Arnie Spanier & Mark Willard Talk Tom Brady's Return & NCAA Tourney

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Don't listening. Oh that is us good evening everybody. Willard
in for Plaque, who I gave the night off through.
I'm already span your writer on Fox Sports Radio, A busy,
busy Sunday night. How you doing tonight, Willard? I'm in.
Did Plank already call you and try to beg back

(00:24):
in you? You? You gave him the night off? But
then not only bracketology, Tom Brady is back. Baseball moves
are flying hot and heavy, big night in the n
B A. Uh, let's just say I'm glad to be here.
I'm gonna be here. I gotta tell you. I do
like to rub it in people's faces every once in
a while, so I figure I would text Plank today. Um,

(00:45):
once I found out Oklahoma didn't make the uh, you know,
the n C Double A Tournament and that Tom Brady
was coming out of retirement, I wrote, oh, bad night,
A bad day to take the night off, and he
and he tweets back and he sends me a picture
of the b chett he's laying on in Hawaii getting
ready to fly back Toko home, and he goes, I'll
be okay that don't feel bad for me. I'm okay,

(01:07):
with this view out there, you know already two he
screenshot at something off of Google Images. He's not there.
He's sitting in a porta potty somewhere on his way
back or at some airport. Forget about it. He's upset
either way. If he's happy, good, he's happy. I'm happy.
We're happy. Um let's let's let's roll, let's go. I

(01:28):
was gonna say, you need to use Twitter tonight, like
we're giving away free gold bars right now. So if
you want to get in, you should use it early.
You should use it often. Willard makes you work to
go and tweet and mark underscore t underscore Willard. I'm
at stinking genius one. You better get in early, Willard.
We have no idea. Just to back up a little
bit what we're talking about yesterday, when we were filling

(01:50):
in for Joy Taylor, we had no idea how close
we really were to talking about Tom Brady coming back.
A matter of fact, I remember saying to you, I
guarantee you Brady is gonna be back on the opening
day roster. But I thought it was gonna be with
San Francisco, so I was half right. But next you know,
the next day Booma. Look, I I know I thought

(02:10):
he was gonna come back, but I didn't think it
was gonna be announced the next day. Mark. No, I
didn't think it'd be the next day, and I didn't
think it'd be Tampa. Because, as I still read this,
this whole thing was a standoff between him and the Bucks.
And one thing that I didn't necessarily think possible but
has happened is essentially the two sides made up um
and I do really read it this way. Will never

(02:32):
like with always with Tom Brady and the Patriots before
the Bucks, you're never gonna get the full story as
to what went on behind closed doors. But I read
this as Tom and the Bucks or Tom and Bruce
Arians and Byron left, which in game planning last year,
we're not getting along. This became a standoff. Tom said,

(02:52):
I'm out. I'm not planning for you with the Bucks anymore.
This was his leverage, which was to act like he
was retiring, which I don't think any of us ever
really bought. And then the Bucks somewhere along the line,
as they went through what other teams might be able
to get in on a trade? Tom, where would you
want to play? They they in the end were able

(03:14):
to mend fences and and probably gives Tom some of
the things he wanted, which was probably more of a
say in game planning. And I also don't know where
the landing spot was. I know everyone has said forty
niners and told you yesterday that that that's that's not
as easy as it sounds. They've got a huge investment
in trade lance and he needs to play. Um. Even

(03:34):
even Tom Brady I think would give them pause on that.
So um, that's sort of the way that I read it.
But come on, Arnie, go back to when he retired.
There's no way that that was Arnie. You deserve bigger
fanfare when you retire. Then Tom got I mean, there
was no press conference, there was no mention of the Patriots.

(03:57):
You thought Tom was gonna go on Instagram and just
so of quickly wave and leave. It was never a retirement. Now,
you threw me for a little bit of a loop
because I didn't see it that way. I I didn't
think about there was a rift going on between Now
we heard about the rumors of him and Arians not
getting along, and that was the reason why I thought
he wanted to go to San Francisco or some other place.

(04:19):
But I never once thought that that's the reason why
he retired. I I never felt like Arians or Tampa
pushed him in the retirement. As I was pointing out
the show, you know, I love the planet out like
two days ahead of time, so I'm writing some topics
out and and I'm thinking, you know, we were gonna
talk about Tom Brady even before he announced he was unretired,
because he was at the Manchester You game, right and

(04:42):
you know, the rumors were swirling he's asking for permission
to be traded, or he's talking to the owners who
happened to be the owners of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
And then you saw Ronaldo talking to him and he
really couldn't hear much about what they were saying, something inaldo,
something like so you're retired, And then just on tom
Brady's face, like you know, like like that um you

(05:06):
do right there. And then something was going on even
before he announced that he was on retiring. Mark, Okay,
but think about this for a minute, tom Brady, do
you think that this is a person who's used to
being in front of a camera. Do you think that
this is a person that's used to attention. Do you
think that this is a person who is aware of
his social media prev presence. Look at that camera angle

(05:27):
on Ronaldo and Tom. Do you think that camera was
hiding It was five feet from his face. I didn't
think about that. He's well aware that he's on camera.
He's well aware of his reaction to this whole thing.
So to me, like from the beginning, it's orchestrated. Arnie
and and yes, and what did this happen? Was this?
Was this because of Adam Schefter releasing it? So he

(05:50):
just said that was because of his wife with the family.
Why no, because he was mad at this Again, this
is just me reading it. He's mad at Bruce arians
He did not like the way things were going. They
were at a standstill. And Tom's leverage at age forty,
wherever he's at years old, whatever he's at, at his

(06:13):
leverage and the contractual situation there, the only leverage play
was either you guys change the way we get ready
for games each week, or I'm out. And so he
retired enough to where they paid some attention to the
situation and then probably mend defences or gave Tom a
few things that he wanted and so now he's back playing,

(06:36):
or he also poked around. I'm sure Tom only wanted
a few other places. You gotta be super Bowl ready,
and he poked around, and maybe there was a fit
and maybe there wasn't, and so he ends up back here.
One thing I feel very very confident in ournie is
that this was never It was never not for a
day with this an actual retirement really, so you don't

(06:56):
think it was family related. You don't think that he
had to he went in to retire, but they leaked
it through Adam Schefter or whoever, and he just said,
you know, what, the heck with it? He's right, I
was gonna give this a long thought. Maybe I am
gonna retire, he retires, and then how to change in mind?
You don't you don't think it was something like that
or what. I think he needed to make the Bucks
believe that he was retiring. He had to make him.

(07:17):
But even think about as aware as Tom is with
his brand and his social media, the moment that this
came out from Adam Schefter and who was it? Was
it Jeff Goodman. Goodman and Schefter send out the tweets,
and immediately Tom's whole camp is like, we're not retiring, right,
he said, we're not retiring, and then two days later

(07:39):
Tom's like, okay, fine, or a day later whatever it is, Yes,
I'm retiring. There's no way Tom's actual retirement's gonna leak
out that way. There's no way He's got it under
too much lock and key. This is someone who's been
doing it the Patriot way for two decades. They don't
let things leak. I mean, the whole thing's just so

(08:00):
sloppy from the beginning. But it it reeked of of
not being real, and it wasn't you when when when
it came out, then you weren't surprised or it could see.
I was surprised by the timing. I didn't expect it'll
come down to day though. Well, if you think about it,
with the free agent period coming up, the legal tampering period,
and the signings is coming up in the NFL, it

(08:21):
makes perfect sense, doesn't it. Well, and look, yeah, look
around at the lay of the quarterback land. Let's say
Tom was poking around with the forty Niners. Okay, the
Carson Wentz and Russell Wilson news has dropped. Then you
get Deshaun Watson cleared of all charges. He's now back
in play for sure for a lot of teams, Jimmy
Garoppolo is still sitting there. And then whatever the forty

(08:42):
Niners opinion is behind the scenes as to whether they
were interested or not, that stuff all had to get
worked out. And then once it's all far enough down
the road, like they probably know in NFL circles, who's
probably gonna get to Seaun, Maybe who's probably gonna get Garoppolo,
Maybe that's Indie. You figure out who's going a where,
and Tom makes his decision. But I mean, even the

(09:04):
day that that break broke, if you remember, the original
retirement thing from Adam Schefter came out the day before
Championship Sunday. No way, no way Tom Brady has that
come out the day before Championships Sunday. The whole thing
just it was, it never looked and felt like the
way it actually will when he's ready to retire. And

(09:26):
in case people wondering what he actually had to say
on Twitter, it says, these past two months, I've realized
my place is still in the field and not in
the stands. That time will come, but it's not now.
I love my teammates. I love my supportive family. They
make it all possible. I'm coming back from my Twitter
third season in Tampa Unfinished business. L f G. By

(09:48):
the way, am I old? If I didn't know what
lf G was right off the bat? And what you are? Yeah,
I thought even like that's to the gay and lesbian
community or something like that. I'm like, why are you
talking to that? Why not to everybody out there? I
had no Ideah, No, and and Tom does not mean
leave for good when he says and yes, you're very
old if you if you don't know what stands for yes. Yes.

(10:11):
So he he wants to go ahead and make sure
that his uh free agents for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers
are gonna go ahead and stay around. Um, what kind
of year do you think he's gonna have? Did he
really have that great of a year that he could
have been? M v P? I mean, my goodness. They
talked about how he's left so much on the table.
He's forty five years old, and I gotta tell you, Mark,
part of me thinks that this guy is being selfish.

(10:31):
He he could walk away from the game. Why could
still walk away? Why he doesn't have any knock Wood
any major injuries. He's forty five years old. What left
does he have to accomplish? Nothing, He's already gonna leave.
Is the greatest of all time. I'm not sure why
he really is coming back, other than he just misses
the game of football, and he misses the camaraderie and

(10:51):
and the whole, you know, spirit of working out and
and just a competitiveness. But my goodness, man, you're being
a little selfish when you're continuing playing a game that
you don't have to play because of money. I don't know.
Patrick Mahomes through forty hundred yards this year, so did
Matthew Stafford won a Super Bowl justin Herbert was everybody's
favorite young guy. He threw for just over five thousand yards.
You know. The only guy who threw for more than

(11:12):
those three guys Tom Brady. I mean, like, you know why, Well,
I just think it's circumstantial. I didn't. I didn't. It's
not that I don't want Tom Brady. I think who
wouldn't want Tom Brady? But circumstances. You don't spend the
draft capital of the forty Niners spend to bring in
a guy at that level and then have him sit

(11:34):
for two seasons. Who does that? And then you're gonna
make a decision on extending him after his third season,
which would actually only be his first. I just think
that that's I think that's really not as clean as
people think that it would be. So I've even heard
rumors that Brady's family is still mad at the forty
niners because they passed on him two years ago. So
I don't even know if that was an option. But

(11:57):
but do you think you think that was an option?
You think going back to Efferance it's go was or
what I I mean? I honestly I doubt it. I
really do, because, as they told you yesterday, you signed Tom,
the fan base does a victory lap around around the
school and then they get back and go, hey, what
are you actually saying about Trey Lance. You're saying he's
not good, he's not ready. You blew it. You gave

(12:19):
three first round draft picks for a guy who's not
gonna be ready for two seasons. So there would be
rough pr there too. But Arnie, what are you saying
that he's he's being selfish? Why why does he have
He's still playing at an incredibly high level. Obviously, these
guys have a screw loose. When they've accomplished this person,
they keep going out there. But you know that's who

(12:39):
they are, the Tiger Woods, the tom Brady's of the world.
They're ultra competitive. They can't turn it off. Why's he
got to go? He's still producing one because he can
still walk away from the game. Way he doesn't walk
away with a bad limp or some serious injuries. We've
seen what football has done two players, five, ten, twenty
years down the line after this. Sure he looks great
right now, but he doesn't have to continue playing. He's

(13:00):
got a brand to deal with. He's got a family,
he's got kids that he's missed out on. He's got
his wife, I don't know, forty five years old. And
let me ask you a question to add, he won
the Super Bowl, would he be coming back this year?
I mean, who knows? Well, he won the super Bowl
two years ago, like if winning if winning a super
Bowl is like, well, okay, now I've proven everything. Well,

(13:22):
I mean, come on, the guy's want I don't even
know how many he has won? What is it? Seven? Eight?
Like it's it's it's absurd, So of course, uh, he's
the the unquestioned great Uh you know, goat, He's already
proven that he can do it without Belichick. There's nothing
left to prove. That can't be what this is about.
I guess the guy just loves doing it. And if

(13:43):
that's the case, knock yourself out, dude, keep doing it.
Do you know what the odds of uh, what him
signing back with Tampa has done to the odds. I'm
gonna tell you about that coming up next because our
buddy Todd Ferman will join us from Vegas. I'll tell
you what's going on out there, and it's absolutely crazy,
especially with March badness. By the way, hiring heating up.
Indeed's hiring platform makes it easy to attract, screen and

(14:05):
interview candidates all in one place. Sponsor posed and instantly
receive a shortlist of quality candidates on indeed whose resumes
match your job description. Visit indeed dot com slash credit
check it out. Now we'll come back. We'll talk to
Todd Ferman covering up next. He's Mark Willard sitting it
for Chris Plank. I'm Arty Spaniard. This is Fox Sports

(14:28):
a radio. Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk
lineup in the nation. Catch all of our shows at
Fox Sports Radio dot com and within the I Heart
Radio app. Search f s R to listen live my
che If you want exclusive insight from the biggest names
in the sports game. What's good? This is national champion

(14:50):
and former pro bowler Chris Johnson. Let me tell you
a little bit about my new series kJ Live. J
Live is the only show featuring me going one on
one with the brightest basketball minds on the planet. Get
the real and when I say real, I mean that real.
I got legendary Hall of famers, elite coaches in the
top basketball Inside is bringing you a unique perspective on

(15:11):
all things hoops culture that you will not find where
to make your next move, your best move and tap
in with me on kJ live wherever you get your
podcast from. All Right, good evening everyone, of course, Chris
Plank with the night off, Mark Willard sitting in. I'm

(15:34):
already spanning. You're on a busy Sunday right here on
Fox Sports Radio. Want to get right to our guests.
Who joins us every Sunday host of the Beta Board podcast,
It's our buddy Todd Ferban. Are you doing, Todd? I
am doing well already. I just want to know, have
you booked your hotel reservations in lovely western New York
to make the seven hour pilgrimage or whatever it may
be on the New York Thruway to cheer on your

(15:56):
beloved Catamounts. Oh, they're They're definitely gonna go ahead and
win two games. I will get into that, Todd, There's
no doubt about that. I'm just excited about my error
Zona Wildcats winning the whole thing. But we gotta we
gotta start with Tom Brady. But the first thing when
you heard it, what came to your mind was a
big surprise? Were surprised when had happened? No surprise at all?
What were you thinking? You know, honestly, I was so

(16:17):
immersed in college basketball prep doing some of our bracket
breakdowns for CBS HQ that I didn't know in real time.
All of a sudden, my phone starts to blow up.
I'm looking on social media, and I really thought it
was an April Fool joke being played on all of
us on March their team Low and behold. Obviously it
comes to fruition. Tom Brady's retirement last fifty eight days
less than the Major League Baseball lockout and sports books

(16:41):
all over from here to ANTIGUEA was scrambling to try
and adjust all sorts of future odds for the NFC,
Uh Todd, I would love to know just the and
I guess it will matter who the quarterback is, obviously,
but you see the Bucks move. Same thing with the
Denver Broncos and a Russell Wilson like what what hopped?
Pends two teams like that the odds for their futures

(17:03):
for the seasons when they acquire a quarterback like that. Yeah,
I mean this is a seismic moove, especially given the
NFC quarterback play or lack thereof, especially on the surface.
So when news like this breaks, you see the Tampa
Bay Buccaneers go from upwards of forty or fifty to
one down to ten to one. Meanwhile, to put in perspective,
the Denver Broncos when they acquire Russell Wilson, their odds

(17:25):
go from forty to one down to twenty. Now they've
drifted down a little bit. But regardless of how you
feel Russell Wilson will help Denver upgrade their quarterback position,
you still have to go through Justin Herbert and Patrick
Mahomes just to get out of the a f C
West before you look at the entire landscape. The one
move that's probably the most fascinating of all of them
was actually the Washington Commanders acquiring Carson Wentz. They went

(17:46):
from seventy to one to win the Super Bowl out
to seventy five to one. Probably not what you want
to see from odds makers when you trade multiple pick
to bring in a new pivot. How many people at
you run out now and try to bet Tampa ball. Well,
I guess the lines move, so it doesn't really make
much of a difference, But I mean, is there like
an influx of money just flying in out to bet
these are not? Really You'll have a lot of folks

(18:08):
that won't be as price sensitive as they should be
thinking that they're still stealing a little bit of value
with prices around ten to one. But anyone that had
the information early was able to take advantage. There was
a sports book director here in town who said he
took a couple of big bets earlier in the week
on Tampa to win the Super Bowl. Uh five figure
beats at forty one. So it goes to show that
there's always a little bit of intels that leaks, and

(18:29):
as far as sports betting goes, your bankroll is only
as good as the information you're able to obtain before
things that are made jet made known to the general
betting public. Well, Todd, I'm fascinated by Washington's odds going
the wrong way. When they get wins, what happens to
the team he leaves. So the Indianapolis Colts odds did
what and what's the expectation that they will do next

(18:51):
at that position? Yeah, the Colts odds actually improved. They
went from thirty to one down to one, even under
the assumption we have no idea who they're starting quarter acclebee. Now,
if you believe some of the scuttle butt on social
media today, the Colts talking about Gardner Minshew, but I
don't think he gives them a even a puncher's chance
to compete in the a f C or win the division.
The name that I think would make a lot of sense,

(19:12):
and I won't claim to have any inside information on this,
would be Jimmy Garoppolo. If the forty Niners are definitely
going to move on from Garoppolo, he fits what Frank
Reich wants to do offensively, lean on Jonathan Taylor, work
off of play action, and have a quarterback who has
to be a game manager more so than anything else.
But we'll see what Indianapolis has in mind. Clearly their
quarterback away from competing, and if they think they want

(19:33):
to bridge the gap with the Tennessee Titans in the
a f C South, you need somebody significantly better than
Gardner Minshew in my opinion to accomplish that. You know,
since you bring up Jimmy G, I'm just wondering how
much would it cost to pick up somebody like Jimmy G.
How many first round picks or is it just one
first round pick? You know, it's a great question, and
I think you know. As least quarterback situation around the
league continues to get more and more settled, the forty

(19:53):
Niners lose leverage. The next big chip to fall will
most likely be Deshaun Watson. Now where he goes anyone's guests,
If Philadelphia, if it's Carolina, if it's the Pittsburgh Steelers,
And then as more and more teams get settled under center,
San Francisco can't hold out for a king's ransom in
that regard. But I do think if you're any of
these teams that were looking to trade a quarterback, you
love the Denver Bronco setting the market on Russell Wilson

(20:16):
and you can kind of align with everybody else. Shortly thereafter,
the Minnesota Vikings make the move today to try and
free up some cap space. They give Kirk Cousins another
year on his deal, so probably yet another guy off
the market that had been rumored to certain spots, maybe
potentially like Cleveland or somewhere else. That's a fascinating statement.
I want to I want to sort of ask that
a different way, because, as you say, they lose leverage.

(20:37):
Except for that, we know demand outweighs supply. So let's
say you get to the end, Brady's got his home,
Watson's got his home, Wentz has his home, Wilson has
his home. They're still going to be Seattle, Carolina, New Orleans,
Pittsburgh when it gets down to sort of one starter left.
If that's Garoppolo, don't you actually have a lot of leverage?

(20:59):
And that's situation, you know, I don't think it's a
situation where the forty Niners are going to go into
camp with Jimmy Garoppolo on their roster. I'm not sure
it's the best case scenario by any stretch of the imagination,
if they can acquire assets that help them get closer
to the ultimate goal, which is winning the Lombardi Trophy.
So as you look around at some of the teams
out there, you still have guys like Jamis Winston that

(21:19):
are available as well. So I think it's you kick
the tires on all of these guys, you see exactly
what the asking prices, and maybe wait a little bit
longer in the process to try and identify someone who
feels that they have an extra quarterback that the luxury
or trade up to draft someone. Although in the case
of Indianapolis, I'm not sure any of the prospects it
will be available with first round grades. Give them an

(21:40):
upgraded overall potential, Todd, let's talk some March madness, my friend.
This is what it's all about. I can't believe we
have to put it on the back burner. I usually,
you know, I love going with the upsets, going with
the long shots. I haven't seen too many long shots
that I like, other than the fact Vermont winning a
couple of games and it was everything I could. They'll
put up a good fight against Gonzaga, but I didn't

(22:01):
see a lot of you know, the lines are pretty
low with a lot of respect, like Vermont only a
five enough point under dog to Arkansas. There's not a
lot of big lines out there. Todd. Yeah, the market
continues to get more and more efficient, and I think
it's a credit to the college basketball analytics folks that
have made their information more readily available that you don't
see the big disparity or the days of two versus

(22:22):
fifteen where we're talking about three touchdown points. You still
have Gonzaga laying, you know, over twenty points in their matchup,
and when ultimately some of the other number ones will settle,
you'll see big price to eggs as well. But I
think one of the more fascinating matchups when you look
at just the numbers versus seeds, Providence has the potential
to go off as the shortest favorite as a number
four seed against the thirteen. That number sits it between two,

(22:44):
two and a half against South Dakota State. Anybody who
dives into some of the numbers realizes that Providence has
been relatively fortunate all season long. They've won an inordinate
number of close games, and eventually you have to pay
the piper. It'll be a question of if the Fryers,
you know, Rent comes do in the opening round of
the tournament, or they're able to withstand a little bit
more and keep that horse shoe hidden away for a

(23:06):
deeper in march. To take us into the futures on
this thing, Gonzaga the favorite at three and a half
to one, Arizona and Kentucky you're sitting at seven, Kansas
at eight, and then there's a bunch of teams at
fifteen and eighteen that include Duke and Baylor and Auburn, Like,
how far do you feel it goes down where you're
still a team that has a chance to win it all?

(23:26):
And where do you see the value start? Where where
the value plays here? I think a lot of times
you're gonna want to look at the individual regions and
that's part of where you begin to identify which team
may or may not be overvalued or undervalued. And so
for me, I go through and I think Kansas was
dealt and extremely four tu at his hand. As far
as the opponents that they'll face, the two three and

(23:47):
four seeds in their region, all teams that I'm extremely
down on coming in that of course, being Wisconsin looking
at Duke as well, and then of course Wisconsin, excuse me,
you're looking at Providence and Auburn is its trio of
teams there that are vulnerable. So Kansas attend to one
makes a little bit of sense for me. Traditionally, you're
gonna want to look on those protected seeds. It's tough

(24:08):
to come out of that five plus range to actually
be legitimate national champions. But maybe it's a team like
I was, playing its best basketball at the right time
of year. But I don't think oftentimes you're gonna find
teams more than five or thirty oh one wants the
field announced that have a legitimate shot to cut down
the nets. Murray State, watch out for Murray State, my friend,
that's my team, and also Chattanooga. Gotta watch out for

(24:29):
those two teams. Todd, you know, I wish the committee
really didn't have an ax to grind with some of
them in majors. I think both Murray State and San
Francisco were poised to win multiple games if they matched
up with teams from Power five conferences. Now, of course,
they'll have their hands full if Seeds hold in Kentucky
gets through St. Peter's, and I'm not sure either one
of those will have enough to beat the Wildcats. But
one thing to warnt Well in advance of that particular matchup.

(24:51):
If Kentucky does get through St. Peter's, they would only
open about a three three and a half my favorite
against the winner of that Murray State game. So public
reception plays a big, big role. But it's always interesting
when you talk about some of these senior laden teams,
knowing how efficient they can be on the offensive and
defensive ends, and they're great potential, they have to pull
off upsets Todd real quick. I'm in a pool that

(25:12):
does the multiply seed deal, right, so, in other words,
the double digit seeds. If they can win a game
or two, it really helps give me a double digit
seed that should just salivate and over. Uh, you know what,
I'm not sure I'll go salivating over. But I do
think a team like Michigan is grossly underseated as an eleven.
You look at their full body of work. And while

(25:33):
I have a lot of things not so friendly to
say about Juwan Howard and the way that team is
coached talent wise, they're significantly better than the seventeen and
fourteen record indicates. So as an eleven seed, that's a
team that can make or run. You know, Arnie mentioned Chattanooga.
I'm not sure they'll be able to win multiple games,
but I do think they'll give Indiana Indiana Illinois all
they can handle and then some. But the double digit

(25:53):
seed that I like the most, if they can get
through their opener. I think Davidson's a team that not
only wins one game and beats Michigan State, sets up
quite nicely for a game that they would never get
during the regular season against the Duke Blue Devil, and
I think it's a huge coaching edge that would go
to Bob McKillop over Kachevski. As I let you leave, Todd,
by the way, did you notice that CBS screwed up?
Were you watching the selections live? I was not watching

(26:16):
the live. I was just kind I had the thing on.
Mutant was watching some of the bracketing populate a couple
of the teams still waiting to see if they made
the tournament, and Gubble was strown it to a tease.
He goes, we'll come back. Some teams. He goes, we're
they're waiting to find out where they're gonna play, like
us F and Wyoming. I'm like, well, you just gave
it away to go to the tournament. I guess it

(26:38):
doesn't quite work so well once you announced the field,
and and you've already told Wyoming that they're in a
playing state in Ohio, so they knew exactly where they
were packing their bags. A nice little trip from Laramie
across the country. I love it. Todd always a pleasure
host to Bet the Board podcast. Go check it out,
enjoy your time. And this is the best time March madness.
We'll speak to you next week. You got a gentleman.
Enjoy the crazy games between now and next Sunday. I

(27:00):
love it. I love talking to Todd Ferman out there
in Las Vegas, host of Bet the Board podcast. To
check it out. We'll come back. We'll talk a little
bit more, Brady. I want to get to some of
the Deshaun Watson news. That's kind of interesting. In Mark's
gonna go ahead. I have a few few more questions
about Jimmy g and what he's going to bring in.
But first let's check in with the saga. Who I
wouldn't give him the night off like I did Flank tonight.

(27:21):
So what's going on to say I gave to night
I get Flake tonight off. No, markably well aware that
Arnie is constantly under the impression that he holds power
in these always not for a night off. You'll never
get it again to say works at midnight on Sundays
because he holds all the power. Yeah, Plank said a
softball tournament or games, So yeah, yeah, good luck to you. Yeah,

(27:45):
stay there if you can miss the flight whatever you have.
By the way, the more obvious CBS mistake during the
tournament coverage when they were giving the field was the
graphics said these games are on Friday, and then it
said these winners play on sa stur Day. No, no,
they don't play. Yeah, it's Friday Sunday. Did you pick

(28:05):
that up where they gave they slipped out that wyoming
in US. I guess I must have tuned out or
flipped the channel or something. Vable I certainly immediately thought
of when we got the Brady News tonight right before
the previous show before you started. Is okay, wait a minute,
So last night they were bidding on Tom Brady's last touchdown,

(28:26):
last football, and the starting bid was a hundred thousand dollars.
That was the final one. Twenty three bidders, the one
Mike Evans threw up into the stands. Hey, tom Brady's
last career touchdown? Pass somebody? If I got that ball,
I don't care. I'm later that same day, quarterback Tom Brady,
tonight unretired, will return to the Tampa Bay Bucks to

(28:48):
play this year. Last season, at age forty four, Brady
led the league in passing, including forty three touchdown So
we'll turn forty five in August. He'd retired February one,
didn't really. In college basketball, Gonzaga is the number one
overall seed for the n c A Tournament, opening in
Portland Thursday against Georgia State. Duke, with coach k retiring soon,

(29:09):
is the two seed in the West, so it could
face Gonzaga in the West Regional final in San Francisco.
Davidson out of North Carolina will play in South Carolina
and Greenville this week, and that's Friday against Michigan State.
That winner will likely face Duke in the second round.
Duke opens against cal State Fullerton, the Arizona Wildcats Gentlemen

(29:32):
that is Packed twelve champion. The Arizona Wildcats the one
seed for the South Region, with Villanova as the two seed. There.
Love the pod system where you're not stuck, for example,
Arizona having to move to the South Region for the
next couple of weeks. Arizona plays in San Diego this week,
while Villanova plays in Pittsburgh. Kansas is a one seed

(29:53):
in the Midwest. Baylor's a one seed in the East.
Iowa won the Big Ten title today while Richmond took
the Atlantic Ten. Iowa's first round n c A game
is against Richmond on Thursday afternoon. Teams that just made
it in include twelve seeds Wyoming in Indiana. Yes, they'll
meet in the first four. That winner will face St.
Mary's Thursday night. The first four out the teams that

(30:14):
just missed the n c AS are each one seeds
for the n i T Tournament. Those four are Dayton's
It's correct, Well, it's run by the n c a A,
so it's not gonna die. Dayton, Oklahoma, SMU, and Texas
A and M are the one seeds for the n
i T. And there's still the cb I Tournament. We're
waiting for the c I T field, which is known

(30:34):
as the Basketball Class Apparently U teps going there. Georgia
already has a new coach, Mike White from Florida, and
the Gators are in the n I t hosting Iona
to the NBA. The late game was in Phoenix and
the Lakers were trailing the Suns after the first quarter
forty eight to two. Final score one forty to one eleven.
The Lakers record twenty nine and thirty eight on the season.

(30:57):
The Lakers, when Lebron doesn't score fifty are winless since
the All Star breaking horrible, Yeah, horrible is correct. And
Atlanta Trey Young forty seven points in a narrow victory
against Indiana. Close win for Brooklyn today against New York
is Kevin Durant scored fifty three points and a trade
In baseball tonight, the Washington Nationals first off get d

(31:20):
h Nelson Cruz, and then the Twins traded third baseman
Josh Donaldson and two others to the Yankees for catcher
Gary Sanchez and infielder Geo or Shella. Sanchez project projected
to make about eight million dollars this year. In his
final season before free agency. Donaldson is owing about fifty
million dollars over these next two years, and the Yankees

(31:41):
will take all of that. MLB spring training games start
this Thursday. Chase Briscoe, the NASCAR winner at Phoenix. Back
to you, all right, thanks for at the Sager, Mark
Willard sitting it for Chris Blankmanty Span. You're on a
busy Sunday day of March. You want to get in
Mark underscore t underscore Willard? Just type in Mark cool
or you'll find it. I'm in stinking genius one um.

(32:03):
First of all, a couple of things, you know, with
all the changes we've made in football, Mark, did we
make too many changes that a forty five year old
quarterback could be an m VP of the league because
we've said we can't hit him. We can't hit him
below the knee. We can't even crawl and touch his
knee capp or his his his ankle. We you kid,
Todd Brady gets hit like maybe three times a game.

(32:24):
Did we make so many changes that it's easy for
forty five year old quarterback to still play still play
football out there? Or one you remember Matt Castle? Do
you remember that remember the time Matt Castle played football
and and and and you loved it and and it
led to this INCREDI do you remember that great moment
that Matt Castle had? Do you remember it? Remember the
moment I'm talking about? Well, the when Tom Brady got her?

(32:45):
Is that what you're talking about? Yeah? Yeah, I don't
remember that moment either. So in other words, yeah, I
don't care if it's gimmicky. Keep them healthy. That's the
NFL doing business and doing it correctly. So I look,
you're right, the numbers are set aside. But I'm glad
you brought up change in the NFL because baseball is
getting ripped sideways for it right now. Oh, they're making
all these changes because the game stinks and because you're

(33:10):
trying to cow tow to a younger generate. Every sport
has to do that, and they always have and they
always do their changes. Every year Football's game is unrecognizable
compared to what it was even ten or or and
certainly twenty years ago. They're is just part of the deal.
I mean, how many big time quarterbacks did we lose

(33:31):
this year to injury? Did we lose any? And I
mean major injury? You know there was Joe Burrow the
year before last. The days of playing sixteen games for
one quarterback I think are long gone. That's I don't
think that's gonna be happening much longer. You know. Well,
I mean there were a lot, you know, Aaron Rodgers
missed something here and there, although that can remember their

(33:51):
vaccine related in all of this. But we didn't lose.
You know, there was Dak Prescott a couple of years ago,
there was Burrow. It's it's gonna happen. Kyler Murray miss
a lot this year. But but but there was relatively
little of that. I mean, for the most part, these
guys stayed healthy. The games are better when they're on
the field. I know people think it's the wusification of America,

(34:14):
but it's it's it's keeping the faces of the league
on the field. And so sure, if you go to
the all time passing leaders, they're like all guys from
the last fifteen years. Um, you know, you gotta get
over that. You gotta get over that. I mean, it's
it's just like a juice ball in baseball. That's that
that's records over the years, what have you. It keeps

(34:36):
them on the field. That's the most important thing. A
lot on Twitter, Sharon says this is about ego with
Tom Brady, and a lot of people are saying that
how much is this really about ego? I I can't
believe somebody's ego is really that big and forty five
years old. That granted he is Mr Media. Anything he does,
we're all over it. But um, sooner or later, you
get in the retirement and you you know, you do

(34:57):
other interest. Your ego doesn't get so big that you
you keep doing something at forty years old. At that
you know. Yeah, But I also wonder, like, why why
do we want someone gone so bad? Like take the guys,
who did we say? What did we say? Joe David's
played too long? Joe Montana played too y'all long? Yeah, well,

(35:17):
we could go on and on and on, But that's
because we're watching something on the field that looks like
a lesser version of themselves. The Los Angeles Lakers aren't.
We've been talking about this all year. Their whole roster
is a bunch of stars who don't play like stars anymore.
We're not telling them to retire. Tom Brady led the
league in passing, They led the league in passing yards.

(35:37):
So as long as somebody I mean, I'm always of
the belief that, look, if somebody wants to pay you,
you get to play. But if somebody is still playing
at an incredibly high level, why would we want them
to go away? Barry Sanders did it, and we ripped
him for decade because he did that. So you know,
we're we're just sick of Tom because he's been so
good for so long. If Tom Brady is going to

(36:00):
come back, I want to come back. Which quarterback said that?
We'll tell you about that coming up next. Willard in
for Plank. I'm Aarti Spaniard. This is Fox Sports Are Radio.
If cold candidate calls aren't turning in the hot hiring leads,
then you need Indeed because Indeed's powerful hiring platform makes
it easy to attract, screen and interview candidates all from

(36:23):
one place. Find your next great higher visiting Indeed dot
com slash credit. Mark Willard sitting in for Chris Plank.
I'm Aarti Spanier. One bit of news coming out down.
Tom Brady says he's coming back, But what about his center,
Ryan Jensen? He just got his deal done? Uh? Willard
three year thirty nine million dollar contract. So Tom Brady

(36:47):
Center is coming back. No problem there. My friend Tom
Brady is the honey and everybody else's the bees. It's
like Gronkowski and you know, the center of these guys
is just like as soon as he comes as don't
like lebron has been in the NBA through the years.
As soon as he comes here come all the other
guys and uh. And so the trickled out effect is

(37:09):
is real. Um, you heard it was interesting that Todd
Ferman said earlier this hour that there were some big bets,
some big numbers laid on futures for the Bucks to
win the Super Bowl a couple of days ago. People knew,
people knew in certain circles what was going on. And uh.
And the Bucks Center stays because he too is one

(37:30):
of those people. He knew what was going on. All right,
we said, Tom Brady is coming back. Another quarterback wants
to come back. We've known this for a while, Colin Kaepernick.
But he put out a tweet today saying, for the
past five years I've been working out and staying ready
in case an opportunity to play presented itself. I'm really
grateful to my trainer who I've been throwing to all
this time. But man, do I miss throwing to professional

(37:51):
route runners who's working? I will pull up, of course,
Tyler Lockett today, Let's do it, Broby and my brother
will come run robs for you. He was ready to
get in there. Um. We talked about Colin Caeperty getting
a chance, um maybe in Seattle, who knows where. I
think it's about time that he didn't at least get
a chance to compete. I mean, that is the American way,

(38:12):
So I think it's about time we move forward. Let
him compete for a job. I mean, I love the
Seattle idea, and you and I spoke about that, as
you said yesterday. Only to see today that one of
their top receivers has stepped forward to work out with
him doesn't mean anything, probably not. But for those who
don't know, Seattle was the team that almost almost did

(38:32):
it a couple of years ago. Uh, the only team
that I mean something. Don't say probably not, don't don't
just I mean, I know. I just think that Tyler
is doing that on his own. I don't think the
Seahawks are behind that, you know what I mean. But
we know that Pete Carroll was open to it once,
and the only reason they didn't do it was because
they thought Colins popularity was going to be too much

(38:53):
in the Seattle locker room, and therefore pulled the rug
out from underneath Russell Wilson a little bit. So with
Rusk gone and the same regime in place, dot dot dot,
maybe maybe I mean it did you know? The league
has probably moved on. But if you're Seattle right now
and you're probably not gonna get Garoppolo, I don't think
they're gonna get Deshaun Watson. It's gonna quickly get to

(39:16):
a point of why not, you know, why would you
not at least have him in camp and take a look?
Can can you come back after five years of not
playing football? Can you come back and still have anything
that you had five years ago? Or no, no chance whatsoever?
Only one way to find out. I mean, really five
years gone, right, but five years and when he left

(39:40):
he was in his twenties, so you know, look, I
mean we gotta start looking at all this stuff differently.
If I had asked you a few years ago if
you could lead the league in passing at age forty four,
what would you have said? I mean right, I mean
bodies are doing different things. I mean kick the tires.
Take a look. What a have to lose At this point,

(40:01):
Fox News isn't gonna go crazy. It's fine. Take a
look to see if it's more's nothing there, move on,
I want to say, but I know we're short on time.
This tweet that he put out was the most transparent
tweet he's put out in five years. If he would
have done this four years ago saying hey, I want
a chance, I want to compete, I want to get
back in the NFL, I don't think this would have

(40:22):
dragged on five years. He did do that. He's done that,
he's held his workouts, he's done that. He's let everybody
know periodically he's still trying, and the response has been
the same every single time. I don't know that it
would be interesting. It isn't that what this is all
supposed to be. Yes, exactly, He's Mark Willard sitting in
for Chris Plank. I'm Arnie Spanir. Hour one in the books.

(40:45):
We're gonna come back. Let's start getting into March madness.
I can't believe we did the first hour. We'll start
talking about the brackets all that's coming up next year
on Fox Sports or Radio. Wow. Quick first hour of
Mark Guillard in for Chris Plank, who's out in Hawaii
with Oklahoma softball. Boy, that guy's got it tough. I'm

(41:07):
Arnie Spanr. You want to be part of the show,
real simple, Mark underscore, t underscore Willard. I wouldn't tweet
you if I had to do all that. I want
you to know that the shows over, shows over now
because you had to read my no. I've always told
you this, Arnie. I don't want any half steppers. Don't
don't don't, don't. Don't come at me with you know,

(41:29):
like we we sort of dig the show, or I
sort of have something to say to you. You gotta
excuse me. You gotta want to follow me. That's the
way I want it. You have to earn it. You
have to earn it. You get a hold of me.
A stinking genius. One on a busy Sunday. Uh, we
were supposed to have Torres on this hour our college
basketball and sider. Hopefully we'll have him on in the
power hour of the show. But it was selection Sunday.

(41:50):
That's what this is all about, and it took a
backseat to Tom Brady. Were you watching the selection committee?
Were you watching is the UM selections and the parents
came out. I don't think there was any you know, uh,
any earth shattering like who got snubbed or anything like that.
Maybe Texas A and M was crying a little bit.
I thought it went off without a hitch and really

(42:11):
no big drama this time around, to be honest with
your market was just like, here's the field, let's get going,
you know. I agree with that, you know, and and
most of that stuff is belly ache in anyway, throughout
the majority of the year, the tournament has enough teams
in it so that it's very rare that I mean,
I I just the argument of hey, weird number sixty five,

(42:34):
it just doesn't really resiss, Like so what what what?
What does that really mean? Sure, I know there's money
at stake. Yeah, there's some prestige you want to get
in there, um, And then there are others who might
be upset with their seating, their position, who they're gonna
have to go against. All that stuff is for twenty
four hours at the most. We get through it, and
then the games are gonna take over. If you're the

(42:55):
best team and you're playing the best, You're gonna find
your way through it. There are a little core because
I think for fans that you wish wouldn't happen. I'm
with what Todd Ferman said that us F Murray State game.
That's just too bad. It's it's too bad. Those are
both really really interesting mid major sort of unknown situations.

(43:16):
I think the teams could really make some noise and
and uh and and be memorable in the tournament. And
now one of them is gonna go away right away.
So there's unfortunate stuff like that. But no, you're right,
I think that the committee did a good job. I
think parody is going to just take over this whole thing,
and so there's gonna be a lot of upsets early
and uh and and you know that that should be

(43:38):
fun for everybody. Maybe somebody from Kentucky can go ahead
and and tweet us because Murray State and Kentucky if
they both when they go to the next round, um
obviously and play each other. I don't think they've ever
played because Kentucky won't play them, so um, that would
just be phenomenal. Kind of way Kentucky and Louisville got
matched up after a while by the n C A
double A double A tournaments like that would be phenomenal.

(44:01):
I don't have a lot of upsets, you know. Usually
I'm the king of upsets. I love taking the tens, elevens,
the twelve seeds. The only ones I really see is
thirteen seed Vermont. I think they're gonna go in surprise Arkansas.
But but they're only a five point underdog, A five
and that point underdogs. That's not upset there. That's the thing.

(44:23):
I mean. You gotta go look at some of your
double digit seeds and you'll find that some of them
are actually favored. So you know, don't go don't go squawk.
And if if Michigan beats Colorado State and you you
called it their favored in that game. You know, if
if if Virginia Tech beats Texas, that's a pick them
right now, and in fact it's leaning towards Virginia Tech
maybe getting a uh giving a point in that game

(44:46):
that may be there by that time. So some of these,
especially in a year like this, when you get to
the six eleven games, the seven ten games, the eight
nine games, these are all gonna be coin flips, aren't
he Mark, I hope you have your bracket in front
of you. Gonzag, Baylor, Arizona, Kansas, all the number one seeds.
I'm gonna ask you which number one seed couldn't fall first?

(45:08):
Who is the number one seed that could actually lose
first before they maybe reach the Elite eight, the Final four,
or the n C Double A Championship. My guests would
be Baylor because in the second round they probably maybe
run into a pretty decent North Carolina team. And I
haven't playing St. Mary's, which would be not too bad
for them, but I have Sat Mary's meeting him, so, um, excuse.

(45:30):
We have North Carolina beating Baylor and then St. Mary's
beating North Carolina. So I think Baylor could lose in
the second round if things don't fall from them. Saint
Mary's an interesting pick. They've got a really hard second
round game. And again, if it goes this way, we're
acting like chalk in these middle games is gonna be
easy and it's not. But U c l A as
a team that took your right I mean U c
l A took Arizona all the way to the end

(45:52):
of the game, led them at half yesterday and Arizona
is as good as anybody. And I'm not just trying
to butter you up. Are number one. They're they're they're
they're they're as good as any I agree with your
Baylor take. If there's a team though, that I think
has the hardest road and uh, and you know to
even get into the sweet sixteen, the Elite eight is
definitely Baylor. I love Kansas chances for sure. Gonzaga is

(46:15):
the class of the country. Arizona's right next to him,
and and there's nobody that terrifies me in um, you know,
in at least in their half of the bracket. Either.
I think the three those three number one seeds I
would I I think are at least ticketed for the
Elite eight. I think Baylor is gonna have a hard
time getting there. Do you do you see any of
these thirteen fourteen fifteen seeds winning, because again, like you said,

(46:38):
they're they're pretty close, don't way about five six you know,
like Yukon, uh going up against New Mexico State, you
would think that you kind would be a big favorite
in that one the way, like a six point favorite
in Yukon's a five seed. New Mexico state A twelve seeds.
So that's a lot of respect for these lower seeds
coming into games like this one, Mark Well, and they're
all the twelve seeds, right, that's always the traditional thing

(46:59):
like it used to be, Oh, there's always at least
one twelve seed, now kind of like there's always at
least two, you know, I mean, those those games in
college basketball today are are there. There's just not that
much difference. So I'd go even further if you're asking me,
like how many thirteen and higher teams will win a
game this year? I mean, I think it will be

(47:21):
at least two or three. I really do. I think
I think there'll be at least a couple of of
those that win. You know, you you look, we we
talked with Todd about Chattanooga going against Illinois. They're only
a set then they're only a seven point dog, Like
this would not be crazy. This just is not a
crazy idea that that some of these teams are good

(47:43):
and and on the flip side, it's not even so
much about how good is the fourteen or fifteen seed,
it's how flawed is the four seed and the three seed?
I mean, the college basketball just does not have Juggernauts
right now, they just don't you know. I mean, if
you want to call Gonzaga that fine, but I mean

(48:04):
they're they're technically still a mid major and they're the
big powerhouse now. You know, the days of Duke and
North Carolina and Michigan State and and Kansas they're all
very good. But but the days of them just walking
into the Sweet sixteen they're over. No, and not a
lot of great storylines. As you mentioned, there's no Zion

(48:24):
to say, Oh, what's he gonna do? Is he gonna
lead Duke? What's gonna happen there? I mean, you got
coach k and we'll see how far he goes. But
that's only one of the big storylines out there. There's
really no villains, there's really no heroes. There's really no
people that you're pulling for. You're you're just going to
go and watch the tournament. I think people are just
happy it's back. I mean, yeah, we had one last time,

(48:45):
and then the year before that we didn't have one
at all. So I think people want a little normalcy
out there, you know what I mean, they just don't
want to enjoy it. I haven't looked forward to a
tournament this much, and and I don't want to say
something stupid as in, like in three years, I mean
at least that. But maybe I think more because of
what you just said. I don't think I've looked this

(49:05):
forward to a tournament in probably at least seven or
eight years um. And and you're right, it's not because
of any individual players. There aren't. There's no name value stars.
There are good players, there are stars, there's no name value.
The NBA is waiting on this guy kind of a thing.
And the parody means that. I mean, look, don't don't

(49:26):
feel bad if your brackets getting ripped up early like
this is gonna take a lot of luck, like you
can put yourself in good position. But these teams, they're
all so evenly matched, and uh, and because of that,
I just think I think they're gonna be more close
games than ever. I think almost everything's gonna be in
doubt going into the second half of these games. I

(49:46):
can't believe I have to ask you, but I do
have to ask you. Are you filling out a bracket?
Have you done your bracket? I've already done mine, of course,
I have my Wildcaps. What do you the whole thing.
But no, no, Arnie, Arnie, do you just pulled chicken
out of the fridge and huck it onto a grill.
You gotta marinate, man, You gotta let this sit. You

(50:08):
got a little yeah, well not really. Nobody picks to
Tuesday games. It starts Thursday. You gotta let it sink in.
You gotta hear other voices and let them tell you
a little bit about what they're thinking, and then decide
who knows what they're talking about and who not. Like
That's why I wanted to do this show tonight. I
wanted to hear what you said, and then I'm gonna

(50:28):
play the opposite. That's exactly, that's my tournament philosophy. Exactly.
You'd be smart to do that. I I already had
my picks already done, I think by seven o'clock tonight,
an hour after they released it. All I was waiting for, um,
you know, was for for it to be on one
of those principal brackets so I can just go ahead
and fill it out and then put it on Twitter
out there. I always trying to make sure I'm the

(50:49):
first again. I I I'm pretty much to chalk. I
have like number one Gonzaga go to the final four.
You said your chalk and then you said St. Mary's
is going to the eight or something. I mean, that's
not shock at all. They're there, They're they're five seed.
That it's not that you got him knocking out U, C.
L A and Baylor. That's that's tough stuff. That's stuff

(51:11):
sledding for a team from Moraga, California. I gotta time.
I thought you got no respect being at the number
four seed. They did go to the Pack twelve finals.
They were a really good team this year. They had
beaten Arizona six of the last seven times they played,
So I'm I'm surprised they didn't get maybe a three seed,
But that's no big deal really, Um, when you're one

(51:31):
set off, I know they'll have to play the number
one seed, But to me, one to three or four
not that big of a deal. Mark, I'm not gonna
go at home about that. And and maybe I'm excited
about it this year more than the year's past because
of something you just mentioned. And and you know, I
think our listeners know, I'm I'm based out here in California,
like this is the best, the best chance the West

(51:51):
Coast has had to really get involved in in in
anything college sports related in a long time. The West
Coast has been totally left out of football as we know,
and I'm not saying that's anyone's fault other than their own.
But to see Arizona where they are, have Gonzagaby the
number one team in the nation, have teams like U C.
L A who could factor in this. I'm not big

(52:12):
on USC's chances to do much, but they've had a
decent season. San Diego State an eight seed, even San Francisco,
as we mentioned, a tense seed that has a chance
to bounce around and and do a few things. St. Mary's.
I mean, even the Bay Area where I am very
very well represented with those two teams, all of them
in the East bracket. But still, um, this, this this

(52:34):
is a year where we could have some teams out
here on the West who I think go a long way,
and I think your Arizona team is gonna be one
of them. Where you have you ever been out the
Vegas for for March madness of your I have, and
there's there's nothing better I I still have. It's there's
nothing like the sports book when it's great, when there

(52:55):
are hundreds of people in there. But it's really great
when there are hundreds of people in there and they're
all in different games that are all happening at the
same time. Oh gosh, I had a I had a
devastating story one time, because you know, in the sports
book often there's either no sound or only one game
has sound. And uh, and I remember having Let's say,

(53:17):
I think Kentucky played in a game. This is a
forever ago, twenty years ago or something like that. Kentucky's
playing in a game against somebody, and I think I've
got this team, uh, like like minus four and a half, okay,
and uh, they go to the free throw line up
four at the end of the game, about two seconds
left to go on the clock, and they nail both

(53:39):
free throws. Kentucky's up six, and so you're sitting there,
you're standing up, You're like, yes, they got it. And
then the other team just sort of nonchalantly rolls the
ball down the other end of the floor. Kentucky's practically
walking off the floor like whatever. Somebody from the other
team picks up the ball and and just even without
a care in the world, just sort of whatever throws it.

(54:01):
Toward the rim from three point range. But no sound,
Arnie in the in the sports book, I can't hear
the buzzer. I can't see if this ball went off
before the light went on swish all that, And you're
sitting there and you had to wait. We had to
wait for about twenty seconds until the network posted the

(54:22):
final score up on the screen. Big L Kentucky wins
by three. Yeah, bad beat. It was a bad beat.
Yeah that that that would make you want to stop
going to Vegas. That's for damn sure. By the way
of cold candidate calls are turning into the hot hiring leads.
Then you need Indeed because indeeds powerful hiring platform makes
it easy to attract, screen and interview candidates all from

(54:45):
one place. Find your next grade higher visiting Indeed dot
com slash credit. All right, when we get back, we
have to get more in the Tom Brady's unretiring. We
gotta give him the love when he retired. Now that
he's unretired, we gotta give him the same amount of love.
Why did he come back? How's that going to affect Tampa?
How's it going to affect some of the other teams
out there? What's the trickle down effect for some of

(55:07):
the other quarterbacks. We'll get into all that coming up
next right here on Fox Sports A Radio. Alright, good
evening everyone. Mark Willard in for Chris Plank. I'm already
Spaniard moving along on this Sunday, thirteenth day of March.
You want to get in Mark underscore t underscore Willard.
I'm in stinking genius one. By the way, before we

(55:28):
get back to the quarterbacks and Tom Brady and all that.
Now that we know the final story, we know that
Troy Aikman and Joe Buck are now at ESPN. A
matter of fact, Joe Buck walked a year early to
join Troyman. He was still under contract here at Fox,
but Fox said if we led him leave early, and
this was reported by Andrew Marshawn of The New York Post.

(55:51):
He reported that Fox would be allowed to choose one
Big Ten Football game from ESPNS package for letting Buck
hit for the agency one year sooner than later. ESPN
and Fox share the broadcasting rights for the Big Ten,
so Fox got to pick their one game that they wanted.
They picked Willard No Tree Dame at Ohio State. So

(56:14):
that's going to be the Fox game, Um that they're
gonna go ahead and get in for Joe Buck and
Troy Aikman. You know why. I mean, it's it's always
when it comes to the broadcast and the ratings and
all of that. Like, we don't talk about them much
anymore unless it's about ratings. It's Notre Dame. It's Notre Dame.
You you can't walk two feet without some dom er

(56:37):
who's who's still freaking out about how they are the flagship.
I think it's a good trade college football. Do you
think it's a good trade. They were gonna walk away anyway,
so at least we got something in return, right, we
got Fox got something they they wanted to update people.
They wanted to Sacre too. I would have thrown it
to Sacre, but we let don't forget about it. You know, well,
what what happened with that deal? Why didn't that go down?

(57:01):
We were gonna ship off the Saga. We said, we
we need somebody to work on the weekend nights. That's
what the sagas there for. So anyway, yeah, they ship
the ship them out. When they don't ship them out,
they leave, they go to ESPN. But we do get
the Notre Dame in Ohio state games. So I thought
that was a pretty good return. I thought that was
you know, it's funny al Michaels was traded for what
a Disney cartoon? Right? So, um, you heard about that, right,

(57:26):
spent you've spent Oswald. My gosh, you just brought up
that was my son's favorite cartoon when he first found TV.
He's now fifteen years old. Is that thing still leaven
on than that? Yeah? It's older than that cut. Yeah,
he was. Al Michaels was traded for that. So I
met people getting traded for cartoons and Disney characters and

(57:46):
football games and and all that stuff out there. But
I'd like to be a cartoon to me, Right, That's
that's people always talk about legacy in broadcasting. That's leaving
the legacy if you get traded for a cartoon. I
be into that. But also, I feel like the last
couple of days, when we've been talking about this, you're
kind of downplaying the importance of the uh, the genese

(58:08):
kua if you will, Arnie, that some of these broadcasts
tandems bring. I'd like to me, this is this is
something for Monday night football, Monday night football has been
missing this. They've been missing somebody with gravitas and I so,
I definitely this adds to the Monday night football package
for sure in mind. But do you think it But
do you think it is gonna bring up ratings? I don't.

(58:31):
I think there's so many different ways to consume football games, um,
with tablets and phones and all that, that all the
ratings slipped through the cracks. I don't know if Monday
Night football is becoming less popular or is Mark Cuban
thought a long time ago, we're over saturating the market
with the Monday night game, the Sunday night game, the
Thursday games, sometimes we play Saturday, um who knows, and

(58:52):
then with the COVID we had games on Tuesday, had Friday.
I mean it was all over the place. Are we
over saturating the market? Um? Is Monday Night football no
longer working with the Times? And that was just back
when Howard Cosell was around. I don't know if it's
it's still the same thing there, Mark, I don't know
if it's still a big deal. No, what what's a
big deal? Because it's an NFL game? I mean, look

(59:12):
around with you. We want to talk about ratings that
the number one show on television in America is always
Sunday Night Football. Numbers are football games. Number three is
like the pre game show for Sunday Night football. Number
four is the pregame show for Thursday. So I mean
these they're all doing well, but Monday Night Football. Because
of that, like the fact that Thursday was now I

(59:34):
had a Monday at least in terms of emotion, like
set aside, everybody, clear out, I want to watch this game.
Maybe it is because by the time we get to Monday,
we're exhausted and we haven't talked to our families for
the last three days. Maybe maybe it is that. I
don't know, But I also know that Thursday and Sunday

(59:55):
we're giving the viewer. I think the ratings will be
great no matter what. But Thursday and Sunday, the viewer
was being told this is an event, and and the
people doing the talking are adding to the fact that
this is an event. Right not to take it away
from any individual, but on Monday, we were not being
told that this was an event. We were being told, Oh,

(01:00:16):
there's one football game left, so we still have to
play it. That's what we were being told. As far
as the packaging. So I'm into this. I think it matters,
you think it matters. I. Look, I I don't think
that whoever the announcers are, people are going to tune
in for the game. They want to see. If the
game's a blowout and it's two dog teams, people are
gonna turn away from that one. Also, Mark I, I

(01:00:36):
just don't think the announcers making it different stow at
the same time. And I don't want to, you know,
go ahead and uh take both sides. But it helps
a little bit to have some brand names in there. Look,
but I don't think the ratings would be any bigger
with them and there if I was doing it, people
are still gonna watch the game. Yeah, but is it
just is it just ratings? Have you ever seen and

(01:00:57):
I'm imagining the answers, now, have you ever seen pink in?
Answered to think about that, Ronnie James Dio No No.
I saw pink in concert one time, and she's in
this gizmo that's hanging from the ceiling and she's flying
around the entire arena, twirling while singing, and it was

(01:01:22):
one of the most amazing things I've ever seen a
performer do. Now, everybody in the building is already a
Pink fan. We're already here, We've already bought the tickets.
But what's Pink doing. Pink is giving them something that
they're gonna remember. They're giving them something in the packaging
of all of this to say, Hey, not only do
I know you're here and I'm gonna sing my face off,

(01:01:42):
I'm gonna absolutely give you something that makes you feel
like this is special. This is different than just another
concert that kind of thing. And I know, maybe to
you Joe Buck and Troy Aikman isn't twirling around in uh,
you know, hanging from the ceiling, but it is it
is something to be said for Hey, we we really
care about what we're giving as far as the emotion,

(01:02:05):
the gravitas to this whole production. Let me ask you this, then,
Troy Aikman, Um, Joe Buck, Tony Romo, Alt, Michaels, whoever
it may be, Whether they get fifteen to twenty million
dollars a year, eighteen million a year, do they deserve
more money than what eighty or ninety percent of the
NFL players playing right now? They deserve more money to

(01:02:26):
be the announcer I don't know. Since when did it
come down to to what we all deserve when it
became this but it was this much money. I mean,
teachers deserve more money. Okay, it's not about it's not
about deserve, it's just what you're attached to. Like you're
you're attached to an outlet that is printing money. So therefore,

(01:02:46):
if you're gonna be a big piece of that puzzle,
then you get paid like crazy. What what was Amazon
offering broadcasters to go over there? It was it was absurd.
I mean it was quarterback money, um, but more than quarterbacks,
that's for exactly. So you know that's uh, that's the
luck of the draw. That's what you're attached to, you
know that, Artie, When you're attached to sports, you make

(01:03:08):
big dollars. Oh yeah, it's like a sports show host
out there right way? Do you wait? Do you see
what Tally's up over these three hours? You want to
get in Mark underscore, t underscore Willard, I'm in stinking
genius one. Tom Brady's back. We'll talk about why he's back.
What does that do for Tampa? Are they one of

(01:03:30):
the favorites to go to the Super Bowl? What type
of year will we have and is it just for
one year or maybe longer. We'll get to all that.
Bud first, we weren't going to trade him. Thank goodness,
we didn't have to trade him. I would have traded
him our buddy, Steve the Seger. What's treading out there?
I'm untradable. There's no contract. We'll see if Fox has
that noted Dame Ohio state opener. We'll see if that

(01:03:51):
actually becomes official. But just that that's unofficial that I've
read that, Oh absolutely, there were articles saying, oh, that's
what they've selected. I haven't seen a least saying that's
what we've selected or anything like that. But it does
remind me of a baseball trade. There was a guy
that pitched for the Angels and he wound up he
was like one of those thirty year old minor leaguers

(01:04:11):
and wanted to get up to the Major's. He was
pitching for Reno in the Triple A at the time,
and the offer at the time from the Brewers was
Bucks and we'll take him, and the minor league team said, no,
he's worth more than that. So eventually the trade was
the picture for Bucks and twelve dozen baseballs if you're not. Meanwhile,

(01:04:34):
Fox Sports is gonna need a new play by play
Boys for the World Series. Remember, Joe buck did both sports,
and he had done almost twenty five World Series. Fox
does have Joe Davis, who's been the Dodgers team, standing
by on that one as well. For those who are
with us, Plank is resting and recuperating after a really

(01:04:56):
tough weekend calling softball in Hawaii. That's why I'm not
doing the show. The thieveding quarterback Tom Brady, unretired, will
return to the Tampa Bay Bucks to play this year.
Brady had tweeted, these past two months, I've realized my
place is still on the field and not in the stands.
And tonight his Pro Bowl center Ryan Jensen re signed
three years for a max thirty nine million dollars. This Wednesday,

(01:05:18):
NFL free agency starts in college basketball Againzaga is the
number one overall seed for the n c A Tournament.
Arizona is a one seed in the South Region. Kansas
since the number one seed in the Midwest, playing in
Fort Worth, Texas late Thursday against the winner of Texas
Southern Texas A and M Corpus Christie that play in.

(01:05:38):
Auburn is the two seed in the Midwest, playing against
Jacksonville State in the first round. In the second round,
Auburn would face the USC Miami winner, and Baylor is
the one seed in the East region, but playing in
Fort Worth this week, starting Thursday afternoon against Norfolk Stake.
Then Baylor would play the North Carolina Marquette winner on Saturday. Kentucky,

(01:05:58):
by the way, the two seed in the East but
playing in Indianapolis this week in Kentucky, will open Thursday
night against St. Peter's and could play Saturday against Murray
State of Kentucky. The first four out those teams who
just missed those are the four one seeds in the
n i T, including Dayton, so Dayton cannot host its
first round n i T game because Dayton is where
the n c double as first four it takes place.

(01:06:20):
Dayton will have to play at Toledo in the n
i T this week. George's new basketball coaches Mike White
from Florida, Georgia, will pay his buy out. The Gators
are an n i T team hosting Iona. In the NBA.
Kevin Durant scored fifty three points. Is Brooklyn edge New
York Trey Young forty seven points is Atlanta edged Indiana.
Philadelphia got an overtime win at Orlando Joel and Be

(01:06:43):
thirty five points. Memphis and Phoenix each one. The Sun's
first place in the West still seven and a half
games up on Memphis, and the Phoenix win was one
forty two one eleven against the Lakers, whose record is
twenty nine and thirty eight. The Washington Nationals get d
h Nelson Cruz. The Wins traded third baseman Josh Donaldson
and two others to the Yankees. Spring training games start

(01:07:05):
this Thursday. Opening day is April seven. Chase Briscoe was
the NASCAR winner at Phoenix, his first Cup Series victory.
He lit all but one of the final eighty three laps.
Ross Chas Stain finished second, pulsitter Ryan Blaney let a
race high hundred forty three laps and finished fourth, and
Kevin Harviick tied a Cup record with his eighteenth straight
top ten at the same track with a sixth place

(01:07:26):
finish at Phoenix. Back to you, all right, thanks a lot.
The segred Mark Willard in for Chris Blank, I'm already Spann,
You're on a busy Sunday. You want to get in, uh,
Mark will Or just to look him up. I'm not
going through all the underscores. I'm one. Yeah, that's just
too much there. Um, why did Tom Brady retire? As
we kind of rehashed this, why did he retire? Why
was it only for thirty or what a forty days? Um?

(01:07:48):
And why come back? Well? Key comes back now because
of the free agency period they resigned the center. Why
did he walk away for forty days? What what went
on during the forty days? Why did he walk away?
I mean, there's only all we can do is is
sort of put puzzle pieces together and read it. But
if you asked me, Arnie, he was never walking away.
This was his only leverage play. He and Bruce arians

(01:08:10):
were not getting along in the terms of of how
to put together a game plans. Pretty extreme, Mark, Well,
I listen, I from what I hear. Also pretty extreme
were some of the arguments that they had on Saturdays
before games, um, and and and it was getting pretty
hot in there. And so if Tom reached the decision
that at some point he wanted to play for a

(01:08:31):
different team, this was his way to do it. I mean,
who's gonna what you say to the Bucks, Hey, I
want out. Look how long it takes watch Russell Wilson
and Aaron Rodgers. How many years in a row have
those two quarterbacks at least flirted with the idea of
of of getting out because they were upset with their team.

(01:08:52):
It's at least two, It's been two, three, four years,
and now finally one of them is out and the
other one is still do lining with his relationship. Tom
doesn't have that kind of time. So if he wanted out,
the leverage play was okay, if you won't change the
way we get ready for a game, I'm out retire.

(01:09:13):
That's what I don't understand, because if I'm Bruce Arians,
I would just shut the hell up. First of all,
I'm Tom Brady. I'm gonna walk up to Bruce Arians
in a closed door, just him and I and I
would say, listen, this is just between you and I.
I have the utmost respect for you, but you need
to shut the blank up, do you know? And I
know it seems harsh, but but that's you could talk

(01:09:35):
like that to somebody when you're the greatest of all time.
I would have the greatest quarterback. I'm the greatest football
player in the history of football. Shut up and just
do what I do and we're gonna be fine. I
when you were Super Bowl, shut the blank up? What
are you crying about? That's what I would say. What

(01:09:56):
what is he? What was he so mad about? You're
coming off of so for both? What what are you
so bad about? And how do you think Bruce arians
would react to that? I don't care. On the best
of all time, To be honest with you, I don't care,
but Bruce cares. But Bruce cares, and and and so
start putting puzzle pieces together. What do you do? What
do you do when you got too high level people?

(01:10:18):
If it's smart to another Super Bowl or you go
to ownership. Let's not act like this didn't happen two
years ago in New England. We know this. This Bill
Belichick wanted to trade Tom Brady and go with Jimmy Garoppolo.
What happened? Robert Kraft stepped in. So what happened this time?

(01:10:39):
That's why they gave him for a second round pick. Mark,
you understand that, well, right, But now here's Tom Brady.
If we're to believe that this relationship was fractured and
now Brady is out there with owners at watching man
you play soccer. He's pressing on a pressure point for
Bruce arians and and so the ownership step in and say, hey, Bruce,

(01:11:02):
we would like Tom Brady to play. How about if
you make fewer decisions getting ready for the game, because
this guy clearly knows what he's doing and we want
him on the team. I don't know that that happened,
but I could believe it. And it sort of feels
like something like that happened because we know it never
felt like he was not playing football anything. I was
just about so you think there was really zero chance

(01:11:25):
even after he retired that he was really good at
walk Now. I thought he was going to come back,
but go back to your San Francisco forty Niners because
he wanted to end his career up there. I never
thought he was going to come back to Tampa. To
be honest with you, Okay, everybody's talked about this. How
do you actually get to the forty Niners. Let's play
that out. Okay, Tom wants to go. Tampa says, okay, fine,

(01:11:45):
we we believe retired, right, and so, so, first of all,
why is Tampa incentivized to do that. They're gonna want
something in a trade. Yeah, you give you give a
draft pick and return like like, you know, just for
letting Tom Brady out of his contract. I mean for
Tom Brady, what draft pick are you gonna give the
forty Niners don't have a first rounder for the next

(01:12:05):
two years and they've already not given your first round
there anyway, so well, but I mean you you aren't.
It's Tom Brady, right, I know it's only for one
year in theory, but why, as Bruce Arian said, why
do business that way? What's the incentive for Tampa to say, here,
go to the forty Niners and beat us next year?
Why would they do that? So they would rather have

(01:12:26):
him retire and hold his feet to the fire over that,
or well, I mean, I actually yes, if you're Tampa,
wouldn't you rather have him not in the league at all,
as opposed to in your conference and ready to beat
you and make you look like you've got egg on
your face? Well, the only person that would have egg
on their faces. As soon as I went to the
media and said, hey, you know, I really want to
come back and play football. I just don't want to
do it for Tampa? Um, how do you think that's

(01:12:48):
going to play around? You know? Right? So that's the leverage.
That's the leverage that he had. So I I just
think that this was a standoff from the beginning. I
think that that Tampa said, I'm sorry, I'm you know,
Bruce Arian says, and I'm sorry, I'm the coach. I
call it and Tom says, fine, I retire and uh,
and then the negotiations begin, and how does he actually

(01:13:10):
get to San Francisco? How's that okay with Tampa? Do
the forty Niners even want that? And I know that
sounds ridiculous, but they would have. People would start calling
Trey Lance a bust before he's even played. There's so
much that goes into this. I just said. The only
thing that was clear to me the whole time was
that Tom wasn't done. I mean never sounded like remember

(01:13:31):
a few weeks ago and he's like, well, I walked
away because I wanted more time with my family, and
now we've done that for five weeks, and yeah, that's
probably pretty good. All right, let's go back to playing
football now. So, I mean, you could tell the whole
time Mark had he not come out today and said
he was unretiring. I was, we were just gonna hammer
at home because I felt the video with Ronaldo was

(01:13:52):
telling to be honest with you. I felt there was
in him going to the man just a you game.
I felt that he was talking to the owners to
work something out. He had to have been talking to
the owners, right, This is exactly what was going on. No,
am I wrong? And it appears that they work something out. Yes, yeah,
it appears that they've worked something out. My guess is, uh,

(01:14:14):
my guess is is that a phone call was made
to Bruce Arians and uh and and that phone call
went something like what you just said, Tom's gonna play
and you're gonna talk Lass and everything's gonna be fine. Okay, good, Okay,
That's about how it went. He's Mark Willard sit in
for Chris Plankabary Spaniel will come back. Uh, the saga
will step on in everything we didn't have a chance

(01:14:37):
to get to. We'll get to that coming up next
right here on Fox Sports Radio. Hiring Heating Up. Indeed's
hiring platform makes it easy to attract screen and interview
candiates all in one place. Sponsor posted instantly receiver. Shortlist
of quality candidates on Indeed whose resumes match or job description.

(01:14:58):
Visit indeed dot com, slash credit finish off the hour
bringing Steve the sacer to see what we missed, what's
going on out there. I saw a picture after the
Lakers game tonight that Lebron James kept the game ball,
had it with him in the locker room. The Lakers
lost one forty to one eleven. The Lakers record, yes,

(01:15:20):
maybe saying it was his last touchdown pass. The Lakers
record is twenty nine and thirty eight. But he had
an assist tonight that gave him ten thousand for his career.
So Lebron now the first player in NBA history that's
reached the ten thousand mark in both assists and rebounds,
and of course points as well. Yeah, exactly, congratulations. Now

(01:15:40):
that Tom Brady has unretired and his Pro Bowl center
has resigned, let's note that Tampa Bay's home schedule this
year includes games against Green Bay, the Rams, Cincinnati, Kansas City,
and Baltimore all at Tampa Bay. They retired retired. Think
of it this way. Opening weekend, Fox is going to
fight for one of those opponents to be at Tampa

(01:16:02):
Bay for their first game. Wouldn't you think maybe an
Aaron Rodgers against Tom Brady for Opening weekend? That's at
least a possibility. The Bucks will have road games at
San Francisco, at Dallas this season, at Pittsburgh Cleveland. But
and this has already been announced, Tampa Bay will play
one of its home games in Munich this year. Now,
and this is the new rule each year. It's part

(01:16:24):
of the league's expansion to seventeen regular season games. It
used to be you'd play eight at home, eight on
the road. Now there's seventeen total games on your schedule.
So if it's your conferences turn to have the one
extra home game, well four teams up to four from
your conference would be designated to move one of their
home games to a neutral site international game. That's why

(01:16:45):
we do know already before tonight's news one of the
Tampa Bay home games is going to Munich this year,
just as we know a Green Bay home game will
be in the UK, a New Orleans home game will
be in the UK, and an Arizona home game will
be played in Mexico City this season. By the way,
the Cardinals resigned tight end Zach Ertz today. As for
the baseball, baseball news, plenty of baseball news tonight. In

(01:17:08):
spring training, games don't start until this Thursday. Today is
when players had to report to camp. We'll get three
weeks worth of exhibition games and then opening day Thursday,
April seven. Josh Donaldson is no longer with the Twins.
He's owed about fifty million dollars over the next two years.
He and two others were traded to the Yankees for
catcher Gary Sanchez and infielder Geo or Shella. And also today,

(01:17:31):
Minnesota acquired picture Sonny Gray from the Red's. Milwaukee resigned
reliever Brad Boxburger, and the Mets will sign reliever Adam Ottavino.
According to Fox's Ken Rosenthal, the details on d H
Nelson Cruz going to the Washington Nationals, Yes, d H
s in the National League now officially, he's made a
ton of money ever since he's got suspended for fifty games,

(01:17:51):
well over a hundred millions suspended yet and that's in
the back half of his career at this age. It's
a one year deal plus an option pending a call
all of this, but it's worth twelve million dollars. Plus
a three mill buyout. Wow is correct. As for the NHL,
we had the Heritage Classic today. The Buffalo Sabers were

(01:18:12):
playing outdoors in a CFL stadium, got three goals in
the third to beat Toronto five to two. This was
at Tim Horton's Field, Hamilton's Aday. My wife had it
on TV. I wouldn't. I didn't put it on. She
put it on. This is separate from the Stadium series
where they play outdoor games in NFL stadiums. These quote
celebrates Canada's history of outdoor hockey. They've had six of

(01:18:34):
these Heritage Classics in the last twenty years or so,
but this three outdoor games this season, including New Year's
including the one at Tennessee a couple of weeks back.
In the thirty five outdoor games the NHL has had
in the regular seasons today over the years, the home
teams have a losing record fifteen and seventeen plus three
overtime losses. And I did note that Tim Horton's Field

(01:18:57):
is also home to the Canadian Football Hall of Fame.
It's within walking distance of the site of the original
Tim Horton's fast food restaurant, opened in nineteen sixty four,
co founded by former Leafs defenseman Tim Horton, Hall of
famer four time Stanley Cup winner from the nineteen sixties.
In fact, the Leafs haven't made the Stanley Cup Final
even once since then. The NHL lock at two thousand five.

(01:19:21):
Since then, Toronto hasn't even won a single playoff series.
And I must mentioned again that the league, they said
at this outdoor game at Nashville recently, they used three
fifty gallons of paint to make the ice white for
the outdoor game. That tricksman. Typically they lay down an
inch of white ice and then painted white, and then

(01:19:42):
lay another quarter inch of ice, and then put down
the lines and the logos and those were made of fabric,
and then lay down another inch of ice on top
of that. In Tennessee, the crew had started earlier put
the paint in the lines and the logos deeper into
the sheet of ice. But it's just an odd thing
to concoct all this, and then they have all these
portable refrigeration systems to do these outdoor games. I remember

(01:20:04):
there was once a Dodger Stadium hockey game with the
Kings against Canada. Yeah, exactly, they'll keep having these outdoors,
not just on New Years. Keep having these outdoor things
every year. NHL ratings had truly been horrid. I mean
t NT just got them, and they're getting three thousand
people watching those games. More watch me playing YMC basketball.

(01:20:25):
So if you have one of these outdoor games, they
tend to get a little bigger audience. All right, cold
to cold even watch those games are I can't even
mean you scared me by saying yesterday that it's snowing
where you are. As a Californian, I can't even watch
something that looks that cold, no matter if it's painted
on or not. Two in the books. The Power Hours

(01:20:45):
coming up next. Stick around for that. We'll get more
on Brady March Madness. Well haves to get to here
on Fox Sports Radio. Oh, the Power Hour of the show.
Mark willing in for Chris playing. I'm already span. You're
on a busy Sunday. You want to be part of
the show. Mark on the score and tee on the score. Willard,

(01:21:06):
I'm it's thinking genius one. We're gonna have to change
your Twitter hand. I just can't take it anymore, especially
when we've been filling in all this time. Lots going on.
Aaron Torres will join us in about twenty past the hour.
We'll get into March Madness a little bit more in
Depthora tore As he's our college basketball inside us, so
we'll speak to him. Mark. I want to start off
by this. You know, when I used to watch Tom

(01:21:27):
Brady when he played for the Patriots, I always respected
his ability is greatness, but I would root against him.
He was like public getting me number one. I wanted
everything bad to happen to Tom Brady. When he left
the Patriots and won a Super Bowl with Tampa, I
all of a sudden became a Tom Brady fan. I'm like, oh,
I want to show I want him to show that
it wasn't Belichick, that it was really Tom Brady. I'm

(01:21:50):
pulling for Brady. Let's go Brady. Now that Brady's got
his Super Bowl away from Belichick retired and unretired, is
he's still going to be a sympathetic, sympathetic figure and
people are gonna pull form and talking about the neutral
fans or people gonna start rooting against Tom Brady like
he was on the Patriots. I I mean, I guess

(01:22:11):
it swings back the other way. A little bit. Let's
let's start. Let's start with you, though, you were one
of the people, so like, where are you right now?
I was against him. I think I'm gonna be rooting
against him. I'm gonna be the guy that's gonna say
it's twenty seven nothing in the first game of the
year that State retired Brady. How many times are we
gonna hear that right that next year, especially with that schedule.

(01:22:33):
The issue with some of these guys, especially at this position,
to me, the quarterback, which is the most important position
in sports we all agree, is over exposure. Like Tom Brady, though,
the difference between Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers right now
is that Aaron seems like he's out for the exposure.
It's Joe Rogan, It's Pat McAfee, it's I'm immunized, it's

(01:22:58):
all of this, like, oh, I'm gonna leave the Packers.
I'm gonna leave the Packers. No, I actually just want
more money. It seems like concocted over exposure. Tom does
it simply because of of his success. He's overexposed, because
he's in the Super Bowl every other year, and and
we get sick of that as a society. Like we're

(01:23:19):
trying to sit down and have nachos and hummus every
February and and and there's Tom again, and we're sick
of it. And it was good one time, where we're
like cool. At least the uniform is different. This is
a little something different this time. I think again, I
don't think that this is concocted. I think that Tom
felt like he wanted to keep playing. It wasn't gonna

(01:23:40):
be under these circumstances, so he had to do this.
But he never meant to not play, so that he
keeps being involved in big stories that are solely based
on his success and his and his way. And uh so, yeah,
I'm with you. It won't work for him. But I
hold it against Brady less than I do someone like
Aaron Rodgers. He really, uh he's made taking a big

(01:24:02):
risk here, at least financially, at least the way I
see it. You know, remember the story about the wide
receiver for the Falcons who just got busted, uh for
and he said, oh, I bet was fifteen hundred dollars.
Well you've been fifteen hundred dollars, but now you lost
a ten million dollars. Sarry, let me ask you this.
If Tom Brady comes back and plays like garbage Knockwood,

(01:24:24):
gets hurt, can only play six, seven, eight, nine games,
does he lose money on his brand at TV twelve?
And I'm not just talking a little Bundy, what do
you lose like millions on top of millions or is that?
Is that impossible to tell? When you leave the game
at forty five, it would seem like your brand is up, up, up,
But if you're gonna get hurt in forty six or

(01:24:44):
something like that, I don't know. If your brand is
gonna continue to go up and up there, you're gonna
have millions of dollars at stake. Here, I'm guessing, are
we really worried about Tom Brady? No? I was thinking
that I kind of respect him for that in a way, though,
if that's the case, Like if he's putting it on
the line because he solely wants to play, he's that

(01:25:07):
much of a ridiculous competitor. You said it a couple
of hours ago, like what does he have left to prove? Nothing?
So maybe he's not playing because he wants to prove something.
Maybe he just is. I mean, it's a borderline addiction
at this point, isn't it. This is like, right, I
think it's the camaraderie. They always missed the camaraderie. Mark,

(01:25:28):
It's always they missed the guys in the locker room.
It's not working out, it's not practice, even though he
likes practice. It's always the camaraderie he misses. And I
think that's what keeps him coming back every year. I again,
I think it's a little bit selfish. You've got a wife,
you've got kids growing up, You've missed out on a lot.
You're forty five, you've accomplished everything. You're the greatest of
all time as a football player. Arguably, I'm not so

(01:25:49):
sure you should have come back, especially when you can
walk away without a limp or some serious injuries right now. Mark, Yeah,
But I also like, who knows what's going on inside
that that family's ructure. I know a lot of families
that do pretty well because they get a chance to
miss each other, you know what I mean, Like, like,
maybe this is just she's pretty adamant that she wants
him to retire. I wonder how she's taking about this

(01:26:11):
coming back from retirement, you know. I mean again, like
we're we're talking about people let's be honest. They travel
with a nanny, Okay, Arnie, Like I mean these people,
every everything is fine. And and you have to know,
if you married Tom Brady, you married an addict. He's
just not addicted to drugs. He's he's addicted to competition, right,

(01:26:34):
He's he's addicted to this. And maybe it is, as
you said, the camaraderie. I mean, uh, and who knows,
maybe he was home for five weeks and and uh
and she's like, oh my gosh, like I'm not you know,
I'm not your servant that that you have in the
locker room, like you get back out of here. Who
knows what's going on? But this, this whole thing works

(01:26:55):
for them. And uh and and and in a way,
when you see some one like this who just cannot
give it up and he is still playing at an
incredibly high level, I'm not gonna make the leap to
say a you're selfish or be you're taking an unnecessary
risk or whatever I simplify it. He's still good. He

(01:27:17):
wants to play. Knock yourself out. Have you ever seen
anybody more competitive? Um, there's only three people I think
of when I'm talking about the all competitive team. The
top three that come to mind, Tom Brady, UM, Michael
Jordan's and Kobe Bryant. I don't know if there was
anybody even away from their sports, even if Michael Jordan
was playing calf if you know, if if Tom Brady

(01:27:38):
was playing poker, Uh, Kobe could have been playing a
whip football. They're all competitive in there, right, no matter
what they were playing out there. More Kobe used to say, yeah,
his daughters ended up being like they sort of inherited
that from him, and and yes, everything was a competition.
Who can make the table fast enough at dinner? Who right,
who can do the dishes quick enough? Like you, there

(01:28:00):
are people like this. It just compete with with with
with absolutely everything. Uh. Monica on Friends, her character was
like this, like you just compete with absolutely everything. I
think you're leaving a couple of golfers out of it.
I mean Tiger Woods and film making sense. By the way,
I will Phil and Phil I know this. I think
we all know this. I mean when they're playing their

(01:28:21):
practice rounds on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Uh, he literally
did not let the other players he was playing with,
he didn't let them not put big money on on
and they're just out there doing a practice round. Um,
like he just I mean, there it again. It is.
It's an addiction. It's maybe a little bit more of
a positive one. Uh. You know, you're not you're not

(01:28:43):
injecting something awful into your body, but it is there.
There's no other way to explain, like playing a sport
like this for twenty years into your mid forties, when
you've won the Super Bowl times, I mean, there was
no other way to explain it. You get to be
the first. Now I haven't asked you, nobody's probably I
haven't seen this on Twitter. So now that Tom Brady

(01:29:05):
is coming back, Tampa Bay Buccaneers will go what as
a record, um with that type of schedule and you
heard the sayre rowing, you know, reading off the teams,
that's a murderous schedule out there. I think he's gonna
be lucky to go ten and seven and um, you
know find his way back in the playoffs. That that's
a real tough schedule out there. And we don't even

(01:29:26):
know necessarily, like what the whole NFC looks like. Is
Deshaun Watson going to quarterback the Saints of the Panthers,
Does that move them into so Tampa Bay. We had
given them up for dead. Now they're back in this.
We know that the you know, Seattle maybe yeah, but
I mean, like you look at that NFC. The NFC

(01:29:46):
West gives you a lot. Green Bay is still going
to be a factor. I don't necessarily know exactly what
the East is going to have to offer here, right,
but Dallas is strong enough. Does when have a resurgence? Again?
I'm looking at DeShawn Watson, Jimmy Garoppolo. Who is serviceable?
If you've got some stuff on the issa Watson, I

(01:30:09):
think it's Watson. I think it's Watson. I mean Garoppolo.
Something could happen there. But I got to imagine if
you're one of these teams left. I don't know where
Pittsburgh sits on this, but Carolina has reported interest in
New Orleans has no interest. Pittsburgh has no interest in
de Shawn Watson. They're saying, okay then then, And I've
also heard that they have no interest in Jimmy Garoppolo.
So who do they have interest in? Who exactly is

(01:30:32):
it that Pittsburgh would like to quarterback their team this year?
But if if Jimmy, I think it was Minshew. Did
I hear that Minshew? Might know? You heard Minshew as
a as a cults target, which which which I gather
as some sort of negotiating ploy with the forty Niners
like that, Jimmy to Indy looks it makes way too
much sense. So let's let's put him there. Let's say

(01:30:54):
Jimmy's inn Indy. And if Pittsburgh isn't really interested, um,
then then uh, if it is Carolina versus New Orleans
for Deshaun, then the Jimmy thing could go first. But
if not, like, aren't you you're going for DeShawn And
if you don't get him, then you're going for Jimmy. Right, why, well,
be asked, is it why would you give up three
first round picks for DeShawn Watson? Is he really worth

(01:31:17):
three first round picks? But then you go ahead and
you were, you know, destroying me when I said that
Jimmy should then get at least two first round picks.
I mean i'd first round pick, then three first round
picks of DeShawn Watson, you know, not not me not?
I mean, what are these draft picks? We get? We
we get so excited about mock drafts and everybody's predictions

(01:31:39):
about who's gonna go where, and there's a sex appeal
to the whole thing now, but come on, what what
are they really worth? If you know that? And I
don't know what to Shaun suspension may or may not
be or or is he going to be the same
player he was a year and a half ago, but
he's twenty six years old. If you're essentially saying we

(01:32:00):
can get this guy, he'll play where the way he
used to and we can hold him for ten years,
that's worth twenty first round draft picks, I mean three
if you get deep if you're asking me though, that's
why people haven't really you know, I mean, I don't
know the forty Niners gave up three for a guy
coming out of North Dakota State at age. So like,

(01:32:21):
if I you know, like Deshaun Watson, do you agree
top seven quarterback in the NFL when he's when everything's
right right, when it's right, yes, then he's then he's
worth five first rounders? Who cares about first rounders? If
you can have that, well, you're but you're you're you're
gonna take thirty cents on the dollar with Jimmy Garoppolo.
Who what's his record? What's seventy one? And nobody's like,

(01:32:45):
nobody's defended Jimmy Garoppolo more than me in San Francisco.
But the facts are uh that he had great stuff
around him. He has Kyle Shanahan as a coach who
always gets the most in terms of numbers out of
a of a her back. And even though I like
him and I agree with you, he's good. Um, the

(01:33:05):
forty Niners themselves, the team who had him, gave up
three first round draft picks to replace him. So what
were they saying. They were saying that we feel set
at every position except where we feel like we could
get more out of that position. So you know, Jimmy,
he's good, He's not great by the way Baker Mayfield. Then, um,

(01:33:28):
set for one more year in Cleveland. He's gonna go
to get a reprieve and he'll get to do one
more year in Cleveland, and then after that, I don't know.
I I don't think Cleveland's going to keep it, but
I'm not sure on that. There could be surprises. Right
the two teams I'm watching that could could pull a surprise,
Cleveland and Philadelphia up in Philadelphia. I would not be shocked.

(01:33:52):
I I like Curts. I'm not so sure why they're
so quick to go ahead and move along from him.
I'm I'm not so sure if they think they're gonna
win a super Bowl with somebody else. But I'd go
another year with him, Mark, you know, I mean, I
I don't dislike the guy, but it's kind of like
what the forty Niners did that We were just discussing, like,
if you're good, is that good enough? Or do you
make the effort to be great? Like, let me ask

(01:34:15):
you this, Arnie, you're running the Raiders right now. Okay,
Patrick Mahomes, Russell Wilson, and Justin Herbert are in your division.
Are you riding with Good or do you need to
do something to be great? Well, I don't think I'm
gonna get a quarterback that's gonna be better than those
three guys. So maybe I gotta ride with Good and
just start getting great around him about that, because I
don't think I'm gonna be able to bring in a

(01:34:36):
quarterback although less it was Aaron Rodgers or somebody like that,
and that's not going to happen. Now, Well, I will
make the trade for Deshaun Watson. No, I mean, yeah,
I guess that's that's the name out there. But is
that still enough to go and get you over the
hump against the Kansas City the charges I think, I
mean that we'll want to pick up with Kalil mcnut's
unbelievable what they were able to do. I mean, if

(01:34:56):
I'm if now, I don't know if Houston would even
entertain doing it within the conference. And then I'm just
throwing this out there. But if you've got Carolina and
New Orleans who are begging you and they want to
send draft picks, and the Raiders come in and say,
not only will we give you draft picks, you can
also have Derek Carr when you do that. Because Derek
Carr goes to the a f C South. You can

(01:35:18):
win that with Derek Carr. You can't win the a
f C West with Derek Carr. If you have the
if you have the most underrated quarterbacks, Derek car is
going to be in your top three. There's there's no
doubt about that. By the way, if cold candidate calls
are turning into are turning in the hot hiring leads,
then you need indeed, because Indeed. Powerful hiring platform makes
it easy to attract screen and interview candidates all from

(01:35:40):
one place. Find your next grade higher visiting indeed dot
com slash credit. When we get back, though, Aaron Torres
will stop on by March madness is here. Gotta give
it a little love. Will go through some of the matchups,
which is the first number one the fall. We'll go
through some of the odds. All that coming up next
right here on Fox Sports Radio alright is hiring heating

(01:36:10):
up Indeeds. Hiring platform makes it easy to attract screen
and interview candidates all in one place. Sponsor a post
and instantly receiver short list of quality candidates on indeed
whose resumes match your job description. Visit indeed dot com
slash credit. Mark will It in for Chris Plank. I'm
already Spaniard moving along on this Sunday. Let's get right

(01:36:32):
to our guests. Of course, I used to do the
show with him on Saturday nights for a long long time.
He's our college basketball inside our buddy. Aaron Torres, Hi
do and Trres Well, I'm all right. It's great to
talk to Mark Willard. Willard, I hope you're doing well. Um,
real comments on on who you're co hosting with Willard.

(01:36:54):
I'm just sorry that you know, you know, you've been
away from Fox Sports. I don't know how many shifts
you've done in the last couple of years. We get
stuck with Arnie Spinner. That's a tough reintroduction. A couple
of times we did this show yesterday, We did it
a couple of weeks ago too. Yeah, but that that
that's you know how it works, Aaron, When when you leave,
you gotta go to the back of the line, you

(01:37:14):
gotta you gotta come back in and go to the
back of the line and and and wait your turn,
and you work your way back up. That's the deal,
all right, Torres, Right off the bat, um, I didn't
think there was a lot of controversy. I think it
was just pretty uneventful. Yeah, maybe you could have cried
for Texas A and M or somebody like that, But um,
I didn't think there was a lot of complaints. And um,

(01:37:37):
I just thought it was find that what the selection commitee.
I know people were complaining about Tennessee being what a
three seed instead of a two. That's no big deal
to me. But I thought that the selection committee did
a pretty decent job. Well, you should care about Tennessee
being a two or three, because you know, it's screws.
It doesn't just screw Tennessee, it screws the Arizona Wildcats.

(01:37:58):
And so what I would say, is you the bottom
of the bracket. I tend to agree is I think
you could shuffle a few teams here and there. I
don't think Indiana should be playing in a playing game.
I don't think Wyoming should either. Michigan, if they should
be in the field, probably should be in one of
those spots. But I generally agree with you. But but
I do think the top half of the bracket, the

(01:38:18):
top part of the bracket, I really should say, that's
where I think the bigger gripe is. And I think
the bigger gripe in general Arnie isn't necessarily Tennessee. But
what became clear today was that playing on on Selection
Sunday had no merit. And so you know, you go
through through the years, and this something Calipari complains about
every years when Kentucky's in these games. There's been big
wins that that should impact seeding, and they didn't. And

(01:38:41):
this year that's the case with Tennessee. You know, Tennessee
doesn't deserve to be a three seed. It hurts the
two seed in their bracket, Villanova, the one seed, Arizona.
I thought Iowa was probably a seed line lower than
they should have been, and then Texas A and M.
I don't think it was a foregone conclusion coming into today,
but it was clear that today didn't matter at all
unless they want so. I think that's the bigger gripe.
That seems to be increasingly clear that playing on Sunday

(01:39:03):
doesn't help you. So if it doesn't help you, then
it really only hurts you. So that that probably, to me, Arnie,
would be the biggest gripe. It's just the teams that
I felt like probably should have been credited for what
they did today seem to get no credit at all. Aaron, I,
I don't know if this is something that you can avoid,
but I keep hearing from people and I agree, kind

(01:39:23):
of a bummer that Murray stayed is taking on us
a like that that those are both a couple of
teams that that that could have made some noise, they
end up going against one another. What are your thoughts
there is that something that could have or should have
been avoided. Yeah, you know, well every year kind of
we get that complaint. Is it seems like we end
up with some good kind of quote unquote mid majors.

(01:39:46):
Um you know, uh, you know, facing off and around one.
You know, to me, I'm not really that upset, And
I'll tell you why. It's because Murray I thought, you know,
got an advantageous seed where there was a lot of
talk that they were going to get in that eight
nine game, which again to go back to the previous question,
I think hurts the number one seed more than anything else.
I mean, you go back to last year, Loyal Chicago

(01:40:08):
was probably mis seated in an eight nine game. They
get Illinois in the second round. Illinois, many people pick
picked to win the national championship or win the region
at least in whatever region they were in last year.
They run into a team in Loyal that probably should
have been a six or seventh seed. They get bounced
in round two. So to me, I think I understand
that the people that like these mid majors and their

(01:40:29):
opportunities to make a run having an opportunity, you know,
you want to see a Murray state maybe get a
I don't know North Carolina somebody like that, that's that's
an eight nine tent somewhere and there. But I think
if you're Murray State, you just gotta be happy that
that you're that you're a seventh seed. And I think
in San Francisco as well, is that you look at
the resume, I thought they were deserving of of an
at large bid. But you know, if you're a ten seed,

(01:40:52):
by definition, you're probably one of the final ten or
so teams in the field. I don't think there's that
much to get upset about. So I get the argument.
I get the people that like the mid majors, you know,
having to face off against the big schools, but in
the grand scheme, I don't know that that was like
a huge frustration of mine personally after today, Aaron, you know,
I love the underdogs. I don't have and I'll pick

(01:41:14):
him as all the time, I'll have like six seven,
eight underdogs going um maybe to the sweet sixteen. Didn't
have many this time around. Of course, I jumped on
my Vermont team, who by the way, is only a
five a point underdog to Ark and Saw. I think
maybe they can have a little bit of a run
maybe Chattanooga. Other than that, I don't see any of
you know, any of these mid majors or smaller conferences

(01:41:36):
that I think can make any run like that. You know,
maybe St. Mary's too. Well. Yeah, it's interesting already because
you know, the thing that I always threw out and
it kind of frustrates me, is that, you know, every
year we kind of say, like practet so wide open
and like, but history tells us that basically it's going
to be a one seed that ends up winning it.

(01:41:56):
I mean, I throw out the set all the time.
Eleven of the last fourteen champions were one seed, one
was the top two seed, and then the two others
were my alma mater, Yukon with Kemba Walker one year
in Shabaz Napier or the other year and so basically
they had the best player in the tournament. So history
says if you're not a one seed um or have
the best player in the tournament, you're not gonna win

(01:42:17):
the thing. But what I would say, and why I
bring it up as it pertains to your conversation, Arnie,
is that you know, I think this is the weird
year where I I don't think there's much difference between
a one seed and say a three seed, right, like
Baylor in their region. Yeah, like Baylor in their region
is banged up, they're not playing well. I think you
can argue U c. L A As a four, Kentucky

(01:42:39):
as a two, per Toy as a three, or playing
just as well as Baylor as a one. Um. You know,
we just mentioned a minute ago the Arizona situation where
there are people talking Tennessee is a one seed, uh,
and there are three seed in that region. Villanova's a
two seed, is the Big East champion. So I'm only
bringing that up to say is that I'm kind of
with you on this one, Arnie. Is you know, could
we see a random six beat a random three? Yeah?

(01:43:02):
But I think we're gonna see a lot of two
and three seeds in that sweet sixteen. Obviously the ones
have an advantageous path. And when you start talking about
two and three seeds being in the sweet sixteen, it
means that maybe there's a first round upset here, but
it doesn't play into an eleven seed or something like
that winning multiple games. Now, I think there's teams that
are gonna be interesting. Um, you know, Willard, I know

(01:43:23):
spend some time in San Diego. I think San Diego State,
if they can get by Creighton, could cause some problems
for for Kansas. I do believe also that you mentioned St.
Mary's Arnie. I think that the winner of that Indiana
Wyoming game could give them some trouble as well. But
again it goes back to my point. When there really
isn't that much difference between say the number one team

(01:43:44):
in the bracket and the number nine, ten, eleven, twelve
team in the bracket, it means we'll probably see a
lot of chalk and for people that are looking for
that eleven twelve seed that's gonna make the magic run
to the Elite eight, I really just don't see it
this year. While speaking of eleven seeds are and you
could comment in a couple of minutes ago that I
wanted to follow up in and you just mentioned that

(01:44:04):
that Michigan quote if they should even be in the tournament,
And I'm hearing a lot of people when you look
at their seating say, hey, that's a team that that
at least early at least for one game, if not more,
could make noise. They're actually favored in their opening round game,
even as an eleven seeds. So follow up on that
with me, why what what's your thought on Michigan and

(01:44:25):
their ability to make noise here? Well and Willard, it's
so funny because like what that speaks to me is
and it's funny because, like, you know, the two three
weeks before the bracket comes out, people that you know,
I'm not you know whatever, Like people ask me, oh,
who's who's the team that can do this? And and
I always say, like, and it's annoying thing that annoys people,

(01:44:46):
But I always say I need to see a bracket
before before I start saying this team is a final
four or whatever. And I bring it up because let
me give you a random example and then I'll come
back to Michigan. But like probably the last six weeks
been out on Auburn, Like I just think that they're
not playing well there, there's some fundamental issues with the team,
but you look at the way that the bracket shapes up,

(01:45:08):
and they can make some they can make some noise,
and so it's kind of the same with Michigan. Is
like if you if you had asked me at one
pm Eastern today, I would have said, I think they'll
probably get in I don't know if they deserve to
be in UM but by by technical definition, right, is like,
if if I don't know if they deserve to be in,
that probably means that I don't think they're gonna make

(01:45:30):
very much noise. But Colorado State is a nice matchup
for them. I think Colorado State is probably where they
should be. But this is a matchup based tournament. And
to your point, well, Michigan's favored, and so that's why.
And like again, I don't want to be the annoying
guy that like gives you know half you know what answers.
But it's why I always laugh at the well who's

(01:45:51):
the favorite, who's gonna win, Who's the team that nobody's
talking about that can make a final four? It's like, well,
I kind of gotta see it before. And I think
Michigan is a perfect example of that because, as I
ad a few times, now, they are in the bracket.
There's nothing we can do about it. We can yell
and scream, but the fact remains that being in the bracket,
they have kind of a nice little path, uh to
maybe make a little bit of noise. Let's go Aggies, right, Torres,

(01:46:13):
Let's go Aggies, Texas A, and m IS. They're playing
your Yukon Huskies, right what you a six point favorite,
tough guy, don't be so don't be so confident. You know, God,
he win one conference title and you think you run
college basketball. Now, it's unbelievable. Jeez man. Um, Now I'll

(01:46:35):
say I'll say this real quick on my Huskies. I
love my Huskies. Um. People were very inspired by some
of the success they had this year. I do think
they're flawed. I you know, I like them. I like them.
I'm happy with with the progression of the program. They
go through long stretches where they don't score. I think
they'll be okay with with New Mexico State. I think

(01:46:55):
they'll struggle with Arkansas, and I don't see any scenario
in which they would beat Gonzaga with a potential Sweet
sixteen matchup there. I'll text you after they lost to
Mexico State, right, Oh, I'm sure you will. You'll read
your show the following day. I won't even see there.
Did you see what Tosies did? It? Like three days ago?
What are we talking? Tom Brady will re retire and

(01:47:16):
you'll still lead with are exactly Aaron Torres. Everybody work
with him on Saturday nights stories, have a great week.
I know this is your super Bowl, so enjoy the games.
I'll catch up with you later on. Buddy. Alright, fellas,
enjoy the rest of the show. Thank you guys for
having me. All Right, thanks a lot. Check about on
Saturday nights. We're gonna come back. I want to touch
on a few things he brought up about March badness.

(01:47:37):
I have a few other topics to get to also,
But first let's see what's trending. We bring in the
saga final time of the night. What's going on to Sega.
You know, if you look at the bracket in the
South region, there is a chance at least that the
Sweet sixteen games will be back to back Michigan against
Ohio State and Arizona against Illinois, not that Arizona has
any history against Illinois in the term. I want them

(01:47:59):
so bad after what they did. First, we were gonna
go to the final four in St. Louis. We were
up by fifteen points. My wife walks, ago, Oh my god,
you're kicking their ass. You're gonna meet all your for
dirty brothers in St. Louis. And from that moment on
I don't think we scored another point and we lost
to them. I was the worst loss of my life. Michigan,

(01:48:19):
by the way seed at eleven this year, it has
a first rounder to start the Thursday schedule. That's the
new Eastern Time or so start against Colorado State, and
the Big Ten has nine teams in the field. Of course,
that's the same number as last season, when that conference
only moved one team into the second weekend. More college
hoops in a moment, but quarterback Tom Brady didn retired tonight.

(01:48:39):
He will return to the Tampa Bay Bucks to play
this year. His Pro Bowl center Ryan Jensen then resigned tonight.
The Vikings gave quarterback Kirk Cousins a one year extension.
Arizona resigned tight end Zach er It's Dallas resigned wide
receiver Michael Gallup. This Wednesday, NFL free agency starts. That's
when the league year begins and that's when the recent
trades become official. As for college hoops, Gonzaga is the

(01:49:01):
number one overall seed in the n c A Tournament.
Arizona is a one seed, but in the South Region
with Villanova as the two seed there. Kansas is the
number one seed in the Midwest, with Auburn the two
seed there. Baylor is the number one seed in the
East region, with Kentucky the two seed in the East.
Iowa today won the Big Ten title, while Richmond took
the Atlantic Ten. Iowa's first round n c double A

(01:49:23):
game as against Richmond on Thursday afternoon. Tennessee won the
SEC tournament today. The balls will open Thursday afternoon against Longwood.
Houston won the American Conference and now travels to Pittsburgh
for a Friday first rounder against you A B. That
winner would face the Illinois Chattanooga winner. Yale took the
IVY League. It will play against Perdue on Friday. That
winner will face the Texas Virginia Tech winner in Milwaukee,

(01:49:46):
and Wisconsin is playing in Milwaukee this week, opening Friday
against Colgate. With a win, Wisconsin would face the L.
S U Iowa State winner in the second round. Keep
in mind L. S U as an interim coach after
they fired. There's yesterday when the n c a A
violations came out. Officially, Georgia is going to pay the
buyout of Mike white Uh. He's going from Florida to

(01:50:08):
the Georgia Bulldogs as new coach and the Gators are
into the n i T. They'll be hosting Iona with
an interim coach, and yes. Vermont plays in Buffalo late
Thursday night a first rounder against Arkansas. That winner will
face the Yukon New Mexico State winner on Saturday. Teams
that just made it in include number twelve seeds Wyoming

(01:50:29):
in Indiana. They all meet in the first four Rutgers
in Notre Dame, where the other last two at large
teams in that play and winner will then face Alabama
this week and the first four out the teams that
just missed the n c A, so those are each
one seeds in the n i T, including dayton which
can't play at home this week. Virginia is unseated in
the n i T, but opening at home against Mississippi

(01:50:51):
State apparently there was a problem with the arena. Vanderbilt
has a first round n i T game hosting Belmont.
This is notable because they're both not only from Nashville, Tennessee,
they're almost next door to each other, and they're playing
each other in i T first round. The cb I
tournament will take place over five days in Daytona Beach
sixteen teams starting this coming weekend. Drake is the one

(01:51:12):
seed in the c B I. There's also the Basketball
Classic formerly the c I T Tournament that's due to
have thirty two teams. The NASCAR winner at Phoenix, which
Chase Briscoe, is first Cup Series victory. NASCAR will be
back on Fox TV next Sunday from Atlanta, Engulf. The
leaders are about halfway through the third round at the
Players Championship. After rain this week in Florida, they expect

(01:51:33):
to finish the tournament tomorrow. In basketball, Kevin Durant fifty
three point points in Brooklyn's win over New York one
Tan one oh seven and Duranta at nine assists as
well Philadelphia one in overtime at Orlando, and Atlanta. Trey
Young forty seven points in a narrow win against Indiana,
Memphis and Phoenix each one. The Phoenix Suns victory against
the Lakers was one forty to one eleven. The Lakers

(01:51:55):
have lost ten straight on the road. Lakers were down
after the first quarter forty eight to twenty two, and
the Lakers win loss record continues to be embarrassing twenty
nine and thirty eight. Finally, the Baseball News. The spring
training games start this Thursday. Players had to report to
camp buy today. The Washington Nationals get d h Nelson
Cruz one year deal plus an option. The Twins traded

(01:52:17):
third baseman Josh Donaldson and two others to the Yankees
for catcher Gary Sanchez and infielder Geo or Shella. Minnesota
acquired picture Sonny Gray from the Reds, and Arizona gets
picture Ian Kennedy. Back to you. Thanks for that, the Sager,
of course, Mark Will. It didn't for Chris Blankbarny Spaniard.
By the way, Wellard, you heard the Sagres say Sons
winning one one eleven. Anything you want to say about

(01:52:38):
the Lakers. By the way, the Suns could have put
up one fifty. It was like there, it was like
the Lakers. I thought they were playing the Western All
Stars or something like that. I mean, it was it
was embarrassing. The Suns had forty eight points at the
end of the first quarter. They were almost on taste
for two bills. Yeah. The Lakers, um, you know, I

(01:53:00):
know that people when they see stuff like this, they
start to talk about things that are emotional. The Lakers
have given up, They've given up. I wish people would
understand they just weren't that good to begin with. This
is this is a misguided process that brought this group together.
It's not to say that Lebron is not still great,
of course he is. Excuse me, my my headphones gave

(01:53:20):
up when you said they weren't good enough to begin with.
You mean they weren't when they won the championship two
years ago? Right? No? No, Well, first of all, very
very different team, very very different team. And uh, Anthony
Davis hurt for a good portion of this year. That's
a big part of it. But outside of that, like
because this team thought they had depth when they brought

(01:53:42):
in Russell Westbrook. You you, I just wish people would
start removing the names from their thought process because that's
all they are at this point. This is history. Carmelo,
Anthony Dwight, Howard, Russell Westbrook, even Lebron, who's still great,
but they all are lesser versions of who they used

(01:54:02):
to be. Points a game and twenty turnovers, I mean
he's been Yeah, ask any Laker fan who's watched this
team for more than a second. This year, the Russell
Westbrook thing has flat out not worked. It's been more
annoying than anything else. It's led to weird press conference

(01:54:23):
is a weird relationship. He's just his way doesn't work.
It's it hasn't worked anywhere he's ever been. He's a
good basketball player, but it's just it's not winning basketball
and he doesn't have it anymore. So, Uh, this team
went after names instead of fits, and and this is
what you get. You know, when Anthony Davis misses too

(01:54:43):
much time, you get a team that is now full
nine games under five hundred and is barely hanging on
to even being in the playing tournament. I don't think
they'll get into Portland. I mean thoroughly, with two and
a half ahead of Portland. There, Yeah, they're I mean
Portland obviously has nothing going on right now, so they'll
probably get in, but they're probably not going to get out.

(01:55:04):
And if they do, that might be the worst thing
for him, because if this team goes and plays in
Phoenix or Memphis in the playoffs, that's a sweep. It's
an embarrassing blowout sweep. All Right, we gotta get to
some predictions, some picks coming up, um stories. We haven't
got to all that's coming up next. Final segment of
the show right here on Fox Sports or Radio. Hiring

(01:55:28):
Heating Up Indeeds Hiring platform makes it easy to attract,
screen and interview candidates all in one place. Sponsor a
post and instantly receiver a shortlist of quality candidates on
Indeed whose resumes match your job description. Visit indeed dot
com slash credit Mark Willer. Tell everybody where they can
hear you Monday through Friday up there in San Francisco. Well,

(01:55:50):
that would be on Fox affiliate of course, seven, the
game home of the Golden State Warriors, nine to noon weekdays.
Specific time though, specific time, Yes, is there any other time? Arnie? Honestly,
what is two in the morning with something? Are you talking?
Are you talking about what Chris Johnson had to say

(01:56:12):
about Steph Curry. He said that step I'm sure you've
heard this a million times before that Steph Curry is
terrible for basketball and it's just killing the game. So
a little surprising. Listen, Yeah, it is that. It is
the ten thousand time I've heard it. And if you
do go to a youth basketball game, especially around these parts, Yeah,

(01:56:32):
people are pulling up from a little bit too far away.
I I get that Um, but it's just yeah, it's
just kind of a it's such an old take. Number
one and number two it was from Chris Johnson. I
thought that was yeah, but it's like, what do you what? What?
What are we gonna do about this? The guy? The
guy did He ruin the game. He changed the game.

(01:56:52):
He has brought something that works on television and in
person unlike anything we've ever seen in the NBA before.
I'm not saying it's the most eye popping thing, but
it's different than anything we've ever seen in the NBA before.
And my gosh, it works like it is. It is mesmerizing. Um.
If that's bad for entertainment, then I'm missing something. Let's

(01:57:16):
get I'm missing something. And a few predictions in with
Tom Brady coming back, I had Tampa going ten and seven,
especially with their murderous schedule to Saga read it off,
it is just brutal out there. Ten and seven sounds
about right. They probably get into the playoffs with that
type of record, but I don't know if they go
any better than tenant seven next year. Hard to believe
that Tom Brady wouldn't make the playoffs. It's a playoff team,

(01:57:39):
but again, we don't even know who is Deshaun Watson
in his division for those two games. Is he a Saint?
Is he a panther? Um? I I don't know. The
Falcons aren't aren't all that scary at this moment. There's
still clearly the class of their division. So I would
still predict them to win the NFC South, But I'm
with you, I would not expect them to be like

(01:58:00):
the one or the two seed in then I'm wondering
what kind of weapons are gonna put around Tom Brady
or who they're going to get in free agency. I
still think they can benefit themselves by obviously getting themselves
more running game. I don't know what for net or
Ronald Jones is going to do for them. I think
they need a big time running back out there. But um,
do they go ahead get a big time free agent

(01:58:21):
or or they just go with what they have out there? Well,
I mean they they franchise Chris Godwin. I don't even
know if he's gonna be ready for the start of
the season after a late leg injury. There he still
have Evans. It feels to me like the receiving corps
is fine and coming back. I don't I don't think
it sounds like a no, at least not there. I
I mean, it doesn't sound like it, um, But I'm

(01:58:42):
with you. They could use something a little bit more
devastating at the running back position. But they've they've addressed
their offensive line in recent years in the draft. They've
done a really good job there. Brady. Remember he used
to win Super Bowls with nobody at wide receiver. So, UM,
you know, maybe maybe I like you look to the
defense a little bit more, look for more, a little

(01:59:04):
bit more of a devastating pass rush in a running game.
But they've they've got enough. They've they've got everything they need.
They just need to apparently get along, Arenie. You know,
for you people out there for March, Madden is just
in case you're interested. I have my bracket done. I
know Willard's got to go through his, UM. I have.
I only do it because I'm on Sunday night. So
I have Gonzaga coming out of the West, Perdue coming

(01:59:26):
out of the East, my Arizona Wildcats coming out of
the South, and Kansas coming out of the Midwest. Nothing
shocking there. I think you have two number three's and
two number ones. I have Gonzaga and Arizona when, of
course my Wildcats three ones. Didn't you say you've got
Kansas also? Right? Yeah, you got three one three yeah,

(01:59:47):
three ones in the three Listen. I get that the
ones are good, but I'm gonna, uh, I'm gonna, I'm
gonna predict a little bit less chalk than that. I
think Gonzaga, I think Gonzagas is mark play. I think
Arizona is likely. I don't think. I don't think Baylor
makes it, and I don't think Kansas makes it. Kansas

(02:00:07):
could get tripped up. It could be in Iowa, maybe
in the Sweet sixteen road. I think got Wisconsin if
they want to go in. If Wisconsin makes it that far,
I think Wisconsin is a little bit of a sleeper,
if you can call them a sleeper. Um at the receipt,
I want to thank Mark Willard though Marco. The last
couple of days, a couple of weeks ago, we filled
in for Joy Taylor. So um, you know, I'm glad

(02:00:28):
that you're around filling in my friend, my man always fun.
I appreciate you having me and let me let me
bark at you for a few hours anytime, anytime. Thanks
to Ramo's Danny g the Sager. Of course, big Ben
Mallard's coming up next, so enjoy him right here on
Fox Sports Radio

All Episodes

Episode Transcript

Fox Sports Radio News

Host

Jonas Knox

Popular Podcasts

Stuff You Should Know

Dateline NBC

Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang

.css-15opob5{left:0;position:absolute;top:0.8rem;} All Episodes

.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Arnie Spanier & Mark Willard Talk Tom Brady's Return & NCAA Tourney