04-08-24 Hour 2 of Broncos Country Tonight

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Welcome to it, Broncos Country TonightPost Rockies edition. Benjamin all right here
with you. I hope you're enjoyingyour evening. Five six sixty nine zero
is the text line you guys wantto get involved in the conversation. Congratulations
to South Carolina game Cocks women's basketballteam, who beat Caitlyn Clark in Iowa

(00:23):
to complete a perfect season. Whenthe women's in CUAA Championship eighty seven to
seventy five. Clearly South Carolina thebest team in the nation all season,
and their depth was just too muchfor Iowa. The loss ends a record
breaking career for Kaitlyn Clark. Leadsis the old time score of both men's
and women's NCAA basketball score thirty tolead Iowa on Sunday, but obviously not

(00:47):
enough. Chipped in eight boards fiveassists as well. The reason I'm talking
about that is, you know,afterwards, I jumped online and, as
you usual, well, saw thecesspool that is Twitter or X or whatever
you call it. I'm calling itTwitter. I'm not calling it X.
I don't you know. Sorry,Elan, You'll just have to deal.

(01:11):
I got on there and I sawthe cesspool that was people bickering back and
forth, and it leads me towonder, is framing everything through the lens
of who is the goat? Ruiningsports culture? Is framing everything through the

(01:34):
lens of who is the greatest ofall time? Ruining sports culture? Because
as I looked online, I hadone giant group of people saying, well,
Kayler Clark never won a championship,she can't be the greatest of all
time, which is stupid. Imean, you could be the best player
and not be on a good enoughteam, not be able to carry four

(01:55):
cowboys to a championship, or inthis case tell women, with all due
respect to Iowa's basketball team, like, I hate the way that we frame
everything through that conversation. Now isDan Marino nodded the discussion for greatest quarterback
of all time because he didn't wina Super Bowl? Because Dan Marino was

(02:19):
absolutely, by the tools, oneof the greatest quarterbacks of all time,
by the numbers, one of thegreatest quarterbacks of all time. So I
hate the way that we do thatand the toxic culture that emanates from that.
Last year, it was impossible tobelieve that both LSU was a great
basketball team and Caitlyn Clark was agreat player, and the same thing played

(02:43):
itself out again this year was SouthCarolina. How is it implausible for people
to figure out that South Carolina isa phenomenal basketball team and Caitlin Clark he
is a phenomenal player. Why can'tyou hold both opinions? Why can't I
not be worried about arbitrarily defining nebulousterms like the greatest of all time?

(03:06):
Why do I have to quantify it? Why can't I appreciate greatness in front
of me? And as usual,the Internet, of course couldn't handle it.
And so what we get is atox success pool of people bickering back
and forth along arbitrarily divided lines,sometimes Rachel, and it just baffles me.

(03:34):
I look at this thing, andI'm like, you can appreciate greatness
on both sides, you know,city here and covering the broncos. I
can appreciate the greatness of Pat Mahomes, just like I could appreciate the greatness
of Tom Brady, just like Icould appreciate the greatness of Peyton Manning.
And does it matter who you're goingto title the greatest of all time?

(04:02):
Is it bad? Do we needto really qualify that. Is having that
definition intrinsic to appreciating the greatness?Does it provide more enjoyment? Does it
make it better? Even if yousettle that question, is is anything solved
by settling that question, Because insettling that question, you really have only
settled it for yourself. You're notsettling it for anyone else. Sports talk,

(04:30):
and a large portion of sports talk, has become junk Who's on the
mount? Rushmore of this who's thegreatest at that? It's lazy sports talks.
It's lazy talk and jealous lazy debate. It's not even debate. It's

(04:53):
arbitrarily contrived content. To my knowledgeof been guilty of it. I don't
want to adopt a wholier than thatattitude. I'm sure I've done plenty of
lazy things in my life, butI just I don't understand how everything has

(05:14):
got to be something that's divisive.Why couldn't we all celebrate that women's basketball
was front and center for half aminute. You know, we were actually
tuning in to watch women's basketball.We all were. It's okay, you
could admit it. You could tellon yourself. I know you're listening right
now. No, I would never. Yeah, you would, you did?
We all did. It doesn't meanI'm suddenly like buying WNBA jerseys,

(05:36):
but I enjoyed watching women's basketball fora change. Okay, we all did.
Branding personalities helps helps to build thosekinds of audiences, giving you something
to root for. That's one ofthe things that for all the negatives about

(05:58):
fantasy football and gambling, it's that'swhat they've done. They've given you individuals
to root for them. We do, and once here's an individual to tune
in for, we do tune in. But why does it always have to
be about why do we have toput a title? Uh, she's the
goat, he's the goat? Well, okay, maybe why do you think

(06:19):
that? Or why not? Okay? Now is anything solved by you having
that opinion? Tell me what moreenjoyment you got out of that game by
knowing that Caitlyn Clark was or wasnot the greatest of all time? What

(06:40):
did it enhance for you? Nothing? So we spent pointless hours with a
ramped up rhetoric debating something that didnot matter. It did not add an
ounce of joy to your life.You didn't you weren't happy debating. You

(07:00):
were frustrated that the other person didn'tsee your point of view. You aren't
happier now because you didn't change anyminds. No whate ever changes anyone's mind.
When's the last time somebody changed somebody'smind? On the internet, we
pour countless hours into quibbling over themost trivial nonsense. Appreciate greatness, all

(07:27):
of it. Appreciate greatness that's onyour team while it's there because it's fleeting.
Appreciate greatness in your opponents because itmakes it that much more worthwhile when
you win, when you defeat that, when you find a game plan and
execute and it works, you don'thave to You don't have to down and

(07:50):
play the accomplishments of anybody in orderto enjoy sport. There are already enough
things to bicker over. This worldalready has enough things in it that are
divisive. Sports and athletics are supposedto be the thing that unites us,

(08:13):
the true meritocracy, a level playingfield for all, And somehow we've decided
to take that down. The firsttake called pizza whatever it's called road,
the ruiner of all things sports talk. When they started getting the political guys

(08:39):
putting the formats on these morning shows. God made it unbearable to listen to.
I just get this stuff too.Do you hear what Skip Burst stephen
A here? And with all duerespect to them, is they figured out
how to maximize an audience. Andif that's your goal, congratulations. If
your goal is only to continue todraw in the maximum sized audience, then

(09:05):
that's what your content is going tobe geared toward. And it's gonna be
clickbaity content. It's gonna be fakedebates, it's gonna be goat arguments and
Mount rushmoores. It's gonna be badmagazine, radio or TV. I hate
that stuff. I just got.I hate that stuff. I just don't

(09:28):
have the time for it. Andthat's not my goal anyway. I mean,
you work at entertainment, and you'remeasured by whatever you're measured by,
and in this case, for us, it's ratings, and so I have
an appreciation for growing an audience,but this is not my goal. My
goal every night is to sit hereand entertain and inform And I probably have

(09:52):
those two in verse order, becauseI want to be informative. I want
to pass along to you guys.The stuff that I have, information I
have that you may not, andvice versa via the text line, information
you have that I may not.I'm down to lord something because at the
end of the day, we're alljust dudes and chicks. Wanted to talk

(10:13):
ball, right, wanted to havea good time, wanted to forget the
stresses of work, the anger thatwe've built up at the world around us
over the course of a day,and release that into something hopefully fun.
Hopefully that's what we do here atthe end of the day. I hope

(10:41):
that everybody listening to this has comeaway with something new. Every day that
I walk in and get in frontof this microphone, I hope that I
come away knowing something I didn't beforeI got here. And we have great
people that, you know, thathelp us out with all this, Grant
and Coover and you know, Nick, and I feel like, you know,

(11:03):
I feel like a lot of peopletreat this like, well, I
gotta put this rundown together and Igotta I gotta program this show. And
you know that's not I've never beenabout that. I've never done that this
way. And there are you know, there are people that look at me
horrified when I you know, peoplethat work in this industry a long time.
When I try to explain what itis that we do here, we

(11:28):
do here is try to enjoy it, inform and enjoy. That's why I
think I get so irritable when peoplesay that I hate Sean Payton. I
don't hate John Payton. I don't. I've been more critical of him than
I've been of I think any coachsince I've been doing this particular thing in
Denver, and that's because Sean Payton'sthe first coach that we've had here that

(11:52):
wasn't a first time head coach advancedJoseph You had Vic Fangio, you hd
Nate Hackett. Sean he coached inthe league for fifteen years. So yeah,
my criticism towards him is gonna bea little harsher. I'm not gonna
have as much leeway early on becausehe's not learning things. He already knows
them. He's been in the leagueat decade and a half. He's been
the top guy he knows. ButI don't hate Sean Payton, and I

(12:16):
want Lebroncos to succeed. I wantthis to be fun. I want sports
to be fun. How many littlegirls watching what should have been a crowning
moment in women's sports were forever turnedoff by sports because you had adults bickering,

(12:43):
putting each other down over something theydidn't need to put each other down
about. Who cares? Is KaylenClark the greatest of all time? I
don't know, certainly the most prolificscorer. Do we need to wait into

(13:03):
the minutia of it is having orapplying that arbitrary title which isn't awarded by
anybody but us individually, adding toanyone's experience. You could say it.
We all know the answers now,So at the end of the day,

(13:26):
what are we doing? Let's finda better way to do this? And
for my part, I'm going tofind a better way to do this too.
I'm going to make sure that eachand every time I'm up here on
this microphone, I'm not presenting somethinglazily that's not the thing. We won't
have a bad segment here or there. I might have an idea that turns
out not to be a good one, but I want to make sure that

(13:52):
I'm giving you the maximum amount ofeffort that you're giving in listening to the
show. You're depositing your time withme. I don't want to fill it
up with bickering over nonsense. Idon't want to waste your time quibbling over

(14:20):
who's the greatest of all time?It doesn't matter. Did you enjoy yourself,
did you have fun? Did youbond with the loved one while you
were watching sports? A son anda daughter. Did you get the opportunity

(14:41):
to create a cherished memory that atthe end of the day you're going to
hold deer and reflect on. Thoseare the things that matter. Because I
can tell you there isn't a momentin my life and maybe I'm really talking
to me here because I think we'veall seen my social media. There isn't

(15:05):
a moment in my life where Ireflect on something and I say, you
know what, I'm really glad Ihad that argument on Twitter. I'm really
glad I showed that bozo I educatedthem. They didn't in any way change
their minds, but I got acouple of good digs in. There hasn't

(15:30):
been one time in the entirety ofmy forty three plus years on this planet
where I've sat there and said,I'm sure glad I spent that extra time
on Twitter creating the mount rushmar ofquarterbacks. I can't reflect on anything I've

(15:54):
ever done in programming a segment.I can't find one memorable segment where we've
had a top four of anything ora goat conversation, except for that time
we talked about goat yoga and GiovanniCarmazzi. That one was pretty funny.

(16:18):
So my point is this sports issupposed to be fun. Sports talk,
I feel like, is supposed tobe fun. It's supposed to give you
a safe space to lement certain things. But in the end, it's supposed
to be fun. We're not doingany goat conversations here. We're not doing
any out rushmoors here. Listen toBroncos Country Tonight, Koa, go back

(16:44):
to It, Broncos Country Tonight,Benjamin all right here with you Post Rockies
Edition five, six six nine zerosof text line. I got a couple
of good texts coming in there.Appreciate you guys putting up with my extended
rant in the last segment. Ijust want this stuff to be fun.
I want it to be I wantedto inform, but I want it to
be fun. And I'm tired ofthe vitriol. I'm tired of the negativity.

(17:08):
I'm tired of it all. Sowe're gonna do our best to keep
it fun. Then, speaking offun, we need to talk about what
John Calipari did. Speaking of basketball, John Calipari left Kentucky and he's going

(17:33):
to take over as the new headbasketball coach at the University of Arkansas,
and a lot of people are confusedby that. Calipari had been at Kentucky
for fifteen seasons. He had wonquite a few championships in the SEC.

(18:06):
Done very well there. I mean, if you're in Kentucky, you're expected
to. But it hadn't hadn't beengreat lately, been bounced by Saint Pete
in Oakland the last two years,and that is not yetting it done at

(18:30):
Kentucky. He did win a championshipback in twenty eleven, twenty twelve.
He's been to quite a few eliteeights, two final fours in addition to

(18:56):
that national championship. I'm pretty sureI'd have to go back and look.
I'm pretty sure there were two seasonsthey didn't make the tournament. One of
those was when postseason was canceledu toCOVID and then I think after they won

(19:17):
the championship, was it to twentytwelve. I think the next season I
think they were in the NIT Butother than that, Kentucky was always always
there Memphis before that. So Arkansasis getting a good coach, but Kentucky

(19:38):
I think had been ready to moveon. The Calipari success had not really
been the same since before. Covidsays before the nil, some coaches on
the football side they figured out,hey, look I'm not cut out for

(20:02):
this. I'm getting out the game. We saw what happening, Nick Saban
and I all changed the way yourecruit, and some coaches were not prepared
for that. We're not cut outfor it. I still think John Caliparry
is a heck of recruiter, butit had not been the same. And
you know, to be honest withyou, the last three years, well

(20:25):
four seasons really they went nine andsixteen and twenty twenty one, and then
the last three seasons they'd made thetournament combined thirty nine and fifteen on the
regular season, but got bounced inthe round of sixty four, the out

(20:45):
of thirty two and the rout ofsixty four again by teams like Saint Pete
Oakland. So Kentucky was ready tomove on. I was talking to people
with our fans of that, youknow that are affiliated with the Kentucky program
as this thing was kind of breakingyesterday, and yeah, I was kind

(21:08):
of the same. It's kind ofone of those things like Arkansas is getting
a good recruiter, question is whetheror not even coach, and that it
was kind of a win win forboth parties. Traditionally speaking, going from
Kentucky to Arkansas would be a stepdown. In fact, back in nineteen

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eighty five it went the opposite waywhen Kentucky hired Eddie Sutton, and Sutton
had to quote, I would havecrawled all the way to Lexington. Kentucky

(21:55):
has a high bar. It's gottento the point where it's like it's like
the you used to be in footballin Miami, or the bar had gotten
so high that if you don't winat a certain level, they're going to
they're gonna get to the point wherethey want to move on. Col's recruiting
class has always had style and flair. You got to witness John Wall at

(22:18):
the Davis Devin Booker four trips tothe Final four, only one national title
though, put a lot of playersin the NFL or NBA, But Kentucky

(22:42):
really has fallen out of favor withhim since twenty eighteen. They took that
loaded thirty eight no team to thenational semi finals and then got upset by
Wisconsin and it just wasn't the sameafter that. They've won one NCAA tournament
game since twenty nineteen, and there'sa higher bar set at Kentucky and Calipari.

(23:04):
I think was a little frustrated thatthere wasn't a larger nil commitment,
and now he's getting that five yeardeal at Arkansas worth eight million, seven
and a half to eight million dollarsa season in salary and another seven and
a half million to eight in NILcommitment for him. I think that's I

(23:32):
think that that is what is helooking for. I think that he wanted
that sort of commitment. Obviously thebiggest booster at Arkansas in this case,
John Tyson. Tyson foods familiar withwith Calipari. They're they're they're sort of
friends. So after Eric Musselman boltedfor USC, Arkansas comes up with probably

(24:00):
the best get that they can get, and Kentucky, who wanted to fire
cow but didn't want to pay thethirty three million dollars that it would take
to buy him out of his contract. Gets to move on for free.
They don't have to pay the money. And it's kind of interesting because this
contract didn't have a buyout like calcould have left on his own at any

(24:21):
point. The university had to buyhim out if they wanted to fire him,
and so this sort of creates asituation that's the best of all worlds.
The biggest question is how many ofhis top recruits are going to jump
out of the deals with Kentucky theyhave and head to Arkansas. Will he

(24:42):
be better at utilizing the portal?These days in college basketball, the two
biggest things are NIL deals in NBAdevelopment period, point blank ended discussion.
Being a blue blood doesn't really mattermy anymore. Teams are built via the

(25:07):
nil and transfer portal. Anyone canbuy a player, not just shoe companies
or old established under the table recruitingoperations. Kentucky still remains a major brand
without Calipari. It'll be interesting tosee who fills those shoes, whether it's
Dan Hurley or Chris Beard or whomever. This is a rare situation where you

(25:33):
get a win win, I thinkwhere everybody wins five six, six nine
zeros text line, get in somefootball here. One of the players that
I had touted that the Broncos shouldlook at, Texas defensive tackle Tovandre Sweat.

(26:03):
On Sunday, News broke that Texasdefensive tackle Devondre Sweat was arrested for
d w I k x A.N News reported he was arrested in Austin,
booked at Travis County Jail at twotwelve pm. By the way,

(26:26):
driving well intoxicated, Class B misdemeanor. Bond set at three grand. Sweat's
a big nose tackle, was abig twelve D Player of the Year Outland
Trophy. Not a big sack guy, but at the nose able to,
you know, to kind of pushthe pile and be something. I think

(26:48):
that the Broncos have hoped that thatMike Purcell and you know and others would
fill You put him with DJ Jonesand Zach Allen Allison. You got a
pretty good front three eating up thoseblocks. And for advance Joseph defense that
it's essential bravan Joseph defense. You'vegot to have big space eaters up front.
There eating up those blocks so thoselinebackers can shoot the gaps. And

(27:11):
I think Devandre Sweat would have potentiallybet that guy. Sweat is a u,
a big dude, three hundred andsixty six pounds. But now it's

(27:32):
going to be uncombing on teams interestedin him to ask some questions, like,
for starters, why was Sweat allegedlydriving drunk at two in the afternoon
on a Sunday? How much alcoholdoes it take to get a three hundred
and sixty six pound man above thelegal limit of point oh eight. Sweat

(28:02):
was a guy who already had toanswer questions about his partying early in college,
told teams that that stuff was behindhim. Apparently it's not. I
think a lot of teams are concerned. What am I bringing in here?
This is a guy who's already goingto be a weight management guy. What

(28:30):
happens when I give this guy abunch of money? What if you're the
general manager of the drafts and hedrives drunk and he kills somebody? What
in your decision making matrix thinks it'sa great idea to go have too much
to drink and go driving. Threeweeks before the draft, and it's not

(28:51):
like you don't have an example therein state dak Prescott at a Duy he
went on to have no issues,but he had one right there prior to
the draft. You have one staringyou in the face. As an NFL
prospect, your job is to keepyour nose clean an ace a month's long
job interview. Devandre Sweat did notdo that. Hearkens back to the days

(29:23):
when the Green Bay Packers signed CornRobinson, who blew multiple chances in Minnesota,
finally by drunk driving and leading thecops on a high speed pursuit.

(29:47):
I don't know if everybody remembers thatone or not. And look that one
up. Charged with DWI and felotyfleeing. It's back in August of two
thousand and six, I believe madethe Pro Bowl after alcohol problems had derailed
his career. In Seattle, policeclocked his blue BMW Siday doing one hundred

(30:12):
miles an hour to fifty five milean hour zone, refused to stop,
and was finally arrested by police tenmiles away from where the bright Vikings hold
their training camp. Was charge offleeing police, two DWI and three other
misdemeanors. Field test measured his bloodalcohol at point one point one. You

(30:44):
just have to make sure that you'renot getting a guy who's going to present
those kinds of problems. Sweat wasa guy who was already projected as a
Day two draft pick, and thatmay be something that pushes him down draft
boards, and rightfully so, ifyou're a general manager, your job is

(31:06):
on the line here. You takinga guy who was known to have partying
issues early in his collegiate career,looked like he finally put it together in
his final season. Got one joband that's to get prepared for the NFL
Draft. And he's out there drinkingduring the day on a Sunday. Bro

(31:30):
you're drunk driving at two in theafternoon on a Sunday. I think I'd
have some questions. And Sweat wassomebody I wanted here in Denver. Felt
like Vance and Sean Payden could have, you know, kept him in line.

(31:56):
I feel like having that big bodyhere at the knows as a space
heater would have been huge for thisdefense. Probably not to be now,
although to be fair, the Broncosdo have most of their picks outside of

(32:16):
the top one fifty and I guesshe could follow that way. Now.
I just don't understand. I don'tunderstand having everything in front of you and
knowing like all I have to dois make it to this day and get
drafted. Teams will have questions,Teams will have a lot of questions for

(32:44):
him, and he still has somevisits lined up. I don't I don't
know how that's gonna go. Itwas a quick note today, but the
Chargers being interested in Marquez Valdez.Scantling started his career four seasons in Green

(33:06):
Bay, past two in case Cwin his Super Bowls, Chiefs didn't want
to pay twelve million to keep himthis year. With the Chargers cutting Mike
Williams and trading away Keenan Allen ValdezScantling, it is one of the few
available options with some name recognition.The Jets seem to have abandoned the Aaron

(33:29):
Rodgers friends and former teammates plan maynot have many other options. The Charger's
gonna be scary, man. Thisis not gonna be a pushover football team
at the Broncos, who just whizzedpassed the last couple of years. The
Broncos cut wins over the Chargers withDrew Locke run on the show. Jim

(33:51):
Marvel is going to have that teamready to play and you know, getting
some speed in there, which theydo need. It's been a problem for
that team for the last few years. I think could be beneficial. They're
gonna be a ground and pound teamwith Gus Edwards leading the way. But
you've got Herbert there and he canthrow. Now that scantling would give him

(34:15):
somebody to build off of play action, get him the deep ball. Be
interesting to see what that number comesin at. He was Nebroncos Country tonight
right here on Kawa Say fifty amninety four ONEFM News Talk Sports,