November 5, 2021 • 38 mins
Producer Rob G is in for Chris, and he and Rob discuss Aaron Rodgers' explanation for his decision not to get the COVID-19 vaccine, explain how Rodgers lost all credibility when he chose to be dishonest about his vaccination status from the get-go, and tell us why they had an issue with Pat McAfee not challenging Rodgers on certain statements during his bombshell interview. Plus, the guys debate whether or not the Cleveland Browns made a mistake by releasing Odell Beckham Jr and essentially siding with Baker Mayfield in this whole ordeal,
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for listening to the Best of the Odd Couple podcasts.
Be sure to catch us live every weekday from seven
pm to ten pm Eastern four to seven Pacific on
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Couple at Fox Sports Radio dot com, or stream us
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(00:20):
s R. You're listening to the Best of the Odd
Couple with Chris Brussard and Rob Harker. Joe you ready,
it is The Odd Couple on Fox Sports Radio. Rob
Parker and Robert Guera gee in for Chris Brussard. But
(00:48):
let's hear a little Chris Broussard. Yeah, here we go. Yes,
it's a fucking fly back Friday, and man, do we
have a great show for you today. So much stuff
to talk to. Also in the first hour talk to
Will Blackman, the Super Bowl champ and host of Upsets
(01:12):
and Underdogs podcasts. So we'll do that an hour number one.
Chris Brushard will be off for the next few shows.
Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family. Uh
that's you know, So, so we're thinking about Chris and
his family as we continue on on this Friday. So
all good thoughts going that way, And we're coming to
(01:37):
you live from the Fox Sports Radio studios. And that's right, Bill,
We're doing it live. And for the first time since
I've been on the show, Rob Garre, rob Gee, it's
hard for me to call you Rob Garret. I'll just
call you rob Ge all the time. Does that bother you, Friday?
(01:57):
I'm branding, right, it's a brand at the right. It's
hard for me to right, for me to change now.
But Robert Gara, who of course is a long time
producer and fills in every so often, he's done it
more with Chris. How many shows have you done with Chris?
H three or four? Three or four? So I'm like, yeah,
three or four. So he's pinch it in today for Chris.
(02:17):
Is good to have him. Rob g how you doing today?
I'm doing good. When Chris gave me the calls it
had he got to step in, give me some Dennis
Johnson type numbers off the bench, I said, I gotta
do it, no doubt. I'm really ready to go. So
you're gonna steal the ball and pass it to me? Right,
that's right, you know what, Rob, I feel like I
feel like Mike White, Right, now coming off the bench
for the Jets. I just hope I don't get hurt
(02:38):
early on in the show. That's all man. At least
that helped the Uh. I'm just saying about it. But
you know, man, I'm not saying that was. What'sh you for?
But what do we say? We don't want it to
be really hurt, just enough to not finish the game,
That's what he's exactly, and for the Colts to cover,
which they did, and Mike White will be back next week.
So there you go. It work. It's all good. It
(02:59):
worked out perfect, it did no doubt about it. All right,
So we're going to talk about so many things man
and sports going on on this funky flashback Friday. Alex,
of course, we'll have all the jams just Rob g
is our co host and producer of this farm radio program.
Alex is our engineer, and mister Steve de Seger is
(03:22):
at the anchor desk. He'll keep us updated throughout the program.
And Rob G let's just start here with Aaron Rodgers,
whom you know. I got a headache listening to Aaron
Rodgers today, I gotta admit, and I don't get it.
A lot of people make this mistake. Just own up
(03:45):
to your era or if you misled people, or if
you weren't clear and you want to clear it up.
But that's not what we got from Aaron Rodgers today.
It's just not it was everything. But let me tell
you that I know better than everybody else, and this
(04:06):
is what I did. And I never said I was
vaccinated or I said I was immunized, and you know,
and you know, I'm gonna follow the NFL protocol that
I think is good enough, and then even went out
of his way to mention Martin Luther King in his conversation.
(04:27):
Then Pat McAfee, Hey, it's great. You get Aaron Rodgers
every week. Is nothing better. We'd love to get Aaron
Rodgers every week exactly. But can you can you push back?
Can you ask any follow up questions? Can you ask
him to elaborate and explain better and tell us why
he feels he's different from everybody else and that stuff?
(04:48):
And then the Aaron Rodgers seriously, uh, the woke mob
is after him? And Rob G, the the canceled culture.
Let me Jackson said he didn't get vaccinated? Has he
been canceled? Rob G just helped me out. No he
has not. Okay, who else do we have? M Josh
(05:09):
Allen is not vaccinated as last I checked, Rob not
only is he not canceled, but he is the Vegas
front runner for NFL MVP. There you go. And even
in Minnesota, right, kirk Cousins not vaccinated. Kirk Cousins not vact.
They just came out and said they're not gonna do it.
They don't want to do it. Aaron Rodgers could have
done that. This whole notion that, oh the woke people
(05:33):
are after me now and they got a narrative going on. No,
the problem is you mislet people and you put other
people in harm's way without them knowing that. That's why
people Rob g have their panties in a bunch. It's
not it's Lamar Jackson said he wasn't vaccinated. We all
know if I've talked to him, if your reporter put
(05:55):
a mask on, keep your distance, am I right? Yep?
If that's all we're asking, he was being honest from
the very beginning with Lamar Jackson. Even Carson Wentz. Carson wentz,
you know right in the very upfront, I'm not gonna
get vaccinated. Ian's a personal decision. YadA ya YadA. That's fine.
And that means that anybody who is around Carson Wentz
and they know what to expect. If they're comfortable with it, cool,
(06:17):
If they're not comfortable with it, cool. But as long
as you guys know and everybody's under the same understanding,
there shouldn't be an issue with anybody. This is not
Kyrie Irving where him not getting vaccinated it means he
can't play. That is by for the Green Bay Packers.
All it means is that Aaron Rodgers would have to
follow different protocol. That's it. That's all it means. Nobody
(06:41):
in the NFL doesn't have a policy forcing it. If
you worked at certain jobs in certain places, Rob g.
Your state employee, at certain and certain states and cities,
there's ordinances and work rules and you gotta follow them
and if you don't, you can't work. Simple goal. You
could get another job at a place that doesn't have
(07:02):
That doesn't mean you can't work, you just can't work there.
And companies are allowed to set their own press. People
have challenged it over and over mandates and they lose
in the Supreme Court every single time. Because it's about
public safety. You have a personal choice, but I also
have a personal choice to note that I have a
(07:23):
chance of being safe at work and I'm not putting
in a hazardous situation. That's all. Let me know, That's
all we're asking. So let's hear first Aaron Rodgers talking
about that he didn't lie. First of all, I didn't
lie in the initial press conference. During that time, it
was a very you know which hunt that was going
(07:44):
on across the league, where everybody in the media was
so concerned about who was vaccinated and who wasn't, and
what that meant, and who was being selfish and who
would talk about it, and what it meant if they
said it's a personal decision, they shouldn't have to disclose
their own medical conformation and whatnot. And at the time,
my plan was to say that I have been immunized. Um,
(08:07):
it wasn't some sort of ruse or lie. It was
the truth. It was a ruse, It wasn't true. It
wasn't is he talking about being immunized when you're five
years old, rob g so that you could go to school?
I think public school had the tightest shot and all
that right, something like we all had to be immunized.
Guess what to go to school? Right? That's right, everybody? Hello?
(08:30):
Otherwise what you can't go to school? You know what
I found out too, Rob g. If you don't get
immunized in the state of New York, you can't even
be home school. Did you know that? Wow? I did
not know that yet. Did not know that because guess
what teachers and guidance counselors have to interact with the kids.
It ain't just your parents and you never see any
(08:52):
teachers or anything. Did you know that? Yes? I had
no idea that is actually to me. Yes, in New
York State. I don't know about the rest of the country.
So in order to go to school, you gotta be immunized.
We all have the mark on our arm, don't we.
We all do? Right right now, Rob, you mentioned that
he was being dishonest, or if he wasn't being dishonest,
(09:14):
he was being deceitful. He was going out of his
way to make sure that I'll give you a little
bit of the truth, but not actually give you the truth.
So during that interview with Pat McAfee, he went on
and said, you know what, I'm not gonna vaccinated. So
I started the appeal process with the NFL about why,
you know, didn't need to get a waiver to not
get vaccinated and still follow the vaccinated rules, you know,
(09:39):
so he can be the rest of the team who
are vaccinated. Here's what he said about that. One after
they came back and said, no, you you're unvaxed, I said, Okay,
I'm gonna peel this. In that process, we had many conversations,
but one in particular stood out. When I knew I
was not going to win this, I had a meeting
one of the main docs said it's impossible for a
(10:01):
vaccinated person to get COVID or spread COVID, And at
that point I knew that, you know, I was definitely
not going to win the apel. Now, when I heard that,
I was shocked. When I said, wow, I can't believe
they would actually say that, because I have heard that
kind of stuff in the very beginning when we didn't
(10:21):
know a lot about vaccines. But over the next month,
two months, three months, they said, no, that's not the
case at all, spread blah blah blah. So the NFL,
he heard that statement by Aaron Rodgers, put out a
very strong statement to several NFL reporters says, quote, no
doctor from the league or the joint NFL NFLPA infections
to these consultants communicated with that player. If they had,
(10:45):
they certainly would have never said anything like that. Absolutely
nothing's one hundred percent. Robe. We knew that, and we
also knew that what they've said is the chances of
it being as severe because of people who are vaccinated.
That's why when you talk now about the facts and
figures about who's in the hospitals, like ninety five percent
(11:09):
are unvaccinated, people who are vaccinated don't have the same
symptoms and are able to fight it off a little
better than the people who aren't vaccinated. Nobody said it
was one hundred percent or cure all. So even that statement,
and that's why the NFL, of course pushed back immediately
because that doesn't even sound right that that would come
out of a doctor's mouth, does it. No, not at all.
(11:30):
And that's what's kind of surprising to me, rob is,
you know, they say this thing where if somebody's a liar,
they're dishonest to you from the beginning, it's hard to
trust them later. Now, Aaron Rodgers made the mistake of
lying about his vaccination status right in the beginning, back
in August, and once we found out that he was
being dishonest, it's hard to believe him going forward, right,
(11:53):
you know, because credibility lose some credibility. And what's funny
is I can tell you that a majority of football fans,
if they say, hey, do you trust the NFL league offices,
most of them would probably say no. They didn't like
the way they handled Ezekiel Alli at Tom Brady, Ben
whatever it is. They think that there's some backdoor dealing.
(12:13):
They don't trust Roger Goodell. But you know what's funny
is because Aaron Rodgers was caught in a lie already,
people are probably more likely to believe the NFL in
this regard who they don't really trust that much to
begin with. Because this guy already, he just got caught lying, right,
So why would I believe you now? And that's the situation.
(12:33):
And here's the other part is you got to cover
up is usually worse than the crime, right, rob g
Like like Aaron could have just just a I misled people.
I didn't want to be out public with it that
I'm not vaccinated. I made a mistake. I thought it
was a personal thing. I didn't realize, you know what,
(12:56):
he could have even done this back in August and
said if this is true, because what he said in
the interview, you know what, I have an allergy to
some of the ingredients that's in the vaccine. It's not
worth it to me to take the vaccine because it
would be a risk that myself and I promise you
not a single person would give Aaron Rodgers issues for
being on vaccine. Were like, Hey, this guy's got a
legitimate reason. He's got an allergy. I don't want him
(13:18):
to get sick. I don't want him to get hurt.
I don't want to be hospitalized as long as just
hey Aaron, take care of yourself. I hope you're the best.
I'll keep I'll keep you in my prayers that you'll
be fine, and no doubt. And that's what what didn't
go on and didn't happen. Be sure to catch live
editions of The Odd Couple with Chris Broussard and Rob
Parker weekdays at seven pm Eastern four pm Pacific on
(13:41):
Fox Sports Radio and the iHeart Radio app. All right,
well let's think with football. We know Aaron Rodgers was
the big story of the day. But before Aaron Rodgers
news broke, we thought the big story, the lead of
this show was gonna be Oldell Beckham's junior because the
Cleveland Browns are going to release him. They've restructured his
contract in such a way that, you know, even though
(14:02):
we're gonna be put on waivers next week early next week,
chances are no one's gonna claim him because they'd have
to pick up seven point two five million dollars of
that contract, and the teams that have cap space are
not what you would call contenders. So I can't imagine
them wanting to pay that money for road out Beckham Junior.
Knowing what if what if the Lions pick him up,
that would be fantastic. You know, one of the other ones,
(14:23):
the Jacksonville Jaguars, got some money and some space up there.
I'd love to see Urban Meyern and Odell stats would improve, well,
they probably would. They probably would, So you know, everyone's
monitoring that's like, Hey, where's Odal gonna go? Where? What's
going on with him? And before we even get to
that point, rob, let me just say this, I think
the Cleveland Browns completely botched this whole thing. Wow, Wow,
(14:46):
all right, I want to hear this starting with the
way that they did it. Now, we've known for a
few weeks now that this was not going to end well.
It was headed for a divorce. We had his dad
putting out Instagram videos, we got Lebron's sending tweets out,
you know, allegedly all on his own, with no influence
or input from Odell Beckham Junior. But we all knew
that it was heading towards a divorce. At some point,
(15:08):
his cap number was too high, his production was too low.
There was no way he was going to make it
through the season with the Cleveland Browns. So the trade
deadline comes, and according to Cleveland dot Com, Odell had
asked repeatedly multiple occasions, it's not working out. Just trade me,
Just trade me, Just trade me, just trade me. They say, no,
(15:28):
we're not gonna trade you. We're not going to try
to get any kind of value, whether whether it's a
sixth round pick in twenty twenty six. We're not gonna
do it. They'd rather let the trade deadline expire and
then release him all together. That's number one. Number two,
it seems like this whole thing and The reason why
he is going to be on waivers starting early next
(15:51):
week is because Odell Beckham Junior and Baker Mayfield could
never get on the same page. Now you can look
at all the numbers you want, these are. This is
one of my favorite ones. Eli Manning for all the
arrows that he took, you know from Odell on his
way out the door in New York, completed sixty three
percent of his passes, forty four touchdowns, twelve picks and
a QBR of eighty six point four when he was
(16:14):
targeting O'Dell in New York. In Cleveland, Baker Mayfield went
targeting O'Dell Beckham Junior fifty five percent completions, six touchdowns,
eight picks with a QBR of fifty eight. Now, I'm
not gonna say that, you know, their chemistry is the
only reason why I didn't work out. What I'm gonna say, though,
is we've seen now four years of Baker Mayfield being
(16:38):
at best a mediocre NFL quarterback. We have enough evidence
of Odell Beckham Junior before the injury that proves he
was one of the all time greats at least a
trajectory as a wide receiver. Even his first season in Cleveland,
coming off that injury. In New York, he put up
over a thousand yards and a seventy four catches with
Freddie Kitchens or you have to call him Freddie Bathrooms exactly, okay,
(17:01):
calling the shots. So he does have talent, and for
whatever reason, the Cleveland Browns decided that they'd rather put
their eggs and send their loyalty to Baker Mayfield, who
has shown that the only time he's good in the
NFL is when you give him less to do than
in all time talent like Odell Beckham Junior. And I
(17:21):
think they made a colossal mistake. I could not disagree
with you more. And I hear you you're living in
the past and as great that you're bringing up those
numbers in New York. First of all, Odell has been hurt. Okay,
so he's been hurt a lot of the time and
hasn't been available. And I'm not here to say that
(17:41):
Baker Mayfield is the best quarterback in the NFL or
oh my god, look at you know how great he is.
But Rob G be honest. When you're not producing and
you're not performing, as was the case with ol BJ,
you shouldn't be a distract either. Right, Last year without OBJ,
(18:03):
his team won eleven games and a playoff game, Yes
or no, they did him. Did Baker not have his
best season in the NFL without OBJ? He certainly did,
Rob Gee, that's a low barn considering the rest of
his other seams. Okay, but twenty six touchdowns and eight picks. Yes,
you know what he had the year before, twenty two
(18:25):
touchdowns twenty one picks. Right, So it was a big improvement.
He went from a seventy eight point eight quarterback rating
to a ninety five point nine. Okay, Ye, so let's
be fair. He played well last year. Can you say
that he did? Okay, he played well, And I'm not
saying it's it's you know, you're picking him a Baker
(18:49):
over OBJ, and Obj's four years removed from being the
star that he was. But here's the biggest problem with
his dad. Kind of attacking Aaker Mayfield. That's just not
conducive for winning. And once a guy starts doing in
on that, it's fine, Rob Gene, when they were just
asking for Trey quietly behind the scenes, correct, yep, But
(19:12):
once you attack the quarterback, who's still the season is
not over for the Browns, so it definitely feels worse
than four and four though, right ah, they all did
not out of anything that there's still there's still nine
games to go. Even the Chiefs, and as bad as
they've been, are writ in the mix for the playoffs,
I will get right and they've been terrible. So I
(19:34):
think the Browns had no choice. This guy gone to
the point where he was gonna be a headache, and
it just I told Chris. Chris was like, oh, I
wouldn't get rid of them. I'm like, dude, he's done.
He's done there because you don't want to malcontent around.
You don't want a guy who feels like he's better
(19:56):
and he should be getting more and this and that.
It just didn't work. And I don't know if you
saw my tweet earlier this afternoon where I ripped all
the NFL analysts who had them going to the Super Bowl?
Am I right or wrong? One? They went crazy when
the Browns traded for him. You remember I do code
We're gonna win multiple Super Bowls. Yes, it was crazy,
(20:21):
and I remember who was the player was like, it
ain't even gonna be fair. It was Demarius Randall. I
think he has a team anymore. But yeah, remember that
it's not gonna be fair. We're gonna be like a
video game. Yes, and none of that happened. And part
of it is unfortunate because you hate to see a
great player like O b J. And he was great.
(20:43):
Everybody wants to just trash him and act like the
only thing he ever did rob G was that catch
against Dallas. That's not true. No, go look at his numbers.
He put in work, He put in work all time,
great through the first three years of his career. I
think no doubt if anybody, including Randy Moss numbers big numbers.
(21:04):
And it's a damn shame to be honest, that has
come to this. And I don't know, I mean, everybody
makes it like you know it's gonna go to I
don't know, go to the Rams or go to the
Chiefs and gonna be a superstar again. I don't know. Well,
I don't know if you can stay healthy. And I
don't know where his head is if he goes to
(21:24):
the Chiefs or the Rams, or goes to the Rams
the Rams or already scored a lot of points, or
the Packers they already got guys there, don't they wh
They got Davantae Adams, who I think is the best
receiver in football. I don't two now I'm with Okay,
so Rob. Up until two weeks ago when the wheels
really started to come off, several advanced stats, take from
what take for it what you will, had O'Dell Beckham
(21:46):
Junior getting open as frequently as Davante Adams did. So
it's not his fault that Baker Mayfield is incapable of
getting on the same page as him if he's open. Okay,
And I'll give you that this could be a chemistry thing.
But to say that like Baker can't play at all,
(22:06):
it's all his fault, I can't buy into that. And
you remember last year through a couple of big wins
they had on the road where Baker threw for four touchdowns.
You remember, Yeah, he played boy, he played well and
shot out against Baltimore was one of the better games
I had seen all season last year. Right, And I
think they lost, Right, I lost that game, but but
it was a great game. Was a game He's ran into.
(22:28):
Lamar Jackson, the unanimous MVP. You know, things act canna happen,
but I just I can't be on board, and I Robb,
I take all your points, and they're they're good points.
But I can't be on board with any team that's
deciding whether Odell Beckham Junior is a Malcoten or not
that they would rather have the lesser talent. I think.
I think that's why bad teams stay bad. If Baker
(22:51):
Mayfield was a top ten, top twelve quarterback, where you're like, hey,
maybe he's getting other receivers, he'll be all right, then cool.
But if you're looking in total QBR, he's twenty seventh
this season. No, I get it, and it's not having
the greatest season at all. Why would you? Why would
you hitch your wagon to that guy when the only time,
(23:13):
like I said, he's been good in his career in
the NFL is when they said we are gonna take
the ball out of his hands, We're gonna give it
to one All Pro running back, oh and then backing
up as another All Pro running back, and we also
have the best offensive line in football. Yeah, but here's
the only problem with that. I get it. And then
you bank on O. B J. And then he gets hurt.
Now what I'm just his history is what now? Yeah,
(23:37):
he does get hurt a little bit. Okay, so you're
gonna bet you that's the guy you're banking on who
hasn't been all the way healthy in like four years. No,
I don't think so well. I mean, I don't think
you could roll the dice with that guy. So you'd
rather roll the dice with Baker? What's up? You'd rather
roll the dice with Baker? No? I get I get
the Baker thing, but I don't think you have a choice.
(23:59):
You need to find out for sure because rob Gs
contracts coming up. You drafted him. You gotta just determine
what you're gonna do. You're not gonna say, oh no,
we're gonna give rid of him and keep Obj. At
this point, you have to make a decision. Everybody's dying
for a quarterback like that's everybody, so you can always
get wide received. The rest of this season is gonna
(24:20):
be huge for Baker Mayfield, not just in the standing
before that contract. Just like you said, Rob, no doubt.
Be sure to catch live editions of The Odd Couple
with Chris Broussard and Rob Parker weekdays at seven pm
Eastern four pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the
iHeart Radio app. Hey, what's up, everybody. It's me three
time pro bowler Le Barrington, and I couldn't be more
(24:41):
excited to announce a new podcast called Up on Game.
What is Up on Game? You asked, along with my
fellow pro bowler T. J. Huschman, Zada and Super Bowl champion. Yep,
that's right, Plexico Burris. You can only name a show
with that type of talent on it. Up on Game
We're going to be sharing our real life experiences loaded
(25:02):
with teachable moments. Listen to Up on Game with Me,
lebar Arrington, T J. Hutchman's Out of and Plexico Birds
on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get
your podcast from. Let's go back to the NFL. We had,
you know, veered off to the NBA, and of course
(25:23):
the big story today was the Aaron Rodgers interview on
Pat McAfee's show. And you know, you know, one of
the biggest things you get from it from the interview
was basically that Aaron, instead of just owning up to
it and wearing it, Hey, you know what, I wasn't
really that honest, and I wasn't I wasn't that clear.
(25:45):
He could have said that without having to say I lied,
Am I right? Rob, Like, oh yeah, just say like
I wasn't clear, okay, And that's my fault for not
being clear when I was asked a question back before
the season started, and I could have just said, I'm
not vaccinated, but I'm going to try to take care
of it a certain way, or I'm gonna ask for
(26:06):
an exemption or whatever. Other quarterbacks, Kirk Cousins, um Lamar
Jackson and in Buffalo, Josh Allen, Josh Allen, all those guys,
they just and and and uh Carson Wentz. They all
just said they're not doing it. Here's the reason why, whatever,
(26:27):
personal decision what. And we moved on. They weren't ville
exactly eight hours and that was it. It wasn't all about, Oh,
everybody was on a wench hunt and who's vaccinated who's not,
And they made a big story. Aaron tried to paint
itself as the victim, you know, like they were gonna
come down on me and all this. No, people just
(26:48):
have the right to know for working protocol, that's all.
And Aaron didn't follow all the rules in the NFL.
I'm assuming Rob g is going to find the packers
because especially the media part. Maybe his teammates new but
he should not have been in front of reporters without
(27:11):
a mask, just playing and simple. I think that's selfish.
I don't know this. You we may have a legal expert.
Is there possible that you could see if somebody felt
inclined that they could file a lawsuit against the NFL
for like reckless endangerment? You could always I mean, there's
always see weird lawsuits before God someone with them. Look,
I was told that under this situation that everybody would
(27:33):
either be vaccinated or wearing a mask, and this guy
was neither. Absolutely, I mean because as I told you,
I've been to a few NFL games this year, sat
in the press box and they wanted to see when
I went to the World Series and before they gave
me my credential, you know what they said, can I
see your papers? Can I see your vaccination card? Right?
(27:55):
Playing it simple and in the press box, we could
go around without mask, you know what I mean? Everybody
in there that had to be vaccinated. Otherwise you couldn't
you couldn't work in the press box. So um, but
let's the other thing that came out of it was
why he felt that he didn't have to follow the
rules in the protocol that everybody else um had to
(28:20):
as legislated by the NFL. Not based in science at all.
That based purely in trying to out and shame people,
like needing to wear a mask at a podium when
every person in the room is vaccinated and wearing a
mask makes no sense to me. If you get vaccinated
to to protect yourself from a virus that I don't
(28:43):
have as an unvaccinated individual, then why are you worried
about anything that I can give you. He's he's a
medical person. Now, if we all use that mentality, that's
that's how the virus spread, right that that's really how it. Yeah,
because people were like, well, I don't have it, so
you should be good. Not well, maybe you don't think
(29:03):
you have it when you went into the press conference. Hello,
and then maybe you didn't develop it or you had
it but you didn't know you had it. That's why
you have to protect yourself with the mass. Does that
make sense? Yep? People have it but they don't know
yet and maybe when they go home. Maybe that afternoon
he goes home and he didn't feel right, but he
(29:24):
had it right. So I was just I mean, like
you said, it speaks to the arrogance of Aaron Rodger
where he just decided, you know it. I don't like
that rule. I'm not gonna follow it, but you know
that is what are they gonna do to me? You know?
And it's it's one thing to have that attitude on
your football team because you're the quarterback, you're the star.
(29:47):
Even if I didn't I disagree with it, I get it.
It's something else to have that attitude towards the NFL,
which has chewed up and spit out Hall of Famer
after Hall of Famer, great player after great player, because
nobody is bigger than the shield. In the NFL, Tom
Brady got suspended for four games for deflating a football
because he destroyed his cell phone, and he was the
(30:08):
face of the NFL, no doubt about it, no doubt
about it. But Rob, this is something I wanted to
ask you, so just in that specific question I think
tells the whole story. If you're doing that interview, you're
Rob Parker, with your masters in journalism, You've been doing
this for decades. I would imagine someone like you would
(30:28):
ask a follow up say, okay, so do you believe
then that certain rules don't apply to you, or that
it's okay for you to decide which rules to follow
and which don't. And that's something I'm sorry to catch off.
That's something that I think we missed out on in
this Pat McAfee interview, no doubt about it. And that's
(30:50):
what happens when friends interview and players interview other players.
There's just no journalist journalism going on. And I'm not
saying you have to be everybody has to be a
journalist or whatever to do these jobs. But you let
down the listener when you don't follow up, when you
(31:10):
don't ask the questions that we need to know he
needed to be pressed. We got cheated in that. No,
you don't just listen to what he says and move
on to the next thing. Why not, Aaron, This is
the protocol I was sending out for everybody in the league.
What makes you better than everybody else? Why should you
(31:34):
buck the league's rules? They're made for a reason, right,
It's just like the Tom Brady thing. You know what,
there's specifications for the football rob genius for a reason, right, yes, sir.
Everybody goes, oh, what's the big deal? There is a
difference if the balls has less air in it as
(31:56):
far as holding on to it and catching it and
not fumbling. Go look it up. I think the Patriots
that year had the least fumbles in the NFL. It
makes a difference. If it didn't make a difference, guess
what Tom Brady wouldn't have done it, and then go ahead.
I just I think that this is something that we
(32:19):
are seeing more commonplace now than ever before, where athletes
specifically want to control the narrative around them and the
things that they do and say, and in order to
do so, they've been able. Part of it is our
faults as people in the media and as consumers that
we've become and made it almost acceptable for these guys
(32:43):
to pick and choose who they talk to, what questions
they ask, more importantly, what questions they don't get asked,
so that they can feel comfortable and have spend their
version of the truth that is exactly it and hello,
I'm I'm talking to you when I'm not trying to
be high brow or you know, we're Chris and I
(33:04):
are better than everybody because we went to journalism school
and we're journalists by trade. But but I'm telling you
you would be afraid to live in this world if
you continue to let friends interview each other and people
who are in bed with everybody. And what I mean
by that is they share agents and they have mutual
(33:25):
friends and mutual interests, and they don't ask the questions
and they don't press people. Rob Gee, how many times
do we stop people on this show and said, what
where's your getting that from? Yeah? I mean we have people.
I hate to call him out, but chatting Fry, I
don't think has agreed to come on this show since
he made that comment about Michael Jordan and Lebron James,
(33:46):
and you guys pressed him on it. He turned in
like thirty seconds and then decided he hasn't want to
come on the show anymore, which is fine, which is fine,
you know, and that's fine, right, But you guys would
be doing yourselves and the audience a disservice if you
didn't lenge him on things that can be easily refuted
or or or there's more to the story than what
(34:07):
the guy's leading on. And that is the point, spot on.
That is the point that's why. That's why there's an interviewer.
Whenever you see these phony interviews set up where players
are interviewing other players, and you get there and you go, boy,
what a what a cupcake interview? All softballs? You know,
(34:29):
things are going on. I don't even know and rob
g you can help me, I think didn't um what's
his name, Robinson who got knocked out in the final,
Nate Robinson. Didn't he go on a podcast after that
and they didn't even ask him about the fight. Yep,
(34:49):
That's what I'm talking about because his friends and they
don't want to say anything that's can get him upset
in that game. Right. But but but you shouldn't be
on right Whenever we had when I did a radio
show in Detroit, and they would say, people would offer
somebody to come on and say, but you know he's
not gonna talk about on that show. Yeah, and what
do you think? No? Thank no, thank you. I'm gonna
(35:11):
tell you. We once had Mark Albert on after his
scanned the where he bit the woman and the whole thing,
and I asked him a question. If he didn't want
to answer it, he couldn't come on. It was great
to have him on, but I'm not going to act
like I'm going to ignore the elephant in the room.
And that's the disappointing part when you hear these interviews,
(35:33):
and as a listener or a viewer, it should infuriate
you that they don't take you into consideration to ask
the questions you want to know about, because if they
don't get cheating you yep, And I don't want people
to think like, oh, well, you just want somebody who's
gonna push back on him and argue with him. That's
(35:54):
not what we're saying. You're not saying to go up there. Hey,
Aaron Rodgers thinks this, it's your job to argue with
him and people there's nor your job as a reporter,
as someone who works in this field is if there
is something that somebody says and there's more to the story,
or what they're saying is factually incorrect, it's your job
(36:16):
to bring that up to them and give them a
chance to either defend their point or give them a
chance to be like, hey, you know what, I didn't
think about it that way. But there's got to be
some kind of willing to dig deeper than just accept
what these people are saying on their face, especially when
we're not gonna go through the whole thing. But there
were a number of things that Aaron Rodgers said that
were just untrue, right, which could have easily been which
(36:39):
because they've either been followed up and asked about and
they weren't. And here's the other thing. Sports fans and
people in general, they're they're they're smart. You know why
the team websites aren't aren't that big and powerful and
great because everybody knows who the writers are getting paid by,
who the teams. What are you gonna get? Are you
(37:01):
gonna get a bad article on at lakers dot com
about the Lakers or the coaching or or Westbrook. You're
not gonna read that. It's gonna say Russell Westbrook at
twenty seven points five year six, thank you. And that's
not what you're looking for. I'm telling you you'd be
afraid to live in this country without the free press.
And I'm dead serious about where the WatchGuard of the
(37:23):
watchdog and making sure people are honest and not pulling
a fast one. And McAfee let everybody down today because
he didn't push back, he didn't ask follow up questions
that were important so people could get understand more about
where Aaron Rodgers was coming from. That's basic. Agree with you, Ron, Oh,
(37:46):
I know you razzle daz a little bit. You already
know a certain things. They just get you. I get it,
you get it. I'm thirty five years I teach journalism
at USC. You know, this is what I'm always talking
to my students about. Is about. You know what people
have a right, Rob g to say, I don't want
to answer that question or no comment, but I have
the right to ask it as absurdly. Yep. That's what
(38:10):
people don't get. All right. Did Pat McAfee let Aaron
Rodgers off the hook during today's interview? And do you
have a problem with athlete to athlete interviews as a whole?
We want to hear from you and we'll continue this
conversation eight seven, seven ninety nine on Fox. It is
the Odd Couple. Rob g in for Chris Bussar, Rob Parker.
(38:31):
Hear you there. It's Fox Sports Radio, Stick and Stay America.
Thanks for listening to the Best of the Odd Couple podcasts.
Be sure to catch us live every weekday from seven
pm to ten pm Eastern four to seven Pacific on
Fox Sports Radio. Find your local station for The Odd
Couple at Fox Sports Radio dot com, or stream us
live every day on the iHeartRadio app by searching f
(00:20):
s R. You're listening to the Best of the Odd
Couple with Chris Brussard and Rob Harker. Joe you ready,
it is The Odd Couple on Fox Sports Radio. Rob
Parker and Robert Guera gee in for Chris Brussard. But
(00:48):
let's hear a little Chris Broussard. Yeah, here we go. Yes,
it's a fucking fly back Friday, and man, do we
have a great show for you today. So much stuff
to talk to. Also in the first hour talk to
Will Blackman, the Super Bowl champ and host of Upsets
(01:12):
and Underdogs podcasts. So we'll do that an hour number one.
Chris Brushard will be off for the next few shows.
Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family. Uh
that's you know, So, so we're thinking about Chris and
his family as we continue on on this Friday. So
all good thoughts going that way, And we're coming to
(01:37):
you live from the Fox Sports Radio studios. And that's right, Bill,
We're doing it live. And for the first time since
I've been on the show, Rob Garre, rob Gee, it's
hard for me to call you Rob Garret. I'll just
call you rob Ge all the time. Does that bother you, Friday?
(01:57):
I'm branding, right, it's a brand at the right. It's
hard for me to right, for me to change now.
But Robert Gara, who of course is a long time
producer and fills in every so often, he's done it
more with Chris. How many shows have you done with Chris?
H three or four? Three or four? So I'm like, yeah,
three or four. So he's pinch it in today for Chris.
(02:17):
Is good to have him. Rob g how you doing today?
I'm doing good. When Chris gave me the calls it
had he got to step in, give me some Dennis
Johnson type numbers off the bench, I said, I gotta
do it, no doubt. I'm really ready to go. So
you're gonna steal the ball and pass it to me? Right,
that's right, you know what, Rob, I feel like I
feel like Mike White, Right, now coming off the bench
for the Jets. I just hope I don't get hurt
(02:38):
early on in the show. That's all man. At least
that helped the Uh. I'm just saying about it. But
you know, man, I'm not saying that was. What'sh you for?
But what do we say? We don't want it to
be really hurt, just enough to not finish the game,
That's what he's exactly, and for the Colts to cover,
which they did, and Mike White will be back next week.
So there you go. It work. It's all good. It
(02:59):
worked out perfect, it did no doubt about it. All right,
So we're going to talk about so many things man
and sports going on on this funky flashback Friday. Alex,
of course, we'll have all the jams just Rob g
is our co host and producer of this farm radio program.
Alex is our engineer, and mister Steve de Seger is
(03:22):
at the anchor desk. He'll keep us updated throughout the program.
And Rob G let's just start here with Aaron Rodgers,
whom you know. I got a headache listening to Aaron
Rodgers today, I gotta admit, and I don't get it.
A lot of people make this mistake. Just own up
(03:45):
to your era or if you misled people, or if
you weren't clear and you want to clear it up.
But that's not what we got from Aaron Rodgers today.
It's just not it was everything. But let me tell
you that I know better than everybody else, and this
(04:06):
is what I did. And I never said I was
vaccinated or I said I was immunized, and you know,
and you know, I'm gonna follow the NFL protocol that
I think is good enough, and then even went out
of his way to mention Martin Luther King in his conversation.
(04:27):
Then Pat McAfee, Hey, it's great. You get Aaron Rodgers
every week. Is nothing better. We'd love to get Aaron
Rodgers every week exactly. But can you can you push back?
Can you ask any follow up questions? Can you ask
him to elaborate and explain better and tell us why
he feels he's different from everybody else and that stuff?
(04:48):
And then the Aaron Rodgers seriously, uh, the woke mob
is after him? And Rob G, the the canceled culture.
Let me Jackson said he didn't get vaccinated? Has he
been canceled? Rob G just helped me out. No he
has not. Okay, who else do we have? M Josh
(05:09):
Allen is not vaccinated as last I checked, Rob not
only is he not canceled, but he is the Vegas
front runner for NFL MVP. There you go. And even
in Minnesota, right, kirk Cousins not vaccinated. Kirk Cousins not vact.
They just came out and said they're not gonna do it.
They don't want to do it. Aaron Rodgers could have
done that. This whole notion that, oh the woke people
(05:33):
are after me now and they got a narrative going on. No,
the problem is you mislet people and you put other
people in harm's way without them knowing that. That's why
people Rob g have their panties in a bunch. It's
not it's Lamar Jackson said he wasn't vaccinated. We all
know if I've talked to him, if your reporter put
(05:55):
a mask on, keep your distance, am I right? Yep?
If that's all we're asking, he was being honest from
the very beginning with Lamar Jackson. Even Carson Wentz. Carson wentz,
you know right in the very upfront, I'm not gonna
get vaccinated. Ian's a personal decision. YadA ya YadA. That's fine.
And that means that anybody who is around Carson Wentz
and they know what to expect. If they're comfortable with it, cool,
(06:17):
If they're not comfortable with it, cool. But as long
as you guys know and everybody's under the same understanding,
there shouldn't be an issue with anybody. This is not
Kyrie Irving where him not getting vaccinated it means he
can't play. That is by for the Green Bay Packers.
All it means is that Aaron Rodgers would have to
follow different protocol. That's it. That's all it means. Nobody
(06:41):
in the NFL doesn't have a policy forcing it. If
you worked at certain jobs in certain places, Rob g.
Your state employee, at certain and certain states and cities,
there's ordinances and work rules and you gotta follow them
and if you don't, you can't work. Simple goal. You
could get another job at a place that doesn't have
(07:02):
That doesn't mean you can't work, you just can't work there.
And companies are allowed to set their own press. People
have challenged it over and over mandates and they lose
in the Supreme Court every single time. Because it's about
public safety. You have a personal choice, but I also
have a personal choice to note that I have a
(07:23):
chance of being safe at work and I'm not putting
in a hazardous situation. That's all. Let me know, That's
all we're asking. So let's hear first Aaron Rodgers talking
about that he didn't lie. First of all, I didn't
lie in the initial press conference. During that time, it
was a very you know which hunt that was going
(07:44):
on across the league, where everybody in the media was
so concerned about who was vaccinated and who wasn't, and
what that meant, and who was being selfish and who
would talk about it, and what it meant if they
said it's a personal decision, they shouldn't have to disclose
their own medical conformation and whatnot. And at the time,
my plan was to say that I have been immunized. Um,
(08:07):
it wasn't some sort of ruse or lie. It was
the truth. It was a ruse, It wasn't true. It
wasn't is he talking about being immunized when you're five
years old, rob g so that you could go to school?
I think public school had the tightest shot and all
that right, something like we all had to be immunized.
Guess what to go to school? Right? That's right, everybody? Hello?
(08:30):
Otherwise what you can't go to school? You know what
I found out too, Rob g. If you don't get
immunized in the state of New York, you can't even
be home school. Did you know that? Wow? I did
not know that yet. Did not know that because guess
what teachers and guidance counselors have to interact with the kids.
It ain't just your parents and you never see any
(08:52):
teachers or anything. Did you know that? Yes? I had
no idea that is actually to me. Yes, in New
York State. I don't know about the rest of the country.
So in order to go to school, you gotta be immunized.
We all have the mark on our arm, don't we.
We all do? Right right now, Rob, you mentioned that
he was being dishonest, or if he wasn't being dishonest,
(09:14):
he was being deceitful. He was going out of his
way to make sure that I'll give you a little
bit of the truth, but not actually give you the truth.
So during that interview with Pat McAfee, he went on
and said, you know what, I'm not gonna vaccinated. So
I started the appeal process with the NFL about why,
you know, didn't need to get a waiver to not
get vaccinated and still follow the vaccinated rules, you know,
(09:39):
so he can be the rest of the team who
are vaccinated. Here's what he said about that. One after
they came back and said, no, you you're unvaxed, I said, Okay,
I'm gonna peel this. In that process, we had many conversations,
but one in particular stood out. When I knew I
was not going to win this, I had a meeting
one of the main docs said it's impossible for a
(10:01):
vaccinated person to get COVID or spread COVID, And at
that point I knew that, you know, I was definitely
not going to win the apel. Now, when I heard that,
I was shocked. When I said, wow, I can't believe
they would actually say that, because I have heard that
kind of stuff in the very beginning when we didn't
(10:21):
know a lot about vaccines. But over the next month,
two months, three months, they said, no, that's not the
case at all, spread blah blah blah. So the NFL,
he heard that statement by Aaron Rodgers, put out a
very strong statement to several NFL reporters says, quote, no
doctor from the league or the joint NFL NFLPA infections
to these consultants communicated with that player. If they had,
(10:45):
they certainly would have never said anything like that. Absolutely
nothing's one hundred percent. Robe. We knew that, and we
also knew that what they've said is the chances of
it being as severe because of people who are vaccinated.
That's why when you talk now about the facts and
figures about who's in the hospitals, like ninety five percent
(11:09):
are unvaccinated, people who are vaccinated don't have the same
symptoms and are able to fight it off a little
better than the people who aren't vaccinated. Nobody said it
was one hundred percent or cure all. So even that statement,
and that's why the NFL, of course pushed back immediately
because that doesn't even sound right that that would come
out of a doctor's mouth, does it. No, not at all.
(11:30):
And that's what's kind of surprising to me, rob is,
you know, they say this thing where if somebody's a liar,
they're dishonest to you from the beginning, it's hard to
trust them later. Now, Aaron Rodgers made the mistake of
lying about his vaccination status right in the beginning, back
in August, and once we found out that he was
being dishonest, it's hard to believe him going forward, right,
(11:53):
you know, because credibility lose some credibility. And what's funny
is I can tell you that a majority of football fans,
if they say, hey, do you trust the NFL league offices,
most of them would probably say no. They didn't like
the way they handled Ezekiel Alli at Tom Brady, Ben
whatever it is. They think that there's some backdoor dealing.
(12:13):
They don't trust Roger Goodell. But you know what's funny
is because Aaron Rodgers was caught in a lie already,
people are probably more likely to believe the NFL in
this regard who they don't really trust that much to
begin with. Because this guy already, he just got caught lying, right,
So why would I believe you now? And that's the situation.
(12:33):
And here's the other part is you got to cover
up is usually worse than the crime, right, rob g
Like like Aaron could have just just a I misled people.
I didn't want to be out public with it that
I'm not vaccinated. I made a mistake. I thought it
was a personal thing. I didn't realize, you know what,
(12:56):
he could have even done this back in August and
said if this is true, because what he said in
the interview, you know what, I have an allergy to
some of the ingredients that's in the vaccine. It's not
worth it to me to take the vaccine because it
would be a risk that myself and I promise you
not a single person would give Aaron Rodgers issues for
being on vaccine. Were like, Hey, this guy's got a
legitimate reason. He's got an allergy. I don't want him
(13:18):
to get sick. I don't want him to get hurt.
I don't want to be hospitalized as long as just
hey Aaron, take care of yourself. I hope you're the best.
I'll keep I'll keep you in my prayers that you'll
be fine, and no doubt. And that's what what didn't
go on and didn't happen. Be sure to catch live
editions of The Odd Couple with Chris Broussard and Rob
Parker weekdays at seven pm Eastern four pm Pacific on
(13:41):
Fox Sports Radio and the iHeart Radio app. All right,
well let's think with football. We know Aaron Rodgers was
the big story of the day. But before Aaron Rodgers
news broke, we thought the big story, the lead of
this show was gonna be Oldell Beckham's junior because the
Cleveland Browns are going to release him. They've restructured his
contract in such a way that, you know, even though
(14:02):
we're gonna be put on waivers next week early next week,
chances are no one's gonna claim him because they'd have
to pick up seven point two five million dollars of
that contract, and the teams that have cap space are
not what you would call contenders. So I can't imagine
them wanting to pay that money for road out Beckham Junior.
Knowing what if what if the Lions pick him up,
that would be fantastic. You know, one of the other ones,
(14:23):
the Jacksonville Jaguars, got some money and some space up there.
I'd love to see Urban Meyern and Odell stats would improve, well,
they probably would. They probably would, So you know, everyone's
monitoring that's like, Hey, where's Odal gonna go? Where? What's
going on with him? And before we even get to
that point, rob, let me just say this, I think
the Cleveland Browns completely botched this whole thing. Wow, Wow,
(14:46):
all right, I want to hear this starting with the
way that they did it. Now, we've known for a
few weeks now that this was not going to end well.
It was headed for a divorce. We had his dad
putting out Instagram videos, we got Lebron's sending tweets out,
you know, allegedly all on his own, with no influence
or input from Odell Beckham Junior. But we all knew
that it was heading towards a divorce. At some point,
(15:08):
his cap number was too high, his production was too low.
There was no way he was going to make it
through the season with the Cleveland Browns. So the trade
deadline comes, and according to Cleveland dot Com, Odell had
asked repeatedly multiple occasions, it's not working out. Just trade me,
Just trade me, Just trade me, just trade me. They say, no,
(15:28):
we're not gonna trade you. We're not going to try
to get any kind of value, whether whether it's a
sixth round pick in twenty twenty six. We're not gonna
do it. They'd rather let the trade deadline expire and
then release him all together. That's number one. Number two,
it seems like this whole thing and The reason why
he is going to be on waivers starting early next
(15:51):
week is because Odell Beckham Junior and Baker Mayfield could
never get on the same page. Now you can look
at all the numbers you want, these are. This is
one of my favorite ones. Eli Manning for all the
arrows that he took, you know from Odell on his
way out the door in New York, completed sixty three
percent of his passes, forty four touchdowns, twelve picks and
a QBR of eighty six point four when he was
(16:14):
targeting O'Dell in New York. In Cleveland, Baker Mayfield went
targeting O'Dell Beckham Junior fifty five percent completions, six touchdowns,
eight picks with a QBR of fifty eight. Now, I'm
not gonna say that, you know, their chemistry is the
only reason why I didn't work out. What I'm gonna say, though,
is we've seen now four years of Baker Mayfield being
(16:38):
at best a mediocre NFL quarterback. We have enough evidence
of Odell Beckham Junior before the injury that proves he
was one of the all time greats at least a
trajectory as a wide receiver. Even his first season in Cleveland,
coming off that injury. In New York, he put up
over a thousand yards and a seventy four catches with
Freddie Kitchens or you have to call him Freddie Bathrooms exactly, okay,
(17:01):
calling the shots. So he does have talent, and for
whatever reason, the Cleveland Browns decided that they'd rather put
their eggs and send their loyalty to Baker Mayfield, who
has shown that the only time he's good in the
NFL is when you give him less to do than
in all time talent like Odell Beckham Junior. And I
(17:21):
think they made a colossal mistake. I could not disagree
with you more. And I hear you you're living in
the past and as great that you're bringing up those
numbers in New York. First of all, Odell has been hurt. Okay,
so he's been hurt a lot of the time and
hasn't been available. And I'm not here to say that
(17:41):
Baker Mayfield is the best quarterback in the NFL or
oh my god, look at you know how great he is.
But Rob G be honest. When you're not producing and
you're not performing, as was the case with ol BJ,
you shouldn't be a distract either. Right, Last year without OBJ,
(18:03):
his team won eleven games and a playoff game, Yes
or no, they did him. Did Baker not have his
best season in the NFL without OBJ? He certainly did,
Rob Gee, that's a low barn considering the rest of
his other seams. Okay, but twenty six touchdowns and eight picks. Yes,
you know what he had the year before, twenty two
(18:25):
touchdowns twenty one picks. Right, So it was a big improvement.
He went from a seventy eight point eight quarterback rating
to a ninety five point nine. Okay, Ye, so let's
be fair. He played well last year. Can you say
that he did? Okay, he played well, And I'm not
saying it's it's you know, you're picking him a Baker
(18:49):
over OBJ, and Obj's four years removed from being the
star that he was. But here's the biggest problem with
his dad. Kind of attacking Aaker Mayfield. That's just not
conducive for winning. And once a guy starts doing in
on that, it's fine, Rob Gene, when they were just
asking for Trey quietly behind the scenes, correct, yep, But
(19:12):
once you attack the quarterback, who's still the season is
not over for the Browns, so it definitely feels worse
than four and four though, right ah, they all did
not out of anything that there's still there's still nine
games to go. Even the Chiefs, and as bad as
they've been, are writ in the mix for the playoffs,
I will get right and they've been terrible. So I
(19:34):
think the Browns had no choice. This guy gone to
the point where he was gonna be a headache, and
it just I told Chris. Chris was like, oh, I
wouldn't get rid of them. I'm like, dude, he's done.
He's done there because you don't want to malcontent around.
You don't want a guy who feels like he's better
(19:56):
and he should be getting more and this and that.
It just didn't work. And I don't know if you
saw my tweet earlier this afternoon where I ripped all
the NFL analysts who had them going to the Super Bowl?
Am I right or wrong? One? They went crazy when
the Browns traded for him. You remember I do code
We're gonna win multiple Super Bowls. Yes, it was crazy,
(20:21):
and I remember who was the player was like, it
ain't even gonna be fair. It was Demarius Randall. I
think he has a team anymore. But yeah, remember that
it's not gonna be fair. We're gonna be like a
video game. Yes, and none of that happened. And part
of it is unfortunate because you hate to see a
great player like O b J. And he was great.
(20:43):
Everybody wants to just trash him and act like the
only thing he ever did rob G was that catch
against Dallas. That's not true. No, go look at his numbers.
He put in work, He put in work all time,
great through the first three years of his career. I
think no doubt if anybody, including Randy Moss numbers big numbers.
(21:04):
And it's a damn shame to be honest, that has
come to this. And I don't know, I mean, everybody
makes it like you know it's gonna go to I
don't know, go to the Rams or go to the
Chiefs and gonna be a superstar again. I don't know. Well,
I don't know if you can stay healthy. And I
don't know where his head is if he goes to
(21:24):
the Chiefs or the Rams, or goes to the Rams
the Rams or already scored a lot of points, or
the Packers they already got guys there, don't they wh
They got Davantae Adams, who I think is the best
receiver in football. I don't two now I'm with Okay,
so Rob. Up until two weeks ago when the wheels
really started to come off, several advanced stats, take from
what take for it what you will, had O'Dell Beckham
(21:46):
Junior getting open as frequently as Davante Adams did. So
it's not his fault that Baker Mayfield is incapable of
getting on the same page as him if he's open. Okay,
And I'll give you that this could be a chemistry thing.
But to say that like Baker can't play at all,
(22:06):
it's all his fault, I can't buy into that. And
you remember last year through a couple of big wins
they had on the road where Baker threw for four touchdowns.
You remember, Yeah, he played boy, he played well and
shot out against Baltimore was one of the better games
I had seen all season last year. Right, And I
think they lost, Right, I lost that game, but but
it was a great game. Was a game He's ran into.
(22:28):
Lamar Jackson, the unanimous MVP. You know, things act canna happen,
but I just I can't be on board, and I Robb,
I take all your points, and they're they're good points.
But I can't be on board with any team that's
deciding whether Odell Beckham Junior is a Malcoten or not
that they would rather have the lesser talent. I think.
I think that's why bad teams stay bad. If Baker
(22:51):
Mayfield was a top ten, top twelve quarterback, where you're like, hey,
maybe he's getting other receivers, he'll be all right, then cool.
But if you're looking in total QBR, he's twenty seventh
this season. No, I get it, and it's not having
the greatest season at all. Why would you? Why would
you hitch your wagon to that guy when the only time,
(23:13):
like I said, he's been good in his career in
the NFL is when they said we are gonna take
the ball out of his hands, We're gonna give it
to one All Pro running back, oh and then backing
up as another All Pro running back, and we also
have the best offensive line in football. Yeah, but here's
the only problem with that. I get it. And then
you bank on O. B J. And then he gets hurt.
Now what I'm just his history is what now? Yeah,
(23:37):
he does get hurt a little bit. Okay, so you're
gonna bet you that's the guy you're banking on who
hasn't been all the way healthy in like four years. No,
I don't think so well. I mean, I don't think
you could roll the dice with that guy. So you'd
rather roll the dice with Baker? What's up? You'd rather
roll the dice with Baker? No? I get I get
the Baker thing, but I don't think you have a choice.
(23:59):
You need to find out for sure because rob Gs
contracts coming up. You drafted him. You gotta just determine
what you're gonna do. You're not gonna say, oh no,
we're gonna give rid of him and keep Obj. At
this point, you have to make a decision. Everybody's dying
for a quarterback like that's everybody, so you can always
get wide received. The rest of this season is gonna
(24:20):
be huge for Baker Mayfield, not just in the standing
before that contract. Just like you said, Rob, no doubt.
Be sure to catch live editions of The Odd Couple
with Chris Broussard and Rob Parker weekdays at seven pm
Eastern four pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the
iHeart Radio app. Hey, what's up, everybody. It's me three
time pro bowler Le Barrington, and I couldn't be more
(24:41):
excited to announce a new podcast called Up on Game.
What is Up on Game? You asked, along with my
fellow pro bowler T. J. Huschman, Zada and Super Bowl champion. Yep,
that's right, Plexico Burris. You can only name a show
with that type of talent on it. Up on Game
We're going to be sharing our real life experiences loaded
(25:02):
with teachable moments. Listen to Up on Game with Me,
lebar Arrington, T J. Hutchman's Out of and Plexico Birds
on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get
your podcast from. Let's go back to the NFL. We had,
you know, veered off to the NBA, and of course
(25:23):
the big story today was the Aaron Rodgers interview on
Pat McAfee's show. And you know, you know, one of
the biggest things you get from it from the interview
was basically that Aaron, instead of just owning up to
it and wearing it, Hey, you know what, I wasn't
really that honest, and I wasn't I wasn't that clear.
(25:45):
He could have said that without having to say I lied,
Am I right? Rob, Like, oh yeah, just say like
I wasn't clear, okay, And that's my fault for not
being clear when I was asked a question back before
the season started, and I could have just said, I'm
not vaccinated, but I'm going to try to take care
of it a certain way, or I'm gonna ask for
(26:06):
an exemption or whatever. Other quarterbacks, Kirk Cousins, um Lamar
Jackson and in Buffalo, Josh Allen, Josh Allen, all those guys,
they just and and and uh Carson Wentz. They all
just said they're not doing it. Here's the reason why, whatever,
(26:27):
personal decision what. And we moved on. They weren't ville
exactly eight hours and that was it. It wasn't all about, Oh,
everybody was on a wench hunt and who's vaccinated who's not,
And they made a big story. Aaron tried to paint
itself as the victim, you know, like they were gonna
come down on me and all this. No, people just
(26:48):
have the right to know for working protocol, that's all.
And Aaron didn't follow all the rules in the NFL.
I'm assuming Rob g is going to find the packers
because especially the media part. Maybe his teammates new but
he should not have been in front of reporters without
(27:11):
a mask, just playing and simple. I think that's selfish.
I don't know this. You we may have a legal expert.
Is there possible that you could see if somebody felt
inclined that they could file a lawsuit against the NFL
for like reckless endangerment? You could always I mean, there's
always see weird lawsuits before God someone with them. Look,
I was told that under this situation that everybody would
(27:33):
either be vaccinated or wearing a mask, and this guy
was neither. Absolutely, I mean because as I told you,
I've been to a few NFL games this year, sat
in the press box and they wanted to see when
I went to the World Series and before they gave
me my credential, you know what they said, can I
see your papers? Can I see your vaccination card? Right?
(27:55):
Playing it simple and in the press box, we could
go around without mask, you know what I mean? Everybody
in there that had to be vaccinated. Otherwise you couldn't
you couldn't work in the press box. So um, but
let's the other thing that came out of it was
why he felt that he didn't have to follow the
rules in the protocol that everybody else um had to
(28:20):
as legislated by the NFL. Not based in science at all.
That based purely in trying to out and shame people,
like needing to wear a mask at a podium when
every person in the room is vaccinated and wearing a
mask makes no sense to me. If you get vaccinated
to to protect yourself from a virus that I don't
(28:43):
have as an unvaccinated individual, then why are you worried
about anything that I can give you. He's he's a
medical person. Now, if we all use that mentality, that's
that's how the virus spread, right that that's really how it. Yeah,
because people were like, well, I don't have it, so
you should be good. Not well, maybe you don't think
(29:03):
you have it when you went into the press conference. Hello,
and then maybe you didn't develop it or you had
it but you didn't know you had it. That's why
you have to protect yourself with the mass. Does that
make sense? Yep? People have it but they don't know
yet and maybe when they go home. Maybe that afternoon
he goes home and he didn't feel right, but he
(29:24):
had it right. So I was just I mean, like
you said, it speaks to the arrogance of Aaron Rodger
where he just decided, you know it. I don't like
that rule. I'm not gonna follow it, but you know
that is what are they gonna do to me? You know?
And it's it's one thing to have that attitude on
your football team because you're the quarterback, you're the star.
(29:47):
Even if I didn't I disagree with it, I get it.
It's something else to have that attitude towards the NFL,
which has chewed up and spit out Hall of Famer
after Hall of Famer, great player after great player, because
nobody is bigger than the shield. In the NFL, Tom
Brady got suspended for four games for deflating a football
because he destroyed his cell phone, and he was the
(30:08):
face of the NFL, no doubt about it, no doubt
about it. But Rob, this is something I wanted to
ask you, so just in that specific question I think
tells the whole story. If you're doing that interview, you're
Rob Parker, with your masters in journalism, You've been doing
this for decades. I would imagine someone like you would
(30:28):
ask a follow up say, okay, so do you believe
then that certain rules don't apply to you, or that
it's okay for you to decide which rules to follow
and which don't. And that's something I'm sorry to catch off.
That's something that I think we missed out on in
this Pat McAfee interview, no doubt about it. And that's
(30:50):
what happens when friends interview and players interview other players.
There's just no journalist journalism going on. And I'm not
saying you have to be everybody has to be a
journalist or whatever to do these jobs. But you let
down the listener when you don't follow up, when you
(31:10):
don't ask the questions that we need to know he
needed to be pressed. We got cheated in that. No,
you don't just listen to what he says and move
on to the next thing. Why not, Aaron, This is
the protocol I was sending out for everybody in the league.
What makes you better than everybody else? Why should you
(31:34):
buck the league's rules? They're made for a reason, right,
It's just like the Tom Brady thing. You know what,
there's specifications for the football rob genius for a reason, right, yes, sir.
Everybody goes, oh, what's the big deal? There is a
difference if the balls has less air in it as
(31:56):
far as holding on to it and catching it and
not fumbling. Go look it up. I think the Patriots
that year had the least fumbles in the NFL. It
makes a difference. If it didn't make a difference, guess
what Tom Brady wouldn't have done it, and then go ahead.
I just I think that this is something that we
(32:19):
are seeing more commonplace now than ever before, where athletes
specifically want to control the narrative around them and the
things that they do and say, and in order to
do so, they've been able. Part of it is our
faults as people in the media and as consumers that
we've become and made it almost acceptable for these guys
(32:43):
to pick and choose who they talk to, what questions
they ask, more importantly, what questions they don't get asked,
so that they can feel comfortable and have spend their
version of the truth that is exactly it and hello,
I'm I'm talking to you when I'm not trying to
be high brow or you know, we're Chris and I
(33:04):
are better than everybody because we went to journalism school
and we're journalists by trade. But but I'm telling you
you would be afraid to live in this world if
you continue to let friends interview each other and people
who are in bed with everybody. And what I mean
by that is they share agents and they have mutual
(33:25):
friends and mutual interests, and they don't ask the questions
and they don't press people. Rob Gee, how many times
do we stop people on this show and said, what
where's your getting that from? Yeah? I mean we have people.
I hate to call him out, but chatting Fry, I
don't think has agreed to come on this show since
he made that comment about Michael Jordan and Lebron James,
(33:46):
and you guys pressed him on it. He turned in
like thirty seconds and then decided he hasn't want to
come on the show anymore, which is fine, which is fine,
you know, and that's fine, right, But you guys would
be doing yourselves and the audience a disservice if you
didn't lenge him on things that can be easily refuted
or or or there's more to the story than what
(34:07):
the guy's leading on. And that is the point, spot on.
That is the point that's why. That's why there's an interviewer.
Whenever you see these phony interviews set up where players
are interviewing other players, and you get there and you go, boy,
what a what a cupcake interview? All softballs? You know,
(34:29):
things are going on. I don't even know and rob
g you can help me, I think didn't um what's
his name, Robinson who got knocked out in the final,
Nate Robinson. Didn't he go on a podcast after that
and they didn't even ask him about the fight. Yep,
(34:49):
That's what I'm talking about because his friends and they
don't want to say anything that's can get him upset
in that game. Right. But but but you shouldn't be
on right Whenever we had when I did a radio
show in Detroit, and they would say, people would offer
somebody to come on and say, but you know he's
not gonna talk about on that show. Yeah, and what
do you think? No? Thank no, thank you. I'm gonna
(35:11):
tell you. We once had Mark Albert on after his
scanned the where he bit the woman and the whole thing,
and I asked him a question. If he didn't want
to answer it, he couldn't come on. It was great
to have him on, but I'm not going to act
like I'm going to ignore the elephant in the room.
And that's the disappointing part when you hear these interviews,
(35:33):
and as a listener or a viewer, it should infuriate
you that they don't take you into consideration to ask
the questions you want to know about, because if they
don't get cheating you yep, And I don't want people
to think like, oh, well, you just want somebody who's
gonna push back on him and argue with him. That's
(35:54):
not what we're saying. You're not saying to go up there. Hey,
Aaron Rodgers thinks this, it's your job to argue with
him and people there's nor your job as a reporter,
as someone who works in this field is if there
is something that somebody says and there's more to the story,
or what they're saying is factually incorrect, it's your job
(36:16):
to bring that up to them and give them a
chance to either defend their point or give them a
chance to be like, hey, you know what, I didn't
think about it that way. But there's got to be
some kind of willing to dig deeper than just accept
what these people are saying on their face, especially when
we're not gonna go through the whole thing. But there
were a number of things that Aaron Rodgers said that
were just untrue, right, which could have easily been which
(36:39):
because they've either been followed up and asked about and
they weren't. And here's the other thing. Sports fans and
people in general, they're they're they're smart. You know why
the team websites aren't aren't that big and powerful and
great because everybody knows who the writers are getting paid by,
who the teams. What are you gonna get? Are you
(37:01):
gonna get a bad article on at lakers dot com
about the Lakers or the coaching or or Westbrook. You're
not gonna read that. It's gonna say Russell Westbrook at
twenty seven points five year six, thank you. And that's
not what you're looking for. I'm telling you you'd be
afraid to live in this country without the free press.
And I'm dead serious about where the WatchGuard of the
(37:23):
watchdog and making sure people are honest and not pulling
a fast one. And McAfee let everybody down today because
he didn't push back, he didn't ask follow up questions
that were important so people could get understand more about
where Aaron Rodgers was coming from. That's basic. Agree with you, Ron, Oh,
(37:46):
I know you razzle daz a little bit. You already
know a certain things. They just get you. I get it,
you get it. I'm thirty five years I teach journalism
at USC. You know, this is what I'm always talking
to my students about. Is about. You know what people
have a right, Rob g to say, I don't want
to answer that question or no comment, but I have
the right to ask it as absurdly. Yep. That's what
(38:10):
people don't get. All right. Did Pat McAfee let Aaron
Rodgers off the hook during today's interview? And do you
have a problem with athlete to athlete interviews as a whole?
We want to hear from you and we'll continue this
conversation eight seven, seven ninety nine on Fox. It is
the Odd Couple. Rob g in for Chris Bussar, Rob Parker.
(38:31):
Hear you there. It's Fox Sports Radio, Stick and Stay America.
Hosts And Creators
kelvin washington
Rob Parker
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