September 5, 2026 • 29 mins
Jason Smith and Mike Harmon tell you that this might be the best overall team Lincoln Riley has had at USC. And the only way the Pablo Torre Dodgers/Walter/Magic story gets the public's attention is if the Dodgers go up for sale soon!
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for listening to the Jason Smith Show with Mike
Harmon podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weeknight,
10 p.m. to 2 a.m. Eastern, 7 to 11 p.m.
Pacific on Fox Sports Radio. Find your local station for
the Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon at foxsportsradio.com or
stream us live every night on the iHeartRadio app by
searching FSR. Now let's get this party started.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
Greetings. Welcome inside. Final hour tonight, the Jason Smith Show
with my best friend, Mike Harmon. I'm standing up in
the studio. Really fun Friday night ahead of the full
slate tomorrow, week one of college football. We've talked a
lot about Malachi Tony tonight, 11 catches, 142 yards, his
(00:55):
three touchdowns. Maybe he's the best wide receiver in college football. Remember,
he's only 13 years old.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
He's fantastic. He's a wee lad.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
He's got eight more years before he's eligible for the
NFL draft. He is absolutely fantastic. But maybe a bigger
story tonight because I know I shouldn't do this, but
I'm sort of buying in on what we saw tonight
between USC and Fresno State. What kind of night did
Jaden Maiva have? USC quarterback? Well... He had this kind
(01:28):
of night. There's a third and goal. Protected.
Speaker 4 (01:34):
He evades to the end zone.
Speaker 5 (01:39):
A wide open man.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
To no kinds.
Speaker 3 (01:40):
Welcome to 2026. Touchdown, USC.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
Another one. He's in blocking.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
He's my alpha.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
Has a wide open Trent Mosley.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
After a big debut last week.
Speaker 3 (01:50):
He cuts back inside.
Speaker 4 (01:52):
The encore just as sweet for Trent Mosley.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
And another one.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
Another first down for USC.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
And Mosley!
Speaker 3 (02:08):
Is he in?
Speaker 6 (02:09):
Yes!
Speaker 7 (02:09):
Second touchdown of the night, Trent Mosley.
Speaker 3 (02:19):
Another one. Oh, come on, man.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
Come on.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
Sanchez gets hit.
Speaker 3 (02:24):
The ball is loose, and it's alive. The return of football, baby.
Way to go, tight shirt.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
Fox on the call. Trent Mosley, four for 104, a
couple of touchdowns. Dixon Wyatt also had six for 102.
But Maiva tonight, 23 of 25 for 349 and three touchdowns.
In two games so far, he has thrown five touchdowns
and six incomplete passes. Okay? He's lower on the odds,
(02:51):
but he's on the board for the Heisman Trophy overall.
This is the kind of year he's going to have.
USC's offense is loaded. You know, they replaced wide receivers
from last year. As you can see, it doesn't matter.
You know, USC is kind of a little bit like
Ohio State, maybe like Ohio State light with their wide
receiver room. But the bigger thing to me, right, my
(03:13):
eye is big deal. USC wins again. Thirty nine. Nothing
is your final. And you saw the reaction following the
game when they knew when they clinched that it was
going to be a shutout. And how the players mobbed
Gary Patterson, their new defensive coordinator who was there. He
looked like the head coach. It's Buddy Ryan. Yeah, it's
(03:33):
like when the 85 Bears, yeah, Dick is the coach,
but they carried Buddy Ryan off the field. The reaction
to Gary Patterson was fantastic. And all we have said
about USC is that Your defense just has to be better.
It doesn't have to be top of college football. It
doesn't have to be one of the best defense. But
it has to be better than last year. It has
to be good enough. And as we heard from Pete
(03:57):
Futak last hour, this is not a bad Fresno State team.
This is a Fresno State team that can potentially win
the Big 12. This is a pretty good Fresno State team.
And USC... Made them look like they shouldn't even be
on the same field with them. I know I shouldn't
buy in, but man, I'll tell you what, this might
wind up being Lincoln Riley's best overall team because it
(04:19):
feels like they have everything in place. He's had great
offensive players before, right? He's had Blitnikoff winners. He's had
Caleb Williams, but he's never had a defense. Defense has
always let him down. Now he's got the right D.C.,
and maybe the defense is really good, you know, judging
by what they did tonight. You know, last week, they
were great in the first half. Obviously, when you win
(04:41):
a game, when you're winning like 24-0 and you're able
to kind of just, oh, we allowed 26 to San
Jose State late. Okay, you know that there's a message
out there to be able to finish tonight, and they
absolutely finished tonight. and in a year where, hey, there's
a lot of questions in the Big Ten outside of
Ohio State, right? Ohio State's at the top, and Oregon's
(05:02):
very good, but there's going to be three, maybe four
playoff teams out of that conference, and this might be
USC's year. I feel like I'm falling for it again,
but honestly, this might be the best USC team that
Lincoln Riley has had when you talk about what he's
got offensively and defensively. I'm buying back in on USC.
Speaker 5 (05:23):
The thing I love watching this game, and you talk
about Patterson getting the love at the end of it,
but watching the full 60 and just the way they're
flying around. Now, Again, San Jose State, seven and a half,
I think, is their over-under for the win total. Pete
Futek may be looking to go beyond that.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
Okay, cool.
Speaker 5 (05:42):
San Jose State the week before, they bludgeoned them for
a half. Sat a bunch of people down, and remember,
it was hot.
Speaker 1 (05:47):
It was hot.
Speaker 3 (05:49):
And there's nobody there, so, I mean, you know, you're
not motivated to. No, I'm just kidding.
Speaker 5 (05:52):
But you look at their schedule coming up, right? You
got the Louisiana Raging Cajuns on the board. Then you
got the soon-to-be-relegated Rutgers. squad before that end of the
month 926 game against Oregon right there is your big
test well you have.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
A gauntlet there you have Oregon Washington Penn State and
then later on you have Ohio State and Indiana like
they're going to earn their way through like it's not
going to be hey we got an easy schedule no
they're going to earn their way through No.
Speaker 3 (06:23):
That's just it, right?
Speaker 5 (06:24):
You've got two blocks that go through, and then that
back end when you get to Halloween and mid-November, you
do have the bye week before you face Indiana to
get yourself healthy, etc. But we're looking at the defensive
front and the speed there. The offensive line, they're mauling, guys.
He's got all day to set up.
Speaker 3 (06:43):
There's no....
Speaker 5 (06:47):
Nothing to do other than watch a little bit of
the tape and just see how clean that pocket is
and how he's able to just distribute, right? Giving his
guys time to get out of their breaks, time to
create separation. And it is right now a master's class.
Now you got to keep those front five healthy. And
obviously on the defensive side, you got Brian Urlacher's kid
(07:08):
running around, terrorizing dude at the back of the end
zone and chasing him out. like he was so much
of an Orlovsky back there. But all of that to
say that you know that he can coach offense. That's
never been a question. It's like you finally actually put
resources and personnel and recruited to go play Big Ten,
(07:30):
big boy football.
Speaker 3 (07:32):
Hurrah. So exciting times. That means more asses in seats.
Speaker 5 (07:37):
If you want to go to that game against Oregon,
get in on resale is 121. And that's sitting in
the last couple of rows in the 500 sections.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
Tell any man buying back in on you as a
tough schedule. Tough, tough, tough.
Speaker 5 (07:53):
Now, if they do have a setback, though, buddy, like
he can't go back to the mealy mouth the way
he's approached things at the podium.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
These last couple of.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
Years, we're only 11 plays away from being undefeated. My
entire run at USC, 11 and three, eight and five,
six and seven, eight and five. Yet you're one play away.
Speaker 3 (08:11):
Come on, man.
Speaker 1 (08:13):
Exit out about a fresca, exit swollen dome, the Jason
Smith Show with my best friend, Mike Harmon. More college
football right now as we have breaking news as we
are ahead of the games tomorrow. All the attention the
last few days on the players coming back from the NFL, LSU,
welcoming a couple of them with open arms. Are they
(08:34):
ready to play tomorrow against Clemson? Special delivery Steve DeSager
has the update on this right now with breaking news. Steve-O.
Speaker 6 (08:44):
The answer in short is no, because they barely practice
these two, even though they know Lane Kiffin and were
his Ole Miss players and said in the court case
this week, yeah, we intend to play for Kiffin at LSU.
Speaker 8 (08:56):
For his debut season, the first game, LSU hosting Clemson
tomorrow night, will not have tight end Daquan Wright or
defensive tackle Zavian Harris, the two who were cleared this
week to return after brief stints in the NFL to
college football. LSU, it's reported tonight, has not added those
two to the roster for the season opener. That doesn't
(09:18):
mean they can't be added to the roster sometime later
in the season. We're not going to see them on
the field, certainly, tomorrow night.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
Thank you, Steve-O. Now, look, with these two guys coming in,
I'm going to maintain what I said when the first
time that they were allowed to go back to school,
before the 17 or 18 injunctions going back and forth, saying, oh,
they can play. No, they can't play. They can play. No,
they can't play. There's an injunction now that's allowing them
to play. And LSU is at the forefront of this
because Lane Kiffin has said, we'll take all the guys.
(09:47):
We're recruiting them. We'll take them. We're coming back. I'm
the bad boy of college football. Yes, that's me in
a denim jacket smoking a cigarette outside the school. Hey, everybody,
I'm the cool guy who wants to go watch Metallica videos.
But it's an injunction that allows them to play now.
You have no idea how this is going to be
ruled on when there's a final ruling. And who knows?
(10:09):
There may not be a final rule, but there is
going to be some sort of final ruling for this season.
If you play the guys right, if you play right,
you play a couple of guys and then midway through
the season. No, no, no. These players cannot come back.
And if you use them, they're ineligible.
Speaker 7 (10:24):
Right.
Speaker 1 (10:25):
I'm using the doom and gloom scenario, but it's happened
like this before. And then all of a sudden, LSU's
got to vacate a win because they use this player.
As much as these guys are back, this is probably
what it's going to be. Whatever schools, like LSU, are
going to take the players back, they will practice with
them for a while, and they will wait to be
(10:45):
put in the game until the teams and schools are
absolutely certain. They are cleared to play. They're going to
wait for some final ruling because still college football doesn't
like it. They're looking to try to put something together
that bans these players from playing. I don't know how
long it would take to have something official.
Speaker 3 (11:04):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (11:05):
Maybe it's the threat of SEC teams saying, if you
play these guys, LSU, we're not going to play you
in the game. We'll take a forfeit or we'll bluff
you on your way to a potential forfeit. So I
don't think these guys are going to play until we
get the final answer. Like right now, okay, they're eligible.
So they'll be at practice. They'll work their way back in.
(11:26):
But unless there's a big decision that says, yes, they're
all clear. There's no ramifications if you use them. They're
clear to play. All the players are clear to play.
That's when we'll see them play, but it's not going
to happen until then.
Speaker 5 (11:37):
Yeah, we had the statement from the Clemson side of
things that while they come, Dabbles used the word embarrassing
a lot to describe the state of college football. And
we know his thoughts on transfers and NIL and everything else.
But in this case, he encapsulates it pretty well with
that one word. that they weren't going to do anything.
Speaker 3 (11:58):
All right.
Speaker 5 (11:59):
Game goes on, not played under protest or whatever else.
But yeah, the, the question is what's, what's the final judge.
Does this have to go find its way through the
courts and up through the Supreme court? I think we
have other things to deal with, but it's the, the
idea that you're, you're going to find a friendly judge that,
you know, has some sheepskin on the, on the wall somewhere.
Speaker 8 (12:22):
Right.
Speaker 5 (12:23):
That that's the kind of the game we're playing right now.
But yeah, Lane Kiffin, he's at odds with his administration.
That's how divisive this is. Like he's pleading his case.
And like, I can't fault him entirely, you know, trying
to be the bad boy and just saying, well, if
there's a rule that we can take and maybe a
guy that's a shade better at tight end gives us
(12:44):
a better chance. I'm fighting for my, you know, reclamation
of my, my career on this next step.
Speaker 2 (12:51):
Right.
Speaker 5 (12:51):
Cause even with a great year last year, how much
did he get bashed on his way out the door?
Speaker 3 (12:56):
Cause he didn't coach in the playoffs.
Speaker 1 (12:57):
Right.
Speaker 4 (12:58):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (12:58):
So you're right. So he's a guy that is like,
nothing I do is right. So forget it. Why don't,
why not do this as well? So, yeah, I, I,
I would suspect you're right though. They'll be in those
sweats like they wore to court, put a helmet on
them a couple of days a week, but you're not
seeing the field. Cause, who knows how that gets handled
because it's all been so ham handed anyway. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (13:20):
I mean, look, it's okay. This is because college football
has no rules. How great would it be to have
a commissioner that could say, okay, yes, you're allowed to play. No,
you're not allowed to play. Oh no, they can practice,
but they can't play. We're going to figure this out,
but there's no rules, right? Like, like maybe at some
point something is going to happen that, that's going to
make the entire sport throw the emergency brake because it's
(13:42):
been running out of control for the past few years.
Whatever the Big Ten and the SEC want, that's wind
up what happens. We got the NIL. We have transfer.
We have all kinds of craziness. Eventually, if it goes unchecked,
the Big Ten and the SEC will have their own
conference together in the next few years. That'll happen 100%.
I don't know what it is. I can't believe that
this is it, that it's going to be players coming
(14:04):
back from the NFL that's going to say, all right,
we need to get our house in order. We need
a commissioner. We need somebody to make these decisions. But
this seems like it's the only decision that everybody in
college football besides LSU wants. Like there's nobody else that
doesn't want this, but everybody else in college. So we
shouldn't come back and do this. Okay. So this is the,
this is the thing that's going to tell them we
(14:25):
need a commissioner.
Speaker 5 (14:26):
Well, but at least outwardly LSU doesn't want it either,
but you've got Lane Kiffin and the football people that do, but,
is it, is he like smarter than the rest of us?
And he knows that in the end, he'll be hailed
a hero. Cause this is the thing that unites everybody.
Everybody's got a common enemy.
Speaker 3 (14:45):
It's him.
Speaker 1 (14:47):
Exit out about a fresca exit, swollen dome, the Jason
Smith show with my best friend, Mike Harmon live from
the Fox sports radio studios. So again, not playing tomorrow.
So there will be a game. There will be, there will,
there will be a game. We're going to get a
game between LSU and Clemson. It's absolutely happening. Coming up next, yes,
we got more big stuff on Caitlin Clark to get to,
(15:07):
but we thought today was going to be some crazy-ass
story involving the Dodgers and President Trump and what was
happening next. What was Pablo Torre going to find out next?
What he actually found out was kind of a dud.
That's next. Jason and Mike, Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
Be sure to catch live editions of the Jason Smith
Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at 10 p.m. Eastern, 7 p.m.
Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 3 (15:37):
Hey, it's Covino and Rich from Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 4 (15:40):
Now, in addition to hearing us live weekdays from 5
to 7 p.m. Eastern, 2 to 4 Pacific on Fox
Sports Radio, we're excited to announce a brand new YouTube
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Speaker 3 (15:50):
Yup, that's right.
Speaker 4 (15:50):
You can now watch Covino and Rich live on YouTube
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Speaker 1 (16:08):
Fox Sports Radio, the Jason Smith Show with my best friend,
Mike Harmon. Another one. Today, we were supposed to find
out what Pablo Torre was finding out next. The Bob
Woodward and Carl Bernstein of the sports realm.
Speaker 4 (16:25):
Yep.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
Was debuting what his next big thing he was finding
out would be fresh off of his dismantling of the Clippers.
And the penalty the Clippers are paying with draft picks
and suspensions for Steve Ballmer and front office members for
circumventing the salary cap with Kawhi Leonard's contract. Last night,
he tweeted out a teaser for what was coming today.
(16:48):
And the picture was of Mark Walter and the Dodgers
at the White House giving President Trump a Dodger jersey. Okay,
so what was it? I said, oh, Trump's buying the Dodgers.
He's finally found a seller. I'm going to sell the
team because I'm in trouble with the SEC, man. I'm
in trouble. When Variety had a bit of a description
(17:10):
of what was going to be found out today, it
seemed very confusing. In fact, Pablo Torre put out a
statement saying that, hey, I hope when people see this tomorrow,
they're willing to take something to the effect that they're
willing to take a journey forward figure out something that
you know that this is that this really big story
go on this journey with me and when he said
that i said oh man this thing is going to
be so incredibly complicated and sure enough it is when
(17:33):
the cliff notes version of something is complicated you can't
follow you know it's complicated this story today quite honestly
it landed with a thud because it wasn't again it's
it's not the getting through it is going to be
difficult i'll take you through the most the most simple
explanation i can uh but like this was like when
(17:57):
espn put out the uh the last dance series and
it was such a big deal during covid and jordan
with the ipad and taking things personally hey the next
one we got everybody's gonna love you big deal it's
gonna be lance armstrong and no one cared right well
it's lance i don't really like lance uh But they
thought that was going to be the big follow-up, and
it fell with a thud. This is kind of the
(18:19):
follow-up to the last dance with Lance Armstrong. This is
the follow-up to Kawhi Leonard. It's a thud. Now, why? Well,
the Kawhi thing was new. We'd never seen anything like
it before. A team giving a guy a fake job
to make sure he gets more money so they could
pay him less and put better players around him in
the NBA. Whoa, that is next-level stuff. It's a superstar player.
It's a big franchise in L.A. This is what this
(18:43):
story is about. And again, I'm going to give you
the most simple explanation because it's really inside baseball. It
is so complex. Again, you could listen to the podcast
and then you could read what the different blogs are
summing it up. And even those reactions, that's when you
read those, you actually go, okay, I really don't understand
what's going on here. But basically it's this. Now, you
(19:04):
know Mark Walter, owner of the Dodgers, is in trouble
for insurance fraud, right? Where he made all his money,
insurance companies.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
Be sure to catch live editions of the Jason Smith
Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at 10 p.m. Eastern, 7 p.m. Pacific.
Speaker 1 (19:19):
He sold the Lakers. He's selling his stakes in Chelsea.
He even wanted to sell the Dodgers TV deal, which
was like the most lucrative TV deal in the history
of the world. I need money. I need money, right?
Because he's in trouble with the government being investigated for
insurance fraud. He may have to pay a lot of penalties, right?
We know this. Okay, so there's your background going in. Basically,
(19:41):
when he bought the team, Magic Johnson loaned him, gave
him a lot of money, gave him almost $ 400 million.
And now this insurance fraud scandal that he's being investigated for.
now involves Mark Walter, it involves Magic Johnson, and potentially
(20:01):
President Trump, because as Pablo Torre insinuates, is that, hey,
Mark Walter was there to try to get President Trump
to help him out with this situation, because Trump and
big business, we've seen stuff like this happen over the
course of the past eight years. So that's basically the story,
that Mark Walter bought the Dodgers and Magic Johnson gave
(20:22):
him a lot of money. Now they're both caught up
in this insurance fraud scam. How much insurance fraud was there?
And they're hoping that Trump would be able to bail
them out. This is where the story is. And this
story is, quite frankly, not that interesting. Number one, it's
a problem that billionaires are having with money, which already
(20:42):
is a turnoff. Like, what do I care about billionaires'
money and how much they're at with this, right? I
don't really care. Oh, here's the money and here's this
and here's that. The only way this story gets interesting
is if Walter has to sell the Dodgers or Magic
Johnson has to go to prison, which according to Pablo Torre,
and this is a possibility that both Mark Walter and
Magic Johnson could at the end face prison time if
(21:05):
they're found guilty in this insurance fraud scandal that's going on.
That's where this gets interesting, where people will start buying in.
Outside of that, no one's going to. The problems of billionaires,
nobody cares, right? And with President Trump, we get stories
like this all the time, right? So it's not like
this is something that cuts through. Whoa, the president's involved
in everything. He is involved in everything, so it's not
(21:25):
like this cuts through. It's something I really want to
pay attention to. I get that the sexiness of it
is it's the president, it's the Dodgers, it's Magic Johnson.
I understand. But overall, the story is very, very complex.
It's not something that's easy to follow, and it's not
something that people are going to continue to follow unless
(21:45):
one of those two things happens. The Dodgers have to
go up for sale because Walter is in a lot
of trouble. and all this money and all this penalty
he's going to have to pay, or he and or
Magic Johnson could face prison time because of this. That's
what would make this something that people will follow. Outside
of that, this is going to be that story that, yeah,
we're going to see it covered in the blogs once
(22:06):
in a while. People will maybe kind of follow it
a little bit, but not really. But over the impact
of this story, you can already tell it's landed with
a thud.
Speaker 5 (22:15):
Yeah, it's very deep, and it's like taking... your favorite
legal shows, mashing them with something on big business without
the sexiness of family turmoil like Succession, right? I mean,
we got none of that. Or guys in the legal
realm fighting and making fun of each other like the
(22:36):
guys in Suits. We just don't have it, right? There's
a lot of depth to it in terms of $ 350.
Speaker 3 (22:42):
Million here, there.
Speaker 5 (22:44):
Some of it's interesting for, I think, the casual fan,
especially if you're one... shouting from the rooftops about how
the Dodgers ruined baseball these last 12 years. Certainly in
the last year, it's gotten louder and louder, even though
Kyle Tucker's been terrible. And Tarek Skubal's been okay. Hasn't
been great. Blake Snell was fantastic again tonight. But all
(23:08):
of that, you're looking at, well, how this came to pass,
where Walter got into the Dodgers to begin with. How
you got this $ 350 million from Magic Johnson. What does
that mean from the insurance side of things? Did you
pay a higher premium because he was buying sports teams?
(23:28):
There's some of that that I think, do I have
room for a class action that I paid higher premiums
for 12 years because of this?
Speaker 1 (23:35):
I don't know.
Speaker 5 (23:37):
But you're looking at, for the general, look, most of
these business stories, contract stuff, people kind of shrug and
move on. I felt like other than people wanted to
laugh at the Clippers again, even that one, I don't
know that people really sunk their teeth into that. It's like,
what's actually happening? More so than, I can't wait to
(23:59):
see what happens here.
Speaker 3 (24:01):
Right?
Speaker 5 (24:01):
And then it came down, and even with the draft
picks and whatever else, like, yeah, you didn't hamper their cap.
You didn't screw with anything really substantive. You find him money.
And everybody's going to feel $ 30 million missing. I don't
care how much you have. But, yeah, I mean, when
it gets down to this, you've got to have a
(24:22):
doctorate in this stuff.
Speaker 1 (24:24):
Like, the way it is going to be to follow
is kind of like this. It's going to be how
we follow because what's coming up potentially could be a
lockout in Major League Baseball. Reading about the lockout every day,
reading about strikes coming up, like that's what it's going
to be because people just aren't going to care. It's
going to be. OK, are we close to an extension?
(24:48):
Are we close to an agreement? Are we coming back
to play our games at stake? But every day it's
going to be minutia of this is what the number
two guy in the union had to say about this today.
And this is what a baseball source highly placed with
the owners has to say. And it's going to be
stuff that you don't care about.
Speaker 5 (25:04):
Right.
Speaker 1 (25:05):
Fans want to know, are we starting the season on time?
When are we going to play? When is there an agreement?
Owners are greedy. Players are greedy. No one wins, right?
That's basically what it is. So following this story is
going to be sort of a blueprint for that because
that's kind of how I feel in following collective bargaining stuff. Like,
you know, okay, that's a family thing. You guys tell
(25:26):
us when you're ready to go because we care about
the games and what's said and going in and everything.
and the drama surrounding it, and the fun coming off it,
that's what we all really care about. This is something that, okay, yes,
it's an interesting story, and it could wind up being
where maybe one of these guys or both these guys
do face prison time, or the Dodgers do wind up
going up for sale, but maybe not. If that happens, okay,
(25:48):
now people are going to get into it and interest it,
but outside of that, it's like... It's almost like, hey,
it's a long-ranging FBI operation where they try to take
out a bad crime syndicate from the movie where a
lot of it is sitting and waiting and wiretapping and
conversations and, okay, and then here's the final thing. We
go arrest everybody, right? That's kind of how this feels
(26:11):
to me. Like, okay, Pablo Torre finding this out. is
not quite going to be what the first thing was
with the Clippers.
Speaker 5 (26:18):
Looking for that excited smoking gun or the obvious link
when it gets down to a bunch of budgetary line items.
In this case, we're talking about at the crux of
it is just, all right, $ 350 million that wasn't reported
as used. in this in this way right so it's
(26:38):
you know what what you're doing in terms of your
accounting and creative accounting comes on uh other than the
accountant with with ben affleck i don't i don't know
that there's been a lot of accounting stuff that got
people excited in even the most uh crazy scenarios in
media tv and movies oh Yeah.
Speaker 1 (26:58):
You know, and the thing is, today, people still wanted
him to investigate the Knicks, right? That's still, oh, come on,
you said you were going to go after the Knicks.
He said he was going to go after the Knicks
almost a year ago and look into Jalen Brunson's contract.
He's had plenty of time. If there was something there,
he'd look into it. And I'm not saying this is
all Knicks fans, because I told you, I don't care.
(27:19):
They won the championship. It's a forever championship. I don't
give a crap. But honestly, when it's really about $ 35
million that Jalen Brunson's hoping to get reimbursed for and
more when he signs his next contract, right? Hey, I
did you a solid here. You're going to do me
a solid on my next deal. Like, it's not the
same thing as Kawhi Leonard. But because he took less, oh, yeah,
(27:41):
I still can't stand the fact that Knicks won. He's
got to go after the Knicks. If something was there,
he would have gone after it. Because as juicy a
story as Kawhi Leonard is, if he could have taken
down the Knicks and the King of New York, you
think he wouldn't do that? Of course he would do that.
There's not anything there.
Speaker 5 (27:57):
Well, it's just, you know, what do you have in
terms of leads? What's actionable? And what becomes an evaluation of,
like everything else you do, sunup to sundown, folks? Is
this worth my time? Is it worth my dollars? Is
it worth my time? And if the initial stuff he
was getting back... was a bunch of nonsense, right? It's
(28:19):
like to take it back into our fictional TV movie world,
where it's like, oh, you know, we started, we had
that hotline for leads. How many leads you get?
Speaker 1 (28:28):
4,082.
Speaker 3 (28:28):
Anything incredible?
Speaker 4 (28:29):
No.
Speaker 5 (28:33):
A lot of wasted time answering the phone for those 4,000.
I think Pablo Torre, when he talked with Dan Patrick
the other day, I believe that was kind of how
he summarized it. It's a lot of stuff and a
lot of no. So, I mean, that's kind of where
you're at. Now, if something does surface, right, we talk
about introductions, and that was one of the things at
(28:55):
the heart. Of the Clippers, like, where's the line? And
how far do you have to go? And clearly, here
was the line, and they did a full broad jump
past it. Olympic style. Olympic record-breaking style. But it's the
kind of thing that.
You know, we're parsing words. We're kind of going through
(29:17):
and figuring out, you know, exactly how big and wide
a berth you need to make it actionable and something
that you want to investigate. And to this point, your
guy is running around as the king of New York.
He's just fine.
Speaker 1 (29:32):
Exit out by the Fresca exit switch.
Thanks for listening to the Jason Smith Show with Mike
Harmon podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weeknight,
10 p.m. to 2 a.m. Eastern, 7 to 11 p.m.
Pacific on Fox Sports Radio. Find your local station for
the Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon at foxsportsradio.com or
stream us live every night on the iHeartRadio app by
searching FSR. Now let's get this party started.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
Greetings. Welcome inside. Final hour tonight, the Jason Smith Show
with my best friend, Mike Harmon. I'm standing up in
the studio. Really fun Friday night ahead of the full
slate tomorrow, week one of college football. We've talked a
lot about Malachi Tony tonight, 11 catches, 142 yards, his
(00:55):
three touchdowns. Maybe he's the best wide receiver in college football. Remember,
he's only 13 years old.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
He's fantastic. He's a wee lad.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
He's got eight more years before he's eligible for the
NFL draft. He is absolutely fantastic. But maybe a bigger
story tonight because I know I shouldn't do this, but
I'm sort of buying in on what we saw tonight
between USC and Fresno State. What kind of night did
Jaden Maiva have? USC quarterback? Well... He had this kind
(01:28):
of night. There's a third and goal. Protected.
Speaker 4 (01:34):
He evades to the end zone.
Speaker 5 (01:39):
A wide open man.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
To no kinds.
Speaker 3 (01:40):
Welcome to 2026. Touchdown, USC.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
Another one. He's in blocking.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
He's my alpha.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
Has a wide open Trent Mosley.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
After a big debut last week.
Speaker 3 (01:50):
He cuts back inside.
Speaker 4 (01:52):
The encore just as sweet for Trent Mosley.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
And another one.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
Another first down for USC.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
And Mosley!
Speaker 3 (02:08):
Is he in?
Speaker 6 (02:09):
Yes!
Speaker 7 (02:09):
Second touchdown of the night, Trent Mosley.
Speaker 3 (02:19):
Another one. Oh, come on, man.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
Come on.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
Sanchez gets hit.
Speaker 3 (02:24):
The ball is loose, and it's alive. The return of football, baby.
Way to go, tight shirt.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
Fox on the call. Trent Mosley, four for 104, a
couple of touchdowns. Dixon Wyatt also had six for 102.
But Maiva tonight, 23 of 25 for 349 and three touchdowns.
In two games so far, he has thrown five touchdowns
and six incomplete passes. Okay? He's lower on the odds,
(02:51):
but he's on the board for the Heisman Trophy overall.
This is the kind of year he's going to have.
USC's offense is loaded. You know, they replaced wide receivers
from last year. As you can see, it doesn't matter.
You know, USC is kind of a little bit like
Ohio State, maybe like Ohio State light with their wide
receiver room. But the bigger thing to me, right, my
(03:13):
eye is big deal. USC wins again. Thirty nine. Nothing
is your final. And you saw the reaction following the
game when they knew when they clinched that it was
going to be a shutout. And how the players mobbed
Gary Patterson, their new defensive coordinator who was there. He
looked like the head coach. It's Buddy Ryan. Yeah, it's
(03:33):
like when the 85 Bears, yeah, Dick is the coach,
but they carried Buddy Ryan off the field. The reaction
to Gary Patterson was fantastic. And all we have said
about USC is that Your defense just has to be better.
It doesn't have to be top of college football. It
doesn't have to be one of the best defense. But
it has to be better than last year. It has
to be good enough. And as we heard from Pete
(03:57):
Futak last hour, this is not a bad Fresno State team.
This is a Fresno State team that can potentially win
the Big 12. This is a pretty good Fresno State team.
And USC... Made them look like they shouldn't even be
on the same field with them. I know I shouldn't
buy in, but man, I'll tell you what, this might
wind up being Lincoln Riley's best overall team because it
(04:19):
feels like they have everything in place. He's had great
offensive players before, right? He's had Blitnikoff winners. He's had
Caleb Williams, but he's never had a defense. Defense has
always let him down. Now he's got the right D.C.,
and maybe the defense is really good, you know, judging
by what they did tonight. You know, last week, they
were great in the first half. Obviously, when you win
(04:41):
a game, when you're winning like 24-0 and you're able
to kind of just, oh, we allowed 26 to San
Jose State late. Okay, you know that there's a message
out there to be able to finish tonight, and they
absolutely finished tonight. and in a year where, hey, there's
a lot of questions in the Big Ten outside of
Ohio State, right? Ohio State's at the top, and Oregon's
(05:02):
very good, but there's going to be three, maybe four
playoff teams out of that conference, and this might be
USC's year. I feel like I'm falling for it again,
but honestly, this might be the best USC team that
Lincoln Riley has had when you talk about what he's
got offensively and defensively. I'm buying back in on USC.
Speaker 5 (05:23):
The thing I love watching this game, and you talk
about Patterson getting the love at the end of it,
but watching the full 60 and just the way they're
flying around. Now, Again, San Jose State, seven and a half,
I think, is their over-under for the win total. Pete
Futek may be looking to go beyond that.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
Okay, cool.
Speaker 5 (05:42):
San Jose State the week before, they bludgeoned them for
a half. Sat a bunch of people down, and remember,
it was hot.
Speaker 1 (05:47):
It was hot.
Speaker 3 (05:49):
And there's nobody there, so, I mean, you know, you're
not motivated to. No, I'm just kidding.
Speaker 5 (05:52):
But you look at their schedule coming up, right? You
got the Louisiana Raging Cajuns on the board. Then you
got the soon-to-be-relegated Rutgers. squad before that end of the
month 926 game against Oregon right there is your big
test well you have.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
A gauntlet there you have Oregon Washington Penn State and
then later on you have Ohio State and Indiana like
they're going to earn their way through like it's not
going to be hey we got an easy schedule no
they're going to earn their way through No.
Speaker 3 (06:23):
That's just it, right?
Speaker 5 (06:24):
You've got two blocks that go through, and then that
back end when you get to Halloween and mid-November, you
do have the bye week before you face Indiana to
get yourself healthy, etc. But we're looking at the defensive
front and the speed there. The offensive line, they're mauling, guys.
He's got all day to set up.
Speaker 3 (06:43):
There's no....
Speaker 5 (06:47):
Nothing to do other than watch a little bit of
the tape and just see how clean that pocket is
and how he's able to just distribute, right? Giving his
guys time to get out of their breaks, time to
create separation. And it is right now a master's class.
Now you got to keep those front five healthy. And
obviously on the defensive side, you got Brian Urlacher's kid
(07:08):
running around, terrorizing dude at the back of the end
zone and chasing him out. like he was so much
of an Orlovsky back there. But all of that to
say that you know that he can coach offense. That's
never been a question. It's like you finally actually put
resources and personnel and recruited to go play Big Ten,
(07:30):
big boy football.
Speaker 3 (07:32):
Hurrah. So exciting times. That means more asses in seats.
Speaker 5 (07:37):
If you want to go to that game against Oregon,
get in on resale is 121. And that's sitting in
the last couple of rows in the 500 sections.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
Tell any man buying back in on you as a
tough schedule. Tough, tough, tough.
Speaker 5 (07:53):
Now, if they do have a setback, though, buddy, like
he can't go back to the mealy mouth the way
he's approached things at the podium.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
These last couple of.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
Years, we're only 11 plays away from being undefeated. My
entire run at USC, 11 and three, eight and five,
six and seven, eight and five. Yet you're one play away.
Speaker 3 (08:11):
Come on, man.
Speaker 1 (08:13):
Exit out about a fresca, exit swollen dome, the Jason
Smith Show with my best friend, Mike Harmon. More college
football right now as we have breaking news as we
are ahead of the games tomorrow. All the attention the
last few days on the players coming back from the NFL, LSU,
welcoming a couple of them with open arms. Are they
(08:34):
ready to play tomorrow against Clemson? Special delivery Steve DeSager
has the update on this right now with breaking news. Steve-O.
Speaker 6 (08:44):
The answer in short is no, because they barely practice
these two, even though they know Lane Kiffin and were
his Ole Miss players and said in the court case
this week, yeah, we intend to play for Kiffin at LSU.
Speaker 8 (08:56):
For his debut season, the first game, LSU hosting Clemson
tomorrow night, will not have tight end Daquan Wright or
defensive tackle Zavian Harris, the two who were cleared this
week to return after brief stints in the NFL to
college football. LSU, it's reported tonight, has not added those
two to the roster for the season opener. That doesn't
(09:18):
mean they can't be added to the roster sometime later
in the season. We're not going to see them on
the field, certainly, tomorrow night.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
Thank you, Steve-O. Now, look, with these two guys coming in,
I'm going to maintain what I said when the first
time that they were allowed to go back to school,
before the 17 or 18 injunctions going back and forth, saying, oh,
they can play. No, they can't play. They can play. No,
they can't play. There's an injunction now that's allowing them
to play. And LSU is at the forefront of this
because Lane Kiffin has said, we'll take all the guys.
(09:47):
We're recruiting them. We'll take them. We're coming back. I'm
the bad boy of college football. Yes, that's me in
a denim jacket smoking a cigarette outside the school. Hey, everybody,
I'm the cool guy who wants to go watch Metallica videos.
But it's an injunction that allows them to play now.
You have no idea how this is going to be
ruled on when there's a final ruling. And who knows?
(10:09):
There may not be a final rule, but there is
going to be some sort of final ruling for this season.
If you play the guys right, if you play right,
you play a couple of guys and then midway through
the season. No, no, no. These players cannot come back.
And if you use them, they're ineligible.
Speaker 7 (10:24):
Right.
Speaker 1 (10:25):
I'm using the doom and gloom scenario, but it's happened
like this before. And then all of a sudden, LSU's
got to vacate a win because they use this player.
As much as these guys are back, this is probably
what it's going to be. Whatever schools, like LSU, are
going to take the players back, they will practice with
them for a while, and they will wait to be
(10:45):
put in the game until the teams and schools are
absolutely certain. They are cleared to play. They're going to
wait for some final ruling because still college football doesn't
like it. They're looking to try to put something together
that bans these players from playing. I don't know how
long it would take to have something official.
Speaker 3 (11:04):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (11:05):
Maybe it's the threat of SEC teams saying, if you
play these guys, LSU, we're not going to play you
in the game. We'll take a forfeit or we'll bluff
you on your way to a potential forfeit. So I
don't think these guys are going to play until we
get the final answer. Like right now, okay, they're eligible.
So they'll be at practice. They'll work their way back in.
(11:26):
But unless there's a big decision that says, yes, they're
all clear. There's no ramifications if you use them. They're
clear to play. All the players are clear to play.
That's when we'll see them play, but it's not going
to happen until then.
Speaker 5 (11:37):
Yeah, we had the statement from the Clemson side of
things that while they come, Dabbles used the word embarrassing
a lot to describe the state of college football. And
we know his thoughts on transfers and NIL and everything else.
But in this case, he encapsulates it pretty well with
that one word. that they weren't going to do anything.
Speaker 3 (11:58):
All right.
Speaker 5 (11:59):
Game goes on, not played under protest or whatever else.
But yeah, the, the question is what's, what's the final judge.
Does this have to go find its way through the
courts and up through the Supreme court? I think we
have other things to deal with, but it's the, the
idea that you're, you're going to find a friendly judge that,
you know, has some sheepskin on the, on the wall somewhere.
Speaker 8 (12:22):
Right.
Speaker 5 (12:23):
That that's the kind of the game we're playing right now.
But yeah, Lane Kiffin, he's at odds with his administration.
That's how divisive this is. Like he's pleading his case.
And like, I can't fault him entirely, you know, trying
to be the bad boy and just saying, well, if
there's a rule that we can take and maybe a
guy that's a shade better at tight end gives us
(12:44):
a better chance. I'm fighting for my, you know, reclamation
of my, my career on this next step.
Speaker 2 (12:51):
Right.
Speaker 5 (12:51):
Cause even with a great year last year, how much
did he get bashed on his way out the door?
Speaker 3 (12:56):
Cause he didn't coach in the playoffs.
Speaker 1 (12:57):
Right.
Speaker 4 (12:58):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (12:58):
So you're right. So he's a guy that is like,
nothing I do is right. So forget it. Why don't,
why not do this as well? So, yeah, I, I,
I would suspect you're right though. They'll be in those
sweats like they wore to court, put a helmet on
them a couple of days a week, but you're not
seeing the field. Cause, who knows how that gets handled
because it's all been so ham handed anyway. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (13:20):
I mean, look, it's okay. This is because college football
has no rules. How great would it be to have
a commissioner that could say, okay, yes, you're allowed to play. No,
you're not allowed to play. Oh no, they can practice,
but they can't play. We're going to figure this out,
but there's no rules, right? Like, like maybe at some
point something is going to happen that, that's going to
make the entire sport throw the emergency brake because it's
(13:42):
been running out of control for the past few years.
Whatever the Big Ten and the SEC want, that's wind
up what happens. We got the NIL. We have transfer.
We have all kinds of craziness. Eventually, if it goes unchecked,
the Big Ten and the SEC will have their own
conference together in the next few years. That'll happen 100%.
I don't know what it is. I can't believe that
this is it, that it's going to be players coming
(14:04):
back from the NFL that's going to say, all right,
we need to get our house in order. We need
a commissioner. We need somebody to make these decisions. But
this seems like it's the only decision that everybody in
college football besides LSU wants. Like there's nobody else that
doesn't want this, but everybody else in college. So we
shouldn't come back and do this. Okay. So this is the,
this is the thing that's going to tell them we
(14:25):
need a commissioner.
Speaker 5 (14:26):
Well, but at least outwardly LSU doesn't want it either,
but you've got Lane Kiffin and the football people that do, but,
is it, is he like smarter than the rest of us?
And he knows that in the end, he'll be hailed
a hero. Cause this is the thing that unites everybody.
Everybody's got a common enemy.
Speaker 3 (14:45):
It's him.
Speaker 1 (14:47):
Exit out about a fresca exit, swollen dome, the Jason
Smith show with my best friend, Mike Harmon live from
the Fox sports radio studios. So again, not playing tomorrow.
So there will be a game. There will be, there will,
there will be a game. We're going to get a
game between LSU and Clemson. It's absolutely happening. Coming up next, yes,
we got more big stuff on Caitlin Clark to get to,
(15:07):
but we thought today was going to be some crazy-ass
story involving the Dodgers and President Trump and what was
happening next. What was Pablo Torre going to find out next?
What he actually found out was kind of a dud.
That's next. Jason and Mike, Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
Be sure to catch live editions of the Jason Smith
Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at 10 p.m. Eastern, 7 p.m.
Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 3 (15:37):
Hey, it's Covino and Rich from Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 4 (15:40):
Now, in addition to hearing us live weekdays from 5
to 7 p.m. Eastern, 2 to 4 Pacific on Fox
Sports Radio, we're excited to announce a brand new YouTube
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Speaker 3 (15:50):
Yup, that's right.
Speaker 4 (15:50):
You can now watch Covino and Rich live on YouTube
every day. All you gotta do, search Covino and Rich
FSR on YouTube. Again, go to YouTube, search Covino and
Rich FSR. Check us out on YouTube, subscribe, hit that
thumbs up icon, and comment away.
Speaker 1 (16:08):
Fox Sports Radio, the Jason Smith Show with my best friend,
Mike Harmon. Another one. Today, we were supposed to find
out what Pablo Torre was finding out next. The Bob
Woodward and Carl Bernstein of the sports realm.
Speaker 4 (16:25):
Yep.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
Was debuting what his next big thing he was finding
out would be fresh off of his dismantling of the Clippers.
And the penalty the Clippers are paying with draft picks
and suspensions for Steve Ballmer and front office members for
circumventing the salary cap with Kawhi Leonard's contract. Last night,
he tweeted out a teaser for what was coming today.
(16:48):
And the picture was of Mark Walter and the Dodgers
at the White House giving President Trump a Dodger jersey. Okay,
so what was it? I said, oh, Trump's buying the Dodgers.
He's finally found a seller. I'm going to sell the
team because I'm in trouble with the SEC, man. I'm
in trouble. When Variety had a bit of a description
(17:10):
of what was going to be found out today, it
seemed very confusing. In fact, Pablo Torre put out a
statement saying that, hey, I hope when people see this tomorrow,
they're willing to take something to the effect that they're
willing to take a journey forward figure out something that
you know that this is that this really big story
go on this journey with me and when he said
that i said oh man this thing is going to
be so incredibly complicated and sure enough it is when
(17:33):
the cliff notes version of something is complicated you can't
follow you know it's complicated this story today quite honestly
it landed with a thud because it wasn't again it's
it's not the getting through it is going to be
difficult i'll take you through the most the most simple
explanation i can uh but like this was like when
(17:57):
espn put out the uh the last dance series and
it was such a big deal during covid and jordan
with the ipad and taking things personally hey the next
one we got everybody's gonna love you big deal it's
gonna be lance armstrong and no one cared right well
it's lance i don't really like lance uh But they
thought that was going to be the big follow-up, and
it fell with a thud. This is kind of the
(18:19):
follow-up to the last dance with Lance Armstrong. This is
the follow-up to Kawhi Leonard. It's a thud. Now, why? Well,
the Kawhi thing was new. We'd never seen anything like
it before. A team giving a guy a fake job
to make sure he gets more money so they could
pay him less and put better players around him in
the NBA. Whoa, that is next-level stuff. It's a superstar player.
It's a big franchise in L.A. This is what this
(18:43):
story is about. And again, I'm going to give you
the most simple explanation because it's really inside baseball. It
is so complex. Again, you could listen to the podcast
and then you could read what the different blogs are
summing it up. And even those reactions, that's when you
read those, you actually go, okay, I really don't understand
what's going on here. But basically it's this. Now, you
(19:04):
know Mark Walter, owner of the Dodgers, is in trouble
for insurance fraud, right? Where he made all his money,
insurance companies.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
Be sure to catch live editions of the Jason Smith
Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at 10 p.m. Eastern, 7 p.m. Pacific.
Speaker 1 (19:19):
He sold the Lakers. He's selling his stakes in Chelsea.
He even wanted to sell the Dodgers TV deal, which
was like the most lucrative TV deal in the history
of the world. I need money. I need money, right?
Because he's in trouble with the government being investigated for
insurance fraud. He may have to pay a lot of penalties, right?
We know this. Okay, so there's your background going in. Basically,
(19:41):
when he bought the team, Magic Johnson loaned him, gave
him a lot of money, gave him almost $ 400 million.
And now this insurance fraud scandal that he's being investigated for.
now involves Mark Walter, it involves Magic Johnson, and potentially
(20:01):
President Trump, because as Pablo Torre insinuates, is that, hey,
Mark Walter was there to try to get President Trump
to help him out with this situation, because Trump and
big business, we've seen stuff like this happen over the
course of the past eight years. So that's basically the story,
that Mark Walter bought the Dodgers and Magic Johnson gave
(20:22):
him a lot of money. Now they're both caught up
in this insurance fraud scam. How much insurance fraud was there?
And they're hoping that Trump would be able to bail
them out. This is where the story is. And this
story is, quite frankly, not that interesting. Number one, it's
a problem that billionaires are having with money, which already
(20:42):
is a turnoff. Like, what do I care about billionaires'
money and how much they're at with this, right? I
don't really care. Oh, here's the money and here's this
and here's that. The only way this story gets interesting
is if Walter has to sell the Dodgers or Magic
Johnson has to go to prison, which according to Pablo Torre,
and this is a possibility that both Mark Walter and
Magic Johnson could at the end face prison time if
(21:05):
they're found guilty in this insurance fraud scandal that's going on.
That's where this gets interesting, where people will start buying in.
Outside of that, no one's going to. The problems of billionaires,
nobody cares, right? And with President Trump, we get stories
like this all the time, right? So it's not like
this is something that cuts through. Whoa, the president's involved
in everything. He is involved in everything, so it's not
(21:25):
like this cuts through. It's something I really want to
pay attention to. I get that the sexiness of it
is it's the president, it's the Dodgers, it's Magic Johnson.
I understand. But overall, the story is very, very complex.
It's not something that's easy to follow, and it's not
something that people are going to continue to follow unless
(21:45):
one of those two things happens. The Dodgers have to
go up for sale because Walter is in a lot
of trouble. and all this money and all this penalty
he's going to have to pay, or he and or
Magic Johnson could face prison time because of this. That's
what would make this something that people will follow. Outside
of that, this is going to be that story that, yeah,
we're going to see it covered in the blogs once
(22:06):
in a while. People will maybe kind of follow it
a little bit, but not really. But over the impact
of this story, you can already tell it's landed with
a thud.
Speaker 5 (22:15):
Yeah, it's very deep, and it's like taking... your favorite
legal shows, mashing them with something on big business without
the sexiness of family turmoil like Succession, right? I mean,
we got none of that. Or guys in the legal
realm fighting and making fun of each other like the
(22:36):
guys in Suits. We just don't have it, right? There's
a lot of depth to it in terms of $ 350.
Speaker 3 (22:42):
Million here, there.
Speaker 5 (22:44):
Some of it's interesting for, I think, the casual fan,
especially if you're one... shouting from the rooftops about how
the Dodgers ruined baseball these last 12 years. Certainly in
the last year, it's gotten louder and louder, even though
Kyle Tucker's been terrible. And Tarek Skubal's been okay. Hasn't
been great. Blake Snell was fantastic again tonight. But all
(23:08):
of that, you're looking at, well, how this came to pass,
where Walter got into the Dodgers to begin with. How
you got this $ 350 million from Magic Johnson. What does
that mean from the insurance side of things? Did you
pay a higher premium because he was buying sports teams?
(23:28):
There's some of that that I think, do I have
room for a class action that I paid higher premiums
for 12 years because of this?
Speaker 1 (23:35):
I don't know.
Speaker 5 (23:37):
But you're looking at, for the general, look, most of
these business stories, contract stuff, people kind of shrug and
move on. I felt like other than people wanted to
laugh at the Clippers again, even that one, I don't
know that people really sunk their teeth into that. It's like,
what's actually happening? More so than, I can't wait to
(23:59):
see what happens here.
Speaker 3 (24:01):
Right?
Speaker 5 (24:01):
And then it came down, and even with the draft
picks and whatever else, like, yeah, you didn't hamper their cap.
You didn't screw with anything really substantive. You find him money.
And everybody's going to feel $ 30 million missing. I don't
care how much you have. But, yeah, I mean, when
it gets down to this, you've got to have a
(24:22):
doctorate in this stuff.
Speaker 1 (24:24):
Like, the way it is going to be to follow
is kind of like this. It's going to be how
we follow because what's coming up potentially could be a
lockout in Major League Baseball. Reading about the lockout every day,
reading about strikes coming up, like that's what it's going
to be because people just aren't going to care. It's
going to be. OK, are we close to an extension?
(24:48):
Are we close to an agreement? Are we coming back
to play our games at stake? But every day it's
going to be minutia of this is what the number
two guy in the union had to say about this today.
And this is what a baseball source highly placed with
the owners has to say. And it's going to be
stuff that you don't care about.
Speaker 5 (25:04):
Right.
Speaker 1 (25:05):
Fans want to know, are we starting the season on time?
When are we going to play? When is there an agreement?
Owners are greedy. Players are greedy. No one wins, right?
That's basically what it is. So following this story is
going to be sort of a blueprint for that because
that's kind of how I feel in following collective bargaining stuff. Like,
you know, okay, that's a family thing. You guys tell
(25:26):
us when you're ready to go because we care about
the games and what's said and going in and everything.
and the drama surrounding it, and the fun coming off it,
that's what we all really care about. This is something that, okay, yes,
it's an interesting story, and it could wind up being
where maybe one of these guys or both these guys
do face prison time, or the Dodgers do wind up
going up for sale, but maybe not. If that happens, okay,
(25:48):
now people are going to get into it and interest it,
but outside of that, it's like... It's almost like, hey,
it's a long-ranging FBI operation where they try to take
out a bad crime syndicate from the movie where a
lot of it is sitting and waiting and wiretapping and
conversations and, okay, and then here's the final thing. We
go arrest everybody, right? That's kind of how this feels
(26:11):
to me. Like, okay, Pablo Torre finding this out. is
not quite going to be what the first thing was
with the Clippers.
Speaker 5 (26:18):
Looking for that excited smoking gun or the obvious link
when it gets down to a bunch of budgetary line items.
In this case, we're talking about at the crux of
it is just, all right, $ 350 million that wasn't reported
as used. in this in this way right so it's
(26:38):
you know what what you're doing in terms of your
accounting and creative accounting comes on uh other than the
accountant with with ben affleck i don't i don't know
that there's been a lot of accounting stuff that got
people excited in even the most uh crazy scenarios in
media tv and movies oh Yeah.
Speaker 1 (26:58):
You know, and the thing is, today, people still wanted
him to investigate the Knicks, right? That's still, oh, come on,
you said you were going to go after the Knicks.
He said he was going to go after the Knicks
almost a year ago and look into Jalen Brunson's contract.
He's had plenty of time. If there was something there,
he'd look into it. And I'm not saying this is
all Knicks fans, because I told you, I don't care.
(27:19):
They won the championship. It's a forever championship. I don't
give a crap. But honestly, when it's really about $ 35
million that Jalen Brunson's hoping to get reimbursed for and
more when he signs his next contract, right? Hey, I
did you a solid here. You're going to do me
a solid on my next deal. Like, it's not the
same thing as Kawhi Leonard. But because he took less, oh, yeah,
(27:41):
I still can't stand the fact that Knicks won. He's
got to go after the Knicks. If something was there,
he would have gone after it. Because as juicy a
story as Kawhi Leonard is, if he could have taken
down the Knicks and the King of New York, you
think he wouldn't do that? Of course he would do that.
There's not anything there.
Speaker 5 (27:57):
Well, it's just, you know, what do you have in
terms of leads? What's actionable? And what becomes an evaluation of,
like everything else you do, sunup to sundown, folks? Is
this worth my time? Is it worth my dollars? Is
it worth my time? And if the initial stuff he
was getting back... was a bunch of nonsense, right? It's
(28:19):
like to take it back into our fictional TV movie world,
where it's like, oh, you know, we started, we had
that hotline for leads. How many leads you get?
Speaker 1 (28:28):
4,082.
Speaker 3 (28:28):
Anything incredible?
Speaker 4 (28:29):
No.
Speaker 5 (28:33):
A lot of wasted time answering the phone for those 4,000.
I think Pablo Torre, when he talked with Dan Patrick
the other day, I believe that was kind of how
he summarized it. It's a lot of stuff and a
lot of no. So, I mean, that's kind of where
you're at. Now, if something does surface, right, we talk
about introductions, and that was one of the things at
(28:55):
the heart. Of the Clippers, like, where's the line? And
how far do you have to go? And clearly, here
was the line, and they did a full broad jump
past it. Olympic style. Olympic record-breaking style. But it's the
kind of thing that.
You know, we're parsing words. We're kind of going through
(29:17):
and figuring out, you know, exactly how big and wide
a berth you need to make it actionable and something
that you want to investigate. And to this point, your
guy is running around as the king of New York.
He's just fine.
Speaker 1 (29:32):
Exit out by the Fresca exit switch.
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Jason Smith
Mike Harmon
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