Le'Veon Bell Wins the Battle Against the Steelers

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
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(00:25):
You're listening to Fox Sports radioh oh my, give me
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(00:51):
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feel bad. People wonder why Kawhi Leonard doesn't talk. The
second he does talk, he gets ripped. That's terrible. But
that laugh was just unbelievable. It is The Odd Couple
on Fox Sports Radio Rob Parker along with Jonas Knox

(01:14):
and Jonas Happy New Year Eve to you. Yeah, same
to you now. I don't mean to break your heart,
but we're not going to be next to each other
at midnight, so you're not getting a kiss from No,
not happening. You know what I thought we were gonna
I'll have to come back. Who'll be on the air
at that time? Whoever's filling in for Ben Maller will

(01:35):
be on the air at that time. Ben Malley, Yeah,
my goodness. But yes, it is New Year's Eve and
the Odd Couple is live. We are live on this Monday,
this black black Monday. I call it black black Monday
because so many black coaches were fired today, so we
added the extra black. It's good to be black. I

(01:56):
didn't know what it was like. I know, Black Friday.
I got a taste of it, but just not that
far afterwards. Black Monday, and here I am. Yes, I
don't know. It feels good, doesn't You're still working? Yeah,
I feel more confident. I don't know why that is.
We are coming to you live from the Geico Fox
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(02:17):
or more on car insurance. Visit Geico dot com for
a free rate. Quote. Great show for you today, and
no we don't take a holiday. We're here and we
want to hear from you. We got so many storylines
between the NFL and Lebron Mike Mayock from getting a

(02:39):
GM job. We'll we'll, we'll want to dive into all
of that. And you know that everybody was all going
crazy about Kirk Cousins and he got all the guaranteed money.
Oh yeah, I got that great defense. All they did
was upgrade their quarterback and they're not in the playoffs
to miney sort of viking, So we'll we'll dive into
that as well. Um well, let's welcome in the odd

(03:01):
Couple crew, because, of course Jonas, we'd never be able
to do this fine radio program without them. Our our
producer is Lee Alex Engineer, and our sports anchor is
Steve de Sager Seger the Sager. Hey, mister de Sager,

(03:23):
Happy New Year, gentlemen, Happy New Year. How's everything everything good? Yeah?
Just standing by for a few more Bowl games? Oh yeah,
I can't miss those. Yeah. You wanna know how you
know it's a holiday? How's that Steve and I are
working together? Is that right? See how I get it?
I will say in Bowl games, we do have an
actual Top twenty five matchup on FS one. I'm gonna

(03:45):
count up for the bottom of the hour. You know
how many Bowl games we've had and how many have
actually featured You get stopped counting how many have actually
featured Top twenty five. It's funny that you say that.
When I was a kid, I remember the holiday seriously
and it ties in the black Monday, but it ties in?
Is everything race with you? And on the holidays, I

(04:06):
would turn on the local news and everybody on the
station it was black. Was usually anchoring. I'm all right,
did that happen in LA two? I mean I used
to right, and the only and it would be like
the Jewish weather guy doing it, and only because there's
no black weather guy. Oh man, I'm sorry now. It
was usually younger people on the holiday out in LA. Yeah,

(04:29):
I'm telling you. In New York, that's what it was.
You look and everybody on the news was black then night.
It's the only time I get to do a show
normally when the street lights aren't on. So I'm looking around.
This is awesome. This is gonna throw him for the
next three hours. By the way, people still awake and
they're sober. One of the black news anchors in New
York happens to be the wife of the Chargers head coach.

(04:50):
Yes and Lynn. He got the LA job and she
she has the New York anchors. Yeah, she's at w
NBC NEK opposite coast exactly. It's amazing and a pretty woman. Yeah, yeah,
you're right. Chris Boussard and his wife, Chris saw his wife. Yeah,
still out in Jersey, but the Chris will be back
home Wednesday. But a program, so stick for that. But

(05:12):
uh hey, Steve de Sega, real quick, you got that
list of all the coaches? Can you go over one
more time? And we're gonna get into black Monday? And
what just went down in the NFL today? It's the
fourth of the league as head coach opening, which is
crazy twenty five We already knew Green Bay in Cleveland,
and then last night the Bucks and Jets fired their
head coaches while we were on the air, and then

(05:32):
today finally Marvin Lewis is out in Cincinnati. What change?
I guess his contracts finally up, right after sixteen years
in Cincinnati. You know what, though, becomes a pretty desirable
job when you see how loyal they are to you. Well,
yeah for a coach, yeah, I mean yeah, for chief
a playoff game and you can stick around sixteen years.
It's true who goes oh and seven and keeps a

(05:55):
job for sixteen years? And of course Marvin Lewis on
the way out says, you know who'd make a good coach,
Hugh j Yeah, thanks, thanks, Oh God, have have we
been there and done that? Hill? Just asking hasn't you
been a coach twice already? Or I know, yeah, well,
asked Raider fans, asked Browns fans. Anyway, Adam Gays Dolphins

(06:15):
that a little though. Uh well, I mean they started well,
but they didn't finish with a five hundred records a call.
And then I talked about this on a show last night.
Vance Joseph had two years with the Broncos while Anthony
Lynn had two years with the Charger, same division, literally
the exact opposite win loss records. So Denver's history, there's
no way they can stand that. And you got a

(06:35):
winner as your general manager, and there's no way he's
standing that. And what about a nub in Arizona? They
have earned the number one draft choice, Rob Parker, I mean,
I mean that verb. They have earned it. You saw
that Arizona offense this year. Josh Rosen would take a
snap and start running. Forget just setting up in the
pocket and looking downfield. Hike run. It was like the

(06:58):
when you were playing the bigger kids and your street game.
It was a little bit like that. So three and
thirteen they fired Steve will. If I were the Cardinals,
my first seven draft picks would be offensive linemen and girls.
It can be done. Just just figure it out. Draft
offensive lineman and figured out they still have David Johnson. Like,
there's talent on that team. You've got talent on defense.
They're not that far away. They're not one of these

(07:20):
historically bad teams like the Lions have been or the
Browns have been. They're not that far away. And I'm
telling you right now, if Mike McCarthy wasn't available, Steve
Wilkes probably doesn't get fired because I think that's the
guy they've targeted. They've identified him, and reportedly they've already
offered him full control personnel wives. But that was the plan.
They said, we'll go into Green Bay, will beat the Packers,

(07:42):
McCarthy will become events. We'll sign him right that the deal?
Yeah there, it is. Well, full control is what got
Pete Carroll. One of the things. They got Pete Carroll
out of usc and to Seattle. You know, it's like
the old parcels thing, you know, Yeah, I'm talking about it.
If I'm if I'm cooking the meal, I want to
buy the grocery. But you're right, because home Grin Mike

(08:04):
home Gren the same thing, right, he went and want
of full control. It's two separate jobs. It should be
two separate people. If they had got many basketball examples
of why it should be two separate Yeah, but you
can't pass that up. If somebody offers you that, you
can't well, I think we go back to what you
said about the Bengals. If they offer you the job
and you're actually gonna be there even while you're losing

(08:25):
and not winning playoff games, I guess that's an attractive job.
I mean, look at a fourth of the league. A
fourth of the league fired a coach this year. That's insane. Man.
We're Steve, thanks for all of you and appreciate it.
And here here's what I want to say, is I
get it like there's no more five year plans in
the NFL. That that's out the window. God no. And

(08:49):
if you're in like Wilkes over your head and they
identify that right away, then not you know, they say
you can't fire football coach. You're gonna have to bring
in a new guy and change the whole system and
do all this if if it's not working to the
guy's not good enough, you just move on to the
next guy. You know that, Bruce, what we see now?
I was talking to Brady Quinn. He did the game
he called the game for Fox, the Cardinals games. He

(09:10):
did a couple of their games this season. He said,
the Cardinals this year made over three hundred transactions, which is,
I'll ray insane, three hundred transactions players, but three hundred,
three hundred and And when I asked him, I said, well, yeah,
I mean, wouldn't they look at that when thinking about

(09:30):
whether or not he should be judged fairly based on
this one year when all these injuries and all this
has happened. He said, the thought process there is that
in other years when they've had injuries and have dealt
with things like that, they still were at least more competitive,
and they weren't this year. And then if you remember
their general manager, Steve Kim, didn't he get pop for

(09:51):
a d Y in the offseason, bombed out of his
mind and they kept them. Yeah. So I just there's
the problem is guys like Matt Naggie and guys like
Sean McVeigh are getting other coaches fired. It's not their fault,
but when they see how bad the Bears were before

(10:12):
Naggie got there, how changed ver yes, and how bad
the Rams were before McVeigh got there. When you see
those guys do it, general managers and owners around the
league just aren't going to have patience. If you have
a stink bomb year, it's just not gonna happen. And
I don't blame him. And here's the other storyline too.
The Ravens make the playoffs over Pittsburgh. What what I

(10:33):
mean Pittsburgh and people talk about like they've had like
three coaches in the last sixty years, So Tomla is
not going anywhere. He won a Super Bowl. I think
this is Uh, has you ever had an under five?
Un never had a losing thing? Because what were the
eighty seven and one? Yeah, the nine six and one?
This year? Was it? Note say yeah, uh so so

(10:55):
so I guess it's hard to put a guy out
when he hasn't had a under But they got so
many issues and problems and that, and and I just
don't what's going on. In the latest report is that
Antonio Brown, who didn't play Week seventeen. Antonio Brown reportedly
this according to The Athletic, it wasn't for his injury

(11:18):
it was for disciplinary reasons because him and Ben Roethlisberger
had a back and forth at practice and the skipped right.
He threw a football at Ben Roethlisberger's feet, stormed out
of practice and then missed walkthroughs, so he didn't play,
not because he wasn't healthy, but for disciplinary reasons. And
they narrowly beat the Cincinnati Bengals. Um, and then they

(11:41):
almost got in just based on Cleveland down the stretch
having an opportunity to win that game. But it's so funny, Rob, Like,
I remember I was making comments, and I know you
were talking about it on your show, but I remember
making comments on my show earlier this year, um, because
I had all these like h James Conner fans were
talking about, Ah, I don't need Leveon Belle. They got

(12:02):
James Connor. Everything's fine. I remember saying at the time,
there's not a GM on planet Earth who would take
James Connor over Leveon Belle running back. You miss him
and you're going to miss him. And here we are,
the Steelers are out of the playoffs and Leveon Bell
is completely fresh, ready for a massive contract next season

(12:23):
as he takes over somewhere else that won't be in Pittsburgh.
And guess what who got hurt for the Steelers a year? Yes,
the running back right, This is what people don't understand
and we're gonna get into that coming up next. As
to who won between Leveon Bell and the Steelers, who
who really won? They decided not to pay wanting to

(12:46):
pay him what he felt he was just he deserved
and he was willing to sit out and miss a
whole year's salary, and people were ridiculing Leveon Bell. Players
were talking bad about him and and and putting his
business out there was really weird. I've been doing this
for thirty three years, Jonas, I never heard when you
talk about another guy's money. Yeah, like that, that's just

(13:07):
unheard of. Yeah. And my thing on the talking about
his money and the players speaking out against him, it
made me wonder at the time, Okay, what did he
tell them that he didn't follow through on? Because that
is bizarre behavior like what happened there that hasn't been
made public that eventually will be made because it's the Steelers, right.

(13:27):
And even if he said like okay, I'll probably be
back when you remember the drop dead date when he
had to come back, maybe said I'll be back by then,
and then just realize because they remember, they remember they
found a loophole in his contract which will allow him
to become a free agent. Yes, so once he found
that out, there was no reason to come back. Yeah,
it's because how about you come back and wind up

(13:48):
getting hurt in one of the last few games and
the thing that you were trying to avoid the whole way,
unto you could get a long term contract, You go
back and play and get hurt. You remember when the
Seattle Seahawks made the decison vision when they had a
lot of talkers in the locker room. They had a
lot of loud voices, Richard Sherman, Michael Bennett, amongst others,
And they made the decision that a couple of years

(14:10):
ago they were going to turn the team over to
Russell Wilson because it was they were tired of the noise,
tired of the distractions, uh, tired of the issues. And
so they made Russell Wilson the face of the franchise.
And guess what happened. Oh, they're in the playoffs. And
they looked pretty damn good because it was the right
move to make they identified which guy is the leader

(14:31):
and which guy is truly going to take us into
the next phase of whatever this franchise is going to be.
The Steelers haven't figured that out yet because quarterbacks feuding
with wide receiver Antonio Brown reportedly threw furniture off a
hotel balcony in the off season and almost killed somebody. Um,
you mean a credenza could hurt, like the Leavyon Bells stuff,

(14:53):
like all the other all the other noise there. It's
it's crazy, like something's gotta change there. It's not going
to be Tomlin some but he's got to go. All right,
It's The Odd Couple on Fox Sports Radio. Coming up next.
Who won between Leveon Bell and the Steelers. We'd like
to hear from you eight seven, seven ninety nine on Fox.
That's eight seven, seven nine nine six sixty three sixty nine,

(15:16):
Rob Parker, Jonas Knox in for Chris boussard Stick and
Stay America on Fox Sports Radio. Thanks for listening to
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(15:57):
in six changes and affiliates products unavailable in every state.
It's the Odd Couple on Fox Sports Radio. Jonas Knox
to my left, Rob Parker, Jonas filling in for Chris Broussard.
He'll be returning to the program on Wednesday. I'll tell
the phone number eight seven seven ninety nine on Fox.
And you know, car shopping can be confusing with terms

(16:18):
like dealer price, list, price, and invoice. True Car shows
you what other people paid for the car you want,
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enjoy a more confident car buying experience. And Jonas and
I are talking about the Pittsburgh Steelers who did not

(16:42):
and OT make the playoffs. And Jonas, my take is
really that I'm happy that they didn't make the playoffs.
I'm happy for Leveon Bell because I just thought the
way they treated him, the way that they kind of
dismissed him like they didn't need him. You can't tell me,

(17:03):
Pittsburgh Nation that you wouldn't be in the playoffs today
if Levion Bell was on that team, could you you
would have been You would have made the playoff. I
think he's a significant upgrade. If people are gonna point
to the stats and all will look at the numbers,
the numbers don't stop man stopping. He you do more
with Leveon Bell. He's not just he can catch. And

(17:25):
it's not to knock James Connor. If you know his
stories stories, he's a wonderful person, and he's a good dude,
and he's you know what, he's probably a better teammate
than Leveon Bell is. That's all fine, but the reality
is you're sitting home making plans to go golfing when
you should be in the postseason. And a lot of
it is because of the distractions, And a major distraction

(17:46):
was how a bunch of guys got their feelings hurt
because Levion Bell wanted to look out for his money.
That's it. That's what I call karma. Yeah, it is karma.
Do you believe in that? Jonas Um? Karma? And I
mean if you treat people certain way, let Levion do
his thing for his future and his family. You shouldn't
get involved in that. In a league that has screwed

(18:09):
over so many players, right when they get hurt, do
they look out for them and go, oh, we were
gonna give you a deal, We'll give it to you anyway.
No they don't. Yeah, I mean the whole karma thing.
I kind of lost faith in karma just based on
seeing how you have grown here at five Sports Radio,
Rob you treat people here horribly on the fact that

(18:31):
I'm kidding, yes, no, And and look, it's just it's
constant drama there, man, Like it's probably a really fun
team to cover. Like if you if you cover the Steelers,
you know this the worst, the most the worst thing
you could be if you're covering a professional team is
eight and eighty governing an NFL team. Give me something, man,

(18:51):
three and thirteen or thirteen and three, yes, be awful,
nothing but stories fruntled players feeding me stuff left and right.
And they're so many leaks in that steeler locker room
that you just I mean, just turn your recorder on
and go from locker to locker and just see who
wants to say what about who off the record or
sometimes on the record, Like I just there's an issue there,

(19:13):
and it started with Levon Bell, but I think we've
seen a little bit over recent years Ben Roethlisberger calling
out teammates publicly. Uh. It's just it's a strange set
up there and something's got to change, no doubt about it.
All right, eight seven, seven ninety nine on Fox Jonas, listen,
take the temperature of our listeners. What about Matt in

(19:34):
North Carolina? You're on the odd couple of Fox Sports Radio.
What do you got, Matt? Hey, guys five eleven wrong show. Yeah,
we don't need all that up up inches. Okay, thanks man,
I'm I'm not lovy outside. This issue started last year, well,

(19:56):
right before the playoff game with the jack Liars. They
told them they're gonna fran tag him not paying his money. Jonah,
she actually said something really smart once ago. You said that,
talk to the teams with the bad running backs and
see how they would feel if they had a great
running back on their team. Levy on Bell number one
in the league. Jay the man his money. July got

(20:17):
his contract. You're gonna offer ten million dollars games? No
paying his money? Pay him his money, especially for a
guy who's produced. He had four hundred touches last year. Hey,
here's here's I would love to ask the Steelers. I
want to sit down with somebody in the Steeler front
office and say, if you could happen to do all
over again, all things being equal, who would you have
rather paid Antonio Brown or Levon Bell. Hello. I'm telling

(20:40):
you right now, the one thing the Steelers do well
is draft receivers. They always find a receiver, always, and
they decided, when they've let other receivers go, whether it
be Mike Wallace and others, they decided they were gonna
pay Antonio Brown. And now you've got a guy who is,
for disciplinary reasons, supposed to be the best player air
on your team, and for disciplinary reasons, he misses the

(21:03):
biggest game of the year because he has a tantrum
and throws a football at his quarterback and it wasn't
incomplete past. Yeah, Jerome in South Carolina, you're on the
ond couple of Fox Sports Radio. What's up, Jerome. You're wrong, man,
You're wrong. Yeah, Man, Hey, it's time. I'm going whatever

(21:25):
they're offer me on that year, I'm taking it and
we'll sell all this after the season. Hey, Jerome, I'm
passing that money. Jerome, You do you know what this
this is? This is that whole mentality. That's why the
football players are in the bad shape they were in.
You gotta be willing to make a sacrifice to get
what you're what you're worth, not just because they throw

(21:46):
you some dollars and tell you now, if he got
hurt this year, there'll be no long term contract. They've
done it the players over and over, Jerome. How many
times does it have to happen before you decide you're
not gonna let it happen to you? Hey, yeah, no, where,
no where not. You just you know what you can't Jerome,

(22:08):
this is what you can't put your wrap your arms around.
You can't. You you're thinking that that Levon Bell works
at Sears and should just take whatever they say. We
paid ten dollars an hour you negotiating. But he's a
talented guy who has a unique skill that that that
he's he's worthy of negotiating and getting what his money's worth,

(22:31):
his value is worth, and he could get hurt on
any play. He's a he's a running back who doesn't
need to run to make an impact in the game. Yes,
and that's why his value is different than everybody else,
thank you. That's why. When when there was talks about
and this was one of the reports, but there are
so many that come throughout the season that you kind
of lose track when there are when there are some
reports out there that say Levion Bell wants to be

(22:53):
paid like a wide receiver, and people kind of kind
of sneaker and go, that's pretty fun. But man, look
at his numbers. I mean he has. He's as effective
as wide receivers in the league. That's why his value
is different. James Connor is not on that level, which
is why Belle's a better player. It's just that easy.
It's so simple, man, Jerome told you, man, you can

(23:15):
you know, I'm smack you around like that. But you
know him different general, And and that's the min mentality
is like whatever the boss man offers you, I'm just
going to take it. What are you talking about this?
Why isn't negotiations that's why you have agents then, and
he'll never get that fourteen million dollars back. What if
he would have got hurt this year then? What my
mom taught me that early on and applying for jobs,

(23:37):
she says, if they ask your salary desire, it just
put negotiable. No. So I started doing that when I
was like fourteen years old, and there was never a negotiation.
They say we paid ten dollars a yeah, if you
don't want it, you're gone, and you go no, I
won fifteen Okay, we'll see you a kid, come on,
really unbelievable. Let's squeeze one more in uh to meet

(23:59):
you in? Where's that Arizona? Arizona? You're on the doing
doing great. What's happening? Hey, listen, Happy New Year's But
I gotta jump in on this now. I'm gonna tell
you this right now. Leave me on bell. He has
to do more to stay on the field, to get
hurt the way he got hurt, Okay, I understand that.
But to get bustling twife for drugs. He's not Todd Gurley.

(24:22):
So I understand why Pittsburgh was a little bit skeptum
of giving them money. Besides that, we get that here's
a real noise. If Ben Lsson Burger doesn't pose many
interceptions that he does, if they don't loosen all play raiders,
if they had better coach team, if they were a
better coach team, they're still in the playoff. But Dmitri
to meet you the part that you're missing, and this
is the one that I dare you. If he played

(24:45):
all year, don't tell me they wouldn't have made the
play I just don't believe that. I don't care about
all the other stuff you talked about, because despite all
of the other problems that went on, it still took
the last day of the season not to make the playoffs.
Rob know who let the led the league in interceptions
this year? Quarterback? Yeah, Ben Roethlisberg. Yes, Yeah. If he's
got Lavy on bell, maybe he doesn't try and make

(25:08):
dumb decisions. May maybe the interceptions in the turnovers diminished.
He just he makes your team better. Period. That's that's
just you. You can't argue that your team is better
without all Right, we appreciate it. We'll take more of
your phone call stick around eight seven seven ninety nine, Fox.
But first let's see what's trend and let's catch up

(25:29):
with Steve de Seger. What's happened it? Steve? Boy Are
there a lot of ifs with the Steelers season because
they had those two close losses in the picks. But
there's no way you should lose at Oakland, not this year.
And there's no way you should gag that Sunday night
lead against the Chargers. And there's no way they should
tie that opener at Cleveland. Of course, the Browns didn't
even know what they were yet, so you could go

(25:51):
down a long list on this Steelers season. We mentioned
at the top of the sif didn't know what they were,
it was too premature to determine it was a Boyer.
In December, the Browns said, hey, we're a good team. Yeah,
Biblical Chord was blocking so well and it wasn't Picker
Mayfield's team. Then either way, it's not that funny. We're

(26:13):
talking childbirth here. At the top of the hour, we
mentioned all the coaching news Marvin Lewis fired as Bengal coach,
and plenty of others and assistants. Let go. There's plenty
of other news rolling in about assistant coaches as well
as head coach interviews coming up. The Bengals are, according
to NFL Network, going to interview the Rams quarterbacks coach
Zach Taylor for their head coaching vacancy, and Taylor the

(26:34):
Broncos have already requested to talk to him about their
head coach opening. The Broncos fired coach Fans Joseph after
two season. Cardinals and Dolphins fired their head coaches today.
Dirt Cutter was out as head coach with the Bucks
last night, and now the Atlanta Journal Constitution says Cutter
is quote considered the front runner for the offensive coordinator
opening with the Falcons because Atlanta today fired Steve Sarkisian

(26:56):
as OC fired the defensive and special teams coach as well.
The Packers have requested to interview OC of the Titans,
Matt Lafleur. The Dolphins have requested permission to interview Cowboys
defensive backs coach Chris Richard for their coaching vacancy. And
by the way, the Cardinals didn't just fire the head
coach after one season, Steve Wilkes. The offensive and defensive

(27:16):
coordinators are out, so Byron Leftwich already out off the
Cardinals staff. Nine News Denver says the Broncos will interview
Chuck Pagano for their head coach opening this week. SNY
in New York says the Jets planned to interview Jim
Caldwell for their head coach opening. So a lot of
news and the season just ended last night. The Raiders
new general manager is Mike Mayock from NFL Networks. Oh yeah,

(27:39):
nice with no experience. You seen his blank piece of
paper that was his resumet. Well, in other words, he's
a Philly guy and Gruden used to be a Philly
assistant and they've known each other for years. Nice. So
let me ask you this of both of you guys,
in order to be considered for a head coaching position,
would you say that you'd have to do something pretty
impressive in your p in your prior stop before then? Oh? Yes, yeah,

(28:03):
okay something yeah. Um. So Matt Laflour is getting job interviews.
Anybody see the Titans offense no looking forward? That their
offense stinks, Marcus Mariota stinks, Blaine Gabbert stinks, Like how
is how is Matt Laflour jumping to the top of
everybody's We got to talk to that guy board? I mean,

(28:24):
good for him for getting an interview. But while we
are talking about worst offenses, I don't know if anybody
saw the Redskins yesterday. The Philadelphia shut them out. And
this is a game where Nick Foles member left in
the fourth quarter with a chest injury. But Philly needed
to win get in the playoffs. They got the win,
even Nate Sudfield came in through a touchdown pass. The
Washington offense, this is a people got paid for this

(28:46):
game yesterday. This is a professional team. Theoretically eighty nine
yards of offense for the entire day. That bad nine
drives eight first downs under seventeen minutes time of possession
out of the sixty minute game. Let me tell you
some wow, some of those Bears teams in the nineties
would have prayed for that. Okay, I watched It's. It

(29:07):
kind of reminded me. You know, I was watching Michigan
State today. I mean, the only reason they've had a
bowl game is because they had a defense. It's and
then the offense got out there. They lost seven six.
Who was pitching Matt Liner at halftime Thattt linered at
halftime on Fox was like, you know, great job by
the Oregon defense, Matt. They're playing an eight man football

(29:28):
on Spartan seven and six for the season they ended
I think Kirk Gibson pinch hit late this Gamean State
they lost seven six to Oregon. Uh Stanford of fourteen
thirteen winner over pit in that bowl game Sun Bowl
Cincinnatia winner thirty five thirty one against Virginia Tech. And
there are three games in progress. Final min at Oklahoma
State up thirty eight thirty three over Missouri, which is

(29:49):
ranked twenty third in the country. It looks like Oklahoma
State can take in the FS. One has the Holiday
Bowl with a top twenty five matchup right now, late
first quarter Utah seven nothing over Northwestern. And also there's
another game tonight. It's number nineteen Texas A and M
just getting underway against NC State. Your check engine light
could signify a variety of different issues with your car.

(30:09):
The Auto Zone Fixed Finder service will help your troubleshoot
the issue for free and save your time and money
back to you. All right, thanks so much, Steve, appreciate it,
Steve to Sega. With all the info coming up, We're
coming to you live. I should say the odd couple
from the Geico Fox Sports radio studios. It's easy to
say fifteen percent of more on car insurance with Geico.
Go to Geico dot com A call eight hundred nine

(30:31):
four seven Auto Auto And the only hard part that's
figuring out which way is easier? All right? Eight seven
seven ninety nine on Fox, and people are hot on
this who won between Leveon Bell and his holdout Auto Steelers?
The Steelers didn't make the playoffs and leave On has
his health and there are a couple of teams that

(30:52):
got plenty of money looking for a difference maker. And
I think Leveon Bell one big time. And I think
I really Jonas believe that if he played the whole season,
they would have made the playoffs and would not be
on the outside looking in. Yeah, no, I believe that
as well too. Look, man, when you're when you're at

(31:12):
one point during the season seven two and one, and
then week seventeen after your finale, you're having to watch
the big board at Hines to see how the Browns
are gonna try and save your season. The Browns. That's
what you're reduced to, hoping that the Browns could save
your bacon. It didn't happen, Sean and La, you're on

(31:34):
the odd couple of Fox Sports Radio. What you got, Sean?
What do you want? Sean? Hey, Rob, you guys might
be the hide couple, but I think y'all gonna be
a great couple in the end. Yeah, thank you complete me? Rob? Oh,
thank you? Hey? But I thank come out on top
in this situation. And what way? Why? Well? Still like

(32:00):
you see, they haven't made the playoffs. If you don't
have to believe it, I know they would have made
the playoffs because they would have used their running game
much more than what they did with Connor. Connor is
a great kid. We all know. He's not Levian Bell.
We all know, but this is how that offense would
have been ran. With Levian Bell the offense and Ben

(32:22):
wouldn't have been throwing all those inncelts. He's the reason
why aren't blink? Thank you? Sm appreciate that call age
seven seven ninety nine on Fox. What about Richard in
West Virginia. You're on the odd couple of Fox Sports Radio.
What's up? Richard? Boy? Do I disagree with both of
the you Rob Parker and Jonas Canocks great with both.

(32:45):
If Levin bo would have played the entire season, they'd
be in the same situation they are now. I don't
think that he would have made any difference whatsoever because
it's a system and he just wouldn't have done it.
I'm glad that Steelers did what he did. I'm tired,
just absolutely just frustrated, tired, sick of people like him

(33:06):
making a kind of money that he does. What does
that mean? What does that Withchard? I don't know what
that means? So, Richard, you're okay with Antonio Brown making
the money he makes and skipping out on practices the
most important game of the season after an offseason, all
the money that Kirk Cousins made the team to make
the playoffs? What are you talking about? What does that mean?
I don't know why you're going off in your flights

(33:28):
of fantom with Kirk Cousins. We were talking about that. No,
but but you're talking about guys like guys like what
making what kind of money? That's what I'm asking you.
That's fourteen million dollars that he was holding out for.
So I heard that fourteen million dollars figure. It's just like,
I don't think why don't you two or both of
you said that the Bell would have played the entire

(33:49):
season they wouldn't be where they are. I think they
would be. All right, Well, we could agree to disagree.
We've determined amongst ourselves we are sure. You're talking Rob
and I kind of what you know, crunch the numbers,
and we have just discovered that Rob and I are
right and you're wrong exactly. I mean, listen, it's just
that easy. It's a mathematical equation. Don't blame me. It's
just the arithmetics. Mike in Louisiana. You're in the odd

(34:10):
couple of Fox Sports Radio. Hey, how y'all fellas gonna
Happy New Year? Happy New Year? How are you doing,
Mike Man, I'm going okay. I disagree with Richard Lady
down Bill Ware. He's a top three running back in
the NFL. They didn't even play. He was seeing on
the top three runs back. And the problem is people

(34:31):
don't see the big pictures. That's the NFC North. That's
the NFC North. Historically two or three teams go to
the playoffs. That's a great league. There's nothing the North Star.
It's not the FC Geas where you can just play
the NFC it ke so so, you know, I mean,
we can get in this man, But that league and

(34:55):
you look at laby Ud you receive was a quarterback.
The last time I see the triple head up like
that was in Dallas. I put I put the talent
in the same in Dallas with the triple, the triple
babies in Dallas when him no, no, Mike, no doubt

(35:16):
about it. And for people of pooh pooh him, thanks
for the call and act like he remember remember the
way they talked about him, like, oh, we're better off
without him. And it's no knock to James Conner on
what he did. He's not Leveon Bell. And people are crazy,
the people of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh's organization, they rolled the dice
and they played hardball with them and not a lost

(35:36):
and not as a loophole in his contract that will
allow him to become a free agent, which most people
believe will happen, and he'll go get a contract. Colts
have money, Jets have money. There's a couple of teams
they're looking for a difference maker. He'll move on. He
has his health. He won. I remember in Chicago when
Matt Forte was up for a new deal and the
Bears decided they weren't going to resign him after they

(35:57):
had already given him a contract a few years earlier,
and everyone said, oh, you know, big deal. You're not
gonna miss Matt Forte. You got Jeremy Lankford. He's more
more than serviceable as a backup running back. Jeremy Lankford
lasted a couple of weeks and was outplayed by Jordan Howard,
who was a mid round draft pick ended up taking
over the job. And now Jeremy Lankford got cut after that,
and last I saw me, he was playing for the

(36:18):
Falcons on Sunday. So you can't just assume, oh, we
got the guy that'll fill in the blanks here. When
you have a talent, you pay the talent exactly, especially
if he's been productive. All Right, we'll take more of
your phone calls on this. Who won? Was it the
Steelers or was it Levian Bell? It's The Odd Couple.
Fox Sports Radio, Stick and stay. Be sure to catch

(36:39):
live editions of The Odd Couple with Chris Broussard and
Rob Parker weekdays at seven pm Eastern four pm Pacific
on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeart Radio app. It
is The Odd Couple. Fox Sports Radio. He is Jonas
Knox filling in for Chris Broussard to my left, Rob Parker,
I'll telephone number eight seven seven ninety nine off box.

(37:01):
And when you're shopping for car insurance, consider this, Jonas. Hey,
Geico has been saving people money on car insurance for
over seventy five years. So if you're serious about saving
it's simple, go to Geico dot com. After seventy five years,
they know how to save you money. It's just really
that simple. That s Geico Caveman commercial earlier today, No

(37:25):
one's like they're bringing it back out the Geico Caveman.
Some of that commercials are tremending. They're great. They have
done a great job on advertising Geico. H. So we're
talking about Leveon Bell and it's your chance to jump in.
Who won the Leveon Bell's a hold out work because hey,
the Steelers didn't make the playoffs and he's healthy and

(37:46):
there's going to he's going to be a free agent
and there's going to be a market for him. Kyle
on Twitter says Jonas Knox is Antonio Brown without the talent, fame,
or wealth. Just a bleeping a hole. Wow all right, Wow,
new year. Yes, Alex in California. You're on the odd

(38:08):
couple of Fox Sports Radio. What's up, Alex, Hey, guys,
I completely agree. I think Leon definitely won this just
because he is getting away from the Turmoil team. He
can join the team that is rumored he's gonna go
to the Colts. And the Colts team has what nine
draft picks this year and got a gazillion dollars to
spend a million dollars to spend nine draft picks obviously

(38:30):
one an elite quarterback in Andrew lock Um, an offensive
line that's, you know, starting to become a top tier
offensive line. Um. I really think that he won, and
I think if he joins the Colts, that's gonna be
maybe the new dynasty after the Patriots down. And you
know what, all right, Alex, I don't disagree. I'm telling you,
I think he's going to wind up. What are you?
The Colts are the Jets? Both have a lot of money,

(38:52):
and if you're the Jet you look at it and go,
how do we take the pressure off for Sam Donald?
Bring in le Beyond Bell. He's an outlet to to
pass the ball too, and he can run and take
some pressure off. What's the one reason people don't want
to pay running backs they're broken down. You know, their
bodies might break down. Okay, here's a guy who's more
fresh than any back in the league. Yeah, he was

(39:13):
already one of the best in the league. It's to
me it's a no braining and no brainer signing Dwayne
In Detroit, you're on the odd couple of Fox Sports Radio.
What's up, Dwayne? Happy new year, Bud, Hey, Hey Dwayne, Dwayne.
For the people listening Detroit, I just want to throw
this out there for you, So tomorrow, make sure Jonas

(39:35):
is not doing the show tomorrow, but the man, Mark Wilson,
will be filling in for Chris Broussard tomorrow. All right,
all right, I just want you to know that people
in Detroit didn't know he's my long was my longtime partner.
So Mark Wilson will be filling in tomorrow. First and foremo.
You know, you guys made reference to the guy Goods

(39:58):
not a good TV show, um, you know, um, and
I came in with the NFL saying, you know, flipping,
you know, back and forth with the channels. Uh, you know,
scintilating finishes with the Baltimore Cleveland game, and then the
Pittsburgh Cincinnati. But you're an old newspaper guy, Robson, You're
like his headline, you know, uh, the Cleveland Browns with

(40:18):
a dead fish that couldn't save Pittsburgh. And that's essentially
what happened with the dilemma with Pittsburgh. Obviously, Ladon is
the winner and his dynamic because he stuck to him.
His gun sat out and you know, he's gonna get
paid by somebody, and it was kind of unfortunate that
the Pittsburgh players and the management kind of bagged on him,
you know, making him look like the stake boat. Well,
he's got a team guy and whatnot, but the factors

(40:39):
that matter he's dealing with best for him and also
another guy that you know, I want to give uh,
you know, props too. And he's been vindicated. Terry Bradshaw
pointing out to the function with the Pittsburgh management and
the coaching staff over the last couple of years. And
you know, obviously it's sad to see a lot of
African American coaches go down to day and uh, you know,
obviously they weren't six instance to you know, put the

(41:01):
teams and winning positions. But I think Terry that criticized
a lot because he was criticized in Tomblin who was
an apting American coach and right now and Bratcha also
is getting accused of Well, he's just being a hater,
you know. He just he doesn't understand today's era. No,
he's pretty spot on. Things didn't work out and he

(41:22):
talked about it. So we're gonna talk about We got
a lot more. Mike Mayock is a new general manager
in the NFL. We'll talk about that and much more.
It's the Odd Couple of Fox Sports Radio. Stick be
sure to catch live editions of The Odd Couple with
Chris Brussar and Rob Parker weekdays at seven pm Eastern
four pm Pacific. It's the Odd Couple Fox Sports Radio.

(41:45):
Happy New Year to people listening on the iHeart Radio
app in istanbul Very. I've been this on. Boy, you
have just the first country I thought of. Very nice. Yeah, Um,
are is it a country? It was nice? No, it's
a city city in a country. Whatever. But a happy
new Year to them. Um, and we've got we've also
got to the ball dropping soon, Rob Parker. The ball

(42:08):
drop will be happening in about four hours on the
East Coast as people are excited for twenty nineteen. Jonas
Knox in for Chris Broussard and we come to you
live here from the Geico Fox Sports Radio studios, where
fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on
car insurance. Visit Geico dot com for a free rate quote.
Also seeing the typical December thirty first posts on Instagram

(42:31):
and Facebook and Twitter, Gosh, twenty eighteen was such an
up and down year for me. I'm really hoping that
I could have a better year in twenty nineteen. Shut up,
lit the calendar, sober up, and just go on with
your business. Come on, man, just try to live your life. Yeah,
live your life. Live the best life you can live. Now, Now,

(42:51):
all people the right way? Yeah, that's telling you. That's
that's most of it. You treat people the right way. Yeah,
work hard, treat people the way you want. Yeah, things
usually work out for Yeah. And drink heavily. Oh yeah yeah,
come on, coach all right. So Rob Parker, there was
a move made in the NFL that um got a

(43:12):
ton of love. People loved this move that was being made.
So the Oakland Raiders, who had fired Reggie Mackenzie Um.
The Oakland Raiders have announced their brand new general manager
is going to be none other than Mike Mayock. Mike Mayock.
What the TV guy who has no experience, who's never

(43:33):
worked in the front office in the NFL. Mike Mayock
from NFL Network, who did a phenomenal job at the
NFL Network during the draft scouting. It's really, really, really good.
He's now the brand new general manager of the Oakland Raiders.
Your thoughts on the hiring of Mike Mayock in Oakland.
I have a problem with it, and I have a
problem from this standpoint. There's a lot of people in

(43:57):
NFL front officers jonas black and White, who were trying
to work their way up. And you know what they
were told about being a general manager. You gotta be
a scout, you gotta work your way up, you gotta
pay your dues before you could get a crack at
doing it. And here we go again. We saw this already.
They hired Matt Millen without any experience. They hired John

(44:22):
Lynch from the TV booth, another guy with no experience.
By the way, John Lynch got a lot of love
early on how those Nighters doing Yeah, and how about
that big contracting sign for a guy who's had seven
games under his belt. Yeah, okay, but even before the injury,
things weren't going that great. Yeah, and now here's Mike Mayott.
The problem I have is it can't be two sets

(44:45):
of rules, and especially I'm offended by it as a
black person. And here's the reason why, too, I really
am which one is it? You can't say, well, life's
not fair. And you know, John Gruden a number of
Philly guys and they like each other. That's okay. But

(45:06):
when you do that, you negate all these other people
are putting in hard work. And you know what, Jonas,
we don't have buddies who owned teams or as a coach,
would a ten year deal to get us in that way.
We can't come in that way. We're asked to do
the do the legwork and put in your time and
not be looking for a handout from somebody. That's what

(45:29):
we're told. Yeah, and then Mike Mayock for all the
stuff that he's done. No one's knocking his TV career,
all the good work he's done an NFL network, but
it's it sends because unless you could show me other
black guys with no front office experience with getting GM jobs.
If you could show me another guy doing that, then
then I'll put my hand down. I'll be quiet. But

(45:52):
that's not the case. You can't have it. You can't
keep changing the moving the line every time. You got
all these gems. Now, well let me see guys who
played in the NFL, Guys who who put in the
work as scouts, who have done all the other stuff.
Where are those guys left out in the call? Right?
The Rooney rule, I think is dumb. Another one, the

(46:13):
Rooney rule. If I'm a black coach and I already
know they're gonna hire, like you know Mike McCarthy, Right,
he's gonna go to the Arizona or Cleveland or whatever.
I'm not gonna go there for the dog and Pony show.
So did you go check I interviewed my black guy.
Now I could go get out. Now I'm gonna hire
the guy who I already hired before I brought him in.

(46:35):
This is just like, uh, just so the requirement. So
I don't get fine, Yeah, it's the Rooney rules insulting.
I think it's I think it's dumb. I don't just
get rid of it like if if people are just
abusing it and if people are just making a mockery
of it to where Jim called Well is getting interviewed
for the Packers job. Does anybody think Jim called Well

(46:55):
is gonna get the Packers? I don't. No, they just
want to meet the criteria so they can go on
with their real so they can go go on and
hire the guy. And and this is the other part.
The NFL is seventy five percent black. I'm not expecting
seventy five percent of the coaches to be black or
seventy five percent of the gms to be black. I'm not.

(47:16):
But we're good enough to play, but we can't do
the other jobs that come along with it. I mean,
that's something that bothers me. And when you keep moving
the line, you tell the young African American who wants
to be in management, yeah, go do this, be a scout,
do that and they'll be opportunity for you. And then
you go out and keep hiring guys. Matt was disastrous

(47:42):
at that job. Matt Milan. Matt Milan, Now Matt Matt
won four Super Bowls as a player. He could talk.
Let me tell you, was that before after he called
Johnny Morton imagine imagine what that one and he didn't
get fired. But I never did that to the cars.
But but this is the this is the problem that
I have with it, and I just think it's if

(48:05):
you if you're not going to do that for everybody,
I have a problem with. Here was my favorite part
of Mike Mayock getting the gig. All right, And again
I'm not saying that Mike Mayock's not going to work
out as a general manager because nobody knows. I get
the higher the Raiders are building with through the draft.
They are trying to acquire draft picks. Mike Mayock, that
is his specialty is the draft. So for in that regard,

(48:28):
I totally understand why the move was made. So I
get Mike Mayock, bring him in. We're gonna have a
ton of draft picks. We need a guy who knows
the draft inside and out. We need a guy who
studies his much tape and breaks it down as well
as anybody else out there. So if that's the reasoning
behind it, I get it. He's a draft specialist, a
draft expert. Let's bring in Mike Mayock so he can

(48:50):
really take a look at the draft and we can
we can make the right choices. Here's the part that
I found comical. People out there raving about the higher
oh man, love the higher of Mike Mayock. Man, Well,
what a move by the Raiders. God, what a great
hire by the Oakland Raiders. Why because you know who
he is? Yes, that's why, Because you're right, because he's

(49:11):
on TV. He's the same guy who said that Blaine
Gabber was better than Colin Kapern Because because you recognize
his fast that makes him a good hire. I mean, man,
it's it's like when Magic Johnson got the job with
the Lakers, and he got he would took over his
GM or whatever his title is with the Lakers, everybody
celebrating and move, Oh man, what a great hire by
the by the La Lakers. I remember going on the

(49:32):
air thinking, why, what has he done that makes you
believe that Magic Johnson's going to be a great front
office guy with the Lakers? Like what did he do?
You mean that one time when he flamed out as
a head coach or the other time when his late
night talk show bombed and was off the air in
six minutes, Like like, let's sup pretend that everything he
touches his gold. Great guy has had a ton of success,

(49:53):
but it doesn't mean he's a shoe in in this position.
Same with Mike Mayock. He's great on TV. I love
Mike Mayock. He's one of my favorite draft analysts out there. Him,
Daniel Jeremiah do an amazing job. But that doesn't mean
it's going to translate into he's gonna make a great
executive in the NFL. It doesn't, no, And my my
point is it just it's gotta be the same. It's

(50:15):
gotta be the same for everybody. I'm sorry. And they
talk about, well it's not fair. Yeah, I get that,
I understand that, but I just think this is, this
is what's happened to the Raiders, uh, starstruck uh. And
Mike Mayock has had a lot of whiffs too, you
know what I mean, anybody, there's a ton of them.

(50:37):
I mean Brandon Weedon o Blaine Gabbert. It was Blaine
gabertt over Kim Newton, right, really, Brandon Weedon over Kirk
Cousins makes sense, I mean that was that was a
home run hit. Jermaine Gresham over Rob Gronkowski. Oh yeah,
you'd want Jermaine over Rob Um, Aaron Curry over Clay Matthews.
You know that's I mean, look Mark Sanchez over Matt Stafford,

(50:58):
your guy stat pat for it could have been Sanchez instead.
It could have been Sanchez. Um. Yeah, So it just
just because you know who the guy is doesn't mean
that he's going to be good at this. It's like
just because you see a celebrity on the street doesn't
mean that they're a great chef. Okay, you just because
you recognize him doesn't mean they're gonna cook you a
decent meal. Mike Mayock, recognizable guy, good personality on NFL network,

(51:20):
It doesn't mean it's a great hire. Time will tell.
And my only thing is it's got to be the
same for everybody. And I want you to name me
to the black general amounage in the NFL who got
a job with no previous experience. I'll wait, well, let
me think about that. Let me so like executive black executive.
And now here's the thing all that I want to

(51:41):
point this out to the people listening. I don't see race,
like I legitimately don't see race. Rob. How many shows
have we done together, like fifteen something like that? Yeah,
I didn't know you were black until until twenty minutes
ago when I when I brought out the bottle of olie. Yeah,
and there was a brown paper bag out. I said, oh,
he's black. I get it makes sense, but no, it's

(52:02):
it's just people go crazy over recognizable faces. And then
it goes back to to your point. On the same day,
when other African American coaches are fired and now Mike
Mayock gets the gig, it just makes you wonder, Okay,
what's happening here? Is everybody on an even playing field.
That's it, and you know what sports is about and
even playing field, that's exactly what I'm glad you brought

(52:23):
that up. Yeah, that's the ultimate. How else in this
country can we have a country that's seventy five percent
black and in the NFL that's seventy seventy five percent white,
and of league seventy five percent black. You know, why
could you take the best person available? And my only
point is it shouldn't be telling one group that they
need to go do this, do that in order to

(52:44):
get an opportunity, and in other guys because he's Buds
or whatever, they're from Philadelphia or when when John Gooon
was in Philadelphia. It became friendly or whatever. I get it.
I understand that, but I just I have a problem
with it. Yeah, it's it's. It is a very strange
set up in the end, but look it's it's the
day after the regular season. A lot of interesting moves,

(53:04):
a lot of craziness out there, more reasons for the
Raiders not to win any game. All right, sorry, he
is he is Rob Parker. I am Jonas Knox in
for Cris Brussard. Here on Fox Sports Radio, we are
the Odd Couple. You can listen to the show obviously
on the I Heart Radio app on the the New
Year's Eve edition of the Odd Couple. Coming up next,
one NFL insider is going to tell you about a

(53:27):
surprise coaching move in the NFL that's coming up next. Here.
This is the Odd Couple. Rob Parker, Jonas Knox in
for Chris Brussard. Stick and stay America. Fox Sports Radio
has the best sports talk lineup in the nation. Catch
all of our shows at Fox sports Radio dot com
and within the iHeartRadio app search FSR to listen live

(53:50):
from a car landing on a roof to a car
landing in the Pool. We've covered him talk to farmers.
We know a thing or two because we've seen a
thing or two. We are farmers under written my Farmers
truck fire insurance exchanges and affiliates products not available in
every state. It's the odd couple. Fox Sports Radio. That

(54:11):
guy over there is Rob Parker. I am Jonas Knox
in for Chris Broussard here on FSR. Coming up in
about ten minutes from now here on Fox Sports Radio,
we are going to get into sort of the breakdown
of a quarterback in the league who has had a
disastrous season. So we'll get to that about ten minutes

(54:32):
from now here. Were purple, So that's coming up ten
minutes from now here on Fox Sports Radio. Right now,
we do want to welcome in Adam Kaplan, sirius xm
NFL Insider with us here on Fox Sports Radio. Adam,
thanks so much for the time. Rob Parker, Jonas Knox,
guy's going to talk to you now. Yeah. By the way,
so the odd couple, which one's fear. I'm trying to

(54:54):
figure this, Well, I'm just a filling. He's the filling.
But the filling, he's a filling. Felix because I can
see it robs the sports tray of course Adams, so
obviously a bunch of moves around the NFL. From a
coaching standpoint, give us a surprise higher that you could

(55:14):
see happening amongst the eight teams that are now looking
for guys. You know, I think, and I heard this
a week ago from a very high in NFL source.
He said, don't be surprised to see Jim Callwell, the
former Cults head coach obviously in the Lions as well,
come back here and be a head coach again, because
he's a very solid head coach. You know what he did.
He got the Super Bowl with the Cults, did well

(55:37):
with the Lions, and he really deserves a double shot.
And he's going to have some interviews, as I understand it,
a couple of teams who are already checking into him.
So I think he's a guy out of these eight.
And that, by the way, seven is the average over
the last twenty five years, so we're above that and
we have eight now. So yeah, I think when you
really look at it, teams do like head coaches who've

(55:57):
had success. We're not talking about retreads here. Jim call
was not a retread. This guy's had success. It just
so happens at the general management Detroit. What is his
own guy in Matt Patricia and Matt Patricia's they head
coach of Detroit right now. So I think to answer
your question, I think Jim Calwell is that guy that's
been out of it for a little bit, but I
think it's going to have a chance to get back in.
I got a question. You know, the black head coaches

(56:18):
went from seven in the league down to two. How
about black candidates? What are the chances that I don't know,
two or three black coaches get hired again or or
did we just see a wave and it might be
another couple of years wave before we see such a
number that we saw Rob. I'll give you another guy,
Chris Rashard, who's who really rebounded well for getting fired

(56:41):
in Seattle by Pete Carroll. He is the facto decordaer
in Dallas. He doesn't have that title, but he runs
their defense. He's going to have a minimum of two interviews,
but he can't interview this week because he's got the
playoff game right. But after that, he's a guy who's
a young guy at thirty nine years old, who's going
to get a chance as a minority triffic coach, smart,
high energy players flocked to him. It's amazing how much

(57:03):
better the defense got after Rashard joined them this year.
So I think he would be a guy when we
look at minority candidates. I think he's very good. As
I mentioned Jim Caldwell, and here here's in a couple
of the guys that were let go today, Todd Bowles
should get a chance of being a defensive coordinator against
the same with Fans Joseph. But the overall optics of
this five minorities being let go today certainly not good

(57:24):
and not what the league needs. And I think I
think I certainly understand the criticism because the patience level
for coaches overall, and it's just amazing. Eight think about it, guys,
twenty five percent of the NFL's head coaches were let
go today. That's that's crazy. That is a big number. Yeah.
If that's like, if you work in an office and
one fourth of the office is let go, you know
that's called it's called downsizing. Like everybody's gone. I get

(57:48):
ready because you're you're next. It's called radio in twenty nine. Yeah,
of course it is He is Adam Kaplan, a Sirius
XM NFL insider with this year on Fox Sports Radio,
Jonas knocks in for Chris Bruzzard alongside Rob Parker. Adam
I was saying this that there's a certain way, like
when you leave a job, like sometimes this stink sort

(58:08):
of lasts for a long time. When I look at
Todd Bowles, I don't know how much you can really
blame on his time with the Jets directly on him.
So I actually think Todd Bowles has got a good
opportunity to get get another shot as a head coach.
Do you feel not immediately, No, maybe not immediately, but
do you feel like there are some of these coaches
like a Gaze or a Todd Bules, this isn't going

(58:30):
to damage him in the long run when consideration comes
around for them again, right, correct, So we'll take the
ladder first seats Mitch, Adam Gaze, Adam Gasee and I
knew this would happen. Literally within five minutes after he
got cut. When he was fired, they called his agent
and they want to see what he wants to do
because he's an excellent play caller, he's a quarterback, developer,
though you could question how well Ryan Tannehill went up

(58:52):
developing in the end. I was going to say, I
need to see some more results, right exactly, So I
think that would be my question. But with Todd Bolls,
you got to look at the general manager. I think
he got put into a tough position. Remember Bowls and
Mike mccagan, the general manager of the Jets, did not
have a relationship. It was sort of a shotgun marriage.
Mccagan gets to keep his job. He will help lead

(59:13):
the search for a head coach to replace Bowls, but
Bowls is on the outside looking in. But I expect
him to have multiple opportunities to be a defensive coordinator.
And I do believe, and I think it's a fair
fair thing to bring up. I don't think the stench
of what happened with the Jets, it's no different than
a than a Brown's head coach having to deal with
what happened there over the years. I think they rebound.

(59:36):
Everybody knows how bad it had been there, though it's
getting obviously much better. Those are those coaches in Cleveland
ten rebound and I think that'll happen. But yeah, there's
some there, said it's no different than the NBA. Some teams,
you know, guys just get hired to get fired. That
that's just the way it is. And we look at
the Jets and the Browns less lack of success for
decades more obviously more than the Browns. The Browns, I've

(59:57):
only had a winning worker twice in the last twenty years,
the last one eleven years ago, and I think oh
six or seven. But the bottom line is, when you
sum this up, I think I think Todd Bowls will
be fine. It's just that he's gonna have to sit
out being a head coach for at least a year. Um,
let me ask you this. Stephen Ross talking to Adam
Kaplan Series x M NFL Incenter with us here on

(01:00:19):
Fox Sports Radio. Stephen Ross, Michigan alum, donates a lot
to the University of Michigan. Adam Gase, I guess you
could call a surprise firing to some people out there.
Do you think Miami is trying to I guess talk
Jim Harbaugh into coming back to the NFL, or at
least have a conversation or check in with him. Well,

(01:00:39):
we know what happened many years ago when Stephen Ross
behind Tony Sprouno's back. He interviewed him in an airplane hangar,
and he didn't think that news would get out. And
then Ross Rosscott caught and he at it. He you know,
he fessed up. He didn't think the information we get out.
There's been no indication this time around it's going to
be Jim could be John Harbow by the way. But
of course now the Ravens won, so they're playing this week.

(01:01:01):
But if the Ravens lose to the Chargers, there's a
belief for EMI League gets some teams who might wait
for John. Yes, he's on her contract for nineteen, but
he has not reached a contract extension. As long as
he does not, teams were gonna teams are going to
be curious about whether he would be willing to quote
for another team. So keep an eye on that starting
next week if the Ravens lose. Now, now here's my thing.

(01:01:23):
You know, guys hire people all the time, people they
know whatnot and Mike just got the general manager's job.
And my only issue with it is what about all
the other people who are told they need to be
scouts and work their way up and put in time,
you know, energy, and all this other stuff, and it
just doesn't seem to be the same opportunity for people

(01:01:45):
like that. And we've seen this act before. We saw
him Matt Miller, who could talk a good game, who
won four Super Bowls, all that was a terrible general manager.
John Lynch got a job same thing off television. Haven't
we been down this road before? We have? And now Mike's.
The difference with Mike is a I think he's a

(01:02:05):
little bit more in tune with talk to the NFL
teams in weekly basis, a little bit better prepared than
John Lynch was. John Lynch, I mean, other than doing
games every week, was not a guy that was watching
college tape for six months like Mike was. Now, it
doesn't mean that he's that he's going to be doing
a good job here. Remember John Gruden has personnel control.

(01:02:25):
The problem that Mayok and John Lynch face is they
don't know the mechanics. Is Mike talked about his press
conference today, being a general manager. Half of your job
is watching tape. The other half is being a general manager,
talking to agents, massaging relationships in the building, understanding the
salary cap, getting players signed and resigned. These are the
things that take a special talent. That Mike was not

(01:02:47):
brought up in the National Football League. That's the challenge
Rob and John Lynch is going through the same thing.
Look look at look at their first two drafts of
Kyle Shanahan and John Lynch of had not I mean
we're talking about John Lynch and and Kyle together. Kyle's
personnel control, those drafts haven't been great. Look what happened
with Ruvert Foster. So I think you bring up a
fair point if you were not brought up in scouting

(01:03:09):
in the National Football League, I think it's tough to overcome.
And we've talked now, you talked about Milling, We've talked
about the other guys. There's not a track record for
success with guys who've never worked in the National Football
League from a personal standpoint. And the other part two
that I have an issue with is more often than
not and maybe I don't know of me, you could
help me out. A black guy is not going to

(01:03:30):
get a job that way, you know what I mean.
Like if you're you're in a front office looking for
an opportunity, Oh yeah, come on you let me see.
I don't have a friend who happens to be the
coach of the Raiders and has that kind of pull
to be able to bring a guy in with no
previous experience. So it's it's one sided. And to me,

(01:03:50):
I think it's unfair. I think it rob I think
it's a relationship business, and yeah, I think it's it's
not really trust me. Personal guys around the National Football
League hate the situation when a guy who's never worked
in a front office comes out of his own film
room and decides he wants to work for an NFL
team with his friend of twenty years Bruden. It's not

(01:04:11):
the way that should be done. But look, these guys
are gonna get two or three years to prove that
they can work together and get and get this thing
turned around. If not, Mayock deserves all the all the
scorn and all the criticism in the world. I get it, though,
And I know personel guys I've already talked to, they're
shaking their head. They cannot believe that Gruden went in
this direction. But you know Gruden, John Lights people are

(01:04:33):
loyal and he's got to have this relationship for a
long time. We'll see if it works. Last one for
Adam Kaplan series x MNFL Insider with this year on
Fox Sports Radio, the Steelers. What the hell happens there
this offseason? What changes can you see happening, whether it
be personnel or player wise. What do you make of
what's going on in Pittsburgh? Yeah, the issue, you know,

(01:04:55):
we have the lates with Antonio Brown and his situation
with Fren Rothsberger. That's been well documented. They've got bet
they've got to figure out what's going on with the
Antonio Brown. Their defense very inconsistent. Remember, they have a
new play caller, Randy Fiekners's first time. Their past run
ratio is crazy, way too at forty two past tennis
per game for Ben Roethlisberger, which is a career high.

(01:05:16):
They've got to look into that. Yeah, this is this
is an ongoing theme here. Mike Tomlin, the head coach,
he's got to figure out kind of what's happened here,
because look, they're collapsed down the stretch. I mean, if
you wouldn't asked me a month ago. So they are
an absolute showing to win the NFC North and then
question is how far that could they go in the
playoffs now that they're not in there? I think this
is one of the off season storylines. Mike Tomlin and

(01:05:37):
where this team is going. I think it's very fair
to bring it up. And it's not just him, it's
it's kind of his coordinators and why is this team?
Why does this team collapse him? And I think it's
a very fair thing to look at. And yeah, and
the other thing I'm just gonna say real quick, and
we've been talking about this as well, levy On Bell won.
I mean, you know, people, if Levy On Bell's on
that team, and I know they had all the issues

(01:05:58):
with the team, they may the playoffs. He's that good
of a player and they didn't blink. They didn't want
to pay him. And he's going to be right. We'll
be a free agent at some point and his teams
with a lot of money looking for a player like him.
He's going to wind up winning ultimately, Well, he's going
to win his freedom because they're not going to put
their franchise tag on him. That that's for sure. But

(01:06:20):
the question is he's a running back. Can he beat
Todd Gurley's deal? Most people think he will, but he
misses that year of pay. But I get your point
about he won because the team was worse off. I
don't think that's even argue point. I mean, James Connor
has been a great story, but Levy on Bell is
arguably the NFL's best running back and this kid's special
as a talent, and not having him I think was
an issue. Now people want to talk all a one

(01:06:42):
about how good James Knner was, folks. Connor's a great story,
but Levy on Bell is a better football. Thank you, Adam,
Thank you being we've been trying to tell people. I
feel so much better at my opinion now that Adam
agreed to Christmas money. Hey, thanks Adam. We appreciate it man,
Thank you. Appreciated series x MNFL Insider. You can get
him on Twitter at Kaplan NFL. Always a good follow

(01:07:04):
and good stuff from Adam Kaplan here on Poppy New Video. Yeah.
By the way, when shopping for car insurance, consider this.
Geico has been saving people money on car insurance for
over seventy five years. So if you're serious about savings,
it's simple go to Geico dot com. After seventy five years,
they know how to save you money. He is Rob Parker.
I am Jonas Knox here on Fox Sports radio coming

(01:07:25):
up next, a quarterback coming off potentially the worst season
of his career, but also the best. Find out who
we're talking about next for all the latest though, just
open up your ears, oh yeah, and shut your mouths
because Steve Disager's here. You know you need to be
nicer to our listeners. And happy New year to you.

(01:07:46):
By the way, you talked a lot about Leavy on
bell situation earlier in the show. Don't you agree that
unless his career gets extended by sitting out this year,
then he didn't win this because he made zero dollars
instead of ten or no. But this is the point.
If he got hurt playing without getting the deal that
he was looking for, right, it's a big if it is.

(01:08:08):
The whole thing is he's healthy, he had four hundred
touches last year's healthy, and there are people who are
willing to pay him. Then he ultimately got what he wanted,
which is the security of a long term deal rather
than putting his body back out there if the chance
of getting hurt, if that's in his future in this
off season. Right, Otherwise he did make zero dollars, okay,

(01:08:28):
but the only the only read, the only thing that
would have made sense for him to come back would
be to come back on say a one year deal,
the franchise tag, and you win a Super Bowl, then
everybody wins, you go on, you get your money. Well
they didn't have to worry about that because they didn't
even make the playoff. So he took no damage. And
he wasn't winning a Super Bowl any but he didn't
take any damage. And guess who got hurt this year,
James Conner, the running back. We do have one baseball

(01:08:49):
note before we get to all what is that? What's
going on? Be quiet? John Hayman Fancred tweets out Manny
Machado has started following Yes Network, the Yankees TV station Instagram.
Could be a sign, could be nothing good look by John.
We know that he's interviewed with Yankees, Phillies, White Sox
and is going to pick his team in the new year.

(01:09:10):
We are almost to the new year. Welcome to Welcome
to reporting in twenty eighteen. Yes, I follows a because
back in the sixties they used to just make up
the story because there was no Twitter, Instagram. They don't
be given away secrets and journalism. I'mlike car shopping can
be confusing not anymore with True Price from Truecar. Now
you can know the exact price you'll pay for your

(01:09:32):
next car. So visit Truecar to enjoy a more confident
car buying experience. More NFL coach firings today at Cincinnati, Miami, Denver, Arizona.
Cardinals fired Steve Wilkes and the offensive and defensive coordinators.
Falcons fired offensive coordinator, defensive coordinator and special teams coach.
Head coach Dan Quinn in Atlanta will be his own
defensive coordinator now and Yes, the Raiders new GM is

(01:09:53):
Mike Mayock from NFL Network. Oakland's coaching staff is going
to be in charge of one of the Senior Bowl
All Star teams next month san France. San Francisco staff
will run the other side. Titans linebacker Brian Rapco retired
after ten years with Washington and Tennessee. NFL opponents for
twenty nineteen are set now that this year's regular season
is over. The Patriots will host Dallas, Kansas City, and

(01:10:14):
Pittsburgh on the Pat's home schedule next year. New England
will play at Baltimore, at Houston, at Philadelphia, among others.
Next year, there are six college football Bowl games right now,
final seconds before halftime on FS one Top twenty five
matchup at the Holiday Bowl, and Utah has scored and
is leading seventeen to three over Northwestern late first half,

(01:10:34):
early second quarter. At the Gator Bowl, nc he stayed
up ten seven over nineteenth ranked Texas A and M. Earlier,
Oklahoma State won the Liberty Bowl. Cincinnati took its game
with a late touchdown. Oregon and Stanford gut wins. Guys,
I don't know if you saw the games today, but
Oregon punted eleven times and still won seven to six
over Michigan State. Stanford punted nine times but won fourteen

(01:10:56):
thirteen against pitt Because Stanford scored a TV early in
the fourth quarter when the quarterback was hit and fumbled
inside the five and the ball in the air went
right to his teammate at the goal line, the running
back who caught it and scored a touchdown. Stanford sins,
thank you, and they win the Sun Bowl. NBA Indiana
won its fifth game in a row, and right now
the Rockets are a head seventy three fifty one over

(01:11:17):
the Grizzlies. Third quarter James Harden has thirty one point
seven rebounds nine assists. In the middle of the third quarter,
Celtics are losing. How does this keep happening? With that
rosters furs or a head seventy four sixty seven over
Boston late in the third Jonas Knox, don't you agree
that the Celtics, young as they are, should be better
than they have shown this year? I mean, I don't

(01:11:39):
know why you're asking me. I have no interest to
Boston Celtics, not my team. Observer. Did you say, yeah,
I would say that's probably a fair point, all right.
The season's thoughts in January? Yeah, that's a good point.
I thought it started on Christmas. I'll keep moving to day.
We're like NFL hiring processes. We keep moving a line
right right, all right, Jonas, I may not, Thanks Steve,

(01:12:03):
We're company alive here from the Geico Fox Sports radio studios.
It's easy to say fifteen percent or more on car
insurance with Geico, go to Geico dot com called eight
hundred nine four seven Auto. The only hard part figuring
out which way is easier. So I want to get
to this evaluation on a quarterback, Yes, but but I
want to do it when we have more time. Okay,
I'm gonna try and sell you on it. So should
we do it at the top of next hour? Do

(01:12:24):
you think we could do that? Okay? So absolutely what
we do. So we're gonna get we do have an
evaluation on a quarterback because he had the best and
the worst year of his career. So we're gonna get
to that at the top of next hour. He is
Rob Parker. I am Jonas Knox in for Chris Broussard
here on Fox Sports Radio. Quickly, let's go to uh

(01:12:45):
Sean is in Yeah, or let's go to Dave in Maine.
Dave is in Maine listening here on Fox Sports Radio. Dave,
what's happening. Great to hear you guys. Love the nod couple,
Thank you, buddy, Love Jonas, Yes, Crystal back on Wednesday,
So yeah, the ob couple and effect. But he question

(01:13:05):
you double duty today. I hear you on DP this morning. Yeah, sir,
you know me, I'm a worker. Yeah yeah. If you
said Matt Millan today though, I gotta know, Hey, hey,
you know what Matt Millan and I and I say
this with all sincerity, and you know he just had
a hard transplant, right, wasn't this? But Matt is a
great guy. You just didn't do a good job. He

(01:13:27):
really is. No, he is, he is. I just I
just I just love how you bring him up. When
you're talking about the time, it's awesome. Are you saying
are you saying that Charles Rogers pick was a bad pick? Maybe?
All right, what do you gotta do? You know, I
bell stuff fella, so you know, rob you you say
you want and all that stuff. But my thing is
this man, his whole goal was to not be run

(01:13:48):
out there, you know, thirty forty times a game. And
like the Steelers, we're gonna do to him. But isn't
a team that's gonna pick him up next season and
pay him that fourteen to fifteen million't gonna do the
same exact thing to him. No, but it'll be more
than that. It'll be a long term deal like girly
money with a with a bigger guarantee. All I'm saying is, Dave,
as you get older, you don't want to be that
guy who gives up your body and the team overworks.

(01:14:12):
You had four hundred touches last year and then you
get hurt and then they don't have any They named
the guy who got signed to a big deal after
he got hurt. Nobody Isaiah Thomas with the with the Celtics.
You know what he did, He rushed himself back in
the playoffs? Right, what about what an injury? What about
Pete five touchdowns with the Broncos. Yeah, but quarterbacks are different,

(01:14:36):
you know that. No running back, running back, no running
backs are different. You know that those years. No, the
shelf life is the shelf life is different, and they
don't get paid like that. They are making that kind
of money now, and we appreciate the call listening out.

(01:14:58):
Like remember the Leon Washington situation. Leon Washington I believe
he was with the Jets at the time. Uh, there
was a contract on the table. He wanted to wait
any or it was a low ball offer, but he
wanted to wait until after the offseason to sign his deal.
Ended up disintegrating his knee on a kickoff return or
something like that, and the jetsam Jets gave him his
deal anyway, Right, you know what I'm saying. Yeah, it's

(01:15:21):
so there's just Look, that's a great that's I mean that,
that's that's the example. You could be heard, especially as
a running back on every single play and let me
tell you something. If anybody out there thinks that Levon
Bell is not going to get his dollars, you're crazy.
He's absolutely gonna get paid, all right, Rob Parker, Jonas
knocks in for Chris Brussard here on Fox Sports Radio,

(01:15:42):
this is the Odd Couple. Uh, coming up next. It's
one of the hottest game shows, hottest segments on this show. Correct,
Rob Parker, it is yeah, this though it's it's called
Sources Say, and it's yours next here on Fox Sports Radio.
You stick and stay damn it. Oh. Thanks for listening
to The Odd Couple podcast. Be sure to check us

(01:16:04):
out live every weekday from seven pm to ten pm
Eastern four to seven Pacific, or on Fox Sports Radio.
Find your local station for The Odd Couple at Fox
Sports Radio dot com, or stream us live every day
on the iHeartRadio app by searching f s R. It's
the Odd Couple Fox Sports Radio. He is Rob Parker.

(01:16:27):
I am Jonas Knox in for Cris Bussard. We are
going to have another award winning edition of Sources Say
coming up here in just a moment. Also twelve minutes
from now here on Fox Sports Radio, The best and
worst year for one NFL quarterback. Cannot wait to discuss
that with Rob Parker top next hour, twelve minutes from

(01:16:48):
now here on Fox Sports Radio. Do you want to
let you know? We are brought to you by Truecar.
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And I want to give a quick shout out to
one of our loyal listeners, Brad. He listens from um Hamilton, Ontario, Canada,

(01:17:13):
and he loves the show and is always reaching out
on Instagram. All right, thanks Brad, We appreciate the support.
I don't know if you knew this or not, but
I am a CFL insider here it's Fox Sports. Are
you really ask me anything about the CFL right now?
Why does the league exist? Oh? I'm sorry, I will.
I will be breaking down the CFL coming up an

(01:17:36):
hour four. I can promise you that rong. All right,
By the way, it is time for a little something
you guys do on this three hours on this of course.
Well now, but in all seriousness, CFL Breakdown coming up
December thirty third here on Fox Sports Radio, it is
time for a little something you guys do on the
show called this Check Check Check everybody. Sources say these

(01:17:58):
two have been covering sports for nearly three decades, apiece.
I will say this. Let's put the big Jay journalist
to the testy good evening once again. Gentlemen, we are
looking forward to Steve. Sources say it's pretty easy stole
along for those who haven't been saus. I give an

(01:18:20):
item yes, and you give me a true or a
false on whether the sources are correct on this item.
Jonas in the background, You know Jonas on the Oscar
winning movie Argo. He thought it was about the Toronto argument.
Oh it would have been better. That movie stunk. Hey,
that was a great movie, Alex. I tell you, I

(01:18:41):
cannot get enough Kawi letters good. It's so good. I
feel bad laughing at him. As much as you want.
It's like extra catch, you can't have enough. It's kind
of like when the CFL had eight teams. Two were
named rough Riders. Okay, I'd have number one in sources

(01:19:02):
say you tell me if this is true or false.
NFL insider Adam Schefter reports Charger tight and Hunter Henry,
who suffered an ACL tear over the offseason, is good
to go for the LA playoff game this weekend. Meanwhile,
Antonio Gates said if they win the Super Bowl, he's
definitely calling in a career after that. Is this true
or false? I will say true. I'm gonna say false

(01:19:25):
because he came back, he was already retired. Ah, if
he's productive, I think he loves the playoffs a fall.
You're corrected his false. Gates has made no such item
about his future regarding this player. Did you hear that, Steve?
You don't, Yeah, we already got the sound and just
let him know. By the way, Antonio Gates, the only

(01:19:47):
reason he came back this year to the Chargers, because
it was sort of contentious when he left they didn't
want to offer him a deal, was because Hunter Henry
got injured right exact, And now Henry is You know
how the different lists NFL teams had, they put him
on a list where he wasn't actually done phone too
for the season, and so he's gonna take first team
reps this weekend. It's looking a good to play on
Sunday morning, a Pacific time. People will get up in

(01:20:09):
LA watch that. Item number two. Bucks fired coach Dirk
Cutter last night. They could pursue Jim Harbaugh, Mike McCarthy,
Bruce arians has expressed interest in the Tampa Bay job. Reportedly,
Tampa will be interviewing Chiefs offensive coordinator Eric b Enemy.
Are our sources correct on this? Say that's true? I

(01:20:31):
think that is true. I think the enemy is gonna
be friendly to a lot of people on the interview process. Oh,
that is true. From Pro Football Talk reporting all of
those items. Item three, the Broncos are down to three
candidates already, including Mike Munchack, Mike Shanahan, and Jim John
Harbaugh for the Denver Now Denver opening. Is this true

(01:20:54):
or false? Mike muncheck, Mike Shanahan, what is this ninety
six all over again. I'm gonna say false. I'm gonna say,
uh true. I think there was something that he met
with John Elway at some point. Yeah, you gotta write false.
According to NFL Network, Munchak's name is on the list.

(01:21:17):
According to Ian Rappaport, though next item, Cardinals fired coach
Steve Wilkes after one year and now could pursue Marvin
Lewis just let go by Cincinnati? Are the sources correct
on that one? I'm saying that's false. I just how
do you introduce a coach who was with the Bengals
for sixteen years and was owing seven in the playoffs.

(01:21:38):
I just can't sell that. I gotta say, fall yea,
what Pro Football Talk reporting they could pursue Marvin Lewis?
Does that make any So that's I called b that's
a rooney roll. Yeah, I call BS. There's no way
again and more there's rooney. It's just fake out. Technically
that does that would comply with the ruining role, although

(01:22:01):
hasn't Marvin Lewis lost his street credit at this point?
Just a lot of I would say, yes, okay, I
wouldn't let the guy order a three pieces. You're right,
we keep getting tell Haydon Manning has interest in the
Browns getting Adam Gase and he's in the owner's ear

(01:22:22):
about it. FA false, I'll say false, No, that's true.
There Buddies Haslims. A Tennessee guy this from CBS. This
that makes sense because he knows gays from Denver. That's right, Yeah,
that makes some sense five years ago. Interesting, well done,
Steve to say than the Odd Couple here Fox Sports Radio.
More on an NFL quarterback who had a really bad year.

(01:22:45):
That's next here on FSR Stick and Stay America. Be
sure to catch live editions of The Odd Couple with
Chris Brussard and Rob Parker weekdays at seven pm Eastern
four pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the Hard
Radio app. Oh yes, it is the Odd Couple. On
Fox Sports Radio. Jonas knocks to my left, filling up

(01:23:09):
for Chris Bussar. Rob Parker here, and we're coming to
you live from the Geico Fox Sports Radio studios. Fifteen
minutes could save you fifteen percent of more on car insurance.
Visit Geico dot com for a free rate quote. And yes,
New Year's Eve, it's not that the East coach. What

(01:23:30):
time is it out of the east? About three hours?
This is when you usually start to drink and just
be careful and be safe. Yeah, so you start to
you start to drink, you watch the ball drop. I
usually might move on New Year's Eve. Is if I'm
out and he wearing midnight it's approaching. I disappear from
the building until like twelve or five because I don't
want to do the whole Hey, give me a hug.

(01:23:50):
Happy New Year. It's just such crap. Get out of here.
Can I just get a drink and be left alone?
Like that's that's it's just fake. It's fake everybody like
fake fireworks and overpriced champagne. Like, look, I'm not a
big champagne No, I love champagne. I don't like the
taste on my palette after really kind of think a

(01:24:12):
sour taste. The thing I love, though, is that you
could drink a lot of it and not like get hammered.
Like like I could drink you know what I mean,
Like if you add a party or somewhere, you could
really I could just keep drinking it. Yeah, and some
some of it is a little too sweet for me.
Although Isaiah Thomas um the Hall of Fame er Isaiah Thomas,
he actually I remember talking. Yeah, the other one's fake.

(01:24:35):
Isaiah Thomas has a low sugar. Champagne does and people
don't really. And I think it's wine as well too.
There's so much sugar and wine and so much sugar
and some of those things that like they call it
the silent killer. You want to change your diet for
the new year, get rid of sugar, no anything white. Yeah, yeah,

(01:24:56):
I'm sorry. Yeah, myself included. You gotta leave racist flowers, sugar,
all that stuff is all bad for you. Yeah I
met that that white Yeah, okay, all right. I was
gonna say, you know, I'm a little offended. No, no, no, yeah,
come on, man, you know me, and you know we
appreciate that. What a yeoman's job you did. I mean,

(01:25:18):
what's the six days yet shows in a row? Yeah,
we appreciate you. No, hey, I appreciate you guys having me,
no doubt. All right. So one team that thought they
were they had they had a great defense, They felt
they should have made it to the next level. They
go out, they pile up all this money, all guaranteed
and say, here you go, we're gonna upgrade the quarterback

(01:25:40):
position and we're gonna go to the super Bowl this year.
Didn't make the playoff. The Minnesota Vikings. Now do you
want to hear a little bit of Kirk Cousins post
loss to the Chicago Bears. Yea, here he was Vikings
quarterback Kirk Cousins. I remember when I played in Washington
and we went to the playoffs, and at the end
of the message was, hey, this was only your first
year starting. You know, think how much better you can

(01:26:02):
get each year going forward. And I feel much the
same way with my time here with the Vikings. This
is only your one and there are times through the
season where I say, boy, he give me another o
tas another mini camp, another training camp. To build up
a library of reps with these guys and get audibles
and code words and gold all deeper with each guy
and what their skill set is and what they do well.
You can add layers to this offense. And I'm excited

(01:26:23):
about that. Yeah, okay, here's a problem. Yeah it's year one,
but it's not example one of you coming up small
in a big time moment. That's the problem. And he
got all the guaranteed money, which means there was going
to be a ton of pressure. And I wouldn't I
would cut him a little bit of slack. Except we've
seen this time and time again from Kirk Cousins. Why
do you think it is that this guy struggles in

(01:26:45):
these big moments? Because I have a theory, but I
want to I want to hear what you think. I
just think that there are a lot people put up
a lot of numbers, but most of them are hollow.
And that's why I put a real stock into who
do you beat and can you win a big game?
Like like I really do. I look at that more.

(01:27:06):
That's why I tell people all the time. You can
rip on Eli Manning all you want, a regular season whatever,
but you go look at those playoff runs and those
Super Bowls and don't tell me that that guy didn't
come up big, right, And that's what's doable if you
have it inside you. Everybody doesn't have it. And when
you look at Kirk Cousins, he's what six and twenty
five against teams that finished over five hundred. So, yeah,

(01:27:28):
the numbers look good. He's putting up all these numbers,
but a lot of them aren't against the teams that
you really need to beat in order to get to
where you go. And look, a quarterback, especially quarterback in
the NFL, if you're all that, your original team doesn't
let you walk. If you're all bad. The fact that
Washington wouldn't keep him and then he you as from

(01:27:50):
this standpoint, very they drafted him. They've seen every practice
every snap and they refuse to pay that guy. And
the Levon Bell. Some people will say, well, you guys
are saying Leveon Bell, but the Steelers made a mistake.
They must know something about him. No, it's different. That's
a running back and there was pre existing issues there
between those guys. Kirk Cousins don't less as long we

(01:28:13):
know that. It's like I remember when Jason Hayward was
a free agent in baseball and people were praising the
Cubs for for signing him, and they were saying, man,
you a guy like that with a five tool talent
doesn't come available in his mid twenties like that. Okay,
how about why is this guy available in his mid twenties? Yes,
and he's been a disappointment for what for the money

(01:28:35):
they gave him. Here's what I think is happening with
Kirk Cousins, and I didn't realize it until they were
talking about it on the broadcast Joe Buck and Troy Aikman.
They were making mention of Kirk Cousins and the amount
of pressure he puts on himself, and one of the
examples they gave was Kirk Cousins has a daily planner, okay,
which is like everybody's got things they want to do

(01:28:55):
throughout the course of the day. Kirk Cousins, from like
nine am to six pm, or it could have been
six am to nine pm has his day planned out
in fifteen minute increments on a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet and
it's color coded every single day, every day. So I
looked it up and it's true. He and he talked

(01:29:18):
about it like it, kind of bragged about it when
he was in Washington. Every fifteen minutes, go get to
pay every every fifteen minutes, every fifteen minutes. He's got
to be on schedule. And so it got me to thinking,
this dude's got OCD. Like that, that is full blown OCD.
That's a disorder, Like he's got OCD. And the only

(01:29:39):
reason I know this is because I have a friend
who's got OCD. And when things go wrong or things
don't go as planned, he's he's loses it. He's a
little bit off um, he's a little bit frantic. He
starts to panic a little bit. Like I was talking
about this, uh on my show last night. I know
I noticed something was odd with my buddy because every
time I would go over to his house. I've known
this guy twenty plus years. He had the same glass

(01:30:02):
of water filled to the exist exact same level, either
next to his bed or on the counter next to
his sink since i've known him, and I just kind of,
you know, didn't even think twice about or whatever. And
then as we got older and older, I realized, Man,
he's like everything's got to be as is and planned
and done this, and it's got to be that. And
I thought, this guy's this is not normal behavior. Okay,

(01:30:24):
I remember your friend's big hit. Didn't he make a
song you're down with? Yeah? You know me? Yeah? That one? Yeah?
Or O C d CD um, Yeah that was take two.
That was the B sides. Yeah that was that was
the B sides. Um. But like he does. But I

(01:30:50):
so whenever I go over to his house, and it's
funny because I actually might see him later on, he's
always got this glass with with a half filled water
next to his sink. So whenever I go over there,
I always dump it out because I want to see
him freak out every time. And so the last time
I did, he said, man, stop doing that. It's so
the cat doesn't doesn't drink out of the sink. I'm like,

(01:31:10):
you think that half glassful of water means your cat's
not going to climb up and drink out of the sink. Stop,
You've got OCD just to embrace it. You have OCD.
You need things to go as is Kirk Cousins as OCD.
I think that's why he folds in these big time
moments because when things start to go wrong, he can't
rely on his fifteen minute color coded microsoll Microsoft Excel

(01:31:32):
spreadsheet to determine what the next move is. When it's
outside of his control and he and he can't control
every aspect of it, I think he starts to panic.
And I think that's why in these big moments, this
guy falls apart. And it wasn't until they talked about
on the Fox broadcast that I said, damn, that's what
it is like. Because he can make all the plays,

(01:31:53):
he can make all the throws. Yeah, he's talented. He's
good enough to win games. Clearly, somebody see something in Mr.
Lt wouldn't have gotten the money that he got and
been in the NFL and drafted where he was, So
what is it? And it's got to be a mental thing.
And I think it's his OCD. I really do, because
something something's not right, and that's a bizarre man. It

(01:32:14):
is bizarre that that's unbelievable every fifteen every fifteen minutes.
If you look, if you've ever spent any time around
somebody that's got OCD, it's it's a crazy way to
live your life. Remember the movie as good as it
gets with Jack Nichols or he's got OCD, can't walk
on certain bricks outside his apartment, has to unlock and
lock the door three or four times before he opens it.

(01:32:35):
Like people's psychologically need certain things to happen before they
can get through it. He's got a set schedule planned
out every fifteen minutes. How do you expect a guy
like that who can't even live his life without planning
it out and color coding it to adapt when things
go wrong in an NFL game? I like, you can't
plan for anything like that. That's just it's craziness, absolutely crazy.

(01:32:59):
There's one other thing that's even more crazy. What's that?
Did you hear what Lebron James said on What Is It?
It's that documentary more than just an athlete. I guess
he's got his buddy. Yeah, and we get Jonas. He's
talking about his career and when he realized that he

(01:33:21):
was the greatest of all time, and I just thought,
you gotta hear this. That's your guy. Well, well we'll
play this so you can hear it. And then I
want people to react. I want you to react. And
then if you want to chime in eight seven seven
ninety nine on Fox eight seven seven, what's the rest
of that sixty three six nine, if you want to

(01:33:43):
join in on that, we'd love to hear. Uh people,
But here's Lebron James talking about when he realized that
he was the greatest of all times, made me the
greatest player of all time. I was super super ecstatic
the win want for Cleveland because of the fifty two
year drought, Like I was ecstatic, Like obviously I showed that.

(01:34:03):
The first wave of emotion was once y'all everyone saw
me crying, like that was all for fifty two years,
everything in the sports have gone on to Cleveland. And
then after I stopped, I was like that right there,
made you the greatest player of all time? No, everybody
was just talking how they were the greatest team of
all time, like it was the greatest team to ever
assembled and for us to come back, you know the

(01:34:26):
way we came back in that fashion, I was like,
you did you did something special. That's likely one of
the only times in my career I felt like like
you did something special. I haven't had really had time
to really like sit back and think, but that that
was a moment, that one right there made me the
greatest player of all times. You need a tissue over

(01:34:46):
there is what did you throw up in your mouths? What? Seriously?
Here's here's what I think is going on with him. Um.
I think he's kind of checked out. Okay, I think
that he's kind of I just think he's at the
point where he no longer cares and so he's just
gonna do whatever he wants. So he's gonna call he's

(01:35:07):
gonna call NFL owners. He's gonna say that that NFL
owners are slave masters. I have a slave master mentality.
He's gonna drink a glass of wine when he walks
into the building after he gets out of the car. Right,
he's gonna he's now going to uh potentially tamper with
some people. He's gonna make anti Semitic lyrics on his Instagram.

(01:35:29):
I didn't take him. I wasn't offended by him, but
some people were. And now he's gonna call himself the
greatest of all time because this happened. It's a guy
who sounds like he's a little bit checked out, that
he just no longer cares. But but I just that's
not for you to say. No, Jonas not helped me.
If somebody can obnoxious, somebody can bring the tape or
whatever where Michael Jordan said, oh, I'm the greatest place.

(01:35:50):
I've never heard him say that. That's what other people
say about you, it's not what you say about yourself.
And if I remember correctly, Kyrie knocked down the game. Yes,
Lebron had the block, I get it. But to act
like he was the only one, that's what that's what
he decided. He was the greatest of all time, not
what he lost a six uh NBA Finals, Not that time. Okay,

(01:36:14):
the only the only other time we've heard this. Remember
when Ricky Henderson broke the stolen base, right, yes, and
he said today I am the greatest of all time
and we all laughed at him. That's that's so over
the top. But it's kind of funny, like this is
the same thing. It's so over the top, like I
just think he doesn't care anymore, honest to God. And
when we talked about this and you and I said it,

(01:36:35):
um and you were making the point when Lebron signed
with the Lakers, he said, listen, basketball is second to him.
I told you that from man. I'm one hundred percent
on board basketball second him. It's all about his legacy
and his brand right now. And if I'm a Laker fan,
it's a little bit concerning that. That is concerning because
I don't think that that's where he's headed. But anyway,
where we are, and just you your take on it.

(01:36:59):
Are you cool with Lebron saying he's the greatest And
here's the moment when he became the greatest and the Warriors,
please that one the greatest team ever assembled. Yes, they
won seventy three games, Jonas right, but that was not
like and do you remember and you also, let's let's
also spit facts here if we're gonna spit facts. Lebron
James also the same guy who bitched and moan because

(01:37:21):
Draymond Green used the B word in my direction. He
should get he should get suspended for that. He should
get a technical foul for that. So if you're gonna
rat out Draymond Green, at least include that part of
the story in your summary. That one I didn't made
me the greatest player of Walt Okay, thanks eight seven
seven ninety nine. On Fox, where are you on this?
Lebron James says he's the greatest, and he remembers when

(01:37:43):
it can detail it, tell you exactly. It's the I couple.
On Fox Sports Radio, You're next. Fox Sports Radio has
the best sports talk lineup in the nation. Catch all
of our shows at Fox Sports Radio dot com and
within the iHeart Radio app. Search f SR to listen live.
And a lot of people aren't buying one. Lebron James

(01:38:03):
is selling them, which is that one right made me
the greatest player of all time, that he's the greatest
of all time, and beating the Warriors when they came
back from three to one, that was it. That was
the defining moment. He's all done, Jonas, he's he's the greatest. Yeah,
you know what I'd love to do. I would love
to get Kyrie Irving's reaction on some of Lebron's behavior

(01:38:23):
in the past couple of weeks. That's what I'd love, Yeah,
I'd love to hear what he thinks. You mean, no
wonder he wanted to Yeah, no kidding, right, he's looking
around going, thank you God. Now do you see right?
Eight seven seven ninety nine on Fox, Let's do it
big Mike. In Nashville, you're on the odd couple of
Fox Sports Radio. Hey man, what good man? What's happening?
Look man, I'm gonna oh with y'all to be honest

(01:38:45):
with y'all. Rip any y'all Mane Jonas and Rob Park.
I'm here so that all day you've been yet feel
me with respect to Chris Bruce sar Mane and Chris Brusar,
did Jason maggots Hire, I'm here for the all day
look all right, thanks Mike, I don't I don't know
where were we going? Right there? Appreciate it. How about

(01:39:08):
a min He couldn't even keep it straight? Even he
couldn't even keep it straight, I know, Amir. In Las Vegas,
you're on the odd couple of Fox Sports Radio. What's up?
A mere? Hi guys. I'm big fans of both of yours. Jonas,
I remember when you used to work on uh Andy
Furman and uh Mike North, So he came from the

(01:39:29):
you came from the bottom, bro, And Rob Parker, you're
my guy too. But I'm here to say on Lebron
he's always had an overinflated sense of self. You see
what I'm saying. He's like the guy that you all
know that things. He can get the best girls, and
you know he's the hottest, he drives the best car,
and you just think he's better than everybody. Yeah, Robert,
he's only saying this to himself. Man. So I'm from Sacramento.

(01:39:53):
I put, you know, Curry and like Kobe on a
totem pole higher than Lebron Man. And that's all I
want to say. Happy New Year, all right? Happy New Year?
By the way, you ever been in Vegas on New
Year's No? What an FFing nightmare? Is it? All the table,
the prices of you want to gamble it all the time,
everything because they know everybody's in town. Crazy Sean in Washington,

(01:40:14):
you're on the odd couple of Fox Sports Radio. What
you got Sean? Hey, guys, Um Jonas by the way,
and Rob, Yes, you guys are my two favorite guys
on Fox. Wow right, Wow, I loved you forever Rob,
you're like the most well rounded guy who knows and
you love baseball. Thank god you're a little baseball from
you and Jonas. And you know what, Sean, I want
you to know you will be able to hear baseball

(01:40:36):
talk on this show. Remember that not on mine, is
there is the game even exists anymore? Well, some people,
you know what it's I guess they don't want to
work and watch you hit him here thinking how do
you know any players anymore? I mean, you give me
at least a little light And then Jonas, you made
me laugh. Um, you're running of a show that's on

(01:40:57):
the Southern Network and you're unbelievably funny. Guys together a
great but Jonas, my gosh, we got a show like that,
it would kill it anyhow. I'm talking about Lebron and
the Goya. Okay, Lebron played in the East and he
made every playoff, but it was so weak. I mean,

(01:41:18):
Jonas and Rob, you guys could have put a team
together made it to the finals, where Michael for the
first six years of his career couldn't make it to
the finals. But he had Detroit, he had Hall of Famers,
he had Larry Bird, he had McHale and he had
to work hard and once he got there, man, he
was tough and no one called him to be words.
He heard that when that happened, and I mean no

(01:41:43):
one called him that. They called Lebron that Draymond called
him that. You guys, I'm gonna let you think about that.
But what do you think about because Jordan was so
tough and then he got home and he didn't have
to tell anybody he was a go. He was the
exactly you don't have to tell anybody Sean and people forget.
The Eastern Conference when Jordan was coming up was a nightmare.

(01:42:05):
I mean, first of all, the Celtics were still there Detroit,
you know, the piss absolutely, the battles with the Nis.
Remember the Hawks were loaded. The Hawks had a ton
of talent um, there were a lot of good The
Sixers were still sort of the Pacers with the day
the Pacers. I mean, there was a lot of talented
teams in the Eastern Conference. So Jordan had to go

(01:42:28):
through that grind to try and get there, no doubt
about its. Look the Calves back then, I mean, Craig Elo,
Brad Doherty, like, there were real talented teams. Lowie Nancy
Lawie Nancy Alias in Minnesota. You're on the odd couple
of Fox Sports Radio. What you got hey, guys, love
looking you guys. You guys are actually the goat, unlike
lebron Um. But I feel like the whole lebron situation

(01:42:51):
is a joke. It should be greediest of all time.
I mean you to look at him sakes and injured
or I shouldn't say fakes an injury, but he has
an injury. And then he has the guts to show
up in uh at Los Angeles with the let's uh
glass of wine? Yeah, coming to the game. That just
seemed very strange. I didn't I didn't get that Happy

(01:43:13):
New Year too. If you ever, if you needed any,
if you needed any proof that he can do whatever
he wants, unlike other people in the league, him showing
up with a glass of wine. And again it doesn't
bother me necessarily because they but he's a role model.
When kids see that, that's just not good. If if, okay,
if Draymond Green had done that, oh god, gotten crushed.

(01:43:33):
If Kevin Durant had done that, We've gotten crushed. Guy,
bad guy, absolutely Robert in Washington. You're on the eye
couple of Fox Sports Radio. What you got Robert, Hey, guys,
thanks for taking my call. This is the best show
on radio, Jonas, I love you on the weekends. Man,
you got the greatest man never porn star wars wrestler.
Man that that's the bar man wanted to say. Man,

(01:43:56):
this Lebron James. Guy, Man, somebody's just slept it. Tay
started his mouth for some blasphemy against mister Jordan's because
I call him the lea fraud lane. No matter where
he goes, he ruins your franchise. He'll get coaches fired,
he chases off your all star players, he leaves your
franchise and ruins and I'm sorry he's gonna do the

(01:44:19):
same thing to the Lakers. He rode, Thank you, Rob Parker.
What do you call Lebron James the foe Finals failure
of all time? He's wanted more finals than any other
former MVP, but for some reason, he claims he's the
goat and he knows what it happened. That's my favorite one. Uh.

(01:44:45):
Tam in Illinois, You're on the odd couple of Fox
Sports Radio. What's up? Yeah, Lebron's not even the greatest
of all time. He's not the greatest I've ever seen.
And uh, you know, Jordan's the greatest I've ever seen.
I worked for Oscar Robertson and I didn't know much
about him. He got considering Wilt Chamberlain, Bill Russell. Oh,

(01:45:09):
he's the greatest. Yes, what you know? Hadn't it funny
that right before Christmas he had to end a Semitic
remark and he got hurt. Jesus was a Jew? All right,
I'll how you stick the landing? All right? Like there's
a drop? Can we please? I say that is a drop?
Like for telling me Andrew in New York you're on

(01:45:32):
the eyd couple of Fox Sports Radio. Good anything, gentlemen.
I was just wondering, do you think NBA players might
not wanting to go to Los Angeles to play with
Lebron to increase his legacy. No, I think that that
is the case. Guys don't want to. They don't want to.

(01:45:52):
Here's the other thing, Andrew. If you go play with Lebron, hey,
if you do win, Bron gets all the credit and
b if you don't win, you know what, it's your fault.
You're the reason why it's nevill Lebron's fault. Listen, he
wasn't even he didn't even sign on the dotted line before.

(01:46:13):
You had one player say I'm not going there to
go play with him, and that was Paul George. Lebron
was from LA and had talked about coming home for
two years. Yeah, and I love how people try and
spend it. They go, well, and he's not really from
LA's from Palmdale, Okay for Palmdale in LA. We're not
talking about La uh and Turkey, right, Okay, Like it's
it's not that far. He's a Laker fan, he grew

(01:46:35):
up a Laker fan. He would he would have loved
you talked about it for two years. So the idea
that Lebron's not having a negative impact on other players
around the league is just crapped you. Actually, And I
don't know if we want to if we want to
tease this, because you've brought up a good point and
we've been meaning to discuss this on the show because
I thought it was one of your best points to
where you talked about like the status of the NBA

(01:46:57):
and how Lebron's gonna leave it, which I think is
nobody has really hit on, which I think is fascinating.
I think there's a lot of validity to what she said.
We'll do that. We'll talk about that, but first let's
get caught up with what's going on on trending in sports.
Steve de Seger has an update. We got a lot
of NBA, including James Harden's night to get to. But
just we deal with numbers here at the news desk.

(01:47:18):
Lebron James playoff career twenty nine points a game, seven assists,
three titles. Michael Jordan's playoff career thirty three points a game,
six assists, six types. We move on to the score.
What are you saying? What are you saying, Steve, I'm
just saying that one guy won double the titles and
scored more points per game and about the same and
assist per game at their playoff careers. Just because you

(01:47:41):
came back from three games to one. Was Jordan down
three games to one in Ednie Finals? No, never played
a game seven because he didn't need he didn't need
seven to win. I know, just say get it, Jess
Final at Houston, the Rockets win one thirteen one oh
one over the Grizzlies. Notable that James Harden not only
had a triple double forty three points, ten rebounds, thirteen assists,

(01:48:03):
he has said an all time NBA record first guy
ever with an eighth straight game getting at least thirty
five points five assists. And he does it in a
game where he has a triple double with forty three
points via the stat people at Elias. In NBA history
of the last thirty seasons, only two other guys have
scored in a span of ten games four hundred points.

(01:48:25):
James Harden has done that now, Jordan and Kobe. That's it.
In the last thirty years of NBA. There's a lot
of people who say they don't like watching James Harden play,
Like how could you not like watching a guy who
scores thirty five game eight straight games? Like how? I
don't know. Maybe it's when he takes five steps to
the back, but that's amazing that he still does it

(01:48:47):
and still gets away with it. It's unbelievable. That's what
a league is, though. You know what people are gonna
say tomorrow. The haters, eh, turnovers, okay, Oh yeah, that's true. Yeah,
boy dribbles the ball twenty two seconds okay, and they
did win the game, by the way, also victories for Charlotte,
Indiana won its fifth straight, and San Antonio came back
and be Boston one twenty to one eleven. The Spurs

(01:49:11):
in an eight and a half minute span scored thirty
eight points, not the whole third quarter, just eight and
a half minutes of the third, Quad scored thirty eight
to take the lead eventually one twenty. For the game.
LaMarcus Aldred scored thirty two points. There are other games
on this New Year's Eve. It is halftime at Oklahoma
City Thunder sixty to forty three leaders against Dallas starting

(01:49:31):
the second half Russell Westbrook eighteen points, Pelicans at home
tied seventy nine all against Minnesota late in the third,
and the Warriors game is underway up twenty eight twenty
five at Phoenix late in the first a Phoenix team
that is nine and twenty eight. College hoops number four
Virginia State undefeated with an easy win and guys, there
was an overtime college game. Monmouth was oh and twelve,

(01:49:53):
but one at Penn in overtime seventy six seventy four.
Attendance was two thousand in Philadelphia today Monmouth, the team
that had lost to cal State Fullerton and Lehigh by
twenty four points each. Was winless on the season, but
wins at a Penn team that had been ten and three,
and after the game, Steve Alford was a fire. Oh
come on, just for good measure, Yes, there is college

(01:50:18):
football at FS one right now. The Holiday Bowl. Utah
had the halftime lead of twenty to three. It's now
twenty to seventeen against Northwestern and the third quarter at
halftime A and M up twenty one thirteen on NC State.
Back to you, by the way, is that Monmouth in
New York or Monthy, Jersey. There's a Monmouth, Illinois. That's
where my family's from. My dad's from Monmouth, Illinois. People

(01:50:39):
are listening to us on at w GIL very nice
about huh all right? Eight seven, seven ninety nine On Fox,
we're trying to squeeze in a few more on Lebron
and his claim that he knew when he became the
greatest player ever when they came back on that three
to one. And it is just kind of weird to
hear a guy call himself to go. I'll just I've

(01:51:00):
just never heard it. Okay, give us before he takes
some more calls Lebron's negative impact on the league. I
just think my thing was, I think, uh, Lebron James
has ruined the NBA. And when he and people say
he's not the first guy to ever leave a team
and move on and free, I get all that, but

(01:51:21):
it started a treading where a lot of guys started
to leave. I to this day do not believe that
if Lebron James never left Cleveland, Kevin Durant went the left, OKC.
Once they you know, it's a copycat league, once they
see one of the greatest players doing stuff, they go, well,
he bounced out. He started my Space. So the Warriors said, okay,

(01:51:42):
we'll start Facebook, you know, like like they started to
copy Okay, so you're doing that, you're stockpiling guys and
you're gonna build a super team. So then a lot
of us, there's a slew of guys who started leaving
teams all of a sudden, and I think that that
threw off the balance in the Eastern Conference, you know
what I mean. And that's why he was able to
go to eight because Toronto was hurt by it. Right

(01:52:05):
with Chris boss Leven, he joins Miami. So Cleveland was
devastated by it, and all of a sudden, you have
an imbalance. And I think that's where people should look
at and say it wasn't good for the NBA. It
was good for Lebron, but it wasn't good for the NBA.
And there's a reason I get free agency I do.
It's almost like it's almost like this Jonas. He didn't

(01:52:28):
start resting, you know, because that was Popovich in San Antonio.
But once Lebron started taking days off, what have happened?
All the other guys started going if the if the
greatest player right currently is taking time off, guess what
I'm gonna take this game off. I'm gonna take And
it became an epidemic. Well, all these players were taking

(01:52:48):
rest day. It's why you hear stories from whether it's
the Cowboys in the nineties or the San Antonio Spurs
or even the Patriots. Belichick is hardest on who on
the New England Patriots Tom Brady because he's the leader.
He sets the example for everybody else. You talked to
anybody who's covered the San Antonio Spurs, Greg Popovich used
to knife not literally, but knife Tim Duncan at practice

(01:53:11):
all the time for not playing the right way. He
knew that it was going to set an example and
a tone for the entire team. So if the leader,
it's just kind of walking around with a glass of
Merlot before a game or like, right, I mean it
just it, you know, it sort of sets a tone,
positive or negative. It does set a tone throughout the

(01:53:32):
rest of the league, no doubt about it. I'm working
on writing a book about it because there's a story behind. Yeah,
so we'll see in twenty nineteen. That would be a
good book for next Christmas. I'll buy a'll bit, let
me borrow your card. I'll buy it. Okay, no problem,
all right, Mo and San Diego. You're on the odd
couple Fox Sports Radio. What you got Mo? Mo? One?
Two three? Are you there? No, he's not talk about

(01:53:53):
Tom in Portland. You're on the odd couple Fox Sports Radio.
What's up Tom? I No. One has over thirty one
thousand points, almost nine thousand assists, nine thousand rebounds, and
it doesn't all these other championships. Okay, that's great, but

(01:54:17):
Lebron holds thirty or forty NBA records. Of all of
the records inis, is it about winning? Michael Jordan was
was the scoring leader ten years in a role, defensive
Player of the Year, assists, all kinds of other records,
stop it. And he won all six NBA championships that

(01:54:39):
he played. Let me ask you, ay, Tom, let me
ask you this. You're in Portland, right, Yes, Had had
the Blazers not taken Sam Booie and took Michael Jordan instead,
would you still felt this way? So? I would because
I know that at the end of Lebron's career he's
gonna have over forty thousand points, eleven thousand rebounds, and
eleven thousand assists, three thousand steels. Nice. All of those

(01:55:02):
are nice. Those are fillers, Tom, Thanks for the phone call.
Appreciate Mark in Indiana. You're on the hot couple of
Fox Sports radios. Happy New Year, Hey, Rob Jonas, what's
happening in Mark? Happy New Year? Guys hack? All you
guys buckle up for this? All right? Okay, I'm a
jabbar Jordan, Russell, Duncan, Bryant, Bird, Elijah On, Johnson, O'Neill, KERR,

(01:55:26):
NBA advocate of forty plus seasons. Rob, you know this.
I'm calling about this delusional, double dribbling coach, killing goldten
and the staff, padding wine and flopping, ring chasing quitter,
the King of Akron. Now, I'm an educator, not a hater,
a teacher, not a preacher, a motivator not a deflator.
Tomorrow night, on Tomorrow night, on trash Talking, I'm taking

(01:55:50):
a flamethrower to the King of Akron. So everybody better
tuning in. It's gonna be epic. Now you go, Mark,
you know what did you have on trash Tuesday? You
know what screw Edgar Allan Poe? Screw Edgar Allan Poe?
Give me market Indiana? How's that? How's that for a
lit Well? He's he's he's our best trasher man, That's what.

(01:56:11):
That's how you do sports radios, Doctor Seuss, you know
one more, We're gonna squeeze one more. We're in Matt
for Many Minnesota. You're on the hot couple of Fox
Sports Radio. What's up, Matt Hey? How are you doing? Guys?
You guys rock Hey? Um, I'll make this real quick.
If it truly comes down to the wire for who
the goat is, I think the deciding factor should be

(01:56:32):
Jordan's flu game versus Lebron's cramp game in the finals.
There's your answer is cramp. Yeah, what are you trying
to say? You know, h you know, you know how
You're about to say something, then you realize your MIC's one.
That all right? It is The Couple of Fox Sports

(01:56:55):
Radio and uh, we will talk a little bit more
about Lebron. I mean people are sowing, people are fired up. Man.
We'll do that and wrap up the show with a
nice bowl stick and stay America. Be sure to catch
live editions of The Odd Couple with Chris Brussard and
Rob Parker week days at seven pm Eastern four pm

(01:57:18):
Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeart Radio app.
From a car landing on a roof to a car
landing in the pool, we've covered it. Talk to farmers.
We know a thing or two because we've seen a
thing or two. We are farmers under written my farmers
truck fire insurance exchanges and affiliates products unavailable in every state.

(01:57:39):
It is The I Couple on Fox Sports Radio, and
we're gonna wrap up this fine program. We got a
couple more phone calls a due. Can we do that? League?
Can we squeeze those men? Let's do it. Let's do that.
What about Steve in Texas? You're in the old couple

(01:58:01):
of Fox Warts radio. Well, Happy New Year, Happy New Year.
I just wanted to say, you know, Lebron James is
definitely not the greatest of all time. If you're the
greatest of all time, you never have the team up
with Dwayne Wade and Chris Boss. The King never have
to leave you. The people come and play with the King. Absolutely, Absolutely, Steve.

(01:58:21):
And you don't have to say it. You don't have
to say it. Absolutely. You don't have to let everybody know.
We just know you the greatest. And then that's not
the greatest Golden State Warriors team that he beat that you're.
The greatest Golden State Warriors team is the teams that
just put them out the last two years. That's the
greatest gold Space Absolutely once they got Kevin Durant, no

(01:58:41):
doubt about it, no doubt. Happy New Years, Steve. Yeah,
Hey Robert, Happy New Year to you. Do you want
to why you want to hear what somebody said about
you on Twitter? Yeah? Comes from a guy who's tweeted
in for several years and I love him because he's insane.
Uh And he's the biggest Lebron James ball washing. Here

(01:59:01):
we go one next two chains. That's his Twitter account.
We used to call the five next nine chains the
best of them. He writes in Oh please, you got
some wanna be black Skip Bayliss type who's a closet
baseball geek telling people the NBA's ruined because of Lebron James.
Get the f out of here. We will always love

(01:59:22):
NBA hoops. Parker lost his quote unquote card years ago.
Oh it's funny because NBA TV radi's are down twenty
six percent. Those are facts. Hey, Lavelle in North Carolina,
you wanted a couple of Fox Sports Radio? Hey what's
going off? Those Happy New Years? Happy New Year? What
you got? You know? It's funny. I would have loved

(01:59:43):
been with a fly on the wall and ask Lebron
James the question when we say he was the greatest
of all time? I was like, oh, yeah, how did
you do it? The next year when you got to sweat? Right?
And the next year right, the last, the next the
last two years. I'm happy. You know. Another thing too,
is you know he used the first player in NBA
history to get some twice in the deck game. I
supposedly he's the greatest of all time. That doesn't make

(02:00:04):
any but the buzzler he's the greatest of all time.
So we're just gonna laugh at that. We're just gonna
let him have this moment. I mean, it was that
was hilarious to me. But but I'd like the caller
mentioned before. I was like, oh, yeah, what happened with
that blue game and that Crank game when you had
to get carried off because the AC wasn't on? And
then exactly appreciate the call Jay in San Antonio. You're

(02:00:26):
on the odd couple of Fox Sports Radio. Make it quick?
How are you doing? Man? Thank you appreciate when the
Spurs coming in? I was on song, I was on
the paint. But the Spurs are coming in. But back
to your point, Rob, you right, I mean asked Lebron.
Who has signatures on their college jerseys? I mean when

(02:00:49):
you go when you watch a college playoffs bowl game,
Michael Jordan has his signature on their jerseys. It's real similar.
It's so simple. There you go appreciate it. How we
are we done? We got one more? Yeah? You want
to do one more? Real quick? Ryan thirty seconds. Ryan
from North Carolina on the Odd Couple of Fox Sports Radio,

(02:01:10):
the one that real quick. When people will think of
the number twenty three, people always think of Jordan. Nobody
thinks of Lebron. So that's just my thing about that,
no doubt about it. Thank you so much. And and
I want to say to the crew and everybody, man,
Happy New Year. Man. You guys make working here so
much easier. And and Jonas, I have a little present
for you. Oh yeah, yeah, all right, I got this

(02:01:32):
for you. Look at that. He just fit you. It's
a medium that's great. It's an Odd Couple T shirt
all right for Jonas, because man, you have made working
with you and doing the show to the last six
days without Chris a lot of fun. But and it's
a medium. It's me. It's just right, all me. So
you can wear that. I want this bad boy painted on.

(02:01:53):
Here's here's the trick with a white shirt, this tight um.
It gets really cold out. You know, your your nipples
get a lot Okay, yeah, it's gonna look like I
got shot, Like I got two shot glasses in my
ass shirt. So yeah, this is well done, man, I
love it. Yeah, that's great. Now it's been a blast. Man.
Appreciate you guys having me. It's been a lot of fun. No,
it really has. And don't forget what the podcasts. You know,

(02:02:15):
check us out on the podcast. We've had some really
good numbers on the podcast, which is great. So I'm
I'm thankful as we go into the new year about
about the show about sports in general. We still love it, man,
I really do. I know sometimes I sound like a
crotch of the old man when I got my phone.
You gotta have the structure. But but I enjoy doing

(02:02:38):
this and I love sports. Look, I've I've told people
this is not to uh and no embellishment here that
what makes Rob great to work with is that you
treat everybody from top to the bottom exactly the same,
nothing but respect. Good dude, no matter what you may
disagree with his opinions, and the FOTE may offend you
for you lebron fanboys out there and the but but

(02:03:00):
legitimately one of the great human beings in the business.
So stoked for your success you deserve alved man, I
appreciate it. What a great year it was and will
be next year and the odd couple tomorrow with Mark
the Man Wilson filling in for Chris Broussard, and don't
forget to check us out on Undisputed Tomorrow. Chris and

(02:03:21):
I will fill in for Shannon and Skip. It is
The Odd Couple of Fox Sports Radio. Thanks for listening
to The Odd Couple podcast. Be sure to check us
out live every weekday from seven pm to ten pm
Eastern four to seven Pacific, or on Fox Sports Radio.
Find your local station for The Odd Couple at Fox
Sports Radio dot com, or stream us live every day

(02:03:44):
on the iHeartRadio app by searching f s R

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