August 7, 2025 • 45 mins
DP responds to some criticism on his comments about ESPN purchasing the NFL Network. We preview Shedeur Sanders' first NFL start tomorrow. And Ross Tucker drops by and discusses what he looks for from rookie QB's in preseason games.
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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):
Our one on this Thursday, Dan and the Dann's Dan
Patrick Show come on in stay a while. Gangs all here,
Fritzie's here, Seaton, Marv, Paul, yours truly the back room guys.
Speaker 3 (00:14):
Good morning.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
If you're watching on Peacock, thank you for downloading the
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(00:36):
stat of the Day brought to you by Panini America,
the official trading cards of the Dan Patrick Show. Preseason
football coming up tonight, and you have the Colts and
the Ravens, the Bengals and the Seahawks, and I think
one other game coming up tonight Bengals Eagles and then
the Raiders and the Seahawks. So three games coming up
(00:57):
tonight and we get to start judging quarterback the preseason.
I'm already seeing articles about, oh are the brown setting
Shador Sanders up to fail as he opens up his
NFL career on Friday night against Carolina. And I was
trying to understand the logic behind this, because he hasn't
been taking reps as the first string quarterback. He's been
(01:20):
with second and third teamers. Well, now he's going to
be there with the first teamers against Carolina. I don't
know how that sets him up to fail. Now you're
with more talented players, players that you might have on
your team when you're the starting quarterback at some point
during the NFL season. But we're already you know, it's
(01:41):
already shifting towards Eh, what happens if you know he
doesn't do well in the first game. I think they're
making him, not making him. They're having him start because
everybody else is injured. I don't know if that's setting
him up for failure. You need somebody to play quarterback.
I don't think Teddy Bridgewater's ready to play. It's a
great opportunity for Shirdo or Sanders. I hope he does
(02:03):
well and you get to play with the first team
and maybe take some first team reps today and get
ready for Friday night's game against Carolina. But I don't
think he's being set up to fail. Not giving him
a chance to play would be setting him up to fail.
Speaker 3 (02:19):
If he can play, hopefully he'll showcase that.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
Coming up on Friday night, we'll explore some of the
other football matchups and battles going on in preseason. Our
good buddy, Ross Tucker will stop by eight seven to
seven to three. DP Show email address Dpatdanpatrick dot com,
Twitter handle the DP show operator Tyler sitting by. He'll
take your phone calls. By the way, we did talk
(02:42):
about the smelling salt. Is it a smelling saltgate that
we elect to throw gate? We attach that to a
lot of different things. When there's a controversy. The NFL
is saying you can't use smelling salts on the sidelines.
You can bring your own, but they want to take
away the liability I believe of smelling salts, and they're
(03:03):
worried about what it does. If you've had a concussion
and somebody gives you a smelling salt and it might
wake you up to be able to go back out
there and play. But it's bring your own smelling salts
to the sidelines. Yes, Ton, it didn't pass the smell
test for the NFL using four minutes in. I'll give
you a bloop. Yes, Paulie, I.
Speaker 4 (03:22):
Didn't realize how many players used them over the past
twenty four hours. It's become a story. So now every
local reporter is asking players about it, like different players.
There's a player for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. It says
I use them before every single defensive drive. They're commonplace.
You just don't catch them on TV that much, but
they're very commonplace.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
Weightlifters use these before a big lift. They'll take a
hit and then all of a sudden, it's like and
then you go. But I was wondering about this that,
you know, are they readily available that you can get
smelling salts where? I'm not sure. I guess you can
order them. But are they worried about kids using them?
Speaker 5 (04:02):
As it?
Speaker 2 (04:02):
Is it going to trickle down to you know, Pop Warner.
I'm not sure, but it feels like the NFL is saying,
where you want to remove any liability here, if you
want to take it, you bring your own.
Speaker 6 (04:14):
Yes, Ston, is this something we should be incorporating into
the morning routine around here?
Speaker 3 (04:21):
I told Dylan to see if he could order some.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
Just I don't know if you guys have ever experienced
smelling salts. Ooo, Yes, that's going to be the feeling,
that's going to be the look, the sound of it.
It is going to you know, there's that Bows speaker
commercial where the speakers are on and the guy's hair
(04:45):
is blown back and his face is blown back, and
sort of the feeling you get when you do smelling salts.
I remember doing them in high school playing football, for
my limited experience of freshman football in high school for
the Mason Commets.
Speaker 3 (04:59):
But you would take a hit that and it's like
whow yes, PAULI.
Speaker 4 (05:03):
A lot of people are speculating that the FDA caused this.
The FDA did a report just about a year ago
that said different types of these inhaling ammonia products can
lead to coughing, airway restriction, eye and those irritation and
long term effects on your breathing, seizure's, migraine, et cetera,
et cetera. And so the NFL just got this report
last year right before the season. Maybe that's what caused
(05:25):
the trickle.
Speaker 3 (05:25):
Down the front.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
Okay, yeah, it kind of came out of nowhere. But
having used it a couple of times. I didn't like it,
but it wasn't for a concussion. I think it was
just getting ready for contact with an Oklahoma drill that
we were going to do.
Speaker 3 (05:42):
Playing high school of football. Oklahoma drill. Yeah, I know.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
I love the Oklahoma drill where you're lying on your
back and then the other guys lying on your back
and they go and then you jump up and then
you run into each other.
Speaker 3 (05:56):
They called it the Oklahoma drill.
Speaker 5 (05:58):
Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
Yeah, that was the good old days. That's what That's
the way we used to do it, Yes, Paul.
Speaker 4 (06:05):
So when you play grade school football and you stink
like I did, you'd be in line for the Oklahoma drill,
and you'd look across and if you saw Richie Alcott
number fifty one, and you went back in line a
couple spots because you didn't not want to get.
Speaker 3 (06:17):
Cooked by Richie.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
You didn't want somebody wearing Dick Butkus's number. Oh no,
number fifty one. All right, we'll get to a poll
question today. I do want to mention there was a
topic yesterday we spent a lot of time, maybe too
much time, it talked about the NFL.
Speaker 3 (06:33):
Was buying ten percent of ESPN.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
There's a merger between NFL Network and ESPN, and the
point that I made and want to continue to make,
there is a conflict of interest. I think we can
all agree to that now if you don't care about it,
and maybe you don't, but for me, I worry about that.
But you know, this is the old school in me
(06:55):
that you know with ESPN and having been there eighteen years,
and I'm mention that, you know, are they going to
have journalism?
Speaker 3 (07:03):
Are they going to cover the NFL?
Speaker 2 (07:05):
And I didn't mention any names, but there was one
person at the mothership, Don Van Nada, who is a
senior writer who's been on the show. I think last
time he was on five years ago to talk about
deep dive he did on the Decision with Lebron James,
and he's been on the show a couple of times.
He's a very good journalist. He took it personally when
(07:27):
I was saying I don't know if they did a
deep dive on the NFL Players Association mess and once again,
this is live radio and I'm saying I don't know.
So I'm not making a declarative statement. I'm just saying
I don't know. Well, Don Van Nada took it personally
that I don't go to ESPN dot com and read
(07:47):
his articles. I don't go to ESPN dot com. Okay,
I don't. If there's an article, the dan nets will
bring it to my attention. Hey, this is I did
it out of principle when I left ESPN, like I'm
going to put ESPN in my rear view mirror, and
I really it's not part of my morning or routine
(08:08):
of going there. So I missed that Don was doing
an expose on the NFL Players Association, and by all accounts,
did a great job. Now I did know that Mike
Florio and Pablo Torre were doing things and they added
to the story collusion story.
Speaker 3 (08:23):
They sent the stories to us.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
We had them on, we had JC treder On, who
was second in command at the NFLPA. It's not a
story that you know we were staying away from. But
Don Benatta said that he was embarrassed for me because
I didn't know that he is the one who had
the story initially. I don't know if they promoted you correctly. Don,
(08:47):
to be honest with you, I don't know if you
were on first take. I don't know if you're on
NFL Live. I don't know if you're on Get Up.
I know that Pablo Torre and Mike Flora Mike Florio
were there front and center moting this and got a
lot of attention here. So I apologize for that that
I didn't know that you were the person, the originator
(09:07):
of this story there to say you're embarrassed for me
because I didn't see the article. I said that out loud.
I don't know if you guys did a deep dive
and I wasn't talking about you.
Speaker 5 (09:22):
You made it.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
Personal about me, and you know about being a journalist,
I said at the point, I didn't know. And also,
you know, when you when you start, you started out
that way, you miss what the real point was is
is is there a conflict of interest? Like that's the
(09:43):
discussion here not I missed that you did something on
the and by the way, it's not on the NFL.
Your expose was on the NFL Players Association. There's a
big difference in that. So we've reached out to Don
if he wants to join us, great. You may not
even care about this, but when you say you're embarrassed
for me, and then you know you want to show
me your resume, and I'll show you mine, and you
(10:06):
know we can have a private conversation here. But if
you call me out, you're embarrassed. Imagine if you did this,
you did your article live, because that's what I do
every day. I write columns every single day for three hours.
And sometimes you make mistakes. And you know by saying
that there's not an investigative arm inside ESPN, that's on me.
(10:30):
I made a mistake. I know where your office is
and you know it's been scaled down greatly. I hope
you continue to fight the good fight. Don I hope
you and your staff fight the good fight. But now
is when you're judged. From here on out, is when
you're judged. Covering the NFL not what you did before.
Have you like me saying I'm not any good at this,
(10:51):
but man, was I good at SportsCenter? No one cares.
It's about today and tomorrow in the next day. Covering
the NFL Player Association is a whole lot different than
covering the NFL, and you have to admit, which you didn't.
It's a conflict of interest. The perception is a conflict
of interest, and that was the point that I was
(11:13):
trying to make there.
Speaker 3 (11:15):
I wish you well, but if.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
You want to have a conversation on the show or privately,
i'd love to. I have nothing against you. You're the
one that made it personal. And thank you all the
people on social media who stood up for me and
sent me the article. And I got way too many
articles sent to me. Very happy, But I hope to
(11:39):
restore my journalistic credentials here this entire show. I got
three hours to do it, and perhaps I'll do that.
But there's a reason why the commissioner of the NFL
has not been on this show for over a decade.
Because I ask good questions. I asked the right questions.
I ask questions that can be uncomfortable. We take pride
(12:01):
in what we do and how we do it. And
because I offhandedly said I'm wondering because I didn't read
your expose, I'm going to renew my ESPN dot com
subscription poem.
Speaker 4 (12:14):
Nineteen ninety nine a year.
Speaker 3 (12:15):
I'm special.
Speaker 4 (12:16):
Is that what it is to get you a former
employee rate?
Speaker 3 (12:19):
Yeah? But this is another thing. I don't you know.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
They have analytics that say, hey, we're covering this and
this and this and this and this. Don is in
the buzzkill business. His job is to find the negative
side of things. I mean, he's trying to find the
CD under belly here. And I don't know if get
up and first take and some of these other shows go, hey,
come on down, let's spend ten minutes talking about this.
(12:45):
And you know it's unfortunate, but I've been there. I
was there for a long time. A lot of people
who were great journalists no longer work there, and you're
you're alone in the corner there, Don, And I hope
that they add instead of subtracting there. I think that's
really important to cover the NFL, not just the NFLPA.
Speaker 1 (13:09):
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 7 (13:20):
Hey, this is Jason McIntyre. Join me every weekday morning
on my podcast, Straight Fire with Jason McIntyre. This isn't
your typical sports pod pushing the same tired narratives down
your throat. Every day. Straight Fire gives you honest opinions
on all the biggest sports headlines, accurate stats to help
you win Big at the Sports Book and all the
best guests. Do yourself a favor and listen to Straight
(13:43):
Fire with Jason McIntyre on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts
or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 2 (13:52):
I got the Colts minus six and a half against
the Ravens, and I've got the Bengals minus six and
a half at the Eagles and the Raiders minus four
and a half against the Seahawks. Our gambling podcast after
this year with Shan Irving, Bad Larry and also Dylan.
We'll have that up on the website of Danpatrick dot com.
(14:13):
Weekend of NFL preseason games starting tonight, and just don't
overreact either way. If Shad or Sanders plays well on
Friday or doesn't play well on Friday, don't overreact. I
go back to Zach Wilson a couple of years ago.
His first game. People are like, yeah, look at that man.
(14:33):
Did the Jets get their guy? Well, we know how
that ended, and what you're trying to do is and
if you talk to coaches more probably important offensive coordinators
or even defensive coordinators, like the little things that they're
looking for. We see all my god, he overthrew that guy.
Or he threw a pick, or that guy dropped the ball,
(14:55):
he ran the wrong route, or did he run the
wrong route? Did the quarterback throw it the wrong You know,
there's so many things that go into this because you
have players who were playing in their first game or
getting getting to know their first team unit. You know,
shoud Or Sanders hasn't taken too many snabs with the
first team, but due to injuries, he's going to be
starting on Friday nine.
Speaker 3 (15:17):
So when you see these quarterback.
Speaker 2 (15:18):
Battles, or you see a player and you go, boy,
he didn't look that good, or boy, did you see that,
you know, sixth round pick out of TCU, he looked incredible.
This is like the summer league in the NBA where
we'll watch him. We'll go, man, that guy he put
up forty and then he doesn't even make the roster.
So be careful. And I know we're anxious to be like, man,
(15:40):
I'm ready to go, but just be a little bit cautious.
Now there's a yellow blinking light when I'm watching it,
just it's never red, it's never green. It's sort of
a cautionary tale. Eight seven seven three DP show email
address Dpatdanpatrick dot Com, Twitter handle at DP show Good morning,
those watching on Peacock and our radio affiliates around the country.
(16:04):
Seaton Poll question for hour two is going to be what.
Speaker 6 (16:10):
We have up there right now? Which type of content
do you prefer? Oh boy, which type of content sorre?
Do you want more of investigative journalism or lifestyle pieces?
Speaker 3 (16:28):
Okay? Right now?
Speaker 6 (16:31):
Eighty five percent of the audience say investigative journalism.
Speaker 3 (16:35):
Oh they do yes.
Speaker 6 (16:36):
Now, the second part that's going up is which type
of content do you actually watch or consume? And those
people who said eighty five percent are going to if
they answer the same thing, they're lying.
Speaker 3 (16:48):
I think we want it.
Speaker 2 (16:51):
If you're older, I think you want investigative stories. I
just don't think we have the patience now where you're
going to read something that could be a or nine
pages long, or it's on TV and it's fifteen minutes.
I just don't know if people have the patience to
do that, to watch that. Plus, if you're watching sports,
(17:12):
we want sports to be positive. We don't want negative stories.
We don't want anything that attaches Otani to a gambling scandal.
We don't want to see a school taken down. We
don't want to school get the death penalty, or a
coach be suspended, a player be suspended. When you think
about it, we love the positivity of sports.
Speaker 5 (17:33):
Now.
Speaker 2 (17:33):
Granted there's a winner and a loser, but we want
them to be able to play or be able to coach.
We want the feel good story. I just don't know
if people wake up and go too much positivity.
Speaker 6 (17:46):
Yes, people don't wake up and say too much positivity. However,
was there like a more exciting time in I mean
there were a lot of exciting times in sports, but
the whole balco thing, the whole steroid era, uncovering that,
the I mean, all of those things were every day
you woke up and were like, what's going to happen today?
Speaker 3 (18:06):
What's next? How is this all going to go? That
was awesome having covered that.
Speaker 2 (18:10):
I thought there was too much coverage of it, but
we were unearthing things all the time. It'd be another name,
you know, there'd be another source. I mean, it just
it metastasizes and then all of a sudden, you know,
it's every single day that you go to work and
you have to cover that, and you're hoping there's something
(18:31):
that you can add to it. But yeah, back then
because it was salacious and you know baseball, home runs, Bonds,
Balco a Rod, who's this doctor? What are they getting?
What's the clear? What's the cream? And how does that
help you hit home runs? The number of people back
(18:54):
then who would say, hey, you can take the clear
and cream, but that doesn't help you hit a baseball, Well,
it helps you hit a baseball further. And I would
always say, why would you risk your career if it
didn't help you do something? The amount of money that
was made off of performance enhancing drugs, the clear and
the cream and steroids, that's why they did it. You
(19:17):
run the risk because to them it was worth the risk. Now,
in retrospect, if you ask Rafael Paul Marrow was it
worth it? Or Sammy Sosa was it worth it? Or
Mark McGuire was it worth it? Or Barry Bonds was
it worth it? You might get different answers from those guys.
They might say, you know what, yeah, they all got paid,
(19:41):
but was it worth it? The public shame to go
in front of Congress. If you're Mark McGuire, you were
America's hero, you were Paul Bunyan. All of a sudden
you're there and they're going and you know, hey, I'm
not here to talk about the past, And I go,
oh my god.
Speaker 3 (19:56):
If that's your game plan, you're in trouble.
Speaker 2 (19:59):
Rafael paulm Narrow pointing his finger, and Roffield palm Mayrow's
got three thousand hits. He was going, you're going to
the Hall of Fame. Now nobody brings his name up.
You know when they talk about other players, Ruffield palm Marrow,
does he have five hundred home runs? I know he's
got three thousand hits. He might have three thousand and
(20:21):
five hundred home runs and he's not getting into the
Hall of Fame.
Speaker 3 (20:26):
Yeah, Paulie.
Speaker 4 (20:27):
I think guys like Barry Bonds and Lance Armstrong are
not sorry they did it. I think they feel that
they had to do it to compete with everyone else
who was doing it. Lance Armstrong said to you, everybody
was using it. I could either use or go home,
and I decided to use or I'd be off the tour.
I think Bonds clearly no pun saw other guys using
it and said, okay, wait do you see this, Wait
(20:49):
to see my skills with this stuff, I'll be the
best ever.
Speaker 3 (20:52):
And he clearly was. But that's what happened.
Speaker 2 (20:56):
Bonds, from what I'm told, was watching what you know,
the public adoration, you know, adulation with Sammy, So said
Mark Maguire. Okay, it was the summer of Sammy and Mark,
we're gonna make you guys Sportsman of the.
Speaker 3 (21:12):
Year, and Bonds has gone. Are you kidding me? Are
you kidding me?
Speaker 2 (21:18):
Watch this and you saw what could happen when one
of the great players uses performance enhancing drugs. And Lance
Armstrong was a great story. He came back from testicular cancer.
He was going to die. Just the fact that he
came back to the Tour de France would have been
enough to make him a hero in the United States.
But these guys all have that same gene. It is
(21:40):
full speed ahead. You know, Jordan had it, Bonds has it,
you know, Clemens had it. Lance Armstrong has it that
whatever it takes, I'm gonna I'm gonna be great. I'm
gonna continue to be great. And I looked at Lance
and first of all, we didn't care about the Twitter France,
(22:00):
and then all of a sudden, Hey, an American's winning,
and we're like, now, Greg Lemon had won, and he
survived a shotgun blast and it ended up winning. And
he's really the true hero in my opinion when it
comes to American cycling Tour de France. But Lance was
he became a star, worldwide star, and then the French
(22:22):
came after him. They're like, you're not gonna Hey, we
can cheat, but you're not going to cheat and win
on our race.
Speaker 3 (22:28):
We can, but you can't.
Speaker 4 (22:30):
Yeah, Pauline, Well, it's so funny though, when the French
press and people came after Lance Armstrong, it actually bolstered
his case here in America, like they're jealous they can't
beat him. A lot of people don't have issues with
the French in general, right going back decades and decades,
and it was like Lance goes, well, look who's coming
after me, the people who can't beat me, And we're like, yeah, Lance,
go host.
Speaker 3 (22:49):
The sb's again. You're the man. Buy some more stuff.
Speaker 2 (22:52):
Sho hey o Tani was dealing last night. In four innings,
he had eight strikeouts, and I'd like, I wanted to
see what his odds MVP odds were after that performance
last night, So DraftKings just sent me this show. Heyotani's
MVP odds yesterday minus four fifty. His odds now are
minus one thousand. It's really hard for him to lose this.
(23:17):
But I do think Kyle Schwarber deserves some consideration here.
He's not going to win it. He was plus three
point fifty yesterday, now he's plus five fifty. Pete crow
Armstrong was plus nine fifty yesterday now plus fifteen hundred.
It's show Hayo tanis to lose. And if you're pitching
like this and now you're ramping up and then you
(23:39):
have that weapon in the postseason, it's pretty amazing. And
they certainly need him because the Dodgers haven't been as
formidable as we expected them to be. And I started
to wonder about this with Travis Hunter. I don't know
how much offense and defense he's going to play if
he's listed as a backup cornerback but a starting wide
receiverel like it's going to be flipped when the season starts.
(24:03):
But if Travis Hunter doesn't go to Jackson State where
he can play both ways and you're playing for Dion Sanders,
if Travis Hunter went to Georgia or LSU or Florida State,
he might get a sprinkling he wouldn't be playing both ways,
but they would go, hey, we're going to put him
in a third down package. Big skulls take you, and
(24:26):
that's your position.
Speaker 3 (24:28):
Now.
Speaker 2 (24:28):
I don't know if this is going to open the
door for more players wanting to try this. I thought
Derek Stingley, who played at LSU, could have been a
two way player for LSU. But you're getting guys who
specialize as a wide receiver and those who specialize as
a defensive back. If you don't have Jackson State and Dion,
then maybe we don't have Travis Hunter winning the Heisman
(24:52):
Trophy because it opened our eyes to hey, he's playing
both ways, and then the knock, well it's Jackson State.
Then he went to Colorado and he was playing both ways,
just like showe. Hey, o'toni. I don't know how many
and most of your great players were probably a pitcher
and a shortstop that was that's usually the Hey I'm
(25:14):
not pitching, I'm playing shortstop. Hey I'm bat in third.
And you know there's guys who were great pitchers and
they were great hitters in high school and maybe in college,
and most of them were. But I don't know if
there's going to be a player of players who say, hey,
Otani's done it, Travis Hunter's done it. Now, you have
(25:35):
to have the talent to do it, and you have
to have a coach or a manager who is willing
to let you do that. I keep saying, I'd love
to see Paul Schemes maybe play, maybe bat, because he
was a pretty good hitter. I remember at air Force.
I don't know the LSU numbers, but you know you
got some guys who were you know, they were great
(25:57):
athletes and two way players. I'm sure you know all
these great players in college played both ways in high school.
So you might have been a running back and a
defensive back, or you know you're gonna be a quarterback
in a free safety to Daveon Clowney played running back
in a high school and defensive end. You imagine him
as a running back. Oh my god, no, this is
(26:20):
gonna hurt. But watching Otani deal last night and nobody
can answer that. I mean, imagine, you can't pitch, and
you have one of the greatest offensive single seasons in
baseball history. So he can't pitch, but he steals bases,
hits home runs, hits for average, and you win the
(26:42):
World Series, that's amazing. But do I think Travis Hunter
is going to be used on both sides? Yes, but
I think sparingly. I think you just have to ease
him in and see what he's comfortable, how he adjusts,
because in the first couple of weeks and then the
last couple of weeks, that's what I'd be curious what
(27:04):
he's going to say about the whole experience and how
he feels his body feels.
Speaker 4 (27:09):
He has Paul, But with Travis Hunter, if you're going
to do it where he's a two way player more
than fifty percent of the time on both sides of
the ball, don't you do it now when he's young,
when he's fresh and springy, for the lack of a
better word, because you think at twenty nine it's going
to be one or the other. Twenty eight it's gonna
be one or the other.
Speaker 2 (27:26):
Yeah, Well, I don't want to burn him out. I
don't want to have him get injured. It's a fine
line of Hey, people are going to tune in to
watch him play both sides of the ball.
Speaker 4 (27:40):
I look at this kind of the opposite. The Jaguars
have him for five years, four or five years. I'm
gonna use everything he's got for those years, because it's
a coin flip whether he's going to have a second
contract there or elsewhere. So if you took him, you
took him for both the offense, the defense, and the notoriety.
And the Dodgers could have gone and said, this year,
(28:02):
you know what, we don't want Otani pitching because the
guy was the best hitter on earth basically last year.
His numbers hitting are noticeably down this year. They're still
very good. But I wonder if people, if there's people
at the Dodgers to say to themselves, man, I wish
this dude would just hit and hit three forty with
forty five homewarns and forty steals every year, because now
he has I think fifteen or sixteen steels this year.
(28:24):
Last year he had fifty nine.
Speaker 2 (28:26):
What changed, Well, he wasn't pitching, yes, and he was
playing every day, and uh yeah, I said, he'll never
approach those numbers again because he won't be in the
position to They're not going to want him to run
like that.
Speaker 4 (28:40):
I wonder though it was Dodger people who would prefer it,
But maybe when he made his Dodger contract, and his
Dodger deal. He said, I am a two way player.
Speaker 2 (28:47):
But it's helping him win an MVP Again, He's going
to have six or seven MVPs if he continues to
hit like this, And you still add in the pitching
portion of this. It just there's no one like him now,
the value when he's on the mound and when he's
at the plate. But go back to the Angels, they said, hey,
(29:09):
you can do whatever you want. Because other teams didn't
want him to be a two way player, but the
Angels did. Now all of you know, there you go.
Now you're known as the Unicorn. You're the guy who
does the pitching and hitting. He's doing things that are
more impressive than Babe Ruth because Babe wasn't doing.
Speaker 3 (29:28):
Them at the same time.
Speaker 2 (29:29):
He was a pitcher who won over ninety games and
then all of a sudden became the greatest hitter in
baseball history. Sho, hey, Otani is like I go out
to the mound, I can go to the plate as
well in the same game. And he's done it a
couple of seasons in a row.
Speaker 1 (29:45):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at Foxsports Radio
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listen live.
Speaker 2 (29:57):
Ross Tucker Westwood one C Sports host of Ross Tunker
Football podcast. He'll be the analyst in the Eagles TV
booth tonight when they host the Bengals. What do you
look for in a preseason game?
Speaker 8 (30:12):
Well, that is a terrific question, Dan, and it really
varies from team the team. Specifically for the Eagles, the
team I work for tonight, it's kind of rare, I
feel like for them to have this many available roles
available starting jobs for a defending Super Bowl champion that
was as good as they were last year. The starting
(30:34):
linebacker job next to Zach Bond is up for grabs,
starting cornerback across from Quinnon Mitchell, starting safety next to
Reed Blankenship. And then they lost a bunch of d
linemen to free agency or retirement. So the third and
fourth edge rushers, who as you know, play a lot,
the fourth and fifty tackles who play a lot.
Speaker 5 (30:56):
So that's that's seven of the top.
Speaker 8 (31:00):
Fourteen fifteen roles for the Eagles number one ranked defense
are legitimately genuinely up for grabs starting tonight and what's
cool about it is Zach Taylor, the Bengals head coach,
says that the Bengals are going to play their starters,
Joe Burrow and those guys for a quarter.
Speaker 5 (31:20):
So fantastic work.
Speaker 8 (31:22):
For the young Eagles defense and for those guys competing
for those jobs to go against Burrow and the starters.
And I guess Taylor said they're going to even play
more week two of the preseason against Washington, So obviously
the Bengals are trying to change things up after going
one and eleven the first two games of the season
under Zach Taylor.
Speaker 2 (31:42):
Yeah, that's the amazing part of this is certain teams
can use the first couple of weeks of the regular
season as their preseason. Felt like Belichick and the Patriots
did that. The Bengals cannot afford to get off to
a slow start again.
Speaker 3 (31:56):
When you watch rookie quarterbacks, what should we be whted?
Speaker 8 (32:01):
I think, as much as anything else, it's just do
they look like they belong?
Speaker 5 (32:06):
Do they look comfortable?
Speaker 8 (32:07):
You can tell when someone's racing, you know, watch their feet,
watch their eyes.
Speaker 5 (32:12):
If their heads all over the place and.
Speaker 8 (32:14):
They've got happy feet in the pocket, that's not what
you want to see in general, you know, I always
say is about any quarterback, but especially young quarterbacks. The
faster they're getting rid of the ball right from snap
to throw, the.
Speaker 5 (32:30):
Better you should feel about them, because that shows.
Speaker 8 (32:33):
You that they've done the pre snap work, they've done
the preparation, they have a really good feel for where
they want to go with the ball.
Speaker 5 (32:41):
And they get it out quickly. I will say, though,
Dan as a caveat right.
Speaker 8 (32:46):
Most of the preseason, especially for young quarterbacks, very vanilla defenses,
and then the coaching staffs are going to try to
enable these young quarterbacks to get confidence and be able.
Speaker 5 (32:59):
To throw the ball their first lead.
Speaker 8 (33:01):
It's just not like that in the regular season, right,
And the Eagles actually have a classic case tonight. Dorian
Thompson Robinson will play. He has been fantastic the last
two years in the preseason for the Cleveland Browns and
then the regular season.
Speaker 5 (33:17):
I got to look it up before the game to night.
Speaker 8 (33:19):
I think he has one touchdown eleven interceptions in his
four regular season starts.
Speaker 5 (33:24):
So it's been very, very different.
Speaker 8 (33:26):
And that's actually a really important point, as at least
the preseason football.
Speaker 5 (33:32):
Some teams just want to put certain.
Speaker 8 (33:34):
Players Dan in specific situations and see how they react.
Some teams want to feature guys to see what they
have left, or maybe to try to trade them. Others,
you know, they want to try to go into the
season with confidence.
Speaker 5 (33:49):
I mean everybody you know.
Speaker 8 (33:50):
In the regular season, we know that everyone's game planning
to the max to try to win that game that week.
In the preseason, there's a lot of different goals that
people are trying to achieve, and so you can't really
look at the score or even the scheme. But I
do think how individual players perform, especially if it's really
(34:13):
good or really poorly, I do think that's something to
make note of.
Speaker 2 (34:16):
He's Ross Tucker. He's host of the Ross Tucker Football Podcast.
He calls games for CBS and Westwood One. Smelling salts.
The NFL says no more smelling salts. What was your
experience with smelling salts.
Speaker 8 (34:30):
Well, we didn't have that in college at Princeton, and
the first time someone gave it to me in the NFL,
nobody told me what it was. They just said sniff
it and Dan, that was a bad experience.
Speaker 5 (34:44):
Okay, if you don't know.
Speaker 8 (34:45):
What's coming and you just take it and you're like,
oh okay, and you sniff in like that.
Speaker 5 (34:51):
I mean I cried. I mean my nose was burning.
Speaker 8 (34:54):
I had a really bad first experience, which is probably
why I was.
Speaker 5 (34:58):
Never a smelling salt guy.
Speaker 8 (35:00):
You know, there's a lot of guys that after that,
you know, they do it, you know, before every game
or sometimes during games. I mean, you've been around me enough, Dan,
Do I look like a guy that needs smelling salts?
Do I seem like a guy that needs little something
extra to get going? The answer is no. And also
I think I was just too much of a wimp.
(35:22):
You know, I had such a bad first experience that
when they would give it to me after that, I
would do one of these, Dan for people watching.
Speaker 5 (35:28):
On peacock or you.
Speaker 8 (35:30):
Like, you know, like five inches from my nose, right
I was.
Speaker 5 (35:34):
I wasn't.
Speaker 8 (35:34):
I was too afraid to get it like real close
to my nose. By the way, supposedly they can need
they can still use smelling salts, the team's just not
going to provide them anymore. So now the players have to, uh,
bring your own smelling salts b yoss to your NFL.
Speaker 2 (35:52):
Games if they're not good for you. Then why is
the NFL allowing you to bring your own?
Speaker 8 (35:58):
That's a really good question. I think probably liability. I
don't know, you're right, like, if you're the NFL, you're
liable if you're the one supplying it, if you're the
one handing them out. It's probably the same reason why
they've cut back on a lot of the pain medicine.
They've cut back on some of the injections and shots
(36:20):
guys age and they still do it.
Speaker 5 (36:22):
But man, Dann, when I was playing, you remember viox,
the anti inflammatory biox.
Speaker 3 (36:28):
I loved bios.
Speaker 8 (36:29):
Yeah, And at some point they came out and said
viox is bad for you. That is information that would
have been very valuable to me in like two thousand Okay,
to come out in two thousand and eight after I've
been taking it.
Speaker 5 (36:42):
For eight years, like how does that help me?
Speaker 8 (36:45):
And then also with the tourtoll right stuff like that,
that they are a little bit more. I mean, back
when I played, there'd be a line of twelve guys
to get the tourtall shot.
Speaker 5 (36:55):
Right, just over and over and over and over again.
Speaker 8 (36:58):
Supposedly they've reeled some of that stuff and probably for
good reason.
Speaker 3 (37:04):
Let's tord all do.
Speaker 8 (37:06):
Tordal is by far the best full body anti inflammatory
you can ever take. You know, my rookie year, I
saw guys getting shots in their butt right, And I
didn't play as a rookie, so I didn't really even
know what they were doing. I thought it was like Cortizona,
and then someone said, no, it's Tordal.
Speaker 5 (37:28):
Dan, let me just tell you, okay.
Speaker 8 (37:30):
Year two, we fly to Osaka, Japan to play the
Niners in the preseason. I'm starting for Washington in the
preseason game. After the flight, first practice, I get I
hurt my neck. I sprained my neck. I can't leave
the hotel room. I'm miserable. Before the game, I go
up to the Redskins team doctor and say, hey, I
(37:53):
need one of those shots in my butt. And they
said it's a preseason game, we didn't even bring one.
I said it is. I'm trying to win a starting job.
This is like the most important game of my life.
So the Redskins team doctor goes over to the Niners,
gets a toward doll shot from them, puts it in
my butt. Dan, I played unbelievable. I played unbelievable. I mean,
(38:17):
that's like the best I ever played. So I will
say this though. The tough thing about that in life,
right as a football player, there's always something bothering you.
So after that game, anytime I was starting, I pretty
much got a toar doll shot. Because if you ask
an NFL player before a game, would you rather be
(38:39):
a little bit taller, or faster, or stronger.
Speaker 5 (38:41):
Or whatever, they would tell you.
Speaker 8 (38:43):
I just want to feel as healthy as possible, just
just just I don't want my back to feel like that,
or my knee or my left shoulder like I just
want to feeld. So once I had that experience my
first preseason game my second year, anytime I was starting
after that in a regular season game, I had something
bothered me. I was taking a tourt doll shot because
I was trying to maximize my performance on the field.
Speaker 2 (39:06):
What's your view of the training camp fights? Like, what's
it mean to you when you see a team that's
fighting actual you know, fisticuffs.
Speaker 8 (39:16):
Yeah, So if you got any of my former teammates
on here and ask them about me, I would think
from two thousand and one to two thousand and eight,
I'd be surprised if I didn't lead the NFL in
training camp fights, I really would, and in fairness, in
my mind, I was never starting a fight.
Speaker 5 (39:38):
I was always finishing a play.
Speaker 8 (39:41):
Now, the other guys didn't feel that way, and they
didn't like me, and they thought I was annoying.
Speaker 5 (39:45):
But I have plenty of friends from high school and college.
What do I care about these guys? Right Like, I'm
trying to get a job, right.
Speaker 8 (39:50):
So I would finish the plays and they would not
be happy, you know, whether I'm pancaking them or hitting
them late or whatever.
Speaker 5 (39:58):
So then they would always throw the first swing and then.
Speaker 8 (40:01):
I would swing back and I don't know, you know,
it's one of those things where the coaches act like
they don't like it, but they do. Two thousand and four, Okay,
training camp. Remember Oliver Gibson, who I think recently passed
a dtackle. We're in Buffalo, and he was just annoying
the crap out of me and he kept grabbing me.
I couldn't get up to the linebacker. He kept grabbing
(40:23):
my jersey. So finally, after a play, I was done
with it, and that one I actually started. I'll raise
my hand for that one, and I just started wailing
on him. And he's punched me back and they break
it up and I'm walking back to the huddle and
I thought, no, you know what, I hate that guy.
Speaker 5 (40:40):
I'm sick of it. Dan.
Speaker 8 (40:41):
I ran back and smoked him. I ran back and
smoked him. And Mike Malarkey was our head coach. He
kicked me out of practice. Okay, this is like halfway
through practice. He kicked me out for that move. Okay.
And he told the team that is not what they want,
that's not what they're going for. Two things happened after practice.
(41:02):
First of all, some of the best veterans we had said, talk,
you want to start to fight tomorrow so we can
both get out of practice. If you get out of
practice by getting a fight, well let's start it, and
let's start it early. And Mallarkey came up to me
and Malarkey said, I'll never forget. Danny said, hey, Ross,
I just want to let you know. I said, yeah,
I said, I'm sorry, I lost my head. I hate
(41:23):
that guy. He's like, I know, he said, you know,
I told the team that that's not what we're looking for.
He said, I just want you to know the way
you play is exactly what we're looking for. So they
say one thing publicly, Dan, but then privately, you know,
they feel differently.
Speaker 2 (41:43):
Good to talk to you. I have fun tonight. And
you know what, before you go, you tend to tell
this story. I think every year, maybe every other year,
of when you get cut, that here you are a
high school hero, you play at Princeton, you're in the NFL,
and that when you get cut, when you go back
to your hometown.
Speaker 8 (42:05):
You know what's so funny you just saying that. I'm
not exaggerating. My eyes filled up a little bit because
it takes me right back to that. It's you know,
picture for fifteen years of your life, ten to twelve
years of your life. You go back and everybody kind
(42:25):
of knows who you are, and everybody's like, hey, Ross, Ross,
the football player, Ross, how's it going.
Speaker 5 (42:32):
I saw you again for the Cowboys. I saw you
the Ross. What's up?
Speaker 6 (42:35):
Man?
Speaker 5 (42:35):
How's Prinsing going?
Speaker 8 (42:36):
And then imagine, all of a sudden, you go back
and it was on the cover of the Reading Eagle
newspaper Okay in Berks County, Pennsylvania, now are Western Philly.
It was on the front cover Ross Tucker released by whoever.
There was a bunch of them, right, So now you
go back and they don't know how to react Dan,
(42:58):
They don't know that, they don't know what to say
to you. Some people just kind of put their head down.
Some people are like, hey, man, I saw the news.
It's a really really awkward situation, super uncomfortable. You feel
like you're letting those people down. They don't know how
to treat you because they've always treated you like.
Speaker 5 (43:19):
You know, like you're a hero, but now you're the zero.
It's it's not easy. I mean it is.
Speaker 8 (43:25):
It takes some significant mental toughness, that's for sure.
Speaker 2 (43:29):
Do you still have the newspapers that talked about you
when you got cut by teams and you came back home?
Speaker 5 (43:36):
I have all the positive newspaper clippings.
Speaker 8 (43:39):
I have no idea where the negative newspaper clippings are.
Speaker 5 (43:42):
I think I threw the though.
Speaker 2 (43:44):
You know.
Speaker 5 (43:45):
I have scrap books, which are awesome.
Speaker 8 (43:47):
My mom did them when I was in high school
and college, and then I think even in the NFL
maybe the first couple of years, and I love having
those to flip through or show my daughters or whatever.
But didn't put the negative stuff in there because brings
back bad memories. There's you know, in life, right, we
can all choose to have gratitude for the things that
(44:09):
we have and the positive things that have happened, or
we can choose to like I could say, I wish
I was doing this game as a broadcaster, or I
wish I was I wish I'd played this long in
the NFL. How does that help you at all?
Speaker 5 (44:23):
Right?
Speaker 8 (44:24):
Instead, I'm just thrilled I'm doing this game tonight. Thrilled
I'm doing games for CBS. If you have gratitude for
the things you have and are thankful for the things
you have, man, you'll be so much happier than if
you're always worried about what could have been, or thinking
about what could have been, or the negative or the
bad things that happen. I choose to look back on
my NFL career and just think about the positives in
(44:46):
seven years and not all the injuries or the forty
times I got cut or whatever I've tried to block. Mean,
it's still there, but I try to block that out
as much as I can.
Speaker 2 (44:56):
Thanks for sharing. Good to talk to you. Thank you,
Ross Worries, great talking, Damn Ross Tucker
You are listening to the Dan Patrick Show on Fox
Sports Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Our one on this Thursday, Dan and the Dann's Dan
Patrick Show come on in stay a while. Gangs all here,
Fritzie's here, Seaton, Marv, Paul, yours truly the back room guys.
Speaker 3 (00:14):
Good morning.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
If you're watching on Peacock, thank you for downloading the
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(00:36):
stat of the Day brought to you by Panini America,
the official trading cards of the Dan Patrick Show. Preseason
football coming up tonight, and you have the Colts and
the Ravens, the Bengals and the Seahawks, and I think
one other game coming up tonight Bengals Eagles and then
the Raiders and the Seahawks. So three games coming up
(00:57):
tonight and we get to start judging quarterback the preseason.
I'm already seeing articles about, oh are the brown setting
Shador Sanders up to fail as he opens up his
NFL career on Friday night against Carolina. And I was
trying to understand the logic behind this, because he hasn't
been taking reps as the first string quarterback. He's been
(01:20):
with second and third teamers. Well, now he's going to
be there with the first teamers against Carolina. I don't
know how that sets him up to fail. Now you're
with more talented players, players that you might have on
your team when you're the starting quarterback at some point
during the NFL season. But we're already you know, it's
(01:41):
already shifting towards Eh, what happens if you know he
doesn't do well in the first game. I think they're
making him, not making him. They're having him start because
everybody else is injured. I don't know if that's setting
him up for failure. You need somebody to play quarterback.
I don't think Teddy Bridgewater's ready to play. It's a
great opportunity for Shirdo or Sanders. I hope he does
(02:03):
well and you get to play with the first team
and maybe take some first team reps today and get
ready for Friday night's game against Carolina. But I don't
think he's being set up to fail. Not giving him
a chance to play would be setting him up to fail.
Speaker 3 (02:19):
If he can play, hopefully he'll showcase that.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
Coming up on Friday night, we'll explore some of the
other football matchups and battles going on in preseason. Our
good buddy, Ross Tucker will stop by eight seven to
seven to three. DP Show email address Dpatdanpatrick dot com,
Twitter handle the DP show operator Tyler sitting by. He'll
take your phone calls. By the way, we did talk
(02:42):
about the smelling salt. Is it a smelling saltgate that
we elect to throw gate? We attach that to a
lot of different things. When there's a controversy. The NFL
is saying you can't use smelling salts on the sidelines.
You can bring your own, but they want to take
away the liability I believe of smelling salts, and they're
(03:03):
worried about what it does. If you've had a concussion
and somebody gives you a smelling salt and it might
wake you up to be able to go back out
there and play. But it's bring your own smelling salts
to the sidelines. Yes, Ton, it didn't pass the smell
test for the NFL using four minutes in. I'll give
you a bloop. Yes, Paulie, I.
Speaker 4 (03:22):
Didn't realize how many players used them over the past
twenty four hours. It's become a story. So now every
local reporter is asking players about it, like different players.
There's a player for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. It says
I use them before every single defensive drive. They're commonplace.
You just don't catch them on TV that much, but
they're very commonplace.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
Weightlifters use these before a big lift. They'll take a
hit and then all of a sudden, it's like and
then you go. But I was wondering about this that,
you know, are they readily available that you can get
smelling salts where? I'm not sure. I guess you can
order them. But are they worried about kids using them?
Speaker 5 (04:02):
As it?
Speaker 2 (04:02):
Is it going to trickle down to you know, Pop Warner.
I'm not sure, but it feels like the NFL is saying,
where you want to remove any liability here, if you
want to take it, you bring your own.
Speaker 6 (04:14):
Yes, Ston, is this something we should be incorporating into
the morning routine around here?
Speaker 3 (04:21):
I told Dylan to see if he could order some.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
Just I don't know if you guys have ever experienced
smelling salts. Ooo, Yes, that's going to be the feeling,
that's going to be the look, the sound of it.
It is going to you know, there's that Bows speaker
commercial where the speakers are on and the guy's hair
(04:45):
is blown back and his face is blown back, and
sort of the feeling you get when you do smelling salts.
I remember doing them in high school playing football, for
my limited experience of freshman football in high school for
the Mason Commets.
Speaker 3 (04:59):
But you would take a hit that and it's like
whow yes, PAULI.
Speaker 4 (05:03):
A lot of people are speculating that the FDA caused this.
The FDA did a report just about a year ago
that said different types of these inhaling ammonia products can
lead to coughing, airway restriction, eye and those irritation and
long term effects on your breathing, seizure's, migraine, et cetera,
et cetera. And so the NFL just got this report
last year right before the season. Maybe that's what caused
(05:25):
the trickle.
Speaker 3 (05:25):
Down the front.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
Okay, yeah, it kind of came out of nowhere. But
having used it a couple of times. I didn't like it,
but it wasn't for a concussion. I think it was
just getting ready for contact with an Oklahoma drill that
we were going to do.
Speaker 3 (05:42):
Playing high school of football. Oklahoma drill. Yeah, I know.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
I love the Oklahoma drill where you're lying on your
back and then the other guys lying on your back
and they go and then you jump up and then
you run into each other.
Speaker 3 (05:56):
They called it the Oklahoma drill.
Speaker 5 (05:58):
Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
Yeah, that was the good old days. That's what That's
the way we used to do it, Yes, Paul.
Speaker 4 (06:05):
So when you play grade school football and you stink
like I did, you'd be in line for the Oklahoma drill,
and you'd look across and if you saw Richie Alcott
number fifty one, and you went back in line a
couple spots because you didn't not want to get.
Speaker 3 (06:17):
Cooked by Richie.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
You didn't want somebody wearing Dick Butkus's number. Oh no,
number fifty one. All right, we'll get to a poll
question today. I do want to mention there was a
topic yesterday we spent a lot of time, maybe too
much time, it talked about the NFL.
Speaker 3 (06:33):
Was buying ten percent of ESPN.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
There's a merger between NFL Network and ESPN, and the
point that I made and want to continue to make,
there is a conflict of interest. I think we can
all agree to that now if you don't care about it,
and maybe you don't, but for me, I worry about that.
But you know, this is the old school in me
(06:55):
that you know with ESPN and having been there eighteen years,
and I'm mention that, you know, are they going to
have journalism?
Speaker 3 (07:03):
Are they going to cover the NFL?
Speaker 2 (07:05):
And I didn't mention any names, but there was one
person at the mothership, Don Van Nada, who is a
senior writer who's been on the show. I think last
time he was on five years ago to talk about
deep dive he did on the Decision with Lebron James,
and he's been on the show a couple of times.
He's a very good journalist. He took it personally when
(07:27):
I was saying I don't know if they did a
deep dive on the NFL Players Association mess and once again,
this is live radio and I'm saying I don't know.
So I'm not making a declarative statement. I'm just saying
I don't know. Well, Don Van Nada took it personally
that I don't go to ESPN dot com and read
(07:47):
his articles. I don't go to ESPN dot com. Okay,
I don't. If there's an article, the dan nets will
bring it to my attention. Hey, this is I did
it out of principle when I left ESPN, like I'm
going to put ESPN in my rear view mirror, and
I really it's not part of my morning or routine
(08:08):
of going there. So I missed that Don was doing
an expose on the NFL Players Association, and by all accounts,
did a great job. Now I did know that Mike
Florio and Pablo Torre were doing things and they added
to the story collusion story.
Speaker 3 (08:23):
They sent the stories to us.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
We had them on, we had JC treder On, who
was second in command at the NFLPA. It's not a
story that you know we were staying away from. But
Don Benatta said that he was embarrassed for me because
I didn't know that he is the one who had
the story initially. I don't know if they promoted you correctly. Don,
(08:47):
to be honest with you, I don't know if you
were on first take. I don't know if you're on
NFL Live. I don't know if you're on Get Up.
I know that Pablo Torre and Mike Flora Mike Florio
were there front and center moting this and got a
lot of attention here. So I apologize for that that
I didn't know that you were the person, the originator
(09:07):
of this story there to say you're embarrassed for me
because I didn't see the article. I said that out loud.
I don't know if you guys did a deep dive
and I wasn't talking about you.
Speaker 5 (09:22):
You made it.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
Personal about me, and you know about being a journalist,
I said at the point, I didn't know. And also,
you know, when you when you start, you started out
that way, you miss what the real point was is
is is there a conflict of interest? Like that's the
(09:43):
discussion here not I missed that you did something on
the and by the way, it's not on the NFL.
Your expose was on the NFL Players Association. There's a
big difference in that. So we've reached out to Don
if he wants to join us, great. You may not
even care about this, but when you say you're embarrassed
for me, and then you know you want to show
me your resume, and I'll show you mine, and you
(10:06):
know we can have a private conversation here. But if
you call me out, you're embarrassed. Imagine if you did this,
you did your article live, because that's what I do
every day. I write columns every single day for three hours.
And sometimes you make mistakes. And you know by saying
that there's not an investigative arm inside ESPN, that's on me.
(10:30):
I made a mistake. I know where your office is
and you know it's been scaled down greatly. I hope
you continue to fight the good fight. Don I hope
you and your staff fight the good fight. But now
is when you're judged. From here on out, is when
you're judged. Covering the NFL not what you did before.
Have you like me saying I'm not any good at this,
(10:51):
but man, was I good at SportsCenter? No one cares.
It's about today and tomorrow in the next day. Covering
the NFL Player Association is a whole lot different than
covering the NFL, and you have to admit, which you didn't.
It's a conflict of interest. The perception is a conflict
of interest, and that was the point that I was
(11:13):
trying to make there.
Speaker 3 (11:15):
I wish you well, but if.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
You want to have a conversation on the show or privately,
i'd love to. I have nothing against you. You're the
one that made it personal. And thank you all the
people on social media who stood up for me and
sent me the article. And I got way too many
articles sent to me. Very happy, But I hope to
(11:39):
restore my journalistic credentials here this entire show. I got
three hours to do it, and perhaps I'll do that.
But there's a reason why the commissioner of the NFL
has not been on this show for over a decade.
Because I ask good questions. I asked the right questions.
I ask questions that can be uncomfortable. We take pride
(12:01):
in what we do and how we do it. And
because I offhandedly said I'm wondering because I didn't read
your expose, I'm going to renew my ESPN dot com
subscription poem.
Speaker 4 (12:14):
Nineteen ninety nine a year.
Speaker 3 (12:15):
I'm special.
Speaker 4 (12:16):
Is that what it is to get you a former
employee rate?
Speaker 3 (12:19):
Yeah? But this is another thing. I don't you know.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
They have analytics that say, hey, we're covering this and
this and this and this and this. Don is in
the buzzkill business. His job is to find the negative
side of things. I mean, he's trying to find the
CD under belly here. And I don't know if get
up and first take and some of these other shows go, hey,
come on down, let's spend ten minutes talking about this.
(12:45):
And you know it's unfortunate, but I've been there. I
was there for a long time. A lot of people
who were great journalists no longer work there, and you're
you're alone in the corner there, Don, And I hope
that they add instead of subtracting there. I think that's
really important to cover the NFL, not just the NFLPA.
Speaker 1 (13:09):
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 7 (13:20):
Hey, this is Jason McIntyre. Join me every weekday morning
on my podcast, Straight Fire with Jason McIntyre. This isn't
your typical sports pod pushing the same tired narratives down
your throat. Every day. Straight Fire gives you honest opinions
on all the biggest sports headlines, accurate stats to help
you win Big at the Sports Book and all the
best guests. Do yourself a favor and listen to Straight
(13:43):
Fire with Jason McIntyre on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts
or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 2 (13:52):
I got the Colts minus six and a half against
the Ravens, and I've got the Bengals minus six and
a half at the Eagles and the Raiders minus four
and a half against the Seahawks. Our gambling podcast after
this year with Shan Irving, Bad Larry and also Dylan.
We'll have that up on the website of Danpatrick dot com.
(14:13):
Weekend of NFL preseason games starting tonight, and just don't
overreact either way. If Shad or Sanders plays well on
Friday or doesn't play well on Friday, don't overreact. I
go back to Zach Wilson a couple of years ago.
His first game. People are like, yeah, look at that man.
(14:33):
Did the Jets get their guy? Well, we know how
that ended, and what you're trying to do is and
if you talk to coaches more probably important offensive coordinators
or even defensive coordinators, like the little things that they're
looking for. We see all my god, he overthrew that guy.
Or he threw a pick, or that guy dropped the ball,
(14:55):
he ran the wrong route, or did he run the
wrong route? Did the quarterback throw it the wrong You know,
there's so many things that go into this because you
have players who were playing in their first game or
getting getting to know their first team unit. You know,
shoud Or Sanders hasn't taken too many snabs with the
first team, but due to injuries, he's going to be
starting on Friday nine.
Speaker 3 (15:17):
So when you see these quarterback.
Speaker 2 (15:18):
Battles, or you see a player and you go, boy,
he didn't look that good, or boy, did you see that,
you know, sixth round pick out of TCU, he looked incredible.
This is like the summer league in the NBA where
we'll watch him. We'll go, man, that guy he put
up forty and then he doesn't even make the roster.
So be careful. And I know we're anxious to be like, man,
(15:40):
I'm ready to go, but just be a little bit cautious.
Now there's a yellow blinking light when I'm watching it,
just it's never red, it's never green. It's sort of
a cautionary tale. Eight seven seven three DP show email
address Dpatdanpatrick dot Com, Twitter handle at DP show Good morning,
those watching on Peacock and our radio affiliates around the country.
(16:04):
Seaton Poll question for hour two is going to be what.
Speaker 6 (16:10):
We have up there right now? Which type of content
do you prefer? Oh boy, which type of content sorre?
Do you want more of investigative journalism or lifestyle pieces?
Speaker 3 (16:28):
Okay? Right now?
Speaker 6 (16:31):
Eighty five percent of the audience say investigative journalism.
Speaker 3 (16:35):
Oh they do yes.
Speaker 6 (16:36):
Now, the second part that's going up is which type
of content do you actually watch or consume? And those
people who said eighty five percent are going to if
they answer the same thing, they're lying.
Speaker 3 (16:48):
I think we want it.
Speaker 2 (16:51):
If you're older, I think you want investigative stories. I
just don't think we have the patience now where you're
going to read something that could be a or nine
pages long, or it's on TV and it's fifteen minutes.
I just don't know if people have the patience to
do that, to watch that. Plus, if you're watching sports,
(17:12):
we want sports to be positive. We don't want negative stories.
We don't want anything that attaches Otani to a gambling scandal.
We don't want to see a school taken down. We
don't want to school get the death penalty, or a
coach be suspended, a player be suspended. When you think
about it, we love the positivity of sports.
Speaker 5 (17:33):
Now.
Speaker 2 (17:33):
Granted there's a winner and a loser, but we want
them to be able to play or be able to coach.
We want the feel good story. I just don't know
if people wake up and go too much positivity.
Speaker 6 (17:46):
Yes, people don't wake up and say too much positivity. However,
was there like a more exciting time in I mean
there were a lot of exciting times in sports, but
the whole balco thing, the whole steroid era, uncovering that,
the I mean, all of those things were every day
you woke up and were like, what's going to happen today?
Speaker 3 (18:06):
What's next? How is this all going to go? That
was awesome having covered that.
Speaker 2 (18:10):
I thought there was too much coverage of it, but
we were unearthing things all the time. It'd be another name,
you know, there'd be another source. I mean, it just
it metastasizes and then all of a sudden, you know,
it's every single day that you go to work and
you have to cover that, and you're hoping there's something
(18:31):
that you can add to it. But yeah, back then
because it was salacious and you know baseball, home runs, Bonds,
Balco a Rod, who's this doctor? What are they getting?
What's the clear? What's the cream? And how does that
help you hit home runs? The number of people back
(18:54):
then who would say, hey, you can take the clear
and cream, but that doesn't help you hit a baseball, Well,
it helps you hit a baseball further. And I would
always say, why would you risk your career if it
didn't help you do something? The amount of money that
was made off of performance enhancing drugs, the clear and
the cream and steroids, that's why they did it. You
(19:17):
run the risk because to them it was worth the risk. Now,
in retrospect, if you ask Rafael Paul Marrow was it
worth it? Or Sammy Sosa was it worth it? Or
Mark McGuire was it worth it? Or Barry Bonds was
it worth it? You might get different answers from those guys.
They might say, you know what, yeah, they all got paid,
(19:41):
but was it worth it? The public shame to go
in front of Congress. If you're Mark McGuire, you were
America's hero, you were Paul Bunyan. All of a sudden
you're there and they're going and you know, hey, I'm
not here to talk about the past, And I go,
oh my god.
Speaker 3 (19:56):
If that's your game plan, you're in trouble.
Speaker 2 (19:59):
Rafael paulm Narrow pointing his finger, and Roffield palm Mayrow's
got three thousand hits. He was going, you're going to
the Hall of Fame. Now nobody brings his name up.
You know when they talk about other players, Ruffield palm Marrow,
does he have five hundred home runs? I know he's
got three thousand hits. He might have three thousand and
(20:21):
five hundred home runs and he's not getting into the
Hall of Fame.
Speaker 3 (20:26):
Yeah, Paulie.
Speaker 4 (20:27):
I think guys like Barry Bonds and Lance Armstrong are
not sorry they did it. I think they feel that
they had to do it to compete with everyone else
who was doing it. Lance Armstrong said to you, everybody
was using it. I could either use or go home,
and I decided to use or I'd be off the tour.
I think Bonds clearly no pun saw other guys using
it and said, okay, wait do you see this, Wait
(20:49):
to see my skills with this stuff, I'll be the
best ever.
Speaker 3 (20:52):
And he clearly was. But that's what happened.
Speaker 2 (20:56):
Bonds, from what I'm told, was watching what you know,
the public adoration, you know, adulation with Sammy, So said
Mark Maguire. Okay, it was the summer of Sammy and Mark,
we're gonna make you guys Sportsman of the.
Speaker 3 (21:12):
Year, and Bonds has gone. Are you kidding me? Are
you kidding me?
Speaker 2 (21:18):
Watch this and you saw what could happen when one
of the great players uses performance enhancing drugs. And Lance
Armstrong was a great story. He came back from testicular cancer.
He was going to die. Just the fact that he
came back to the Tour de France would have been
enough to make him a hero in the United States.
But these guys all have that same gene. It is
(21:40):
full speed ahead. You know, Jordan had it, Bonds has it,
you know, Clemens had it. Lance Armstrong has it that
whatever it takes, I'm gonna I'm gonna be great. I'm
gonna continue to be great. And I looked at Lance
and first of all, we didn't care about the Twitter France,
(22:00):
and then all of a sudden, Hey, an American's winning,
and we're like, now, Greg Lemon had won, and he
survived a shotgun blast and it ended up winning. And
he's really the true hero in my opinion when it
comes to American cycling Tour de France. But Lance was
he became a star, worldwide star, and then the French
(22:22):
came after him. They're like, you're not gonna Hey, we
can cheat, but you're not going to cheat and win
on our race.
Speaker 3 (22:28):
We can, but you can't.
Speaker 4 (22:30):
Yeah, Pauline, Well, it's so funny though, when the French
press and people came after Lance Armstrong, it actually bolstered
his case here in America, like they're jealous they can't
beat him. A lot of people don't have issues with
the French in general, right going back decades and decades,
and it was like Lance goes, well, look who's coming
after me, the people who can't beat me, And we're like, yeah, Lance,
go host.
Speaker 3 (22:49):
The sb's again. You're the man. Buy some more stuff.
Speaker 2 (22:52):
Sho hey o Tani was dealing last night. In four innings,
he had eight strikeouts, and I'd like, I wanted to
see what his odds MVP odds were after that performance
last night, So DraftKings just sent me this show. Heyotani's
MVP odds yesterday minus four fifty. His odds now are
minus one thousand. It's really hard for him to lose this.
(23:17):
But I do think Kyle Schwarber deserves some consideration here.
He's not going to win it. He was plus three
point fifty yesterday, now he's plus five fifty. Pete crow
Armstrong was plus nine fifty yesterday now plus fifteen hundred.
It's show Hayo tanis to lose. And if you're pitching
like this and now you're ramping up and then you
(23:39):
have that weapon in the postseason, it's pretty amazing. And
they certainly need him because the Dodgers haven't been as
formidable as we expected them to be. And I started
to wonder about this with Travis Hunter. I don't know
how much offense and defense he's going to play if
he's listed as a backup cornerback but a starting wide
receiverel like it's going to be flipped when the season starts.
(24:03):
But if Travis Hunter doesn't go to Jackson State where
he can play both ways and you're playing for Dion Sanders,
if Travis Hunter went to Georgia or LSU or Florida State,
he might get a sprinkling he wouldn't be playing both ways,
but they would go, hey, we're going to put him
in a third down package. Big skulls take you, and
(24:26):
that's your position.
Speaker 3 (24:28):
Now.
Speaker 2 (24:28):
I don't know if this is going to open the
door for more players wanting to try this. I thought
Derek Stingley, who played at LSU, could have been a
two way player for LSU. But you're getting guys who
specialize as a wide receiver and those who specialize as
a defensive back. If you don't have Jackson State and Dion,
then maybe we don't have Travis Hunter winning the Heisman
(24:52):
Trophy because it opened our eyes to hey, he's playing
both ways, and then the knock, well it's Jackson State.
Then he went to Colorado and he was playing both ways,
just like showe. Hey, o'toni. I don't know how many
and most of your great players were probably a pitcher
and a shortstop that was that's usually the Hey I'm
(25:14):
not pitching, I'm playing shortstop. Hey I'm bat in third.
And you know there's guys who were great pitchers and
they were great hitters in high school and maybe in college,
and most of them were. But I don't know if
there's going to be a player of players who say, hey,
Otani's done it, Travis Hunter's done it. Now, you have
(25:35):
to have the talent to do it, and you have
to have a coach or a manager who is willing
to let you do that. I keep saying, I'd love
to see Paul Schemes maybe play, maybe bat, because he
was a pretty good hitter. I remember at air Force.
I don't know the LSU numbers, but you know you
got some guys who were you know, they were great
(25:57):
athletes and two way players. I'm sure you know all
these great players in college played both ways in high school.
So you might have been a running back and a
defensive back, or you know you're gonna be a quarterback
in a free safety to Daveon Clowney played running back
in a high school and defensive end. You imagine him
as a running back. Oh my god, no, this is
(26:20):
gonna hurt. But watching Otani deal last night and nobody
can answer that. I mean, imagine, you can't pitch, and
you have one of the greatest offensive single seasons in
baseball history. So he can't pitch, but he steals bases,
hits home runs, hits for average, and you win the
(26:42):
World Series, that's amazing. But do I think Travis Hunter
is going to be used on both sides? Yes, but
I think sparingly. I think you just have to ease
him in and see what he's comfortable, how he adjusts,
because in the first couple of weeks and then the
last couple of weeks, that's what I'd be curious what
(27:04):
he's going to say about the whole experience and how
he feels his body feels.
Speaker 4 (27:09):
He has Paul, But with Travis Hunter, if you're going
to do it where he's a two way player more
than fifty percent of the time on both sides of
the ball, don't you do it now when he's young,
when he's fresh and springy, for the lack of a
better word, because you think at twenty nine it's going
to be one or the other. Twenty eight it's gonna
be one or the other.
Speaker 2 (27:26):
Yeah, Well, I don't want to burn him out. I
don't want to have him get injured. It's a fine
line of Hey, people are going to tune in to
watch him play both sides of the ball.
Speaker 4 (27:40):
I look at this kind of the opposite. The Jaguars
have him for five years, four or five years. I'm
gonna use everything he's got for those years, because it's
a coin flip whether he's going to have a second
contract there or elsewhere. So if you took him, you
took him for both the offense, the defense, and the notoriety.
And the Dodgers could have gone and said, this year,
(28:02):
you know what, we don't want Otani pitching because the
guy was the best hitter on earth basically last year.
His numbers hitting are noticeably down this year. They're still
very good. But I wonder if people, if there's people
at the Dodgers to say to themselves, man, I wish
this dude would just hit and hit three forty with
forty five homewarns and forty steals every year, because now
he has I think fifteen or sixteen steels this year.
(28:24):
Last year he had fifty nine.
Speaker 2 (28:26):
What changed, Well, he wasn't pitching, yes, and he was
playing every day, and uh yeah, I said, he'll never
approach those numbers again because he won't be in the
position to They're not going to want him to run
like that.
Speaker 4 (28:40):
I wonder though it was Dodger people who would prefer it,
But maybe when he made his Dodger contract, and his
Dodger deal. He said, I am a two way player.
Speaker 2 (28:47):
But it's helping him win an MVP Again, He's going
to have six or seven MVPs if he continues to
hit like this, And you still add in the pitching
portion of this. It just there's no one like him now,
the value when he's on the mound and when he's
at the plate. But go back to the Angels, they said, hey,
(29:09):
you can do whatever you want. Because other teams didn't
want him to be a two way player, but the
Angels did. Now all of you know, there you go.
Now you're known as the Unicorn. You're the guy who
does the pitching and hitting. He's doing things that are
more impressive than Babe Ruth because Babe wasn't doing.
Speaker 3 (29:28):
Them at the same time.
Speaker 2 (29:29):
He was a pitcher who won over ninety games and
then all of a sudden became the greatest hitter in
baseball history. Sho, hey, Otani is like I go out
to the mound, I can go to the plate as
well in the same game. And he's done it a
couple of seasons in a row.
Speaker 1 (29:45):
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 2 (29:57):
Ross Tucker Westwood one C Sports host of Ross Tunker
Football podcast. He'll be the analyst in the Eagles TV
booth tonight when they host the Bengals. What do you
look for in a preseason game?
Speaker 8 (30:12):
Well, that is a terrific question, Dan, and it really
varies from team the team. Specifically for the Eagles, the
team I work for tonight, it's kind of rare, I
feel like for them to have this many available roles
available starting jobs for a defending Super Bowl champion that
was as good as they were last year. The starting
(30:34):
linebacker job next to Zach Bond is up for grabs,
starting cornerback across from Quinnon Mitchell, starting safety next to
Reed Blankenship. And then they lost a bunch of d
linemen to free agency or retirement. So the third and
fourth edge rushers, who as you know, play a lot,
the fourth and fifty tackles who play a lot.
Speaker 5 (30:56):
So that's that's seven of the top.
Speaker 8 (31:00):
Fourteen fifteen roles for the Eagles number one ranked defense
are legitimately genuinely up for grabs starting tonight and what's
cool about it is Zach Taylor, the Bengals head coach,
says that the Bengals are going to play their starters,
Joe Burrow and those guys for a quarter.
Speaker 5 (31:20):
So fantastic work.
Speaker 8 (31:22):
For the young Eagles defense and for those guys competing
for those jobs to go against Burrow and the starters.
And I guess Taylor said they're going to even play
more week two of the preseason against Washington, So obviously
the Bengals are trying to change things up after going
one and eleven the first two games of the season
under Zach Taylor.
Speaker 2 (31:42):
Yeah, that's the amazing part of this is certain teams
can use the first couple of weeks of the regular
season as their preseason. Felt like Belichick and the Patriots
did that. The Bengals cannot afford to get off to
a slow start again.
Speaker 3 (31:56):
When you watch rookie quarterbacks, what should we be whted?
Speaker 8 (32:01):
I think, as much as anything else, it's just do
they look like they belong?
Speaker 5 (32:06):
Do they look comfortable?
Speaker 8 (32:07):
You can tell when someone's racing, you know, watch their feet,
watch their eyes.
Speaker 5 (32:12):
If their heads all over the place and.
Speaker 8 (32:14):
They've got happy feet in the pocket, that's not what
you want to see in general, you know, I always
say is about any quarterback, but especially young quarterbacks. The
faster they're getting rid of the ball right from snap
to throw, the.
Speaker 5 (32:30):
Better you should feel about them, because that shows.
Speaker 8 (32:33):
You that they've done the pre snap work, they've done
the preparation, they have a really good feel for where
they want to go with the ball.
Speaker 5 (32:41):
And they get it out quickly. I will say, though,
Dan as a caveat right.
Speaker 8 (32:46):
Most of the preseason, especially for young quarterbacks, very vanilla defenses,
and then the coaching staffs are going to try to
enable these young quarterbacks to get confidence and be able.
Speaker 5 (32:59):
To throw the ball their first lead.
Speaker 8 (33:01):
It's just not like that in the regular season, right,
And the Eagles actually have a classic case tonight. Dorian
Thompson Robinson will play. He has been fantastic the last
two years in the preseason for the Cleveland Browns and
then the regular season.
Speaker 5 (33:17):
I got to look it up before the game to night.
Speaker 8 (33:19):
I think he has one touchdown eleven interceptions in his
four regular season starts.
Speaker 5 (33:24):
So it's been very, very different.
Speaker 8 (33:26):
And that's actually a really important point, as at least
the preseason football.
Speaker 5 (33:32):
Some teams just want to put certain.
Speaker 8 (33:34):
Players Dan in specific situations and see how they react.
Some teams want to feature guys to see what they
have left, or maybe to try to trade them. Others,
you know, they want to try to go into the
season with confidence.
Speaker 5 (33:49):
I mean everybody you know.
Speaker 8 (33:50):
In the regular season, we know that everyone's game planning
to the max to try to win that game that week.
In the preseason, there's a lot of different goals that
people are trying to achieve, and so you can't really
look at the score or even the scheme. But I
do think how individual players perform, especially if it's really
(34:13):
good or really poorly, I do think that's something to
make note of.
Speaker 2 (34:16):
He's Ross Tucker. He's host of the Ross Tucker Football Podcast.
He calls games for CBS and Westwood One. Smelling salts.
The NFL says no more smelling salts. What was your
experience with smelling salts.
Speaker 8 (34:30):
Well, we didn't have that in college at Princeton, and
the first time someone gave it to me in the NFL,
nobody told me what it was. They just said sniff
it and Dan, that was a bad experience.
Speaker 5 (34:44):
Okay, if you don't know.
Speaker 8 (34:45):
What's coming and you just take it and you're like,
oh okay, and you sniff in like that.
Speaker 5 (34:51):
I mean I cried. I mean my nose was burning.
Speaker 8 (34:54):
I had a really bad first experience, which is probably
why I was.
Speaker 5 (34:58):
Never a smelling salt guy.
Speaker 8 (35:00):
You know, there's a lot of guys that after that,
you know, they do it, you know, before every game
or sometimes during games. I mean, you've been around me enough, Dan,
Do I look like a guy that needs smelling salts?
Do I seem like a guy that needs little something
extra to get going? The answer is no. And also
I think I was just too much of a wimp.
(35:22):
You know, I had such a bad first experience that
when they would give it to me after that, I
would do one of these, Dan for people watching.
Speaker 5 (35:28):
On peacock or you.
Speaker 8 (35:30):
Like, you know, like five inches from my nose, right
I was.
Speaker 5 (35:34):
I wasn't.
Speaker 8 (35:34):
I was too afraid to get it like real close
to my nose. By the way, supposedly they can need
they can still use smelling salts, the team's just not
going to provide them anymore. So now the players have to, uh,
bring your own smelling salts b yoss to your NFL.
Speaker 2 (35:52):
Games if they're not good for you. Then why is
the NFL allowing you to bring your own?
Speaker 8 (35:58):
That's a really good question. I think probably liability. I
don't know, you're right, like, if you're the NFL, you're
liable if you're the one supplying it, if you're the
one handing them out. It's probably the same reason why
they've cut back on a lot of the pain medicine.
They've cut back on some of the injections and shots
(36:20):
guys age and they still do it.
Speaker 5 (36:22):
But man, Dann, when I was playing, you remember viox,
the anti inflammatory biox.
Speaker 3 (36:28):
I loved bios.
Speaker 8 (36:29):
Yeah, And at some point they came out and said
viox is bad for you. That is information that would
have been very valuable to me in like two thousand Okay,
to come out in two thousand and eight after I've
been taking it.
Speaker 5 (36:42):
For eight years, like how does that help me?
Speaker 8 (36:45):
And then also with the tourtoll right stuff like that,
that they are a little bit more. I mean, back
when I played, there'd be a line of twelve guys
to get the tourtall shot.
Speaker 5 (36:55):
Right, just over and over and over and over again.
Speaker 8 (36:58):
Supposedly they've reeled some of that stuff and probably for
good reason.
Speaker 3 (37:04):
Let's tord all do.
Speaker 8 (37:06):
Tordal is by far the best full body anti inflammatory
you can ever take. You know, my rookie year, I
saw guys getting shots in their butt right, And I
didn't play as a rookie, so I didn't really even
know what they were doing. I thought it was like Cortizona,
and then someone said, no, it's Tordal.
Speaker 5 (37:28):
Dan, let me just tell you, okay.
Speaker 8 (37:30):
Year two, we fly to Osaka, Japan to play the
Niners in the preseason. I'm starting for Washington in the
preseason game. After the flight, first practice, I get I
hurt my neck. I sprained my neck. I can't leave
the hotel room. I'm miserable. Before the game, I go
up to the Redskins team doctor and say, hey, I
(37:53):
need one of those shots in my butt. And they
said it's a preseason game, we didn't even bring one.
I said it is. I'm trying to win a starting job.
This is like the most important game of my life.
So the Redskins team doctor goes over to the Niners,
gets a toward doll shot from them, puts it in
my butt. Dan, I played unbelievable. I played unbelievable. I mean,
(38:17):
that's like the best I ever played. So I will
say this though. The tough thing about that in life,
right as a football player, there's always something bothering you.
So after that game, anytime I was starting, I pretty
much got a toar doll shot. Because if you ask
an NFL player before a game, would you rather be
(38:39):
a little bit taller, or faster, or stronger.
Speaker 5 (38:41):
Or whatever, they would tell you.
Speaker 8 (38:43):
I just want to feel as healthy as possible, just
just just I don't want my back to feel like that,
or my knee or my left shoulder like I just
want to feeld. So once I had that experience my
first preseason game my second year, anytime I was starting
after that in a regular season game, I had something
bothered me. I was taking a tourt doll shot because
I was trying to maximize my performance on the field.
Speaker 2 (39:06):
What's your view of the training camp fights? Like, what's
it mean to you when you see a team that's
fighting actual you know, fisticuffs.
Speaker 8 (39:16):
Yeah, So if you got any of my former teammates
on here and ask them about me, I would think
from two thousand and one to two thousand and eight,
I'd be surprised if I didn't lead the NFL in
training camp fights, I really would, and in fairness, in
my mind, I was never starting a fight.
Speaker 5 (39:38):
I was always finishing a play.
Speaker 8 (39:41):
Now, the other guys didn't feel that way, and they
didn't like me, and they thought I was annoying.
Speaker 5 (39:45):
But I have plenty of friends from high school and college.
What do I care about these guys? Right Like, I'm
trying to get a job, right.
Speaker 8 (39:50):
So I would finish the plays and they would not
be happy, you know, whether I'm pancaking them or hitting
them late or whatever.
Speaker 5 (39:58):
So then they would always throw the first swing and then.
Speaker 8 (40:01):
I would swing back and I don't know, you know,
it's one of those things where the coaches act like
they don't like it, but they do. Two thousand and four, Okay,
training camp. Remember Oliver Gibson, who I think recently passed
a dtackle. We're in Buffalo, and he was just annoying
the crap out of me and he kept grabbing me.
I couldn't get up to the linebacker. He kept grabbing
(40:23):
my jersey. So finally, after a play, I was done
with it, and that one I actually started. I'll raise
my hand for that one, and I just started wailing
on him. And he's punched me back and they break
it up and I'm walking back to the huddle and
I thought, no, you know what, I hate that guy.
Speaker 5 (40:40):
I'm sick of it. Dan.
Speaker 8 (40:41):
I ran back and smoked him. I ran back and
smoked him. And Mike Malarkey was our head coach. He
kicked me out of practice. Okay, this is like halfway
through practice. He kicked me out for that move. Okay.
And he told the team that is not what they want,
that's not what they're going for. Two things happened after practice.
(41:02):
First of all, some of the best veterans we had said, talk,
you want to start to fight tomorrow so we can
both get out of practice. If you get out of
practice by getting a fight, well let's start it, and
let's start it early. And Mallarkey came up to me
and Malarkey said, I'll never forget. Danny said, hey, Ross,
I just want to let you know. I said, yeah,
I said, I'm sorry, I lost my head. I hate
(41:23):
that guy. He's like, I know, he said, you know,
I told the team that that's not what we're looking for.
He said, I just want you to know the way
you play is exactly what we're looking for. So they
say one thing publicly, Dan, but then privately, you know,
they feel differently.
Speaker 2 (41:43):
Good to talk to you. I have fun tonight. And
you know what, before you go, you tend to tell
this story. I think every year, maybe every other year,
of when you get cut, that here you are a
high school hero, you play at Princeton, you're in the NFL,
and that when you get cut, when you go back
to your hometown.
Speaker 8 (42:05):
You know what's so funny you just saying that. I'm
not exaggerating. My eyes filled up a little bit because
it takes me right back to that. It's you know,
picture for fifteen years of your life, ten to twelve
years of your life. You go back and everybody kind
(42:25):
of knows who you are, and everybody's like, hey, Ross, Ross,
the football player, Ross, how's it going.
Speaker 5 (42:32):
I saw you again for the Cowboys. I saw you
the Ross. What's up?
Speaker 6 (42:35):
Man?
Speaker 5 (42:35):
How's Prinsing going?
Speaker 8 (42:36):
And then imagine, all of a sudden, you go back
and it was on the cover of the Reading Eagle
newspaper Okay in Berks County, Pennsylvania, now are Western Philly.
It was on the front cover Ross Tucker released by whoever.
There was a bunch of them, right, So now you
go back and they don't know how to react Dan,
(42:58):
They don't know that, they don't know what to say
to you. Some people just kind of put their head down.
Some people are like, hey, man, I saw the news.
It's a really really awkward situation, super uncomfortable. You feel
like you're letting those people down. They don't know how
to treat you because they've always treated you like.
Speaker 5 (43:19):
You know, like you're a hero, but now you're the zero.
It's it's not easy. I mean it is.
Speaker 8 (43:25):
It takes some significant mental toughness, that's for sure.
Speaker 2 (43:29):
Do you still have the newspapers that talked about you
when you got cut by teams and you came back home?
Speaker 5 (43:36):
I have all the positive newspaper clippings.
Speaker 8 (43:39):
I have no idea where the negative newspaper clippings are.
Speaker 5 (43:42):
I think I threw the though.
Speaker 2 (43:44):
You know.
Speaker 5 (43:45):
I have scrap books, which are awesome.
Speaker 8 (43:47):
My mom did them when I was in high school
and college, and then I think even in the NFL
maybe the first couple of years, and I love having
those to flip through or show my daughters or whatever.
But didn't put the negative stuff in there because brings
back bad memories. There's you know, in life, right, we
can all choose to have gratitude for the things that
(44:09):
we have and the positive things that have happened, or
we can choose to like I could say, I wish
I was doing this game as a broadcaster, or I
wish I was I wish I'd played this long in
the NFL. How does that help you at all?
Speaker 5 (44:23):
Right?
Speaker 8 (44:24):
Instead, I'm just thrilled I'm doing this game tonight. Thrilled
I'm doing games for CBS. If you have gratitude for
the things you have and are thankful for the things
you have, man, you'll be so much happier than if
you're always worried about what could have been, or thinking
about what could have been, or the negative or the
bad things that happen. I choose to look back on
my NFL career and just think about the positives in
(44:46):
seven years and not all the injuries or the forty
times I got cut or whatever I've tried to block. Mean,
it's still there, but I try to block that out
as much as I can.
Speaker 2 (44:56):
Thanks for sharing. Good to talk to you. Thank you,
Ross Worries, great talking, Damn Ross Tucker
Hosts And Creators
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Dan Patrick
Patrick "Seton" O'Connor
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