November 27, 2025 • 40 mins
Jason Fitz and Buck Reising fill-in for Jason and Mike, telling you why the Chiefs and Bears among the biggest frauds in the NFL.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for listening to The Jason Smith Show with Mike
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Speaker 2 (00:23):
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 3 (00:28):
If you're on the East Coast, Happy Thanksgiving. We've crossed
over midnight. It's officially Thanksgiving. You can start drinking now.
You have full permission. I mean, that's the way that works, right, Like,
I don't know how.
Speaker 4 (00:40):
There's no white people aren't already drunk at this point.
I mean, buddy, blackout Wednesday is a thing. I know
that you and your music theater child background don't understand
how us, the regular people, the normies, if you will
celebrate just generally any reason that we can to win vibe.
(01:03):
But yeah, most people are slashed by now. I mean,
Happy Thanksgiving. You can start drinking now, what do you mean?
Speaker 3 (01:10):
Okay, first and foremost of how many years on a
tour bus? And do you think you're gonna tell me
about drinking good lord, like I mean, I don't think
you understand.
Speaker 4 (01:20):
But drinking within the conventions of normal people. Okay, that's
not a normal experience. Oh I rode around on a
tour bus with a with a Grammy nominated band.
Speaker 3 (01:30):
Would we won?
Speaker 2 (01:34):
We want you, simple child, you sweet summer child.
Speaker 5 (01:39):
Yeah, where's your Grammary? Show it to me.
Speaker 4 (01:43):
I want the actual Grammy. I want the actual Grammary,
not not some little certificate that says, yeah I want
a Grammy, but somebody else got to keep it at
their house.
Speaker 5 (01:50):
No, where's the Grammy?
Speaker 3 (01:52):
Okay? Thirteen nominations, so I mean that that that's pretty good, right,
thirteen nominations pretty good? This is this is what we do.
This is what we do. I mean, look, I get it,
I get it. You know, we can't all be reporters
covering the Titans. Actually most of us could. Most of
us could.
Speaker 5 (02:08):
Want that.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
Did No.
Speaker 5 (02:11):
I don't want to practice tomorrow.
Speaker 3 (02:12):
I don't want no, no, no, no, does that team
actually practice? Oh no, I'm just throwing shade. Here's the question.
Here's the question that the Titans are not a fraud, right, Like,
the Titans are exactly who we we know they are.
You can't be fraud that the Titans just suck. Like,
when you are that level of suck, you're not a fraud.
Speaker 5 (02:30):
Like.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
But there are some teams in the NFL right now
that are coming into Thanksgiving and they're gonna suit at
the table and they're gonna tell you that they you know,
that they found their significant other and that they've got
their life in order, and that they're up for a promotion.
And everybody sitting at the table knows that they are
sitting on a throne of lies. So let's figure out,
in honor of the liars at the Thanksgiving table, who
(02:53):
the frauds are in the NFL so far this season.
I am just throwing all sorts of shades at Thanksgiving
end in some of these teams. And I will start
with the team that we talked about earlier, the Ravens.
Are they a fraud to you at this point?
Speaker 4 (03:07):
The Ravens are not a fraud because they are a
team that is flawed. Like, I think that you have
to consider where the Ravens defense was, how they're managing
the situation since the early part of the season, where
we're like, this is the worst defense that anybody has
ever seen is certainly associated with that uniform color, because
(03:28):
that's the thing that that franchise has prided itself on.
Now that Lamar Jackson is back in the mix, they're
playing a little more balanced football. They still have issues,
but I think six and five is appropriate.
Speaker 5 (03:37):
Now.
Speaker 4 (03:38):
You could say, well, I picked them to win the
Super Bowl. Many people did that this past offseason, understandably, so.
The Ravens were the number one offense in terms of
DVOA last year. They are as or they were as
efficient as anybody. They were as difficult to stop as anybody,
and there was reason to believe that they might be
able to carry that over into twenty twenty five. Lamar
(03:59):
Jackson gets in that throws things a wrench into things.
Their defense can't stop a nosebleed. They're losing by thirty
to the Houston Texans, who aren't a good offense with CJ.
Speaker 5 (04:09):
Stroud in the lineup early in the year.
Speaker 4 (04:10):
So I think if you are talking about relative to
preseason expectation, yeah, they haven't been what we all expected
them to be. But if you're looking at them right
now and saying, are you a fraud? At six and five, now,
I feel like they're appropriately placed at six and five.
They're a division leader, they're talented enough to be, and
they should be able to outlast the corpse of Aaron
(04:31):
Rodgers and whoever Joe Burrow is going to try and
fight fight through with tomorrow. I know t Higgins is
out and Jamar ch should be back from suspension, so
we'll see. But Trey Hendrickson also out in that game.
So what are the Bengals are? Rather, what are the
Ravens up against that would make them anything but the
(04:51):
best team and a bad division this year?
Speaker 3 (04:53):
Yeah, I think the Ravens are. You're right, it's pretty
accurate where they are. I think some of the conversations
around the Ravens is fraudulent. I think some of the
people that just presume that now, like we've seen it
over the course of the last three or four weeks
where it's like, well, the Ravens are gonna take off
and they're gonna win the division. Yes, that is true,
because their schedule is soft as sharpman for the rest
(05:14):
of the way, right, So they're gonna beat up on
some bad teams and they're gonna win some football games.
That doesn't mean they're good, right, But to your point,
I'm not sure they're a fraud. What about Kansas City? Then, Like,
are we at a spot where we can call the
Chiefs a fraud? Because I'll be honest, buck, like I
want this. I want to call the Chiefs a fraud.
I want to turn around and say, all right, the
(05:34):
Chiefs are kind of a joke this year and they
are broken and blah blah all the things that we
say about Kansas City. But like I said earlier, if
I'm gonna be real, if I had to place a
bet on my house for or against the Chiefs, I
don't feel good betting against Patrick Mahomes. So I don't
know what to make a Kansas City. Are they a fraud?
Speaker 5 (05:53):
No?
Speaker 4 (05:53):
I put them in the same category as the Ravens,
I'll tell you because the things that are a problem
for that for them or not, they're not fixed. Because
they came back in overtime at home against the Colts.
The Colts are a good team. That's a quality opponent
that they beat. It's enough to one keep Chiefs Chiefs
fans hopes alive and also two to strike fear into
(06:15):
the rest of the NFL be like, oh my god,
they can still do the thing. But can they still
do the thing? Or is that just a situation where
the Colts screwed around at the end of that game,
couldn't run the football with Jonathan Taylor, which has been
their superpower, and the Chiefs are good enough to come
back at any given point. I would say that that
that the latter is more accurate. I will tell you
I think the Seahawks are a fraud. I just saw
(06:36):
the Seahawks play here in Nashville, and I think that
Jackson Smith and Jigber is the truth. I think that
Seattle's defense is good enough to keep Sam Darnold in it.
But I saw Sam Donald not cover himself in glory
against the Tennessee Titans, who did not play a good
game defensively, who have put up a fight here or there.
(06:56):
They're a one to ten football team, so you make
of that what you will. But I just watched them
in person this past weekend, after seeing Sam Donald come
off that four interception performance, and I, you know, I
think he's still the same guy. I think that it's
it's enough to say, like I got what Minnesota.
Speaker 5 (07:12):
Tried to do right.
Speaker 4 (07:13):
They made a move for a more cost effective option
that their head coach, hand picked. Their head coach, is
a quarterback developer. He's somebody who is going to continue
to believe that organizations ruined players far more than players
ruin organizations. So he said, all right, J. J. McCarthy,
you're my guy, and we'll let Sam Donald go on
to greener pastures and we'll figure it out from there.
And for a while, for the now eight win Seahawks team,
(07:36):
that's been enough, and he's been objectively good. He has
been worth the contract. But these last two weeks, it's
just it's signs of the end of last season right
where he's facing the Lions and he's under durest from
a pass rush or a defense that's playing better than
it probably should have been playing at the end of
the year, given all the injuries they had at the
end of last season, and that cost them the division.
(07:56):
So all of a sudden, they're the wild card team.
They go into the Rams, and the Ram rough them up.
Because on any given day, Sam Donald against a pass
rush like that, he's gonna look less less than superhuman
at this point in time, So I think because of
the fact that we have seen teams start to expose
Sam Donald the fact that they are a team with
(08:17):
a poor turnover deferential even though they have one of
the most explosive offenses in football, to get them buy
in these moments. I think the Seahawks are gettable, and
just seeing them in person felt like that ratified that
to make okay.
Speaker 3 (08:28):
But I do think two things can be true to
your point, I'll buy what you're selling. If we want
to talk about whether or not Sam Donald may not
be epic, I'll buy that if that's what we want
to sell. I still don't think the Vikings let him
walk out the door made any sense because you didn't
have to do it. You could have figured out a
way to franchise him and keep him. And that's where
(08:50):
I get a little bit nervous. As I said earlier,
you know, I understand wanting some level of I understand
wanting some level of cheaper options. But I will just
remind everybody according to true media and make what you
will on this. But EPA per dropback is a big
number for quarterback efficiency all times since two thousand. He
(09:13):
ranks currently eight hundred and fifty one out of eight
hundred and fifty two in EPA for quarterbacks per dropback
the only quarterback McCarthy does. The only quarterback worse since
the year two thousand was JaMarcus Russell. So I say
all of that to say that JJ McCarthy right now,
statistically in one major metric is JaMarcus Russell. And when
(09:35):
you look at that level of disaster, two things can
be true. Sam Donald melted down. Sam Donald may not
be a world saver. We'll see for Seattle. I don't
know that I'm ready to jump off the train entirely,
but currently as we sit right now, we've had very
little to JJ McCarthy. When we've had him, it's been
tragically bad. So I don't think that there's any like
(09:57):
The Vikings put themselves in a situation where they have
a that was built to try and contempt for Super
Bowls right now, and they risked everything on their savants
quarterback whispering head coach that turns out can't whisper through
the met the guy that they need him to be
able to get through with JJ McCarthy, this thing's broken.
So I hear you, But I also just want to
(10:18):
at least throw the Vikings under the bus for letting
Sam Donald go. I think the Seahawks defense is so good,
and Jackson Smith and jig but is so good, and
their ability to run the football will save them from
being a fraud. I do think that the Chicago Bears
are a fraud. And it's okay, Like it's okay that
the Bears are much better than we expected record wise,
(10:39):
but man, you look at the teams and the quarterbacks
that the Bears have had to beat this year, it's
a whole bunch of slop. It is just this year
in the NFL, more than recent memory. Who you play
and when you play them matters, and golly like the
Bears have needed miracle win after miracle win against trash teams.
I would buy that the Bears are frauds. Now it
does matter. They're in first place and their division currently.
(11:01):
Enjoy Chicago fans and enjoy this whole run. Just remember
next summer when we're talking about the Bears the same
way we were talking about the Commanders this summer with
the hey advanced analytics shows they weren't that good. They're
going to take a step back. Commanders fans tried to
rip everybody's heads off for it.
Speaker 5 (11:18):
What do you know.
Speaker 3 (11:19):
So it's just just a reminder to everybody that I
think the Bears are frauds.
Speaker 4 (11:24):
I think there's been appreciable growth in Caleb Williams.
Speaker 5 (11:28):
I agree.
Speaker 4 (11:29):
I think that Ben Johnson deserves a lot of credit
for that. And I think that Ben Johnson and Shane
Steichen are the thing that every team in the NFL
is chasing right now, that there are only so many
of those dudes who are the kind of one personality
type to handle the job of head coach two adept
enough at the balancing of that job versus calling the
(11:50):
offensive plays.
Speaker 5 (11:51):
For your team, which is no small thing.
Speaker 4 (11:53):
And I don't just say that because I covered a
coach who got play calling duties taken from him and
Brian Kalla had before he would go on to be fired.
As if there was a more pre fired move in
America than taking the play calling from a play calling
head coach that you specifically hired to do that, whether
it was Will Levis cam or or anybody else who's
going to work with here. The thing about Chicago that
(12:18):
would concern me, just in terms of down the stretch
here is how can I be harmed by the teams
that are sitting behind me even though I've handled the
competition in my division pretty well so far, Like how
big is the gulf actually between the Lions, the Packers,
(12:39):
and the Bears. We understand that Minnesota is getting left
in the dust here, so they're not relevant for the
purposes of our conversation. Matt Lafleur has come under some
scrutiny because of the way that the Packers' offense looks
Does the Packers offense look like that? Because Matt Lafleur
is not a good play caller and has forgotten all
the things that have made him very, very good at
that job. Or wide receivers the young wide receivers in
(13:02):
Green Bay inconsistent. They look a lot different without Tucker
Craft the tight end in the lineup, and Matt Lafleur
is actually making the best of a bad situation. How
much can how much can Dan Campbell make Jared Goff better?
If Dan Campbell is actually going to be in charge
of play calling here as opposed to is it Joe
Morton in Detroit?
Speaker 3 (13:22):
Campbell has the play calling now?
Speaker 4 (13:23):
Yeah, right, because he did, the change was made. He
looked like a genius for a minute in time. He
had the glasses on the whole thing. But I don't
know is are we are we taking too much out
of a one game sample size and saying all right,
but is that sustainable? Is he going to be able
to get figured out again? The balance of managing those
(13:44):
things like where are the flaws for the other teams
that are chasing Chicago or on Chicago's heels? Right now,
I feel about as good as Chicago being able to
mitigate their flaws as I do these other teams catching
them at this point in time, which would basically make
the argument again them being frauds. You just feel a
little more, at least me, I feel a little more
confident in what they have versus what the other teams
(14:06):
are up against.
Speaker 3 (14:07):
It's just for me again. I'll go back to this.
You say it with me, you'll get a kick out
of this. Early they beat the Cowboys early in the year,
particularly when the Cowboys sucked. This is the Bears we're
talking about.
Speaker 5 (14:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (14:21):
Then the Bears beat the Raiders, who suck. Then they
beat the Commanders, who suck. Then they beat the Saints,
who suck. Then they beat the Bengals, who say it
with me, suck. Then they beat the Giants even without
I think Jackson Dart in that game I don't remember,
but they suck. Then they beat the Vikings, who suck,
(14:43):
and they just beat the Steelers, who right, no, they do.
So I was like, So for me, I just looked
at it was like, I don't have a single win
at all that for the Bears. Now the Bears coming up,
I don't have a single win that. I look at that,
and then I say, oh my god, that proves up.
Now coming up Eagles, Packers, Packers, forty nine Ers, Lions.
(15:03):
I've listed all of their remaining games except for the
Browns for one very important reason. So I look at Eagles, Packers, Packers,
forty nine, Ers, Lions. I don't know what the Browns
game is going to be. Those other five games, they'll
be very very telling. Now, you're right, they could lose
all five of those and still finish nine to eight.
I just think that that's I don't think losing all
five is I think that's a little disrespectful. Sure, when
(15:25):
we think of an eight and three football team and
you look at what's ahead of them, I don't think
we're going to talk about Chicago in six weeks the
way we're talking about Chicago today.
Speaker 4 (15:33):
Well, just look at what they're up against on Friday,
They're at Philadelphia.
Speaker 5 (15:37):
Those are two eight and three teams, like.
Speaker 4 (15:38):
What is the And again, it will not define specifically
how big the golf is between Chicago and Philadelphia. If
you know, Chicago were to fall short or Philadelphia were
to lose there, I don't think we would be able
to definitively say, yeah, that's how big the distance is
between these two teams if we're talking about a representative
sample size. But they had to head, you know, to
(15:59):
get kind of back into the college football playoff parlance.
Had the head should matter and could matter, especially if
they go on the road, if they go to Philly,
especially coming off that loss that the Eagles just experienced
at the hand of the Cowboys, which has to be
at that's a long history and a storied history. So
(16:20):
I don't want to say it's as traumatic a loss
as Eagles fans have ever experienced against Cowboys, but certainly
in recent memory, it's as traumatic a loss as Eagles
fans have had against the Cowboys. Where they're up, what
was it, twenty one to nothing and the Cowboys roar
back in the second half to just take it from them.
That way, Philadelphia now has something to prove. There's been
a lot of dialogue around Jalen Hurts and the media,
(16:41):
whether it's founded or reported or rumors.
Speaker 5 (16:43):
At this point in.
Speaker 4 (16:44):
Time in Chicago's just kind of plugging away and Ben
Johnson's doing their the little good better best breakdown in
the huddle, which is a little clunky to me, but whatever,
if it works for them, they're eight and three, far
be it from me to judge. We will learn a
great deal about what Chicago is actually accomplished and what
they can still accomplish after this Black Friday football game
(17:05):
is played.
Speaker 3 (17:05):
Yeah, I will remind everybody right now two eight and
three teams, and Vegas has Philly favored by seven, a
large number for two teams that are eight and three.
We'll keep breaking down some of the frauds that are
going to expose themselves to the rest of the world
over the course of this because they're not the only
teams in the NFL that deserve to be called out for.
We'll give you some more frauds coming up next to these.
(17:26):
Buck Rising I'm Jason fitz bucking Fits, hanging out with
you on Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
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 3 (17:42):
Hey, this is Jason McIntyre.
Speaker 6 (17:43):
Join me every weekday morning on my podcast, Straight Fire
with Jason McIntyre. This isn't your typical sports pod pushing
the same tired narratives down your throat every day. Straight
Fire gives you honest opinions on all the biggest sports headlines,
accurate stats to help you win big at the sports book,
and all the best guests. Do yourself a favor and
(18:03):
listen to Straight Fire with Jason McIntyre on the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 3 (18:14):
We got plenty of NFL teams out here that are
pretending they're good, and we're talking about them like maybe
they stand a chance, but they don't. The frauds and
we're gonna figure it out. He's Buck Rising on Jason Fitz.
I didn't realize how much I needed Queen in my
life tonight and I do another one bites the dust.
(18:39):
Oh feels so good. Some of these contenders need to
bite the dust. They're not real Buck. Let's take a
look at some of them. Speaking of Buck, how about
the Bucks? Does Buck like the Bucks? Tampa Bay? Where
are we on Tampa Bay?
Speaker 4 (18:53):
I picked them to be in the Super Bowl against
the Ravens.
Speaker 3 (18:56):
Why'd you do that?
Speaker 4 (18:57):
Because their offense was really good and they drafted a
Mecca Buca and I said, why do they need another
wide receiver? Oh no, they don't. They're just gonna shell teams.
And for the first part of the season I was right.
I was right, And then all football happened, and all
the bodies are broken and Baker Mayfield's hurt now and
they're six and five. They're hosting the Cardinals this weekend,
(19:17):
which feels like a win that should be gettable.
Speaker 5 (19:20):
But I don't know nothing seen nothing is coming.
Speaker 4 (19:22):
Easy for them right now in Tampa Bay. And again,
their division is fraught, right we kind of look at them.
I look at them within the same prism, ironically enough,
as the Ravens. Where who's really going to push them?
Six and six? Carolina? Do you fear the Panthers? Do
you respect the Panthers? I think the Panthers have earned
(19:42):
more respect at this point in time. They play the
Rams this weekend, though it's in Carolina. We'll see what
that looks like. Nobody's stopping Matt Stafford right now. He's
just on an unholy tear, playing the best football of
his career at what is he thirty seven years old? Outrageous.
Tampa Bay is falling apart of the seams. They are
(20:03):
not frauds to me. They are hurt. They are a
victim of football, a team that should be better than
they actually are, but they have no pieces left and
they are you know, it's you can very easily see
how the wheels will spin off. And they bought themselves
margin at the start of the year, but that's quickly
faded with how many different injuries they've had to survive
(20:25):
throughout the course.
Speaker 5 (20:25):
Of the year.
Speaker 4 (20:26):
A team that you brought up before we started talking,
that I will see in person this weekend for the
first time, unfortunately without Travis Hunter. I was really looking
forward to seeing him play, but he's obviously uninjured, reserve
and done for the season. Seven and four are the
Jacksonville Jaguars. The Jags are winning FITSI it feels to me,
in spite of Trevor Lawrence, there is not a more
(20:48):
is this is an interesting conversation or at least an
interesting branch off of this topic tree if we were
to do it this way, Kyler Murray or Trevor Lawrence,
who has played more football, but still is this wildly
inconsistent or more wildly inconsistent than those two players, because
Lawrence will throw an interception that makes just absolutely, absolutely
(21:11):
no damn sense the way that he did this weekend,
and they're still good enough to win games. I think
Liam Cohen has done a very impressive job in his
first year. But I don't know if you can't look
at the Jags and say, in the same way that
I was kind of picking on the Seahawks earlier, I
feel more that way about Jacksonville.
Speaker 3 (21:27):
Yeah, look, Jacksonville full on fraud. I'm all in on
just loudly proclaiming the Jags as a fraud. They beat
the Raiders. That's an important part of this context, because
that that game came down to a two point conversion
at the end. That's in a spot where they lost
three out of four. They could have lost four out
of four depending on how that game had gone out.
(21:48):
And then they go whip the snot out of the Chargers,
and we say oh, they're okay, and then against Arizona
it didn't really look all that great. Now they get
Tennessee this weekend, they still have the Jets on the schedule,
and then they get the Titans again in week eighteen.
So it's pretty easy for me to find three games
where they will be heavily favored. And that's pretty easy
to see here. I still don't think they're a very
(22:09):
good football team. And to your point, as I've said
many times, I was standing on the field covering Trevor
Lawrence winning a national tar, playing for National Championship, winning
national championship, when the conversation was, oh, man, he should
sue the NFL to change the rules so that he
can get into the draft after his fresh meal. He's
going to be the next John Elway. That's where we
(22:31):
were with there, and the Jags have done everything they
can to ruin the guy. But like at this point now,
I mean, Liam Cohen is supposed to be a great
offensive mind, and what we've seen is the Jags team
that's really defined by their defense. Their defense's ability to
turn the ball over and force turnovers, I should say,
has been a huge part of how they won football games.
(22:52):
The Jags are winning games, but there's a difference between
being a playoff team and being a good team. People
all the time like, you can make the playoffs when
because it just went your way, and then the next
year when all of a sudden your team sucks again.
In fans are like, what happened? Well, the answer is,
you weren't really good last year. It's just you had
one of those years where the football gods shined on you.
I think that's what happened to what's happening to the Jags.
(23:14):
I don't think sustainably right now. They're built to be
a good football team. I think they've just gotten away
with with finding a way to win this year, which
is fine, fine, but I mean, look at some of
these wins, like a close win over Houston earlier in
the year when Houston's defense was still figuring itself out,
a close win over San Francisco, a close win over
Kansas City, a close win over the Raiders, a close
(23:35):
win over the Chargers. The Jags are living, breathing, eating
example of what we have every year in the NFL.
A team that just three or four of these games
are like, how the hell they win them? There are
three or four plays away from being a much different
football team.
Speaker 4 (23:49):
You want to talk about the inverse of that, the
football gods are not shining on the Los Angeles Chargers, Man,
I just don't.
Speaker 3 (23:56):
It's gross.
Speaker 4 (23:57):
Well, it sucks because like do this every year. I
feel like I feel like the Chargers lead the league
in team that you have most preseason hope or excitement
for that never actually pans out, and it really doesn't
matter who's even playing quarterback. I was like this with
Rivers and some of those Chargers teams. I feel like
(24:19):
this with Herbert, and the thing that just is so
criminal is that you're getting the Justin Herbert year for
the first third of the season and then both of
his starting tackles go down. Their offensive line is awful, awful,
and the guy has I mean, you're down to how
many running backs have they lost due to injury? Najie Harris,
(24:40):
Amari and Hampton. I believe there was another running back
that was missing some time. I don't want to speak
out of turn, but either way, and teams have to
deal with reserves all across the board. We talked about
teams that we are believing in right now. Allah the Colts,
who are very much who are very much both and
(25:00):
healthy at this point in time. I don't know that
the Chargers aren't a better team than the vast majority
of the field if they're healthy, But the fact of
the matter is they're simply not. And it's to the
detriment of Justin Herbert because he cannot operate behind this offense.
He cannot operate at a high enough level to be
truly feared in the landscape of the NFL. Behind this
offensive line.
Speaker 3 (25:20):
There they are just they are awful, and at some
point you just got to look at the entire training
system recovery. There's gotta be something they can look at
the pinpoint, because you're right, I don't remember the last
time I saw an organization that just every year loses
more stars and it's just stars every like it's part
of it. I feel like I'm Charlie Brown running after
(25:40):
the football and then it gets moved at the last
second every year. With the Chargers, they're wildly talented, at
least on paper. But we don't play the video game
version of this, like I'm Madden. You should be forced
to play the Chargers without five random starters every week
because that's about what it's really like.
Speaker 4 (25:56):
Yeah, but I disagree with the idea that it's like
the training staff, right, so many of these because I
went through this a couple of years ago with with
vrabel as the Titans coach. Like people would pin the
rash amount of injuries that the Titans were sustaining on
a year end, year out basis on the strength and
conditioning staff, or does Mike Frable coach too hard at
(26:16):
practice or all these different things. But then you look
at the percentage of the injuries that are happening like
in games, right, not like a practice a Wednesday practice injury,
or you know, somebody screwed something up on a Saturday walkthrough,
or I mean the Chargers, do we not wait, the
Chargers are maybe a bad example about this, asked Tyrod Taylor.
Didn't they have like a punctured lung because of their
team doctor, Yeah, a couple of years ago. So maybe
(26:39):
maybe the Chargers are not the hill that I want
to die on there defending a strength and conditioning staff
or a training staff that way, medical staff that way.
But I do think if you look at the percentage
of injuries that are happening in game, like What are
they going to do about Najie Harris shooting himself in
the eye with a firecracker? You know, it's just it's
a lot of this is just it. It's both football
and then bad luck pounding it.
Speaker 3 (27:01):
Yeah, there is no doubt, and maybe there is no
connective threat, but it's at least worth exploring. Sure speaking,
let's explore what's going on right now across the landscape
of all scores, months of belgios. What have we got?
Speaker 7 (27:13):
All right, guys, We've got one game still going on
in the NBA Cup, and it's been an entertaining one.
Out least it's the Rockets and the Warriors. No Kevin
Durant in this one, but it has been a fun game.
Right now, Houston is up ninety five to ninety one.
They're coming down to the final two minutes. Here Jimmy Butler,
he's got nineteen points. Reach Shepherd for Houston has twenty
eight points and nine rebounds. But things are getting chippy
(27:37):
in these final two minutes. These Spurs de feed of
the Trailblazers one fifteen to one oh two. Deer in
Fox thirty seven points. Suns beat the Kings one twelve
to one hundred, and the Grizzlies took down the Pelicans
in overtime one thirty three to one twenty eight. But
the thunder are off to a historic start. The one
of only five teams in NBA history to start the
season eighteen and one are better. They defeated the Timberwolves
(27:59):
already one thirteen to one oh five.
Speaker 3 (28:01):
Shay Gildess Alexander.
Speaker 7 (28:02):
Forty points in the win, and the Knicks crush The
Hornets won twenty nine to one oh one. Celtics snapped
the pistons thirteen game winning streak coming out on top
today went seventeen to one fourteen, where Jaylen Brown had
a double double thirty three points and ten rebounds. Other
NBA news, Anthony Davis of the Dallas Mavericks return to
practice today. He could play against the Lakers this Friday
after missing fourteen games with a strained left calf. When
(28:26):
it comes to the NFL, well on the East Coast,
it's Thursday, so happy Thanksgiving if you're celebrating, and there's
three games on the Thursday docket, Packers and Lions, Chiefs, Cowboys, Bengals, Ravens.
Joe Burrow is expected to start for the Bengals. Running
back Isaiah Pacheco is expected to play for the Chiefs.
As for Panthers safety Trevon Morig, his appeal of the
(28:47):
one game suspension for unsportsmanlike conduct was denied, so he's
missing Sunday's game against the Rams. He's also losing sixty
five thousand dollars in wages. When it comes to the NHL,
the Senators and the Golden Knights are tied at three
apiece coming down to the final three four minutes in
the third period, and the Connects over the Ducks right
now five to four. Also super late coming down to
(29:08):
the final seconds in the third period. But give it
up to the Avalanche because they've won ten in a row.
They shut out the Shark six zero earlier today and
the Stars defeated the crack In three to two. Canadians
over the Mammoth four to three. Back to you guys,
he's buck rising. I'm Jason Fitz hanging out with the
Bucket Fitz. Fox Sports Radio. Don't forget what the iHeartRadio app.
(29:29):
You can stream us wherever you happen to be. Catch
us in all of Fox Sports Radio Live twenty four
to seven in the new and improved just when you
thought it couldn't get better. iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 3 (29:38):
Just search Fox Sports Radio in the app to stream
us live all day, every day, and be sure to
select Fox Sports Radio is one of your presets in
the iHeart app, so it will always pop up at
the top of your screen. Manzi just gave you some
score updates, including the NBA Cup. Can we just agree
that that's the stupidest thing, Like, there is just nothing
that's gonna happen. It's like, Okay, we're gonna play a
series of games in the middle of the NBAC and
(30:00):
that will count towards a random cup and the winner
of it, every player on that team will get you
know whatever, it's five hundred and thirty thousand dollars or something.
We're going to financially incentivize why people should care, but
we're gonna make the courts look different, so you know
it's a cup game, Like, just just kick me in
the no no places instead of pretending that you think
I'm that stupid.
Speaker 4 (30:21):
Yeah, I just I am completely unmoved by this. And
maybe it's because I'm just I'm not in NBA mode yet.
I'm not even close. I don't want to, you know,
I'm sure that that's not a blanket statement for the
rest of the country, though I do feel like when
we're in the full throws of playoff seating in the
NFL and college football playoff stuff being decided on a
(30:44):
week by week basis as we wrap up the regular season,
there even college basketball to me, Fitzie is more compelling
than the NBA.
Speaker 5 (30:51):
It's just there.
Speaker 4 (30:52):
You're never going to get me interested. And maybe part
of this is because my team is awful. The Pacers
are awful, so bad this year, and it's not just
because Tyre's Halliburton is out and going to miss the
remainder of the season. They are a total mess. And
even the team locally that we might pay attention to,
though I'm in Nashville and Nashville that there's just no
(31:15):
level of Grizzly's discourse here whatsoever. They could not care
less about what's going on in Memphis. But even if
I wanted to, you know, check in on Memphis. Every
time I look up, John Moran is doing something else
stupid and it just makes me upset. Just leave Klay
Thompson alone. Why are you barking at him? From the
sidelines when you're not participating, and when you are on
the court, you're still not a good basketball team.
Speaker 5 (31:37):
I don't know.
Speaker 4 (31:38):
I'm not there with the NBA yet. I get what
they're trying to do. I just don't think it's not,
at least for me, it's not having the intended effect.
Speaker 5 (31:46):
This NBA Cup.
Speaker 3 (31:47):
Now, all it does is remind everybody that they're having
to find ways to make people give a damn about
their product in the regular season. And that's a problem
if you are just continually And this is something that
you know, I've talked Tom Haberstrow about a few times
on Yahoo Sports Daily, because there is this concept when
you look at some of the advanced analytics about injuries.
(32:07):
It shows that something that Steve Kurtz has talked about
too is pace of play and how all of this together.
He recently, in one of the postgame press conferences, pointed
out the fact that they had played whatever it was,
seventeen games in twenty nine days over thirteen cities, and
as of it was about a week ago, and as
of that point, he pointed out that they had had
(32:29):
four practices all season. Because the schedule has been so difficult.
They haven't been able to just practice as a basketball team.
And this is where I just continue to remind everybody
that when you have this much inventory, when you have
so much inventory that you have to paint the court
in some sort of a stupid way, which Luca pointed
out feels slick and unsafe. But about me on all
(32:50):
that you have to convince people to watch your regular
season products. Because you have too much of it, then
you need to reduce it. And this is where everybody
will say nobody wants to take less money. I would argue,
as is smart people who pointed out to me when
I've made that argument, that having less inventory will actually
make the inventory you have more valuable, which means, over
(33:10):
the course of it, you might not actually have to
take the pay cut that so many people perceive out
of the fear of just eliminating NBA games. This season
is too long, It's just it is. It's impossible for
casuals to give a damn about it right now, and
even for diehards. If you have to paint the court
and tell everybody, no, no, no, pay attention to this one.
It's an NBA Cup care And if you have to
plead with everybody to pay attention to your regular season products.
(33:33):
Then your regular season product is broken. So every time
I hear this, it's like, oh, well, we wanted to
qualifying Group B. Nobody gives a damn Literally, nobody gives
a damn what what? What? You don't like my Curmit
the Frog.
Speaker 4 (33:45):
NBA concused as to why Kermit is the is the
voice of NBA punditry and your Twitter punch somehow.
Speaker 3 (33:53):
I just why not, Kermit? I mean, would you be
more comfortable if I did miss Piggy?
Speaker 5 (34:00):
Well?
Speaker 3 (34:01):
There, oh god, so many things to say, so little time.
Uh look, as broken as that is, and as broken
as I think the NBA Cup is, there's one thing
that is happening right now in college basketball that's actually brilliant.
We'll tell you about it next. He's Buck Rising. I'm
(34:23):
Jason fitzber hanging out with you on Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 2 (34:25):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven
pm Pacific.
Speaker 3 (34:33):
He's Buck Rising. I'm Jason fitz bucking Fits hanging out
with you. I'm Fox Sports Radio college basketball doing something
really interesting that seems to be catching everybody's attention and
it might be a little bit of a peek into
something for the future of all college athletics. As we
(34:54):
have the Players Era Tournament going on right now in
Las Vegas. And what's interesting about this is every team
that has chosen to compete in this tournament is getting
a million dollars, and then the winners of the tournament
get a varying amount depending all the way up to
the overall winner of the entire tournament getting a million dollars.
An addition to that million dollars all going to NIL money,
(35:15):
all going to NIL funds and buck It's something that's
interesting because for years most of us have watched the
Maui Invitational, or we watch whatever the Atlantis down to
the Bahamas, like we watch these things. Those tournaments now
seem to be falling by the wayside, and major brands
are choosing instead to participate in Vegas because there's cash
money on the line. And when we start talking about
(35:37):
the future of college sports, I think it's important also
acknowledge that any revenue stream teams can find where they
get a cut of something is going to be an incentive.
We just talked about the NBA Cup and why that's difficult,
you know, to find meaning to And look, I get
that the players are making half a million dollars if
they win it, and that's not a small amount of money,
(35:57):
but it's hard even for that to cut through for
most people. When you see these programs choosing to com
to participate in this tournament where there's nil money on
the line, it makes me wonder if this isn't really
going to end up being the future of how most
of these teams choose to partake in any sort of
non conference activity.
Speaker 4 (36:16):
Well, and this is kind of something that I was
always curious about, like with revenue sharing specifically in the
NIL era, because you were going to see basketball programs.
I wouldn't say take the biggest hit on that, but
we understand what percentage of revenue sharing is going to
go to football versus basketball, and how basketball programs are
(36:36):
going to have to make up that gap, and would
it just turn into another situation where basketball coaches and
people on behalf of basketball programs are doing deals under
the table because they can't play by the rules to
get the kind of players that they want to get.
By the way, this is actively going on Alabama is
up by twenty on Maryland right now, if you guys
(36:58):
are still watching this thing on TNT at this point
in time, I like it conceptually to make up some
of the gaps for some of these programs in NIL. Now,
if the biggest programs end up winning the most amount
of money and the rich get richer as a result,
does it really help the state of the sport?
Speaker 5 (37:15):
Probably not.
Speaker 4 (37:16):
And this was reporting done by Myron Medcalf at ESPN
earlier today where basically twenty four hours after the organizers
of this thing were promising, or we're saying, steadfastly that
they were going to stick to the current setup, which.
Speaker 5 (37:33):
Is it's a set.
Speaker 4 (37:35):
It's called a festival, right, so it's not a tournament
because it doesn't have a bracket. I don't like the
idea that it doesn't have a bracket. I brought this
up earlier in the show, not just because I pay
close attention to Tennessee sports as somebody who lives in
the state of Tennessee, but I didn't like the idea
that Tennessee, for example, could smash Rutgers through the surface
(37:57):
of the sun then go and beat Houston as fun
a basketball game as I've watched all year and end
up in the third place game against Kansas simply by
nature of point differential. That didn't make sense to me,
but apparently the CEO, his name is seth Bergen or
seth Berger, told organizers that they will consider a new
format when next year's field expands to thirty two teams.
(38:21):
They have to put in a bracket. That's just simply
what this is going to have to be.
Speaker 3 (38:24):
Well, and at some point they had to They should
have anticipated that things get a little dicey. You can
bring everybody out to Vegas and have a grand old
time until you see a bunch of results that then
suddenly puts you in a bit of a kirkin a
little pickle, right, because now, all of a sudden, when
you've got an extra million dollars of nil out there, man,
we're not just having fun. Like this isn't just a
(38:47):
fun opportunity for exposure for the program. This is a
million dollars of nil, and that nil money is so key.
Like that's the one difference I think that we need
to acknowledge at some point with building your college basketball
pro versus building your college football program. There are certainly
players in college football right now that are requiring over
five million dollars to come play, right, So the numbers
(39:09):
are astronomical in college football. They are to some their
reports that ab aj Debonca is making anywhere from five
to seven million dollars to play for BYU this year.
So I've seen a lot of that. But the reality
of it is, Buck, you got fifteen to twenty million dollars,
you can put together a basketball roster, right, So a
one million dollars you sold.
Speaker 5 (39:29):
Problem.
Speaker 4 (39:29):
Right, They're paying twenty two this year for their basketball team.
And Mark Pope looks like he's an absolute hell.
Speaker 3 (39:35):
But if you want to win in college basketball, all
you got to do is spend the money. So these
opportunities to take a little extra that broadcasting cash home
from these these tournaments, from these whatever we want to
call them, from these events, festival from festivals, they become
particularly important because that million dollars makes a big difference
in next year's recruiting class.
Speaker 4 (39:56):
No, absolutely, And as somebody who is like I, Indiana
football is the number two team in the country. They've
been the number two team in the country for a
considerable amount of time. At this point, it's almost like
it's normal. I, as an Indiana lum do not care
about that at all because I want my basketball team
to be good and I would trade the number two
team in the country and football in a heartbeat for
a competent basketball team.
Speaker 5 (40:17):
So if you're.
Speaker 4 (40:18):
Trying, and if you are somebody who values one program
over the other or prioritizes one program over the other,
you're looking around and being like, Yes, more opportunities to
fatten my war chest to go out there and put
together the best possible version of a national championship contender. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (40:34):
That's the interesting part about it is that if you
want in the modern college football and basketball landscape, if
you want to be great, all you got to do
is pay for it. All Right, We're going to break
down some of the biggest games in the NFL coming
up this weekend. We'll do that next on Fox Sports Radio.
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.
Speaker 3 (00:28):
If you're on the East Coast, Happy Thanksgiving. We've crossed
over midnight. It's officially Thanksgiving. You can start drinking now.
You have full permission. I mean, that's the way that works, right, Like,
I don't know how.
Speaker 4 (00:40):
There's no white people aren't already drunk at this point.
I mean, buddy, blackout Wednesday is a thing. I know
that you and your music theater child background don't understand
how us, the regular people, the normies, if you will
celebrate just generally any reason that we can to win vibe.
(01:03):
But yeah, most people are slashed by now. I mean,
Happy Thanksgiving. You can start drinking now, what do you mean?
Speaker 3 (01:10):
Okay, first and foremost of how many years on a
tour bus? And do you think you're gonna tell me
about drinking good lord, like I mean, I don't think
you understand.
Speaker 4 (01:20):
But drinking within the conventions of normal people. Okay, that's
not a normal experience. Oh I rode around on a
tour bus with a with a Grammy nominated band.
Speaker 3 (01:30):
Would we won?
Speaker 2 (01:34):
We want you, simple child, you sweet summer child.
Speaker 5 (01:39):
Yeah, where's your Grammary? Show it to me.
Speaker 4 (01:43):
I want the actual Grammy. I want the actual Grammary,
not not some little certificate that says, yeah I want
a Grammy, but somebody else got to keep it at
their house.
Speaker 5 (01:50):
No, where's the Grammy?
Speaker 3 (01:52):
Okay? Thirteen nominations, so I mean that that that's pretty good, right,
thirteen nominations pretty good? This is this is what we do.
This is what we do. I mean, look, I get it,
I get it. You know, we can't all be reporters
covering the Titans. Actually most of us could. Most of
us could.
Speaker 5 (02:08):
Want that.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
Did No.
Speaker 5 (02:11):
I don't want to practice tomorrow.
Speaker 3 (02:12):
I don't want no, no, no, no, does that team
actually practice? Oh no, I'm just throwing shade. Here's the question.
Here's the question that the Titans are not a fraud, right, Like,
the Titans are exactly who we we know they are.
You can't be fraud that the Titans just suck. Like,
when you are that level of suck, you're not a fraud.
Speaker 5 (02:30):
Like.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
But there are some teams in the NFL right now
that are coming into Thanksgiving and they're gonna suit at
the table and they're gonna tell you that they you know,
that they found their significant other and that they've got
their life in order, and that they're up for a promotion.
And everybody sitting at the table knows that they are
sitting on a throne of lies. So let's figure out,
in honor of the liars at the Thanksgiving table, who
(02:53):
the frauds are in the NFL so far this season.
I am just throwing all sorts of shades at Thanksgiving
end in some of these teams. And I will start
with the team that we talked about earlier, the Ravens.
Are they a fraud to you at this point?
Speaker 4 (03:07):
The Ravens are not a fraud because they are a
team that is flawed. Like, I think that you have
to consider where the Ravens defense was, how they're managing
the situation since the early part of the season, where
we're like, this is the worst defense that anybody has
ever seen is certainly associated with that uniform color, because
(03:28):
that's the thing that that franchise has prided itself on.
Now that Lamar Jackson is back in the mix, they're
playing a little more balanced football. They still have issues,
but I think six and five is appropriate.
Speaker 5 (03:37):
Now.
Speaker 4 (03:38):
You could say, well, I picked them to win the
Super Bowl. Many people did that this past offseason, understandably, so.
The Ravens were the number one offense in terms of
DVOA last year. They are as or they were as
efficient as anybody. They were as difficult to stop as anybody,
and there was reason to believe that they might be
able to carry that over into twenty twenty five. Lamar
(03:59):
Jackson gets in that throws things a wrench into things.
Their defense can't stop a nosebleed. They're losing by thirty
to the Houston Texans, who aren't a good offense with CJ.
Speaker 5 (04:09):
Stroud in the lineup early in the year.
Speaker 4 (04:10):
So I think if you are talking about relative to
preseason expectation, yeah, they haven't been what we all expected
them to be. But if you're looking at them right
now and saying, are you a fraud? At six and five, now,
I feel like they're appropriately placed at six and five.
They're a division leader, they're talented enough to be, and
they should be able to outlast the corpse of Aaron
(04:31):
Rodgers and whoever Joe Burrow is going to try and
fight fight through with tomorrow. I know t Higgins is
out and Jamar ch should be back from suspension, so
we'll see. But Trey Hendrickson also out in that game.
So what are the Bengals are? Rather, what are the
Ravens up against that would make them anything but the
(04:51):
best team and a bad division this year?
Speaker 3 (04:53):
Yeah, I think the Ravens are. You're right, it's pretty
accurate where they are. I think some of the conversations
around the Ravens is fraudulent. I think some of the
people that just presume that now, like we've seen it
over the course of the last three or four weeks
where it's like, well, the Ravens are gonna take off
and they're gonna win the division. Yes, that is true,
because their schedule is soft as sharpman for the rest
(05:14):
of the way, right, So they're gonna beat up on
some bad teams and they're gonna win some football games.
That doesn't mean they're good, right, But to your point,
I'm not sure they're a fraud. What about Kansas City? Then, Like,
are we at a spot where we can call the
Chiefs a fraud? Because I'll be honest, buck, like I
want this. I want to call the Chiefs a fraud.
I want to turn around and say, all right, the
(05:34):
Chiefs are kind of a joke this year and they
are broken and blah blah all the things that we
say about Kansas City. But like I said earlier, if
I'm gonna be real, if I had to place a
bet on my house for or against the Chiefs, I
don't feel good betting against Patrick Mahomes. So I don't
know what to make a Kansas City. Are they a fraud?
Speaker 5 (05:53):
No?
Speaker 4 (05:53):
I put them in the same category as the Ravens,
I'll tell you because the things that are a problem
for that for them or not, they're not fixed. Because
they came back in overtime at home against the Colts.
The Colts are a good team. That's a quality opponent
that they beat. It's enough to one keep Chiefs Chiefs
fans hopes alive and also two to strike fear into
(06:15):
the rest of the NFL be like, oh my god,
they can still do the thing. But can they still
do the thing? Or is that just a situation where
the Colts screwed around at the end of that game,
couldn't run the football with Jonathan Taylor, which has been
their superpower, and the Chiefs are good enough to come
back at any given point. I would say that that
that the latter is more accurate. I will tell you
I think the Seahawks are a fraud. I just saw
(06:36):
the Seahawks play here in Nashville, and I think that
Jackson Smith and Jigber is the truth. I think that
Seattle's defense is good enough to keep Sam Darnold in it.
But I saw Sam Donald not cover himself in glory
against the Tennessee Titans, who did not play a good
game defensively, who have put up a fight here or there.
(06:56):
They're a one to ten football team, so you make
of that what you will. But I just watched them
in person this past weekend, after seeing Sam Donald come
off that four interception performance, and I, you know, I
think he's still the same guy. I think that it's
it's enough to say, like I got what Minnesota.
Speaker 5 (07:12):
Tried to do right.
Speaker 4 (07:13):
They made a move for a more cost effective option
that their head coach, hand picked. Their head coach, is
a quarterback developer. He's somebody who is going to continue
to believe that organizations ruined players far more than players
ruin organizations. So he said, all right, J. J. McCarthy,
you're my guy, and we'll let Sam Donald go on
to greener pastures and we'll figure it out from there.
And for a while, for the now eight win Seahawks team,
(07:36):
that's been enough, and he's been objectively good. He has
been worth the contract. But these last two weeks, it's
just it's signs of the end of last season right
where he's facing the Lions and he's under durest from
a pass rush or a defense that's playing better than
it probably should have been playing at the end of
the year, given all the injuries they had at the
end of last season, and that cost them the division.
(07:56):
So all of a sudden, they're the wild card team.
They go into the Rams, and the Ram rough them up.
Because on any given day, Sam Donald against a pass
rush like that, he's gonna look less less than superhuman
at this point in time, So I think because of
the fact that we have seen teams start to expose
Sam Donald the fact that they are a team with
(08:17):
a poor turnover deferential even though they have one of
the most explosive offenses in football, to get them buy
in these moments. I think the Seahawks are gettable, and
just seeing them in person felt like that ratified that
to make okay.
Speaker 3 (08:28):
But I do think two things can be true to
your point, I'll buy what you're selling. If we want
to talk about whether or not Sam Donald may not
be epic, I'll buy that if that's what we want
to sell. I still don't think the Vikings let him
walk out the door made any sense because you didn't
have to do it. You could have figured out a
way to franchise him and keep him. And that's where
(08:50):
I get a little bit nervous. As I said earlier,
you know, I understand wanting some level of I understand
wanting some level of cheaper options. But I will just
remind everybody according to true media and make what you
will on this. But EPA per dropback is a big
number for quarterback efficiency all times since two thousand. He
(09:13):
ranks currently eight hundred and fifty one out of eight
hundred and fifty two in EPA for quarterbacks per dropback
the only quarterback McCarthy does. The only quarterback worse since
the year two thousand was JaMarcus Russell. So I say
all of that to say that JJ McCarthy right now,
statistically in one major metric is JaMarcus Russell. And when
(09:35):
you look at that level of disaster, two things can
be true. Sam Donald melted down. Sam Donald may not
be a world saver. We'll see for Seattle. I don't
know that I'm ready to jump off the train entirely,
but currently as we sit right now, we've had very
little to JJ McCarthy. When we've had him, it's been
tragically bad. So I don't think that there's any like
(09:57):
The Vikings put themselves in a situation where they have
a that was built to try and contempt for Super
Bowls right now, and they risked everything on their savants
quarterback whispering head coach that turns out can't whisper through
the met the guy that they need him to be
able to get through with JJ McCarthy, this thing's broken.
So I hear you, But I also just want to
(10:18):
at least throw the Vikings under the bus for letting
Sam Donald go. I think the Seahawks defense is so good,
and Jackson Smith and jig but is so good, and
their ability to run the football will save them from
being a fraud. I do think that the Chicago Bears
are a fraud. And it's okay, Like it's okay that
the Bears are much better than we expected record wise,
(10:39):
but man, you look at the teams and the quarterbacks
that the Bears have had to beat this year, it's
a whole bunch of slop. It is just this year
in the NFL, more than recent memory. Who you play
and when you play them matters, and golly like the
Bears have needed miracle win after miracle win against trash teams.
I would buy that the Bears are frauds. Now it
does matter. They're in first place and their division currently.
(11:01):
Enjoy Chicago fans and enjoy this whole run. Just remember
next summer when we're talking about the Bears the same
way we were talking about the Commanders this summer with
the hey advanced analytics shows they weren't that good. They're
going to take a step back. Commanders fans tried to
rip everybody's heads off for it.
Speaker 5 (11:18):
What do you know.
Speaker 3 (11:19):
So it's just just a reminder to everybody that I
think the Bears are frauds.
Speaker 4 (11:24):
I think there's been appreciable growth in Caleb Williams.
Speaker 5 (11:28):
I agree.
Speaker 4 (11:29):
I think that Ben Johnson deserves a lot of credit
for that. And I think that Ben Johnson and Shane
Steichen are the thing that every team in the NFL
is chasing right now, that there are only so many
of those dudes who are the kind of one personality
type to handle the job of head coach two adept
enough at the balancing of that job versus calling the
(11:50):
offensive plays.
Speaker 5 (11:51):
For your team, which is no small thing.
Speaker 4 (11:53):
And I don't just say that because I covered a
coach who got play calling duties taken from him and
Brian Kalla had before he would go on to be fired.
As if there was a more pre fired move in
America than taking the play calling from a play calling
head coach that you specifically hired to do that, whether
it was Will Levis cam or or anybody else who's
going to work with here. The thing about Chicago that
(12:18):
would concern me, just in terms of down the stretch
here is how can I be harmed by the teams
that are sitting behind me even though I've handled the
competition in my division pretty well so far, Like how
big is the gulf actually between the Lions, the Packers,
(12:39):
and the Bears. We understand that Minnesota is getting left
in the dust here, so they're not relevant for the
purposes of our conversation. Matt Lafleur has come under some
scrutiny because of the way that the Packers' offense looks
Does the Packers offense look like that? Because Matt Lafleur
is not a good play caller and has forgotten all
the things that have made him very, very good at
that job. Or wide receivers the young wide receivers in
(13:02):
Green Bay inconsistent. They look a lot different without Tucker
Craft the tight end in the lineup, and Matt Lafleur
is actually making the best of a bad situation. How
much can how much can Dan Campbell make Jared Goff better?
If Dan Campbell is actually going to be in charge
of play calling here as opposed to is it Joe
Morton in Detroit?
Speaker 3 (13:22):
Campbell has the play calling now?
Speaker 4 (13:23):
Yeah, right, because he did, the change was made. He
looked like a genius for a minute in time. He
had the glasses on the whole thing. But I don't
know is are we are we taking too much out
of a one game sample size and saying all right,
but is that sustainable? Is he going to be able
to get figured out again? The balance of managing those
(13:44):
things like where are the flaws for the other teams
that are chasing Chicago or on Chicago's heels? Right now,
I feel about as good as Chicago being able to
mitigate their flaws as I do these other teams catching
them at this point in time, which would basically make
the argument again them being frauds. You just feel a
little more, at least me, I feel a little more
confident in what they have versus what the other teams
(14:06):
are up against.
Speaker 3 (14:07):
It's just for me again. I'll go back to this.
You say it with me, you'll get a kick out
of this. Early they beat the Cowboys early in the year,
particularly when the Cowboys sucked. This is the Bears we're
talking about.
Speaker 5 (14:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (14:21):
Then the Bears beat the Raiders, who suck. Then they
beat the Commanders, who suck. Then they beat the Saints,
who suck. Then they beat the Bengals, who say it
with me, suck. Then they beat the Giants even without
I think Jackson Dart in that game I don't remember,
but they suck. Then they beat the Vikings, who suck,
(14:43):
and they just beat the Steelers, who right, no, they do.
So I was like, So for me, I just looked
at it was like, I don't have a single win
at all that for the Bears. Now the Bears coming up,
I don't have a single win that. I look at that,
and then I say, oh my god, that proves up.
Now coming up Eagles, Packers, Packers, forty nine Ers, Lions.
(15:03):
I've listed all of their remaining games except for the
Browns for one very important reason. So I look at Eagles, Packers, Packers,
forty nine, Ers, Lions. I don't know what the Browns
game is going to be. Those other five games, they'll
be very very telling. Now, you're right, they could lose
all five of those and still finish nine to eight.
I just think that that's I don't think losing all
five is I think that's a little disrespectful. Sure, when
(15:25):
we think of an eight and three football team and
you look at what's ahead of them, I don't think
we're going to talk about Chicago in six weeks the
way we're talking about Chicago today.
Speaker 4 (15:33):
Well, just look at what they're up against on Friday,
They're at Philadelphia.
Speaker 5 (15:37):
Those are two eight and three teams, like.
Speaker 4 (15:38):
What is the And again, it will not define specifically
how big the golf is between Chicago and Philadelphia. If
you know, Chicago were to fall short or Philadelphia were
to lose there, I don't think we would be able
to definitively say, yeah, that's how big the distance is
between these two teams if we're talking about a representative
sample size. But they had to head, you know, to
(15:59):
get kind of back into the college football playoff parlance.
Had the head should matter and could matter, especially if
they go on the road, if they go to Philly,
especially coming off that loss that the Eagles just experienced
at the hand of the Cowboys, which has to be
at that's a long history and a storied history. So
(16:20):
I don't want to say it's as traumatic a loss
as Eagles fans have ever experienced against Cowboys, but certainly
in recent memory, it's as traumatic a loss as Eagles
fans have had against the Cowboys. Where they're up, what
was it, twenty one to nothing and the Cowboys roar
back in the second half to just take it from them.
That way, Philadelphia now has something to prove. There's been
a lot of dialogue around Jalen Hurts and the media,
(16:41):
whether it's founded or reported or rumors.
Speaker 5 (16:43):
At this point in.
Speaker 4 (16:44):
Time in Chicago's just kind of plugging away and Ben
Johnson's doing their the little good better best breakdown in
the huddle, which is a little clunky to me, but whatever,
if it works for them, they're eight and three, far
be it from me to judge. We will learn a
great deal about what Chicago is actually accomplished and what
they can still accomplish after this Black Friday football game
(17:05):
is played.
Speaker 3 (17:05):
Yeah, I will remind everybody right now two eight and
three teams, and Vegas has Philly favored by seven, a
large number for two teams that are eight and three.
We'll keep breaking down some of the frauds that are
going to expose themselves to the rest of the world
over the course of this because they're not the only
teams in the NFL that deserve to be called out for.
We'll give you some more frauds coming up next to these.
(17:26):
Buck Rising I'm Jason fitz bucking Fits, hanging out with
you on Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
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 3 (17:42):
Hey, this is Jason McIntyre.
Speaker 6 (17:43):
Join me every weekday morning on my podcast, Straight Fire
with Jason McIntyre. This isn't your typical sports pod pushing
the same tired narratives down your throat every day. Straight
Fire gives you honest opinions on all the biggest sports headlines,
accurate stats to help you win big at the sports book,
and all the best guests. Do yourself a favor and
(18:03):
listen to Straight Fire with Jason McIntyre on the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 3 (18:14):
We got plenty of NFL teams out here that are
pretending they're good, and we're talking about them like maybe
they stand a chance, but they don't. The frauds and
we're gonna figure it out. He's Buck Rising on Jason Fitz.
I didn't realize how much I needed Queen in my
life tonight and I do another one bites the dust.
(18:39):
Oh feels so good. Some of these contenders need to
bite the dust. They're not real Buck. Let's take a
look at some of them. Speaking of Buck, how about
the Bucks? Does Buck like the Bucks? Tampa Bay? Where
are we on Tampa Bay?
Speaker 4 (18:53):
I picked them to be in the Super Bowl against
the Ravens.
Speaker 3 (18:56):
Why'd you do that?
Speaker 4 (18:57):
Because their offense was really good and they drafted a
Mecca Buca and I said, why do they need another
wide receiver? Oh no, they don't. They're just gonna shell teams.
And for the first part of the season I was right.
I was right, And then all football happened, and all
the bodies are broken and Baker Mayfield's hurt now and
they're six and five. They're hosting the Cardinals this weekend,
(19:17):
which feels like a win that should be gettable.
Speaker 5 (19:20):
But I don't know nothing seen nothing is coming.
Speaker 4 (19:22):
Easy for them right now in Tampa Bay. And again,
their division is fraught, right we kind of look at them.
I look at them within the same prism, ironically enough,
as the Ravens. Where who's really going to push them?
Six and six? Carolina? Do you fear the Panthers? Do
you respect the Panthers? I think the Panthers have earned
(19:42):
more respect at this point in time. They play the
Rams this weekend, though it's in Carolina. We'll see what
that looks like. Nobody's stopping Matt Stafford right now. He's
just on an unholy tear, playing the best football of
his career at what is he thirty seven years old? Outrageous.
Tampa Bay is falling apart of the seams. They are
(20:03):
not frauds to me. They are hurt. They are a
victim of football, a team that should be better than
they actually are, but they have no pieces left and
they are you know, it's you can very easily see
how the wheels will spin off. And they bought themselves
margin at the start of the year, but that's quickly
faded with how many different injuries they've had to survive
(20:25):
throughout the course.
Speaker 5 (20:25):
Of the year.
Speaker 4 (20:26):
A team that you brought up before we started talking,
that I will see in person this weekend for the
first time, unfortunately without Travis Hunter. I was really looking
forward to seeing him play, but he's obviously uninjured, reserve
and done for the season. Seven and four are the
Jacksonville Jaguars. The Jags are winning FITSI it feels to me,
in spite of Trevor Lawrence, there is not a more
(20:48):
is this is an interesting conversation or at least an
interesting branch off of this topic tree if we were
to do it this way, Kyler Murray or Trevor Lawrence,
who has played more football, but still is this wildly
inconsistent or more wildly inconsistent than those two players, because
Lawrence will throw an interception that makes just absolutely, absolutely
(21:11):
no damn sense the way that he did this weekend,
and they're still good enough to win games. I think
Liam Cohen has done a very impressive job in his
first year. But I don't know if you can't look
at the Jags and say, in the same way that
I was kind of picking on the Seahawks earlier, I
feel more that way about Jacksonville.
Speaker 3 (21:27):
Yeah, look, Jacksonville full on fraud. I'm all in on
just loudly proclaiming the Jags as a fraud. They beat
the Raiders. That's an important part of this context, because
that that game came down to a two point conversion
at the end. That's in a spot where they lost
three out of four. They could have lost four out
of four depending on how that game had gone out.
(21:48):
And then they go whip the snot out of the Chargers,
and we say oh, they're okay, and then against Arizona
it didn't really look all that great. Now they get
Tennessee this weekend, they still have the Jets on the schedule,
and then they get the Titans again in week eighteen.
So it's pretty easy for me to find three games
where they will be heavily favored. And that's pretty easy
to see here. I still don't think they're a very
(22:09):
good football team. And to your point, as I've said
many times, I was standing on the field covering Trevor
Lawrence winning a national tar, playing for National Championship, winning
national championship, when the conversation was, oh, man, he should
sue the NFL to change the rules so that he
can get into the draft after his fresh meal. He's
going to be the next John Elway. That's where we
(22:31):
were with there, and the Jags have done everything they
can to ruin the guy. But like at this point now,
I mean, Liam Cohen is supposed to be a great
offensive mind, and what we've seen is the Jags team
that's really defined by their defense. Their defense's ability to
turn the ball over and force turnovers, I should say,
has been a huge part of how they won football games.
(22:52):
The Jags are winning games, but there's a difference between
being a playoff team and being a good team. People
all the time like, you can make the playoffs when
because it just went your way, and then the next
year when all of a sudden your team sucks again.
In fans are like, what happened? Well, the answer is,
you weren't really good last year. It's just you had
one of those years where the football gods shined on you.
I think that's what happened to what's happening to the Jags.
(23:14):
I don't think sustainably right now. They're built to be
a good football team. I think they've just gotten away
with with finding a way to win this year, which
is fine, fine, but I mean, look at some of
these wins, like a close win over Houston earlier in
the year when Houston's defense was still figuring itself out,
a close win over San Francisco, a close win over
Kansas City, a close win over the Raiders, a close
(23:35):
win over the Chargers. The Jags are living, breathing, eating
example of what we have every year in the NFL.
A team that just three or four of these games
are like, how the hell they win them? There are
three or four plays away from being a much different
football team.
Speaker 4 (23:49):
You want to talk about the inverse of that, the
football gods are not shining on the Los Angeles Chargers, Man,
I just don't.
Speaker 3 (23:56):
It's gross.
Speaker 4 (23:57):
Well, it sucks because like do this every year. I
feel like I feel like the Chargers lead the league
in team that you have most preseason hope or excitement
for that never actually pans out, and it really doesn't
matter who's even playing quarterback. I was like this with
Rivers and some of those Chargers teams. I feel like
(24:19):
this with Herbert, and the thing that just is so
criminal is that you're getting the Justin Herbert year for
the first third of the season and then both of
his starting tackles go down. Their offensive line is awful, awful,
and the guy has I mean, you're down to how
many running backs have they lost due to injury? Najie Harris,
(24:40):
Amari and Hampton. I believe there was another running back
that was missing some time. I don't want to speak
out of turn, but either way, and teams have to
deal with reserves all across the board. We talked about
teams that we are believing in right now. Allah the Colts,
who are very much who are very much both and
(25:00):
healthy at this point in time. I don't know that
the Chargers aren't a better team than the vast majority
of the field if they're healthy, But the fact of
the matter is they're simply not. And it's to the
detriment of Justin Herbert because he cannot operate behind this offense.
He cannot operate at a high enough level to be
truly feared in the landscape of the NFL. Behind this
offensive line.
Speaker 3 (25:20):
There they are just they are awful, and at some
point you just got to look at the entire training
system recovery. There's gotta be something they can look at
the pinpoint, because you're right, I don't remember the last
time I saw an organization that just every year loses
more stars and it's just stars every like it's part
of it. I feel like I'm Charlie Brown running after
(25:40):
the football and then it gets moved at the last
second every year. With the Chargers, they're wildly talented, at
least on paper. But we don't play the video game
version of this, like I'm Madden. You should be forced
to play the Chargers without five random starters every week
because that's about what it's really like.
Speaker 4 (25:56):
Yeah, but I disagree with the idea that it's like
the training staff, right, so many of these because I
went through this a couple of years ago with with
vrabel as the Titans coach. Like people would pin the
rash amount of injuries that the Titans were sustaining on
a year end, year out basis on the strength and
conditioning staff, or does Mike Frable coach too hard at
(26:16):
practice or all these different things. But then you look
at the percentage of the injuries that are happening like
in games, right, not like a practice a Wednesday practice injury,
or you know, somebody screwed something up on a Saturday walkthrough,
or I mean the Chargers, do we not wait, the
Chargers are maybe a bad example about this, asked Tyrod Taylor.
Didn't they have like a punctured lung because of their
team doctor, Yeah, a couple of years ago. So maybe
(26:39):
maybe the Chargers are not the hill that I want
to die on there defending a strength and conditioning staff
or a training staff that way, medical staff that way.
But I do think if you look at the percentage
of injuries that are happening in game, like What are
they going to do about Najie Harris shooting himself in
the eye with a firecracker? You know, it's just it's
a lot of this is just it. It's both football
and then bad luck pounding it.
Speaker 3 (27:01):
Yeah, there is no doubt, and maybe there is no
connective threat, but it's at least worth exploring. Sure speaking,
let's explore what's going on right now across the landscape
of all scores, months of belgios. What have we got?
Speaker 7 (27:13):
All right, guys, We've got one game still going on
in the NBA Cup, and it's been an entertaining one.
Out least it's the Rockets and the Warriors. No Kevin
Durant in this one, but it has been a fun game.
Right now, Houston is up ninety five to ninety one.
They're coming down to the final two minutes. Here Jimmy Butler,
he's got nineteen points. Reach Shepherd for Houston has twenty
eight points and nine rebounds. But things are getting chippy
(27:37):
in these final two minutes. These Spurs de feed of
the Trailblazers one fifteen to one oh two. Deer in
Fox thirty seven points. Suns beat the Kings one twelve
to one hundred, and the Grizzlies took down the Pelicans
in overtime one thirty three to one twenty eight. But
the thunder are off to a historic start. The one
of only five teams in NBA history to start the
season eighteen and one are better. They defeated the Timberwolves
(27:59):
already one thirteen to one oh five.
Speaker 3 (28:01):
Shay Gildess Alexander.
Speaker 7 (28:02):
Forty points in the win, and the Knicks crush The
Hornets won twenty nine to one oh one. Celtics snapped
the pistons thirteen game winning streak coming out on top
today went seventeen to one fourteen, where Jaylen Brown had
a double double thirty three points and ten rebounds. Other
NBA news, Anthony Davis of the Dallas Mavericks return to
practice today. He could play against the Lakers this Friday
after missing fourteen games with a strained left calf. When
(28:26):
it comes to the NFL, well on the East Coast,
it's Thursday, so happy Thanksgiving if you're celebrating, and there's
three games on the Thursday docket, Packers and Lions, Chiefs, Cowboys, Bengals, Ravens.
Joe Burrow is expected to start for the Bengals. Running
back Isaiah Pacheco is expected to play for the Chiefs.
As for Panthers safety Trevon Morig, his appeal of the
(28:47):
one game suspension for unsportsmanlike conduct was denied, so he's
missing Sunday's game against the Rams. He's also losing sixty
five thousand dollars in wages. When it comes to the NHL,
the Senators and the Golden Knights are tied at three
apiece coming down to the final three four minutes in
the third period, and the Connects over the Ducks right
now five to four. Also super late coming down to
(29:08):
the final seconds in the third period. But give it
up to the Avalanche because they've won ten in a row.
They shut out the Shark six zero earlier today and
the Stars defeated the crack In three to two. Canadians
over the Mammoth four to three. Back to you guys,
he's buck rising. I'm Jason Fitz hanging out with the
Bucket Fitz. Fox Sports Radio. Don't forget what the iHeartRadio app.
(29:29):
You can stream us wherever you happen to be. Catch
us in all of Fox Sports Radio Live twenty four
to seven in the new and improved just when you
thought it couldn't get better. iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 3 (29:38):
Just search Fox Sports Radio in the app to stream
us live all day, every day, and be sure to
select Fox Sports Radio is one of your presets in
the iHeart app, so it will always pop up at
the top of your screen. Manzi just gave you some
score updates, including the NBA Cup. Can we just agree
that that's the stupidest thing, Like, there is just nothing
that's gonna happen. It's like, Okay, we're gonna play a
series of games in the middle of the NBAC and
(30:00):
that will count towards a random cup and the winner
of it, every player on that team will get you
know whatever, it's five hundred and thirty thousand dollars or something.
We're going to financially incentivize why people should care, but
we're gonna make the courts look different, so you know
it's a cup game, Like, just just kick me in
the no no places instead of pretending that you think
I'm that stupid.
Speaker 4 (30:21):
Yeah, I just I am completely unmoved by this. And
maybe it's because I'm just I'm not in NBA mode yet.
I'm not even close. I don't want to, you know,
I'm sure that that's not a blanket statement for the
rest of the country, though I do feel like when
we're in the full throws of playoff seating in the
NFL and college football playoff stuff being decided on a
(30:44):
week by week basis as we wrap up the regular season,
there even college basketball to me, Fitzie is more compelling
than the NBA.
Speaker 5 (30:51):
It's just there.
Speaker 4 (30:52):
You're never going to get me interested. And maybe part
of this is because my team is awful. The Pacers
are awful, so bad this year, and it's not just
because Tyre's Halliburton is out and going to miss the
remainder of the season. They are a total mess. And
even the team locally that we might pay attention to,
though I'm in Nashville and Nashville that there's just no
(31:15):
level of Grizzly's discourse here whatsoever. They could not care
less about what's going on in Memphis. But even if
I wanted to, you know, check in on Memphis. Every
time I look up, John Moran is doing something else
stupid and it just makes me upset. Just leave Klay
Thompson alone. Why are you barking at him? From the
sidelines when you're not participating, and when you are on
the court, you're still not a good basketball team.
Speaker 5 (31:37):
I don't know.
Speaker 4 (31:38):
I'm not there with the NBA yet. I get what
they're trying to do. I just don't think it's not,
at least for me, it's not having the intended effect.
Speaker 5 (31:46):
This NBA Cup.
Speaker 3 (31:47):
Now, all it does is remind everybody that they're having
to find ways to make people give a damn about
their product in the regular season. And that's a problem
if you are just continually And this is something that
you know, I've talked Tom Haberstrow about a few times
on Yahoo Sports Daily, because there is this concept when
you look at some of the advanced analytics about injuries.
(32:07):
It shows that something that Steve Kurtz has talked about
too is pace of play and how all of this together.
He recently, in one of the postgame press conferences, pointed
out the fact that they had played whatever it was,
seventeen games in twenty nine days over thirteen cities, and
as of it was about a week ago, and as
of that point, he pointed out that they had had
(32:29):
four practices all season. Because the schedule has been so difficult.
They haven't been able to just practice as a basketball team.
And this is where I just continue to remind everybody
that when you have this much inventory, when you have
so much inventory that you have to paint the court
in some sort of a stupid way, which Luca pointed
out feels slick and unsafe. But about me on all
(32:50):
that you have to convince people to watch your regular
season products. Because you have too much of it, then
you need to reduce it. And this is where everybody
will say nobody wants to take less money. I would argue,
as is smart people who pointed out to me when
I've made that argument, that having less inventory will actually
make the inventory you have more valuable, which means, over
(33:10):
the course of it, you might not actually have to
take the pay cut that so many people perceive out
of the fear of just eliminating NBA games. This season
is too long, It's just it is. It's impossible for
casuals to give a damn about it right now, and
even for diehards. If you have to paint the court
and tell everybody, no, no, no, pay attention to this one.
It's an NBA Cup care And if you have to
plead with everybody to pay attention to your regular season products.
(33:33):
Then your regular season product is broken. So every time
I hear this, it's like, oh, well, we wanted to
qualifying Group B. Nobody gives a damn Literally, nobody gives
a damn what what? What? You don't like my Curmit
the Frog.
Speaker 4 (33:45):
NBA concused as to why Kermit is the is the
voice of NBA punditry and your Twitter punch somehow.
Speaker 3 (33:53):
I just why not, Kermit? I mean, would you be
more comfortable if I did miss Piggy?
Speaker 5 (34:00):
Well?
Speaker 3 (34:01):
There, oh god, so many things to say, so little time.
Uh look, as broken as that is, and as broken
as I think the NBA Cup is, there's one thing
that is happening right now in college basketball that's actually brilliant.
We'll tell you about it next. He's Buck Rising. I'm
(34:23):
Jason fitzber hanging out with you on Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 2 (34:25):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven
pm Pacific.
Speaker 3 (34:33):
He's Buck Rising. I'm Jason fitz bucking Fits hanging out
with you. I'm Fox Sports Radio college basketball doing something
really interesting that seems to be catching everybody's attention and
it might be a little bit of a peek into
something for the future of all college athletics. As we
(34:54):
have the Players Era Tournament going on right now in
Las Vegas. And what's interesting about this is every team
that has chosen to compete in this tournament is getting
a million dollars, and then the winners of the tournament
get a varying amount depending all the way up to
the overall winner of the entire tournament getting a million dollars.
An addition to that million dollars all going to NIL money,
(35:15):
all going to NIL funds and buck It's something that's
interesting because for years most of us have watched the
Maui Invitational, or we watch whatever the Atlantis down to
the Bahamas, like we watch these things. Those tournaments now
seem to be falling by the wayside, and major brands
are choosing instead to participate in Vegas because there's cash
money on the line. And when we start talking about
(35:37):
the future of college sports, I think it's important also
acknowledge that any revenue stream teams can find where they
get a cut of something is going to be an incentive.
We just talked about the NBA Cup and why that's difficult,
you know, to find meaning to And look, I get
that the players are making half a million dollars if
they win it, and that's not a small amount of money,
(35:57):
but it's hard even for that to cut through for
most people. When you see these programs choosing to com
to participate in this tournament where there's nil money on
the line, it makes me wonder if this isn't really
going to end up being the future of how most
of these teams choose to partake in any sort of
non conference activity.
Speaker 4 (36:16):
Well, and this is kind of something that I was
always curious about, like with revenue sharing specifically in the
NIL era, because you were going to see basketball programs.
I wouldn't say take the biggest hit on that, but
we understand what percentage of revenue sharing is going to
go to football versus basketball, and how basketball programs are
(36:36):
going to have to make up that gap, and would
it just turn into another situation where basketball coaches and
people on behalf of basketball programs are doing deals under
the table because they can't play by the rules to
get the kind of players that they want to get.
By the way, this is actively going on Alabama is
up by twenty on Maryland right now, if you guys
(36:58):
are still watching this thing on TNT at this point
in time, I like it conceptually to make up some
of the gaps for some of these programs in NIL. Now,
if the biggest programs end up winning the most amount
of money and the rich get richer as a result,
does it really help the state of the sport?
Speaker 5 (37:15):
Probably not.
Speaker 4 (37:16):
And this was reporting done by Myron Medcalf at ESPN
earlier today where basically twenty four hours after the organizers
of this thing were promising, or we're saying, steadfastly that
they were going to stick to the current setup, which.
Speaker 5 (37:33):
Is it's a set.
Speaker 4 (37:35):
It's called a festival, right, so it's not a tournament
because it doesn't have a bracket. I don't like the
idea that it doesn't have a bracket. I brought this
up earlier in the show, not just because I pay
close attention to Tennessee sports as somebody who lives in
the state of Tennessee, but I didn't like the idea
that Tennessee, for example, could smash Rutgers through the surface
(37:57):
of the sun then go and beat Houston as fun
a basketball game as I've watched all year and end
up in the third place game against Kansas simply by
nature of point differential. That didn't make sense to me,
but apparently the CEO, his name is seth Bergen or
seth Berger, told organizers that they will consider a new
format when next year's field expands to thirty two teams.
(38:21):
They have to put in a bracket. That's just simply
what this is going to have to be.
Speaker 3 (38:24):
Well, and at some point they had to They should
have anticipated that things get a little dicey. You can
bring everybody out to Vegas and have a grand old
time until you see a bunch of results that then
suddenly puts you in a bit of a kirkin a
little pickle, right, because now, all of a sudden, when
you've got an extra million dollars of nil out there, man,
we're not just having fun. Like this isn't just a
(38:47):
fun opportunity for exposure for the program. This is a
million dollars of nil, and that nil money is so key.
Like that's the one difference I think that we need
to acknowledge at some point with building your college basketball
pro versus building your college football program. There are certainly
players in college football right now that are requiring over
five million dollars to come play, right, So the numbers
(39:09):
are astronomical in college football. They are to some their
reports that ab aj Debonca is making anywhere from five
to seven million dollars to play for BYU this year.
So I've seen a lot of that. But the reality
of it is, Buck, you got fifteen to twenty million dollars,
you can put together a basketball roster, right, So a
one million dollars you sold.
Speaker 5 (39:29):
Problem.
Speaker 4 (39:29):
Right, They're paying twenty two this year for their basketball team.
And Mark Pope looks like he's an absolute hell.
Speaker 3 (39:35):
But if you want to win in college basketball, all
you got to do is spend the money. So these
opportunities to take a little extra that broadcasting cash home
from these these tournaments, from these whatever we want to
call them, from these events, festival from festivals, they become
particularly important because that million dollars makes a big difference
in next year's recruiting class.
Speaker 4 (39:56):
No, absolutely, And as somebody who is like I, Indiana
football is the number two team in the country. They've
been the number two team in the country for a
considerable amount of time. At this point, it's almost like
it's normal. I, as an Indiana lum do not care
about that at all because I want my basketball team
to be good and I would trade the number two
team in the country and football in a heartbeat for
a competent basketball team.
Speaker 5 (40:17):
So if you're.
Speaker 4 (40:18):
Trying, and if you are somebody who values one program
over the other or prioritizes one program over the other,
you're looking around and being like, Yes, more opportunities to
fatten my war chest to go out there and put
together the best possible version of a national championship contender. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (40:34):
That's the interesting part about it is that if you
want in the modern college football and basketball landscape, if
you want to be great, all you got to do
is pay for it. All Right, We're going to break
down some of the biggest games in the NFL coming
up this weekend. We'll do that next on Fox Sports Radio.
Hosts And Creators
Jason Smith
Mike Harmon
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