06-21-24 Hour 1 of Broncos Country Tonight with the OG Ryan Edwards

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Welcome to it, Broncos Country TonightShort show edition post Rockies. Appreciate you

(00:04):
guys, joining us here on aFriday, joined here by the Og,
Triple Og, the Godfather himself,right edwards. What's going on, buddy,
so Ben? How are you?I'm doing all right, man,
I'm doing good. I'm doing well. It is a it is a Friday.
Where are the Doldrums? As itwere? The Mount Rushmore? The
magazine Radio time? So I wantedto get your mount knobs kidding, would
never go to I would never dothat too. I would walk off the

(00:26):
show. It's very little in radio, you know. I like to consider
myself a professional. I know that'snot something you care about at all,
but I hope people pick up onthat. But the thing about it is
that might be the one example.You come on here, give me your
Mount Rushmore, need the top tenover the door, the door slam as

(00:47):
you walk out. Yeah on yourwho's on your Mount Rushmore of Mount Rushmore?
Yeah, exactly, exactly. Well, the fact that you left Steve
Attwater off yours, even though lastnight when I was listening, or yeah,
last night when you're sitting there gushingabout how much you love Steve and
your love of football, you lefthim off your Mount Rushmore. I'm screaming
in the car, like somebody's gotto say something here, right, No,
no, no, I would justlet you get a get away with

(01:10):
your gushing over how great Steve Atwateris this great? He just wouldn't be
on my Mount Rushmore Broncos player.Oh love Steve that he'd be on my
personal Mount Rushmore of football moments.But if I had to pick the four
best Broncos players of all time,I don't think I would put it.
That's the Chiefs fan in you,no, no question about it. Well
you know, I mean it's anoted commander's fan. Yeah. That's the
thing is like you you know again, you grew up a Chiefs fan.

(01:33):
You talked about the Quay hit andyou're saying it was on the other side
of that. I know. That'swhat I'm saying, Like they didn't crystallize
my love of football, like thatwas the thing. I was like ten
years old, I think, andI was like, dude, this sport
is awesome, but you're holding againsthim by keeping him out of the Mount
Rushmore. So yes, it it'sthe great Basically belongs on the Mount Rushmore
of football plays. I can compartmentalizethe play. I can separate the play

(01:55):
from the person. It was oneof the greatest moments in Bronco's history,
and he is one of the greatestBroncos, unquestionably the top, one of
the greatest people. It belongs tothe Mount Rushmore. The Mount Rushmore people
might be four heads of Steve,you know, just for Steve Atwaters,
I am the best person. Actually, Yeah, different faces. Yeah,
I can find that we are.We are in the summertime. And it

(02:15):
is interesting and it is sort offunny that some of these reports and I'm
doing air quotes here in the studio, uh, that you see coming out.
I don't know if you've seen anyof this, but social media,
I've I've seen some of this stuffwhere apparently Javonte Williams is washed. He's
just he's just washed. That's that'sthe thing. Reaction to that. Yeah,

(02:36):
Like, there's there's stuff coming in. And you know, I thought
Julil macgough looked good in in inO t As. I thought he looked
good in Mandatory mini camp all thatstuff. But we're we're talking about guys
out there practicing without pads on speedysmaller guys are gonna look better. Ronnie
Hillman used to destroy in O tas in mini camps. Why are we
getting is it? Is it justboredom? Is it more fake? He
pats er Tan's getting traded stuff?Uh? Or is this is there something

(03:00):
here that I'm just missing? Well, we do exist in a time when
you have to have a take.You have to yea a different world than
we do, and you gotta getattention right to a certain extent. I'll
say, based on what I've watchedout there, Yeah, Jelia McLoughlin has
looked the best of all the runningbacks out there. I've also liked to
have seen for Blake Watson, Andas you pointed out, guess what they
have in common. They're both speedybacks that don't have to be tackled and

(03:22):
don't really have to do very muchin pass per. Right now, you
don't have to bring anybody down,you know, you don't have to do
any of that. So so understand, you're absolutely right. The speedy backs,
the guys that don't have to domuch in pass pro, they're gonna
look the best right now. Andeverybody else that and Jamonti is not a
plotter by any stretch. But Idon't need to see him turning on the
Jets and go in toe to toewith these other speedy backs because that's just

(03:44):
not his game. What his gameis is breaking tackles. What his game
is a lot more in line withSamajah p Ryan than it is with either
Jelia McLoughlin or Blake Watson, SoI I think you have the right mindset
about it. I certainly tweeted outthat I thought Julia McLoughlin looked the best
of their running backs, but Iadded the caveat that we haven't put pads
on, so it's an acknowledgment.And of course all the fantasy football people

(04:06):
immediately jumped onto that, saying,Jelia McLoughlin's the guy to have in the
Broncos backfield. Let's fill off fantasyfootball people. I don't really know,
like at this point as a fantasyfootball person myself, I probably draft Javonte
because I think he's gonna get thefirst touches out of the backfield, But
then after that it's really anyone's guess. There's gonna be some games, in

(04:26):
my opinion, before we actually watchtraining camp that maybe Javante is gonna be
the best guy. Maybe there's gonnabe some games where Jaliel is the best
guy. I do think we're gonnasee a little bit of mix and match.
Sometimes the goal line work, likejust like last year went to McLoughlin,
sometimes they went to Jamonte. Inthe end, they only had like
what a handful of rushing touchdowns.They were one of the worst teams in
the NFL and rushing touchdowns, SoI want to see that number go up.

(04:50):
Either way, there's an opportunity fora lot of these running backs,
including Orodric Estimate, to eat inthis offense. We'll just we'll have to
sort of see a play out.Well, and that's the thing. If
you go back and you look ata Sean Payton offense, there usually is
some kind of three to four headedyou know, jabberwockie of running backs as
it were. You know, whetherit's a Latavious Murray or Pierre Thomas,
mark Ingram, the the you know, Reggie Bush, Daric Spilt etcetera,

(05:12):
etcetera. There's it's it's like aSwiss army knife kind of room. You
know, you've got different different backsfor different things. And I do think
that there's an odd man out here, and whether that's Javante or as I
tend to think more some a JPRyan, there's somebody has to be the
odd man out. You do haveone too many bodies at minimum when you
when you add up Javante, Audricestimate some maj P Ryan, Julia McLoughlin,

(05:35):
Blake Watson, that's five running backsplus you're probably keeping a full back.
That's too many bodies. I don'tthink we're getting too far down the
road anyways, and that because it'sa position that gets it banged out very
easily, right. I mean,I think that you is already injured,
you know, exactly so exactly,and then you have two rookies in the
mix there, which usually it takesa little bit of time for that too.
So I hear you just by themath, you'd say there has to

(05:57):
be an odd man out. ButI don't think we have to get too
far ahead, because sometimes guys getbanged up in training camp, right,
you have preseason games, Guys getbanged up there. It's just a position
then naturally has injury. I'd ratherhave a loaded room right now, or
we get to say, hey,oh, I can't wait to see how
this guy functions in the offense moreso than I better get ahead of this
so I can be the guy thatsaid all along that Gavante was not going

(06:18):
to make this roster, Orsmaji wasnot going to make this roster, or
Odrick estimate was going to be thebell cow back, which I do think
inevitably will be the case of maybemore like a next year conversation. But
again, you said it perfect likethere when you had darren Sproles, when
you had Alvin Kamara, yet youhad guys with Rolls. Mark Ingram had
a role. Now, yeah hecaught a few passes on the backfield,
but that wasn't what you had himin there for the most part, right,

(06:40):
So so understanding that's what I wantto see the running back room eventually
turn into. The only real bellcow back that they had was Alvin Kamara.
Yeah like that that was the onlyin this because he could just do
it all, but typically it wasit was spread out and a bunch of
different roles. He had Latavius forshort, Buria of oarage and you know
a battering er, your Pierre Thomasyou know, guys like this, so

(07:00):
you know that interesting. The otherpart of this is, maybe I'm thinking
about this wrong. Maybe with thenew kickoff rules, maybe the running back
room keeps an extra body because you'remaybe trying to put backs back there on
kickoff and that kind of thing.And maybe that saves a samaj p Ryan
if he were to, you know, maybe take on that role. See
that that's the smart answer there.And honestly, we can't give away too

(07:23):
much, but what we saw inthe final day of mandatory mini camp,
I would suggest that's a high possibilitythat running backs are going to be in
the mix on the kickoff because wesaw it. It feels like anyway,
you know, everybody's got their owntake or twist or spin off. We've
all seen the Justie, so,you know, great to have a Justin
Fields here. I mean, it'dbe great to have a running back.
I know, the running back.So I teach you up for that.

(07:44):
I hope you appreciate it. Noteven your birthday. I gave you that
one. It's like close to mymid birthday. I mean we're almost halfway
through the it's it's almost you know. Yeah. So but anyways, I
I I one hundred percent with youon that. We've talked since that rule
was changed all off season about howthat will change the roster economics, right,
and how it's going to impact someof the position groups, and maybe

(08:05):
you keep an extra guy here orthere because they fit better with that the
Broncos path to a successful season,there's many different ways we can sort of
chop this up. Obviously, itstarts at the quarterback. There's no question
about that. You're going to haveto be better on defense, especially against
the run. But you know,one way that you can maybe shortcut a
few things is if you are agood kickoff return team, if you can
flip field, if you can putyourself in short, shorter field opportunities,

(08:28):
and hey, maybe you only needa first down or two to get into
a scoring range. Well, guesswhat that is going to change a lot
for some of these teams that arein the back end of what people expect
this season. At least that's howI view it. Yeah, and I'm
with you on that. The othersort of weird narrative I think that's out
there is the same people who areall saying that Bonix is the guy,

(08:48):
Bonex is the guy have read.Most of them have now sort of backtracked
and they're like, well, actually, you know, Jared Stidham is leading
right now. You know what happensif Bonix doesn't take the job. They're
and you know, full on pearlclab mode. And and I like to
me, I don't. I don't. I'm not bothered by that. I
get I get on social media andand out when I'm out like different fans,

(09:09):
like you know, if b Enixisn't starting week one, then that's
a failure. And I'm not ofthe same mindset regarding that. I think
Jared Stidham has a year of thisoffense. He's got a year with these
receivers. It looks smooth right now. And and Sean Payton wants to win
football games and he's not gonna trotbo Nicks out there just to trot him
out there. Now. Do Ihope b Nix wins. I think everybody
does, except for maybe Zach Wilson, like you know, like I'm hoping,

(09:33):
I you know, and maybe heZach does, because that gets some
more time to scam on moms thanthe you know, up in the stands.
But I think that that in theend, Like, I don't think
it's catastrophic. If Bonick doesn't winthe job, If Bonix looks bad in
camp, that's catastrophic. If Bonixdoesn't just take the job from Jared Stin,
that doesn't mean anything. We sawthat Stidham was, you know,
serviceable or capable in those last twogames. I don't think Stidham's gonna go

(09:54):
out there and uh like the worldon fire statistically, but we saw that
he He's certainly capable of running thisoffense. What what needs to have?
What is catastrophe in this scenario foryou? Why are you always with the
negative? Man? I'm asking whatthat is? So I Well, first
of all, I just don't thinkBonix's I mean, trading for Justin Fields
is catastrophe. But beyond that,I just don't think Bonix is capable of

(10:16):
catastrophe. Like the thing you justpainted, I don't see that as a
thing that he is He's gonna be. Now. The reason why I,
along with several other people in thedraft community, didn't see him necessarily as
a starting quarterback wasn't because I don'tthink he can play. I think he
can play. What I was moreconcerned about is his relative ceiling, and
again we can debate that all wewant. I always liked his floor.

(10:39):
I've always liked bon Nix's floor.Sixty one Games gives you a pretty impressive
floor. So he's going to comeinto this thing, and he's already shown
that, he's already shown a lotof poise out there. He's going to
come into this thing and I justcan't picture catastrophe unless he gets really in
his head. It starts throwing abunch of interceptions and it just isn't feeling
right. And he looks like again, drinking through a fire hose, and

(11:01):
it's detrimental, like he's on thehigh dive and there's nobody rescuing him.
But again, that's why Sean Paytonis here. Sean Payton is supposed to
help him through that process and gethim to the other side. But you
don't want a situation like Zach Wilson, Right, you have a cautionary tale
in your own house where a guywas put out there. He didn't look
ready. You didn't have another choice, though you had to play him because
of the second overall pick. Youdidn't have a lot of other options.

(11:24):
You kept forcing him out there andthen, oh, when you brought in
Aaron Rodgers, Aaron Rodgers got hurtand you had to force him back out
there when he thought he was goingto get a year off to sort of
recalibrate everything. So we have thoseexamples right in front of us. I
don't see a scenario where we hitcatastrophe, but if you're asking me what
it looks like, it kind oflooks like that. It looks like he's
seeing ghosts. To borrow a phrasefrom Sam Darnold Broncos bringing David Shaw,

(11:48):
I worked on the same staff withSean Payton back at the Eagles in ninety
seven. Obviously he's been a headcoach Stanford. I think everybody knows that.
But bring him in for the personnelside of our senior personnel executive.
What a nebulous and vague title.Does this spell the end for George Peyton?
Does this you know? Is thisjust taking something else off his plate?
Is it just putting another mind inthe in the room. My first

(12:11):
reaction was another mind in the room. The connection to Stanford right with the
ownership, the connection to Sean becausethe coach together, he's a guy that's
thought very highly of around the leagueand the way that the Broncos are heading
into this kind of new era ofwhat they are, this new iteration.
They're they're keeping the draft picks right, They're going to focus on building up,

(12:31):
as you say, the war chest. That's the mindset, and I
think that it's good to have someperspectives on that. George Payton is a
collaborative guy. We already know that. Now. It was too his detriment
with the Nathaniel Hackett hire, butin many other ways it has proved beneficial
for him over the course of hiscareer. So the way I look at
this is whether the hire was doneby George, was the hire is done
by ownership or even Sean Payton.I don't think it spells anything immediate,

(12:56):
but it's noteworthy and certainly when you'rebringing in more people that are doing GM
type jobs, you have to kindof pay attention to it. What does
Sean Payton have to do this yearfor the Broncos to re up in terms
of, hey, we're still onehundred percent committed to this vision. Oh,
that's such a good question. Whoyou know? I'd say you want

(13:18):
to start with the quarterback because youmade such a big deal about moving on
from Russell Wilson. Okay, Sean, you want us to move on from
Russ. And by the way,this is twofold because if Russ goes out
to Pittsburgh and looks really good ballsout, that's gonna be a problem too.
But I'd say, from just hereinternally, okay, we're back in
you, We're back in the play. Sean. You said we'll drop eighty

(13:39):
five million in dead cap and allthis money because you said you can't work
with this guy, and then youwent out and hand picked this quarterback who
you keep telling everybody, and Imean everybody, anyone who will listen.
It was weird. And I literallyI was driving in this morning I saw
I saw Sean Payton out there onthe street yelling at a homeless guy as
he was throwing coins at him.It was no I'm kidding, but I
mean seriously, like that's what I'veIt feels like it feels like with Sean,

(14:01):
he can't help himself. He hasto tell everybody that this was his
guy. This was his guy allalong, and we're all idiots if we
didn't see it the same way.So okay, starting there, what does
Bonix look like, he doesn't haveto be an all Pro in his first
season by any stretch, but hehas to look like he belongs. And
he does have to look like hebelongs. And that's sort of a tough

(14:22):
like bar to clear sometimes for rookiequarterbacks, because there are moments, and
we can think of many right nowwhere rookie quarterbacks don't look like they belong
in your one and that's not abad thing, but it could be a
bad thing for Sean. Is therea benchmark for that or is it just
the eye test? It's a eyetest. I mean people will everybody has
a different thing Too'll point too,Oh, look at the stats. I
mean you point with the stats withRussell Wilson all the time. Right,

(14:43):
Well, then I like, yeah, there's three quarters of football here that
look terrible. Yeah. Yeah.I got a blenty of people, including
myself, who look at the eyetest and go got lee. There were
a lot of three and outs,they really struggled to get a first first
down, those kinds of things.But the point of it, ultimately is
I think it's a little bit ofboth, but probably starting with the eye
test, he's got to look confidentout there and that's not just for the

(15:05):
fans, that's not just for media. That is for the locker room too,
that's for the ownership as well.They've got to say, all right,
we're heading in the right direction.Whatever the record ultimately ends up.
If the Broncos lose to the Steelersin Week two, how bad is that?
It's really bad? It's but it'sworse than last year of the Jets,
like, which is funny to mebecause that Jets thing should have been
horrendous and it just wasn't. Likeit should have been a horrible loss,

(15:28):
and for whatever reason it wasn't.It wasn't and and it should have been,
right, I mean, you haveyou have Robert Salah telling him at
midfield on his own field, behumble or humble yourself. Yeah, right,
And then you have the locker roomgiving a game balld to Athaniel Hackett
for Croyle one of the worst offensesin the entire NFL all last year.
And it wasn't like it was Rogers, it was Zach Wilson. But in

(15:50):
that is that at the moment thatsold Sean payton us Oh my god,
maybe who knows. But but butthe point of it is is, yeah,
I mean that that would be it'sit would be the worst. It'd
be the worst loss for sure,and it would be all on Shane.
And that's the thing is all thestuff coming back about the spark and allbout
all this stuff, and I didn'tknow that they were going to him to
redo his contract. All that stuffcomes back into the forefront and guess what,

(16:14):
it's week two. You had along season in front of you.
That could be a problem. Yeah, that's that just seems like something that's
that has to be circled. Thatthat's got to be that's got to be
one of the ones that you're you'redoing some extra prep for I and I
was struggling to think of anything thatwas a more devastating loss or would be
a more devastating loss, and Idon't think I could think of one over
the last I don't know, tenyears or so. So, uh,
you guys listening to Broncos Country andI appreciate right itw'ds joining us here.

(16:38):
You can always get us at BroncosCountrynight dot com slash podcast if you miss
anything. And we got to paysome bills, so we'll be back.
Welcome back to it. Broncos CountryTonight. Benjamin Olbright here with you.
Short show tonight obviously post Rockies editionuh five six six nine zeros text line.
You guys want to get involved inthe conversation, I want to hear

(17:00):
if you guys had a good timeto the Stone's concert last night. Special
thanks to Ryan Edwards for joining mea little earlier doing a little pre record
action in the We had that inthe last segment, so I appreciate you
guys joining that. Obviously. Iappreciate Ryan joining us. If you guys
ever miss anything on Broncos Country,and I'd like, for instance, Steve
Atwater or Ryan Michael at Parker Gabrielwho joined me last night, you go

(17:22):
to Broncos Country Tonight, dot com, slash podcast, or you know wherever
you get your podcast, whether that'sApple, iTunes, Spotify, that's totally
free and awesome, my Heart Radioapp. Wherever wherever you get your podcast,
you can you can definitely get us. We always appreciate you guys subscribing,
liking, you know, putting allthe five stars on it, all
that kind of stuff. It alwayshelps us. So we appreciate you guys
doing that and appreciate you guys listeninga couple of couple of news items to

(17:48):
get to uh here. Michael PennocksJunior has signed his rookie deal. The
Falcons have agreed with rookie quarterback MichaelPennox Junior. The Penix was the eighth
overall pick, getting a four year, twenty two point eight eight million dollar
deal that is a fifth year option. Signing bonus is at thirteen point four
to six million. Obviously, thisis a slotted contract, so not much

(18:10):
negotiation there. With his signing,the Falcons now have their entire draft class
under contract. Falcons selection at Pennoxwas probably the biggest surprise of the twenty
twenty four draft, as it cameonly six weeks after the team signed Kirk
Cousins in free agency. The Falconso Cousins one hundred million dollars over the
next two years, so Pennix isexpected to sit behind Cousins for probably both

(18:33):
those years, barring injury. Pennex, who is twenty four, hasn't gone
into the season as a backup sincetwoenty eighteen. He won the Maxwell Award,
annually given to the nation's most outstandingplayer, and finished second in the
Heisman voting in twenty twenty three.In his six seasons of college football for
Indiana two at the University of Washington, made forty five starts, completed sixty

(18:56):
three point three percent of his passesfor thirteen thousand, seven hundred and forty
one yards, ninety six touchdowns,thirty four interceptions. The Falcons started three
different quarterbacks the past two seasons asthey attempted to replace Matt Ryan. They
have not only replaced him, buthave a succession plan for Kirk Cousins,
who tunes thirty six in August.It'll be interesting to see how that whole

(19:17):
thing plays that. That really wasa stutter to a lot of people out
there, and it was very shockingon draft day when Michael Pennix was taking
eighth overall. I remember we wereall sitting around here pretty pretty floored by
that one. So we'll see,you know, we'll see in the end
how that shakes out. Pennicks veryvery old for a rookie at twenty four
years old, isn't even going tostart till probably two more years down the

(19:37):
line. So it'll be interesting againto see, you know, kind of
how that how that works. TheSunday ticket class action was dismissed after it
was filed, refiled might be dismissedagain. Joe Reedy of the Associated Press
said Tuesday's proceedings included an open cordexchange without the jury present, between the

(20:02):
judge and the lawyers. Regarding themanner in which the case has been tried,
Judge Philip Gutierrez, who isn't afan of the way the plaintiff's lawyers
are going about their business, said, quote the way you've tried this case
is far from simple good. Hehas told a lawyer representing the plaintiffs,
this case has turned into twenty fivehours of depositions and quote gobbledegook. This

(20:23):
case has gone in a direction itshouldn't have. The exchange happened Tuesday morning
before Cowboys owner and general manager JerryJones resumed his testimony. I'm struggling with
the plaintiff's case. Judge Gudiera saidhe wasn't struggling with it earlier this year.
In January, he denied the NFL'smotion for summary judgment, which means

(20:45):
he decided that there were genuine issuesof material fact that needed to be resolved
by a jury, preventing the casefrom being determined without a trial, Boudierrez
is now threatened to grant judgment asa matter of law for the NFL.
This would mean, in the judge'sopinion, the plaintiffs had failed to introduce
enough evidence to support a jury verdictin their favor. Gudierres, who was

(21:07):
appointed by President George W. Bushin two thousand and seven, earned the
assignment by having a reputation for promotingconservative causes, which includes having a natural
pro business lean. It's no surprisethat he's not feeling warm and fuzzy.
But the plaintiff's case thus far thatsaid judges rarely scraped the efforts of a
jury this deep into a trial.Judge Gudier's might simply have been trying to

(21:30):
get the lawyers representing the plaintiffs tomove things a law more quickly than they
have. Also, if the juryfinds in favor of the NFL, the
judge won't need a intercede the plaintiffswin, the judge could still grant judgment
as a matter of law in favorof the NFL after the trial concludes,
and we'll find out soon enough whetherthat's actually going to happen. Although I

(21:52):
would suggest at this point that itappears headed towards a jury trial. Excuse
me, a jury verdict. Nextweek, the Jacksonville City Council will vote
on a deal to renovate the Jaguarsstadium. If and when the arrangement is
approved, it will open the doorfor the Jaguars to play up to three

(22:15):
of their twenty twenty seven home gamesin their home away from home in London.
Via David bauer Line of the FloridaTimes Union, the agreement the Jaguars
struck with Mayor Donna Deagan contemplates upto a third of the nine game home
schedule being played in London while therenovations are occurring. He also gives the

(22:36):
Jaguars the option to play up tothree total home games in London over twenty
five and twenty twenty six. Intwenty twenty seven, the Jaguars are almost
certain, per team president Mark Lamping, to play their domestic home games in
either Gainesville or Orlando, or bothplaces Jaguars have been playing recent years and
away game in London. They could, in theory, go to London and
play four straight games there, along time to be away from the home

(22:59):
base, but certainly presents an optionas the uh the stadium would be renovated.
I have I enjoyed going out thereto London for the Broncos game against
the Jaguars. Out there, II know, four games out there seems
like a lengthy amount of time.I mean that really that's that's a month,
you know, out there in London. That does seem like a bit

(23:22):
of a lengthy time. It.Being out there for a week was certainly
fun. Being out there for amonth might might be a little bit different,
and it might be there's some taximplications I think there as well,
because when you know, when youplay over there, you got to pay
the taxes they go along with that, and and that for me, that
sort of seems to be something thatI think players would certainly find prohibitive,
especially when you used to State ofFlorida taxes where you don't have to pay

(23:47):
a dime in state taxes. Soit's you know, it's kind of interesting,
uh, you know, to seehow that will play out. Jacksonville,
Uh, it's their stadium deals sortof interesting too. Same thing with
Kansas City, where neither of thefan bases currently really seem like they're that
set on paying for a new stadiumfor their for their football team. UH.

(24:07):
In Kansas City's case, the Chiefsmay move to the Kansas side of
the house if they can get adeal from that. Currently they're on the
Missouri side, Kansasity, Missouri,and they may abandon a narrowhead go to
the Kansas side of the border ifthey, you know, if they get
a deal over there. So that'skind of something to keep your eye on
some of these stadium things as publicsentiment is shifted away from paying for stadiums

(24:33):
for these billionaires and and trying tomake them pay for their own u pay
for their own stadiums. Oliver Reu, the world's tallest teenager, is probably
set to become the tallest college basketballplayer ever. Grown three inches since November,

(24:55):
Olivier Rayu is so tall that he'ssetting records simply by continuing his education.
The eighteen year old Montreal native recentlygraduated from high school and has committed
to the University of Florida. Schoollists his height as a mind blowing seven
foot nine, which would make himthe tallest college basketball player in history.

(25:15):
Reu measuring seven to nine is theresult of a bit of a gross spurt.
When ballislife dot Com filmed him backin November of twenty twenty three,
he was listed at seven foot sixthree inch gain over seven months. It's
pretty massive, but especially for aguy who's already in the Guinness Book of
World Records just two years ago forbeing the world's tallest teenager. Of course,

(25:38):
he was then sixteen and already sevenfoot five. He told the Guinness
Book of World Records website that hisheight is likely the result of having two
very tall, although not record breakingparents, saying quote, We're still not
one hundred percent sure why I'm sotall after investigation. Doctors can only explain
it with the genetics my family has. My father is six' eight and

(25:59):
my mom is six two. Myolder brother is six nine. So or
a pretty tall family, you said, According to Guinness, unsurprising, le
Rio has been uh it has beentall pretty much since he's been able to
stand upright. And Courdy's Florida profile, he was six one at eight years
old, six foot one at eightyears old, was six eleven by the
time he got to uh this sixthgrade, roughly four years later, he'd

(26:23):
shot past the seventh foot mark.By the start of the seventh grade.
Uh, if you're having a hardtime imagining what someone that tall looks like
next to someone of average height.Uh. Chuck Swarski at CTS Bulls put
a picture out of him of himselfstanding standing next to Olivier, and my

(26:45):
good, he looks like he lookslike Peter Dinklic standing next to him,
and Swarski is, uh, youknow, every bit of uh of six
feet. So it's uh, it'sfascinating to sort of uh uh to sort
of see that uh picture with aregular sized person or what ever standing next
to him, and he just hejust dwarfs them. There's a there's a
great photo out there of Wilt Chamberlainand under the giant and Earl Schwarzenegger,

(27:07):
and he can google that photo.Ever you think of Arnold in the way
you think of him, and thenyou look at him in this photo and
it seems comically he seems comically smallin that photo. So kind of interesting.
Oliver, you is a twelve yearold, was already towering over people,
you know, at eighteen years old. Now at seven foot nine is

(27:29):
just absurdly tall. According to gatorsWire, he's considered a developmental project so
not much as expect him as afreshman. But then again, no one
expected as seven foot five sixteen yearold to grow four inches and two years
I guess, so anything seems possiblewith that. Connor McGregor has pulled out
of UFC three oh three fight withMichael Chandler. Said on social media that

(27:52):
he broke his left pinky toe intraining, but that toe just needs a
few weeks to heal. Yes,he scar. Connor McGregor is finally revealed
the injury that caused him to pullout of the UFC three or three main
event last week. In a lengthyInstagram post last Friday, the former featherweight
lightweight champion explained that a reckless practicesession let him break his left pinky toe,
which kept him out of the highlyanticipated fight, a welterweight non title

(28:18):
bout against popular lightweight Michael Chandler.Said quote, we had a lapse in
concentration, engaged in a taining trainingsession without wearing full protective gear. I
hit the toe off the elbow,broke the toe clean. McGregor added that
the break just needs a few weeksto heal before he could return. Fans
deserve it. We're getting close andI will get this back. MacGregor also
noted that he has two fights leftin his contract and plans to see them

(28:38):
out. I'll be back, seeyou as soon. See at the top
Chandler or not, McGregor added hispost. McGregor's main fight was supposed to
be against Chandler, who had beenpatiently waiting for his chance to fight McGregor
and what would likely be the mostlucrative fight of his career. Instead,
McGregor seems open to the fact thatthe McGregor Chandler matchup may never fully materialize.

(28:59):
McGregor also posted photos of the injuryon Twitter, seemingly in response to
retired MMA fighter Chad Sonan, whoposted a video questioning McGregor's injury on YouTube.
In the post, McGregor included photosof his blackened and bruised toe,
as well as an X ray ofthe break, while inviting Sonan to quote
shut his pie hole, as wellas saying you tap from ground and pound.

(29:23):
McGregor addressed his withdrawal this past weekend, stating again he was injured but
giving no additional details. In apost on social media, he said that
the choice to postpone was not madelightly but in conjunction with Doctors and his
team. Jadler responded with some genuinewell wishes, saying there were no hard
feelings about the postponing. The matchwas scheduled to be the main event for

(29:45):
UFC three or three on June twentyninth, while that would be next Saturday.
While announcing that MacGregor was out ofthe event, UFC President Dana White
announced the main event will now bethe light heavyweight title rematch between champion Alex
Pierira and former champ Prush chucka proChuka. I always butcher that pronuncigation,
but that's uh, you know kindof McGregor is is still a draw.

(30:08):
And there were some people that werequestioning that somebody, even on on social
media try to create a rumor thathe was in rehab, and I think
that's a large portion of what theTwitter responses uh from him are are about.
I don't I'm not the biggest likeMcGregor fan, but I understand he's

(30:32):
a big draw. People like him. You know, he's sort of you
know, flamboyant and whatever, andyou know it as far as seeing him
fight, and certainly rather see himfight at this point than I would,
you know, a geriatric Mike Tyson. So we'll kind of see how that
shakes out. The big news Iwanted to talk about a little bit was
what the Chicago Bulls are sort ofdoing. They got a roster shake up

(30:52):
underway, and it'd be interesting tosee where Zach Lavine goes. Wednesday brought
a four year max contract to PascalSayacam and Indiana. Thursday brought Chicago into
Oklahoma City, swapping Alex Caruso forJosh Giddy. So I guess the NBA
season is officially underway and there's plentyof trade activities still to come. The
Bulls had been communicating with rival teamsabout a desire to reshape their roster,

(31:17):
and the front office and arturists Karnisovasindeed struck a deal that brings the first
player back to Chicago via trade inthree years. Word of the Bulls interest
in Giddy had filtered to opposing frontoffices throughout the week, although many executives
from opposing teams believed that there wasa potential construct for a Patrick Williams sign

(31:37):
in trade. The fourth year forwardis set to reach restricted free agency on
June thirtieth, with OKC Toronto andCharlotte already being mentioned by league personnel's possible
landing spots for Williams outside of Chicago. The deal that was done resulted in
a direct flip of Josh Giddy forCaruso, a thirty year old three and
D guard who's on an aspiring ninepoint nine million dollar contract and will become

(32:01):
eligible for a four year, roughlyeighty million dollar extension six months after the
completion of this trade. Oklahoma Cityhas made its first kind of win now
move that rival teams have been anticipatingfor some time, swapping one of the
Thunder's prize lottery picks for a veteranwho fits perfectly within okc's five out scheme.

(32:22):
Many league observers quickly compare this acquisitionto that of Boston landing Derek White,
who was a key building block towardthe Celtics Championship. Bulls are making
a pretty big investment in Gidey,not just for the payday their new twenty
one year old playmaker will likely commandafter his rookie deal, which expires following
the twenty four to twenty five season, but in regard to the Caruso offer

(32:45):
Chicago dismissed during previous transaction cycles.The Bulls engaged several teams over the last
eighteen months that were willing to sacrificefirst round draft capital for Caruso, while
Chicago characteristically pushed for unprotected picks andas many as four firsts. In some
of those convers stations, the Bullsalso refused to include Caruso and deals that
would have offloaded Zach Levine. TheBulls apparently are very high on Giddy,

(33:08):
who's been durable compared to Caruso's owninjury history, not to mention a Lonzo
Balls years long absence from the court. There's certainly an argument to be made
that a three year veteran who startedfor the top seed in the Western Conference
still Harbor's on tap potential. Butyou know, we won't be known for
several seasons. Chicago continues to projecta willingness to shuffle its deck. Could

(33:30):
see, you know, could seeZach Lavine get dealt. That would be
something if I were to the Nuggets, I would at least have an eye
on if that was something that theycould could pull off. Josh Giddy got
in trouble off the court, whenit was alleged to a seventeen year old
girl alleged to having sexual relations withhim and with him fully aware of her

(33:51):
age at the time. Mostly gotswept under the rug, but it certainly
existed in the ether on social media, and it remains to be seen if
that's going to be something that inthe end it becomes a problem for Chicago.
Five six sixty nine Zero's the textline, appreciate you guys joining us
this evening. It's Nebracos Country tonight. I'm Benjamin all Bright and you are

(34:15):
here on KOA it say fifty amninety four to one FM News Talk Sports,