January 4, 2019 • 36 mins
It's the Best of the Odd Couple with Chris Broussard and Rob Parker! Chris and Rob debate whether or not James Harden's impressive play as of late is enough for him to steal the 'Best Player in the NBA' title from LeBron James, and explain why longtime NFL writer Peter King is being hypocritical when he says his 'conscience' didn't allow him to keep Steelers wide receiver Antonio Brown on his All-Pro ballot. Plus, comedian and impersonator Frank Caliendo stops by for the latest edition of the Celebrity Corner
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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
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 fs R.
(00:22):
You're listening to the Best of the Odd Couple with
Chris Brussa and Rod Harker. Last night, Rob Parker, there
was a heck of an NBA game on television, and
you know what, I was so moved by it. I
watched and I was just, I don't know, I was excited.
(00:43):
The Houston Rockets beat the Golden State Warriors in Oakland,
third straight home loss for the Warriors by the way,
one thirty five, one thirty four, and James Harden there
aren't It's hard to find words to describe how Grady was.
And I know that Mike sound crazy. You, Oh, you're
going overboard, Chris, No, James Harden. We know that the
(01:05):
Warriors are known for their Big four. It was basically
one on four, That's what it was. It was one superlar.
Chris Paul is out with injury Eric Gordon, who isn't
even a star but he's a really good player, is
out with injury, and James Harden takes down Kevin Durant,
(01:27):
Steph Curry, Clay Thompson, and Draymond Greene essentially by himself. Now,
Clint Capella had a nice game twenty nine points, twenty
one rebounds. And you know some other players played well.
They You know, these role players are good in Houston,
but it was the James Harden show. He scored forty
four points, had fifteen assists, ten rebounds for its fifth
(01:51):
straight forty point game. Thirteen to thirty two shooting. I
know that sounds like, oh, he shot it a ton,
but that's actually not a horrible percentage. Is forty in
the fours? Not great? But it's not terry now, But
the fact is he did. His true shooting percentage was
nice because he was eight of nine from the foul
line and ten of twenty three from three point range.
(02:12):
The dude is magnificent. No, the dude is more than that.
And I want you to finally bow down and acknowledge
him because I tried to tell you right for him
MVP in twenty fifteen. I told you you even knew
who he wants. I didn't know who he was, but
I know who he is now. And I told you
he's the best player in the NBA, right here, right now,
Chris Boussard, he's the best player in the league. Don't
(02:34):
give me no lebron wine drinking uh half cock, big
heart and drinks a little bit. I'm talking about. He
don't bring a glass his time away. He don't bring it.
I know it's his jersey's retired, but that's for the
most dollar bills. That's for the most dollar bills shuffled
out in in a one minute time frame. That's why
(02:56):
he's in the Hall of Fame or retired number. But
I'm telling I've been telling you is Chris for a while.
He's the defending Yeah, he's the defender. The first time
it ever came out of your mouth was Tuesday. It
was like three days ago. But you win it like
you made it like I was like on another planet. No,
I wasn't. And this was my point. They don't even
know yet. This is my point. He's the best player
(03:18):
in the NBA right now. No if ans or butts,
he's a he's a defending h MVP and he was unbelievable.
And now look what he's doing. First of all, the
earlier this week, he was the first guy to score
over four hundred points in a ten game stretch in
thirty years, other than Kobe and Michael Jordan. So he's
(03:39):
in rarefied air. Now he's winning games. They've won ten
of the eleven and they don't have Chris Paul. He's
not just putting up numbers. They're winning. Chris is always
about it's about winning. That's what he does. He's not
just stat Padford piling up numbers and putting up numbers
(04:00):
of his team loses. He's winning. That's what makes him
the best player in the league. It's not Lebron James.
It's not Kevin Durant, not here, not now. And I'm
not talking about don't don't couch it. I'm not couching.
Don't couch it. I'm gonna put you on the spot
because you like to say he's the best player in
the league right now. Yes, what is right now mean?
(04:23):
Like as off as a Friday month, as a Friday,
January fourth, he's the best player in the league in
the week, become the best player in the world about
two weeks ago when he when he started going off.
When you attach that to what he did last year,
that's why I have him there to hold on. This
is the problem I have. I'm just wondering when you say,
(04:45):
when you say is he the best basketball playing in
the world, people are gonna say he hasn't wanted the playoffs,
he hadn't done this, he han't done that, and it
becomes a lifetime achievement of whopping. And that's what That's
not what I want to talk about because that's where
everybody will run to Lebron Jay, Oh, you're crazy, he
ain't no best player because I see the comments on
Instagram and Twitter, because people have no idea what I'm
(05:07):
talking about. What the first thing they say is about
to tell something? What about Game seven? What about it? Dude? No,
we're talking about right here, right now in the league.
He's the best player. What Here's First of all, I
got two issues with you. It's not a lifetime achievement awards.
That's hardness is wonderful. This is no slight on him.
(05:28):
Like I said, I am one of those who thinks
he should have at least two MVP Awards. Already. I
voted for him in twenty fifteen, the first year Steph wanted,
and I voted for him last year when he did
indeed win it. But when you tell me he's the
best player in the world right now, does that mean
you're trying to say, at this very moment, does that
(05:49):
mean in three weeks if they go on a four
game losing streak and his numbers go down to what
his season averages thirty two points, eight or nine assist,
you know, just really good numbers. But not this outland
crazy stuff he's putting up right now. Is he no
longer gonna be the best player in the world. But
if don't switch the best player in the world every
(06:11):
two weeks back but right now, I'm saying, Chris, he's
in a ridiculous But it's not just but it's not
It's not like I'm taking two weeks and then saying, Okay,
this guy, this guy was the MVP last yer. And
I'm telling you when you compile, when you add that
(06:32):
along with what he's doing without having his number two guy,
which is the amazing thing, and they're still winning without
Chris Paul like he didn't matter. They went into Oakland
yesterday and we're getting steamrolled early. He looked like it
was gonna be a blowout, and then this guy just
he just took over, right, And that's the amazing thing
about him. He does matter, You don't he is, He's fantastic,
(06:55):
But you don't become the best player in the world
or the league. I don't know that the difference is
because the NBA is the best league by far. But
this is what I'm the boy in Bussia. Is there
a kid in Spain who who's better than anybody in
the NBA. I mean, We're just explained it to you
because I'm not afraid to say it. But when you
say that NBA not the best league, and when you
(07:16):
say that, people want to make it a lifetime Achievement award.
That's what they do. You feel like, you know what
I'm talking about the world. Yes, they think about Alex
rob G to me, best player in the world and
best player in the league are No, it's not because
the NBA. Because the work in NBA. What people talk
about is well, what are you doing the playoffs? And
(07:38):
they bring in all these other things that have nothing
to do with that. Doesn't that's the league No, it doesn't.
That's not the greatest. He's lost six championship. Oh, you
can't use that. Look at the stats. He's been the
eight championships. So it's not just about winning championship. No,
I'm not. I tell you. Yeah, he's the best player. Look,
(07:59):
he's a bust player right here, right now, the best
player in the league. That's what you like to use
the world, that's what you like. You ever seen everybody
who's playing basketball? Have you? Are you telling me that
Kevin Durant have you seen him? Yes, you've seen every player.
I've seen them all. I can say. It was one
(08:22):
certainty that there is nobody in Lithuania, Serbia that still exists, Russia, uh, England,
where France. Who's better than the best player in the NBA.
They could be a nobody. They could be a guy
in Hong Kong right now. We don't know about nobody
in Africa, nobody in China. There's a nine foot tall
(08:44):
guy walking around Africa and you know what, they thought
he was a giraffe, but then he wound up playing basketball.
I'm just gonna let that marinate. Yeah, what else we got? Kauai, no, Kawai,
see you you Don't do PG will eight seven seven
(09:05):
You Don't Dog. Be sure to catch live editions of
The Odd Couple with Chris Brussar then Rob Parker weekdays
at seven pm Eastern four pm Pacific on Fox Sports
Radio and the iHeartRadio Apple God. I know for The
Odd Couple Celebrity Corners. We're excited to bring this week
(09:31):
in a good friend of ours. We had him more
on I think when we did the weekend show. But
this is this is back in July. This's the first
time since we've gone Monday through Friday daily. It was
that appearance that helped us land the full time right.
They said, you can get Frank Caliendo. You guys deserve
(09:51):
a daily show exactly. Check him out on at Frank
on Stage just like it sounds Frank Onstage dot Com
for his upcoming tour dates and ticket information. We're talking
about none other than the great comedian and sports analyst
Frank Caliendo. Frank, Happy New Year, brother, Happy New Year, Yeah,
(10:12):
Happy New Year to you guys. Celebrity Corner D List Edition.
Never a D list man, never can sound like a
bunch of a lister. Hey, Before we get into the
sports talk, I do want you to give Rob some
pointers on being a comedian. He's a one to be comedian.
(10:34):
I don't know if you know that, Frank. I want
to do stand up, but I don't want to lose
my gig because you know the pushback after you do
the you know what I mean, get him to be PG.
But he's our Well I think you are you serious
about this? Because if I am being serious about this,
the first step is to do actually what you do. Rob.
(10:55):
You're a contrarian thinker, right, yeah, so you you're doing stuff.
You're thinking in a different way than ninety nine point
nine percent of human race. Yes, he just called you crazy,
I'm though, but I mean you you you back it
up with interesting uh you know, logical reasoning. So that's
(11:16):
what it takes. Is you come from a different point
of view and then you disappoint that point of view
and people put A and B together and they're like, wow, Okay,
they might disagree with you, but they're like, how did
he put that together? And that's that's I mean, it
does make some people, Rob are just laughing at your
serious That's true, though, he just broke that was well,
(11:40):
that was the funniest thing you could do is the
emotional reality of I know. I know. That's all I
could do right there. But hey, I got some jokes.
One of these days I'll share some with you. You'll
tell me where I'm at. We'll do that. Yeah, absolutely,
But I mean I do. I think I told you
this last time. I used to listen to Rob and
go he's out of his mind, Grace, And now I listened.
(12:01):
I go because you've brought me along, like I started
to understand where you're thinking. I go. I get that.
And I have a friend. I have a friend that
listened to me on the show last time. His name
is Mike Bernard. He's a he's helped coach my son
and all kinds of stuff and a super great guy.
And he's like, oh and he heard that here. He's like, Frank,
don't get on board with with that's a bad idea. Frank,
(12:25):
that's not a good sign. All right, you know what
you got it? Man? You understand thirty three years of
experience in this business. I've tackled everybody. All right, now,
let me get's great. Let me ask you about Cleveland
and the Browns and where they went. You have ties
to please exactly right. Now, you're a huge You're huge, right.
(12:46):
My wife is from Cleveland. Everybody was really mad in
the family. We're Italian, so my wife's Italian too, So
when you say in the family, it means a lot
more than that. Oh yeah, but everybody, everybody in Cleveland's
like Johnny man l two point zero, Baker Mayfield's really
uh become Uh he's a lot of fun. You know,
(13:07):
he's not in the playoffs, but he's become fun to
watch every week. I want to know what he's going
to do, no question, and I really look forward to
that and uh to get to get to that seven.
I'm not big into the staring down and all that
kind of Noah, that's the stuff that I didn't like.
I think that that's childish. Yeah, and I've heard you
talk about that. I've heard of calher To talk about
that as well. I just think it's unnecessary, especially when
(13:29):
you're when you're playing that well. That's something I feel
like somebody would do when they're not playing well, they
might start talking to get you know, the hype going
around him. He's doing a really great job. So I
think people in Cleveland are excited and uh, you don't
go into watching the game thinking, hey, they might lose this.
You're like, hey, we got a chance to win. And
that's been a while for Cleveland. A lot of people
(13:49):
are saying that the Cleveland job, the Jets job or
probably the two best jobs. And of course Green Bay
would a veteran quarterback, but as far as with young quarterbacks,
Cleveland and the Jets are are are two really good
jobs to have. Who do you like, is there anybody
out there that you would like to be the coach
of the Browns or have you looked at it? Uh no,
(14:10):
Mike McCarthy from Green Bay. I know, I know quite
a few people that have played under McCarthy, like I've gotten,
I've gotten to be friends. That's a tough thing for me,
and I don't know. I don't know how you guys
do it in this business. Maybe it's because you've been
around it so long you've become friends with players all
over the place. I don't even root for teams anymore.
I root for players, and it's like my own personal
(14:33):
fantasy league that I just because you know, they're friends,
they've been friends over time. I don't McCarthy seems to
be uh am I a real analyst. Should I be
doing this? Man? I tell you what, Man, you know
what I did. What I did was I took two
teams to the playoffs this year. Man, I sent the
(14:55):
Dallas Cowboys and the Chicago Bears to the playoffs. About Batman,
it's a bad man right there, even though your team
didn't make the playoffs. But I got it. I don't
care about my team. I'm a giver. Man, John, you
have destroyed this team. I hope you know that. I
tell you what, Man, We're coming back. I've actually taught.
I went and talked to the Raiders and they won
(15:15):
that game. I went, you did like, uh, like he
brought they brought you in the kind of yeah speech,
Oh great, bruten brought me Man, I started, Did you
do it? In his voice? Yeah? And he's like you, uh,
you're gonna start to you start doing somebody else. I'm like,
you brought me in. Man, I'm doing this for as
long as I can. Derek Carr in the front row
(15:36):
with his binder, We're ready to go, man on. Only
thing that had to be strange was when it was
came time for them to compensate you and John Gruden
pulled out a pocket full of hundreds and just ripped
it off and paid you in cash. He traded me.
You have to so great. I mean it was it
(15:57):
was interesting to see a lot of that behind the scene.
And uh, I don't know, Like I said, I root
for all these guys. That's the difficult thing of the
where I've gone and met a lot of these players,
and most of the time I met players because I
wanted to introduce my son to them. So that's you become.
You meet people who spend a little bit of time
with them. You text back and forth sometimes and you're like, ah, man,
(16:18):
this is a great person. Can't wait to to uh
see them play. And then then they play each other
and you're like, I don't know who I want to
win and I don't care. Who are your favorite players?
Not not necessarily your best friends in the leagues, but
so who are some of your favorite players to watch?
Uh in football or basketball? Or I would say in
(16:41):
football still Big J. J. Watt because you never know
he's gonna do. Uh. I'm really starting to get into uh.
DeShawn Watson, um Russell Wilson, who played catch with my
son on my son's birthday, crazy, so real. He brought
(17:02):
a friend with him, and you know, I was like,
I'll that's my son's birthday. I can't do the charity event.
They're like his agent was like, you know what, Russell
play catch with them? And uh and I hate like
these guys like Russell. I hate to bother I have
like their phone numbers and stuff. And there's the craziest
thing that ever happened was, Uh, this is a Drew
(17:24):
Brees who's who's become a super nice He's a super
nice guy everybody. But he let my son watch uh
tape uh you know in a gate in the preseason
a couple of years ago with the quarterbacks and oh
it was surreal. But my one day, and Drew doesn't
even know this. One day, my contact had merged with
my daughter's contacts on her phone that that she had
(17:47):
mostly four Yeah, she had it mostly for just playing
games or something like that. Wasn't even a phone she
really used because she was young, she's probably like eight
nine years old, but to use one of our phones
and had it and it was hooked up to my
Apple ID and she's about she's calling Drew Breeve. I'll
never right he'll block me right right, what are you
(18:10):
doing right? Yeah? It was, it was, it was crazy.
It's the I couple were joined by comedian Frank Caliendo. No, Frank,
that's why I got off I Cloud because my daughters
were getting my numbers to, you know, contacts players throughout
the league, and I was so afraid that I was
(18:30):
gonna call, you know, some some player in the NBA
and yeah, and it can happen, and you get that
they see your texts and your techt met family members. No, no, exactly.
I Cloud is crazy. It's the wild wild West, like yeah,
it's just it's it's too crazy out there. But how
old is your son? He's fourteen now? Is an athlete?
(18:53):
Uh No, he's a comedian. It's a comedian at fourteen. No,
he's he's a He would love to have been an athlete,
but he just he just doesn't. Uh. But he loves
he does love he loves sports. He loves numbers in
sports and that so maybe work his way in a
analytics into the front office somewhere something like that. But
(19:16):
he's he's gotten big. He was big into football, hugely
into football because of Madden. But then he started playing
two k and uh nba two k and that's that's
become his life. That beats up Fortnite now. So wow, wow,
Now were you an athlete when you were younger? Look
at me? Of course there was Hey, you never know,
you never know. I'm my gal Bundy. I busted up
(19:39):
a leg and I wasn't able to play. I was.
I was a running back. I was full sized, with
a fully grown I was going to sack fullback was yeah,
I was. I was like a running back type fullback.
I mean I ran. This is gonna make you guys laugh,
but I ran like a four eight four nine, which
was in my school super fast. It was hand timed
and I'm gonna tell you four six or for seven
(20:00):
just to me. But my first step wasn't very good.
My third and fourth were decent. And then by the
time if I ever tried to run a hundred and track,
people would just go right past me because my my
uh my in team is probably about twenty six, so
low center of gravity. But but yeah, I actually really
like football, and uh but I just wasn't in the
(20:24):
cards for me either. How about the playoffs this weekend?
We got two games tomorrow. Are you into the Cowboys.
Seattle game is the primetime game everybody's been talking about.
Have you do you do you like? Have a favorite there?
You like the Cowboys? Are they? I call them South
America's team because they've haven't really performed. They've been under
(20:44):
five hundred most of the time. Or I think I
have two playoff wins in the Lessons nineteen ninety five,
which is incredible. But do you like Dallas? Don't they
feel kind of similar? Uh? They're strong, running games, pretty
good defense. Uh, the Keys, I mean, I think Russell Wilson,
I don't know Duck Russell Wilson over Deck Prescott if
(21:06):
you're going quarterbacks, but I don't know. That's almost a madness.
I gotta go back, and you know, you're looking at
all the things these guys could do and all the
things that can't do. I mean, I mean, I know
the world. I gotta go RST. So I felt like
I'd gone too long without an impression for you guys. No,
that was good. Anytime you can anytime now one guy
(21:29):
you're you, you've been a little critical of, and saw
Jason Witten, he's having a tough transition. You feel I
was trying to um, I was trying to not be
like critical critical of him, but more almost than because
I started to I started to like some of the
things he does. But he gets so excited. Then he
(21:51):
only does three words or forwards at a time, and
he's trying to talk about look what's happened there, and
it's unbelievable. And I kind of say anything three minutes
and that's and you want. And it's like it's somebody.
I was tweeted that out and people were saying, that's
how this one dog talks on Twitter? And then I
started thinking, first of all, you think a dog actually
(22:13):
talks on Twitter? And then I looked it up and
the dog really does pop Like, how do you think
Romo's doing? I like, I have friends that can't stand
Tony Romo, and I go, really, I think he's great.
His energy is over the Okay, so I shouldn't say
his energy is over the top. He's so casual in
(22:34):
the way he talks, and then he gets very energetic
and excited about things. I think it's real, and that's
what I think is great about Tony Romo. Um. I
actually like it when he calls what's going to happen?
Before it happens. Although I've heard people have frowned upon
that well because because he does it too often, you
know what I mean. Because but he's wrong too a lot,
(22:56):
you know what I'm saying. So it becomes because it
is good if you could do it once in a while.
The only thing I don't like Frank and I don't
know if you he he talks over the play by
play guy two months like, like, to be a good
color guy, you can't step on Jim. Yeah, you can't
step on ants leaves you so much time he does.
(23:18):
That's true, friend. Yeah, I mean, I mean I think
they've I think they're a very solid, solid crew um
but the number one cruise, I think everywhere pretty. He's
a Akman and buck Yard. You think they're the best.
I still think they're Yeah, I probably do. I've always like,
I know it's hard again. I know Joe really well,
(23:41):
and I've been around Troy. That's all Troy. I don't
know that. I don't know what. I never feel like
I have anything to say to Troy on three super Bowls.
He's six foot four, you know what I mean? Yeah,
there's not much. There's not much there for you to
talk about and people don't know how funny Joe Joe
Buck plays it very seriously on the broadcast. He's a
(24:02):
very self deprecating, funny, dry guy off the broadcast that
doesn't that doesn't always come through, but it never really
comes through. He's he's playing the part of the play
by play guy, you know, to the team. But it's
just funny to listen to Joe just go off and
make fun of himself and stuff like that. And uh,
(24:23):
you know, I think that I think the money and
I guys, you know, I heard I read some stuff
about Wit and the DIF. The difficult thing for them
is Whitten went right in without really any practice. And
that's you guys, know that stuff is not easy to
do to everybody, is right. Everybody's oh, it's just a
football game. You're talking about football. There's so much that
(24:43):
goes into questions. When I first started to do in
comedy and they brought me on to do a they
had me go do a Brewers and just an inning
of play by play for Brewers Cardinals game, just to
try and do it for real. I had, you know,
I went from doing all this talking to nothing because
they didn't know what to say, and I knew the
game pretty well at that point, but still just that
(25:06):
you have to get into rhythms. You have to be
not worried about saying something you said two days ago.
It's because it's the it's a lot of repetitiveness. Uh,
it just is what it is. It's it's way more
difficult than people think. They think it's really easy. It's
pretty dark, gone hard, it really is. Well, Frank, excellent job,
Happy New Year's, Happy New Year. We always appreciate your time. Again.
(25:29):
You can check him out get his upcoming tour dates
and ticket information at Frank onstage dot com. Charles Barkler
Kevin Durant is never out of bounds, never, never out
of bound. That's embarrassing. For that's an embarrassing Kevin Durant
(25:53):
was four rows back eating. That's why I was glad
Harden hit that shot because it was poetic justice, you know,
probably the greatest player in the world. Just that's right, right,
you already know now you don't agree with that, Charles agrees,
(26:13):
Charles Null all right, this Frank CALLI and though thanks
a lot man, thank you, thanks all right, brother. Be
sure to catch live editions of the odd couple with
Chris Broussard and Rob Parker weekdays at seven pm Eastern,
four pm Pacific. The All Pro Team is a lot
(26:35):
more exclusive. They name a first team and a second team.
And here's how exclusive it is. There are only three
running backs name one. First teamer Todd Gurley, second teamer
Ezekiel Elliott, and Christian McCaffrey made it as the flex position,
which could be either a receiver or a running back.
(26:56):
And longtime NFL reporter Peter has caused quite a stir
as he talked about today. You know Peter, Yes, I
know Peter. I like Peter too. I get along with him.
I've known him for a long time. It's funny we
worked at two separate papers. We never worked together, which
was weird. When I came to the Cincinnati Enchoir, he
(27:16):
left to go to Newsday. When I went to Newsday,
he left. We we missed each other twice. Was he
avoiding you? I think, yeah, Okay, he's a good guy.
I know Peter along time. We've worked together on a
nonprofit organization that deals with journalism. So that's how I
know him through that. But I like him. He'd obviously
(27:38):
does a great job covering the NFL, but he talked
about how he had had put Antonio Brown on his
All Pro team and then took him off after what
happened last week. Here's Peter talking about it, and I said,
I can't in good conscience put a guy who took
the equivalent of six percent of the season and flushed
(27:59):
it down the toilet when the Steelers were in a
playoff implication game. And so Mike I ended up voting
for Michael Thomas and I took Antonio Brown off All
Pro ballot. I'm very very serious about these votes and
they mean a lot to me. But if a guy
takes six percent of his season and purposely flushes it
(28:21):
down the toilet, I can't vote for him for anything.
I wouldn't he wouldn't be on my top ten, he
wouldn't be among my top ten or twenty receivers for
the season. Well, first of all, let's tell the receivers
that did make the All Pro team first team Michael
Thomas second and DeAndre Hopkins, and then Tyreek Hill made
(28:41):
it as a flex receiver, and then the second team
was Julio Jones, and Tyreek Hill ironically makes it as
a second team wide receiver. So they're your receivers, Michael Thomas,
DeAndre Hopkins, Julio Jones, and Tyreek Hill. And you and
I are both voters. I vote for the NBA postseason
(29:02):
or regular season honors, MVP. H what did vote? How
did you vote for all that last year? How many
things do you get to vote for? You you you vote for?
But I was MVP uh NBA Team Defensive Player, Like
it was probably six things I voted for. I think
(29:24):
they used to switch it up, but now I believe
that's the way used to be. Young. I evominated some
of the cat when I covered the league, You know
what I mean back then? Right? Yeah? Now, I think
I vote for everything, and everybody votes for everything. But
I also vote for NBA All Star Team because you know,
it's the third coaches, a third player, the third media,
(29:45):
and or a third fans, third player and a third media.
So I take I like I'm like Peter, I take
these votes seriously, and um, you know, I really try
to put my all into the voting and make sure
I try to get it right. Yeah, I got I
got a problem with it. It sounds like a self
righteous he's standing on higher ground. And oh my god. Uh,
(30:11):
I'm I just take this so serious, and I would
have to see I would love to have seen it.
I don't know all of Peter's work, but I hope
he did the same thing when some other players did
stuff like Big Ben was going through his issues. Uh
you know what was it? Uh? What Rob? What was it? Exact?
Was it sexual assault? But that's different. No, no, no, no,
(30:33):
I'm just saying. I mean no, he cost his team
a couple of games by doing stuff. He was suspended,
he didn't play, he didn't play. He cost his team.
I see it different. I don't. I don't look at
it differently. He costed. He did something that was reckless
and cost his team games. That's what he did. Tom
Brady was suspended for four games. Tom Brady also he cheated.
(30:58):
He heard the Patriot it's because they didn't have him
for four games. Because according to the NFL rules, tom
Brady cheated. You could call it whatever you want. Tom
Brady cheated and he missed four games. That's what happened.
But I guarantee you Peter didn't come out and say
he wouldn't vote for Tom Brady. Now, that's all I'm saying, Chris,
(31:21):
be consistent. I understand it's easy not to like ab
and if you don't want to vote. I've always said this,
I have my vote, you have your vote. I'll never
tell anybody what to do with your vote, because that's
not my place. Be consistent. Now, if you could show
me a Peter King column that he ripped these other
(31:45):
guys and he did the same thing. He's the same
guy who went out and stood up for Darren Sharper,
who was drugging women women and raping them. He said
I cannot vote, not vote for him for the Hall
of Fame because he was a great football player, and
that this is separate. How really, there's a big difference, Chris,
(32:12):
between doing something stupid, which is what a b did,
and not playing that game. And I'm not you know,
I haven't given him the pass on that right, all right?
I hold him accountable. It was dumb, it was stupid.
My only thing is this sounds like somebody looking for
attention and capitalize. It's easy to pop you think Peter
(32:33):
King is doing this for a tip. I don't think
I got plenty of it time. I understand that, but
it just seems weird. I don't remember Peter ever doing
this on these other situations here here, and when people
criticize him about the Darren Sharper, he made it. He
made a distinction. That's all I'm saying to say this,
because you made some interesting points. Let me let me
get to all of them before you. But in first
(32:54):
I do understand the difference he's making between Darren Sharper
and Antonio Brown. He's saying, Darren Sharper his stuff was
off the field, as terrible as it was, but it
didn't affect games or the team. Antonio Brown way he
(33:16):
did affected the team. And what we're judging them on
is their performance, you know, as you've said before, and
we've all said before. Look, Lawrence Taylor, his issues are
well documented. A lot of players have different issues, and
we tried not to judge them on that. We tried
to judge them on the field. Let me finish so
(33:38):
I get that. But in what may be a first
on the odd couple, I think it is you convinced
me on when you brought up Tom Brady and Ben
Roethlisberger because those situations did cost their game, team their
team games. Now it's because I do make a distinction
(34:01):
Rod between if you do something off the field, it
may be heinous, but when it comes to voting for
on the field honors and get things like that, I'm
going to separate that because a lot of guys live
lifestyles I don't agree with, but I don't bring that
into play with the voting. But you were right tom
(34:22):
Brady's cheating. He missed four games that could have cost
them a playoff run and they went to the Super
Bowl that year. It could have cost them a Super
Bowl appearance. So I agree with you. I didn't think
that way going into this conversation, but you made great points.
Like I said, I think this is a first on
the odd couple, and I do agree with you on
(34:44):
the Brady and Roethlisberger examples that you brought up. The
you have got to be consistent, that's all Chris. And
like I say, that's his vote. I'm not saying Peter
can't do that. I'm just hoping he did the same
thing when it came to Brady and big Bet, that's
all I'm saying. And if I don't remember those columns,
(35:05):
do you know what I mean? I don't remember, so
so someone would have to be uh, you know, show
it to me and I'll take it back, or whatever
you want to say. But I don't remember those columns saying,
oh no, I can't vote for Tom Brady for anything.
You see what I'm saying though with the Darren Sharper thing.
But again, I think that's if Sharper done something that
caused him to miss games or ball, but you didn't
(35:27):
know that he was not going to get caught. I'm
just saying, I mean, what he's doing, I mean beyond
what Antonio Brown or anybody did, right, I mean, it's terrible.
But my point is, I you see the distinction I'm saying,
I see what you're saying, but I just find it
to be for someone to go to bat for a
guy who's doing you know what I mean. Like but look,
I mean because people, what did they want to do
(35:49):
with oh, j oh take his bus out of the
Hall of Fame that they did the same they tried. Yeah,
he might. Look, if you you're right, you have to
be consistent, be consistent. If Lawrence Taylor or if Darren Sharper,
if many other guys O Jason did offer and as
bad as it was, we're judging them for their performance.
And the other part is whether people and I'm not
(36:12):
saying that I agreed with the verdict, but he was
also acquitted and people won't do you see what I'm saying,
Unlike he was found guilty and handcuffed him with the jail.
So I'm just saying, be consistent.
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 fs R.
(00:22):
You're listening to the Best of the Odd Couple with
Chris Brussa and Rod Harker. Last night, Rob Parker, there
was a heck of an NBA game on television, and
you know what, I was so moved by it. I
watched and I was just, I don't know, I was excited.
(00:43):
The Houston Rockets beat the Golden State Warriors in Oakland,
third straight home loss for the Warriors by the way,
one thirty five, one thirty four, and James Harden there
aren't It's hard to find words to describe how Grady was.
And I know that Mike sound crazy. You, Oh, you're
going overboard, Chris, No, James Harden. We know that the
(01:05):
Warriors are known for their Big four. It was basically
one on four, That's what it was. It was one superlar.
Chris Paul is out with injury Eric Gordon, who isn't
even a star but he's a really good player, is
out with injury, and James Harden takes down Kevin Durant,
(01:27):
Steph Curry, Clay Thompson, and Draymond Greene essentially by himself. Now,
Clint Capella had a nice game twenty nine points, twenty
one rebounds. And you know some other players played well.
They You know, these role players are good in Houston,
but it was the James Harden show. He scored forty
four points, had fifteen assists, ten rebounds for its fifth
(01:51):
straight forty point game. Thirteen to thirty two shooting. I
know that sounds like, oh, he shot it a ton,
but that's actually not a horrible percentage. Is forty in
the fours? Not great? But it's not terry now, But
the fact is he did. His true shooting percentage was
nice because he was eight of nine from the foul
line and ten of twenty three from three point range.
(02:12):
The dude is magnificent. No, the dude is more than that.
And I want you to finally bow down and acknowledge
him because I tried to tell you right for him
MVP in twenty fifteen. I told you you even knew
who he wants. I didn't know who he was, but
I know who he is now. And I told you
he's the best player in the NBA, right here, right now,
Chris Boussard, he's the best player in the league. Don't
(02:34):
give me no lebron wine drinking uh half cock, big
heart and drinks a little bit. I'm talking about. He
don't bring a glass his time away. He don't bring it.
I know it's his jersey's retired, but that's for the
most dollar bills. That's for the most dollar bills shuffled
out in in a one minute time frame. That's why
(02:56):
he's in the Hall of Fame or retired number. But
I'm telling I've been telling you is Chris for a while.
He's the defending Yeah, he's the defender. The first time
it ever came out of your mouth was Tuesday. It
was like three days ago. But you win it like
you made it like I was like on another planet. No,
I wasn't. And this was my point. They don't even
know yet. This is my point. He's the best player
(03:18):
in the NBA right now. No if ans or butts,
he's a he's a defending h MVP and he was unbelievable.
And now look what he's doing. First of all, the
earlier this week, he was the first guy to score
over four hundred points in a ten game stretch in
thirty years, other than Kobe and Michael Jordan. So he's
(03:39):
in rarefied air. Now he's winning games. They've won ten
of the eleven and they don't have Chris Paul. He's
not just putting up numbers. They're winning. Chris is always
about it's about winning. That's what he does. He's not
just stat Padford piling up numbers and putting up numbers
(04:00):
of his team loses. He's winning. That's what makes him
the best player in the league. It's not Lebron James.
It's not Kevin Durant, not here, not now. And I'm
not talking about don't don't couch it. I'm not couching.
Don't couch it. I'm gonna put you on the spot
because you like to say he's the best player in
the league right now. Yes, what is right now mean?
(04:23):
Like as off as a Friday month, as a Friday,
January fourth, he's the best player in the league in
the week, become the best player in the world about
two weeks ago when he when he started going off.
When you attach that to what he did last year,
that's why I have him there to hold on. This
is the problem I have. I'm just wondering when you say,
(04:45):
when you say is he the best basketball playing in
the world, people are gonna say he hasn't wanted the playoffs,
he hadn't done this, he han't done that, and it
becomes a lifetime achievement of whopping. And that's what That's
not what I want to talk about because that's where
everybody will run to Lebron Jay, Oh, you're crazy, he
ain't no best player because I see the comments on
Instagram and Twitter, because people have no idea what I'm
(05:07):
talking about. What the first thing they say is about
to tell something? What about Game seven? What about it? Dude? No,
we're talking about right here, right now in the league.
He's the best player. What Here's First of all, I
got two issues with you. It's not a lifetime achievement awards.
That's hardness is wonderful. This is no slight on him.
(05:28):
Like I said, I am one of those who thinks
he should have at least two MVP Awards. Already. I
voted for him in twenty fifteen, the first year Steph wanted,
and I voted for him last year when he did
indeed win it. But when you tell me he's the
best player in the world right now, does that mean
you're trying to say, at this very moment, does that
(05:49):
mean in three weeks if they go on a four
game losing streak and his numbers go down to what
his season averages thirty two points, eight or nine assist,
you know, just really good numbers. But not this outland
crazy stuff he's putting up right now. Is he no
longer gonna be the best player in the world. But
if don't switch the best player in the world every
(06:11):
two weeks back but right now, I'm saying, Chris, he's
in a ridiculous But it's not just but it's not
It's not like I'm taking two weeks and then saying, Okay,
this guy, this guy was the MVP last yer. And
I'm telling you when you compile, when you add that
(06:32):
along with what he's doing without having his number two guy,
which is the amazing thing, and they're still winning without
Chris Paul like he didn't matter. They went into Oakland
yesterday and we're getting steamrolled early. He looked like it
was gonna be a blowout, and then this guy just
he just took over, right, And that's the amazing thing
about him. He does matter, You don't he is, He's fantastic,
(06:55):
But you don't become the best player in the world
or the league. I don't know that the difference is
because the NBA is the best league by far. But
this is what I'm the boy in Bussia. Is there
a kid in Spain who who's better than anybody in
the NBA. I mean, We're just explained it to you
because I'm not afraid to say it. But when you
say that NBA not the best league, and when you
(07:16):
say that, people want to make it a lifetime Achievement award.
That's what they do. You feel like, you know what
I'm talking about the world. Yes, they think about Alex
rob G to me, best player in the world and
best player in the league are No, it's not because
the NBA. Because the work in NBA. What people talk
about is well, what are you doing the playoffs? And
(07:38):
they bring in all these other things that have nothing
to do with that. Doesn't that's the league No, it doesn't.
That's not the greatest. He's lost six championship. Oh, you
can't use that. Look at the stats. He's been the
eight championships. So it's not just about winning championship. No,
I'm not. I tell you. Yeah, he's the best player. Look,
(07:59):
he's a bust player right here, right now, the best
player in the league. That's what you like to use
the world, that's what you like. You ever seen everybody
who's playing basketball? Have you? Are you telling me that
Kevin Durant have you seen him? Yes, you've seen every player.
I've seen them all. I can say. It was one
(08:22):
certainty that there is nobody in Lithuania, Serbia that still exists, Russia, uh, England,
where France. Who's better than the best player in the NBA.
They could be a nobody. They could be a guy
in Hong Kong right now. We don't know about nobody
in Africa, nobody in China. There's a nine foot tall
(08:44):
guy walking around Africa and you know what, they thought
he was a giraffe, but then he wound up playing basketball.
I'm just gonna let that marinate. Yeah, what else we got? Kauai, no, Kawai,
see you you Don't do PG will eight seven seven
(09:05):
You Don't Dog. Be sure to catch live editions of
The Odd Couple with Chris Brussar then Rob Parker weekdays
at seven pm Eastern four pm Pacific on Fox Sports
Radio and the iHeartRadio Apple God. I know for The
Odd Couple Celebrity Corners. We're excited to bring this week
(09:31):
in a good friend of ours. We had him more
on I think when we did the weekend show. But
this is this is back in July. This's the first
time since we've gone Monday through Friday daily. It was
that appearance that helped us land the full time right.
They said, you can get Frank Caliendo. You guys deserve
(09:51):
a daily show exactly. Check him out on at Frank
on Stage just like it sounds Frank Onstage dot Com
for his upcoming tour dates and ticket information. We're talking
about none other than the great comedian and sports analyst
Frank Caliendo. Frank, Happy New Year, brother, Happy New Year, Yeah,
(10:12):
Happy New Year to you guys. Celebrity Corner D List Edition.
Never a D list man, never can sound like a
bunch of a lister. Hey, Before we get into the
sports talk, I do want you to give Rob some
pointers on being a comedian. He's a one to be comedian.
(10:34):
I don't know if you know that, Frank. I want
to do stand up, but I don't want to lose
my gig because you know the pushback after you do
the you know what I mean, get him to be PG.
But he's our Well I think you are you serious
about this? Because if I am being serious about this,
the first step is to do actually what you do. Rob.
(10:55):
You're a contrarian thinker, right, yeah, so you you're doing stuff.
You're thinking in a different way than ninety nine point
nine percent of human race. Yes, he just called you crazy,
I'm though, but I mean you you you back it
up with interesting uh you know, logical reasoning. So that's
(11:16):
what it takes. Is you come from a different point
of view and then you disappoint that point of view
and people put A and B together and they're like, wow, Okay,
they might disagree with you, but they're like, how did
he put that together? And that's that's I mean, it
does make some people, Rob are just laughing at your
serious That's true, though, he just broke that was well,
(11:40):
that was the funniest thing you could do is the
emotional reality of I know. I know. That's all I
could do right there. But hey, I got some jokes.
One of these days I'll share some with you. You'll
tell me where I'm at. We'll do that. Yeah, absolutely,
But I mean I do. I think I told you
this last time. I used to listen to Rob and
go he's out of his mind, Grace, And now I listened.
(12:01):
I go because you've brought me along, like I started
to understand where you're thinking. I go. I get that.
And I have a friend. I have a friend that
listened to me on the show last time. His name
is Mike Bernard. He's a he's helped coach my son
and all kinds of stuff and a super great guy.
And he's like, oh and he heard that here. He's like, Frank,
don't get on board with with that's a bad idea. Frank,
(12:25):
that's not a good sign. All right, you know what
you got it? Man? You understand thirty three years of
experience in this business. I've tackled everybody. All right, now,
let me get's great. Let me ask you about Cleveland
and the Browns and where they went. You have ties
to please exactly right. Now, you're a huge You're huge, right.
(12:46):
My wife is from Cleveland. Everybody was really mad in
the family. We're Italian, so my wife's Italian too, So
when you say in the family, it means a lot
more than that. Oh yeah, but everybody, everybody in Cleveland's
like Johnny man l two point zero, Baker Mayfield's really
uh become Uh he's a lot of fun. You know,
(13:07):
he's not in the playoffs, but he's become fun to
watch every week. I want to know what he's going
to do, no question, and I really look forward to
that and uh to get to get to that seven.
I'm not big into the staring down and all that
kind of Noah, that's the stuff that I didn't like.
I think that that's childish. Yeah, and I've heard you
talk about that. I've heard of calher To talk about
that as well. I just think it's unnecessary, especially when
(13:29):
you're when you're playing that well. That's something I feel
like somebody would do when they're not playing well, they
might start talking to get you know, the hype going
around him. He's doing a really great job. So I
think people in Cleveland are excited and uh, you don't
go into watching the game thinking, hey, they might lose this.
You're like, hey, we got a chance to win. And
that's been a while for Cleveland. A lot of people
(13:49):
are saying that the Cleveland job, the Jets job or
probably the two best jobs. And of course Green Bay
would a veteran quarterback, but as far as with young quarterbacks,
Cleveland and the Jets are are are two really good
jobs to have. Who do you like, is there anybody
out there that you would like to be the coach
of the Browns or have you looked at it? Uh no,
(14:10):
Mike McCarthy from Green Bay. I know, I know quite
a few people that have played under McCarthy, like I've gotten,
I've gotten to be friends. That's a tough thing for me,
and I don't know. I don't know how you guys
do it in this business. Maybe it's because you've been
around it so long you've become friends with players all
over the place. I don't even root for teams anymore.
I root for players, and it's like my own personal
(14:33):
fantasy league that I just because you know, they're friends,
they've been friends over time. I don't McCarthy seems to
be uh am I a real analyst. Should I be
doing this? Man? I tell you what, Man, you know
what I did. What I did was I took two
teams to the playoffs this year. Man, I sent the
(14:55):
Dallas Cowboys and the Chicago Bears to the playoffs. About Batman,
it's a bad man right there, even though your team
didn't make the playoffs. But I got it. I don't
care about my team. I'm a giver. Man, John, you
have destroyed this team. I hope you know that. I
tell you what, Man, We're coming back. I've actually taught.
I went and talked to the Raiders and they won
(15:15):
that game. I went, you did like, uh, like he
brought they brought you in the kind of yeah speech,
Oh great, bruten brought me Man, I started, Did you
do it? In his voice? Yeah? And he's like you, uh,
you're gonna start to you start doing somebody else. I'm like,
you brought me in. Man, I'm doing this for as
long as I can. Derek Carr in the front row
(15:36):
with his binder, We're ready to go, man on. Only
thing that had to be strange was when it was
came time for them to compensate you and John Gruden
pulled out a pocket full of hundreds and just ripped
it off and paid you in cash. He traded me.
You have to so great. I mean it was it
(15:57):
was interesting to see a lot of that behind the scene.
And uh, I don't know, Like I said, I root
for all these guys. That's the difficult thing of the
where I've gone and met a lot of these players,
and most of the time I met players because I
wanted to introduce my son to them. So that's you become.
You meet people who spend a little bit of time
with them. You text back and forth sometimes and you're like, ah, man,
(16:18):
this is a great person. Can't wait to to uh
see them play. And then then they play each other
and you're like, I don't know who I want to
win and I don't care. Who are your favorite players?
Not not necessarily your best friends in the leagues, but
so who are some of your favorite players to watch?
Uh in football or basketball? Or I would say in
(16:41):
football still Big J. J. Watt because you never know
he's gonna do. Uh. I'm really starting to get into uh.
DeShawn Watson, um Russell Wilson, who played catch with my
son on my son's birthday, crazy, so real. He brought
(17:02):
a friend with him, and you know, I was like,
I'll that's my son's birthday. I can't do the charity event.
They're like his agent was like, you know what, Russell
play catch with them? And uh and I hate like
these guys like Russell. I hate to bother I have
like their phone numbers and stuff. And there's the craziest
thing that ever happened was, Uh, this is a Drew
(17:24):
Brees who's who's become a super nice He's a super
nice guy everybody. But he let my son watch uh
tape uh you know in a gate in the preseason
a couple of years ago with the quarterbacks and oh
it was surreal. But my one day, and Drew doesn't
even know this. One day, my contact had merged with
my daughter's contacts on her phone that that she had
(17:47):
mostly four Yeah, she had it mostly for just playing
games or something like that. Wasn't even a phone she
really used because she was young, she's probably like eight
nine years old, but to use one of our phones
and had it and it was hooked up to my
Apple ID and she's about she's calling Drew Breeve. I'll
never right he'll block me right right, what are you
(18:10):
doing right? Yeah? It was, it was, it was crazy.
It's the I couple were joined by comedian Frank Caliendo. No, Frank,
that's why I got off I Cloud because my daughters
were getting my numbers to, you know, contacts players throughout
the league, and I was so afraid that I was
(18:30):
gonna call, you know, some some player in the NBA
and yeah, and it can happen, and you get that
they see your texts and your techt met family members. No, no, exactly.
I Cloud is crazy. It's the wild wild West, like yeah,
it's just it's it's too crazy out there. But how
old is your son? He's fourteen now? Is an athlete?
(18:53):
Uh No, he's a comedian. It's a comedian at fourteen. No,
he's he's a He would love to have been an athlete,
but he just he just doesn't. Uh. But he loves
he does love he loves sports. He loves numbers in
sports and that so maybe work his way in a
analytics into the front office somewhere something like that. But
(19:16):
he's he's gotten big. He was big into football, hugely
into football because of Madden. But then he started playing
two k and uh nba two k and that's that's
become his life. That beats up Fortnite now. So wow, wow,
Now were you an athlete when you were younger? Look
at me? Of course there was Hey, you never know,
you never know. I'm my gal Bundy. I busted up
(19:39):
a leg and I wasn't able to play. I was.
I was a running back. I was full sized, with
a fully grown I was going to sack fullback was yeah,
I was. I was like a running back type fullback.
I mean I ran. This is gonna make you guys laugh,
but I ran like a four eight four nine, which
was in my school super fast. It was hand timed
and I'm gonna tell you four six or for seven
(20:00):
just to me. But my first step wasn't very good.
My third and fourth were decent. And then by the
time if I ever tried to run a hundred and track,
people would just go right past me because my my
uh my in team is probably about twenty six, so
low center of gravity. But but yeah, I actually really
like football, and uh but I just wasn't in the
(20:24):
cards for me either. How about the playoffs this weekend?
We got two games tomorrow. Are you into the Cowboys.
Seattle game is the primetime game everybody's been talking about.
Have you do you do you like? Have a favorite there?
You like the Cowboys? Are they? I call them South
America's team because they've haven't really performed. They've been under
(20:44):
five hundred most of the time. Or I think I
have two playoff wins in the Lessons nineteen ninety five,
which is incredible. But do you like Dallas? Don't they
feel kind of similar? Uh? They're strong, running games, pretty
good defense. Uh, the Keys, I mean, I think Russell Wilson,
I don't know Duck Russell Wilson over Deck Prescott if
(21:06):
you're going quarterbacks, but I don't know. That's almost a madness.
I gotta go back, and you know, you're looking at
all the things these guys could do and all the
things that can't do. I mean, I mean, I know
the world. I gotta go RST. So I felt like
I'd gone too long without an impression for you guys. No,
that was good. Anytime you can anytime now one guy
(21:29):
you're you, you've been a little critical of, and saw
Jason Witten, he's having a tough transition. You feel I
was trying to um, I was trying to not be
like critical critical of him, but more almost than because
I started to I started to like some of the
things he does. But he gets so excited. Then he
(21:51):
only does three words or forwards at a time, and
he's trying to talk about look what's happened there, and
it's unbelievable. And I kind of say anything three minutes
and that's and you want. And it's like it's somebody.
I was tweeted that out and people were saying, that's
how this one dog talks on Twitter? And then I
started thinking, first of all, you think a dog actually
(22:13):
talks on Twitter? And then I looked it up and
the dog really does pop Like, how do you think
Romo's doing? I like, I have friends that can't stand
Tony Romo, and I go, really, I think he's great.
His energy is over the Okay, so I shouldn't say
his energy is over the top. He's so casual in
(22:34):
the way he talks, and then he gets very energetic
and excited about things. I think it's real, and that's
what I think is great about Tony Romo. Um. I
actually like it when he calls what's going to happen?
Before it happens. Although I've heard people have frowned upon
that well because because he does it too often, you
know what I mean. Because but he's wrong too a lot,
(22:56):
you know what I'm saying. So it becomes because it
is good if you could do it once in a while.
The only thing I don't like Frank and I don't
know if you he he talks over the play by
play guy two months like, like, to be a good
color guy, you can't step on Jim. Yeah, you can't
step on ants leaves you so much time he does.
(23:18):
That's true, friend. Yeah, I mean, I mean I think
they've I think they're a very solid, solid crew um
but the number one cruise, I think everywhere pretty. He's
a Akman and buck Yard. You think they're the best.
I still think they're Yeah, I probably do. I've always like,
I know it's hard again. I know Joe really well,
(23:41):
and I've been around Troy. That's all Troy. I don't
know that. I don't know what. I never feel like
I have anything to say to Troy on three super Bowls.
He's six foot four, you know what I mean? Yeah,
there's not much. There's not much there for you to
talk about and people don't know how funny Joe Joe
Buck plays it very seriously on the broadcast. He's a
(24:02):
very self deprecating, funny, dry guy off the broadcast that
doesn't that doesn't always come through, but it never really
comes through. He's he's playing the part of the play
by play guy, you know, to the team. But it's
just funny to listen to Joe just go off and
make fun of himself and stuff like that. And uh,
(24:23):
you know, I think that I think the money and
I guys, you know, I heard I read some stuff
about Wit and the DIF. The difficult thing for them
is Whitten went right in without really any practice. And
that's you guys, know that stuff is not easy to
do to everybody, is right. Everybody's oh, it's just a
football game. You're talking about football. There's so much that
(24:43):
goes into questions. When I first started to do in
comedy and they brought me on to do a they
had me go do a Brewers and just an inning
of play by play for Brewers Cardinals game, just to
try and do it for real. I had, you know,
I went from doing all this talking to nothing because
they didn't know what to say, and I knew the
game pretty well at that point, but still just that
(25:06):
you have to get into rhythms. You have to be
not worried about saying something you said two days ago.
It's because it's the it's a lot of repetitiveness. Uh,
it just is what it is. It's it's way more
difficult than people think. They think it's really easy. It's
pretty dark, gone hard, it really is. Well, Frank, excellent job,
Happy New Year's, Happy New Year. We always appreciate your time. Again.
(25:29):
You can check him out get his upcoming tour dates
and ticket information at Frank onstage dot com. Charles Barkler
Kevin Durant is never out of bounds, never, never out
of bound. That's embarrassing. For that's an embarrassing Kevin Durant
(25:53):
was four rows back eating. That's why I was glad
Harden hit that shot because it was poetic justice, you know,
probably the greatest player in the world. Just that's right, right,
you already know now you don't agree with that, Charles agrees,
(26:13):
Charles Null all right, this Frank CALLI and though thanks
a lot man, thank you, thanks all right, brother. Be
sure to catch live editions of the odd couple with
Chris Broussard and Rob Parker weekdays at seven pm Eastern,
four pm Pacific. The All Pro Team is a lot
(26:35):
more exclusive. They name a first team and a second team.
And here's how exclusive it is. There are only three
running backs name one. First teamer Todd Gurley, second teamer
Ezekiel Elliott, and Christian McCaffrey made it as the flex position,
which could be either a receiver or a running back.
(26:56):
And longtime NFL reporter Peter has caused quite a stir
as he talked about today. You know Peter, Yes, I
know Peter. I like Peter too. I get along with him.
I've known him for a long time. It's funny we
worked at two separate papers. We never worked together, which
was weird. When I came to the Cincinnati Enchoir, he
(27:16):
left to go to Newsday. When I went to Newsday,
he left. We we missed each other twice. Was he
avoiding you? I think, yeah, Okay, he's a good guy.
I know Peter along time. We've worked together on a
nonprofit organization that deals with journalism. So that's how I
know him through that. But I like him. He'd obviously
(27:38):
does a great job covering the NFL, but he talked
about how he had had put Antonio Brown on his
All Pro team and then took him off after what
happened last week. Here's Peter talking about it, and I said,
I can't in good conscience put a guy who took
the equivalent of six percent of the season and flushed
(27:59):
it down the toilet when the Steelers were in a
playoff implication game. And so Mike I ended up voting
for Michael Thomas and I took Antonio Brown off All
Pro ballot. I'm very very serious about these votes and
they mean a lot to me. But if a guy
takes six percent of his season and purposely flushes it
(28:21):
down the toilet, I can't vote for him for anything.
I wouldn't he wouldn't be on my top ten, he
wouldn't be among my top ten or twenty receivers for
the season. Well, first of all, let's tell the receivers
that did make the All Pro team first team Michael
Thomas second and DeAndre Hopkins, and then Tyreek Hill made
(28:41):
it as a flex receiver, and then the second team
was Julio Jones, and Tyreek Hill ironically makes it as
a second team wide receiver. So they're your receivers, Michael Thomas,
DeAndre Hopkins, Julio Jones, and Tyreek Hill. And you and
I are both voters. I vote for the NBA postseason
(29:02):
or regular season honors, MVP. H what did vote? How
did you vote for all that last year? How many
things do you get to vote for? You you you vote for?
But I was MVP uh NBA Team Defensive Player, Like
it was probably six things I voted for. I think
(29:24):
they used to switch it up, but now I believe
that's the way used to be. Young. I evominated some
of the cat when I covered the league, You know
what I mean back then? Right? Yeah? Now, I think
I vote for everything, and everybody votes for everything. But
I also vote for NBA All Star Team because you know,
it's the third coaches, a third player, the third media,
(29:45):
and or a third fans, third player and a third media.
So I take I like I'm like Peter, I take
these votes seriously, and um, you know, I really try
to put my all into the voting and make sure
I try to get it right. Yeah, I got I
got a problem with it. It sounds like a self
righteous he's standing on higher ground. And oh my god. Uh,
(30:11):
I'm I just take this so serious, and I would
have to see I would love to have seen it.
I don't know all of Peter's work, but I hope
he did the same thing when some other players did
stuff like Big Ben was going through his issues. Uh
you know what was it? Uh? What Rob? What was it? Exact?
Was it sexual assault? But that's different. No, no, no, no,
(30:33):
I'm just saying. I mean no, he cost his team
a couple of games by doing stuff. He was suspended,
he didn't play, he didn't play. He cost his team.
I see it different. I don't. I don't look at
it differently. He costed. He did something that was reckless
and cost his team games. That's what he did. Tom
Brady was suspended for four games. Tom Brady also he cheated.
(30:58):
He heard the Patriot it's because they didn't have him
for four games. Because according to the NFL rules, tom
Brady cheated. You could call it whatever you want. Tom
Brady cheated and he missed four games. That's what happened.
But I guarantee you Peter didn't come out and say
he wouldn't vote for Tom Brady. Now, that's all I'm saying, Chris,
(31:21):
be consistent. I understand it's easy not to like ab
and if you don't want to vote. I've always said this,
I have my vote, you have your vote. I'll never
tell anybody what to do with your vote, because that's
not my place. Be consistent. Now, if you could show
me a Peter King column that he ripped these other
(31:45):
guys and he did the same thing. He's the same
guy who went out and stood up for Darren Sharper,
who was drugging women women and raping them. He said
I cannot vote, not vote for him for the Hall
of Fame because he was a great football player, and
that this is separate. How really, there's a big difference, Chris,
(32:12):
between doing something stupid, which is what a b did,
and not playing that game. And I'm not you know,
I haven't given him the pass on that right, all right?
I hold him accountable. It was dumb, it was stupid.
My only thing is this sounds like somebody looking for
attention and capitalize. It's easy to pop you think Peter
(32:33):
King is doing this for a tip. I don't think
I got plenty of it time. I understand that, but
it just seems weird. I don't remember Peter ever doing
this on these other situations here here, and when people
criticize him about the Darren Sharper, he made it. He
made a distinction. That's all I'm saying to say this,
because you made some interesting points. Let me let me
get to all of them before you. But in first
(32:54):
I do understand the difference he's making between Darren Sharper
and Antonio Brown. He's saying, Darren Sharper his stuff was
off the field, as terrible as it was, but it
didn't affect games or the team. Antonio Brown way he
(33:16):
did affected the team. And what we're judging them on
is their performance, you know, as you've said before, and
we've all said before. Look, Lawrence Taylor, his issues are
well documented. A lot of players have different issues, and
we tried not to judge them on that. We tried
to judge them on the field. Let me finish so
(33:38):
I get that. But in what may be a first
on the odd couple, I think it is you convinced
me on when you brought up Tom Brady and Ben
Roethlisberger because those situations did cost their game, team their
team games. Now it's because I do make a distinction
(34:01):
Rod between if you do something off the field, it
may be heinous, but when it comes to voting for
on the field honors and get things like that, I'm
going to separate that because a lot of guys live
lifestyles I don't agree with, but I don't bring that
into play with the voting. But you were right tom
(34:22):
Brady's cheating. He missed four games that could have cost
them a playoff run and they went to the Super
Bowl that year. It could have cost them a Super
Bowl appearance. So I agree with you. I didn't think
that way going into this conversation, but you made great points.
Like I said, I think this is a first on
the odd couple, and I do agree with you on
(34:44):
the Brady and Roethlisberger examples that you brought up. The
you have got to be consistent, that's all Chris. And
like I say, that's his vote. I'm not saying Peter
can't do that. I'm just hoping he did the same
thing when it came to Brady and big Bet, that's
all I'm saying. And if I don't remember those columns,
(35:05):
do you know what I mean? I don't remember, so
so someone would have to be uh, you know, show
it to me and I'll take it back, or whatever
you want to say. But I don't remember those columns saying,
oh no, I can't vote for Tom Brady for anything.
You see what I'm saying though with the Darren Sharper thing.
But again, I think that's if Sharper done something that
caused him to miss games or ball, but you didn't
(35:27):
know that he was not going to get caught. I'm
just saying, I mean, what he's doing, I mean beyond
what Antonio Brown or anybody did, right, I mean, it's terrible.
But my point is, I you see the distinction I'm saying,
I see what you're saying, but I just find it
to be for someone to go to bat for a
guy who's doing you know what I mean. Like but look,
I mean because people, what did they want to do
(35:49):
with oh, j oh take his bus out of the
Hall of Fame that they did the same they tried. Yeah,
he might. Look, if you you're right, you have to
be consistent, be consistent. If Lawrence Taylor or if Darren Sharper,
if many other guys O Jason did offer and as
bad as it was, we're judging them for their performance.
And the other part is whether people and I'm not
(36:12):
saying that I agreed with the verdict, but he was
also acquitted and people won't do you see what I'm saying,
Unlike he was found guilty and handcuffed him with the jail.
So I'm just saying, be consistent.
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