Pregame Show - Tomlin's to Blame, Cookies

Mark talks Tomlin and Steelers, Tommy Radio joins. They talk some Pens too and cookies

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
This is the Mark Maddon Show. You know, I never
went dancing with mister Brownstone. Seems like a good idea
the more I think about it, don't forget. You can
come watch the Penguin game with me tonight at Dino's
in Latrobe, Night two of my residency. Penguin's visiting Tampa Bay.

(00:22):
We'll talk more about that game and about the Birds
a little bit later in the program. So again to repeat,
nobody has ever been more at fault for anything than
Mike Tomlin is at fault for everything that's wrong with
the Steelers.

Speaker 2 (00:40):
It's just a fact. I don't want to hear that.

Speaker 1 (00:44):
It's not Tomlin's fault. It is decidedly all Tomlin's fault. Now,
a little later, I'm gonna tell you why Mike Tomlin
never was a good coach. Now, maybe the Steelers win
at Baltimore and all this crap goes away, But I
don't think they've beat Autimor, and I'm not sure this
goes away even if they do.

Speaker 2 (01:05):
This ain't no hiccup on a lie.

Speaker 1 (01:08):
Don't know Dino to Tom Wins kid that played wide receiver.
He's online wanting to fight some bloggers and whatnot, who
have called for his dad to be fired, specifically this
guy who hosts a giant tailgate and what's the idiot's
name from barstool? Jersey Jerry, Jersey Jerry, who I thought

(01:29):
was just a stealer rube, But now Dino Toma wants
to fight him.

Speaker 2 (01:36):
Jersey Jerry. He's the guy. Let me test my memory.

Speaker 1 (01:39):
Oh, he's famous for overcoming a meth addiction and defecating
in his pants.

Speaker 2 (01:45):
See.

Speaker 1 (01:46):
I can only imagine how much bigger my career would
be if I'd had the good sense to get addicted
to meth and defecated my pants. I think that would
have been the building block that I have lacked on
my way to well not reaching the heights of Jersey Jerry.
But yeah, do you know Tom I wants to fight him.

(02:06):
Isn't that tremendous? Wonder what Coach T thinks about that? Hey,
Coach T can't reel his own players in, why would
I expect him to be able to real family it.
You can follow me on Twitter at Mark Madden X.
I'm joined now by Tommy Radio. Tom Even though I
just went on a rant about the Steelers, I got

(02:27):
to talk some about this Penn State football coaching search,
because they've really screwed the pooch obviously should not have
fired Franklin.

Speaker 2 (02:35):
Nobody wants that job.

Speaker 1 (02:37):
The sentimental favorite is Terry Smith, but he's just not
a head coach.

Speaker 2 (02:40):
He's a career Division one assistant.

Speaker 1 (02:44):
The recruiting sucks didn't get barely nobody in early signing.

Speaker 2 (02:50):
Kids might leave if Smith isn't hired.

Speaker 1 (02:53):
Some jimoke named Tony Rojas said ninety percent of the
current roster will leave if Terry Smith doesn't get the job.
To WI jud say, hey, if you go ahead and
take off, you weren't that good in the first place.
We'll just get new players. If it won for Tony
Rojas and that gang suck it out loud, James Franklin
would still be there, so shut up with your bad

(03:16):
self there, Tony, Penn State ruined its program and it's
probably ruined it moving forward for a long time. Franklin
took the whole recruiting class to Virginia Tech and Tom.

Speaker 2 (03:29):
What's the look like now?

Speaker 1 (03:30):
Like Brian dabol is like the only man standing unless
they do go with Terry Smith.

Speaker 3 (03:35):
It really is amazing how fast it was proven how
terrible of a decision it was for them to move
on from James Franklin.

Speaker 2 (03:42):
You and I both saw.

Speaker 3 (03:42):
It in the moment that right away, but right immediately
it's been proven. So this recruiting class getting ravaged by
Franklin and Terry Ross whatever he said about if they
hired Terry Smith will stay. Most of that roster's going
to Virginia Tech anyway, and following Franklin anyway. They went
there to play for Franklin, not for Terry Smith.

Speaker 1 (04:01):
Yeah, and I understand them making the move, but this
guy trying to stage a power play on by half
of Terry Smith. It's just kind of well, oh, rent,
concerning the players more than anybody, the guys who eft
it up in the first place. Again, if they had
performed better, James Franklin would still be there, the status
quo would be in place, and Penn State overreacted by
getting rid of them. To get rid of that guy

(04:23):
after one bad half year shows how Penn State, the
movers and shakers, the nil people, the boosters, they don't
understand Penn State's place in the college football pantheon. They
don't get the ceiling Penn State reached as high as
ever going to last year, just last season reaching the
final four.

Speaker 2 (04:44):
So they had a bad year this year. So what
they should have lived with it? They should have lived
with it.

Speaker 3 (04:47):
Or if you were going to fire James Franklin, you
had to have somebody that you were like ninety nine
point nine percent sure you were gonna nail and you wanted.
They had no plan when they fired Franklin. It was
just knee jerk reaction and I thinking their arrogance Mark
they expected, hey, we're Penn State. People are gonna line
up to coach us right like, we're gonna have our pick.

Speaker 1 (05:05):
As it turnout, all they did was get everybody on
an expiring contract a big extension.

Speaker 3 (05:10):
I mean even the BYU coach CEO of Crumble Cookies
is swooping in with a bag for him to make.

Speaker 2 (05:15):
Those are good. If it's a bag of cookies and money,
I'd stay.

Speaker 3 (05:20):
And you know the Mormon church mark can apply some leverage,
so they shoul apply some leverage. And they got some
cash too in their pockets.

Speaker 1 (05:27):
I thought you've been in terms of like a dispensation
toward you know, bigamy, because they they allowed that generally.

Speaker 3 (05:33):
Don't think I think that's allowed. Yeah, I think that's
good to go. You mentioned Brian Dable. I guess he's
an option for them. He hasn't been in college for
so long, though, I don't know.

Speaker 2 (05:42):
It is desperation time.

Speaker 3 (05:44):
I think they have one out, one out remaining. It's
incredibly uncomfortable and you'd have to eat a lot of
bad pr Like Tomlin, no, like Ben said, Brian Kelly,
Brian Kelly is there out right now. Brian Kelly can
bring a decent amount of good recruits for I'm LSU
that he already had there marked the number one recruit
in the nation yesterday. Didn't want to commit to Lane Kiffin.

(06:05):
He said, I'm not going to go to LSU just yet.
I'm not going to sign Brian Kelly recruited him there.
Maybe you have a shot to get him to go
to state college if you signed Brian Kelly.

Speaker 2 (06:12):
And either way.

Speaker 3 (06:14):
He's a total a hole, but he wins everywhere he goes.
I know LSU didn't work out, still went eight and
four in the SEC every year he was there.

Speaker 1 (06:21):
Well, if you're looking for somebody who's not an a
hole at Penn State, that chip sailed because Franklin was right,
and and you know, it's just not that kind of
program anymore. It's not Paterno, it's not Tom Bradley, it's
not even Terry Smith, even though he's you know currently,
I mean, what is he? Five hundred E is the
interim guy? Why are they overreacting to that?

Speaker 3 (06:40):
Best win is Nebraska, who has completely crapped the bed
since signing Matt Rule to that extension because of the
Penn State job being open and they're starting quarterback for
Nebraska has already quit on the team.

Speaker 2 (06:50):
Why won't anybody take that job?

Speaker 3 (06:52):
I honestly have no idea. I guess maybe there's not
as much nil but backing as there should be. Maybe
there's not enough money.

Speaker 1 (06:58):
In my theory, yeah, I think that when they fired
Franklin after the job he did there, the prospective successes
looked at that and said, boy, if they didn't give
him security, what the hell could I possibly do to
get security?

Speaker 2 (07:11):
Maybe it's not possible for that to be a secure position.

Speaker 3 (07:13):
Okay, Well then that kind of feeds into have you
seen the Todd McShay reporting where Jimmy Sexton's like the
superagent for all the college football coaches didn't like how
they did his boy Franklin. And you know, an agent
can't act petty unless his client gives him the green
light to act petty. Could you think of a better
client to give an agent the green light to act
petty than James Franklin and Jimmy Sexton. Hey, don't push
coaches towards Penn State. Get him paid elsewhere.

Speaker 2 (07:36):
Yeah, I don't buy that for this reason.

Speaker 1 (07:38):
Well, if Sexter could get all his clients paid elsewhere,
then yeah, he's doing it.

Speaker 2 (07:42):
It's happening.

Speaker 1 (07:43):
But nobody's gonna tell a client to not take a
job that would, you know, bump him up and pay
and be a good situation because James Franklin feels.

Speaker 3 (07:51):
Wrong and cause Sexton gets paid too, that benefits sex
Then directly as well. But it did work out that
way though, like everybody else of his.

Speaker 2 (07:57):
Clients get money.

Speaker 1 (07:58):
Feel bad saying Terry Smithson job because I like Terry
smith I actually covered him in high school ball, both
as a player at Gateway then as a coach at Gateway.
I think he's a real good assistant coach at the
college level. He just has no track records at the
head coach Penn State can't afford to hire somebody who
has no track record as a head coach other than
this brief interim period just because he's a Penn State guy.

Speaker 3 (08:21):
That's just foolish and the optics are just bad because
you fire James Franklin because he wasn't good enough, and
you pivot to somebody who was underneath James Franklin on
his staff, Like if you fire Terry Smith or you
don't decide to go forward with Terry Smith, there's a
chance he ends up in Blacksburg, like Franklin's got a
job for him down there. You're just gonna go to
somebody who is underneath James Franklin. What are you changing?
You're not changing anything. You're getting a lesser Franklin.

Speaker 1 (08:43):
Tom did you agree with my opening statement that nobody
has ever been more at fault for something than Mike
Tomlin is at fault for everything bad with the Steelers?

Speaker 3 (08:51):
You know, I was trying to rack my brain about
something I could pin on somebody else that's not Mike
Tomlin's fault. It's really hard to do that now, isn't it,
Especially when we know he is a part of the
roster construction.

Speaker 1 (09:01):
He is the roster construction because that is the final say,
that's the out.

Speaker 3 (09:05):
A lot of the national media still present themselves with
with all the rules.

Speaker 1 (09:09):
They never go to a quarterback exactly. But he is
the guy that drafted Kenny Pickett. Nobody else in that
organization thought it was a good idea to draft Kenny
Pickett the first round. Just him, nobody else in the
National Football League, just Mike Tomlin exactly.

Speaker 3 (09:22):
And how many times have we said it, if you
miss on a first round quarterback, it sets your franchise
back a lot, and it should and that's every franchise
in the NFL. And then if you miss on a
quarterback in the first round, that you don't even get
a chance to like toy with you know what I mean? Mark,
Like this should be the last year on Kenny Pickett.
We should still be deciding right now for good about
him if he the guy or he didn't make it
past two years.

Speaker 1 (09:43):
Well, Tom you know what I see the Tomlin situation
at the Steelers, in the coaching situation Penn State having
in common, they're both hilarious.

Speaker 2 (09:53):
One five to nine the X it's the Mark Man
d correction. I did have.

Speaker 1 (10:05):
Sex with Katie talking about Chappelle's show off the Era.

Speaker 2 (10:11):
No report from Steelers practice hit. TJ.

Speaker 1 (10:14):
Watt did not practice yesterday because of an injured toe.
Somebody stepped on his toe during the lost to Buffalo
forty one million bucks and his toes hurt. You know,
it's hard to preview this Baltimore game on Sunday. It's
just more of the same. Maybe the Steelers win, maybe not.

(10:34):
But what's leading to you got Adam Thielen, washed up,
old bummy Caucasian dude at wide out.

Speaker 2 (10:41):
What's the point of that.

Speaker 1 (10:43):
Tom was not going to suddenly find some magic formula period,
let alone a formula based on getting thirty five year
old white boy Roy to play receiver.

Speaker 2 (10:54):
Now you did release Darius Slay.

Speaker 1 (10:59):
Buffalo picked him up and he said, nah, I think
I'm gonna retire because they're too bad even for him
in the secondary. Actually, you did them a favor, bro,
You're just incredibly awful. Sign the guy for ten million
ten million. Andy Widel had to know him from Philly.

(11:23):
Should have only had zilch left in the tank. But
now he's going to retire, and I think that's just
doing football a favor.

Speaker 2 (11:33):
I think the.

Speaker 1 (11:33):
Formula to win the game at Baltimore Sunday, I think
it's a very simple one. All you got to do
is shut down Derrick Henry, who has trampled them like
roadkill in the last two times the teams have met. Tom,

(11:53):
what do you think, what are their chances against Baltimore?
I just think they have none. But then I have
to remind myself the Baltimore ain't that good right now either.

Speaker 3 (12:04):
That's exactly the same spot that I'm in. It feels
like this should be you know, that dead in the
Water game where the Ravens give him the kill shot,
kind of like last year. But this ain't last year's
Ravens team. Your spot on, I think, though, as you
always are, and what their number one key.

Speaker 2 (12:19):
Has to be. You're right about me, but don't overdo that. Sorry.

Speaker 3 (12:22):
Derrick Henry has to be shut down. And Lamar Jackson,
as far as running the football, is kind of shutting
himself down because of the injury that he's so clearly.

Speaker 2 (12:29):
Dealing and didn't practice today. Yeah, and I think Matt
was supposed to practice all week. I wonder what's going
on there.

Speaker 3 (12:35):
Williamson pointed out he failed to reach over thirty yards
rushing in three straight games for the first time in
his career, and they're just not trying to run him anymore.
Even there's not as much design runs with Lamar Jackson,
so it's all on Derrick Henry. And the problem, as
you illustrated, is Derrick Henry has just flattened the Steelers
and the two occasions that they've met, they had a
problem with the Steelers. Lamar did, There's no doubt about it.

(12:57):
Early in his career. They did something to them. The
Ravens adjusted by going out and getting one of the
best running backs this generation's ever seen, and they shove
him down the Steeler's throat.

Speaker 2 (13:05):
Now, yeah, you can stop Lamar all you want. This
guy's a lot bigger. If he gets hurt, that would suck.
But like Lamar getting hurt, right, Uh?

Speaker 1 (13:14):
How did the Steelers make so many changes and wind
up with the team so very similar to last seasons?
I just marvel at that that they brought in Aaron
Rodgers and Darius Slay and Jalen Ramsey and DK Metcalf
and the team still feels exactly the same, headed in
the same direction and very likely will reach the same destination,

(13:34):
namely Pallukaville.

Speaker 3 (13:36):
And of course you know the answer to that question
that you asked, because you can make change over here
and change there and change with the coaching staff underneath
the head coach, but the philosophy from the top downs
the same.

Speaker 2 (13:44):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (13:44):
But I will say this, I thought that bringing in
Aaron Rodgers would affect a difference, regardless of the coaching.
I kind of figured maybe he'd take over. I figured
he'd be better than he is too.

Speaker 3 (13:57):
You also figured that he would get hurt at some
point in the season and we'd be dealing with what
we're dealing with currently, a bum wrist, Aaron Rodgers and
should it be Rudolph, should it be Rogers who gives
the Steelers the best chance to win?

Speaker 1 (14:07):
It would be better if Rodgers he's been more decisively hurt.
I don't say that with any disrespect to Aaron. I mean,
but this, this playing him hurt when he just can't
be very effective. I still maintain they'd be better off
with a one hundred percent Rudolph in there than whatever
percent Rogers is now.

Speaker 3 (14:23):
And as far as the changes they made, I mean,
their biggest change other than the quarterback obviously, and that
signing their secondary was completely overhauled, right. I mean they
gave it a facelift and it was supposed to be good,
and then they had to give it like two more
face lifts throughout the season.

Speaker 2 (14:39):
They're still giving it facelifts as we speak.

Speaker 3 (14:41):
I mean, you started with Sleigh and Porter on the outside,
and Elliott and Thornhill has your safeties, and Ramsey's in
your slot. Now you got Dugger as a safety. Ramsey's
a safety. Now Echoes is your slot corner at Samuel
Junior is probably your outside guy. It's a completely new
secondary and it was supposed to be a great secondary
that was completely new.

Speaker 2 (14:58):
In the off season. Now here's a great question.

Speaker 1 (15:01):
Well, they're all great, But then again I give myself
too much credit, just like you do, Tom. Are the
Steelers limited on offense because of what they can't do
or because of what they choose to not try.

Speaker 2 (15:13):
Meaning like the middle of the field specifically, Well that.

Speaker 1 (15:15):
In deep roughd's everything everything they won't do modern football. Basically,
this is what they refuse to do. That's a very
probing question, almost like Negro Damas.

Speaker 3 (15:24):
Arthur Smith like has a track record, though of play
action pass aj Brown en route over the middle, tight
ends over the middle. Why is it changing all of
a sudden. Even in Atlanta there was middle of the stuff.

Speaker 2 (15:35):
That he will tell you why.

Speaker 1 (15:37):
As I said in the show's open, nobody has ever
been more responsible for something going wrong the Mike Tomlin
is totally responsible for everything that's gone wrong with the Steelers.
And even though his fingerprints are clearly on the defense,
because that's his area of well imagined expertise anyway, but offensively,

(15:59):
he's always wanted the team to be involved in low scoring,
prehistoric level rock fights. And that's what we're seeing no
matter who the coordinator is this time, Arthur Smith and
not Matt Canada. I mean, Matt Canada was the scapegoat
back when, but that's all he was, just like Arthur
Smith is now. This is all on Tomlin, every single

(16:19):
little bit, and.

Speaker 3 (16:20):
That offensive philosophy that he wants feeds back into his defense.
It's all about keeping that defense fresh going on long drives.
Don't turn the ball over, So don't throw it in
the middle of the field where there's a lot of
traffic and it could get tipped or it could get
turned over because then you're gonna put my great defense
in a disinvantageous spot, and I don't want that to happen.
It's all about the defense. Defense. Defense. The middle of

(16:42):
the field thing, to me is the one that makes
me want to pull my hair out the most, especially
as you just watch the rest of this league.

Speaker 1 (16:47):
It's taking Fararmuth out of the game, yes, completely, but
it's everything.

Speaker 2 (16:50):
He's made Fararmuth an invisible man.

Speaker 1 (16:52):
I feel bad for him because I always thought he
was overrated, but now I feel like he deserves way better.
And the fat kid tight end gimmick, which had one
viral moment but otherwise has done almost nothing. They just
need to get back to Firemouth and John Uh.

Speaker 3 (17:07):
Even men the teams bad teams quarterbacks are not as
good as Aaron Rodgers still currently well, he's the middle
of the field more than the Steelers do. They're just
completely allergic to it. And I don't think Rogers is
completely absolved or blame on that too. I think he's
comfortable why.

Speaker 1 (17:22):
But I do wonder where he is at mentally because
he looks like a pow. He looks like one or
two things a pow or when he's on the benstory game.
He looks like an old man waiting for a bus,
but nobody's told him the bus just isn't coming.

Speaker 3 (17:38):
It's definitely not what he imagined. I know for a
fact that he would tell you that if he was
telling the truth, this is not what he envisioned happening,
not what he envisioned the Steelers being from afar. If
he and Kevin O'Connell could both get into the Dolorem
the time machine and go back in time, you think
they would agree to have him go to Minnesota and
Rogers play there.

Speaker 1 (17:55):
Funny you mention that, because because uh, Back to the
Future has been on AMC SEE a lot.

Speaker 2 (18:00):
All the time. It is.

Speaker 1 (18:01):
Yeah, the more I watched it, the more I think
it's horribly overrated.

Speaker 2 (18:04):
One of my favorite movies ever.

Speaker 1 (18:05):
But but the over acting is just over the top.
By Doc Brown, you mean everybody. I think it's great.
Everybody like Biff Tannon, Oh, he's a great bully. Oh,
it's like and then and then in Back to the
Future too, everything's like just even more over than very
meta movie.

Speaker 2 (18:22):
It's like a movie within the first movie playing out.
I like it.

Speaker 3 (18:25):
It's just then the third ones in the West. Did
you see The Wild West?

Speaker 1 (18:28):
One?

Speaker 2 (18:28):
No Tannin.

Speaker 1 (18:30):
Although I will say this, if I had gotten the
Sports Alomon Act, I would have for sure violated. Uh
what was Doc Bron's credo? You can't you can't, you
can't change the past?

Speaker 2 (18:41):
Yeah? For profit, right, exactly profit. I would have done
exactly that.

Speaker 3 (18:44):
You wanted a Mark Madden's pleasure palace like Biff Tannon's
pleasure palace.

Speaker 1 (18:48):
I would have made Biff Tannon's pleasure palette look like
a monument to good taste.

Speaker 2 (18:53):
Five nine.

Speaker 4 (18:57):
It's the Ex's kick Ass The Show with Highly Suspect Tuesday,
December nights at stay Je. It's your tickets now at
WXDX dot com. Okay, Highly Suspects with Flight Attendant. Tis

(19:21):
the season two The Jolly Party Rocking Something. It's the
Exits kick Ass Christmas Show from one oh five to nine.

Speaker 2 (19:30):
D X tis this season double m on the X.
The Penguins visit Tampa tonight.

Speaker 1 (19:40):
Tampa tied for the most points in the NHL, won
eight of their last ten, but the Penguins only three
points back. These standings in the Eastern Conference, from top
to bottom, are so tightly packed. A loser point makes
everything so skewed. Tampa got Jake Genzil, a bunch of
old guys. Koocher Off tied for ninth in the league

(20:02):
in points. Sid third in goals at age thirty eight,
he's got eighteen. When Gretzky was thirty eight, he got
nine goals the whole season. Sid has eighteen. At about
the quarter pole right now. Sid is incredible, He's incurable.
I love that one. At Philadelphia on Monday five to one,

(20:22):
a rot, Sid scored twice. Lazat's spirit of flyer right
in the nuts, right in front of their bench. Clifton
wouldn't let Zegras punk them. The flyers suck and they're soft.
It was more glorious than D Day. You gotta keep
getting good results, but Monday night that was a keeper,

(20:44):
a standalone. Like I said, the standings are ninety five
points from top to bottom in the metro. There's zero
room to breathe. Let's talk to Tommy Radio. Tom Jake
formerly of this parish. He's got fourteen goals. He's in
his prime at thirty one, and he built great chemistry
with see it. But I think he's the kind of

(21:06):
instinctive offensive player that can find it with just about
anybody of even similar skill.

Speaker 2 (21:12):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (21:13):
I mean, he's definitely proving if there were any doubters
still out there that he was a product of Sydney Crosby,
that that isn't entirely the case at all. Be a
thirty goal scorer this year, probably for Tampa Bay, just
an absolute. He's a fun player to watch because of
how small he is. He should not be, you know,
as grimy as he is kind of and as physical

(21:33):
as he can be, or at least willingness to take
that shocked.

Speaker 1 (21:36):
He's not been more severely hurt because of his willingness
to play and ability to play in tight quarters.

Speaker 2 (21:43):
But he just knows how to score.

Speaker 1 (21:48):
Then again, he's playing for an old team that probably
won't win again. I could see them having like a
run win a series or two, but I think they're
too old to win four series in the springtime. Not
that I would count that out. But Jake didn't go
there to win again. Jake went there because pretty good team,
but went for the money and for no state income tax.

Speaker 2 (22:08):
He already won his cup here.

Speaker 3 (22:09):
Yeah, you're living in Tampa Bay, Florida, no income tax
for sure, and you're right, he's gonna play playoff hockey still,
Like they're not so bad that it's gonna be seasons
over at the middle of April. You'll get to play
into may probably win a couple of rounds. They do
have that kind of you know, in their back pocket,
having one of the elite goalies still or maybe a
fringe elite goal He.

Speaker 1 (22:27):
Well, he's actually having I mean, he's great, right, he
never went away Vassie, but this year's goals against it
says here two point three to one, and he's unper
than I thought. He's only thirty one. If they win
again or even come close to Vassie's gonna be the reasons.

Speaker 2 (22:42):
It's on his back.

Speaker 1 (22:43):
He's the best goal of his generation and to me
maybe one of the top five of all time, top
ten for sure.

Speaker 3 (22:49):
And they have offensive firepower. We talked about Genseil. Hegel's
got fifteen goals this year. Kucherov obviously is still doing
his thing. But their win streak, you know, they won
seven straight before losing to the Aisles on Tuesday. It
was on the back of their goaltending. In Vassileski, they
get up like one point five goals against in their past,
like eight games.

Speaker 2 (23:05):
It's insane. Yeah, Jake's married.

Speaker 1 (23:08):
So we didn't go to Tampa for the for the
thrill of Mon's Venus, or maybe he did, I don't know.

Speaker 2 (23:13):
I mean, who knows what he does in spare time.

Speaker 1 (23:15):
Although Mon's Venus as great as it is, I mean,
holy fray holies, talk about Nactino heat the Tangle Lounge, Tom,
there was a Hall of Fame place no longer there,
but the Tangle Loannge had grit and character. If Tom
mcmill is listening, he could tell you, Now, how'd you
like the kid line in Philadelphia kindle between coyvenan and McGroarty.

Speaker 3 (23:37):
I know they didn't show up on the score sheet,
but they were flying all over the ice. And boy,
I just hate how snake bitten coyvenan is to start
the season, But I thought he had so much jump
in that game in Philadelphia too. And don't you think
McGroarty played like a guy who's like, I'm done going
back to the Ahl, I'm a penguin now moving forward.
He looked like he belonged and he wanted to belong.
So I love the kid line. It's gonna be an

(23:58):
energy line for this team moving forward, and I think
it's only a matter of time before Kendall starts to
get coven in going.

Speaker 2 (24:04):
Yeah, I think so too.

Speaker 1 (24:07):
I loved that game at Philly, and part of it
was that old man Katorier tried to f with Kindle
and Kendall just kept blowing him off. It was like
an optake from dirty Grandpa, like the old bastard who
never won a thing, trying to get under the skin
of this young guy who has such a great future
in front of him. And just like Clifton with Zigris,
Kendall wouldn't bite when it came to Katorie.

Speaker 3 (24:28):
And I also love that the Penguins are starting to
show a lot more sand like Jari when they would
try to crash the net, he'd throw the blocker out
of the Flyer and start to get a scrum going.
Blake Lazote, I mean, you gotta love Blake Lazart right
with a little Tomahawk chop. I love the Flyers fans
whining about that. In the same video they post him
whining he's getting face washed and elbowed by Halthaway into
the bed.

Speaker 1 (24:49):
What he supposed to do? Yeah, No, I loved it.
Right in front of the bench. Nobody did a thing.
The flyers just ain't hard no more, just ain't tough
no more. Halthaway might not get hard for a while
after what Lazat did, but I definitely loved it.

Speaker 2 (25:03):
Just dropped him. It was be beautiful.

Speaker 1 (25:08):
Jari's in goal again tonight, third straight start. I assume
he's the number one goalie, however temporarily, and I don't
have fault with that either.

Speaker 2 (25:16):
I don't just keep riding him.

Speaker 3 (25:18):
He's played tremendously, and if he gets a win tonight
in Tampa Bay, I don't see why you don't just
throw him out there on Sunday again against Dallas. In Dallas,
just give him the whole road trip. There's two days
off again, so it's not like a rest issue at all.
And she loves hasn't been playing great, not saying pull
the plug on, she loves. I think he's still gonna
be a very good backup goalie for the Penguins for
a while, like I think he'll be Mushov's tandem in
a backup goalie. But he needs maybe a little bit

(25:40):
of a reset point, So I just keep playing Jari
as long as he's hot.

Speaker 1 (25:43):
Well, here's my only problem with playing Jari tonight and
against Sunday. I don't want to buy into making the playoffs.
Is this huge priority to the point where certain guys
have their roles disappear, and that includes Shilloffs. Like you said,
is very likely to be the partner for Morishoff next

(26:05):
season if indeed Dry keeps playing well and you could
trade him, which would be like a dream come true
and probably for Jari too if he went to Edmonton.

Speaker 3 (26:13):
Yeah, exactly, I think that that's something that both parties
would be welcoming. Jarry could use a fresh start, even
though he's playing well in Pittsburgh. Edmonton's a perfect spot
for him, no doubt. You mentioned this, though there's a
little bit too much weight being assigned to that. Though,
don't you think what he did with the Edmonton oil
King and winning there and like that would mean anything
to go into Edmonton and winning for the Oilers, Now

(26:33):
that's a little too much. I think that they assigned
credit to that.

Speaker 2 (26:36):
I think that's probably true.

Speaker 1 (26:39):
But to make a get of a goaltender seem like
it would be this final step in getting the Oilers
over the top to sell it to the fans. Something
like that definitely wouldn't hurt because they would remember. But
if they would get Jarry, it's not because Jarry's great.
It would be because he's average, caught fire at a

(26:59):
time when when you know, it seemed like a good idea,
I mean any port in a storm. And by that,
I mean there's barely any good goalies in the league period,
let alone any that's available. So but you're right, the
actual weight of him having won a Memorial Cup, a
junior championship in Edmonton, that that shouldn't have bearing except

(27:19):
in terms of the stories written about it and what's
said about it.

Speaker 3 (27:22):
But if he keeps playing this well in that trade
deadline approaches, I mean, Edmonton's got to look at him
and say, that's better than Skinner, right, or at least
offers the potential to be better than what we've had
with Skinner in the past couple of playoff runs. Although
Edmonton's got to worry about making the playoffs, Mark, I mean,
they're like six games under true five hundred.

Speaker 1 (27:38):
Right now, oh no, no, no question. But but but
they'll make it. Yeah, then again that West, I mean,
I don't know, but yeah, they'll make it. Maybe they
need to get Jarry sooner or not later, just to
get him in the playoffs. But you know, you know
one thing I don't like too is the revisionist history,
Like that boy Jari's really showing us Like I think
it was the Penguin's Uh, Twitter had like a a jip.

Speaker 2 (28:02):
Of him, like smirking, like Tristan Jarry.

Speaker 1 (28:05):
Now, he didn't get sent to Wilkes last year because
he lost the game of paper rock scissors. He lost
because he couldn't have stopped you know, a beach ball
with a pitchfork.

Speaker 3 (28:15):
What do you think we could look back at that
as a as a serious turning point for his career,
like it actually the moment that got through to him,
because it seemed like nothing was going to get through
to Jarry. I mean you've said it yourself bluntly on
the show. You think he's kind of dumb, like just
he's not a smart person. Nothing was getting through to him.
Do you think riding the bus for a little bit,
that embarrassment of the ahl finally was something that broke

(28:35):
him a little bit and was like, I gotta get
my act together more.

Speaker 1 (28:37):
Those busses aren't aren't that bad. They're they're comfortable buses,
and I'm sure it's fun to some degree.

Speaker 3 (28:42):
Yeah, and it's we talked about. This is not like
gooon where there's a hole in the back that you
have to pee through. There's like an actual bathroom on there,
I think, but.

Speaker 2 (28:47):
We do agree that this isn't efing baseball nine X.

Speaker 5 (28:54):
Tonight's the Pens Face the Lightning. Game time is seven.
Our coverage starts at six here every game and the
best coverage right here on your home of the Pens
one five nine d X.

Speaker 2 (29:07):
From the Dollar Energy Fund Weather Center. This report is
sponsored by Macy's. Ploudly with no showers this morning, cloudy
in the afternoon. Looked for high of thirty one.

Speaker 3 (29:16):
Fairest Guys tonight, but cold near record low of fifteen.

Speaker 2 (29:20):
Find the Most Wonderful Gifts in Macy's Friends.

Speaker 4 (29:22):
And Fading Show with Mark Maddon and Tom Up for
Men on one.

Speaker 2 (29:26):
FI VX.

Speaker 1 (29:31):
Double m on the X. Tom, what have we got
for today's trifectam?

Speaker 3 (29:34):
I'm very excited for today's trifecta mark because it is
National Cookie Day.

Speaker 1 (29:38):
So today was a layup top three cookies. Now that
that sucks because like kinny cookies. I'm doing a wake
of one to eighty. But you, by the way, I
am poised to dip under three hundred pounds for the
first time in.

Speaker 2 (29:49):
Well quite a while. That's amazing, especially not if you
can't have cookies.

Speaker 3 (29:53):
Yeah, but you're doing it through this holiday season too,
which is crazy because it's just there's temptation everywhere.

Speaker 1 (29:58):
Well, I took a break on Thanksgiving, you gonna take that.
We'll take a break on Christmas, even Christmas.

Speaker 3 (30:02):
Day as well for some cookies absolutely have to on
Christmas Eve. My number three favorite cookie, I'm gonna go
with a brand name cookie here. I'm going with an Oreo.
I love a good oreo. Dip it in milk. It's
fantastic around the Christmas season to chocolate cover those bad
boys up.

Speaker 2 (30:17):
They're great. I love the chocolate covered version.

Speaker 1 (30:20):
Although I'm more likely to enjoy Oreos in the context
of like Oreos ice cream or Oreo pie, like.

Speaker 2 (30:27):
An Eaton Park. Of the Oreo cream pie at Eating
Park is in the Oreo itself. I like.

Speaker 1 (30:31):
I like what oreos are used for, probably a little
bit more than the actual cookie.

Speaker 3 (30:35):
Are you a fan of the fried oreo not overkill me. Okay,
number two for me, I'm gonna go with the Eminem
cookie now.

Speaker 2 (30:43):
No question. I left the chocolate Number one would be.

Speaker 3 (30:46):
I left the chocolate chip cookie off the list. I
love a chocolate chip cookie. Yeah, it's not number one
for me. I think eminem and chocolate chip kind of
overlap a little bit to me. Honestly, they're very similar cookies. Agreed, Okay,
fair enough, so that would be your number one is
chocolate chip. It's a war between chocolate chip. Well, number
one for me is the thumb print sugar cookies. You
know what I'm talking about, Like those little thumb prints
with the icing globs in the middle of them and

(31:07):
the sprinkles around the Hershey's kiss. No, that's not what
I'm talking about. I'm talking about the icing frosted ones.
They are little like icing.

Speaker 2 (31:16):
I go with what you're talking about with the Hershey's kissing.

Speaker 3 (31:18):
Instead, you want to do the hershy kiss one, that's
your number one.

Speaker 1 (31:20):
No, Eminem's will be my number one. Chocolate chip would
be my number two. What we're talking about now, the
thumb print with the Hershey's kiss would be number three.

Speaker 3 (31:28):
Now, you don't really see the hershey kiss one other
than Christmas season, correct, It's all right, the one that
I like, Number one you see around you know, Fourth
of July. It's a year round kind of Oh yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 1 (31:39):
I have never.

Speaker 2 (31:39):
I have never.

Speaker 1 (31:40):
I'm a cookie with the fourth of July holiway, I'm
just saying, it's all over the place.

Speaker 3 (31:45):
It covers all holidays. This cookie that I'm talking about,
this sugar cookie with the glob of icing in the
middle of it.

Speaker 2 (31:50):
I'll pull up a picture and you'll see it. You'll
recognize it.

Speaker 1 (31:52):
There got to be some kind of cookie where there's
a cookie called a nuth horn that I really love.

Speaker 2 (31:56):
But I forget what's in the nutthorn. I just know
that it's great. I'm not a really big that kind
of folded over dough on something.

Speaker 3 (32:03):
I'm not a really huge fan of nuts in cookies
and nuts in my dessert.

Speaker 2 (32:07):
I'm not gonna lie.

Speaker 3 (32:09):
These are kind of like the glob icings that I'm
talking about, the one on the left there, the green
and red ones.

Speaker 2 (32:13):
Or is I just don't buy into it. Not into
those cookies, okay, fair enough.

Speaker 1 (32:19):
Okay, not horn Whilst there's walnut horns, butter horns or
Kiffley traditional Eastern European and Hungarian crescent shaped pastry featuring
a tender, flaky dough wrapped around a sweet spice nut filling.

Speaker 3 (32:33):
Now, are you a fan that doesn't sound too bad
even for somebody that doesn't like that stuff?

Speaker 4 (32:37):
Do you?

Speaker 3 (32:38):
Are you a fan of oatmeal raisin.

Speaker 1 (32:40):
I'm a fan of oatmeal more than just more than
I prefer just oatmeal period.

Speaker 3 (32:46):
Is it fair to say that the oatmeal raisin cookie
might be the most polarizing cookie there is.

Speaker 2 (32:50):
You either love it or you hate it. You know
what that is?

Speaker 1 (32:53):
The taste in quality of the oatmeal raisin cookie depends
solely on one thing, and that is the quality of
the raisin.

Speaker 2 (33:00):
Bad raisin just throws.

Speaker 1 (33:01):
The bad cookie. You get those chewy, kind of sour raisins.
It ruins the cookie.

Speaker 3 (33:07):
Yeah, I'm not a fan of oatmeal raisin cookies. I
fall on the side of the fence that I actually
hate those cookies, but they are very popular for a
lot of people.

Speaker 2 (33:14):
I don't understand it.

Speaker 1 (33:15):
Well, that's the trifact that brought to us by Danny's
Peter and Hogies. Pittsburgh's original of them, baked Togy Since
nineteen sixty. That's Danny's en Route eighty eight in Bethel Park. Yeah,
I missed another significant like food day because of this diet.
It was like National Pizza Day or National doughnut Day. Recently,
I'll give you an example. Tom connyet Lake did not

(33:36):
go to the Golden Dawn for doughnuts yesterday morning.

Speaker 3 (33:40):
I don't know what you missed as far as a
significant data is concerned, but it has been like a
parade of food in this office ever since you've been
on the dick.

Speaker 1 (33:46):
Almost as if they figured out when I would be
on the dots, crazy bought stuff in specifically so I
could look it up but not eat it.

Speaker 3 (33:53):
It's wild, but it feels like it's twice a week now.
I'm seeing somebody.

Speaker 1 (33:56):
And we have the Steeler post game show left over
pizza every day during the season, as it.

Speaker 2 (34:00):
Is the Calliente. That's right. I love that Calliente every
Sunday the best.

Speaker 1 (34:04):
Yeah, but you we you know why because you guys
doing the show always eat the they send over like
one premium type of topping, then one real good type
of topping, then one. Derek be said for me. Anyway,
personal preference a lesser type of topping. And then by
the time you know, leftover day comes the day after
the Steeler game, all that stuff their bread sticks in

(34:26):
the third variety.

Speaker 3 (34:28):
Yeah, the variety like the meat lover one, the pepperoni
banana pepper one that's gone just crowmbs in the box, Yes, gone,
guilty Tom.

Speaker 2 (34:36):
Do you see anyway the Steelers beat Baltimore.

Speaker 3 (34:39):
Yes, but it's solely based on how bad Baltimore has
looked lately, which is not a good place to be
when you're analyzing your own team. It's like, yeah, we
have a chance because the other team kind of stinks too.
You never want to be there. That's the only analysis
that I can really drum up that gives me optimism, though,
is that fair.

Speaker 2 (34:54):
Better than nothing? Like?

Speaker 1 (34:56):
Like the last three games that Derek Henry's played against
the Steelers bucket eighty six, bucks sixty two, sixty five
yards in the sixty five yard game, remember when the
Steelers like did manage to win a rock fight?

Speaker 2 (35:06):
I think that was the first meeting of the team's
last year.

Speaker 1 (35:09):
But Henry still averg five yards to carry And if
you'll remember, the big discussion after was as why did
Baltimore give the rock to Derrick Henry so.

Speaker 2 (35:17):
Little one hundred percent.

Speaker 3 (35:19):
It was like, Hey, you got Derrick Henry in the
offseason because the Steelers stopped Lamar Jackson. Then you tried
to beat the Steelers with Lamar Jackson again, what's the deal?
And they corrected that in the last two meetings the
last regular season, won in the wild card, and Henry
just flattened them. And I feel like people think Henry's
having kind of a slow year, and I guess by
his standards he is. He's nine on and thirty one
yards like he's going to go over one thousand this Sunday,

(35:39):
very likely.

Speaker 1 (35:40):
And all he has to do is be good in
games like this to be worth it to the Ravens
down the stretch. Now, it's takes no question about.

Speaker 2 (35:47):
That, all right.

Speaker 1 (35:49):
This first hour the pregame show brought to us by
the personal injury expert Cinderrovid Cendrorovich and Fisherman.

Speaker 2 (35:55):
They got your back, not your wallet.

Speaker 1 (35:59):
In the open I think segment, I talked about why
nobody has ever been more at fault for what's wrong
with the Steelers, but Mike Tomlin is in fault for
what's wrong with the Steelers. Nobody's ever deserved blame more
than Mike Tomlin in this situation. But I'm gonna tell
you in just a few moments why it's been that
way for years. It really has been one oh five

(36:22):
nine the X.

Speaker 2 (36:23):
Listen to the ex