January 15, 2025 • 59 mins
Colin’s joined by Danny Parkins, host of “Breakfast Ball” on FS1!
They start by debating whether Mike McCarthy is the head coach that makes the most sense to lead the Chicago Bears and turn around the career of Caleb Williams (3:30), and whether the McCaskey family would ever be willing to sell the team (7:00).
Then, they make their picks for the full slate of upcoming NFL playoff games (13:45)!
They discuss Colin’s upcoming interview with NBA commissioner Adam Silver and the major issues the NBA has been facing with declining ratings and what changes can be made to create a sense of urgency in the regular season (29:15).
They address the unruly Eagles fan who was outed online for yelling obscenities at a Packers fan and lost his job and why he doesn’t deserve any sympathy (49:15). They bring up Jerry Jones being lauded for his acting on the TV show “Landman” and debate how much talent acting takes (54:45).
Finally, they address the devastating fires in Los Angeles, whether the political backlash has been overblown or justified, and why talking about the politics immediately is justifiable (1:01:15).
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
The volume.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Well, I get Danny Parkins about uh, I think about
once every five or six weeks, like to have him
more co host of breakfast Ball on FS one. And
you know he's a former Chicago radio guy, so he's
really tied into that. So today I had I'll throw
I'll give you the idea I threw out. I said, Listen,
parents love their kids the same, but they will make
(00:31):
one of their children the executor of their will. That's
the one they probably trust more. And so even parents
have to make decisions on trust. And I trust pat
Riley when he says Eric Spolstra, that's a really young guy,
younger than the league average by five or six years,
but he's smart. I trust Stan Crounky when he says
(00:53):
I'm gonna hire a thirty year old head coach the
Chicago Bears with Marcus Freeman, I think for and could
be the Sean McVay. I don't trust the Bears to
make that call. Mike McCarthy is safe, will write the
ship will make you viable. A lot of owners Cleveland
Brown's thought Freddie Kitchens was the next thing. I don't
(01:16):
trust the Bears on a young whiz kid higher so
McCarthy to me feels safe. I don't trust them with
a will, just just basically, you know. So there's my
take on the Bears. Am I nuts?
Speaker 1 (01:32):
No, You're not nuts. McCarthy is safe. This is a
tricky one for me because I've spent the better part
of a decade calling Mike McCarthy an overrated fraud. Like,
so if the Bears turn over the keys to the
Caleb Kingdom to a guy who it really bothers me,
(01:56):
Like he only won one Super Bowl with Aaron Rodney
and he got gifted Aaron Rodgers' prime. And I know
winning Super Bowls is hard, but I remember these games,
like I remember an NFC Championship game at Lambeau against
Seattle when he was giving the ball to Eddie Lacy
(02:17):
instead of letting Aaron Rodgers throw and then settling for
field goals inside the five yard line. I remember Greg
Jennings talking about how when they got a lead, them
knowing that their coach stopped being aggressive and was just
playing the clock instead of playing the game in front
of him. I watched him be a touchdown favorite at
(02:39):
home against Green Bay last year and get blown out
the flip side of this is at least he's in
the playoffs. At least he's good enough to be a
favorite and then lose the game. But I think that
you should dare to be great. Could you do worse
than Mike McCarthy, obviously, of course, But it feels like
(03:03):
the John Fox higher to me, which the Bears did.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
Yeah, yeah, like that.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
Restore credibility. He's got a ring. He will bring in
a culture. There aren't many coaches who have even gotten
three opportunities in the NFL, much less been successful on
their third opportunity in the NFL. So I find the
higher if that is what happens to be very, very uninspiring.
(03:29):
I would much rather roll the dice with Ben Johnson
for the upside, even while I completely agree with you
the Bears deserve no benefit of the doubt.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
Yeah, it's you know, it's funny. I was talking about
this to a friend the other day and I said,
Chicago's got bad teams. And I said, my take is
LA's got good teams, and the reason is we have
good owners. Stan Kronk's second, first, third richest owner in
the league.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
People think there's a salary cap, so everybody's playing by
the same rules. They are not Cronky's rich. Michael Bidwell
isn't as rich. It's an advantage. We also have Steve Balmer,
who is worth more than twenty seven of the NBA
owners combined. We also have the Dodgers ownership group, which
is richer than the Cubs and White Sox combined. By
(04:17):
and large. Chicago sports like the politics, feels a little
suboptimal at times, a little sketchy.
Speaker 1 (04:28):
You're being a little be kind, You're being.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
A little deal. Do you think the mccaskeys would ever sell?
So that is such a loaded question. So the history
of the right.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
So mccaskey's Virginia mcaskey's one hundred and two years old
and still the matriarch of the family. Uh, there are
like ninety kids and grandkids, and they she's put George
McCaskey in charge. And George McCaskey is a nice guy
who is by all accounts well intentioned and well meaning.
(05:03):
But he is a simple guy who happens to be
born to the family that owns the Bears. Like the
stories of him are, he will he's a big Cubs fan,
and of course the Cubs will give him a suite
or invite him into Tom Ricketts's booth or whatever, and
he's like, no, I just want to sit in Section
one twenty with my nineteen eighty four Cubs jacket and
(05:24):
have a beer and a hot dog. Like he's just
a guy. He very proudly says, like, I'm not a
football guy. I'm just a fan like all of you.
The problem is you own the team. And so somehow
he hasn't learned and empowered people, and he gets taken
advantage of and they are cheap around the margins because
they are not independently wealthy. To your point, in the NFL,
(05:48):
you do have a salary cap and a salary floor,
but there's no limit on what you could spend on coaches.
There's no limit on what you could spend on airplanes
or facilities. And the Bears facilities have gotten a lot better,
but like very recently, they were terrible. And so would
they sell. There are mccaskey's who want to sell, They
(06:09):
want to cash out, they want to liquidate because they
have zero interest in football. But they have this matriarch
of a family, Virginia McCaskey, that goes back to the Hollises.
The godfather of football. That is like, we're not selling.
So when miss McCaskey passes, there is at least a
(06:29):
thought that maybe, but beyond that, no, like for now
and for the foreseeable future. One hundred and two year
old lady obviously on borrowed time, but their public stances
were not selling. They're funding this stadium. They think it's
going to be on the lake Front, it'll probably be
in Arlington Heights. They hired Kevin Warren, the former commissioner
(06:50):
of the Big Ten. Everything that they are doing publicly
suggests they're going to keep this family business running. And
I agree with you. It's a huge detriment. You know,
it starts at the top, and Chicago ownership is a
huge problem. If Jerry Reinsdorf didn't luck into Michael Jordan,
he would have one White Sox World Series and that's it. Yeah,
(07:13):
you know, it's it's really really bad. And I know
I'm rambling here, but that question that you asked about
whether or not the mccaskey's would sell is at the
heart of all issues facing the Bears. Yes, and nobody
knows because there's just too many of them. Like, no,
it is not consolidated power.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
Yeah, so, I mean this is something I know Stan
Cronkey a little bit. I've been to a couple of
parties with Stan and he's a very stately guy, but
kind of relatable. Like if you're at a party, you
go up, he's drinking a beer and he's asking you
questions and you know, I was talking about this today.
With the Rams, they do not miss on defensive draft picks,
and they run through coordinators, so it's not like Dick
(07:58):
Lebaux and Pittsburgh who it's the same scheme. I mean,
they just run through coordinators. They don't miss They find
undrafted free agents at safety from Tennessee who get four picks. Like,
they don't miss They've missed on occasional offensive picks. But
I think offensive players, especially like offensive linemen. Everybody's missed
on offensive linemen. Great gms have missed on offensive linemen.
(08:19):
They're often weight issues. They often dominate week competition. But
a great example of ownership is that the Rams draft
department is spectacular. And like last year the Bears had
four picks, they took a punter and then like an
IVY League tackle who is a major prospect project excuse
(08:40):
me who never really played again. I mean to me,
I'm not taking one of the hardest positions to play
in football from the IVY League. I may take a linebacker,
may I may take a guard. I'm not taking a
left tackle from the ivy League. I want him to
have played against seven SEC NFL edge rushers. So, and
this is nothing against Ryan Pole specifically, but I just
(09:01):
I don't think. I think when you touch on that,
I know Steve Kime well, Steve Kime obviously have Michael
Bidwell as an agent, and as gracious as he was
to the NFL hosting the Vikings Rams, you know again
on the margins, the Rams just hire better people. And
so it's interesting because I'm gonna spend more time in
Chicago and I look at the Bears and I that's
(09:23):
why I think McCarthy works. Because he has dealt with
a dysfunctional organization. He's dealt with a prickly quarterback. He's
dealt with two high profile teams. Ben Johnson could go
there and like in an hour, be like the hell
did I get myself into?
Speaker 1 (09:37):
There's no doubt about that. McCarthy has a high floor.
I just personally think he has a low ceiling. Yeah,
and attaching that to Caleb's rookie contract is uninspiring to
me personally. Like he leaves Green Bay, Matt Laflure comes
(09:59):
in and modernizes the offense, Aaron Rodgers, who had been declining,
immediately wins back to back MVPs. Like I just I
don't think he is of the now. I think that
he is. He does what he does. He is a
solid coach. You know that he can do the job.
So there's that. But to me, that is just damning
(10:21):
with faint praise. But here's what I've also been saying.
You can fail with an offensive guy, you can fail
with the defensive guy. You can fail with the retread.
So at least he's an offensive retread. I mean, if
they hired if they hired Brian Flores or Anthony Weaver.
There was a report that Ryan Poles was smitten with
(10:43):
the defensive coordinator of the Dolphins. Like, at least Mike
McCarthy is an offensive head coach who has had success
with multiple quarterbacks, who whether he's calling the plays or not,
has his own system that he knows. There would be
stability for Caleb Williams. In my opinion, you cannot hire
a defensive head coach when your quarterback isn't proven. And
(11:06):
I know not everyone agrees with that. Hire CEO, hire
a leader of men type, but to me, it's just
too risky to have that much instability for Caleb, who
clearly is craving structure instability right now.
Speaker 2 (11:20):
The Rams at the Eagles, Ravens at the Bills here
we go are the highlight get those are the Sunday games. Yeah,
and so you know Texans chiefs. Nobody thinks Houston's gonna
win an eight degree weather. Commanders at Lions. I think
Commanders are fascinating. Jayden Daniels is Andrew Luck maybe even
better as a rookie. But the Lions have much better players,
(11:40):
Ben Johnson. With extra time to prepare, they'll bring out
the stop all the stops. Rams, Eagles, Ravens, Bills. You've
had a remarkable year picking game. So I'm going to
give you. I'm going to give you of all four games,
I'm going to give you my strongest take. No team
plays perfect back to back, and the Rams played about
(12:01):
seventy five percent of that game, played perfect football like
they did against Buffalo at home. Go to the Buffalo
game the following week how they play less than perfect.
The Eagles meanwhile, played very poorly in one, which you
can really coach a team hard. When you win and
play poorly, you can really kick ass that week at
practice so that Philadelphia will not play that poorly. Hurts
(12:25):
Jalen Hurt separates more from his concussion. Remember, historically players
off concussions generally struggle in the first game. Game and
a half is that the Eagles actually at minus six
is one of the better bets of the weekend because
we're in love with the standalone Rams performance and go
to the Bills game earlier, they offensively have really bad
(12:49):
halfs a lot. They are really Puka Nakua's centric. I
like the Eagles a lot this weekend, even though today
that sounds outrage.
Speaker 1 (13:00):
So it's funny. In my gambling group chat, we were
having this exact conversation. It's like, Okay, sick five, No,
that's not a bet on the Rams. Oh wow, it's
five and a half. It's six. It hit six and
a half for a minute and then went back down
and some of the guys jumped on at six and
a half like Rams plus six and a half. We
(13:22):
like this number is just crazy, but I think it's
what you're talking about. It's Philly. Still. They played an
awful game, offensively awful, awful, awful, and they won by twelve.
They are really, really good. And the last time we
(13:43):
saw Stafford in the rain, he looked terrible. And the
weather does not sound like it's going to be excellent
conditions for this game as opposed to the Rams. Who
you know, the Rams were a great matchup for Minnesota.
I bet the Rams was one of my biggest bets
of the year, like the Kings were a great matchup
for the Rams. Is how I meant to say it
(14:04):
all Brian Flores does his blitz. Matt Stafford is a
ten plus year veteran who has maybe the two best
blitz beating receivers like Kup and Nakua get opened instantly,
so yeah, and then Flores just kept blitzing and blitzing
and blitzing, and the game is in a dome on
a fast track. That was just the guy he was fourteen.
(14:24):
Stafford was fourteen for eighteen against the blitz with a
passer rating of one forty four, his highest of the year.
It was like he could do anything. He wanted. I
was like, maybe don't blitz, but I was glad he
did because I hammered the Rams in that spot. So
I agree with you. I think that Philly is going
to play a much better game. Their defense is really good,
(14:46):
Like nobody get everyone talks about their offense. Their defense
is really good. So I like Philly in that spot.
I'm going to go down with the ship with Josh Allen.
Baltimore's already favored in Buffalo, like they're playing the best
football of anyone in the last five weeks. But that's
you know, that's a little disrespectful.
Speaker 2 (15:07):
So I've had my worst betting year of my career,
a lot of it. I think Jason McIntyre has pointed
out that the new kickoff rules are giving good quarterbacks
even more of an advantage. I mean, last night, the
first play of the game, Rams completed to Puka and Takua.
They're like in field goal range.
Speaker 1 (15:21):
Yeah. By the way, another take of mine from early
in the year on Breakfast Ball that I feel like
aging kind of well. Arena League goal posts they're eighteen
yards wide. Make them nine yards wide. More fourth down attempts.
I want to see less field goal attempts. You get
the ball to thirty, you get two passes, you're in
field goal range for Brandon Aubrey not interested? Sorry, go ahead.
Speaker 2 (15:43):
It's good.
Speaker 1 (15:44):
Yeah, that's good.
Speaker 2 (15:44):
Yeah. This is the best version of the Bills. And
though we think of Baltimore as a cold weather operation,
Lamar doesn't love blaying in the cold, and I think
they've become very Derek Henry and Lamar dominant. This Bills
team now is a top five back, a top two
(16:07):
left tackle, a top two quarterback, one of the better
now that the rookie from Florida State has emerged. The
slot receiver, I guess the real receiving corps. Two capable
tight ends. This is their best offensive line. And Sean McDermott,
to his credit, I think is a better coach than
two years ago. I think he has gotten better. I mean,
(16:28):
it's so funny that you're not allowed to get They
even say you can increase your IQ in your thirties
and forties, like you can. I'm not betting against Buffalo
in every game that has mattered this year at home,
they have crushed everybody.
Speaker 1 (16:46):
Well, I don't like this. I don't like us agreeing
on these picks. Your record's been terrible. The things you
look around and all of a sudden, the company you're
keeping is where you want to be, Like a, oh big,
Maybe change my stance. Maybe I better parlay Baltimore in
the round.
Speaker 2 (17:04):
How about this though, But I did say it this year.
So you know, you and Nick are very good at
this gambling stuff. And you're both kind of Mathew. That's
why Nick's so good at poker. And I would presume
you've done a little bit of poker in your life.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
I mean I've played a lot of poker. That yeah.
Speaker 2 (17:18):
So I think one of the things I do that
I really enjoy doing, and I don't know if I
do it well, but I think I'm pretty good at
it is seeing cultural changes in sports and theorizing what
is happening in sports. And I was on this three
years ago. I said, watch out. As the sport becomes
(17:40):
more offensive, there will be only one way to win,
and it will be by quarterback. And this year the
winner of each division had the quarterback that played the
best all year for the longest period. Lamar played better
for a longer period than Burrow, who got scorching on
at the end. And if you look at last week weekend,
(18:01):
every team that won, the quarterback that played better won
the game. Yeah, and the NFL is becoming a little
like the NBA, a very small elite four or five teams,
a very tiny middle, and drek in the bottom twelve
to fourteen teams. And I think this is going to
continue because as the league has become virtually quarterback and
(18:24):
offensive head coach centric, there's one way to win in
this league, now, one that's it.
Speaker 1 (18:30):
It's so funny you bring this up because Nick would
make fun of my picks even though I kept winning
and winning and winning, and I was saying, it's the
year of the favorites, and so the traditionally like sharp
betters who bet underdogs.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
I love dogs. I loved my whole life.
Speaker 1 (18:48):
Of course, so do I. Of course you should. It's
a sport of parody. It's a sport with a salary
cap and a salary floor, and worse, the first teams
and the bad team. This isn't college football, Like a
big underdog is eight points nine points. You can win
outright in that situation all the time. Of course, everyone
you should love underdogs historically, but not if what you
(19:12):
just said is true if there's a few teams at
the top that are awesome and then there's a bunch
of really bad teams. I think I trust that those
teams at the top, when they're favored by six over
a really bad team, it's like they're gonna take care
of business and cover those spreads. Favorites crushed this year,
(19:35):
and they really crushed in December as teams were out
of it, as teams were thinking about Cabo, as teams
were firing coaches, and the really good teams were gearing
up for Super Bowl runs. So I don't know if
that will continue or if we'll just start to see
bigger point spreads in the NFL, you know, Like I
mean that game Week eighteen, like Baltimore was a twenty
(19:59):
point favorite against Cleveland. I didn't. I didn't like it.
They didn't they didn't cover, But it was close, like
you know what I mean, Like I I it was
it was. It wasn't like they won by three. So
I I do think that there is It'll be very
interesting to see if that trend continues or if it's
(20:22):
a one year outlier. My guess is it's an outlier
because of just how the league is designed. Uh, and
a team that would is a normally would be a
three point favorite, they'll just make a four point favorite
and that'll be the difference and it'll get back to
being dogs. But I think that that's what happened to
this year in gambling, is that favorites just started covering
spreads because there are a few really, really good teams
(20:46):
and then the bad teams are just we're just awful
this year.
Speaker 2 (20:52):
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Speaker 2 (22:16):
So I have pivoting to the NBA. I have Adam
Silver on my show tomorrow. Many of you will be
listening to this today as of Wednesday, as we shoot
this in the late afternoon on Tuesday, and I have
a series of questions I'm going to ask Adam Silver
if you could ask him one what would.
Speaker 1 (22:35):
It be such a great interview spot for you? To me,
all of the quote unquote problems with the NBA boiled
down to the fundamental issue that the regular season doesn't
(22:57):
mean anything. One of eighty two just doesn't matter. And
if you watch the regular season and you then watch
the postseason, they are different sports. Yeah, how can you
fundamentally change it? Because the three point issue is an
(23:20):
offshoot of that? To me, the sixty game minimum for
the star player, that's a band aid on a gunshot wound.
The All Star Game, that's one thing that's an event.
How can you fundamentally change when these guys have hundreds
of millions of dollars that they've earned fully guaranteed. It's
(23:43):
been proven that you don't need to have home court
advantage to win a finals. You don't need to be
the one seed. How can you get why should fans
care about your regular season when your players clearly don't
like that? To me, is that that is the fundamental
issue facing the NBA. Because they could, they would say, hey,
(24:09):
they get they just signed seventy five billion dollars worth
of television contracts, there is no issue, But the NBA
no longer feels like an event. It's just a game.
I can miss it. I don't have to watch when
Yokichen and Wemby have a great game, I can just
see the highlights on my phone. I don't need to
(24:31):
watch it start to finish. And I love the NBA.
I love it so it pains me to say it.
But the fundamental issue and what I would want, I
could spend the whole twenty minutes or fifteen minutes, however
long you have with them on what realistically can be
done to get not just superstars, everybody, every player to
(24:53):
care about the regular season like they do the postseason.
Speaker 2 (24:56):
Well, think about basketball, international, high school, college. There's a
sudden death reality to the end of seasons. Except the NBA, yes,
where even in the first round it's a sometimes seven
game series where you're just waiting, you know, three to
(25:18):
nothing lead, favorite underdog goes to overtime, wins Game four,
Game five is a blowout. And I think Darryl Morius
suggested sudden death. I don't think that's the answer because
it is a star driven league and I don't want
to star in a bad referee call bouch from the playoffs.
But I would go three games first round, five game, second,
five game, Conference final, seven final, And I think I
(25:42):
think that creates some urgency. That means if a guy
gets banged up and is gonna miss two games and
you're the favorite, like Jalen Brown gets banged up, and
you're like, at half of one game, Okay, he's not
coming back until game four, It's like, whoa, that could
be an elimination game. I feel like now you can
literally there are games in the NBA laughs, like game
three for the team trailing zero to two is just perfunctory.
(26:05):
It's the obligatory. Okay, home team will hold, serve, they'll
win a close one or even a blowout, and then
by game four, the favorite then hammers. And I think
anytime sports has games that I feel like I know
the outcome going in. That's why the twelve team college
football Playoff. One of the things to be concerned about
is the first round. When you get a Boise State
(26:28):
going to Ohio State. That's just like a game in
September that doesn't get me to a TV. And I
think a lot of this is just the greed of
owners and the expansion of sports, the NFL has no
reason to extend. I could argue you could shrink it.
I mean, there's the revenues from television alone. You don't
even need stadium attendance now. But I think this is
the reality is you've got arena contracts, you've got owners
(26:50):
who just don't want to give up the capitol.
Speaker 1 (26:52):
No, that's the thing. No one will give up the inventory.
But you say they wouldn't do single elimination, And it's
the same thing, right, because seven games on TV is
more valuable than one game on TV. And you say
you don't want to have a bad call bounce a team. Why,
Like it happens in March Madness, it happens in the
(27:12):
NFL playoffs, it happens in the best tournaments, the College
football playoff. It just it doesn't happen in baseball, basketball,
and hockey and college football. March Madness and the Super
Bowl are more popular than all three of those sports postseasons.
So I would be very interested if they said, like,
(27:34):
all right, twenty twenty nine, everyone's got plenty of time
to adjust and prepare. TV networks figure it out, charge
your ad rates whatever. It's a single elimination postseason, because
what would happen, I honestly don't know. Would if you
(27:54):
got ten million people for an NBA Finals game, but
it was a single elimination NBA Finals, would thirty five
million people watch? I don't know the answer to that. Like,
I gotta think more people would watch fewer games, And
I'd be interested to know what the economics of it
(28:16):
would be. And I know it would get people talking
and it would be interesting. But the other thing it's
such a cool spot they of Silver is he is
a He is clearly like a progressive player friendly commissioner.
And the players trust the owners in the NBA more
than any other league. Right, They've got a true partnership.
(28:39):
I feel like they should exploit it more. And exploit
has a negative connotation. But it took baseball a lot
to do the pitch clock and to make some rules changes.
Just change some rules, don't change the court in the
nd season tournament. Let's try in season tournament games were
(29:00):
ing with international rules. In season tournament games, we're playing
with no corner three. In season tournament games, we're playing
with thirty foot three point line. Like if one of
eighty two doesn't matter let's experiment with regular season games
and tinker with some rules. Let's say for the month
(29:22):
of January. You know, the Kirk Goldsbery idea, Like each
team gets to draw their own three point line. So
the Warriors three point line is one thing, the Nuggets
is another one, Portland's is another one, Chicago's is another one.
Maybe one team has no three point line altogether if
they're a bad three point shooting team, Like, yeah, like,
experiment a little bit more with your product to see
(29:44):
what you can change to maximize it, because I feel
like some of the things that they do is like
we're gonna change the All Star game format.
Speaker 2 (29:53):
That's yeah, nobody cares.
Speaker 1 (29:54):
Nobody cares. Nobody cares. Like, how do you change the
game to make it so that I get the math?
I get it, Well, three is more than two. I
understand it's fifty percent more than two. But you your
sport has a fundamental viewership problem. If it's not a
good idea for Anthony Edwards to try to dunk. He's
(30:17):
one of the greatest athletes in the world, and he'll
take ten to fifteen threes a game, Like it's nothing.
You want him attacking the basket so I just I
would really love to talk to him about how radical
of ideas are you willing to try for a product
that economically is not broken. But I feel like for
(30:38):
those of us who love the sport would say that
it is.
Speaker 2 (30:42):
Yeah, aesthetically. I again, I don't start really diving into
the NBA until I would say almost after this weekend
and you get down to a couple of games. Now
I'll watch twenty minutes. I watch thirty minutes the other
day on a treadmill. I do a lot of that stuff.
But a lot of times when I get home, starting
in about a week, at four o'clock four thirty, altern
(31:05):
on an NBA game, and I'll make dinner and eat dinner,
and I'll watch the first half of an NBA game.
I'll try to pick a different team or good teams
every night. So that's kind of how I start. Then
the NFL season ends and now I start watching games.
But that four to thirty window West Coast, I'll watch
an NBA game. By the way, as I have a
place in Chicago, I'm a Bull season ticket holder, so
you know it's I like going to the events. I
like it too. I think the utter thing that some
(31:28):
of these things. No league is perfect. I do think
the NFL baseball is a bit burdened by its past.
It's very much about history and lore, and the NBA isn't.
I mean, the truth is, it's you know, when Jackie
Moon the movie was made, I mean, that's kind of
a realistic, funny look at the old ABA. It was
like colorful and weird, and it's not something that anybody
(31:51):
really cares about. Spencer Haywood's stats right with the Sonics,
so you can experiment, like baseball freaks out about the
Golden Bat, and I understand the purist that says it
screws up with all the numbers. But my take is,
you had cattle steroids for ten years. Let's get over
the numbers. Steroids in a weird way allows you to
be more progressive today with your rules. But I don't
(32:13):
think the NBA is burdened by that at all. I
don't think the NFL or hockey is is that, you know,
just change stuff and make it better. And I also
think that of all the sports that are in connect
have some connectivity with tech, and maybe it's the Warriors'
popularity in the Bay Area. There's just tech people everywhere
is that that Silicon Valley is almost notable, almost proud
(32:40):
of the fact that you know, Angel investors back twenty percent.
They might as well be Babe Ruth, like you take
big swings and you miss on a lot. That's just
that's built into the cake of Angel investing. So I
do think the NBA is not burdened by any of
the history in the records. Nobody cares. I don't know
how many points Michael Jordan's gord and I don't care.
Speaker 1 (33:02):
Do you? So do you think it's on the board
that because because this would fundamentally solve it, because the
three point issue is a math issue. Like it's boring,
but it's a math issue. Right, Three is fifty percent
more than two. So if you shoot thirty three percent
from three, that is the ev expected value equivalent of
(33:23):
shooting fifty percent from two. And they can train a
lot of guys to shoot thirty five percent from three.
Right That's that's like the very basic simplified version of
the math. So if you made threes worth four and
two's worth three, the math changes like the three the
(33:44):
four pointer would not be fifty percent more valuable than
the three pointer. It would be thirty three percent more
valuable than the three pointer.
Speaker 2 (33:55):
You would see a lot less threes, But that would
that feel. So there's there are lines where you don't
want to feel like you don't want to annihilate or
erase all your history.
Speaker 1 (34:08):
But you just said that they're not burdened by it.
Speaker 2 (34:10):
Well, they're not burdened by it, but there is a
top ten all time scoring list that does matter. That's
the one we all know. It's like, oh, okay, it's
Lebron and it's and it's Kareem and it's Malone, and yeah,
there are I don't want to annihilate history, but I'm
not paralyzed by it. I think that would annihilate history.
Speaker 1 (34:28):
It would, but it's a it's like a catch twenty two, right,
like do you want to solve the problem that solves
the problem.
Speaker 2 (34:40):
Yeah, I don't. You know what, there's there's so many
lines in the sand. It's like it's like anything else.
It's like, let's say you had an ex wife. It
would be one thing to if she got if she
(35:00):
won the lottery, to text her and go, hey, congratulations.
It'd be another thing to text her if you were
married and say I was just thinking about you. I'm
going out Friday. It's like, well, it's text and you
obviously thought about her. With both texts, one feels a
little over the line. Yeah, so like yeah, so it's like,
(35:23):
you know, it's one of those things where I am
for new stuff. I am mister move bulldoze history.
Speaker 1 (35:33):
But there are.
Speaker 2 (35:33):
Lines in sports, and I think the top ten all
time scoring list is a line that should be protected.
Speaker 1 (35:39):
Okay, yeah, And I, by the way, like I don't
even I don't fundamentally disagree with that. I just then
I want to know what the smartest people are doing
to solve it, right, Like the first step of admitting
the first step of solving any problem is admitting you
have one. I could understand why thirty billionaires just sign
(36:08):
record just locked in record setting stupid ten figure revenue
for the next decade for their business, and they're like,
what are you guys talking about? Problem with the NBA?
You know, I could I think that would be a
(36:29):
totally reasonable stance for Jerry Reinsdorf or who, Steve Balmer
or whomever, good owner, bad owner, young old tech, old
money inherited business evant whatever to be like Buddy this
is a business. We my franchise just goes up and
(36:51):
up and up in value. I get offers every day
for it. There are more people that you know, more
billionaires than teams. It's a vanity thing. It makes me cool. Well,
it gives me an identity. What are you talking about
that there's an issue with my sport because they look
at it like a business. So yeah, I don't know.
If the NBA agrees with me that they have a
problem like so, then they're not going to do anything
(37:13):
radical to solve it.
Speaker 2 (37:21):
One of the stories this week that it's interesting. So
at the Eagles Packers game, a very obnoxious Eagles fan
said some vile things to a woman who is a
Packer fan sitting below. The vile Eagle fan is not
the sharpest tool in the shed. There was somebody by
(37:42):
her filming him, and he didn't recognize that. That didn't
resonate with him, which is if somebody's filming you at
a game and you're punching somebody or or you're saying
horrible things to somebody and you have a really good
corporate job, may want to scale back. I mean that
he couldn't identify that speaks to his sort of lack
of self awareness. But the Internet, as it's prone to do,
(38:05):
and I don't have a problem with the internet. Doing
this highlighted his really bad behavior, repugnant behavior. Well, his
company saw it and fired him, and I just wanted
to see the remarks from fans, and fans said, well,
why didn't you confront him instead of taking a picture,
to which I would say, he could be a UFC fighter,
(38:25):
he could be a drunk, he could have a knife
in his pocket. You don't know what you're getting into
at a stadium, you have no idea. A lot of
these guys that are they're drunk and they want to
get into a fight. And it's like, I'm with my wife.
I don't want you to disrupt me. Your bad behavior
is not going to change my behavior. I'll just make
sure you get in trouble. So I don't have a
problem just saying, could be in a security here, you
(38:48):
take care of I'm not a security guard. Stadiums have him,
you know, And a lot of people push back, well,
he shouldn't lose his job. And I had this belief
and I still kind of believe it, but I used
to talk about it all the time I think about
it in my first book. There are two types of guys,
job guy and career guy. Career guy it's a stigma
(39:08):
to get into a fight. You're a law partner, you're
an executive, you do something that's public, usually you have
things to protect. Job guy is like you could go
into the warehouse and go, hey, I got into a
fight at the Eagles game and deck this guy. It'd
be a badge of honor to some job guy. So
it's always remarkable to me when it's a corporate guy
(39:28):
doing it, and I do feel bad that he would
lose his job, But for some reason, for whatever reason,
I don't feel too bad that if you're a schmuck
and you're taped and people don't want to confront you
in the moment and you lose your job, even if
you're married with kids, should I feel worse about it
than I do Because I'm kind of glad he lost
his job.
Speaker 1 (39:50):
I will not spend one minute feeling sorry for that guy. Sorry, Like, no,
what I should he lose his job?
Speaker 3 (40:03):
No?
Speaker 1 (40:04):
But is it okay that he did? Yeah? You know
what I mean? Like, actions have consequences, And by the way,
he didn't look hammered. He didn't sound hammered. He was
just like, very calmly saying horrible, disgusting, vile things to
(40:27):
a woman on camera unapologetically because she was rooting for
a different set of laundry. It's ridiculous, it's ridiculous behavior.
So no, I don't like celebrate that he lost his job.
Speaker 2 (40:47):
Yeah, I'm not celebrating again, No, not at all.
Speaker 1 (40:49):
Not at all. I wouldn't try to pile on of
the losing of his job. But what I felt about
that video was that it is so much worse than
a fight at a sporting event. Yeah, I can kind
of understand, Like I don't condone fighting at sporting events obviously,
(41:10):
but like you root for the Red Sox, you root
for the Yankees. It's seventeen dollars beer night and we've
had a dozen of them, and you say something, and
I say something in machismo and testosterone and you get
into a fight, Like it's not good. But sports are primal.
I say, less hate in the world, more Hayden sports.
So like sometimes that sports hate that I condone and like,
(41:34):
and it leads to rivalries in trash talk and spinning
a ball in a guy's face and taunting penalties and
pushing and shoving like I can't then be completely offended
when a fan doesn't so like a sports fight among fans,
I don't love it, but it doesn't really bother me
that it happens. It's just like cost of doing business.
(41:55):
That is just subhuman. Yeah, you know what I mean.
It's just overt cruelty.
Speaker 2 (42:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (42:06):
So I don't feel bad for that guy at all.
If he would have been twelve shots deep, slurn his words,
punched someone that gets caught on camera and he gets
fired for that, I would honestly feel way worse for him.
Yeah he did, And maybe that is completely logically inconsistent,
(42:30):
but that video was appalling, and sorry, man, you've got
to live with the consequences of your actions. We're not
imprisoning you for it. A private company fired you because
they were embarrassed to employ you because you acted like
a jackass. That's life.
Speaker 2 (42:45):
Okay, here's another curve ball, all right, Jerry Jones. Yeah,
goes on a very popular show called Landman. It's very good,
Billy Bob Thornton.
Speaker 1 (42:54):
I haven't seen the show, but I saw the clip.
Speaker 2 (42:57):
Yeah, it's it's a little like Yellowstone. It's sometimes it's
a little overwritten, like nobody's that clever ad libbing, you know,
or remember the movie Yeah, remember the movie Juno. You
know this like young Kid sounds like you know, Stephen
Colbert riffing off one liners. And I'm like, yeah, it's
a little over the top. So Landman's a little overwritten.
(43:19):
But Billy Bob Thornton sells the hell out of it
and it's good. So Jerry Jones makes an appearance on
it and does a remarkable job. And it goes back
to something years ago. I was at a party and
I don't go to a lot of these parties. I
probably been to three and eight years in LA and
(43:43):
there were some writers in Hollywood people, and one of
them was an acting coach, and I just asked him
about it. I said, you know, on average, you know,
how talented are they? He goes, never forget the stars
of Stranger Things are kids. It's just make believe. It
(44:07):
doesn't take extraordinary amounts of talent to act. And I thought, whoa,
he's an acting coach. Yeah yeah, And I'm like, I
don't think i'd be a good actor. But when Jerry
Jones did it, It took me back to that conversation
where he's like, yeah, seven year olds are literally gripping
on TV because they're good pretenders. A lot of people
(44:29):
play in the world of fantasy and pretending and dress up.
And so I want to just ask you this. Chicago's
known for Second City, a lot of really quality actors.
Could you act? Do you think it takes extraordinary skill? Like,
for instance, an eight year old couldn't be an astronaut
or a mayor, an eight year old couldn't be a
(44:49):
civil engineer. They can act? How much talent does it
take to act?
Speaker 1 (45:00):
It takes an extraordinary amount of talent to be great?
You know, Daniel day Lewis has an extraordinary amount of talent, Okay,
Like I I do believe that. I believe that people
who can make you buy wide ranging characters over a
(45:24):
long period of time that do a lot of different
things and they're successful in a lot of different avenues
and venues, and then you can see them do like
Jamie Fox has an incredible amount of talent. Yeah, you know.
And now it's not just acting, right, it's it's music,
it's comedy, it's danced everything.
Speaker 2 (45:44):
Yeah, he's he is hyper talented, but he sings, does
stand up. Like I've argued this for years of all performers,
comedians are underrated. I mean Dave Dave Chappelle gets one take,
writes his own stuff, and I mean, yeah, performs it
one take.
Speaker 1 (46:02):
Yeah, no, no, no question. I think, like anything, the
best of the best are incredibly talented but really good material.
That's why you listen to any podcast or interview with
these actors that are like, like, what do you judge it?
On the script, the writing, the director. There's there's no doubt.
(46:24):
Now could I don't want to be a two unfair,
but like could Luke Wilson have done Castaway? Like? No,
Like I don't. I think Tom Hanks has like a
certain amount of skill in gravitas to carry a two
hour and fifteen minute epic, whereas alone on an island,
(46:47):
you know, I think.
Speaker 2 (46:48):
So you don't think Paul Shore could have done the Irishman?
Speaker 1 (46:50):
I don't, Yeah, I don't. Like I think that there
is definitely some skill, but I think that there but
most of it is it's a it's a very collaborative
job that feels individualized. Like to be a great actor
you have to have a great script, a great so,
(47:11):
a great writer, a great director. You have to have producers.
It has to be well lit, it has to be
well shot, it has to be well budgeted. It has
to be There's a lot of things that have to
happen to make you look good and for you to
get the twenty million dollar paycheck. Whereas the stand up comedian,
the pen, the microphone, the venue like you're the talent,
(47:34):
the songwriter, the pen, the guitar, the microphone, the venue
like you are mostly like I think that it is
among the performing arts, it probably is the one that
requires the least amount of talent, but the best are
still great.
Speaker 2 (47:51):
That makes musical talent. Musical talent is it's pretty extraordinary
to make you see like is it John Batiste the
amazed like you see it, it's amazing, Like I watched
them and I'm like, this is ai. This can't be real.
Speaker 1 (48:05):
Well I was. I know nothing, Like I know nothing
about music. I will joke that, like I liked one
hundred percent of the concerts I've been to because everything
there's every single time I'm blown away that they're doing it.
I'm like, oh my god, this is unbelievable. Like I
did the recorder than the clarinet, and then I was
like just good enough with the clarinet to qualify and
to do saxophone in seventh grade. And at the performance
(48:28):
or the band recital or whatever, I was just like, oh,
these kids are just like way too good. And I
was just like pantomiming playing the saxophone, and I stopped,
and I was just like, you know, no one could tell,
like so like I don't have any musical ability whatsoever.
So it always blows my mind. Uh like good bad,
Oh that was a terrible show. I'm like, really, I
(48:48):
was like one of the most incredible things I've ever heard.
So I always think it's also funny when like sports
commentators or something all of a sudden become American idol
judges whenever we like perfect, Oh, that was a terrible
rendition of God bless America. Like, you have no idea
if that was a C flat or a B minor
(49:09):
or whatever the hell it is. So I am not
qualified to great music.
Speaker 2 (49:13):
Okay, So we do sort of a broad sweeping podcast
on anything we want to talk about. So obviously the
fires in Los Angeles has been I mean, I lived
in Washington State, during Mount Saint Helens, but a couple
hours away. And this is the closest natural disaster. And
(49:35):
it's interesting. I have several opinions at opinions, and I
think two or three things can be true. I don't
think politics in California politics has helped firefighters in my opinion.
I do think the environmental mafia up in Sacramento can
(49:55):
be a roadblock to common sense. But I also think
when you have hurricane force wins and instead of rain
there's fire in it, there's nothing firefighters can do. It
would have burned five hundred homes or fifteen hundred homes.
There was nothing you can do if you go online
with a video. And I know palisades very well, narrow roads,
(50:16):
windy roads, wild topography, canyons, stuff just bounce, canyon and canyon.
There's nothing you could have done. And people say, well,
you shouldn't politicize it. But it is interesting, and I
think to myself, why not? Because in order to get
things done, powerful entities like Sacramento for instance, or a
(50:39):
powerful governor are rarely vulnerable. And there are these moments
in time when their policy or their direction makes citizens
vulnerable or at risk, and people are uncomfortable. You hear
this all the time. I can't believe you make that political,
(51:00):
And I would argue almost everything is up for political
discussion in a very tribal country. So I wasn't necessarily
put off by the politics. I just didn't agree with
a lot of the takes. I thought it was a
tsunami historically for wildfires at once. Don't You could have
(51:22):
had one hundred more fire trucks. Planes couldn't go in
the air for a day and a half because of
the wins, so you couldn't fight it. I think almost
everything is fair game politically, do you yes?
Speaker 1 (51:34):
Of course, of course, I am not an expert on
fire fighting. I am not an expert on California. I
am not I all of those caveats aside, but there
are problems that are too big for a person or
(51:55):
group of people to address and solve, And like baseline,
overly simplified level, that's what government and politics is like.
People are like, oh, there was no water in the
fire hydrants. I'm like, okay, I don't know everything that
led to that, but I also know that when I
(52:16):
see a fire hydrant on the side of the road,
my expectation isn't that that can put out a wildfire,
that it can stop a house from burning down, right?
You know? So, Like I think that some of the
grand standing and the like, see I told you so,
and I was right, and it is this person's fault,
(52:37):
like that is just gross an oversimplification clearly of a disaster.
But if we can't talk about, hey, this happened, we
clearly didn't do a great job, you know what I mean,
Like this happened and we were not able to stop it.
Speaker 2 (53:02):
And it happens regularly on an almost annual basis.
Speaker 1 (53:05):
Well that's that's that's my point. This happened. We couldn't
stop it. It's going to happen again. No individual is
capable of stopping it. If an individual isn'tcapable of stopping it,
the next thing that you would turn to is the government.
(53:25):
So then it's politics. And that, by the way, is
a totally a political observation. Left right, pro newsome anti
Trump pro Trump. That that observation right there, I feel
like people on both sides of the aisle should just
obviously agree with how if this isn't a thing that
(53:49):
government and like tax dollars are supposed to go towards
solving Yeah, then why why do we have government? Again?
What are you talking about? Like, of course this is political, of.
Speaker 2 (54:03):
Course, yeah, don't don't. Don't buy a house in Juno
if you don't like chili weather, and don't buy a
house in Phoenix if you're bothered by hot weather. Don't
be a politician. If you wanted to always be civil
and above board, it's gonna get it's gonna go sideways.
(54:24):
You're going to be attacked. That It's called politics, right,
Like that if you had a friend and I said,
you know, I like Danny, but he's very political, right,
that would be like a stigma. It's like, yeah, Danny's
the political one. It's politics. This is what it is.
So as everybody was, and I don't I don't even
consider this a political conversation. And because whenever political people
(54:48):
talk sports, I always think, oh, they sound so rudimentary
and so pedestrians, and so I know I don't have
you know, I read like everybody else, But I think
this is the time to attack a governor. This is
a time to attack a mayor. This is a time
to say, okay, this is a real crisis. Uh, why
weren't your policies better well.
Speaker 1 (55:06):
And by the way, I don't know the answer. I'm
totally fine with independent review. Let some experts tell us
if they did a good job or not, or if
this could have been prevented with different policies that were
suggested and you got cheap on and voted down or
(55:26):
dismissed or whatever. Like I don't know. I don't know
who is at fault, But I think it's crazy to
suggest that politicians shouldn't be criticized or questioned when really
bad things happen, whether or not they are directly responsible
for it or not. And I mean, maybe this makes
(55:47):
it more political than you want to make it, but
like I feel the same way about mass shootings. Of
course we should talk about that in a political sense
when it comes to gun laws.
Speaker 2 (55:57):
Or how about this, This isn't perfectly an now, but
if somebody, a sports figure, was a bully or did
bad things and he dies and people say, Bobby Knight
dies and people are critical of him the day dies
and people say that's disrespectful, and I'm like, well, time
out are you producing my show? Should I talk about
(56:18):
it six days from now? What's the time?
Speaker 1 (56:20):
Looking on?
Speaker 2 (56:21):
When I can talk about Bobby Knight's bad behavior. To me,
we produce a show. The only way to accumulate an
audience is talk about stuff people are talking about. Yeah,
so I'm not gonna have I always say this. I
don't mind if callers when I used to take them,
disagree with me. Don't try to produce my show. I'm
good at it. I know what I'm doing. I don't
(56:42):
try to produce your mortgage. You know your title company.
I'm not here to tell you how to do it.
And my take has always been Bobby Knight dies, that's
the day to be critical. That holds all of us
somewhat accountable to being better human beings.
Speaker 1 (56:55):
I agree completely. Yeah, the idea of like don't speak
ill of the dead, Like, okay, if you want to
treat your aunt that way, fine, but if it's a
public figure, and that's that's what eulogies are for, like
like that, that's what their family is for. Like the
obituary is going to tell the life story. So I
completely agree with you. Now I think that obviously there
(57:15):
is good taste, you know, I don't. I didn't love
the President elect tweeting or truth socialing the Hollywood hills
burning with the Hollywood signs saying Trump was right, Like
I didn't. I didn't think that was in particularly good taste.
I thought that was a bit of a troll when
(57:37):
thousands of people were fleeing their homes on the flip side,
just to like go to the other side of it.
Like do you remember when Hurricane Sandy obviously hit the
northeast and Chris Christie got crushed for greeting Obama with
(57:58):
a hug and a handshake, and he was like, wait
a minute, this doesn't have to be but he's coming
here to like visit victims and give federal dollars to
help rebuild. Like we can disagree politically, we're going to
try to agree on how to help people after a hurricane.
Like so I'm not saying that there is no room
for taste and decorum, but and this is callous. Four
(58:25):
months from now, if they're like, you gotta wait four
months until we can talk about it, something else will
be dominating the news cycle by that point, like it, right,
you know, like unfortunately not for the people that lost
their homes like that, this will be something that impacts
them for years and years and years. Not that it's
still won't be a news story or relevant, and the
(58:45):
government will still be investigating and all that insurance claimed
and all the things. But like this is when our
attention is on it, so of course this is when
we should have at least the preliminary conversation on what
to do about it. I don't find it offensive at all.
The volume
Speaker 2 (59:06):
M
The volume.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Well, I get Danny Parkins about uh, I think about
once every five or six weeks, like to have him
more co host of breakfast Ball on FS one. And
you know he's a former Chicago radio guy, so he's
really tied into that. So today I had I'll throw
I'll give you the idea I threw out. I said, Listen,
parents love their kids the same, but they will make
(00:31):
one of their children the executor of their will. That's
the one they probably trust more. And so even parents
have to make decisions on trust. And I trust pat
Riley when he says Eric Spolstra, that's a really young guy,
younger than the league average by five or six years,
but he's smart. I trust Stan Crounky when he says
(00:53):
I'm gonna hire a thirty year old head coach the
Chicago Bears with Marcus Freeman, I think for and could
be the Sean McVay. I don't trust the Bears to
make that call. Mike McCarthy is safe, will write the
ship will make you viable. A lot of owners Cleveland
Brown's thought Freddie Kitchens was the next thing. I don't
(01:16):
trust the Bears on a young whiz kid higher so
McCarthy to me feels safe. I don't trust them with
a will, just just basically, you know. So there's my
take on the Bears. Am I nuts?
Speaker 1 (01:32):
No, You're not nuts. McCarthy is safe. This is a
tricky one for me because I've spent the better part
of a decade calling Mike McCarthy an overrated fraud. Like,
so if the Bears turn over the keys to the
Caleb Kingdom to a guy who it really bothers me,
(01:56):
Like he only won one Super Bowl with Aaron Rodney
and he got gifted Aaron Rodgers' prime. And I know
winning Super Bowls is hard, but I remember these games,
like I remember an NFC Championship game at Lambeau against
Seattle when he was giving the ball to Eddie Lacy
(02:17):
instead of letting Aaron Rodgers throw and then settling for
field goals inside the five yard line. I remember Greg
Jennings talking about how when they got a lead, them
knowing that their coach stopped being aggressive and was just
playing the clock instead of playing the game in front
of him. I watched him be a touchdown favorite at
(02:39):
home against Green Bay last year and get blown out
the flip side of this is at least he's in
the playoffs. At least he's good enough to be a
favorite and then lose the game. But I think that
you should dare to be great. Could you do worse
than Mike McCarthy, obviously, of course, But it feels like
(03:03):
the John Fox higher to me, which the Bears did.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
Yeah, yeah, like that.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
Restore credibility. He's got a ring. He will bring in
a culture. There aren't many coaches who have even gotten
three opportunities in the NFL, much less been successful on
their third opportunity in the NFL. So I find the
higher if that is what happens to be very, very uninspiring.
(03:29):
I would much rather roll the dice with Ben Johnson
for the upside, even while I completely agree with you
the Bears deserve no benefit of the doubt.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
Yeah, it's you know, it's funny. I was talking about
this to a friend the other day and I said,
Chicago's got bad teams. And I said, my take is
LA's got good teams, and the reason is we have
good owners. Stan Kronk's second, first, third richest owner in
the league.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
People think there's a salary cap, so everybody's playing by
the same rules. They are not Cronky's rich. Michael Bidwell
isn't as rich. It's an advantage. We also have Steve Balmer,
who is worth more than twenty seven of the NBA
owners combined. We also have the Dodgers ownership group, which
is richer than the Cubs and White Sox combined. By
(04:17):
and large. Chicago sports like the politics, feels a little
suboptimal at times, a little sketchy.
Speaker 1 (04:28):
You're being a little be kind, You're being.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
A little deal. Do you think the mccaskeys would ever sell?
So that is such a loaded question. So the history
of the right.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
So mccaskey's Virginia mcaskey's one hundred and two years old
and still the matriarch of the family. Uh, there are
like ninety kids and grandkids, and they she's put George
McCaskey in charge. And George McCaskey is a nice guy
who is by all accounts well intentioned and well meaning.
(05:03):
But he is a simple guy who happens to be
born to the family that owns the Bears. Like the
stories of him are, he will he's a big Cubs fan,
and of course the Cubs will give him a suite
or invite him into Tom Ricketts's booth or whatever, and
he's like, no, I just want to sit in Section
one twenty with my nineteen eighty four Cubs jacket and
(05:24):
have a beer and a hot dog. Like he's just
a guy. He very proudly says, like, I'm not a
football guy. I'm just a fan like all of you.
The problem is you own the team. And so somehow
he hasn't learned and empowered people, and he gets taken
advantage of and they are cheap around the margins because
they are not independently wealthy. To your point, in the NFL,
(05:48):
you do have a salary cap and a salary floor,
but there's no limit on what you could spend on coaches.
There's no limit on what you could spend on airplanes
or facilities. And the Bears facilities have gotten a lot better,
but like very recently, they were terrible. And so would
they sell. There are mccaskey's who want to sell, They
(06:09):
want to cash out, they want to liquidate because they
have zero interest in football. But they have this matriarch
of a family, Virginia McCaskey, that goes back to the Hollises.
The godfather of football. That is like, we're not selling.
So when miss McCaskey passes, there is at least a
(06:29):
thought that maybe, but beyond that, no, like for now
and for the foreseeable future. One hundred and two year
old lady obviously on borrowed time, but their public stances
were not selling. They're funding this stadium. They think it's
going to be on the lake Front, it'll probably be
in Arlington Heights. They hired Kevin Warren, the former commissioner
(06:50):
of the Big Ten. Everything that they are doing publicly
suggests they're going to keep this family business running. And
I agree with you. It's a huge detriment. You know,
it starts at the top, and Chicago ownership is a
huge problem. If Jerry Reinsdorf didn't luck into Michael Jordan,
he would have one White Sox World Series and that's it. Yeah,
(07:13):
you know, it's it's really really bad. And I know
I'm rambling here, but that question that you asked about
whether or not the mccaskey's would sell is at the
heart of all issues facing the Bears. Yes, and nobody
knows because there's just too many of them. Like, no,
it is not consolidated power.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
Yeah, so, I mean this is something I know Stan
Cronkey a little bit. I've been to a couple of
parties with Stan and he's a very stately guy, but
kind of relatable. Like if you're at a party, you
go up, he's drinking a beer and he's asking you
questions and you know, I was talking about this today.
With the Rams, they do not miss on defensive draft picks,
and they run through coordinators, so it's not like Dick
(07:58):
Lebaux and Pittsburgh who it's the same scheme. I mean,
they just run through coordinators. They don't miss They find
undrafted free agents at safety from Tennessee who get four picks. Like,
they don't miss They've missed on occasional offensive picks. But
I think offensive players, especially like offensive linemen. Everybody's missed
on offensive linemen. Great gms have missed on offensive linemen.
(08:19):
They're often weight issues. They often dominate week competition. But
a great example of ownership is that the Rams draft
department is spectacular. And like last year the Bears had
four picks, they took a punter and then like an
IVY League tackle who is a major prospect project excuse
(08:40):
me who never really played again. I mean to me,
I'm not taking one of the hardest positions to play
in football from the IVY League. I may take a linebacker,
may I may take a guard. I'm not taking a
left tackle from the ivy League. I want him to
have played against seven SEC NFL edge rushers. So, and
this is nothing against Ryan Pole specifically, but I just
(09:01):
I don't think. I think when you touch on that,
I know Steve Kime well, Steve Kime obviously have Michael
Bidwell as an agent, and as gracious as he was
to the NFL hosting the Vikings Rams, you know again
on the margins, the Rams just hire better people. And
so it's interesting because I'm gonna spend more time in
Chicago and I look at the Bears and I that's
(09:23):
why I think McCarthy works. Because he has dealt with
a dysfunctional organization. He's dealt with a prickly quarterback. He's
dealt with two high profile teams. Ben Johnson could go
there and like in an hour, be like the hell
did I get myself into?
Speaker 1 (09:37):
There's no doubt about that. McCarthy has a high floor.
I just personally think he has a low ceiling. Yeah,
and attaching that to Caleb's rookie contract is uninspiring to
me personally. Like he leaves Green Bay, Matt Laflure comes
(09:59):
in and modernizes the offense, Aaron Rodgers, who had been declining,
immediately wins back to back MVPs. Like I just I
don't think he is of the now. I think that
he is. He does what he does. He is a
solid coach. You know that he can do the job.
So there's that. But to me, that is just damning
(10:21):
with faint praise. But here's what I've also been saying.
You can fail with an offensive guy, you can fail
with the defensive guy. You can fail with the retread.
So at least he's an offensive retread. I mean, if
they hired if they hired Brian Flores or Anthony Weaver.
There was a report that Ryan Poles was smitten with
(10:43):
the defensive coordinator of the Dolphins. Like, at least Mike
McCarthy is an offensive head coach who has had success
with multiple quarterbacks, who whether he's calling the plays or not,
has his own system that he knows. There would be
stability for Caleb Williams. In my opinion, you cannot hire
a defensive head coach when your quarterback isn't proven. And
(11:06):
I know not everyone agrees with that. Hire CEO, hire
a leader of men type, but to me, it's just
too risky to have that much instability for Caleb, who
clearly is craving structure instability right now.
Speaker 2 (11:20):
The Rams at the Eagles, Ravens at the Bills here
we go are the highlight get those are the Sunday games. Yeah,
and so you know Texans chiefs. Nobody thinks Houston's gonna
win an eight degree weather. Commanders at Lions. I think
Commanders are fascinating. Jayden Daniels is Andrew Luck maybe even
better as a rookie. But the Lions have much better players,
(11:40):
Ben Johnson. With extra time to prepare, they'll bring out
the stop all the stops. Rams, Eagles, Ravens, Bills. You've
had a remarkable year picking game. So I'm going to
give you. I'm going to give you of all four games,
I'm going to give you my strongest take. No team
plays perfect back to back, and the Rams played about
(12:01):
seventy five percent of that game, played perfect football like
they did against Buffalo at home. Go to the Buffalo
game the following week how they play less than perfect.
The Eagles meanwhile, played very poorly in one, which you
can really coach a team hard. When you win and
play poorly, you can really kick ass that week at
practice so that Philadelphia will not play that poorly. Hurts
(12:25):
Jalen Hurt separates more from his concussion. Remember, historically players
off concussions generally struggle in the first game. Game and
a half is that the Eagles actually at minus six
is one of the better bets of the weekend because
we're in love with the standalone Rams performance and go
to the Bills game earlier, they offensively have really bad
(12:49):
halfs a lot. They are really Puka Nakua's centric. I
like the Eagles a lot this weekend, even though today
that sounds outrage.
Speaker 1 (13:00):
So it's funny. In my gambling group chat, we were
having this exact conversation. It's like, Okay, sick five, No,
that's not a bet on the Rams. Oh wow, it's
five and a half. It's six. It hit six and
a half for a minute and then went back down
and some of the guys jumped on at six and
a half like Rams plus six and a half. We
(13:22):
like this number is just crazy, but I think it's
what you're talking about. It's Philly. Still. They played an
awful game, offensively awful, awful, awful, and they won by twelve.
They are really, really good. And the last time we
(13:43):
saw Stafford in the rain, he looked terrible. And the
weather does not sound like it's going to be excellent
conditions for this game as opposed to the Rams. Who
you know, the Rams were a great matchup for Minnesota.
I bet the Rams was one of my biggest bets
of the year, like the Kings were a great matchup
for the Rams. Is how I meant to say it
(14:04):
all Brian Flores does his blitz. Matt Stafford is a
ten plus year veteran who has maybe the two best
blitz beating receivers like Kup and Nakua get opened instantly,
so yeah, and then Flores just kept blitzing and blitzing
and blitzing, and the game is in a dome on
a fast track. That was just the guy he was fourteen.
(14:24):
Stafford was fourteen for eighteen against the blitz with a
passer rating of one forty four, his highest of the year.
It was like he could do anything. He wanted. I
was like, maybe don't blitz, but I was glad he
did because I hammered the Rams in that spot. So
I agree with you. I think that Philly is going
to play a much better game. Their defense is really good,
(14:46):
Like nobody get everyone talks about their offense. Their defense
is really good. So I like Philly in that spot.
I'm going to go down with the ship with Josh Allen.
Baltimore's already favored in Buffalo, like they're playing the best
football of anyone in the last five weeks. But that's
you know, that's a little disrespectful.
Speaker 2 (15:07):
So I've had my worst betting year of my career,
a lot of it. I think Jason McIntyre has pointed
out that the new kickoff rules are giving good quarterbacks
even more of an advantage. I mean, last night, the
first play of the game, Rams completed to Puka and Takua.
They're like in field goal range.
Speaker 1 (15:21):
Yeah. By the way, another take of mine from early
in the year on Breakfast Ball that I feel like
aging kind of well. Arena League goal posts they're eighteen
yards wide. Make them nine yards wide. More fourth down attempts.
I want to see less field goal attempts. You get
the ball to thirty, you get two passes, you're in
field goal range for Brandon Aubrey not interested? Sorry, go ahead.
Speaker 2 (15:43):
It's good.
Speaker 1 (15:44):
Yeah, that's good.
Speaker 2 (15:44):
Yeah. This is the best version of the Bills. And
though we think of Baltimore as a cold weather operation,
Lamar doesn't love blaying in the cold, and I think
they've become very Derek Henry and Lamar dominant. This Bills
team now is a top five back, a top two
(16:07):
left tackle, a top two quarterback, one of the better
now that the rookie from Florida State has emerged. The
slot receiver, I guess the real receiving corps. Two capable
tight ends. This is their best offensive line. And Sean McDermott,
to his credit, I think is a better coach than
two years ago. I think he has gotten better. I mean,
(16:28):
it's so funny that you're not allowed to get They
even say you can increase your IQ in your thirties
and forties, like you can. I'm not betting against Buffalo
in every game that has mattered this year at home,
they have crushed everybody.
Speaker 1 (16:46):
Well, I don't like this. I don't like us agreeing
on these picks. Your record's been terrible. The things you
look around and all of a sudden, the company you're
keeping is where you want to be, Like a, oh big,
Maybe change my stance. Maybe I better parlay Baltimore in
the round.
Speaker 2 (17:04):
How about this though, But I did say it this year.
So you know, you and Nick are very good at
this gambling stuff. And you're both kind of Mathew. That's
why Nick's so good at poker. And I would presume
you've done a little bit of poker in your life.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
I mean I've played a lot of poker. That yeah.
Speaker 2 (17:18):
So I think one of the things I do that
I really enjoy doing, and I don't know if I
do it well, but I think I'm pretty good at
it is seeing cultural changes in sports and theorizing what
is happening in sports. And I was on this three
years ago. I said, watch out. As the sport becomes
(17:40):
more offensive, there will be only one way to win,
and it will be by quarterback. And this year the
winner of each division had the quarterback that played the
best all year for the longest period. Lamar played better
for a longer period than Burrow, who got scorching on
at the end. And if you look at last week weekend,
(18:01):
every team that won, the quarterback that played better won
the game. Yeah, and the NFL is becoming a little
like the NBA, a very small elite four or five teams,
a very tiny middle, and drek in the bottom twelve
to fourteen teams. And I think this is going to
continue because as the league has become virtually quarterback and
(18:24):
offensive head coach centric, there's one way to win in
this league, now, one that's it.
Speaker 1 (18:30):
It's so funny you bring this up because Nick would
make fun of my picks even though I kept winning
and winning and winning, and I was saying, it's the
year of the favorites, and so the traditionally like sharp
betters who bet underdogs.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
I love dogs. I loved my whole life.
Speaker 1 (18:48):
Of course, so do I. Of course you should. It's
a sport of parody. It's a sport with a salary
cap and a salary floor, and worse, the first teams
and the bad team. This isn't college football, Like a
big underdog is eight points nine points. You can win
outright in that situation all the time. Of course, everyone
you should love underdogs historically, but not if what you
(19:12):
just said is true if there's a few teams at
the top that are awesome and then there's a bunch
of really bad teams. I think I trust that those
teams at the top, when they're favored by six over
a really bad team, it's like they're gonna take care
of business and cover those spreads. Favorites crushed this year,
(19:35):
and they really crushed in December as teams were out
of it, as teams were thinking about Cabo, as teams
were firing coaches, and the really good teams were gearing
up for Super Bowl runs. So I don't know if
that will continue or if we'll just start to see
bigger point spreads in the NFL, you know, Like I
mean that game Week eighteen, like Baltimore was a twenty
(19:59):
point favorite against Cleveland. I didn't. I didn't like it.
They didn't they didn't cover, But it was close, like
you know what I mean, Like I I it was
it was. It wasn't like they won by three. So
I I do think that there is It'll be very
interesting to see if that trend continues or if it's
(20:22):
a one year outlier. My guess is it's an outlier
because of just how the league is designed. Uh, and
a team that would is a normally would be a
three point favorite, they'll just make a four point favorite
and that'll be the difference and it'll get back to
being dogs. But I think that that's what happened to
this year in gambling, is that favorites just started covering
spreads because there are a few really, really good teams
(20:46):
and then the bad teams are just we're just awful
this year.
Speaker 2 (20:52):
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Speaker 2 (22:16):
So I have pivoting to the NBA. I have Adam
Silver on my show tomorrow. Many of you will be
listening to this today as of Wednesday, as we shoot
this in the late afternoon on Tuesday, and I have
a series of questions I'm going to ask Adam Silver
if you could ask him one what would.
Speaker 1 (22:35):
It be such a great interview spot for you? To me,
all of the quote unquote problems with the NBA boiled
down to the fundamental issue that the regular season doesn't
(22:57):
mean anything. One of eighty two just doesn't matter. And
if you watch the regular season and you then watch
the postseason, they are different sports. Yeah, how can you
fundamentally change it? Because the three point issue is an
(23:20):
offshoot of that? To me, the sixty game minimum for
the star player, that's a band aid on a gunshot wound.
The All Star Game, that's one thing that's an event.
How can you fundamentally change when these guys have hundreds
of millions of dollars that they've earned fully guaranteed. It's
(23:43):
been proven that you don't need to have home court
advantage to win a finals. You don't need to be
the one seed. How can you get why should fans
care about your regular season when your players clearly don't
like that? To me, is that that is the fundamental
issue facing the NBA. Because they could, they would say, hey,
(24:09):
they get they just signed seventy five billion dollars worth
of television contracts, there is no issue, But the NBA
no longer feels like an event. It's just a game.
I can miss it. I don't have to watch when
Yokichen and Wemby have a great game, I can just
see the highlights on my phone. I don't need to
(24:31):
watch it start to finish. And I love the NBA.
I love it so it pains me to say it.
But the fundamental issue and what I would want, I
could spend the whole twenty minutes or fifteen minutes, however
long you have with them on what realistically can be
done to get not just superstars, everybody, every player to
(24:53):
care about the regular season like they do the postseason.
Speaker 2 (24:56):
Well, think about basketball, international, high school, college. There's a
sudden death reality to the end of seasons. Except the NBA, yes,
where even in the first round it's a sometimes seven
game series where you're just waiting, you know, three to
(25:18):
nothing lead, favorite underdog goes to overtime, wins Game four,
Game five is a blowout. And I think Darryl Morius
suggested sudden death. I don't think that's the answer because
it is a star driven league and I don't want
to star in a bad referee call bouch from the playoffs.
But I would go three games first round, five game, second,
five game, Conference final, seven final, And I think I
(25:42):
think that creates some urgency. That means if a guy
gets banged up and is gonna miss two games and
you're the favorite, like Jalen Brown gets banged up, and
you're like, at half of one game, Okay, he's not
coming back until game four, It's like, whoa, that could
be an elimination game. I feel like now you can
literally there are games in the NBA laughs, like game
three for the team trailing zero to two is just perfunctory.
(26:05):
It's the obligatory. Okay, home team will hold, serve, they'll
win a close one or even a blowout, and then
by game four, the favorite then hammers. And I think
anytime sports has games that I feel like I know
the outcome going in. That's why the twelve team college
football Playoff. One of the things to be concerned about
is the first round. When you get a Boise State
(26:28):
going to Ohio State. That's just like a game in
September that doesn't get me to a TV. And I
think a lot of this is just the greed of
owners and the expansion of sports, the NFL has no
reason to extend. I could argue you could shrink it.
I mean, there's the revenues from television alone. You don't
even need stadium attendance now. But I think this is
the reality is you've got arena contracts, you've got owners
(26:50):
who just don't want to give up the capitol.
Speaker 1 (26:52):
No, that's the thing. No one will give up the inventory.
But you say they wouldn't do single elimination, And it's
the same thing, right, because seven games on TV is
more valuable than one game on TV. And you say
you don't want to have a bad call bounce a team. Why,
Like it happens in March Madness, it happens in the
(27:12):
NFL playoffs, it happens in the best tournaments, the College
football playoff. It just it doesn't happen in baseball, basketball,
and hockey and college football. March Madness and the Super
Bowl are more popular than all three of those sports postseasons.
So I would be very interested if they said, like,
(27:34):
all right, twenty twenty nine, everyone's got plenty of time
to adjust and prepare. TV networks figure it out, charge
your ad rates whatever. It's a single elimination postseason, because
what would happen, I honestly don't know. Would if you
(27:54):
got ten million people for an NBA Finals game, but
it was a single elimination NBA Finals, would thirty five
million people watch? I don't know the answer to that. Like,
I gotta think more people would watch fewer games, And
I'd be interested to know what the economics of it
(28:16):
would be. And I know it would get people talking
and it would be interesting. But the other thing it's
such a cool spot they of Silver is he is
a He is clearly like a progressive player friendly commissioner.
And the players trust the owners in the NBA more
than any other league. Right, They've got a true partnership.
(28:39):
I feel like they should exploit it more. And exploit
has a negative connotation. But it took baseball a lot
to do the pitch clock and to make some rules changes.
Just change some rules, don't change the court in the
nd season tournament. Let's try in season tournament games were
(29:00):
ing with international rules. In season tournament games, we're playing
with no corner three. In season tournament games, we're playing
with thirty foot three point line. Like if one of
eighty two doesn't matter let's experiment with regular season games
and tinker with some rules. Let's say for the month
(29:22):
of January. You know, the Kirk Goldsbery idea, Like each
team gets to draw their own three point line. So
the Warriors three point line is one thing, the Nuggets
is another one, Portland's is another one, Chicago's is another one.
Maybe one team has no three point line altogether if
they're a bad three point shooting team, Like, yeah, like,
experiment a little bit more with your product to see
(29:44):
what you can change to maximize it, because I feel
like some of the things that they do is like
we're gonna change the All Star game format.
Speaker 2 (29:53):
That's yeah, nobody cares.
Speaker 1 (29:54):
Nobody cares. Nobody cares. Like, how do you change the
game to make it so that I get the math?
I get it, Well, three is more than two. I
understand it's fifty percent more than two. But you your
sport has a fundamental viewership problem. If it's not a
good idea for Anthony Edwards to try to dunk. He's
(30:17):
one of the greatest athletes in the world, and he'll
take ten to fifteen threes a game, Like it's nothing.
You want him attacking the basket so I just I
would really love to talk to him about how radical
of ideas are you willing to try for a product
that economically is not broken. But I feel like for
(30:38):
those of us who love the sport would say that
it is.
Speaker 2 (30:42):
Yeah, aesthetically. I again, I don't start really diving into
the NBA until I would say almost after this weekend
and you get down to a couple of games. Now
I'll watch twenty minutes. I watch thirty minutes the other
day on a treadmill. I do a lot of that stuff.
But a lot of times when I get home, starting
in about a week, at four o'clock four thirty, altern
(31:05):
on an NBA game, and I'll make dinner and eat dinner,
and I'll watch the first half of an NBA game.
I'll try to pick a different team or good teams
every night. So that's kind of how I start. Then
the NFL season ends and now I start watching games.
But that four to thirty window West Coast, I'll watch
an NBA game. By the way, as I have a
place in Chicago, I'm a Bull season ticket holder, so
you know it's I like going to the events. I
like it too. I think the utter thing that some
(31:28):
of these things. No league is perfect. I do think
the NFL baseball is a bit burdened by its past.
It's very much about history and lore, and the NBA isn't.
I mean, the truth is, it's you know, when Jackie
Moon the movie was made, I mean, that's kind of
a realistic, funny look at the old ABA. It was
like colorful and weird, and it's not something that anybody
(31:51):
really cares about. Spencer Haywood's stats right with the Sonics,
so you can experiment, like baseball freaks out about the
Golden Bat, and I understand the purist that says it
screws up with all the numbers. But my take is,
you had cattle steroids for ten years. Let's get over
the numbers. Steroids in a weird way allows you to
be more progressive today with your rules. But I don't
(32:13):
think the NBA is burdened by that at all. I
don't think the NFL or hockey is is that, you know,
just change stuff and make it better. And I also
think that of all the sports that are in connect
have some connectivity with tech, and maybe it's the Warriors'
popularity in the Bay Area. There's just tech people everywhere
is that that Silicon Valley is almost notable, almost proud
(32:40):
of the fact that you know, Angel investors back twenty percent.
They might as well be Babe Ruth, like you take
big swings and you miss on a lot. That's just
that's built into the cake of Angel investing. So I
do think the NBA is not burdened by any of
the history in the records. Nobody cares. I don't know
how many points Michael Jordan's gord and I don't care.
Speaker 1 (33:02):
Do you? So do you think it's on the board
that because because this would fundamentally solve it, because the
three point issue is a math issue. Like it's boring,
but it's a math issue. Right, Three is fifty percent
more than two. So if you shoot thirty three percent
from three, that is the ev expected value equivalent of
(33:23):
shooting fifty percent from two. And they can train a
lot of guys to shoot thirty five percent from three.
Right That's that's like the very basic simplified version of
the math. So if you made threes worth four and
two's worth three, the math changes like the three the
(33:44):
four pointer would not be fifty percent more valuable than
the three pointer. It would be thirty three percent more
valuable than the three pointer.
Speaker 2 (33:55):
You would see a lot less threes, But that would
that feel. So there's there are lines where you don't
want to feel like you don't want to annihilate or
erase all your history.
Speaker 1 (34:08):
But you just said that they're not burdened by it.
Speaker 2 (34:10):
Well, they're not burdened by it, but there is a
top ten all time scoring list that does matter. That's
the one we all know. It's like, oh, okay, it's
Lebron and it's and it's Kareem and it's Malone, and yeah,
there are I don't want to annihilate history, but I'm
not paralyzed by it. I think that would annihilate history.
Speaker 1 (34:28):
It would, but it's a it's like a catch twenty two, right,
like do you want to solve the problem that solves
the problem.
Speaker 2 (34:40):
Yeah, I don't. You know what, there's there's so many
lines in the sand. It's like it's like anything else.
It's like, let's say you had an ex wife. It
would be one thing to if she got if she
(35:00):
won the lottery, to text her and go, hey, congratulations.
It'd be another thing to text her if you were
married and say I was just thinking about you. I'm
going out Friday. It's like, well, it's text and you
obviously thought about her. With both texts, one feels a
little over the line. Yeah, so like yeah, so it's like,
(35:23):
you know, it's one of those things where I am
for new stuff. I am mister move bulldoze history.
Speaker 1 (35:33):
But there are.
Speaker 2 (35:33):
Lines in sports, and I think the top ten all
time scoring list is a line that should be protected.
Speaker 1 (35:39):
Okay, yeah, And I, by the way, like I don't
even I don't fundamentally disagree with that. I just then
I want to know what the smartest people are doing
to solve it, right, Like the first step of admitting
the first step of solving any problem is admitting you
have one. I could understand why thirty billionaires just sign
(36:08):
record just locked in record setting stupid ten figure revenue
for the next decade for their business, and they're like,
what are you guys talking about? Problem with the NBA?
You know, I could I think that would be a
(36:29):
totally reasonable stance for Jerry Reinsdorf or who, Steve Balmer
or whomever, good owner, bad owner, young old tech, old
money inherited business evant whatever to be like Buddy this
is a business. We my franchise just goes up and
(36:51):
up and up in value. I get offers every day
for it. There are more people that you know, more
billionaires than teams. It's a vanity thing. It makes me cool. Well,
it gives me an identity. What are you talking about
that there's an issue with my sport because they look
at it like a business. So yeah, I don't know.
If the NBA agrees with me that they have a
problem like so, then they're not going to do anything
(37:13):
radical to solve it.
Speaker 2 (37:21):
One of the stories this week that it's interesting. So
at the Eagles Packers game, a very obnoxious Eagles fan
said some vile things to a woman who is a
Packer fan sitting below. The vile Eagle fan is not
the sharpest tool in the shed. There was somebody by
(37:42):
her filming him, and he didn't recognize that. That didn't
resonate with him, which is if somebody's filming you at
a game and you're punching somebody or or you're saying
horrible things to somebody and you have a really good
corporate job, may want to scale back. I mean that
he couldn't identify that speaks to his sort of lack
of self awareness. But the Internet, as it's prone to do,
(38:05):
and I don't have a problem with the internet. Doing
this highlighted his really bad behavior, repugnant behavior. Well, his
company saw it and fired him, and I just wanted
to see the remarks from fans, and fans said, well,
why didn't you confront him instead of taking a picture,
to which I would say, he could be a UFC fighter,
(38:25):
he could be a drunk, he could have a knife
in his pocket. You don't know what you're getting into
at a stadium, you have no idea. A lot of
these guys that are they're drunk and they want to
get into a fight. And it's like, I'm with my wife.
I don't want you to disrupt me. Your bad behavior
is not going to change my behavior. I'll just make
sure you get in trouble. So I don't have a
problem just saying, could be in a security here, you
(38:48):
take care of I'm not a security guard. Stadiums have him,
you know, And a lot of people push back, well,
he shouldn't lose his job. And I had this belief
and I still kind of believe it, but I used
to talk about it all the time I think about
it in my first book. There are two types of guys,
job guy and career guy. Career guy it's a stigma
(39:08):
to get into a fight. You're a law partner, you're
an executive, you do something that's public, usually you have
things to protect. Job guy is like you could go
into the warehouse and go, hey, I got into a
fight at the Eagles game and deck this guy. It'd
be a badge of honor to some job guy. So
it's always remarkable to me when it's a corporate guy
(39:28):
doing it, and I do feel bad that he would
lose his job, But for some reason, for whatever reason,
I don't feel too bad that if you're a schmuck
and you're taped and people don't want to confront you
in the moment and you lose your job, even if
you're married with kids, should I feel worse about it
than I do Because I'm kind of glad he lost
his job.
Speaker 1 (39:50):
I will not spend one minute feeling sorry for that guy. Sorry, Like, no,
what I should he lose his job?
Speaker 3 (40:03):
No?
Speaker 1 (40:04):
But is it okay that he did? Yeah? You know
what I mean? Like, actions have consequences, And by the way,
he didn't look hammered. He didn't sound hammered. He was
just like, very calmly saying horrible, disgusting, vile things to
(40:27):
a woman on camera unapologetically because she was rooting for
a different set of laundry. It's ridiculous, it's ridiculous behavior.
So no, I don't like celebrate that he lost his job.
Speaker 2 (40:47):
Yeah, I'm not celebrating again, No, not at all.
Speaker 1 (40:49):
Not at all. I wouldn't try to pile on of
the losing of his job. But what I felt about
that video was that it is so much worse than
a fight at a sporting event. Yeah, I can kind
of understand, Like I don't condone fighting at sporting events obviously,
(41:10):
but like you root for the Red Sox, you root
for the Yankees. It's seventeen dollars beer night and we've
had a dozen of them, and you say something, and
I say something in machismo and testosterone and you get
into a fight, Like it's not good. But sports are primal.
I say, less hate in the world, more Hayden sports.
So like sometimes that sports hate that I condone and like,
(41:34):
and it leads to rivalries in trash talk and spinning
a ball in a guy's face and taunting penalties and
pushing and shoving like I can't then be completely offended
when a fan doesn't so like a sports fight among fans,
I don't love it, but it doesn't really bother me
that it happens. It's just like cost of doing business.
(41:55):
That is just subhuman. Yeah, you know what I mean.
It's just overt cruelty.
Speaker 2 (42:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (42:06):
So I don't feel bad for that guy at all.
If he would have been twelve shots deep, slurn his words,
punched someone that gets caught on camera and he gets
fired for that, I would honestly feel way worse for him.
Yeah he did, And maybe that is completely logically inconsistent,
(42:30):
but that video was appalling, and sorry, man, you've got
to live with the consequences of your actions. We're not
imprisoning you for it. A private company fired you because
they were embarrassed to employ you because you acted like
a jackass. That's life.
Speaker 2 (42:45):
Okay, here's another curve ball, all right, Jerry Jones. Yeah,
goes on a very popular show called Landman. It's very good,
Billy Bob Thornton.
Speaker 1 (42:54):
I haven't seen the show, but I saw the clip.
Speaker 2 (42:57):
Yeah, it's it's a little like Yellowstone. It's sometimes it's
a little overwritten, like nobody's that clever ad libbing, you know,
or remember the movie Yeah, remember the movie Juno. You
know this like young Kid sounds like you know, Stephen
Colbert riffing off one liners. And I'm like, yeah, it's
a little over the top. So Landman's a little overwritten.
(43:19):
But Billy Bob Thornton sells the hell out of it
and it's good. So Jerry Jones makes an appearance on
it and does a remarkable job. And it goes back
to something years ago. I was at a party and
I don't go to a lot of these parties. I
probably been to three and eight years in LA and
(43:43):
there were some writers in Hollywood people, and one of
them was an acting coach, and I just asked him
about it. I said, you know, on average, you know,
how talented are they? He goes, never forget the stars
of Stranger Things are kids. It's just make believe. It
(44:07):
doesn't take extraordinary amounts of talent to act. And I thought, whoa,
he's an acting coach. Yeah yeah, And I'm like, I
don't think i'd be a good actor. But when Jerry
Jones did it, It took me back to that conversation
where he's like, yeah, seven year olds are literally gripping
on TV because they're good pretenders. A lot of people
(44:29):
play in the world of fantasy and pretending and dress up.
And so I want to just ask you this. Chicago's
known for Second City, a lot of really quality actors.
Could you act? Do you think it takes extraordinary skill? Like,
for instance, an eight year old couldn't be an astronaut
or a mayor, an eight year old couldn't be a
(44:49):
civil engineer. They can act? How much talent does it
take to act?
Speaker 1 (45:00):
It takes an extraordinary amount of talent to be great?
You know, Daniel day Lewis has an extraordinary amount of talent, Okay,
Like I I do believe that. I believe that people
who can make you buy wide ranging characters over a
(45:24):
long period of time that do a lot of different
things and they're successful in a lot of different avenues
and venues, and then you can see them do like
Jamie Fox has an incredible amount of talent. Yeah, you know.
And now it's not just acting, right, it's it's music,
it's comedy, it's danced everything.
Speaker 2 (45:44):
Yeah, he's he is hyper talented, but he sings, does
stand up. Like I've argued this for years of all performers,
comedians are underrated. I mean Dave Dave Chappelle gets one take,
writes his own stuff, and I mean, yeah, performs it
one take.
Speaker 1 (46:02):
Yeah, no, no, no question. I think, like anything, the
best of the best are incredibly talented but really good material.
That's why you listen to any podcast or interview with
these actors that are like, like, what do you judge it?
On the script, the writing, the director. There's there's no doubt.
(46:24):
Now could I don't want to be a two unfair,
but like could Luke Wilson have done Castaway? Like? No,
Like I don't. I think Tom Hanks has like a
certain amount of skill in gravitas to carry a two
hour and fifteen minute epic, whereas alone on an island,
(46:47):
you know, I think.
Speaker 2 (46:48):
So you don't think Paul Shore could have done the Irishman?
Speaker 1 (46:50):
I don't, Yeah, I don't. Like I think that there
is definitely some skill, but I think that there but
most of it is it's a it's a very collaborative
job that feels individualized. Like to be a great actor
you have to have a great script, a great so,
(47:11):
a great writer, a great director. You have to have producers.
It has to be well lit, it has to be
well shot, it has to be well budgeted. It has
to be There's a lot of things that have to
happen to make you look good and for you to
get the twenty million dollar paycheck. Whereas the stand up comedian,
the pen, the microphone, the venue like you're the talent,
(47:34):
the songwriter, the pen, the guitar, the microphone, the venue
like you are mostly like I think that it is
among the performing arts, it probably is the one that
requires the least amount of talent, but the best are
still great.
Speaker 2 (47:51):
That makes musical talent. Musical talent is it's pretty extraordinary
to make you see like is it John Batiste the
amazed like you see it, it's amazing, Like I watched
them and I'm like, this is ai. This can't be real.
Speaker 1 (48:05):
Well I was. I know nothing, Like I know nothing
about music. I will joke that, like I liked one
hundred percent of the concerts I've been to because everything
there's every single time I'm blown away that they're doing it.
I'm like, oh my god, this is unbelievable. Like I
did the recorder than the clarinet, and then I was
like just good enough with the clarinet to qualify and
to do saxophone in seventh grade. And at the performance
(48:28):
or the band recital or whatever, I was just like, oh,
these kids are just like way too good. And I
was just like pantomiming playing the saxophone, and I stopped,
and I was just like, you know, no one could tell,
like so like I don't have any musical ability whatsoever.
So it always blows my mind. Uh like good bad,
Oh that was a terrible show. I'm like, really, I
(48:48):
was like one of the most incredible things I've ever heard.
So I always think it's also funny when like sports
commentators or something all of a sudden become American idol
judges whenever we like perfect, Oh, that was a terrible
rendition of God bless America. Like, you have no idea
if that was a C flat or a B minor
(49:09):
or whatever the hell it is. So I am not
qualified to great music.
Speaker 2 (49:13):
Okay, So we do sort of a broad sweeping podcast
on anything we want to talk about. So obviously the
fires in Los Angeles has been I mean, I lived
in Washington State, during Mount Saint Helens, but a couple
hours away. And this is the closest natural disaster. And
(49:35):
it's interesting. I have several opinions at opinions, and I
think two or three things can be true. I don't
think politics in California politics has helped firefighters in my opinion.
I do think the environmental mafia up in Sacramento can
(49:55):
be a roadblock to common sense. But I also think
when you have hurricane force wins and instead of rain
there's fire in it, there's nothing firefighters can do. It
would have burned five hundred homes or fifteen hundred homes.
There was nothing you can do if you go online
with a video. And I know palisades very well, narrow roads,
(50:16):
windy roads, wild topography, canyons, stuff just bounce, canyon and canyon.
There's nothing you could have done. And people say, well,
you shouldn't politicize it. But it is interesting, and I
think to myself, why not? Because in order to get
things done, powerful entities like Sacramento for instance, or a
(50:39):
powerful governor are rarely vulnerable. And there are these moments
in time when their policy or their direction makes citizens
vulnerable or at risk, and people are uncomfortable. You hear
this all the time. I can't believe you make that political,
(51:00):
And I would argue almost everything is up for political
discussion in a very tribal country. So I wasn't necessarily
put off by the politics. I just didn't agree with
a lot of the takes. I thought it was a
tsunami historically for wildfires at once. Don't You could have
(51:22):
had one hundred more fire trucks. Planes couldn't go in
the air for a day and a half because of
the wins, so you couldn't fight it. I think almost
everything is fair game politically, do you yes?
Speaker 1 (51:34):
Of course, of course, I am not an expert on
fire fighting. I am not an expert on California. I
am not I all of those caveats aside, but there
are problems that are too big for a person or
(51:55):
group of people to address and solve, And like baseline,
overly simplified level, that's what government and politics is like.
People are like, oh, there was no water in the
fire hydrants. I'm like, okay, I don't know everything that
led to that, but I also know that when I
(52:16):
see a fire hydrant on the side of the road,
my expectation isn't that that can put out a wildfire,
that it can stop a house from burning down, right?
You know? So, Like I think that some of the
grand standing and the like, see I told you so,
and I was right, and it is this person's fault,
(52:37):
like that is just gross an oversimplification clearly of a disaster.
But if we can't talk about, hey, this happened, we
clearly didn't do a great job, you know what I mean,
Like this happened and we were not able to stop it.
Speaker 2 (53:02):
And it happens regularly on an almost annual basis.
Speaker 1 (53:05):
Well that's that's that's my point. This happened. We couldn't
stop it. It's going to happen again. No individual is
capable of stopping it. If an individual isn'tcapable of stopping it,
the next thing that you would turn to is the government.
(53:25):
So then it's politics. And that, by the way, is
a totally a political observation. Left right, pro newsome anti
Trump pro Trump. That that observation right there, I feel
like people on both sides of the aisle should just
obviously agree with how if this isn't a thing that
(53:49):
government and like tax dollars are supposed to go towards
solving Yeah, then why why do we have government? Again?
What are you talking about? Like, of course this is political, of.
Speaker 2 (54:03):
Course, yeah, don't don't. Don't buy a house in Juno
if you don't like chili weather, and don't buy a
house in Phoenix if you're bothered by hot weather. Don't
be a politician. If you wanted to always be civil
and above board, it's gonna get it's gonna go sideways.
(54:24):
You're going to be attacked. That It's called politics, right,
Like that if you had a friend and I said,
you know, I like Danny, but he's very political, right,
that would be like a stigma. It's like, yeah, Danny's
the political one. It's politics. This is what it is.
So as everybody was, and I don't I don't even
consider this a political conversation. And because whenever political people
(54:48):
talk sports, I always think, oh, they sound so rudimentary
and so pedestrians, and so I know I don't have
you know, I read like everybody else, But I think
this is the time to attack a governor. This is
a time to attack a mayor. This is a time
to say, okay, this is a real crisis. Uh, why
weren't your policies better well.
Speaker 1 (55:06):
And by the way, I don't know the answer. I'm
totally fine with independent review. Let some experts tell us
if they did a good job or not, or if
this could have been prevented with different policies that were
suggested and you got cheap on and voted down or
(55:26):
dismissed or whatever. Like I don't know. I don't know
who is at fault, But I think it's crazy to
suggest that politicians shouldn't be criticized or questioned when really
bad things happen, whether or not they are directly responsible
for it or not. And I mean, maybe this makes
(55:47):
it more political than you want to make it, but
like I feel the same way about mass shootings. Of
course we should talk about that in a political sense
when it comes to gun laws.
Speaker 2 (55:57):
Or how about this, This isn't perfectly an now, but
if somebody, a sports figure, was a bully or did
bad things and he dies and people say, Bobby Knight
dies and people are critical of him the day dies
and people say that's disrespectful, and I'm like, well, time
out are you producing my show? Should I talk about
(56:18):
it six days from now? What's the time?
Speaker 1 (56:20):
Looking on?
Speaker 2 (56:21):
When I can talk about Bobby Knight's bad behavior. To me,
we produce a show. The only way to accumulate an
audience is talk about stuff people are talking about. Yeah,
so I'm not gonna have I always say this. I
don't mind if callers when I used to take them,
disagree with me. Don't try to produce my show. I'm
good at it. I know what I'm doing. I don't
(56:42):
try to produce your mortgage. You know your title company.
I'm not here to tell you how to do it.
And my take has always been Bobby Knight dies, that's
the day to be critical. That holds all of us
somewhat accountable to being better human beings.
Speaker 1 (56:55):
I agree completely. Yeah, the idea of like don't speak
ill of the dead, Like, okay, if you want to
treat your aunt that way, fine, but if it's a
public figure, and that's that's what eulogies are for, like
like that, that's what their family is for. Like the
obituary is going to tell the life story. So I
completely agree with you. Now I think that obviously there
(57:15):
is good taste, you know, I don't. I didn't love
the President elect tweeting or truth socialing the Hollywood hills
burning with the Hollywood signs saying Trump was right, Like
I didn't. I didn't think that was in particularly good taste.
I thought that was a bit of a troll when
(57:37):
thousands of people were fleeing their homes on the flip side,
just to like go to the other side of it.
Like do you remember when Hurricane Sandy obviously hit the
northeast and Chris Christie got crushed for greeting Obama with
(57:58):
a hug and a handshake, and he was like, wait
a minute, this doesn't have to be but he's coming
here to like visit victims and give federal dollars to
help rebuild. Like we can disagree politically, we're going to
try to agree on how to help people after a hurricane.
Like so I'm not saying that there is no room
for taste and decorum, but and this is callous. Four
(58:25):
months from now, if they're like, you gotta wait four
months until we can talk about it, something else will
be dominating the news cycle by that point, like it, right,
you know, like unfortunately not for the people that lost
their homes like that, this will be something that impacts
them for years and years and years. Not that it's
still won't be a news story or relevant, and the
(58:45):
government will still be investigating and all that insurance claimed
and all the things. But like this is when our
attention is on it, so of course this is when
we should have at least the preliminary conversation on what
to do about it. I don't find it offensive at all.
The volume
Speaker 2 (59:06):
M
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