October 9, 2020 • 37 mins
It's The Odd Couple with Chris Broussard and Rob Parker! FOX Sports Radio weekend host Aaron Torres is in for Chris Broussard, and the guys explain why the NFL needs to accept that there's a good chance that not every team will be able to play all 16 games, and pick the NFL Week 5 games against the spread in the Pigskin' Pickoff. Plus, MGM Grand sportsbook director Lamarr Mitchell swings by to give you the inside scoop on all the latest NFL week 5 gambling odds.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
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(00:21):
s R. You're listening to Fox Sports Radio. It is
the Odd Couple of Fox Sports Radio on a funky
Flashback Friday, and we're coming to your live from the
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Geico dot com for a free Ray quote. And Yes,
so much going on. Lakers have a chance to win
another championship, Lebron's fourth, We got a barn burner in
San Diego to Yankees, and Ray it's one one in
the sixth inning. Man, so much to do and Aaron
(01:06):
Torres joins us in for Chris Brussard who is under
the weather. Hopefully he'll get well and be back with
us on mondayn Rob Parker and Aaron let's talk about
the NFL in this uh to start this hour here
and obviously with the COVID situation going on, there's talk
(01:29):
that the NFL, you know, you might have to there
might be some missing games, you know, that just can't
be made up because if they're no buy weeks, there's
not enough time, you know, there's not like you got,
you know, excess weeks that you could work in games,
and then you got to remember the schedule that they
already have with other teams. So you might just have
(01:51):
to say, some team's only gonna play fourteen games. Some
teams might only play three games. So how do you
remedy that if somebody doesn't have the same amount of games.
So the idea is simply gonna be like by winning percentage,
Like Baseball when they had their cod COVID issues Aaron
early in the season, a couple of teams you know,
(02:13):
were sideline and couldn't play. Some people don't think this
is fair, it makes sense. Where are you on this
because I don't think there's any other option rather than
to go by your winning percentage more so than how
many games you want. Yeah. Absolutely, that report obviously was
coming from Adam Schefter ESPN this week, and like, I'm
(02:36):
one hundred percent with you, Rob, I mean, I guess
in theory, you can add a week to the end
of the schedule, maybe two weeks whatever, But even then
you just don't know. I mean, the Titans obviously have
had a couple of games moved around. We don't know
what's going to happen as it gets colder, So we
don't know that even if you add a week or
two to the end of the season, that everyone's gonna
be able to get in sixteen games. And so I
(02:58):
just look at it rob a way that we've dealt
with it in baseball, the way that we've dealt with
it in college football is everybody wants to freak out
every time there's a positive test, or a game has
to get postpone, or a game has to get canceled.
This is the new norm, right. We have been talking
about this since March and April, is that there's gonna
be a new norm in our society and there's definitely
gonna be a new norm in sports, and that we
(03:20):
just have to be okay with things being different. And so, yes,
do I feel bad for, say, you know, the Indianapolis
Colts if they have to play sixteen games and the
Titans only play fourteen games, of course it stinks. It's
a disadvantage, but this is the world that we're living in.
It's only for one year, and it's just something you're
(03:40):
gonna have to deal with. I don't want to hear
these guys complain. I agree. I just everything is everything
that we knew is out the window. I just don't.
I mean, what you got PAC twelve gonna play a
six game season, right, I mean, this is what it is.
And I don't know how many they plan into Big ten?
Is it eight they are playing? Uh? Including the championship game?
(04:03):
It will be nine? But in nine weeks though, right, Yeah,
So this is what I'm saying, like everything is upset
turned upside down. Um, I don't know how you could
push back on it. I just I think nothing that
we've seen here, uh, everything's acceptable, right, we just have
(04:24):
to kind of roll with it. Baseball, you know me,
I'm a I'm a traditionalist. Sure, they played seven seven
inning major league game for doubleheaders, seven innings in the
extra innings, right, but that's like pony league, you know
what I mean? Seven innings? These are major league games
that count. So so I don't I don't know how
(04:48):
there could be any kind of pushback or or just
you gotta roll with it. Uh, there're gonna be teams
that are gonna be hit up. There was today, Uh
somebody with the Jets tested positive. So they closed down
the facility and supposedly, now rob g the latest story
(05:08):
was that all the Jets and the staff were good, right,
and so you know, so there's another one. What would
have happened if the Jets were involved in that air
and you know what I mean, and they would have
had to miss a game and then they start to
pile up and then the team that I just I
(05:29):
don't know any other way to work around a situation
like this. And the thing I would add too is
while in theory, if you miss a game or two, oh,
it's a big advantage for you. You play one or
two less games, But you can't come into the facility
when you're not playing right, Like, you can't practice, you
can't do any of the things that make you a
(05:50):
football team. And so to me, I think it's as
much of a disadvantage to be missing games and missing
practices and doing all those things as it is a
disadvantage to not being to have to play more games
than the other team, And so I just think it
goes back to what we were just saying a minute ago,
is there is a new norm in society. And here's
the other thing, Rob, It's only for one year, right,
(06:11):
like hopefully? Yeah. I mean, listen, you mentioned baseball. I
remember back to the negotiations between the players union and
the owners and the players. They don't want to play
in front of no fans and they don't want to
take a pay cut here and they don't want and
it's like, guys, it's for one year. We gotta get
through this. And it's the same with the NFL. And
this is just the reality that we live in. These
are the terms that you guys agreed to as players,
(06:33):
in terms of the testing, in terms of the protocols,
in terms of the quarantining. You agree to these terms.
So now that we're seeing them in real time, you
can't freak out because your division rival might be playing
one or two less games in you. And here's the
other thing. There's just a not an infinite amount of
time because of the super Bowl is set. There's a
(06:54):
lot of stuff that's in place, do you know what
I mean? Like that that that that's it's like what
Baseball didn't. And I'll say this, it made sense that
they didn't move the playoffs because what happens is in
the NBA, where right now in October is training camp
in a season will be starting right the regular season.
(07:15):
So now you're pushing back a second season in baseball
by only playing sixty and aaron keeping everything the playoffs
in October, Baseball will having off season, have a chance
to start a regular season again during its regular time.
The NBA is going to have to adjust and have
a second season that won't be normal, right. Yeah, And
(07:38):
if you're the NFL, you want to try to keep
everything else, the playoffs, super Bowl, everything in line. And
if some teams played twelve, some teams played thirteen, some
teams played fourteen, whatever it is, you gotta do it
this way because you can't bump and move everything. I
think I think it makes for a disaster. No, it does,
(07:58):
And it just goes back to what we've been saying
is these professional athletes are dealing with what everybody in
every walk of life is dealing with. It's it's different.
Teachers are teaching from home. You're a professor, rob you
know that you know you're teaching from home for USC.
I mean, it ain't easy, it's different, it's different, and
guess what, you know, some days maybe the zoom connection
(08:21):
isn't as good, and like you just have to work
through it. And I understand these are highly paid professionals.
I understand it's a physical contact violence sport. And you're
frustrated as a player that your division rival, like I said,
or the team that you're the team that you're playing,
is coming off of two weeks without playing, and you
played on Monday night and now it's Sunday. I just
(08:42):
don't think it's something that you can complain about. And
I would add to go back to kind of some
of the analogies with these other sports. It's not only
that you can't complain about it. The general republic doesn't
want to hear about it. The general republic doesn't feel
bad if you have to play two games in six
days when your opponents coming off of bye. We all
got our own issues. Everybody is dealing with this in
some way, shape or form, and so for NBA players
(09:04):
to get frustrated again, this is what you agreed to,
This is what you said was was part of the
deal when you signed that collective bargaining agreement, and you said,
we want daily testing, and we want this, and we
want these guys quarantine, and we want this many is
a minimum number of players. Now, we're in this in
real time. You gotta deal with it now. And we
just had Martin Weiss with trolling and rolling and he
(09:25):
was even talking about defensive end from the Broncos, right, yeah,
Shelby Harris. And you know he's like complaining because is
rescheduling and closing? Really do come on? Like like, I'm
just like, then not rescheduling you for the hell of it, right,
(09:47):
just like, yeah, well the schedule is said, We're just
gonna do this just for the hell of it, and
you know, just roll with it or whatever. Does he
understand what's going on? Yes, you gotta plan a short week.
It sucks, but the pandemic sucks. Everybody who has to
work from home. That sucks. People have to work on
the front lines right with the germs all over the place.
(10:09):
That sucks. Just gotta work through it, try your best.
I don't think the NFL really hasn't any other choice
but to do it this way. I think it's smart.
This is what I always say all the time. If
the sixteen year old checking out your groceries can go
into work every day under these circumstances, you can as well.
Do you do you think, though, Rob, is there a minimum?
(10:30):
Like I obviously I cover college hoops, love college hoops,
there is a minimum number of games that has to
be met this coming season with all these crazy schedules
to qualify for the NCAA tournament? Do you think there
should be at the very least a minimum and if
you have to, maybe you know, push the playoffs back
a week, not have a bye week in between the
championship and the Super Bowl. Is there at least a
(10:52):
minimum that a team should have to play to qualify
for the playoffs? Yeah? Obviously if one team only plays
five games, it would be counter you know, Jankie. And
if they only played five games, they would have to
be a ton of other people that didn't play, you
know what I mean, That's a lot of games. So
I'm not I'm sure that it would have to be
(11:12):
like a certain number. I don't know if they could
put out a number or think about it at this point,
just hoping because even in baseball, remember the Marlins had
to couldn't play to start the season, remember I mean basically,
and they wind up making the playoffs. They made the playoffs,
and the Cardinals they were another team that were affected
(11:32):
by it. So yeah, well we'll see how this thing
plays out. All right, We want to hear from you.
Eight seven, seven ninety nine on Fox Chime in. Should
the NFL change its playoff format to allow teams to
get in based on winning percentage instead of total wins?
And do you expect every team to play all sixteen
(11:53):
games this season? We'll continue that conversation with you next.
It is the Eye Couple Aaron Torres in for Chris
Broussard on Fox Sports Radio. Fox Sports Radio has the
best sports talk lineup in the nation. Catch all of
our shows at Fox sports Radio dot com and within
the iHeart Radio app search FSR to listen live. It
(12:15):
is the couple of Fox Sports Radio Rob Parker Aaron
Torres filling in for the ill Chris Boussard. We wish
him well, hopefully he'll be back with us on Monday.
It's a funky Flashback Friday, and we're coming to you
live from the Geico Fox Sports Radio Studios. Eight seven
seven ninety nine on Fox is our telephone number eight seven, seven,
(12:41):
nine nine six sixty three sixty nine, And we want
to hear from you when it comes to the NFL
and about whether or not should they change their playoff
format to allow teams to get in based on win
percentage not total wins. It would be a change, and
(13:03):
obviously with the COVID nineteen situation, it makes sense. But
maybe some people don't want to hear that and they
want all the teams to play sixteen games. So let's
hear from those guys absolutely. First up, real quick, before
we get to the calls, Just want to update people
in the car Yankees Tampa one one top of the sixth. Yeah,
one one top of the six We got a little
(13:24):
bit of a pictures duel and the Lakers have a
fourteen eleven lead early in the first quarter. Back to
the calls, Robert in South Florida, you're on the odd couple,
eron Torres and Rob Parker. Yeah, thanks for taking my call. Rob.
You gotta either allocate makeup games or go by winning percentage,
because if you go buy total wins, you could be
keeping a good team out because too many of their
(13:45):
opponents tested positive. What happens is the Chiefs missed the
next six games for positive tests and they don't get
to defend their Super Bowl run. That's a great point.
That's exactly why winning percentage makes sense, right, Aaron, because
that could happen, or it could be bad luck to
a really good team that that they're teams for whatever
(14:06):
reason they couldn't play their games. No, that's exactly right,
And you still like the point that's getting lost in
this is you still do have to win the games, right,
and you might play two less, but again, you're probably
going into games at a disadvantage because of less practice time,
less time in the facility, all that stuff. So it's
not to say that if you play less games that
you have this incredible advantage, which I think is something
(14:28):
being lost in the conversation. Next up, I think I'm
reading this correctly. Rafael in Brazil. Yes, he's a regular.
He's calling from Brazil and the phone line is unbelievable,
how clear it is you. I'm great, I'm great about
Rob g and Alex. Rafael, Alex, good to hear free
(14:51):
me my friend. Okay, okay, everybody healthy, all happy and healthy. Yes,
except that we're waiting for Chris to get better. It'll
be better and he'll be back hopefully Monday. Okay, Okay,
I switch there, Hey, Rob, but i also teach class
class at a university and I'm tired of not looking
my eyes in the eyes. You know, I'm at home
(15:13):
since smart seventeens. It's more than six months, and I'm
taking care of my two little girls, you know, because
my wife has to go out to work. And I'm exhausted. Man,
And I believe you know, it has been a big challenge.
But I can't complain because I kept my job and
my salaries there every month. You know. My family is healthy,
(15:35):
so everything, But y'all we're all suffering somehow. About the NFL,
I'm with you, guys. There's no way around it. It's
each team has to play maximum games possible, the maximum
game possible, and the standards you go with the winning
percentage and let's hope no team plays less than fourteen games,
you know, let's hope, no doubt about it. I mean,
(16:00):
that's hopefully right. It's not more than that or erain
or you know, they played thirteen or fourteen games. I
think people could live with that, right, Yeah, And I
agree with what Raphael said the maximum. He said, the
maximum amount of games possible. Nobody wants to see. You
think the Titans want to sit at home and not
do anything. They want to be on the field, they
(16:20):
want to be in the facility. This is just part
of the new norm. Next up, Chris and DC. You're
on the odd couple of Fox Sports Radio. Hey, how
you guys doing. And I'm hoping to Tampa win today.
You know, got a little riding on there. But what
you got You got some duck gets, You got a
couple of shekels on this. Yeah, yeah, I think Tamplain man,
I thig tamplay, and I pick the college football game.
(16:42):
I pick Louisville tonight. So well now it's it's it's
the battle of the bullpens. Well because because the Yankees
did take Garrett Cole out, Zach Britten is in. So
it's it's a bullpen game now. So we'll see what happens,
all right, what's your what's your take? My take is
um I gotta At the beginning of the year, I
(17:04):
thought what they should have did was they should have
just maybe they could have played all division games, right,
they could have played two East games Division games, and
then the two top teams in the division. They could
have you know this, hope did that speaking, but they
could have just played and you know, they could have
extended that way, still could have had a lot of
games in the season. But I think what they should
(17:24):
do is take away one division game from each team,
knocks off three games, and give them a little of
time to fill in the games. You know, if everybody
still played the division game one time, so you could
rearrange the schedule, knock off one division game for each team,
and you take away three games and you can make
up the games, make them up win. No, what I'm
(17:46):
saying if you take away if you take out three
division games, because everybody played East Division games twice, why
not make everybody played the division game, played one division
game and then But we already have a schedule in
plays and you don't know who's gonna get come down
with anything. I don't think you want to do that.
Do you want to Aaron start messing with the schedule? Yeah?
(18:08):
I think these are decisions that had to be made
in the preseason, right Yeah. And I think you know,
one of the conversations that's come up the last few
weeks and I think it's fair is do you figure
out a way to add a week or two on
the back end of the schedule to make up as
many makeup games as you can. And it's like you've
been saying all show, Rob, is the super Bowl set?
(18:28):
I mean they just announced they can't move it. Yeah,
they just announced this week full stadiums in Florida. They're
ready to have that Super Bowl. The hotels are booked,
the restaurant reservations are coming in. You can't just make
stuff up on the fly. And you know, we're joking
about Major League Baseball before all these seven inning games
runner starting on second. But at the very least they
made up those rules and made those decisions before they
(18:51):
came back. The NFL can't just decide on the fly
to do the same rub Nope. Eight seven, seven ninety nine.
On Fox, we want to hear from you, Joe if
in Indiana, you're on the odd Couple Fox Sports Radio.
I'm Air Torres filming for Chris Brussard alongside Rob Parker.
Go ahead, Joseph, are you doing tonight? Doing good? Joseph? Yeah,
I'm just gonna keep it swings points. You just can't cancel.
(19:15):
I guess the one guy the first caller said, you
just can't eliminate games like hardest potential. It should go
to the guys who have the most wins. Like with
college football, they eliminated their they eliminated their conference games.
So they because they kind of figure what they were doing,
like with a Big ten report, the see what like
(19:36):
West Virginia versus I mean Washington versus Alabama and stuff
like that, they had to cancel the game postpone from
next year. Yep, thank you, Joseph, appreciate the call. Yeah,
I think the NFL's do it. If Adam Schefter's report
is correct, this makes sense to me, Aaron, It's the
only way to fly. I think that's the way you go.
(19:57):
All right. The only thing better than why watching NFL
games on Sunday is making money doing it. How about that?
Our man Lamar Mitchell from the MGM Grant is gonna
help us do that. He joins us next. Be sure
to catch live editions of The Odd Couple with Chris
Broussard and Rob Parker weekdays at seven pm Eastern four
(20:18):
pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.
Rob Parker Aaron Torres in for Chris Brussar, coming to
you live from the Geico Fox Sports Radio studios. It's
easy to say fifteen percent of more in your carn
shorts with Geico. Go to Geico dot com or call
eight hundred and nine four seven auto. The only hard
part is figuring out which way is easier. You know,
(20:42):
it's time for our man. That's right, Lamar Mitchell, MGM
Graham Race and sportsbook director. Lamar, what's up, buddy? How
you doing, Rob good? How you guys doing tonight? Doing
all right? Say hi to Aaron. Chris is a little
law under the weather today. So Aaron is in his stead.
(21:05):
Welcome eron, nice to talk to you, Thank you for
joining us. Lamar, All right, Lamar, let's get to it.
So we had two games postponed already this week Titans Bills,
Broncos Patriots due to COVID and right now still unsure
what's gonna happen to the Jets Cardinals game. As a
sports book director, how do you handle things like this
(21:30):
when there's so much uncertainty. It's just like this whole
COVID thing. You just gotta play it with the information
that you have. And just you know, once we get
some information, we take the game off. We get more information.
If we know we can put it back up, we'll
put it back up. But it's it's like you say,
it's it's you get some information, it's good or it's bad.
(21:51):
You just react to it and then go with it. Lamar,
speaking of handling certain things, how are you guys handling
the Kansas City Chiefs right now? Because it feels like
it doesn't matter what number you throw up. I mean,
they can put up so many points so fast. I mean,
it was a one possession game late against the Patriots,
middle of the fourth quarter, and then they end up
(22:12):
covering the eleven and a half or twelve by the
end of the game. How are you guys handling them?
A team that can seemingly score anytime they touched the ball.
They're much like the undefeated Patriots a few years back.
If you remember that team, that was a team that
the public was on the sharps are on. We try
to shade it as much as we possibly can to
(22:32):
get some buy back on the other side. But like
you said, it could be a one possession game and
then next you know, they're up by two. Three possessions
and a blink of an eye. So, like I said,
we basically try to shade it as high as we
can without it just being ridiculous. I mean, if you
remember some of the points press for the Patriots back
in the day, they were like seventeen point favorites, and
(22:53):
people are still betting the Patriots seventeen point favorite. And
that's what they're doing with the Chiefs too. Let's look
on looking on the board here, I see the Giants
Cowboys opened at Dallas minus eleven but has since been
bet all the way down to Dallas minus eight and
a half. How do you explain that movement? And was
(23:15):
it the Pros or the Joes that pushed that number down?
You know what, that's uh, we opened it a little
bit lighter than that, We opened it nine and a half.
But the Giants traditionally play the Cowboys Cup, so that
number is probably the right number. And you know, with
(23:35):
the way Dallas's defense has been playing, even though you're
going against Daniel Jones, he doesn't have a lot of
starts in his back pocket, but that would be mostly
sharp money buying that number down. Well, staying on that game. Also,
the over under jumped a staggering ten points from forty
(23:55):
four all the way up to fifty four. How often
do you see a jumped that big? And is this
a sign that the Giant or the Cowboys defense is
so bad that even the Giants are gonna be able
to move the ball on them. I mean, it's seriously
because the Giants only have three touchdowns I think right
all year. Traditionally it's it's one of those bad defenses
(24:17):
that is traditionally just a bad defense. But yeah, we
never see a jump like that in the in the
points or excuse me, in the total where they're going
up like ten points. This is yeah, obviously that's a
sign that the Giants, the public, the sharps think the
Giants will be able to move on the Cowboy defense.
The Cowboy defense hasn't proven that they can shut anybody
(24:38):
down all year. And we'll see what happens this week
with this game as well too. Our guest is Lamar
Mitchell from the MGM Grant. He runs a sports book.
There another game that stands out to me, Eagles and
the Steelers. I'm looking at the board here and I
see that the game opened at Pittsburgh minus seven with
the total of forty four. If I'm reading this right,
(25:01):
the line hasn't moved in either direction. Does that happen often?
Where the books set the perfect line and it doesn't.
It doesn't have to like alter it at all because
it's a pretty much fifty fifty split. That's what you
want to do. You want to make sure the line
you get get two way action on both sides. It
doesn't happen often because you know the Joes, they are
(25:23):
very opinionated, and the Sharps they'll they'll they'll bet you
on something that they consider a soft number. So typically, yeah,
I mean, the number usually is going to move off
of the opening number at some point. But like I said,
it doesn't really happen that much. But the Steelers here,
that might be the play here from the Joes because
they're betting the money on it. But we're still getting
some good buyback. On the Eagles. I want to say
(25:46):
this real quick, Aaron to jump in. I picked last night.
I picked the Bears to be Tampa Bay. You know,
I like the two and a half points at home,
but I did pick them, and I'm gonna pick the
Eagles to upset the Steelers. I'm just gonna put that
out there to win the game. Yep. Wow. Well we
uh here it was all Bucks money, but we had
(26:07):
a player that's been beating us pretty good the last
couple of weeks. He's gone nineteen and one in the
pros and he last night late money came in on
your Bears. So had he not coming on the Bears,
we would have won on that bet because everybody was
on the Bucks flat everybody. Yeah, because it looked like
it was going to be Tom Brady in the Bucks.
(26:28):
He was just the offensive player of the week right
in the NFC and all that go ahead, Aaron, No,
that's good. Follow up is what has the action been
like on the Bucks? I mean, obviously through the years,
the Patriots have been a very public team. Is the
Tom Brady effect hitting you guys in terms of people
really laying in on Bucks. We know they were for
the futures in the summer, but now that the games
are coming week to week, is everybody on the Bucks
(26:50):
all the time? Oh? Yeah? There, it's like New England South.
I mean it's Tom Brady TV twelve. They're betting him
like he's still on the Patriots because he's one of
the best quarterbacks of all time. I won't say he's
the greatest, some of us will my man, my man,
he's one of right right right, But yeah, they the
public's all over him like he's back in New England
(27:12):
so they don't care about his age. But yeah, they're
betting the Patriots South Tom Brady's Buccaneers, like he's still
on the Patriots. All right. Everyone is fired up Titans Bills.
But the game of the week is the Colts and
the Browns are three and one, and I think that
it could be a huge playoff implications down the road.
(27:35):
What kind of action are we seeing on this game?
And which side are the sharp song? Oh we're getting
great two way action on this, believe or not. No
sharp money. It's been all Joe money. I mean every
Joe is on the Browns. They just remember the last
thing that they saw, All Browns money, Baker, Mayfield, Beckham,
(27:57):
that's all they're on. That's that's all they're on. I mean,
money is all on the Browns. And the ticket accounts
about three to one on the Browns. So we haven't
seen any sharp money yet on this game. But like
I say, it's heavily bet it's probably gonna be one
of our most heavily bet public games this weekend. So
Rob mentioned the Tennessee Titans a minute ago, pushback all
the way to Tuesday. I know you mentioned that you're
(28:19):
just adjusting on the fly as this stuff comes. But
how about the fact that they're gonna go two full
weeks plus without playing? I mean, how does that affect
how you impact how does it impact the line? Oh? Yeah, absolutely.
I mean we'll look at that and we'll shape the
number because they haven't hit anybody in about two weeks.
They haven't had any practices. They might be fresh, but
(28:39):
you know, when you don't get a chance to hit
and wrap up, that's gonna cause some problems when you're
playing against the Bills and mister what's the quarterback's name,
mister Allen and his crew. So we'll shape the number
a little bit higher on the Bills because they have
had some game action live action, and the Titans haven't.
The last one. Jimmy Gee's gonna be back under center
(29:03):
for the forty nine is this Sunday against the Dolphins. Now,
we all kind of expected him to play this week,
but I don't think Kyle Shannaham confirmed anything until earlier today.
Did the line move at all after the announcement or
were you guys kind of expecting him to play. We
were expecting him to play. And if I look right now,
that number we have it nine. So yeah, we're expecting
(29:27):
him to play Dolphins. You know, even with fixed matches,
they'll they'll put up a good fight. But you know
this Niners team, when they have a healthy quarterback, they're
a better team in this matchup. All right, Lamar Mitchell
from the MGM Grant as always my man, thank you
for your insight, and we'll see you next week. All right,
(29:49):
see you next week. I have a good weekend, guys.
Good luck with your wagers. Yeah, thank Lamar. Yeah, Lamar
is the man, no doubt about. I'm going to Vegas
next week and I'll we'll check out the MGM Grant
and Lamar all right. More to come on the Odd
Couple with Aaron Towards and for Chris Broussard. Uh. That's
all coming up on Fox Sports Radio. Stick and stay America.
(30:10):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at foxsports radio
dot Com and within the iHeartRadio app search f SR
to listen live. All right, it is the Odd Couple
of Fox Sports Radio on a funky flashback Friday. Rob
Parker and Aaron Torres in for Chris Boussard. We're wishing
(30:33):
Chris well, hopefully he'll be back with us on Monday.
And we're coming to you live from the Geico Fox
Sports Radio Studios. And you know it's Friday. It's that time.
You know what time it is, time for the NFL
pig Skin Pickoff. I retire. The Odd Couple is gonna
make you rich gambling corruption picks their pigskin pickoff. That's right,
(30:56):
he did the Pigskin pickof where we pick NFL games
against the spread. Quick update on the NBA Finals Game five,
Lakers down nine. What here talking about? Quarter? But the
big story Anthony Davis left the game grabbing. It looked
like he was grabbing his achilles, so Twitter was freaking out.
It was a non contact injury, they thought, but Lakers
are reporting Mike Coudell of the Lakers ad reaggravated a
(31:19):
right heel contusion. He got kicked right there and he
is available to return, but he's just not on the floor.
Right now. Now, that is just that's like a nightmare
for a Laker. I couldn't breathe for a bit there.
She's it was like when you you have like a
cough and then you go on web md and you
find out that it's like lung cancer, like like you
know what, right, that's why you don't do that. I don't.
(31:39):
I refuse to do that because it scares the heck
out of you. You am I right, you go to
find out was like I gotta bump on my shoulder,
Oh I have kids or oh my god, you know,
like and it turned out it was like a mosquito bite.
But yeah, exactly like that. So thankfully doesn't look like
he Achilles to say he is available to return, so
we keep an eye on that. But again we're picking
NFL games against the spread. Chris sent me his picks
(32:01):
from his deathbed. Hopefully he'll be okay by Monday. Yes,
before we can go forward, we gotta look back. Rob
Parker's struggling. I'm struggling the last couple of weeks two
and three last week, but hey, you know what, Chris
went went in for sty You're still winning and you
are still picking sixty percent winners on the season. I
really yep that nine and one start, man, that Ara
(32:22):
nine and one to start the NFL. Let's just not
talking about that three and seven since then. All right,
here we go, we're picking five games against the spread.
We're gonna get started my Raiders traveling to Kansas City.
You're taking on the Chiefs. Chiefs twelve point home favorites.
Chris has the Raiders to cover in this one, Rob,
what do you like? I'm gonna take the Raiders to
cover as well at twelve points. We've seen the Raiders
(32:45):
score some points this year, right, I'm gonna and the
Chiefs offense has been okay, but like Patrick Mahomes is
like the eighth ranked quarterback? Am I right? Something like that?
Rob g he hadn't been lightening it up. I'm gonna
go with the Raiders plus twelve. I'm gonna go with
the Chiefs only because of what I just asked Lamar
(33:07):
Mitchell last segment, which is it doesn't matter how much
they're behind or what the score is, they just figure
out a way to put up points late. They were
they were only up three late in the game against
the Patriots. They ended up winning by sixteen, So I
think it's the same. I think they kind of fumble around,
play around the first quarter, quarter and a half, and
then they roll late. All right, we keep it moving.
(33:28):
Game number two the La Rams seven point road favorites
taken on Washington. You don't see the road favorites that
big too often. Chris got the Rams, Rod, what do
you like? That is a big? That's a lot, but
it's a lot of points. I noticed starting a new
quarterback and the whole change in their defense. Washington's defense
(33:51):
is too good. I'm gonna take Washington plus to seven.
I'm with Rob. I wanted to make sure this was right,
but I looked it up. Third trip to the East
coast already for the Rams. They look completely flat last
week against the Giants, survived that game. I've been underwhelmed.
I think they can win, but seven points. Flying across
country for the third time in five weeks. I like
(34:12):
the I liked Washington. The cover Pigs can pick off
the akaball Fox Sports Radio. Game number three, the Eagles
traveling and take on Pittsburgh minus seven home favorites for
the Steelers. Chris has the Eagles. I believe Rob. Think
you got the Eagles too, right, I do. I have
the Eagles. I'll take the plus seven. I think they
win this game. I think it's one of those and
the Steelers are will be rusty. I haven't played right.
(34:35):
I'm gonna go with the Eagles in this. I'm actually
gonna go Steelers. I'm not overwhelmed by the Eagles winning
against the JV team in San Francisco last weekend fly
back across country. The Steelers. I think coming with extra
rest probably helps them. I do like the Steelers to
cover the touchdown at home. Aaron's a contrarian. I love it.
(34:55):
Game number four, Rob Parkers Jackson val Jacksonville Jaguar taken
on the Bill O'Brien les Houston Texans Texans five and
a half point home favorites. Chris has taken the Texans
on this one. Rob, would you like the Texans have
some talent? I can't believe did this bad. I think
they win the game and they covered the five and
(35:17):
a half. Just I just don't think they're gonna start
oh and five and lose another home I just I
just think DeShawn Watson can win you a game. I'm
gonna say he wins the game by seven points, and
it covers the spread. I'm not being a contrarian for
the sake of contrarian, but I've seen what Romeo Cornell does. Okay,
we're not exactly talking about Bill Belichick two point zero here.
(35:39):
I do think the Jacks cover the Texans. I do think.
I just don't think they have that much talent. I
think Deshaun Watson's really good. JJ Watts a big name.
I just don't think they're very good football team right now.
All right, last game we're picking NFL Week five update.
Anthony Davis answering back into the game. He looks like
he's okay. Lakers still down nine though. Game five, the
Giants traveling to take on the Dallas Cowboys and that
(36:02):
horrible defense. Dallas minus eight and a half point, the
home favorite. Chris, of course has the Cowboys. Always bet
in the Cowboys, Rob what do you like in this one?
The Giants have three touchdowns all year. Danny Dimes is
Danny Pennies. They don't have any kind of running I
just where are they gonna muster the offense? The Cowboys
(36:22):
have been an embarrassment. They win by two touchdowns over
the Giants. I'm taking the Cowboys minus eight and a half. Yeah,
I'm with Rob on this one. I think the other
thing too. It's been talked about this week, but Jason
Garrett's on the other sideline, and they want to prove
he was the problem, not them. I think I don't
think he was as big of a problem as people
made him out to be. We're seeing it with Mike McCarthy.
(36:43):
But I think for one week, the players are fired up,
and as Rob said, they're just going up against a really, really,
really bad football team right now. And there it days
the pigskin pick off. Get rich ladies and gentlemen, buy
yourself a boat with these Rob Parker pits, not the
Chris Frossard ones. Aaron might do well too, but rocks
so'st sixty percent And where is Chris so far? Yeah? See,
(37:05):
there we go dominant, And all he ever talks about
ere it is I picked the Super Bowl in the
last two years. He picks the favorite every year and
then he wants a cookie for picking the favorite. Oh,
I picked the Chiefs. You know, like, oh, thanks, you
really went out, You really went out on a limb
right there? You like the twenty seventy Yankees too. Huh yeah, yeah,
I bet you were picking on them that offseason. He's
(37:26):
one of those guys. But Aaron Man, nice job. Thank
you fulfilling in for Chris. We appreciate you. Appreciate you
having me. What you got up for the weekend? Anything good?
Just watching football baby, all weekend long. All right, it
is the odd couple. Download the podcast and we'll see
you again on Monday for another week stick and stay Aberga.
Thanks for listening to The Odd Couple podcast. Be sure
to check us out live every weekday from seven pm
to ten pm Eastern four to seven Pacific, or on
Fox Sports Radio. Find your local station for The Odd
Couple at Fox Sports Radio dot com, or stream us
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(00:21):
s R. You're listening to Fox Sports Radio. It is
the Odd Couple of Fox Sports Radio on a funky
Flashback Friday, and we're coming to your live from the
Geico Fox Sports Radio Studios. Fifteen minutes could save you
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(00:43):
Geico dot com for a free Ray quote. And Yes,
so much going on. Lakers have a chance to win
another championship, Lebron's fourth, We got a barn burner in
San Diego to Yankees, and Ray it's one one in
the sixth inning. Man, so much to do and Aaron
(01:06):
Torres joins us in for Chris Brussard who is under
the weather. Hopefully he'll get well and be back with
us on mondayn Rob Parker and Aaron let's talk about
the NFL in this uh to start this hour here
and obviously with the COVID situation going on, there's talk
(01:29):
that the NFL, you know, you might have to there
might be some missing games, you know, that just can't
be made up because if they're no buy weeks, there's
not enough time, you know, there's not like you got,
you know, excess weeks that you could work in games,
and then you got to remember the schedule that they
already have with other teams. So you might just have
(01:51):
to say, some team's only gonna play fourteen games. Some
teams might only play three games. So how do you
remedy that if somebody doesn't have the same amount of games.
So the idea is simply gonna be like by winning percentage,
Like Baseball when they had their cod COVID issues Aaron
early in the season, a couple of teams you know,
(02:13):
were sideline and couldn't play. Some people don't think this
is fair, it makes sense. Where are you on this
because I don't think there's any other option rather than
to go by your winning percentage more so than how
many games you want. Yeah. Absolutely, that report obviously was
coming from Adam Schefter ESPN this week, and like, I'm
(02:36):
one hundred percent with you, Rob, I mean, I guess
in theory, you can add a week to the end
of the schedule, maybe two weeks whatever, But even then
you just don't know. I mean, the Titans obviously have
had a couple of games moved around. We don't know
what's going to happen as it gets colder, So we
don't know that even if you add a week or
two to the end of the season, that everyone's gonna
be able to get in sixteen games. And so I
(02:58):
just look at it rob a way that we've dealt
with it in baseball, the way that we've dealt with
it in college football is everybody wants to freak out
every time there's a positive test, or a game has
to get postpone, or a game has to get canceled.
This is the new norm, right. We have been talking
about this since March and April, is that there's gonna
be a new norm in our society and there's definitely
gonna be a new norm in sports, and that we
(03:20):
just have to be okay with things being different. And so, yes,
do I feel bad for, say, you know, the Indianapolis
Colts if they have to play sixteen games and the
Titans only play fourteen games, of course it stinks. It's
a disadvantage, but this is the world that we're living in.
It's only for one year, and it's just something you're
(03:40):
gonna have to deal with. I don't want to hear
these guys complain. I agree. I just everything is everything
that we knew is out the window. I just don't.
I mean, what you got PAC twelve gonna play a
six game season, right, I mean, this is what it is.
And I don't know how many they plan into Big ten?
Is it eight they are playing? Uh? Including the championship game?
(04:03):
It will be nine? But in nine weeks though, right, Yeah,
So this is what I'm saying, like everything is upset
turned upside down. Um, I don't know how you could
push back on it. I just I think nothing that
we've seen here, uh, everything's acceptable, right, we just have
(04:24):
to kind of roll with it. Baseball, you know me,
I'm a I'm a traditionalist. Sure, they played seven seven
inning major league game for doubleheaders, seven innings in the
extra innings, right, but that's like pony league, you know
what I mean? Seven innings? These are major league games
that count. So so I don't I don't know how
(04:48):
there could be any kind of pushback or or just
you gotta roll with it. Uh, there're gonna be teams
that are gonna be hit up. There was today, Uh
somebody with the Jets tested positive. So they closed down
the facility and supposedly, now rob g the latest story
(05:08):
was that all the Jets and the staff were good, right,
and so you know, so there's another one. What would
have happened if the Jets were involved in that air
and you know what I mean, and they would have
had to miss a game and then they start to
pile up and then the team that I just I
(05:29):
don't know any other way to work around a situation
like this. And the thing I would add too is
while in theory, if you miss a game or two, oh,
it's a big advantage for you. You play one or
two less games, But you can't come into the facility
when you're not playing right, Like, you can't practice, you
can't do any of the things that make you a
(05:50):
football team. And so to me, I think it's as
much of a disadvantage to be missing games and missing
practices and doing all those things as it is a
disadvantage to not being to have to play more games
than the other team, And so I just think it
goes back to what we were just saying a minute ago,
is there is a new norm in society. And here's
the other thing, Rob, It's only for one year, right,
(06:11):
like hopefully? Yeah. I mean, listen, you mentioned baseball. I
remember back to the negotiations between the players union and
the owners and the players. They don't want to play
in front of no fans and they don't want to
take a pay cut here and they don't want and
it's like, guys, it's for one year. We gotta get
through this. And it's the same with the NFL. And
this is just the reality that we live in. These
are the terms that you guys agreed to as players,
(06:33):
in terms of the testing, in terms of the protocols,
in terms of the quarantining. You agree to these terms.
So now that we're seeing them in real time, you
can't freak out because your division rival might be playing
one or two less games in you. And here's the
other thing. There's just a not an infinite amount of
time because of the super Bowl is set. There's a
(06:54):
lot of stuff that's in place, do you know what
I mean? Like that that that that's it's like what
Baseball didn't. And I'll say this, it made sense that
they didn't move the playoffs because what happens is in
the NBA, where right now in October is training camp
in a season will be starting right the regular season.
(07:15):
So now you're pushing back a second season in baseball
by only playing sixty and aaron keeping everything the playoffs
in October, Baseball will having off season, have a chance
to start a regular season again during its regular time.
The NBA is going to have to adjust and have
a second season that won't be normal, right. Yeah, And
(07:38):
if you're the NFL, you want to try to keep
everything else, the playoffs, super Bowl, everything in line. And
if some teams played twelve, some teams played thirteen, some
teams played fourteen, whatever it is, you gotta do it
this way because you can't bump and move everything. I
think I think it makes for a disaster. No, it does,
(07:58):
And it just goes back to what we've been saying
is these professional athletes are dealing with what everybody in
every walk of life is dealing with. It's it's different.
Teachers are teaching from home. You're a professor, rob you
know that you know you're teaching from home for USC.
I mean, it ain't easy, it's different, it's different, and
guess what, you know, some days maybe the zoom connection
(08:21):
isn't as good, and like you just have to work
through it. And I understand these are highly paid professionals.
I understand it's a physical contact violence sport. And you're
frustrated as a player that your division rival, like I said,
or the team that you're the team that you're playing,
is coming off of two weeks without playing, and you
played on Monday night and now it's Sunday. I just
(08:42):
don't think it's something that you can complain about. And
I would add to go back to kind of some
of the analogies with these other sports. It's not only
that you can't complain about it. The general republic doesn't
want to hear about it. The general republic doesn't feel
bad if you have to play two games in six
days when your opponents coming off of bye. We all
got our own issues. Everybody is dealing with this in
some way, shape or form, and so for NBA players
(09:04):
to get frustrated again, this is what you agreed to,
This is what you said was was part of the
deal when you signed that collective bargaining agreement, and you said,
we want daily testing, and we want this, and we
want these guys quarantine, and we want this many is
a minimum number of players. Now, we're in this in
real time. You gotta deal with it now. And we
just had Martin Weiss with trolling and rolling and he
(09:25):
was even talking about defensive end from the Broncos, right, yeah,
Shelby Harris. And you know he's like complaining because is
rescheduling and closing? Really do come on? Like like, I'm
just like, then not rescheduling you for the hell of it, right,
(09:47):
just like, yeah, well the schedule is said, We're just
gonna do this just for the hell of it, and
you know, just roll with it or whatever. Does he
understand what's going on? Yes, you gotta plan a short week.
It sucks, but the pandemic sucks. Everybody who has to
work from home. That sucks. People have to work on
the front lines right with the germs all over the place.
(10:09):
That sucks. Just gotta work through it, try your best.
I don't think the NFL really hasn't any other choice
but to do it this way. I think it's smart.
This is what I always say all the time. If
the sixteen year old checking out your groceries can go
into work every day under these circumstances, you can as well.
Do you do you think, though, Rob, is there a minimum?
(10:30):
Like I obviously I cover college hoops, love college hoops,
there is a minimum number of games that has to
be met this coming season with all these crazy schedules
to qualify for the NCAA tournament? Do you think there
should be at the very least a minimum and if
you have to, maybe you know, push the playoffs back
a week, not have a bye week in between the
championship and the Super Bowl. Is there at least a
(10:52):
minimum that a team should have to play to qualify
for the playoffs? Yeah? Obviously if one team only plays
five games, it would be counter you know, Jankie. And
if they only played five games, they would have to
be a ton of other people that didn't play, you
know what I mean, That's a lot of games. So
I'm not I'm sure that it would have to be
(11:12):
like a certain number. I don't know if they could
put out a number or think about it at this point,
just hoping because even in baseball, remember the Marlins had
to couldn't play to start the season, remember I mean basically,
and they wind up making the playoffs. They made the playoffs,
and the Cardinals they were another team that were affected
(11:32):
by it. So yeah, well we'll see how this thing
plays out. All right, We want to hear from you.
Eight seven, seven ninety nine on Fox Chime in. Should
the NFL change its playoff format to allow teams to
get in based on winning percentage instead of total wins?
And do you expect every team to play all sixteen
(11:53):
games this season? We'll continue that conversation with you next.
It is the Eye Couple Aaron Torres in for Chris
Broussard on Fox Sports Radio. Fox Sports Radio has the
best sports talk lineup in the nation. Catch all of
our shows at Fox sports Radio dot com and within
the iHeart Radio app search FSR to listen live. It
(12:15):
is the couple of Fox Sports Radio Rob Parker Aaron
Torres filling in for the ill Chris Boussard. We wish
him well, hopefully he'll be back with us on Monday.
It's a funky Flashback Friday, and we're coming to you
live from the Geico Fox Sports Radio Studios. Eight seven
seven ninety nine on Fox is our telephone number eight seven, seven,
(12:41):
nine nine six sixty three sixty nine, And we want
to hear from you when it comes to the NFL
and about whether or not should they change their playoff
format to allow teams to get in based on win
percentage not total wins. It would be a change, and
(13:03):
obviously with the COVID nineteen situation, it makes sense. But
maybe some people don't want to hear that and they
want all the teams to play sixteen games. So let's
hear from those guys absolutely. First up, real quick, before
we get to the calls, Just want to update people
in the car Yankees Tampa one one top of the sixth. Yeah,
one one top of the six We got a little
(13:24):
bit of a pictures duel and the Lakers have a
fourteen eleven lead early in the first quarter. Back to
the calls, Robert in South Florida, you're on the odd couple,
eron Torres and Rob Parker. Yeah, thanks for taking my call. Rob.
You gotta either allocate makeup games or go by winning percentage,
because if you go buy total wins, you could be
keeping a good team out because too many of their
(13:45):
opponents tested positive. What happens is the Chiefs missed the
next six games for positive tests and they don't get
to defend their Super Bowl run. That's a great point.
That's exactly why winning percentage makes sense, right, Aaron, because
that could happen, or it could be bad luck to
a really good team that that they're teams for whatever
(14:06):
reason they couldn't play their games. No, that's exactly right,
And you still like the point that's getting lost in
this is you still do have to win the games, right,
and you might play two less, but again, you're probably
going into games at a disadvantage because of less practice time,
less time in the facility, all that stuff. So it's
not to say that if you play less games that
you have this incredible advantage, which I think is something
(14:28):
being lost in the conversation. Next up, I think I'm
reading this correctly. Rafael in Brazil. Yes, he's a regular.
He's calling from Brazil and the phone line is unbelievable,
how clear it is you. I'm great, I'm great about
Rob g and Alex. Rafael, Alex, good to hear free
(14:51):
me my friend. Okay, okay, everybody healthy, all happy and healthy. Yes,
except that we're waiting for Chris to get better. It'll
be better and he'll be back hopefully Monday. Okay, Okay,
I switch there, Hey, Rob, but i also teach class
class at a university and I'm tired of not looking
my eyes in the eyes. You know, I'm at home
(15:13):
since smart seventeens. It's more than six months, and I'm
taking care of my two little girls, you know, because
my wife has to go out to work. And I'm exhausted. Man,
And I believe you know, it has been a big challenge.
But I can't complain because I kept my job and
my salaries there every month. You know. My family is healthy,
(15:35):
so everything, But y'all we're all suffering somehow. About the NFL,
I'm with you, guys. There's no way around it. It's
each team has to play maximum games possible, the maximum
game possible, and the standards you go with the winning
percentage and let's hope no team plays less than fourteen games,
you know, let's hope, no doubt about it. I mean,
(16:00):
that's hopefully right. It's not more than that or erain
or you know, they played thirteen or fourteen games. I
think people could live with that, right, Yeah, And I
agree with what Raphael said the maximum. He said, the
maximum amount of games possible. Nobody wants to see. You
think the Titans want to sit at home and not
do anything. They want to be on the field, they
(16:20):
want to be in the facility. This is just part
of the new norm. Next up, Chris and DC. You're
on the odd couple of Fox Sports Radio. Hey, how
you guys doing. And I'm hoping to Tampa win today.
You know, got a little riding on there. But what
you got You got some duck gets, You got a
couple of shekels on this. Yeah, yeah, I think Tamplain man,
I thig tamplay, and I pick the college football game.
(16:42):
I pick Louisville tonight. So well now it's it's it's
the battle of the bullpens. Well because because the Yankees
did take Garrett Cole out, Zach Britten is in. So
it's it's a bullpen game now. So we'll see what happens,
all right, what's your what's your take? My take is
um I gotta At the beginning of the year, I
(17:04):
thought what they should have did was they should have
just maybe they could have played all division games, right,
they could have played two East games Division games, and
then the two top teams in the division. They could
have you know this, hope did that speaking, but they
could have just played and you know, they could have
extended that way, still could have had a lot of
games in the season. But I think what they should
(17:24):
do is take away one division game from each team,
knocks off three games, and give them a little of
time to fill in the games. You know, if everybody
still played the division game one time, so you could
rearrange the schedule, knock off one division game for each team,
and you take away three games and you can make
up the games, make them up win. No, what I'm
(17:46):
saying if you take away if you take out three
division games, because everybody played East Division games twice, why
not make everybody played the division game, played one division
game and then But we already have a schedule in
plays and you don't know who's gonna get come down
with anything. I don't think you want to do that.
Do you want to Aaron start messing with the schedule? Yeah?
(18:08):
I think these are decisions that had to be made
in the preseason, right Yeah. And I think you know,
one of the conversations that's come up the last few
weeks and I think it's fair is do you figure
out a way to add a week or two on
the back end of the schedule to make up as
many makeup games as you can. And it's like you've
been saying all show, Rob, is the super Bowl set?
(18:28):
I mean they just announced they can't move it. Yeah,
they just announced this week full stadiums in Florida. They're
ready to have that Super Bowl. The hotels are booked,
the restaurant reservations are coming in. You can't just make
stuff up on the fly. And you know, we're joking
about Major League Baseball before all these seven inning games
runner starting on second. But at the very least they
made up those rules and made those decisions before they
(18:51):
came back. The NFL can't just decide on the fly
to do the same rub Nope. Eight seven, seven ninety nine.
On Fox, we want to hear from you, Joe if
in Indiana, you're on the odd Couple Fox Sports Radio.
I'm Air Torres filming for Chris Brussard alongside Rob Parker.
Go ahead, Joseph, are you doing tonight? Doing good? Joseph? Yeah,
I'm just gonna keep it swings points. You just can't cancel.
(19:15):
I guess the one guy the first caller said, you
just can't eliminate games like hardest potential. It should go
to the guys who have the most wins. Like with
college football, they eliminated their they eliminated their conference games.
So they because they kind of figure what they were doing,
like with a Big ten report, the see what like
(19:36):
West Virginia versus I mean Washington versus Alabama and stuff
like that, they had to cancel the game postpone from
next year. Yep, thank you, Joseph, appreciate the call. Yeah,
I think the NFL's do it. If Adam Schefter's report
is correct, this makes sense to me, Aaron, It's the
only way to fly. I think that's the way you go.
(19:57):
All right. The only thing better than why watching NFL
games on Sunday is making money doing it. How about that?
Our man Lamar Mitchell from the MGM Grant is gonna
help us do that. He joins us next. Be sure
to catch live editions of The Odd Couple with Chris
Broussard and Rob Parker weekdays at seven pm Eastern four
(20:18):
pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.
Rob Parker Aaron Torres in for Chris Brussar, coming to
you live from the Geico Fox Sports Radio studios. It's
easy to say fifteen percent of more in your carn
shorts with Geico. Go to Geico dot com or call
eight hundred and nine four seven auto. The only hard
part is figuring out which way is easier. You know,
(20:42):
it's time for our man. That's right, Lamar Mitchell, MGM
Graham Race and sportsbook director. Lamar, what's up, buddy? How
you doing, Rob good? How you guys doing tonight? Doing
all right? Say hi to Aaron. Chris is a little
law under the weather today. So Aaron is in his stead.
(21:05):
Welcome eron, nice to talk to you, Thank you for
joining us. Lamar, All right, Lamar, let's get to it.
So we had two games postponed already this week Titans Bills,
Broncos Patriots due to COVID and right now still unsure
what's gonna happen to the Jets Cardinals game. As a
sports book director, how do you handle things like this
(21:30):
when there's so much uncertainty. It's just like this whole
COVID thing. You just gotta play it with the information
that you have. And just you know, once we get
some information, we take the game off. We get more information.
If we know we can put it back up, we'll
put it back up. But it's it's like you say,
it's it's you get some information, it's good or it's bad.
(21:51):
You just react to it and then go with it. Lamar,
speaking of handling certain things, how are you guys handling
the Kansas City Chiefs right now? Because it feels like
it doesn't matter what number you throw up. I mean,
they can put up so many points so fast. I mean,
it was a one possession game late against the Patriots,
middle of the fourth quarter, and then they end up
(22:12):
covering the eleven and a half or twelve by the
end of the game. How are you guys handling them?
A team that can seemingly score anytime they touched the ball.
They're much like the undefeated Patriots a few years back.
If you remember that team, that was a team that
the public was on the sharps are on. We try
to shade it as much as we possibly can to
(22:32):
get some buy back on the other side. But like
you said, it could be a one possession game and
then next you know, they're up by two. Three possessions
and a blink of an eye. So, like I said,
we basically try to shade it as high as we
can without it just being ridiculous. I mean, if you
remember some of the points press for the Patriots back
in the day, they were like seventeen point favorites, and
(22:53):
people are still betting the Patriots seventeen point favorite. And
that's what they're doing with the Chiefs too. Let's look
on looking on the board here, I see the Giants
Cowboys opened at Dallas minus eleven but has since been
bet all the way down to Dallas minus eight and
a half. How do you explain that movement? And was
(23:15):
it the Pros or the Joes that pushed that number down?
You know what, that's uh, we opened it a little
bit lighter than that, We opened it nine and a half.
But the Giants traditionally play the Cowboys Cup, so that
number is probably the right number. And you know, with
(23:35):
the way Dallas's defense has been playing, even though you're
going against Daniel Jones, he doesn't have a lot of
starts in his back pocket, but that would be mostly
sharp money buying that number down. Well, staying on that game. Also,
the over under jumped a staggering ten points from forty
(23:55):
four all the way up to fifty four. How often
do you see a jumped that big? And is this
a sign that the Giant or the Cowboys defense is
so bad that even the Giants are gonna be able
to move the ball on them. I mean, it's seriously
because the Giants only have three touchdowns I think right
all year. Traditionally it's it's one of those bad defenses
(24:17):
that is traditionally just a bad defense. But yeah, we
never see a jump like that in the in the
points or excuse me, in the total where they're going
up like ten points. This is yeah, obviously that's a
sign that the Giants, the public, the sharps think the
Giants will be able to move on the Cowboy defense.
The Cowboy defense hasn't proven that they can shut anybody
(24:38):
down all year. And we'll see what happens this week
with this game as well too. Our guest is Lamar
Mitchell from the MGM Grant. He runs a sports book.
There another game that stands out to me, Eagles and
the Steelers. I'm looking at the board here and I
see that the game opened at Pittsburgh minus seven with
the total of forty four. If I'm reading this right,
(25:01):
the line hasn't moved in either direction. Does that happen often?
Where the books set the perfect line and it doesn't.
It doesn't have to like alter it at all because
it's a pretty much fifty fifty split. That's what you
want to do. You want to make sure the line
you get get two way action on both sides. It
doesn't happen often because you know the Joes, they are
(25:23):
very opinionated, and the Sharps they'll they'll they'll bet you
on something that they consider a soft number. So typically, yeah,
I mean, the number usually is going to move off
of the opening number at some point. But like I said,
it doesn't really happen that much. But the Steelers here,
that might be the play here from the Joes because
they're betting the money on it. But we're still getting
some good buyback. On the Eagles. I want to say
(25:46):
this real quick, Aaron to jump in. I picked last night.
I picked the Bears to be Tampa Bay. You know,
I like the two and a half points at home,
but I did pick them, and I'm gonna pick the
Eagles to upset the Steelers. I'm just gonna put that
out there to win the game. Yep. Wow. Well we
uh here it was all Bucks money, but we had
(26:07):
a player that's been beating us pretty good the last
couple of weeks. He's gone nineteen and one in the
pros and he last night late money came in on
your Bears. So had he not coming on the Bears,
we would have won on that bet because everybody was
on the Bucks flat everybody. Yeah, because it looked like
it was going to be Tom Brady in the Bucks.
(26:28):
He was just the offensive player of the week right
in the NFC and all that go ahead, Aaron, No,
that's good. Follow up is what has the action been
like on the Bucks? I mean, obviously through the years,
the Patriots have been a very public team. Is the
Tom Brady effect hitting you guys in terms of people
really laying in on Bucks. We know they were for
the futures in the summer, but now that the games
are coming week to week, is everybody on the Bucks
(26:50):
all the time? Oh? Yeah? There, it's like New England South.
I mean it's Tom Brady TV twelve. They're betting him
like he's still on the Patriots because he's one of
the best quarterbacks of all time. I won't say he's
the greatest, some of us will my man, my man,
he's one of right right right, But yeah, they the
public's all over him like he's back in New England
(27:12):
so they don't care about his age. But yeah, they're
betting the Patriots South Tom Brady's Buccaneers, like he's still
on the Patriots. All right. Everyone is fired up Titans Bills.
But the game of the week is the Colts and
the Browns are three and one, and I think that
it could be a huge playoff implications down the road.
(27:35):
What kind of action are we seeing on this game?
And which side are the sharp song? Oh we're getting
great two way action on this, believe or not. No
sharp money. It's been all Joe money. I mean every
Joe is on the Browns. They just remember the last
thing that they saw, All Browns money, Baker, Mayfield, Beckham,
(27:57):
that's all they're on. That's that's all they're on. I mean,
money is all on the Browns. And the ticket accounts
about three to one on the Browns. So we haven't
seen any sharp money yet on this game. But like
I say, it's heavily bet it's probably gonna be one
of our most heavily bet public games this weekend. So
Rob mentioned the Tennessee Titans a minute ago, pushback all
the way to Tuesday. I know you mentioned that you're
(28:19):
just adjusting on the fly as this stuff comes. But
how about the fact that they're gonna go two full
weeks plus without playing? I mean, how does that affect
how you impact how does it impact the line? Oh? Yeah, absolutely.
I mean we'll look at that and we'll shape the
number because they haven't hit anybody in about two weeks.
They haven't had any practices. They might be fresh, but
(28:39):
you know, when you don't get a chance to hit
and wrap up, that's gonna cause some problems when you're
playing against the Bills and mister what's the quarterback's name,
mister Allen and his crew. So we'll shape the number
a little bit higher on the Bills because they have
had some game action live action, and the Titans haven't.
The last one. Jimmy Gee's gonna be back under center
(29:03):
for the forty nine is this Sunday against the Dolphins. Now,
we all kind of expected him to play this week,
but I don't think Kyle Shannaham confirmed anything until earlier today.
Did the line move at all after the announcement or
were you guys kind of expecting him to play. We
were expecting him to play. And if I look right now,
that number we have it nine. So yeah, we're expecting
(29:27):
him to play Dolphins. You know, even with fixed matches,
they'll they'll put up a good fight. But you know
this Niners team, when they have a healthy quarterback, they're
a better team in this matchup. All right, Lamar Mitchell
from the MGM Grant as always my man, thank you
for your insight, and we'll see you next week. All right,
(29:49):
see you next week. I have a good weekend, guys.
Good luck with your wagers. Yeah, thank Lamar. Yeah, Lamar
is the man, no doubt about. I'm going to Vegas
next week and I'll we'll check out the MGM Grant
and Lamar all right. More to come on the Odd
Couple with Aaron Towards and for Chris Broussard. Uh. That's
all coming up on Fox Sports Radio. Stick and stay America.
(30:10):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at foxsports radio
dot Com and within the iHeartRadio app search f SR
to listen live. All right, it is the Odd Couple
of Fox Sports Radio on a funky flashback Friday. Rob
Parker and Aaron Torres in for Chris Boussard. We're wishing
(30:33):
Chris well, hopefully he'll be back with us on Monday.
And we're coming to you live from the Geico Fox
Sports Radio Studios. And you know it's Friday. It's that time.
You know what time it is, time for the NFL
pig Skin Pickoff. I retire. The Odd Couple is gonna
make you rich gambling corruption picks their pigskin pickoff. That's right,
(30:56):
he did the Pigskin pickof where we pick NFL games
against the spread. Quick update on the NBA Finals Game five,
Lakers down nine. What here talking about? Quarter? But the
big story Anthony Davis left the game grabbing. It looked
like he was grabbing his achilles, so Twitter was freaking out.
It was a non contact injury, they thought, but Lakers
are reporting Mike Coudell of the Lakers ad reaggravated a
(31:19):
right heel contusion. He got kicked right there and he
is available to return, but he's just not on the floor.
Right now. Now, that is just that's like a nightmare
for a Laker. I couldn't breathe for a bit there.
She's it was like when you you have like a
cough and then you go on web md and you
find out that it's like lung cancer, like like you
know what, right, that's why you don't do that. I don't.
(31:39):
I refuse to do that because it scares the heck
out of you. You am I right, you go to
find out was like I gotta bump on my shoulder,
Oh I have kids or oh my god, you know,
like and it turned out it was like a mosquito bite.
But yeah, exactly like that. So thankfully doesn't look like
he Achilles to say he is available to return, so
we keep an eye on that. But again we're picking
NFL games against the spread. Chris sent me his picks
(32:01):
from his deathbed. Hopefully he'll be okay by Monday. Yes,
before we can go forward, we gotta look back. Rob
Parker's struggling. I'm struggling the last couple of weeks two
and three last week, but hey, you know what, Chris
went went in for sty You're still winning and you
are still picking sixty percent winners on the season. I
really yep that nine and one start, man, that Ara
(32:22):
nine and one to start the NFL. Let's just not
talking about that three and seven since then. All right,
here we go, we're picking five games against the spread.
We're gonna get started my Raiders traveling to Kansas City.
You're taking on the Chiefs. Chiefs twelve point home favorites.
Chris has the Raiders to cover in this one, Rob,
what do you like? I'm gonna take the Raiders to
cover as well at twelve points. We've seen the Raiders
(32:45):
score some points this year, right, I'm gonna and the
Chiefs offense has been okay, but like Patrick Mahomes is
like the eighth ranked quarterback? Am I right? Something like that?
Rob g he hadn't been lightening it up. I'm gonna
go with the Raiders plus twelve. I'm gonna go with
the Chiefs only because of what I just asked Lamar
(33:07):
Mitchell last segment, which is it doesn't matter how much
they're behind or what the score is, they just figure
out a way to put up points late. They were
they were only up three late in the game against
the Patriots. They ended up winning by sixteen, So I
think it's the same. I think they kind of fumble around,
play around the first quarter, quarter and a half, and
then they roll late. All right, we keep it moving.
(33:28):
Game number two the La Rams seven point road favorites
taken on Washington. You don't see the road favorites that
big too often. Chris got the Rams, Rod, what do
you like? That is a big? That's a lot, but
it's a lot of points. I noticed starting a new
quarterback and the whole change in their defense. Washington's defense
(33:51):
is too good. I'm gonna take Washington plus to seven.
I'm with Rob. I wanted to make sure this was right,
but I looked it up. Third trip to the East
coast already for the Rams. They look completely flat last
week against the Giants, survived that game. I've been underwhelmed.
I think they can win, but seven points. Flying across
country for the third time in five weeks. I like
(34:12):
the I liked Washington. The cover Pigs can pick off
the akaball Fox Sports Radio. Game number three, the Eagles
traveling and take on Pittsburgh minus seven home favorites for
the Steelers. Chris has the Eagles. I believe Rob. Think
you got the Eagles too, right, I do. I have
the Eagles. I'll take the plus seven. I think they
win this game. I think it's one of those and
the Steelers are will be rusty. I haven't played right.
(34:35):
I'm gonna go with the Eagles in this. I'm actually
gonna go Steelers. I'm not overwhelmed by the Eagles winning
against the JV team in San Francisco last weekend fly
back across country. The Steelers. I think coming with extra
rest probably helps them. I do like the Steelers to
cover the touchdown at home. Aaron's a contrarian. I love it.
(34:55):
Game number four, Rob Parkers Jackson val Jacksonville Jaguar taken
on the Bill O'Brien les Houston Texans Texans five and
a half point home favorites. Chris has taken the Texans
on this one. Rob, would you like the Texans have
some talent? I can't believe did this bad. I think
they win the game and they covered the five and
(35:17):
a half. Just I just don't think they're gonna start
oh and five and lose another home I just I
just think DeShawn Watson can win you a game. I'm
gonna say he wins the game by seven points, and
it covers the spread. I'm not being a contrarian for
the sake of contrarian, but I've seen what Romeo Cornell does. Okay,
we're not exactly talking about Bill Belichick two point zero here.
(35:39):
I do think the Jacks cover the Texans. I do think.
I just don't think they have that much talent. I
think Deshaun Watson's really good. JJ Watts a big name.
I just don't think they're very good football team right now.
All right, last game we're picking NFL Week five update.
Anthony Davis answering back into the game. He looks like
he's okay. Lakers still down nine though. Game five, the
Giants traveling to take on the Dallas Cowboys and that
(36:02):
horrible defense. Dallas minus eight and a half point, the
home favorite. Chris, of course has the Cowboys. Always bet
in the Cowboys, Rob what do you like in this one?
The Giants have three touchdowns all year. Danny Dimes is
Danny Pennies. They don't have any kind of running I
just where are they gonna muster the offense? The Cowboys
(36:22):
have been an embarrassment. They win by two touchdowns over
the Giants. I'm taking the Cowboys minus eight and a half. Yeah,
I'm with Rob on this one. I think the other
thing too. It's been talked about this week, but Jason
Garrett's on the other sideline, and they want to prove
he was the problem, not them. I think I don't
think he was as big of a problem as people
made him out to be. We're seeing it with Mike McCarthy.
(36:43):
But I think for one week, the players are fired up,
and as Rob said, they're just going up against a really, really,
really bad football team right now. And there it days
the pigskin pick off. Get rich ladies and gentlemen, buy
yourself a boat with these Rob Parker pits, not the
Chris Frossard ones. Aaron might do well too, but rocks
so'st sixty percent And where is Chris so far? Yeah? See,
(37:05):
there we go dominant, And all he ever talks about
ere it is I picked the Super Bowl in the
last two years. He picks the favorite every year and
then he wants a cookie for picking the favorite. Oh,
I picked the Chiefs. You know, like, oh, thanks, you
really went out, You really went out on a limb
right there? You like the twenty seventy Yankees too. Huh yeah, yeah,
I bet you were picking on them that offseason. He's
(37:26):
one of those guys. But Aaron Man, nice job. Thank
you fulfilling in for Chris. We appreciate you. Appreciate you
having me. What you got up for the weekend? Anything good?
Just watching football baby, all weekend long. All right, it
is the odd couple. Download the podcast and we'll see
you again on Monday for another week stick and stay Aberga.
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