Steve Hartman and Bucky Brooks talk NBA Finals, PGA/LIV merger and more!

Steve Hartman and Bucky Brooks break down the Nuggets 3-1 lead over the Heat in the NBA Finals, PGA golf’s controversial merger with LIV Golf, Dalvin Cook’s release and the value of running backs in the NFL and much more!

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio.

Speaker 2 (00:04):
Yes, living the dream once again here on a fabulous Saturday.
This is Fox Sports Saturday and we are broadcasting live
from the ti raq dot com studios tyrack dot com.
We're gonna have to get you there, and I'm at
selection fast reshipping free road has a protection over ten
thousand recommended installers ti raq dot com the way tire

(00:24):
buying should be. We got a lot of ground to
cover here on another busy Saturday in the sports world, Bucky,
I finally found some heat on the road this week.
It has been unseasonably cool here in the Los Angeles area,
the June gloom just hovering over the city. I went

(00:46):
down to San Diego, saw a little sunshine, and then
I was in Phoenix last couple of days, Bucky, and
it was cooking like it was Phoenix hot one hundred degrees,
you know, seven o'clock in the evening night. Want to
are you are you missing any heat right now? Do
you like it hot or do you like it cool?
What is what is the preferred weather for Bucky Brooks?

Speaker 3 (01:08):
I would say about seventy five to eighty degrees is
preferred for me.

Speaker 2 (01:13):
Then you would love San Diego, because that's perpetual.

Speaker 3 (01:15):
Iad sunshine and that will that will work.

Speaker 2 (01:19):
You gotta feel a little heat though the on the
stite a little bit, a little bit. We're not getting
much of it here, but man, it was cooking in
Phoenix the last couple of days. All right, we got
a lot of ground to cover here. Once again, Bucky
as we are. Well, we're off this weekend as far
as the NBA Finals is concerned. Again, the crazy scheduling
that they had for these finals will delay Game five,

(01:40):
which will be back in Denver on Monday. And you know,
last Sunday, Rich and I were sitting here getting ready
for Game two, and I made a bold prediction at
the end that somehow the Heat we're gonna win Game two.
It was a crazy prediction. It turned out to be
act and then they go home and they looked bad.

(02:05):
Obviously Denver had some great individual performances. But we're talking
about a Heat team that's in the NBA Finals that
has now lost four straight home games in the playoffs.
So an NBA Finals that you and I talked about,
a lot of things would have to go right for
Miami to make this a competitive series and Unfortunately, outside

(02:26):
of you know, a very impressive fourth quarter run in
Game two on the road, we just haven't seen it.

Speaker 3 (02:32):
Well, I mean, here's the thing. I love Miami and
I love everything that they've done, and what they've been
able to do is I mean nothing tory to remarkable.
And now I thought, to Milwaukee Bucks, they knocked off
the Boston Celtics and the Knicks in between, and now
they're facing the team that is a bigger, faster, stronger.
I mean, it's just a better and more talented team.
And what the Miami Heat needed to be able to

(02:53):
win this series, they needed the Nuggets to assist in
them winning, meaning turnovers, luster effort, and consistent play. And
we haven't seen that. And what we have actually seen
is I would say that to Miami Heat have brought
out the best of the Denmer Nuggets.

Speaker 2 (03:10):
Well, here here's the thing about the Nuggets, and we've
said this before going into these playoffs, no one was
talking about the Nuggets winning a championship outside of Denver,
even though they had been the number one seed in
the West all the way back to December, so they
had clearly dominated this conference over the course of the
entire regular season, they've been equally dominant in the postseason.

(03:32):
And then we had this Game three, which, you know,
there were all these things where, you know, Jokich it
was the first player ever in an NBA Finals game
to go thirty twenty ten, and then they came up
with the fact that it was the first time that
you had teammates go triple double in a final game.
And then somebody really started digging and saying, do you

(03:54):
know that this is the first game in NBA history,
regular season, postseason final, any game in the history of
the NBA where teammates had thirty point triple doubles in
the same game. And so what I'm trying to figure out,
assuming that Denver is going to close this thing out
on Monday, is how much carryover buzz is going to

(04:18):
be for Jokic and Murray. You know, Murray has never
even made an All Star team. I mean, you watch
Jamal Murray and you're like, Wow, this guy is one
of the best wing guys around. This guy can hit shots,
he can create his own shot, he can pass, he
can do everything that you would normally check boxes on
when you're talking about all NBA players. He's never made
an All NBA team for a second or third team

(04:38):
never even made an All Star Game. I just wonder
if enough people are watching, enough people care to suddenly
catapul Jokic and Murray into that conversation as the best
current duo in the NBA.

Speaker 3 (04:57):
You know, it's funny because without the All Star it's
hard to say that, like if we talked about from
a media standpoint, but if you do the eyeball test
and you watched him, the two dominant players, we haven't
seen a duo big man little man duo kind of
dominate that since maybe Shaq and Kobe in terms of
inside outside play, the way that either one can dominate

(05:19):
and completely take over the game, Yeah, I think that
that has to be a very real conversation. And the
thing that has to be a little tough for the
Miami Heat is last night you kind of had things
maybe kind of fall your way. Djoko didn't have a
great game, he was in foul trouble, then he had
the injury that kind of limited him. Jamal Murray didn't

(05:40):
have a bonkers game, but then Aaron Gordon goes for
twenty seven and then Bruce Brown goes big in the
fourth quarter, and so the game three, you're not gonna
beat the Nuggets on that night when Jamal Murray and
joke it goes off. But when they didn't have their
a game, they still were able to win. I think
there's a little bit of regret that it's Miami didn't

(06:00):
get Game two when you didn't have the top two guys.
With the Nuggets playing at their.

Speaker 2 (06:04):
Best, I just wonder when this Finals is over. And
again this is the assumption. And you know, Mike Malone,
the coach of the Nuggets, is predictable at this point.
Remember in the beginning, he was complaining constantly that they
weren't getting any attention. Remember they played the Lakers and
everyone was talking about, hey, the Lakers made a running
Game one and the Lakers are going to win Game two,

(06:26):
and he goes, I So he was complaining that all
the attention was on the Lakers and not on his team.
And now he complains all the time that all the
attentions on his team. So he goes back and forth
and everything else does yeah, right, and I love this.
He said, I want to make sure my players would

(06:47):
get back to Denver and then they're not reading the newspapers.
How many players do you think on the Nuggets are
reading reading.

Speaker 3 (06:52):
A newspaper Twitter.

Speaker 2 (06:55):
I mean I get that, I get his point.

Speaker 3 (06:57):
Yes, he wants to make sure that because right now,
for the next forty eight hours, they're gonna hear about
like I mean, we're already crowning. I think I saw,
I was, I was in my car and Danny Shase,
I mean they're digging up all the nuggets of the past,
Danny Shaves. I heard dan Issel, Alex English, Earl Boykins

(07:17):
was on radio talking Earl Boykins about the Nuggets, and
so this is the only thing that's left now is
they need to bring Carmelo back and have him do
the thing as a great nugget.

Speaker 2 (07:28):
Because where's fat Lever when we need him?

Speaker 3 (07:30):
Fat Lever? Yes, yes, Fat Lever, Robert Pack, I mean,
bring them all back because it is this is a
celebration that appears that's going to happen on Monday night.

Speaker 2 (07:41):
I'll be curious after the NBA Finals, you know, because
immediately the odds makers start looking at next season. If
the Nuggets close it out back to back, are they
going to be the odds on favorite or are they
going to figure out ways to downplay Denver like things
want their way. Are they going to suddenly reevaluate Milwaukee

(08:04):
or are they going to look at Philadelphia or Boston?
I mean, who knows? Even the Lakers.

Speaker 3 (08:08):
Well, part of that is they do play to the
betting favorite, and we know brand name sale and so
lo and behold if if Chris Paul somehow ends up
with the Lakers, even though we could say, like ten
years ago, hold on, yes.

Speaker 2 (08:21):
Hold on, well, I'm gonna save the Chris Paul for
a second because that we're going to get into that
on the other side, because the whole idea of a
thirty eight year old Chris Paul being available out there,
and what kind of interest is in it? I don't know.
I mean, is jokicch marketable. We've been talking about this
for a couple of weeks, you know, you know Nicola,
you know ni Cola. I mean, different ways of marketing

(08:43):
in the sky. But you got to believe that Jokic
emerges from these NBA finals as marketable. The people are
buying in it. People have discovered that nicoliokicch is actually
as good, probably better than haveized.

Speaker 4 (09:01):
Hmmm.

Speaker 3 (09:03):
I mean, yes they do. But in terms of being marketable.
I don't know if he's still.

Speaker 2 (09:09):
Well marketable in terms of believing in the Denver Nuggets
beyond the season.

Speaker 3 (09:13):
Yeah, I think so. I mean they set a four.

Speaker 2 (09:15):
Run I mean he was under the same knock that again,
Giannis was under for a couple of years winning MVP awards.
And where are the Bucks. They're coming up short of
the finals and they win a championship. By the way,
they took a step back. I just wonder if the
fate of the Bucks is a precursor of the fate
of this Nuggets team. Do you see this Nuggets team,

(09:37):
assuming health, is a team that's gonna rattle off more
than a single NBA championship.

Speaker 3 (09:43):
I think so. I think they once they mastered a code,
just because the two guys that are their main two stars.
With those two guys, they're gonna be a problem. And
then you're already seeing them make moves to be able
to position themselves to get young talent where they draft
and develop, to surround around Jamal Murray and joke it
because they know they're gonna have to pony up Pato's

(10:04):
guys big money, and the only way you gonna be
to do it in the new sealar cap areas. You're
gonna have to have some cheap young town that are homegrown.

Speaker 2 (10:10):
All right. Sticking with the NBA, you mentioned it, Chris
Paul is done in Phoenix. How it's gonna happen, we
don't know. He might sign a smaller contract, they may
try to get something in the deal, or just flat
out release him. They do save some space underneath the cap.
I remember new ownership in Phoenix, so a lot of
potential destinations. Would he be a good fit for the

(10:34):
Los Angeles Lakers. We're gonna break it down this it's
Fox Sports Saturday. Hey, it's me Rock Parker.

Speaker 5 (10:42):
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Speaker 2 (11:22):
Steve Hartman and Bucky Brooks. This is Fox Sports Saturday
and we are coming you live from the tairaq dot
com studios. Among other things, today, the running of the
Belmont steaks not a lot of buzz. Obviously, we know
horse looking for a triple Crown, but fifty years ago
there was. It's one of those people old enough to
remember when Secretariat hit the scene. It is still remarkable,

(11:45):
Bucky that this horse, Secretariat still holds the record for
the fastest runs ever at all three Triple Crown races.
Fifty years later. Now that's what we call all time great.
I mean, think about how many sports records are still

(12:07):
on the books from fifty years ago. I mean, obviously,
a Wilt Chamberlain right, one hundred points in the game,
fifty points per game. I mean, Wilt's one of those
type of guys. But Secretary. It was a huge story
at the time, Bucky, because there hadn't been a Triple
Crown winner in twenty five years before Secretary pulled it
off and then wins the Belmont by thirty one links

(12:30):
thirty one links I asked you once before about dominance
for an athlete, whether it's a human or a horse,
And when you have dominance at that level, it's pretty exciting.

Speaker 3 (12:48):
Yeah, I mean, you're really excited about it. I mean,
you have all the things that you can absolutely step
into the building and you know we're going to dominate.
This team. Is not a better feeling than that, you know.

Speaker 2 (12:59):
It's funny because when Secretary had passed away, had an
affected hoof for something, they did an autopsy on Secretary
and found out that Secretary had had a heart that
was like twice the size of the normal heart. Basically
it was running with a much bigger engine, let's put
it that way. So anyway, that was fifty years ago.

(13:21):
We're not quite obviously at the same level with the
anticipation of this year's Belmont, but they are remembering one
of the most historic Hearts races in history, with Secretary
clinching the triple crown, winning the Belmont by thirty one
Lenks fifty years ago. All right. Now, I don't know

(13:43):
where Chris Paul was fifty years I feel like he might.

Speaker 3 (13:46):
Have been around.

Speaker 2 (13:47):
He's been around so long. Actually, technically he's thirty eight
years old. And you know, when you think about Chris
Paul's recent history, he had that one sort of you know,
nice year with OKAC and then he goes to Phoenix
and he had an immediate impact. He was, you know,
top five in the MVP voting. Was having a bit
of a revival in his career. Obviously a couple of

(14:08):
years ago, Phoenix you know, had over sixty wins. Unfortunately
they came up short in the postseason. But now it
looks like with new ownership and place and they're really
pressed against the cap. But it's time to turn the
page on Chris Paul, who has just turned thirty eight
years of age.

Speaker 6 (14:24):
And immediately, immediately, yeah, they're saying, this is what Chris
Paul always wanted, to join forces with Lebron James and
win an NBA championship.

Speaker 2 (14:39):
Yeah, well that sounds great. So let's let's let's hear
from you, Bucky. I want you to close your eyes
and envision Chris Paul on the court with Lebron James
and Anthony Davis.

Speaker 3 (14:53):
What do you see. Well, I see a lot of
visits to the training staff, So I need to make
sure that the training staff is a to par we
have some extra people because at this stage of Chris
Paul's career, he's going to need daily maintenance. He's either
going to be coming out of an injury or going
into another injury. That's that's where he is at this stage.

(15:13):
When I look at the rest of the pieces, Lebron
will make it work because he always is. May it'd
be tough in terms of, like looking at Anthony Davis
and some of the wrestling that he does down there
in the block. I don't know if he's going to
want to handle a heavier workload if one of the
aforementioned triplets is not vailable.

Speaker 2 (15:33):
Here's what the Lakers need more than a Chris Paul.
And by the way, I'm not dismissing the idea that
Chris Baul would be an asset to the Lakers because
they think he would be. Lebron wants to play off
the ball at this point of his current going into
his twenty first season. That's assuming he doesn't retire. I
remember that hint, hint, hint, after they lost to Denver
in the playoffs. But assuming that Lebron's back, he doesn't

(15:55):
want to have to add the added burden. I mean
Let's face it, Lebron didn't even play defense anymore. So
if we could just have him off the ball, he
can still create a lot of things. And Chris Ball
could certainly be an asset ad. But what the Lakers
need more than anything is a big man that could
play some defense in the middle. Anthony Davis is not

(16:17):
a center. We saw that on full display in the
series against Denver. If never is now the hurdle that
you got to get over to get into the NBA
Finals win an NBA championship, you don't have the right
pieces to make that series competitive because Anthony Davis defensively
is not a center. He got bullied, he got destroyed

(16:39):
by jokicchen that series. On the defensive end, he could
do things offensively, but not defensively. You need think back
when they won the championship in the bubble, they had
the two headed monster inside, right, they had McGee and
they had Dwight Howard right. They were playing center, yes,
and that was not aim for a d and they.

Speaker 3 (17:01):
Won a championship. So when I think about this team
and the team to have so many things to do,
too many things to fix, you gotta figure out what
you're gonna do with he'll billy Kobe. You gotta pay him,
you bring him back now, you can't bring so many
other guys back. Who do you want to be if
you're the Lakers? Do you want to play up tempo
with old guys at point guard? Do you want to

(17:23):
play slow down, ground and pound with no shooters not
enough shooters on the perimeter. It's tough. It's a tough
way to go right now here.

Speaker 2 (17:31):
I'm gonna go back to my mentor, one of my mentors,
Al Davis. So, the Kansas City Chiefs back in the
old AFL days, had this huge defensive tackle named Buck
by Cannon. Yeah, big like six seven two and eighty
five pound guy. And Al's going into the draft saying,
all right, I we got to get past this team.

(17:53):
We have to figure out a way to beat the Chiefs.
So what does he do? He drafts a six foot
five which was under heard of at the time, guard
out of Texas, A and I named Gene Upshaw. So
this is I'm using that as an example of what
the Lakers have to think about right now. How do

(18:13):
we beat Denver? That's our target right now, because if
we can't beat Denver, we can't get to the finals,
We can't win a championship. What is our biggot, We
just play this team. What is the biggest problem we
had going up against Denver? And the biggest problem was
you had You had to put a d on your

(18:35):
kitchen that.

Speaker 3 (18:37):
Yes, it's all bad. You have to have someone who
can scrap with him and get off the way, someone
can take the punchment he's take to deal with him,
and you just can't. You can't handle him when he's
when he's locked in and ready to go, he will
put you through the net all of the things. You
still have to make him earn some of the stuff are, yes,

(18:58):
there are some of He can't just write a passage
like hey I'm here, I'm going to the front line.
You gotta make him earn it. So you have to
take him back to old school. Let's high school, tryout.

Speaker 2 (19:08):
Right and again, you know, And this is part of
the point that Lebron was making after they lost in
four straight games to Denver, because he walked away from
that series knowing, as this team is constructed right now,
we can't beat this team, not in a four out
of seven series. And so I mean, we could beat
him a game here a game too. So this is

(19:30):
like when he would say, well, what do you think
about next year? Was I don't know what our team's
gonna look like next year, which is his way of saying,
if it looks like a duck does right now, it's
not good enough. We need new pieces. We got some
good pieces. Hatchamurrow look off any good obviously with Reeves,
he's a guy, he's a keeper. But we got to

(19:53):
beat that team. Getting in the Western Conference finals, according
to Lebron, means nothing. And he's right, all or nothing
to her, all or nothing, right, So I mean that's
the way you have to construct. I mean think about it,
you know, and from a football standpoint, Bucky, if you
if you know that, that's that's the bar, that's the

(20:14):
bar's been set by that team. Then you've got to
figure out how do we get to that level? Where
do we need to improve?

Speaker 3 (20:22):
Yeah, now you spend all your off season studying them,
studying what they do, studying their personnel, their lineups, just
switches all that stuff. If you can get a tail
on how he's gonna switch, you wanna take it to
the guy who's a fisty guarding them. It's one of
those things where it's hard to say that they're gonna
play this. They're gonna play these teams, but you're not

(20:44):
going to invest in the front line. You better have
a dude to at least close the gap a little bit,
because without a dude, you don't have a chance.

Speaker 2 (20:52):
Big guys work folks. They work the hogs. Back in
the day, man, that was a big, big team. So
you know size counts, and certainly he does right now
as Denver is one went away from their first ever
NBA championship. By the way, we're brought to you by
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(21:15):
multi policy discount by combining your motorcycle, RV, boat, a
TV and more all your protection one place, bundle and
save app Progressive dot Com. All right, let's find out
what is trending right now, and Nick Kob knows what
we're talking about here. Do you think that Nick Chris
Paul would have any major impact on the Lakers next season.

(21:37):
I don't think so. No, they need it big, they
need size. Look at this Denver team. I mean, we
don't even talk about Gordon and he comes up with
a huge game where Yokic is in foul trouble, he's
fitted his ankle, and Murray can't shoot the ball stream
they still win.

Speaker 4 (21:54):
They want size and they want more outside shooting. That's
the name of the game right now. That's how you
need to be Denver. So I don't see how Chris
Paul can impact either of those two needs.

Speaker 2 (22:05):
No, I agree. I mean the only thing he does
is basically relieve Lebron of having to bring the ball
up the court every day. Yes, that's it. We do
have some breaking news here.

Speaker 4 (22:15):
In the last ten minutes in the NBA, the final
head coaching vacancy has been filled. Espedo reports the Raptors
are hiring Memphis assistant coach Darko rodja Kovich to be
their next head coach. He's a Serbian native. He came
over from Serbia coach the thunder g League team first,
then he moved to the thunder bench as an assistant,
later move on to the Suns before spending the last

(22:37):
three seasons with the Grizzlies. He beat out Warriors assistant
Kenny Atkinson and Bucks assistant Charles Lee.

Speaker 2 (22:44):
So there you go. Budenhalzer unemployed yep. I think he's
going to take the Frank Vogel route here. Just sit
out the year.

Speaker 4 (22:53):
You'll have another slew of openings in a year and
he can maybe have his pick and.

Speaker 2 (22:58):
He been going to roll the dice. The worst postseason
coach of all time, Doc Rivers, or is that finally over?
I don't know. Maybe I know Buck. He's a big
doc guy, Like he's ignores ten game seven losses and
not a doc guy.

Speaker 3 (23:13):
But you got to get the game seven to move
game seven.

Speaker 2 (23:18):
Well, he's had talent. Remember he inherited a fifty five
win team when he went to the Clippers, and they
never got past that level. They were that level with
Vinnie del Negro as their coach. Yes, oh, I never
got them beyond that. I had not thought about Vinnie
del Negro in a long time, but I mean Vinnie

(23:39):
del Negro got them to that level and then he
just stayed there.

Speaker 4 (23:43):
Yeah, Champions League Final, we just got a goal from
Manchester City, so they've got the one zill lead on
Inner Milan City trying to become the tenth team to
complete the European Trouble. News and Golf as we get
more details about the PGA Live Golf merger. A report
from the Wall Street Journal says that PGA Commissioner Jay
Monahan told PGA employees the reason for the merger is

(24:05):
because the tour could not financially afford to continue fighting
legal battles against liv Golf and the Saudi Public Investment
Fund while at the same time increasing prize money for
its own players. We do have third round of the
Canadian Open in progress. Nick Taylor is in the clubhouse
at the top of the leaderboard at eleven under with
a one shot lead. Rory McRoy is three under fours

(24:28):
round today, he is just two shots off the pace.
And tennis Egas Fiontek won the women's title for the
second straight year.

Speaker 2 (24:34):
Tomorrow.

Speaker 4 (24:35):
Novak Djokovic is going for a record twenty third Grand
Slam title.

Speaker 2 (24:39):
One final.

Speaker 4 (24:39):
So far in baseball, Diamondback shot out the Tigers five
to nothing. Arizona's in first place in the NLS. They
have won ten out of twelve NHL. We got Game
four of the Stanley Cup Final tonight in Florida Golden
Knights with a two to one series lead, and then
post time for the Belmont Stakes seven to two Eastern
time on Fox guys, back to.

Speaker 2 (24:58):
You, I was thinking of doing the full three hours
today just to build up to the Belmont that I
decided against that. And then, by the way, as I mentioned,
I was just in Phoenix, by the way, with that win,
at least for the moment, Dodgers are playing right now
against Philadelphia. By the way, have the Dodgers lost every
game the last week on a walk off? And it's
been crazy. They had three walkoffs and four games against

(25:19):
Cincinnati and the Phillies. But they're in shock in Phoenix,
like nobody was buzzing about the Diamondbacks. You know, that's
a Sun's town, right, That's where they are. Obviously got
NFL fans, but the Diamondbacks have been forgotten for a
number of years. But there they are in first place
in the ns So good stuff there, Nick. We'll check

(25:40):
in with you a little bit later on. By the way, Bucky,
we are here in the Los Angeles area and the
US Open golf tournament is coming this week. How much
buzz are you hearing on the streets Bucky about the
US Open coming to the Los Angeles area for the
first time in seventy five years.

Speaker 3 (26:01):
Not a lot of buzz but the buzz has been
taken up by the merger. Yes, maybe after we get
through the weekend and everyone deals with the fallout and
the hurt feelings from the golfers that stood out in
opposition of you know, the guys defecting and going to
live tour, only to now turn around and know that
all my words have now been directed right in my book.

Speaker 2 (26:22):
All right, So this, you know, this was obviously a
huge story, Like I mean, you talk about coming out
of nowhere, the idea that suddenly everyone's all merged together,
all happy and such. And you know j Monahan, the
PGA Tour commissioner who admitted, yeah, I can call me
a hypocrite, call me whatever. Now now much of it's

(26:43):
coming out, none of this is a surprise. Is that
there's just too much money on the other side. If
they're going to go toe to toe litigation, they can
outlast year because they got what six hundred billion dollars
And maybe that was the idea from the beginning. I mean,
this is, this is not And now they're trying to

(27:04):
figure out some kind of equity stake for those PGA
Tour players that turn down many of them six fit
you know, one hundred million dollars to jump to the
Live Tour because they were under threat that if you
join the Live Toy, you'd be banned for life on
the PGA Tour. So how do you compensate those players?
So they're talking about some kind of equity shares and
everything else. It's a crazy spin, but bucket, I mean

(27:26):
this this first of all, the idea that this group
would come after golf. Okay, the whole thing's like, why
are we spending all this money on golf? Golf is
not that I mean it's I mean it's it's it's
a niche sport. Obviously, there are a lot of golf

(27:47):
fans out there, but it's not like the NFL or
you know, these other major team sports leagues. Why would
they go after golf. Well, they went after golf to
prove that they could get what they want simply with money.
And so now I'm looking at this landscape and I'm like, okay,

(28:09):
So they now will basically bankroll the PGA Tour, the.

Speaker 7 (28:13):
European Tour, whatever it's called these days.

Speaker 2 (28:17):
What's to prevent them from jumping in? Oh, I don't know.
The American college sports scene with Live I'm not live,
but with name, image and likeness, you know, subsidizing programs.
Oh maybe knock on North Carolina store, Hey Mac Brown,
how would you like to have a little more money

(28:38):
in the coffer here to be able to bring some
of those five star recruits over there into the North
Carolina ranks? What's to prevent them from doing to let's
say college football, what they did in a very quick
amount of time to golf. Money talks, money does talk.

(29:03):
The other stuff walks, but what money was talking? Sweet
game to me? And I don't know how you explained
it in the Hey, this clear the air situation in
a circumstance, I don't know if you cleared that.

Speaker 3 (29:19):
It's tough.

Speaker 2 (29:21):
Well, it is tough, but I mean there's nothing to
stop them nothing. I mean all the threats that were
made by the PGA Tour and you know, I mean
the guys that took the money are laughing all the
way to the bank. They got that one hundred million
dollars in their bank account and they get to return

(29:42):
to the PGA Tour. They didn't miss a beat. They
didn't get to have to miss any of the major
golf championships. I think Kapka winning the PGA was the
final deal because since the four majors in golf are
independent of the PGA Tour, any tour, they could set
their own rules. And they all basically said, look, our

(30:04):
qualification for our tournaments is not going to change. If
you qualify, you're in. We don't care where you come from.
So you just I just wonder again when you look
at college football now, and you knew this was going
to happen, Bucky once the Pandora's box was open, and

(30:28):
I remember in the beginning, you remember it was going
to be California only, and how are there? I said,
what do you what are you talking about? California and
all this is going to sweep NCA. They just took
a step back, said all right, you're on your own now.
So now you got all these schools and they're looking
for more and more money to entice these players, high

(30:49):
school recruits, transfers, whoever. It's it's open business. And you know,
there could be somebody sitting over there saying, all right,
well we run the golf world. Now, this could be
pretty lucrative if we jump over there.

Speaker 3 (31:02):
Yeah, A lot to unpack with that, I will say
that golf is fighting for a premier space outside of
the Masters and some of the other notable term you
wait and see who's in the final round where they
add in the final pairing. Yeah, I'm not gonna be
able to do. And so when I sit here and

(31:22):
I think about just what are they going to do,
because now they've not only I mean got in bed
with someone that do very critical love, but now those
people take over ownership and certainly they've heard what was
said about them. You can't ignore it. So you know,

(31:44):
I just worry about the others involved in this, and
I worry about the outcome.

Speaker 2 (31:50):
Keep in mind, one of the one of the leagues
that was very excited about all this noise about this
money subsidizing this rival tour is the NBA. Again, the
number is this. The NBA makes roughly five billion dollars

(32:10):
a year from China miss a lot five billion dollars
a year, which is a big reason why these guys
are making so much money. No one's talking about that anymore. Remember,
there was a concern for a while there that wow,
all that money is coming from China, Yeah, into the NBA.
And if you walk the streets of China, you see

(32:32):
NBA stores all over the place.

Speaker 3 (32:34):
And so here's the thing about the tour and Saudi Arabia,
and people are talking about the fun that is footing
the bill for this one. As these price tagets go up.
We saw Josh Harris may have twenty partners who can
afford to really own a team. And so now you

(32:55):
have a Saudi fun that it just printing cash and
buying up all these teams. Are we going to have
somebody from this fun eventually own an NFL team soon?

Speaker 7 (33:08):
All right?

Speaker 2 (33:09):
I want to explore us a little bit further with
you on the other side, because I want to just
get into this idea of tainted money in the sports world,
something you and I love. We love sports. Sports has
consumed our.

Speaker 3 (33:22):
Lives, right, Tainted money. I like that.

Speaker 2 (33:25):
Yeah, I don't want to use I mean, there's other
terms for it, but tainted in terms of people questioning
the origins of where all this money is coming from
to subsidize the sports world. This is Fox Sports Saturday,
Steve Harbin and Bucky Brooks. You're listening to Fox Sports
Saturday and we are live from the tire rack dot

(33:46):
Com studios. So, yeah, the biggest story in the Sports
Earl this week, no question, the unexpected, out of left
field merger between LIFGLF and the PGA Tour, the European Tour,
deep Tour whatever they call it these days, and I
don't know, I keep changing the name anyway. It really
comes down to a lot of people trying to take

(34:08):
a stand, and this was the PGA Tours stand. They
really played up. So the families of nine to eleven
that were outraged that these golfers would take blood money.
Forget the term blood money. Let's talk tainted, tainted in

(34:29):
terms of controversy. Meanwhile, as I mentioned, I don't think
anyone's going to be sitting by and parade around talking
about the great human rights practices and countries like China
or an average of five billion dollars a year into
the NBA. Does it even matter, Bucky? I mean, I

(34:50):
mean as if you're a professional athlete and you're making
more than ninety nine point nine percent of the world
in terms of salary. And I'm not saying they're not
earning it, because if they're willing to pay it, you've
earned it. So that's not the question. The question is
do you really question where that money is coming from.

(35:11):
Does it really matter? You know?

Speaker 3 (35:15):
I can't.

Speaker 2 (35:18):
I used to.

Speaker 3 (35:19):
So I worked for the Carolina Panthers for a long time,
and so Jerry Richison de late Jerry Rison was the
owner of the team. Then Jerry Richson kind of got
us start with Hardy's and then he had Hardy's out
here how West is statis Carls Junior. But then he
moved over to Denny's and back in the South, Denny's
had some controversy. I can say that, even though you

(35:42):
could be for the cause and the movement, I don't
know if it impacted me in terms of thinking about
where mister Richison got his money and how the check
was coming in on the first and fifteenth. And so
I understand people who want to take the moral stand
on those things because we hear it, not only like
we talked about Suddy Araby. We hear people talk about

(36:02):
China and sweatshops and all these things. And people have
taken some players to task for being supportive of some
things but not supportive of other things and those things.
But it's really hard now because everything is so like convoluted,
everything is so corporate, and these big entities we talk
about these wealth funds and all that. You really don't

(36:25):
know who owns what and where he's coming from.

Speaker 2 (36:27):
Well, we have a global economy, right, isn't that what
a lot of people have been pursuing. Now this is
sort of the controversy in our American politics, you know,
sort of keep an in house as opposed to sharing
it with the rest of the world. So you're right,
I mean, it is convoluted. Where is all the money
coming from? We're not exactly sure at all times. You know.

(36:49):
Bryce and de Shamba got into some heat when he
was interviewed talking about this merger and he said something
along the lines of, even though those families that were
affected by nine to eleven, there's no way to ever
you know, put pieces back together, so to speak. Maybe
it's time to forgive and move on, not forget, but

(37:14):
understand that you know, this happened. I mean, and of
course that was met with it was just outrage, like
people are like.

Speaker 3 (37:23):
Wasn't wasn't the greatest response.

Speaker 2 (37:25):
It wasn't And it just sounded like someone that was
completely out of tude. The best thing for Bryce and
to Shambo is to just not say anything. And you know,
he said, hey, this is a great thing for the
future of golf. Well, understand this now for many people,
they will never look at the golf world the same

(37:45):
way because now the money is one clear source and
you're either okay with it or you're not okay with it. Yeah,
But as far as the golfers are concerned, I can't
anybody walking away from playing professional golf at the highest
level because they're outraged at where the money is coming from.

Speaker 3 (38:11):
Well, the thing that I wonder about, like, now that
it's all sit and done and you had people taking
those splits, how everyone taking their sides and how do
you meild this back to the other in one happy family?
Because now we're going to have these events where every
a everyone's invited. So how are we going to handle

(38:31):
all this stuff? And if you're the guys who stood
for the stand and I know they talked about equity
stake and all of that, but still that doesn't put
the two face back in the two how do you
handle all of this stuff that has going on when
you were tried it out, paraded out kind of seen
as you know the guys that's a spokesperson for the

(38:52):
City on the Hill, which was the PGA and then
the City on the Hill folded because they wanted to
take the money that they said you shouldn't it.

Speaker 2 (39:00):
By the way, once again, we are broadcasting for the
tirerech dot Com Studios. The guy that really made out
in this is Brooks Kopka oh Man, because Keopka was
hurt and his game had fallen off so dramatically that
he suddenly looked at the live tour option as maybe

(39:23):
some kind of salvage. If I'd never get my game back,
at least I'll have money in the bank. Well, he
ended up getting the money in the bank and he
got his game back. Yes, so he got it all
and now he gets the joint back on the PGA Tour.
After that there will be no live tour. Understand. The

(39:46):
other thing about it is how do you feel about
golf and no cuts? Because this was a big play
and live and I used to say about golfers, man,
you got to earn it. Half the field every week,
doesn't make the cut. You don't make the cut. You
don't make you don't make one any I think I'm
gonna guess those days are over.

Speaker 3 (40:05):
Don't make one penny?

Speaker 2 (40:06):
Small smaller, yeah, small, I mean you missed the cut.
You don't get actually paid for the tournament. You get nothing, zero, nothing,
But you know, we'll see how it all plays out.
All right. Coming up on the other side, the NBA
Finals have resumed. How much longer? How much longer will
Miami survive? We'll break it down. This is Fox Sports Saturday.

Speaker 1 (40:28):
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 2 (40:40):
Oh yeah, rolling along here on another busy Saturday, Fox
Sports Saturday. We're broadcasting live from the ti rag dot
com studios ti rag dot com. We're gonna help get
you there an unmatched selection, fast read shipping, free road
hazard protection, over ten thousand recommended installers, ti iraq dot
com the way tire buying should be. We're gonna have

(41:00):
to wait till Monday for Game five of the NBA Finals,
off this weekend, obviously, the Nuggets trying to close it
out at home and claim their forever NBA championship. I
wanted to touch on something before we get back to
these NBA Finals. We don't do a lot of tennis
talk here the French Open is going to conclude tomorrow

(41:23):
with the men's final. Novak Djokovic is going to try
to become the winningest men's player ever in terms of
career Grand Slam titles, going for number twenty three. But
but I wanted to talk to you about his semi
final win against the youngest player ever to assume the
number one ranking in the world, Carlos Alcarez, at age nineteen,

(41:47):
had already ascended to the number one ranking won the
US Open last year. And I don't know if you
heard or even saw any of the semi final match
between Alcarez and Djokovic, but he had a twenty year
old going against a thirty six year old. First couple
of sets were dynamic. In fact, Alcoa has made this
incredible forehand where he turned around and it made it all,

(42:10):
you know, was buzzing. And then by his own emission,
his entire body started shutting down. And Djokovic won the
last two sets six to one, sixty one, and Alcarez admitted,
and this guy mature beyond his years, obviously that he

(42:32):
was so nervous going into this match, you know, obviously
going against someone that was by the way playing in
their forty fifth career Grand Slam semi final. I had
just a staggering number for Djokovic, but he basically used
up all his energy in the first two sets. It
was intense match, back and forth, and then his body

(42:54):
just shut down, Like he said, my entire my hand
was cramped, My whole body was cramping up. And he
just admitted that he was nervous. And you know, understandably
so playing this all time legend, even though he was
the number one rank player, and a lot of people
assume maybe this was time for passing the baton as

(43:15):
an athlete, and we talk about physical conditioning and sort
of that balance of the physical conditioning and the mental conditioning.
I mean, I've known players. My dear friend Nick Hardwick,
longtime center for the Chargers, he literally threw up before
every single game, Yeah, every single game that he played.

Speaker 3 (43:40):
To deal.

Speaker 2 (43:41):
So how do you I mean, I just can't imagine.
I mean for us, you know, everyday people when you
go out on the big stage, whether it's a physical
game or whatever it is. But when you're an athlete
and that balance between i mean physically ready and then

(44:03):
mentally ready, how challenging is that.

Speaker 3 (44:08):
It's a tremendous challenge. It's a challenge because you have
to teach, and it starts early. You have to teach
young people how to play through the butterflies and the nerves,
anything that you've wanted to do, that you really care
about that means a lot to you. You normally have
some kind of anxiety leading up to it, probably the
first time that you took the mic on air, TV

(44:30):
or whatever, like the same butterflies or rubber legs that
you have. Athletes experience it, and what happens is someone
would tell you, Hey, the butterflies are normal, it's a
normal situation. They normally go away right after you kind
of start playing. For me and football, after the first hit,
after the first time you touch the ball, the first

(44:51):
time you get hit, like everything goes away. Then you
start to kind of start settling in and you're able
to play the game. But you want to get that
in and you have to coach people through it now,
people who are high anxiety, you have to give them
coping mechanisms. When I was in college, I work with
a sports psychologist. His name was doctor Richard Coop, and
so doctor Coop had worked with a bunch of golfers,

(45:13):
and so we would do a thing the night before game.
We'd do visualization. He would have you kind of see
the game ahead of time and do it. Give me
a handful of breathing exercises that you would go through
and do prior to the game. If you get nervous
in the game, if something happens, it just give you
a couple of different things that you could utilize to
help you get past that moment. And experience gives you

(45:36):
an opportunity to work past that. You're like, okay, I've
been there before, I know this, this is like common
and you get better. That's why when people talk about
playoff experience and championship experience, in those things, it does matter.
Doesn't guarantee that you're gonna win, but you should be
able to handle the moment in terms of how quickly
can I get past the anxiety to then kind of

(45:57):
get caught up in the game, lose yourself in the
competitiveness of the game. And you have to be able
to do it without worry about the outcome. You have
to just kind of play the game and do it.
And I read this thing and it's that last year,
like you know because I coached high school ball out
here and we made a championship run and we won
championship like locally and those things. But I remember reading

(46:20):
something about Phil Jackson, and Phil Jackson said, in big games,
the calmest team wins. So in spite of what Hollywood
has presented in terms of win one for the Gipper
and all that, the best thing that you can do
is calm your team down and calm yourself down to perform,
because you just want to treat it like any other day.

Speaker 2 (46:41):
Well, when I look at this situation with al Karez,
you feel like he just used up all his energy
too quickly. I can't even imagine what it was like
for you the first time he stepped on an NFL field,
because I mean, you play high school ball, you played
college ball, you played and then all this sudden you're
you're just you're almost in an out of body experience,

(47:04):
like Okay, I know that this is something I've always
dreamt of, but it's actually happening. Like I'm I'm actually
on an NFL feel right now. You want to be intense,
you know, you just know everything's gonna move a little faster.
I'm gonna have to hit harder. I'm gonna have to
just I have to do. And you could use up
all that energy you can in a blink of an

(47:26):
eye and all of a sudden. We see it all
the time, right in the NFL, when you suddenly go
from a twelve game schedule to seventeen, you hit the wall.
We've seen it in a lot of sports, you know,
you college basketball, you go from a thirty game season
to eighty games and suddenly you hit a wall, like
I've used up so much energy, so much, and I

(47:46):
can't say how to pace yourself.

Speaker 3 (47:48):
So mental fatigue. So a lot of times you have
to teach athletes how to go into it. I mean,
if it's a big game, So I imagine you ucla
USC playing the costume big game or the Rose Bowl,
a lot riding on it. You come out, so now
you got pregame, you have the atmosphere, the bands are
beginning to play, people are following in. You've heard about
it all week, and if you're not careful, you'll play

(48:11):
yourself out in warm ups like you're amped up, you're
running around, you're doing all this other stuff, and you're
exhausted because you've burnt all the stuff, and so you
have to teach people how to handle those environments. Hey, guys, breathe, relax,
ease into the moment. We're good. You have to talk
to them self. Talk is big. Breathing exercises are huge,

(48:35):
because I think you've done this about me, Like I'm
a yogi, Like I go to yoga, I practice yoga
or whatever, and a lot of things are tied to
Everything is tied to your breath. And so if you
can control your breathing, you can control like your heart
rate and bring everything down. But if you don't have
anything any mechanisms to help you, I mean, your heart
is banging out your chest, you can't breathe, the hyperventilating.

Speaker 2 (48:59):
It's tough well, and not everyone gets there.

Speaker 8 (49:01):
You know.

Speaker 2 (49:02):
This is why when you look back and just using
tennis as an example, when you had feder and Nadal
and Djokovic, these three players rewriting the record books, you know,
all when he at least twenty, and they would sometimes
hook up in a final at a Grand Slam, and
it's going five sets, and it's five or six hours
on the court, and they're still hitting unbelievable shots in

(49:23):
that fifth set and you're thinking, how are they still
doing this? The body's gotta be wearing down. So now
it becomes a mental gig. Their mental game is willing
their body to keep it going. And again, for ninety
nine point percent of the world, we just we don't

(49:44):
get it. We don't know, but you know how mentally
you can summon more out of that body.

Speaker 3 (49:51):
So for me, because if you ask me what do
I miss about playing sports? I missed that part of it.
I missed that part. I think the best way to
take you in it like as a movie Buff Russell
Crowe and Gladiator. Yes, when you walk into the arena
and it's that that feel everybody And I'll say this like,

(50:15):
particularly in football, everyone who plays football is half cock.
Like you're a little crazy to do it just because
of the physicality and all that other stuff. But there
is nothing like when you step in the arena. And
for me as a kick returner, there's nothing like they're
playing the music in pregame, they're coming, everyone's going, and
then it's that they tear it up. The whistle goes
and you see the kicker approach it and no matter

(50:37):
how loud it is, when you hear the f everything
is quiet, and it's this thing where everything slows down.
You catch, you run to play whatever, you get tackled,
and then as soon as you hit the ground, all
the noise comes back and you back in it. And
so it's the surreal thing. And so a lot of
what I think players miss when they're not that is

(50:59):
that because some people are built for some people love it.
I craved it. I loved it. I love that competitiveness.
And you know, the bigger games, like when you get
to where he was in the semis, the game is faster,
the points are more meaningful because it has a greater
level of significance. And so the main thing is can

(51:19):
you play in a big game but not allow it
to overwhelm you where you think about the consequences of
your actions and you just able to focus on, Hey man,
I'm just doing it just like I would do it
in the backyard. We're gonna do the same thing because
those who really win and excel in those moments, they
just do the ordinary stuff without thinking about the circumstances
around it.

Speaker 2 (51:39):
I thought Djokovic was great in the aftermath, it was
obvious what had happened. Now Karez and you know, He
just simply told him, you'll figure it out. You're gonna
win plenty of these. Don't worry because you know Fetter's gone.
Nadal said, one more year. Maybe we don't know he's
missing the rest of this year. I'm not going to
be playing forever. This is going to be yours. But
you learn a lesson and you're just going to have

(52:01):
You're gonna have to slow things down.

Speaker 3 (52:03):
And the only thing that can prepare you for it
is you have to do it. Yes, And the thing
about it is you never know how many times you
have an opportunity to do it and so, but with
that experience comes expertise, and the more you do it
at a higher level, the easier it becomes to handle
your emotions. It doesn't guarantee that you win, but you

(52:24):
understand how to prepare for it, how to do it,
how to deal with all the circumstances that come along
with it.

Speaker 8 (52:28):
All.

Speaker 2 (52:28):
Right, question is can the Miami Heat summon the right
mental and physical balance to get back in the series
down three games one to the Denver Nuggets. What will
have to happen Monday for the Heat to bring it
back to Miami for Game six. We'll break it down.
This is Fox Sports Saturday, Steve Hartman and Bucky Brooks

(52:50):
Fox Sports Saturday. We're coming in live from the ti
Raq dot Com studios. Now, I've always said this about
any job, whether it's playing in the NFL, broadcasting, no
matter what job you do. If you've never done a
job before, Let's say you're collecting trash and you have

(53:11):
no idea what you're doing, there's going to be anxiety.
So people say, well, how do you learn. It's like
any job, you do it over and over and over again,
and then all those Yeah. Now, people always talk about
an in air an NFL player, the game slows down,
right because you've seen the script before, and you play
game after game after game after game after game after game,

(53:33):
and suddenly there's a certain pattern and you have your
own way of sort of getting yourself ready to go.
And so it really is, no, every job is the
same way. It doesn't matter what the job is. Experience
absolutely counts. Now, I don't know what kind of experience
Miami their takeaway from what happened in Games three and
four at home. By the way, I imagine a team

(53:55):
that's made it to the NBA Finals, Miami has now
lost their last four home games in the playoffs. Yeah,
so so much for that home court advantage. I mean
they had to be sky high right after stealing Game
two in Denver with that phenomenal fourth quarter and feeling
really good at going into Game three, and then you'll
catch to Murray have their historic day. Well that's one

(54:16):
thing in game three, but in Game four with jokicch
hurt and then in foul trouble and Murray can't shoot
the ball straight, it was there for you and you
could not take advantage. So I know that, you know,
Jimmy Butler, Eric Spolstro, they've had a certain demeanor throughout
these playoffs, like no one expected us to get this far,

(54:38):
and they're talking out that, Hey, we fully expected we're
going to be back here for Game six in Miami.
So let's we know the reality of you know, size
and skill versus skill. In other words, the skill level
of Denver is the equal, if not greater, in Miami.
And oh that's right, they also have complete size advantage.
So what are you doing out, Jimmy Butler, Eric Spolster,

(55:02):
They're a team. How can you steal a game five
in Denver? I think you have to double down on
your effort and your toughness. I think this game has
been one where I'm I mean, this series has been
one where both teams have played with extreme effort, outside
of Game two, where Mike Malone talked about, hey, we
didn't bring the effort, we didn't bring the force.

Speaker 3 (55:21):
We shouldn't have to talk about this. And so now
you have a more talented, more skilled team that is
bringing the level of effort. The Miami Heat wins. And
this is not being disrespectful to the players. They have
always won, particularly in the postseason, because they play harder,
They're tougher, they're rougher than you. They make you play
on their terms, and they are the masters are playing

(55:44):
that that. They grimy, gritty basketball. The Denver Nuggets have
learned how to play that. And so now when you
take a team that is as tough, as disciplined, as
detailed as the Miami Heat with greater talent, well now
you see those things. Because when I watched the game,
it is as if the Miami Heater are kind of
working uphill the entire game. When you watch them, everything

(56:07):
is really difficult and hard and challenging for them to
get buckets, whereas for the Nuggets man their possessions where
it's just so easy for them to get layups in
those things. And so what Miami has to do is
they have to kind of take away the comfort that
the Nuggets are playing in and they have to force
turnovers because without the turnovers, without the extra possessions that

(56:28):
the opponent gives them, it's going to be very difficult
to knock off the Nuggets in a straight up game.

Speaker 2 (56:34):
All right, So Miami was eyewitnessed to a team coming
back from a three to zero deficit to force a
game seven. What takeaway can Miami get from what almost
happened to them against the Boston Celtics. They saw what
the Celtics did. I remember after losing Game three, that
Celtics team was not just down three to zero, they

(56:55):
were getting.

Speaker 3 (56:55):
Eviscerator dead in the water.

Speaker 2 (56:57):
I mean, you had Magic Johnson say a forty four
years associated with this league, I never thought I would
see a franchise at the Celtics. And there's seventeen championships
quit on a court.

Speaker 3 (57:11):
So they've already taken a page from the Celtics. The
only thing they talked about was, hey, let's get it
back to the three h five. Let's see if we
can find a way to have a game six. He
can win game five and give us a chance to
just get back home. And it's cliche and people talk
about one game at a time and those things, but
that's all that you can do. Let's just find a

(57:31):
way to get this done and see if we can
get a game back in Miami. So because then if
you get to Miami, you're saying home game, we're gonna
play a little better. Maybe we win that one, and
then game seven takes is a life of its own anyway,
And so if you're Miami, you've already wrote one. In Denver,
you won game two in Denver, you are just trying
to find a way, ay, no matter, no matter what

(57:53):
it looks like. Let's just see if we can get
a dub and make them have to get on the
plane to go back to Miami, and then we'ld take
our chances.

Speaker 2 (57:59):
All you are a Heat fan, you know, Johnny come lately,
you're a true Heat fan. You hear what Eric Spolster said,
There's never going to be any panic out of Eric Spolster.
It's not going to be any panic out of Jimmy Butler.
And by the way, there were times last night or
in uh yeah, last night where you know, Butler was
very conscious of what he had said that we got

(58:22):
to be more aggressive, especially after that game won when
they only shot the two free throws and he was
purposely going to the hoop. A lot of things wentn't
right for Miami last night. You know, they got Jokich
and foul trouble. We talked about that, how do you
neutralize Jokic. One way to neutralize him's put him on
the bench, can out of the game, force him to

(58:45):
do some things defensively they might get him into trouble.
So they did all the right things, they just couldn't
close the deal. And I think that's also a testament
to where Denver is in the mindset of Malone. This
group has been around a long time, the nucleus of
this Nuggets team, coach, players have gone through quite a

(59:07):
bit over the last several years to get to this point.
So that's the one thing that Miami has to understand
is when Denver takes that court. I mean, can you
imagine I don't what are the ticket prices on that
and can you imagine where the ticket prices are a
chance to be there in Denver for your team's first

(59:29):
ever NBA championship after all these years. I mean, that
place is going to be rocking. So if you're Miami,
you're going to have to somehow get over the initial
tidal wave of emotion some of that. But you know,
the Nuggets knocked down a couple of quick threes or
you know, start making a couple of quick shots, that
place is going to rrupt.

Speaker 3 (59:50):
So there are a few ways to look at it.
If you're Miami, man, there's no pressure on you. Just
play free and loose. You're not expected to win those things,
So take your shots, play hard or whatever. The part
where you can see and normally sometimes these elimination these
final games can get out of hand. Is because when
you lose hope and so you talk about the barrage

(01:00:14):
of threes and the Nuggets making the push and those things.
As you get into the second half and you're looking
up at the school board and if you down double digits,
do you have the toughness to continue to lock in
and keep playing or do you let goard the rope?
A lot of times in those games, guys let goard
the rope. They don't feel like they have a chance
to win. A team doesn't feel like it has a
chance to win. They've seen it. They're like, you know what,

(01:00:35):
we just it's just not our year. Do they have
the toughness to be able to do it? However, if
they're able to do it, because they just witnessed it
what Boston did, they gained a measure of confidence. Hey guys,
cut it to three to two. They gott to come
see us. We've seen this before, so it's violent. The

(01:00:58):
other thing, if you're the Nuggets, why you don't want
to mess around the longes. This series goes the odds
of somebody. We saw it with joking sprain an ankle.
All it takes is one little random freak thing, and
I wouldn't wish that on anybody. But I'm just saying the.

Speaker 2 (01:01:12):
Longest, absolutely, the longer it goes.

Speaker 3 (01:01:16):
Any little crazy thing, jam finger, anything can stem the tide,
can completely reverse the momentum of the series. And so
if you're the Nuggets, you want to take care of business.
You don't want to have to get on the plane.
And if you're Miami, if you can make them get
on the plane, man, you got a chance.

Speaker 2 (01:01:31):
By the way, they're doing a little pre race here
on the Belmont, and they had a big feature on
the fiftieth anniversary of Secretariat's dominant performance. Secretariat has two
children still alive. They just showed one of them. This
horse is thirty four years old, Vice Secretariat. There's a

(01:01:52):
little bit of a yeah, yeah, this is like, yeah,
we're watching three year all run in the Belmont here,
and I just you know, I don't.

Speaker 3 (01:01:59):
Know thirty four year old. Of course, how old is that?

Speaker 2 (01:02:02):
That's old. That's old.

Speaker 7 (01:02:04):
Yeah, that's yeah, that's pretty old.

Speaker 2 (01:02:07):
Let's find out what's trending right now. I don't know
how much knowledge Nick Cope has on horse racing. It's
pretty limited. Yeah, I really is. I mean, like I said,
for someone of my generation, Secretariat was a huge story.
I mean, I can't overstate it. Winning the Triple Crown,

(01:02:30):
first one in twenty five years. The dominance of this horse,
Imagine still holds the fastest time in all three Triple
Ground races.

Speaker 4 (01:02:38):
Just that shot from the end of the front stretch
looking back, where you see the distance as Secretariat is finishing,
already won lengths to Belmont. Yeah, it's just incredible to
see that call of it.

Speaker 2 (01:02:49):
The guy actually at the finish, I think the actually
guy that called the race at twenty five lengths and
then later had a correct and stuff. He goes it
was hard.

Speaker 4 (01:02:56):
How can you even tell at that point twenty five
versus thirty.

Speaker 2 (01:02:59):
I mean it was he's gonna win, the horse is
gonna win. Yeah, just absolute dominance out there. So very
busy day as usual.

Speaker 3 (01:03:07):
Next.

Speaker 4 (01:03:07):
Yeah, you were wondering, by the way, about the price
for a game five on Friday in Denver, the get
in just the get in price.

Speaker 2 (01:03:14):
You're looking about one thousand, oh give or take. Yeah,
I know, now you know. I remember this with the
La Kings hockey team in twenty twelve. So they had
won the first three games. In game four to sweep
off the Devils, you had all these Johnny come Lately,
you knew, people that weren't even Kings fans, that paid

(01:03:36):
huge money. It is lost to be there, and the
Kings lost went back to Jersey. Devil's win another one.
So now it comes back to game six and all
those people that spent all their money in Game four
weren't around, which meant the real diehard Kings fans, the
true fans who had waited for this moment. They were

(01:03:57):
there for Game six, dominant at that game. It was
very emotional. Yeah, but you finally win that first championship.

Speaker 4 (01:04:04):
By the way, still sticking with the finals, this story
a little offbeat, but I don't know if you saw it.
Perhaps maybe a microcosm for the Finals. During a time out,
you had Bernie the mascot for the heat, yes, and
Connor McGregor coming out, and he was peddling some sort
of some sort of spray that's supposed to help with
pain relief, and Connor McGregor just knocked the mascot out

(01:04:26):
first with the left hook. Then poor guy in the
mascot suit is on the ground on his back and
McGregor hits him again before you know, putting his spray
on him and walk away.

Speaker 2 (01:04:36):
Apparently that gentleman needed to go to the er last night.
But he is okay now, I mean there's a major
lawsuit coming right. You're not allowed to attack someone just
because they're in a mascot suit, are you.

Speaker 4 (01:04:48):
I don't know what the person signs in order to
be in the mascot suit, but apparently he was given
pain medication by the doctor and has since been sent
home and is doing well. But poor Bernie there really
really took one on the chin, by the way. The
final head coaching vacancy in the NBA has now been

(01:05:09):
filled multiple reports, and the Raptors are hiring Grizzly's assistant
Darko Radjakovich to be their next head coach. He spent
the last ten years in the NBA as an assistant,
also spending time with the Thunder and the Suns. No
details on the contract terms just yet. Champions League Final
it is a final in Istanbul, Manchester City defeating inter
Milan one mil to become the tenth team to complete

(01:05:32):
the European Treble, first English club to do it since
Manchester United in nineteen ninety nine. In Golf Wall Street
Journal reporting, PGA commissioner Jay Monahan told pg employees the
reason for the merger with Live Golf is because the
tour could not financially afford to continue fighting legal battles
against the Saudi Public Investment Fund. On the course at

(01:05:53):
the Canadian Open in Toronto, Tommy Fleetwood and Ry McElroy
are tied for the lead at twelve under. For them,
they each with a one shot at Vantage Fleetwood eight
under fours round. He's in the clubhouse. McRoy still on course.
He is six under for his round. In baseball, some finals,
Reds dispatched the Cardinals eight to four, Marlin scored four

(01:06:13):
runs in the ninth to knockoff the White Sox five
to one, and the Diamondbacks shut out the Tigers five
to nothing. Quickly run through the Game's currently going on
twins over the Blue Jays eight to three and the
ninth Padres three to two.

Speaker 2 (01:06:25):
On top of the Rockies.

Speaker 4 (01:06:26):
That one is in the eighth inning and heading to
the sixth inning, Orioles four to one on top of
the Royals, Dodgers needing a win. They've got a three
to nothing lead on the Phillies in the sixth, Mets
and Pirates tiny one in the six A's on top
of the Brewers one zip in the fifth, Rangers leading
the Raise six to four in the fifth inning. Finally
Braves on top of the Nationals five to three. That
one is in the sixth in Atlanta. Guys, back to you, Hi, Nick,

(01:06:47):
Thank you very much.

Speaker 2 (01:06:48):
Once again, We're coming alive from the tai Iraq dot
Com Studios by the way. Our NFL Fox Sports radio
insider Adam Kaplan will join us coming up in our
next hour. I wanted to ask you about a big
story the NFL. Not unexpected. The Minnesota Vikings released Dalvin Cook. Now,
I think for a lot of people you would say,

(01:07:09):
all right, I get he's a running back. But this
is a running back who will turn twenty eight in August.
So as we sit here, he's still twenty seven years old.
He's had four consecutive Pro Bowl seasons, and this past
season he played every single game first time in his
entire career, and I believe he had a separated shoulder

(01:07:29):
early on in the season, yet he powered through that
and played the entire year. Now he's got a big number,
and the Vikings obviously feel that as great as he's been,
his best days are behind him. So let's get a
little sense here. If a team is looking for a
quality back. By the way yards from scrimmage over the

(01:07:50):
last four years, only one back has a higher average.
That would be Derrick Henry. So let me ask you this,
Should a team in search of enhancing the running game
be looking to sign a guy like Dalvin Cook?

Speaker 3 (01:08:06):
Yes, they should be looking to sign Dalvin Cook. However,
Dalvin Cook has to have real estate expectations over what
the money is going to look like. You have a
serve plus of backs on the streets here. Ellis still
on the street, Kareem Hunt is still on the market,
a handful of other guys.

Speaker 2 (01:08:22):
Adrian Peterson says he's still on the markets, like, yes,
not twenty eight year old, thirty eight year old.

Speaker 3 (01:08:29):
He's still looking for one more shot at a little
closure to his career. And so for Dalvin Cook and
all these running backs, they just have to know that
the money's not going to be what it once was.
The paycheck that he got last year in Minnesota, he won't
see that kind of paycheck. So what is he chasing?
Is he chasing the money? Is he chasing the ring?
If he's chasing the ring, then he has to make
decisions based on which team is going to give me

(01:08:51):
the best opportunity to see that come to fruition. There's
a lot of conversation, a lot of buzz about Dalvin
Cook end and up in Miami. Good situation for him,
even though I would say it's very crowded in the backfield.
Raheem Moster Jeff Wilson. They drafted to back a chain
from Texas A and M. And then you add Cook.

(01:09:12):
I don't know if you could get enough carries. But
he's at the house and so it'll be interesting. He
does offer stuff. He's still at every down back and
those things. The big thing is the money will not
really equate to the production that he can't put up.

Speaker 2 (01:09:27):
I'm trying to figure this out now. I know how
this works. You bring in recruits right out of high school.
Most high school players, if you're one of your elite
high school players, will play both ways. It's not that
uncommon in high school. Whether you're a back or a lineman,
it doesn't matter. You're gonna see action on both sides
of the ball. And then you're recruited as one thing,

(01:09:50):
and then you get to the college and maybe there's
a surplus at one position they decide to move you. Sometimes,
let's say you came in as a running back and
we're gonna move you to corn or something along those lines.
But if you are one of these super talented players
that has an NFL future, I'm not quite sure I

(01:10:10):
want to play running back, because, first of all, if
you're an elite running back. At the collegiate level, you're
gonna have a whole lot of touches. You're going to
carry or receive the ball up to thirty times a
game for an entire year, sometimes two years. You know,
My dear buddy Eric Dickerson said one of the great

(01:10:31):
advantages he had coming into the NFL is that he
shared time at SMU with Craig James Pony Express. They
literally alternated regardless of the situation in the game, they
just alternated series. So one series James would be the
feature back, then Eric would be the feature back. Hersha
Walker was at the same time carrying the ball forty

(01:10:51):
times a game at Georgia. You know, I'm just trying
to figure out where we are going and true to
the evolution of running back in the NFL.

Speaker 3 (01:11:04):
So the evolution of running back has made it where
if you are a running back, you have to be
able to impact the game as a receiver in some capacity,
whether that's on screens and checkdowns, whether that's running routes
out of the backfield, or being a pseudo slot receiver
in spread formations. You have to be able to not
only become captain checkdown, but you have to be able

(01:11:27):
to create problems and mismatches and dictate coverage and those
things on the perimeter. If you can find a running
back that can impact it as a runner, receiver and
a blocker, that's someone that should go high. Because you
have so many art running backs by committees, because you
don't have like the one guy that said, hey, this
is this is I got this. I can do all

(01:11:49):
handle the three. Now, don't coach. You don't need another
one for me. I'm good, I got it.

Speaker 2 (01:11:53):
We're we're offensive coordinators in the NFL in terms of
game plan How much design is going into the running
game anymore? Because I remember the Denver Broncos. You remember
with the emergence of Terrell Davis and then after his injuries,
they had this long run of otherwise anonymous backs rolling
up big yards zone blocking and they had the lightest
offensive line, but they did things in scheming for their

(01:12:18):
running game that it didn't really matter who they plugged
in a running back, it was going to be successful.
How much time is actually being spent game planning running
games now around the NFL.

Speaker 3 (01:12:30):
So there is time spent on the running game, significant
time spent, and normally the run game coordinator is either
the running backs coach or the offensive line coach. Because
they know what's going on in the trenches, they can
make a handful of suggestions throughout the course of the week.
In the game, here are the offensive plays that we
need to get to. When it comes to like getting

(01:12:54):
ready and prepping everybody and doing that. It's not all
created equal because some of the player calls that you
have our quarterbacks that only know the passing game. For instance,
when I was with John Gruten and the Raders, this
is early the first time he came ninety seven, ninety eight,
ninety eight, ninety nine. Rather he was the head coach,
play caller, Bill Callahan was the offense coordinator. John Gruden

(01:13:16):
would call the plays. There'll be times within the game
he was like, Bill, give me a run. Bill Callahan
would call the run. He would do it because he
at the time maybe he didn't know the running game
and those things and some of the stuff that you've
seen from the Shanahan disciples. They don't know the running
game like he knows the running game, and so they
can't do it because they don't know how to fix

(01:13:38):
all the errors when things come up in games, and
so it is harder to do. It is more effective
when you have someone who is brilliant when it comes
to designing the running game. But it's an underappreciated thing.
When you look at the broncass you don't hear Troy Aikman.
You don't hear guys, you don't hear a top analysis saying,
oh man, what a great running man. Look at how
they designed it. No, because everything is so about the

(01:14:00):
passing game and the quarterback. But a great run game,
coordinating run game designer can absolutely obliterate the lead because
you can't do things in the ground.

Speaker 2 (01:14:09):
All right, So what's uniform will Dalvin Cook be wearing
in twenty twenty three? And are we any closer to
a final destination for d hop? We got the latest.
This is Fox Sports Saturday, Steve Harmin and Bucky Brooks.
Once again, this is Fox Sports Saturday, and we are
live from the Tyraq dot Com studios. Coming a little

(01:14:31):
NFL news right now again. Adam Kaplan, our Fox Sports
Radio NFL insider will be joining us coming up in
the next hour. All right, let's finish up with this
Dalvin Cook story now that he has been released by
the Vikings. Give me a team or teams that a
would be interested in Dalvin Cook and where he might

(01:14:51):
be a good fit. And when I say a good fit,
I mean where he could actually make an impact for
a team.

Speaker 3 (01:14:58):
I mean I think he's right there. Everyone is talked
about it, the Miami Dolphins being a good fit. And
the reason why is of all the backs that they
have in the backfield, he is a true number one
running back. He can do it as a runner, he
can catch the ball out the backfield. He's been productive
with four straight one thousand year old seasons. So in
spite of all the nagging injuries or the questions about

(01:15:21):
his do ability, he continues to show up and he
shows out. The Miami Dolphins would be a perfect situation
for him.

Speaker 2 (01:15:26):
Yeaw, Mike McDaniel, who is a guy that you know
from his pedigree with the forty nine ers, understands how
to incorporate a running game as part of his offensive scheme.
Let's get back to d hop and I was listening
to the guys earlier.

Speaker 8 (01:15:39):
T J.

Speaker 2 (01:15:39):
Huschman Zada was making some comments about this story that
DeAndre Hopkins is going to be visiting the Patriots and
He was very skeptical about that for a couple of reasons.
He said, First of all, Bill O'Brien is now the
offensive coordinator again in New England. This is the same
Bill O'Brien who is the head coach of the Houston
Texans dumped d Hop at the height of his career.

(01:16:04):
Uh TJ also mentioned the fact that d Hops not
a guy that likes to practice all that much, sort
of a one day a week guy. How does that
fit with a guy like Belichick who doesn't seem to
be a guy that's gonna, you know, change his rules
for one player.

Speaker 3 (01:16:22):
It doesn't fit. And if he's not going to be
able to practice, he's not gonna be available. It's not
gonna work for him.

Speaker 2 (01:16:27):
There, Okay, So he's making the trip, meaning they have
interest in him, and obviously he's familiar with Bill O'Brien
very much, so so there must be something. But I mean,
I mean, I understand sometimes people do things in order
to secure a paycheck. If I'm gonna have to change

(01:16:49):
my way to ensure that i still have employment in
the NFL, But is he a guy that I mean,
what kind of impact. Let's let's let's assume he will
practice and he'll be back in the good graces with
Bill O'Brien and all that's behind them. Is he going
to make an impact on a team that's just trying
to keep pace in a vastly improved division.

Speaker 3 (01:17:11):
Here's the thing about d'y hop. Diyp has been the
same since he came out. He's not a blazer. He
is what we call the jump ball specialist. He wins
fifty to fifty balls like no other receiver. Part of
this is because he has an exceptional basketball background. Yeah,
like you think about this in high school. Thousand points,
maybe eight hundred rebounds, six hundred or sist. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:17:33):
Well, in fact, he juschman Zada said, normally a fifty
to fifty ball is a seventy thirty ball in his favor.

Speaker 3 (01:17:39):
Great hand, eye coordination, those things. The problem that you
have with d Hop he can't run anymore, so he
can't separate, so everything is a contested catch and up
in New England. Yeah, they could, they could take advantage
of his skills, because that's what Bill Belichick would do.
But quarterback wise, Mac Jones, he and do have to
be on the same page all the time.

Speaker 2 (01:18:00):
Well, they picked up guys before. Obviously, the Randy Moss
situation was brilliant for a year, a couple of years,
one incredible year. Ocho Senko not so much so. Knowing
d Hobb, Yeah, I mean to me, he's your number
one receiver though. See that was another question, is is

(01:18:23):
he still a number one? Well the answer is it
depends on what team he's on. But if he goes
to New England, yeah, I mean he would be or
potentially be that number one option for mac Jones.

Speaker 3 (01:18:36):
Yeah. No, he would be the thing that you have
to be leary of.

Speaker 2 (01:18:42):
One.

Speaker 3 (01:18:42):
We talked about the durability concerns too. We talked about
his lack of availability when it comes to practice, so
and then he can't build the chemistry and the rapport
with the quarterback, and then it's just one. Is he
going to be compliant? Can he becase he had to
door and live up to the Patriot Way all things

(01:19:05):
that went wrong with Bill O'Brien and death stuff. Can
he be a model citizen, a great teammate? Can he
do more than just Paul outside of it? That's going
to be the major trick.

Speaker 2 (01:19:16):
I wonder if Belichick still has the same clot though,
and then they haven't won a playoff game since they
won their last Super Bowl. They've had a dry run,
to say the least. And in that division, they're the
fourth best team in a fourteen division. Does anybody have
him ranked ahead of the Jets, the Dolphins, of the Bills?

Speaker 3 (01:19:35):
No? But no, But do we really believe those teams
to team, all those teams are going to play better
than him?

Speaker 2 (01:19:41):
Yes? Yeah, I do. To me, New England looks like
a seven and ten team.

Speaker 3 (01:19:47):
Oh my gosh, so disrespectful.

Speaker 2 (01:19:50):
What have you done for me lately? I'm sorry post
Tom Brady period? How does it look? I got a
call for what it is?

Speaker 3 (01:19:59):
Right?

Speaker 7 (01:19:59):
All right?

Speaker 2 (01:20:00):
Coming up in the next hour, we'll have much more
NFL input, plus the latest on the NBA Finals.

Speaker 8 (01:20:05):
Keep it here.

Speaker 2 (01:20:06):
This is Fox Sports Radio.

Speaker 1 (01:20:08):
Yeah, I have one with the 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 2 (01:20:21):
Oh yeah, hyped up once again on a big Saturday.
Here Fox Sports Saturday broadcasting live from the tire Rag
dot com studios tyrad dot Com. We're gonna get you there,
and I'm attch selection, fast, free shipping, free roadhads and
protection over ten thousand recommended in starars ti rag dot
com the way tire buying should be. So Monday, Game
five of the NBA Finals, Nuggets at home, trying to

(01:20:43):
wrap up their first ever NBA championship. We were wondering
about seat prices. I know Nick came up with some numbers.
Somebody just sent me a sort of like a ticket
broker price tag on seats for the game tomorrow or
Monday in Denver over twelve hundred dollars a seat here

(01:21:04):
over twelve hundred and by the way, that's in the
three hundred section. So that sets up. So if that's
that's that's high and you're paying twelve hundred dollars per seat.
So I know one thing, if I were to invest
in that kind of money, they better win that game.

(01:21:25):
They better win that game, and there's certainly no guarantee
of that. Also, we're talking a little bit earlier about
the fallout from this live golf takeover essentially of the
golf world, not just the PGA Tour, really the entire
golf world. Based on money alone, they just have more money,
and everybody else, even you know Monahan, the commission of

(01:21:49):
the PGA said, we don't have the money to battle
them in court. Took fifty million out one hundred million.
They got six hundred billion. We can't compete with them,
so we have to wave the white flag and surrender
to them. And I brought up, well, if they could
do it with golf, maybe golf was just a trial run.

(01:22:13):
I got this on a Twitter account. Somebody said the
problem Cannon Hartman. By the way, if you want to
fall on Twitter at Cannon Hartman with your premises, golf
has individuals as opposed to seventy players on a college
football team when it comes to nil. And now you
have the collectives who are influencing, where the top one
to five percent players are choosing to go. All right,

(01:22:33):
but let's think about this in golf. How many golfers
move the needle? Really one? His name is Tiger Woods. One.
Did you pay one hundred million dollars or Brison to Shambo?
How many added eyeballs to a golf tournament. By the way,

(01:22:54):
the live tour has no eyeballs, They have no ratings.
No one's watching these live golf tournaments. Now, if they
had gotten Tiger Woods, they would, but they didn't. But
if you were to say, in college football, how many
brands get eyeballs? Alabama gets eyeballs, Ohio State gets eyeballs?

(01:23:18):
How many college football programs do you believe are of
a stature where there must watch programs?

Speaker 3 (01:23:26):
Oh? Not many?

Speaker 2 (01:23:28):
So I mentioned Alabama, will you say yes?

Speaker 3 (01:23:31):
Ohio State, Alabama, Ohio State, USC USC would be in
there is Clemson there, yes, because they won those titles. Michigan, Michigan,
and we are talking about Hio State, Texas, Texas.

Speaker 2 (01:23:47):
Okay, So I understand how these collectives operate, right, That's
basically where you know, you have the boosters whoever are
sort of building up the coffers of these collectives so
that you have more money to spread around, not only
in recruiting players but also in the transfer of players.
So what's to prevent a phone call to Nick Saban saying,
how would you like a lot more money in your collective?

(01:24:10):
We can make that possible. And what that actually means
for the program? I mean it only would make Like
I said, I wouldn't even call Alabama, right, Like like golf,
why golf?

Speaker 3 (01:24:22):
Golf?

Speaker 2 (01:24:22):
I mean, when again, there's only one player one that
moves the needle. Rory McElroy doesn't move the needle. No,
Tiger is the only golfer probably ever there actually moved
the needle. But in college football, you could create a
power seemingly overnight if somebody put enough money in the coffer.

Speaker 3 (01:24:49):
Yeah, I mean, yes, now you gott to coach him
up in all that, yes, but you absolutely can assemble
enough talent to create problems. And if it did, pack
is a deep enough you certainly can do it. And
if you can do it in football, we have seen
them do it in basketball because people talked about Miami
and the Hurricanes and those things. So yes, uh, we

(01:25:11):
could be unlocking and opening Pandora's box here.

Speaker 2 (01:25:14):
Surely, Oh it's already open. It's are open. I mean,
when we think about the last couple of years of name,
image and likeness, we hear numbers. Do we have any
documented numbers on actually how much? I mean, I'm not
going to throw a number out at you. But Caleb
Williams when he transferred from you Oklahoma to USC and

(01:25:35):
you know, people are saying, well, he's following his coach, right,
Lincoln Riley. By the way, we don't know exactly everything
Lincoln Riley got either. You know, he has a really
big house, big old house, big old house, on top
of everything else. Plus they sold two houses he had
in Oklahoma. They made they gave, they gave him money
that was like ten times over face.

Speaker 7 (01:25:56):
Value for those houses on top of everything else.

Speaker 2 (01:25:59):
But the numbers I've heard from Caleb Williams that are
publicly stated are far short of actually how much money
Caleb Williams is making. It usc not even close. Now
he justified it by winning a Heisman Trophy. But when
you make the argument of why is Caleb Williams even

(01:26:21):
playing this year? Why would he even play this year?
If he would sit out this entire year, would that
hurt his draft status?

Speaker 3 (01:26:33):
Theoretically, no, no, it wouldn't because we could use the
same example that we use with Tree Tree Lance. His
Tree Lance only played one game his final.

Speaker 2 (01:26:45):
Season, right, remember Nick Bosa's last year to Ohio State.
Did that hurt his drafts? Yeah? Never heard his draft status?
Did David Clowney? Yeah?

Speaker 3 (01:26:55):
I mean he showed up, he didn't play though he
showed up.

Speaker 2 (01:26:58):
Yeah, but he wasn't the player that he had been
the year before. It wasn't remind me again, where'd you
go in the draft? Number one? So why would he play? Wow,
he might play because he's getting paid to play.

Speaker 3 (01:27:11):
Yeah. The Kayla Williams thing is interesting because they're saying
there have been people talked about Kayla Williams could look
and assess the NFL and figure out who's the number
one and maybe because of the collective and the money.

Speaker 2 (01:27:24):
Yeah. Absolutely, if he says, you know.

Speaker 3 (01:27:26):
I'm not in a rush, didn't necessarily come out.

Speaker 2 (01:27:28):
Well, and let me ask you this, if if you
were Caleb Williams in Arizona, you know, doing this dumpster
situation in order to somehow give themselves a real shot
at the number one overall pick. If you were Caleb Williams,
You're coming out of USC. Who knows, maybe you got
a second Heisman Trophy on your mantle?

Speaker 3 (01:27:47):
Do you want to.

Speaker 2 (01:27:48):
Play for the Arizona Cardinals organization you're gonna stick around
for I can't even imagine how much money he would
get it for another year at USC. But if you
had another fabulous here, believe me, I had plenty of
money staying out of the year, roll the dice on
a different team, have you my number one choice the
following year.

Speaker 3 (01:28:05):
That would be the thing. We haven't seen anybody really
take the number one team to task since Eli Manning,
and that would be kind of a big I mean,
that's a big joker play if you do that. But
we're going to see a day where it does become
a thing where I think it's already there. I think, yeah,

(01:28:25):
I think I think I'll go back.

Speaker 2 (01:28:27):
Let me, let me, let me give you an example.
I don't know if you saw this, Nick, you have
a little insight on the den Bona situation as well
at U C. L A. So, den Bona is this
big guy. He was the freshman of the Year in
the PAC twelve. He had some injuries at the end
of the year, so we didn't to see a lot
of them in the tournament. But he is an extremely
athletic big man who's already shown NBA level prowess on

(01:28:51):
the defensive end. So he put his name out there
and I saw some draft boards saying you'd be a
second round pick if somebody rolled the dice.

Speaker 7 (01:29:00):
I think he actually would have gone higher than that,
to be honest with you, But then he.

Speaker 2 (01:29:03):
Announced this is return to UCLA, and I kept telling everybody,
they'll say goodbye to Jalen Clark. The one guy they're
going to do everything they can do to try to
keep them at UCLA is Bona and apparently they found
the right price. Tech you got anything to add to
that name? Can we turn Nicks mic on guys, so

(01:29:26):
I can hear Nick, thank you very much. I was
gonna say.

Speaker 4 (01:29:29):
Also, the other thing that I think also worked in
UCLA's favor is that Bona had the shoulder injury that
came up late in the season, so he wasn't able
to properly work out for teams either during that whole
pre draft process, so that also helped UCLA. But yes,
that is the talk behind the scenes that there was
some nil deal involved as well.

Speaker 2 (01:29:49):
Which is perfectly legal. And more and more of this
is going to happen. There's no question about this. People
are saying, well, is this good or bad? If you're
a college sports fan, it's great because you're gonna I
have guys stay longer. That's the frustration for a lot
of college football college basketball fans is you get to
know a guy, then boom, he's gone, because he's gonna

(01:30:09):
go for the big money. Now he can make even
bigger money on some circumstances, stay in college and going
to the pro level.

Speaker 8 (01:30:15):
All right.

Speaker 2 (01:30:15):
On the other side, we're going to get back to
NFL news. They're practicing right now. This is about it
for the OTAs, mini camps and everything else. What's the latest?
Our Fox Sports Radio NFL insider Adam Kaplan will give
us the latest. Coming up next Steve Hartman and Bucky Brooks.
This is Fox Sports Saturday. We're coming live from the

(01:30:36):
Tirak dot com studios. Well, it is that time once again,
once again, so gracious to join us here every Saturday,
give us his insight on something he knows better than
just about everybody else, talking about the National Football League.
Our Fox Sports Radio NFL insider Adam Kaplan is here
once again. So Adam, we have a number of stores

(01:31:00):
where he said have emerged out of the league. Let's
start with the release of Dalvin Cook, something we knew
was going to happen if they couldn't get a deal done.
Four straight Pro Bowl seasons. He'll turn twenty eight in August. Obviously,
there is some tread left on the tire. The question
is where can he be utilized. Is he going to
be a dolphin or could another team jump in there

(01:31:22):
and get themselves a pretty good running back.

Speaker 8 (01:31:25):
Yeah, guy, it's going to be with you. Yes.

Speaker 9 (01:31:26):
So let me just kind of explain what happened here,
because there's everybody knew he was going to be cut.
They weren't going to be They tried to trade him
for weeks and it just didn't happen. But what they
wanted to is they actually wanted to keep Cook but
at a reduced salary, and he was unwilling to take
a pay cut.

Speaker 8 (01:31:41):
Now he's going to lose nine million. They owed him
two million.

Speaker 9 (01:31:44):
I was ten point four million dollar salary, so he'll
get that, but he's going to want to make up
that nine million. So what's going to happen is that's
going to eliminate him from some teams that might have
interest that. They're just not a lot of teams talking
to various people an the league, they're not a lot
of teams looking for starting running back except for a
couple teams that know that they're going to go they're
going to be good and they don't have that guy

(01:32:05):
who could be their belcow back. So that brings us
to the Dolphins. I'm till both teams talked. I don't
know if it's five times, ten times, three times, but
I know they talked over a series of weeks and
the Dolphins were not going to pay him nine million.
That's why there was no trade there they and the
real story here in addition to this is every team
knew that he was not gonna take a paycut. He

(01:32:26):
was going to be released, so why not let him
get released and have leverage. So the bottom line is
when you look at the Dolphins situation, they've got a
lot of running backs. Depth is not an issue. Jeff Wilson,
the former forty nine er, is going to be their
starter right now, He's only making three million of the season.
Cook is way better. Now, what kind of contract could
Cook get with Miami Denver? I don't buy the Jets

(01:32:49):
and I don't buy the Cowboys, but I know that's
out there, But from what I understand, I don't see
it happening. Bark something highly unforeseen. So what kind of
contract could he get? The highest paid free to running
back this year Miles Sanders, former Eagle North Carolina six
point three five million a year, So the most still
get is around six million per season. But what he'll
be looking for, guys, is getting fully guaranteed money in

(01:33:10):
that second year because, as you said, Steve, he turns
twenty eight in August, which means he's twenty eight in
NFL years. Yes, he had his first full season of
his career, seventeen games. He played in all of them,
but he had to have shoulder surgery and it sealed,
does to understand, So I don't see him getting more
than six million.

Speaker 8 (01:33:26):
That's where I see that contract going.

Speaker 3 (01:33:28):
Man, it's such a crazy time with these running backs
and this stuff. So, in staying on the running back theme,
does Ezekiel Elliott end up back in Dallas in at
what price?

Speaker 9 (01:33:38):
I would say, Bucky, the odds were slim to none
about a month ago.

Speaker 8 (01:33:43):
But if you really look at their situation.

Speaker 9 (01:33:45):
Tony Polar's coming off a broken leg, they did not
They addressed the running back position, but they drafted Kidduce Vaughan, who's.

Speaker 8 (01:33:53):
A kid out of Kansas State. Is really small.

Speaker 9 (01:33:55):
He's under five to six. He can't be the number
two running back. They signed Ronald Jones, suit didn't work
out with the Chiefs last year. He was enacted for
a bunch. You can't depend on him. So what Jerry
Jones said, this is also what I've heard, like they
basically Jerry Jones said, he's left the door open. I'll
take this further step if Zeke's wanting to take a

(01:34:16):
undervalue deal.

Speaker 8 (01:34:17):
I think this is actually what happened. Now we're in June.

Speaker 9 (01:34:20):
Now, clubs have a leverage Bucky as you know, form
beautful NFL guy. So the Cowboys could just you know,
look and say, hey, we'll pay a three million with
upside if you have to play locas Tony's hurt, y're
not doing well, maybe you give him upside six million.
But they also are looking extensions for Pollar, potentially off
the franchise, Tag, Dak Prescott and a couple other players.

(01:34:41):
So they're just not going to invest any more money
in that. And remember Paula's going to make over ten
million this season.

Speaker 2 (01:34:46):
All right. I have a quote from Aaron Rodgers. The
last six weeks have been the most fun I've had
in a while. OTA's are over. He was there for
the entire Ota duration. Of course, missed a couple of
practices with that calf injury. He's glowing right now. I mean,
you know, he threw a past the Garrett Wilson. He's like,
this kid is going to be a superstar, Sauce Gardner.

(01:35:06):
I mean he at least hourly. Aaron Rodgers is euphoric
about being in a Jets uniform. How is that going
to actually translate on the field once he come back
to real games in the fall.

Speaker 8 (01:35:20):
Steve pretty good.

Speaker 9 (01:35:21):
So I think what happened here is because he didn't
feel wanted by the Packers, and the Jets really want him.
It was Joe Douglas, the GM's idea. I'm told, uh
not that the owner didn't sign off. Woody Johnson loved
the idea. He had to sign off because he signs
a contrary. He signs the signs over the money to
pay these players. So it's he loves that he's wanted
and they're happy to have him. And the word that

(01:35:42):
I've gotten just when you're and you know that Steve
working for the Raiders, when you're around special players, it
might have been how he long for you or some
other guys during your time with the Raiders, which is
something about them that makes him unique. And they have
a they have a evyp guy, right a super Bowl winner. Yeah,
back to back MVP awards. Now he's thirty nine. They're

(01:36:03):
not only expecting the playoffs, they're they're not talking super Bowl.
They're expecting to be a very good football team. I
just know I from talking to people there. He's got
that presence about him. He doesn't even have to practice,
just knowing this guy's in the building. I think that's
that's something that rubs off to the players and the coaches.

Speaker 3 (01:36:18):
I'm sure it absolutely does rub off on that, Adam.
You always have your ear to the street, and the
offseason is a great opportunity to hear about the hype bunnies,
the guys who get all the hype based on what
has been going on. Who's someone that we should be
keeping our eye on as we head into training camp,
someone that you fin.

Speaker 9 (01:36:34):
I would to say, Yeah, I want to say Garrett Wilson,
who was the offensive Rookie of the Year last year
and Britsaw probably would have won it. And by the way,
I'm told he's the ACL reconstruction what really well, in fact,
he's a head of he's actually pretty well ahead of schedule.
He's going to be ready for training camp. Now, how
much they let him practice remains to be seeing. So
Garrett Wilson's a guy that I know the Jets field,
and you heard Aaron Rodgers talking about him. I think

(01:36:56):
I think that's going to be fun to see, and
in Tennessee it's interest. So I was told by a
pretty good source with the Titans that it's not that
they're going to go away from Derrick Henry, but Mike
Rabel wants they want to push this thing Ford. They're
not all of a sudden with Derek Henry on the
final vers.

Speaker 8 (01:37:10):
Deal is still going to be. They're not gonna like
be passing team.

Speaker 9 (01:37:14):
But Rabel, as he explained to me that he told
us coaches, look, we want to move this thing forward.
We want we know what's going around the league and
passing and so forth. I believe that blocking scheme might
change a little bit. I think the're gonna be a
little bit more Ford thinking, and Henry almost certainly won't
be back in twenty four, so this thing at all,
they don't really have enough talent around Ryan Tannehill and
Will Levis. I think you're going to see sort of

(01:37:36):
a sea change here. I can't give you attempts per
game for Ryan Tannehill. But you may see a little
bit of difference here with Tim Kelly, who, by the way,
worked with DeAndre Hopkins, who's going to visit the Titans
next week.

Speaker 2 (01:37:48):
Well, he's also visiting the Patriots. I mean, we're talking
about this AFC East right now, and you got a
euphoric Aaron Rodgers with the Jets, and you mentioned that
Dalvin Cook may be added to a pretty rich roster
offensively for the Dolphins. The Bills are the Bills, and
then you have the Patriots. And I'm just trying to
figure out this whole d Hop dynamic with Bill O'Brien,

(01:38:10):
who dumped him at the peak of his career when
he was running the you know, the situation down in Houston.
The fact that d Hop is notoriously not a big
practice guy, maybe a one day a week guy. Doesn't
really sound like a Belichick guy. So how serious are
the Patriots in wanting to acquire a guy like d

(01:38:33):
Hop at this point of his career. Are they at
the point where maybe Bill O'Brien says to Bill Belichick, Look,
this guy can really help us, and if we need
to change a few things in order to get him
it's going to be worth it. How receptive would Belichick be?

Speaker 8 (01:38:51):
It's his call, he went, he made this decision. This
is what Bill does.

Speaker 9 (01:38:54):
There are players that he likes around the league. Randy Moss,
he nailed that one. It didn't work out with Chad
Johnson at all. Love Chad, it just didn't work out.
Bill has a list of players that he really likes
offensive defense. I'm not just going to see offense, but
defense over the years, and he brings them in and
sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Now here's let's go
inside the situation on my reporting on this, so I

(01:39:15):
believe what they want to do.

Speaker 8 (01:39:17):
They were married to the two tight end.

Speaker 9 (01:39:18):
System because they paid more to two tight ends over
three year period than any team did over that time period.
It was Hunter Henry's kind of worked out. But it
did not work out at all with Johnah Smith was traded.
Those guys are making twenty five million a year combine
a year over a two year period. That was ridiculous.
Didn't work basically what I was told. I think Bill

(01:39:40):
wants to go back to eleven personnel, which is three receivers.
Devonte Parker, who is another Bill favorite from the Dolphins,
same division. Parker's going to make over six million the season.
Judu Smith Schuster it's going to make ten million this
season in cash and salary and signing bonus. And Kendrick Bourne,
who did not play well last year, will make over

(01:40:00):
five million this season. So to me, if you get
Hopkins in, you could be heavy eleven personnel. And that's
why he's doing this. And if this happens, I don't
see Kennick Bourne coming back or if at all, Borne
would have to take a pay cup. But this is
another guy that Belichick likes at Hopkins.

Speaker 3 (01:40:16):
Adam what's going on with the Washington Commanders and Chase
Young like he didn't get a fifth year option and
those things. What's happening around the big time player?

Speaker 9 (01:40:24):
I mean, it's I know there's a story out there
that maybe there's another team involved that might want to
trade for him. Look, he's never been the same since
the ACL injury. It was obviously you know it's a
bad injury. But you know, if you remember guys before
he got hurt, their front four of sweat paying Allan
and Young though all first round picks extremely talented, were

(01:40:44):
kind of unachieving, and then pain and Allen kind of
took over. Young did not play well before his ACL injury,
and montes what's been up and down. They have an
extended his contract yet, but they extended all pains and
Allen's pains A really good football player. Chase is unachieved.
He Chase Young has just been hurt. He's not been
the player they thought. I remember talking to leading up

(01:41:06):
to the draft when they took him second overall in
twenty twenty. I was talking to someone in their personnel
department said, Oh, he's the real deal.

Speaker 8 (01:41:14):
He goes. I don't know who.

Speaker 9 (01:41:15):
I don't know who you talked around the league, but
this guy's special, and I don't doubt it. Sometimes guys
just don't for whatever reason. Buck you know, from being
a scouting they just don't become the players that you
thought they would. I have no problem with the with
Washington draft them at second overall in twenty twenty.

Speaker 8 (01:41:29):
This is just one that they missed on. I mean,
that's the bottom line.

Speaker 3 (01:41:32):
All right.

Speaker 2 (01:41:32):
So if there's any down period in the NFL, which
there really isn't, but now sort of the time, Adam,
you know, you a little bit of a rest. But
before we get training camps underway. How does this change
your dynamic, if at all?

Speaker 8 (01:41:44):
So what happens next week?

Speaker 9 (01:41:45):
All the camps are done by next Thursday or Friday,
and then everyone's off to late you except for the
teams that are in the Hall of Fame game. I
know the Jets by the way, they drop their mandatory
camp next week because they're in the Hall of Fame game.
So I'm gonna be doing a couple of different things
here getting ready for the season.

Speaker 8 (01:42:01):
I might have a little gig that's added.

Speaker 9 (01:42:02):
To my repertoire of jobs, like I need more, but
uh no, I get ready and then at what I
do is once the teams started announcing their when they open,
and particularly how which teams are going to practice with,
because it's always great to go to a training camp, Steve,
you and I talked about this when the Raiders would
practiced with other teams. So I remember seeing the Raiders
in Niners practice for years until Al Davis decided it

(01:42:23):
wasn't gonna work anymore going to a fight.

Speaker 8 (01:42:26):
And that's another story for another time.

Speaker 9 (01:42:27):
I think Steve, I might have told you off there
while that isn't But I love this, so I make
my training game tour based on who's going to be
working with each other. I don't go to a lot
of camps or it's just one team. I'd like to
see those joint practices. And by the way, that is major.
That's the biggest thing in the NFL. Now, look, you
got one less preseason game. Yeah, and teams they love Bucky,

(01:42:49):
I know you know this. They love these joint practice
because they're they're controlled and you could work on whatever
you want and I really enjoy.

Speaker 2 (01:42:55):
Them, honestly. And we were talking about and this is
this is the wave of the future because you know,
once they get to an eighteen game schedule, it's going
to be spread over twenty weeks. That's going to end
the preseason and they're going to have these, uh, you know,
control practices like you say, we're working specifically on this. Great,
this is what we need to work on. And honestly,
I think they get a lot more out of that
than any kind of preseason game. Adam, you're the best

(01:43:17):
of the best. We'd love to continue to talk to
you throughout this so yeah, for sure, So we have
plenty to catch up on. Well, talking next week that Adam,
thanks so much.

Speaker 8 (01:43:26):
Sounds good.

Speaker 2 (01:43:27):
That's Adam Kaplan join us. There are Fox Sports Radio,
NFL Insider, and again Buggy, I think he's right. Uh,
and we're rich and I were actually talking about this
last Sunday. Uh. These controlled team practices between teams. I
just imagine from a coaching standpoint, when you have specific
things you want to work with, with a specific personnel set,

(01:43:49):
you would get a lot more out of that than
you would in a preseason game.

Speaker 3 (01:43:54):
Absolutely, And the reason why is so popular is because
anytime you change the dynamic and practicing and bringing opponent,
the energy and the intensity goes up. But because it's
practicing not a game, you can protect a quarterback and
so you get the benefits of basically playing in a
preseason game without putting your quarterback in harm's way. That's
why you're seeing so many of the teams want to

(01:44:16):
do that, because you get the quality work without having
that exposure to your QB.

Speaker 2 (01:44:20):
One every time. And it's inevitable in every preseason game
you see somebody go down with an injury and they're like, why,
why was this necessary? I'm sorry, Bucky. When you played
high school ball, how many preseason games did you have?

Speaker 3 (01:44:34):
We you know, we had little jamboree and stuff like.

Speaker 2 (01:44:36):
That, jamborees. I'm in college. Did you have preseason games?

Speaker 3 (01:44:41):
No, but it would be better in college if they
had a little.

Speaker 2 (01:44:43):
Pres And let's get right in make the games count
the way I look at it. Let's find out what's
trending right now as Nick Kpe is back. And I
know you're not a fan of preseason football. No, It's funny.

Speaker 4 (01:44:56):
I feel like every time the Hall of Fame game
comes around, it's always a sighting because okay, football's bag.
You sit down and then you watch for five minutes
and you're like, yeah, I'll go do something else.

Speaker 2 (01:45:06):
That's literally half the guys that appear in that game
you will never ever see again. That's correct. So, I mean,
what exactly is the point? Makes no sense.

Speaker 4 (01:45:16):
It just gets everybody excited. It's a one month countdown,
give or take from.

Speaker 2 (01:45:20):
Hall of Fame. Makes me excited because you know, I'm
a Hall of Fame junkie. Yes, but the game itself,
I can't remember the last time I actually watched the
Hall of Fame game. Yeah, except for the yeah, unless
they introduced the Hall of Famers at the game. Yes,
the yeah, the pregame ceremonies. I'm really good. Got some finals.

Speaker 4 (01:45:38):
In baseball, the Twins got to go ahead Grand Slam
from Carlos Corea to beat the Blue Jays nine to four,
p Andres over the Rockies three to two. That's three
in a row for San Diego Red Dispatch the Cardinals
eight to four. Marlin's had a big ninth inning to
knock off the White Sox five to one. Miami has
now won seven of eight and the Diamondbacks shut out
the Tigers five zip Arizona first place in the NS.

(01:45:59):
They have won of twelve. In golf, The Wall Street
Journal reporting PGA commissioner Jay Monahan told PGA employees the
reason for the merger with Live Golf is because the
tour could not financially afford to continue fighting legal battles
against the Saudi Public Investment Fund on the course. Today,
third round of the Canadian Open is winding down lot
of low scores. Roy McRoy in the clubhouse with part

(01:46:21):
of a five way tie for first place after he
shot a sixty six in the NBA. The final head
coaching vacancy has been filled, multiple reports saying the Raptors
are hiring Grizzly's assistant Darko Radjakovic, Serbia native has spent
the last ten years as an NBA assistant. Champions League Final,
Manchester City defeating Inter Milan one nil. They become the
tenth team to complete the European Treble. Coming up, we've

(01:46:44):
got Game four of the Stanley Cup Final tonight in Florida.
Golden Knights have a two to one series lead on
the Panthers, and then about thirty minutes from now on Fox,
it'll be the Belmont Stakes.

Speaker 2 (01:46:54):
Guys. Back to you, all right, Nick, thank you very much.
Once again, we're coming live from the ti iraq dot
com studios. Okay, are you a fan of Hard Knocks?

Speaker 3 (01:47:02):
I am a fan. I like the behind the scenes
stuff kind of takes projected to that dark place, or
you just don't know.

Speaker 2 (01:47:07):
Well, right now, they got a problem. So they only
have four teams that are actually eligible, and three of
the four teams have said we're not interested. Okay, So
the Jets, who obviously would be the most desirable team,
the Saints and the Bears have said no. That leaves
the Commanders, and honestly, the Commanders are a little tricky

(01:47:30):
with the new ownership and everything else. If you ignored that,
that could be a problem and try to sell them.
So let's say, let's say you go to the Jets
and they're like, we're not.

Speaker 3 (01:47:39):
Interested, and you're like, somebody has to be compelled to
say yes.

Speaker 2 (01:47:44):
Yeah, we're gonna make you say yes, Jets. All right, well,
then you're gonna have to give us something. I mean,
let's let's let's let's I mean, how if you were
the Jets and somehow you came up to some agreement
with hard Knocks. What are you showing? I mean, obviously

(01:48:08):
I want to I want to watch Aaron Rodgers every move.

Speaker 3 (01:48:10):
Yeah, I mean you're showing the basics. You don't really
get a chance to see much. So you put it
around storyline. So the main storyline will be Aaron Rodgers
and what he brings to the team and the table,
and so you'll show the many different ways that he
has impacted the squad. You'll pick a rookie or two
that's on the bubble to follow and see if you

(01:48:31):
can do that. You have a storyline. Quinnin Williams has
not signed it got a contract extension, so you can
follow that. It does he show up, does he not
show up? The ying and Yang going back there, Breese
all coming off the injury. So you have enough to
do the thing that I would worry about if I'm
the Jets. Can my coaches handle all the chaos that

(01:48:54):
ensues when the cameras are around? Meaning can they focus in,
lock in and do the things did they need to
do to get the team ready with all of this
other stuff?

Speaker 2 (01:49:06):
Well, to me, when when I think back of the
many years of Hard Knocks, the person that makes Hard
Knocks as the coach. I actually went to Courtland when
the Jets were on the last time when Rex Ryan
was the coach of the team, and Rex was that
kind of personality where you know he and obviously Dan

(01:49:27):
Campbell did the same thing for the Lions. I mean
he almost breathed new life in Hard Knocks because of
his personality. I don't know, if you're Robert Sala, how
would you how would you handle it?

Speaker 3 (01:49:41):
If you're Robert Solid what you have to do is
you have to be on board. They do have editorial
control so they can kind of edit out those things,
but you have to be authentic because here's the thing
that you can't do and your players are snuff it out.
If they feel like you're playing through the cameras, then
you get a lot of rolled eyes in the background,
so you see the team meaning everyone was like, oh
my god, here he goes. He doesn't even talk this

(01:50:02):
much in normal time. We got the cameras on and
he's different, and so you have to coach your coaches on.
You got to be yourself. You got to be authentic.
However you get down in your meeting room, continue to
do that. What they're doing is their thing. We need
to make sure we're getting the team ready.

Speaker 2 (01:50:15):
Remember when the Rams made the move to LA and
they had the Rams on, Yeah, you know, and Jeff Fisher,
my high school buddy, I thought he overplayed it.

Speaker 3 (01:50:24):
You overplayed I think also the thing with that, that
impression of Jerry Goff, that first impression on hard Knocks,
I think it ruined him for a while because then
there was all the conversation when Sean McVay came and
he played better, but Sean McVay had the he was
taken advantage of the headset and the mic, and they're
basically saying that Jerry Goff was a joystick for Sean McVay,
and so because he didn't come off in the best

(01:50:46):
light in Hard Knocks, it has impacted the way people
view him as a quarterback.

Speaker 2 (01:50:52):
I ever tell you my introduction to Sean McVay before
his first season as the head coach of the Rams.
So I had a friend of mine, you know, he
had just been hired by the Rams, and he's sort
of doing the rounds, you know, speaking at we'll get
together as you know, trying to sell you know, the
Rams were just awful the year before, and Goff had
been zero to seven as a starting quarterback as a rookie,

(01:51:13):
and so I got a chance to do a one
on one with him, you know, just the two of us,
and I'm looking at this guy, thinking to myself, this
guy was born when I was working for the Raiders. Okay,
I mean, I'm like, okay. And I started with my
conversation with Goff and I didn't know where he was
going to go with this, but he looked right at
me and goes, we got to start all over with

(01:51:35):
this guy. M we got to start all over again.

Speaker 3 (01:51:40):
That's not good.

Speaker 2 (01:51:42):
And he brought in a former Cal teammate of Jered
Goff just to sort of give him a familiar face
to sort of hang out with. I mean, have you
ever seen a transformation from year one to year or
two similar to what mcah was able to do with golf.

Speaker 3 (01:52:01):
No, because it's all about confidence, and a lot of
the confidence is can you build him up, much like
we saw to talk about Lowa last year built up.
He was not only built up by tybreek Hill, who
lauded him and lavished him with praise at every turn,
but Mike McDaniels also taught spoke highly of him over
and over and over again. And so sometimes that stuff

(01:52:23):
you just need to hear it, need to speak it
to his existence so they can believe. And with Jerry Goff,
they not only did that where they positively built him up,
but they put a system around him. There was almost
feel proof he did his thing. It played to his
wheelhouse and he flourished. And when he had a little
success early called only wildfire.

Speaker 2 (01:52:40):
There was nothing you saw during his rookie season that
could tell you a year later he would be that.

Speaker 8 (01:52:47):
Kind of quarterback.

Speaker 2 (01:52:48):
And now they're insisting in Detroit's he's even a better
quarterback now than he was with the Rams.

Speaker 3 (01:52:53):
I can believe that. And you know it's funny because
this play it paid off for the Rams in the
immediate Yes, but I do wonder if they're rude to
day today. Gave up on Jerry Goff because he's been solid.
He was solid last year in Detroit, and as Detroit
is kind of inching towards playoff contender status, title, contention

(01:53:13):
of whatever it is, he's going to get more respect
and more climb. And just remember he's still a young quarterback.

Speaker 2 (01:53:19):
And they're adding pieces around him. The problem is they
need defense. They need defense in the worst way. All right.
Coming up on the other side, is it going to
end on Monday? We're speaking about the NBA Finals. We'll
give our thoughts. This is Fox Sports Saturday.

Speaker 8 (01:53:36):
Here's the two to one.

Speaker 2 (01:53:37):
Fernando swings lines it in the right field that'll get
down for a base hit. Bogunts is scored to.

Speaker 8 (01:53:41):
Tie the game.

Speaker 4 (01:53:42):
Kim is on his way to throw from Jones to
Tag not in time, a two run single for Tatists,
and the pond.

Speaker 2 (01:53:49):
Gres go back in front. I can think of one
person excited about that. Yeah, that would be our producer.
Rennan's wearing his podres cap proudly, by the way, that
is our progressive first of all, Podres a radio network,
and that is our progressive play of the day, brought

(01:54:09):
to by Progressive Insurance. Progressive makes bundling easy and affordable.
Get a multi policy discount by combining your motorcycle, RV,
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Bundle and save at Progressive dot Com, Fox Sports Saturday,
We're coming you live from the Tairaq dot com studios.
So Brandon is our resident Padre die Hard. I said

(01:54:29):
something to you the other day, and I immediately got
some backlash from outrage Podrey fans saying that that I
had divorced the Podres, which I thought was ridiculous. I've
invested a lot in the Podreys over the last decade,

(01:54:51):
with very little to show for it. Kevin Acy of
the La Times, who was the beat writer for the Union,
well actually San Diego Union Tribune Times runs that place
as well. He apparently did an article today, came out
today or yes, or the last couple of days or
he said. So. All the Pottery's are doing now is
playing to defend the honor of an owner trying to

(01:55:12):
be better and justify the faith of a fan base
that bought into the owner's pricey idealism and possibly save
the team from pumping the brakes on its full speed
ahead chase of a championship. So their win today, they've
won three in a row. They're exactly two and a
half games out of the wildcard with ninety eight games
to play. So when he posted that article, Brandon, he

(01:55:37):
was just getting eviscerated by Padres. Do you get outraged
by that or are you understanding the frustration that all
pottery fans have had to suffer through in their championship
lists career?

Speaker 10 (01:55:51):
Well, I understand the frustration. I mean, when you promote
that you're putting, you know, and you invest in a
product on the field, people expect results, and with them
not showing results, I mean I understand why people are
not happy about it.

Speaker 2 (01:56:05):
Well, I mean you had Machado's injury. That n't help.
I saw Soda the other day go fire for five,
So maybe he's getting together.

Speaker 10 (01:56:11):
Which made a great catch by the way, Yeah, yeah, fantastic.

Speaker 2 (01:56:15):
So and Tatis was out for part of the early season,
and they've been some inconsistency, so they're pitching, so.

Speaker 10 (01:56:21):
Yeah, they've just had like they've had to find, you know,
where kind of the holes are. They have their superstars,
but then they have guys like you know, Austin Ola
has been underperforming. They went out, they got Gary Sanchez.
Hopefully he can continue to rake. I mean, it's just
a matter of like the supporting cast at this point
playing up to the and the superstars playing up to

(01:56:42):
the level that they're able to.

Speaker 2 (01:56:43):
He here's the thing, Bucky about the ownership of the
padres So. Peter Seidler is an interesting guy, and he
actually wanted to meet with me. He knew of my
work for many years in the LA market. He is
part of the O'Malley family, and when they were not
able to reacquire the Dodgers, they set their sights on
the podres So. He obviously comes from a very successful

(01:57:05):
pedigree as part of that O'Malley group. But you know,
as a fan, what do you want for when you
are a fan of a team, you want a commitment
from ownership to do whatever it takes to win. And
Peter Seiler publicly had stated that I have no problems
spending money if I think it could ultimately get us

(01:57:27):
to where I want to get. And that is to
win a World Series and a lot of guys can
talk to talk, they walk the walk. Even though they
were labeled a small market team, suddenly their payroll was
on par with the Dodgers and the Yankees, and people.

Speaker 7 (01:57:41):
Are already, oh, how are they doing that?

Speaker 2 (01:57:44):
It's a long season. Padres could easily get hot the
way the NLS is going right now, do you really
think the Arizona Diamondbacks are going to win the NLS? No,
but the Dodgers pitching has been horrifical that this kid
Bobby Miller another shutout perform six and he's a shutout ball.
His the ras under one in his first four starts.

(01:58:05):
Dodgers just keep finding personnel, by the way, Iowa, Sam
was here, Chris always coming in in our final hour,
Chris always great to see. We mentioned Nick Cope of
course doing a tremendous job with the updates out there.
But yeah, as a fan, Bucky, I mean that's all
you're looking for. His ownership is committed to the team

(01:58:25):
as I am as a fan.

Speaker 3 (01:58:27):
Yeah, I mean you want to feel like everyone is
all the way in, everyone invested in winning a championship.
That's why you hope that ownership gets involved in the
sports business. It is the one thing that brings everybody together.
We're traveled by nature. We all want to be a
part of a bigger thing. And so if you're a
Padres fan and it's been this long drought where you're

(01:58:48):
just desperate to win, you want to see the results.
And they spent the money, but now you want to
see that. Look the compensation equaited some production.

Speaker 2 (01:58:57):
Well here's what I do know about the Padre fan base.
They're out in force, and that place was a ghost
town five years ago, literally a ghost town. No longer
the case out there at Peca, which is an amazing ballpark.
All right, Bucky, you're mister Miami Heat. Look into your
crystal ball. Do you see a scenario where we go
back to Miami for a game six?

Speaker 3 (01:59:18):
Absolutely, you go back, going back, going back for six.
I know it's the leak right now, but all the.

Speaker 2 (01:59:23):
Time it's gonna jump out. Is it just gonna be
Butler at a bum?

Speaker 3 (01:59:26):
No, Like the guys have missed a lot of shots.
Like if you go back and look, Martin Struce.

Speaker 2 (01:59:30):
Give me the surprise star in that five game five win.

Speaker 3 (01:59:34):
Oh, we're gonna go your UCLA guy. Kevin Love turns
back to Clark. He Love, he turned, and he gives
us a double double. How about he gives us a
double double, but he gives us a vintage double double.

Speaker 2 (01:59:43):
Yeah, here's what I will say. I hope you're right.

Speaker 3 (01:59:47):
I do too. I don't want to you will not
be right. I don't want it end.

Speaker 2 (01:59:52):
I don't think when they have a chance to wrap
up their first championship that they are going to blow
it on that home court. Otherwise, Malone may blow us
head off. By the way, keep it here. This is
Fox Sports Radio.