May 6, 2026 • 29 mins
Tim Benz in for Mark.
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Here's an update on the Twitter polls that I put
out Tom and I talked about him in the two
o'clock hour. I don't want to get some response on
this from the phone lines. Here today, we're talking about
greed is good and we're talking about greedy folks in
the National Football League and the NC.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Double A because we've got parallel tracks for.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
Storylines here happening at the same time, Robert Kraft and
Vanity Fair saying that the NFL wants to go to
an eighteen game schedule before the next CBA, and then
there was a corresponding report from Pro Football Talk that
said it could happen as soon as I think they
said next season or the twenty twenty eight season, after
twenty twenty seven, but whatever, the path is clear and obvious.
(00:46):
The NFL wants to get to eighteen games. And then
you got the NC Double A, which is trying to
get the tournament expanded to seventy six game teams to
get in, not sixty eight as it stands right now,
and that feels like a FATA com plea that they're
going to get to a seventy six team tournament, probably
(01:06):
for next year. So I ask people online. What do
you think about both of these? Top is conversation? And
when it comes to the NFL schedule increasing to eighteen games,
nineteen percent of you that's it. Nineteen percent of you
say that you won an eighteen game NFL season, thirteen
(01:29):
percent say keep it at seventeen games, and the leading
candidate here, fifty seven percent of respondents would actually like
to see the schedule roll back to sixteen, and I'm
with you, that's what I would prefer as well. And
then I got about ten percent of people saying no, no, no, no,
go up to twenty games right away and get rid
(01:51):
of the preseason. So those are your options football fans
four one two, three, three three ninety nine thirty nine
increase to eighteen games, keep it at seventeen, go back
to sixteen, or just bump it up to twenty with
no preseason.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
What do you want to do?
Speaker 1 (02:10):
Four one two three three three w xdx.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
It's even more overwhelming on.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
The basketball side, and I don't know if I've ever
quite seen anything like this. What is your preferred amount
of teams in the NCAA basketball Tournament? Most people say,
go back to sixty four. That's at seventy one percent,
twenty five percent say keep it at the current level
that's at sixty eight teams, and then about one point
(02:40):
five percent for both seventy two and seventy six the
probable expansion number.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
That's it again.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
I'm with the majority. I'd like to go back to
sixty four. I'm fine with keeping the Dayton Games as
is at sixty eight.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
But you can't get.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
Ninety seven percent of Americans to agree on anything. I
would rather eat a chocolate cake or a pile of dirt.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
What would you prefer?
Speaker 1 (03:12):
I don't know if I get ninety seven percent of
people to say chocolate cake. But I got ninety seven
percent of people saying don't expand the tournament, and yet
they're gonna do it anyway. And it's all about money
on both fronts, and I think there's a compelling conversation
to be had.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
And I don't even know.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
If the NFL has thought this through entirely, and maybe
just get it done one fell swoop as we're all
trying to figure out how streaming is gonna go, and
just overload and bombard now because if they get to eighteen,
I don't rule out.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
Them going to twenty.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
And the way to do twenty is, like I said
to Tom in the first hour, it's simple.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
You don't expand the season. You don't make it any longer.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
And you can't because of ironically, for the most part,
college basketball, because ESPN and CBS are so locked into
college basketball.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
You can't get that TV.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
Contract to bleed that late into February or early March.
You still got to end it in mid February. So
all you do then is you change the offseason program
and you can still have two preseason games if you want.
Just finagle the preseason scheduled differently and don't send them
away for a month in June before they come back
(04:36):
for training camp.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
You can do it and still get a.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
Couple preseason games in and you won't even lose those
gates either. So I'm kind of surprised that we're sitting
here talking about eighteen when I all know, we all
know they're going to try to get to twenty, and
it's completely doable right now. Four point two three three
three ninety nine thirty nine. All right, So if you
want to talk about those two tops conversation, we can.
(05:00):
The expansion of the tournament, the expansion of the NFL
regular season.
Speaker 2 (05:04):
Are you in favor of either.
Speaker 1 (05:06):
We can also talk about the Andrew McCutcheon of getting
Malkin column that I wrote that seem to have a
lot of people buzzing, and I got a lot of
blowback on it, and it drills back down to people
just seeing the picture of the two of them together,
seeing the headline, and I don't think understanding what I
was talking about there. I'm not comparing Malkins' thirty nine
(05:28):
year old level of productivity and mccutcheons necessarily, although I
do think there are some comps to be made, and
I'm not comparing their legacies either. I think Malkins is greater,
obviously because you know, he won championships here. But the
comp that has made is some of the pearl clutching
and concern about Gino and him leaving and how that's
(05:52):
gonna go over and is it going to be as
embittered as it is with Andrew McCutcheon. And my view
on that is I don't care about out either, because
in the end they're both gonna come back and it's
gonna be hunky dory. It just might be a little
bumpy on the way out. But hasn't it been multiple
times over? It was bumpy with Yoger and Bonds for
(06:12):
crying out loud, and they're both back under the tent
in Pittsburgh. Bonds had his night at P and C Park,
never even played there. Yoger had his night at PPG
Paint Serena. He beat the Pens on PPG Paint Serena
in the postseason and beat them with what like the
Flyers and the Bruins, So you know, like this stuff
goes away. Ben wasn't exactly happy on the way out
(06:33):
the door. He wanted to keep playing. Troy wanted to
keep playing. They let Franco go hinz Ward didn't think
he was done. James Harrison was like public enemy number
one here for a long time after he left and
forced his way out to the Patriots. He's the first
face you see on the jumbo tron at Akroscher Stadium when.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
The guys come out of the tunnel and they.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
Do the hype video. He leaves the terrible towel twirl
He ripped Tomlin for like three are straight and he's still.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
Back in with the family. So this stuff will take.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
Care of itself. It's bad out the door for Cutch.
He's got the powdy face. He's grumpy about how things
ended in Pittsburgh. He'll get over it because he'll never
be as important in retirement in Texas, New York, San Francisco, Philadelphia,
at Milwaukee, the other places that he played as he
will be here. He's a legacy player here, He's a
(07:27):
footnote in all those other cities.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
Same thing with Gino.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
If he goes to Florida, Tampa, the Flyers, whoever, he'll
always be Gino Machino. Here in Pittsburgh, he'll be the
guy who came and tried to help win a Stanley
Cup and probably got to the second round of the
Eastern Conference playoffs.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
In one of those cities. It just won't feel good
going out the door.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
That's the comp The cop isn't about their legacy. The
comp isn't about their careers or how good they are
now versus how bad they are now versus what they
used to be.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
That's not what I'm talking about.
Speaker 1 (07:59):
I'm talking about these similarities and how tough it is
to see them go, and how much we overrate how
long that's gonna last. It'll be fine. It'll be fine
in both cases. Logan is calling from Pittsburgh on the
NFL schedule. Go ahead, Logan, Hey Logan, I want to
agree with you. I think I think the football should
(08:19):
go back to sixteen.
Speaker 3 (08:20):
Football is the only if you take away preseason games,
they have.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
No warm up, they have no ability to see who
can play well, they have no get.
Speaker 3 (08:28):
Ready to play.
Speaker 4 (08:29):
You're suddenly playing the first two games of the season
and you could get crushed.
Speaker 3 (08:34):
Also, the football is much higher sport. I think giving
the players rest is very important.
Speaker 4 (08:40):
And switching on.
Speaker 1 (08:41):
The Malchin, I think they've let Malcom play too long.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
I love the man.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
I think he's a great player, but I think.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
He leve level play way too long. I think that's
effected the team. Thanks for the call.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
To your point about the twenty game regular season or
the eighteen game regular season.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
If they go to eighteen, there's two bye weeks.
Speaker 1 (08:58):
I also don't know if I need my NFL team
being off for two weekends. But then again, with the
way they fragmented the schedule and they have games on Wednesday, Thursday, Tuesday,
Monday midnight on Wednesday in Australia or whatever across the
international date line where it's Wednesday on one day and
Thursday and the other. I don't know what a full
week of the NFL is or is it anymore, so
they've kind of blurred that line, so like what a
(09:20):
bye week is versus a mini bye week or having
them play on Wednesday or Thursday night and then getting
a weekend off Like that's I'm kind of numb to that.
I guess at this point, I don't need two full
bye weeks off for my team, but they will do
that if they go to eighteen games. And what you
said about the preseason, that's another option. If they were
(09:40):
to just go ahead and try to get it to twenty,
they could do away with the preseason entirely, I guess,
and treat it like college, but then they lose a
gate per year. They would probably do one game home,
one game away, and you'd lose the preseason gate, and
they don't want to do that because that's more money
for them. Tim on expanding the regular season, Go ahead, Tim,
(10:03):
you're on one oh five nine the XI. Okay, go ahead,
go ahead, jim Oh, sorry, go ahead, jim My bed.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
That's all right.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
I wanted to weigh in I'm as a season ticket
holder the Steers, I'm completed. O lost him so we
couldn't get his name right, and then the phone died.
So let me see if I can figure out what
the end of that thought was. As a season ticket
holder of the Steelers, I'm completely against this idea because
(10:35):
I'm sick and tired of seeing them not one of
the playoffs anyway, am I close to right on that?
That's how I would have ended that sentence. You know
what they're gonna do. Where he might have been going
with that is they're gonna jack up the prices. You're
gonna pay even more and you're probably gonna have to
drive up to a dome in Cranberry or something like
that to see the games as opposed on the North
(10:57):
side by the time these schedule advancements happen, and maybe
not the eighteen, but if they get to twenty, that
might be the case.
Speaker 2 (11:04):
I know, Art Rudy the Second said, no dome.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
Eh, let's see, let's see what the renderings look like
and how many more luxury seats and how many more
people will be actually coming to the games because they
don't have to sit in the snow as that guy
was maybe getting to that's a lot of times go
to the stadium and paying for concessions and paying for parking.
Like there's an intendance issue as the as it is
in the NFL, not with tickets being bought, but with
(11:28):
people actually showing up. You start diluting the importance of
those regular season games, then you might have even more
of a problem. Maybe that's why they're messing around with
those seats and painting some of them black.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
At Akroshar Stadium.
Speaker 1 (11:41):
Get four point two three three three ninety nine thirty
nine or eight three three four one.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
Two w XDX. When we come back, it's the Bucko
round up. That's next.
Speaker 3 (11:51):
One of five ninety X displayoff season power if your
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Brewery and one oh five nine e X. A portion
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Speaker 2 (12:06):
Brewery from the one oh five nine the ex Traffic Center.
This report is sponsored by NAP Auto Parts. It's a
ten minute jam through pleasant Hills some fifty one northbound
Lewis Run Road up to eleventh the mark Madden, what
do you want? What do you want? Damn it?
Speaker 4 (12:21):
The exit one oh five nine credit Van Fleet.
Speaker 1 (12:26):
Are they breaking up or what have we gotten? Any
sort of resolution to that? I haven't heard anything further.
As opposed to the initial tweet that was sent out there,
there's some conspiracy that because the last clip was of
a song that no one knew that this was a
tease to a new album. But it doesn't feel like
(12:47):
them to go this hokey with uh little fake breakup
that they is obviously going to get traction and people
are going to buy in and be aware of it
if they announce a new album.
Speaker 2 (13:02):
But I don't know.
Speaker 1 (13:03):
Hopefully that's not the case and that there is something
new on the way. I did listen to Jay Kiska's
new band, which is kind of interesting. The guy that
he's playing with he sounds like j Buchannan from rival Son,
So I'm going to give that a second spin. I
didn't even know about it until I found out about
the breakup, So there you go. It did work, as
it turns out, But time for the Bucko round up.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
Tim Benson for Mark Madden. Today.
Speaker 1 (13:23):
Pirates lose nine to nothing in Arizona on Tuesday night,
trying to bounce back against the Diamondbacks tonight. Paul Sken's
pitching for the Pirates, his second career start at Chase Field,
his only other appearance there May twenty eighth, last season.
Six and two thirds innings of shutout pitching, he got
(13:44):
the win. Pirates won ten to one, seven strikeouts, didn't
allow a walk, just four hits. Michael Soroka is the
guy's pitching for the d Backs four to one, but
in era of four to seventy three appearances against the
Pirates one start, six fourteen era iburn runs in seven
and the third innings. Now, I do want to get into
Bubba Chandler a little bit more. Tom and I spoke
(14:06):
about him when Tom gave us the trifectic and brought
to you by Danny's Pets and Hogy's family, owned and
operated since nineteen sixty Route eighty eight in Bethel Park.
He give us the three most disappointing Pirates, and he
had Chandler at number three. I might even put him
higher than that, although the Azuna one is a good
point and reynolds defense. You know, I actually in the
past had suggested that maybe the panic in the analysis
(14:31):
of reynolds defense was a little much. Maybe I underrated that.
I probably underrated that a lot. Would I say it
out loud. He has been bad at left field right field,
and I stand by what I said before playing next
to Cruise, you're never quite sure what Cruise is gonna do,
and it's obvious that seeping into how Reynolds is playing,
(14:54):
and maybe O'Hearn when he's out there to or mangum.
Speaker 2 (14:57):
They're just not sure what the center fielder is going
to do. That's a problem.
Speaker 1 (15:00):
But he got lost in that ball, and Cruz had
nothing to do with Reynolds losing the ball in the
lights at PNC Park and some of the throws that
Reynolds has made in the decisions that he's made of
what bagged to throw to that's got nothing to do
with Cruz. The tracking of the ball and not knowing
where Cruz is. I do think that's coming to play.
But let's stick with Chandler for the time being, because
(15:21):
I get it. He had a tough assignment coming into
major leagues last year. He was tagged as the next
big thing in the franchises starting rotation. But the unfortunate
part for him is the most recent big thing was
still in the rotation and he was Paul Skeens, and
he was about to win a cy Young and just
one Rookie of the year, So any introduction to the
(15:42):
big leagues was going to be immediately compared to Skeens
and the instant success that he had, So that was
a tough hand to be dealt for Chandler. Unfortunately, though,
whatever Skeens was able to bottle immediately upon his arrival,
Chandler is still trying to discover it's not talent, it's
not stuff. Chandler is fine in those areas for the
(16:05):
most part. Two of those issues have been consistency in control.
Last night against Arizona, six walks in five innings, He's
one in four with a four to seven six ERA,
and he leads MLB pitchers and walks with twenty six.
And the weird part is Chandler was getting ahead of
(16:26):
hitters and then letting him off the hook. His strike
percentage on first pitches to the Diamondbacks last night was
seventy three percent, and like he said, I was at one,
then I'd get to one to one, then I'd be
back to two to one, and then it just got
worse from there. And he thought through a lot of
(16:46):
those control issues, and the last couple innings were actually
pretty good. He gave up two runs, one of them
was because of the misplay from Reynolds. It still goes
down as an earned run. That's not necessarily fair, but
Skens knows about that happened to him in Game one
against the Men with Cruz. So he was pretty good
after the first, but he was still laboring through at
(17:07):
bats because he was letting guys staying at bats, he
was walking guys after he got ahead of him. And
even as Chandler point out himself, that hit or error,
however you want to call it from Reynolds was the
result of the fifth batter getting up because he didn't
put away Corbyn Carroll when he had him. Oh two,
(17:29):
good on Chandler two for not airing out Reynolds. He
gets that, don't you know. Make the veteran feel bad
because he was a rookie pitcher got tagged with an
urn run and he put that blame on himself for
allowing the fly ball that deep that well struck and
even seeing the batter in the first place. But I
give him credit there. It's just that it wasn't that
long ago that Chandler was really good. He allowed was it,
(17:50):
one run, one walk, six innings in that game against
Tampa Bay.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
They won that game five to one.
Speaker 1 (17:57):
Now, if he's going to be the next big thing
for real, he's got to tap into that, find that
repeat that, or we're really gonna have to wait for
the next big thing, the bigger thing, and that's seth Rnandez.
But I'm so tired of let's prop up the prospects,
prop up the prospects.
Speaker 2 (18:13):
Let's talk about who's in Indy, who's in Altuna.
Speaker 1 (18:17):
That shouldn't be happening for a team that was alleged
to be one that was built to be in.
Speaker 2 (18:22):
The playoff race this year.
Speaker 1 (18:24):
I'm gonna wait on the Sethrnandez hype train for at
least another season.
Speaker 2 (18:28):
Or two.
Speaker 1 (18:30):
Eight three three four one two w xdx or four
one two three three three ninety nine thirty nine tweet
me at Tim Benz pgh Brendan says on the NCAA
tournament expansion, I don't think the number is as important
as the format, if there were seventy six teams and
that included two from every conference and the lower placed
power teams played each other in the first round, they
(18:51):
would be totally fine by me.
Speaker 2 (18:53):
There's just not gonna do that.
Speaker 1 (18:54):
They're doing this so more big power five teams can
get in, despite what they're saying to the contrary, And
as far as what the format is, I already gave
you my idea to get to seventy two, which is
create an extra Dayton, have like all the Dayton Games
happen one day, and then have like Spokane or Hartford,
(19:16):
Connecticut something like that. You play all four games there,
and that's how you get to seventy two. Seventy six
is just unwieldy to me, and you're creating a full,
longer third week of the tournament when I think we're
already kind of basketballed out by the time we get
to the final four. Anyway, this guy, Matt says sixty
(19:36):
four was perfect. Still kind of mad that they added
to that. I've gotten used to the Dayton games. I
think it's hokey. It feels like a TV grab to
me more than it is anything else. And now I
really know that it's a financial grab more than a
TV grab to get some of these other bigger power
conference teams in when they're finishing in fourteenth and thirteenth
place of their conferences. To begin with, this guy Yimmit says,
(20:01):
football players only play seven minutes per game. My girl
rode for three hours on her bicycle and hit close
to fifty miles per hour.
Speaker 2 (20:09):
Football players have it easy.
Speaker 1 (20:11):
I don't think your little girls getting hit by TJ
Watt on a regular basis. If she is, then TJ
should stop doing that and he might get himself in trouble.
Speaker 2 (20:20):
But I don't think that's happening.
Speaker 1 (20:22):
And that whole thing that he plays seven minutes a game, okay,
well fine, but they're also playing, however, many snaps per game,
and that's a car crash every time you snap the football.
That's why the injury rate is as high as it is.
And I'm telling you, they get to eighteen games and
they've got teams that are playing now two extra games
as opposed to sixteen that attrition rate. You're gonna see
more star players hurt late in seasons chasing ways to
(20:45):
get in the playoffs, and you're gonna have star players
out for the postseason, and that's gonna be counter to
what they really want. Again at Tim Binn's PGH, Mike
de COURSEI next, we'll talk to him about these topics
and more.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
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drie cash you'll keep money like that a secret.
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Choos.
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I'm rich, rich, rich, gim listen all day for your
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This is Doug Gotlid.
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Here's what's trending from the Iheartsports Network presented by Iheartadvertising
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Speaker 4 (21:25):
The NFL and the Referees uniondel vote tomorrow to okay
a new collective bargaining agreement that'll end the threat of
replacement officials.
Speaker 2 (21:33):
After having their three game winning streak snap last night.
Speaker 4 (21:35):
Paul Steins will try to help the Pirates re enter
the wind column on Arizona tonight and the Bucos their
Morning of Franchise legend. Nineteen sixty World Series Champion Bob
Skinner has passed away in San Diego.
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and not thinking about radio. Think again, because people are
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And only iHeart.
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Written and now the super genius Mark Madden with you
are could eat you up?
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I'm Mark Ik a porn question for you that right there.
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Speaker 1 (22:12):
Mike to course you the Sporting News, Fox, the Big
Ten Network. You can check him out at though those
locations Sports at Pittsburgh as well. He's brought to us
by South Hills KEI at Tim Bens with you in
for Mark Madden. Mike is also my partner on the
Friday Football Show at trib Live, which comes back in
the fall and actually the summer, although based on what
(22:33):
we're just talking about, maybe they'll just start playing NFL
football year round. We'll get to that right now with Mike. Mike,
I feel like I got a couple topics. There's just
like right down the middle for you to talk about.
First and foremost, the expansion of the NFL schedule to
potentially eighteen games and two buys, and the expansion of
the NCAA basketball tournament to seventy six teams. Should either
(22:58):
entity do either expansion? In your opinion, do we lose Mike.
That was a heck of an intro, except when I
stumbled that was a great intro. Though, we'll get Mike
back on the phone. Let's see here four p one
(23:19):
two three three three ninety nine thirty nine or eight
three three four one two w XDX. I don't think
that was something I did to bring them on, But
at any rate, I think if you're just tuning in,
I'll reset the poll numbers here, fifty eight percent of
people saying that the NFL should go back to sixteen games,
eighteen games increase, getting nineteen percent of the vote, seventeen
(23:42):
games stay there thirteen percent of the vote, and the
preseason go up to twenty with no preseason only getting
ten percent. Then I would say, if you look at
the overwhelming response to the NCAA basketball portion of the poll,
that one is definitely more directly pushing back on what
(24:03):
the entity wants to do with any expansion whatsoever. Seventy
one percent of people saying it should go back to
sixty four and sixty eight percent saying it's twenty five
percent saying stay at sixty eight.
Speaker 2 (24:16):
You're not going to be able to go back.
Speaker 1 (24:17):
I agree with the majority on both of these, you
can't walk back what's already been done because then you're
giving back money now though. I mean, like the conversation
is about how much more can you consume? The conversation
now though, is how much more can you make? And
(24:37):
I don't think that it's necessary at this point.
Speaker 2 (24:40):
It's not like these.
Speaker 1 (24:43):
Leagues are starving. It's not like they need the income.
But there's more to be had, and with streaming, there's
more places to go. Like I'll give you for instance,
if you're looking at the scheduled delay, we don't have
a schedule yet in the NFL because they're still trying
to figure out who is going to buy this package
(25:04):
of five games. There's like five games out there that
they're trying to sell at once. I think it's the
Australia game. There's a game on Black Friday, a second
game on Black Friday. They're trying to create that Thanksgiving
Eve game. So that's three, and then there's a couple
others that are out there. But this is like a
five game package that the NFL wants to sell and
(25:26):
they're trying to create this bidding war.
Speaker 2 (25:29):
They probably already have.
Speaker 1 (25:31):
Between multiple outlets, multiple streaming outlets to get them to
buy in and to get people to up the ante
for where they're going to put these games, whether that's
on Netflix, whether that's on YouTube. I think is one
just play an old traditional Fox. Fox is going to
(25:53):
be potentially one of the buyers for this package games,
and they're just trying to drain every cent out of
them and whoever comes in with the latest best bid.
At that point they'll release the schedule, but they can't
do it until these five games are out there. But like,
that's the level of manutia that they're going to go to.
That's the level of how much they're trying to milk
(26:14):
every dollar out of this.
Speaker 2 (26:15):
So if you're.
Speaker 1 (26:16):
Thinking that the quality of competition, the extent of the calendar,
the risk for injury, how good or bad the level
of football is in September, none of that compares to
what they're looking at for however, many millions of dollars
they can throw back into the pot. But then again,
(26:37):
when the collective bargaining agreement rolls around, this is where
the players have to step up and maybe for the
good of the game and for themselves, push back on
it and say, okay, look we get it. We are
getting more money because you're bringing in more money. That's
just how the collecting bargaining agreement works. You bring in
more from the ad sales, you bring in more from
the networks, you bring in more from the streaming services.
Speaker 2 (27:00):
That's more for the players. But at what point is.
Speaker 1 (27:03):
The dissemination of that money that goes into the salary
cap that can be spent. At what point do the
players say to themselves, Okay, it's not enough for the
injury risk, or like we were just talking about, maybe
they get to the point where now it's down to
no preseason games, if they eventually go to twenty or
if they go to eighteen, down to two preseason games,
(27:26):
that really just benefits the veteran and the star players.
Speaker 2 (27:29):
And is that fair within.
Speaker 1 (27:30):
The union as to how that money is eventually going
to be disseminated, because how do you get seen, how
do you make the team? If there are fewer chances
in the preseason that has to be talked about as well.
It's not an even distribution of that point for reps
and for chances to make the roster. Now you could
get an opportunity and more opportunities to make the team
(27:52):
because the injury rate, the attrition is higher, and you
get picked up mid season and they might make the
practice squads bigger, But how much bigger can they get?
I mean, they're kind of bloated as it is right now,
and that was a nice little benefit to have from COVID.
You can stash people, but how much bigger are they
gonna get? Four one, two, three, three, three ninety nine
(28:15):
thirty nine phones went down as soon as we got
to course you on the line, so they're in lies
the dilemma. We'll try to get Mike on in just
a little bit, but when we come back, we'll take
a look at the Penguins and the off season. We'll
play the John Rothstein clip for you at some point
if you missed it earlier. He's talked about the NCAA
tournament expansion, and we'll also get back into the Pirates
(28:38):
and their performance last night against the Arizona Diamondbacks and
the issues went well beyond just what Bubba Chandler did
or did not do.
Speaker 2 (28:45):
That's coming up one O five to nine the X.
Speaker 4 (28:47):
It's The Woody Show weekday mornings at six one.
Speaker 3 (28:52):
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Speaker 2 (29:23):
Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal, but
encouraged
Here's an update on the Twitter polls that I put
out Tom and I talked about him in the two
o'clock hour. I don't want to get some response on
this from the phone lines. Here today, we're talking about
greed is good and we're talking about greedy folks in
the National Football League and the NC.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Double A because we've got parallel tracks for.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
Storylines here happening at the same time, Robert Kraft and
Vanity Fair saying that the NFL wants to go to
an eighteen game schedule before the next CBA, and then
there was a corresponding report from Pro Football Talk that
said it could happen as soon as I think they
said next season or the twenty twenty eight season, after
twenty twenty seven, but whatever, the path is clear and obvious.
(00:46):
The NFL wants to get to eighteen games. And then
you got the NC Double A, which is trying to
get the tournament expanded to seventy six game teams to
get in, not sixty eight as it stands right now,
and that feels like a FATA com plea that they're
going to get to a seventy six team tournament, probably
(01:06):
for next year. So I ask people online. What do
you think about both of these? Top is conversation? And
when it comes to the NFL schedule increasing to eighteen games,
nineteen percent of you that's it. Nineteen percent of you
say that you won an eighteen game NFL season, thirteen
(01:29):
percent say keep it at seventeen games, and the leading
candidate here, fifty seven percent of respondents would actually like
to see the schedule roll back to sixteen, and I'm
with you, that's what I would prefer as well. And
then I got about ten percent of people saying no, no, no, no,
go up to twenty games right away and get rid
(01:51):
of the preseason. So those are your options football fans
four one two, three, three three ninety nine thirty nine
increase to eighteen games, keep it at seventeen, go back
to sixteen, or just bump it up to twenty with
no preseason.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
What do you want to do?
Speaker 1 (02:10):
Four one two three three three w xdx.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
It's even more overwhelming on.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
The basketball side, and I don't know if I've ever
quite seen anything like this. What is your preferred amount
of teams in the NCAA basketball Tournament? Most people say,
go back to sixty four. That's at seventy one percent,
twenty five percent say keep it at the current level
that's at sixty eight teams, and then about one point
(02:40):
five percent for both seventy two and seventy six the
probable expansion number.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
That's it again.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
I'm with the majority. I'd like to go back to
sixty four. I'm fine with keeping the Dayton Games as
is at sixty eight.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
But you can't get.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
Ninety seven percent of Americans to agree on anything. I
would rather eat a chocolate cake or a pile of dirt.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
What would you prefer?
Speaker 1 (03:12):
I don't know if I get ninety seven percent of
people to say chocolate cake. But I got ninety seven
percent of people saying don't expand the tournament, and yet
they're gonna do it anyway. And it's all about money
on both fronts, and I think there's a compelling conversation
to be had.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
And I don't even know.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
If the NFL has thought this through entirely, and maybe
just get it done one fell swoop as we're all
trying to figure out how streaming is gonna go, and
just overload and bombard now because if they get to eighteen,
I don't rule out.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
Them going to twenty.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
And the way to do twenty is, like I said
to Tom in the first hour, it's simple.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
You don't expand the season. You don't make it any longer.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
And you can't because of ironically, for the most part,
college basketball, because ESPN and CBS are so locked into
college basketball.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
You can't get that TV.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
Contract to bleed that late into February or early March.
You still got to end it in mid February. So
all you do then is you change the offseason program
and you can still have two preseason games if you want.
Just finagle the preseason scheduled differently and don't send them
away for a month in June before they come back
(04:36):
for training camp.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
You can do it and still get a.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
Couple preseason games in and you won't even lose those
gates either. So I'm kind of surprised that we're sitting
here talking about eighteen when I all know, we all
know they're going to try to get to twenty, and
it's completely doable right now. Four point two three three
three ninety nine thirty nine. All right, So if you
want to talk about those two tops conversation, we can.
(05:00):
The expansion of the tournament, the expansion of the NFL
regular season.
Speaker 2 (05:04):
Are you in favor of either.
Speaker 1 (05:06):
We can also talk about the Andrew McCutcheon of getting
Malkin column that I wrote that seem to have a
lot of people buzzing, and I got a lot of
blowback on it, and it drills back down to people
just seeing the picture of the two of them together,
seeing the headline, and I don't think understanding what I
was talking about there. I'm not comparing Malkins' thirty nine
(05:28):
year old level of productivity and mccutcheons necessarily, although I
do think there are some comps to be made, and
I'm not comparing their legacies either. I think Malkins is greater,
obviously because you know, he won championships here. But the
comp that has made is some of the pearl clutching
and concern about Gino and him leaving and how that's
(05:52):
gonna go over and is it going to be as
embittered as it is with Andrew McCutcheon. And my view
on that is I don't care about out either, because
in the end they're both gonna come back and it's
gonna be hunky dory. It just might be a little
bumpy on the way out. But hasn't it been multiple
times over? It was bumpy with Yoger and Bonds for
(06:12):
crying out loud, and they're both back under the tent
in Pittsburgh. Bonds had his night at P and C Park,
never even played there. Yoger had his night at PPG
Paint Serena. He beat the Pens on PPG Paint Serena
in the postseason and beat them with what like the
Flyers and the Bruins, So you know, like this stuff
goes away. Ben wasn't exactly happy on the way out
(06:33):
the door. He wanted to keep playing. Troy wanted to
keep playing. They let Franco go hinz Ward didn't think
he was done. James Harrison was like public enemy number
one here for a long time after he left and
forced his way out to the Patriots. He's the first
face you see on the jumbo tron at Akroscher Stadium when.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
The guys come out of the tunnel and they.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
Do the hype video. He leaves the terrible towel twirl
He ripped Tomlin for like three are straight and he's still.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
Back in with the family. So this stuff will take.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
Care of itself. It's bad out the door for Cutch.
He's got the powdy face. He's grumpy about how things
ended in Pittsburgh. He'll get over it because he'll never
be as important in retirement in Texas, New York, San Francisco, Philadelphia,
at Milwaukee, the other places that he played as he
will be here. He's a legacy player here, He's a
(07:27):
footnote in all those other cities.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
Same thing with Gino.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
If he goes to Florida, Tampa, the Flyers, whoever, he'll
always be Gino Machino. Here in Pittsburgh, he'll be the
guy who came and tried to help win a Stanley
Cup and probably got to the second round of the
Eastern Conference playoffs.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
In one of those cities. It just won't feel good
going out the door.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
That's the comp The cop isn't about their legacy. The
comp isn't about their careers or how good they are
now versus how bad they are now versus what they
used to be.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
That's not what I'm talking about.
Speaker 1 (07:59):
I'm talking about these similarities and how tough it is
to see them go, and how much we overrate how
long that's gonna last. It'll be fine. It'll be fine
in both cases. Logan is calling from Pittsburgh on the
NFL schedule. Go ahead, Logan, Hey Logan, I want to
agree with you. I think I think the football should
(08:19):
go back to sixteen.
Speaker 3 (08:20):
Football is the only if you take away preseason games,
they have.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
No warm up, they have no ability to see who
can play well, they have no get.
Speaker 3 (08:28):
Ready to play.
Speaker 4 (08:29):
You're suddenly playing the first two games of the season
and you could get crushed.
Speaker 3 (08:34):
Also, the football is much higher sport. I think giving
the players rest is very important.
Speaker 4 (08:40):
And switching on.
Speaker 1 (08:41):
The Malchin, I think they've let Malcom play too long.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
I love the man.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
I think he's a great player, but I think.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
He leve level play way too long. I think that's
effected the team. Thanks for the call.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
To your point about the twenty game regular season or
the eighteen game regular season.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
If they go to eighteen, there's two bye weeks.
Speaker 1 (08:58):
I also don't know if I need my NFL team
being off for two weekends. But then again, with the
way they fragmented the schedule and they have games on Wednesday, Thursday, Tuesday,
Monday midnight on Wednesday in Australia or whatever across the
international date line where it's Wednesday on one day and
Thursday and the other. I don't know what a full
week of the NFL is or is it anymore, so
they've kind of blurred that line, so like what a
(09:20):
bye week is versus a mini bye week or having
them play on Wednesday or Thursday night and then getting
a weekend off Like that's I'm kind of numb to that.
I guess at this point, I don't need two full
bye weeks off for my team, but they will do
that if they go to eighteen games. And what you
said about the preseason, that's another option. If they were
(09:40):
to just go ahead and try to get it to twenty,
they could do away with the preseason entirely, I guess,
and treat it like college, but then they lose a
gate per year. They would probably do one game home,
one game away, and you'd lose the preseason gate, and
they don't want to do that because that's more money
for them. Tim on expanding the regular season, Go ahead, Tim,
(10:03):
you're on one oh five nine the XI. Okay, go ahead,
go ahead, jim Oh, sorry, go ahead, jim My bed.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
That's all right.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
I wanted to weigh in I'm as a season ticket
holder the Steers, I'm completed. O lost him so we
couldn't get his name right, and then the phone died.
So let me see if I can figure out what
the end of that thought was. As a season ticket
holder of the Steelers, I'm completely against this idea because
(10:35):
I'm sick and tired of seeing them not one of
the playoffs anyway, am I close to right on that?
That's how I would have ended that sentence. You know
what they're gonna do. Where he might have been going
with that is they're gonna jack up the prices. You're
gonna pay even more and you're probably gonna have to
drive up to a dome in Cranberry or something like
that to see the games as opposed on the North
(10:57):
side by the time these schedule advancements happen, and maybe
not the eighteen, but if they get to twenty, that
might be the case.
Speaker 2 (11:04):
I know, Art Rudy the Second said, no dome.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
Eh, let's see, let's see what the renderings look like
and how many more luxury seats and how many more
people will be actually coming to the games because they
don't have to sit in the snow as that guy
was maybe getting to that's a lot of times go
to the stadium and paying for concessions and paying for parking.
Like there's an intendance issue as the as it is
in the NFL, not with tickets being bought, but with
(11:28):
people actually showing up. You start diluting the importance of
those regular season games, then you might have even more
of a problem. Maybe that's why they're messing around with
those seats and painting some of them black.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
At Akroshar Stadium.
Speaker 1 (11:41):
Get four point two three three three ninety nine thirty
nine or eight three three four one.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
Two w XDX. When we come back, it's the Bucko
round up. That's next.
Speaker 3 (11:51):
One of five ninety X displayoff season power if your
taste buds with the Pineapple power Play from Doe Daddy
Brewery and one oh five nine e X. A portion
of every course supports the Mary Let Me Foundations. Grabbed
the Pineapple power Play Now at Caliente, Crafty Jack, a
Little Brookline Beer, Aimost Fellae and Do Daddy.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
Brewery from the one oh five nine the ex Traffic Center.
This report is sponsored by NAP Auto Parts. It's a
ten minute jam through pleasant Hills some fifty one northbound
Lewis Run Road up to eleventh the mark Madden, what
do you want? What do you want? Damn it?
Speaker 4 (12:21):
The exit one oh five nine credit Van Fleet.
Speaker 1 (12:26):
Are they breaking up or what have we gotten? Any
sort of resolution to that? I haven't heard anything further.
As opposed to the initial tweet that was sent out there,
there's some conspiracy that because the last clip was of
a song that no one knew that this was a
tease to a new album. But it doesn't feel like
(12:47):
them to go this hokey with uh little fake breakup
that they is obviously going to get traction and people
are going to buy in and be aware of it
if they announce a new album.
Speaker 2 (13:02):
But I don't know.
Speaker 1 (13:03):
Hopefully that's not the case and that there is something
new on the way. I did listen to Jay Kiska's
new band, which is kind of interesting. The guy that
he's playing with he sounds like j Buchannan from rival Son,
So I'm going to give that a second spin. I
didn't even know about it until I found out about
the breakup, So there you go. It did work, as
it turns out, But time for the Bucko round up.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
Tim Benson for Mark Madden. Today.
Speaker 1 (13:23):
Pirates lose nine to nothing in Arizona on Tuesday night,
trying to bounce back against the Diamondbacks tonight. Paul Sken's
pitching for the Pirates, his second career start at Chase Field,
his only other appearance there May twenty eighth, last season.
Six and two thirds innings of shutout pitching, he got
(13:44):
the win. Pirates won ten to one, seven strikeouts, didn't
allow a walk, just four hits. Michael Soroka is the
guy's pitching for the d Backs four to one, but
in era of four to seventy three appearances against the
Pirates one start, six fourteen era iburn runs in seven
and the third innings. Now, I do want to get into
Bubba Chandler a little bit more. Tom and I spoke
(14:06):
about him when Tom gave us the trifectic and brought
to you by Danny's Pets and Hogy's family, owned and
operated since nineteen sixty Route eighty eight in Bethel Park.
He give us the three most disappointing Pirates, and he
had Chandler at number three. I might even put him
higher than that, although the Azuna one is a good
point and reynolds defense. You know, I actually in the
past had suggested that maybe the panic in the analysis
(14:31):
of reynolds defense was a little much. Maybe I underrated that.
I probably underrated that a lot. Would I say it
out loud. He has been bad at left field right field,
and I stand by what I said before playing next
to Cruise, you're never quite sure what Cruise is gonna do,
and it's obvious that seeping into how Reynolds is playing,
(14:54):
and maybe O'Hearn when he's out there to or mangum.
Speaker 2 (14:57):
They're just not sure what the center fielder is going
to do. That's a problem.
Speaker 1 (15:00):
But he got lost in that ball, and Cruz had
nothing to do with Reynolds losing the ball in the
lights at PNC Park and some of the throws that
Reynolds has made in the decisions that he's made of
what bagged to throw to that's got nothing to do
with Cruz. The tracking of the ball and not knowing
where Cruz is. I do think that's coming to play.
But let's stick with Chandler for the time being, because
(15:21):
I get it. He had a tough assignment coming into
major leagues last year. He was tagged as the next
big thing in the franchises starting rotation. But the unfortunate
part for him is the most recent big thing was
still in the rotation and he was Paul Skeens, and
he was about to win a cy Young and just
one Rookie of the year, So any introduction to the
(15:42):
big leagues was going to be immediately compared to Skeens
and the instant success that he had, So that was
a tough hand to be dealt for Chandler. Unfortunately, though,
whatever Skeens was able to bottle immediately upon his arrival,
Chandler is still trying to discover it's not talent, it's
not stuff. Chandler is fine in those areas for the
(16:05):
most part. Two of those issues have been consistency in control.
Last night against Arizona, six walks in five innings, He's
one in four with a four to seven six ERA,
and he leads MLB pitchers and walks with twenty six.
And the weird part is Chandler was getting ahead of
(16:26):
hitters and then letting him off the hook. His strike
percentage on first pitches to the Diamondbacks last night was
seventy three percent, and like he said, I was at one,
then I'd get to one to one, then I'd be
back to two to one, and then it just got
worse from there. And he thought through a lot of
(16:46):
those control issues, and the last couple innings were actually
pretty good. He gave up two runs, one of them
was because of the misplay from Reynolds. It still goes
down as an earned run. That's not necessarily fair, but
Skens knows about that happened to him in Game one
against the Men with Cruz. So he was pretty good
after the first, but he was still laboring through at
(17:07):
bats because he was letting guys staying at bats, he
was walking guys after he got ahead of him. And
even as Chandler point out himself, that hit or error,
however you want to call it from Reynolds was the
result of the fifth batter getting up because he didn't
put away Corbyn Carroll when he had him. Oh two,
(17:29):
good on Chandler two for not airing out Reynolds. He
gets that, don't you know. Make the veteran feel bad
because he was a rookie pitcher got tagged with an
urn run and he put that blame on himself for
allowing the fly ball that deep that well struck and
even seeing the batter in the first place. But I
give him credit there. It's just that it wasn't that
long ago that Chandler was really good. He allowed was it,
(17:50):
one run, one walk, six innings in that game against
Tampa Bay.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
They won that game five to one.
Speaker 1 (17:57):
Now, if he's going to be the next big thing
for real, he's got to tap into that, find that
repeat that, or we're really gonna have to wait for
the next big thing, the bigger thing, and that's seth Rnandez.
But I'm so tired of let's prop up the prospects,
prop up the prospects.
Speaker 2 (18:13):
Let's talk about who's in Indy, who's in Altuna.
Speaker 1 (18:17):
That shouldn't be happening for a team that was alleged
to be one that was built to be in.
Speaker 2 (18:22):
The playoff race this year.
Speaker 1 (18:24):
I'm gonna wait on the Sethrnandez hype train for at
least another season.
Speaker 2 (18:28):
Or two.
Speaker 1 (18:30):
Eight three three four one two w xdx or four
one two three three three ninety nine thirty nine tweet
me at Tim Benz pgh Brendan says on the NCAA
tournament expansion, I don't think the number is as important
as the format, if there were seventy six teams and
that included two from every conference and the lower placed
power teams played each other in the first round, they
(18:51):
would be totally fine by me.
Speaker 2 (18:53):
There's just not gonna do that.
Speaker 1 (18:54):
They're doing this so more big power five teams can
get in, despite what they're saying to the contrary, And
as far as what the format is, I already gave
you my idea to get to seventy two, which is
create an extra Dayton, have like all the Dayton Games
happen one day, and then have like Spokane or Hartford,
(19:16):
Connecticut something like that. You play all four games there,
and that's how you get to seventy two. Seventy six
is just unwieldy to me, and you're creating a full,
longer third week of the tournament when I think we're
already kind of basketballed out by the time we get
to the final four. Anyway, this guy, Matt says sixty
(19:36):
four was perfect. Still kind of mad that they added
to that. I've gotten used to the Dayton games. I
think it's hokey. It feels like a TV grab to
me more than it is anything else. And now I
really know that it's a financial grab more than a
TV grab to get some of these other bigger power
conference teams in when they're finishing in fourteenth and thirteenth
place of their conferences. To begin with, this guy Yimmit says,
(20:01):
football players only play seven minutes per game. My girl
rode for three hours on her bicycle and hit close
to fifty miles per hour.
Speaker 2 (20:09):
Football players have it easy.
Speaker 1 (20:11):
I don't think your little girls getting hit by TJ
Watt on a regular basis. If she is, then TJ
should stop doing that and he might get himself in trouble.
Speaker 2 (20:20):
But I don't think that's happening.
Speaker 1 (20:22):
And that whole thing that he plays seven minutes a game, okay,
well fine, but they're also playing, however, many snaps per game,
and that's a car crash every time you snap the football.
That's why the injury rate is as high as it is.
And I'm telling you, they get to eighteen games and
they've got teams that are playing now two extra games
as opposed to sixteen that attrition rate. You're gonna see
more star players hurt late in seasons chasing ways to
(20:45):
get in the playoffs, and you're gonna have star players
out for the postseason, and that's gonna be counter to
what they really want. Again at Tim Binn's PGH, Mike
de COURSEI next, we'll talk to him about these topics
and more.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
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Choos.
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I'm rich, rich, rich, gim listen all day for your
chance has some extra cash on one oh five nine
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This is Doug Gotlid.
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Here's what's trending from the Iheartsports Network presented by Iheartadvertising
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Speaker 4 (21:25):
The NFL and the Referees uniondel vote tomorrow to okay
a new collective bargaining agreement that'll end the threat of
replacement officials.
Speaker 2 (21:33):
After having their three game winning streak snap last night.
Speaker 4 (21:35):
Paul Steins will try to help the Pirates re enter
the wind column on Arizona tonight and the Bucos their
Morning of Franchise legend. Nineteen sixty World Series Champion Bob
Skinner has passed away in San Diego.
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Written and now the super genius Mark Madden with you
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Mike to course you the Sporting News, Fox, the Big
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by South Hills KEI at Tim Bens with you in
for Mark Madden. Mike is also my partner on the
Friday Football Show at trib Live, which comes back in
the fall and actually the summer, although based on what
(22:33):
we're just talking about, maybe they'll just start playing NFL
football year round. We'll get to that right now with Mike. Mike,
I feel like I got a couple topics. There's just
like right down the middle for you to talk about.
First and foremost, the expansion of the NFL schedule to
potentially eighteen games and two buys, and the expansion of
the NCAA basketball tournament to seventy six teams. Should either
(22:58):
entity do either expansion? In your opinion, do we lose Mike.
That was a heck of an intro, except when I
stumbled that was a great intro. Though, we'll get Mike
back on the phone. Let's see here four p one
(23:19):
two three three three ninety nine thirty nine or eight
three three four one two w XDX. I don't think
that was something I did to bring them on, But
at any rate, I think if you're just tuning in,
I'll reset the poll numbers here, fifty eight percent of
people saying that the NFL should go back to sixteen games,
eighteen games increase, getting nineteen percent of the vote, seventeen
(23:42):
games stay there thirteen percent of the vote, and the
preseason go up to twenty with no preseason only getting
ten percent. Then I would say, if you look at
the overwhelming response to the NCAA basketball portion of the poll,
that one is definitely more directly pushing back on what
(24:03):
the entity wants to do with any expansion whatsoever. Seventy
one percent of people saying it should go back to
sixty four and sixty eight percent saying it's twenty five
percent saying stay at sixty eight.
Speaker 2 (24:16):
You're not going to be able to go back.
Speaker 1 (24:17):
I agree with the majority on both of these, you
can't walk back what's already been done because then you're
giving back money now though. I mean, like the conversation
is about how much more can you consume? The conversation
now though, is how much more can you make? And
(24:37):
I don't think that it's necessary at this point.
Speaker 2 (24:40):
It's not like these.
Speaker 1 (24:43):
Leagues are starving. It's not like they need the income.
But there's more to be had, and with streaming, there's
more places to go. Like I'll give you for instance,
if you're looking at the scheduled delay, we don't have
a schedule yet in the NFL because they're still trying
to figure out who is going to buy this package
(25:04):
of five games. There's like five games out there that
they're trying to sell at once. I think it's the
Australia game. There's a game on Black Friday, a second
game on Black Friday. They're trying to create that Thanksgiving
Eve game. So that's three, and then there's a couple
others that are out there. But this is like a
five game package that the NFL wants to sell and
(25:26):
they're trying to create this bidding war.
Speaker 2 (25:29):
They probably already have.
Speaker 1 (25:31):
Between multiple outlets, multiple streaming outlets to get them to
buy in and to get people to up the ante
for where they're going to put these games, whether that's
on Netflix, whether that's on YouTube. I think is one
just play an old traditional Fox. Fox is going to
(25:53):
be potentially one of the buyers for this package games,
and they're just trying to drain every cent out of
them and whoever comes in with the latest best bid.
At that point they'll release the schedule, but they can't
do it until these five games are out there. But like,
that's the level of manutia that they're going to go to.
That's the level of how much they're trying to milk
(26:14):
every dollar out of this.
Speaker 2 (26:15):
So if you're.
Speaker 1 (26:16):
Thinking that the quality of competition, the extent of the calendar,
the risk for injury, how good or bad the level
of football is in September, none of that compares to
what they're looking at for however, many millions of dollars
they can throw back into the pot. But then again,
(26:37):
when the collective bargaining agreement rolls around, this is where
the players have to step up and maybe for the
good of the game and for themselves, push back on
it and say, okay, look we get it. We are
getting more money because you're bringing in more money. That's
just how the collecting bargaining agreement works. You bring in
more from the ad sales, you bring in more from
the networks, you bring in more from the streaming services.
Speaker 2 (27:00):
That's more for the players. But at what point is.
Speaker 1 (27:03):
The dissemination of that money that goes into the salary
cap that can be spent. At what point do the
players say to themselves, Okay, it's not enough for the
injury risk, or like we were just talking about, maybe
they get to the point where now it's down to
no preseason games, if they eventually go to twenty or
if they go to eighteen, down to two preseason games,
(27:26):
that really just benefits the veteran and the star players.
Speaker 2 (27:29):
And is that fair within.
Speaker 1 (27:30):
The union as to how that money is eventually going
to be disseminated, because how do you get seen, how
do you make the team? If there are fewer chances
in the preseason that has to be talked about as well.
It's not an even distribution of that point for reps
and for chances to make the roster. Now you could
get an opportunity and more opportunities to make the team
(27:52):
because the injury rate, the attrition is higher, and you
get picked up mid season and they might make the
practice squads bigger, But how much bigger can they get?
I mean, they're kind of bloated as it is right now,
and that was a nice little benefit to have from COVID.
You can stash people, but how much bigger are they
gonna get? Four one, two, three, three, three ninety nine
(28:15):
thirty nine phones went down as soon as we got
to course you on the line, so they're in lies
the dilemma. We'll try to get Mike on in just
a little bit, but when we come back, we'll take
a look at the Penguins and the off season. We'll
play the John Rothstein clip for you at some point
if you missed it earlier. He's talked about the NCAA
tournament expansion, and we'll also get back into the Pirates
(28:38):
and their performance last night against the Arizona Diamondbacks and
the issues went well beyond just what Bubba Chandler did
or did not do.
Speaker 2 (28:45):
That's coming up one O five to nine the X.
Speaker 4 (28:47):
It's The Woody Show weekday mornings at six one.
Speaker 3 (28:52):
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you're a homeowner starting your first project or a pro
on the job, eighty four Lumber offers a kind of
personalized expertise you won't find in a big box store.
Speaker 2 (29:06):
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From windows and doors to siding, trim and decking, eighty
four Lumber has the materials you need to get it
done right. With fourteen locations across Pittsburgh, there's one near you.
Visit eighty four lumber dot com to find your store,
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Speaker 2 (29:23):
Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal, but
encouraged
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