Steve Hartman & Geoff Schwartz Talk MLB Impasse, NFL Combine & Lakers

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
You're listening to Fox Sports. Ah, Yes, loving and Drain
once again on a fabulous Saturday. This is Fox Sports Saturday,
Hartman and Shorts with you. All Right, we got a
lot to do today. We're eight days away from selection Sunday.
We got the NFL Combine going on right now. Ron
Hold for Major League Baseball. NBA is coming down the stretch,

(00:24):
playoffs around the corner. So we got a lot of
things to cover today. John Paul Morossi of the MLB Network,
it's gonna be joining us here in about fifteen minutes.
Get his read on when are we going to see
Major League Baseball? But Jeff, I'm gonna jump right into
this right now because I got some really good news
for you. I got some really good news for you. Uh.
Aaron Rodgers has deals in place right now for the

(00:49):
Packers to contemplate. Are you ready for this now? I
know that you've been very concerned about the mental health
of Aaron Rodgers. He has Denver, Tennis and Pittsburgh on hold.
Apparently the compensation packages have already been discussed, they've already
been agreed upon. It's now up to the Green Bay

(01:09):
Packers and Aaron Rodgers to decide it's destiny for the
two seasons. So do you feel better right now knowing
that Aaron Rodgers, four time NFL m v P is
gonna be well taken care of? Well, it warms my
heart to know that Aaron Rodgers hasn't made his mind

(01:30):
ap yet, which is the same thing that was said
last week and week before that and the week before that,
and what was said all last summer and already end
up back with the Packers. Um, you know, yesterday we're
watching the NFL comments on right now that the covers
just began for today, it's defensivelignment, linebackers working out today.
Yesterday was offensive alignment running back to before that was

(01:51):
I think wide receivers, quarterbacks, tight ends, and you know,
we were talking a lot about the the you know,
the incoming draft hopefuls. Right. We spent a lot of
time in the NFL world discussing the numbers. It was
very fast Indianapolis. The first thing never seemed to be adjusted.
Christo Lava and Garrett Wilson and the kid from TCU
and oh my god, like how fastest guys are running

(02:11):
and and for about twenty four hours, no one talked
about Aaron Rodgers, right, no one said, no one mentioned
his name instead, of course we had to get an
Aaron Rodgers report the middle of the prime time last
night on a Friday night, you're watching the offensive lineman workout.
Guess what, there's an Aaron Rodgers story to report that
he hasn't made his mind up yet. This guy cannot
go twenty four hours not attention man. For someone who

(02:34):
claims he does not want the attention because not on
the media spotlight, he makes sure we talked about him
a lot, right, It makes he ensure, he makes sure
that we discussed where he's going, where he's gonna end up,
his mental state and whatnot. Very often for someone who
claims he doesn't want us to be in his life.
Like I'm tired of a dude. This guy has not
been too super Bowl and going into his twelfth season

(02:55):
in a row now right, Um, Like he's a great player,
don't get me wrong. He deserve the MVP last year
in my opinion, but this is just getting exhausted. Like,
if you're the Packers, I know you want him back,
and I think I don't think they're going to train
him again. I said that last year as well, like
the drama, it's not. It's not painting on victories, man,
it's pending regularis and victories thirty nine games last three years,

(03:17):
most games won a three year spin by NFL team
has not made a super Bowl. Um, it's just it's
NonStop with this guy. Okay, I understand you're tiritle. Let's
get back to of course the Packers want him back,
do they? I mean, you just brought up the fact
that for more than a decade they've had Aaron Rodgers
as their quarterback and have not made a trip to

(03:39):
the super Bowl, not since the season over the last
three years. They've been the one seed the last couple
of years and they couldn't get there. And you can't
excuse Aaron Rodgers from those losses. He did not play
well against the forty niners in this home loss. This
was everything was lined up for the Packers to get
it done this past season, and he came up short.

(04:02):
Look their way over the cap right now. They have
made it clear that the Davante Adams situation is completely
separate of Aaron Rodgers. In other words, they can franchise
Davante Adams if they can't get a long term deal
in place, But none of that's gonna happen if they
have to somehow sweeten the pot for Aaron Rodgers. Now again,

(04:23):
there are sources same that Rogers has already lined up
deals with the Broncos, the Steelers, and the Titans, three
a FC teams. They don't infringe on the Packers situation.
The trade composition is, compensation has been set up and
he's received permission from the Packers to actually do so.

(04:46):
So if all of this is true, that means the
Packers are interested to see what other teams have to offer.
You have a young quarterback in Jordan's love. He's not
Aaron Rodgers now, but Aaron Rodgers wasn't breath far when
he took over. But if you have enough pieces in place,
and if they can get a substantial package and return,

(05:06):
which by the way, will probably include a quarterback from
many one of these teams, young quarterback or something along
those lines, then why wouldn't you pull the trigger? If
you're the Packers, you had chances or the Aaron Rodgers
certainly over the last three years, and he came up short.
Could you say, at age thirty nine thirty nine next season?

(05:28):
It is time to turn the page. If you're the
Packers right now, you got a young coach, Matt Lafleur.
He's feeling pretty good about himself. Most wins ever by
a head coach in his first three seasons as an
NFL coach. I'm sure he's gained confidence that, you know what,
I could be. Okay, maybe we'll take a temporary step backwards,
but I'm looking at the future here. The future is

(05:49):
not Aaron Rodgers. If we can get a substantial deal
done with a team outside of our conference, why not? Well,
I think that. I think that is is two of
all here. One is how good you Jordan's love is right,
because that's a big part of that. You have a
team now, especially if you resign Davanta Adams, that's ready
to win now, right. And with with the players, you know,

(06:11):
with the offensive line you have skill guys, defensives, You're
you're built to win now. And and is yourn love
that guy you draft him to be that guy? Right?
That's also that's part of this. And too, I think
are you tiring if you just say, you know what,
We're gonna give Rogers a two year deal. Let's just
say his one year left right, I'll give m a
two year deal. Do you do this again next offseason?
Are they just tired of doing this each year? And

(06:33):
to your point, you're not getting those championships, right, so
you can put up with drama when you're winning championships
or getting there close every year. The problem becomes obviously,
when you stop winning championships and stop being competitive in
the playoffs, then the drama doesn't feel worth it. And
so if you're the package, you say, you know what,
we're just not getting enough out of this. Let's go
to Jordan's love. Let's get a bunch of draft picks.

(06:55):
But then the Davante Adams want want to stay, right?
Is he now the next person who's gonna hold out
it doesn't want to be there. They can franchise tag him,
but again doesn't have to play under the tag um.
So I think it's a it's a it's difficult songs.
I think in their hearts and hearts they want him back.
I think they would want him back one more year.
See if you can do it this season, and obviously
if you can't, you go Jordan Love in year three.

(07:16):
But this is like the last year to do it
like this is the year to do it, if it's
either now or never. And I think they would want
him back for that. And again I go back to
UH to Rogers, like if he goes to Pittsburgh, I
mean you just you're anywhere you go Pittsburgh or what
were you there up to Tennessee? Tennessee was the one seed?
I mean if they went to Tennessee, if he went

(07:39):
to Tennessee and you're replacing Ryan Tannehill with Aaron Rodgers,
you don't think that teams a threat to get to
the Super Bowl. I I do. Um, But again I
go back to this, at what point do we say,
you know what some of the playoff losses are on Rogers,
all of them are because he's part of every one
of those. So so are we guaranteed he's going to Tennessee? Well,

(08:08):
they do, and Tannehill was a big part of why
they did not follow their path destiny. I mean, go
back to their game against the Bengals. They had the ball,
right they were, it was what was a tie game,
They had the ball and what happened. Tannell throws an interception.
Bengals get an opportunity and cash in and moved on Um, No,
I think that's the one team out there because I

(08:31):
think we're both fans of Mike Vrabel and when he's done.
In Tennessee, they have a solid defense, they have a
devastating running back in Derrick Henry, they have a good
offensive wine and they have a mediocre quarterback. Now all
of a sudden, you get one of the elite quarterbacks. Wow,
I mean I I would love to see the Vegas
odds on Tennessee if Aaron Rodgers became their quarterback, I

(08:52):
would think they would uh skyrocket to the top of
the list. Right now. In the NFC, Let's say, let's say,
first kid, um, who who is a a rival um
arrival quarterback to him currently playing the NFC, Like if
you were, if you were Tombs, well, I mean he's
got we assume Tom Brady's back on the on the

(09:12):
Niners right in that situation, Um, Tom Braid's on the
NFL right now, So who is better than Aaron Rodgers
in like, who's his challenger in the NFC right now? Nobody?
I mean, I mean there there you people talk about
a deck Press Scott. You might even say, you know,
Matthew Stafford got elevated to Hall of Fame status by
people after they won the Super that was that was

(09:33):
that's a little that was a little much. Okay, So
you know Kyle Murray, Okay, sure, Um, I'm what if
he wants more attention to right another all uh not
right now? I think that Yeah, I mean in theory, yeah,
I mean he can be that good. He didn't play
obviously that well last season, but yes, he one of
those guys that you say, yeah, I can definitely be

(09:54):
part of that that discussion. But my point and saying
all this is that in the a f C Conference
you have Now Holmes and Justin Herbert and Joe Burrow
and Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson. That's like if you
go to the a f C, it is tougher for
you in the a f C. If your goal is

(10:14):
to win, then you stay in Green Bay if your
goal is to win, but kind of just just do
it your own way, and I guess you're going to
somewhere else. Pittsburgh's interesting option. Obviously, you play a tough division,
but you know you'll be support on defense um at
least um. But Pittsburgh doesn't feel like a mercenary, like
a one year or two year rental type of place.

(10:36):
It's not really what they've done over the years. The
only team on that list that makes sense to me
as Tennessee. I'm with Pittsburgh. It's not Denver, right. I
don't see either one of those teams making a mighty
leap with Aaron Rodgers as a quarterback. I don't. I
don't either, So I'm with you on that one. Um
So yeah, I uh, I just don't. Again, I continue
to say this until proven otherwise. I just don't see

(10:58):
him leaving. I don't see. Okay, well, you have much
more NFL. We're gonna get to later on the show.
Once again, pact day today because a lot of things
going on. When are we going to see Major League Baseball?
What is the latest from the Major League Baseball Network
MLB Network? John Paul Morossi will join us coming up next.
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in

(11:19):
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The podcast is called All Ball. We usually talk all
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(11:41):
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(12:01):
Steve Harvin, Jeff Schwartz. This is Fox Football Saturday. We're
gonna call it Fox Football Saturday most of the time.
I mean, in reality, it's Fox Sports Saturday. John Paul
ROSSI is gonna be Johnny Us momentarily. By the way,
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(12:24):
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(12:48):
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(13:09):
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radio dot com. That's Fox Sports radio dot com to
win it to to Vegas during Draft weekend. And uh,
by the way, you know, for the first time ever, Uh,
they have fans paying to see the combine here the
first time. It's the first time Sance COVID. I think

(13:30):
Alright started doing this before COVID, but now they want
to go next level. So in other words, those in
attendants in Indianapples this year have a chance to to
win trips to the Super Bowl. Uh. And they put
out the alert to every team in the league. Hey,
if you want to start hosting the Combine, have at it.
Social Indie, man, it has to stay in Indie. Indie's

(13:52):
the perfect place for one of these events. Everything essentially located.
Going downtown, you can walk. There's great food everywhere. That's
a great thing. Indie, it's a it's a it's a
very good host city. But but very quickly though, we
need to we need to show some love to a
certain individual who's running into Jordan Davis, the big old
defensive tackle from Georgia. Okay, he is six seven and
a half. That's the official official not that. Yeah, that

(14:16):
he played at three sixty this year. Are you watching
the combined by anything? I'm watching the big guys. Did
you happen to see what forty time was? Yeah, it's
it's four eight two pounds. That's not allowed. That should
not be allowed. You should not be allowed to run
that fast at that size. No, And but I mean

(14:37):
what does that exactly mean? I mean translate? Okay, so
you have a defensive lineman that basically is in the
middle of your defense. He's not gonna move more than
a few feet. So what valued do we have and
what he runs in the fall? I'll tell you. I'll
tell you the reason why this is impressive. It's not
even the top end speed that it's impressive to me.

(14:58):
It's the ten yards split. So they measure ten yards
well they really if you notice a measure five, ten,
twenty and forty, okay, and really the ten is what
we get as a public The five stays internal, but
the ten is is the burst, right burst, And when
you're playing defensive one offensive line, that birth is very important.
Right often it translates to how well your hips and

(15:19):
your feet and your powers generated right hips, knees, ankles, feet,
you're you know, how you you propel your body forward
with those parts, and so that's a very important that
to me is almost more important than the forty. It
was one six eight. You know, if you're a good
offensive lineman, you're under one point eight at this he's
under one point seven. That's very impressive. You're right the

(15:41):
top end speed the last twenty yards. I mean, unless
he's running with the football, he'll never have to do
that right at this speed ever. Again, but again the
ten yards splits impressive, but just tells you he's an athlete.
And we talked about the combine. What do these numbers mean?
And to me, it's about cross checking what you see
in the field. For example, Jordan Davis Dude is powerful
on the field. He's a freak show on the field.

(16:03):
His film, it's exactly what a four four eight two
looks like, right like, So there's he he checked the
box boom looks like his film done. Moving along, it's
all exploited. All this later because we have a we
have a guest. I want to get back to what
the combine meat. It's important to talk about this, all right,
We'll get back to the combine right now. Let's focus
in on when are we going to see Major League

(16:26):
Baseball joining us right now from the MLB Network, also
does NHL Network. Our dear friend John Paul Morose e JP.
I feel like it's been forever since I spoke to
him at exactly well, I got Jeff here with me today.
I'm gonna cut to the chase right now. We'll get
into some of the specifics and you know, some of

(16:47):
the bridges we have to cross to get there. But yeah,
I keep hearing two possible dates for the launch of
the new season. One of them is April fifteenth, was
Jackie Robinson Day. This was going to be a major
year because is it's the seventy fifth anniversary of Jackie
Robinson's major league debut. That's one possibility. Others say May first,

(17:07):
because April, if anything, is really a throwaway month from
Major League Baseball, because after opening Day he got bad weather,
you got diminished crowds, kids are still in school. So
could we we looking at either one of those days
in your opinion, as the start date for the two season, Steve,
I think both are certainly possible. Uh. Number one, My

(17:31):
my hope, my expectation, my dream to use that word,
is that we will have baseball on Jackie Robbinson days.
You point out the seventy five anniversary of the day
that he debuted the Major League and changed their country forever.
So from that standpoint, I think it's gonna be a
shame if we don't have baseball on April fifteen. A
regular season schedule may one, to your point, from an

(17:52):
economic standpoint, might be the one that ends up being
the date that makes the most sense from a dollars
and sense perspective. I also think that the criticism that
has followed the breakdown and talks last week, for this
past week, I should say, perhaps could bring everybody back
to the table a little bit sooner. We have seen
reports the Union of working on a counter proposal. I

(18:14):
do expect that we'll see some more substantive conversations around
the beginning part of this coming week, and we have
this kind of see how quickly things evolved from there.
But Steve to your point, there are some pretty special
days coming up, none more special and known, none more
important than April fifteenth because of the reason that you
just mentioned. So with the counter proposal by the MLB,

(18:37):
so I mean by the players supposed tomorrow, I just
I'm you expind how we die here the last couple
of days, because it was reported that we were close
to having a deal that we weren't and now we're
obviously not talking canceling games. How do we get to
a point where there wasn't just continued back and forth
without a cancelation of games. Well, it's a very fair

(18:58):
question and a couple of things. Number One, for the
for the deadline to have credibility, it would have looked
perhaps a little strange to then at the very next
day everybody come back and and renegotiate and find a deal.
I think that just from a standpoint of strategy, negotiating
posture leverage, it would have been surprising on either side

(19:20):
after all the efforts that they had put in uh
then Paul Short to be able to strike that deal
one day later. I think the other point of that
is there was legitimately a difference of opinion between the
party how close they were. I think maybe a lot
of us who were following and covering the situation perhaps
misread some of the optimism that happened on Monday night

(19:44):
ahead of that deadline, and obviously they were probably never
as close as they seemed on that particular day. The
other thing I would say is the grounds of a
compromise exist, especially if you believe the reports from the
last couple of days that the Union is interested or
at least willing to go to a fourteen team playoff format.

(20:06):
If they are, then the revenue expansion from that format
could actually allow MLB to move up or that the
competitive balance back threshold is going to be and somehow
find a way to get a compromise between the sides. So, yes,
it's frustrating to have another week of games lost. Yes,

(20:27):
they're now effectively up to another another deadline of Monday,
if you want to avoid not having another week of
regulars and baseball games taken away. But it is one
of those hurry up and weight circumstances for all the fans.
But I do know that the sides I think are
looking at the next week ahead to really be a
crucial time to make sure that at the very least
playing games on April fifteen is still a possibility. You know,

(20:49):
everyone keeps talking about this, you know, ceiling not a hardcap,
but you know approacheing that like, you know, the ceiling
on how much money teams can spend. I've never understood this.
I asked you about this the other day, JP, about
why aren't they focused more on the teams that aren't
spending money. I mean, we had a few teams that
went over two million dollars in payroll in one There

(21:11):
were three teams that spent less than thirty million in
payroll last year, less than thirty million. Why aren't they
focused on raising the bottom of the barrel? Because we
know all these teams are making money. There's no such
thing as a small market team. They're just small spending teams.
The San Diego Potters proved that. So why aren't they

(21:32):
more focused on teams that are not spending money rather
than those at the top that are spending money. Well,
it's a very fair question, Steve. And interestingly, there was
initially some conversation around the option of having a a
salary floor, but the union opted to not pursue it
because they feared that it could lead to a salary

(21:56):
cap on the topic from a thematic standpoint, or at
least a phil topical one, and so that possibility has
gone away. But you're right, you look around the game
and what is the greater problem a team like the
Dodgers or Padres who was spending above the luxury tax
threshold or those your points that are at the bottom
end of it. And I think at least my hope

(22:17):
is that, depending on how the revenue sharing structure goes
moving forward, that at least you're going to find some
way to incentivize the play the teams on the lower
end to spend more money. And maybe maybe that just
by having the the uncoupling of draft picks from free
agent signings, that that in and of itself could stimulate

(22:39):
some spending, because teams many times are not signing free
agents because they don't want to give up the pick
due to the rules in which the ability to spend
on the draft is tied to each individual pick. And
the slot allocation for that pick. So while we are
focused a lot, and appropriately so, on the competitive balance

(23:01):
tax here, there are a lot of other secondary aspects
of this seed game proposal on the MLB side that
I actually think are quite player friendly and could in
time work to level the balance, level the playing field
a bit from the standpoint of competitive balance. STA wait
at the competitive balance for for another another second. So, um,

(23:21):
you know, the their offers for the competitive balance were
basically what one percent increase of the year over year
three percent one year less than one percent? Was it
so egregiously terrible because they want to use that to
negotiate other points of the CBA, because like, come on,
I mean, that was a ludicrous offer to offer the
players to raise the competitive balance tax one percent when

(23:43):
the league is going to make way more than one
percent in a given season. Well, and that's a fair
point in terms of what the step increases could be.
And and the the MLB offer did get up to
two million dollars per year in the first year, which
is again eighteen million dollars lower than what the union
proposed for the first year. I think they will find

(24:03):
a way to come together a little bit on that number,
if only because you look at the big picture here,
and that number only really affects a half a dozen
teams in terms of the way they spend either just
above it or just below it. And and the point
that I think is just necessary to underscore here is
that as an entirely discretionary number, you don't have to

(24:26):
spend at that level, and you look at the big
picture here. I think I mentioned this to Steed the
other day. The Kansas City Royals have won as many
championships in the last ten years as the Dodgers and
Yankees combined. You do not have to spend up to
the luxury attacks threshold to win a Major League Baseball
And I think it's important to point out that that's

(24:47):
one aspect, just one mere point of what the c
b A is. It probably allows to maybe a larger
conversation happens as you hear. But my daughter weighing is
significant turns on the CBA right now. Yeah, she's looking
for answer, is JP And I don't blame her. She's frustrated.
I know she wants to get out to see her
favorite Podres. I know she has a big Potres fan
out there. Young potres fan j P. Let me ask

(25:10):
you this, uh strength in numbers. Usually what happens when
both sides seem to be locked in? Is there a
fracture within the ranks. Everyone seems always focusing on the players,
But just how unified are these owners right now to
go the distance and ultimately get where they're want? Are
there owners out there that are knocking on the doors

(25:33):
of the hardliners saying, hey, let's get something done right? Well?
I think Steven's a very interesting case study because both
among the owners and the players there could be some schisms.
And let's let's start with the owners. We saw the
report from the athletic in the last couple of days
that four of them were not even comfortable offering to twenty.

(25:54):
So that tells you how much of a divergence there
is within the ownership grew in and of itself. And
and bear in mind, any proposal that has ratified to
use that term has to be accepted and approved by
two thirds of the teams. So I think that one
thing that has to be said here is that while
Commissioner Manford certainly has gotten criticism from different corners of

(26:17):
the sport, the reality is he can only negotiate a
proposal that the that a supermajority of owners would support,
and he might actually have in his own mind some
ideas that would have long ago led to a deal,
but he can't put them out there unless they're supported
by two thirds of the clubs. And so I think

(26:38):
that's where they're right now, that they're trying to find
where that where that common point is. There's no question
there's that there is robust disagreement philosophically and functionally between
the large market teams and the small market teams. The
question is where is that number in the middle, where
where the young where the smaller teams feel like they
can still compete, and the larger market clubs feels the

(27:00):
perhaps that they're not being compelled or forced to certainly
that they're not being forced, but not being compelled to
spend more money than they feel like they should. I
think that there is probably I would say this, we've
already perhaps seen more fishers among the these publicly the
owner's side and the players side. The players side. Anecdotally,
what people have told me, this group is as united

(27:23):
as we have seen the players in a very very
long time, and they seem to have been preparing for
this for a while and and missing their first paychecks
does not appear to have rattled them at this junction.
Last question from me. Rob Manfred, the commissioner of baseball,
tells himself no favors with his press conferences. You know,
I obviously cover the NFL. People do not like to

(27:45):
tell but he wins his press conference. He says, we
have to say he takes the ball for the owners.
He's professional. Why why can't Rob Manfred? We need these
press conferences? But he looks every time he's smiling, he's
not answer the questions, doesn't feel prepared. It's up with
him sometimes in front of the podium. Yeah, it's a
fair question. I certainly can't speak to what what those

(28:06):
preparations are like that he has prior to his press conferences.
I do think that he is probably having some difficulty
rectifying both a the pressure that is on him and
be trying to wed together all the different perspectives within
the ownership group. He has a very tough job, I think,
much more so than the other sports, because whether it's

(28:28):
Goodell or or Bettman silver with the cap, there's just
less of a spread in those sports that that he
has to explain for I think in here in baseball,
Manford has to find some way to explain how the
Dodgers operate here, the Padres operate here, and then you

(28:49):
have the Oakland A's in the same state operating at
this at this point, or the Cleveland Guardians at this
point that there are there are a lot of different
teams with a vast amount of unique needs and and
frankly their financial ability or willingness to spend. And I
think that, to me is a huge question that Rob
Manford has to face all the time. And I frankly

(29:11):
think it would be uncomfortable and difficult for anybody to
try to explain why we don't have baseball right now.
And I think just it's probably the least favorite part
of his job, but it's the one that right now
is front and center in the media scope. JP. You
know how much we appreciate your time. But you have
a daughter to take care of right now. She has
demands You've got to get to. I do not want

(29:31):
to go. I do not want her to get upset.
I mean, she's already upset. There's a delay in the
baseball season. She does not need to be upset with
her father as well, so I appreciated Stephen jeffen It.
Certainly she wants to see Machado and Tatis with new
Bob Melvin managed Padres. I mean, she's she's got some
high expectations on how the Fryers are gonna look this year.

(29:52):
My friends, she loves anytime. She loves the brown I
know that, all right. J P. John Paul Morossi has
always we have pre shade his time, all right, obviously
a little long, because well he has a lot to say.
We'll get some more on the other side of right now.
Let's find out what's trending as we turn our attention
to the one the Only, Mr David Gascon. David, just

(30:13):
watching your watching a couple of teaser trailers on your
on your upcoming show, The Winning Time Show on HBO,
which I'll be featured my voice in episodes four and five,
is getting a lot of hyperd debuts tomorrow. So it's
only your voice. You weren't part of the frattonizing between
hotel rooms and whatnot? I know, well, no, no, no,
here's the deal. Jim Hacked, who was the co creator

(30:35):
of this show, dear friend, I have literally been a
part of this show since he first had the idea
for this show. Let's put it that way. I shared
a number of stories with him of either my own
personal stories going back to those days, or stories I
was knowledgeable of, and many of have actually found their
way into the actual winning Time show. You gotta write

(30:57):
a book, man, feel like that. I feel like you're
cheating us. Well. On my on My on Monday through
Friday show, we now have a segment called asked Steve
Anything on Friday. So I actually been revealing a lot
of things on my radio show. Does that mean I
can call they're always personal? Yeah, you can. And when
I say ask anything, I mean anything? Oh boy? Oh

(31:20):
that boy. Yeah, that's in fact, that's the majority of
the questions. Interesting. Interesting, Um, guys, it's a full menu today.
In college basketball, obviously everything coming to a close with
the conference tournaments. Read around the corner of Texas Tech
leading at Oklahoma State number six, Kansas isn't a tight

(31:40):
one with one ranked Texas earlier today Auburn one, number seven,
Kentucky one produced barely squeaked by Indiana seven. Villanova hammered
Butler Tennessee nearly at one point lead Arkansas still prevailed.
L s U beats twenty fifth ranked Alabama in overtime.
Later on today you get Arizona, col Yukon DePaul Baylor

(32:04):
and Ohio start Iowa State. Do you just see the
forty yard time for Breece Hall? No? What did the
Iowa State guya go the side clone believe? It was
like four three nine? Pretty solid? Um, I'm looking for
can anyone with Iowa run that fast? Has anyone ever
run that fast? Or the hot Eyes program? Ever, only

(32:27):
one guy would know that Iowa Sam. I was too
busy looking for my brief lightning song. Boy oh boy,
um duke in North Carolina, I've seen and I've heard
some some sales on ticket prices, guys, final one for
Coach k They hung out for a week outside Cameron

(32:47):
indoors and it's like worse than Best Buy after Thanksgiving?
Right a month now, I'm sorry, a month they've been
camping out to get in. Here's the here's the all
important question. Do your bruins finally beat the Trojans tonight? Yes,
we'll beat the Trojans to night at Paully, of course
they will. I'll be the make him the two Sea
behind Arizona. The conference tourn him and that's what course

(33:09):
they've lost five in a row. Have he'll beat him
because has been the man. That's okay. There eight point
favorites tonight at PAULI yeah, and they should be. I mean,
I don't know. It's we have to get healthy. I
mean they've been saving all their players. Tonight, I'm gonna guess.
I'm gonna guess jus ank is gonna be out there.
So Cronin still hasn't beaten USC. That's what said. Awesome everyone,

(33:33):
I was Sam turning into a national radio show, turning
in and turning out. Um, guys, speaking of healthy, Zion
Williamson is gonna play anytime soon. He's cleared now for
basketball relate activities. Do you think they would have better
off had they drafted Jehan Moran? He's been Sion Williamson.
I don't know. I mean, I know I wasn't Monday
night when he decimated the Spurs. It wasn't just the point,

(33:56):
that's all. We got the points because the dunk believe
half court or not half court, but the buzzer beer
before the only the first time was crazy there? Who
plays first? Ben Simmons or Zion Williamson M Zion. Yeah, yeah,
I don't know what's going on with Ben Simmons says.
I mean we talked about mental problems and a lot
of things there, and I'm gonna respect that. But yeah,

(34:17):
I think we'll see Zion first. All right, fair enough. Uh,
that's that's it for now. I know you guys gotten
new some uh some quarterback talk. Yeah, yes, yes, you
guys hear about what's going on with Formula one by
a chance, terminated another contract for Nikita Maspin he was
a Russian driver, and also termining the contract of his
title sponsor and wake of Russia's ongoing invasion of Ukraine.

(34:37):
So no Russian drivers this season driving in Formula one. Yeah.
Those Russians that are in the sports community are paying
the price, no question, even the kids. Even the kids
very unfortunate to say the least. All right, Mr Gascon,
I always appreciate that, by the way, I always I
just came back to John Paul Morossi for a moment here. Uh.

(34:59):
He always talks about he's a Michigander and he's a
die hard Michigan fan. Uh, and he was thought, well,
he went to the University of Michigan. He didn't, Jeff,
he actually slummed. He went to Harvard. He's a Harvard graduate.
And never mentions he never mentions it like it's like
almost like an embarrassment, like I, okay, I want to Harvard,
but I'm a Michigan guy. Um. Never mentions that I

(35:24):
did not know that, not be able to bring it
up to him. Um, he seems optimistic things are happened
soon and later. Um yeah, I just I think baseball
the damage already done. Right. Um, they're gonna come back
and they'll miss a couple of weeks probably, but the
perception that Rob Manfred and the ownership doesn't care about
the fans is not going to change with a new deal.

(35:45):
I feel like this is one of at least on
social media, which is the way I can judge these
things that I'm not talking to random baseball fans in
Flyover States about about the baseball But um, you know that,
uh that it feels like the ownership and people say
this don't care about the player. The players don't care
about baseball. That's that's what the media is running with.

(36:07):
And I'm not sure a deal is gonna change very
much of that. And we talked about this I think
last week, right, what an arbitrary like I think it
is done tomorrow. Let's say it's done tomorrow. You can
still start on Mary, you can, I mean, and by
the way, even it's so bad, Yeah, all these games
that are supposedly canceled, Look, they can also extend the

(36:27):
season if they have to an extra week. Don't believe
what you read in like these first two series are canceled. Um,
if they can get a deal done, they'll make up
those games as quickly as possible. All right, because a
little long with JP on the other side, we're gonna
get back to some of the big developments out of
the NFL combine coming up next. All right, you see

(36:51):
what you see what iwa Stam's trying to do. He's
trying to promote Breeze Hall, the Iowa State All American
running back broke for for the forty today. I don't
see anybody having mn is the first round pick. By
the way, this is Fox Football Saturday. We're calling Football
Saturday now because we're talking some football Harpin and Schwartz.
By the way, if cold candidate calls aren't turning into
hot hiring leads. Then you need Indeed because Indeeds powerful

(37:14):
hiring platform makes it easy to attract, screen and interview
candidates all from one place, find your next grade higher
visiting Indeed dot com slash credit. Well, that's pretty much
what the combine is right now, you're screening, interviewing, trying
to attract candidates to join your team. So how much
of what are the I mean these forty times you
were talking earlier about the big guy, uh, Jordan Davis

(37:36):
running a four eight something in the forts? What does
this all mean? Jeff so So to me, it is
a cross check of what you watch on film. So, Steve,
if I were to watch you on film, and I
would be like, you know what Steve is? You know,
he's a He's a good athlete, but not not a
great athlete, a great athlete, And um, you get the

(37:58):
combine and you perform really well in the physical drills,
and I have to go back and watch the film
be like, why is he fast in Indianapolis running through
the bags that they're doing right now? Jade and Pete
from Texas A and m to go through the bags.
And so you go back on what what did I miss?
On film? Is he just does he just play a

(38:19):
little inconsistent? Is he hesitating because he doesn't know what
to do? Why is why does he play slow? Okay?
Or you know the the opposite could happen, right, you know,
Jeff Schwartz plays really fast in the field. No one
ever said that about me. But I put really fast
in the field, and then I run slow with the combine.
I moved forth to combine. Why is that right? What?
Why why does he look good on film but slow

(38:41):
on the combine? Like it's his cross checks? And if
there's a hundred points that make up a hundred data
points that make up with draft picks profile, this is
two of the hundred, right, it's a small portion of it,
but to me, it's a it's a cross check for
what scouts with their eyes. All right, But here's the
thing that is baffle made for years because the last

(39:01):
time I check, when you're on the field, you're not
in shorts. Okay. Why aren't these drills all performed, including
the forty yr dash, in full uniform? Why? Well, I
think that you know, it's it's almost like understood, that's
part of it, right? And if here's the deal, though,
you do this every year, right, and it's never in pads,

(39:22):
so you can understand everything. Eat, I'll put it like this,
you know, because it's because of the same every year.
You can always compare. You can always compare and contrast. Right,
If one year you put the pads on, you basically
start from scratch. Everything is different now because you change
the format of the combine. So at least you know,

(39:42):
you know Jordan Davis's time compared someone else's time and
vice versa. Alright, coming up, we're gonna have much more
on the NFL combine because we've got a lot of
stories out of Indianapolis, including the size of people's hands. Also,
March Madness is right around the corner. We bring you
all the latest. Keep it right here on Fox Sports Saturday.

(40:03):
All right, rolling on here Fox Sports Saturday, Hartmann and
Shorts with you. Yeah, we got a lot of things
going on. We are eight days away from selections Sunday.
We're gonna have much more on the big games coming
up today. In college basketball, of course, conference tournaments will
be next week, uh, and a lot of it not
so much about teams making the tournament, but seating absolutely

(40:26):
on the line. So we'll get into some of that.
We are talking plenty though about the combine going on today.
Adam Caplan is gonna be joining us later live from Indianapolis. Uh,
we don't know if Indianapolis is going to be the
permanent home. Apparently the NFL has other thoughts. But perhaps
the biggest, or should we say the smallest story to
come out of the combine was the hand size of

(40:48):
Kenny Pickett, the quarterback out of pit many projected be
the number one quarterback in this draft course of Heightsman finalists,
had a phenomenal senior season at the University of Pittsburgh.
I wanted to I wanted to look like like, you know,
hand size, you know, with quarterbacks. I found a list
of all the quarterbacks that have had at least ten

(41:09):
inch Now Pigott jumped in at eight and a half inches, right.
Remember Jared Goff was a guy that had just had
nine inches. Um, but I see hand size, yeah exactly.
I was thinking like clarification, and but I was late
at the largest hands of quarterbacks in NFL history. And
it's really an amazing mix of you know, big time

(41:30):
quarterbacks and guys who were absolutely awful by the way,
the largest hands ever measured by an NFL quarterback ever
is a guy, the only guy actually top eleven inches
in hand size, eleven and a quarter and that was
the ammortable Jim drunken Miller. Yes, Jim drunken Miller, who

(41:53):
had a cup of coffee with the forty Niners years ago.
Eleven point to five inches did not translate eight into
any success in the NFL. But on the other side,
how about this. Did you know that Russell Wilson at
five eleven has larger hands than either one of the
Manning brothers. Sorry, current NFL quarterbacks largest hands uh to

(42:18):
a quarterback Dak Prescott. But there are other guys out there.
Like I said, you can go down this list of
immortable immortal quarterbacks and Mark Sanchez big hands. Uh, Cody Kessler.
There's another big hand guy, Ryan Fitzpatrick, huge hands, by
the way, huge hands. But there's a Ryan Mallett, There's
a he Schuler. Uh. You look at some of these

(42:39):
names out there. Why is this such a point to
be made as far as hand sizes concerned with quarterbacks?
Why are why are people talking about like this was
the biggest story so far to come out of this combine. Well,
most often, uh, you know, small hands don't translate well
to the NFL because it's about gripping the ball and

(43:01):
holding on the ball when you're sacked and throwing the
ball in in in weather. The thing about Kenny Pickett, though,
is that he's been playing in Pittsburgh, in a bad
weather city. Now you can make the argument, I think
it's very fair to say, you know that he's playing
in that city not often in bad weather, right, that
they're not playing past Thanksgiving. You know, the NFL season
this year ended, you know January or a ninth or whatever.

(43:22):
It was so um but it just it correlates to
lots of fumbles. A lot of times guys just can't
hold onto the ball and again pushing the ball down
the field. Now is it a deal breaker. No, But
if you already did not like Kenny Pickett, this is
this could be a way to be like, I'm not
doing this. And there are teams, by the way, who
strictly go off these numbers. Now I think that's lessening

(43:43):
as younger general managers are moving into those positions. But
there are some teams that say, look, I want my
guys to be this exact measurement or better. If they're not,
they're just off our draft board or we're just trying
to draft them high in the draft. Right. If you
have Kenny Pickett, the first round guy, you knock them
down to the second round guy, third round guy, whatever
you feel the risk is necessary. But if you like
Kenny Pickett's this doesn't you don't care about this, and

(44:06):
I'll bother you right um again, if you don't like him,
it's another reason not to like him. If you do
like him, you mean whatever, small hands he used to
throw the ball, like it. But but it is again,
to be fair, it would be the smallest thing of
any quarterback to every draft in the first round. That
is correct, by the way, to a tongue of by
Loa has much larger hands. And Joe Burrow, okay, I'm

(44:30):
just gonna a better quarterback. And he's a better quarterback
out there, so you know, not again again this is
I go back this right, this is again. It's these
are minuscule data points in the grand scheme of things,
right for why you draft a quarterback. But again, it
can be confirmation bias. It could be a reason to
knock a guy to bring the guy operates on again.

(44:52):
We're talk about Joe David's a bunch. He might have
made himself a bunch of money. They were guys last
night running the offensive line to make themselves some money.
It's not the beyond, but discussion because this is one
thing that weirdly enough kind of coordinates or correlates with
just being a bad quarterback. Of your hands too small.
By the way, Foxford Saturday is brought to by one
of our favorite cities, Las Vegas, the greatest arena on earth.

(45:12):
Playing your trip today at visit Las Vegas dot com.
A right, let's let's get back to some of these
numbers that you're talking about. And I'm gonna I'm gonna
step back because you know, I mean I worked for
an owner, Al Davis, that was obsessed with speed. I
mean he was absolutely access with speed. In fact, as
a PR guy, it was not uncommon Why be sitting

(45:33):
in my office and somebody would come in and say,
we need you out on the field, out on the
practice field, and they would hand me a stop watch.
And what would be happening is they wanted a time.
Guys in their forties but at intervals, you know, ten
twenty forty yards and there I was, you know, I
get the tan yard mark, sitting there with a watch

(45:55):
in my hand, like, okay, when do I when I
pushed this? Uh? You know, you just give a good
guests like when they when they pass you, you know,
and I'm like, okay, um. But he was obsessed with speed.
Many times I've worked with t. J. Houshman Zade I
have told you this many many times. He said, as
a Pro Bowl wide receiver, it's not how fast you run,
it's how fast you can stop. That's a far better uh,

(46:19):
look at which effectiveness, at least from the wide receiver
position you have. John Ross, you know, all time record
holder four point to two catapulted him all the way
to the number nine pick in the draft a few
years ago. He's five years in the league. He's averaged
ten yards or ten receptions per season in the course
of his career. So that's why I think I always

(46:40):
feel like this is a crutch for some of these
so called talent scouts. They said, well, the numbers said
this guy was gonna be good, instead of just evaluating
can the guy play football? Again, there are teams that
value this more than others. Um, there are teams that
will look at this as a reason to bring the

(47:02):
guy up and put a guy down. I'm with you,
I'd rather watch the film. But there are again, there
are certain thresholds that people like that to to have
to be met. Um, and uh is now a prime
time events at night, Saturday night, Friday, a Sunday night
is a prime time event now to watch these guys
running and you know, like right now they're doing these drills.
At this point, I'm like whatever, Like I like the

(47:24):
novelty and them running fast. That's about it. I mean,
I've watched off these guys film. I need I don't
need to see what they can do at the underwear
Olympics at the combine running. Um, but it's good TV.
The NFL ratings will be better than the NBA. That
it's a boy basketball this weekend for guys just working
out in their underwear and they're not even doing a
lot like the other two forties. Show some position drills

(47:46):
and that's it, and and people enthralled by what they're
watching right now. All right, I want to get to
quarterbacks for a second here, all right, So there are
three quarterbacks that are being mentioned as possible first round picks,
and this number can always increase because quarterbacks always at
a premium. Can you pick it with his small hands?
Mac correl. And then there's Malik Willis out of Liberty.

(48:07):
Now we've been talking about him for the better part
of a year. He wild a lot of people. He
dropped a dime in there. It's like, okay, this guy's
got a big time arm. He played at Liberty. I mean,
how do you evaluate someone at that level of competition
and try to project it to the next level. Because
I'm looking at m I look at our buddy Bucky

(48:29):
Brooks here, he's got The Steelers look at a Malik
Willis at number twenty overall, uh, a quarterback out of
Liberty as their quarterback of the future. How much can
you tell based on the competition that he played against?
You really can't very much. We see this with with
small school quarterbacks. Look, they typically have to be very

(48:49):
traits treaty, right, So you know, Malik Wills is big
and physical and big arm and and looks good you
know in his paths, and so all those things are
very important. Obviously, he played in a lower level and
his film at times is pretty rough. But you have
all these tools and these traits, and you think to yourself, Hey,
if I'm the Steelers, I have time to to you know,

(49:13):
to get a quarterback up to shape. I have time
to work a quarterback into where he needs to be.
If you're taking him to win right away, you're probably
not doing it right. If you know you have a
couple of years to let him grow into the position,
then you have a chance to make this really work.
So to me, it's about the trade stuff right again,
it's it's he has the best physical traits of any
top quarterback. Yes, the film is not perfect, but there's

(49:35):
plenty of quarterbacks, by the way, that have great film
that are terrible pro quarterbacks. And again it's all it's
there's to me, there's not one way to do things right.
There's different ways to do things. Um And for you know,
Malik Wills, you you're looking at a guy like Carson
Wentz right at a lower level school who has the

(49:57):
physical traits. He comes in, give a little bit of
time to work through it in the first year, and
by year two you have a very um, you know,
efficient quarterback with all his physical traits. All Right, we're
gonna be hot. Scotch et a lot again today because
we get a lot of ground to cover. We'll get
back to the combines. In fact, I got some questions
about some other players out there, and man may have

(50:18):
hurt or help their stock at the NFL Combine. But
on the other side, March Madness Selection Sunday is just
eight days away. Could we be heading to one of
the most competitive tournaments of all time? Or are there
only just a few schools at the top of the
list that have a realistic shot of becoming national champions.

(50:38):
We're gonna break it down coming up next, Steve Irvin,
Jeff Schwartz. This is Fox Sports Saturday Hiring Heating up.
Indeeds hiring platform makes it easy to track, screen, and
interview candidates all in one place. Sponsor a post and
instantly receive a shortlist of quality candidates on Indeed whose

(51:00):
resumes match your job description. Visit indeed dot com slash credit. Alright,
a week from tomorrow will be Selection Sunday. Big day
today for coach k as he'll have his final home
game at Cameron Indoor. Uh taken on. It's North Carolina, right,

(51:22):
so um they the students have been literally camping there
for a month, not a week, a month too much? Well,
I mean again, remember Cameron and as what eight thousand um?
And of course this is your neck at the woods.
By the way, it has been seven years since Coach

(51:44):
K not only won his last championship of the last
time he actually made it to the final four. Uh.
In recent years, of course, he started to jump on
that one and done bandwagon. Remember the team obviously had
with Zion, that team came up short of the final four?
What what do your what's your guests here? Uh? You
know right now they're sitting at twenty six and four.

(52:05):
They had a great season. Uh, they have probably about
a two seed, maybe with a couple of upsets, maybe
a one seed. But what are your thoughts on what?
I'm really just Coach K because you've been in that
neck of the woods for a while now. Yeah, I mean,
obviously Hall of fame coach when the best to ever
do it. I think that if you don't like Duke,
then you find a way to hate on him. Right.

(52:26):
It feels that way all over the place. I saw
someone that you know, there's a bunch of old Duke
players at the game day. They just all bang on
the floor at the same time to uh to honor,
to honor coach k um uh. Yeah. Look it's it's
time for him to go. Obviously he wants to get here.
I think the bigger story is we're seeing coaches, older
coach especially just not adapt well to the new landscaper

(52:49):
college sports. Right. Um. You know, Coach k is not
gonna admit this, I think publicly, but you know we've
people have mentioned this and I agree with with what
they mentioned that you know, he doesn't like the current
landscape of football, which is I mean basketball should say,
which is an I L and trans report. Now he's
embraced it. He has had transfers, he has done the
one and done route. But like his old coaches, man

(53:11):
started coaching and coach for very long time in the
same sort of system and set up. Now it's changed.
The power is now in the players. If you were
a coach who's been at this for twenty five years,
and for twenty two of those years, once you recruited
someone to your campus, that was it. They weren't going anywhere.
If they had to transfer, it was the saut a
year they got lost in the shuffle. Now if you're

(53:33):
a coach, care any coach, not just him. You have
to recruit the players they're still in your roster to
stay there right here in a place like Duke not
everyone's getting playing time right and and you have to
while you're in this season, while you're practice, you have
to massage the ego of players who aren't playing so
they stay for you, so you don't have three or
four guys transfer out. And a lot of these coaches

(53:56):
just don't want to do it. I don't blame him.
It's different in some coaches are both for that. Some
were not um and and that's why I think we're
seeing some of these coaches, I guess everyone, but like
Jim Behind just decided to to move it along. We
had we had a coach retire. I know it's not
really a national story, but you know, in Arizona State
and the women's basket has been the twenty five years
we hadn't on the show yesterday and my Patoso, she

(54:18):
kind of mentioned some of these things like the changing
landscape a college sports and and it's just you know,
it might not be for her anymore. And so this
is this is what it is, This is what and
and older coaches have issues with that. Yeah, I I
don't one thing about coach k is and look at
success speaks for itself. But you know, forty two years
at a school, Uh, we're just not going to see that.

(54:38):
I mean, although Beheim's at forty six years, try to
believe Behind. When Behind became the head coach of Syracuse,
all right, his first season, Gerald Ford was still the president.
That's law long Beheim has been the head coach at Syracuse.
But you know there's a lot of money involved. Um.
You know when people talk about greatest of all time
and coach k obviously is on the Mount Rushmore. I

(55:00):
you know, look, I'm a u c l A guy
and I I knew Coach Wooden and people always talk about, well,
you know, coach Wooden couldn't have done in his day
what they have to do today with the n c
A Tournament. I like to remind people this, imagine if
the n c Tournament was still the way it was
back in those days, where only the conference champions actually
got into the tournament. There were no second place, third place,

(55:24):
fourth place, there were none of those. Every team that
was in the tournament back in a anywhere from a
thirty two team tournament was actually a conference champion. And
when we talk about the all time records and you're
playing against these elite schools, the one record that still
blows my mind about John wood a U C l
A is not the eight eight game winning streak. It's

(55:45):
thirty eight straight wins in the n c A tournament,
forty four of his last forty five and the only
loss was that a n C State team with David
Thompson in double overtime, and that game was in Rayleigh.
It was essentially a home game for ends State. Otherwise
he would have had an absolutely unblemish records. So I
will still make the argument that John Wooden is the

(56:06):
greatest coach in college basketball history, despite the era that
he uh coaching. I think, if anything, he had a
bigger challenge in those days than they do today. But
it doesn't diminish in any what coach K has accomplished. Yeah,
I just yeah, I'll say this. He's a better coach
than Dean Smith. I've always thought Dean was vastly overrated,

(56:27):
vastly overrated all that. Do you make that argument, I don't.
I don't have enough information to do that other than
coach k didn't longer and won more championships, and it's
the way to look at it, right. Um. And obviously
now this year specifically you're asking about this year, I
think it's anyone's game. Man. I look Arizona Second Country.
I follow them the most at any of the top
teams in the Bruins. I mean, some nights that look

(56:50):
like they can't be being they lose to Colorado, like
get blown out, you know, in Boulder. So like I
think it's it's it's really Ioknzaga obviously had played really
well till Mount St. Mary's took him down at home
in that high school gym they play in the Gale
Mount St. Mary's. It's uh, just say sorry exactly. Um,
So you know, just it's just like you know, it's

(57:11):
it's anyone, which I think make the tournament fun this year, um,
because I think we could have a plethora of of
winners and that makes it obviously more fun for us
to wager on to to watch. And I'm looking forward.
I'm looking forward to I mean Arizona, Dagga Duke. I mean,
would you'd be surprised if you can tuck you in
the championship I don't think so. There's there's many different

(57:32):
ways this can go. I'm excited to watch it absolutely,
and of course, really this is the first what I
call legitimate tournament. Three years I mean two years ago
was canceled. Last year, the entire tournament was in one city, Indianapolis.
Now we're gonna start spreading them around like we normally
have done in the past. So we're gonna get back
to a legitimate tournament. By the way, I know, there's
always these arguments about, you know, further expanding the tournament.

(57:55):
You don't have to. That's why you have conference tournaments.
See the thing about college basketball, this is the true
beauty of it, with the conference tournaments, with very few exceptions,
every single school, no matter how I mean, look at
Georgetown this year, right, oh and eighteen in conference play.
Oh in eighteen, they've lost nineteen straight games. Think it's

(58:17):
been a long year for Patrick Ewing at Georgetown. But
you still have that chance in the conference tournament. You
catch lightning in the bottle, you still have a path,
and that's all you can ask. So when we talk about,
you know, expanding the n c A tournament beyond sixty schools,
you don't have to. That's because you've got the conference tournaments.
There's still a path seemingly for just about every single

(58:40):
school to win a national championship, regardless of what has
happened to the regular season. Yeah, and that's what it's
college basketball so different than any of their sport because
I'm not sure we get the best team every year.
You know, this year's odd because it really I don't
think it's the best team that gets out. I guess
it's part of the best. Can I just jump in,
fir say, and then I want you to continue. Since

(59:00):
nine eight two, since the year that Michael Jordan is
a freshman hit the game winner against Georgia, since only
five teams ranked number one in the nation and the
A people going into the tournament have gone on to
win the national championship. That's over how many over thirty
champions on thirty six, I think is five out of
thirty six number one ranked teams have actually won the

(59:21):
national championship. And I think you know, if Gonzaga were
to play Arizona, they'll probably be a seven eight point favorite, right,
Taylor probably a little closer, but I mean they'd be
favorite over over any of these teams, so they're still
the best team. But again, well they win the championship,
maybe this is the year for that to happen. But
again back to the hope, right, you know, it's just
I'm obviously an organ organ is not making the tournament

(59:43):
unless we have help, which is we just went out
the Pactol tournaments. Every game in the tournament PacTel tournament
has a little more importance. The second we lose, that's it.
It's over. Um. But you know, you win four games
in a row in Vegas, you're in the dance, you're
feeling good about yourself and you're se and kind of
feels different than it was last And I mean there
was just a week ago. Right we look look at

(01:00:05):
last season. Organ State was about to get their coach,
about to get fire. Last year, they have a magical
run through the Pack twelve tournament. They win it, then
they go to the Elite eight and and there were
ten points away from going the final four. They're three
and twenty six right now this season, so letting in
the bottle happens, and it turned to bad season to

(01:00:29):
a magical season. Um. And this is what the tournament
does better than any there's no other sport that has
this right because look in the NFL, this is one
of the first years we've had to four seeds, right,
Normally it's one or two seeds. You know, in baseball,
it's all the top spinning teams for the most part.
College football it's Alabama, Georgia, l S you throwing, you know,
throwing a clumbs in every couple of years. But college basketball,

(01:00:50):
that's the fun part about it. It feels like any
team can win any time, and this year especially, well
would you would you be surprised if you see they
win the title? No? No, I also wouldn't be surprised
if they go one and done. I mean year ago,
I mean last year, it looked like, first of all,
they got a gift just to get in the tournament.
When the first four they were getting blown out by
Michigan State, it look like, you know why we're even selected,

(01:01:13):
and they rally to win the game. Next thing you know,
they're a miracle shot away from the championship game. So
so um, it's crazy with their experience and they have
they haven't played the game the last month with their
entire starting five in the lineup, so um, you know,
and then so many teams they can just get hot
and going to run. It's gonna make it a lot
of fun. Come March madness. Yeah, it's it's a crap shoot,

(01:01:34):
but that's that's what it makes a beautiful That's why
they call it madness. All right, much more on that,
much more on. I gotta get a little NFL and
excuse me NBA news. I want to get into uh
here with you as well, Jeff. But right now, let's
find out what's trending as we uh prell go. Welcome back,
Mr David Gascon. By the way, I'm looking at Iowa
State Iowa and Northern Iowa Iowa sam is three Iowa

(01:01:59):
school is right now projected to be in the tournament. Well,
a little update here, too many unfortunately here for the update.
Oh well, can I can? I can I just give
you a little Iowa minute here? Yeah, Northern Iowa one
the Missouri Valley Conference. I don't know. I'm very excited
for March manugs um Iowa. Northern Iowa won the Missouri
Valley Conference. Turning I'm sorry the regular season, they're getting

(01:02:22):
blown out. They're gonna lose to Loyal Chicago and that
might keep them out. I keep them out. But Iowa
State and Iowa most likely, what's gonna do. It's gonna
it's an annock someone else out because they're both gonna
get it well. Loyola was. Loyola was right on the
bubble as an at large team. They have a better
record than Northern Iowa when the tournamentology said the last

(01:02:44):
team in as a wild card was Loyala Chicago course
made their miracle run to the final four a couple
of years ago. Um can keep Northern IOA out. I'm
a little worried wo Bio when I was state or
in Iowa is definitely in. Iowa State should be in.
Even though they have a losing confer it's record. They've
had a lot of good quad win wins this year. Alright,
very good. Little I might have a top ten draft

(01:03:04):
pick this year. How about that? Yeah? Football? Who am
I missing? Trevor Penning had a Northern Iowa. Let's let's
uh saunter back to Mr gascon spread Gie on instan
it's bad radio. No one's to talking about the state Iowa.
Thank you? Like nobody except um guys. Yeah, I mean

(01:03:25):
obviously mentioned that with college basketball, other games that are
going down to the wire as well. UH Texas and
Kansas second half action seven to play in this thing.
Kansas only up by a point over twenty one drank
Texas forty six to five up in Pullman, Washington. The
Cougars of Washington State are blasting Oregon fifty seven and
thirty nine fourteen ten to play in regulation. There a

(01:03:47):
couple of games that have now gone final. One of
them include Auburn. They beat South Carolina by eleven points
in that contest. Meanwhile, Fresno State in Wyoming, Cowboys up
by seven and that affair fifty to three, Arizona sixteen
to eight over cal Y con buy five over to Paul.
That ballgame is on Fox right now. U NBA menu today.
A lot of games to get to tonight anyway. But

(01:04:08):
the news there was Zion Williamson returning back to New
Orleans after doing some rehab on his foot. He was
in Portland, but he's been cleared for basketball related activities.
So the clock and the watches on for one Zion
Williamson LOI will find out soon enough about him. Um,
what's the over under on how many games? Duke and
coach k Win the tournament two and a half. Uh well,

(01:04:32):
I mean if they don't make the sweet sixteen, that
will be if you were two and a half. Sounds
about right, that's right, right, right, Yeah, that's over lad
appearents right, that's a lead. It will be over. Yeah,
that sounds about right. Yeah. But I mean yeah, if
they go out before the sweet sixteen, he may decide.

(01:04:53):
You know, what did I say, retirement? I can't go
out like that. I didn't know about him requesting to
be in chicag All right, Well can I can I
jump in about Coach K for a moment here, And
I don't want to be totally disrespectful because obviously he's
on the Mount Rushmore, the greatest college coach um. So,

(01:05:15):
my my former partner here at Fox Sports Radio, Pad O'Brien,
was a very close personal friend of Coach K. In fact,
when I worked with Pat, we had Coach K in
our shows several times. I mean he could literally pick
up his phone called Coach K and he'd be on
the air with us. All right, so that's you know,
how many people have that kind of access to Coach Kay,

(01:05:36):
But we did, and interviewing Coach K was not easy.
He was. If you went down a path that he
wasn't comfortable with, he would shut you out. Um. Coach
K is a tough guy. He's not warm and fuzzy
by any stretch of the imagination. He's a great coach. Um.

(01:06:00):
But there's a reason why if you're not a Duke
fan you root against Duke. It's Coach K and just
his demeanor. Um. He's done a lot of great things
in the game of basketball. His players are fiercely loyal
to him. But there's certain things. Remember that what was
at when he uh, it wasn't a good Duke team,

(01:06:22):
and he had some physical problems, and he had his
assistant takeover, and he insisted as the team went into
the tank that none of those losses or on his
Remember this, and and and and and then the official record,
but it's never been done for any other coach. By
the way that record, it says that year his his
record was nine and three, even though they had a

(01:06:45):
terrible season. I've never seen a coach that had that
kind of clout where he says, even though I am
the head coach of the team, and I went on medically,
so those losses do not count on my record. Did
that happen a couple of years ago when he was
out for the back surgery. I mean, I mean, it

(01:07:06):
really is. And these are the kind of things that
started infuriate me. And again, I know one of the
greatest coaches of all time, no question about that. But
these are the little things that if you're trying to say,
g Duke really annoys me, it really begins and ends
with coach kid yeah and someone like yeah, I mentioned
that the floor slapping right with their players or players

(01:07:28):
are just kind of like annoying at times to watch.
They play a sertin stallar basketball. And look, these college
coaches that have been at schools for so many years,
they are you know, they're royalty, right, So well, that's
college basketball. The coaches are the stars of this sport easily.
I mean, there's no doubt. You know, one and done
kids a couple of years, the kids come and go.

(01:07:49):
The stars of college basketball, by far are the coaches.
And that's gives on the ego, right because they're allowed
to have the ego because they're they they have to
because that's their job. And then you give them, of
course all the space to be this way and power
and they're gonna have egos. It's it's it's pretty likely

(01:08:13):
to happen that way. And we see it, by the way,
with more than just coach k oh No. I mean
coach k is just one of many. I mean Beeheim's
sad any any one of these guys. I mean John
Thompson was this way at Georgetown. You go on and
on and on with a list of these longtime coaches.
I mean even tomzz though, who you know, from the
outside looking in, seems harmless enough, but every once in

(01:08:34):
a while he you know, he went into this whole
thing about the handshake, and you know, it's like, you know,
you know, I mean, it would be bad for the
game and all this that and everything else, and you're
just like, you know, you know, Tom, just you know,
go back to coaching, you know, just stay stay where
you are and and go there. But that's how we
build up these college basketball coaches. I want to flip
to the NBA briefly here and talk about the Lakers

(01:08:56):
as they get ready to take on the Warrior here.
I know it's it's their latest loss coming up to
the Warriors. The Lakers have not won a game since
the All Star break, each game gets worse. I mean,
they have up a hundred thirty two points to a
Clipper team without Kawhi Leonard, Paul George or Norman Pale
who they just acquired and went down with an injury
after two games. This was Reggie Jackson going up for

(01:09:18):
thirty six points on the Lakers as they are clinging,
I mean, barely clinging to a play in spot in
the playoffs right now. Look, there's a lot of fans.
We just talked about Duke basketball, how about Laker basketball.
Either you're in or you're out right, I mean, as
much as their fans of the Lakers. And I've been
a lifelong fan of the Lakers growing up in Los Angeles,

(01:09:40):
I know there are a lot of haters out there.
They're just eating this up because not only is that
the Lakers losing, it's Lebron losing. Um, when we look
at the overall picture for this league, Um, where does
this sit with the NBA? To have a Laker team
with Lebron Jay Tames, as irrelevant as they are right now,

(01:10:03):
will still be a good test too for the people
who claim that the NBA doesn't need Lebron James, right
or that or that you know Lebron James as a
bum and all the people that hate on Lebron because
can be out of pasts fairly soon. And so do
all the young players around the NBA. And there are
obviously some veterans on on on some of these teams, right,

(01:10:24):
But are they enough to cover and carry the league
if Lebron is not playing in these bigas we saw
as see the finals, UM ratings weren't weren't terribly good
compared to other sports, obviously compared NFL and nothing's good. Um,
are they going to be good this year? If it's
Phoenix and and Brooklyn and Brooklyn, Phoenix and Milwaukee again,

(01:10:44):
or I think the Warriors are in there, people will
will tune in to watch their Warriors. But yeah, I
think the NBA this is the test we're gonna find
out the Lakers are they lose for the playing game
and they're and they're moving along. But it will be
the first year we'll see in a while that we
just get no Lebron no like three or four years
ago to he had as well as pre pandemic. Though yeah,

(01:11:06):
well I mean think about this right now, you're one
seeds are the heat and the Sun's if they were
matched up in the NBA finals. Yeah, I mean think
about it, right, but it's not. But it's not like
NBA's fault because the NBA has lots of young talent.
It does happen then Lebron. Right now it has again.
John Morant has been incredible the last last week. I mean,

(01:11:28):
obviously it's been incredible longer than that, but I mean
his ability to score and Dawn can shoot. It's it's great.
We're seeing more of the Warriors as they get healthier.
And how many people that don't follow the NBA know
who John Moran zero? Because he puts in Memphis. He's
gonna have to go somewhere else to get to get
some more love. Um, but this are the Lakers. I mean,
look the Dame Morkans, the future for Anthony Davis and

(01:11:49):
Lebron and Westbrook. Westbrook is doing option like of course
he's gonna pick up his option because forty seven million dollars.
If he doesn't get paid four semillon dollars anywhere else,
the Lakes are screwed the next couple of years. But
they just themselves. They sold out for a second title
and it's not gonna happen. Yeah, I mean they then
they won the title again. Lebron he he delivered what

(01:12:11):
he was expected to do when he came to Los Angeles,
win a championship on a team that had over the
five previous years of him joining the Lakers, not just
five stage losing seasons, they had the worst record in
the entire league over those five years. So he delivered
a championship. But it's like Sandy a Pack signing a
pack with the devil, Right, what's the trade off here?
All right? What the trade off is within a couple

(01:12:33):
of years, you're gonna be one of the worst teams
in the league and he's gonna stay that way for
quite a while. Would you would you sign on the
dotted line for one more championship? And they said yes,
they got the championship. Unfortunately was in the bubble. I
think they wanted another one. They wanted to as my guests,
and obviously a non bubbled one would have been great
because there's always everyone's always talking about the asterisk right

(01:12:53):
on this on the interesting to the last two championships
in Los Angeles for pro sports teams, the Lakers and Dodges,
are both in the bubble. I'm I'm willing to discredit
the Dodgers one though that feels like easier to to
to to discredit. Have third of a season. Come on, here,
here we go, San Francisco Giants, the third of a season.
The Giants have only one championships when they played full season.

(01:13:16):
Believe it or not, it's okay to play a full season.
By the way, the team that was formerly known as
the Washington Redskins eighty two and eighty seven, the two
shortened years, they won the Super Bowl. Both those years,
does it count? Uh no if it doesn't have One
was a nine game regular season, believe in or not,
nine eight two. The other year was the They had

(01:13:37):
fifteen games. The three of them were replacement games, so
really it was only twelve legitimate games. And ironically, both
those years the then Redskins won the championship. Twelve games
is not I mean this is they'd be like playing
you know, I'll be playing six NFL games if you're
doing a third of a season, like that's what That's
what the Dodgers did. Alright, how many you say the Giants? Okay,

(01:14:03):
I don't want to get into baseball. We don't have
any baseball right now. Right, we talked to John paum Morosi.
He gave us some glimmer of hope, maybe made first
by the latest right, although I I'm with you. Did
you see the Vegas over under on how many games
will be played this year in Major League Baseball had
a hundred sixty two, one twenty and a half. The

(01:14:25):
vet over under one twenty and a half. Well, by
the way, you stay one twenty, uh my, Buddy rich Ornberger,
he would like to just have it sixty like it
was two years ago, permanently. He said, that was like
the dream baseball season, like it was an all out
sprint for two months to get to the finish. It
was entertaining because to that point, right, that was that

(01:14:47):
was what it was, was you obviously you scheduled your
pictures differently and off differently because every game was almost
felt more important than right, and then it was a
two month season normally a six month season. See if
a first month and second month and just skipped the
four months in between. Um, well, we'll see how many
games it's gonna take. All Right, On the other side,
I want to get back to little NFL news, including

(01:15:09):
an interesting development with one of the best wide receivers
in the NFL coming up next Steve Harvey, Jeff Schwartz,
Fox Sports Saturday. If cold Canadate calls aren't turning into
hot hiring leads, well you need Indeed because indeeds powerful
hiring platform makes it easy to attract, screen and interview

(01:15:29):
candidates all for one place find your next great higher
visiting Indeed dot Com slash credit. Um. When you talk
about most valuable people in organizations, I mean you got
the players, you got the coaches, ownership right near the
top of the list, are your capologist? Um? They got
to figure out how to crunch the numbers to make

(01:15:51):
things work. And we talked about teams that are currently
over the cap like we talked to earlier about the packers, like, well,
their way over the cap. How can they resigned Dvante
Adams even with a franchise tag. There are ways if
you have a creative copologist. But apparently the capologist in
Dallas said, uh no, we can't, we can't do this.
Uh Amari Cooper is going to be cast aside um.

(01:16:14):
This is a this is a player by the way,
that is still not even twenty eight years of age. Uh,
seven years in the league, three and a half with
the Raiders. Of course, dealta to the Cowboys for topic
now three and a half years with the Cowboys. There's
still some meat left on the bone out there with
a Marii Cooper. Uh, what do you see happening here?
How valuable is he? I was talking to Danny g

(01:16:36):
and our resident Raider die Hard. He wouldn't mind him
seeing him back in the Raiders uniform. How do you
think this is gonna play out for Marii Cooper? Does
be thirty one teams that would have won a Mary Cooper? Right?
He's very young, as you mentioned, can still play. And
this is a prompt Cowboys failures to manage the cap. Right,
you gave all this money and you can find money anywhere, right,

(01:16:57):
like you shouldn't. But in the end, though, you shouldn't
have to cut a productive wide receiver and then gonna
give Gallop a bunch of money. So they're cutting a
Mariy Cooper to pay younger Michael Gallup, who's not as
good in my opinion as a Mark Cooper. I just
I don't know the Cowboys are doing it right. And
and that's unfortunate because I think they have a good

(01:17:19):
squad around Dak Prescott and now you're taking away one
of his targets, and Dak Prescott's worse without him on
the field. So you have cd am now and Michael Gallup.
Maybe they'll draft someone, maybe they'll bring someone in free agency.
Won't cost much of Mark Cooper. But dude, if you're
the Packers man, you won't keep Aaron Rogers happy. Who
got to Marie Cooper right? There's so many ways, And

(01:17:40):
by the way, he's durable. Now. He missed two games
last year with covid um, but before that he'd only
missed three games in his entire career. And you know,
the knock on him was he wasn't a hard working guy. Again,
when you dominate like he did in high school and
at University of Alabama, maybe you think that's gonna go
on forever. Obviously a much different level of the NFL,
but I would think he would get a pretty motivated

(01:18:02):
Marie Cooper right now. Look, I don't know why he
would be motivated now in his career. Um, you know,
there's a thought that when guys get paid, they stopped
being motivated. And I've actually found it to be the opposite,
where guys who get paid feel they owe to owe
to the team and their teammates and the community to

(01:18:22):
play well. And I feel Mark Cooper feels the same way.
He wants to play well. Of course he does. He
wants to get paid a guine. He wants to be
in the Pro Bowl, being All Pro and and say hey,
I help my team win a championship. So wherever he goes,
he'll be motivated to a to prove the Cowboys that
can still play in the best of the NFL. But
I think he thinks anyways, but to win a championship, right,
like to win a championship, that's what he is going

(01:18:43):
to go somewhere to try to do again. I was
looking at Bucky Brooks mock draft that he's got coming
up here. He does not have a single running back
in the first round. Are we ever gonna see? Would
you ever take a running back in the first round.
I would take one in the first round over sunny
one in frequency. So that was my choice, the great
first round. Okay, fine, it's because they have a short

(01:19:07):
life span. You want to get him as long as
you possibly can bake on Zeke Christ McCaffrey. I'm much
how much howny playoff wins Taylor Jonathan Taylor go he
was a second round draft pick. Well, that's right, that's right,
it was. Yeah, fine with that. Yeah, I mean it's
I don't know, I think the day and age of
the first round running back and definitely coming gone. All right,

(01:19:28):
we got much more coming up. Keep it here on
Fox Sports Saturday, very very busy, Fox Sports Saturday, Steve Harbin,
Jeff Schwartz with you, and yeah, we've done a little
bit of everything so far. Today, I continue to watch
guys running forty yard dashes at the NFL Combine. One

(01:19:48):
of the big stories today, Jeff, was that, of course,
Jordan Davis, the defensive lineman at a Georgia. By the way,
he checked in officially at six ft six and three
eight inches, alright, six six and three eights three pounds.
He ran a four seven eight forty four points seven

(01:20:10):
eight clockey, fastest of any player over three pounds at
the combine since at least two thousand and six. Now,
by the way, I was checking this out, the fastest
time ever by a defensive lineman checking in at more
than three hundred pounds. Was a couple of years ago,
the immortal Khlil Davis out of Nebraska ran a four

(01:20:31):
seven five. He ended up a sixth round pick, and
he's played three games total in two years in the NFL.
So I'm looking at some of the projections here, getting
back to our buddy Bucky Brooks. Before today, he had
Jordan Davis projected as the twenty second overall pick. By
the way, Danny g he has the Raiders taking him. Um, so,

(01:20:57):
I mean this, this is a game changer to day.
I mean, it's an incredible feat for a man that size,
obviously to run the forty at that time. Um, but
we're talking about a run stopper. He's not a pass rusher. Uh.
And that was you remember briefly, Jeff, I actually had
him in my top three Heisman list for a couple
of weeks there, but there were no numbers. I mean,
there was nothing there. And then the fact that he

(01:21:20):
was just clogging up the middle on that Georgia defensive front.
So so what do you do? Yeah, let me explain
his value, his value because it's interesting. So, yeah, he's
he's not a three down defensive line. Mean yet Now,
he's working with. UM. I believe Chuck Smith is one
of the pre eminent defensive line pass rush guys out there,
and so I'm curious to see obviously where that ends.

(01:21:42):
You know, where that puts him, UM in the whole
grand scheme of things. UM. But if the way the
teams play played defense now, they run a lot of
too high, right, So they have two high defenders, whether
it's quarters or cover too. And the reason they do
that is with two high defenders, you can take away
the past game better, and the vulnerability in that is

(01:22:06):
the run game. And the best examples the Chargers, right.
The Chargers had terrible rushing defense last season, right, and
it cost him a lot down the stretch. They want
to play too high, they prevent supposed to play in
the passing game, but they can't stop the run. I
guess you can really help with that, Jordan Davis, Right,
And so even if you're not rushing the passer, he

(01:22:28):
can help to gap and help you stop the run
which goes from first and ten to now second and
eight maybe, and not second and four right, or second
and four is now third and two and not a
first down like those those places throughout a game can
make the difference at the end of the game, and

(01:22:48):
that to me is why you would draft him in
the first round. Even if you don't get the pass
rush you expect to get from someone drafted as high
as he might go, the benefit of him being able
to clog the middle to the structure of a defense
is so valuable for a team like the Chargers that
want to run a bunch of too high it makes
sense to want to to to want to do that. Yeah,

(01:23:09):
I'm looking at other numbers, you know, when we talk
about these guys, especially in what we call the three
thirty club, which is you know, getting don Terry Paul.
Remember remember some of the numbers he put up. He
put up some ridiculous numbers, like he I think he
did the two five bench press forty four times. He
had a thirty four inch vertical, He broke five seconds

(01:23:29):
in the uh the forty r dash. But I getting
back to Jordan's uh here Davis, with the numbers that
he puts up with that speed, there's gotta be a
way to translate. As you mentioned, if you watched Georgia
football this year with that great defense that they had,
he as you said, he wasn't in every down lineman.
I mean for a guy that was first team All American,
he didn't play that much. I mean they're also two,

(01:23:51):
they're also up in a lot of games. You have
to play this. I understand that, but even in the
big games against Alabama, there were times when he wasn't
on the field. Um, but couldn't you make him more
of a pass rusher. I mean, if he's that big
and that quick, even if it's over forty yards, I mean,
there's there's gotta be a way to translate that. And
that's why he's making more of a pass rusher and

(01:24:13):
more of a dominant pass rusher in the middle. I
mean he would seem to just overpower just run by people. Yeah,
that's what they hope to do. That's why he's going
to pass us. Remember tall, I mean we think of
Aaron Donald. It is not a tall guy. Um. And
I'm not going to compare anybody Aaron Donald. But I'm
just saying it's six six and three eights. Is he

(01:24:33):
too tall from that inside position to be a dominant rusher? No,
not at all. Um. It's about obviously leverage and pad
level right and exposing this what he has. We talked
about how quick he gets off the ball right boo boom,
and that that one point. Uh what he do one
seven or one six eight ten? For example? Uh, just
for reference point, Ada Hutchinson and Cavon Thiboo, the tow

(01:24:55):
top defensive ends just have run and they both were
one six for the first ten. Jordan Davis a hundreds
is about two six. I think Katie's two fifty four
one one six two for both those guys. So you've
a guy who's eighty pounds more than you running nearly
the same ten. It's pretty impressive for for for Jordan Davis,

(01:25:19):
I mean, is I mean, are we going to see
this guy shoot up the charts? Because of what happened today,
people were saying maybe the Ravens are the highest. He
goes at fourteen. I think they're at fourteen probably, Um,
that's probably about where where he goes. I would imagine,
do you believe that if if if Jacksonville passes on
the edge guys and goes with Evan Neil, the big

(01:25:42):
offensive tackle out of Alabama, who, by the way, physically
and when you saw him stripped down, you're like, he
is he that big? Because he looks built. You know,
when you think of these big offensive lineman checking in
a three fifty plus, I mean, this guy is really
and by the way he got himself into that condition,
he wasn't always that way. When he came to Alabama.

(01:26:03):
He really worked hard to get himself in great condition.
But when you see that guy, you're saying, oh, yeah,
well you got Trevor Lawrence. You gotta start with that
tool eleven, you know, left tackle. It's going to protect
him for the next decade. So Evan nel Um was
four hundred pounds in high school at i MG. He
went to he went to Alabama's Now he had been

(01:26:23):
working in Dallas with my buddy, Duke manny Weather. Who
my buddy Duke is gonna have three first on off
of tackles. Pretty wild. Uh He's got Charles Cross, Trevor Penning,
and Evan Neil as well, and yet he was able
to get him uh something down even more. He was
three thirty seven. He looked like he was to seventy five.
This is a you know, this reminds me of the

(01:26:44):
twenty thirteen draft. You had Eric Fisher go one, you
had you had Lane Johnson goes six, Justin Pugh. I
think with thirteen ish that year, could we have the
top five picks all whyman this year? Often the defensive lineman. Yeah, um,
I mean I'm seeing some projections that actually have that

(01:27:05):
unless obviously a team wants a quarterback badly they move
up to get one, right, But do they have to
move up? I mean, again, when you look at the
top of the draft, Jacksonville doesn't need a quarterback. I
don't think Detroit's gonna take a quarterback at two. Houston again,
and these edge guys are going to go off the board.
Jets don't need a quarterback. Giants at five. I mean,
you know, I guess that's the big question. He's not

(01:27:26):
a quarterback. I would just I'd work on getting better
off a difensive lines. Yeah yeah, I mean there's some
really intriguing names up there. Now it's a former lineman.
You love this, of course, right, I mean, I mean,
I mean we always say it starts in the trenches,
but everyone goes for the star power, right. But when
you when you look at teams that seemed to put
the pieces together in a proper way, they never didn't

(01:27:50):
neglect getting the guys in the trenches. And what's wild
too is that this year, this class is not as
good as the top of last year's class, which is
petty so and with Shawn Slater. And it's not as
good in my opinion as the class two years ago.
The Andrew Thomas Tristan Worth's Um you know that uh,
Tragick Wills class right and McKay Beckton class. Like there's

(01:28:11):
just there's a lot of of of talent the last
two drafts. Now this, these guys are good, but Evan
Neil has a couple of flaws, and has a couple
of flaws. Charles Crosses a few flaws to Penning sent flaws.
They're not as polished as the guys that came in
a couple of years ago, and they might be drafted
higher that. That just tells you that the draft every years,

(01:28:32):
it's not always indicative of who's the best. It's where
you're drafting, who's available, what your draft needs are, what
you know how you want to build your team up.
And uh, poor guy just hurt himself. I hate seeing
this in the combine. We guys hurt themselves. That's not good.
Um and uh and so again these guys are I
wouldn't say better than the guys last year, but they

(01:28:52):
might go higher than them. By the way, Sam, I
got good news for you. According to our dear friend
Bucky Brooks in his mock draft of the Chargers, that
would be the Los Angeles Chargers to play down the
street from us here with the seventeenth overall pick. Take
Trevor Penny out in Northern Iowa first round to be
their new right tackle. There you go. You know, I

(01:29:14):
rubbed off on Bucky Brooks quite a bit over the
last couple of years because Bucky and Jonas would always
do a show when usually Iowa Iowa State we're playing football,
and I try to get on Northern Iowa games too
if I could, and I would always do my Iowa minute,
And so I think it it really Uh, I shined
a light on Breece Hall and this other gentleman as well.
I mean, when you got ra Shawn Slater on one side, Jeff,

(01:29:34):
not a bad idea to get a book and right
tackle right. Oh No. And Trevor Penny man, he's he's
a treat. I was. I was down in Dallas with
with him for my show. Uh, he's a he's a
freak man. He took a basketball. It's four eight nine yesterday. Um,
just a big old meat head. He's fun, dude, He's
just a fun mind. So you think that would be

(01:29:54):
if they if he's sitting on the board at seventeen,
you're the Chargers right now, that would be a good choice.
Be fantastic, Yeah, him or Jordan Davis, Like, I think
you have to show up the lines Charges the number
one priorities for seven. Suddenly people have mocked him to
the Chargers for a while now. It's just I think
that him going seventeen was like ah, but I mean

(01:30:15):
after today and it's like, okay, it makes them makes
more sense. Um, yeah, the Chargers. Again, there's there's always this,
this this debate right in the draft process, is the
best player available, position of need or combination of both? Right,
I think it's a little bit of both, especially if
you're drafting in the upper end of the first round,

(01:30:35):
middle of first round. Right, the Chargers have a specific
need offensive line and defensive tackle right now, right in
the early rounds, they need to address those. But if
if all the big tackles are gone, right, if if
if they're all gone, then you take a d tackle right,
the d tackles are gone. Take an offense a tackle,
both are gone. In my opinion, you don't. You don't
reach for that. You're not good enough as a team

(01:30:56):
to reach for a player. Take Take that player later, right,
just take the best player on your board and make
your overall team roster better. But if you are thinking
who's in the first round that you know that just
had to bag you very specific. Need you know if
you are you're the Dolphins, right like, you must take
an offensive alignment right like? You do not have a choice.

(01:31:16):
If you're overdrafting him, who cares, You must take an
offensive If you're the Giants five and seven, you must
take an offensive defensive alignment. You do not have a choice,
even if you're overdrafting someone by fifteen slots. You know,
if Cavon, Thibodeaux and and eight hundreds are gone at
five and seven, take an off the tackle and take

(01:31:39):
and take the defensive end from Purdue. Done, or take
a defen tackle from Georgia. There's two of them that
are really good. Done. Like, yes, those guys should not
be the seventh pick in the draft, but at this
point you need those positions in the worst way go
out and get him. By the way, speaking of the
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enter and get rules, visit Fox Sports Radio dot com.
That's Fox Sports Radio dot com to win a trip
to Vegas during Draft weekend. On the other side, we're
gonna check in with a man it's in Indie. Our
Fox Sports Radio NFL insider Adam Kaplan will join us
next Steve Harben, Jeff Schwartz. This is Fox Sports Saturday.

(01:33:06):
All right, let's check in with a man who's there.
He's there and in the eighteen years in a row,
he has dominated the scene there at the NFL Combine.
Our Fox Sports Radio NFL Insider series x M NFL's
Adam Kaplan. So, Adam, what's a bigger story coming out
of the combine? A quarterback with really small hands, are
really really big man that could break four eight in

(01:33:28):
the forty what's a bigger story? You know what? You
know what's funny you say that because I had had
lunch with a couple of personnel people who said this
is the most athletic offensive line group he's seen in years.
One of the guys said, they don't look they don't
Sometimes you look a little sloppy, but they were pretty
pretty impressed with the guy. The way the guys ran.
And yeah, look, you know you mentioned the k Pickett's story. Yeah,

(01:33:50):
no question coming in was gonna be an issue. You
people would like to blow it up. I mean the
hands are actually smaller than anticipated believe or not eight
and a half, which is unbelievably small. But it's talking
to me get difference. He's going to go in the
middle of the first round. That's where I always thought
he would go. That'll happen. He should He shouldn't get
past sixteen or seventeen area. There was another quarterback that
comes out of the combine with some public is that

(01:34:12):
Malik will Is. There another guy that that's shine. The
teams might take a flyer on earlier than we expected. Yeah,
a couple of things. So let's talk about Malik Willis.
Milik Willis is kind of seen as as a project.
He's a guy played at Liberty small school program. It
was a senior bond Vite. I was there. He threw
the ball extremely, extremely well. In fact, he's probably the
strongest armor of the quarterbacks that were here this week. Uh,

(01:34:35):
he couched the strong from Nevada's had his right knee
searchily repaired within twice within six much of each other.
So getting a medical update on him is pretty strong,
I mean, pretty important here for him. He's got to
come out of the situation hopefully feeling better than he was.
Coming in terms of the medical But yeah, I would
say Willis has got helped himself to just for people
to get in front of him. It's not just the throng.
You knew he'd throw the ball well, but the tape

(01:34:57):
is the tape. He's got a long ways ago. He's
probably farthest away from the top quarterbacks to be ready
to play next season. And my guy, the guy that
I thought really did well as Desmond Ritter from Cincinnati,
who was a senior ball invited. I thought he had
a good week there. Pretty athletic guy, good arm, not
in the lead arm good, not not as strong as Willis,
but he's he's the guy who benefited from the throwing

(01:35:18):
exhibition because you could see the live arm strength that
was important for him, whereas in I think in mobile
guys that rain the just about the entire week, and
there wasn't There wasn't a lot of clear weather here,
and I get it. Routes against are that you shouldn't
go overboard here, but you could see the ball stamp
out of his hand. So I'm looking at a lot
of these mock drafts right now, Adam, and I'm seeing

(01:35:39):
when we talk about the Jags, Lions, Texans, Jets, and Giants.
At the top of the draft. Everyone's got lineman going
top five, either offensive defensive lineman. Can you can you
see any non lineman breaking into that top five right now?
Oh yeah? Cornerback Sauce Gardner is quite far the best
corner for the draft at the Universe of Cincinnati. He
won't get paid probably seven. Could he go on the

(01:36:01):
top five? Sure, I understand that corner simply don't go
that far high up. I get it. But when you're
an elite player at a freemium position like cornerback, you're
going in the top ten and again perhaps top five.
Remember the name soft Gardner. What a great nickname which
you got as a kid. But he is a very
gifted player. You don't see a lot of University Cincinnati

(01:36:21):
players go up high these days, but he's got a
lot of personal People are really high on it. He's
definitely at the top corner for this draft. And so
many treating storylines coming out of India, But I think
the one that obviously we've heard the most of from
people that that cover this event is the possibility of
this event leaving Indianapolis. And I would argue that it
should not leave Indianapolis. It's a great city to this event.
Everything is centrally low kid. You can walk everywhere, you

(01:36:44):
can go, eat out every night, everywhere. Um, what are
the chances? I think it feels fairly highly this this
event has moved. Yeah, Jeff, Unfortunately I felt this for
the last year, that this was gonna be the last year,
at least for the near future. It will move next year.
It's the first that it could move, and it will move. Um.
You know, I know that Indians put in a bid

(01:37:04):
l a Dallas and some other cities, but the League
is kind of treating us like the draft. They like
it to move. They like to benefrom that from a
pr standpoint, Um, from the television standpoint, but you could
put it in Alaska. Watch what I know. That's the listen.
I'm not disagree. I'm starting over with a fact. Believe me.
I talked to the League about this this week. They
like the belief that if you move it and you

(01:37:28):
put it in a different area, particularly whether it's in
Dallas and that and that that venue there were in
Jerry world, so to speak. But here's the thing though,
that we need to understand um, and you, Jeff, you
just talked about it. The reason why there's not an
NFL personnel person who doesn't want any The reason is
you don't need a car. You it's everything is within

(01:37:48):
a couple of blocks. And by the way, you're not
gonna believe it today and the nis seventy five degrees
in Indianapolis is ridiculous, but not that have the workouts outside.
But yeah, they believe just wants it to be moved.
When this this dropped a couple of years ago, I
remember we were talking about it here on Fox Sports Radio.
I'm like, it's gonna move. I'm telling you when when
they decided that they're going to take bids that they're
telling you they're giving the answers to the test. It's

(01:38:09):
going to move now. It doesn't mean it won't be back,
but it's you know, could be in a rotation. It's
just really disappointing. I agree with your assessment. It's it's
perfectly there's really again, you don't need a car. Everything
is within walking distance. And by the way, over the
last five or seven years, they put a lot of
indoor walkways, so most of the time you don't have
to go outside chickly when it's bad weather than personal

(01:38:32):
people love that. I we always seem to talk about
guys Adam that you know, while a few people at
the combine, but give us some of the you know,
like guys that came in like oh, there's there's there's yeah.
I just think when here's the thing though, just to
give you a general answer on that one. When guys
don't run well here, Okay, they've got their pro day

(01:38:53):
to run. It's the guys who don't run here and
then they don't do wealth the pro day, then it
becomes a problem. Now because we're you're more or less
out of the COVID issue for now. These players where
we didn't have, we didn't have the pre draft visits.
We're gonna have a pre draft visits. We should have
pro days this year. You know that. That's there's no
reason for them not to have it. We didn't have
all in us here, but we had some that we're

(01:39:14):
gonna have them all this year. Now. The good stories
is that now I understand the track is. We should
make this point, guys, the track of India is faster.
This is the way personal people see it. And the
running backs six of them ran in the four threes,
which is the first time ever that has happened. I
think this is personal. People will tell you the track
is so fasted into here sometimes and by the way,

(01:39:36):
at certain schools they notice the trend of the times
being faster. Um. Some of the running backs that ran
in the fourth mid four fives, who need to run
better so they'll have to run at their pro days. Again.
If you run well here, you could wrestle that, not
work out your pro day. That's a That's a benefit
of running here is that even if you don't do well,
we've got another chance to do it. And it's been

(01:39:56):
about three hours as the last Aaron Rodgers news when
the tell him the next text, we have to talk
about Aaron Rodgers on work. Yeah so yeah, So here's
kind of my understanding as this. So I've kind of
said this and I'm not going to back off. I
believe he wants to play. I just do um. Now,
the question is will he exercises right via the contract

(01:40:20):
language to ask for a trade. They have to do it.
The way that the revision was to their his contract
list late last summer was if he decides that he
wants to be traded, they have to do their best
to move him. We are still these are whether Russell
Wilson gets trader on the Seahawks has told people don't
want to trade him, but the going rate is going
to be three first round picks and potentially then some

(01:40:41):
even for Rogers an older guy. Um, the question is, though,
you know, here's kind of why. I believe his agents
have been working behind the scenes to see if there's
anything out there. There will be out there, but get
him the contract they wants. If Rogers is not happy
with what the packer's final offer is, and he'll have
that final off with the next ten or fourteen days,

(01:41:02):
that's when I think the the alarm ghows offices. I
want out. That's I think that's probably gonna be part
of the situation. All right, Well, let's take it the
next step on this one, Adam, because there are reports
out there that the Titans, Steelers, and the Broncos have
already presented their trade packages for Aaron Rodgers with the
permission of the packers to see what is actually out there.

(01:41:24):
So I mean, boy, I mean, when we look at
the Tennessee Titans, you're the one seed with Ryan Tannehill.
You put Aaron Rodgers in there. All that's right. Aaron
Rodgers haven't been in a super Bowl and over a decade. Um. No,
we were talking earlier about this, Adam. I mean, if
you're the Packers right now and you want to resign
Davante Adams, they insists that Davante's situation is completely separate
of Aaron Rodgers. We don't know if Adams this thinging

(01:41:47):
that way, but they feel that way. Haven't you seen
enough in Aaron Rodgers? I mean, if you really get
a blow away three number ones, you did draft a
quarterback in the first round, and I recalled Jordan's law
of don't you feel like you have enough pieces in place?
Maybe you take a slight step back for a year,
but maybe it is time to turn the page on

(01:42:08):
Aaron Rodgers and the headaches he gives you. If you
get a reasonable return on a trade, they've really steve
as I understand. They really don't want to do that.
They feel like they're in a good place with Rogers,
uh in terms of the relationship with the particularly with
the general manager, which was terrible before last year. That's
why he was so miserable. One of the biggest reasons
why it was because of his relationship with the g M.

(01:42:31):
And then of course they drafted in Love, which surprised him,
but in the way that was handled where he just
found out basically after the draft, but right during the
draft that they're gonna draft a quarterback. But look, if
you move this thing forward here, my understanding is I
feel pretty percent of this that the Broncos would have
traded for Rogers last year. They would have given up
a farm. Uh George Payton, the GM would have obviously

(01:42:54):
he was fun Minnesota. It was with a Viking for
well over a decade, and you know he, you know,
was playing the same in division. How great Rodgers is
and he he wants to make a big splash move.
In fact, he went on the record to talk about
how aggressively they were going to be well believe me.
And then you got Nate Hackett, who who's the head
coach now, was the OC with Green Bay for a
short period of time. So, uh yeah, it all lines

(01:43:15):
up another Dolphins. Here's the problem with that one, Ryan,
I know that's out there from Pro football talk. In
terms of the Titans, Ryan Tannehills signed for two more seasons.
He's coming off of a very disappointing finish. Beauties gonna
have to hide the baller with him. I'm sure if
the Titans got heavily involved in this, they could find
someone to take this contract. He's making twenty nine million

(01:43:36):
this season, which is fully guaranteed, so you couldn't move
on with him without him. But I do believe that
Broncs are real and also the Steelers. I'm told that
they do have interested in him. Um in fact, the
Steelers yet another team, Folcus. If we go through all
the teams that the quarterbacks, I mean, this is what

(01:43:56):
John Lynch talked about when they were talking about He
was on the record talk about Garoppolo this week in
terms of his his trade value go he he did say,
a lot of teams new quarterbacks. This is this might
be an historic year for the amount of teams new quarterbacks.
Last question from me, As we approach rate and see,
we're gonna start getting some of these surprise cuts Mark Cooper,
I don't know much of a surprise, but it was announced.

(01:44:18):
He's probab gonna be like you excuse me, is there
is there someone on the radar that that you've heard
from Indianapolis that might be a surprise released in the
next couple of days. Well, those are gonna be here, Jeff.
As you know as a former player, this is what happened.
So these a lot of these players because we have
so much more cap space. That's why this is probably
the lightest amount of veteran cuts that I've seen within

(01:44:41):
two weeks from free to see. I mean usually we
have like we've only had like four or five because
so many teams have really good cap space. Now what
you're going to see is the Saints may have to
cut some players there are usually up against the cap.
That probably the one team evolve them. That's that's going
to have to do some things. Um, the Chiefs with

(01:45:01):
Frank Clark, that's that's one that you mentioned that they
have to they're taking a hard look at his contract. Oh,
I'm going to give you another one here he's being
she's he's available and that it's the corner. Um James Bradberry,
who has an unbelievable cap number. In fact, I will
look it up as we speak here. James Bradbury two
years ago was one of the best corners in football.
He he dropped off Um he's on the funday of

(01:45:24):
his deal and his cap number is ridiculous, just on
a twenty two million, which is unacceptable for a corner.
And this is the funny of his deal at thirteen
point for a million dollar base salary cap number just
under twenty two million. Uh my innerstands he's available. So
that would be that would be a big name and
he would have a big, big market if he would
if he happened to be released. Alright, final thing here

(01:45:45):
for those that are questioning Kenny Picktt. Because of his
hand size, the largest hands ever measured for an NFL
quarterback Jim drunk a Miller who was the twenty six
overall pick in the ninety seven draft. The forty Niners
are convinced it was going to go from Montana to
Steve Young a drunk of Miller. His career lasts at
all of six games in the NFL. Six games. So

(01:46:06):
the big hands not the deciding factor, Adam, not the
deciding Remember we should mention Kenny pick It always wears
gloves and if you've ever watched him, he wears gloves
on both hands, not just one. And he did that
mobile but even in the rain, he actually threw the
ball fairly well on the rain, so he's gonna be fine.
He's gonna be mid first round pick. And now I
would also tell you not every team has the first
round pick on him. I've talked to at least five

(01:46:27):
or six teams will have a two on him. So
but listen, it's it's it's a quarterback or of the league.
He's gonna go fairly high. All right, Adam is always
tremendous stuff, and join the rest of your stay in Indy. Alright, guys,
I'll talk to you next week Adam Kaplan or Fox
Sports Radio NFL Inside, let's find out what's trending right now.
Welcome back, Mr David gas Gun hands size not to

(01:46:47):
be questioned. No, but my digits are all screwed up, bent, twisted.
Look at those hands. Are they small hands? No, they're
not small, veined up, mangled, mangled? Do you are yours pretty?
And Jeff uh No? I have one that's crooked. Otherwise
I'm pretty good. Actually, how's the middle fingers? I take
my fingers together? When I played, did you did you

(01:47:09):
go middle to index or did you go middle to ring? No,
middle to index, ring to pinky arm? Burger's got one
of those like pinkies. It's going sideways. I don't have
It's not it's not that bad. It's just I justs
located in high school. It's a little gross. Do you
did you lock your your thumb with your wrist? Did
you tape it from wrist to thumb? I wore actual
hard cast on my right thumb, and I wore a

(01:47:32):
piece of like fiberglass of some cast on my other hand. Yes. Yeah.
By the way, before we go any further, Mr gascust Iowa,
Sam has a question for you, what, um do you
know anything about I see these commercials that John Elway
is in and he's got this condition called do patrons
contractor is that from playing football? Do you know anything

(01:47:54):
about that? Why don't you google it? It's also known
as viking? I am right now vikings? Did he Well,
he's your guy, jhn Elway. What the hell does that
have to do with anything? It's his fingers are all
card dealerships. So once you asked me about his Clarker's
disease hand disability, Oh jeez, you really just interjected your
voice in a national show. You're talking about mangled hands.
Talk about to talk about your friendship with John Elway.

(01:48:17):
You know, I think he's one of the greatest quarterbacks
of all time, but it has nothing to do with
his health conditions. Right now, I don't think it had
anything to do with playing football. I think this is
a just like a is there anything else that you
want to talk about? I'm just curious. It seemed like
a perfect juncture to talk about, yes, yes, being perfect.
We're talking about Jeff's fingers, and all of a sudden,
we're taking John lay that's perfect? Is there anything else?

(01:48:37):
Northern Iowa, Iowa State Iowa? I mean, I wasn't won
a national title in like forty years. Is there an
Iowa Wesleyan? I like, what, Yeah, there is. Yeah, they've
had some good players. With all that's shut up for now.
I'm just kidding guys. Number two, Arizona by fourteen over
a Cow, fifty seven to forty three. It's in the
second half, you kind of leading to Paul by eleven points,

(01:48:59):
sixty two forty nine. This ball game is on Fox
as it stands, Baylor and Iowa stated playing right now, Well,
at least Baylor is four as a scoring this ball again,
this kind of reminds me of was it Thursday night
when the Clippers outscored the Lakers for eighteen in that
third quarter? That wasn't pretty? Um. Earlier today Kentucky one
Duke and North Carolina actually underway right now, tar Heels

(01:49:20):
up by a point. Kansas and overtime beat Texas. Seventy
sixty three was the final tally in that ball game.
Number five. Auburn wins the SEC. They beat South Carolina
by eleven points and then Perdue escapes unranked Indiana to
sixties seven. Um, Jeff, did you well when you played
back in the day, were you allowed I don't know

(01:49:41):
high school coaches, but were you allowed to wear tape
or to spat or to do anything like that? That
was we didn't have We didn't have a trainer in
high school, so you have to bring your own tape
if you wanted to get spatted. Now, were you allowed
to wear black tape or were you only allowed to
wear white tape? I don't know one works high school.
Did you wear a neck roll or a cowboy collar? No? No,

(01:50:04):
I spent on my ankle after I sprained it. That
was it. But my old one coach for me, nice
I had to bring my own box of tape to
practice in games. At what age did you reach two
fifty pounds Jeff oh Man? Yeah? Did you reach it
faster than your brother did? Probably? Yeah? Yeah, If it
makes you feel any better, I was Sam hit that fifteen. Yeah.

(01:50:32):
Did you see him in his tightly fitted tucks like
Gavin's wedding. Yeah, he was at the wedding and he
was sending me rounds of pictures every five minutes because
I wanted to include you. Yeah, I mean probably included
me as a guest in the wedding. That was in
my call, not just hanging out here while you're hungover
and drunk in between dances. It was. It was a

(01:50:52):
lot of fun, and I did look great in my tucks.
I gotta say. He said, there weren't a lot of females,
so wedding it was still a lot of fun. But
yet it was just about wedding crashes hitting the open bar.
So how do you know you look good in your tucks?
Because I've had other tuxes in the past. I've been
in multiple weddings as groomsman, and I never look at
in tucks. I have weird shaped hips and in this case,

(01:51:12):
I looked awesome. I thought you have birth bearing hips.
I guess so. Yeah, I got kind of like bowl.
I'm kind of bow legged. Okay, okay, all right. On
the other side, as you know, we like to wrap
things up on this show. Were getting some of the
jet thoughts and best bets. Um, maybe some of the
games today in college basketball. But on the other side

(01:51:34):
Jeff Odds on when the baseball season begins, I'm gonna
give you some numbers. You're gonna find out what the
best play is coming up next. Steve Harma, Jeff Schwartz,
Fox Sports Saturday Hiring Heating Up Indeeds hiring platform makes

(01:51:55):
it easy to attract, screen and interview candidates all in
one place. Sponsor a post instantly receive a shortlist of
quality candidates on indeed whose resumes, matcher job description, visit
indeed dot com, slash credit. I want to thank the guys.
It was a reuniting like our our actual crew is here.
I mean, these guys have been taking time off for
a variety of reason, starting with Iowa, Sam, are you

(01:52:17):
gonna be here for a while? Are you checking out again?
I should be here for a couple more months, thinking
about buying that text though really fit like a gym. Wow,
you'll have a lot of use for that, no question.
And that thing well maybe Gascon's wedding. Is he on
the shortlist of potential best men? Okay, I just want
worst men. We need a shave, get a haircut, do

(01:52:39):
some cardio, some weights, eat better, don't drink as much
more advice? Do you guys get any advice for me?
I'm heading to Austin in a few days. Austin, Texas,
Texas great city, I mean great. It's it's such a
departure from most of the state of Texas. Jeff, you
know this. I mean it's it's not Dallas, it's not
Houston's not San Antono. About an hour away from San Antonio. No,

(01:53:02):
it's a it's a great uh. Obviously the University of
Texas there, it's the state capital. But oh no, that's
a great place. A lot of fun in Austin. So, Jeff,
any recommendations. I've not been to Austin. No, um, I'd
love to go and just eat the barbecue. But I know, yeah,
good barbecue anywhere in Texas. I have not been. I'm sorry.
I wish I could help you. Out there, Danny G

(01:53:23):
of course our Raider residents and uh have we've done
a lot of talk about the palmbine. Anybody catch your
eye for the Raiders in the upcoming draft. I like
what Jeff was talking about earlier with Jordan Davis. Yeah,
if he falls in your lap, that would be a
pretty good pick. Actually, Bucky Brooks has him going to
the Raiders. Uh, we'll talk about a run stopper, extraordinary,
all right? Um, Any any before I get to these

(01:53:46):
odds on when the baseball season is going to begin? Uh,
any thoughts like U S C U C L a
game tonight, any games that you sort of like to
play tonight. So I'm going to my first soccer match
of my life and about thirty minutes soon meeting with this,
i'might actually calling uber now. I'm ubering down to the stadium,
meeting my family. It's the first ever home game for

(01:54:06):
Charlotte FC. They're there, brand new team, they're supposedly. They
say it's sold out. We complete sold out, the highest
attendant soccer game of all time, MLS game of all time.
I'd imagine that next weekend when they play it will
be far less. But nonetheless, I'm going to. I'm I'm
debating whether or I should wait during the game. I'm
not really sure how to wag you on soccer, but

(01:54:27):
Charlotte is not very good. Probably the Galaxy tonight. I
think the Galaxy are pretty good, and so I should
probably wag your against uh CFC. But then I'm at
the game rooting for us to lose, so I feel
like that's a bad thing to do. Or she just
bet the undergoge, like you're going against your home team.
We're really bad. I've been told by a lot of
people that, like, we'll be lucky to score any goals

(01:54:49):
this season, So you'll actually make a wager against your
home team? Well? Or just or or should I just
go straight Charlotte FC money line to win the game?
That's how I should do, right, just root for and
to win. Why not? By the way, I'm watching the
Duke North Carolina game. Obviously they had a huge free
game for coach kse last game. There, Cameron, everybody's there,
I mean literally like every Duke player, a Silverson next child, yeah,

(01:55:12):
Adam Silver, Jerry Seinfeld, all the Duke alum saw Reddick
out there. A lot of the Duke guys are out
there right now. That game is North Carolina leading three
uh seven and a half minutes ago in the first half.
I just bet Charlotte the game out right plus one.
I'm going I'm gonna, I'm gonna go there and win
this money to pay for dinner tonight. All right, I

(01:55:33):
got some odds for you on when opening day will be,
what month opening day will be from Major League Baseball?
Are you ready? So listen to the odds and then
make your choice. The leader of the packet plus one
s May at plus two hundred, June at plus two

(01:55:55):
fifty July or later, and tell us hold on, hold on.
So May is plus one. June is plus two hundred
July or later plus two fifty. No season plus five hundred.
Get this April plus five fifty. That's the biggest odds

(01:56:17):
on the board. Even bigger than no season at all.
Is opening Day in the month of April at plus
five fifty. I would take that. I would take that
plus five fifty any point April, any point of April plus.
I'm with you. April's April's the April's the best way

(01:56:39):
You're on the board there, I usual, I mean, would
you have set the odds like that because I keep
getting back to Jackie Robinson Day right April fifteen, seventy
five anniversary celebration major League based by big plans for
Jackie Robinson Day. They're gonna pass on that, I mean,
so that we actually get bigger odds on April than
no season at all. Interesting. I think they gets worked

(01:57:01):
out next week or so they want. The players want
to play obviously, and the owners. I think the backlash
has been pretty fierce the last couple of days. I
gotta agree with you. I just keep thinking and andy
the way when when they can say canceled games, not really.
I mean, again, this whole lockout situation, understand this is
much different. That was a strike. I mean you can

(01:57:24):
say it's a work stop, but they're not the same
strike as the players lockout as the owners. So the
owners are in control right now. They want to keep
it that way. That's want. They want to extend the
lockouts as much as possible. But the idea of canceling
games they lose. I mean the pod Rays alone, their
first six schedule games, the first two series are all
home games. Do you think that you want to lose

(01:57:45):
six home games. No, Um, so those games could be
made up. But yeah, plus five fifty are the odds
that opening day will come in the month of April.
That sounds like pretty good odds for you. Jeff's I
like it, Yeah yeah, Now he may is the favorite
Ben June and July or later, and there's April at

(01:58:08):
five fifty. Very very good. Um alright, Uh, final thoughts
on what you've seen from the combine any real game
changers for you? Um, Jordan Davis, I mean, I just
think that the guys this year are so much bigger, faster, stronger.
Man is absolutely wild. It really is. Each year, each
year they get bigger, faster, stronger, three one, six, six

(01:58:30):
and three eights and he runs a four seven eighty
four seven eight. How will that translate into an NFL career?
All right, Jeff, I know next week we'll have much
more to talk about, including countdown to the March Madness.
For all your sports intake, keep it right here on
Fox Sports Radio.

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