The Wuss-ification of American Sports and Society

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
I have something for you. Are you ah, you're a
sports guy? High school football. We talked about football yesterday
a lot as it was, And again I don't wanna,
I don't want to get to be touchy about this

(00:20):
because we spent a lot of time talking about Miller
South and how weird the situation is in Lincoln High
forfeiting a game against them, And if you want to
find that conversation you can find it on the Emorysunger
podcast page on kfab dot com. Spent a lot of
time on it, got a lot of good calls on it.
Here's a here's a different conversation about it. You get

(00:43):
yelled at, you're you're a younger guy.

Speaker 2 (00:45):
Of course, I mean, like how bad what you're referring to,
but how bad in sport?

Speaker 3 (00:50):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (00:51):
Yeah, like you're on the field, like you're a soccer guy,
you know football. I think it would most of us
would consider to be like the manliest, toughest kind of
game where you would be most likely to see people
getting yelled at, right, like getting getting kind of berated

(01:12):
for lack of execution.

Speaker 3 (01:17):
Kind of thing.

Speaker 4 (01:18):
Yeah, I've had, I mean quite a few times.

Speaker 2 (01:21):
The bulging neck veins almost like foaming at the mouth
sort of anger, so much anger and yelling that they
can't even form a sentence because of how emotional they
are about it.

Speaker 1 (01:35):
Yeah, so here's here, here's an example, and I we're
gonna get to why I America is soft. America is soft,
and we're getting softer and softer by the day. And
I have a ridiculous example of this, and it relates
to sports. And I'm gonna use sports as this opportunity

(01:57):
to talk about this.

Speaker 5 (02:01):
Now.

Speaker 1 (02:02):
I was eleven when I started playing tackle football. When
you're playing like flag football at a young age, at
least when I was growing up, it wasn't all that serious.
It wasn't serious at all. If we were gonna make
it super duper serious and you wanted to do like
travel flag football, or you are in one of those
communities where you can play like seven year old Pop
Warner tackle football, which again I have to reiterate, I

(02:26):
am just not I'm not a big fan of the
idea of that. I don't want anybody to be sitting
here telling me like, well, my kid started playing football
at tackle football when he was, you know, three years old,

(02:47):
and you know what he did. He went on and
he played for the Skurts, And you know, I don't
like the easy guy. It wasn't that crazy when I
was growing up. So when I was eleven years old,
I played for a team in the Autumwo Youth Football
League and I wanted to be a safety, and they

(03:08):
didn't let me. It's like, no, son, you got to
learn how to play an offensive position and then we'll
move you around. You know, these teams have sixteen guys
on them. We don't have like you're going to be
likely going both ways. So I learned how to play
wide receiver or running back and then I but I
didn't really want to do that. I want to play defense.

(03:31):
I had to play split in. We played like a
version of the single wing. For non football fans, it's
like elementary nineteen forties style offense, right, Like it's you
can't trust kids to throw the football at that age.
You can't trust kids to have like obvious blocking schemes.
The entire thing is when I'm playing like this split in,

(03:53):
I'm literally just kind of like either on the line
or I'm just off the line or like along the
offensive line. And we have like seven plays that we run,
you know, we run through. We have codes for each gap,
and I will always get really upset when we would
run my direction like I can't. I was a tiny kid,
but man if I missed a block, even I knew

(04:15):
I was gonna hear it. Our coach was a firefighter.
He was a firefighter in my hometown. His son was
the quarterback. He loved football, and he worked us and
we actually one of the assistants actually tried to design
a couple of other plays to, you know, help us out.
I think they were get coaches when our team was
pretty good. But I had to play split end and

(04:38):
play basically week side tight end as a tiny little guy,
I was never gonna get the ball and block. And
then I got to play a little defense every once
in a while and play safety or corner.

Speaker 3 (04:51):
And it was not fun. Dude. I was not good
at it.

Speaker 1 (04:54):
I sucked and I it wasn't fun, Like I just
had no fun. I was a even years old and
I didn't get to tackle guys like I wanted to.
I was slow and small, like there was no I
had no I didn't add much of anything to this team.
They still just played me in very small areas and

(05:14):
because I didn't add much. And I was probably also
a little bit of a woos at eleven years old
because I was so small and I didn't like guys
tackling me in practice and hitting me really hard. I
got yelled at quite a bit at eleven years old.
You got a guy yelling at you through your face mask,

(05:35):
and you can smell his breath. You can you feel
spit like hitting your face while he's like yelling at
you about assignments and execution. And you got to stick
in the block longer and don't be afraid of contact.

Speaker 3 (05:47):
What are you doing out here? Kind of thing?

Speaker 2 (05:49):
Right?

Speaker 1 (05:50):
You go to like when I by the time you
get to high school age, you know, like eighth grade.
Before I got to high school, it was like that
practice was like that if you messed up, you're running
a lap, you do it up downs right, You're like,
you really got to get into it.

Speaker 3 (06:05):
And that was part of it.

Speaker 1 (06:06):
That's part of being a football player. That's part of sports.
And we have now gotten ourselves to such a soft
place in our country that it doesn't even matter what
you do or you don't do. You being held accountable
is somehow abusive. Now, I will admit there are some

(06:28):
coaches historically that have taken it a bit too far.
Bobby Knight comes to mind. The legendary Indiana basketball coach
got multiple run ins getting physical with his players, getting
physical with officials, throwing stuff onto the floor. Great basketball coach,
a true legend of the sport. But I gotta be
completely honest with you. Even back in the day, he

(06:50):
was crossing some lines that were probably too much for
a single band to cross.

Speaker 3 (06:55):
But when you do that and then.

Speaker 1 (06:57):
You do good, you know there are a couple of moments,
either in practice or a game, where I got to,
you know, make a play. So in the right place,
I made a play that pat on the back means
a lot more after you've been yelled at by this
guy and him saying soger, yeah at a boy, way
to go. If you're getting pad on the back all

(07:20):
the time, you know it doesn't mean quite as much.
So like I was fired up to get that that
kind of acknowledgment, especially when I got yelled at more
than I got to pats on the back. Everybody got
yelled at, even the best guys got yelled at. The quarterback.
We were running an option play and I remember I mean,
he's the best player on our team. We're running the

(07:40):
option in practice and the running back fumbles it. I mean,
my memory serves me. I thought it was a pretty
good pitch and he and he fumbles it. It's practice,
it's practice, we're running an option play. They mean those
guys aren a mile and practice like they were out
for twelve minutes, like while these fourteen year olds are

(08:01):
being made to run a full mile and not practice
football because they fumbled an option. And I just remember, jeez,
that's so mean, Like that is so heavy, But you
want to know what they did next time that quarterback
looked that pitch in and that running back made sure
he had it before he started looking upfield. And we

(08:22):
did not fumble an option during a game. I don't
even know. I don't even want to know what happened.
If that would have happened, right, like, what would they
have done to them?

Speaker 6 (08:29):
Then?

Speaker 1 (08:30):
I mean that's probably updowns for like thirty minutes for
the whole team just because they fumbled. Now the point
I'm trying to get here, and I'm gonna play some
audio for you. It isn't even just kids, It is
for grown men too. And I will tell you how.
I have an illustration using the National Football League as

(08:50):
a great illustration of how soft our society has become
through the lens of American football. America has become the
land of the softy Sharman soft. I watch a show,
a Canadian show called Letterkenny. It is not appropriate for children.

(09:11):
Do not let your kids watch it, but it is hilarious.
It's very funny, very dry, but smart humor. And they
say you are a ten ply. You know what that
means if I call you ten ply multiple layers of softness. Yes,
your ten ply. It's like ten ply toilet paper. It's
so soft, like it would basically come off in your

(09:32):
hands as you're like trying to, you know, take care
of your business. Ten ply. That's the insult that they use.
They want to call somebody soft, you know, snowflake, stuff
like that. Right, Well, let me take you back to Sunday.
The NFL is going on and the worst loss I
may have ever seen at any level of football took
place when the Arizona Cardinals lost to the Tennessee Titans.

(09:56):
The Arizona Cardinals is a solid team. They were two
and two very easily. They lost by a field goal
in the two times they've lost, so they very easily
could have been four. And oh but they shoot themselves
in a foot a lot.

Speaker 3 (10:09):
This is a team that you can't really trust.

Speaker 1 (10:12):
If you bet your dollars on them, good luck to yourself,
you know, no matter how good you think, a matchup
line's up for them. And they were winning twenty one
to six in the fourth quarter and a guy by
the name of Amari de Mercado, a running back, takes
off and looks like he's about to score a seventy
three yard touchdown or something like that. It was a

(10:33):
long touchdown run, and as he gets close to the
end zone, he starts to slow down and the guy's
trying to chase him and catch him, and then he
also goes and drops the ball as he's crossing.

Speaker 3 (10:45):
The goal line.

Speaker 1 (10:47):
In the moment, you're like, there's no way he actually
did this right, because this happens way more than it
should where guys drop the football before they actually cross
the goal line. Well, they go and review it. I
think it was close. You could have made the argument
still had control of it as he crossed the goal line,
but they ruled that he had started to lose the
ball and lose control before he's crossed the goal line.
So instead of it being twenty eight to six and

(11:09):
Arizona coasts the last twelve minutes of the game, it's
twenty one to six. Tennessee gets the ball back and
eventually another few crazy things happened and Tennessee comes back
and gets their first win of the season. It is
one of the worst losses I've ever seen for a team.
If I was a fan of Theirs, it would break
me well. After the game, video surfaces on social media

(11:32):
of their head coach, a younger guy by the name
of Jonathan Gannon. He is in the face of Amari
de Mercado and there's a lineman there trying to comfort
Amari for dropping the ball at the goal line.

Speaker 3 (11:47):
Poor Amari would a boneheaded moved.

Speaker 1 (11:51):
But you know, you gotta have your teammates back, you know.
Poor guy, he probably feels real bad that he was
an idiot. Jonathan Gannon walks up to him and he's
like yelling at him. And I haven't seen Jonathan Gannon
really say much on the sideline. He's more of a
guy that's analytical. He's a new age coach. He's a
younger guy, but he's letting this guy have it. And
then he as he's walking away, he almost looks like

(12:11):
he wants to punch him, kind of just brushes him
on the side and stuff, and it's like, that's the
least I would have done as a coach, Like I
would have grabbed this guy by like the jersey and
be like, what's the matter with you?

Speaker 3 (12:25):
Are you for real?

Speaker 1 (12:27):
Just a week ago, an idiot playing for the Colts
of the exact same thing costs them the game.

Speaker 3 (12:32):
Are you for real? Right now?

Speaker 1 (12:37):
Guess what happened as this surfaced. Jonathan Gannon on Monday
did his press conference and had this explanation for himself
when he was asked about this video.

Speaker 7 (12:50):
I woke up this morning and didn't feel great about it, honestly,
and so in the team meeting, I addressed it. I
apologize though, Mario apologies as to the team, and I
just told him I kind of let the moment of
what happened get the better of me there, obviously, Like

(13:11):
I try to be emotionally stable and calm because my
job is to solve problems when during a game and
kind of lead the charge on that. So it's not
really who I am who I want to be, and
I told the guys that today. So it's a mistake
by me. And it's just like everybody in there. Everybody
made some type of mistake yesterday, which is, you know,

(13:36):
calm in as to why we didn't win the game,
and we can't let it happen moving forward.

Speaker 1 (13:41):
So there's Jonathan Gannon, coach of the Arizona Cardinals. You
see the video it's attached to that assessment of what
he did on the sideline there.

Speaker 2 (13:54):
The only thing that strikes concern up for debate is
he gave a I was i'll say twenty five percent
power maybe even less.

Speaker 3 (14:06):
Kind of hook flip flipp or punch to the side there.

Speaker 1 (14:08):
Yeah, I cooked to as you watch the past, Yeah,
as he walks past me, just kind of gives him
one of the like a shoulder bump almost you.

Speaker 2 (14:15):
Can tell though, absolutely like there was no real weight
behind the punt.

Speaker 3 (14:20):
It was not trying to hurt the guy. He just
wants to let him know how mad he is.

Speaker 4 (14:23):
It was like a strong love tap, you know, like
and he should be mad.

Speaker 3 (14:26):
Yeah, this guy's an idiot.

Speaker 4 (14:30):
I've seen worse, far worse. I'll just leave it at that.

Speaker 1 (14:32):
I've been spit on by coaches on accident. They didn't
like hawk to or right on my face, but you know,
like they they like in the process of yelling at
me through my face mask. I mean like I was feeling.
It was like a drizzle outside, right, Like I okay, coach,
I get it. Sorry, Yeah, it makes me feel bad. Yeah,
my eyes might have welled up with tears a few
times in my life when I've been yelled at by

(14:52):
a coach. But you want to know something I got
better from it made me want to try harder and
do better next time. And if I wanted to quit,
that's what they wanted. If you're too soft to take that,
if you're too ten ply to take that, then get
out of my locker room. I don't need you here.
This is This is a professional athlete. He's a twenty
six year old getting paid millions of dollars. Not a

(15:14):
ton of money, I guess, compared to some of his contemporaries.
He's made two point eight million dollars in his career
and this year his salary it base is like one
point zero three million dollars, which is not that much
compared to a lot of other running backs in the league.

Speaker 3 (15:32):
But he's still a millionaire.

Speaker 1 (15:34):
His average salary for his career so far as almost
a million dollars a year. Hard to feel bad for
a guy like that, but oh, Jonathan Gannon, he had
to go and apologize because he didn't want that to
be who he is. So I guess what happened next.
Last night, it was announced that the Arizona Cardinals have
fined Jonathan Gannon, their head coach, a hundred thousand dollars

(15:57):
for this tie rade on the sideline that last I
said eight seconds and he kind of physically brushed in
a moment of anger and passion, physically brushed his running
back who essentially made a play that ended up costing

(16:17):
them the game. Now, a lot of other stuff went wrong,
it wasn't all his fault. But if he just scores
the touchdown there, the game's over. If he holds under
the ball for like another micro second, the game is over.
But he's an idiot, and he dropped the football. He
knows better. He's twenty six years old, he's a millionaire,
He's paid to do this for a living. And Jonathan Gannon,

(16:39):
who for all accounts is probably on the hot seat.
I mean, of the coaches in the NFL that have
job security, he is not one of them, based on
the way that this team plays week to week. So
I would be mad too. You're gonna cost me my
job too, you loser. So the team finds him, finds

(17:00):
him one hundred thousand dollars for this the what'sification of
America personified in one moment with a professional athlete being
coached by a guy coaching for his job on a
week to week basis, and the team thought the coach
was wrong. You know what happened to Amaro de Mercado

(17:21):
for his mistake that cost his team a game?

Speaker 8 (17:25):
Not Dad.

Speaker 1 (17:27):
He got a bunch of apologies and coddling and had
absolutely nothing to show that he was held accountable for
his mistake. You think they're gonna make him the millionaire
run a mile in practice for dropping the ball before
he crossed the goal line, No chance, Son. He might
not even have to wear pads this week because of
how soft the NFL is. So yeah, I'm mess I'm mad,

(17:48):
I'm messed up a bit about it. I don't even
care about the Arizona Cardinals, but this is what's wrong
with America. This is why haig Seth is going and
talking to people. The Secretary of War Pete haig Seth
is going to generals and saying, we have to get tougher,
we have to be in better shape. We cannot have
softies in our military. We need to reverse the trends
that are happening in this country. And here we have

(18:09):
a professional athlete in the National Football League sad that
he made a stupid mistake that was completely unforced by
anybody but himself, and they find the coach one hundred
grand because he was upset about it. Give me a break, Arizona,
Give me a break, National Football League. This is absolutely insane.
Phone lines are open four h two, five, five, eight,
eleven ten. Let's talk about it. What do you think

(18:30):
about the wussification of America, not just in football, but
just in general, and how soft our society has become.
This is absolute joke conversation today. The wussification of America
is what I'm calling it softies. Even in our National
Football League, grown men making millions of dollars, and you
can't yell at them, you can't get upset about it.
If you even come close to be showing like too

(18:53):
much passion or something that could be seen as some
level of abuse to a player. You're apparently finding a
hunt thousand dollars at least according to the Arizona Cardinals.
We're talking about that, and we'd love to know your
thoughts on the softness, the increasingly large softness of this society.
Eric's on our phone line, Eric, thanks for calling in.

(19:13):
What do you think about this?

Speaker 8 (19:15):
Oh? I think you're right. You absolutely hit it on
the dolls because I'm I'm older that man. I remember
players back in the day where they have broken fingers,
wrench snees, back was hurt, and they'd still run out

(19:35):
of the field.

Speaker 1 (19:37):
Yeah, yeah, it doesn't. Yeah, that doesn't happen too often, Eric.
And it's just a different time now where I mean,
guys are missing games, Like I watched the NBA a
lot guys are just missing games for what they call
load management. They just are missing games because they want
to stay fresh. And it's just like Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson,
Larry Bird. None of those guys miss games for anything.

Speaker 8 (19:58):
No, not at all. Well, I played pee wee football
and our coach, well, he was a hard nosed guy,
and he made us.

Speaker 5 (20:07):
Play no matter what.

Speaker 8 (20:09):
Get out there, You'll suck it up, Nancy. Get out
there right.

Speaker 1 (20:13):
You can't even call the kids nancy now because as
soon as you say, you know, call a kid nancy,
all of a sudden, you're offending people. That's the thing,
Eric is like, society is going so far that direction is.
I don't even know if you can be a coach
and be able to like tame yourself down to a
point where you have to be passionate, but you also
can't get mad apparently.

Speaker 8 (20:34):
Apparently, Well do you do you? Are you old enough
to remember a player named Daryl Stingley. I think he
plays for the Patriots.

Speaker 3 (20:41):
Yeah, the wide receiver got paralyzed.

Speaker 1 (20:45):
Yeah yeah, Well, I mean I wasn't around when that happened,
but I know about it happening.

Speaker 8 (20:50):
He couldn't play, but he stayed with the team.

Speaker 1 (20:53):
Yeah yeah, And I remember he would go to all
the games in his wheelchair after that because he got
parent Like he's the only guy to get paralyzed like
permanently from the waist down in an NFL game. Yeah,
But like you said, it's just like he wanted to
stick around and be a part of what the team was.

Speaker 8 (21:08):
So okay, who was the quarter for the for they
went to Kansas City?

Speaker 3 (21:15):
Joe Montana.

Speaker 8 (21:16):
Yeah, I remember a Monday night football one he got
his leg.

Speaker 1 (21:22):
Yeah you're thinking Joe Thaisman that Joe Washington. Yeah, yeah,
that's the worst I've ever seen like that, that one.
I can't even watch that like that is. But you
know what, he came back and he ended up fit
playing more like that didn't end his career, so you know,
I don't know. They don't build him like that anymore. Eric,
I appreciate you calling him, buddy. Thanks for listening to

(21:42):
our show, all right, yeah you too.

Speaker 9 (21:45):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (21:46):
This was brought to my attention from Peyton.

Speaker 1 (21:48):
Here, a guy by the name of Jeff Saturday who's
now on ESPN's Get Up, which is like their morning
talk show, and Jeff Saturday a longtime center for the
Peyton Manning Colts.

Speaker 2 (22:01):
He is now like, is he a Hall of Famer?
Is like, I don't, I don't know. I'd have to
look that up.

Speaker 1 (22:08):
Let me just check because I want to give him
proper acope. This is not a nobody, right like.

Speaker 4 (22:12):
I mean, if not yet, certainly will be.

Speaker 1 (22:14):
He's a he was a six time Pro Bowl selection,
was their center when they won the Super Bowl back
in the mid two thousands. Two team first, two time
first team All Pro. It's two times second team All Pro,
and he retired in twenty twelve, So I mean he

(22:35):
would be eligible, but he's not in the Hall of
Fame yet.

Speaker 3 (22:37):
So yeah, for whatever it's worth.

Speaker 1 (22:40):
So he's an analyst on get Up and he was
asked about this. For whatever it's worth, here is a
former player's perspective, former NFL great, his perspective on this
entire thing.

Speaker 10 (22:52):
So tell me your when you see that video, what
goes through your Yeah, he was dead wrong, and he
knows the coach the coach wrong. Take aside that the
fumble all the dead wrong. You don't put your hands
on another man. You know, you can be upset, you
can be frustrated, you can say what you gotta say
to him.

Speaker 8 (23:08):
You don't.

Speaker 10 (23:09):
You don't put your your hands on him. I will
say I felt that was an authentic apology, Like I
felt like he he meant what he said.

Speaker 4 (23:17):
You know, I thought about it last night.

Speaker 3 (23:19):
I blew it. I made a mistake as well.

Speaker 10 (23:21):
I appreciate him saying that to the team addressing the
team first before he did it through the press, and
it happens. I mean, I've had coaches fight our fault
with the player. I get it right, like it's an
intense game on the sideline. But but you don't ever
put your hands on somebody on the sideline.

Speaker 3 (23:36):
He knows it.

Speaker 10 (23:37):
He apologized for it, but he was dead wrong.

Speaker 3 (23:39):
So all right, so.

Speaker 1 (23:42):
And and you heard the voice of Mike Greenberg there before,
he's the host of the show. Okay, fine, you don't
put your hand on a player. He barely touched him.
He barely touched him. You can see that he touched him.
Is he not supposed to be really upset and really angry?

Speaker 9 (23:59):
There?

Speaker 1 (23:59):
What happens to a Mario de Murcatto, the running back, Like,
at what point is it okay to just let him
have it? I'm not saying beat him up, but like
I can't just like get in his grill. I can't
be mad enough to like bump him a little bit.
He's a grown man, Amaro de Mercado. Uh let me
see here, let's see, let's see if I can't just

(24:23):
for argument's sake, you know, you know, I'm a five
eleven and a half and I weigh like one hundred
and sixty pounds. Amaro deMercado is five feet nine inches
tall to sixteen. It is a joke that a coach
in that situation gets fined one hundred grand for being

(24:50):
a little physical with the guy who cost him a
game when he's coaching for his job in his livelihood.
Absolutely asinine by them and the military.

Speaker 2 (25:01):
Right.

Speaker 3 (25:02):
I know it's not the same as it once was, but.

Speaker 1 (25:04):
It's got to get back to like having a little
bit of callous to you sandpaper. I want to know
that people are tough out there. If you're gonna play
this man's sport, you're gonna have that physicality.

Speaker 3 (25:15):
You know what you need to do.

Speaker 1 (25:16):
You need to be held accountable every once in a while,
and people should be mad when you screw up. You
should have to face some sort of consequence for that.
You want to know what I think. I think it's
an absolute joke. I have lost respect for the Arizona Cardinals.
I have lost respect for National Football.

Speaker 3 (25:34):
League in general. Gina said, uh, this, for whatever it's worth.

Speaker 1 (25:40):
You want to talk about being soft, Well, you started
off your show telling everyone how delicate you are when
it comes to these temperatures.

Speaker 4 (25:46):
Ah got him.

Speaker 2 (25:49):
No, No, but seriously, though, that's a I mean it's
a good point. Unrelated, but that's funny too. Yeah, it's easy,
that's funny.

Speaker 3 (25:56):
He got me.

Speaker 1 (25:57):
She also mentioned that she had the Cardinals to win
in her parlay, and that hurts. I mean, that's the
most brutal way you can lose a bit. Yeah, I
mean just watching that happen. Yeah, but this is why
I try not to be not to be a sport
or be a sports better. As much as I like
watching sports, I don't need I don't need somebody to

(26:18):
tell me, oh, yeah, you should lay money on this one,
you should lay money on that one.

Speaker 3 (26:22):
Trust me.

Speaker 1 (26:23):
I have known enough about sports betting that stuff like
this happens. Not maybe this bad, but weird stuff happens
that can lose you bets all the time.

Speaker 3 (26:31):
That's completely out of your control. That's tough.

Speaker 1 (26:33):
Mary's on our phone line four two, five, five, eight
eleven ten, Mary, what do you think about this?

Speaker 6 (26:39):
Hi? There? Hi, I can remember, and I'm old enough
believe me to know. I'm a diehard Steeler fan for
all my life. I'm from the Pittsburgh area. I now
live in this area.

Speaker 11 (26:50):
I live in.

Speaker 6 (26:51):
Nebraska, but I can remember when football was football. You
come off the field, you screwed up the coach. Sometimes
I've seen coaches give him a swift kick in the butt,
you know what, and they'll making all this big money
now and they're whining over this kind of stuff.

Speaker 3 (27:07):
Yeah, well and for whatever, yeah, and for whatever it's worth.

Speaker 1 (27:12):
The running back didn't say anything, so I mean it's
just the team decided to find the coach for making
contact with him. I haven't heard him complain that he
felt like he was, you know, like he was sad
about it. But I mean, we're protecting him, the millionaire
football player who was an idiot and dropped the ball
before he scored a touchdown and ruined the game for them,
Like like, we're protecting that guy, Like that's the guy

(27:34):
that we're afraid that he's going to be. Like his
feelings got hurt because the coach yelled at him and
maybe bumped him on the sideline because he was an idiot. Yeah,
I'm with you, Mary, I think we need to get
a little bit tougher, go back to the old days
a bit. Appreciate the phone call, have a great day.

Speaker 6 (27:48):
Thank you.

Speaker 1 (27:49):
Uh yeah, if you got thoughts, love to hear from you.
We're the wiscification of American in full effect, and we're
sounding off about him. Look, Monica, what's on your mind?

Speaker 8 (27:58):
Well?

Speaker 6 (27:59):
I was at that game.

Speaker 12 (28:00):
Actually, yeah, we were there this weekend visiting my son.
He has season tickets and so we go to games
when we're down there. We have actually a big group
of family that goes to the game that lived down there.
And the game was fun. We were having a great time.
In fact, when Amari scored that touchdown, the fans were

(28:21):
going crazy. Everybody was high five, and then all of
a sudden, the announcer said, the previous play is under review.
There were no flags on the play, There were no
flags on the field, so we were what happened, and
they played the you know, the review of what he
did on the big screen, and it was like a

(28:43):
bomb went off. It was so quiet and people. I mean,
my husband looked at me and said he would be
cut from my team.

Speaker 1 (28:53):
Yeah, don't come back, Yeah, don't even come back, like
we don't need you.

Speaker 3 (28:56):
Yeah, except they actually don't because they're a running back
situation they have. I mean, are you a fan of theirs,
like you like the Cardinals.

Speaker 12 (29:06):
Well, yes, I am.

Speaker 8 (29:08):
I said, that's a.

Speaker 3 (29:08):
Tough one, Monica.

Speaker 1 (29:09):
I think that that's that's like a season ender for
me if I'm a fan, It's like, I can't watch
this team after that.

Speaker 3 (29:15):
That is so bad.

Speaker 12 (29:16):
So we had family that moved down there the same
year that the Cardinals moved down there and have had seasons.
Family has been cheering.

Speaker 6 (29:24):
Them. Yeah yeah, but I mean.

Speaker 12 (29:27):
It was not everyone was like, well, here we go again.
So it's not like they've been disappointing. It's it's been
a rough season. But that was and there were other
things happening during the game too that and everybody's said
at that point, we're going to lose this game.

Speaker 4 (29:42):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (29:43):
The interception that they fumbled and then it turned into
a touchdown for Tennessee was maybe one of the craziest
bad luck plays I've ever seen in my life. My
my condolence is Monica, but thank you.

Speaker 12 (29:54):
I will tell you your feelings are exactly our feelings.
My husband sent out a text two people that were
at the game with us that was unbelievable. We can't
believe hundred thousand dollars fine, ridiculous. So your feelings are
our feelings as well.

Speaker 9 (30:10):
Well.

Speaker 3 (30:11):
I appreciate it.

Speaker 1 (30:11):
Monica, thanks so much for calling in, and my condolence
is to you and your football team. Hopefully they can
turn it around because they're like three plays away from
being five and oh they like they're dangerous, like close
being really good.

Speaker 12 (30:23):
Well, Tyler is too short, but that's.

Speaker 9 (30:25):
Another short so.

Speaker 3 (30:28):
That's an understatement. I think.

Speaker 1 (30:29):
I appreciate it, Monica, thanks for calling in. Okay, and
I have Cameron on the phone line. Cameron, thanks for
holding today. What's on your mind?

Speaker 9 (30:36):
Hey, Emory, how are you today?

Speaker 3 (30:38):
I'm great? How are you?

Speaker 6 (30:39):
I'm excellent?

Speaker 9 (30:40):
Thank you. So what's really interesting is Nick Saban One
of the main reasons why he quit coaching was because
he doesn't understand the kids' mentalities anymore. They don't accept criticism,
they don't accept people yelling at him. First of all. Yeah,
so one of the best coaches in college football ever

(31:04):
and he left because of this.

Speaker 1 (31:06):
Yeah, it's a good point because the landscape has changed
so much. You know, I had an emailer who just
sent this. Matt said, bo Polini would have been broke
if he was fine. Every time he put hands on
a player on the sideline, he be grabbing face mask
and the jerseys and stuff and pulling guys closer. I mean,
that was just part of football back then and you
just had to take it. And unfortunately now in the

(31:27):
player empowerment area. And again I'm not I don't want
to say the players still deserve to have stuff, but
we've gotten to the point where it's gone the other
way so far that it doesn't even resemble the same
type of like manly, kind of gritty thing that we
used to see football as, right, And it's just sad kind.

Speaker 9 (31:45):
Of well, I totally agree, and also kind of underlying
all this is the memi mentality of players nowadays of
celebrating before you get into the actually, why are you
celebrating anyways? I one of my biggest pet peeves is
when a team is losing and then they score a
touchdown and they're down thirty points and they all get

(32:06):
up and celebrate. Yeah you're losing.

Speaker 6 (32:09):
Great point, as they.

Speaker 9 (32:10):
Used to say, act like.

Speaker 1 (32:11):
You've been there before, right, And and you know, like
a lot of people look at highlight reels of Barry
Sanders and Walter Payton and some of the great players
before and there wasn't a whole lot of that personality
in celebrating that was taking place, and they never would
have thought to drop the football before they actually scored
the touchdown. Everybody's so eager and excited to celebrate, and
I can get some of that. You know, you want

(32:32):
that passionate passion. You want to be able to acknowledge
yourself and acknowledge your teammates when they do something well,
but especially when you're losing.

Speaker 3 (32:40):
Read the room.

Speaker 1 (32:42):
You just look like a clown when that's going on. Cameron,
good stuff, man, Thanks for calling in.

Speaker 8 (32:47):
Have a good day, you too.

Speaker 1 (32:49):
Got Bill on the phone line four two, five, five,
eight to eleven ten on your Wednesday. Bill, Welcome to
eleven tin kfab Hey.

Speaker 11 (32:57):
Im Levey show man.

Speaker 3 (32:58):
Thanks, Hey, I got a story for.

Speaker 11 (33:00):
You about toughness on the football field. I had a
I was in junior high. It was just a scrimmage
going against our high school, and I was the center
and my and my coach. The first three plays, their
noseguard got in and one of them was a sack,
and my coach came over to me and had me
come over to the sidelines and he grabbed my face mask,

(33:21):
bit my face like you were talking about and just
saying you better not let one more play get through,
and Doug Gunnet that high school knows never got one
more play in this motivation motivation like he not one
more time and coach called me belt caw Bill because
of it, like, and that's to me, that's that's old school.
You gotta sometimes you need that roughness to do something.

Speaker 3 (33:45):
No doubt, no doubt.

Speaker 1 (33:46):
Hey, you want to know something, Bill, I think that
this is a bigger like you kind of illustrated, like
the bigger picture on that, right, Because as much as
we want to think that yelling solves a lot of
problem was in it doesn't always solve problems. Right When
I get upset and I start to raise my voice
with my wife, you know she's not going to be

(34:07):
super responsive to that. And I understand like people get
talked to a bit differently, But in the confines of
football or sports or anything where you have a job
to do and you're not doing it right, that is correction.

Speaker 3 (34:20):
Right.

Speaker 1 (34:21):
That is the same thing as your dog having a
caller that you give a good yank to to get
it to.

Speaker 3 (34:25):
You know, hey, focus here, we got to focus.

Speaker 1 (34:28):
Sometimes you just need to get lit up a little bit,
and all of a sudden, like you said, my performance
actually goes up because of that motivation, and it just
re recalibrated what my brain was doing.

Speaker 11 (34:38):
Absolutely. That's that's like my kids and my oldest son,
he just says, the second year of football this year,
and you know, he came back practically bragging that all
the bruises and you know, running he had to do
because I'm teaching him to be tough. Like you're in
a physical game. You gotta be tough, and you listen
to your coach like you listen to your parent, you know.

(34:59):
And that's just we're losing that this thing now.

Speaker 1 (35:02):
And the guys you are disciplined in their sport, the
guys who understand that this is part of accountability and
part of making them better people, not just better players.
I mean wrestling so many guys and this isn't say
every wrestler is a super disciplined person, but a guy
who has to wrestle and they have to cut weight,
they have to be a practice, they have to make
sure that they're doing everything that they can to get
better at the sport. Those guys end up being some

(35:23):
of the best athletes that you could see because they
are able to hold themselves to that level of accountability,
and it doesn't exist in the general population anymore.

Speaker 3 (35:34):
It just doesn't. Bill, Absolutely, You're right, Hey, Man, thanks for.

Speaker 1 (35:37):
The call today. Really appreciate the conversation.

Speaker 11 (35:40):
Hey, thanks, good job. Man.

Speaker 1 (35:42):
Got Jim on the phone line four two five to five,
eight eleven ten. Jim, you're with Emory on news radio
eleven ten kfab.

Speaker 5 (35:49):
Yeah, Emery. I'm all for beefing up the military, toughening
them up, but it all starts at the top. And
do you think we could have a worse example than
Pete Keggs Breath and Donald Trump who had five deferments
because of bone spurs. You know, Pete keggs Breath his
mother called him out as a womanizer, and I'm sorry,

(36:10):
if you want to be tough, you don't abuse of women.
That's just kind of a non starter there. So I
don't think we have got the best example. I think
we could do a whole lot better right there, don't
you think?

Speaker 1 (36:22):
Well, I mean it depends, Jim. You know, like the
Hague Saith things that you brought up were certainly things
that were brought up when his confirmation came by. My
thing is, I don't know what all that has to
do with toughening up the military would be my first
you know, question or comment or retort on that. Yes,
Donald Trump at seventy nine years old, sure he could

(36:44):
be in better shape. You look at RFK Junior. He's
you know, in really good shape for being in his seventies,
So it's certainly possible. But Donald Trump, yeah, I mean,
like he's not in charge of the military as it
stands to like their day to day physical training and things.
That's what the Secretary of Defense, Secretary of War is
there for. And Pete haig Seth is he actually does

(37:05):
physical training with a lot of the people down there
at the Pentagon. So you know, I get what you're saying,
and I understand. And you've brought politics into the conversation
that we really didn't have a political conversation about Jim
But that's okay. I'm willing to have that discussion in
that debate with you. Unfortunately, I don't think that really
solves the problem of a football coach getting fined one

(37:25):
hundred thousand dollars because the football team thought his contact
with the football player was a little too risk gay
and a little too much of an abusive thing that
he did for this millionaire that dropped the ball before
he scored a touchdown.

Speaker 5 (37:38):
Yeah, well, I thought we were talking about toughening up
the military as well, which.

Speaker 1 (37:43):
We are talking about toughening up I suppose as a society,
including the military.

Speaker 3 (37:49):
I suppose that's actually.

Speaker 5 (37:50):
Rut me off either way, because you know, the truth
is out there, and yeah, we've got the absolute worst
leaders of the military that we've ever had.

Speaker 1 (38:00):
That's so untrue, Like that is so blatantly false, Jim,
Like what are we talking about here? Like like, like
I get on Trump, I got I get on Trump
Jim for for being like super hyperbolic. But I mean
this is why he is, because people like you were
hyperbolic too. The worst leaders we've ever had, Are you serious?
Recruitment is up now, it's been The recruiting is up

(38:25):
higher now than it has been in the last twenty years.
I mean, you can't tell me that that makes these
bad leaders When more people are signing up for the
military than they were the last twenty years.

Speaker 3 (38:34):
It makes no sense.

Speaker 5 (38:36):
And if a football coach wants to stream of the player.
They got to be prepared to pick their teeth up
off the ground, because they have every right to do
that if they're talked to that way the way Polini did,
you know, I think it was Charles Woodson said that
if that was my son down there, I would be
on the sideline. If that was me being talked to
that way, I'd slapped the teeth out of his mouth,

(38:57):
which is fair game for anybody that talks to anybody
else that way. Interesting.

Speaker 1 (39:03):
I would be interested to see what would happen if
a player actually did get into a legitimate physical altercation
with their coach. And Jim, I appreciate the call today,
Thanks so much for listening, even though I don't know
we're talking about the same thing, and I'm not going
to say that we're not, but he's he's obviously taking
a bit of a different approach to the conversation today.
I guess my my biggest answer as far as what

(39:27):
would happen him saying I would like I would waylay
my coach if he got physical with me. Like, isn't
that part of the problem. It's like, Oh, you're holding
me accountable for messing up. Well, I'm just gonna punch

(39:48):
you back. Like, if you're gonna get in my face
because I messed up on the football field, well I quit,
I'll punch you when I quit. That's part of the problem.
That is exactly what we're talking about here. It's like, Okay, yeah,
you may not be soft in a physical sense because
you're willing to get in a physical altercation with somebody.

Speaker 3 (40:07):
That's not soft.

Speaker 1 (40:08):
It's not like you're, you know, going into a corner
and crying because somebody yelled at you.

Speaker 3 (40:11):
That's soft.

Speaker 1 (40:13):
But to just not be held accountable by somebody that
clearly has authority over you, whether it's your coach, whether
it's a you know, an officer in the military, whether
it's a teacher, and you get scolded by somebody that
has that authority on you, and your first instinct is
to fight them because of that. That's part of the
mic is on the phone line today, Hello, Mike, welcome

(40:34):
to our show.

Speaker 3 (40:35):
What's on your mind?

Speaker 13 (40:36):
Okay, two things you just made a remark about Walder Peyton. Yeah,
I happen to be Walder Peyton. I think played for
Jackson State and uh Jackson State paid. He played un
O back in early seventies, okay, and Walder Peyton was
doing cartwheels in the end zone and I mean he

(40:58):
was rolling around like a wild man and he would
I think he scored six that day. But getting back
to toughening these kids up. I have a neighbor kid
and I kind of follow them and go to his games.
This kid is lifting weights, working, has a personal trainer,
everything to get better. And he's a little bit slow,
but he tries hard. But the point I want to make,

(41:20):
and I'm very disappointed that we talk a little bit.
His coach told him one day he put him in
auto into a play and he says, I want you
to take an injury because we're out of timeouts. And
then another time I go to his game here recently,

(41:40):
they're up fifty to nothing in the third quarter against
the team they're way well overmatched. And I understand these
kids want to play, but I don't want to see
a coach passing against the team that they were so
far ahead. Kid to be tough. I want to be tough,
and I want them to have integrity and be good people.

(42:02):
That's what's important in this world.

Speaker 1 (42:04):
It's it's a good point, Mike, and this is the
other thing like and it's a completely different era, but
if you read about like sports in like the eighteen
eighties and eighteen nineties, there was this thing called muscular
Christianity that it kind of like the YMCA and other
types of like elements and organizations were born out of
muscular Christianity. The thought in that moment, and I know

(42:25):
this is for a lot of modern science, but if
you were physically fit and you were tough physically, you
were a better person.

Speaker 3 (42:34):
It kind of like one led to the other.

Speaker 1 (42:37):
And that included, you know, just being also like hardcore
into your faith. And I know that doesn't necessarily apply
to this conversation we're having, but being a good person
can also be like having the ability to take that accountability,
that kind of toughness when somebody is holding you accountable
for a mistake, that can lead to you having the
ability to be a better person in other situations. I

(43:00):
believe because you're willing to understand that you make mistakes,
you are an imperfect soul and imperfect being. Sometimes you
got to get told that, even if it is harsh.

Speaker 13 (43:09):
Well, I agree with you one hundred percent there, because
I think that these kids today of them are pretty
pretty spoiled and don't understand what it's like to be
sitting on a hayrack when it's ninety degrees outside and
picking up hay all day. And that's why I do
go to a lot of I have a grandson that wrestles,

(43:33):
and we go to these small towns when he's wrastling,
and these farm kids are tough. Yeah, you can tell
the difference because they've been raised, you know, they've been
raised hard, and they turn out. You go to these
farm communities, these people are pretty good. The majority of
them are pretty good people that are you know, lifelong residents.

(43:54):
They're pretty yeah, straightforward and pretty honest. That's what we
need to have, people that are percent on all facets
of life. That's all I'm trying to make. But I'm
very disappointed. I told what the neighbor kids is sais
you know, if that coach.

Speaker 5 (44:09):
Is teaching, is the cheat.

Speaker 13 (44:10):
I says, listen to every you know, do the best
he can. But don't make that a habit, because then
when a burner starts out or a thief starts out,
he doesn't start out robbing a bank. He works, you know,
he works.

Speaker 1 (44:24):
Yeah, I'm picking up what you're putting down there, Mike,
and integrity is a huge part of this as well.
I really do appreciate this is good stuff. Thanks for
the call, buddy, have a good day you too. I
got another Mike. Mike number two is on our phone
line four two five five, eight eleven ten. Hey Mike,
thanks for being on the show today. What's on your mind?

Speaker 6 (44:41):
Hey man? All I wanted to say was that the
previous car that Jim oh yeah, he stretch is the
kind of guy that says he wouldn't.

Speaker 5 (44:50):
Join the military because he'd be punching the drill start
in the face.

Speaker 1 (44:53):
Yeah, if you got all that, Yeah, there's a just
First of all, no disrespect to Jim, and he's not
here to defend himself. But if that's his reaction, if
Bo Polini, let's just let's stay with the football for
a second. If Bo Polini got in his face and
grabbed his face mask him was yelling at him because
of a misassignment, I would love to have seen him.

(45:14):
I just doubt that Jim would have had the cajonis
in that moment to actually waylay the head coach. And
you can apply that to anything. Anybody help basically what
he said is anybody holds me accountable, I'm punching him
or I'm quitting. I don't deserve that, which is, you know,
kind of rich from a guy that you know still
is calling Pete Haig sith Pete Keig's breath, I think

(45:36):
is what he said, which is, you know, it's childish,
but whatever might appreciate the call today.

Speaker 3 (45:42):
Yeah, thanks, Yeah, I don't know, like I.

Speaker 1 (45:47):
Just I find it to be quite fascinating how these
conversations can defolve. And this is, you know, and obviously
Jim calls in he's more liberal. That's the only reason
he would call Pete Haig sith Keig's breath sorry and
say all this bad stuff about Donald Trump trying to
you know, ditch military service and all that being a

(46:08):
terrible example for toughness in America. Okay, like you can
have that opinion, but he brought politics into it. So
this is why we can't even have a discussion about
something that is so non political. So obviously a political
You could have any political background in any opinion whatsoever,
and the information is going to be the same. It

(46:28):
doesn't have to be a political conversation. And then it's
the guy who's super liberal and progressive who brings politics
into the conversation.

Speaker 3 (46:37):
I don't I like it. It's it never fails now something.

Speaker 1 (46:42):
I can't say that there aren't right wingers, big Trump
supporters who wouldn't try to inject some level of politics
into this. And I did, for whatever it's worth, did
mention Pete haig Seth talking about toughness in the military.
I referenced it because it's the thing he's trying to correct.
While I understand that you couldn't make that a political reference,
it's really not, as far as I'm concerned, it's mostly,

(47:05):
you know, from my vantage point, just a guy who
is in a leadership position, whether you like him or not,
and he's trying to change the standards of what is
taking place in a very important role the military of
the United States of America, the most powerful military force
in all of the world. I wouldn't say that that's
necessarily a political take, but it is what it is.

(47:28):
But it's just funny that the liberals are always like, oh,
these right wingers are politicizing everything, and it was the
liberal guy who called in that made it all about politics.

Speaker 3 (47:36):
It's just kind of funny,