
of it and holding a sign over her all the
all Frostburgs. That was complained. All these teams are terrible.
I'm not I'm not gonna win. I'm not gonna win. Now,
Argentine is the overwhelming favorite and if he's gonna win,
they survive after Netherlands scores in the eleventh minute of
(24:31):
stoppage time to Force, Force and Pek. What what a
crazy day of activity, I mean really on the pitch,
it was absolutely something. The Jason Smith Show with Mike
Carmen Live from the Tirac dot Com Studios, Phone numbers
eight seven seven ninety nine on Fox eight seven seven
nine six six three six nine. We could talk about
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(24:53):
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I mean talk about amazing. Learn more to s for
dot Com slasher deam rewards terms they do apply. Just
imagine that. Brazil head coach Jason Smith had this to
say following the match, um uh yeah, quite. Does anybody
know did the Mets sign anyone today? Did the met
(25:15):
before we begin? Who did the Mets get I'm here
in Qatar, my phone, I don't have the plan to
for WiFi can did the Mets sign anyone? Hello? Did
the Met side? That would be me, that would be
that guy. I think you'd be worried about the pressures
of trying to coach these games. Pressure on the line?
(25:35):
What do you what do you uh? Coach, Jason? How
do you feel about the pressure your team is favor
by pressure my team is facing. You tell you want pressure.
You talk about having to worry about watching Zach Wilson
played quarterback for the Jets, and then wonder how is
that ever gonna work out? And then you finally get
Mike White and you go, Okay, I could deal with pressure.
Next question, you see all the money being spent by
(25:56):
the Padres, and you wonder, what's my team doing? How
are we gonna keep up? I was all ready to
go celebrate a Brazilian victory at a churrascaria near us
and and now I got nothing. You can still go there, though,
you know, still I can't give my money. Now, come on, man,
they come over. They that's skirt steak and you go
to churist career for skirt steak. Oh, it's the greatest
(26:17):
in the world. I wanna eat it. Like bacon. Just go.
You gotta be honest. I don't need enough of uh
enough to make the buffet of those things so worth
my while anymore. Suris Korea? All right, there you go.
We'll have a holiday holiday holiday party there. Be sure
to catch live editions of The Jason Smith Show with
(26:38):
Mike harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven pm Pacific
Fox Sports Radio. Welcome to the Fox Sports Radio Tailgate,
presented by the Big Green Egg. Nothing beats the flavor
of live fire cooking on a Big Green Egg. It's
the most versatile grill you'll ever own. Back by a
lifetime warranty roll with the best shop online for free
delivery at Big green egg dot com Lifetime Warranty Home Delivery,
(27:01):
Big green egg dot Com. Well, I'm glad, ty Shirt,
you're finally in the holiday mood holiday holiday holiday uh
mood by playing some holiday music. I'm glad you you
just I know you're excited about Morocco tomorrow. I know
that's basically one so Jason, obviously Netherlands should have won.
Argentina is not that good, but yes, Morocco is going
to upset Portugal, sending Ronaldo on his little Christmas Tree
(27:22):
home because they'll never be in a World Cup again.
And then because I know Steve has France, we will
take Steve out too. Okay, first of all, it's not
it's like Sonocco. It's it's Morocco. Sure, yeah, it's yeah.
You can't gash your credit for unlettered that Sonocco. No,
we've never been to Morocco. Maybe they're like, welcome to Morocco, Rocold.
I mean, we we went and fought for years of
(27:44):
whether it's Qatar or Cutter, and all of a sudden
it's been uh agreed upon it's Qatar for the purposes
of these games, right, Yeah, but I don't think anybody
ever ever had a disagreement of whether is it is
it Morocco, is not, Morocco has been Morocco not. That
just means Alex T Shirt is trying to ring it
to uh saying well, what if we look at it
this way, maybe this is a little more interesting. Maybe
(28:05):
you like the way this rolls off your tongue better.
I don't know, is if the world was plot, is
it the United States or the United Stats? I don't know.
I can say that Nat, what's that the United States?
That's what it is. Uh So, good luck Syracuse or
is it okay? Seriously? That's that's soccer. National champion participants
(28:27):
Syracuse in the World Cup. If they win, they get
to enter the World Cup. They beat Indiana on Monday
for the National Championship, they get to enter the World Cup.
They go in as a wild card. That would be
something um earlier today, here's a lesson on how to
torpedo your career in one fell Swoop by Odell Beckham Jr. Now,
(28:47):
the status of Odell Beckham has been much debated over
the course of the last month. He's having this big
tour of teams that he might want to sign with,
the Caliberys, Giants, the Bills. There's been so much drama
players on social media saying, oh Dell's coming, Odell's here,
all the flirtation, Odell, Oh I want to sign O'Dell
is gonna be a big difference maker. And then over
the course last couple of days, interest has cooled. Why
(29:10):
because O'Dell said he wasn't gonna work out for any
teams and Jerry Jones kind of leading the charge by saying, yeah,
we're not sure how healthy he is. Remember we told
you a month ago. He wasn't going to be healthy.
That trying to get Odell Beckham now is a fool's
errand because he's not going to be hell, he's not
gonna be able to contribute. This is not Odell last year.
Getting him midseason where he's healthy, it was gonna be
(29:32):
a fool's errand to get him and just be glad
your team doesn't go win on the Odell Beckham bandwagon
just because it's gonna take him a long time to
get into shape to play a game and you don't
know if that's gonna happen. Well, maybe this is Odell
Beckham answering the critics. I think he's not gonna be ready,
but he goes on the shop and says that, oh
oh plane now yeah, no, no, no, I don't want
(29:54):
to play now. I only want to play one accounts.
Are you ready? How I haven't made a decision. If
I'm me, is like I would like. I would like
to to be in a stable environment, get up six am,
leave at six pm for four weeks and then let's
talk about it. I've played football for a long song.
I'm not saying that I couldn't step in and play
regular season. But I don't see the point. I really
(30:14):
don't like I would rather play when that presses on,
rather play when the licen is on. Like I went
through the whole playoffs, and I was after having my
first bad playoff experience, Like all I was ready for
was to clear that off my name. I don't see
the point in playing in the regular season. Think about
that for a second. I don't see the point of
(30:35):
playing in the regulars. I only want to play in
the playoffs. Well, I kind of why. I mean, I
do kind of a lot like that attitude for the veterans, right,
we always talked about it with a lot of guys.
Hey skip the preseason in the early part, right six
seven weeks ago, weren't they saying, Hey, rumors that this team,
that team, the other team are reaching out and sending
(30:57):
out signals to Rob ground cow Sky and his people,
whether it's smoked signals or whatever else. That was in
the middle of the year. So I understand that kind
of thing, except you're coming off a huge injury where
nobody knows what you are. What have I said for
the longest time, I don't know how much Odell Beckham
loves football. I don't know. I don't know that he
He doesn't come across as someone who loves football. He
(31:19):
likes being a star, he likes making money. How much
does he love football? Now I know exactly. He doesn't care.
I don't see the point of playing in the regular season. Hey, Odell,
we're all busting our ask to try to get to
the bleep in playoffs. Man, that's what we're doing. Oh,
but you don't see the point in the regular season.
Go someplace else. Then go someplace else, because that that
is that, that is how to torpedo your career in
(31:41):
one fell swoop. Oh, I don't know that if it's
I'm even worth playing the regular season. Okay, we're moving on.
We're going to somebody as the Cowboys saying we're excited
to get James Washington back this week. That's the guy
that's gonna be a difference maker for us. Now I would,
I would, There's no way I would get involved for Odell.
After hearing him say this, the guy's no. Does he
really want to play? He doesn't. He doesn't want to
(32:01):
play the playoffs really, And on top of that, dude,
you're not superstar. Odell Beckham anymore. You're not someone who, hey,
your talent outweighs the baggage that you bring to a team.
If you were still that player, okay, teams would say, well,
we don't care, photo is gonna be ready for the playoffs. Boy,
what a great gamble that would be. But things have changed.
(32:21):
You're not the same wide receiver that used to be.
We see it, we saw it last year. You might
even be the receiver you were a year ago. And
and so now to see here and say I don't
want to play till the playoffs, team just saying is
he for real? He's the one saying I don't want
to play until the playoffs. Yeah, now watch him go
unsigned for the rest of the season. I don't know
any team. No, no, we're not even that desperate. We
got good receivers. Why you're not making the playoffs so
(32:43):
he can sign there? I don't know. And stop, I
don't know anybody that would sign him after this. He
don't know if he's gonna be healthy and he doesn't
want to play until the plays. How do you walk
into a locker room grown, Okay, guys, I'm ready to go,
and they're looking at you going you see these bumps
and bruises from seventeen bleep in weeks of trying to
get here. Now you're ready to go. Dude, you're not
that good. You are not that good yet. He's he's
(33:03):
not gonna play this season at all. Watch him go
unsigned all the way through. Yeah, the curiosity was, you know,
do your parts words and just said, well, I don't
think he meant that. Maybe he was telling you wasn't
gonna be ready to the playoffs. I'm trying to spin
for him quite obviously, Uh, and how I would spin
it if I were his PR, team management, etcetera. But
(33:24):
to your point, yeah, it's it was gonna be a
ramp up regardless, and we don't have no idea where
he is physically. If he's not gonna let anybody kick
the tires, then you've got a million questions before you
consider him for whatever the uh salary is, and if
he wants a longer term deal you know, site unseen.
It's you know, I'm not buying the blind box football player.
(33:48):
I'll do it for a box of baseball cards, maybe
one of those things of hey, it's a grab bag
from a coffee and tea place. Uh, to give to
someone as a Christmas present, but in terms of my
receiving card now. But I'm gonna need to see what's
in the box? Oh, what's in the box? Twitter and
out about a Fresca Mike, it's swollen down next to
the tirect dot com studio. As we get back in
(34:09):
the biggest story of the night in sports. This is
Fox Sports Radio.
Thanks for listening to The Jason Smith Show with Mike
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(00:23):
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio. Greetings and welcome inside
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(00:44):
thousand recommended installers. Tirect dot com The way tire buying
should be well something to begin with tonight. Not at
all what I thought we were going to talk about,
fast becoming unfortunately the biggest story in the world. Grant
Wall soccer journalist, college basketball journalist. If you've listened to
(01:05):
the Sports Talk radio for any time in the last
fifteen years, you know his name. He's come on our
show plenty of times. Uh. He died earlier today in
Qatar covering the World Cup covering Netherlands match against Argentina.
These are some of the facts as we know them
at this time, as they have come in. It was
(01:29):
a situation in which he was covering the game. He
was tweeting about the game he was His last tweet
was about the great set piece Netherlands ran for a
goal uh to tie the game against Argentina, and shortly
after that he collapsed. He was taken to a hospital
and he was shortly pronounced dead thereafter. His brother has
put a message on social media that he believes his
(01:50):
brother was murdered. Grant Wall was very critical of the
Qatari regime for the World Cup. He put out a
story just yesterday about how Qatar doesn't care about the
worker deaths that have been taken place over the course
of the past few months and getting ready for the
World Cup. He has a quote from some organizers saying,
why are you asking me this question? There is I mean,
(02:10):
we we're putting on. Yes, people died, but you know,
our hearts go out to their family. But this is
the World Cup. Why is this your first question? Uh?
There is no evidence for anything at this point other
than what we have heard from his brother and this
story that he has out there. He has been very
critical of the Qatari recently. So now this has become
something that's not that's that's that's begun being a tragedy,
(02:34):
and who knows what it is after this. Now you
know there's going to be an investigation, there's going to
be all kinds of of looking into this. So I
am comfort and knowing we're going to get the final
story on this, but it's just such a shocker. Mike
Grant Wall with someone who you know, everybody's got great
stories about him. You're seeing them on the internet right now,
and you've seen them all over social media. He was
(02:55):
a guide. He's been on our show so many times
in the last few years. The the story that I
could tell about him is that wherever he was in
the world, he would come on the show. And this
is where the time difference could mean. It could be
seven o'clock in the morning, it could be two o'clock
in the morning. But over the course of the years
we've had him on talking soccer with us. He was
at Fox for a long time as well. Wherever he was,
(03:17):
Hey can you come on and talk about this game? Yeah,
we really Yes, it's two o'clock in the morning. I'm good,
I'm good, I'll come on. He was fun, he was engaging,
and all the stories you're getting from him about the
kind journalists that he was always would help people. And
I can't tell you how many people I've seen saying
he helped me, and he didn't have to write like
he helped people. That wasn't like I'm gonna help you
and you're gonna do something for me. He helped me
(03:38):
when he didn't have to. And that's the kind of
guy he was, and and from our perspective, that's what
we knew as Hey, I know it's six thirty in
the morning. Yeah, oh yeah, I'm ready. I'm ready. I'll
come on. I'll come on and talk with whether it's
the United States game or or in Argentina or whatever
it was. He would always do that and Grant while
it was just forty seven years old, and I know
we're all just reeling and shocked by this story, and
(03:59):
it's in fancy still has this story is about less
than forty five minutes old right now. Yeah, there's a
couple of pieces to it. Number one, his his widow.
It sounds so strange to say this for a guy
that's been part of the coverage and a guy that
we've known here on the show. The widow um quote,
I'm so thankful for the support of my husband, soccer
family have so many friends who've reached out tonight. I'm
(04:21):
in complete shock. Um. She put that as part of
the US Soccer statement on Grant's death. Dr Selene Gonder,
who is a medicine, infectious disease and epidemiology expert. Um
Whall on Monday had talked about visiting a hospital while
(04:41):
in uh Qatar. Quote, my body finally broke down on me.
Three weeks a little sleep, high stress, and lots of
work can do that to you. What had been a
cold over the last ten days turned into something more
severe on the night of the US Netherlands game, and
I can feel my upper chest take on a new
level of pressure and discomfort. I didn't have COVID, but
I went into the medical clinic at the main media
(05:03):
center today and they said I probably have bronchitis. They
gave me a course of antibiotics and some heavy duty
cough syrup and I'm feeling a bit better just a
few hours later, but still no bueno. So an illness
uh that had afflicted him going on the better of
a week and a half as well high stress. And
remember he was detained trying to enter UM one of
(05:26):
the facilities with a the Rainbow as as part of
its shirts UM design and eventually was led into the game.
But you know, right now, just a lot of speculation
and you never want to get caught up in that
until there's more facts on the case. We understand brothers
frustration and certainly so much that's been written about, talked
(05:49):
about for many years since this game's was awarded uh
to to Qatar. And obviously you can watch all of
the documentaries about the Chicane or e Shenanigan's corruption and
just abject failure on a million levels in terms of
the administration leading to this this set of games. And
we've been thrilled by the action on the pitch, but
(06:12):
it all stops on a dive here with this news. Yeah,
it's and and you're going to read a lot of
things on social media and and and like I said,
the best thing is we're going to get to the
bottom of whatever it is. We're going to get an answer,
and and that's I know we want answers. Now, we
want it right away. What happened. We're going to get answers,
but they take time. Right I see the picture of
(06:32):
him all over social media that his brother posted the
rainbow t shirt wearing to get in standing up for
l g B t Q rights, which Qatari there aren't
that many of them. Um, his brother said, Hey, I'm gay.
He was standing up for me. And I want to
get to the bottom of this, and and everybody wants
to get to the bottom and we will. And and
that's the one thing is that we just have to
(06:53):
hold on. This is fresh, it's just happened, and we're
going to get answers on it. But for Grant Wallam's self,
just for a couple of minutes, you know, there's you know,
when he would come on with us. And I'm not
saying that we knew him off the air. I knew
him as as a as a radio guest and coming
on the show, and you know, you etun know people
a little bit over over the course of that. Um,
(07:14):
Pete few Tech is gonna come on with us later
on in the show. And I've been talking We've been
talking to Pete few Tech for I've been talking to
him for fifteen years, and we've been talking to him
for ten years. I know Pete few tech right, even
though we haven't met. But the one thing that would
always come across with Grant Wall and and this is
and this is a big difference in when you you
can hear the genuine voice in someone who who works
(07:38):
in sports for a living. You can tell when somebody
loves sports and loves what they're doing, and you can
tell when someone treats sports as a business. Hey, I
like sports, but I figured out a way to make
money at it, and I figured out a way to
be to be a difference maker, and I figured out
a way to be a voice even though you can
tell as sports really aren't my thing. Grant Wall is
(07:59):
a guy who loved sports. He loved soccer, the passion
which he would talk about soccer with us, the off
the cuff words he would say. You could tell this
is a guy that absolutely loved what he did. Right
now he was working. Uh, he was, he was employing
himself and he was he was he's a subscription based
model for his work and he was. Uh. He would
(08:20):
put out and say, hey, you can support me either
with a free subscription or with a paid subscription. This
is this is my venture now in life. Please I
I hope you can follow me on this. And this
is a guy basically he was saying, I paid to
go to Qatar by myself, right Like that's basically what
he's saying is I paid for this whole trip by
myself because I want to go and cover this because
I know that I have something to add and I
have something to to bring the world in in my takes,
(08:43):
and and and I want to go there for this.
And you could tell that always in how he spoke
with a soccer wise, just the passion that came through.
And those are the best guys in the world, the
guys that that that talk about sports, that love it.
You know, I I don't want anybody to do anything
for a living they don't love because you know, there's
no passion and and and really it comes across and
you you can tell there's people who have done really
(09:03):
well in our business. It's do really well right now.
You can tell you really like sports? Are you kind
of done with it? Have you ever really been into it?
Or do you only know? Like the top three guys
in the NFL and the NBA. Right, it's one of
those things. But Grant Wall just went right away and
he was he was very charismatic, someone that drew you in,
and even if you met him for the first time,
(09:24):
he was someone that you probably would be really close
with having a conversation. He would draw you right in.
And I say this about him, and if you asked
him about me or us, he would say, oh, yeah,
I kind of know those guys, right, because he does
this all you know, this is what he does for
a living. This shows you the impact that he had
to We can remember and and and see what he
(09:44):
was able to do and how he's able to affect
the world, the soccer world and the sporting world Sports
Illustrated nineties one and the other responsibilities including Fox Sports UM.
He had noted during the games he was honored i
FIFA for having attended and covered eight or more World Cups.
(10:04):
Like they went back and looked at the longevity and
how much UM coverage that they'd had the breath through
the years and and I mean think about that. That's uh,
that's a long long time. So um my, my best
wishes and sympathies to his family, friends, those that knew
him well, and our extended radio family who got to
(10:26):
know him through the interviews like we do here and
and all his media appearances. But to your point, Yeah,
he truly loved the game of soccer and part of
that education process is just so huge and one of
the great ambassadors for it. What he got frost And
he wasn't just a soccer guy. Remember he wrote the
huge story for S I called the Chosen One that
(10:48):
landed Lebron on the cover of S he covered. He
had the big one for John Wall too. I remember
it was Grant Wall writing about John Wall was like
a Wall and Wall is a whole big differently too,
you know, you just change it along the time. And
he was a big colleague. He covered a lot of
college basketball, the n c A tournaments that he covered
for Sports Illustrated throughout the time. Yes, I mean you
(11:11):
could tell. I mean you could tell the passion and
watching sports and reporting on it and covering it is
something that he absolutely loved. And there is I mean,
it's there's a huge void right now because of what
happened to Grant Wall. Again, Grant wall Uh, who has
died at the age of forty eight in Qatar, Uh,
circumstances are being investigated as to what actually happened, but
(11:33):
what we know right now is, again, if you're just
tuning in, UH, he collapsed while covering Argentina's match earlier
today against the Netherlands, and there's some questions by family
members knows, notably his brother, that potentially they think there
for some kind of foul play involved, as he was
very critical of the Qatari government going into the World
Cup and their lack of of human rights decisions to
(11:55):
UH have any kind of responsibility for the workers who
died in the World Cup. He wore a rainbow shirt,
was detained from getting into the stadium one day because
wearing a support of l g B t Q people
who aren't very welcomed UH there, and also in potential
support of his brother, who he says, hey, I'm gay
and he was supporting me as well. So we will
have more on Grant Wall as details become available throughout
(12:19):
the night here on Fox Sports Radio. Be sure to
catch live editions of The Jason Smith Show with Mike
Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern seven pm Pacific on
Fox Sports Radio and the I Heart Radio app. Alright,
at least it's a Christmas song. Okay, it's a holiday song.
What can I do? Fox Sports Radio The Jason Smith
Show with my best friend Mike Harmon. It is a
(12:41):
Fox Sports Radio tailgate presented by the Big Green Egg.
Nothing beats the flavor of live fire cooking on a
Big Green Egg. It's the most versatile grill you'll lever.
Owned back by a lifetime warranty roll with the best
shop online for free delivery at Big green egg dot com.
Lifetime warranty, free home delivery, Big green egg dot com.
Hey Jason, Yeah, what you got froms? We know what
we should cook on a Big Green Egg tonight? What
(13:02):
should we cook? Some Brazilian steaks? Oh? You know, we're
gonna get to that in a second. But there's actually
an on field, incredibly large soccer headline that I need
to make sure you guys all know about. The Brazil sucks.
Well we have that too, yes, and they knocked us
out of our World Cup to all the all the
great teams we had in our World Cup tournament. Uh,
(13:22):
guess who's playing in the n c A Championship Division
One Soccer On Monday, Syracuse Orange. They beat Craton three
to two, it was. It was so flipping exciting, and
they player, we don't even have it on here. It's ESPN.
You still exists. Yeah, you kidding, we don't have that.
It's it's it's it's it's no. Actually, Jason Bateman does
(13:45):
do on air stuff for ESPN. You know. It was,
it was. It was flipping exciting. I mean, I wish
it looked less like a rivalry football game on a
Friday night from an average high school. But uh, Syracuse beats.
They scored in the eighty five minute and had to
hold on. Oh my goodness. And here's the best part.
We get to play the winner of Indiana and Pittsburgh,
(14:06):
which right now I believe Indiana was leading one nothing
at halftime. Uh so we could get a rematch the
eight seven national title game in college hoops. You'll be now, No,
we get a revenge on Indiana. I'm excited. Yeah, Indiana
has now gone up to no minute at the second half. Indiana,
(14:26):
I'm big a nerd in my name one, I don't
know anybody, but it's exciting. What does it matter? Hey, hey,
it's all about the dame on the front of the jersey.
Frostper doesn't matter. That was exciting. Man, are you kidding?
I didn't. It doesn't matter, do I do? I have
to know that to be excited by the game of
reading the box course exciting, of course, not what. No,
(14:46):
watching the game was excited. You watch the game? It
was again. Okay, let me go back clean the wax
out of your ears on ESP and you before I
came in, the game ended like twenty minutes for I
had to get in the car to leave. Do you
want me to make your candle a candle with nail
polished by three? Uh? Oh, this is gonna be Uh,
this is gonna be outstanding. This is really what's gonna be.
(15:08):
Syracuse Indiana for all the marbles, and then maybe at
the end, Syracuse is gonna miss a penalty, and then
Indiana will make one at the very end, and Syracuse
will try to call time out for one final play
and the clock will take all the way down and
we'll lose. Maybe that's what's gonna happen. Oh I hope not. Well,
I mean, the beautiful thing is, you know a lot
about low scoring games, So right up, and your Jets fandom,
(15:34):
your Knicks fandom, and all and all kind of blends together.
But Leo, let me just say this right now. Look,
the World Cup had two incredible games to unbelievable games
that both get decided in penalties. By the way, Brazil,
I like that landing Donovan kept calling out, do they
want to win this game? Brazil didn't want to win
this game. Brazil is. Brazil is like they're like the
(15:55):
green Bay Packers of soccer. Like every time there's a
big turn where it's the World Copper year or something,
it's all Brazil, the brill Brazil is gonna look how
good Brazil, and Brazil finds a way to lose before
the final. I mean you say, they have everything, they
have star power, they are everything they need, and they
always find a way to not win. Right. They're they're
they're the Packers, They're the Buffalo But I can't say
(16:16):
the Buffalo Bills because that's like, that's like too far
back down. I gotta go back a couple of years
of teams that are really good that you think have
everything to make it to the super Bowl and can't
do it. They're the green Bay Packers. They're like green Bay.
They're like USC. Oh, you know they're gonna find They're
so talented Caleb Williams, They're gonna find a way to lose.
They're gonna find a way hurt us Brazil. That's to Brazil.
(16:39):
Is there there that they're always so incredibly talented, but
how many how often do they win? Not very much?
Why now they find o Yeah, they went the World
Cup twenty years ago, twenty years ago, and this is
when they had the greatest player in the world and
finally they were able to break through. But every year
is what happened to Brazil? What happened? But I actually
got a great hot take for you. You ready for this.
(17:00):
If I was the coach of No No, No, no,
no no. If I was the coach of Brazil, Brazil
would still be playing. Well if I was well, he
kind of said he was quitting, he was fired. He
was kind of, hey, I think this is He kind
of said, I think this is my last World Cup
and then after the game was yes, this is my
last World Cup right just because of this, right, and
(17:22):
this is you're talking about a guy that has coached
youth soccer for the past years at a decently high level,
not at the high you know, huge travel level where
you know we're playing national champion, just but you know,
at a pretty decent level. And even I know, right,
I know, when it comes to a shootout, what do
you do your first three? Your first three takers are
your best three players always, because those are the only
(17:45):
ones that are guaranteed you. You're not guaranteed to get
to your fourth and fifth shooter because that's not how
the math works, because it's out of five. And for
Brazil to have Neymark going fiveth he never even got
a chance because Brazil lost in the fourth round. Right,
what did Argentina do? Hey, Leonel Messi is first, we're
into the five. Leonel Messi his first goal, and how
(18:08):
do you save Naymar? And the coach and Tita said afterwards,
well a lot of pressure. We want to make sure
our best pressure players are taking the fourth and fifth kicks.
What are you crazy? No, it's good in theory. What
what are you in serious? No? No, no, look at
the logic. The logic kind of works is except you
actually have to play the game. Yeah, you actually have
to make sure your guy gets on the pitch to
(18:29):
make a difference, and he didn't. It's why your star pitcher. Yeah,
you'd love to have him for game seven. But you
throw him in game one and then you see how
it goes the rest of the way. I was stunned.
I'm like, really, Neymar is not he's not he's fifth, okay,
and it didn't get there, And I said that is
typically you know, that is that is karma coming back
(18:49):
and getting you saying yeah, because you wanted to outthink things, Oh,
we need someone who was fifth. You're not guaranteed to
get there, you think I have I know what the
outcome is going to be. We're gonna get to the
fourth and fifth round. Um, yeah, not so much. And
now you have to go and lose and say I
had my best player who didn't get to kick. And
it's one thing if he wasn't a great penalty taker,
(19:09):
because not every great score is a great penalty taker.
That that's just the way it goes. But most of
the time they are all right, Harry Kane always takes
the first penalty for England, right, messy takes and we're
not they all tell you all and Daymar is a
great penalty taker. Hey, I got him, I got him fifth.
Wa Well, he's not even guaranteed to get in. What
are you doing? Well? I mean I saw that. I said,
if I'm coaching, if I if you had like a
(19:31):
freaky Friday situation where my head hits the coach's head
and he's in my body, going, boy, I'm sitting here
eating a sandwich in Subway at twelve thirty. What what
am I doing? And I'm suddenly out there in the
World Cup and I'm so I'm saying, theymar no, your first,
We're gonna we're gonna knock everybody down to pick name.
Are you go first? Maybe they're still playing because maybe
they got one more goal instead of getting eliminated in
(19:51):
the fourth round. I don't understand that. I don't I
don't understand how you had your best places. I'm saving him.
You're saving him so he doesn't get on the pitch.
It's my mom's old line, right, it comes back again.
I'm saving him for good. Sometimes good never comes. The
other thing that that you have to go through in
this process is watching Brazil is the way they played
(20:12):
this game. And I've seen so many respected soccer journalists
choke jobs and everything being ascribed to it. But in
in watching the match, number of opportunities to where it's like,
all right, you don't stop stop trying to push it
in the eighteen. They gave you space to shoot the ball.
You can shoot the ball. You're a pro, right, you're
highly defined athlete who's going through all the academies whatever else.
(20:36):
Why are you trying to line it up for the
perfect shot because guess what that second and third guys
is gonna close back in on you. Not to mention
in the grand scheme of things. Now, I've only seen
Croatia play a few games, but I think I've seen
enough to know that Lavakovich, their goalie, is their best player.
Oh sure, he's outstanding, right, I mean he was just
(20:57):
said he's like a check a right tight shot in
my right though. I mean, in watching this team, not
not to take anything away from the the position players
running back and forth at any level, that their goalie
was outstanding and has been phenomenal this entire tournament to date.
(21:17):
So to say, hey, you know what, we're gonna go
and beat that guy to the point where our best
player doesn't need to shoot till till late is just assinine. Well.
I think the biggest issue with Brazil too, it's arrogance. Honestly,
they're the always the number one ranked team going into
any of these tournaments. And the thing I always notice
is that they always think they're gonna win. And it's
funny to me because Croatia two people don't know this,
(21:37):
but everything they've done for Pak's, especially up to this
definitive point, I would have took Croatia against Brazil if
it went to Pak's and it didn't, and look how
it turned out. Well, anytime you go to Pak's it's
it's a toss up, not against them, because Brazil proves it.
Look at you just said, but they had him fifth Jason, Yeah,
I'm feeling good. No, but normally that I mean, that's
the big that's the big field leveler is when you
(21:57):
go to penalties. When you go to penalties, the team
that should win feels more pressure and the team that
that has a chance to win. We played this way, Hey,
whatever it is, we can play loose. So it becomes
a toss up at that point. It's you know, you
you could you could hit the you could hit the crossbar,
you could hit you could you could kick one wide,
you can yanket and you can get you can get
a great save, doesn't matter. I mean, that's why you
(22:19):
want to avoid shootouts if you can, especially if you're
the the favorite team. But for a team like I
mean Brazil had it, I mean they had not only
did they were they able to you know, were not
able to convert in in penalties? Is that all you
gotta do is protect a one goal lead for like
five minutes and they still were playing fast and free
and and loosen up up across the field. I'm like,
(22:40):
how do you not park the bus and and make
sure you have more players back and not let them
play four on four on the back end? What are
you doing? What are you doing? What? What is happening here?
I meet up my Carmen if I was the head
coach of Brazil. No, no, no, I mean like if
you put me in like right before the big mistakes
for me, like right after name our scored, like right
(23:01):
if you put me right after that, just I was
just clear on that right after that, then they would
still be playing and they would go and it would
I would be a Disney movie. Look at this guy. Man,
he had heads with Lindsay Lohan, who had heads with
Jamie Lee Curtis, who had heads with the with Tita,
And now look at this now he's got his team
in the semifinals of the World Cup and and they're
not banging heads to get back together. I would be
that quasi motto on the pitch. I would be that guy. Yeah.
(23:24):
The fact that you have that many extra that much
an extra time as a whole other philosophical thing about
the game that I think, uh leaves folks scratching their head.
But you know what you played in the final whistle.
They did not twitter? And how about a fresca. Mike
gets swollen on the Jason Smith Show with my best
friend Mike Harmon. Now what this means, unfortunately, is you
(23:46):
and I are out of the World Cup pool. Here
at work. All the great teams we had, they all suck. Brazil,
they sucked, Germany, they suck, United States, they suck however
else we had to lost their first time. They suck.
We love. I thought we got all these great teams,
We're gonna win. And now Frostburg's gonna win. I'll be
(24:07):
eating Brazilian steaks. He's got Argentine your money. He hasn't
even paid all Frostburg. All he did was com proud
of it and holding a sign over her all the
all Frostburgs. That was complained. All these teams are terrible.
I'm not I'm not gonna win. I'm not gonna win. Now,
Argentine is the overwhelming favorite and if he's gonna win,
they survive after Netherlands scores in the eleventh minute of
(24:31):
stoppage time to Force, Force and Pek. What what a
crazy day of activity, I mean really on the pitch,
it was absolutely something. The Jason Smith Show with Mike
Carmen Live from the Tirac dot Com Studios, Phone numbers
eight seven seven ninety nine on Fox eight seven seven
nine six six three six nine. We could talk about
how complicated other banks make it to radeam credit card rewards,
(24:53):
or we could talk about how with Discover you can
redeem your rewards for catching any amount of any time.
I mean talk about amazing. Learn more to s for
dot Com slasher deam rewards terms they do apply. Just
imagine that. Brazil head coach Jason Smith had this to
say following the match, um uh yeah, quite. Does anybody
know did the Mets sign anyone today? Did the met
(25:15):
before we begin? Who did the Mets get I'm here
in Qatar, my phone, I don't have the plan to
for WiFi can did the Mets sign anyone? Hello? Did
the Met side? That would be me, that would be
that guy. I think you'd be worried about the pressures
of trying to coach these games. Pressure on the line?
(25:35):
What do you what do you uh? Coach, Jason? How
do you feel about the pressure your team is favor
by pressure my team is facing. You tell you want pressure.
You talk about having to worry about watching Zach Wilson
played quarterback for the Jets, and then wonder how is
that ever gonna work out? And then you finally get
Mike White and you go, Okay, I could deal with pressure.
Next question, you see all the money being spent by
(25:56):
the Padres, and you wonder, what's my team doing? How
are we gonna keep up? I was all ready to
go celebrate a Brazilian victory at a churrascaria near us
and and now I got nothing. You can still go there, though,
you know, still I can't give my money. Now, come on, man,
they come over. They that's skirt steak and you go
to churist career for skirt steak. Oh, it's the greatest
(26:17):
in the world. I wanna eat it. Like bacon. Just go.
You gotta be honest. I don't need enough of uh
enough to make the buffet of those things so worth
my while anymore. Suris Korea? All right, there you go.
We'll have a holiday holiday holiday party there. Be sure
to catch live editions of The Jason Smith Show with
(26:38):
Mike harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven pm Pacific
Fox Sports Radio. Welcome to the Fox Sports Radio Tailgate,
presented by the Big Green Egg. Nothing beats the flavor
of live fire cooking on a Big Green Egg. It's
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delivery at Big green egg dot com Lifetime Warranty Home Delivery,
(27:01):
Big green egg dot Com. Well, I'm glad, ty Shirt,
you're finally in the holiday mood holiday holiday holiday uh
mood by playing some holiday music. I'm glad you you
just I know you're excited about Morocco tomorrow. I know
that's basically one so Jason, obviously Netherlands should have won.
Argentina is not that good, but yes, Morocco is going
to upset Portugal, sending Ronaldo on his little Christmas Tree
(27:22):
home because they'll never be in a World Cup again.
And then because I know Steve has France, we will
take Steve out too. Okay, first of all, it's not
it's like Sonocco. It's it's Morocco. Sure, yeah, it's yeah.
You can't gash your credit for unlettered that Sonocco. No,
we've never been to Morocco. Maybe they're like, welcome to Morocco, Rocold.
I mean, we we went and fought for years of
(27:44):
whether it's Qatar or Cutter, and all of a sudden
it's been uh agreed upon it's Qatar for the purposes
of these games, right, Yeah, but I don't think anybody
ever ever had a disagreement of whether is it is
it Morocco, is not, Morocco has been Morocco not. That
just means Alex T Shirt is trying to ring it
to uh saying well, what if we look at it
this way, maybe this is a little more interesting. Maybe
(28:05):
you like the way this rolls off your tongue better.
I don't know, is if the world was plot, is
it the United States or the United Stats? I don't know.
I can say that Nat, what's that the United States?
That's what it is. Uh So, good luck Syracuse or
is it okay? Seriously? That's that's soccer. National champion participants
(28:27):
Syracuse in the World Cup. If they win, they get
to enter the World Cup. They beat Indiana on Monday
for the National Championship, they get to enter the World Cup.
They go in as a wild card. That would be
something um earlier today, here's a lesson on how to
torpedo your career in one fell Swoop by Odell Beckham Jr. Now,
(28:47):
the status of Odell Beckham has been much debated over
the course of the last month. He's having this big
tour of teams that he might want to sign with,
the Caliberys, Giants, the Bills. There's been so much drama
players on social media saying, oh Dell's coming, Odell's here,
all the flirtation, Odell, Oh I want to sign O'Dell
is gonna be a big difference maker. And then over
the course last couple of days, interest has cooled. Why
(29:10):
because O'Dell said he wasn't gonna work out for any
teams and Jerry Jones kind of leading the charge by saying, yeah,
we're not sure how healthy he is. Remember we told
you a month ago. He wasn't going to be healthy.
That trying to get Odell Beckham now is a fool's
errand because he's not going to be hell, he's not
gonna be able to contribute. This is not Odell last year.
Getting him midseason where he's healthy, it was gonna be
(29:32):
a fool's errand to get him and just be glad
your team doesn't go win on the Odell Beckham bandwagon
just because it's gonna take him a long time to
get into shape to play a game and you don't
know if that's gonna happen. Well, maybe this is Odell
Beckham answering the critics. I think he's not gonna be ready,
but he goes on the shop and says that, oh
oh plane now yeah, no, no, no, I don't want
(29:54):
to play now. I only want to play one accounts.
Are you ready? How I haven't made a decision. If
I'm me, is like I would like. I would like
to to be in a stable environment, get up six am,
leave at six pm for four weeks and then let's
talk about it. I've played football for a long song.
I'm not saying that I couldn't step in and play
regular season. But I don't see the point. I really
(30:14):
don't like I would rather play when that presses on,
rather play when the licen is on. Like I went
through the whole playoffs, and I was after having my
first bad playoff experience, Like all I was ready for
was to clear that off my name. I don't see
the point in playing in the regular season. Think about
that for a second. I don't see the point of
(30:35):
playing in the regulars. I only want to play in
the playoffs. Well, I kind of why. I mean, I
do kind of a lot like that attitude for the veterans, right,
we always talked about it with a lot of guys.
Hey skip the preseason in the early part, right six
seven weeks ago, weren't they saying, Hey, rumors that this team,
that team, the other team are reaching out and sending
(30:57):
out signals to Rob ground cow Sky and his people,
whether it's smoked signals or whatever else. That was in
the middle of the year. So I understand that kind
of thing, except you're coming off a huge injury where
nobody knows what you are. What have I said for
the longest time, I don't know how much Odell Beckham
loves football. I don't know. I don't know that he
He doesn't come across as someone who loves football. He
(31:19):
likes being a star, he likes making money. How much
does he love football? Now I know exactly. He doesn't care.
I don't see the point of playing in the regular season. Hey, Odell,
we're all busting our ask to try to get to
the bleep in playoffs. Man, that's what we're doing. Oh,
but you don't see the point in the regular season.
Go someplace else. Then go someplace else, because that that
is that, that is how to torpedo your career in
(31:41):
one fell swoop. Oh, I don't know that if it's
I'm even worth playing the regular season. Okay, we're moving on.
We're going to somebody as the Cowboys saying we're excited
to get James Washington back this week. That's the guy
that's gonna be a difference maker for us. Now I would,
I would, There's no way I would get involved for Odell.
After hearing him say this, the guy's no. Does he
really want to play? He doesn't. He doesn't want to
(32:01):
play the playoffs really, And on top of that, dude,
you're not superstar. Odell Beckham anymore. You're not someone who, hey,
your talent outweighs the baggage that you bring to a team.
If you were still that player, okay, teams would say, well,
we don't care, photo is gonna be ready for the playoffs. Boy,
what a great gamble that would be. But things have changed.
(32:21):
You're not the same wide receiver that used to be.
We see it, we saw it last year. You might
even be the receiver you were a year ago. And
and so now to see here and say I don't
want to play till the playoffs, team just saying is
he for real? He's the one saying I don't want
to play until the playoffs. Yeah, now watch him go
unsigned for the rest of the season. I don't know
any team. No, no, we're not even that desperate. We
got good receivers. Why you're not making the playoffs so
(32:43):
he can sign there? I don't know. And stop, I
don't know anybody that would sign him after this. He
don't know if he's gonna be healthy and he doesn't
want to play until the plays. How do you walk
into a locker room grown, Okay, guys, I'm ready to go,
and they're looking at you going you see these bumps
and bruises from seventeen bleep in weeks of trying to
get here. Now you're ready to go. Dude, you're not
that good. You are not that good yet. He's he's
(33:03):
not gonna play this season at all. Watch him go
unsigned all the way through. Yeah, the curiosity was, you know,
do your parts words and just said, well, I don't
think he meant that. Maybe he was telling you wasn't
gonna be ready to the playoffs. I'm trying to spin
for him quite obviously, Uh, and how I would spin
it if I were his PR, team management, etcetera. But
(33:24):
to your point, yeah, it's it was gonna be a
ramp up regardless, and we don't have no idea where
he is physically. If he's not gonna let anybody kick
the tires, then you've got a million questions before you
consider him for whatever the uh salary is, and if
he wants a longer term deal you know, site unseen.
It's you know, I'm not buying the blind box football player.
(33:48):
I'll do it for a box of baseball cards, maybe
one of those things of hey, it's a grab bag
from a coffee and tea place. Uh, to give to
someone as a Christmas present, but in terms of my
receiving card now. But I'm gonna need to see what's
in the box? Oh, what's in the box? Twitter and
out about a Fresca Mike, it's swollen down next to
the tirect dot com studio. As we get back in
(34:09):
the biggest story of the night in sports. This is
Fox Sports Radio.
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Mike Harmon
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