Hour 3 – Phil Mickelson Ain’t Walkin Through That Door!

Jason and Mike explain why you shouldn’t expect to see Phil Mickelson on The Master greens after some comments made by the player, Sam Darnold expresses his confidence in his quarterbacking abilities, and more on Stu Lantz’ hot mic moment!

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
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(00:23):
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio, Fox Sports Radio, that
Jason Smith Show with my best friend Mike Harmon from
the Fox Sports Radio studios, where quite honestly, we're just
waiting to see if Tiger Woods is gonna play tomorrow.
That's Tiger Woods. Let's go. Look, before we get to Tiger,

(00:49):
I want to get to Phil Mickelson for a couple
of seconds because this story involving Phil Mickelson and not
playing the match. Look, the match is gonna be the
big deal the next few days. If Tiger Woods plays, like,
the world stops tomorrow to watch him play. And you know,
while that was going on today, we found out that
Phil Nicholson was invited to the Masters but pulled out. Now,

(01:10):
Phil Mickelson has been involved in all kinds of controversy
the last couple of months when uh he told an
author uh in an excerpt for his upcoming book about
leaving the PGA Tour to play for a breakaway league
being funded by Saudi Arabia's public investment fund. Uh. You
know that he's gonna go play for the scary mother

(01:31):
blankers to get involved with guys who are potentially involved
in murder and bad record on human rights. But Phil
Michelson talked about wanting to do it to reshape how
the PGA Tour operates. Now, since this quote came out,
everybody hated Phil. Wait, you're gonna go play with guys
that that that that killed uh, that potentially killed people
and and and this is where you're going, really, Phil,

(01:54):
and Phil Michoelson has been like whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa whoa.
And he has had a very low profile since that happened,
because look, Phil Nicholson at fifty is still the number
two star and golf besides Tiger Woods. Uh. You can
talk about Rory McElroy and Jordan's speed and all these guys, yes,
but Phil Nicholson is still the guy outside of Tiger
Woods that we care about the most of the guy
win the p g A last year. He's still winning

(02:16):
tournaments and still is is stirring the drink, but he
has kept such a low profile. He wasn't he was
invited to play but said he's not ready to come
back and play. And this is after all, his comments
were criticized by so many fellow p g A tour pros.
Uh callaway pause. It's relationship with him. Others love, his

(02:36):
longtime sponsors backed away from him, and he has just
been kind of persona non grata. He apologized for his
comments and now kind of sits and waits and wonders
what is next for him. This is such a throwback
story and then I don't think we realized it to
This is how controversies used to be dealt with, which

(02:58):
was a really good way to deal with that. Right.
It's kind of like in baseball we talk about unwritten
rules and and and the unwritten rules of baseball that
players have used to help police the game for a
hundred years. When someone it's a home run and you
bat flip, you throw at somebody, it takes care of
it and you move on. Right, That's how baseball has
always done things, and there's always a big controversy of oh,

(03:19):
the unwritten rules. You don't throw it a guy, you
don't do this. You know what, Baseball has policed itself
for a long time doing it themselves, right. This is
kind of like an unwritten rules when you say or
do something that is really unpopular and a really bad
thing to say, and and and uh and a course
of action that that brings in all this criticism and
rightfully so, this is how it used to happen. Guys

(03:41):
would have to sit out for a while and go, Okay,
I can't come back yet. I'm still too nuclear to
be able to come back, and and and people embrace
me and want to root for me to win and
and for me to be able to focus on winning.
And this is kind of a way that we police
situations like that. It wasn't always something where if if
an athlete said something, it was, ah, this person's gotta

(04:01):
be thrown in prison. No, it's just boy. Uh. Now
you're gonna be persona non grata for a while, and
you're gonna you're gonna be out of the limelight, and
you gotta stay away for a while before you come
back ground. How many times used to say that about
an athlete. He's got to stay away for a while
after what he said and after what he did. You
can't come back after that. You got to sit around
for all and b and wait till it's okay for
you to return. That's how it used to be, and

(04:22):
that's how controversies used to get policed. And it was great.
But this is why it's so throwback, because now, what
would normally happen with a story like this, right, Usually
this would happen. He would say something controversial, but then
wait until a very small but vocal group on social
media would have this person's back. Then they would lean
into it, gain all kinds of popularity or some kind

(04:44):
of attention, because this is the take I'm I'm sticking
with and I'm doubling down on it, and it's more
about oh my god, how could you lean into this?
But when you have people backing you up, it makes
it easier to to sell. And so instead of people
being held responsible for their actions, it's usually whether it's
sports or politics or anything else, it's been well, you
say this, but you know what, there's people that are

(05:06):
gonna have your back. And it may not be a lot,
but it's gonna seem like a lot because it will
be on social media where people think this is the
majority of the world, and and it doesn't matter that
it's not, people are still gonna think it's that way.
So this controversy, you never have to apologize for what
you're saying because you're gonna have people that have your back.
And and that's how controversy has evolved now and why
it's so difficult to police things because no one has

(05:28):
any kind of repercussions for what they say and and
and how they go forward with things. That's why this
is such a throwback because here's Phil Mickelson who said
this and understands, boy, I gotta take ownership for this,
and I gotta come back and before I come back,
And that's where it's going on. This is how it
used to happen. Doesn't happen like this anymore. Yeah, I mean,
I think with a lot of his you know, it's
well studios and everything. Looking at their relationships with Will

(05:51):
Smith right now, right, same thing. There's ramifications for your
action and a course of action that that each has
to come to in their own time. Uh. And this case,
Nicholson is the one that's deciding to stand back part
of it, still wondering how much is dissipated because it's
a story that was hard to talk about in the
time that it that it came out right, because there

(06:12):
are a lot of details. He he pushed back on
the author ship Nick that he thought it was all
off the record, which is again, go we'll talk about
Stu Lance and the Red Light a little bit later.
I mean, that's that's something in this day and age.
You're having a conversation with a guy you know, uh
is a high profile writer in any form, even if

(06:34):
it's just background. I'm getting it in writing that you know,
I get final approval of what the hell I'm saying,
or you know, we're gonna have to stop the tape
recorder at at every time that I decided that I
want to throw up a comment, because you had not
only the people that he was getting involved with and
the the comments there, but also calling the p G
A dictators and all these other things, so, you know,

(06:58):
alienating and putting his fellow players in a bad spot, right,
because he is one of the most visible, even though
he's a bit older, right, He's he's pushing to where
he can get towards the senior tour here in short order,
but still one of the most visible, notable and up
until recently one of the most beloved guys on the course. Right,

(07:19):
And the jokes were you know, I think you joked
about was hey, he liked to gamble on every hole. Okay,
easy enough. But so now you're trying to figure out
exactly how long you go to the penalty box. And
for Michelson decided this event was not the way to
make his grand re entry, and as it turns out,
you got Tiger Woods uh coming forward here. I wonder

(07:40):
how much there may have been a conversation. Again it's
all speculation, but you know that he doesn't want to
be the other story alongside Tiger. Now we're making it
uh this way because I think it is an interesting piece,
trying to figure out how you police these types of
certain situations, uh, your yourself and what's left of your team.

(08:02):
As you mentioned, a bunch of sponsors at least either
paused or canceled, you know, relationships altogether. So for Phil Mickelson,
it's trying to figure out what the new normal is
for what remains of his career because this one is
a difficult one also for the PGA Tour because much
like the n C Double A, you know you've got

(08:23):
a monopoly and and now you might have a challenger,
even if it's fledgling, even even if it would take
an awful lot to to get any kind of in
roads to what you're doing. Right, Barriers to entry in
a lot of industries exists, right, We talked about them
all the time. Your eyes glaze over as I talk
about them sometimes, but you know, hey, we I seek

(08:46):
to educate, uh and and have those deeper conversations. But
it's it's the idea that you know you can get
by land and put down, you know, put a couple
of holes in the ground and a stick with a
flag on it. Right, Barry and entry isn't huge. No, Look,
I don't mean to dismiss it, but like it's starting

(09:08):
up your gown golf golf league. If you've got people
with the deep pockets, deep pockets talk and folks can
look the other way over a lot of things. If
the price is right, Ted DIBIASI had it right all
those years ago. Everybody's got a price from the million
dollar man. Maybe of course they do. Look, it's it's
it's not as if this is a this is a

(09:31):
situation where it's a player who has a lifetime of controversy.
He's had a little bit of controversy over the course
of his career that gave some of the associates that
but overall, Phil Nicholson has a pretty positive image. He's
very likable. Fans like him. He's a big draw for TV.
You know, him and Tiger are still the guys, and

(09:52):
and and to see this happen this way, like I said,
it's it's I don't want to say it's refreshing, but
it's kind of it's kind of settling to see that, Okay,
we can still do things this way. We can still
settle controversies where a player understands, you know what, I know,
what I've done was wrong, and I'm gonna stay away
for a while before I come back, and no one

(10:13):
needs to get involved. I don't need to lean into
this on social media and get people backing me up
and turn it into something that it's not and make
it a polarizing topic where UH fans from everywhere are
forced to pick sides and weigh in and they just
want to disconnect from from golf because I don't even
care about this. Um it's it's like I said, it's
a way for for us. We normally used to police

(10:35):
ourselves with but now that's not the case anymore because
nobody wants to take responsibility and they say something and
they don't want anybody to get met at them and say,
I shouldn't have to sit here and take this criticism
if I don't want to. So I'm gonna find people
to have my back. Either it's a very small group.
We're gonna be vocal, We're gonna be all over social media,
and you watch the way things go now because I
got people that are gonna stand up for me on this.
Because you can find somebody to stand up for anybody

(10:57):
on anything across the world. So that's what makes this
such a great throwback topic. And I wish we still
had that. By wish we still had ways for controversies
like this to solve themselves. Phil Nicholson says what he says,
p g A players respond Uh, he gets dropped by
his by his sponsor. He's got to work his way back.
He understands what he said and take responsibility for it.

(11:20):
And it's not like he can't ever work his way
back again, but sometimes you do. You just need to
go away for a while and then you can come
back and and things kind of get forgiven. You take
steps to repair the damage you believe you've done. He's
already apologized for it, said his comments were reckless and
they were uh fueled by his distaste for some things
that the PGA tour was doing that he wanted fixed. Okay,

(11:41):
that that's kind of how is And I wish we
could still do it that way, Mike, but we just can't.
This is this is such an outlier. Uh, but it's
it's just I it should be. It should be a
blueprint for, hey, how you can handle scandal and controversy
without it absolutely tearing everybody apart and making everybody's blood
pressure rise. We'll take responsibility behind It doesn't mean there

(12:02):
weren't questions asked, And I'm sure if we really work
hard enough, we could find folks that were asked about
this over the last seventy two hours. But in the end,
is it is it a huge thing? No, he's not there.
The bigger story is Tiger. So this gets minimized, right
This not to say it's still not a big deal
because you know, he was trying to also raise some

(12:22):
issues with the PGA, so that that's something you know,
to take the long, hard look inward to see where
change can happen. And it's you know, ironic that we
talked about Augusta. Where change happens uh at a glacial pace,
I think would be the way to describe it. And
even the prices on the food. I mean, look at
you and I would go clean up there. I could

(12:44):
take a twenty dollar bill and eat for a week
based on those pricing of sandwiches and whatever else. But
for Michelson, you know it's in due time, and I
know they the word canceled gets used a lot in
this case, said some things that you know, affected business,
affected relationships, and you know what happens, then money gets pulled.

(13:06):
There are consequences to what you say and what you do,
uh and then hopefully you know, it does eventually fosters
some communication of where there might be improvements on the
tour and maybe uh, some in roads to better things
for the the golfers where the bridge between those top
couple of guys and everybody else isn't quite so vast.

(13:29):
But you know The long road begins with the first step,
Twitter and how about a fresca? Mike gets swollen down
The Jason Smith Show with My Best Friend Mike Harmon.
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(13:52):
Foxes number eight seven, seven nine nine six six three
six nine, The Jason Smith Show with My best Friend
Mike Harman. I will have more in the matches coming
up later on this hour. Got a big time Tiger
Woods hot take coming. Looks like he's going to play,
but it's a true quote game time decision. I like
that we're calling golf a game now it's gay. Yes,

(14:14):
it's a game time. It's a game. It's a game
of golf time decision. It's a true game time decision
for Tiger Woods. But coming up next, we got a
big story out of the NBA coming your way. To
keep it right here, Jason and Mike, This is Fox.
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 I Heart

(14:37):
Radio app Alex tie shirt wearing his Cutting Crew T
shirt to work tonight. He went to go see them
in eight seven. Uh, Santa Mon see them in eighties
six sorr eighties six. Right, got it? The Jason Smith
Show with my best friend Mike Harman, live from the
Fox Sports A Radio studio. My Jerry curls were glorious. Yeah,

(14:59):
I mean he was there at the beginning of the tour,
so like he he got in like on the front
end of it. Tonight Shoe brodger By one of our
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(15:22):
That is, visit Las Vegas dot com. All right, now,
before we get to a great fun story out of
the NBA, let me just get to a great fun
story out of the NFL. Uh. Sam Donald at least
is not lacking confidence, nor should he, the guy always sure. Yeah,
there's you know, there's there's needing confidence. And then they're

(15:43):
saying what he said today on Busting with the Boys,
a podcast created by Tennessee Titans tackle Taylor luwan Uh,
he went on and talked about his situation. Look, you know,
the Panthers have tried to replace him. They traded for
him last year after the Jets moved on from him.
The Jets saw he couldn't play. Now the Panthers have
seen he couldn't play, and the Panthers want to do

(16:03):
anything they can to get somebody to replace him, but
they have not been successful so far. So Donald has
asked about this, and he says, quote, I have enough
security in my life to where I can be like,
I know I'm a good quarterback. I know I can
be a good quarterback in this league. Great, right, great,
I know I'm I have nothing. I have no issue
with that right there. I know I'm a good quarterback.

(16:25):
You gotta believe in yourself. I know I can be
a good quarterback in this league. Yes, get gotta believe
in yourself everything. We yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, But
he finishes by saying this, I know I'm a good quarterback.
I know I can be a good quarterback in this league.
I've proved it. Okay, now, now you got to get

(16:45):
a time out. Now you have a winning I need
a time now, I need a time mat I've I've
proved it. You have not proved you're a good quarterback,
because if you proved you were a good quarterback, you
would still be the quarterback of the Jets, or you
would still be the quarterback of the Panthers, and they
wouldn't be looking to replace you. No one looks to
replace a good quarterback, right. The guy has been below

(17:07):
average his entire career. His passer rating is seventy six. Okay,
seventy six, not that you have to say, well, the
guy's passer rating is the end all be all, But um, dude,
seventy six is way way way below average man. I
mean a few years ago, if you had a passer
rating of eighty, that's about average. But that's like in
two thousand and three. Now if you're if you're passer

(17:29):
rating is ninety, you're kind of average. I used to
be really good. Quarterback play has incredibly increased over the years.
I get Donald say he knows he's a good quarterback,
But don't tell me you've proved it, man, because you haven't,
because if you proved it, you'd still be on the Jets, right,
that's number one thing. And if he didn't work out
with the Jets, okay, hey, then you'd still be the
unquestioned starter for the Panthers because they picked up your net,

(17:52):
your your option for this year, and you'd be going forward. Instead,
teams are trying to replace you, all right. Uh, not
to say I told you Solb, you know, I'd love
to say I told you so, but mate, but the
fact that the league and this is what really it's
like the Jets pulled a fast on everyone. And it's
like the Jets allowed this image and this storyline of
Adam Gaze ruined Sam Donald to get so prevalent that

(18:15):
when you thought about the guy, it was, oh, just
get him out of New York and he's gonna be great, right,
just get him away from Adam Gates. Look, Adam Gates
was terrible in so many ways. But the fact that
all the blame for how bad Donald was was going
on Adam Gaze. These are NFL coaches and and and
analysts and and scouts with years and years of experience,

(18:36):
and I'm saying, come watch a Jets game with me,
and you tell me where you see Sam Donald's great.
Tell me where you see he's great. Tell me where
you can see oh hey, because I'll show you where
he missed an open wide receiver. Here, I'll show you
where he missed this read right here. The trick that
the Jets pulled the what like it was a Jedi
mind trick that they pulled the wall over everybody's eyes.
At the problem with Donald is Adam Gaze and Matt

(18:58):
Rule said, yes, he must get Sam Donald Emo tap
tap emo tap. Hey, We'll give up three draft picks
for Donald Emo tap emo tip and and look where
you are now. I mean that's that's such I that
the Jets have to feel like we just pulled the
wool over everybody's eyes because we got everybody to believe

(19:19):
that it was Adam Gaze's fault for Sam Donald, when
clearly if it was Gaye's fault, Donald would have flashed more,
he would have been better, he would have done some things.
But instead, when the Jets are losing by thirty points,
he can't even put garbage points up, garbage numbers, garbage stats.
He couldn't throw for three yards at all, when all
you're doing is throwing the last two and a half
quarters because you're down thirty one to three. He couldn't

(19:41):
do it then when teams are playing soft defensively. I
could have told you about this. But that's a great
trick by the Jets. And boy Donald lives on Mars.
If he's actually thinking, I've proved in this league. He
has had decent games once in a while. But again
I go back to if you proved you were good,
you'd still be on the Jets. So I don't know
where he he. Maybe he's maybe he did this podcast
from Mars because maybe that's where he lives. Well, And

(20:03):
maybe the Panthers got into an fm PI situation and
that was the guy they wanted about that. You haven't
think about it that way. Uh. And by the way,
as you try to prop up your Jets as being
the smartest guys and women in the room with the trades,
that they may look what we did to Seattle, Look
we did to Carolina. How's that working out for you?
The working out for you in terms of me performance overall?

(20:27):
Not to mention the fact with Sam Donald, I gotta
imagine an awful lot of that offense was predicated on
having a quasi healthy Christian McCaffrey, because behind besides him,
all you had was d J. Moore And I love
Cuba Hubbard. I think he's gonna be a nice number
two running back for a while here in this league,
but clearly not the guy to keep running the offense

(20:47):
that you had. And obviously, Sam Donald is I saw
what you were going for there the old you know,
the greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was to convince
people he didn't exist. One of the great lines that
you we can throw out there and biblical and and
film uh and and Noir all of that. But yes,
the numbers are not in Sam Donald's favor, and most

(21:10):
of the time, neither is the tape, right, neither is
the tape. And so for Carolina and Matt Rule, they're
in that unenviable position of all right, we got this
guy that we still gotta pay eighteen million dollars, which is,
you know, a half less than half of it going
right for a new guy. So that's fine, but he's
got one year left and then we'll poof, You're you're

(21:32):
back to to square one. So we'll see what they're
able to pull off. But in the interim, yeah, sixty
completion rate one to one touchdown to interception ratio essentially.
And look, the Jets teams were terrible Carolina team last year.
In his twelve games played, eleven starts, he went four

(21:52):
and seven fifty nine point nine, nine and thirteen. It's
there's there's no case to be may that you're good. Uh,
could you say that you flashed? Sure, there were a
couple of games a couple of years ago when we
go back to but I mean, that's that's a lifetime
ago at this point, especially with especially when you take

(22:13):
it in the context of what the position has become
just in two and a half three short years, right
from the expectations when he got drafted in to where
we're at now. And it's not that the quarterback position
hasn't always been important, because I hate when people kind
of dismiss that, you know, would say, well, it's more
important than every like Well, it is for the fact

(22:34):
that you kind of can't touch them anymore, which means
and you can't keep your hands on receivers, which means
you get some of these pinball numbers. So yes, you
want a guy who can fit it into a into
spaces a guy who's got a big arm and can adapt,
and at this point Donald's shown none of that. So yes,

(22:56):
you're kind of left behind and where the bandwagon is,
particularly if we're in the All right, I gotta get
my guy now by any means necessary, and rushed to
the bank to get a truckload of cash so I
can pay him forty million dollars a year. Sam Donald
ainet meeting any of the requirements to get to that level.

(23:17):
And even Christian McCaffrey coming back and putting a cape on,
ain't gonna do that. No, no, I'm still good. I've
proved it yet. No, no, no, no, but you know what,
what the what is he gonna say? I suck right?
I mean that's not can be good. I know I
can be good. I have confidence I can start in
this league. All that stuff is great, But then give

(23:37):
me I've proved it. I mean, well, but I look,
if if we go over his fifty games played forty starts,
we could cobble enough game tape together to say, you
know what, there there are moments, you know what, he
has proven that he can be good at times, and
you gotta put the parenthetical make it blank whatever he
needs you to make a raise off the page for

(23:59):
you there on your on your laptops or your phone.
But you know what, I like the confidence. I don't
think he's realistic, but I like the confidence. And outwardly,
if you project any kind of fear, you're in trouble,
they'll eat you alive. Man, I'd rather be called delusional
than than afraid or that I'm now uh at a

(24:23):
point where I've shattered, right. Would you rather be Sam
Donald and people go, come on, man, you're not that good?
Or be Carson Wentz where people are like, well, there's
flashes and then there's that. Right, there's the end of
the season in Philly, there's the end of the season
with Indie. And now he's a commander trying to figure
out what that next generation is As to whether Daniel

(24:46):
Snyder is still gonna be running the team by the
end of the season. Hell, he might be able to
go and plant a flag yelling on the captain. Now
at time it's all said and done. But but which
would you rather have Jason Guys saying well, he hasn't
been consistent enough to move into that upper echelon, or
this is a guy that I think we need to
move on and whatever the reality is in Indianapolis, you

(25:08):
know the world may never know unless every one of
these guys rights to tell all book. But when Jim
Ursay is basically like, we needed to get rid of
that guy and Philadelphia couldn't get them out fast enough,
strike three, I don't. I don't think I want any
part of that. I think I'd rather have the guy
that's still got confidence that maybe I can build him
up and get him to the quarterback that he was

(25:28):
supposed to be four years ago coming into the league. Twitter,
and how about a fresca Mike has swollen on the
Jason Smith Show with my best friend Mike Harmon. I've
proved it. I proved it. Yeah, but I just defended
Sam Donald first, and I did so brilliantly. I mean,
all that Law and Order watching was great. If only
I was wearing pants, I would have been allowed in

(25:49):
the courtroom. Look, look, I'm wearing a parathano shorts. Can
we let harm in it? The guy doesn't have pants on,
so that's a no. Okay, great, right, Well he's got
its cloth that we can trade. Here's Mike Harmon. Hey,
I know I'm a good radio host. I've proved where's

(26:10):
your pants? I don't need pants to prove I'm a
good radio Hey, for all these years, I've been operating
in a world without pants. Now you're gonna try to
bring me into this arena. Tell me I need to
change is to you in your system? Wait? Wait, isn't
that a song, World without Pants? I think that's a song.
I don't care what they say, world without World without pants.
I mean I think me away. Yeah, I mean Letterman

(26:34):
was worldwide pants. But I think the World without pants
is it is an actual song. If it's not, it
should be. It should be. It should be. It should
be one of those songs you go, hey, world without pants. Hey,
the lyrics are really serious, man, listen to them. World
without pants You this is this is something you gotta
sit back and reflect on your life on. It's a
serious song. World without Pants. You go in the stylings

(26:54):
of you know, the the late great Mark Lannigan to
really get you in in that mood. I gotta say,
you know what. I was working in the house today, right,
and I'm looking at stories and we're exchange in text
like we do every day, and I put on an
old gutter Twins. That's Greg Duley of the Afghan Wigs
and Land Again. They did a couple of albums and
had some tours, and occasionally land Again would pop in

(27:17):
on on Dooley in the Wigs and all. But there
was a show from Italy that is one of my
favorite performances. They cover a bunch of stuff, but I'm
watching it on YouTube and then it goes to cut
to a commercial and then in the middle of like
a real serious, low slow song and all of a
sudden like, hey, you want to go to the happiest
place on Earth? I'm like, who the hell? What algorithm

(27:40):
put this ad in the middle of this Tijuana? That
is now? That is right? That's good. Get ready for
two weeks and the happiest place on Earth Wana down
Max six, Come on, That's where I fell in love?

(28:05):
What's okay? Be sure to catch live editions of The
Jason Smith Show with Mike harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern,
seven pm Pacific. Hey, it's Ben, host of the Fifth
Hour with Ben Mallory along with my trustees sidekick David Gascon.
Would mean a lot to have you join us on
our weekly auditory journey. You're asking, what in God's name
is the Fifth Hour? I'll tell you it's a spin

(28:26):
off of the Ben Maller Show. Cold Hit Overnights on
fs are Why should you listen? Picture If you will
the world will. We chat with captains of industry in media,
sports and more every week Explorer some amazing facts about
human nature and more. Let'sten to the Fifth Hour with
Ben Mallow or the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcast
or wherever you get your podcast, Fox Sports Radio, The

(28:47):
Jason Smith Show with my best friend Mike Harmen. He
tonight sho broad to by one of our favorite cities,
Las Vegas, the greatest arena on Earth. Every game, match, racing, competition,
it is always on. Whoever you root for, whatever sport
you love to watch. The biggest games are even bigger
in Vegas, So make sure to plan your trip today
at visit Las Vegas dot com. Well to add insult

(29:10):
to injury for the Los Angeles Lakers who were eliminated
from playoff contention last night. Last night we talked about
the why and how and what happened to night's more
about looking forward. Well, I mean, look, just make sure
you spread enough blame to everybody. Oh yeah, and run
office and the chief advisor's bow and I were going
back movents and uh, one of our producers here at
Fox Sports Radio, Uh just about You know, it's been

(29:33):
singular because it's fun to go and you know, use
the lebron as a pinatta or some folks like to
go after Frank Vogel. Just remember that the brain trust
that's been assembled has failed seven of the last nine times.
The rest of the Lakers history, they missed the playoffs
five times total. So you know, look inward, look inward. Wow,

(29:56):
you sound like uh, that sounds like Yoda. Look inward
you must uh so while the Lakers are looking at me,
because look, you're right, no one person could have done
this by themselves. It is not all Russell Westbrook's fault.
Uh maybe Lakers, Maybe Lakers analysts Stu lanch his bit. Look,

(30:16):
he's been in an analyst for the team for years
and I think over thirty forty years he's been there.
Got caught in a hot mike moment last night. And look,
there is no phrase that terrifies broadcasters more than hey,
we had a hot mike. Oh my god, what did
I say? Oh my got look those Tom Brennaman hot mike,
didn't know it was on. Look at the guy. Now,
it's difficult, right to get a hot mic situation. Well,

(30:37):
Stu Lance had a hot mike situation last night before
the game against the Suns. Didn't know he was on,
didn't know his his mike was going over the air.
He was simply testing his microphone. He had his producer
and his engineers saying, okay, can you test your mike four?
And he would say, and they and the producers are
just the levels to make sure he sounds okay. But
here's what Stu Lance said while he was talking testing

(30:58):
his microphone. Hold hold goto Anthony so d D get
which put us mum there. It gets funnier every time
I hear it. Speed. It's like, this isn't the first

(31:22):
time we've had this conversation. Uh s O S D
D means same old stuff, different day. Right, Let's let
them put us out the same old stuff. That's what
I saw. If Tysher was paying attention you hot mike
moment I know the mike is on, just say I'm

(31:43):
gonna gonna say stuff. He's selling up pile of Harvard's
doing a comedy routine from nine. Dad's damn right, I
bring all the kids to do the party from five
to nine. Damn it. Go ahead, start with your hello mother, Hello,

(32:05):
fatogo ahead. Uh. Look, he didn't say anything that that
any Laker fan wasn't already thinking. Let's just put his
I don't want to watch you trying to choose your
worst say it. I'm done. I'm done, you know, And
I know that the Lakers are probably upset. Uh why

(32:28):
is he saying this? He's a broadcaster for the team.
You know what, I like it because we have lost
the art uh in sports talk radio and television of
connecting with the audience, right like Mike and I. That's
one thing, you know, do I think I'm the greatest
you know host, Mike and I are the greatest house.
I mean, we're up there. But one thing I know

(32:48):
we always do is we always do the show for you.
And and Stu lance is you know, he's simply voicing
frustrations that everybody watching the Lakers game is going through.
I'm sure the Lakers are mad. Dude, what are you doing? Man?
Put us out of our misery? You work for the team. No,
you understand that you work for the team, but you
really work for the people who are listening and watching

(33:09):
the broadcast. That's who that's who's consuming your product. And
I see it so much now in radio and TV,
where hosts don't do the show for their audience anymore.
They do the show for the superstar that they want
to needle and get involved so they'll respond and give
them great relevance. A right. They don't want to do
the show for the audience. They want to they want

(33:31):
to talk about some big mega superstar, whether it's Lebron
James or Tom brad or anybody else, and they want
to keep talking about that person because they want them
to engage them and they want to start a war.
And so a social media is talking about it, and
this person responds on social media or they write about
it in the blogs, and this this it's gonna get
clicks and all kinds of stuff and attention. That's what

(33:52):
so many people do the show fore And you can
tell when those segments are done for specifically those people
not listening. I want to do this for this person
because I want Lebron to respond. That's why I'm gonna
add him when I talk about it all these things.
I want to do it for that. They're not doing
it because it's what they think about the situation or
what they want you to think about them. They're doing

(34:14):
the show specifically for one person. And and and you
know what, I'm sorry, man, have more responsibility towards the fans,
towards the people that are listening to it, you know,
because that that's you should be doing the show for.
So that's why when this happened with Stu Lance, I
was like, man, he's gonna get in trouble for it.
But that's great because how many Laker fans love him
for that now? Yes, because they know this season has

(34:34):
been an abject disaster and a failure. And yeah, here's
a guy that worked for the team and has the
guts to say, yep, put us out of even though
he didn't know the mic was on and it was
all you know, something was supposed to be behind closed doors. Uh,
fans are digging him today, and anybody that didn't like
Stu Lance before today, they're digging him now because yes,
he spoke the truth about my team. That's why when
he said that, I was like, yeah, you go, because

(34:55):
you got the fans on your side and you're and
you did that and then wind up being the and
to benefit from it. Yeah, I mean, look, I wish
I could take on a persona where I just yell
like an idiot for four hours a night, and I
do to a degree, but it's you know, I like
to think, you know, rational and tempered thought Dino with

(35:16):
an endgame. Uh, that isn't all right, as you say,
Let's see if Durant or whomever else is gonna go
at me on Twitter? Oh look, I have one, and
I guess people like watching that that car crash as
it were, So yeah, it develops, maybe you pick up
some some extra viewers and eyeballs as you try to

(35:37):
back away from it or lean into it or whatever
you're gonna do or take the next shot. Just it's disingenuous.
I'd rather be honest with you. And when a team
sucks or a player sucks, I'm gonna tell you. And
if you want to disagree at me at Swollen Dome,
I can take it. I'm a big boy twitter at
how about a frescut Mike at the aforementioned Swollen Dome

(35:57):
here on Fox Sports Radio coming up next. Yeah, I
have a hot take. For the Masters and Tiger Woods.
Are you ready for this, Let's go, that's next, right,
Air Fox