January 12, 2026 • 41 mins
Ray Zawodni is in town for the Steelers playoff game tonight and he's hanging out with us live in-studio all morning.
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Speaker 1 (00:12):
W dv E, Pittsburgh, an iHeartRadio station, guaranteed human.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Here's a snap, here's the hole, here's the foot by Luke,
and that kick.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
Is glue Mistan and you're Pittsburgh Steelers are sid Nor Chippings.
Speaker 4 (00:45):
And with that miss kick last week against the Ravens,
Steelers Nation is reinvigorated in a way that I didn't
think was going to be possible.
Speaker 5 (00:55):
The noise you've heard all year seems.
Speaker 4 (00:58):
To have been eclipsed by a found hope that Mike
Tomlin might have this team with Aaron Rodgers in the lead,
on the path of restoring what was once great about
Steeler Nation, which was the possibility of a Super Bowl
run each and every year. Raizwatneys sitting in studio with
us this morning. He's festudent his Steeler gear. I've got
(01:20):
my Steeler hat and shirt. I regret that I had
a hoodie that did not make it through the weekend,
and I was not ready to go uh in that regard.
But everybody I see has just Steeler gear hanging outside
of their house.
Speaker 5 (01:34):
That's all he wants talking about.
Speaker 4 (01:35):
My eighty four year old mom said she is so
nervous for tonight. Every little kid, you know, is on
pins and needles. I don't remember it being quite like
this in Week one of the playoffs.
Speaker 5 (01:49):
In all of those years that we were.
Speaker 4 (01:50):
Used to making runs in the postseason, there was a yeah,
it's the wild card and it's a drag that we
didn't get a buy this week, but you know, we'll
slum it with the regular folk, I guess in the.
Speaker 5 (02:04):
Wildcad week, and then we'll move on to the divisional playoffs.
And now it's like, oh my god, Aaron Rodgers actually
might get us a win. Ray. It feels like there's
a real chance.
Speaker 6 (02:15):
That's what I'm like, Yes, and it's not one of
those like ten point spreads I feel like we've had
in the last few where we're just supposed to get
destroyed or we like.
Speaker 4 (02:24):
Yeah, you know, well, like two years ago, it was
Mason leading you into Baltimore OLYMPI. I mean, you know,
they had to win those three games to get into
the postseason, and then he squeaks past Baltimore in a
rain storm to get us in and nobody had any
real hope that Buffalo was a juggernaut then, and there
was not a lot of hope that was gonna happen.
But Mason, you know, performed admirably. The following year was
(02:48):
the Russell Wilson beat down. It was really the defense
that got beat down by the Ravens last year. And
since I don't know what is eight years since we've
won a playoff game, apparently.
Speaker 5 (03:00):
The first couple I think we could deal with.
Speaker 4 (03:02):
But after that point it's just been hard to get
any sort of positive feelings about the Steelers.
Speaker 6 (03:09):
Like everybody on the same page. Now we can do it.
It's been constant in fighting with the fans.
Speaker 4 (03:14):
It got to the point where they chanted fire Matt
Canada in every business in town. Got that guy fire,
and then the fire Tomlin chance this year. That was
the point of departure that had never happened before.
Speaker 5 (03:30):
You heard it in the stadium like a couple people
here and there, but the unison was I heard it
on the TV. Yeah, crazy, no discord, unlike anything we've
seen before. Abby.
Speaker 4 (03:40):
But now, but now it might all be fixed with
a win over the Houston Texans at home at Akrosher
Stadium in the freezing cold temperatures where CJ. Stroud's one
to three under the temperature of forty degrees that I
do love that burg.
Speaker 6 (04:00):
He can't handle the cold. Yeah, and we have no hit,
Like it's weird. We have no history with like the Texans.
I feel like in the playoffs, like it's it's strange,
like every other team Boilers would have been. Yeah, which
are the Titans now they're not the Texans. Every other
team I'm looking at, I'm like, oh, I got beef
with this team because of something that happened.
Speaker 5 (04:17):
But the Texans, I'm just like I kind of like them. Yeah,
I don't mind them. I don't have hatred yet. Yes,
that and that's the worst.
Speaker 4 (04:24):
You can develop it very quick with you know, having
getting beaten.
Speaker 5 (04:28):
It's like the Jaguars.
Speaker 4 (04:29):
Somebody cared about the Jaguars until they started destroying our
playoff hopes every year.
Speaker 5 (04:33):
True, we'll talk to me at nine pm.
Speaker 6 (04:35):
We'll see how much I hate the Texans.
Speaker 5 (04:39):
Well, either way, I hope not.
Speaker 4 (04:42):
I hope it's one of those we sail past them
and we're like, Okay, good for those guys. You know what,
It's a good organization. That's the talk I hope we're having.
You know, it's a great coach, good organization. You know what,
they'll figure it out one day. They'll be good in
five years. Yeah, they might touch a super Bowl in
five years. Yeah, that's the conversation I want to have
tomorrow watching those games this weekend.
Speaker 6 (05:03):
Are you kidding me? They It put me down.
Speaker 4 (05:07):
A rabbit hole. Ray, I was telling Abby about this.
There's this whole rabbit hole of the NFL being rigged.
It's scripted, which I always thought was like just.
Speaker 5 (05:19):
A comical sort of passing notion that people have.
Speaker 4 (05:22):
Yeah, this is this is rigged. The rest called they
know who Vegas has the money on and everything, And
then I got into the rabbit hole.
Speaker 5 (05:31):
It is in depth.
Speaker 4 (05:34):
It's crazy how many people think that there is this
vast conspiracy to rig NFL games.
Speaker 5 (05:40):
Well, do you have a gambling problem? Yes?
Speaker 6 (05:41):
Okay, no, no, I know, okay my problem, yeah, my problem.
Speaker 4 (05:47):
What I mean to say is I've been gambling my
entire life. Yes, football gambling is what brought me and
my dad, my brothers together.
Speaker 5 (05:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (05:56):
Yeah, well that's the So I think I've had that
conspiracy for a like you have that it hits your
head every time you like lose by a half a point. Akay,
the you know, the over right yeah it's weak, but yeah,
it's I know, God, everything was so close.
Speaker 4 (06:12):
Yeah, I rolled with Chicago and the over on that one,
which was delightful. Uh, but the the Rams and the
Panthers game, I mean, people had to be going crazy
on that one.
Speaker 5 (06:24):
And last two minutes I knew San Francisco.
Speaker 4 (06:28):
Was gonna win for Bob where I knew that was
going to happen Buffalo, I didn't know if they were
gonna pull it out or not.
Speaker 5 (06:33):
But when they did, that's when I really thought, oh boy,
the Steelers.
Speaker 4 (06:37):
The Steelers are going to get a home game against Buffalo,
and we can beat Buffalo because they're kind of slappy
and the Jags just totally gave that one away. I
didn't end up seeing the final score last next I
fell asleep, but I know the Patriots won.
Speaker 5 (06:48):
They started pouring it on them at the end. Did
they like.
Speaker 4 (06:53):
Well, you know, sometimes I just want to be like,
take the points. I know everyone likes to go for
it on fourth down, but maybe in the playoffs you
should take the points.
Speaker 6 (07:02):
And right away the Chargers put themselves in a hole
by fourth and goal from like the two yard line,
they get stuffed and you kick a field goal.
Speaker 5 (07:12):
There on your first drive of the night. I don't know,
maybe things look different. Little momentum that.
Speaker 6 (07:16):
Was everybody this weekend. Everyone was rolling the dice. Everybody
does all the time.
Speaker 4 (07:21):
But they were all entertaining games, that's for sure, although
some of them were like you were waiting around for
stuff to happen and then they were insane fourth quarters.
Speaker 5 (07:28):
Yeah, that Chicago game.
Speaker 6 (07:31):
If you're a Chicago Bears fan, Wow, you have got
to be pretty excited about Caleb Williams right now. He
was doing ben stuff, is what I told someone. Yeah,
that's funny. It was the fourth and seven, was it?
Speaker 4 (07:43):
And I mean one of the craziest throws postseason or not,
that I've ever seen. It's season on the line, with
everything that was on the line for that throw, the
pressure on that throw, like had to be one of
the best we've seen in the last couple of years.
Speaker 5 (08:00):
Calling him ice Man in Chicago, mice Man.
Speaker 4 (08:04):
My brother lived in Chicago for a long time and
I was watching the game with him and we hit
both bet on the Bears and I was like, here's
the thing.
Speaker 5 (08:12):
I do think the Bears are gonna win.
Speaker 4 (08:13):
I'm like, but he drives me crazy because as he start,
you know, I know Ben Johnson has got him playing great,
but he's still got some of those tendencies that make
me like crazy when he just does stupid things and.
Speaker 6 (08:27):
He's like, no, man, he's he's He's Michael Jordan, and
I'm like.
Speaker 5 (08:31):
He's not. He's not Michael Jordan. You can't say that.
Speaker 4 (08:34):
So I'm like argued with my brother and then I'm
on the bet with him, and every time something goes wrong,
I'm like, what I tell you, you know, And I'm like
constantly yelling when Caleb Williams when he fumbled the one time,
I'm like.
Speaker 5 (08:44):
He shouldn't be holding the ball like that.
Speaker 4 (08:46):
You see what I'm saying, you know. And I'm just
looking for a reason to hate the guy. But my god,
it is hard to argue he's come so far under
that coach.
Speaker 5 (08:54):
Who is a lunatic.
Speaker 4 (08:55):
By the way, his postseason speech or post game speech, Oh,
Ben Johnson.
Speaker 5 (09:00):
I f and hate the Packers.
Speaker 6 (09:02):
He ran past Matt Lafleur did the drive by handshake,
which people are like, that's completely disrespectful.
Speaker 4 (09:09):
I'm like, he just something I don't know. I guess
you're allowed to do whatever. You want high five the dude.
Speaker 7 (09:14):
That's always how they shake hands, like they did, like
a remix of every time they shake each other they
hate each other.
Speaker 5 (09:19):
Yeah, oh yeah.
Speaker 6 (09:20):
When he got there, that's what he said, something like
I look forward to beating the Packers twice a year.
Speaker 5 (09:25):
And they asked Matt Lafleur about it. He was like,
I don't even know this guy.
Speaker 4 (09:28):
He Matt Leafloor. Did he said, I enjoy beating Matt
Lafleur twice.
Speaker 6 (09:32):
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah yeah, And then Lafleur tried to
do the Don Draper.
Speaker 5 (09:37):
I don't even think of you, you know, but that's
we know that's not true. He's so mean to me. Well,
we definitely know it ain't true now, man.
Speaker 4 (09:47):
So a fun weekend games to build up to tonight's
eight fifteen kickoff for the Steelers.
Speaker 5 (09:51):
Michael.
Speaker 4 (09:51):
Have more on that coming up a little bit later
on this morning. We'll talk with Charlie Batch, Jerry Dulac. Also,
you know, in the world of rock and roll, Bob
Weirs pass that was quite a big deal with.
Speaker 5 (10:01):
A group of people I was with.
Speaker 6 (10:02):
I was with a bunch of Deadheads on Saturday night
and we just listened to Bob Weir and the Wolf Brothers,
The Dad all night.
Speaker 4 (10:11):
We listened to nothing but Bob Weir all night. That
not that it was shocking, it was still unexpected.
Speaker 7 (10:18):
I wanted to start with that in news and I
was going to give the reins over to you just
because like that actually did shock me, because I knew
he was sick. But there was also something about Bob
Weir that, like, you know, he was kind of.
Speaker 5 (10:36):
Indestructible to me, I don't know.
Speaker 4 (10:38):
Like so it's like Dylan, Yeah, yeah, you just don't
think they're ever going to die. Paul McCartney with Weird
the shows they did in Golden Gate Park this past summer.
Speaker 5 (10:47):
He was clearly not very strong.
Speaker 4 (10:51):
And this is a guy that we'd been watching literally
post his workouts on social media for the last few years,
and he was doing stuff that most seventy seven year
olds couldn't do. So you always assumed, like, oh, no,
Bob's gonna live forever. He's like doing a health He's
not one of those guys. He stopped doing drugs a
long time ago, but he had cancer and nobody knew
about it, and so that's why his performance seemed so stalted.
(11:14):
At Golden Gate Park, and he had a hard time
singing and just bringing the energy.
Speaker 5 (11:20):
And now everybody knows why.
Speaker 4 (11:22):
But he's such a complex guy because he was like
the little brother in the band and then had to
become the dad, and so people weren't sure if he
was going to be able to carry the flame, but
he never doubted it at all, and he just kept
going NonStop. And if you think about it, the Grateful
(11:45):
Dad invented their own canon of music. It is literally
a collection of music that stands separate from everything else
in the tradition of all Americana.
Speaker 5 (11:58):
There's countless tribune bands to the dead.
Speaker 4 (12:01):
Not in the way that there's like, oh, we're a
Kiss tribute band or something. It's like, hey, we're having
mass over here today. If you guys need or like
a meeting, you know, did you need to go to
a meeting today? Here's your group.
Speaker 5 (12:15):
It is.
Speaker 4 (12:15):
The fellowship of that group of people is really the
cornerstone of what makes it so great. And that's something
I think he always realized, and he constantly talked about
the music lasting well beyond his time on this earth,
and three hundred years is the timeline he keeps using
or had kept using in interviews. But he was an
unbelievable songwriter. He became a great player, But he has
(12:40):
Jerry Garcia in the band. So what do you do.
You're not a league guitar player. You have to play
rhythm guitar for Jerry Garcia. Well, I'm gonna set the
best platform I possibly can for him to be this.
Speaker 5 (12:49):
Badass guitar player. How do I do that?
Speaker 4 (12:51):
Oh, I'll study jazz piano players and learn how the
guys you play underneath Miles Davis play And that's what
he did. He listened to McCoy tyner and he figured out, Oh,
if I do these kind of complex courtings, Jerry's gonna
have a whole world to draw from. The palette that
I'll set for him will be vast. So that was
kind of a big point of departure for that band
(13:12):
from all the other San Francisco, you know, flower Power
era bands, and then you know they went in the
direction that they did. After Jerry's death, it very easily
could have just fallen apart, and he he and Phil
both played a big role in making sure that it
moved forward. But Bobby, in the last fifteen years, what
Dean company did. I've got issues with from a money
(13:35):
grab standpoint, it's weird to be paying three hundred.
Speaker 6 (13:38):
And fifty dollars face value tickets to see anything Grateful
Dead related. But I also felt like he deserved to
cash in for his family at that point because the
Dead never got rich while Jerry was alive until Touch
of Gray, and then they had some success and they
were like, what's going on? And they were always this
a successful touring act, you know, like when the Totals
(14:00):
came in at the end of the concert season. The
Dead was always up top, but they had like two
hundred employees.
Speaker 5 (14:06):
They were a moving village.
Speaker 4 (14:09):
And also they did the most ridiculous business organizational plan.
It was a democracy that everybody got an equal vote,
so like if you were a I don't know, a secretary,
your vote in what the band did mattered as much
as the drummers, you know.
Speaker 8 (14:29):
I like that.
Speaker 6 (14:30):
Yeah, They're like, now this is We're all part of
the family, So everybody's vote matters equally, which I.
Speaker 5 (14:37):
Think has benefits and also.
Speaker 6 (14:40):
Some things that some hurdles that might have been tough
to get over from time to time, when you know,
when the Secretary's going, I don't think you should play
Dark Star tonight. You know, it's like I don't know
if you get a vote, miss. But Bob Weir was
He was a great player.
Speaker 4 (14:55):
He was one of the best sidemen ever and then became,
you know, a lead of a band of many different
iterations of the band. But it was all in service
of that music, the music that inspired what they did,
and he was a selfless guy. I talked to Scott
Murders from the Postcause that about it, and he threw
(15:15):
some quotes in that I gave him yesterday.
Speaker 6 (15:17):
I talked about what a great song rutter he was,
but it was his tenacity that is the story. He
never stopped playing. And I believe someone said bb King
has more gigs than him. It's hard for me to
believe someone who started playing in a band the size
of the Grateful Dead at the age of seventeen and
played all the way till he was almost eighty and
(15:39):
never stopped playing and never took a year off in
all those years.
Speaker 5 (15:43):
That anybody played two more people than that person.
Speaker 7 (15:46):
I'd love to see the numbers on that, because you're right,
it's not just the Grateful.
Speaker 4 (15:49):
Dead It's It's Bobby and the Midnights, the Wolf Brothers,
further rat Dog. There's a million different iterations that he
went out in and he never stopped. When Jerry died,
he talked about the fact that he just took off.
He's like, yeah, no, I just said, well, let's let's
hit the road.
Speaker 8 (16:07):
That's what Jerry would want.
Speaker 5 (16:08):
And then that's what I did because he'd do the same.
And you can put him at the top of that leaderboard.
Speaker 6 (16:14):
I don't know every Okay, think about it, like, you
know what comedian has done more shows than anybody.
Speaker 4 (16:20):
Yeah, and you have to think of somebody who had
success at an early age. And then people were being
like argumentative with me about it, and they're like, oh, well,
there's jazz musicians who play their entire life like three
and four times a week.
Speaker 6 (16:30):
I'm like, yeah, well, that's just not the scope of
what we're talking about here.
Speaker 5 (16:33):
I'm saying the guy was playing.
Speaker 9 (16:34):
At the Pyramids in Egypt, you know, and then going
over and playing huge theaters in France and it did
not stop for him ever.
Speaker 5 (16:44):
Like it's a crazy run that he had.
Speaker 4 (16:49):
Every outdoor barn like Starlake and Alpine Valley every summer.
Speaker 5 (16:53):
He was in all of them every summer, almost never
took any time off.
Speaker 6 (17:00):
And that's why, regardless of his health, you're still surprised
because it's like, I mean, somebody with that longevity, you
just never expect them.
Speaker 4 (17:05):
Yeah, it seems so vibrant, right. The sadness was palpable.
The group of people I was with was just like,
and it was my birthday, you know, because I was
like I was.
Speaker 5 (17:16):
It hit me hard that it was your birthday when
it happened.
Speaker 4 (17:20):
Well, and I was with a group of people that
I grew up with in my hometown and we all
grew up dead heads, you know, and so we were
all like looking at each other.
Speaker 5 (17:28):
Like, oh my god, this sucks. And they kept saying,
I'm sorry it's on your birthday.
Speaker 6 (17:33):
And I was like, I don't think you guys understand,
Like I'm not sad about this. Every year from now on,
on my birthday, I get to listen to the dead.
Speaker 4 (17:44):
You're gonna celebrate catching any flag from anybody to listening
to something else with the Dead's Like no, no, no,
it's Bobby's you know, it's the anniversary of Bobby's passing.
So you know he wasn't you know, he wasn't a
flaw a sky or anything.
Speaker 5 (18:01):
But it's hard to believe he's gone.
Speaker 4 (18:03):
When he did the John Mayer thing, I got really
mad at Bob as a fan, I'm like, why are
you doing? This is the antithesis and a lot of
what the sphere shows and the big scope of all
of that. The money grab it seemed to me to
be the antithesis of what they stood for. And then
if you look into it, a lot of times this
(18:24):
is probably true of a lot of different.
Speaker 5 (18:27):
Like passions that people have.
Speaker 4 (18:31):
You're projecting what you want it to be onto it,
as opposed to what it is and what it's always been.
You know, there are people who project politics onto the
rayful death. They're almost always wrong, you know, like Jerry
would have never dealt with, never put up with what's
going on in the world. Well, Jerry was a libertarian
(18:53):
of a nihilistic degree, who is basically like, hey, if
you burn it down, you burn it down.
Speaker 5 (18:57):
That's cool.
Speaker 4 (18:58):
Yeah, But people are like, no, you put a flower
and his guitar. No he didn't, that was not him,
you know. And the spear.
Speaker 5 (19:04):
Oh, Jerry would have hated this fear and the.
Speaker 4 (19:06):
Money grabs Like Jerry loved sci fi more than anybody.
He was constant. He wrote a sci fi novel with
Tom Davis from Saturday Night Live. Franken Al Frankin's writing partner. Like,
they're almost never what you think. These things you love
entirely what you want to project on. So I'm like, okay,
(19:26):
pretend to know, right. So I'm like, Okay, he wants
to get John Mayer in the band, I'll give it
a chance.
Speaker 5 (19:32):
But I hated it.
Speaker 4 (19:33):
I was so pissed that he was doing that because
I'm like, this guy's the biggest douchebag. And then I
went and saw it at Star, Like the first time
I came through, I'm like, that was really good.
Speaker 8 (19:43):
He was really good.
Speaker 4 (19:44):
It's really good, Okay, And then I softened and by
the time I saw them the last four or five
times I saw them, and I went to Wrigley for
those shows after the debacle here at Starlake, and I
went by myself. I mean, I met my nieces and
because I just had a chance to go and I'm like,
I'm out, I'm going. And then I just called up
some friends and rolled into a group of people where
(20:04):
I only knew one people, but then had a great
time with thirty people I just met, because that's what
those shows are all about.
Speaker 5 (20:11):
And I was all the way in at that point.
Speaker 4 (20:13):
I was talking a big cat about it, and I'm like,
cause he's a big dead head too.
Speaker 6 (20:16):
I was like, I never thought I would be this
in on John Mayer playing these Grateful Dead songs. He's like,
it's incredible, and you have to think Bobby knew exactly.
Speaker 5 (20:25):
Bobby knew this is the best way to service the music.
Speaker 4 (20:27):
I don't care if you guys don't dig it at first,
and then it became as big as anything the Grateful
Dead did.
Speaker 5 (20:33):
The Dead and Company.
Speaker 6 (20:35):
Now that caused so much controversy in that world because
there were people who absolutely hated Dead and Company.
Speaker 4 (20:42):
Would never budge it's not as good as a real thing.
Yeah it's not. It's completely different. But to me, it
was all in service to the music. And I got
to go and hear those songs and I got to
be like that group of people, and that's what it
is all about for me. And if John Mayer's there
being a douchebag, well, then John Mayer's they're being a douchebag,
but his playing was insanely inspired. Well, that's kind of
(21:02):
the same thing about people projecting their own opinion on it,
like they were like, no, Jerry Garcia would have never
wanted this John Mayer do, And.
Speaker 6 (21:10):
It's like, who knows. I mean, it's still like, like
you said, still providing the same.
Speaker 8 (21:13):
Vibe that you had.
Speaker 4 (21:14):
Yeah, I mean Jerry would wear a black T shirt
that didn't really fit and we all do that, jeans
on the stage.
Speaker 8 (21:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (21:21):
He looked like Mark Madden going on the stage. Yeah,
And Bob by the end.
Speaker 6 (21:24):
Was wearing like designer cloaks and things in his cowboy
He a whole aesthetic.
Speaker 4 (21:30):
It was a lot different, but the music never suffered.
In fact, it got better. And he was the most
selfless guy on stage, and it was always about servicing
the song, and he embodied This is the last thing
I'll say about it.
Speaker 5 (21:45):
I'm sorry I went so long.
Speaker 4 (21:46):
He embodied the character of the song. He was singing
as good or better than anybody. And if you're an
aspiring singer rock singer, pardon me. The one lesson to
take away from him is that dude lived in every
one of those songs.
Speaker 5 (22:02):
So he would like in Jack Straw. He is the
guy in Jack Straw. He's living that movie out as
he is singing it.
Speaker 4 (22:11):
And he always talked about how he needed that in
order to perform, and it separated him and he was
one of one like that. I think in a way
that that because he had all of these other tools, uh,
in addition to that. So it was it was a
tough one. I mean, we talked about Bob all night.
I was also bleeding profusely from having cut my hand.
Speaker 5 (22:30):
Well, you were mayoring it, John mayered it. Yeah, so
I've got a big you know.
Speaker 6 (22:35):
I mean I dropped a bowl on my hand and
it was glass and it smashed and ripped up my finger.
Speaker 5 (22:40):
So it was hard to have people listen to me
about bub Weird.
Speaker 7 (22:44):
Well you're kill Bill gushing blood everywhere.
Speaker 4 (22:48):
Bob.
Speaker 6 (22:49):
Yeah, I'm like put on the Wolf Brothers from Ashville
in twenty twenty.
Speaker 5 (22:53):
One and they're like, go to the Eyaw. That's basically
what happened to me.
Speaker 6 (22:59):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (22:59):
So we'll we will talk to Alan Paul, who wrote
for Rolling Stone magazine.
Speaker 5 (23:03):
About Bob Weir and Bob Weir's passing.
Speaker 4 (23:06):
That'll be at eight o'clock today, Michael be in next
with your Sports as we get set for tonight's kickoff
eight fifteen Steelers and the Houston Texans. And it was
all because of that miss field goal that we were
talking about at the top of the hour, Tyler Loup.
We had Patrick Queen on the show on Friday, and
I asked him when did he know it didn't go in?
Because when I watched the replay, well I watched it
(23:27):
nine thousand times, he didn't look at it.
Speaker 5 (23:31):
Do you remember the moment you became aware it was
no good?
Speaker 6 (23:34):
Yeah?
Speaker 10 (23:35):
I remember, like I'll just like sitting there look at
her like I know everybody likes saying like they got
like a jum try at the end of the stadium
and stuff. And I wasn't even looking at that, like
I was looking straight like everything was blurry. And I
remember Peyton just like running and grabbing me like he missed,
he missed.
Speaker 5 (23:49):
Miss crazy in the stadium just erupted, right, it.
Speaker 10 (23:54):
Was crazy, Like I didn't because it was a lot
of fans from both sides. But when they erupted, I
have a clue what thought it was. All I remember
was running them like missed he did.
Speaker 4 (24:06):
And now the Steelers are hosting a Wildcard playoff game
eight fifteen tonight.
Speaker 5 (24:11):
It's the Steelers in the Texans on DV.
Speaker 1 (24:14):
Live from the Don's Appliances Studios where Pittsburgh shops for appliances.
Speaker 5 (24:18):
This is w DDE Pittsburgh.
Speaker 1 (24:22):
Wherever you go or whatever you're doing, you're never too
far from your hometown station.
Speaker 5 (24:28):
Good Tunes on DV or keeping us going.
Speaker 1 (24:30):
We are streaming on all your devices. Just save us
as a pre set on the free iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 8 (24:37):
From the Seedon Hill University Weather Center. Schedule your campus
visit today. This report a sponsored by Flynn's Tire and
Auto Service.
Speaker 5 (24:46):
It's gonna be cloudy the morning.
Speaker 4 (24:48):
And also Mike Pursuder now with your sports and sorry,
I needed to get all that Bob Weir stuff out.
Speaker 8 (24:53):
Yeah, appreciate it. Start for your loss man.
Speaker 4 (24:55):
Yeah, it was nice how many people reached out to me.
I felt like about three people. I know that's into
the dead, like I'm into Springsteen. Yeah, I feel your pain.
Speaker 5 (25:04):
Well, like I was explaining, And.
Speaker 6 (25:08):
You know, I don't think it's the same thing with
Springsteen with Bob, like his work is done, you know.
Speaker 5 (25:13):
So I felt.
Speaker 8 (25:14):
As Bruce's of any consequence.
Speaker 4 (25:17):
No, because there's no I don't know. I'm not sure
Bruce's music goes on without his voice. You know, I'm
gonna hear Grateful Dead songs the rest of my life
being performed by everybody.
Speaker 5 (25:26):
Will people cover Springsteen?
Speaker 8 (25:27):
Yeah, well, you be honest, Yeah, absolutely does not.
Speaker 11 (25:31):
Like Yeah, he needs him, he has He needs the
Street Band as much as they need him.
Speaker 5 (25:36):
Agreed, But without either one.
Speaker 4 (25:39):
Yeah, like your boy Ryan Church, my or Eric Church
might be like, hey, I'm gonna take the East Street
Band out and do a bunch of interesting Well what
I'm saying, But I.
Speaker 11 (25:51):
Mean, you know, they lost Danny Federich and they lost Clarence.
The show goes on. Yeah, but without Bruce, the show's over. Well,
you still have Bruce. So anyways, uh, fairly well, Bob we.
Speaker 8 (26:00):
Air Sports is have brought to you by Bridgeville Plains.
Speaker 11 (26:03):
It's the Steelers and the Houston Texans Tonight playoff football
at Actasher Stadium. The winner earns the right to play
the New England Patriots this coming Sunday.
Speaker 8 (26:14):
That game will be in New England. And I don't
know if.
Speaker 11 (26:17):
People are aware of the Steelers haven't won a playoff game.
Since the second week of the two thousand and sixteen postseason,
they are zero for six since that ties the longest
current such streak in the NFL, and it ties the
fourth longest such running utility in NFL history.
Speaker 8 (26:34):
Not that Aaron Rodgers cares.
Speaker 12 (26:38):
I care about winning. That's why I'm I'm here. That's
why I love the Monday to Saturday grind. And you know,
stats are what they are, The trends are what they are,
and those trends are Any trend is always meant to
be broken at some point, so hopefully we can do that.
Speaker 13 (26:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 11 (26:56):
Defensive coordinator Terrell Austin is one of many Steelers personnel
this past week who has maintained that the goal is
not to snap the streak tonight against the Texans. The
goal is to beat the Texans and win a Riot
game and advance toward a potential championship.
Speaker 8 (27:12):
The goal is also not to win one for TJ.
Speaker 11 (27:15):
Watt and Cam Hayward and the other veterans that have
been around for the bulk of this drought, if not
all of it. But that doesn't mean the Steelers won't
be following their leaders.
Speaker 14 (27:24):
Hayward in particular, you know, we've talked about that before
in terms of, you know, our best players are you
right now? For us, they've been there are best leaders
and our best examples for our guys.
Speaker 8 (27:36):
So they've they've always been that way.
Speaker 14 (27:39):
And so I mean I've seen that. Shoot, I watched
Cam chase guys all the time, and it's still to
me it amazes me. I watch him and you just
watch how he runs and how he plays, and you know,
there's young guys that don't do what he does, and
so he's a unicorn and in a lot of ways,
but he's also unicorn in terms of his demeanor and
(28:01):
leadership and all that other stuff. And I think that's
you know, we talked about it. We've got good leadership,
We've got good things. And I think that brings the
rest of your guys along all the way because they
know how much they cared. You know, they don't have that.
Your best players don't push stuff aside. It It means
a lot to them, and so I think that that
has a really good trickle down effect on everyone.
Speaker 11 (28:20):
Now, that's great stuff on Cam Hayward, who was named
second Team Ball Pro on Friday at thirty six years
of age, and deservedly so. But when I was listening
to Terra Austin speak there a couple of days ago,
it's stuck in my head. I never heard anybody pronounce
it unicord, and then he pronounced that unicorn the second
time he's talking about Cam's a unicord.
Speaker 8 (28:43):
What is a unicord?
Speaker 5 (28:45):
Well, there's there's a unicarrot, and you don't want to
confuse the two.
Speaker 11 (28:50):
As I mentioned All Pro second team for Hayward at
thirty six, and stop me if you've heard this one before,
an old guy walks into the playoffs if not a
bar Cam Hayward's fromamiliar with that one. Camp Thomas been
pretty public about briding you about your age from time
to time.
Speaker 8 (29:05):
Having some fun with TJ. Clture forty five after the
game the other night. This kind of stuff drive.
Speaker 10 (29:11):
You a little.
Speaker 13 (29:12):
Those two are getting up there in h two. Let's
not act like there's just some spring chickens.
Speaker 8 (29:17):
But is there a prove everybody wrong element to your play?
Speaker 13 (29:23):
Yeah? It's everybody versed me. Oh that's just how I am.
You know, I'm always looking for an extra notch, an
extra gear. And it's funny that my teammates and coaches
poking pride and on the other side of it.
Speaker 11 (29:42):
Stiller's in the Texans tonight report out of Houston from
Aaron Wilson. Backup quarterback Davis Mills of the Texans is
expected to join his team at some point today and
be available tonight. He did not travel with the team
yesterday due to a personal mat The Texans are a
nine game winning stick. The first three wins were with
(30:03):
Mills at quarterback, replacing CJ. Stroud, who had a concussion.
He is a very capable backup quarterback. Everybody else on
both sides, things are looking very good in terms of availability.
Texans are going to get the right tackle Trent Brown back,
presumably he has no injury designation after missing the last
(30:24):
two games. The Steelers don't have anybody on their list
with designation except defensive tackle Isaiah louder Milk, who still
has not been activated from injured reserve. Texans won't have
Tank Dell and Joe Mixon. Steelers won't have Broderick Jones
to Shaun Elliott, Darnell Washington, and Miles Kilber their IR guys.
But if you're not on IR, you're good to go
(30:45):
for this one and one matchup that really favors the Steelers,
and aren't there aren't many, if any other ones but
red zone when the Steelers have the ball. They're eleventh
in the league in red zone offense at fifty eight
point eight percent. And Texans, for all their defensive splendor
and their defense is spec splendor as acular, they're only
(31:06):
sixteenth in red zone at fifty six point eight. So
if the Steelers can get it into twenty, maybe they
got a chance to do some damage. That said, I
am just knocked off my chair at how insane NFL
coaches have become going forward on fourth down.
Speaker 5 (31:22):
It is an epidemic.
Speaker 4 (31:24):
As much as I like it from an entertainment value,
the stupidity factor of it at this point is absolutely baffling.
It's remarkable that and people are missing kicks right and
left all of a sudden. Remember early in the middle
of the season, guys are banging from sixteen and they
look like extra Now, Mike, if you went down the
rabbit hole I did, you would understand that this is
all part of the script that's being written.
Speaker 6 (31:48):
Well, there was like fifteen points left on the table
in last night's game.
Speaker 5 (31:51):
I feel like fourth down in the five.
Speaker 11 (31:54):
I mean Carolina started it up first game, first series.
They're inside their own thirty and they go for it.
Speaker 8 (31:59):
It'll get it. And then they gave the Rams a
short field besketball offense.
Speaker 10 (32:03):
In the lake. What do you do it?
Speaker 5 (32:04):
Yeah, I don't want understand it.
Speaker 15 (32:05):
I mean, I get you want to possess the ball
and keep it away. There's got to be a time
and a place. Well, I think there's a happy medium
for it. And I think that this is when you
do the analytics mixed with gut. It's important to.
Speaker 8 (32:16):
Own analytics is either all or nothing, though, right, I mean.
Speaker 4 (32:20):
Definitively yes, because if you're not playing the percentages, then
it's just up the chance.
Speaker 8 (32:25):
I mean, you're an NFL head coach.
Speaker 11 (32:26):
Use your gut, use your knowledge, use your in game experience,
use your understanding of your team. Make the decision that way.
Don't do it because Dan Campbell would.
Speaker 4 (32:33):
Be the analytics you use as the response if this
doesn't happen, this can happen, it's your excuse.
Speaker 5 (32:39):
Well no, no, no, I'm.
Speaker 6 (32:40):
Saying if you don't use analytics every time, it's just
like you know what the result of your failing will be.
Speaker 11 (32:47):
Rams beat the pants A thirty four to thirty one.
That was a phenomenal game. Bearspeat the Packers thirty one
twenty seven thousand, that was a phenomenal saying Bill's beat
the Jaguars twenty seven to twenty four, that was a
phenomenal game. Forty nine Ers speak the Eagles twenty three
to nineteen. Didn't see much of that one, and I
didn't see any of Patriot's sixteen Chargers three. But if
(33:08):
you're like me, let's all celebrate Jim Harbaugh and suck
a day.
Speaker 5 (33:11):
Oh they are pissed at him.
Speaker 4 (33:13):
Robert Splaine in this postgame comments last night, saying that
Chargers were coming up to him after the game, saying,
our offense had no idea what covered you guys were in.
Speaker 5 (33:22):
We didn't know what you were doing.
Speaker 8 (33:23):
That's because he couldn't study it ahead of time, and.
Speaker 6 (33:26):
No one.
Speaker 4 (33:28):
Comedian raised Waddey hanging out with us this morning. Abby,
you'll have your news at the top of the hour.
Speaker 5 (33:32):
We'll start recapping the Golden Globes.
Speaker 4 (33:34):
Well, we talked you heard from Cam Hayward there, and
we talked about the importance of his leadership on the team.
But he and his brother might be an integral part
of tonight's Houston matchup, and we'll explain how the steel
City push has gone to the true brotherly shove here
in Pittsburgh.
Speaker 16 (33:51):
Next, Yes your favorite table is available, and yes you
build the menu. The DVE workforce has the run of
the kitchen.
Speaker 6 (33:59):
Yeah.
Speaker 16 (33:59):
With Michelle Michel on the DVE Electric Lunch at noon,
MEE Morning.
Speaker 4 (34:07):
Show, add Krisner and Mike pursued a comedian raised winey
hanging out with us here this morning, and Ray, you
came on the Best Day. Steelers Texans tonight a fifteen
at Extra Stadium.
Speaker 5 (34:17):
Are you going to the game? I think I think
I might. I might try to make it down there.
Speaker 4 (34:21):
Man, I think you'll be able to score a reasonable
ticket before kickoff because the I think just the weather alone,
and Houston doesn't travel.
Speaker 6 (34:31):
It's a Monday night game. It's not like a bunch
of Texans fans came up for this game. I've the
Steelers play them so infrequently. I have no idea if
they travel or not.
Speaker 5 (34:40):
They don't.
Speaker 4 (34:41):
And it was like I was just telling Jacob, because
Jacob was lamenting the fact that Indiana's victory over Oregon
that beat down, knocking them into the National Championship against Miami,
who essentially have a home game for the Natty.
Speaker 11 (34:53):
Yeah, so they're real hoosier. You would show up no
matter the call. You could be there to support your team,
knowing that they need all the help they can get.
With the decks stacked against them like this, you would say,
F the money, F work.
Speaker 6 (35:07):
I'm going if you were a real hoosher Jake, what
are you doing next weekend? Your MIC's not on, buddy,
your MIC's not on.
Speaker 5 (35:14):
There you go.
Speaker 17 (35:14):
I told Mike over the weekend, I was considering opening
up another line of credit just to max out a
card and worry about that debt another time.
Speaker 5 (35:23):
What if I give you a loan that you work
off in humiliation rituals? Okay, I can consider that.
Speaker 4 (35:29):
Okay, we'll talk later About that five thousand dollars you're
saying is the going price for a ticket to that game?
Speaker 17 (35:36):
Like anywhere it's I've seen like one thing, like one
specific ticket go for like thirty five, and everything else
is north of.
Speaker 5 (35:43):
Like forty five thirty five. That's affordable.
Speaker 17 (35:45):
That's right, thirty five hund on top of like a
thousand dollars flight and you know hotels that are going
for five hundred dollars a night.
Speaker 5 (35:53):
You don't need a hotel.
Speaker 8 (35:54):
Watching your school win the national time, I will watch, Mike.
Speaker 5 (35:57):
I will watch being.
Speaker 8 (35:58):
There while your school was the national championship.
Speaker 5 (36:01):
I've been there. I've been there for your school.
Speaker 6 (36:04):
I've been there for a lot of moments this year
that they need you, Jacob, they might you need to
be Indiana's Michael Irvin will get you an.
Speaker 5 (36:13):
Eight ball you go, We'll get you a belt. Yeah, Yeah,
that's right, Tony.
Speaker 11 (36:18):
It's gonna take more than Mark Cuban's checkbook for this one.
You got to get there and yell man.
Speaker 5 (36:23):
I I mean, he was there on on on Friday night.
Speaker 17 (36:26):
But if if there's any takeaway to have from his
presence is that you don't need that checkbook. I mean,
look at the look at the talent evaluation, the blue
chip ratio. Oregon had eighty percent of their players before
five star guys. Indiana has zero five star guys on
their team. Yeah, and only like six four star guys. Well,
(36:47):
I don't know if you need that money, Mike.
Speaker 5 (36:50):
All Right, an argument for a different day.
Speaker 4 (36:51):
How much you're paying the coach let's turn it to
the Steelers tonight, Steelers and the Texans.
Speaker 5 (36:57):
It's the wild card round.
Speaker 4 (36:58):
And one thing that you saw happening across the league yesterday,
the tush push is now universal.
Speaker 5 (37:03):
Everyone uses it. It is a tool in the NFL.
Speaker 8 (37:06):
That's been the case.
Speaker 4 (37:08):
Uh yeah, I'm saying, but this one, literally there was
a ten yard tush push. It almost resulted in a
touchdown yesterday. Sure for the Bills, it is taking on
a new level.
Speaker 6 (37:19):
It used to be you only toush push when it's
an inch or half a yard or whatever, and now
it's like a yard and a half.
Speaker 4 (37:26):
Yeah, well, touch push. I don't think the Steelers should
be doing that. I think they should only do it
when it's really close. They were one for two last week,
and it nearly bit them in the three two three.
Speaker 11 (37:41):
Okay, because the one serious they made fourth down from
the ten, that's right, and then they got your pay.
Speaker 5 (37:46):
So the first one did not go so well.
Speaker 2 (37:48):
No dithers break the huddle with eight in the play clock,
Hayward set up to take the sneak, gets it and
pushing and shoving. This is gonna be really really close.
Oh it looks like he might be a little short,
and he is did not pick it up, went off
(38:09):
the left side and came up a few inches short,
and the Steelers will turn it over on downs at
their own forty five yard line. I mean that was brutal.
Speaker 4 (38:18):
Connor Hayward was super pissed at his brother Cam, who
came in in the stead of Darnell Washington, who's usually
the guy behind Connor there.
Speaker 5 (38:31):
And we asked Missy Matthews.
Speaker 4 (38:33):
About it when we were talking to her on Thursday
here on the show, because she was down on the sidelines.
So not having Darnell Washington to help out in that
big package is a big loss against this defense.
Speaker 5 (38:45):
How do you think Arthur Smith counteracts that, I just
Cam Hayward go in.
Speaker 18 (38:49):
I don't know, I'm joking. I did like that, you know,
iteration of the Spartan putting Cam Hayward in there. I
will say it was not funny at the time, but
now that I think back, how mad Connor was at
Cam when the first one didn't work, losing his mind
(39:11):
not oh no, no, no, not in his face, but
like walked away, like could not believe it is just screaming.
His face is turning red. He's you know, saying things
really and I can't repeat on the radio. Oh he
was so mad, so mad, and he was kind of
motioning like that he hugged him instead of like pushed him.
(39:34):
I agree with coach Tomlin that like Connor was never
going to say that to Cam, and that I think
it was more Connor probably told Danny Smith, and then
Danny Smith told coach, and then coach maybe told Camer
was just like, you guys, figure it out. It was true,
brother like throw down fisticuffs. That's how angry he was.
(39:54):
Put not in Cam's vicinity at all at all.
Speaker 5 (39:59):
Connor after the game said, yeah, no, that didn't I
didn't love that.
Speaker 19 (40:06):
Yeah, the first one he tackled me, but you know
that was the practice for the second and third one.
And I was hot at the first one. But you know,
he came up to me and he was like, we're good.
Speaker 5 (40:20):
You know that was my bad, but okay, so that's good.
Speaker 4 (40:25):
They get it worked out, brothers, shake hands, hug let's
just do it right. The second time they did, and
then they did it right the third time.
Speaker 13 (40:31):
Steal City Chef once.
Speaker 2 (40:33):
Again snapped a Hayward Hunter Hayward second rushing touched out
of the season, caps off.
Speaker 5 (40:38):
A beautiful opening drive here for the Steelers.
Speaker 4 (40:41):
When you see them line up for the Tush push ray,
the Steel City Shove, whatever you want to call it
here in Pittsburgh.
Speaker 5 (40:46):
What goes through you? What's your nervous level when they're
two yards out? It's not great?
Speaker 6 (40:52):
Yeah, but I love the play. I'm a fan of
I'm one of the rare people that loves this ugly play.
I want them to start the game tonight and do
it every play, four in a row from the ten.
I mean, if you watch Josh Allen, it look like
they could do that all day if they wanted to.
The Eagles when they had it perfected, looked like they
could do it. Now, I they can't pull out of
(41:14):
the garage without hitting the side of the uh, you know,
the door.
Speaker 5 (41:18):
They're a mess.
Speaker 6 (41:18):
They won't even try it. They didn't even try yesterday.
They're a mess. And no surprise, San Francisco bested them yesterday.
Speaker 8 (41:25):
And the Steelers have some variations on that. They had that.
Speaker 5 (41:27):
That's what I wanted to get to.
Speaker 11 (41:28):
The hand off to gain weall in Chicago, which went
for a huge play almost for a touchdown, and then
the Connor Hayward keeper around the right end, so they
got some stuff on tape where people can't necessarily just
load up on it.
Speaker 5 (41:42):
Abby's got your news.
Speaker 7 (41:43):
When we came back, we'll get your recapped on the
Golden Globes.
Speaker 15 (41:47):
At FNB, we rewrote the rules of banking and made
getting everything you need a whole lot easier experience.
Speaker 5 (41:53):
The one of a kind Eastore common app from FA
W dv E, Pittsburgh, an iHeartRadio station, guaranteed human.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Here's a snap, here's the hole, here's the foot by Luke,
and that kick.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
Is glue Mistan and you're Pittsburgh Steelers are sid Nor Chippings.
Speaker 4 (00:45):
And with that miss kick last week against the Ravens,
Steelers Nation is reinvigorated in a way that I didn't
think was going to be possible.
Speaker 5 (00:55):
The noise you've heard all year seems.
Speaker 4 (00:58):
To have been eclipsed by a found hope that Mike
Tomlin might have this team with Aaron Rodgers in the lead,
on the path of restoring what was once great about
Steeler Nation, which was the possibility of a Super Bowl
run each and every year. Raizwatneys sitting in studio with
us this morning. He's festudent his Steeler gear. I've got
(01:20):
my Steeler hat and shirt. I regret that I had
a hoodie that did not make it through the weekend,
and I was not ready to go uh in that regard.
But everybody I see has just Steeler gear hanging outside
of their house.
Speaker 5 (01:34):
That's all he wants talking about.
Speaker 4 (01:35):
My eighty four year old mom said she is so
nervous for tonight. Every little kid, you know, is on
pins and needles. I don't remember it being quite like
this in Week one of the playoffs.
Speaker 5 (01:49):
In all of those years that we were.
Speaker 4 (01:50):
Used to making runs in the postseason, there was a yeah,
it's the wild card and it's a drag that we
didn't get a buy this week, but you know, we'll
slum it with the regular folk, I guess in the.
Speaker 5 (02:04):
Wildcad week, and then we'll move on to the divisional playoffs.
And now it's like, oh my god, Aaron Rodgers actually
might get us a win. Ray. It feels like there's
a real chance.
Speaker 6 (02:15):
That's what I'm like, Yes, and it's not one of
those like ten point spreads I feel like we've had
in the last few where we're just supposed to get
destroyed or we like.
Speaker 4 (02:24):
Yeah, you know, well, like two years ago, it was
Mason leading you into Baltimore OLYMPI. I mean, you know,
they had to win those three games to get into
the postseason, and then he squeaks past Baltimore in a
rain storm to get us in and nobody had any
real hope that Buffalo was a juggernaut then, and there
was not a lot of hope that was gonna happen.
But Mason, you know, performed admirably. The following year was
(02:48):
the Russell Wilson beat down. It was really the defense
that got beat down by the Ravens last year. And
since I don't know what is eight years since we've
won a playoff game, apparently.
Speaker 5 (03:00):
The first couple I think we could deal with.
Speaker 4 (03:02):
But after that point it's just been hard to get
any sort of positive feelings about the Steelers.
Speaker 6 (03:09):
Like everybody on the same page. Now we can do it.
It's been constant in fighting with the fans.
Speaker 4 (03:14):
It got to the point where they chanted fire Matt
Canada in every business in town. Got that guy fire,
and then the fire Tomlin chance this year. That was
the point of departure that had never happened before.
Speaker 5 (03:30):
You heard it in the stadium like a couple people
here and there, but the unison was I heard it
on the TV. Yeah, crazy, no discord, unlike anything we've
seen before. Abby.
Speaker 4 (03:40):
But now, but now it might all be fixed with
a win over the Houston Texans at home at Akrosher
Stadium in the freezing cold temperatures where CJ. Stroud's one
to three under the temperature of forty degrees that I
do love that burg.
Speaker 6 (04:00):
He can't handle the cold. Yeah, and we have no hit,
Like it's weird. We have no history with like the Texans.
I feel like in the playoffs, like it's it's strange,
like every other team Boilers would have been. Yeah, which
are the Titans now they're not the Texans. Every other
team I'm looking at, I'm like, oh, I got beef
with this team because of something that happened.
Speaker 5 (04:17):
But the Texans, I'm just like I kind of like them. Yeah,
I don't mind them. I don't have hatred yet. Yes,
that and that's the worst.
Speaker 4 (04:24):
You can develop it very quick with you know, having
getting beaten.
Speaker 5 (04:28):
It's like the Jaguars.
Speaker 4 (04:29):
Somebody cared about the Jaguars until they started destroying our
playoff hopes every year.
Speaker 5 (04:33):
True, we'll talk to me at nine pm.
Speaker 6 (04:35):
We'll see how much I hate the Texans.
Speaker 5 (04:39):
Well, either way, I hope not.
Speaker 4 (04:42):
I hope it's one of those we sail past them
and we're like, Okay, good for those guys. You know what,
It's a good organization. That's the talk I hope we're having.
You know, it's a great coach, good organization. You know what,
they'll figure it out one day. They'll be good in
five years. Yeah, they might touch a super Bowl in
five years. Yeah, that's the conversation I want to have
tomorrow watching those games this weekend.
Speaker 6 (05:03):
Are you kidding me? They It put me down.
Speaker 4 (05:07):
A rabbit hole. Ray, I was telling Abby about this.
There's this whole rabbit hole of the NFL being rigged.
It's scripted, which I always thought was like just.
Speaker 5 (05:19):
A comical sort of passing notion that people have.
Speaker 4 (05:22):
Yeah, this is this is rigged. The rest called they
know who Vegas has the money on and everything, And
then I got into the rabbit hole.
Speaker 5 (05:31):
It is in depth.
Speaker 4 (05:34):
It's crazy how many people think that there is this
vast conspiracy to rig NFL games.
Speaker 5 (05:40):
Well, do you have a gambling problem? Yes?
Speaker 6 (05:41):
Okay, no, no, I know, okay my problem, yeah, my problem.
Speaker 4 (05:47):
What I mean to say is I've been gambling my
entire life. Yes, football gambling is what brought me and
my dad, my brothers together.
Speaker 5 (05:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (05:56):
Yeah, well that's the So I think I've had that
conspiracy for a like you have that it hits your
head every time you like lose by a half a point. Akay,
the you know, the over right yeah it's weak, but yeah,
it's I know, God, everything was so close.
Speaker 4 (06:12):
Yeah, I rolled with Chicago and the over on that one,
which was delightful. Uh, but the the Rams and the
Panthers game, I mean, people had to be going crazy
on that one.
Speaker 5 (06:24):
And last two minutes I knew San Francisco.
Speaker 4 (06:28):
Was gonna win for Bob where I knew that was
going to happen Buffalo, I didn't know if they were
gonna pull it out or not.
Speaker 5 (06:33):
But when they did, that's when I really thought, oh boy,
the Steelers.
Speaker 4 (06:37):
The Steelers are going to get a home game against Buffalo,
and we can beat Buffalo because they're kind of slappy
and the Jags just totally gave that one away. I
didn't end up seeing the final score last next I
fell asleep, but I know the Patriots won.
Speaker 5 (06:48):
They started pouring it on them at the end. Did
they like.
Speaker 4 (06:53):
Well, you know, sometimes I just want to be like,
take the points. I know everyone likes to go for
it on fourth down, but maybe in the playoffs you
should take the points.
Speaker 6 (07:02):
And right away the Chargers put themselves in a hole
by fourth and goal from like the two yard line,
they get stuffed and you kick a field goal.
Speaker 5 (07:12):
There on your first drive of the night. I don't know,
maybe things look different. Little momentum that.
Speaker 6 (07:16):
Was everybody this weekend. Everyone was rolling the dice. Everybody
does all the time.
Speaker 4 (07:21):
But they were all entertaining games, that's for sure, although
some of them were like you were waiting around for
stuff to happen and then they were insane fourth quarters.
Speaker 5 (07:28):
Yeah, that Chicago game.
Speaker 6 (07:31):
If you're a Chicago Bears fan, Wow, you have got
to be pretty excited about Caleb Williams right now. He
was doing ben stuff, is what I told someone. Yeah,
that's funny. It was the fourth and seven, was it?
Speaker 4 (07:43):
And I mean one of the craziest throws postseason or not,
that I've ever seen. It's season on the line, with
everything that was on the line for that throw, the
pressure on that throw, like had to be one of
the best we've seen in the last couple of years.
Speaker 5 (08:00):
Calling him ice Man in Chicago, mice Man.
Speaker 4 (08:04):
My brother lived in Chicago for a long time and
I was watching the game with him and we hit
both bet on the Bears and I was like, here's
the thing.
Speaker 5 (08:12):
I do think the Bears are gonna win.
Speaker 4 (08:13):
I'm like, but he drives me crazy because as he start,
you know, I know Ben Johnson has got him playing great,
but he's still got some of those tendencies that make
me like crazy when he just does stupid things and.
Speaker 6 (08:27):
He's like, no, man, he's he's He's Michael Jordan, and
I'm like.
Speaker 5 (08:31):
He's not. He's not Michael Jordan. You can't say that.
Speaker 4 (08:34):
So I'm like argued with my brother and then I'm
on the bet with him, and every time something goes wrong,
I'm like, what I tell you, you know, And I'm like
constantly yelling when Caleb Williams when he fumbled the one time,
I'm like.
Speaker 5 (08:44):
He shouldn't be holding the ball like that.
Speaker 4 (08:46):
You see what I'm saying, you know. And I'm just
looking for a reason to hate the guy. But my god,
it is hard to argue he's come so far under
that coach.
Speaker 5 (08:54):
Who is a lunatic.
Speaker 4 (08:55):
By the way, his postseason speech or post game speech, Oh,
Ben Johnson.
Speaker 5 (09:00):
I f and hate the Packers.
Speaker 6 (09:02):
He ran past Matt Lafleur did the drive by handshake,
which people are like, that's completely disrespectful.
Speaker 4 (09:09):
I'm like, he just something I don't know. I guess
you're allowed to do whatever. You want high five the dude.
Speaker 7 (09:14):
That's always how they shake hands, like they did, like
a remix of every time they shake each other they
hate each other.
Speaker 5 (09:19):
Yeah, oh yeah.
Speaker 6 (09:20):
When he got there, that's what he said, something like
I look forward to beating the Packers twice a year.
Speaker 5 (09:25):
And they asked Matt Lafleur about it. He was like,
I don't even know this guy.
Speaker 4 (09:28):
He Matt Leafloor. Did he said, I enjoy beating Matt
Lafleur twice.
Speaker 6 (09:32):
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah yeah, And then Lafleur tried to
do the Don Draper.
Speaker 5 (09:37):
I don't even think of you, you know, but that's
we know that's not true. He's so mean to me. Well,
we definitely know it ain't true now, man.
Speaker 4 (09:47):
So a fun weekend games to build up to tonight's
eight fifteen kickoff for the Steelers.
Speaker 5 (09:51):
Michael.
Speaker 4 (09:51):
Have more on that coming up a little bit later
on this morning. We'll talk with Charlie Batch, Jerry Dulac. Also,
you know, in the world of rock and roll, Bob
Weirs pass that was quite a big deal with.
Speaker 5 (10:01):
A group of people I was with.
Speaker 6 (10:02):
I was with a bunch of Deadheads on Saturday night
and we just listened to Bob Weir and the Wolf Brothers,
The Dad all night.
Speaker 4 (10:11):
We listened to nothing but Bob Weir all night. That
not that it was shocking, it was still unexpected.
Speaker 7 (10:18):
I wanted to start with that in news and I
was going to give the reins over to you just
because like that actually did shock me, because I knew
he was sick. But there was also something about Bob
Weir that, like, you know, he was kind of.
Speaker 5 (10:36):
Indestructible to me, I don't know.
Speaker 4 (10:38):
Like so it's like Dylan, Yeah, yeah, you just don't
think they're ever going to die. Paul McCartney with Weird
the shows they did in Golden Gate Park this past summer.
Speaker 5 (10:47):
He was clearly not very strong.
Speaker 4 (10:51):
And this is a guy that we'd been watching literally
post his workouts on social media for the last few years,
and he was doing stuff that most seventy seven year
olds couldn't do. So you always assumed, like, oh, no,
Bob's gonna live forever. He's like doing a health He's
not one of those guys. He stopped doing drugs a
long time ago, but he had cancer and nobody knew
about it, and so that's why his performance seemed so stalted.
(11:14):
At Golden Gate Park, and he had a hard time
singing and just bringing the energy.
Speaker 5 (11:20):
And now everybody knows why.
Speaker 4 (11:22):
But he's such a complex guy because he was like
the little brother in the band and then had to
become the dad, and so people weren't sure if he
was going to be able to carry the flame, but
he never doubted it at all, and he just kept
going NonStop. And if you think about it, the Grateful
(11:45):
Dad invented their own canon of music. It is literally
a collection of music that stands separate from everything else
in the tradition of all Americana.
Speaker 5 (11:58):
There's countless tribune bands to the dead.
Speaker 4 (12:01):
Not in the way that there's like, oh, we're a
Kiss tribute band or something. It's like, hey, we're having
mass over here today. If you guys need or like
a meeting, you know, did you need to go to
a meeting today? Here's your group.
Speaker 5 (12:15):
It is.
Speaker 4 (12:15):
The fellowship of that group of people is really the
cornerstone of what makes it so great. And that's something
I think he always realized, and he constantly talked about
the music lasting well beyond his time on this earth,
and three hundred years is the timeline he keeps using
or had kept using in interviews. But he was an
unbelievable songwriter. He became a great player, But he has
(12:40):
Jerry Garcia in the band. So what do you do.
You're not a league guitar player. You have to play
rhythm guitar for Jerry Garcia. Well, I'm gonna set the
best platform I possibly can for him to be this.
Speaker 5 (12:49):
Badass guitar player. How do I do that?
Speaker 4 (12:51):
Oh, I'll study jazz piano players and learn how the
guys you play underneath Miles Davis play And that's what
he did. He listened to McCoy tyner and he figured out, Oh,
if I do these kind of complex courtings, Jerry's gonna
have a whole world to draw from. The palette that
I'll set for him will be vast. So that was
kind of a big point of departure for that band
(13:12):
from all the other San Francisco, you know, flower Power
era bands, and then you know they went in the
direction that they did. After Jerry's death, it very easily
could have just fallen apart, and he he and Phil
both played a big role in making sure that it
moved forward. But Bobby, in the last fifteen years, what
Dean company did. I've got issues with from a money
(13:35):
grab standpoint, it's weird to be paying three hundred.
Speaker 6 (13:38):
And fifty dollars face value tickets to see anything Grateful
Dead related. But I also felt like he deserved to
cash in for his family at that point because the
Dead never got rich while Jerry was alive until Touch
of Gray, and then they had some success and they
were like, what's going on? And they were always this
a successful touring act, you know, like when the Totals
(14:00):
came in at the end of the concert season. The
Dead was always up top, but they had like two
hundred employees.
Speaker 5 (14:06):
They were a moving village.
Speaker 4 (14:09):
And also they did the most ridiculous business organizational plan.
It was a democracy that everybody got an equal vote,
so like if you were a I don't know, a secretary,
your vote in what the band did mattered as much
as the drummers, you know.
Speaker 8 (14:29):
I like that.
Speaker 6 (14:30):
Yeah, They're like, now this is We're all part of
the family, So everybody's vote matters equally, which I.
Speaker 5 (14:37):
Think has benefits and also.
Speaker 6 (14:40):
Some things that some hurdles that might have been tough
to get over from time to time, when you know,
when the Secretary's going, I don't think you should play
Dark Star tonight. You know, it's like I don't know
if you get a vote, miss. But Bob Weir was
He was a great player.
Speaker 4 (14:55):
He was one of the best sidemen ever and then became,
you know, a lead of a band of many different
iterations of the band. But it was all in service
of that music, the music that inspired what they did,
and he was a selfless guy. I talked to Scott
Murders from the Postcause that about it, and he threw
(15:15):
some quotes in that I gave him yesterday.
Speaker 6 (15:17):
I talked about what a great song rutter he was,
but it was his tenacity that is the story. He
never stopped playing. And I believe someone said bb King
has more gigs than him. It's hard for me to
believe someone who started playing in a band the size
of the Grateful Dead at the age of seventeen and
played all the way till he was almost eighty and
(15:39):
never stopped playing and never took a year off in
all those years.
Speaker 5 (15:43):
That anybody played two more people than that person.
Speaker 7 (15:46):
I'd love to see the numbers on that, because you're right,
it's not just the Grateful.
Speaker 4 (15:49):
Dead It's It's Bobby and the Midnights, the Wolf Brothers,
further rat Dog. There's a million different iterations that he
went out in and he never stopped. When Jerry died,
he talked about the fact that he just took off.
He's like, yeah, no, I just said, well, let's let's
hit the road.
Speaker 8 (16:07):
That's what Jerry would want.
Speaker 5 (16:08):
And then that's what I did because he'd do the same.
And you can put him at the top of that leaderboard.
Speaker 6 (16:14):
I don't know every Okay, think about it, like, you
know what comedian has done more shows than anybody.
Speaker 4 (16:20):
Yeah, and you have to think of somebody who had
success at an early age. And then people were being
like argumentative with me about it, and they're like, oh, well,
there's jazz musicians who play their entire life like three
and four times a week.
Speaker 6 (16:30):
I'm like, yeah, well, that's just not the scope of
what we're talking about here.
Speaker 5 (16:33):
I'm saying the guy was playing.
Speaker 9 (16:34):
At the Pyramids in Egypt, you know, and then going
over and playing huge theaters in France and it did
not stop for him ever.
Speaker 5 (16:44):
Like it's a crazy run that he had.
Speaker 4 (16:49):
Every outdoor barn like Starlake and Alpine Valley every summer.
Speaker 5 (16:53):
He was in all of them every summer, almost never
took any time off.
Speaker 6 (17:00):
And that's why, regardless of his health, you're still surprised
because it's like, I mean, somebody with that longevity, you
just never expect them.
Speaker 4 (17:05):
Yeah, it seems so vibrant, right. The sadness was palpable.
The group of people I was with was just like,
and it was my birthday, you know, because I was
like I was.
Speaker 5 (17:16):
It hit me hard that it was your birthday when
it happened.
Speaker 4 (17:20):
Well, and I was with a group of people that
I grew up with in my hometown and we all
grew up dead heads, you know, and so we were
all like looking at each other.
Speaker 5 (17:28):
Like, oh my god, this sucks. And they kept saying,
I'm sorry it's on your birthday.
Speaker 6 (17:33):
And I was like, I don't think you guys understand,
Like I'm not sad about this. Every year from now on,
on my birthday, I get to listen to the dead.
Speaker 4 (17:44):
You're gonna celebrate catching any flag from anybody to listening
to something else with the Dead's Like no, no, no,
it's Bobby's you know, it's the anniversary of Bobby's passing.
So you know he wasn't you know, he wasn't a
flaw a sky or anything.
Speaker 5 (18:01):
But it's hard to believe he's gone.
Speaker 4 (18:03):
When he did the John Mayer thing, I got really
mad at Bob as a fan, I'm like, why are
you doing? This is the antithesis and a lot of
what the sphere shows and the big scope of all
of that. The money grab it seemed to me to
be the antithesis of what they stood for. And then
if you look into it, a lot of times this
(18:24):
is probably true of a lot of different.
Speaker 5 (18:27):
Like passions that people have.
Speaker 4 (18:31):
You're projecting what you want it to be onto it,
as opposed to what it is and what it's always been.
You know, there are people who project politics onto the
rayful death. They're almost always wrong, you know, like Jerry
would have never dealt with, never put up with what's
going on in the world. Well, Jerry was a libertarian
(18:53):
of a nihilistic degree, who is basically like, hey, if
you burn it down, you burn it down.
Speaker 5 (18:57):
That's cool.
Speaker 4 (18:58):
Yeah, But people are like, no, you put a flower
and his guitar. No he didn't, that was not him,
you know. And the spear.
Speaker 5 (19:04):
Oh, Jerry would have hated this fear and the.
Speaker 4 (19:06):
Money grabs Like Jerry loved sci fi more than anybody.
He was constant. He wrote a sci fi novel with
Tom Davis from Saturday Night Live. Franken Al Frankin's writing partner. Like,
they're almost never what you think. These things you love
entirely what you want to project on. So I'm like, okay,
(19:26):
pretend to know, right. So I'm like, Okay, he wants
to get John Mayer in the band, I'll give it
a chance.
Speaker 5 (19:32):
But I hated it.
Speaker 4 (19:33):
I was so pissed that he was doing that because
I'm like, this guy's the biggest douchebag. And then I
went and saw it at Star, Like the first time
I came through, I'm like, that was really good.
Speaker 8 (19:43):
He was really good.
Speaker 4 (19:44):
It's really good, Okay, And then I softened and by
the time I saw them the last four or five
times I saw them, and I went to Wrigley for
those shows after the debacle here at Starlake, and I
went by myself. I mean, I met my nieces and
because I just had a chance to go and I'm like,
I'm out, I'm going. And then I just called up
some friends and rolled into a group of people where
(20:04):
I only knew one people, but then had a great
time with thirty people I just met, because that's what
those shows are all about.
Speaker 5 (20:11):
And I was all the way in at that point.
Speaker 4 (20:13):
I was talking a big cat about it, and I'm like,
cause he's a big dead head too.
Speaker 6 (20:16):
I was like, I never thought I would be this
in on John Mayer playing these Grateful Dead songs. He's like,
it's incredible, and you have to think Bobby knew exactly.
Speaker 5 (20:25):
Bobby knew this is the best way to service the music.
Speaker 4 (20:27):
I don't care if you guys don't dig it at first,
and then it became as big as anything the Grateful
Dead did.
Speaker 5 (20:33):
The Dead and Company.
Speaker 6 (20:35):
Now that caused so much controversy in that world because
there were people who absolutely hated Dead and Company.
Speaker 4 (20:42):
Would never budge it's not as good as a real thing.
Yeah it's not. It's completely different. But to me, it
was all in service to the music. And I got
to go and hear those songs and I got to
be like that group of people, and that's what it
is all about for me. And if John Mayer's there
being a douchebag, well, then John Mayer's they're being a douchebag,
but his playing was insanely inspired. Well, that's kind of
(21:02):
the same thing about people projecting their own opinion on it,
like they were like, no, Jerry Garcia would have never
wanted this John Mayer do, And.
Speaker 6 (21:10):
It's like, who knows. I mean, it's still like, like
you said, still providing the same.
Speaker 8 (21:13):
Vibe that you had.
Speaker 4 (21:14):
Yeah, I mean Jerry would wear a black T shirt
that didn't really fit and we all do that, jeans
on the stage.
Speaker 8 (21:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (21:21):
He looked like Mark Madden going on the stage. Yeah,
And Bob by the end.
Speaker 6 (21:24):
Was wearing like designer cloaks and things in his cowboy
He a whole aesthetic.
Speaker 4 (21:30):
It was a lot different, but the music never suffered.
In fact, it got better. And he was the most
selfless guy on stage, and it was always about servicing
the song, and he embodied This is the last thing
I'll say about it.
Speaker 5 (21:45):
I'm sorry I went so long.
Speaker 4 (21:46):
He embodied the character of the song. He was singing
as good or better than anybody. And if you're an
aspiring singer rock singer, pardon me. The one lesson to
take away from him is that dude lived in every
one of those songs.
Speaker 5 (22:02):
So he would like in Jack Straw. He is the
guy in Jack Straw. He's living that movie out as
he is singing it.
Speaker 4 (22:11):
And he always talked about how he needed that in
order to perform, and it separated him and he was
one of one like that. I think in a way
that that because he had all of these other tools, uh,
in addition to that. So it was it was a
tough one. I mean, we talked about Bob all night.
I was also bleeding profusely from having cut my hand.
Speaker 5 (22:30):
Well, you were mayoring it, John mayered it. Yeah, so
I've got a big you know.
Speaker 6 (22:35):
I mean I dropped a bowl on my hand and
it was glass and it smashed and ripped up my finger.
Speaker 5 (22:40):
So it was hard to have people listen to me
about bub Weird.
Speaker 7 (22:44):
Well you're kill Bill gushing blood everywhere.
Speaker 4 (22:48):
Bob.
Speaker 6 (22:49):
Yeah, I'm like put on the Wolf Brothers from Ashville
in twenty twenty.
Speaker 5 (22:53):
One and they're like, go to the Eyaw. That's basically
what happened to me.
Speaker 6 (22:59):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (22:59):
So we'll we will talk to Alan Paul, who wrote
for Rolling Stone magazine.
Speaker 5 (23:03):
About Bob Weir and Bob Weir's passing.
Speaker 4 (23:06):
That'll be at eight o'clock today, Michael be in next
with your Sports as we get set for tonight's kickoff
eight fifteen Steelers and the Houston Texans. And it was
all because of that miss field goal that we were
talking about at the top of the hour, Tyler Loup.
We had Patrick Queen on the show on Friday, and
I asked him when did he know it didn't go in?
Because when I watched the replay, well I watched it
(23:27):
nine thousand times, he didn't look at it.
Speaker 5 (23:31):
Do you remember the moment you became aware it was
no good?
Speaker 6 (23:34):
Yeah?
Speaker 10 (23:35):
I remember, like I'll just like sitting there look at
her like I know everybody likes saying like they got
like a jum try at the end of the stadium
and stuff. And I wasn't even looking at that, like
I was looking straight like everything was blurry. And I
remember Peyton just like running and grabbing me like he missed,
he missed.
Speaker 5 (23:49):
Miss crazy in the stadium just erupted, right, it.
Speaker 10 (23:54):
Was crazy, Like I didn't because it was a lot
of fans from both sides. But when they erupted, I
have a clue what thought it was. All I remember
was running them like missed he did.
Speaker 4 (24:06):
And now the Steelers are hosting a Wildcard playoff game
eight fifteen tonight.
Speaker 5 (24:11):
It's the Steelers in the Texans on DV.
Speaker 1 (24:14):
Live from the Don's Appliances Studios where Pittsburgh shops for appliances.
Speaker 5 (24:18):
This is w DDE Pittsburgh.
Speaker 1 (24:22):
Wherever you go or whatever you're doing, you're never too
far from your hometown station.
Speaker 5 (24:28):
Good Tunes on DV or keeping us going.
Speaker 1 (24:30):
We are streaming on all your devices. Just save us
as a pre set on the free iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 8 (24:37):
From the Seedon Hill University Weather Center. Schedule your campus
visit today. This report a sponsored by Flynn's Tire and
Auto Service.
Speaker 5 (24:46):
It's gonna be cloudy the morning.
Speaker 4 (24:48):
And also Mike Pursuder now with your sports and sorry,
I needed to get all that Bob Weir stuff out.
Speaker 8 (24:53):
Yeah, appreciate it. Start for your loss man.
Speaker 4 (24:55):
Yeah, it was nice how many people reached out to me.
I felt like about three people. I know that's into
the dead, like I'm into Springsteen. Yeah, I feel your pain.
Speaker 5 (25:04):
Well, like I was explaining, And.
Speaker 6 (25:08):
You know, I don't think it's the same thing with
Springsteen with Bob, like his work is done, you know.
Speaker 5 (25:13):
So I felt.
Speaker 8 (25:14):
As Bruce's of any consequence.
Speaker 4 (25:17):
No, because there's no I don't know. I'm not sure
Bruce's music goes on without his voice. You know, I'm
gonna hear Grateful Dead songs the rest of my life
being performed by everybody.
Speaker 5 (25:26):
Will people cover Springsteen?
Speaker 8 (25:27):
Yeah, well, you be honest, Yeah, absolutely does not.
Speaker 11 (25:31):
Like Yeah, he needs him, he has He needs the
Street Band as much as they need him.
Speaker 5 (25:36):
Agreed, But without either one.
Speaker 4 (25:39):
Yeah, like your boy Ryan Church, my or Eric Church
might be like, hey, I'm gonna take the East Street
Band out and do a bunch of interesting Well what
I'm saying, But I.
Speaker 11 (25:51):
Mean, you know, they lost Danny Federich and they lost Clarence.
The show goes on. Yeah, but without Bruce, the show's over. Well,
you still have Bruce. So anyways, uh, fairly well, Bob we.
Speaker 8 (26:00):
Air Sports is have brought to you by Bridgeville Plains.
Speaker 11 (26:03):
It's the Steelers and the Houston Texans Tonight playoff football
at Actasher Stadium. The winner earns the right to play
the New England Patriots this coming Sunday.
Speaker 8 (26:14):
That game will be in New England. And I don't
know if.
Speaker 11 (26:17):
People are aware of the Steelers haven't won a playoff game.
Since the second week of the two thousand and sixteen postseason,
they are zero for six since that ties the longest
current such streak in the NFL, and it ties the
fourth longest such running utility in NFL history.
Speaker 8 (26:34):
Not that Aaron Rodgers cares.
Speaker 12 (26:38):
I care about winning. That's why I'm I'm here. That's
why I love the Monday to Saturday grind. And you know,
stats are what they are, The trends are what they are,
and those trends are Any trend is always meant to
be broken at some point, so hopefully we can do that.
Speaker 13 (26:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 11 (26:56):
Defensive coordinator Terrell Austin is one of many Steelers personnel
this past week who has maintained that the goal is
not to snap the streak tonight against the Texans. The
goal is to beat the Texans and win a Riot
game and advance toward a potential championship.
Speaker 8 (27:12):
The goal is also not to win one for TJ.
Speaker 11 (27:15):
Watt and Cam Hayward and the other veterans that have
been around for the bulk of this drought, if not
all of it. But that doesn't mean the Steelers won't
be following their leaders.
Speaker 14 (27:24):
Hayward in particular, you know, we've talked about that before
in terms of, you know, our best players are you
right now? For us, they've been there are best leaders
and our best examples for our guys.
Speaker 8 (27:36):
So they've they've always been that way.
Speaker 14 (27:39):
And so I mean I've seen that. Shoot, I watched
Cam chase guys all the time, and it's still to
me it amazes me. I watch him and you just
watch how he runs and how he plays, and you know,
there's young guys that don't do what he does, and
so he's a unicorn and in a lot of ways,
but he's also unicorn in terms of his demeanor and
(28:01):
leadership and all that other stuff. And I think that's
you know, we talked about it. We've got good leadership,
We've got good things. And I think that brings the
rest of your guys along all the way because they
know how much they cared. You know, they don't have that.
Your best players don't push stuff aside. It It means
a lot to them, and so I think that that
has a really good trickle down effect on everyone.
Speaker 11 (28:20):
Now, that's great stuff on Cam Hayward, who was named
second Team Ball Pro on Friday at thirty six years
of age, and deservedly so. But when I was listening
to Terra Austin speak there a couple of days ago,
it's stuck in my head. I never heard anybody pronounce
it unicord, and then he pronounced that unicorn the second
time he's talking about Cam's a unicord.
Speaker 8 (28:43):
What is a unicord?
Speaker 5 (28:45):
Well, there's there's a unicarrot, and you don't want to
confuse the two.
Speaker 11 (28:50):
As I mentioned All Pro second team for Hayward at
thirty six, and stop me if you've heard this one before,
an old guy walks into the playoffs if not a
bar Cam Hayward's fromamiliar with that one. Camp Thomas been
pretty public about briding you about your age from time
to time.
Speaker 8 (29:05):
Having some fun with TJ. Clture forty five after the
game the other night. This kind of stuff drive.
Speaker 10 (29:11):
You a little.
Speaker 13 (29:12):
Those two are getting up there in h two. Let's
not act like there's just some spring chickens.
Speaker 8 (29:17):
But is there a prove everybody wrong element to your play?
Speaker 13 (29:23):
Yeah? It's everybody versed me. Oh that's just how I am.
You know, I'm always looking for an extra notch, an
extra gear. And it's funny that my teammates and coaches
poking pride and on the other side of it.
Speaker 11 (29:42):
Stiller's in the Texans tonight report out of Houston from
Aaron Wilson. Backup quarterback Davis Mills of the Texans is
expected to join his team at some point today and
be available tonight. He did not travel with the team
yesterday due to a personal mat The Texans are a
nine game winning stick. The first three wins were with
(30:03):
Mills at quarterback, replacing CJ. Stroud, who had a concussion.
He is a very capable backup quarterback. Everybody else on
both sides, things are looking very good in terms of availability.
Texans are going to get the right tackle Trent Brown back,
presumably he has no injury designation after missing the last
(30:24):
two games. The Steelers don't have anybody on their list
with designation except defensive tackle Isaiah louder Milk, who still
has not been activated from injured reserve. Texans won't have
Tank Dell and Joe Mixon. Steelers won't have Broderick Jones
to Shaun Elliott, Darnell Washington, and Miles Kilber their IR guys.
But if you're not on IR, you're good to go
(30:45):
for this one and one matchup that really favors the Steelers,
and aren't there aren't many, if any other ones but
red zone when the Steelers have the ball. They're eleventh
in the league in red zone offense at fifty eight
point eight percent. And Texans, for all their defensive splendor
and their defense is spec splendor as acular, they're only
(31:06):
sixteenth in red zone at fifty six point eight. So
if the Steelers can get it into twenty, maybe they
got a chance to do some damage. That said, I
am just knocked off my chair at how insane NFL
coaches have become going forward on fourth down.
Speaker 5 (31:22):
It is an epidemic.
Speaker 4 (31:24):
As much as I like it from an entertainment value,
the stupidity factor of it at this point is absolutely baffling.
It's remarkable that and people are missing kicks right and
left all of a sudden. Remember early in the middle
of the season, guys are banging from sixteen and they
look like extra Now, Mike, if you went down the
rabbit hole I did, you would understand that this is
all part of the script that's being written.
Speaker 6 (31:48):
Well, there was like fifteen points left on the table
in last night's game.
Speaker 5 (31:51):
I feel like fourth down in the five.
Speaker 11 (31:54):
I mean Carolina started it up first game, first series.
They're inside their own thirty and they go for it.
Speaker 8 (31:59):
It'll get it. And then they gave the Rams a
short field besketball offense.
Speaker 10 (32:03):
In the lake. What do you do it?
Speaker 5 (32:04):
Yeah, I don't want understand it.
Speaker 15 (32:05):
I mean, I get you want to possess the ball
and keep it away. There's got to be a time
and a place. Well, I think there's a happy medium
for it. And I think that this is when you
do the analytics mixed with gut. It's important to.
Speaker 8 (32:16):
Own analytics is either all or nothing, though, right, I mean.
Speaker 4 (32:20):
Definitively yes, because if you're not playing the percentages, then
it's just up the chance.
Speaker 8 (32:25):
I mean, you're an NFL head coach.
Speaker 11 (32:26):
Use your gut, use your knowledge, use your in game experience,
use your understanding of your team. Make the decision that way.
Don't do it because Dan Campbell would.
Speaker 4 (32:33):
Be the analytics you use as the response if this
doesn't happen, this can happen, it's your excuse.
Speaker 5 (32:39):
Well no, no, no, I'm.
Speaker 6 (32:40):
Saying if you don't use analytics every time, it's just
like you know what the result of your failing will be.
Speaker 11 (32:47):
Rams beat the pants A thirty four to thirty one.
That was a phenomenal game. Bearspeat the Packers thirty one
twenty seven thousand, that was a phenomenal saying Bill's beat
the Jaguars twenty seven to twenty four, that was a
phenomenal game. Forty nine Ers speak the Eagles twenty three
to nineteen. Didn't see much of that one, and I
didn't see any of Patriot's sixteen Chargers three. But if
(33:08):
you're like me, let's all celebrate Jim Harbaugh and suck
a day.
Speaker 5 (33:11):
Oh they are pissed at him.
Speaker 4 (33:13):
Robert Splaine in this postgame comments last night, saying that
Chargers were coming up to him after the game, saying,
our offense had no idea what covered you guys were in.
Speaker 5 (33:22):
We didn't know what you were doing.
Speaker 8 (33:23):
That's because he couldn't study it ahead of time, and.
Speaker 6 (33:26):
No one.
Speaker 4 (33:28):
Comedian raised Waddey hanging out with us this morning. Abby,
you'll have your news at the top of the hour.
Speaker 5 (33:32):
We'll start recapping the Golden Globes.
Speaker 4 (33:34):
Well, we talked you heard from Cam Hayward there, and
we talked about the importance of his leadership on the team.
But he and his brother might be an integral part
of tonight's Houston matchup, and we'll explain how the steel
City push has gone to the true brotherly shove here
in Pittsburgh.
Speaker 16 (33:51):
Next, Yes your favorite table is available, and yes you
build the menu. The DVE workforce has the run of
the kitchen.
Speaker 6 (33:59):
Yeah.
Speaker 16 (33:59):
With Michelle Michel on the DVE Electric Lunch at noon,
MEE Morning.
Speaker 4 (34:07):
Show, add Krisner and Mike pursued a comedian raised winey
hanging out with us here this morning, and Ray, you
came on the Best Day. Steelers Texans tonight a fifteen
at Extra Stadium.
Speaker 5 (34:17):
Are you going to the game? I think I think
I might. I might try to make it down there.
Speaker 4 (34:21):
Man, I think you'll be able to score a reasonable
ticket before kickoff because the I think just the weather alone,
and Houston doesn't travel.
Speaker 6 (34:31):
It's a Monday night game. It's not like a bunch
of Texans fans came up for this game. I've the
Steelers play them so infrequently. I have no idea if
they travel or not.
Speaker 5 (34:40):
They don't.
Speaker 4 (34:41):
And it was like I was just telling Jacob, because
Jacob was lamenting the fact that Indiana's victory over Oregon
that beat down, knocking them into the National Championship against Miami,
who essentially have a home game for the Natty.
Speaker 11 (34:53):
Yeah, so they're real hoosier. You would show up no
matter the call. You could be there to support your team,
knowing that they need all the help they can get.
With the decks stacked against them like this, you would say,
F the money, F work.
Speaker 6 (35:07):
I'm going if you were a real hoosher Jake, what
are you doing next weekend? Your MIC's not on, buddy,
your MIC's not on.
Speaker 5 (35:14):
There you go.
Speaker 17 (35:14):
I told Mike over the weekend, I was considering opening
up another line of credit just to max out a
card and worry about that debt another time.
Speaker 5 (35:23):
What if I give you a loan that you work
off in humiliation rituals? Okay, I can consider that.
Speaker 4 (35:29):
Okay, we'll talk later About that five thousand dollars you're
saying is the going price for a ticket to that game?
Speaker 17 (35:36):
Like anywhere it's I've seen like one thing, like one
specific ticket go for like thirty five, and everything else
is north of.
Speaker 5 (35:43):
Like forty five thirty five. That's affordable.
Speaker 17 (35:45):
That's right, thirty five hund on top of like a
thousand dollars flight and you know hotels that are going
for five hundred dollars a night.
Speaker 5 (35:53):
You don't need a hotel.
Speaker 8 (35:54):
Watching your school win the national time, I will watch, Mike.
Speaker 5 (35:57):
I will watch being.
Speaker 8 (35:58):
There while your school was the national championship.
Speaker 5 (36:01):
I've been there. I've been there for your school.
Speaker 6 (36:04):
I've been there for a lot of moments this year
that they need you, Jacob, they might you need to
be Indiana's Michael Irvin will get you an.
Speaker 5 (36:13):
Eight ball you go, We'll get you a belt. Yeah, Yeah,
that's right, Tony.
Speaker 11 (36:18):
It's gonna take more than Mark Cuban's checkbook for this one.
You got to get there and yell man.
Speaker 5 (36:23):
I I mean, he was there on on on Friday night.
Speaker 17 (36:26):
But if if there's any takeaway to have from his
presence is that you don't need that checkbook. I mean,
look at the look at the talent evaluation, the blue
chip ratio. Oregon had eighty percent of their players before
five star guys. Indiana has zero five star guys on
their team. Yeah, and only like six four star guys. Well,
(36:47):
I don't know if you need that money, Mike.
Speaker 5 (36:50):
All Right, an argument for a different day.
Speaker 4 (36:51):
How much you're paying the coach let's turn it to
the Steelers tonight, Steelers and the Texans.
Speaker 5 (36:57):
It's the wild card round.
Speaker 4 (36:58):
And one thing that you saw happening across the league yesterday,
the tush push is now universal.
Speaker 5 (37:03):
Everyone uses it. It is a tool in the NFL.
Speaker 8 (37:06):
That's been the case.
Speaker 4 (37:08):
Uh yeah, I'm saying, but this one, literally there was
a ten yard tush push. It almost resulted in a
touchdown yesterday. Sure for the Bills, it is taking on
a new level.
Speaker 6 (37:19):
It used to be you only toush push when it's
an inch or half a yard or whatever, and now
it's like a yard and a half.
Speaker 4 (37:26):
Yeah, well, touch push. I don't think the Steelers should
be doing that. I think they should only do it
when it's really close. They were one for two last week,
and it nearly bit them in the three two three.
Speaker 11 (37:41):
Okay, because the one serious they made fourth down from
the ten, that's right, and then they got your pay.
Speaker 5 (37:46):
So the first one did not go so well.
Speaker 2 (37:48):
No dithers break the huddle with eight in the play clock,
Hayward set up to take the sneak, gets it and
pushing and shoving. This is gonna be really really close.
Oh it looks like he might be a little short,
and he is did not pick it up, went off
(38:09):
the left side and came up a few inches short,
and the Steelers will turn it over on downs at
their own forty five yard line. I mean that was brutal.
Speaker 4 (38:18):
Connor Hayward was super pissed at his brother Cam, who
came in in the stead of Darnell Washington, who's usually
the guy behind Connor there.
Speaker 5 (38:31):
And we asked Missy Matthews.
Speaker 4 (38:33):
About it when we were talking to her on Thursday
here on the show, because she was down on the sidelines.
So not having Darnell Washington to help out in that
big package is a big loss against this defense.
Speaker 5 (38:45):
How do you think Arthur Smith counteracts that, I just
Cam Hayward go in.
Speaker 18 (38:49):
I don't know, I'm joking. I did like that, you know,
iteration of the Spartan putting Cam Hayward in there. I
will say it was not funny at the time, but
now that I think back, how mad Connor was at
Cam when the first one didn't work, losing his mind
(39:11):
not oh no, no, no, not in his face, but
like walked away, like could not believe it is just screaming.
His face is turning red. He's you know, saying things
really and I can't repeat on the radio. Oh he
was so mad, so mad, and he was kind of
motioning like that he hugged him instead of like pushed him.
(39:34):
I agree with coach Tomlin that like Connor was never
going to say that to Cam, and that I think
it was more Connor probably told Danny Smith, and then
Danny Smith told coach, and then coach maybe told Camer
was just like, you guys, figure it out. It was true,
brother like throw down fisticuffs. That's how angry he was.
(39:54):
Put not in Cam's vicinity at all at all.
Speaker 5 (39:59):
Connor after the game said, yeah, no, that didn't I
didn't love that.
Speaker 19 (40:06):
Yeah, the first one he tackled me, but you know
that was the practice for the second and third one.
And I was hot at the first one. But you know,
he came up to me and he was like, we're good.
Speaker 5 (40:20):
You know that was my bad, but okay, so that's good.
Speaker 4 (40:25):
They get it worked out, brothers, shake hands, hug let's
just do it right. The second time they did, and
then they did it right the third time.
Speaker 13 (40:31):
Steal City Chef once.
Speaker 2 (40:33):
Again snapped a Hayward Hunter Hayward second rushing touched out
of the season, caps off.
Speaker 5 (40:38):
A beautiful opening drive here for the Steelers.
Speaker 4 (40:41):
When you see them line up for the Tush push ray,
the Steel City Shove, whatever you want to call it
here in Pittsburgh.
Speaker 5 (40:46):
What goes through you? What's your nervous level when they're
two yards out? It's not great?
Speaker 6 (40:52):
Yeah, but I love the play. I'm a fan of
I'm one of the rare people that loves this ugly play.
I want them to start the game tonight and do
it every play, four in a row from the ten.
I mean, if you watch Josh Allen, it look like
they could do that all day if they wanted to.
The Eagles when they had it perfected, looked like they
could do it. Now, I they can't pull out of
(41:14):
the garage without hitting the side of the uh, you know,
the door.
Speaker 5 (41:18):
They're a mess.
Speaker 6 (41:18):
They won't even try it. They didn't even try yesterday.
They're a mess. And no surprise, San Francisco bested them yesterday.
Speaker 8 (41:25):
And the Steelers have some variations on that. They had that.
Speaker 5 (41:27):
That's what I wanted to get to.
Speaker 11 (41:28):
The hand off to gain weall in Chicago, which went
for a huge play almost for a touchdown, and then
the Connor Hayward keeper around the right end, so they
got some stuff on tape where people can't necessarily just
load up on it.
Speaker 5 (41:42):
Abby's got your news.
Speaker 7 (41:43):
When we came back, we'll get your recapped on the
Golden Globes.
Speaker 15 (41:47):
At FNB, we rewrote the rules of banking and made
getting everything you need a whole lot easier experience.
Speaker 5 (41:53):
The one of a kind Eastore common app from FA
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