02-20-24 Romi Bean with Broncos Country Tonight

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Episode Transcript

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We're gonna go out to the KWAcommon Sparrel hotline though, bring on a

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good friend, romy Bean from CBSfour Rome. How you doing this evening?
I doing great? How about youguys? Doing pretty well? You
were out there at the Super Bowl. I think I was like the only
guy who didn't go to and thenthe one person didn't go to super Bowl
everybody got to go. Yep.How did you enjoy Las Vegas as a
first time Super Bowl host? Youknow what the funny thing with Vegas is

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like, even if you're not outthere like partying all night and gambling,
like because I wasn't, I waspretty much working the whole time. It's
like Vegas is so much overstimulation.Like two days is enough, even if
you're like not going out, youknow, and staying up till four in
the morning, even if you're justgoing there and as like a working person,
It's just this is so much.But I felt like it was a

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great spot for the NFL to hosta super Bowl because they know how to
throw a party, they know howto throw an event, and there's a
million things going on. I mean, it was you know, super Bowls
come to some cities, you gotto do all this planning. Obviously Vegas
did, but they're like, no, we're ready for this. So I
thought it was great. It wasa great experience, great venue, it's

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a good time. Oh so wehad. This is a great thing by
this time of year, Romi,because you get the super Bowl and then
the following week is NBA All Starwhich took place two days ago. And
I don't know how you feel about. Ben and I were discussing it,
but watching the NBA All Star ithas changed from what I grew up watching.
And no one plays defense anymore.I mean, in your mind,

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do you like it? And isit entertaining? You know what? It's
so funny because and the Nuggets werejust talking about this. We were just
over there. Michael Mulum was talkingabout it and he said the same thing.
You know, it's not the AllStar game I grew up with,
you know where you see these videosof Kobe going around talking about like you
know, he was never about tolose an All Star Game. But it's
just changed, and it's changed interms of you know, today's NBA where

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guys are worried, you know,they don't want to get hurt, they
don't want to get injured. Youknow, a lot of these guys are
probably playing for something, and soyou know, I'm conflicted because I would
love to see, Yeah, yousee best on best. You want to
see them go at it. Boy, would that be fantastic. But I
think from a realistic approach, theseguys are gonna do it. They're not

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gonna risk injury in the middle ofthe season when they've got playoffs, they've
got championship hopes. There's just Ithink Michael Malone put it perfectly tonight.
He just said, you know,there's a problem with it, and I
feel bad about it, but Idon't think there's a fix, and I
don't think anyone knows what kind ofa fix it is. You know.

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He even said, you could makeit like the Pro Bowl and everyone messes
around and screws around and have funand put it at the end of the
season, but even then not fixingit right because inherently there's the problem.
I just don't know how you putit any sort of an all star game
in season and expect guys to reallyput their bodies on the line. I
wish there was more defense, butI just don't see I know they talk

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about incentivizing it, but I don'tthink big picture, a lot of those
guys are going to go for that. I really don't. What do you
think about some of the other solutionsthat have proposed three on three tournaments,
you know, dividing them up insteadof East West by division and doing it.
Does that add anything for you oris that just over complicating and already
kind of odd process. I mean, I like that they went back to

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East West because you know, acouple of years ago they had like Team
Lebron and Team whomever, and Ididn't like that. I liked that they
went back to East West. Youknow, the MLB for the longest time
winner got home field and that wasa huge, huge deal, but they
took it away for a reason.And I think that that feels like the
obvious one. But the MLB tookit away, and there's a reason why
why they're not doing it. Ilove the idea, though, like three

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on threes or honestly, like likeone v one. If you look at
one v one, these guys areso inherently competitive. I think you're going
to see good stuff and good stuffcome out of that. Is you could
do stuff more like that but ifyou're going to play a forty eight minute
game or whatever, guys are notit's just they're having They're just gonna mess
around and have fun. I thinkyou have to try other things, because,

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let's be honest, even with theNFL, or even MLB, which
is arguably the most watchable, evenwith that, one the best parts of
All Star Weekend is the skills competitions, any type of skill competition, the
home run derby, the skills competitions, even that, the quarterback accuracy thing
we were throwing, the dunk contestobviously, which you can argue the dunk
contest has not been the same,but about a decade either, and it

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really hasn't. I can't remember onethat's like, oh gosh, right from
the last I don't know, senatorfew years. I feel like Aaron Gordon
was the last great one. ButI don't know. I don't know how
the game itself you can make itany more competitive. I wish there was
a solution, but I just thinkthe skills part is really the best part
of any All Star Weekend. Well, what did you think of the whole

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kind of like brotherly love that wasbeing shared between Luka Donzig and Nikola Yokis
because as a basketball fan, Ireally liked it, And to be totally
honest, I would love to seeLuca and the Nuggets Jersey. Honestly,
that would be unfair in the bestway. Pop. I mean, we're

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all, are you kidding me?If to get Luca, I mean you
probably have to trade small Murray,maybe Murray and MPJ. You're not saying
no to Luca and Yolk together.I mean that would be That would rival
some of the best duos you knowof all time, right when you go
back to MJ and Pippin, maybeeven Kobe and Shag like that, then
you're that's what you're talking about inthat tier. If you get those two

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together for a significant amount of time, I don't know who in their right
mind would say no to that onehundred percent. And you also love the
way Yo could phrase it, right, He's like, I don't want to
leave Denver, so if Wivan getspissed off from Dallas, he can come
over here, like let's go.That would be That would be incredible.
That would make the Nuggets even moreof a powerhouse than they are. And

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the two of them together are justare so much fun to watch enough.
Yeah, I don't know how youpull that trade off. I mean it's
you know, it's fascinating concept tokind of think about. You probably have
to send you know, MPJ andMurray and draft picks, you know,
to make that work. But youknow, I mean, I'm for it.
I think those two watching those twoguys do the weave down the court
was was probably the highlight of theweekend, outside of maybe mac McClung's original

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dunk, which only got a fortysix. I'm still complaining about up for
it. I mean, if theycould pull it off, I just can't
see more Cuban and Dallas doing that. Oh. I mean I couldn't either.
And I think that that's the bigthing is he would have to Luca
would have to demand a trade.He would demand that he would want to
leave. It's not they certainly.I don't think we just let him go,

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not even for that big deal thatyou talked about, like they're not,
you know, they're not going tojust let him walk. It would
have to be one of those thingswhere he demanded out and then this this
scenario happened. But it does feelmore like a pipe tream than something that
would actually happened, but you knowwe still dream about it. Well,
yeah, we we all can dream, but I guess Nuggets fans don't really
have the dream that much. Basedon what Nicole Yoki said during an All

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Star break was that he wants tostay here in Denver. He's not.
He doesn't see a scenario where heleaves. And we know that in the
sports coaches changes and things happen whenplayers leave. What does that mean to
the city of Denver and the Nuggetsfor that matter. Known as though your
Star your two time MVP could bea third time MVP, said that he

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wants to make sure that he isa Denver Nugget for life. Yeah,
no, it's pretty unreal. Imean, you hear players say it sometime,
and you know, Nick, that'ship's service sometime. I'm sure I
want to stay here, but jokisit and he does, and anybody you
talk to outside can validate that hisfamily really likes it here. He likes
and he's kind of raising. I'veheard a lot that you know, he

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likes, you know, raise hisdaughter here obviously until at at some point
they go back to Serbia. Butthey love it here. They've made it
a home here and Jokich's, aswe know, what makes him just so
much anomaly in the world of superstars. And he's like the anti superstar and
he's not out for you know,he hates the start, like the Spotlight.
He would hate a place right likeLa He or New York. That's

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so the opposite of him. Buthe genuinely likes being here, and he
likes the franchise. He likes thepeople he's around. There was conversations a
couple of years ago, right whenthe Nuggets couldn't break that plateau where they
were getting, you know, inthe playoffs of will Michael Malone be back?
And I heard from a lot ofpeople Yolkish likes Malone. Malone's not
going anywhere as long as Yokish likeshim. Right, He's got that power

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here as well. Right, ownershipis going to talk to him about things.
But he's just he's the kind ofsuperstar that he would love to be
in the same place as his entirecareer. He likes the stability. His
family's out here, his brothers areyou know here with him. He really
means that, and you it's kindof one of those things where you have
to just kind of pinch yourself becausein this day and age where guys are

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always asking for trades and always askingfor more money, and let's still give
him all the money. He's makingall the money already. But it's pretty
surreal to have a superstars say thatand you're like, yeah, and that
also means that everybody's going to continueto want to come to be here in
free agency, right, and peoplemight take a little less money to come
play for you, o Kich.We know how all of that goes too,
so you get all the positive falloutof that as well. Yeah,

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I'm interested to see the way thething goes. And obviously health's going to
be a big factor for the Nuggetsdown stretch in their quest to repeat the
NFL's got the combine going on here. Next week, I'm gonna be out
there, Ryan Edwards, Breader,Crystal, myself, all gonna be out
there for Kay You're coming out thereas well. We are, but I
think we're actually gonna come out alittle later in the week. Might this

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skip the you know, the coachJim deal and try and kind of jump
into some more of the players andstuff as well. Well. That'd be
fun. Look forward to to seeingyou out there. As far as the
Combine goes, they've really turned thisthing into a largely fan event, you
know, putting it at prime timenow, allowing people over the last couple

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of years to go in and actuallyobserve the event. Says they have.
But do you think this is apositive direction for the NFL? Comment,
Yeah, I just think everything aboutthe NFL, there are times that they
make me make me chuckle a littlebit because how the Underware Olympics gets better
ratings than some of the NBA playoffs, right, the Combine will get higher
ratings than some of the early roundsof the NBA and NFL playoffs, like

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routine ly, like the NFL isjust this is why the NFL is king.
They have mastered the marketing and theexcitement of things that maybe shouldn't even
be all that exciting, and theycontinue to just find new ways to bring
in a new audience. So yeah, I think it's good. I think
that. You know, the Combineis one of those things that I always
thought was funny because I remember whenI went to my first combine, I

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thought we would be in there rightin Lucas well the whole time observing everything,
and then I found out, no, you're basically just talking to guys
at podium all the time. Okay, So I think a way to make
it more interactive for fans and excitingas well. And the NFL does an
incredible job of whether that be becauseyou know teams, your team is suffering,

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or this that or whatever. Peopleget very invested in the next generation
of stars, and so it's Ithink that they do a great job of
that. And it's but it isit's always commical to me that the combine
brings such high ratings when it's it'sa test, right, it's a graduation
test of sorts, it's a jobinterview of sorts, and people are eating

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it up. NFL is king.That's why, guys, well we know
NFL it's king, and everyone's eyeswill be glued to the television trying to
figure out, you know, who'sgoing to become the next star. And
the Broncos once again list to theyat number twelve. So they have to
make some moves before free agency starts. We know that, But is there
particular drill or player that you arelooking forward to see to see if what

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we saw earlier this season actually matchsome of the stats. I mean,
I think, obviously, right we'regonna be glued for quarterbacks, and there's
no reason why we shouldn't be kindof watching all these guys. But I'm
really interested in tight ends. Ithink that you know, the Bronxs have
had a tight end problem for areally long time. Can we trust Greg

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Dolsach at the point we can't.It would be great if you panned out.
But but tight ends, I thinkis an important position to watch.
And there's certainly a lot of talentthere in in the tight end room.
And really, when you look atthe Broncos roster, and you hate to
do this, but you could say, oh, they need to have any
here, have an eat here,ed drusher, be watching a lot of
those guys closely. You know,I always take half these drills with a

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great assault because they're without pad,they're without resistant, there's not another player
chasing him down, so all ofthose things are throwing against air. You
know, should I keep going?But to watch the general field set,
I think you want to watch andI will be looking a lot, I
think for the tight ends and thepast catching tight ends, and they're a
good tight end threat. Because asmuch as we talk about at twelve,

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Bronco's got to take a quarterback.I don't know. I mean, look
at the quarterback Sean Page is draftedin the path Ian Book and Garrett Grayson
like, there's not this list ofguys that makes you feel like he's definitely
going to go for one. Obviously, this team is in a different situation.
But I think it's important that welook at a lot of other skill
positions because the Broncos I thing dida lot of directions that they could go

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outside of quarterback with that first roundpick. Yeah, and it remains to
be seen whether the Broncos, youknow, hitch the wagon to a rookie,
go ahead and get another veteran whatthey do, or are they bring
Russ back. I think he'll windup in Pittsburgh. We'll see, We'll
see how that shakes out. Wedo have a listener question romy that.
Brian, a longtime listener here,has said several questions and he's not a
big fan of coach Prime and hehe had a couple of questions here about

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why we should celebrate see you whenthey lost eight of their last nine and
and he's not optimistic about the futureof the program. How do you feel
about the directions so you took thisoffseason, and what do you feel about
the impact that he's making there atColorado. Well, you know, I
think there's there's a couple angles tothis if we're going to talk football specifically.
I'm really excited and curious to seewhat this new version of CU looks

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like because last year it was likethis complete overhaul, and I think that
the expectation was set very high.They were going to do things, and
they were going to do big thingsand make playoffs and this, that and
the other. But when you realisticallylook at any school that's overhauled the program,
so so many of them so rarelyhave massive success in the first year.
It's just that that hype with setNow this year they got to actually

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go out and get positions of meatand really fill up the trenches areas.
They need to get a defensive coordinatorthat everybody's really excited about. I asked
the neat Rap Report about it atNFL Honors and he was just raving about
how much he thinks he can bringto the program. I'm not going to
talk about Pat sumer. But Ithink that now they filled in a lot

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of the beaten potato roles, ifyou will. The scale positions were so
easy to get. They got amillion wide receivers. But now you've actually
got offensive lineman, defensive lineman.You still got to put it all together.
But I think that this program orthis team this year is absolutely going
to build on what they had lastyear. I think the expectations were set
too high last year. So I'mexcited, And you know, I don't

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know what my expectations necessarily are forthis team, but I do think they're
going to be better. I thinkthey're gonna be more competitive, and I'm
eager to see how they level up. I think in this world of instant
gratification, to expect the team tojust go from zero to one hundred right
away is stilly, even though weall get caught up in it. So
as someone who's got more into let'ssee where this program builds. Because I

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followed to you for a long timeand they had no sign of building for
the longest time. That's really exciting. And then of course you look at
the popularity, like I was walkingaround, you know, Radio row,
and you see someone and to seeyou at and people are strugging up conversations
with them, and I can understand. I guess how what prime does rubs
pupl the wrong way, But Ithink that's fantastic people across the country are

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talking about the University of Colorado becausewhen is the last time you can say
people were doing that all the timewith excitement and so to have see you
as someone who's an alumni. SoI'm a little biased, but who went
there to see how much people wantto talk about CEU across the country When
CU football was quite literally not justirrelevant but a laughing stock two seasons ago.

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That's a lot of fun. Idon't know why you wouldn't want to
be on that train and enjoy thatride. Yeah, certainly made him a
cultural destination, put them back onthe map in terms of relevancy. We'll
see if that translates on the field. Roll me good stuff as always look
forward to seeing out there at thecombine and obviously on CBS News every evening
ah Indianapolis in February. What adestination. It's a vacation destination, you

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are correct, Rubby be and CBSfour always love having her on the show.