Tough Cover Show: AJ Brown & Jalen Hurts 'Drama', NFL Week 15, College Football Playoff, Joel Embiid's Latest Injury, and More - 12/14/24

In Hour 1, Mark Henry Jr. and Sean Barnard talk AJ Brown/Jalen Hurts "drama" and #NFL Week 15 picks, and #CollegeFootball BOWL SZN is here!

In Hour 2, Sean Barnard talks the latest injury to Joel Embiid, #Sixers, #NBA, and more.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
If you can wager on it, We're talking about it.
It's The Gambler, the Fox Sports Radio, The Gambler. Fox
Sports Radio in Philly is the Gambler. The Gambler, Philly's
home for all things sports. Gambler Time to get ready

(00:23):
for the day's action, from the sides, to the totals
and everything in between. Nobody does it better than the
Tough Cover with Mark Henry right here on The Gambler.

Speaker 2 (00:40):
Hello, welcome, top cover radio show. I am as a
Mark and recuter. You follow on Twitter at Mark on
the Score. My co host on the other side of
the screen on the Ones Tudes on Saturday is Sean Bernard,
the follow on Twitter at Sea Underscore Sean, how are Yeah?

Speaker 3 (01:02):
Can't complain.

Speaker 4 (01:03):
You know, we're in the full swing of everything right now,
right ahead of the college football playoffs. We got a
little positive news, I would say, regarding the six Ers
stadium here, so I know that's a hot button topic,
but it looks like we're finally coming to a conclusion
on that, which I'm looking forward to that not being
a conversation anymore.

Speaker 3 (01:17):
And of course we.

Speaker 4 (01:18):
Got all our Aj Brown and Jalen Hurts drama to
just keep keep the clicks going throughout the week.

Speaker 3 (01:23):
So plenty going on right now, we can't complain.

Speaker 2 (01:26):
Yeah, we'll definitely get into that. And Sean in the
second hour is gonna be talking a lot of NBA.
We'll get to the basketball side of things. We'll probably
be focusing all on football in this first hour. I
will say, opt me out of any sports conversations that
are about labor agreements or arenas I know, or honestly

(01:49):
like a team being for sale, Like I'm I'm out
on all three. Remember when Daniel Snyder, I felt like
there was like seven different notifications where it's like Daniel
Snyder has sold Washington and it's like, wait, not done yet,
Like it happened like ten times. The arena thing. I
can't even follow the twist and turns. I know, the
guys that Crossing broad do a great job kind of

(02:11):
keeping us update, and it feels like on a lot
of the arena stuff, and so everyone we're gonna I'm
sure you guys will talk about that a little in
the second hour, but yeah, it's it's one of those things.
I just you know, I'm about that ball, you know,
I don't know that's where I am. I don't know,
but we're gonna talk some NFL. We're gonna get to
the Eagles stuff. Obviously, big game this weekend, Eagles, Steelers.

(02:34):
I would say maybe a surprising line on the Steelers
Eagles game, So we'll get to that, and just how
much respect I think Vegas is giving the Philadelphia Eagles
this weekend. And we're gonna get to all the other games.
We're gonna get to the Fund Bill's Lions game, the
highest total, I believe in two years now in the NFL,

(02:57):
So it should be a lot of fireworks. Obviously to
true blue Super Bowl contenders going off. There's probably only
four of those this year. I don't know how many
opportunities you get to see them go up against each other,
at least in the regular season. So I think that
it's gonna be a big game. So we're gonna get
to all that. But I think i'd be remiss if
we didn't lead off the show talking about the college

(03:19):
football playoff. And obviously, if anybody's watching this, you know
that I'm recording this, putting this out there on Thursday
with Sean Bernard, and we're airing it on Saturday. I'll
be in NYC on Saturday. Army Navy Day is almost
like I feel like obligated to take my wife somewhere
because it's right after her birthday and it's after twelve
straight Saturdays where it's like, sorry, honey, I mean yeah,

(03:41):
I'm Illinois playing Minnesota at three thirty and I've won
lay in three points. So it's that you gotta almost
take a day off on Army Navy Day. We're going
to New York City. But I wanted to get this
out there because before next or next week, obviously that'll
be after one game of the college football playoff is played,

(04:04):
and coincidentally, that's the Notre Dame Fighting Irish playing in
the Indiana State Championship on Friday night against the Indiana
University Huesiers in the seven to ten matchup of the
playoff brackets. So I feel like we have to go
through the bracket, give our takes, maybe fill out our brackets,
live here, give our predictions, and even just if we

(04:25):
want to drill down on the four games specifically in
terms of the spreads and totals, whatever anything in between,
let's start it off and anything. When you saw the
bracket that first came out that kind of jumped out
to you, Shan.

Speaker 4 (04:39):
Yes, I guess Alabama not making it is probably the
largest talking point with it. I think ultimately, like I'm
fine with it. I think like the more I looked
at it and kind of thought back on it, I
do think that is the right call. I get that
there is you know, their Alabama and the reputation that
carries with it. But the reality is the three conference
losses are pretty inexcusable there against teams that like they
should be that could shouldn't be the standard for Alabama there,

(05:02):
and I think when comparing resumes here that it's fair.

Speaker 3 (05:05):
So I do think the committee mostly got it right.

Speaker 4 (05:07):
I don't love exactly like the how the seeds played out,
but I understand conference is like the biggest reigning factor
in that. I think moving forward, that's something that needs
to be changed to just make the top four seeds
the four best teams there.

Speaker 3 (05:18):
We'll see if they ultimately go that direction.

Speaker 4 (05:20):
I think the conference re alignment and all those kind
of talking points gonna be interesting to me in the
coming I guess years from now, to see how it
plays out. But ultimately, with this specific bracket, I'm not
too upset about it, but I think they mostly got
it right. Kind of surprised to see. I know your
complaining about Notre Dame at seven. Penn State at six,
I think is high, and I would agree with you
that I think Notre Dame probably deserves to be higher

(05:41):
than them.

Speaker 3 (05:41):
There. Ohio State I just can't get up for.

Speaker 4 (05:43):
And I honestly kind of think they lose to Tennessee
first round. But we'll dive into all that, so I
won't step any further than that.

Speaker 2 (05:49):
No, no, no, no, that's not seventy four. The Ohio State
things interesting, and we'll get to that game because you
know how I feel about Tennessee. And yeah, I think
Ohio State obviously my complaints about my Irish. If anybody
I think has a legitimate complaint about the seeding, I
think it is the Ohio State.

Speaker 3 (06:06):
That's fair.

Speaker 2 (06:07):
Yeah, you look at Penn State as they beat them
in Happy Valley. They have the same amount of losses.
And I know that the Big Ten decided or not
the Big Ten. The NCAA decided that the Big Ten
championship doesn't count as a loss, and to me, that's
just I don't agree with that. What's the point of
watching the games? Last weekend we talked about them for

(06:28):
an hour, went out of our way to you know,
go through each game. What's the point of doing that
if there's a positive reward for the winner and no
negative outcome for the loser, like we're watching a game
with no stakes. If the winner wins, they're the wonder
the two seed they get to buy. Loser loses, they
get a cushy five or a six seed. And maybe

(06:50):
it's not always going to be that way every year.
Obviously Texas Beach, Georgia. Georgia's already slotted below Notre Dame.
We don't have these issues. Notre Dame is the sixth
seed that you know, little things jump in the air
like that. It didn't always have to play out like this,
but the way it played out, I think it does.
This was one of the ways it could have played

(07:10):
out that A. It was the only way it could
have played out where Bama was left out with an
SMU close loss in the ACC title game.

Speaker 3 (07:18):
B The.

Speaker 2 (07:21):
Way that both conference championship games in terms of the
SEC and Big Ten, were really close, and the fact
that the three seed, the four seed, and the twelve
seed all seem really weak in terms of what we
think of you know, actually, I'll take back the Big
twelve champ in the a SEC champ feel really weak

(07:43):
compared to previous years, compared to even looking preseason at
what we could potentially expect, especially from the Big twelve
Boise stayed. On the other hand, I don't know how
much we expect a group of five team to be
better than Boise is year to year, Like this is
probably about as good as a G five team em
as you'll get, and I still don't think they're very good,

(08:03):
and it's maybe that's something to bring up to does
the G five even deserve representation. I think it's fine
that they get the team in there. It's twelve teams.
We've expanded it to the point that you know, you
have eleven chances for the rest of the rest of
the country. I'm fine with that. But obviously the way
that it played out with those three teams not necessarily
feeling that strong, it does make you feel like Man

(08:24):
Tennessee got a nine seed, a high Steak got an eight,
and their name got a seven, and you look at
the rankings and they're much higher if you just look
at the top twenty five then their seed, and I
think that is what's going to spurse and change. Hopefully
it doesn't. From what I've heard, it doesn't seem like
they can make that change for next year. It seems
like it is written in that they agreed to this

(08:47):
playoff bracket through twenty twenty six. I don't know if
they can make adjustments, you know, it's unclear, but I'm
hoping that they would go to either a situation where
the top four teams get buys and the conference champions
get just auto bids. Yeah, or you do what you're
doing now and you receive after the first round, which

(09:08):
kind of are you Where are you at with the format?

Speaker 4 (09:12):
I like the first plan that you laid out there
that I think the auto bids for conference winners is
totally fair to me. I just think like it that
should be the standard. Is the top four teams get
buyased there. Like with all due respect to Boise State,
like you mentioned here, I think they are solid. I
think this is what you should expect from like a
Boise State team or the team that has punched their
ticket in this opportunity there. But I don't think they
can go toe to toe with just about any of
these other teams in front of them there, so for

(09:34):
them to have a buy and you know, sit there
let these teams fight it out. I don't think that's
the best president descent, so I kind of lean towards
we should get the standard to be just the four
best teams get the the top four seeds in the
buy there.

Speaker 3 (09:46):
But ultimately I'm not that mad about.

Speaker 4 (09:47):
It's not something that I'm super up and armed so
lean that way, but not something that I'm ultra fired
up about.

Speaker 3 (09:54):
We got muted.

Speaker 2 (09:56):
I don't even really feel like getting into all the
Notre Dame Penn State t stuff. I've talked about it
so much on Twitter, I've talked about it so much
with Sean Brace. I'm just gonna bypass that. So let's
get it started, and let's I'll leave Notre Dame for last,
since that's the last that's the first game and obviously
the most important game to me. I'll leave that for last.
Let's start with Saturday, and we'll go through what Saturday

(10:18):
looks like for people who are people who are unaware.
Notre Dame Indiana play Friday night on at eight o'clock
on ABC there was two ABC games, two TNT games.
The TNT games. I don't know if people remember this,
but they're getting these because of inside the NBA.

Speaker 3 (10:32):
Ah, I just gad about that.

Speaker 2 (10:34):
This was the trade that they made. And that's why
CNT is getting at twelve o'clock and at four o'clock
college football playoff game on Saturday. And I think that's fun.
That's like a fun sports media a little little nugget there.
But Saturday kicks off SMU and Penn State. For people
out there, when the NFL drops their playoff schedule, there's

(10:55):
a lot of people who are like, oh, they put
this team there. I'm always like that. I'm always interested
with the prime time spots. Who did they decide was
the big matchups? And clearly ABC and the NCAAA decided
Notre Dame gets the primetime spot because they're Notre Dame.
End that Ohio State and Tennessee were the best matchups.
They decided SMU, Penn State and Clemson Texas were the

(11:19):
two kind of dog matchups that they'd shift over to TNT.
But let's start it off right here in the state
of Pennsylvania, over in Happy Valley twelve o'clock SMU at
Penn State. Penn State has ballooned up to a nine
point favorite here. Anything for you here.

Speaker 4 (11:34):
Yeah, I do like the plus nine and a half
for SMU, But I do think that Penn State was half.

Speaker 3 (11:41):
My fault. I thought you said ten and a half,
nine and a half it is, Oh.

Speaker 2 (11:44):
No, you said nine and a half. Yeah, I said
I'm seeing nine. But if it's nine and a half,
I like that even more.

Speaker 4 (11:49):
Let me give it a double check on the number here.
But pretty much regardless of my point being here, I
don't think Penn State is a step on your throat
and blow it out kind of team. And that's kind
of the unfortunate. We've seen the struggles in big games
and I'm seeing eight and a half on DraftKings now,
so coming down a little bit and that curious if
that moves a little bit more as the game gets closer.
For me, it's SMU plus eight and a half is

(12:09):
the play here that I think this is gonna end
up a one score game sort of going down to
the wire. I mean, we saw last week with these ponies, man,
they don't roll over that They're gonna put up a
fight till the end, they're gonna try and come back.
And I just have so many doubts about this Penn
State team that I was ready to be fully out
on them during that Oregon game. They did show a
spark and fought back in the second half and at
least made it a game, put up a battle, but

(12:30):
I mean, Drew Aler's good, the defense should be good.
But I was really concerned with the way Oregon was
really able to out physical them, and that's something that
you should not be able to do for Penn State.
I don't think SMU will have quite that same luck.
But I don't think Penn State is this team ready
to be a true or full blown contender. And I've
said this coming into the season. I think this expanded
playoff benefited James Franklin more than any other coach in
the country right here, so got a little bit of

(12:51):
a pass. I think they ultimately squeak by and win
this game, but I have my severe doubts about this team.

Speaker 2 (12:57):
Yeah, I think Penn State and their name are probably
the two teams above everybody who benefited from the playoff,
And you'd look at it and it would have been
interesting if this is a four team playoff the way
it was previously, you obviously get Oregon, Georgia are probably
both in. Texas probably gets in. And then if it

(13:17):
was a fourteen playoff, they're saying Penn State would have
been that fourth team over Notre Dame, which that would
have been an a fun debate to It would have
been an even more angry debate from me if this
would have been a fourteen playoff. But Penn State and
Notre Dame, obviously, if things go right, should be here
every single year. The thing I'll say, Penn State's played

(13:38):
a lot of games, a lot closer than you'd think
against some of these teams. In Minnesota twenty six, twenty five,
really close game against the USC earlier the year, what
took them all the way to overtime? Illinois they only
beat by fourteen. Even Bowland Green only beat them by
a touchdown. Wisconsin they won by fifteen, but that was

(13:58):
a seven point game really late into the fourth quarter there.
Even u CLA only two possessions. Like they had played
a lot of close games here and SMU has not
been blown out once. They lost the Clemson by field goal.
They lost the byu by field goal. Do I think
Clemson's that good. No, do I think BYU is that good? No,
neither team's bad. So it's not like they have a

(14:18):
bad loss and both of them are by a field goal.
I think SMU covers the spread. I'm starting to get
pretty confident in that. I don't.

Speaker 5 (14:26):
I'm not.

Speaker 2 (14:26):
I'm not getting there with talking myself into a win.
I feel like Penn State wins close.

Speaker 4 (14:31):
Yeah, That's where I'm at as well. I like this
SMU team, man, I would love to be all the
way in and them. I do think that just the
the depth in talent is kind of like what's going
to be the calling card here that I don't think.
I think Penn State is way deeper than SMU, and
they're gonna have, you know, all their premier kind of
guys rotating through. I like this SMU team, though I
probably will be in my heart rooting for them, even
though I know it's a Penn State kind of central

(14:53):
location here. But I do think that the eight and
a half is just too much here. To me, this's
gonna be a battle.

Speaker 2 (14:59):
And you look at sm USE, seven out of the
last ten overs have cashed. Ten State their last four
overs have cashed and all of them have been right
around this number, so I like that over. I'm seeing
it at fifty three and a half, so I like
that total.

Speaker 3 (15:14):
There.

Speaker 2 (15:14):
I'll be on the over for sure. Let's move on
to the next game at three or at four o'clock,
Clemson and Texas, and I've got nothing like I think
Texas is gonna win the game. They're an eleven and
a half point favorite. Total is fifty one and a half.
I think Texas should come close to covering that number.

(15:36):
I'm not laying an eleven and a half points with
a team that doesn't have a good win this season.
This would be their best win of the season. So
I struggle with Texas because I see the vision. I
see obviously why they have a ton of talent. Even
when q quin you weres just not playing up to
his potential. It seems like he's still puting up two
hundred and fifty yards a game and putting up better
numbers than just about any quarterback in the field, even

(15:57):
though we all kind of pick them apart, and I
kind of pick them apart too, But I just I
can't get behind either team here.

Speaker 4 (16:05):
Yeah, I feel less less passionately about this one. But
I do like the Texas minus eleven here. I don't
think this Clemson team is that good, and I do
think that Texas is this real deal, like title contender.

Speaker 3 (16:15):
I'm still not a quinn Ewers guy.

Speaker 4 (16:17):
I think arch Mannings just straight up the better quarterback,
but obviously the riding with the dude till the wheels
fall off, and I kind of get that to that
extent here. So ultimately, I think like this could be
a statement type of game for Texas. If things fully
click defensively, they're able to impose themselves, really shut down
that Clemson offense and then roll offensively. So I like
the minus eleven, but feel a lot better about the

(16:37):
SMU play and comparison there.

Speaker 2 (16:40):
I'm trying to figure out a little play here. I
just I don't want to take the Penn State money
line or Tennessee Ohio State. Yeah, Notre Dame and Texas
on a moneyline parlay is minus one forty eight. That's
not worth it to me. I do think both those
teams win. I was surprised to see Texas minus is

(17:00):
because usually eleven and a half points, I feel like
you get more of a minus four fifty maybe closer
to a minus five hundred. I do think Texas on
the money line at minus three eighty five is still
in range to throw in some parlays if you're out
there as kind of a parlay guy. So I'm probably
not gonna touch that game, maybe unless I kind of
find a parlay spot for Texas. But let's move on

(17:22):
to I think, by far the best game on the board,
and it's Tennessee going to Columbus to play Ohio State.
And this is a potential got y for me. I'm
all over the Tennessee volunteers. I know people are just
expecting Ohio State to bounce right back. I actually think,
you know, this game, being in Columbus, if this team

(17:43):
goes three and out, they're gonna want that. They're gonna
want blood from Ryan Day and from that team. They're
gonna be so angry right away. The last thing these
guys saw was the Michigan Ohio State brawl for the flag,
So I think Tennessee they're going to go in there
and I really think they're gonna win the game outright.
I would take a swing on the plus two twenty

(18:03):
on the money line generally, but I'm not going to
I'm gonna put everything I would put on this game
on the seven and a half, just leave it on
the spread. I don't want to, you know, be dead
right on them covering the spread and then they lose
the close game and I barely come out ahead. So
I'm just gonna pour it all in that seven and
a half number. I also have some interest in Tennessee
going forward. Obviously I have a couple of Natty tickets

(18:25):
on them, but really brutal path for whoever wins this game.
It's a shame Tennessee got a nine seed, honestly, instead
of a ten seed from their perspective, like Notre Dame,
Ohio State, going to either place, probably you know, six
and six and one hand half a dozen in the
other if you're Tennessee. I think maybe Tennessee's a shorter
favor or a shorter dog to Notre Dame potentially, but

(18:47):
probably a similar number maybe, But then after that you'd
go to Georgia instead of going to Oregon, which I
do think is a little bit easier. The path in
general in that bottom bracket easier than the top bracket.
So eight for my volunteers, but anything for you there.

Speaker 4 (19:03):
Yeah, It's nice that you got the hook here at
seven and a half, so a nice number there. I'm
with you with the plus seven and a half in
favor of Tennessee, but I'll take it a little bit further.
I like Tennessee money line. I do think they went
out right, and I think they do so fairly convincing here.
Ohio State has been more worried about pressing charges for
people throwing flags in their field than they are about
actually fixing the issues that they have with that team there.
So I think this very well could be a broken

(19:25):
football team. Will howard Man is far worse than I
expected that he could be. That Like one interception he
threw in that mischgame game was one of the worst
interceptions I've ever seen from a college athlete at any
point there. I don't know how you pick yourself off
the map from that one. I think Ryan Day it's
crazy that he's gonna be coaching for his job based
on everything that has led up to this and all
the success of the season and how talented this roster is,

(19:47):
because there's no disputing the talent of the players and
the guys that they brought in here. But I believe
in this Tennessee team, I think Nico's kind of back
on track from what we saw a little bit of
a mid season struggles. He's still not perfect, he still
has his growing pains, but I do have more and
Nico then I do Will Howard looking across the lane.

Speaker 3 (20:02):
There is from a talent standpoint and hopefully his ability
to execute.

Speaker 4 (20:05):
So I think Tennessee wins out right, and I think
they do so fairly convincing.

Speaker 3 (20:08):
I like the plus two twenty five money line.

Speaker 2 (20:10):
Yeah, I like Tennessee to win out right. Also, I
just think that I don't know what it is. I
almost feel like the two to twenty five money line
isn't juicy enough for the seven and a half number.
It feels like the money lines are touched down to
me in general in terms of where the numbers are.
But I that's why I'm on the seven and a half.
If it was three hundred, I'd probably be a little

(20:32):
bit more inclined. But I'm gonna stick with seven and
a half just because I do think it's gonna be
a close game. And the reason I love Tennessee is
because the defense and the running game and Nico. I
think people want to act like Nico's a big problem,
and I get that he has had games where he's
looked like a problem. You could say that for almost
every quarterback in this field. We're just in a field

(20:54):
that doesn't really have the elite quarterbacks you'd think of.
I guess, no, yeah, yeah, And it'll be interesting. I
almost think it'll be more interesting in years in the
future that have better quarterbacks to have these twelve team
playoffs and have quarterback matchups that matter for the draft.
But this year it's kind of just all the top
quarterbacks didn't make it, and then you have Dylan Gabriel,

(21:15):
who's not really an NFL guy, But Dylan Gabel was
probably the best quarterback in the class by far, which
is why the Tennessee draw kind of stinks that you
are playing Oregon round two. But the reason I before
the bracket was kind of bullish on Tennessee. When we
knew they were going to be in the field, we
just didn't know where. And the reason I was placing
those Tennessee futures is because everyone wants to point out

(21:37):
Nico being a problem, But like I said, who are
the quarterbacks in the field that aren't a problem for
their teams. So that's why I'm kind of less concerned
about Nico than others. But a quarterback I am concerned
about is the quarterback of the Notre Dame fighting Irish
Riley Leonard, and that game is on Friday night at
eight o'clock. I will be in Florida watching this game

(22:01):
in eighty degree weather. But I wish huh.

Speaker 3 (22:07):
Get those bets in early before you get well.

Speaker 2 (22:10):
I wish I was. I wish I was in South Bend,
Indiana this coming Friday. But tickets are like two grand
apparently cheapest to get in the door there. Because of
the the interstate rivalry, it's pretty easy to get there,
I think. So uh yeah, people have been waiting for
this for a long time, a home playoff game in

(22:31):
South Bend. So I I think it's a really tough
matchup for Indiana just in terms of it stops being
about the x's and o's and it's more about the
Jimmies and Joe's, And you know, the best players of
the Midwest don't go to Indiana generally. They generally go
to Notre Dame. And you look at what Indiana's done,
and they've done an incredible job They've transferred in so

(22:52):
many guys from the JMU level and from you know
that that Sun Belt conference that Signetti was able to
coach and get in there, and they already know his scheme.
Indiana hasn't beaten nobody, they ain't played nobody, paul As
Marcus free It's not gonna look good if Notre Dame loses.
But the Marcus Freeman, yeah, I googled him. He wins.

(23:13):
That was pretty It was funny. It'll look bad if
they lose, but I did think it was funny. I
just think you look at what Ohio State did Indiana,
and they were just able to run the ball all
over them. And Ohio State's O line has been a
problem in games surrounding that Indiana game. Notre Dame is
one of the best in the country. And Jeremiah Love,
I would say, has had a better season than either

(23:35):
of the Ohio State running backs this season that were
more highly recruited and more sought after in the transfer portal.
But Jeremiah Love is you know, the reason that the
Dames offense has taken off the way that it has.
And I don't think Indiana's run defense is where that
run stops, so I'm laying the seven and a half.
I also like the Notre Dame team total over. I

(23:56):
think that's right at twenty nine and a half. They've
done that in pretty much every single game. Here, I
will pull up the results since they lost sixteen fourteen
to NIU sixty six, twenty eight, thirty one fifty one,
thirty one, forty nine, forty nine, forty nine, thirty five
fifty two, and that closes the year. So give me

(24:18):
the over in the team's total there at twenty nine
and a half, and you guys could play this if
Notre Dame loses.

Speaker 4 (24:25):
Yeah, not as passionate of a play for me on
this one. I do think Notre Dame wins this. The
seven and a half does make me a little bit
nervous there. I didn't want to ask a little bit.
I like Marcus Freeman. I like how he handles himself.
I think there's some fair critiques.

Speaker 3 (24:38):
It's interesting.

Speaker 4 (24:38):
I thought I was gonna be fully aboard this Notre
Dame bandwagon at this point. They really lost me after
the NIU lost man and that one hurt. Watching Riley
Leonard does not look like the version of him that
I expected.

Speaker 3 (24:47):
To see this season.

Speaker 4 (24:48):
But the bottom line here is, I guess I gotta
ride with him again, so I will be rooting for
Notre Dame for sure.

Speaker 3 (24:53):
I'm a little bit nervous.

Speaker 4 (24:54):
Where are you at a Marcus Freeman mark, what's kind
of your general outlook for him at this point?

Speaker 2 (24:58):
Yeah, I mean I was out as out could be
at the time that he lost to Northern Illinois. It's
hard not to respect how the team bounced back and
respect how he got the team ready to go. You
could say, maybe they haven't played great opponents, but they've
blown the doors off everybody they've played. They haven't let up,
They've showed up for every game, and you know, maybe
part of that makes you even more mad about the

(25:20):
the NIU loss, that they've been this good against everybody else.
I would say, Marcus Freeman, you know, his legacy's on
the line in this playoff. I would say, to this point,
this season's nothing like it's a It's not a positive,
it's not a negative. He made the playoffs, he was
expected to make the playoffs. He lost the game he

(25:41):
wasn't expected to lose, obviously a huge favorite, but he
won every single game otherwise than he won a game
he was an underdog in in Texas to open the
year at Texas A and M obviously has won by
the widest margin of victory in the country since Week three.
You can make the case they've been the best team
in the country since Week three, so it's hard not

(26:04):
to respect where they are. The one thing I'll say
is I didn't love how the past defense looked against
USC Mayava three. For almost four hundred yards, they put
up thirty I think thirty one points in that game,
so I would say that's something to watch out for.
I don't know if Curtis Rourke exposes that. Benjamin Morrison,

(26:24):
who's probably set to be a top twenty pick, I
think he should be a top five ish pick. I
really think he's right there with Will Hunter and Will
Johnson and Travis Hunter in terms of the top cornerback
prospects of this year. He's probably going to be probably
ten to fifteen picks behind those guys. But he's been
out for a couple of weeks now and he's out
for the rest of the season. It hasn't it didn't

(26:46):
come into play really familiarity of defense until they played USC.
That would be the one thing I'm concerned about down
the stretch. Christian Gray had a tough game against USC.
He responded, you know, won the game with a pick six,
and then the following drive, Xavier Watts has a pick six.
Xavier Watts probably the best player on the team at safety.

(27:09):
He's going to be an NFL guy next year. But
that's enough Notre Dame blazing from me. Let's move on.
I so I'll just kind of go through the bracket here.
That sets up Notre Dame against Georgia. I think Georgia wins.
I was shocked to see Notre Dame as a two
and a half point favorite potentially in that game. I
think people are paying too much of attention to the
quarterback situation. Carson Beck hasn't been good all year long anyway,

(27:32):
So I don't think it.

Speaker 3 (27:33):
Really anything on the injury.

Speaker 4 (27:34):
By the way, and Carson Beck, I haven't heard anything
on what the stands now.

Speaker 2 (27:38):
Yeah, I don't know about beyond that. I'd imagine if
they're already saying he's out for a game on January first,
he's probably also out for a game on January ninth,
But i'd imagine he's done for the year. But yeah,
I it's not in Atlanta, as it was originally reported
that they would be the Peach Bowl that Georgia would get.
They got the Sugar Bowl, which is, you know, in Orlands.

(28:00):
I think that's a big difference that it's not in
their backyard. But I think that this is a bad
matchup for Notre Dame. I would have rather any other
matchup besides Oregon in the entire country. So I think
Georgia wins that one. You get Oregon against the winner
of Ohigho State Tennessee. We both had that as Tennessee.
I think Oregon beats Tennessee. I think it's gonna be

(28:20):
a really close game. I think that'd be a really
fun game. But I would give the nod to Oregon.
I think Texas pummels Arizona State. Everyone has gone a
little crazy about Arizona State. I keep hearing the hottest
team in the country. They did barely beat BYU twenty
eight twenty three on a game that they almost blew

(28:42):
at the end. They barely beat Kansas State twenty four
to fourteen. They barely beat UCF thirty five thirty one.
These were in November. It's not like this was all
less than a month ago. Those games. I know that
they just blew out a bad Arizona team, and they
blew out Iowa State. I don't think Iowa State it's
any good. So I don't think Arizona State. I don't
think they're special at all. So I think Texas. I'd

(29:03):
be more inclined to lay at eleven type number with
Texas in that game than I would even against Clemson.

Speaker 4 (29:10):
Yeah, that was gonna be a take of mine that
I think that they have an easier time getting past
Arizona State than is the case with Clemson. Ultimately, I
don't think they'll stumble over either. But I think that
if you're looking at the pathway through this, for me,
Texas is the best route out of anyone, except obviously
you're running into likely Oregon in that next round, which
is where things get real difficult there. But I think
you can't ask for a much easier first two rounds

(29:30):
than what they have in front of them.

Speaker 2 (29:32):
Yeah, I mean Texas will be in the final four.
Like I think we can say that pretty definitively. You
couldn't put a parlay together of them to make I mean,
I don't know what their odds are to make the
Final four, if that's even a thing on DraftKings over there,
if you could check for me, But I don't know it.
I'm sure it'd be like minus one ninety or minus
two hundred when you're looking at the fact that their

(29:53):
minus four hundred this week will probably be the same
thing next week if they win. I can't imagine that
it's not super super juiced up for them to make
the Final Four, but that would bring on and then
you have Boise State against Penn State, and I'm gonna
go with Penn State. I do think Penn State probably
loses one of these two games. I just can't figure

(30:14):
out what it is. But I'm gonna pick Penn State
to win, even though I'm not confident in it.

Speaker 4 (30:20):
Yeah, I don't know how it feels we're destined for
James Franklin blow up. Man Like, it just feels due
for it. I could see boise being the team that
does it. I very much could. I like gen t
I think it's a fun team to root for. I
don't know where I'm at because I also have become
a Drew Aller believer as the season has gone on
that there's more than him than I expected.

Speaker 3 (30:39):
You're not you don't feel that way.

Speaker 2 (30:41):
I think it's overblown. Okay, I think it's really overblown.
You look at his stats weak to week and it's
all eye test people, and I get it. He's like,
I think he's a classic, like looks good in short, sky, tall,
prototype white. Just to be honest, not you. I'm saying,

(31:01):
like the scouts out there who fall in love with
certain traits out there, I think drew aller falls to
all those things, and higher completion percentage this year than
he's ever had before, say about the same of yards
as he had last season. And you know, I just
don't think he's anything special. I think he's one of
the worst quarterbacks in the college ball playoffs.

Speaker 3 (31:20):
Wow, Okay, I wouldn't go that.

Speaker 4 (31:21):
I would put it, consider him one of the better
quarterbacks out of the available guys left.

Speaker 2 (31:26):
I would take Club Nick. I would take definitely. Club
Clumb has way better numbers. I would take yours for sure,
I would take You wouldn't take yours over.

Speaker 3 (31:37):
Al Your sucks man.

Speaker 2 (31:39):
Yeah, he missed four games or five games.

Speaker 3 (31:43):
Yeah, he's I don't like when you were at all.

Speaker 2 (31:46):
Alar stinks Alar couldn't score against Ohio State at all.
They were in the end zone three times. You couldn't
put it in.

Speaker 1 (31:54):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (31:55):
I don't get the Aller thing. Joe Tanzy's been pushing
Aller all year. I take Nico over him, I take
Howard over him. I would definitely take Gabriel. I'd definitely
take Kevin Jennings. I would take him over. I would
take him over Maddox Madison. I would take Curtis work,
I would take Riley Leonard, and I would take Riley
Leonard easily, just because of the running. I think running
provides more than Alur brings better than Georgia. So Georgia

(32:16):
obviously we don't even know who their quarterback is, but
I don't. I'm not an Alur guy.

Speaker 3 (32:21):
Okay.

Speaker 4 (32:22):
Interesting, I was pretty out on him heading into this year.
He I'll put it this way. I think there's been
more moments where he's made something out of nothing than
I saw from him last year. And I think he's
done more with his legs at least taken off and
making a play happen. There's just a little bit more
to him. To me, this is a water down class
as a whole. That there's really not a single quarterback
in this class that I look at and say like
this is the.

Speaker 3 (32:41):
Guy or this dude is truly elite here.

Speaker 4 (32:43):
But I think when kind of like breaking down the
best out of a bad bunch here, I think Aller
is a little bit higher on this list than I
kind of expected in my thoughts.

Speaker 2 (32:52):
Yeah, I wouldn't want to take a sniff on Drew
Aller in the NFL. If he gets drafted in the
first two rounds. That seems making a colo Where did
you were? Then I wouldn't take him. Okay, I wouldn't
take any Honestly, I would take shit War yeah, and
even him. I have like concerns about I would take
Ward over these guys. Cam Ward, I'm not a mill

(33:14):
Roe guy. I at least understand the traits with Milroe
more than I understand the traits with Aler. I think
you've seen just as much from Millro. Milroe is alor.

Speaker 3 (33:25):
He's so all over the place, though, Like there's games
where you'll see it, and there's games where it's like,
who is this dude?

Speaker 2 (33:32):
Yeah, for sure, I do think he has a high
floor with his running ability. But I yeah, I would
say Milroe would be like Hubi three. But he's not
a guy that I would want to take in the
first three rounds either. So it's a bad quarterback class.
But just in terms of like a college quarterback, like
I think Allar's tenth out of the twelve teams, I

(33:53):
only think it's close with Levitt. Honestly, maybe Howard. I'm
throwing off off by Will Howard. I don't even know
what he is like. I mean, there's times I watched
him this year and he looked like he was taking
their offense up a notch. And then there's times where
it looks like they have absolutely no faith in him

(34:14):
to do anything. I mean, even he had better numbers
than al I mean, I guess the argument with him
is he is Jeremiah Smith. But uh yeah, you can
make a case that that Alar's better than Howard. I'd
be willing to listen to it. I would take Howard
again because of the running I think Sam Love It'll
be interesting to see. He's been really good at Arizona State.
Is not legitimate or not, It's kind of hard to know.

(34:34):
But let's move on. Let's talk NFL. We kind of
took way longer on the college game than I thought
we would. So let's let's get over and I'll run
through my picks and then we'll run through some of
the other games that didn't fall under under kind of
my picks column here at one o'clock. I like that
there's a cross game money in the dumpster. Give me

(34:54):
the Jags plus three and a half against the New
York Jets. It's a I've been I'm kind of addicted
to betting on the Jags right now. They're sick against
the spread. They're against the spread, merchants eight and five
on the year against the spread, seven and two against
the spread as an underdog. As an underdog, Doug Peterson
thirty nine and twenty eight against the spread for his career,

(35:16):
much worse as a favorite. But the Jets are about
to be favored in their tenth game this season, and
they are three and ten since Week four, Jets are
one and nine straight up, two and eight against the spread,
tied for the worst straight up mark for any team
in the NFL, and tied for the worst against the
spread mark with the Titans. And of this, and I
know people are gonna say, oh my god, you're betting

(35:37):
on Mac Jones. Of the thirty three quarterbacks to have
at least two hundred plays since Week four, Aaron Rodgers
is twenty eighth in EPA for play, twenty ninth and
success right, thirtieth in completion percentage over overexpected, and thirtieth.

Speaker 3 (35:53):
And a do.

Speaker 2 (35:54):
The guy's been terrible, Yeah for a long stretch. Now
he should not be a three and a half point
road favorite against anybody.

Speaker 3 (36:02):
Yeah, I have no issue with any of your logic here.

Speaker 4 (36:05):
To me, this is an avoid game just because I
think there are two absolutely dead teams that are completely
cooked on the season. Rogers, like has been legitimately bad man,
and I'm glad you bring that up because that has
not really been put to the forefront as much as
it deserves to be. Like, when looking at the issues
with this Jets team, it starts right with the guy
under center there that he has not lived up the
things they've brought in, his friends, They fired the coach,

(36:25):
They've done everything to set Aaron Rodgers up for success,
and he has not carried the torch there. So I
don't know where you go from here, but this is
absolutely a last season. I lean your side of things,
but for me, This is a game that I'm gonna
straight up avoid and hopefully not even see on my
TV very much.

Speaker 2 (36:39):
Nobody should want to watch this game, And to your point,
nobody should win Aaron Rodgers next year. No, no quarter back.
That is untenable. The only team that maybe can make
a case is the Jets. If you have to die
and you just want to keep them, fine, I guess.

Speaker 4 (36:55):
But I do think it's better for society for Aaron
Rodgers to be playing football, not just you know, being
Aaron Rodgers in the wild to.

Speaker 2 (37:04):
His own devices.

Speaker 3 (37:05):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (37:05):
I don't know if that's a good thing. Another more
interesting game here, and this is the game I'm kind
of talking myself into being more confident throughout the week.
And it's funny. I look at all the spreads after
we do our show usually on Saturdays, I look at
the spreads for the following week, even though the games
are the following day, just to get an idea of

(37:27):
where things are before the games are played. I kind
of set where I think the spread should be and
then make slight adjustments throughout what happens on Sunday, and
then when they release the numbers, that's when I compare
and contrast, and I find the bests that I like
compared to the bets that are the odds that Vegas makes.
That's my little process. But with the Dolphins, after last

(37:48):
week's show, I saw they were plus two and a
half against the Houston Texans on the route. I have
been extremely consistent on this show that I think the
Houston Texans are absolute guard in a can. I think
I can't wait to bet against this team anytime they
play in a somewhat competent organization. The thing is, I

(38:09):
watched a lot of that Dolphins game last week. I
don't know if this is a good team at all.
The way they played against the Jets. They're six and seven.
I'm talking myself like I was super confident before the
Jets game. Hated it on Sunday, almost took it off
the card. The more the week goes on, the more
I do think the Dolphins are the better team. If

(38:31):
you're just going like looking at the offense, you take
away the outside factor. This game's not in the snow,
this game's not in the cold. That should help to
a little bit into his career, he's played five games
inside of a dome. Dolphins are four and one in
those games, averaging twenty six points per game in those matchups. CJ.
Stroud six and twelve against the spread as a favorite,

(38:52):
So give me the Dolphins plus three. I'm not sure
what my confidence level is yet. I'll tweet it out
on Sunday when I put my pick street out officially,
but I will be on the Dolphins in some capacity.

Speaker 4 (39:06):
Yeah, I don't love it, mainly for what you hinted
at there. I just have my doubts about this Dolphins team.
I'm higher on the Texans than you are, for sure,
but I'm certainly love the Texans.

Speaker 3 (39:15):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (39:16):
I thought they're gonna be legit good, and I still
don't think they're bad bad, Like obviously, things have not
gone according to plan for them this season like we
thought we would be better. They're still eight and five
leading the AFC South and like in the driver's seat
for a pretty clean playoff opportunity here. I just don't
know if Miami is remotely what I thought they were
gonna be. Like, I still, even with them kind of
turning things around and too of getting healthy again, they

(39:37):
have not been this like high flying motion all over
the field, like the traits that make them the Miami
Dolphins under Mike McDaniel, there really have not been out
in full effect this year, so they've been weird.

Speaker 3 (39:47):
To me.

Speaker 4 (39:47):
I'm kind of out on them as a team this year.
I've lost my belief in the Dolphins. Is kind of
where I'm coming from for this direction.

Speaker 2 (39:54):
Yeah, I, by the way, totally predicted this Texans season correctly.
I said they'd be a ten to eleven win team
that we're all like, why didn't they take the leap?
And that's exactly what's happening, And yeah, give me the
Dolphins just outa this is my last stand with I mean,
this is the Dolphins last stand. You know, this game,
you're done six eight. You win this game, you're back

(40:15):
at a little bit, so you have some life. I
saw Roy tweeted I think he I think it was
via NFL that they have a twenty seven percent chance
to make the playoffs right now. If they win, that
goes to thirty eight. And then I saw someone say
it's thirty five right now, and if they win, it
goes to fifty. So it depends what kind of what
formula you're using out there for the nerds. But my

(40:37):
last one o'clock side bet. I keep betting him, and
it keeps being dumb every single week. Give me the
Chiefs again, minus four. They've lost seven straight against the spread.
It's the longest against the spread losing streak Vandy Reid's career.
Can't get the eight Give me minus four. This season,
the Chiefs only have ten takeaways, tied for the third

(40:57):
fewest of any team in the NFL this year, the
Chiefs have been pretty bad turnover luck. Then that means
for their defense to be as good as it has
been to not be turning the ball over. Maybe they
get a little bit of demon magic that way soon
going into the playoffs where they start taking the ball
away a little bit. And what team better to boost
those numbers against than Jameis Winston who in his last

(41:21):
nine starts his team is two and seven against the spread.

Speaker 4 (41:24):
Yeah, if anyone's gonna give you a chance, that it
is Jameis Winston.

Speaker 3 (41:27):
Man, And I don't know what to make the Chief's team.

Speaker 4 (41:29):
I'm certainly not gonna be one of these guys talking
about how they're lucky or you know, finding a way
through or their last year's Eagles or anything like that.

Speaker 3 (41:35):
I don't believe that to be the case.

Speaker 4 (41:37):
I will say, like I did dive into their defensive
numbers earlier this week and was kind of surprised, Like
how the lack of impact that we've seen from them.
Some of that may be turnover look, for sure, but
this was a defensive unit that I really kind of
believed in heading this year, a really young unit that
they were the lowest average age of a starting defense
as of last season, and a lot of the same
core guys back. They haven't really progressed or taken that

(41:57):
next step or imposed themselves at the level I sort
of expected to be the case there. So I don't
know what the overall outlook is. I do think that
the I have a hard time like believing them to
put a team away at this point in the season.
So the four feels like a lot to me. But
this Cleveland Browns team, man, I mean, they're fun to watch.
I love that we're getting the Jameis Winston experience, but
I think we also know the reality of that is

(42:19):
it'll be watchable football. There will be some big plays,
there will be opportunities, but Jameis Winston's gonna give the
other team just as much of a chance as he
gives his own. So I think Patrick Mahomes is obviously
the guy that will get the better of them. I
do like the Chiefs to overall win this, and I
think the minus four is a totally fair play. But
I just have a hard time back in the Chiefs
for any sort of spread at this point in the game.

Speaker 2 (42:37):
It's definitely fair. I will say with the defense, they
shut usin Herbert out for the whole. They shut the
Chargers down in the first half last week. I do
think the last couple of weeks for the Chiefs have
been a little bit of a kind of a bounce
back defensively, so maybe that's kind of the start of
something there. So and then also one thing with the
Mahome stuff. People want to talk about the offense, people

(42:59):
want to talk about not putting up the same numbers.
Go watch that last drive against the Chargers. He's still
in there, Yeah, no doubt. Still he's still right there
waiting for January to break out of his slumber while
the Chiefs was twelve and one, by the way, and
breakout of not caring. And when he turns it on,
it's there's still nothing like it in sports. So one

(43:23):
last play for the one o'clock's Chase Brown over thirty
one and a half receiving yards. That's been an auto
play Vegas finally adjusted, it's been like twenty three and
a half three straight weeks. They bumped it up to
thirty one and a half. He still won over this
number five of the last six games. So give me
the Chase Brown. This is my last stand with that.
If they if this isn't cash, then officially it's overpriced.
Now let's get to the Eagles. Anything on this game

(43:44):
for you five.

Speaker 4 (43:45):
And a half makes me nervous, man, that I do
believe in this Steelers team to an extent. I think
this is gonna be a grinded out, hard fought game.
Looking at the over under at forty two and a
half kind of indicates the same thing there. I probably
still lean towards the under for this that I think
this is gonna be one of those lower, low scoring
defensive matchups. But Russell Wilson is not afraid to air
it out. So this is gonna be a really cool
measuring stick game for kind of both teams.

Speaker 3 (44:06):
Here.

Speaker 4 (44:07):
I do kind of perceive the Steelers is more legitimate
than I think a lot of people talk about him.
It's gonna be interesting if this is a force the
ball to aj Brown type situations for the opening couple
possessions here. I'm curious how that plays itself out. I
think I do certainly believe he's gonna have a big
day for a lot of different reasons here. But I
think ultimately, if I had to make a wager, would
probably be the plus five and a half in favor

(44:28):
of Pittsburgh.

Speaker 3 (44:28):
I will not be doing that.

Speaker 4 (44:30):
But I think this is gonna be a pretty much
grinded out, down to the wire game that I could
very easily see falling within a field goal.

Speaker 2 (44:36):
Yeah, I'm gonna go a little bit of the opposite way.

Speaker 3 (44:41):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (44:42):
I don't think this offense is scoring on this e
Eagles defense without George Pickens. Okay, Yeah, I know that
they looked good last week. I think a lot of
that was turnovers with Jamis putting them in good spots.
And I think it's gonna be a legitimate where we
start to see some of the Steelers offensive issues. But
you kind of excuse a little bit George Pickens might

(45:02):
be leveling him. Here's the problem. I was about to
say George Pickens might be leveling himself up to be
a top ten receiver. I was on a podcast with
Shane the other day and I said that about I
think a manra I was talking about how people don't
talk about him enough, and you start listing like guys
who you think should be listed as like top five receivers.

(45:23):
It's a deep list, a lot of good receivers out there.
So George Pickens has definitely leveled himself up to be
a true number one dog as a wide receiver, and
a lot of that doesn't even show in the stats
because he's such a pass interference stud. He's such a
raw so many pis and Broughts a great quarterback for that,

(45:43):
and it feels like that's a lot of their strategy.
And I think that's factored in that this number has
ballooned up to five and a half some places. So
I'm laying it give me the Eagles minus to five
and a half. But more importantly, in this game, I'm
taking the team total. I think I think you can
get I'm not seeing it out there right now. I
think it would be twenty three and a half, twenty

(46:03):
four and a half. And you look at what they
scored recently. Yeah, they scored twenty two last week, but
also they would they should have scored twenty five, potentially
twenty eight. Jake Elliott makes a kick and if they
don't feel like they have to punt it from the
thirty six, that's a whole issue. Maybe if you want
to say they're never gonna be kicks, then fine, but
they put up thirty seven on the Rams, twenty six

(46:24):
on Washington, thirty four on Dallas. They've you know, people
want to talk about the offense. The offense has been
just fine. There's no problems there. They're on a nine
game win streak for a reason. Twenty eighth the game
before that, thirty seven before that, twenty eight before that,
it's been pretty you know. One, I'm so done, so
done with the way that Jalen Hurts is being talked

(46:45):
about out there. It's sean you know how defensive I
am of Joel Embiid. I would say at this point,
I've reached a level with Jalen Hurts that I don't
think I've ever been with an athlete in terms of defensiveness.
Anytime I get a text from someone that is like
trying to talk to me negatively about Jalen, I'm like,
what do you mean by that? I'm like the I'm

(47:08):
the Drew Ski meme right now, but I'm I'm on
high sensitivity red alert on all things negative towards my
sweet young French Chillen Hurts.

Speaker 4 (47:20):
Yeah, no, we certainly see eyd eye on that one.
And I do think Jalen gets dragged in a lot
of ways that he shouldn't. But with that being said, like,
I do think that last week's performance is probably the
worst that I've seen him play this season, and I
do think that there are things to address there. I
think people like the grass is not greener is really
the What I would say to Eagles fans who are
so critical is look around the rest of the NFL. People,
do you feel confident about many of these names? And

(47:42):
I frankly like think a lot of people who may
believe that is the case would be shocked that it
is not in actuality if you were actually to have
a season with a Baker Mayfield as your quarterback, whoever
the case. And I like Baker again, not a critique here.
I think Jalen Hurts is head and shoulders a quarterback
that will give you a better chance to win on
a week by week basis. So I like Jalen. I
do think he gets a bad rap. I do need
him to play better than was the case last week.

(48:04):
But I think he gets looked at under a microscope
that very few quarterbacks are held to his standard of that.

Speaker 2 (48:09):
Yeah, I think no quarterbacks are held to the standard
he is. I really do truly believe that. And unless
you want to say Mahomes, but it's so different, Like
the Mahomes thing is based on people literally hating his
guts and like loathing him to the point where they
wish he wasn't good. So I almost and maybe you
want to say that's similar with Jalen. I don't think
that's the case. I think people are just wrong. I
also think part of it is we are so negative

(48:30):
about Jalen that the national media sees that and they
feel like it's almost open season to go after him.
And obviously there's a lot of Eagles fancy stand up
for him, but just go through the like obviously there's
this is what I always do, and I do this
segment too many times, and I'm sorry, but Mahomes Lamar
Alan Burrow Elite take him aside. Who is without flaws?

(48:51):
Who can you not pick a part on the rest
of the board. We did the quarterback rankings weeks ago.
Jordan Love had a brutal start to the season in
terms of turning the ball over. Se Stroud, Like I
just said, six and twelve against the spread as a favorite.
He's not beaten bad teams consistently. It just beat Mac
Jones twenty three to twenty two weeks ago. He's throwing
picks all over the field. Justin Herbert got shut out

(49:11):
last week in the first half of a game against
Kansas City Chiefs. Dak Prescott's hurt for the fourth straight
year or whatever it is. Baker Mayfield was almost out
of the league a year ago. Jared Goff, you know
he threw five picks in a game this year. Kyler
Murray has been terrible for a month. Rob Purdy he's
on another shoulder injury that he's dealing with. Kirk Cousins

(49:31):
has zero touchdowns and eight picks in the last four weeks.
Matt Stafford's numbers don't line up with any of these
guys if you just compare it number to number game
logs wise, which is what we're doing to jail in.
Matt Stafford doesn't line up with any of these guys.
He's almost like it. You have to be an eye
test guy to really respect Stafford. Tua that was brain
rattled at one point this year. Gino Smith is up

(49:53):
and down week to week. You have no idea what
you're getting from Gino. Trevor's a complete disappointment. Russell Wilson
just started playing three weeks ago. Like Sam Darnold, he
was terrible for a month, like a month ago, and
he's been good again this last couple of weeks. But
you can pick apart every quarterback in the NFL, and
is Jalen Hurts, Peyton Manning, No? Is he Tom Brady? No,

(50:13):
He's never gonna be the guy who sits back in
the pocket and reads the defense better than the rest
of the NFL. He brings other strengths and other advantages.
He ran for sixty yards last week, and people want to,
you know, all twenty two all these mispasses, and Becky
agrees with me, she's barking in the background, but people
want to do the all twenty twos with you know,
all the mispasses that he had. And then They want
to complain when he turns the ball over in the

(50:35):
early part of the year, and then they don't want
to bring up when he has a seven yard sack
that he turns into a fifteen yard run to bring
the ball to the five yard line. Saquon runs the
battle of the one, and then Jalens pushes it in
the next play. It's people don't want to give Jalen
the respect of what he brings as a runner. And
even John Jansen, who his baby face, turned on Twitter

(50:56):
this week to be a positive Jaialen guy, I love it.
I love you John. But the fact that he was
trying to tell us a week ago that he has
no impact on the running game for sa Kuon, I
think goes to show how disappreciated. That's not a word
that Jalen hurts is in terms of what he brings
to this offense outside of just pure passing yards. And
people want to say, like, oh, imagine a j Brown

(51:16):
with a true you know, a true qv one. Imagine
what his numbers would be like. Oh, you know, what
would they be like? Would it be like, you know,
what do you have had one hundred and six catches?
What do you have you know, maybe fourteen hundred and
ninety six yards, maybe even eleven touchdowns, Like pretty good,
that's pretty good. Like he entered the Top five conversation
with Jalen Hurts, correct, not before Jalen Hurts.

Speaker 3 (51:40):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (51:40):
No, these have been the best years of AJ's career.
And do you make anything of the conversations this week?
All the Aj Brown. I'll give my take before I
throw it off to you. I can't believe Brandon Graham
opened his mouth, man, and he's too smart to be
doing that, and a guy who's too familiar with how
all this works. He's got a foot in the media already,
so I can't believe he was the guy to kind
of stir the pot here. I think they did a
pretty nice job of shutting things down, and everybody's saying

(52:02):
the right things, both AJ and Jalen. It is very
funny to me for AJ walking it back, being like
when you said the passing game, He's like, no, I
wasn't talking about Jalen. It's like, okay, man. But regardless,
I do think this is pretty much like not as
big of a deal as people want to make it
out to be. And I think as long as they
perform well this week. This is all gonna be forgotten.
But any takes from you on it.

Speaker 2 (52:22):
I think you almost have to be a certain level
of diva to be a star wide receiver. Do you
think AJ Brown seems like he's probably a hard guy
to deal with? Guess what, you deal with him every
single time because he's one of the most talented football
players on the planet. When he plays football. The Eagles
are ten to zero this year. They're averaging close to
thirty points a game in the games that AJ Brown plays,

(52:43):
and they have not lost when he's taking the field,
So I think that says everything about his value to
the team. I'm willing to deal with some maybe dumb
comments after the game that take the main thing away
from being the main thing, but that's a whole I
don't give as much attention to it. They did do
a good job walking it back. I think Brandon Graham
probably does no more than we want to act like

(53:05):
he does.

Speaker 3 (53:06):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (53:06):
No, I mean I don't mean about the relationship. I
mean putting it out there the way he did that
he'd like.

Speaker 2 (53:10):
Oh it was ridiculous, it was right he was and
he and you know, good on him for saying it.
The next day he said he'd like, yeah, what I
accused AJ of and what I got upset with him
for doing, I literally was doing while I was getting
upset with him for doing it, Like he literally did
the same thing he was complaining about AJ for doing
so really really hypocritical bye by an Eagle's legend in
Brandon Graham. But AJ had a great response to it

(53:33):
where he said, you know that's BG. He's emotional. That's
everybody loved BG. I LOVEVEG. I thought AJ handled that
really well. So I was worried, like the things Brandon
Graham was saying, and that twenty minutes went beyond just
the clip that went out. There was a lot of
as a man like, There was a lot of as
a man comma about what Brandon Graham was saying, And

(53:53):
I was like, I was a J Brown listening to this.
I would not be necessarily happy with how Brandon Grant's speaking.
And just to be honest, like, I think Brander Gret's
probably right. They probably did have like a falling out
of some personal level that changed their friendship and hopefully
they can get through that. I don't you know whom
I don't know anything. I'm just saying, like the way
Brandon Graham said that, to me, everyone went out and

(54:13):
went like, wait, actually that they were trying to say
it was before they were teammates, and it's different once.
I didn't hear it like that. I heard it like
they went through something, and to me, I'm of the
mind like, let's not pay too much attention to this.
The team's eleven and two. But I just want to
keep a book a book and keep what's fair fair.
That's that's how I heard it, And I don't think

(54:34):
Brandon Graham's just saying a j Brown kept emphasizing from
the outside, Brandon Graham's not from the outside like Frandi
Gram's really close with Jalen that you could tell in
the way that he was commenting on the I listened
to the full radio show that day, you could tell
he's very close with Jalen Hurts. And by the way,
Jalen Hurts touchdown minus one oh five this week on

(54:55):
Wow Over on the books at a six unit play.
We're back baby, look at that.

Speaker 4 (55:00):
Yeah, yeah, we can put a bow on that as
far as that Eagles conversation there, but hopefully that is
the end of the drama that it was.

Speaker 3 (55:07):
We got it out of the way.

Speaker 4 (55:08):
We got a little bit of this and this doesn't
kind of carry over here. But winning is the best
care to everything.

Speaker 3 (55:13):
And they've doing been doing quite a bit of that lately.

Speaker 4 (55:14):
So I think a strong performance this week and that
all gets put behind us. But man, maybe let's just
chill out on the radio shows for all active Eagles
players for the time being.

Speaker 2 (55:23):
Then let's wrap this up with two final games here.
We got the big game of the week going on
during the Eagles game. Pretty weird that they put probably
the two biggest games of the week on concurrently at
four o'clock. But you've got the Bills and the Lions.
And I'm going with Josh Allen touchdowns plus money. He's
scored in six of thirteen games this year, but he

(55:43):
scored nine times so and he's scored in the last
four weeks. They're really using Tush push a lot more
as of late. So give me Josh Allen touchdown. Also,
I'll take a swing at the insane over.

Speaker 3 (55:55):
Why not. I like it, and I think the over
gets there.

Speaker 4 (55:58):
It'd be perfectly honest that I think the teams that
are gonna go back and forth and have at it here.
So this feels I don't know, man, I've gone back
and forth on this one. I probably will ride with
the plus money and go with Josh Allen. I even
think plus one ten and taking a chance at that
isn't a bad swing to take here. I could see
Detroit making a statement as well. This is I don't

(56:19):
love the board this week. Overall that I don't have
a strong take on a lot of these games, so
I feel like I'm middleman a little bit. I probably
think the over is my favorite play, even with it
at fifty four and a half. These teams are gonna
let it fly, man, and they both filled up plenty
this year, two of the best scoring offenses in the NFL.
So I'll ride with the over over my play and
don't feel either that passionate about either side here.

Speaker 2 (56:38):
Yeah, I'm on the over. In Josh, I would say,
I also don't love the board. I'm kinda you know,
I do love that Jags number. I love Jalen every week,
and then it's you know, the Probably my next favorite
bet is the last game we'll talk about here, Sunday
Night Football. I'm on the Green Bay Packers, everybody knows
how I feel about the Packers, and I do feel

(56:58):
like Packers losing thirty thirty one on Thursday night football
in Detroit has caused a lot of people to just
like abandon ship and not believe in Green Bay. I
didn't have that reaction from that game. I definitely walked
away being like, that's a team that can be Detroit
and that's a team that can hang with anybody in football.
To me, they're very clearly the sixth best team in
the NFL. I think there's the clear four. I would

(57:21):
put Baltimore five. You could even tell me you like
green Bay and born in the Baltimore I wouldn't argue that.
I think there's then there's a drop to like a
Pittsburgh after that if you're going through the power rankings.
But even though Baltimore might finish behind Pittsburgh, I just
take Baltimore more seriously in the playoffs. And I know
the lamarmie of haters will will hate that. I'm a

(57:43):
part of the good Lamarmiyah, not the bad LAMARMI. But
let's get a couple of stats here that I had
on the Packers minus two and a half at Seattle
Matt Lafleur has done an incredible job facing good teams
twenty eight to seventeen and one against the spread against
teams above five hundred, third best mark of any head
coach since his NFL coaching debut. In December, Matt Lafleur

(58:07):
coach teams are eighteen and three leafloor sixteen and nine
on extended prep, which is the fourth best of ninety
nine coaches of the last twenty years. And then, weirdly,
Gino much works at home and on the road, more
interceptions than touchdowns while at home. It's also interesting sat
ninth straight game that Seattle's been an underdog, only the

(58:28):
second team in history to be there's only a they're
only the second team in history to be an underdog
this many straight games with more than a fifty percent
winning percentage. So I don't know what that tells you,
Like I stared at that stat and part of me
thinks that tells you they're a fraud, and then part

(58:49):
of me thinks it tells you that they're actually beating
good teams. Like I can't decide how I feel about
the Seahawks team. I go back and forth and back
and forth. I guess where are you here? On Seattle
as a whole and on this game.

Speaker 4 (59:06):
Yeah, I lean more towards them being frauds is kind
of my thoughts here. I think Gino has come back
to earth a little bit from that sort of breakout
that he had. He's still throwing the ball a ton man.
He will let it fly, There's no doubt about it.
I believe still leading the league and pass attempts in
passing yards there or right in that same mix. I
like the Packers to win this game. I do think
that they covered the minus two and a half there.
They've had their ups and downs, and I'm not as

(59:28):
like bullish about this team as I sort of expected
to be. I know you've been really high on the
Packers from just about start to finish this year. But
I don't think that the Ecahawks are gonna be a
hurdle big enough to trip them up. And I do
think that like the realization that Gino may just be
a short term kind of stop gap quarterback, not a
guy that you can kind of breathe the second life
and maybe settling it in Seattle. And that's a tough
spot to be in. But I kind of think that's

(59:48):
what that's how it is.

Speaker 2 (59:50):
I mean, I think he's like as average. I think
he's average. Yeah, he's extremely.

Speaker 3 (59:54):
It might be the geno line might be the new Yeah.

Speaker 2 (59:57):
Yeah, I think that's what we decided. Is that the
guy we decided on when we were going through.

Speaker 3 (01:00:01):
Yeah, I think so. So I think that's what it is.

Speaker 2 (01:00:03):
Yeah, I agree with you. Is there any any other
game that stood out to you from a gambling perspective?

Speaker 3 (01:00:09):
Yeah?

Speaker 4 (01:00:10):
So, first off, I just did want to highlight we
don't see a sixteen point home dog or yeah, home
underdog very often, but shout out to the New York
Giants for that. I do like Cincinnati minus five this
week is my favorite player on the board. They're facing
the Tennessee Titans. I think this Titans team is a
mess right here. Cincinnati still got a little bit of
a hunger in them. I think the door is just
about shot for any sort of playoff hope, but I

(01:00:31):
do think that there's a lot of talent there and
that they can't take care of business. I also kind
of like Carolina minus three against Dallas this week. Man,
I think Bryce youngs do for finding a way to
into a victory he's playing much better football, and that
Cowboys team is straight up dreadful. I mean watching Michael
Parsons storm off the field the way that he did
and that the way that game ended just brought a
just joy to my heart there. So I think that

(01:00:52):
continues in Carolina takes care of business. So those are
my two favorite plays this week.

Speaker 2 (01:00:56):
Part of me wants to Parnemy, wants to take Tampa
plus the three against the Chargers, but I actually think
this is like a good Chargers spot. I generally like
fading the LA teams when they have a team coming
in with like a big fan base. I don't think
Tampa is filling out that stadium or I think there's
actually probably going to be a Chargers home game this weekend.

(01:01:21):
That actually makes me want to bet the Chargers, but
I'm not gonna bet the game. I'm staying away from it.
So that does it for the college football and NFL
portion of the Tough Cover Radio Show went a little
longer than expected, So let's take a break, and on
the other side, we've got Sean Bernard talking all things
in the rest of the wide world of sports right
here on the Tough Cover Radio Show.

Speaker 1 (01:01:40):
Spreads, totals and all the prop that's in betweens. It's
the gambler. If you can wager on it, We're talking
about it. It's the Gambler. Fox Sports Radio, the Gambler.
Fox Sports Radio in Philly is the Gambler. Philly sold

(01:02:02):
for all things sports gambling.

Speaker 5 (01:02:14):
First day's first recipe Sucker Philip.

Speaker 6 (01:02:18):
At athletic trainer Kevin Johnson. Over there a quick point.
Let's see if we can see anything on the replay here.

Speaker 5 (01:02:25):
Oh, he just gets hit with the left arm of Mathron.

Speaker 1 (01:02:29):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (01:02:29):
Hard hit to the face. So we will step away
back after this.

Speaker 4 (01:02:36):
And that was the story last night in Philadelphia, as
the all too familiar feeling of Joel Embiid lying on
the floor showed up once again.

Speaker 5 (01:02:44):
Here.

Speaker 4 (01:02:45):
Oh what a naive feeling it was to think that
the Philadelphia seventy six ers had turned the corner on
the injury issues, as we are seeing the exact opposite
today as Joel Embiide has suffered a sinus fracture, another
unique injury that I personally was not aware of until
experiencing Joel Embid And that, unfortunately is the story once again.
So I'm Sean Minard here rock with you in the
second hour of the Tough Cover Radio show. Hope you

(01:03:07):
hung around for the first hour of me Mark Henry
Junior jump through the NFL in College Football Slate.

Speaker 5 (01:03:11):
It's me to steer you home from here.

Speaker 4 (01:03:12):
We got about the next half hour that I'll be
hanging with you, and I want to talk a lot
about what went wrong with Joel embiid, a little bit
of this AJ Brown situation, and more specifically digging into
well I think social media has magnified kind of the
presence and the overall feeling of all these sort of
behind the scenes drama. We live in a different ecosystem
of media, I guess you could say, And I do
think this is not working out for a lot of

(01:03:33):
these guys and impacting Joel and Meat and A J.
Brown pretty specifically on this Now to rock with Embiid here,
I first just want to start off with I get
the frustrations. I hear it everywhere. I hear everyone ready
to move on. This is a disastrous season. There are
no doubts about that. These sixers have now dropped two,
seven and sixteen. And let me remind you that this
was a frustrating performance last night before Joel Embiid got injured,

(01:03:53):
But that was an unacceptable performance from start to finish
from that six Ers team. They seem to look like
a team that had not played since they been off
since Sunday. Did not look connected whatsoever, Lazy defensive possessions.
But this is all bearing the lead because of the
story is Joel Embiid, and unfortunately, despite Jared McCain, despite
Paul George, despite Tyrese Maxi, we're well aware at this

(01:04:15):
point in the game that the Philadelphia Sixers go as
Joel Embiid goes, and unfortunately, if that is the case,
they may not be going very far these days now.
As far as Joel as a whole, I think frustration
is the number one feeling that I get from a
sense of people when I'm scrolling the timeline, when I'm
trying to get a feel for the pulse for how
this is being looked at by Sixers fans here, I
think frustration is the number one feeling, and I get

(01:04:37):
that there's no way not to be frustrated by how
things are played out, But I have this other feeling
that just continues to pop in my brain, and it's
just feeling bad for the dude. Man, I get the
concerns again. If you want to go down the injury history,
and why not, let's do it right here to kind
of speak about the history of Joel Embiid. This all
started before he even made it to the NBA. The
days before the NBA Draft, Embiid undergoes surgery to repair

(01:05:00):
a stress facture on the navicular bone in his right foot.
This is what dropped him to the third overall pick,
Andrew Wiggins and Jabari Parker going one to two, and
then Joel Eviids slipping to the Sixers with.

Speaker 5 (01:05:10):
That third pick.

Speaker 4 (01:05:11):
Then, in August twenty seventh, twenty fourteen, the Sixers front
office expresses doubt that Embiid will be able to play
during the entire season, and that is ultimately what proved
to be the case. Then in June twenty fifteen, Embiid
suffers a setback on his recovery. Adrian Wolzanowski reporting this
that the seventy six confirmed the report and is revealed
that Embid rebroke his navicular bone and will be required

(01:05:31):
another surgery. Embiid then misses the entire season after another
successful surgery, missing the first two years of his NBA career.
Then in January twenty seventeen, when he did finally return
to the floor in his thirtieth career NBA game, and
Beat suffers a fall and aggregates his left knee, causing
him to miss Philadelphia's next three games due to swelling
and soreness. Then in January twenty seventh, just a week later,

(01:05:54):
Embiid scores thirty two points in twenty eight minutes, which
would end up being the final game of his rookie season.
He returns to the sideline with left knees swelling, and
this was the start of these very same meniscus injuries
that we'll come back into play here. Flash forward to
February twenty seventeen, the knee swelling is labeled a product
of a minor meniscus tear, and Beat as listed as
day to day, and then shortly after ruled out for

(01:06:16):
the entirety of the twenty sixteen twenty seventeen season due
to that meniscus injury. And I do think this is
notable here when kind of factoring the meniscus injuries. A
lot of what we take for granted when having these
conversations is how much this compounds that these meniscus injuries,
you got it until you don't that the more you
scrape away this, the more you try to clean it up,
the less that becomes possible. And this started right there
in the first season that he steps on the floor,

(01:06:38):
So he misses the remainder of the twenty sixteen seventeen season,
and then flash forward to March twenty eighth, twenty eighteen,
when a collision with Markel Foltz results in Embiid fracturing
his left orbital bone and sustaining and concussion. The injury
required surgery, and Embeid was placed in concussion protocol, sidelining
him for the final eight games the regular season and

(01:06:58):
the first two of the twenty eighteen playoffs. Flash forward
too January sixth, twenty twenty, where Embid servers A grewsome
finger injury in a win over the thunder. This required
surgery and sideline Embiid for the next nine games. May
thirty first, twenty twenty one, emb takes an awkward fall
in Game four of the Eastern Conference Playoffs against the Wizards.
The seventy six ers announced that Embiid has suffered a

(01:07:20):
partially torn meniscus in his right knee, sidelining him for
one game then in twenty twenty one and beat his
placed in the NBA's COVID nineteen Health and Safety protocols
misses nine games as a result. Upon returning to the lineup,
Embiid schairs that I really thought I wasn't going to
make it, detailing with the toll the.

Speaker 5 (01:07:36):
Virus took on him. Flat forward once again to April.

Speaker 4 (01:07:39):
Twenty At twenty twenty two, Joel Embiid tares a ligament
in the right thumb of Game three of the Eastern
Conference Playoffs against the Raptors. It is reported that the
injury will require offseason surgery, but he does play through
it and did hit a clutch three point game winning
three pointer, thuring that series as well. April twenty eighth,
twenty twenty two, an elbow from Raptors four Pascal Siakam

(01:08:01):
in Philadelphia's series clinching Game six win results in Embids
suffering a mild concussion and right orbitl fracture. Don't forget
the plane ride from Joel Embiid vibes as high as
they possibly could be and come crashing down to earth
there flat forward once again, we get Joel Embid's MVP
season in twenty two to twenty three, playing sixty six
of a possible eighty two games, the most of his career,

(01:08:21):
and then just shortly after, flat forward to January thirty,
twenty twenty four, an awkward play from Warriors ford Jonathan
Kaminga falls on Embiand's left knee. It is revealed that
Embids suffered another torn lateral meniscus on the play and
that injury would require surgery on his left knee. Then
April twenty fifth, twenty twenty four, after scoring fifty points
in Game three of the NBA Playoffs, and Bead reveals

(01:08:43):
that he's been diagnosed with Bell's palsy, resulting in the
paralysis of the face, migraines, and blurred fission. Then, in
preparation for his Olympic debut, embiad brushes off injury concerns,
and then we have the version of him that we
have today. And then flat forward one more time till
last night, and we have a sinus fracture. This is
a lot of stuff. There's no if answer butts about it.

(01:09:04):
It is tough to look at all this and act
like there's not a theme that this is the same guy,
the same player. But I have such a hard time
doing this because this is not a situation where this
is a guy being negligent to his body or not
taking care of it. And you can make those cases
in individual examples here. But when you scroll down talking
about Joel Embiid breaking his face on Markel Foltz's shoulder,
Joellen Bid getting hit by Benedict Mathern coming flying in,

(01:09:27):
getting ready to get a rebound, what do you do?
And that's the hard conversation about Joel Embiid. Now, the
bigger picture part of this is obviously the people that
are sick of Joel better over it. They don't see
a world where you can win a championship with Joel
Embiid as your focal point. And while I hear you,
while the history suggests you would be correct on that,
I don't see a better chance for this Sixers team

(01:09:50):
really ever, that I think the brutal reality that we
must all accept is the best bet for this Sixers
organization is you go down with the ship that is
Joel Embiid.

Speaker 5 (01:09:59):
Because walk with here? What is the pathway?

Speaker 4 (01:10:01):
First starters, let's speak in the short term, Joel Embid
is ineligible to be traded this season. He was handed
a three year extension in the offseason. One hundred and
ninety six million dollars will be with this franchise until
he is thirty five years old in the year twenty
twenty nine. That is the reality. The pen has touched
the paper, the ink has dried. That is final. That
is the situation with Joel. So that means we can't

(01:10:22):
even have these conversations until this summer is the potential earliest.
Then Embiid could possibly be moved. But the rest of
the NBA is not dumb. The rest of the NBA
is not blind. The rest of the NBA is not
in the dark about the situation with Joel Embiid. They
sit and see the same exact press releases that we do.
They sit and see these same exact stats and game

(01:10:43):
miss and injury concerns as.

Speaker 5 (01:10:45):
Each and every one of us.

Speaker 4 (01:10:46):
So, if you are one of these other franchise, does
Joel Embiid give you a little bit more relevancy if
you are at the Brooklyn Nets or the Utah Jazz
or the Washington Wizards.

Speaker 5 (01:10:54):
Absolutely, there's no doubt about that.

Speaker 4 (01:10:57):
But if you're looking at this from the Sixers perspective,
what could you did you possibly get back to improve
your chances of winning an NBA championship, which remains the
ultimate goal here. I love Tyres Maxy, I love Jared McCain.
I think they're both exciting young players that I cannot
wait to see what they fully grow into. But I
do do I think there's a world where either one
of those players could grow to be a better overall

(01:11:18):
talent than Joel Embidez.

Speaker 5 (01:11:20):
I don't. I just simply don't see it.

Speaker 4 (01:11:22):
I would love to be wrong about this, and frankly,
both these guys are players that love proving people wrong
and have plenty of examples of this. But realistically, when
looking at the NBA as a whole, you need to
have a top eight player in the entire league to
actually win a championship. Last year's Boston Celtics, I feel,
are a unique example of a team that sort of
lacked that top end talent that Jason Tatum who would

(01:11:43):
be their one. Although I know Jaln Brown won Finals MVP,
there is a guy that is still I think even
the harshest of Jason Tatum critics can acknowledge he's at
worst a top twelve NBA player. I frankly think he's
a couple of spots higher than that. I'm not the
biggest Jason Tatum guy in the world, but I do
think it's indisputable. And when you talk talk about a
malleable play style for the modern NBA, he's it that.

(01:12:03):
He can play up, he can play down, he can
play whatever position. He can play small ball center, which
he doesn't stretches for them. He launches three pointers, which
that whole entire team does. But why this works with
Jason Tatum not necessarily being this quote unquote lead dog
or head of the team in the way that many
people think about it.

Speaker 5 (01:12:18):
Look at the depth behind him.

Speaker 4 (01:12:20):
Jalen Brown very good basketball player, Chris tabs Porzeingis can
get absolutely red hot and add something from a stretch
five position there. Derek White is one of the incredible talents,
a guy that, like on an any night basis.

Speaker 5 (01:12:32):
Can look like the best player on the floor.

Speaker 4 (01:12:34):
Drew Holliday has been a several time All Star, one
of the best defenders across this entire league. This is
not just Jason Tatum going into battle. This is a
well rounded team. Now, while you can make that same
case with the Sixers team, I don't know if you're
talking about that's quite the same level there. But when
you look at the larger scale of champions across the NBA,
there is a similarity there.

Speaker 5 (01:12:53):
There is that.

Speaker 4 (01:12:54):
Top end, clear cut, top eight player in the NBA.
That's how you win. I think the NBA, more than
any other league in other sport, one player changes things
more than anything. That's why we see people tank for
superstars constantly, why we see people sell their soul to
make this big free agent addition, just at the prayer
of having a chance at succeeding in the playoffs. So
if you're the Sixers team, where do you find one

(01:13:16):
of those that isn't named Joel Embiid.

Speaker 5 (01:13:18):
That's the tough discussion there.

Speaker 3 (01:13:19):
Now.

Speaker 5 (01:13:20):
I understand the concept.

Speaker 4 (01:13:21):
If you want to lock it up and say in
your brain there's no way that we can win with Joel,
anything is better. I just don't think that is the
case there. And I still think we're being shortsighted about
the overall outlook for the Sixers team. But for the
people that say this season is washed and there's strong
evidence of that, they're seven and sixteen. They're currently sitting
at these standings right now, that after last night's loss,

(01:13:42):
they sit at twelfth place in the Eastern Conference, above
the Hornets, above the Raptors, and above the Wizards. The
Wizards historically bad three and twelve, little strong historically, but regardless,
a very bad basketball team there For the people that
are ready to tank for Cooper Flagg or throw everything away.
The first thing to very clearly note here, this draft
pick is top six protected. So what does that mean exactly?

(01:14:03):
If it falls within the first six selections, the Sixers
keep the pick. If it does not, it's head into
Oklahoma City, where they seemingly are collecting every single one
of these talents that we are desperately searching for. Every
team is really desperately searching for. So for that to happen.
And what's factor in the lottery odds, how all this
goes down that the four worst teams in the NBA,

(01:14:23):
none of them have a guarantee of having a top
four pick here.

Speaker 5 (01:14:26):
That's why they did the lottery to.

Speaker 4 (01:14:28):
Basically avoid doing teams doing exactly what the Sixers did
do for such an extended period of time and by
the way, so did the thunder who are looking like
the beneficiaries of all of this here. So, if that
is the goal to be to get a top six
pick and retain your draft pick, you got to be
so bad.

Speaker 5 (01:14:45):
You have to commit to being so bad.

Speaker 4 (01:14:47):
And I think if we want to honestly look ourselves
in the mirror here, it's just not going to happen.
Regardless of how bad it has been, how messy it
has been, how poorly the level of basketball has been
for this Sixers team this season, They're just not gonna
be worth in the Washington Wizards or the Utah Jazz,
or the Toronto Raptors or these teams that are deliberately
trying to be a bad basketball team. When you have

(01:15:07):
talents like Tyrese Maxi, like Jared McCain, like Paul George,
I understand we may not be pushing for the championship there,
but you're gonna win some games. You're not gonna accidentally
fall into a top six pick there. So this is
why the Sixers find themselves in such a difficult spot
in the short and long term. Here, we don't know
a ton about the outlook for Joel Embiid I will
say when I dove down the Google rabbit hole of

(01:15:29):
what exactly is this fracture in the face? Mind you,
the fourth time that he has broken his face in
his NBA CA There's been fifty three face breaks in
the entire NBA, and Joel Embiid is good for three
or four of them. They're not fully counting the sinus once,
so officially three of them. I think it basically counts there,
so I would consider that the case. So if that
is the case there, when thinking about this Sixers team.

Speaker 5 (01:15:52):
Where do you go from him? I don't see a
cleaner route.

Speaker 4 (01:15:55):
I don't see any route in which you can find
a player that gives you a more likely chance of
winning a CHAMPI so you kind to kind of deal
with it and hope for the best. At this current
point and window going down that Google rabbit hole was
certainly not encouraging for how soon he could be on
the floor. We will wait until we have details from
the Sixers organization, which who knows how long that takes,
as they certainly have not been the top tier for

(01:16:16):
communication across an organization with these sort of factors here,
and by the way, if he is out and cannot exercise.
It needs to rest this face. The knee issues are
still going to be knee issues here. There's been encouraging
moments for Joel of late, but he certainly still has
not been the MVP version of himself. So for the
time being, we're at the jurisdiction of the doctors and
waiting to see what the exact results of this are
for Embeid. But a season that seems like we've reached

(01:16:40):
rock bottom like three or four times right now just
proves that that may never be the case here. Now,
I do want to transition a little bit to talk
about the AJ Brown situation in Philadelphia, and I do
want to tie this back to Joel a little bit
specific here, So I'm going to start off and looking
at the Brandon Graham situations. So this has been something
that has been brewing for quite some time. We've kind
of have always heard the rumors of the AJ Brown

(01:17:02):
and the Brandon Graham sort of conversation here. Obviously him
and Jalen Hurts or Jailen Hurts and AJ Brown specifically
our guys who have had a great relationship in their
past here, but Brandon Graham hobbs on the radio show
himself and has some interesting thoughts on it.

Speaker 5 (01:17:18):
So the play that is exactly here.

Speaker 7 (01:17:20):
Complaining need to be accountable and I'm just being honest,
you know what I'm saying, Like and he noticed he
you know, I don't know the whole story, but I
know that one is trying. And I mean, Ilevin could
be a little better with how he respond to things.
And they was friends before this. It's like, man, but
things have changed. And I understand that because life happens.

(01:17:42):
But we got to it's the business side that we
have to make sure that we don't let the personal
get in the way of the business. And that's what
we got to do better as right now, because we
know it's an issue. Everybody's seeing some things, but we
need to be able to talk talk.

Speaker 2 (01:17:59):
Things out as men. You know what I'm saying.

Speaker 7 (01:18:02):
But we need to let personal stuff go and let's
get right for this game, because man, it's like a
lot of stuff. Most of the time, it's just a
conversation that you just need to be had. But the
person with the problem got to want to talk to
the person other than others.

Speaker 5 (01:18:14):
Oh that's all I'm saying.

Speaker 4 (01:18:16):
So couple thoughts here, My first thought and the first
thing that came to my mind immediately when I saw this,
Brandon Graham, Man, you are too smart to be doing this.
You've been around the city for far too long, a
living Eagles legend. Obviously everyone loves PG. I don't know
why he would remotely think this was a good idea,
And again, I think he's just too smart. So is
there the part of me that believes this was calculated

(01:18:38):
from Brandon Graham, that he needed to get this message
out there?

Speaker 5 (01:18:40):
Or was this just accident?

Speaker 4 (01:18:41):
All here now, Brandon Graham and really the rest of
the Eagles organization has done a pretty phenomenal job of
walking this back. But the tooth bases out of the
tube here. The conversation has been had had. You cannot
take that quote back exactly. So what do we make
of that here? I want to start by saying, in
this era we live in, everything is a bigger deal

(01:19:02):
than it should be. Every little thing. If you scroll
social media you see whatever. Think about like the inner
workings of a locker room, which once was this sanctity,
this space.

Speaker 5 (01:19:13):
That no one can invade.

Speaker 4 (01:19:14):
Think about throughout the years, the big deal that has
made about reporters getting access, or how hard it is
to get credentialed, or the things that must be kept
with between those four walls. That has been something that
forever has been leaned on as something that is an
important pillar of sports. There that really is not the
case anymore, and not because you know, this is access
to the team. This is what everyone wants when we

(01:19:35):
talk about growing viewership or getting interest in the team.
This behind the scenes working is what people want to see.
It is a two way street here that there is
the good in addition to the bad with which I'm
getting at. But when there are moments like this, like
Brandon Graham going on and speaking about AJ Brown and
Jalen Hurts, here we get a peek behind the curtain.
That's some things we don't want to see. And the

(01:19:55):
same thing happened not too far along with Joellmbian the
Sixers just a couple of weeks ago, where they are
having disaster start to the season. They responsibly call a
team meeting a normal move, something that happens that on
just about all teams. And then there's a member of
the team within hours leaking word for word quotes from
that exact meeting talking about Joel embiid being late to things,
And don't get me wrong, I'm not sticking up for

(01:20:16):
that behavior, but I do think it is pretty unacceptable
from a standpoint that that sort of stuff gets out
to the media directly like that. So what is kind
of the outlook here as an athlete, Like, how do
you deal with that? What is unique about this in
today's ecosystem compared to years past? It did to me
feel like this kind of swing of the pendulum of

(01:20:37):
athletes trying to control the narrative more, which I know
is a phrase that has been thrown out there plenty.

Speaker 5 (01:20:42):
We see podcasts.

Speaker 4 (01:20:43):
Constantly by these guys, making radio appearances, making their own
social media sort of post I mean, we got Jared
McCain running TikTok's millions of views out there, Paul George
hopping on the mic after the game shout out, Tyrese
Maxi has his own podcast right here on iHeart Maxi
on the mic, shameless plug right there.

Speaker 5 (01:21:00):
When you go out of your way.

Speaker 4 (01:21:01):
To kind of control that narrative and step out on
the forefront of things to lead the charge for speaking
about yourself, you also become the main story. With all
of this and that's when we kind of lose some
of this sense of I don't want to say team,
because everyone has their own interest with things, but it
does feel like this stuff takes a life of its
own in a way where it never has before. This
AJ Brown and Jalen Hurts situation very easily could be nothing.

(01:21:23):
This could be just Brandon Graham his perception of things
that he sees, what his comments are. And frankly, my
full put kind of opinion here, I think you just
have to be sort of a diva to be as
good of a wide receiver as AJ Brown is. I mean,
look around, look out on the history, the Terrell Owens,
the Randy Mosses, and all these other guys that carry
a little baggage with them, and that's sort of what
comes with it. Antonio Brown. Another example there, Odell Beckham, Well,

(01:21:46):
he was cooking there. The guys that are of these
elite caliber talents, you put up for it when it's
worth it, and with AJ Brown, it's absolutely worth it
that there's no doubt about it. This guy remains one
of the most talented pass catches across the entire NFL.
And by the way, Jalen Hurts a guy who has
provided him the opportunity to have his career numbers that
AJ Brown. Let's not forget this version of AJ Brown

(01:22:07):
did not exist in Tennessee this version of AJ Brown,
this all pro clearcut top five wide receiver in those
game conversations for the most elite. That happened once he
got to Philadelphia. And there's a reason for that as well.
So I understand sort of where everyone is coming from
in this situation. It does feel bizarre to me that
this has taken on such a life of the story,
as this Egos team has won nine games in a

(01:22:29):
row and has legitimate Super Bowl aspirations, But it does
feel like more of a product of the ecosystem that
we all have created than anything specifically that has happened
internally or between these two guys on the field. Does
Jalen Hurts have to play better? Absolutely? Should AJ Brown
handle things probably a little differently?

Speaker 5 (01:22:46):
Absolutely?

Speaker 4 (01:22:47):
But what is the full issue here is kind of
where I circle back to. I feel like so much
of this ends up being created by all of us
than anything from what the actual story is in itself here,
And for a specifically, just show up and keep playing man.
Jalen Hurts specifically, just show up and keep playing. Keep
the main thing. The main thing, as Jalen would like

(01:23:08):
to say himself, that is the story of what is
going on in the field, and what is that exactly?
The Eagles are winning football games, that's the story. That
is what is happening, That the aspirations for the season
are being reached and all this is nothing but a
negative to that.

Speaker 5 (01:23:22):
Now, I'm not kind of excusing the Eagles part in this.
We see it. Obviously, Brandon Graham was the.

Speaker 4 (01:23:27):
Guy that said it, and again I'm shocked that BG
is the guy for a dude that has such a
strong foothold on this organization, the city, et cetera, et cetera.

Speaker 5 (01:23:35):
But it is the reality of things.

Speaker 4 (01:23:37):
So I do think it's a unique kind of constraints
that these athletes have to win in and live in
in today's ecosystem here, and I do think that there
should be more media training than ever before that there
is kind of more, i guess, you know, bells and
whistles that come with the job than I think has
ever been the case. But it's also kind of the
beauty of it that we love to see this see
the other sides of the guys see personality that it

(01:23:58):
isn't just about a guy that can run it four three,
and you can see what his vertical reaches that you
do get an idea of what his personality is. And
I do wonder when kind of comparing this two past years,
were these issues that happened before that we never found
out about. Are these issues that are being driven by
the exact situation that led up to it? Those are
all things that I don't have the answer to, but
I do think it is real interesting food for thought

(01:24:20):
as things have kind of modernized in today's world, before
the leagues as a whole, for the players as the whole,
for all the money that is coming in, all the
growth and the tention that is coming. This all tied together.
So for all the complaints, it's kind of interwoven here.
So I think it's frustrating. I have some sympathy, but
ultimately this is the world that we created here. So

(01:24:40):
we'll see right there, We're gonna take a quick break
on this side. I'm back for about five more minutes
before we sign off for the day. We got a
couple more thoughts I wanna get to, so just keep
it locked. On the other side, I'll be back talk
with you, peace.

Speaker 1 (01:24:51):
Spreads, totals and all the prop that's in between. It's
the gambler.

Speaker 4 (01:25:08):
I might be too strung out on compliments, and I'm
back Sean Bernard on the other side here here to
close things out for the final five minutes, and I
do want to end with a little something interesting here.
You take a look at the Twitter bio or the
x bio of Darryl Moore, the Sixers president of basketball operations,
which states that opportunity is not a lengthy visitor. And
that is an awfully true quote, and one of that

(01:25:29):
I think rings a little bit too true today, not
just for the Philadelphia seventy six Ers, who certainly are
the primetime of this conversation here, but I also didn't
want to shine a light on the Philadelphia Phillies, who
I have not mentioned yet on this show. It's been
a lot of moves in baseball so far. The stove
is hot, and the Philadelphia Phillies have set on the
sideline here. Now, what my expectations are at this point

(01:25:51):
are Unfortunately, I do think that there is not going
to be nearly the notable move that we all hope for.
I frankly went into this offseason from a Phillies perspective
with the blue they have to do something to at
least keep this World Series window open. That, yes, Bryce
Harper is great. Yes, that is a foundational piece of
a championship team. This dude is a winner. There's no
doubt about the belief in Bryce. Trey Turner a slightly

(01:26:13):
different conversation that that felt like that was the co
star move. And I think even with Trey being better
last year, I don't know if we can honestly look
ourselves in the eyes and believe that contract was worth
it or that was the guy to go all in on.
I'm not saying I needed the Phillies to sign Juan
Soder for seven hundred and sixty five million dollars. I
would have loved for them go and get Kyle Tucker,
although I understand the risk as he is a free

(01:26:34):
agent at the end of this year and then he
can walk And obviously, you give those prospects, you give
those players, you commit that level of money, and a
dude to just walk away is a high risk to
take as an organization.

Speaker 5 (01:26:45):
But they got to do something.

Speaker 4 (01:26:46):
Man, even the Romano, the reliever that they brought in,
is buying out of the bargain bind. This is a
guy you're hoping for a return season, and he's been
very good for stretches, but he also is coming off
a really poor season and a guy that you're basically
hoping that the elbow can hang on. I don't understand
remotely the logic between this being a bargain bin franchise.

Speaker 5 (01:27:05):
You have.

Speaker 4 (01:27:06):
You are blessed with the opportunity of having an owner
that just wants to win, that does not care about
the finances. This is not a situation like so many
other franchises where the focus is on the bottom line,
the red line, the black line, what's our game, what's
our profit margin?

Speaker 5 (01:27:21):
Here?

Speaker 4 (01:27:22):
That is not John Middleton by any means. In my eyes,
he is the model for how an owner should look
to run a sports team.

Speaker 5 (01:27:28):
That the dude cares. He treats it like a fan.

Speaker 4 (01:27:30):
You go to a random Phillies game in the middle
of you know, September or whatever it is, and you
can find him up with a three hundred section just
taken in the baseball game himself. That is awesome to me.
He's not in his luxury box. He's not dressed up.
You know, he's not stealing camera time for himself. If anything,
you'll see him tossing baseball as the fan from the dugout.
That's about the axis that we have. The dude, is
how you should look to run a sports team. If

(01:27:52):
you are a super rich man that gets to enjoy
that privilege right there.

Speaker 5 (01:27:55):
But if that is the case, why are you not
making the most of that?

Speaker 4 (01:27:58):
If you're Dave Dombrowski, if you're making this decisions for
this overall roster price shouldn't be hurigenzart either. And I'm
not saying you need to spend money just to spend money,
but it is strange to me, just repetitively, how we
see this Phillies team getting outbid on guys or seemingly
not offering the same level. Kyle Tucker, to me, was
a massive mess that that had to be the guy.

(01:28:18):
And I understand it comes with some risk, but you
got to do something here. And I think the brutal
reality from a roster construction standpoint is that I think
the Alec Boehmes and the Crawfords, the prospects, the guys
that they believed you could build this intriguing package with
doesn't seem to quite have the same appeal to other
organizations here, and that's a tough reality. So for this

(01:28:38):
Phillies team, the offseason is not over. I do want
to take a deep breath and I will see the
full vision if it fully comes together. But further time,
being way too quiet of a season, and I expected
to be the case, and do hope that changes soon.
Now to talk about the Sixers team, did opportunity come
and go in their visit here? I don't know what
the answer to that is just yet there's certainly reason

(01:28:59):
to believe that it has. I mean, I can't look
myself in the eye and believe that. You know, this
is the time that Joel has that injury luck, but
they kind of has to be the game plan that
you lean on. Obviously it has not happened this year,
But really what you're hoping for is that one playoff run.
I think a player of Joel Embiid's talent, the caliber
of just elite skill that he has, it's rare that

(01:29:21):
you see zero playoff success for a player of that
that like notoriety, a player that is as talented as
Joel typically breaks through.

Speaker 5 (01:29:30):
At one point.

Speaker 4 (01:29:30):
Look down history, look at Derk Novitski, I think is
an awesome example of this, a guy that clearly throughout
his career was never able to get over that home
until he was. And I think like there's too much
brought on about this, like this guy's a loser, this
guy can't win. Everyone's a loser until they're not. Nikola
Jokic was considered a loser until he wasn't. Yana Sante
de Kumbo could he be a number one until he

(01:29:52):
won a championship. All those conversations change when you get
that one chance. But you got to find a way
to get one chance. And what I think is especially
Frosh frustrating about the brutal reality of his body potentially
falling apart here is it feels like the roster's finally
built for him, that there's finally the available options to
lean on. The Paul George, the World, the McCain's, the
Maxis Garashan Yabuseli has been terrific.

Speaker 5 (01:30:13):
Kayla Martin is going to win.

Speaker 4 (01:30:14):
Playoff games for the Sixers team, but it's all built
around Joel Embiid.

Speaker 5 (01:30:18):
If that foundation is cracked.

Speaker 4 (01:30:20):
If that guy that all this is leaning on, you're
not gonna have a very successful season, or however you
want to put it. You can have the nicest windows,
the nicest painting of a house that you could ever imagine,
But if that foundation is cracked, if that isn't laid correctly,
the housing can stand very long. And that kind of
feels like the case that we're going through with the
Sixers team. And again, I don't see an outlook that

(01:30:40):
you can improve this. I don't see a pathway you
can go down that gives you a higher chance than
basically crossing your fingers and praying. But then we also
got to acknowledge this lengthy list of injuries that I
started the show reading off with. There also is a
point where a guy has to look himself in the
mirror and talk about is this worth it for me?
That Joel himself has been open about the level of
depression that he is faced, not being able to get

(01:31:02):
back on the floor, all these type of conversations, what
does this one do? What is after coming back from
a knee injury, working your way back, fighting, scrapping, hearing
all the noise, all the magnifying social media yelling chamber
that I'm sure is being taken in, and Joelle specifically
is an athlete that's more online than most. That can't
be the easiest thing in the world to just do.

(01:31:23):
So there are more questions than answers about every one
of our own Philadelphia sports teams right now. The Philadelphia Egos,
who have been the side show of the week with
the Brandon Graham and aj Brown Show, are somehow the
only team that seems to be on that clear path.
And I will show little love to the Flyers, who
Matvey Mitchkoff still doing his thing that organizations moving in
the right direction and building things the right way, but

(01:31:43):
still a couple of years away, no doubt about it.

Speaker 5 (01:31:44):
There Before the Sixers and Phillies.

Speaker 4 (01:31:46):
They're at a little bit more of a crucial turning
point that I think any of us really realized until
we hit it.

Speaker 5 (01:31:52):
So we'll see what happens from here.

Speaker 4 (01:31:54):
But about as poor of a start to the season
you can imagine for the Sixers team, as about as
poor of an offseason as you start to the offseason
imagine for this Philadelphia Phillies team. A lot more questions
than answers than i'd like to have at this current time,
so we'll see, I think shake out from here from
all parties. I'm gonna keep rocking with you guys every
Saturday from eleven to one. We'll be back with Mark
Henry Junior for a normal show next week. He's up
in New York doing his thing this week, so it

(01:32:15):
tossed me the second hour to let me take things
the way I wanted it, and here's where we landed
on for this week. So hopefully better spirits and good
vibes moving forward, but for the time being a little
bit more. I guess frustrated is the best way to
put it moving forward, But either way, I appreciate each
morning guys for tuning into this.

Speaker 5 (01:32:31):
Keep it locked as always.

Speaker 4 (01:32:32):
We've been heading back out to Fox Sports Satellite Radio
after this. I'm hopping over to DraftKings Network to do
some writing for myself. So if you want some NBA
player props, want some you know, DFS plays, anything like that,
they will be coming out. You can check my Twitter
for that as well. But appreciate each other one of
you guys as always me talking you next time right
here on Fox Sports, The Gambler.

Speaker 1 (01:32:50):
Spreads totals and all the prop that's in the tweens.
It's the gambler