July 2, 2022 • 36 mins
Mike and Rich talk about a certain sportsbook moving up the Lakers odds to acquire Kevin Durant in a trade, a trip down memory lane with Rich, talking some QB’s in the upcoming NFL season, and more!
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
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(00:23):
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio. Welcome in, Everybody, Fox
Sports Radio. Second half begins Jason Smith Show with Mike Carmen.
Richard Ornberger in for Jason at Ornberger where you find
him on Twitter? Oh h R N B E R
G E R our friend, former NFL lineman Penn State
(00:47):
Nittney Lion lacrosse football. He's got a novel in him.
I can feel it, maybe too. Maybe it's a it's
you know, a bunch of those little five dollar are
you know, love triangle books that you can get at
a grocery store checkout. I don't know that. A shirtless
(01:08):
man who's gotten you know, mid back length pair just
flowing into hair. But but he's gotta look like every man. Yeah,
that's like we're past the eighties and fabio lookalikes. If
you don't know, Fabio is looking up people. Yeah, it's
got to be a dad body. Yeah, it's got to
be something that's a little zove tig around the haunches.
You know you've got the word haunching. Nicely done. People
(01:32):
will be getting a little of that in, especially as
you gluttonized this holiday weekend. Please do so safely, take
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Uh and so support each other. Follow us on Twitter
(01:53):
at orn Berger at Swollen dum Lots. Coming up football season,
we'll be on us soon enough. Fantasy and regular standard
breakdowns of the NFL to come. College football, but certainly
for me, the I Watch a Flex podcast will return,
will probably rope Rich into at least a couple of leagues.
So he asked to talk about that stuff? Why because
(02:14):
we find him entertaining, But it gives me another excuse
to just call him out of the blue other than
what did you eat today? Because I can't figure out
what to make for dinner. Yeah, yeah, that. While I
enjoy those conversations to the football conversations, especially once to
fall get it on new way, I feel like the
two of us in the not so covert way are
(02:34):
just picking your brothers each other's brains to get the
edge on our competition in our own given leagues without
giving too much away for the leagues that were involved
in together. That's kind of it, right, And it's like,
all right, let's educate the people about the run scheme
of this team kind of because look, you know the
walls have ears and spies. Uh they are everywhere, no
(02:56):
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Silly season, rich. I've I was entertained by this one
uh story from Caesar's Sports book. Right, Phoenix Suns, Miami Heat.
Those are the rumored would be leaked to the media
(03:39):
preferred destinations of Kevin Durant if he if and when
he finds his way out of Brooklyn. Okay, cool, we'll
stipulate to that. But for Caesar's, they say they've seen
significant action and money coming in on your Los Angeles Lakers.
Now made a couple of moves. Maybe they were impressed
by the fact that Scotty up in Junior and Sharif
(04:02):
O'Neill joined the squad post draft as two way players.
Maybe there, but the Lakers odds moved from twenty two
to one to ten to one at Caesar's, reportedly three
point five times more betting handled than any other team. Alright,
(04:23):
how do you like that? So is that? I guess
that's the assumption, because in terms of betting favorites, that's
where we get into Kyrie Irving and the odds of
where he'll play next and Los Angeles. The last I looked,
what were the favorites either go to Los Angeles or
he stays in Brooklyn. And then you trickle down from there. Well,
(04:44):
what's crazy about Vegas is well, look, Vegas has a
responsibility to try to hedge towards the house. And what
I mean by that is why the lines change While
lines change based on betting. Yeah, an information that becomes
publicly available or sourced information that you can trust. Trust
if you're a handicapper, you know these guys are digging into.
(05:05):
These guys have connections to and the best ones are
connected well enough that they can move lines before news
is announced. But yeah, I mean part of it, though,
is public sentiment and and where the public is pushing
the lines. And I I think, look, there is just
a lot of people who believe that Lebron James with
(05:29):
the sway he has in the NBA and the Lake
organization and the sway that just being in you know,
media market number two in this country, with the team
that already has a star player or two in the lineup,
assuming you can keep all of the players on roster
who would be impactful and important to make a championship run.
(05:51):
I get it. A lot of people, you know, chase
shiny objects when they go to Vegas. It's it's part
of the culture out there. So if you're a sports
better and all of a sudden you hear that Kevin
Durants trading or requesting a trade, and you realize, well,
Lebron over the what has it been now five years
(06:13):
he's been a Laker, has been that many already. It's crazy,
uh funny how fast time moves and't it. Yeah, four
of those seasons have been really disappointing per his standard,
and he's been hurt, and he's been management and maybe
operations shut down based on the fact that they weren't
in playoff mode anymore. And the scoring title, we're gone.
(06:34):
I just gotta call it like I see it. It's
not casting aspersion on the guy, just spit. In fact,
everybody gets old eventually. You know, Father Time is undefeated.
That that's a that is a a real thing. See.
That's actually, to me a better truism than death taxes
and all that stuff that we try to do, because
you could go without paying your taxes. Yeah yeah, and
(06:57):
you might get away free and eventually looked, you don't
even need the income anymore because now you're getting three
squares and a con every night. Yeah, you gotta ten
by ten that you could do some laps around um
indoor plumbing. It's just one of those things though, where
I think public sentiment is probably pushing the lines more
(07:19):
in favor of l A rather than rather than sourced
information or or all of the above that we're discussing before.
I think that betters chase shiny objects and the line
has to react. So as soon as Kevin Durant made
himself available, I mean for me personally, him and Kyrie
both immediately in my brain, I think to myself, well,
(07:41):
they're both guys who love big markets. Kevin Durant left, okay,
excuse me, left that, Yeah, Oklahoma City, and where do
you go? The Bay Area? After that, Brooklyn? Kyrie Irving
left Cleveland, and where do you go? Boston? And there
were that we're next Brooklyn, you know, the New York markets.
So it just feels like to me like it would
(08:02):
be an easy plug and play. And if you want
to head your own bets, maybe you put a little
you know, hards earned uh sawbucks on both of them,
you know, And and maybe that's the reason why these
lines are moving, or at least that's my opinion. I
think that's why these lines are moving. Yeah, I think
part of it is the assumption that Kyrie is not
(08:22):
staying in Brooklyn. So however that comes to an end
a buy out or an actual trade, that he becomes
a member of the Lakers. Right, So a little bit
of money there. Now. Obviously, the big brands, the big cities,
you're you're generally gonna get the optimism and the craziness.
And then look, we're a short drive from Las Vegas here, right,
(08:42):
which means you go to Vegas for a weekend, you
put a couple of dollars down on your team. That's
always been the case, at least until recently with the Cubs,
where if you were to look at betting odds for
the World Series like early on, right, they get released
and you see in an immediate reaction a bunch of
folks at the Cubs, and until they won the World
(09:06):
Series that it actually happened and they cashed out and
got all the money back from prior losses. But just
the idea that you know, that's my team, you know, Hope, Springs, Eternal, etcetera.
And I think a little of that is with the
Lakers too, that you're gonna get some of that action.
Now what we're talking about larger bets of ten thousand,
five thousand, things like that that we're being reported from Caesar's. Then, yeah,
(09:28):
it's I think specifically tied to all right, they will
find another piece and Russell Westbrook will not be there
to sabotage. Yeah, whatever those efforts are that Darvin Ham
is going to inspire everybody to play for him, and
the wishing wanting hoping, right, the wishing wanting hoping that
Lebron James and Anthony Davis can stay healthy. Because but
(09:51):
that's part of it, right, it's the all right, this
is the year, even if they don't make a lot
of the regular season. And I think that's the other
part that creeps into it. Rich. It's like you're not
looking at and we could do the over undrawn wind
totals because that's fun and exciting. Because nobody plays more
than seventy five games, or seventy games in a lot
of cases, sixty games if you're a star anymore, because
(10:11):
you've got three months of playoffs to get through if
you want to win a title. Yeah, And the way
they spread these games out, I mean, it's it's only
getting longer and longer. In the postseason. Was baffling. The
finals should it had gone to seven, would have been
a two week experience. It's just it's just an odd
way to execute a playoff bracket. But I mean they
(10:34):
do it that. I mean they're there. It's only getting longer,
it's only creeping deeper into the summertime. So we'll we'll
expect that more of the same this upcoming season season.
Even if they find a way to reduce the regular season,
they'll find a way to extend the season's length. You know,
I gonna saying there's no games being lost here rich
too much money goes out the windows. So anybody hoping
(10:54):
that suddenly there's a contraction of games, they'll be made
up somewhere, whether it's these inane in season tournaments or whatever.
The solution becomes, no, no, no, they're getting their gate.
Oh yeah, they'll get their gate. They'll make sure that
they can. They they make sure they're washing the hands
of their network partners. And I understand that too, because
they stand and I'm talking about the owners now in
(11:15):
the NBA to lose a lot of money if they
don't satisfy those contracts. And and I don't know if
there's any wiggle room built into those contracts. I know
in the NFL. There is I know in the NFL,
and this only became public information based off source reports
during the pandemic. I believe it was or the last
(11:36):
round of CBA negotiations that they only promise a certain
proportion of their games per season. But that's the NFL
deal with these different networks. I don't know if that's
the same for the NBA. But I'll give you one
number from the NBA that Adam Silver did put out
at some point is that the current rights deal was
worth a total of an estimated billion dollars, trying to
(11:59):
triple it in the next negotiations. Well, and we were
just talking about Vegas and odds and where's Katie and
Kyrie going. That's a big part of it because on
the very near horizon, we are going to see fully
integrated stadium and arena gambling applications and products and slot
(12:21):
machines and betting kiosks. It's coming, it's coming soon. Federally,
it's legal to to bet state to state UH. It's
just up to your individual states legislature to pass those
sports betting UH laws. As soon as that's enacted and
say all of the NBA cities where NBA has played,
(12:42):
all of the NFL cities, all the NHL cities, they're
going to integrate in game betting opportunities for fans and
and and the fans who aren't at the arenas or
at the stadiums. That it's going to be a scroll
at the bottom of the screen, or it's going to
take up the fifth or a hoarder of your screen
at home, where they're going to have live odds just
(13:04):
flashing on the screen. You know, how many more points
will Russ Westbrook score before the half? You know, I'm
taking the under, you know, whatever, it's it's just it's
just going to be as big a part of the
entertainment value as the game itself. And in preparation for
all this, these networks know that these leagues are going
to command an ever higher price for their product. Now,
(13:28):
I think that's the big part of it, that that
rolls through riches. You know, as much like I talked
about the pay per view experience with my daughter's soccer tournament,
it kind of gets into the same thing of all right,
you have these first mover advantages, first generation installations of
things that you're trying out right where there was a
big announcement earlier today and maybe I'd missed it that
(13:51):
it had already been announced, but it it showed up
in my timeline when it comes down to what the
next World Cup is gonna have in terms of the
tracking chip, the ball and Fox utilizing twenty nine different
cameras to give you every bit of action you could
ever want and then some Right, but you've got to
start somewhere, go back to the old yellow line and
the score bug that Fox put on where you weren't
(14:14):
waiting ten minutes for a ticker update, and then it
became ubiquitous at the mobile devices and everything how we
do things second screen, and now you have with Amazon
and everybody else coming in different ways to consume every
game with different announcing crews, and the price of poker
and that whole thing. You and I need to figure
out how we audition and try to get on one
(14:35):
of these alternate streams. I mean, I see the dollars
that are flowing in a rich but but it's just
you know, you're you're trying to figure out how you
get your hands around as much of that pie as
you can y and that, and that's what the league is,
and trying to integrate that and make sure that they
don't cut a deal that's fool already or you know,
(14:55):
in to take the college story of the week and
you know, handshake a girl Emons when you're negotiating on
the others out the other side of your mouth, right
the alliance versus hey, we're leaving for the big tent,
you know, things like that that you you want to
make sure you're putting as many safeguards in as you can.
And you've gotta have a very active lobby base to
(15:17):
go get in front of all these would be legislators
to get them on your side. Oh, by the way,
look who we brought. It's John Elway. He wants to
meet John Elway. Yeah, it's and you know what and
the and the reality of all this is, I mean,
if you're a sports team owner in the United States,
it's basically royalty because the access you have to politicians
(15:39):
who can ease the sheets for some of the things
that you're looking to get accomplished as a sports league, well,
I mean just think about the access that you can
provide for them. You know how many Congressmen or women
want maybe court side seats, or want access to a
private suite, the owner's box, what have you. And look,
it's it's just the the way of the world. You know,
(16:01):
hands get greased and then all of a sudden, life
gets easier for those who have who have the ability
to give and gain access. So it is, it's it's
the way of the world. And that's that's kind of
the top shelf operators. Now down toward the bottom. You
have what's available to all of us, you know, you
(16:22):
know the sports jocks who shout at each other on
the radio. Uh, the our listeners, people who care about sports.
What what's what's our end road, what's our connection? Well,
we can buy tickets, we can buy our seat licenses,
we can buy memorabilia, we can gamble, and and that
is how you show ownership. That's how you find your way,
(16:42):
your little tie to all of this stuff. And and
you know, circling back to where we started, if Katie
or Kyrie end up in l a and you put
a little bit of scratch on that, you know, all
of a sudden, your interest grows in the Lakers because
the Lakers just made you a little cash. And and
this every sports owner, every sports fan knows that this
(17:05):
is important to the game, and it's just a matter
of it feels like sheer moments until that madness starts
to take over. Uh, you know that the overwhelming interests
in sports viewing not just hey, team AY is beating
Team B and it's bragging rights and I'm a Cubs
fan or I'm a Dodgers fan or what have you.
It's hey, dude, did you see that game last night?
(17:28):
And I took the total runs under and hit big
Like that's going to be the conversation at the water cooler.
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern seven
pm Pacific. If you know, you know trending all day.
I'll leave it at that. Welcome in pop culture, Maven's
(17:50):
that we are, Mike Harmon, Rich Hornburg, are with you
here Fox Sports or Radio The Jason Smith Show with
Mike Harmon. No Jason Smith to night. He may be
trying to play any kind of video game and learn
these riffs right now, Rich, because we can't do any
spoiler alerts. I love, I mean, nothing got me more
fired up in a high school weight weight room, cliang
(18:13):
in rusty plates just just just I don't know, just
moving some metal to some metallica was mandatory. Well, just
like on the radio, there's a lot of mandatory metallica
segments and parts of shows out there across this great
United States, across your radio dial. So you've got some
(18:34):
of that flowing with you. I was a big metallica,
early metallic I've trying to explain to my kids. You know,
some of it is like, you know, follow the Old
Testament of the Bible, all sorts of references all over there.
Uh And and obviously that used so brilliantly in old school. Yes, yes,
we'll have them home, you know, before dinner, that kind
(18:56):
of thing. But yeah, I think back to high school,
you know, I helped Uh I couldn't get them to
sign off on my legs that had some some bad injuries. Uh.
And it's a different time nowadays, it'd be like I
just get back out there to uh a month of rehab.
It'll be fine, we'll have the right surgery to fix it.
Back then, I was like, nope, not touching you. So
what I did was I helped run our wrestling squad
(19:19):
when They started it at my high school, and I
was doing a lot of the work in the weight room,
so it meant I got to control the music, which
meant a lot of Metallica, a lot of Black Sabbath,
and some Zeppelin creeping through. I got in trouble for
wrestling in high school because my football coach didn't want
me to get hurt. But sure we had we had
(19:41):
a heavyweight and he had no one to roll with, right,
So I'm thinking, like, all right, you know, that's a
great way to stay in shape. You know, just goof
around in the off season during the winter time because
you get tired of just hit in the weight room
and doing your sprints down the hallway because in New York,
I mean, you can't find a field outside. We didn't
have an indoor facility. There's just too much snow and cold.
(20:04):
So we I would just find a place to do
some cardio inside the hallways of the school. After school
let out and um and the wrestling coach was like, yeah,
would you come down to the basement, would you would
you roll with our heavyweight? I'm like, yeah, hell yeah,
when you come down to the basement, I mean the
way you set that up. We needed some other random
freepy music behind you. Oh no. The wrestling room in
(20:28):
my high school, I mean it looked like the future
home of a murder scene and it was just it
was a lot of wrestling rooms. Yeah. Yeah. As you're
walking down these these catacombs beneath East Meadow High School,
you're you're passing by, like, you know, cobweb covered desks
(20:48):
that were used back into the in the nineties seventies,
some of which still had students in um, just skeletal remains.
But then you you found your way to this wrestling
room which all the windows were condensated with sweat. The
walls were even dripping. It was just this gross, I
don't know what you would call its cesspool of ringworm.
(21:10):
And you would just roll on these mats. And I
never wrestled in my life, but because they needed and
I was probably terrible by the way, um, but because
they needed somebody so badly. They were so complimentary and
I was just like, wow, Wow, these guys are really nice.
My football coach was down there day too, and waiting
for me outside of He's like, are you out of
(21:30):
your mind? It's like, are you out of your mind?
He's like, you have a scholarship, but to play college football.
Here's the thing. You might have learned some moves that
might have made you a w w E superstar. Well,
and see you might have been doing like my guys
from Northwestern going down to the to the training and
can me going into ww E next. Opportunities missed, opportunities missed.
(21:51):
I just it's it's it's look, life is a long winding,
broken road that led me to you, Michael. Oh, that's
a beautiful thing thinking about our our guy now as
he's out there working a way. Uh. You know, there's
a Jethrow Tull song that has a great lyric that
fits right there. Life's a long song, but the two
(22:15):
ends too soon for us all. So make the most
of your day. Yeah. I wasn't trying to get you know,
maudlin or problematic there, just kind of saying, take advantage
of the day. I wanted to put one little, uh
PostScript on the conversation we were having regarding betting and
the growth of those industries and what's happening. Remember that
the NFL has hired as a VP of Strategy and
(22:36):
an analytics a guy named David high Hill. Why, well,
to monitor what's going on and how the NFL handles
betting going forward. So just you know, they're creating jobs,
not just across America as more of more of this happens,
and apps and just in house casinos and all that
(22:57):
that are going, but also at the league level. You know,
I've six years ago, it's been said off and times
Tony Romo couldn't do a fantasy football event at a
casino where there were autograph signings or whatever because it
was too close to betting rooms and the sports books.
And now, hey, we've hired a guy to be our
vice president to monitor how we're gonna expand and how
(23:19):
we maximize revenue with this going forward. Oh, how the
world does change? He's Rich Hornberger, How Mike Harman The
Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon here on Fox Sports Radio.
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Learn more. Discovered dot com slash match limitations do apply.
Coming up next, we talk about the well what's next
in the NFL related to the Deshaun Watson situation. But first,
be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern seven
pm Pacific. Hey, this is Jason McIntyre. Join me every
(24:01):
weekday morning on my podcast, Straight Fired 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 listen
to Straight Fire with Jason McIntyre on the I Heart
(24:24):
Radio app, Apple Podcast or wherever you get your podcasts.
You know how you get Brady back to the top
of the Jersey sales? Switch teams. No, get those sweet
creamsicles the genius. That's what I need. Obviously, switching teams
is gonna help quite a bit. And I think everybody
(24:46):
started jumping on the Josh Allen bandwagon that I built
when he came into the league. This guy can't play,
He's just a running back. Many arguments with guys who
still get to work at a microphone. Arre. Well, I
will say this. I was waiting for either more laughter
for you to tell me calm down. There no true
(25:06):
words hota no, no, no, no no. This This wasn't
a hot take. This was from studied um um. I mean,
like really, I want to say as objective as you
possibly could look at a situation. My statement on Josh
Allen was, well, that's that's a tight end masquerading as
(25:28):
a quarterback. Uh. He played in Wyoming, and I watched
a ton of his film in college, and I saw
a game tape and I saw cut ups and I
saw highlights, and I I mean, you know, I would
study his film, you know against uh, like opponents for
San Diego State in my preparation for their games and
stuff like that. I just didn't see it. He. I
(25:50):
figured he would be such a project at the quarterback position,
and he was such a good athlete that he might
be able to transition to a title. He was at
least gonna still be the passing game. Yeah, but hey,
just run the problem. The problem was it wasn't you
I was referring to. I know, but that I got
(26:10):
a couple of guys very specific. Oh yeah, I I
do this. I do this probably once a year to
cleanse my soul because because easily one of the worst
takes I've ever had was doubting the potential of Josh
Allen at the quarterback position. I just I promise you
when I say this, I've never seen an ascent like
(26:32):
Josh Allen's before. And that's the reason why it's so
hard to fathom that it's even occurred, because if you
look at him at Wyoming, I mean we're talking about
a really raw product, and then he went to Buffalo
and dude, he just put it together quicker than anybody,
and he got better and better and better every year.
He took a slight step back last season, but that's
(26:54):
the only season that he's actually regressed a little bit,
and it was a tick back down. This guy sensational
at the quarterback position well and building up a receiving
corps around him, right, and obviously you bring in a
guy like Stefon Diggs, it's going to clear up a
lot of problems, oh, no question. And if they ever
could get a consistent run game, now look out. Yeah. Yeah,
(27:14):
that's that's been because he he is a supplanting that
run game with his abilities, which which again I I
understand because he's such a good athlete. A lot of
people said, you know the same thing about Lamar Jackson,
like that just looks like a guy who's miscast at quarterback,
who could help a team in a different position. And
look at you, now you know, Josh Allen, that's a
(27:35):
guy who can win an m v P next season.
Lamar Jackson, that's a guy who's already won an m
v P in his early NFL career. He is a
guy that is very interesting to watch how that unfold, Uh,
Jockey Lamar Jackson. Everybody jumped on the Buffalo bandwagon. But
Baltimore a team that I think, folks and I used
this pretty liberally widely. Uh, And obviously there's gonna be
(27:57):
guys that are more towards my line. I think is
I don't know that you could have had the convergence
of events and done any better than they did a
year ago. Between losing your entire running back room and
just saying can you run a straight line in a
decent amount of time, yes, you could be our new
running back. That's kind of where you were at the
(28:19):
the offensive line was awful. They placed a lot of
stock that Ronnie Stanley would be healthy. He was not.
And then the receiving corps outside of Andrew's your tight end.
I like Hollywood Brown. I like him as a two,
A or three, not as my one, right, and then
you look at the rest of that receiving corps, So
trying to put it on Lamar Jackson, like you're only
(28:41):
gonna get so much better if you're operating. And look,
you can only blame your tools so much. I understand,
and accuracy needs to be better, but you also need
guys that can go get the ball, and that is
something Baltimore is not given him. And and this is
a team that I want to say it was like
Week thirteen and fourteen, they lost back to back games
(29:02):
on two point conversions on failed two point CONVERSI like
this easily. With all the issues with Huntley uh commanding
the starting quarterback position for a large portion of the season.
I think he started in shoot, what was it eleven
games something like that A lot of times. No, no,
it was less than I was like, it wasn't a ton,
(29:22):
but it was enough to where you know the balance
of the season. You know, you're you're now wondering what if?
And and I think Lamar Jackson's a guy that folks
want to stick and saddle with a narrative. It's like
guys evolve. No they do. Yet, No, he's gonna I
I don't know, I I you can't predict injuries and
(29:43):
health and all that stuff. But the way they're protecting
quarterbacks helps him here, you know, as opposed to like
Cam Newton playing during an era where a running quarterback
could get savaged, and he did, and Russell Wilson took
his looks as well. And shoot, I mean that's the
reason why Ben Roethlisberger's opt running it uh so often.
And Aaron Rodgers got more creative inside the pocket and
(30:06):
learned to operate in the pocket because they weren't helping
out mobile quarterbacks in that day. And they're doing a
much better job of that now. So Lamar Jackson, again,
assuming health, with these contract talks looming, I have a
feeling he's gonna have one of those ridiculous seasons. Again.
It's just a matter of if they can protect, if
they can establish a run game and stay healthy in
(30:28):
their run game. Um, but yeah, Andrews. Like you said,
if every defense isn't doubling him, they're doing everything wrong.
They should get back to the drawing board. Hey man Rich,
we'll see how high Lamar Jackson ranks in our initial
rankings for the I Watch Flex podcast. And for you
and I, uh you and I heading down to Harris
(30:49):
as I said, and and just kind of bled because
you're trying to play beat the clock. You're doing all
this stuff as we had to Harrison do our fantasy
football preview. Be sure to 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. Hey, this is Jason McIntyre. Join me
(31:12):
every weekday morning on my podcast, Straight Fired with Jason McIntyre.
This isn't your typical sports pod pushing the same tired
narratives down your throat every day. Straight Fire gives you
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all the best guests. Do yourself a favor and listen
to Straight Fire with Jason McIntyre on the I Heart
(31:36):
Radio app Apple podcast or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey,
welcome back in Fox Sports or radio Jason Smith Show
with Mike Harmon, Rich Horberger in for Jason tonight. Jason
Taken in the Angel FC soccer game. Just tweeted out
(31:56):
about it and he texted me the cho soccer ball
or soccer nacho bowl. Here is legit the soccer and
so I evidently you get, like, what's kind of a
soccer ball filled with nachos like you would a helmet
at a baseball game. I actually really like that, you
(32:17):
know what I mean? Little keepsakes, something bring home. Hey,
if I'm gonna spend fifteen bucks, let me come away
with some plastic thing that costs you twelve cents to make.
And just in general, anyway you can sort of class
up just tortillas or fried tortilla chips with some some
you know, cheese stuffs and halapeno peppers and whatever else
(32:38):
you can pour on top. I'm I'm into that as well.
I mean, let's make it. Let's make it a class
I'm making a party, no question. Now you got me
thinking of where I can go down the street. Uh,
casa vega? Anybody after the show who's in so bad. Yeah,
well you can get a nice drink too and think
that you're part of Once upon a time in Hollywood
while you're at it. At large, March no big deal. Well,
(33:00):
you know, get after it. Uh. So, with the Deshaun
Watson cases, right, twenty and twenty four settled, We've got
the hearings, three days in front of the judge and
hearing all this information back and forth, and certainly some
(33:21):
media outlets very aggressive in the reporting of it, others
playing a wait and see, right, because right now it's
all just speculation and how you feel the winds are
gonna blow. Because if you look at past incidences for
Roger Goodell, it really doesn't matter what anybody suggested. And
the most um in Congress was the Ezekiel Elliott ruling. Right,
(33:47):
had an accusation, went in front, had the hearing, had
the recommendation of zero games, he still serves six games.
We talked about Ben Roethlisberger, talk about so many cases
in between, and now you get to Deshaun Watson with
the largesse of this rich and how long it's played out.
(34:08):
Uh In the public sphere and the court of public opinion.
Sports talk radio sports media as a whole, the giant
contract he signs with the Browns, and you know, just
trying to read the tea leaves of and which way
the wind blows. Uh. In terms of how long it
will be, we have the whispering of an indefinite suspension.
(34:30):
We had folks theorizing that he'd get two years akin
to what Baseball gave Trevor Bauer. And now it's the
waiting game, and with still four more cases that still
need to have some sort of resolution one way or another,
right civil cases, and many have made the claim, well,
it's not criminal, it doesn't matter that that it's that
(34:51):
that's a big deal that it's you know, since their
civil you know, what is the NFL doing. It's like, no, no,
well known they've They've done this time and again, like
they're gonna rule how they will, and the cb A
allows it. But it's an interesting battle when we get
to the c b A versus the player Code of
Conduct or really the NFL Code of Conduct as to
(35:13):
how this plays well. And you've got to keep in
mind the NFL isn't trying to do what's right necessarily,
They're just trying to do what's going to appease their
fan base. Uh and and it's going to make them
essentially the most money. Look, I mean, the sooner Deshaun
Watson can get back onto the football field, put all
(35:34):
of this behind him in whatever way that looks like,
and and start playing football at a high level. Again,
the better off it's gonna be for the NFL. I mean,
think back to Joe Mixing and what he was dealing
with coming out of Oh you, Tyreek Hill and what's
followed him into the league, and Kareem Hunt and Ezekiel
Elliott like you mentioned Ben Roethlisberger. As soon as these
(35:57):
stars get back to being stars, everybody conveniently forgets. And
that's okay because I believe in second chances. But let's
be honest with each other. The NFL is looking to
get this suspension announced, get it over with, and get
to DeShawn Watson back on the field playing hero to
(36:19):
the young eyes and minds across the United States. Like
so many of the other stars, He's Rich Jordan Burg around,
Mike Armen to Jason Smith young with Mike Armen here
in Fox Sports or Radio coming up next, Professor Williams
has the floor. We talked about that next
Thanks for listening to The Jason Smith Show with Mike
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Sports Radio dot com, or stream us live every night
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(00:23):
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio. Welcome in, Everybody, Fox
Sports Radio. Second half begins Jason Smith Show with Mike Carmen.
Richard Ornberger in for Jason at Ornberger where you find
him on Twitter? Oh h R N B E R
G E R our friend, former NFL lineman Penn State
(00:47):
Nittney Lion lacrosse football. He's got a novel in him.
I can feel it, maybe too. Maybe it's a it's
you know, a bunch of those little five dollar are
you know, love triangle books that you can get at
a grocery store checkout. I don't know that. A shirtless
(01:08):
man who's gotten you know, mid back length pair just
flowing into hair. But but he's gotta look like every man. Yeah,
that's like we're past the eighties and fabio lookalikes. If
you don't know, Fabio is looking up people. Yeah, it's
got to be a dad body. Yeah, it's got to
be something that's a little zove tig around the haunches.
You know you've got the word haunching. Nicely done. People
(01:32):
will be getting a little of that in, especially as
you gluttonized this holiday weekend. Please do so safely, take
care of each other, celebrate your friends, family, check in
on those you haven't heard from in a while. We're
all one big family here Fox Sports Radio. We appreciate
you being part of it. So we'd like you to
uh continue to be safe and healthy in doing so.
Uh and so support each other. Follow us on Twitter
(01:53):
at orn Berger at Swollen dum Lots. Coming up football season,
we'll be on us soon enough. Fantasy and regular standard
breakdowns of the NFL to come. College football, but certainly
for me, the I Watch a Flex podcast will return,
will probably rope Rich into at least a couple of leagues.
So he asked to talk about that stuff? Why because
(02:14):
we find him entertaining, But it gives me another excuse
to just call him out of the blue other than
what did you eat today? Because I can't figure out
what to make for dinner. Yeah, yeah, that. While I
enjoy those conversations to the football conversations, especially once to
fall get it on new way, I feel like the
two of us in the not so covert way are
(02:34):
just picking your brothers each other's brains to get the
edge on our competition in our own given leagues without
giving too much away for the leagues that were involved
in together. That's kind of it, right, And it's like,
all right, let's educate the people about the run scheme
of this team kind of because look, you know the
walls have ears and spies. Uh they are everywhere, no
(02:56):
question about it. Hey, auto Zone has the free services
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(03:16):
the job done just got easier. Restrictions do apply getting
the zone. Auto Zone So with the NBA Fun and
Silly season, rich. I've I was entertained by this one
uh story from Caesar's Sports book. Right, Phoenix Suns, Miami Heat.
Those are the rumored would be leaked to the media
(03:39):
preferred destinations of Kevin Durant if he if and when
he finds his way out of Brooklyn. Okay, cool, we'll
stipulate to that. But for Caesar's, they say they've seen
significant action and money coming in on your Los Angeles Lakers.
Now made a couple of moves. Maybe they were impressed
by the fact that Scotty up in Junior and Sharif
(04:02):
O'Neill joined the squad post draft as two way players.
Maybe there, but the Lakers odds moved from twenty two
to one to ten to one at Caesar's, reportedly three
point five times more betting handled than any other team. Alright,
(04:23):
how do you like that? So is that? I guess
that's the assumption, because in terms of betting favorites, that's
where we get into Kyrie Irving and the odds of
where he'll play next and Los Angeles. The last I looked,
what were the favorites either go to Los Angeles or
he stays in Brooklyn. And then you trickle down from there. Well,
(04:44):
what's crazy about Vegas is well, look, Vegas has a
responsibility to try to hedge towards the house. And what
I mean by that is why the lines change While
lines change based on betting. Yeah, an information that becomes
publicly available or sourced information that you can trust. Trust
if you're a handicapper, you know these guys are digging into.
(05:05):
These guys have connections to and the best ones are
connected well enough that they can move lines before news
is announced. But yeah, I mean part of it, though,
is public sentiment and and where the public is pushing
the lines. And I I think, look, there is just
a lot of people who believe that Lebron James with
(05:29):
the sway he has in the NBA and the Lake
organization and the sway that just being in you know,
media market number two in this country, with the team
that already has a star player or two in the lineup,
assuming you can keep all of the players on roster
who would be impactful and important to make a championship run.
(05:51):
I get it. A lot of people, you know, chase
shiny objects when they go to Vegas. It's it's part
of the culture out there. So if you're a sports
better and all of a sudden you hear that Kevin
Durants trading or requesting a trade, and you realize, well,
Lebron over the what has it been now five years
(06:13):
he's been a Laker, has been that many already. It's crazy,
uh funny how fast time moves and't it. Yeah, four
of those seasons have been really disappointing per his standard,
and he's been hurt, and he's been management and maybe
operations shut down based on the fact that they weren't
in playoff mode anymore. And the scoring title, we're gone.
(06:34):
I just gotta call it like I see it. It's
not casting aspersion on the guy, just spit. In fact,
everybody gets old eventually. You know, Father Time is undefeated.
That that's a that is a a real thing. See.
That's actually, to me a better truism than death taxes
and all that stuff that we try to do, because
you could go without paying your taxes. Yeah yeah, and
(06:57):
you might get away free and eventually looked, you don't
even need the income anymore because now you're getting three
squares and a con every night. Yeah, you gotta ten
by ten that you could do some laps around um
indoor plumbing. It's just one of those things though, where
I think public sentiment is probably pushing the lines more
(07:19):
in favor of l A rather than rather than sourced
information or or all of the above that we're discussing before.
I think that betters chase shiny objects and the line
has to react. So as soon as Kevin Durant made
himself available, I mean for me personally, him and Kyrie
both immediately in my brain, I think to myself, well,
(07:41):
they're both guys who love big markets. Kevin Durant left, okay,
excuse me, left that, Yeah, Oklahoma City, and where do
you go? The Bay Area? After that, Brooklyn? Kyrie Irving
left Cleveland, and where do you go? Boston? And there
were that we're next Brooklyn, you know, the New York markets.
So it just feels like to me like it would
(08:02):
be an easy plug and play. And if you want
to head your own bets, maybe you put a little
you know, hards earned uh sawbucks on both of them,
you know, And and maybe that's the reason why these
lines are moving, or at least that's my opinion. I
think that's why these lines are moving. Yeah, I think
part of it is the assumption that Kyrie is not
(08:22):
staying in Brooklyn. So however that comes to an end
a buy out or an actual trade, that he becomes
a member of the Lakers. Right, So a little bit
of money there. Now. Obviously, the big brands, the big cities,
you're you're generally gonna get the optimism and the craziness.
And then look, we're a short drive from Las Vegas here, right,
(08:42):
which means you go to Vegas for a weekend, you
put a couple of dollars down on your team. That's
always been the case, at least until recently with the Cubs,
where if you were to look at betting odds for
the World Series like early on, right, they get released
and you see in an immediate reaction a bunch of
folks at the Cubs, and until they won the World
(09:06):
Series that it actually happened and they cashed out and
got all the money back from prior losses. But just
the idea that you know, that's my team, you know, Hope, Springs, Eternal, etcetera.
And I think a little of that is with the
Lakers too, that you're gonna get some of that action.
Now what we're talking about larger bets of ten thousand,
five thousand, things like that that we're being reported from Caesar's. Then, yeah,
(09:28):
it's I think specifically tied to all right, they will
find another piece and Russell Westbrook will not be there
to sabotage. Yeah, whatever those efforts are that Darvin Ham
is going to inspire everybody to play for him, and
the wishing wanting hoping, right, the wishing wanting hoping that
Lebron James and Anthony Davis can stay healthy. Because but
(09:51):
that's part of it, right, it's the all right, this
is the year, even if they don't make a lot
of the regular season. And I think that's the other
part that creeps into it. Rich. It's like you're not
looking at and we could do the over undrawn wind
totals because that's fun and exciting. Because nobody plays more
than seventy five games, or seventy games in a lot
of cases, sixty games if you're a star anymore, because
(10:11):
you've got three months of playoffs to get through if
you want to win a title. Yeah, And the way
they spread these games out, I mean, it's it's only
getting longer and longer. In the postseason. Was baffling. The
finals should it had gone to seven, would have been
a two week experience. It's just it's just an odd
way to execute a playoff bracket. But I mean they
(10:34):
do it that. I mean they're there. It's only getting longer,
it's only creeping deeper into the summertime. So we'll we'll
expect that more of the same this upcoming season season.
Even if they find a way to reduce the regular season,
they'll find a way to extend the season's length. You know,
I gonna saying there's no games being lost here rich
too much money goes out the windows. So anybody hoping
(10:54):
that suddenly there's a contraction of games, they'll be made
up somewhere, whether it's these inane in season tournaments or whatever.
The solution becomes, no, no, no, they're getting their gate.
Oh yeah, they'll get their gate. They'll make sure that
they can. They they make sure they're washing the hands
of their network partners. And I understand that too, because
they stand and I'm talking about the owners now in
(11:15):
the NBA to lose a lot of money if they
don't satisfy those contracts. And and I don't know if
there's any wiggle room built into those contracts. I know
in the NFL. There is I know in the NFL,
and this only became public information based off source reports
during the pandemic. I believe it was or the last
(11:36):
round of CBA negotiations that they only promise a certain
proportion of their games per season. But that's the NFL
deal with these different networks. I don't know if that's
the same for the NBA. But I'll give you one
number from the NBA that Adam Silver did put out
at some point is that the current rights deal was
worth a total of an estimated billion dollars, trying to
(11:59):
triple it in the next negotiations. Well, and we were
just talking about Vegas and odds and where's Katie and
Kyrie going. That's a big part of it because on
the very near horizon, we are going to see fully
integrated stadium and arena gambling applications and products and slot
(12:21):
machines and betting kiosks. It's coming, it's coming soon. Federally,
it's legal to to bet state to state UH. It's
just up to your individual states legislature to pass those
sports betting UH laws. As soon as that's enacted and
say all of the NBA cities where NBA has played,
(12:42):
all of the NFL cities, all the NHL cities, they're
going to integrate in game betting opportunities for fans and
and and the fans who aren't at the arenas or
at the stadiums. That it's going to be a scroll
at the bottom of the screen, or it's going to
take up the fifth or a hoarder of your screen
at home, where they're going to have live odds just
(13:04):
flashing on the screen. You know, how many more points
will Russ Westbrook score before the half? You know, I'm
taking the under, you know, whatever, it's it's just it's
just going to be as big a part of the
entertainment value as the game itself. And in preparation for
all this, these networks know that these leagues are going
to command an ever higher price for their product. Now,
(13:28):
I think that's the big part of it, that that
rolls through riches. You know, as much like I talked
about the pay per view experience with my daughter's soccer tournament,
it kind of gets into the same thing of all right,
you have these first mover advantages, first generation installations of
things that you're trying out right where there was a
big announcement earlier today and maybe I'd missed it that
(13:51):
it had already been announced, but it it showed up
in my timeline when it comes down to what the
next World Cup is gonna have in terms of the
tracking chip, the ball and Fox utilizing twenty nine different
cameras to give you every bit of action you could
ever want and then some Right, but you've got to
start somewhere, go back to the old yellow line and
the score bug that Fox put on where you weren't
(14:14):
waiting ten minutes for a ticker update, and then it
became ubiquitous at the mobile devices and everything how we
do things second screen, and now you have with Amazon
and everybody else coming in different ways to consume every
game with different announcing crews, and the price of poker
and that whole thing. You and I need to figure
out how we audition and try to get on one
(14:35):
of these alternate streams. I mean, I see the dollars
that are flowing in a rich but but it's just
you know, you're you're trying to figure out how you
get your hands around as much of that pie as
you can y and that, and that's what the league is,
and trying to integrate that and make sure that they
don't cut a deal that's fool already or you know,
(14:55):
in to take the college story of the week and
you know, handshake a girl Emons when you're negotiating on
the others out the other side of your mouth, right
the alliance versus hey, we're leaving for the big tent,
you know, things like that that you you want to
make sure you're putting as many safeguards in as you can.
And you've gotta have a very active lobby base to
(15:17):
go get in front of all these would be legislators
to get them on your side. Oh, by the way,
look who we brought. It's John Elway. He wants to
meet John Elway. Yeah, it's and you know what and
the and the reality of all this is, I mean,
if you're a sports team owner in the United States,
it's basically royalty because the access you have to politicians
(15:39):
who can ease the sheets for some of the things
that you're looking to get accomplished as a sports league, well,
I mean just think about the access that you can
provide for them. You know how many Congressmen or women
want maybe court side seats, or want access to a
private suite, the owner's box, what have you. And look,
it's it's just the the way of the world. You know,
(16:01):
hands get greased and then all of a sudden, life
gets easier for those who have who have the ability
to give and gain access. So it is, it's it's
the way of the world. And that's that's kind of
the top shelf operators. Now down toward the bottom. You
have what's available to all of us, you know, you
(16:22):
know the sports jocks who shout at each other on
the radio. Uh, the our listeners, people who care about sports.
What what's what's our end road, what's our connection? Well,
we can buy tickets, we can buy our seat licenses,
we can buy memorabilia, we can gamble, and and that
is how you show ownership. That's how you find your way,
(16:42):
your little tie to all of this stuff. And and
you know, circling back to where we started, if Katie
or Kyrie end up in l a and you put
a little bit of scratch on that, you know, all
of a sudden, your interest grows in the Lakers because
the Lakers just made you a little cash. And and
this every sports owner, every sports fan knows that this
(17:05):
is important to the game, and it's just a matter
of it feels like sheer moments until that madness starts
to take over. Uh, you know that the overwhelming interests
in sports viewing not just hey, team AY is beating
Team B and it's bragging rights and I'm a Cubs
fan or I'm a Dodgers fan or what have you.
It's hey, dude, did you see that game last night?
(17:28):
And I took the total runs under and hit big
Like that's going to be the conversation at the water cooler.
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern seven
pm Pacific. If you know, you know trending all day.
I'll leave it at that. Welcome in pop culture, Maven's
(17:50):
that we are, Mike Harmon, Rich Hornburg, are with you
here Fox Sports or Radio The Jason Smith Show with
Mike Harmon. No Jason Smith to night. He may be
trying to play any kind of video game and learn
these riffs right now, Rich, because we can't do any
spoiler alerts. I love, I mean, nothing got me more
fired up in a high school weight weight room, cliang
(18:13):
in rusty plates just just just I don't know, just
moving some metal to some metallica was mandatory. Well, just
like on the radio, there's a lot of mandatory metallica
segments and parts of shows out there across this great
United States, across your radio dial. So you've got some
(18:34):
of that flowing with you. I was a big metallica,
early metallic I've trying to explain to my kids. You know,
some of it is like, you know, follow the Old
Testament of the Bible, all sorts of references all over there.
Uh And and obviously that used so brilliantly in old school. Yes, yes,
we'll have them home, you know, before dinner, that kind
(18:56):
of thing. But yeah, I think back to high school,
you know, I helped Uh I couldn't get them to
sign off on my legs that had some some bad injuries. Uh.
And it's a different time nowadays, it'd be like I
just get back out there to uh a month of rehab.
It'll be fine, we'll have the right surgery to fix it.
Back then, I was like, nope, not touching you. So
what I did was I helped run our wrestling squad
(19:19):
when They started it at my high school, and I
was doing a lot of the work in the weight room,
so it meant I got to control the music, which
meant a lot of Metallica, a lot of Black Sabbath,
and some Zeppelin creeping through. I got in trouble for
wrestling in high school because my football coach didn't want
me to get hurt. But sure we had we had
(19:41):
a heavyweight and he had no one to roll with, right,
So I'm thinking, like, all right, you know, that's a
great way to stay in shape. You know, just goof
around in the off season during the winter time because
you get tired of just hit in the weight room
and doing your sprints down the hallway because in New York,
I mean, you can't find a field outside. We didn't
have an indoor facility. There's just too much snow and cold.
(20:04):
So we I would just find a place to do
some cardio inside the hallways of the school. After school
let out and um and the wrestling coach was like, yeah,
would you come down to the basement, would you would
you roll with our heavyweight? I'm like, yeah, hell yeah,
when you come down to the basement, I mean the
way you set that up. We needed some other random
freepy music behind you. Oh no. The wrestling room in
(20:28):
my high school, I mean it looked like the future
home of a murder scene and it was just it
was a lot of wrestling rooms. Yeah. Yeah. As you're
walking down these these catacombs beneath East Meadow High School,
you're you're passing by, like, you know, cobweb covered desks
(20:48):
that were used back into the in the nineties seventies,
some of which still had students in um, just skeletal remains.
But then you you found your way to this wrestling
room which all the windows were condensated with sweat. The
walls were even dripping. It was just this gross, I
don't know what you would call its cesspool of ringworm.
(21:10):
And you would just roll on these mats. And I
never wrestled in my life, but because they needed and
I was probably terrible by the way, um, but because
they needed somebody so badly. They were so complimentary and
I was just like, wow, Wow, these guys are really nice.
My football coach was down there day too, and waiting
for me outside of He's like, are you out of
(21:30):
your mind? It's like, are you out of your mind?
He's like, you have a scholarship, but to play college football.
Here's the thing. You might have learned some moves that
might have made you a w w E superstar. Well,
and see you might have been doing like my guys
from Northwestern going down to the to the training and
can me going into ww E next. Opportunities missed, opportunities missed.
(21:51):
I just it's it's it's look, life is a long winding,
broken road that led me to you, Michael. Oh, that's
a beautiful thing thinking about our our guy now as
he's out there working a way. Uh. You know, there's
a Jethrow Tull song that has a great lyric that
fits right there. Life's a long song, but the two
(22:15):
ends too soon for us all. So make the most
of your day. Yeah. I wasn't trying to get you know,
maudlin or problematic there, just kind of saying, take advantage
of the day. I wanted to put one little, uh
PostScript on the conversation we were having regarding betting and
the growth of those industries and what's happening. Remember that
the NFL has hired as a VP of Strategy and
(22:36):
an analytics a guy named David high Hill. Why, well,
to monitor what's going on and how the NFL handles
betting going forward. So just you know, they're creating jobs,
not just across America as more of more of this happens,
and apps and just in house casinos and all that
(22:57):
that are going, but also at the league level. You know,
I've six years ago, it's been said off and times
Tony Romo couldn't do a fantasy football event at a
casino where there were autograph signings or whatever because it
was too close to betting rooms and the sports books.
And now, hey, we've hired a guy to be our
vice president to monitor how we're gonna expand and how
(23:19):
we maximize revenue with this going forward. Oh, how the
world does change? He's Rich Hornberger, How Mike Harman The
Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon here on Fox Sports Radio.
If you're a valued customer, you deserve a simple gesture
of appreciation from your credit card company. And that's why
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(23:39):
Learn more. Discovered dot com slash match limitations do apply.
Coming up next, we talk about the well what's next
in the NFL related to the Deshaun Watson situation. But first,
be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern seven
pm Pacific. Hey, this is Jason McIntyre. Join me every
(24:01):
weekday morning on my podcast, Straight Fired 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 listen
to Straight Fire with Jason McIntyre on the I Heart
(24:24):
Radio app, Apple Podcast or wherever you get your podcasts.
You know how you get Brady back to the top
of the Jersey sales? Switch teams. No, get those sweet
creamsicles the genius. That's what I need. Obviously, switching teams
is gonna help quite a bit. And I think everybody
(24:46):
started jumping on the Josh Allen bandwagon that I built
when he came into the league. This guy can't play,
He's just a running back. Many arguments with guys who
still get to work at a microphone. Arre. Well, I
will say this. I was waiting for either more laughter
for you to tell me calm down. There no true
(25:06):
words hota no, no, no, no no. This This wasn't
a hot take. This was from studied um um. I mean,
like really, I want to say as objective as you
possibly could look at a situation. My statement on Josh
Allen was, well, that's that's a tight end masquerading as
(25:28):
a quarterback. Uh. He played in Wyoming, and I watched
a ton of his film in college, and I saw
a game tape and I saw cut ups and I
saw highlights, and I I mean, you know, I would
study his film, you know against uh, like opponents for
San Diego State in my preparation for their games and
stuff like that. I just didn't see it. He. I
(25:50):
figured he would be such a project at the quarterback position,
and he was such a good athlete that he might
be able to transition to a title. He was at
least gonna still be the passing game. Yeah, but hey,
just run the problem. The problem was it wasn't you
I was referring to. I know, but that I got
(26:10):
a couple of guys very specific. Oh yeah, I I
do this. I do this probably once a year to
cleanse my soul because because easily one of the worst
takes I've ever had was doubting the potential of Josh
Allen at the quarterback position. I just I promise you
when I say this, I've never seen an ascent like
(26:32):
Josh Allen's before. And that's the reason why it's so
hard to fathom that it's even occurred, because if you
look at him at Wyoming, I mean we're talking about
a really raw product, and then he went to Buffalo
and dude, he just put it together quicker than anybody,
and he got better and better and better every year.
He took a slight step back last season, but that's
(26:54):
the only season that he's actually regressed a little bit,
and it was a tick back down. This guy sensational
at the quarterback position well and building up a receiving
corps around him, right, and obviously you bring in a
guy like Stefon Diggs, it's going to clear up a
lot of problems, oh, no question. And if they ever
could get a consistent run game, now look out. Yeah. Yeah,
(27:14):
that's that's been because he he is a supplanting that
run game with his abilities, which which again I I
understand because he's such a good athlete. A lot of
people said, you know the same thing about Lamar Jackson,
like that just looks like a guy who's miscast at quarterback,
who could help a team in a different position. And
look at you, now you know, Josh Allen, that's a
(27:35):
guy who can win an m v P next season.
Lamar Jackson, that's a guy who's already won an m
v P in his early NFL career. He is a
guy that is very interesting to watch how that unfold, Uh,
Jockey Lamar Jackson. Everybody jumped on the Buffalo bandwagon. But
Baltimore a team that I think, folks and I used
this pretty liberally widely. Uh, And obviously there's gonna be
(27:57):
guys that are more towards my line. I think is
I don't know that you could have had the convergence
of events and done any better than they did a
year ago. Between losing your entire running back room and
just saying can you run a straight line in a
decent amount of time, yes, you could be our new
running back. That's kind of where you were at the
(28:19):
the offensive line was awful. They placed a lot of
stock that Ronnie Stanley would be healthy. He was not.
And then the receiving corps outside of Andrew's your tight end.
I like Hollywood Brown. I like him as a two,
A or three, not as my one, right, and then
you look at the rest of that receiving corps, So
trying to put it on Lamar Jackson, like you're only
(28:41):
gonna get so much better if you're operating. And look,
you can only blame your tools so much. I understand,
and accuracy needs to be better, but you also need
guys that can go get the ball, and that is
something Baltimore is not given him. And and this is
a team that I want to say it was like
Week thirteen and fourteen, they lost back to back games
(29:02):
on two point conversions on failed two point CONVERSI like
this easily. With all the issues with Huntley uh commanding
the starting quarterback position for a large portion of the season.
I think he started in shoot, what was it eleven
games something like that A lot of times. No, no,
it was less than I was like, it wasn't a ton,
(29:22):
but it was enough to where you know the balance
of the season. You know, you're you're now wondering what if?
And and I think Lamar Jackson's a guy that folks
want to stick and saddle with a narrative. It's like
guys evolve. No they do. Yet, No, he's gonna I
I don't know, I I you can't predict injuries and
(29:43):
health and all that stuff. But the way they're protecting
quarterbacks helps him here, you know, as opposed to like
Cam Newton playing during an era where a running quarterback
could get savaged, and he did, and Russell Wilson took
his looks as well. And shoot, I mean that's the
reason why Ben Roethlisberger's opt running it uh so often.
And Aaron Rodgers got more creative inside the pocket and
(30:06):
learned to operate in the pocket because they weren't helping
out mobile quarterbacks in that day. And they're doing a
much better job of that now. So Lamar Jackson, again,
assuming health, with these contract talks looming, I have a
feeling he's gonna have one of those ridiculous seasons. Again.
It's just a matter of if they can protect, if
they can establish a run game and stay healthy in
(30:28):
their run game. Um, but yeah, Andrews. Like you said,
if every defense isn't doubling him, they're doing everything wrong.
They should get back to the drawing board. Hey man Rich,
we'll see how high Lamar Jackson ranks in our initial
rankings for the I Watch Flex podcast. And for you
and I, uh you and I heading down to Harris
(30:49):
as I said, and and just kind of bled because
you're trying to play beat the clock. You're doing all
this stuff as we had to Harrison do our fantasy
football preview. Be sure to 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. Hey, this is Jason McIntyre. Join me
(31:12):
every weekday morning on my podcast, Straight Fired 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 listen
to Straight Fire with Jason McIntyre on the I Heart
(31:36):
Radio app Apple podcast or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey,
welcome back in Fox Sports or radio Jason Smith Show
with Mike Harmon, Rich Horberger in for Jason tonight. Jason
Taken in the Angel FC soccer game. Just tweeted out
(31:56):
about it and he texted me the cho soccer ball
or soccer nacho bowl. Here is legit the soccer and
so I evidently you get, like, what's kind of a
soccer ball filled with nachos like you would a helmet
at a baseball game. I actually really like that, you
(32:17):
know what I mean? Little keepsakes, something bring home. Hey,
if I'm gonna spend fifteen bucks, let me come away
with some plastic thing that costs you twelve cents to make.
And just in general, anyway you can sort of class
up just tortillas or fried tortilla chips with some some
you know, cheese stuffs and halapeno peppers and whatever else
(32:38):
you can pour on top. I'm I'm into that as well.
I mean, let's make it. Let's make it a class
I'm making a party, no question. Now you got me
thinking of where I can go down the street. Uh,
casa vega? Anybody after the show who's in so bad. Yeah,
well you can get a nice drink too and think
that you're part of Once upon a time in Hollywood
while you're at it. At large, March no big deal. Well,
(33:00):
you know, get after it. Uh. So, with the Deshaun
Watson cases, right, twenty and twenty four settled, We've got
the hearings, three days in front of the judge and
hearing all this information back and forth, and certainly some
(33:21):
media outlets very aggressive in the reporting of it, others
playing a wait and see, right, because right now it's
all just speculation and how you feel the winds are
gonna blow. Because if you look at past incidences for
Roger Goodell, it really doesn't matter what anybody suggested. And
the most um in Congress was the Ezekiel Elliott ruling. Right,
(33:47):
had an accusation, went in front, had the hearing, had
the recommendation of zero games, he still serves six games.
We talked about Ben Roethlisberger, talk about so many cases
in between, and now you get to Deshaun Watson with
the largesse of this rich and how long it's played out.
(34:08):
Uh In the public sphere and the court of public opinion.
Sports talk radio sports media as a whole, the giant
contract he signs with the Browns, and you know, just
trying to read the tea leaves of and which way
the wind blows. Uh. In terms of how long it
will be, we have the whispering of an indefinite suspension.
(34:30):
We had folks theorizing that he'd get two years akin
to what Baseball gave Trevor Bauer. And now it's the
waiting game, and with still four more cases that still
need to have some sort of resolution one way or another,
right civil cases, and many have made the claim, well,
it's not criminal, it doesn't matter that that it's that
(34:51):
that's a big deal that it's you know, since their
civil you know, what is the NFL doing. It's like, no, no,
well known they've They've done this time and again, like
they're gonna rule how they will, and the cb A
allows it. But it's an interesting battle when we get
to the c b A versus the player Code of
Conduct or really the NFL Code of Conduct as to
(35:13):
how this plays well. And you've got to keep in
mind the NFL isn't trying to do what's right necessarily,
They're just trying to do what's going to appease their
fan base. Uh and and it's going to make them
essentially the most money. Look, I mean, the sooner Deshaun
Watson can get back onto the football field, put all
(35:34):
of this behind him in whatever way that looks like,
and and start playing football at a high level. Again,
the better off it's gonna be for the NFL. I mean,
think back to Joe Mixing and what he was dealing
with coming out of Oh you, Tyreek Hill and what's
followed him into the league, and Kareem Hunt and Ezekiel
Elliott like you mentioned Ben Roethlisberger. As soon as these
(35:57):
stars get back to being stars, everybody conveniently forgets. And
that's okay because I believe in second chances. But let's
be honest with each other. The NFL is looking to
get this suspension announced, get it over with, and get
to DeShawn Watson back on the field playing hero to
(36:19):
the young eyes and minds across the United States. Like
so many of the other stars, He's Rich Jordan Burg around,
Mike Armen to Jason Smith young with Mike Armen here
in Fox Sports or Radio coming up next, Professor Williams
has the floor. We talked about that next
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