The Best of Covino & Rich

Jason Smith and Mike Harmon, in for Covino and Rich, explain what to learn from the Cooper Flagg injury. We remember an absolute legend. And the guys debate if Russell Wilson may have taking his last snap in the NFL. Plus, a Minnesota Vikings intervention!  

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Hey, thanks for listening to the best of Cabino and
Rich podcast.

Speaker 2 (00:05):
Be sure to catch us live every day from five
to seven pm Eastern two to four pacifics on Fox
Sports Radio.

Speaker 1 (00:11):
Find your local station for Covino and Rich at Fox
Sports Radio dot com, or stream us live every.

Speaker 3 (00:16):
Day on the iHeartRadio app I searching FSR.

Speaker 4 (00:23):
Hello, Welcome Inside, Happy Thursday. Jason Smith and Mike Harmon
in for Caveno and Rich today. As we get ready,
I always look at conference Championship week Mike Hartman as
the the trial run for next week, right, Like, Okay,
there's big games going on now and every some teams
are worried I'm getting off the bubble getting in, But

(00:44):
it's really okay. This is kind of a trial run
see test bubble for next What can I tell my
bosses next Thursday and Friday? But what kind of plans
can I make or not? Like like this is like
a nice little dry run where hey, if possible, you
watch the games during the day, but if not, it's
okay because really it's about next week.

Speaker 1 (01:00):
Yeah, It's all just a question of you know, how
much value you want to get. It's a better value
proposition getting out to Vegas this week before the amateurs
and the price bikes, so conference title week, save money
on your hotels, better availability for seeding in the sports books,
and all of those things.

Speaker 4 (01:19):
See, I'm just saying, watching games on TV, you got
everybody going to Vegas this week.

Speaker 1 (01:22):
Well, I'm also just trying to figure out it's also
easier to probably come up with some lame as excuse
about taking off versus next week when someone goes, yeah,
it's the NCAA Tournament. We'll see at nine thirty for
the normal weekly meeting.

Speaker 4 (01:36):
I know it.

Speaker 1 (01:37):
This week you might be able to get away with it.

Speaker 4 (01:39):
I'll take off the wheel. I'll take off the Sunday
before the super Bowl. They won't see that coming. And
then I'll mean I left to work during the super Bowl,
but I won't see that. I'm going to.

Speaker 1 (01:48):
Manximize enjoyment without having to get yourself potentially in a bit.

Speaker 4 (01:54):
Now, speaking of maximizing enjoyment, right, I feel like we've
done a big bullet here for the NCAA Tournament, but
there's still a big lesson to be learned. Of Course,
the biggest story today college basketball. Cooper Flag. Everybody's all American,
everyone's number one overall pick.

Speaker 1 (02:12):
The only guy anybody knows in college basketball.

Speaker 4 (02:14):
Listen the college To be honest, the college basketball season
has been about two things this year. It's been about
Cooper Flag and Saint John's and Rick Patino. And we're
driving the bus on Saint John's Ripetino.

Speaker 1 (02:25):
Hey, don't forget the meltdowns of the greatest coach in
the game.

Speaker 4 (02:29):
Yeah, but Danny Hurley even is like, hey, are you
even getting in the tournament? Now? Just get in the
tournament first, okay, and then we can talk about okay, sorry, sorry,
three things a Cooper Flag, Rick Patino, Saint John's and
Rick Patino's white suit. So those those are the three
things it's about. SEC dominance is fun, Sam, But now
you can't compare. You have the SEC and I got
Rick Patino in a white suit on the sideline. What

(02:50):
wins Rick Patino wins? I mean, come on all the time,
that's Rick Patinoh. I get all these great schools Addie
at Ripatino. But Cooper Flag, you know, clearly he has
been the number one guy all year along the big
superstar college basketball wants every single year on Duke getting
set for a March, and for a little while today
we thought there could be an NCAA tournament on the

(03:10):
table next week without Cooper Flag because in the first
half of Duke's win over Georgia Tech and the ACC
tournament this happened. Three No good.

Speaker 5 (03:21):
Cooper Flagg has the rebound after the mist shot by
Jaden Mousta.

Speaker 1 (03:24):
Oh that's not good and Flag is down. Not good.

Speaker 5 (03:27):
Flag is down and laying on his stomach. Now rolls
to his back under the basket on the right side.

Speaker 4 (03:33):
He went high for the rebound, landed. He's holding his
left ankle that he.

Speaker 1 (03:39):
Wants help to the ben show my goodness.

Speaker 5 (03:41):
Well, in the immediate moment, it looks less than ideal
because he couldn't put weight on it at first. Now
he's put his left foot on the floor and is
trying to put some weight on the left leg, but
he is limping and heavily limping as he comes off
the floor.

Speaker 1 (03:56):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (03:56):
ESPN radio on the call. I like that it looks
less than ideal. I'm gonna use that now when something
I think really bad happens, I'm gonna say, you know,
that's less than ideal. You want to play the Brunson
play and ce ie if you can react like that naturally.
Oh boy, look at Jalen Brunson. That's that's less than ideal.

Speaker 1 (04:13):
Last than ideal.

Speaker 4 (04:15):
I got a flat tire on the freeway. I've spun
out and I'm in the middle lane. This is this
is less than I.

Speaker 1 (04:20):
Do you dead pan it? No, I'm gonna have to
fire you like you're Ron Burgundy.

Speaker 4 (04:25):
Is absolutely less than idea.

Speaker 1 (04:27):
Now the question is should should he do operations shut
down and go hang around the rafters like sting the
the wrestler did back in the day and just watch
all the teams that are destined for the most ping
pong balls in the NBA.

Speaker 4 (04:41):
Well, it's funny, you said, because the first thing we
got it we have to talk about is that he
looks to be okay. X rays on his ankle were negative,
and dukeet coach John Shire said, listen, it's a long
shot for him to play tomorrow in the acc semis
I mean, like, why would you? I mean obviously, so
it seems like he has avoided the worst injury. And
when he did limp off the floor, they did allow

(05:02):
him to He was okay walking around a little bit
and he seemed really mad because he came down obviously
you see his foot come down right on the players,
that the instep of the Georgia Tech player's foot, and
it's just it's just bad. I mean, it's just bad luck.
Like that's what happened to Jalen Brunson. But Brunson, you watch,
and it was he couldn't even stand up. He found
a way to just stand in one spot, hit two

(05:23):
free throws. Flag at least was kind of walking off.
Now I don't know if I'm duke that I allowed
him to. Can you continue to walk around like that
with no help? Like they watch him walk around there?
How about you get somebody over there. Why did it
take the doctor like ten minutes to get on the
floor to go look at Cooper Flag like he's walking around, Hey,
come on, let's stop Cooper Flagg.

Speaker 1 (05:40):
Trying to test it and everything. And then they eventually
do get him in the wheelchair and send him back.
So some great gifts started to float float through. I mean,
we're really a cruel society because we had, yeah, at
that point, how injured he was. But all the Paul Piers,
all the old Kevin Nash again wrestling reference all in
the head to say, you know, gotta take care of

(06:01):
your number one property there.

Speaker 4 (06:03):
I don't know, man. I think my favorite part of
the wheelchair pictures when people would blow them up just
to look at the ankle that it was swollen. Look
at this, this looks less than ideal? Is less than ideal?

Speaker 1 (06:13):
Or they start sending in the thing what what was
it from Friday the thirteenth, Part two where the guy
goes down the stairs.

Speaker 4 (06:19):
Oh yeah, yeah, so look here here's the thing about it, right,
good news? Right? But this is I love nca Now
you know there's a butt coming, right, you know there's
a butt coming. I love conference tournament week. I love
teams being able to win their way in. I love
that here's a team that's gonna steal a bid from someone.

(06:40):
Like it's fun, I understand it. But for teams like Duke,
every team that's at the top of their conference, all
the top twenty five teams, what do you really have
at stake during NCAA tournament week? Right? You have nothing
at stake? And all that could happen really is something
like this, right, And you see and luckily Duke looks
like they really avoided the worst case scenario, which was

(07:02):
playing the NCAA tournament without Cooper Flag. But for teams
like Duke and Saint John's, all these teams at the
top in Houston, Texas Tech, why are you playing any
of your starters real big minutes because there's no I mean, yes, okay,
we wanted up. Do you really want a number one?
Is it really that big a deal to get a

(07:22):
number one seed? If a number one versus number two,
or if we lose early, we're a five seed instead
of a four seed, or a six seed instead of
a seven seed. Now, if you need to win, if
you need a couple of wins for your resume, then
absolutely you know who's on the bubble and who's not.
Right you, okay, we got to play our guys. But
for teams at the top, the teams that are in
the top twenty five that hey, we feel pretty good
about getting in, you kind of need to treat the

(07:45):
tournament week like NFL teams treat the end of the
season when they have a place clinched in the playoffs
and they really can't move around. Whereas do you even
play your starters or do you play them just a
few minutes in each half, so they can just get
a few minutes and then you take them out. Because really,
there's no scenario where this helps you. Yay, you're duke,

(08:06):
you win the your AC tournament champion regular season, you
win the conference tournament. What does it matter? Right, Like,
teams don't usually lose seedings by losing teams like duke
teams in the top twenty five, you don't lose a
lot of seatings by losing in your conference tournament. Right.
You've done enough over the course of the year. So
I wonder if this is gonna actually be a kind
of a trendsetter for teams to say, Okay, we feel

(08:27):
really good about where we're at. We don't care where
we're seated. We don't give a crap. We can't control anything.
We don't know who's gonna play against us. There's you know,
we got sixty eight teams in here, and there's or
seventy two teams, and then there's gonna be seventy six.
In a few years, we're gonna be eighty and then
eighty six and then ninety and then one hundred and
one hundred and twenty. It doesn't matter. So we're gonna
start sitting our guys out. So now the path of
teams to potentially win their way in is gonna get

(08:50):
a little bit easier because hey, well here's Georgia Tech.
They get Duke, but Duke's not playing their guys because
they have everything clinched. Like that really should be how
teams that are securely and safely in the top five
seeds six seeds of the NCAA tournament should wind up
going forward because there's really no win and the big
loss would be something like this, potentially losing a star

(09:11):
player for the entire tournament.

Speaker 1 (09:13):
I get it, automatic bids all the way deep into
the conference tournament, rest rust and got to make sure
you take care of those TV partners. And the fact
that there's an estimated three billion dollars that's going to
be bett legally in March madness, so we I mean,
we have to ramp it up properly, Jason, I mean,
you got to prime the pump. That's the guys, let's go.

Speaker 4 (09:32):
No, it's like when Luca wasn't playing for the Lakers,
but they showed him before every game and he had
the great Lakers sweatsuit.

Speaker 1 (09:38):
No good boy is he is?

Speaker 4 (09:40):
He heavy? He's wearing black and black kind of hides
pounds a little bit. I don't know what he waves
to the crowd. Okay, we got to see a little
bit of lucer. We're waiting. No, you'll still see these
guys coming the wave, getting the layup line. And like
I said, maybe they play five minutes or ten, you know,
a few minutes to start the first half or what
have just to just to stay sharp in a game
setting game situation. But you're not going crazy trying to win.

(10:01):
And because an injury can happen anywhere, right it can.
I mean I would be I'd be okay if you
wanted to sit your starters out and not play him entirely,
because this is this is Cooper flag injury ten minutes
into the game, right, this is not a wear and tear.
And I'm tugging on my shorts at the end. I'm
tired shooting free throws like I'm Joel embiid you know.

Speaker 1 (10:19):
This, Wow happened and you had to come and drag
em bead I really, I mean you just kind of
side swiped to the sting reference earlier, you took the
baseball bat to him. Come on, man, I really didn't.

Speaker 4 (10:33):
It was It really was unnecessary. But it still we
get what I'm saying when you say, if I say
to you, hey, when you're tired shooting free throws, who
do you think of? Oh?

Speaker 1 (10:41):
I think of him tugging add his shorts. There's no okay,
all right? So when I say that, okay, your mind
working together, it's kind of a mind meld on some
of these things.

Speaker 4 (10:50):
Your mind absolutely goes there already, right, it goes so
you're absolutely you know that's where it is.

Speaker 1 (10:55):
You were there, Dad, long lived the process. I know.

Speaker 4 (10:59):
Look, it's like you, if you need to dig a hole,
I'm simply handing you the shovel. That's all. That's all
I'm doing right there.

Speaker 1 (11:04):
You know the who BIGU? I never dug a hole before.

Speaker 4 (11:09):
Hey, lock up, Billy Batt's staying here. Billy Batt's stay
in here.

Speaker 1 (11:12):
Keep him there.

Speaker 4 (11:13):
So I get it. But I really wonder if this
winds up being the the the not fatal in the
NCAA tournament. Sense cautionary tale of Hey, this is why
when you're a team like dude, you're in the top
you're you're a top twenty team, You're gonna sit in
your guys in the conference tournament, because there's really no way.
And I wonder if it's gonna happen the next couple
of days, Like, is a team like Houston gonna say

(11:35):
whoa whoa whoa Okay, uh yeah, we don't need to
do this, really, we don't need to do this. Where
do you say John's gonna say, hey, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa?

Speaker 1 (11:42):
What when you have to you have to retire the
white suit? You to wear the white suit? No, no,
the conference tournament. Bad things could happen. Man, bad things
get happened. You red hand your chip and that white
suit back in your hotel room.

Speaker 4 (11:58):
All right, Well, maybe Patino needs to say the white
suit for the turn like Tiger Woods would save wearing
red until Sunday. Yeah, you know, I save the white
suit for the term. But he can still wear it
if he wants to.

Speaker 1 (12:07):
And then he jumps into Narco.

Speaker 4 (12:08):
Yeah. But like Arja R J. Lewis, like you, does
he need to play for Saint John when you're playing Thursday, Friday,
Saturday in three games in three days? Is that really smart? Is?
I mean? I don't know that it's not a light
It should have been a light bulb moment before this,
but now I think it's really gonna be a light bulb.

Speaker 1 (12:24):
But do we get it when they've obviously done enough
to fund the resume to get into the tournament? Ada,
Hell with it, We're done. Sit down, Like, where do
we draw the line?

Speaker 4 (12:34):
Well, no, it's it's when when when If you're a
team that is comfortably in the tournament and a win
or loss is only going to move you one one
spot or so, and that's I mean by the top twenty.
If you're a top twenty team, that if you're a
periphery top twenty five team, maybe if you're talking about
being like a six seven seed, you want to play
a little bit because there's teams that that are in

(12:56):
the top twenty five and then they lose early in
the conference tournament and they wind up getting left out.
It's a bad loss and they drop you know, maybe
they're in the thirties or thirty five, and other teams
win their way in and team steel bids. But if
you're a top twenty team, you're getting in right. And
if you're a if you're a team that's a three
seed and you lose in the first round of the tournament.
I also think that the Conference committee, and here's where

(13:19):
things work in your favor as well. The Conference Committee
would look at that loss and say, yeah, Duke did
lose in the second round to Georgia Tech, but none
of their starters played. Cooper Flagg didn't play. Okay, we're
we're not dinging you on that. That's just a game
that doesn't count in how we break down your season, right,
because I don't think that would be the I don't
think teams would say, oh, look Saint John, Sat Kadari, Richmond, everybody, look,

(13:42):
I can't believe they did that. No, drop them down.
They're an eight seed. Now, No, it's okay Saint John's loss,
but they rested their guys, so yeah, they're gonna stay
a two seed. Right. I don't think that would be the.

Speaker 1 (13:50):
Case, Jason. You have people listening. If there are age
or older, the probability is high that their faces are
melting like the guy in Raiders in the Lost Dark.

Speaker 4 (13:59):
Right now, you're.

Speaker 1 (14:01):
Competition, What do you mean take the comfort Championships off?
How dare you?

Speaker 4 (14:07):
I'm simply making it more I'm just making it more
fun for the teams on the bubble right like this, Hey,
the great teams, they're gonna get all their attention. This
is for the teams that you know we talk about
and saying, yeah, they're really not that great, but we
could still see him play next week. That could be great. Hey,
I'm a big I'm for just a big overall bubble tournament.
Like hey, have one one selection Sunday where we let

(14:30):
in the definitive teams and then everybody else gets invited
to a tournament this week. And this is where we
play the big bubble tournament and teams play like three
games round robin, and you see who's most impressive, and
those teams wind up getting the final selections. I'm even
roughed for something like that.

Speaker 1 (14:44):
Oh I get behind that.

Speaker 4 (14:46):
Yeah, yeah, I have that in Vegas. Sure see now
you're back to vegaas Yeah, dude, I'm never far from Vegas,
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(15:08):
up for email. Well, coming up next, we got more
from the world of college basketball. We remember an absolute
legend and something huge about a very specific free agent
quarterback we've talked about for the last few years, maybe
not finding a home when it's all said and done.
It's coming up next right here, Jason and Mike in
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Speaker 3 (16:23):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven
pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.

Speaker 4 (16:36):
Dah very nice, Iowa, Sam, very nice, see what you
did here? Very nice? Fox Sports Radio. The Jason Smith
Show with my best friend Mike Harmon, that's our show
at night. Today we're in for Cavino and Rich. Like basketball,
Tractor Supply knows what a winning season takes, practice, teamwork,
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(16:57):
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by Tractor Supply for life out here. Now speaking of
bracket tournament, now, I said this, I need to kind
of like like I think like a dog, I need

(17:18):
to mark my territory on this. Uh yeah, I am
one percent Saint John's. Although I don't care what the
draw is. I don't care who they play Saint John's
all the way through. I mean it's I'm never gonna
ever get a chance again to to have the team
that I grew up rooting for. There was my boyhood
team in my hometown. Half a season like this. Saint

(17:38):
John's hasn't been this good in twenty five has been
a minute, yeah right, forty years like I'm going back
to eighty five and Chris Mullen and Walter Berry and
and Mark Jackson and that, I mean Mark Jackson was
the point guard the last time Saint John's is this good.
I am just saying I don't care. I don't care
if Saint John's has to play Duke Houston, Auburn, Alabama.
I don't care what their draw is. I am taking

(18:00):
Saint John's to win it all.

Speaker 1 (18:01):
I enjoy the cut of your jib. So many of
others have jumped on that bandwagon, because what are they
They're still at like twenty five to one though, so
the betting public hasn't jumped on board just yet. But
maybe they haven't seen enough pictures of the white suit.
Maybe we all obligate that across the interwebs a little
more fervently.

Speaker 4 (18:20):
Yeah, well that that, Or or watch Codari Richmond and
his triple double from the other night, or r J Lewis.

Speaker 1 (18:27):
It's about the white suit.

Speaker 4 (18:28):
Watch them?

Speaker 1 (18:30):
You get people to put their five dollars in Oh.

Speaker 4 (18:33):
Man up, tell well that's that is true. Come on,
don't you want to see Patino in the white suit? Yeah?
I guess so. Wait, how does that help? If I
pick then, it doesn't matter. Just pick them, just just
pick them.

Speaker 1 (18:42):
So once upon a time, and you know, we we
channeled everything back into our broadcasting world. Big games were
defined by uh who was calling it?

Speaker 4 (18:52):
Right?

Speaker 1 (18:52):
Super Bowl with Fox? This year there's Brady uh and
ready to go and and Summer all in mad and
and all that for all these years, and now it's
is Patino gonna wear the white suit? I don't know.
Well that'll decide how big a game it is. Let's see.

Speaker 4 (19:06):
Oh, like Jim McMahon's headband, No, that's right, But what's
he gonna write in his headband? What's he gonna say?
In the headband.

Speaker 1 (19:11):
I gotta buy one of those Patino sweater cards though,
especially have one in the U in the studio with us.

Speaker 4 (19:17):
What do you got, Frostburg?

Speaker 1 (19:18):
How does Patino drink red wine in that white suit?

Speaker 4 (19:22):
Very carefully? I think I think actually he has someone,
he has someone drink it for him. That that's I
think he just he just smells it and then someone
else drinks it.

Speaker 1 (19:30):
So just where the sippy cup comes out.

Speaker 4 (19:32):
Yeah, or how about this? How about because this would
be a great thing for Patino. How about this for
some sort of uh maybe Scotch Guard or somebody like
wearing the white suit. You know, in a commercial, someone
hands in red wine to celebrate a win, and he
spills it, but it just rolls right off the suit.
You don't even see it. Oh, that's Scotch Guard or
whatever it is. Wow. Oh, I gotta buy that.

Speaker 1 (19:54):
That water making suit.

Speaker 4 (19:56):
It just it just throws.

Speaker 1 (19:58):
Usually it's more flammable.

Speaker 4 (20:01):
I don't know whether you want to put fire in
a commercial.

Speaker 1 (20:04):
I mean, I don't know if you're saying that, yeah,
waked away, I don't know. Some of it. Residue remained
well in truth and advertising.

Speaker 4 (20:11):
Here's the thing, Look, you can spill red wine on
this and look, it's not going to show up, but
watch it. You just someone just turns a lighter on
and the and it and it just goes up in
flames like Gabriel Byrne in Midsummer Sorry spoiler, all of
a sudden, Just whoa what happened? The flame is all
the way over here? Yeah, the suit is the suit?
Is that catchy? It's just that catchy.

Speaker 1 (20:28):
See you're the one that brought up Midsommer, not me.

Speaker 4 (20:31):
Well, that's what I thought when I think of okay again,
when I think of people going on fire for no reason. Oh,
there's there's that scene from Midsummer See.

Speaker 1 (20:38):
I always just thought about, you know when we were
playing NBA jam, he's on fire.

Speaker 4 (20:44):
Jason Smith, Mike Harbon in for Cavino and Rich today
here on Fox Sports Radio and incredibly sad news. Want
to get to from the world of college basketball. It's
this news is about an hour or so old right now.
John Feinstein, one of the greatest writers in the history
of sports, has passed away at the age of sixty eight.
It's not known a lot about what happened, but he

(21:06):
passed away at his brother's home, his brother making the
announcement not too long ago, and we throw around the
word legend, really, you know, very carelessly sometimes and just ah, legend, legend.
I don't know that there's a bigger sports writing legend
that has spanned more years of his career than John Feinstein,

(21:27):
because what he did in nineteen eighty five with his
very first book, A Season on the Break, which is
one of the most famous sports books of all time,
following Indiana basketball around for a year and it was
the year before they won the national title, and it
was it was groundbreaking. It was I've never seen someone
do this when we've had incredible writers who have chronicled
seasons before. David Halberstam is a tremendous writer. His career

(21:52):
is incredible. But what John Feinstein was able to do
was to take certain topics in sports that wasn't here's
the story of last year's World Series champion and we're
slapping a book out. It was here's something that sounds interesting,
and you read the book and you say, oh my goodness,
that was one of the best books I've ever read. Right,

(22:12):
He wrote a book on the Patriot League from the
nineteen ninety nine season, right, because he wanted to write
about what it was, the last Amateurs, what it was called.
It was about because you know, back then, nobody got scholarships,
and god, I don't think people understood, oh hey, Ivy
League doesn't get scholarships. A good walk spoiled about a
season on the PGA Tour Tales from Q School, which
he wrote about guys that are just trying to get

(22:33):
their Q card and get to the PGA Tour. Stuff
that you wouldn't think that would be something that would
that would be, oh, this is really interesting, and all
of a sudden it's oh my god, I can't get
enough of this book, right, like he wrote. My favorite
Feinstein book that he wrote was the Army Navy book,
where he followed Army and Navy in nineteen ninety five.
He followed both of them and everything was about building

(22:55):
towards the game at the end of the year, right
was between Army Navy, and it was just outstanding. I mean,
he wrote so many books that were like this of
this ilk and everybody's got their favorites. But I read
that book thirty years ago, right, I read I read
Civil War Army Navy thirty years ago, and I still
remember people from the book. I remember Jim Cantaloup, who
was the big star player for Army in nineteen ninety five,

(23:16):
and they would ask him what kind of name is
that and he would say it's Produce, right, Like I
still remember because that's how much that that's my favorite, Melanie,
that's one. That's how much I remember that book and
all of the books he wrote, and certain things that
still stick out. And and I've read probably two thirds
to three quarters of all those books. Like he wrote
forty books, and I didn't read the any of the

(23:37):
He wrote some young adult a lot the last few years,
and he had some series with which I just haven't read,
but all his other ones, I mean, I don't read
you know't me. I don't read a lot of sports books.
But when he comes out with something that's, oh yeah,
I want to read it because I don't really care
if it's something that is interesting to me off the bat,
I know he's going to make it interesting. And that
was always something and that's what some of that's what
the best writers can make you do. Here's a book.

(23:59):
Even when I read novel, now, you know, because I
read all the time. Now I read probably fifty books
a year. I read a book. It doesn't matter. Sometimes
the plot doesn't matter if you're telling me a great
story and you're telling us something where I just find
myself getting lost in the pages. And John Finstein was
able to do that time and time again.

Speaker 1 (24:15):
Forty four books published the Young young adult series. Certainly,
I would take my daughters to the library or over
to a Barnes and Noble and you'd see a giant
section like that guy is a big deal, and now
he's crossed over into this section. So trying to move
some of those books over from the rest of his stash,

(24:35):
just say hey, mom, Dad, grab these while you're here.
But we were just talking about him a couple of
weeks ago at the passing of Gene Hackman, right because
you know, you get into Brian dennahe and his portrayal
of Bob Knight versus you know, Dale, and what we
had with Gene Hackman and all of that. So Season

(24:56):
on the Brink, and people maybe didn't love the movie
adaptation of it as much.

Speaker 4 (25:03):
It was weird. It was. It was don a little
with very avant garde and very strange how they did it,
you know what I mean.

Speaker 1 (25:08):
But it's that kind of thing where it's like, all right,
this is how we we get that cross section and
crossover and and sometimes that's what it takes, is you
get stuff uh put into film made for TV movies, uh,
television series, whatever else. Some of our favorites, but a legend,
I mean used to be just a constant companion on

(25:29):
on some of those sports reporter shows back in the day,
especially when we're getting to this time of year. So
good thoughts with his family's friends and and certainly go
check out the the IMDb and and and the the
history and and get back to reading folks.

Speaker 4 (25:46):
Uh, now you know what this is leading to. You know,
I have a great John Feinstein story. Of course, you
know I have one, right, Okay, this because I think
I think about this and it was actually it's so
it's so weird that it was during conference championship week.
This is my John Finstein story. So this is about
twe I'm not going to say some of the names
just because you know, we don't have to, but John

(26:07):
Findese's name you need to know. So I was doing
radio show during the day. It was about twenty is
twenty ish years ago, and at this point, John Feinstein
was not just an author, but he was really active
in being a college basketball insider. Right. He was on TV,
not just sports reporters. He did pieces for ESPN on

(26:27):
college basketball, like he was it. So I'm doing a
show in the afternoons. We're doing a show and my
partner and it was kind of this person show and
I was the co host and John Feinstein was coming
on and the host gets this idea and he says, hey,
what if we do this? And I said what He's
what if we have because we're having Feinstein on today
and tomorrow? Right, he was coming on Thursday and Friday

(26:49):
for conference championship. He was coming on at the end
of the day Thursday, previewing Friday's games. Okay, great, what
if we do a whole segment with him? And we
do it like the game tomorrow have already happened, and
we're saying who the winners are, and then tomorrow we'll
play it back and see if we were right. And
I said, wait, wait, what do you want to do?
I don't understand. He goes, do the segment like the

(27:11):
games that were preving have already happened. I said, okay.
So we say, like Duke Wins, you know this this
and Latner does this where yeah, yeah, yeah, we do it,
and then tomorrow we have fine scene on again, we
play it back and see if we're right, and I
go okay, and I think, and I go, h, how
do I say this? What do I say? And I said, ah,
maybe I don't know. And I knew John find Stein

(27:31):
a little bit from when we overlapped a little bit
of ESPN, and I go, yeah, I don't know, because
he's coming on in like five minutes right, like getting
we're getting ready for the commercial break coming into when
he comes on the air. And I said, yeah, I
don't know. I don't know if that's something to spring
on him right now. I don't know if he's someone
that would I don't know. Do you think he'd like
that idea? I mean, I don't know. And I just
throw that out there right and I say, you know,

(27:53):
I said my piece. He tells the producer his idea.
Producer says, all right, well, let me throw it by
Feinstein before we have him on and see what he says.
I'm like, okay, So I feel like we're on the
same page. Here, and I'm going, oh, please, I hope
Feinstein hates this idea. I really hope he hates it.
But he finds a way to be very tactful, and
I hope, you know, I mean, what are we gonna do?
What are we gonna do? What's he gonna say? So
we're in commercial and we're like two three minutes out

(28:17):
from the segment, and the produce says, Okay, I'm gonna
I'm gonna. I told Feinstein you had an idea you
wanted to run by him. Let me patch him through
to you, so you so you can tell him what
it is. Okay, Great? So he patches find Stein through.
He Hey, don't I do it? Hey, guys, what's going on? Hey? Great?
And and you know, the host says, hey, what if
I was thinking about this right? What if instead of
talking about the games today and previewing the games tomorrow,

(28:38):
we talk about the games tomorrow like they've already happened.
And and and then we play this tape back tomorrow
and we go over and see what we got right
if we were wrong about that? And I'm sitting here
and I just have this pit in my stomach, going,
what is he gonna say what just just be I'm like, just,
you know, find a way to be tactful and say it.
And this is what John Feinstein says. He says it. No,

(28:59):
I've never forgot this. He says it does like this.
He goes, uh, you know, I think that's a terrible idea.

Speaker 1 (29:07):
I'm good praying and I'm like, okay, an, I like,
we're dad.

Speaker 4 (29:14):
We're not gonna do that. Okay, we're not gonna do it.
We're just gonna talk about the games. Okay, we're here.
I am worried. How's he gonna say it? How's he
gonna say it?

Speaker 3 (29:23):
Is?

Speaker 2 (29:24):
Yeah?

Speaker 4 (29:24):
I think that's terrible.

Speaker 1 (29:27):
There are ideas in this world that are goods. Is
not one of them. It's a good story, though, I
have you probably exhaled quite a bit right there.

Speaker 4 (29:36):
Yes, yes, And I didn't look at anybody. I just said, okay,
all right, let me get like, I'm getting my notes ready, Okay, like,
what are we gonna do.

Speaker 1 (29:41):
We're gonna predict box for this?

Speaker 4 (29:43):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, we're gonna talk about Carmelo Anthony and
we're gonna talk about that. Okay, great, we're gonna talk
about Okay, we got this right here. Nick Collison, all right, credit,
got my question's ready. Not looking at anybody, just gonna
sit right here with my head down until we start
talking to John Finstein.

Speaker 1 (29:56):
Unless they produced the little hat that Johnny Carson wore
Karnak showing up bhit, then maybe it could work.

Speaker 4 (30:04):
Exit out bout of Fresca, Exit swollen Dome. Jason Smith,
Mike Harmon in for Cafino and Rich Today. Hey, be
sure to check out the Fox Sports Radio YouTube channel.
Just search Fox Sports Radio on YouTube. You'll see a
whole bunch of video highlights from our shows. Be sure
to subscribe so you never miss our very best Fox
Sports Radio videos on YouTube. Rest in peace, John Feinstein,

(30:25):
What a life? What a career? Time out to find
out what's trending in the wide world of sports with
Isaac lohencron I Lo. What do you got for us?

Speaker 1 (30:31):
Hey, guys.

Speaker 2 (30:32):
Interesting news today out of the world of Major League Baseball,
the Tampa Bay Rays announced that they're abandoning their plans
to build a new ballpark and instead are planning to
return to Tropicana Field in twenty twenty six. The Rays
here in twenty twenty five going to be playing their
home games at Steinbrenner Field in at Tampa. In college basketball,
earlier today, in the ACC Tournament quarterfinals, Number one Duke

(30:56):
defeated Georgia Tech seventy eight to seventy, but Duke star
Cooper Flag left the game with a spring left ankle.
Head coach John Shire said X rays were negative and
that it will be a long shot for him to
play in the semi finals tomorrow. In the NFL, former
Miami Dolphins running back Rahem Most signing a one year,
two million dollar deal with the Las Vegas Raiders. Quarterback

(31:16):
Mason Rudolph signing with the Pittsburgh Steelers for two years
and eight million dollars. Steelers also resigning receiver Ben Scarronick
the Washington Commanders resigning receiver Noah Brown. I was gonna
tell you something about Noah Brown, but I think I'll no.

Speaker 4 (31:31):
Don't leave leave Chicago Bears.

Speaker 2 (31:35):
Oh my gosh, I just got hit with two laser
beams through the glass. So I'm glad I left that
short can.

Speaker 4 (31:42):
Leave out the biggest play he had last year. Just leave,
just leave it. No one needs to know, and we
all remember, we all remember Noah Brown. No you bring
it up.

Speaker 2 (31:50):
No need to bring up the play by Noah. Finally,
NBC has extended its Olympic rights deal with the International
Olympic Committee for three billion dollars, comprising their coverage of
the twenty thirty four Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City
as well as the twenty thirty six Summer Games. Guys,
back to you, thanks.

Speaker 4 (32:09):
A bunch, Eilo. Uh, you know that that Tampa Bay
Ray story, Mike. I you know, we always look in,
We always look and uh, every so often we go, wow,
this guy's the worst owner in sports, right, and so far,
like Woody Johnson has taken that mantle from Jerry Jones
over the course of the past year, especially when you
know when you're when your eighteen year old son is
making decisions. Oh my sweet brick. Uh, you know, Woody

(32:31):
Johnson's had that. But I gotta be honest. I think
Ray's owner Stu Sternberg may be more hated than any
other owner in sports. I mean, every single comment on
this story today was sell the team. Right. I'm like, wow, Okay,
why is sell the team trending? No, it's every single
thing is Stu sell the team, Sell, sell the team,
Sell the team.

Speaker 1 (32:50):
Well, that was a story we touched on briefly earlier
in the week that came out of The Athletic that
Rob Manford and some of the higher powered owners are
trying to pressure him into putting the team up for sale.
Into the interim, they'll play at the Yankees Minor League.
Their spring training facility, steinburn Field is beautiful.

Speaker 4 (33:12):
Yeah, yeah, it's seas what undred thirty five hundred? Is
that what it is?

Speaker 1 (33:16):
Yeah? I did a couple of stand ups many years
ago with a Rod and Jeter in the background, one
of my proudest moments in terms of televised network stuff
for five Fox Sports Net back in the day. But yeah,
this is crazy. Just how many of these guys really
if you had the chance to just vote them off
the island like it was a reality show, how many

(33:37):
of them would go at this point?

Speaker 4 (33:40):
Don't forget right after the show the podcast goes up.
You miss any of today's show, be sure to listen
to the podcast. Just search Cavino and Rich wherever you
get your podcasts from, and be sure to follow review
the podcast rate at five stars. Again, just search Cavino
and Rich wherever you get your podcasts. You'll find today's
show and a best of version posted right after we
get off the air. Well, more basketball coming up in

(34:01):
a bit, but straight ahead, the biggest story of the day,
an NFL free agency, revolves around a quarterback who may
have played his last down. That's next right here, Jason
Smith Mike Harmon in for the guys. This is Fox
Sports Radio.

Speaker 3 (34:14):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven
pm Pacific.

Speaker 4 (34:23):
Nice suit, don't spill that on my white suit to day,
Nice suit. I got a do a postgame presser and
I can have big red splotches all over me and
on camera. Fox Sports Radio. We really hit on something,

(34:44):
Mike Harmon, that really good question. I mean, Patino, that's
that's absolutely like a huge endorsement deal for him White,
So sure, yeah.

Speaker 1 (34:53):
And then you get the tide pens and whatever else
you need. I mean, wet at all, Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 4 (34:59):
Yeah, I mean you have to get past the whole
people are having one in the sideline of a college
basketball game and it's just a commercial. Well, Lebron did
it's a commercial. Go through. Brod been sitting on the
bed a minute that's it. Lebron's in the commercial. He's
the one that he's.

Speaker 1 (35:12):
Got plenty of time off right now. He's hurt.

Speaker 4 (35:14):
He's hurt.

Speaker 1 (35:15):
That's it, is that caroon, He's hurt.

Speaker 4 (35:17):
Yeah, Patino's going to have some time off the very
beginning of next week. So we we get we get
Lebron Patina, we shoot the commercial. Boom, it's out there.
Oh I like this commercial.

Speaker 1 (35:27):
If we do the footage right, we can also get
a trailer for a would be sequel to American Psycho.
Sure they already had one with me Lacuraz. I'm talking,
you know, deeper into uh, you know, a universe.

Speaker 4 (35:39):
Why you get so dark with that?

Speaker 1 (35:40):
Now you brought up midsommer earlier in the hour. I'm
just finishing the circle.

Speaker 4 (35:44):
Patina running into a stereo with a chainsaw and dropping
it like come on, well, I.

Speaker 1 (35:49):
Mean, he wasn't wearing a suit, Natsy mead he was.

Speaker 4 (35:54):
He was wearing his birthday suit.

Speaker 1 (35:56):
Yeah, let's go.

Speaker 4 (36:01):
Big news from the NFL today, As we continue to
wait to find out just exactly what Aaron Rodgers and
Russell Wilson's future plans are, been a lot of attention
on Rogers last couple of days, potentially he's deciding if
he wants to go to the Steelers or not. But
today is really about Russell Wilson, and I think we
have to start getting around to the notion that we've

(36:23):
seen him play his last down in the NFL. Right
he went. He visited Cleveland today and left without a contract.
H Russell Wilson could have signed anywhere, and he hasn't. Right,
if he was going to go back to the Steelers,
they would have signed him, if they really You don't
mess around and play and play a little bit of

(36:45):
chicken with your quarterback, right you know, oh maybe we're
here now, you don't do you see a quarterback you want?
You go right after him? Right first day of free agency, boom,
Seahawks grab Sam Darnold, Jets grabbed Justin Fields. And I'm
sure Roger Goodell said, Okay, enough with the quarterback news
for a day. Daniel Jones, can you hold your decision
till tomorrow? Yeah, that's fine. Next day, Boom Daniel Jones,
Indianapolis Colts. If Russell Wilson was a guy the Steelers wanted,

(37:09):
they would have gotten him, right, they would have signed
him already. If the Giants wanted Russell Wilson, they would
have signed him already. He has been out there and
he can want to play as much as he wants to.
But when the league tells you, hey, there's not a
lot of interest in you, and the only two teams
that seem to have any sort of interest in a
quarterback haven't signed you, are we really going to see

(37:31):
Russell Wilson play in the NFL? Was this visit to
the to the Browns just hey, we're here because we
want to try to get some heat on Russell and
and and try to move the market here a little
bit because we're not getting anything so far, right, I mean,
I think we're kind of overestimating just what his absolute
value is on the open market. He had a good
four or five game stretch when he took over for

(37:52):
Justin Fields, which he probably shouldn't have taken over when
he did. But then the last few weeks he was done.
And so teams are looking at Russell Wilson in the
light of maybe last year that was the best thing
he had left. That was his death cry right, that
was his last moment. Was that four or five week
run when he played pretty well, but the end of
the season was really bad. Conversely, why there's a little

(38:14):
bit more heat on Aaron Rodgers because he ended better, right,
He still ended the last eight to nine games of
the season was pretty good, right, end of top ten
in yards, top ten in touchdown passes, but Wilson ended poorly.
And I mean, I see all this going on, but
I just see this as people are just trying to
make stuff happen. Right, Like, the Giants could have signed
Wilson and still had whatever plan they want a quarterback

(38:36):
going into the draft. If Shador Sanders is there, if
he's not, if cam Water's there, if he's not, they
could still have Russell Wilson into one of those guys.
They could still have Russell Wilson into a quarterback they
take beginning of the second round, if it's Kyle McCord
or Quinn Ewers or Jackson Dart, whoever's there. And the
fact they still haven't done so he leaves Cleveland without
a contract when Cleveland needs guys, right, they got Kenny Pickett,

(38:56):
who said I'm going to get a chance to battle
for the starting quarterback job this year with whoever they
bring up where it's whether it's a veteran or whether
it's a rookie, and he's still sitting out there with
no job. I mean, he's not someone that's going to
take a backup gig. And so I sit here and say,
get used to the fact that we may have seen
Russell Wilson play his last down in the NFL.

Speaker 1 (39:16):
Yeah, I mean some of it becomes a what truly
is the timetable for Aaron Rodgers to make a decision
in whatever he's mulling, whatever the offer is that Dulac
there for the Post Gazette reported there in Pittsburgh yesterday.
So you got that floating the Giants, Shane and Dable,
and they've been given the vote of confidence that no

(39:37):
matter how bad badly this team performs in twenty five,
that they get a stay of execution to build with
a new quarterback. So you just put someone trial by
fire or do you get the placeholder to maybe ease
the suffering of their fans still smarting from whatever they
thought Saquon Barkley could have been with them, just not

(39:58):
with them, not with them. It's not he broke up, Okay,
I get it. We broke up, just not with him, Okay, dude,
I just went full Oceans eleven.

Speaker 4 (40:06):
It's gonna be twenty fIF We're gonna get to the
last Bobby Benia day and people are gonna say, I
still can't believe we let Barkley go. I can't believe
we let Barkley was dude. Come on, man, that was
twelve years ago, Barkley said, retired. I still can't believe
we let him go. We would have won the super Bowl.
Yeah no, No, that's the uncle Rico. If they coach
put me in the fourth quarter, we would have won State. No,
you're not. You terrible with Saquon Barkley. You would have

(40:28):
been terrible. It didn't matter. He would have barely run
for a thousand yards, so it would have been awful.
Just this is kind of how it goes, you know.
Ta Kuon Barkley left.

Speaker 1 (40:36):
Well, yeah, sometimes you just got fuck get better to
have loved and lost than never loved at all. But
for Kenny Pickett, he's looking over his shoulder when Russell
Wilson comes walking in. I'm guessing he's doing some lat
work or something like, the hell this guy again? I mean,
I'm a super Bowl champion, don't get it?

Speaker 3 (40:52):
Wrong.

Speaker 1 (40:52):
I mean, I got my Super Bowl, you know, alongside
uh Saquon Barkley. But Russell Wilson's gonna come knocking on
my door again. Come on, I'm gonna have time to this.
And is this really just trying to make Miles Garrett
feel better because one of the things he said he
acted he wanted to be an active recruiter. So I
was like, I give Russell his visit.

Speaker 4 (41:11):
Fine, that's fine.

Speaker 1 (41:12):
A week.

Speaker 4 (41:12):
We're not gonna sign him? Right? No? No? Fine? Do
I need to be here?

Speaker 1 (41:15):
No?

Speaker 4 (41:15):
Not at all? Okay, great, Just let me know how
it goes.

Speaker 1 (41:18):
Is he willing to play for the minimum? That's all
I need to know.

Speaker 4 (41:22):
Exit out about a Fresca exit swollen dome. So we
may have seen Russell Wilson play his last down in
the NFL. More big stories out of the NFL and
NBA Next Fox What fuck Sorry?

Speaker 3 (41:35):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven
pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.

Speaker 4 (41:47):
Hello, Welcome in Side Hour two. Cavino and Rich Here
on Fox Sports Radio. Jason Smith, Mike Harmon from Knights
in for the guys today Big Day of College Basketball.
Have an update on Cooper Flag coming up in about
two minutes. Looks like it's good news for him, but
I gotta tell you the Jorts update from moments ago.

(42:08):
Gardner Minshew, who you know at some point is gonna
come into a playoff game and win it for the Chiefs.
He now goes to Kansas City to back up Patrick
Mahomes The Jorts Live Another Day. Mike Carmen fantastic.

Speaker 1 (42:22):
I don't know, he's a powerful man. I mean, you
have competition in the clubhouse now, uh yeah, but that's
all the wives and girl friends and hangers on looking.

Speaker 4 (42:35):
And you know, you know, I'm like, I like this
because now you know that's where he's gonna be the
rest of his career. Okay, I'm good. I'm not going
to get the chance to start again. I'm gonna back
up Mahomes. Gonna be here forever he can be. Jim Sorgy,
he's gonna be yeah, like he's gonna be like thirty
eight years old. Yeah, I'm great. I'm backing up Mahomes
and maybe one or two times over the course of
his career and the rest of his career. He'll have

(42:55):
a chance to say, hey, I came in the divisional
playoff game for a few plays here and did this
kind of like Chad Henny Clinch clinch the win over
the Browns in the playoffs a few years ago, Like
like that's Gardner Minshew. Now like, okay, he'll be relevant
because he'll be the backup in Kansas City.

Speaker 1 (43:10):
I kind of dig this. I do like the the process.
He's a folk hero and you take him to a
place where now it's he's essentially played in warm weather
most of his career, m right, a little bit in Indianapolis.
But now now we we get him in Kansas City
and and we'll get to see what the winter outfits
look like.

Speaker 4 (43:30):
Well you watch out. You show up in Kansas City
with jeorts and that mustache, and all of a sudden,
Taylor Swift is gonna say, sorry, dude, he's got a
better mustache than you. He looks good in Georgs And
suddenly it's gonna be the big triangle on the Kansaity Chiefs.
It's gonna be oh.

Speaker 1 (43:46):
Jorge, now you're just trying to cause trouble.

Speaker 4 (43:49):
And she's and and and uh, she's gonna do a
new song called you Belong with Jeorts, You Belong.

Speaker 1 (43:55):
With Wow, the celebration of Jeorts and a whole. I
was thinking his long flowing hair, because Travis doesn't have
long flowing hair.

Speaker 4 (44:07):
He wears George and you're in the bleachers. Oh, I
got It's be fantastic.

Speaker 1 (44:11):
What a great what a great christ. So now she's
reworking her music, not like she just did with the
Eras tour. Now she'll re release albums by doing parodies
of them like she's wearing out. Han't evicting her own film,
her own videos and songs.

Speaker 4 (44:27):
Yes, that's what she's got to do, right. You can't
remix songs anymore. We've seen it. Okay, this is Taylor's
new updated No, no, no, we know you own the
rights to all your songs. Now that's why you did it.
We get it. But now you got to do parodies
of those songs, and then it's gonna be Hey here,
I'm in chat room here on Reddit. What's the best
version of Taylor swifts you Belong with Me? The original version,
the red version, or the Gardner Minshew Gheort's version.

Speaker 1 (44:51):
I will say that is worth another billion dollars, So
crank it up.

Speaker 4 (44:55):
Oh, George Turr twenty twenty seven, think about that. Oh man,
just think about it. Everybody with everybody going to the concert,
of course wearing georts.

Speaker 1 (45:04):
I'm thinking about going and getting some George. Now, I'll
tell you he well, you know, you know you can
get them.

Speaker 4 (45:09):
I would go to j C. Penny. They're a big
George place, anes Penny, Macy's.

Speaker 1 (45:14):
Yeah. That in fact, that that was top of mine
leads me a little unnerved if you're.

Speaker 4 (45:17):
Looking to get you Oh no, no, look I love
Macy's and j C. Penny, but I just know that
they have I mean, you're looking for georts.

Speaker 1 (45:23):
That's where you instead of hats. As you got older,
did you just start giving people George Like that's part
of the stick from our evening show here on Fox
Sports Radio, Smith once upon a time giving hats to
would be love prospects. It's just what it is.

Speaker 4 (45:38):
That was a long time ago, Mike, that was I'm
not that person anymore.

Speaker 1 (45:41):
Well, like I said, you moved on to George.

Speaker 4 (45:44):
I change, baby, I'm not that guy anymore.

Speaker 1 (45:49):
You got a quasied Telly Savalis, who loves your baby.
And while you're hat it so nicely done. Uh.

Speaker 4 (45:55):
Now, hey, speaking to someone who's not that guy anymore,
Aaron Rodgers.

Speaker 1 (45:59):
So this is you're your former guy.

Speaker 4 (46:02):
You like that he was my guy, But just like
that guy, trust me, you're not that guy, just like
anybody else. If you're not on my team anymore, I
will cut baita I'll just cut bait on you so.

Speaker 1 (46:13):
Easily when it went bad, you cut those guys loose.

Speaker 4 (46:15):
Yeah, dude, forget about forget about Justin Fields. I'm more
stone smart than I am Aaron Rodgers. Now, with the
Jet signing him earlier today, I mean, I go. You
gotta go with your guys. Man, these are my guys,
and Rogers is not my guy. Uh. We talked about
Russell Wilson a few minutes ago, and now here's Aaron
Rodgers allegedly allegedly waiting on an offer from the Steelers,

(46:37):
or waiting on his final decision whether he wants to
accept the offer the Steelers have out there. This reported
by a Steelers beat reporter last night. I maintain if
he was really offered something by the Steelers, the reason
why he would say no, it's the best team he
could possibly go to They're built like they're a playoff
team already. Why would you say no, It's not like
the Giants called and you're like, man, I got lame

(46:59):
duck GM, lame duck head coach. I don't have any
talent here. Malik Neighbors is already unhappy. Why the hell
would I want to go here and have people just say, hey,
you're not as good as Tommy Cutlet's uh yeah. I
think that if that offer was out there, he would
have taken it already. But with Rogers, it's such a mystery,
and the story I can't get past the last couple

(47:19):
of days is the continued linking of Rogers to the Vikings,
which doesn't make any sense, right. I mean, first of all,
are you really gonna follow Brett Farr's career path to
the team? Are you really gonna do? You're really gonna
go Green Bay for a long long time, win a
Super Bowl, get unhappy at the end. The last couple
of years are really bad. You force your way out

(47:39):
and you get traded to the Jets. Your years of
the Jets don't go like you expect, so you find
your way out and then you finish with the Vikings,
like he's really gonna do that.

Speaker 1 (47:48):
I mean, like he not only did he follow the teams,
he also was the petulant child that far was in
each of these places. Yes, I mean it's not just
the no I'm gonna go out with the ripped elbow
insta he ripped up his leg. Yeah, Farvara's upset you'd
have to battle out for the job with Aaron Rodgers,
so he found his way out. Rogers upset that Jordan

(48:08):
Love got taken behind it, like everything is the same,
so why would you do that?

Speaker 4 (48:12):
But the bigger thing is this is that if the Vikings,
and there's a lot of insiders that have said, you've
seen many reports the last couple of days that Rogers
has a lot of interest in the Vikings. They're kind
of waiting for a decision by the Vikings on this.
And I'm just saying, if this happens, then the Vikings
need an intervention and every decision maker they have needs
to be taken out of decision making. Okay, because did

(48:36):
you really kick Sam Donald to the curb because you
love JJ McCarthy, right, And we know this because our
stuff on Sam Donald's gone viral. The last couple of
days with how they just let Sam Donald walk out
of Minnesota without really getting anything for him. Oh, we
got a compensatory pick. Yes, you basically got a fourth
round pick for a guy that threw thirty five touchdowns

(48:58):
four thousand yards, one of the top three quarterbacks in
the NFL last year. Yeah, that sounds fair. You could
have played poker. You should have. You should have franchised him.
You should have then dealt him because you know you
would have been able to trade him because the Seattle
Seahawks gave him a hundred million dollars. They traded away
their quarterback and gave him a hundred million dollars. So
I think you could have gotten a first round pick,
or a couple of second round picks, or a second

(49:18):
round pick and a player or for you could have
gotten that for Sam Donald. But instead, No, no, no, no,
we love JJ McCarthy so much, we are okay with
letting Sam Donald walk and we're using the last two
playoff games as an excuse to say, yeah, ah, really
he's no good anymore. Well, wait, we didn't really protect
him all that. Well, he was kind of under siege.
You forget about the fifteen games before where he was

(49:40):
absolutely lights out. Now that's our excuse if they let
Sam Darnald go because they love JJ McCarthy. But still
they bring in Aaron Rodgers to play ahead of him,
because Rogers not coming in to back up JJ McCarthy.
His whole thing is, look, I'll come in and mentor
young quarterback. Great like I'll come in and and do it.
I understand this is my last stop. And I know

(50:02):
in Rogers mind it's yeah, I'm gonna mentor this kid,
but I'm gonna keep this job for a year or
two first, like, this is how I'm gonna do it.
He's not coming in there as a backup to JJ McCarthy.
If things go okay, he's not gonna be spinning the
ball in his hands with his headphones in listening to
the play calls while JJ McCarthy's running up and down
the field. He's going in there to start. If you
are the Vikings and you did this, and you did this,

(50:25):
everybody that's in on this decision should be absolutely taken
out of decision making. Somebody else make those decisions, because
you clearly don't know what you're doing. And not only that,
the people in my timeline the last couple of days
that did all the Vikings fans, you have to leave
social media. If they do that, you have no leg
to stand on. You disagree with my take on Darnold
and why they couldn't get anything for them live, you

(50:46):
need to leave social media that those two things need
to happen. If somehow Aaron Rodgers ends up with the Vikings.

Speaker 1 (50:52):
You need to go find yourself a hug looks. We're
talking about all the differential right what Seattle was willing
to paid Donald versus what Gino Smith reportedly wanted, and
then you go between what Sam got and what the
franchise tag was. Right, we're talking seven eight million dollars

(51:12):
there about that we fight about there and for a
number of these squads, it is Sam really our long
term answer. I don't know how much do you put
on Kevin O'Connell to play call and adjusting. How much
do you put on the fact that they had to
trade for Cam Robinson, who was in for Darisa who
was lost in the middle of the season, who's one

(51:34):
of the best offensive line. But we got going young
and still emerging, and Robinson at times played well at
times he was a turnstile. So you have those kind
of things that you've got to decide along the process
as to what that's worth to you and the Giants,
the Steelers, et cetera. They may have decided that good

(51:55):
old Sam Donald was not worth forty million dollars bringing
him in off of the franchise and trade and giving
up subsequent picks. So all of that said, we get
back to where the Vikings are. They've done a good
job assembling a roster. Darris I will be back, And
now it's the question of who's the other guy in
that quarterback room, Aaron Rodgers, if you don't think McCarthy's

(52:19):
physically going to be ready, if he's willing to sign
a you know, the old team friendly deal for one
last shot at glory, it's fun theater for us. And
maybe it's another case of ex jet now good. But
they're they're in a position now where you got to
get acting. There's only three quarterbacks left in the marketplace.

(52:40):
Now that Minshew's off the board. I mean what he got.
There's no mac Jones. He finally ended up in San
Francisco where he was supposed to be years ago. Remember
all those mock drafts before Trey Lance, all of that stuff.
So you've got Captain Kirk sitting down in a holding
pen in his little Harry Potter cupboard under the stairs,

(53:02):
waiting for his release or for somebody to get hurt,
or for a team to realize, oh wait, we don't
have any more viable options. So that's kind of where
we sit. But yes, rogers to the Vikings, do I
want him back in the North with the Bears. No,
not necessarily, but for the purposes of our sports talk
radio show here nights on Fox Sports Radio. Come on,

(53:23):
it couldn't get any better than that. There he is.

Speaker 4 (53:26):
I really sometimes I look at things and I say,
the NFL doesn't really need to be that complicated, right,
But the Vikings made this. I feel like the Darnold
decision to move on from him was something that was
made in like five minutes, right, Like the two games
at the end of the year were the excuse to say, okay,
so we're clear, say goodbye. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's it.

(53:46):
We wouldn't want to mess around with this. Let's just
let him go.

Speaker 1 (53:51):
I mean, we talked about it, and you go back
and watch those final games. I don't know how much
adjustments and how many you can make against the fronts
that the Lions rams and you know when when teams
faced up against the Eagles that you could make, you know,
if we expand NFL wide. But certainly we didn't see

(54:11):
a lot of that, and Sam was kind of left
to the wolves. He didn't do himself any favors, don't
get me wrong, but he became a convenient fall guy
in all of it.

Speaker 4 (54:21):
Yeah, I mean, this is it? Is it deeper than Darnald? Sure,
you want to go back and look at those last
couple of games, and you see that Darnald was under duress,
and yeah, you could say, well, Donald's good under duress.
Show me a quarterback that's great under duress. Some are
just a little bit better than others. Joe Cool. Yeah,
I get you know, but look, and that's the difference
a lot of times between quarterbacks. But it's like, we're

(54:42):
going to discount the last fifteen games because he was
bad in these two games, and and it's it's a relief, yeah,
that he was bad, because we would rather have this
decision to make where it's okay for us to move on,
rather than have him play really well. We win a
playoff game, but then we go home and then we're
really stuck. Because Darnald played well all the way through
the season. We won a playoff game. Now what do

(55:03):
we do well, I mean, we're stuck. Now, We're absolutely stuck.
Like it's I guarantee you Vikings faith. You hooked up
to a lie detector in Vikings organization, they'd say, yeah's
a relief that Darnald was bad because it gave us
the excuse to move on.

Speaker 1 (55:15):
Well, I also told you, I mean, it wasn't just
the two games. They also had a lot of tape
from twenty eighteen to twenty twenty three.

Speaker 4 (55:22):
We want to show you these. But this he wasn't
even on the team yet it doesn't matter. He's still
made these throws, all right, He still meant it doesn't matter.

Speaker 1 (55:29):
He was in a Jets uniform. There, It all still counts.

Speaker 4 (55:33):
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(55:57):
Everybody with the vikings gets fired. Yeah, I think that happens.
I think that happens.