August 29, 2022 • 39 mins
Brian Noe and Jason Martin fill in for Jonas, Brady and LaVar on 2 Pros and a Cup of Joe, recapping week zero in college football including Nebraska’s head-scratching onside-kick vs Northwestern. The optics are tough for the Bills and NFL when it comes to the Matt Araiza story and another tragic story surrounding Commanders RB Brian Robinson Jr. Plus, more debate over the cut block after JJ Watt’s injury.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Everybody's Brian Noo, myself and Jason Martin are in for
the guys. Lots of ball, lots of ball, chock full
of ball, and then also a shocking stat involving Roberto Huh,
the Dodgers fan. They're fifty games over five hundred. They
stink when he's in attendance. Enjoy the podcast. You're listening
(00:21):
to Fox Sports Radio. Oh what's going on? Good morning, everybody.
I hope your Monday is off to a good start.
Jason Martin, College ball is back. That's a good pick
me up right there. Huh. The soft launch, I hate
those words. The soft launch of week week zero, meaning
(00:43):
there were no top twenty five teams in action, but
it was ball regardless. Did you enjoy it? I did.
I'm excited about it, and we talked about it Friday
and you were saying you were trying to be a
better fan this year. We're talking about that at the
end of the program, and look, I didn't have too
much trouble with it because it was ball all with
teams that were playing where at the end of that
(01:03):
sixty minute span, someone's gonna have win, somebody was gonna
have a loss on their record. And we got one
fairly monumental result that provided plenty of fodder uh Saturday
night for me and Aaron Torres on the air, and
certainly on Sunday, and I'm sure today as well, that
being in Nebraska Northwestern game in Dublin. But look, Thursday
(01:23):
we got more teams playing, Penn States, playing Tennessee's playing
we got real teams, and then of course we got
some huge games on Saturday. Football is here. I am
okay with the fact that these were not the marquee matchups.
I got to see my alma mater win on Saturday
Western Kentucky. Uh, I'm excited about it. I had a
good time watching it. Quite frankly, I watched that ton
(01:44):
of sports on Saturday. I like it. Man, you are
an optimist. You are looking at the positive side of
the soft launch, which I love. This is you are
who I am aspiring to be. It's basically what it is.
I'm trying to be a better fan, meaning more than
just about the big boys, more than just about Hey,
(02:06):
who's gonna be in the college football playoff? Who are
the top ten teams? I want to look beyond that
this season. And I'll tell you what the soft launch
tested that, but I did enjoy it. I did enjoy
the Nebraska Northwestern games. You said the failed on side
kick when Scott Frost went for it when they were
up by eleven points, and then it came back to
(02:27):
bite him in the butt. And then he's a little
salty after the game. Seemed like he was throwing his
offensive coordinator under the bus, saying we need to be
a little bit more creative on offense. So it was good.
I even enjoyed watching you Can actually battled Utah State
pretty well. They were four touchdown underdogs, and that was
a competitive football game. So I enjoyed it. But the
(02:48):
thing I always look at is, look, this is a
national platform, and so we talk about the biggest stories
in sports. And when I I kind of pause and
think is this big enough to start off with? You
know what I mean? Like football is back, and I
have the question in my mind the Monday after the
(03:08):
first Saturday of the season, where I'm thinking, is this
a big enough topic? I just needed at least one
decent game, give me at least one ranked team. College
football has gotta do better than that. It's not like
the NFL. The first game of the season is gonna
roll around, and you're gonna think the next day if
you're hosting a show nationally, is this big enough to
(03:30):
start off with? Like it clearly is. If it's Bills Rams,
that's a legit matchup. I just what wish college football
would step it up a bit for their warm up bands.
It's like they give you a bunch of warm up
bands in week zero with no headlining act. I think
you gotta do a little bit better than that. I mean,
I understand that, but as you mentioned, it was a
soft launch. It was week zero, it wasn't Week one.
(03:51):
It's just we're gonna throw a few games out here. Much.
The stuff I can't get down for is the spring games.
The people that like really sit there and pour over
these bring games. But it's it's preseason NFL that you're
dealing with. I watched, Let's see what did I watch
on Saturday? I watch some preseason football. Obviously, I watched
college ball all day off and on Did I sit
there and watch four quarters of any game? No? I
(04:13):
did not, But I moved around. I watched a little
bit of a few teams. You know, North North Carolina's
got a quarterback and they are important. They didn't play
real well in the first half against Florida A and
M Vanderbilt looked really good, just absolutely crushed Timmy Chang
in his debut at Hawaii. Uh the Northwestern Nebraska. I
wanted to see that environment too. I just want to
see what it looked like in Ireland. And Helinsky played
(04:34):
really well. They couldn't get to him, and then you
got the decision in the third quarter and everything that
came after that. I'm okay with it, like it's just
it's just, hey, here's the beginning of college football. We
understand this is not the full product. That's when you
get the double header coming up with four teams that
all have at least some degree of playoff aspirations that
(04:55):
we'll see in back to back matchups five days from
now on Saturday, and then you know for a fact
that when we get here, whoever is hosting anywhere in
the country a week from today, you're leading with college
football because everything has finally got going. I'm okay with
just giving us a little bit some of these other teams,
giving them more of a platform because there's not a
(05:18):
bunch of big dogs to watch and people are so
starved for football. You get the opportunity to see a
team or two, or watch a game or two that
you would only catch in the worst of like halftime
shows or something like that. So I'm okay with this, Like,
I'm all in this season, I'm all in just to
watch ball, I'm in to watch college I'm in to
watch the NFL. I'm and I watched the Tour Championship
(05:41):
because I'm big time golf fans. I watched some of
that on Saturday as well, and then of course did
four hours of radio right after you finished up doing
your show with Eve. So we've been we have been
inundated with sports over the last forty eight seventy two hours. Yeah, man,
you're going strong on this whole thing. I did love
the beer snake over in Ireland, so the internet was down,
(06:03):
so they're just giving away free beer to the fans
there and the empty cups forming a snake that went
on and on and on. Very impressive. I would say
Scott Frost with Nebraska, he was the opposite of the
beer snake. And I would also say, like you mentioned
to Meet Chang his debut with Hawaii getting rolled by Vanderbilt,
(06:24):
that would be the opposite of the beer snake right there.
That's the funny thing. It's the opposite when you finally
get your moment in the sun. Some of these lesser
teams in these eleven games, right there's not a whole
lot going on in week zero, So this is your
moment in the sun. But if you crash and burn,
it doesn't just blend in with a full slate of
(06:44):
a normal college football Saturday. So that that's the the
opposite end right there. Can backfire when you're like, alright, alright,
we got the national stage over here, and then you
know Scott Frost is attempting an onsite kick and it
goes haywire. Sometimes it doesn't work out for you there. Yeah, look,
got on sidekick thing. Are we gonna do that? Now?
We're gonna get into that right now. I mean, if
(07:05):
you got something for me, let me hear it. I look,
some people that I really like, some people I've talked
to over the years that that cover college football for
a living that I read multiple people who were just like,
I can't really get upset about this call when we
would have praised it if it had worked. And I'm thinking, well,
there's two problems here. One it didn't work, and two
(07:26):
are you sure about that? Because if that had worked,
I don't think we'd be talking about anything like I
just think it had been like, oh, that was interesting.
I think we would have moved on. The risk was
much higher than a potential reward here, because if you're
in Nebraska, you're up eleven. This is not some desperation
moment where you have to pull out everything to beat Northwestern,
(07:46):
who you were a double digit favorite over and it
was the only big ten win that you had last year,
and you throttled them in that game. I think it
was fifty six to seven last year. You're up eleven.
You don't need to play like you're about to lose
the game if you do it. He said, well, we
had the momentum. We could have put it out of reach. Yeah,
you had the momentum. So what are you doing? Like,
you're not Sean Payton, You're not Sean McVeigh, Scott Frost,
(08:10):
you're fifteen and seventeen that Nebraska. The most stunning thing
that I saw was that Bo Polini, the Nebraska coach
they could not wait to get rid of in seven
seasons at the Helm in Nebraska never won fewer than
nine games, and since he left, there have been seven
years they've only won nine games one time, Scott Scott
(08:32):
Frost has a losing record there. They lost every close
game they played. Last year they were and seven in
that category. They were three and nine, And they open
up this year and they have a special team's decision.
While they're up double digits against the team they have
to think that they're better than didn't make any sense
at all. You already have the momentum. Just play football
(08:54):
and beat them. You're already beating them because if this
goes south as it did, because is after this the
team completely fell apart at that point. Now we're looking
and is there anything you can do to keep your
job because you're gonna win probably the next two games
because they were against lesser opponents. And then what happens
after that point, Well, we know that your buyout gets
(09:14):
cut in half on October one. I think it's very
likely that by Halloween he's not there. Like, I don't
know that they're gonna let him finish the season. I
could easily see there being an interim coach in that situation.
I just don't think we would have talked about if
he did an onside kick could have been like an
afterthought moment. This whole we just celebrated if it, if
it works. Come on, man a minute, maybe I'm alone.
(09:37):
I like that the if it had worked. And it's
funny because in sports we pick and choose when we
say that. I think it's odd that people would say
that after a botched on site kick attempt, and that
was the turning point of the whole game. Like we said,
Nebraska was up by eleven points and they didn't score
again and they ended up losing by a field goal.
(09:57):
So yeah, that's it's strange. It reminds me had a
flashback when the Miami Heat and Boston Celtics were playing
and Jimmy Butler shot that three pointer at the end
of the game, and there were some people the next day,
that's right, some were like, hey, we go in like
it's like, but was that the best the whole point?
(10:20):
It didn't go in. Yeah, it didn't go in, And
was that the best decision because you had what was that?
Al Horford on rollers on roller skates and transition defense
and I don't I didn't buy all the all the
reasoning for it, and if if it had gone it,
no one said that with Russell Wilson throwing an interception
at the one yard line when you had Marshawn Lynch
(10:41):
back there, right. So it's funny how we pick and
choose the while if it had worked, we wouldn't have
had a problem with it. They say that with Jimmy
Butler shot attempt, and apparently with Scott Frost's on site
kick decision. We don't say that all the time. It's
weird how we pick and choose with that. Yeah, And
so they lost to Illinois last year in the opener,
and that was a terrible loss. It was a bad
(11:04):
loss for them. You know. One of the big reasons
that they lost that game last year, Brian, what's that
special teams? They were bad on special teams. Come back
to Jason Martin back. So then this Saturday, they take
a risk while they're up double digits in the third quarter,
like it's the Super Bowl with the Colts and the Saints,
(11:27):
momentum for Nebraska that they're trying to then seize and
instead gave away. They didn't even have a special teams
coach last year. They didn't have a special teams coordinator.
I don't I don't understand this, and and how I
know that. I think my reaction is more appropriate. It's
Scott Frost like explaining it and then saying, yeah, I
(11:47):
wouldn't do it again if I could exactly. That's the thing,
like the idea of if it had worked, we would
have praised it. No, if it had worked, we just
wouldn't have talked about it. But the whole point is
what was the likelihood it was going to work? Do
you know how bad that execution on that on side
kick was? They kicked it to the guy with the
best hands on Northwestern's team, Like, kicked it directly to
(12:11):
the guys Like dude, you're just out here trying to
get fired, Like this is amazing. We should go through
gone Maybe we should go through the sports archives here,
Jason and just it's almost like we're retrying some of
these things, you know what I mean, where it's like
a court of law where we could go back and
applied this, well if it had worked mindset to Brett
(12:35):
Farve costly interceptions, you know, well, if it had worked,
I mean, would we have been saying anything negative? He
could do that morning Wig the Mrty morning Wig taking
the wind instead of taking the ball in overtime. Again,
I mean, we wouldn't have been would have been fantastic
for the Lions. Do that? I do not. I do
(12:59):
not like that argument. I do not like it. Sam,
I am yeah, all right, we got a lot to do.
We've got, uh, maybe a rule change in the NFL
that needs to take place, the second installment that we've
seen in the preseason. Also, there's a team that it's
saying culture is more important than winning. But do their
actions support that claim? We will get into that right
(13:21):
around the corner. I'm Brian No, He's Jason Martin. We're
in for the guys here on Fox Sports Radio. I'm
Brian No. He's Jason Martin here on Fox Sports Radio,
in for the two pros and a cup of Joe Crew.
I will get to a couple of preseason injuries here momentarily,
some cut blocks that are injuring players. Does that rule
(13:42):
needs to need to change going forward? But man, this
story involving the Buffalo Bills, so ted escalated quickly. Is
uh what happened here with their punter matter? Rise us?
So the Bills release their punter on Saturday, So if
you look at the timeline here, on Thursday, there was
(14:02):
a civil lawsuit that was filed accusing a Riza in
two former San Diego State teammates of gang raping a
seventeen year old last year. So that lawsuit was filed
on Thursday. On Friday, Arisa didn't dress for the Bills
preseason game against the Panthers. Then on Saturday, Arisa was
(14:22):
released by the Bills. Now this was Bill's GM Brandon Bean.
He made a comment about where the Bill stand as
an organization. This is bigger than football and our culture
here is is more important to us than winning football games. Okay, Jason.
(14:43):
So if you go through a little bit more details
of the timeline, I think it's hard to buy what
Brandon Bean is selling because the Bills were made aware
of these allegations last month. So that means the Bills
didn't know that about the allegations when they drafted Arise
of but they did know that when they released their
(15:03):
other putterer, Matt Hawk. That was last Monday, and that
meant that the Bills were naming a Rise of their
starting putterer. So they named the Rise of their starting
putner last week and then there's also this to consider.
The attorney of the alleged victim. He sent an inner
introductory email two Bills assistant General consul. Her name is
(15:26):
Katherine de'angelo. So he sends the email on January thirty one.
They had a long conversation the next day, and then
the attorney never heard from the club again. So when
the Bills are saying, oh, we were we were doing
our due diligence. Yeah, da yadda YadA, it's like you
named this guy the starter, and then this became public
(15:48):
knowledge and now he's released. So it seems like, unless
I've got something wrong here, it seems like the Bills
got serious about the allegations when the story became public knowledge.
What's your read on how this went down? It doesn't
read well. Uh, the optics of it, Brian and are
poor at best because of the timing of everything, And
(16:11):
it's just kind of like you drafted a punt her
he's the punt god or whatever, which I think even
in an interview it came across. I think it might
have been McDermott did an interview on TV where he
even or no, he did a podcast and on the
podcast he basically still used the punt God's stuff even
after some of this was already known. And when Bean
(16:33):
says our culture is more important than winning football games, look,
they've done a lot right in Buffalo in the way
they've built that team from the ground up. They tore
that thing down to the studs, and then they've built
properly around their young quarterback. The culture is is very,
very good. I've talked to a few players that that
have that had a great time there, But this one
(16:53):
they get wrong because when you say our culture is
more important than winning football games, no, because in effect,
what we know about Matta Risa as a player is
that dude compunted about eight miles. So basically this is
the equivalent of hashtag them quads though, Like, yeah, I
know there's a problem but them quads though. But that
(17:15):
distance though. And so you're looking at this like we've
talked about many other situations, and certainly we spent the
better part of the last year and a half talking
about in some form, Deshaun Watson. He's QB one, He's
one of those kind of guys on the field. This
a punter. Don't tell me you care more about your
(17:37):
culture than winning football games if you're still prioritizing what
a punter can do for you in terms of field
position as opposed to pretty heinous allegations. I mean, what
you could have done at least it's just, hey, you
know what, we're gonna suspend them. We we're gonna keep
him away from the team until we find out what's
going on here. We we understand there's an issue here.
(17:59):
We can't let him practice right now. We're gonna see
if we can wait until all of the facts in
this situation come out. But it's not it's not responsible
for us to keep him out there with this going on,
and I think everybody would have been much more okay
with that as opposed to oh, well we we now,
we're we're taking a hard line on this. It's hard
(18:21):
to buy that because of the timeline. It just looks
suspect for Buffalo. Yeah, I just I can't buy it.
I can't buy Buffalo where they're when you're saying, hey,
our culture is more important than winning, and this is
basically a pat on the back of well, we're prioritizing,
you know, ethics and not just selling out to win.
(18:43):
But it's the timeline doesn't support that that. That's the
problem I have is you got to avoid saying those
things if the timeline doesn't support it. And if you've
named this guy your starter last week and now you've
released him outright, um, it's like, wow, what changed? And
if you say because Doug mcdermottuh, Sean McDermott, the head coach,
(19:05):
he had said this before the preseason game on Friday,
he said, well, in the last twenty four hours, there
has been new information that came to light. Well, if
you're not reaching back out to the attorney or the
victim after an introductory phone call, maybe there's new information.
Maybe that's your fault, right, Maybe you haven't been digging
enough to find out what's what. And it just reads
(19:28):
I don't know if this is the case, but it
just reads like a team that behaves differently when there
are serious allegations that aren't public knowledge compared to serious
allegations that are public knowledge. Because once it became public,
the Bills distanced themselves from Mataiza real fast. And Uh,
it's just a strange timeline how that went down for
(19:51):
the Bills and how they reacted to this. And again, Jason,
these are serious allegations, right we we don't know what
will be proven and how this will play out. We
do know that arise It did admit to having sex
with a minor uh so of with the girl that
was not of age. So if he's admitting that, that's
enough to get your released as a punter right there.
(20:13):
So I don't think this has to be just an
overreaction to serious allegations. There's enough there as an organization,
it distanced yourself from a punterer, and that's what the
Bills have eventually done. It's just hard to buy them
batting themselves on the back while they are doing that
based on the timeline. Yeah, so the PC Athletics that
I read that I read yesterday from one of their
(20:35):
beat reporters for the Bills. So McDermott said, we did
take those very seriously. That meaning the accuses the accuser's words.
I want everyone to understand that that's serious deal there.
But he also goes on a bar stool podcast weeks
after the accusations were known by the organization and called
a rise of the point God called him a fan favorite,
said he is a great kid. And the attorney for
(20:58):
the accuser. So the Bill had no choice but to
cut their young punter after so badly botching their response
to our claim. They ignored us as though what I
warned them would happen could be avoided if they just
kept their hand their heads in the sand. That is
what enablers do. So that does a read very well,
not not for a team that I mean, the sky
(21:19):
is the limit for what most people assume that the
Bills are gonna be on the field this year. This
ain't what you want right before week one. This is
not the story. This is not how you want to
be discussed two weeks before the regular season. This is
a punter. Uh, eventually you're you're just your your spidy
sense for your optics and common sense and common decency
(21:41):
probably need to take precedence here. You're right their allegations,
but what he's already admitted to, if you're a punter,
that's not a thing you can do. They'll find a
way to keep you on board if you're QB one
and if things are around there, if you're a top
flight wide receiver, they'll see what they can do. They'll
see they'll they'll try everything. But is it worth it
(22:02):
for a punter? Because if it goes wrong, you just
look terrible, and unfortunately for the Bills, that's how they
look on this Monday. Yeah, I'll say real fast. That's
the ugly truth is if you just look at it
from a football standpoint, and it sounds gross to even
talk about it like this, but it's true, Like you
have to think about it in these terms. The difference
between an elite punter and a good punter. Think about
(22:24):
that difference and the gain that you get compared to
an elite quarterback and a good quarterback, or an elite
wide receiver and a good wide receiver. It's like there's
just a bigger gap. So teams will you know, they'll
they'll put up with a lot more of a pr
hit in terms of that game football wise. But to
your point, if this is a punter and he's really good,
(22:45):
it's a punter at the end of the day, you know,
and you're trying to chase a Super Bowl. Do you
really want that storyline hanging over you as this plays out?
It might take the entire season for it to play out.
Why would you want that hanging over you? And they
eventually got to the decision where they didn't want that
and they released him and they're moving on with life.
We're gonna move on with life right here, and had
(23:06):
the baton over to Eddie Garcia to spin us around
the sporting landscape. What is going on? Mr? Garcia? Well,
Mr No. The NFL preseason officially coming to a close
with a pair of games on Sunday. We now count
down to the season opener on Thursday, September eight, with
the Bills taking on the Rams. But the two games
on Sunday, we had the Steelers beating the Lions nineteen
(23:26):
to nine. In that Pittsburgh quarterback competition, Mitch Drobiskie was
fifteen of nineteen passing hundred and sixty yards with a touchdown,
no interceptions. Rookie Kenny Pickett ten of fourteen passing ninety yards,
no touchdowns, no interceptions. There were a couple of injury
concerns for Pittsburgh as well. Defensive Player of the Year
t J. Watt left with a knee issue. Wide receiver
Deontay Johnson, who just signed a contract extension, left with
(23:47):
a shoulder issue. But head coach Mike Tomlins said afterwards
he thought both the injuries quote uh, he said, appear
to be minor uh end quote. The Jets beat the
Giants thirty one to twenty seven. Daniel Jones did not
play at quarterback. Tyrod Taylor was knocked out this when
their backup quarterback with a back injury actually was carded
up off the field, but they said afterwards that injury
appears to be minor as well. Joe Flacco for the Jets,
(24:09):
who's gonna start the season opener? Form seven of twelve,
passing seventy six yards, no touchdowns. He had an interception
that was returned for a touchdown. NFL News Washington Commanders
rookie running back Brian Robinson, that of Alabama shot multiple
times in an apparent cardjacking on a Sunday evening in
d C. He's been hospitalized. They're calling the injuries non
life threatening. In baseball games and note, we had the
(24:30):
Cardinals beating the Braves six to three St. Louis with
a five game lead atop the NL Central for Atlanta,
there's still three back of the Mets in the NL
East Race. New York was shut out by the Rockies
one to nothing. Despite Max Scherzer on the mound. He
got took the hard luck loss in that one. Guardians
were blanked by the Mariners for nothing, while the Twins
beat the Giants eight to three. So Minnesota with a
(24:50):
three game series sweep of San Francisco and there two
back of Cleveland in that a L Central Race. Dodgers
are fifty games over five and thirty eight. After beating
the Marlins eight to one. Yankees lost two of three
against the worst team in the American League, falling to
the A's on Sunday four to one. Astros beat the
Orioles three to one, but Houston started Justin Verlander three
(25:11):
score this innings, then left with a right calf issue.
Baltimore is still a game and at back in Toronto
for the final wild card spot in the American League,
and the Brewers outscore the Cubs nine to seven. Milwaukee
still a game in aft back of San Diego for
the last wild card spot in the National League. Now
back to Jason Martin and Brian no and the Fox
Sports Radio studios. You know, I feel kind of bad,
Eddie where Roberto's Dodgers are Technical producer eight eight and
(25:35):
thirty eight. As he pointed out, it's when they crashed
and burn in the playoffs and lose to the Cardinals.
I feel a little bit bad about that, a little bit. Yeah,
you're last night though, you got us last night though.
That was a really good game. Were you watching that?
It was a full sports weekend for you, Jason, Yeah,
I did watch it. I didn't watch it all the
way to the end, because look, when you gotta get
(25:56):
up at four, I mean on the West coast, so
I guess it's what three thirty five, or you are
right now, it's five thirty five. Year got up at four,
So I didn't watch it to the end. Had to
kind of catch up on what happened at the end.
And it was an unfortunate finish. We can say that,
but you're not gonna win them all. Yeah. Man, I'll
just say this. I am a night owl. I can't
(26:17):
go to bed early. I just can't. I can't just
say all right, I got the morning show. I'm gonna
go to bed at nine. My body will not allow
me to kid and I'll change right away. Yeah, exactly, what, Roberto,
that's right from from your from your lips to God.
On the on the weekend, I'm I'm in bed by midnights. No,
it's earlier than that. For me, except here's the problem
(26:38):
for me. For Saturday nights, I'm with Aaron Torres from
nine until one am, my time for the last for
the better part of the last I would say, what
six and a half years, Roberto. You know this because
I'm working with with you guys forever, and even before
you came on board, I was doing this show from
five to eight and then in Nashville for the better
part of the last two years, I've done six to ten,
(27:01):
five days a week. So I'll tell you what, dude,
I'm a night owl to know, Like, if I don't
have something to do, I'll be up till two or
three AM. Yeah, like watching television or playing a game,
or reading a book or doing something like that. I've
always been that way if I don't have a reason
to be up, But when your schedule completely changes, your
(27:21):
clock changes, and when your daughter goes to sleep at
eight thirty and you realize I've got time to watch
to thirty minute episodes of something before I go to sleep.
That's the way it is. I've watched so many NBA
games via highlights. The next morning, you have no idea.
I haven't seen a Portland's Trail Plazers game in five years. Yeah. Right,
(27:42):
but think about that. The people that do those the
morning shows, these West Coast games, good luck, good luck
staying up and and catching any of that. It's a
different ball game over there. One other thing that Eddie
Garcia mentioned during his update Brian Robinson, the third round
rookie running back Commanders. Yeah. So, as Eddie pointed out,
he was shot multiple times, not expected to be life threatening,
(28:06):
but shot multiple times in either a card jacking or
a robbery attempt. If that wasn't alarming enough, the details.
This was at six pm Jason, six pm that this
took place, and thankfully he's expected to be okay. Ron Rivera,
the head coach over there in Washington, he was tweeting
about it. Went over there to see the player, and
first off, thank goodness he's okay, just from a life perspective.
(28:29):
But then you get back to the hey, how bad
are the injuries? What's the timeline in terms of getting
back on the football field, Because he was expected to
be there early down running back. He was gonna be
their first second down guy, and then they were going
to have more of you know, like your your past
catcher guy going there and on third down, but he
was supposed to be the guy to start off the season,
(28:50):
so life respect if he's okay, great football perspective, it's like,
my goodness, seasons right around the corner, and this happened
at six pm. That's crazy. Yeah, it's I don't I mean,
there's not that much analysis to do here other than
just just a horrible story. You feel for that kid
who really played well last year at Alabama and was
(29:14):
really playing his way into a crucial role early in
his NFL career and this happening. The best thing that
you said during that entire last couple of minutes be
is just it's not life threatening. This could have ended
up a far more tragic worst story, but it's bad enough.
Like when I saw this, this one stopped me yesterday.
When I when I caught this news for the first time,
(29:35):
it was just kinda like, Okay, that's not I'm not
looking for that, Like, I don't know, I don't need
that to pop up in my headlines feed. So I'm
hoping the best for him and his family and hopefully
gets back on the field sooner rather than later. Absolutely
amen to that, all right? Coming up next, a couple
of scary injuries during pre season. Do you give any
thought to a rule changing going forward in the NFL.
(29:57):
We'll have some details on that for you. I'm Brian Oh,
he's Jason Martin. In for the guys. Here, it's two
pros and a cup of Joe on Fox Sports Radio.
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
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Radio dot com and within the I Heart Radio app.
Search f s R to listen live. Hey, it's Ben,
(30:18):
host of the Fifth Hour with Ben Maller. Would meet
a lot to have you join us on our weekly
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Fifth Hour? I'll tell you it's a spin off of
the Ben Maller short cold hit overnights on fs ARE.
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(30:40):
nature and more. Litsten to the Fifth Hour with Ben
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wherever you get your podcast. I'm Brian No, he's Jason Martin.
You're on Fox Sports Radio. In for the guys, Two
Pros and a cup of Joe So. Another scary situation
in the preseason cut blocking Jason So the defending defensive
(31:02):
player of the Year t J. Watt of the Pittsburgh Steelers.
He was cut blocked by a Detroit tight end t J. Hockenson,
and he got hit right on the knee t J. Watt,
and he was he banged up. Now, it's not expected
to be a serious injury, but it was a scary situation.
(31:23):
This was similar to Cavon Thibodeaux of the Giants, who
was the number five overall draft pick. He was cut block.
He was cut blocked by Randy Moss's son when they
were playing the Bengals, and it was more serious injury
for Thibodeau sprained mc l out for three to four weeks.
I just look at these cut blocks Jason, and it's
(31:44):
allowed right now. It's a legal play within five yards
of the line of scrimmage or two yards outside of
the offensive tackles. So just think in the trenches. Basically,
you can you can cut block a defender if you're
an offensive guy. And I just think it's a dangerous play.
I don't think that it's essential in football and I
(32:05):
also think it differs from say a strong safety hitting
a running back, where I would argue those tackles that's
more of an essential part of football. That's much more
of a common part of football, where ball carriers are
expecting guys diving at their legs in those situations. But man,
when you're talking about this seldomly happening in the trenches,
(32:27):
and a lot of times your leg is planted when
you're getting hit, and even though the strike zone is
the thigh, a lot of times you miss and you
hit him directly on the knee. I just think it's
better to move on from this and get it out
of the game. If you can't cut block, think about this,
a defensive back, they can't dive at an offensive lineman's legs.
(32:49):
If there's a an offensive lineman that's like pulling and
blocking in space a defensive back half the guy's size
cannot go low. And it's like, okay, if that's outlawed,
then how is it legal for a tight end to
just dive into dude's knees at the last second when
things can go hey wire. I think it'd be better
(33:10):
for football to get this out of the game. So
I'm definitely one of the folks that is very hesitant
to take the physicality out of football, and I sometimes
lament some of the discussions that we have had, even
though the game being made safer is definitely something that
needs to be factored in as much as possible. But
I think at some point you can't. You can't legislate
(33:33):
all the physicality out of football. You just can't do.
It's not possible. Guys are still gonna get hurt. It's
still a violent sport no matter how it is, unless
it becomes flag football, at which point we're gonna stop
watching it. That said, you don't have a league if
you don't have players. Your league is built on your stars, yes,
but it's also just built on the guys. It's built
(33:53):
on the guys on that fifty three and the guys
that are playing for a spot that we've been watching
over the last three weeks. It's it's your guys in.
When we're teaching kids heads up techniques, when we are
looking at running backs leading with the crown of their helmet,
when we're starting to kind of figure a few more
things out, at least across the board, things need to
(34:15):
feel consistent and based on the way safety is adjudicated
in football, this doesn't feel consistent anymore. Like anything below
the waste to somebody who is you know, grounded in
that moment, like you said, stationary in that spot, not
looking to have their knees taken out, that doesn't feel
(34:37):
like something that needs to exist. If you use the
word necessary, that's the thing, Like, does it give you
an advantage? Yes, so would taking your helmet off and
knocking somebody across the face with it. Like, there's a
lot of different things that would give you an advantage
that don't seem appropriate for a sport if you're trying
to protect the guys playing it at least to some degree.
(35:00):
And while I don't always agree with and look, the
targeting rule is a hideous rule in college football, and
there are many different discussions we could have where I
would be on the other side of this. The cut
block issue, I'm with you, that's just not a thing
that needs to happen anymore. I know they fixed the
rule and made it a little bit better over the
last year, they still got a waste to go because
(35:21):
we don't need to continue to see this. These can
be season ending injuries sometimes guys are not the same
after these injuries and they're just completely unnecessary. Just teach
differently because you're already doing that. You're teaching differently on
the youth level, So why not actually go ahead and
keep that going that way we can change kind of
the feeling. Because if you make this a personal foul,
(35:42):
if you made this a serious deal and automatic first down,
something significant for a block like that, or maybe even
a fine and things, these things will start to lessen.
We gotta do something to try and get this out
of the game. Yeah, look, man, I don't want football
to become too hand touch. I definitely don't want that,
but there are certain plays that are allowed that I
(36:05):
think are dangerous to the point it's not smart to
keep it in the game of football right now. That
doesn't mean I want every part of physicality gone that
it wouldn't be football anymore. So I'm not let's change this,
let's change that, Let's get this out, let's get that out. Like,
I'm not trying to change everything, but if there is,
we're doing spring cleaning over here and there's a whole
(36:27):
infested sweatshirt from twenty years ago, Like, yeah, it's got
to go. And that's what I think cut blocking is.
I think it's just dangerous and it's led to injury
before and I just don't see it being an essential
part of the game, as if, hey, a tight end
has no chance to block a defensive end if not
for cut blocking. I don't look at it like that
(36:48):
at all. And I think this is it's similar to
some of these players involving quarterbacks where you can't do
the old school Tony Sarragosa nesty plunge on Rich Cannon anymore.
You know what I mean, Like, you can't do that
in the NFL. If you look at Aaron Rodgers the
two years that he was injured, Shane McClellan drives him
(37:09):
into the ground. I was actually there at that game.
It turned into what was it? Uh? It was Kaide
McNown against uh. Seneca Wallace was a Yeah. I was
there for that one on my birthday Jason Martin with
my mom shout out to her. It was a lot
of fun. But there was that play, and then there
was the Anthony bar play where Aaron Rodgers was driven
(37:32):
into the ground and pop goes the collar bone. You know,
the NFL is not better that way, And yes, that's
a physical play, but I would argue it's not an
essential play for a defensive player to drive a quarterback
into the ground where injury is more likely to take place.
The NFL got rid of it. I rolled my eyes sometimes, Jason,
(37:52):
there's a defensive player. They can't help it. Sometimes this
is not just landing on them with all their body weight.
They can't help it. So some times I roll my eyes,
but I think there's more good than bad that comes
from it. In the NFL, I think cut blocking is similar,
where yeah, there might be a couple of plays where
I roll my eyes if they change the rule, but
(38:12):
way more times than not, I would look and say
it makes more sense than not to change that rule,
just based on the danger of it and the injuries
that occur. It's not an essential part of the game. No,
it's not. You can like, nobody's gonna care if you
get rid of that, and you're not gonna have one
less fan if you get rid of cut blocks like
those cuts, Like there's a reason why crackback blocks and
(38:32):
things like that, we're taken out of the game. It's
because the risk involved is gigantic. There's already enough injuries
in football without anything like this, there's nobodason to have
something where it almost feels like more than half the
time on these blocks and injury is the desired result.
Like that, again, it just it feels like a dirty
(38:54):
play when you watch it. It's like the definition of
obscenity originally in a Supreme court. I know it when
I see it. That just feels like a dirty play
every single time you see it, and that's not a
thing that needs to exist. If that's the case, I
like it. Yeah, yeah, it is. It's when I watched
that replay, I don't say, hey man, it's football. If
I see a hard tackle at a guy's legs, I said,
(39:16):
hey man, that's football. When I see those cut blocks,
when t J. Watt goes down, when Cavon Thibodeau goes down,
I have the same reaction as you as like, man,
that's even if that's legal, that looks If it's not dirty,
it's certainly dangerous, and I think it should be out
of the game going forward. I think it's just a
matter of time until they do that. We're taking steps,
we're just not there yet. All right. Coming up next,
(39:39):
we turn our attention to college ball. Week one. Right
around the corner, we will dissect Fox Sports Radio has
the best sports talk lineup in the nation. Catch all
of our shows at Fox sports Radio dot com and
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to listen live.
Everybody's Brian Noo, myself and Jason Martin are in for
the guys. Lots of ball, lots of ball, chock full
of ball, and then also a shocking stat involving Roberto Huh,
the Dodgers fan. They're fifty games over five hundred. They
stink when he's in attendance. Enjoy the podcast. You're listening
(00:21):
to Fox Sports Radio. Oh what's going on? Good morning, everybody.
I hope your Monday is off to a good start.
Jason Martin, College ball is back. That's a good pick
me up right there. Huh. The soft launch, I hate
those words. The soft launch of week week zero, meaning
(00:43):
there were no top twenty five teams in action, but
it was ball regardless. Did you enjoy it? I did.
I'm excited about it, and we talked about it Friday
and you were saying you were trying to be a
better fan this year. We're talking about that at the
end of the program, and look, I didn't have too
much trouble with it because it was ball all with
teams that were playing where at the end of that
(01:03):
sixty minute span, someone's gonna have win, somebody was gonna
have a loss on their record. And we got one
fairly monumental result that provided plenty of fodder uh Saturday
night for me and Aaron Torres on the air, and
certainly on Sunday, and I'm sure today as well, that
being in Nebraska Northwestern game in Dublin. But look, Thursday
(01:23):
we got more teams playing, Penn States, playing Tennessee's playing
we got real teams, and then of course we got
some huge games on Saturday. Football is here. I am
okay with the fact that these were not the marquee matchups.
I got to see my alma mater win on Saturday
Western Kentucky. Uh, I'm excited about it. I had a
good time watching it. Quite frankly, I watched that ton
(01:44):
of sports on Saturday. I like it. Man, you are
an optimist. You are looking at the positive side of
the soft launch, which I love. This is you are
who I am aspiring to be. It's basically what it is.
I'm trying to be a better fan, meaning more than
just about the big boys, more than just about Hey,
(02:06):
who's gonna be in the college football playoff? Who are
the top ten teams? I want to look beyond that
this season. And I'll tell you what the soft launch
tested that, but I did enjoy it. I did enjoy
the Nebraska Northwestern games. You said the failed on side
kick when Scott Frost went for it when they were
up by eleven points, and then it came back to
(02:27):
bite him in the butt. And then he's a little
salty after the game. Seemed like he was throwing his
offensive coordinator under the bus, saying we need to be
a little bit more creative on offense. So it was good.
I even enjoyed watching you Can actually battled Utah State
pretty well. They were four touchdown underdogs, and that was
a competitive football game. So I enjoyed it. But the
(02:48):
thing I always look at is, look, this is a
national platform, and so we talk about the biggest stories
in sports. And when I I kind of pause and
think is this big enough to start off with? You
know what I mean? Like football is back, and I
have the question in my mind the Monday after the
(03:08):
first Saturday of the season, where I'm thinking, is this
a big enough topic? I just needed at least one
decent game, give me at least one ranked team. College
football has gotta do better than that. It's not like
the NFL. The first game of the season is gonna
roll around, and you're gonna think the next day if
you're hosting a show nationally, is this big enough to
(03:30):
start off with? Like it clearly is. If it's Bills Rams,
that's a legit matchup. I just what wish college football
would step it up a bit for their warm up bands.
It's like they give you a bunch of warm up
bands in week zero with no headlining act. I think
you gotta do a little bit better than that. I mean,
I understand that, but as you mentioned, it was a
soft launch. It was week zero, it wasn't Week one.
(03:51):
It's just we're gonna throw a few games out here. Much.
The stuff I can't get down for is the spring games.
The people that like really sit there and pour over
these bring games. But it's it's preseason NFL that you're
dealing with. I watched, Let's see what did I watch
on Saturday? I watch some preseason football. Obviously, I watched
college ball all day off and on Did I sit
there and watch four quarters of any game? No? I
(04:13):
did not, But I moved around. I watched a little
bit of a few teams. You know, North North Carolina's
got a quarterback and they are important. They didn't play
real well in the first half against Florida A and
M Vanderbilt looked really good, just absolutely crushed Timmy Chang
in his debut at Hawaii. Uh the Northwestern Nebraska. I
wanted to see that environment too. I just want to
see what it looked like in Ireland. And Helinsky played
(04:34):
really well. They couldn't get to him, and then you
got the decision in the third quarter and everything that
came after that. I'm okay with it, like it's just
it's just, hey, here's the beginning of college football. We
understand this is not the full product. That's when you
get the double header coming up with four teams that
all have at least some degree of playoff aspirations that
(04:55):
we'll see in back to back matchups five days from
now on Saturday, and then you know for a fact
that when we get here, whoever is hosting anywhere in
the country a week from today, you're leading with college
football because everything has finally got going. I'm okay with
just giving us a little bit some of these other teams,
giving them more of a platform because there's not a
(05:18):
bunch of big dogs to watch and people are so
starved for football. You get the opportunity to see a
team or two, or watch a game or two that
you would only catch in the worst of like halftime
shows or something like that. So I'm okay with this, Like,
I'm all in this season, I'm all in just to
watch ball, I'm in to watch college I'm in to
watch the NFL. I'm and I watched the Tour Championship
(05:41):
because I'm big time golf fans. I watched some of
that on Saturday as well, and then of course did
four hours of radio right after you finished up doing
your show with Eve. So we've been we have been
inundated with sports over the last forty eight seventy two hours. Yeah, man,
you're going strong on this whole thing. I did love
the beer snake over in Ireland, so the internet was down,
(06:03):
so they're just giving away free beer to the fans
there and the empty cups forming a snake that went
on and on and on. Very impressive. I would say
Scott Frost with Nebraska, he was the opposite of the
beer snake. And I would also say, like you mentioned
to Meet Chang his debut with Hawaii getting rolled by Vanderbilt,
(06:24):
that would be the opposite of the beer snake right there.
That's the funny thing. It's the opposite when you finally
get your moment in the sun. Some of these lesser
teams in these eleven games, right there's not a whole
lot going on in week zero, So this is your
moment in the sun. But if you crash and burn,
it doesn't just blend in with a full slate of
(06:44):
a normal college football Saturday. So that that's the the
opposite end right there. Can backfire when you're like, alright, alright,
we got the national stage over here, and then you
know Scott Frost is attempting an onsite kick and it
goes haywire. Sometimes it doesn't work out for you there. Yeah, look,
got on sidekick thing. Are we gonna do that? Now?
We're gonna get into that right now. I mean, if
(07:05):
you got something for me, let me hear it. I look,
some people that I really like, some people I've talked
to over the years that that cover college football for
a living that I read multiple people who were just like,
I can't really get upset about this call when we
would have praised it if it had worked. And I'm thinking, well,
there's two problems here. One it didn't work, and two
(07:26):
are you sure about that? Because if that had worked,
I don't think we'd be talking about anything like I
just think it had been like, oh, that was interesting.
I think we would have moved on. The risk was
much higher than a potential reward here, because if you're
in Nebraska, you're up eleven. This is not some desperation
moment where you have to pull out everything to beat Northwestern,
(07:46):
who you were a double digit favorite over and it
was the only big ten win that you had last year,
and you throttled them in that game. I think it
was fifty six to seven last year. You're up eleven.
You don't need to play like you're about to lose
the game if you do it. He said, well, we
had the momentum. We could have put it out of reach. Yeah,
you had the momentum. So what are you doing? Like,
you're not Sean Payton, You're not Sean McVeigh, Scott Frost,
(08:10):
you're fifteen and seventeen that Nebraska. The most stunning thing
that I saw was that Bo Polini, the Nebraska coach
they could not wait to get rid of in seven
seasons at the Helm in Nebraska never won fewer than
nine games, and since he left, there have been seven
years they've only won nine games one time, Scott Scott
(08:32):
Frost has a losing record there. They lost every close
game they played. Last year they were and seven in
that category. They were three and nine, And they open
up this year and they have a special team's decision.
While they're up double digits against the team they have
to think that they're better than didn't make any sense
at all. You already have the momentum. Just play football
(08:54):
and beat them. You're already beating them because if this
goes south as it did, because is after this the
team completely fell apart at that point. Now we're looking
and is there anything you can do to keep your
job because you're gonna win probably the next two games
because they were against lesser opponents. And then what happens
after that point, Well, we know that your buyout gets
(09:14):
cut in half on October one. I think it's very
likely that by Halloween he's not there. Like, I don't
know that they're gonna let him finish the season. I
could easily see there being an interim coach in that situation.
I just don't think we would have talked about if
he did an onside kick could have been like an
afterthought moment. This whole we just celebrated if it, if
it works. Come on, man a minute, maybe I'm alone.
(09:37):
I like that the if it had worked. And it's
funny because in sports we pick and choose when we
say that. I think it's odd that people would say
that after a botched on site kick attempt, and that
was the turning point of the whole game. Like we said,
Nebraska was up by eleven points and they didn't score
again and they ended up losing by a field goal.
(09:57):
So yeah, that's it's strange. It reminds me had a
flashback when the Miami Heat and Boston Celtics were playing
and Jimmy Butler shot that three pointer at the end
of the game, and there were some people the next day,
that's right, some were like, hey, we go in like
it's like, but was that the best the whole point?
(10:20):
It didn't go in. Yeah, it didn't go in, And
was that the best decision because you had what was that?
Al Horford on rollers on roller skates and transition defense
and I don't I didn't buy all the all the
reasoning for it, and if if it had gone it,
no one said that with Russell Wilson throwing an interception
at the one yard line when you had Marshawn Lynch
(10:41):
back there, right. So it's funny how we pick and
choose the while if it had worked, we wouldn't have
had a problem with it. They say that with Jimmy
Butler shot attempt, and apparently with Scott Frost's on site
kick decision. We don't say that all the time. It's
weird how we pick and choose with that. Yeah, And
so they lost to Illinois last year in the opener,
and that was a terrible loss. It was a bad
(11:04):
loss for them. You know. One of the big reasons
that they lost that game last year, Brian, what's that
special teams? They were bad on special teams. Come back
to Jason Martin back. So then this Saturday, they take
a risk while they're up double digits in the third quarter,
like it's the Super Bowl with the Colts and the Saints,
(11:27):
momentum for Nebraska that they're trying to then seize and
instead gave away. They didn't even have a special teams
coach last year. They didn't have a special teams coordinator.
I don't I don't understand this, and and how I
know that. I think my reaction is more appropriate. It's
Scott Frost like explaining it and then saying, yeah, I
(11:47):
wouldn't do it again if I could exactly. That's the thing,
like the idea of if it had worked, we would
have praised it. No, if it had worked, we just
wouldn't have talked about it. But the whole point is
what was the likelihood it was going to work? Do
you know how bad that execution on that on side
kick was? They kicked it to the guy with the
best hands on Northwestern's team, Like, kicked it directly to
(12:11):
the guys Like dude, you're just out here trying to
get fired, Like this is amazing. We should go through
gone Maybe we should go through the sports archives here,
Jason and just it's almost like we're retrying some of
these things, you know what I mean, where it's like
a court of law where we could go back and
applied this, well if it had worked mindset to Brett
(12:35):
Farve costly interceptions, you know, well, if it had worked,
I mean, would we have been saying anything negative? He
could do that morning Wig the Mrty morning Wig taking
the wind instead of taking the ball in overtime. Again,
I mean, we wouldn't have been would have been fantastic
for the Lions. Do that? I do not. I do
(12:59):
not like that argument. I do not like it. Sam,
I am yeah, all right, we got a lot to do.
We've got, uh, maybe a rule change in the NFL
that needs to take place, the second installment that we've
seen in the preseason. Also, there's a team that it's
saying culture is more important than winning. But do their
actions support that claim? We will get into that right
(13:21):
around the corner. I'm Brian No, He's Jason Martin. We're
in for the guys here on Fox Sports Radio. I'm
Brian No. He's Jason Martin here on Fox Sports Radio,
in for the two pros and a cup of Joe Crew.
I will get to a couple of preseason injuries here momentarily,
some cut blocks that are injuring players. Does that rule
(13:42):
needs to need to change going forward? But man, this
story involving the Buffalo Bills, so ted escalated quickly. Is
uh what happened here with their punter matter? Rise us?
So the Bills release their punter on Saturday, So if
you look at the timeline here, on Thursday, there was
(14:02):
a civil lawsuit that was filed accusing a Riza in
two former San Diego State teammates of gang raping a
seventeen year old last year. So that lawsuit was filed
on Thursday. On Friday, Arisa didn't dress for the Bills
preseason game against the Panthers. Then on Saturday, Arisa was
(14:22):
released by the Bills. Now this was Bill's GM Brandon Bean.
He made a comment about where the Bill stand as
an organization. This is bigger than football and our culture
here is is more important to us than winning football games. Okay, Jason.
(14:43):
So if you go through a little bit more details
of the timeline, I think it's hard to buy what
Brandon Bean is selling because the Bills were made aware
of these allegations last month. So that means the Bills
didn't know that about the allegations when they drafted Arise
of but they did know that when they released their
(15:03):
other putterer, Matt Hawk. That was last Monday, and that
meant that the Bills were naming a Rise of their
starting putterer. So they named the Rise of their starting
putner last week and then there's also this to consider.
The attorney of the alleged victim. He sent an inner
introductory email two Bills assistant General consul. Her name is
(15:26):
Katherine de'angelo. So he sends the email on January thirty one.
They had a long conversation the next day, and then
the attorney never heard from the club again. So when
the Bills are saying, oh, we were we were doing
our due diligence. Yeah, da yadda YadA, it's like you
named this guy the starter, and then this became public
(15:48):
knowledge and now he's released. So it seems like, unless
I've got something wrong here, it seems like the Bills
got serious about the allegations when the story became public knowledge.
What's your read on how this went down? It doesn't
read well. Uh, the optics of it, Brian and are
poor at best because of the timing of everything, And
(16:11):
it's just kind of like you drafted a punt her
he's the punt god or whatever, which I think even
in an interview it came across. I think it might
have been McDermott did an interview on TV where he
even or no, he did a podcast and on the
podcast he basically still used the punt God's stuff even
after some of this was already known. And when Bean
(16:33):
says our culture is more important than winning football games, look,
they've done a lot right in Buffalo in the way
they've built that team from the ground up. They tore
that thing down to the studs, and then they've built
properly around their young quarterback. The culture is is very,
very good. I've talked to a few players that that
have that had a great time there, But this one
(16:53):
they get wrong because when you say our culture is
more important than winning football games, no, because in effect,
what we know about Matta Risa as a player is
that dude compunted about eight miles. So basically this is
the equivalent of hashtag them quads though, Like, yeah, I
know there's a problem but them quads though. But that
(17:15):
distance though. And so you're looking at this like we've
talked about many other situations, and certainly we spent the
better part of the last year and a half talking
about in some form, Deshaun Watson. He's QB one, He's
one of those kind of guys on the field. This
a punter. Don't tell me you care more about your
(17:37):
culture than winning football games if you're still prioritizing what
a punter can do for you in terms of field
position as opposed to pretty heinous allegations. I mean, what
you could have done at least it's just, hey, you
know what, we're gonna suspend them. We we're gonna keep
him away from the team until we find out what's
going on here. We we understand there's an issue here.
(17:59):
We can't let him practice right now. We're gonna see
if we can wait until all of the facts in
this situation come out. But it's not it's not responsible
for us to keep him out there with this going on,
and I think everybody would have been much more okay
with that as opposed to oh, well we we now,
we're we're taking a hard line on this. It's hard
(18:21):
to buy that because of the timeline. It just looks
suspect for Buffalo. Yeah, I just I can't buy it.
I can't buy Buffalo where they're when you're saying, hey,
our culture is more important than winning, and this is
basically a pat on the back of well, we're prioritizing,
you know, ethics and not just selling out to win.
(18:43):
But it's the timeline doesn't support that that. That's the
problem I have is you got to avoid saying those
things if the timeline doesn't support it. And if you've
named this guy your starter last week and now you've
released him outright, um, it's like, wow, what changed? And
if you say because Doug mcdermottuh, Sean McDermott, the head coach,
(19:05):
he had said this before the preseason game on Friday,
he said, well, in the last twenty four hours, there
has been new information that came to light. Well, if
you're not reaching back out to the attorney or the
victim after an introductory phone call, maybe there's new information.
Maybe that's your fault, right, Maybe you haven't been digging
enough to find out what's what. And it just reads
(19:28):
I don't know if this is the case, but it
just reads like a team that behaves differently when there
are serious allegations that aren't public knowledge compared to serious
allegations that are public knowledge. Because once it became public,
the Bills distanced themselves from Mataiza real fast. And Uh,
it's just a strange timeline how that went down for
(19:51):
the Bills and how they reacted to this. And again, Jason,
these are serious allegations, right we we don't know what
will be proven and how this will play out. We
do know that arise It did admit to having sex
with a minor uh so of with the girl that
was not of age. So if he's admitting that, that's
enough to get your released as a punter right there.
(20:13):
So I don't think this has to be just an
overreaction to serious allegations. There's enough there as an organization,
it distanced yourself from a punterer, and that's what the
Bills have eventually done. It's just hard to buy them
batting themselves on the back while they are doing that
based on the timeline. Yeah, so the PC Athletics that
I read that I read yesterday from one of their
(20:35):
beat reporters for the Bills. So McDermott said, we did
take those very seriously. That meaning the accuses the accuser's words.
I want everyone to understand that that's serious deal there.
But he also goes on a bar stool podcast weeks
after the accusations were known by the organization and called
a rise of the point God called him a fan favorite,
said he is a great kid. And the attorney for
(20:58):
the accuser. So the Bill had no choice but to
cut their young punter after so badly botching their response
to our claim. They ignored us as though what I
warned them would happen could be avoided if they just
kept their hand their heads in the sand. That is
what enablers do. So that does a read very well,
not not for a team that I mean, the sky
(21:19):
is the limit for what most people assume that the
Bills are gonna be on the field this year. This
ain't what you want right before week one. This is
not the story. This is not how you want to
be discussed two weeks before the regular season. This is
a punter. Uh, eventually you're you're just your your spidy
sense for your optics and common sense and common decency
(21:41):
probably need to take precedence here. You're right their allegations,
but what he's already admitted to, if you're a punter,
that's not a thing you can do. They'll find a
way to keep you on board if you're QB one
and if things are around there, if you're a top
flight wide receiver, they'll see what they can do. They'll
see they'll they'll try everything. But is it worth it
(22:02):
for a punter? Because if it goes wrong, you just
look terrible, and unfortunately for the Bills, that's how they
look on this Monday. Yeah, I'll say real fast. That's
the ugly truth is if you just look at it
from a football standpoint, and it sounds gross to even
talk about it like this, but it's true, Like you
have to think about it in these terms. The difference
between an elite punter and a good punter. Think about
(22:24):
that difference and the gain that you get compared to
an elite quarterback and a good quarterback, or an elite
wide receiver and a good wide receiver. It's like there's
just a bigger gap. So teams will you know, they'll
they'll put up with a lot more of a pr
hit in terms of that game football wise. But to
your point, if this is a punter and he's really good,
(22:45):
it's a punter at the end of the day, you know,
and you're trying to chase a Super Bowl. Do you
really want that storyline hanging over you as this plays out?
It might take the entire season for it to play out.
Why would you want that hanging over you? And they
eventually got to the decision where they didn't want that
and they released him and they're moving on with life.
We're gonna move on with life right here, and had
(23:06):
the baton over to Eddie Garcia to spin us around
the sporting landscape. What is going on? Mr? Garcia? Well,
Mr No. The NFL preseason officially coming to a close
with a pair of games on Sunday. We now count
down to the season opener on Thursday, September eight, with
the Bills taking on the Rams. But the two games
on Sunday, we had the Steelers beating the Lions nineteen
(23:26):
to nine. In that Pittsburgh quarterback competition, Mitch Drobiskie was
fifteen of nineteen passing hundred and sixty yards with a touchdown,
no interceptions. Rookie Kenny Pickett ten of fourteen passing ninety yards,
no touchdowns, no interceptions. There were a couple of injury
concerns for Pittsburgh as well. Defensive Player of the Year
t J. Watt left with a knee issue. Wide receiver
Deontay Johnson, who just signed a contract extension, left with
(23:47):
a shoulder issue. But head coach Mike Tomlins said afterwards
he thought both the injuries quote uh, he said, appear
to be minor uh end quote. The Jets beat the
Giants thirty one to twenty seven. Daniel Jones did not
play at quarterback. Tyrod Taylor was knocked out this when
their backup quarterback with a back injury actually was carded
up off the field, but they said afterwards that injury
appears to be minor as well. Joe Flacco for the Jets,
(24:09):
who's gonna start the season opener? Form seven of twelve,
passing seventy six yards, no touchdowns. He had an interception
that was returned for a touchdown. NFL News Washington Commanders
rookie running back Brian Robinson, that of Alabama shot multiple
times in an apparent cardjacking on a Sunday evening in
d C. He's been hospitalized. They're calling the injuries non
life threatening. In baseball games and note, we had the
(24:30):
Cardinals beating the Braves six to three St. Louis with
a five game lead atop the NL Central for Atlanta,
there's still three back of the Mets in the NL
East Race. New York was shut out by the Rockies
one to nothing. Despite Max Scherzer on the mound. He
got took the hard luck loss in that one. Guardians
were blanked by the Mariners for nothing, while the Twins
beat the Giants eight to three. So Minnesota with a
(24:50):
three game series sweep of San Francisco and there two
back of Cleveland in that a L Central Race. Dodgers
are fifty games over five and thirty eight. After beating
the Marlins eight to one. Yankees lost two of three
against the worst team in the American League, falling to
the A's on Sunday four to one. Astros beat the
Orioles three to one, but Houston started Justin Verlander three
(25:11):
score this innings, then left with a right calf issue.
Baltimore is still a game and at back in Toronto
for the final wild card spot in the American League,
and the Brewers outscore the Cubs nine to seven. Milwaukee
still a game in aft back of San Diego for
the last wild card spot in the National League. Now
back to Jason Martin and Brian no and the Fox
Sports Radio studios. You know, I feel kind of bad,
Eddie where Roberto's Dodgers are Technical producer eight eight and
(25:35):
thirty eight. As he pointed out, it's when they crashed
and burn in the playoffs and lose to the Cardinals.
I feel a little bit bad about that, a little bit. Yeah,
you're last night though, you got us last night though.
That was a really good game. Were you watching that?
It was a full sports weekend for you, Jason, Yeah,
I did watch it. I didn't watch it all the
way to the end, because look, when you gotta get
(25:56):
up at four, I mean on the West coast, so
I guess it's what three thirty five, or you are
right now, it's five thirty five. Year got up at four,
So I didn't watch it to the end. Had to
kind of catch up on what happened at the end.
And it was an unfortunate finish. We can say that,
but you're not gonna win them all. Yeah. Man, I'll
just say this. I am a night owl. I can't
(26:17):
go to bed early. I just can't. I can't just
say all right, I got the morning show. I'm gonna
go to bed at nine. My body will not allow
me to kid and I'll change right away. Yeah, exactly, what, Roberto,
that's right from from your from your lips to God.
On the on the weekend, I'm I'm in bed by midnights. No,
it's earlier than that. For me, except here's the problem
(26:38):
for me. For Saturday nights, I'm with Aaron Torres from
nine until one am, my time for the last for
the better part of the last I would say, what
six and a half years, Roberto. You know this because
I'm working with with you guys forever, and even before
you came on board, I was doing this show from
five to eight and then in Nashville for the better
part of the last two years, I've done six to ten,
(27:01):
five days a week. So I'll tell you what, dude,
I'm a night owl to know, Like, if I don't
have something to do, I'll be up till two or
three AM. Yeah, like watching television or playing a game,
or reading a book or doing something like that. I've
always been that way if I don't have a reason
to be up, But when your schedule completely changes, your
(27:21):
clock changes, and when your daughter goes to sleep at
eight thirty and you realize I've got time to watch
to thirty minute episodes of something before I go to sleep.
That's the way it is. I've watched so many NBA
games via highlights. The next morning, you have no idea.
I haven't seen a Portland's Trail Plazers game in five years. Yeah. Right,
(27:42):
but think about that. The people that do those the
morning shows, these West Coast games, good luck, good luck
staying up and and catching any of that. It's a
different ball game over there. One other thing that Eddie
Garcia mentioned during his update Brian Robinson, the third round
rookie running back Commanders. Yeah. So, as Eddie pointed out,
he was shot multiple times, not expected to be life threatening,
(28:06):
but shot multiple times in either a card jacking or
a robbery attempt. If that wasn't alarming enough, the details.
This was at six pm Jason, six pm that this
took place, and thankfully he's expected to be okay. Ron Rivera,
the head coach over there in Washington, he was tweeting
about it. Went over there to see the player, and
first off, thank goodness he's okay, just from a life perspective.
(28:29):
But then you get back to the hey, how bad
are the injuries? What's the timeline in terms of getting
back on the football field, Because he was expected to
be there early down running back. He was gonna be
their first second down guy, and then they were going
to have more of you know, like your your past
catcher guy going there and on third down, but he
was supposed to be the guy to start off the season,
(28:50):
so life respect if he's okay, great football perspective, it's like,
my goodness, seasons right around the corner, and this happened
at six pm. That's crazy. Yeah, it's I don't I mean,
there's not that much analysis to do here other than
just just a horrible story. You feel for that kid
who really played well last year at Alabama and was
(29:14):
really playing his way into a crucial role early in
his NFL career and this happening. The best thing that
you said during that entire last couple of minutes be
is just it's not life threatening. This could have ended
up a far more tragic worst story, but it's bad enough.
Like when I saw this, this one stopped me yesterday.
When I when I caught this news for the first time,
(29:35):
it was just kinda like, Okay, that's not I'm not
looking for that, Like, I don't know, I don't need
that to pop up in my headlines feed. So I'm
hoping the best for him and his family and hopefully
gets back on the field sooner rather than later. Absolutely
amen to that, all right? Coming up next, a couple
of scary injuries during pre season. Do you give any
thought to a rule changing going forward in the NFL.
(29:57):
We'll have some details on that for you. I'm Brian Oh,
he's Jason Martin. In for the guys. Here, it's two
pros and a cup of Joe on Fox Sports Radio.
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at Fox Sports
Radio dot com and within the I Heart Radio app.
Search f s R to listen live. Hey, it's Ben,
(30:18):
host of the Fifth Hour with Ben Maller. Would meet
a lot to have you join us on our weekly
auditory journey. You're asking what in God's name is the
Fifth Hour? I'll tell you it's a spin off of
the Ben Maller short cold hit overnights on fs ARE.
Why should you listen? Picture if you will a world
will We chat with captains of industry in media, sports,
and more every week Explorer some amazing facts about human
(30:40):
nature and more. Litsten to the Fifth Hour with Ben
mallow on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcast or
wherever you get your podcast. I'm Brian No, he's Jason Martin.
You're on Fox Sports Radio. In for the guys, Two
Pros and a cup of Joe So. Another scary situation
in the preseason cut blocking Jason So the defending defensive
(31:02):
player of the Year t J. Watt of the Pittsburgh Steelers.
He was cut blocked by a Detroit tight end t J. Hockenson,
and he got hit right on the knee t J. Watt,
and he was he banged up. Now, it's not expected
to be a serious injury, but it was a scary situation.
(31:23):
This was similar to Cavon Thibodeaux of the Giants, who
was the number five overall draft pick. He was cut block.
He was cut blocked by Randy Moss's son when they
were playing the Bengals, and it was more serious injury
for Thibodeau sprained mc l out for three to four weeks.
I just look at these cut blocks Jason, and it's
(31:44):
allowed right now. It's a legal play within five yards
of the line of scrimmage or two yards outside of
the offensive tackles. So just think in the trenches. Basically,
you can you can cut block a defender if you're
an offensive guy. And I just think it's a dangerous play.
I don't think that it's essential in football and I
(32:05):
also think it differs from say a strong safety hitting
a running back, where I would argue those tackles that's
more of an essential part of football. That's much more
of a common part of football, where ball carriers are
expecting guys diving at their legs in those situations. But man,
when you're talking about this seldomly happening in the trenches,
(32:27):
and a lot of times your leg is planted when
you're getting hit, and even though the strike zone is
the thigh, a lot of times you miss and you
hit him directly on the knee. I just think it's
better to move on from this and get it out
of the game. If you can't cut block, think about this,
a defensive back, they can't dive at an offensive lineman's legs.
(32:49):
If there's a an offensive lineman that's like pulling and
blocking in space a defensive back half the guy's size
cannot go low. And it's like, okay, if that's outlawed,
then how is it legal for a tight end to
just dive into dude's knees at the last second when
things can go hey wire. I think it'd be better
(33:10):
for football to get this out of the game. So
I'm definitely one of the folks that is very hesitant
to take the physicality out of football, and I sometimes
lament some of the discussions that we have had, even
though the game being made safer is definitely something that
needs to be factored in as much as possible. But
I think at some point you can't. You can't legislate
(33:33):
all the physicality out of football. You just can't do.
It's not possible. Guys are still gonna get hurt. It's
still a violent sport no matter how it is, unless
it becomes flag football, at which point we're gonna stop
watching it. That said, you don't have a league if
you don't have players. Your league is built on your stars, yes,
but it's also just built on the guys. It's built
(33:53):
on the guys on that fifty three and the guys
that are playing for a spot that we've been watching
over the last three weeks. It's it's your guys in.
When we're teaching kids heads up techniques, when we are
looking at running backs leading with the crown of their helmet,
when we're starting to kind of figure a few more
things out, at least across the board, things need to
(34:15):
feel consistent and based on the way safety is adjudicated
in football, this doesn't feel consistent anymore. Like anything below
the waste to somebody who is you know, grounded in
that moment, like you said, stationary in that spot, not
looking to have their knees taken out, that doesn't feel
(34:37):
like something that needs to exist. If you use the
word necessary, that's the thing, Like, does it give you
an advantage? Yes, so would taking your helmet off and
knocking somebody across the face with it. Like, there's a
lot of different things that would give you an advantage
that don't seem appropriate for a sport if you're trying
to protect the guys playing it at least to some degree.
(35:00):
And while I don't always agree with and look, the
targeting rule is a hideous rule in college football, and
there are many different discussions we could have where I
would be on the other side of this. The cut
block issue, I'm with you, that's just not a thing
that needs to happen anymore. I know they fixed the
rule and made it a little bit better over the
last year, they still got a waste to go because
(35:21):
we don't need to continue to see this. These can
be season ending injuries sometimes guys are not the same
after these injuries and they're just completely unnecessary. Just teach
differently because you're already doing that. You're teaching differently on
the youth level, So why not actually go ahead and
keep that going that way we can change kind of
the feeling. Because if you make this a personal foul,
(35:42):
if you made this a serious deal and automatic first down,
something significant for a block like that, or maybe even
a fine and things, these things will start to lessen.
We gotta do something to try and get this out
of the game. Yeah, look, man, I don't want football
to become too hand touch. I definitely don't want that,
but there are certain plays that are allowed that I
(36:05):
think are dangerous to the point it's not smart to
keep it in the game of football right now. That
doesn't mean I want every part of physicality gone that
it wouldn't be football anymore. So I'm not let's change this,
let's change that, Let's get this out, let's get that out. Like,
I'm not trying to change everything, but if there is,
we're doing spring cleaning over here and there's a whole
(36:27):
infested sweatshirt from twenty years ago, Like, yeah, it's got
to go. And that's what I think cut blocking is.
I think it's just dangerous and it's led to injury
before and I just don't see it being an essential
part of the game, as if, hey, a tight end
has no chance to block a defensive end if not
for cut blocking. I don't look at it like that
(36:48):
at all. And I think this is it's similar to
some of these players involving quarterbacks where you can't do
the old school Tony Sarragosa nesty plunge on Rich Cannon anymore.
You know what I mean, Like, you can't do that
in the NFL. If you look at Aaron Rodgers the
two years that he was injured, Shane McClellan drives him
(37:09):
into the ground. I was actually there at that game.
It turned into what was it? Uh? It was Kaide
McNown against uh. Seneca Wallace was a Yeah. I was
there for that one on my birthday Jason Martin with
my mom shout out to her. It was a lot
of fun. But there was that play, and then there
was the Anthony bar play where Aaron Rodgers was driven
(37:32):
into the ground and pop goes the collar bone. You know,
the NFL is not better that way, And yes, that's
a physical play, but I would argue it's not an
essential play for a defensive player to drive a quarterback
into the ground where injury is more likely to take place.
The NFL got rid of it. I rolled my eyes sometimes, Jason,
(37:52):
there's a defensive player. They can't help it. Sometimes this
is not just landing on them with all their body weight.
They can't help it. So some times I roll my eyes,
but I think there's more good than bad that comes
from it. In the NFL, I think cut blocking is similar,
where yeah, there might be a couple of plays where
I roll my eyes if they change the rule, but
(38:12):
way more times than not, I would look and say
it makes more sense than not to change that rule,
just based on the danger of it and the injuries
that occur. It's not an essential part of the game. No,
it's not. You can like, nobody's gonna care if you
get rid of that, and you're not gonna have one
less fan if you get rid of cut blocks like
those cuts, Like there's a reason why crackback blocks and
(38:32):
things like that, we're taken out of the game. It's
because the risk involved is gigantic. There's already enough injuries
in football without anything like this, there's nobodason to have
something where it almost feels like more than half the
time on these blocks and injury is the desired result.
Like that, again, it just it feels like a dirty
(38:54):
play when you watch it. It's like the definition of
obscenity originally in a Supreme court. I know it when
I see it. That just feels like a dirty play
every single time you see it, and that's not a
thing that needs to exist. If that's the case, I
like it. Yeah, yeah, it is. It's when I watched
that replay, I don't say, hey man, it's football. If
I see a hard tackle at a guy's legs, I said,
(39:16):
hey man, that's football. When I see those cut blocks,
when t J. Watt goes down, when Cavon Thibodeau goes down,
I have the same reaction as you as like, man,
that's even if that's legal, that looks If it's not dirty,
it's certainly dangerous, and I think it should be out
of the game going forward. I think it's just a
matter of time until they do that. We're taking steps,
we're just not there yet. All right. Coming up next,
(39:39):
we turn our attention to college ball. Week one. Right
around the corner, we will dissect Fox Sports Radio has
the best sports talk lineup in the nation. Catch all
of our shows at Fox sports Radio dot com and
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