August 21, 2023 • 38 mins
On today’s episode, Jason is hosting in the middle of a tropical storm and immediately after an earthquake! During the show, J-Mac discusses what disgruntled Philadelphia 76ers guard James Harden has in common with international soccer star Lionel Messi, whether or not you should be drinking the Kool-Aid on Las Vegas Raiders rookie quarterback Aidan O'Connell and what Anthony Edwards' dominant play during FIBA competition means for his NBA future. Finally, Jason closes the show with the sixth of his weekly NFL division previews heading into the start of the regular season, this time with the AFC West.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
The volume. This is Straight Fire with Jason McIntyre. What
is up straight Fire? Fam HiT's me Jason McIntyre Straight
Fire for Monday, August twenty. First, I need to announce
(00:25):
we are recording this early due to the craziness happening
in California. We are currently in the midst here. It
is Sunday afternoon of alleged tropical storm, the first one
to hit California and some I'm like eighty years and
as Rob g and I are queuing up the video
and talking, my son gets his soccer roster for the season,
(00:45):
and all of a sudden, my phone goes earthquake six
point zero and I'm like, oh my gosh. And I'm
with the kids and I'm like earthquake and We're sitting
there waiting and nothing, and I'm like, ah, must have
been a false alarm. And then I come back to
the screen and Rob's like I felt it, did you?
And my wife was downstairs? Oh yeah, we were rolling
and folks, I don't I mean listen as you can tell,
(01:07):
I'm back to health a little bit. My voice sounds better,
although we'll have some updates on that later. But just
a crazy time. Rob Gie how are you and the
family holding up? You know, as La and basically California
falls off the map.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
Oh, it's a wild scene here in southern California. Thankfully,
my daughter was in the middle of a nap, and
I want to say that the earthquake actually helped her
sleep because it kind of swayed her body back and
forth into a relaxation mode. It wasn't enough to really
shake her awake, but it was enough to hopefully prolong
the nap another hour or so.
Speaker 3 (01:37):
That'd be great.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
Yeah, by the way, what is the earthquake movie with
the rock?
Speaker 3 (01:42):
Didn't he do an earthquake movie? San Andreas?
Speaker 1 (01:44):
San Andreas? Okay, so I think that came out before
we moved to California, and I watched it and I
was like, ooh, I'm so scared of California earthquakes. Oh man,
California's gonna fall into the Pacific Ocean. And then you're
out here, you know, when you experienced one and you're like, ooh,
it's kind of cool, and then you think about it
for a little bit and then maybe like an hour,
maybe you think about it the next day, and then
it you know, it's back to normal, like life goes on,
(02:06):
you know, and then two years later there's a quake.
But rob you've lived out here your whole life, Like,
do they even enter your mind until like the ground
is shaking.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
No, until you feel it, it does, you don't really
think about it too much. I will say the last
time that I really had like a good tremor, I
mean this one that we had here in South California
was I think it was like a six point zero,
but it was far enough away from where you and
I live that we didn't get the full blast of it.
A couple of years ago, when my daughter was first born,
it might have been three or four years ago, they
(02:38):
had like a five point five or something like that,
but it was it was twenty miles from where I live,
so we really felt that one. And it was in
the middle of the night. And this was when my Yeah,
my daughter was just born. You in a couple months old,
and this might be TMI, but so if you have
kids in the car, you know, mute the headphones a
little bit. My wife was breastfeeding at the time, so
I don't I don't know if you've known about this
(03:00):
situation where they're not breastfeeding, they can do something called pumping,
so she basically plugs herself into a wall to do
what she has to do. Happen in the middle of
the night. My daughter's asleep. It's the house is rocking
back and forth. I run and jump over to cover
from a ceiling fan that might fall. And my wife,
this whole time is plugged into a wall, unable to move,
and it's just taking the whole brunt of the thing.
(03:20):
So that was That was one of my favorite earthquakes thory.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
It is weird, Rob. We could do a pod about
like the negative stigma of California and Los Angeles that
it has. And you hear and read all this stuff,
and you see all this nonsense online and then you
come out here and I'm just I don't know, I
don't see it. I don't think it's as bad as
all these people perceive it to be. I enjoy it
out here, one oddity, and Rob, you can illuminate the
(03:44):
audience before we get to sports. When we lived East
rain was normal, snow was normal, crappy weather regular year round,
and we come out here it doesn't rain for like
six months, eight months, I don't know, and all of
a sudden like my daughter is like fascinated by rain,
and her friends like love rain. When it rains, kids
(04:06):
like go outside and are like, oh, I'm playing in
the rain, and it's like exciting, and I just I
can't totally wrap my head around why that is. I
don't know. Is this a thing? Do you know what
I'm talking about? Or am I just crazy?
Speaker 3 (04:17):
No, it's totally a thing.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
It's because it doesn't happen here, and so it's funny
because it doesn't happen.
Speaker 3 (04:22):
You see one of two things. One you see the
youth and the kids.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
They get excited because it's like, hey, I can run it,
and blame the rain because even when it rains and
it's cold, it's still like sixty five degrees, so it's
not it's not even really cold. The other problem on
the flip side of that for adults, because it doesn't rain.
Speaker 3 (04:39):
I don't know. I'm sure you know this by now.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
Californians do not know how to drive in the rain,
so you have some of the dumbest accidents, Like our
infrastructure is not set up with the freeway system. It's
always flooded, and you get those little pocket especially on
like the shoulder, so people will drive through it and
spray other cars and that causes an issue, and then
it's traffic and it's all these fenders everywhere. So if
you're like fifteen and under, it's great. If you're fifteen
(05:04):
and over, it sucks.
Speaker 1 (05:06):
Yeah, leave like an hour early for work because nobody
knows what the hell to do. All right, before we
get to sports, quick weekend update, life updates. So, yes,
I coughed up a lung. I was in rough shape
last week. I did end up seeing someone, and I'm
doing great. The only downside I'm gonna have to have
a minor procedure done. Not a big deal. They will
(05:27):
not be cutting me open, but I will need a
minor procedure. So before the football season, I'll be taking
some days off of TV and on the podcast to
get the procedure done. But overall, like, I'm fine, no problems.
I'm fine enough that I finally popped into Vegas and
signed up for the Circa contest. Here's the beauty. This
(05:50):
was the first time I had had done it in
this way. So you guys know, I go and make
futures bets and usually like you don't cash them in
until the next season. But sometimes it's like, Hey, my
buddies are going in Vegas for the weekend, so I'll
just go and then cash the tickets. I haven't been
to Vegas since last year. When I signed up for
the contest. I did well in the futures tickets some
week one some futures and I didn't even telly them
(06:14):
up until I went to the window and it more
than covered the one thousand dollars sign in fees. So
I was like, you know, you cash in the tickets
and I was like, Oh, you could just hold it.
I'm signing up. She's like, no, I have to give
it back to you. I was like fine, So she
hands it to me. I sit there, fill out the
paperwork and I'm like, here's And I had to say this,
Rob just here's your thousand dollars that you just gave
me outside up for the contest. And it felt great.
(06:37):
And then I did make a couple of futures bets
for this season. I'm not going to reveal all of them,
but the two Alt win totals that I bet rob
Alt wind total meaning I'm irrationally confident I think this
could happen because the market's off one of them. I
don't like this team, but I'm gonna bet on Tua's
health and the Miami Dolphins over ten and a half
(06:57):
wins eleven wins that might be them, the number I
don't know, two seed, maybe the one seed over ten
and a half wins plus two fifteen and then the
New Orleans Saints. Now I've been hyping this one for
a while, so it's not as good as juice over
ten and a half wins in the NFC. So those
are the two alt win totals. I bet I actually
did well on those last year. I had Giants and
(07:21):
Eagles maybe, but then I missed Cowboys. Did I really
do three in the same division? No, No Vikings, Vikings,
sorry Vikings, Eagles and Cowboys. So two and one on
those last year at any rate. Let us get to
actual sports, and we do have to talk about Rob
G's favorite team, the Las Vegas Raiders. Not because of
preseason wins. Nobody cares. But something's going on with that
(07:42):
team that's interesting and finally positive that we could talk about.
Everything for the last year has been negative, car the
Gruden stuff, the Henry Ruggs, it's all been negative, but
there is some positivity, and I kind of like this story,
so we'll get to that in a minute. I want
to open though, with the Legas Cup and Miami versus Nashville.
It was Saturday night. I don't know if everybody cares
that much about soccer, obviously I'm a massive fan, and
(08:06):
Leonel Messi comes to the worst team in the league
and they proceed to go and win the entire tournament,
matching MLS and Leaga MX. They win it. Messi, a
goal scoring machine, gets the leading scorer in the tournament
and the MVP. He scored a left footed rocket to
take the one nothing lead. Then they end up winning
penalty kicks. It was thrilling. You can go look it
(08:27):
up on YouTube if you missed it. And Rob, I
know the general audience doesn't care about soccer, but for
a legend like Messi to come from the top leagues
in Europe to the America, shine a spotlight on America
and then dominate, it's pretty exciting to watch. And I
(08:49):
think the tie in Rob where there we could see
some of this, And again it's not because if it
happened in China, I don't think people would care as much.
But I talked to it last week with Cowherd. The
fact of James Harden's ugly situation with the Sixers is
the next basketball team he plays for, does he say,
(09:10):
I'm out screw you NBA, I'm going to China. We
saw him in China moving merchandise and what was he
moving liquor? On some videos that the guy is a machine.
We explained it. The Houston Rockets were like the number
one team in China because Yao Ming played for them.
Just as you know, the NBA starts being telecast in China,
they all love Yao Ming. Yoo leaves. It's like, oh, well,
(09:30):
we love the Rockets. We root for them. We've rooted
for them for a decade. James Harden's our new guy,
and we love Dwight Howard and Rob you know Dwight
Howard this past season went to China, was putting up
like what forty and twenty seven, putting the insane numbers
whatever they were. And I know it's gonna sound for well,
wait to say, James Harden led the league assist why
would go to China? Listen, man, if you can get
(09:51):
less of the headaches, you get paid, you expand your brand.
I'm sure he can do some tie ins with retails
merch like it's an easy, easy play for Harden. Rob,
I don't know. I just watched this messy move happen
and I don't know that it's going to be the springboard.
But we've seen Saudi Arabia plucking superstars from the EPL. Benzema,
(10:16):
I think they got Namar, they got a bunch of
guys and it's like, well, wow, this foreign money getting
I don't know aging is the right word, but like
maybe a little past their prime stars. I mean Messi.
You can't say Messi's aging. He just tore up the
MLS after winning a World Cup eight months ago. So
like this idea of hard and leaving for China, Rob,
(10:36):
I don't think it's insane. I really don't. And watching
MESSI dominate, I'm like, you know, I don't know that
people would care if James Harden goes and puts up
one hundred points in a game in China, but it
certainly would be noteworthy. No.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
Yeah, you know what's funny is when I saw you
put this out and I'm kind of upset as you
pull the curtain back because you didn't have this take
on the Straight Fire podcast. You had it on Colin
Cowhard's podcast, So I wish you would have brought some
of those you know, buzzwords to this one.
Speaker 3 (11:02):
But it's okay, we move on.
Speaker 2 (11:04):
When I first saw the clip, I was like, yeah,
this is crazy, Like Jason, I don't know what you're
I didn't see it.
Speaker 3 (11:10):
Get a lot. I didn't say I didn't see it.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
And not even forty eight hours later, there's an alert
from Keith Pompey, who's as plugged into the Sixers as
anybody in the NBA as in with their team. He
puts out the tweet, Yeah, James Harden would like to
play at least one season in China before his career
is up. And I text you the link. I said, like,
I can't believe you had this before this even like
(11:35):
was a thing. And to your point about Messi, it's
if James Harden were to make a move like this,
similar to Messi coming to the MLS. It's not for
competitive reasons, right, because he obviously knows that he's too
good to be playing at this level of soccer, and
similar with Harden, what it is, However, the same thing
with Messi is it can be a financial boon for
(11:58):
him to do something like this. You mentioned he was
selling liquor. I've read online that he sold ten thousand
bottles of his wine, which is what he's out there promoting,
in under ten seconds. Come on, like, I don't know,
I mean, but enough people reported it that I like
to believe that it's that it's reputable. What he could
(12:21):
do for himself, for his own individual James harden brand
in China is something that I don't think most Americans
can comprehend because they don't live over there. And I'm
sure this is the same thing that Europeans were saying
when Messi came over to the United States, like, oh, well.
Speaker 3 (12:35):
What is he gonna do.
Speaker 2 (12:36):
He's gonna go to a third rate league, He's gonna
you know, sell some jerseys whatever. No, the fact that
we're talking about it on this podcast, the fact that
he is trending every single game that he plays in
the MLS says a lot about why he did. It.
Has nothing to do with him wanting to, you know,
expand his legacy with another championship, Like that's not what
(12:57):
he's I'm sure he'd like to win here in MLS,
But it's that's not what he's doing. He's doing it
because he is still a draw, He is still a brand.
He is still a guy that no matter what he does,
it's going to generate clicks and eyeballs. And now he's
expanding to a market that even though we noticed and
appreciated how good he was, I don't think anyone realized
(13:19):
how exactly how great he is until you've actually seen
him here on our turf and what we do. So
I think James Ared could do something similar in China.
Speaker 1 (13:28):
Yeah, it's weird. You think James Harden cares to turn
on TV, radio podcasts and here will Harden is not
a top twenty player all time, like we like to
think like that discussion is huge and important, But here's
the reality. Like James Harden wakes up, he's selling stuff
in China, making a ton of money. He's played basketball
in China competitively, dominating, having the time of his life.
(13:48):
Nobody's criticizing him for being a ballhog or missing a
late shot, and he's cleaning up financially and you know what,
then he's gonna go gas up the private jet. He's
gonna say, oh, we got a week off of China.
You know what, I'm gonna go to wherever the heck
I want to, and I'm gonna bring my boys and
we're gonna have a great time. And then I'm gonna
fly here and I'm gonna do this. And like, that's
not a bad life if you could just do whatever
(14:08):
the heck you want. You got all the money in
the world, and you're playing basketball China and you don't
care about the media. Because honestly, the only guys that
really don't like Harden to the media, right, I mean,
he's got a ton of fans. I think once we
get these athletes, once they realize like, hey, it's fun
to see me talked about on TV. But like, do
I need this now that I'm like thirty what is
he thirty four to thirty five? Do I need this anymore?
(14:30):
It's like I've been in this, you know, grind for
twelve fifteen years making a lot of money. I don't
need these headaches. I'm just gonna have fun.
Speaker 2 (14:38):
Right, And I think people listening to this podcast might
be like, well, that's you know, not a fair comparison
with James Harden and MESSI. The difference is though, like
Messi's at a point in his career where he's already
accomplished everything he could possibly accomplish in professional soccer. So
that's why he's maybe not necessarily driven by the competitive
nature James Harden. And we've talked about this for years
(14:59):
now on the pod, even going back to the radio
show on the weekends, James Harden has shown repeatedly that
he's not driven by championships. There was a reason that
the fact that he even wanted to go back to
Houston this past offseason tells you that James Harden likes,
more than anything to just be James Harden. And that's
not you know, as a sports fan, you'd like it
to be different because you care about your team and
(15:20):
you want to see championships. There's a lot of guys
professional athletes. Not everybody's built like Messi and Lebron and
Steph Curry who are like, I gotta win by at
any means necessary. There's a lot of guys who are like, hey,
I can make a fantastic living, I can be famous,
I can go to all the parties and meet all
the people I want to and as long as I'm
good at this, all the rest of it comes with it.
Speaker 3 (15:41):
And it just so.
Speaker 2 (15:42):
Happens that two guys who, even though they're built on
opposite ends of the spectrum, currently seem like they're at
the same road, you know, path in their life at
this point at least.
Speaker 1 (15:52):
It's weird, like, yes, Messi's won everything and he's got
nothing left to prove. But I my guess. My guess
is to harden that he's got nothing left to prove.
I've made a lot of money, I've won an MVP,
I've played in the playoffs, I've played in the finals.
Like I'm happy. I accomplish everything I set out to
when I was a junior high kid thinking I'm gonna
(16:13):
make make college and make the NBA. Like I did it.
And now I've got all the money in the world.
I've got generational wealth. I don't need these headaches of
the media and dealing with Darryl More and these liars.
Let me just go to China, where everywhere I go
it's just they roll out the red carpet for me
because I'm a legend. Like It's not a bad feeling,
probably not great for his ego, but in the long run,
but ultimately I think he's a very happy man and
(16:35):
we'll see what happens with Harden. Let's get to the
NFL before we do the AFC West preview. I wanted
to because it's Drobg's team. I talk about these Las
Vegas Raiders. So they're hosting the Super Bowl, and obviously
they have no chance of making it to the stuper Bowl.
Like nobody on the Raiders in the organization Harbor's any
thoughts that they could come close to playing for the
(16:57):
Super Bowl. But what's interesting is something you know they
were expected to be bad this year, like five, six,
seven wins. Jimmy Garoppolo comes into quarterback, he's coming off
the injury, the surgery. It's like, oh, man, is he
gonna even fit with McDaniels As McDaniel's on his way out,
and then Ada O'Connell happens, and I should call him
(17:17):
by his new nickname, AOC four. Apparently that's like gonna
be the most popular tattoo in Vegas here in the
next coming weeks. But eight and O'Connell is a kid
out of Purdue. I've got all the numbers on him, right,
he had thirty three college starts. I did a lot
of reading on eight and O'Connell this weekend, Like, Jay,
what are you wasting your time reading about a third
string or four? Well, he's not gonna be third string.
(17:37):
I could guarantee you that. Heading into the season, Brian Hoyer,
you might as well hang him up. You're out, buddy.
Aman O'Connell's coming too. Preseason games and just slid. He
is dominating. He's not missing passes, he's hitting all the windows.
He's got fans like excited. Now. I know it's a
lot of threes versus fours. And even when he's running
with the backups, they're not facing starters. It's like, okay,
(17:59):
let's settle. But when you're a desperate franchise like the
Raiders who haven't won Jack Squat in forever. Last playoff
win was I don't decade ago, fifteen twenty, I don't
know Rob Will figured it out. But and you see
what O'Connell's doing, and then you start looking into his story.
So this is unbelievable. So he was a one year
(18:20):
starter in high school. He had a scholarship offer from
something called Davenport University Division two. Okay, he said, no,
I'm gonna let me hold out. Hope, let me hold
out hope, and then a Division three calls Wheaton College,
we want you. He's like, no, Purdue says, we want you,
but we're not gonna offer you anything. You could be
a preferred walk on. Preferred walk on means hey, we'll
(18:43):
give you a chance to make the team. You probably
start out seventh or eighth on the depth chart. Good
Luck doesn't play a snap for the first two years.
Okay at Purdue, was not gonna be the next Drew Brees.
Then all of a sudden things start to go his way,
get some playing time, find he gets twenty twenty the
COVID year, he's gonna be the starter, and he gets
(19:03):
a season ending injury three games in, comes back and
is healthy, but has to win the job, and then
starts I think twenty four games over the final two seasons.
And you're like, oh, this guy had a really nice career. No,
he didn't put up Drew Brees numbers, but he's a
good story. This guy's graduating at what twenty four years old,
he got married to a Purdue volleyball player. He's like
a Christian Fellowship athlete, Like, hey, O'Connell is I mean,
(19:27):
what a class act? Everybody's rooting for this guy, and
then he falls to fourth round, one hundred and thirty
fifth pick overall, and you're like, okay, he is what
he is, Maybe you'll have a crack to make the roster.
We'll see, and it's it's a weird thing because again,
this guy's turning twenty five in like two weeks. This
is not some college quarterback who just graduated at twenty two. Okay,
(19:47):
he's in college forever. Thirty three starts is a lot. Now.
I know that Josh McDaniels offense has been, you know,
typically tough to grasp for some quarterbacks, but a guy
named Tom Brady he figured it out pretty easily. And
I know mentioning Tom Brady in the same sentence as
Aidan O'Connell is sacrilegious. But rob Raiders fans are grasping
(20:09):
for this. Well, Aidan O'Connell is not like an athletic guy.
This is the most crazy stat that I think I've
seen for a college quarterback in a while. In his career,
he had negative two hundred and forty three rushing yards. Now, yes,
they do take sacks into account in college, but you
start watching the highlights and he's not really moving around.
He's not doing a lot of running and scrambling and Rob.
(20:32):
I don't know if you're hearing this, but Raiders fans
online are like, oh, whoa, whoa, Jay, Hey, look at
the last seven years. Look at some of these quarterbacks
in the Super Bowl. Matt Ryan is he fleet a foot?
Nick Foles, that guy Brady you mentioned. I don't know
how nimble Matt Stafford has been in his career. He's
not like a running quarterback. But Jared Goff he ain't
(20:56):
a runner. Why not Aidan O'Connell. And I'm like, obviously,
slow your role. Well let's slow your role. But it
is exciting to have maybe a diamond in the rough.
And I'll say this the one thing that makes this
really interesting. It's not a quarterback competition with Jimmy G.
But last year with the Niners, Jimmy G was unable
to make those deep throws downfield. Brock Perty comes in
(21:16):
and he can make them. Jimmy G can't do those
deep out patters. He just doesn't have the armstring. Aidan
O'Connell does. And I'm not saying he's gonna be a
game manager and turning to Brady in four years, I
don't see any of this happening. That being said, there
is palpable excitement about the backup quarterback. And you know,
(21:37):
in every town where you're not a super Bowl contender
and you've got a franchise quarterback, the backup quarterback is
the most popular guy in town. Okay, they've seen Jimmy
g they know he's sealing his limitations. But if you're
gonna end up keeping DeVante Adams and not trading away
at the deadline, and you think, well, you know, this
is Josh Jacob's guy. We put this together, and we
get the offensive line figured out, we could have some
(21:58):
hundred renfro third in rend great nickname. So I'm getting
a little excited about Aidan O'Connell. But this is the
trap I fall into, Rubb. I've done my best not
to watch a lot of preseason games. Some highlights, sure,
but I got sucked into the Aidan O'Connell highlights, and
I'm like, oh my gosh, this guy looks pretty good.
Now he's probably thrown against guys who are gonna be
(22:20):
you know, driving a ups truck or Amazon delivery or Uber.
Here in the next couple of weeks. They are not
gonna stick on rosters, but he still look pretty damn
good doing it. Now, as a Raiders fan, your excitement
level is through the roof or what.
Speaker 3 (22:34):
Oh, I'm all in. I'm all in on Aidan O'Connell.
Speaker 2 (22:36):
Like at this point, the only AOC we recognized in
the United States of America is no longer that woman
who's I think she's in Congress or whatever. It's now
Aidan O'Connell. He is the AOC you mentioned AOC on Twitter.
His name better pop up before hers does. That's all
I'm gonna say about that. Twenty six of thirty six
for three hundred and four yards and three touchdowns in
two preseason games. I don't want to sound like I'm
(23:02):
drinking the kool aid, but if Trey Lance went twenty
six or thirty six three or four and three tds,
who was also playing against backups most of the time,
then he'd be the starting quarterback in San Francisco like
aid and O'Connell. Once you get to this level, and
this is across all sports but NFL especially because we've
seen this more than the NBA and Major League Baseball.
(23:23):
But in the NFL especially, there have been numerous instances
where a guy was a one star recruit, a no
star recruit, an undrafted player he switched positions coming from
the college of the NFL, Like, this is not unheard
of to have a unherlded guy pop in the NFL
in the next level, whether it's because he's got better
(23:45):
talent around him or he's in a system that can
better take advantage of the skills that he has. I
don't know what it is with ay O'Connor, why suddenly
he's become a it looks like at worst a high
end backup this upcoming season. I think he's definitely an
be out Brian Hoyer for the number two job, and
so like, I don't know why people are so shocked,
because this isn't something that's new, like we saw even
(24:08):
last year with the aforementioned brock party. Brock Perty was
the last pick in the NFL draft, and he comes
into year two as the unquestioned starter for what many
considered to be the favorites to come out of the NFC.
So like this, this shouldn't really blow your mind too much.
I don't think if you're a football fan.
Speaker 1 (24:28):
I will say The jersey number threw me off. Rob
wasn't Derek Carr number four? Yes he was, and they
just handed it to O'Connell, who I think we're sixteen
in college. That struck me as a little odd. I'm
not saying a car did anything worthy of retiring his number,
but I mean, the body's barely cold and you've given
the jersey to someone else.
Speaker 3 (24:49):
I mean, there have been more egregious things that have.
Speaker 1 (24:53):
Happened with the Raiders.
Speaker 2 (24:54):
Are not just with the I mean with other teams.
I don't know exactly. I want to say that it
was like Randy Moss when he left and then they
gave away eighty four in Minnesota like immediately. I'm not
one hundred percent sure, but I've seen it happen before.
And as far as Ad O'Connell goes, he is going
(25:15):
to play at some point this season, because the one
thing you can count on with Jimmy G is he's
going to get hurt at some point.
Speaker 3 (25:21):
That's who he is, that's what he does.
Speaker 2 (25:23):
That's the reason why I keep bringing up that's the
reason why brock perty is starting in San Francisco because
Jimmy G kept getting hurt so they drafted Trey Lance
and the Trey Lanes gets hurt and Jimmy G's like, well,
you guys shouldn't have replaced me. I'm gonna carry this
team to the super Bowl. And then he gets hurt again.
Oh yeah, surprise, surprise, that's kind of what he does.
Aid and O'Connell is going to play, and you're gonna
(25:43):
find out very quickly what Raider fans have already found
out only two weeks into the preseason that this kid
can play. I don't know if he's an NFL starter,
you know, that's to get ahead of ourselves. But he's
not bad at all. He's serviceable. Who to have in
the opener? I don't I don't I believe they have
(26:07):
the Broncos in the opener.
Speaker 1 (26:08):
Oh that's a defense you don't want Aid O'Connell facing.
Speaker 2 (26:12):
Well, he's not going to start the season, you know,
like that's probably okay.
Speaker 1 (26:16):
Probably I would say ninety five percent Jimmy Garoppolo starting,
or you would you say one hundred. I mean he
could get he could get it. He could get blocks tomorrow.
Speaker 3 (26:24):
He could he could get it. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (26:26):
Yeah, he made He made Anthony Davis look like he's
made a steel.
Speaker 1 (26:29):
So I was gonna preview the AFC West, but I
forgot uh to talk about one other thing that happened
this weekend. And since we just talked about pre season,
can I talk about a pre FEBA Championship basketball game? Rob?
I know he can't go in basketball, football, basketball, but
I gotta quickly talk about USA Germany Sunday. Did you
watch a game?
Speaker 3 (26:49):
Yes? I did?
Speaker 1 (26:49):
Yeah, Okay, so I turned it on at halftime because
I was watching Jack Ryan Season four, which is amazing,
and the US is down a ton to Germany, and
I'm like, what the and the Wagner brothers are there
and Shrewder and then this blonde guy who got like
a billion rebounds but isn't Dennis Rodman. And I'm watching
the US and my kids are sitting there and Rob.
(27:12):
Their first question is, Oh, it's Curry playing because it's
the US, And I was like no. They were like Lebron, no,
kd no. And at that point they were like, what's happening?
Who's playing for the US? And Rob, this is not
I'm not bagging on the US. But you turn on
the game USA Germany, it's like a pre FEBA game.
(27:35):
It was the stadium was packed, though I think it's
in We're just being played like they're playing Dubai Okay,
and it's like Tyrese Halliburton, Mikail Bridge's Paolo Begnkero and
let's be real, this is USA basketball and they're getting
throttled by Germany until the dynamic duo of Anthony Edwards
(27:58):
and Austin Reeves take over. And I know he's your guy,
But Anthony Edwards wearing the number ten jersey and doing
whatever he wanted at both ends, grabbing rebounds, knifing through
the lane, thunderous dunks, baseline turnarounds, threes. You look at
Kobe Bryant, who used to wear ten with USA, Anthony
(28:21):
Edwards was easily the best player on the floor. I
love Ben Caro. I didn't think he played great. Miss
four straight free throws. I'm not gonna nitpick Jalen Brunson,
like barely got any. I don't even know if he
played in the fourth quarter. He was apparently dominant in
lead up and then this game was not his. This
was the Anthony Edwards Austin Reeves show. And listen, I
(28:41):
know Austin Reeves as a laker. We talk about him
way too much on this podcast. If you like charted
podcasts like mine, who talks about Austin Reaves were I
guarantee you we are near or at the head of
the pack. We have been on the Austin Reeves band
raging all on. This guy can play. I mean, at
the end of the game, he gets to steal and
(29:02):
he you know, they could just run out the clock
and he looks at his guys and as if to say,
should I dunk? And they're like, oh yeah, And Austin
Reeves just wides up and throws it down and everybody's celebrating. Rob.
I was all in on the game, despite I gotta say,
watching that roster together, it was like a little tough.
Speaker 2 (29:22):
Yeah, you know, you know what's funny and well, shout
out to Austin Reeves.
Speaker 3 (29:25):
You know.
Speaker 2 (29:25):
I have recorded a podcast with one of the producers
here at the volume. He has an NBA post. I
was hoping that it was going to be dropping this week,
but apparently the way they stagger is going to be late.
But I was heaping some heavy praise on Austin Reeves.
So when you're whenever it comes out. I'll share the
DME podcast. It was the Lakers preview, so a lot
of Austin Reeves ball washing going on by yours. So
(29:47):
just I'll let you. I'll let that podcast speak for itself.
But Anthony Edwards looks like he's gonna be the next
guy to take you know, the quote unquote the leap.
He's all star kind of level talent to he is
a bona fide superstar because one thing that you see
(30:07):
in FOBA play especially is you can't just out talent
teams anymore. Like the rest of the world has caught up.
You mentioned this Germany team had several NBA players on it.
They may not be high end NBA players, but they
are quality rotational guys at a minimum. And the other
thing is they play a style of basketball that gives
(30:29):
Americans a lot of trouble because it's very team oriented.
It's one of the reasons why the Golden State Warriors
when they were going up against all the Lebron Cavaliers
teams we've talked on this podcast. I've said before I
think the Cleveland teams had more talent than that first
iteration of the Warriors. Before KD the difference was the
Warriors played this team brand of basketball that nobody could
(30:51):
ever keep up with. They it just wasn't gonna happen.
And that's what you see in Foeba. So there's a
reason why guys like Austin Reeves, Tyrese Halliburton, especially those
two guys, they thrive in this setting because their style
of play, even in the NBA, is very team oriented.
They don't dominate the ball a lot. They move the ball,
that make the right play, they can hit the open
(31:13):
jump shot. They're very smart, cerebral players. And now what
you're seeing is and this is not a shot that
any of these guys, but Brandon Ingram, macal Bridges now
that he's with the Nets, Jalen Brunson, Anthony Edwards, they're
all very similar style guys. They want to dominate the ball,
high pick and roll because that's what their game is
(31:34):
in the NBA. What you're seeing with Anthony Edwards, though,
is there's levels to this. As good as Jalen Brunson,
Brandon Ingram, all those other guys are, they don't have
that special it factor that Anthony Edwards has. There's, like
you've seen this where there's an alpha amongst alphas. Most
(31:55):
recently an international play that was Kevin Durant where you
had a team with Damian Lillard and Jason Tatum and
all these high end quality guys. But when push came
to shove and it was really, you know, top nervous
time for the Americans, it was get the ball to
kd get out of the damn way. Yeah, we saw
(32:16):
that on Sunday when they were down sixteen in the
second half. Halliburton and Reeves are making a lot of
hustle plays, doing a lot of good things, but when
it was getting tight, get the ball to ant Man,
get out.
Speaker 3 (32:27):
Of the way.
Speaker 1 (32:28):
Halliburton is a blur, like we know he's really good.
I would say he was the third best player, right,
you said Reeves two, Edwards one. Yeah. I didn't see
enough from Ingram, didn't see enough from Brunson. It was
really Anthony Edwards or bust. They want like an eighteen
nothing run spearheaded by Edwards just burying threes and dominating.
(32:49):
I am curious. Do you think this makes the Timberwolves
be or this probably does nothing right? But in the
back of their minds of the timber was like, listen,
this is our guy. Do we want to build around him?
We got to move carl Anton Towns. Let's just get
him out, get role pieces, let's fit everything around Anthony Edwards,
and we've got our superstar. I don't I personally don't
(33:11):
think the two of them are going to work together.
Speaker 3 (33:12):
Robin. Yeah, I think you're totally totally right. I think that.
Speaker 2 (33:17):
I mean it was it's kind of been clear for
about a year now that Anthony Edwards was the guy
and they got to build around him. But when you
see things like this where it's no longer like the
plucky story, like he's the young and up and coming
guy that he know he could do something. You know,
we see the potential, we see the flash, and there
are a lot of guys like that.
Speaker 3 (33:37):
You know.
Speaker 2 (33:37):
LaMelo Ball, his draft contemporary, is one of those guys
where it's like, you know, he could be something. I see,
I see the framework of something special. Anthony Edwards is
showing now on this stage where he's playing with guys
who are supposed to be his peers, that no, I
don't belong at this level with the macal Bridge, at
the inger of the Bruntes. Put me up there with
(33:57):
the Durant, the Tatum on the Steph Curry. You know,
those are the Americans that I should be being compared to.
So if they're Minnesota, you know, it's to be determined
if the Towns go bear pairing is ever going to
work out. And you know, I had to rehash this,
but they're probably gonna have to get rid of Towns
(34:18):
before they can get rid of Gobert, just because I
think the value works out that way.
Speaker 1 (34:22):
If I said to you that the stock price of Edwards,
Ja Morant, and Zion was all the exact same, the
stock price to buy them was the exact same. Who
how would you divide up who you're buying stock.
Speaker 3 (34:38):
In Edwards, Morant, Zion.
Speaker 2 (34:43):
Interesting Edwards is the is the only one that you
don't have to worry about the other stuff, which is
crazy because you.
Speaker 1 (34:50):
Have that dumb incident at the end of the season
with like a chair and a fan or something.
Speaker 2 (34:54):
Yeah, I mean, I don't know if I consider that
the same level as like with Ja Moran. And you
know what's funny is full disclosure we talked for the podcast.
I was dead wrong on on Anthony. Ira was coming
out of college when I saw that that I think
it was an ESPN article interview he did before the
draft where he's like, yeah, I don't really like basketball.
Speaker 3 (35:12):
I'm just, you know, I'm good at it. I don't
love the game, though, I'm not going to say I do.
Speaker 2 (35:15):
I'm like, well, how can you take a guy number
one if he doesn't actually love basketball? And either he
was lying then or it's really not that important because
it hasn't changed the fact that he is an absolute
dog and he is got next as the kids.
Speaker 1 (35:29):
Say, yeah, I think these young guys, twenty twenty one
year old kids just talk like, hey, I'm too cool.
I don't love anything, you know, one of those deals.
All right, let's go quickly. AFC West preview probably the
easiest division to preview in the conference. The Kansas City
Chiefs are going to win the division. Shocker, it's happening obviously.
(35:50):
Now injury happens, everything changes. But you know, there's no
way you could pick around the Chiefs going into the
season with Mames with red, you know, pencil in ten
eleven to twelve thirteen wins. They're fine after that. I
believe it's the Chargers now that shouldn't be a big shocker.
It's either Chargers or Broncos. And if you remember last year,
everybody thought Peyton was gonna get the Chargers job when
(36:13):
they would run off the head coach there, Brandon Staley.
Brandon Staley gets them in the playoffs, they end up
choking away the lead. They keep Brandon Staley change the OC.
It's tough for me to pick the Broncos ahead of
the Chargers, and so I would have the Broncos third.
I like Peyton, I like Russ, I like the defense,
(36:34):
but I don't know if they're a playoffs. A lot
of questions, a lot of them about Russ, and you
know they're gonna be better than the Raiders. That's not
saying much. The Chargers are the interesting one because and
I'll save this take for a little ways down the road,
but if the Chargers missed the playoffs, we know Staley's
toast and that would sound like an awful thing. But
(36:55):
there is the Jim Harbaugh name lurking in the background
with that four game suspension in K football that was
going to him and then they then rescinded it, and
Harbaugh's like kind of middle fingering these guys. I can
just back up off me, leave me alone. Harbaugh did
have the dalliance I think with the Vikings and maybe
(37:16):
the Panthers. He spoke with Tepper, and I know he
interviewed with the Vikings for sure as a leverage player
to get some more money from Michigan and it worked.
But the Chargers job will be probably the best head
coaching opening in a while because the idea of coaching
justin Herbert like, it's tough to find quarterbacks, you know,
(37:41):
and they have one, and that that roster's pretty stacked.
So I think if the Chargers fail and the Broncos pass,
I don't don't anticipate that, then that Charger's job becomes
very interesting. So I'll go Chiefs, Chargers, Broncos, Raiders. I'm
on the fence on the Chargers in the playoff, just
because there's so much depth in the AFC. We'll get
(38:02):
it's gonna be a game time decision right before the season,
you know. I like the Steelers. Steelers may have been
a bet for season long in Vegas. Got tough to
not like the Ravens. The Browns are deadly, Jets obviously, Dolphins.
I told you about like AFC stacked, there's not a
lot of room for aerror. We'll see what Brandon Staley
(38:23):
does with the Chargers this season, but it's still Kansas
City's division to lose. All right. This is a lengthy
podcast for a hurricane slash earthquake weekend in California. We
have a big time college football guest coming up this
week and other shenanigans that we still don't know about yet.
All right, we'll talk to you tomorrow.
The volume. This is Straight Fire with Jason McIntyre. What
is up straight Fire? Fam HiT's me Jason McIntyre Straight
Fire for Monday, August twenty. First, I need to announce
(00:25):
we are recording this early due to the craziness happening
in California. We are currently in the midst here. It
is Sunday afternoon of alleged tropical storm, the first one
to hit California and some I'm like eighty years and
as Rob g and I are queuing up the video
and talking, my son gets his soccer roster for the season,
(00:45):
and all of a sudden, my phone goes earthquake six
point zero and I'm like, oh my gosh. And I'm
with the kids and I'm like earthquake and We're sitting
there waiting and nothing, and I'm like, ah, must have
been a false alarm. And then I come back to
the screen and Rob's like I felt it, did you?
And my wife was downstairs? Oh yeah, we were rolling
and folks, I don't I mean listen as you can tell,
(01:07):
I'm back to health a little bit. My voice sounds better,
although we'll have some updates on that later. But just
a crazy time. Rob Gie how are you and the
family holding up? You know, as La and basically California
falls off the map.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
Oh, it's a wild scene here in southern California. Thankfully,
my daughter was in the middle of a nap, and
I want to say that the earthquake actually helped her
sleep because it kind of swayed her body back and
forth into a relaxation mode. It wasn't enough to really
shake her awake, but it was enough to hopefully prolong
the nap another hour or so.
Speaker 3 (01:37):
That'd be great.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
Yeah, by the way, what is the earthquake movie with
the rock?
Speaker 3 (01:42):
Didn't he do an earthquake movie? San Andreas?
Speaker 1 (01:44):
San Andreas? Okay, so I think that came out before
we moved to California, and I watched it and I
was like, ooh, I'm so scared of California earthquakes. Oh man,
California's gonna fall into the Pacific Ocean. And then you're
out here, you know, when you experienced one and you're like, ooh,
it's kind of cool, and then you think about it
for a little bit and then maybe like an hour,
maybe you think about it the next day, and then
it you know, it's back to normal, like life goes on,
(02:06):
you know, and then two years later there's a quake.
But rob you've lived out here your whole life, Like,
do they even enter your mind until like the ground
is shaking.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
No, until you feel it, it does, you don't really
think about it too much. I will say the last
time that I really had like a good tremor, I
mean this one that we had here in South California
was I think it was like a six point zero,
but it was far enough away from where you and
I live that we didn't get the full blast of it.
A couple of years ago, when my daughter was first born,
it might have been three or four years ago, they
(02:38):
had like a five point five or something like that,
but it was it was twenty miles from where I live,
so we really felt that one. And it was in
the middle of the night. And this was when my Yeah,
my daughter was just born. You in a couple months old,
and this might be TMI, but so if you have
kids in the car, you know, mute the headphones a
little bit. My wife was breastfeeding at the time, so
I don't I don't know if you've known about this
(03:00):
situation where they're not breastfeeding, they can do something called pumping,
so she basically plugs herself into a wall to do
what she has to do. Happen in the middle of
the night. My daughter's asleep. It's the house is rocking
back and forth. I run and jump over to cover
from a ceiling fan that might fall. And my wife,
this whole time is plugged into a wall, unable to move,
and it's just taking the whole brunt of the thing.
(03:20):
So that was That was one of my favorite earthquakes thory.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
It is weird, Rob. We could do a pod about
like the negative stigma of California and Los Angeles that
it has. And you hear and read all this stuff,
and you see all this nonsense online and then you
come out here and I'm just I don't know, I
don't see it. I don't think it's as bad as
all these people perceive it to be. I enjoy it
out here, one oddity, and Rob, you can illuminate the
(03:44):
audience before we get to sports. When we lived East
rain was normal, snow was normal, crappy weather regular year round,
and we come out here it doesn't rain for like
six months, eight months, I don't know, and all of
a sudden like my daughter is like fascinated by rain,
and her friends like love rain. When it rains, kids
(04:06):
like go outside and are like, oh, I'm playing in
the rain, and it's like exciting, and I just I
can't totally wrap my head around why that is. I
don't know. Is this a thing? Do you know what
I'm talking about? Or am I just crazy?
Speaker 3 (04:17):
No, it's totally a thing.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
It's because it doesn't happen here, and so it's funny
because it doesn't happen.
Speaker 3 (04:22):
You see one of two things. One you see the
youth and the kids.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
They get excited because it's like, hey, I can run it,
and blame the rain because even when it rains and
it's cold, it's still like sixty five degrees, so it's
not it's not even really cold. The other problem on
the flip side of that for adults, because it doesn't rain.
Speaker 3 (04:39):
I don't know. I'm sure you know this by now.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
Californians do not know how to drive in the rain,
so you have some of the dumbest accidents, Like our
infrastructure is not set up with the freeway system. It's
always flooded, and you get those little pocket especially on
like the shoulder, so people will drive through it and
spray other cars and that causes an issue, and then
it's traffic and it's all these fenders everywhere. So if
you're like fifteen and under, it's great. If you're fifteen
(05:04):
and over, it sucks.
Speaker 1 (05:06):
Yeah, leave like an hour early for work because nobody
knows what the hell to do. All right, before we
get to sports, quick weekend update, life updates. So, yes,
I coughed up a lung. I was in rough shape
last week. I did end up seeing someone, and I'm
doing great. The only downside I'm gonna have to have
a minor procedure done. Not a big deal. They will
(05:27):
not be cutting me open, but I will need a
minor procedure. So before the football season, I'll be taking
some days off of TV and on the podcast to
get the procedure done. But overall, like, I'm fine, no problems.
I'm fine enough that I finally popped into Vegas and
signed up for the Circa contest. Here's the beauty. This
(05:50):
was the first time I had had done it in
this way. So you guys know, I go and make
futures bets and usually like you don't cash them in
until the next season. But sometimes it's like, Hey, my
buddies are going in Vegas for the weekend, so I'll
just go and then cash the tickets. I haven't been
to Vegas since last year. When I signed up for
the contest. I did well in the futures tickets some
week one some futures and I didn't even telly them
(06:14):
up until I went to the window and it more
than covered the one thousand dollars sign in fees. So
I was like, you know, you cash in the tickets
and I was like, Oh, you could just hold it.
I'm signing up. She's like, no, I have to give
it back to you. I was like fine, So she
hands it to me. I sit there, fill out the
paperwork and I'm like, here's And I had to say this,
Rob just here's your thousand dollars that you just gave
me outside up for the contest. And it felt great.
(06:37):
And then I did make a couple of futures bets
for this season. I'm not going to reveal all of them,
but the two Alt win totals that I bet rob
Alt wind total meaning I'm irrationally confident I think this
could happen because the market's off one of them. I
don't like this team, but I'm gonna bet on Tua's
health and the Miami Dolphins over ten and a half
(06:57):
wins eleven wins that might be them, the number I
don't know, two seed, maybe the one seed over ten
and a half wins plus two fifteen and then the
New Orleans Saints. Now I've been hyping this one for
a while, so it's not as good as juice over
ten and a half wins in the NFC. So those
are the two alt win totals. I bet I actually
did well on those last year. I had Giants and
(07:21):
Eagles maybe, but then I missed Cowboys. Did I really
do three in the same division? No, No Vikings, Vikings,
sorry Vikings, Eagles and Cowboys. So two and one on
those last year at any rate. Let us get to
actual sports, and we do have to talk about Rob
G's favorite team, the Las Vegas Raiders. Not because of
preseason wins. Nobody cares. But something's going on with that
(07:42):
team that's interesting and finally positive that we could talk about.
Everything for the last year has been negative, car the
Gruden stuff, the Henry Ruggs, it's all been negative, but
there is some positivity, and I kind of like this story,
so we'll get to that in a minute. I want
to open though, with the Legas Cup and Miami versus Nashville.
It was Saturday night. I don't know if everybody cares
that much about soccer, obviously I'm a massive fan, and
(08:06):
Leonel Messi comes to the worst team in the league
and they proceed to go and win the entire tournament,
matching MLS and Leaga MX. They win it. Messi, a
goal scoring machine, gets the leading scorer in the tournament
and the MVP. He scored a left footed rocket to
take the one nothing lead. Then they end up winning
penalty kicks. It was thrilling. You can go look it
(08:27):
up on YouTube if you missed it. And Rob, I
know the general audience doesn't care about soccer, but for
a legend like Messi to come from the top leagues
in Europe to the America, shine a spotlight on America
and then dominate, it's pretty exciting to watch. And I
(08:49):
think the tie in Rob where there we could see
some of this, And again it's not because if it
happened in China, I don't think people would care as much.
But I talked to it last week with Cowherd. The
fact of James Harden's ugly situation with the Sixers is
the next basketball team he plays for, does he say,
(09:10):
I'm out screw you NBA, I'm going to China. We
saw him in China moving merchandise and what was he
moving liquor? On some videos that the guy is a machine.
We explained it. The Houston Rockets were like the number
one team in China because Yao Ming played for them.
Just as you know, the NBA starts being telecast in China,
they all love Yao Ming. Yoo leaves. It's like, oh, well,
(09:30):
we love the Rockets. We root for them. We've rooted
for them for a decade. James Harden's our new guy,
and we love Dwight Howard and Rob you know Dwight
Howard this past season went to China, was putting up
like what forty and twenty seven, putting the insane numbers
whatever they were. And I know it's gonna sound for well,
wait to say, James Harden led the league assist why
would go to China? Listen, man, if you can get
(09:51):
less of the headaches, you get paid, you expand your brand.
I'm sure he can do some tie ins with retails
merch like it's an easy, easy play for Harden. Rob,
I don't know. I just watched this messy move happen
and I don't know that it's going to be the springboard.
But we've seen Saudi Arabia plucking superstars from the EPL. Benzema,
(10:16):
I think they got Namar, they got a bunch of
guys and it's like, well, wow, this foreign money getting
I don't know aging is the right word, but like
maybe a little past their prime stars. I mean Messi.
You can't say Messi's aging. He just tore up the
MLS after winning a World Cup eight months ago. So
like this idea of hard and leaving for China, Rob,
(10:36):
I don't think it's insane. I really don't. And watching
MESSI dominate, I'm like, you know, I don't know that
people would care if James Harden goes and puts up
one hundred points in a game in China, but it
certainly would be noteworthy. No.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
Yeah, you know what's funny is when I saw you
put this out and I'm kind of upset as you
pull the curtain back because you didn't have this take
on the Straight Fire podcast. You had it on Colin
Cowhard's podcast, So I wish you would have brought some
of those you know, buzzwords to this one.
Speaker 3 (11:02):
But it's okay, we move on.
Speaker 2 (11:04):
When I first saw the clip, I was like, yeah,
this is crazy, Like Jason, I don't know what you're
I didn't see it.
Speaker 3 (11:10):
Get a lot. I didn't say I didn't see it.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
And not even forty eight hours later, there's an alert
from Keith Pompey, who's as plugged into the Sixers as
anybody in the NBA as in with their team. He
puts out the tweet, Yeah, James Harden would like to
play at least one season in China before his career
is up. And I text you the link. I said, like,
I can't believe you had this before this even like
(11:35):
was a thing. And to your point about Messi, it's
if James Harden were to make a move like this,
similar to Messi coming to the MLS. It's not for
competitive reasons, right, because he obviously knows that he's too
good to be playing at this level of soccer, and
similar with Harden, what it is, However, the same thing
with Messi is it can be a financial boon for
(11:58):
him to do something like this. You mentioned he was
selling liquor. I've read online that he sold ten thousand
bottles of his wine, which is what he's out there promoting,
in under ten seconds. Come on, like, I don't know,
I mean, but enough people reported it that I like
to believe that it's that it's reputable. What he could
(12:21):
do for himself, for his own individual James harden brand
in China is something that I don't think most Americans
can comprehend because they don't live over there. And I'm
sure this is the same thing that Europeans were saying
when Messi came over to the United States, like, oh, well.
Speaker 3 (12:35):
What is he gonna do.
Speaker 2 (12:36):
He's gonna go to a third rate league, He's gonna
you know, sell some jerseys whatever. No, the fact that
we're talking about it on this podcast, the fact that
he is trending every single game that he plays in
the MLS says a lot about why he did. It.
Has nothing to do with him wanting to, you know,
expand his legacy with another championship, Like that's not what
(12:57):
he's I'm sure he'd like to win here in MLS,
But it's that's not what he's doing. He's doing it
because he is still a draw, He is still a brand.
He is still a guy that no matter what he does,
it's going to generate clicks and eyeballs. And now he's
expanding to a market that even though we noticed and
appreciated how good he was, I don't think anyone realized
(13:19):
how exactly how great he is until you've actually seen
him here on our turf and what we do. So
I think James Ared could do something similar in China.
Speaker 1 (13:28):
Yeah, it's weird. You think James Harden cares to turn
on TV, radio podcasts and here will Harden is not
a top twenty player all time, like we like to
think like that discussion is huge and important, But here's
the reality. Like James Harden wakes up, he's selling stuff
in China, making a ton of money. He's played basketball
in China competitively, dominating, having the time of his life.
(13:48):
Nobody's criticizing him for being a ballhog or missing a
late shot, and he's cleaning up financially and you know what,
then he's gonna go gas up the private jet. He's
gonna say, oh, we got a week off of China.
You know what, I'm gonna go to wherever the heck
I want to, and I'm gonna bring my boys and
we're gonna have a great time. And then I'm gonna
fly here and I'm gonna do this. And like, that's
not a bad life if you could just do whatever
(14:08):
the heck you want. You got all the money in
the world, and you're playing basketball China and you don't
care about the media. Because honestly, the only guys that
really don't like Harden to the media, right, I mean,
he's got a ton of fans. I think once we
get these athletes, once they realize like, hey, it's fun
to see me talked about on TV. But like, do
I need this now that I'm like thirty what is
he thirty four to thirty five? Do I need this anymore?
(14:30):
It's like I've been in this, you know, grind for
twelve fifteen years making a lot of money. I don't
need these headaches. I'm just gonna have fun.
Speaker 2 (14:38):
Right, And I think people listening to this podcast might
be like, well, that's you know, not a fair comparison
with James Harden and MESSI. The difference is though, like
Messi's at a point in his career where he's already
accomplished everything he could possibly accomplish in professional soccer. So
that's why he's maybe not necessarily driven by the competitive
nature James Harden. And we've talked about this for years
(14:59):
now on the pod, even going back to the radio
show on the weekends, James Harden has shown repeatedly that
he's not driven by championships. There was a reason that
the fact that he even wanted to go back to
Houston this past offseason tells you that James Harden likes,
more than anything to just be James Harden. And that's
not you know, as a sports fan, you'd like it
to be different because you care about your team and
(15:20):
you want to see championships. There's a lot of guys
professional athletes. Not everybody's built like Messi and Lebron and
Steph Curry who are like, I gotta win by at
any means necessary. There's a lot of guys who are like, hey,
I can make a fantastic living, I can be famous,
I can go to all the parties and meet all
the people I want to and as long as I'm
good at this, all the rest of it comes with it.
Speaker 3 (15:41):
And it just so.
Speaker 2 (15:42):
Happens that two guys who, even though they're built on
opposite ends of the spectrum, currently seem like they're at
the same road, you know, path in their life at
this point at least.
Speaker 1 (15:52):
It's weird, like, yes, Messi's won everything and he's got
nothing left to prove. But I my guess. My guess
is to harden that he's got nothing left to prove.
I've made a lot of money, I've won an MVP,
I've played in the playoffs, I've played in the finals.
Like I'm happy. I accomplish everything I set out to
when I was a junior high kid thinking I'm gonna
(16:13):
make make college and make the NBA. Like I did it.
And now I've got all the money in the world.
I've got generational wealth. I don't need these headaches of
the media and dealing with Darryl More and these liars.
Let me just go to China, where everywhere I go
it's just they roll out the red carpet for me
because I'm a legend. Like It's not a bad feeling,
probably not great for his ego, but in the long run,
but ultimately I think he's a very happy man and
(16:35):
we'll see what happens with Harden. Let's get to the
NFL before we do the AFC West preview. I wanted
to because it's Drobg's team. I talk about these Las
Vegas Raiders. So they're hosting the Super Bowl, and obviously
they have no chance of making it to the stuper Bowl.
Like nobody on the Raiders in the organization Harbor's any
thoughts that they could come close to playing for the
(16:57):
Super Bowl. But what's interesting is something you know they
were expected to be bad this year, like five, six,
seven wins. Jimmy Garoppolo comes into quarterback, he's coming off
the injury, the surgery. It's like, oh, man, is he
gonna even fit with McDaniels As McDaniel's on his way out,
and then Ada O'Connell happens, and I should call him
(17:17):
by his new nickname, AOC four. Apparently that's like gonna
be the most popular tattoo in Vegas here in the
next coming weeks. But eight and O'Connell is a kid
out of Purdue. I've got all the numbers on him, right,
he had thirty three college starts. I did a lot
of reading on eight and O'Connell this weekend, Like, Jay,
what are you wasting your time reading about a third
string or four? Well, he's not gonna be third string.
(17:37):
I could guarantee you that. Heading into the season, Brian Hoyer,
you might as well hang him up. You're out, buddy.
Aman O'Connell's coming too. Preseason games and just slid. He
is dominating. He's not missing passes, he's hitting all the windows.
He's got fans like excited. Now. I know it's a
lot of threes versus fours. And even when he's running
with the backups, they're not facing starters. It's like, okay,
(17:59):
let's settle. But when you're a desperate franchise like the
Raiders who haven't won Jack Squat in forever. Last playoff
win was I don't decade ago, fifteen twenty, I don't
know Rob Will figured it out. But and you see
what O'Connell's doing, and then you start looking into his story.
So this is unbelievable. So he was a one year
(18:20):
starter in high school. He had a scholarship offer from
something called Davenport University Division two. Okay, he said, no,
I'm gonna let me hold out. Hope, let me hold
out hope, and then a Division three calls Wheaton College,
we want you. He's like, no, Purdue says, we want you,
but we're not gonna offer you anything. You could be
a preferred walk on. Preferred walk on means hey, we'll
(18:43):
give you a chance to make the team. You probably
start out seventh or eighth on the depth chart. Good
Luck doesn't play a snap for the first two years.
Okay at Purdue, was not gonna be the next Drew Brees.
Then all of a sudden things start to go his way,
get some playing time, find he gets twenty twenty the
COVID year, he's gonna be the starter, and he gets
(19:03):
a season ending injury three games in, comes back and
is healthy, but has to win the job, and then
starts I think twenty four games over the final two seasons.
And you're like, oh, this guy had a really nice career. No,
he didn't put up Drew Brees numbers, but he's a
good story. This guy's graduating at what twenty four years old,
he got married to a Purdue volleyball player. He's like
a Christian Fellowship athlete, Like, hey, O'Connell is I mean,
(19:27):
what a class act? Everybody's rooting for this guy, and
then he falls to fourth round, one hundred and thirty
fifth pick overall, and you're like, okay, he is what
he is, Maybe you'll have a crack to make the roster.
We'll see, and it's it's a weird thing because again,
this guy's turning twenty five in like two weeks. This
is not some college quarterback who just graduated at twenty two. Okay,
(19:47):
he's in college forever. Thirty three starts is a lot. Now.
I know that Josh McDaniels offense has been, you know,
typically tough to grasp for some quarterbacks, but a guy
named Tom Brady he figured it out pretty easily. And
I know mentioning Tom Brady in the same sentence as
Aidan O'Connell is sacrilegious. But rob Raiders fans are grasping
(20:09):
for this. Well, Aidan O'Connell is not like an athletic guy.
This is the most crazy stat that I think I've
seen for a college quarterback in a while. In his career,
he had negative two hundred and forty three rushing yards. Now, yes,
they do take sacks into account in college, but you
start watching the highlights and he's not really moving around.
He's not doing a lot of running and scrambling and Rob.
(20:32):
I don't know if you're hearing this, but Raiders fans
online are like, oh, whoa, whoa, Jay, Hey, look at
the last seven years. Look at some of these quarterbacks
in the Super Bowl. Matt Ryan is he fleet a foot?
Nick Foles, that guy Brady you mentioned. I don't know
how nimble Matt Stafford has been in his career. He's
not like a running quarterback. But Jared Goff he ain't
(20:56):
a runner. Why not Aidan O'Connell. And I'm like, obviously,
slow your role. Well let's slow your role. But it
is exciting to have maybe a diamond in the rough.
And I'll say this the one thing that makes this
really interesting. It's not a quarterback competition with Jimmy G.
But last year with the Niners, Jimmy G was unable
to make those deep throws downfield. Brock Perty comes in
(21:16):
and he can make them. Jimmy G can't do those
deep out patters. He just doesn't have the armstring. Aidan
O'Connell does. And I'm not saying he's gonna be a
game manager and turning to Brady in four years, I
don't see any of this happening. That being said, there
is palpable excitement about the backup quarterback. And you know,
(21:37):
in every town where you're not a super Bowl contender
and you've got a franchise quarterback, the backup quarterback is
the most popular guy in town. Okay, they've seen Jimmy
g they know he's sealing his limitations. But if you're
gonna end up keeping DeVante Adams and not trading away
at the deadline, and you think, well, you know, this
is Josh Jacob's guy. We put this together, and we
get the offensive line figured out, we could have some
(21:58):
hundred renfro third in rend great nickname. So I'm getting
a little excited about Aidan O'Connell. But this is the
trap I fall into, Rubb. I've done my best not
to watch a lot of preseason games. Some highlights, sure,
but I got sucked into the Aidan O'Connell highlights, and
I'm like, oh my gosh, this guy looks pretty good.
Now he's probably thrown against guys who are gonna be
(22:20):
you know, driving a ups truck or Amazon delivery or Uber.
Here in the next couple of weeks. They are not
gonna stick on rosters, but he still look pretty damn
good doing it. Now, as a Raiders fan, your excitement
level is through the roof or what.
Speaker 3 (22:34):
Oh, I'm all in. I'm all in on Aidan O'Connell.
Speaker 2 (22:36):
Like at this point, the only AOC we recognized in
the United States of America is no longer that woman
who's I think she's in Congress or whatever. It's now
Aidan O'Connell. He is the AOC you mentioned AOC on Twitter.
His name better pop up before hers does. That's all
I'm gonna say about that. Twenty six of thirty six
for three hundred and four yards and three touchdowns in
two preseason games. I don't want to sound like I'm
(23:02):
drinking the kool aid, but if Trey Lance went twenty
six or thirty six three or four and three tds,
who was also playing against backups most of the time,
then he'd be the starting quarterback in San Francisco like
aid and O'Connell. Once you get to this level, and
this is across all sports but NFL especially because we've
seen this more than the NBA and Major League Baseball.
(23:23):
But in the NFL especially, there have been numerous instances
where a guy was a one star recruit, a no
star recruit, an undrafted player he switched positions coming from
the college of the NFL, Like, this is not unheard
of to have a unherlded guy pop in the NFL
in the next level, whether it's because he's got better
(23:45):
talent around him or he's in a system that can
better take advantage of the skills that he has. I
don't know what it is with ay O'Connor, why suddenly
he's become a it looks like at worst a high
end backup this upcoming season. I think he's definitely an
be out Brian Hoyer for the number two job, and
so like, I don't know why people are so shocked,
because this isn't something that's new, like we saw even
(24:08):
last year with the aforementioned brock party. Brock Perty was
the last pick in the NFL draft, and he comes
into year two as the unquestioned starter for what many
considered to be the favorites to come out of the NFC.
So like this, this shouldn't really blow your mind too much.
I don't think if you're a football fan.
Speaker 1 (24:28):
I will say The jersey number threw me off. Rob
wasn't Derek Carr number four? Yes he was, and they
just handed it to O'Connell, who I think we're sixteen
in college. That struck me as a little odd. I'm
not saying a car did anything worthy of retiring his number,
but I mean, the body's barely cold and you've given
the jersey to someone else.
Speaker 3 (24:49):
I mean, there have been more egregious things that have.
Speaker 1 (24:53):
Happened with the Raiders.
Speaker 2 (24:54):
Are not just with the I mean with other teams.
I don't know exactly. I want to say that it
was like Randy Moss when he left and then they
gave away eighty four in Minnesota like immediately. I'm not
one hundred percent sure, but I've seen it happen before.
And as far as Ad O'Connell goes, he is going
(25:15):
to play at some point this season, because the one
thing you can count on with Jimmy G is he's
going to get hurt at some point.
Speaker 3 (25:21):
That's who he is, that's what he does.
Speaker 2 (25:23):
That's the reason why I keep bringing up that's the
reason why brock perty is starting in San Francisco because
Jimmy G kept getting hurt so they drafted Trey Lance
and the Trey Lanes gets hurt and Jimmy G's like, well,
you guys shouldn't have replaced me. I'm gonna carry this
team to the super Bowl. And then he gets hurt again.
Oh yeah, surprise, surprise, that's kind of what he does.
Aid and O'Connell is going to play, and you're gonna
(25:43):
find out very quickly what Raider fans have already found
out only two weeks into the preseason that this kid
can play. I don't know if he's an NFL starter,
you know, that's to get ahead of ourselves. But he's
not bad at all. He's serviceable. Who to have in
the opener? I don't I don't I believe they have
(26:07):
the Broncos in the opener.
Speaker 1 (26:08):
Oh that's a defense you don't want Aid O'Connell facing.
Speaker 2 (26:12):
Well, he's not going to start the season, you know,
like that's probably okay.
Speaker 1 (26:16):
Probably I would say ninety five percent Jimmy Garoppolo starting,
or you would you say one hundred. I mean he
could get he could get it. He could get blocks tomorrow.
Speaker 3 (26:24):
He could he could get it. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (26:26):
Yeah, he made He made Anthony Davis look like he's
made a steel.
Speaker 1 (26:29):
So I was gonna preview the AFC West, but I
forgot uh to talk about one other thing that happened
this weekend. And since we just talked about pre season,
can I talk about a pre FEBA Championship basketball game? Rob?
I know he can't go in basketball, football, basketball, but
I gotta quickly talk about USA Germany Sunday. Did you
watch a game?
Speaker 3 (26:49):
Yes? I did?
Speaker 1 (26:49):
Yeah, Okay, so I turned it on at halftime because
I was watching Jack Ryan Season four, which is amazing,
and the US is down a ton to Germany, and
I'm like, what the and the Wagner brothers are there
and Shrewder and then this blonde guy who got like
a billion rebounds but isn't Dennis Rodman. And I'm watching
the US and my kids are sitting there and Rob.
(27:12):
Their first question is, Oh, it's Curry playing because it's
the US, And I was like no. They were like Lebron, no,
kd no. And at that point they were like, what's happening?
Who's playing for the US? And Rob, this is not
I'm not bagging on the US. But you turn on
the game USA Germany, it's like a pre FEBA game.
(27:35):
It was the stadium was packed, though I think it's
in We're just being played like they're playing Dubai Okay,
and it's like Tyrese Halliburton, Mikail Bridge's Paolo Begnkero and
let's be real, this is USA basketball and they're getting
throttled by Germany until the dynamic duo of Anthony Edwards
(27:58):
and Austin Reeves take over. And I know he's your guy,
But Anthony Edwards wearing the number ten jersey and doing
whatever he wanted at both ends, grabbing rebounds, knifing through
the lane, thunderous dunks, baseline turnarounds, threes. You look at
Kobe Bryant, who used to wear ten with USA, Anthony
(28:21):
Edwards was easily the best player on the floor. I
love Ben Caro. I didn't think he played great. Miss
four straight free throws. I'm not gonna nitpick Jalen Brunson,
like barely got any. I don't even know if he
played in the fourth quarter. He was apparently dominant in
lead up and then this game was not his. This
was the Anthony Edwards Austin Reeves show. And listen, I
(28:41):
know Austin Reeves as a laker. We talk about him
way too much on this podcast. If you like charted
podcasts like mine, who talks about Austin Reaves were I
guarantee you we are near or at the head of
the pack. We have been on the Austin Reeves band
raging all on. This guy can play. I mean, at
the end of the game, he gets to steal and
(29:02):
he you know, they could just run out the clock
and he looks at his guys and as if to say,
should I dunk? And they're like, oh yeah, And Austin
Reeves just wides up and throws it down and everybody's celebrating. Rob.
I was all in on the game, despite I gotta say,
watching that roster together, it was like a little tough.
Speaker 2 (29:22):
Yeah, you know, you know what's funny and well, shout
out to Austin Reeves.
Speaker 3 (29:25):
You know.
Speaker 2 (29:25):
I have recorded a podcast with one of the producers
here at the volume. He has an NBA post. I
was hoping that it was going to be dropping this week,
but apparently the way they stagger is going to be late.
But I was heaping some heavy praise on Austin Reeves.
So when you're whenever it comes out. I'll share the
DME podcast. It was the Lakers preview, so a lot
of Austin Reeves ball washing going on by yours. So
(29:47):
just I'll let you. I'll let that podcast speak for itself.
But Anthony Edwards looks like he's gonna be the next
guy to take you know, the quote unquote the leap.
He's all star kind of level talent to he is
a bona fide superstar because one thing that you see
(30:07):
in FOBA play especially is you can't just out talent
teams anymore. Like the rest of the world has caught up.
You mentioned this Germany team had several NBA players on it.
They may not be high end NBA players, but they
are quality rotational guys at a minimum. And the other
thing is they play a style of basketball that gives
(30:29):
Americans a lot of trouble because it's very team oriented.
It's one of the reasons why the Golden State Warriors
when they were going up against all the Lebron Cavaliers
teams we've talked on this podcast. I've said before I
think the Cleveland teams had more talent than that first
iteration of the Warriors. Before KD the difference was the
Warriors played this team brand of basketball that nobody could
(30:51):
ever keep up with. They it just wasn't gonna happen.
And that's what you see in Foeba. So there's a
reason why guys like Austin Reeves, Tyrese Halliburton, especially those
two guys, they thrive in this setting because their style
of play, even in the NBA, is very team oriented.
They don't dominate the ball a lot. They move the ball,
that make the right play, they can hit the open
(31:13):
jump shot. They're very smart, cerebral players. And now what
you're seeing is and this is not a shot that
any of these guys, but Brandon Ingram, macal Bridges now
that he's with the Nets, Jalen Brunson, Anthony Edwards, they're
all very similar style guys. They want to dominate the ball,
high pick and roll because that's what their game is
(31:34):
in the NBA. What you're seeing with Anthony Edwards, though,
is there's levels to this. As good as Jalen Brunson,
Brandon Ingram, all those other guys are, they don't have
that special it factor that Anthony Edwards has. There's, like
you've seen this where there's an alpha amongst alphas. Most
(31:55):
recently an international play that was Kevin Durant where you
had a team with Damian Lillard and Jason Tatum and
all these high end quality guys. But when push came
to shove and it was really, you know, top nervous
time for the Americans, it was get the ball to
kd get out of the damn way. Yeah, we saw
(32:16):
that on Sunday when they were down sixteen in the
second half. Halliburton and Reeves are making a lot of
hustle plays, doing a lot of good things, but when
it was getting tight, get the ball to ant Man,
get out.
Speaker 3 (32:27):
Of the way.
Speaker 1 (32:28):
Halliburton is a blur, like we know he's really good.
I would say he was the third best player, right,
you said Reeves two, Edwards one. Yeah. I didn't see
enough from Ingram, didn't see enough from Brunson. It was
really Anthony Edwards or bust. They want like an eighteen
nothing run spearheaded by Edwards just burying threes and dominating.
(32:49):
I am curious. Do you think this makes the Timberwolves
be or this probably does nothing right? But in the
back of their minds of the timber was like, listen,
this is our guy. Do we want to build around him?
We got to move carl Anton Towns. Let's just get
him out, get role pieces, let's fit everything around Anthony Edwards,
and we've got our superstar. I don't I personally don't
(33:11):
think the two of them are going to work together.
Speaker 3 (33:12):
Robin. Yeah, I think you're totally totally right. I think that.
Speaker 2 (33:17):
I mean it was it's kind of been clear for
about a year now that Anthony Edwards was the guy
and they got to build around him. But when you
see things like this where it's no longer like the
plucky story, like he's the young and up and coming
guy that he know he could do something. You know,
we see the potential, we see the flash, and there
are a lot of guys like that.
Speaker 3 (33:37):
You know.
Speaker 2 (33:37):
LaMelo Ball, his draft contemporary, is one of those guys
where it's like, you know, he could be something. I see,
I see the framework of something special. Anthony Edwards is
showing now on this stage where he's playing with guys
who are supposed to be his peers, that no, I
don't belong at this level with the macal Bridge, at
the inger of the Bruntes. Put me up there with
(33:57):
the Durant, the Tatum on the Steph Curry. You know,
those are the Americans that I should be being compared to.
So if they're Minnesota, you know, it's to be determined
if the Towns go bear pairing is ever going to
work out. And you know, I had to rehash this,
but they're probably gonna have to get rid of Towns
(34:18):
before they can get rid of Gobert, just because I
think the value works out that way.
Speaker 1 (34:22):
If I said to you that the stock price of Edwards,
Ja Morant, and Zion was all the exact same, the
stock price to buy them was the exact same. Who
how would you divide up who you're buying stock.
Speaker 3 (34:38):
In Edwards, Morant, Zion.
Speaker 2 (34:43):
Interesting Edwards is the is the only one that you
don't have to worry about the other stuff, which is
crazy because you.
Speaker 1 (34:50):
Have that dumb incident at the end of the season
with like a chair and a fan or something.
Speaker 2 (34:54):
Yeah, I mean, I don't know if I consider that
the same level as like with Ja Moran. And you
know what's funny is full disclosure we talked for the podcast.
I was dead wrong on on Anthony. Ira was coming
out of college when I saw that that I think
it was an ESPN article interview he did before the
draft where he's like, yeah, I don't really like basketball.
Speaker 3 (35:12):
I'm just, you know, I'm good at it. I don't
love the game, though, I'm not going to say I do.
Speaker 2 (35:15):
I'm like, well, how can you take a guy number
one if he doesn't actually love basketball? And either he
was lying then or it's really not that important because
it hasn't changed the fact that he is an absolute
dog and he is got next as the kids.
Speaker 1 (35:29):
Say, yeah, I think these young guys, twenty twenty one
year old kids just talk like, hey, I'm too cool.
I don't love anything, you know, one of those deals.
All right, let's go quickly. AFC West preview probably the
easiest division to preview in the conference. The Kansas City
Chiefs are going to win the division. Shocker, it's happening obviously.
(35:50):
Now injury happens, everything changes. But you know, there's no
way you could pick around the Chiefs going into the
season with Mames with red, you know, pencil in ten
eleven to twelve thirteen wins. They're fine after that. I
believe it's the Chargers now that shouldn't be a big shocker.
It's either Chargers or Broncos. And if you remember last year,
everybody thought Peyton was gonna get the Chargers job when
(36:13):
they would run off the head coach there, Brandon Staley.
Brandon Staley gets them in the playoffs, they end up
choking away the lead. They keep Brandon Staley change the OC.
It's tough for me to pick the Broncos ahead of
the Chargers, and so I would have the Broncos third.
I like Peyton, I like Russ, I like the defense,
(36:34):
but I don't know if they're a playoffs. A lot
of questions, a lot of them about Russ, and you
know they're gonna be better than the Raiders. That's not
saying much. The Chargers are the interesting one because and
I'll save this take for a little ways down the road,
but if the Chargers missed the playoffs, we know Staley's
toast and that would sound like an awful thing. But
(36:55):
there is the Jim Harbaugh name lurking in the background
with that four game suspension in K football that was
going to him and then they then rescinded it, and
Harbaugh's like kind of middle fingering these guys. I can
just back up off me, leave me alone. Harbaugh did
have the dalliance I think with the Vikings and maybe
(37:16):
the Panthers. He spoke with Tepper, and I know he
interviewed with the Vikings for sure as a leverage player
to get some more money from Michigan and it worked.
But the Chargers job will be probably the best head
coaching opening in a while because the idea of coaching
justin Herbert like, it's tough to find quarterbacks, you know,
(37:41):
and they have one, and that that roster's pretty stacked.
So I think if the Chargers fail and the Broncos pass,
I don't don't anticipate that, then that Charger's job becomes
very interesting. So I'll go Chiefs, Chargers, Broncos, Raiders. I'm
on the fence on the Chargers in the playoff, just
because there's so much depth in the AFC. We'll get
(38:02):
it's gonna be a game time decision right before the season,
you know. I like the Steelers. Steelers may have been
a bet for season long in Vegas. Got tough to
not like the Ravens. The Browns are deadly, Jets obviously, Dolphins.
I told you about like AFC stacked, there's not a
lot of room for aerror. We'll see what Brandon Staley
(38:23):
does with the Chargers this season, but it's still Kansas
City's division to lose. All right. This is a lengthy
podcast for a hurricane slash earthquake weekend in California. We
have a big time college football guest coming up this
week and other shenanigans that we still don't know about yet.
All right, we'll talk to you tomorrow.
Host
Jason McIntyre
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