Brian Noe, Rich Ohrnberger, and Jared Smith talk DeAndre Hopkins and more!

Brian Noe, Rich Ohrnberger, and Jared Smith talk about DeAndre Hopkins release from the Cardinals, the Celtics trying to fight back and tie the series against the Heat, the NFL allowing flex scheduling for Thursday Night Football, Scottie Pippen’s wild comments about Michael Jordan, LeBron’s empty retirement threat, Ja Morant’s ongoing issues, and more!  

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Don't listening to Fox Sports.

Speaker 2 (00:04):
Could you use a pro Bowl wide receiver? We will
dive into that. Good morning. Hope your Saturday's going fantastic.
We are broadcasting live from the tirec dot com studios.
Tire rack dot com will help get you there an
unmatched selection, fast free shipping, free road hazard protection, and
over ten thousand recommended installers. Tirack dot com the way

(00:24):
tire buying should be big NFL news. DeAndre Hopkins, the
stud wide receiver formally of the Arizona Cardinals. He is
on the open market over here. So the Cardinals release
this guy? I always love this team. Saves about eight
million dollars in cap space, but he'll count just under

(00:46):
twenty three million dollars against the Cardinals cap this season.
But they release him. Can you say tank? So the
Arizona Cardinals positioning him themselves to be at the top
of the draft. Why else release stud wide receiver? But
now that DeAndre Hopkins is on the open market, he's
a five time pro bowler who comes in and scoops

(01:09):
him up. Swoops in scoops. We got swoops and scoops.
We had all kinds of stuff going on. We all
start with you rich and good morning, gentlemen. Hope everything
is fine.

Speaker 3 (01:17):
In your world? Oh, good morning.

Speaker 4 (01:19):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:19):
I'm this is one of those things where the story
is almost about what he left behind instead of what
he's heading towards, because some of the things that he
said on the im Athlete podcast about what he's looking
for in his next team just gives you a view
into what he thinks of his last team, or maybe

(01:40):
his last two teams. But he's looking for a stable
front office, and he's looking for a quarterback who loves
the game. Yeah, he didn't say a quarterback with a
great arm. He didn't say a quarterback who's talented. He
didn't say a quarterback who understands how to read defenses
and knows the offensive playbook.

Speaker 3 (01:59):
Like the back of his hand. He said a quarterback
that loves the game.

Speaker 5 (02:05):
I mean, if that isn't coming after Kyler Murray, I
don't know what is, because that, to me, has been
the one thing since Kyler has entered the league.

Speaker 3 (02:18):
Does he love it? Does he love it?

Speaker 5 (02:21):
Because remember when he was taking interviews and I'm talking
about with you know, media dudes like us, you know,
just the the jocks who have microphones. Everybody was like
asking the questions about baseball and asking him how much
he's interested in football, and he seemed aloof And then

(02:41):
when the general managers and the team's coaches got their
hands on him during the combine and things, you know,
those were the questions that were being fired over at
Kyler Murray just to make sure.

Speaker 3 (02:55):
Now he was still taken.

Speaker 5 (02:56):
At the top of the draft, but it's still to
This is a question we don't have a firm answer to.
Does he love it? Does he love it as much
as Aaron Rodgers? Does he love it as much as
Tom Brady? Does he love it as much as Peyton Manning?
Is he talented?

Speaker 1 (03:13):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (03:13):
Does he have a strong arm, yeah? Can he read defenses?
I don't know.

Speaker 5 (03:17):
But he can play in the NFL we know that.
Does he know his offensive playbook? I don't know, but
he can play in the NFL We've seen that. But
does he love it? That's what DeAndre Hopkins is looking at.
And to me, that's the reason why the Cardinals are
looking to tank the next season because I don't even
know if they know if they have a quarterback who

(03:37):
loves it?

Speaker 4 (03:39):
Yeah. I think this raised a lot of questions for me,
not just like DeAndre where DeAndre Hopkins is playing next
year was like maybe third or fourth on my list
of questions. The first one is everything Rich is saying,
just about the situation in Arizona and Kyler Murray especially.
The second one is more so man the entire Arizona

(04:04):
fan base, you know, and I know it's not maybe
as rabbit of a fan base as maybe some more
traditional sports markets that East Coast, et cetera. But if
you're an Arizona Cardinals fan watching this play out.

Speaker 1 (04:18):
Wow, you let him walk for nothing.

Speaker 4 (04:21):
You couldn't even get a seventh round compensatory back of
the draft, like literally just said, all right, dude, go
ahead by just walk Like you couldn't even I know
they wanted a first round pick, obviously they weren't getting that,
but there's a lot of other ways to get compensation
for a player that is under contract, and I know

(04:43):
the contract is a little bit hefty, and I'm looking
up some of his grades right now from this season.

Speaker 1 (04:49):
Of course, he only played in about half the games.

Speaker 4 (04:51):
That was because of the suspension on injury, and then he
did have some injury issues later on in the year.
But I don't want to say his numbers were off
the charts, Oh my goodness, explosive number one wide receiver.
Like you could tell, there's a bit of a down
trend with his time in Arizona and his production yards
after the catch yards per route. We're on all that
nerdy stuff we love, But really, the bigger question for

(05:15):
me here is just what happened for him to just
walk away and Arizona to let him walk away, I
thought was eye opening to me, and there is something
else happening there. Maybe it is behind the scenes with Kyler,
maybe it's behind the scenes with the front office, but

(05:36):
that is a really that is a very interesting outcome here,
not even to attempt to get any compensation back and
just let him walk away. Man, Kyler Murray better be
careful too, because he's coming back from the injury and
he has now one less receiver to help him out.
And Arizona could say, hey, listen, we got Caleb Williams

(05:57):
coming in the draft next year, Bud.

Speaker 1 (05:58):
You just take as much time as you need, don't
worry about it.

Speaker 2 (06:01):
Yeah, Well, that's where I think it's headed. Is this
is a big picture move exactly. There's no other way
you would let a five time pro bowler just walk
it with anything else in mind. And it traces back
to well, both of you guys are saying rich. You
started it off with does Kyler Murray love the game?
Does he love football? And you've had comment after comment

(06:26):
of former teammates saying things that.

Speaker 3 (06:29):
Are the opposite of him loving football.

Speaker 2 (06:31):
This was Patrick Peterson, remember him on the All Things
Covered podcast.

Speaker 6 (06:35):
Kyler Murray don't care about nobody but Kyler.

Speaker 2 (06:38):
Murray like that. That's pretty damning right there. And then
there was Kelvin Beacham who is still with the Arizona Cardinals.
He was on Arizona Sports, Burns and Gambo. This went
a little longer, but check this out.

Speaker 7 (06:49):
He has the ability to lead. Is just when you're
in that position when need you to lead more, like
you to face the franchise, you gotta leave more. You
gotta lead in every single capacity of leadership. And that's
what they look for out of a franchise quarterback. They've
give you, you know, half a billion.

Speaker 3 (07:06):
New coaching staff may be able to push him in
a different way than the old coaching staff did.

Speaker 7 (07:10):
We'll see, We'll see Kylas his own individual. He's his
own person. He beats his own drum, which has made
him what he is today. But at the end of
the day, you have to be able to lead an
entire organization.

Speaker 2 (07:21):
Yeah, that doesn't sound like he's mister leadership right there.
And then with DeAndre Hopkins saying I need a quarterback
who loves the game, there's just way too much smoke
for there to be no fire. There was once a
clause in Kyler Murray's new contract about him studying enough.
So the guy clearly is not preparing the way other

(07:42):
top quarterbacks are and that's an issue. And that's why
I see Arizona letting DeAndre Hopkins go, because they are
trying to position themselves to be at the top of
the draft. And if it means drafting Caleb Williams, well,
then so be it, because that seems to be a
better spot than where they currently are.

Speaker 3 (08:00):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (08:00):
There's nothing worse, guys than when you're on the football field.
There's nothing worse then when you're on the football field
and your quarterback doesn't know what to do. I mean,
I hate to like paint it on one guy and
say like, well, gee is like you know, you really
that needs to get done or nothing else can happen.

(08:22):
But the truth is, that's the truth, and we all
know it. Look, I mean, like we just talked about it.
Calvin Benjamin said half a billion dollars. When you give
somebody that kind of money, when you give somebody hundreds
of millions of dollars over the course of their career,
and that's now the industry standard. If you are a

(08:44):
top twenty quarterback, you're getting tens of millions of dollars.
If you're a top ten quarterback, you're getting hundreds of
millions of dollars over the course.

Speaker 3 (08:53):
Of your career. Like, that's the reality of this sport.

Speaker 5 (08:56):
Now, if you have a guy who's turning the wrong
way on opening up to the wrong side on handoffs,
you know, if you have a guy who's dropping back
and not throwing the correct route against the defense he's seeing.
If you have a guy who's not understanding what the
pass protection is picking up versus what he's hot off of.

Speaker 3 (09:15):
Meaning when you.

Speaker 5 (09:16):
Only have so many blockers and they're bringing a blitz
with seven and you only have six people who can
block for you, it means if they do bring that
seventh guy, you got to know who to throw it to.
When you have a quarterback who can't do that, you
can't play. You can't play the sport. I mean there
were times where, and I'm not going to out anybody,

(09:39):
where it was very clear a guy was going to
get cut because he wasn't prepared. The easiest position, The
easiest position get to get sniffed out. When you're not
prepared as the quarterback, there is no hiding. All eyes
are on you. If you don't know exactly what you
need to do on every single play, they'll find you immediately.

(10:00):
Everybody knows. And so yeah, I mean those guys who
have actually shared a locker room, even the defenders, like
you heard from Patrick Peterson, you know, I mean, if
somebody's screwed something up on the offense and the play
gets all messed up, Yeah, it's typically like, you know,
a little bit of a I wonder what happened over there,
But when it's the quarterback, everybody in the building knows.

(10:22):
And so I don't know if that's still happening with
Kyler Murray. I don't know what kind of preparation he's
putting into it, but I know there was issues when
he first got there, and the fact that you still
have players talking about whether or not he loves the game.
This team is looking for something new at that position.

Speaker 4 (10:41):
You know what the funny thing is, guys, I think
after this smoke dies down a little bit, this might
be the most relevant story about the Arizona Cardinals all year.

Speaker 1 (10:50):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (10:50):
Like it just it feels like we're trending towards that
kind of a season for them, where the most exciting
thing that will happen to them this year will be
DeAndre app gets walking out and that's the most talked
about Arizona Cardinals third year. I guess maybe when Kyler
comes back from the injury, right it looks like he's

(11:11):
he's gonna start the year rehabbing from the knee and
they'll probably call McCoy or if they bring in someone else,
who knows. But so the beginning of Arizona season is
going to be mired by backup quarterbacks and then maybe
when Kyler comes back later in the year, we'll get
more buzz. But I do think shifting the focus to
where DeAndre plays next is interesting. I don't think he's

(11:32):
a game changer individually. I think he needs to be
in a system that again the love of the game
fuels a little bit of that fire.

Speaker 1 (11:42):
Again.

Speaker 4 (11:42):
This will be now I think, his third team in
five years. Four years. Yeah, he spent three years in Arizona,
so I think that was a mid season trade too,
or I forget if I forget how he got to Arizona,
if it was a mid season trade or if it
was offseason. But so now it'll be his third team
in his career. Here's some interesting candidates out there, right.
I saw Mina Kimes tweet out a list yesterday. Detroit,

(12:04):
New England, Carolina, Dallas, Atlanta, Indy, Buffalo, Kansas City Giants.
Cap trouble there. I don't know what you guys think
of those teams. Detroit to me was really interesting. I
think you PLoP them on the Lions today, and man,
oh man, that offense looks really really dangerous.

Speaker 1 (12:19):
But the quarterback situation there might not beat his liking.

Speaker 4 (12:22):
Carolina rookie quarterback, Dallas Dak Prescott, Atlanta quarterback, Indie a quarterback, Buffalo,
Kansas City Giants. I think much better offensive situations. Any
thoughts on that list and where he goes from here.

Speaker 2 (12:35):
Well, that's the thing is where does he Land. I
think his wish list is exactly that. It's a wish list,
because he was on the im Athlete podcast and he said,
you know, how about the Bills, Josh Allen, they don't
have cap space. How about the Eagles Jalen Hurts, they
don't have cap space?

Speaker 4 (12:52):
Chiefs I was talking to his agent before the draft, right.

Speaker 2 (12:56):
Yeah, but that was probably before the OBJ. You can't
have everybody, you can't have everyone over there. And so
about the cap space your Jets, now that's fine.

Speaker 3 (13:06):
How about now about.

Speaker 4 (13:10):
Man oh Man, there's there's someone who's gonna get a
really good, a really good wide receiver.

Speaker 2 (13:15):
Though, well, that's the thing is, it's got to fit
because there are some cap gymnastics that you can do,
but there's only so much.

Speaker 3 (13:21):
Like the Browns.

Speaker 2 (13:22):
The Browns have been talked about they only have seven
million dollars in cap space.

Speaker 5 (13:26):
Yeah yeah, I mean, I mean they're down the list.
How about how about the Panthers though, like with a
brand new quarterback, and maybe DeAndre Hopkins is tired of
playing with young quarterbacks.

Speaker 3 (13:37):
But I don't know.

Speaker 5 (13:38):
Frank Reich, if if he gets on the phone, he's
a pretty commencing guy. Uh, intelligent football coach. And you
know if he if what I would do if I
was courting DeAndre Hopkins as a as a free agent
and I was the the front office in Carolina and
really wanted them, I would send I would send them

(13:59):
highlight so Bryce Young connecting with receivers down the field.

Speaker 3 (14:03):
Yeah, there you go.

Speaker 5 (14:05):
Yeah, I'd feel like like we're playing on doing a
lot of this in Carolina.

Speaker 4 (14:09):
This yet you're like basically Bryce Young's highlight reel from
Alabama exact just just said. Or just have Nick Saban
show up at the Carolina facility.

Speaker 3 (14:17):
That would be Yeah.

Speaker 2 (14:19):
But that's the thing is if they could convince him.
Think about that, how it all works together. Where you
think of Carolina. They had the blockbuster trade including wide
receiver Dj Moore, But because Bryce Young is on his
rookie deal, then you go back and you get a
guy like DeAndre Hopkins. That would be huge for Carolina.
I don't know why he would go there, but that

(14:40):
would be a grand slam.

Speaker 4 (14:42):
That's a net positive, right you get? I mean Dj
Moore for DeAndre Hopkins. I think that's a pretty net positive, right.

Speaker 5 (14:49):
Yeah, he would be an absolute star in Carolina like
there would be no I mean, if they have any
sort of success and he has any sort of numbers
in Carolina, I mean, he would be given so much
of that credit. And Bryce Young seems like a guy
who's about his teammates, and I don't know, after being

(15:10):
in Arizona for a little bit, Yeah, wouldn't be nice
to be with a quarterback who's gonna give it up
and give all the praise and the accolades to his teammates.

Speaker 3 (15:19):
You know.

Speaker 5 (15:20):
The one thing that kind of came through just those
two brief clips that we played about former teammates or
teammates talking about about Kyler Murray.

Speaker 3 (15:31):
Is there's some level of selfishness there.

Speaker 5 (15:34):
And I mean, like, if you're a wide receiver, you
that's got to drive you crazy. If that's your thought
process on the quarterback who you're playing with, is geez.
You know, normally these guys are some of the most
selfless guys on the field.

Speaker 3 (15:50):
You know. It's not a Kyler Murray dash fest over here.

Speaker 5 (15:53):
I mean, but but this, to me, that was a
stunning admission on his way out is that he wants
a quarterback who loves the game.

Speaker 3 (16:02):
That's the criteria that's all I'm looking for.

Speaker 1 (16:04):
I receiver supposed to be the defense.

Speaker 3 (16:06):
Still receivers like we're supposed to be the.

Speaker 8 (16:12):
Pick.

Speaker 4 (16:13):
Honestly, if he if he ended up in Detroit, I
already liked this Lin's team a lot. They might be
one of my over bet, one of the first over
bets I make in the win total market this year.
But man, imagine you get Jamison Williams back from injury,
you draft Jamire Gibbs.

Speaker 3 (16:27):
And gambling suspension too. Don't forget about that.

Speaker 4 (16:30):
That's true, and you have that's true, and you have
the gambling suspension.

Speaker 1 (16:33):
But man, oh man, you've got that is.

Speaker 4 (16:35):
An offense with the coordinator coming back and Ben Johnson
and obviously Jared Goff, that offense ready to roll.

Speaker 1 (16:42):
You get Hopkins in the mix and the motor City
there baby.

Speaker 3 (16:45):
No doubt.

Speaker 2 (16:45):
Hey, We're brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Progressive makes
bundling easy and affordable. Get a multi policy discount by
combining your motorcycle, r V, boat, ATV and more all
your protection in one place. Bundle and save at Progressive
dot com. We are off running. Rich Orenberger is back.
He was out last week. He's back with a vengeance
and a tight black T shirt. I'm picturing over correct. Yes,

(17:09):
we got.

Speaker 3 (17:09):
Jared Smith FSR betting analyst.

Speaker 2 (17:11):
I'm Brian Now coming up next, this would be legacy
altering stuff. It's Fox Sports Saturday right here on Fox
Sports Radio.

Speaker 8 (17:21):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at foxsports Radio
dot com and within the iHeartRadio app search FSR to
listen live.

Speaker 1 (17:33):
Two NBA Insiders podcasting twice a week to plug you
right into the NBA Great Five.

Speaker 9 (17:39):
All happening in only one place. This League Uncut, the
new NBA podcast with me Chris Haynes and me Mark Stein.
Join us as we team up to expound on everything
we're covering. Hearing and Chason.

Speaker 4 (17:53):
Listen to This League Uncut with Chris Haynes and Mark Stein.

Speaker 9 (17:57):
On the iHeartRadio app, Apple podc Cast, or wherever you
get your podcasts.

Speaker 3 (18:02):
Welcome back in.

Speaker 2 (18:03):
It's Fox Sports Saturday Live from the Tirack dot com studios.
We're brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Progressive makes bundling
easy and affordable, good multi policy discount by combining your motorcycle,
RV boat ATV and more all your protection in one place,
Bundle and save at Progressive dot Com. Yeah, I don't

(18:23):
know who sings this song. I forget Ramos is playing
it like the who the Blur is a blur, but
they had the lyrics on some show. They're like, what
do they say at the beginning? And I listen, I'm like,
I have no idea, and he says, it's either I
or you have got your head shaved like a jumbo jet.

Speaker 3 (18:42):
But it's like a Jimbo jim.

Speaker 4 (18:44):
Boat, like the yeah kambucha stuff that you drink, right,
I don't know. Yeah, some of the ERTs you actually
read the lyrics. You're like, Wow, I've been saying it
wrong for the whole forever.

Speaker 2 (18:54):
I got the woo hoo part down cold man, I
got that down now this, guys, this would be legacy altering.

Speaker 3 (19:01):
Stuff.

Speaker 2 (19:02):
Is if the Boston Celtics can come back from a
three to ozho deficit, be the first NBA team ever
to do that. They've got the next step in the
journey over here Game six tonight against Miami Heat. Think
if they take it a step further, if they win
a title in the same year after coming back from

(19:23):
a three to zero deficit. That would absolutely be legendary
type stuff, especially for that franchise, in the history that
they have. But even if they don't win a title,
they'd still be known as the only team.

Speaker 3 (19:36):
They kind of be the umbc of the NBA in
a way.

Speaker 2 (19:42):
Now, if you think of the flip side of it,
if the Heat, if they're the only team that gives
up a three to oho series lead in NBA history,
that is legacy altering stuff as well. I don't think
we're gonna look at Jimmy Butler and be like this
freaking guy, But that's going to be something that we
always always trace back to whenever, like five, ten, fifteen

(20:03):
years from now, anytime there's a three to zero series lead,
we're gonna say, well, the Celtics came back, Well, then
he gave it up. That is huge stuff that we're
seeing here potentially unfold.

Speaker 5 (20:14):
Well, I mean, think about how divergent those two futures
will be for either squad, you know what I mean. Like,
if if the Celtics do beat the Heat, we'll start
on the Celtics side. That will save Joe Mizzula's job,
That will that will keep their head coach in his
chair most likely. Almost, you know, it doesn't It almost

(20:37):
doesn't matter what happens in the finals because I think
the Nuggets are such an overwhelming team this year, unless
the Celtics can make a series of it.

Speaker 3 (20:46):
But you know, we'll cross up Barats when we get there.

Speaker 5 (20:50):
But if they win, if they come back three to
zero and they win the Eastern Conference Finals, yeah, I
think Missoula saves his job. Now, then you look on
the other side of it. Jimmy, everybody loves him.

Speaker 3 (21:04):
I love him.

Speaker 5 (21:04):
I think he's a phenomenal player. He's a great story.
But you know how star players get when all of
a sudden the culture stops working for them, or stops
working period. If the Heat lose after having a three
to zero run in the Eastern Conference Finals and you're
the star of that team and everybody's asking what's wrong

(21:28):
with you? Like, why didn't you get it done? You
and k Love and the gang over there, what's wrong
with you? That's when the finger pointing starts happening toward
the front office.

Speaker 3 (21:39):
And if he's still there next season.

Speaker 5 (21:42):
Or and they get out to a slow start, I
could see a situation where this is a is a
huge is a huge problem for Eric Spolstra moving forward.
So I really think this comes down to whoever. I mean,
the Heat probably will win this series. Let's get that straight.
I mean most likely. Now, the Celtics absolutely took them

(22:05):
apart on their home floor, but it did also feel
like the Heat kind of packed it in in the
second half. There were moments There's no doubt it got
a little close toward then It's just it was the
Celtics game from the opening tip off. But if this
goes sideways for the Heat, really sideways, this could be
This could be one of those turning points in a

(22:27):
franchise where they want to go in a completely different
direction soon because because because star players aren't just going
to accept blame, they're not just going to walk away
from a loss like that and say, yeah, and you
know what, as it turns out, it was all on me,
see you next year.

Speaker 3 (22:44):
That's not how that happens.

Speaker 4 (22:47):
Yeah, I think the way this series is playing out,
first of all, the one thing we have.

Speaker 1 (22:52):
To frame our minds to remember.

Speaker 4 (22:54):
And I think maybe we've lost touch with this a
little bit because it feels like it's been like six
months since this has happened. The Heat were an eight
seed and they were almost bounced in the playing round
from the They lost their first playing game and they
were down late to the Bulls and almost got bounced
from the playoffs completely before even making it into this
the second.

Speaker 1 (23:15):
Tier of the playoffs.

Speaker 4 (23:16):
And then of course from that point on they went
on this insane run.

Speaker 1 (23:20):
The Bucks were I don't know what was going on there.

Speaker 4 (23:23):
They were just outclass the Knicks, and now they're in
a series. And let's be honest, I think going into
the series, we all expected this to be a nip
and tuck. I know the odds were saying Boston was
gonna run away with things, but the odds have been
pooh pooing the Heat all playoffs. I think we expected
it to be a tight series. I don't think anyone

(23:44):
expected it to be three to zero. But also, at
the end of the day, basketball, over the course of
a seven game series and then another seven game series,
and now we're in the third seven game series, water
tends to find its level. The Heat were an eight
seed that struggled to make the five hundred mark most
of the year, and they were up and down and
almost got knocked out in the playing round, and now

(24:05):
they're kind of showing us who I don't want to
say they really are, but the Celtics were one of
the best teams in the NBA all season. They got
star power top to bottom. They were supposed to win
this series. I think they're going to win this series.
And I don't want to say that it's the biggest
collapse ever because we've seen another team from Boston do

(24:25):
this very recently against a much more prestigious franchise I
guess not very recently, but ten fifteen years ago, whenever
the two and four yet nineteen years.

Speaker 1 (24:35):
Ago so and what happened in the following round, Well,
they just I think they swept the Rockies in the
World Series that year, So I think this is I
think this is a little more.

Speaker 4 (24:48):
I think this is a little more consistent to what
these teams are and I wouldn't be that surprised, Like,
it's not that shocking to me that Boston might win
four in a row because they've been good all year
in the heat of in an eight seed all year.

Speaker 2 (25:02):
Yeah, it was, uh, it was ridiculous because my Cardinals
got swept by the Red Sox. It was I'll never
forget Edgar Rentiea was the shortstop. He made the final
out and he was number three, and they're like, it's
just like babe, Ruth number I'm like, get my good way.
But Boston Red Sox stuff. He was unbelievable. Were they

(25:23):
won eight straight. It's crazy craziness. But uh, we got
a major case of role reversal.

Speaker 3 (25:30):
On our hands here.

Speaker 2 (25:31):
We will dive into that, but first you want to
talk about diving into something. We are going to dive
into the cool, brisk waters of Isaac Loewen Crown over here.

Speaker 3 (25:41):
I love what's going on.

Speaker 10 (25:42):
But ah yeah, so refreshing on this Saturday morning, unless
you're a fan of the Oakland A's, which we'll get
to momentarily because at Major League Baseball on Friday night,
the Boston Red Sox broke a four game losing streak
with a seven to two victory at Arizona. The Pittsburgh
Pirates hit seven home runs and an eleven six win
at Seattle. The Marlins Jorge Soler homer for a fourth

(26:04):
straight game in their victory over the Angels in Anaheim
six to two. Now, the Houston Astros won at Oakland
five to two. That makes the A's ten and forty three.
That is the most losses through fifty three games for
any major league team since nineteen hundred. Also on Friday,
the Dodgers in Tampa Bay Rays got together for the

(26:24):
first time since the twenty twenty World Series. In the Bubble,
Tampa Bay beat the Dodgers nine to three. The Ray's
now a major league best thirty eight and fifteen. The
Texas Rangers won at Baltimore twelve to two thanks to
an eight run fourth inning, including a Corey Seger grand slam.
The Rangers have the third best record of the majors
at thirty two and eighteen. Juan Soto and Fernando Tatis

(26:46):
Junior both homered into the second deck at Yankee Stadium
in the Padres five to one win over the Yankees.
Soto's was a four hundred thirty two footer. Tatisis home
run clocked in at four hundred and thirty nine feet.
Matt's Colorado five to two Max stures or the when
he struck out eight and seven innings with no walks.
Francisco Lindora home run in four RBI Phillies waned Atlanta

(27:08):
six to fours. Craig Kimberl became the eighth pitcher in
Major league history to record four hundred saves in the
NBA Tonight eight thirty Eastern Game six of the Eastern
Conference Finals from Miami, with the Heat leading the Boston
Celtics three games to two. Finally, Fox Sports Radio's Isaac
Loehenkron has issued a formal apology to friend and colleague

(27:30):
Rich Ornberger for his callous and thoughtless behavior on Twitter
a couple of weeks ago that escalated to the point
where Lowenkron blocked Ornberger on Twitter, Isaaca, what's the air?

Speaker 1 (27:43):
What's going on here?

Speaker 5 (27:44):
Okay, that's why we haven't spoken yet, because I will
not speak to this man.

Speaker 1 (27:49):
Wow. Yeah, blood brewing behind the scenes.

Speaker 11 (27:52):
Here, not behind the scenes anymore.

Speaker 5 (27:55):
T Yeah now yeah, now the t has been spilt.
Thanks I low first time I spoken to him in weeks.

Speaker 10 (28:01):
Actually, actually, you know what, now that I think of it,
do you want to just explain how all this happened?

Speaker 3 (28:06):
Yes, well, it was just it was honestly a mistake.

Speaker 5 (28:13):
I realized that maybe an oversight, maybe something that that
Isaac wanted to come to terms with. We found out
on the National Show on Sunday recently that all of
us were following Ilo and Ilo was following none of us. Wow,
I don't follow Ilo either. I don't even know you

(28:34):
were on Twitter there, Bud.

Speaker 10 (28:36):
I'm not offended by that at all, unless unlike some
people around here.

Speaker 5 (28:38):
Well, I'm just saying, like, you know, if we're not
social media friends, are we friends at all?

Speaker 4 (28:44):
If it isn't a good point actually, I mean if
if we if we aren't Twitter official Ilo.

Speaker 3 (28:50):
So how did this escalate to a block?

Speaker 5 (28:53):
Well, we were talking about it on Aaron I see
it now, everything we say at all times.

Speaker 3 (29:00):
He's always monitoring discussions of Fox.

Speaker 5 (29:03):
Sports and uh he you heard the conversation was founded
upsetting and immediately blocked all the people involved.

Speaker 4 (29:13):
That sounds a lot like what social media is these days.

Speaker 1 (29:17):
Either you agree with me or.

Speaker 4 (29:19):
I'm going to block you so I don't have to
see the opposition.

Speaker 11 (29:22):
I'd like argument.

Speaker 10 (29:24):
I'd like to make a final, last ditch attempt at
Deaton here with Rich sure and just agree to move
on with Rich and instead blame it all on Steve Hartman,
because frankly, Steve Hartman is the one who started this
with his jealous complaining that I wasn't following him on Twitter,
And what I actually did was I blocked Rich and

(29:44):
Monsey and Jason Stewarge. I took I took a screenshot
that I had lot them, and then I unblocked them.
So Rich, Monsey and Jason are all presently I blocked.

Speaker 1 (29:57):
You want me to follow you, but do you want
to have this conversation.

Speaker 4 (30:00):
I'm all about opening honest discord In this current generation, it's.

Speaker 11 (30:03):
Completely completely up up.

Speaker 4 (30:06):
Do you tweet anything worthy of me following you at Oh?

Speaker 5 (30:10):
Absolutely, He's a great follow and I've been following him
for years and I just know that he does well.

Speaker 4 (30:17):
You only follow sixty seven people that way, so obviously
this is a this is a thing for you.

Speaker 11 (30:21):
Yeah, you know what, Rich Rich go ahead check your notifications.
You just got a new follower.

Speaker 1 (30:27):
I'm following you to Isaac and you know what you're
dealing with that whatever you will, Bud, I don't even
know you're on Twitter.

Speaker 5 (30:33):
I'm gonna be honest with you. This is the proudest
day of my life. This is the proudest day of
my life.

Speaker 4 (30:38):
Isaac's following count just went up from sixty seven to
sixty eight.

Speaker 3 (30:42):
Breaking the Black Sports Radio. Hi point for you, Rich
is the mayo and the coffee. The low point.

Speaker 5 (30:49):
It's actually amazing you mentioned that the highest and lowest
point in my life have occurred on this Saturday show
that we've been doing for a year.

Speaker 1 (30:56):
I don't know if that's a good thing or a
bad things.

Speaker 5 (30:58):
You know, Yeah, I mean, yeah, birth the children, you know, obviously, Yeah,
I mean I've had my ups and downs, my peaks
and valleys. But the fact that it is all relegated
to these three hours we spend together, I probably need
to talk to somebody.

Speaker 1 (31:14):
Yeah, not Isaac though.

Speaker 3 (31:16):
Yeah, well now I can. Now it can.

Speaker 2 (31:19):
Direct Message you got fantastic and at the end of
your first year, Direct Discover credit cards automatically double all
the cash back you've earned.

Speaker 3 (31:28):
That's right, everything you earned doubled.

Speaker 2 (31:29):
Seriously see terms and check it out for yourself at
discover dot com. Slash Match all right, we've got Rich Ornberger,
Penn State, All American. We've got Jared Smith FSR betting analyst.

Speaker 3 (31:41):
I'm Brian No.

Speaker 2 (31:42):
Coming up next, we get to the major case of
role reversal and a highly questionable top five both on
the way it is Fox Sports Saturday right here on
Fox Sports Radio. Welcome back in It's Fox Sports Saturday
Live from the Tirack dot Com studios. Okay, before a
highly questionable top five list, we've got a major case

(32:05):
of role reversal over here. That's why I find so
interesting about this Celtics Heat series is Miami was a
huge underdog before the series began, and then all of
a sudden, they won three straight games and Miami became
a huge favorite. Boston assumed control without wanting to of

(32:30):
the underdog role. And it's a different dynamic when you
are the underdog. Why do you think all these teams
try to become the underdog even times when they're not,
because it's more comfortable. You're playing more freely, you're not
expected to win, you don't have the pressure of you're
supposed to do it. And so you've seen Boston the
last couple of games as a huge underdog assume control,

(32:54):
more control of the series, where at least winning a
couple of games, getting right back into it. They're a
favorite on the should they win Game six, they'd be
a huge favorite in Game seven. But they are still
that underdog that has had momentum so we're gonna see
it's pretty even level right now heading into Game six,
but Miami was not used to the favorite role. The

(33:19):
only thing that would shift that is a Game seven,
Miami would be a huge underdog. But I think one
of the little layers involved in this series is that
Miami is way more comfortable when they're totally counted out,
but when they are supposed to just finish the deal,
they have not been as comfortable these last two games.

Speaker 5 (33:38):
And what's crazy is what this reminds me of the
most is when you open up those those magazines when
you're checking out groceries and it's who wore it better? Yeah,
you know, when it comes to like the underdog outfit,
Boston as a city just whears it better? I mean,

(33:59):
Miami is a front run in city, my friends. I
mean South Beach has a lot over the rest of
the world, let alone the rest of the country.

Speaker 3 (34:08):
And if you look at the culture and really the.

Speaker 5 (34:13):
Mindset of a lot of Boston teams over the past
twenty years, the Red Sox of the two thousands, they
were underdogs.

Speaker 3 (34:23):
And that was the story until they weren't.

Speaker 5 (34:25):
And then you know, they actually kind of, you know,
moved on from becoming this lovable cast of characters to becoming.

Speaker 3 (34:32):
Quite quite hateable. Actually, you know the Patriots.

Speaker 5 (34:36):
Now, I know that the Patriots became everybody's, you know,
a villain and rival. But the Patriots, the hallmark of
their run was Bill Belichick creating this US against the
world mentality for the entire time. Tom Brady was there
and his buying was so great, and he was so
great that the Patriots were so great because even though
they were at the top, they played like they had

(34:58):
a chip on their shoulders the whole time. The Celtics,
they wear the underdog better than the heat do.

Speaker 3 (35:07):
It just looks better on him.

Speaker 5 (35:08):
They went back home facing elimination and absolutely destroyed Miami,
and it was in front of a crowd that wasn't
upset at Boston for being down three to one. It
was in front of a crowd that was thrilled that
they were able to cheer on an underdog to an
absolute de panting on their home floor. So, if there's

(35:31):
a team that's gonna have more momentum heading into Game
six of this series, without a doubt in my mind,
especially with this series, if with a win returning home
to Boston, it is the Celtics hands down.

Speaker 1 (35:45):
Yeah, I agree, Brian.

Speaker 4 (35:48):
I love how you framed it like the underdog role Miami.
When all of a sudden they were the favorite in
the series.

Speaker 1 (35:57):
They were up three to zero, dominated Boston in game three.

Speaker 4 (36:01):
I mean that was just a visceration, and then all
of a sudden they win that game four. And it
was a tight game, right, It was a tight game
a little bit to the end. It was back and
forth and Boston kind of pulled away a little bit
at the end, but it was a pretty tight game throughout.

Speaker 1 (36:14):
There were moments in that game.

Speaker 4 (36:15):
I remember texting one of my close friends who was
betting Boston in that game, and we're New York guys,
so when they were struggling at the beginning of the game,
it was like a Boston asked for them, and then
they showed you that fight, you know, they showed you
that fight at the end, and then they carried it
over into game five. And I'll be honest, guys, once
they won Game five, the entire balance of.

Speaker 1 (36:37):
The series then really started to shift.

Speaker 4 (36:39):
Like right now, the gambling odds are saying the Heat
are a slight favorite in the series minus one thirty
minus one forty. That's saying about fifty five sixty percent.
The Celtics maybe in the forty five forty percent range,
So it's not a true coin flip. Miami still technically
is the favorite in the series, but let's be honest,
Boston is the favorite in today's game. And if Boston

(37:01):
wins this game today, well they're gonna win the series.

Speaker 1 (37:04):
So if you are we can get into this later
during the gambling talk.

Speaker 4 (37:07):
If you are gonna bet this game tonight, I would
just bet Boston to win the series at plus money.
Much better smarter wager, I think in the long haul.
But to me, when you just look at what Boston
is at their core, they're the better team, and over
the long haul of a seven game series, water tends
to find its level. Now it doesn't always go three

(37:27):
to zero and then four to oher in one direction.
That is an incredibly violent storm. But Boston is far
superior talent wise. Maybe Miami's got the coaching edge, Maybe
Miami's got a little bit of the momentum because they're
a little bit more buttoned up with some of the
little things that they do. But now momentum is squarely
in Boston's court, and I just don't know if Miami

(37:49):
has the horses to take it back. Gave Vincent's out.
He's been a key cock for them in the series.
Jimmy Butler's not your true score in that true sense
of the term. I know he scores a lot of
points in in this postseason, but he's not this type
of score that Jason Tatum or Jaln Brown are. So
I don't know where it's going to come from. It's
not coming from Kevin Love, that's for sure. I'm curious

(38:10):
what Miami does tonight. Does Eric Spolster have one last
ace up his sleeve? I don't know if that's I
think that's the only way Miami wins this game and
wins the series is if Spolster pushes a button tonight
and somebody gets hot and it just it works.

Speaker 1 (38:25):
And maybe that.

Speaker 2 (38:26):
Happens, but I don't know if it's going to Yeah,
not all three to Oho series leads are created the
same way. I think sometimes history can get in your
way because the simple thing is to say, well, teams
with three oh series leads, they're one fifty to oher
in NBA history, they always close the deal it's like, well,
look at Miami, they're an eight seed. They had to

(38:47):
play their way in. They've got seven undrafted guys. Gabe
Vincent just got hurt. Like you mentioned, Jared and the
Celtics are one of the best teams in the league. Like,
I think it's deeper than it's never happened before. Therefore
it's probably not gonna happen again. I think it goes
deeper than that. Let me throw this at you, guys.
So Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes, he did an interview with

(39:10):
Complex and he revealed his personal list of his top
five quarterbacks of all time.

Speaker 3 (39:16):
Okay, you ready for this? Oh boy?

Speaker 2 (39:17):
He went Tom Brady number one, good choice, Number two,
Peyton Manning, three, Aaron Rodgers, four Joe Montana and then
five either Dan Marino or John Elway.

Speaker 3 (39:30):
He didn't pull me on number five.

Speaker 2 (39:32):
Here's the thing that I would say, if you have
Peyton Manning or Aaron Rodgers over Joe Montana, your list sucks.

Speaker 3 (39:41):
That's all I can say.

Speaker 2 (39:42):
You got one of the clutches quarterbacks in the history
of the game in Joe Montana. And all this Super
Bowl success and all over, guys that have wet themselves
numerous times.

Speaker 3 (39:52):
Boy on the biggest of stages.

Speaker 5 (39:54):
Yeah, Marino lway, you're you're out of my top five
because Mahomes is in my top first.

Speaker 3 (40:00):
Oh but but I do agree with you.

Speaker 5 (40:05):
I actually have the same exact list as Mahomes, accept
he's in it, so I would scramble.

Speaker 1 (40:11):
You can't put yourself in your top five works.

Speaker 2 (40:14):
Batform, he should have to your list, there, Ornberger a
right coming up next. We got rule changes and potential
rule changes, galore, oh Man, rules are changing all over.

Speaker 3 (40:26):
The freaking place. What do you like? What do you dislike?
That is on the way.

Speaker 2 (40:30):
We are broadcasting live from the tire rack dot Com studios.
Tire rack dot Com will help get you there an
unmatched selection, fast, free shipping, free road hazard protection, and
over ten thousand recommended installers. Tire rack dot com the
way tire buying should be. All right, Fellas, we've got
NFL rule changes, we got potential NBA rule changes. So

(40:52):
here's a simple thing I'll introduce it. I want to
simple thumbs up or thumbs down over here. Okay, how
about kickoffs spotted at the twenty five yard line? If
you fair catch it on the kickoff. You get it
at the twenty five. The NFL says it's a safety
measure instead of getting it at the twenty there's another incentive.

(41:12):
You get it at the twenty five, So don't return it.
No return over here cuts down on concussions and made
your collisions.

Speaker 3 (41:19):
So do you like this? I'm going thumbs down.

Speaker 2 (41:23):
I love the kickoff and we're only talking about it
documented nineteen concussions last year. When you're dealing in percentages,
concussions on kickoffs are up sixty percent. There were nineteen
documented concussions in over twenty seven hundred kickoffs.

Speaker 3 (41:42):
I want the kickoff to remain. I don't like this
thumbs down. I agree.

Speaker 5 (41:46):
It's a thumbs down for me because I think they've
already defanged the kickoff enough and I don't think this
actually addresses the major problem. So I love how they
give you those statistics, but they don't talk about how
many any concussions happen during during the rest of the game,
like they're just spotlighting that area, saying, well, this is

(42:08):
a very dangerous play. Historically the kickoff was a very
dangerous play, and then they took away the three man
wedge on kick return and the wedge buster on kickoff.
They obviously changed the rules to give more of an
offensive edge to the receiving team to take a knee
instead of taking it out, you know, getting the ball

(42:30):
at the twenty five like there've been I mean, even
the fair catch rule in the first place, like the
touchback rule. All of those rules weren't in place at first,
and slowly but surely the kickoff has become safer. Look,
this is a league that just you know, created a
situation where they're they're flexing Thursday night football games. Surprise,

(42:51):
a month later you may have a Thursday nighter and
to show that they still really care about player health,
they made so the kickoff is safer.

Speaker 3 (43:01):
Good job, league, This was just a PR move.

Speaker 1 (43:04):
Thumbs down, Yeah, major thumbs down. Two thumbs down. Cisco
and Ebert, right, I don't think.

Speaker 4 (43:09):
Yeah, that's right the movie critic vibe here. But the
the XFL got it right with the kickoffs. They line
them up in I don't know if you guys have
seen the XFL kickoff rules. I forget which yard line
they line them up at, but it's basically the kickoff
team is almost already in the opponent territory, and then

(43:31):
the kick return team you line up. I think it's
ten yards apart, five five yards apart. Thank you very
much for yeah again. And what that does twofold A.
The violence of the collisions are less when you're only
five yards apart. Obviously, when you're in full sprint two.
It allows you to actually kind of run a play.

(43:52):
As the kickoff return team, you can kind of move
certain blockers right, It's almost like you've got an extended
offensive line and you could pull, and you could this,
and you can run. I saw some very creative stuff
in the XFL this year with the kickoff returns, and
I don't know why the NFL doesn't adopt that.

Speaker 1 (44:09):
To me, that is a.

Speaker 4 (44:10):
Slam dunk you satisfy A. It's an exciting play. Again
be the violence of the collisions, so major thumbs down
on what the NFL ended up deciding.

Speaker 3 (44:21):
I'm with you.

Speaker 2 (44:21):
I think that's where it's headed. Either the NFL does
away with the kickoff altogether, or it's going to be
the XFL version. That's where I see it headed. How
about flex scheduling. A lot made over flex scheduling where
we have it on Thursday night, Sunday night, Monday night,
And I just don't understand all the negativity toward it,

(44:42):
where it's like, oh my gosh, you're gonna ask these players,
and what if I'm traveling to the game and you
got to prioritize your TV audience And as a fan,
you're not playing on Thursday night, you don't have a
quick turnaround. I'm watching at home. I want the best
matchup possible. So I don't understand why this is such
a negative thing. I think this is a win thumbs up.

Speaker 5 (45:03):
I agree. I one hundred percent agree with everything he said.
I'm no longer a player, so this doesn't affect me
as a former player. This has very little effect on
me as a fan of the game. It has a
great effect on me because I'm not going to a
Thursday night football game. I mean, I haven't been to
one since I finished playing. I am a TV viewer.

(45:26):
I mean for the majority of the games that I'm watching,
I'm a TV viewer, And like many people, including al Michaels,
they should just call this to al Michaels.

Speaker 1 (45:35):
Rule exactly what I was gonna say.

Speaker 5 (45:37):
The play by play voice on Thursday Night Football for
Amazon who would complain during the broadcast about the teams
that we're playing on Thursday night football.

Speaker 3 (45:49):
I think this is a great move.

Speaker 5 (45:51):
This makes the rest of the country enjoy your product better,
you know. So, yeah, it is going to affect probably
some friend of the I don't know, seventy thousand in attendance,
depending on what stadium this is. This game's gonna be
played at some fraction. Like, there's probably gonna be a
lot more smiles than frowns out there because there may

(46:14):
be a lot of people in that market who haven't
had an opportunity to see their team in primetime. Because
maybe the team that gets the primetime boost was a
team that wasn't expected to be very good this season,
and all of a sudden they are, and all of
a sudden they get to play on a Thursday night,
and all of a sudden, you get to go and
take your kids to Thursday night football.

Speaker 3 (46:31):
Boom. I think you're going.

Speaker 5 (46:33):
To see a lot more people happy with this change
than not happy with this change. If I'm Siskel and Ebert,
this is the two thumbs.

Speaker 4 (46:41):
Way way up from Oh yeah, I don't know if
I'm like way way up, but I definitely think it
is a net positive because let's talk about a big picture.
This is going to effect like five games the whole year.
It's only the end of the year. It's a very
small window. You're giving a four week notice. You don't
even get four weeks when you get fired from your job.

(47:04):
So I just I think this is a very You
get plenty of time people making travel plans.

Speaker 1 (47:09):
You get a whole month to change your travel plans.

Speaker 4 (47:12):
And I know it's not ideal, but we're going The
end result is we're going to get a better product.
So I think that is a very positive change, the
better product. There are probably going to be some players
that are a little bit miffed at the time that
it happens, like the day they get the news, Hey
your game just got moved up four days.

Speaker 1 (47:34):
But it feels like all right, you know, kind of like.

Speaker 4 (47:37):
When you're stuck in traffic, like, yeah, it sucks, but
I'll get over it. I'll be fine. These guys are
professional athletes. They train for this, they're prepared for this.
They deal with plenty of other things that the game
of football and the preparation right rich constant fluctuation. Oh
we have to change pivot to this immediately because this
is changed. These guys are used to this. I don't

(47:58):
think it's going to be as big of it. Feels
like the baseball rules this year. Everyone was making a
big deal out of it, and then the season started
They're like, Oh, Wow, this actually isn't so bad.

Speaker 3 (48:06):
I like how you frame that.

Speaker 2 (48:07):
Yeah, and Thursday Night Football, just so everybody's on the
same page. Like Jared said, it's just a sliver of
the season. It's just weeks thirteen through seventeen. Sunday Night Football.
That flex scheduling, that's from weeks five through seventeen, so
we have a lot more flexibility over there on Sunday Night.
How about this the emergency third quarterback. This is the

(48:30):
San Francisco forty nine er rule right there. They hit
it ran out of actual quarterbacks of the NFC title
game against the Eagles and Christian McCaffrey was behind center.
So this is you have an emergency third quarterback. It
doesn't count against your active roster. You don't have to
set aside an extra roster spot for this emergency third quarterback.

(48:52):
But in case of an emergency where you gotta break
the glass, your first two QBS went down, you will
actually have a quarterback playing QB.

Speaker 3 (49:02):
This is no doubt.

Speaker 2 (49:04):
This is a no brainer, complete thumbs up across the
board on this one.

Speaker 3 (49:08):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (49:08):
I mean, if we're gonna keep on the theme of
movie critics here, I'll do the John Levitz critic that
that Philadelphia Eagles forty nine ers game it stinks after that,
that was a terrible watch. I mean, when when you
have a noodle arm quarterback coming back in the game,

(49:32):
sacrificing his health to finish out a game because there's
no better options to put under center, like, you know,
potentially getting another star player hurt on your roster who
doesn't know how to play quarterback, as opposed to having
a third emergency quarterback. I think this rule change was needed.
I think it's going to make for better storylines. Let's

(49:53):
think about it, guys. Brock Perdy was a third string quarterback.
He is a competent NFL starter. He's proven that Dak
Prescott was once a third string quarterback.

Speaker 3 (50:04):
He is now a forty million dollar man in this league.

Speaker 5 (50:07):
Joe Flacco, if we want to go back, was a
third string quarterback.

Speaker 3 (50:10):
Tom Brady was a third string quarterback.

Speaker 5 (50:13):
The depth chart on the quarterback chart especially has proven
to net Hall of famers at times. So I don't
know it's it's a good rule. I think it should
have been instituted sooner. I don't know why it wasn't.
I don't think anybody would have many complaints about it.
I'm a huge fan of this. Two thumbs way up.

Speaker 1 (50:33):
It's common sense.

Speaker 4 (50:34):
This isn't even a rule change, Like this is literally
common sense. It's like when Buster Posey got his legs
snapped because guys were trucking people at home plate, and
the next year they're like, you know what, we're gonna
try to take this out of the game because.

Speaker 1 (50:49):
It's it's it just doesn't make sense, right. It just
it's common sense.

Speaker 4 (50:52):
Like we've evolved past this point of sports where we're
just gonna let these catchers just get hung out the
dry at home play. Well, I think the same thing
could be said about the quarterbacks, like we're just not
gonna let these guys get hung out to dry anymore.
And if there's an issue, we're not gonna make our
third string quarterback aka the punter. Like when I was
a Jets fan growing up, it was Tom tupa remember

(51:13):
that name.

Speaker 1 (51:13):
Yeah, yeah, emergency situation.

Speaker 4 (51:15):
Let's send the punter in to play quarterback for for
Bill Parcells's Jets.

Speaker 1 (51:21):
Just a completely different vibe.

Speaker 4 (51:22):
In today's game, you have to have someone playing that
position with a shred of competence or else.

Speaker 1 (51:28):
The game's over.

Speaker 4 (51:29):
You might as well just stop the game right there
and move on, because you're not gonna move the football
in today's day and age with a running back or
a punter or the guy, the hot dog stand guy
coming in to play quarterback for you.

Speaker 2 (51:41):
I was a big Reggie Robie fan. There you go
there in his wristwatch.

Speaker 3 (51:46):
You know.

Speaker 4 (51:46):
I used to have a Tom tupa like screen my
screen name growing up. You speak tupas how much I
love that guy? I mean, how often was the punter
like the third string quarterback?

Speaker 1 (51:55):
He was like everything for you right there? Yeah three Jets.

Speaker 2 (51:59):
By the way, think about this real fast is Think
about Brock Perdy and Josh Johnson getting hurt in that
NFC title game for the forty nine ers, and now
you get this rule change.

Speaker 3 (52:09):
Think how many jobs that's going to open up, right like.

Speaker 1 (52:14):
Running for president here America. First job.

Speaker 3 (52:17):
It's just crazy, It's crazy. What that's led to it.
It's a necessary change. Good for the economy.

Speaker 1 (52:23):
It's for the football economy.

Speaker 3 (52:24):
No one, okay, I'll give you a two for one
NBA combo.

Speaker 1 (52:28):
Platter over to vote for America right there.

Speaker 3 (52:31):
How about these two?

Speaker 2 (52:32):
So you got a potential rule change where it's two challenges.
If your first challenge is successful, you get another one
that would potentially start next season.

Speaker 3 (52:43):
And then also the flop rule. If you get busted flopping,
it's a technical foul, it's a free throw.

Speaker 2 (52:51):
Might get a trial run at the summer league. I'll
go rapid fire. First off, the flopping rule double thumbs up.
If you get busted flopping, technical free throw is gonna
cut down on flopping significantly.

Speaker 3 (53:03):
Love it. As far as the new challenge rule thumbs down,
thumbs down.

Speaker 2 (53:07):
If you get an extra challenge, I'm not gonna go
kicking and screaming into the night. But what's gonna happen.
You're gonna have that first challenge in the first quarter.
You don't have to hold on to it. The strategy
is different.

Speaker 3 (53:18):
I don't like it. I like just the one challenge
and keep it moving.

Speaker 5 (53:21):
Yeah, you nailed it. I love the flop rule. I
think it's one of the worst parts of basketball right now.
Get rid of that as soon as you possibly can,
because I actually think it's starting to stain y legacies.

Speaker 3 (53:35):
Look at how we view Lebron James. Oh yeah, I mean.

Speaker 5 (53:38):
Lebron James is inarguably one of, if not the greatest
player to ever play this sport, and in an indelible
legacy of his career is going to be how he
tries so hard to sell fouls. It's annoying to watch
and I'm not even blaming it. It's like kind of like,
don't hate the player, hate the game. Well, it's nauseating

(53:59):
to watch the play do it, but it's a part
of the game. So get rid of the flop as
soon as possible, and then challenges I'm with you anything
that's slowing down sports, so we could pay more attention
to the guys who are doing an awful job wearing
long pants and referee shoes.

Speaker 4 (54:14):
Yeah, let's hard pass, hard pass referee shoes. Those are
not going to be the hot sellers on the Nike shelves.
I think anytime soon. I think I agree with.

Speaker 1 (54:24):
You, guys.

Speaker 4 (54:24):
I don't think I'm as passionate about either of these rules. Like,
I think the flop rule is obviously an issue. I
think we're starting to address it. If you want to
up the any a little bit and make it a
te short, it's one free throw. They do the same
thing for a defensive three second. Like, I don't think
it's gonna prevent it too much from happening, but it
will prevent it a little bit more, and that's the
end goal.

Speaker 1 (54:44):
The challenge rule, I don't know.

Speaker 4 (54:45):
I I'm a little more neutral on it than you guys,
because I do think there's still strategy involved. You're not
gonna waste your challenge on something frivolous in the first
quarter because then you lose it and it's gone. It
still has to be a winning challenge, So maybe there's.

Speaker 1 (54:58):
A little bit.

Speaker 4 (54:59):
You know, more is selectiveness, and I like things where
the coaches have to think. I do like adding wrinkles
to the game that makes the coaches think a little
bit more. So I'm curious to see if either coaches
or certain players that you know, cry for, hey, challenge
this coach.

Speaker 1 (55:16):
You know, if that changes a little bit.

Speaker 4 (55:18):
But yeah, in general, I agree, I do think it
does slow the game down a little bit, so maybe
I'm a little more neutral on it than you guys.

Speaker 3 (55:23):
They got to work on that green light, man, you know, yeah,
that's weird light.

Speaker 4 (55:28):
It's like somebody just want the jackpot at the casino
and the slot machine.

Speaker 3 (55:31):
The challenges over strange.

Speaker 2 (55:33):
They've reversed it or confirmed the call and they're starting
to play and.

Speaker 3 (55:38):
The light is still blinking. They're guys at the free throw.

Speaker 1 (55:42):
Live, why why need the light?

Speaker 4 (55:45):
Like the coach challenges every the raphic knowledge is it, like,
why do we need like a flashing light that says
that makes no sense?

Speaker 1 (55:52):
Blinking It's still makes very strange. I agree, the flashing
light needs to go very strange.

Speaker 2 (55:57):
We've got Rich Ornberger, Penn State All American back with us.
Feels good. Jared Smith FSR betting analyst. I'm Brian Now
coming up next, we got another teammate on teammate crime
and Ornberger's top five raises eyebrows.

Speaker 3 (56:15):
Those are both on the way.

Speaker 2 (56:16):
It's Fox Sports Saturday, right here on Fox Sports Radio.
It is Fox Sports Saturday, right here on Fox Sports Radio.
We're coming to you live from the Tireck dot Com studios.
We're brought to you by a Progressive insurance. Progressive makes
bundling easy and affordable. Get a multi policy discount by
combining your motorcycle, RV, boat, ATV and more all your
protection in one place. Bundle and save at Progressive dot com. Okay, Ornberger,

(56:41):
I'm gonna start with the positive over here. We're circling
back to Patrick Mahomes. He unveiled his top five quarterbacks
of all time. He goes Brady number one, followed by
Peyton Rogers, Joe Montana number four, and then either Dan
Marino or John Elway number five.

Speaker 3 (57:00):
You said that you've got the same top five, except
you put Mahomes in in there at number five instead
of Marino or John Elway.

Speaker 2 (57:07):
Yeah, that's gonna start with that. That makes a lot
of sense. He's only twenty seven years old. To MVPs two,
Super Bowl, MVPs two rings like, he's been sensational here,
so I get that. I want to go in on
this though. Montana with his four rings is fourth.

Speaker 3 (57:23):
What is that?

Speaker 5 (57:23):
Woo oh no no no, no, no, no no no, Montana
gets bumped up my list. Montana probably look, Tom Brady's
my number one, Montana is my number two. I would
then I would then file in Peyton Manning at number three.

(57:44):
Patrick Mahomes actually is my number four, and Aaron Rodgers is.

Speaker 3 (57:47):
My number one. I don't mind that at all. Yeah,
that's my list.

Speaker 5 (57:50):
Give it to me one more time here, Okay. So
it goes like this, Tom Brady goat number one, eighty
one Montana former goat also also also clutch number two.
Then we go down to Peyton Manning the sheriff number
three ring with two different teams, obviously historically great. Then
Patrick Mahomes still a lot of tread left on the

(58:14):
tires so he could move up this list boys. And
then we go number five, Aaron Rodgers.

Speaker 3 (58:19):
I like this. I think that's a really solid top
five right there.

Speaker 4 (58:23):
Yeah, so Marino doesn't make it, some of the other
guys that was on Patty's list don't make it.

Speaker 2 (58:31):
Yeah, yeah, you know Lway I took. I put Lway
over Rogers right now?

Speaker 1 (58:39):
Yeah, I might too. I don't know.

Speaker 4 (58:42):
I mean, maybe the Jets with Rogers will change my
mind in a few months.

Speaker 1 (58:45):
But let's just leave it is. Can we leave it is?

Speaker 4 (58:50):
If Aaron Rodgers takes the Jets to a Super Bowl,
he goes to number one. If you can break that curse,
you are you are touched from God, my friend. I
think I agree with Rich's I mean, yeah, I think
you can make a case that maybe you swap Lway
and Rogers. But it's not like it's not like I'm

(59:10):
putting Lway in the top three, right, Like I think
the top two I am locked in on one hundred percent.
I think that's really where the list starts and ends.
And then you can, obviously, the further down the list
you go, you could obviously make little tweaks. Maybe you
put Mahomes ahead of Peyton if he wins another Super Bowl, right,
But I don't I can't really gawk at this list

(59:34):
too much.

Speaker 2 (59:34):
Rich I thought interesting to me is that Peyton Manning
is bulletproof in ways that other players with similar resumes
wouldn't be interesting.

Speaker 3 (59:44):
If you look at.

Speaker 2 (59:45):
Peyton Manning, he is outstanding in the regular season. You
get no argument from me. He is I think the
greatest regular season quarterback in NFL history. His numbers back
it up. But when you get to the postseason, there's
a lot left. He desired had the one ring beating
the Bears. You know, Danielle Manning the safety forgot to

(01:00:05):
cover Reggie Wayne and he hooked up with him, and
you have the Devin Hester return and Game two.

Speaker 3 (01:00:12):
Yeah, people rain the whole thing.

Speaker 2 (01:00:14):
Then you had Von Miller carrying him to his other championship.
He had the four interception game against the Patriots, he
had to pick six to lose the game against the Saints,
he had an overtime interception against the Ravens. Like, if
that's another player, if that's an NBA player, greatest regular
season guy has two rings, his team carried him to

(01:00:37):
one of those two and he is just wetting all
over himself postseason after postseason, we would be vilifying that guy.

Speaker 3 (01:00:44):
Somehow, Peyton Manning escapes all that.

Speaker 5 (01:00:47):
Yeah, you know, I think for me, where Peyton Manning
ascends this list and really cements himself at number three
as the fact that he's won those two Super with
two different teams. And as you mentioned, it's impossible, I
shouldn't say impossible. It's hard to find another quarterback who

(01:01:09):
has the sort of career.

Speaker 3 (01:01:10):
Stats that Peyton Manning has put.

Speaker 5 (01:01:12):
Together with a variety of different cast members and two
different franchises. Patrick Mahomes, who he's done already. Like I said,
can can move him up the list easily if he
continues to add to this already unbelievable resume.

Speaker 3 (01:01:30):
In fact, I will say this though, if say the Chiefs.

Speaker 5 (01:01:34):
You know, they don't have a down year that make
the playoffs, have an early exit something like that this
upcoming season, and Aaron Rodgers does win a super Bowl
with the Jets in his first year, he very quickly
becomes my number four because I give a tremendous amount
of respect to a guy who's played as well as
he's done over his career and again won a Super
Bowl with two different franchises. That's really difficult to do.

Speaker 3 (01:01:58):
Gentlemen.

Speaker 4 (01:01:59):
Yeah, you did this too me a couple of weeks ago.
Rich You got me all giddy about the Jets and Rogers.
He did the Vince McMahon, Giff Jiff whatever.

Speaker 1 (01:02:07):
How that?

Speaker 4 (01:02:10):
Well, yeah, now you know the calf injury, we'll see.
I know it's it's very early in the in the tenure,
but the honeymoon stage might be ending quickly, is kind
of my point. If Aaron Rodgers wins a Super Bowl
with the Jets in year one, I think he should
get a temporary status like just like Michael Block's temporary

(01:02:31):
tour membership, which might be short lived, of number one
on the list for one season, Like I just I
think the just doing that and and and taking the demons,
all the demons there in East Rutherford and and and
throwing them to the wayside and the swamps of Jersey
and and getting that team to a super Bowl would
be just incredible. Listen, Marino and l Way, I think

(01:02:55):
those guys came up together right first in that draft,
in the same draft, yep. And those two I think
are linked, like I would put the City because always
won the Super Bowls and had the postseason success.

Speaker 1 (01:03:08):
Marino had all the regular season success.

Speaker 4 (01:03:10):
I know most of the time we prefer the postseason success,
but let's be honest, those Dolphins teams were really, really good,
and they were breaths away and certain times from winning
super Bowls in that era. It just didn't quite work
out for Dan. But man oh man, those two guys
I think together. It's it's weird to have a quarterback
list and not have those two on it.

Speaker 1 (01:03:30):
But you've got guys that are still playing today.

Speaker 4 (01:03:33):
Mahomes, Rogers, Brady just retired, and Peyton Manning just retired,
that have all surpassed him already on on Rich's list.
It's just it's interesting to see how the game has
changed so much and how so many Like I don't
know if this would happen in Major League Baseball, Like,
are all the best players, four out of the top five,
three out of the top five best players in baseball?

Speaker 1 (01:03:52):
Are they? Are they active today?

Speaker 4 (01:03:54):
I don't know if it's the same like it just
I guess it kind of speaks to the type of
evolution the sport has gone through over the last twenty years.

Speaker 2 (01:04:02):
Yeah, it really does speak to And I'm not taking
all credit away from these present day quarterbacks because Mahomes
is sensational. He's not simply the byproduct of rule changes.

Speaker 3 (01:04:12):
You know what I mean.

Speaker 2 (01:04:13):
But it's way more wide open offensively, which I would
I'm not deducting points from the present day guys, and
I don't think.

Speaker 3 (01:04:19):
You are either.

Speaker 2 (01:04:20):
I would give more credit to the before era guys. Yeah,
Marino's thrown for five thousand yards and eighty four.

Speaker 4 (01:04:28):
Dan f sawback like these guys that were just icons
in the seventies in that time when offense.

Speaker 1 (01:04:35):
Was not what it is today. The rules were not
what they are today.

Speaker 3 (01:04:38):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:04:39):
Yeah, it's amazing how far the game has come in
certain ways and how different the game is now. I mean,
don't get me wrong, I am. I am definitely more
a fan of the game progressing and becoming more in
line with the values of the day it's played in
as opposed to holding onto the past, because that's been

(01:05:01):
my common complaint, and I feel like it's a refrain
you hear from a lot of fans of sports that
it's hard to get into baseball because it doesn't feel
like it's kept up with the times. So the NFL
these changes that have been made to make the quarterback
position quote unquote easier to play. I know it's not easy,
but easier than perhaps it once was. You don't have

(01:05:22):
a lot less to worry about in terms of your
personal safety playing quarterback. How hard you're going to be hit,
where you're going to be hit. The receivers aren't getting
molested at the line of scrimmage the way they used
to are slammed over the middle. So it's a lot
easier of a game from those standpoints to navigate as
a quarterback. But you do kind of have to hold

(01:05:45):
that against the former pros when you look at the
numbers now, because it's impossible not to, you know, I
know it's a completely different game. And I know even
the game I grew up watching looked vast different than
the game we're watching here in twenty twenty three.

Speaker 3 (01:06:03):
But but you know, that's what we do.

Speaker 5 (01:06:05):
We make comparisons where human beings and so a lot
of those unitises are stawbucks. They're gonna be left behind
and they're gonna be remembered in just almost like a
different bracket of quarterback.

Speaker 2 (01:06:17):
Yeah, I think if you dip your toe in the
what if waters, it can be interesting just for a
bit where if you think, hey, what if Marino was
the Niners quarterback? Yeah right, and what if Montana was
on the dophars l Way.

Speaker 1 (01:06:30):
On the Dolphins.

Speaker 4 (01:06:31):
Yeah, portally different vibe on that those Dolphins teams.

Speaker 2 (01:06:35):
Think present day Brock Purdy got a lot of flowers
last season. If he's the Houston Texans quarterback, he getting flowers, you.

Speaker 3 (01:06:42):
Know what I mean. Like, if you just dip your
toe in those waters, kind of interesting.

Speaker 4 (01:06:46):
But Ma Homes on the Jets, come on, just do it, guys,
do it there, You totally.

Speaker 2 (01:06:49):
Different vibe right, necessary change right there, you talk about
totally different vibe.

Speaker 3 (01:06:55):
That would not be the case with this man.

Speaker 2 (01:06:57):
It is the same outstanding, stupendous vibe every single time.
And he goes by the name of Isaac Lowencron.

Speaker 11 (01:07:06):
I appreciate that very much. Especially when you started to
say Stu, you said Pendus instead of what I thought
you were going to say. So I appreciate that a
great deal.

Speaker 10 (01:07:16):
It's not usually like that a lot of the times
around off air activities when it comes to me. In
Major League Baseball, On Friday night, Fellas the Boston Red
Sox broke a four game losing streak with a seven
to two victory at Arizona. The Oakland A's they lost
again the Houston a The Houston Astros beat him, five
to two. Oakland's record is ten and forty three. That

(01:07:37):
is the most losses through fifty three games for any
major League team since nineteen hundred the Pittsburgh Pirates. Meanwhile,
he had seven home runs for just the third time
since nineteen hundred and at eleven sixth victory at Seattle,
Jorge Solaire of the Miami Marlins homer for a fourth
trade game of their six to two win over the
Angels in Anaheim. The Tampa Bay Rays improved their major

(01:08:00):
league best record to thirty eight and fifteen with a
nine to three victory over the Dodgers in their first
meeting since the twenty twenty World Series. The Texas Rangers
won at Baltimore twelve to two. They scored eight on
the fourth, including a Corey Seeger grand slam. Juan Soto
and Fernando Tatis Junior of the Padres both hit home
runs and a Yankee Stadium's second deck as San Diego

(01:08:21):
beat the Yankees five to one. Max Scherzer struck out
eight and seven innings with no walks, getting the win.
As the Mets victorious at Colorado five to two. Francisco
Lindora home run four RBI and Craig Kimberl of the
Phillies became the eighth pitcher in major league history to
record four hundred saves in their six to four victory
at Atlanta. Coming up tonight at eight thirty Eastern, it's

(01:08:42):
Game six of the NBA's Eastern Conference Finals from Miami,
with the Heat leading the Boston Celtics three games to two. Finally,
I just found a must follow on Twitter. It's at
Ornberger at Ornberger, among the fantastic content you'll find there.

(01:09:02):
In response to the news of the Arizona Cardinals releasing
DeAndre Hopkins yesterday, he posted a gift of a cute
dog holding up a cell phone to its ear with
the caption, Aaron Rodgers RN dot dot dot back to you.

Speaker 3 (01:09:20):
Thank you.

Speaker 1 (01:09:21):
I Low.

Speaker 2 (01:09:21):
It's Fox Sports Saturday right here on Fox Sports Radio.
At the end of your first year, Discover credit cards
automatically double all the cash back you've earned. That's right,
everything you earned doubled. Seriously see terms and check it
out for yourself at discover dot com. Slash match. I
wanted to throw some audio at you, guys. This is
one of the worst statements I've ever heard in my life.

(01:09:42):
But it is hysterical. It's awful and hysterical at the
same time. So this is Rod Brendamore. He is the
head coach of the Carolina Hurricanes. I'm going puck on you. Okay, okay,
So Carolina they got swept. They lost four games to nothing,
the definition of a sweep against the Florida Panthers. So

(01:10:03):
this is the Hurricanes head coach talking about getting swept.
Very interesting logic here, check it out.

Speaker 12 (01:10:09):
That's the unfortunate part of this is he's gonna look
back and everyone's gonna say, you got swept, and that's
not what happened. I watched the game. I'm there, I'm
cutting the game. We're in the game that we didn't get.
We didn't lose four games.

Speaker 3 (01:10:24):
We got to beat.

Speaker 12 (01:10:25):
But it's you know, we were right there and I
just could have went the other way and we could
have been four games the other way.

Speaker 3 (01:10:32):
What the hell is that? That is so unhockey.

Speaker 2 (01:10:36):
I couldn't come up with anything that's more unhockey than
that is. We didn't get swept, we didn't lose. I mean,
I mean, technically that's exactly what happened, But that's not
what happened.

Speaker 3 (01:10:45):
What is he talking about?

Speaker 5 (01:10:47):
Yeah, to me, when you when you corner a scared animal,
you know, occasionally you get you get a weird reaction.
You know, I watched this video, you know, of a
predatory bird. You know, it might have been a hawk
or something like that. Yeah, slam into a screen door. Okay,

(01:11:10):
this woman was dog walking and all of a sudden,
I mean, this bird, which by the way the dog
she was walking could have very easily just scooped up
her dog and taken it away with it. But it
was in danger, right, it was. It was stuck in
this screen she was walking by. This wasn't even her house.
So she ties her dog to a mailbox post. She

(01:11:31):
goes and helps this bird out, and the bird doesn't
act like a bird of prey. It acts like a
pet all of a sudden, It's docile, right, It's like
it's like she's like cooing this vicious raptor from the
skies as she's unhitching its talons from this and then yeah,

(01:11:52):
I'm pretty sure the bird was concussed. We should get
in the protocol. It was sitting there on these wobbly legs.
She's walking away from this porch after helping it out, and.

Speaker 3 (01:12:03):
I was thinking to myself, like, this is what.

Speaker 5 (01:12:05):
Happens when people are in danger sometimes too, Like instead
of getting the reaction you think you're gonna get, like
an angry person after an embarrassing loss, there are times
where you get responses like this because when you're in
fight or flight, sometimes you're you're stuck in between.

Speaker 3 (01:12:22):
And that's what this felt like to me.

Speaker 5 (01:12:23):
This commentary was very much the Hawks slammed into the screen.

Speaker 3 (01:12:27):
Now what do I do.

Speaker 4 (01:12:30):
I think I'm gonna start using this logic for all
my gambling losses.

Speaker 1 (01:12:34):
I lose that bet, guys.

Speaker 4 (01:12:37):
It was it was taken from us in a unfair way,
and I'm gonna put it down on my on my
spreadsheet as a win or as a push because I
don't think we loll I mean, I understand that there
might be some psychological methods of coping at play here,
right to to try not to throw, or who knows,

(01:12:58):
maybe there's something that happened behind the scenes right before
this interview.

Speaker 1 (01:13:02):
There's a little tension behind the scenes, perhaps.

Speaker 4 (01:13:04):
With the front office with this, but I don't know
the full context. I actually didn't even hear this quote
until you guys played it in the morning. I don't
even know that he said this, because let's be honest,
once a team gets eliminated from the NHL postseason, the
NHL post season itself is not something I spend a
ton of time focusing.

Speaker 1 (01:13:20):
On every day.

Speaker 4 (01:13:21):
But when you look at this particular situation, it is
surprising because I take hockey players at more of a
face value. Hey, this is the reality of what happened.

Speaker 1 (01:13:32):
We're gonna grow from it. We're gonna learn from it,
We're gonna get better.

Speaker 4 (01:13:35):
It is a bit off color for what a hockey
coach normally uses as as rhetoric for his for.

Speaker 1 (01:13:42):
His speaking engagement. So a little bit surprising.

Speaker 4 (01:13:46):
But again, I'm gonna see if maybe I'll start using
this logic in my gambling losses and people will start
giving me the benefit of the doubt.

Speaker 3 (01:13:52):
There he goes, zero losses. What was undefeated?

Speaker 2 (01:13:57):
Los Hey, this is the LaVar ball all of hockey
over here. Rud Brendamore, All right, we've got rich Orenberger,
Penn State, All American. Jared Smith is with us FSR
betting analyst. I'm Brian No coming up next. Hatred can
sometimes make you a complete idiot. It's Fox Sports Saturday
right here on Fox Sports Radio. It is Fox Sports

(01:14:18):
Saturday Live from the Tirack dot Com studios. We're brought
to you by a Progressive Insurance. Progressive makes bundling easy
and affordable. Get a multi policy discount by combining your motorcycle, RV, boat,
ATV and more all your protection in one place, buttle
and save at Progressive dot Com.

Speaker 3 (01:14:36):
So Scottie Pippen is back at it.

Speaker 2 (01:14:39):
Scottie Pippen is not just tugging on Superman's cape, meaning
Michael Jordan. He is, My goodness, he's dropping the people's
elbow on a Superman over here. He's putting him in
the Steiner recliner. It's ridiculous. So this is Scottie Pippen
on Stacy King's Give Me the Hot Sauce Podcast.

Speaker 3 (01:15:00):
Listen to what Pip has to say about Jordan.

Speaker 6 (01:15:02):
Now, Lebron will be the greatest statistical guy to ever
play the game of basketball, and there's no comparison to
him none. So does that make him the greatest player
to ever play the game? I'll leave that out for
debatings because I don't believe that there's a great player
because our game is a team game and one player
can't do it. Like I've seen Michael Jordan play before

(01:15:22):
I came to play with the Bulls. You guys seen
him play. He's a horrible player. He was horrible to
play with. He was all one on one. He's shooting
bad shots, and all of a sudden we become a
team and we start winning. Everybody forgot who he was.

Speaker 2 (01:15:39):
Yeah, we just forgot We forgot who Jordan was. Over
Now here's the interesting thing about Jordan. There's some the
facts that fly in the face of what Pip was
saying right there. And I love Pip, you know, as
a Bulls fan growing up, Jordan Pippen love both those guys.
But Jordan led the league in scoring ten times. He
led the league between eighty seven and ninety three, that

(01:16:01):
seven straight years, and then from ninety six to ninety eight.
You might have noticed that six of those years they
won championships. Okay, he's leading, not the team, the freaking
league in scoring. So all this he was just one
on one before I got here, and then he was
a team guy and we just forgot who he was.

Speaker 3 (01:16:23):
It's the dumbest thing I've ever heard. Yeah, I disagree
with what Pippens said. I will say this.

Speaker 5 (01:16:28):
I'm a big Scotti fan too, because even though I
grew up in New York, I was, I mean the
biggest Chicago Bulls fan. Love Jordan, loved him as an
individual athlete.

Speaker 3 (01:16:41):
Wanted to be like Mike.

Speaker 5 (01:16:42):
I had the posters, I had the Bulls bedspread. I
was nearly thrown out of my house by my father,
who was a lifetime Knicks fan, and these were during
the pat Riley you know, John Starks, Patrick Ewing years,
you know, and it was a house divided. I love
the Bulls, though, with that Scotty's wrong and it's okay.

(01:17:07):
I know that he's not just speaking from a fax
and stats standpoint. There's a lot of history and some
bad blood there, and I know that even what looked
like perfect teams aren't perfect. As we learned during the
Jordan documentary, he had a lot to say about his
teammates and about you know, life during that time, and

(01:17:30):
he got some control of the narrative. Now you're hearing,
you know, Scottie bark Back had a lot of that narrative.
And I don't I don't care where they're at from
a personal standpoint, that's their own, that's their own deal.
But watching those games through my own eyes, and I
watched a lot of Bulls games growing up, Michael Jordan
was the Goods. Michael Jordan is, if not the greatest

(01:17:52):
player to ever play, number two on the list of
all time, he's number one.

Speaker 3 (01:17:56):
I look, I love Jordan.

Speaker 5 (01:17:59):
I am so amazed with Lebron James I've never seen
I've never seen a human being that size, be that
athletic and do what he's been able to accomplish, especially
during a time where the NBA oddly is trying to
share the wealth. Jordan got a lot of the accolades,
you know, Defensive Player of the Year and and MVPs

(01:18:19):
and stuff. Lebron James arguably could have had more of
those individual accolades if the NBA wasn't trying to spotlight
other stars over the portion of his early career where
he's still earning those awards or could have been earning
those awards.

Speaker 3 (01:18:32):
But I digress. The point is Scotty's wrong.

Speaker 5 (01:18:36):
It doesn't make sense to look at Jordan and think
of him anything other than a champion and a clutch
performer and if not the greatest, the second greatest of
all time.

Speaker 1 (01:18:48):
Yeah, we got to check. We got the Scotty cushion protocol.
I think it is really time.

Speaker 4 (01:18:55):
To call him a horror The word horrible player in
the same sentence as.

Speaker 1 (01:18:59):
Michael Jordan is just a horrible play.

Speaker 4 (01:19:02):
And I don't really think I can expand on it
logically past That's where it starts and ends. Once you
use horrible player and Michael Jordan in the same sentence.

Speaker 1 (01:19:13):
That's it. It's I'm done.

Speaker 4 (01:19:15):
I've checked out, So we might as well just move
on to the next topic because I have really nothing.
I can't add anything more to Like, I can't take
it seriously. There's got to be something else behind the scenes, right, Like,
there's got to be some other context here that I'm
not grasping, because any logical person that watches basketball that
calls Michael Jordan and uses the word horrible player in

(01:19:36):
the same sentence, it just I can't take it seriously.

Speaker 2 (01:19:39):
Right, Well, that's where hatred can make you a bozo. Yeah,
and he's got south between Pip and Jordan, but Hip's
got this ax to grind and it is completely blocking
his vision and his ability to make U.

Speaker 4 (01:19:55):
Call that bias in the gambling world, Oh man, it's yeah,
it's over the top bias.

Speaker 2 (01:20:00):
There needs to be a new word for the bias
that pitp has. All right, coming up next, is this
guy more name than game?

Speaker 3 (01:20:06):
At this point?

Speaker 2 (01:20:08):
Is this guy more name than game at this point?
We're diving into that next. Hope you having a fantastic Saturday.
We are broadcasting live from the tirack dot Com. Studios
Tirack dot Com will help get you there in unmatched selection,
fast free shipping, free roadhazard protection, and over ten thousand
recommended installers. Tirack dot com the way tire buying should be. Okay,

(01:20:33):
So we've got DeAndre Hopkins d hop on the open market,
one of the better wide receivers in the game. Even now,
many would say.

Speaker 3 (01:20:43):
But here's the deal. Here's the deal.

Speaker 2 (01:20:45):
If we look a little closer at DeAndre Hopkins, who
has been a flat out stud there's no denying that
he has not been his typical, flatout studeley self the
past two seasons. This is something to keep in mind.
If you look at last season, only played nine games.
The season before that only played ten games. He's had
some injuries. He also had a six game suspension for

(01:21:08):
violating the PED policy. Now, let me ask you guys
a question. Are players more likely to use peds when
they're at the top of their game or when they've
lost a step? Because it's the latter, right, And that's
something that you have to keep in mind because DeAndre
Hopkins might get a big deal, and whoever gets him

(01:21:31):
is going to expect him to be performing at a
very high level. Maybe not prime DeAndre Hopkins, but at
a very very high level. And I'm just telling you,
buyer beware because he's been nicked up a lot. He's
got a hammy here, he's got this other injury there.
He's gonna be out for the next four games. It's
something to keep in mind because he has been on

(01:21:53):
a bit of a decline the last two years. And
you just have to be honest with yourself with where
you realistically expect him to be and what type of
dollar amount you're signing him for.

Speaker 3 (01:22:06):
Nah, I get it.

Speaker 5 (01:22:07):
I I completely understand where you're coming from, and I
don't disagree with anything you said. However, I will say this,
an aging superstar can be one of the greatest assets
to your franchise if if you have a stable culture.
I mean, think about Randy Moss to the Patriots. It

(01:22:31):
felt like that was a guy who might be washed
entering the final chapter of his career. Completely rejuvenated himself
with Bill Belichick and the Patriots culture and Tom Brady
a great quarterback. You know, we've seen this story play
out in other places. It's it's it's not it's not
the rarest thing to see a guy who looks like

(01:22:51):
he's kind of at the end of his rope. A
Carson Palmer comeing to Arizona to be rejuvenated by a
Bruce Arians when I felt like he was at the
end of his rope.

Speaker 3 (01:23:02):
He was the Cincinnati.

Speaker 5 (01:23:03):
Bengals star QB for years and then he had a
cup of coffee in Oakland, didn't look good.

Speaker 3 (01:23:08):
Knee injury comes to the Cardinals and he looks better then.
You know.

Speaker 5 (01:23:14):
There are many examples of this, so I think with
de Hop, I agree with you. I think it's very
possible that performance enhancing drugs could have been something that
he turned to because he felt like some of the
edge that he was playing with was missing, and maybe
he got some bad advice, or perhaps the testing caught
up to something that he had been using all along.

Speaker 3 (01:23:35):
Who knows. We'll never know the story. He'll never tell.

Speaker 5 (01:23:39):
But one thing I can tell you is if you
look at his performance when he's on the field, those
numbers are real. He just hasn't had enough field time lately.
He's getting up there in age, he's on the wrong
side of thirty. I get all that, but if he
can have a full season a healthfull season coming up next.
He could earn every he's due to make this year,

(01:24:02):
and you may be you may be able to entice
him into restructuring, depending on what franchise he he gets
signed by, to make it a little bit more cap friendly.

Speaker 4 (01:24:12):
Yeah, I think the other side of this, right, we
talked off the top of the show.

Speaker 1 (01:24:16):
Just Arizona.

Speaker 4 (01:24:18):
What do you think, like what's going on there in
Arizona that you just let him walk?

Speaker 1 (01:24:22):
All right? Well, that's that's in the past. I know
it just happened yesterday, but it's in the past. It happened.
The next step of.

Speaker 4 (01:24:28):
The equation is there's this fantastic all pro receiver floating
an hour around, just walking around the open road, the
open market, and anybody can sign him. I think the
context of when he gets signed, how he gets signed,
the money, the year, like all of that stuff is
gonna change how we view on his situation going forward.

Speaker 1 (01:24:50):
The destination, obviously is crucial.

Speaker 4 (01:24:53):
Is he going to be paired with a veteran quarterback
that maybe can get the most out of his las
last good years or is he going to be like Carolina,
go to a place where he needs to be kind
of the company man, and you know, you know, turning
the tide of a franchise that has a new quarterback

(01:25:14):
that wants to trend in a positive direction, or is
it a Buffalo or Kansas City where you know, he
kind of just gets dropped in and hey, give us
your best year right now, DeAndre, because if you do,
we've already got the rest of the team ready to
roll right now this year. I think that fits where
Hopkins is in his career. I would be surprised if
he went to a place like Carolina or Indy with

(01:25:35):
a young rookie quarterback starting for the first time I
see him. Frankly, I keep going back to the Lions,
and I keep looking. And you know you mentioned the
Jamis and Williams suspension. That's part of the equation. You
get a little more production out of a guy early
on in the season. You would think Hopkins would be
fresher early in the season and then maybe his production

(01:25:56):
declines throughout the course of the year. Well that's when
Jamison Williams will be coming back. So I think that
kind of makes sense to me. But I don't know
if I'm ready to just call it quits on his career.
And say, oh yeah, you know the pebs and all
the teams he's played for and all this stuff. I'm
just gonna move on and not really think of Hopkins
as a guy that can make an impact in the

(01:26:17):
NFL next year. I think he can, and I think,
you hope, this is his last chance, right, this is
his third team, This is his last chance to really
make that game breaking impact and have that kind of
career that maybe wins the super Bowl or really makes
a deep playoff run, because he hasn't done that yet.
He's had great numbers, but they haven't really equated to
success in the postseason.

Speaker 1 (01:26:38):
So we'll see what happens. We'll see what team he
lands on. I think that clearly is the next step
of the equation here.

Speaker 2 (01:26:44):
Well, that's the thing is, I think that he can
make a difference. I still think he's got game left yet.
I think his name recognition is greater than the game
he has right now. I always use this example of
I have a Nissan Ultima and I love that car,
but it's not where one hundred thousand dollars, you know
what I mean? And that might be where DeAndre Hopkins

(01:27:04):
is at this stage of his career.

Speaker 3 (01:27:06):
He might be closer to Odell Beckham.

Speaker 2 (01:27:08):
Junior territory, where it's like we're gonna sign him to
like north of fifteen million. We're talking about eighteen million.
You might not get that return on investment. You might
not get the production that is equal to that dollar amount.
That's where I think it is. But it then gets
very juicy. Where does DeAndre Hopkins land? Is it somewhere
like Jacksonville? I think DeAndre Hopkins is still talented enough

(01:27:31):
where even if you overpay, you're still going to get
some really good production out of the guy. Would that
be enough to start to swing things in Jacksonville's favors?
They try to make more progress in a loaded AFC.
What if he went to Green Bay? How juicy would
that be?

Speaker 1 (01:27:48):
Man?

Speaker 2 (01:27:48):
If you get DeAndre Hopkins the first season Aaron Rodgers
is no longer.

Speaker 3 (01:27:53):
There, that'd be wild. Well, let me let me give
it to you this way.

Speaker 5 (01:27:57):
My comp for DeAndre Hopkins at this point in his
career is Christian McCaffrey. I mean, cemac for years in
Carolina was underwhelming because of injury time spent on the field.
The guy just he just couldn't stay healthy and so
I mean, when available amazing, DeAndre Hopkins when available amazing.

(01:28:23):
Now I understand there was no PD suspension with the
McCaffrey storyline. But he goes to a stable franchise with
a lot of stars around him, and all of a
sudden he shines again. There's less pressure on him to
be the every down guy. There's less pressure on him,
there's less hits, there's less wear and tear in his body.
I see DeAndre Hopkins if he enters a franchise that

(01:28:46):
has a stable culture, that has the availability to not
make him the the star every week, but maybe the
star every other week, or maybe you know, a combination
of him with some other stars sharing the billing. I
think you could ac career extension for him. I think

(01:29:07):
he could extend his career beyond where may go. If
he stayed in Arizona, for example, or if he goes
to a less stable culture and be he could become
the receiver. Maybe not the fifteen hundred yards per year
receiver he was when he was in his mid twenties,
but he could become I guess an outline, a brilliant

(01:29:29):
outline of the receiver he used to be.

Speaker 1 (01:29:31):
Yeah, that would be really interesting. The Packers thing really
would be.

Speaker 4 (01:29:36):
I mean that that just moved the needle for me
in my brain for that split second that I put
him there in my mind. I still think the spot
matters more than anything else. I think I don't have
a strong opinion on how he's going to fit into
any fold next year.

Speaker 1 (01:29:55):
Like, for example, if a great NBA.

Speaker 4 (01:29:58):
Player Lebron j I know, we just we were hearing
all the talk about if he's gonna move on, like
if he goes to another team. It's it's not as
like the fit doesn't matter as much. It's Lebron James
or a great quarterback. The fit doesn't matter as much.
It's the quarterback the world gets built around him. Whereas
I think Hopkins he's not that kind of a receiver

(01:30:19):
anymore to where it doesn't matter what fit, what situation.
I think the fit and the situation he's at that
point in his career where I would put Odell in
the same Honestly, I think these guys are very similar. Frankly,
I think the fit and that's why a lot of
people raised diae brows.

Speaker 1 (01:30:34):
Win Odell's signed with Baltimore. It is like, does the
fit make sense there with Lamar and.

Speaker 4 (01:30:38):
Where they are currently and what kind of quarterback Lamar is,
We're gonna be talking about that same context whenever DeAndre signs.
The fit and the team and the system, the scheme,
the quarterback, the everything, I think that matters more than
the name. So going back to your original point, Brian,
I think you're right. Game doesn't match up to the

(01:31:02):
name right now. His name right now is wow, DeAndre Hopkins,
Oh my goodness. But I think once he signs, the
conversation will be more about the fit than DeAndre Hopkins
just all of a sudden renovating. Whatever offense he goes to,
it has to fit together because of the stage of
the career and all of the other things we're talking about,

(01:31:23):
you know, off to the side of what DeAndre is
the player right now?

Speaker 5 (01:31:26):
Yeah, yeah, Look, I'm a DeAndre Hopkins fan from the
standpoint of I don't know if I've ever seen a
guy control defensive backs downfield the way he's able to,
and I mean just from a physical standpoint, but also
his route running. Look, there are many great examples of

(01:31:47):
receivers who can go up and get the football, you know,
and have clutch performances, but when he's at the top
of his game, it's hard to compare. There was a
point where you know, his name was being discussed in
conversation with all time greats. That's been diminished some over
the past two seasons. But again remember remember the quarterbacks

(01:32:12):
even before he left Houston, who he's been playing with.
It pales in comparison to the quarterback who he was
playing with prior to And if he can then again
be reunited with somebody who understands how to utilize him
offensively from a play calling standpoint, but then a quarterback
who can find him consistently and not rely on him solely,

(01:32:34):
I think we could see a complete resurgence. It it
really comes down to where DeAndre Hopkins lands, and I
think it would behoove him to take less to get
more out of his career. And again, what you go
to a stable franchise, you restructure your contract, that can
happen overnight.

Speaker 2 (01:32:55):
Well that's the thing is you go back to his
twenty fifteen season, it still blows my mind. Does one
hundred and eleven catches for over fifteen hundred yards and
eleven touchdowns now listen to his quarterbacks that year Brian
Hoyer with nine starts, Ryan Mallet with four starts, TJ.

Speaker 3 (01:33:14):
Yates with two.

Speaker 2 (01:33:15):
And Brandon Whedon with one. Yeah, those were his quarterbacks
and he put up those numbers. Now, the difference is
that was year three of his NFL career. This is
about to be year eleven.

Speaker 3 (01:33:27):
That's a wild He's been in a league that long.

Speaker 4 (01:33:29):
Yeah, huge difference, and receivers that are that tenured we
do not talk about.

Speaker 1 (01:33:35):
Them in this light very often.

Speaker 3 (01:33:37):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:33:38):
Yeah, like it's you know, usually eleventh year of your
NFL career. You're not going to move the needle in
that way because of just the age factor that is involved.

Speaker 2 (01:33:49):
Well, yeah, and I think that's what happens sometimes is
we're thinking about DeAndre Hopkins between twenty fifteen and twenty eighteen,
where he was peak d hop I mean the last
four years he hasn't had double digit touchdown catches.

Speaker 3 (01:34:03):
You know, the last two years.

Speaker 2 (01:34:05):
They've been banged up quite a bit and the Beeds
I'm just telling me.

Speaker 4 (01:34:08):
In the year the average length of a career for
receiver in the NFL is two point eight years.

Speaker 3 (01:34:13):
Oh yeah, I mean, but it's freak.

Speaker 5 (01:34:17):
But but there there are a lot of unfortunately, really
really bad receivers.

Speaker 1 (01:34:23):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:34:23):
Yeah, but in your eleventh year when it's like, hey,
we gotta get this guy because he is going to
change how we play, right, Like, it's just it's rare,
It's very rare.

Speaker 3 (01:34:33):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:34:33):
I look, everything you could you could notch in the
negative column for DeAndre Hopkins. I there's a counterpoint to that,
and that's the reason why he's still being debated in discussed.
Same with Odell Beckham Junior. You know, there was a
time where this this discussion happened surrounding Terrell Owens. There
was a time you know, you reach a point of

(01:34:55):
diminishing returns with these players, you don't want to. Obviously,
he'd be the last person to buy the apple before
it finally rots, you know.

Speaker 3 (01:35:05):
Yeah, I've been there before.

Speaker 5 (01:35:06):
Yeah, and that's an unfortunate reality for everyone. It's coming
for everyone. But if you can get the last of
the best of DeAndre Hopkins and you're the next team
to get one good year, yep.

Speaker 3 (01:35:18):
I mean that he's worth every penny.

Speaker 2 (01:35:20):
Well, that's the thing is, there's a difference between more
name than game. That doesn't mean no game, right, you
know what I mean? It's just the name recognition is
greater than the game. I think it's Odell Beckham Junior.

Speaker 1 (01:35:31):
A good conversation I have.

Speaker 4 (01:35:32):
Frankly, I think he's the one guy where in his
eleventh year we're moving the needle. He might be one
of the few receivers in his eleventh year. We're like, Wow,
we gotta get this guy because he is he can play.

Speaker 2 (01:35:45):
Yeah, and that might be wrong, right, you know, like
I think he can still play. But like it's this
splash move we got DeAndre Hopkins, and it's like.

Speaker 1 (01:35:56):
When it happens, the press is stopped for lack of
a better word, like it was. I remember tweet.

Speaker 4 (01:36:02):
I tweeted out like a baseball nugget about some nerfy
and then it was like a minute later the Hopkins
news broke.

Speaker 1 (01:36:07):
I was like, well, that's gonna get lost in the.

Speaker 2 (01:36:09):
Showf never lost in the shuffle today though he's sure
at Smith FSR Betting andalyst Rich Hoornberger with US Penn
State All American. He's got a shaved clavicle. I do
I think of him when I grill out, and I
think Rich would do with this better. I don't know
how he just what please I'm probably in no Coming
up next, a couple of strategic moves that are getting

(01:36:31):
a ton of attention. It is Fox Sports Saturday right
here on Fox Sports Radio.

Speaker 3 (01:36:36):
Welcome back in.

Speaker 2 (01:36:36):
It's Fox Sports Saturday Live from the tyrack dot com studios.
At the end of your first year, Discover credit cards
automatically double all the cash back you've earned.

Speaker 3 (01:36:46):
That's right, everything you earned doubled.

Speaker 2 (01:36:48):
Seriously see terms and check it out for yourself at
Discover dot com slash match. Okay, so we've got a
couple of stories here, got a lot of attention, and
I think they are strategic moves. We will start with
the King of strategy, if you will, Lebron James. So, uh,
this is the question after the Lakers got swept against

(01:37:10):
the Denver Nuggets.

Speaker 4 (01:37:11):
How would you evaluate the season that you had?

Speaker 2 (01:37:14):
Okay, how would you evaluate the season? And Lebron he
mentioned a few things. Made it to the Western Conference Finals,
great for Darvin Ham, YadA, YadA, YadA, and then he
just dropped this casually as his last little walk off sentence,
if you will. And I don't know, I don't know.

Speaker 6 (01:37:30):
I had a lot to think about, to be honest,
I had a lot to think about, to be honest.

Speaker 9 (01:37:34):
And just for me personally going going forward with the
game of basketball, a lot to think about.

Speaker 2 (01:37:41):
Okay, uh huh, talk about maybe retiring, savvy move, strategic move.

Speaker 3 (01:37:47):
It shifts the focus. He's not gonna retire.

Speaker 2 (01:37:51):
It's maybe a leverage play, but it's mostly shifting the
narrative because it would have been about Lebron getting swept
and his career is nearly over and yahdy yeah, it's
overwhelmingly negative. And now he just throws this out of
I might walk away and it's all is he gonna
walk away? Is this the last we've seen Lebron? It
shifts everything. That is all that's going on here?

Speaker 3 (01:38:13):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:38:14):
You know his nickname is King James, which is so
appropriate because.

Speaker 3 (01:38:20):
What do kings do well?

Speaker 5 (01:38:23):
They control the narrative the reason why they're kings, And really, honestly,
any political elected party knows this. If you control the narrative,
you control everything. If if you have people believing what
you want them to believe or talking about what you

(01:38:45):
want them to talk about, you're in control.

Speaker 3 (01:38:49):
That's what this was.

Speaker 5 (01:38:51):
Lebron lost in devastating fashion to a much better team.

Speaker 3 (01:38:57):
Is he still a great player.

Speaker 5 (01:38:58):
Yeah, is Yokich at this point in his career a
better player, Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:39:03):
He knows it.

Speaker 5 (01:39:04):
But he also know that Jokic has zero juice, that
the Denver Nuggets have zero juice, that he's he can
he can control the narrative leaving the Western Conference Finals.
So instead of the storyline or the narrative being, hey,
look how good Denver is or boy, oh boy, is

(01:39:25):
Lebron washed up? He had everybody eating out of the
palm of his hand, like, oh, is he gonna leave us?

Speaker 1 (01:39:34):
Non?

Speaker 5 (01:39:34):
Go, no, please, Lebron say it ain't so, and then
all these articles come, I mean pouring out.

Speaker 3 (01:39:42):
It's like Lebron.

Speaker 5 (01:39:43):
James could retire, and then the Lakers feel like they
need to respond. They come back with, well, if he's
considering retirement, we're considering a young star. And then everybody
is just distracted from Hey, the Denver Nuggets just took
a team that has Ron, a healthy Lebron James and
Anthony Davis and mop the floor with them for four

(01:40:06):
games before discarding them like use trash and moving on
to whoever They're going to wait.

Speaker 3 (01:40:12):
A full week.

Speaker 5 (01:40:14):
June first is the opening game of the finals, because
it feels like a death march for whoever's coming out
of the Eastern Conference. Anyways, this is amazing. He is
King James for a reason because he has taken the crown,
put it on his head and said to himself, if
I get swept, how do I control the narrative?

Speaker 3 (01:40:36):
And he did just that.

Speaker 4 (01:40:38):
It is good PR work and I've I've always credit
given credit to Lebron for that. He does seem of
all of the modern day superstars. And when I say superstars,
I mean at the tippy top of the sport For example,
Patrick Mahomes, let's be honest, a little bit of a
PR problem with his family, right, There's other stars that

(01:41:02):
have issues, and listen, we all have issues in life.
I have issues too that I'm glad I'm not a
superstar at the tippy top of my sport field because
I don't necessarily want people, you know, might be putting
my life under a microscope every second of every day.

Speaker 1 (01:41:17):
It's exhausting. It is a lot of pressure.

Speaker 4 (01:41:20):
Now, these guys get paid literally small fortunes of GDPs
of some countries. So you want to put the King
Moniker back on top and the throne. Yeah, these guys
make that kind of money. So with great money comes
great responsibility. Right, But you look at what Lebron is
starting to frame. I guarantee you that before that interview

(01:41:41):
took place, he had at least a conversation. Maybe it
happened prior, days prior hours and weeks prior. Hey, Lebron,
your communications PR team, here's how we're going to handle
this situation. A good PR team is ready for anything.
Sweep not sweep that whatever. This is how we're going
to handle it. And he probably was on board with it. Obviously.

(01:42:02):
I don't think you could get by with Lebron not
being on board with a certain strategy. And you're right
the end of that interview, it almost is like Lebron
remembered the talking points at the end and was like, oh, wait,
I gotta get this in before I before I, you know,
walk off the stage here. And he just kind of
gave you it because I think the timing of how
he said it when he said it at the end,

(01:42:24):
it was almost like, eh, yeah, by the way, I
might be leaving here, you go chew on that for
a few days or whatever.

Speaker 3 (01:42:31):
Even that was strategic.

Speaker 2 (01:42:33):
Yeah, maybe it could have wasn't the second response in
the press conference.

Speaker 3 (01:42:37):
Yeah, it was the final thing he said. So it
just sticks.

Speaker 2 (01:42:42):
With you yet level well.

Speaker 5 (01:42:45):
So and then also sorry to cut you off, Brian,
but like, like think about the question that was ask
them where he arrived, like the pivot it took.

Speaker 3 (01:42:54):
Him to get there.

Speaker 5 (01:42:56):
Yeah, And that's the other thing about it, Like when
you ask a politician right on question, like a yes
or no question that they don't want to answer.

Speaker 3 (01:43:04):
You hear it.

Speaker 5 (01:43:05):
You hear it before they even start answering. It's almost
like they as soon as they clear their throat, you
know that whatever comes next is going to be whatever
they're looking to inject into the conversation, as opposed to
answering the question you just answered, you just asked. So
that's what Lebron did here. He knew that that was
going to be the last question he took. He knew

(01:43:27):
that that was going to be the SoundBite on Monday
that everybody ran with. He knew exactly what he was doing.
It's just beautifully done.

Speaker 1 (01:43:36):
Strategery.

Speaker 3 (01:43:38):
Strategy might be.

Speaker 2 (01:43:39):
More strategic moves here right around the corner, but speaking
of someone who knows exactly what he's doing, that's right
that would be the one and only Isaac Loewenkron with
the latest.

Speaker 11 (01:43:50):
Here Lebron James considering retirement.

Speaker 1 (01:43:55):
Ate that up with a soup lade of Isaac oh Man.

Speaker 10 (01:43:58):
Yeah, no, you make a good point. I mean, giver
raised his pr people Denver wins the NBA Championship. Michael
Malone being interviewed, So, Mike, you think Lebron's going to retire?
Oh gosh, I'd love to see that happen. His reactions anyway.
Some reactions from Major League Baseball on Friday and night.
At the Boston Red Sox breaking a four game losing
streak with a seven to two victory over the Diamondbacks

(01:44:19):
at Arizona. The Houston Astros victorious at Oakland five to two.
The A's now ten and forty three. That is the
most losses through fifty three games for any major league
team since nineteen hundred, if you're wondering, by comparison one
of the most infamous losing teams of all time, the
nineteen sixty two New York Mets. They finished with a

(01:44:41):
record of forty wins and one hundred and twenty losses.
After fifty three games. They were fifteen and thirty eight,
five games better than the A's are right now. The
Pittsburgh Pirates hit seven home runs in an eleven sixth
victory at Seattle, Jorge Solio the Marlins homeward for a
fourth straight game, and Miami six to two win over

(01:45:01):
the Angels in Anaheim today had at eight thirty Eastern
Game six of the NBA's Eastern Conference Finals from Miami,
with the Heat leading the Boston Celtics three games to two. Finally,
there's been a new development in a bizarre story in
which an Internet sleuth claimed that NBA referee Eric Lewis
was using a burner account to defend himself against critics

(01:45:24):
on Twitter. Veteran NBA reporter Mark Stein even tweeted that
the NBA had opened an official review in of the situation.
Last night, However, the alleged burner account posted, and I quote,
this is Mark Lewis right, family, older brother. I'm sorry

(01:45:44):
that I put E in this situation, but this ain't Watergate, unquote.
And with that, fellas back to you, I.

Speaker 2 (01:45:53):
Thought you were gonna say he had a burner account
and he's placing bets on fan duel or something like that.

Speaker 11 (01:45:58):
Oh I know that was T Donahey, that was at
T Donahey.

Speaker 3 (01:46:04):
I believe I'm glad it wasn't a gambling foster.

Speaker 2 (01:46:10):
Perhaps Fox Sports Saturday right here on Fox Sports Radio.

Speaker 3 (01:46:16):
Okay, now here's the other story.

Speaker 2 (01:46:18):
We pivot from King James to maybe, depending on your perspective,
King Jah, if you will, so Jahn Morants, here's the story.
He posted a cryptic uh uh story on his ig page,
and it was cryptic to the point where officers had
to conduct a welfare check. So Ja Morant. He's been

(01:46:39):
on video twice holding a gun. He got suspended for
eight games the first time. He's in line to get
suspended for many more games this time. And so he
put on his ig story four different pictures and it
just said love you, Ma, love you, Pops, You're the
greatest baby girl, love you about his and then buy wow.

(01:47:02):
And he's just like walking away where the picture is
like his back has turned when the picture was being taken.
And so some people are like, is he okay? Is
he in a healthy state of mind? Is he feeling
awful based on screwing up again two months after the
first gun video? And listen, anybody with half a heart

(01:47:24):
hopes everything is fine with John Moran. Okay, hope everything
is great physically, mentally, the whole nine yards.

Speaker 3 (01:47:30):
But here's where my mind goes. I think this is strategic.

Speaker 2 (01:47:34):
Also, I look at this and say, okay, he's walking
away from social media. That was the whole thing. Do
they think, oh, no, this is just me announcing I'm
walking away from social media. I didn't know you're gonna
misinterpret it and think something serious was going on. Really,
they had no idea it was gonna be taken like that. Like,

(01:47:55):
think about the Second Gun video where the statement comes
out out and it's carefully crafted and my words might
not mean much right now, but I take full responsibility
for my actions.

Speaker 3 (01:48:06):
Did jah write that?

Speaker 2 (01:48:07):
Are those jaws exact words or is that carefully crafted
by a group of people?

Speaker 3 (01:48:13):
Like that's the way it goes. So what does this do?

Speaker 2 (01:48:17):
It shifts the focus away from Jaw taking a beating.
For a Second Gun video, it was all what is
this guy doing? Why is he screwing up again? Here's
a taste of that from Kwame Brown on YouTube.

Speaker 3 (01:48:30):
I've heard of NBA young boy, but you NBA dumb boy.
You got to be the dumbest mother in the league.

Speaker 2 (01:48:38):
Right, like he's just getting crushed, and then this IG
story comes out and all of a sudden, it's hey,
is Jah right?

Speaker 3 (01:48:45):
Is everything? Okay?

Speaker 2 (01:48:47):
I think this is strategic and it shifts the focus.
That's what I think is going on here. And I
hope that's exactly what's going on, because I don't want
this guy to be struggling in any way.

Speaker 3 (01:48:56):
Yeah, you know, I hope you're right too.

Speaker 5 (01:48:59):
Look, you know, this is something that I've spoken about
publicly in the past. I went through a time during
my playing career and it was momentary, whatever that means.

Speaker 3 (01:49:13):
But I had suicidal thoughts.

Speaker 5 (01:49:18):
And it's difficult to even discuss now because I'm a
happy guy. I have a beautiful family who I love
deeply and live for, and you know, I was just
going through a really hard patch. It was the first
time I was away from the sport I love. I
had a season ending concussion, which potentially some of the

(01:49:39):
symptoms that come postconcussive trauma, depression and isolation and a
lot of things that you go through to just try
to recover from a concussion, you know, could have led
to some of this. But I remember calling up my folks.
I called up my dad and my wife Life was

(01:50:00):
out of town on business. She was away for an
extended amount of time, and I called up my dad,
who lived fortunately driving distance. At the time, they lived
in New York. I was living in Boston, and I said, Hey,
I'm in a bad place and I need somebody here
with me. And it was the greatest phone call I

(01:50:21):
ever made, because I'm not sure what would have happened.

Speaker 3 (01:50:24):
Guys, but it was.

Speaker 5 (01:50:28):
It was a private cry for help, and my father
knew exactly what to do. You know, it came we
we were we got busy, you know, we were doing
like little home improvement projects. I remember I had a
television on a coffee table and he's like, hey, you
ever think about mounting that thing?

Speaker 3 (01:50:48):
And I was like, yeah, actually, it's something I want
to do.

Speaker 5 (01:50:50):
And so, you know, we went down to the home
depot and we bought you know, TV mounting, kid, and
it was the wrong one, so we had a retrofit in.
It was just this long project and it just like
it took my mind completely off of what was going
on internally, and I was expressing myself externally.

Speaker 3 (01:51:06):
And it was a weird. It was a weird phase.

Speaker 5 (01:51:09):
And I call it that because since then, fortunately I
haven't felt that way before. But when you feel that
overwhelming darkness, it's inescapable. And so if that's what Jah
is going through, I hope the people his parents, his
girlfriend or fiance or wife. I don't know what is
significant other is relation to him is. But his teammates,

(01:51:33):
his friends who love him, they're reaching out and they're
touching base with him. And like you said, Brian, hope,
I hope this is as simple as him trying to
take control of the narrative and strategically putting something out
there to shift the public discourse about Jean Morant right now,
the athlete and the superstar. And I hope something deeper

(01:51:57):
isn't wrong with the person because that's a tough place
to be and there's there's it feels like there's no
escaping it.

Speaker 3 (01:52:05):
So if that's where he's at, I hope he has
the people around him to help him get the help.

Speaker 5 (01:52:09):
He needs, because it doesn't You can't take steps forward
until you fix yourself. And if that's where he's at,
I hope he can fix himself.

Speaker 1 (01:52:21):
Wow. I appreciate you sharing that, Rich. I didn't know that,
and I agree, Brian.

Speaker 4 (01:52:28):
I do hope that it is as simple as pr
what's happening here? Because this is a this is a
dark world that we live in. And his generation slightly younger.

Speaker 1 (01:52:42):
Than than than me.

Speaker 4 (01:52:45):
Gen Z right, I'm an older millennial and he's kind
of in the gen Z vibe.

Speaker 1 (01:52:50):
Social media is toxic.

Speaker 4 (01:52:53):
It's toxic on so many levels, and I hope it's
as simple as hey, let's change the narrative, let's shift
the focus, let's get off social media. That's a healthy
choice for joh and I approve that choice. If there's
something else going on behind the scenes that it's not
just that, then we need to have a much deeper
conversation guys social media. I've been bullied on social media.

(01:53:17):
I know I'm not John Moran. I don't get bullied
to the extent that he has been bullied on social
media over the last few weeks because of his decisions.
But I work in a public field. I give out
sports picks every day. Sometimes they're wrong. People get upset
because they lost money and they lash out. And social
media is easy to hide behind anonymity when you are

(01:53:40):
doling out insults and making people feel less, you know,
pushing others down to make yourself feel good. And maybe
he just reached a tipping point with it and he
has seen I'm sure you have to be living under
a rock to not see and hear the things that
are being said about him over the last month, and

(01:54:02):
maybe he reached that point and I reached it too.
I had moments, you know, over when I first started
this little gambling avenue that I've gone down where it's
it's stressful, and you're putting your money and other people's
money on the line every day, and people lose and
they get.

Speaker 1 (01:54:19):
Upset and they lash out to you.

Speaker 4 (01:54:20):
And eventually I took breaks from social media over times,
and I think it's a healthy choice. I don't know
enough about Jaw's inner circle to know if this is
strategic or if there really is something going on there
behind the scenes. But also if you the one thing
that pushes me to maybe there's a little bit of

(01:54:41):
negativity going on that we don't know about, because if
you were just taking a break from social media, I
might have just said that and just said, hey, listen,
I need to take some time to focus on me,
and I'm going to take a step back from putting
myself out there every day.

Speaker 1 (01:54:55):
I think that would have.

Speaker 4 (01:54:56):
Been the right way to say, I'm taking a break
from social media. I do think there's a little emotion
baked into this that maybe is all right, I'm at
the end of my rope, guys, and I need help.
It kind of feels like a cry for help. Maybe
it's a strategic cry for help, but it does feel
like joh does need some help. So I give him support,

(01:55:16):
I give him love because I know we've all been
at dark times in our life, and I hope we
don't get judged by our lowest moments, and I'm sure
this is one of those for job Well.

Speaker 2 (01:55:24):
And that's what I think is if you were trying
to get people on your side again, yeah, how would
you do it? You would do it like this. You
would do it with this ig story because it was nothing.
But what is this guy doing? What a knucklehead? Why
is he screwing up again? So forth and so on,
And now all of a sudden, after this post, it

(01:55:45):
shifts the perspective and it's like we're on Jos's side again.

Speaker 3 (01:55:49):
Is he okay? Does he need anything? Yeah? What's crazy
about that? Too?

Speaker 5 (01:55:53):
You know is you're rooting. You're rooting for something that
is kind of.

Speaker 3 (01:55:59):
This despicable if you think about it.

Speaker 5 (01:56:02):
Like like, because don't don't get me wrong, I agree
fully with what you're saying, Brian, Like I want I
want for Jah like that he's not in some dark
place that people really need to be concerned for his
mental wealth being, you know. But at the same time,
if if we're hoping for that, we're also hoping that

(01:56:22):
he's used social media almost as a false flag to
to to have people concerned that he's suicidal.

Speaker 3 (01:56:33):
Yeah, you'd be using mental health for your person.

Speaker 4 (01:56:36):
It's a cry for help, guys, it really is. And
maybe there's something else underneath it that we don't know,
but this is a cry for help in some stretch
of the imagination.

Speaker 3 (01:56:46):
Yeah, yeah, it's bizarre.

Speaker 1 (01:56:48):
All right.

Speaker 2 (01:56:48):
We've got Rich Orenberger, Penn State, all American. We've got
Jared Smith FSR betting analysts do not bowling him on Twitter.

Speaker 1 (01:56:55):
Okay, I get it enough from my friends. When I
lose a bed, let Rich, you're hitting get the media world.

Speaker 2 (01:57:04):
I'll be good cop. Rich will be bad cop. Get
We'll take care of all the bullies over there. Brian
no coming up that can bring you some cash. Huh,
round table gambling talk our favorite way to end it.

Speaker 3 (01:57:15):
That's on the way. It's Fox Sports Saturday right here
on Fox Sports Radio.

Speaker 13 (01:57:18):
Real two swinging and a mask. Good morning, good afternoon,
and good night. Ramon Loreano and that is the ball game.
Ryan Presley strikes out the side and the ninth to
punctuate a five to two victory for the Astros at Opland.

Speaker 2 (01:57:40):
Welcome back in It's Fox Sports Saturday Live from the
tire rack dot Com studios. That was the Progressive Play
of the day, brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Progressive
makes bundling easy and affordable. Get a multi policy discount
by combining your motorcycle, RV, boat, ATV and more all
your protection in one place bundling save at Progressive dot Com.

(01:58:01):
That call was compliments of the Astros Radio Network as
Houston beat the A's five to two and Oakland is now.

Speaker 3 (01:58:09):
Ten and forty three on the season. Not great.

Speaker 2 (01:58:13):
Top of the hour up on game, LeVar Arrington, TJ.
Hushman's out of plaxa Coo Burris and by the way,
props to the crew. Tremendous day here John Ramos with
us again technical producer extraordinary, Bo Benson, our outstanding producer
and Isaac Lohencron doing an outstanding job on the updates.

Speaker 3 (01:58:33):
We got some money to earn. You over here, Jared,
we'll start with you. What are you looking at?

Speaker 4 (01:58:37):
I mean, just fade the a's every day, right right again.
It's not rocket science. No, I'm just kidding. Don't just
blindly bet stuff, guys. But in this particular situation, you'd
be up a lot if you faded the a's. This year,
I'll go to the NBA because I think that's the
big game of the night, right. I think if you're
gonna bet the Celtics tonight, I like the Celtics. I

(01:58:58):
think they win the game. If you are feeling the same,
bet them to win the series. Because what you're essentially
doing is you're taking a minus two and a half
minus three price tonight and like a minus ten in
Game seven, and you're boiling it down to one wager
at like plus one twenty. So if they win tonight,
then you have a plus one twenty ticket in your
back pocket for Game seven, and the price the money

(01:59:20):
line price for the Celtics a game seven.

Speaker 1 (01:59:21):
Is gonna be way hired than that. So it's about
the Celtics to win the series.

Speaker 5 (01:59:24):
Yeah, every book I'm looking at has the Celtics minus
three or something like that, three and a half other places.
I don't know if they're gonna win by that much
or more, but I do think they'll win.

Speaker 3 (01:59:36):
And if they win, I.

Speaker 5 (01:59:37):
Think they're gonna have to score pantloads of points. So
I'm gonna take the over on the two to ten
point total. Okay, give me the Washington Nationals. The Royals
are ice freaking cold. Enjoy your money.