HOUR 3 -Aaron Donald Questioning Retirement

Jason Smith and Mike Harmon fangirl over Top Gun, Aaron Donald questioning retirement, Gabe Kapler beliefs and much more. 

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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 The
Jason Smith Show with My bass friend Mike Harmon. Notice
don't always take a big bite of chocolate pie right
before you go on the air. I try to time
that bite, Mike Harmon, and it just was a little
bit too close, too close to airtime. Well, I mean,

(00:45):
the the update is timed out. Yeah, there's there's really
not a lot of variability there at the top of
the hour, so you know, Steve finishes, uh, and you know,
Big Boys guy says, hey, here these two knucklehead again.
It's not a new concept, it's a true formula. It's

(01:05):
knucklehead right. Hey, here we are knucklehead Billy and his
partner jumping knucklehead Johnny. Hey, and it's my partner. No,
you'd be it would be jumping Knucklehead Billy and Mike
Bag of Donuts Like that? Would that would be the show?
Now ready for a tag team battle inside the steel
cage one fall, sixty minute time limit. Hey Mikey bag

(01:28):
of Donuts? What are you thinking? Hey? You know what
I'm thinking here? I mean? Uh so, Hey, happy welcome inside.
I hope you've had a wonderful Memorial Day, uh, filled
with cookouts and picnics and pools and also at the
same time remembering why we have the day we have,
thanks to all of our veterans who have made sacrifices,
for some who have made the ultimate sacrifice, uh, in

(01:51):
ensuring that we have the country that we live in
and able to have the way of life that we do. Um. Hey, man,
it ain't perfect dat you know. I look at it,
look around, and I see a lot of good I
see a lot of people trying to do the right thing,
a lot of people getting out and joining themselves and
taking care of the people in their neighborhoods, in their communities,

(02:13):
their families. Memorial Day we had at the park across
from me here Jason, huge classic car show, which meant
if you had to park on the street good luck.
Uh it was it kind of it wasn't, but it
wasn't a classic car show. Those are people trying to
get in to see Top Gun that had to park
away from the theater. That well we would have been,
you know, about a half a mile from the theater,
so yeah, it would have been a little bit of

(02:34):
a hike. But I mean, you know, giant cookouts all gathering,
music blaring like it's it's those freedoms that we have, right,
things that we're able to do that we take for granted.
And it's the al Right, I got invited here? Do
I get you know, do I really want to get now?
I'm kind of tired that guy annoyed me at works, Like, no, no,
these are the things we have the opportunity to go

(02:56):
and find great things. So uh, celebrate, commend rate and
remember why why we are Well, we're the greatest country
in the world. I mean, that's really what it all
comes down to. Uh insert your chance here. Uh and
and count your blessings because there are a lot of them.
No matter what what you're going through, there's always some
positivity to be found. Want to know every day, baby,

(03:18):
and going to see Top Gun is one of those blessings.
We know, there's no question because that's what everybody did
this way. Well, you did it, I did it. I
did it twice. I saw it with you and then
I went and saw it with a full crowd experience.
It was like the other night. It felt like you,
me and Tysher kind of had our own private screening
like we were. That was pretty cool actual because we

(03:39):
went in eleven thirty at night. Yeah, it was. It
was just a three of us and the guy behind
us that probably wanted to kill Ti Shirt because he
kept saying, where's Goose? Like like now he made him
laugh though Tight Shirt was this guy? I think that
it was either that or it was starting to I mean,
I'm not gonna say and lie that the laugh didn't
kind of change tone tenor and grevity over the courson

(04:03):
of the movie. Yeah, the first couple of times he
said where excuse it was funny. Like the twelfth time
it was I'll touch it. This guy wants to kill
you man. This guy he was trying to keep up
with his every eight minute challenge. Yeah, it was only
a fake ake minute challenge. I was. I wasn't saying
you actually had to do that challenging goose during the movie.

(04:23):
But yeah, look, hundred and fifty six million dollars, biggest
Memorial Day weekend opening ever. And you know, before I
give you a big Bowl prediction on top And let
me just say this because this is something from the
movie that that kind of gets me a little bit.
And this is not a spoiler at all, not a
spoiler for the movies. I'm not for the four people
that haven't seen it yet. I I don't want to
run it for you. Uh is that you know they

(04:44):
go and you see in the trailer when Jon Hamm
is going through and and Ed Harris is going through,
the list of Tom Cruise's accomplishments is as Maverick. Right, Uh,
you know he's done the only fighter pilot to shoot
down three jets in the last forty years, right, what
he did in Top Gun the General, right when he
came as a spoiler, when he came and he saved
ice Man. And so okay, So I'm like, okay, I'm

(05:05):
saying they're going okay. So if he's the only guy
that has shot down enemy planes in the last forty years,
and it was almost forty years ago, why do we
even have this Top Gun programmed Hangman spoiler alert, Hangman

(05:28):
did say get get credited with one. Yeah, but it
wasn't a real one though. It wasn't a real one.
A museum piece. It was a museum piece. It was
a museum piece. That was Hey, they used that phrase
a couple of times. I was a little disappointed at
they lack of creativity from the writers. If he shot down,
if three planes have been shot down in forty years

(05:49):
in combat. Look, I get that. The whole hook of
the movie is, Hey, Mavericks, you know, way of life
is ending, right, We're going to drone pilots and and
everything else. And I get that part of it, But boy,
we're probably should have been hell and gone from Top
Gun by now. If you're talking about in the last
forty years, the only time someone's been done done it
was in nineteen eighties six, and we've had clean slate

(06:11):
still then, Um, I think the program would have been
discontinued by now. I don't think we'd have to worry
about actually building planes and training pilots, and I can
save all that money and put it into other things. Yeah,
I get that's the way they were going in the movie.
But I'm like, if you're telling me that that that's
the only time that's happened, why do they even have
top Gun? Why even have Fighter Weapons school because you're

(06:31):
gonna fight? When are we gonna get involved in this?
Probably never? Why are we here doing this? I don't know. Okay,
so I can win a trophy, Yes, what if I
don't win a trophy, doesn't matter. So then I get
to go our best and brightest drone flyers and video
game players, let's get them on board. Then I get
to go out and do this for real. No, but
your brother who plays a lot of Fortnite, I hear

(06:52):
he's got pretty good reactions, so we're gonna go get him.
I mean, what what do you I mean? Well, I
would say it's that was the reason, and they were
really pissed that that cruise didn't get moved that they
felt he had to stay there, right so that until
he retired or moved on to something else, Top Gun
was staying open. That's open for cruise, Okay, great, open

(07:15):
for about that. I I don't know, maybe maybe maybe
that's the end game there. It's like, really, this guy's
still here, and look what he did for us. Back then.
We can't just throw him out. We gotta we gotta
leave it open for him to come back at some point.
You know, neither my wife or my daughter. When when
they when they got you know, Penny Benjamin was was, uh, uh,

(07:38):
what's her name's character? Um, Jennifer Jennifer Jennifer Conolly's character,
And I said uh, And I said, oh, yeah, from
the first one. And my wife and daughter both at sam,
what do you mean from the first And I go,
from the first one they mentioned, or they go, when
did they mention? R I go, what do you mean?
When did they mention? And then I realized I have
much more of an encyclopedic knowledge of top gun than
the average person does. I go, remember in the beginning,
when when Stinger is yelling at them, who's Stinger? All

(07:59):
the ball guys Strickland from from Back to the Future,
I just called I always call him Strickland. I just
always called James Tolkan, I call him Strickland. Went Remember
Strickland's yelling at him, and he's saying all the things
that Maverick's done wrong. He keeps getting busted, all this stuff.
And he had one high altitude fly over with one
Admiral's daughter, and Goose leans over and says Penny Benjamin
and and Maverick nods his head. Yeah, it's Penny Benjamin

(08:21):
from the first thing, goes, oh, I don't remember that.
I go, how do you not remember that? Meg Ryan
mentions her two yes all the time he went ballistic
with Penny Benjamin. What Goose said that? Yeah, I'm like,
you don't remember that? And no, No, I'm like, huh So,
I really wonder how many people remembered that from the
first one, because I thought everybody would remember it. You
would think, especially since so many people watched it aheaded

(08:45):
it flying off of the Netflix at the end of
May here, that everybody was going and revisiting it before
heading to the theater. What did I remember? What one? Liners?
Are gonna come back to me? Do I want to
watch The Glorious Nature of Ironside one more time? All
of those things and Penny bandage Benjamin? Are you trying

(09:06):
to get everybody to go back into the Jennifer Connelly
get all the way back? I remember that she played
Russell Crowe's wife in A Beautiful Mind, and Russell Crowe
was Jeko Hide in the Mummy with Tom Curse. See
how quickly we're able to connect those two together. Yeah,
that's guy. I like that. That's that's sets six degrees
of of Jennifer Connelly, you know. And the thing about

(09:28):
this is that this gets a little deep. But then
I'm gonna give you a big bull prediction about Tom
Cruise is that normally what has he done throughout his career? Right,
he like he's always the star of the movie. Right,
there's no like, this is all I could have done
more with this character. I can know that. Yeah, this
is a Tom Cruise movie. Okay, Tom Cruise is the guy,
all right, So that that's the way it goes. And
it's worked pretty bleep and well okay over the course

(09:49):
last wee years. But like his thing has always been
to you see a lot of his female co stars
are all, Hey, here's an up and coming person that
he helps elevate and becomes a star. Are right, He's
done Like that's been the m O for all of
his movies since then. Right, you go back to Jerry
McGuire with Renee Zellwegger, you go all all the way through,
you know, till The Mummy. A couple of years ago.

(10:09):
You see that, right, you see that, Hey, someone comes
in who's who's his opposite co star? Female co star,
and it's someone up and coming who you know, hopefully
becomes a start. It's a great opportunity for them. Couldn't
do that in this one because you needed someone who
was a little more age appropriate because you know, Mavericks
in his fifties now and and so you know would
be somebody else. So you gotta go out and made

(10:32):
you decided to do. So you went out and you
got Jennifer Connolly, who has been a really good actress
and very talented for a long time, and she's able
to come in and go toe to toe with Tom
Cruise in those scenes. And that's a really tough thing
to do. You're talking about any this is the biggest
movie star on the bleeping planet and the pressure that
goes along with top gun. And she comes in and

(10:52):
goes toe to toe with him on all of those
scenes that they have together, and that's a that's a
big deal because that's not something that comes out of
the Tom Cruise playbook. Normally it's it's something different. But
now Jennifer Conley comes in and she really brought some
big gravitas to that movie. That's that's that's a really
big deal. Well, I think about it. In the trailer
you see from Mission Impossible, it goes to Haley Atwell,
Captain Carter, Ye, here she comes, so you know you

(11:14):
roll from there, but no fun and experience in the movie.
It was funny as we turned into the parking lot today,
we were behind someone who had a license plate frame
that said Navy mom. Oh nice. It all ties to
get nice. Now. I will tell you this the Jason
Smiths with Mike Carmen lad from the Fox Sports Miles
Teller will be the will play Peyton Manning in a

(11:35):
biopick Sally very nice. Uh. With prices soreing at the
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That's discovered dot Com slash Rewards. Limitations they do apply. Uh.

(11:58):
I'd always tell you that the Academy Awards is very
political when it comes to Best Actor, Best Film. When
you can reward someone for the careers they have had. Right,
I told you Will Smith was gonna win for King
Richard a year ago. Hey, he's made a lot of
money for Hollywood. Uh, he's gonna win Best Actor. He one,
I didn't pict but at least, but I told you

(12:19):
it was good. It doesn't matter, right, when can we
reward someone for the career they have had? So he doesn't.
Tom Cruise, He's probably not gonna win, but he'll get
nominated for Best Actor for Top Gun Maverick, for for
the career he has had, for bringing the box office back,
because that's this movie is doing, showing you that you
could be something besides the superhero movie that people want
to go to the theater and see. It's gonna be

(12:40):
the big blockbuster. We're gonna talk about it all summer.
There's new bits and pieces of this movie every single
day that comes out online that you read about. It's
that kind of movie. And he is really good in this.
You know, you forget sometimes because he's a big action
star that hey, when it calls for it, Tom Cruise
can be really good in some movies, right, some movies
he plays the same guy, but sometimes you get him
as a few good men or you get him in

(13:01):
Magnolia and you get him in Somewhere it's like, Wow, Tom,
or you get him as Less Grossman and Tropic Thunder,
you forget that. Hey, this guy's got some depth and
he can be and he can do some good things.
But he's a big action stars. You're expecting all the
crazy stunts and everything he does. Um, he's really good
in this movie. He's really really good. Some of the
scenes he has you can tell that are really difficult

(13:23):
to be able to pull off for a couple of reasons.
I'm not gonna spoil. Uh, he'll get nominated for Best
Actor and people are gonna go crazy. There'd be a
huge thing for him to win. I don't know that
he's going to because you're gonna give it the Tom
Cruise for Top Gun, but to nominate him, yeah, I
think that's an absolutely gonna happen. Yeah. I would say
the one thing to triple underscore out of what you
just said there in terms of the celebrity, the political

(13:47):
political part of this thing is the fact that you know,
you still you hear a lot of debate of whether
there are still movie stars. Right, there's there's movies, there's
superhero movie. There's genres, there's things that always you know,
horror movies historically do really well relative to the budgets
uh that are you know, put forth to make them.

(14:10):
But this is showing that the movie star as an
entity is not a dead proposition. And that's where Tom
Cruise probably gets the extra love here because the big
box office, because we don't even have worldwide numbers yet.
I can't wait to see the international it's it'll be
it's I think internationally it's just gonna pass a billion dollars.
Remember it's not in China or Russia either, So that's

(14:33):
that's tough because Tom Cruise is big. He's big in China,
and it's not there, you know. I mean they never
identified who he was fighting spoiler alert. I was reading
about that and and and everybody seems to think it's Iran.
That's what a lot of people say, that it's I
trying to figure out the the uh terrain and everything. Yeah,

(14:55):
that's Iran. Look, when when a movie is this good,
this is what people do to it. You know, if
the movie stinks, ble are and saying I'm gonna go
through this and try to fail. People figure it out
what it's good and oh my goodness, is top gun fantastic.
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven
pm Pacific, Fox Sports Radio The Jason Smith Show with

(15:15):
My best friend Mike Harmon. If you're a customer, you
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common sense. Learn more at discover dot com. Slash match
limitations they do apply. Well. We have uh drama involving

(15:36):
Aaron Donald, the best defensive player in the NFL. Could
he really be okay with retiring? But on Memorial Day, look,
it's it's a it's a big day of reflection for
us here as a country as we remember the lives
we lost too then the people who have been defending
our country, uh since we became a country, And it's

(15:57):
a it's a day in which we think about it.
It's a day off, but it's mainly a day that
you always want to be thankful to the people who
have come before us that makes sacrifices and I've said tonight,
you know many who have made the ultimate sacrifice and
paying for our freedom with their lives. And it kind
of goes into what's going on right now in baseball

(16:18):
the last couple of days involving Gabe Kapler. Uh, Gabe Kapler,
Giants manager who has a blog. Right, And Gabe Kapler
has been a personality since he retired from Major League Baseball. Right.
He used to come on our show all the time
before he was a manager and talking about all the
health food that he ate. You know, he was a
fe's of fun guest. He's not, you know, he's not
just a manager's manager's got a blog. He's got other

(16:39):
interests outside. It's kind of weird to think about that.
But this is you know, this is two thousand twenty two.
And on his blog, Gabe Kapler said the other day
that he is going to not stand for the national
anthem until he feels the direction of the United States
is going in the right way. Uh. This a response
to what we've seen now too, mass shooting in the

(17:00):
past couple of weeks in Buffalo and then in Noval Day, Texas,
and which the details still coming out about that are
just really really, they're they're difficult to even read. It's
it's it's just so heartbreaking. And to see him, you know,
stand up for what he believes in is saying, hey, listen,
I don't think things are going right in this country,
and you know we we have we have a lot

(17:21):
of things that aren't going right that we have to
do better on and he's taking a stand. He decided
to not do it on Memorial Day and he came
out for the anthem today because he didn't want to
be a distraction order to make it seem like he
was anti military. He putting on it put on his
blog earlier today, I'll be standing for the anthem. I
believe strongly in the right to protest and the importance
of doing so. I also believe strongly in honoring and

(17:43):
mourning our country service men and women who fought and
died for that right. Now, since Kapler has come out
with this UH stance, he's had other managers who have
had his back on it and said, yes, I agree,
And then you've had some managers who disagreed. Tony Laruss
of the White Sox UH being the was vocals saying hey,
I understand, yes, we absolutely have to do something. I

(18:03):
don't think not coming out for the national anthem is
the way to go. I know too many vets, and
I don't think this is the right way to do it.
And you know what, this is not a case of
somebody's right and somebody's wrong. Right. In sports talk radio,
we sit here and tell you who's right and new's wrong,
And I always say, look, I'm right out to when
I when I told you the Mets were gonna be
this good, the mention. We have a lot of right

(18:24):
and wrong, and there's no then there's no middle room,
because it's about having opinions and saying and and telling
you why things are happening and what we think is
going to happen. But this is not that way. Right.
You can be on either side of of the aisle
for something like this, whether hey, I think I should
not come out for the national anthem, and Tony Russa
saying I agree that you want to, but I don't

(18:45):
think this is the right way to do it. It's
not that Gabe Kapler is right, and it's not that
Tony la Russa is right, and or neither one of
them is wrong. It's that these are both two viewpoints
that we always forget we should be able to talk about, right.
I mean that that's the thing about the United States
is that we're so polarized. We forget that we're all
in this together. Right. And you may have the same

(19:08):
same exact opinions of of your next door neighbor when
it comes to politics or whatever else it is. You
may have the exact opposite opinions, but it doesn't matter
because we're all in this together. You have you can say, well,
California's democratic state. Yeah, a lot of a lot of
people who Republicans live in California. Texas is a Republican state.
You know what, a lot of Democrats live in Texas.
We're all in it together, and we forget that. And

(19:30):
and that's what our leaders also forget, that we're all
in this together. It's it's so much as always my
side is right, no matter what, and I can't give
the other side an inch of anything because it's gonna
make it seem weak and we're just not gonna do it.
So you see what happens in our country now, we
forget that we're in it together. And when I see
something like this, like Gabe Kapler keeping this conversation going, right,

(19:52):
because that's all it is. That's what he's doing is
I want to keep this conversation about us trying to
do better as a country going forward, and Tony the
USA is doing the same thing. Right. Hey, I agree,
but I think we can do it a different way. Okay,
because when we keep having the conversation, this allows me
to go to bed every night and wake up the
next day thinking maybe we get a miracle, because I'm

(20:14):
at that point where we kind of need a miracle.
But I keep but I don't lose hope because I
know that we still have enough people who want to
try to do things together. And this is a perfect
example of it where Kapler can say what he what
he believes, and Rusa can say what he believes, and
we can come together on this and say, yes, this
should be, this should not be. Okay, what about this?
What if we do this? We keep that conversation going,

(20:34):
and every day I can think, maybe we get we're
gonna get a miracle, maybe like like like top MAT's
miracle number one, right, and we maybe we maybe we
get a miracle. Spoiler, maybe we get it. The next day, Yeah,
I think when you get down to it. For for
Kapler and even said in his his comments, look, quote,
I don't expect to move the needle necessarily, but it's
something I feel strong enough to take that step. Right.

(20:56):
The rest of it, you know, you can posit theories
and and put out what you think needs to happen.
You can talk and enlist all your local congress people, senators, whatever.
I mean, there's a lot of those things. You can
check boxes and saying all right, this is how I'm
going to make my mark. In this case, gay Keapler
has this platform and it gets spoken about, and at

(21:18):
least in the moment, we're still talking about why he's
doing it right. And then you add some statistics, you
add some color to what the story is, the background,
the the horrific scenarios that we've had over the last
couple of weeks. Because the hard part is the more
you looked into the story and listen to parts of

(21:40):
the the story, the reaction everything else, it started to
get away from what actually transpired right, because then it
becomes about assessing blame, uh, which it needs to happen right,
and you need to figure out where the cracks are
in all of these scenarios, but there still is the
core issue of how do we fix this? How do
we what's so broken? And there's myriad theories on that.

(22:04):
I'm not a political theorist. I am not a a
guy that is, you know, leading a charge of advocacy
in one way or another on any of these these
but but I'm a I'm a dad, and it breaks
my heart that we even have to acknowledge and recognize
that this is a reality when you hug your kids

(22:24):
and send them off to school to the day hoping
that they're coming home. Right, small percentages, but the answer
the number isn't zero and anything above zero is unacceptable.
So for Gabe Kapler right now, there's still a discussion there,
all right, Tony Larus's points well taken of, All right,
what do you expect to accomplish? And are aren't you

(22:47):
potentially inadvertently disrespecting people that you know the flag? And
we start getting back into the discussions from the Colin
Kaepernick scenario of six years ago, right, so you start
seeing the bleed in the bridge there, and the hope
is that you you can come back to the table
and keep having rational discussions, nuanced discussions, about all of

(23:12):
the different particulars in each of these scenarios, UH, and
the protests and why whatever the the end game is
UH that someone is seeking that you're still listening to
the message, and that that's not being drowned out. And
for now we can say, for Gabe Kapler, that's still
the case, and that's a win, right because we're still

(23:33):
having the discussion. We're still putting the numbers in and
making people aware, uh, and reiterating, you know, what's going
on in the news, so it doesn't become all right
four days and it's out of the news cycle as
we've seen in the past. Be sure to catch live
editions of The Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon weekdays
at ten pm Eastern, seven pm Pacific. Hey, what's up everybody?

(23:57):
It's me three time Pro Bowl Little Barrington and I
couldn't be more excited to announce a new podcast called
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along with my fellow Pro bowler t J. Hudschman's otta
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Up on Game. We're going to be sharing our real

(24:20):
life experiences loaded with teachable moments. Listen to Up on
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Birds on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcast or
wherever you get your podcast from. Could the best defensive
player in the NFL be done? Thirty one year old

(24:41):
Aaron Donald, who wants a new deal from the Los
Angeles Rams, said on Brandon Marshall's podcast earlier today, Hey, man,
if I'm done, it's all good. I'm at peace. I'm
at peace. I'm at peace. He's at peace. If he
doesn't play that, he was at peace a lot. He
is at Yes, he's definitely, he said way too many

(25:02):
times he's at peace. Well, he won, He won the
Super Bowl, made the game winning play of the Super Bowl. Uh,
he's going to the Hall of Fame the minute he
is eligible. He is probably the second best defensive player
I've ever seen, behind Lawrence Taylor. But is he really
gonna be No, of course not. This is all a negotiation.

(25:26):
This is what does Aaron Donald have to do? What
can he say? Hey, um, what's my trump card? Well?
Do you have this deal that I've really outperformed? I
can tell him, I don't need to play anymore, like
the whole Aaron Rodgers, I could retire and host Jeopardy.
Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, okay, uh yeah, that's all this is.
He's now starting a posture, and with with him sitting

(25:49):
out there, the Rams need to make a decision about
what they want to do going forward. And yeah, it's
it's gonna be some difficult things and you'll see some restructuring.
There's no way Aaron Donald's not coming back the Rams
this year. They just won the Super Bowl. They're not.
You can't. I can't imagine Stan Cronky saying, oh yeah,
I'm playing hardball, man. Yeah we won. I'm done investing
in this team. We're moving on. Aaron Donald can go

(26:11):
somebody he doesn't want to play, doesn't have to play.
I cannot see that happening. He wants, he wants l
A to be a destination and to want it to
be a place where people want to come play. And
that's what he has right now. He's got that. Everybody
wants to come play for the Rams. Now it's Los Angeles.
You can win a Super Bowl, you can have a
great football life. Look at all the guys that they
have gotten the last few years, just guys they've rented

(26:33):
who have been stars but have not fit in other places.
Now it's where you can go. It's a destination. He's
not gonna risk that by because that's what happened. If
he just said goodbye to Aaron Donald, it would be
oh man, if you treated Aaron Donald that way, why
do I want to go there? Aaron donaldll be playing
for the Rams this year with a new contract. Yeah,
nearly nineties. Seven million dollars in earnings to date is

(26:56):
what the uh? The good folks at Spoke Trek Spot
trek uh tell me there. But he's in the middle
of his six year, hundred thirty five million dollar deal
and obviously next next level and all of the accolades.
Everything you laid out there is true. The super Bowl
title Now for me, Look, I begrudge no man his

(27:17):
or a woman their opportunity to go find as many
dollars as they can. You're in the middle of a contract.
You're not at the end of the year, right, This
isn't the final year of a deal. You shall have
three years remaining on a long term deal. You signed
and in doing so got a monster novelty check at
the at the front of so on. On one level,

(27:40):
for Cronky, I'm like, well, look, we're still gonna be competitive,
We're still going to put up w's, We've got our coach,
We've got all of these things that will flow. And
who doesn't want to come play in this six billion
dollars stadium. Who doesn't want to come to Los Angeles
and be a are I would like to do that

(28:03):
if I were in stand Crown key shoes. But we
recognize the business for what it is. You've got the
best defensive player in the game. You're going to make
him happy. You'd like him to not be so uh.
I think it's fairly weak to keep going on podcasts
and saying I'll retire. Just get get at a table
and negotiate, get your team in front, and actually go

(28:25):
and talk real hard numbers instead of deciding to play
this game. I'm at peace. I could walk away all
that nonsense nonsense, because you still have a lot in
your tank, You're still young, and you have a very
good team that could become legacy defining. Because we talk
about him some, but don't we talk about offensive players more.

(28:47):
This is where he could become that guy that you're
talking about as a defensive wizard, as a defensive superstar,
like we talked about Ray Lewis, like we talked about
some of those linebackers and heroes of the past, and
we we do it when we start, you know, talking
about specifically saying, oh, we have to talk about defense here.
Otherwise it just goes, you know, assumed. Yeah, he's gonna

(29:11):
get double and triple teamed. Great, what do you do?
All Right, he's gonna win Defensive Player of the Year
and it takes nothing away from his career, But I
gotta think that, you know, just like Montgomery Burns, I'll
trade it all for a little more. And that's exactly
what Aaron Donnald wants to do, cash wise and certainly
for his career because he doesn't want there to be

(29:33):
a conversation, right You're you're in the conversation. You want
to be the conversation when it comes to goats, and
he's not there yet, which means all of this posturing
and begging on podcasts and and being like, oh, I'd
be content to walk away and you can give me
every detail you want of the life that you're gonna

(29:54):
have after you retire, You're not going anywhere, So figure
out what that dollar amount is and get to work
on it. Twitter at how about a fresca? Mike gets
swollen down The Jason Smith Show with My best Friend
Mike Harmon. Well, coming up next, we look back at
a couple of Big Bowl predictions we made that they
on the cusp of coming true. Keep it right here Fox.

(30:17):
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
Radio app Fox Sports Radio. The Jason Smith Show with
My big Friend Mike Harmon. Here we are a Memorial Day,

(30:38):
and it's a benchmark day in baseball where we look
back at what we've seen. Ask ourselves, do we believe
what we've seen? And look at right the big benchmark
days and base Memorial Day, fourth of July Labor Day? Right,
what have we seen? What do we think? We're early
part a third of the way of the season. We're
halfway to the season, we're twenty five games from the

(30:59):
end of the seat him and to look back at
some of the bold predictions that we made before the season.
Began at this point. Uh is warranted right now, especially
since Hey, you know, anytime I'm you know, I feel
really good about a bold prediction. I'd like to mention
it once or twice. But uh, kind of a mixed bag.
I I feel like I've gotten the big ones right

(31:21):
and the the outside the box ones really really wrong. Alright.
Co So I told you beginning of the year Yankees
were going to the World Series, and you know they
this was their year because they were able to do
it a little bit under the radar, is not the
overwhelming favorite, and they have fixed all their issues, and

(31:41):
they're really good defensively and that's a big thing. And
here they are best record in baseball. I told you
that Aaron Judge is gonna win the m v P.
And here's Aaron Judge. He's leading the American League in
home runs, he's second in RBIs, he's fourth and ops,
he wants a new contract. Yeah, Aaron Judge gonna be
the m v P. I told your friends scolding door
in the NL. Well, he's now third in RBI. Still

(32:03):
got a ways ago because Pete Alonzo and many Machado
and Mookie Bets are probably above him. But I'm feeling
pretty good about those my car and I feel I
feel pretty good about at least two of those three
that it's gonna come true for me. No, that's good,
and it's I remind you, it's a national show, not
a New York It just so happens. It just so happens.

(32:26):
It's like you were auditioning for a job. Yes, exactly,
that's what I want to talk to I want to
talk to you. You're getting off the subway. You know
just what we're saying. Well, I'm getting on the seven
line getting off of the stadium in the city Field. No, No, well, we'll, we'll, we'll,
We'll cover the rest of the United States with my
bad bull pridiction. Okay, we got ways to go in

(32:46):
the Indian that's got Yeah, I got a couple of
home runs from Alvarez today that gets him to fourteen
and ty I'm just taking the losses. I'm just taking
the losses because the winds that I could claim, Yeah,
teams are mediocre instead of terrible. But you know, I'll
take the els on the individual awards because Austin Riley

(33:09):
not much in terms of his production on the year,
and the Atlanta Braves are struggling, would be kind. We're
talking about a double digit lead for your beloved ye Bundy, right.
They talked about the and Alvarez fourteen home runs twenty

(33:29):
eight RBIs to sixty batting average. But the Astros are
playing well, so uh, in theory, he'll continue to hit
home runs and do great things. The pitching in the
division not exactly what we had in mind, thought to
be a little more competitive nature. The Angels a bit
of a surprise. But in terms of other predictions from

(33:50):
a team perspective, Look, I was on board the Seattle Mariners.
Yeah that was bad the last time I listened to
j P about anything. No, I can't do that conclusion
on my arm. That is that is all me. But
it is a team that I really thought some of
the young guns were gonna come and actually have uh

(34:12):
much higher impact. And you know there is having it
about as much success as all those Yankees prospects did
uh in the early nineties. A whole lot of excitement
coming out of there. Um. The Brewers I think are
a bit of a fun story because I think if
you go back before the season, the presumption was that

(34:33):
the Cardinals were going to run away with the division. Uh,
and that hasn't happened as of yet, only a four
game differential. But you know, we're trying to find competitive
divisions and and right now, well that's a little bit
lacking across Major League Baseball. You've got the Dodgers, Padres
at three and a half games, Brewers Cardinals next at four,

(34:53):
and then we start getting to five, eight, uh, and twelve.
Well this is where things kind of get sideways on me,
because you know, hey, the big ones, I'm I'm glad
I got right. So if I get the big ones
right and these ones wrong. Okay, but I said my
surprise playoff teams this year, Hey, who are my surprise
teams gonna be? We got an extra playoff birth in

(35:14):
each league that we are by surprise teams. And I
gave you the Marlins and the Royals and the Tigers.
I don't want to say the two loud because I'm
really embarrassed. I gave you three teams that are combined
thirty four games under five hundred. Right now, Boy, was
I really wrong about that? The Marlins and the Tigers
and the Royals. Yeah, but you know what, I'm gonna

(35:35):
give you credit in that you set expectations higher for
them and at this point they just haven't met him. Right.
It's like you setting up, you know, expectations for achievement
for your I don't know. So let's take your the
softball team that you coach. You're expecting more contact from
people at the bottom of the order. Stop standing around

(35:56):
and watching strike three. Put the ball in play, make contact.
Every little bit's gonna help. But you know what, there's
gonna be that number nine hitter that can't put the
bat on the ball. It's gonna happen, and every once
in a while, it's gonna cost you a game and
you're gonna froth at the mouth. But they're trying. They're
trying to make you proud, just like these teams in
Major League Baseball. They're trying for you, buddy. They're trying

(36:17):
really hard, but they're just not good. And once again
where the young players fail. But part of it also
goes to, you know, wishing and a hope and a
prayer that you know there's going to be some money
put into the roster and that all those young players
have to hit. You know, they can't be the astros
cheating aside, uh, and and the Cubs where things and

(36:41):
all the guys you expect to play really well suddenly do.
Right that that just doesn't happen that often, although it's
happening for your Mets right now, So I guess I
should just stop that line of thought Twitter and out
about a Fresca. Mike gets swollen down The Jason Smith
Show with my best friend Mike Harmon. Coming up next,

(37:02):
we get back into the biggest NBA story of the day.
Should Jimmy Butler have taken that shot against the Celtics?
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