March 16, 2022 • 39 mins
In hour two of The Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon, Mike and Aaron Torres put a spotlight on the coverage of some teams in college basketball. We have some breaking news coming out of MLB. The guys circle back to Baker Mayfield’s social media post he released on the heels of the Browns meeting with Deshaun Watson. Then, Aaron Torres shares a fun March Madness fact.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for listening to The Jason Smith Show with Mike
Harmen 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 Fox Sports
Radio dot com, or stream us live every night on
the I Heart Radio app by searching fs R. You're
(00:24):
listening to Fox Sports Radio. Great Eggs. Welcome in. It
is our two of the program to Jason Smith Show
with Mike Harmon Here Fox Sports Radio. Jason off to night,
A little under the weather, hopefully watching maybe episode two
of Winning Time, a little more John c Riley in
your life, I don't know, whatever it is, feel better
(00:45):
and maybe we'll see him again tomorrow, that's the hope.
In the interim, you can send him all the cards
and flowers at al about a Fresco on Twitter. Uh.
For those that are here in studio, it's good to
see you, Aaron Torres. It's good a minute since you
and I have had a chance to which change ideas
and such. When is the last time that we worked together.
I really think it was pre COVID, So we're going
(01:05):
on literally two years now. It is really difficult. At
some point, I wanted to do a log because I've
been at Fox Sports Radio and various capacities for a
long time now. Uh. For a while, it was Sunday
mornings doing the Fantasy show only, and then we'd cycle
out someone else would come into the Sunday spot until
football came back, and then taddah, there I am again. Uh.
(01:25):
And after a while and convinced we can open mouth
say things about other stuff. Uh, and became year round
some lobbying behind the scenes, you know, you had to do.
Look at what I do and the number of shows
that would have me on, kick their feet up and
let me talk for an hour help my case as well. Uh,
and eventually into this role. But the point is, over
the course of time, at some point I'm going to
(01:48):
do the list of all the folks I have worked
with and trying to keep an idea of last times, right.
I was telling you at the break. You know, Mark
Willer and I had a chance to do a Sunday
show a couple of weeks ago and talked with Willard
on air, and we figured out it had to be
at least four years. Well, he was he's been gone
for a year too, right at least, Yeah, he went
and went and was with another national outlet right as
(02:12):
part of their processes, so he couldn't things. So things change,
affiliations change, you hop and in our jobs, right that
that happens a lot. I just know he got a
lot tough. He got the toughest shift last week. He
had to work with Arnie Spaniards. So look at that.
The it took all of the two minutes to get
in another Arnie span. Your reference, however, on your mind,
(02:34):
isn't he Oh wow, I just took it. That's kind
of a dig at me. No, no, no, no, it's
not a dig at you. It's just a you guys
have formed a partnership and those that listen on Fox
Sports Radio on the weekends and and subbing for me
and Jason when we're on holiday, that is a combination
that you hear in this time slot and you you
love their back and forth, and certainly it's it's like
(02:55):
a familial relationships when you guys get together. I was
gonna say you you use the word radio legend earlier
in the show, and he really is. And and I
think everybody and I've had a few people even tweet in, oh,
you know, I love tours, especially when he's on with Arnie.
Not that they don't love tours and harmon of course,
our harmon and tours really um but you know you
can love our hateing. Just keep listening. Yeah, well, I
whatever that energy is, I'm gonna soak it up anyway,
(03:17):
like a major supervillain in some comic there you yeah,
so uh so. Anyway, So the point is that I
was gonna get to is that, as you said, he
is a radio legend. And when I when I tease,
I tease out of love. He's a great guy, a
good person off the air, a great host. And uh
and yeah, who knows when you and Jason go back
on vocation, maybe we'll be in, maybe we won't be.
(03:39):
But whenever I, whenever I mentioned his name, it's it's
in the best, most fun possible way. Now we celebrate
it because look, one of the things that you know
in our business, you know, we we all are fans
and listeners. I mean, we appreciate all of you out
there being part of our extended family. But it is
a business where you do a lot of a lot
of dancing, a lot of moving, moving parts and moving
(04:00):
daytime and different shifts and whatever. But I I speak
to it here at Fox Sports Radio, being blessed to
to work with such a breath of of and wealth
of information and talent and guys that have been in
this business along. Like I got to work with Mike North.
He was a guy grew up listening to in Chicago.
Working with Arnie. He was a guy when I was
(04:20):
doing trading card shows on the weekend. That was the
guy was listening to while I was sitting pricing things
the next morning. If you know what I'm asking, how
long ago? Is that a long time ago? Yeah? Like
that would have been early Arnie. But you know what,
he had that raspy voice even then. How about that
it's always one of the eight years old that he
just says he did some damage to those vocal cords,
whether it was smoking, drinking, or just screaming at you know,
(04:43):
teams he didn't like. Maybe all three that combination gives
us the the beautiful voice. But the point being, you know,
every once in a while you pull back. I've got
my Find your Wins blog, you could find it, and
and it's like daily trying to pull back and and account.
Even if if it's the worst day, and that goes
for everybody, there's always one or two things that stand out.
(05:04):
And I'll bless to have the microphone. We get to
talk about sports, yuck it up a little bit, even
serious topics. We're having debates that you know, make you think,
make you laugh, make you shake your fist, whatever the
case is. That's our role here, trying to get that
emotional resonance. As it were, I went and saw Syan
no again. This is one of the jump off points.
Is uh, Peter Dinklige in the role we all know
(05:24):
the Syrano de berge rac Right, You've got the guy
that can't speak for himself, and you have the person
in town and and normally it's been portrayed as someone
with u a big nose. Has always been the so
you know, this beautiful woman wouldn't want me even though
their childhood friends whatever else. And in this case it's
Peter Danklige. Uh. And he's a dwarf, so he's like,
(05:47):
she could never love me and their friends, but now
she falls in love with the eye, you know, eyeing
this other man in his regiment, right, French army and
all of that. But he's good with words, and that's
the whole movie for me, is the the power of
words spoken and those that are not. And so here
on the radio, obviously we open mouths say things. Sometimes
(06:10):
they'll be that dramatic pause at the end of a
sentence because I want you to go dot dot dot
and let your brain take it the rest of the way.
So that's it. It's theater of the mind. That's what
we do here at Fox Sports Radio. And that's what
Baker Mayfield's doing with the Cleveland Browns. And we'll get
back into that in about ten minutes from now, because
as the world turns and in the quarterback world, But
(06:31):
we teased it ahead and this is one of the
things I wanted to throw out to you, Aaron. You know,
Vegas has great liability this year on Gonzaga winning the
national title, and they're still kind of put off in
their own box when people talk about them. Right, we
have the blue Bloods. My argument is there a blue
blood without the title At this point, given the number
(06:54):
at the frequency of conference title wins, there one of
the best programs in the country. There's zero doubt about right.
So the number one seed that they've had multiple times.
We go over the last nine years, you've got five
number ones and a two. You've got to championship appearances
and you haven't gotten over. So I would equate it
to some of the greatness that we see that falls
(07:16):
just short in the NFL, so like and Aaron Rodgers.
So there's two ways to think about it. Either that
part of you've got greatness, greatness, greatness and you can't
get over. And obviously matchups and it's single game like
all of these. Right, you know, you're not talking best
of sevens. We're talking on that night. You've got to
be the better squad, the excellence of execution, get my
(07:38):
bread Hart reference in tonight. But so we go that way,
or it's the kind of a mutant version of what
we used to talk about in the NBA, right the
bulls needing to you know, have those bruises, callouses or
whatever to get past the pistons and insert whatever team
you wanted to jump jump that that hurdle next. So
(08:02):
whichever path you take, it still is the expectations now
are there for Gonzaga, but this is the year they
have to cash the chips. You feel that way. I
feel I feel that way because being always the bridesmaid
or a team that we sell. Because college basketball we've
talked about it, right, we talked about it on air,
(08:22):
off air. Once the NFL ends, you got more eyes
go back to the NBA to a degree, but a
lot more people start focusing on college buckets and what
they missed. And not very many storylines carried through this
year's college basketball season unless Mike Schefski lost in a
big game, yelled at his students in attendance and they're
(08:45):
trying to rally him on the back end, right, or
they go out and get boat raced by Virginia Tech.
I really thought it would have been kind of fun
if you know, people would have charged the court, both
Carolina and for there because we know he hates that
because if you're gonna celebrate, you know, it's the totality
of it. But to that that idea and those are
the only storylines, and Gonzaga is really good. And then
(09:06):
obviously regionally and locally, everybody's got their story. It's you know,
all these sports I mean there, I mean, we talk
about the Lakers every night, nothing changes with them, and
so Gonzaga is kind of an easy story to wrap
your head around. They're this small school. Um, once the
conference play starts, they don't play anybody. They play all
their good teams in the early season, they get a
(09:27):
number one seed, and when they don't win the championship,
it's they don't play good enough teams. Uh. There, you know, Uh,
their conference isn't good enough? All that stuff. Now, what
I would say is, first of all, this year, their
conference had the same number of bids as the PAC twelve,
one fewer bid than the a CC. So let's not
act like their conference isn't uh. You know, you know
(09:47):
that there aren't other power conferences that aren't on par
with with what they're doing. But no, I mean, I've
always been a little frustrated by the coverage just because
I don't believe that they have to win this year.
I don't believe this is one of their better teams.
Now it's a more complet, elite team than it was
last year. Last year they didn't play a lique defense
and they were trying to outscore you win every game
nine one. Um. But I guess my frustration with the
(10:08):
coverage is keeven going back to last year, they were
clearly the second best team in the country. I mean
they entered, They enter the National Championship Game undefeated. They
beat USC with Evan Mobile, and we all see how
good Evan Mobile is doing. They beat him by twenty
in the Elite eight. They destroyed everybody else up until
that final four, and there was one team that was
better than them. And as you said, Mike, I don't
(10:29):
almost called you Jason, which is not good. You might
have had as you turned on a video camera, you
might have had a Goldberg like spirit of follow go ahead. No,
I just you know, all I would say is is
that we It's like you made the reference to the NFL.
Very rarely do we get the number one seed from
the a f C, the number one seed versus the NFC.
All year long, we're trying to figure out who's better,
(10:50):
and we we find out on the field. Same with
the n c A tournament. Rarely do the two best
teams get there. It happened last year. There was one
team that one team in the country. There's three to
fifty plus teams. Gonzaga destroyed everybody until they got to
the final four, and there was one team that was
clearly better than them. So for me to sit here,
and I know it's not really what you're saying, but
but in general, the conversation, they'll never win it, they'll
(11:12):
never do this, they'll never do that. Well, if Baylor
had and I hate to say it, if they had
a sprained ankle, if they had a bad foul call,
and they're out in the sweet sixteen. Gonzaga wins the
national championship last year, and nobody's talking about that. But
because the two best teams got in and one team
was clearly better than the other, this conversation continues for
another year. The beauty of it that we can play
it out on the court, and for me, it's it's
just the largest of they belong in the conversation. They're
(11:34):
not an outlier, is more my my thinking here, right,
and forget about the conference whatever, we've seen it for
twenty years, and that's that they win. And you could
make fun of the conference. You could say, and as
you said, when when we get to the bids this year,
even things up right and and take the conversation further.
But it's that they have been competitive and they have
(11:56):
been a number one seed, right because we could play
you can always make the argum ben like, regardless of
whether win losses, that they could have been penalized for
the schedule if folks really wanted to get in their
conference and they haven't. And people complain that they only
get a number one seed because of their schedule. Uh,
you know, they don't play anybody tough after January one.
(12:16):
And it's like, well, this year they beat Texas Tech,
who's a three h three seed, they beat uh Texas
who's a six seed, they beat U C. L A,
they beat whoever else. But no, I mean, and that's
the other thing to Mike, and and it's something that
is kind of annoying is if you actually think about it,
it's most fundamental level what you just said. I don't
believe blue blood is a thing that you can enter.
(12:38):
I just think it's a thing that happened in history.
And you either are one or you aren't. But the
bottom line is what I said, what you what you said.
They're one of the two or three best programs in
college basketball. There have not been better programs in college
basketball over the last five, six, seven years than again Zaga.
The fact that this little tiny Catholic school in spoken Washington,
(12:59):
not Los Angeles, not a big city, not major market,
not anything. The fact that they have turned into one
of the two three four best programs in college basketball,
a better program than U c l A, a better
program than Indiana who's playing in the first four right now.
That's actually a really cool story that we really should
enjoy instead of trying to pick them apart because they
get to title games and can't get over the hump
and win one more game in the end. We count
(13:23):
championships and almost and whatever I would say though, is
part of sports that's cool is the journey to get there. Yes,
at the end of the day, Bengals fans are crushed,
you know what, they really weren't. It was really one
of my biggest disappointment. That's what I was. I was
at the Super Bowl, right I was. It was at
the game and we're walking out. My brother and I
(13:44):
were walking alongside a bunch of Bengal fans kind of
talking to him, and they were all like it was
house money. Like the expectation is we'll see you next
year when we're in Arizona. Like what world am I
living in? Well, but that's the point about Gonzaga is
you say we count championships. Don't always say there are
great stories like I'll just give a quick example. I
know we gotta, you know, get out of this in
(14:05):
a second, but you know, we talked about this in
college football time. It's so much about the playoff. Its
so much about the playoff. It's so much about the playoffs.
A school like just as an example, Kentucky winning ten
games this year, that's an incredible story, even though they're
not Alabama. The Bengals making the Super Bowl, even though
they didn't win the title, that's an incredible story. And yes,
you're right to your point. At some point Gonzaga has
to break through. If it's not this year, they're gonna
(14:26):
hear it for another year. If it's not next year,
they're gonna hear it for two more years, on and
on and on. But we shouldn't take away from the
fact that this is an incredible story because only one
team can win it. Did the Packers not have a
great year, Did the Bucks not have a great year?
Did the Bengals not have a great year? They all did,
by the way, the Raiders had a great year making
the playoffs with the versity that they did, so it's frustrating.
I agree with you. Ultimately we only remember the champions,
(14:47):
but at some point we we as sports fantasy to
appreciate the stories and not just totally focus on who
wins it at the end of the year. That's about
as far away from hot take nonsense as you can get.
I know right that Aaron underscore Tooryal. We talked about
it with the Bulls earlier. You're a Bulls fan, enjoy
this bull season. They're I don't know, I hate to
(15:09):
ruin the suspense they're not winning the NBA title, but you,
as a Bulls fan, can enjoy it. So anyway, I'm
Mr Anti hot take, but to your point, any sprained ankles, injuries,
changes in in different rotations, and injury beef in a
locker room, all of that still to play out. Be
sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith Show
(15:30):
with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven pm Pacific.
Welcome back in It's Fox Sports Radio Jason Smith Show
with Mike Harman. Aaron Torres is in tonight or keeping
an eye on first four Action Indiana, up six on Wyoming,
coming up on four minutes remaining more n I t action,
more NBA action, so much swirling around, but also free
(15:54):
agency news and guys moving. So why don't we go
over to the update desk and Ma boy ons I
butchered that again for breaking news, breaking news from Fox Sports.
You did, but you again, But it's okay, we'll get it.
We'll get there. There you go, you got it, you
got it, Yes, breaking news. Major League Baseball first baseman
Anthony Rizzo is probably gonna stay with the Yankees, pending
(16:18):
a physical. They are in talks for a two year,
thirty two million dollar contract with an opt out after
the first year. There you go, Yankees spenders once again,
Thank you very much, very welcome. Not all. I want
to know what happens to Freddie Freedman. Well, that's what
we're gonna try to go into the crystal ball a
little later on in the show. I can't wait because
obviously we have the trade of Olsen. I don't know
(16:40):
if any you guys saw the pasche the note that
he wrote and the guy basically it was a tear
stained letter leaving Atlanta to go to so basically the
opposite of what Baker Mayfield did tonight. Yeah, well, I'll
see it was fun to where we're at. So, yeah,
the the heartbreak, the emotion as guys go through UH
(17:02):
training camps and and head down to spring training. But
also you know, go through the minor league systems, get
called up and now you have the big stage and
oh wait, I'm going to Oakland. Sorry, the the O
dot co doesn't quite do it for Yeah, no, it's
it's not a place that I recommend. Actually you should
see a game there, just to appreciate the stadium you have. Yeah,
(17:24):
it's one of the older stadiums. It's and and it
looks at and if you're not careful, you know, if
you're down towards the field, just be careful, the water
may start flowing and start rising up above your ankles.
I have actually a funny story about that stadium. So
my so I got you know, I got married a
few years ago, and that my my stepdad is a
ballpark ficionado, and he decided that on his way out
(17:47):
to California he was going. He had never been to Oakland,
and so he went to Oakland with his daughter, who's
obviously now my stepdaughter, my step sister, and his daughter
made him leaving like the third and she's like this
place is repulsing, I'm getting out of here. So and
then they bounced, and then they came to my wedding
and everyone said I do and it was happily. No,
it's a beautiful thing, a beautiful story. Yeah. I used
to go all the time when I lived up in
(18:07):
the Bay Area. I was up in this sunny Vale
is where the Yahoo campuses were when I worked for them,
and we had deals with both the Giants and the A's,
so there were always tickets for both kind of floating around.
But for the A's a little harder sell, right, Giants
had a new stadium. Yeah, you had too Hota, you
(18:28):
had Chaves, you had the pitching staff, all of that,
everything you saw in the movies and in the books
and all of that. But it was still a tough
sell unless it was a bobble head day or a
big giveaway. That was where as fans flocked. If there
was a giveaway, they were there, And especially during the
bubble head craze in the late nineties, people would show up,
get their bubble head, leave, or they'd go back through
(18:49):
the turnstyle again because it was a hot market on
eBay because people were collecting them until they became everything
and everywhere, and suddenly there were seventy five different Eric
Chavs bubble heads from to choose, and people that didn't
care whether it was from the game or not would
just pick the eight dollar version instead of the mart
The market crashed on the just to some degree you
(19:11):
can have. Those are the n f T s of
the nineties. Yeah, and n f T s are an
interesting I think there's a long play that still can
be there as long as you can get burned too
much buying in early on whatever happened to NBA top shot,
remember that was that was a thing for like ten minutes.
It's it has its base an NFL is now doing
the same. They've got an NFL All Day is the
(19:31):
product that they put out um buying packs versus moments
at this point, and then the packs are full of
moments and and building the marketplace. It's still more in
a beta kind of mode coming out of one season.
Can you tell that I'm keeping my finger on it?
It seems well as a kid. Like I said, baseball
card shows that's still part of the ancillary income and evaluation,
(19:53):
which is why when I mentioned Memphis, John Morant has
been very good to me accessibility and look, I I'm
full disclosure on all of it. I'm a collector. But
when you can also turn your passions into dollars, much
like getting behind a microphone, why would you not do it?
There's no in you know, untoward towardness in it. Right,
(20:14):
it's still your taking your dollars and saying I think
this player is going to be good. Does it influence
how I said? No, when a guy is terrible, he's terrible. Right.
Anybody that's listened to me talking about Chicago sports knows
very well. Even though there's fandom, the criticism comes flying
just as easily. Hey, hiring heating up Indeed hiring platform
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(20:36):
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job description. Visit indeed dot com slash credit. So coming
up next, we will get into Baker Mayfield, the message
that has people scurrying and trying to photoshop him into
any number of uniforms. We'll talk about that part of
(20:58):
the the situation and uh and we'll do a dramatic
reading of the tweet that he sent out. 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. Hey,
I'm Doug Gottlieb. The podcast is called All Ball. We
(21:20):
usually talk all basketball all the time, but it's more
about the stories about what made these people love their
sport and all the interesting interactions along the way. We
talked to coaches, we talked to players, We tell you stories.
You download it, you listen to it. I think you
like it. Listen to All Ball with Doug Gotlieb on
the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you
(21:43):
get your podcast. Fox Sports Radio. Jason under the Weather tonight,
watching some First four action and probably I don't know,
maybe going back into some of those I car Lee
episodes like we were talking about before. I don't know,
maybe maybe getting a little creative. Jason is I feel
like he watches a lot of TV. Like, here's not
a question about it. He's got a lot of takes.
(22:05):
Whenever I have He's another one. I think I've maybe
worked with him once since COVID, But I mean he
talks about a lot of movies that your boy has
never heard of. So yeah, I'm I'm pretty deep in
right like you are. From from my daughters and I
the big thing is live events, Like you get me
to a concert, you get me to a play, musical whatever,
(22:25):
Like there's an energy and folks get a little on me.
But to me, it's very rare. Other outside of church,
you're not finding a place where all energies going the
same way. Sporting events have the same overall effect, but
there's still enough noise in it and energies that can
can be conflictive and disruptive for sure. Whereas you're you're
(22:46):
going to see a band, Yeah, you might not like
the the mix of songs, they might not have played
your favorite, but you're there because of an appreciation and
the guy and woman next to you and next to them,
there's that energy that surges forward. So for me, I
live in that space. And I love movies and TV.
Don't get me wrong, but when it comes down to it,
I'll just easily get immersed in. Here's uh some YouTube
(23:10):
of an hour of live performance from nineteen six and
Fleetwood Mac as I am the latest drama doesn't mean,
I'm not apprized and and aware of a lot of these,
and some of them I binge watch while on a
treadmill or whatever. But my my first love is the
aforementioned live events, which is why getting out of COVID.
My dance card is still up. Extra bonus ones came
(23:33):
out today that uh, well, we'll talk about a little
bit off air, but the story of the night, and
I can already look you know it for tomorrow morning,
our buddy Colin Cowherd, nine am Pacific. You can you
set the dial to it because you know what his
opening monologue is gonna be. So I'll give him the
love here. Sometimes a man needs a glass of veno
as he completes tomorrow's lead hashtag Browns and Baker, and
(23:55):
it's a giant glass of wine at Colin Cowherd. Um
what Baker Mayfield wrote the well goodbye letter? Question is
where's he going? And what's the end game for the
Cleveland Browns. Now they met with Deshaun Watson today. So
the assumption we just go one to one and say
Andrew Berry got his guy right. There's no secret you've
(24:17):
heard about it going on some eighteen months. Go back
to the early phases of Operation uh sit down last
week later last season with Houston of he's not gonna play,
he didn't want to play there, and the friction and
then all the legal pursuits and cases that needed to
be looked at that there was still whispers of here's Carolina,
(24:40):
maybe Philadelphia and certainly Cleveland. Those were the teams we
kept hearing whispers about all the way through now Baker
Mayfield after Deshaun Watson met with the squad today, Well,
the past four years have been nothing short of truly
life changing. Since I heard my name called in the
draft to go to Cleveland. It's not a message with
hidden meaning. This is strict clean to thank the city
(25:01):
of Cleveland for embracing my family and me. We've made
many memories and shared growing in this process. Through all
the ups and downs, I have no clue what happens next,
which is the meaning behind the silence I've had during
the duration of this process. I can only control what
I can, which is trusting in God's plan. Throughout this process,
I've given this franchise everything I have. That's something I've
(25:22):
always done at every stage and every level, and that
will not change wherever I take my next snap, whatever happens,
dot dot, I just want to say thank you to
the fans who truly embraced who I am and the
mentality that aligned so well with the city's hard working people.
Cleveland will always be a part of Emily and my story,
and we will always be thankful for the impact it
has had and we'll have in our lives. Sincerely, Baker
(25:44):
Reagan Mayfield. Now I always do this and the editor
and me comes out because I helped my daughters with
assignments and I got hyphens missing and run on. But
the sentiment that comes through, even though he didn't say
at a dred percent is blank you I'm done with this, right,
It's really all it is. If we're gonna find the
invisible ink, that's what's behind all of that, is all right.
(26:05):
You've now brought this other guy in, which means how
are how are we doing these things well? And that's
when you read it in our one. I don't know
how anyone can take it any other way than um,
you know. Then he's saying about to Cleveland, and I
don't know how you can insinuate that anybody else would
be the right fit there I understand Jimmy Garoppolo is available,
(26:28):
but I mean, are you moving the needle? You know,
are you moving puzzle pieces and chess pieces around to
go get Jimmy Garoppolo of your Cleveland. Maybe this feels
awful lot like Deshaun Watson to me. So um, you know, Baker,
we can argue, we can fight, we can this, we
can that. I'll say this, you know what this in
some ways, let's say it is Deshaun Watson. You know.
In some ways it reminds me of minds me when
Tim Tebow was with the Broncos, where people crushed him,
(26:49):
crushed him, crushed him, crushed him, made the playoffs. I know,
he didn't have a year like Baker this past year,
but made the playoffs and the Broncos were kind of
stuck with him, and then man, it becomes available and
you say, okay, no, no, no, you have to go
get that guy. And I kind of think it's the
same with the Browns if you were going to go
into next season, and as of right now, we have
no we have no proof that they're not going in
(27:10):
with Baker Mayfield. But if you were not going to
go in, you have to make a clear, clear, clear upgrade.
I don't know that Jimmy Garoppolo with his injury is
the injury history is that, and so because of that,
I don't know how you could read that as anything
other than Deshaun Watson is set at some point in
the future to become a Cleveland Brown. Yeah, coming off
a shoulder surgery. One for Garoppolo. Two people aren't in
(27:33):
love with him anyway. Now, Baker Mayfield was a broken man.
I I joked, h and maybe I was mean it
means spirited in it, But towards the end of the
season he kind of was the walking embodiment of the
wacky Doctor's game operation. He want anything on him was
going to buzz if you touched it. That that's a
drop that'll stay forever. But the idea just being that
(27:57):
he clearly he played through and he kind of alluded
to that in the hard working, you know, making sure
his toughness and mentality was underscored in all of this.
And obviously for for the Browns, there there's not a
lot out there. We talked about it, you know, for
weeks you guys on the weekend and when you filled
in here, Aaron, I mean as we watched the carousel
(28:19):
start to turn. The free agent class wasn't terribly exciting.
I mean, to Rod Taylor gets to balance and goes
supplant another guy for a minute, right, because now he
signs with the Giants at what a right? Go back
to to Rod Taylor, like he's the guy that I
want to tell all book eventually because he has had
think about it though. Go to Cleveland, go to the Chargers,
(28:41):
and you got Houston where you're kind of in Nomahn's
land with a terrible squad as you're supposed to be
the guy to take over for for Watson while he's
in limbo and not with the team. Davis Mills, who
I kind of like, I I kind of trumpet him
a little bit. I think there's there's a player are
there at at a low valuation, But like he's bounced
(29:03):
all these different places and at no point has it
ever settled to where it's like all right, you can
just go try to do your job, and it's ever
been like you're just the established back up. Just go
hold the clipboard like your Chase Daniel. There's always just
like you want to talk about the goat. I mean,
that guy might be the goat you know in NFL
history game out of money he's made with the once
he got two sixty career pass attempts. The goat is
(29:25):
from my alma mater. It's dan Orlovski. He set the
He set the bar for being a backup quarterback. Let
me tell you, well, there's certainly that. I mean, we
got a couple of guys. The longevity go back to
Jim Sorgey, who was the backup to the Mannings all
those years and would come in and you'd see him
week seventeen when Peyton would do the Queen's Wave and
and leave the field after a series. So you had
(29:45):
that and just a couple of legends. But this delicious
theater until it's not right, because certainly we'll we'll wait
to see if you've got an agreement to bring Watson
in tow and then it's all right. What's the best
fit for Baker may Field as you pushed for, because
you still have Carolina, you still have New Orleans needs
a quarterback, Seattle as they try to shift away from
(30:08):
the Russell Wilson era and figure out what they have there. Yes,
they acquired Drew Lock in the trade, but by no means,
does anybody believe do you think Baker it's like a
salvageable quarterback? Because I do, because I think he's a
pretty good player. I do too. I think there's obvious issues,
and I'd love to get to the heart of what
was the issue with Jarvis Landry What was the issue
(30:29):
with Odell Beckham Jr. To some degree, I've always wondered,
as much as they may be great with each other,
if Jarvis and O'Dell competing from balls and wanting to
be the number one guy didn't incapacitate Baker to a
degree again not And obviously what's funny is you know
the extension of all of that was, you know, Odell
(30:50):
comes to the Rams and all of a sudden, oh
look they put together an all star teams. Like nobody
was more disparaged than Odell Beckham Junior, Matthew Stafford like
and Va Miller was told he was done basically never
and then those three guys, Oh it was unfair. They
stacked the decks like you can't have it both ways.
But certainly for Baker Mayfield, I wonder if getting away
from Cleveland, getting to a spot like you're never gonna
(31:13):
be able to, at least on the surface unless you
go to Indianapolis. Uh Re established what he had right,
which was a great old line, good running backs, and
then you you have to figure out your your white outs.
And and that's not to say he's a world beater
by any stretch, but a solid player that I think,
at least for one got done wrong in terms of
(31:35):
the narratives that started to spin. Oh no, I agree,
and I said it earlier. I was on during that
Packers game where it felt like that was the night
that the whole world turned on him. On Christmas Day,
everybody's at home, everybody's watching. But that was also the
time when I said, you know what, some of this
is on Kevin Stefanski too. This guy is a football player.
He wants to play. He is going to do everything
(31:55):
he can to get himself on the field. At some
point it is on the head coach just say, hey man,
we know you're trying to do what's best for the team,
but what's best for the team is actually shut this
thing down, get some surgery, which you obviously did in
the final week of this season. Aaron Torres and for
Jason Smith tonight, the James Smith show with Mike arm
And here Fox Sports Radio. Inside the final minute, Indiana
trying to wrap things up against Wyoming. Uh, there's a
(32:20):
three point attempt coming up. A good put back makes
it sixty six going to the line to attempt the
traditional three point play. Hey, if cold candidate calls aren't
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(32:40):
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(33:01):
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You can fill out your bracket now, and until eleven
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That's Fox Sports Radio dot com to fill out your
bracket and to get official rules coming out. Next, we'll
try to figure out where that cut line is. How
deep is the real winning possibility in our college buckets bracket?
(33:27):
Aaron Torres and I get to that next here on Fox.
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven
pm Pacific. Welcome back, and it's Fox Sports right are
at the Jason Smith Show with Mike Carmen. Now Jason
Smith to night off. Feeling a little under the weather.
Maybe some pollen counts got him, I don't know, got
(33:49):
out and about felt a little sick. So tagging in
Aaron tores everybody here on the Fox Sports Weekends here
on Saturday nights alongside Jason Martin. That is is seven
to six to ten, seven to ten, seven to eleven
on same window as you seven seven to eleven. We
carry the late night torch from Jason and Mike. There
(34:09):
you go. We'll pass the torch. Although I don't think
any of us are running any relays anytime soon those
days of long path me that and playing with fire.
That's a good habit to break. Yeah, No, I finally
evolved as I've gotten a little bit older here in
my andrey. So you're living that. You're living proof of
older and wiser, is what you're saying. That's my goal
(34:31):
while still looking like I'm thirty five most days, or
at least that's the goal, as long as you don't
look at the silver in the hair and the bags
under my eyes from the long, weary road that I
have traveled. That's one on Twitter to mock me at
Aaron Underscore tours where you find him all the goodness
that he offers as as part of you know, his
errand torres media, burgeoning platforms as well the articles you're
(34:54):
writing and and certainly getting folks ready for March madness.
I am that that is one of the the things
that you are tasked with right now. College football, college
buckets the the area of emphasis in the base. But
then obviously ready to throw haymakers at every other sport
on the gods, including you know a little bit of
(35:15):
these uh, these new fangled sports. I know you can
talk X games with the best of them, but as
we can. Practical jokers by the way, right there, you
come right to practical jokers. After continuing, well, you had
to get that in. As we talked True TV as
part of our annual sojourn into college buckets, we just
watched Indiana put the finishing touches on their game against
(35:38):
Wyoming sixties sixty eight. Your final go big ten and
nine teams uh entered into this tournament. Uh, Aaron. As
we started things in first four, we've got two games
in the books. But looking at the odds and as
people start to fill out their brackets, how deep is
the the net cutting group potentially here? So this has
(36:01):
been a um, you know, come to you know what
moment for me the last few weeks. So I am
One of my big takes is that every year, the
same voices in college basketball, and you know who they are,
the more prominent ones. They always try to say, oh,
it's so wide open, anything can happen, and the reality
is most years it's really about three or four teams
(36:22):
that can win it. I've used this that all the time.
The last fourteen national champions eleven number one seeds, the
top two seed in Villanova in tleven Kemba, Walker and Yukon.
In fourteen, Shabaz Napier the only non one in two
seeds to win it. And so essentially, if you don't
have a number one seed or the best player in
the tournament, you're not winning the n c A tournament.
(36:45):
I say all that to say I do think this
year is the exception. We talked a little bit about
Tennessee kind of being on the three line earlier. The
fact is all Burton Kentucky were both teams that were
could have gotten number one seeds. I think Perdue could
have gotten number a number one seed had won the
Big Ten tournament. So the gap between say the one
seeds and the four's aren't that big. I think there's
(37:06):
about probably seven to ten maybe um and it's mostly
the one seeds the two seeds. I actually think this
year that ones are weaker in some ways than they've
ever been. Baylor struggling, Kansas is struggling. I'm out, nicely done,
thank you. Just the way you drop the microphone if over,
you could have done it literally and done. A lot
would have tried deo clip No, because it would take
(37:28):
a week or two for that to get fixed, and
people would be bringing in duct tape to do that.
What's curious is, you know, obviously everybody has their their region,
their school, their conference, just like in college football, right
where the loyalties line up, And mentioned Indiana winning UH
and the nine teams for the Big Ten. Obviously a
(37:49):
lot of attention on Iowa these last nineties six hours
or so coming out of the Big Ten tournament, and
certainly looking at Keegan Murray as a guy that people
are raising their eyebrows, and and immediately it becomes the all, right,
where do these guys project? I do think it's Doug
Gotli points out it's important, like it's important to have
(38:10):
NBA caliber players on your roster. But when it's like
November and Duke is playing, and the post game immediately
turns into well, their number seven on the big board,
it's like it's November eight, they played three college games.
Can we calm down a little bit? Especially the way
things churn over anymore, Right, the number of freshmen and
sophomore that you're playing, in most cases, there's a lot
(38:33):
of time to see how much they get along, how
they share the basketball and coaching adjustments, and as you
mentioned with Duke, coach k seemed to struggle with at
a time. Hey, hiring heating up. Indeed Hiring platform makes
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(38:56):
turned back to the NFL and an investigation. Maybe
Thanks for listening to The Jason Smith Show with Mike
Harmen 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 Fox Sports
Radio dot com, or stream us live every night on
the I Heart Radio app by searching fs R. You're
(00:24):
listening to Fox Sports Radio. Great Eggs. Welcome in. It
is our two of the program to Jason Smith Show
with Mike Harmon Here Fox Sports Radio. Jason off to night,
A little under the weather, hopefully watching maybe episode two
of Winning Time, a little more John c Riley in
your life, I don't know, whatever it is, feel better
(00:45):
and maybe we'll see him again tomorrow, that's the hope.
In the interim, you can send him all the cards
and flowers at al about a Fresco on Twitter. Uh.
For those that are here in studio, it's good to
see you, Aaron Torres. It's good a minute since you
and I have had a chance to which change ideas
and such. When is the last time that we worked together.
I really think it was pre COVID, So we're going
(01:05):
on literally two years now. It is really difficult. At
some point, I wanted to do a log because I've
been at Fox Sports Radio and various capacities for a
long time now. Uh. For a while, it was Sunday
mornings doing the Fantasy show only, and then we'd cycle
out someone else would come into the Sunday spot until
football came back, and then taddah, there I am again. Uh.
(01:25):
And after a while and convinced we can open mouth
say things about other stuff. Uh, and became year round
some lobbying behind the scenes, you know, you had to do.
Look at what I do and the number of shows
that would have me on, kick their feet up and
let me talk for an hour help my case as well. Uh,
and eventually into this role. But the point is, over
the course of time, at some point I'm going to
(01:48):
do the list of all the folks I have worked
with and trying to keep an idea of last times, right.
I was telling you at the break. You know, Mark
Willer and I had a chance to do a Sunday
show a couple of weeks ago and talked with Willard
on air, and we figured out it had to be
at least four years. Well, he was he's been gone
for a year too, right at least, Yeah, he went
and went and was with another national outlet right as
(02:12):
part of their processes, so he couldn't things. So things change,
affiliations change, you hop and in our jobs, right that
that happens a lot. I just know he got a
lot tough. He got the toughest shift last week. He
had to work with Arnie Spaniards. So look at that.
The it took all of the two minutes to get
in another Arnie span. Your reference, however, on your mind,
(02:34):
isn't he Oh wow, I just took it. That's kind
of a dig at me. No, no, no, no, it's
not a dig at you. It's just a you guys
have formed a partnership and those that listen on Fox
Sports Radio on the weekends and and subbing for me
and Jason when we're on holiday, that is a combination
that you hear in this time slot and you you
love their back and forth, and certainly it's it's like
(02:55):
a familial relationships when you guys get together. I was
gonna say you you use the word radio legend earlier
in the show, and he really is. And and I
think everybody and I've had a few people even tweet in, oh,
you know, I love tours, especially when he's on with Arnie.
Not that they don't love tours and harmon of course,
our harmon and tours really um but you know you
can love our hateing. Just keep listening. Yeah, well, I
whatever that energy is, I'm gonna soak it up anyway,
(03:17):
like a major supervillain in some comic there you yeah,
so uh so. Anyway, So the point is that I
was gonna get to is that, as you said, he
is a radio legend. And when I when I tease,
I tease out of love. He's a great guy, a
good person off the air, a great host. And uh
and yeah, who knows when you and Jason go back
on vocation, maybe we'll be in, maybe we won't be.
(03:39):
But whenever I, whenever I mentioned his name, it's it's
in the best, most fun possible way. Now we celebrate
it because look, one of the things that you know
in our business, you know, we we all are fans
and listeners. I mean, we appreciate all of you out
there being part of our extended family. But it is
a business where you do a lot of a lot
of dancing, a lot of moving, moving parts and moving
(04:00):
daytime and different shifts and whatever. But I I speak
to it here at Fox Sports Radio, being blessed to
to work with such a breath of of and wealth
of information and talent and guys that have been in
this business along. Like I got to work with Mike North.
He was a guy grew up listening to in Chicago.
Working with Arnie. He was a guy when I was
(04:20):
doing trading card shows on the weekend. That was the
guy was listening to while I was sitting pricing things
the next morning. If you know what I'm asking, how
long ago? Is that a long time ago? Yeah? Like
that would have been early Arnie. But you know what,
he had that raspy voice even then. How about that
it's always one of the eight years old that he
just says he did some damage to those vocal cords,
whether it was smoking, drinking, or just screaming at you know,
(04:43):
teams he didn't like. Maybe all three that combination gives
us the the beautiful voice. But the point being, you know,
every once in a while you pull back. I've got
my Find your Wins blog, you could find it, and
and it's like daily trying to pull back and and account.
Even if if it's the worst day, and that goes
for everybody, there's always one or two things that stand out.
(05:04):
And I'll bless to have the microphone. We get to
talk about sports, yuck it up a little bit, even
serious topics. We're having debates that you know, make you think,
make you laugh, make you shake your fist, whatever the
case is. That's our role here, trying to get that
emotional resonance. As it were, I went and saw Syan
no again. This is one of the jump off points.
Is uh, Peter Dinklige in the role we all know
(05:24):
the Syrano de berge rac Right, You've got the guy
that can't speak for himself, and you have the person
in town and and normally it's been portrayed as someone
with u a big nose. Has always been the so
you know, this beautiful woman wouldn't want me even though
their childhood friends whatever else. And in this case it's
Peter Danklige. Uh. And he's a dwarf, so he's like,
(05:47):
she could never love me and their friends, but now
she falls in love with the eye, you know, eyeing
this other man in his regiment, right, French army and
all of that. But he's good with words, and that's
the whole movie for me, is the the power of
words spoken and those that are not. And so here
on the radio, obviously we open mouths say things. Sometimes
(06:10):
they'll be that dramatic pause at the end of a
sentence because I want you to go dot dot dot
and let your brain take it the rest of the way.
So that's it. It's theater of the mind. That's what
we do here at Fox Sports Radio. And that's what
Baker Mayfield's doing with the Cleveland Browns. And we'll get
back into that in about ten minutes from now, because
as the world turns and in the quarterback world, But
(06:31):
we teased it ahead and this is one of the
things I wanted to throw out to you, Aaron. You know,
Vegas has great liability this year on Gonzaga winning the
national title, and they're still kind of put off in
their own box when people talk about them. Right, we
have the blue Bloods. My argument is there a blue
blood without the title At this point, given the number
(06:54):
at the frequency of conference title wins, there one of
the best programs in the country. There's zero doubt about right.
So the number one seed that they've had multiple times.
We go over the last nine years, you've got five
number ones and a two. You've got to championship appearances
and you haven't gotten over. So I would equate it
to some of the greatness that we see that falls
(07:16):
just short in the NFL, so like and Aaron Rodgers.
So there's two ways to think about it. Either that
part of you've got greatness, greatness, greatness and you can't
get over. And obviously matchups and it's single game like
all of these. Right, you know, you're not talking best
of sevens. We're talking on that night. You've got to
be the better squad, the excellence of execution, get my
(07:38):
bread Hart reference in tonight. But so we go that way,
or it's the kind of a mutant version of what
we used to talk about in the NBA, right the
bulls needing to you know, have those bruises, callouses or
whatever to get past the pistons and insert whatever team
you wanted to jump jump that that hurdle next. So
(08:02):
whichever path you take, it still is the expectations now
are there for Gonzaga, but this is the year they
have to cash the chips. You feel that way. I
feel I feel that way because being always the bridesmaid
or a team that we sell. Because college basketball we've
talked about it, right, we talked about it on air,
(08:22):
off air. Once the NFL ends, you got more eyes
go back to the NBA to a degree, but a
lot more people start focusing on college buckets and what
they missed. And not very many storylines carried through this
year's college basketball season unless Mike Schefski lost in a
big game, yelled at his students in attendance and they're
(08:45):
trying to rally him on the back end, right, or
they go out and get boat raced by Virginia Tech.
I really thought it would have been kind of fun
if you know, people would have charged the court, both
Carolina and for there because we know he hates that
because if you're gonna celebrate, you know, it's the totality
of it. But to that that idea and those are
the only storylines, and Gonzaga is really good. And then
(09:06):
obviously regionally and locally, everybody's got their story. It's you know,
all these sports I mean there, I mean, we talk
about the Lakers every night, nothing changes with them, and
so Gonzaga is kind of an easy story to wrap
your head around. They're this small school. Um, once the
conference play starts, they don't play anybody. They play all
their good teams in the early season, they get a
(09:27):
number one seed, and when they don't win the championship,
it's they don't play good enough teams. Uh. There, you know, Uh,
their conference isn't good enough? All that stuff. Now, what
I would say is, first of all, this year, their
conference had the same number of bids as the PAC twelve,
one fewer bid than the a CC. So let's not
act like their conference isn't uh. You know, you know
(09:47):
that there aren't other power conferences that aren't on par
with with what they're doing. But no, I mean, I've
always been a little frustrated by the coverage just because
I don't believe that they have to win this year.
I don't believe this is one of their better teams.
Now it's a more complet, elite team than it was
last year. Last year they didn't play a lique defense
and they were trying to outscore you win every game
nine one. Um. But I guess my frustration with the
(10:08):
coverage is keeven going back to last year, they were
clearly the second best team in the country. I mean
they entered, They enter the National Championship Game undefeated. They
beat USC with Evan Mobile, and we all see how
good Evan Mobile is doing. They beat him by twenty
in the Elite eight. They destroyed everybody else up until
that final four, and there was one team that was
better than them. And as you said, Mike, I don't
(10:29):
almost called you Jason, which is not good. You might
have had as you turned on a video camera, you
might have had a Goldberg like spirit of follow go ahead. No,
I just you know, all I would say is is
that we It's like you made the reference to the NFL.
Very rarely do we get the number one seed from
the a f C, the number one seed versus the NFC.
All year long, we're trying to figure out who's better,
(10:50):
and we we find out on the field. Same with
the n c A tournament. Rarely do the two best
teams get there. It happened last year. There was one
team that one team in the country. There's three to
fifty plus teams. Gonzaga destroyed everybody until they got to
the final four, and there was one team that was
clearly better than them. So for me to sit here,
and I know it's not really what you're saying, but
but in general, the conversation, they'll never win it, they'll
(11:12):
never do this, they'll never do that. Well, if Baylor
had and I hate to say it, if they had
a sprained ankle, if they had a bad foul call,
and they're out in the sweet sixteen. Gonzaga wins the
national championship last year, and nobody's talking about that. But
because the two best teams got in and one team
was clearly better than the other, this conversation continues for
another year. The beauty of it that we can play
it out on the court, and for me, it's it's
just the largest of they belong in the conversation. They're
(11:34):
not an outlier, is more my my thinking here, right,
and forget about the conference whatever, we've seen it for
twenty years, and that's that they win. And you could
make fun of the conference. You could say, and as
you said, when when we get to the bids this year,
even things up right and and take the conversation further.
But it's that they have been competitive and they have
(11:56):
been a number one seed, right because we could play
you can always make the argum ben like, regardless of
whether win losses, that they could have been penalized for
the schedule if folks really wanted to get in their
conference and they haven't. And people complain that they only
get a number one seed because of their schedule. Uh,
you know, they don't play anybody tough after January one.
(12:16):
And it's like, well, this year they beat Texas Tech,
who's a three h three seed, they beat uh Texas
who's a six seed, they beat U C. L A,
they beat whoever else. But no, I mean, and that's
the other thing to Mike, and and it's something that
is kind of annoying is if you actually think about it,
it's most fundamental level what you just said. I don't
believe blue blood is a thing that you can enter.
(12:38):
I just think it's a thing that happened in history.
And you either are one or you aren't. But the
bottom line is what I said, what you what you said.
They're one of the two or three best programs in
college basketball. There have not been better programs in college
basketball over the last five, six, seven years than again Zaga.
The fact that this little tiny Catholic school in spoken Washington,
(12:59):
not Los Angeles, not a big city, not major market,
not anything. The fact that they have turned into one
of the two three four best programs in college basketball,
a better program than U c l A, a better
program than Indiana who's playing in the first four right now.
That's actually a really cool story that we really should
enjoy instead of trying to pick them apart because they
get to title games and can't get over the hump
and win one more game in the end. We count
(13:23):
championships and almost and whatever I would say though, is
part of sports that's cool is the journey to get there. Yes,
at the end of the day, Bengals fans are crushed,
you know what, they really weren't. It was really one
of my biggest disappointment. That's what I was. I was
at the Super Bowl, right I was. It was at
the game and we're walking out. My brother and I
(13:44):
were walking alongside a bunch of Bengal fans kind of
talking to him, and they were all like it was
house money. Like the expectation is we'll see you next
year when we're in Arizona. Like what world am I
living in? Well, but that's the point about Gonzaga is
you say we count championships. Don't always say there are
great stories like I'll just give a quick example. I
know we gotta, you know, get out of this in
(14:05):
a second, but you know, we talked about this in
college football time. It's so much about the playoff. Its
so much about the playoff. It's so much about the playoffs.
A school like just as an example, Kentucky winning ten
games this year, that's an incredible story, even though they're
not Alabama. The Bengals making the Super Bowl, even though
they didn't win the title, that's an incredible story. And yes,
you're right to your point. At some point Gonzaga has
to break through. If it's not this year, they're gonna
(14:26):
hear it for another year. If it's not next year,
they're gonna hear it for two more years, on and
on and on. But we shouldn't take away from the
fact that this is an incredible story because only one
team can win it. Did the Packers not have a
great year, Did the Bucks not have a great year?
Did the Bengals not have a great year? They all did,
by the way, the Raiders had a great year making
the playoffs with the versity that they did, so it's frustrating.
I agree with you. Ultimately we only remember the champions,
(14:47):
but at some point we we as sports fantasy to
appreciate the stories and not just totally focus on who
wins it at the end of the year. That's about
as far away from hot take nonsense as you can get.
I know right that Aaron underscore Tooryal. We talked about
it with the Bulls earlier. You're a Bulls fan, enjoy
this bull season. They're I don't know, I hate to
(15:09):
ruin the suspense they're not winning the NBA title, but you,
as a Bulls fan, can enjoy it. So anyway, I'm
Mr Anti hot take, but to your point, any sprained ankles, injuries,
changes in in different rotations, and injury beef in a
locker room, all of that still to play out. Be
sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith Show
(15:30):
with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven pm Pacific.
Welcome back in It's Fox Sports Radio Jason Smith Show
with Mike Harman. Aaron Torres is in tonight or keeping
an eye on first four Action Indiana, up six on Wyoming,
coming up on four minutes remaining more n I t action,
more NBA action, so much swirling around, but also free
(15:54):
agency news and guys moving. So why don't we go
over to the update desk and Ma boy ons I
butchered that again for breaking news, breaking news from Fox Sports.
You did, but you again, But it's okay, we'll get it.
We'll get there. There you go, you got it, you
got it, Yes, breaking news. Major League Baseball first baseman
Anthony Rizzo is probably gonna stay with the Yankees, pending
(16:18):
a physical. They are in talks for a two year,
thirty two million dollar contract with an opt out after
the first year. There you go, Yankees spenders once again,
Thank you very much, very welcome. Not all. I want
to know what happens to Freddie Freedman. Well, that's what
we're gonna try to go into the crystal ball a
little later on in the show. I can't wait because
obviously we have the trade of Olsen. I don't know
(16:40):
if any you guys saw the pasche the note that
he wrote and the guy basically it was a tear
stained letter leaving Atlanta to go to so basically the
opposite of what Baker Mayfield did tonight. Yeah, well, I'll
see it was fun to where we're at. So, yeah,
the the heartbreak, the emotion as guys go through UH
(17:02):
training camps and and head down to spring training. But
also you know, go through the minor league systems, get
called up and now you have the big stage and
oh wait, I'm going to Oakland. Sorry, the the O
dot co doesn't quite do it for Yeah, no, it's
it's not a place that I recommend. Actually you should
see a game there, just to appreciate the stadium you have. Yeah,
(17:24):
it's one of the older stadiums. It's and and it
looks at and if you're not careful, you know, if
you're down towards the field, just be careful, the water
may start flowing and start rising up above your ankles.
I have actually a funny story about that stadium. So
my so I got you know, I got married a
few years ago, and that my my stepdad is a
ballpark ficionado, and he decided that on his way out
(17:47):
to California he was going. He had never been to Oakland,
and so he went to Oakland with his daughter, who's
obviously now my stepdaughter, my step sister, and his daughter
made him leaving like the third and she's like this
place is repulsing, I'm getting out of here. So and
then they bounced, and then they came to my wedding
and everyone said I do and it was happily. No,
it's a beautiful thing, a beautiful story. Yeah. I used
to go all the time when I lived up in
(18:07):
the Bay Area. I was up in this sunny Vale
is where the Yahoo campuses were when I worked for them,
and we had deals with both the Giants and the A's,
so there were always tickets for both kind of floating around.
But for the A's a little harder sell, right, Giants
had a new stadium. Yeah, you had too Hota, you
(18:28):
had Chaves, you had the pitching staff, all of that,
everything you saw in the movies and in the books
and all of that. But it was still a tough
sell unless it was a bobble head day or a
big giveaway. That was where as fans flocked. If there
was a giveaway, they were there, And especially during the
bubble head craze in the late nineties, people would show up,
get their bubble head, leave, or they'd go back through
(18:49):
the turnstyle again because it was a hot market on
eBay because people were collecting them until they became everything
and everywhere, and suddenly there were seventy five different Eric
Chavs bubble heads from to choose, and people that didn't
care whether it was from the game or not would
just pick the eight dollar version instead of the mart
The market crashed on the just to some degree you
(19:11):
can have. Those are the n f T s of
the nineties. Yeah, and n f T s are an
interesting I think there's a long play that still can
be there as long as you can get burned too
much buying in early on whatever happened to NBA top shot,
remember that was that was a thing for like ten minutes.
It's it has its base an NFL is now doing
the same. They've got an NFL All Day is the
(19:31):
product that they put out um buying packs versus moments
at this point, and then the packs are full of
moments and and building the marketplace. It's still more in
a beta kind of mode coming out of one season.
Can you tell that I'm keeping my finger on it?
It seems well as a kid. Like I said, baseball
card shows that's still part of the ancillary income and evaluation,
(19:53):
which is why when I mentioned Memphis, John Morant has
been very good to me accessibility and look, I I'm
full disclosure on all of it. I'm a collector. But
when you can also turn your passions into dollars, much
like getting behind a microphone, why would you not do it?
There's no in you know, untoward towardness in it. Right,
(20:14):
it's still your taking your dollars and saying I think
this player is going to be good. Does it influence
how I said? No, when a guy is terrible, he's terrible. Right.
Anybody that's listened to me talking about Chicago sports knows
very well. Even though there's fandom, the criticism comes flying
just as easily. Hey, hiring heating up Indeed hiring platform
makes it easy to attract, screen and interview candidates all
(20:36):
in one place. Sponsor a post and instantly receive a
shortlist of quality candidates on indeed whose resumes match your
job description. Visit indeed dot com slash credit. So coming
up next, we will get into Baker Mayfield, the message
that has people scurrying and trying to photoshop him into
any number of uniforms. We'll talk about that part of
(20:58):
the the situation and uh and we'll do a dramatic
reading of the tweet that he sent out. 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. Hey,
I'm Doug Gottlieb. The podcast is called All Ball. We
(21:20):
usually talk all basketball all the time, but it's more
about the stories about what made these people love their
sport and all the interesting interactions along the way. We
talked to coaches, we talked to players, We tell you stories.
You download it, you listen to it. I think you
like it. Listen to All Ball with Doug Gotlieb on
the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you
(21:43):
get your podcast. Fox Sports Radio. Jason under the Weather tonight,
watching some First four action and probably I don't know,
maybe going back into some of those I car Lee
episodes like we were talking about before. I don't know,
maybe maybe getting a little creative. Jason is I feel
like he watches a lot of TV. Like, here's not
a question about it. He's got a lot of takes.
(22:05):
Whenever I have He's another one. I think I've maybe
worked with him once since COVID, But I mean he
talks about a lot of movies that your boy has
never heard of. So yeah, I'm I'm pretty deep in
right like you are. From from my daughters and I
the big thing is live events, Like you get me
to a concert, you get me to a play, musical whatever,
(22:25):
Like there's an energy and folks get a little on me.
But to me, it's very rare. Other outside of church,
you're not finding a place where all energies going the
same way. Sporting events have the same overall effect, but
there's still enough noise in it and energies that can
can be conflictive and disruptive for sure. Whereas you're you're
(22:46):
going to see a band, Yeah, you might not like
the the mix of songs, they might not have played
your favorite, but you're there because of an appreciation and
the guy and woman next to you and next to them,
there's that energy that surges forward. So for me, I
live in that space. And I love movies and TV.
Don't get me wrong, but when it comes down to it,
I'll just easily get immersed in. Here's uh some YouTube
(23:10):
of an hour of live performance from nineteen six and
Fleetwood Mac as I am the latest drama doesn't mean,
I'm not apprized and and aware of a lot of these,
and some of them I binge watch while on a
treadmill or whatever. But my my first love is the
aforementioned live events, which is why getting out of COVID.
My dance card is still up. Extra bonus ones came
(23:33):
out today that uh, well, we'll talk about a little
bit off air, but the story of the night, and
I can already look you know it for tomorrow morning,
our buddy Colin Cowherd, nine am Pacific. You can you
set the dial to it because you know what his
opening monologue is gonna be. So I'll give him the
love here. Sometimes a man needs a glass of veno
as he completes tomorrow's lead hashtag Browns and Baker, and
(23:55):
it's a giant glass of wine at Colin Cowherd. Um
what Baker Mayfield wrote the well goodbye letter? Question is
where's he going? And what's the end game for the
Cleveland Browns. Now they met with Deshaun Watson today. So
the assumption we just go one to one and say
Andrew Berry got his guy right. There's no secret you've
(24:17):
heard about it going on some eighteen months. Go back
to the early phases of Operation uh sit down last
week later last season with Houston of he's not gonna play,
he didn't want to play there, and the friction and
then all the legal pursuits and cases that needed to
be looked at that there was still whispers of here's Carolina,
(24:40):
maybe Philadelphia and certainly Cleveland. Those were the teams we
kept hearing whispers about all the way through now Baker
Mayfield after Deshaun Watson met with the squad today, Well,
the past four years have been nothing short of truly
life changing. Since I heard my name called in the
draft to go to Cleveland. It's not a message with
hidden meaning. This is strict clean to thank the city
(25:01):
of Cleveland for embracing my family and me. We've made
many memories and shared growing in this process. Through all
the ups and downs, I have no clue what happens next,
which is the meaning behind the silence I've had during
the duration of this process. I can only control what
I can, which is trusting in God's plan. Throughout this process,
I've given this franchise everything I have. That's something I've
(25:22):
always done at every stage and every level, and that
will not change wherever I take my next snap, whatever happens,
dot dot, I just want to say thank you to
the fans who truly embraced who I am and the
mentality that aligned so well with the city's hard working people.
Cleveland will always be a part of Emily and my story,
and we will always be thankful for the impact it
has had and we'll have in our lives. Sincerely, Baker
(25:44):
Reagan Mayfield. Now I always do this and the editor
and me comes out because I helped my daughters with
assignments and I got hyphens missing and run on. But
the sentiment that comes through, even though he didn't say
at a dred percent is blank you I'm done with this, right,
It's really all it is. If we're gonna find the
invisible ink, that's what's behind all of that, is all right.
(26:05):
You've now brought this other guy in, which means how
are how are we doing these things well? And that's
when you read it in our one. I don't know
how anyone can take it any other way than um,
you know. Then he's saying about to Cleveland, and I
don't know how you can insinuate that anybody else would
be the right fit there I understand Jimmy Garoppolo is available,
(26:28):
but I mean, are you moving the needle? You know,
are you moving puzzle pieces and chess pieces around to
go get Jimmy Garoppolo of your Cleveland. Maybe this feels
awful lot like Deshaun Watson to me. So um, you know, Baker,
we can argue, we can fight, we can this, we
can that. I'll say this, you know what this in
some ways, let's say it is Deshaun Watson. You know.
In some ways it reminds me of minds me when
Tim Tebow was with the Broncos, where people crushed him,
(26:49):
crushed him, crushed him, crushed him, made the playoffs. I know,
he didn't have a year like Baker this past year,
but made the playoffs and the Broncos were kind of
stuck with him, and then man, it becomes available and
you say, okay, no, no, no, you have to go
get that guy. And I kind of think it's the
same with the Browns if you were going to go
into next season, and as of right now, we have
no we have no proof that they're not going in
(27:10):
with Baker Mayfield. But if you were not going to
go in, you have to make a clear, clear, clear upgrade.
I don't know that Jimmy Garoppolo with his injury is
the injury history is that, and so because of that,
I don't know how you could read that as anything
other than Deshaun Watson is set at some point in
the future to become a Cleveland Brown. Yeah, coming off
a shoulder surgery. One for Garoppolo. Two people aren't in
(27:33):
love with him anyway. Now, Baker Mayfield was a broken man.
I I joked, h and maybe I was mean it
means spirited in it, But towards the end of the
season he kind of was the walking embodiment of the
wacky Doctor's game operation. He want anything on him was
going to buzz if you touched it. That that's a
drop that'll stay forever. But the idea just being that
(27:57):
he clearly he played through and he kind of alluded
to that in the hard working, you know, making sure
his toughness and mentality was underscored in all of this.
And obviously for for the Browns, there there's not a
lot out there. We talked about it, you know, for
weeks you guys on the weekend and when you filled
in here, Aaron, I mean as we watched the carousel
(28:19):
start to turn. The free agent class wasn't terribly exciting.
I mean, to Rod Taylor gets to balance and goes
supplant another guy for a minute, right, because now he
signs with the Giants at what a right? Go back
to to Rod Taylor, like he's the guy that I
want to tell all book eventually because he has had
think about it though. Go to Cleveland, go to the Chargers,
(28:41):
and you got Houston where you're kind of in Nomahn's
land with a terrible squad as you're supposed to be
the guy to take over for for Watson while he's
in limbo and not with the team. Davis Mills, who
I kind of like, I I kind of trumpet him
a little bit. I think there's there's a player are
there at at a low valuation, But like he's bounced
(29:03):
all these different places and at no point has it
ever settled to where it's like all right, you can
just go try to do your job, and it's ever
been like you're just the established back up. Just go
hold the clipboard like your Chase Daniel. There's always just
like you want to talk about the goat. I mean,
that guy might be the goat you know in NFL
history game out of money he's made with the once
he got two sixty career pass attempts. The goat is
(29:25):
from my alma mater. It's dan Orlovski. He set the
He set the bar for being a backup quarterback. Let
me tell you, well, there's certainly that. I mean, we
got a couple of guys. The longevity go back to
Jim Sorgey, who was the backup to the Mannings all
those years and would come in and you'd see him
week seventeen when Peyton would do the Queen's Wave and
and leave the field after a series. So you had
(29:45):
that and just a couple of legends. But this delicious
theater until it's not right, because certainly we'll we'll wait
to see if you've got an agreement to bring Watson
in tow and then it's all right. What's the best
fit for Baker may Field as you pushed for, because
you still have Carolina, you still have New Orleans needs
a quarterback, Seattle as they try to shift away from
(30:08):
the Russell Wilson era and figure out what they have there. Yes,
they acquired Drew Lock in the trade, but by no means,
does anybody believe do you think Baker it's like a
salvageable quarterback? Because I do, because I think he's a
pretty good player. I do too. I think there's obvious issues,
and I'd love to get to the heart of what
was the issue with Jarvis Landry What was the issue
(30:29):
with Odell Beckham Jr. To some degree, I've always wondered,
as much as they may be great with each other,
if Jarvis and O'Dell competing from balls and wanting to
be the number one guy didn't incapacitate Baker to a
degree again not And obviously what's funny is you know
the extension of all of that was, you know, Odell
(30:50):
comes to the Rams and all of a sudden, oh
look they put together an all star teams. Like nobody
was more disparaged than Odell Beckham Junior, Matthew Stafford like
and Va Miller was told he was done basically never
and then those three guys, Oh it was unfair. They
stacked the decks like you can't have it both ways.
But certainly for Baker Mayfield, I wonder if getting away
from Cleveland, getting to a spot like you're never gonna
(31:13):
be able to, at least on the surface unless you
go to Indianapolis. Uh Re established what he had right,
which was a great old line, good running backs, and
then you you have to figure out your your white outs.
And and that's not to say he's a world beater
by any stretch, but a solid player that I think,
at least for one got done wrong in terms of
(31:35):
the narratives that started to spin. Oh no, I agree,
and I said it earlier. I was on during that
Packers game where it felt like that was the night
that the whole world turned on him. On Christmas Day,
everybody's at home, everybody's watching. But that was also the
time when I said, you know what, some of this
is on Kevin Stefanski too. This guy is a football player.
He wants to play. He is going to do everything
(31:55):
he can to get himself on the field. At some
point it is on the head coach just say, hey man,
we know you're trying to do what's best for the team,
but what's best for the team is actually shut this
thing down, get some surgery, which you obviously did in
the final week of this season. Aaron Torres and for
Jason Smith tonight, the James Smith show with Mike arm
And here Fox Sports Radio. Inside the final minute, Indiana
trying to wrap things up against Wyoming. Uh, there's a
(32:20):
three point attempt coming up. A good put back makes
it sixty six going to the line to attempt the
traditional three point play. Hey, if cold candidate calls aren't
turning into hot hiring leads, then you need Indeed because
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(32:40):
speaking of Indeed, be sure to join Fox Sports Radio's
Million Dollar Bracket Challenge powered by Indeed. That's right, the
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(33:01):
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You can fill out your bracket now, and until eleven
am Eastern on Thursday morning at Fox Sports Radio dot com.
That's Fox Sports Radio dot com to fill out your
bracket and to get official rules coming out. Next, we'll
try to figure out where that cut line is. How
deep is the real winning possibility in our college buckets bracket?
(33:27):
Aaron Torres and I get to that next here on Fox.
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven
pm Pacific. Welcome back, and it's Fox Sports right are
at the Jason Smith Show with Mike Carmen. Now Jason
Smith to night off. Feeling a little under the weather.
Maybe some pollen counts got him, I don't know, got
(33:49):
out and about felt a little sick. So tagging in
Aaron tores everybody here on the Fox Sports Weekends here
on Saturday nights alongside Jason Martin. That is is seven
to six to ten, seven to ten, seven to eleven
on same window as you seven seven to eleven. We
carry the late night torch from Jason and Mike. There
(34:09):
you go. We'll pass the torch. Although I don't think
any of us are running any relays anytime soon those
days of long path me that and playing with fire.
That's a good habit to break. Yeah, No, I finally
evolved as I've gotten a little bit older here in
my andrey. So you're living that. You're living proof of
older and wiser, is what you're saying. That's my goal
(34:31):
while still looking like I'm thirty five most days, or
at least that's the goal, as long as you don't
look at the silver in the hair and the bags
under my eyes from the long, weary road that I
have traveled. That's one on Twitter to mock me at
Aaron Underscore tours where you find him all the goodness
that he offers as as part of you know, his
errand torres media, burgeoning platforms as well the articles you're
(34:54):
writing and and certainly getting folks ready for March madness.
I am that that is one of the the things
that you are tasked with right now. College football, college
buckets the the area of emphasis in the base. But
then obviously ready to throw haymakers at every other sport
on the gods, including you know a little bit of
(35:15):
these uh, these new fangled sports. I know you can
talk X games with the best of them, but as
we can. Practical jokers by the way, right there, you
come right to practical jokers. After continuing, well, you had
to get that in. As we talked True TV as
part of our annual sojourn into college buckets, we just
watched Indiana put the finishing touches on their game against
(35:38):
Wyoming sixties sixty eight. Your final go big ten and
nine teams uh entered into this tournament. Uh, Aaron. As
we started things in first four, we've got two games
in the books. But looking at the odds and as
people start to fill out their brackets, how deep is
the the net cutting group potentially here? So this has
(36:01):
been a um, you know, come to you know what
moment for me the last few weeks. So I am
One of my big takes is that every year, the
same voices in college basketball, and you know who they are,
the more prominent ones. They always try to say, oh,
it's so wide open, anything can happen, and the reality
is most years it's really about three or four teams
(36:22):
that can win it. I've used this that all the time.
The last fourteen national champions eleven number one seeds, the
top two seed in Villanova in tleven Kemba, Walker and Yukon.
In fourteen, Shabaz Napier the only non one in two
seeds to win it. And so essentially, if you don't
have a number one seed or the best player in
the tournament, you're not winning the n c A tournament.
(36:45):
I say all that to say I do think this
year is the exception. We talked a little bit about
Tennessee kind of being on the three line earlier. The
fact is all Burton Kentucky were both teams that were
could have gotten number one seeds. I think Perdue could
have gotten number a number one seed had won the
Big Ten tournament. So the gap between say the one
seeds and the four's aren't that big. I think there's
(37:06):
about probably seven to ten maybe um and it's mostly
the one seeds the two seeds. I actually think this
year that ones are weaker in some ways than they've
ever been. Baylor struggling, Kansas is struggling. I'm out, nicely done,
thank you. Just the way you drop the microphone if over,
you could have done it literally and done. A lot
would have tried deo clip No, because it would take
(37:28):
a week or two for that to get fixed, and
people would be bringing in duct tape to do that.
What's curious is, you know, obviously everybody has their their region,
their school, their conference, just like in college football, right
where the loyalties line up, And mentioned Indiana winning UH
and the nine teams for the Big Ten. Obviously a
(37:49):
lot of attention on Iowa these last nineties six hours
or so coming out of the Big Ten tournament, and
certainly looking at Keegan Murray as a guy that people
are raising their eyebrows, and and immediately it becomes the all, right,
where do these guys project? I do think it's Doug
Gotli points out it's important, like it's important to have
(38:10):
NBA caliber players on your roster. But when it's like
November and Duke is playing, and the post game immediately
turns into well, their number seven on the big board,
it's like it's November eight, they played three college games.
Can we calm down a little bit? Especially the way
things churn over anymore, Right, the number of freshmen and
sophomore that you're playing, in most cases, there's a lot
(38:33):
of time to see how much they get along, how
they share the basketball and coaching adjustments, and as you
mentioned with Duke, coach k seemed to struggle with at
a time. Hey, hiring heating up. Indeed Hiring platform makes
it easy to attract, screen and interview candidates all in
one place. Sponsor a post and instantly receive a shortlist
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Visit indeed dot com. Slash credit coming up next, we
(38:56):
turned back to the NFL and an investigation. Maybe
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Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.