The Fellas with Anthony Gargano & Jason Fitz Talk NBA Playoffs, NFL Win Totals & More!

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

Speaker 2 (00:04):
Well, good morning, good morning, good morning, good morning, good morning,
Avery body, Well happy happy Memorial Day weekend where the
fellas chasing fits Kevin figures.

Speaker 3 (00:20):
I'm Anthony Garganels.

Speaker 2 (00:21):
You come belive from the tai Iraq dot com studios
tyrack dot com.

Speaker 3 (00:27):
We'll help you get there.

Speaker 2 (00:27):
An unmatt selection fans, free shipping, free road as a
protection over ten thousand recommended installers.

Speaker 3 (00:33):
Tyrack dot com.

Speaker 2 (00:34):
The way tire buying should be, and yet the gateway
to summer. Memorial Day Weekend. We honor those who served,
passed and present, and we thanked them for their service
as the summer of barbecues, cookouts, the beach week kick
it Off Summer twenty twenty four and FITZI. For me,

(01:00):
summer is the gateway to football because to get get
to football, we just have to go through summer.

Speaker 3 (01:08):
What do you say, buddy.

Speaker 1 (01:09):
Boy, Okay, that's amazing.

Speaker 4 (01:10):
That is amazing that you took summer and got it
to like, you know, six degrees of Kevin Bacon. Like,
that's six degrees of football for the cousin like that.
I love this all every ounce of the fact that
most people are thinking hot dogs, hamburgers are having a
great debate of what kind of bun you put your
hot dog on that's gonna make everybody happy figuring out
if you're gonna have like a swimming thing, Like what

(01:32):
are you doing? Like, what are you doing this weekend?
You're like a one step closer to football. But I
appreciate that that dedication to you because I'll be honest.

Speaker 1 (01:40):
You know, fall is better than summer, as we agree
on this show. So you know, hey, we got to
get through summer to get the fall.

Speaker 4 (01:45):
That's fine, But I do think you know, this weekend
there's people are swimming, you know, they'll be debating football,
but not a lot of people thinking about it yet.
It's part of your commitment. It's commitment through this whole
process to what you love. And I appreciate that.

Speaker 3 (02:00):
Tap for the weekend, Buddy ah.

Speaker 1 (02:02):
Man, nothing like I mean, honestly.

Speaker 4 (02:04):
The funny thing is I always thought of Memorial Day
weekend for the longest time of my life as this
landmark moment. But then you know that one of the
things that changes in life, and you spend so much
of it living on a tour bus, is that there's
certain weekends that most people just have fun and you
usually work and that was always the case, like weekend.

Speaker 1 (02:24):
There's always a concert, you know, so like so for.

Speaker 4 (02:27):
Me, I think over the years, it's just sort of
lost that luster of relaxation. So I'm just chilling, man,
extra days off, like all right, we'll just hang out,
chill and uh you know again, as they said last week,
I'm eating so regimen it can't even have that hot dog.

Speaker 1 (02:42):
So you know what, Oh play weekend, but can't even
power it up.

Speaker 4 (02:46):
There's still no caffeine in my blood, still nothing but water.
Still only eating exactly what I'm supposed to when I'm
supposed to. So like Memorial Day weekend, I'm just gonna
watch everybody else get tanked and then sit back and
enjoy it.

Speaker 2 (02:59):
It's it's because you do not sound like a man
without caffeine, Figgie, good morning, brother. Does he sound like
a man who has no caffeine in him?

Speaker 5 (03:09):
Never?

Speaker 6 (03:09):
Never does? And that's the amazing. That's what makes it
so much more impressive. You know, I don't know how
you do it, to be honest with you, especially at
this hour.

Speaker 4 (03:18):
Yeah, oh man, you know I got I got the
joy Joy, Georgia down in my heart of hanging out
with my voice, like, we're hanging out.

Speaker 1 (03:25):
This is easiest four hours of my week is what
we're doing right now.

Speaker 2 (03:28):
Let's have some fun, no, we I do look forward
to I gotta tell you, you know, like love hang
with you guys, and it's funny because you know, nobody
likes to get up right. So I'm watching I'm watching
Luca last night, which was unbelievable. Man, they get clear,
gets caught on a switch, go bears on him. He's

(03:48):
got no prayer, right, he's just got him on skates
and then it st back three ice to win it,
and I'm going, Wow, that was awesome. Can't wait to
talk about it in like three hours when we get
up and watch it. So that was that was it.
We love it, We love it. How about Luca last night?

(04:11):
How about the MAVs? Man, They're a great story. Kyrie played,
you know, a great fourth quarter after a great game.
One struggled a bitter early and then was terrific down
the stretch.

Speaker 4 (04:23):
Yeah, I mean, little part of this is I feel
like sometimes we get so used to what we've seen
that we forget how great it can be and so
like Luca all of a sudden, I mean, over the
course of the last month, there's been so much discourse about, well,
as Luca really that good, and you hear all these
people talk about maybe he's overrated, can't do this, can't
do that, and then he comes out and has a

(04:43):
night yet again like he had last night.

Speaker 1 (04:45):
You just reminded that, you know, you're.

Speaker 4 (04:47):
Talking about somebody that is one of the best in
the league, that we were just sleeping on it because
we're always trying to make new stars. Like not for nothing,
Anthony Edwards was not good, not good last night?

Speaker 1 (04:57):
Like great defense, yeah, sure.

Speaker 4 (05:00):
But but like, would we be as kind to Jason Tatum
if he's had if he had as many bad shooting
games in a Rose Anthony Edwards has had, like it
just it feels like a couple of weeks ago, a
week ago, it was always the next Jordan and Luca
is overrated and now you get yet again they're going
to and oh at this at this point in this series,

(05:21):
in part because Luca has.

Speaker 1 (05:22):
Played his tail off. On the other side of it,
Anthony's been been okay, he's been.

Speaker 7 (05:28):
Okay, yes, And you know, I think I think Minnesota
is a kind of a new Darling, So you know,
it is like it And I think people go plus
the NBA the NBA.

Speaker 2 (05:42):
On the NBA, we have these conversations about players. It's
it's bizarre how we have these conversations. But I think
Dallas's defense man has been ridiculous.

Speaker 3 (05:57):
It's been so good. And you couple that with.

Speaker 2 (06:02):
The way Luca and Kyrie like that backwards playing. They
have the two bigs with Gafford and Lively, who is
an amazing young player. I mean, you know, he was
just sensational last night. And then you know, I mean
Carl Anthony Towns was worse than Anthony Edwards right, Like

(06:24):
he couldn't even get on the floor in the fourth quarter.

Speaker 3 (06:26):
I mean, think about it.

Speaker 4 (06:28):
Yeah, I mean you start thinking about where some of
this went wrong, and you're right part of it. With
the NBA, I think, is we fall in love with
like the shiny new toy all the time. Like I
remember when I was when I was a little kid,
there was one year that I was convinced, all right
that I wanted G I Joe.

Speaker 1 (06:43):
I was so convinced I wanted G I Joe toys.
It was for my birthday. Yeah, it was my birthday.

Speaker 4 (06:48):
My mom was like, you don't want these, Like, we'll
get you Gi Joe for your birthday, but you're not
gonna like it by Christmas.

Speaker 1 (06:53):
And I was like, no, no, no, I want it so much.

Speaker 4 (06:55):
And I got it and I was like, yes, this
is the best birthday ever. My mom was right, by Christmas,
I'd put all of it away. It really wasn't my thing,
you know, And she called it.

Speaker 1 (07:02):
She was right.

Speaker 4 (07:03):
That's what we do, like g I Joe every single
time with every new thing in the NBA, if one
player has a good month, they can't just be Wow,
that guy has a good month. It has to be
this guy is the next whoever. And if one guy
has a good playoff run, it has to be oh,
he's the next Jordan or who's taking the throne? Or
why is this team a disaster? Like there's no nuance
in the coverage of any of this. And I just

(07:25):
kept watching last night thinking how many times in the
last few weeks have we given up on some of
these guys on Dallas while anointing some of these guys
in Minnesota. And you're right, Karl Anthony Towns was a disaster,
and you've called that like, you've made it clear that
the cat is just not your favorite flavor of ice cream.
As a player, you can look at last night and

(07:45):
get a clear reminder.

Speaker 2 (07:46):
Of why well, I mean, you see that, and then
you know to your point about the newest flavor.

Speaker 3 (07:54):
It's so on point when you think of.

Speaker 2 (07:56):
Kyrie right like, because truthfully, you again, how great a
player Kyrie Irving is incredibly skilled. I mean, you know,
the first game one, as they're blitzing, they're trying to
figure out what to do, they were attacking Luca, and
so Kyrie bears the scoring load.

Speaker 3 (08:18):
Last night.

Speaker 2 (08:19):
He didn't really shoot the ball well first couple, you know,
the first three quarters, two and a half quarters, and
you know, Lucas carried a Lucas carried it. And then
that end of the third and bulk of the fourth
he was great. And he's playing great defense, like he's
flowing to the ball.

Speaker 3 (08:38):
He's playing great. Like I never thought it would work.

Speaker 2 (08:42):
I always thought like, well, having the two of them
is interesting and fun, but I don't think.

Speaker 3 (08:48):
You can win anything.

Speaker 2 (08:50):
And damn man, those two, those two are terrific together.
And then the perfect ropers that trade to get PJ.
Washington and Gafford was just they were like they were
that was such a big deal. And you think about
the lesson of what that is in the NBA, And

(09:10):
it's not about the stars, right, It's not about getting
you know, the the the three stars and they have it.
You don't need that. If you shurect you got to
skip the right mix. It's really interesting to watch.

Speaker 4 (09:26):
Yeah, is there is there any part of your mind
too that sees this success and like I'm not trying
to pile on to the guy, but sees this success
for the MAVs and then just thinks, Man, the minute
Mark Cuban leaves, they get successful, and like it just
feels like the minute Mark Cuban disassociates with the MAVs,
all of a sudden everything starts getting to where he
always wanted it to be. I think it's interesting, like

(09:48):
everything everything sort of clicking together, and it just makes
you wonder, like what was the thing that suddenly caused
this all to come together at once?

Speaker 1 (09:56):
And especially a wild West, Like how much time.

Speaker 4 (10:00):
We spent on the show talking about how hard the
Western Conference was this year, how weird it looked, and
so for Dallas to be playing this well coming out
of it.

Speaker 1 (10:07):
I mean, look, everybody.

Speaker 4 (10:09):
For the last couple of months is just presumed that
the Celtics are rolling. But you know, and without the
Nuggets and the Celtics, you can roll to a title.
I watched last night and thought, man, why not, like
at this point, why not Dallas to win it all? Like,
there's nothing that they don't have that they would need
to be able to get to that point.

Speaker 3 (10:26):
I think they're beating Boston. I do. I think they
could beat Boston.

Speaker 2 (10:31):
I feel there's something about the Celtics that I don't trust.
There's something abat now could be my extreme hatred of
the Celtics foot disclosure, but there's something about them that
I don't trust. And it is interesting. You put up
Mark Cuban, and that, to me is I still I forget?

(10:56):
Like wow, man, he tried, he sold them like wow.
I never understood why. I didn't really follow the story much.
And I never really understood why, because listen, when you're
that wealthy, like you know, and he appeared to get
that much joy out of it, do you why do

(11:16):
you move on from it?

Speaker 3 (11:17):
I still didn't even understand.

Speaker 6 (11:19):
Well, he's still involved. He's still in control of the
basketball operations. I think he's in control of like twenty
eight percent ownership, so he's still heavily involved.

Speaker 5 (11:26):
He's just not the majority owner anymore.

Speaker 3 (11:28):
Yeah, why would he Why did you have the.

Speaker 4 (11:30):
Voice in the room, Like another voice in the room
is all like like that stood up to me.

Speaker 1 (11:33):
But yeah, figure, why did he do that?

Speaker 5 (11:35):
Yeah? I don't know, to be honest with you, that's
a good question. I have no idea.

Speaker 2 (11:39):
It's one of those stories where I didn't really follow,
you know, some stories you don't, you know, follow it closely, right,
And I didn't know he saw You're right now, I
obviously are about the majority piece of it. Just I
just found it interesting because they showed him last night
and I'm like, wow, Mark, Yeah, and he was so

(12:01):
it was always his baby, right, and now it's you know,
it's not, but the basketball piece of it. Fig I'm
I'm fascinated by the Kyrie Luca thing and how it
worked and it all became you know that that having
those bigs has been such an incredible It was like

(12:23):
that trade gave them death and it really gave them defense.
And it shows you how you win in this league.

Speaker 6 (12:29):
Yeah, well it changed, Yeah, it changed everything for them
because it was a pretty understated move at the deadline
when it happened. And we know that both Kyrie and
Luka Donchik are not necessarily going to be stopping anybody
on the perimeter.

Speaker 5 (12:40):
But even both of those guys have shown a better effort.

Speaker 6 (12:43):
It's still not good, but they've shown better effort from
a defensive standpoint and has permeated throughout the entire roster. Yeah,
PG Washington and Gaffer have been spectacular for them, And yeah,
the way that you win, there's no there's more.

Speaker 5 (12:55):
Than one way to do it.

Speaker 6 (12:56):
But I mean, you have two dynamic ball handlers who
can also kill you off the ball and basically from
an offensive standpoint, you just need one of those guys
to hit on a given night. PGA Washington has been
huge for them too, And if they keep playing defense
to the whether they're playing, you have one or two
of three guys who can go off and pretty much
carry you from an offensive standpoint, whether it's Kyrie and
or Luca creating and scoring and PGA Washington just being

(13:18):
a finisher and spoting up and shooting.

Speaker 5 (13:21):
I mean, they have the formula, and I'm with you.

Speaker 6 (13:22):
If they end up facing Boston in the finals, I
can easily see them getting a win.

Speaker 4 (13:27):
We think that there's any way, though, that Minnesota comes
back in this series. I mean, I know they're down
to nothing, but that game last night, he could have
gone their way easily. It could have been one one,
could have been one up. Then we're not panicking, like
is it too soon to just call them out of
this one?

Speaker 6 (13:41):
Yeah, considering how last series went with Denver and how
good Minnesota looked in the first two games and then
how good Denver looked in the next three. Yeah, I
don't think that it's over. I think do I think
it's likely that they come back and win. No, But
I'm hard pressed to say that the series is over.
I won't go that way.

Speaker 3 (13:57):
Listen. I think it's over.

Speaker 2 (14:00):
And I feel you on you know, because I felt
the same thing that I thought Minnesota was going to
win that series easily over Denver, and they were going
to get stressed and put the seven games and go
have to win again on Denver's home court, which I
never thought they do money game seven. Yeah, I mean,

(14:20):
I agree with you. The thing the match up here
though is more pronounced. I just don't like the matchup
for Minnesota, and I again, I don't know how they
stop Dallas. Like Dallas looks like it can score when
it wants, like even they fall behind and then they

(14:42):
come back, and it's because what you said, both Kyrie
and Luca break you down, and when they start to
blitz them, that's where you get all those dunks at
the rim, Like they're able to break down defenders and
just get those easy baskets. And if you go back
at and look at it, even in game one, they

(15:04):
didn't rain threes in game one, right, Like you know, PJ.
Washington's been pretty quiet, yes this series. Yeah, yeah, I mean,
I just don't like the match up for Minnesota.

Speaker 1 (15:15):
You're right, everything about that.

Speaker 4 (15:17):
I just I'm just trying to I'm just trying to
make sure there's nothing that we're not learning. I said
that really confusingly. I'm trying to make sure that we
are learning from what we saw in the last round,
because in the last round it was super easy for everybody,
not just in their series against Tever, but look on
the East. I mean, Indiana falls down to nothing, they're done.
Indiana falls down three to two, they're done. And look

(15:38):
at Indiana right, like they got to where they are
right now. So I'm just trying to make sure that
we're not over reactionary in the death of Minnesota too early,
that's all.

Speaker 3 (15:48):
Yeah, And part of it could also be.

Speaker 2 (15:52):
Like you look at Anthony Edwards and you go, you know,
it's just part of his maturation process, right, I mean
he's not ready, like I saw and listen, it was
the right pass like nas Reed has been a it
was incredible last night, right, Like that's why kat was
on the bench. I mean he was he was unconscious

(16:14):
from three, and so Anthony Edwards gives him the last shot,
and he was right to give him last shot in
the sense that he was open. So it was the
right basketball pass. But two years down the line or
next year, he takes that shot like he creates his
own Like that's that's you know that he then becomes Kobe, right,

(16:35):
and he has to finish.

Speaker 4 (16:39):
Yeah, And it's a fair point that the maturation process
should be considered.

Speaker 1 (16:43):
Just like I said earlier, we blow people up too much.

Speaker 4 (16:46):
You can't give up on somebody too early, like it
is early in where he is in this process, and
there is sort of a growth that will still happen
in front of him. I think we forget that sometimes,
just because last week it was all about, oh, he's
the new Jordan, which is was a stupid, big conversation
to be having right there. I think for most people,
like we avoided that on the show with nobody here
called him the new Jordan. But when you've been annoyed

(17:07):
that way, it just makes it tougher to realize that
there's still a maturation process happening in front of our eyes.

Speaker 2 (17:13):
I love the way Doncience goes out of though, because
he was barking at the Minnesota bench the whole game.
I mean, he was giving one of those things. I
don't know who it was, one of the I guess
it was Van Humdy who said it that he's look,
he's telling him where he's going to make the next shot,

(17:34):
which was which was bird like, right like, And he
was barking, man, barking Minnesota spans the whole game. And
to execute like that and stick the dagger that felt
like bird to me.

Speaker 4 (17:51):
Yeah, that's part of the the swaggy part of this
is part of why everybody's falling in love with with
this series and falling in love with I think where
we are right, and I agree with you.

Speaker 1 (18:00):
I appreciate that part of it.

Speaker 2 (18:02):
Yeah, I mean, it's it's it's been fun to shame.
The real shame is hal Burt gets hurt because you know,
if he had a stress that obviously Game one taking
the overtime and they cut it right, they cut the
lead and and then when Haliburton's out they have no chance.

Speaker 6 (18:21):
Well with him in there, I mean, he was a
key culprit in them giving away Game one. So I
mean that that was a tough loss there. I mean
it would if this series could easily be tied one
to one and that game doesn't even go into overtime
if he doesn't throw that pass to Siakam that leads
him out of bounds.

Speaker 5 (18:35):
So I mean, I.

Speaker 6 (18:37):
Love Halliburton, but in the in the in the most
critical moment, he made a critical mistake that you can't make.

Speaker 3 (18:41):
No, But I mean, you know, the only reason why
they're in the game is because he had Oh.

Speaker 6 (18:45):
I don't disagree, but you know, unfortunately the most the
thing that gets magnified the most is the last play.

Speaker 2 (18:51):
But I and I feel my only point is, you know,
to shame. He gets hurt because we go when he
goes down of the game, like they have.

Speaker 5 (18:59):
No chance, zero chance, and yeah they're going back home.

Speaker 6 (19:01):
Even if you're down oh two and going back home
to Indiana, you think you have a chance to you know,
get the get back in the series. And if he's
not gonna play what, he's questionable. So we'll see. Yeah,
it's even if he's he did it's the same hamstring. Yeah,
because before he entered the hamstring in January, he was amazing.
He was getting some some some MVP talk.

Speaker 3 (19:21):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's a shame.

Speaker 2 (19:23):
Anyway, fellas were just getting start, lots to do, and guys,
I want to I want.

Speaker 3 (19:28):
To discuss the lawsuit.

Speaker 2 (19:30):
The NCAA sells the lawsuit and so the Power five
conferences will pay players.

Speaker 3 (19:37):
So this adds to the whole l I mean, this
is wild. The whole thing is crazy.

Speaker 2 (19:43):
So we have to take a look at college sports
and the seismic UH decision that came down this past week.
Where the fellaws hanging out every week every Saturday morning
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Speaker 8 (20:00):
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Speaker 9 (20:11):
Paulli Fosco here with Tony Fusco. You know, as the
host of the number one rated Paully and Tony Fusco Show.
We get tons and tons of fanmail every day.

Speaker 1 (20:20):
Piles of it.

Speaker 9 (20:20):
In fact, Tony, why don't you open up one of
those letters right now and read what's inside?

Speaker 1 (20:24):
Hey, listen to this.

Speaker 10 (20:25):
Dear Pauli and Toni, your sports takes the dumbest and
most terribly.

Speaker 1 (20:30):
Not Wait, open this other one.

Speaker 10 (20:32):
Dear Pauli and Toni, you suck more than anyone. Wait,
try this one, Dear Paulie and Tony, you guys are
the absolute best. There you go, coming up with the
stupidest take.

Speaker 1 (20:44):
Forget it.

Speaker 9 (20:45):
Just listen to the Folly and Tony Fusco Show on
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Speaker 1 (20:51):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (20:53):
Fellas from the tire Rack dot Com studio sation fits
Kevin figures, I'm Anthony Gargana. All right, boy, So wild
stuff happened in college football? Are college sports as d
NCAA reaction to the lawsuit to settle that lawsuit, and
now it's that the power of five conferences will pay,

(21:15):
so the school now will pay its athletes. Fitzing, you
do a ton with college sports, though your world got rocked.

Speaker 1 (21:28):
Yeah, I mean, think a little bit about what happened.

Speaker 4 (21:32):
And look, I'm not somebody that since here and says
any of this change is bad for college football.

Speaker 1 (21:36):
This is the inevitable change happening for college football.

Speaker 4 (21:39):
The other thing I would say is that everything that's
happening now that college football fans are lamenting and saying,
oh my god, well just remember that the sport could
have gotten ahead of it a long time ago, it
chose not to, and now that it didn't get ahead
of it, courts got involved. And once courts got involved,
this was going to become very complicated. So now all
of a sudden, with this settlement, there's going to be
revenue shit for college football teams to players, which creates

(22:03):
a real question about whether or not at some point
they'll be unionization of college football players.

Speaker 1 (22:07):
All of this is just sort of up in the air.

Speaker 4 (22:09):
But I think the one thing that has been talked
about the least that I think is really interesting is
it could lead to expectation of roster caps, Like, so
right now there are scholarship caps for anybody that doesn't know,
you can only have I think it's eighty five scholarships
and then forty.

Speaker 1 (22:25):
Five walk ons.

Speaker 4 (22:26):
Right Well, roster caps might be coming because the revenue
sharing is not tied into those scholarship caps, which means
all these teams that are carrying all these walk ons
and you see the extra the fun every year it's
like this kicker just won a scholarship.

Speaker 1 (22:38):
Those days look like they're dead.

Speaker 4 (22:40):
So how are teams going to start to recruit knowing
that they don't even know how many teams and players
they can have on.

Speaker 1 (22:45):
Their roster in a couple of years.

Speaker 4 (22:46):
So there's a lot of details to be worked out,
and as usual, college football has not necessarily done the
best job of working any of those details out in advance.

Speaker 2 (22:55):
Yeah, but you need a roster side college football. You
can't have a streamline roster like the NFL. I don't
know how you do that. I don't know how you
operate like that.

Speaker 4 (23:08):
Yeah, I mean, I think honestly part of that comes
down to you'd be operating with much bigger like fifty
three in the NFL. We all know it's not going
to get to that number. But if you're doing a
rev split and everybody's trying to figure out how much
to pay everybody and how to work Title nine into
all of this, Also, like, I just wonder if it's
inevitable that it's like, hey, there are eighty five kids

(23:29):
on a college football.

Speaker 1 (23:29):
Roster and that's it.

Speaker 4 (23:30):
And you know, if you don't make the roster, I'm
playing college football this fall.

Speaker 3 (23:34):
Wow? Figure how you see it?

Speaker 6 (23:38):
Yeah, I can't explain it as eloquently as Fitz did,
but I feel like it's just like a this is
moving out of snails pace towards something that we've talked
about on this show for the last couple of years,
and that's really the professionalization of the sports and a
general rev share where when these college football playoff TV
deals get signed and these conference deals get signed, you're

(24:00):
going to see a lot of that money, even more
so than the twenty million dollars that's being laid out
in this agreement, this initial agreement get paid towards the players,
specifically the players and the revenue generating sports. And I
know there's a talk of unionization and all of that
I believe they think that's going to get slowed down
by this decision, and maybe it will, but I ultimately
ultimately believe that's exactly where we're headed, that the amateurization

(24:23):
of college football at the very least is on its
way out.

Speaker 5 (24:27):
It really is.

Speaker 2 (24:29):
So there's so many questions, Like, you know, obviously, when
you have this dramatic change, and people, you know, freak
out like, oh my god, you know what happened to
the scholarship, like that whole antiquated fought like and I
get it in like nineteen seventy two, right when you know,

(24:51):
there are big TV deals in college football, and I
understand that the scholarship was commensurate to payment, but would
explodes into the late seventies, certainly the eighties and of
course the nineties into today.

Speaker 3 (25:08):
You know, these kids got to get compensated.

Speaker 2 (25:10):
When the sports explodes the way it does, and college football,
the conferences in the universities, you know, are generating scores
and scores and revenue.

Speaker 3 (25:20):
The players going to get their share well.

Speaker 4 (25:23):
And the hardest part about this again is that because
they didn't get ahead of it, and now it's been
done in the courts, I think what people need to
remember is that in the NFL, in any pro sport,
we talk about it all the time. Well, it's collectively bargained.
I die on that hill all the time too. If
you don't like it, go collectively bargain it. Well, because
they didn't come to this conclusion by themselves, they're basically

(25:45):
having to make settlements in court, and there's another case
coming up soon through all this process. Now, if you're
an athlete, you don't have to settle for any of this.
You can just keep suing your way through it and
until there is some sort of a CBA, until there
is some sort of a logical way that they come
to an agreement, nobody's beholding to anything.

Speaker 1 (26:03):
So right now it's the wild West.

Speaker 4 (26:05):
It truly is like one school can turn around in
this moment and say all right, well we want to
pay this much, and the next school can say we don't.
And one player can say I want this much, and
the next school can say, you know, the next player.

Speaker 1 (26:17):
Can say I don't.

Speaker 4 (26:18):
So it really becomes confusing for coaches for longevity. Like
right now, more than ever, I think college football is
living in a year to year world where this year
it's gonna look like this, and next year we're gonna
figure out what it looks like. We're gonna have to
be able to veer quickly there. I mean, this is
this is an ever evolving it'll settle down at some
point they'll come up with exactly what it looks like.

Speaker 1 (26:38):
I think the courts will essentially do that for them.

Speaker 4 (26:41):
But as that happens, you know, right now, think about
the nc double A. They're trying to deal with players
that want to get paid, coaches that don't know the landscape,
lawsuits all over the place, and Congress looking at them saying,
what the hell are you doing? Like, I don't even
the NCAA got themselves into this situation, but I don't
know how you dig yourself out.

Speaker 3 (26:59):
No, I don't.

Speaker 2 (27:00):
And I'll tell you a world that I'm pretty familiar with.
I think it trickles down too, dude, Like I think
we're gonna see the professionalization of the youth sports.

Speaker 3 (27:17):
I mean it's wild in that I look and see what.

Speaker 2 (27:24):
Like you know, the next frontier is high school, right,
and so there's all of a sudden.

Speaker 5 (27:29):
In a lot of states in I L exists in
high school.

Speaker 3 (27:32):
So I mean, right, and like you could see it,
like I see.

Speaker 2 (27:37):
You know, we have a couple of powerhouse you know,
like every in every region, there's a couple of powerhouse
high school programs. We we have the Saint Joe's Prep,
uh here, which is Marvin Harrison junior went there, Jeremiah
Trotter junior went there. They have like a it's a

(27:58):
huge deal, right, and so they're going to get the
best kids.

Speaker 3 (28:03):
Now, how long until they go? All right?

Speaker 2 (28:05):
And in every other matter day right, every other big
high school program is probably going to follow suit. And
then all of a sudden you have all these young athletes.
It's a complete change of the landscape in all of sport.
When when college turns like this and becomes completely professionalized,

(28:28):
it just opens the door for the whole thing.

Speaker 1 (28:31):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (28:31):
Well, when we are living in a society, he noticed
that in a world for once, Jade and rashatas suit
Florida for a failed fourteen million dollar nil deal. If
these guys are pulling in fourteen million dollar nil deals, yeah,
it only makes sense that at some point now it's
going to be Hey, I got to get my kid
into that high school because that high school has a

(28:53):
better shot at getting him the fourteen million dollar payday,
like the payday process is no longer going now. Maybe
the hope from the NCAA is that by coming to
this settlement and starting moving forward, they'll be able to
standardize a little of the money from school to school
to school, and they'll be able to get rid of
some of these huge collective deals.

Speaker 1 (29:13):
We don't really know that yet, but if that is
what their hope is.

Speaker 4 (29:16):
Still, if you're sitting here and you've got a seventh
grader somewhere and he's gonna go play, you want to
put him in a situation where he's gonna play in
high school somewhere where he has a shot at in
four years getting that fourteen million dollar deal, and also
not for nothing. It's got to take away some of
the love of the game at that age too. Like
if I'm a dad, not me personally, but there are

(29:37):
many dads out there that are gonna look at their
eighth grader and be like, I don't care what you
want to do with your life.

Speaker 1 (29:43):
Right now, you are four years away from a fat.

Speaker 3 (29:46):
Dollarder and a fifth grader who both play ball.

Speaker 2 (29:50):
Right Like a little bit later on today, I'll go
with my Anthony.

Speaker 3 (29:55):
He has his you know, we have a.

Speaker 2 (29:58):
Jody Strength trainer for football and will go and work out.
Now he loves it. So it's not like I'm you know,
pushing to do that. But he you know, he wants
to play. He's going to a pretty really really good
program in South Jersey and you know he's got you know,
really good sides.

Speaker 6 (30:18):
And the motivation just changes though once money gets involved
as opposed to that.

Speaker 5 (30:23):
That's the thing, right, That's what it's just kind of
alluding to.

Speaker 4 (30:26):
Yah, go back to my music. Look, I I wanted
to play there.

Speaker 3 (30:31):
You were a product I wanted.

Speaker 1 (30:32):
I wanted to be a musician. There was never a
doubt of it.

Speaker 4 (30:35):
But I have so many friends whose stage moms and
stage dads didn't even love performing, but man, they were
bringing him money. And there's a very real thing in
the music. Like I was earning when I was a kid. Right,
So if you're earning when you're twelve or thirteen years
old and your family all of a sudden in many families,
just wasn't the case for me, but many families like, well,

(30:56):
now mom or dad quits their job because they're gonna
they're gonna make sure that they're mamager or the dadager,
you know, and they're they're getting you ready, and then
all of a sudden, you really have this expectation and
now you're not just providing for yourself, you're providing for
your family.

Speaker 1 (31:08):
And like, that's real for kids in the music business
all the time.

Speaker 4 (31:12):
I just feel like that's gonna go through the roof
now where like little Tony somewhere might be a pretty
good quarterback that kind of likes.

Speaker 1 (31:18):
Playing football, just wants to play for fun.

Speaker 4 (31:20):
But the minute his dad figures out that there could
be an eight or nine million dollar payday, woo, all
of a sudden, it's like, nope, you will do this
and only this, Like I just there, there's trickle down
effect of this to.

Speaker 5 (31:29):
Feel No Tom Marinovich is coming up, you know.

Speaker 2 (31:33):
Yeah, well, I mean you saw the McCaffrey's father, right,
that whole thing about not allowing he couldn't squint because
it would take up I don't know energy, and he
could wear jeans.

Speaker 6 (31:49):
The school didn't know it ed McCaffrey said that he
couldn't squint yescause Jeffrey, I didn't hear this story.

Speaker 5 (31:58):
I missed this completely.

Speaker 3 (31:59):
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, there was. It was like he
had to go to bed in seven point thirty.

Speaker 2 (32:05):
He had like little things like he he taught him
not to squint.

Speaker 3 (32:10):
He taught him to save his voice.

Speaker 2 (32:14):
I pat like all this stuff to save energy, down
to the point where he made him not he had
to only wear sweats, not jeans because jeans were heavy
on his legs. Jez, yes, yeah.

Speaker 6 (32:30):
And the problem is, and it obviously worked out for
Christian and his brothers who had you know, we're the
good college careers too, But I feel like ninety percent
of the time is all over the top and it
ends up being bad for the kid.

Speaker 3 (32:43):
Well you brought and yeah, you know, I mean, and
that's the ultimate.

Speaker 2 (32:47):
That was the ultimate Tragy, right, Like he was a
wonder kid and he just went bad.

Speaker 6 (32:54):
But it was like trained from like birth to try
to be the star quarterback by his father.

Speaker 3 (33:00):
Right for you. I'm sorry for people that don't know
the story. You know. So Todd Marinovich was this kid.

Speaker 2 (33:08):
Who was you know, you're like fig He's right, like
he was programmed as a child. His father denied him
of any like childhood treats. Right, no soda, Donald's you know,
and stuff like, you know, the kids, it's party child
kid right right, righte? Some passage. I mean, you know,

(33:31):
I mean, I guess there's an argument to you know,
not allowing certain things.

Speaker 6 (33:37):
You know.

Speaker 3 (33:37):
I mean, I'm I can't. I can't front I mean,
I you know, I let them, I give them treats.

Speaker 2 (33:42):
I don't, you know, I try to limit it within reason,
but you know, I mean, you know, how do you
tell kids, you know, you can't have ice cream?

Speaker 3 (33:50):
Like seriously, like you know, I mean it shouldn't. Shouldn't
the childhood be a little bit of a fun time
before you have it you're an adult and you know,
you you have to get serious.

Speaker 5 (34:02):
It's like what is a temple? And to a degree
it is. But when you're that young, you can eat
anything and bounce back. You'll be fine.

Speaker 1 (34:08):
Yeah, yeah, it's.

Speaker 4 (34:09):
It's it's just tough because so often the adults get
carried away with the dream, you know, and it's it's really.

Speaker 3 (34:17):
In dud I see it every day.

Speaker 11 (34:19):
Man.

Speaker 4 (34:19):
Yeah, Like we need more people in the world that
are honest with the talent level of the kilt and
the kids that they have. It's like, you know what
your kid's not gonna. It's just just stop like your
kid's not great. It's just enjoy it, don't do it well.

Speaker 2 (34:32):
It's hard about it like and fairness. I'll tell you,
we gotta take a quick time out.

Speaker 1 (34:38):
I will.

Speaker 2 (34:38):
I need to put the other side out there only
in in this way. But you're you're spot on. But
there is a little bit of nuance that I want
to bring to the table where the fellas having to
discuss it. Always a lot of fun hang with us
Memorial Day weekend and beyond.

Speaker 3 (34:55):
Right here on Fox Sports Radio.

Speaker 1 (35:00):
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio.

Speaker 3 (35:03):
All right, fellas, Jason Fitz Kevin Figures.

Speaker 2 (35:08):
I'm Anthony Gargano's we hang out from the tire Rack
dot Com Studios, Fox Ports Radio.

Speaker 3 (35:17):
So we're talking of this, you know, this whole world.

Speaker 2 (35:21):
Where college You got me saying it now, FITZI uh,
we're you know, give the college sports is affected and
there's a trickle down and you know, I and I
live it with my two boys who are eleven and fourteen,
and you know, they both play sports and and I'm
around you know, baseball tournaments and football and I coach basketball.

(35:45):
Now through certain things like that, people are completely delusional,
like you said, like FITZI, which is you know, come on,
like you know, wake up, like your kid's not going
to do be X.

Speaker 1 (35:55):
Y and Z.

Speaker 2 (35:56):
And that's by large true, right, especially when you're talking
talking about you know, sports, like like basketball, right, like
I see it all the time. Like you know, you
got the guys that are just insane about basketball, and
I go, you.

Speaker 3 (36:13):
Know, your kid's going to be five to eleven.

Speaker 2 (36:16):
Then you know he's a nice little player in suburban
you know, fifth grade, sixth grade whatever, you know. I mean,
you know, there's a complete difference in elite talent, especially
just like basketball, but football and baseball of just the
team sports, and I guess you know soccer, I mean,
who knows. We have a kid in my area, Caven

(36:39):
Sullivan who's fourteen years old. He gets signed by I
guess Man United or Man City and yeah he's going
to play because of the child labor laws in England,
he's going to play for the Union of the m
of the of the here right and uh and then

(37:04):
you know at eighteen he'll go over and.

Speaker 3 (37:07):
It's it's a really good story.

Speaker 2 (37:09):
But like baseball and football, I mean, who knows, Like
if you if you have size, such decent size and
in those in those sports like that, and I see,
you know hockey is the same way. You know, you
never know, right like, so if the kid is into it,
right like, by all means have that because you don't
know what's gonna happen until they hit puberty, and you

(37:32):
know there's such the variables are you know, it's crazy,
right like when you're trying to project children like you
just don't know what's gonna happen until their sophomore junior year,
how they start to go even then sometimes you have
late growers, how they're gonna be physical physically.

Speaker 1 (37:51):
That that's a fair it's a very fair point. You
never know.

Speaker 4 (37:54):
And certainly there's a difference between you know, if you
say down and coaches, Yeah, he's he doesn't have what
it takes to play D one and it only fires
him up and he wants to play even more. Here
she wants to eat play even more. Okay, if he
loves doing it, if it's this competitive fire, that's fine.
If mom or dad is pushing him for it and
he doesn't really love it, and it's like but mom

(38:15):
and dad evince he's gonna get him rid, it's like
that's more than but you're one hundred percent right, Like
if heck, if they love it and they want to
do it, fine, But it just feels like that was
something that could be explored along with other things for
so many years. It's like, hey, you can play a
bunch of different sports and figure out what you want
to be and what you want to do, and you
have all these years to be formative. And for the

(38:36):
longest time you could in society look at you know,
college's formative years. Now, I honestly believe more and more
high school has become that. Like and I'm not even
just talking about sports, it doesn't matter what industry you're in.
Like at this point, kids are accelerating at such a
fast pace that it feels like more kids need to
know what they want to do earlier. More kids are
out there earning, building followings, doing whatever they do, earning money,

(39:00):
doing whatever they do at a younger age than ever.
They're they're able to whether it's playing video games or
whether it's I'm just in an athlete, like like you're
out there like building your following on Like we're in
the spot now where like now you know there are
kids in high school that are making more than adults
that are listening to this show, right, so there's less

(39:20):
and less time to actually figure that out. And I
just think the trickle down for college football becomes Okay, Well,
now if you identify that a kid's good in seventh grade, boy,
well you would have put the hammer down right then, like, hey,
this is your opportunity to change the rest of your life.
Like I can hear these speeches in my head right now,
and that's just it. It sort of bums me out.

Speaker 3 (39:42):
And I get why.

Speaker 2 (39:43):
I mean, because you're accelerating childhood, which is I don't
think healthy, right, And it's weird because you're while we
accelerate childhood maturity levels are you know also do like
when you were an eighteen year old kid, like you

(40:04):
you know this, right, Like if you go back into
the sixties and seventies, right, like, an eighteen year old
man was more of a man than an eighteen year
old today, right, Like that true?

Speaker 3 (40:16):
I mean those people were hard, and you know that's
certainly more than me.

Speaker 2 (40:20):
Like we're talking, it's a World Day weekend and all
those you know, those men who fought for our country,
I mean they were eighteen nineteen and they were men, right,
And you know I wasn't like that in eighteen nineteen.

Speaker 4 (40:34):
God, when you say it that way, it really hits
me how different the world was versus where the world
is right now, and the expectations of a kid that's sixteen, seventeen,
eighteen years old.

Speaker 2 (40:45):
It's it's wild, completely wild, all right, fun discussion always
fell as Big Hour coming up next Fox Sports Radio.
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio Radio, alright, that's us
Jason fitz Kevin Figures, I mean Anthony Gargan, and we

(41:09):
could be live from the tire rack dot Com studios.
Tyrack dot com will help you get there and on
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Speaker 3 (41:25):
First hour all over.

Speaker 2 (41:26):
Obviously, lots of talk about the college situation, college sports situation, NCAA,
which has always been a joke, a flat out nonsense,
ridiculous temple of nonsense.

Speaker 3 (41:43):
And then.

Speaker 2 (41:45):
The NBA Playoffs and that game last night was thrilling,
absolutely thrilling. I do have a question for you guys,
just philosophically, I was talking about the NBA Playoffs and
some friends and the whole thing, and nobody's nobody watches it,
and they were like no, like they gave me. They

(42:07):
were so dismissive, and I felt almost like an outcast
that I was watching, Like I was making a point.
The Phillies are off to this incredible start, and so
the whole city's grew in on the Phillies every pitch
and like they were winning.

Speaker 3 (42:28):
I don't know, the other day, like eleven to three.
It was a blowout.

Speaker 2 (42:32):
So I switched to the like I went switch to
the basketball game, and people are like, well really, I'm like, yeah,
the playoffs are you guys watching them?

Speaker 1 (42:40):
Nah?

Speaker 2 (42:40):
No way, And it was really dismissive about it. And
you know what's interesting is that, I guess back in
the day, the World Series was like this, you know,
communal thing where.

Speaker 3 (42:54):
The whole country would stop and watch.

Speaker 2 (42:58):
Now then that gets replaced spy NFL football in the
Super Bowl by the NBA doesn't have that as as
much as we talk about its popularity.

Speaker 3 (43:11):
Do you guys run into that too?

Speaker 1 (43:14):
H I mean, it's funny.

Speaker 4 (43:15):
I do a weekly interview with a radio station in
Nashville every week, and the crux of the interview last
week was why are so many people talking about the
NBA when nobody cares on the ESPN. That was the
crux of the entire time that we spent talking on
the phone, or was nobody's paying attention to it.

Speaker 1 (43:32):
Here's here's the interesting thing.

Speaker 4 (43:34):
My NBA had friends and I enjoy watching it, right
Like I think for me, I enjoy playoff basketball.

Speaker 1 (43:41):
I always have. So for me, it's it's it's a
draw for a lot of people.

Speaker 4 (43:46):
It just when when you look at this final four,
and this is where everybody yells and screams about what
gets covered in how it gets covered. But when you
look at these final four teams, I don't think your
average fan that barely cares about the NBA that usually
would be flocking in to watch the final four teams
of the NBA season take each other on. I'm not
sure any of them even have a formed opinion about

(44:07):
Indiana or Minnesota. They know who Luca is, but they
probably don't care about Dallas. And the Celtics are great,
and they're only in the sense that they're either loved
or hated and people care, But that's not enough to
make people drop everything to watch in the modern society.
I just I do think that this part of what
the NBA has to have happen, and we see this

(44:27):
all the time, is that when we create and craft
narratives that say, essentially, you've got to be great in
the playoffs, well, the next generation of stars always have
to be made in the playoffs. So it's gonna take
you know, Brown and Tatum winning a championship on their backs.
It's gonna take Anthony Edwards doing something absolutely phenomenal. It's
Haliburton doing something that suddenly resonates and you have to

(44:47):
hear it over and over and over again in playoff
game and playoff games to create a real level of superstar.
And we haven't seen that happen yet in this group
of players. So it just feels like it falls flat
to the casuals.

Speaker 3 (45:02):
You know.

Speaker 2 (45:02):
It's weird is that I hear like nobody cares about
the regular season, and then I hear, well, you know
who's watching the NBA playoffs?

Speaker 3 (45:13):
Like like I'm thinking, well, what does anybody care?

Speaker 4 (45:19):
But then they're getting historic money on these network deals, right,
So like somebody's looking around and saying, Okay, well, there's
there's proof, there's proof positive that it can make money,
But no, I do I think in general, and I'm
saying this is somebody again who's enjoyed the NBA playoffs
this year and enjoys playoff basketball, I feel like some

(45:39):
of the allure right now is just it's in a
little bit of a lull. It's just it's a little
bit of a lull to the casual fan just flocking
to talk about it, and yeah, this is the expected.

Speaker 1 (45:48):
Lull when Steph and Lebron and the guys that we've
been talking about.

Speaker 2 (45:51):
You think it's clearly about that, like you think it's
it's about I mean, just the leg.

Speaker 4 (45:58):
The league built there, the entire popularity on the names
on the back, not the names on the front, and
totally the opposite of the NFL.

Speaker 1 (46:07):
So if you're going to build a highlight driven league,
and I've said this.

Speaker 4 (46:11):
To you guys before, but I remember when I first
started hosting Sports Center on Snapchat.

Speaker 1 (46:15):
When that first I was one of the first hosts
of that show.

Speaker 4 (46:18):
We learned quickly in the very beginning that because we
could see our metrics every day exactly when kids were
tuning out. We learned immediately that what kids cared about,
they didn't even care about the score, they didn't care
about the story of the game. They cared about the
oh my god, this guy did this great thing. So
the whole show was built on those individual highlights because
kids thirteen to twenty four only wanted to see individual

(46:39):
highlights from great players, So we made sure we focused
on that every night. That's why the numbers ballooned on
that show. So I look at that and I say, Okay,
if you're going to build your entire sport based on man,
you've got to see this at the time, Lonzo ball highlight.

Speaker 1 (46:53):
As as crazy as that sounds, but if you're going
to build it on you've got to see this.

Speaker 4 (46:57):
Highlight from this guy. You better have a constant group
of guys that are always coming in, that are always interesting.
The kids are gonna want to flock to watch. And
if you don't have that, then if you're building your
sport based on the popularity of the individual more so
than the popularity of the team, you better have individuals
at every level that are interesting.

Speaker 2 (47:18):
It's fascinating fig yeah, you know, And the circles that
I ran in it's growing up, we were all such
hoopheads that it didn't necessarily matter.

Speaker 6 (47:26):
And many of my same friends when that's those circles
still a watch a random NBA game on a Tuesday night.
But I think the greater you know, country, and just
the way things people look at it is, Yeah, if
the players are not gonna take and organizations to a
certain degree are not gonna take the regular season seriously,
why would you ask the fans to so?

Speaker 5 (47:44):
I think a lot of people end up tuning it out.

Speaker 6 (47:46):
Like I look, we've talked about on this show about
regular season basketball, and Fits brought up the fact that
Eve enjoys the playoffs but not so much the regular season.
I'll watch the regular season for sure, but I certainly
understand that the majority of people don't. And the more
and more you let allow apathy to set in for
the regular season. And on top of the fact that
you don't have a domestic superstar like we were talking

(48:07):
about and trying to basically manufacture it right now with
Anthony Edwards, you know, I think that's another factor that
gets thrown in there too. I think there's apathy that
sets in with the playoffs as well to a certain degree.

Speaker 1 (48:18):
I mean, let's oversimplify this, guys.

Speaker 4 (48:20):
If you walked into a bar tonight in a non
NBA city, If you just walked into a bar tonight
in you know whatever, Topeka, Kansas, right, and you're hanging
out with your buddies in Tapeka, Kansas, and you turn
around and you look at and you're like, oh, man, Now,
over the course of the last several years, you've been
able to see did you see what Steph did last night?
And people know who he is? It took a minute

(48:42):
for all of the Warriors greatness, people know, Oh do
you see what Lebron did last night? Those are real conversations.
Do you think you're walking into a random sports bar
in a non NBA city city or a random bar
in a non NBA city saying man, Luca versus an
did you see that? Like that's not gonna resonate, that's
just doesn't even sing it it does.

Speaker 3 (49:09):
Hello.

Speaker 2 (49:15):
Yeah, So I'm sorry that staff for a second. Yeah no,
I It's it's so fascinating the way the way you
say that, you know, I feel you could it be
that the n b A had its moment like I
don't you know, it was a deadly Jordan's like saves

(49:41):
it resuscitate, it then goes into a slumber again. Right
Like post Jordan, you got Kobe Shack right and and
then and then you have it with Lebron and Steph
in a big way. But there's been periods where it
was League of slumber. It could we be back to that.

Speaker 6 (50:02):
It hasn't been for a while though, I guess is
the problem to your point, you just talked about the
linea just that's a thirty year span right there. That's
a generation of basketball.

Speaker 2 (50:11):
But there was a dip after Jordan, Like we it's
it's hard for me to talk about.

Speaker 3 (50:19):
No, I don't know.

Speaker 5 (50:20):
Now you covered the league at the time too, so.

Speaker 2 (50:22):
Yeah, yeah, Like it's hard for me, Like it's one
thing for me to say, wow, you know Kobe Shack
the Iverson because it was it was big in my circles,
in my region and everything else.

Speaker 5 (50:35):
Iverson.

Speaker 6 (50:36):
I think it was big nationally for sure, you know,
I would saying especially for kids in the inner city
and all that. He definitely had had a huge mark
on the league nationwide.

Speaker 3 (50:45):
But was it like was it the Massies? Did it
have the audience?

Speaker 2 (50:50):
Like clearly Lebron. Now, Lebron's in the league of a
long time now, right, But Lebron and like, I think
there's a there is a certain dip, Like if i'm
we have a float, like if we have a chart,
I think the iraw goes down after Jordan and then
shoots up and then exceeds Jordan.

Speaker 3 (51:12):
With Lebron and Steph.

Speaker 6 (51:13):
I'd agree if you're talking about, like in a global appeal,
you haven't as good as Shaq and Kobe Ward. They
didn't have the global appeal that Lebron and Steph Curry do.
That is that is one hundred percent true. I'll give
you that. And I think Lebron but on top of
his grapes go on.

Speaker 4 (51:27):
It takes greatness in championships to get that though, right
And like so this is the Tiger debate all over again, right,
Like how do you get the next Tiger? Well, somebody's
got to be as good as Tiger. This is the
thing that we talk about all the time, even in baseball. Like, so,
if the NBA wants the next Lebron, sep part of
the reason, because figure, you're right, like, there's a long
period of time where we've had those stars but we've

(51:48):
also had a group of stars that have been great
for a very long time. So now that they're all
getting long in the tooth, it's gonna take one of
these younger guys going on a run, right like fire,
It's gonna take somebody.

Speaker 1 (51:59):
Yeah, I'm winning a bunch of chips to get to
that point, or at least competing for a bunch.

Speaker 6 (52:03):
Of yah, someone like Jason Tatum has to like get
to the finals and win a couple of championships or
something like that. You know, one of those sorts of players,
and it just has it doesn't seem to be on
the verge of happening. To be honest, even I still
don't have confidence in Boston. I think Anthony brought that
up earlier. The best players, the faces of the league
right now, are foreign born players. They're not domestic players,

(52:26):
and I think that to a certain degree, it's maybe
not a great degree, but I think that that doesn't
help the NBA's calls either.

Speaker 4 (52:31):
Isn't it wild though, that the very thing that we
say makes the NFL beautiful is it every year you
have no idea who could win the dang thing every
single year, and yet the conversation last week about can
you be a back to back champion in the NBA anymore?

Speaker 1 (52:45):
Probably not, Like the league's not really built for that.

Speaker 4 (52:48):
That seems to be a detriment for what the NBA
needs to accomplish right now, while it is at the
same time one of the very strengths that make people
flock to the NFL.

Speaker 1 (52:57):
I can't make it make sense to just is what
it is.

Speaker 6 (52:59):
Its little sense because I someone who's a parody guy.
I'm parody in the NFL. I'm parody in the NBA.
I love competition, I love not knowing who's gonna win.
I feel like I'm the minority in that. But we
talk we've talked about towards the end of the regular
season in the NBA just how competitive it's, specifically the
Western Conference was, and he said, we can make an
argument one through eight that any of these teams can
end up making it to the NBA Finals, and every

(53:22):
set three and five are the ones facing each other
in the conference final. So if you're just a pure
basketball fan that just enjoys the league, you enjoy it.
But if you're a casual and you want to you
feel good knowing all right, I got Denver in the
conference finals, you know, against another you know, another superstar player.

Speaker 5 (53:39):
It's weird. The metric is very much different in the
NBA than it is in the NFL.

Speaker 2 (53:44):
Yeah, and maybe maybe it's just the NFL. And listen,
you know we've seen baseball drop off out. It's coming back,
come back for sure the last couple of years. Like
you and I think the rule changes help it. And
you listen, I'm like, I'm square in a baseball city
right now. So oh yeah, you know, like they're they're
loving it. Man. It's like I've never seen a staate

(54:10):
Like it's May and there's forty one thousand people and
you're singing, dancing, and you know, it's just they're.

Speaker 3 (54:17):
In every pitch. It's bizarre, like it's unbelievable.

Speaker 2 (54:22):
But you know, it's so funny, like the all roads
go always go back to football and football's dominance and
hold on the American public.

Speaker 4 (54:35):
Yeah, which it's got to be frustrating, I'm just saying,
got to be frustrating for every other.

Speaker 1 (54:39):
Sport to look at it and say, but we're doing
the same thing and it's not working.

Speaker 2 (54:44):
No, no, And again, it's funny because you know, like
that was a great game last night, and I do
you know, obviously we're going to talk about it, but
it's not.

Speaker 3 (54:56):
Like it drives the conversation four hours.

Speaker 1 (55:00):
Now.

Speaker 3 (55:01):
I get, I'm doing this a long time.

Speaker 2 (55:03):
And there was always like the four hour topics, right,
like if you're the typical radio shift, it's four hours
and you have this.

Speaker 3 (55:15):
There's always like, you know, like we.

Speaker 2 (55:17):
Could talk super Ball, right, we could talk NFL playoffs easy,
you know, these big stories, but like watching a playoff
game last night, it's hey, how about that shot Luca
to get a little nuance and.

Speaker 3 (55:33):
Then you know, move on.

Speaker 4 (55:37):
Yeah, And I don't think the biggest difference for all
of that is if we tried to sit here and
talk about Luca versus Aunt for four hours, people would
listen to about eight minutes of it and then they
be gone. Right, But if we sat here and we
wanted to talk about the super Bowl for four hours,
people would flock to it. And I don't know how
you change that. But I can't tell you this, Like
as much as I hate it, and it might my

(55:59):
friends and I joke about it all the time, as
much as I hate it, you can say I don't.

Speaker 1 (56:03):
Know Michael or Lebron, and people will flock to that
for four hours. I don't know why. I don't know why.

Speaker 4 (56:08):
Like people will have that argument about legacy all day long,
even though everybody rolls their eyes at it. The phone
lines would light up and we could take the day
off basically. So you know, it's a weird thing that
they just the league's got to find somebody at this point.

Speaker 1 (56:22):
It just takes time.

Speaker 4 (56:23):
Is somebody's gonna have to become as polarizing an opinion
or as great in stature as the Lebron era has
been for that same level of care to come in.

Speaker 5 (56:35):
Yeah, well that's what it is. The NBA is star driven.

Speaker 6 (56:37):
They need a player or a couple of players to
carry the mantle and bring some excitement and bring the
fans in. The NFL is just the league itself. It
doesn't matter. The league is the star. So look, scoring
has been down to the NFL the last couple of seasons.
Look at the Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs for
eighty percent of last season that couldn't score to save
their lives. Didn't matter, Still end up winning, Still end

(57:00):
up getting a lot of highly rated primetime games. They
when they say the NFL is king, it is the
NFL in any facet good football, bad football. It's football,
and it's always going to win. The league wins, doesn't
matter who the individuals are. And for the NBA it's different. Mark,
You have a thought, buddy, Mark, just.

Speaker 12 (57:20):
Listening about just observation about basketball. It seems like no
one has been able to live up to a good
reputation most of the teams or so basketball has dropped
down when it comes to okay, load management, so people

(57:40):
you know, the good players or players aren't there, they
don't play, and that you set aside for injury, but
just that the players aren't holding up and teams aren't
holding up to any kind of reputation that they either
used to have from older players or current players to

(58:02):
be able to sustain their team and their name. You
could be individuals, but your team has been able to
bring the masses and hold their attention enough. And so
basketball overall has dropped down a couple pegs.

Speaker 3 (58:19):
Well, and that is spoken like a man from Chicago.
That's spoken like a man who was raised with Jordan
Fritzy just said it.

Speaker 2 (58:34):
You could have the argument right Lebron versus Jordan, and
Mark's basically saying that I said.

Speaker 4 (58:43):
Quickly, I'll say this. Had a friend on radio a
few years ago who, as a joke, teased, you know,
Lebron versus MJ, who's the actual gun, throw out the
phone number because he didn't know what they were talking about.

Speaker 1 (58:53):
On the next segment. The phones lit up and they
never stopped for the entire show, and it became a joke.

Speaker 4 (58:58):
It became a running joke that he's like, anytime I
don't know what I'm gonna say, I'll just say Lebron
versus MJ.

Speaker 1 (59:04):
And I can sit back and know I can take
the next segment off. And he was never wrong, never wrong.

Speaker 2 (59:09):
Well, and you could say it, and you could say
seventeen different ways, you know, to like the true goat,
the real goat, like you know, it's so it's it's crazy,
It truly, it truly is. All right, we gotta take
quick too, We'll come right back. And I love the
aspect and I'm curious it is college football, well college football,

(59:34):
especially with the expanded playoffs. I got it pretty excited
looking at that schedule. Uh, can it take that leap
to where the NFL is I'm curious what you guys think.
Fellas right here Fox Sports Radio. Fellas from the tai
Iraq dot com studios. And by the way, surely at

(59:57):
the show, our podcast goes up, so miss of today's show,
be sure to check out the podcast to search Fox
Sports Radio wherever you get your podcast. Sure to follow,
rate and review the podcasts again to search Fox Sports
Radio wherever you get your podcasts, and you'll see this
show posted right after we get off the air. So

(01:00:18):
let me ask you guys a question about college football.
And you know, we know how big it is, but
now it's actually with a true playoff system, it can
expand beyond the pockets where college football's king right and
the cities that are really pro cities. Do you think

(01:00:41):
it goes and it starts to almost I don't want
to say rivally I the rival the NFL, but it's
in that pantheon where you know you're going to have
a real playoff system. It's you know it's gonna be,
you know, big from a mag the two standpoint, will

(01:01:02):
it come close to the NFL?

Speaker 8 (01:01:04):
No?

Speaker 1 (01:01:05):
I wanted to.

Speaker 4 (01:01:07):
But the funny thing is you can't change certain wiring
for people in my mind, like it takes a long
time for people to suddenly fall in love with a sport,
Like the number of times I've heard, like I've been
in this business at a full time level for eight
years at this point, and the number of times I've heard,

(01:01:27):
oh my god, look around the corner of soccer is
about to take over, right And you know, I'm not
saying that soccer isn't growing, it is, but his soccer
taken over? Like are we tuning into morning shows across
the country to hearing soccer takes now? Like it's so
hard to get a new generation of fans to love it.
And I say that having spent so much time over

(01:01:50):
the last few years of my life in New England
and being stunned at how little that area cares about
college football just on the whole. I've told this story before,
but I've or when I first went up to Bristol, Connecticut,
and I was going up there, and I was at
the time, I wasn't full time at ESPN.

Speaker 1 (01:02:06):
I was just going up to meet with people. And
I went into a Buffalo Wild Wings that's like two.

Speaker 4 (01:02:10):
Minutes from campus at ESPN, and I walked in and
there was a huge college football game going on, and
I asked if they would turn it on, and it
was like a Saturday in December, and the answer I
got was no, like flat out the managers just like
no man, nobody in the bar cares about that. And
they were playing repeats of like old hockey games and
repeating baseball games.

Speaker 1 (01:02:30):
I promise you, and it goes somewhere else to watch
a football game.

Speaker 4 (01:02:35):
And I was like, well, that must be the rarity now.
It is so hard on any given Saturday in that
area to walk in and just find random games. So
it is there are certain parts of the country that
just have this mindset that I don't want to watch
an inferior football product. I only watch the NFL because
they didn't grow up around the passion of college football.

(01:02:55):
And I don't know how you turn those fans into
passionate college football lovers.

Speaker 1 (01:03:01):
I don't know that anything does that quickly.

Speaker 6 (01:03:03):
It would quickly, No, I think it would have to
be some something revolutionary. I'll go back to use La
as an example. It was a Dodger town for so long,
and Jerry Buzz purchased the Lakers from Jack Kent Cook
in the seventies and they had a bit of a
lull before Maggie Johnson came in and Jerry Buss introduced
the Laker Girls and made everything into an event, and
it never turned from a Dodgertown to a Lakertown. But

(01:03:25):
the Lakers finally kind of elbowed their way into the market.
So now you can say the Dodgers are one A
and the Lakers are one B, and that can interchange
depending on the season. It would take some sort of
sensation of some sort of ground swell, a superstar player, coach,
multiple championships, something like that for that to sort of
make a dent, especially in a place like that where

(01:03:46):
it's been ingrained for so long we're talking decades at
this point in time. Can't It's possible, but it's just
not likely because you're talking about once in a generation
type stuff that would need to happen in order for
something like that's a flip that way.

Speaker 4 (01:04:01):
But phe let me, let me let me ask you this,
because we talked about the inconsistencies of the way we
receive certain things from different sports, why is it that
multiple championships from the Warriors becomes this endearing, Oh my
god thing that we we can't believe.

Speaker 1 (01:04:15):
And then we see an.

Speaker 4 (01:04:17):
Era of dominance in Alabama and the coverage is, well,
is this really bad? Like is Alabama's dominance bad for
the sport overall?

Speaker 2 (01:04:24):
Right?

Speaker 4 (01:04:24):
Like, it is funny to me that we sort of
pick and choose when we like dominance and personality, because certainly,
do you have bigger personalities than we've had with Harbaugh
and Nick Saban and the level of dominance that we've
seen from certain programs just hasn't It doesn't resonate that
the conversation isn't Oh my god, I can't believe we
are watching this historic era of Georgia football or whatever.

(01:04:47):
It turns around instead and it's like, you know, the
SEC socks Like it's just it's funny how the reception
is different of dominance.

Speaker 6 (01:04:55):
Yeah, you're not wrong, And it could be a regional
thing too when it comes to college full because it's
just such a it's an SEC and I'm a big
ten guy and I'm a pac twelve guy, and I'm
a you know, so.

Speaker 2 (01:05:06):
Yeah, I mean, look at LA right, look at your
area figure you always talk about it ATC is bigger
than the rams.

Speaker 6 (01:05:13):
Oh easily without and that was gonna be the next example, Like,
can you is anything bigger than the NFL. It's like
when USC is good, they're bigger than the Rams easily,
And it's without question.

Speaker 4 (01:05:23):
That's funny to me, just because again, growing up in
Vegas as a kid, UNLV football, despite the fact that
we had Icky Woods and Randall cunning out, was never
it never really transcended. It was UNLV basketball town, right,
So I grew up not really caring that much about
college football in Vegas, and then when I moved to
the East Coast, you know, they didn't care about it there.
I went to I finished high school in Maryland, right,

(01:05:45):
Like nobody was clamoring for University of Maryland football in
the nineties. Like it just wasn't a thing, right, So
you piece all that together. It wasn't until I moved
to Nashville that it was like, oh my god, this
it's different. This is a way of life, this is
a this is a general rational cooked in I've been
watching these games my entire life with my grandpa, and like,

(01:06:05):
this is this is what our family does on Saturdays
in the tradition, and all of the things that I've
fallen in love with and covering it. But I don't
know how you get those generations of passion to come
together in an area that you know, if you're talking.

Speaker 1 (01:06:19):
About New England, you're like, yeah, what are you rooting
for Boston College?

Speaker 6 (01:06:22):
I was gonna say, what is what's even up there
Boston other than Boston College. Well, it's interesting because you
have that whole Carter. Right, So it's not just New England.
New York doesn't care about college football right at all? Right,
Philadelphia doesn't care about college football?

Speaker 3 (01:06:38):
Right? You know Penn State is closer to Pittsburgh.

Speaker 5 (01:06:42):
Yeah, that's not really Philadelphia.

Speaker 3 (01:06:44):
Right. You mentioned Maryland and d C.

Speaker 2 (01:06:48):
Right, so you have the entire Northeast down to the
mid Atlantic states that don't like But now Chicago loves
college football. Go was Notre Dame, you know, Chicago loves
it obviously Texas, right, So Dallas so.

Speaker 6 (01:07:05):
Just has its own niche in there with with the
Cowboys two and ut they both are kind of popular.

Speaker 5 (01:07:11):
In their own way.

Speaker 3 (01:07:12):
It's right, like George, I mean, Georgia is bigger than
the Falcons.

Speaker 5 (01:07:15):
Oh yeah, the Falcons are barely a blip.

Speaker 4 (01:07:17):
And yeah, once you get into the south once you
once you hit the south of the Mason Dixon line,
it's different. But also, like as you speak, Anthony, it
makes me think of how many other like Okay, Idaho,
you know, Montana, I know they care about the you know,
put less be Real, New Mexico, Arizona.

Speaker 1 (01:07:37):
How many of those places are clamoring for college football Saturdays.

Speaker 4 (01:07:41):
They love the NFL, but they're not going to have
a program that they tie into in their area that
that is going to compete for a national championship.

Speaker 11 (01:07:48):
More.

Speaker 2 (01:07:49):
I just had the opposite kind of reaction, which is
when we're going through the country, it's really just the northeast,
Like there's three people in Idaho, God bless you.

Speaker 3 (01:07:59):
Right, you know, it's it's not heavily popular.

Speaker 5 (01:08:02):
But then I did the University of Idaho go down
to FCS this past year?

Speaker 3 (01:08:06):
Did that happen? I mean, but okay, but I mean
the Boise think the blue field is a big deal. Yeah,
you know, I mean we think.

Speaker 4 (01:08:13):
That Montana, Wyoming, Utah, New Mexico, South Dakota, and North
Dakota are those places clamoring for big time?

Speaker 1 (01:08:22):
Like are they gonna Saturday?

Speaker 6 (01:08:24):
I think they're I think they're involved, you think, yeah,
because more they're more connected to their college programs than
any NFL teams.

Speaker 5 (01:08:32):
I just don't have them, right, Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:08:34):
But their college program is never going to be like
Montana obviously doesn't even have a shot at it, but
like Wyoming, North Cota, South Dkota also, like we're talking
about places that don't even really have a shot at
being a part of what is happening there. So whatever
they're I'm not saying they're not. Like Idah is a
great example. Boise State has a rabid, amazing fan base
that is incredible.

Speaker 1 (01:08:55):
But is that going to translate across the country. Boise
State isn't going to have a shot at the national
championship anytime soon?

Speaker 3 (01:09:02):
I don't know me Because the sport itself, people love
the sport.

Speaker 2 (01:09:07):
And then you go everywhere else in the country, but
again the Northeast, mid Atlantic side, Detroit, Okay, you got Michigan,
your lines in Michigan, righto.

Speaker 3 (01:09:22):
Ohio, right, it was about to just go through that.

Speaker 1 (01:09:26):
Passionate.

Speaker 2 (01:09:28):
I mean there, you go all around the country, and
you know, college football has its has its staples, you know,
I don't know other than and again, other than that
one block in the Northeast and mid Atlantic.

Speaker 6 (01:09:43):
Well, then I guess what the initial question was, will
it surpass I believe your question was the rival or.

Speaker 2 (01:09:51):
Yeah, we'll reach the kid because it's football and because
it's the highest and we're just talking about now paying
players and you know, all of a sudden, now I
don't know, like how how does how does this all
affect you know, bowl games? Right?

Speaker 3 (01:10:07):
Like, so now you expand playoffs.

Speaker 2 (01:10:10):
So now all of a sudden, you know guys who
are juniors who didn't want to play in a ball
because they're going to come out and declare for the draft.

Speaker 3 (01:10:19):
Now you're getting paid, So now there's no hurry to
get to the NFL.

Speaker 1 (01:10:24):
That is it is interesting.

Speaker 4 (01:10:26):
I mean I've made the argument a few times that
I think the payment process, especially for positions like running back,
could keep guys in longer. I keep hearing, no guys
want to get in to get closer to their first contract.
I think for college sports in general, the longer some
of these kids stay, the more likely you are to
have the groundswell you're talking about, because people fall in

(01:10:47):
love with Caitlyn Clark's a great example, like, yes, you
got to have time to fall in love with somebody.

Speaker 1 (01:10:53):
Right Like.

Speaker 4 (01:10:54):
I think that we've seen that that worked, and it's
particularly working in women's college basketball because the rivalries build,
and as we said at the time, like it takes
Caitlyn and Angel sticking around long enough for Kitlyn and
Angel to have history for Caitlyn and Angel to be
such a huge story for sports in general. I think
sticking around is a small piece of what happens you are,

(01:11:15):
right though, And it is interesting.

Speaker 1 (01:11:17):
I wonder what.

Speaker 4 (01:11:17):
Happens when guys are getting paid and I hadn't thought
about this, and then all of a sudden, you're playing
in the Music City Bowl. That may not be part
of the playoff process at all, but man, you're getting
paid and it's a bowl game, so you're gonna get
out there and play, even if it means it could
hurt your draft stock, right Like, So that's going to
be really interesting to me.

Speaker 1 (01:11:36):
I'd never thought about what happens in those situations.

Speaker 6 (01:11:38):
Yeah, And there was a report I saw, I don't
know if it was last month, and I forget exactly
which publication had it that some of these nil deals
might have it written in that if a school makes
a bowl game, contractually, the player will be obligated to
play unless they're hurt. Now, how that works if they
breached that contract or they just pay money and some
of them want to be willing to a here, take
five hundred grand back, I'm not playing. I doubt a

(01:12:01):
few of them will be able to be willing to
do that. But that's certainly a wrinkle that you can
throw into it. They basically saying, if you signed an
nil contract, I'm expecting you to play in every single
game that you're healthy to play in.

Speaker 1 (01:12:12):
Yeah, well, especially now with this settlement.

Speaker 4 (01:12:15):
I mean, this settlement paves a way to to make
it very clearly essentially as part of your job's correct
Like this is that moment of kids are going to
be getting paid to play football. So if you don't
play football, there should be some sort of recourse to
that that that that'll be really interesting because I'm not
sure as much as kid wants that money, when you

(01:12:36):
know you were a few months away from being drafted, boy,
I'm not sure you want to put that risk on
your body for you know, the.

Speaker 2 (01:12:43):
I don't know the dude, you know, part of it's
the agent too. Talent, I'm talent I'm talent. I'm like, no, no, no,
don't play.

Speaker 6 (01:12:51):
You know, I certainly understand it. I mean we always did.
The big example is always going to be Jalen Smith
in that Orange Bowl.

Speaker 3 (01:13:01):
You know.

Speaker 1 (01:13:02):
Yeah, well, I think I don't know.

Speaker 3 (01:13:05):
It's it's a great it's a great debate, it's a
great conversation. Actually.

Speaker 4 (01:13:09):
Well, and and look, if you're one of the if
you're the Lawnmower Sasparillo whatever Bowl like, or if you're
the Snoop Dog Bowl, like the Snoop span for the
stars to play, so like the sponsors want that, I
think it becomes very interesting because this is just part
of the evolution of the sport. But also, and I've
said this before to you guys, I think this is

(01:13:31):
going to be the wildest, most exciting year we've ever
seen in college football because we have no idea like this.
This ex playoff and this expanded playoff is is going
to the eyeball should be absolutely through the roof.

Speaker 1 (01:13:42):
And I'm one like that, why hate it?

Speaker 4 (01:13:44):
But like, to me, if you're telling me that we're
gonna get Ohio State Michigan in the game and then
Ohio State Michigan in the Big Ten Championship game because
of the realignment, and then somehow, some way we get
Ohio State Michigan again in the in the playoff.

Speaker 1 (01:13:58):
I'm fine with that.

Speaker 4 (01:13:59):
If if it's two of the best teams in the
country and I get to see him three times, like,
I'm all in for that.

Speaker 1 (01:14:03):
I don't care if I see the Raiders play the
Chargers in the regular season in the playoffs like I
want this.

Speaker 4 (01:14:08):
So I might be the outlier, but I think all
of this creates what could be the wildest season in
sports we've ever seen.

Speaker 3 (01:14:15):
Oh yeah, dude, I think it's incredible.

Speaker 1 (01:14:18):
I do.

Speaker 2 (01:14:19):
Coming up, we'll give you this schedule. Did you guys
look at the schedule. It's freaking awesome.

Speaker 3 (01:14:24):
I have not.

Speaker 2 (01:14:26):
Oh yeah, it's awesome. We'll talk about it. Fellas hanging
out right here Fox Sports Radio. Fellas from the tire
rack dot com studios.

Speaker 3 (01:14:42):
Are you ready?

Speaker 2 (01:14:45):
Beginning Friday, December twentieth, first round game Friday night kicks
off the college football Playoffs. Then Saturday, a triple header

(01:15:07):
for the first round games. Saturday, December twenty first this
is awesome. Then Tuesday, December thirty, first you have the
Fiesta Bowl. Is a quarterfinal, all right, and that's already
from State Farms Stadium in Glendale, Wednesday, July.

Speaker 3 (01:15:30):
January one.

Speaker 2 (01:15:33):
Quarterfinal, Chick fil A Peach Bowl Quarterfinal, Rose Bowl Quarterfinal,
Sugar Bowl January ninth, semifinal Thursday night the Capitol One
Orange Bowl. Then Friday, January tenth, twenty twenty five, the

(01:16:01):
other semifinal from AT and T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.

Speaker 3 (01:16:08):
And then that brings us to Monday, January.

Speaker 2 (01:16:11):
Twentieth, the National Championship for Mercedes Men Stadium in Atlanta, Georgia.
That is your expanded college football schedule.

Speaker 3 (01:16:26):
Tell me that's not awesome.

Speaker 4 (01:16:28):
Oh man, it changes the whole calendar when you think
about it, like the fact that now I find this interesting,
a triple header of games on December twenty first, where
there'll be a Fellas that day, obviously because it's a Saturday,
but also the league, the NFL, decided to put two.

Speaker 1 (01:16:45):
NFL games on that day.

Speaker 4 (01:16:46):
Like just one of the most stunning things to me
that was sort of lost in the developments of the
schedule release for the NFL is that, knowing that they
were getting the first ever college football expanded playoff, did
not stay away from that Saturday. They still put two
games on Saturday, December twenty, first Houston at Kansas City

(01:17:07):
and Pittsburgh at Baltimore. They put two good games on Saturday,
just to make sure that they remind college football where
their place is in society. Like that is a brazen,
bold move by the NFL.

Speaker 3 (01:17:19):
Okay, so let me ask you guys, now the eight
and go.

Speaker 2 (01:17:24):
Now, you know there's going to be a prime time game,
so they left the prime time game for college football.
Usually they do four point thirty and at eight o'clock
right right, And they did when we're playing at one
and four thirty. Yeah, one in four thirty.

Speaker 4 (01:17:45):
So they did sort of standard Sunday timing ish on
those Saturday games because.

Speaker 2 (01:17:51):
Usually they do the four thirty and and APR. But
I guess that's why they're leaving college football.

Speaker 1 (01:17:59):
For that day.

Speaker 4 (01:18:00):
I mean, there's they're swinging directly at the first two
and then they're leaving college football one of them.

Speaker 2 (01:18:05):
And I just I think you're right about the quality
of games, Like they're two great games, Like it's going
to be really good in Kansas City obviously, right and
Pittsburgh Baltimore.

Speaker 3 (01:18:16):
I mean, what could be really interesting.

Speaker 4 (01:18:18):
I mean, they could have put on that Saturday, for example,
also on that weekend's docket, Giants at Falcons. You know,
they could have put a game like that in there.
They could have put Jacksonville at the Raiders, the game
that probably wouldn't have the same level.

Speaker 1 (01:18:31):
Tennessee at Indye have the same level. But no, now
they give you.

Speaker 4 (01:18:35):
Houston and Kansas City and Pittsburgh at Baltimore. So like
it just it feels like the NFL definitely big. Yes, yeah,
they big footage up. I find a good way to
say that. That being said for me, if I got
to make the choice between a meaningful I mean, obviously
we're gonna watch all of them, because it's what we
do for a living. I'm gonna watch the Expanded Playoff, right,

(01:18:55):
Like the Expanded Playoff is such playoff games always win,
right in my mind, it's a playoff game always takes
preast of it. So the fact that we get this
Expanded Playoff and those first round games will be at home,
those are are gonna be Oh, that's gonna be chef's kiss.
Like imagine just getting some random Michigan you know, or

(01:19:16):
or figure about a southern team having to go up there.
Think about Georgia having to go to Michigan for a
first round playoff game.

Speaker 3 (01:19:21):
If we're like, oh my god, it's no falling.

Speaker 1 (01:19:25):
Oh you outrageous man, that would be incredible. Figure.

Speaker 3 (01:19:32):
I know it's your dream, everything I wanted. I've always
talked about this, Fig.

Speaker 6 (01:19:37):
I know, well, you know pretty soon the NFL is
going to start elbowing out the high school kids too.
Why not play on Friday night. They're gonna do it
every single night of the week. It's the I think
Gargano plan. Yeah, it's football every night. It's grammed.

Speaker 2 (01:19:53):
I know.

Speaker 1 (01:19:54):
I'm in for it.

Speaker 4 (01:19:55):
Like, look, I'll take it. Like you mentioned, some of
those semi final games are on a Thursday. Yep, give
me Thursday night college football if it's a playoff game,
come on, huh.

Speaker 3 (01:20:04):
I know. I love the idea of going Thursday Friday.

Speaker 2 (01:20:10):
So you got meaningful football Thursday Friday at college football playoffs,
and then you got a football at the NFL weekend.

Speaker 4 (01:20:20):
God, and then once we expand to eighteen games inevitably
in the NFL, all of a sudden, you're gonna have
this expanded calendar. We're gonna have meaningful football all the
way into mid February.

Speaker 1 (01:20:30):
Oh, yes, yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:20:32):
I've always made the point that most of the country
locked in the winter, so what else is there to do?

Speaker 2 (01:20:39):
Mmm, you're right, you know I've never understood, like February
is a horrific month.

Speaker 3 (01:20:45):
Why not give the people joy.

Speaker 1 (01:20:47):
With football and then take us right into March madness.
Oh the supports calendar, Yes, March.

Speaker 2 (01:20:53):
You know, February gladness goes to March madness. Fellas Fox
Sports Radio.

Speaker 1 (01:21:00):

Speaker 3 (01:21:03):
Well, good morning, good morning, good morning, good.

Speaker 2 (01:21:06):
Morning, happy happy Fox Sports Saturday seven am and the
East four am in the West. Memorial Day Weekend the
kickoff of summer. Always the gateway to summer. Memorial Day
Weekend we always, uh obviously want to thank and commemorate

(01:21:29):
all the people who served.

Speaker 3 (01:21:33):
This country heroes.

Speaker 2 (01:21:37):
We're coming alive from the ti rack dot Com studios,
tyret dot com. We'll help you get there on matt
selex and fast free shipping, free road as a protection
over ten thousand recommended installers, tyract dot com.

Speaker 3 (01:21:47):
The way tire buying should be.

Speaker 2 (01:21:50):
All right, boys, U let me ask you real quick
because in my region Memorial Day weekend was always a
big deal because it opened up obviously, but they would
go to the shore so where it was beached out.
Figure you get the beach all year around FITZI, you

(01:22:10):
had an interesting look because you moved around a lot.
And then when you settle in Vegas, obviously Vegas is Vegas,
but here it's always about go to the beach.

Speaker 3 (01:22:18):
And the Jersey Shore is like a big deal.

Speaker 2 (01:22:21):
Like there's boardwalk and amusements and that's you know, treats
and the whole nine. It's like these little towns along
the shoreline.

Speaker 3 (01:22:34):
In New Jersey like a big deal for the people
in this region.

Speaker 4 (01:22:38):
That's part of what's beautiful about New England. Like, by
the way, I really like the entire New England area.
And one thing that really hit me when I was
living in Connecticut full time was how like it almost
feels like every seasonal business comes to life right around then, right,
so all of a sudden, areas that have been sort
of cold and dark and empty are now all of

(01:23:00):
a sudden alive and hopping and seeing you know, families
walking around and getting ice cream at the random place
that's only opened a few months a year. That I
can never figure out economically how they manage.

Speaker 1 (01:23:10):
It's part of the chump.

Speaker 4 (01:23:12):
I will say, it's interesting because you're right, I've lived
all over the country. How different areas of the country
have different sort of vibes around Memorial Day and then
around everything that kicks off after it, Like in Nashville
it is, which is I think the South and service
are very you know, they're very joined, right, so any

(01:23:34):
time to honor the people that served as an important
thing culturally in the South. So there's actually I've always
felt like a bit of a gravity to Memorial Day
in a much different way where it's like, I mean,
you've done a beautiful job of mentioning it, and I
say it all the time. We get to do what
we do because people better are stronger and overall more
amazing than I could ever imagine being fought for our

(01:23:55):
freedom right and that is a very serious and real
thing that's appreciated. So I think it's always interesting to
me in the South that there's a sort of a
gravity to the way that the Memorial Day is perceived.
And then all of a sudden you're into summer. But
one difference in let me be an old man for
a minute. Like when I was a kid, Memorial Day
was right around when summer started for school too, and

(01:24:16):
then you're off until after Labor Day. Like so I
truly had the full summer off now, Like I was
talking to one of my buddies up in Connecticut last week,
his kids aren't even done until like the third week
in June.

Speaker 1 (01:24:29):
So I really wonder.

Speaker 4 (01:24:31):
Yeah, Like I just wonder if because of snow days
that added a few days this year, but like third
week in June, they're done and they go back in
mid August. So it's like, my god, Like I don't know,
Like I feel like you almost have to power blast
that level of fun that you and I were used
to getting to spend months having as kids.

Speaker 2 (01:24:49):
Yeah, you don't know, things weird and I get to
figure you out with your school system, there is different
it used to be here. I do know that it
was you didn't go back into well after Labor Day.
Now kids starting in Arizona, I know they start in
you know, August, which I never understood.

Speaker 6 (01:25:10):
Yeah, it's uh, it traditionally was like that out here
as well, after Labor Day. But I'm even aware. So
my uh, my cousin is an administrator at a school
in Vegas. Uh they let out last week. He says,
they returned to school in July.

Speaker 1 (01:25:26):
That year round. There must be year round, now, is
that what they're doing.

Speaker 6 (01:25:29):
I'm not not getn't get a chance to talk to
him about it, because I when I was in high
school out here, I was I was year round. So
I started my school year actually started in July, but
I also had a couple of months off in the
winter and a couple of months in the spring. It
was a different type of schedule. I didn't think that.
And because they let out so early as well, so
maybe they are year round. I'm not sure, but that's
a it's a funky schedule. And then that just even

(01:25:50):
your traditional modes nowadays. As you were talking about, Anthony,
you know these kids are going back in August, mid August,
that early to mid August.

Speaker 3 (01:25:57):
At that.

Speaker 6 (01:26:00):
You you wicked you started July, right, So because the
school system was overcrowded, they had to find a way
to kind of split things up to be able to
accommodate all of the children.

Speaker 5 (01:26:10):
So they had to dig different schedules for different kids.

Speaker 3 (01:26:15):
Oh wow, Yeah, so what was your schedule here?

Speaker 6 (01:26:18):
You would be off, so I was on for four months,
off for two so we were in for July, August, September, October.
I would have the entire month of November and December
off and then we go back in January, February, March, April,
and then May and June would basically be our summer
vacation quota our transition into the next high school year.

Speaker 5 (01:26:39):
That's how it work. How did sports work.

Speaker 6 (01:26:42):
You could play in sport, you know, if if there
was a follower winter sport, you would just show up
for whatever sport that you played.

Speaker 3 (01:26:47):
That is how it worked.

Speaker 5 (01:26:48):
So you wouldn't have classes, but you would you would
go to play player sport.

Speaker 2 (01:26:54):
Well, I mean it's funny because classes don't start like
we just got mine. Just got Mi Anthony's summer schedule
for football, and you know, I mean he's basically they
go they have a mini camp. Now mind you, Fitzi

(01:27:15):
and Figgi. They have a mini lifting starts June tenth,
so that's three days a week of lifting right. Then
the last week of June is their mini camp. Then
they're all for fourth July. Then they're back with conditioning

(01:27:36):
and then they do a seven on seventh thing that
starts three days a week in July. The last week
of July they go to four days a week. Then
training camp officially begins in August where they're five days
a week.

Speaker 6 (01:27:54):
But that's the that's their that's their kids, well scheduled
and regimented. I mean think about that, man, Like you know,
like we didn't have many camps.

Speaker 3 (01:28:05):
No I was playing.

Speaker 6 (01:28:06):
I mean that wasn't We had like summer conditioning practices,
but they were even they were very loosely organized. You
have a coach out there, the head coach might be there,
he might not like it was never not like this.
That's wild, right, I mean that's there. They were like
you know, and then we're and you know, the coaches
were cool, like they were like listen, you know you

(01:28:26):
got family vacations and everything else. We understand, but like
because we you know, we feel we feel a little guilty,
like because it's his freshman year and like he's going
to miss a couple.

Speaker 3 (01:28:41):
Of weeks because you know, we're gonna go away, we're
gonna do some family stuff.

Speaker 2 (01:28:45):
I'm like, can you believe we're actually feeling guilty about
doing a family vacation because of camp and really of
OTAs that is.

Speaker 4 (01:28:56):
That's crazy to me because like the summer and look,
my mind was more regimented because everything I was doing
outside of school. But like the summer is supposed to
be just sort of sort of an opportunity for kids
to explore and do different. Like I don't know, like
maybe I'm altruistic here, but it seems like you know,
you sleep in and you mess around with your friends
and you just have a good.

Speaker 1 (01:29:16):
Time, right, Like they're just summer right, Like yeah, yeah.

Speaker 13 (01:29:20):
There's there's movies that were written, stories and books, novels
written about summer, and now we're like do it away
with summer.

Speaker 4 (01:29:33):
Yeah, that's that's such an interesting I mean, I understand
the year round concept. Two of you know, four on
two off can make a lot of things easier in
life for some parents, and and it makes uh, you know,
it makes life easier for some of the kids in
their studies.

Speaker 1 (01:29:47):
I guess that show that the learning is better that way,
But I don't.

Speaker 4 (01:29:50):
Know, give me, give me three solid months of like
I'm just gonna sit around and do nothing, and especially
like in that heat and everything, I just I would
much prefer that one well, good thing.

Speaker 1 (01:30:00):
I don't have kids, but I would much prefer that.

Speaker 3 (01:30:03):
Yeah, I mean, vegue if you think about Vegas in August, I'm.

Speaker 5 (01:30:08):
Rather not sweating already thinking about.

Speaker 2 (01:30:10):
It, right like, and you know, I mean it's hard
to go in that kind of heat. It's hard, it's
hard to concentraight school.

Speaker 4 (01:30:19):
Yeah, and you just start thinking about just the general
routine for kids. I don't know, there's something about the
knowing that you can go, Like what do you do
if summer camp was part of your life too?

Speaker 1 (01:30:32):
Like summer camp seemed to be.

Speaker 4 (01:30:35):
I don't know how you fit that in with everybody
having different different schedules.

Speaker 6 (01:30:38):
Oh fits it was because I remember leaving eighth grade
going into ninth I believe we let out on like
June fifteenth or sixteenth or something like that, maybe even
a little bit later. And my first day of high
school was on July fifth, so I basically my summer
of that year.

Speaker 5 (01:30:55):
It was about ten ten to.

Speaker 6 (01:30:56):
Twelve days if I remember correctly, and a lot of
my friends who are going to different school and the
one I went to talking about all the stuff they
were doing the summer and all these places they were going.

Speaker 5 (01:31:03):
It's like, yeah, I'm going right back to school. Oh
it's brutal. Yeah, and the end in the heat of summer,
by the way, July, August, July all around.

Speaker 3 (01:31:14):
Like the day after July for it long. It's unbelievable
hauling books.

Speaker 6 (01:31:18):
You know, we didn't have mac books and iPads and
all that stuff the kids have nowadays. You know, you're
carrying the big the big history book and the big
English book and all the binders with all the dividers.

Speaker 5 (01:31:29):
Yeah, it's a hard knock life.

Speaker 3 (01:31:31):
Yeah, that's that's hard.

Speaker 1 (01:31:34):
Yeah. I'm still trying to figure out how parents afford
all that stuff. Like, I mean, we didn't have much.

Speaker 4 (01:31:40):
So just like the need for a t I eighty
one calculator was like that said, like that wasn't gonna happen.

Speaker 3 (01:31:47):
That's a great you know, that's a great one.

Speaker 4 (01:31:50):
There's no like when I went to my parents, I
was like, yeah, for calculus, I needed T I eighty one.
My mom was like, well then you need to find
a different math class and we can't afford it. Like
and it's like kids coming in and just being like
all right, well I need an iPad and I'm gonna need.

Speaker 1 (01:32:04):
A laptop and I'm like, oh my god, I don't
even know how parents do it. I don't.

Speaker 3 (01:32:09):
Well.

Speaker 6 (01:32:09):
The good thing a lot of times for the public schools,
they will they'll provide those for you. So now, because
I even remember even like a lot of the graphic
calculators and things like that, when I was in high school,
they you know what, just passed them down from year
to year.

Speaker 5 (01:32:20):
Now some of them may like number that popped off
that didn't work, you know.

Speaker 1 (01:32:26):
And then like we had to buy them.

Speaker 4 (01:32:27):
And then my mom's rule always that I grew up
on was if you can't afford to replace it, you
should never borrow it.

Speaker 1 (01:32:34):
So like when my.

Speaker 4 (01:32:34):
Friends, you know, in high school throw me the keys
and be like, hey man, you can drive my car,
I'm like, hell, no, I can't. No, I can't buy
this thing. So nope, I cannot borrow your car. That
is just I was raised on that rule. If you
can't afford to replace it, don't borrow it. So somebody
would hand me an iPad as a kid, and I'd
be like, Nope, can't afford one of these.

Speaker 3 (01:32:51):
Get back. Oh man, that's wild, that's wild. Funny.

Speaker 2 (01:33:00):
We're you know, talking about the school and summer, Like,
do you think that we are like society is all
about productivity, which is great, right, but do you think
that we're too much like that?

Speaker 3 (01:33:18):
Like Europe?

Speaker 2 (01:33:19):
You know, like I know in Italy they're they're off
the entire month of August, like nobody works. Like if
you have any kind of job other than you know,
restaurants or cater your hotels, catering to tourists, you're off.
Like the whole country basically's off. And then they and
they're not you know, they have them. It's like that

(01:33:42):
for a lot of European countries.

Speaker 4 (01:33:45):
Do you we can't even get people here to stay
away from the stores on Thanksgiving data like.

Speaker 1 (01:33:51):
They think about that you just mentioned a month off.

Speaker 4 (01:33:54):
You know how many Karen's out there would be complaining
about the fact that they can't get what they want
that they're like that would just be such a loud
no offense to any like really nice caroens out there,
But that would be.

Speaker 1 (01:34:04):
Such a such a loud yell of good.

Speaker 4 (01:34:09):
But I want to be able to go like it's
just man, I cannot imagine if we went to as
a country and said, hey, the first reaction if we
went to everybody and said we're taking the whole month
of August office at the United States of America.

Speaker 1 (01:34:22):
People will be like hooray and then turn around and
be like, but.

Speaker 4 (01:34:25):
That means everybody, which means unless it's absolutely essential, you
cannot get it.

Speaker 1 (01:34:31):
People would start just freaking out. They would freak out.
It's like, can't write my pedicure today? Like what am
I doing? You know, it's like that that's where we live.

Speaker 6 (01:34:39):
Yeah, but I will say, you know, my my wife
who's a teacher, and she talks about how these kids
are so overly regimented, and she believes that's why they
are so anxious now because she was so talk to
one student, this, all right, well, after I do homework,
then I have soccer practice, then I have study group,
then I have this practice, then I have that.

Speaker 5 (01:34:56):
This is what are you doing for fun this weekend?

Speaker 6 (01:34:57):
It's like, well, I have a baseball league that I'm
playing in, just like, I mean, I'm sure that's fun
for you, but like, do you have anything that's like
unscheduled where you can just do what you want?

Speaker 5 (01:35:06):
And they were like, no, not really, it's just somebody
sad about that. It really is free time. Is just
not a thing anymore for a lot of people.

Speaker 6 (01:35:14):
It's about the overproductive, overproductive such situation that it really
bears itself out, and I do think ultimately it does
end up having a cost, a mental cost.

Speaker 2 (01:35:26):
Yeah, because you burn out right, you don't allow certain things,
you don't get to enjoy life. You know that that
whole idea of stop and smell the roads is that
old saying, but it's truly the you know, euro opinions.

Speaker 1 (01:35:42):
Man.

Speaker 3 (01:35:42):
You know, it's to live to work, work to live.

Speaker 6 (01:35:45):
Thing right, right, Entire cities, entire towns shut down that
you mentioned for an entire month, goes away.

Speaker 5 (01:35:51):
So yeah, a few years ago.

Speaker 6 (01:35:54):
Yeah, Actually, the reason why we didn't go is because
my wife went previously in August and she was like, oh,
there's nobody here. All these businesses, all these restaurants we
want to go to. Everybody's off. So we went earlier
in the summer or late spring for that reason.

Speaker 3 (01:36:08):
Yeah. Yeah, And you know, there's a there is a
there's an enjoyment of life.

Speaker 2 (01:36:15):
That's that I think. And there's a simplicity too. Now
you know they're not living in you know, they live
in pretty modest you know, right, quarters and they're you know,
they're they're always about the outside. And you know a
lot of those you know, Western European countries.

Speaker 6 (01:36:34):
A communal, you know, big dinners and talking and all
that stuff. Walking everywhere. Yeah, I mean that that and
we're just go go go jumping a car, Yeah, grabbing
a car.

Speaker 5 (01:36:45):
Grab something from seven to eleven and can go.

Speaker 4 (01:36:48):
Yeah, you know, not like I feel this in my
bones right now because as I you know, we all
know that I'm on this little fitness journey right now.
But one thing that they're making me do is instead
of running that I was doing so hard, I have
to do ten thousand steps a day every day, and
that requires ten thousand leisurely steps was what I was
instructed to do, which requires taking very long walks. Right, So,

(01:37:12):
like it's just so three times a day, I just
shut everything off and I go on this walk and
it's amazing how just being.

Speaker 1 (01:37:19):
Out walking around.

Speaker 4 (01:37:20):
I just take Annabelle on a walk and you know,
we come back and it's like, man, I do like,
it's amazing how just slowing down for a minute gives
me perspective.

Speaker 1 (01:37:28):
I didn't even know.

Speaker 4 (01:37:30):
It's funny, Like I'm doing this walk, but also as
a result of doing the walks instead of running on
a treadmill inside, I'm outside, I'm getting sun and I'm
just like the stop and smell the roses sort of moment.

Speaker 1 (01:37:42):
I have found more.

Speaker 4 (01:37:43):
Peace in the last two weeks simply because of the walk,
because I never slow life down like I just I
don't think we know as a society how to slow lifetime.

Speaker 2 (01:37:51):
Yeah, and you know, it's a shame it too, because
yesterday a lot of the financial sectors in the financial sector,
there a lot of companies just and that everybody has
to go back to uh work to.

Speaker 5 (01:38:04):
The off off of a out of remote work is
out phased out.

Speaker 2 (01:38:08):
Yeah, and I think that's a mistake. I think it's
a mistake. I think, first of all, I think people
are more productive at home. Most people, I think are
more productive that there's that you're there, You're you're constantly
working to get your work done. And and I think
it's because of commercial real estate. And it's like they

(01:38:30):
have all this money invested in these in these buildings
downtown or whatever you're you know, these these industrial parks
and office space. They're they're spend all that money on
office space and that's the problem. It's shame though, because
I think it's better. You know, the quality of life
was better, even if you're working at home, as long

(01:38:52):
as you get your work done. I don't understand the problem.
Never understood that.

Speaker 4 (01:38:56):
Yeah, I think you know, there's this part of me
that wonders if events we become a task based society
rather than an hourly based society. These are the things
you must get done this week instead of these are
the hours you must.

Speaker 3 (01:39:09):
Which makes a lot more sense, doesn't it?

Speaker 1 (01:39:11):
Yeah to me? Like, I mean, I don't care what
you do.

Speaker 3 (01:39:14):
I don't listen.

Speaker 2 (01:39:16):
Like, if you're in sales, go get me, you know whatever,
three accounts a week or whatever, you know, whatever your
quota is. I don't care what you do the rest
of your day, Like you got to go, get to
take your dog to get groomed or whatever you gotta do.
Go do what you gotta do, take your kids whatever.
I don't care.

Speaker 3 (01:39:35):
As long as you get your work done, right, you know,
that's what it matters, right, Like, are you?

Speaker 7 (01:39:41):
Like?

Speaker 2 (01:39:41):
I think the task based is way more It's way better.
It makes just way more sense. As long as you
get your work done and you're delivering. Then what do
I care about what somebody's doing during the day, Like,
why is it said that they have to be at
a spot?

Speaker 8 (01:39:59):
You know?

Speaker 3 (01:39:59):
Eight to five?

Speaker 1 (01:40:02):
Agreed anyway, I concur.

Speaker 2 (01:40:06):
All right, Well, let's take a quick t o now
that we solve life's issues and uh, let's go into
a little NFL wind total action.

Speaker 3 (01:40:15):
All right.

Speaker 2 (01:40:16):
The updated wind totals are out, and I want to
go through the teams with you guys, and you're gonna
tell me whether you're gonna bet over or under? All right,
where the fella is hanging right here?

Speaker 3 (01:40:31):
On Memorial Day weekend on Fox Sports Radio, Fellas.

Speaker 2 (01:40:38):
Jason fitz Kevin figures, I'm Anthony gargan By from the
tireat dot com Studios. All right, because we can't get
enough of our football, and we've been all over the
place today from the NBA to college sports, to the

(01:41:01):
workplace in society and beyond.

Speaker 3 (01:41:05):
Uh, let's get some football up here, and.

Speaker 2 (01:41:09):
We're gonna do win totals, all right, the wind totals
for the NFL. Good excuse for us to talk about
each team and go over their win totals, all right, Uh,
Ian Spider, make sure you write these down and we'll

(01:41:30):
see who's right, because Memorial Memorial Day weekend will turn
into Labor Day weekend and it will be on. So
I have a little contest. By the way, if I
say Spider, does anybody know the reference?

Speaker 3 (01:41:48):
Nope? Do you figure Spider? Spider Spider?

Speaker 6 (01:41:53):
No? No.

Speaker 3 (01:41:58):
The only person that knows the reference it's Mighty Mark, right,
Might Mark.

Speaker 5 (01:42:02):
That's so sad. Nobody knows that.

Speaker 3 (01:42:04):
Everybody knows that. I had no idea. Who do you
call me? You're Spider, Spider, Spider, Go get me a drink, Spider.

Speaker 4 (01:42:15):
It's in the new, the New James Cameron Avatar movie,
the sequel, there's a character named Spider.

Speaker 5 (01:42:22):
I was like, there's no way it's that.

Speaker 3 (01:42:27):
The movie Good Fellas Spider. They shot Spider in the
foot and then do you remember that?

Speaker 1 (01:42:36):
No? I vaguely remember. Look I haven't seen Good Fellas
and probably yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:42:41):
I've seen it since early twenties, maybe all the time. No,
we we you know, where's my drink?

Speaker 3 (01:42:53):
My only baby?

Speaker 1 (01:42:54):
No?

Speaker 3 (01:42:54):
My line? Spider? Uh, here we go.

Speaker 11 (01:42:57):
So anyway, let's before we eating, let's go with it.
Let's begin with Baltimore. Right now, Baltimore, the Ravens eleven
and alf and you get plus juice if you take

(01:43:20):
the over.

Speaker 1 (01:43:22):
Eleven.

Speaker 3 (01:43:23):
See, I'll start with you.

Speaker 1 (01:43:25):
That's a beefy number.

Speaker 4 (01:43:26):
And look at their well too, Like when you look
at the way their schedule plays up, I just pulled
it up here. They open at Kansas City, then they
get the juggernaut known as the Las Vegas Raiders, and
then they have to go to Dallas, then the Bills,
then the Bengals. That's their first five games. Like, I
think a slow start is not out of the question
for the Ravens, even though I think the Ravens are

(01:43:48):
going to be very good. That's just a brutal way
to start the year. Eleven and a half just feels
too rich for my blood man. Ten eleven wins is
tough to do in this league. Twelve is really hard.
I'm only going to find five losses for them to
be on the I think I go under on that.
I feel like I gotta go under on that. I'm

(01:44:08):
looking at the schedule now, but I'll say Figgy somewhat
confidently under on eleven.

Speaker 1 (01:44:12):
And a half. I will too.

Speaker 6 (01:44:13):
That's just really hard to predict in a division that tough. Now,
granted it was tough. Last year. Three of the four
teams won double digit games. It's just hard for me
to predict that they would go over eleven and a half.
That's a steep number for me. They lost a lot
in free agency too, that's so.

Speaker 1 (01:44:28):
And Joe Burrow's back for Cincinnati, so the Bengos are
going to be even better, all.

Speaker 2 (01:44:32):
Right, So we all agree, Spider under for the Ravens
Arizona six and a half. You gotta lay one forty
to take the over, FITZI.

Speaker 4 (01:44:46):
Six and a half is that's a that's a lower
number than I expected for Arizona. They were plucky last year.
But again, then you pull up their schedule. I'm glad
I'm pulling this up as we do this, because you
want to talk about another juggernaut. Their first few at
Buffalo than the Rams, then the Lions Commanders, then at
San Francisco, like that's not an easy then at green

(01:45:07):
Bay none of that. They got the Charges, they got
the Dolphins. That's a tough schedule. I'll actually but six
and a half, so I'll take the under, but I
don't love that. I don't feel good about it.

Speaker 3 (01:45:18):
So you go under.

Speaker 6 (01:45:20):
Figure Yeah, I think I had to go with the
under without as well. To be honest with you, I'm
feeling the under too.

Speaker 3 (01:45:30):
It's funny we are unanimous.

Speaker 2 (01:45:32):
We all have the under because I look at them
and FITZI correctly points out their tough schedule. And the
other thing, too is I look at them, and you
know they were plucky. They didn't play anybody lucky. I
don't believe in them same. I just don't believe in them.

Speaker 5 (01:45:52):
Yeah, I can easily see them in the top three
in the draft again this coming year. To be honest
with you, you too, you too?

Speaker 4 (01:45:58):
That makes you late late season Arizona at Carolina game.
That's gonna test the that's gonna test the fandom. But
it's at least a Sunday game, not a Thursday game.

Speaker 3 (01:46:08):
For I was gonna ask you, is it an Island game?

Speaker 2 (01:46:11):
It's God forbid Atlanta nine and a half for the Falcons.

Speaker 4 (01:46:23):
Nine and a half. I'm I'm high on the Falcons.
I'm very high on the Falcons. I won't in my mind,
I don't love any of the quarterbacks that are, you know,
four hundred and thirty two years old coming off of
Achilles injuries.

Speaker 1 (01:46:36):
So that means the Jets also.

Speaker 4 (01:46:38):
But I think the Falcons coaching was so bad last
year it has to be better this year.

Speaker 1 (01:46:44):
But what was the number again, nine and a half?

Speaker 3 (01:46:46):
Nine and a half?

Speaker 1 (01:46:47):
Goly, you gotta get me to ten wins to win
that bet. I don't know.

Speaker 4 (01:46:52):
Again, looking at their schedule, they had Pittsburgh Philly in
Kansas City to open the season, so that's.

Speaker 1 (01:46:59):
That's a tough way to start. They have the Cowboys
later in the year.

Speaker 4 (01:47:03):
They also have to go to Las Vegas to take
on the Jugger not known as the I'm going to
keep doing that. I'll take the over on nine and
a half. I'll take the over on nine. I think
the division is trash. I think the rest of the
teams in that division are going to be bad, and
I think Atlanta can can feast on some bad football teams.
And I think a competent head coach will use their
weapons better. That is a direct dig if I'm not

(01:47:24):
being clear enough, I think Arthur Smith was malpractice at
head coach last year.

Speaker 1 (01:47:28):
So I think I think Atlanta takes a step forward
nine and a half. I'll take the over.

Speaker 6 (01:47:32):
Arthur Smith probably a guy who's more equipped to be
an offensive coordinator.

Speaker 5 (01:47:35):
But Atlanta, I.

Speaker 3 (01:47:39):
Think I'll go over to.

Speaker 6 (01:47:40):
You know, you have competence at the quarterback position in
the head coaching head coaching spot. I still don't like
their defense, but I think they can score enough points
to give themselves a chance to be able to win
enough games.

Speaker 5 (01:47:49):
So yeah, I'll take the over.

Speaker 2 (01:47:51):
Let's make it unanimous. And here's why mentioned the division,
So I agree. I'm in love with that vision. And
then look, they got skill people. Man, they have their offense,
like you just said, FIG's legit. So I'll take the
over as well. Give me nine and a half on

(01:48:13):
the Falcons Buffalo ten and a half. Where are we
going here?

Speaker 1 (01:48:22):
Ten and a half is beefy.

Speaker 4 (01:48:23):
Also, by the way, there's a slot machine in Vegas
that has buffaloes on it, and the thing every.

Speaker 1 (01:48:28):
Time you walk by it just goro is buffalo. So
when you say that, that's all I can think of.

Speaker 4 (01:48:33):
Ten and a half that their division is going to
be good this year. Although I think the Jets are
gonna be bad, I think the rest of the division
is going to be very good. Looking at some of
their schedule. They obviously get the Ravens, but they have
I mean they have the Titans, they have the Seahawks,
they have the Colts, like they've got winnable games. I'll
take the over on ten.

Speaker 1 (01:48:53):
And a half.

Speaker 6 (01:48:54):
You got the over all, right, FIGG, I'm taking the under.
I'm taking the under. Lost a lot this offseason, so
that mean they won't make the playoffs. But I'm taking
the under. So I got it under too. And you
make a good point, Fitsy about the schedule, but you

(01:49:16):
know they suffer.

Speaker 3 (01:49:17):
I told what you're going to do on the outside, Yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:49:20):
Who's your number ones?

Speaker 4 (01:49:23):
So I keep going back to the internal belief in
This is something Damien Harris told me when we work
together for Yahoo for the NFL Draft that internally they
believe that Josh Allen can account for forty touchdowns no
matter who his wide receivers are. So they don't think
that there's a gain one way or the other to
having a great wide receiver on the outside or not
having a great wide receiver. Right like, they believe he'll

(01:49:44):
account for forty whether he has Stefan Diggs or whether
he doesn't have Steffan Diggs. And I'm not sure they're
one hundred percent wrong. I think they're just asking him
to be superhero superhuman this year.

Speaker 1 (01:49:53):
I think he can be.

Speaker 4 (01:49:55):
So that's a but I see your point on it totally.
I think the wide receiver room is a question. I
like key On Coleman a lot. He ran slow, That's
why he went where he went in the draft. I
like key On Coleman a lot, but he's not going
to come in and replaced Digs year one.

Speaker 1 (01:50:08):
Right, we all know that. So I see where you're
coming from. But I'll see.

Speaker 3 (01:50:13):
Dude, you know, is there a great playmakers on that
side of the ball.

Speaker 1 (01:50:18):
No, No, they're just no. You're right, you're one hundred
pc right about that.

Speaker 5 (01:50:23):
I mean you lost your two starting safeties who are
good players. I mean you lost more than you gained
on defense this offseason. Lost Trey White too.

Speaker 3 (01:50:31):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:50:32):
I mean I'm a big Sean mcdermotth fan. I love
the coach, but I think he's a really good defensive coach.
But I just don't think they have it. I think
their roster is.

Speaker 5 (01:50:44):
Find right.

Speaker 3 (01:50:45):
That's why I like you have.

Speaker 6 (01:50:47):
I think you have an exceptional a quarterback who can
play exceptional at times, surrounded by a bunch of not
just a bunch of average a bunch of blah.

Speaker 3 (01:50:55):
Yeah, he's never good.

Speaker 5 (01:51:00):
I can bet a term, you know, uh Caroline four
half speak.

Speaker 3 (01:51:10):
Yeah yeah, that's bobbing emoji.

Speaker 4 (01:51:13):
There is not a single team in the NFL this
year that don't look at the schedule right now and
see Caroline and don't think, well, that's a win.

Speaker 1 (01:51:21):
Like I understand that.

Speaker 4 (01:51:23):
Like that being said, I think Bryce Shunk is better
than he showed last year. They've spent a lot of
money to get better. Four and a half is such
a low number. But I'm taking the under, not taking
the under just until I see otherwise. I'm taking the
other day. It's last year was not just about Bryce,
it was about everything and I loved it THEA.

Speaker 1 (01:51:45):
Now you can come in and turn it around, but
they just so many holes on that roster, and.

Speaker 6 (01:51:49):
I still don't feel like they did a whole lot
to try to turn it around. I mean, rarely can
you do that in one offseason. So what's going to change.
I'm taking the under two.

Speaker 2 (01:51:58):
And yeah, I look at that team just they're dirt, bad,
bad squad, all right.

Speaker 3 (01:52:05):
I like this next team.

Speaker 2 (01:52:06):
I'm just curious to see where you guys are because
this is one of my favorite overs the Bears eight
and a half.

Speaker 4 (01:52:16):
Hammering over over over over the Bears going to the
playoffs this year. I got the Bears in the playoffs,
and look, not only the Bears going to playoffs. I
think they're gonna have a hot start. I mean the
beginning of their schedule. They get the Titans, and the
Titans is going to be a little difficult at the
beginning of the year. Brian Callahan the new head coach,
so there's a little bit of unpredictability. But they get

(01:52:37):
the Titans, then a tough one at the Texans, then
the Colts, the Rams, the Panthers, the Jags who were
unsure of and the Commanders.

Speaker 1 (01:52:44):
The Cardinals like they have a run there.

Speaker 4 (01:52:45):
The Patriots they could hit midway through the season as
stacked up a few wins.

Speaker 1 (01:52:49):
I think they feel like a nine win team to me.

Speaker 4 (01:52:52):
So you know, obviously Vegas is making me make a
difficult decision, but I get see them winning nine or ten.

Speaker 1 (01:52:58):
I think they're going to the playoffs.

Speaker 3 (01:53:01):
Yeah, fit figgy.

Speaker 6 (01:53:04):
Obviously, all can you know, consider how uh how Caleb
Williams plays, so you know that it's all going to
fall on his shoulders. But this is a team that
won seven games last year and Justin Fields couldn't complete.

Speaker 5 (01:53:13):
A four pass.

Speaker 6 (01:53:14):
So Minnesota's going to take a step backwards. So yeah,
I can. It's a tough one for me, but i'll i'll,
I'll lean to over it is. So here's why I
love it. Some reasons why said two. But I mean
they're just killed about what they shround.

Speaker 5 (01:53:34):
Oh yeah, all the things in the world.

Speaker 2 (01:53:36):
Oh my god, they're making it easy for him and defensively.

Speaker 3 (01:53:41):
Like I like their front man.

Speaker 5 (01:53:43):
Yeah, I like her.

Speaker 3 (01:53:46):
I like that squad. I do I fit. They got talent.

Speaker 6 (01:53:50):
I definitely have talent. There's an element of for whatever reason,
I have to see it first. But look, I'm taking
the over, just begrudgingly.

Speaker 3 (01:53:57):
Yeah. Interesting.

Speaker 4 (01:53:58):
You know who should be mad as Roman because the
only way he can win Rookie of the Year is
if Caleb Williams throws him the ball, and that means
Caleb Williams would win Rookie of the Year. Rome's you know,
once that little extra kick in his contract. I feel
bad for Rome.

Speaker 6 (01:54:11):
Yeah, he wants those paid many Eric Decker lateral passes
and I'll just catch him one.

Speaker 2 (01:54:16):
Yeah Decker, I like it. I like it, all right,
they're gonna take quicktio. All right, we'll come right back.
We've got NFL win totals. It's walking summer, a whole
big thing with the fellas right here, Fox Sports Radio,

(01:54:37):
Welcome back, fellas.

Speaker 3 (01:54:45):
You both big grill guys. Now, I know fits of
your spartan.

Speaker 1 (01:54:52):
I mean, I'm about to microwave some egg whites. Does
that count?

Speaker 4 (01:54:55):
Like microwaves some meg whites and to eat some eat
some porridge based But you know it's fine.

Speaker 1 (01:55:01):
It's fine.

Speaker 11 (01:55:01):
I do.

Speaker 1 (01:55:02):
I do love a good grill. But you know that's fine.

Speaker 2 (01:55:05):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:55:05):
Nothing better than egg whites, two pieces of turkey, bacon,
and some pordge with.

Speaker 1 (01:55:09):
Some strawberries, isn't it?

Speaker 4 (01:55:11):
Oh man, we're really cream of rice. It's cream of
rice that then gets put together with protein powder. It's
it's it's that's why I say porridge. It sounds less
disgusting that way, alarmingly.

Speaker 1 (01:55:23):
To you.

Speaker 3 (01:55:25):
Yeah, you can eat grilled chicken, right.

Speaker 4 (01:55:28):
One hundred and fifty grams of chicken is a part
of my uh, part of my dinner and then part
of my my mid day.

Speaker 1 (01:55:34):
Yeah, one hundred and fifty grams of chicken twice.

Speaker 2 (01:55:36):
A day, one hundred and fifty crams of I assume
it's grilled right baked.

Speaker 4 (01:55:43):
Well, yeah, I like you weigh it before, but yeah,
then you grill it or you can air fry it
either way. But yeah, like basically it works out to,
you know, two thirds of a normal sized chicken breast
twice a day.

Speaker 3 (01:55:55):
Wow, fake, my man.

Speaker 4 (01:56:01):
Yeah, I'm telling we're gonna hit fall and I'm just
I'm gonna walk around with no shirt on and everything everything,
everything I do in football season, I'm just gonna be like,
I'm sorry. My abs would like to have a word,
and then they're like, I'm gonna be able to get
him to move.

Speaker 1 (01:56:14):
It's gonna be a whole thing. It's gonna be a
whole thing.

Speaker 3 (01:56:17):
So what do you do with let's go to a
normal human being normal?

Speaker 5 (01:56:23):
Yeah, it's very little normal in my world at this
point in time.

Speaker 3 (01:56:27):
Well, yes, it is normal. It's the baby.

Speaker 2 (01:56:31):
Everything's around the baby, and it's the greatest time of
your life, buddy.

Speaker 5 (01:56:35):
Yeah, it's great.

Speaker 6 (01:56:37):
I mean, you know, despite the lack of sleep, which
is you know, comes with the territory, but it's a
it's a fun time.

Speaker 5 (01:56:42):
But so we do not have big plans. Our big
plans are to try to take naps when he does.

Speaker 3 (01:56:47):
So that's.

Speaker 6 (01:56:50):
Just trying to and try to get him to nap.
He doesn't want to, so just try our best to
try to figure it out. Any tricks.

Speaker 2 (01:57:01):
So we used to put the the we put the
babies Anthey, maxball in the car seat and put them
on the dryer.

Speaker 3 (01:57:12):
Oh so it kind of rocks him a little bit. Yeah,
we would try that. We would.

Speaker 2 (01:57:18):
I'm sure you have the swing. I'm sure you have.
I would go and drive him around. I mean there's
a million different things.

Speaker 5 (01:57:26):
He does love driving, Yes, he does love being in
the car, in the car seat.

Speaker 1 (01:57:30):
Why does he just keep it?

Speaker 5 (01:57:31):
Just keeping him well fed?

Speaker 6 (01:57:33):
He do this thing where you feed him and he
basically just kind of falls asleep. Yeah, he'll lean back
and he doesn't start breathing heavily. It's almost like he's drunk.
He's drunk of milk. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah the formula man, Yeah,
that's it.

Speaker 5 (01:57:49):
So he gets himself into a bit of a milk comba.

Speaker 6 (01:57:52):
You try to burp them, but not super aggressively so
he doesn't completely wake up out of his stupor.

Speaker 5 (01:57:57):
And then you lay him down. That that that works
about eighty percent of the time.

Speaker 2 (01:58:01):
Do you have the uh, the greatest thing in the
world is when he falls asleep, like right on your chest.
Oh yeah, yeah, have the baby blanket and yeah, he's
got his head there, and then you're probably fall asleep.

Speaker 5 (01:58:13):
Which you're not supposed to do. But yeah, that that
that's happened to me once or twice. Well, you know
the issue you.

Speaker 3 (01:58:18):
Ever really go deep in the deep sleep, like you
you're just restincts.

Speaker 2 (01:58:23):
Yeah, Like it's so interesting because you know, your instincts
take over like you're human instincts. So you know, when
the baby's sleeping on you and you feel like you're
falling asleep, you never really fall into a deep sleep
because you know, your your mind is constantly thinking about

(01:58:44):
the baby.

Speaker 6 (01:58:44):
Yeah, and their health and their safety and making sure
he doesn't fall you know, tip or whatever.

Speaker 3 (01:58:48):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:58:49):
So the issue that especially happens more with my wife
than with me.

Speaker 6 (01:58:52):
But he gets really comfortable sleeping on her, so once
she tries to pick him up and put him down,
he starts getting you know, a little upset.

Speaker 2 (01:58:59):
Yeah, well, my eleven year old still let's just sleep
with us.

Speaker 3 (01:59:03):
That week.

Speaker 6 (01:59:07):
He still curls up on your your wife's chest. Oh
my god, she's like Manzmo.

Speaker 2 (01:59:13):
And meanwhile he keeps going through a growth spurt, so
he's probably wearing a size ten right now.

Speaker 3 (01:59:20):
That's great.

Speaker 2 (01:59:22):
I was like, you know, dude, I'm on the corner
of the bed. I got like nothing, man, he steals
my pillow. Oh my god, Like, dude, stick in your room.

Speaker 3 (01:59:33):
What are you doing? He's like, but it's still like
a comfortable here, and.

Speaker 2 (01:59:37):
You'll have the bed dream, you know, And what are
you gonna do? Like I can't you know, I can't
send him. I'm going to show him, right he got
a bad dream, like come on, come on, you know, yeah,
and you know he'll he'll sit there like, okay, guy,
should we watch something?

Speaker 1 (02:00:01):
Are you are you going to be grilling for the
family this weekend?

Speaker 2 (02:00:04):
Is it?

Speaker 3 (02:00:04):
Like?

Speaker 4 (02:00:04):
What what do you do when you're Italian? Like do
you just you put the pasta on the side and
then you you grew can't grill the pasta.

Speaker 2 (02:00:12):
I don't have a I actually don't even own a grill.
I need to buy one, okay every year I say.

Speaker 3 (02:00:18):
It, and I don't like that.

Speaker 5 (02:00:20):
Yeah, I don't myself.

Speaker 3 (02:00:22):
So yeah, yeah, people are like, you know, the real
girl guys. I wish I was that. I'll be honest
with you, I wish I was like that. But I
gotta get my.

Speaker 2 (02:00:31):
It's like every day there's something oh my and the
house is a mess, you know. It's one of those deals. Yeah,
all right, enough of everyday life. Let's get back to
wind totals. Fellas Fox.

Speaker 1 (02:00:44):

Speaker 5 (02:00:47):
Well it's us.

Speaker 3 (02:00:48):
Good morning, good morning, good morning, good morning.

Speaker 2 (02:00:51):
Happy, Happy Memorial Day weekend, especially special thanks to those
who've served served our country, both pasted and present, and
their families and the sacrifice for us to enjoy the grilling,
the chillin and the beach and of course all of

(02:01:13):
our sports. Jason fitz Kevin Figures. I'm Anthony Gargano. We
come to your live from the tire rack dot Com studios.
Tire rack dot com will help you get there on
matt selection, fast free shipping, free road as in production,
over ten thousand recommended installers. Tirerack dot com the way
tire buying should be. Hey, don't forget. Also, shortly after

(02:01:35):
the show, right, which is another hour, our podcast will
go up now if you missed any of today's show,
be sure to check out the podcast. Just search Fox
Sports Radio wherever you get your podcasts. Be sure to
follow rate review the podcast can just search Fox Sports
Radio wherever you get your podcasts, and you'll see this
show posted right after we get off the air. So, uh,

(02:01:57):
let's real quick, get back to play last night. So
Luca was amazing last night. And there was the sequence
where he gets caught on a switch, which I don't
understand why they went this route, but he catches he's
able to catch Minnesota on his switch and go bears

(02:02:18):
on him, and so he's got go bear on skates
right like he can't stay with him, and he drills
the step back three to basically it turns out to
be the game winning shot. It was an incredible game
where you know Dallas is down eighteen, right, I mean,
you know they came all the way back and they

(02:02:40):
made a quick run in the third quarter to make
it a game.

Speaker 3 (02:02:43):
You know, a couple of times Minnesota stretched it.

Speaker 2 (02:02:46):
Nas Reid was terrific, but and he takes the last
shot and he had a decent look. Interestingly, Anthony Edwards
passes it and it was the right pass and that
Nazri was open. But you expect in the maturation to
a superstar that he winds up taking that shot at

(02:03:07):
some point.

Speaker 3 (02:03:09):
I'll get so I'll ask you, guys, is it now
Luca's league.

Speaker 2 (02:03:14):
From the standpoint that if you would there's anybody you
want right now that Luca would be the guy.

Speaker 4 (02:03:23):
Oh that's tough, I mean, and speaks to what I
said earlier, how much the conversation has changed a week ago.
I think Luca has been a professional for so long
at this point, and you go back to even before
he got into the league, when he was, you know,
a kid basically competing against grown men in the second
best basketball league in the world and dominating. They're like

(02:03:44):
Luca there, there's no moment Luca isn't capable of handling
and you mentioned learning from it, like Anthony Edwards has
got to learn, like how to get through that moment
and whether or not that's his shot to take, so
on and so forth. Like there's no learning left for Luca.
Luca is rock solid superstar, right is he the guy?

Speaker 1 (02:04:05):
Man? I don't know.

Speaker 4 (02:04:06):
It feels like there's a bunch of them that are
sort of grouped together for me, I don't know that
it separates versus everybody else.

Speaker 2 (02:04:11):
But he's only twenty five years old, Like you think
about Luca, he's only twenty five.

Speaker 4 (02:04:18):
It's just you know, there's I'm gonna be this terrible
thing to say, right because I'm not here when everybody's
gonna spend the weekend, you know, eating whatever they want
and drink or whatever they want, party and however they want.
I'm not here to judge people that want to party
however they want or eat however they want. But like Luca,
for a basketball player, sometimes looks a little chunky, like
I just I like my basketball players to be like

(02:04:38):
super athletic, like I can take over every everything, every moment.
Sometimes Luca looks like he's a little gased sometimes, you know,
like face of the league.

Speaker 1 (02:04:45):
I don't know if you can. Can you be a
little fluffy and be the face?

Speaker 3 (02:04:48):
I don't know is that he is?

Speaker 2 (02:04:51):
He Like if you have a number one pick who
you taking? You're taking Luca.

Speaker 4 (02:04:58):
I mean, for if I if I've been the entire NBA,
I'm taking Jokic, I'm taking Yokiics. I would have said, yeah,
three time MVP for a reason, best player in the league.
Not only can he score on anybody, he can facilitate
anybody from absolutely anywhere, and you can put mediocrity around
him and still win. Like one handed, I think Jokic

(02:05:19):
can get himself very far in most years.

Speaker 3 (02:05:22):
I don't know, we know, but we do know that,
you know, the big, the tail of the big.

Speaker 2 (02:05:29):
It's tough because you need someone to facilitate, right like
to to make create, you need creators. And so that's
an issue, right like you know when you're talking about
a five and you're talking about a big man creating
and like last night, per example, because you know, as

(02:05:51):
great as he is, and it's a great pick that
you guys, go Jokic, he's not creating his own shot.

Speaker 1 (02:05:59):
You're okay, you're right.

Speaker 4 (02:06:01):
I will not disagree with you that he's not going
to turn around get that mismatch into a step back
that wins the game one hundred. But there is no
bigger mismatch night in and night out than your Kich
versus whoever you're trying to put on him. Right like,
that's there. There are a handful of guys that can
do what you Listen, Indeed, there are a handful of

(02:06:22):
guys that can do what Luca did last night, They're
not a handful of guys in the NBA.

Speaker 1 (02:06:26):
They can do what Yo kich does most nights in.

Speaker 5 (02:06:28):
A play in playout basis.

Speaker 6 (02:06:30):
More often than that, you're going to be able to
get into a set where you can get him the
ball in his spots. You don't necessarily have to have
you know, the point God Guru to be able to give.

Speaker 5 (02:06:40):
Him the ball. Not it's not that complicated.

Speaker 2 (02:06:43):
I don't know someone who's dealt with the five, who
I love, by the way, but there's a there's a distinct,
I think, disadvantage when you're five, it's your best player.

Speaker 4 (02:06:58):
Are we are we sleeping on y honest? In this
combo like this couple of years ago, it would have
been honest.

Speaker 6 (02:07:02):
For a long he's been a little banged up recently.
Doesn't help us, cause that's fair.

Speaker 3 (02:07:07):
Yeah, I mean, listen, great, great, great player.

Speaker 2 (02:07:10):
Obviously I love Gianni's in the conversation, I'm just asking
the question about what you guys, because the thing about.

Speaker 3 (02:07:21):
He does everything, he's an.

Speaker 2 (02:07:24):
Incredible like the pass he made last night when they're
blitzing him, like, yeah, I mean, Yoka's terrific pants were
a big guy.

Speaker 6 (02:07:33):
Yeah, he'll make like that. Like well, the thing is
they look less impressive. He's not gonna take anybody off
the dribble. So one thing that dude Don has over
him is his handle, but everything else and Don is
probably a better outside shooter, although Yoka is a really
good outside shooter. But I don't think the gap is
really that why between the two of them, just as
individual players skill set wise, and you know, esthetically, they

(02:07:55):
might look a little bit different here and there, but
I mean, overall, I think i'd read I still rather
have Yokic.

Speaker 5 (02:08:01):
This is not them disparage, you know, y Luca by
any stretch. I'd love to have him.

Speaker 6 (02:08:06):
But if you're asking me, if if I had to pick,
I would say Jokic over him.

Speaker 1 (02:08:10):
Right now, I'm going to be a stat nerd for
a second. I think this is interesting.

Speaker 4 (02:08:14):
I looked up and the NBA Advanced Analytics for Player
Impact their estimated player impact number two in the entire
NBA Luca at a score of twenty number one, Jokic
at a twenty one point one. Very close between the
two of them, by the way, and interesting when you
look at the names in the top ten. Many of
the names we've heard in the playoffs a bunch, but

(02:08:35):
Victor weman Ya, I'm a finished eighth already and in
one case, so I mean, like, if we're talking about
moving forward, Wenby's going to be part of this conversation too.
But interesting that off the top of our heads we
picked the two guys that have the highest impact rating
according to advanced analytics.

Speaker 1 (02:08:54):
I'll push my glasses up now, be a nerd.

Speaker 2 (02:08:57):
Yeah, I mean, which you know, we stay the reason
right because of the ball in their hands and you know,
and kind of how they make their team go and
kind of what they do and being terrific passers and
all that stuff.

Speaker 3 (02:09:13):
It is interesting.

Speaker 2 (02:09:14):
I guess, you know, I hear a lot of like
anti Doncic, and I quite frankly, I you know, other
than the fact that you know, I get he's farm
born player or.

Speaker 5 (02:09:26):
Whatever and he complains a lot, but I mean, you
know that's neither here nor there. He's an NBA player,
so well, I mean Mark's officials and NBA players bark
at officials, So I mean.

Speaker 2 (02:09:37):
Yeah, I mean, you know, I mean I like that
stuff that never bothers me. I'll be honest with you,
like I don't you know, I don't care who does it.

Speaker 3 (02:09:45):
You know, I like this. I like his spirit, like
he's tough man.

Speaker 2 (02:09:50):
He's barking at the Minnesota bench all game like, and
he's saying, you know, the last guy who tell you
that he's going to be from the spot was a
guy a bird I mean, you know, I mean Jordan's
I mean guys that have stones, man like, I.

Speaker 3 (02:10:08):
Appreciate that out of out of Toatchets and he does.

Speaker 2 (02:10:12):
And the dude, stay with the other piece of this
thing is he's been bagged up right, like he's been
gotten through it and he's just great. And you watch
him and his movements are so uh pointed that it
just makes him so dangerous bizarre.

Speaker 6 (02:10:34):
Yeah, because he's not moving very fast because he can't,
but very methodical and there's there's a you know, there's
a reason in a rhythm to everything that he does make.

Speaker 3 (02:10:42):
It even more impressive. I mean, I love, you.

Speaker 1 (02:10:45):
Don't have to be fast to be unstoppable.

Speaker 4 (02:10:47):
And there are definitely times because you're right, like, you know,
we've seen fast and quick twitch and all of these
things that's not Luca. But certainly even when you're you're
just face faced with him. The guys don't know how
to stop him. He's able to get his shot for
wherever he wants to get his shot.

Speaker 1 (02:11:01):
You're totally right about that.

Speaker 2 (02:11:03):
It's so interesting watching him, you know, as they're blitzing
him and he's just feeding Gafford and feeding Lively, you know.

Speaker 3 (02:11:16):
I mean, it's that that seems it's amazing.

Speaker 2 (02:11:21):
I was talking to Tim Legler about this the other
day and he said he was doing the NBA Trade
Deadline show and they get to the end of the
show and he goes, hey, am we going to talk
about PJ Washington?

Speaker 1 (02:11:35):
Right?

Speaker 3 (02:11:35):
Am I going to talk about Washington?

Speaker 2 (02:11:36):
But I'm gonna talk about Gafford and the whole thing
and those moves that Dallas made And they were like nah,
because it wasn't sexy, and he was like, I actually
think that those were really impactful moves.

Speaker 3 (02:11:49):
It turns out like it winds up saving the whole season.

Speaker 1 (02:11:54):
Yeah, and good on Legs for seeing that quickly. He
always does.

Speaker 4 (02:11:58):
Like that's why he's one of the best in the
business that being able to see that and also a
reminder that no matter what sport we're talking about, complimentary
is an important part of it. Like we get so
infatuated with certain names that we just forget that at
some point guys running front offices and Bobby Marks used
to talk to me about this all the time, like
you've really got to look at it and say, Okay,

(02:12:19):
I can have the best ingredients in the world, but
I don't make a great dish unless I get the
things that go together with each other well. And that's
something that you know, at times in his career when
he was running teams he didn't have the necessarily have
the opportunity to do because of the way owners wanted
the teams to be built. You know, I think there
is a level to me of looking around, and you
said it earlier. I think it's pretty stunning just how

(02:12:42):
much I take for granted right now, the fact that
Kyrie and Luca figured out how to play together, but
then all these ancillary pieces have worked.

Speaker 1 (02:12:48):
Out so perfectly. But that is truly one of the
more stunning developments of the playoffs.

Speaker 2 (02:12:53):
Really is really is allright, boys, let's get back to
our NFL wind totals, because all roads on the show
lead back to football Cincinnati. How about this ten and
a half and it's minus one twenty five. It is
being steed.

Speaker 4 (02:13:15):
What do you think, FITZI, I mean, I'm high on
the Bengals this year because if not now, then when
like this is I know nobody.

Speaker 1 (02:13:23):
Ever puts pressure on Joe Burrow, but why I keep
saying it.

Speaker 4 (02:13:26):
I've said it with you guys before, like injury prone
is a fair label to put on him, no matter
how the injuries are coming. We don't ever seem to
want to have the context around how Lamar got injured.
When he got injured, we just say, oh, well, that's
what happens when you're a mobile quarterback. Forgetting that his
injuries came in the pocket now while it was running.
So I'm looking squarely at Joe Burrow and saying how
many years of his career are we going to have

(02:13:48):
to lose or lose part of due to injuries? So
Burrow's back and the Bengals believe that they're all in
simply because let's be real, if they didn't, they would
have traded t Higgins.

Speaker 1 (02:13:58):
So they think they're all in.

Speaker 4 (02:13:59):
He also said it OTAs he's still feeling pain, which
you know he said might be normal, might not. Joe
Burrow said to the local reporters that he's looked it
up and never found another quarterback that has had the
injury he just had. So Burrow is telling you he's hurt, weird,
and he's still hurt. That being said, if he's still

(02:14:19):
if he can't get it right this year, then the
Bengals are screwed. Right, So ten and a half feels
like they have to get over that number if they
are at all going to be who we thought they
were going to be. They're supposed to be the air
upayer team that can take down the Chiefs. I still
believe they can be. I take the over on it.
If they don't hit the over on this, then I
think we have an obligation to start having tough conversations

(02:14:40):
about Joe Burrow and where he is in his career
at this point.

Speaker 5 (02:14:45):
Figure Yeah, I'm with you, and I think it's going
to be a bounce back year for Joe Burrow.

Speaker 1 (02:14:51):
It is.

Speaker 5 (02:14:51):
It's going to be a big season for end the guy.

Speaker 6 (02:14:53):
I just have to be able to stay healthy that's
been dried up there with some of the best quarterbacks
in the NFL. Is certainly his pay like it, but
its until he stays on the field for a full season,
you know it's going to be tough sledding.

Speaker 5 (02:15:04):
I'm I'm going to reluctantly go go with the over.
I don't know if T Higgins.

Speaker 6 (02:15:10):
You know, is that they clearly as you as you
mentioned fits, you made the investment to keep them on
the team and not trade him away. So they think
that they're going to be able to compete in that
division and they will whether or not that that defense
is aging a little bit, and we know the Bengals are.
They kind of cycle through guys once they're not able
to resign them, so we'll see what happens. I'm cautiously

(02:15:30):
optimistic about Cincinnati, so I'll take.

Speaker 5 (02:15:32):
The over, but I'm not ultra confident about it.

Speaker 3 (02:15:34):
Yeah, and I listen, it's a tough call for me.
I you guys make compelling case for it. Ten and
a half.

Speaker 6 (02:15:42):
This feels feels heavy, right Yeah. I mean because I
could see ten and seven right right right, I can
see ten wins. I can see now if it was
nine and a half, I feel like I might be
a lot more comfortable.

Speaker 1 (02:15:54):
With the over.

Speaker 2 (02:15:55):
Yeah, It's why I want to go on there, only
because of that but yeah, I mean, you guys are
are spot on, you know.

Speaker 3 (02:16:01):
I mean it's one of the lines that I think
is right on because I.

Speaker 2 (02:16:04):
See ten wins out of them and full disclosure through
some schedules I went through. I didn't go through the schedule,
FITZI looked at the schedule. How's that Bengals, how does
that schedule look?

Speaker 4 (02:16:17):
Oh, they come out hot because they got the Patriots
Week one, and I think they're gonna be one of
the worst teams in the NFL. Then they have the
Chiefs that stuff Washington, Carolina, Baltimore's tough than the Giants.
Then the Browns, Eagles, Raiders. I mean, it's pretty it's
pretty favorable for them. Even towards the end of the season.
They get the Titans, the Browns, the Broncos, the Steelers,

(02:16:37):
the Browns, Broncos, Steelers, those are all winnable games. So
I feel like it's pretty easy to find the wins
on their form.

Speaker 3 (02:16:45):
Yeah, there you go. Brown's eight and a half.

Speaker 1 (02:16:50):
Okay, so the Browns. Here's the thing. Let's be real.

Speaker 4 (02:16:54):
Last year, the Browns had one real liability. Their roster
is absolutely be super Bowl worthy. The quarterback is not
super Bowl worthy, and everybody keeps trying to make some
excuse for why it's going to turn around, Like what
if he's just got the yips? At this point, I'm
not even talking about the other stuff. I'm just talking
about Watson, you know, on the field. What if, like

(02:17:15):
what if this is just the version of him moving forward?
And if that is, it's going to be heavy sledding
for them the whole way, the whole way. So look,
I think the Browns are a super Bowl caliber football team,
but I don't trust to Sean Watson, so I take
the under, even though I think the rest of their
roster could be arguably.

Speaker 1 (02:17:34):
The best in the NFL. If they even got even
got just.

Speaker 4 (02:17:38):
Slightly above a B minus quarterback play, they're a super
Bowl team.

Speaker 1 (02:17:42):
I just don't know that.

Speaker 2 (02:17:42):
Let me ask you a question, though, because I agree
with like your assessment. But it's only eight and a half.
I mean, I think Joe Flako Cann come back again
and get nine.

Speaker 4 (02:17:54):
I thought you, I thought you said nine and a half. Yeah,
I'll take the over on eight and half because I
think nine is right. But yeah, okay, that yeah, I'll give.

Speaker 6 (02:18:01):
You yeah, sure right, yeah, yeah, because I'm thinking even
if Watson falls off a cliff again, that the team
is so stacked. If you just have somewhat competent quarterback play,
you know you should be able to get what nine wins.

Speaker 5 (02:18:11):
I won't say fairly easily. It's not easy to get
nine wins, but you have.

Speaker 6 (02:18:14):
The capability, realistically speaking with the backup quarterback to be
able to get that many wins.

Speaker 5 (02:18:19):
So I'll take the over.

Speaker 3 (02:18:21):
All, Right, let's do one more and we'll take a
quick too. Oh, the Cowboys ten and a f O
ten and af A Dallas.

Speaker 1 (02:18:40):
They're gonna have.

Speaker 4 (02:18:41):
They gotta have seven losses on their schedule for me
to feel good about there's one, two, three, they split there,
four or five?

Speaker 1 (02:18:49):
I take the over.

Speaker 4 (02:18:51):
Taking the over, I think the death of the Cowboys
is being widely, wildly over reported.

Speaker 1 (02:18:55):
Here's the thing.

Speaker 4 (02:18:56):
I don't think they're any closer to a super Bowl
than they were a year ago. But they want a
lot of games last year and there's still a team
that can go out and win a lot of games.
Can Dak Prescott win a playoff game? Can Mike McCarthy
get him where they want to be in the Promised Land?
Do they have the guys in the clutch that they need,
do they have the dog in the locker room? Those
are all really valuable conversations that we should have in January.

(02:19:17):
Can they win a bunch of regular season games they
did last year?

Speaker 1 (02:19:20):
I just don't.

Speaker 3 (02:19:21):
I don't think there's one games. To your point, They've
won more games than anybody over the last three years.

Speaker 1 (02:19:29):
I just I think that continues. This reminds me a
little bit.

Speaker 4 (02:19:32):
What's happening right now for the Cowboys reminds me of
the Bills conversation last year, where everybody kept saying.

Speaker 1 (02:19:37):
The Bills, You're gonna fall off the cliff, and I'm like.

Speaker 4 (02:19:40):
The Bills may not be able to take down Kansas City,
They're still gonna win a lot of regular season games.
Cowboys in the same exact situation for me, So I.

Speaker 1 (02:19:47):
Take the over.

Speaker 3 (02:19:48):
What's your schedule look like?

Speaker 4 (02:19:50):
They open at Cleveland, then they have New Orleans, Baltimore,
the Giants, the Steelers, the Lions of forty nine ers.

Speaker 1 (02:19:57):
There's some tough in there.

Speaker 4 (02:19:58):
There's some tough but the end of their schedule, the
last month of their schedule is at Carolina, Tampa Bay,
at Philly, and then Washington and they could win three
out of four of those even if they split with
the Eagles.

Speaker 3 (02:20:09):
Yeah, yeah, we fig what you got, buddy.

Speaker 5 (02:20:12):
Yeah, Cowboys are a great regular season team. They have
been for the longest time. I mean, what the number was,
what was it? Was it ten and a half?

Speaker 3 (02:20:19):
You said and a half?

Speaker 6 (02:20:20):
Yeah, oh in that division, I'll take ten and a
half with them and the Eagles kind of battling it out.
So yeah, ten and a half seems safe to me
for from a regular season standpoint.

Speaker 3 (02:20:29):
For them, My only thing is their running back room.
It's horrible. Yeah, awful.

Speaker 6 (02:20:36):
Well look, I mean I remember bringing this up, you
know when they you know, they cut all their guys loose,
and we were like, well, they're well addressed in the draft.

Speaker 5 (02:20:42):
Well did they?

Speaker 3 (02:20:45):
No, I haven't. I haven't feeling that. I felt the
same thing you did.

Speaker 2 (02:20:48):
I think you're spot on, and I got a feeling
that this is the implosion and that Belichick's there next year.

Speaker 1 (02:20:57):
Here's here's you know.

Speaker 4 (02:20:58):
What's great about this, Well, I'll tell you there's the
Cowboys to me, the best thing in the world, because
we can't lose this year. If they absolutely suck, then
this holding implodes. Even better is if Dak goes out
and wins the MVP, they win a couple of playoff games,
and then he turns around to Jerry Jones and he says, now,
my contract says you can't franchise me.

Speaker 1 (02:21:19):
My contract says you can't trade me. You didn't pay me.

Speaker 4 (02:21:22):
I would like to see what the open market will
coming off an MVP caliber season when nobody can stop
him all just to watch him leave Jerry at the
altar because he wants to take money from somebody else.

Speaker 1 (02:21:32):
Injected in my bains, we get trauma either way.

Speaker 3 (02:21:36):
If I'm Jerry, I go see you, buddy.

Speaker 5 (02:21:38):
Hell, I'll do Jerry to be strong armed.

Speaker 1 (02:21:44):
I mean, I'm just saying if he goes out there, and.

Speaker 4 (02:21:48):
If he if he goes out there and is an
MVP candidate and then he's like or an MVP. I
want Dak to win the MVP and then tell the
cowboys up here that's what I really want.

Speaker 1 (02:21:56):
I think he'd be able.

Speaker 3 (02:21:57):
Here's the problem. Who would the MVP and he'll play
horrifically in the playoffs and lose.

Speaker 1 (02:22:04):
That is you know, you may not be wrong, but.

Speaker 4 (02:22:08):
I know plenty of teams will go out there and
pay him that MVP money even if he loses in
the playoffs.

Speaker 2 (02:22:13):
Yeah yeah, somebody else. Let somebody else do it. I'm
not I appreciate it, all right. If we're the fellas
hagging a lot of fun right here. Fox Sports Radio
Welcome Back Fella is on this Memorial Day weekend, live
from theti iraq dot Com studios, hanging out. Jason fitz

(02:22:38):
Kevin Figures, I'm Anthony Gargano, Mike.

Speaker 3 (02:22:42):
T Mark, and Ian.

Speaker 2 (02:22:45):
We love our Ian and Mighty Mark their produce, this
thing doing a great job as always. All right, let's
get back to, uh, the cowboy thing. You're right though, Fitzy,
just to put a bow on that. That's gonna be
incredible because you're right, if they you know, do well,
you know, I mean, it's a story. And if they implode,
you know, it's the Belichick watch and the whole thing.

Speaker 4 (02:23:10):
But also, like the only way now, because you guys
mentioned it, the running back room is awful. We all
agree that the running back room is awful. So what
the cowboys have told us is that the only way
they believe they can win. For the way that they're
going to win, the number of games they need to
win is if they put it on Dak's shoulders, which means,
coming off a year where he completed almost seventy percent

(02:23:33):
of his passes for forty five hundred yards and thirty
six touchdowns, the only way that they're going to replicate
that level of success is if he replicates at least
that level of success, which means they're actually the path
for the Cowboys to be great requires that the player
that they haven't gotten under contract next year have a career.

Speaker 1 (02:23:52):
That's it, and I think it can happen.

Speaker 4 (02:23:54):
Like I honestly think as well as Dak was playing
last year, I'm holding the playoffs to a total different standard.

Speaker 1 (02:24:00):
What do you do if you are the Cowboys?

Speaker 4 (02:24:02):
You turn around and you win twelve thirteen games this
year Dak puts up forty six forty seven hundred yards forty.

Speaker 1 (02:24:08):
Touchdowns is an MVP. Let's say he wins.

Speaker 4 (02:24:11):
A first round home playoff game, loses in the NFC
Championship game even and all of a sudden, now Dak
looks around and says, well, here's the thing, y'all didn't
get me what I wanted when I wanted it. Now
I'm gonna go at least see if somebody else wants
to love me a little bit more. And like, as
I've said a million times, you want to tell me
that a team like the Raiders that can't address the

(02:24:32):
quarterback position won't turn around and say, Okay, we need
a quarterback and he's fine, we'll give you fifty five
I don't care give you fifty five million.

Speaker 1 (02:24:40):
Let's go Dak.

Speaker 4 (02:24:41):
The Cowboys are going to be in a very precarious
that one or two things happens. They're successful and they're screwed,
or they are absolutely terrible and they're screwed. Either way,
the Cowboys are up a creek.

Speaker 2 (02:24:52):
You know what's weird about Dak is that. And maybe
it's because of the playoff bias. And you know, I
guess years past you could have said it about a
lot of other quarterbacks. But man, I mean, he's he's
like the consummate front runner. Like he when he does
really well, like when they're rolling, he looks incredible, like

(02:25:14):
he doesn't mean he's throwing dimes and he's spreading the
ball round, mousehole throws, pillow throws. But man, when they're not,
he's he's awful and he's losing big games. It's why
can't It's hard for me to divorce the playoff DAC
and the big game Dack. You know from the equation,

(02:25:37):
it's why if I'm the Raiders, I go do? I
want to go and and go sell out?

Speaker 1 (02:25:42):
For what?

Speaker 3 (02:25:43):
What am I buying? Am I gonna? Am I getting
a guy that could actually win?

Speaker 4 (02:25:49):
Here's the thing though, Like, if you are one of
many of the teams in the league that just don't
have an answer at quarterback, what else are you gonna do?

Speaker 1 (02:26:00):
Like, and look, it's early.

Speaker 4 (02:26:02):
Jayden Daniels a year ago wasn't a household name, but
right now next year's draft class looks abysmal. So if
you're a team that's coming into it and you're saying, man,
I just don't have the quarterback. I need a quarterback,
where else are you going to find one other than
looking at you know, if you got the choice between
overpaying Dak or continuing to run around with aid and

(02:26:22):
O'Connell or Gardner Minshew, Like that just doesn't feel like
that's a recipe for success. If the wheels fall off
for cl and Geno stinks, Like, what are you going
to do if you can't replace him, so like what.

Speaker 2 (02:26:34):
I mean, but at some point you have to you
got to hold your patience and not sell your franchise
because you're right, Like, would I rather have Dak or
Aid O'Connell.

Speaker 3 (02:26:47):
It's not even a question, right or minshew? I mean
it's not even close.

Speaker 2 (02:26:51):
But the cost and I'm now going to hand my
franchise over to him, and I yeah, I don't know.
I mean, yeah, but maybe I can't find my quarterback
this year, but maybe I can find him next year.

Speaker 3 (02:27:05):
Right.

Speaker 4 (02:27:05):
The hardest part about all of that is that even
if you're the Cowboys, So let's say the Giants decide
they want to make a home run offer to bring
in Dak just to just playing here. Right, But again,
I'll go back to the Raiders' analogy on this, because
the decision not to pay Derek Carr was the right one.
I agree with the decision not to pay pay Derek Carr.
But what happens when you don't pay Derek Carr? What
happens when you just decide to let Derek car go?

(02:27:27):
You end up with Aid no connell and Gardner minshew? Right,
what happens if you're the Cowboys how are you replacing
the productivity of Dak So you're right, like, at some
point cost doesn't support the decision to give that sort
of a contract to a player that's not winning a
Super Bowl. But the other side of it is, if
not him, then who is your answer? Because if you

(02:27:47):
go into the season with no answer to quarterback, you
get no respect. You have no concept of being able
to win a lot of football games. It's just it
is so rare but nothing.

Speaker 2 (02:27:58):
That's why for the Cowboys it makes more sense to
keep back and just you know, and ride it out
and change the coach. I'm not a big believer in
the coach either, But if you're a team like the
Raiders that's not doesn't have super Bowl expectations, you've got
to be careful on your next choice, like you don't
want to rush into it and you know, go get

(02:28:20):
James Harden.

Speaker 1 (02:28:23):
And that You're totally right.

Speaker 4 (02:28:24):
Patience for a bunch of billionaires owners is easier said
than done, But you are totally right like that. The
problem is it's just so hard to get the quarterback
that if somebody has had any success, then you just
become desperate, like and I'll gain use the Giants, just
because Giants sitting at coming off of six and eleven season,
you know, they have a terrible year this year. Let's
say with Daniel Jones, do they want to take the

(02:28:46):
plunge at a quarterback like that? That's the whole Are
you going to go take Shade or Sanders and hope
that that works out for you? I don't think it will.
Like it just gets so difficult when you're stuck in
years that don't have great answers at the quarterback positions.

Speaker 2 (02:28:59):
That's why you know, being at six, you're you're able
to maneuver, but you know, no trades or to be had,
and they'd n't force it, and they didn't like any
of the other the other quarterbacks, you know, so you
know you're sitting there stocking, you drafting the leak neighbors
like you know, I mean, I just think that was

(02:29:22):
a wasted pick.

Speaker 3 (02:29:23):
I like neighbors. I just again don't think it works
for them.

Speaker 4 (02:29:27):
I mean, they better hope to hell that JJ McCarthy
or Michael Pennick shunr doesn't turn out to be a
good quarterback, because that's just gonna lord over the decision
making bo Nix any of those guys were available for
the Giants and they said no. So now they overpaid
Daniel Jones, which was some in a weird situation when
they tried to figure out what to do with the

(02:29:48):
quarterback position. And now if they don't have any answer
at the quarterback position, they could have to overpay again
for mediocrity because they didn't take the chance when they
had it.

Speaker 1 (02:29:56):
Like, that's the dog chasing its own tail if I've
ever seen it.

Speaker 6 (02:30:01):
Fig well, you see, you know, the definition of insanity
technically is not doing the same thing over and over again.
But that's what people run with. That's kind of what
it is with dak So, like, do you want to
be stuck in mediocrity? Are you contend with this being
a ten to eleven win regular season team? I can't
just pay a guy, you know, gobs of money knowing
that he's gonna fall come up short when it matters

(02:30:24):
the most, I really, I know, finding a decent replacement
for a solid starting quarterback is difficult, but ultimately the common.

Speaker 5 (02:30:32):
Denominator behind the majority of.

Speaker 6 (02:30:33):
Their playoff losses has been his shortcomings, among other things,
but many of his shortcomings. So if that's the case,
Why am I paying this guy upers of sixty million
dollars a year to continue to come up short in
the playoffs.

Speaker 5 (02:30:44):
I would cut bait two.

Speaker 4 (02:30:46):
Because the only thing worse than losing in the playoffs
is not sniffing them at all. I mean, that's my
honest answer to you, is like I understand that, like
you have to break through in the playoffs.

Speaker 1 (02:30:56):
But hell, there was a period where we sat there
for Peyton manning for years win the big Game.

Speaker 4 (02:31:01):
Yeah, John Elway couldn't win a Super Bowl until suddenly
John Elway had a running back, and then it was
like he can win a super Bowl.

Speaker 3 (02:31:07):
Like I got there.

Speaker 5 (02:31:09):
I mean, Jack can't even get out of the first
round game.

Speaker 1 (02:31:12):
Yeah, I know, but it takes It's a team game,
takes more than one player to turn around.

Speaker 3 (02:31:17):
And a Brady standing in his way too.

Speaker 1 (02:31:20):
One hundred percent.

Speaker 4 (02:31:22):
But remember when Peyton came into the league, there was
even some there were even doubters that said, well, Tennessee
couldn't beat Florida. He couldn't find a way to beat Florida. Look,
this just repeats the fact that he can't win the
big game. Like those were stupid conversations in hindsight, but
he had to break through at some point. Dak sure
has to break through to be great. But he's so
much better than so many of the quarterbacks that are

(02:31:43):
out there right now.

Speaker 3 (02:31:44):
And just.

Speaker 2 (02:31:46):
I'm not I'm not debating on on. You know that
he's not better than a lot of quarterbacks out there.
But again, I think you like him more than I
do in the sense that I also seen when he's bad,
he's terrible.

Speaker 5 (02:32:00):
And it's like, what's your standard? You're holding them too.

Speaker 6 (02:32:03):
I mean, if you're cool with him, but the Handy Dalton,
great Anny Dalton won you ten eleven games every year,
got you to the playoffs and got you knocked out
in the first round for eight straight years or whatever
it was.

Speaker 5 (02:32:11):
If that's if that works for you, then great.

Speaker 6 (02:32:14):
I feel like Cowboys and their fans and Jerry Jones,
their standard is a little bit higher and their goals
are higher.

Speaker 1 (02:32:21):
Yeah, but I don't disagree with any of that.

Speaker 4 (02:32:23):
The standards were higher for the Patriots too, and then
they found out it's really hard to find another quarterback.
The standards were higher for the Steelers too. Then they
found out it's really hard to find another quarterback. The
standard were hard, were high for the Giants in elone.
Then they found out it's really hard to find another quarterback.
The standards were high, and they found out it's really.

Speaker 3 (02:32:43):
Really like all those teams won super Bowls.

Speaker 4 (02:32:47):
Yeah, but I'm just saying that talking about the quarterback
position specifically, Like yeah, we.

Speaker 3 (02:32:53):
All know that, Like you're right, like the quarterback positions everything.
I we're right about that.

Speaker 2 (02:32:58):
But again, I don't think I don't think you can
compare some of those quarterbacks to Dak because they won.

Speaker 4 (02:33:07):
Even even if Dak hasn't, Dak gives you proximity that
like what we really pay for is proximity. Can can
we have a chance and do we have a chance
at the super Bowl? Every year when the season starts,
Dak gives you that it has not worked in the playoffs.
I'm not there's no problem.

Speaker 3 (02:33:25):
Here's here's the problem.

Speaker 2 (02:33:27):
It's not just it doesn't work in the play Like,
you know, you go to the super Bowl, you got
He hasn't gotten to a super Bowl, and he's he's
been the reason why they lost. Like he was terrible
against San Francisco. Listen, you know, Love threw the ball
over them. So their defense was bad, but he was
bad too, were a couple.

Speaker 6 (02:33:46):
Of years ago against San Francisco is a low scoring game,
and he have mistakes towards the end.

Speaker 2 (02:33:50):
Yes, I mean, look, he's been the reason they've lost.
Whereas you know, there's all the quarterbacks. You can't say
that like that's the problem. Like I agree, gives your
proximity to ten wins and maybe a division.

Speaker 6 (02:34:05):
Yeah, yeah, if the argument is, well, all you have
to do is make it into the tournament. He keeps
giving you a chance every single solitary year, and every
time you get in you have a chance to make
her run. That's not untrue, I get it, But how
many times are you going to suscribe to that?

Speaker 1 (02:34:21):
As many times as I can get.

Speaker 4 (02:34:23):
I'm just saying, if I'm the Cowboys twenty twenty five,
I'm not going to have any quarterback that gives me
a better chance to the super Bowl than Dak Press.

Speaker 2 (02:34:30):
Again, I consider I'm probably I'm with you in this
sense that I think Dallas should retain it. But if
I'm the Raiders, I don't want Dak. If I'm the Cowboys,
I want Dak because and I want to fix the
running back room, and I probably would want to fix.

Speaker 3 (02:34:45):
The coach too.

Speaker 4 (02:34:46):
If I'm a team that doesn't have an answer quarterback,
I don't care. If I got to spend sixty million
at one, I don't care. I just want to have
a quarterback that can help me win games.

Speaker 1 (02:34:54):
I don't care. I just want to win game.

Speaker 3 (02:34:56):
He's got two weeots of soapo disease.

Speaker 1 (02:34:58):
Right now, and I was a legend on Madden Pull.
You could not beat me with.

Speaker 2 (02:35:04):
It to it Fellas back in a minute, Ah, welcome back,
Fellas from the tai iraq dot com studios. Jason fitz
Kevin Figures. I'm Anthony Gargato being and my team my

(02:35:25):
t Mark Producing. It's the crew every Saturday. Help you
have a great Memorial Day weekend. Uh, boys, you know
that we're going to have to continue the win totals
because as suggest as I figured, we would not get
through a lion's share of them. In fact, we haven't

(02:35:46):
gotten through the d's yet. Since we're going to that
back hole.

Speaker 1 (02:35:52):
Do what we're doing God's work here.

Speaker 4 (02:35:54):
It's just, you know, it's a slow and arduous process,
but we have a long off season to get there.

Speaker 3 (02:35:59):
I mean, the Cowboys derailed the whole thing.

Speaker 5 (02:36:02):
They have a tendency to do that.

Speaker 2 (02:36:08):
They are they are a lot of fun, that they're interesting,
that they're a lot of fun to talk about. I
was talking about this the other day on my local show,
which is you know, they are still.

Speaker 3 (02:36:22):
Like America's team. It's amazing, doesn't.

Speaker 2 (02:36:27):
Matter failure after failure, dumpster fire, you know, playoff game
after dumpster fire, playoff game, and.

Speaker 3 (02:36:34):
They still get take up you know, all the oxygen
in the room.

Speaker 1 (02:36:39):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (02:36:40):
And that's the funny thing is that the schedule makers
said that the Chiefs have gotten to the level that
they're on the same plane as the Cowboys when it
comes to an automatic gimme of everybody wants it and
everybody will watch it.

Speaker 1 (02:36:52):
Think about what that statement makes from the NFL.

Speaker 4 (02:36:54):
That really tells you that the team that has been
in the Super Bowl for the last five years has
finally risen to the point of a team that hasn't
sniffed the Super Bowl since I don't know what ninety what,
so like, it's just crazy to think about.

Speaker 3 (02:37:08):
Hey, the fact that the Chiefs are in that pantheon.

Speaker 2 (02:37:14):
Now, you know, God bless Mahomes because he's a huge
part of it and then you have the whole pop
culture thing with Kelsey and Taylor Swift.

Speaker 3 (02:37:22):
But can we say that the Chiefs it's because of Andy.

Speaker 1 (02:37:30):
No, it's Mahomes. It's it's Mahomes.

Speaker 4 (02:37:32):
The Chiefs are like Golden State at this point, Like everybody,
everybody loves Steph Curry. That's Patrick Mahomes, you know, And
obviously Kerr gets some of the love.

Speaker 1 (02:37:40):
That's Andy.

Speaker 4 (02:37:40):
And it will work it as long as they're winning
a bunch of games and they have those stars, and
then once all of those guys retire, then they'll just
go back to being where they were. Like it's fine
in the popularity pantheon, but like it's not this is
this is Mahomes phenomenon.

Speaker 6 (02:37:55):
Yeah, Like as great as Andy is, he's so understated.
I don't know if he, you know, really penetrates into
the consciousness of people saying like, oh my god, he's
really made a giant impact.

Speaker 2 (02:38:06):
I guess I wasn't meaning, you know, he's not on
the billboard, right Like, if the Chiefs are the billboard
at the top of the marquee, it's not saying Andy Reid,
it's saying Patrick Mahomes. Absolutely, I agree with you, guys.
I guess it points to his greatness that he got

(02:38:26):
him there, like he's the one who provided the foundation
for that. Unlike Yeah, I mean Belichick was a bigger
he was almost this Darth Vader character, right, and he's not.
But Andy is every bit of effective.

Speaker 3 (02:38:43):
Right.

Speaker 4 (02:38:44):
It frustrates the hell out of me, and it has
for years that everybody talks only about Mahomes in a vacuum.
Sometimes it forgets this isn't just the best quarterback in
the NFL right now. This is the best quarterback and
clearly the best coach as.

Speaker 1 (02:38:56):
A combination working together.

Speaker 4 (02:38:58):
But I don't think Mahomes would be where he is
if it wasn't for Kansas City, if it wasn't for
Andy Reid, if it wasn't for the situation they put
him in, and the way that they've tailored this, Like.

Speaker 1 (02:39:08):
You can have a great quarterback and still blow it.

Speaker 4 (02:39:11):
Look at what the Jacks are trying to do to
Trevor Lawrence over the course of time. I think the
undertold part of the story of the greatness of Patrick
Mahomes and Kansas City is always that Andy Reid is
absolutely him and that is that as true in this league.

Speaker 6 (02:39:26):
Now, yeah, let's not forget that Patrick Mahomes walked into
a team that made the playoffs the year before they
traded up to get him there. They were going to
the postseason routinely with Alex Smith as their quarterback, so
this was not a full on rebuild with a top
overall pick at quarterback.

Speaker 5 (02:39:39):
Yeah yeah, and he built that infrastructure before Pat got there.

Speaker 2 (02:39:43):
Yeah yeah, Now, you're right, you're right. Uh so, boys,
we're up against it. But I'm going to answer you.
What are we watching, which.

Speaker 5 (02:39:52):
We always do this point, watching hoops playoffs?

Speaker 1 (02:39:55):
You're watching boiler Stars. Oilers are like y'all.

Speaker 4 (02:39:58):
I know we don't talk about it, but Stanley Cup
playoffs have been absolutely incredible.

Speaker 1 (02:40:02):
Oil is Stars. There is going to be an epics.

Speaker 3 (02:40:04):
Sit.

Speaker 2 (02:40:04):
Yeah, we need more hockey, and you know why, you're
right about that. We need to talk more hockey. I'm
not Rangers. The Panthers game last night was ridiculous.

Speaker 1 (02:40:14):
It's great. Absolutely, No, No, you're.

Speaker 3 (02:40:17):
No, you're listen. I love it. I just you know,
I keep I keep it to the to the other
rung for but I love it. I love it.

Speaker 2 (02:40:26):
All right, have a great weekend, everybody. We love you guys.
Be safe, we'll see you next week. Fellas are out.

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