August 9, 2026 • 61 mins
Colin is joined by Danny Parkins, host of “First Things First” on FS1.
They start with Colin attending Bears practice and Caleb Williams looking incredibly fast after dropping 15 pounds and looking far more accurate with his throws and they look for him to make a big jump in his second year with Ben Johnson (3:30).
They pivot to the controversy surrounding Indiana Fever star Sophie Cunningham and the league becoming embroiled in the culture wars and both agree that the WNBA has outgrown the leadership of commissioner Cathy Engelbert (10:30). Colin argues that just because Caitlin Clark stays out of the political fray doesn’t mean that her and Cunningham can’t be great teammates or friends (17:15).
Colin explains why Sean McVay ruining the NFL preseason by starting the trend of sitting starters has made him more engaged with August baseball (26:30), Danny advocates for Cubs center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong winning the MVP award (28:30) and Colin highlights why the star-studded Dodgers have been struggling (27:45). They also discuss the potential looming lockout for MLB after the 2026 season and why Wrigley Field is one of the best in-person baseball experiences (37:00).
Colin explains why he’s done with the Mike Vrabel/Diana Russini story and has moved on, and they debate whether it will be a story moving forward (47:30). They also discuss whether Tony Romo’s DWI will be used as an excuse for CBS to move on from him as an analyst (50:30).
Finally, they discuss how they each prepare for the NFL season as broadcasters (59:00).
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
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nine twenty seven, twenty twenty six. All right, if you
turn into this podcast and I looked like one of
(01:08):
the Beatles. It's because I've been wearing a baseball hat
all day at Bears practice. So I apologize for that.
But I still have that smooth, silky, rich professional broadcaster
of voice, which you know I always lean in. Not
as nice as Danny Parkins, who was I was talking
about with one of the pr people for the Bears
today about Danny Parkins and I do in the podcast
(01:28):
Chicago Boy. So I went to the practice. There was
a massive storm, so they moved it indoors. And the
first thing I was looking for is everybody said Caleb
Williams lost fifteen pounds. So I talked to him after practice.
He said thirteen. But there was a breakdown on one
play and he moved left. And I am not joking.
He looked like a wide receiver. He was always a
(01:50):
good runner, he is. He looked so fast and he
was out like the corners had angles and they couldn't
they couldn't, they couldn't catch up on the angle. And
I was like, and you know why I lost weight.
He wants to be faster, right, he wants to everybody's
faster in the sport. The second thing that jumped out
Danny is and it was noticeable. And I talked to
(02:13):
Ben Johnson after practice. He's much tighter like post practice
during practice, accuracy it's different. He's always been a little
bit of a streaky accuracy guy, like he'll be great
in the fourth struggling in the second, but his speed
was noticeable. He's much tighter with his accuracy. I was
(02:34):
just kind of blown away. The offense dominated practice as
far as I can tell.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
So first, I mean, it's rare for offenses to dominate
defenses early in training camp, right, Normally, like offense is
more timing, defense is more just like pure reaction and athleticism.
So normally defenses are ahead of offenses early. But the
Bears offense needs to dominate because their defense is not
very good and they've invested a ton on the offensive
side of the ball with draft capital, with head coaching,
(03:00):
HighRes et cetera. So like it's good that the offense
is beating the Bears defense, Like the if the Bears
are going to win, they're going to be doing it
with the top ten, maybe top five offense in the sport.
So like that that's that to me, It was like
a prerequisite, like they need to be beating the Bears
defense in camp slimmed down Caleb like faster Caleb is
(03:23):
a scary thought for the league. Oh because it looked
so he looked like a wide receiver. Great, bring it
on and listen. I people have been like like the
producers on the show, and like, let's do the like
are the Bears a regression candidate? Topic? Like, it doesn't
(03:43):
offend me to suggest that the Bears could regress. You
have to be good in order to be a regression candidate,
Like the Rams are a regression candidate, The Patriots are
a regression candidate. The Broncos are a regression candidate. The
offensive line will not be as healthy, they will not
lead the league in takeaways, they will not have seven
fourth quarter comebacks. I agreed, agreed, agreed, point conceded, Point conceded,
(04:05):
point conceited. But if you have one of the most
talented quarterbacks on Earth with one of the best offensive
coaches on Earth, and it's year two of them together,
that's when the jump happens. Like, that's when the leap happens.
So you know how you can cover up for areas
of obvious regression by Caleb being awesome and the Bears
(04:29):
offense being awesome, which is fully what I expect to
happen for the Bears this year.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
Well, we all know it's a quarterback coach league, and
it was Albert Breer was standing next to me during
the practice and we were talking about this. We're like,
there's not that many combinations where you have a coach
that everyone agrees that's an elite coach and a quarterback
everybody goes that's an elite quarterback talent. You have Vrabel,
(04:56):
Josh McDaniel who runs the offense, and Drake May Harbor,
Herbert McVeigh and an older Stafford. I think Dan Campbell
and golf qualify is very respected both sides. It's like, okay,
Ben Johnson and Caleb and then you start saying, well,
Kyle Shanahan, I don't think Brock Purdy is I think
(05:19):
Brock Purty is efficient. I don't think he's in the
Herbert class. Now I would have said Demko Ryan c J. Stroud,
but c J. Stroud regressed badly last year. So the
reality is now now there's an argument, Matt Stafford, Jordan
Love they've had bad Septembers that they probably in that class. Ye,
(05:40):
Matt Leafleur, Jordan Love. But there's about eight of them,
nine of them in the league. In Chicago's one of them.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
Yeah, listen, I think that. Like, so I covered the
Chiefs when Andy Reid got to Kansas City.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
And I want to read Mahomes right exactly and one
of the things, but I was there before Mahomes got there.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
But one of the things, like when I really dug
into Andy Reid that was so impressive was like, man,
look at all of these different guys who had their
best season with Andy Reid. Sure, Donovan McNabb, Alex Smith,
but also Jeff Garcia, Kevin Cobb, Mike Vick. It was like,
whatever level of quarterback talent you had, when you got
(06:17):
with that coach, you had your best season or seasons.
Then he got the homes and it was five thousand yards,
fifty touchdowns, MVP's super Bowls, like the great offensive minds.
So yeah, brock Perty is an elite processor. He's very accurate,
but he doesn't have the biggest arm. He's not the biggest,
he's not the fastest, he's not the strongest. When you
(06:39):
but like when you have Kyle Shanahan, your floor is
really high. But like I have no doubt Kyle Shanahan
traded three first round picks to try to go get
Trey Lance, like he he wanted the elite, super talented
player because if you can blend, if you can blend
the ninety nine percent talent with the ninety nine percent coach,
(07:00):
that's when you get MVPs and Super Bowls. And I
think that's what Stafford and McVeigh have shown, That's what
Reid and Mahomes have shown, and I think that's what
Ben Johnson and Caleb are going to show. I think
that Ben Johnson is in that McVeigh Shanahan some level
of coach.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
And by the way, like.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
I'm a little closer to that one. I have somewhat
of a relationship with Ben Johnson, not much, but like
he's been on the show, we text a little bit whatever.
Like I think, if you're a Jaguars fan, you're hoping
that Liam Cohen is also in that group. He helped
Baker Mayfield, He got you, you know, Trevor Lawrence to
have one of his best season ever and be a
top seven MVP guy. Like I'm not saying there's only
(07:45):
three or four of them, but if you have top
flight offensive coaching mind who is a play caller, and
that gives you stability of system and all of it,
and then you inject them with top flight talent. I
just think your floor is so damn high as an
offense in a football team that I don't think there's
(08:06):
many outcomes where it can be a disaster or the
team could be bad.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
Yeah, it was interesting. They drafted this kid out of Stanford,
Sam Rouch, who was viewed as a blocking tight end.
First of all, it's just he he looks like an
NFL eight year tight end. He is a big, strong
It's like, oh, he'll play.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
They want to move, they want they want to be
the leaders in the trend right of two and three
tight end sets. And you know, if you put small
guys on the field, we will run at you. If
you put big guys on the field, we will pass
at you. Like they they want to be among the
leaders in that evolution of football. So here's an interesting one.
This whole Sophie Cunningham story is really interesting. I know, yeah,
(08:48):
well we can right right turn.
Speaker 1 (08:52):
So there's a lot of times and in my morning meeting,
this is a big discussion. What's a topic and what's
just a hot topic on the internet. And I think,
you know, I've said before, I think one of the
things our show does well, we talk about what the
country's talking about. But you can get fooled very quickly
talking about what the internet is talking about. So when
(09:17):
it comes to like trans athletes, you know, listen, it's
it's captivating on certain platforms, but on mainstream cable television,
you know, on broadcast TV, how many trans athletes are
playing in the WNBA zero. So it's like, what is
it as a topic. Then Sophie Cunningham, who works at
(09:37):
the Volume, you know, says, you know, I didn't think
it was that explosive, but it's a topic that is
just explosive, and she brings it up. But it was
interesting because I asked my wife about it yesterday and
she's like, I have no idea what you're talking about.
And I'm like, right, like, so, I'm like, yeah, And
my wife doesn't love sports, but she no If I
(09:57):
said to her, oh, you know, if somebody got traded,
she's like, oh, I know, it's all over. Plus her
sons are at you know, sports lovers, and I'm her husband,
so she's got some sense of it. But what's interesting
I mean about the whole thing is I texted somebody
the other day. I said, in my life, good leaders
(10:21):
who I've worked with or for have one thing in common.
Sometimes they go to Ivy League schools. Sometimes they are
going to Jayc's. It's not an education thing. They're really
good leaders. Take little campfires and don't allow them to
be infernos, like they're always a step ahead. George Bodenheim
or ESPN. I've talked about he just ESPN every day
(10:42):
you had something right, like you have to put fires
out and on this trans topic for the WNBA, like
you could see it coming down the road, and like
players talking about it, and I feel like Kathy Engelbert,
it's like now they're reeling now. I mean, Sophie Cunningham
basically gets closed line that looked like Bill Lambier going
(11:05):
after Kurt Rambus. So now you've got You've got a
lot of this stuff like player on player owners screaming
at fans for the Seattle storm. And my big takeaway
on this is, Jesus, could you guys get ahead of anything.
You're just constantly playing catchup. And I do wonder if
it were just reached a point where listen, we got
(11:28):
to get a new commissioner in here. Adam Stilber's like,
we got to get a new commissioner. The league's exploded.
She's just not built for it. But I felt like
that Seattle Storm owner the Clothesline hit on Sophie Cunningham'm like, guys,
you're just you're in reaction mode every third day.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
The last time we talked about the WNBA on this podcast,
I said the thing as a not daily, weekly, monthly
WNBA viewer, but just a viewer of sport who likes
big same into big events, in big games, and like
(12:08):
everyone was swept up in Caitlin Clark and all of that.
But I'm not claiming to be a WNBA expert, but
just as a I would say, an expert of media
and sport. It's very clear that they have outgrown their leadership.
Like that's what I said to you the last time
we were on, which was six news cycles ago, probably
(12:28):
talking about it. I agree with you, they've outgrown their leadership.
This story, though, it really does make me mad because
the people who are pretending to care about it are
doing so just so transparently out of self interest slash
(12:55):
motivation for like to cash in on the commerce of rage.
Like you said, it is not one of the ten
to twenty to fifty biggest issues facing mainstream people in America, right, inflation, wars, whatever,
(13:16):
There's a million things going on. And then you have
these people that were so adamant that athletes needed to
stick to sports when they were talking about topics that
they didn't like, But now when they see a topic
that they feel like benefits politically their side of the aisle, well,
(13:38):
why isn't Caitlin Clark speaking out for Sophie Cunningham And
why is't Kathy Ingelber doing this in the WNBA should
do this? And they did it. You don't care, You
don't actually care. And so it's just it's so transparently
transactional that it really does to me bring out like
the worst in all of us and in common terry,
(14:01):
and I just it bums me out, like on like
a like a human level, because like, again I'm not
a huge WNBA fan or consumer, but objectively it's going well,
record attendance, record ratings, record, Uh.
Speaker 1 (14:16):
The quality of play is better than a decade ago.
The quality of plays.
Speaker 2 (14:19):
Much like a franchise valuation, expansion investors, superstar talent across
the league in number of places, like it's objectively going, well,
it's a basketball league with great basketball that is gaining
in popularity and money. And then they so then these
just like people just try to siphon out the joy
(14:41):
to feed into culture war stuff that it just it
makes it it makes it so that the basketball is
so secondary or tertiary that it it bums me off
for people who are actual legitimate WNBA fans, because I
do wonder like maybe they have to walk past a
protest walk into an arena, but then they go to
(15:02):
an arena and they watch great basketball and they leave happy,
and it's like, are we just we're just bringing the
worst of the internet front and center and it just
it feels like the league and its fans deserve so
much better.
Speaker 1 (15:16):
Well, also, just because Caitlin Clark and I did an
essay this week, I saw this just because Caitlin. Just
because Caitlin Clark did not want to talk about an
issue that Sophie brought up, it doesn't mean they're not
close or great teammates. I mean, like Michael Jordan was
a political Tiger Woods a political Lebron James Moore political,
(15:36):
it's like you can be best for I have friends
that are hyper political. I'm not. I'm kind of agnostic.
I'm a social liberal, fiscal moderate to conservative. I don't
talk about it that much. I do think there was
a moment, I'll say you an interesting moment. This was
a month before the Trump Kamala Harris, Uh yeah. I'm
(15:58):
at a club called the nine hundred Club in Manhattan Beach.
It's a nine hundred member club, very much hoodies and
tennis shoes. But it's like where you go if you're
a local during the summer. It gets packed. You know,
it's very terurist that you go inside and it's just
a watering hole, real nice, like a lot of sports.
You go watch a UFC fight or a college football
game on Saturday. It's my favorite place in the world.
(16:19):
And it was about a month before the election. And
when I go there, you know, everybody's asking we talk sports, Yes,
that's what you talk. Maybe your kid's doing something, and
it was really instructive. I was sitting there a month
for the election and it's like eight guys and I'm
about ready to go. Two beers get in my car,
drive a mile, go home, and somebody brings up, you know,
(16:43):
a couple of young like eighth grade basketball, eighth ninth
grade basketball in Orange County, which is the southern county
south of La County, Orange County, like kind of legendary
for a couple of TV shows, reality shows right La Counties,
Hollywood and stuff, Dodgers Stadium, usc All, that stuff. So
(17:04):
somebody brings up their friend had a daughter that played
against a team that had some trans athletes and that
the biological boys just dominated. And I sat there for
fifteen minutes and I didn't say a word because I
was you know, you and I observe a lot for
a living, Like we talk a lot on the air,
(17:26):
but off the air, we observe two talk. And it
was so visceral and so intense. I remember getting in
my car going home that night and telling Anne, like,
I think Trump's gonna win. I've never seen guys get
so worked up. Here's like forty five year old, fifty
(17:47):
year old guys. We just don't talk politics in that place.
We talked sports, family, Hey, where'd you go on vacation?
You know, it's just a beer games are on and
so I do think if you have daughters who play
in sports, I think it becomes much more personal. I
don't my stepdaughters are like, they'll ski, you know, they'll
(18:07):
do that kind of stuff. They're not team sports kids.
But I do think if I had four daughters and
I was living in it, i'd probably have I'd be
I'd have a more emotional response. My kids aren't, you know,
they golf, they ski, they don't do team sports. So
for me, it's like I asked my wife, Like I
told you, I asked my wife about it this week.
She's like, I don't know what you're talking about. It's
just done a topic in our house.
Speaker 2 (18:29):
Yeah, listen, man, I don't know. I just maybe I'm naive.
I do not think that what is happening is that
a bunch of people are transitioning to get a leg
up in sports. Like I just I don't. I don't
think that that is like a the motivation or the
end goal or anything like that. And I think that
(18:49):
this is, like I said, I think it is a
win politically for one side to amplify it, to make
it seem like a much, much, much bigger issue than
it is. Not saying that there are not incidents where
it is an issue. Not saying that it is not
(19:09):
something that should be addressed with common sense, just I
think that empathy and common sense should carry the day.
And the idea that this is some sort of like
I don't know, national crisis, I just I just reject
it on its merits. Like again, I would say to
(19:30):
people who really like, I think that a bigger issue
in the trans world of again issues, I'm saying that awkwardly,
I apologize, would be like Google's suicide rate among trans
people feels like a bigger deal to me than the
high school sports team feels like a bigger deal. And
I just we don't get anywhere near that amount of
coverage because it's that's not a political winner. So and again,
(19:53):
the most obvious point to make is the people who
wanted athletes to stick to sports now when it's an
issue that the AC is a win for their side,
don't want them to stick to sports at all, which
just makes the whole thing so transparently pathetic. It's just bullshit.
It's just utter and complete bullshit.
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We now are early August. Yeah, and Sean McVay ruined
the NFL preseason because he stopped playing any of his
starters and everybody said, huh, they will be soft and
(21:49):
they went eight to o and everybody's like, yeah, that
was stupid, let's stop. And then so the preseason isn't
what it used to be. There's you know, I'm interested,
although he's not going to start week one. I do
think the Fernando Mendoza story is interesting, but he's not
going to start week one, so I don't care. So
I have found myself And maybe it's because I'm in
(22:10):
Chicago and the Cubs just swept the Dodgers, and the
Dodgers are reeling, encircling the drain. But I will say this,
I have found myself the last two to three years
in August being much more engaged with baseball races. And
I think this is I think this is something that
baseball maybe incidentally, maybe it's just been a matter of luck.
(22:37):
But Cub's good, Yankees interesting, Dodger's reeling, Brave's excellent, Here
come the Astros. It's like all these brands, Red Sox
the hottest team in like eight years, Like they can't
lose games. And I've got to tell you the trade deadline,
I was like, I didn't know half the pitchers going
to these teams outside of like, you know, the Cubs
(22:58):
got somebody from the Jays i'd heard of. But I've
found myself one of the rare instances, I'm like, I'm
choosing in August. I'm choosing some baseball on TV instead
of like looking at mock drafts and caring about football
in the NFL preseason. Do you share that sentiment or not.
Speaker 2 (23:18):
I'm real into the Cubs right now. I'll tell you that,
like I am, we want to do a whole PCA
for MVP conversation, like, am I am your huckleber.
Speaker 1 (23:28):
Pete Crawl Armstrong?
Speaker 2 (23:30):
Amazing?
Speaker 1 (23:32):
He is.
Speaker 2 (23:33):
The guy is so cool and such a great athlete,
and I've been able to work with him a little
bit just I don't want to overstate it, but like
a couple of things for the big charity event that
I do in Chicago and partnership with the Cubs. He
just gets it. He's awesome. I'm so happy for him
because he is the best defensive center fielder in the game,
one of the fastest players of the game. Had a
(23:54):
ton of power last year, but he swung and missed
a lot, a lot, a lot of strikeouts, and early
on in this season he was really struggling. And it
didn't even like take the All Star break. It was
like he just decided I'm gonna have a good eye now,
which is just like not something that's supposed to happen
in baseball. Like that's like you can maybe develop it
(24:17):
over years. You're not supposed to be able to just
like snap your fingers and like you know what, I'm
going to lay off the two to two cutter out
of the zone so that I can get a better
pitch on three to two, and his walk rate is up,
his on base percentage is way up, and he's the
MVP of the league because show Hay hasn't pitched enough
and has been a good offensive player but not the
best offensive player. And show has won four of them.
(24:38):
So if PCA keeps this up for the rest of
the next five weeks and doesn't win MVP, it's going
to be a problem. He deserves it well.
Speaker 1 (24:46):
I also I went to I watched all three of
the Cub Dodger games, the first two especially the other
one was in the afternoon when I was on so
I went and youtubed it and read about it and
watch the highlight of it. But there was no question
if you watched the series that the Cubs had more juice.
And to me, the lost in this Trek Scooball acquisition
(25:12):
of the Dodgers is they're old Mookie beps looks shot,
Freeman's dinged up. Otani had a two home run game
in the last game of the series. But the truth
with the Dodgers is Blake Snell, Tyler Glasnow, it wasn't
a hey, let's add a helipad to the yacht. It
was a somebody throw us a life preserver. If you
(25:35):
have watched the Dodgers play against the Red Sox and Cubs,
they looked like a team that had two really long
playoff runs and they look old, beat up and tired.
They don't have a lot of juice.
Speaker 2 (25:49):
Yeah, And I wonder if that is just because it's
so clearly everything about them is defined by do they
win a World Series or not? Because when they got
scuball and they put up the five man rotation and
they just like do those graphics like what like we do?
Like when the Sixers acquire Lebron and you put up
the Sixers rotation and it's you know, show Hay and
(26:12):
Schooable and glass now and now it's just like it's
outrageous the number of name brand talent that they have everywhere.
They are the most talented team. But the Cubs, you know,
they dug themselves a hole, and you know they're still
trying to chase down the Brewers and like that division
is just a rock fight all the time. But Wriggly
(26:34):
in the Summer comes alive with a great Cubs team,
like it's impossible for them not to have juice. And
I know Dodger stadium crowds are big, and I know
they have great attendance also, but you've now lived in
both places. You've been to Dodger Stadium, You've been to Wrigly.
It's different. Like the the energy and the juice at
Wrigley is just something.
Speaker 1 (26:53):
Oh it's almost a college football game.
Speaker 2 (26:56):
Crowds, it's just excellent. And so you know, there's good
Cubs teams always have a lot of juice in July
and August because kids are out of school, kids are
back from college. It's beautiful every day. It's packed every
single day. Bear season hasn't started yet, so they're front
(27:16):
and center. They're leading all of the shows. So yeah,
tons of juice around that team. And to your point
about preseason, like, yeah, preseason, the things that matter right
now are just it's all bad news. It's like Trent
Williams torn triceps, Luther Burden, Oh, how bad is this
groin injury going to be? Like, it's just you just
you don't want your team to have a news alert
(27:38):
right now because you just want to get to the
games that actually matter. And so, you know, I think
turning attention back to baseball is great because there's so
much damn talent in the sport right now that it's
as good a time as any to kind of sink
your teeth in before the playoffs get going.
Speaker 1 (27:57):
Yeah, it's one of the things that's always fascinated me
about sports. I like the cultural changes. Like I think
it's so funny how we went from small ball and
then Jokic win to title and everybody's like, Okay, you
got to have two bigs to defend him, and then
all of a sudden Wemby arrives and Oklahoma City is like, no,
we need three bigs. We're going to draft a die
(28:19):
Mara with Hart and Stein with chet Holmgren. No, we
need three bigs. And I think it's fascinating in the NBA,
like the second Apron. Now it's all about God, you
can't have. I mean, your bench starts mattering now you
I mean like Oklahoma City looked inevitable and then all
of a sudden you're like, you know, they're kind of
(28:39):
expensive on the bench. I think we've got to make
some moves. And I mean the Celtics basically just said
we want to get out of the Jalen Brown contract,
and if we take in Paul George and we can
get out of that much easier in a year. We'll
just do that. You're like, well, Brown's better than Paul George.
He plays a lot of games. And I think one
of the things that baseball when you're when you're efficient
(29:01):
and smartly run, which I don't think baseball was ten
years ago or five years I think they are now.
Like I've made this argument is that rich guys, when
the money's coming in, don't impede the money. Is that
what if milwalk because the Dodgers are not a lock,
and by the way their cubs have right and the
(29:23):
Cubs pitching, they made moves at the trade deadline, they
may be a little light. If Milwaukee gets to the
World Series, do you think all the billionaires are going
to say, oh God, the books are in What a season?
Because that's my take. The Rays right now are second
in batting average, The Rays are number one hitting team,
runners in scoring position. They're built for the playoffs. They're
(29:45):
just they don't they don't need a ton of power.
It is station station baseball. What if the Rais and
Brewers get to the series, it won't be captivating nationally.
But I don't believe that the lockout is inevitable. Like,
let's just eight till the playoffs happen. Okay, So I
mean there's a lot there. Like I I do think,
(30:08):
I think you're we're probably saying the same thing. I
do think baseball is going to lock out.
Speaker 2 (30:12):
Now, they're not gonna they're not guaranteed to miss games,
but there will be a like a lockout will happen
when this CBA expires. Now, whether or not it impacts
a single thing of spring training or not, I don't know.
But I've been basically assured that the lockout is coming.
It's just a question of if it goes into to
next season. You know some of these teams, and you
(30:33):
mentioned the two that are probably the poster child of
each league, the Brewers and the Rays. They're just excellently
run teams. Like the Brewers have a better run differential
than the Dodgers. Now that it's by one run, I
just checked it to be it be updated. But like
the Brewers are amazing. They can lose. They can lose
their ace, they can lose their closer, they can lose
(30:55):
their manager, which they have over the last three years,
they've lost all of them. Hater and counsel, et cetera.
And they just keep doing it. It's amazing. Same thing
with the Rays. The Rays are just a great organization
and they compete in the Al East with the biggest
spenders and the biggest teams, and they just keep doing it.
(31:16):
Doesn't mean they're going to win, doesn't mean they have one,
but they give themselves a shot each and every year.
So and that's what people point to of saying you
can't buy a World Series. You can't. And it's like,
but you can buy yourself margin for error, Like that's
that's to me, like what the Dodgers have built in now,
Like the Dodgers have built in a tremendous amount of
margin for error that one or two or three or
(31:39):
four guys can get hurt and they can still go
on and win the whole thing. That's not what the
Brewers have going for them. Even the Cubs, dude, Like
the Cubs you mentioned their pitching is a little light.
There was a time earlier this year where thirteen pitchers
who had pitched in the big leagues were on the
injured list, like and it was like it's just they
kept getting hurt time and time and time again. But
(32:00):
The Cubs have a great organization, They're very deep, they
spend a ton of money, so they were able to
withstand it in a way that a team like the Brewers,
if they had that amount of pitching injuries, would not
be able to. But baseball's in an interesting spot because
I think the talent is as good as it's ever been.
(32:20):
The business is clearly very very very healthy, but the
owners seem to be convinced they need a salary cap,
and the players seem to be convinced that they'll never
give it, will never give in on it. So I
do think I think there is at least a chance
(32:41):
that we miss games for a work stoppage for the
first time since nineteen ninety four in baseball, which would
be devastating because there's nothing less relatable in a time
of inflation and high gas prices and all of it
than millionaires and billionaires fighting. And it would just be
a shame because baseball has a lot of momentum going
for You mentioned the leadership, the rules changes, the big market,
(33:03):
all of them have been done.
Speaker 1 (33:05):
They've had a home run on like eight changes, eight
for eight.
Speaker 2 (33:08):
And the big markets are good, and there's young stars
in the game, Like there's a million things that baseball
has going for it. So I really really hope, and
I guess can be cautiously optimistic that the two sides
will realize like is this situation perfect? No, but we
we should not kill the golden goose here in miss games?
Speaker 1 (33:30):
Is it a lockout if you don't miss a spring
training game? That's almost like saying.
Speaker 2 (33:34):
That's true, that's true, Like I think that's definition. It
is a lockout. But to your point, like if nothing
actually is mess do the fans care? But like the
CBA is going to expire without a deal, which I
think makes it a lockout. You know, so.
Speaker 1 (33:51):
Well, it's like I only worry if I go to
Fox and my key card doesn't sure that's a lock out.
Everything else is they're mad at me during negotiations for
a month. I'm like, it's not really a lot lockout?
Is you put that card up?
Speaker 2 (34:07):
It's like, no, I'm I'm I am a hundred that
is one hundred percent true. I just know that if
Jeff Passon says there's going to be a lockout, there's
gonna be a lockout. That's that's what I know. He
is my uh he is my north star on this
sort of thing. So there will be a lockout, will
they miss games? I think that is still very much
(34:28):
up in the air. And yeah, man, like it's the
baseball playoffs. They're great. Like, you want to go to
a Cubs playoff game this year?
Speaker 1 (34:37):
Excuse me, well, I'm going to them. I'm first of all,
I've been to two Cup games this year. I'm going
to the Bears game Saturday night, sitting in a pretty
swanky box. I don't want to give it away, And
I am going to a You know, my wife's so funny.
She's like, you know, I don't talk about sports around
her because she doesn't really care. You know, she likes
(34:58):
dog videos and culinary stuff on TikTok, but she you know,
she reads the news every day, but she doesn't want
to get into it. And Dan, I say, I was
talking to a friend about the Cubs. She's say, oh,
I want to go to the gates. I'm like, well,
come on, you can't just jump on you can't jump
on the that's kind of a bandwagon fan.
Speaker 2 (35:17):
Here's the thing. And I say this as a card
carrying member of Cubs Nation. We're familiar with Bandwagon jumpers.
It's Wriggly is littered with him. It is a reputation
that is well earned. It's a national landmark. It's why
we sell out the stadium when the team wins seventy
two games because Wriggly is awesome. So Anne is more
(35:40):
than a welcome to bandwagon jump for a summer at Wrigley.
Just get her an old style and a hot dog.
She'll fit right in.
Speaker 1 (35:47):
I bought her a Wriggly cub shirt. She's Irish with
an Irish green clasher with a with a clover. And
when you go to Wrigley Field, and I've said this before,
if it was in Belgium, if it was in you know, Florence,
Italy or something, you'd literally say, oh, it's a bucket list.
It's like going It's like going to watch Manchester United
(36:11):
Wrigley Field. For those who have never done it, and
in the Midwest, everybody's done it, diehard baseball fans have
done it. It is like nothing else. It is a
college football game eighty one times a year in this
really cool part of the city. And you go to
Mers and you go to the game and afterwards and
then you can go on Sheffield or Waveland Avenue, which
I did the other day. It's nothing like it in
(36:33):
the country. There's nothing like.
Speaker 2 (36:34):
I completely agree, obviously I'm insanely biased, and like when
the Cubs were when when theo Epstein was there, and I,
by the way, congratulations on the success of the pod
and the live event. It was. I loved every Oh god,
I listen to every episode. I ate it up. It was.
It was spectacular content. But like they all also knew
(36:58):
how special it was. The private room and the upstairs
at Murphy's which is basically just an apartment, but like
that's where like theo is throwing parties when they would
win playoff series, and like because it's just like everyone
like Cubs players walk to the games. They live in
the neighborhood, they bike to the games because it's such
a cool part of the city. And so yeah, whether
you whether you're a Cubby Bear guy, a Murphy's guy,
(37:20):
a Slugger's guy, people say like that the neighborhood has
changed so much, and it's like it it there is
definitely turnover because post COVID and bars and restaurants, it's
a tough business, like, but the institutions are all still
there like Murphy's Sluggers, Cobby Bear, They're all still there.
It's just a it's a it's a great thing. And
(37:43):
I mean rig has been transformed. Man. Like we talk
about these news teams and new stadiums, like the Bills
are going to be debuting a new stadium this year.
I haven't been to the one for the Rams yet.
I have been to the Cowboys State Like sometimes they
all feel little sterile and corporate and cookie cutter, and
you know, all just as many suites as possible with
as big of a video board as possible. It is
(38:05):
an amazing thing what they've done with Wrigly to like
add in a video board, improve the suites, add in
the club seating, like to like generate more money and income,
build the hotel across the way, do Gallagher Way, which
is like an outdoor area where you can come in
and out of the stadium during the gameplay with your kids,
the games on, have beers whatever. And it's still the
(38:29):
brick wall, the manual scoreboard, the ivy, the narrow seats,
like it is still Wriggly Field. And so it's a
it is a really incredible job of like modernizing a
landmark without changing it. And it's just it's a perfect
sports venue. It really is.
Speaker 1 (38:53):
Listen, there's a lot of things talking about controversial topics that.
Speaker 2 (39:01):
I know.
Speaker 1 (39:03):
There are certain journalistic principles I follow. If I break
a story, I have to have two sources. That's just
the general rule. If I get a really hard quote
on somebody, a real harsh quote, I want it double sourced.
Speaker 2 (39:16):
And so.
Speaker 1 (39:19):
But there are stories that I'm not going to let
myself be guilted in. I just don't care. And one
of them is the Rabel Russini story, which I talked
about once on my podcast. When it happened, I said, Okay,
it's a moral issue for him because she's a journalist.
There's an ethical standard on sourcing. It's an ethical and
(39:41):
moral in story for her. That's her career. When I
see people continuing to probe on it, my take is
like if I cover the Patriots, I don't care. Like
it happened for Rabel, he's not getting fired. Coaches don't
get fired for that. It's a moral family story. I
don't really care. There's a lot of stuff I don't
(40:04):
know about that happens. Right for Russini, I do think
it's a story in the journalism club New York Times Athletic.
That's her career, of course, and it's also a moral story.
But I have found myself. I've had people from time
to time go, how can you don't talk about it? No?
I did for about ten minutes, and I'm no longer interested,
(40:25):
and that probably means I'm not a journalist. Is it
a story going forward? I don't care.
Speaker 2 (40:32):
I was surprised that Mike Tomlin said, like, if they lose,
it's like early, it's going to become the noise around
it is going to become very loud, Like what is
going to be the criticism that an affair was allegedly
uncovered four months before the season started, So that's why
(40:52):
they're losing games in September. Like, that's like a pretty
huge leap to make. So I think that listen if
it if the Patriots were interested in doing an investigation
into him, Like was he using his closeness with a
journalist to campaign for a Coach of the Year vote?
(41:15):
Was he using his relationship with a journalist to try
to get intel on an opponent ahead of a game plan?
Was he using his relationship with a journalist to try
to muddy the waters with Philly and aj Brown so
that the price tag would go down so they could
trade for him. Like I could see there being an
argument for there being some sort of ethical quandary ish,
(41:41):
but he was in the Super Bowl last year, so
they don't care, well, you know what I mean. Like,
I think that that is that Also, it's like, if
your employer is happy with the job you are doing
and the misdeed that you commit is not directly related
to your job, which in his case is winning football games,
(42:02):
they're not going to dig too deep into it. Whereas
if to your point about her, this is it is obvious,
like if you are using a romantic relationship to further
yourself with a source, that is obviously something that needs
to they have bylaws of the New York Times, these
types of thing relationship personal relationships with the sources need
(42:24):
to be disclosed. But clearly it is more ethically black
and white in the newspaper online newspaper business of black
and white journalism than it is being a football coach
of the AFC champions I think.
Speaker 1 (42:37):
It's the kind of thing and I believe this with
a Tony Romo situation that is the compresson league. Okay,
So with Mike Vrabel, if Mike Rabel was in year
four and was on the fence, employer goes, you know
your leadership has been in question. You just you just
booted it. Tony Romo, if he was as good as
(43:02):
many of the other guys, his company would support him greatly.
Al Michael's got a DUI. There was no talk about
losing his job. Romo is highly compensated. Kind of feels
like sometimes as a quarterback in a broadcaster, he's kind
of ad libbing, you know, when you have one game
a week to do and Jim Nantz does a majority
(43:23):
of the talking. I don't think I'm out of bound
saying that there are situations. They can be moral, they
can be ethical. Obviously, let's not minimize you know, drinking
and having a cocktail in a car. That's bad. Nobody's
saying it's not. But I do think there is something
about those situations where when you're vulnerable. Vrabel wasn't Romo
(43:49):
is it does change outcomes potentially, of course.
Speaker 2 (43:55):
Right. Let's like I don't have to treat everybody equally.
I just have to treat everybody fairly. Like, yeah, like
if if they if they weren't happy with the job
that Mike Rabel was doing, they could have said they
could have been like morality clause, embarrassment to the franchise,
you had to miss day three of the draft, dereliction
(44:16):
of responsibilities, you're fired. But he but they were in
the super Bowl, and he's a patriot guy and they
love him, so they're like, dad, do what you need
to do. Like, not everybody has to play by the
same set of rules in life. Tony Romo was the
greatest thing in broadcasting, now perceived to not be very
(44:37):
highly paid. Like I feel a little badly like putting
another current person's name into it, Like so I don't
Charles Barkley. Everybody agrees best basketball analyst, highly paid, incredibly valuable.
They want him to work for as long as he
wants to work. If the exact same thing happened to Charles,
(44:57):
does anybody think he's in danger of losing his job?
Speaker 1 (45:01):
Well, yeah, you're right. So it's interesting with Romo too,
because media critics have had the knives out for him
for years and they can be a little little jaded.
But it was funny because about them. Yeah, two weeks ago.
I was at an event and his name came up
and it was kind of front and center that the
Wisconsin open container, right, which we found out about three
(45:23):
or four days after the story came out. He had
an open container and it was funny. Whereas the critics
crush him. The guys in the room I was with
or like, I like Romo. I think he's funny on
the air, and again when I watch him, I don't
think he's as meticulous as Greg Olsen right or as
(45:43):
or right like, I don't think he is. But is
he as bad as the sense Like My take is
the average fan out there thinks Romo's kind of fun
and goofy andly easy to listen. Yeah, probably true and
like listen, But executives don't like the negative publicity from
the credit exactly exactly.
Speaker 2 (46:03):
It's one thing that I like. I've toyed with the
idea of quitting Twitter because I just I don't it's
it's a cesspool and it's before you tab is rage bait,
and I genuinely think it's divisiveness by design, and so
I don't think it's great. But like our bosses are
(46:24):
all on Twitter, like there's a there is a Our
industry is all on Twitter, and so there is like
a little bit of a self perpetuating thing. It's like, oh,
Twitter doesn't like Tony Romo, or Twitter knows that criticizing
Tony Romo gets views and gets played into the algorithm
and gets aggregated and makes it onto the websites and
(46:45):
all that. And I have criticisms of a ton of broadcasters, right,
So I'm not I do think that it is a
fair thing to say that. Like when he first started,
the energy and the predicting of plays was a novelty
and I was transfixed by it. And then as he's
gotten further from being in the game, and they also
clearly told him like, don't tell us what's gonna happen beforehand.
(47:08):
It spoils the surprise, Like his magic trick has been
kind of neutered. And the thing that bothers me the
most about Romo as an analyst is he says, I
don't know way too much. I'm like, you're the analyst,
Like what Jim will be like fourth and four here, Tony,
what do you think is a field goal or a
(47:28):
go for it spot? And He's like, I don't know,
Jim it's a tough call. I'm like, no, man, that's
your job, like you have to you say, I don't
know too much for my personal liking, and so like that.
That is my criticism of It's not his energy. It's
not as joke with me like that's fine. It's he says,
I don't know too much for my from my liking.
Speaker 1 (47:48):
As an analyst, I always think that you become the
broadcaster you were as a quarterback. So the story of
Brady the football player is legendary, where Belichick's like, well,
it wasn't very good initially, and then all of a
sudden becomes the goat and every year there's these massive jumps.
That's what he was as a broadcaster. You know, he'd
never done it. He was rough around the edges, and
(48:08):
the last year, you're like, Jesus, he's good, like really
knows what's happening. Romo always caught people's attention because of
his athletic ability. But I had it pretty well sourced,
well meticulously, so somebody in the locker room was like,
but he kind of skimped on the details. He was
a bit of an ad liver. He wasn't the hardest worker,
(48:29):
but he was naturally really athletic, funny, guys liked him.
There was some leadership stuff there. So that's kind of
what he's been in a broadcaster. One starts rough, gets
very good quickly, one starts surprisingly good, and then over
the course of time, you're like, is he really putting
the time in wait? And I think your personality becomes
(48:49):
your quarterback personality becomes your broadcasting person.
Speaker 2 (48:51):
Yeah, And I think you and I forget about it.
We watch all the games and every day and all that.
My father has passed away. But like I remember when
got hired, it was like like my dad knew who
Tony Romo was quarterback of the Cowboys, you know, like
there is a Q factor to those jobs. Sure that
It's like fame is a huge piece of it. Like
(49:15):
you get Tom Brady to be your broadcasters like these
Tom Brady and he does work really hard at it
and he has gotten a lot better. But like Chris
collins Worth has to do a little bit more, you know,
just because he's Chris collins Worth. He's not Tony Romo
or Troy Yeikman or Tom Brady. Right, Greg Olson has
to do a little bit more. I'm really interested I
thought that Luke Keikley hire was really interesting. Like everyone
(49:37):
says he's one of the smartest players ever, and people
said he he aced the audition, and like, I can't
wait to watch it because like, yeah, a linebacker is
that's a unique person to have as a solo analyst
and a football broadcast. Like I'm excited to watch Noah
Eagle and Luke Keickley this year.
Speaker 1 (49:57):
Yeah, Luke Keithley greg Olsen tied end jj Watt, Like
there is I mean, you kind of forget like jj
Watt was always a really thoughtful guy, so you knew
he'd be pretty good at it. Yeah. I met Luke
at a wedding not long ago. He one of the
most walks up to you, makes eye contact impossible not
(50:18):
to like.
Speaker 2 (50:19):
So likability is the is the secret sauce to this
thing that we do. And I'm not saying that I
have it in spades, like so like I have to
make up for it with great takes, but like, uh,
but yeah, like if you are just like charming and
likable and easy to listen to to watch, it's a
(50:40):
It's a superpower. I say it about my buddy Adam
lefgo All the time. At now he's he's gotten his
due and he's the face of Turner Sports. You know,
air a parent to Ernie Johnson who all that. Like,
he's unbelievably versatile. He's doing boxing and the French Open
and the NCAA tournament and college football. He's an amazing
broadcast baseball playoffs. He does it all for Turner. But
(51:02):
I'm like left Go in college was popular in a
frat in some student media, but like he was like
he did it more like socially and casually, and I
remember being like, he's going to be successful. I've never
met anyone more liked like. Athletes liked him, sorority girls
(51:23):
like him, frat guys liked him, Journalism dorks liked him.
Everyone liked him. Likability is the secret sauce, and so
he's one of the greatest to do it. And so
if Luke Keigley has that thing, it'll that charisma, it'll
it'll come through. It's so valuable.
Speaker 1 (51:41):
So how do you prepare for a football season? So
I like him afternoon drinking in the summer, I do
not like it in the winter, in the fall, in
the summer, it's almost a problem. I really enjoy an
afternoon cocktail and turning on a sporting event. So over
the last I got about three or four weeks. Now
(52:02):
I've got to ramp up. I've got to be in.
I've got to like, you know, the sauce. It just
can't be sauce day every Tuesday. Do you prepare differently? So?
Speaker 2 (52:11):
I mean I wasn't thinking about the drinking component so much. No,
like I I obviously footballs are bread and butter. They
want us to take some vacations ahead of football season,
some of us on this call more than others. I
think I'm filling in for you.
Speaker 1 (52:29):
A few whoa, Hey, that's standing. I'm filling it right,
You've earned it.
Speaker 2 (52:32):
I think I'm filling in for you on a couple
of days coming up, of which they still haven't told
me which ones not better? Which city am I going
to be in? No, but like I what I try
to do, even though, like when I did local radio
in Chicago, it felt like we were sometimes, you know,
three feet wide and a mile deep, like all fifty
(52:55):
three guys on the Bears, every position battle, the solar
reposition coach, the whole thing. Right now, this job at
FS one, it's more a mile wide and three feet deep.
I try very hard to be a mile wide and
like one hundred feet deep because I think that that's
(53:16):
like what I bring to the table. Right I didn't
play in the NFL. I'm more I'm the smart guy.
I'm the guy who watches the game and knows the numbers.
And I know people will be like, you're dumb, but whatever,
Like that's like my lane, right, and so I try
right now to be consuming the stuff that I'm not
(53:36):
going to actually need. Like I just got back from
a week in San franc the San Jose, San Francisco
area with my sister and brother in law and their
kids and my kids, getting the cousins together for a
week of vacation. So it's six hour flight. I consumed
a lot of like NFL podcasts of different markets of
teams that we're going to talk about, like Eagles pod,
(54:00):
gast Chargers podcast, Cowboys podcast, like things like like like
with like beat writers, things like that, whether they were
going on national shows, division preview shows, whatever the case
may be. To try to like have a deeper understanding
of what the things are for the team because then
when we do it, it's you know, Joe Burrow against
Lamar Jackson. But hopefully I can bring a little bit
(54:22):
more context into it. So I try to because I
know I'm not going to be able to do that
once the season starts and we're doing all the topics
and all of the games and all the teams. But
so I try to have a really deep knowledge base
going into the season, and then during the season, I
just watch every game and go from there. What about you,
(54:48):
what do you like? I mean, how do you prep
it out? Is that what you were asking? Or were
you literally saying, Danny, do you drink less in football season?
Was that your question? No?
Speaker 1 (54:58):
I No, it is funny because I in the summer,
like I golf, I am recreational. I like when I
take a two week break in July, the first ten
days I do not watch TV, Like I give my
wife ten days of just because then in the last
four or five days I go back to watching stuff
and doing stuff. But no, I I'm like, you know,
(55:20):
I just what I just constantly do is just watch
football stuff. And like I'll watch you know, I'll watch
the games. I'll watch preseason games, even though I know,
like I watched every second of Arizona in Carolina every
single second, and most of those players, almost all of them,
will have no impact. Not a single player there was
(55:43):
worth half a point in the NFL game. But I
like the sport, but I would say I go. I
would just say it's I did feel like last year
because I do think the gap between good and I
think what's happened to the NFL because of the importance
(56:04):
of the quarterback that if you don't have one, it
used to be you'd kind of watch everybody until Thanksgiving.
But I do feel like there are about six teams
that by October fifth, it could be sure, Like I
think Arizona Jets, it could be over like three to
four games. In Yeah, Miami. I like Malik Willis, but
(56:27):
he is probably their second best player, and we don't
know if he's coming back close two.
Speaker 2 (56:32):
But like they have no talents anyway.
Speaker 1 (56:35):
I would say what's happened to the NFL is a
little like college football or the NBA, about thirty percent
of it I know a lot about in the NFL.
I always felt it had to be about eighty percent.
But what I found over the last two to three
years is the bottom of the NFL is growing now.
Next year is a great college quarterback class, so that'll
(56:57):
be fascinating because even bad teams will have rookie quarterbacks.
But this year, some of the bad teams are just
bad teams, uh, and they're not terribly captivating. I don't
think the Jets or Arizona. I just don't think those
are really interesting teams. But I will say if Minnesota
finishes fourth, that's about as good a fourth place team.
(57:21):
I think the Raiders will finish fourth and it'll be
really interesting. That's one of the things the NFL has.
There are bad teams that are good watching. Yes's not
the case in baseball, hockey or the NBA.
Speaker 2 (57:33):
Like the NBA has it a little bit and like
I want to see a great player, like like I
feel like if you went to a Mavericks game last
year and you saw Cooper Flag, you got you got
your money's worth, even though they were a bad team. Right,
So like I've I've but like, but that's more like
you're watching them Wemby's Wemby's first two years exactly like,
(57:56):
so I think it actually happens in the NBA. But
it's different. It's not at all like the team is
interesting or an expectation of winning. It's just like I
want to see how this individual gets through the game,
how he interacts, how he plays, how he does he
hang his head, does he whatever? No, Like listen, football
is like we don't think Arizona or the Jets or
(58:17):
the Dolphins, but like every year there is a surprise
team or injuries happen or luck happens. I mean, the
Broncos won eleven one score games last year. It's an
NFL record. Now it's tied with a couple of other teams. Like,
I think the Broncos are good. I think it's a
really talented roster, great coach, great defense, great offensive line.
I'm not saying it's a complete fluke, but they want
(58:40):
eleven one score games like that could go the other
way that if they go five and six in one
score games this year, all of a sudden, they are
a nine win team and we're not talking about them
very much. So there's a there is a lot of
variance in the NFL. You mentioned the vikings, like the
Lions finished in the last place week, the Lions ruined,
(59:00):
the who's the worst? The first team segments that we
all do in August because every single person would say
that the Lions are going to be the worst the
first team, even if you pick the Bears or the Packers, like,
they're clearly the best candidate to go worse to first. So,
like the there's a almost every fan base goes into
(59:21):
an NFL season with hope, maybe not hope of a
super Bowl, but hope of things could go our way.
We could win ten games and we could make the playoffs.
I would say, like twenty seven teams go into this.
Speaker 1 (59:36):
Yeah, Jets Arizona, No Jets Arizona, Tennessee, Tennessee. Probably know
everybody else, Like I think the Saints are going to
shock people and win ten to eleven games. Could be wrong,
but I think Jets Arizona, Tennessee, you kind of know
it's a nine would be.
Speaker 2 (59:55):
Great, great, but it's not going to IM going to
keep throwing Miami and I think I know it's new
coach Miamis. They have no talent. You're getting so much
dead money. I think Miami. If I had to pick
a team right now to get the number one pick,
I think I'd picked Miami. But like Tennessee is a
good example. Yeah, they don't have much hope, except it's
year two of a number one pick. Like cam Ward
(01:00:18):
could be great. I didn't see it. He didn't have
much around him. He's dealt with coaching turnover and instability
and all sort, you know what I mean. But like I,
cam Ward could be great, and so like you you're
a Titans fan going into this year, I still would
imagine there's a decent level of opted. We got Carnell Tate,
we got him at number one target. We spent money.
(01:00:39):
We brought in Franklin Myers, the defensive tackle from the
from the Broncos, who was awesome on the huge deal
to put him next to Jeffrey Simms. Like, we've got
a defensive line, we got a young quarterback, we got
a young wide receiver, Like, let's roll the ball out
there and see. We got a winnable division. Like, let's
see what we got. You know? So, I think a
lot almost every fan base can at least talk themselves
(01:01:01):
into hope, which is just an amazing thing that the
NFL has created, which is why it's the best product.
Speaker 1 (01:01:09):
Danny Parkins, that was good stuff. I appreciate. That was
over an hour of we even we even got Uh
was that controversial.
Speaker 2 (01:01:17):
Here's what I'll say. If anything is going to be
aggregated from this podcast, it's clearly gonna be my pc
A for MVP take That's what's gonna be. That's what's
gonna be aggregated.
Speaker 1 (01:01:28):
That was I gotta be honest, I got I got
a little nervous about that time.
Speaker 2 (01:01:32):
It was. It was scared, it was, it was scared.
I'm gonna I'm gonna learn my agent right now. Hey,
you might need to do some damage control over the
next twenty four to forty eight hours for me. Okay,
I came for show. Heyo, Tony, this is PCA's league now.
Speaker 1 (01:01:45):
Great stuff.
Speaker 2 (01:01:47):
Thanks Colin.
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nine twenty seven, twenty twenty six. All right, if you
turn into this podcast and I looked like one of
(01:08):
the Beatles. It's because I've been wearing a baseball hat
all day at Bears practice. So I apologize for that.
But I still have that smooth, silky, rich professional broadcaster
of voice, which you know I always lean in. Not
as nice as Danny Parkins, who was I was talking
about with one of the pr people for the Bears
today about Danny Parkins and I do in the podcast
(01:28):
Chicago Boy. So I went to the practice. There was
a massive storm, so they moved it indoors. And the
first thing I was looking for is everybody said Caleb
Williams lost fifteen pounds. So I talked to him after practice.
He said thirteen. But there was a breakdown on one
play and he moved left. And I am not joking.
He looked like a wide receiver. He was always a
(01:50):
good runner, he is. He looked so fast and he
was out like the corners had angles and they couldn't
they couldn't, they couldn't catch up on the angle. And
I was like, and you know why I lost weight.
He wants to be faster, right, he wants to everybody's
faster in the sport. The second thing that jumped out
Danny is and it was noticeable. And I talked to
(02:13):
Ben Johnson after practice. He's much tighter like post practice
during practice, accuracy it's different. He's always been a little
bit of a streaky accuracy guy, like he'll be great
in the fourth struggling in the second, but his speed
was noticeable. He's much tighter with his accuracy. I was
(02:34):
just kind of blown away. The offense dominated practice as
far as I can tell.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
So first, I mean, it's rare for offenses to dominate
defenses early in training camp, right, Normally, like offense is
more timing, defense is more just like pure reaction and athleticism.
So normally defenses are ahead of offenses early. But the
Bears offense needs to dominate because their defense is not
very good and they've invested a ton on the offensive
side of the ball with draft capital, with head coaching,
(03:00):
HighRes et cetera. So like it's good that the offense
is beating the Bears defense, Like the if the Bears
are going to win, they're going to be doing it
with the top ten, maybe top five offense in the sport.
So like that that's that to me, It was like
a prerequisite, like they need to be beating the Bears
defense in camp slimmed down Caleb like faster Caleb is
(03:23):
a scary thought for the league. Oh because it looked
so he looked like a wide receiver. Great, bring it
on and listen. I people have been like like the
producers on the show, and like, let's do the like
are the Bears a regression candidate? Topic? Like, it doesn't
(03:43):
offend me to suggest that the Bears could regress. You
have to be good in order to be a regression candidate,
Like the Rams are a regression candidate, The Patriots are
a regression candidate. The Broncos are a regression candidate. The
offensive line will not be as healthy, they will not
lead the league in takeaways, they will not have seven
fourth quarter comebacks. I agreed, agreed, agreed, point conceded, Point conceded,
(04:05):
point conceited. But if you have one of the most
talented quarterbacks on Earth with one of the best offensive
coaches on Earth, and it's year two of them together,
that's when the jump happens. Like, that's when the leap happens.
So you know how you can cover up for areas
of obvious regression by Caleb being awesome and the Bears
(04:29):
offense being awesome, which is fully what I expect to
happen for the Bears this year.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
Well, we all know it's a quarterback coach league, and
it was Albert Breer was standing next to me during
the practice and we were talking about this. We're like,
there's not that many combinations where you have a coach
that everyone agrees that's an elite coach and a quarterback
everybody goes that's an elite quarterback talent. You have Vrabel,
(04:56):
Josh McDaniel who runs the offense, and Drake May Harbor,
Herbert McVeigh and an older Stafford. I think Dan Campbell
and golf qualify is very respected both sides. It's like, okay,
Ben Johnson and Caleb and then you start saying, well,
Kyle Shanahan, I don't think Brock Purdy is I think
(05:19):
Brock Purty is efficient. I don't think he's in the
Herbert class. Now I would have said Demko Ryan c J. Stroud,
but c J. Stroud regressed badly last year. So the
reality is now now there's an argument, Matt Stafford, Jordan
Love they've had bad Septembers that they probably in that class. Ye,
(05:40):
Matt Leafleur, Jordan Love. But there's about eight of them,
nine of them in the league. In Chicago's one of them.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
Yeah, listen, I think that. Like, so I covered the
Chiefs when Andy Reid got to Kansas City.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
And I want to read Mahomes right exactly and one
of the things, but I was there before Mahomes got there.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
But one of the things, like when I really dug
into Andy Reid that was so impressive was like, man,
look at all of these different guys who had their
best season with Andy Reid. Sure, Donovan McNabb, Alex Smith,
but also Jeff Garcia, Kevin Cobb, Mike Vick. It was like,
whatever level of quarterback talent you had, when you got
(06:17):
with that coach, you had your best season or seasons.
Then he got the homes and it was five thousand yards,
fifty touchdowns, MVP's super Bowls, like the great offensive minds.
So yeah, brock Perty is an elite processor. He's very accurate,
but he doesn't have the biggest arm. He's not the biggest,
he's not the fastest, he's not the strongest. When you
(06:39):
but like when you have Kyle Shanahan, your floor is
really high. But like I have no doubt Kyle Shanahan
traded three first round picks to try to go get
Trey Lance, like he he wanted the elite, super talented
player because if you can blend, if you can blend
the ninety nine percent talent with the ninety nine percent coach,
(07:00):
that's when you get MVPs and Super Bowls. And I
think that's what Stafford and McVeigh have shown, That's what
Reid and Mahomes have shown, and I think that's what
Ben Johnson and Caleb are going to show. I think
that Ben Johnson is in that McVeigh Shanahan some level
of coach.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
And by the way, like.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
I'm a little closer to that one. I have somewhat
of a relationship with Ben Johnson, not much, but like
he's been on the show, we text a little bit whatever.
Like I think, if you're a Jaguars fan, you're hoping
that Liam Cohen is also in that group. He helped
Baker Mayfield, He got you, you know, Trevor Lawrence to
have one of his best season ever and be a
top seven MVP guy. Like I'm not saying there's only
(07:45):
three or four of them, but if you have top
flight offensive coaching mind who is a play caller, and
that gives you stability of system and all of it,
and then you inject them with top flight talent. I
just think your floor is so damn high as an
offense in a football team that I don't think there's
(08:06):
many outcomes where it can be a disaster or the
team could be bad.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
Yeah, it was interesting. They drafted this kid out of Stanford,
Sam Rouch, who was viewed as a blocking tight end.
First of all, it's just he he looks like an
NFL eight year tight end. He is a big, strong
It's like, oh, he'll play.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
They want to move, they want they want to be
the leaders in the trend right of two and three
tight end sets. And you know, if you put small
guys on the field, we will run at you. If
you put big guys on the field, we will pass
at you. Like they they want to be among the
leaders in that evolution of football. So here's an interesting one.
This whole Sophie Cunningham story is really interesting. I know, yeah,
(08:48):
well we can right right turn.
Speaker 1 (08:52):
So there's a lot of times and in my morning meeting,
this is a big discussion. What's a topic and what's
just a hot topic on the internet. And I think,
you know, I've said before, I think one of the
things our show does well, we talk about what the
country's talking about. But you can get fooled very quickly
talking about what the internet is talking about. So when
(09:17):
it comes to like trans athletes, you know, listen, it's
it's captivating on certain platforms, but on mainstream cable television,
you know, on broadcast TV, how many trans athletes are
playing in the WNBA zero. So it's like, what is
it as a topic. Then Sophie Cunningham, who works at
(09:37):
the Volume, you know, says, you know, I didn't think
it was that explosive, but it's a topic that is
just explosive, and she brings it up. But it was
interesting because I asked my wife about it yesterday and
she's like, I have no idea what you're talking about.
And I'm like, right, like, so, I'm like, yeah, And
my wife doesn't love sports, but she no If I
(09:57):
said to her, oh, you know, if somebody got traded,
she's like, oh, I know, it's all over. Plus her
sons are at you know, sports lovers, and I'm her husband,
so she's got some sense of it. But what's interesting
I mean about the whole thing is I texted somebody
the other day. I said, in my life, good leaders
(10:21):
who I've worked with or for have one thing in common.
Sometimes they go to Ivy League schools. Sometimes they are
going to Jayc's. It's not an education thing. They're really
good leaders. Take little campfires and don't allow them to
be infernos, like they're always a step ahead. George Bodenheim
or ESPN. I've talked about he just ESPN every day
(10:42):
you had something right, like you have to put fires
out and on this trans topic for the WNBA, like
you could see it coming down the road, and like
players talking about it, and I feel like Kathy Engelbert,
it's like now they're reeling now. I mean, Sophie Cunningham
basically gets closed line that looked like Bill Lambier going
(11:05):
after Kurt Rambus. So now you've got You've got a
lot of this stuff like player on player owners screaming
at fans for the Seattle storm. And my big takeaway
on this is, Jesus, could you guys get ahead of anything.
You're just constantly playing catchup. And I do wonder if
it were just reached a point where listen, we got
(11:28):
to get a new commissioner in here. Adam Stilber's like,
we got to get a new commissioner. The league's exploded.
She's just not built for it. But I felt like
that Seattle Storm owner the Clothesline hit on Sophie Cunningham'm like, guys,
you're just you're in reaction mode every third day.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
The last time we talked about the WNBA on this podcast,
I said the thing as a not daily, weekly, monthly
WNBA viewer, but just a viewer of sport who likes
big same into big events, in big games, and like
(12:08):
everyone was swept up in Caitlin Clark and all of that.
But I'm not claiming to be a WNBA expert, but
just as a I would say, an expert of media
and sport. It's very clear that they have outgrown their leadership.
Like that's what I said to you the last time
we were on, which was six news cycles ago, probably
(12:28):
talking about it. I agree with you, they've outgrown their leadership.
This story, though, it really does make me mad because
the people who are pretending to care about it are
doing so just so transparently out of self interest slash
(12:55):
motivation for like to cash in on the commerce of rage.
Like you said, it is not one of the ten
to twenty to fifty biggest issues facing mainstream people in America, right, inflation, wars, whatever,
(13:16):
There's a million things going on. And then you have
these people that were so adamant that athletes needed to
stick to sports when they were talking about topics that
they didn't like, But now when they see a topic
that they feel like benefits politically their side of the aisle, well,
(13:38):
why isn't Caitlin Clark speaking out for Sophie Cunningham And
why is't Kathy Ingelber doing this in the WNBA should
do this? And they did it. You don't care, You
don't actually care. And so it's just it's so transparently
transactional that it really does to me bring out like
the worst in all of us and in common terry,
(14:01):
and I just it bums me out, like on like
a like a human level, because like, again I'm not
a huge WNBA fan or consumer, but objectively it's going well,
record attendance, record ratings, record, Uh.
Speaker 1 (14:16):
The quality of play is better than a decade ago.
The quality of plays.
Speaker 2 (14:19):
Much like a franchise valuation, expansion investors, superstar talent across
the league in number of places, like it's objectively going, well,
it's a basketball league with great basketball that is gaining
in popularity and money. And then they so then these
just like people just try to siphon out the joy
(14:41):
to feed into culture war stuff that it just it
makes it it makes it so that the basketball is
so secondary or tertiary that it it bums me off
for people who are actual legitimate WNBA fans, because I
do wonder like maybe they have to walk past a
protest walk into an arena, but then they go to
(15:02):
an arena and they watch great basketball and they leave happy,
and it's like, are we just we're just bringing the
worst of the internet front and center and it just
it feels like the league and its fans deserve so
much better.
Speaker 1 (15:16):
Well, also, just because Caitlin Clark and I did an
essay this week, I saw this just because Caitlin. Just
because Caitlin Clark did not want to talk about an
issue that Sophie brought up, it doesn't mean they're not
close or great teammates. I mean, like Michael Jordan was
a political Tiger Woods a political Lebron James Moore political,
(15:36):
it's like you can be best for I have friends
that are hyper political. I'm not. I'm kind of agnostic.
I'm a social liberal, fiscal moderate to conservative. I don't
talk about it that much. I do think there was
a moment, I'll say you an interesting moment. This was
a month before the Trump Kamala Harris, Uh yeah. I'm
(15:58):
at a club called the nine hundred Club in Manhattan Beach.
It's a nine hundred member club, very much hoodies and
tennis shoes. But it's like where you go if you're
a local during the summer. It gets packed. You know,
it's very terurist that you go inside and it's just
a watering hole, real nice, like a lot of sports.
You go watch a UFC fight or a college football
game on Saturday. It's my favorite place in the world.
(16:19):
And it was about a month before the election. And
when I go there, you know, everybody's asking we talk sports, Yes,
that's what you talk. Maybe your kid's doing something, and
it was really instructive. I was sitting there a month
for the election and it's like eight guys and I'm
about ready to go. Two beers get in my car,
drive a mile, go home, and somebody brings up, you know,
(16:43):
a couple of young like eighth grade basketball, eighth ninth
grade basketball in Orange County, which is the southern county
south of La County, Orange County, like kind of legendary
for a couple of TV shows, reality shows right La Counties,
Hollywood and stuff, Dodgers Stadium, usc All, that stuff. So
(17:04):
somebody brings up their friend had a daughter that played
against a team that had some trans athletes and that
the biological boys just dominated. And I sat there for
fifteen minutes and I didn't say a word because I
was you know, you and I observe a lot for
a living, Like we talk a lot on the air,
(17:26):
but off the air, we observe two talk. And it
was so visceral and so intense. I remember getting in
my car going home that night and telling Anne, like,
I think Trump's gonna win. I've never seen guys get
so worked up. Here's like forty five year old, fifty
(17:47):
year old guys. We just don't talk politics in that place.
We talked sports, family, Hey, where'd you go on vacation?
You know, it's just a beer games are on and
so I do think if you have daughters who play
in sports, I think it becomes much more personal. I
don't my stepdaughters are like, they'll ski, you know, they'll
(18:07):
do that kind of stuff. They're not team sports kids.
But I do think if I had four daughters and
I was living in it, i'd probably have I'd be
I'd have a more emotional response. My kids aren't, you know,
they golf, they ski, they don't do team sports. So
for me, it's like I asked my wife, Like I
told you, I asked my wife about it this week.
She's like, I don't know what you're talking about. It's
just done a topic in our house.
Speaker 2 (18:29):
Yeah, listen, man, I don't know. I just maybe I'm naive.
I do not think that what is happening is that
a bunch of people are transitioning to get a leg
up in sports. Like I just I don't. I don't
think that that is like a the motivation or the
end goal or anything like that. And I think that
(18:49):
this is, like I said, I think it is a
win politically for one side to amplify it, to make
it seem like a much, much, much bigger issue than
it is. Not saying that there are not incidents where
it is an issue. Not saying that it is not
(19:09):
something that should be addressed with common sense, just I
think that empathy and common sense should carry the day.
And the idea that this is some sort of like
I don't know, national crisis, I just I just reject
it on its merits. Like again, I would say to
(19:30):
people who really like, I think that a bigger issue
in the trans world of again issues, I'm saying that awkwardly,
I apologize, would be like Google's suicide rate among trans
people feels like a bigger deal to me than the
high school sports team feels like a bigger deal. And
I just we don't get anywhere near that amount of
coverage because it's that's not a political winner. So and again,
(19:53):
the most obvious point to make is the people who
wanted athletes to stick to sports now when it's an
issue that the AC is a win for their side,
don't want them to stick to sports at all, which
just makes the whole thing so transparently pathetic. It's just bullshit.
It's just utter and complete bullshit.
Speaker 1 (20:12):
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eight hundred My reset gambling problem called one eight hundred gambler.
We now are early August. Yeah, and Sean McVay ruined
the NFL preseason because he stopped playing any of his
starters and everybody said, huh, they will be soft and
(21:49):
they went eight to o and everybody's like, yeah, that
was stupid, let's stop. And then so the preseason isn't
what it used to be. There's you know, I'm interested,
although he's not going to start week one. I do
think the Fernando Mendoza story is interesting, but he's not
going to start week one, so I don't care. So
I have found myself And maybe it's because I'm in
(22:10):
Chicago and the Cubs just swept the Dodgers, and the
Dodgers are reeling, encircling the drain. But I will say this,
I have found myself the last two to three years
in August being much more engaged with baseball races. And
I think this is I think this is something that
baseball maybe incidentally, maybe it's just been a matter of luck.
(22:37):
But Cub's good, Yankees interesting, Dodger's reeling, Brave's excellent, Here
come the Astros. It's like all these brands, Red Sox
the hottest team in like eight years, Like they can't
lose games. And I've got to tell you the trade deadline,
I was like, I didn't know half the pitchers going
to these teams outside of like, you know, the Cubs
(22:58):
got somebody from the Jays i'd heard of. But I've
found myself one of the rare instances, I'm like, I'm
choosing in August. I'm choosing some baseball on TV instead
of like looking at mock drafts and caring about football
in the NFL preseason. Do you share that sentiment or not.
Speaker 2 (23:18):
I'm real into the Cubs right now. I'll tell you that,
like I am, we want to do a whole PCA
for MVP conversation, like, am I am your huckleber.
Speaker 1 (23:28):
Pete Crawl Armstrong?
Speaker 2 (23:30):
Amazing?
Speaker 1 (23:32):
He is.
Speaker 2 (23:33):
The guy is so cool and such a great athlete,
and I've been able to work with him a little
bit just I don't want to overstate it, but like
a couple of things for the big charity event that
I do in Chicago and partnership with the Cubs. He
just gets it. He's awesome. I'm so happy for him
because he is the best defensive center fielder in the game,
one of the fastest players of the game. Had a
(23:54):
ton of power last year, but he swung and missed
a lot, a lot, a lot of strikeouts, and early
on in this season he was really struggling. And it
didn't even like take the All Star break. It was
like he just decided I'm gonna have a good eye now,
which is just like not something that's supposed to happen
in baseball. Like that's like you can maybe develop it
(24:17):
over years. You're not supposed to be able to just
like snap your fingers and like you know what, I'm
going to lay off the two to two cutter out
of the zone so that I can get a better
pitch on three to two, and his walk rate is up,
his on base percentage is way up, and he's the
MVP of the league because show Hay hasn't pitched enough
and has been a good offensive player but not the
best offensive player. And show has won four of them.
(24:38):
So if PCA keeps this up for the rest of
the next five weeks and doesn't win MVP, it's going
to be a problem. He deserves it well.
Speaker 1 (24:46):
I also I went to I watched all three of
the Cub Dodger games, the first two especially the other
one was in the afternoon when I was on so
I went and youtubed it and read about it and
watch the highlight of it. But there was no question
if you watched the series that the Cubs had more juice.
And to me, the lost in this Trek Scooball acquisition
(25:12):
of the Dodgers is they're old Mookie beps looks shot,
Freeman's dinged up. Otani had a two home run game
in the last game of the series. But the truth
with the Dodgers is Blake Snell, Tyler Glasnow, it wasn't
a hey, let's add a helipad to the yacht. It
was a somebody throw us a life preserver. If you
(25:35):
have watched the Dodgers play against the Red Sox and Cubs,
they looked like a team that had two really long
playoff runs and they look old, beat up and tired.
They don't have a lot of juice.
Speaker 2 (25:49):
Yeah, And I wonder if that is just because it's
so clearly everything about them is defined by do they
win a World Series or not? Because when they got
scuball and they put up the five man rotation and
they just like do those graphics like what like we do?
Like when the Sixers acquire Lebron and you put up
the Sixers rotation and it's you know, show Hay and
(26:12):
Schooable and glass now and now it's just like it's
outrageous the number of name brand talent that they have everywhere.
They are the most talented team. But the Cubs, you know,
they dug themselves a hole, and you know they're still
trying to chase down the Brewers and like that division
is just a rock fight all the time. But Wriggly
(26:34):
in the Summer comes alive with a great Cubs team,
like it's impossible for them not to have juice. And
I know Dodger stadium crowds are big, and I know
they have great attendance also, but you've now lived in
both places. You've been to Dodger Stadium, You've been to Wrigly.
It's different. Like the the energy and the juice at
Wrigley is just something.
Speaker 1 (26:53):
Oh it's almost a college football game.
Speaker 2 (26:56):
Crowds, it's just excellent. And so you know, there's good
Cubs teams always have a lot of juice in July
and August because kids are out of school, kids are
back from college. It's beautiful every day. It's packed every
single day. Bear season hasn't started yet, so they're front
(27:16):
and center. They're leading all of the shows. So yeah,
tons of juice around that team. And to your point
about preseason, like, yeah, preseason, the things that matter right
now are just it's all bad news. It's like Trent
Williams torn triceps, Luther Burden, Oh, how bad is this
groin injury going to be? Like, it's just you just
you don't want your team to have a news alert
(27:38):
right now because you just want to get to the
games that actually matter. And so, you know, I think
turning attention back to baseball is great because there's so
much damn talent in the sport right now that it's
as good a time as any to kind of sink
your teeth in before the playoffs get going.
Speaker 1 (27:57):
Yeah, it's one of the things that's always fascinated me
about sports. I like the cultural changes. Like I think
it's so funny how we went from small ball and
then Jokic win to title and everybody's like, Okay, you
got to have two bigs to defend him, and then
all of a sudden Wemby arrives and Oklahoma City is like, no,
we need three bigs. We're going to draft a die
(28:19):
Mara with Hart and Stein with chet Holmgren. No, we
need three bigs. And I think it's fascinating in the NBA,
like the second Apron. Now it's all about God, you
can't have. I mean, your bench starts mattering now you
I mean like Oklahoma City looked inevitable and then all
of a sudden you're like, you know, they're kind of
(28:39):
expensive on the bench. I think we've got to make
some moves. And I mean the Celtics basically just said
we want to get out of the Jalen Brown contract,
and if we take in Paul George and we can
get out of that much easier in a year. We'll
just do that. You're like, well, Brown's better than Paul George.
He plays a lot of games. And I think one
of the things that baseball when you're when you're efficient
(29:01):
and smartly run, which I don't think baseball was ten
years ago or five years I think they are now.
Like I've made this argument is that rich guys, when
the money's coming in, don't impede the money. Is that
what if milwalk because the Dodgers are not a lock,
and by the way their cubs have right and the
(29:23):
Cubs pitching, they made moves at the trade deadline, they
may be a little light. If Milwaukee gets to the
World Series, do you think all the billionaires are going
to say, oh God, the books are in What a season?
Because that's my take. The Rays right now are second
in batting average, The Rays are number one hitting team,
runners in scoring position. They're built for the playoffs. They're
(29:45):
just they don't they don't need a ton of power.
It is station station baseball. What if the Rais and
Brewers get to the series, it won't be captivating nationally.
But I don't believe that the lockout is inevitable. Like,
let's just eight till the playoffs happen. Okay, So I
mean there's a lot there. Like I I do think,
(30:08):
I think you're we're probably saying the same thing. I
do think baseball is going to lock out.
Speaker 2 (30:12):
Now, they're not gonna they're not guaranteed to miss games,
but there will be a like a lockout will happen
when this CBA expires. Now, whether or not it impacts
a single thing of spring training or not, I don't know.
But I've been basically assured that the lockout is coming.
It's just a question of if it goes into to
next season. You know some of these teams, and you
(30:33):
mentioned the two that are probably the poster child of
each league, the Brewers and the Rays. They're just excellently
run teams. Like the Brewers have a better run differential
than the Dodgers. Now that it's by one run, I
just checked it to be it be updated. But like
the Brewers are amazing. They can lose. They can lose
their ace, they can lose their closer, they can lose
(30:55):
their manager, which they have over the last three years,
they've lost all of them. Hater and counsel, et cetera.
And they just keep doing it. It's amazing. Same thing
with the Rays. The Rays are just a great organization
and they compete in the Al East with the biggest
spenders and the biggest teams, and they just keep doing it.
(31:16):
Doesn't mean they're going to win, doesn't mean they have one,
but they give themselves a shot each and every year.
So and that's what people point to of saying you
can't buy a World Series. You can't. And it's like,
but you can buy yourself margin for error, Like that's
that's to me, like what the Dodgers have built in now,
Like the Dodgers have built in a tremendous amount of
margin for error that one or two or three or
(31:39):
four guys can get hurt and they can still go
on and win the whole thing. That's not what the
Brewers have going for them. Even the Cubs, dude, Like
the Cubs you mentioned their pitching is a little light.
There was a time earlier this year where thirteen pitchers
who had pitched in the big leagues were on the
injured list, like and it was like it's just they
kept getting hurt time and time and time again. But
(32:00):
The Cubs have a great organization, They're very deep, they
spend a ton of money, so they were able to
withstand it in a way that a team like the Brewers,
if they had that amount of pitching injuries, would not
be able to. But baseball's in an interesting spot because
I think the talent is as good as it's ever been.
(32:20):
The business is clearly very very very healthy, but the
owners seem to be convinced they need a salary cap,
and the players seem to be convinced that they'll never
give it, will never give in on it. So I
do think I think there is at least a chance
(32:41):
that we miss games for a work stoppage for the
first time since nineteen ninety four in baseball, which would
be devastating because there's nothing less relatable in a time
of inflation and high gas prices and all of it
than millionaires and billionaires fighting. And it would just be
a shame because baseball has a lot of momentum going
for You mentioned the leadership, the rules changes, the big market,
(33:03):
all of them have been done.
Speaker 1 (33:05):
They've had a home run on like eight changes, eight
for eight.
Speaker 2 (33:08):
And the big markets are good, and there's young stars
in the game, Like there's a million things that baseball
has going for it. So I really really hope, and
I guess can be cautiously optimistic that the two sides
will realize like is this situation perfect? No, but we
we should not kill the golden goose here in miss games?
Speaker 1 (33:30):
Is it a lockout if you don't miss a spring
training game? That's almost like saying.
Speaker 2 (33:34):
That's true, that's true, Like I think that's definition. It
is a lockout. But to your point, like if nothing
actually is mess do the fans care? But like the
CBA is going to expire without a deal, which I
think makes it a lockout. You know, so.
Speaker 1 (33:51):
Well, it's like I only worry if I go to
Fox and my key card doesn't sure that's a lock out.
Everything else is they're mad at me during negotiations for
a month. I'm like, it's not really a lot lockout?
Is you put that card up?
Speaker 2 (34:07):
It's like, no, I'm I'm I am a hundred that
is one hundred percent true. I just know that if
Jeff Passon says there's going to be a lockout, there's
gonna be a lockout. That's that's what I know. He
is my uh he is my north star on this
sort of thing. So there will be a lockout, will
they miss games? I think that is still very much
(34:28):
up in the air. And yeah, man, like it's the
baseball playoffs. They're great. Like, you want to go to
a Cubs playoff game this year?
Speaker 1 (34:37):
Excuse me, well, I'm going to them. I'm first of all,
I've been to two Cup games this year. I'm going
to the Bears game Saturday night, sitting in a pretty
swanky box. I don't want to give it away, And
I am going to a You know, my wife's so funny.
She's like, you know, I don't talk about sports around
her because she doesn't really care. You know, she likes
(34:58):
dog videos and culinary stuff on TikTok, but she you know,
she reads the news every day, but she doesn't want
to get into it. And Dan, I say, I was
talking to a friend about the Cubs. She's say, oh,
I want to go to the gates. I'm like, well,
come on, you can't just jump on you can't jump
on the that's kind of a bandwagon fan.
Speaker 2 (35:17):
Here's the thing. And I say this as a card
carrying member of Cubs Nation. We're familiar with Bandwagon jumpers.
It's Wriggly is littered with him. It is a reputation
that is well earned. It's a national landmark. It's why
we sell out the stadium when the team wins seventy
two games because Wriggly is awesome. So Anne is more
(35:40):
than a welcome to bandwagon jump for a summer at Wrigley.
Just get her an old style and a hot dog.
She'll fit right in.
Speaker 1 (35:47):
I bought her a Wriggly cub shirt. She's Irish with
an Irish green clasher with a with a clover. And
when you go to Wrigley Field, and I've said this before,
if it was in Belgium, if it was in you know, Florence,
Italy or something, you'd literally say, oh, it's a bucket list.
It's like going It's like going to watch Manchester United
(36:11):
Wrigley Field. For those who have never done it, and
in the Midwest, everybody's done it, diehard baseball fans have
done it. It is like nothing else. It is a
college football game eighty one times a year in this
really cool part of the city. And you go to
Mers and you go to the game and afterwards and
then you can go on Sheffield or Waveland Avenue, which
I did the other day. It's nothing like it in
(36:33):
the country. There's nothing like.
Speaker 2 (36:34):
I completely agree, obviously I'm insanely biased, and like when
the Cubs were when when theo Epstein was there, and I,
by the way, congratulations on the success of the pod
and the live event. It was. I loved every Oh god,
I listen to every episode. I ate it up. It was.
It was spectacular content. But like they all also knew
(36:58):
how special it was. The private room and the upstairs
at Murphy's which is basically just an apartment, but like
that's where like theo is throwing parties when they would
win playoff series, and like because it's just like everyone
like Cubs players walk to the games. They live in
the neighborhood, they bike to the games because it's such
a cool part of the city. And so yeah, whether
you whether you're a Cubby Bear guy, a Murphy's guy,
(37:20):
a Slugger's guy, people say like that the neighborhood has
changed so much, and it's like it it there is
definitely turnover because post COVID and bars and restaurants, it's
a tough business, like, but the institutions are all still
there like Murphy's Sluggers, Cobby Bear, They're all still there.
It's just a it's a it's a great thing. And
(37:43):
I mean rig has been transformed. Man. Like we talk
about these news teams and new stadiums, like the Bills
are going to be debuting a new stadium this year.
I haven't been to the one for the Rams yet.
I have been to the Cowboys State Like sometimes they
all feel little sterile and corporate and cookie cutter, and
you know, all just as many suites as possible with
as big of a video board as possible. It is
(38:05):
an amazing thing what they've done with Wrigly to like
add in a video board, improve the suites, add in
the club seating, like to like generate more money and income,
build the hotel across the way, do Gallagher Way, which
is like an outdoor area where you can come in
and out of the stadium during the gameplay with your kids,
the games on, have beers whatever. And it's still the
(38:29):
brick wall, the manual scoreboard, the ivy, the narrow seats,
like it is still Wriggly Field. And so it's a
it is a really incredible job of like modernizing a
landmark without changing it. And it's just it's a perfect
sports venue. It really is.
Speaker 1 (38:53):
Listen, there's a lot of things talking about controversial topics that.
Speaker 2 (39:01):
I know.
Speaker 1 (39:03):
There are certain journalistic principles I follow. If I break
a story, I have to have two sources. That's just
the general rule. If I get a really hard quote
on somebody, a real harsh quote, I want it double sourced.
Speaker 2 (39:16):
And so.
Speaker 1 (39:19):
But there are stories that I'm not going to let
myself be guilted in. I just don't care. And one
of them is the Rabel Russini story, which I talked
about once on my podcast. When it happened, I said, Okay,
it's a moral issue for him because she's a journalist.
There's an ethical standard on sourcing. It's an ethical and
(39:41):
moral in story for her. That's her career. When I
see people continuing to probe on it, my take is
like if I cover the Patriots, I don't care. Like
it happened for Rabel, he's not getting fired. Coaches don't
get fired for that. It's a moral family story. I
don't really care. There's a lot of stuff I don't
(40:04):
know about that happens. Right for Russini, I do think
it's a story in the journalism club New York Times Athletic.
That's her career, of course, and it's also a moral story.
But I have found myself. I've had people from time
to time go, how can you don't talk about it? No?
I did for about ten minutes, and I'm no longer interested,
(40:25):
and that probably means I'm not a journalist. Is it
a story going forward? I don't care.
Speaker 2 (40:32):
I was surprised that Mike Tomlin said, like, if they lose,
it's like early, it's going to become the noise around
it is going to become very loud, Like what is
going to be the criticism that an affair was allegedly
uncovered four months before the season started, So that's why
(40:52):
they're losing games in September. Like, that's like a pretty
huge leap to make. So I think that listen if
it if the Patriots were interested in doing an investigation
into him, Like was he using his closeness with a
journalist to campaign for a Coach of the Year vote?
(41:15):
Was he using his relationship with a journalist to try
to get intel on an opponent ahead of a game plan?
Was he using his relationship with a journalist to try
to muddy the waters with Philly and aj Brown so
that the price tag would go down so they could
trade for him. Like I could see there being an
argument for there being some sort of ethical quandary ish,
(41:41):
but he was in the Super Bowl last year, so
they don't care, well, you know what I mean. Like,
I think that that is that Also, it's like, if
your employer is happy with the job you are doing
and the misdeed that you commit is not directly related
to your job, which in his case is winning football games,
(42:02):
they're not going to dig too deep into it. Whereas
if to your point about her, this is it is obvious,
like if you are using a romantic relationship to further
yourself with a source, that is obviously something that needs
to they have bylaws of the New York Times, these
types of thing relationship personal relationships with the sources need
(42:24):
to be disclosed. But clearly it is more ethically black
and white in the newspaper online newspaper business of black
and white journalism than it is being a football coach
of the AFC champions I think.
Speaker 1 (42:37):
It's the kind of thing and I believe this with
a Tony Romo situation that is the compresson league. Okay,
So with Mike Vrabel, if Mike Rabel was in year
four and was on the fence, employer goes, you know
your leadership has been in question. You just you just
booted it. Tony Romo, if he was as good as
(43:02):
many of the other guys, his company would support him greatly.
Al Michael's got a DUI. There was no talk about
losing his job. Romo is highly compensated. Kind of feels
like sometimes as a quarterback in a broadcaster, he's kind
of ad libbing, you know, when you have one game
a week to do and Jim Nantz does a majority
(43:23):
of the talking. I don't think I'm out of bound
saying that there are situations. They can be moral, they
can be ethical. Obviously, let's not minimize you know, drinking
and having a cocktail in a car. That's bad. Nobody's
saying it's not. But I do think there is something
about those situations where when you're vulnerable. Vrabel wasn't Romo
(43:49):
is it does change outcomes potentially, of course.
Speaker 2 (43:55):
Right. Let's like I don't have to treat everybody equally.
I just have to treat everybody fairly. Like, yeah, like
if if they if they weren't happy with the job
that Mike Rabel was doing, they could have said they
could have been like morality clause, embarrassment to the franchise,
you had to miss day three of the draft, dereliction
(44:16):
of responsibilities, you're fired. But he but they were in
the super Bowl, and he's a patriot guy and they
love him, so they're like, dad, do what you need
to do. Like, not everybody has to play by the
same set of rules in life. Tony Romo was the
greatest thing in broadcasting, now perceived to not be very
(44:37):
highly paid. Like I feel a little badly like putting
another current person's name into it, Like so I don't
Charles Barkley. Everybody agrees best basketball analyst, highly paid, incredibly valuable.
They want him to work for as long as he
wants to work. If the exact same thing happened to Charles,
(44:57):
does anybody think he's in danger of losing his job?
Speaker 1 (45:01):
Well, yeah, you're right. So it's interesting with Romo too,
because media critics have had the knives out for him
for years and they can be a little little jaded.
But it was funny because about them. Yeah, two weeks ago.
I was at an event and his name came up
and it was kind of front and center that the
Wisconsin open container, right, which we found out about three
(45:23):
or four days after the story came out. He had
an open container and it was funny. Whereas the critics
crush him. The guys in the room I was with
or like, I like Romo. I think he's funny on
the air, and again when I watch him, I don't
think he's as meticulous as Greg Olsen right or as
(45:43):
or right like, I don't think he is. But is
he as bad as the sense Like My take is
the average fan out there thinks Romo's kind of fun
and goofy andly easy to listen. Yeah, probably true and
like listen, But executives don't like the negative publicity from
the credit exactly exactly.
Speaker 2 (46:03):
It's one thing that I like. I've toyed with the
idea of quitting Twitter because I just I don't it's
it's a cesspool and it's before you tab is rage bait,
and I genuinely think it's divisiveness by design, and so
I don't think it's great. But like our bosses are
(46:24):
all on Twitter, like there's a there is a Our
industry is all on Twitter, and so there is like
a little bit of a self perpetuating thing. It's like, oh,
Twitter doesn't like Tony Romo, or Twitter knows that criticizing
Tony Romo gets views and gets played into the algorithm
and gets aggregated and makes it onto the websites and
(46:45):
all that. And I have criticisms of a ton of broadcasters, right,
So I'm not I do think that it is a
fair thing to say that. Like when he first started,
the energy and the predicting of plays was a novelty
and I was transfixed by it. And then as he's
gotten further from being in the game, and they also
clearly told him like, don't tell us what's gonna happen beforehand.
(47:08):
It spoils the surprise, Like his magic trick has been
kind of neutered. And the thing that bothers me the
most about Romo as an analyst is he says, I
don't know way too much. I'm like, you're the analyst,
Like what Jim will be like fourth and four here, Tony,
what do you think is a field goal or a
(47:28):
go for it spot? And He's like, I don't know,
Jim it's a tough call. I'm like, no, man, that's
your job, like you have to you say, I don't
know too much for my personal liking, and so like that.
That is my criticism of It's not his energy. It's
not as joke with me like that's fine. It's he says,
I don't know too much for my from my liking.
Speaker 1 (47:48):
As an analyst, I always think that you become the
broadcaster you were as a quarterback. So the story of
Brady the football player is legendary, where Belichick's like, well,
it wasn't very good initially, and then all of a
sudden becomes the goat and every year there's these massive jumps.
That's what he was as a broadcaster. You know, he'd
never done it. He was rough around the edges, and
(48:08):
the last year, you're like, Jesus, he's good, like really
knows what's happening. Romo always caught people's attention because of
his athletic ability. But I had it pretty well sourced,
well meticulously, so somebody in the locker room was like,
but he kind of skimped on the details. He was
a bit of an ad liver. He wasn't the hardest worker,
(48:29):
but he was naturally really athletic, funny, guys liked him.
There was some leadership stuff there. So that's kind of
what he's been in a broadcaster. One starts rough, gets
very good quickly, one starts surprisingly good, and then over
the course of time, you're like, is he really putting
the time in wait? And I think your personality becomes
(48:49):
your quarterback personality becomes your broadcasting person.
Speaker 2 (48:51):
Yeah, And I think you and I forget about it.
We watch all the games and every day and all that.
My father has passed away. But like I remember when
got hired, it was like like my dad knew who
Tony Romo was quarterback of the Cowboys, you know, like
there is a Q factor to those jobs. Sure that
It's like fame is a huge piece of it. Like
(49:15):
you get Tom Brady to be your broadcasters like these
Tom Brady and he does work really hard at it
and he has gotten a lot better. But like Chris
collins Worth has to do a little bit more, you know,
just because he's Chris collins Worth. He's not Tony Romo
or Troy Yeikman or Tom Brady. Right, Greg Olson has
to do a little bit more. I'm really interested I
thought that Luke Keikley hire was really interesting. Like everyone
(49:37):
says he's one of the smartest players ever, and people
said he he aced the audition, and like, I can't
wait to watch it because like, yeah, a linebacker is
that's a unique person to have as a solo analyst
and a football broadcast. Like I'm excited to watch Noah
Eagle and Luke Keickley this year.
Speaker 1 (49:57):
Yeah, Luke Keithley greg Olsen tied end jj Watt, Like
there is I mean, you kind of forget like jj
Watt was always a really thoughtful guy, so you knew
he'd be pretty good at it. Yeah. I met Luke
at a wedding not long ago. He one of the
most walks up to you, makes eye contact impossible not
(50:18):
to like.
Speaker 2 (50:19):
So likability is the is the secret sauce to this
thing that we do. And I'm not saying that I
have it in spades, like so like I have to
make up for it with great takes, but like, uh,
but yeah, like if you are just like charming and
likable and easy to listen to to watch, it's a
(50:40):
It's a superpower. I say it about my buddy Adam
lefgo All the time. At now he's he's gotten his
due and he's the face of Turner Sports. You know,
air a parent to Ernie Johnson who all that. Like,
he's unbelievably versatile. He's doing boxing and the French Open
and the NCAA tournament and college football. He's an amazing
broadcast baseball playoffs. He does it all for Turner. But
(51:02):
I'm like left Go in college was popular in a
frat in some student media, but like he was like
he did it more like socially and casually, and I
remember being like, he's going to be successful. I've never
met anyone more liked like. Athletes liked him, sorority girls
(51:23):
like him, frat guys liked him, Journalism dorks liked him.
Everyone liked him. Likability is the secret sauce, and so
he's one of the greatest to do it. And so
if Luke Keigley has that thing, it'll that charisma, it'll
it'll come through. It's so valuable.
Speaker 1 (51:41):
So how do you prepare for a football season? So
I like him afternoon drinking in the summer, I do
not like it in the winter, in the fall, in
the summer, it's almost a problem. I really enjoy an
afternoon cocktail and turning on a sporting event. So over
the last I got about three or four weeks. Now
(52:02):
I've got to ramp up. I've got to be in.
I've got to like, you know, the sauce. It just
can't be sauce day every Tuesday. Do you prepare differently? So?
Speaker 2 (52:11):
I mean I wasn't thinking about the drinking component so much. No,
like I I obviously footballs are bread and butter. They
want us to take some vacations ahead of football season,
some of us on this call more than others. I
think I'm filling in for you.
Speaker 1 (52:29):
A few whoa, Hey, that's standing. I'm filling it right,
You've earned it.
Speaker 2 (52:32):
I think I'm filling in for you on a couple
of days coming up, of which they still haven't told
me which ones not better? Which city am I going
to be in? No, but like I what I try
to do, even though, like when I did local radio
in Chicago, it felt like we were sometimes, you know,
three feet wide and a mile deep, like all fifty
(52:55):
three guys on the Bears, every position battle, the solar
reposition coach, the whole thing. Right now, this job at
FS one, it's more a mile wide and three feet deep.
I try very hard to be a mile wide and
like one hundred feet deep because I think that that's
(53:16):
like what I bring to the table. Right I didn't
play in the NFL. I'm more I'm the smart guy.
I'm the guy who watches the game and knows the numbers.
And I know people will be like, you're dumb, but whatever,
Like that's like my lane, right, and so I try
right now to be consuming the stuff that I'm not
(53:36):
going to actually need. Like I just got back from
a week in San franc the San Jose, San Francisco
area with my sister and brother in law and their
kids and my kids, getting the cousins together for a
week of vacation. So it's six hour flight. I consumed
a lot of like NFL podcasts of different markets of
teams that we're going to talk about, like Eagles pod,
(54:00):
gast Chargers podcast, Cowboys podcast, like things like like like
with like beat writers, things like that, whether they were
going on national shows, division preview shows, whatever the case
may be. To try to like have a deeper understanding
of what the things are for the team because then
when we do it, it's you know, Joe Burrow against
Lamar Jackson. But hopefully I can bring a little bit
(54:22):
more context into it. So I try to because I
know I'm not going to be able to do that
once the season starts and we're doing all the topics
and all of the games and all the teams. But
so I try to have a really deep knowledge base
going into the season, and then during the season, I
just watch every game and go from there. What about you,
(54:48):
what do you like? I mean, how do you prep
it out? Is that what you were asking? Or were
you literally saying, Danny, do you drink less in football season?
Was that your question? No?
Speaker 1 (54:58):
I No, it is funny because I in the summer,
like I golf, I am recreational. I like when I
take a two week break in July, the first ten
days I do not watch TV, Like I give my
wife ten days of just because then in the last
four or five days I go back to watching stuff
and doing stuff. But no, I I'm like, you know,
(55:20):
I just what I just constantly do is just watch
football stuff. And like I'll watch you know, I'll watch
the games. I'll watch preseason games, even though I know,
like I watched every second of Arizona in Carolina every
single second, and most of those players, almost all of them,
will have no impact. Not a single player there was
(55:43):
worth half a point in the NFL game. But I
like the sport, but I would say I go. I
would just say it's I did feel like last year
because I do think the gap between good and I
think what's happened to the NFL because of the importance
(56:04):
of the quarterback that if you don't have one, it
used to be you'd kind of watch everybody until Thanksgiving.
But I do feel like there are about six teams
that by October fifth, it could be sure, Like I
think Arizona Jets, it could be over like three to
four games. In Yeah, Miami. I like Malik Willis, but
(56:27):
he is probably their second best player, and we don't
know if he's coming back close two.
Speaker 2 (56:32):
But like they have no talents anyway.
Speaker 1 (56:35):
I would say what's happened to the NFL is a
little like college football or the NBA, about thirty percent
of it I know a lot about in the NFL.
I always felt it had to be about eighty percent.
But what I found over the last two to three
years is the bottom of the NFL is growing now.
Next year is a great college quarterback class, so that'll
(56:57):
be fascinating because even bad teams will have rookie quarterbacks.
But this year, some of the bad teams are just
bad teams, uh, and they're not terribly captivating. I don't
think the Jets or Arizona. I just don't think those
are really interesting teams. But I will say if Minnesota
finishes fourth, that's about as good a fourth place team.
(57:21):
I think the Raiders will finish fourth and it'll be
really interesting. That's one of the things the NFL has.
There are bad teams that are good watching. Yes's not
the case in baseball, hockey or the NBA.
Speaker 2 (57:33):
Like the NBA has it a little bit and like
I want to see a great player, like like I
feel like if you went to a Mavericks game last
year and you saw Cooper Flag, you got you got
your money's worth, even though they were a bad team. Right,
So like I've I've but like, but that's more like
you're watching them Wemby's Wemby's first two years exactly like,
(57:56):
so I think it actually happens in the NBA. But
it's different. It's not at all like the team is
interesting or an expectation of winning. It's just like I
want to see how this individual gets through the game,
how he interacts, how he plays, how he does he
hang his head, does he whatever? No, Like listen, football
is like we don't think Arizona or the Jets or
(58:17):
the Dolphins, but like every year there is a surprise
team or injuries happen or luck happens. I mean, the
Broncos won eleven one score games last year. It's an
NFL record. Now it's tied with a couple of other teams. Like,
I think the Broncos are good. I think it's a
really talented roster, great coach, great defense, great offensive line.
I'm not saying it's a complete fluke, but they want
(58:40):
eleven one score games like that could go the other
way that if they go five and six in one
score games this year, all of a sudden, they are
a nine win team and we're not talking about them
very much. So there's a there is a lot of
variance in the NFL. You mentioned the vikings, like the
Lions finished in the last place week, the Lions ruined,
(59:00):
the who's the worst? The first team segments that we
all do in August because every single person would say
that the Lions are going to be the worst the
first team, even if you pick the Bears or the Packers, like,
they're clearly the best candidate to go worse to first. So,
like the there's a almost every fan base goes into
(59:21):
an NFL season with hope, maybe not hope of a
super Bowl, but hope of things could go our way.
We could win ten games and we could make the playoffs.
I would say, like twenty seven teams go into this.
Speaker 1 (59:36):
Yeah, Jets Arizona, No Jets Arizona, Tennessee, Tennessee. Probably know
everybody else, Like I think the Saints are going to
shock people and win ten to eleven games. Could be wrong,
but I think Jets Arizona, Tennessee, you kind of know
it's a nine would be.
Speaker 2 (59:55):
Great, great, but it's not going to IM going to
keep throwing Miami and I think I know it's new
coach Miamis. They have no talent. You're getting so much
dead money. I think Miami. If I had to pick
a team right now to get the number one pick,
I think I'd picked Miami. But like Tennessee is a
good example. Yeah, they don't have much hope, except it's
year two of a number one pick. Like cam Ward
(01:00:18):
could be great. I didn't see it. He didn't have
much around him. He's dealt with coaching turnover and instability
and all sort, you know what I mean. But like I,
cam Ward could be great, and so like you you're
a Titans fan going into this year, I still would
imagine there's a decent level of opted. We got Carnell Tate,
we got him at number one target. We spent money.
(01:00:39):
We brought in Franklin Myers, the defensive tackle from the
from the Broncos, who was awesome on the huge deal
to put him next to Jeffrey Simms. Like, we've got
a defensive line, we got a young quarterback, we got
a young wide receiver, Like, let's roll the ball out
there and see. We got a winnable division. Like, let's
see what we got. You know? So, I think a
lot almost every fan base can at least talk themselves
(01:01:01):
into hope, which is just an amazing thing that the
NFL has created, which is why it's the best product.
Speaker 1 (01:01:09):
Danny Parkins, that was good stuff. I appreciate. That was
over an hour of we even we even got Uh
was that controversial.
Speaker 2 (01:01:17):
Here's what I'll say. If anything is going to be
aggregated from this podcast, it's clearly gonna be my pc
A for MVP take That's what's gonna be. That's what's
gonna be aggregated.
Speaker 1 (01:01:28):
That was I gotta be honest, I got I got
a little nervous about that time.
Speaker 2 (01:01:32):
It was. It was scared, it was, it was scared.
I'm gonna I'm gonna learn my agent right now. Hey,
you might need to do some damage control over the
next twenty four to forty eight hours for me. Okay,
I came for show. Heyo, Tony, this is PCA's league now.
Speaker 1 (01:01:45):
Great stuff.
Speaker 2 (01:01:47):
Thanks Colin.
Host
Colin Cowherd
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