July 21, 2023 • 39 mins
Jason brings us the third of his weekly NFL division previews heading into the start of the regular season, this time with the NFC North. Will the Minnesota Vikings repeat as division champs? How far will the Green Bay Packers fall without Aaron Rodgers? Should you be buying into all the Detroit Lions hype? Can Justin Fields resurrect the Chicago Bears? J-Mac has the answer to all those questions. Later, The Athletic's Paul Tenorio swings by for a lengthy conversation surrounding Lionel Messi's MLS debut coming up on Friday night for Inter Miami.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
The volume. This is Straight Fire with Jason McIntyre. What
is up straight firefam, It's me Jason McIntyre. Straight Fire
for Friday, July twenty first end of the week, we're
(00:25):
going out with Style. Oh my goodness, Women's World Cup starts.
Leon Nell Messi's debut in the MLS. We don't know
how long he's gonna play. A half twenty minutes, five
minutes with Inter Miami that's tonight. However, it's so exciting,
I decided to bring on a soccer guest talk a
little messy, a little MLS. So we'll talk to Paul
(00:46):
Tenorio from The Athletic a little later in the podcast,
just breaking down messy MLS. Listen, it's an exciting summer
of soccer now that Messi's here, Women's World Cup, good times.
Let the good times roll. But first I thought we'd
do a little NFL And because I saw a rookie
get popped doing one hundred and forty miles an hour,
(01:09):
I believe in a fifty five mile hour zone. Jordan Addison,
the speed demon. Ha ha See what I did there?
From USC, I mean just absolute buffoonery. Camp hasn't even
started and you're doing stupid stuff like that, like Rook
get a clue. Not great, not a great look. So
I thought, because of that news and all this Justin
Field stuff. I'm sure you guys are watching the Herd
(01:30):
this week. Cowherd just drilling Justin Fields. I gotta step
in and defend Justin Fields.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
You know, I like him.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
So I thought we would do an NFC North preview
sponsored by Quarterback Out now only on Netflix. NFC North
was chaos last year. Aaron Rodgers and the Packers. After
winning the division twice in a row, Rogers the MVP
twice in a row. They slink back and they are
passed by Yes, Sir Kirk Cousins and the Minnesota Vikings.
(01:59):
Thirty teen and four unbelievable season for the Vikings, well,
regular season, that is, they go eleven to zero in
one score games. Guess what not happening again, Kirk Cousins.
I believe had eight game winning drives last year. Let's
be real. I said this, unheard, I've said it all
last season. The Minnesota Vikings were the luckiest team in
(02:20):
the NFL last year. Absolutely not going to duplicate that.
I do not have them at the top of the Division. Now,
the most interesting team in the division is the Detroit Lions.
You guys know when the world zigs, your boy likes
to zag. Well, guess what. The Detroit Lions, according to
bet MGM, are the most bet team to win wait
(02:41):
for it, the NFC. That's in terms of handle and bets.
Everybody sharps and the general public all over the Detroit
Lions to win the NFC. And a lot of that
has to do with what they did last year. Remember
they swept Aaron Rodgers, they won in green Bay, the
defense hounded Rogers think he had two zone picks. And
then they won in the season finale, defeating Green Bay
(03:05):
in Green Bay. Very impressive win. Jared Goff at quarterback
for both of them. I say at quarterback, I didn't
say won both those games because, frankly, the defense won
both those games and Detroit defense was not good last year.
We're talking like a bottom five to six defense in
the league. And there is a lot of optimism that
this team's gonna make the leap. And folks, I'm gonna
be clear, I very much like the Detroit Lions. I
(03:29):
actually have the Detroit Lions to win, Yes, win the division.
The Detroit Lions will win the NFC North. I don't
think it'll be easy, though I do believe this will
be the toughest division in the NFC. I don't particularly
think it's close. The NFC East is good, but I
have the Detroit Lions winning the division by a little
I am concerned a little bit about the defense because
(03:52):
they didn't really get better a couple moves in the secondary.
They do have a good defensive line led by Aiden Hutchinson,
who's a beast. You're just gonna have to wonder can
they do just enough. So the offense, which my guy
Adam Chronoff, who has been on the pod, will have
him on here in August. He had a great stat
that I believe they took sixty five percent of their
snaps last season. The offense did when trailing. It's a
(04:15):
lot easier when you're trailing in games and the quarterback
drops back look at a pass and the defense is
looking to protect leads a lot of prevent d a
lot of we know what you're doing, which is gonna
keep everything in front. So Detroit t able to have
a field day because they were playing from behind. And
I like this team. I don't love them. I've got
them winning the division narrowly over the Vikings. I've got
(04:35):
the Vikings too. It's tbd on if I have the
Vikings in the playoffs as of now, and again this
is being done in July. People are gonna throw this
in my face in the first week of September if
if I change my mind. But I'm telling you right now,
the Chicago Bears will not finish in the basement. And
I think the Bears will push the Vikings. Yes, push
the Vikings. For second. A lot of it has to
(04:56):
do with the continuity in Chicago, Okay, just to feel
young quarterback, two different offensive coordinators, two different systems. Now
he sticks with the guy they had last year. GETSI.
I think ebra Fluch going into year two was able
to remake the defense a little into more what he
likes now. I don't particularly like spending money on linebackers.
He did that and the Bears essentially are linebackered up heavily.
(05:20):
But that worked for him in India. If you guys
remember with Indianapolis the Colts defense, ibra Flus's scheme was
one of the best. Remember famously slowed down Mahomes and
read on a Sunday Night football or Monday night football
in case that was the one that really put Ebraflus
on the map. Matt Iberflus knows defense, and the schedule
is favorable. The real question is can they protect justin
(05:41):
fields Like I know he had eleven hundred jars rushing,
I believe the second greatest rushing season in quarterback history
of the sport. But fields cannot sustain that. I think
he had four carries over fifty yards. The guy's electric,
but the hits he's taking, you're not gonna last the season, dude.
So they get DJ Moore in the trade. I really
like this team a lot. Making the lead. Listen, it's
(06:03):
not hard to go from three wins to seven or eight. Okay,
given the free agent money they spent young quarterback, I
think they can leap up to seven or eight wins
and challenge the Vikings, who.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
I do think.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
Pull back and listen. People don't want to talk about it,
but the most underplayed story for the Minnesota Vikings right
now is what's gonna happen with Kirk Cousins. We know,
as Kevin Clark said a couple weeks ago on this podcast,
Shanahan and McVeigh absolutely love everything about Kirk Cousins. Kirk
Cousins has a new GM, a new coach, They've now
been there a couple of years. But you have to
(06:36):
wonder do they want to keep Kirk Cousins. They did
just draft a quarterback. Can they do a quarterback on
the cheap because the defense has nothing. Kirk Cousins is
getting paid very handsomely as quarterback should and the defense
is abysmal. Flores will keep it palatable, but they're not
gonna be good. They're gonna hemorrhage points. And then you're
hoping that Jefferson, Jordan Addison, they lose Dalvin Cook, they
(06:58):
got Alexander Madison. I'm just saying, listen, there's a world
where Justin Jefferson the best receiver in the league by
a lot of metrics. If Justin Jefferson goes down for
four or five games the way Jamar Chase missed a
few games last year, where does the Vikings offense get
popped from? Like Alec Dinner, Madison solid as a backup,
good fill in guy. Can he carry the team the
way Dalvin Cook? Could you know Adam Thieland is now gone.
(07:20):
Jordan Madison rookie just got popped for a go one
hundred and forty miles an hour. There's just a lot
of unanswered questions on Minnesota. They exceeded all expectations last year.
I love Jefferson. I think this team regresses from thirteen
probably to the neighborhood of seven eight nine wins and yes,
pulling up the rear rob g the Green Bay Packers.
(07:42):
I've read all I can about Jordan Love. He's got
I believe, eighty three pass attempts in his career. And
you know, a lot of what you read in the NFL,
you know, you hear stuff and you're like, huh, interesting,
and you just you don't want to overreact in the offseason.
But we've had at least three people in the organization
(08:04):
try to get everybody to pump the brakes on this
Jordan Love hype train. Okay, Jordan Love bottom lines, we
don't know if he's gonna be ever your quarterback. Nobody
has any clue, not even the people in Green Bay.
But what we can do is look at their actions
and sure or false, they restructure Jordan Love's deal so
he's making a little less money in his fifth year Okay,
(08:28):
so they don't have a massive commitment to Jordan Love.
They just signed the USFL MVP to be the fourth
quarterback and compete in camp. There's a lot of questions
at quarterback. Now listen, maybe Jordan Love sitting behind Aaron
Rodgers for a long time. Hey, he picked it up.
He's gonna come in and surprise everybody. That's possible. I
do believe this will be a run heavy attack. Aaron Jones,
(08:51):
who took a bit of a haircut, will pay decrease
to stick around. You got Dylan, you got kind of
mostly a veteran offensive line, and you've got uncertainty at
receiver with two young guys who you know, maybe didn't
click with Aaron Rodgers early and then Watson and Rodgers
kind of had a connection. They're mostly yak guys. Go
look at Jordan Love's throws last year. Not a lot
of stuff down the field. Again, small sample size, but
(09:14):
there's just a large unknown quantity to Jordan Love and folks.
Green Bay fans may not want to hear this. There's
a range of outcomes from about five wins for green
Bay to like nine or ten. I would say, on
the surprising end, would be nine or ten Jordan Love's
lights out. But I think more likely we're looking at
a five to six win team and the Green Bay
(09:35):
Packers go back to the basement where they have not
been in goodness gracious since I guess the early days
of Brett Farv, or maybe even before Brett Farv and
Don the Magic Man Mkowski. So to recap the NFC North,
I've got the Minnesota Vikings falling from number one to
number two, the Detroit Lions leaping up, leaping up and
(09:58):
winning the division, number three, that Chicago Bess. I don't
know if there's a start of something nice. I am
more a little higher on justin fields than I am
some of the rookie quarterbacks in this class, and pulling
up the rear for the first time probably sits pre Farv,
maybe the Magic Man Don Mkowski. It feels to me
(10:21):
like the Green Bay Packers are probably a six win team,
and folks, you start to wonder, hey, we had a
good twenty year run, maybe twenty five with Farvan Rodgers.
What do we do now? That wraps up the NFC
North preview sponsored by Quarterback from Netflix, and let's get
to our guests now. Paul Tenorio from the Athletic. You
(10:46):
know a guy Jason likes to think he knows everything
when it comes to sports. I know what sports dance wants,
but for.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
Everything he doesn't.
Speaker 1 (10:55):
He knows a guy who does.
Speaker 2 (10:56):
Let's just say I know a guy who knows a
guy he knows another guy.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
All right, let's welcome into straight fire. A writer for
the Athletic. He's now going to be on the Leonel
Messi beat Paul Tenorio, Paul, how are you man?
Speaker 2 (11:12):
I'm doing well.
Speaker 3 (11:12):
You know, I've been putting in the airline miles, chasing
Messi around, going to the All Star Game, back down
for Messi's debut, but you know it's a grind that's
worth it.
Speaker 2 (11:20):
Right now, it's an exciting time.
Speaker 1 (11:22):
Yeah, I would say the most exciting moment in MLS
history since the league's inception. I know Wayne Rooney was
massive and there's been a lot of expansion, but Leonel
Messi won the World Cup Trophy what like seven months
ago for Artidina maybe six months, and now he's in
the MLS. It's almost unbelievable. He's expected to make his
(11:43):
debut tonight for inter Milan. As we record this Thursday,
He's making it Friday into Miami. I'm sorry, goodness, gracious,
inter Milan. I don't know the path to get here.
It's like the MLS was negotiating against Saudi Arabia. How
the hell do we pull this off?
Speaker 2 (11:58):
Paul, Yeah, you're right.
Speaker 3 (12:00):
I mean it was a crazy few months and years
really of recruitment for Inner Miami. When they first started
speaking to Messi and his representatives, really Jorge Messi, who's
his father, who serves as his agent as well. It
was four years ago in September of twenty nineteen. Jorge Moss,
the owner of Inner Miami, along with David Beckham, who also,
of course is an owner and founder of the team,
and a few other representatives, they sat down with Hojge
(12:21):
Messi in a hotel room in Barcelona just to kind
of get to know you, a meet you session, and
from there that relationship started to build. But when we
got down to these final few months of Messi's contract
in PSG, I still don't think many people considered Major
League Soccer and Inner Miami to be a true contender
to sign Messi. You had Barcelona, which of course had
the emotional connection of Messi, going back to the club
(12:43):
where he spent the vast majority of his career. PSG
still wanted to keep him at that time, it was
before the relationship got a little dicey in those final weeks.
And then you had Saudi Arabia, which has made a
huge push to sign players, obviously Christiano Ronaldo in January,
but several big name players in recent months as the
PIF has taken the top four teams in that league,
(13:03):
private guys like Kareem Benzema and golocante Roberto Fermino. And
the main goal was to sign Messi, and reports had
that offer at one point six billion dollars for three years.
I mean money that you know, we just don't hear
of in sports contracts for playing on the field at least.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
And what did Miami do to get him?
Speaker 3 (13:23):
I mean they had to put a package together that
could entice him away from that type of money, And
there were a number of factors. One I think they
played on the idea of family. Messi had a home here,
his family liked being in Miami. The proximity to Argentina.
To Rosadio, Argentina, where Messi is from, it's a nine
hour flight, closer than Barcelona, closer than Riad as well.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
They also talked about longevity.
Speaker 3 (13:46):
Could they put a contract offer together that would pay
dividends for Messi beyond the two and a half or
three and a half years that he played here in
the United States, And that's where things got interesting. Basically,
Miami and MLS created a package that was, to use
the term Don Garber said, creative. The commissioner, it was
a creative offer, and I think in a few ways.
One they offered equity and inner Miami. So this is
(14:08):
a team that, before Messi was signed, was worth five
hundred and eighty five million dollars according to Sportico. We
expect that to be well higher than that after signing
Messi and opening a new billion dollar stadium in a
couple of years. And then they had partnerships with some
of the biggest companies that work with Major League Soccer, Adidas,
Fanatics and most notably Apple, and those are partnerships that
(14:30):
are going to be lasting, ones that can go beyond
just the playing days, where he is essentially getting a
stake in the.
Speaker 2 (14:35):
Growth in American soccer.
Speaker 3 (14:37):
And at the end of the day, that whole package
was compelling enough for Leo Messi to say yes, I
want to go to MLS.
Speaker 1 (14:45):
Yeah, the package I'm assuming from Riod was essentially, hey,
here's a billion dollars. We're just going to try to
money whip you into propping up our Saudi Arabian League,
and Ronaldo took that. I don't have the numbers in
front of me because it's a little tougher. But you know,
Messi has made a lot lot of money in his
life playing soccer. I mean astronomical figures. I'm assuming probably
(15:06):
over a billion dollars. Is that safe to say.
Speaker 3 (15:08):
I mean, look, let's put it this way. He's going
to be quite comfortable no matter which contract he signed.
I don't think money needed to be the most motivating
factor in this decision. Of course, you know, it's easy
for us to say, like, oh, Link turned down one
point six billion dollars, you don't really need it. But
certainly he's been incredibly successful for a very long time,
not just with the contracts he signs on the field,
(15:30):
and he's had some of the richest contracts in the
sports history to your point, but also he has a
lifetime contract with the Didas. He's you know, one of
the biggest brands in the world. So yes, he's done
very well for himself economically throughout his career.
Speaker 1 (15:45):
Yeah, after I was so into the Messy run at
the World Cup, you know, besides betting on Argentina rooting Messi.
Obviously after the US my wife had got me a
Messy jersey. I nearly wore it for this interview, but
I thought the producers might nix that and say, Jason,
a little homer Ish on your part at any rate,
So I'm curious Messi the person. You know, A lot
(16:06):
has been written about him. I feel like I don't
know him that well, though. What's the media access like
so far? Is he giving one offs? I'm assuming you know.
Book publishers are company you Hey, you're covering Messi. We
want a book. What's the media surrounding inter Miami like
now with Messi on board?
Speaker 2 (16:25):
Well, the media side of it is crazy.
Speaker 3 (16:27):
There were five hundred around five hundred credentials issued for
his unveiling last Sunday, two hundred people at the first
training session. They had to cap it at two hundred
people for security reasons. So the interest is through the roof.
But Messi is not a talker and there's this odd
disconnect that exists when you talk about soccer or football internationally.
There is no real access in the rest of the
(16:48):
world the way there is here in American sports. If
you cover the NBA, you can go into the locker
room after games and you can talk to Lebron James
after any game. In Europe, it doesn't work that way.
It doesn't exist that way, and so we've found over
I've found in my career it takes some time for
some of these players who have been in Europe to
adapt to the media access side of things. Messi hasn't
had a press conference yet. He was supposed to have
(17:09):
one on Monday. It got postponed. We'll see if it
ever actually is held. And he hasn't done any one
on one interviews yet. He spoke at his unveiling event
on the microphone, but that's it. So there is clearly
an adjustment period. And I should note also Leo Messi
is an introvert. He doesn't really love to do this
kind of stuff. He spoke during the World Cup. He
(17:30):
did press conferences in the lead up to Argentina's game.
Obviously he was the captain of Argentina. He felt an obligation.
This was a part of his legacy. I don't believe
though that he spoke in the postgame press conference after
he won the World Cup.
Speaker 2 (17:43):
Who was really going to.
Speaker 3 (17:44):
Make him stop his celebrations of a game that cemented
his legacy. But again, you know, this is a mix
of the cultural differences and the reality of the fact
that that Messi is not has never really been kind
of a media forward person. It just doesn't really mix
with his personality. And so it's one of the more
intriguing parts of this experiment is going to be how
(18:05):
much does he put himself out there? Because when you
look at when you compare other signings like David Beckham,
when he came in two thousand and seven, he understood
that he was an ambassador for MLS. He did media
left and right. J Latan Ibrahimovitch of course, we saw
him on all the late night shows. Even when I
was in Orlando covering Orlando City in twenty fifteen. Kaka,
who's a former feed for Player of the Year, did
(18:25):
media every once in a while, not as regularly as
the other players, but he got in front of a
microphone every couple of weeks. I don't know that it'll
be that easy with Messi, but I expect at some
point he's going to have to come answer some questions
from us, hopefully.
Speaker 1 (18:38):
It's interesting. I'm just trying to think, like you think,
if I say Lebron James, you know what he sounds like.
If I say Curry, you know him, Patrick Mahomes. I'm
trying to think even even internationally Federer, the tennis great,
I think Switzerland, like, you know what he sounds like.
I'm just trying to think. I don't think I know
what Leonel Messi sounds like that that's crazy. He just
(18:58):
doesn't give a lot of that's the upside for him
giving interviews like.
Speaker 2 (19:02):
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3 (19:03):
I mean, he is one of the biggest brands in
the world and you want to talk about his impact.
Inner Miami had about one million Instagram followers the day
before Messi announced he was going to join the team.
Right now, which is about a month later. A little
bit more than a month later, they have nine point
eight million Instagram followers. There's only three professional teams in
the United States with more Instagram followers than Inner Miami.
Speaker 2 (19:24):
So yeah, you're.
Speaker 3 (19:24):
Talking about a person who doesn't need to do media
to expose himself to fans. He could just use his
social channels. And that's that's the reality of the world
we live in now, That's how things are changing.
Speaker 2 (19:35):
But certainly, yeah, he's spoken before. Like I said, I think.
Speaker 3 (19:38):
In some instances, like with Argentina and Qatar at the
World Cup, he felt that obligation existed to be a
spokes as the captain and the leader of the team,
to be at those press conferences. But yeah, he picks
his moments, and I think again, I think there's a little.
Speaker 2 (19:51):
Bit of grace.
Speaker 3 (19:51):
They're giving him a bit of grace here to adjust
to a new culture and new expectations in this country.
And you know, hopefully at some point we get to
hear a little bit from him about being here and
how it's been and kind of the transition. I actually
think the press conference in a month with MESSI will
be more productive in terms of learning what things have
been like for him, rather than the one when he
first gets here and you know, everything is still new
(20:14):
and he hasn't really experienced anything yet.
Speaker 1 (20:15):
Yeah, I'm curious, like you saw the messy photos at
the grocery store in Florida. Obviously he couldn't do that
in Argentina. Now I don't. I'm assuming none of that
was staged. I had a buddy saying, wait, there was
security somewhere around him. What's Messi's life like currently in Miami?
Speaker 3 (20:35):
I think the Cynic in all of us as Okay,
Public's is a corporate sponsor of Inner Miami. Maybe it's
not quite the accident that he ended up shopping in
that store, but you have to acknowledge that, yes, life
is going to be a little bit different, or often
is for players who come to United States who couldn't
walk around in Europe through the streets and go unbothered,
and they can here. And we can rattle off the
(20:56):
names who have talked about that aspect of their life.
Tierry Henrie, who has a home in Manhattan. He can
walk down the streets in New York and people don't
bother him.
Speaker 2 (21:04):
Caca Orlando.
Speaker 3 (21:05):
I saw him several times where coincidentally bump into him
at a restaurant and no one's bugging him. He couldn't
do that in Italy and Milan or in Brazil. Messi's
a little bit of a different animal. He actually was
in Miami last year and there were some videos of
him trying to There were some videos of him trying
to go out to eat at restaurants and there were
(21:30):
hundreds of people.
Speaker 2 (21:31):
Waiting outside the door for him. Wow, he's not your
normal celebrity.
Speaker 3 (21:35):
He is going to have people waiting for him and
bugging him and even But what I do love is
that he's doing these things. So his first night here
in Miami after landing in Fort Lauderdale, he went out
to eat at a restaurant in North Miami Beach, in
Little Buenos Aires neighborhood, obviously a huge Argentine community year
and he went and had dinner with his family. And yes,
he went out the back door and tried to sneak out,
(21:57):
and yes there were dozens of fans waiting for him.
But I think those little moments do sell players on
the ability to come here. Because there might still be
people waiting for him outside of these restaurants. He might
still need security any hands. Yeah, so far, but it's
not to the degree that it would be necessary in
Argentina or even in Paris or Barcelona.
Speaker 1 (22:17):
I'm trying to put Messi in some context for MLS,
Like you know, I don't know if you know, I'm
like a minority owner in a Liga MX team and
we're playing in the Legua's Cup coming up this month,
and I'm doing research on the teams we gotta play
Dallas and Charlotte. I'm like, all right, we got a
shot in those games. And I'm looking at MLS standings,
(22:37):
if you will, and power rankings, and inter Miami is
pretty much the worst team in the league. I mean,
maybe these were from a couple of weeks ago, but
it's not like Messi's going to a contender or even
a middling team to put over the top. Like, he's
going to a pretty bad team right now. Is there
any context for what he could possibly do? Like, might
(22:58):
we not see Messi in the MLS postseason?
Speaker 2 (23:02):
Yeah, I mean it's a very distinct possibility. Right.
Speaker 3 (23:04):
They are the worst team in the league, and it
actually creates kind of a cool experiment. I think, to
take the best player of all time, drop him into
the worst team in the league, and see how much
better he can make them. It wouldn't be fair to
really cast it that way, because this team is going
to look significantly different by the time Major League Soccer
restarts on August twentieth, after the League's Cup.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
You have Sergio Busquetz who has joined along with Messi.
Jordi Alba has signed a contract and joined along with Messi.
They're going to.
Speaker 3 (23:31):
Sign three young players under twenty two. Initiative is something
that Major League Soccer uses to entice teams to sign
younger players. They're expected to sign three more players. They've
already inked one of them to help the roster. Two
of the top players for Miami who have been injured
are back, not full training, but are getting out there
on the field and starting to work rehab where they
could be back for the back part of the season.
(23:53):
So they have a new coach as well, top to Martinez,
who coached Messi at Barcelona and Argentina and won an
MLS Cup with Atlanta. So it's going to be a
very very different team when they take the field again
in Major League Soccer play. That being said, they have
a huge hole that they have to climb out of.
I believe they're twelve points out of the last playoff
spot right now in the Eastern Conference.
Speaker 2 (24:13):
That is a significant gap to try to make up.
Speaker 3 (24:15):
They're a little bit fortunate Major League Soccer this year
expanded their playoffs to include a knockout game. So now
nine teams in each conference makes the playoffs. It is
not the biggest challenge in the world to do that,
but I do think it's going to be a fun.
Part of it is like, is Messi so good, so
transformative that he's going to take the worst team in
the league and get them to a playoffs in a
(24:36):
very limited amount of time. I wouldn't count them out,
certainly not when you look at the firepower that has
come in and let's see how this team comes together.
They won't have a lot of time to do it,
but I think it's definitely possible.
Speaker 1 (24:48):
There is a narrative as I'm sure you know that
European stars come to the MLS to take a last
paycheck when they're kind of washed, if you will, I mean,
I hear that, and I understand you know, the financial
aspect of it. It's tough for me. Now, I didn't
(25:09):
watch a lot of PSG here post World Cup. It's
tough for me to conceivably think that Messi is washed
or even close to it. If you watch a level
he played at just seven months ago, I don't know
where are you Unlike? This is just like not long
term great for the MLS, but like in the short term,
it's a huge like jolt.
Speaker 2 (25:29):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (25:29):
I mean, first of all, there are just certain players
where it doesn't matter how old they are, if they
want to come play in your league, they play in
your league. The fact that Barcelona was trying as hard
as they were to sign Messi and you know, I
think is indicative of the fact that he is not,
you know, out of it, right. This is a guy
who had twenty goals and twenty assists last season in France,
one of the only players in Europe I think, maybe
the only player in Europe to do that in one
(25:51):
of the top five leagues. He is still very productive.
As you said, he won a World Cup seven months ago.
Not only did he win the World Cup, he won
the Golden Ball as the top player at that World Cup.
So you know, this is a transcendent player. Major League
soccer has changed a lot over the years, the focus
on the DP spots, the designated player spots, the rule
that was initially created to bring Beckham. It went from
(26:12):
those bigger name stars that we've discussed before to this
really this huge push to sign younger players, and I
think the average age of the players who have come
in as designated players and MLS has dropped significantly from
way above thirty two, I think, like twenty five years
old or something like that. So it's not like this
is a league where you're seeing constant a constant flow
of kind of players in their late thirties coming over anymore.
(26:35):
That being said, inner Miami is kind of going in
that direction right now. Right they have Messi's late thirties,
Busqttes in his late thirties, Geordia Alba again, though Jordia
Albo very productive last year in his career, still playing
at a very high level. Busquttes will be interesting to
see how he transitions to the league. I think he's
maybe the one that I've got the biggest question marks on.
But Bousquetes is a player whose abilities, his vision is
(26:58):
technic that's not going to go away. It's a matter
of will the players around him be good enough where
you can fully see his skills set take advantage. I
think it's an interesting question is where does MLS want
to go. How do they leverage this situation with Messi?
You know, they have growth that they still need to accomplish.
I do think MLS is at a higher level than
people realize, both domestically here the audience here in the
(27:20):
US and around the world.
Speaker 2 (27:21):
But they still do have.
Speaker 3 (27:22):
A long way to go to become the They're not
better than League A Mechi's right now as the best
team in the region. They're not equal to the European teams.
So what's the best way forward? And you know, there
is a big debate now about changing some of the
roster rules, giving owners more flexibility and how they want
to spend, And as part of that, I think it's
about do you want to target some of these players
(27:43):
who are in there early to mid thirties and kind
of go back a little bit to that philosophy, or
is the focus still on younger players. I think ultimately
the goal from Mida League Soccer should be let every
team have their own philosophy, give them a little bit
more freedom to spend the money as they want, and
the ultimate goal should be let's get the product on
the field as strong as possible. And for some teams
(28:04):
it's going to be guys like Messy older in their careers.
I mean not like Messy, but you know what I mean,
later in their careers that can help you. And there
are some teams that are gonna say, no, we want
to try to find the next young star and develop
them here.
Speaker 2 (28:16):
And that's okay. It's okay for teams to have different philosophies.
Speaker 1 (28:20):
It's a great discussion. I like that breakdown. I guess
from my point of view, again, does League MX, like
the coaches want to stay employed? How do you stay employed?
Not by playing the young guys. You know, you got
to play the veterans who help you get to the
playoffs and people keep their jobs. But for the long
term growth of the club, you need to develop the
seventeen eighteen, nineteen year olds, get the academy going because
(28:42):
guess what, that's where the real money is. When you
could sell twenty two year olds to Europe for top
dollar and then you just bolster everything. So it's that
healthy mix of veterans, you know, aging stars if you will,
and the young guys. But it's a lot of it.
From my point of view, come down to the coaches.
Do they want to play the young guys? You know,
(29:03):
I think in this case like Beckham is going to
definitely play Busquet's Alba MESSI those guys are starters from there,
there's no question. But I guess my question is, like,
five years from now, what is Inter Miami going to
look like? And my guess is Bavid becka wild look
at you and Paul and be like, I don't know,
We'll worry about that in five years.
Speaker 3 (29:23):
Yeah, I think that's exactly right. I think sometimes these
problems are ones you confront down the road a little bit.
Speaker 2 (29:27):
But they do have some good young.
Speaker 3 (29:29):
Players who are playing, and like Ben Kromashi, who is
eligible actually they play for Argentina, has played for the
US youth national teams as well. He's going to be
playing minutes next to heroes of his And you're right,
it does come down to a balance. How do you
fit all of these pieces together. The ultimate goal is
to win games, but there's the business side of it
as well. There are the revenue streams from selling players.
(29:50):
Of course, there's no one that's going to bring in
more revenue for this team than MESSI. We know that commercially.
He's changed the game for Inner Miami and certainly for
Major League Soccer, So there are different ways to try
to boost revenue, for sure. But yeah, there's always this
constant give and take for I think every team around
the world, and again, each club will make a decision
on who they want to be, what their focus wants
(30:11):
to be. FC Dallas in MLS has been the team
that's been selling the most players. They don't have any
trophies during that time that they've been doing that, but
they have produced Western mckennie, Ricardo PEPPI go down the
list of all the players that have come out of
Chris Richards and made a lot of money selling those players.
So who do you want to be? How do you
best want to go about running your club? What's the
(30:32):
ultimate goal going to be? Again, I think the goal
for Major League Soccer is with this two and a
half years, you have maybe three and a half years
with Messi.
Speaker 2 (30:40):
He does have an option on the back end of
that contract. How are you going to grow things? How
are you going to grow your audience? How are you
going to entice people to tune in to these games?
Speaker 3 (30:49):
And I think the message shouldn't be about Hey, the
way MLS has gone about it before, it has been like,
let's control how you're spending, let's focus you on finding
younger players and doing things like that. That control has
to be let go and say, let teams find their
own philosophies. Our goal just needs to be to be
as strong as possible on the field to try to
get some of these fans who're tuning in to watch
(31:10):
MESSI to stick around.
Speaker 1 (31:13):
Yeah, I guess. I for a final question, let me
zoom out for a sec. And if you look at
what happened in nineteen ninety four, the World Cup comes
to the United States, It's massive and basically the MLS
is berthed out of that. They because it was in
the United States, soccer was huge. Blah blah blah. Okay,
so the World Cup's coming back here in twenty six,
(31:34):
the MLS has, I guess two and a half years
before it happens again. Maybe a leading question on my
part now that I'm in Lega MX, but what do
you foresee for MLS. A lot of rumors about MLS
and Lega MX in some way shape or for joining
forces to create a super league that would rival the EPL.
(31:57):
I know relegation and promotion is kind of hyped by fans.
I don't know where you stand, but I do know
owners have zero interest in that for obvious reasons. I'm
just soccer in America seems to be on the up
and up and it's gonna get massive. The US team
is I don't want to say stacked, because you know,
we got to make a semifinals first, but the US
team is probably as strong as it's ever been. I
(32:18):
know it's very young, but everything seems to be pointing up.
What do you think for the MLS here going forward,
heading into the World Cup in twenty six.
Speaker 3 (32:27):
Yeah, I think there are there's a lot of momentum
right now around American soccer. You have Messi here in
Major League Soccer. Now next year you have the Copa
America being played on American soil, which is another huge
moment for the game.
Speaker 2 (32:39):
You've got the.
Speaker 3 (32:39):
Club World Cup, the first ever Club World Cup with
FIFA that's going to be played in twenty twenty five.
Then you've got the twenty twenty six World Cup, and
then potentially the Women's World Cup in twenty twenty seven.
So yeah, there's a lot going on right now to
advertise the sport, and you're right, soccer itself has grown
in popularity in a significant way in this country. The
sport for me League soccer, the equation is a little
(33:01):
bit different it's how can we compete with England, How
can we compete with League A Meckis, which is the
most popular sport on television in the United States. What
do we have to do to get a bigger chunk
of this growing fan base around the sport. And you know,
I'm not sure that they know what the answer is yet,
but for the sport itself, yes, you have to look
at twenty twenty six as a springboard, as a moment
(33:23):
to grow the way we did in nineteen ninety four
when the World Cup came that founded Major League Soccer,
in nineteen ninety nine, when the Women's World Cup happened,
and obviously the iconic women's national team in the Rose Bowl,
the penalty kickshoot out and all of those things that
grew participation in the sport that helped to grow the
women's game, and WSL is in the strongest place it's
ever been. And so when you think about twenty twenty
(33:44):
six and potentially twenty twenty seven, yeah, the idea has
to be, how do we take these moments and use
them to be something that can be a game changer,
not incremental.
Speaker 2 (33:54):
Growth, but a huge push forward.
Speaker 3 (33:57):
And I think that Major League Soccer's owners are thinking
about it. I'm sure League got Mechi's owners are thinking
about it. The League's Cup is a way to try
to do that. The Apple television deal the Major League
Soccer signed ten years, two and a half billion dollars
to try to make its product visible.
Speaker 2 (34:11):
No matter where you are around the world.
Speaker 3 (34:13):
All of this is leading into this moment, and you
know what they do with it, that's what we're all
waiting to see. And I hope that they don't miss
the moment. And I do think there are some ways
that they can change the league to make it stronger,
to make it more compelling, and they have a very
small window to do that in order to capture the
audience that's going to be there in twenty twenty six.
Speaker 1 (34:33):
Yeah, all right, Paul, we'll get out of here on this.
Does Messi score a goal in his first game for
Inter Miami, I don't know.
Speaker 2 (34:40):
I mean, that's a tough one. I don't know.
Speaker 3 (34:41):
If he plays six minutes or if he plays thirty minutes,
the answer is very different. I expect he's going to
play somewhere in between that, you know, maybe like a
good twenty minute stint by the way, It's going to
be incredibly hot here in Florida for his first game,
so that might end up dictating how long he comes off.
And as we talked about before, Miami's not very good.
So what's the score line going to be when he
comes off the bench.
Speaker 2 (35:03):
I'm gonna say, I don't know.
Speaker 3 (35:04):
You know, when you think about players who have come
moments that have happened in this league. You had Beckham
whose debut was kind of a dud. His ankle was injured,
he only played like seven minutes total for the Galaxy,
and a friendly against Chelsea. You had Zlatan who came
on on national television and scored one of the best
goals in Major League Soccer history. I think that Messi
is going to have some moments that excite us, dribble
(35:27):
some guys, make some nice passes, but I don't think
he'll score a goal. I do think, though, that he
is going to score a lot of goals in Major
League Soccer.
Speaker 2 (35:35):
I do think he is going.
Speaker 3 (35:37):
To change the game for that team, and I think
the back half of the season is going to be
a lot of fun to watch his games because I
just have a feeling that he's going to come in
and have a point to prove, to say, I'm not retiring.
I do want to be competitive. I do want to
play for Argentina at the Copa America. So the goal
might not not happen the first game, but stay tuned.
Speaker 1 (35:58):
You said that he might not start. Is that determined
yet or he's definitely coming off the bench or what.
Speaker 2 (36:03):
He's definitely coming off the bench.
Speaker 3 (36:04):
I mean he's coming off of a couple weeks vacation
in the Bahamas. You know, he's had a lot of
time off since the last time he played. Like I said,
it's going to be upper nineties in Fort Lauderdale with
the heat index up above one hundred and ten.
Speaker 2 (36:16):
Degrees for most of the day. Is that a getting
his fitness?
Speaker 3 (36:20):
No, thankfully, kickoffs at eight pm, so it'll have dropped
off a little bit. But that's what he's been training
in in the mornings. He's got to get his fitness.
At the press conference ahead of the game, Sergio Busquetz said,
it would be impossible for me to play ninety minutes
right now. We're just not fit enough. So you know,
somebody asked him, are you are you debating? He was
sitting next to the manager Tata Martinez, are you are
(36:40):
you debating with the manager to be able to start?
And he laughed and goes, look, we're not going to
start it. We're not there yet physically. But they'll get you.
Speaker 2 (36:47):
They'll get a good stint in the game.
Speaker 1 (36:48):
The tough part is, you're right, what if it's three
nothing and you know, six sixty five minutes in, do
you even bring in MESSI? I mean you have what
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (36:56):
You have to start building that fitness somehow, right, you
have to start building that game fitness somehow.
Speaker 2 (37:00):
And so it's kind of like a preseason.
Speaker 3 (37:01):
You start off with the guys getting twenty minutes, then
you work up to forty five, then you get to sixty.
So I think we'll maybe see I'm hoping to get
maybe twenty minutes out of him on Friday. We'll see
him again a few days later. Maybe that pushes to
a half an hour. What'll be interesting is if they
don't advance in the League's Cup, they're going to have
a month off before their next game. That could be
a blessing in disguise, just to let the team get
(37:22):
some time together to gel. But you'll miss out on
moments to get some of that game fitness. So it's
kind of a give and take here, But you know
it'll be interesting to see.
Speaker 2 (37:31):
I'll tell you this much.
Speaker 3 (37:32):
No matter if you play six minutes, twenty minutes, thirty
five minutes, there's gonna be a camera on every single
touch he makes. When he's on the bench to start
the game, there's gonna be a camera on him the
entire time, every movement he makes. Whatever, poor guys sitting
next to him on the bench better I'll be picking
his nose because the cameras are going to be locked
in on Messi.
Speaker 1 (37:49):
I listen. I know it's about the team and all that,
but I wouldn't hate and I will be getting the
Apple package just to see Messi games. I wouldn't hate
it if they had like a camera on Messi and
they had it on you're in the game, like in
the upper right corner, here's Messi just sitting on the bench.
I'm not honestly, I wouldn't mind watching that interacting with
the guys.
Speaker 2 (38:06):
I think.
Speaker 3 (38:08):
Yeah, Apples come out and said they're gonna have eighteen cameras. Uh,
They're gonna have a skycams three slow mode cams, so
there's gonna be a camera locked in on him, and
I would not be surprised to see, you know, that
little box in the corner. Everyone's tuning in to see
MESSI play in this first game. And actually, what's interesting,
the first game is also going to be on Tudaya
for Spanish speakers because of the deal that they have
(38:29):
in for League's Cup. So yeah, wait, so I don't
even have to get not for the first game, for
the second game. Yes, but it's a good chance for
for MLS to have a little bit more national exposure,
and especially to a market that you're involved in with
League A. Mechi's to a market that MLS needs to
grow in and so it's a good opportunity in that
way as well.
Speaker 1 (38:49):
All right, good stuff, Paul tan Orio, remember follow him
and at the Athletic he's going to be basically the
messy beat reporter. Looking forward to your stuff, Paul, thanks
a lot, man, Thank you.
The volume. This is Straight Fire with Jason McIntyre. What
is up straight firefam, It's me Jason McIntyre. Straight Fire
for Friday, July twenty first end of the week, we're
(00:25):
going out with Style. Oh my goodness, Women's World Cup starts.
Leon Nell Messi's debut in the MLS. We don't know
how long he's gonna play. A half twenty minutes, five
minutes with Inter Miami that's tonight. However, it's so exciting,
I decided to bring on a soccer guest talk a
little messy, a little MLS. So we'll talk to Paul
(00:46):
Tenorio from The Athletic a little later in the podcast,
just breaking down messy MLS. Listen, it's an exciting summer
of soccer now that Messi's here, Women's World Cup, good times.
Let the good times roll. But first I thought we'd
do a little NFL And because I saw a rookie
get popped doing one hundred and forty miles an hour,
(01:09):
I believe in a fifty five mile hour zone. Jordan Addison,
the speed demon. Ha ha See what I did there?
From USC, I mean just absolute buffoonery. Camp hasn't even
started and you're doing stupid stuff like that, like Rook
get a clue. Not great, not a great look. So
I thought, because of that news and all this Justin
Field stuff. I'm sure you guys are watching the Herd
(01:30):
this week. Cowherd just drilling Justin Fields. I gotta step
in and defend Justin Fields.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
You know, I like him.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
So I thought we would do an NFC North preview
sponsored by Quarterback Out now only on Netflix. NFC North
was chaos last year. Aaron Rodgers and the Packers. After
winning the division twice in a row, Rogers the MVP
twice in a row. They slink back and they are
passed by Yes, Sir Kirk Cousins and the Minnesota Vikings.
(01:59):
Thirty teen and four unbelievable season for the Vikings, well,
regular season, that is, they go eleven to zero in
one score games. Guess what not happening again, Kirk Cousins.
I believe had eight game winning drives last year. Let's
be real. I said this, unheard, I've said it all
last season. The Minnesota Vikings were the luckiest team in
(02:20):
the NFL last year. Absolutely not going to duplicate that.
I do not have them at the top of the Division. Now,
the most interesting team in the division is the Detroit Lions.
You guys know when the world zigs, your boy likes
to zag. Well, guess what. The Detroit Lions, according to
bet MGM, are the most bet team to win wait
(02:41):
for it, the NFC. That's in terms of handle and bets.
Everybody sharps and the general public all over the Detroit
Lions to win the NFC. And a lot of that
has to do with what they did last year. Remember
they swept Aaron Rodgers, they won in green Bay, the
defense hounded Rogers think he had two zone picks. And
then they won in the season finale, defeating Green Bay
(03:05):
in Green Bay. Very impressive win. Jared Goff at quarterback
for both of them. I say at quarterback, I didn't
say won both those games because, frankly, the defense won
both those games and Detroit defense was not good last year.
We're talking like a bottom five to six defense in
the league. And there is a lot of optimism that
this team's gonna make the leap. And folks, I'm gonna
be clear, I very much like the Detroit Lions. I
(03:29):
actually have the Detroit Lions to win, Yes, win the division.
The Detroit Lions will win the NFC North. I don't
think it'll be easy, though I do believe this will
be the toughest division in the NFC. I don't particularly
think it's close. The NFC East is good, but I
have the Detroit Lions winning the division by a little
I am concerned a little bit about the defense because
(03:52):
they didn't really get better a couple moves in the secondary.
They do have a good defensive line led by Aiden Hutchinson,
who's a beast. You're just gonna have to wonder can
they do just enough. So the offense, which my guy
Adam Chronoff, who has been on the pod, will have
him on here in August. He had a great stat
that I believe they took sixty five percent of their
snaps last season. The offense did when trailing. It's a
(04:15):
lot easier when you're trailing in games and the quarterback
drops back look at a pass and the defense is
looking to protect leads a lot of prevent d a
lot of we know what you're doing, which is gonna
keep everything in front. So Detroit t able to have
a field day because they were playing from behind. And
I like this team. I don't love them. I've got
them winning the division narrowly over the Vikings. I've got
(04:35):
the Vikings too. It's tbd on if I have the
Vikings in the playoffs as of now, and again this
is being done in July. People are gonna throw this
in my face in the first week of September if
if I change my mind. But I'm telling you right now,
the Chicago Bears will not finish in the basement. And
I think the Bears will push the Vikings. Yes, push
the Vikings. For second. A lot of it has to
(04:56):
do with the continuity in Chicago, Okay, just to feel
young quarterback, two different offensive coordinators, two different systems. Now
he sticks with the guy they had last year. GETSI.
I think ebra Fluch going into year two was able
to remake the defense a little into more what he
likes now. I don't particularly like spending money on linebackers.
He did that and the Bears essentially are linebackered up heavily.
(05:20):
But that worked for him in India. If you guys
remember with Indianapolis the Colts defense, ibra Flus's scheme was
one of the best. Remember famously slowed down Mahomes and
read on a Sunday Night football or Monday night football
in case that was the one that really put Ebraflus
on the map. Matt Iberflus knows defense, and the schedule
is favorable. The real question is can they protect justin
(05:41):
fields Like I know he had eleven hundred jars rushing,
I believe the second greatest rushing season in quarterback history
of the sport. But fields cannot sustain that. I think
he had four carries over fifty yards. The guy's electric,
but the hits he's taking, you're not gonna last the season, dude.
So they get DJ Moore in the trade. I really
like this team a lot. Making the lead. Listen, it's
(06:03):
not hard to go from three wins to seven or eight. Okay,
given the free agent money they spent young quarterback, I
think they can leap up to seven or eight wins
and challenge the Vikings, who.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
I do think.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
Pull back and listen. People don't want to talk about it,
but the most underplayed story for the Minnesota Vikings right
now is what's gonna happen with Kirk Cousins. We know,
as Kevin Clark said a couple weeks ago on this podcast,
Shanahan and McVeigh absolutely love everything about Kirk Cousins. Kirk
Cousins has a new GM, a new coach, They've now
been there a couple of years. But you have to
(06:36):
wonder do they want to keep Kirk Cousins. They did
just draft a quarterback. Can they do a quarterback on
the cheap because the defense has nothing. Kirk Cousins is
getting paid very handsomely as quarterback should and the defense
is abysmal. Flores will keep it palatable, but they're not
gonna be good. They're gonna hemorrhage points. And then you're
hoping that Jefferson, Jordan Addison, they lose Dalvin Cook, they
(06:58):
got Alexander Madison. I'm just saying, listen, there's a world
where Justin Jefferson the best receiver in the league by
a lot of metrics. If Justin Jefferson goes down for
four or five games the way Jamar Chase missed a
few games last year, where does the Vikings offense get
popped from? Like Alec Dinner, Madison solid as a backup,
good fill in guy. Can he carry the team the
way Dalvin Cook? Could you know Adam Thieland is now gone.
(07:20):
Jordan Madison rookie just got popped for a go one
hundred and forty miles an hour. There's just a lot
of unanswered questions on Minnesota. They exceeded all expectations last year.
I love Jefferson. I think this team regresses from thirteen
probably to the neighborhood of seven eight nine wins and yes,
pulling up the rear rob g the Green Bay Packers.
(07:42):
I've read all I can about Jordan Love. He's got
I believe, eighty three pass attempts in his career. And
you know, a lot of what you read in the NFL,
you know, you hear stuff and you're like, huh, interesting,
and you just you don't want to overreact in the offseason.
But we've had at least three people in the organization
(08:04):
try to get everybody to pump the brakes on this
Jordan Love hype train. Okay, Jordan Love bottom lines, we
don't know if he's gonna be ever your quarterback. Nobody
has any clue, not even the people in Green Bay.
But what we can do is look at their actions
and sure or false, they restructure Jordan Love's deal so
he's making a little less money in his fifth year Okay,
(08:28):
so they don't have a massive commitment to Jordan Love.
They just signed the USFL MVP to be the fourth
quarterback and compete in camp. There's a lot of questions
at quarterback. Now listen, maybe Jordan Love sitting behind Aaron
Rodgers for a long time. Hey, he picked it up.
He's gonna come in and surprise everybody. That's possible. I
do believe this will be a run heavy attack. Aaron Jones,
(08:51):
who took a bit of a haircut, will pay decrease
to stick around. You got Dylan, you got kind of
mostly a veteran offensive line, and you've got uncertainty at
receiver with two young guys who you know, maybe didn't
click with Aaron Rodgers early and then Watson and Rodgers
kind of had a connection. They're mostly yak guys. Go
look at Jordan Love's throws last year. Not a lot
of stuff down the field. Again, small sample size, but
(09:14):
there's just a large unknown quantity to Jordan Love and folks.
Green Bay fans may not want to hear this. There's
a range of outcomes from about five wins for green
Bay to like nine or ten. I would say, on
the surprising end, would be nine or ten Jordan Love's
lights out. But I think more likely we're looking at
a five to six win team and the Green Bay
(09:35):
Packers go back to the basement where they have not
been in goodness gracious since I guess the early days
of Brett Farv, or maybe even before Brett Farv and
Don the Magic Man Mkowski. So to recap the NFC North,
I've got the Minnesota Vikings falling from number one to
number two, the Detroit Lions leaping up, leaping up and
(09:58):
winning the division, number three, that Chicago Bess. I don't
know if there's a start of something nice. I am
more a little higher on justin fields than I am
some of the rookie quarterbacks in this class, and pulling
up the rear for the first time probably sits pre Farv,
maybe the Magic Man Don Mkowski. It feels to me
(10:21):
like the Green Bay Packers are probably a six win team,
and folks, you start to wonder, hey, we had a
good twenty year run, maybe twenty five with Farvan Rodgers.
What do we do now? That wraps up the NFC
North preview sponsored by Quarterback from Netflix, and let's get
to our guests now. Paul Tenorio from the Athletic. You
(10:46):
know a guy Jason likes to think he knows everything
when it comes to sports. I know what sports dance wants,
but for.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
Everything he doesn't.
Speaker 1 (10:55):
He knows a guy who does.
Speaker 2 (10:56):
Let's just say I know a guy who knows a
guy he knows another guy.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
All right, let's welcome into straight fire. A writer for
the Athletic. He's now going to be on the Leonel
Messi beat Paul Tenorio, Paul, how are you man?
Speaker 2 (11:12):
I'm doing well.
Speaker 3 (11:12):
You know, I've been putting in the airline miles, chasing
Messi around, going to the All Star Game, back down
for Messi's debut, but you know it's a grind that's
worth it.
Speaker 2 (11:20):
Right now, it's an exciting time.
Speaker 1 (11:22):
Yeah, I would say the most exciting moment in MLS
history since the league's inception. I know Wayne Rooney was
massive and there's been a lot of expansion, but Leonel
Messi won the World Cup Trophy what like seven months
ago for Artidina maybe six months, and now he's in
the MLS. It's almost unbelievable. He's expected to make his
(11:43):
debut tonight for inter Milan. As we record this Thursday,
He's making it Friday into Miami. I'm sorry, goodness, gracious,
inter Milan. I don't know the path to get here.
It's like the MLS was negotiating against Saudi Arabia. How
the hell do we pull this off?
Speaker 2 (11:58):
Paul, Yeah, you're right.
Speaker 3 (12:00):
I mean it was a crazy few months and years
really of recruitment for Inner Miami. When they first started
speaking to Messi and his representatives, really Jorge Messi, who's
his father, who serves as his agent as well. It
was four years ago in September of twenty nineteen. Jorge Moss,
the owner of Inner Miami, along with David Beckham, who also,
of course is an owner and founder of the team,
and a few other representatives, they sat down with Hojge
(12:21):
Messi in a hotel room in Barcelona just to kind
of get to know you, a meet you session, and
from there that relationship started to build. But when we
got down to these final few months of Messi's contract
in PSG, I still don't think many people considered Major
League Soccer and Inner Miami to be a true contender
to sign Messi. You had Barcelona, which of course had
the emotional connection of Messi, going back to the club
(12:43):
where he spent the vast majority of his career. PSG
still wanted to keep him at that time, it was
before the relationship got a little dicey in those final weeks.
And then you had Saudi Arabia, which has made a
huge push to sign players, obviously Christiano Ronaldo in January,
but several big name players in recent months as the
PIF has taken the top four teams in that league,
(13:03):
private guys like Kareem Benzema and golocante Roberto Fermino. And
the main goal was to sign Messi, and reports had
that offer at one point six billion dollars for three years.
I mean money that you know, we just don't hear
of in sports contracts for playing on the field at least.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
And what did Miami do to get him?
Speaker 3 (13:23):
I mean they had to put a package together that
could entice him away from that type of money, And
there were a number of factors. One I think they
played on the idea of family. Messi had a home here,
his family liked being in Miami. The proximity to Argentina.
To Rosadio, Argentina, where Messi is from, it's a nine
hour flight, closer than Barcelona, closer than Riad as well.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
They also talked about longevity.
Speaker 3 (13:46):
Could they put a contract offer together that would pay
dividends for Messi beyond the two and a half or
three and a half years that he played here in
the United States, And that's where things got interesting. Basically,
Miami and MLS created a package that was, to use
the term Don Garber said, creative. The commissioner, it was
a creative offer, and I think in a few ways.
One they offered equity and inner Miami. So this is
(14:08):
a team that, before Messi was signed, was worth five
hundred and eighty five million dollars according to Sportico. We
expect that to be well higher than that after signing
Messi and opening a new billion dollar stadium in a
couple of years. And then they had partnerships with some
of the biggest companies that work with Major League Soccer, Adidas,
Fanatics and most notably Apple, and those are partnerships that
(14:30):
are going to be lasting, ones that can go beyond
just the playing days, where he is essentially getting a
stake in the.
Speaker 2 (14:35):
Growth in American soccer.
Speaker 3 (14:37):
And at the end of the day, that whole package
was compelling enough for Leo Messi to say yes, I
want to go to MLS.
Speaker 1 (14:45):
Yeah, the package I'm assuming from Riod was essentially, hey,
here's a billion dollars. We're just going to try to
money whip you into propping up our Saudi Arabian League,
and Ronaldo took that. I don't have the numbers in
front of me because it's a little tougher. But you know,
Messi has made a lot lot of money in his
life playing soccer. I mean astronomical figures. I'm assuming probably
(15:06):
over a billion dollars. Is that safe to say.
Speaker 3 (15:08):
I mean, look, let's put it this way. He's going
to be quite comfortable no matter which contract he signed.
I don't think money needed to be the most motivating
factor in this decision. Of course, you know, it's easy
for us to say, like, oh, Link turned down one
point six billion dollars, you don't really need it. But
certainly he's been incredibly successful for a very long time,
not just with the contracts he signs on the field,
(15:30):
and he's had some of the richest contracts in the
sports history to your point, but also he has a
lifetime contract with the Didas. He's you know, one of
the biggest brands in the world. So yes, he's done
very well for himself economically throughout his career.
Speaker 1 (15:45):
Yeah, after I was so into the Messy run at
the World Cup, you know, besides betting on Argentina rooting Messi.
Obviously after the US my wife had got me a
Messy jersey. I nearly wore it for this interview, but
I thought the producers might nix that and say, Jason,
a little homer Ish on your part at any rate,
So I'm curious Messi the person. You know, A lot
(16:06):
has been written about him. I feel like I don't
know him that well, though. What's the media access like
so far? Is he giving one offs? I'm assuming you know.
Book publishers are company you Hey, you're covering Messi. We
want a book. What's the media surrounding inter Miami like
now with Messi on board?
Speaker 2 (16:25):
Well, the media side of it is crazy.
Speaker 3 (16:27):
There were five hundred around five hundred credentials issued for
his unveiling last Sunday, two hundred people at the first
training session. They had to cap it at two hundred
people for security reasons. So the interest is through the roof.
But Messi is not a talker and there's this odd
disconnect that exists when you talk about soccer or football internationally.
There is no real access in the rest of the
(16:48):
world the way there is here in American sports. If
you cover the NBA, you can go into the locker
room after games and you can talk to Lebron James
after any game. In Europe, it doesn't work that way.
It doesn't exist that way, and so we've found over
I've found in my career it takes some time for
some of these players who have been in Europe to
adapt to the media access side of things. Messi hasn't
had a press conference yet. He was supposed to have
(17:09):
one on Monday. It got postponed. We'll see if it
ever actually is held. And he hasn't done any one
on one interviews yet. He spoke at his unveiling event
on the microphone, but that's it. So there is clearly
an adjustment period. And I should note also Leo Messi
is an introvert. He doesn't really love to do this
kind of stuff. He spoke during the World Cup. He
(17:30):
did press conferences in the lead up to Argentina's game.
Obviously he was the captain of Argentina. He felt an obligation.
This was a part of his legacy. I don't believe
though that he spoke in the postgame press conference after
he won the World Cup.
Speaker 2 (17:43):
Who was really going to.
Speaker 3 (17:44):
Make him stop his celebrations of a game that cemented
his legacy. But again, you know, this is a mix
of the cultural differences and the reality of the fact
that that Messi is not has never really been kind
of a media forward person. It just doesn't really mix
with his personality. And so it's one of the more
intriguing parts of this experiment is going to be how
(18:05):
much does he put himself out there? Because when you
look at when you compare other signings like David Beckham,
when he came in two thousand and seven, he understood
that he was an ambassador for MLS. He did media
left and right. J Latan Ibrahimovitch of course, we saw
him on all the late night shows. Even when I
was in Orlando covering Orlando City in twenty fifteen. Kaka,
who's a former feed for Player of the Year, did
(18:25):
media every once in a while, not as regularly as
the other players, but he got in front of a
microphone every couple of weeks. I don't know that it'll
be that easy with Messi, but I expect at some
point he's going to have to come answer some questions
from us, hopefully.
Speaker 1 (18:38):
It's interesting. I'm just trying to think, like you think,
if I say Lebron James, you know what he sounds like.
If I say Curry, you know him, Patrick Mahomes. I'm
trying to think even even internationally Federer, the tennis great,
I think Switzerland, like, you know what he sounds like.
I'm just trying to think. I don't think I know
what Leonel Messi sounds like that that's crazy. He just
(18:58):
doesn't give a lot of that's the upside for him
giving interviews like.
Speaker 2 (19:02):
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3 (19:03):
I mean, he is one of the biggest brands in
the world and you want to talk about his impact.
Inner Miami had about one million Instagram followers the day
before Messi announced he was going to join the team.
Right now, which is about a month later. A little
bit more than a month later, they have nine point
eight million Instagram followers. There's only three professional teams in
the United States with more Instagram followers than Inner Miami.
Speaker 2 (19:24):
So yeah, you're.
Speaker 3 (19:24):
Talking about a person who doesn't need to do media
to expose himself to fans. He could just use his
social channels. And that's that's the reality of the world
we live in now, That's how things are changing.
Speaker 2 (19:35):
But certainly, yeah, he's spoken before. Like I said, I think.
Speaker 3 (19:38):
In some instances, like with Argentina and Qatar at the
World Cup, he felt that obligation existed to be a
spokes as the captain and the leader of the team,
to be at those press conferences. But yeah, he picks
his moments, and I think again, I think there's a little.
Speaker 2 (19:51):
Bit of grace.
Speaker 3 (19:51):
They're giving him a bit of grace here to adjust
to a new culture and new expectations in this country.
And you know, hopefully at some point we get to
hear a little bit from him about being here and
how it's been and kind of the transition. I actually
think the press conference in a month with MESSI will
be more productive in terms of learning what things have
been like for him, rather than the one when he
first gets here and you know, everything is still new
(20:14):
and he hasn't really experienced anything yet.
Speaker 1 (20:15):
Yeah, I'm curious, like you saw the messy photos at
the grocery store in Florida. Obviously he couldn't do that
in Argentina. Now I don't. I'm assuming none of that
was staged. I had a buddy saying, wait, there was
security somewhere around him. What's Messi's life like currently in Miami?
Speaker 3 (20:35):
I think the Cynic in all of us as Okay,
Public's is a corporate sponsor of Inner Miami. Maybe it's
not quite the accident that he ended up shopping in
that store, but you have to acknowledge that, yes, life
is going to be a little bit different, or often
is for players who come to United States who couldn't
walk around in Europe through the streets and go unbothered,
and they can here. And we can rattle off the
(20:56):
names who have talked about that aspect of their life.
Tierry Henrie, who has a home in Manhattan. He can
walk down the streets in New York and people don't
bother him.
Speaker 2 (21:04):
Caca Orlando.
Speaker 3 (21:05):
I saw him several times where coincidentally bump into him
at a restaurant and no one's bugging him. He couldn't
do that in Italy and Milan or in Brazil. Messi's
a little bit of a different animal. He actually was
in Miami last year and there were some videos of
him trying to There were some videos of him trying
to go out to eat at restaurants and there were
(21:30):
hundreds of people.
Speaker 2 (21:31):
Waiting outside the door for him. Wow, he's not your
normal celebrity.
Speaker 3 (21:35):
He is going to have people waiting for him and
bugging him and even But what I do love is
that he's doing these things. So his first night here
in Miami after landing in Fort Lauderdale, he went out
to eat at a restaurant in North Miami Beach, in
Little Buenos Aires neighborhood, obviously a huge Argentine community year
and he went and had dinner with his family. And yes,
he went out the back door and tried to sneak out,
(21:57):
and yes there were dozens of fans waiting for him.
But I think those little moments do sell players on
the ability to come here. Because there might still be
people waiting for him outside of these restaurants. He might
still need security any hands. Yeah, so far, but it's
not to the degree that it would be necessary in
Argentina or even in Paris or Barcelona.
Speaker 1 (22:17):
I'm trying to put Messi in some context for MLS,
Like you know, I don't know if you know, I'm
like a minority owner in a Liga MX team and
we're playing in the Legua's Cup coming up this month,
and I'm doing research on the teams we gotta play
Dallas and Charlotte. I'm like, all right, we got a
shot in those games. And I'm looking at MLS standings,
(22:37):
if you will, and power rankings, and inter Miami is
pretty much the worst team in the league. I mean,
maybe these were from a couple of weeks ago, but
it's not like Messi's going to a contender or even
a middling team to put over the top. Like, he's
going to a pretty bad team right now. Is there
any context for what he could possibly do? Like, might
(22:58):
we not see Messi in the MLS postseason?
Speaker 2 (23:02):
Yeah, I mean it's a very distinct possibility. Right.
Speaker 3 (23:04):
They are the worst team in the league, and it
actually creates kind of a cool experiment. I think, to
take the best player of all time, drop him into
the worst team in the league, and see how much
better he can make them. It wouldn't be fair to
really cast it that way, because this team is going
to look significantly different by the time Major League Soccer
restarts on August twentieth, after the League's Cup.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
You have Sergio Busquetz who has joined along with Messi.
Jordi Alba has signed a contract and joined along with Messi.
They're going to.
Speaker 3 (23:31):
Sign three young players under twenty two. Initiative is something
that Major League Soccer uses to entice teams to sign
younger players. They're expected to sign three more players. They've
already inked one of them to help the roster. Two
of the top players for Miami who have been injured
are back, not full training, but are getting out there
on the field and starting to work rehab where they
could be back for the back part of the season.
(23:53):
So they have a new coach as well, top to Martinez,
who coached Messi at Barcelona and Argentina and won an
MLS Cup with Atlanta. So it's going to be a
very very different team when they take the field again
in Major League Soccer play. That being said, they have
a huge hole that they have to climb out of.
I believe they're twelve points out of the last playoff
spot right now in the Eastern Conference.
Speaker 2 (24:13):
That is a significant gap to try to make up.
Speaker 3 (24:15):
They're a little bit fortunate Major League Soccer this year
expanded their playoffs to include a knockout game. So now
nine teams in each conference makes the playoffs. It is
not the biggest challenge in the world to do that,
but I do think it's going to be a fun.
Part of it is like, is Messi so good, so
transformative that he's going to take the worst team in
the league and get them to a playoffs in a
(24:36):
very limited amount of time. I wouldn't count them out,
certainly not when you look at the firepower that has
come in and let's see how this team comes together.
They won't have a lot of time to do it,
but I think it's definitely possible.
Speaker 1 (24:48):
There is a narrative as I'm sure you know that
European stars come to the MLS to take a last
paycheck when they're kind of washed, if you will, I mean,
I hear that, and I understand you know, the financial
aspect of it. It's tough for me. Now, I didn't
(25:09):
watch a lot of PSG here post World Cup. It's
tough for me to conceivably think that Messi is washed
or even close to it. If you watch a level
he played at just seven months ago, I don't know
where are you Unlike? This is just like not long
term great for the MLS, but like in the short term,
it's a huge like jolt.
Speaker 2 (25:29):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (25:29):
I mean, first of all, there are just certain players
where it doesn't matter how old they are, if they
want to come play in your league, they play in
your league. The fact that Barcelona was trying as hard
as they were to sign Messi and you know, I
think is indicative of the fact that he is not,
you know, out of it, right. This is a guy
who had twenty goals and twenty assists last season in France,
one of the only players in Europe I think, maybe
the only player in Europe to do that in one
(25:51):
of the top five leagues. He is still very productive.
As you said, he won a World Cup seven months ago.
Not only did he win the World Cup, he won
the Golden Ball as the top player at that World Cup.
So you know, this is a transcendent player. Major League
soccer has changed a lot over the years, the focus
on the DP spots, the designated player spots, the rule
that was initially created to bring Beckham. It went from
(26:12):
those bigger name stars that we've discussed before to this
really this huge push to sign younger players, and I
think the average age of the players who have come
in as designated players and MLS has dropped significantly from
way above thirty two, I think, like twenty five years
old or something like that. So it's not like this
is a league where you're seeing constant a constant flow
of kind of players in their late thirties coming over anymore.
(26:35):
That being said, inner Miami is kind of going in
that direction right now. Right they have Messi's late thirties,
Busqttes in his late thirties, Geordia Alba again, though Jordia
Albo very productive last year in his career, still playing
at a very high level. Busquttes will be interesting to
see how he transitions to the league. I think he's
maybe the one that I've got the biggest question marks on.
But Bousquetes is a player whose abilities, his vision is
(26:58):
technic that's not going to go away. It's a matter
of will the players around him be good enough where
you can fully see his skills set take advantage. I
think it's an interesting question is where does MLS want
to go. How do they leverage this situation with Messi?
You know, they have growth that they still need to accomplish.
I do think MLS is at a higher level than
people realize, both domestically here the audience here in the
(27:20):
US and around the world.
Speaker 2 (27:21):
But they still do have.
Speaker 3 (27:22):
A long way to go to become the They're not
better than League A Mechi's right now as the best
team in the region. They're not equal to the European teams.
So what's the best way forward? And you know, there
is a big debate now about changing some of the
roster rules, giving owners more flexibility and how they want
to spend, And as part of that, I think it's
about do you want to target some of these players
(27:43):
who are in there early to mid thirties and kind
of go back a little bit to that philosophy, or
is the focus still on younger players. I think ultimately
the goal from Mida League Soccer should be let every
team have their own philosophy, give them a little bit
more freedom to spend the money as they want, and
the ultimate goal should be let's get the product on
the field as strong as possible. And for some teams
(28:04):
it's going to be guys like Messy older in their careers.
I mean not like Messy, but you know what I mean,
later in their careers that can help you. And there
are some teams that are gonna say, no, we want
to try to find the next young star and develop
them here.
Speaker 2 (28:16):
And that's okay. It's okay for teams to have different philosophies.
Speaker 1 (28:20):
It's a great discussion. I like that breakdown. I guess
from my point of view, again, does League MX, like
the coaches want to stay employed? How do you stay employed?
Not by playing the young guys. You know, you got
to play the veterans who help you get to the
playoffs and people keep their jobs. But for the long
term growth of the club, you need to develop the
seventeen eighteen, nineteen year olds, get the academy going because
(28:42):
guess what, that's where the real money is. When you
could sell twenty two year olds to Europe for top
dollar and then you just bolster everything. So it's that
healthy mix of veterans, you know, aging stars if you will,
and the young guys. But it's a lot of it.
From my point of view, come down to the coaches.
Do they want to play the young guys? You know,
(29:03):
I think in this case like Beckham is going to
definitely play Busquet's Alba MESSI those guys are starters from there,
there's no question. But I guess my question is, like,
five years from now, what is Inter Miami going to
look like? And my guess is Bavid becka wild look
at you and Paul and be like, I don't know,
We'll worry about that in five years.
Speaker 3 (29:23):
Yeah, I think that's exactly right. I think sometimes these
problems are ones you confront down the road a little bit.
Speaker 2 (29:27):
But they do have some good young.
Speaker 3 (29:29):
Players who are playing, and like Ben Kromashi, who is
eligible actually they play for Argentina, has played for the
US youth national teams as well. He's going to be
playing minutes next to heroes of his And you're right,
it does come down to a balance. How do you
fit all of these pieces together. The ultimate goal is
to win games, but there's the business side of it
as well. There are the revenue streams from selling players.
(29:50):
Of course, there's no one that's going to bring in
more revenue for this team than MESSI. We know that commercially.
He's changed the game for Inner Miami and certainly for
Major League Soccer, So there are different ways to try
to boost revenue, for sure. But yeah, there's always this
constant give and take for I think every team around
the world, and again, each club will make a decision
on who they want to be, what their focus wants
(30:11):
to be. FC Dallas in MLS has been the team
that's been selling the most players. They don't have any
trophies during that time that they've been doing that, but
they have produced Western mckennie, Ricardo PEPPI go down the
list of all the players that have come out of
Chris Richards and made a lot of money selling those players.
So who do you want to be? How do you
best want to go about running your club? What's the
(30:32):
ultimate goal going to be? Again, I think the goal
for Major League Soccer is with this two and a
half years, you have maybe three and a half years
with Messi.
Speaker 2 (30:40):
He does have an option on the back end of
that contract. How are you going to grow things? How
are you going to grow your audience? How are you
going to entice people to tune in to these games?
Speaker 3 (30:49):
And I think the message shouldn't be about Hey, the
way MLS has gone about it before, it has been like,
let's control how you're spending, let's focus you on finding
younger players and doing things like that. That control has
to be let go and say, let teams find their
own philosophies. Our goal just needs to be to be
as strong as possible on the field to try to
get some of these fans who're tuning in to watch
(31:10):
MESSI to stick around.
Speaker 1 (31:13):
Yeah, I guess. I for a final question, let me
zoom out for a sec. And if you look at
what happened in nineteen ninety four, the World Cup comes
to the United States, It's massive and basically the MLS
is berthed out of that. They because it was in
the United States, soccer was huge. Blah blah blah. Okay,
so the World Cup's coming back here in twenty six,
(31:34):
the MLS has, I guess two and a half years
before it happens again. Maybe a leading question on my
part now that I'm in Lega MX, but what do
you foresee for MLS. A lot of rumors about MLS
and Lega MX in some way shape or for joining
forces to create a super league that would rival the EPL.
(31:57):
I know relegation and promotion is kind of hyped by fans.
I don't know where you stand, but I do know
owners have zero interest in that for obvious reasons. I'm
just soccer in America seems to be on the up
and up and it's gonna get massive. The US team
is I don't want to say stacked, because you know,
we got to make a semifinals first, but the US
team is probably as strong as it's ever been. I
(32:18):
know it's very young, but everything seems to be pointing up.
What do you think for the MLS here going forward,
heading into the World Cup in twenty six.
Speaker 3 (32:27):
Yeah, I think there are there's a lot of momentum
right now around American soccer. You have Messi here in
Major League Soccer. Now next year you have the Copa
America being played on American soil, which is another huge
moment for the game.
Speaker 2 (32:39):
You've got the.
Speaker 3 (32:39):
Club World Cup, the first ever Club World Cup with
FIFA that's going to be played in twenty twenty five.
Then you've got the twenty twenty six World Cup, and
then potentially the Women's World Cup in twenty twenty seven.
So yeah, there's a lot going on right now to
advertise the sport, and you're right, soccer itself has grown
in popularity in a significant way in this country. The
sport for me League soccer, the equation is a little
(33:01):
bit different it's how can we compete with England, How
can we compete with League A Meckis, which is the
most popular sport on television in the United States. What
do we have to do to get a bigger chunk
of this growing fan base around the sport. And you know,
I'm not sure that they know what the answer is yet,
but for the sport itself, yes, you have to look
at twenty twenty six as a springboard, as a moment
(33:23):
to grow the way we did in nineteen ninety four
when the World Cup came that founded Major League Soccer,
in nineteen ninety nine, when the Women's World Cup happened,
and obviously the iconic women's national team in the Rose Bowl,
the penalty kickshoot out and all of those things that
grew participation in the sport that helped to grow the
women's game, and WSL is in the strongest place it's
ever been. And so when you think about twenty twenty
(33:44):
six and potentially twenty twenty seven, yeah, the idea has
to be, how do we take these moments and use
them to be something that can be a game changer,
not incremental.
Speaker 2 (33:54):
Growth, but a huge push forward.
Speaker 3 (33:57):
And I think that Major League Soccer's owners are thinking
about it. I'm sure League got Mechi's owners are thinking
about it. The League's Cup is a way to try
to do that. The Apple television deal the Major League
Soccer signed ten years, two and a half billion dollars
to try to make its product visible.
Speaker 2 (34:11):
No matter where you are around the world.
Speaker 3 (34:13):
All of this is leading into this moment, and you
know what they do with it, that's what we're all
waiting to see. And I hope that they don't miss
the moment. And I do think there are some ways
that they can change the league to make it stronger,
to make it more compelling, and they have a very
small window to do that in order to capture the
audience that's going to be there in twenty twenty six.
Speaker 1 (34:33):
Yeah, all right, Paul, we'll get out of here on this.
Does Messi score a goal in his first game for
Inter Miami, I don't know.
Speaker 2 (34:40):
I mean, that's a tough one. I don't know.
Speaker 3 (34:41):
If he plays six minutes or if he plays thirty minutes,
the answer is very different. I expect he's going to
play somewhere in between that, you know, maybe like a
good twenty minute stint by the way, It's going to
be incredibly hot here in Florida for his first game,
so that might end up dictating how long he comes off.
And as we talked about before, Miami's not very good.
So what's the score line going to be when he
comes off the bench.
Speaker 2 (35:03):
I'm gonna say, I don't know.
Speaker 3 (35:04):
You know, when you think about players who have come
moments that have happened in this league. You had Beckham
whose debut was kind of a dud. His ankle was injured,
he only played like seven minutes total for the Galaxy,
and a friendly against Chelsea. You had Zlatan who came
on on national television and scored one of the best
goals in Major League Soccer history. I think that Messi
is going to have some moments that excite us, dribble
(35:27):
some guys, make some nice passes, but I don't think
he'll score a goal. I do think, though, that he
is going to score a lot of goals in Major
League Soccer.
Speaker 2 (35:35):
I do think he is going.
Speaker 3 (35:37):
To change the game for that team, and I think
the back half of the season is going to be
a lot of fun to watch his games because I
just have a feeling that he's going to come in
and have a point to prove, to say, I'm not retiring.
I do want to be competitive. I do want to
play for Argentina at the Copa America. So the goal
might not not happen the first game, but stay tuned.
Speaker 1 (35:58):
You said that he might not start. Is that determined
yet or he's definitely coming off the bench or what.
Speaker 2 (36:03):
He's definitely coming off the bench.
Speaker 3 (36:04):
I mean he's coming off of a couple weeks vacation
in the Bahamas. You know, he's had a lot of
time off since the last time he played. Like I said,
it's going to be upper nineties in Fort Lauderdale with
the heat index up above one hundred and ten.
Speaker 2 (36:16):
Degrees for most of the day. Is that a getting
his fitness?
Speaker 3 (36:20):
No, thankfully, kickoffs at eight pm, so it'll have dropped
off a little bit. But that's what he's been training
in in the mornings. He's got to get his fitness.
At the press conference ahead of the game, Sergio Busquetz said,
it would be impossible for me to play ninety minutes
right now. We're just not fit enough. So you know,
somebody asked him, are you are you debating? He was
sitting next to the manager Tata Martinez, are you are
(36:40):
you debating with the manager to be able to start?
And he laughed and goes, look, we're not going to
start it. We're not there yet physically. But they'll get you.
Speaker 2 (36:47):
They'll get a good stint in the game.
Speaker 1 (36:48):
The tough part is, you're right, what if it's three
nothing and you know, six sixty five minutes in, do
you even bring in MESSI? I mean you have what
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (36:56):
You have to start building that fitness somehow, right, you
have to start building that game fitness somehow.
Speaker 2 (37:00):
And so it's kind of like a preseason.
Speaker 3 (37:01):
You start off with the guys getting twenty minutes, then
you work up to forty five, then you get to sixty.
So I think we'll maybe see I'm hoping to get
maybe twenty minutes out of him on Friday. We'll see
him again a few days later. Maybe that pushes to
a half an hour. What'll be interesting is if they
don't advance in the League's Cup, they're going to have
a month off before their next game. That could be
a blessing in disguise, just to let the team get
(37:22):
some time together to gel. But you'll miss out on
moments to get some of that game fitness. So it's
kind of a give and take here, But you know
it'll be interesting to see.
Speaker 2 (37:31):
I'll tell you this much.
Speaker 3 (37:32):
No matter if you play six minutes, twenty minutes, thirty
five minutes, there's gonna be a camera on every single
touch he makes. When he's on the bench to start
the game, there's gonna be a camera on him the
entire time, every movement he makes. Whatever, poor guys sitting
next to him on the bench better I'll be picking
his nose because the cameras are going to be locked
in on Messi.
Speaker 1 (37:49):
I listen. I know it's about the team and all that,
but I wouldn't hate and I will be getting the
Apple package just to see Messi games. I wouldn't hate
it if they had like a camera on Messi and
they had it on you're in the game, like in
the upper right corner, here's Messi just sitting on the bench.
I'm not honestly, I wouldn't mind watching that interacting with
the guys.
Speaker 2 (38:06):
I think.
Speaker 3 (38:08):
Yeah, Apples come out and said they're gonna have eighteen cameras. Uh,
They're gonna have a skycams three slow mode cams, so
there's gonna be a camera locked in on him, and
I would not be surprised to see, you know, that
little box in the corner. Everyone's tuning in to see
MESSI play in this first game. And actually, what's interesting,
the first game is also going to be on Tudaya
for Spanish speakers because of the deal that they have
(38:29):
in for League's Cup. So yeah, wait, so I don't
even have to get not for the first game, for
the second game. Yes, but it's a good chance for
for MLS to have a little bit more national exposure,
and especially to a market that you're involved in with
League A. Mechi's to a market that MLS needs to
grow in and so it's a good opportunity in that
way as well.
Speaker 1 (38:49):
All right, good stuff, Paul tan Orio, remember follow him
and at the Athletic he's going to be basically the
messy beat reporter. Looking forward to your stuff, Paul, thanks
a lot, man, Thank you.
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Colin Cowherd
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