John Middlekauff REACTS to the major blockbuster trade between the Pittsburgh Steelers vs the Miami Dolphins in which the Steelers acquired star CB Jalen Ramsey & TE Jonnu Smith for Minkah Fitzpatrick and a pick. John discusses what the immediate future looks like for both teams and if the Steelers can improve their standing within the division against the Cincinnati Bengals and the Baltimore Ravens.
Later, John dives into golf with the latest edition of "Go Low" by talking about Patrick Reed's big win in Dallas at the LIV tournament and what that win means for his potential spot on the Ryder Cup team. Next, as we head into the 4th of July weekend, John breaks down the best drinking weekends of the year.
Finally, John answers your questions in this episode's mailbag segment.
5:16 - Ramsey traded to Pittsburgh
25:46 - Patrick Reed wins at LIV
42:01 - Great drinking weekend
45:33 - Mailbag
Follow John on Twitter, Instagram and YouTube for the latest. Check out Gametime - the fastest growing ticketing app in the US, and the official ticketing app of 3 & Out and GoLow - for tickets to all of your favorite NFL, NBA, NHL, NCAA teams. Concert and comedy show tickets, too. Go to Gametime now to create an account, download the app and use code JOHN for $20 off your first purchase. #Volume #Herd
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
The volume. What is going on? Everybody? How are we doing?
John Middlecoff three? And our podcast? What is the good word?
(00:22):
My people? Here's the plan today. I was just gonna
do a golf podcast because we had a lot of
stuff going on. Patrick Reid is he in the mix
for the Ryder Cup. We had the twenty year old
win a PGA tournament. He hits it about nine million miles.
Patty Harrington, former major champ, wins the Senior Open. I
actually watched that at the gym on Sunday morning, and
(00:42):
I thought I'd rank some golf beers, just beers in
terms of fourth of July, because this is just I mean,
it's a great drinking week. Let's be honest and do
a little We will also do a little mail bag
reaction from the golf mail bag at Golopod. At golopod
is the Instagram fire in those dms. So we'll react
(01:03):
a little bit to the NFL trade. We'll do some
golf content and we'll get you out of here on
a Monday of you know, let's face a lot of
you guys, including myself. I don't want to call this
a mail in week, but this is a week where
you're just ready for the pool of the lake and
some cocktails. But before we dive into sports, you know,
I gotta tell you about my friends, my partners, and
(01:24):
the official ticketing app of this podcast, Game Time. Listen.
Do you guys want to go to an event? Do
you don't want to go to a concert? Do you
want to go to a comedy show? Do you want
to go to a baseball game this summer? If you
want to go to a Major League Baseball game, I
want to go see the Dodgers, the Yankees, the Giants,
the Cubs, you name it, we got you covered. Obviously.
Concert season is in full swing. The amount of times
that I see highlights from a cool concert on Instagram,
(01:47):
it always makes me a little jealous. You know, comedy shows,
if you want to go, enjoy yourself, get a little laugh.
We actually have a comedy like Little Cellar right down
the street from my house, probably ten minutes away. I
haven't been yet, but I know a couple of people
that go. They say it's a good time. So take
the guests work out of buying tickets with game Time.
Download the game Time app and create an account and
use the code Jaunt for twenty dollars off terms to
(02:08):
play again. Created an accountant redeemed the code John for
twenty dollars off. Download the game time app today, last
minute tickets, lowest price is guaranteed. Dive into the trade
and let's just dive in. I mean, it's no way
around it. We knew Jalen Ramsey was going to get
traded to the Steelers. Maybe not, but we knew that
Jalen Ramsey was not going to be on the Miami Dolphins.
(02:29):
We knew the Steelers, because of Arthur Smith's history with
the tight end, was sniffing around John new Smith. I
do think the Minka Fitzpatrick curveball kind of came out
of nowhere. And now you have the Pittsburgh Steelers that
come into this, you know, trading camp in a month,
adding a lot of different people, right, I mean Jalen Ramsey,
I don't want to say a huge personality, but has
(02:51):
been traded from a couple different places. And I would
say that the Rams was probably more financial. This one
was a little more personality. You bring in dk Metcalf,
which gets a personal foul every every other game. You
got Aaron Rodgers, who, like I talked about on the
podcast the other day. I just watched Enigma. I don't
recommend it, but if you want a weird cat forty
(03:14):
one years old, a lot of moving parts. Now, in
fairness to the Steelers, you go, well, look at what
we've been doing. We haven't been anywhere close, even though
we've been making the playoffs. I've been saying this for
a while. You have the Chiefs, who are in their
own little world, right, they go to the super Bowl
it feels like every year. Then you have this next
group of teams, one of them being in their division,
their rival, the Ravens and the Bills, who we've seen
(03:36):
them play in the playoffs the last couple of years
and didn't come within single digits in those playoff games.
And this year against the Ravens was a fucking she
lacking and if you look at the way they played
down the stretch, they were getting worked. You know, even
the Bengals who missed the playoffs, there's no one that
would have argued by the end of the season the
Bengals were a much better team than the Steelers, and
(03:57):
obviously they beat him at the end of the year.
So sometimes you gotta mix it up. I gotta be honest, though,
doing this after OTA's feels a little weird, feels pretty dramatic.
I do think from a financial standpoint, Mika Fitzpatrick essentially
is two years left on his deal, but really this
is the last deal, and maybe they looked at it
(04:18):
like this a little bit like the Houston Texans with
Laramie Tunzel. We don't plan on giving him another big
contract now. Obviously, Tunzel's number at left tackle is enormous.
Minca because of the position he plays, is smaller, but
in a weird way, this move was more big picture,
even though in theory I guess it helps them in
the short term getting two guys, especially one in the secondary.
(04:40):
And I just think it was pretty crazy because I
start texting around the league. My take is, and I'm
not banging the film like the old day. So I
text my buddies and they go, I goes, Jalen's still good,
And I got multiple guys that work in pro departments say,
declining starter. I mean his days of just locking down
the best wide receiver are over. Now he's still a
(05:02):
solid player. He will tackle, and maybe the Steelers been
on you come to our culture like you were with
the Rams. You're gonna be an all in guy. You
still got You're not that. I mean, how old is
Jalen Ramsey thirty thirty one years old, so technically he
has a big year. Maybe he continues to play for
a while. Yeah, he's thirty years old. He feels older
than he actually is. And listen, they traded for a
(05:26):
declining player, and I go, what about Mica? To me,
he's pretty good player, Like, yeah, high end starter. Now
this is where we get to the hierarchy of positions,
and I would say safety is near the bottom. You
could argue down with guards and centers making so much
money and their importance given how many interior pass rushers
(05:46):
are good, that guards and centers have jumped safeties and
you know, I think linebackers. I mean, if you get
a good one, they are extremely important. You could argue
that safety is last on the list of importance. Now
I think Mika Fitzpatrick and like that can our game
changing players. But the Pittsburgh Steelers just told you what
they think. They think his value, despite being a high
(06:07):
end player, is a little bit overrated because you see
it on paper, like what did they just do? And
I saw on the Internet, Like, it's not like the
Steelers defense was that good last year, right, I think,
you know, their pass defense was near the bottom of
the league. And I do think if you look historically
at the Steelers, you know, whenever you see clips of
like the late Coward days or the early Tomlin days,
(06:29):
they had a lot of tall corners, Like they have
an organizational philosophy that comes from the owner. They want
to run the ball, Arthur Smith, Caleb Johnson, they want
big corners and pass rushers. And they add Darius Slay
and they add Jalen Ramsey, two guys who you would
say their arrow is pointing down. But given the way
they want to play, maybe they think that, you know,
(06:49):
based on we're losing a safety. It's not like he's
matching up with you know, Jamar Chase or you know
the Ravens Zay Flowers. So one of those guys in
Jalen has before you can move him around a little
bit put over if you're playing a really really good
tight end. I'd say overall, it just shows you. I mean,
the Steelers are just like going for broke, fuck it
(07:10):
and in a weird way, clearing their books for the
future and getting rid of a guy getting short term
value right now, I think it's pretty risky because the
other thing, and this is what assistant GM told me,
MICA's a tangibles are pretty elite, Like what he brings you,
you know, in terms of leadership, in terms of practice habits,
in terms of just focus pretty special, Like he's up
(07:32):
check all the boxes. You know. Sometimes when these teams
do their draft content and we get like an inside
look of like he was a star player, he was
a horseshoe player, he was a gold star player. Like
that's what this type guy is, and that's hard to
quantify sometimes, so just like well you only had one interception.
Well just it's like, well, what he's bringing to the table,
(07:54):
Jalen Rams's not exactly bringing to the table, and maybe
they think that, like that's a little overrated. We have
other guys that can fill that role. I mean, that's
why we pay TJ all this money and Cam Hayward's
still around like they can run it because statistically, like
at the end of the day, this is a production
based business and we need to be better like what
we've seen the last couple of years. And this is
(08:15):
why I'm out on have been out on them. It's
like it's just not good enough. Like I've seen you
with these players in these biggest moments, and you're just
not good enough. I still don't think they're good enough.
But like, listen, they did it last year, take a
big swing at quarterback with a couple guys who they
technically got for cheap and Russell and Justin Fields. Hopefully
it upgraded them from the Kenny Pickett Mason Rudolf situation.
And now they're doing it again with Aaron Rodgers. They're
(08:35):
hoping that upgrades and they go, actually, maybe this helps
our defense a little bit, getting these tall long corners.
I still think it's crazy ever trading a player like
Minka Fitzpatrick, who has lived up to you trading for
and then brings all that stuff. But like, this is
a business, and this is not one of those worlds
where you just pay everybody. That's not how it works.
(08:56):
And they have some high priced guys. I would imagine
they have to double down over the course of the
next month or two on TJ. Watt, giving him that
Miles Garrett, that Max Crosby, like one hundred plus million
dollars and maybe they want some wiggle room. They also
gave DK metcalf a ton of money, and they're bringing
in you know, Mike Tomlin gets a lot of credit
(09:17):
and rightfully so. His ability to manage personalities is really
you'd argue, like his leadership, his ability to manage the
team and some crazy motherfuckers is his best attribute because
you wouldn't call him like, you know, some genius scheme guy. Right. Hell,
their best defense has been when Dick lebou ran the defense. Right.
He definitely is not an offensive guy. So you go, hey, hey, Mike, godspeed,
(09:41):
here's Rogers, here's d K, here's Jalen. Go get them
because it's unfair, and I know coaches and executives loves
to say this is like our best teams are when
our locker room runs the team. And that's true. But
it's also pretty easy to do that. Like I've seen
some of the good Niner teams, like we're our locker
room handles. Yeah, you got a bunch of high level guys.
No one's really fucking around. It's much harder when you
(10:03):
got all these different personalities. You know, it's hard to
be I mean, who is more famous than Aaron Rodgers
in the NFL maybe Mahomes maybe, and you'd argue, I mean, honestly,
if you just asked, they're probably equal. Like you ask
someone's grandma, you as someone's wife, Like you have the
most famous player in the league on your team who's
(10:24):
a little bit of a lightning rod, and from a
playing standpoint, is all over the map. Because to me,
if you're the this is the easiest trade the Dolphins
ever are gonna make. We're trading Jalen Ramsey like he's
not gonna be on the team. He clearly wasn't showing
up to meetings on time. Our organization was over him.
And we're gonna get Mika Fitzpatrick back. Who listen, who
else were we gonna pay? Tyreek Hill's probably not gonna
(10:45):
be on this team in a year. We will just
get a guy that we originally drafted back in the
building and we'll just keep him around. Now, as someone
in the league told me, Middlecoff, check out the Dolphins
cornerback depth chart. Doesn't look great. And then I started thinking, like,
obviously the Bills they beat the Bills in like ten years,
so they're not beating the Josh Allen Bills. But when
you look at the Jets justin fields as their quarterback.
(11:07):
Last time I checked, He's not exactly a Chad Pettington
picking you up part. So from a pass game standpoint,
I don't know if the Jets scare you. And then
the Patriots from a personnel standpoints, not great. And if
you look their offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels, I mean, I
don't want to call him a dunk and dunk offensive coordinator,
but the most success they had in New England, especially
over his second kind of run post Randy Moss, was
(11:29):
Edelman over the middle, Gronket tight end and throwing too
the running backs. And if you look at their personnel,
it's clearly not as good as those teams. So it's
like they're not going to be the most explosive offense.
Maybe you can get bye for a little bit. Now,
you guys know where I stand on the Miami Dolphins.
I think they're going to be terrible, And there's already
been a lot of buzz about Mike McDaniel getting fired
at the end of this year. I just think their
(11:49):
team just has a lot going on. Don't blame them
for getting rid of Jalen Ramsey, obviously, if a team
was going to take a Jalen Ramsey, it was going
to be I would say, a big name, big personality coach.
It would have to be a guy like John Harbaugh,
Andy Reid. You know, Mike Tomlin. You weren't sending him
(12:10):
to like Liam Cohen. You know, you weren't sending him
with Jonathan Gannon, a coach feeling comfortable that I can handle,
this was going to be Mike Tomlin was clearly on
the short list. And if you told me at the
beginning of the offseason, they're gonna get back Minka Fitzpatrick
in a trade for an older tight end in Jalen Ramsey,
Like that's the and I think they one team gave
a fifth, one team gave a seventh, whatever. But that's
(12:33):
that's a very very easy deal for Miami. And I
think if you're Pittsburgh, you needed to fucking change things up.
I think sometimes too in this you know, football, I've
said forever, football is like Wall Street on grass. It's
very cutthroat, and sometimes you need to let everyone know
because people and I've asked this question, like I thought
the standard was the standard. I thought this was the
(12:53):
Pittsburgh Steelers not even just the Lombardes, but like, we're
gonna compete every year at the highest level and for
a long time with Roethlisberger, even though when they weren't
winning it, they were right there in the mix. If
an injury doesn't go their way. They couldn't beat the Patriots,
but everyone else they could play with and they could
beat anybody. This team is not the case. And I
think sometimes as an organization, like, hey, listen, everyone better
(13:16):
fucking have their head on a swivel. This shit ain't acceptable.
It's not Minca's fault, but it kind of shows the
locker room like anyone can be traded. It's almost it's
not app I'm not comparing Minca to Luca, but sometimes
those moments, remember when Luca got traded, everyone in the
NBA is like, I think Anthony Edwards is like, well, shit,
if they trade Luka Doncics, Minnesota could trade me. And
(13:36):
I just think everyone in the locker room like, you're
off season this next four or five weeks before you
show up to training camp, better not just be fucking
slamming corps lights, you know, smoking weed, needing pizza. Your
ass better be training because we will get rid of
your ass. If your name ain't TJ. Watt or DK Metcalf,
had better be on a swivel because this ain't gonna
fly anymore. And I do wonder if there's an element
(13:59):
of that just to kind of keep everyone like damn,
you know, kind of wakes you up. I think, especially
any young person. And I remember this in the NFL
and even when I started in radio, and like ratings
were a big part. Sometimes when you have a tough
conversation and you're twenty five, you're twenty eight, you're thirty,
Especially when you get a little cocky and you start
feeling yourself, it can humble you really quick. Or there'd
(14:22):
be a situation in your building where they just fired
that guy. What if they fired that guy? Sorry, I'm sweating.
I just got done working out and showering. Uh, it's
just it was a while moment. So I where I
commend the Pittsburgh Steelers is we crushed them so often
for being too conservative. Well, they're never willing to do anything.
(14:42):
They just they're just cool with winning nine or ten games.
And they keep telling us standard is the standard championships
or bust. And it was like, this is bullshit. Like
at least they're like fuck it, like this ain't working.
Let's try something else now isn't gonna work. Baltimore is
in a different league. But like I've been saying for
a while, like I don't feel great about Cincinnati. Their
offense was awesome last year, they won nine games. They
(15:04):
have a new defensive coordinator, their star defensive end hates
the organization. They're the guy they drafted to replace. That
guy thinks he's getting you know, Rat fucked in the
in the contract negotiations. He just left Ota. So a
lot of moving parts in Cincinnati. Obviously, Cleveland's gonna suck.
The AFC is really good. We know the Chiefs ain't
going anywhere. The Broncos and the Chargers are gonna be better.
(15:26):
The Bills are gonna be awesome. If the Patriots look
at their schedule that they could be solid. So maybe
the Steelers are like, we need to mix something up,
Like what do we gotta lose seven games again? That's
what are we doing here? So I've kind of come
around to like I get it, what the hell why not?
And like I said, the ramifications in the locker room,
(15:47):
like this ain't good enough? And if We can trade Minka,
team captain baller. We can trade anyone in this room
not named TJ. Watt. Pro golfers drive for show, but
they putt for doe. The easiest shot for you to
(16:08):
make some dough betting on this week's tournament at DraftKings
Sportsbook from the opening round through Sunday, DraftKings Sportsbook has
you covered with live betting, player props and so much more.
I bet on golf every single week. A couple guys
I like this week at the John Deere, Michael Kim
you can get plus three sixty two top ten obviously
line subject to change, as well as Mark Hubbard, who
(16:30):
has been playing well. You can get him at plus
four hundred, so that means you bet one hundred dollars,
you win three sixty, you bet one hundred dollars, you
win four hundred. I like both those guys to be
in the mix to top ten if you want to
sprinkle on them to win, would not blame you. Like
Michael Kim and Mark Hubbard this week at the John Deere,
here's something special for first timers. DraftKings customers bet five
(16:50):
bucks to win one fifty in bonus bets instantly. Download
the DraftKings sportsbook up now and use the code John.
That's code John for new customers to get one to
fifty and bonus BET's instantly when you bet just five
bucks only on DraftKings. The Crown is yours. Gambling problem
called one eight hundred gambler in New York call eight
seven seven hope and why, or text hope and why
four six seven three sixty nine. In Connecticut, help is available.
(17:13):
If problem gambling, call eight and eight seven eight nine
seven seven seven seven or visit CCPG dot org. Please
play responsibility on behalf of Boothill Casino in Resort Kansas
twenty one plus. Age and eligibility varies by jurisdiction, Void
and Ontario New customers only. Bonus bets expire one hundred
and sixty eight hours after issuance. For additional terms and
(17:35):
responsible gambling resources, see DKNG dot co slash audio. Okay,
let's let's dive into a little go low and talk
someir Patrick Reid, who you know, I would say, over
(17:56):
the course of his career, has been one of the
more controversial guys on the PGA tour. And I've said
this forever. One thing that happened when the Live and
the PGA Tour split happened. Is the PGA Tour had
too many nice guys. They lost all their villains. Now
Bryson is no longer a villain. He's a big fan favorite.
But you need guys like Dennis Rodman and Draymond Green
in your league. You need Nadamakin Sue stomping on people's legs.
(18:20):
That is good for business. This is entertainment. And in
an individual sport, you only got so many crazy guys.
John Day carried the sport for a long period of time,
you know, and losing Patrick Reed who what made him
so fascinating. He is a really good player. He's not
just a major champ. He has one of the best
short games in the history of the sport. And he
(18:43):
wins this week at Lyft which listen. I've been fully transparent.
I don't put too much in winning and losing these tournaments.
Even John Rahm said his top ten streak forever it's
you know, it is what it is. He's playing against
a smaller field. But this individual tournament was extremely difficult.
I mean, Bryce de d Chambeau was even through the
(19:05):
first two weeks, and Patrick Reid had a three shot
lead going into Sunday. He had shot four and five hundred.
He was nine under. He actually didn't play that well
on Sunday, like if he played like this, We've been
talking about Keg and Bradley winning, Like Keck and Bradley's
on the team. I'm sorry, look at our squad. It
is not very good. Xander has not had a good
year obviously. Scotty Scheffler is a stunt. Colin Mori cow
(19:26):
was just fucking had a bizarre year. Like good player,
he's obviously a lock. I mean, the speace of the world.
Who's having a kid who's injured? Like, sorry, we got
talking about like Ben Griffins and Andrew Novak's you're telling
me that Patrick Reid can't be on the team, and
the pushback will be like, John, don't you remember last
time he was on the team. It was weird. I
think we're over that because last time we played a
(19:48):
Ryder Cup, it was all about the vibes and it
was like making sure everyone's friend was on the team.
How did that work out for us? Not great? And
in this individual tournament, he's literally beating guys who are
gonna be on the Ryder Cup. Bryson is you could
argue behind Scotty the second best player on our team.
I think I would argue that I would feel more
comfortable taking Bryson in that moment than Colin Morrikow. And
(20:11):
Colin Morrikow has been good in the Ryder Cup, but
he played for a long time with DJ, and obviously
DJ's not gonna be on the team. But like I
would have no problem at least putting him in the discussion.
And to me, if he plays well at the Open,
and if he continues to play well these last couple
events that live, I think it's more than a discussion.
Here's the other thing. Like this is a home event
(20:32):
in New York. It is going to be a bunch
of young dudes, a bunch of people boozing. It's gonna
be bananas. The crowd is going to be behind Patrick Reid.
Obviously Bryson changed the narrative a couple of years ago.
If we were going overseas, I would say it could
get a little weird. Hell, Patrick Reid and one of
his playing partners just got into it with a fan
(20:53):
on Sunday. But I kind of think this team needs
a little juice. We just talked about it with the
the Tomlin Pittsburgh Steelers trade. Sometimes you need to mix
shit up, and I'm sorry, I think we need to
mix it up a little bit. Kegan on the team.
Patrick Reid plays well the last couple of months. I
have no problem bringing him on the team. He just
(21:13):
won a tournament because you're like, well, uh, it's gonna
be a bunch of long rough It's a long course
to the Ryder Cup. Well what did he just play?
Of course with extremely long rough, where does that benefit him.
He's got a great short game, so especially around the green,
he can get up and down. I have no problem
entertaining that. And like, especially based on who else is
(21:33):
gonna be in the mix, Like what are we talking about?
It is not like we have some story a couple
of years ago. It is like we go like twenty
deep as the Americans now it's flipped. It feels like
their team goes twenty deep. Like two of the best
players on the International Ryder Cup team are literally John
Rahm and Terrell Hadden. And obviously Terrell Hadden was one
(21:54):
shut off at liv you know, missing the playoff where
Patrick Reid ended up winning, but like he is going
to be a guy that's going to be on that
team for a decade plus John Rahm, when it's all
said and done, will go down as probably one of
the great European players not named Sevi Ballasteros or Sergio Garcia.
Like he's gonna be one of their better players right
there with Rory in the history of the event. So
(22:16):
I listen, Bryson's on the team if now Bryson's a
better player than Patrick Reid, but like to me, Patrick
Reed winning in Dallas, I think he has thrown his
hat into the discussion. And here's the other thing. This
is an entertainment product. This is an exhibition right during
football season. So like back in the day, and I
(22:38):
love golf, I mean I love it. I listened to
probably more. I definitely listen to more golf podcasts in
golf content than I do football content. I do think
back in the heyday of the Ryder Cup, like before
the Internet, going up against other sports was a little different.
And obviously the TV element there is no disputing that.
Like when I have it on my TV in a room,
(23:00):
like three TVs either on Saturday or Sunday of the
fall It's like, it's hard for me to give it
all my attention. When you got fucking the Chiefs playing
the Bills, or you got Texas playing Georgia, it gets
lost in the shuffle. And I do think adding Bryson,
adding Patrick Reed, there has to be some sort of element.
And I understand Keegan is not factoring in television ratings,
(23:21):
but like from a standpoint of like, this guy's really
good and he's playing really well. He's also played really
well over the course of his career in some big moments,
and he can say, John, what about the Ryder Cup. Yeah,
it's like I've seen Jordan Speith have rough moments to
the Ryder Cup. I've seen Rory McElroy cry at the
Ryder Cup for playing like crap. Ryder Cup's hard Tiger
and Field notoriously aren't like great Ryder Cup players. It's difficult.
(23:45):
So listen, if guys on that team are cool and
will vouch for him, and who knows, I have no
problem putting Patrick Reed on that team because and listen,
I think Patrick Red being and I'm not just saying
that because they bought ad space. I think Patrick Reed
was more interesting than anything that happened at the Rocket
Mortgage Classic. Now, in fairness, the Rocket Morgic Classic is
(24:09):
probably one of the worst events on the calendar when
you factor in the field, when you factor in it's
time of year. You know, you could argue this week
John Deere. But at least John Deere like knows its
place like no one expects. Like Morikawa, there's some big
names in the Rocket Mortgage. There aren't many big names
playing this week. Most people take the week off go
(24:30):
enjoy their families. That was a pretty boring tournament. Now,
I give pot Geter props for winning it. He was
close to winning in Mexico earlier this year. His ball
speed was ranging between like one and six. For those
of you, you know, they use this term a lot.
I think the average golfer is not on the track man.
The first time I've ever been on truly on the
(24:51):
track man was earlier this year when I bought like
a little Bushnell contraption. I swing pretty hard, you know,
for an amateur golfer, and I you know, got a
swing really really hard to hit one seventy and listening
to people talk about it, like once you get to
a certain number, use like one sixty five one seventy.
Gaining a couple miles an hour of ball speed from
(25:14):
from then on out is really really difficult to gain.
Cruising in the one nineties is insane. I mean, this
guy blasts the ball. He's hitting driver iron like three ten.
His driver goes like three point fifty. I think there's
a lot of question marks with the short game, but
when you hit it that far, you know, I had
a wise man tell me years ago the most overrated
(25:37):
thing in golf is putting. Like most people are averaged
to below average putters, and we always say that driving
the ball doesn't matter. No hitting fairways. If I take
a seven handicap, or I take a scratch handicap, or
I take a fifteen handicap, and for ninety percent of
the par fours and par fives, I put them in
the middle of the fairway. Relative how far you hit
(25:58):
it two fifty to two to three hundred, you are
going to play dramatically better than if I say, hey,
you're gonna make some putts, but every single hole I'm
gonna put you in the trees or where I live
in the cactus. It's it's really difficult to play. So
when you hit it far and you hit it straight,
the game gets relatively easier. So props to that kid.
(26:21):
He won one point seven million dollars. Uh, it is
really really lucrative to win these golf tournaments. Now, I
saw the list of all the you know, Scotty Cheffer
currently has made the most money this year, but like
every guy in the top ten just on the course
has made like seven million plus. I mean, it is
crazy the amount of money that at the end of
(26:42):
the year, all these guys, like every guy in the
top ten will be probably twelve million minimum, and obviously
some of these guys are gonna be twenty plus. And
then whoever wins the FedEx, you know, especially if it's
Scotty or Rory, will probably be close to like forty
or fifty million dollars. So the amount of money. Patrick
Reed just won four million dollars. I've said it forever.
(27:03):
It's like, it's funny about Florio. Doesn't understand why no
one cares about the NFL collusion case. It's because Florio.
Everyone's getting filthy rich. It's like Kyler Murray got screwed,
did he He's made every penny of his contract. He's
banked one hundred fifty million dollars, So like, did he
get screwed? Like, I don't see him out on the street.
I see that guy printing money. Same thing with golf.
(27:26):
Everyone involved in pro golf. You know, people always said
it was the best time to ever play was when
Tiger was in his prime. And relatively speaking, if you
were a guy out on the PGA Tour before Tiger
got there, the money ballooned. So you went from winning
five hundred thousand dollars in a golf tournament to win
a million dollars. It's a huge difference, especially in two
(27:46):
thousand and two or two thousand and five. But when
you're talking about guys that are gonna make like solid
years might not win a tournament and make fifteen million
dollars just on the course. I told Colin this the
other day. Like Maria is in this world now. She
works for this luxury real estate company that is pretty
ingrained with a lot of golfers because one of the
(28:08):
main guys that works there former big time golfer. Multiple
guys that are ingrained in the PGA tour scene, they're caddies,
they're caddies, and these aren't you know, Scottie Shuffler's caddies
or you know these are I'm not gonna put any
guy on blasts. I'm not allowed to, but it's guys
that are way down the money list looking at homes
(28:29):
two three, four million dollars. So it's there's never been
a time to be associated with this sport. The money
is flowing and it's why it's become so competitive, and
it will be fascinating to watch how this plays out
over the next couple of years. Is this sustainable? Because like,
should the rocket mortgage be paying one point seven to
the winner? I'll be I'll be fascinated to see the uh,
(28:52):
you know the television ratings on that one. I know
the PGA Tours rated really well this season, and I
get it, like the travelers or the players or some
of these tournaments, but that was the first time I
was like, yeah, it's kind of boring, Like Murray, you
want to go for a walk, It's like, no, it's
one hundred and ten degrees. I'm like, yeah, good point.
So I'll watch golf. And I watched both the golf tournaments,
and I do think to live for the first time,
(29:14):
and I'm not saying this because they are paying I
promise you this. I had him both on. I just
thought it was more interesting watching Bryson and Patrick Reid
play golf than Chris Kirk in pot Eater. Now again
part of that, if you tell me it was Scotti
and Colin morri Coowa. I changed my tune, but just
for the first time going up against that event, and
it's where live can, like at least enter the conversation
(29:37):
where they get a big name guy going up against
shitty event, and the Rocket Mortgage is now I would
say a pretty low level event. One event that was
pretty impressive was I watched the last five holes of
Padrick Harrington and Stuart Sink. Stuart Sink probably could have
won this tournament. He missed two birdies on sixteen and
seventeen from within I don't know, seven eight feet. I
(29:58):
mean he's stuck it cl on seventeen and he just
pushed it right, and even pat Patty Harrington admitted, like, like,
I feel pretty fortunate Sinks could have buried one of
those birdies. But I noticed, like the Senior Open I
found more interesting than the Rocket Mortgage because, like I've
watched Stuart Sink and Potty Harrington play Tiger and Phil
(30:20):
when I was young. It was actually really good. Sometimes
a scene and again, I'm a golf siko, like I understand,
like I'm not expecting this to be for the masses.
It's like recruiting. Guy, Like I love football, I don't
get into recruiting. I totally get if you don't like golf.
I see it all the time, like listen, I respect UFC.
I don't watch it. But that was a fantastic three
(30:41):
or four hole stretch with those two guys. These are
two major champions. Stuart Sink a couple of years ago
won on the PGA Tour, I think twice. I love
the body types on the Senior Tour. They're all just
fucking big, even guys that Potty Harrington talks about like
he lifts weights. If you ever want to go to
a good YouTube channel for just a golf sick or Instagram,
I think Potty Harrington and Roco you just these guys
(31:04):
are golf sickos like Peyton Manning with football. They just
they eat, breathe and sleep it. They love talking about it,
they love giving tips. I think Rocco and Potty Harrington
are just two guys. I say this all the time
about like the Andy Reid and Belichick generation. I put
when I worked for Pat Hill in the same thing.
These guys got involved in football back in the sixties
or the seventies there was no money, or the eighties
(31:25):
there wasn't You weren't getting involved in coaching to get
rich like Rocco and Potty Harrington and Stuart Sink when
they first got into golf. You weren't gonna be flying
private jets everywhere unless your name was Arnold Palmer or
Jack Nicholas. And now everyone's filthy rich, you know. So
it was very, very enjoyable.
Speaker 2 (31:44):
Blending Vice's signature dynamic storytelling with the high octane world
of sports. Vice Sports brings an exciting and diverse range
of programming that goes beyond the game, catch action pack,
live events, and exclusive sports documentaries and profiles only on
Vice TV.
Speaker 1 (32:01):
I do think with the fourth of July, I'm going
to Tahoe and Nevada for ten days. Got someone I
got to clear out the house. We got someone coming
over here to watch the dog and take care of this.
It's a it's a big I say. I have a
lot of respect respects the wrong word jealousy. I'm just
(32:23):
I'm legitimately jealous of the people that have, like their
their parents live down the street from them, where they
can just it's it is more difficult to find somewhere
where you're comfortable dropping your dog off or having someone
come watch your dog. It's actually a more difficult task
than you would think. But when you live in I
don't want to say a foreign land, but an area
(32:45):
where you just you know, I've only been for a
couple of years, I don't know, and a lot of
people leave anyway in the summer because it's one hundred
and fifty degrees. But we'll see. We got a new
person taking care of her, so we'll see how that goes.
But I was thinking about this because this is just
is a great drinking week. Fourth of July, as I've
gotten older, is easily my favorite holiday. I mean, I
(33:06):
don't even think, honestly, there's not a close second. The
only close second would be And maybe this changes, you know,
for those of you parents when you have kids, you know,
Christmas is really cool giving presents to someone else. But
like in my state right now, Christmas is down on
the list. Thanksgiving would be up there. But I always
regret how much I eat Fourth of July. I just
(33:26):
never have a bad time, even if I'm not doing
that much, because it always involves the sun, it always
involves some water, sometimes from golf. And I think I
was thinking about this, where does the golf beer or
the golf cocktail rank going into this week? Because I listen,
there's nothing like the summer playing golf with some friends,
(33:46):
having a cocktail in the cart, maybe two, maybe five,
and then obviously the beer or cocktail after the round.
I think it is the best. I do think if
you had to go number one overall the ranking, there's
nothing like the Fourth of July cocktail beer on the
lake at the pool, by the body of water. That
is easily the best. I think that is the best
(34:08):
drink of the year, the Fourth of July drink by
the pool or by the lake. And I'll be by
the lake this week. I can't wait. I would probably
put ahead of the golf beer would be the vacation.
So if any of you guys that are on vacation
this week are going on vacation, and vacation could just
be like not having a work, screwing around you can
(34:29):
just have a drink whenever you want. I saw this
on Instagram. It's like ten am, shit beer me. That's
a special feeling. I also think golf you can incorporate
that mindset, so you could argue those two are tied.
I'd put the vacation beer above the golf beer, though
they would basically be the same thing, because I think
you can approach it, especially during the summer, Like if
(34:50):
you're teeing off at eight o'clock in the morning on
a Friday, on a Saturday, you can get drinks before
you TFF and don't feel any and I mean any
hesitation doing it right. You don't sometimes if you're playing,
even if it's not this week, but during the week,
and you're like, you know, I'm gonna play in the morning,
but I still got work to do in the afternoon.
(35:11):
Someone's like, hey, should we get some transfusions on whole three?
And you look, it's like eight forty five in the morning.
You're like, ah, should I You know you kind of
have hesitation. You have no hesitation this week. This is
just an incredible week to trenk. I mean it really is.
Before we get out of here, I did want to
bang out a couple of your questions from the from
(35:33):
the Golf mail bag, so we will start with this.
We'll start with Bryce. This is at Golopod. At Golopod
is the Instagram firing those DMS gear questions answered here
on the show. Hey John, the last five years, I've
used my grandfather's clubs because he's physically unable to play anymore.
(35:53):
Feel for your grandpa. They are a good, reliable set
and they're around twenty years old and I'm saving up
from my own set. I currently have one hybrid in
my back and it's one of my favorite clubs. Don't
have any woods. What is the difference between a hybrid
and a wood? What should I get for my new set?
One hybrid, one wood? Two hybrids? Since I like them
(36:15):
so much, I wouldn't consider a hybrid a wood to
me a hybrid. Back when I started playing golf in
like the nineties, hybrids did not exist, so you would
get to like a three, a four, three, two iron.
Those clubs are very difficult to hit. Honestly, once you
get to like a six, five iron, these are tough
(36:35):
clubs to hit right. So a hybrid is technically depending
on the loft. It can be a four iron, it
can be a three iron, it can be a two iron,
it can operate closer to a five wood. It's just
a very, very I would say player friendly club because
a three wood can be a difficult club to hit. Obviously,
(36:57):
the driver, depending on who you are, is not easy
to hit. Even with the technology. I would say there
is not an easier club to hit than the hybrid,
just in terms of a club that you could hit
far and flush and somewhat control. I would say, if
you like the hybrid, I think Freddy Cupples is a
guy with a ton of hybrids. You could hybrid up.
(37:17):
I mean, you're relatively new to golf. You could do
a hybrid version of like a three iron, a hybrid
version of a four iron, a hybrid version of a
five iron. You can, you know, you can be shameless.
Who cares hot take Keegan is a fine as a
playing captain. The importance of the captain the Ryder Cup
is overblown. In the end. It comes down to pairing
guys together who get along and whose ball matches. All
(37:41):
the planning in the world won't mean shit if the
players suck like Scheffler did. At the Ryder Cup or
the other team shoots low sixties. Ryder Cup is not
the super Bowl. Let's talk golf. Miss Putt for doe,
drive for show is wrong. It's the opposite. I totally agree.
I mean Brooks Kopka and Scotti Scheffler. And obviously Brooks
(38:01):
isn't playing well now, but a couple of years ago
when he played with Scotty, they got beat in like
ten holes they got I forget were they playing. Was
it Victor Hovelin and Ludwig or Victor Hovelin and rom
I forget the exact It was Hovelin and somebody. They
beat the living shit out of those two. Those two
have a combined what Scotty has three majors kept as five,
(38:25):
they have eight majors, and they lost like ten and
eight or something. I mean, it was. It has to
be one of the worst losses in the history of
the Ryder Cup. So I'm completely with you. If your
top guys, like, if you bring Ben Griffin and he
plays bad, you're gonna get smoked. That's why I would entertain,
bring Patrick Reid over Ben Griffin, right, I would entertain,
(38:47):
you know, like you said, the pairings are very important,
and who's playing well is really really important. I totally
agree from you hitting the fairway unless you are playing
like some of these tour events. I will take my
chances hitting the fairway then, because how good are you
ever gonna putt? Like? Are most people gonna bang out
(39:08):
a bunch of twelve footers? No, even if you're like
a I'm a three handicap. Actually played my best round
of the year, shot seventy seven at TPC on Saturday.
Three birdies, No big deal. I actually didn't hit the
driver that well, but actually made putts. And I think
sometimes listen, ideally you want to do both. You want
(39:31):
to hit fairways. Now the thing at TPC, you can
spray it a little bit and it's fine. But if
I would have played it a tighter course, I would
have been in some trouble. But when I hit fairways,
even when I'm putting like shit, I shoot anywhere between
seventy eight and eighty two. I mean, if I miss
every fairway, I'm probably gonna shoot eighty eight. Totally agree
(39:51):
with you. I had someone tell me this years ago.
Unless you're playing the Masters, driving the ball straight and
hitting is much more important than You're not gonna be
Brad Faxon with a putter in your hand. Are Colin
and Rory competing this year to be the soft softest
golfer of the year. Both have been handling the media terribly.
(40:13):
It kind of feels like they're both trying to be
tough guys and treat the media like shit, but don't
realize how they come off. I'm gonna give Rory a
little grace in the sense that who knows, maybe he's
got the divorces back on. Who knows what's going on.
I don't even want to speculate, but I thought Brandall
(40:33):
had a good point. He's like, listen, if you have
a good friend in life that has done everything right,
treated you well and then starts acting weird for a month,
you don't just kick him to the curb. Like Rory
for like three years has been pretty important to the
media and golf and handle himself pretty well. Got a
little weird after the Masters. I'm giving them Colin's acting
(40:55):
weird for a while now. This notion that, like Colin,
I don't owe you any Colin, You're not fucking Joe
Montana here, buddy. If you disappeared tomorrow Honestly, if Colin Morrikawa,
if Rory disappeared tomorrow, we'd have problems. If Colin Morrikawa
disappeared tomorrow, and I like the guy as a player,
no one would care his importance to the business of
golf relative to how much he makes. Like if Josh
(41:18):
Allen disappeared from the NFL, it would be a problem.
If Lamar Jackson disappeared, it would be a problem. Colin
Morrikawa on like the rankings, in where he stands from
like a status standpoint, is like that. Yet his importance
to the business model of the cash that everyone's making,
including himself, who's filthy rich, it's kind of irrelevant. He's
an irrelevant great player. He's much closer to like Patrick
(41:41):
Cantlay than he is Rory Bryson or Scottie in terms
of importance to the business model of the sport. And
then when he starts acting like he's running through caddies
like you know, you would bottled waters at a party,
It's crazy how often he's going through guys. Someone told
me last week that they had heard that there was
(42:02):
like an incident, maybe like the second time, you know,
because Max Holma's Caddie jumped to Colin whatever a couple
months ago, and I don't know if it was either
the second or third tournament. There was like they butted
heads and it was clearly fractured since and now they
broke up firing, broke up quit who knows the exact term,
(42:24):
but like the Holm Grinder thing was clear, like it
was just time for a split. They were good friends.
The Colin mark, like, Colin, can you work with anybody?
Speaker 2 (42:32):
Like?
Speaker 1 (42:33):
Can you work with anybody? What's your deal? Bro? Like? Seriously,
what's You're not like a big enough like a hole
to be a villain. You're just kind of in no
man's land where people just don't like you. You just
kind of turned people off. So I think Marikawa the
situation he just had with Alan Ship Knuck, who I
(42:56):
talked some shit about Big Jay's but I also appreciate
a good Big j moment and him and Ship not
getting into it. I just think that Morikawa feels pretty
exhausting right now, So I would say he's in a
different Rory at the end of the day. Rory's extremely
important to the business of golf. Golf needs him more
(43:17):
than he needs them at this point. Marikawa needs golf
way more than golf needs him. Promise you that UH
big fan of both your pods. I know you're big
on the top dogs in majors, but wanted to see
your opinion change post JJ Spahn win the US Open.
Was Oakmont just an outlier? I know for the most
part he's been a mess Postmasters, but I think Rory
(43:41):
has a big chance at the Open, especially since his
home area. I also would love to see Scotty win
because it's such a great player. I want him to
win a lot of majors and some solidify his greatness.
I do think there's gonna be a couple of majors
over the course of five six years, depending on the
course that bring other people in play Oakmont, they all
(44:04):
said toughest course we've ever played. They thought they called
it the toughest and most difficult course in the entire world.
So anytime you put people on that scenario, they're probably
is going to be more variables. Right, Bryson missed the cut.
All these guys got ejected, So I thought Bryson was
one of the favorites. I bet like five hundred dollars
on him to top five, to top ten to win,
(44:25):
and he didn't even get close to making the cut.
So I think anytime you go to a difficult course,
which doesn't happen that we don't see these guys get
tested that often, so you kind of forget and I
think Oakmont, you know, Shinnacock next year, I think falls
under that category. Even you could say Pinehurst is difficult,
but look who dominated at Pinehurst, all the best players.
(44:46):
So I think anytime they go to Oakmont, I think
Shinnacock is going to fall into that. Next year it
might just be like I don't know, you could take
some flyers. I think the Masters, the top dogs are
going to dominate. I think that the Open is a
good examp because weather comes into play. You get a
lot of variety, like last year was justin Rose, Billy
Horschell and Xander. Right. I think if the Master is
(45:09):
moving forward, it's gonna be five six of the group
of ten, right, Scotty More, Kawa, Rory, Ludwig, Rohm. You
know it's Xander if he's healthy, it's a top cut.
Hatton now is an elite player. I watched the live
(45:30):
Dallas Day three. What an ending question? Is there anything
that the new commissioner with the PGA can model from
Live to enhance the viewer experience. The PGA TV experience
has become painful, too many commercials and too many spotlights
of sponsors in the booth. Meanwhile, Lived showed the best
players and the favorites over and over. Well, the business
(45:51):
model is a little different, right, I mean the contract
with Fox for Live. There aren't many requires. It's not
like a huge lucrative business proposition. The PGA Tour took
a ton of money from CBS and NBC, so for
them to make their money back, given that one thing
(46:13):
unique about the PGA Tour consumer, and the same consumer
would watch Lived to the golf consumer, same thing Senior
US Open. The audience is much smaller than all these
other major sports, right, It's a big deal for a
PGA tournament to get what five million people is a
massive day. For a non major three and a half
(46:33):
four million day people is a big deal. But that
percentage of a consumer like the NBA Final consumer, Let's
say beside Game seven, they were getting like eight million
people watching, so double a PGA Tour event. The PGA
Tour consumer, their demo is like fifty percent have like
they have more money than the NBA or NFL consumer.
(46:56):
So while the audience is smaller, from an advertiser perspective,
you are getting the richest sports consumer. It's a huge
advantage for golf. So like they have to find a
way to like your consumers unique, but you just you know,
hit them over the head with these ads. It is
pretty boring to watch. It's easier for Fox to do
(47:17):
the live because the financial situation is different. I also
think if you get a huge sponsor, Rocket Mortgage, Wells, Farco, Chevy, whatever, whatever,
the Coca Cola, part of the package to get that
guy to give you fifty million dollars for the year
(47:37):
to be the official bank and then to host a
tournament is you got to throw them some bones. And
I think they are big clearly on getting that sit
down with Nance during the tournament. It's it's one thing
if it's Tiger and Jack's tournament and those guys are
in the booth, no one cares. But when it's like,
let's go to the CEO of Barclay's, like, can I
(47:58):
just watch Scottish Effer and hit these shots? But I
don't think that's going away, So I don't know what
he does because the television contract was signed before he
got there. Now, his job at the NFL was to
deal with these contracts, so maybe he could. I don't know.
(48:20):
I don't expect anything to change. In the past three years,
I've become a big golf fan, not only playing but
watching it. I heard you and Colin talking the other
day about Rory and Koepka and how they have lost motivation.
I'm a huge Hoblin fan. He's my favorite golfer since
I started watching the sport. He had this to say
during the US Open. We'd all like to win. There
is also a deep passion in me that I want
(48:42):
to hit the shots. I want to stand on the
tee and hit the shots that I'm envisioning. Do you
think his first major win is in the horizon and
with this mentality of quote unquote hitting the shots what
it can open the floodgates to multiple major wins. I
do think it's a little unfair to I would say
(49:02):
compare like rory situation to Hoveland in the sense of like,
he's one of the best quotes in the sport, but
he's obviously chasing. You know, he hasn't won a major uh.
And I think why people root for him is how
open he is, you know that stuff, Like Tiger and
Phil would say, They're like, I want to be the best.
(49:24):
I know when I'm hitting the shots, I'm gonna win.
When Hovelin's playing his best, he can beat anybody in
the world. I mean two years ago he was the
best player in the world essentially at the end of
the year when he won the FedEx Cup, I mean,
he's fucking dominating. So I would say he's a lock.
Do you know where I see Victor Hoblin his career ending.
I don't know how many majors, like you convinced me
only wins one. You could convince me he wins four.
(49:46):
I think he's gonna win a US Open and maybe
multiple US Open. I think he's tailor made for the
US Open. I think that's his tournament. He obviously can
compete if he's playing well at the Masters and the PGA.
But like I envisioned that guy winning a US Open
really really tough track. And I think, listen, it was
like a draft class. It was three guys came out
(50:08):
of his class that were like can't miss prospects. It'd
be like Cooper Flag, Trevor Lawrence and uh and and
Zion Williamson. It was Victor Hovelin, Colin Morricawa and Matt
Wolf and it and Matt Wolf looked like the best
version right off the bat and then clearly fell off
a cliff and Mari Cowa and Hovelin are just are
(50:28):
I mean, are high level players. And I think Hovelin
the difference of Hoblin and marcaw is like Hoblin is likable.
It's just it's just easy to watch Victor Hovelin and go,
I'm rooting for this guy, and that that's what Marikawa lacks.
So I'm with you. I think Hoveland I think he's
destined to win a major for sure.
Speaker 2 (50:51):
The volume
The volume. What is going on? Everybody? How are we doing?
John Middlecoff three? And our podcast? What is the good word?
(00:22):
My people? Here's the plan today. I was just gonna
do a golf podcast because we had a lot of
stuff going on. Patrick Reid is he in the mix
for the Ryder Cup. We had the twenty year old
win a PGA tournament. He hits it about nine million miles.
Patty Harrington, former major champ, wins the Senior Open. I
actually watched that at the gym on Sunday morning, and
(00:42):
I thought I'd rank some golf beers, just beers in
terms of fourth of July, because this is just I mean,
it's a great drinking week. Let's be honest and do
a little We will also do a little mail bag
reaction from the golf mail bag at Golopod. At golopod
is the Instagram fire in those dms. So we'll react
(01:03):
a little bit to the NFL trade. We'll do some
golf content and we'll get you out of here on
a Monday of you know, let's face a lot of
you guys, including myself. I don't want to call this
a mail in week, but this is a week where
you're just ready for the pool of the lake and
some cocktails. But before we dive into sports, you know,
I gotta tell you about my friends, my partners, and
(01:24):
the official ticketing app of this podcast, Game Time. Listen.
Do you guys want to go to an event? Do
you don't want to go to a concert? Do you
want to go to a comedy show? Do you want
to go to a baseball game this summer? If you
want to go to a Major League Baseball game, I
want to go see the Dodgers, the Yankees, the Giants,
the Cubs, you name it, we got you covered. Obviously.
Concert season is in full swing. The amount of times
that I see highlights from a cool concert on Instagram,
(01:47):
it always makes me a little jealous. You know, comedy shows,
if you want to go, enjoy yourself, get a little laugh.
We actually have a comedy like Little Cellar right down
the street from my house, probably ten minutes away. I
haven't been yet, but I know a couple of people
that go. They say it's a good time. So take
the guests work out of buying tickets with game Time.
Download the game Time app and create an account and
use the code Jaunt for twenty dollars off terms to
(02:08):
play again. Created an accountant redeemed the code John for
twenty dollars off. Download the game time app today, last
minute tickets, lowest price is guaranteed. Dive into the trade
and let's just dive in. I mean, it's no way
around it. We knew Jalen Ramsey was going to get
traded to the Steelers. Maybe not, but we knew that
Jalen Ramsey was not going to be on the Miami Dolphins.
(02:29):
We knew the Steelers, because of Arthur Smith's history with
the tight end, was sniffing around John new Smith. I
do think the Minka Fitzpatrick curveball kind of came out
of nowhere. And now you have the Pittsburgh Steelers that
come into this, you know, trading camp in a month,
adding a lot of different people, right, I mean Jalen Ramsey,
I don't want to say a huge personality, but has
(02:51):
been traded from a couple different places. And I would
say that the Rams was probably more financial. This one
was a little more personality. You bring in dk Metcalf,
which gets a personal foul every every other game. You
got Aaron Rodgers, who, like I talked about on the
podcast the other day. I just watched Enigma. I don't
recommend it, but if you want a weird cat forty
(03:14):
one years old, a lot of moving parts. Now, in
fairness to the Steelers, you go, well, look at what
we've been doing. We haven't been anywhere close, even though
we've been making the playoffs. I've been saying this for
a while. You have the Chiefs, who are in their
own little world, right, they go to the super Bowl
it feels like every year. Then you have this next
group of teams, one of them being in their division,
their rival, the Ravens and the Bills, who we've seen
(03:36):
them play in the playoffs the last couple of years
and didn't come within single digits in those playoff games.
And this year against the Ravens was a fucking she
lacking and if you look at the way they played
down the stretch, they were getting worked. You know, even
the Bengals who missed the playoffs, there's no one that
would have argued by the end of the season the
Bengals were a much better team than the Steelers, and
(03:57):
obviously they beat him at the end of the year.
So sometimes you gotta mix it up. I gotta be honest, though,
doing this after OTA's feels a little weird, feels pretty dramatic.
I do think from a financial standpoint, Mika Fitzpatrick essentially
is two years left on his deal, but really this
is the last deal, and maybe they looked at it
(04:18):
like this a little bit like the Houston Texans with
Laramie Tunzel. We don't plan on giving him another big
contract now. Obviously, Tunzel's number at left tackle is enormous.
Minca because of the position he plays, is smaller, but
in a weird way, this move was more big picture,
even though in theory I guess it helps them in
the short term getting two guys, especially one in the secondary.
(04:40):
And I just think it was pretty crazy because I
start texting around the league. My take is, and I'm
not banging the film like the old day. So I
text my buddies and they go, I goes, Jalen's still good,
And I got multiple guys that work in pro departments say,
declining starter. I mean his days of just locking down
the best wide receiver are over. Now he's still a
(05:02):
solid player. He will tackle, and maybe the Steelers been
on you come to our culture like you were with
the Rams. You're gonna be an all in guy. You
still got You're not that. I mean, how old is
Jalen Ramsey thirty thirty one years old, so technically he
has a big year. Maybe he continues to play for
a while. Yeah, he's thirty years old. He feels older
than he actually is. And listen, they traded for a
(05:26):
declining player, and I go, what about Mica? To me,
he's pretty good player, Like, yeah, high end starter. Now
this is where we get to the hierarchy of positions,
and I would say safety is near the bottom. You
could argue down with guards and centers making so much
money and their importance given how many interior pass rushers
(05:46):
are good, that guards and centers have jumped safeties and
you know, I think linebackers. I mean, if you get
a good one, they are extremely important. You could argue
that safety is last on the list of importance. Now
I think Mika Fitzpatrick and like that can our game
changing players. But the Pittsburgh Steelers just told you what
they think. They think his value, despite being a high
(06:07):
end player, is a little bit overrated because you see
it on paper, like what did they just do? And
I saw on the Internet, Like, it's not like the
Steelers defense was that good last year, right, I think,
you know, their pass defense was near the bottom of
the league. And I do think if you look historically
at the Steelers, you know, whenever you see clips of
like the late Coward days or the early Tomlin days,
(06:29):
they had a lot of tall corners, Like they have
an organizational philosophy that comes from the owner. They want
to run the ball, Arthur Smith, Caleb Johnson, they want
big corners and pass rushers. And they add Darius Slay
and they add Jalen Ramsey, two guys who you would
say their arrow is pointing down. But given the way
they want to play, maybe they think that, you know,
(06:49):
based on we're losing a safety. It's not like he's
matching up with you know, Jamar Chase or you know
the Ravens Zay Flowers. So one of those guys in
Jalen has before you can move him around a little
bit put over if you're playing a really really good
tight end. I'd say overall, it just shows you. I mean,
the Steelers are just like going for broke, fuck it
(07:10):
and in a weird way, clearing their books for the
future and getting rid of a guy getting short term
value right now, I think it's pretty risky because the
other thing, and this is what assistant GM told me,
MICA's a tangibles are pretty elite, Like what he brings you,
you know, in terms of leadership, in terms of practice habits,
in terms of just focus pretty special, Like he's up
(07:32):
check all the boxes. You know. Sometimes when these teams
do their draft content and we get like an inside
look of like he was a star player, he was
a horseshoe player, he was a gold star player. Like
that's what this type guy is, and that's hard to
quantify sometimes, so just like well you only had one interception.
Well just it's like, well, what he's bringing to the table,
(07:54):
Jalen Rams's not exactly bringing to the table, and maybe
they think that, like that's a little overrated. We have
other guys that can fill that role. I mean, that's
why we pay TJ all this money and Cam Hayward's
still around like they can run it because statistically, like
at the end of the day, this is a production
based business and we need to be better like what
we've seen the last couple of years. And this is
(08:15):
why I'm out on have been out on them. It's
like it's just not good enough. Like I've seen you
with these players in these biggest moments, and you're just
not good enough. I still don't think they're good enough.
But like, listen, they did it last year, take a
big swing at quarterback with a couple guys who they
technically got for cheap and Russell and Justin Fields. Hopefully
it upgraded them from the Kenny Pickett Mason Rudolf situation.
And now they're doing it again with Aaron Rodgers. They're
(08:35):
hoping that upgrades and they go, actually, maybe this helps
our defense a little bit, getting these tall long corners.
I still think it's crazy ever trading a player like
Minka Fitzpatrick, who has lived up to you trading for
and then brings all that stuff. But like, this is
a business, and this is not one of those worlds
where you just pay everybody. That's not how it works.
(08:56):
And they have some high priced guys. I would imagine
they have to double down over the course of the
next month or two on TJ. Watt, giving him that
Miles Garrett, that Max Crosby, like one hundred plus million
dollars and maybe they want some wiggle room. They also
gave DK metcalf a ton of money, and they're bringing
in you know, Mike Tomlin gets a lot of credit
(09:17):
and rightfully so. His ability to manage personalities is really
you'd argue, like his leadership, his ability to manage the
team and some crazy motherfuckers is his best attribute because
you wouldn't call him like, you know, some genius scheme guy. Right. Hell,
their best defense has been when Dick lebou ran the defense. Right.
He definitely is not an offensive guy. So you go, hey, hey, Mike, godspeed,
(09:41):
here's Rogers, here's d K, here's Jalen. Go get them
because it's unfair, and I know coaches and executives loves
to say this is like our best teams are when
our locker room runs the team. And that's true. But
it's also pretty easy to do that. Like I've seen
some of the good Niner teams, like we're our locker
room handles. Yeah, you got a bunch of high level guys.
No one's really fucking around. It's much harder when you
(10:03):
got all these different personalities. You know, it's hard to
be I mean, who is more famous than Aaron Rodgers
in the NFL maybe Mahomes maybe, and you'd argue, I mean, honestly,
if you just asked, they're probably equal. Like you ask
someone's grandma, you as someone's wife, Like you have the
most famous player in the league on your team who's
(10:24):
a little bit of a lightning rod, and from a
playing standpoint, is all over the map. Because to me,
if you're the this is the easiest trade the Dolphins
ever are gonna make. We're trading Jalen Ramsey like he's
not gonna be on the team. He clearly wasn't showing
up to meetings on time. Our organization was over him.
And we're gonna get Mika Fitzpatrick back. Who listen, who
else were we gonna pay? Tyreek Hill's probably not gonna
(10:45):
be on this team in a year. We will just
get a guy that we originally drafted back in the
building and we'll just keep him around. Now, as someone
in the league told me, Middlecoff, check out the Dolphins
cornerback depth chart. Doesn't look great. And then I started thinking, like,
obviously the Bills they beat the Bills in like ten years,
so they're not beating the Josh Allen Bills. But when
you look at the Jets justin fields as their quarterback.
(11:07):
Last time I checked, He's not exactly a Chad Pettington
picking you up part. So from a pass game standpoint,
I don't know if the Jets scare you. And then
the Patriots from a personnel standpoints, not great. And if
you look their offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels, I mean, I
don't want to call him a dunk and dunk offensive coordinator,
but the most success they had in New England, especially
over his second kind of run post Randy Moss, was
(11:29):
Edelman over the middle, Gronket tight end and throwing too
the running backs. And if you look at their personnel,
it's clearly not as good as those teams. So it's
like they're not going to be the most explosive offense.
Maybe you can get bye for a little bit. Now,
you guys know where I stand on the Miami Dolphins.
I think they're going to be terrible, And there's already
been a lot of buzz about Mike McDaniel getting fired
at the end of this year. I just think their
(11:49):
team just has a lot going on. Don't blame them
for getting rid of Jalen Ramsey, obviously, if a team
was going to take a Jalen Ramsey, it was going
to be I would say, a big name, big personality coach.
It would have to be a guy like John Harbaugh,
Andy Reid. You know, Mike Tomlin. You weren't sending him
(12:10):
to like Liam Cohen. You know, you weren't sending him
with Jonathan Gannon, a coach feeling comfortable that I can handle,
this was going to be Mike Tomlin was clearly on
the short list. And if you told me at the
beginning of the offseason, they're gonna get back Minka Fitzpatrick
in a trade for an older tight end in Jalen Ramsey,
Like that's the and I think they one team gave
a fifth, one team gave a seventh, whatever. But that's
(12:33):
that's a very very easy deal for Miami. And I
think if you're Pittsburgh, you needed to fucking change things up.
I think sometimes too in this you know, football, I've
said forever, football is like Wall Street on grass. It's
very cutthroat, and sometimes you need to let everyone know
because people and I've asked this question, like I thought
the standard was the standard. I thought this was the
(12:53):
Pittsburgh Steelers not even just the Lombardes, but like, we're
gonna compete every year at the highest level and for
a long time with Roethlisberger, even though when they weren't
winning it, they were right there in the mix. If
an injury doesn't go their way. They couldn't beat the Patriots,
but everyone else they could play with and they could
beat anybody. This team is not the case. And I
think sometimes as an organization, like, hey, listen, everyone better
(13:16):
fucking have their head on a swivel. This shit ain't acceptable.
It's not Minca's fault, but it kind of shows the
locker room like anyone can be traded. It's almost it's
not app I'm not comparing Minca to Luca, but sometimes
those moments, remember when Luca got traded, everyone in the
NBA is like, I think Anthony Edwards is like, well, shit,
if they trade Luka Doncics, Minnesota could trade me. And
(13:36):
I just think everyone in the locker room like, you're
off season this next four or five weeks before you
show up to training camp, better not just be fucking
slamming corps lights, you know, smoking weed, needing pizza. Your
ass better be training because we will get rid of
your ass. If your name ain't TJ. Watt or DK Metcalf,
had better be on a swivel because this ain't gonna
fly anymore. And I do wonder if there's an element
(13:59):
of that just to kind of keep everyone like damn,
you know, kind of wakes you up. I think, especially
any young person. And I remember this in the NFL
and even when I started in radio, and like ratings
were a big part. Sometimes when you have a tough
conversation and you're twenty five, you're twenty eight, you're thirty,
Especially when you get a little cocky and you start
feeling yourself, it can humble you really quick. Or there'd
(14:22):
be a situation in your building where they just fired
that guy. What if they fired that guy? Sorry, I'm sweating.
I just got done working out and showering. Uh, it's
just it was a while moment. So I where I
commend the Pittsburgh Steelers is we crushed them so often
for being too conservative. Well, they're never willing to do anything.
(14:42):
They just they're just cool with winning nine or ten games.
And they keep telling us standard is the standard championships
or bust. And it was like, this is bullshit. Like
at least they're like fuck it, like this ain't working.
Let's try something else now isn't gonna work. Baltimore is
in a different league. But like I've been saying for
a while, like I don't feel great about Cincinnati. Their
offense was awesome last year, they won nine games. They
(15:04):
have a new defensive coordinator, their star defensive end hates
the organization. They're the guy they drafted to replace. That
guy thinks he's getting you know, Rat fucked in the
in the contract negotiations. He just left Ota. So a
lot of moving parts in Cincinnati. Obviously, Cleveland's gonna suck.
The AFC is really good. We know the Chiefs ain't
going anywhere. The Broncos and the Chargers are gonna be better.
(15:26):
The Bills are gonna be awesome. If the Patriots look
at their schedule that they could be solid. So maybe
the Steelers are like, we need to mix something up,
Like what do we gotta lose seven games again? That's
what are we doing here? So I've kind of come
around to like I get it, what the hell why not?
And like I said, the ramifications in the locker room,
(15:47):
like this ain't good enough? And if We can trade Minka,
team captain baller. We can trade anyone in this room
not named TJ. Watt. Pro golfers drive for show, but
they putt for doe. The easiest shot for you to
(16:08):
make some dough betting on this week's tournament at DraftKings
Sportsbook from the opening round through Sunday, DraftKings Sportsbook has
you covered with live betting, player props and so much more.
I bet on golf every single week. A couple guys
I like this week at the John Deere, Michael Kim
you can get plus three sixty two top ten obviously
line subject to change, as well as Mark Hubbard, who
(16:30):
has been playing well. You can get him at plus
four hundred, so that means you bet one hundred dollars,
you win three sixty, you bet one hundred dollars, you
win four hundred. I like both those guys to be
in the mix to top ten if you want to
sprinkle on them to win, would not blame you. Like
Michael Kim and Mark Hubbard this week at the John Deere,
here's something special for first timers. DraftKings customers bet five
(16:50):
bucks to win one fifty in bonus bets instantly. Download
the DraftKings sportsbook up now and use the code John.
That's code John for new customers to get one to
fifty and bonus BET's instantly when you bet just five
bucks only on DraftKings. The Crown is yours. Gambling problem
called one eight hundred gambler in New York call eight
seven seven hope and why, or text hope and why
four six seven three sixty nine. In Connecticut, help is available.
(17:13):
If problem gambling, call eight and eight seven eight nine
seven seven seven seven or visit CCPG dot org. Please
play responsibility on behalf of Boothill Casino in Resort Kansas
twenty one plus. Age and eligibility varies by jurisdiction, Void
and Ontario New customers only. Bonus bets expire one hundred
and sixty eight hours after issuance. For additional terms and
(17:35):
responsible gambling resources, see DKNG dot co slash audio. Okay,
let's let's dive into a little go low and talk
someir Patrick Reid, who you know, I would say, over
(17:56):
the course of his career, has been one of the
more controversial guys on the PGA tour. And I've said
this forever. One thing that happened when the Live and
the PGA Tour split happened. Is the PGA Tour had
too many nice guys. They lost all their villains. Now
Bryson is no longer a villain. He's a big fan favorite.
But you need guys like Dennis Rodman and Draymond Green
in your league. You need Nadamakin Sue stomping on people's legs.
(18:20):
That is good for business. This is entertainment. And in
an individual sport, you only got so many crazy guys.
John Day carried the sport for a long period of time,
you know, and losing Patrick Reed who what made him
so fascinating. He is a really good player. He's not
just a major champ. He has one of the best
short games in the history of the sport. And he
(18:43):
wins this week at Lyft which listen. I've been fully transparent.
I don't put too much in winning and losing these tournaments.
Even John Rahm said his top ten streak forever it's
you know, it is what it is. He's playing against
a smaller field. But this individual tournament was extremely difficult.
I mean, Bryce de d Chambeau was even through the
(19:05):
first two weeks, and Patrick Reid had a three shot
lead going into Sunday. He had shot four and five hundred.
He was nine under. He actually didn't play that well
on Sunday, like if he played like this, We've been
talking about Keg and Bradley winning, Like Keck and Bradley's
on the team. I'm sorry, look at our squad. It
is not very good. Xander has not had a good
year obviously. Scotty Scheffler is a stunt. Colin Mori cow
(19:26):
was just fucking had a bizarre year. Like good player,
he's obviously a lock. I mean, the speace of the world.
Who's having a kid who's injured? Like, sorry, we got
talking about like Ben Griffins and Andrew Novak's you're telling
me that Patrick Reid can't be on the team, and
the pushback will be like, John, don't you remember last
time he was on the team. It was weird. I
think we're over that because last time we played a
(19:48):
Ryder Cup, it was all about the vibes and it
was like making sure everyone's friend was on the team.
How did that work out for us? Not great? And
in this individual tournament, he's literally beating guys who are
gonna be on the Ryder Cup. Bryson is you could
argue behind Scotty the second best player on our team.
I think I would argue that I would feel more
comfortable taking Bryson in that moment than Colin Morrikow. And
(20:11):
Colin Morrikow has been good in the Ryder Cup, but
he played for a long time with DJ, and obviously
DJ's not gonna be on the team. But like I
would have no problem at least putting him in the discussion.
And to me, if he plays well at the Open,
and if he continues to play well these last couple
events that live, I think it's more than a discussion.
Here's the other thing. Like this is a home event
(20:32):
in New York. It is going to be a bunch
of young dudes, a bunch of people boozing. It's gonna
be bananas. The crowd is going to be behind Patrick Reid.
Obviously Bryson changed the narrative a couple of years ago.
If we were going overseas, I would say it could
get a little weird. Hell, Patrick Reid and one of
his playing partners just got into it with a fan
(20:53):
on Sunday. But I kind of think this team needs
a little juice. We just talked about it with the
the Tomlin Pittsburgh Steelers trade. Sometimes you need to mix
shit up, and I'm sorry, I think we need to
mix it up a little bit. Kegan on the team.
Patrick Reid plays well the last couple of months. I
have no problem bringing him on the team. He just
(21:13):
won a tournament because you're like, well, uh, it's gonna
be a bunch of long rough It's a long course
to the Ryder Cup. Well what did he just play?
Of course with extremely long rough, where does that benefit him.
He's got a great short game, so especially around the green,
he can get up and down. I have no problem
entertaining that. And like, especially based on who else is
(21:33):
gonna be in the mix, Like what are we talking about?
It is not like we have some story a couple
of years ago. It is like we go like twenty
deep as the Americans now it's flipped. It feels like
their team goes twenty deep. Like two of the best
players on the International Ryder Cup team are literally John
Rahm and Terrell Hadden. And obviously Terrell Hadden was one
(21:54):
shut off at liv you know, missing the playoff where
Patrick Reid ended up winning, but like he is going
to be a guy that's going to be on that
team for a decade plus John Rahm, when it's all
said and done, will go down as probably one of
the great European players not named Sevi Ballasteros or Sergio Garcia.
Like he's gonna be one of their better players right
there with Rory in the history of the event. So
(22:16):
I listen, Bryson's on the team if now Bryson's a
better player than Patrick Reid, but like to me, Patrick
Reed winning in Dallas, I think he has thrown his
hat into the discussion. And here's the other thing. This
is an entertainment product. This is an exhibition right during
football season. So like back in the day, and I
(22:38):
love golf, I mean I love it. I listened to
probably more. I definitely listen to more golf podcasts in
golf content than I do football content. I do think
back in the heyday of the Ryder Cup, like before
the Internet, going up against other sports was a little different.
And obviously the TV element there is no disputing that.
Like when I have it on my TV in a room,
(23:00):
like three TVs either on Saturday or Sunday of the
fall It's like, it's hard for me to give it
all my attention. When you got fucking the Chiefs playing
the Bills, or you got Texas playing Georgia, it gets
lost in the shuffle. And I do think adding Bryson,
adding Patrick Reed, there has to be some sort of element.
And I understand Keegan is not factoring in television ratings,
(23:21):
but like from a standpoint of like, this guy's really
good and he's playing really well. He's also played really
well over the course of his career in some big moments,
and he can say, John, what about the Ryder Cup. Yeah,
it's like I've seen Jordan Speith have rough moments to
the Ryder Cup. I've seen Rory McElroy cry at the
Ryder Cup for playing like crap. Ryder Cup's hard Tiger
and Field notoriously aren't like great Ryder Cup players. It's difficult.
(23:45):
So listen, if guys on that team are cool and
will vouch for him, and who knows, I have no
problem putting Patrick Reed on that team because and listen,
I think Patrick Red being and I'm not just saying
that because they bought ad space. I think Patrick Reed
was more interesting than anything that happened at the Rocket
Mortgage Classic. Now, in fairness, the Rocket Morgic Classic is
(24:09):
probably one of the worst events on the calendar when
you factor in the field, when you factor in it's
time of year. You know, you could argue this week
John Deere. But at least John Deere like knows its
place like no one expects. Like Morikawa, there's some big
names in the Rocket Mortgage. There aren't many big names
playing this week. Most people take the week off go
(24:30):
enjoy their families. That was a pretty boring tournament. Now,
I give pot Geter props for winning it. He was
close to winning in Mexico earlier this year. His ball
speed was ranging between like one and six. For those
of you, you know, they use this term a lot.
I think the average golfer is not on the track man.
The first time I've ever been on truly on the
(24:51):
track man was earlier this year when I bought like
a little Bushnell contraption. I swing pretty hard, you know,
for an amateur golfer, and I you know, got a
swing really really hard to hit one seventy and listening
to people talk about it, like once you get to
a certain number, use like one sixty five one seventy.
Gaining a couple miles an hour of ball speed from
(25:14):
from then on out is really really difficult to gain.
Cruising in the one nineties is insane. I mean, this
guy blasts the ball. He's hitting driver iron like three ten.
His driver goes like three point fifty. I think there's
a lot of question marks with the short game, but
when you hit it that far, you know, I had
a wise man tell me years ago the most overrated
(25:37):
thing in golf is putting. Like most people are averaged
to below average putters, and we always say that driving
the ball doesn't matter. No hitting fairways. If I take
a seven handicap, or I take a scratch handicap, or
I take a fifteen handicap, and for ninety percent of
the par fours and par fives, I put them in
the middle of the fairway. Relative how far you hit
(25:58):
it two fifty to two to three hundred, you are
going to play dramatically better than if I say, hey,
you're gonna make some putts, but every single hole I'm
gonna put you in the trees or where I live
in the cactus. It's it's really difficult to play. So
when you hit it far and you hit it straight,
the game gets relatively easier. So props to that kid.
(26:21):
He won one point seven million dollars. Uh, it is
really really lucrative to win these golf tournaments. Now, I
saw the list of all the you know, Scotty Cheffer
currently has made the most money this year, but like
every guy in the top ten just on the course
has made like seven million plus. I mean, it is
crazy the amount of money that at the end of
(26:42):
the year, all these guys, like every guy in the
top ten will be probably twelve million minimum, and obviously
some of these guys are gonna be twenty plus. And
then whoever wins the FedEx, you know, especially if it's
Scotty or Rory, will probably be close to like forty
or fifty million dollars. So the amount of money. Patrick
Reed just won four million dollars. I've said it forever.
(27:03):
It's like, it's funny about Florio. Doesn't understand why no
one cares about the NFL collusion case. It's because Florio.
Everyone's getting filthy rich. It's like Kyler Murray got screwed,
did he He's made every penny of his contract. He's
banked one hundred fifty million dollars, So like, did he
get screwed? Like, I don't see him out on the street.
I see that guy printing money. Same thing with golf.
(27:26):
Everyone involved in pro golf. You know, people always said
it was the best time to ever play was when
Tiger was in his prime. And relatively speaking, if you
were a guy out on the PGA Tour before Tiger
got there, the money ballooned. So you went from winning
five hundred thousand dollars in a golf tournament to win
a million dollars. It's a huge difference, especially in two
(27:46):
thousand and two or two thousand and five. But when
you're talking about guys that are gonna make like solid
years might not win a tournament and make fifteen million
dollars just on the course. I told Colin this the
other day. Like Maria is in this world now. She
works for this luxury real estate company that is pretty
ingrained with a lot of golfers because one of the
(28:08):
main guys that works there former big time golfer. Multiple
guys that are ingrained in the PGA tour scene, they're caddies,
they're caddies, and these aren't you know, Scottie Shuffler's caddies
or you know these are I'm not gonna put any
guy on blasts. I'm not allowed to, but it's guys
that are way down the money list looking at homes
(28:29):
two three, four million dollars. So it's there's never been
a time to be associated with this sport. The money
is flowing and it's why it's become so competitive, and
it will be fascinating to watch how this plays out
over the next couple of years. Is this sustainable? Because like,
should the rocket mortgage be paying one point seven to
the winner? I'll be I'll be fascinated to see the uh,
(28:52):
you know the television ratings on that one. I know
the PGA Tours rated really well this season, and I
get it, like the travelers or the players or some
of these tournaments, but that was the first time I
was like, yeah, it's kind of boring, Like Murray, you
want to go for a walk, It's like, no, it's
one hundred and ten degrees. I'm like, yeah, good point.
So I'll watch golf. And I watched both the golf tournaments,
and I do think to live for the first time,
(29:14):
and I'm not saying this because they are paying I
promise you this. I had him both on. I just
thought it was more interesting watching Bryson and Patrick Reid
play golf than Chris Kirk in pot Eater. Now again
part of that, if you tell me it was Scotti
and Colin morri Coowa. I changed my tune, but just
for the first time going up against that event, and
it's where live can, like at least enter the conversation
(29:37):
where they get a big name guy going up against
shitty event, and the Rocket Mortgage is now I would
say a pretty low level event. One event that was
pretty impressive was I watched the last five holes of
Padrick Harrington and Stuart Sink. Stuart Sink probably could have
won this tournament. He missed two birdies on sixteen and
seventeen from within I don't know, seven eight feet. I
(29:58):
mean he's stuck it cl on seventeen and he just
pushed it right, and even pat Patty Harrington admitted, like, like,
I feel pretty fortunate Sinks could have buried one of
those birdies. But I noticed, like the Senior Open I
found more interesting than the Rocket Mortgage because, like I've
watched Stuart Sink and Potty Harrington play Tiger and Phil
(30:20):
when I was young. It was actually really good. Sometimes
a scene and again, I'm a golf siko, like I understand,
like I'm not expecting this to be for the masses.
It's like recruiting. Guy, Like I love football, I don't
get into recruiting. I totally get if you don't like golf.
I see it all the time, like listen, I respect UFC.
I don't watch it. But that was a fantastic three
(30:41):
or four hole stretch with those two guys. These are
two major champions. Stuart Sink a couple of years ago
won on the PGA Tour, I think twice. I love
the body types on the Senior Tour. They're all just
fucking big, even guys that Potty Harrington talks about like
he lifts weights. If you ever want to go to
a good YouTube channel for just a golf sick or Instagram,
I think Potty Harrington and Roco you just these guys
(31:04):
are golf sickos like Peyton Manning with football. They just
they eat, breathe and sleep it. They love talking about it,
they love giving tips. I think Rocco and Potty Harrington
are just two guys. I say this all the time
about like the Andy Reid and Belichick generation. I put
when I worked for Pat Hill in the same thing.
These guys got involved in football back in the sixties
or the seventies there was no money, or the eighties
(31:25):
there wasn't You weren't getting involved in coaching to get
rich like Rocco and Potty Harrington and Stuart Sink when
they first got into golf. You weren't gonna be flying
private jets everywhere unless your name was Arnold Palmer or
Jack Nicholas. And now everyone's filthy rich, you know. So
it was very, very enjoyable.
Speaker 2 (31:44):
Blending Vice's signature dynamic storytelling with the high octane world
of sports. Vice Sports brings an exciting and diverse range
of programming that goes beyond the game, catch action pack,
live events, and exclusive sports documentaries and profiles only on
Vice TV.
Speaker 1 (32:01):
I do think with the fourth of July, I'm going
to Tahoe and Nevada for ten days. Got someone I
got to clear out the house. We got someone coming
over here to watch the dog and take care of this.
It's a it's a big I say. I have a
lot of respect respects the wrong word jealousy. I'm just
(32:23):
I'm legitimately jealous of the people that have, like their
their parents live down the street from them, where they
can just it's it is more difficult to find somewhere
where you're comfortable dropping your dog off or having someone
come watch your dog. It's actually a more difficult task
than you would think. But when you live in I
don't want to say a foreign land, but an area
(32:45):
where you just you know, I've only been for a
couple of years, I don't know, and a lot of
people leave anyway in the summer because it's one hundred
and fifty degrees. But we'll see. We got a new
person taking care of her, so we'll see how that goes.
But I was thinking about this because this is just
is a great drinking week. Fourth of July, as I've
gotten older, is easily my favorite holiday. I mean, I
(33:06):
don't even think, honestly, there's not a close second. The
only close second would be And maybe this changes, you know,
for those of you parents when you have kids, you know,
Christmas is really cool giving presents to someone else. But
like in my state right now, Christmas is down on
the list. Thanksgiving would be up there. But I always
regret how much I eat Fourth of July. I just
(33:26):
never have a bad time, even if I'm not doing
that much, because it always involves the sun, it always
involves some water, sometimes from golf. And I think I
was thinking about this, where does the golf beer or
the golf cocktail rank going into this week? Because I listen,
there's nothing like the summer playing golf with some friends,
(33:46):
having a cocktail in the cart, maybe two, maybe five,
and then obviously the beer or cocktail after the round.
I think it is the best. I do think if
you had to go number one overall the ranking, there's
nothing like the Fourth of July cocktail beer on the
lake at the pool, by the body of water. That
is easily the best. I think that is the best
(34:08):
drink of the year, the Fourth of July drink by
the pool or by the lake. And I'll be by
the lake this week. I can't wait. I would probably
put ahead of the golf beer would be the vacation.
So if any of you guys that are on vacation
this week are going on vacation, and vacation could just
be like not having a work, screwing around you can
(34:29):
just have a drink whenever you want. I saw this
on Instagram. It's like ten am, shit beer me. That's
a special feeling. I also think golf you can incorporate
that mindset, so you could argue those two are tied.
I'd put the vacation beer above the golf beer, though
they would basically be the same thing, because I think
you can approach it, especially during the summer, Like if
(34:50):
you're teeing off at eight o'clock in the morning on
a Friday, on a Saturday, you can get drinks before
you TFF and don't feel any and I mean any
hesitation doing it right. You don't sometimes if you're playing,
even if it's not this week, but during the week,
and you're like, you know, I'm gonna play in the morning,
but I still got work to do in the afternoon.
(35:11):
Someone's like, hey, should we get some transfusions on whole three?
And you look, it's like eight forty five in the morning.
You're like, ah, should I You know you kind of
have hesitation. You have no hesitation this week. This is
just an incredible week to trenk. I mean it really is.
Before we get out of here, I did want to
bang out a couple of your questions from the from
(35:33):
the Golf mail bag, so we will start with this.
We'll start with Bryce. This is at Golopod. At Golopod
is the Instagram firing those DMS gear questions answered here
on the show. Hey John, the last five years, I've
used my grandfather's clubs because he's physically unable to play anymore.
(35:53):
Feel for your grandpa. They are a good, reliable set
and they're around twenty years old and I'm saving up
from my own set. I currently have one hybrid in
my back and it's one of my favorite clubs. Don't
have any woods. What is the difference between a hybrid
and a wood? What should I get for my new set?
One hybrid, one wood? Two hybrids? Since I like them
(36:15):
so much, I wouldn't consider a hybrid a wood to
me a hybrid. Back when I started playing golf in
like the nineties, hybrids did not exist, so you would
get to like a three, a four, three, two iron.
Those clubs are very difficult to hit. Honestly, once you
get to like a six, five iron, these are tough
(36:35):
clubs to hit right. So a hybrid is technically depending
on the loft. It can be a four iron, it
can be a three iron, it can be a two iron,
it can operate closer to a five wood. It's just
a very, very I would say player friendly club because
a three wood can be a difficult club to hit. Obviously,
(36:57):
the driver, depending on who you are, is not easy
to hit. Even with the technology. I would say there
is not an easier club to hit than the hybrid,
just in terms of a club that you could hit
far and flush and somewhat control. I would say, if
you like the hybrid, I think Freddy Cupples is a
guy with a ton of hybrids. You could hybrid up.
(37:17):
I mean, you're relatively new to golf. You could do
a hybrid version of like a three iron, a hybrid
version of a four iron, a hybrid version of a
five iron. You can, you know, you can be shameless.
Who cares hot take Keegan is a fine as a
playing captain. The importance of the captain the Ryder Cup
is overblown. In the end. It comes down to pairing
guys together who get along and whose ball matches. All
(37:41):
the planning in the world won't mean shit if the
players suck like Scheffler did. At the Ryder Cup or
the other team shoots low sixties. Ryder Cup is not
the super Bowl. Let's talk golf. Miss Putt for doe,
drive for show is wrong. It's the opposite. I totally agree.
I mean Brooks Kopka and Scotti Scheffler. And obviously Brooks
(38:01):
isn't playing well now, but a couple of years ago
when he played with Scotty, they got beat in like
ten holes they got I forget were they playing. Was
it Victor Hovelin and Ludwig or Victor Hovelin and rom
I forget the exact It was Hovelin and somebody. They
beat the living shit out of those two. Those two
have a combined what Scotty has three majors kept as five,
(38:25):
they have eight majors, and they lost like ten and
eight or something. I mean, it was. It has to
be one of the worst losses in the history of
the Ryder Cup. So I'm completely with you. If your
top guys, like, if you bring Ben Griffin and he
plays bad, you're gonna get smoked. That's why I would entertain,
bring Patrick Reid over Ben Griffin, right, I would entertain,
(38:47):
you know, like you said, the pairings are very important,
and who's playing well is really really important. I totally
agree from you hitting the fairway unless you are playing
like some of these tour events. I will take my
chances hitting the fairway then, because how good are you
ever gonna putt? Like? Are most people gonna bang out
(39:08):
a bunch of twelve footers? No, even if you're like
a I'm a three handicap. Actually played my best round
of the year, shot seventy seven at TPC on Saturday.
Three birdies, No big deal. I actually didn't hit the
driver that well, but actually made putts. And I think
sometimes listen, ideally you want to do both. You want
(39:31):
to hit fairways. Now the thing at TPC, you can
spray it a little bit and it's fine. But if
I would have played it a tighter course, I would
have been in some trouble. But when I hit fairways,
even when I'm putting like shit, I shoot anywhere between
seventy eight and eighty two. I mean, if I miss
every fairway, I'm probably gonna shoot eighty eight. Totally agree
(39:51):
with you. I had someone tell me this years ago.
Unless you're playing the Masters, driving the ball straight and
hitting is much more important than You're not gonna be
Brad Faxon with a putter in your hand. Are Colin
and Rory competing this year to be the soft softest
golfer of the year. Both have been handling the media terribly.
(40:13):
It kind of feels like they're both trying to be
tough guys and treat the media like shit, but don't
realize how they come off. I'm gonna give Rory a
little grace in the sense that who knows, maybe he's
got the divorces back on. Who knows what's going on.
I don't even want to speculate, but I thought Brandall
(40:33):
had a good point. He's like, listen, if you have
a good friend in life that has done everything right,
treated you well and then starts acting weird for a month,
you don't just kick him to the curb. Like Rory
for like three years has been pretty important to the
media and golf and handle himself pretty well. Got a
little weird after the Masters. I'm giving them Colin's acting
(40:55):
weird for a while now. This notion that, like Colin,
I don't owe you any Colin, You're not fucking Joe
Montana here, buddy. If you disappeared tomorrow Honestly, if Colin Morrikawa,
if Rory disappeared tomorrow, we'd have problems. If Colin Morrikawa
disappeared tomorrow, and I like the guy as a player,
no one would care his importance to the business of
golf relative to how much he makes. Like if Josh
(41:18):
Allen disappeared from the NFL, it would be a problem.
If Lamar Jackson disappeared, it would be a problem. Colin
Morrikawa on like the rankings, in where he stands from
like a status standpoint, is like that. Yet his importance
to the business model of the cash that everyone's making,
including himself, who's filthy rich, it's kind of irrelevant. He's
an irrelevant great player. He's much closer to like Patrick
(41:41):
Cantlay than he is Rory Bryson or Scottie in terms
of importance to the business model of the sport. And
then when he starts acting like he's running through caddies
like you know, you would bottled waters at a party,
It's crazy how often he's going through guys. Someone told
me last week that they had heard that there was
(42:02):
like an incident, maybe like the second time, you know,
because Max Holma's Caddie jumped to Colin whatever a couple
months ago, and I don't know if it was either
the second or third tournament. There was like they butted
heads and it was clearly fractured since and now they
broke up firing, broke up quit who knows the exact term,
(42:24):
but like the Holm Grinder thing was clear, like it
was just time for a split. They were good friends.
The Colin mark, like, Colin, can you work with anybody?
Speaker 2 (42:32):
Like?
Speaker 1 (42:33):
Can you work with anybody? What's your deal? Bro? Like? Seriously,
what's You're not like a big enough like a hole
to be a villain. You're just kind of in no
man's land where people just don't like you. You just
kind of turned people off. So I think Marikawa the
situation he just had with Alan Ship Knuck, who I
(42:56):
talked some shit about Big Jay's but I also appreciate
a good Big j moment and him and Ship not
getting into it. I just think that Morikawa feels pretty
exhausting right now, So I would say he's in a
different Rory at the end of the day. Rory's extremely
important to the business of golf. Golf needs him more
(43:17):
than he needs them at this point. Marikawa needs golf
way more than golf needs him. Promise you that UH
big fan of both your pods. I know you're big
on the top dogs in majors, but wanted to see
your opinion change post JJ Spahn win the US Open.
Was Oakmont just an outlier? I know for the most
part he's been a mess Postmasters, but I think Rory
(43:41):
has a big chance at the Open, especially since his
home area. I also would love to see Scotty win
because it's such a great player. I want him to
win a lot of majors and some solidify his greatness.
I do think there's gonna be a couple of majors
over the course of five six years, depending on the
course that bring other people in play Oakmont, they all
(44:04):
said toughest course we've ever played. They thought they called
it the toughest and most difficult course in the entire world.
So anytime you put people on that scenario, they're probably
is going to be more variables. Right, Bryson missed the cut.
All these guys got ejected, So I thought Bryson was
one of the favorites. I bet like five hundred dollars
on him to top five, to top ten to win,
(44:25):
and he didn't even get close to making the cut.
So I think anytime you go to a difficult course,
which doesn't happen that we don't see these guys get
tested that often, so you kind of forget and I
think Oakmont, you know, Shinnacock next year, I think falls
under that category. Even you could say Pinehurst is difficult,
but look who dominated at Pinehurst, all the best players.
(44:46):
So I think anytime they go to Oakmont, I think
Shinnacock is going to fall into that. Next year it
might just be like I don't know, you could take
some flyers. I think the Masters, the top dogs are
going to dominate. I think that the Open is a
good examp because weather comes into play. You get a
lot of variety, like last year was justin Rose, Billy
Horschell and Xander. Right. I think if the Master is
(45:09):
moving forward, it's gonna be five six of the group
of ten, right, Scotty More, Kawa, Rory, Ludwig, Rohm. You
know it's Xander if he's healthy, it's a top cut.
Hatton now is an elite player. I watched the live
(45:30):
Dallas Day three. What an ending question? Is there anything
that the new commissioner with the PGA can model from
Live to enhance the viewer experience. The PGA TV experience
has become painful, too many commercials and too many spotlights
of sponsors in the booth. Meanwhile, Lived showed the best
players and the favorites over and over. Well, the business
(45:51):
model is a little different, right, I mean the contract
with Fox for Live. There aren't many requires. It's not
like a huge lucrative business proposition. The PGA Tour took
a ton of money from CBS and NBC, so for
them to make their money back, given that one thing
(46:13):
unique about the PGA Tour consumer, and the same consumer
would watch Lived to the golf consumer, same thing Senior
US Open. The audience is much smaller than all these
other major sports, right, It's a big deal for a
PGA tournament to get what five million people is a
massive day. For a non major three and a half
(46:33):
four million day people is a big deal. But that
percentage of a consumer like the NBA Final consumer, Let's
say beside Game seven, they were getting like eight million
people watching, so double a PGA Tour event. The PGA
Tour consumer, their demo is like fifty percent have like
they have more money than the NBA or NFL consumer.
(46:56):
So while the audience is smaller, from an advertiser perspective,
you are getting the richest sports consumer. It's a huge
advantage for golf. So like they have to find a
way to like your consumers unique, but you just you know,
hit them over the head with these ads. It is
pretty boring to watch. It's easier for Fox to do
(47:17):
the live because the financial situation is different. I also
think if you get a huge sponsor, Rocket Mortgage, Wells, Farco, Chevy, whatever, whatever,
the Coca Cola, part of the package to get that
guy to give you fifty million dollars for the year
(47:37):
to be the official bank and then to host a
tournament is you got to throw them some bones. And
I think they are big clearly on getting that sit
down with Nance during the tournament. It's it's one thing
if it's Tiger and Jack's tournament and those guys are
in the booth, no one cares. But when it's like,
let's go to the CEO of Barclay's, like, can I
(47:58):
just watch Scottish Effer and hit these shots? But I
don't think that's going away, So I don't know what
he does because the television contract was signed before he
got there. Now, his job at the NFL was to
deal with these contracts, so maybe he could. I don't know.
(48:20):
I don't expect anything to change. In the past three years,
I've become a big golf fan, not only playing but
watching it. I heard you and Colin talking the other
day about Rory and Koepka and how they have lost motivation.
I'm a huge Hoblin fan. He's my favorite golfer since
I started watching the sport. He had this to say
during the US Open. We'd all like to win. There
is also a deep passion in me that I want
(48:42):
to hit the shots. I want to stand on the
tee and hit the shots that I'm envisioning. Do you
think his first major win is in the horizon and
with this mentality of quote unquote hitting the shots what
it can open the floodgates to multiple major wins. I
do think it's a little unfair to I would say
(49:02):
compare like rory situation to Hoveland in the sense of like,
he's one of the best quotes in the sport, but
he's obviously chasing. You know, he hasn't won a major uh.
And I think why people root for him is how
open he is, you know that stuff, Like Tiger and
Phil would say, They're like, I want to be the best.
(49:24):
I know when I'm hitting the shots, I'm gonna win.
When Hovelin's playing his best, he can beat anybody in
the world. I mean two years ago he was the
best player in the world essentially at the end of
the year when he won the FedEx Cup, I mean,
he's fucking dominating. So I would say he's a lock.
Do you know where I see Victor Hoblin his career ending.
I don't know how many majors, like you convinced me
only wins one. You could convince me he wins four.
(49:46):
I think he's gonna win a US Open and maybe
multiple US Open. I think he's tailor made for the
US Open. I think that's his tournament. He obviously can
compete if he's playing well at the Masters and the PGA.
But like I envisioned that guy winning a US Open
really really tough track. And I think, listen, it was
like a draft class. It was three guys came out
(50:08):
of his class that were like can't miss prospects. It'd
be like Cooper Flag, Trevor Lawrence and uh and and
Zion Williamson. It was Victor Hovelin, Colin Morricawa and Matt
Wolf and it and Matt Wolf looked like the best
version right off the bat and then clearly fell off
a cliff and Mari Cowa and Hovelin are just are
(50:28):
I mean, are high level players. And I think Hovelin
the difference of Hoblin and marcaw is like Hoblin is likable.
It's just it's just easy to watch Victor Hovelin and go,
I'm rooting for this guy, and that that's what Marikawa lacks.
So I'm with you. I think Hoveland I think he's
destined to win a major for sure.
Speaker 2 (50:51):
The volume
Host
John Middlekauff
Popular Podcasts
United States of Kennedy
United States of Kennedy is a podcast about our cultural fascination with the Kennedy dynasty. Every week, hosts Lyra Smith and George Civeris go into one aspect of the Kennedy story.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com