July 13, 2023 • 37 mins
Mike offers his thoughts on the scandal at Northwestern and the firing of head coach Pat Fitzgerald, why Ed Orgeron is not a solution, FSR’s very own Steve Hartman joins the show to talk about Jon Gruden’s threats towards the NFL, Chiefsaholic turns himself in, and more!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for listening to The Jason Smith Show with Mike
Harmon podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weeknight
ten pm to two am Eastern seven to eleven pm
Pacific on Fox Sports Radio. Find your local station for
The Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon at Foxsports Radio
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Speaker 2 (00:23):
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio Gratings. Hour two of
the program begins here live Mike Carbon alongside Arnie Spanner.
Smith off tonight in theories back tomorrow.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
I don't know. He may be be backpacking across Europe
right now. What's he doing? What's he doing pondering the
meaning of life?
Speaker 4 (00:44):
Okay, all righty.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
It's summertime.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Kids are out, kids are playing sports, and he loves
to coach up his daughter's softball squad. Oh that's so,
he's got all that percolating. Hopefully we'll get some updates
along as the show continues here live.
Speaker 4 (01:00):
My parents never went to any of my games when
I was a kid. I thought, when I was in high.
Speaker 3 (01:05):
School, that's not good.
Speaker 4 (01:08):
That's the way it was back then.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
Does that explain a little bit of who you are
Arnie Standard. Probably I see Bo Benson nodding his head.
He goes, this explains a lot.
Speaker 4 (01:17):
No, I just might not one game, whether I played
in high school or Little league or anything. My parents
never went to one game, not at all. Why, I
don't know.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
Did you never ask that parents marked because they saw mine.
Speaker 4 (01:33):
You didn't get you.
Speaker 3 (01:34):
They used to get found their way.
Speaker 4 (01:35):
You don't get off like you do.
Speaker 5 (01:37):
Now.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
I'll tell you what my dad he was funny. I
grew up the son of a Chicago policeman. High dad
down there in clear Water, Florida in retirement. Uh, and
I would find out. Well, I found out in the
worst way possible where I had a pretty significant knee
injury and I was writhing in pain on the field
and he came and he threw me over his shoulder
(01:58):
to take me. He was in full uniform. He was
able to switch his lunch on his shift to get there.
We go, and then I'm in a brace for six
weeks afterwards. But that's how I found out. He always
found a way to be there. You didn't see him
because he stayed away from the field proper, but he
was there and.
Speaker 3 (02:18):
He was watching. Oh, look at you No, pretty crazy
way to find that out.
Speaker 4 (02:22):
Yeah, that's great, that's awesome.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
I love that now, So you know, wherever I can,
I try to be part of what the kid's doing,
and you know, watch. There were sometimes when my younger daughter,
early in her soccer playing, didn't want me anywhere near
the field. She wanted to make sure she was going
to be good at this before she allowed me and
Dane to let Dad show up at the field.
Speaker 4 (02:45):
That don't watch until I see if I'm any good.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
And she made an all star teams like you're good now?
Pretty cool. Hey, We're brought to you by Progressive Insurance.
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Speaker 3 (02:59):
ATV and more.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
All your protection one place you can bundle and save
at Progressive dot com. Thank you all listening, however you're
getting us and being part of the extended family Tonight,
Fox Sports Radio dot Com, the four hundred plus affiliates nationwide,
of course, the iHeartRadio app, where you can take us
with you wherever you go if you miss any portion
(03:20):
of this show or any others across our vast Fox
Sports Radio network. Of course, you can download the podcast
wherever you get your audio. Give it five stars. Evangelize mom, dad, grandma, grandpa.
Everybody wants to tune on in and be part of
the the extended family. And it's always a great gift
at iHeartRadio link Arnie and the app. Hey, let me
(03:44):
do something really good to improve your quality of life.
Let me download the iHeartRadio app for you.
Speaker 4 (03:50):
That's where I listened to it all the time.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
So I say app for you know, for Father's Day,
Mother's Day, these graduations, wedding weddings. I mean, you're giving
a gift that never stops. It's better than they need
to hear me.
Speaker 4 (04:04):
When you're doing the do you take this man to
be her? And you hear me blasting in the background.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
Can you say that like it's a bad thing. Ah,
I'm sure there's plenty of folks that would love the
sound of your voice coming through at that moment. Look
a story near and dear to my heart, and that
gets the blood a bit boiling. Has been the situation
that has evolved at my alma mater at Northwestern. Pat
Fitzgerald fired with cause yesterday an investigation and I did
(04:34):
a pretty good. I think fiery frothing at the mouth
monologue yesterday about it related to the really the lack
of intestinal fortitude to steal from the great gorilla Mond
soon related to the people at the head of the university.
Speaker 4 (04:51):
You don't think you should have been fired as Wichitone.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
I didn't say that, But what I'm saying is the
people that ran the investigation, yes, that commissioned it, with
all the great resources at your back, at your disposal
at Northwestern Power brokers, in every walk of life, and
a six month investigation that you interviewed fifty plus people,
you came to a conclusion. You accepted that conclusion as president,
(05:18):
as athletic director, you signed off on it.
Speaker 3 (05:22):
You talked to.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
Your head coach at the time, Pat Fitzgerald, and you
agreed that that he would take a two week unpaid suspension.
Now everybody does the haha, what kind of suspension was
it when it was first announced, Well, they're not doing
anything on campus anyway.
Speaker 3 (05:39):
Okay, we don't have any of the reasons.
Speaker 4 (05:41):
It was zero penalty.
Speaker 3 (05:42):
It really was.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
Well, but look, it puts you on notice. It tarnishes
your reputation in the moment. As of Friday, tarnishes the
reputation that not.
Speaker 4 (05:51):
Really if in one month and now I won't even
remember he'd be suspended, if that was his penalty.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
Well maybe maybe that's you, but I think the college
football world as a whole, And this is where the
larger point was as related to him, was that he
was put up as one of the guys, a bit
of a throwback, but a younger guy right in that
regard all the rah rah, all the goodness, you know,
good clean American fun as he would always say, seventy
(06:17):
four brothers in white helmets, all of these things that
would roll off the tongue about team and looking after
each other, the brotherhood of college football, and as a
head of the coaching fraternity right their their organization. The
anti hazing video that has now made the rounds quite
(06:37):
a bit that he made several years back talking about
you don't need that in culture. And I read the
you know what came out from the Daily Northwestern and
the report, and this is where you know, for me,
as the administration went was their failure is they showed
no conviction. The lack of intestinal fortitude, and you signed
(06:59):
off on this as leaders of an organization.
Speaker 4 (07:02):
Was his failure though.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
Well he's the head coach. You listen to me, right
if you're gonna say the at the institution. But I'm
mad at the institution for this is that you did
the investigation and then the details of which most of
which are included in what you found right, and then
you decided that we're going to do this suspension yesterday.
(07:26):
I likened it to Roger Goodell and what they did
with Ray Raich. You knew what was there, you know
all the details, you saw the video and everything else changed.
And then because people get mad and people that you
know wag their fingers on sports talk radio, and you
listen to the bloggers and people and the court of
public opinion, then you decide nothing's really changed except that
(07:49):
the details got out.
Speaker 4 (07:51):
Well, maybe they were right though maybe the callers and
the media.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
No, no, no, But my point is the fact that they
shifted so fast.
Speaker 4 (07:59):
Well maybe they didn't look at it.
Speaker 3 (08:01):
There are a bunch of dopes and they should be
out of their jobs as well.
Speaker 4 (08:03):
You know what, you shouldn't go ahead, And that's not
the first thing you should be mad about. I understand
where you're coming from, and I certainly understand that no, no, no.
Speaker 3 (08:10):
The other stuff.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
Obviously you're disappointed and you're angry about of course a
hundred levels. Right, you can't and that's.
Speaker 4 (08:16):
How you can't have this in your program. How it's
been able to go out for so long. I have
no idea. The fact that it's just coming out now
is absolutely amazing. And I like Pat Fitzgerald. I think
of the world of the guy, but I didn't expect
him to to keep his job. I thought for sure
he was gonna get fired by well.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
I thought that right off the jump, right as soon
as it went public, like wow do But they agreed
to it and then court a public opinion, and then
they they change. And then you've got a lot of
former athletes that have come forward in support, right the
the letter that was signed the entire team, well, all right,
maybe minus one or two. And then this goes back
to the old theory of UH and the idea of like,
(08:59):
I can't tell people how to feel, but if you
have people around your squad, whether it's at your workplace
or in this case a locker room, that feel disenfranchised,
as the head coach and as the assistant coaches, your
job's to help quell that well, well, that's the fact
that they retained all those guys to be the dumbest thing.
I like, they didn't know what the heck was going on?
Speaker 4 (09:21):
Ohie, Like the assistant coaches were walking around with their
heads of the club.
Speaker 3 (09:25):
Right, But that's the point, aren'tie? Is that right?
Speaker 2 (09:27):
And why I'm holding the administration accountable more so than
I think most people will.
Speaker 4 (09:32):
You can't fire everybody right before you.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
You can't absolutely you can you take it as a
all right, here's the hard reset. These are hard truths,
right if you're going to fire the head coach, because
there's always that question of plausible deniability. This goes back
to the a few good men and did you order
a code read? Then why would this guy act without
you saying something or giving the the knowing nod or
(09:54):
whatever the culture was, because right, he's been part of
the organization, uh, part of the school for years.
Speaker 4 (10:00):
Right.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
He was a year behind me at Northwestern when I
was there. Right, So all of that was that part
of the culture under Barnett. Was it part of the
culture that came all the way through into him being
a head coach. There's a lot of questions to be
asked and answered, am I defending his job?
Speaker 1 (10:19):
No?
Speaker 2 (10:19):
I got a lot of questions, and I have a
lot of questions for the players that participated in this stuff, right,
And whether you were told by an assistant coach, a trainer,
Fitzgerald himself, Hell, do you think any of that's helping
team camaraderie?
Speaker 3 (10:33):
No, the details are.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
Disturbing on a million levels. And as an eighteen year
old person, I get it. Peer pressure is a real thing.
But you're also an individual at a prestigious university, right, right,
and you don't have the intestinal fortitude yourself to just say, hey,
you know what, here's a forearm shiver to the neck,
get the hell off me.
Speaker 4 (10:56):
It's it's amazing. Like I said, with that many people,
that's it. Didn't spill the beans beforehand as to why
he deserves to lose his job, and I guess they
keep the assistance. A wise man once said, you gotta
have a fall guy, and that's that's gonna be there.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
In fact, if you stay behind I get it, it
would be the essential death penalty to the program, which
leads to the larger argument of what's their place in
college football in the long term anyway, A question that
was being asked before the last several years of terrible
football being played, a coach who showed the hubrious and
(11:34):
dismissed anybody that questioned in game decision making, personnel decisions,
et cetera. Uh, And there's plenty of history of him
doing that. And look, I don't I don't know what's
real what's imagined. Because he could still be a great
leader of players and inspire great achievements in the classroom,
(11:55):
in the football field and for guys to become great men.
And you could still have this other going on, right,
the two are not mutually exclusive. But now you have
the idea that Ed Oderon said, you know what, I'd
love that if they called, and I like, yes, go
from one scandal to a guy who left under a
strange circumstances himself.
Speaker 4 (12:16):
Well, I mean that, what Look, if you're gonna get
a coach at the last minute, what better than a
coach has won a national championship?
Speaker 2 (12:23):
Right, So yes, let's go from a guy that we
had to fire in scandal to a guy that lost
his last job in scandal.
Speaker 4 (12:31):
Well I didn't say keep him for the long term.
Speaker 2 (12:33):
But but how does that fix anything? Wouldn't you rather
just swallow the poison pill and just do the hard reset.
I think I think that sometimes, you know, you've got
to look a bigger picture what's bringing him as a
bridge guy, because if he does to succeed, what are
you gonna say, Well, you know what he coaches?
Speaker 4 (12:50):
Pretty well, that's what joannamvi. He succeeds, and it's a
win win situation. If I've got the poison pill, I'm
spitting it out. I'm not so sure I want to
go ahead and do such a hard reset, especially.
Speaker 2 (13:01):
Well, you're gonna get relegated in that conference again eventually. Anyway,
it's USC and UCLA are coming in and you got
rid of the divisions, so what you're playing for is
a much different thing than it was before.
Speaker 4 (13:16):
By the way, I help to, I feel like I've
got a reason why that he was the head coach
in Northwestern. You understand that, right, Pat Fitzgerald.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
Excuse me say that again. I didn't quite understand what
you were asking.
Speaker 4 (13:27):
When he finished college, I was working in Chicago at
another network and he was our sales guy, and I
was just kind of, you know, I'm like, you know,
you're allowsy sales guy. Man, you should get back in
the football coach. And he quit after six months and
got in the coaching.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
Which is funny because most of his job is then
selling players on showing up and selling people on the
validity and greatness of the program, by which they then
spent a ton of money on practice facilities.
Speaker 3 (13:58):
And how about is this for commissioning? Oh it's awful. Yeah,
on many many levels.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
And I've heard this debated a little bit, and I'll
be honest, I saw headlines and I saw little little clips,
but the reality is it's the death penalty.
Speaker 4 (14:13):
Yeah, they came back from Harbor sit.
Speaker 2 (14:16):
Well, they're a different type of institution, though there are
a much larger, larger institution Northwestern about eight thousand raw
and it's private penn State. The history, the pageantry, what
it means to the state Northwestern, I don't know that
it carries that same juice, as much as I'd love
it too, being a proud alum, you know, despite this
(14:39):
this issue, the point shaving scandal with guys, that what
happened while I was in school as well. But it
is a type of thing where you already had four
d commits in the last twenty four hours.
Speaker 4 (14:52):
You do right away. It was going to go ahead
and sting a little bit. As for the long term, though,
I'm not so sure that it could hurt them like
you think they are, Mike. I mean, people will forget
about it in two, three, four years, and you know,
they'll build their way back up and it's still a
pretty prestigious school.
Speaker 3 (15:09):
Well, no, the school itself.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
I mean, you're always gonna be able to sell and
there's gonna be a percentage of athletes that decide that
that's the place. Uh, certainly, No, I mean it doesn't
and all you heel was like a two point oh
to go to school there right is undred percent. Uh,
But it's just the idea, Arnie, that you know, you
you've got a changing face of college athletics. Where before
(15:32):
this scandal and with the losing mounting, and because that's
the other side, if he was winning, do they necessarily.
Speaker 3 (15:40):
Fire him fire him? No, not in a million.
Speaker 2 (15:43):
If the last two years are they're playing for meaningful uh. January,
if this was Nick Saban, nick Saban doesn't even get punished.
If this is Nick Saban, well he might get the
two week unpaid maybe they maybe yeah, exactly, you know
what I mean like it's it's a but it's a
very different. Like if this is four or five years
ago and Northwestern's playing well and there's excitement heading towards
(16:06):
bowl season, maybe it hits different. What I would be
curious right now, though, is you know how many extra
meetings have been held across our college landscape, Arnie of Hey,
you know that's happened there at Northwestern. We're sure we're good.
We're sure we're good across the board, right, because you know,
(16:27):
we see a lot where it starts to spiral a
bit and around college athletics, we know that you know,
people are have had the poison pens out for a while.
Speaker 5 (16:38):
Right.
Speaker 2 (16:38):
Remember I was the NFL of a story after story,
and we'll get into John Gruden here shortly with our
guys Steve Hartman, who's going to join us, former staffer
of the Raiders and our teammate here at Fox Sports Radio.
But we see how it can quickly swell to other things,
and this one, certainly because of the academic institution that
(16:59):
north question is the reputation and everything that there there
certainly is a little bit I've detected some gleefulness in
some people's well response to this, did you.
Speaker 4 (17:11):
See I was looking at Twitter and Scotti wrote this,
and I know you know, look at it, but it
says you're northwester Day, Penn State. You don't have one
hundred thousand seat stadium and not care about sports. They're
called the Purple Vandy for a reason.
Speaker 3 (17:28):
You know what. He's not wrong.
Speaker 2 (17:29):
That might that might be one of the schools that
joins him in the in the still to be named
future conference. He's already spann your in for Jason Smith
at Stinking Genius one on Twitter. Find me over at
Swollen Dome. Yes, I'm gonna go and take a walk
around the hallways here and let out an audible sigh.
Steve Hartman's gonna join us. Next, we're gonna talk about
(17:49):
this latest John Gruden. I'm taking everybody whip me mentality
that he's got flowing.
Speaker 3 (17:55):
That's next on Fox.
Speaker 6 (17:57):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven
pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 2 (18:08):
Welcome back in Fox Sports Radio Jason Smith Show with
Me Mike Harmon. No Jason Smith Tonight in his stant
our guy, Arnie span you're here on Sunday Night. It's
a longside Chris Plank always with Arnie's best bets along
the way. How good they actually are? I have not
tracked the hundred percent for entertainment purposes, one hundred percent,
(18:31):
no question. At Stick and Genius one where you find him?
Find me over at Swollen Dome. We're gonna go out
to the hotline now.
Speaker 3 (18:37):
Though.
Speaker 2 (18:38):
A guy we've known for a long time, weekend host,
our colleague here Fox Sports Radio, a legend around these
parts of Los Angeles on TV and radio. He's our guy.
He's Steve Hartman. He is a sports talk radio legend,
a trivia savant, and of course a former staffer for
(18:58):
the Silver and Black.
Speaker 5 (18:59):
What's going on, Steve swollen down? Thinking genius? I mean,
this is unbelievable, the two of you guys together. How
often has this happened? Mike? Did you get Arnie on
as your co host?
Speaker 2 (19:11):
No?
Speaker 3 (19:11):
You know what, every once in a while when Jason's
out and out and about. I don't know what do
you say, Arnie about once quarterly?
Speaker 2 (19:18):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (19:18):
About once every while we get together and raise havoc
and then the bustles are like, this is why we
don't put him together.
Speaker 3 (19:24):
It might be a little bit too much.
Speaker 2 (19:26):
Well, you know, Steve, I grew up listening to Arnie
when I was staying up shorting trading cards getting ready
to do trading cards shows back out the day.
Speaker 5 (19:36):
Well, Arnie and I shared the airwaves of LA for
a number of years. But Arnie made one serious mistake.
He kept ripping the Lakers as they were winning pre
consecutive championships with Shaq and Kobe, saying that they stunk.
I kept telling him, Arnie, that's not a good tack
in LA is ripping the Lakers when they're actually winning championship.
Speaker 4 (19:56):
But at least everybody knew who I was, that's for sure.
Speaker 2 (20:01):
So Steve, you're a man with unique perspective and that
you did work in the offices of the Raiders Al
Davis there, and you've told and wax poetic with many
a story here on Fox Sports Radio through the years.
Speaker 3 (20:14):
This latest bit with.
Speaker 2 (20:15):
John Gruden, you know, the emails being leaked and everything
flowing down there, your relationship with the Davis family and
the polling of players and all of this stuff. I mean,
how does this relate to the environment that you worked
in there and what you know of how the organization's run.
Speaker 5 (20:36):
So what has everything to do with that? Okay? So
when I was working for the Raiders in the nineteen eighties,
and I joined him in eighty four right after they
won Super Bowl eight, and now was fully immersed in
the courtroom battles against the NFL. He and Pete Rosell
were going head to head. It was very clear because
remember this, you know, I only have to have a
vote of the owners to approve a team moving from
(20:59):
one city to another. The voters, the owners voted unanimously
to not allow the Raiders to leave Oakland for Los Angeles.
It was nanas twenty five to nothing with a couple
of extensions. So there's no love loss between the league
office and the Raiders, and that's never going away. It
(21:21):
was in full effect with a touch role play that
changed the course of NFL history. And so John Gruden,
who was given an opportunity by Al Davis to become
a head coach at a very young age, brought into
this idea that it's us versus them, Raiders versus the
(21:42):
entire NFL. And he never lost that. I mean he
may have lost favor with Al Davis and he got
traded to Tampa, literally traded to Tampa. But this idea
of being a Raider against the league was always a
parent with and not only as a coach, but also
(22:03):
as a broadcaster. And so this rift between the league
office now with Roger Goodell and the Raiders in the
person of John Gruden has never changed. And so when
you look into the accusations by Gruden, the accusations by
Mark Davis, it all makes sense that the league is
(22:25):
desperate to rid themselves of the Davis factor. I mean,
they're Believe me, and I've said this many times about
Mark Davis because I've known Mark for forty years. I
know he's got the bull haircut, that dumb and dumber
look and everything else. Do not underestimate Mark Davis. He
is a very very smart guy, especially from a business standpoint.
(22:47):
Believe me, the league is trying to get him out
of this league and he's going to have none of it.
What do you think. He took on Tom Brady as
a minority owner. So he's a smart guy. But I'll
tell you John Gruden is not going to let up.
He's not going to let up, and he wants to
expose the wound and expose the truth of what really
(23:11):
went down in these leaked emails, and he's not going
to stop until he gets out on top, right.
Speaker 4 (23:18):
You know, That's what I was gonna ask you, Steve,
what does he know? I mean you I don't have
the exact answer. Well, what would the NFL be afraid of?
Because he knows where the bodies are buried. There's no
doubt about that, Steve.
Speaker 5 (23:29):
Oh, there's no doubt or any I'm telling you. So
here's the deal. Remember how this all went down, And
I thought the ESPN article did a pretty good job
of laying this all out, so basically, and this goes
back to a rip that had been out there. They
noted one instance where John Gruden, when he was doing
(23:50):
Monday Night Football, was you know, lambasting the officiating in
the league, and he was called into the league office
like they wanted to meet him, and He's like, I'm
not going to meet with you guys, and he never
showed up. So and then when they leaked the second
wave that emails that had these homophobic comments that many
(24:12):
of them were directed at Roger Goodell from John Gruden,
that was it. It was weird because Daniel Snyder, in
an effort to save his ownership, was leaking emails that
were derogatory, tore the commissioner out of the mouth of
(24:32):
John grud You remember, the whole thing was like weird.
It's like, let me get this straight. They're doing an
investigation on the then Redskins organization and we're getting quotes
from John Gruden.
Speaker 3 (24:43):
Well, I mean, you.
Speaker 2 (24:45):
Go through all the emails, right, because you're going to
go through in your discovery, and you find some things
internally and it's like, how does this help my case?
Speaker 4 (24:53):
Right?
Speaker 5 (24:53):
I mean there were like one hundred and fifty thousand
emails and the only ones that become public are some
of color comments made by John Gruden to Bruce Allen.
That's it. But now people think it was Daniel Snyder
doing Goodell a favor. Well it didn't work out because
you know, Goodell said, hey, thanks, now I can get
(25:16):
rid of that jerk. And oh, by the way, I'm
still going to get rid of you. So it backfired
on Dan Snyder. So this is but I'm telling you, guys,
this story has got legs to it, and it's really
circled around, not just John Gruden, but I think Mark Davis,
who really felt the pressure to do something because they
(25:39):
threatened to basically keep releasing emails that your head coach
current is a flat out racist and everything else, which
is the furthest thing from the truth. Look at John Gruden,
to me is a vastly overrated coach. He has always
been a very overrated coach. But I have never talked
to a single player that ever played for him, even
(26:01):
a disgruntled key Shawn Johnson, whoever accused him of being
some kind of a racist.
Speaker 4 (26:07):
Yeah, ever going to coach again? And you think he'll
go get another coaching job or no it's over for him.
Speaker 5 (26:12):
Well I think, guys, you know what could happen? I mean,
it depends on what Gruden wants to do. Look, he
got some kind of contract settlement for the Raiders from
the Raiders, so he's not exactly like he's worried about
his next meal. So I think what he wants to
do is coach again. And but Lee can do anything
they want. I mean, they can just magically put Sean
(26:35):
Gruden back in a head coaching position. Now. To do so,
of course, you have to undo all those comments that
became public knowledge. I mean, again, your coach is the
face of your team, and I don't know if any
organization would welcome into John Gruden, whether because he never
denied the comments, so he made those comments and those emails.
(26:56):
I mean they're out there obviously for the public to see.
But yeah, but the league really wants to find some
way to shorten this investigation as quickly as possible because
if it goes to arbitration, then the league could really
be screwed.
Speaker 3 (27:15):
Well, and that's thanks Steve. It's been in all of
these cases.
Speaker 2 (27:18):
Whenever you've got a player or anybody that's been around
the league that the lawsuit gets filed, you know, there's
always the fear of what's behind door number two. Remember
the settlement with Kaepernick? Yes, right, it became a hey,
what happens once we really start digging through everything?
Speaker 3 (27:36):
Do we want all of our dirty laundry out on
the wire.
Speaker 5 (27:39):
Well, not only the Kaepernick situation, Mike, but remember what
they did really with the Washington franchise capsmember they find them, Why,
what's ten million dollars you know for a franchise, that's
scort billions. I mean it's like it's dropping the ocean.
And then they just said, yeah, the the investigation has concluded,
like what what happened? Up some details? The only details
(28:02):
that got were some off color comments between John Gruna
and Bruce Allen, you know what about all the other garbage.
So it just I'm telling you, but I think they
picked on the wrong guy.
Speaker 4 (28:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (28:14):
I almost feel like the ghost of Al Davis has
infiltrated the mind of John Gruna right now, and he
was vengeance.
Speaker 4 (28:23):
Oh, I bet you know, Steve, why we have ya?
And I just want to ask a few other things
because I could picture a young Steve Hartman sitting at
the breakfast table with Captain Crunch with the sports section
wide open, studying the box scores, looking at the standings.
And we're not going to have that anymore, not in
the La Times. I bet you were crushed when you
heard about that.
Speaker 5 (28:44):
I'll Steve or what you know, Arnie. It's so funny.
So in nineteen seventy, fifty years ago, exactly fifty years ago,
how a fifteen year old Steve Hartman is in Paris, France.
I am there as part of a scholastic tour that
somehow I talk my parents and allow me. It was unbelievable.
(29:04):
My friends. My French teacher in junior high school. See
in LA in those days we had three year high school,
so junior high went from ninth grade. She convinced my
parents that she would supervise me, except that by the
time we got to Paris, I never saw this woman again.
Well I'm running them up right. But my dad would
send me like a weekly letter and in it he
(29:26):
would cut out the Dodger batting averages from the La
Times like I can still remember it, like was yesterday. Look,
this is how I grew up. I mean, everyone knows
I'm the ultimate stacky numbers have been in my obsession
my entire life. I steered it into you know, my
first pack of baseball cards back in the you know,
(29:47):
first grade, and I never looked back. So yeah, I mean,
things are changing. And when I hear people I don't
really care about stats. You know who loved stats. I
remember doing an interview with Pete Rose during the time
he was the manager of the and he would have
that full scale investigation going on, and he pulled me aside.
I don't know, he seemed to like me. We did
this long interview this guy's rattling off his own numbers,
(30:10):
and I knew he was right because I knew all
of his numbers. Like, damn, this guy actually knows his stats.
I love that about the guy.
Speaker 2 (30:17):
Well, just him and Lebron James. Same guy. Hey, Steve,
thanks for joining us. We could do this all day.
Maybe to do a podcast where we just shoot the
breeze and you can give us college football stuff for days.
Speaker 5 (30:29):
Mike Arnie, have an enjoyable evening. Arnie, be good on Mike. Okay,
I mean he's a freak guy. You know, he grew
up idolizing you and everything.
Speaker 2 (30:38):
So please got a big Daleikes Harvi. Find him over
on Twitter at Cannon Hartman. He is our guy, Steve Hartman.
Hear him on the weekends here on Fox Sports.
Speaker 4 (30:48):
Have great stories about his Chad Forty, his old co
host the Back of the Day, who is also what
director of Monday Night Football, and his gambling exploits. Oh
it's just unbelievable.
Speaker 2 (30:59):
Yeah, a lot of stuff that you know should be
in books. And I keep telling you, if nothing else,
just tell it into a microphone and record it all
once and for all, not on Fox Sports Radio, because
then we got to pay editors to do that. He's
got to do that on his own dime.
Speaker 6 (31:12):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven
pm Pacific.
Speaker 2 (31:20):
Welcome back in Fox Sports Radio Jason Smith Show with
Me Mike Carmon in for Jason Smith Tonight the Legend
It's our buddy, Arnie span your stick and genius war.
Speaker 4 (31:32):
Are you sure you don't want to change the name
of the show to Jason Smith at his best friend
Mike Harmon and his younger looking cousin, Arnie Spaniard.
Speaker 3 (31:41):
No, I like that. The younger looking cousin.
Speaker 4 (31:43):
Yeah, I think that right rolls right off the top.
Speaker 2 (31:46):
The scary thing is out of the trio. I have
the most hair, and I tell you, as I'm aging,
it's thinning still there.
Speaker 4 (31:54):
Did you see that story about getting the haircut in
LA they come to your house across one thousand and one.
Speaker 2 (31:59):
I saw on that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that guy. That
guy can beat it. Like I've seen some great haircuts
around the LA Harriet. I've seen people spend you know,
some pretty pretty good coin. That old thing about the
uh hey, I'll come to you, and this is what
the process, and this is all that's included.
Speaker 4 (32:20):
Three hours.
Speaker 2 (32:21):
Three Yeah, it's gonna take three hours. It's eleven and
fifty dollars. And some of the responses are just classic.
Maybe we'll delve into that a little bit later. Guys
like Micah Parsons and I'm like, are you kidding me?
Stay with the guy that you knew as a kid.
But you know what, who might be able to afford it?
Xavier Bubbadar. Actually no, he's gonna be gonna be getting
(32:44):
prison haircuts. It's not gonna cost him. It's gonna cost
us as a guy, you know, through what we pay
into the state. But Kansas City Chiefs hype man and
we all know there's a fans Hall of Fame. We
see this every year. Super fans from teams uh that
get inducted and you have these big celebrations and today
(33:05):
a big, big moment And I give a nod as
we've got the the next level towards the next round
of Pro football Hall of Famers. And I saw Steve
McMichael's name as a semi finalist, and I got to
tell you, Arnie Spanier did the sole good a lot
of has been written and you've seen you know, his
battle als and and everything there.
Speaker 3 (33:27):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (33:27):
And to see him smile as that came across the
scroll a little video that got put out by his
family makes you feel good. You know, a guy that
I've been arguing for years that should be in uh.
But you know, we talk about halls of fame and everything,
and so we'll keep chronicling that, and I'll certainly use
every leverage that I have with Jason Cole and anybody
(33:50):
else that's in the voting committees there uh to make
that happen. But xav R and moved arg might be
that guy. He's a hype hype man, goes by the
nickname of the Chief's Aholic, dressed up as a as
a wolf in all the Kansas City Chiefs GARB. He's
been charged with stealing seventy thousand dollars wow, accused of
(34:14):
committing a string of bank robberies across at least six
states last year. For so long he was well, that's
the thing, right, we did this story yesterday where people
were stealing from the till of this soccer league to
the tune of ninety one grand, including their utility.
Speaker 3 (34:31):
Build that's ninety one thousand dollars.
Speaker 4 (34:33):
Though, Yeah, but I could see how, you know, don't
catch the guy. I mean, this guy's robbing banks, is getting.
Speaker 3 (34:37):
Away well, but maybe he was dressed up like the wolf.
Speaker 2 (34:40):
Look, I was watching a movie with Adam Devine and
Pierce Brosenan and and Ellen Barkin. You know about bank
robberies a little bit earlier today. So I mean, it's
still out there, right, You're not robing trains, I guess,
but you go, and he was robbing banks because look
a lot of the theft you see it in the news, right,
(35:00):
they're told to just say, hey, you know what, take it.
Take It's not a lot of fighting, not a lot
of really much of anything other than acquiescing to what
what's wanted. Right. We see this theft in retail stores
all over. You walk in, grab a rack of clothes
and just walk out the door, and nobody stops you.
So I can imagine, you know, from the bank side.
(35:21):
Not that I'm endorsing this in any way. So certainly
it's stupid and criminal and you should be prosecuted fully.
But attending every game home and away, et cetera, he
had attributed all the time to a run as a
manager of warehouses across the Midwest.
Speaker 4 (35:40):
Arnie, how did they catch him?
Speaker 2 (35:42):
Arrested near Sacramento on Friday, they charged him he'd fled
prosecution in another robbery, so they they'd gotten him. And
then he'd fled prosecutors purchased and redeemed more than a
million dollars of chips from casinos across the mist, so
he got more and more brazen. The usual thing where
(36:04):
you're now flaunting the money, and bit by bit it
gets pieced together. He was accused of robbing a credit
union in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in December, using a pistol, and
he was released after the bail male bondsman, who was
a Chiefs fan, agreed to post his bail. Well severed
(36:24):
the ankle monitor and disappeared. That's how you do it.
Stuff out of a movie, Arnie Speier.
Speaker 4 (36:29):
You know what does give him two choices? You can
either have ten years in prison but you don't get
to watch any of the Kansas City Chief games. Or
I'll give you twenty years but you get to watch
the Chief games. Which will you take?
Speaker 2 (36:42):
That's a pretty good proposition. How big a Chiefs fan
are you? Is it worth the extra ten years? Maybe
I like that?
Speaker 3 (36:49):
Maybe you know.
Speaker 2 (36:50):
There you go, Hey, Arnie, let's start writing the screenplay.
Let's get the rights to it. Hey, We're brought to
you by Progressive Insurance. Progressive makes bundling easy and affordable.
Get a multi policy discount by combining your motorcycle, RV, boat,
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Speaker 3 (37:04):
All your production at one place. Bundle and save at
Progressive dot com. Yeah, this has.
Speaker 2 (37:09):
The makings of a huge ope, and maybe it can
become a franchise. Who knows, Maybe you can start it
in Arnie with your boys. Good looks.
Speaker 3 (37:19):
Hey.
Speaker 2 (37:19):
Coming up next, we talk about the NFL and the
changing face of the running back position.
Thanks for listening to The Jason Smith Show with Mike
Harmon podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weeknight
ten pm to two am Eastern seven to eleven pm
Pacific on Fox Sports Radio. Find your local station for
The Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon at Foxsports Radio
dot com, or stream us live every night on the
iHeartRadio app by searching FSR.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio Gratings. Hour two of
the program begins here live Mike Carbon alongside Arnie Spanner.
Smith off tonight in theories back tomorrow.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
I don't know. He may be be backpacking across Europe
right now. What's he doing? What's he doing pondering the
meaning of life?
Speaker 4 (00:44):
Okay, all righty.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
It's summertime.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Kids are out, kids are playing sports, and he loves
to coach up his daughter's softball squad. Oh that's so,
he's got all that percolating. Hopefully we'll get some updates
along as the show continues here live.
Speaker 4 (01:00):
My parents never went to any of my games when
I was a kid. I thought, when I was in high.
Speaker 3 (01:05):
School, that's not good.
Speaker 4 (01:08):
That's the way it was back then.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
Does that explain a little bit of who you are
Arnie Standard. Probably I see Bo Benson nodding his head.
He goes, this explains a lot.
Speaker 4 (01:17):
No, I just might not one game, whether I played
in high school or Little league or anything. My parents
never went to one game, not at all. Why, I
don't know.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
Did you never ask that parents marked because they saw mine.
Speaker 4 (01:33):
You didn't get you.
Speaker 3 (01:34):
They used to get found their way.
Speaker 4 (01:35):
You don't get off like you do.
Speaker 5 (01:37):
Now.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
I'll tell you what my dad he was funny. I
grew up the son of a Chicago policeman. High dad
down there in clear Water, Florida in retirement. Uh, and
I would find out. Well, I found out in the
worst way possible where I had a pretty significant knee
injury and I was writhing in pain on the field
and he came and he threw me over his shoulder
(01:58):
to take me. He was in full uniform. He was
able to switch his lunch on his shift to get there.
We go, and then I'm in a brace for six
weeks afterwards. But that's how I found out. He always
found a way to be there. You didn't see him
because he stayed away from the field proper, but he
was there and.
Speaker 3 (02:18):
He was watching. Oh, look at you No, pretty crazy
way to find that out.
Speaker 4 (02:22):
Yeah, that's great, that's awesome.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
I love that now, So you know, wherever I can,
I try to be part of what the kid's doing,
and you know, watch. There were sometimes when my younger daughter,
early in her soccer playing, didn't want me anywhere near
the field. She wanted to make sure she was going
to be good at this before she allowed me and
Dane to let Dad show up at the field.
Speaker 4 (02:45):
That don't watch until I see if I'm any good.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
And she made an all star teams like you're good now?
Pretty cool. Hey, We're brought to you by Progressive Insurance.
Progressive makes bundling easy and affordable. Get a multi policy
discount by combinding your motorcycle, RV, boat.
Speaker 3 (02:59):
ATV and more.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
All your protection one place you can bundle and save
at Progressive dot com. Thank you all listening, however you're
getting us and being part of the extended family Tonight,
Fox Sports Radio dot Com, the four hundred plus affiliates nationwide,
of course, the iHeartRadio app, where you can take us
with you wherever you go if you miss any portion
(03:20):
of this show or any others across our vast Fox
Sports Radio network. Of course, you can download the podcast
wherever you get your audio. Give it five stars. Evangelize mom, dad, grandma, grandpa.
Everybody wants to tune on in and be part of
the the extended family. And it's always a great gift
at iHeartRadio link Arnie and the app. Hey, let me
(03:44):
do something really good to improve your quality of life.
Let me download the iHeartRadio app for you.
Speaker 4 (03:50):
That's where I listened to it all the time.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
So I say app for you know, for Father's Day,
Mother's Day, these graduations, wedding weddings. I mean, you're giving
a gift that never stops. It's better than they need
to hear me.
Speaker 4 (04:04):
When you're doing the do you take this man to
be her? And you hear me blasting in the background.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
Can you say that like it's a bad thing. Ah,
I'm sure there's plenty of folks that would love the
sound of your voice coming through at that moment. Look
a story near and dear to my heart, and that
gets the blood a bit boiling. Has been the situation
that has evolved at my alma mater at Northwestern. Pat
Fitzgerald fired with cause yesterday an investigation and I did
(04:34):
a pretty good. I think fiery frothing at the mouth
monologue yesterday about it related to the really the lack
of intestinal fortitude to steal from the great gorilla Mond
soon related to the people at the head of the university.
Speaker 4 (04:51):
You don't think you should have been fired as Wichitone.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
I didn't say that, But what I'm saying is the
people that ran the investigation, yes, that commissioned it, with
all the great resources at your back, at your disposal
at Northwestern Power brokers, in every walk of life, and
a six month investigation that you interviewed fifty plus people,
you came to a conclusion. You accepted that conclusion as president,
(05:18):
as athletic director, you signed off on it.
Speaker 3 (05:22):
You talked to.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
Your head coach at the time, Pat Fitzgerald, and you
agreed that that he would take a two week unpaid suspension.
Now everybody does the haha, what kind of suspension was
it when it was first announced, Well, they're not doing
anything on campus anyway.
Speaker 3 (05:39):
Okay, we don't have any of the reasons.
Speaker 4 (05:41):
It was zero penalty.
Speaker 3 (05:42):
It really was.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
Well, but look, it puts you on notice. It tarnishes
your reputation in the moment. As of Friday, tarnishes the
reputation that not.
Speaker 4 (05:51):
Really if in one month and now I won't even
remember he'd be suspended, if that was his penalty.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
Well maybe maybe that's you, but I think the college
football world as a whole, And this is where the
larger point was as related to him, was that he
was put up as one of the guys, a bit
of a throwback, but a younger guy right in that
regard all the rah rah, all the goodness, you know,
good clean American fun as he would always say, seventy
(06:17):
four brothers in white helmets, all of these things that
would roll off the tongue about team and looking after
each other, the brotherhood of college football, and as a
head of the coaching fraternity right their their organization. The
anti hazing video that has now made the rounds quite
(06:37):
a bit that he made several years back talking about
you don't need that in culture. And I read the
you know what came out from the Daily Northwestern and
the report, and this is where you know, for me,
as the administration went was their failure is they showed
no conviction. The lack of intestinal fortitude, and you signed
(06:59):
off on this as leaders of an organization.
Speaker 4 (07:02):
Was his failure though.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
Well he's the head coach. You listen to me, right
if you're gonna say the at the institution. But I'm
mad at the institution for this is that you did
the investigation and then the details of which most of
which are included in what you found right, and then
you decided that we're going to do this suspension yesterday.
(07:26):
I likened it to Roger Goodell and what they did
with Ray Raich. You knew what was there, you know
all the details, you saw the video and everything else changed.
And then because people get mad and people that you
know wag their fingers on sports talk radio, and you
listen to the bloggers and people and the court of
public opinion, then you decide nothing's really changed except that
(07:49):
the details got out.
Speaker 4 (07:51):
Well, maybe they were right though maybe the callers and
the media.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
No, no, no, But my point is the fact that they
shifted so fast.
Speaker 4 (07:59):
Well maybe they didn't look at it.
Speaker 3 (08:01):
There are a bunch of dopes and they should be
out of their jobs as well.
Speaker 4 (08:03):
You know what, you shouldn't go ahead, And that's not
the first thing you should be mad about. I understand
where you're coming from, and I certainly understand that no, no, no.
Speaker 3 (08:10):
The other stuff.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
Obviously you're disappointed and you're angry about of course a
hundred levels. Right, you can't and that's.
Speaker 4 (08:16):
How you can't have this in your program. How it's
been able to go out for so long. I have
no idea. The fact that it's just coming out now
is absolutely amazing. And I like Pat Fitzgerald. I think
of the world of the guy, but I didn't expect
him to to keep his job. I thought for sure
he was gonna get fired by well.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
I thought that right off the jump, right as soon
as it went public, like wow do But they agreed
to it and then court a public opinion, and then
they they change. And then you've got a lot of
former athletes that have come forward in support, right the
the letter that was signed the entire team, well, all right,
maybe minus one or two. And then this goes back
to the old theory of UH and the idea of like,
(08:59):
I can't tell people how to feel, but if you
have people around your squad, whether it's at your workplace
or in this case a locker room, that feel disenfranchised,
as the head coach and as the assistant coaches, your
job's to help quell that well, well, that's the fact
that they retained all those guys to be the dumbest thing.
I like, they didn't know what the heck was going on?
Speaker 4 (09:21):
Ohie, Like the assistant coaches were walking around with their
heads of the club.
Speaker 3 (09:25):
Right, But that's the point, aren'tie? Is that right?
Speaker 2 (09:27):
And why I'm holding the administration accountable more so than
I think most people will.
Speaker 4 (09:32):
You can't fire everybody right before you.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
You can't absolutely you can you take it as a
all right, here's the hard reset. These are hard truths,
right if you're going to fire the head coach, because
there's always that question of plausible deniability. This goes back
to the a few good men and did you order
a code read? Then why would this guy act without
you saying something or giving the the knowing nod or
(09:54):
whatever the culture was, because right, he's been part of
the organization, uh, part of the school for years.
Speaker 4 (10:00):
Right.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
He was a year behind me at Northwestern when I
was there. Right, So all of that was that part
of the culture under Barnett. Was it part of the
culture that came all the way through into him being
a head coach. There's a lot of questions to be
asked and answered, am I defending his job?
Speaker 1 (10:19):
No?
Speaker 2 (10:19):
I got a lot of questions, and I have a
lot of questions for the players that participated in this stuff, right,
And whether you were told by an assistant coach, a trainer,
Fitzgerald himself, Hell, do you think any of that's helping
team camaraderie?
Speaker 3 (10:33):
No, the details are.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
Disturbing on a million levels. And as an eighteen year
old person, I get it. Peer pressure is a real thing.
But you're also an individual at a prestigious university, right, right,
and you don't have the intestinal fortitude yourself to just say, hey,
you know what, here's a forearm shiver to the neck,
get the hell off me.
Speaker 4 (10:56):
It's it's amazing. Like I said, with that many people,
that's it. Didn't spill the beans beforehand as to why
he deserves to lose his job, and I guess they
keep the assistance. A wise man once said, you gotta
have a fall guy, and that's that's gonna be there.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
In fact, if you stay behind I get it, it
would be the essential death penalty to the program, which
leads to the larger argument of what's their place in
college football in the long term anyway, A question that
was being asked before the last several years of terrible
football being played, a coach who showed the hubrious and
(11:34):
dismissed anybody that questioned in game decision making, personnel decisions,
et cetera. Uh, And there's plenty of history of him
doing that. And look, I don't I don't know what's
real what's imagined. Because he could still be a great
leader of players and inspire great achievements in the classroom,
(11:55):
in the football field and for guys to become great men.
And you could still have this other going on, right,
the two are not mutually exclusive. But now you have
the idea that Ed Oderon said, you know what, I'd
love that if they called, and I like, yes, go
from one scandal to a guy who left under a
strange circumstances himself.
Speaker 4 (12:16):
Well, I mean that, what Look, if you're gonna get
a coach at the last minute, what better than a
coach has won a national championship?
Speaker 2 (12:23):
Right, So yes, let's go from a guy that we
had to fire in scandal to a guy that lost
his last job in scandal.
Speaker 4 (12:31):
Well I didn't say keep him for the long term.
Speaker 2 (12:33):
But but how does that fix anything? Wouldn't you rather
just swallow the poison pill and just do the hard reset.
I think I think that sometimes, you know, you've got
to look a bigger picture what's bringing him as a
bridge guy, because if he does to succeed, what are
you gonna say, Well, you know what he coaches?
Speaker 4 (12:50):
Pretty well, that's what joannamvi. He succeeds, and it's a
win win situation. If I've got the poison pill, I'm
spitting it out. I'm not so sure I want to
go ahead and do such a hard reset, especially.
Speaker 2 (13:01):
Well, you're gonna get relegated in that conference again eventually. Anyway,
it's USC and UCLA are coming in and you got
rid of the divisions, so what you're playing for is
a much different thing than it was before.
Speaker 4 (13:16):
By the way, I help to, I feel like I've
got a reason why that he was the head coach
in Northwestern. You understand that, right, Pat Fitzgerald.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
Excuse me say that again. I didn't quite understand what
you were asking.
Speaker 4 (13:27):
When he finished college, I was working in Chicago at
another network and he was our sales guy, and I
was just kind of, you know, I'm like, you know,
you're allowsy sales guy. Man, you should get back in
the football coach. And he quit after six months and
got in the coaching.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
Which is funny because most of his job is then
selling players on showing up and selling people on the
validity and greatness of the program, by which they then
spent a ton of money on practice facilities.
Speaker 3 (13:58):
And how about is this for commissioning? Oh it's awful. Yeah,
on many many levels.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
And I've heard this debated a little bit, and I'll
be honest, I saw headlines and I saw little little clips,
but the reality is it's the death penalty.
Speaker 4 (14:13):
Yeah, they came back from Harbor sit.
Speaker 2 (14:16):
Well, they're a different type of institution, though there are
a much larger, larger institution Northwestern about eight thousand raw
and it's private penn State. The history, the pageantry, what
it means to the state Northwestern, I don't know that
it carries that same juice, as much as I'd love
it too, being a proud alum, you know, despite this
(14:39):
this issue, the point shaving scandal with guys, that what
happened while I was in school as well. But it
is a type of thing where you already had four
d commits in the last twenty four hours.
Speaker 4 (14:52):
You do right away. It was going to go ahead
and sting a little bit. As for the long term, though,
I'm not so sure that it could hurt them like
you think they are, Mike. I mean, people will forget
about it in two, three, four years, and you know,
they'll build their way back up and it's still a
pretty prestigious school.
Speaker 3 (15:09):
Well, no, the school itself.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
I mean, you're always gonna be able to sell and
there's gonna be a percentage of athletes that decide that
that's the place. Uh, certainly, No, I mean it doesn't
and all you heel was like a two point oh
to go to school there right is undred percent. Uh,
But it's just the idea, Arnie, that you know, you
you've got a changing face of college athletics. Where before
(15:32):
this scandal and with the losing mounting, and because that's
the other side, if he was winning, do they necessarily.
Speaker 3 (15:40):
Fire him fire him? No, not in a million.
Speaker 2 (15:43):
If the last two years are they're playing for meaningful uh. January,
if this was Nick Saban, nick Saban doesn't even get punished.
If this is Nick Saban, well he might get the
two week unpaid maybe they maybe yeah, exactly, you know
what I mean like it's it's a but it's a
very different. Like if this is four or five years
ago and Northwestern's playing well and there's excitement heading towards
(16:06):
bowl season, maybe it hits different. What I would be
curious right now, though, is you know how many extra
meetings have been held across our college landscape, Arnie of Hey,
you know that's happened there at Northwestern. We're sure we're good.
We're sure we're good across the board, right, because you know,
(16:27):
we see a lot where it starts to spiral a
bit and around college athletics, we know that you know,
people are have had the poison pens out for a while.
Speaker 5 (16:38):
Right.
Speaker 2 (16:38):
Remember I was the NFL of a story after story,
and we'll get into John Gruden here shortly with our
guys Steve Hartman, who's going to join us, former staffer
of the Raiders and our teammate here at Fox Sports Radio.
But we see how it can quickly swell to other things,
and this one, certainly because of the academic institution that
(16:59):
north question is the reputation and everything that there there
certainly is a little bit I've detected some gleefulness in
some people's well response to this, did you.
Speaker 4 (17:11):
See I was looking at Twitter and Scotti wrote this,
and I know you know, look at it, but it
says you're northwester Day, Penn State. You don't have one
hundred thousand seat stadium and not care about sports. They're
called the Purple Vandy for a reason.
Speaker 3 (17:28):
You know what. He's not wrong.
Speaker 2 (17:29):
That might that might be one of the schools that
joins him in the in the still to be named
future conference. He's already spann your in for Jason Smith
at Stinking Genius one on Twitter. Find me over at
Swollen Dome. Yes, I'm gonna go and take a walk
around the hallways here and let out an audible sigh.
Steve Hartman's gonna join us. Next, we're gonna talk about
(17:49):
this latest John Gruden. I'm taking everybody whip me mentality
that he's got flowing.
Speaker 3 (17:55):
That's next on Fox.
Speaker 6 (17:57):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven
pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 2 (18:08):
Welcome back in Fox Sports Radio Jason Smith Show with
Me Mike Harmon. No Jason Smith Tonight in his stant
our guy, Arnie span you're here on Sunday Night. It's
a longside Chris Plank always with Arnie's best bets along
the way. How good they actually are? I have not
tracked the hundred percent for entertainment purposes, one hundred percent,
(18:31):
no question. At Stick and Genius one where you find him?
Find me over at Swollen Dome. We're gonna go out
to the hotline now.
Speaker 3 (18:37):
Though.
Speaker 2 (18:38):
A guy we've known for a long time, weekend host,
our colleague here Fox Sports Radio, a legend around these
parts of Los Angeles on TV and radio. He's our guy.
He's Steve Hartman. He is a sports talk radio legend,
a trivia savant, and of course a former staffer for
(18:58):
the Silver and Black.
Speaker 5 (18:59):
What's going on, Steve swollen down? Thinking genius? I mean,
this is unbelievable, the two of you guys together. How
often has this happened? Mike? Did you get Arnie on
as your co host?
Speaker 2 (19:11):
No?
Speaker 3 (19:11):
You know what, every once in a while when Jason's
out and out and about. I don't know what do
you say, Arnie about once quarterly?
Speaker 2 (19:18):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (19:18):
About once every while we get together and raise havoc
and then the bustles are like, this is why we
don't put him together.
Speaker 3 (19:24):
It might be a little bit too much.
Speaker 2 (19:26):
Well, you know, Steve, I grew up listening to Arnie
when I was staying up shorting trading cards getting ready
to do trading cards shows back out the day.
Speaker 5 (19:36):
Well, Arnie and I shared the airwaves of LA for
a number of years. But Arnie made one serious mistake.
He kept ripping the Lakers as they were winning pre
consecutive championships with Shaq and Kobe, saying that they stunk.
I kept telling him, Arnie, that's not a good tack
in LA is ripping the Lakers when they're actually winning championship.
Speaker 4 (19:56):
But at least everybody knew who I was, that's for sure.
Speaker 2 (20:01):
So Steve, you're a man with unique perspective and that
you did work in the offices of the Raiders Al
Davis there, and you've told and wax poetic with many
a story here on Fox Sports Radio through the years.
Speaker 3 (20:14):
This latest bit with.
Speaker 2 (20:15):
John Gruden, you know, the emails being leaked and everything
flowing down there, your relationship with the Davis family and
the polling of players and all of this stuff. I mean,
how does this relate to the environment that you worked
in there and what you know of how the organization's run.
Speaker 5 (20:36):
So what has everything to do with that? Okay? So
when I was working for the Raiders in the nineteen eighties,
and I joined him in eighty four right after they
won Super Bowl eight, and now was fully immersed in
the courtroom battles against the NFL. He and Pete Rosell
were going head to head. It was very clear because
remember this, you know, I only have to have a
vote of the owners to approve a team moving from
(20:59):
one city to another. The voters, the owners voted unanimously
to not allow the Raiders to leave Oakland for Los Angeles.
It was nanas twenty five to nothing with a couple
of extensions. So there's no love loss between the league
office and the Raiders, and that's never going away. It
(21:21):
was in full effect with a touch role play that
changed the course of NFL history. And so John Gruden,
who was given an opportunity by Al Davis to become
a head coach at a very young age, brought into
this idea that it's us versus them, Raiders versus the
(21:42):
entire NFL. And he never lost that. I mean he
may have lost favor with Al Davis and he got
traded to Tampa, literally traded to Tampa. But this idea
of being a Raider against the league was always a
parent with and not only as a coach, but also
(22:03):
as a broadcaster. And so this rift between the league
office now with Roger Goodell and the Raiders in the
person of John Gruden has never changed. And so when
you look into the accusations by Gruden, the accusations by
Mark Davis, it all makes sense that the league is
(22:25):
desperate to rid themselves of the Davis factor. I mean,
they're Believe me, and I've said this many times about
Mark Davis because I've known Mark for forty years. I
know he's got the bull haircut, that dumb and dumber
look and everything else. Do not underestimate Mark Davis. He
is a very very smart guy, especially from a business standpoint.
(22:47):
Believe me, the league is trying to get him out
of this league and he's going to have none of it.
What do you think. He took on Tom Brady as
a minority owner. So he's a smart guy. But I'll
tell you John Gruden is not going to let up.
He's not going to let up, and he wants to
expose the wound and expose the truth of what really
(23:11):
went down in these leaked emails, and he's not going
to stop until he gets out on top, right.
Speaker 4 (23:18):
You know, That's what I was gonna ask you, Steve,
what does he know? I mean you I don't have
the exact answer. Well, what would the NFL be afraid of?
Because he knows where the bodies are buried. There's no
doubt about that, Steve.
Speaker 5 (23:29):
Oh, there's no doubt or any I'm telling you. So
here's the deal. Remember how this all went down, And
I thought the ESPN article did a pretty good job
of laying this all out, so basically, and this goes
back to a rip that had been out there. They
noted one instance where John Gruden, when he was doing
(23:50):
Monday Night Football, was you know, lambasting the officiating in
the league, and he was called into the league office
like they wanted to meet him, and He's like, I'm
not going to meet with you guys, and he never
showed up. So and then when they leaked the second
wave that emails that had these homophobic comments that many
(24:12):
of them were directed at Roger Goodell from John Gruden,
that was it. It was weird because Daniel Snyder, in
an effort to save his ownership, was leaking emails that
were derogatory, tore the commissioner out of the mouth of
(24:32):
John grud You remember, the whole thing was like weird.
It's like, let me get this straight. They're doing an
investigation on the then Redskins organization and we're getting quotes
from John Gruden.
Speaker 3 (24:43):
Well, I mean, you.
Speaker 2 (24:45):
Go through all the emails, right, because you're going to
go through in your discovery, and you find some things
internally and it's like, how does this help my case?
Speaker 4 (24:53):
Right?
Speaker 5 (24:53):
I mean there were like one hundred and fifty thousand
emails and the only ones that become public are some
of color comments made by John Gruden to Bruce Allen.
That's it. But now people think it was Daniel Snyder
doing Goodell a favor. Well it didn't work out because
you know, Goodell said, hey, thanks, now I can get
(25:16):
rid of that jerk. And oh, by the way, I'm
still going to get rid of you. So it backfired
on Dan Snyder. So this is but I'm telling you, guys,
this story has got legs to it, and it's really
circled around, not just John Gruden, but I think Mark Davis,
who really felt the pressure to do something because they
(25:39):
threatened to basically keep releasing emails that your head coach
current is a flat out racist and everything else, which
is the furthest thing from the truth. Look at John Gruden,
to me is a vastly overrated coach. He has always
been a very overrated coach. But I have never talked
to a single player that ever played for him, even
(26:01):
a disgruntled key Shawn Johnson, whoever accused him of being
some kind of a racist.
Speaker 4 (26:07):
Yeah, ever going to coach again? And you think he'll
go get another coaching job or no it's over for him.
Speaker 5 (26:12):
Well I think, guys, you know what could happen? I mean,
it depends on what Gruden wants to do. Look, he
got some kind of contract settlement for the Raiders from
the Raiders, so he's not exactly like he's worried about
his next meal. So I think what he wants to
do is coach again. And but Lee can do anything
they want. I mean, they can just magically put Sean
(26:35):
Gruden back in a head coaching position. Now. To do so,
of course, you have to undo all those comments that
became public knowledge. I mean, again, your coach is the
face of your team, and I don't know if any
organization would welcome into John Gruden, whether because he never
denied the comments, so he made those comments and those emails.
(26:56):
I mean they're out there obviously for the public to see.
But yeah, but the league really wants to find some
way to shorten this investigation as quickly as possible because
if it goes to arbitration, then the league could really
be screwed.
Speaker 3 (27:15):
Well, and that's thanks Steve. It's been in all of
these cases.
Speaker 2 (27:18):
Whenever you've got a player or anybody that's been around
the league that the lawsuit gets filed, you know, there's
always the fear of what's behind door number two. Remember
the settlement with Kaepernick? Yes, right, it became a hey,
what happens once we really start digging through everything?
Speaker 3 (27:36):
Do we want all of our dirty laundry out on
the wire.
Speaker 5 (27:39):
Well, not only the Kaepernick situation, Mike, but remember what
they did really with the Washington franchise capsmember they find them, Why,
what's ten million dollars you know for a franchise, that's
scort billions. I mean it's like it's dropping the ocean.
And then they just said, yeah, the the investigation has concluded,
like what what happened? Up some details? The only details
(28:02):
that got were some off color comments between John Gruna
and Bruce Allen, you know what about all the other garbage.
So it just I'm telling you, but I think they
picked on the wrong guy.
Speaker 4 (28:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (28:14):
I almost feel like the ghost of Al Davis has
infiltrated the mind of John Gruna right now, and he
was vengeance.
Speaker 4 (28:23):
Oh, I bet you know, Steve, why we have ya?
And I just want to ask a few other things
because I could picture a young Steve Hartman sitting at
the breakfast table with Captain Crunch with the sports section
wide open, studying the box scores, looking at the standings.
And we're not going to have that anymore, not in
the La Times. I bet you were crushed when you
heard about that.
Speaker 5 (28:44):
I'll Steve or what you know, Arnie. It's so funny.
So in nineteen seventy, fifty years ago, exactly fifty years ago,
how a fifteen year old Steve Hartman is in Paris, France.
I am there as part of a scholastic tour that
somehow I talk my parents and allow me. It was unbelievable.
(29:04):
My friends. My French teacher in junior high school. See
in LA in those days we had three year high school,
so junior high went from ninth grade. She convinced my
parents that she would supervise me, except that by the
time we got to Paris, I never saw this woman again.
Well I'm running them up right. But my dad would
send me like a weekly letter and in it he
(29:26):
would cut out the Dodger batting averages from the La
Times like I can still remember it, like was yesterday. Look,
this is how I grew up. I mean, everyone knows
I'm the ultimate stacky numbers have been in my obsession
my entire life. I steered it into you know, my
first pack of baseball cards back in the you know,
(29:47):
first grade, and I never looked back. So yeah, I mean,
things are changing. And when I hear people I don't
really care about stats. You know who loved stats. I
remember doing an interview with Pete Rose during the time
he was the manager of the and he would have
that full scale investigation going on, and he pulled me aside.
I don't know, he seemed to like me. We did
this long interview this guy's rattling off his own numbers,
(30:10):
and I knew he was right because I knew all
of his numbers. Like, damn, this guy actually knows his stats.
I love that about the guy.
Speaker 2 (30:17):
Well, just him and Lebron James. Same guy. Hey, Steve,
thanks for joining us. We could do this all day.
Maybe to do a podcast where we just shoot the
breeze and you can give us college football stuff for days.
Speaker 5 (30:29):
Mike Arnie, have an enjoyable evening. Arnie, be good on Mike. Okay,
I mean he's a freak guy. You know, he grew
up idolizing you and everything.
Speaker 2 (30:38):
So please got a big Daleikes Harvi. Find him over
on Twitter at Cannon Hartman. He is our guy, Steve Hartman.
Hear him on the weekends here on Fox Sports.
Speaker 4 (30:48):
Have great stories about his Chad Forty, his old co
host the Back of the Day, who is also what
director of Monday Night Football, and his gambling exploits. Oh
it's just unbelievable.
Speaker 2 (30:59):
Yeah, a lot of stuff that you know should be
in books. And I keep telling you, if nothing else,
just tell it into a microphone and record it all
once and for all, not on Fox Sports Radio, because
then we got to pay editors to do that. He's
got to do that on his own dime.
Speaker 6 (31:12):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven
pm Pacific.
Speaker 2 (31:20):
Welcome back in Fox Sports Radio Jason Smith Show with
Me Mike Carmon in for Jason Smith Tonight the Legend
It's our buddy, Arnie span your stick and genius war.
Speaker 4 (31:32):
Are you sure you don't want to change the name
of the show to Jason Smith at his best friend
Mike Harmon and his younger looking cousin, Arnie Spaniard.
Speaker 3 (31:41):
No, I like that. The younger looking cousin.
Speaker 4 (31:43):
Yeah, I think that right rolls right off the top.
Speaker 2 (31:46):
The scary thing is out of the trio. I have
the most hair, and I tell you, as I'm aging,
it's thinning still there.
Speaker 4 (31:54):
Did you see that story about getting the haircut in
LA they come to your house across one thousand and one.
Speaker 2 (31:59):
I saw on that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that guy. That
guy can beat it. Like I've seen some great haircuts
around the LA Harriet. I've seen people spend you know,
some pretty pretty good coin. That old thing about the
uh hey, I'll come to you, and this is what
the process, and this is all that's included.
Speaker 4 (32:20):
Three hours.
Speaker 2 (32:21):
Three Yeah, it's gonna take three hours. It's eleven and
fifty dollars. And some of the responses are just classic.
Maybe we'll delve into that a little bit later. Guys
like Micah Parsons and I'm like, are you kidding me?
Stay with the guy that you knew as a kid.
But you know what, who might be able to afford it?
Xavier Bubbadar. Actually no, he's gonna be gonna be getting
(32:44):
prison haircuts. It's not gonna cost him. It's gonna cost
us as a guy, you know, through what we pay
into the state. But Kansas City Chiefs hype man and
we all know there's a fans Hall of Fame. We
see this every year. Super fans from teams uh that
get inducted and you have these big celebrations and today
(33:05):
a big, big moment And I give a nod as
we've got the the next level towards the next round
of Pro football Hall of Famers. And I saw Steve
McMichael's name as a semi finalist, and I got to
tell you, Arnie Spanier did the sole good a lot
of has been written and you've seen you know, his
battle als and and everything there.
Speaker 3 (33:27):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (33:27):
And to see him smile as that came across the
scroll a little video that got put out by his
family makes you feel good. You know, a guy that
I've been arguing for years that should be in uh.
But you know, we talk about halls of fame and everything,
and so we'll keep chronicling that, and I'll certainly use
every leverage that I have with Jason Cole and anybody
(33:50):
else that's in the voting committees there uh to make
that happen. But xav R and moved arg might be
that guy. He's a hype hype man, goes by the
nickname of the Chief's Aholic, dressed up as a as
a wolf in all the Kansas City Chiefs GARB. He's
been charged with stealing seventy thousand dollars wow, accused of
(34:14):
committing a string of bank robberies across at least six
states last year. For so long he was well, that's
the thing, right, we did this story yesterday where people
were stealing from the till of this soccer league to
the tune of ninety one grand, including their utility.
Speaker 3 (34:31):
Build that's ninety one thousand dollars.
Speaker 4 (34:33):
Though, Yeah, but I could see how, you know, don't
catch the guy. I mean, this guy's robbing banks, is getting.
Speaker 3 (34:37):
Away well, but maybe he was dressed up like the wolf.
Speaker 2 (34:40):
Look, I was watching a movie with Adam Devine and
Pierce Brosenan and and Ellen Barkin. You know about bank
robberies a little bit earlier today. So I mean, it's
still out there, right, You're not robing trains, I guess,
but you go, and he was robbing banks because look
a lot of the theft you see it in the news, right,
(35:00):
they're told to just say, hey, you know what, take it.
Take It's not a lot of fighting, not a lot
of really much of anything other than acquiescing to what
what's wanted. Right. We see this theft in retail stores
all over. You walk in, grab a rack of clothes
and just walk out the door, and nobody stops you.
So I can imagine, you know, from the bank side.
(35:21):
Not that I'm endorsing this in any way. So certainly
it's stupid and criminal and you should be prosecuted fully.
But attending every game home and away, et cetera, he
had attributed all the time to a run as a
manager of warehouses across the Midwest.
Speaker 4 (35:40):
Arnie, how did they catch him?
Speaker 2 (35:42):
Arrested near Sacramento on Friday, they charged him he'd fled
prosecution in another robbery, so they they'd gotten him. And
then he'd fled prosecutors purchased and redeemed more than a
million dollars of chips from casinos across the mist, so
he got more and more brazen. The usual thing where
(36:04):
you're now flaunting the money, and bit by bit it
gets pieced together. He was accused of robbing a credit
union in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in December, using a pistol, and
he was released after the bail male bondsman, who was
a Chiefs fan, agreed to post his bail. Well severed
(36:24):
the ankle monitor and disappeared. That's how you do it.
Stuff out of a movie, Arnie Speier.
Speaker 4 (36:29):
You know what does give him two choices? You can
either have ten years in prison but you don't get
to watch any of the Kansas City Chief games. Or
I'll give you twenty years but you get to watch
the Chief games. Which will you take?
Speaker 2 (36:42):
That's a pretty good proposition. How big a Chiefs fan
are you? Is it worth the extra ten years? Maybe
I like that?
Speaker 3 (36:49):
Maybe you know.
Speaker 2 (36:50):
There you go, Hey, Arnie, let's start writing the screenplay.
Let's get the rights to it. Hey, We're brought to
you by Progressive Insurance. Progressive makes bundling easy and affordable.
Get a multi policy discount by combining your motorcycle, RV, boat,
ATV and more.
Speaker 3 (37:04):
All your production at one place. Bundle and save at
Progressive dot com. Yeah, this has.
Speaker 2 (37:09):
The makings of a huge ope, and maybe it can
become a franchise. Who knows, Maybe you can start it
in Arnie with your boys. Good looks.
Speaker 3 (37:19):
Hey.
Speaker 2 (37:19):
Coming up next, we talk about the NFL and the
changing face of the running back position.
Hosts And Creators
Jason Smith
Mike Harmon
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