Buck & Fitz Talk Nico Iamaleava Fallout in Tennessee, 2025 Masters, NFL Draft, NBA Playoffs, and So Much More!

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Don't listening to Fox Sports Radio Radio. We've got drama.
We've got the possibility of immortality in the golfing world
happening in Augusta. Rory McElroy, As you just heard eighteen
holes away from the unthinkable, from the incredible, becoming one
of the only golfers to ever complete a career Grand

(00:22):
Slam in the Masters. We have everything you could possibly
want happening in Augusta, and I'm here to tell you
definitively it's the most overrated event on the sports calendar
every single year, single year.

Speaker 2 (00:40):
What shit, I'm so mad at you. Why would you?
I mean, I know why you would.

Speaker 3 (00:47):
Try and piss me off this way before three hours
of radio together on Saturday night, Jason Fitz.

Speaker 2 (00:52):
But I mean within the.

Speaker 3 (00:54):
First two minutes that we are on the air, to
start a fight like that after a tremendous day of golf,
what is going to set up an awesome Sunday of
the Masters?

Speaker 2 (01:04):
How dare you shame on you? Really?

Speaker 1 (01:05):
Oh? Oh my god, he's buck Rising. I'm Jason Fitz
Bucketfits hanging out with you on a Fox Sports Saturday
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you like the masters. You're an elitist, you're a snob.

(01:26):
You are not a man of the people. I am
a man of the people, and I'm here to tell
you if you're not an elitist, you're not rich, and
you're not an old white dude. You just don't care
about golf. Like we cram this down everybody's throats every year,
like this is truly some special, incredible thing that everybody
across the world is flocking to watch. And I just
don't see it. I just I don't understand it. I

(01:47):
don't understand like I don't want to watch my best
friends play golf. Nonetheless, these guys, I don't want to
stand around and waste all day watching him hit it.
It's just nothing about the broadcast is exciting. Nothing about
the golfer's personalities ever really clicks out on all of it,
out on all of it.

Speaker 3 (02:05):
Speaking of being elitist, I was complaining today on social
media about how did people exist before heated steering wheels
and vehicles when it was fifty one degrees in Sunday
in Nashville, Tennessee. I don't know how. It's beyond me.
I wouldn't have survived at.

Speaker 1 (02:20):
A different time. I woke up to snow on the ground,
so I had to use In Connecticut, I had to
use my heated steering. I don't know how people live
without that. I agree with you like heating steering. Heated
steering wheels are a necessity. The Masters is just it's
just a bunch of unrelatable rich people were hitting the
little ball around. I just can't get in.

Speaker 3 (02:38):
It is the highest level of professional sports when it
comes to the game of golf. You will not be
dismissive of that. After the day of the golf that
we just witnessed. You said it yourself eighteen holes away,
Rory McElroy from Golfing Immortality.

Speaker 2 (02:57):
I came in here excited.

Speaker 3 (02:58):
To talk about golf today, and you're going to take
it away from me because you want to make it.
Some debate about does the Masters excite enough people are
not nonsense. If you want if you care about competitiveness,
if you care about storylines, if you care about drama
and all the other things that attract us to sports.
It doesn't matter how much the purse is at the

(03:19):
end of the golf round or how much you know,
how much Peter Malar these people are dressed in, which
is very elitist.

Speaker 2 (03:27):
As a bray, I had no free shout outs.

Speaker 3 (03:29):
I think that you have to appreciate, have to as
I were it today, have to appreciate everything that happens
in the Masters. And how dare you come in here
and say anything about the broadcast with Jim nance on
and I won't hear it. I won't have it. I
won't stand for it. Shaye, Please tell me you're on
my side. I can't deal with this man. I'm a
big time on your side. When you got people like

(03:50):
Austin Reeves last night saying go watch the Masters, I mean,
we should have expected this fits as a theater kid,
you know, we should have known this was going to
happen like wild athletes enjoy what we enjoy. Fits is
Unfortunately he was never an athlete, so I get where
he's coming from.

Speaker 4 (04:08):
But me, that could.

Speaker 1 (04:13):
Look unless unless Buck is competing in a Pillsbury Doughboy competition.
There's no athlete happening over there either. Okay, Like I'm
just saying, like I'm not looking at at buck over
you're saying he's gonna dunk on anybody. Although you know
you have gotten quite ripped. I have to give you
credit for that. Look here, here's the reality somebody a week. Yeah,
that's fair. I would take that on. So a good

(04:36):
friend of ours years ago said to me, well, here's
the problem. You just haven't experienced Augusta. Once you go
to Augusta, you'll get that feel. And it was funny
because at the time I was doing morning radio in Nashville,
and so my co host was like, if you just
go to Augusta, you'll understand it. Just get there once.
And I said, sure, maybe you're right. And then we
went to commercial and I look down and my phone

(04:57):
is blowing up, and I'm like, why is my phone?
What did I you say that all of my friends
listening in Nashville have decided to text me God early
in the morning because the masters are going on, only
to open up my phone and discover that the Van
Parry did, in fact twice go to Augusta. We played
concerts on the eighteenth Hole twice at Augusta. Both times
I was offered the time the chance to play around
a golf at Augusta, and both times I passed on

(05:19):
that because I don't play golf and I have no
interest in it. In fact, our production manager at the time,
still a good friend, reminded me that it's the place
I went around complaining that the locker rooms seem kind
of old, and he's right, the locker rooms did seem
kind of old, Like I just like all of the magistry,
Like look, history just doesn't hit me that way. It
never has. When the band played Wrigley and Fenway and

(05:40):
everybody's like, like, Fenway's a dump. I say what you
want to say, family is a dump. I don't care.
Like I like new, shiny, fancy things. So when I
come into to the Masters and everybody says, oh, it's
about the Ambie, It's not like I read the menu
like everybody else. That doesn't sound like good food to me,
Like nothing about that sounded like a great ciders suck.

Speaker 3 (06:00):
That's like I will acknowledge that we need to do
better Scheffler, like I'm all for the Tomahawks takes or whatever.
I don't think individually, we should be trying to take
those down. That's that's more of a group outing type
of situation. We could do better than cheeseburger sliders. That's
the only thing that you've been right about this entire segment.

Speaker 1 (06:16):
This is the card you have, Stepimento. Cheese sandwiches are affordable.
It's not worth my time.

Speaker 3 (06:23):
You may as well take a green jacket off of
Tiger Woods, stomp around on it, and then spit on
it afterwards. For what you've started this segment with, how
how could you go to Augusta twice? I have no
interest in anything.

Speaker 4 (06:39):
He also offered to play, and that's where I'm like,
you really declined to play at the most history, Well.

Speaker 2 (06:45):
That's cowardice. It's nothing to do.

Speaker 3 (06:49):
He can't like golf, which is why he doesn't want
to embarrass himself in Augusta.

Speaker 1 (06:53):
Okay, first and foremost, my idea of playing golf is
taking a bunch of edibles and driving the cart from
my buddies. Now, having said that, I deferred because everybody
else got so excited about it, Like everybody else was
so pumped. So I deferred to guys on the road
that love playing golf. I was like, Hey, you love
the game of golf. I don't work here. This will
mean something to you. You should play. In fact, the
crew guys remember distinctly that you know, I passed on

(07:16):
my rounded Augusta. They got to play as a result.
So look, I made a positive memory for somebody else. You'
self it from you know what's like?

Speaker 3 (07:22):
I'm just we should ship you off to the live tour.
I don't want you anywhere near Augusta. I don't want
you anywhere near my beloved PGA, the cave to the
Saudi Money. I don't want you anywhere near the sport
of golf at the highest level, in its most sacred week.
I will not stand for it. You and Live Golf
League Captain Bryson de Shambo can take your you know,

(07:44):
your lack of appreciation and of history and the majesty.

Speaker 2 (07:49):
Of all of it, and you can shove it. I can't.
I cannot tolerate this.

Speaker 1 (07:53):
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College Football Hall of Famer LeVar Arrington, and Fox Sports

(08:16):
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predictions and reactions to every first round pick. That's Thursday,
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Speaker 3 (08:30):
Before you go back into just disparaging the greatest weekend
in all of golf, the Joe Douglas element of the
Fox Sports Radio Draft night coverage has me wildly intrigued
because of stuff that we're going to talk about later.
Because obviously there's golf going on in the world, it's
still draft season. We got a lot of quarterback controversy.
I was waiting for Aaron Rodgers to be announced, Pat

(08:51):
McAfee's big night out in Pittsburgh. Instead I got Jelly
Rolling Snoop Dogg and everybody else in between. Like I know,
there's a lot of different things about draft coverage that
are interesting, but having Joe Douglas on the Fox Sports
Radio broadcast is great. That's I'm looking forward to hearing
a part of that.

Speaker 1 (09:06):
Because the Draft, I'm like the Masters, is actually interesting.
Think about it like a weekend where nothing will actually happen,
no wins will occur. We will just look at paper
and decide from underwear whether or not we think teams
have gotten better or worse. Will be far more interesting
than the single greatest thing that golf can do. And
the numbers are going to show it, Like, look, I

(09:28):
get it. People to watch the Masters. I guess there
are a ton of rich white people out there, so
people still watch the Masters, but we all know that
more people are going to watch the first round of
the Draft. Like, so if it's this great, remarkable, oh
my god experience on the sports calendar, I would think
it would at least outrate you know, unproven guys getting
to the league that are probably going to be out

(09:48):
within three years.

Speaker 2 (09:49):
I'm just saying, Shay, I hate that.

Speaker 3 (09:53):
As soon as so Fitzy tweeted out that he and
I were going to be on Fox Sports Radio tonight
and talking about of rioting different topics, and I tweeted
a picture of Nico Iamaliava, the Tennessee quarterback who we
will also get to later on foraying into the wildest
story in college football that I've heard, probably since we
got the nil and transfer portal situation and everything that's

(10:16):
come since. And one of the responses under the tweet
about guess who we're talking about tonight with a picture
of Nico is somebody tweeting me and it just says
sounds like golf with a throwing up emoji.

Speaker 2 (10:26):
I hate that he's right. I hate that he's right.
I hate it. I hate it.

Speaker 3 (10:29):
I want to talk about Rory and the Shambo on Sunday.
I want to talk about history versus recency. I want
to talk about LIV golf versus the PGI I want it.

Speaker 4 (10:37):
It's important, man, it is. I agree it.

Speaker 2 (10:41):
To people.

Speaker 1 (10:42):
Look, I'm in on LIV Golf versus the PGA because
there's some drama behind that, like and if they could
get like if you could get the Bravo people to
shoot a show on it, maybe I'd be more into it.
Like give me more of that drama.

Speaker 3 (10:53):
Like there's a Netflix show called Full Swing all about this.

Speaker 2 (10:57):
They're interviewing golfers as they're going through this.

Speaker 4 (11:00):
You're just not watching it on Maybe you need to
watch Full Swing. That's like a lot of people get
in a golf through it. Maybe that's what you need
to do.

Speaker 1 (11:07):
This is okay. So it's like, hey, guys, I don't
like this at all, but I should watch a TV
show about it. Everywhere. I don't understand this.

Speaker 4 (11:13):
It's different. It's it's it's like it's reality TV basicly
not golf.

Speaker 3 (11:17):
Not only are you disrespectful to sports history, you you
lack intellectual curiosity, and I'm very disappointed about that. This
entire if, this entire Formula one phenomenon that overtook the
United States of America was helped in part by drive
to survive off Netflix. Like if that's how you got
to get into different sports, I don't begrudge you that

(11:38):
plenty of people eat that Hard Knocks crap alive, even
though it's just JJ Watt at five point thirty in
the morning flip an a tire for you know, like.

Speaker 2 (11:45):
Six weeks in a row.

Speaker 3 (11:46):
It gets I get that people have different entrances into
different kind of sports and that football is always going
to be king. I understand that, but that doesn't mean
that on the one day that we have such great golf,
that we have to dismiss it by saying, to talk
about Shador Sanders draft stock falling, which we're gonna.

Speaker 2 (12:02):
Get to later on the show.

Speaker 1 (12:03):
I mean, here's the thing, you're not wrong by. Whatever
gets you into sport is fine. Can we also acknowledge
that it felt like that drive or survived thing lasted
for a second and everybody was like, oh, F one
f one, f one f one, and now like people
talking about, like as a Vegas kid that has watched
the F one races in Vegas be far less popular
than anyone that presumed like it was the entry point.

(12:24):
But it didn't keep you there. I'm telling you, you
know what, I'd say, I'm going to give the Golf
Show a chance, but I'm not. We've we've really postponed
the good news, the big news, the massive sports news
long enough. So he's Buck Rising. I'm Jason Fitz. When
we come back, college football has changed forever. It's staggering.
Buck is in the middle of the change as it's

(12:45):
happening down in Tennessee. There is shocking news that is
absolutely changing the way the sport is going to be
managed forever. We'll talk about it when we come back.
He's Buck Rising. I'm Jason Fitz. It's fucking fix fits
on Fox Sports Radio. Don't listening to Fox Sports Radio.

Speaker 2 (13:04):
Well, there's nothing sweet about.

Speaker 3 (13:06):
What's going on in the state of Tennessee right now.
Welcome back to Fox Sports Saturday. He's Jason Fitz'm Buck Rising.
We are with you for the next few hours.

Speaker 2 (13:16):
It is a mess.

Speaker 3 (13:17):
The world of college athletics, not just college football, has
been totally upended. And there had to be one player
and one university that went through this for the first
time before actual change was enacted. And it just so
happens that it's the University of Tennessee and Nico Iamaliava,
the quarterback who helped guide them to a ten win

(13:39):
season and a College Football Playoff appearance despite getting blown
out by Ohio State, a major step for a program
that's trying to use the name, image and likeness and
transfer portal perfect Storm to bring it back to its
old glory, a fan base that is national and rabid
and desperate for success. And the day before the spring game,

(14:02):
their quarterback decides to not show up to practice and
reports start to float out about contract or nil pay
renegotiations between the player and the university and finally, for
the first university that had to go through this, Jason
fitz Tennessee put their foot down and they are parting

(14:26):
ways with Nico.

Speaker 2 (14:27):
I Amaliaba.

Speaker 3 (14:28):
We in the span of three days have had the
first college football hold in and the first program, the
first power for major college football program say no, we
will not bend to your demands. As far as the
craziness that the marketplace has now yielded, where Carson Beck,
an underperforming Georgia quarterback, transfers to Miami and gets four

(14:49):
million dollars a year.

Speaker 1 (14:51):
So there's a couple of important elements. And for anyone
that doesn't know, Buck is sitting in Nashville. I've been
in Nashville for a long time. We have a lot
of familiarity with the the Balls program, the Balls fan base,
for sure, and I think it's important here to sort
of look at what's been created, right Like if you're
Nico and the transfer portal for anyone again that doesn't know,

(15:12):
reopens next week where people can come in and transfer
from school to school to school. That's why there's some
conversation about spring games, like do you really want to
showcase your best talent in the spring game and take
the chance that they're gonna then be plucked in play
somewhere else. All of these conversations, so the timing wasn't accidental.
It wasn't just about the spring game. It's also about
Nico knowing that, hey, if you're not going to meet
my demand, somebody else will. But I guess I would

(15:34):
say Buck, like, the wild wild West is here, and
we knew it was here, but this is just the
latest greatest example. We think of it in terms that
we can understand. So we think about, well, the wild
West is here in transfer portal, and we think about it, well,
the wild West is here in the way that these
rosters are being subbed in and out all the time.
But frankly, when you don't have a salary cap, you

(15:56):
don't have a salary floor, you just got a bunch
of boosters, you don't have a union that anybody's a
part of. When you simply have open free market to everybody,
what are you going to end up with a quarterback that,
according to some reports, was set to make what two
point four million dollars this year and wants four He
wants one point six million dollars more. I mean, Nico

(16:16):
may never play in the NFL for all we know.
I mean, Joe Milton obviously came out of the Tennessee
program and it is a backup in the NFL. Right,
So if you have a chance to turn around, if
you think somebody in the market will pay you one
point four million dollars more per year in this environment,
why not take a chance on it. Like, I know

(16:37):
fans don't want to hear that, but my god, Like
this is just the modern currency that we have. You
have the quarterback of a team that thinks he's got
their backs up against the wall and he wants to
get more money. I just I don't know why we're
shocked this happened, man, I just don't know why everybody
feels like this is some huge gut punch that we
couldn't have anticipated.

Speaker 3 (16:57):
What you don't have to be shocked by is the
best pregame show every weekend. To be sure to tune
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(17:19):
Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app. It is the most
predictable thing in the world, Fitsie, and while I agree
with you, it makes total sense, even though it will
drive a fan base insane. This is totally new to
college college athletics. There was a world in which you
wish the fault is really the hands of the nc

(17:39):
double A. Shocking to nobody that the NCAA continues to
be wildly inept at the sports that they try to
govern and fail to govern successfully. When this legislation passed
that allowed athletes in the college world to benefit financially
off their name, image and likeness, somebody had to have
foreseen a scenario coming down like this. Instead intead of

(18:00):
just letting us enter what has been now going on
a five year quote unquote exploratory period where there is
money being thrown around everywhere. There is backdoor dealings being
done at the surface now blatant for everybody to see.
There are bidding wars, there are enticements, there are all
different levels of things that used to be completely in

(18:21):
totally taboo in the world of college sports, and now
it's the common marketplace, except there's no guardrails. The idea
that the NCAA would be so inept in not being
able to be proactive in the governance of situations like this.

Speaker 2 (18:34):
Specifically, it was handled.

Speaker 3 (18:37):
Poorly by the player and the reason that it's ending
with the program that is Willick, that has handled a
lot of the name, image and likeness stuff very well
and been on the forefront of a lot of the
legislation that has allowed the process to move forward in
a positive direction for both these universities and these student athletes.
Tennessee decides to put its foot down because Niko yamali

(18:58):
aavas got a dad on Twitter and he wants to
tweet calling reporters profanity because they are reporting accurate things
while they are actively shopping a quarterback to other college
football programs. And the reason that Josh Heipel, the coach
of Tennessee, finds out that his quarterback is being shopped
is because the Oregon coach, Dan Lanning tells him so. Apparently,

(19:20):
according to the reporting that's going around on this, USC
is now not interested in Niko Iamaliaba We're about to
see an entirely different marketplace for a quarterback that, under
normal circumstances would have benefited from taking the leverage that
he has based on the position that he plays, not
necessarily his production because he was pedestrian last year and
in an SEC that offers a lot of high level

(19:42):
athletes and a lot of high level quarterbacks, he's not
worth a pay raise, but his position is. The value
of his position is just the same way that we
talk about it in the NFL level. But the NFL
has the guardrails to prevent against situations like this. They
have a collective bargaining agreement, have unions, they have contracts,
they have all these different things that would pretend that

(20:04):
would prevent an outright catastrophe. Is what has taken place
between Nico Yamalaiava and the University of Tennessee.

Speaker 1 (20:11):
The hardest part of all of this is did somebody
reach out to him? We don't know in advance. Was
he getting some four million dollar numbers from places? Right? Like?
I just covered the final four and I was talking
to one person that knows a prominent college basketball program well,
and he said flat out that there was somebody transferring
from a school that averaged six points a year last

(20:33):
year six points a game, I should say last year,
and he was turning down one point five million dollars
a year for six point He was turning down one
point five because he thought there was more for him
out there. So, like it just there is so much
money to be had by some of these guys. Where
it gets really interesting is trying to figure out, Okay,
if Nico lands anywhere, then you got to think that

(20:55):
he's going to be just fine, right, Like he doesn't
want to take a pake cup, But if he lands
anywhere that takes care of him, then he's made the
money he wanted to make. If he doesn't land anywhere, man,
I just I gotta feel like then he's going to
hire a team of lawyers and they're going to have
real conversation about collusion. Like this is for every college
football I'll say this. I think that there's a very
real thing that has to happen that solves all of this,

(21:17):
and it's it's simple, Well, let's get everybody caught up
on what's going on. Let's get everybody caught up on
the scores and the trending right now, and coming up.
There's a very simple solution that is the inevitable fix
for college football. We'll do that, but first let's get
you caught up on the scores and highlights of the world.

Speaker 5 (21:33):
Let's start with Major League Baseball. The White Sox were
three and ten, but got a home win over Boston
three to two. Also, it was a three and ten
record for the Atlanta. Braves got a win at Tampa
Bay five to four. At Sacramento the A's and their
home games had been one and six, but did get
a home win against the Mets today three to one,
Yankees eight to four over the Giants. Phillies won four

(21:55):
to one at Saint Louis. Among the four games in progress,
the Angels lead for nothing, Houston bottom of the fifth.
Houston yet to get a hit. The NBA is off
the regular season end Sunday. That includes Clippers at Golden
State Tomorrow. Denver will be at Houston. Anthony Edwards of
Minnesota will be playing Sunday. He'd picked up his eighteenth
technical foul of the season Friday, which would normally mean

(22:17):
a one game suspension for the Sunday finale at has
been rescinded. He will play tomorrow. Minnesota can finish as
high as fourth in the West with a win, but
as low as eighth with a loss Sunday against Utah.
The NBA Play In Tournament starts Tuesday. Cleveland's Donovan Mitchell
will miss a fourth straight game with a sprained ankle.
Boston's Jalen Brown tomorrow will be out with his bad knee.

(22:39):
Jason Tatum will be rested. Anthony Davis and the MAVs
will not play on Sunday. Among the eleven NHL games
currently in progress, it's the Sabers tied at Florida two
to two in the third period. Earlier, Columbus was a
seven nothing winner over Washington Carolina seven three winners over
the New York Rangers in LA defeated Colorado five to four.

(23:00):
Rory McElroy leads the Masters by two strokes over Bryson
to Shambeau. McElroy shot a third round sixty six. Corey
connors Is four back. Scottie Scheffler fell to a tie
for six plays seven shots back, tied with Justin Rose,
Shane Lowry and Jason Day. Rose shot seventy five Today.
A reminder, NASCAR's on FS one again Sunday, three pm

(23:21):
Eastern Time from Bristol, Tennessee Alex Bowman ear in the poll.
Kyle Larson won today's Infinity Race.

Speaker 2 (23:27):
Back to You.

Speaker 1 (23:29):
He's Buck Rising. I'm Jason fitz Buckevis Fits on Fox
Sports Radio Saturday night. Look, Buck, everybody has a cute
solution and the number of people that anytime we talk
about college football will then tweet in, here's what they
got to do this. This is so simple and kind
of like White Lotus. I don't know if you got
into White Lotus, but everybody had a million conspiracy theories

(23:52):
and I was the one person that sat there the
entire time saying, guys, I don't think the show's as
creative as you are. Like everybody's trying to find a
million well, oh you know, the mom's actually behind the drugs,
and like everybody had these stupid conspiracy theories they wasted
all this time on, and it turns out the show
was a lot simpler than anybody thought it would spoiler alert, Okay,

(24:12):
that's life to me. I think most people sit around
and try to figure out a thousand ways to make
simple things complicated, and that's what they're doing. With college sports.
There are very simple facts here. Every single time the
NCAA gets challenged with any of the amateurism rules in court,
they lose because it is unconstitutional in every possible way

(24:34):
to try and throttle back a kid's opportunity to make money.
It's simply illegal. Like I'm not even talking about what
people think should happen. It's illegal. And every single time
it goes to court, the judges sit there and say,
what the hell are you doing, which is why the
only real solution to this, as the NCAA sits in
the losing end of a two point eight billion dollar

(24:55):
settlement of a lawsuit about revenue sharing, like, the only
real solution is unionization of college football players and a
collective bargaining agreement. And that's that's inevitable because this is
the great Now you've looked at it and said, oh
my god, like the movie Ants where they all figure
out that if they work together they can take people down.
Nico coming out and saying I want more money, man.

(25:16):
All that does is that that reminds everybody, wait a minute,
I can do the same thing. They can't stop me
from doing that, and that's gonna happen. Over and over
and over again, and when teams are in a national
championship window, they're gonna have to make tough decisions about
how to move on with the player, what to do
with these players. And as much as everybody says, well,
you know, just another team's not gonna want them, yeah

(25:38):
they are. People want to win football games. At the
end of the day, people want to win football games.
So as much as this is the moment where people
come in and say, well you should do you know,
these limited deals and all of these sort of earnings anything,
any written agreement that tries to stop a player from
making as much money as he can that isn't just

(25:58):
a normal contract has been challenged in court and they've lost.
So like college football fans, it's simple, you should be
rooting for just speed this whole process up. Let everybody unionize,
Let the teams, the college football teams, become their own
collective group and then start a collective bargaining association that
gives us a long term work contract, just like every

(26:18):
other sport has.

Speaker 3 (26:19):
FITZI, you're right, but you know damn well that college
football fans are insane about this because we have now
corporatized college football the last great bastion of sports tradition
and passion and honor and loyalty and all these different things,

(26:39):
and we've stripped it down to the studs and made
it about everything else that we do in sports, which is.

Speaker 2 (26:43):
About the money, the idea.

Speaker 3 (26:46):
College football fans are struggling with this, and it is
so because it's not a revolutionary concept. Right again, to
your point, the solution is simple, but it is not
a simple thought for college football fans to process when
you have taken everything from and turned it on its
head in the span of four years, which is a
crazy short amount of time, especially every year since the

(27:07):
nil stuff passed in the Supreme Court, it has been
one giant story after another in the world of collegiate
athletics that has one of the most passionate fan bases
anywhere in sports, completely lost for words and looking at
their favorite sports and describing them as unrecognizable. I understand

(27:27):
that we are heading in this direction. It is the
absolute correct direction to head. You have to protect these
players from themselves to a degree. You have to protect
players and their families and the people who are giving
giving advice on how to handle these situations. When in
the case of Nicomalia, Iamaliava and Tennessee. That we're talking
about here tonight is Tennessee parts ways with their quarterback

(27:50):
that took them to the College Football Playoff last year.
You have to find ways to make sure that there
are protections in place for the university, for the programs,
for the programs at a lower level that are getting poached.
We talked about last weekend when we did this show,
the idea of nil buyouts for programs who are getting
poached at a lower level to try and equalize or

(28:11):
stabilize some of the losses that they're taking instead of
them just being feeder programs for places like Ohio State, Michigan, Alabama,
and otherwise.

Speaker 2 (28:19):
It is such a.

Speaker 3 (28:20):
Difficult thing for college sports fans and college football fans
in particular.

Speaker 2 (28:24):
And no less the sec where it is tribal.

Speaker 3 (28:27):
You know this, I know this. The rest of the
country knows this. You've got Josh Hipel messaging today after
the spring game for Tennessee that no one is bigger
than the program. The program has been around for a
long time. He goes on at some length that's going
to be around a long time after I'm gone, and
after they're gone.

Speaker 2 (28:44):
Yeah, okay, I guess, but not.

Speaker 3 (28:45):
In the same senses has always been and that is
a really hard concept for people to come to terms with.

Speaker 1 (28:51):
Yeah, I mean, I'm sorry college football fans, college sports
fans of which I am one, and I love, like
it's my favorite sport to cover. I love covering college
sports in general. But you're not special like this is
a problem. Look, at some point, every single industry deals,
especially in the modern climate, with an awakening where you
wake up when and look, I lived through in the

(29:12):
music business. I was in the music business living on
tour buses when streaming started, and everybody sat there and said,
oh no, now people are still gonna want to buy CDs, right, Like,
it's gonna be fine. I know, for anyone that doesn't
understand the economics, if you wrote a number one song
in country music, you know ten years ago you made
a million dollars for being the songwriter on it. Now,

(29:34):
if you're right, I've got a friend that just wrote
a number one song and he made twelve thousand dollars.
Like we went from a million to twelve thousand. That's
not made up numbers. Those are real numbers. Look at
the movie business, like we spent forever saying, oh, movies
will always do great in the theaters. Now who the
hell like, who goes to the movies anymore? I mean,
this is just the natural sort of if you were

(29:55):
an actor, and you know, a good friend of mine
was on several TV shows that were successful, and he joked,
you know, we thought thirty years ago, if you landed
on a TV show, you thought that person was set
for life. You thought that person had made everything. And
now you can be on a hit TV show and
you're still out here doing uber eats on a weekend
because you didn't make enough money on your TV show

(30:16):
to actually make it. You didn't make enough money to sustain.
The world is changing the way everybody gets paid and
the way we consume everything. So I would say to
every college football fan that's sitting here saying boo ooh,
I would say, Okay, where were you when the music
business changed and nobody made any money? You said, you know, what,
deal with it? I want my free music when the
music When the movie business turned around and went to

(30:38):
a streaming platform that doesn't allow guys to get paid
all over the place and actors went on strike, people
sat here and said, oh man, Prima Donna, actors everywhere
want to get paid. Why is it now we're sitting
here in college sports fans are saying, well, not us, dude.
It happens to everybody right now. So your sport is changing.
Guess what. You can either grow up and go with it,

(30:59):
or you could just sit there and watch YouTube videos
of your sport in the eighties and tell everybody how
great it used to be. Like, you've got to modernize
with the times or the sport will leave you. And
the sport's okay leaving you because they got to make
their money.

Speaker 3 (31:12):
Yeah, but you don't have to let it get it
out of control, which is why I like the decision
by Nico to try and leverage his situation. I think
he handled it terribly. I think his family handled it
terribly around him. I think they put him in an
untenable situation. I love what Tennessee did too. They put
their foot down.

Speaker 2 (31:27):
I love it.

Speaker 3 (31:27):
Yeah, it doesn't they If the NCAA and the powers
that be that have allowed these situations to kind of
turn into total insanity aren't going to legislate and govern
the way that they need to, then Tennessee being the
first into the breach to put their foot down and
be like, we're not going to gave this time. We're

(31:48):
not going to play this game. That sets a different
kind of a precedent because now in the case, in
specifically Nico's case, and again, this is why it's going
to bring about change. It's going to bring about the
change that ALTI benefits college sports fans from not having
to go through another situation like this. I mean, every
six months, they can do this. It doesn't have to be.
It's not even a yearly contract. It's not two year contract.

(32:10):
I mean they could jump into the portal after spring practice.
You go through a spring practice, you think you have
your roster set. Not so fast, my friend, your quarterback,
your starting quarterback, is in the transfer portal. So it
is going to take something like this to bring about
the kind of change that we're talking about. Tennessee is
a particularly polarizing place because it's one of the most
toxic fan bases anywhere in sports, no matter what level

(32:32):
of sport that you talk about.

Speaker 2 (32:34):
They're circling the wagons.

Speaker 3 (32:35):
The university is not backing down in this situation, and
ultimately fitsy the thing that you worry most about, or
that people should worry most about, is that the kid
is the one who's ultimately harmed here. And yeah, maybe
he did not handle this in the most professional way.
Maybe he should have gotten back to his coaching staff
before he's decided to not show up for a practice.
Maybe he shouldn't have let his dad get on Twitter

(32:56):
and called the reporter who had accurate reporting on this
from the beat, Nakos of on three Sport, the B word,
the terrible B word. But you know what I'm saying,
like to go out there and make themselves look like
fools and kind of drag Nico's name through the mud.

Speaker 2 (33:10):
He may he's gonna make money.

Speaker 3 (33:11):
Somebody's going to offer him the opportunity to play college
football for a reasonable sum of money, whether or not
he's making as much as he's currently making or was
making at Tennessee. FITZI is what I'm most curious about,
because he doesn't have to get a raise out of
this just because he's a quarterback. And I think you're
gonna see universities athletic directors and coaches start to flex
their muscle a little bit because Tennessee did it First, be.

Speaker 1 (33:35):
Sure to check out the Fox Sports Radio YouTube channel
a ton of great videos from so many of our
Fox Sports Radio shows. Just search Fox Sports Radio on YouTube.
You see a whole bunch of video highlights from the shows,
and be sure to subscribe to you always have instant
access to our Fox Sports Radio videos on YouTube. All right,
as of today, I have no problem with Nico and
the way he handled it. And guess what, I have

(33:56):
no problem with Tennessee and the way they handled it.
And everybody can look at it right now and stand
in place and say we got it right. But there's
one thing that could absolutely change the way we view
all of this. We'll tell you about it when we
come back. He's Buck Rising. I'm Jason fitzbucking Fits on
a Fox Sports Saturday.

Speaker 6 (34:13):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at Foxsports Radio
dot com and within the iHeartRadio app. Search FSR to
listen live.

Speaker 1 (34:25):
He's Buck Rising. I'm Jason fitzbucking Fits, hanging out with you.
Coming at your live from the Tirak dot com studios.
We've been breaking down the breaking news today as Tennessee
separates from their starting quarterback to the University of Tennessee
after a contractual dispute. And it's funny because if you

(34:46):
were listening to earlier, Buck and I both said, look,
I understand where Nico's coming from. I understand where Tennessee
is coming from. I frankly, I have no problem with
either side's actions. I do think in these situations you
could probably handle it better. I think that's probab a
fair point. But Buck, if we're talking about just the
basic principle of I'm a player and I want to
make more money, I got no problem with that. And

(35:07):
if I'm a team coming in and saying, you know what,
no one's bigger than the team, I got no problem
with that. And I know that today everyone's gonna take sides.
I would just remind you that there is one outcome
here that absolutely will change everything. Because it's easy right
now for Tennessee fans to basically say Scrutinico, like I
want nothing to do with him, he's a bomb, all
the things that fans are gonna say. Tennessee turns around

(35:31):
struggles at the quarterback position this year, wins five games
all of a sudden, has just a just a terrible year.
And let's just say that Nico does land on his
feet somewhere else. Let's say that, you know, a school
we're not thinking of, let's just out of the blue,
not looking at their depth chart, don't at me. Let's
just say a school like Notre Dame turns around and
Marcus Freeman's like, you know what, we want to bring

(35:52):
more competition into the room. We'll pay him, we'll come in,
and then he wins a bunch of games and goes
to the college football playoff somewhere else. Like it's so
easy to day for fans to say, you know, screw
that guy, We've got it right. I don't even care.
I was just cautioning everybody to maybe wait to talk
your trash until you see how all of this plays out.
Because if Nico doesn't land anywhere and Tennessee goes on

(36:14):
in Wincinnati, then great, you were one thousand percent right.
But boy, if this season goes off the rails, and
now all of a sudden, Tennessee boosters are looking around saying,
we let one point four million dollars, that's the difference
right now. Reportedly we let one point four million dollars.
Be the reason our season just got absolutely tinkled away,
like anybody want that, right, So I just think we

(36:35):
need to remember that there is an outcome here that
will staggeringly change everybody's opinion on what's happening today.

Speaker 3 (36:41):
Don't you tell me how to fan? I got a
Valls pull over today. On to go Valls, baby, that's
all we know.

Speaker 2 (36:47):
They don't. If you're not with us, you're.

Speaker 3 (36:48):
Against us, as if I went to the University of Tennessee.

Speaker 1 (36:51):
But I mean, I mean you went to Indiana, so
like you know, I'm.

Speaker 3 (36:54):
Fine, But I live in Tennessee, and Indiana until recently
didn't have a football program that I gave a damn about.
I Uz it's so petty down here, Like the internet
is filled with freezing cold takes material. I have local
news anchors in the Nashville area driving the Chick fil
A just to get up a packet, just to pick
up a packet of Polynesian sauce and throw it in

(37:15):
the trash. Hashtag vfl eat it, Nico, Like that's the
kind of that's the degree it Also, sauce right way
also feels a little it feels a little insensitive. You know,
we're not gonna go to the details on that, but
you understand what I'm saying, Like it's just it's insane
down here. But to your point, it is going to
make so many people look so bad if he goes

(37:35):
somewhere else and he plays well. And Tennessee who looked
to be building and was, you know, excited about the
upcoming season, and yeah, there's some turnover on the offensive line,
and yeah, we've got, you know, some questions to answer
because we're losing James Pearce to the NFL Draft on defense.
But we've got the quarterback, we got the five star,
we've got the thing that's going to take us to
the Promised Land. Yeah, we got blown out by Ohio
State and it wasn't even closer. We took our shirts

(37:57):
off in the pregame and uh and Will Howard called
a bunch of fing clowns with John Gruden here recently
on barstool, like all of these things, right, but you
had the quarterback until you go to the spring game
and you find out now he said the transfer portal
because he wants more money. It is one of the
most impactful things that one of the most impactful stories
we'll ever see in college sports full stop, because it's

(38:18):
the first of its kind, and that's what makes it
so fascinating because there's a million different ways that this
could go and we're just at the precipice of this.

Speaker 2 (38:24):
This is only the initial shockwave.

Speaker 1 (38:27):
Yeah, I'm waiting to see what happens when other players
turn around, because look, when you're declaring for the draft,
part of what you're deciding, I think in modern football
times is you going into the NFL. Are you going
to try and make more out of this? And I
will remind everybody that as of today, if your NICO,
you don't know what your NFL future looks like, but
you know certainly. I mean, look at Dylan Gabriel, like
doesn't have an NFL future, but boy did he maximize

(38:48):
his college football earning potential to make sure that he
is set for the rest of his life. And that's
part of this. How it will play for players and
what it means for teams and all of this. Just
remember fans of fanatics, players are just looking out for
their business. One player in the NFL not worried about
his business, even though he should be. We'll break it
down next on Fox Sports Radio.

Speaker 3 (39:09):
We've all gone through a bad breakup, and a lot
of times it happens with our favorite sports teams. But
the one thing that you've got to remember, you just
can't take these things personally. Welcome back to Fox Sports Saturday.
He's Jason fitz I'm Buck Rising.

Speaker 1 (39:25):
Except anyone ever actually take Does anyone ever take that advice?
Like telling somebody not to take it personally is like telling,
you know, the woman in your life just to calm down,
Like that's just the landing odds on that are not good.

Speaker 3 (39:40):
Go ahead, It's just you know, it's you got to
understand it's professional criticism, not personal criticism.

Speaker 2 (39:46):
Don't worry about it, baby, Everything's going to be fine.

Speaker 3 (39:48):
But that's what's going on with Justin Fields, the Pittsburgh
Steelers and the love triangle that now involves the New
York Jets their new quarterback, and he was speaking about
how it felt to be spurned by the Steelers in
free agency after they benched him for Russell Wilson. Then
went on to make the postseason but lose five straight games.

(40:08):
Fitzi in Pittsburgh to end their season with Russell Wilson
at the helm after Justin Fields had managed the situation
pretty well.

Speaker 2 (40:17):
Six starts in Pittsburgh.

Speaker 3 (40:19):
Four and two spoke this week for the Jets or
as a Jets quarterback after signing with them in free agency,
and he you know, it's one of those things that
you just got to keep repeating to yourself.

Speaker 2 (40:31):
You've got to manifest it.

Speaker 3 (40:32):
You can't take things personal and factively we have Justin
Fields speaking at his press conference earlier this week.

Speaker 7 (40:39):
Jason, what if the Jets take a quarterback here, whether
it's seven's second round, whatever, how do you feel about
the possibility of a young guy who might you know,
you might have to mentor or could be like nipping
at your heels.

Speaker 4 (40:52):
I don't really like to answer rhetorical questions, but like
I said, I'm willing to teach, but yeah, I don't I'm.

Speaker 1 (40:59):
Not really interested. And you know, rhetorical questions, M I
think you meant hypothetical questions.

Speaker 2 (41:05):
Yes, I do think so It's okay. At least things happen.

Speaker 3 (41:10):
As as people who speaking of microphones on a regular
basis and make kind of all kind of on godly mistakes.
I don't think we can criticize them, but I get
you know, I get your point.

Speaker 1 (41:19):
Look, I'm not sure. When you are the quarterback of
the Jets, you have the I don't know, glory of
not having to answer hypothetical questions like this is part
of what makes New York different. Like you covered the
Titans down in Nashville, I've certainly been around that team
a lot. I've been around some other teams. I've seen
the way my beloved Raiders are covered. I think we

(41:39):
can all admit that certain certain media groups are tougher
than other media groups, right and super to certain media
groups come with a different level of aggression and hyper attention.
That's New York. So if you don't want to answer
hypotheticals or rhetorical questions, New York's probably not the best
place for you, because I don't think you can tell
guys not to ask things. But buckle, let's start here.

(42:01):
It's smart strategy because you and I have done enough
shows getting ready for the draft to be honest about
the fact that I think there are a lot of
question marks with the quarterbacks in this year's draft class,
and so the overwhelming narrative has become the quarterback suck.
I don't think that's the right tone. I think the
right tone for this quarterback class is this quarterback class
needs time to develop in the right situation. So if

(42:22):
you tell me that the Jets in the second round
take a quarterback, I think that's pretty smart. If any
of the teams that we've talked about, the Giants, the Browns,
the Jets, the Raiders, any of the teams that are
quarterback thirsty take a quarterback in the second round, that's
just a smart use of the equity to get somebody
that you're gonna develop, right, So I think it'd be

(42:43):
smart for Justin Fields to at least be aware. I mean,
what he's not. He's had a two year deal, right,
so there's not a long term commitment to him they
can't get out of which means the chances are going. Yeah,
so there's a good chance that somebody's going to be
brought in, and as a result of being brought in,
he's gonna have to compete.

Speaker 3 (43:02):
What was your reaction when the Falcons drafted Michael Pennox
last year with the eighth overall pick.

Speaker 1 (43:07):
Shock and huh. I think everybody was shocked and thought
it was just the dumbest thing in the world and
turned out not to be. But I mean they shock.

Speaker 3 (43:15):
Have never been more vindicated than when Kirk Cousins got
injured and then started to struggle and then sat the
bench and they had the ability.

Speaker 2 (43:22):
And I know he's a rookie and he's got some
more developing to do.

Speaker 3 (43:25):
Michael PENNOCKX, although he was regarded by scouts and a
lot of coaches in the NFL as one of the
most pro ready, if not the most pro ready prospect
to come out in last year's classes, because he played
so much football to that point in time, there is
nothing wrong with hedging your bets at the most important
position in sports. And that's I think what justin Fields

(43:46):
and you know here locally, when Malik Willis was drafted
to sit behind Ryan Tannehill and a whole mentor gate
thing broke out. Joe Flacco and Lamar Jackson, There's been
a million different examples of this, time after time after
time after time.

Speaker 2 (43:59):
And yes, who are the incumbent.

Speaker 3 (44:01):
Quarterbacks and the likely starters in their situation as Fields
is most likely to be the starter in his situation
based on the compensation that he's receiving. It doesn't mean
that it's forever just because you're there now doesn't mean
that that you get to stop earning it. And I
think that the competitors understand this at the highest levels,
and if they don't, then they lose their jobs. In

(44:22):
the life cycle of the NFL continues to turn through
that position.

Speaker 2 (44:26):
But as an organization, no.

Speaker 3 (44:27):
I almost think that Jets have to draft a quarterback
this year no matter what justin field situation. Justin Field's
feelings in this circumstance do not matter. It is what
is best for the sustainability and longevity and viability of
your franchise as New York, as Minnesota, as Green Bay.

(44:50):
When they did it to Rogers and when they did
it to farm and all these different things, it is
exactly what New York should do given that. I mean,
they've got a different needs. They need offensive line help,
they need wide receiver help, they need pieces and parts
on defense just to kind of get that unit back
a float after Robert Solo was fired and then it
went just tumbling.

Speaker 2 (45:12):
But they have to have a backup plan.

Speaker 3 (45:15):
Your backup quarterback is going to play sixty plus of
them almost on an annual basis. Start games now in
the NFL, your backup quarterback is probably going to start
a game, if not multiple, and so to prepare yourself
for whatever situation.

Speaker 2 (45:30):
May come up.

Speaker 3 (45:31):
If Justin Fields gets out there and he's a seventeen
game starter, great, If Justin Fields gets out there and
he gets hurt, who.

Speaker 2 (45:37):
You're gonna go to?

Speaker 3 (45:38):
You're gonna throw another season in New York in the toilet.
I'm sure they'd love that. There's so many different reasons
why it makes sense, even though it may not be
in the best interest of the individual player who's speaking
about it. And I think they get that too.

Speaker 1 (45:50):
It's a copy yet league too, right, Like, so you
see what works somewhere and it opens your mind to
you know, changing some things. And that's why I've been
saying for almost a day at this point, I don't
think we should look at the amount of money being
spent on a starting quarterback as a solo number. I
think you should look at the position value. Okay, so
how much money are we spending on the quarterback overall?

(46:11):
And when you apply that standard to it, and you
look at it and say, well, a second round pick
is so little money, we add that to what we're
paying at the position. I don't think it's an accident.
Book that you know, let's face the Justin Fields has
a pretty easy contract to get out of. Not much
that you have to swallow out of that thing. Miss
Sam Darnold has a pretty easy contract to get out of.
Gino Smith has a pretty easy contract to get out of.

(46:32):
Joe Flacco signed by the Browns. Not really in a
situation where show you by Flaco love it. I almost
still have a Flacco jersey.

Speaker 4 (46:41):
I know I don't have a Flaco j I was
actually at its first game. Remember when you guys told
me I have to go to the Browns game And
I ended up going to it. And that was Joe
Flacco's first game at they were playing the Rams, and
was that so far? And I saw that beautiful masterpiece
happen unfold in front of me, the touchdown to Ford,
Oh my god, it was. It was beautiful.

Speaker 1 (47:03):
Notice here he said, we had to tell him because
the fellas Anthony Gargano and I on Saturday Mornings. Shae
was producing at the time, and Shae lifelong diehard Browns fan.
The Browns were playing in LA to take on the Rams,
and Shaye was going to sleep through the King wasn't
gonna go no, no, I wasn't didn't have anybody.

Speaker 4 (47:21):
I didn't have any overnight started at ten pm, got
off at seven am. There was no sleeping. It was
going straight to the to the stadium.

Speaker 6 (47:30):
Right.

Speaker 2 (47:30):
He's very defensive.

Speaker 1 (47:32):
He was gonna, he said, he was going to crawl
in bed and watch it in bed. All right? Like,
can you if you are a die hard fan of
a team, can you get in your favorite flannel pj's
and watch your favorite team while you're taking an app?
I don't think so. We simply encourage. And then he said, well,
I can't find anybody to go with me, and we're
like the.

Speaker 3 (47:48):
Browns the Masters, the Masters is what he was starting.
The Browns rams game into.

Speaker 4 (47:53):
I ended up buying a ticket for my friend just
so I could go. You see, that's how much of
a Browns fan I am. He wasn't gonna go watch
the Browns. You always into it, but you know a
little bit, you know, it was the overnight. I was tired.
I wasn't thinking straight. If I was right now, i'd
be there.

Speaker 3 (48:11):
That's it's just some some hr person needs to come
and get after fits for bullying you into buying you
and your buddy.

Speaker 1 (48:18):
I take it to a Browns, And it would be
ironic as hell if if HR finally came at me
somewhere I worked for, you know, bullying Shay on the brea,
like if that's the thing. It's not the it's not
the fifteen minute hugs that I give a buck rising.

Speaker 3 (48:31):
It's the deeply uncomfortable and it's it's unfortunate because he's
so much shorter than meche so he just kind of fits, right,
it's so.

Speaker 1 (48:39):
Much what do you make it sound like? You're six four? Okay?
What are you like? Six one? What are you like?

Speaker 2 (48:43):
You're six to buddy?

Speaker 3 (48:44):
And that hair generously makes you like five seven, five eight.

Speaker 1 (48:49):
Five nine and a quarter? Thank you? All right?

Speaker 3 (48:51):
No, I used to be if you are using fractions,
nobody believes your height.

Speaker 2 (48:56):
Let me tell you that right now.

Speaker 1 (48:57):
No, no, no.

Speaker 3 (48:57):
Using fractions to justify yourself.

Speaker 2 (49:00):
My friend, you are five eight, sir.

Speaker 1 (49:02):
This is where you haven't gotten old yet, because I
was five nine and a half and then I went
in one day and I was five nine and a
quarter and that's when I realized I'm now at the
age where I'm shrinking. Okay, so now it becomes more
important than ever that I actually back up with the
you know, I'm I'm sneaking. I am I'm taller than
people give me credit for. I'm just a small free
youman be.

Speaker 2 (49:21):
Were you wear shoes with a lot of patter. I'm
wise to your game.

Speaker 1 (49:25):
Sound like I'm coming up to you or something.

Speaker 2 (49:27):
Okay, yeah, old and shrinking and it doesn't like the
masters come down ladies, the.

Speaker 1 (49:37):
Oh my god. Okay. So I'm just saying that if
you to get us back to somehow quarterback in the
unif speaking of old Joe Flacco, uh Now, I think
that there is this moment for justin fields where he
may not want to answer these questions. But all of
the teams that are picking at the top of the
draft this year, at the top of the first round,
have somebody in the room that has had respect or

(49:58):
gained respect for their way of approaching the quarterback position.
In fact, I'd make the argument that almost every quarterback
needy team this year has somebody you can say, okay,
like whether or not I believe in Brian Callahan, and
he's simply he's He got his job in part because
of his work with Burrow Right and Brian Dabele got
his job because of his work with Josh Allen. Right,

(50:20):
we can understand that Stefanski is presumed to be one
of the smarter offensive minds in the NFL. Everybody loves
him for a reason, right, Like Pete Carroll has done
it multiple times.

Speaker 2 (50:31):
He's a two time Coach of the Year and not
so dispressive.

Speaker 1 (50:34):
Right, No, No, that's why I said like that. That
was just doing that with throwing the accolades out quite disrespectful. Well,
so even if you get down to Kellen Moore, like
Kellen Moore is supposed to be a quarterback whisperer, So
you know, you go up and down the list and
I see a lot of teams that have at least
hired somebody that they presume can develop a quarterback. So
it becomes more intelligent than ever to me that these

(50:55):
teams are going to look at that position and they're
going to figure out how to draft it. By the way,
you should figure out how to stream this show and
all of our Fox Sports Radio shows Live twenty four
to seven and the new and improved iHeartRadio app. Just
search Fox Sports Radio in the app, stream us live
and one of the newest features in the app This
is awesome that you can select Fox Sports Radio as
one of your presets. So if you're fancy out there

(51:16):
and you remember what it used to be like to
actually do this thing on radio, they now have it
in the app. You can preset Fox Sports Radio in
the iHeartRadio app. It will always pop up at the
top of your screen. We just mentioned a bunch of
teams that need a quarterback, but one of the teams
that needs a quarterback the most might actually be stuck
on Draft night and it could change the way their

(51:38):
entire franchise looks for the next five years. We'll tell
you about it next. He's Buck Rising. I'm Jason Fitz.
It's Bucking Fits. On a Fox Sports Saturday. He's Buck Rising.
I'm Jason Fitz. It's Bucking Fits. Coming into live from
the tyrack dot Com studios. In honor of the piano
and the masters. I feel like we should speak with

(51:59):
the level of I don't know properties that I don't
usually have a proper even a word. I don't even know.

Speaker 3 (52:06):
I don't know that you made fun of Jim Nance
on the broadcast. Then you couldn't even get through thirty
seconds of your own master's impression.

Speaker 2 (52:12):
Terrible job by you.

Speaker 1 (52:13):
No, I'm not. Look, there's a reason I don't do impressions,
and there's a reason I don't watch and golf like
the sport art puts me to sleep. I don't need
Nance helping me along the way like it's great. I
need the soothing voice of Jim Nantz to make sure
that it turns into a couch nap for an hour.

Speaker 3 (52:28):
Leave Jim Nance out of this. He did nothing to you.
If you have an issue with golf.

Speaker 2 (52:32):
Fine you leave Jim alone.

Speaker 1 (52:34):
I mean, I'm just saying like that. It doesn't help, Okay,
it doesn't. I don't need the sweet suit like give
me Axel Rose like Prime Axl Rose commentating on it
and maybe maybe then I'm in on it, like I
don't know. Or give me drunk history. If you turn
drunk history into the way that they actually commentated on
the Masters, now I'm in. Okay. Get a bunch of
people like so caned that they can barely sit up

(52:56):
there and let them do that thing, then I'm in.

Speaker 2 (52:58):
All right, that's called the way management open. Where are you?
Where have you been my entire life? What are you
talking about?

Speaker 1 (53:04):
Okay, Look, I'm I'm not watching the waste management open
like there is.

Speaker 4 (53:10):
You got no idea what he's talking about. Sixteen I
had people throwing beers. Someone ripped their chair out of
the stadium. Put it on there. You just don't know.

Speaker 1 (53:18):
I know.

Speaker 2 (53:18):
We had somebody peeing the creek at the Masters this year.

Speaker 4 (53:21):
That happens literally, alumni or wait's still going there?

Speaker 1 (53:26):
Yeah, the waste management Like okay, shoot, you're describing some like, Look,
I'm going to watch some you know, rich white kid
and like rip a chair out and throw it at
somebody Like I.

Speaker 3 (53:35):
Just again, see he's not only is he shrinking and
uh and uh and a short king, he's also old.
So he's out of his element. We've exposed him a
little bit here, Shay. We have to get him back
on the right track. We have to talk quarterback controversy.
We've got to get him back going in his.

Speaker 1 (53:51):
Thank you on behalf of my people on, behalf of
my middle aged people. Look, there's the Travelers. Happens right
down the road for me too. I never go to
that either. Okay, So now that I'm done reminding everybody
how useless the golf is, let's get something people actually
care about known as football. Okay, so there is a

(54:12):
real chance in my mind that one of the most
storied and well run franchises in NFL history is absolutely screwed.
And I just keep thinking about if you are the
Pittsburgh Steelers, who mind you are not picking at a
spot in the NFL draft where there's an easy path
to a quarterback. Certainly they could take a developmental quarterback

(54:32):
and let him sit for a bit and mentor them
and hope that they can coach them up. Like that
might be their approach. But remember a few years ago
in the draft when all of a sudden it was
just man, they needed one, and Kenny Pickett was sitting there.
So they're like, all right, we need a quarterback and
he needs to be drafted, So I guess we'll do
this thing. How did that work out? Right? Like, I
feel like the Steelers are in the same situation all
over again, because we are, as a collective society, just

(54:55):
presuming that Aaron Rodgers is gonna decide that he's ready
to play for Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh's gonna decide that they want
Aaron Rodgers, and it's all gonna be komba yah. But man,
I don't know, Buck, Like, how do we know anything
about what Aaron Rodgers is gonna do? Like what do
we do if Aaron Rodgers decides to go back in
the darkness and doesn't want to play, or if he
doesn't want to play by Tomlin's rules, or he doesn't

(55:15):
want to show up at OTA's and all of these
things that we've seen, Like what if he wants to
go on a trip to Egypt, like all of these
things that we keep talking about with Aaron Rodgers? What
if he decides that that's the path he wants to
be in. And now the Steelers are sitting here saying,
wait a minute, like we knew there was gonna be
a game of musical chairs right now. If the beautiful
piano has stopped playing, the Steelers have nothing at the quarterback.

Speaker 2 (55:38):
Position, and you know what hurts them even more.

Speaker 3 (55:43):
I'm sure you saw the news that was dumped into
the Friday Ether that Derek Carr somehow has a shoulder
injury that could require surgery that could keep him out
of playing for the twenty twenty five season, which FITZI.
If you're familiar with the NFL draft order, the Saints
are currently picking ninth, if Shador Sanders makes any kind

(56:05):
of fall, or Jackson Darter or even Jalen Milroe, who
I don't know if we've talked about, is attending the
NFL Draft, which is a crazy thing to me.

Speaker 2 (56:12):
We could see.

Speaker 3 (56:13):
I don't think there's a world in which four first
I mean, I really don't think there's a world in
which four.

Speaker 2 (56:18):
First round quarterbacks go.

Speaker 3 (56:20):
But the fact that he's going to the draft makes
it very very interesting.

Speaker 2 (56:24):
All that to say, though, for the.

Speaker 3 (56:25):
Steelers' purposes picking at what twenty one at this point
in time, if Chador falls out of the top five
six players, makes it past the Raiders at six, who
just signed Geno to a two year contract extension, and
New Orleans needs the quarterback situation because Car can't.

Speaker 2 (56:40):
Go, what are the Steelers gonna do?

Speaker 1 (56:44):
So look, the more I keep hearing now, everybody I
talk to you says that there's a real love for
like Kellam Moore, the new head coach of the Saints,
likes Jackson Dart a lot. I just I wouldn't be
surprised if it's Jackson Dart at nine. And I know
people will say, you can't do it, You can't do well.
I mean, the whole plan in my mind has been
you bring along slowly while Derek Carr does what Derek

(57:06):
Carr is gonna do. He's gonna win you enough games
to at least keep you somewhat relevant, right like this
injury news is You're right, incredibly impactful. And by the way,
I was asked this week for Yahoo, my other gig,
I was asked what my bold prediction was for the
NFL Draft. I think four quarterbacks are going in the
first round because realistically, if you look at it, Okay,

(57:27):
so we know cam Ward's going one to Titan to
the Titans. I believe the Saints are going to take
a quarterback at nine. The question is, is that Jackson
dart or is that shod Or Sanders. Then you're gonna
get into this middle section of the draft. Is somebody
there going to Are the Rams going to take a
shot on a quarterback? Are the Colts going to go
back and take another swing at the quarterback position. Are
the Steelers simply gonna wait and see if Shaduur is

(57:49):
there for them and take him at twenty one? Well,
now this is where it gets interesting because I agree
with everybody the Jalen Milroe is not ready to start
in the NFL. But the first pick in the second
round belongs to Cleveland, right, so Cleveland is gonna have
all night to sit there and look at the quarterback
that they may want to take if they don't take
a quarterback at two, and I don't believe they will.

(58:09):
So now all of a sudden, everybody else the Giants.
Let's say the Giants didn't take a quarterback, right, like,
go up and down the list of everyone that may
have passed on Shadur because they're picking at the top
of the second round. Now, all of a sudden, you're
in a Lamar Jackson situation. Do you trade up to
the bottom of the second in the first round to
get ahead of the Browns? Make sure you get Jalen Milroe.
By doing so, you get the fifth year on him.

(58:31):
And I think everybody would acknowledge from an athletics trade standpoint,
he's incredible, but he's not a very good quarterback right now, Okay,
but this isn't Anthony Richardson where you're throwing him on
the field like you're gonna spend two years developing him.
So do you take a Jordan Love approach with Jayleen Milroe.
I honestly think the fact that he's going through the
draft means somebody in his camp believes that there's going

(58:52):
to be a trade up for him. He goes at
the bottom of the first round. Four quarterbacks go in
the first round.

Speaker 2 (58:56):
You can't calm the quarterback chaos.

Speaker 3 (58:58):
But which you can calm is the chaos with the
shipping software that delivers use code Sports. How about that
fits a free trial at shipstation dot com. That shipstation
dot com code sports and be sure to tune in
to Draft Night Live on Thursday, April twenty fourth, at
eight pm Eastern. Throughout the first round of the draft.
Insider Jay Glazer, former Jets general manager Joe Douglas, college

(59:20):
football Hall of Famer LeVar Arrington, and Fox Sports lead
college football reporter Jenny Taft will have pick by pick
predictions and reactions to every first round pick. That's Thursday,
April twenty fourth, at eight pm Eastern, throughout the first
round of the draft, live right here on Fox Sports Radio,
brought to you by Shipstation. I think your point is

(59:41):
well taken, and for me, you know, we can have
a conversation about this later. I don't want to derail
the conversation that we're currently having because I know we're
going to get an update here soon. But in the
right circumstance, like so many of these quarterbacks in the
draft are circumstantial that their success is so circumstantial, and
that's the that's the case every year, based on geography,
based on how good a team these kids are actually
going to. Usually the worst teams in the draft, the

(01:00:04):
worst teams in football are picking at the top of
the draft. Those quarterbacks have a very very slim chance
for success. And so in a couple of these situations,
in the right circumstance, I think Melroe could be the
next version of Jalen Hurts.

Speaker 2 (01:00:16):
But he's got to end up in the right spot.

Speaker 1 (01:00:19):
You just said something wildly important. We'll continue to break
it down, but first you're right, we do need to
eet an update, Steve, to see you tell us what's
going on.

Speaker 2 (01:00:26):
Well, the NBA is off tonight.

Speaker 5 (01:00:27):
The regular season ends Sunday, and Minnesota star Anthony Edwards
will be playing tomorrow. We thought he would be serving
a one game suspension for the Sunday finale, where that
tech he was given last night has been rescinded. It
would have been his eighteenth technical foul of the season.
The NBA play In Tournament starts Tuesday. Anthony Davis and
the MAVs will not be playing Sunday. The Lakers will

(01:00:48):
be sitting starters at Portland. Boston's Jalen Brown and Jason
Tatum will be out. Donovan Mitchell of Cleveland will miss
a fourth straight game tomorrow with a sprained ankle. In
the NHL, LA defeated Kylorade Florida in a shootout, a
three to two winner against Buffalo. Currently, Chicago has just
taken a four to three lead on Winnipeg about five
minutes to go. Montreal still scoreless in the third at Toronto,

(01:01:12):
under eight minutes left in regulation. Rory McElroy leads the
Masters by two strokes over Bryson to Shambeau. McElroy shot
a third round sixty six. Scottie Scheffler fell to a
tie for sixth place, seven shots back. The Tennessee Vaults
moved on from starting quarterback Nico Iamalayava after he skipped
practice in an NIL holdout. The transfer portal opens on Wednesday.

(01:01:34):
Kyle Larson won the Xfinity Race today Nascars on FS
one again Sunday from Bristol, Tennessee, three pm Eastern Time.
Alex Bowman earned the poll to Major League Baseball. The
Angels lead for to one at Houston. In the top
of the ninth. Halo starter Tyler Anderson had a no
hitter until the sixth inning. He went five and two
third scoreless.

Speaker 2 (01:01:53):
This evening.

Speaker 5 (01:01:54):
The Brewers are still leading at Arizona two nothing against
Corbyn Burns, ex Brewer the games. In the bottom of
the fifth, Padre's got an early home run from Fernando
Tatis Junior, won nothing the lead over the Rockies top
of the fourth. Cubs have taken a one nothing lead
at Dodger Stadium top of the second against la starter
Roki Sasaki. Wins for Cleveland and Cincinnati. For Miami as well,

(01:02:15):
the White Sox were three and ten but edge Boston
three to two on a run on the bottom of
the ninth. Atlanta was three and ten but got a
five to four victory at Tampa Bay. The Yankees beat
San Francisco today eight to four, wins for the A's
in Baltimore. Wins for Philadelphia and Detroit, which is now
nine and five after shutting out the Twins in Minnesota
four to nothing, Spencer Torkelsen a home run three RBIs

(01:02:37):
the Twins have a record at four and eleven.

Speaker 1 (01:02:39):
Back to you, he's Buck Rising on Jason fitzbuckin fits
on a Fox Sports Saturday, coming at you Live from
the tai iraq dot com studios. Situation matters, Like, I
think this is what we have to remember, is that
your favorite team has to pick the right player, and
then your favorite team in the draft, in what two

(01:03:00):
weeks has to then develop the right player. And how
often have I said, Buck, like, when you draft a quarterback,
I think you have an obligation as an organization to
basically I don't all the way down to the janitor,
every single person in that building has to have one
goal in mind. It's developing a quarterback. And that's why, Like, look,
if you're telling me that should door goes second overall
to Cleveland, it's an abject disaster in my mind. If

(01:03:22):
you're telling me that should or goes later in the
draft and whatever of these quarterbacks, should they end up
with the Rams where they don't have to start for
their rookie year and they can learn and they can
learn from McVeigh while they sit back and they watch
Stafford be the type of quarterback that you can figure
out a lot from watching. That kid is going to
end up being more successful. And it doesn't mean that

(01:03:43):
that kid's a better quarterback. It just means systems matter,
where you land matters. It's why I don't love any
of these quarterbacks to come on the field and immediately
turn around a franchise. I love a bunch of these
quarterbacks if it's a Jordan Love situation and we're three
years in. The thing is like the hard thing for
all of us as fans to admit is that when
you look in the mirror, more often than not, your

(01:04:05):
favorite team is not likely to be Washington with all
new ownership, all new front office, all new everybody that
supports Jayden Daniels, or Houston with oh my god, we
finally hit the lottery. We got the right coach and
we got the right quarterbacks. Somehow it all worked out.
More likely than not, your favorite team is going to
be like the Jacks, all right. Your favorite team is
on the same level of suck as Jacksonville is, and

(01:04:26):
the quarterback they're gonna draft is not as talented as
Trevor Lawrence. So if the Jacksonville Jaguars managed to just
absolutely you know what, all over the career of the
can't miss Trevor Lawrence, your favorite team's probably gonna do
the same thing to all of these quarterbacks if they
step on the field in the first couple of years.
It's a systemic problem with organizations more than it is

(01:04:48):
with the players. And that's why I hate that we
keep saying these quarterbacks suck. I think these quarterbacks are
not as surefire as some of the quarterbacks we've seen.
They just need to be in a situation where they're
nurtured a little bit, and I think most bad team
don't know how to nurture.

Speaker 3 (01:05:02):
Yeah, but you know, not every team is hiring Urban
Meyer to be jack Trevor Lawrence's first year NFL coach.

Speaker 1 (01:05:10):
You know what, Well, but is it any better to
get okay?

Speaker 3 (01:05:12):
So if you're the Giants, let's make sure that we
clarify that that was a particularly uniquely awful situation that
Trevor Lawrence was dropped into.

Speaker 2 (01:05:21):
Jacksonville did that to him.

Speaker 3 (01:05:22):
But you know, there were some mitigating circumstances that the
maid that may have derailed Lawrence from catching faster than
he that he has. Listen, make no mistake, he's the
most underperforming UH player I think in professional football relative
to expectation.

Speaker 2 (01:05:37):
It's it's been tough.

Speaker 3 (01:05:38):
For Trevor Lawrence, but you know, I just wanted to
make sure that we had that qualifier for Trevor's sake.

Speaker 1 (01:05:43):
Hear me out on this though, if you had to,
like right now, and I didn't even ask fans, Giants fans. Okay,
there's two ways this goes. Dave Bull drafts a quarterback
and develops that quarterback and it turns into such a
beautiful relationship that all of a sudden, the fortunes of
the franchise change, or or Dable drafts quarterback and we

(01:06:04):
get two thirds of the way through the season, the
roster sucks, the team's not very good. They fire the
coach and then the GM, and then a new GM
is gonna come in and bring in a new coach
that we'll bringing in a new offensive system that may
or may not work, depending on how things are going,
because coaching cycles aren't very exact. And then all of
a sudden, you've got in his second year, let's say
schadur In this situation is learning his second offense. Now,

(01:06:26):
if the coach isn't great, coach gets a couple of
years and then all of a sudden, by the time
you hit year four, things haven't really materialized. For Shador,
he's on his third set of signal callers of the
course of his rookie contract, and he's perceived a bus
like you are in Tennessee. What's more likely for a
team that one year keeps the coach and the next
year keeps the GM. What is more likely cam Ward

(01:06:47):
comes in and saves the Tennessee Titans, which is a glorious,
glorious thought, or cam Ward struggles. Callahan gets fired because
he wasn't the pick of the current administration that is
now running at the new GM. The new GM then
gets a stab at another coach. Again, these coaching cycles
are very inexact in the hiring, so that coach doesn't
work out, he gets fired, Then the GM gets fired,

(01:07:08):
and a new GM gets brought and who brings in
a different coach, And cam Ward's in his fourth year
to learn in his third offense, and we say Camboard
sucks like that's that's real for these like the worst
teams are not bad like some of these players. Don't
fall apart because the players suck. They fall apart because
the entire organization from the very top, I'm looking at you,
Amy Adams Trunk all the way to the very bottom

(01:07:30):
just don't know what the hell they're doing when it
comes to giving any continuity of development.

Speaker 3 (01:07:35):
I love that you said that with me on the air,
except it was you saying it, not me, because inevitably,
I've gotten a million different calls about my criticisms of
the Titans front office and specifically ownership structure in the
last three years because it's been a mess. They've been
one of the worst organizations in football. They're trying to
rectify that. Whether or not they do doesn't matter because
to your point, Washington had a total reset at all

(01:07:58):
the most important places for that thing to get up
off the ground. That is such a uniquely, that's such
a singular situation that happened for them. And you know,
Jayden Daniels is obviously a success, and they constructed the
roster around him right. But to your point, the success
rate for these quarterbacks, like we've talked about this in
some former fashion before, Fitzie one hundred and thirty six
quarterbacks have been selected in the first round. Sixty two

(01:08:20):
of them have won a playoff game. It's forty five percent.
It's just a hair over forty five percent. And that
doesn't necessarily make them a success, right just winning a
playoff game, But it's even rare enough for those guys
to do that for how often the NFL. I don't
want to say the quarterbacks crash out, but the NFL
crashes them out. And maybe that's just a product of
how we've created it. But I mean to kind of

(01:08:42):
bring back a topic from the first hour with the
way the college football is now trending. In the nicoyam
Aliava situation at Tennessee, you're paying X amount of money
for a player to produce. You're going to put him
out there before he's ready just because.

Speaker 1 (01:08:55):
Of the cost. Which is why smart minds around the
NFL continue tell us that quarterbacks are tougher and tougher
to evaluate at times like because there is not a
ton of development like you, there is an advantage in
my mind to guys that have been playing like Camwoard
has the advantage of having played a lot of college football.
So look, I love a kid now that's played a

(01:09:17):
lot of college football, because at least you could turn around, Look,
Shaure has played a lot of college football. Give me
somebody that you have a ton of tape on because
you have a better idea of who they are. But
development is not necessarily something anybody at any level is coaching.
And for Titans fans that will say I'm a hater,
like I'm sitting here with enough Raiders memorabilia around me,
Like I am a lifelong time I've got a Raiders tattoo.

(01:09:38):
I've never hidden my love of the Raiders. Like the
fact is I've watched the Raiders missed at the quarterback
position for most of my life. Like, for whatever you
want to say about Derek Carr, I am forty eight.
For whatever you want to say about Derek Carr, he
is the second best Raiders quarterback I've seen in my
life that I can remember. Like that is I've I've

(01:10:00):
seen eleven winning seasons in the last forty years. Right,
So at some point we could sit here all day
and say, oh my god, if the Raiders pick a
quarterback and he doesn't work out with the kid's a bum. No,
Like at some point, Mark Davis just isn't very good
at this right. So when you start saying, well, Pete
Carroll's old and all these things, I don't care. I
just want an adult in the room that's been part

(01:10:20):
of something successful for once, where I can say, Okay,
I mean, Mark's gonna screw it up, but maybe maybe
Pete Carroll and Tom Brady won't screw it up, Like
maybe there's just enough lit maybe he's finally gotten it right.
But that's the most realistic thing any of us. Like
Shay's a Browns fan. All Shay's hoping is that the
Browns don't blow it. But realistically, I don't think they're

(01:10:43):
gonna blow it on Draft Day. They're gonna blow it
for the three years after Draft Day when they don't
do anything to make the most of the people they
actually brought in the room.

Speaker 4 (01:10:53):
Unfortunately, Shade a wonder, Shane, no wonder.

Speaker 2 (01:10:58):
He's shrinking. Did you hear that number? It's just weighing
on him. Forty eight? Oh my god, that that dragged
me down.

Speaker 1 (01:11:05):
A little bit. I gotta do the math. Actually, I'm
not forty eight yet. I'll turn forty eight this year.
I always forget, you know, when.

Speaker 2 (01:11:10):
Three quarters or whatever it is.

Speaker 1 (01:11:13):
Yeah, the funny thing is what Buck isn't telling you
is that if we walked into a bar, I get
carted before Buck Wit, he looks like the old man
in the room, like I'm a sneaky vampire. It's fine.

Speaker 2 (01:11:23):
I got both talks for that, baby. Don't worry about
it working.

Speaker 1 (01:11:25):
I don't.

Speaker 2 (01:11:26):
I'm around here, all right. Don't worry about us over here.

Speaker 1 (01:11:29):
You know how many times I get asked what my
what my like regimen is? My regimen is? I barely
wash my face like I don't do any of the
things that you do. But it's it's it works for you, Okay.
For all that, there was a a Hail Mary, a
hail Mary of desperation today on social media that should
have one team's fan base absolutely panicking about whatever and

(01:11:52):
the hell their favorite team's going to do. In the
Drafte's Buck Rising, I'm Jason Fitz. We'll tell you about
it after the break. Hits fucking Fits on Fox Sports
Radio sticks catching a stray. He's Buck Rising. I'm Jason Fitz.
Bucket Fits on a Fox Sports Saturday, coming at you
Live from the ti iraq dot Com studios. I was
more of a damn Yankees guy than sticks Giants fans.

(01:12:13):
You need to be panicked, uh, in just being honest,
like at this point all hell's breaking was. We'll get
to that in a second, but Buck, I need to
ask my favorite elitist that you an important question here
because I you know, I'm on my fitness journey. Okay,
so I've been on this fitness journey for a while,
and you you get, sir, have been on a fitness
journey for a long time, like your boot camp guy.

(01:12:34):
And uh, when I first met you, you were a
little you were a little pudgy here, and now like
you've you've redeemed yourself. Yeah, you look good, brother, man.

Speaker 3 (01:12:43):
Now I'm hot and you can't tell me anything. It's
a tough scene out here, fits. I mean, and I
was like this before and now now, I mean, it's
it's it's a hopeless cost. But I almost feel like
I want to ask Shay or Mary Mack back there
to give me the give me the the the little
pretentious piano tinkle in the background whilst whilst you ask
me elitist in questions.

Speaker 2 (01:13:03):
I think that would be a nice touch shake that he's.

Speaker 1 (01:13:06):
Gonna have that So you know, I started my fitness
journey last year on May seventeenth, and I remember the
day very specifically. I have not had alcohol since that
point and humble brag. And I lost at one point
a little over forty pounds, and not that I was
a big guy to begin with, but I lost forty
pounds and since then have put on twelve pounds of muscle.

Speaker 2 (01:13:28):
Like.

Speaker 1 (01:13:28):
So there's been a whole thing with the trainer, Nashville
Trainer that has been absolutely incredible for me. Puts everything
in an app so I know what to eat. I know,
you know what to work out and so like the sets,
the reps, everything, and then you know, I check in
every week and everything. So I chart my macros. I
keeping in touch with my macros. Right, so tells me
what I can eat and what I can't eat every day.

(01:13:48):
So I have I have a sweet tooth, but I
can't have cake, right, And this is my great dilemma
because as you well know, I don't understand moderation. So
I'm the type of person that's either completely off the
wagon or completely on it. I'm the type of person
that doesn't need a drink or I've got friends tell
me I should go to rehab. There's very little middle
ground for me, right, So dark o, K dark? Well,

(01:14:08):
I mean that's just being I remember one year for
New Year's I was like, I'm giving up alcohol and
some of my friends were like, ah, that's such a
good idea, and I was like, oh my god, I
didn't know.

Speaker 3 (01:14:17):
Right.

Speaker 1 (01:14:17):
So look, I've parted my way through some years. But
here's the thing. I love cake. I can't have cake,
and I have struggled to figure out what I can
have and I have now found a.

Speaker 2 (01:14:28):
Look at that the elitist quarter. I like this.

Speaker 1 (01:14:30):
I've found an elitist dessert of sorts that I particularly
enjoy and I needed to get your take on it,
because you are the type of elitist that will suffer
through the wine presentation at a dinner table. To be honest, like,
I don't order wine because it's lost to me. Like
a three dollars bottle of wine is about the tops
for me. Somebody once told me I should treat myself
to a nice bottle of wine. I called them the

(01:14:52):
next day. I was like, I got one. There was
like eighteen dollars and they laughed at me. Okay, so
pa knew.

Speaker 3 (01:14:57):
God as soon as I heard your master's analysis plays
as a we didn't already know this.

Speaker 2 (01:15:01):
We can sniff your kind out, just like we sniff
the wine.

Speaker 1 (01:15:05):
So my obsession at this point if I can get
them the cotton candy ones, but if I can't grapes, okay,
But here's the thing. You take the grapes, you wash
the grapes, you put the grapes in a little container,
and you freeze the grapes. All right, So I find
myself eating a portion controlled number of frozen grapes at
the end of the night, and I feel so fancy
because my whole life growing up is like, oh, the

(01:15:26):
concept of frozen grapes, but also they're really delicious, So like,
where are you, as the elitist on frozen grapes as
a sweet treat at the end of the night.

Speaker 3 (01:15:35):
It sounds like something you would give a toddler's that
does that does not sound like that to shut up
a screaming baby up, you'd be like, all right, I'll
give him some frozen grapes.

Speaker 2 (01:15:45):
Maybe he's teething.

Speaker 1 (01:15:46):
Royalty back in the day got like like the women
would feed the royalty the frozen grapes while they fan
them with the big banana les. No, no, no, no no.

Speaker 3 (01:15:55):
When you tell me frozen grapes, I think something that
come in a wholesale bag that you're just pulling out
of a pull it out of the frazer at night
and shoveling a couple in your face and then calling
it today.

Speaker 2 (01:16:04):
That does not fit the That does not fit the
elitist vibe.

Speaker 3 (01:16:09):
You're fresh grapes, they heat, they had the seeds in
them and everything like, these are actual grapes, not these
mutated things that they sell you in the supermarkets. And
somebody is feeding you said grapes, then it classifies.

Speaker 1 (01:16:21):
Did you just throw shade at normal like at seedless grapes?
Is being mutated? What are we talking about? Oh my god? Like,
have you not had the cotton candy grapes? They taste
just like cotton candy, but they are grapes.

Speaker 3 (01:16:34):
I'm sorry. Did you want the elitist opinion? I've given
you the elitist opinion. If you don't like the way
that I that I consume grapes, that it means that
you're not of the not of the same caliber, not
of the same quality, not of the same class.

Speaker 1 (01:16:46):
Did you. Okay, so you have a problem with jet
left No, no, no, I want to, I want to.
I'm like, look, I just I want to be clear here.
Did you know that Brussels sprouts? People think Brussels sprouts
taste different than they used to. They do taste different
than the used to because food scientists in Brussels figured
out that people in the around the world weren't eating
Brussels sprouts. So back in the late nineties, food scientists engineered.

(01:17:09):
They took all of the things that are different Brussels
sprouts to make them taste better. So when people are like,
why didn't Brussels sprouts taste like this when I was
a kid, it's because scientists in Brussels figured out how
to make Brussels sprouts taste better. So, now, are you
anti eating Brussels sprouts because they've been genetically mutated for you?

Speaker 2 (01:17:27):
No, I'm anti chemical You freeight get real Brussels sproutes.
What's wrong with you? Stop it?

Speaker 1 (01:17:31):
Well, okay, there aren't chemicals on Okay, look, I can't,
I can't. All right, I'm just gonna go eat some
frozen grapes. Giants fans, your team posted on social media
asking you what to do with the draft. That's never
a good sign. We'll break it down. And plus the
NBA playoffs right around the corner. What should you be
hyped for? We'll figure it out on Fox Sports Radio.

Speaker 3 (01:17:49):
If you don't have a quarterback, you don't have anything
at all when it comes to the NFL. Welcome back
to Fox Sports Saturday. He's Jason fitz I'm Buck Rising.
We're broadcasting live from the tire rack dot Com studios
ti rack dot com. We'll help you get there an
unmatched selection, fast, free shipping, free road hazard protection, and
over ten thousand recommended installers tire rack dot com. The

(01:18:11):
way tire buying should be the Giants. They have quarterbacks
in the room. They've got Jamis Winston throwing crab legs
to fans at a sport fishing competition this weekend. Fitzy,
I don't know if you saw that on Instagram. You've
got Russell Wilson who's struggling mightily, not just to play
the quarterback position, but also to come up with his
newest catchphrase. Giants Nation, Let's ride doesn't quite fit. And

(01:18:35):
then there's Brian day Ball and Joe Shane, the embattled
head coach and general manager of the New York Giants,
who currently own the third overall pick in the NFL draft,
and there will be options at three to draft a
quarterback if they're really going to throw all available resources
at the position. But you had mentioned before we started
talking about frozen grapes and frozen snacks and sweet treats

(01:18:59):
and things of the like in this economy where you're
just trying to get a sweet treat for a reasonable cost.
I understand it. I respect it. Even if you're a
sweet treat choices, you know you could do better. You
said the Giants fans have a reason to freak out
or need to be freaking out at this point in time.
I think there's a great many reasons that they're probably
not freaking out but just apathetic about this whole situation.
Because what one reason anywhere in the world do New

(01:19:24):
York Giants fans have to be excited about their football
team in twenty twenty five.

Speaker 1 (01:19:29):
So there isn't any one reason. And to your point, like,
let's be clear here, if the Giants decided they were
going to do a autograph signing in Times Square for
Giants fans, and they trot out Russell Wilson and Jameis Winston,
some fans will be there sure, right If they trot
out Shador Sanders in a month, the place will be packed, right,

(01:19:52):
like you get sizzle with the quarterback. But the Giants
as an organization went to social media and with the
post to make your case, and they ask the fans
who would you take if they're both available? Would you
take shaduur or Abdul Carter? And I just keep looking
at that thinking, Okay, it feels less like they're asking
for fans opinions and more like they're asking for fans

(01:20:14):
o painting. It's like, hey, guys, what do I do here?
Like what do you guys want? And how often do
we see that? Sometimes? You know, things get leaked because
they're just trying to get a little bit of a
pulse of the market. Like I think Shadoor is going
to be there at three, I do. I don't think
the Cleveland Browns are going to take him. In a
beautiful world, I think what the Giants should be hoping for,
what the Raiders should be hoping for, what the Saints

(01:20:35):
should be helping for, is that Cleveland reaches for Shaduur too,
so that the whole conversation ends for all of us
that are hoping you consume our draft content. We want
to do it a fall so that you pay more
attention to it, if we're being honest. But I think
at some point, if you're the Giants, look if quarterbacks
go one or two, Abdul Carter, who they put in this?
Would you rather sort of conversation a dual Carter, by

(01:20:57):
many estimations, is the best player available in Maybe you
prefer Travis Hunter, maybe you prefer Mason Graham, maybe you
prefer Ashton Genty. I list those because those are pretty
clearly consensus. Those are the four best players in this
year's draft, right, So if there's a reach at one
and two, then teams three, four, five, and six, they're

(01:21:18):
all gonna be better for it. But it gets really
complicated for the Giants if shaduer is there, because look,
I don't think that's a great place to draft Shador Sanders.
I don't think Shador Sanders is a franchise saver. But
I also don't think the Giants have any sort of
a real option here. Like I don't think they got
themselves a quarterback room. They can win them any games

(01:21:38):
or excite anybody like. Nothing's gonna keep Dabo's job out
of that. So I don't know what they do, but
it just feels like when you're fishing for this stuff
with fans, it just it felt weird to me.

Speaker 3 (01:21:50):
It made me laugh so hard to see Shay send
this to our group text earlier today, because it's just
it's one of the more ridiculous things I've ever seen
a team do on their own website about their own
draft upcoming. When you should like the idea of playing hypothetical,
we're going to play would you rather at the end
of this hour. As a matter of fact, the Giants
are out here playing would you rather? With your draft

(01:22:13):
pick on a regular basis on their team website, and
it just it screams to me, Hey, guys, we're trying
to get you involved, We're trying to keep you engaged,
We're trying to keep your attention. Please don't give up
on us. I promise it's going to be okay. Would
you rather have Shador Sanders or abdl Carter? No, FITZI.
They do have a choice. The choice is to pass.
The choices to pass. Do not overdraft that quarterback if

(01:22:35):
you're not equipped to handle him. And it's not you know,
to your point, it's not saving Joe Shane's job or
Brian da Ball's job to draft Shadoor Sanders because in
all likelihood Shaeddor Sanders is probably not going to be
ready to play right away until dad gets on social
media and starts lobbying for when Russell Wilson looks a
bit inadequate at is an advanced advanced age and maybe

(01:22:55):
they go to Jamis in that kind of situation and
Jamis throws a couple of turnover and you're dealing with
one of the more accurate quarterbacks in college football, even
if a lot of his passes came behind the line
of scrimmage, as we know is the case with the
Colorado offense and Shador Sanders. So you have that extra
element of that that makes it particularly combustive in the
New York market, which just adds fuel to the flame.

(01:23:16):
And yes, that would give fans a reason to be excited.
But I guess if you're a Giants fan, I would
ask you this question, are you just looking for something
to excite you about your football team or are you
looking to get better? Because if you are looking for
the excitement of shador Sanders and the likely circus that
comes to town and all the media that will come

(01:23:37):
with it, and on the intrigue and all the interest,
and will Deon Sanders be your next coach? You can
get that if you draft Shadoor Sanders with a third
overall pick. But are you actually improving your football team?

Speaker 2 (01:23:47):
To me, the answer is no.

Speaker 3 (01:23:48):
They have needs everywhere that it needs a wide receiver,
they could use an extra pass rusher. They have so
many problems with that football team that addressing that specific
pick with thatific quarterback, we'll not get them any closer
to what they desire, which is a more competitive football
team in a highly competitive division that features the defending

(01:24:10):
Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles, the Dallas Cowboys, who are
probably a little bit vulnerable but still have a competitive
enough roster, certainly more competitive than the New York Giants,
and then the Darling Washington Commanders, who are all of
a sudden turning the entire fate of their franchise around
by going to the NFC Championship game. Should Door Sanders
does not help them get any better in their division

(01:24:31):
and trying to be more meaningfully competitive this year.

Speaker 2 (01:24:34):
You pass.

Speaker 1 (01:24:35):
The hard part about that, though, Buck, is if we're
being honest, quarterbacks provide hope, right. And so I know
I've said this before, but to me, quarterbacks are like ozempic.
Like you can lose weight going to the gym every
day and eating the right things and working really hard
for a long time, and it's a slow grind and
it's a long process, and when you come out of

(01:24:56):
it on the other side, you're proud of what you did.
You did it the right way, and it's really sustainable.
You can do that. I've lived that. You can also
take ozempic and immediately get much better, faster, much faster results, right,
And so everybody wants fast results in this society. And
what's difficult. A great friend of mine told me years ago,
if you really want an assessment of your favorite team's roster,

(01:25:20):
ask yourself, how many of our players right now starting
would start on a high level playoff team, high level
playoff team. And if you're the giant, you're looking around,
you're saying, what's the answer to that? Three you know,
So now all of a sudden, if you're looking at
it and say we have three or four players that
would start on a high level football team well out
of twenty two, so you need eighteen players. Now, a

(01:25:41):
home run of an offseason a Hall of Fame, Oh
my god, I can't believe we just did that in
one off season might net you five high level starters.
That's all home run Hall of Fame level offseason five starters.
If you need eighteen new guys on your roster, you're
talking about at least three years before you get to
a super Bowl level team. Of doing it right every

(01:26:03):
single time and having three straight years of Hall of
Fame offseason, it's like fans don't want to live through
that because they know it's not likely. So all of
a sudden, what you're just grasping its straws as fans,
we want our teams to have a quarterback, because it's
grasping its straws of like, maybe at least we can't
get fifty three right, but if we get one right,
we won't suck. And if we won't suck, then I

(01:26:23):
don't have to run away from sports coverage on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday,
because all people are gonna do is make fun of
my favorite team like that's why teams overdraft the quarterback
position is because getting one right is almost impossible, but
getting fifty three right is even tougher. It feels impossible
for teams to suck sure.

Speaker 3 (01:26:42):
I mean, it's the allure of the ever you know,
the ever intriguing, ever enticing franchise quarterback, the thing that's
the savior of your football team. To your point, it's
an easy thing for fans to wrap their heads around,
and you can accomplish a guy who can meaningfully elevate
your football team. But if the football team is crap
around him or significantly lesser than how far are you

(01:27:05):
actually going to go? How close are you actually going
to get to what you desire? As most clearly illustrated
by this most recent Super Bowl, Patrick Mahomes is the
best quarterback I've ever seen in my life. Not the
greatest winner, that's Tom Brady. I'm not here to do
a sports talk radio debate to that effect. But Patrick
Mahomes is the most talented quarterback I've ever seen in
my football consuming life, and he got run by an

(01:27:28):
entirely better football team than him that has a solid quarterback,
but not the best quarterback Jalen Hurts is a winner,
a proven winner at every level of football that he's played.
To his credit, he's wired correctly for it. But he's
not the most talented player in the world. He's not
the most skilled player in the world. But he plays
on an infinitely better football team than Patrick Mahomes does.
And there's no perfect way to get this right. If

(01:27:49):
there was, NFL teams would be a hell of a
lot better at it. But the hope and the hope
trafficking is not a it's not a solution, it's just delusion.
The Cincinnati Bengals Joe Burrow is one of these players.
They have one of these fire breathing dragons at quarterback
that everybody in the league would sell their soul for,

(01:28:10):
and they have a defense that can't stop a nosebleed.

Speaker 2 (01:28:12):
And it doesn't matter. They don't make the playoffs.

Speaker 3 (01:28:14):
Like you can have one of these franchise changing save
your type of figures and it's still not be enough.

Speaker 2 (01:28:20):
Because football is it's the ultimate team sport.

Speaker 3 (01:28:23):
You hear that cliche all the time, and it is
more articulated or better articulated each and every year. The
more that you see these guys who just can't do
it by themselves too. It's too difficult. The degree of
difficulty is way too much.

Speaker 1 (01:28:38):
And I would echo those sentiments and only say that
that's true for every single position, like Miles Garrett Max
Crosby are two of the best players in the entire NFL,
and how many games do they win? Right, And so
it's just it's not any it's not one thing. It's
all the things, and all the things have to happen
right at once for a team to actually go from

(01:28:59):
being terrible to being pretty good. And then people get
frustrated that all they've done is gone from terrible to
pretty good because now you got to go from pretty
good to great, and then you get to great and
it's like, yeah, but we can't beat the Chiefs. Like
it's this never ending insane process where like when you
wake up at the end of all of it, you
have to have a roster capable of competing with the Chiefs.
You have to have a coach capable of beating Andy Reid,

(01:29:19):
you have to have a team capable of beating the
Eagles defensive line. Like it's just it's so many different pieces.
It's total chaos. Calm the chaos with the shipping software
that delivers you code Sports for a free trial at
shipstation dot com. That's shipstation dot com Code Sports. Be
shooter to tune into Draft Night Live on Thursday, April

(01:29:40):
twenty fourth, at eight pm Eastern throughout the first round
of the Draft. This is gonna be awesome. Insider Jay
Glazer I can speak former Jets, GM Joe Douglas, College
Football Hall of Famer LeVar Arrington, and Fox Sports Lead
college football reporter Jenny Taff will have by pick predictions
and reactions to every first round pick. That's Thursday, April
twenty fourth. You know that, eight pm Eastern throughout the

(01:30:03):
first round of the Draft, live right here on Fox
Sports Radio, brought to you by ship Station. Okay, we'll
keep breaking down the NFL news and notes in the
college football news and Notes, but as our producer Extraordinary
share Shay reminded us today, the NBA playoffs are right
around the corner, and we're trying to figure out what
are the best matchups and what we should be hyped about.

(01:30:25):
We'll get you caught up on it when you come back.
It's Buck and Fits on a Fox Sports Saturday on
Fox Sports Radio. While we're sitting here watching the Masters
some of us, and we're focused on the NFL Draft
all of us. There is something coming right around the corner.

(01:30:46):
And tomorrow's a big day for because the NBA playoffs
are actually finally here. The question is what should we
be excited about? And I think to be fair on
Bucking Fits on a Fox Sports Saturday, Buck Rising Jason
Fitz coming into Live the Tiraq dot Com studios. To
be fair, I'm just gonna be honest, Buck, like this
the way we always do everything on the show. We're

(01:31:07):
real with people. We're transparent, right, So this won't be transparent.
The amount of basketball NBA basketball I have watched this
year is less than substantial. And I'm being polite here
because frankly, I make my living whether it's on Fox
Sports Radio or Yahoo Sports for me, I make my
living mostly covering the NFL, college football and college basketball

(01:31:30):
for y'all. Like that's the majority of my responsibilities. So
I even was, I've been fully transparent a million times
on the Fellas on Saturday mornings that you know in October,
I'm not watching a college basketball game. I'm just not,
Like I don't have the equity to give a damn. Well,
I sit here and Shape points out to us our
producer stordinary that the playoffs are. You know, Tomorrow's the

(01:31:53):
last day, seeding is on the line, and I'm sitting
there thinking, Man, I don't know how to make a
regular season matter because I don't think a lot of
people have truly given a damn? Am I wrong? Like Buck,
have you been locked into this NBA season in a
way that makes you feel like connected to what we're
about to get in the playoffs, Because I think the
playoffs can be very good. But I'm just trying to
figure out how connected we been.

Speaker 3 (01:32:13):
All Right, So I'm I'm the anomala here because I
love basketball. I mean, it's it's by a mile. I'm
I'm an NFL reporter. I do local talk talk radio
here in Nashville.

Speaker 1 (01:32:25):
But I thought you were going to say something else there.
We just started talk sh No.

Speaker 3 (01:32:30):
Well, I'm also one of those on a local basis,
But I think that I love basketball more than any
other sports, so I pay closer attention to it. I
will watch college basketball games in October when I'm on
the road covering the Tennessee Titans as is part of
my job, I will pay attention to what's going on
with the Memphis Grizzlies, even though I know in Nashville, Tennessee,

(01:32:50):
we're not going to talk about the Memphis Grizzlies because
Nashville doesn't care about the NBA and Memphis doesn't care
about the NFL or the NHL that we have here
in Nashville. Like, that's just not gonna be on the
Doc and Jaws here in Tennessee. So it makes an
easier topic or an easier subject matter to pay attention to.

Speaker 2 (01:33:07):
Also, with the nature of fired coaches here lately in.

Speaker 3 (01:33:09):
The NBA, Mike bloone going on with the Denver Nuggets,
you obviously have Taylor Jenkins being fired by the Grizzlies
and the slide that they've been on there. So again, Fitz,
you are speaking for the vast majority of people because
the NBA has created a product in which you don't
have to follow, You don't have to watch their games
to follow their sport, which is crazy.

Speaker 2 (01:33:30):
I mean it's crazy, but it's true.

Speaker 3 (01:33:32):
You can have access to all of the statistics, you
can know all of the individual players accolades, you can
see highlights all over social media.

Speaker 2 (01:33:39):
You can watch full games on YouTube if.

Speaker 3 (01:33:42):
You want to, but you can follow the NBA without
actually watching the sport, which is the problem that Adam
Silver is currently trying to solve so much, to the
point where I know, speaking of Fox Sports Radio, he
I believe it. Recently an interview with Dan Patrick. Adam
Silver was on Dan Patrick's show talking about the idea of,
you know, potentially altering things about the way that the

(01:34:03):
games are formatted, and even kind of hinted at the
idea of a truncated schedule, which we've all been begging for.
In the NBA and the MLB, where the inventory is
just and the NHL, the inventory is just too great
to really captivate an audience for the entire duration of
a regular season.

Speaker 2 (01:34:21):
They've tried things like the nd season tournament that just
don't matter.

Speaker 3 (01:34:25):
The All Star Games are a disaster across the board
except for Major League Baseball. So I mean save shortening
games or shortening seasons FITZI, which the leagues are always
going to be loath to do because then it takes
away inventory and takes away television dollars. And the reason
that this whole thing exists I don't know how you
make the NBA's regular season more compelling.

Speaker 2 (01:34:45):
All I'll tell you is I will watch. I will
watch probably.

Speaker 3 (01:34:50):
Twenty five full NBA games a season, and I feel
like that's more than the average person would.

Speaker 1 (01:34:57):
That's way more than that. Now, we were all locked
in a couple of nights ago because Luca versus the MAVs,
Like that's the sort of like there we go. Now
you're giving me sex, like you're giving me just straight
sizzle on this. I want this Like this, this is
bacon when you wake up in the morning and you're
suddenly excited for breakfast, right Like, nobody wakes up every
day excited for breakfast until you smell bacon, and then
you're excited for it. Luca and going back against the

(01:35:19):
MAVs excited. So, Shay a question, should we be rooting
at this point for a Lakers MAVs playoff series or
is that just gonna get too Like now I've had
bacon every day and suddenly it's not gonna be as
enticing to me.

Speaker 4 (01:35:33):
So as a Laker fan, I'd root for that because
we own them at this point and obviously, but I mean,
if you're really gonna root for something right now, and
it's something that could obviously happen. It's always Warriors Lakers,
you know what I mean. There's nothing that would beat
Warriors Lakers from a media standpoint, a fan standpoint, a
players standpoint. It's just something that we're so used to
with the Steph Curry versus Lebron headline, and it's something

(01:35:55):
that's honestly imagine if because last show Steve harm And
said this absurd thing about how Lebron won't be a
Laker next year whether he retires or what. I know,
it's it's it's absurd, But I could definitely see Lebron
retiring after he gets the ring. That's the only way.
That's the only way I see that. But imagine it.

(01:36:16):
He beats Steph Curry, he moves on, takes down yo kitsch,
goes on, takes down Okay, see whoever it might may be,
and then beats the Celtics and gets that ring. That's
what I want to see, like legit as a Lakers exactly,
like from that bias, that's what I want to see.
I don't care about like MAVs Lakers at all, to
be honest, I mean, like, of course I like seeing

(01:36:38):
a d which we shut him down felt amazing. But
it's in the end, it's like Lucas said it.

Speaker 1 (01:36:43):
You could see the joy on.

Speaker 2 (01:36:47):
For God's sake.

Speaker 1 (01:36:48):
I mean, it's the exact opposite. When we when we
were talking to Shae earlier about the Browns, you saw
you know, shrinking Shay and it was just like it
was sad and it was he just wanted to reach
out and get my And now you've just got like
the joy, joy, joy Joe down in your heart. I
can feel it.

Speaker 2 (01:37:05):
It's very Chesty's very sure. You talk about when you.

Speaker 1 (01:37:09):
Were a gospel choire to come into the background with
the over and over again like this this is, this is,
this is electric for you.

Speaker 3 (01:37:16):
So say do you want then, because you know, obviously
we'll have the final, the final round of games tomorrow
in the regular season and playoff seating is determined in
the East, and we're just waiting for a couple of
results in the West to kind of figure out, of course,
how all these chips are going to fall. You got
the Clippers and the Warriors tomorrow. Clippers, I think would
be the fourth of the fifth seed in the West,

(01:37:36):
depending on what happens with Denver. The best Shaye, You'll
correct me if I'm wrong on this. The best the
Warriors can do right now is the sixth seed, which
would mean that they would get the Los Angeles Lakers
in the first round.

Speaker 4 (01:37:48):
So yeah, it's for the Lakers. It's between the Timberwolves
and the Warriors right now. So it depends if the
Warriors win tomorrow and the and the Timberwolves win, I'm
pretty sure it would be Warriors. Warriors lose, Timberwolves win,
we would get the Timberwolves. And then of course it's
it's it's a weird situation because as a as an
NBA fan, I want to see Lakers Warriors, But as
a Laker fan, I think I necessary. I do want

(01:38:11):
to see Timberwolves, just because in terms of how young
they are in the playoffs. And then on top of
and is just when you when you think about someone
that well, Steve de Sega said it earlier, he should
have been sitting out last game because of that tea.
If he gets teed up, I mean, we're they're gonna
be playing without.

Speaker 2 (01:38:30):
Oh you're talking about Anthony Edwards.

Speaker 4 (01:38:31):
Anthony Edwards.

Speaker 1 (01:38:32):
You're excited like that's what you're You're a Lakers fan
that feels very confident about your team's ability to hoist
the Larry Op. Of course, yet yet you're like, I
Meanitwars gets teed up, We're gonna have a much easier pat.

Speaker 4 (01:38:46):
They're playing without their best player. Anyone would be happy
you can.

Speaker 3 (01:38:49):
The alternative is Curry, Jimmy Butler and whatever Draymond is
his career.

Speaker 4 (01:38:54):
In terms of matching up against teams, I think we
match up against the Lakers matchup against the Timberwolves a
little bit better than they do. It's the Warriors, especially
because the Warriors have that quick place to play, which
is something that we've been pretty not that great against. Again,
we're smaller now and it would be a little bit
easier to go up against the Warriors. We haven't really
seen the Warriors with Jimmy Butler, so it's something that's
kind of an unknown to me and the Lakers. But

(01:39:17):
in the end, I really do think that as just
an NBA fan, I would like to see that Warriors
Lakers matchup.

Speaker 1 (01:39:24):
I mean, let's be honest, Warriors Lakers would be absolutely
electric for just a conversation around the sport, right, which
is what you need, you need the momentum I think
coming into the playoffs of that opportunity and the farther
the Lakers go, not just because of Lebron but also
because of Luke. I think the better you mentioned Steve
de Sager. Let's get Steve to get us an updates.

(01:39:45):
Of course, continue this conversation about what could happen for
the NBA playoffs and what should have everybody excited after
we find out what's going on.

Speaker 5 (01:39:51):
Right now Baseball and just a moment. NBA is off tonight.
Regular season ends Sunday. That will include Clippers at Golden State,
Tomorrow Denver at Houston. The play in tournament starts on
Tuesday in the East A play and we'll have Atlanta
against Orlando, winner gets the seventh seed, and Tuesday we'll
have a couple games. Wednesday night a couple of games,

(01:40:12):
last chance on Friday to officially get into the first round.
By the way, we know a first round matchup for
the NHL postseason, Colorado against Dallas is official. Dallas is
in action right now and trailing at home with about
five minutes left, five to three against Utah. Shootout wins
for Winnipeg and Florida at Toronto in overtime, leaves one
nothing over Montreal. The final Columbus won seven nothing against Washington.

(01:40:37):
Rory McElroy leads the Masters by two strokes over Bryson
to Shambeau. McElroy shot a third round sixty six. The
Tennessee Balls moved on from starting quarterback Nico Eamalia East
get practice in an NL holdout, and the transfer portal
opens on Wednesday. NASCAR's on FS one again Sunday, three
pm Eastern Time from Bristol, Tennessee. Alex Bowman earned the poll.

(01:40:59):
Kyle Larson won the Infinity Race.

Speaker 1 (01:41:00):
Today.

Speaker 5 (01:41:01):
The IndyCar Series returns Sunday on Fox TV. The Major
League Baseball, the late night game is in Seattle. Mariners
now up on Texas to one bottom of the third.
The Cubs lead the Dodgers one nothing in LA top
of the six, although five full innings for Tonight's adding
for Roki Sasakia the Dodgers one run aloud. He threw
eighty one pitches. At San Diego, the Padres are eight

(01:41:23):
to no at home and they're winning at home Tonight
two nothing against the Rockies top of the eight, just
one hit for Colorado. Brewers lead top of the ninth
three nothing at Arizona. Cincinnati beat Pittsburgh five to two
La de la Cruz a Grand Slam. The Angels won
four to one at Houston, the win to Tyler Anderson,
who had a no hitter until the sixth inning. Cleveland
beat Kansas City six to three, as the Royal struck

(01:41:45):
out fifteen times. Miami is seven to six winner against Washington.
National shortstop CJ. Abrams was placed on the aisle with
a strained hib. The White Sox worth three and ten,
but beat Boston with a run in the bottom of
the ninth three to two. Atlanta was three and ten.
We got to win at Tampa Bay five to four.
Victories for the A's in Baltimore for Detroit and Philadelphia,

(01:42:05):
and the Yankees beat San Francisco eight to four. Cody
Bellinger of New York RBI Single and RBI Triple back
to you.

Speaker 1 (01:42:13):
He's Buck Rising. I'm Jason fitzbuckingm Fits on Fox Sports Radio,
coming at you live from the tyrack dot com studios.
If you missed any of the show. By the way,
the podcast goes up shortly after Always Fun, be sure
to check it out. Just search Fox Sports Radio wherever
you get your pods, and be sure to follow and
review the podcast rate of five stars. Come on again,
just search for Fox Sports Radio wherever you get your podcasts.

(01:42:34):
You'll see today's show posted right after we get off
the air, Buck Rising, Jason Fitz and producer Shait coming
in and giving us NBA thoughts as we get ready
for the playoffs. Can I just tell y'all, like, I
hate the fact that we constantly, as a society, we
take a young team and decide that they're not going
to do anything in the playoffs because they're not playoff tested.

(01:42:56):
I just like, look, I don't know how to separate
these two, but if you want to give me meaning
to the regular season, don't spend the whole regular season
telling me why Oklahoma City is not going to do
anything in the playoffs because they're young or whatever. Like,
I just I hate this part of the way. And look,
I get that there's truth to it, but I just
it drives me crazy that we sit through this just

(01:43:17):
marathon of a city a season and then shay the
whole time we sit there and say, yeah, but none
of this will mean anything when we get to the
playoffs and what the hell was the point?

Speaker 4 (01:43:24):
Okay, So first off, I think, okay, they they've they've
gotten too much media coverage. Of course, they have seven
sixty seven wins, so they should be getting that much coverage.
But in the end, I'm a firm believer Yokic should
win of MVP over SGA. On top of that, that's
not what we're talking about though, We're staying in the West.
And I really do think that because when you say young,

(01:43:45):
like they're like we saw some teams in the NCAA
tournament that were older than the thunder, which is an
insane stat, an insane stat, and just seeing that makes
me believe. Yes, I mean, I'm older than most of
their players, which is like absurd, Like you look at
me and you're like, look at this young kid. Imagine
me in a playoff game against Luka Doncic and Lebron James.

(01:44:08):
I'm I'm folding, I'm collapsing. It doesn't matter. It's like
it's such a big deal. And like, don't get me wrong,
they have great chemistry, their their postgame interviews are amazing.
I love everything about them, But I don't think this
is the ear for them. If anything, I think next year,
one hundred percent, they are going to be dangerous, so dangerous,
they'll see what they have to do. Like when it's

(01:44:30):
it's a five, it's it's a series, it's it's something
that they don't know and haven't seen before. And these
these NBA series are something that's so crazy, draining on
the body. And yes they have young legs, but it's
all mental in the end, when you get there, it's
we can go back to the masters right now, like
it's all mental. Going behind it feels a lot better.
But when you're ahead and you have all of this
media coverage on you and everything, I think it's just

(01:44:52):
gonna get to them. I could bite my words. Who
knows they could be winning the championship this year easily.
I won't be able to tell you that. But in
the end, I really do think that they are too young,
especially when I'm saying that the Timberwolves are young. This
is they're actually young. There's nothing else to say on it.
And Buck, if you want to add on to that,

(01:45:13):
I think you want to say something here, but it's
I just don't see it. I really don't.

Speaker 3 (01:45:17):
Well, I just I'm laughing back here because you, Shay,
a Liakers fan, are telling Oklahoma City Thunder fans that
their team is getting too much coverage, and I find
that delightful.

Speaker 2 (01:45:31):
There was zero self awareness.

Speaker 1 (01:45:36):
No, I'll take that.

Speaker 4 (01:45:37):
You're right, You're right, right.

Speaker 2 (01:45:39):
Here's the thing, No, because like I like what you
said about it being mental. This is something it's like
I and I don't think it.

Speaker 3 (01:45:47):
As far as I know, anybody on the show is
a parent as of right now, to the best of
our knowledge. But I imagine it's like having kids for
the first time when you go through the playoffs in
this kind of a situation for the first time, and
there's no manual for how to do it the right way.
You've got a coach who's probably seen some things and
been through some things at this point in his career.

(01:46:08):
You're playing for an organization that has been there before,
but you haven't as a part of that organization, not
to that scale yet. Right The Oklahoma City Thunder are
one of the best organizations in professional basketball.

Speaker 2 (01:46:23):
They continue to prove this.

Speaker 3 (01:46:25):
I mean for the better part of fifteen years, it
feels like at this point, constantly in the mix and
constantly regenerating their roster with youth and talent and finding
ways to stay meaningfully competitive. But the level of pressure
that you will experience that they've already experienced to a degree,
but not even remotely close to what the scrutiny will

(01:46:46):
become in the playoffs when you're the team that people
are hunting, When you're the team you're not, You're not
the nothing to lose, happy go lucky five seed coming
in here to wreck some people's wreck and people stuff right,
you're the top dog and you're being looked at that
way even though you don't have the requisite resume necessarily

(01:47:09):
to stand on.

Speaker 2 (01:47:11):
You don't have you don't have laurels to rest on yet.

Speaker 3 (01:47:13):
You've accomplished things in the regular season, but you haven't
won in a meaningful way in the postseason. There's no
way to recreate that experience, and so I think that
your analysis is fair. I agree with you, Fitzi about
hating the thing in sports. Well, just because we haven't
seen them do it yet doesn't mean that they can
do it right. It's the lowest form of analysis, and

(01:47:36):
it's a plague across sports, but there are some intangible
qualities of what it is to go through a situation
like this for the first time. That absolutely wears on teams.
I mean, look at look at the Warriors at the
height of their winning with Draymond Green and Kevin Durant
and Steph Curry at the time, and how taxing even

(01:47:58):
that became to the point where that broke up that
that team should have stayed together for as long as
humanly possible, and it just wore them down because they couldn't.
The winning is excellent, but it's very rarely is it fun.
And you have to find ways to balance all of
those different things. I know, I know fans don't want
to hear that all that's what the money's for. What
do you mean you're not having fun doing all this winning.
We've heard that Dwayne Wade and Dwayn Wade and Lebron

(01:48:20):
James talk about the heatles that way, the Big Three
and how taxing that was, and pat Riley and the
whole the whole situation. How many different things you cannot
be prepared for that will harden you. That kind of
take away from the joy of winning. Whereas you know,
if you have no expectations on you, you can just
go in there and try to make a mess.

Speaker 1 (01:48:39):
If we're sitting here talking about a team that won
fifty seven games, fifty seven and twenty five right now,
you're talking about a team that's won that many games,
and we're saying that, yeah, but it doesn't really matter
because they don't have what it takes to win in
the playoffs, then your system is broken. That's the biggest
thing to me is that if you're if we're sitting
here constantly saying how do we make NBA games more

(01:49:01):
meaningful than the regular season, don't don't expect me to
sit here and watch a team win almost sixty games
if that is all irrelevant once we get to playoff basketball, Like,
that's just it. I understand, and I agree with everything
you guys are saying. It just like the analysis we
say all the time. I'm a hockey fan and I've
covered that sport at a pretty good level, and the

(01:49:22):
number of times we say, yeah, well you get a
hot goaltender and you'll win the Stanley Cup. Okay, if
it's that simple, then what do we like then why
watch any of it? Like, if it's as simple as
only the teams with experience will find a way to prevail,
And what's the point in the entire regular season. I
don't disagree with the analysis. I don't disagree that it
is a factor. I just think that it's all indicators.

(01:49:43):
Those are all indicators that the system is broken. If
that's where we find that, that's where we are with
the team as good as Oklahoma City, it's that's there's
got to be a better way, you know.

Speaker 3 (01:49:57):
It is a fascinating thing to kind of to on
a little bit, right, the idea of it being broken
if they if you don't feel like your regular season
is testing these teams the way that it should. I
don't know what the solution to that is necessarily, but
it kind of brings us back to the point that
we were making in the first hour about the amount

(01:50:17):
of inventory with these games and how seriously that's being
taken and the degree of load management that all of
this is being approached with that that that really that
really makes that formula so difficult to kind of determine.

Speaker 2 (01:50:28):
I wish I had a better answer for Adam Silver.

Speaker 3 (01:50:30):
Adam Silver is a much more intelligent human being than
I am, so I'm sure he's been stewing on this
for quite some time.

Speaker 2 (01:50:35):
But it's it's a fascinating point.

Speaker 1 (01:50:37):
That you make.

Speaker 2 (01:50:38):
Fits.

Speaker 3 (01:50:38):
I don't know how they solve that problem, but it's
a it's a legitimate problem. It allows you to poke
in product at their at their entire setup, right, It allows.

Speaker 2 (01:50:48):
You to just have that thought in your mind, the
idea of, well, what if they.

Speaker 3 (01:50:52):
Get in the postseason, they don't do anything because their
regular season really isn't applicable to what they're about to face.
When all of these teams who are just you know,
smart about the regular season and surviving and making sure
that they have as much of their health as humanly possible,
if they come in here and just dismantle an Oklahoma
City team that's that's been pedal to the metal the
entire way through, but then they face a different degree

(01:51:13):
of difficulty than they have to this point, and it's
all for not I don't know how you fix that.

Speaker 1 (01:51:19):
All right, So I guess the question we're having philosophically
is would you rather have a team that comes in
through the entire season and DOMINATEQ win the championship or
would you rather have a team like the Lakers come together?
Speaking of would you rather the greatest game in all
of Fox Sports Radio history comes at You Next, He's
Buck Rising. I'm Jason fitzbuckhing Fits on Fox Sports Saturday.

(01:51:39):
It's fucking Fits on Fox Sports Radio, coming at you
live from the ti iraq dot com studios. Buck Rising,
Jason fitz Shaye producing Mary Mack doing great work on
the board.

Speaker 3 (01:51:55):
Could you sound less enthus behind an incredible song that
Mary Mack picked out first?

Speaker 1 (01:52:01):
This is amazing. This is my version of enthused. I
have resting disinterested face. My friends tell me that all
the time, like some people have resting you know what, face,
I have resting disinterested face, Like I'm never that impressed
or unimpressed by anything.

Speaker 3 (01:52:14):
I'm just back here, bopping around. I'm trying to vibe
and then you just come in on monotone like that.
You're rocking back and forth like an insane person in
one of those in one of those jackets. Flackjacket not
flack jackets, you know what I mean.

Speaker 1 (01:52:28):
Look, I was I'm old enough that I did the
hibbity this song, so like I'm just saying, like I
just I was reminiscing the hibbitty dibity.

Speaker 2 (01:52:37):
I don't think that's a real thing.

Speaker 1 (01:52:39):
The hibbitydibity. Oh it was real real, Oh, I can't
change the topic off of the hibbitydibity.

Speaker 2 (01:52:47):
I'm so scared of what you just dragged us into.

Speaker 1 (01:52:51):
Well, you know, love making, Buck, That's what I dragged
us into. Love making.

Speaker 2 (01:52:55):
On that note, if this is the first time, you
don't even.

Speaker 1 (01:53:02):
Well that, there's a reason. Okay, So it is time
for America's favorite game show. We like to end every
one of our times together hanging out with with a
little bit of fun, with a little bit of action,
with a little bit of would you rather? But we're
gonna do this the right way. So we get a
little bit of game show music going in the background,
and then we all collectively say the phrase to introduce

(01:53:23):
the game. Gentlemen, we didn't do this very well last time.
We're going to do it great this time. We're just
going to say it together. Are you ready? Shape you
feel this? Okay, here we go. It's time for wood.
Would I ump the gun? I jumped the gun three
different places.

Speaker 4 (01:53:43):
You were looking at each other too, now, American, it
is premature, okay, one way, So that was the joke
I appreciate just for the people that didn't understand it.

Speaker 1 (01:54:00):
So we're going to the other way people who don't
understand it.

Speaker 4 (01:54:06):
Would you rather, Yeah, would you rather have spaghetti for
hair or sweat maple syrup? Fits will start with you.

Speaker 1 (01:54:15):
I think I'd rather have spaghetti for hair, because, like,
you could do some cool styling with that thing. I
think like, if you got the right you know, freeze
blast pray, you could really get weird. Like some days
you could make it sort of curly, some days you
can make it a straight mohawk, And like a spaghetti
mohawk sounds kind of awesome to me. So I'm in plus, like,
if we get stranded on a desert island, then buck
could eat my head.

Speaker 3 (01:54:38):
Well, you you are the You are the human version
of a stranded on an island, and you would be
like the equivalent of a frozen grape. I don't know
if that's satisfying anybody.

Speaker 1 (01:54:47):
Okay at this point that but I could puck out
one of the pieces and we could Lady in the trampet,
go ahead, what would you rather do?

Speaker 3 (01:54:53):
Well, clearly we're working on our intimacy on the show.
I would prefer to sweat maple syrup. It would smell
infinite better than what people smell like when they sweat.
Now having spaghetti for hair just I don't like the
idea of it being damp. I don't like the idea
of stuff running off the side.

Speaker 1 (01:55:09):
Of my head.

Speaker 3 (01:55:09):
If we're dealing with a tomato sauce here, I don't know,
is it just is it just raw spaghetti like noodles,
or is there like meatball?

Speaker 7 (01:55:16):
Like?

Speaker 1 (01:55:16):
What?

Speaker 3 (01:55:16):
What's what's the entire thing? There's too much that goes
involved with that. I'd rather just sweat the maple syrup.

Speaker 4 (01:55:21):
Easy sticky though it's weird.

Speaker 2 (01:55:24):
I mean, you know, I'm I'm sticky when I'm sweaty.

Speaker 4 (01:55:27):
Anyway makes sense.

Speaker 2 (01:55:29):
I'm not always sticky. What are you talking about?

Speaker 1 (01:55:33):
Go ahead?

Speaker 2 (01:55:35):
Would you have our jobs?

Speaker 4 (01:55:37):
This is a dangerous I might just delete this from
the podcast on I Was Perfect. Would you rather be
tackled by Miles Garrett or have to run a marathon
in some rainbow flip flopsle garrot?

Speaker 3 (01:55:53):
Yeah, no, I'd rather I would rather just take the
twenty seconds and you know, potential life altering pain that
would come with being hit for force by Miles Garrett
marathon And I'm not a runner, like I'm just you know,
not not built for it. Not interested in it through
a block run every once in a while, a marathon
like hell in flip flops. I would rather you take
a drill bit to my temple. Absolutely not give me

(01:56:15):
Miles Garrett in the instant. Maybe I'll just spontaneously combust
and a little he will hit me so hard that
I won't even feel it when I crumple into a
thousand pieces.

Speaker 1 (01:56:24):
I don't even like walking in flip flops, by the way,
so like I'm going to bank that. When Miles Garrett
is running after me, he hears me screeched like a
small infant child, and then he pulls up a little
bit on me, like that's what like when I'm like
h as it's happening, and then arms waving in the
air like I'm Kermit the frog, Miles is gonna feel
bad for me, and he's gonna be like, I can't
take this guy down that hard. I can't do it.

(01:56:46):
That's been it. Thank you so much for hanging out
with Buck and fitz. He's Buck Rising on Jason fitz
Keeping on Fox Sports Saturday all weekend long

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