The Fellas with Anthony Gargano & Jason Fitz talk Shedeur Sanders, Preseason Predictions, Training Camp Headlines & MORE!

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
You don't listening to Fox Sports Radio.

Speaker 2 (00:04):
Yes lord as uh Dion Sanders tweeted out coach Prime
last night, We're back. I missed him man, Jason Fitz
Anthony ar got him Fellas live from the Tyraq dot
com studios. Shdor was uh fantastic last night in his debut.

(00:29):
Good morning, my man. Good to be back with your brother.

Speaker 1 (00:33):
Oh man, I don't know that I've been this excited
to be up at five in the morning and a
long time. Let's go, man, we bet. Look, if you've
listened to the show for a minute, we've spent the summer,
I feel like chase it out. Like one day it's
you know, in the morning, the next day it's in
the afternoon. One day you know, it's with one show
and another, so like kind of all over the place.
Feels good, man, five in the morning. Never felt better

(00:57):
than when you were with Anthony Garcano. I just I've
been excited for this all night and sitting and thinking
about it. I just right now, in this moment, wish
that we were in personally can have a big old
pair home. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:08):
Let's good, brother, Yeah, it really does, it really does.
How's it been? How's this summer bit. We'll get to
Shador and trade, Don Henderson and the whole thing. A
lot of great football's stuff to talk about. But I
got to catch up. How was it? How's your summer been?
Jess playing get a little.

Speaker 1 (01:28):
Bit said it with a little big time the other day.
That was a good, good time. Cutry artists, they're great.
Sitting in with Edward McCain in a couple of weeks,
so that actually it bumped into my butt. Did not
sit in, but hung out with Jordan Davis last night.
He was playing in Connecticut. Always great to see Jordan.
So yeah, I've done a little bit of music, and
they made a big announce for me yesterday at Yahoo

(01:50):
that a new daily morning show is launching. It Yahoo
at launches Monday on YouTube across YouTube and social media platforms. Congratulations,
daily morning show happening in Life nine to eleven Monday
through Friday, nine to eleven Eastern. You can check out
the Yahoo on YouTube. And I'm hosting the new morning show.
So we've been in massive rehearsals getting ready for that

(02:13):
and making sure that that thing's buttoned up and ready
to go. So, like you know, I've been a mix
of twiddling my thumbs and also getting ready for you know,
new launching football season and being five days a week
again instead of just you know, just doing podcast during football.
So you know, it's good. How are you? How's the
family good?

Speaker 2 (02:31):
Good? We were we did a little Italy early in
the summer. Boy, we we finally got away and then
we've been in baseball and football mode. Really now it's
football mode. Although my little one's kind of he's got
a torn in Cooperstown, which is pretty cool. Well, uh
this coming week for his last baseball tournament of the season. Uh,

(02:55):
but yeah, but we're in we're in football mode all
day practice, you know, we were we have been starting
the big one that will have camp. It's funny they
talk about high school so different now. So they started
in June, right, and they started three days a week,

(03:16):
one day early, one week early or the end of June,
they did five. They'd been consistently on three. Next week
starts sex and they go all training camps next week.
It's like that's training camp. We've been. We've been practicing
since June. Right, It's crazy, right, but because the rules legout,

(03:37):
everybody does it. Uh, and then the little ones, you
know he's ready to go. So we're we're we're, uh,
we're in camp and uh last week we started hitting,
so uh, it's fun fun. You know, we got football, dude,
this is our time of the year.

Speaker 1 (03:53):
That's it's it's crazy that it's already here, like in
every good way. In some ways, it felt like this
summer has taken or ever to get to the point
that we're salivating over meaningless preseason games. But that's exactly
what we're doing, and we've finally gotten there. And then
the other hand, it feels like just a blink of
the night that we were talking about the super Bowl
and now we're already back to it. So you know,

(04:14):
this is going to be such a interesting pre It
genuinely feels like a more interesting preseason than I can
remember in a long time. And I can't decide yes,
because like yeah, like it's like yes, is it or
is it just that I'm that starting. I don't know.
It just feels I feel drawn to preseason football this year.

Speaker 2 (04:33):
You know what it must be something in the moon's
a full moon, right, I don't know what it is,
but dude, you're in my brain, I mean literally in
my brain. I've loved the last two nights. And I listen,
I always joke football, I get, you know, I'm like
half kidding and usually up board by the third quarter

(04:54):
or second quarter or whatever it is. You know, I've
enjoyed the hell out of the last two nights of
preseason football. Now. I was down for the Eagles, and
so I was down there, and then I got back
I watched the Raiders, and then then last night, I mean,
come on, I mean, how do you not kind of

(05:15):
watch and roof for Shador or you know, check it
out like you can't if you're a football fan, you
want to check it out. And he was terrific. You know, listen,
I know it's preseason and you know you're going up
against backups, but he looked good. He looked credible.

Speaker 1 (05:33):
I think the part of the measured response, because this
is what we always want. We want like a measured
response to this stuff. I think the important thing is
that we're even in this response. So if any of
these young quarterbacks come out and they just suck in
their first game out, people are gonna freak out. I
think we're allowed to have, you know, a little grace
period of freak out. When it goes the opposite way, right,

(05:54):
like when somebody comes out and just absolutely destroys it
in the preseason. The first thing we always say is, well,
it's just preseason. But if somebody comes out and they
suck in preseason, we never allow that same grace. Well
it's just preseason. They're working on things. So I think,
why not get a little over your skis right now
and just enjoy it for any of these teams, in
any of these performances, if somebody goes out and balls out,

(06:14):
let it be a big deal. And I think, look,
there's probably some middle ground when it comes to guys
like should or we'll find that middle ground. But for today,
just you sit back and say, hey, it's just nice
to see guys go out and thrive, Like it's nice
to see people make the most of the moment. And
I the only bummer is that we can't just make
it this moment now. It has to be what's it meaning?

(06:35):
And those are fair questions. It's just in the moment.
I look at it and say, I just want preseason
guys to be wildly successful. Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 2 (06:46):
Listen, I don't know what it is, but to your point,
I've loved it. Right, I've enjoying it last two nights. Man,
I mean, I'm down. I want to see it. I
want guys to do well. I want to see young quarterbacks.
And I don't know. I watched that game last night
and I here's what surprised me. He looked really comfortable

(07:12):
right he. I also thought his movements were quarterback ish,
right to use as an adjective, so everything appeared to
me fluid. He looked right right, forget about you know
who you're up against whatever, but he looked good. He

(07:34):
looked right, He delivered the delivered the ball, His mechanics
looked fine, he looked carried or at all. I thought
he looked you know, I thought he looked good. That
would be you know, when you're when you're when you're
kind of evaluating his play, he looked.

Speaker 1 (07:54):
The part, Yeah, you're a thousand percent right. And by
the way, if we had seen that exact same game
last night from cam Ward for the Titans, the takeaway
would be, yeah, he looks like they got it right.
You know, they got that pick right. It's for Shadur.
All he can do is make the most of the
reps that are in front of him, and for reasons

(08:15):
far beyond what we saw last night, you know, for
the brown see him every day. People at Brown's camp
have talked about this repeatedly. He's fourth on the depth
chart for a reason.

Speaker 2 (08:25):
For the Browns.

Speaker 1 (08:25):
They're not just throttling their quarterback down. They're not, you know,
Kevin Stevansi's not sitting here trying to teach their fifth
round draft pick some sort of lesson in humility by
making him work his way up from the fourth from
fourth on the depth chart. Like this isn't some you know,
high school any given Sunday sort of movie plot line.
So I think two things can be true here. He

(08:46):
went in last night and showed us why people really
do like Schadur. He is somebody that when he put
on the film there's there's a lot of good quarterback
play from him over the course of his college career.
There are still things that they need to see him quicker.
And the reason that I said, and it's you know,
it's absolutely I'm getting destroyed on Instagram for a clip
that Yahoo put up where it's like, hey, I think

(09:06):
the Browns are gonna lose lose situation. And the reason
I said that last night was if he sucked and
then everybody was gonna pile on and if he was great.
I don't think it changes their depth chart. And that's
the hardest part about all this. Browns fans now want
to annoy him and it's like, oh, this is the guy. Well,
he only started because Dylan Gabriel has a hamstring injury.
Kenny Pickett has a hamstring injury. So they're keeping Joe

(09:28):
Flacco under bubble in bubble wrap so that they don't
lose their starting quarterback. Like I think it's very fair
to say that Shador went out played really well last night,
which is, by the way, what I'm rooting for. I
also think that he's not going to be the starter
week one, so that's the tough.

Speaker 2 (09:44):
By the way, wait, wait, ry the way, why would
you want him to start week one? You know he's
not ready to start week one? Why would you want that?
Why is that a slight? There's no way in hell
I would start in week one, No way, though I

(10:05):
would sign Joe Milton off the street, right like dtr
with that they give me a backup. You know, if
Kenny picked it were hurt and uh, Gabriels in the
same boat, right, Like, I wouldn't start a rookie quarterback,
and let alone a rookie quarterback that has so much

(10:29):
to learn. You know. It's like I wouldn't start Kyle
McCord week one, right, Like, it's just not You're not
going to do that. He's not ready.

Speaker 1 (10:38):
The other part of it is if you want, if
you're a Browns fan and you want Schador to be
your future Hall of Famer, I wouldn't want it to
start the first six weeks. If you look at the
brown schedule, right, you got the Bengals, then at Baltimore,
then the Packers, the Lions, the Vikings, the Steelers. In
their first six weeks, they have a gauntlet of really

(10:59):
well coached, great defensive teams through the portion of through
a large portion of that. I wouldn't want my rookie quarterback.
I don't care who he is playing in that situation.

Speaker 2 (11:08):
Yeh, I'm stupid. That's stupid. That's absolutely stupid. Of course,
it's not changing the depth chart, and Kevin Stevanski is
a bright, good coach. It's ridiculous. It's not even on
the table, right, Like, I don't even know why we
would even entertain stuff like that. There's a point that

(11:29):
you bring guys in veteran guys Joe Flacco and Kenny
Pickett are here for a reason. They're here to buy
time before you could play the kids. That's it. That's
the truth of the matter.

Speaker 1 (11:41):
Yeah, and I don't think any of that means, you know,
because I heard somebody late last night on a radio
was actually they were talking about the fact that, oh man, well,
you know, the Browns are being stupid and they're being
stubborn and all these things. No, they're not, like the
Browns have a very So Kevin Stefanski is a smart
football coach. You can't be the Coach of the Year

(12:03):
twice and not be a smart football coach at some levels.
So in my mind this is simple. The organization is
looking at themselves and they're saying, what gives us the
best chance to win now and in the future. And
it is fully possible, It is truly real that Shador
Sanders could not throw another incompletion the entire postseason and
their preseason. And the answer organizationally can be, Hey, we

(12:26):
think today Flacco gives us a better chance to win,
so we're gonna do the best we can to win
what we have now while we develop Shador or Dylan
Gabriel or any of them. And when Shador or Dylan
Gabriel is ready, he will play like we want this
microwaved answer that just is popped in front of everybody.
But y'all, it's not a video game. And I don't
believe that the Browns are sitting here smart coaches are
sitting here committing you know, malpractice to their entire fan

(12:49):
base and the entire organization in Miles Garrett and everybody
else by simply playing somebody not named Sanders because they
want to be stubborn about where he was drafted, Like
these things just aren't real.

Speaker 2 (13:01):
That's where I can't even entertain that stuff. I'll be
honest with there, because it's so far from reality. And
what the what the sport is like, you would never want.
This draft class is very raw. Like it's a raw class.
It's a class that you got. You can't be throwing

(13:25):
guys in to start right away. It's tough, I mean can't.
Ward's one thing right because number one overall pick, I'm
a unless you're a really like polished quarterback coming out
of college. I think it's always best for you to sit.

Speaker 1 (13:43):
Yeah, I mean I know that there's this. You know,
some guys need reps and some guys I think at
some point you just got to You've got to look
at your guy and say what serves that guy the best?
Like this year particularly, I wish the Titans had a
better quarterback situation. Oh that Cam Wore can have a
little bit of time to develop, because I think the
Titans are gonna suck, you know, And that's at the core,

(14:06):
I believe most of the time, Like Trevor Lawrence was
supposed to be a can't miss prospect right well, now
everybody's sitting here saying did they pay the right guy?
Like is he really that guy? All of these questions
are being raised. I honestly think that has as much
to do with the malpractice of the way that the
Jags have handled the quarterback position as it does with
absolutely anything else. So there is some level to me

(14:27):
where Jackson Dart being put on the field simply because
Brian Dable is worried about getting fired doesn't feel like
a great situation for Jackson Dart in my mind, Like
we have to look at these things. Unfortunately, as fans,
we just because we're so desperate to see wins this season,
we don't really care about what it means long term.
And everybody wants everybody wants the Jayden Daniels or CJ.

(14:49):
Stroud that you come in and your rookie year is
just absolutely dynamic and incredible. I will just remind people
a month into the season last year, there were talking
head saying Jade Daniels never pushes the ball down the
field and this is too safe an offense, and blah
blah blah blah blah. Like even when he was on
the field, there was still a progression and a process
that very smartly Washington put him through to make him

(15:12):
a better starter by the end of the year, like
these things are allowed.

Speaker 2 (15:15):
To make and he's and he's an anomaly one hundred percent.
Jane Dam's anominally because Jane Dams could make every throw.
Jane Daniels came from that offense, right, comes from LSU,
saw everything pro style, right, I mean, he was prepared.
He was a kid that's prepared to start. And even

(15:36):
then I would have had pause, right, I mean I
would have started, but I would have had pause go
you know, and listen. It's all about reps in practice.
It's what it is. Man. It's such it's such a
simple thing. We make so much out of this stuff.
It's crazy. It's almost like there's two worlds. There's the

(16:03):
fan football world, right like that we're all part of.
And then there's the real football world, where it's coaches, players, gms, right,
and it's the real team aspect where it's not about fantasy,
it's about numbers, not about you know, Parlay's, it's it's
it's the real sport and we live in these We

(16:25):
straddle these two worlds, going back and forth.

Speaker 1 (16:30):
The There was a basketball player recently, an NBA player,
don't remember which one. They said on the podcast. The
hardest part of playing in the NBA is everybody has
played just enough, you know whatever, church league basketball or
rec league basketball to think that they know enough about
the sport to.

Speaker 2 (16:47):
Play in the NBA.

Speaker 1 (16:48):
And I think there's some truth to part of that.
There really is. What you have now is everybody's played
enough Madden to come in and feel like I got
it figured out. And the more you talk to I mean,
Ryan Patrick last night on Twitter was for everyone that's
blaming Anthony Richardson. He literally opened up his app for Freeze, like,
I'm going to give you three plays and see if

(17:09):
you can dissect what it means to be a quarterback
and make these decisions in a fraction of a second.
I think some of us in general, just as a
watching public, everybody just sits back and simplifies. And the
great example of that for me, one of my first
radio shows I ever did was with Jordan Rodgers, who
you know people now knows a reality starting an SEC analyst,

(17:29):
but he was also the quarterback for Vandy and we
were talking about one particular play I was watching on
TV that was in the Vandy game, and it blew
my mind that the quarterback had not found a wide
open receiver that was standing four feet from him on
the left. And Jordan, who came from that offense, said, yeah,
he's literally coached not to look to the left. Everything
on his left in that offense is deep. Only runs

(17:53):
to the right, So it doesn't matter if Superman is
open on the left, he only runs this play to
the right. And I just sat there in the moment
and thought, man, that is a reminder that every single time,
no matter what we see, no matter how much anybody
watches the All twenty two, no matter how much Pro
Football focus, you don't know what's called, Like, you don't
know what was called. You don't know the responsibility on

(18:13):
the play, you don't know what the guy is being
coached to literally do. And when you have to accept
those answers, suddenly the very clear this is what should
be done, this is how it should be done. Answered
like that sort of it leaves.

Speaker 2 (18:24):
You, well, that's why we leave in that world, right, Yeah,
the two worlds, because the other world you don't you have,
you're not you're not privy to so it's impossible to
kind of and you know better than anybody, FITZI go
to practice, right, see the real work that go that

(18:45):
happens in practice. I mean you get an idea, especially
when they do all these joint practices like you kind
of you kind of get all this idea where the
coach's head.

Speaker 1 (18:54):
Is, I mean the minutia. The first time I was
out of Titans practice and I was on airon Nashville
and I ripped Taylor Luwan after a game where he
gave up a bunch of sacks and he literally called
me and was like, I want to explain drop back
depth to you because I think this will help you.
And like he literally sat there and explained the way

(19:15):
that they were being coached to push an edge rusher
to a particular spot on the field and the problem
in that game. Honestly, I even talked to coaches about
it at the time. The problem with that game that
we all thought was Taylor Lawan giving up a bunch
of sacks, was Taylor Lawan was pushing that edge rusher
right to where the quarterback was going to because the
quarterback was dropping back, not getting rid of the ball,
and standing in a spot he wasn't supposed to be in.

(19:37):
And that's why, like you just I don't want to
make it like it's just ninety nine percent of us
we don't know. We don't know, and so we're doing
our best to figure it out. But you're right, we
do live in two worlds. There's no doubt about that.

Speaker 2 (19:50):
And that's where the hey shittur needs to start Week one. Like, no,
that's not going to happen, and that's not in the
real world. That's in all our fantasy world, right, but
not in the real world. All Right, lots to get
to I'm excited man, fun, fun, fun to hear your voice.
We're back, Jason Fitz, Anthony Gary, out of the fell

(20:11):
is just getting started on a Fox Sports Saturday.

Speaker 3 (20:15):
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Speaker 1 (20:28):
Hey, this is Jason McIntyre.

Speaker 4 (20:30):
Join me every weekday morning on my podcast, Straight Fire
with Jason McIntyre. This isn't your typical sports pod pushing
the same tired narratives down your throat every day. Straight
Fire gives you honest opinions on all the biggest sports headlines,
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Speaker 1 (20:47):
And all the best guests.

Speaker 4 (20:49):
Do yourself a favor and listen to Straight Fire with
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Speaker 2 (21:00):
Welcome back, fellas from the Tyraq dot com studios. Hey,
you know it's Fox Sports Radio. So it's great. Is
you were like, you know, I'm really into this preseason
and I think that's a shared thing, Like I feel
the same exact way. What do you think the reason is?

(21:23):
Why has it gotten even bigger? Like are we now
to the point where we are so addicted to it?
We love this game so much that all of us
are shared liked minds right as football fans, and we've
all made the determination that you know what, preseason is good?

Speaker 1 (21:45):
We're into it, yes, because at the end of the day,
the NFL is like a bad relationship, Like we are
at that spot, like what happens by the time we
get to the beginning of the next season. We've decided,
like the crazy ex girlfriend that everything's gonna be fine
that you know, know she wasn't crazy, Everything's beautiful, Like
I actually really had a good time, and like, you know,

(22:07):
maybe I was wrong about that the entire way. Like
we forget how awful teams were last year, and I
do mean awful. Like last year, there were twelve teams
in the NFL that lost double digit games. Think about that,
Like that is a third of the league. It's over

(22:27):
a third of the league. Quick math. That sucked so
much that they lost double digit games, And we don't
even think about that. We're not sitting here throwing our
hands up in the air like Kermit the Frog running
around a room during a fire drill trying to figure
out what's wrong with the NFL the way we do
with Major League Baseball. When team sucks, we weren't. We're
not sitting there saying, oh my god, why are like

(22:48):
think about it. When a baseball team is bad for
three or four years in a row, it becomes a
wild conversation about whether they even want to win, whether
the sport is broken, why profit sharing doesn't work because
this team is that bad. And then I look around,
I'm like, Okay, well, when's the last time that my
beloved Raiders were consistently good? When's the last time the
Browns were consistently good? Like the Jets suck all the time?

(23:11):
Like these teams that are bad are bad year in
and year out. Like and I'm not sure that there's
a real reason to believe that the New Orleans Saints
are gonna win more than two or three games this year.
But it doesn't matter, Like we are obsessed with the
sports so much that we forgive how bad some of
these teams are.

Speaker 2 (23:33):
Yeah, but isn't that all part of it? Like here's
the thing they we critique. The reason why we say
that about MLB, it's because you got the Pirates, and
you got teams that don't spend the Marlins. They won't

(23:53):
spend any money, right, And there's such a huge, wide
disparity between the and have nots. The NFL is on
an equal playing field. Right. If the Jets suck, it's
because they have just gotten it wrong and wrong and
wrong in the front office. It's not because the league's

(24:16):
rules are stacked against it, because they're cursed by being
in New York. Right that the Pirates are in Pittsburgh.
They they can't exist. The get on the NBA because
the NBA is all threes, right, it's all one way

(24:42):
and nobody plays in a regular season. Well, in the NFL,
everybody plays. Everybody wants to win. And it's interesting. Now
again it's only six seventeen games, but that's the landscape
of the league.

Speaker 1 (25:01):
So I'm gonna be a let's say, alien that lands
out of nowhere. I've just landed on Earth and I'm
discovering Foo to our planet. Yeah, thank you, thank you
so much. And I'm saying this as the biggest football
nerd in the world. Like I do what I do
because of my love of football. I'm going to be

(25:22):
an alien and I look around and I'm like, okay,
so this sport over here, they have one team that
wins the title basically for ten years in a row, constantly,
every every decade, they have one team that dominates the decade.
So okay, and they have a bunch of teams that
are really bad all the time. I'm describing the NFL there.
It's just we love the sports so damn much we

(25:43):
forgive some of the warts. Like I'm telling you, the
NFL is the crazy girl in all of our lives,
and so we will forgive so much because we just
like dating crazy. Like we believe because your point is
such a valid one that everybody's on an equal playing field.
And we talk about parody all the time, but parody
really only exists in the form of you can go
from the sea a suck to the you know, land

(26:05):
of mediocrity. Like this generation is being dominated mostly by
at this point that the Chiefs are dominating the AFC,
the way that the the Patriots dominated the generation before them,
the way that you know, whatever the Cowboys did before that,
and the forty nine Ers did before that, and the
Steelers did before that. Like it's the most dynastic sport
out there, but we like everybody in the middle, Like

(26:28):
you can go from lower class to middle class to
feel like you have a shot all the time, and
that's what we buy into. Like Browns fans are hyped
for Shadur because they won three games last year and
right now, you can't tell a Browns fan that after
what they saw last night that they're not going to
the playoffs, right But how many of those teams actually
have a legitimate shot at a real super Bowl, Like

(26:50):
not not just like, hey, we got in the playoffs
and that's cute, but like a real legitimate shot. I
don't know, but we're so infatuated and I think it
all comes down to the limited inventory of games still
makes this feel so special. It doesn't matter if it's preseason.
You only get twenty times to watch your favorite team
suit up all year. You are going to flock to that,

(27:11):
no matter what's the smartest thing the NFL has done,
Like we are so starved for a taste of whatever
they'll give us. That we are all in. We have
completely bought in. And I say that as somebody that
is in here watching these preseason games because they are
hitting different.

Speaker 2 (27:25):
For me, this year. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean I
agree with you with the limited inventory. Every game is
the event because of that. But the nature of the
sport is you can only play x amount of games period, right,
and the game itself, which is a beautiful game four quarters,

(27:48):
like it's an event, you know you could play it
cracks me up. Now. I think the pitch clock works,
but you know baseball and basketball, it's like, hey, can
we get in in two another two and a half hours?
Where it used to always drive me nuts when I

(28:09):
hear people talk about, well, the NFL timeslot is three hours,
like it's a freaking show. I don't care how long
the game takes, right, it's supposed to be an event.
It's my event for the for the week, So don't

(28:30):
put a timestamp, no time limit on it, you know,
like how long it takes, it takes, Which is why
the one rule I've hated over the years was all
the clock. How the clock keeps running now? When it
used to not run out of bounds, like every time
he went out of bounds, the clock would stop. Now

(28:51):
that changed inside the last five minutes. And you don't
you don't like that? No, I hate it. It robs
me it plays.

Speaker 1 (29:01):
That's fair, like it is You're It's wild to me
because everything you're saying is so true. Like I have
never sat there watching a Raiders game and looked at
my clock and thought, man, this one's taken three hours
and fifteen minutes. I am out on this. This is boring.
You are a thousand percent right. I also am that
guy that goes. I go to minor league games all
the time in Connecticut, and every time I'm in the

(29:22):
ballpark I'm like, God, I love the pitch clock so much.
It is so it is so fun and easy to
go to a minor league baseball game and be in
and out, like I can park, see the whole game
and be back at my car in like two hours.
It's it's wild how fast these things a move now,
you know. But I'll admit my own hypocrisy with that,
because you know, at the end of the day, I'm

(29:42):
turning a baseball game into essentially a Marvel movie, like
am I and right, including previews in under two and
a half hours. All right, I'll spend twenty bucks on that.
I'm not sure that's a good thing, brother, Like I'm
not sure, Like, because you are right there is something
sacred to what it means for most of us as
fans to just sit down and get to watch something

(30:04):
we love to watch. And that's the biggest part that
I think if you're a non sports fan, you're probably
not listening to this show. But I think nonsports fans
don't always understand that it's not just ooh, I sit
down and watch, you know, college football on Saturdays. It's
I sit down and enjoy this entire experience. Like I
love the shots of like sweaty fat people in the

(30:26):
crowd that are just like miserable at the end, Like
I love Surrender Cobra, I love the marching bands, and
I love every ounce of like the entire like the
presentation of it. It just takes you away from the
world and for a few hours, I'm not thinking about anything.
I don't have to worry about anybody listen. I don't
have to listen to anybody worry about everything. I don't
have to open social media and have people yell at

(30:47):
me about things that I don't really care about. I
just sit there and I watch a random New Mexico
State versus whatever Delaware football game, and I'm like, this
feels good, you know, so, like I think there is
something too that magic that is just absolutely beautiful. And
even in the preseason for whatever, maybe going from four
games to three games is made even the preseason feel

(31:09):
more significant. I don't know, because I do feel like
it's been more talked about, there's more tension to pay
to it, and I've heard less complaining about it along
the way this year.

Speaker 2 (31:19):
Yeah, I think that works. I think it will be
even better when they get ready of the third one. Yeah,
now you'll have two and boom boom, we're on to
the season. But to your point of escape and watching
something that you enjoy and be immersed into something, yeah,
you know, you can't devote all that time to something

(31:42):
and not be a fanatic. Like, here's the truth of
the matter. We all don't watch regular season games in
every other sport. Now, we may pick and choose and
watch our local team, right, but it's not a collective
watch like it into the NFL. We all watch Sunday

(32:04):
night football, we all most of us wats Thursday night.
We all watch Monday night right, Like we're all in
together that game of the week on Fox or CBS
at four twenty five. We're all watching. It's a communal
watch around the country, and so we do it every

(32:29):
week and then when it's over, it's withdrawal. It really
is a withdrawal because you can't devote that much time
to something between the end of August and February and
not be addicted to it.

Speaker 1 (32:44):
It's interesting when you mentioned the communal portion of it,
because I was sitting in the car the other day
with some friends and the conversation was, what are you watching?
And everybody was suggesting shows they're binging, and I realized
in that moment that everybody jokes about this all the time,
but truly every person in the car had a different
show that I had never heard of that they were binging,

(33:06):
and the conversation became, there's just too many shows to
keep track of. It's impossible to find all of this stuff.
And you and I have talked before about the fact
that water cooler moments are tougher and tougher in modern society,
so like, you know, people aren't coming in the way
they did when I was a kid, and it's like,
oh my god, did you see friends last night? Like
that's not a thing anymore because of the way TV
is consumed. Maybe the one thing left that is truly

(33:29):
that is thel Like you're watching that game right then.
It's the reason that there's so much ad revenue. It's
the reason that they pay so much for the digital
rights for live sports. But as you talk about it,
I'm thinking about it, like, the last thing left that
truly does seem to just control the collective consciousness of
conversation is the NFL game from yesterday on Fox. You know,

(33:52):
the NFL game from yesterday on Sunday night football, Like
that is the thing that everybody sits down and says,
oh my god, did you see the end.

Speaker 2 (33:59):
Of the Raiders last night?

Speaker 1 (34:00):
Like that is the one thing left where we're not
grasping at straws at random streaming services trying to figure
out who's actually watching.

Speaker 2 (34:08):
And we're all watching it. Yeah, let's say quick to
I love this conversation. Oh the football, baby, Let's go
right a four hours man, right, fellas right here, Fox
Sports Radio, don't forget to subscribe to the Fox Sports
Radio's YouTube. Just search Fox Sports Radio on YouTube and

(34:29):
you'll see our best videos from all the shows. So, Anthony,
subscribe to Fox Sports Radio on YouTube. Click the belly
icond on the homepage and turn on the all the
notifications so you got easy access to our very best
videos to just search Fox Sports Radio on the YouTube.
Fellas Jason Fitz Anthony gargantto, we're talking about the grip

(34:51):
the hold of the NFL, and it really stems from
what FITZI said start the show that he is really
been into this preseason so far, like like and the
way you said it, it was like you were in

(35:12):
my brain. And I noticed over the last two days
really going back to the Hall of Fame game talking
to other people, and there's always and you know, the
you know, the mentality most people go, oh, you're gonna
watch preseason fun pop wake me when they see and
you know, there's always a you gotta be sarcastic. There's

(35:34):
been less of that and more people are like, hey,
this has been fun, Like this is a good preseason,
and we're all a part of the consciousness and we're
all having a similar kind of revelation about preseason together.

Speaker 1 (35:55):
There is a when you think about just what everybody's
talking about last night, there was almost an inevitability the
minute that Shador started hot. It was like, yep, we
all know what the big conversation is going to be.
And that's crazy to me from a random like if
I was replacing the headline this is a little long

(36:16):
for a newspaper headline. But fifth round quarterback plays for
bad football team unexpectedly and has a really good game.
Like there's our headline right right right. You know there
is some element of Okay, it was preseason, but you
knew immediately the people were just flocking to it, like
it felt like social media was paying attention. We were

(36:38):
all paying like to preseason football, and that's just preseason.
Like when we actually hit week one and you and
I know this, we've been doing this show together for
a couple of years. At this point, like when you
hit week one and you open the season with Cowboys
at Eagles on Thursday night football, like that moment is

(36:59):
going to take over all of the conversation that everybody's
having about not just about sports, Like the number of
people that don't even like football, they're gonna say, oh
my god, football's already back, Like they'll know that because
so many people are talking about a random Thursday night
football game. And that's just that's so tough to do.

(37:20):
I keep going back to friends. Like I remember when
I was in high school, there was like this moment
of my god, friends was out, and of course every
person watched it because you had to be able to
talk about it Friday at school. Like this is pre
internet kids, so you know it was. It was in
the consciousness. Like Thursday night NBCTV was everything for people
growing up because they had these hit shows and Friday

(37:42):
when you went to school, it was all, oh my god,
did you see Cheers last night? Like that was a
real way that the society. Society worked, and that is
how things feel on Monday in this country. All fall
a Monday, it's oh my god, did you see the
Packers game? Like that's there's something to this that is
just collective consciousness.

Speaker 2 (38:04):
Yeah, I love this conversation. I'm fascinated by it. It
happened in the early two thousands. The last time I
think it happened to non sports was that HBO thing, right,
I think you had sopranos, Like that was a big deal,

(38:27):
Like we talked about that. I remember talking about on
the radio and people like loving it and then break
it bad we did, and then that was it. Right
then it kind of just splintered out and it's not
like with any other sport. Do you realize did you
see the numbers for the Hall of Fame Game the ratings? No?

Speaker 1 (38:50):
I did not, and I have to imagine they were.

Speaker 2 (38:52):
Mass Okay, so they were six point nine. I mean
it was something like that. But here's what I do know,
because I forget the exact number. The Hall of Fame
Game three million more people than in the NBA Finals game.

Speaker 1 (39:13):
Oh my god.

Speaker 2 (39:14):
And I love the NBA, right, So this isn't a
I love the NBA, and I thought the finals were great, right,
I enjoyed them. I I mentally enjoyed the finals. The
whole of Fame game out drew the NBA Finals, like
double them. Basically.

Speaker 1 (39:34):
That's that's insane, dude, And you're right, Like, it's funny
you mentioned the Sopranos because I think about that all
the time. And it was recently that Netflix came out
and realized that they were going to start dropping certain
series week by week because they found that you get
more viewers when you build more suspense that way. And
I keep thinking everything that is old is new again, right,

(39:54):
Like they're gonna end up with an app that consolidates
all the ways we watch things. Then we'll call it cable.
But you're right, like these phenomenons that exist in the
Hall of Fame game to outdraw the NBA like that,
It's just that's not a statement against the NBA in
the modern society. I think that's a statement for the NFL.
It is.

Speaker 2 (40:12):
It's unbelievable. We're gonna take quick TiO. We'll come back.
Football Day fellas'ten Fox Sports Radio Radio. Well, good morning,
good morning, good morning, good morning, good morning, a happy
happy Fox Sports Saturday Fellas, Jason Fitz, Anthony Argano hanging

(40:34):
out together again after a long summer. Football's back. We're
back last night. Let's get to this portion of it
because last night we saw Chador have a wonderful, wonderful performance.
We saw Drake May play well. We saw the Patriots
unveil a twelve foot Tom Brady statue. We've seen uh,

(40:57):
I g it's five games now and or six games now,
and we all can't get enough of it. It's preseason
and I've heard less and less and less of a preseason.

Speaker 1 (41:13):
It sucks.

Speaker 2 (41:14):
I haven't heard it. Fancy like it. Just admit we
like it, all right, we like preseason football.

Speaker 1 (41:23):
My brother we even had a preseason football tie and
people weren't freaking out about it. We're like, oh no,
probably in the preseason game. Like I'm all in on this,
Like I'm all in on on the joy of getting
to watch a little football without the angst of whether
or not your team wins or loses. You're watching young
guys come in. You're hoping that you can see some
guys get in and make some contributions. Like yeah, no,

(41:45):
there's a spark, there's an energy. It's electric. It feels
like this is about to be the wildest opening to
a football season we've ever had, because it just it
feels like we are rabid dogs waiting to be let
out of our cage.

Speaker 2 (41:57):
That's exactly it, exactly it. And we are two weeks
away from week zero. We are two saturdays away from
Iowa State and Kansas State noon. That's right, Saturday, August
twenty third.

Speaker 1 (42:15):
Golly, And that is why why am I sitting there saying,
you know what, I'm gonna sit there and watch every
second of that game like that is just.

Speaker 2 (42:25):
I mean, I'm circling that game.

Speaker 1 (42:27):
I mean, Iowa State Kansas State is the love we
didn't know we needed. Apparently, like that is a that's
the antithesis of what the NFL does. The NFL gives
US Cowboys at Eagles on a Thursday night to collect
the entire country's eyeballs and say you must watch this.
College football eases into it. I mean they're giving us

(42:48):
Texas Ohio State. We've never had a one v two
to start the season in week one. Yeah, zero.

Speaker 2 (42:54):
I can't complain about that. Yeah, I can't complain about that.

Speaker 1 (42:58):
But you're right. I'm looking at the schedule right now
and Thursday, August twenty eighth, when I watch Ohio at Rutgers, yeah,
I will. Like that's just I'm like Ohio Rutgers.

Speaker 2 (43:06):
Yep.

Speaker 1 (43:06):
If that's what I'm getting, I'm taken.

Speaker 2 (43:09):
You know what's great about it is college. When college starts,
it's another level of real because the games count, right,
So the way we ease in if you're a football fan,
and I hate uh delineating from NFL to college because
to me, if you're a football fan, you're watching, you're

(43:32):
in all right, you gotta watch. You gotta like both sports.
I know you can like one more than the other,
but you can't just not like college football. Right, if
you're an NFL fan, especially these draft people, how could
you call yourself a draft person and not watch college football? Right,

(43:53):
Like you gotta be in. It's a celebration of the
sport we love and it happens in two different ways
and they're both great. And so we start off with
preseason NFL and then we go to college and the
game matters, right, the game Colts. She go all right, yeah,
how I mean, And then you got an NFL start

(44:15):
like it's you know, the next the next few I
love August, like the back half August, when you it's
like the beginning of the of the journey, right, it's
back in the car, ready to take the long drive.

Speaker 1 (44:32):
That's so well said. It's there is something electric to
that time when it's still a little too warm to
call it fall for most of the country, and you're
still sort of roasting, and you know, everybody in those
stadiums are just sweating there, you know what's off. Yes, yes,
it's like it's kind of uncomfortable. And they're talking about

(44:52):
the heat advantage that certain markets have, like this is
the beginning of football season, and it feels perfect, like
there is an easing into you know, like just the
way the air smells is different coming into September. It's
all everything just hits differently, and you're a thousand percent right,
Like I can that lsu Clemsing game, which is you know, sorry,

(45:14):
I think the marquee matchup of the first big weekend
on that Saturday night, that lsu Clemsing game. It's just
everything will feel different when we hit that kickoff. That's
when you're like, yep, now before you will blink and
we will be at the college football playoff, Like this
is the inevitability. But it just feels like there's a
cultural shift in life, like suddenly, in two weeks you

(45:36):
will not again for the rest of the year have
to ask yourself what's on TV most of the time.
You won't have to ask yourself what you're watching or
doing on the weekend most of the time. Like it
is just it is wild how much space it takes
up in all of our lives in a perfect beautiful
way every single year. And you're right that it will.
Like I'm gonna be sitting in front of a TV

(45:57):
on Saturday August thirtieth watching Syracuse at tennis See and
I'm going to be enamored to be doing it, and
I know exactly like what that game will look like
and feel like. Just because it's in August and it's college.

Speaker 2 (46:08):
Football, Well, you won't be watching that game.

Speaker 1 (46:12):
I won't be watching Why want to watch Syracuse.

Speaker 2 (46:14):
To be watching, You'll be watching Texas Ohio State.

Speaker 1 (46:18):
I mean Texas Ohio States. Yeah, we'll probably go with
that one.

Speaker 2 (46:23):
And I guess all due respect, because you're right, Syracuse
Tennessee is a good like I'm in if it wasn't
Texas Ohio State, Texas Ohio State is I'm not clicking
right like, I'm just watching this game. This game is
going to be incredible. First of all, who's starting for

(46:44):
the buck Eyes at quarterback? Right?

Speaker 1 (46:47):
I mean? And what offense are they really running?

Speaker 2 (46:52):
And what? Like?

Speaker 1 (46:52):
Ohio State has so many stinking questions, You're right, like
quarterback is one of what fields.

Speaker 2 (46:57):
Saying question justin saying, and the other killer going to
head to head. I heard the list this week that
I mean, they're kind of running even I thought it
was gonna be justin saying and uh with the other
kids play really well?

Speaker 1 (47:13):
Yeah, and it is. It's funny. By the way justin
saying is going to be just or Julian Sane, it's
it's gonna take a minute for me to get used
to saying as a last name, Like they're ripped doubt
about it, but you know it's it's funny because even
talking to I talked to Jeremiah Smith for an interview,
what a week and a half ago I think it was,

(47:34):
and just how different it is this year that they're
catching balls from a lot of different guys, Like that
is so different than what it was last year with
Will Howard and what it was last year, you know,
with Chip Kelly, and you know they've they've lost their
defensive coordinator. Also, like it's it is interesting to me
because we anticipated a drop off from Michigan after they

(47:54):
won the national championship two year to last year, we
anticipated that drop off. No one is anticipating drop off
for Ohio State. And I think it's a little I
don't know, flippant to I will compare this sort of
harshly to what we've seen in college basketball. If you're
ever if you cover any college basketball, early on the
concept of one and done was great. It was like, oh,

(48:16):
we need one and done, so and then you started
to see that, hey, that doesn't always work. You can't
always replace a bunch of people and have it work
out well. I can make I think a pretty easy yeah,
But when it comes to the quarterback head coaching combo
for most of the teams in the top ten this year, like,
there's just I can't tell anyone right now with any

(48:38):
confidence that the quarterback situation, the offensive situation is going
to be just fine for Ohio State. We're basing that
on what on recruiting rankings, Like I would like to
see a little of it on the field before we
actually presume that it's just going to be fine. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (48:52):
Yeah, And to your point, I mean, that's what happens.
You know, first couple of weeks, you're just dissecting and
sick and you don't know which is the beauty of
college football and basketball which is you really don't know,
you know. And it's funny like when you see a
team that I forget who was ranked top three last

(49:13):
year in college basketball, and there was like this thing
in my back of my mind where I was like, wait,
they got to be good. They were top three, you know,
they were ranked in the top They're racked two wherever
it was, and they just weren't good. I had to
come to Grips with the idea that this is they
weren't They just weren't good. They were miscast as the

(49:34):
second ranked team in the country. So you know, I
look at a high state and I go, all right, now,
you heard a lot about Julian saying right, like we've
heard a lot about it. Kind Holtz apparently has been
really good in camp. I think there's this idea that
we're expecting a more seamless transition, but like to your point,

(49:55):
until you're starting and you're who knows, right, But between
Ohio State and then he got arch and the Texas thing,
it's just you know, that's just big, massive, right arch
And it was already everybody's saying it, uh you know,

(50:17):
pop up Archie said it that he's not coming out
like he's gonna be there for two years, Like he's
not gonna come and start for a year to go
to the NFL. He's gonna play for two years at Texas,
which I love, right. I loved him being at Texas
for two years, and you know he's gonna be great,

(50:39):
like you just know it, Like he had some growing
pays last year. I still thought he should have been
in the game in the playoff. But yeah, you know,
you know he's gonna be good. You know, the kid's
gonna be terrific.

Speaker 1 (50:51):
I think the fact that he wasn't in the playoffs
when they needed his mobility speaks to the fact that
the coaching staff had a very intentional process with him,
and they were they they wanted to see from him.
That's why I guess I've kind of always bought into
it makes sense. And I've heard, you know, this morning,
we've been running some colleague how heard highlights where Colin
talks about, you know, the Mannings are good business people,

(51:13):
and this is all part of that. I don't know
that I can feel comfortable saying that with any confidence,
Like I think there's a very real path to we're
anointing arch as the second coming. Well, what if he's
just really good this year and actually needs a second
year starting in college football where he is the guy?
Like what if there's a slip up here and he
just needs a little more time. Like if you are

(51:35):
a Saints fan and you're presuming that the best solution
for you is just to suck this year so that
you can go get arch you better be prepared for
the fact that, like I'm not sure that we know
Arches even despite the conspiracy, as you pointed out, Archie
made it clear he's coming back. I think there's something
real to that. So this is this is wild to

(51:56):
me that we just again we're just propping arch up
as well, you know what, the last name, the ability,
the little flashes of it. He's going to be the
Heisman winner on the best team in the country. And
I that's that's say to buy. Yeah, I'm a very
well see this year on college football. I think there's
gonna be a lot more chaos. I'm very will see.

Speaker 2 (52:17):
Yeah, you're you're an agent of chaos. That is fact.
That is fact this year, and I think we need
to do this. I think we need to go team
by team a little. Let's take a look at you
remember the uh the game we played last year where
we drafted programs. Oh yeah, yeah, we should bring that back.
But I want to kind of go through with you

(52:39):
the really the top twenty five and at least a
fun end and it is I mean it's like every
year you go in, but it's more wide open than
it used to be. But before it was Alabama, Georgia,
and then maybe there was another two team or two.

(53:00):
Now I think there's a legitimate like you got probably
six to eight teams that are legitimate title contenders. Would
you a great Yeah?

Speaker 1 (53:11):
I one hundred percent, one hundred percent, especially because I
think you can easily stack in question marks because you
know me, like I look at coaching quarterbacks like maybe
like let's say an eighties tag team, you know in WWE,
so like you gotta have the coach and the quarterback together.
That make me comfortable. So I look at Texas and

(53:32):
I think, well, I haven't seen anything from arts as
much as I want to see it. I look at
Ohio State, I don't really understand what they're doing at
the quarterback position, Like we don't know yet, Like we
don't know what that's going to look like. I'm not
sure that we can have a ton of confidence in
what Georgia has at the quarterback position yet, Like I
love the concept of it, but we'll see Notre Dame
new quarterback. This is the theme Oregon basically a new roster,

(53:54):
Alabama a new quarterback like Miami and new quarterback. So
what am I I'm looking at all and Penn State
and maybe LSU and Garrett Usmeier is like, yeah, two
teams that have like the rest of them, I could
see total chaos, just absolutely moving any of those teams
up or down the list. And that's where you know
when you start talking about how many teams have a
chance at the Natty, especially in a playoff concept that

(54:16):
we have now, my god, Like, can Illinois do the
impossible and find themselves to a national championship? I don't
think so, But will they be in the conversation, Yeah,
they very well.

Speaker 2 (54:26):
Okay, so let's play the game, right, I'll go lock
contender or you know, lock maybe no, all right, So
Texas lock, Hive State lock, Penn State lock, Georgia lock,
Notre Dame lock, Clemson lock. Yeah, I think Clem's gonna

(54:46):
be good. Oregon lock, Alabama lock.

Speaker 1 (54:52):
Or maybe maybe. I don't think anything's a lock with
Kaitlyn de boor I just I think there's a better
chance at Alabama loses three games and everybody's losing their minds.
Then Alabama loses one game and finds themselves in the
College Football Playoff. To me, so yeah, I think it's
about to get really hairy for the for the for
the Rolling Tide.

Speaker 2 (55:12):
L s U. I think they're legitimate.

Speaker 1 (55:15):
I think they're a lock. I think Ellis. I think
we're sleeping on LUG and Clemson. By the way, you
mentioned Clemson is a lock earlier. I'm leaning right now
is like Clemson. If I had to, if I had
to bet my house on one, I might be Clemson.
So like Clemson and l s UM, I'm I'm I'm
all in on Shock.

Speaker 2 (55:32):
I am too. No two teams.

Speaker 1 (55:34):
I can't believe I'm saying that about No, I agree
with you.

Speaker 2 (55:38):
I'm a believer in Texas and I uh and I
like pet State Uh Miami, No, yeah, No, their defense
is not I don't I got to see them, but
their defense still scares me. Arizona State, Yeah, I think.

Speaker 1 (55:58):
Their playoff team. I think they should be a playoff team. Illinois,
they're They're in the conversation for a playoff team.

Speaker 2 (56:08):
South Carolina.

Speaker 1 (56:10):
Uh yeah, I mean if Sellers has the little leap
there and then yeah, I'm comfortable taking South Carolina as
a playoff contender, not a national championship contender, no.

Speaker 2 (56:18):
But could PLAYFF contender. I agree, Uh Ole Miss. I'm sorry, Michigan. Yeah,
you're away, You're gonna see a quarterback.

Speaker 1 (56:28):
But you know, yeah, Michigan's gonna be like, Michigan is
going to be much better and a disruptor.

Speaker 2 (56:33):
But I don't believe that Michigan is a playoff team
this year, right. I think next year they're gonna be scary.
I mean that recruiting, I got a great recruit recruiting class.
You got the stud quarterback like they're going to be.
They're going to be good, like really really good. It's
just a matter of when. And I think you're right.
I think it's next year.

Speaker 1 (56:54):
Uh, ole Miss, Yeah, I think Old Miss is a
play Oh I don't know qu back. I know that's
the thing that makes me nervous, Like I don't want
to undersell you know how much I think it mattered
that you had a quarterback really comfortable in Lane's offense
the last couple of years. So you know, I'm I mean,

(57:14):
I want to believe Austin Simmons can just come in
and take the job and just know, I don't know, No,
I think Ole Miss will be just on the outside
looking in angrily screaming about guaranteed automatic bids for SEC teams.
Are you big ones? I est to media sort of yeah.

(57:37):
Now I think they're the same and the outside looking.

Speaker 2 (57:40):
In on the playoffs Gators.

Speaker 1 (57:41):
Yes, you're in on the Gators.

Speaker 2 (57:43):
Yeah. I think Gators have a chance to be really
good as a playoff contender, not a championship, but playoff contender.
I think it could be really good. Again, I like
nervous j Yeah, I like the recruit. I think, uh, defensively,
they're going to be really good. I heard some good
things about them. Uh Tennessee.

Speaker 1 (58:05):
Quarterback again makes me nervous, Like I think they downgraded
at the position through all of the conversation around Nico
Yama Liava. Like I do think there's a little bit
of pressure on high Pool to make the most out.
You's got to make chicken salad quickly with the things
since that went down to there, Like they they stood
on this whole, like we're gonna stand on a foundation

(58:25):
at the quarterback and not overpay. And it's going to
be a really interesting test to see how that works,
because I honestly think it just turned into lose lose.
I think Nico's theer situation in Tennessee's in a worse situation.

Speaker 2 (58:37):
Uh in the ad can step back right. Let step
back right and and then any of these teams kids
of State Iowa State A and M b YU, Texas
Tech Boise.

Speaker 1 (58:50):
I think Texas A and M, if they could actually
stay healthy and figure out how to close the end
of games, could be a much better team than where
they are ranked right now. I just that's a big if,
you know. So if my mom used to always say,
I for a frog had a glass bud, it would
only jump once. Like I'm sort of there on Texas,
Like I don't know, like Texas A and M I

(59:10):
should say, like the pieces are there, I just don't
know that if I can trust them to jump twice.

Speaker 2 (59:16):
Yeah, no, I got you. All right, let's say quick too,
come right back back to the NFL for a moment,
and I want to I want to kind of go
through some of the biggest questions for each team at
each camp and have you be the answer man. All right, okay,

(59:37):
all right, we're a fella's hanging right here. Fox Sports Radio.

Speaker 3 (59:41):
the nation. Catch all of our shows at foxsports radio
dot Com and within the iHeartRadio app search FSR to
listen live Welcome.

Speaker 2 (59:53):
Back Fellas, Jason Fits, Anthony Gargano, don't forget. For over
forty years, tire Iraq has been helping customers for the
right tires for how, what and where they drive, ship
fast and free back by free road hazard production with
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(01:00:16):
Com is the way tire buying should be. Now Here
is tire Iraq Play of the Day. And of course
we're going to Schedure.

Speaker 1 (01:00:28):
Shot then for Young from the five sets up for
the pocket looking middle Pocket breaks down, He rolls out
to the right side at the fifteen, directing traffic at
the ten clos back of the end zone. Dayleen Cocker's
got It coverer for the touchdown of the Panthers Core.

Speaker 2 (01:00:41):
First there is Schedor's First TV courtesy of seven hundred
WLW Brown's Radio Network. And we've been talking all about
the preseason and it's funny and one of our guys
hit us up on X and Superstar Dad and he's

(01:01:02):
like a guys, you know, come on, man, like you know,
you like that every year, And truthfully, he's right about me,
and probably about you. But it still feels different this year.
It actually not about you because you've said it. You
do not you don't take preseason overboard. I always take

(01:01:24):
everything overboard, but you don't do that. It just feels
different this year. There seems I'm noticing it from other
people that are like, yeah, like like when we were
at the Eagles game, right. I did the Eagles game
Thursday night, and it was it was fun, like the
people were, they loved it. And you know, phild Off,

(01:01:46):
he's different. Obviously they come off the Super Bowl, but
you're talking about a jaded veteran bunch, right, Like you
know they're not gonna go overboard over preseason. But Tatter McKee,
who's the backup, who's really really good by the way,
he had a big night and it was just you know,
it was Paro played right Jamar Higgins, So it was

(01:02:10):
a it was a fun atmosphere. It was it was
like it was just for for a preseason game, and
that's qualifier for a preseason game. It was. It was
a blast.

Speaker 1 (01:02:21):
I also, I've always been so transparent with our audience
and everybody. Anytime anyone listens about the information that is
made available to us for what we do for a living,
Like for my my job with Yahoo, like, part of
what I have to do is create, you know, videos
reacting to whatever's getting traction on the website. So I'll
get a Slack message from the bosses at Yahoo and

(01:02:43):
they'll say, Hey, this game, everybody's clicking on the article
about this, we need a two minute video on it.
That's that's part of my job function Yahoo. The clickthroughs
on preseason football have been absolutely through the roof. Like, again,
I know my Raiders fandom is the reason I was
going to watch the Raider Seahawks game. But when you
tuned in, when we looked at the site the next morning,

(01:03:05):
more than any regular season baseball action, more than any
of that, people were clicking on aggregated content about the
Raiders Seahawks because the game ended in a tie and
that was interesting to people. So like, at some point,
while I understand that you know, we're all sort of
prisoner of the moment, the data supports everything that you're saying,
like we're there are astronomical clickthroughs for a reason on

(01:03:29):
preseason football. People are genuinely interested. Whether it's there's always
a storyline. This is what this is what the NFL
does better than anybody. Like part of the reason you mentioned,
you know, draft experts and like why why draft guys
don't watch college football would be asinine to be. But
one thing that we have to understand is that by
the time you step on the field, a fifth round
quarterback can be a superstar by the time he steps

(01:03:51):
on the field, because frankly, everybody obsesses over this information
so much and we see that right, So, whether it's
the story of Pete Carroll returning to Seattle, or whether
it's the story of Shador Standards stepping on the field,
or if you're a Giants fan, it's going to be
how much time is Jackson Dark gonna get? And what's
it look like cam Ward is gonna step on the field,

(01:04:11):
And that's obviously going to be a huge deal. Like
you just go up and down the list, the NFL
does a great job of creating Disney movies out of
every single opportunity. And that means that by the time
we get to preseason, unlike spring training where most people
have never even heard of half the guys that aren't
going to make an MLB roster, there are going to
be fans obsessed over a team's decision to cut somebody

(01:04:33):
that barely even belongs in the league because these stories
are told so well and so often leading up to it.

Speaker 2 (01:04:39):
Yeah. Yeah, the storytelling great. Your analogy of a Disney
movie awesome, because you're right, it's like the Lifetime. What
Lifetime does for romance, right, is what the NFL does
for that is the esque arc. Right, we know, the

(01:05:02):
story arc of the kid out of nowhere who's got
this ability overcoming something to you know whatever. Like that's
the plot, and the NFL is always got They just
have so much of it. It's and we all love it,
and that's why we all come back. That's why to
Super Dead like honestly got bush it honestly, Uh, we're

(01:05:25):
genuinely people are into it. And again it'll probably die
down because you know, it is a novelty. It's it's
back for the first time. You know, we had the
Hall of Fame game and then we had two Legger games. Right,
we have a triple header today. Now it's Saturday in
the summer. I don't think people are gonna be you know,

(01:05:47):
locked into it. You know, I get that piece of it,
but this preseason. Is it's interesting too? Like sh dors Sanders,
You know last night was it interesting? Drake Bay was interesting?
That's all.

Speaker 1 (01:06:03):
Look, I don't think this is some glorious hot take
my brothery like, think about it. In a few days,
the Browns are going to play another game, right Their
next preseason game is actually at Philly on the sixteenth.
They're going to play at Philly on the sixteenth. You
want to tell me that every set of eyeballs won't
be up because presuming Dylan Gabriel's hamstring is better by then,

(01:06:26):
and I hope it is, then he would get the
opportunity to play. And now it's going to be how
did he play versus how Shador has played? If Shador
gets back on the field and absolutely crushes it, then
it'll be, oh my god, are they making the right decision?
What are they doing with Kenny Pickett? And all the
while while all this is happening. I talked to Andrew
Siciliano actually yesterday about the Browns specifically and the fact

(01:06:46):
that Mary Kay Cabot, the reporter, had reported from practice
that all the way up to yesterday, Joe Flacco has
been taking the reps with the ones in practice still
And one thing that Siciliano, who does the Browns radio broadcast,
pointed out is that part of the reason that continued
is because most of those ones weren't playing in the
preseason game last night, so they wanted to keep Shador

(01:07:07):
comfortable with who Shador is comfortable with. So that is
just part of how it went. So I look at
all of that and say, you want to tell me
in a week that if Shador comes out and this
time he's with more ones and it looks really good,
that people won't start asking questions, or if it looks
really bad, people will start like because of the outcome
last night, no matter what happens on the sixteenth, everyone

(01:07:27):
is going to overreact to it. This is the beauty
of what's happening this preseason that does feel a little
bit different. I agree with you. By the time we
get to week three of the preseason, we'll all be
sitting here saying, my God, just give me actual, real
football that matters. I don't want to watch this anymore.
But until we get to that point, I might as
well soak in the enjoyment of what we got.

Speaker 2 (01:07:46):
Come on, well, that's it, man, that's exactly right. This
week's gould be interesting because it's the Browns and the
Eagles have a joint practice, so there'll be two days
of joint practices between the team, seems before the game
and you got and you know, that's where a lot
of work gets done, is touring that joint practice. So

(01:08:09):
I'm curious. My guess is, you know, it'll be it'll
be Flacco and for the most part, but it'll be
interesting to see. Uh, I'm gonna go down there. I'm
looking forward to seeing, uh, just your door up close.

Speaker 1 (01:08:22):
Yeah, and those joint practices. You know, I wish we
lived in a world where joint practices were the only
thing I wish there was. There wasn't normal preseason. They'll
never get rid of that preseason money. But the beauty
of joint practices is that, you know, you truly get
the opportunity to work on specific things. And this is
something JJ Watt talked a little bit about on Twitter

(01:08:44):
a few weeks ago. He was a little alarmed to
see how much stats reporting goes on from practice. But
that's a real thing. That's it's always been a real thing,
and one thing that has been pointed out by smart
people since then is that what you don't know when
you see the stat line. So so if you're a
Browns fan and afterwards a writer does what their job
is and tells you, hey, Shador was one for six today,

(01:09:06):
but Dylan Gabriel was eight for ten. People see that,
and what they don't know is, well, what was the
situation Shador was in versus the situation that Dylan was in, Like,
was one working on third and long installs and the
other working on golden installs? Like that's very that's all
very different. The beautiful thing about joint practices is that
coaches do and can sit down with each other and say, hey,

(01:09:27):
my team really needs to work on the following so
we're gonna do this. Well our that's our plan, and
you're getting a common vision of exactly what you're trying
to work on and how you.

Speaker 2 (01:09:37):
Work on it.

Speaker 1 (01:09:37):
They work together on it. So I think it's more
meaningful from the reps, it's more meaningful from the reporting
that you get from it. It's actually more beneficial from
the team. Like all of these things actually make joint
practices better. They're just not as sexy to report on
because it's not a stadium full of people in watching
a live game.

Speaker 2 (01:09:54):
Right, and it's not a real game. It to simulate
it simulated circumstances. Right, You're trying to do the one thing.
And I'm glad you brought this up because I gotta
I gotta talk about it. The other thing that we
go goofy about is with numbers and how and how

(01:10:14):
guys look. So Kyle McCord played in the fourth quarter
Thursday night, right, and people were crushing him here and
I'm like, listen, can you just give the kid a break?
He comes in his line the left guard. It was

(01:10:37):
the first ever football game because he's from Australia, he's
a rugby player. For his left guard, you got you
got two tackles that are you know, won't make the team,
probably won't be able to practice one definitely won't be

(01:11:00):
going to practice squad. You got another guard that is
coming off of a year of injury. Like, what do
you expect the kid to do? And by the way,
he's not thrown aj Brown right, Like what do you
expect from a quarterback? And I only bring up Kyle
because that's what happened Thursday night. But it's like that,

(01:11:23):
it could be like that with any quarterback, right, you
can't judge a kid that's playing his first first ever
football game because he's a rugby player and a team
took a flyer on you. You got to give him reps.
You gotta get him used to it. So the quarterback
behind him probably is going to suffer, but you gotta

(01:11:45):
do it right because he could turn into Jordan may
A loota two who's one of the best left tackles
in football, who's a rugby player from Australia.

Speaker 1 (01:11:54):
Which is also, by the way, sometimes why starting quarterback
don't play very long in preseason games, even when teams
want them to, because one thing we have to acknowledge
is that if your starting quarterback is in and he's
the most important player on your team, you have to
keep more starting offensive linemen around him in the game

(01:12:16):
because you do not want to risk injury. You're never
going to put your second line in front of your
starting quarterback in a preseason game because that's a liability.
So now, if you're a team, by the way, that
in the preseason, if you're reading about your favorite team
and you see that they've got some depth issue at
guard or you know they've got some they're dinged up
on the right side of the line. Well, if the
coaching staff doesn't want to put the offensive line depth

(01:12:38):
that is at risk in a preseason game. Now it
has to impact how much time the starting quarterback gets.
These are all the variables. Like you started the show
talking very smartly about how there's two separate sections of
the world. There's the people that are actually in the
game and coaching the game and like at a different level,
and then all of us that are consuming it from
the outside looking in. That's some of the minutia. Like

(01:13:00):
all of this is stuff that fans in the moment,
they don't care. They just want to watch somebody go
out and crush it. But there's so much context to
what that looks like. There is a you got to
step back instead of just saying this guy sucks, ask yourself,
why does this guy? Why does the offense look like
this right now? And maybe when you ask yourself that question,
you discover that and you have a better opportunity to

(01:13:22):
judge somebody for what they're actually doing in.

Speaker 2 (01:13:23):
Front of them. Yeah, yeah, it's well context.

Speaker 1 (01:13:27):
Oh I'm speaking of the Eagles, though, I will say this,
Tanner McKee looked better just eye test. We're just talking
about just the eye test of execution of an offense.
Maybe the Bengals defense is just another pile of hot
garbaas this year. That is possible. But Tanner McKee looked
better in his time with the Eagles in that preseason
game than a bunch of starters did.

Speaker 5 (01:13:48):
Like.

Speaker 1 (01:13:48):
Look, whether Anthony Richardson unfortunately with the pinky, I hate
that for him, But whether it's Anthony Richardson or Daniel Jones,
Tanner McKee looked better than either of them in the
process of that game. I just kept watching that, thinking, man,
he's gonna play himself into getting to start somewhere.

Speaker 2 (01:14:04):
Like it just feels like I gotta give you some light.
I'm gonna set some light into that because he could
have been starting somewhere else this year. All Right, I'll
tell you the whole backstory, and I got a violation
question for you too. All Right, the whole thing. We'll
begin our questions Camp Questions next hour. Fellas Jason Fitz,
Anthony Gargano, Fox Sports Radio Fellas Jason Fitz, Anthony Gargano,

(01:14:31):
cousin Fitzie, Hey, uh, don't forget for the best pregame
show every weekend, be sure to tune into Fox Sports
Radio's Countdown presented by Ben and GM every Saturday and
Sunday morning from nine to noon Eastern in six and
nine Pacific. We're gonna count you down to the day's
biggest games. Tune into Countdown presented by Ben MGM every

(01:14:54):
Saturday and Sunday morning right here on Fox Sports Radio
and the iHeartRadio app. All right, real quick, FITZI, you
brought up McKee and yeah, he looked. He looked great.
So Tanner McKee from Stanford is this is his third year.
He's entering his third year. He has looked really good

(01:15:15):
in preseason the last two years. Last year there was
a game when Jalen was hurt, Tanner had to start.
He was terrific. I played really well. He makes all
the throws. He's got a great arm, makes all the throws,
pinpoint thrower, knows the offense. We'll let his receivers go

(01:15:36):
up and make plays. He's really good, like really good.
Gllen Moore in fact, was really excited when Tanner got
the ability to start. Not because Jalen was hurt, obviously,
but it wasn't a catastractive, catastrophic injury for Jalen, and
it was a good opportunity for McKee to start a

(01:15:56):
real game in a game that really mattered, and he
performed really well. So fast forward to the draft. Howie
Roseman from the Eagles got a ton of calls on McKee.
Three teams really made plays for him. I know the
Browns were one. They went up getting Kenny Pickett. They
preferred McKee. The I know the Raiders were kicking attires.

(01:16:22):
I know the Saints obviously, Chris Kellen went there, had
interest in Tanner. There were a lot of teams that
were really interested in some made offers. The Eagles view
Tanner McKee as Tanner mcfoles, so he is there, you know,
break class. Jalen unquestionably is the MVP of the Super Bowl,

(01:16:44):
the starting quarterback, all the above, but he's been dinged
up the last couple of years. And the other thing
about the style, what's the Eagles play? They used Jalen
in the run game, right, so her has to be
a big part of the run game the Eagles. We

(01:17:06):
know all about what happened in twenty seventeen when Carson
wentz got hurt in Los Angeles and it felt like
it was the end of the year. Nick Falls came
in and was magical without dual Tom Brady and a
Disney story. And ever since then, the backup has been
a huge priority for the Eagles, and despite really good offers,

(01:17:29):
how he's not trading Tanner McKee.

Speaker 1 (01:17:32):
Look number one, I have said since I was a
little podcast that nobody listened to, So for almost ten years,
I've been preaching the fact that I believe that backup
quarterback is something that should be drafted and developed specifically
by every team. And I do mean very specifically backup quarterback,
Like go get you that guy that you're gonna let
learn that offense for years and become just that person

(01:17:55):
you can rely on that Hey I need two three games.
I got this guy. Maybe he's not a world but
he knows my offense. He knows exactly what I need
to do. He's been brought along slowly, Like I love
the concept of protecting your backup quarterback because, my god,
especially in a seventeen and eventually eighteen game season, you
need him. What's interesting is that the Tanner m key thing,
Like I remember the draft prep on Tanner McKee. And

(01:18:16):
it's funny you say the Raiders kick the tires, because
I knew people around the organization then that were kicking
the tire like, ooh, should we look at Tanner McKee.
Everybody at the time knew that his intelligence, not just
because of the stereotype of Stamford, but like he processes quickly.
I was just really impressed to see in that game
on the run one foot plant throw like it happened

(01:18:36):
so a couple of times where his just control was
so good and you look at it and think, my god,
Like I get why the Eagles wouldn't want to let
him go. I also get why other teams would be
interested in him. And you know, he feels like viol
at some point in his contract, he's going to be
able to go somewhere and viably I think he has
a chance to play like and also not for an

(01:18:57):
out time. I got a toush push with tan McKey
with those granny little legs come on the place.

Speaker 2 (01:19:04):
Well, it was great because you know, the Bengals are
one of the teams that voted against it. It was nice, right,
But the other thing, honestly, the kids got to build
it like he's legitimate, Like I've seen him be developed.
And this is something that we go back to about

(01:19:25):
playing right away. I mean, when you get to sit
and develop and now you're entering your third year, it's
a huge help. It's a huge help. Like he's going
to play and start in this league and be good.
I've seen him, I've watched him in practice, like he's
really he's legitimate. Patter McKee is legit. We're the fellas.

(01:19:47):
Be back in a moment. Don't go anywhere.

Speaker 1 (01:19:51):
Sports Radio, good.

Speaker 2 (01:19:53):
Morning, good morning, good morning, good morning, good morning, Buddy
heavy be Fox Sports Saturday, seven a m. In the East,
four m in the West. As it's it up there
talking about we're under a month from Eagles and Cowboys.
We're two weeks away from week zero start college football.

(01:20:20):
Jason fitz Anthony, I got a joint from the Fox
Sports radio studios. All right, FITZI, we were talking a
lot about you know, obviously Chador, about Drake May. What'd
you thinking of Brady's statue twelve foot high, Brady's statue
outside Gillette.

Speaker 1 (01:20:39):
How are we gonna do a Brady statue, not a
Belichick statue with him? Like I just was right side
by side, like Bill and Brady, Like, wouldn't I I
don't know, I mean statue of a I'm not a
big statue guy. You know, statues. More goes wrong than
right with statues. The first to admit that b it's
just for me, the farther we get away from that

(01:21:02):
entire era more. I wish we could just appreciate that
it was both of them. I'm so glad that we
have somehow so far knock on Wood avoided the is
it Mahomes or Andy Reid conversation?

Speaker 2 (01:21:13):
Right?

Speaker 1 (01:21:14):
I just it's exhausting and so to me. If I
could have had any way, especially the way the Patriots
dynasties were built, if I could have had any you know,
creative control on a statue, I would have done a
cluster of people, including Brady and Belichick, and that would
have been an easy way to never not single one

(01:21:35):
person out. Plus, it's just kind of weird to me
that the minority owner of another football team has a
statue outside of New England. Not I understand the why
on all of it, it just felt a little weird
to me. It felt a little weird to me.

Speaker 2 (01:21:47):
I liked it. I'll be honest with you, I thought
they got it right. I love first of all, it's
enormous and if that'sought, it was cool. Yeah, I agree
Belichick's beat. You should have one a Belichick too on
the other side of the stadium. Like, I'm with you,
but I don't think Brady was Jordan right, like one

(01:22:13):
in a lifetime. I'm not like, I don't want any
crowded statues right, like, but I think the statue's cool. Man,
I'm the honest with you.

Speaker 5 (01:22:24):
I like it.

Speaker 2 (01:22:25):
Maybe it's you know, my Roman roots, but I like
the statue. I think statues now, you're right in this
anti statue. Maybe I'm your anti statue, like because it's
also weird to me, like you mentioned Roman statue. Like, Okay,
one of the most surreal moments in my life has
been standing in front of the statue of David Humble
Brag and then you see like what it looks like

(01:22:47):
and how pictures don't do.

Speaker 1 (01:22:49):
It justice, and it's just very wow.

Speaker 2 (01:22:51):
You know.

Speaker 1 (01:22:52):
I kind of think, like hot take here, you should
be dead before they put up your statue. There's like
you shouldn't be able to take your kids to your Hey, guys,
this is my statue.

Speaker 2 (01:23:02):
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (01:23:02):
It feels weird to me. I don't know, I don't know.

Speaker 2 (01:23:06):
Don't you don't me? First of all, if you have
that kind of accomplishment, I mean you should be celebrated.

Speaker 1 (01:23:14):
The guy was the goat, like.

Speaker 2 (01:23:17):
The goat thing k because of Brady. Like listen, I'm
not I hate the Patriots right, like you know, I'm
an Eagles fan. There was four and the super Bowl
and t O. I mean, you gotta you gotta give
him his flowers and his bronze. Like to me, we

(01:23:40):
are only issues that we over statue. And you're right
about this too, statues we get him wrong. Like the
Sixers have a a Walk of Fame or whatever they
want to call I figure what they actually call it. Right,
it's in their outside their practiceacility. So they come up

(01:24:01):
They're gonna have a statue of Alan Iverson and it's horrible.
It's small, it's like a mini statue. It stakes like
if you're gonna do AI the answer, and I think
I'm all for it. Like they've had some great players,
will doctor j Moses Malone, right, Barkley. If you're gonna

(01:24:24):
have like AI, you gotta make it the right, gonna
make it real, like making a life size statue.

Speaker 1 (01:24:34):
Larger than life. Like I believe if I'm going go
walking up to a statue, if somebody was six foot four,
I want that statue.

Speaker 2 (01:24:41):
To be like what Brady the twelve footer?

Speaker 1 (01:24:43):
Yeah rightwelo, I'm good with that. Yeah, it looks cool.
Yeah that there is something very roman to that, you know,
And and there's a happy medium, like I think there
is a I don't want one statue outside of my stadium.
I want a bunch of statues outside of my stadium,
you know. I just and I was recently at Gillette.
I was at Gullette for post Malone Jelly Roll, going

(01:25:04):
to Gillett in a few weeks for walling like Gillette,
Gillette out. The outside of Gillette is actually really cool.
Vibe the way that they've got everything to the inside
of Gellette. It's a dump by the way Jillette Gillette people,
Robert Kraft, if you're listening, invests something inside that stadium
to actually make the inside of that stadium feel like
you're someplace special, Like I mean, my god, the inside

(01:25:24):
of Gillette is just a waste of time. It's literally
the same like concession stand every ten feet. It's the
same like hot dog, Hamburger, generic concession dan every five feet.
There's not even like something different, Like at least when
you go to Fenway you can get a lobster Gillette
inside trash, but outside of Gillette really nice. And that
whole like Patriot Place area really nice. It's just such

(01:25:45):
a fun vibe until you walk into the stadium. So
I like the concept of a massive twelve foot stadium.
Like now I'm thinking, do I want twelve foot man?
Do you make a twelve foot Belichick at some point?
And if you do, is he wearing the hoodie? Like, yeah,
you gotta weary that's a twelve footer. That's like you're
right though, Like there is a part of me that
it feels very rom now, like if we're gonna go big,

(01:26:06):
go big, big, big, big big, Like I don't need
a little bit, Like I don't need a statue that's
like a quasi heisman. I want a statue that like fly,
Oh my god, that's a damn statue right there. I
just I still kind of feel like you should at
least be the age of a pop haul before you
can take your your little kids to your grandkids should
go to see your statue. I just it's too soon.

(01:26:27):
It's too soon for Brady. It's too soon too. I'm
still thinking about Brady. Yeah, I'm still thinking about Brady. Yeah,
I'm still thinking about Brady's bucks super Bowl. Like they
put in is he getting a statue for that? We
put imagine in a world where we put a John
Cruden and Tom Brady statue outside of the Buccaneers to
celebrate some Super Bowls Like that just feels weird.

Speaker 2 (01:26:48):
Now, the rule of the statue needs to be if
you're a first ballot you know, automatic Hall of Famer,
then you know you get a statue, right like and
if you stayed with the team for you know, longer
than seven years, like I think you got to be

(01:27:11):
with a team for seven years, seven seasons. And if
you're a Hall of Famer, like an automatic Hall of Famer,
I mean, you get a statue. You're Brady, you get
a twelve foot statue.

Speaker 1 (01:27:25):
Are putting a statue of Aaron Rodgers out outside of Lambo?

Speaker 2 (01:27:30):
I mean honestly, yes, like now or do now?

Speaker 4 (01:27:34):
No?

Speaker 2 (01:27:34):
Well, he's got to retire. Oh okay, Like I'm not saying,
but no liked do I think Listen, I think Brett
Farv is pretty much a scumbag, right, like when when
you think about it, like some of the stuff that
he's done, and I'm a huge Farv. I loved him
as a quarterback. Some of the stuff that you know,

(01:27:56):
he's a volt winner whatever they can. You know, he's scummy,
But honestly, he deserves stat like if you're in Green Bay,
like all those like statues, and I mean all that,
like all that history some great players, Man, I love
I would love that. It's all it is is a museum.

(01:28:17):
It's not I dollatry. It's basically a museum, which I
think is great. I think sports should stadiums should celebrate
their past with a museum like entrance. So it's like
a headhouse that's a museum that celebrates the franchise.

Speaker 1 (01:28:39):
Look, I don't hate that idea. I think you know
one one area I really like an Allegiance in Vegas
is you can walk down this hall and they have
huge like uh, they have a huge wall that has
an engraved carving for you know, some of the historic
Raiders players. I would I would love if I honestly,
as you say, this out loud. If there was a
Caesar's Palace like walk that led me up to Allegiance,

(01:29:01):
that was all of the hall of every raider that's
in the Hall of Fame was on that walkway as
you came through with huge, like Roman sized statues. You
know you have talked me into this. This is a
spectacular idea and you are a thousand like your Brett
fav take by the way, like I think this is
where we always have to separate. Unfortunately, sometimes you have
to separate the person from you know, the the accomplishment.

(01:29:24):
And I've always with the NFL Hall of Fame. Let's
remember Hall of Fame voters are specifically told that you
cannot factor in anything that happened off the field. So
you know, if you can, if you can OJ, if
OJ can still be in the Pro Football Hall of Fame,
then Brett Favre can get a statue outside of the
Packers Like he's not getting a statue for the human
being he was. He was getting a statue for the
quarterback he was. So I'm I'm you've talked me into this.

(01:29:47):
A walkway coming through to walk into your favorite team
stadium that has the statues of their greatest players. It
would not be much of a walkway for the Jags,
but for most franchises it would be. I mean, can
you start.

Speaker 2 (01:30:03):
You got to start somewhere, right, so you know, obviously
it's like the Buckeye helmet, right, the stickers on the helmet.
You know, you got to start with a couple. You
gotta start with run until you litter the helmet with
the stickers and with accomplishments. I mean, that's what That's

(01:30:23):
what it comes down to. I think you do the walkway, headhouse,
whatever you want to call it, with the most the
greatest players of your franchise. And I would even take
an iconic moment or two, like Outside the Link was
a Philly Special statue, which I like because like that

(01:30:47):
was the first super Bowl and that was the iconic
play with the Super Bowl and it's Doug Peterson and
Nick Foles and it's the Philly Special. I thought it
was awesome. I love it.

Speaker 1 (01:31:02):
I Uh, I like this idea. You actually, you know,
I'm The funny thing is when I think of Landmark plays,
most of most of them from my beloved Raiders would
not be for a positive but you are right, like
everybody has a couple of guys, and you could start
with a couple of guys right at the entrance to
the stadium and then you just work your way out

(01:31:23):
from there and like imagine, you know, I think one
of the coolest things in college football is if you're
ever in Knoxville and you you know, you run the
tee and you go down to the Newland Stadium. I
think that's such a cool experience. Now I'm just imagining
funneling into your favorite team, Like if you are a
Packers fan and you're funneling into Lambo by way of

(01:31:43):
a just a group of statues to take you all
the way from you know, Lambo to Aaron Rodgers. That's
you know, Aaron Rodgers post retirement. That is a really
cool way to just see and celebrate the history as
you come in. And it's one of those things that
on the TV broadcast they could shoot like the shot

(01:32:04):
of everybody walking through that and they could go with
a fast camera through like it's it's a great walk
through history, like it's it is an interesting concept of
a way to embrace your history. And now you've talked
to me, You've talked me straight into it. As long
as they're all twelve feet and as long as they
feel like they're straight out of Italy. I am now
on statues if if they if somebody gets artistic with it,

(01:32:27):
if somebody tries to make one colorful or any like, no,
totally out on that. But if you're just giving me,
like straight up the inspiration is the statue of David,
don't screw with it. That's the path I'm in on this. Yeah,
my bad, exactly.

Speaker 2 (01:32:42):
Like one of the things I love about Yankee Stadium
into the old Yankee Stadium is you know, the it
feels legendary, right Like, there's something about that. And if
you're a new franchise, that's something to a byre to
you know, you embrace your newness, right you know by

(01:33:08):
only Sparsity and and you know this is what we're
gonna build this thing, and you know, I just think
it's a cool thing to do. I think we love
it so much. Why not like paym at playing like
homage to it.

Speaker 1 (01:33:23):
You know what You've now got me on this. With
the new Titan Stadium they're building, they should put the
Music City Miracle as a play with two statues, like
why check on one side throwing the ball and the
ball is in the air on the other side, and
then I think it was Kevin Dyson. They caught the
ball on the other leg. So you put the two
the two played on each side of the walkway. You
are actually recreating the Music City Miracle. I lent on this.

(01:33:46):
This is build your multi billion dollar stadium and put
the you put the Music City Miracle right outside of it,
in the form of twelve foot Roman statues.

Speaker 2 (01:33:55):
Oh.

Speaker 1 (01:33:55):
I don't know how I got to contact in Nashville,
but I'm gonna make.

Speaker 2 (01:33:57):
This a thing. I love the Music City marerale, I
love it.

Speaker 1 (01:34:02):
Fun fact, by the way, about the Music City Miracle,
everybody says they were there. That's like the Nashville legend.
Everybody says they were there. I actually was there and
watched it all go down, and I was really drunk,
like not drunk. I was drunk with some buddies and
we were walking down Second Avenue after the game. And
it was a much different version of Nashville in the

(01:34:22):
late nineties, so Second Avenue walking down was not common,
and we were just jumping up a down wildly drunk,
and some photographer took our picture and then asked for
our names, and he's like, I worked for the Tennessee
and which is the Nashville newspaper. And I was like cool, right,
So the next day, the top of the newspaper every
day has the big word tennesseean and right next to
the end, at the end of the word, are me

(01:34:44):
and my friends wildly drunk celebrating the music city miracle.
But of note here, and this is important, they were
all wearing Titans gear. You know who was not wearing
Titans gear? This guy, Because at the end of the day,
I'm not a Titan read. I was there with my
buddies at a football game. But I've always looked at
that with pride and like yep, even when you thought
you were gonna catch me wearing another team's colors. Hell, no,

(01:35:06):
I was just wearing a random sweater. It was cold outside,
just a random colorless sweater instead of anything. So even
even I can prove I was there because of the newspaper.
I can prove I was drunk because of the newspaper.
But I can also prove because of the newspaper that
I was not. I was not betraying the trust of
my beloved raiders.

Speaker 2 (01:35:26):
I love it. I love it? Would you for the Titans,
there's gotta be some sort of.

Speaker 1 (01:35:34):
McNair Yeah, yeah, McNair's yeah, he's front I mean he's
front and center with it, like the Music City Miracle.

Speaker 2 (01:35:43):
Also he's like, yeah, he's got to be in some
sort of the background of it where he's represented. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:35:48):
Yeah, Eddie George would be represented, like and that's where
it does become interesting. Derrick Henry when he retires would
be represented. So it's funny because even when you think, oh,
like franchises that a lot of people don't necessarily sit
down and say, oh, I can I can name you
the mount Rushmore for that team. Almost every team, I
mean every team has a mount Rushmore of some sort, right,

(01:36:11):
Like every team has as much as I threw some
shade at the Jags, like you know that there every
team has some Mount Rushmore that that is worth it.

Speaker 2 (01:36:20):
You know, I'm with you. It's interesting because a gabs
or X says, Rogers getting a statute is much different.
He only won one Super Bowl with the Packers. Brady
won six with New England. You know, he said, Rogers,

(01:36:41):
if he got one, shouldn't be for a long time listen,
I'm with you, like like you gotta you gotta give
it a minute, right, especially with what went down in
Green Bay. But when you take all those all those snaps,
I mean, he had a lot of success. He was

(01:37:02):
great man like Rogers. I know, we look at him
now and you know people are poking fun the whole thing.
But forget about his personality, whatever it is you don't like.
He was a great quarterback man. He made a great quarterback.

Speaker 1 (01:37:20):
This is super simple though. I mean the way what
you said on Brady was when you're an automatic, when
you're a first ballot Hall of Famer, you automatically get
a statue. I don't believe that there's a world where
Aaron Rodgers isn't a first ballot Hall of Famer. So
while it consider and say, you know what, this isn't
about Brady's accomplishments versus Aaron rodgers accomplishments. This is about

(01:37:40):
the simple concept of if you're a first ballot Hall
of Famer, which, by the way, you could even say,
do you deserve a statue if you're just a Hall
of Famer because Eli is not a first ballot Hall
of Famer. We now know that for fact is ELI
deserving him a statue outside the Giants. I let Giants
fans figure that out. But you know, if the construct
is first ballot Hall of Famer deserves the statue, I

(01:38:01):
have a hard time believing that Aaron Rodgers won't be
a first ballot Hall of Famer. So this isn't about
one super Bowl versus six super Bowls. I also loudly
will proclaim that I don't judge players based on super
Bowl count because then I'd have to suddenly tell you
that Trent dilfher is better than Dan Marino and there
is no world where Trent Dilfer is actually better than
That's good.

Speaker 2 (01:38:21):
It's a great point, and you're right, I'm I get
what he's I think it's the newness. It's what went
down right over the last couple of years, right, what's fresh.
I get all that. But when he does retire and

(01:38:41):
if you want to wait a year or whatever, because
I do think you have to retire and wait a
year and then come out and then give him his
give his statue. I think he deserves it. I'm with you.

Speaker 1 (01:38:55):
I think that could make sense too, Like, hey, when
if you're you know when somebody's going up for Hall
of Fame, so you can always try and try and
coordinate the timing of it with the Hall of Fame
announce but that's easier said than done.

Speaker 2 (01:39:05):
Two. So my main Nikki right listening says, I gotta
say Fitzie is a fox Hole Raiders fan, a Sentinel
won't bear foreign colors.

Speaker 1 (01:39:24):
Oh man. I've had other NFL teams offered to let
me play the national anthem, and my answer has always
been hell no, Like I'm not. There's no other NFL
team that I'm putting a jersey on for no way
you play the anthem to give you a jersey, I'm not.
There's no there's no world where a picture of me
is going to exist in a Patriots jersey or a
Packers jersey or any of those dudes.

Speaker 2 (01:39:42):
No, no, yeah, you here's the all thing. You can't
wear an all the team's chert, like you just can't
do it. I respect that, well, I don't know. You
can get away with a hoodie or a hat or
like if you, if you, but not. The jersey's sacred.

(01:40:03):
It's sacred, like you shouldn't wear any other thing like
a hoodie or anything else. But whatever, you get a
hoodie who cares. But the jersey is a sacred thing.
I'm with you. I'm with you, fellas. Right here Fox
Sports Radio.

Speaker 3 (01:40:21):
the nation. Catch all of our shows at foxsports Radio
listen live.

Speaker 2 (01:40:33):
Welcome back, Fellas, Jason Fitz, Anthony Gargano. Hey, don't forget.
With the iHeartRadio app, you can stream us wherever you
happen to be. Catch us in all Fox Sports Radio shows,
Love twenty four to seven and then new and improved
iHeartRadio app. Just search Fox Sports Radio in the app
store right to search in the app. Right, you can

(01:40:57):
stream us live every day and be want to select
Fox Sports Radio is one of your presets in the
iHeartRadio app, so we will always pop up the top
of your screen. Yeah, I didn't butcher that enough. It's
just inside the app. Just starts, Fox Sports Radio comes up. Boom,
You're hooked up.

Speaker 1 (01:41:15):
No app to get the show. Never get the app,
get the show. I got it all.

Speaker 2 (01:41:22):
I got a quick thing for it all right, what
is your stance on birthdays? Like someone's birthday. So I
got a producer who I love. Right, but but man,
but man, I've been hearing about his birthday for two weeks.

(01:41:42):
He's gonna be thirty two, right, And to me, a
you should never bring up your birthday and you should
never be like, oh, it's my birthday week. It's you know, dude,
you're a thirty two year old man, Like I don't know,

(01:42:04):
like if you turn in thirty or forty or fifty
or whatever, all right, twenty one.

Speaker 1 (01:42:11):
You know what I mean.

Speaker 2 (01:42:13):
But like birthdays to me, to really sell it, like, hey,
it's Saturday night, your birthdays today, you go, you know,
let's go out with some friends. Excuse to go out.
I get it, But you should never be people at
work talking about your birthday weeks coming up. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:42:33):
So for me, I think it's one of those things
where you know, if you got a significant other and
they want to go out to dinner and like make
a little thing of a birthday, I guess that's okay.
I didn't grow up with really much and so birthdays
weren't a big deal because we couldn't afford anything. So
as I got older in life, I was just always like, yeah,
another day, but it was funny because when I was

(01:42:53):
on the road with the band, two of us had
the same birthday on that tour, me and one of
our like management people, and she was but she was big.
She got really upset with me one year when we
were on the road because she was big into like, oh,
it's my birthday and I want to have a big
party and I want balloons everywhere and all this stuff,
and you know, everybody in the band knew me well

(01:43:16):
enough to know that, like the last thing I wanted
was all of that. She got really frustrated with me
one year because she was like, I feel like I'm
being ostracized for making this a big deal because now
you're making it such a small deal. And I sort
of laughed at that. I've always thought about that, Like
my favorite birthday, Yeah, no, it's true. My favorite birthday
on the road was a year where they threw a

(01:43:36):
massive party for her, Like there were balloons and like
food and like everybody from all the different bands were
backstage and it was like an all night party. And
I went up and on my on my pillow on
my bunk was a little tub of cream cheese frosting
that you could get it the spoon because they knew
that that's all I really wanted. I wanted cream chees
I just wanted to sit there and eat some cream
cheese frosting and be like, yeah, I made it through

(01:43:57):
a year. That's pretty good. That's pretty good. Like so
I'm just not a big birthday guy. Like I think
it's important to know if you're like, if you're in
a relationship with somebody and they're a birthday week person,
then you just got to embrace that and like make
that thin because you're never going to change that. If
it's a coworker that's coming in and it's like, oh,
it's my birthday week, No it isn't. No, you didn't
have a week. In fact, you didn't really do anything.

(01:44:18):
We should celebrate your mom. Your mom did a lot
that day, or we could celebrate your parents nine months before.
You didn't do anything. You just popped out. So like
the concept of birthday week, birthday month, I don't I
don't get any of it. Like, if it's a landmark
birthday and you want to do something big, I'm not
going to judge you. If you're if you're calling me
up and you're like, hey, I'm throwing. It's my thirty
fifth and this one's a big year for me for

(01:44:39):
whatever reason. And I want everybody to come to this place,
all right, Like if you're telling me it's important, I'll
do it. But if you're just sitting in the office
and you're like, I get to have a little extra
splurch today because it is my birthday week.

Speaker 2 (01:44:50):
No, no, it is not.

Speaker 1 (01:44:51):
No you have a birthday not it would actually be
your birth week. I'm out on all of that birth month.

Speaker 2 (01:44:57):
Yeah, yeah, I I don't know. I'm like flabbergancer right
because listen, you say teach your own right, Like I'm like,
enjoy yourself. But like it's not like you're turning, you know,
thirty forty whatever, it's you thirty two. All right, well
god bless like you know, a buy you drink, buy

(01:45:19):
your beer whatever.

Speaker 1 (01:45:21):
Now that like what you just said, that's the most
real world application of you know, standing at a bar
with a buddy and like how's it going. It's like, man,
it's pretty good. It's my birthday today. No way, I'll
buy you a drink like that. That's all you need.
I just don't like it cool, Like you know, aps
are on me me right, you.

Speaker 2 (01:45:39):
Know, hey, my man, But if I got to hear
you talking about it, I just find it, I don't know,
off putting. Like I said, it's a violation. So I
asked our producer. Because we love Bri and we love
Mighty Mark. So Brie violation, no Vie violation. A thirty

(01:46:02):
two year old man talking about his birthday.

Speaker 6 (01:46:05):
She stepped out for a second. But anybody anybody bringing
up their birthday, it's kind of not weird, but it's
like they're prepping you because they want it to be
all about them. They want to make sure that you know,
my day is coming up. So I need everybody to

(01:46:26):
do for me.

Speaker 2 (01:46:28):
Yeah yeah, yeah, like you should let somebody else do
that for you, Like you gotta step aside if it's
a big number, like I'm all for a party, like
party it up, but like that's for somebody else to
do that for you. You can't be going like you

(01:46:49):
can't be coming to the office with your own cake. Okay,
So now this unless he's leftover cake, that's say, yes,
it was my birthday. You know, my wife made me
the cake, my girl bought me the cake. His leftover
cake where I'd eat. You know, the office heats it.

Speaker 1 (01:47:07):
I am so on that note, I'm wildly confused by
the modern thing that I feel like happens to me
a lot. We're a buddy a friend, Like you'll get
a text and it's like, hey, my birthday is September eighteenth.
I'm having a big dinner. So like everybody's going to
meet at this fancy restaurant for my dinner on September eighteenth. Okay,
that's what you If that's what everybody's doing, I'm in

(01:47:29):
you know me, I'm never gonna say no to anything.
My thing, though, is if you just told me that
there's a fancy dinner for your birthday, we're all probably
gonna chip in on that dinner. Like you're not going
to pay for it, right, So now we're going to
a steakhouse for dinner. I'm not bringing you a present
like you you invited me to a fancy dinner that's
going to cost me money. So now I have spent
money to celebrate your birthday. I'm not double dipping on that,

(01:47:49):
Like I'm not getting you a gift card and taking
you out to dinner like that's that's a double whammy.
That is like if you invited me, if I tell you,
if I'm like, hey, hey, cause I know your birthday's
coming up, I'd love to take you out to dinner. Okay,
I might bring you a little something there, because like
we're friends, and it's like I'm a big believer and
I don't plan presence. If I see something that I
think somebody would like, I.

Speaker 2 (01:48:10):
Get it for them.

Speaker 1 (01:48:11):
And that's just the way I've always lived. So like,
if it's your birthday one year, I might get you something.
If I saw something and I was like, oh, this
makes me think of Anthony. The next year, I might
not get you anything because I didn't see anything that
really Like, I'm just gonna buy you something.

Speaker 2 (01:48:22):
To buy you. I love that. That's a great practice.

Speaker 1 (01:48:25):
Like if you invite me behind a fancy like group
dinner with twenty people and we're all gonna sit there
all night, nobody's ever gonna be able to talk to
anybody or hear anybody, and we're all gonna spend two
hundred dollars on some bad stake we don't really need.
If I've done all that, I'm not also bringing you
a present. That's asking too much.

Speaker 2 (01:48:43):
Yeah, yeah, you're right, I know, I'm completely with you.
You know what it is, dude, A live It's generational
because of social media. If you grew up with social media.
I think the me me is everybody's to start in
their own movie, right, I think that's more pronounced. I
think if you're from like the previous generations, there's our generation,

(01:49:08):
you're more group about the group. You're less comfortable with
a spotlight on yourself.

Speaker 6 (01:49:16):
You don't turn the spotlight on yourself so quickly. You
don't want anybody. Most people don't want anybody to know.
They just want to have the birthday and move on.
Their family knows what's happening, but they don't want to
tell the rest of their friends because they just want
to keep it as low key as possible, unless they're
planning a big thing and they want all their friends

(01:49:38):
and buddies to come to the event. But most people,
I think this is my view, they don't want to
mention it. They just let it come and pass without
much talk about it.

Speaker 1 (01:49:50):
Mark, what you just said, like so at my core,
you know, humble brag. I I talk about my music
too much sometimes. But like the other night, Little Big
Town was around and I went in and I sat
in with a little big town in country. I mean,
that's crub, It's they're great. People went up. I played
girl Crush with them. We we finished the song and
like I didn't, I didn't. There was no grandiose introduction.

(01:50:11):
I walked out on stage while the lights were low.
The spotlight came on. I started playing this fiddle solo
they that I'd sort of worked out. Then I stood
up with the guys and the girls and I played
the entire song and at the end of the song,
the light's been dimmed down and I just walked off
the stage. There was no moment the like they literally
had to get in front of the mic and like
Kimberly called and was like wait, wait, wait, wait, come

(01:50:32):
back out so we could, you know, And so she
came back.

Speaker 2 (01:50:34):
It was like everybody make noise for.

Speaker 1 (01:50:35):
Jay Smith, like that sort of thing. I I am
not wired to sit there and be like wait, wait,
wait wait. Like I went out, I played. I had
a really nice connective moment with people I genuinely appreciate,
Like I I loved getting that chance to do that.
It was a special gift to me that that they
let me intrude in their show, and the last thing

(01:50:56):
I wanted to do was then do cartwheels and be like,
pay attention to me. I'm not why, like I think
to the birthday point, that's part of why. Like I
just want a tub of cream cheese icing and get
the hell out of my like I don't. We don't
even talk about it, like it's not a big deal.
But I think Mighty Mark is right. There's just plenty
of people that they point these things out because what
they really want is the world to stop and everybody

(01:51:17):
to sit down and just longingly look at them and
be like, tell me about your life. It's your birthday,
Happy birthday. I hope you're happy. Like it's just a
weird position to be.

Speaker 6 (01:51:26):
Sometimes they just want their spotlight and they want to
make sure that everybody put the spotlight on me right now,
do it for me, Do it for me. I want
everybody's attention.

Speaker 2 (01:51:36):
Yeah, yeah, you know, I don't know if it's a
gender thing, but like to me, girls a lot of
girls would do that, right. You know, I've encountered bore
women that.

Speaker 6 (01:51:47):
Do that because their girlfriends are going to take them
out for another girl's night, so they're all right, together.
They're gonna drink and they're gonna do things. But they
point it out for their girlfriends.

Speaker 2 (01:51:57):
The dude that's thirty two years old. Yo, dude, come on, bro,
your birthday week. Come on, you took off two days
I go for your birthday. You think you want to
work off for Oh yeah, no, I'm out of that.
Like you don't, I don't care. Summertime. Do what you
gotta do. Like I don't care. But like you're like,
take off to go somewhere. I don't know, do whatever

(01:52:19):
you want. But I don't know. It seems to violate.
I was asking you it's a violation. It seems like
kind of a violation.

Speaker 1 (01:52:26):
Yeah, look, you got if you got the days and
you got the time, do whatever you want with your time.
But if you're if you know, if you're coming to me,
it's just a ghast that you have to work on
your birthday. And I do know people that are like that.
They're like, I cannot believe I'm at work on my birthday.
And it's like I've worked my birthday my entire life.
I just I just am not wired to think that
the world should shut down and I should not have

(01:52:47):
to do anything, just because it's the day that you know,
my mom pushed really hard. Like I just again, I
did nothing. I did nothing. My mom did everything. You know,
kudos if we want to, if we want to send
my mom flowers on my birthday, or if you want
to send my parents both flowers nine months before my birthday,
that all makes way more sense than giving me anything.
I just I just laid there.

Speaker 5 (01:53:08):
I just celebrate like as a month, like al together,
because I just make all these different celebrations. But I
don't really care. It doesn't affect the day. I'm just
kind of like I'll keep around my life, but.

Speaker 1 (01:53:19):
You are, a month is a birthday month.

Speaker 5 (01:53:23):
I like to celebrate every day and just keep it
like I keep it going, but like should start, I
don't start.

Speaker 1 (01:53:32):
I don't like stop my life. Does that make sense?

Speaker 5 (01:53:35):
Like I don't stop my life, but like I'll like,
you know what, it's my birthday month. I'm gonna go
to the SPA next weekend for sure because it's my
birthday month, or like oh yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:53:43):
We should go to yourself Yeah no, no, and also.

Speaker 5 (01:53:50):
For a month exactly like people want to treat me
like hey, we should go out and like I was
just like, yeah, you know, it's my birthday. I'm gonna
go out because I have two jobs, so I'm very
selective what I do in my purse in my social life.

Speaker 1 (01:54:02):
Right, does the birthday month start? Like, so my birthday's
June third? Does does birthday month start June first in
this math? Or does it start May third and it
runs a month?

Speaker 2 (01:54:12):
I don't know how this.

Speaker 5 (01:54:13):
Works in in Brianna world, it starts June first.

Speaker 1 (01:54:18):
Okay, look, maybe next year I'll try it. Like I'm
not here to yu. You're young, like, go for it.

Speaker 2 (01:54:24):
Oh my god, like week like week successive? But all right, month,
oh my god, breath.

Speaker 1 (01:54:33):
Oh my life. I go to work.

Speaker 5 (01:54:36):
I don't use it as an excuse to not do
things of like I'm not going to go to work
today or I'm not going to do.

Speaker 2 (01:54:42):
You think of it? What do you think of it?
I thought you'd be anti it because you came down
hard on the producer.

Speaker 5 (01:54:48):
Well it's in a sense of like, but I'm not
I don't expect anything, like you shouldn't give me the
day off, Like if I'm not working on my birthday
on this show, you shouldn't. You should like fire me
you know you should be like Scott, I don't want
that girl on, you know what I mean, Like, that's
just weird.

Speaker 2 (01:55:01):
That's personally all right, let's think break. That's awesome, I fellas.
We digress. Back to football coming up next right here,
Fox Sports Radio, Welcome back, Fellas, Jason Fitz, Anthony Gargano.
So we got a triple header NFL Network today, so

(01:55:24):
we're doing the preseason test. So it's been great. We
love last night, we love Thursday night. Here's the test.
You watching the NFL triple header today. One o'clock Giants Bills,
four o'clock Texas and the Texans and the Vikings and

(01:55:47):
then Jets Packers at eight.

Speaker 1 (01:55:51):
I mean I have to watch the Vikings, right. JJ
is one of the most interesting things about the early
portion of this season. I mean, well.

Speaker 2 (01:56:02):
Scary if that's the if all reports out of Minnesota
are right, and that team is frightened about what JJ's
looked like so far, and that's.

Speaker 1 (01:56:15):
What is kind of wild, right, Like, this is a
team that won fourteen games last year, and the presumption
is that they did it despite Sam Donald, not because
of Sam Donald. To the point that Vikings fans were
clearly happy to let him walk out the door because
of the way he performed at the end of the season.
I understand that, but I've had this raging debate with
Vikings fans ever since then that I don't think you

(01:56:38):
necessarily I'm not sure you're putting enough value on what
those fourteen wins can mean too. So now you've got
JJ mccarthur come again in Vegas has told you they
think this is going to be a massive drop off.
I think the win total in Vegas in most sportsbooks
now is around eight and a half, so that's a
massive drop off for the Vikings. I'm still looking at
all of this saying, Okay, you have a quarterback that
has not played any meaningful snaps quite a long time.

(01:57:01):
When he did play last pre season, it was good,
like everybody was happy. But since then he's had multiple
procedures on his knee. According to multiple reports, he dropped
a substantial amount of weight and then they had to
try and get him to put that weight back on.

Speaker 2 (01:57:13):
Son.

Speaker 1 (01:57:14):
You've got rusted, You've got you know, the weight stuff,
You've got reps in general for a guy that I'm
sorry didn't throw Michigan to a National Championship. So every
question I had when I was doing my live broadcast
with Yahoo when he was drafted, I think is still
a fair question to ask. So I just you know me,
I love proof of concept. I used the phrase too much.
It's like a crutch for me. I love proof of concept.

(01:57:36):
We have absolutely zero proof of concept for JJ. He's
you know, we talked about the amount of eyeballs on
Shadour last night. Most people, even Browns fans, don't expect
the Browns to be great this year. Most Vikings fans
expect Minnesota to be great. I would argue that there's
far more pressure on JJ to performed this season than
there is for chadur Oh, it's Stardi the close.

Speaker 2 (01:57:58):
Sure, I'd started close because I think again, I think
most people thought, well, JJ's gonna be fine, right. I
don't know if they were calling him you know, Culpepper
or you know, Fran Tarkatin or whatever, but they I
think most Vikings fans thought, we all right, you know,

(01:58:21):
it makes sense, and JJ comes in, He's gonna be
good and he won't be Donald in the meltdown game.
He'll be fine. But like if he can't play, I mean,
you know, part of the whole thing with Rogers was
he wanted to go to Minnesota. Like Rogers wanted to

(01:58:41):
go to Minnesota more than any anywhere else, and they
didn't want him. The specter of Rogers over JJ.

Speaker 1 (01:58:51):
And I got Kirk Cousins loudly saying in quarterback over
and over again that he wouldn't have left Minnesota if
he knew what they were gonna do. And you know,
Kirk Kirk wasn't great last year. But man, if you're
the Vikings, you're looking around, I mean, if this you're
ready to win.

Speaker 2 (01:59:06):
You win.

Speaker 1 (01:59:08):
They're going to panic. They should panic if this goes
terribly in the preseason.

Speaker 2 (01:59:12):
Yeah, I mean the first thing you do is you
try to get Kirks back. I mean yeah, not right.
Not then, Like that was that this move is a
huge thing and it's underplayed. You know, it really is
an underplayed story as we enter the season, which is

(01:59:35):
who is JJ McCarthy? All right, uh questions everybody has them.
Next hour all quests of camp Fellas on Fox.

Speaker 1 (01:59:47):
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio.

Speaker 2 (01:59:51):
Good morning, good morning, good morning, good morning, Ey buddy,
happy happy you had be Fox Sports Saturday Saturday October.
October Augets ninth.

Speaker 1 (02:00:04):
You know where my mind is at, taking me straight
to Halloween everywhere, haunting people.

Speaker 2 (02:00:10):
Let's go, Jason fits Anthony gargt it. We're two weeks
away from Week zero college football and the throws of
early preseason. Before you know it, first Thursday of the
NFL Eagles Cowboys will be upon us this hour. We're
gonna go camp by camp, looking at the questions, the

(02:00:31):
biggest questions of training camp heading into this whole preseason
week one. Pretty soon there'll be no preseason three. It'll
just be two weeks. There'll be eighteen games, which is
probably what it will be, which actually would be perfect,
don't you think.

Speaker 1 (02:00:53):
Yeah, Look, I'm all at eighteen games is an inevitability?
Two preseason games is? I wish there was. I wish
that we could figure out a way to have some
version of the NBA Summer League for the NFL, for
some younger players to develop and get the chance to
be on the field and teams get a sense. I
wish that existed. It just doesn't. So, you know, as

(02:01:13):
much as we're talking about should do it right now,
there's certainly plenty of guys out there that could use
reps and opportunities to just show what they can do.
And it just doesn't it doesn't exist in the modern climate.
That's unfortunate, but that's collateral damage. We want more, more
meaningful football, so we'll always take it.

Speaker 2 (02:01:29):
But you know what, Look, we just talked about last
hour Tanner McKee, and like, trust me as someone who's
followed this kid and knows them. You know, during my
backyard the Eagles, Tanner McKee's gonna be a good player
in this league. I just know help be a starting
quarterback in this league. Can make every throw. He's been developed,

(02:01:53):
and like you can develop in practice in camps like
you know, OTAs like you just by being in a
quarterback room with good coaches, a good starter, you're going
to develop and it just it just takes time. That's
why we were talking about Shador. The best thing for

(02:02:15):
Shador is to is to sit and watch Joe Flacco, right,
just absorb it all. Being in a quarterback room with
Joe Flacco. And even Pickett's been been around for a minute, right,
But a guy like Flacco who is forty, who has

(02:02:36):
you know, won a Super Bowl and been around front
for a lot of yards in this league, those defenses
understands it all. It's great for Shador to be uh
to be part of that.

Speaker 1 (02:02:48):
Yeah, And you know we talked earlier about joint practices.
It's something that is one of the most difficult parts
of what it's like for all of us to try
and figure out how these guys are progressing. And you
know this being around the Eagles practices so much is
that if you're the Browns and you're Kevin Stefanski, you're
seeing every ounce of everything. You're seeing it in the

(02:03:09):
meeting rooms. You're talking to your assistant coaches about exactly
how much is being absorbed, how guys are processing, what
they figuring out. You see it in practice. You know,
Belichick notory is for quizzing his guys constantly, right Like,
there's so much information that goes into all of it.
And they see that for you know, six days a week,
hours and hours and hours a day and everything that

(02:03:29):
they possibly do. And then we see one half of
a preseason football game and that is supposed to be
this big landmark moment. But it is a fair point
that if you're Kevin Stefanski in the Cleveland Browns, you
should not be surprised by anything you see in a
preseason game, Like you might say, oh wow, he's a
real gamer, like he's got an extra level to it.
That's fine, but your opinion on a player overall shouldn't

(02:03:53):
suddenly just drastically change based on one half of a
preseason football game. There's so much other context and development
that you're seeing every single second of every single day.
Then we're just not privy to like it.

Speaker 2 (02:04:07):
We're all guilty of making these rash you know, uh,
having these rash opinions after a couple plays, couple series, right,
So the O reason why you go, ah, man, he
looked good, and you just take it as that general
statement because if you didn't look like you belonged, we
would say that, and the whole world would be like,

(02:04:30):
oh look shit, doors d stakes not gonna be anything.
That'd be the first thing people would say after a
preseason game, right, Like that's the truth. Like did you
freak out over Ashton Genty with these three carries?

Speaker 1 (02:04:47):
So I was I was doing a rehearsal for the
new Yahoo show Lunswers Monday, and there was a segment
where I was talking about Ashton gent and how good
I think he's gonna be this year, and the producers
to troll me put a graphic up three carries minus
one yards with neon around it. There's blinking the whole time,
and it's like, I literally laugh at this stuff. Because

(02:05:08):
even if Pete Carroll was asked after the game about
how simple the play calling was and he's like, yeah,
we're keeping things kind of simple, and I think it
was just again, there's just so much. You're right, the
problem is we just we're gonna freak out. If it's bad,
we freak out, and if it's good, we freak out.
And like the answer is probably somewhere in the middle.
You know, there is some sort of you know, chadur

(02:05:30):
had a really good moment, Ashton jend had a really
bad moment. Does that change the way any of us
should view the opening month of the NFL season? I
don't think so. Do you Like? It's just it seems
like it's just too much.

Speaker 2 (02:05:44):
Exactly exactly. Hey, by the way, he missed any of
today's show. You'll want to catch the podcast, so it
just search Fox Sports Radio wherever you get your podcasts.
Right after the show, today's podcast will be posted. Be
sure to follow the podcast. It was a solid rated
five stars. You can even provide a review to search

(02:06:04):
Fox Sports Ready wherever you get your podcasts, and you'll
find this one. The full show posted right after we
get off the air. Yeah, dude, I'm completely with you.
But let's let's go into questioned mode. All right, Yeah,
so you're the answer man, and let's start. We'll start
in the NFC smells. The start with the Eagles because

(02:06:26):
they are the defending champions. Their biggest question mark is
on defense. It's a corner spot that Darius Slayh had
last year and a lack of depth on the edge.
It passed ros So it's the biggest question is on defense.

Speaker 1 (02:06:47):
I mean, you're totally right by the way you guys
acquired Jacoreyan Bennett, who I think can help in that
secondary a lot if he can stay healthy, if that
shoulder is any good, that's a really good acquisition. They've
got to figure out how they're replacing their productivity production
on the field of Josh Wet obviously, but man, I
don't know when you're defensive line, and I get that
people keep talking about how different this has been handled.

(02:07:09):
And I will give Howie Roseman a ton of credit
because you know better than anybody. The last time they
won a Super Bowl, the next year it was kind
of running back. They've been aggressive, I think in allowing, hey,
we're gonna keep retooling this roster. I just trust Howie
Roseman so much like when I watched the Raiders trust
Ja Cory and Bennett to the Eagles trade him. The
first thing I thought was, you never beat Howie Roseman

(02:07:31):
in a trade. So all I can hope for is
it's a break even, right, So they'll be fine. The
depth is will be fine.

Speaker 2 (02:07:37):
I'll tell you. I think it is a break even
more because I like Booker. Booker's a legitimate defensive tackle
on the rotation, and I know Bennett's not Pete Carroll's
type of corner. He likes long, tall corners. So I
think it's one of the trades that the Raiders could
use some depth along their interior line. And I think

(02:07:58):
the Eagles and desperately needed another body out there. And
in the end, yep, I think they need to add
one more edge rusher, even more than the corner. I mean,
they have a great cornerback of QUINNYA. Mitchell, who's going
to be a star and Cooper Dejean, who can play
outside corner Nickel and he can play safety, So you know,

(02:08:22):
I think they're gonna be good defensively. They're young, they
have a lot of talent. I think they need a
little bit more depth off the edge. How about the Cowboys,
so the big story obviously, I mean Micah still no,
still nothing between Micah and Jerry. And again, Mike is

(02:08:45):
not the first player that Jerry tried to back door
into a deal. How does the Cowboys? How do the
Cowboys come back from this, like, this moment of division
with its best player? How do the Cowboys come back from.

Speaker 1 (02:09:04):
This historic money and the like? I honestly think it's
going to take jaw dropping money and money fixes everything.
Miles Garrett wanted to trade until he got paid. Max
Crosby may have wanted to trade until he got paid Miles.
At some point, Mike is going to be the same.
He's gonna I believe this deal is going to be done,
and I believe he's going to be a Dallas Cowboy.

(02:09:24):
But I do think it's pretty staggering when you see
Cowboys star players of the past and president speaking out
you know, so so much on social media about this,
and then you've got Jerry sitting in front of a
microphone saying, well, I bought the dollars Cowboys with the
handshake deal? What are we talking about? Like at this
has gotten so weird, and Jerry just keeps using his

(02:09:44):
microphone to make it even weirder. This is I understand,
it's his team, and nobody can ever get him to
not use the microphone, But my god, I just feel
like we're sitting at the Thanksgiving table and you're watching
your grandpa say things he shouldn't say, and nobody at
the table has the courage to tell him just to
shut Every time Jerry speaks, he makes it worse. Micah
is gonna go out there and he's gonna get paid,

(02:10:04):
there's no doubt about it in my mind. But this
has gotten weirdly contentious. And what do you know, the
last thing you ever need for the Cowboys is a distraction.
Like I have no idea what the hell to expect
for the Cowboys other than a disjointed, weird season.

Speaker 2 (02:10:19):
Yeah, because ultimately, you know, obviously Mike is not going
any where. They're not gonna get traded. They're not gonna
trade them they're gonna wind up paying Parsons. But the
issue is does Jerry's behavior have a tangible effect on
the roster, the players themselves, And by the way, it

(02:10:45):
has to do with the coach too. You went within
a young, unproven coach because you want to be able
to control the situation.

Speaker 1 (02:10:55):
Yeah, he went with the young, unproven coach that you
have cut off of the knees at press conferences multiple
time since you hired him. He's a coach that likes
to run the ball a lot. Historically, you still don't
have a running back that I think you know now
can do that for you. Like, so the roster construction
doesn't match the people you've come in to try and
cook with the ingredients you have in the pantry, and

(02:11:15):
you know you've got this team. They're the only team
in the NFL that I was talking to one reporter
that has covered the Cowboys for a long time. They're
the only team in the NFL that will stop in
the middle of a practice because the sponsors happen to
be walking through the practice field and they just want
you to meet them. You know, they want to have
that opportunity. It's already such a distracted environment in general,

(02:11:35):
and now you add this to it, like, I don't know,
I just I hate when we have this concept that
players can't shut it off in an impact Sundays. But
my god, I just don't know how all of this
noise doesn't impacts on Day's. The only thing that shuts
up the contract dispute, his money, and the only thing
that stops the divide is winning. And I just don't
know how they win fast enough to bring everybody together

(02:11:56):
on this one. It just this feels like a disaster,
as in on the Cowboys as I was last year,
and you were right to call me out on it.
That's how far out I am on them being productive
this year to the level they should be.

Speaker 2 (02:12:07):
All Right, let's go to Washington, where you know there's
a similar situation going on with Terry McLaurin. However, the
difference is Terry's in the building and Terry's he came
out and he's talking to the Washington He's talking to
his people's coaches, let them know he's gonna publicly ask

(02:12:30):
for a trade just to get the deal done. So
that deal, that deal's going to get done. I think
it's a lot less contentious, but here's the question, Washington
decided to go for it? Did they go all in
kind of like gotten too old? And is Deebo the answer?

(02:12:55):
Next to opposite mclauren.

Speaker 1 (02:12:58):
I mean, look, I think Washington last year, Warn't Sharp
did a great piece on the advanced analytics of why
Washington just they won so many games they shouldn't win.
I mean, their fourth down conversion rate was historic, and
you look at some of the endings that we remember,
you know, the walk off on the Hail Mary, things
like that, Like they just I feel like Washington is

(02:13:20):
going to take a step back this year because they
were so lucky last year. Not to say that they
Jayden Daniels is great. I think it's a realistic expectation
that they still feel like a ten win team to me,
but I think Washington fans expect more than that, if
that makes sense. Is Deebo the answer? Eh? I mean
this feels like, eh, they accelerated past where they thought

(02:13:42):
their roster was going to be last year, and so
now they spent a ton of money in free agency
in a year where there was so much money available
that there wasn't really a lot of free agency. That
I feel like is massive difference makers, so they're trying
to continue this momentum when development would have been a
better long term plan. I think I still think Washingtonton's
very good. I just think that Washington, you know, they've

(02:14:04):
now got the pieces in to be a ten win team,
but that doesn't necessarily feel like that's the expectation place,
so that people had like Washington's gonna feel a lot
like the Texans from last year to this year, where
everybody thought the Texans were gonna leap forward and instead
the Texans were just sort of, you know, it didn't
look quite as easy, and they ran it the same.
That feels like Washington to me this year.

Speaker 2 (02:14:23):
No. The only thing is though, and I hear the
comparison a lot because of stroud second year slump and
then well, you know, I think Jade Daniels I don't
believe that. I love Jada Daniels. I think he's the truth.
I think he is a terrific quarterback. I think he's

(02:14:44):
better than CJ. Stroud. I don't think he regresses. Now.
They may not win the way many games, but he's
not gonna somehow have this slump. And by the way,
in fairness to CJ thir ow line got dinged up
badly too.

Speaker 1 (02:15:00):
Yeah. No, I strongly agree with everything you just said.
I believe Jayden is better than CJ. I don't believe
CJ really had a regression last year. I think everything
around CJ became more difficult. I more meant like in
the perception because everybody thought a year ago that the
Texans were about to leap forward and be on the
same level as the Chiefs, and that didn't happen. I
don't think that CJ's fault. It just didn't happen. I

(02:15:21):
think Washington this year, you know, a lot of people
want to put them on the same level as like,
you know, consistently, Hey, this is going to be the
class of the the NFC. I think they're going to
be the very good of the NFC. I just don't think.
I think the perception is a little ahead of where
the team's going to be. But I still think, Yeah,
I mean, Jayden is not just a star, He's an
absolute damn superstar.

Speaker 2 (02:15:42):
Yeah, I'm completely with you. And let's finished the division
with the Giants and it's about when is it Jackson
dark time? Look, their defense I think actually be pretty
decent they they're a team. I think it's important for

(02:16:04):
them to finish on an upswing. Like you know they're
they're gonna dure a four to five win team, right,
but they got to finish on the upswing. My question
is when do you make the move to Dart.

Speaker 1 (02:16:18):
If I was running the organization, I'd start Jackson Dart
day one. And here's the only reason. Because we just
talked about letting quarterbacks watch. I don't think Brian Dabole
can win enough games to save his job. And if
they wait until week ten or eleven or twelve, which
would make the most sense to put Jackson Dart in,
he's going to have to be immediately so good that
they decide they want to keep the coach in the

(02:16:39):
quarterback together. So frankly, I don't think that's likely. I
think there's just like a progression that has to happen.
Give me as much time on task with that progression.
So if I'm dable, the only way I'm saving my
job is we won five games. But look at Jackson
Dart week one versus Week seventeen, and you can see
we've found the Mets magical special sauce. We don't want
to mess that up. We're gonna do a second year
in that together. Like, I think that's the only sales

(02:17:01):
pitch that even remotely has a chance to keep his job.
So I think he should start week one for the
development of the player long term, man, I'd let him
sit as long as humanly possible and just learn behind it.
Because this team, the Giants, are not going to be good,
so I don't want to roll them out there and
have him just get absolutely beat down. But inevitably there
are certain inevitabilities. I am. I feel like we're watching

(02:17:24):
the Bears all over again. It's gonna be a different
head coach with the different offensive mind, and it's all
going to be how do we maximize Jackson Dart a
year from now?

Speaker 2 (02:17:32):
Yeah, I wouldn't play him until the last, you know,
until the end of November December, and I would just
let him let him go. Then I try to hold
him back as much as possible. I'm with you. I
think it's it's it's I mean, that's the vital thing
to end strong and show promise with him all right,

(02:17:52):
where the fellas will continue going to round the league
with the biggest questions from camp right here on Fox
Sports Radio.

Speaker 3 (02:18:02):
the nation. Catch all of our shows at foxsports Radio
listen live.

Speaker 2 (02:18:13):
Fellas Jason Fitz, Anthony Gargano. Brain will be back next week.
Brain is our gambling fantasy expert. He'll be back next week.
He's on a cruise. Yeah, my man, my man, God
bless him. He travels the globe all summer long and

(02:18:33):
been all different continents. So the Brain will be back
next week. For that, we're going through our questions from camp.
The biggest questions from each team. Uh, let's go to
the NFC North. We touched on it. But the the
biggest question to the Vikings we're gonna look at today.
JAJ is a huge, huge question for a team that

(02:18:59):
is as a terrific coach on both sides of the ball.
Binds you because I like Flories too. They are they're
ready to win, but is their quarterback ready to play?

Speaker 1 (02:19:14):
It's just I mean, it's wild to me. It is
absolutely wild to me to be in your super Bowl
window and be in this situation and I get it.
This is you and I talked a lot about this
at the end of the season, and boy did I
get just destroyed on social media by Vikings fans that

(02:19:34):
kept saying, hey, we saw the end of the season.
We don't want that back, We don't want Sam Darnold back,
like this is this is what every fan base does.
And look, I as a Raiders fan, I watched the
entire fan base talk about how just hot and garbage
Derek Carr was during his entire career. And I'm not
saying Derek Carr was a life beater, but then you
you absolutely lived through a year of Aidan O'Connell and

(02:19:57):
Gardner Minshew and suddenly you're like, oh no, that not
that sucks right, Like and what are Saints fans going
through now? Like they were all like finally, good riddance,
get rid of the bum, and now it's like, we
might not have a quarterback, like, god forbid, JJ McCarthy
even get a hang nail. Sam Howell is the backup
like Brett Rippon. We feel good about this, Like you're
in a Super Bowl window and you are just rolling

(02:20:19):
the dice here with the quarterback that, my god, he
might have rust issues, he might have injury issues. You
don't know and then even if none of that happens,
he's never played a meaningful snap in a real NFL game, Like,
what if he just isn't good? Like I root for
every player to succeed, but what if, just what if
JJ McCarthy is like ninety percent of the quarterbacks that

(02:20:40):
are drafted and he's just a bust. If that's the
case in the middle of your Super Bowl window, you
have absolutely screwed yourselves.

Speaker 2 (02:20:47):
Yep, yep, yep, yep. I woy it is. Let's go
to the Lions And obviously the big question mark is
more the coaching staff and losing both coordinators.

Speaker 1 (02:21:02):
Well, and the Lions lost a bunch of their offensive
line too. I'm wow, they met are losing that guy.
It's just that that was a stunter hit when he retired. Man,
that was bad. Yeah, one hundred percent. You lose your
center and you have one of the best offensive lines
in the league last year. Now you have a new

(02:21:24):
and go back again to quarterback. One thing Jared Goff
was saying during that show was how important it is
that you and your play caller be on the same
page at all times, Like you got to know what's
coming on he knew scuttle Butt was going to be
the call, and he's like, give me scuttle butt, And
then he got scuttle butt and they made a big
deal about it in the episode, and I kept thinking, Yeah,
those are the little things that are just naturally going

(02:21:45):
to be different this year. So I look, I think
there's a lot of question marks for the Lions too. Frankly,
like you saw it in Philly, you don't always replace
all your coordinators and have it go swimmingly well, right,
So I just I have a hard time just assuming
that everything just can take use right down that path
of glory for the Lions.

Speaker 2 (02:22:02):
You know, I hear you, and Rag now was a
huge loss and and you're right, it's why I brought
the coordinators. You know, I'm a day Campbell guy. I
do think he gets it right. They have a lot
of talent. I think ultimately they're going to get it right.
I do uh uhhers. I like the Packers. I love

(02:22:28):
Golden by the way. I think Golden's going to be
a real big deal in this league. My my thing
with you is too twofold one. Are they good enough
on the on the defensive side of the ball and
Who is Jordan Love? Which Jordan Love? Will we see?

(02:22:48):
Which is the biggest question? Yeah?

Speaker 1 (02:22:51):
And I think, honestly, the funny thing right now, if
I had to add, if I had to bet my
house on what the most overrated vision and football will
be this year, it is actually the NFC North because
I think there's just a staggering for the Lions, for
the Vikings. For the Bears. I don't have as many
question marks. The prove it elements for the Packers are

(02:23:14):
certainly there, but man, if you're weighing that against new coordinators,
offensive line change, a quarterback that I can't trust at all,
in an entirely new everything for the Bears, I think
the Packers are going to win this division just because
they have the least question marks.

Speaker 2 (02:23:27):
What Now, that's wild man.

Speaker 1 (02:23:31):
Now you know that I've been particularly tough a lot
on Jordan Love. So I'm just saying, like, you know,
it's just for me. Yeah, I'm in on this one.

Speaker 2 (02:23:39):
Wow, that's wild. I love the North. I'd be I
great you with McCarthy, But I think the Packers are
going to be good. I like the Lions a lot.
I mean, the Bears should be interesting, you know, there's
quarterback questions there too, about Caleb and whether or not
that Caleb and Ben Johnson can they You know, Ben

(02:24:04):
Johnson expects a lot from his quarterback. Is Caleb going
to put the work in?

Speaker 1 (02:24:10):
And what does that language look like? You again, you
have a first time head coach, Like, there are gonna
be adjustments for Ben in presumption anyway, right, and as
he adjusts and then has to translate, Like we've all
seen the footage of Caleb that's looked really bad in
the training camp portion of this season. I'm not panicking

(02:24:30):
about that. But I'm also not not panicking. I mean,
we have to see all of this come together. We
have to figure out if they can get rid of
some of the problems you and I have talked about
endlessly for Caleb. Also, Ben Johnson's gonna have to adjust
to being a head coach that that is, an offensive
minded head coach instead of just an offensive coordinator. Like,
there's so much adjustment there. I hope it works out

(02:24:52):
at all. On paper looks really good, but man, I
don't trust any of that to actually see it for
a second.

Speaker 2 (02:24:57):
Yeah, yeah, I hear you. I just I guess I'm
more I like the I think the division is good.
If you said, if I said to you, which division?
If if the NFC North is overrated, which division do
you like in the NFC?

Speaker 1 (02:25:18):
I think the West is going to be good. Yeah, yeah,
I do. I mean Arizona was quiet last year, but
they were still almost a five hundred team and again and.

Speaker 2 (02:25:27):
Still well, let's go, let's go, let's go to let's
go out West then, and let's look at this scene.
If you brought up Arizona, we'll start with them. Uh,
are you listen to the same crew man, You're you're
bringing everybody Kyler? It like, yeah, are you buying Kyler?
And you know, I think it's a fair question. Yeah,

(02:25:51):
Like is he really a playoff quarterback?

Speaker 1 (02:25:54):
He's not a super Bowl quarterback, but I think he
can be enough to get them, Like, yes, I think
he can be enough to get them to where they
need to be. If the Cardinals are sort of stuck
in mediocrity right now, but I think we perceive them
as stuck in suck and they're not in the sea
of suck. Marvin Harrison Junior. I think takes a little
move forward this year too, So they the Cardinals started

(02:26:16):
hot last year and the wheels fell off late in
the year, which is sort of what happens to Kyler
Murray every year. I get that, but I like them
to be able to be at least like I think
they're a fringe playoff team going into this season. And
by the way, the NFC North is overrated doesn't mean
I think these teams are gonna suck. I just think
we presume that they're all going to be twelve win teams,
and I think you got a lot of nine to
ten wins. So we go ahead on the NFC North

(02:26:38):
or NFC West.

Speaker 2 (02:26:39):
All right, let's go to the Rams where the biggest
question mark is Stafford's back and will this be a
Jimmy g situation?

Speaker 1 (02:26:50):
Yeah, And look, I also think though to that point,
you know, DeVante Adams, think about over a thousand yards
receiving with some of the worst quarterback play you could
ever imagined last year, I got Deavante still got a
lot left in the tank. I think that's a big
pick up for them. They pay Hiram Williams for a reason,
and that defense has gotten so much better.

Speaker 2 (02:27:09):
Side front seven is really good.

Speaker 1 (02:27:11):
I mean, I'm I'm I'm in on all of this.
So yeah, I I I will take that all day,
every day. I like the Rams a lot this year.

Speaker 2 (02:27:21):
What are you worried about Stafford's back at all? Yeah?

Speaker 1 (02:27:25):
I mean old dudes' backs don't get better, you know
what I mean. So yeah, I'm a little worried. Certainly,
if it's Jimmy G's team, I don't feel as good
about it. But I just keep trusting that that'll get
figured out. Man. I'm I'm certainly. I think there's plenty
of teams right now that are glad they didn't trade
a first round pick, as was reported was the asking
price for you know, Stafford a few months ago, because

(02:27:45):
this is this, it would be catastrophic for their Super
Bowl hopes if he's out.

Speaker 2 (02:27:50):
Uh A lot of love more than Niners. I don't know.

Speaker 1 (02:27:56):
I'm not buying it.

Speaker 2 (02:27:57):
Yeah, I'm not either. Like I had somebody tell me, dude,
don't sleep bottom. I get shy in the hand to
get the whole thing. But let's be real here for
a second. They lost a lot, and who's catching a
ball for him? Uttered at Piersoll.

Speaker 1 (02:28:11):
Yeah, I think you know, at some point, the injury
thing that everybody keeps talking about well, they lost so
many games to injury. What if that's just who they are? Like,
what if Christian McCaffrey just isn't a guy that you
can play for seventeen games anymore? What if you know
you've got less when you look at the weapons around
Brock party who I happen to. I happen to like Brock,
but you have less weapons around him. Health issues I

(02:28:34):
think are part of an older team.

Speaker 2 (02:28:36):
Man.

Speaker 1 (02:28:36):
There's a lot that just makes me really the jump
from six wins to all of a sudden Vegas has
them as the favorite at ten and a half. I
just I don't see that jump. I think the forty
nine ers are likely to be okay and not great.

Speaker 2 (02:28:49):
And then that Lea's the Seahawks, who you know, perfect
situation you said it. Quarterback was in a perfect situation
last year. Not gonna be as perfect in Seattle. And
by the way, yeah, not as cushy in that stadium

(02:29:10):
as it isn't that dome.

Speaker 1 (02:29:12):
Yeah, boy, doesn't make you a little nervous, you know,
like they were comfortable letting Gino walk and they're man.
But year two under Mike McDaniel, Mike McDonald, sorry, you
got too many McDaniels. McDonald's, uh, the Doobie brother head coach.
They're in U two with that defense. I think the
defense takes a big step forward. I keep going back

(02:29:33):
to Ravens players when he was a defensive coordinator there.
Talked a lot about how it took a couple of
years to figure that system out. That defense is going
to be a lot better. And I love their running
back room. So I just I think they're going to
be an ugly football team that just wins ugly games
week in and week out. And we're sitting there saying,
how the hell did they do that with that little
production at the quarterback position?

Speaker 2 (02:29:52):
All right, quickly to the South. I fit the South.
I think we all listen. I like Tampa. I know
they got some old line issues, but I do like Tampa.
But Todd Bowles man, I think he's a good coach.
Baker's Baker's a dude, And everyone's everywhere saying Baker's a dude,

(02:30:13):
and they got tons of weapons.

Speaker 1 (02:30:16):
Yeah, I mean you're a thousand percent right, Baker is
a dude. Like at some point, I don't think Dave
Canalis is a dude. I don't think Liam Cohen is
a dude. Baker is a dude maker at this point,
Like there is no doubt that whatever Baker has been
before is not who Baker is now. I strongly believe
that this Tampa Bay I think this Tampa Bay team

(02:30:38):
could actually turn around and be a Super Bowl competitor
by the end of the season.

Speaker 2 (02:30:43):
Yeah, I'm with you if they could. The old line
is their biggest question mark, and if that thing could
come together. I mean with their weapons, they got, you know,
four legit receivers they have. I love Bucky Irving, good
tight end, uh well coach defensively, So I'm with you

(02:31:05):
all right, Atlanta, the Mysterious Falcons. I think we both
like Panis. They got some good skill people. Yeah, can
they block up front? And what's their defense like, which
was not good last year?

Speaker 1 (02:31:25):
Yeah, I agree with all of that, really good assessment.
I am not a non believer in Penix.

Speaker 2 (02:31:33):
I am just.

Speaker 1 (02:31:35):
Lukewarm on the amount of praise we're heaping on a
quarterback that has less than eight hundred yards passing in
his career. I mean, I'm gonna be consistent. What did
I say last year coming into the year, like I
wanted to see more from from Jordan Love and we
talked about that, like I'm a guy that's like, man,
give me more before I buy in. I am I

(02:31:55):
want to buy in on Michael Penick Junior. I think
there's no reason not to want to buy in. But
if I am the Falcons, there is not an offer
in hell that I'm taking to let Kirk Cousins walk
out the door, because I have no idea if I
actually really have that, dude, there's no chance of taking
You're right, there are other bigger issues. I would just
say that I expect a bit more of an up
and down year from Pennix, which I think will impact

(02:32:17):
how good the Falcons are.

Speaker 2 (02:32:20):
By the end. Yeah, yeah, I'm hopeful for him. But
I would agree, all right, let's go to uh Carolina
real quick, Carolina. Anything we saw the risk like what
we saw with Bryce Young toward the end of the
year and their offense. Does that continue?

Speaker 1 (02:32:42):
I hope so?

Speaker 2 (02:32:43):
I think.

Speaker 1 (02:32:43):
So I feel okay about Bryce. I think we gave
up on not we, but I think a lot of
people gave up on Bryce quickly. I am patient enough
to give Bryce a little bit more time. I think
Bryce is gonna be Okay, the Panthers just aren't very good.
That's the hard part about this. Like Bryce is not
the guy that's gonna lift it team like Jayden did
to ten wins. It doesn't even belong there. Bryce is

(02:33:05):
fine and the Panthers are going to be fine, but
that doesn't get you to where the Panthers.

Speaker 2 (02:33:09):
Want to be. Yeah. And lastly, the Saints. I mean
it's you know what the Saints are about this year,
So it's uh, I think David chance to be a
one in sixteen team.

Speaker 1 (02:33:19):
Yeah, And unfortunately, I don't believe Arts is coming out.
So if your plan is a Saints fan is to
suck for Manning, sorry, guys, I ain't gonna work. You
don't have to do it two years in a row.

Speaker 2 (02:33:28):
Yeah, and they may where the Fellas back to wrap up?
Coming up next right here, Fox Sports Radio, go for Fitzy.

Speaker 1 (02:33:40):
You know what, Frank, Frank, We've had a good morning.
Frank's singing this out like this just feels the world
feels right right now. I mean this just who my
no nos are saying, Yes, Yes, let's go.

Speaker 2 (02:33:55):
I don't forget. For the best pregame show every weekend,
be sure to tune into Fox Sports Right and Countdown
That's Right, presented by BETMGM every Saturday and Sunday morning
nine the noon eastern six to nine Pacific, were to
count you down to all the biggest games of the day.
Tune in the Countdown presented by BETMGM every Saturday and

(02:34:16):
Sunday morning radio on Fox Sports Radio, the iHeartRadio app.
All right, so let's do this, FITZI. We'll dive deeper
into it next week. The questions from the AFC, but
I do want you to talk about what you saw
from your Raiders, and they kind of dive into the
West just a little bit because we didn't talk about

(02:34:36):
Raiders that your beloved squad. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (02:34:40):
Look, I mean it was less than ideal opening game.
I mean ended in a tie, which is already funny.
But the offensive line didn't look good, the defense couldn't tackle.
There's a lot of things to be concerned about. But
also I don't know, like it's one series, I don't
know what everybody expected. So I have such a patient
approach to this season. I genuinely believe the Raiders are

(02:35:02):
like a seven win team, but they're one of those
seven win teams that by the end of the year,
you're like, you know what, things are trending in the
right direction. This is a tough out and I think
you're gonna see that the offense is going to jail.
It's gonna be really good. I still think Ashton genty
no matter three carries minus one yards, don't care. Ashton's
gonna be absolutely great. I think he's a superstar. So
everything's gonna be fine on that side of the ball.

(02:35:23):
But look, it's just not a particular you don't You
don't rehab an entire roster in one offseason more often
than not, so the process is begun. But in Pete,
I trust, Yeah.

Speaker 2 (02:35:34):
I think that's that's the approach you need to have, right, Like,
let's just say you gotta be patient and you can
just gotta hope for as the season goes on, like
a swifter turnaround type of thing where you could I
think Pete Carroll could bridge a restart, rebuild type of

(02:35:57):
thing with a with a legitimate, you know, NFL quarterback.
So you know, like, what are your I think, what
are your expectations or hopeful expectations.

Speaker 1 (02:36:11):
Like, look, if they get to eight wins, I'll be
a static if they get to nine wins, I'm gonna
get confetti cannons and just blow them out during the
middle of a show, like they'll be confetti.

Speaker 3 (02:36:23):
Oh.

Speaker 1 (02:36:23):
If I get more happy Sundays than sad Sundays, that's
absolutely amazing. I think the biggest part of it is
do you see the development they're particularly young roster. Do
you see the development of a young roster, because at
some point they're going to have to figure out the
quarterback position, but that wasn't this year in the draft.
I respect, I wholeheartedly respect the decisions. So I think
they made the right choice and Geno gives them the

(02:36:43):
right guy for the next two or three years. So
you need the rest of the stuff to hit so
that when you get a quarterback, that quarterback comes into
a much better situation. I don't want when the Raiders
are drafting a quarterback either next year or the year after,
I don't want it to be a Titan situation where
you feel like the entire roster is a dump fire
next to him. So can they get continue to get
more development out of young guys?

Speaker 2 (02:37:05):
Yeah, I do think, like I think Pete knows how
to prep prep this to cut off years of the rebuild,
you know, to make it professional to nobody's better. You
want to talk about a guy that develops players, develops talent.
He's great at develop the talent. Yeah, and that's what

(02:37:29):
you need.

Speaker 1 (02:37:29):
You also need somebody that can, I believe, start to
sort of set the tone for how you build for
the future. And that's part of why you know you
got a new GM and John spy Tech. I think
the reason they bring in Carol in part is he's
here to help spy Tech. See, this is how we're
gonna build. We're gonna build an organization that is the
gap that will be sort of bridged over the course

(02:37:49):
of the next season too. So it'll be interesting to
see how they continue to reshape the lineup.

Speaker 2 (02:37:54):
Yeah, you brought up the Titans earlier, and you brought
up Camp. Can I just say one thing. I meant
to bring it up earlier, But I love cam Ward.
There will not be a player I will root for
more outside of the Eagles. No, but there will not
be a player of the root for more. I love him.

(02:38:17):
You know what he said about his father about waking
up at four point thirty, Yeah, you know, just a
paraphrase he's like, I watched my dad get up four
thirty to work every day. I can get up four
thirty to do something I love. Then he said he
was talking about the phone and like his day and

(02:38:40):
he's like, yeah, he goes. I talked to like four
people a day. I talked to my parents, which I
I lots. I'm like, this kid calls his parents after're pragnice, Like,
I love this kid. He's like my dog. He's like,
you know, I don't talk to a lot of people
during the course of the day. I loved that, Like,

(02:39:02):
I just he's everything that's right about like a young player.

Speaker 1 (02:39:08):
He also loved the fact that he came straight out
and said, yeah, we're mid, like efforts mid, everything's mid.
Like it doesn't feel like we have that extra thing.
Like I love a quarterback that from day one is
coming in and saying, yeah, this is not the standard
that I want. Met I really like Cam. I just
don't trust the Titans with him.

Speaker 2 (02:39:23):
No, without a doubt. But I'm you know, I'm rooting
squarely for him. So that's it. Hey, buddy, it was
a blast to have your back, brother, like a blast.

Speaker 1 (02:39:36):
It felt good, felt good. The boys are reunited. The
boys are back in town.

Speaker 2 (02:39:40):
Love it everybody. Thanks for hanging with us. We love you.
Have a great week. We'll see you next Saturday.

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