August 11, 2023 • 35 mins
When we look back and ask, "What was the 2023 year in sports about?" The answer is going to be easy: It's the year Soccer and Gambling exploded into the mainstream like never before and stayed. And we welcome CJ Stroud to the NFL.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for listening to The Jason Smith Show with Mike
Harmon podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weeknight
ten pm to two am Eastern seven to eleven pm
Pacific on Fox Sports Radio. Find your local station for
The Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon at Foxsports Radio
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Speaker 2 (00:22):
Please give this you're listening to Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
Greetings, then, welcome inside our three of The Jason Smith
Show with my best friend Mike Harmon.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Well dressed Hobo.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
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Midway through the third quarter, Seahawks Viking still tied to ten.
Drew Locke still in the game. Are you sure this
(00:57):
isn't the fifth quarter? The halftime was a little long.
It was. I think the halftime of this game is
going to be longer than the Dodgers Rockies game because
they're already in the bottom of the eighth inning.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
Cruising.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
But I got to ask you a question, my car man.
This is a serious question. Now, last night we did
the show together and you did. You went on and
talked about how you were very excited because what what
did you make? Yesterday morning? You woke up and made.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
What man, beautiful chicken feini?
Speaker 1 (01:22):
You made chicken fetaccini, Alfred, and you said, yeah, yeah,
I'm gonna bring some in tomorrow night for you guys.
I'm gonna bring some in tomorrow. I did not eat
coming in here. I've been starving. You're doing the show
from home tonight. What happened? You promised food. You gotta
come in. You can't do the show from all the
nights you promised food.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
Didn't didn't quite feel right.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
It doesn't matter. You promised food. You didn't have to
eat it. We could eat it. You could sit and
watch us eat it. That's how it should work. Tysher
had to order food. He didn't even order any non
he was He was like, I'm not gonna order Harmon's
gonna bring in food tonight. You said you were brother.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
He wasn't gonna eat the chicken, Fred.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
He would have eaten the fecucini.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
He wouldn't you know? He would have washed and Frostberg
couldn't because it would have killed him.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
Lash knockbrace yea Now, tyshirt would have taken all the food,
would have washed the noodles completely, devoid of anything other
than the water you boiled them in, and then he
would have eaten them.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
I don't think you would have eaten the pasta?
Speaker 1 (02:15):
Was it vegan pasta?
Speaker 2 (02:16):
No?
Speaker 1 (02:17):
Ty shirt? Would you have had that if Mike brought
it in? I eat some?
Speaker 2 (02:21):
Hey, I feel yeah, you should well, because we did
discuss the tyshirt yesterday that I would see you on Friday.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
You did most likely that is defense.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
Yeah, And then today my stomach wasn't wasn't right, so
I thought it better to be at home. See, now
we're getting too graphic for the good people.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
You didn't have to say you're the one that said
you were coming in. You'd have to say why. You
could have said something happened, You could mustache for it.
You could you could have brought in food for all
of us. You didn't have to just you know, you
could have not eaten because if you, being the chef
that you are, I know you you would have been
happy of us saying, hey, no, that would be made
for us tonight is really good. Hey, Jason, Yeah, we
(02:59):
do have his card file. Oh that is true. Yeah,
let's get fat out.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
Sure.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
Yeah yeah, still's card of Fats House ordered.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
Night if if I get an authorization, as long as
it's not too egregious, we'll let it go.
Speaker 1 (03:09):
To chase for everybody.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
As long as it's not too egregious, we'll let it
go through. Uh.
Speaker 1 (03:16):
So we just watched, hey, big night in the in
the Women's World Cup, you had a match go to
extra time, Spain scoring in the one hundred and eleventh
minute and they eliminated big Mouth Netherlands by the score
of two to one. So Spain is into the final four.
Sweden will play Japan tonight coming up in about a
(03:38):
half hour or so for one of the other spots
in the final four in World Cup. Now, I say
big Mouth Netherlands because one of their players decided to
go on record and say how happy she was at
the United States early elimination. Lynneth Berenstein, who is one
of their big star players, said this quote. The first
moment when I heard they were out United States, I
(04:00):
was thinking yes bye, because from the start of the tournament.
They had already a really big mouth. They were talking
already about the final and stuff, and I was thinking,
you first have to show it on the pitch before
you were talking. Now, think about that for a second.
Let me say, let me add to this and say,
you shouldn't talk about another team not winning and being
(04:20):
happy they're out when you're still playing and you still
have to win to move on. Ding ding ding ding
didn't really work out. How the Netherlands hoped this was
gonna happen didn't really work out. But there's a bigger
thing at work here, Mike, then, much bigger than Hey,
the United States is out, Netherlands is Netherlands is out.
The other big story today we've gotten into, or continue
(04:42):
to get into, is Phil Mickelson and you know, gambling
over a billion dollars over the course of the last
thirty years, and what he is, what he is doing potentially,
according to sources, he asked to bet on the Ryder Cup.
It's been a big week for gambling, right. ESPN has
now decided we're going forth with our own gambling book,
and Vegas is wondering how this is, what is this
(05:03):
gonna be mean for us. Right, you've seen a couple
of big seismic stories. And I'm gonna tell you this,
when we look back at the year twenty twenty three,
whether it's in a year, whether it's in five years,
whether it's in ten years, or whatever it is, we're
gonna say what was twenty twenty three, And we're gonna
say these two things. We're gonna say twenty twenty three
was the year that soccer and gambling exploded into the
(05:28):
sports mainstream like never before. They were always popular. Soccer
was always popular. We always paid attention to the World
Cup and when the men were playing, the women were playing.
But slowly we have seen it get to the point
where now we are a soccer nation and it's a
combination of the United States women's national team, who are
rock stars, the men's team, the success of the MLS,
(05:49):
MESSI coming to the MLS, the success of TV shows
like Ted Lasso Welcome to Wrexham. It is soccer's time
in the United States, and in the next few years
it will be the fourth major sport, right alongside baseball,
basketball and football. It's a big it's the kind of
the four sport now. But it has really jumped into
the mainstream. The same thing you can say for gambling,
(06:11):
because for a long time, as popular as gambling was,
it was never embraced by the mainstream. The NFL was
always nervous. Sports leagues were nervous, what's it going to
look like if we're in bed with gambling. Gambling was
something that you kind of got dragged kicking and streaming to.
There was, Hey, we're gonna have a big there's gonna
be a big meeting, there's going to be a big
ruling coming up in all these different states about legalized gambling. ESPN,
(06:34):
which forever was don't ever say ESPN and gambling in
the same sentence. Now, ESPN trying to find a way
to stay relevant, they have said, we're now gonna be
in bed with gambling and we're gonna have our own
gambling shows. This is going to be the year we're
going back what was twenty twenty three, Well, the Jets
and Rogers, But outside of that, what was twenty twenty
three the year soccer and gambling exploded into the mainstream
(06:58):
And they're going to be every day conversations now forever.
We'll talk about certain gambling situations in sports like we
talk about the NBA Finals or the NFL playoffs. Hey,
this happened gambling wise today. This happened now talking about
the number is even more embraced and more open to everybody.
This is going to be what we look back at
(07:18):
twenty twenty three. Soccer and gambling. They became front burner
major stories for the first time, cutting through being the
cult issues and sports that they were and now their mainstream.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
Oh, I think about it right now, if you wanted
to bet the Seahawks, they're given three and a half
to the Vikings right now in this game, we're watching
all those things you track, all of those things that
now show up in your graphics at the bottom of
the screen. You and I have been around us a
long time, right. We always cite the Tony Romo convention
that was supposed to happen in Vegas for fantasy football
(07:54):
that everybody that we know and I was supposed to
be a part of it, on the fringes of it all,
and then it gets canceled because well, we can't do that.
I mean, it's a very short time in terms of
that shift to where we're at now and the deal
that went down this week I mean, you know, think
what you will about Barstool and Portnoy. I mean, the
(08:15):
details of that deal. I mean, that's like wild E Coyote,
super genius kind of stuff, the way it works out
for him, but just shows the seismic shift that we've
had in terms of attitudes and recognition of a revenue
stream that's always been there, kind of like the legalization
(08:35):
of marijuana. It's there, and you recognize the good that
can be done with society, and you weigh those good evil.
I mean, there was a Simpsons episode, right Marv margin gambling.
Can you you know, would you bring it to Springfield?
Look at all the good that it could do for
the schools and roads and you get into those debates and.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
Yeah, but she was against the monorail too, and look
how that tries.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
While a disaster because they were it was a sham.
Speaker 1 (09:02):
What's it called monorail?
Speaker 2 (09:04):
Monere Lyle Landing. Yeah, I'm nicely done. But you get
My point is that, you know, we we just see
these size mixshifts in public perception and acceptance of things.
And now we were finding out, you know, some of
the wards to it, as far as the the rules
and and how pervasive. It is certainly in the state
(09:25):
of Iowa with players gambling. But you know between that
and you know all of the permutations they're in and
offset alongside it, I guess running in parallel, you know,
MESSI coming. Nobody paid attention to the MLS. I mean
within your individual cities you did, right, you know, we
we've got the luxury of having you know, l A
(09:49):
f C and the Galaxy and those those are huge
events when those two squads get together, and in individual
cities you've had a lot of celebration. But you see
the expansion and a port that's going on for the
Women's Soccer League. But now you bring in Messy and
every night he's given you if you're doing your top
ten highlights, two of the top five every week, right
(10:10):
twice a week, every game they play him going to
the grocery store is now you know on the news
of like, hey, look how many people stood outside the
grocery store. They just wave at him as he walked
out with whatever he bought for his proteins and vegetables
for the week ahead. I mean, it's just a different,
different avenue that we're looking at the expansion and wherever
(10:34):
there's dollars, you know, make it make sense.
Speaker 1 (10:37):
The ring came off, my pudding, can take my penknife,
My good man, I swear at Springfield's only choice. Throw
up your hands and raise your boys.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
On a rail?
Speaker 1 (10:46):
What's it called?
Speaker 2 (10:47):
Mon on a rail? Nicely done, mono, don't.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
So it's it's not that these weren't big topics before,
because I know some of the years, well, of course
soccer was big, of course, man, not like this, not
with the Hey, we finally took so many years to
break through that wall and here we are and we're
planting our flag and it's different. It's different time. No
one can tell, hey, when is something going to land?
Speaker 2 (11:13):
Right?
Speaker 1 (11:13):
You can only make a guess and say, okay, when
is We've been talking for thirty years about when soccer
going to really ride? No, this was the year. This
was the even with the United States women's team losing,
everything else in arrived sports, gambling arrived, and it had
been a lot of pushing and pushing and pushing and pushing,
especially for gambling, and finally it's okay, gambling is here,
(11:34):
and now there's a whole bunch of fresh new issues
with it because it's not just about, Hey, we can
all gamble. It's become part of the mainstream. But now
it's hey, how do we make sure that nothing happens
nefariously because look in Iowa, Iowa and Iowa State, you
got players apparently couldn't lay off action on their teams
in college.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
Football games are involved in. But I mean, think about it.
It's the one thing I've always appreciated with my tenure
here as long as I've been with Fox Sports Radio
is when we were doing our Fantasy show, even in
its infancy, talking about the lines was never something we
had to shy away from. We were encouraged to bring
(12:12):
as much information and make those projections and inferences based
on all information available. And the betting lines certainly, and
player prop bets, while not the machine and to the
number that you have now, they've always existed. So we
would use that to inform people and roster decisions and
(12:34):
phone calls and eventually the tweets we would get same idea.
Fox didn't make us shy away from that, whereas I mean,
you had issues, you know, when you were working for
the network over there, both for the four letter and
over at NFL. It's like, you know, you're going down
a road everybody acknowledges and recognizes that it feeds the machine,
(12:57):
but you weren't supposed to acknowledge it, which was just
hardy all along. And now you've tried to figure out
how to best navigate something that's always been there but
you ignored, and it's so large that you know, those
problems come up and you don't have any ready solutions.
Why because you just tried to keep the genie in
(13:17):
the bottle for so long. So that's the curiosity between
the college landscape, and certainly in ESPN's venture. I mean,
because we talked about it with Draft night right shams
and the report. Hey they're leaning this number two. Well
what happened? The betting on it is moved moved markedly right,
So well.
Speaker 1 (13:36):
Phil Micholson moved the line. I mean, remember Phil, I'll
move the line myself.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
But legitimately, I mean, there are gamblers. I mean Bill Krackenberger.
You hear him on the network and he's part of
our coverage on NFL Sundays. He's a guy that he
goes to place a bet. You know, they know who
he is, and he's talked about it openly. How it
changes and and what may happen if he's on a
particular side. So I mean you certainly have individuals. Phil,
(14:04):
I don't know. I mean that would make him a
true sharp And maybe he is. I mean when we're
talking about a billion dollars of bets. Uh and you
know he's he's still kicking h and all of that
and still in the marketplace. But I just think it's
it's a fascinating convergence. Uh. And and where folks had
had to realize all the stuff that they tried to dismiss. No,
(14:28):
people just like the game, Sure they do.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
Telling you twenty twenty three, soccer and gambling became part
of the mainstream. That's the that's and you're Jack Wilson
and Rogers and Roger and Rodgers, but that but that,
but that for everybody, Rogers, for me, that for everybody
Twitter at how about a Fresco Mike gets swollen dome.
This out of the show brought to you by Progressive Insurance.
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(14:53):
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two big takeaways from the NFL Action tonight, and boy,
there's one big one. Even though it's just game one
for this team of the preseason, it's coming up next
right here, Jason and Mike Fox.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven
pm Pacific.
Speaker 1 (15:22):
Jason, what'sie? Shirts? You wear either Excel or double X,
depending on the fit. Okay, I found some really cool
Tears for Fear shirts.
Speaker 2 (15:28):
Something I'm sweet.
Speaker 1 (15:31):
Okay, you gotta wear If you buy me a Tears
for Fear shirt and it's a good one, I'll wear it.
It's retro, it's really dope. Okay, I'll wear it.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
I'll remember no sleeves shirt. Oh no, it could have
sleeves or not.
Speaker 1 (15:44):
It could.
Speaker 2 (15:44):
One show has to be available summertime. Baby. It's uh.
Speaker 1 (15:51):
It took us scared. Two hours and fifteen minutes. The
Dodgers win again. Uh. They just close out a two
to one victory over the Rockies. All the offense for
the Dodgers Tonight. Max Munsey with a home run. Max
Munsey with a basis loaded walk man. Guy's gonna hit
forty home runs. Guy's gonna have one hundred rbiyes and
he's gonna hit one ninety seven, And it's gonna be
glorious for people to go MVP votes from Max Munsey.
(16:15):
The guy hit one ninety seven, doesn't matter. One ninety seven.
He's the MVP. That's gonna be so great, you know what.
Speaker 2 (16:23):
I I celebrate the ability to keep hustling, to be
under two hundred and to still get and make meaningful
at bats and be part of a lineup. That's the
beauty of what the Dodgers have built is that you
can you can have a guy hit one ninety five.
Joe VP is still near the three forty.
Speaker 1 (16:43):
I know, it's insane. Well, when you walk a lot,
it happens.
Speaker 2 (16:45):
Well, no, but that's the thing, right, he gets on base.
Speaker 1 (16:49):
The guys, I'm gonna point a pete again, you know.
And that's the that's the craziest part is that batting average.
Speaker 2 (16:55):
You would talk about time.
Speaker 1 (16:56):
Yeah, batting average used to be right. Hey, the guy's
only hitting two fifty. The guy's hitting two thirty, the
guys hitting two twenty. He sticks, Look at he's hitting
three seventy, he's hitting three forty. Batting average doesn't matter anymore.
You have a lot of teams that can score runs
and don't they don't have one guy in their lineup
hitting over two seventy, right, I mean, the batting average
has become it's one of those one of those stats
(17:18):
and one of those achievements that I always thought was
going to play no matter what in sports, no matter
what kind of moneyball or saber metrics you wanted to
apply to. But no, but even that's gone by the
wayside now because you'll get somebody like Pete Alonzo who's
hitting two twelve. Doesn't matter, he's got thirty five home runs,
he's got eighty five RBI, doesn't matter. He's having a
really good year. It's gonna hit forty home runs. Not
(17:39):
getting a hundred run doesn't matter. The guys hit hitting
two fifteen, two twenty or two twelve, whatever it is.
You can still have a great year and hit really
really low for average. I mean, well, I mean but
incredibly low now, like because it used to be, hey,
you're a slugger, but yeah, you're hitting two fifty. It's
kind of embarrassing. Not a great hitter right. Two fifty
was usually the line where, ah, this guy's stinks. Now
(18:01):
two fifty is like, hey dude, it's two fifty two.
That's not bad, right, home runs rbies it. He hits
two fifty like we've lowered the bar because it doesn't
matter as much as it used to.
Speaker 2 (18:10):
Well, I mean, just go back to Bull Durham and
he Savoy giving you the heads up. The difference between
hitting two fifty and three hundred twenty five hits a
little bit of luck. Balls bat it in play, right,
we just put the ball in play and make something
happen and force another outcome. But if you're gonna walk
and get on base, your value is immense. And with
(18:31):
Muncy you add the power being an elite power broker
in the game. Man, it all adds up. Get him on,
get him over, get him in Now.
Speaker 1 (18:41):
A big update from the NFL, because this is something
that's pretty shocking and it's kind of fun and it's
kind of a throwback thing. Two games in the NFL sit.
We'll get to the Texans and the Patriots coming up
in a couple of minutes, but the Seahawks lead the
Vikings right now. Seventeen thirteen headed to the fourth quarter.
This game has taken forever. I think it kicked off
about six hours ago and it's still going on. Drew
(19:03):
Lock has been in the whole way at quarterback for
the Seahawks.
Speaker 2 (19:09):
Is he in the doghouse? He's gone.
Speaker 1 (19:11):
If you were playing preseason fantasy football and you have
Drew Locke as your quarterback, you're you're you are just
cleaning up right now. One ninety through the air, two touchdowns.
He's also run for fourteen yards. It has been Drew
Lock the whole way at quarterback.
Speaker 2 (19:27):
I kind of dig that, Oh that he must he
must have lost a bet with uh and I and
I use that obviously tongue in cheek given what we've
been talking about. But uh, if you're gonna play the
whole way, I mean, what do you got? Holton Ahlers
is their third guy listed on the depth chart out
of East Carolina.
Speaker 1 (19:45):
Mm hmm.
Speaker 2 (19:46):
Then it's Jim zorn Is Philip Rivers gonna can we
get it back? Can we get it back?
Speaker 1 (19:53):
Let's get it back, Let's get it back, Let's get
it back. So yeah, I mean, look, it's crazy, but
I mean just think about it's too Gino's Smith is
too valuable to play in the preseason like three hundred and.
Speaker 2 (20:04):
Sixty five days.
Speaker 1 (20:05):
That just means everything because if I said that this
week last year, here the middle of August, you know, well,
the whole Geno Smith Drew Locke quarterback battle is going on.
Because think about this time last year. All we were
talking about was Russell Wilson, right, because he was a
member of the Broncos, and how is this going to go?
And the Seahawks are just a minor, you know team
(20:26):
in this now because the only time we talked about
the Seahawks was well when a story would come out
about Russell Wilson's behavior, how Pete Carroll the Seahawks thought
about him. But now hey, moving on Shanne Newtoy in Denver,
and here's Russell Wilson. How's that gonna work? And the
Seahawks were they're tanking. I remember thinking they're tanking, right,
They're going in with Gino Smith or Drew Locke as
their quarterback. They are tanking for a quarterback this year.
(20:49):
And maybe that was their plan and and it got
screwed up because Gino Smith start.
Speaker 2 (20:56):
To the posy.
Speaker 1 (20:56):
But it's it's crazy. But think about a year ago.
If I said, Hey, in three hundred and sixty five
days from now, we're gonna say that Geno Smith is
too valuable to play in the preseason, I'd have gotten
laughed out of this profession. Mandya said, here, turn your
microphone off, turn in your headphones. You're done. You're doing
something else for living. Now you say something like that,
there's no coming back. And now look at it.
Speaker 2 (21:19):
It's just an amazing story of resilience, the human spirit
and dumb luck.
Speaker 1 (21:25):
The Jets trying to break him. Man, they did psychological
you know, listen, this is not the Jets. Geno Smith
wasn't good at all, and you can blame a lot
of people do that. It took him ten years man
to figure it out. Yes, maybe he's a late bloomer.
That's a Jets problem. The Jets should have got him now.
The Jets should have had him now. Clearly the talent
(21:46):
was there the whole time. Man wasn't there the whole.
Speaker 2 (21:48):
Time he was there. They just needed someone to no,
you know, someone to say, blank, Russell Wilson, it ain't me.
It is the exact opposite of Sean Payton.
Speaker 1 (21:58):
No, this is that's how about the Jets are Jason No,
this is how it shows you, and this really makes
one you want to get down a rabbit hole for
a second. A big Reddit thread is that. Just think
about how many quarterbacks we never see their career because
because they play on the Jets because well, that's true,
because they're never in the right system. They don't get
in the right system for themselves. Now is the Jets
(22:19):
system the right one for Gino Smith?
Speaker 2 (22:21):
No?
Speaker 1 (22:21):
Now is a good quarterback? Should a good quarterback be
good in any system?
Speaker 2 (22:25):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (22:25):
But bottom line is there are still some guys who
are good, but they have to be in the right
system because there's great quarterbacks that no matter where they play,
they'll be able to play great. Right, we've seen that before,
but we've seen plenty of guys and first round picks.
People get drafted hoping this guy is going to fit
in with our system and what we do, this guy
will be fine because we're gonna tailor it to his strengths.
(22:47):
And maybe the player comes in hits the ground running
and he's great all the way, or he bounces around
the league and he never finds his way like Josh
Rosen right, who never found his way. There probably was
a system for Josh Rosen with a strong arm to
be able to succeed, and he just never found it.
And now he's done right. There's probably a system somewhere
(23:08):
for Trey Lance to succeed in where he can stay
on the field and show his talent, and he's never
gonna get the opportunity, right Gino Smith because of what,
however long and meandering and his path took him, He's
one of the lucky ones because he found the system
that worked for him. Because the Seahawks decided at that time,
we want to get away from being so quarterback driven.
(23:29):
We want to run the football and we're gonna draft
running backs. We're going to keep running the football, and yeah,
we'll throw it when we need to. But hey, wait
a minute here, Suddenly Gino's doing what we want him
to do. He's not freelancing like Russell Wilson would do.
When we would call this play. Instead of getting a
quick pass out in the flat, we would get Russ
dropping back five yards, then five more, then fifteen more,
then running up to the line of scrimmage, then running
(23:51):
right and then throwing in complete. Instead, they got a
quarterback who was executing the offense. And you look at
the vision that teams have for what they want, and
you see where this was such a fortuitous circumstance where
the right system met the right quarterback. But I guarantee
you there are guys in the league. I guarantee you
there's ten guys in the league right now if Gino
Smith turned out to be good after a decade, I
(24:12):
guarantee you there's ten guys in the league right now
that would be Geno Smith level starters in the NFL
if they got the if they got the chance in
the right system, guys that could show it could play
for a year and suddenly get a three year, one
hundred million dollar contract. There's at least ten guys in
the NFL that aren't getting a chance or I've been
in the wrong system and can't do it. I guarantee
you there's a great system for Baker Mayfield. There's a
(24:33):
great system for him suddenly where hey, this is gonna
work for him. It hasn't worked so far, but I
guarantee you there's one. But he's unfortunately never going to
find it again. Ten guys in the league, they could
go from being disappointing players who never cut through or
were given a chance and underachieved and suddenly they turn
into whoa, they're the next guy like Gino Smith. Ten
(24:54):
guys in the league right now?
Speaker 2 (24:55):
Yeah, I mean I saw folks posting the usual start
of camp, start of live football. Hey, you know, what's
one career you know because of injury, you wish, you know,
had gotten to play play out fully? Right? And you
know our buddy Will Blackman now coaching over with the Cowboys.
He's like, well, mine, but so many people, you know,
(25:17):
the obvious answer being Bo Jackson and going from there,
but certainly at the quarterback position, just go to the goat, right,
bledsoe doesn't get hurt in that situation? What's Tom Brady?
Is he there? Does he move on to somewhere else
to where he goes on on a great path? Does
he ever get another shot? You don't know. But I
just find it funny that this conversation brings Denver and
(25:38):
Seattle together, right because Seattle, Pete Carroll was very much
about the I'm tired of this Russell Wilson situation, and
I'm gonna prove it's not me. Whereas everything Sean Payton's
talking about from last year and all the comments heard
around the world was not that I was just a
coaching I mean, Russ is the guy meanwhile putting Russ
on notice, going look I'm a gene. If this fails,
(26:01):
it's on you. So he and Pete Carroll kind of
sending the same message in their respective jobs, and Pete Carroll,
I'm sure all off season had to be insufferable, going
we got rid of Russ, and look what we got
out of Gino, Me and Waldron. Look what we were
able to do with Gino after he was cast off,
(26:24):
and everybody told us it was going to fail because
it was all about Russ. What a great convergence of stories.
As we get into twenty twenty three, he.
Speaker 1 (26:33):
Wore out like ten pairs of Nike Air monarchs, walking
around going, I'm telling everybody how great it was. I
did all this walking and talking. Today you need a
new pair of sneakers.
Speaker 2 (26:41):
Surprise I didn't. As surprise, I didn't find him walking
up and down the strand here between Manhattan Beach and Hermosa,
strutting around like he's Vince McMahon or Connor McGregor.
Speaker 1 (26:52):
Now and speaking of quarterbacks, right, because we're gonna get
to the Patriots coming up in a couple of minutes.
Speaker 2 (26:57):
But c J.
Speaker 1 (26:58):
Strouds night tonight, the Texans not great, very small amount
of time that he played through a really bad pick
in his first series of his NFL career, and already
you can see the storyline Ohio's day quarterbacks, they don't
fare well. This is CJ. Stroud, This is all CJ.
Stroud is fighting against a big stigma of Ohio State
(27:20):
quarterbacks not being able to get it done in the NFL.
And even though he was a first round pick, he
was a high first round pick. How long is he
gonna have? Is he gonna get the benefit of the doubt?
Is he in the right system for his set of skills?
Speaker 2 (27:32):
Is he there?
Speaker 1 (27:33):
Because the Texans are starting over, they're trying to figure
out everything that works right and I would tell you
give the ball of Damian Pierce on first down and
second down, you'll do pretty well. But that's that's gonna
be a big thing. Hey, is he ready? He's gonna
get this chance this year to be really good and
if not, they're gonna look to somebody else. How long
does he have, like that's suddenly the clock is ticking
(27:53):
for CJ. Stroud. Clock was ticking for Trevor Lawrence up
until last year when he when he magically got it
midway through the season, and suddenly now he's an up
and coming guy. The future is there and the Jaguars
are gonna win for a decade. But it's there for CJ.
Stroud too, because you can see you can see the
slant of coming off this game is boy, that was
not good for CJ. Stroud. You're playing against a team
(28:15):
it's not playing their first team defenders and all this
into c J. Stroud ready and is Davis Mills gonna
wind up starting? And what does that mean if Davis
Mills ends up starting and c J. Stroud doesn't get
the job, if he doesn't get there until week six
or week seven, does that mean he's still great? And
suddenly his value diminishes? I mean, really, is this the
right Is this the right fit for CJ. Stroud? All
of it, that's all on the table, right and just
(28:37):
think all of this because of Gino Smith.
Speaker 2 (28:40):
Yeah, you grab a bunch of the history and you
have to go through Houston's practice notes. I'd seen a
bunch thinking that Mills would probably be the guy out
of the gate unless Stroud just in the final two
weeks or so here blew everybody off the blew it
off the charts. But now we're just in a situation
where you just want to bring him along, right. I'm
(29:02):
not a guy that says, hey, you draft a guy early,
you've got to play him like. I'm just not that guy.
If you see the development and the opportunity is there,
then great. But if there's still a learning curve to
be passed, it's okay. Davis Mills doesn't look like a
world beater. Might maybe that changes and you never get
the job back there. But the likelihood that come week
(29:26):
six or seven they're tapping you like they're going to
the bullpen for you, just be ready keep learning. 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 iHeartRadio app Fox
Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (29:42):
The Jason Smith Show with My best Friend Mike Harmon
live from the tire rack dot Com Studios, Vikings and Seahawks,
still going on. Seven minutes ago in the fourth quarter,
Seattle leaves the Vikings twenty four to thirteen. Drew Locke
vercifully was just taken out of the game. He went
the first three quarters for the Seahawks. We'll have more
(30:05):
on this game coming up in a few minutes, but
earlier tonight that we had a doubleheader tonight of games,
the first big full weekend of NFL preseason action. We
watched the Patriots lose to the Texans twenty to nine.
We talked about CJ. Straut a few minutes ago. Tonight
we saw for the New England Patriots something that I'm
telling you watch this season. Belichick is coaching for his life.
(30:30):
He has been put on notice by Bob Kraft. The
post Tom Brady era has been awful. All the personnel
decisions that Belichick has made have not worked. None of
them have worked. And when you understand that, it's a
pretty anxious fan base and a pretty anxious owner who
has been at odds with his coach, you know he
(30:51):
didn't like it when Belichick said, well, we're one of
the lowest spending teams in the NFL. Wait, what I
gave you all that money last year, Bill, just because
you signed eleven tight ends and they all think. So
you know that Bob Kraft has that itchy finger. If
we don't win this year, you're gonna be out and
Belichick will either leave. It will either be some kind
of statement or will be a joint statement. He is
(31:14):
coaching for his life in New England. When you see
what the Patriots did at quarterback tonight and where their
future lies this season, get ready for craziness unlike you
have ever seen. You know that Belichick does not like
Mac Jones, all right. He benched Mac Jones last year
(31:35):
for Bailey Zappy. He'll probably do it again at some
point this year. You know they didn't get along. They
say they have patched up their differences. Yeah, yeah, I'll
believe that when I see suddenly Mac Jones starting every
game and Belichick saying great things about him. He's benched
him once for Bailey Zappy. Malie Cunningham played tonight and
(31:55):
he looked electric. Yes it was against the backups of backups,
but it doesn't matter. He shined a little bit and
you saw the touchdown run he had evading tacklers, a
couple of big moves. He looked like a big playmaker.
And this is a team that hasn't had playmakers in
a lot of places the last couple of years. So
I'm telling you you think Mac Jones is gonna be
(32:16):
the quarterback of the Patriots this year all season? Forget it.
He was benched for Bailey Zappy last year. You're gonna
see that again. You're gonna see Malie Cunningham move up.
You could see him wind up starting games. Because I'll
guarantee you this, Belichick's not going through the end of
the season saying Mac Jones is my guy seventeen weeks
all the way through and we finished last in the
AFC East. You are going to see quarterback musical chairs,
(32:38):
the possibility of it all season long as Belichick coaches
for his life in New England.
Speaker 2 (32:43):
Yeah. I mean one of the things with Mac Jones, though,
is you know, we can't dismiss the fact that when
he did get benched against the Bears, it was he'd
been out for nearly a month because of a high
ankle sprain and he wasn't moving very well at all.
So hang a star on it to a degree. As
much as I know you love Bailey Zappy because you
like yelling Zap Zap zap.
Speaker 1 (33:04):
Yeah, TJ. Is time for Zappie Hour in New England.
Speaker 2 (33:07):
TJ. Exactly that are em.
Speaker 1 (33:10):
Saying about shiny zappy people a long time ago.
Speaker 2 (33:13):
Dj I really was not trying to inspire any burmanisms
at this point.
Speaker 1 (33:18):
But Adam Sandler Zappi Gilmore in a quarterback for the Patriots.
Speaker 2 (33:23):
Adam Sandler who attended the Eras Tour finale at SOFI
yesterday and people were all like, why is Adam Sandler
at a Taylor Swift show? I don't know, he's got
a teenage daughter, or maybe he just likes Taylor Swift.
The part nice plausible conclusions.
Speaker 1 (33:37):
The Partridge family would like you to come on, get
Zappi into the game at quarterback.
Speaker 2 (33:42):
Bill, all right, turn his microphone off. Look, we talked
with Jason Cole and we've chronicled that, you know, there
does be there is a disconnect between Belichick and Jones,
and unless Jones suddenly ramps up his play, sure the
door is open. Bill O'Brien's gonna have a lot to
say about that. All the shiny new toys to the
(34:03):
offense and really more just a cycling out of new names.
Are they the same as the old names to kind
of take the old Who knowledge and lyrics and change
it up for the circumstance. But yeah, would I be
surprised to see him get benched. No, it's the division stuff.
(34:24):
For the Jets aren't a doormat anymore. The Dolphins have
a roster. Last year we talked about how great the
roster was, and then when Tua performed, they were a
pretty good squad. Now they've got Mike White down there.
I'll leave it at that. And then Buffalo, even if
they take a step back, they're still gonna be a
difficult out. So nothing's easy anymore. All those years people
(34:46):
mocked the way the division ran while not doing the
same for Drew Brees or Peyton Manning. Mind you, it's
not there anymore. You've got to go and take it.
And you're a five hundred squad since Brady left and
clearly Robert Kraft he likes winning and his patience is thin.
Speaker 1 (35:05):
I'm telling you, get ready, this is going to be
some kind of crazy season in New England and it
could wind up being Belichick's last, and it won't be
just him walking away, trust me. Maybe he'll go back
to the Jets for a day. Yeah, maybe, Hey, you
know twenty years ago as little hasty guys, Can I
come back because you know Sala's not getting it done.
You need me coaching. Aaron Rodgers. I want to win
(35:25):
Super Bowls now. Oh I could completely see that happening
one hundred percent. Twitter it out about a Fresco Mike
and Swollen down The Jason Smith Show with Mike Carmon,
Live from the ti iraq dot com studios, Still five
minutes ago in the fourth quarter, Seahawks leading the Vikings
twenty four to thirteen. We got more football on the
way as well as a billion dollar story that's coming
(35:49):
up next. Right here, Jason Smith, Mike Harmon, tirerack dot
com Studios. You are listening to Fox Sports Radio.
Thanks for listening to The Jason Smith Show with Mike
Harmon podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weeknight
ten pm to two am Eastern seven to eleven pm
Pacific on Fox Sports Radio. Find your local station for
The Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon at Foxsports Radio
dot com, or stream us live every night on the
iHeartRadio app by searching FSR.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Please give this you're listening to Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
Greetings, then, welcome inside our three of The Jason Smith
Show with my best friend Mike Harmon.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Well dressed Hobo.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
Live from the tirag dot Com studios Tirec dot com.
I hope you get there, an unmatched selection, fast free shipping,
free road has your protection and over ten thousand recommended
installers Tirec dot com the way tire buying should be well.
Midway through the third quarter, Seahawks Viking still tied to ten.
Drew Locke still in the game. Are you sure this
(00:57):
isn't the fifth quarter? The halftime was a little long.
It was. I think the halftime of this game is
going to be longer than the Dodgers Rockies game because
they're already in the bottom of the eighth inning.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
Cruising.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
But I got to ask you a question, my car man.
This is a serious question. Now, last night we did
the show together and you did. You went on and
talked about how you were very excited because what what
did you make? Yesterday morning? You woke up and made.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
What man, beautiful chicken feini?
Speaker 1 (01:22):
You made chicken fetaccini, Alfred, and you said, yeah, yeah,
I'm gonna bring some in tomorrow night for you guys.
I'm gonna bring some in tomorrow. I did not eat
coming in here. I've been starving. You're doing the show
from home tonight. What happened? You promised food. You gotta
come in. You can't do the show from all the
nights you promised food.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
Didn't didn't quite feel right.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
It doesn't matter. You promised food. You didn't have to
eat it. We could eat it. You could sit and
watch us eat it. That's how it should work. Tysher
had to order food. He didn't even order any non
he was He was like, I'm not gonna order Harmon's
gonna bring in food tonight. You said you were brother.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
He wasn't gonna eat the chicken, Fred.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
He would have eaten the fecucini.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
He wouldn't you know? He would have washed and Frostberg
couldn't because it would have killed him.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
Lash knockbrace yea Now, tyshirt would have taken all the food,
would have washed the noodles completely, devoid of anything other
than the water you boiled them in, and then he
would have eaten them.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
I don't think you would have eaten the pasta?
Speaker 1 (02:15):
Was it vegan pasta?
Speaker 2 (02:16):
No?
Speaker 1 (02:17):
Ty shirt? Would you have had that if Mike brought
it in? I eat some?
Speaker 2 (02:21):
Hey, I feel yeah, you should well, because we did
discuss the tyshirt yesterday that I would see you on Friday.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
You did most likely that is defense.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
Yeah, And then today my stomach wasn't wasn't right, so
I thought it better to be at home. See, now
we're getting too graphic for the good people.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
You didn't have to say you're the one that said
you were coming in. You'd have to say why. You
could have said something happened, You could mustache for it.
You could you could have brought in food for all
of us. You didn't have to just you know, you
could have not eaten because if you, being the chef
that you are, I know you you would have been
happy of us saying, hey, no, that would be made
for us tonight is really good. Hey, Jason, Yeah, we
(02:59):
do have his card file. Oh that is true. Yeah,
let's get fat out.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
Sure.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
Yeah yeah, still's card of Fats House ordered.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
Night if if I get an authorization, as long as
it's not too egregious, we'll let it go.
Speaker 1 (03:09):
To chase for everybody.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
As long as it's not too egregious, we'll let it
go through. Uh.
Speaker 1 (03:16):
So we just watched, hey, big night in the in
the Women's World Cup, you had a match go to
extra time, Spain scoring in the one hundred and eleventh
minute and they eliminated big Mouth Netherlands by the score
of two to one. So Spain is into the final four.
Sweden will play Japan tonight coming up in about a
(03:38):
half hour or so for one of the other spots
in the final four in World Cup. Now, I say
big Mouth Netherlands because one of their players decided to
go on record and say how happy she was at
the United States early elimination. Lynneth Berenstein, who is one
of their big star players, said this quote. The first
moment when I heard they were out United States, I
(04:00):
was thinking yes bye, because from the start of the tournament.
They had already a really big mouth. They were talking
already about the final and stuff, and I was thinking,
you first have to show it on the pitch before
you were talking. Now, think about that for a second.
Let me say, let me add to this and say,
you shouldn't talk about another team not winning and being
(04:20):
happy they're out when you're still playing and you still
have to win to move on. Ding ding ding ding
didn't really work out. How the Netherlands hoped this was
gonna happen didn't really work out. But there's a bigger
thing at work here, Mike, then, much bigger than Hey,
the United States is out, Netherlands is Netherlands is out.
The other big story today we've gotten into, or continue
(04:42):
to get into, is Phil Mickelson and you know, gambling
over a billion dollars over the course of the last
thirty years, and what he is, what he is doing potentially,
according to sources, he asked to bet on the Ryder Cup.
It's been a big week for gambling, right. ESPN has
now decided we're going forth with our own gambling book,
and Vegas is wondering how this is, what is this
(05:03):
gonna be mean for us. Right, you've seen a couple
of big seismic stories. And I'm gonna tell you this,
when we look back at the year twenty twenty three,
whether it's in a year, whether it's in five years,
whether it's in ten years, or whatever it is, we're
gonna say what was twenty twenty three, And we're gonna
say these two things. We're gonna say twenty twenty three
was the year that soccer and gambling exploded into the
(05:28):
sports mainstream like never before. They were always popular. Soccer
was always popular. We always paid attention to the World
Cup and when the men were playing, the women were playing.
But slowly we have seen it get to the point
where now we are a soccer nation and it's a
combination of the United States women's national team, who are
rock stars, the men's team, the success of the MLS,
(05:49):
MESSI coming to the MLS, the success of TV shows
like Ted Lasso Welcome to Wrexham. It is soccer's time
in the United States, and in the next few years
it will be the fourth major sport, right alongside baseball,
basketball and football. It's a big it's the kind of
the four sport now. But it has really jumped into
the mainstream. The same thing you can say for gambling,
(06:11):
because for a long time, as popular as gambling was,
it was never embraced by the mainstream. The NFL was
always nervous. Sports leagues were nervous, what's it going to
look like if we're in bed with gambling. Gambling was
something that you kind of got dragged kicking and streaming to.
There was, Hey, we're gonna have a big there's gonna
be a big meeting, there's going to be a big
ruling coming up in all these different states about legalized gambling. ESPN,
(06:34):
which forever was don't ever say ESPN and gambling in
the same sentence. Now, ESPN trying to find a way
to stay relevant, they have said, we're now gonna be
in bed with gambling and we're gonna have our own
gambling shows. This is going to be the year we're
going back what was twenty twenty three, Well, the Jets
and Rogers, But outside of that, what was twenty twenty
three the year soccer and gambling exploded into the mainstream
(06:58):
And they're going to be every day conversations now forever.
We'll talk about certain gambling situations in sports like we
talk about the NBA Finals or the NFL playoffs. Hey,
this happened gambling wise today. This happened now talking about
the number is even more embraced and more open to everybody.
This is going to be what we look back at
(07:18):
twenty twenty three. Soccer and gambling. They became front burner
major stories for the first time, cutting through being the
cult issues and sports that they were and now their mainstream.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
Oh, I think about it right now, if you wanted
to bet the Seahawks, they're given three and a half
to the Vikings right now in this game, we're watching
all those things you track, all of those things that
now show up in your graphics at the bottom of
the screen. You and I have been around us a
long time, right. We always cite the Tony Romo convention
that was supposed to happen in Vegas for fantasy football
(07:54):
that everybody that we know and I was supposed to
be a part of it, on the fringes of it all,
and then it gets canceled because well, we can't do that.
I mean, it's a very short time in terms of
that shift to where we're at now and the deal
that went down this week I mean, you know, think
what you will about Barstool and Portnoy. I mean, the
(08:15):
details of that deal. I mean, that's like wild E Coyote,
super genius kind of stuff, the way it works out
for him, but just shows the seismic shift that we've
had in terms of attitudes and recognition of a revenue
stream that's always been there, kind of like the legalization
(08:35):
of marijuana. It's there, and you recognize the good that
can be done with society, and you weigh those good evil.
I mean, there was a Simpsons episode, right Marv margin gambling.
Can you you know, would you bring it to Springfield?
Look at all the good that it could do for
the schools and roads and you get into those debates and.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
Yeah, but she was against the monorail too, and look
how that tries.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
While a disaster because they were it was a sham.
Speaker 1 (09:02):
What's it called monorail?
Speaker 2 (09:04):
Monere Lyle Landing. Yeah, I'm nicely done. But you get
My point is that, you know, we we just see
these size mixshifts in public perception and acceptance of things.
And now we were finding out, you know, some of
the wards to it, as far as the the rules
and and how pervasive. It is certainly in the state
(09:25):
of Iowa with players gambling. But you know between that
and you know all of the permutations they're in and
offset alongside it, I guess running in parallel, you know,
MESSI coming. Nobody paid attention to the MLS. I mean
within your individual cities you did, right, you know, we
we've got the luxury of having you know, l A
(09:49):
f C and the Galaxy and those those are huge
events when those two squads get together, and in individual
cities you've had a lot of celebration. But you see
the expansion and a port that's going on for the
Women's Soccer League. But now you bring in Messy and
every night he's given you if you're doing your top
ten highlights, two of the top five every week, right
(10:10):
twice a week, every game they play him going to
the grocery store is now you know on the news
of like, hey, look how many people stood outside the
grocery store. They just wave at him as he walked
out with whatever he bought for his proteins and vegetables
for the week ahead. I mean, it's just a different,
different avenue that we're looking at the expansion and wherever
(10:34):
there's dollars, you know, make it make sense.
Speaker 1 (10:37):
The ring came off, my pudding, can take my penknife,
My good man, I swear at Springfield's only choice. Throw
up your hands and raise your boys.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
On a rail?
Speaker 1 (10:46):
What's it called?
Speaker 2 (10:47):
Mon on a rail? Nicely done, mono, don't.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
So it's it's not that these weren't big topics before,
because I know some of the years, well, of course
soccer was big, of course, man, not like this, not
with the Hey, we finally took so many years to
break through that wall and here we are and we're
planting our flag and it's different. It's different time. No
one can tell, hey, when is something going to land?
Speaker 2 (11:13):
Right?
Speaker 1 (11:13):
You can only make a guess and say, okay, when
is We've been talking for thirty years about when soccer
going to really ride? No, this was the year. This
was the even with the United States women's team losing,
everything else in arrived sports, gambling arrived, and it had
been a lot of pushing and pushing and pushing and pushing,
especially for gambling, and finally it's okay, gambling is here,
(11:34):
and now there's a whole bunch of fresh new issues
with it because it's not just about, Hey, we can
all gamble. It's become part of the mainstream. But now
it's hey, how do we make sure that nothing happens
nefariously because look in Iowa, Iowa and Iowa State, you
got players apparently couldn't lay off action on their teams
in college.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
Football games are involved in. But I mean, think about it.
It's the one thing I've always appreciated with my tenure
here as long as I've been with Fox Sports Radio
is when we were doing our Fantasy show, even in
its infancy, talking about the lines was never something we
had to shy away from. We were encouraged to bring
(12:12):
as much information and make those projections and inferences based
on all information available. And the betting lines certainly, and
player prop bets, while not the machine and to the
number that you have now, they've always existed. So we
would use that to inform people and roster decisions and
(12:34):
phone calls and eventually the tweets we would get same idea.
Fox didn't make us shy away from that, whereas I mean,
you had issues, you know, when you were working for
the network over there, both for the four letter and
over at NFL. It's like, you know, you're going down
a road everybody acknowledges and recognizes that it feeds the machine,
(12:57):
but you weren't supposed to acknowledge it, which was just
hardy all along. And now you've tried to figure out
how to best navigate something that's always been there but
you ignored, and it's so large that you know, those
problems come up and you don't have any ready solutions.
Why because you just tried to keep the genie in
(13:17):
the bottle for so long. So that's the curiosity between
the college landscape, and certainly in ESPN's venture. I mean,
because we talked about it with Draft night right shams
and the report. Hey they're leaning this number two. Well
what happened? The betting on it is moved moved markedly right,
So well.
Speaker 1 (13:36):
Phil Micholson moved the line. I mean, remember Phil, I'll
move the line myself.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
But legitimately, I mean, there are gamblers. I mean Bill Krackenberger.
You hear him on the network and he's part of
our coverage on NFL Sundays. He's a guy that he
goes to place a bet. You know, they know who
he is, and he's talked about it openly. How it
changes and and what may happen if he's on a
particular side. So I mean you certainly have individuals. Phil,
(14:04):
I don't know. I mean that would make him a
true sharp And maybe he is. I mean when we're
talking about a billion dollars of bets. Uh and you
know he's he's still kicking h and all of that
and still in the marketplace. But I just think it's
it's a fascinating convergence. Uh. And and where folks had
had to realize all the stuff that they tried to dismiss. No,
(14:28):
people just like the game, Sure they do.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
Telling you twenty twenty three, soccer and gambling became part
of the mainstream. That's the that's and you're Jack Wilson
and Rogers and Roger and Rodgers, but that but that,
but that for everybody, Rogers, for me, that for everybody
Twitter at how about a Fresco Mike gets swollen dome.
This out of the show brought to you by Progressive Insurance.
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two big takeaways from the NFL Action tonight, and boy,
there's one big one. Even though it's just game one
for this team of the preseason, it's coming up next
right here, Jason and Mike Fox.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven
pm Pacific.
Speaker 1 (15:22):
Jason, what'sie? Shirts? You wear either Excel or double X,
depending on the fit. Okay, I found some really cool
Tears for Fear shirts.
Speaker 2 (15:28):
Something I'm sweet.
Speaker 1 (15:31):
Okay, you gotta wear If you buy me a Tears
for Fear shirt and it's a good one, I'll wear it.
It's retro, it's really dope. Okay, I'll wear it.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
I'll remember no sleeves shirt. Oh no, it could have
sleeves or not.
Speaker 1 (15:44):
It could.
Speaker 2 (15:44):
One show has to be available summertime. Baby. It's uh.
Speaker 1 (15:51):
It took us scared. Two hours and fifteen minutes. The
Dodgers win again. Uh. They just close out a two
to one victory over the Rockies. All the offense for
the Dodgers Tonight. Max Munsey with a home run. Max
Munsey with a basis loaded walk man. Guy's gonna hit
forty home runs. Guy's gonna have one hundred rbiyes and
he's gonna hit one ninety seven, And it's gonna be
glorious for people to go MVP votes from Max Munsey.
(16:15):
The guy hit one ninety seven, doesn't matter. One ninety seven.
He's the MVP. That's gonna be so great, you know what.
Speaker 2 (16:23):
I I celebrate the ability to keep hustling, to be
under two hundred and to still get and make meaningful
at bats and be part of a lineup. That's the
beauty of what the Dodgers have built is that you
can you can have a guy hit one ninety five.
Joe VP is still near the three forty.
Speaker 1 (16:43):
I know, it's insane. Well, when you walk a lot,
it happens.
Speaker 2 (16:45):
Well, no, but that's the thing, right, he gets on base.
Speaker 1 (16:49):
The guys, I'm gonna point a pete again, you know.
And that's the that's the craziest part is that batting average.
Speaker 2 (16:55):
You would talk about time.
Speaker 1 (16:56):
Yeah, batting average used to be right. Hey, the guy's
only hitting two fifty. The guy's hitting two thirty, the
guys hitting two twenty. He sticks, Look at he's hitting
three seventy, he's hitting three forty. Batting average doesn't matter anymore.
You have a lot of teams that can score runs
and don't they don't have one guy in their lineup
hitting over two seventy, right, I mean, the batting average
has become it's one of those one of those stats
(17:18):
and one of those achievements that I always thought was
going to play no matter what in sports, no matter
what kind of moneyball or saber metrics you wanted to
apply to. But no, but even that's gone by the
wayside now because you'll get somebody like Pete Alonzo who's
hitting two twelve. Doesn't matter, he's got thirty five home runs,
he's got eighty five RBI, doesn't matter. He's having a
really good year. It's gonna hit forty home runs. Not
(17:39):
getting a hundred run doesn't matter. The guys hit hitting
two fifteen, two twenty or two twelve, whatever it is.
You can still have a great year and hit really
really low for average. I mean, well, I mean but
incredibly low now, like because it used to be, hey,
you're a slugger, but yeah, you're hitting two fifty. It's
kind of embarrassing. Not a great hitter right. Two fifty
was usually the line where, ah, this guy's stinks. Now
(18:01):
two fifty is like, hey dude, it's two fifty two.
That's not bad, right, home runs rbies it. He hits
two fifty like we've lowered the bar because it doesn't
matter as much as it used to.
Speaker 2 (18:10):
Well, I mean, just go back to Bull Durham and
he Savoy giving you the heads up. The difference between
hitting two fifty and three hundred twenty five hits a
little bit of luck. Balls bat it in play, right,
we just put the ball in play and make something
happen and force another outcome. But if you're gonna walk
and get on base, your value is immense. And with
(18:31):
Muncy you add the power being an elite power broker
in the game. Man, it all adds up. Get him on,
get him over, get him in Now.
Speaker 1 (18:41):
A big update from the NFL, because this is something
that's pretty shocking and it's kind of fun and it's
kind of a throwback thing. Two games in the NFL sit.
We'll get to the Texans and the Patriots coming up
in a couple of minutes, but the Seahawks lead the
Vikings right now. Seventeen thirteen headed to the fourth quarter.
This game has taken forever. I think it kicked off
about six hours ago and it's still going on. Drew
(19:03):
Lock has been in the whole way at quarterback for
the Seahawks.
Speaker 2 (19:09):
Is he in the doghouse? He's gone.
Speaker 1 (19:11):
If you were playing preseason fantasy football and you have
Drew Locke as your quarterback, you're you're you are just
cleaning up right now. One ninety through the air, two touchdowns.
He's also run for fourteen yards. It has been Drew
Lock the whole way at quarterback.
Speaker 2 (19:27):
I kind of dig that, Oh that he must he
must have lost a bet with uh and I and
I use that obviously tongue in cheek given what we've
been talking about. But uh, if you're gonna play the
whole way, I mean, what do you got? Holton Ahlers
is their third guy listed on the depth chart out
of East Carolina.
Speaker 1 (19:45):
Mm hmm.
Speaker 2 (19:46):
Then it's Jim zorn Is Philip Rivers gonna can we
get it back? Can we get it back?
Speaker 1 (19:53):
Let's get it back, Let's get it back, Let's get
it back. So yeah, I mean, look, it's crazy, but
I mean just think about it's too Gino's Smith is
too valuable to play in the preseason like three hundred and.
Speaker 2 (20:04):
Sixty five days.
Speaker 1 (20:05):
That just means everything because if I said that this
week last year, here the middle of August, you know, well,
the whole Geno Smith Drew Locke quarterback battle is going on.
Because think about this time last year. All we were
talking about was Russell Wilson, right, because he was a
member of the Broncos, and how is this going to go?
And the Seahawks are just a minor, you know team
(20:26):
in this now because the only time we talked about
the Seahawks was well when a story would come out
about Russell Wilson's behavior, how Pete Carroll the Seahawks thought
about him. But now hey, moving on Shanne Newtoy in Denver,
and here's Russell Wilson. How's that gonna work? And the
Seahawks were they're tanking. I remember thinking they're tanking, right,
They're going in with Gino Smith or Drew Locke as
their quarterback. They are tanking for a quarterback this year.
(20:49):
And maybe that was their plan and and it got
screwed up because Gino Smith start.
Speaker 2 (20:56):
To the posy.
Speaker 1 (20:56):
But it's it's crazy. But think about a year ago.
If I said, Hey, in three hundred and sixty five
days from now, we're gonna say that Geno Smith is
too valuable to play in the preseason, I'd have gotten
laughed out of this profession. Mandya said, here, turn your
microphone off, turn in your headphones. You're done. You're doing
something else for living. Now you say something like that,
there's no coming back. And now look at it.
Speaker 2 (21:19):
It's just an amazing story of resilience, the human spirit
and dumb luck.
Speaker 1 (21:25):
The Jets trying to break him. Man, they did psychological
you know, listen, this is not the Jets. Geno Smith
wasn't good at all, and you can blame a lot
of people do that. It took him ten years man
to figure it out. Yes, maybe he's a late bloomer.
That's a Jets problem. The Jets should have got him now.
The Jets should have had him now. Clearly the talent
(21:46):
was there the whole time. Man wasn't there the whole.
Speaker 2 (21:48):
Time he was there. They just needed someone to no,
you know, someone to say, blank, Russell Wilson, it ain't me.
It is the exact opposite of Sean Payton.
Speaker 1 (21:58):
No, this is that's how about the Jets are Jason No,
this is how it shows you, and this really makes
one you want to get down a rabbit hole for
a second. A big Reddit thread is that. Just think
about how many quarterbacks we never see their career because
because they play on the Jets because well, that's true,
because they're never in the right system. They don't get
in the right system for themselves. Now is the Jets
(22:19):
system the right one for Gino Smith?
Speaker 2 (22:21):
No?
Speaker 1 (22:21):
Now is a good quarterback? Should a good quarterback be
good in any system?
Speaker 2 (22:25):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (22:25):
But bottom line is there are still some guys who
are good, but they have to be in the right
system because there's great quarterbacks that no matter where they play,
they'll be able to play great. Right, we've seen that before,
but we've seen plenty of guys and first round picks.
People get drafted hoping this guy is going to fit
in with our system and what we do, this guy
will be fine because we're gonna tailor it to his strengths.
(22:47):
And maybe the player comes in hits the ground running
and he's great all the way, or he bounces around
the league and he never finds his way like Josh
Rosen right, who never found his way. There probably was
a system for Josh Rosen with a strong arm to
be able to succeed, and he just never found it.
And now he's done right. There's probably a system somewhere
(23:08):
for Trey Lance to succeed in where he can stay
on the field and show his talent, and he's never
gonna get the opportunity, right Gino Smith because of what,
however long and meandering and his path took him, He's
one of the lucky ones because he found the system
that worked for him. Because the Seahawks decided at that time,
we want to get away from being so quarterback driven.
(23:29):
We want to run the football and we're gonna draft
running backs. We're going to keep running the football, and yeah,
we'll throw it when we need to. But hey, wait
a minute here, Suddenly Gino's doing what we want him
to do. He's not freelancing like Russell Wilson would do.
When we would call this play. Instead of getting a
quick pass out in the flat, we would get Russ
dropping back five yards, then five more, then fifteen more,
then running up to the line of scrimmage, then running
(23:51):
right and then throwing in complete. Instead, they got a
quarterback who was executing the offense. And you look at
the vision that teams have for what they want, and
you see where this was such a fortuitous circumstance where
the right system met the right quarterback. But I guarantee
you there are guys in the league. I guarantee you
there's ten guys in the league right now if Gino
Smith turned out to be good after a decade, I
(24:12):
guarantee you there's ten guys in the league right now
that would be Geno Smith level starters in the NFL
if they got the if they got the chance in
the right system, guys that could show it could play
for a year and suddenly get a three year, one
hundred million dollar contract. There's at least ten guys in
the NFL that aren't getting a chance or I've been
in the wrong system and can't do it. I guarantee
you there's a great system for Baker Mayfield. There's a
(24:33):
great system for him suddenly where hey, this is gonna
work for him. It hasn't worked so far, but I
guarantee you there's one. But he's unfortunately never going to
find it again. Ten guys in the league, they could
go from being disappointing players who never cut through or
were given a chance and underachieved and suddenly they turn
into whoa, they're the next guy like Gino Smith. Ten
(24:54):
guys in the league right now?
Speaker 2 (24:55):
Yeah, I mean I saw folks posting the usual start
of camp, start of live football. Hey, you know, what's
one career you know because of injury, you wish, you know,
had gotten to play play out fully? Right? And you
know our buddy Will Blackman now coaching over with the Cowboys.
He's like, well, mine, but so many people, you know,
(25:17):
the obvious answer being Bo Jackson and going from there,
but certainly at the quarterback position, just go to the goat, right,
bledsoe doesn't get hurt in that situation? What's Tom Brady?
Is he there? Does he move on to somewhere else
to where he goes on on a great path? Does
he ever get another shot? You don't know. But I
just find it funny that this conversation brings Denver and
(25:38):
Seattle together, right because Seattle, Pete Carroll was very much
about the I'm tired of this Russell Wilson situation, and
I'm gonna prove it's not me. Whereas everything Sean Payton's
talking about from last year and all the comments heard
around the world was not that I was just a
coaching I mean, Russ is the guy meanwhile putting Russ
on notice, going look I'm a gene. If this fails,
(26:01):
it's on you. So he and Pete Carroll kind of
sending the same message in their respective jobs, and Pete Carroll,
I'm sure all off season had to be insufferable, going
we got rid of Russ, and look what we got
out of Gino, Me and Waldron. Look what we were
able to do with Gino after he was cast off,
(26:24):
and everybody told us it was going to fail because
it was all about Russ. What a great convergence of stories.
As we get into twenty twenty three, he.
Speaker 1 (26:33):
Wore out like ten pairs of Nike Air monarchs, walking
around going, I'm telling everybody how great it was. I
did all this walking and talking. Today you need a
new pair of sneakers.
Speaker 2 (26:41):
Surprise I didn't. As surprise, I didn't find him walking
up and down the strand here between Manhattan Beach and Hermosa,
strutting around like he's Vince McMahon or Connor McGregor.
Speaker 1 (26:52):
Now and speaking of quarterbacks, right, because we're gonna get
to the Patriots coming up in a couple of minutes.
Speaker 2 (26:57):
But c J.
Speaker 1 (26:58):
Strouds night tonight, the Texans not great, very small amount
of time that he played through a really bad pick
in his first series of his NFL career, and already
you can see the storyline Ohio's day quarterbacks, they don't
fare well. This is CJ. Stroud, This is all CJ.
Stroud is fighting against a big stigma of Ohio State
(27:20):
quarterbacks not being able to get it done in the NFL.
And even though he was a first round pick, he
was a high first round pick. How long is he
gonna have? Is he gonna get the benefit of the doubt?
Is he in the right system for his set of skills?
Speaker 2 (27:32):
Is he there?
Speaker 1 (27:33):
Because the Texans are starting over, they're trying to figure
out everything that works right and I would tell you
give the ball of Damian Pierce on first down and
second down, you'll do pretty well. But that's that's gonna
be a big thing. Hey, is he ready? He's gonna
get this chance this year to be really good and
if not, they're gonna look to somebody else. How long
does he have, like that's suddenly the clock is ticking
(27:53):
for CJ. Stroud. Clock was ticking for Trevor Lawrence up
until last year when he when he magically got it
midway through the season, and suddenly now he's an up
and coming guy. The future is there and the Jaguars
are gonna win for a decade. But it's there for CJ.
Stroud too, because you can see you can see the
slant of coming off this game is boy, that was
not good for CJ. Stroud. You're playing against a team
(28:15):
it's not playing their first team defenders and all this
into c J. Stroud ready and is Davis Mills gonna
wind up starting? And what does that mean if Davis
Mills ends up starting and c J. Stroud doesn't get
the job, if he doesn't get there until week six
or week seven, does that mean he's still great? And
suddenly his value diminishes? I mean, really, is this the
right Is this the right fit for CJ. Stroud? All
of it, that's all on the table, right and just
(28:37):
think all of this because of Gino Smith.
Speaker 2 (28:40):
Yeah, you grab a bunch of the history and you
have to go through Houston's practice notes. I'd seen a
bunch thinking that Mills would probably be the guy out
of the gate unless Stroud just in the final two
weeks or so here blew everybody off the blew it
off the charts. But now we're just in a situation
where you just want to bring him along, right. I'm
(29:02):
not a guy that says, hey, you draft a guy early,
you've got to play him like. I'm just not that guy.
If you see the development and the opportunity is there,
then great. But if there's still a learning curve to
be passed, it's okay. Davis Mills doesn't look like a
world beater. Might maybe that changes and you never get
the job back there. But the likelihood that come week
(29:26):
six or seven they're tapping you like they're going to
the bullpen for you, just be ready keep learning. 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 iHeartRadio app Fox
Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (29:42):
The Jason Smith Show with My best Friend Mike Harmon
live from the tire rack dot Com Studios, Vikings and Seahawks,
still going on. Seven minutes ago in the fourth quarter,
Seattle leaves the Vikings twenty four to thirteen. Drew Locke
vercifully was just taken out of the game. He went
the first three quarters for the Seahawks. We'll have more
(30:05):
on this game coming up in a few minutes, but
earlier tonight that we had a doubleheader tonight of games,
the first big full weekend of NFL preseason action. We
watched the Patriots lose to the Texans twenty to nine.
We talked about CJ. Straut a few minutes ago. Tonight
we saw for the New England Patriots something that I'm
telling you watch this season. Belichick is coaching for his life.
(30:30):
He has been put on notice by Bob Kraft. The
post Tom Brady era has been awful. All the personnel
decisions that Belichick has made have not worked. None of
them have worked. And when you understand that, it's a
pretty anxious fan base and a pretty anxious owner who
has been at odds with his coach, you know he
(30:51):
didn't like it when Belichick said, well, we're one of
the lowest spending teams in the NFL. Wait, what I
gave you all that money last year, Bill, just because
you signed eleven tight ends and they all think. So
you know that Bob Kraft has that itchy finger. If
we don't win this year, you're gonna be out and
Belichick will either leave. It will either be some kind
of statement or will be a joint statement. He is
(31:14):
coaching for his life in New England. When you see
what the Patriots did at quarterback tonight and where their
future lies this season, get ready for craziness unlike you
have ever seen. You know that Belichick does not like
Mac Jones, all right. He benched Mac Jones last year
(31:35):
for Bailey Zappy. He'll probably do it again at some
point this year. You know they didn't get along. They
say they have patched up their differences. Yeah, yeah, I'll
believe that when I see suddenly Mac Jones starting every
game and Belichick saying great things about him. He's benched
him once for Bailey Zappy. Malie Cunningham played tonight and
(31:55):
he looked electric. Yes it was against the backups of backups,
but it doesn't matter. He shined a little bit and
you saw the touchdown run he had evading tacklers, a
couple of big moves. He looked like a big playmaker.
And this is a team that hasn't had playmakers in
a lot of places the last couple of years. So
I'm telling you you think Mac Jones is gonna be
(32:16):
the quarterback of the Patriots this year all season? Forget it.
He was benched for Bailey Zappy last year. You're gonna
see that again. You're gonna see Malie Cunningham move up.
You could see him wind up starting games. Because I'll
guarantee you this, Belichick's not going through the end of
the season saying Mac Jones is my guy seventeen weeks
all the way through and we finished last in the
AFC East. You are going to see quarterback musical chairs,
(32:38):
the possibility of it all season long as Belichick coaches
for his life in New England.
Speaker 2 (32:43):
Yeah. I mean one of the things with Mac Jones, though,
is you know, we can't dismiss the fact that when
he did get benched against the Bears, it was he'd
been out for nearly a month because of a high
ankle sprain and he wasn't moving very well at all.
So hang a star on it to a degree. As
much as I know you love Bailey Zappy because you
like yelling Zap Zap zap.
Speaker 1 (33:04):
Yeah, TJ. Is time for Zappie Hour in New England.
Speaker 2 (33:07):
TJ. Exactly that are em.
Speaker 1 (33:10):
Saying about shiny zappy people a long time ago.
Speaker 2 (33:13):
Dj I really was not trying to inspire any burmanisms
at this point.
Speaker 1 (33:18):
But Adam Sandler Zappi Gilmore in a quarterback for the Patriots.
Speaker 2 (33:23):
Adam Sandler who attended the Eras Tour finale at SOFI
yesterday and people were all like, why is Adam Sandler
at a Taylor Swift show? I don't know, he's got
a teenage daughter, or maybe he just likes Taylor Swift.
The part nice plausible conclusions.
Speaker 1 (33:37):
The Partridge family would like you to come on, get
Zappi into the game at quarterback.
Speaker 2 (33:42):
Bill, all right, turn his microphone off. Look, we talked
with Jason Cole and we've chronicled that, you know, there
does be there is a disconnect between Belichick and Jones,
and unless Jones suddenly ramps up his play, sure the
door is open. Bill O'Brien's gonna have a lot to
say about that. All the shiny new toys to the
(34:03):
offense and really more just a cycling out of new names.
Are they the same as the old names to kind
of take the old Who knowledge and lyrics and change
it up for the circumstance. But yeah, would I be
surprised to see him get benched. No, it's the division stuff.
(34:24):
For the Jets aren't a doormat anymore. The Dolphins have
a roster. Last year we talked about how great the
roster was, and then when Tua performed, they were a
pretty good squad. Now they've got Mike White down there.
I'll leave it at that. And then Buffalo, even if
they take a step back, they're still gonna be a
difficult out. So nothing's easy anymore. All those years people
(34:46):
mocked the way the division ran while not doing the
same for Drew Brees or Peyton Manning. Mind you, it's
not there anymore. You've got to go and take it.
And you're a five hundred squad since Brady left and
clearly Robert Kraft he likes winning and his patience is thin.
Speaker 1 (35:05):
I'm telling you, get ready, this is going to be
some kind of crazy season in New England and it
could wind up being Belichick's last, and it won't be
just him walking away, trust me. Maybe he'll go back
to the Jets for a day. Yeah, maybe, Hey, you
know twenty years ago as little hasty guys, Can I
come back because you know Sala's not getting it done.
You need me coaching. Aaron Rodgers. I want to win
(35:25):
Super Bowls now. Oh I could completely see that happening
one hundred percent. Twitter it out about a Fresco Mike
and Swollen down The Jason Smith Show with Mike Carmon,
Live from the ti iraq dot com studios, Still five
minutes ago in the fourth quarter, Seahawks leading the Vikings
twenty four to thirteen. We got more football on the
way as well as a billion dollar story that's coming
(35:49):
up next. Right here, Jason Smith, Mike Harmon, tirerack dot
com Studios. You are listening to Fox Sports Radio.
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Jason Smith
Mike Harmon
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