September 4, 2025 • 41 mins
NFL football returns on Thursday night, but Dan has a real issue watching a game on Friday going out to Brazil rather than being played in front of home crowds. More questions arise after the report from Pablo Torre about a fake job for Kawhi Leonard seemingly bought and paid for by Clippers’ owner Steve Ballmer to circumvent the NBA salary cap.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
You are listening to the Dan Patrick Show on Fox
Sports Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
We did it. We made it to a Thursday. And
this is the opposite of the first day of school
because your kids are like, oh, summer's over, we got
to go back to school. No, this is the opposite.
We finally made it. We made it through the summer,
and we got football coming up tonight. Who has it
better than we do? Nobody? Alrighty, make sure you check
(00:25):
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Good morning if you're watching on peacock. Thank you for
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(01:10):
as well. Opening Night Eagles big favorites eight and a half,
the banner being raised tonight and the Cowboys come in
and are they dangerous? Dak is good against the NFC East.
DAK is good against the Eagles, But with what has
happened in the offseason, I know what's going to happen.
The Eagles aren't going to be able to run the
ball because the Cowboys are ready to stop the run.
(01:33):
I don't know if they can stop the pass, but
they're going to stop the run. With Kenny Clark, who
all of a sudden is going to be Aaron Donald.
I do like him. And Ross Tucker, who will join
us a little bit later on, had a great tweet
because he was saying, well, apparently Michael Parson's not worth
forty seven million dollars a year, but he is to
(01:53):
Green Bay and forty seven million dollars a year and
Kenny Clark in two first round picks. So it's the
eye of the beholder here and what Dallas was willing
to pay. And if you know, Jerry got to a
point where he said, all right, that's it. I'm not
going to negotiate that maybe his feelings were hurt here.
Now you go to Green Bay. He's expected to play
(02:15):
in the opener against Detroit, although may need an epidural,
which is kind of interesting of you know, you passed
a physical, you had to pass a physical to be traded,
but might need treatment leading up to this game. But
we also have football on Friday night. Don't sleep on that.
And you have the Chiefs and the Chargers in Brazil.
(02:38):
Now here's the problem I have with this. I know
we're getting to you know, global expansion here. The NFL
is going to get to an eighteen game schedule, and
they're going to have, you know, eighteen games that are
going to be international games, and they're going to you know,
once again that's worth a billion dollars or whatever. It's
(02:59):
monopoly money. But this is what they want to do.
This way, they don't take away a home game. The
fact that the Chargers in Chiefs, a divisional rivalry game,
is going to be played in Brazil is malpractice. I mean,
that's terrible because that should be played in Los Angeles,
or if it was going to be played in Kansas City.
(03:20):
This is a divisional game, and I don't think the
fans in Brazil were going to go, hey, we better
get an opening game, we better get a week one game.
They should have these games. And I'm fine with games,
you know, if you want them to have in London,
in Germany and Ireland. I'm not anti international. What I
(03:41):
am anti is a divisional game we're going to export
and it's week one. You can't do that to the
chiefs and they charge your fans this week seven and
then you have a bye week. If you want to
do it that way, then I think it's fair to
all involved. I don't like having open Day in Japan.
(04:01):
I understand that, you know, or Korea. I understand you
want to Hey, this is something different. It's still it's
our game. You can still have games there. But let's
not have opening Day or their first week, their first game,
a divisional game, and you're going to play it in Brazil.
I just it's not it's not fair to the teams,
(04:23):
to their fans. But this will let you know exactly
what the NFL is all about. Players don't like it,
fans don't like it, but the owners like it. Let's
play some football in Brazil. Those with me. I just
think it's unfortunate that you have all of this build
up and now you're going to send those guys to Brazil.
(04:47):
They should be playing this game here in the United States,
and it's a divisional game. It's an important game, yes, Dodd.
Speaker 3 (04:55):
And you can't even give the charges of home game
week two when they get back from there. They got
to play at the Raiders. It's not the Week three
where they host Denver. It's like you give them a break,
a little bit of bolts.
Speaker 2 (05:04):
Yes, Pauli.
Speaker 4 (05:05):
I think your point, especially about delaying it too week seven,
eight nine, makes tons of sense. Like people in Brazil,
while they may be growing football and they may like
to have a nice game with some big names, it
doesn't matter if it's the opener. The opener means nothing.
Like you said about baseball with the opener in Japan,
cool and I know for timing they had to do that,
but it just there's too much downside for the local fans.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
They could have had training camp games in Japan and
they would have been happy to see the Dodgers there
and you could have accomplished whatever. I don't think they said,
Wait a minute, is it a regular season game or
is it spring training? Now you could have ramped up
your lineup there a little bit and you could have said, hey,
we want to showcase some of our best players. We
want to make sure Otani's playing, and maybe it's three
(05:49):
innings that he's going to play what they do in
a typical spring training game, and maybe you get a
little bit more over there. Okay, training camp could have
been over there for a couple of you start by
playing games and then come back and go to spring training.
It's just wrong. And I'm all about growing the game,
whatever it takes. Let's try new things, grow the game.
(06:10):
Spring training. You can have a couple of games in
Japan and I think they're going to be okay with this.
And if you want to have a game in Brazil,
I mean, this is why we always had. It felt
like the Jags and the Panthers in London. It's like,
all right, we'll give you a game. It's not a
great game, but here you go. You got some football.
Now we're sending the Chiefs and if that's their home team,
(06:33):
you know, okay, we could wait for week seven or
eight and then give them a bye week when they
come back. But I don't want to be in a
bad mood on opening night.
Speaker 4 (06:42):
Airic grievances early.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
Well, I think people are going to respond to this
after the fact, certainly Chiefs fans and Charger fans, they've
already voiced their concerns disdain for this. But this is
the NFL doesn't care. They don't have to. All they
care about is themselves, the owners, and this is going
to be more money. Here's the commissioner, Roger Goodell. He
(07:06):
was on the Today Show in NBC talking about the
possibility of expanding to eighteen games.
Speaker 5 (07:13):
Listen, we always say what do the fans want? What
are the fans really think is important? And I think
it's clear they want more regular season games versus preseason games,
and it's something that we'll work through with the players Association.
We continue to make our game safer, and I think
that's at the core of making that kind of a decision.
Can we do it safely for our players? But it
(07:36):
also I think represents an opportunity for us to continue
to bring higher quality NFL content Ultimately, and a regular
season game is clearly better.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
A lot of NFL fans would love to not have
to go to work.
Speaker 6 (07:47):
Point, do we start to see the super.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
Bowl on the President's Day weekend.
Speaker 5 (07:51):
I think if you went to eighteen weeks regular season,
that would probably occur. Is possible somewhere in the calendar
could happen before that, just because because of the calendar
the way it lays out. But I think eighteen weeks
would get you to that point, and I think it'd
be a great, a really great move.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
Yeah, we've been talking about this for years that they
were going to get to I mean, this is all scripted,
This has been planned out. They know what's going to happen.
Now the negotiations are going to happen. It'll be eighteen games,
you're going to have every team will play outside the
United States. They're going to sell that a separate TV
package for those international games, all this stuff. We've talked
(08:30):
about this for years, and you're going to move the
season back. It'll be President's Day weekend. Everybody gets Monday off.
This is no surprise here, and it almost sounded like
an announcement by the commissioner. It was pretty close to
saying this is what's going to happen. Then yes, we
move it back. Yeah, President's Day weekend, and everybody wants
(08:51):
more football and we want everybody to be safe. You
can't add another game and tell me you care about safety.
You just can't. And now this is what I want.
I want the NFL to promise this. I hope the
players Association says, hey, we'll do eighteen games. This is
what we want. We want four more roster spots for
(09:12):
each team, extra bodies, that's what we want. So now
I get four more players on each team getting paid,
getting benefits, the opportunity to play in the NFL. If
you say that's what you're going to get out of this,
and I'm sure they'll want more than Okay, I mean,
(09:33):
don't I get to watch it, But these players have
to play. They're the ones that are affected the rest
of their lives playing these games. The number of games.
But if you have let's say, four more roster spots,
then maybe maybe you get the opportunity to You don't
have attrition here where you're like limping to the finish
(09:54):
line with your roster and every single year, how many
quarterbacks play the entire season. Just start there, and that's
the most protected player on the field. You can't add
another game and tell me it's about safety. It's about
money and the players know this. The clock is ticking
on their sports careers. How many years? How much money?
(10:17):
What am I going to be like when I get
out of here? Yeah?
Speaker 7 (10:21):
I like that clip about the eighteenth game. Roger Goodell says, well,
you know, we're just doing what the fans want, and
they've said that they want an eighteenth game, so we're
going to do that. Okay, but the fans hate the
international gips. Oh well, you know the fans are wrong
on that. That's our international fans, don't you love it?
So we're listening to that?
Speaker 2 (10:41):
Well yeah, PAULI I'm curious.
Speaker 4 (10:43):
We've never really discussed this angle. It's so obvious. Does
anyone here not want an eighteenth regular season game? If
it was an actual fan vote? I don't even know
my answer yet, but I'm curious about this room.
Speaker 2 (10:56):
I'm fine with it. I mean, I don't think anybody's
turn off football. I'm not big on Thursday night football.
I don't think we're being fair to the players when
you have a game on Sunday, in a game on Thursday,
it's just and having spoken to current and former players,
the turnaround is really really tough. Now you do it
(11:16):
because you get an extra paycheck, or you're going to
get a chance to be in primetime and standalone game.
I understand all of these things. I'm not going to say.
All I'm going to say is let's be fair to
the players. You're going to give them more money, another paycheck,
and maybe you get some more roster spots. But let's
not kid anybody. This is not about anybody other than
(11:38):
the owners want this. We're fine. The networks want this,
they get they give the money to the owners, and
the commissioner works for the owners. That's what this is
all about. You want to give me more football, great,
But I do think about the players, and I think,
and I go back to what I told you when
I saw Jim McMahon out in Tahoe and what he
(12:02):
meant to the NFL. And here he is telling me
they almost had his leg amputated and he doesn't have
health benefits. Those are the things that bother me when
I first saw Earl Campbell in a wheelchair. Those are
the things that bother me. But I've been around the
sport for forty years now, and I think you have
(12:22):
to be fair to these players. You know, what's their healthcare,
what's their benefits? Because we move on. It's like, oh yeah, ah,
that guy what Oh he's in a wheelchair. Oh damn, Hey,
what times of games start today? We move on with it.
I just want to make sure that we're fair to
these players who are entertaining us. And if you want
(12:45):
to add an eighteen game, okay, I get to enjoy it.
But let's be fair to all involve here international games.
How about not a divisional rival game? Okay? I mean
we can export a game that's not that interesting. We
do it to London all the time. But that bothers
(13:07):
me to open up in Brazil with the Chiefs and
Chargers a divisional game. I have a problem with that,
all right. See, you got to pull a question.
Speaker 1 (13:16):
I do.
Speaker 7 (13:17):
I'm trying to figure out if the wording on this
is fair, okay, because we've been talking about it a
little bit, all right, but Steve.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
Balmer is the Oh, let me hold off on that.
I'm want to take a break. And we talked to
Pablo Torre yesterday, who had this investigation into the Clippers
and Kawhi Leonard and a fraudulent company and money that's
there and Kawhi being paid for a no show job.
(13:45):
Mark Cuban's now involved in this. Coming to Steve Balmer's defense,
there's a lot of things going on right now. The
NBA says they're aware of it, which that was an
interesting response. Todd goes, you know, hey, we just want
to ask if the commissioner wants to come on and
talk about this. Well, we're aware of this, which is
good because they said, wait a minute, what happened? What
(14:06):
about the Clippers? Yeah, you call me back. I I'm
gonna got off this other call.
Speaker 6 (14:09):
We need to talk with it.
Speaker 2 (14:10):
I didn't hear it about Clippers. Wait a minute, I've
been watching the US Open tennis. Is there something going on?
But Pablo had sources, seven sources, one on record. One
said that they specifically said the Clippers were trying to
circumvent the salary cap paying Kawhi Leonard twenty eight million
dollars for a no show job for a company that
(14:31):
I believe the CEO is going to jail and the lot.
There's a lot involved here. Now, once again, you're innocent
until proven guilty. You know, did Steve Balmer know anything
or what did he know? When did he know? And
did Kawhi get paid twenty eight million dollars. We'll talk
(14:52):
a little bit more about that. We'll get to your
phone calls as well an eight seven seven three DP show.
We're back after this in The Dan Patrick Show.
Speaker 1 (15:00):
Be sure to catch the live edition of The Dan
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Why should you listen?
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Speaker 2 (15:39):
It is the fifth annual Hot Take Draft coming up
a little bit later on. That's where we have predictions
that are kind of wild, kind of crazy. The hotter
the better Paully give the audience. For instance of one
that hit last year, for you, and one that didn't.
Speaker 4 (15:58):
And again is what's more important Dan, the hotness or
the rightness?
Speaker 2 (16:01):
Hotness?
Speaker 6 (16:02):
Right.
Speaker 4 (16:03):
Here's one I had last year that worked out pretty well.
Russell Wilson will start a playoff game ding not that
tarily hot, it's warm.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
Okay.
Speaker 4 (16:14):
Here's one that didn't work out. Derek Carr will start.
Speaker 2 (16:17):
A playoff along in the league he retired.
Speaker 4 (16:21):
I also had Will Levis of the Titans will win
most Improved Player, if there is such an award.
Speaker 2 (16:26):
In his own family. Maybe that's about it. But that's
the hot take draft that we'll have for you. Super
Bowl picks tomorrow. Tomorrow, Super Bowl picks eight, seven to seven,
three DP show. We'll get to your phone calls coming up.
Uh oh, Paully heard, Can I say who you heard from?
Speaker 4 (16:45):
Yeah, a well placed source who knows former player now broadcaster. Okay,
he was talking about he was listening and heard about
you talk about international games. It's already been announced that
the LA Rams will play a game and Elburn, Australia
next year at some point twenty twenty six. Yeah, this
person said, don't be surprised if that's an opener, like
(17:07):
it's for Week one and because of that, it may
be played on a Wednesday or a Thursday because of
the timing and the schedule and the travel. So don't
be surprised if rams open in Melbourne next year.
Speaker 2 (17:20):
But I get that if you want to ramp it
up and then they then they get time to come
back and get acclimated to you know, start in an
NFL season like everybody else. I mean, if you've ever
and I've I've flown from Connecticut to Sydney, Australia, and
I think it was a total of twenty three hours.
Now they're flying private, but still your body is going
(17:43):
to take a toll and then you play a football game,
then you get back on a plane, then you come
back home. If you're going to give them a good
seven days, eight days to recuperate, Okay, I just don't
like s. I don't like exporting our openers just I
don't think that's fair to the fans. You get imagine
being a Charger Chief fan, You're like, yeah, but I
(18:05):
can't go to the game. You know, I gather all
the kids schools started. We're going to Australia for the
opener next year, Yes, Tom, And you're waiting.
Speaker 3 (18:16):
All these months counting it down like we've been doing
to the start of the season. Then you've got to
wait another week, passably even two weeks before the first
home game that you could attend.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
Still driving that trusty old ride. Keep it looking sharp
with Mako dense to faded paint. They got you covered.
Get a free estimate today? Uh oh, better get Mako
all right, So let me get a couple of phone
calls in here. Then we'll talk about the situation with
the Clippers circumventing the salary cap. Perhaps according to Pablo
Torre yesterday, Uh also Mark Cuban responded social media wise,
(18:51):
Pablo said, Hey, Mark, why don't you come on the
show his podcast? And I guess Mark Cuban has agreed
to go on the podcast to discuss this. Steve Ballmer
is not, but Mark Cuban is. Uh. Carter in Minnesota,
Hi Carter, what's on your mind today?
Speaker 9 (19:06):
Hey Dan six one ninety.
Speaker 10 (19:12):
I know it's been harp down a lot this week,
but I wanted to talk about Michael Parsons just one
a little bit more. The misconception about the contract is,
you know, everyone, here's the big number forty seven million,
but people forget that the fifth year option was accepted,
which is worth like twenty one million on Parsons, So
it really is a five year contract that averages out
to just over forty one million.
Speaker 2 (19:34):
Yes, yes, that's been reported, and thank you Carter uh
Sean in Michigan. Hi Sean, what's on your mind?
Speaker 11 (19:42):
Hey, Dan?
Speaker 12 (19:42):
Six fifteen. I wanted to talk a little bit about
this game on Friday night. Completely understand that the heightheness
of the first week, but the fans, the season ticke holders,
at any game, someone's going to be the away team.
So home opener is really all that the and the
season ticket holders care about. They care about week one
(20:04):
if they're the away team that they can watch it.
They obviously don't want the game to be blacked out.
I'm assuming that this game is going to be nationally televised.
Everyone's gona be able to watch it. And I haven't
looked too deep into the Chiefs and Chargers season. I'm
hoping that their home opener is Week two, But that's
what they care about. Every team has to go through
a Week one where the away team we can't go
(20:24):
to the game.
Speaker 13 (20:25):
It's just that both teams are going through that now
all they care about is the home opener, the game.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
That they can go to.
Speaker 12 (20:32):
Now, with a seventeen game schedule nine and eight nine home,
eight away or nine eight home, whatever it.
Speaker 13 (20:40):
Is, everyone has to go through an eight game home schedule.
I'm assuming that each team or one team is just
gonna have eight home games similar to other seasons.
Speaker 2 (20:50):
Yeah, but I still you want to have the opportunity
to go to a game going from Kansas City to
Los Angeles or vice versa. Seems like that you can.
You can pull that off. Going to Brazil is a
little bit tougher for your fan base. I understand you.
You have your home games, you're going to have eighteen games,
and you're gonna have one game. Every team is probably
(21:13):
going to play outside the United States. But thank you, Sean,
thank you for the phone call. Eric in California. Hi, Eric,
what's on your mind?
Speaker 14 (21:21):
ADB six five, ninety ten year Charger season ticket holder.
Let's put a little bit of ice on top of
this cake. We actually paid for the ticket for Brazil,
and we didn't get reimbursed for it as season ticket holders.
As matter of fact, they didn't offer its tickets to
the game in Brazil. Either or discounted tickets, nothing to
(21:42):
really supplement us paying for We actually had a season
ticket increase as well.
Speaker 2 (21:48):
Yeah, but the NFL cares about you, Eric, Yeah, Sen.
Speaker 7 (21:52):
That's what I mean. Part of this discussion just boggles
my mind about like, well, hey, what about the season
ticket holders.
Speaker 2 (21:59):
We're the ones.
Speaker 7 (21:59):
What do you really think the NFL cares at all
about season ticket holders? The current twenty I bet you
twenty four out of the thirty two teams right now
have a waiting list ten thousand people deep waiting to
get season tickets. And if it didn't dawn on you
that they couldn't care less about you based on buying
season tickets get you have to buy a personal seat
(22:21):
license just for the right to buy the tickets. Then
you have to buy the games, which includes they make
you buy the preseason games, and they don't give you
any playoff tickets, which you get the right because you're
a season ticket holder to pay inflighted, inflated prices for
those two. But yes, they absolutely care about you.
Speaker 2 (22:39):
Guys, Ted and san Diego, Hi, Ted, Hey Dan, love
the show. Thanks, sir.
Speaker 15 (22:45):
I'm curious for the adding that eighteenth game. You keep
saying that players are going to like you because they
get paid more. But when they sign their contract, when
they say twenty million dollars a year, isn't that twenty
million dollars across X mini games. So if they add
an eighteenth game, are they going to renegotiate all the
players contracts?
Speaker 2 (23:05):
I don't. Well, you're not going to play an extra
game and not get paid. I mean they're going to
have to tack on a check because the players aren't
going to agree to play another game unless they're getting something,
and the players aren't benefiting if, as I've suggested, you
add at least four roster spots. But thank you for
the phone call. Yes, you're going to want another paycheck,
(23:28):
and it might be average averaging out what is your
current paycheck, and then they add one more to that,
which I don't think that's a big bookkeeping deal. Segueing
into the Clippers with the story that is front and
center and Pablo Torre of Meadow Arc Media his podcast,
(23:50):
he has done a deep dive on the Clippers situation
with Steve Balmer. Steve Balmer the owner of the Clippers,
and there's a lot going on here because you've got
a company that has since gone belly up. You have
the CEO who pled guilty wire fraud, and this company
(24:11):
was paying celebrities, Pablo Torre said, like Cindy Cindy Crawford
and her daughter who's a model. I think Leonardo DiCaprio
was in there. But they were getting paid, you know,
a million, two million dollars to represent this company that
you know is all about green and you know, planting trees,
(24:31):
and Steve Balmer invested fifty million dollars into this company.
The company was going to be one of the title
sponsors of the Clippers. I think they were going to
have a patch on their uniform. And then come to
find out that Kawhi Leonard, through his limited partnership or
his LLC, is getting paid for a no show job.
(24:55):
That he's getting paid twenty eight million dollars now. Pablo
said that he had seven sources, over three thousand pages
of documents, and one former employee who said that this
was being used to circumvent the salary cap. And the
Clippers have sent out a statement they deny everything here.
(25:16):
But this is what I want to know, was Kawhi
Leonard being paid by this company for a no show job.
Did he do something for the company, because Pablo Torre
said that he found no indication that Kawhi Leonard did
anything for this company. Steve Balmer, what's his role in this?
(25:37):
That you spent fifty million dollars on a company and
Kawhi Leonard's getting twenty eight million dollars. So just a
couple of questions here, did Kawhi get paid all this money?
And why for a no show job? And did Steve
Balmer understand this? The Clippers denied everything there. Mark Cuban
(26:01):
put out a post saying, I'm on team Balmer as
much as I wish they circumvented the salary cap first, Steve,
isn't that dumb if he did try to feed Kawhi
Leonard money knowing that what was at stake for him
personally and his team? Do you think that he would
let the company go bankrupt knowing all creditors would be
(26:22):
visible to the world. They got scammed by Aspiration. That's
the company along with many others crimes for which they
pleaded guilty last week. Well, I think they were pleading
guilty to wire fraud. I don't know if Steve Balmer
would have I mean this guy was lying about what
was going on. A three hundred million dollar sponsorship deal
(26:44):
with the Clippers. Scammers do scammy things, according to Mark Cuban,
Now that's a huge deal. The better the team does,
the more value the sponsorship has. It actually makes perfect
sense that they stole money from investors and want the
Clippers to succeed. Why not give stolen money to help
keep their best player. So Kawhi did get paid twenty
(27:08):
eight million dollars from this company, is what Mark is saying. Hey,
why not? Is Mark saying? This? Is okay, I'll read
that again. It actually makes perfect sense that they stole
money from investors and want the Clippers to succeed. Why
not give stolen money to help keep their best player.
(27:35):
Mark goes on to say, it's sad that Pablo Torre
didn't take the time to find out how these scammers
pulled off their scam. The idea that the default is
Balmer is the bad guy is going to backfire on him.
I don't know what Steve knew. I don't know if
he knew anything, but it sounds like Mark is saying, well,
(27:56):
if Balmer did know this, he wouldn't let it go. Bankrupt, Okay,
because you don't want creditors to be visible to the world.
I understand that. So you're saying, hey, he's too smart
for this to happen. He would have made sure this
company didn't go belly up. It still goes back to
why was Kawhi Leonard getting paid that money with a
(28:19):
company that Steve invested fifty million dollars in? Let me
just start there.
Speaker 7 (28:27):
Yeah, it is an interesting defense to say there's no
way that this is true because he would have been
better at covering it up.
Speaker 2 (28:35):
It sounds like that if I'm reading what Mark is saying.
Speaker 7 (28:38):
If he had done this, there's no way he would
have let that company go bankrupt because then that would
have exposed the crime. So if he had done this,
he would have made sure that that company stayed good
to cover it up.
Speaker 2 (28:47):
That's what the subtext is. Mark makes it seem like
billionaires don't make bad decisions or they don't do stupid things.
Speaker 7 (28:57):
Well, they definitely don't skirt the rules to benefit themselves.
Speaker 5 (29:03):
I just.
Speaker 2 (29:05):
I just want to know if you paid him twenty
eight million dollars for a no show in a company
that you invested fifty million dollars in and they were
one of the title sponsors. There's simple questions that can
be asked. Then it might get a little more complicated. Yeah, Pauling.
Speaker 4 (29:20):
When I heard the story from Pablo Torre accusing Steve
Bomber this, it actually kind of made a little bit
of sense because Steve Bomber, I think this. Someone said
he's the seventh richest man on earth. He worked at
Microsoft for years. He now enters a league where there's
a cap on how much he can spend for things
he wants. He's never had a deal with a cap
in any other business venture he's ever been part of.
(29:41):
It's unique to sports, and he probably looks at and says,
I have money to spend. I want to get this player,
this player, but the league won't let me. I could
use my creativeness as a businessman to work around it,
because that's what I've done my entire life is create
as a businessman. Their rules don't make sense to me
that there's a cap when I have more money than anyone.
It is and that could be almost the genesis for
(30:02):
all of this and owners finding ways to spend outside
the rules.
Speaker 2 (30:06):
The Clippers, in their statement said neither Steve Balmer nor
the Clippers organization had any oversight of Kawhi's independent endorsement
agreement with aspiration to say otherwise is flat out wrong. Okay, Well,
the NBA is investigating this and still just a couple
(30:30):
of simple questions there.
Speaker 7 (30:32):
Yeah, there are a lot of things in the timeline
that are just funny coincidences. You know, Kawhi negotiating opting
out of contracts and then Steve Bomber invests fifty million
into this thing, and just a couple months later then
the deal assigned.
Speaker 2 (30:46):
I don't know this on paper, the timing is funny
and once again, innocent until proven guilty. But Pablo Torre
three thousand pages of documents and you have seven different people,
one who is on record. His voice was modulated though
(31:07):
protecting his identity. But still, and you have one person
saying that the Clippers were circumventing the salary cap through
this company. It feels like there's something there, whether the
Clippers knew it, But I still go back to Kawhi
was getting paid twenty eight million dollars for a no
show job and nobody knew about this, and if he
(31:31):
did something like this is where Okay, if you're the company.
Kawhi represents New Balance, he does commercials. I've seen him. Okay,
he's gonna get paid. But this is we're not even
trying to hide this. It's like, yeah, we're paying Kawhi
(31:51):
and I guess they still owe him seven million dollars.
I mean, just not show up somewhere. I I get
he's gonna get seven million to nod go up. Yes,
So why.
Speaker 7 (32:03):
Would I understand the company, uh investing in an NBA team.
Here's three hundred million dollars and we're a sponsor now right,
and I understand the company, Why would they just throw
in a bonus thirty million dollars for Kauai and be like,
don't worry about it. Just you don't even have to
show up. We're just going to give it to you
as as a thank you for being here.
Speaker 2 (32:22):
Why would you do that unless it's we need Kawhi
to be on the Clippers, if we're going to sponsor
this team, and then we can grow our business. If
the Clippers are good, then we grow. I think that's
what Mark Cuban is saying, Hey, why wouldn't you do this?
My first question to Mark is did you do this
in Dallas. It's against the rules. That's that's what I got.
(32:44):
I mean, Okay, we invited everybody on just to let
you know, Cuban ballmer, commissioner, everybody, Kawhi, yes, Marvin.
Speaker 6 (32:59):
The NBA, I'm nominating for Worst week in Sports. And
then Shams, you know, coincidentally, Hey, we got a new
All Star format format three hours after Publetory comes on
the show.
Speaker 2 (33:11):
Okay, do you think that this was a purposeful distraction
to the Clippers situation? And the Clippers will be hosting
the All Star Game and all of a sudden, you
know that when this is front page headline stuff and
then oh, by the way, the NBA has leaked to
Shams that here's a new All Star format guys enjoy. Yes,
(33:36):
I don't know if I think that you think it's
it's it's just a coincidence.
Speaker 7 (33:41):
What is that All Star weekend bombshell that they're dropping, Like,
well really not.
Speaker 2 (33:46):
Really, here we are it's the first week is September,
don't you want to I mean.
Speaker 7 (33:51):
If they leaked something like hey, the Nets are thinking
of leaving Brooklyn, I would be like, whoa, that's a
crazy story.
Speaker 2 (33:56):
But hey, some tweaks to the All Star Game weekend. Now, well,
there was also reported that Ben Simmons is thinking of retirement,
so that might throw you off. He got paid salary. Yeah,
another note show, Yeah, yeah, investigate Ben Simmons. Yeah, you're
catching strays.
Speaker 4 (34:15):
He's not even involved in the story.
Speaker 2 (34:16):
Yeah, he shoots strays. Yeah that's the problem. Okay, Well
he doesn't shoot. Oh that's right, he doesn't. Let's take
a break. I still want to have Ben Simmons and
Angel Reese have a shootoff. Oh no, fifteen footers, fifteen
feet just shoot. She attempts, she does. She'm not afraid
(34:40):
to shoot. That's why she gets so many rebounds. They're
her own rebounds. Okay, let's take a break. Let's take
a break. Play the day up next.
Speaker 1 (34:48):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
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Speaker 8 (35:00):
Oh my God.
Speaker 2 (35:03):
Of the Day, Twitter's like God play this is the
play of the day.
Speaker 1 (35:10):
Check this out.
Speaker 16 (35:11):
Two two a swing, there's a high drive. It's way back.
Speaker 1 (35:14):
It is good.
Speaker 16 (35:18):
That Chapmin does it again. Three run blast here in
this top of the sixth inning and the Giants have
opened up a nine to fively.
Speaker 2 (35:30):
Here come the Giants. Nine and one in their last ten.
The Giants have hit at least one home run in
each of their last seventeen games, longest such streak in
baseball this season and the longest since the team moved
to San Francisco back in nineteen fifty eight. That's courtesy
of k NBR Giants Radio Network Play of the Day,
(35:52):
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No tho subscriptions ever. Business owners, stay connected with your
employees anywhere. Visit Rapid Radios dot com up to sixty
percent off and free shipping. Let's see Tim and Albany. Hi, Tim,
(36:13):
what's on your mind today again?
Speaker 11 (36:17):
Five eight, one seventy five. Yeah, I just want to
know why ESPN has to ruin every single perfect thing
in this world and now red Zone. Now everyone that
everyone pays for is going to have commercials.
Speaker 2 (36:32):
This isn't on ESPN. Okay, from what I'm told, it's
not on ESPN adding commercials to the Red Zone. Okay,
I don't know other details there, but I was told
that this don't put the blame on ESPN. Kennedy and Louisville.
Hi Kennedy.
Speaker 17 (36:52):
Yeah, I pretty much had the same same question, and
I saw Pat macul be kind of you know, promoting
it too, which fell a little weird. I'm just like, oh, no,
will care about commercials and now ESPN has that ten percent.
I didn't know if there was conflit there, just us.
Speaker 2 (37:05):
A little there.
Speaker 5 (37:06):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (37:07):
I think the NFL dictates all of this. This isn't
the mother ship. Just let's be fair to everybody involved
in this. And I'm not going to put blame on
Scott Hansen or the Red Zone or anybody else. I
believe that this is handed down from the NFL.
Speaker 7 (37:24):
Yeah see, and just quickly because I think that person misspoke.
ESPN got the Red Zone channel. The NFL got ten
percent of ESPN. ESPN doesn't have ten percent of the
NFL or Red Zone. They have all of the NFL network,
but the NFL got ten percent of ESPN.
Speaker 2 (37:42):
Let's see Joe in New Orleans. Hi, Joe, what's on
your mind today?
Speaker 18 (37:47):
Hey? Good morning, sixth three, and more than I care
to communicate for a long time. Third time I asked
a question, it's going to lean a little more in
Polly's directions. You're a little more negative. But didn also
the Saint being worsuper bl Odds again out last week.
The Pelicans are going to get two primetime games all season.
(38:07):
Is there any other city that's more irrelevant in sports
right now than New Orleans?
Speaker 2 (38:12):
Well, you could probably look at the Carolina Panthers and
the Charlotte Hornets. If mis ree loves company, I mean,
no offense to a wonderful city. But if you're talking
about the sports teams lack of star power than those,
I mean, you got Zion. I don't know how long
he's going to be there, but we got him, and
(38:35):
he might have arch manning one day with the Saints
Lucas in Texas. Hi, Luke, what's on your mind?
Speaker 9 (38:44):
Hey Gang, Good morning morning, Happy football season opening days.
Excited for it. But yeah, I'm trying to think through
the Kawhi Leonard situation, and there's a lot of different
storylines and there's just a couple that I think are
worth interesting. I think I'm all four players getting what
they deserve to be paid. But I do think there's
(39:04):
a growing disconnect with fans of especially in the NBA,
what payers are being played, players are being paid, and
the product that they are receiving. The you know, it
feels like there's almost a handshake agreement of like how
much can we get without actually having to put a
good product on the court regularly. And then the other
(39:25):
side is there has to be some level of enforcement
that's pretty strong from the NBA, and I know that
Silver is a player commissioner, but there has to be
some response because more and more billionaires are coming into
sports ownership as a way to almost instantly get some
popularity and some credibility. And if it just becomes more
(39:48):
and more where sports leagues are the playground of billionaires
but they're unaccountable, I think that's a recipe for really
seeing a rift between fans.
Speaker 11 (39:57):
And the league.
Speaker 9 (39:58):
They want to see they and they want to know
that everyone's playing fair, and that's fundamentally what this story
feels like. The richest guy in sports ownership came in
and said, how can I stretch or break the rules?
And if anyone even got I.
Speaker 2 (40:10):
Want to be fair, Luke, you make you make some
nice points, but let's be fair to Steve Balmer here.
I got to be fair to him. I can't just
say that he's guilty of this. This happens in the
Premier League all the time, all the time, and owners
get dinged, you know, whether it's Juventus a couple of
years ago, whether it's a Man City, anybody else in there.
Speaker 7 (40:36):
So there's there's always rumors of like, uh, oh this
team is doing really well. Wow, we should see if
they have any offshore accounts wink wink. There's there's like
always that, man, how did they get this player to sign? Like, oh,
somebody should check the Cayman Islands. Maybe that's out, yes, ton.
Speaker 3 (40:51):
So why isn't there more of a punishment if it's
just a ding to use your word, if that people
keep doing it and they keep circumventing the rules, or
it seems like it's just because everyone's doing it, Is
there any kind of governing body that cares to do
anything about it?
Speaker 2 (41:05):
As the Premier League come down heavy on these teams, Seaton.
Speaker 7 (41:11):
Yeah, I mean they get absolutely yeah.
Speaker 2 (41:14):
But I hope Welly have oversight committees that And by
the way, the NBA owners scheduled to meet next week
in New York City, scheduled to meet. All owners will
be there and this topic is reportedly on the agenda.
You are listening to the Dan Patrick Show on Fox
Sports Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
We did it. We made it to a Thursday. And
this is the opposite of the first day of school
because your kids are like, oh, summer's over, we got
to go back to school. No, this is the opposite.
We finally made it. We made it through the summer,
and we got football coming up tonight. Who has it
better than we do? Nobody? Alrighty, make sure you check
(00:25):
out the new merchandise. You can go to Danpatrick dot com.
The stores openstock with fresh new gear. Stat of the
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(00:48):
seventy locations. That's expresspros dot Com. Play the Day, poll questions,
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calls are always welcome. Eight seven seventh three DP Show
email address Dpadanpatrick dot com Twitter handle a DP show.
Good morning if you're watching on peacock. Thank you for
downloading the app. Our streaming partner, iHeartRadio, Fox Sports Radio
(01:10):
as well. Opening Night Eagles big favorites eight and a half,
the banner being raised tonight and the Cowboys come in
and are they dangerous? Dak is good against the NFC East.
DAK is good against the Eagles, But with what has
happened in the offseason, I know what's going to happen.
The Eagles aren't going to be able to run the
ball because the Cowboys are ready to stop the run.
(01:33):
I don't know if they can stop the pass, but
they're going to stop the run. With Kenny Clark, who
all of a sudden is going to be Aaron Donald.
I do like him. And Ross Tucker, who will join
us a little bit later on, had a great tweet
because he was saying, well, apparently Michael Parson's not worth
forty seven million dollars a year, but he is to
(01:53):
Green Bay and forty seven million dollars a year and
Kenny Clark in two first round picks. So it's the
eye of the beholder here and what Dallas was willing
to pay. And if you know, Jerry got to a
point where he said, all right, that's it. I'm not
going to negotiate that maybe his feelings were hurt here.
Now you go to Green Bay. He's expected to play
(02:15):
in the opener against Detroit, although may need an epidural,
which is kind of interesting of you know, you passed
a physical, you had to pass a physical to be traded,
but might need treatment leading up to this game. But
we also have football on Friday night. Don't sleep on that.
And you have the Chiefs and the Chargers in Brazil.
(02:38):
Now here's the problem I have with this. I know
we're getting to you know, global expansion here. The NFL
is going to get to an eighteen game schedule, and
they're going to have, you know, eighteen games that are
going to be international games, and they're going to you know,
once again that's worth a billion dollars or whatever. It's
(02:59):
monopoly money. But this is what they want to do.
This way, they don't take away a home game. The
fact that the Chargers in Chiefs, a divisional rivalry game,
is going to be played in Brazil is malpractice. I mean,
that's terrible because that should be played in Los Angeles,
or if it was going to be played in Kansas City.
(03:20):
This is a divisional game, and I don't think the
fans in Brazil were going to go, hey, we better
get an opening game, we better get a week one game.
They should have these games. And I'm fine with games,
you know, if you want them to have in London,
in Germany and Ireland. I'm not anti international. What I
(03:41):
am anti is a divisional game we're going to export
and it's week one. You can't do that to the
chiefs and they charge your fans this week seven and
then you have a bye week. If you want to
do it that way, then I think it's fair to
all involved. I don't like having open Day in Japan.
(04:01):
I understand that, you know, or Korea. I understand you
want to Hey, this is something different. It's still it's
our game. You can still have games there. But let's
not have opening Day or their first week, their first game,
a divisional game, and you're going to play it in Brazil.
I just it's not it's not fair to the teams,
(04:23):
to their fans. But this will let you know exactly
what the NFL is all about. Players don't like it,
fans don't like it, but the owners like it. Let's
play some football in Brazil. Those with me. I just
think it's unfortunate that you have all of this build
up and now you're going to send those guys to Brazil.
(04:47):
They should be playing this game here in the United States,
and it's a divisional game. It's an important game, yes, Dodd.
Speaker 3 (04:55):
And you can't even give the charges of home game
week two when they get back from there. They got
to play at the Raiders. It's not the Week three
where they host Denver. It's like you give them a break,
a little bit of bolts.
Speaker 2 (05:04):
Yes, Pauli.
Speaker 4 (05:05):
I think your point, especially about delaying it too week seven,
eight nine, makes tons of sense. Like people in Brazil,
while they may be growing football and they may like
to have a nice game with some big names, it
doesn't matter if it's the opener. The opener means nothing.
Like you said about baseball with the opener in Japan,
cool and I know for timing they had to do that,
but it just there's too much downside for the local fans.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
They could have had training camp games in Japan and
they would have been happy to see the Dodgers there
and you could have accomplished whatever. I don't think they said,
Wait a minute, is it a regular season game or
is it spring training? Now you could have ramped up
your lineup there a little bit and you could have said, hey,
we want to showcase some of our best players. We
want to make sure Otani's playing, and maybe it's three
(05:49):
innings that he's going to play what they do in
a typical spring training game, and maybe you get a
little bit more over there. Okay, training camp could have
been over there for a couple of you start by
playing games and then come back and go to spring training.
It's just wrong. And I'm all about growing the game,
whatever it takes. Let's try new things, grow the game.
(06:10):
Spring training. You can have a couple of games in
Japan and I think they're going to be okay with this.
And if you want to have a game in Brazil,
I mean, this is why we always had. It felt
like the Jags and the Panthers in London. It's like,
all right, we'll give you a game. It's not a
great game, but here you go. You got some football.
Now we're sending the Chiefs and if that's their home team,
(06:33):
you know, okay, we could wait for week seven or
eight and then give them a bye week when they
come back. But I don't want to be in a
bad mood on opening night.
Speaker 4 (06:42):
Airic grievances early.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
Well, I think people are going to respond to this
after the fact, certainly Chiefs fans and Charger fans, they've
already voiced their concerns disdain for this. But this is
the NFL doesn't care. They don't have to. All they
care about is themselves, the owners, and this is going
to be more money. Here's the commissioner, Roger Goodell. He
(07:06):
was on the Today Show in NBC talking about the
possibility of expanding to eighteen games.
Speaker 5 (07:13):
Listen, we always say what do the fans want? What
are the fans really think is important? And I think
it's clear they want more regular season games versus preseason games,
and it's something that we'll work through with the players Association.
We continue to make our game safer, and I think
that's at the core of making that kind of a decision.
Can we do it safely for our players? But it
(07:36):
also I think represents an opportunity for us to continue
to bring higher quality NFL content Ultimately, and a regular
season game is clearly better.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
A lot of NFL fans would love to not have
to go to work.
Speaker 6 (07:47):
Point, do we start to see the super.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
Bowl on the President's Day weekend.
Speaker 5 (07:51):
I think if you went to eighteen weeks regular season,
that would probably occur. Is possible somewhere in the calendar
could happen before that, just because because of the calendar
the way it lays out. But I think eighteen weeks
would get you to that point, and I think it'd
be a great, a really great move.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
Yeah, we've been talking about this for years that they
were going to get to I mean, this is all scripted,
This has been planned out. They know what's going to happen.
Now the negotiations are going to happen. It'll be eighteen games,
you're going to have every team will play outside the
United States. They're going to sell that a separate TV
package for those international games, all this stuff. We've talked
(08:30):
about this for years, and you're going to move the
season back. It'll be President's Day weekend. Everybody gets Monday off.
This is no surprise here, and it almost sounded like
an announcement by the commissioner. It was pretty close to
saying this is what's going to happen. Then yes, we
move it back. Yeah, President's Day weekend, and everybody wants
(08:51):
more football and we want everybody to be safe. You
can't add another game and tell me you care about safety.
You just can't. And now this is what I want.
I want the NFL to promise this. I hope the
players Association says, hey, we'll do eighteen games. This is
what we want. We want four more roster spots for
(09:12):
each team, extra bodies, that's what we want. So now
I get four more players on each team getting paid,
getting benefits, the opportunity to play in the NFL. If
you say that's what you're going to get out of this,
and I'm sure they'll want more than Okay, I mean,
(09:33):
don't I get to watch it, But these players have
to play. They're the ones that are affected the rest
of their lives playing these games. The number of games.
But if you have let's say, four more roster spots,
then maybe maybe you get the opportunity to You don't
have attrition here where you're like limping to the finish
(09:54):
line with your roster and every single year, how many
quarterbacks play the entire season. Just start there, and that's
the most protected player on the field. You can't add
another game and tell me it's about safety. It's about
money and the players know this. The clock is ticking
on their sports careers. How many years? How much money?
(10:17):
What am I going to be like when I get
out of here? Yeah?
Speaker 7 (10:21):
I like that clip about the eighteenth game. Roger Goodell says, well,
you know, we're just doing what the fans want, and
they've said that they want an eighteenth game, so we're
going to do that. Okay, but the fans hate the
international gips. Oh well, you know the fans are wrong
on that. That's our international fans, don't you love it?
So we're listening to that?
Speaker 2 (10:41):
Well yeah, PAULI I'm curious.
Speaker 4 (10:43):
We've never really discussed this angle. It's so obvious. Does
anyone here not want an eighteenth regular season game? If
it was an actual fan vote? I don't even know
my answer yet, but I'm curious about this room.
Speaker 2 (10:56):
I'm fine with it. I mean, I don't think anybody's
turn off football. I'm not big on Thursday night football.
I don't think we're being fair to the players when
you have a game on Sunday, in a game on Thursday,
it's just and having spoken to current and former players,
the turnaround is really really tough. Now you do it
(11:16):
because you get an extra paycheck, or you're going to
get a chance to be in primetime and standalone game.
I understand all of these things. I'm not going to say.
All I'm going to say is let's be fair to
the players. You're going to give them more money, another paycheck,
and maybe you get some more roster spots. But let's
not kid anybody. This is not about anybody other than
(11:38):
the owners want this. We're fine. The networks want this,
they get they give the money to the owners, and
the commissioner works for the owners. That's what this is
all about. You want to give me more football, great,
But I do think about the players, and I think,
and I go back to what I told you when
I saw Jim McMahon out in Tahoe and what he
(12:02):
meant to the NFL. And here he is telling me
they almost had his leg amputated and he doesn't have
health benefits. Those are the things that bother me when
I first saw Earl Campbell in a wheelchair. Those are
the things that bother me. But I've been around the
sport for forty years now, and I think you have
(12:22):
to be fair to these players. You know, what's their healthcare,
what's their benefits? Because we move on. It's like, oh yeah, ah,
that guy what Oh he's in a wheelchair. Oh damn, Hey,
what times of games start today? We move on with it.
I just want to make sure that we're fair to
these players who are entertaining us. And if you want
(12:45):
to add an eighteen game, okay, I get to enjoy it.
But let's be fair to all involve here international games.
How about not a divisional rival game? Okay? I mean
we can export a game that's not that interesting. We
do it to London all the time. But that bothers
(13:07):
me to open up in Brazil with the Chiefs and
Chargers a divisional game. I have a problem with that,
all right. See, you got to pull a question.
Speaker 1 (13:16):
I do.
Speaker 7 (13:17):
I'm trying to figure out if the wording on this
is fair, okay, because we've been talking about it a
little bit, all right, but Steve.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
Balmer is the Oh, let me hold off on that.
I'm want to take a break. And we talked to
Pablo Torre yesterday, who had this investigation into the Clippers
and Kawhi Leonard and a fraudulent company and money that's
there and Kawhi being paid for a no show job.
(13:45):
Mark Cuban's now involved in this. Coming to Steve Balmer's defense,
there's a lot of things going on right now. The
NBA says they're aware of it, which that was an
interesting response. Todd goes, you know, hey, we just want
to ask if the commissioner wants to come on and
talk about this. Well, we're aware of this, which is
good because they said, wait a minute, what happened? What
(14:06):
about the Clippers? Yeah, you call me back. I I'm
gonna got off this other call.
Speaker 6 (14:09):
We need to talk with it.
Speaker 2 (14:10):
I didn't hear it about Clippers. Wait a minute, I've
been watching the US Open tennis. Is there something going on?
But Pablo had sources, seven sources, one on record. One
said that they specifically said the Clippers were trying to
circumvent the salary cap paying Kawhi Leonard twenty eight million
dollars for a no show job for a company that
(14:31):
I believe the CEO is going to jail and the lot.
There's a lot involved here. Now, once again, you're innocent
until proven guilty. You know, did Steve Balmer know anything
or what did he know? When did he know? And
did Kawhi get paid twenty eight million dollars. We'll talk
(14:52):
a little bit more about that. We'll get to your
phone calls as well an eight seven seven three DP show.
We're back after this in The Dan Patrick Show.
Speaker 1 (15:00):
Be sure to catch the live edition of The Dan
Patrick Show weekdays at nine am Eastern six am Pacific
on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 8 (15:10):
Hey, it's Ben, host of The Fifth Hour with Ben Maller.
Would mean a lot to have you join us on
our weekly auditory journey. You're asking, what in God's name
is the Fifth Hour? I'll tell you it's a spin
off of it Ben Mather Show, a cult hit overnights
on FSR.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
Why should you listen?
Speaker 8 (15:25):
Picture if you will a world will. We chat with
captains of industry in media, sports, and more every week
explore some amazing facts about human nature and more. Listen
to The Fifth Hour with Ben Maller on the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcast or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 2 (15:39):
It is the fifth annual Hot Take Draft coming up
a little bit later on. That's where we have predictions
that are kind of wild, kind of crazy. The hotter
the better Paully give the audience. For instance of one
that hit last year, for you, and one that didn't.
Speaker 4 (15:58):
And again is what's more important Dan, the hotness or
the rightness?
Speaker 2 (16:01):
Hotness?
Speaker 6 (16:02):
Right.
Speaker 4 (16:03):
Here's one I had last year that worked out pretty well.
Russell Wilson will start a playoff game ding not that
tarily hot, it's warm.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
Okay.
Speaker 4 (16:14):
Here's one that didn't work out. Derek Carr will start.
Speaker 2 (16:17):
A playoff along in the league he retired.
Speaker 4 (16:21):
I also had Will Levis of the Titans will win
most Improved Player, if there is such an award.
Speaker 2 (16:26):
In his own family. Maybe that's about it. But that's
the hot take draft that we'll have for you. Super
Bowl picks tomorrow. Tomorrow, Super Bowl picks eight, seven to seven,
three DP show. We'll get to your phone calls coming up.
Uh oh, Paully heard, Can I say who you heard from?
Speaker 4 (16:45):
Yeah, a well placed source who knows former player now broadcaster. Okay,
he was talking about he was listening and heard about
you talk about international games. It's already been announced that
the LA Rams will play a game and Elburn, Australia
next year at some point twenty twenty six. Yeah, this
person said, don't be surprised if that's an opener, like
(17:07):
it's for Week one and because of that, it may
be played on a Wednesday or a Thursday because of
the timing and the schedule and the travel. So don't
be surprised if rams open in Melbourne next year.
Speaker 2 (17:20):
But I get that if you want to ramp it
up and then they then they get time to come
back and get acclimated to you know, start in an
NFL season like everybody else. I mean, if you've ever
and I've I've flown from Connecticut to Sydney, Australia, and
I think it was a total of twenty three hours.
Now they're flying private, but still your body is going
(17:43):
to take a toll and then you play a football game,
then you get back on a plane, then you come
back home. If you're going to give them a good
seven days, eight days to recuperate, Okay, I just don't
like s. I don't like exporting our openers just I
don't think that's fair to the fans. You get imagine
being a Charger Chief fan, You're like, yeah, but I
(18:05):
can't go to the game. You know, I gather all
the kids schools started. We're going to Australia for the
opener next year, Yes, Tom, And you're waiting.
Speaker 3 (18:16):
All these months counting it down like we've been doing
to the start of the season. Then you've got to
wait another week, passably even two weeks before the first
home game that you could attend.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
Still driving that trusty old ride. Keep it looking sharp
with Mako dense to faded paint. They got you covered.
Get a free estimate today? Uh oh, better get Mako
all right, So let me get a couple of phone
calls in here. Then we'll talk about the situation with
the Clippers circumventing the salary cap. Perhaps according to Pablo
Torre yesterday, Uh also Mark Cuban responded social media wise,
(18:51):
Pablo said, Hey, Mark, why don't you come on the
show his podcast? And I guess Mark Cuban has agreed
to go on the podcast to discuss this. Steve Ballmer
is not, but Mark Cuban is. Uh. Carter in Minnesota,
Hi Carter, what's on your mind today?
Speaker 9 (19:06):
Hey Dan six one ninety.
Speaker 10 (19:12):
I know it's been harp down a lot this week,
but I wanted to talk about Michael Parsons just one
a little bit more. The misconception about the contract is,
you know, everyone, here's the big number forty seven million,
but people forget that the fifth year option was accepted,
which is worth like twenty one million on Parsons, So
it really is a five year contract that averages out
to just over forty one million.
Speaker 2 (19:34):
Yes, yes, that's been reported, and thank you Carter uh
Sean in Michigan. Hi Sean, what's on your mind?
Speaker 11 (19:42):
Hey, Dan?
Speaker 12 (19:42):
Six fifteen. I wanted to talk a little bit about
this game on Friday night. Completely understand that the heightheness
of the first week, but the fans, the season ticke holders,
at any game, someone's going to be the away team.
So home opener is really all that the and the
season ticket holders care about. They care about week one
(20:04):
if they're the away team that they can watch it.
They obviously don't want the game to be blacked out.
I'm assuming that this game is going to be nationally televised.
Everyone's gona be able to watch it. And I haven't
looked too deep into the Chiefs and Chargers season. I'm
hoping that their home opener is Week two, But that's
what they care about. Every team has to go through
a Week one where the away team we can't go
(20:24):
to the game.
Speaker 13 (20:25):
It's just that both teams are going through that now
all they care about is the home opener, the game.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
That they can go to.
Speaker 12 (20:32):
Now, with a seventeen game schedule nine and eight nine home,
eight away or nine eight home, whatever it.
Speaker 13 (20:40):
Is, everyone has to go through an eight game home schedule.
I'm assuming that each team or one team is just
gonna have eight home games similar to other seasons.
Speaker 2 (20:50):
Yeah, but I still you want to have the opportunity
to go to a game going from Kansas City to
Los Angeles or vice versa. Seems like that you can.
You can pull that off. Going to Brazil is a
little bit tougher for your fan base. I understand you.
You have your home games, you're going to have eighteen games,
and you're gonna have one game. Every team is probably
(21:13):
going to play outside the United States. But thank you, Sean,
thank you for the phone call. Eric in California. Hi, Eric,
what's on your mind?
Speaker 14 (21:21):
ADB six five, ninety ten year Charger season ticket holder.
Let's put a little bit of ice on top of
this cake. We actually paid for the ticket for Brazil,
and we didn't get reimbursed for it as season ticket holders.
As matter of fact, they didn't offer its tickets to
the game in Brazil. Either or discounted tickets, nothing to
(21:42):
really supplement us paying for We actually had a season
ticket increase as well.
Speaker 2 (21:48):
Yeah, but the NFL cares about you, Eric, Yeah, Sen.
Speaker 7 (21:52):
That's what I mean. Part of this discussion just boggles
my mind about like, well, hey, what about the season
ticket holders.
Speaker 2 (21:59):
We're the ones.
Speaker 7 (21:59):
What do you really think the NFL cares at all
about season ticket holders? The current twenty I bet you
twenty four out of the thirty two teams right now
have a waiting list ten thousand people deep waiting to
get season tickets. And if it didn't dawn on you
that they couldn't care less about you based on buying
season tickets get you have to buy a personal seat
(22:21):
license just for the right to buy the tickets. Then
you have to buy the games, which includes they make
you buy the preseason games, and they don't give you
any playoff tickets, which you get the right because you're
a season ticket holder to pay inflighted, inflated prices for
those two. But yes, they absolutely care about you.
Speaker 2 (22:39):
Guys, Ted and san Diego, Hi, Ted, Hey Dan, love
the show. Thanks, sir.
Speaker 15 (22:45):
I'm curious for the adding that eighteenth game. You keep
saying that players are going to like you because they
get paid more. But when they sign their contract, when
they say twenty million dollars a year, isn't that twenty
million dollars across X mini games. So if they add
an eighteenth game, are they going to renegotiate all the
players contracts?
Speaker 2 (23:05):
I don't. Well, you're not going to play an extra
game and not get paid. I mean they're going to
have to tack on a check because the players aren't
going to agree to play another game unless they're getting something,
and the players aren't benefiting if, as I've suggested, you
add at least four roster spots. But thank you for
the phone call. Yes, you're going to want another paycheck,
(23:28):
and it might be average averaging out what is your
current paycheck, and then they add one more to that,
which I don't think that's a big bookkeeping deal. Segueing
into the Clippers with the story that is front and
center and Pablo Torre of Meadow Arc Media his podcast,
(23:50):
he has done a deep dive on the Clippers situation
with Steve Balmer. Steve Balmer the owner of the Clippers,
and there's a lot going on here because you've got
a company that has since gone belly up. You have
the CEO who pled guilty wire fraud, and this company
(24:11):
was paying celebrities, Pablo Torre said, like Cindy Cindy Crawford
and her daughter who's a model. I think Leonardo DiCaprio
was in there. But they were getting paid, you know,
a million, two million dollars to represent this company that
you know is all about green and you know, planting trees,
(24:31):
and Steve Balmer invested fifty million dollars into this company.
The company was going to be one of the title
sponsors of the Clippers. I think they were going to
have a patch on their uniform. And then come to
find out that Kawhi Leonard, through his limited partnership or
his LLC, is getting paid for a no show job.
(24:55):
That he's getting paid twenty eight million dollars now. Pablo
said that he had seven sources, over three thousand pages
of documents, and one former employee who said that this
was being used to circumvent the salary cap. And the
Clippers have sent out a statement they deny everything here.
(25:16):
But this is what I want to know, was Kawhi
Leonard being paid by this company for a no show job.
Did he do something for the company, because Pablo Torre
said that he found no indication that Kawhi Leonard did
anything for this company. Steve Balmer, what's his role in this?
(25:37):
That you spent fifty million dollars on a company and
Kawhi Leonard's getting twenty eight million dollars. So just a
couple of questions here, did Kawhi get paid all this money?
And why for a no show job? And did Steve
Balmer understand this? The Clippers denied everything there. Mark Cuban
(26:01):
put out a post saying, I'm on team Balmer as
much as I wish they circumvented the salary cap first, Steve,
isn't that dumb if he did try to feed Kawhi
Leonard money knowing that what was at stake for him
personally and his team? Do you think that he would
let the company go bankrupt knowing all creditors would be
(26:22):
visible to the world. They got scammed by Aspiration. That's
the company along with many others crimes for which they
pleaded guilty last week. Well, I think they were pleading
guilty to wire fraud. I don't know if Steve Balmer
would have I mean this guy was lying about what
was going on. A three hundred million dollar sponsorship deal
(26:44):
with the Clippers. Scammers do scammy things, according to Mark Cuban,
Now that's a huge deal. The better the team does,
the more value the sponsorship has. It actually makes perfect
sense that they stole money from investors and want the
Clippers to succeed. Why not give stolen money to help
keep their best player. So Kawhi did get paid twenty
(27:08):
eight million dollars from this company, is what Mark is saying. Hey,
why not? Is Mark saying? This? Is okay, I'll read
that again. It actually makes perfect sense that they stole
money from investors and want the Clippers to succeed. Why
not give stolen money to help keep their best player.
(27:35):
Mark goes on to say, it's sad that Pablo Torre
didn't take the time to find out how these scammers
pulled off their scam. The idea that the default is
Balmer is the bad guy is going to backfire on him.
I don't know what Steve knew. I don't know if
he knew anything, but it sounds like Mark is saying, well,
(27:56):
if Balmer did know this, he wouldn't let it go. Bankrupt, Okay,
because you don't want creditors to be visible to the world.
I understand that. So you're saying, hey, he's too smart
for this to happen. He would have made sure this
company didn't go belly up. It still goes back to
why was Kawhi Leonard getting paid that money with a
(28:19):
company that Steve invested fifty million dollars in? Let me
just start there.
Speaker 7 (28:27):
Yeah, it is an interesting defense to say there's no
way that this is true because he would have been
better at covering it up.
Speaker 2 (28:35):
It sounds like that if I'm reading what Mark is saying.
Speaker 7 (28:38):
If he had done this, there's no way he would
have let that company go bankrupt because then that would
have exposed the crime. So if he had done this,
he would have made sure that that company stayed good
to cover it up.
Speaker 2 (28:47):
That's what the subtext is. Mark makes it seem like
billionaires don't make bad decisions or they don't do stupid things.
Speaker 7 (28:57):
Well, they definitely don't skirt the rules to benefit themselves.
Speaker 5 (29:03):
I just.
Speaker 2 (29:05):
I just want to know if you paid him twenty
eight million dollars for a no show in a company
that you invested fifty million dollars in and they were
one of the title sponsors. There's simple questions that can
be asked. Then it might get a little more complicated. Yeah, Pauling.
Speaker 4 (29:20):
When I heard the story from Pablo Torre accusing Steve
Bomber this, it actually kind of made a little bit
of sense because Steve Bomber, I think this. Someone said
he's the seventh richest man on earth. He worked at
Microsoft for years. He now enters a league where there's
a cap on how much he can spend for things
he wants. He's never had a deal with a cap
in any other business venture he's ever been part of.
(29:41):
It's unique to sports, and he probably looks at and says,
I have money to spend. I want to get this player,
this player, but the league won't let me. I could
use my creativeness as a businessman to work around it,
because that's what I've done my entire life is create
as a businessman. Their rules don't make sense to me
that there's a cap when I have more money than anyone.
It is and that could be almost the genesis for
(30:02):
all of this and owners finding ways to spend outside
the rules.
Speaker 2 (30:06):
The Clippers, in their statement said neither Steve Balmer nor
the Clippers organization had any oversight of Kawhi's independent endorsement
agreement with aspiration to say otherwise is flat out wrong. Okay, Well,
the NBA is investigating this and still just a couple
(30:30):
of simple questions there.
Speaker 7 (30:32):
Yeah, there are a lot of things in the timeline
that are just funny coincidences. You know, Kawhi negotiating opting
out of contracts and then Steve Bomber invests fifty million
into this thing, and just a couple months later then
the deal assigned.
Speaker 2 (30:46):
I don't know this on paper, the timing is funny
and once again, innocent until proven guilty. But Pablo Torre
three thousand pages of documents and you have seven different people,
one who is on record. His voice was modulated though
(31:07):
protecting his identity. But still, and you have one person
saying that the Clippers were circumventing the salary cap through
this company. It feels like there's something there, whether the
Clippers knew it, But I still go back to Kawhi
was getting paid twenty eight million dollars for a no
show job and nobody knew about this, and if he
(31:31):
did something like this is where Okay, if you're the company.
Kawhi represents New Balance, he does commercials. I've seen him. Okay,
he's gonna get paid. But this is we're not even
trying to hide this. It's like, yeah, we're paying Kawhi
(31:51):
and I guess they still owe him seven million dollars.
I mean, just not show up somewhere. I I get
he's gonna get seven million to nod go up. Yes,
So why.
Speaker 7 (32:03):
Would I understand the company, uh investing in an NBA team.
Here's three hundred million dollars and we're a sponsor now right,
and I understand the company, Why would they just throw
in a bonus thirty million dollars for Kauai and be like,
don't worry about it. Just you don't even have to
show up. We're just going to give it to you
as as a thank you for being here.
Speaker 2 (32:22):
Why would you do that unless it's we need Kawhi
to be on the Clippers, if we're going to sponsor
this team, and then we can grow our business. If
the Clippers are good, then we grow. I think that's
what Mark Cuban is saying, Hey, why wouldn't you do this?
My first question to Mark is did you do this
in Dallas. It's against the rules. That's that's what I got.
(32:44):
I mean, Okay, we invited everybody on just to let
you know, Cuban ballmer, commissioner, everybody, Kawhi, yes, Marvin.
Speaker 6 (32:59):
The NBA, I'm nominating for Worst week in Sports. And
then Shams, you know, coincidentally, Hey, we got a new
All Star format format three hours after Publetory comes on
the show.
Speaker 2 (33:11):
Okay, do you think that this was a purposeful distraction
to the Clippers situation? And the Clippers will be hosting
the All Star Game and all of a sudden, you
know that when this is front page headline stuff and
then oh, by the way, the NBA has leaked to
Shams that here's a new All Star format guys enjoy. Yes,
(33:36):
I don't know if I think that you think it's
it's it's just a coincidence.
Speaker 7 (33:41):
What is that All Star weekend bombshell that they're dropping, Like,
well really not.
Speaker 2 (33:46):
Really, here we are it's the first week is September,
don't you want to I mean.
Speaker 7 (33:51):
If they leaked something like hey, the Nets are thinking
of leaving Brooklyn, I would be like, whoa, that's a
crazy story.
Speaker 2 (33:56):
But hey, some tweaks to the All Star Game weekend. Now, well,
there was also reported that Ben Simmons is thinking of retirement,
so that might throw you off. He got paid salary. Yeah,
another note show, Yeah, yeah, investigate Ben Simmons. Yeah, you're
catching strays.
Speaker 4 (34:15):
He's not even involved in the story.
Speaker 2 (34:16):
Yeah, he shoots strays. Yeah that's the problem. Okay, Well
he doesn't shoot. Oh that's right, he doesn't. Let's take
a break. I still want to have Ben Simmons and
Angel Reese have a shootoff. Oh no, fifteen footers, fifteen
feet just shoot. She attempts, she does. She'm not afraid
(34:40):
to shoot. That's why she gets so many rebounds. They're
her own rebounds. Okay, let's take a break. Let's take
a break. Play the day up next.
Speaker 1 (34:48):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at Foxsports Radio
dot com and within the iHeartRadio app. Search FSR to
listen live.
Speaker 8 (35:00):
Oh my God.
Speaker 2 (35:03):
Of the Day, Twitter's like God play this is the
play of the day.
Speaker 1 (35:10):
Check this out.
Speaker 16 (35:11):
Two two a swing, there's a high drive. It's way back.
Speaker 1 (35:14):
It is good.
Speaker 16 (35:18):
That Chapmin does it again. Three run blast here in
this top of the sixth inning and the Giants have
opened up a nine to fively.
Speaker 2 (35:30):
Here come the Giants. Nine and one in their last ten.
The Giants have hit at least one home run in
each of their last seventeen games, longest such streak in
baseball this season and the longest since the team moved
to San Francisco back in nineteen fifty eight. That's courtesy
of k NBR Giants Radio Network Play of the Day,
(35:52):
brought to you by Rapid Radios, the official walkie talkie
of the DP show, pushed to talk nationwide LTE network.
No tho subscriptions ever. Business owners, stay connected with your
employees anywhere. Visit Rapid Radios dot com up to sixty
percent off and free shipping. Let's see Tim and Albany. Hi, Tim,
(36:13):
what's on your mind today again?
Speaker 11 (36:17):
Five eight, one seventy five. Yeah, I just want to
know why ESPN has to ruin every single perfect thing
in this world and now red Zone. Now everyone that
everyone pays for is going to have commercials.
Speaker 2 (36:32):
This isn't on ESPN. Okay, from what I'm told, it's
not on ESPN adding commercials to the Red Zone. Okay,
I don't know other details there, but I was told
that this don't put the blame on ESPN. Kennedy and Louisville.
Hi Kennedy.
Speaker 17 (36:52):
Yeah, I pretty much had the same same question, and
I saw Pat macul be kind of you know, promoting
it too, which fell a little weird. I'm just like, oh, no,
will care about commercials and now ESPN has that ten percent.
I didn't know if there was conflit there, just us.
Speaker 2 (37:05):
A little there.
Speaker 5 (37:06):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (37:07):
I think the NFL dictates all of this. This isn't
the mother ship. Just let's be fair to everybody involved
in this. And I'm not going to put blame on
Scott Hansen or the Red Zone or anybody else. I
believe that this is handed down from the NFL.
Speaker 7 (37:24):
Yeah see, and just quickly because I think that person misspoke.
ESPN got the Red Zone channel. The NFL got ten
percent of ESPN. ESPN doesn't have ten percent of the
NFL or Red Zone. They have all of the NFL network,
but the NFL got ten percent of ESPN.
Speaker 2 (37:42):
Let's see Joe in New Orleans. Hi, Joe, what's on
your mind today?
Speaker 18 (37:47):
Hey? Good morning, sixth three, and more than I care
to communicate for a long time. Third time I asked
a question, it's going to lean a little more in
Polly's directions. You're a little more negative. But didn also
the Saint being worsuper bl Odds again out last week.
The Pelicans are going to get two primetime games all season.
(38:07):
Is there any other city that's more irrelevant in sports
right now than New Orleans?
Speaker 2 (38:12):
Well, you could probably look at the Carolina Panthers and
the Charlotte Hornets. If mis ree loves company, I mean,
no offense to a wonderful city. But if you're talking
about the sports teams lack of star power than those,
I mean, you got Zion. I don't know how long
he's going to be there, but we got him, and
(38:35):
he might have arch manning one day with the Saints
Lucas in Texas. Hi, Luke, what's on your mind?
Speaker 9 (38:44):
Hey Gang, Good morning morning, Happy football season opening days.
Excited for it. But yeah, I'm trying to think through
the Kawhi Leonard situation, and there's a lot of different
storylines and there's just a couple that I think are
worth interesting. I think I'm all four players getting what
they deserve to be paid. But I do think there's
(39:04):
a growing disconnect with fans of especially in the NBA,
what payers are being played, players are being paid, and
the product that they are receiving. The you know, it
feels like there's almost a handshake agreement of like how
much can we get without actually having to put a
good product on the court regularly. And then the other
(39:25):
side is there has to be some level of enforcement
that's pretty strong from the NBA, and I know that
Silver is a player commissioner, but there has to be
some response because more and more billionaires are coming into
sports ownership as a way to almost instantly get some
popularity and some credibility. And if it just becomes more
(39:48):
and more where sports leagues are the playground of billionaires
but they're unaccountable, I think that's a recipe for really
seeing a rift between fans.
Speaker 11 (39:57):
And the league.
Speaker 9 (39:58):
They want to see they and they want to know
that everyone's playing fair, and that's fundamentally what this story
feels like. The richest guy in sports ownership came in
and said, how can I stretch or break the rules?
And if anyone even got I.
Speaker 2 (40:10):
Want to be fair, Luke, you make you make some
nice points, but let's be fair to Steve Balmer here.
I got to be fair to him. I can't just
say that he's guilty of this. This happens in the
Premier League all the time, all the time, and owners
get dinged, you know, whether it's Juventus a couple of
years ago, whether it's a Man City, anybody else in there.
Speaker 7 (40:36):
So there's there's always rumors of like, uh, oh this
team is doing really well. Wow, we should see if
they have any offshore accounts wink wink. There's there's like
always that, man, how did they get this player to sign? Like, oh,
somebody should check the Cayman Islands. Maybe that's out, yes, ton.
Speaker 3 (40:51):
So why isn't there more of a punishment if it's
just a ding to use your word, if that people
keep doing it and they keep circumventing the rules, or
it seems like it's just because everyone's doing it, Is
there any kind of governing body that cares to do
anything about it?
Speaker 2 (41:05):
As the Premier League come down heavy on these teams, Seaton.
Speaker 7 (41:11):
Yeah, I mean they get absolutely yeah.
Speaker 2 (41:14):
But I hope Welly have oversight committees that And by
the way, the NBA owners scheduled to meet next week
in New York City, scheduled to meet. All owners will
be there and this topic is reportedly on the agenda.
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