September 21, 2017 • 51 mins
Doug says he believes Giants QB Eli Manning's comments about head coach Ben MacAdoo and explains why you can't always compare everyday life to sports. He reacts to the breaking news that former Patriots TE Aaron Hernandez had stage 3 CTE before committing suicide. Plus he talks to former offensive lineman Brian Baldinger to find out why the O-Line play in the NFL has been so bad this season.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is the best of the Doug gott Leap Show
on Fox Sports Radio. Boom Up America, Doug Gottlieb Show,
Fox Sports Radio, coming to you live and direct from
the City of Angels. We got an NFL game where
a few people will attend Major League Baseball games taking
(00:22):
place during the day, which I don't really understand. And uh,
we have a college football NFL weekend to be excited for.
We got so many things to get to, so many
that man, I'm I'm excited. I'm I've gotten caught in
this before. Right, there's a line you guys ever seen
(00:44):
the movie The Paper Marissa Tomas And this is a
good one for John Ramos, The John Ramo Show. Michael
Keaton in that movie is what Keaton is in that movie,
directed by Ron Howard, Directed by Ron Howard. It's a
that's a good flick, good nineties flick. Um the Uh
it's about a one of the New York City papers.
(01:05):
It's kind of about like a new like a New
York Post type of paper, although it's not called the
New York Post. And at one point time, Uh, there's
there's some actual reporting that takes place, newsbreaking that takes place,
really really fascinating, and it's it's probably a hard one
for the kids these days to watch because they're like, well,
(01:25):
where's the online version, right? What do you mean? Newspaper?
But there was a time not long ago where h
New York City newspapers there was like five of them
that were incredibly competitive trying to break the biggest or
juiciest stories. And you know, at at one point in time,
(01:51):
Keaton is the editor of this New York post type
of fish wrap, and he's um. He has an interview
at believe the New York Times, and he sees a
story and a headline. He sees a story on the
desk of the head editor of the New York Times,
and he steals the story. He's when he's interviewing, he
(02:12):
looks at it. Guy goes out of the office, he
looks at he sees it, and then he goes back
to his office without telling anybody that he was interviewing
for the job, and then says, hey, we need to
look into this story. So they start to pursue it. Uh,
they find out more details and the editor, the guy
(02:35):
who interviewed him with the New York Times, picks up
the phone and says, Hey, in the real world, you
know this would happen, and that would happen, and Keaton
and I can't play the cut because there's too many
F bombs in it, says I don't live in the
real world. I live in New York City, right In
other words, like, this is not a real world. This
is New York City newspapers fighting over a big headline
(02:57):
which will get you to pick up a newspaper before
you head onto a subway or head onto the Metro
North or whatever your amtrack in order to get in
the city. It's incredibly competitive. And what and what is
okay and isn't okay in other workplaces has nothing to
do with fighting over a story in newspapers. The same
can be said in athletics. Look when I was at
(03:22):
CBS my first time on the set of with Charles
Barkley and Kenny Smith, I said, hey, man, I'm just
here to give the white man's perspective, and I was.
I was being a smartass, right, I was actually the
only way I get why I do it on the
set and I was trying to make fun. I should
(03:43):
have said, I'm just a token white guy, like put
me in at the put me at the end, right,
let me know when you guys are done, then I'll
get in at the very end. I'm just the token
white guy. That would have been funnier in hindsight. Hindsight
being but you can make bad racial jokes or whatever,
or make fun of yourself being the only white guy
in a locker room. It didn't. Part of it was
(04:05):
they couple were caught off guard. I don't know if
they didn't find it funny or but I think it's
more just everybody's caught off guard by it because we
didn't we don't meet, you just go. And there were
some that were like, oh, that's offensive, Like it's not
offensive in any way, Like there's no way you can
cut it up to be offensive, especially when you say
it tongue planted firmly in chic and and say with
(04:26):
a grin in your face. Regardless, the mistake that I
made was I misassociated covering basketball with being inside basketball.
Right inside the confines of a locker room, you yell
at teammates, you make fun of teammates, You said you
(04:46):
at times use vulgar terms that you wouldn't use outside
the confines of that locker room. And what happens is
when people who haven't been a part of a locker
room culture in any sport. And again that doesn't mean
that like the hay using incident that happened in a
small college, you know how, like that's not locker room culture.
That's just gross. Right, So there are some things which
(05:09):
are unacceptable, locker room culture unacceptable both and and the
world is evolving and changing and you have to understand
what is in what is inappropriate. That said, they're parts
of being coached. There are parts of being a teammate
which are very very different from the real world. Eli
(05:30):
Manning doesn't live in the real world. Eli Manning lives
in New York, blanket in city, and he's the quarterback
of the New York Giants. And as I told you
going back two days ago when Ben McAdoo said this
after the game, what happened on the game, sloppy quarterback play.
Quarterback in a center need to be on the same
(05:50):
page there. We gotta get the ball snapped. We have
a veteran quarterback who's played a lot of football. Expect
us to get the ball snapped. Usually the clock goes
from three to one zero and say hit zero, they
look at the ball, look at the clock, usually have
a tick once it hit zero to get the ball
snapped without being a delay game. I thought we had
we had a chance to get it off, all right.
So he's like, look, we had what we wanted and
(06:12):
our veteran quarterback and we So what what was the
reaction for people? Oh? Snap? Headline was McAdoo calls out
Eli Manning And he did, but he called him out
answering a question about a specific play which Eli Manning butchered.
So then what do they do in New York? What
are they do in most places? Oh my gosh, I
can't believe he said that about his two times SUPERWL
(06:34):
winning quarterback. Let's run back to the quarterback to get reaction.
That's part of part of being in the NFL. Um
you know, you can't be sensitive. I think everybody's gotten
very sensitive players and and and everybody. Just you know
that someone you know says anything negative about you, you
did something wrong, that that you got a problem. Uh.
Coach McAdoo and I have a great relationship. I think
(06:56):
he understands that. You know, I've told him and many
first got here. I enjoy being coach. I enjoy if
I screwed something up, let me know. You know, I
want to be coach, and so you know, we we
talked about things and there's some things I gotta do.
I gotta be better at. He's like, look, dude, this
is the NFL. I gotta be better. I can't be
the quarterback and only have my coach saying good job,
(07:19):
that's okay to play screwed up. That's always on me.
We're big boys in here. If you it's it's one
of the reasons if you ask uh people in management,
they'll tell you. Oftentimes oftentimes the people they like managing
our former athletes why because they've been coached before. They've
(07:41):
been coached a lot harder than you've been taught or
you've been lectured when you're not an athlete. It's one
of the reasons that athletes. Have you ever seen that
hokey n C A commercial where they go like five
dollars on athlaides and most of them go professional in
a sport, in something other than their sport. But it's true.
It's true if you have to. It's one of the
(08:01):
reasons I think Dwight Howard's all screwed up because White
Howard's he would he never went through college, and in
college you get legitimately coached, you get broken down and
built back up. But if you ask, one of the
things I struggle I've struggled with at work is I
tell my my boss always like, hey, give me feedback.
(08:24):
You don't like something like tell me now, I need
like specifics because in sports you're still gonna question. You're like,
what do you mean? And they show you the film like, oh,
oh yeah, that was me my bad, right, Like ezek
Ellett like, hey, did you quit on the interception? Like no,
I didn't throw on the film, Oh my bad? Right,
(08:44):
And but what happens. So what happens is there are
bosses in the regular workforce that they're not used to
confronting you. They're non confrontational. They don't want to confront
fragile talent or fragile people because they're not used to
being criticized. Whereas you can go put former athlete like hey, dude,
that really sucked, like, okay, what sucked about it? Tell
(09:07):
me how mam I can do better? All right? We
might have a discussion about because I've been My dad
was a coach, I was coached my whole life, even
when I was you know, in time I was on
TV when he was alive. He's like, hey, I hate
that not that suitcoat doesn't go with that tie. Like
my dad had order tie once a year. Maybe uh,
(09:29):
this would be the once a year Happy New Year
to my hellow jews out there anywaye. The point is
one of the big mistakes that we make is or
at least in my show. And I think Calher does
a different job of this, but our show we try
and relate to UM sports to real life. Al Right, Well,
(09:50):
you know Matt Stafford's contracting. It's kind of like comps
in real estate. Right, all the quarterbacks are going for
about twenty million dollars a year. He signs the newest deal.
It's like the newest house on your block signing. It's
all about comps, right, there is, but sometimes there's not
parallels because in your place of work, you can't call
out somebody who screws up publicly like that doesn't because
(10:13):
you're not athletes. It's not an athletic forum, it's not
a locker room. It just doesn't work that way. Kobe
Bryant said, uh said a word that is a homophobic slur, right,
and he had to apologize for I think did he
get suspended a game for it? I don't know if
you got fine for it. You got fine for it.
And it was always big. But again, like it doesn't
(10:36):
make it okay, but it explains it a lot better.
I mean, like in the locker room, like we just
have a different there's a different vocabulary, a different way
of talking to one another, different way of joking with
one another. Racist discussed discussed completely differently. And this is
the Reggie in cognito stuff where when you read the
text that he sent to his teammate or you hear
(10:58):
about some of the stuff like whoa, and they're like you,
they are a bunch of big, dumb offensive lineman with
time in their hands and a bunch of money. This
is what they do to one another, even even the
culture which I don't like, which is you know, rookies
in the NFL and the NBA, they gotta take everybody
else out to take their position players and the offensive
line out to dinner and then they run up a
big bill on them and then they all tweet out
(11:19):
like a thirty thousand dollar bit like yeah, we got
him like in the real world, like, dude, that sucks
in the NFL, Like it's kind of part for the course.
So I guess the point is not only do we
put our morals on athletes where it doesn't necessarily apply.
We do this as Americans. We put our morals on
other countries. You're like, hey, we have a completely different
(11:39):
belief system, but we try and do it in locker rooms.
And we think that Ben McAdoo called out his quarterback
when all he was doing was coaching. And the second
you can't coach your best player, or your most important player,
or your highest paid player, or your most decorated player,
all of these are in fact Eli Manning is the
(12:02):
second that you can't coach. McAdoo did his job, and
Eli showing himself to being coachable shows that Eli is
in fact a leader and shows the difference between uh
truculent wide receivers and quarterbacks can't compare real life and
(12:24):
how you talk about your co workers with how athletes
and coaches talk about each other. Be sure to catch
live editions of The Doug Gottlieb Show weekdays at three
pm Eastern noon Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and The
I Heart radio app Bryan Baldinger was an offensive lineman
for twelve season the NFL. He's an analyst with the
NFL Network and also covers college football for Fox Fall
(12:45):
on Twitter at Baldy NFL. If you watches up Baldy
breakdowns of game film, there are a few people who
break down football and make it as easy to understand
and while while teaching, as Baldy joins us now on
the Doug Gottlieb Show, Look, we talk a lot about
the star players or the skill position players, but all
(13:06):
of that can be undone when your offensive line doesn't protect.
I mean, you're watching it's hard to tell exactly how
good Eli Manning is at this stage in his career
because Eric Flower's is just getting annihilated on Monday Night.
So let's let's start with just the overall thought, Baldi,
Why is offensive line play, at least at this point
in the season, and there's been some other seasons like
(13:27):
this so putrid in comparison to our visions of it
in the past. Well, I mean, it's it's it's it's
a great observation. Other people are looking at the same
thing that you're looking at, and there's a lot of
there's a lot of answers to it, but basically, you know,
the moment it plays in the preseason, September is the
new August. It's all about health. But the only really
(13:50):
be a better left tackle or right guard is to
play left tackle right guarding. That doesn't mean running around
in shorts and helmets or anything else. It means actually
playing and developing the techniques because just like a basketball
dog in any other sport, it's your phone memerals that
carry it. We can we game the game when you're
up against an all pro player. If you don't have
(14:11):
a toolbox with sharp and fundamentals, when you get beat,
you're gonna be unsure why you got beat. And I
can fix the issue. It's going with Eric Flowers. Now,
he's fundamentally not a sound player. Some of it is him,
some of it is I don't know if he can
fix some of the issues he has. And it's not
just Eric Flowers. I mean there's John Jared for the Giants,
(14:32):
and there's Sloop Joe Cold Seattle, and you go around
the league. Guys are struggling, but there's some guys that
just need a lot of work in order to feel
good and to feel sharp and you're just not getting it.
And look, there's two offensive line and drafted in the
first round this year, Doug for both first year players,
Ryan ran Checkers those goons and Garrell bowls out of
(14:53):
uh your tall and when you look at him, you
can only take the NFL can only take the college
game gives us in the college teams just isn't giving
us NFL ready offensive lignement right now? No, it really isn't.
And is it because of the spreads? I guess I
would love to say it's because of the spread systems,
but like you look back to when you came out
(15:14):
the guy teams didn't used to throw the ball at
all in college, and all of a sudden you still
have to assimilate to an NFL offense, right, I mean,
like there weren't teams running West Coast offenses, and then
you get to the NFL and you're running a West
Coast offense. So there was still a learning curve. Why
does the learning curve seems so steep, especially when they
are pass blocking while they're in college and many of
then are past blocking now in high school. Well, it's
(15:35):
not just you know the weaknesses is is much in
the running game right now. I mean guys faded outside
of you know teams in the SEC and uh, you
know handful of other teams around other conferences. Um, most
of them are in spreads. A lot of gogles have
never gotten into a three point stance in their life yet,
so they get to the NFL. They don't run NFL
(15:56):
type running place powers and you know, combo block with
the tight ends. I mean a lot of teams don't
even have a tight end. In college, you're not running
power plays with fullbacks and tight ends, and so it's
all the blockings. Teams are uh, pretty new to a
lot of players coming in and uh, and it's just
you know, I mean, on any given college Saturday, you
(16:18):
might see one or two or three players that are
NFL caliber players. A lot of them we'll never ever
stiff the NFL. So you're not getting tested all that often.
When you are, you're getting tested in an offense that
isn't really an NFL office. It's it's almost like what
we watched on Saturdays is a completely different game than
what we see on Sundays, no question, no question. But
but it's interesting. It always has been a different game.
(16:40):
But now uh, but you know, but but now it's
it's different from even how it was different previously. Brian
Baldinger joining us on the Doug Gotlip Show. All right,
so uh like, look, I could go through a bunch.
I just the teams that I'm most interested in are
the ones that are supposed to be good but their
line is letting them down, like the Seahawks. Now, granted
the Seahawks are are are one and one on the year,
so it's not as bad as the Giants being oh
(17:02):
and two. Both were thought to be playoff teams. Of
the teams that are having offensive line issues, uh, who's
is the most fixable? Well, uh, I don't know that
either one can really get fixed at this point because
if you have to fix it in the off season,
and you have two choices right now because we're just
(17:24):
not allowed to develop line, We're not it's formidable, uh,
to go out there in contact and the things you
gotta do to really get sharp. So you have two
choices right now. You either can overspend it free agency
on the way the Raiders have, or you can draft
really high for a long time like the Cowboys have
to get mostly to get good lines. Uh, Tennessee has
(17:46):
got a good line. They've spent two high draft picks
on offensive tackles. They're both really good players, Taylor of
the one and uh if Jack Conkland. They're both really
good and they were really good against Shacksville. And you're
gonna get tested this week against out probably the best
game of the week. If you ask me which team
to fix it right now, I don't see. I mean,
(18:07):
if you're telling me that the best choice for the
Giants right now is to mention Derrick Flowers, so I'd
say it's not the best option. He's got three years
of experience now now he's got to play with a
better technique. He is a big man, and he is
a good athlete, and for the most part he placed
pretty good. Now he struggled on Monday night. It's still early,
(18:29):
But to mention Derrick Flowers, to me, it's not gonna
make the Giants better. Brian Baldinger joining us in the
Doug gottl Live Show here on Fox Sports Radio. A
couple of quarterbacks that haven't performed maybe as well as
some people's expectations. Let's start with Cam Newton. He's always
had issues with accuracy, and to be fair to Cam Newton,
(18:50):
he is coming off of shoulder surgery. But at some
point you would think the refinement would kick in, and
yet it is not. Is this a reps thing for
Cam Newton? Or are we to the point where this
is who Cam Newton is? We're gonna have to learn
to accept it. Well, I saw him. We wanted to
persist when he wasn't bad. We don't know where the
(19:11):
shoulder is done. I mean, we just don't know. We
don't know what it feels like. We don't know that
if he knows what it feels like, is it a
different shoulder, a new shoulder? What? Kenny? What can he do?
He had no off season? Um, I don't care what'sport hearing.
You have no off season, you're gonna be rusty. Uh,
he's done ever gonna run for ten touchdowns again? That
offense and what he did in two thousand and fifteen
(19:32):
to be the ananimous choice for league MVP. We're not
gonna see that guy. So he's gonna enough to adjust it.
They're adjusting with a lot of new players in Christie
McCaffrey and Curtis Samuel's tied in which was a huge
safety blanket in the red owner in the third downs.
It's no longer gonna in the offense this year. He's
gonna enough to adjust. Some guys can do that does
(19:53):
and some guys don't touch and they go south. Uh dam.
It's gotta get his confidence back from two thous of fifteen.
But he's gonna have to do it the way. I
think that's different. And when that Sally is never left
his face in two, it's gonna be a little bit
different form. All right. What about what about Dak Prescott?
(20:15):
It's only year two, but the schedule is more difficult
and the Broncos. Look at Broncos defense, especially at home,
is insanely talented, and they can put three cornerbacks out
there and shut down your best three wide receivers, unlike
maybe anybody else in the league that said, kind of
like Cam that there's there's a lack of accuracy there.
He's not throwing guys open. He never really threw guys open.
(20:36):
What are your thoughts on Dak Prescott as we're seeing
him a year two and hoping for some evolution and
maybe we're seeing a little bit of regression. I don't know.
I mean you know, one'd be the giant scene that
he couldn't be last year, and he played pretty well
a week won in Dallas. That is made me the
league's best secondary last week. I mean it's super glued. Now, well,
(20:58):
you're going to keep to leave against us and chrispa
Harris Jr. It's it's it's really tight out cold basically
was the leading receiver a year ago. He's kind of
a safety blank for him. Um when running game gets
completely shut down like that, most quarterbacks but probably struggle
a little bit if they had to make every single
(21:18):
play and the game got away from him where he
had to throw it every down And he was not
in that situation often last year. If ever, so even
down to the playoff Loster Green Bay, they had to lead.
There were twenty five sexs skill in the game, so
he was rarely ever playing from that far behind like
he had to us. And that's a good that's a
(21:38):
good challenge for a young quarterback. He's not a finished product,
but he is poised. He does not how to see
the field. He does soon good anticipation, uh to me,
if the Cowboys are gonna make any noise. Ever in
the playoffs with Dak Prescott at quarterback. It's good that
they saw Denver Denver because that's a good challenge for
(21:58):
him and he'll he'll I think he'll learn from that
and that's a healthy thing for your quarterback. Is this
the real new Alex Smith? MA, Alex Smith now taking
chances throwing the ball down the fields? Um, are you
buying that that that this will in fact last that
he will be a lot less risk averse as opposed
to the previous incarnation of Alex Smith. Well, I'll say this,
(22:20):
so it's a great question. Because I was there in
Kansas City in the Nassa Rangio on Sunday. I thought
of Patrick Mahomes and some of the coaches. There's no
question that Kansas City drafting Patrick Mahomes and then the
way that he played in pre season most challenge Smith.
I mean, he knows that he has to be good,
that the throws that he would be hesitant to make
(22:41):
it past years just because he did not want to
make mistake. He doesn't seem to be as hesitant right now.
And that's a good thing because any read can design
office with the best of them, and it was played
to be me. But he gotta pull the trigger and
you gotta you gotta take the chance. And so I
think competitions help ballenge me about Plus, if Tyree kills
(23:02):
your number one receiver, you know for the whole season,
the deep ball is in it bombs away, You're gonna
take some shots. This change is the only teams have
to thank Kansas City. And so I think it's changed
Alice a little bit. All those things, I think you've
changed them, and I think we'll look at a different guy.
You mentioned being in there for for the national radio.
(23:22):
You also got a chance to see Carson Wentz first week.
He made some wild plays against the Washington Redskins. H.
What's your now we're a couple of games into him
starting his second consecutive season with the Eagles. What's your
assessment as to whether or not the Philadelphia Eagles have
found their long term solution. Oh, he's a phenomenal talent,
(23:43):
and it's it's up to the rest of the team,
mostly the offense, but the whole team to play up
to him. They've got to play better around him. The
offensive line was horrible last week. The offensive guard left
guard gave up four sacks. Myself, he will want to
survive and have a long term career right now. The
way he's getting hit, he gets hit in very awkward situations.
(24:05):
He is so strong it almost sorts at the detriment
in his ability to escape tackles and get out of
his way, But at the same time he tries almost
too hard to extend plays and he falls awkwardly. He
has started eight Team Stree games, that's credit. But they've
got to play better around him. They've got a block better,
(24:26):
the offensive line and the run game has got to
come together. Um and the receivers have to be better
right now. And when that happens, you'll see all of
his numbers go up because he sees the field well.
He's extremely smart. He knows how to make all the
adjustments they needed for everybody around and play better. He's
(24:47):
the one only Brian Balding or check him out in
the NFL network or calling college football for Fox, or
you know, just fall him on Twitter at Baldy NFL. Baldi. Yeah,
You're welcome here anytime. Love talking football, if you love
your vision for every anything that's going on in the field.
Thanks for being our guest on Fox Sports Radio. Be
sure to catch live editions of the Doug gott Leaps
(25:08):
Show weekdays at three p m. Eastern noon Pacific on
Fox Sports Radio and the I Heart Radio app. Nebraska
has fired their athletic director Sean I. Course, now remember
part of it is like, look, it's the culmination of things.
Um I course of course fired uh Soulich right now,
he didn't fire Souli. She fired Callahan. No eating fire Callahan.
(25:31):
Actually that was Tom Osborne fired Callahan. So the so
Bo Polini was fired and like looked to be to
be fair to I, course you want to be you
felt like Polini had to be fired. Right if the
way in which Bo Polini carried himself and Polini is
(25:54):
it's interesting as good as Bob Stoops has been at Oklahoma, right,
the only assistant coach that's still I believe currently has
his gig. And I gotta go back and thinks like
Mike steps Win got the Arizona job, it didn't work.
Um Kevin Wilson had the Indiana job. He got fired
(26:17):
in the offseason. If you look back and you wait
a second, now, um Bo Polini was a former Bob
Stoops guy, and there was some success, although not historic success,
not back in the National Championship landscape with with Polini,
but he ends up he ends up getting fired. Um
(26:38):
Kansas is head coach? Was his name? Shoot? Uh? Super
heavy set guy was yeah. Mark Mangino was fired and
that was again a lot like Kevin Wilson treatment of players,
and Polini was really fired treatment of people around him,
treatment of players. I think the only head coach that's
(27:04):
a stoop sky that still has his gig as Mike Leach.
And of course Mike Leach got fired at Texas Tech.
Really treatment of players, but really really fascinating what's happened there.
Um I course comes in and he fires Polini, who
seemed to be kind of a hothead and polarizing, very
(27:27):
good football coach, also kind of one of those Youngstown,
Ohio guys, old school kind of guys. And they make,
without any question, one of the weirdest hires I've ever seen,
and hiring Mike Riley, not because Mike Riley is an
outstanding football coach, but they've always been averse to the
(27:50):
forward past there right, Like Bill Callahan came in. I
don't got to know if you guys know this Bill Callahan.
They had two bad losses and that's when Steve Peterson,
their athletic director, was fired. Callahan was fired at the
end of that season. But after Peterson was fired and
the Wolves were at the door, Blaine Gabbett was supposed
to play at Nebraska, he changed his commitment and ends
(28:11):
up going to Missouri. And that really was that was
when uh he you know, Callahan was done because Callahan's
whole thing was and we're gonna do everything different. We're
not gonna run the option, We're gonna actually throw the football.
And then Polin he got back to more of a
run past threat. So of course brings in Mike Riley
and they lost to Oregon, but we're competitive. They just
(28:34):
lost to Northern Illinois at home. And now all of
a sudden and he had just it was announced that
he got a contract extension through two thousand twenty. And
the truth about those contract extensions of this, they usually
are in the works for six months before they're announced,
and two thousand twenty is not a lengthy contract in
the Big Ten, although he's only sixteen and thirteen at Nebraska.
(28:58):
So like, look, this say knows to everybody, anybody who's
paying any attention at all, that unless there's a dramatic
turnaround at Nebraska. Mike Raley's probably out the end of
the year. 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. Chris Mannix wrote in The Vertical today, the
(29:20):
Warriors will have been training camp tomorrow and maybe things
will blow over and get back to normal. The sneaker
tip with Steph Curry seems to have blown over. By
addressing the thunder tweets, he saves himself from having having
too later. It make no mistake. Many in Golden State
team officials players alike have taken note of Durant's oddball
offseason and are perplexed by it. They see the bright
(29:42):
future for Durant in Oakland League and teams, sources told
The Vertical, but are bewildered by why he is still
addressing his past. Oklahoma City will be in Durant's d
n A, but time has come to move on. Slapping
around a team that was loyal to him, even in rejection,
is a bad look. He's a warrior. In the possibilities
(30:03):
for this Golden State team or endless. He can win championships,
win awards can build one of the great dynasties in
NBA history. The end, the thunder are doing their thing.
Durant should forget about them and do his Yeah again,
this is Chris Mannox and others are living in the
real world, whereas Kevin Durant has never been criticized before.
Remember he's never been criticized before. One time, the Daily
(30:29):
Oklahoman I think now it's called The Oklahoma and The
Oklahoman had a headline Mr. Unreliable. Do you guys remember
then Mr Unreliable? One time in nine years? One time
like Mr Unreliable and you know why because he had
been so reliable and he's playing so badly against the
(30:49):
Memphis Grizzies and like, what's the deal? Kad? But what's
the deal? Kay D wasn't as good as Mr. Unreliable.
Do you remember what happened when they had the Mr.
Unreliable Bowl headline? Dan Buyer, do you remember what happened?
And then when they had a Mr. Unreliable headline? I
remember that Kevin Durant wasn't happy about it. Romas do
you remember what happened with the Mr I don't. I
(31:11):
do remember the headline, But I don't remember what happened
because of it music. I don't remember specifically other than
I think it was he had like a bad fourth
quarter in a playoff game. No, no, that was it
was four But do you remember what what happened after
they wrote a headline Mr. Unreliable because he had he
had several poor fourth quarters? No, nothing, not not specifically, No, Okay,
(31:38):
the newspaper apologized for the headline. Have you ever heard
of that? Like are you kidding me? Hey? Hey, are
bad that we're so used to you being awesome when
you're not awesome? Remember he he was. He wasn't just
missing shots. He was missing free throws. Free throw shooter
(31:59):
in that series, he was shooting seventy seven one percent.
He was just eight of twenty um even when Tony
Allen wasn't in the game. But like, look, he was
bad and it was I think through five games in
the series he was shooting from the field percent from
(32:23):
three point range. Those are bad numbers for Kevin Durant, right,
And when you're normally reliable and suddenly you're not. Mr.
Unreliable is not a crazy headline, is it? But the
second anybody was critical of him and writes Mr Unreliable,
and people freak out and Kevin Durant got piste. They're like, sorry, ah, sorry,
(32:46):
k d Um, We're sorry that we accurately portrayed the
fact that you're normally awesome and you weren't awesome against
the Grizzlies. So he's never been criticized a day in
his life. I these guys when they're playing AU basketball,
and you're as super talented as Kevin Durant, like, nobody criticized.
(33:07):
Nobody criticized those guys because they're afraid they're gonna leave
and go to the AU team across the street when
things go bad in high school, they transferred to another
prep school. He's only at Texas for a year. Do
you think rick Rick Barnes is just grinding him at Texas? Like, no,
is there anything I can get for you? Mr? Durant.
(33:29):
So the first the if the Warriors are wondering, hey,
why is he acting so weird, it's because he doesn't
understand what being crue. He doesn't understand that he left
a team, He left the city, dramatically changed the NBA,
was vilified for it, and he thought he knew what
he was getting into, but he didn't be sure to
catch live editions of the Doug gott Leaps Show weekdays
(33:50):
at three pm Eastern noon Pacific on Fox Sports Radio
and the I Heart Radio app. It's called Straight out
of Vegas and it's hosted by r J Bells website
at his pregame dot com and they're the exclusive odds
provider for the Associated Press, and he joined us. He
enjoined us every week on the Doug Gottlieb Show. RJI,
how are you you know, Doug? I'm looking forward to it.
(34:12):
I'm saying this unequivocally, and I do many Fox hits,
so people who listen will know I'm being genuine here
because I don't say this kind of stuff. I consider
you to be the best debater on sports radio, and
I listened to a ton of it. And when you debate,
I'm thinking, Hey, he'd be the toughest guy to be.
Now I'm an amazing debater, so I think we're gonna
(34:33):
have some battles. Yeah, you know what you need to
make sure you do. Is one of my first radio
shows I ever did when I was doing local radio
my first year in Oklahoma City, was a guy called
me a master debater, and I said thank you with
a question to bar gotta be very very I appreciate that.
All right, let's uh, let's get to a game, which
is really hard to tell, the hardest game to tell.
(34:55):
Tampa looks really good now. Part of it is I
fall in love with teams on hard knocks. I just do.
And I want Jamis to be as good as we
think James can be. They're taking on the Minnesota Vikings
and Sam Bradford said some weird stuff yesterday, right, he
said he had a non contact injury, Like oh boy,
uh he said, but but he he made it seem
like it wasn't an a c L injury. Last week
(35:17):
they had the m R and like, yeah, we can't
read it because there's so much scar tissue in there,
Like none of this appears to be good news. But
then there's thoughts that he's he's gonna play this weekend.
Is that on or off the board? Does of now
off the board. But we actually have a bookmaker that
does a podcast with us, and I asked him the question,
what's the line if Bradford plays, what's the line if
(35:38):
he doesn't? Minnesota at home with Bradford about a three
and a half point favorite, and if not Bradford, Tampa
a one point road favor. So if you do the math,
it feels like four and a half. But there's a
complicated reason. It's not around pick up. So it's about
a three and a half point adjustment for Bradford. Now
(35:59):
that's with the binary kind of play or not play.
But we all know it's not that right. It's either
not play or play at some percentage of a hundred percent.
So you would think Bradford's not gonna be a hundred
percent in any situation. Well, it's also and it's not
just he wouldn't be playing case Keenum would be playing, right,
So which is always relative? Right? The old joke is
how much was Joe montana Worth Hall of Fame quarterback? Oh?
(36:22):
Half point? You know Steve Young was the backup, right,
So it is all relative. Okay, Let's let's go to
a matchup of two undefeated teams. Falcons so so against
the Bears, Falcons outstanding against the Packers of the Packers
said Packer's head injuries. And then you get the Lions
two wins, including a dominant performance, but they got a
short week coming back home to take on the Atlanta Falcons. Uh,
(36:45):
that's what a three point line. The Falcons are actually
favored on the road against Detroit. But this is the
same week in which I saw Matt Stafford's odds to
win the m v P shoot up. So enough people
are believing that Stafford's gonna have a breakthrough season, and
yet there's still three point home dog to the Atlanta Falcons. Yeah,
and I think you're I was impressed that you said
(37:05):
Atlanta in that first game so so, because the scoreboard
look mighty good in that game, but if you went
in the box score, it was so so. And a
lot of pros coming in the season have big question
marks with Atlanta because of Shanahan I O se leaving
and and and how big of a loss that would be. Well,
Atlanta's impressed. I I don't dismiss that green Bay game.
(37:28):
I mean green Bay had some injuries, Yeah, but still
that was a heck of a win. And I think
Atlanta's defense being better than we expected is one of
the big surprises of the season. This is what I
say about Detroit, and I'll repeat this probably twice a month.
Wase guys, professionals, they don't all agree. They often disagree,
(37:49):
and this is a team, the Lions, in which there's
big disagreement. Doug, on one hand, we had a bookmaker
on who said he believes right now the Lions are
a better team than the Packers. Now that's extreme to me,
and I disagree, but this guy makes a living at it,
so I respect the opinion. Well, listen, I would say
it all depends upon the context of the argument. Right.
(38:12):
R J. Bell joining us from pregame dot com. You
can hear his national radio show Straight out of Vegas
at eleven o'clock Pacific time to midnight on Friday, ten
o'clock Pacific time to midnight on on Saturday. He joins
us here in the Doug Gotlip Show Fox Sports Radio.
If if he's saying, like, look, Judy Nelson is not
playing because he's hurt. You know, they're without five starters
or so like, well, okay, yeah, I think I think
you know, he's saying for the whole season, like if
(38:33):
he could take the Lions or take the Packers, and
if he wins, if they win the Super Bowl, he
wins a million and there's no way so he has
a free role. He gets to take one or the other.
He would take the lines. Now, that to me is extreme.
On the other hand, we've got a guy who's a
professional batter that says he thinks the lines are an
average team at best. I tend more towards that. And
(38:54):
here's why, other than last Monday night. So let's set
that aside for a minute. You know, they'll never be
good teams the prior seventeen games. So the first game
this season and all of last season, they trailed in
the fourth quarter of the line sixteen of the seventeen games.
You can't trail on the fourth quarter sixteen or seventeen
and be that good. Now, hey, they played well last week,
(39:16):
but the Giants are the Giants. I'm skeptical or the lines.
All right, let's go to the speaking of the Giants.
Giants offensive line is uh uh, it's kind of a joke, right,
I mean, it's it's been Eric Flower has just been
getting pushed around. But the Eagles offensive line has been
equally putrid through two games. Uh, Like, this is the
something has to give, right, the movable force against the
resistible force against the movable object in terms of offensive lines. Uh,
(39:39):
Eagles haven't been running the ball well. They have three
injured defensive backs. That doesn't this feel like the game
in which the Giants kind of break out. I think
it's possible, and if they don't hear, you have to
be very worried beyond the practical, you know and three stuff,
because here's why Eagles have three defensive backs hurt. And
we'll talk about this all year. Big name injury from
(40:00):
first team to second team at non quarterback often don't
move the needle, even though the narrative is, oh, I
know this one guy's name, I don't know this other
guy's name. But cluster injuries where you have let's say,
three d backs hurt, so now you're going with second string,
third string and a guy off the practice squad. That
can be bigger, but people don't pay as much attention
(40:22):
because there's not big names. Eagles really limited in the secondary. Secondly,
even beyond getting their main wide receiver back Backham, their
second and third receivers have been kind of hobbled, but
they're getting healthier. So if it is a healthy receiving
corps against a hobbled defensive backfield, this feels like the
game the Giants could do some scoring eight straight games.
(40:44):
Now for the Giants scoring less than twenty points, that's
a that's a that's a bad trend. Seahawks Titans. Seahawks
offensive line has been in shambles. Titans uh slow of
the gate with the loss to the Raiders. Of course,
then they bounced back yesterday. Derrick Derrick Henry was was
really really good. Um, can the Seahawks win a road again?
I know the road dogs here two and a half
point dogs and win a road game with that offensive
(41:06):
line against Titans. I like Tennessee. This is one of
my best bets of the week. I like the Titans.
Minus two and a half less than a field goal,
and three is the most important number in the NFL.
If a line is around three, so two and a half,
three or three and a half, the game ends with
the favorite winning by exactly three almost ten percent of
the time. It's that valuable. So laying two and a
(41:27):
half is so much better than laying three. Every half
point matters. That's the most important half point. Seattle on
the road in September two and twelve straight up two
and twelve against the spread. This is a team that
starts slow, this is a team is not good on
the road, and you know, here's something I'd be interested
to hear your thoughts. Dog, I would rather have a
(41:49):
team that has a bunch of C minus position groups
and then some good ones. I think a team like that,
you know, A, A, A minus whatever, A team like
that can make the playoff. But if the other team
has all above average position groups but one F, I
don't think that team can make the playoffs. I think
Seattle's offensive line is so bad that any NFL team
(42:13):
is going to be able to exploit that in such
a way that Seattle is gonna have trouble. Do you
agree with that generally? Well, uh, look, I I just
I do think that there's there are teams that have
overall you know, we talked about this. Colts have no talent. Uh.
Brown's actually has some talent on defense, but are very young.
Same thing with the Niners kind of reinvigorated. So I
(42:34):
think those teams might have more of the seed level.
But yes, when you have Green Bay Packers had at
a D level defensive backfield in the playoffs and that
got exposed. I do think that you know, look, your
quarterback can hide a lot of your weaknesses, and Russell
Wilson has had to. But if you can't run it
and you can't throw it because the offensive line can't
protect that quarterback, that becomes problematic. All right, what one
(42:56):
more I want to get to before we gotta go?
Um Chiefs taken on the Chargers, and look, I'm one
of these guys that I see the silver lining with
the Chargers. They're badly outplayed in Denver and yet had
a field goal to tie it late. They were actually
the better team than the Miami Dolphins. And that same
rookie kicker that that had his field goal blocked in Denver,
(43:17):
he missed both of his field goals, including what could
have been the game winning field goal at stubb Up,
Kansas City comes in. They're all beat up, and I
think they're overvalued. A three three point line. If it
moved to three and a half you mentioned how big
that half point is, I would like it even more.
But I like the Chargers straight up at home. Am
I crazy? No? I think Chargers are one of the
(43:38):
most underrated teams because people are so affected by wins
and losses, and ultimately that's what a team has graded on.
But you know, imagine, if we remember a couple of
years ago, Arizona and the Patriots, there was a forty
two yard field goal and it was missed, and that's
the the Pats one and Arizona crew. Way did that
really that did that field goal really dictate who was
(43:59):
the better team? But it was one to zero in wins,
which was like a hundred you know, a hundred percent
of the value of the game. If oh, you care
about his wins and losses. But at some point you
gotta start wondering if close games are other than coin flips,
because the saber metric guys believe close games are random. Thus,
(44:20):
a team like the Raiders that did exceptionally well in
close games last year tend to be overrated because people
so care about those wins. They don't realize it should
just be a half a win every time a game
is closed. But if you look at it the Chargers
since started last year, I've had eleven games decided by
one score less, one in ten straight up. Now you're
adding a rookie field goal kicker. As you said, that's
(44:42):
one in four, and you know it's one out of four.
You know what's in his head? Now? I don't want
to play the Chargers like minus two in any spot.
But if you're plus three or plus three and a half,
you can still lose a close game and cover. So
I'm looking to play the Chargers when they're getting points
over a field goal, not when they're in a small
favor All that's r J. Bell. Check out his his website,
(45:03):
pregame dot com, is on Twitter r J in Vegas,
and of course you can hear his radio show straight
at Vegas eleven o'clock on Friday night's ten o'clock on
Saturday Night's r J. Great to have Vian. I do
appreciate the compliment. We'll catch up real soon. Very genuine
thank you, Doc. All right, that's that's r J. Bell.
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at Fox sports
(45:24):
Radio dot com and within the I Heart Radio app.
You may have just heard, and I think this is
going to be discussed, But this story, I think is
fascinating because we are also prone to believe that football
causes brain damage, that brain damage is linked to something
called CT and that when you have c T, anything
(45:49):
is possible in terms of your behavior. Supposedly, Junior say
Out was somebody who had ct That's how Junior say
I went from one of the most beloved football player
years in all the game. I mean really could have
run from Mayor one ten times over in San Diego
to a guy that had kind of an up and
down and before he tragically took his own life. Right,
(46:11):
But um, Aaron and is not nearly as beloved. He
killed himself in jail. We've heard a lot from his side.
There were accusations that he he didn't kill himself, even
though uh, pretty obviously based upon everything that they saw,
he did the letter to suicide. Note that that he
(46:33):
wrote the rumors about his sexuality and maybe that's what's
led to it. There's been all kinds of ugliness. He
was acquitted of a second series of murders that supposedly
predated the actual murder. That said, look, man, he may
(46:54):
have been found not guilty. I don't think most people
thought he was innocent of the first murders, which is
why he allegedly committed the second murder in order to
cover up because Odin the Wood was talking right and
he was paranoid. The the issue is alway the reason
that you don't sue is the same reason that this
(47:18):
suit is the same reason that um aeronr Nandez family
probably won't get any money from a concussion lawsuit. Why
don't people sue, Well, that's because of discovery. When you sue,
everything about you becomes public knowledge. What's the case which
(47:39):
with with this is just like this, we're just talking
about it. I think Zeke Elliot is probably a really
good example of Right now, Zeke was never charged with anything.
There isn't a civil case. But because the NFL essentially
tried this and we now have all these documents, it's
like a lawsuit. Right. This is like and now we
whether you think he hit his former girlfriend or not,
(48:04):
it's hurt her. Right. She looks like a liar. She
looks like whether she's lying about this or not, she
lied about other things. Um and it makes Zekee Elliott
look bad. Like the reason he wants it to he
what should wanted to go away is there's the accusations
by her that he was using cocaine and another drug. Uh,
(48:25):
there's all kinds of lifestyle stuff that's in there that
I'm sure he wishes was not public knowledge. I've said
this all along like, if you look at all these
leaks in this case from the NFL, look at all
the details that we that have nothing to do with
whether or not he hit her, And then he started
(48:46):
to wonder, well, that's why Tom Brady didn't give his
phone up, because that would have been everything in that
phone would have been written in a report and nothing.
It's not safe, just not. That's why he destroyed his phone.
Nobody get the hands on it. It can't get into
the NFL's hands. The campaign he leaks from the NFL
in order to help their case or to paint him
(49:07):
as a bad guy, or to have a text that
has nothing to do with deflating football is like, I
I totally understand why he did that. It's the same
reason though people don't sue And look, it doesn't really
matter if you're Sonora Jenkins, if you if if Aaron
Inez looks like a horrible human being because he's suing
(49:28):
because she wants to get some money for what he's done,
saying it's been caused by football, Like he's already considered
a murderer. You can't really do much worse than that, right,
But there's a lot of accusations about his his drug use. Right,
there was this story that he was using angel dust
(49:49):
and that potentially made him paranoid, which it's the only
explanation for why he would have killed a guy who
he thought was that thought he was his friend and
thought he could get away with it, and then completely
flip and just be normal afterwards walking around his house
kind of muttering to himself afterwards. Um. And I don't
(50:14):
doubt that there will be any of these questions about
his sexuality will will come out in said lawsuit, right,
like once you go in and say, like, all right,
medical records, medical records, there's lots of easy wind, easy
off ramps for lawyers to get off, to get off
on and and make part of the case, which doesn't
(50:35):
really matter in terms of Aaron Hernandez, but he does
have a daughter, and this does get uglier and uglier
and uglier. And if it's simply to get some money
because she thought he was a nice guy and he
turned into be a sociopath. Uh. I don't doubt he
had some level of brain damage, and it wouldn't be
(50:58):
crazy to think football caused some level rain damage. But
I think one of the problems that people have Jim
McMahon has this issue, right. Jim McMahon alleged drug use
or whatever back in the eighties, and he's like, look,
I have I have brain damage from football. How much
of it has caused from lifestyle? How much of it
caused from bran arnandez, did you get into fights along
the way? How much of it is caused from actual football.
(51:21):
It's really hard to prove. It doesn't mean that football
didn't cause any of it, or maybe most of it,
But I don't know. If this is one of those
ones to which it gets destroyed and discovery where you
find out just all the other stuff he was doing.
This is the best of the Doug gott Leap Show
on Fox Sports Radio. Boom Up America, Doug Gottlieb Show,
Fox Sports Radio, coming to you live and direct from
the City of Angels. We got an NFL game where
a few people will attend Major League Baseball games taking
(00:22):
place during the day, which I don't really understand. And uh,
we have a college football NFL weekend to be excited for.
We got so many things to get to, so many
that man, I'm I'm excited. I'm I've gotten caught in
this before. Right, there's a line you guys ever seen
(00:44):
the movie The Paper Marissa Tomas And this is a
good one for John Ramos, The John Ramo Show. Michael
Keaton in that movie is what Keaton is in that movie,
directed by Ron Howard, Directed by Ron Howard. It's a
that's a good flick, good nineties flick. Um the Uh
it's about a one of the New York City papers.
(01:05):
It's kind of about like a new like a New
York Post type of paper, although it's not called the
New York Post. And at one point time, Uh, there's
there's some actual reporting that takes place, newsbreaking that takes place,
really really fascinating, and it's it's probably a hard one
for the kids these days to watch because they're like, well,
(01:25):
where's the online version, right? What do you mean? Newspaper?
But there was a time not long ago where h
New York City newspapers there was like five of them
that were incredibly competitive trying to break the biggest or
juiciest stories. And you know, at at one point in time,
(01:51):
Keaton is the editor of this New York post type
of fish wrap, and he's um. He has an interview
at believe the New York Times, and he sees a
story and a headline. He sees a story on the
desk of the head editor of the New York Times,
and he steals the story. He's when he's interviewing, he
(02:12):
looks at it. Guy goes out of the office, he
looks at he sees it, and then he goes back
to his office without telling anybody that he was interviewing
for the job, and then says, hey, we need to
look into this story. So they start to pursue it. Uh,
they find out more details and the editor, the guy
(02:35):
who interviewed him with the New York Times, picks up
the phone and says, Hey, in the real world, you
know this would happen, and that would happen, and Keaton
and I can't play the cut because there's too many
F bombs in it, says I don't live in the
real world. I live in New York City, right In
other words, like, this is not a real world. This
is New York City newspapers fighting over a big headline
(02:57):
which will get you to pick up a newspaper before
you head onto a subway or head onto the Metro
North or whatever your amtrack in order to get in
the city. It's incredibly competitive. And what and what is
okay and isn't okay in other workplaces has nothing to
do with fighting over a story in newspapers. The same
can be said in athletics. Look when I was at
(03:22):
CBS my first time on the set of with Charles
Barkley and Kenny Smith, I said, hey, man, I'm just
here to give the white man's perspective, and I was.
I was being a smartass, right, I was actually the
only way I get why I do it on the
set and I was trying to make fun. I should
(03:43):
have said, I'm just a token white guy, like put
me in at the put me at the end, right,
let me know when you guys are done, then I'll
get in at the very end. I'm just the token
white guy. That would have been funnier in hindsight. Hindsight
being but you can make bad racial jokes or whatever,
or make fun of yourself being the only white guy
in a locker room. It didn't. Part of it was
(04:05):
they couple were caught off guard. I don't know if
they didn't find it funny or but I think it's
more just everybody's caught off guard by it because we
didn't we don't meet, you just go. And there were
some that were like, oh, that's offensive, Like it's not
offensive in any way, Like there's no way you can
cut it up to be offensive, especially when you say
it tongue planted firmly in chic and and say with
(04:26):
a grin in your face. Regardless, the mistake that I
made was I misassociated covering basketball with being inside basketball.
Right inside the confines of a locker room, you yell
at teammates, you make fun of teammates, You said you
(04:46):
at times use vulgar terms that you wouldn't use outside
the confines of that locker room. And what happens is
when people who haven't been a part of a locker
room culture in any sport. And again that doesn't mean
that like the hay using incident that happened in a
small college, you know how, like that's not locker room culture.
That's just gross. Right, So there are some things which
(05:09):
are unacceptable, locker room culture unacceptable both and and the
world is evolving and changing and you have to understand
what is in what is inappropriate. That said, they're parts
of being coached. There are parts of being a teammate
which are very very different from the real world. Eli
(05:30):
Manning doesn't live in the real world. Eli Manning lives
in New York, blanket in city, and he's the quarterback
of the New York Giants. And as I told you
going back two days ago when Ben McAdoo said this
after the game, what happened on the game, sloppy quarterback play.
Quarterback in a center need to be on the same
(05:50):
page there. We gotta get the ball snapped. We have
a veteran quarterback who's played a lot of football. Expect
us to get the ball snapped. Usually the clock goes
from three to one zero and say hit zero, they
look at the ball, look at the clock, usually have
a tick once it hit zero to get the ball
snapped without being a delay game. I thought we had
we had a chance to get it off, all right.
So he's like, look, we had what we wanted and
(06:12):
our veteran quarterback and we So what what was the
reaction for people? Oh? Snap? Headline was McAdoo calls out
Eli Manning And he did, but he called him out
answering a question about a specific play which Eli Manning butchered.
So then what do they do in New York? What
are they do in most places? Oh my gosh, I
can't believe he said that about his two times SUPERWL
(06:34):
winning quarterback. Let's run back to the quarterback to get reaction.
That's part of part of being in the NFL. Um
you know, you can't be sensitive. I think everybody's gotten
very sensitive players and and and everybody. Just you know
that someone you know says anything negative about you, you
did something wrong, that that you got a problem. Uh.
Coach McAdoo and I have a great relationship. I think
(06:56):
he understands that. You know, I've told him and many
first got here. I enjoy being coach. I enjoy if
I screwed something up, let me know. You know, I
want to be coach, and so you know, we we
talked about things and there's some things I gotta do.
I gotta be better at. He's like, look, dude, this
is the NFL. I gotta be better. I can't be
the quarterback and only have my coach saying good job,
(07:19):
that's okay to play screwed up. That's always on me.
We're big boys in here. If you it's it's one
of the reasons if you ask uh people in management,
they'll tell you. Oftentimes oftentimes the people they like managing
our former athletes why because they've been coached before. They've
(07:41):
been coached a lot harder than you've been taught or
you've been lectured when you're not an athlete. It's one
of the reasons that athletes. Have you ever seen that
hokey n C A commercial where they go like five
dollars on athlaides and most of them go professional in
a sport, in something other than their sport. But it's true.
It's true if you have to. It's one of the
(08:01):
reasons I think Dwight Howard's all screwed up because White
Howard's he would he never went through college, and in
college you get legitimately coached, you get broken down and
built back up. But if you ask, one of the
things I struggle I've struggled with at work is I
tell my my boss always like, hey, give me feedback.
(08:24):
You don't like something like tell me now, I need
like specifics because in sports you're still gonna question. You're like,
what do you mean? And they show you the film like, oh,
oh yeah, that was me my bad, right, Like ezek
Ellett like, hey, did you quit on the interception? Like no,
I didn't throw on the film, Oh my bad? Right,
(08:44):
And but what happens. So what happens is there are
bosses in the regular workforce that they're not used to
confronting you. They're non confrontational. They don't want to confront
fragile talent or fragile people because they're not used to
being criticized. Whereas you can go put former athlete like hey, dude,
that really sucked, like, okay, what sucked about it? Tell
(09:07):
me how mam I can do better? All right? We
might have a discussion about because I've been My dad
was a coach, I was coached my whole life, even
when I was you know, in time I was on
TV when he was alive. He's like, hey, I hate
that not that suitcoat doesn't go with that tie. Like
my dad had order tie once a year. Maybe uh,
(09:29):
this would be the once a year Happy New Year
to my hellow jews out there anywaye. The point is
one of the big mistakes that we make is or
at least in my show. And I think Calher does
a different job of this, but our show we try
and relate to UM sports to real life. Al Right, Well,
(09:50):
you know Matt Stafford's contracting. It's kind of like comps
in real estate. Right, all the quarterbacks are going for
about twenty million dollars a year. He signs the newest deal.
It's like the newest house on your block signing. It's
all about comps, right, there is, but sometimes there's not
parallels because in your place of work, you can't call
out somebody who screws up publicly like that doesn't because
(10:13):
you're not athletes. It's not an athletic forum, it's not
a locker room. It just doesn't work that way. Kobe
Bryant said, uh said a word that is a homophobic slur, right,
and he had to apologize for I think did he
get suspended a game for it? I don't know if
you got fine for it. You got fine for it.
And it was always big. But again, like it doesn't
(10:36):
make it okay, but it explains it a lot better.
I mean, like in the locker room, like we just
have a different there's a different vocabulary, a different way
of talking to one another, different way of joking with
one another. Racist discussed discussed completely differently. And this is
the Reggie in cognito stuff where when you read the
text that he sent to his teammate or you hear
(10:58):
about some of the stuff like whoa, and they're like you,
they are a bunch of big, dumb offensive lineman with
time in their hands and a bunch of money. This
is what they do to one another, even even the
culture which I don't like, which is you know, rookies
in the NFL and the NBA, they gotta take everybody
else out to take their position players and the offensive
line out to dinner and then they run up a
big bill on them and then they all tweet out
(11:19):
like a thirty thousand dollar bit like yeah, we got
him like in the real world, like, dude, that sucks
in the NFL, Like it's kind of part for the course.
So I guess the point is not only do we
put our morals on athletes where it doesn't necessarily apply.
We do this as Americans. We put our morals on
other countries. You're like, hey, we have a completely different
(11:39):
belief system, but we try and do it in locker rooms.
And we think that Ben McAdoo called out his quarterback
when all he was doing was coaching. And the second
you can't coach your best player, or your most important player,
or your highest paid player, or your most decorated player,
all of these are in fact Eli Manning is the
(12:02):
second that you can't coach. McAdoo did his job, and
Eli showing himself to being coachable shows that Eli is
in fact a leader and shows the difference between uh
truculent wide receivers and quarterbacks can't compare real life and
(12:24):
how you talk about your co workers with how athletes
and coaches talk about each other. Be sure to catch
live editions of The Doug Gottlieb Show weekdays at three
pm Eastern noon Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and The
I Heart radio app Bryan Baldinger was an offensive lineman
for twelve season the NFL. He's an analyst with the
NFL Network and also covers college football for Fox Fall
(12:45):
on Twitter at Baldy NFL. If you watches up Baldy
breakdowns of game film, there are a few people who
break down football and make it as easy to understand
and while while teaching, as Baldy joins us now on
the Doug Gottlieb Show, Look, we talk a lot about
the star players or the skill position players, but all
(13:06):
of that can be undone when your offensive line doesn't protect.
I mean, you're watching it's hard to tell exactly how
good Eli Manning is at this stage in his career
because Eric Flower's is just getting annihilated on Monday Night.
So let's let's start with just the overall thought, Baldi,
Why is offensive line play, at least at this point
in the season, and there's been some other seasons like
(13:27):
this so putrid in comparison to our visions of it
in the past. Well, I mean, it's it's it's it's
a great observation. Other people are looking at the same
thing that you're looking at, and there's a lot of
there's a lot of answers to it, but basically, you know,
the moment it plays in the preseason, September is the
new August. It's all about health. But the only really
(13:50):
be a better left tackle or right guard is to
play left tackle right guarding. That doesn't mean running around
in shorts and helmets or anything else. It means actually
playing and developing the techniques because just like a basketball
dog in any other sport, it's your phone memerals that
carry it. We can we game the game when you're
up against an all pro player. If you don't have
(14:11):
a toolbox with sharp and fundamentals, when you get beat,
you're gonna be unsure why you got beat. And I
can fix the issue. It's going with Eric Flowers. Now,
he's fundamentally not a sound player. Some of it is him,
some of it is I don't know if he can
fix some of the issues he has. And it's not
just Eric Flowers. I mean there's John Jared for the Giants,
(14:32):
and there's Sloop Joe Cold Seattle, and you go around
the league. Guys are struggling, but there's some guys that
just need a lot of work in order to feel
good and to feel sharp and you're just not getting it.
And look, there's two offensive line and drafted in the
first round this year, Doug for both first year players,
Ryan ran Checkers those goons and Garrell bowls out of
(14:53):
uh your tall and when you look at him, you
can only take the NFL can only take the college
game gives us in the college teams just isn't giving
us NFL ready offensive lignement right now? No, it really isn't.
And is it because of the spreads? I guess I
would love to say it's because of the spread systems,
but like you look back to when you came out
(15:14):
the guy teams didn't used to throw the ball at
all in college, and all of a sudden you still
have to assimilate to an NFL offense, right, I mean,
like there weren't teams running West Coast offenses, and then
you get to the NFL and you're running a West
Coast offense. So there was still a learning curve. Why
does the learning curve seems so steep, especially when they
are pass blocking while they're in college and many of
then are past blocking now in high school. Well, it's
(15:35):
not just you know the weaknesses is is much in
the running game right now. I mean guys faded outside
of you know teams in the SEC and uh, you
know handful of other teams around other conferences. Um, most
of them are in spreads. A lot of gogles have
never gotten into a three point stance in their life yet,
so they get to the NFL. They don't run NFL
(15:56):
type running place powers and you know, combo block with
the tight ends. I mean a lot of teams don't
even have a tight end. In college, you're not running
power plays with fullbacks and tight ends, and so it's
all the blockings. Teams are uh, pretty new to a
lot of players coming in and uh, and it's just
you know, I mean, on any given college Saturday, you
(16:18):
might see one or two or three players that are
NFL caliber players. A lot of them we'll never ever
stiff the NFL. So you're not getting tested all that often.
When you are, you're getting tested in an offense that
isn't really an NFL office. It's it's almost like what
we watched on Saturdays is a completely different game than
what we see on Sundays, no question, no question. But
but it's interesting. It always has been a different game.
(16:40):
But now uh, but you know, but but now it's
it's different from even how it was different previously. Brian
Baldinger joining us on the Doug Gotlip Show. All right,
so uh like, look, I could go through a bunch.
I just the teams that I'm most interested in are
the ones that are supposed to be good but their
line is letting them down, like the Seahawks. Now, granted
the Seahawks are are are one and one on the year,
so it's not as bad as the Giants being oh
(17:02):
and two. Both were thought to be playoff teams. Of
the teams that are having offensive line issues, uh, who's
is the most fixable? Well, uh, I don't know that
either one can really get fixed at this point because
if you have to fix it in the off season,
and you have two choices right now because we're just
(17:24):
not allowed to develop line, We're not it's formidable, uh,
to go out there in contact and the things you
gotta do to really get sharp. So you have two
choices right now. You either can overspend it free agency
on the way the Raiders have, or you can draft
really high for a long time like the Cowboys have
to get mostly to get good lines. Uh, Tennessee has
(17:46):
got a good line. They've spent two high draft picks
on offensive tackles. They're both really good players, Taylor of
the one and uh if Jack Conkland. They're both really
good and they were really good against Shacksville. And you're
gonna get tested this week against out probably the best
game of the week. If you ask me which team
to fix it right now, I don't see. I mean,
(18:07):
if you're telling me that the best choice for the
Giants right now is to mention Derrick Flowers, so I'd
say it's not the best option. He's got three years
of experience now now he's got to play with a
better technique. He is a big man, and he is
a good athlete, and for the most part he placed
pretty good. Now he struggled on Monday night. It's still early,
(18:29):
But to mention Derrick Flowers, to me, it's not gonna
make the Giants better. Brian Baldinger joining us in the
Doug gottl Live Show here on Fox Sports Radio. A
couple of quarterbacks that haven't performed maybe as well as
some people's expectations. Let's start with Cam Newton. He's always
had issues with accuracy, and to be fair to Cam Newton,
(18:50):
he is coming off of shoulder surgery. But at some
point you would think the refinement would kick in, and
yet it is not. Is this a reps thing for
Cam Newton? Or are we to the point where this
is who Cam Newton is? We're gonna have to learn
to accept it. Well, I saw him. We wanted to
persist when he wasn't bad. We don't know where the
(19:11):
shoulder is done. I mean, we just don't know. We
don't know what it feels like. We don't know that
if he knows what it feels like, is it a
different shoulder, a new shoulder? What? Kenny? What can he do?
He had no off season? Um, I don't care what'sport hearing.
You have no off season, you're gonna be rusty. Uh,
he's done ever gonna run for ten touchdowns again? That
offense and what he did in two thousand and fifteen
(19:32):
to be the ananimous choice for league MVP. We're not
gonna see that guy. So he's gonna enough to adjust it.
They're adjusting with a lot of new players in Christie
McCaffrey and Curtis Samuel's tied in which was a huge
safety blanket in the red owner in the third downs.
It's no longer gonna in the offense this year. He's
gonna enough to adjust. Some guys can do that does
(19:53):
and some guys don't touch and they go south. Uh dam.
It's gotta get his confidence back from two thous of fifteen.
But he's gonna have to do it the way. I
think that's different. And when that Sally is never left
his face in two, it's gonna be a little bit
different form. All right. What about what about Dak Prescott?
(20:15):
It's only year two, but the schedule is more difficult
and the Broncos. Look at Broncos defense, especially at home,
is insanely talented, and they can put three cornerbacks out
there and shut down your best three wide receivers, unlike
maybe anybody else in the league that said, kind of
like Cam that there's there's a lack of accuracy there.
He's not throwing guys open. He never really threw guys open.
(20:36):
What are your thoughts on Dak Prescott as we're seeing
him a year two and hoping for some evolution and
maybe we're seeing a little bit of regression. I don't know.
I mean you know, one'd be the giant scene that
he couldn't be last year, and he played pretty well
a week won in Dallas. That is made me the
league's best secondary last week. I mean it's super glued. Now, well,
(20:58):
you're going to keep to leave against us and chrispa
Harris Jr. It's it's it's really tight out cold basically
was the leading receiver a year ago. He's kind of
a safety blank for him. Um when running game gets
completely shut down like that, most quarterbacks but probably struggle
a little bit if they had to make every single
(21:18):
play and the game got away from him where he
had to throw it every down And he was not
in that situation often last year. If ever, so even
down to the playoff Loster Green Bay, they had to lead.
There were twenty five sexs skill in the game, so
he was rarely ever playing from that far behind like
he had to us. And that's a good that's a
(21:38):
good challenge for a young quarterback. He's not a finished product,
but he is poised. He does not how to see
the field. He does soon good anticipation, uh to me,
if the Cowboys are gonna make any noise. Ever in
the playoffs with Dak Prescott at quarterback. It's good that
they saw Denver Denver because that's a good challenge for
(21:58):
him and he'll he'll I think he'll learn from that
and that's a healthy thing for your quarterback. Is this
the real new Alex Smith? MA, Alex Smith now taking
chances throwing the ball down the fields? Um, are you
buying that that that this will in fact last that
he will be a lot less risk averse as opposed
to the previous incarnation of Alex Smith. Well, I'll say this,
(22:20):
so it's a great question. Because I was there in
Kansas City in the Nassa Rangio on Sunday. I thought
of Patrick Mahomes and some of the coaches. There's no
question that Kansas City drafting Patrick Mahomes and then the
way that he played in pre season most challenge Smith.
I mean, he knows that he has to be good,
that the throws that he would be hesitant to make
(22:41):
it past years just because he did not want to
make mistake. He doesn't seem to be as hesitant right now.
And that's a good thing because any read can design
office with the best of them, and it was played
to be me. But he gotta pull the trigger and
you gotta you gotta take the chance. And so I
think competitions help ballenge me about Plus, if Tyree kills
(23:02):
your number one receiver, you know for the whole season,
the deep ball is in it bombs away, You're gonna
take some shots. This change is the only teams have
to thank Kansas City. And so I think it's changed
Alice a little bit. All those things, I think you've
changed them, and I think we'll look at a different guy.
You mentioned being in there for for the national radio.
(23:22):
You also got a chance to see Carson Wentz first week.
He made some wild plays against the Washington Redskins. H.
What's your now we're a couple of games into him
starting his second consecutive season with the Eagles. What's your
assessment as to whether or not the Philadelphia Eagles have
found their long term solution. Oh, he's a phenomenal talent,
(23:43):
and it's it's up to the rest of the team,
mostly the offense, but the whole team to play up
to him. They've got to play better around him. The
offensive line was horrible last week. The offensive guard left
guard gave up four sacks. Myself, he will want to
survive and have a long term career right now. The
way he's getting hit, he gets hit in very awkward situations.
(24:05):
He is so strong it almost sorts at the detriment
in his ability to escape tackles and get out of
his way, But at the same time he tries almost
too hard to extend plays and he falls awkwardly. He
has started eight Team Stree games, that's credit. But they've
got to play better around him. They've got a block better,
(24:26):
the offensive line and the run game has got to
come together. Um and the receivers have to be better
right now. And when that happens, you'll see all of
his numbers go up because he sees the field well.
He's extremely smart. He knows how to make all the
adjustments they needed for everybody around and play better. He's
(24:47):
the one only Brian Balding or check him out in
the NFL network or calling college football for Fox, or
you know, just fall him on Twitter at Baldy NFL. Baldi. Yeah,
You're welcome here anytime. Love talking football, if you love
your vision for every anything that's going on in the field.
Thanks for being our guest on Fox Sports Radio. Be
sure to catch live editions of the Doug gott Leaps
(25:08):
Show weekdays at three p m. Eastern noon Pacific on
Fox Sports Radio and the I Heart Radio app. Nebraska
has fired their athletic director Sean I. Course, now remember
part of it is like, look, it's the culmination of things.
Um I course of course fired uh Soulich right now,
he didn't fire Souli. She fired Callahan. No eating fire Callahan.
(25:31):
Actually that was Tom Osborne fired Callahan. So the so
Bo Polini was fired and like looked to be to
be fair to I, course you want to be you
felt like Polini had to be fired. Right if the
way in which Bo Polini carried himself and Polini is
(25:54):
it's interesting as good as Bob Stoops has been at Oklahoma, right,
the only assistant coach that's still I believe currently has
his gig. And I gotta go back and thinks like
Mike steps Win got the Arizona job, it didn't work.
Um Kevin Wilson had the Indiana job. He got fired
(26:17):
in the offseason. If you look back and you wait
a second, now, um Bo Polini was a former Bob
Stoops guy, and there was some success, although not historic success,
not back in the National Championship landscape with with Polini,
but he ends up he ends up getting fired. Um
(26:38):
Kansas is head coach? Was his name? Shoot? Uh? Super
heavy set guy was yeah. Mark Mangino was fired and
that was again a lot like Kevin Wilson treatment of players,
and Polini was really fired treatment of people around him,
treatment of players. I think the only head coach that's
(27:04):
a stoop sky that still has his gig as Mike Leach.
And of course Mike Leach got fired at Texas Tech.
Really treatment of players, but really really fascinating what's happened there.
Um I course comes in and he fires Polini, who
seemed to be kind of a hothead and polarizing, very
(27:27):
good football coach, also kind of one of those Youngstown,
Ohio guys, old school kind of guys. And they make,
without any question, one of the weirdest hires I've ever seen,
and hiring Mike Riley, not because Mike Riley is an
outstanding football coach, but they've always been averse to the
(27:50):
forward past there right, Like Bill Callahan came in. I
don't got to know if you guys know this Bill Callahan.
They had two bad losses and that's when Steve Peterson,
their athletic director, was fired. Callahan was fired at the
end of that season. But after Peterson was fired and
the Wolves were at the door, Blaine Gabbett was supposed
to play at Nebraska, he changed his commitment and ends
(28:11):
up going to Missouri. And that really was that was
when uh he you know, Callahan was done because Callahan's
whole thing was and we're gonna do everything different. We're
not gonna run the option, We're gonna actually throw the football.
And then Polin he got back to more of a
run past threat. So of course brings in Mike Riley
and they lost to Oregon, but we're competitive. They just
(28:34):
lost to Northern Illinois at home. And now all of
a sudden and he had just it was announced that
he got a contract extension through two thousand twenty. And
the truth about those contract extensions of this, they usually
are in the works for six months before they're announced,
and two thousand twenty is not a lengthy contract in
the Big Ten, although he's only sixteen and thirteen at Nebraska.
(28:58):
So like, look, this say knows to everybody, anybody who's
paying any attention at all, that unless there's a dramatic
turnaround at Nebraska. Mike Raley's probably out the end of
the year. 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. Chris Mannix wrote in The Vertical today, the
(29:20):
Warriors will have been training camp tomorrow and maybe things
will blow over and get back to normal. The sneaker
tip with Steph Curry seems to have blown over. By
addressing the thunder tweets, he saves himself from having having
too later. It make no mistake. Many in Golden State
team officials players alike have taken note of Durant's oddball
offseason and are perplexed by it. They see the bright
(29:42):
future for Durant in Oakland League and teams, sources told
The Vertical, but are bewildered by why he is still
addressing his past. Oklahoma City will be in Durant's d
n A, but time has come to move on. Slapping
around a team that was loyal to him, even in rejection,
is a bad look. He's a warrior. In the possibilities
(30:03):
for this Golden State team or endless. He can win championships,
win awards can build one of the great dynasties in
NBA history. The end, the thunder are doing their thing.
Durant should forget about them and do his Yeah again,
this is Chris Mannox and others are living in the
real world, whereas Kevin Durant has never been criticized before.
Remember he's never been criticized before. One time, the Daily
(30:29):
Oklahoman I think now it's called The Oklahoma and The
Oklahoman had a headline Mr. Unreliable. Do you guys remember
then Mr Unreliable? One time in nine years? One time
like Mr Unreliable and you know why because he had
been so reliable and he's playing so badly against the
(30:49):
Memphis Grizzies and like, what's the deal? Kad? But what's
the deal? Kay D wasn't as good as Mr. Unreliable.
Do you remember what happened when they had the Mr.
Unreliable Bowl headline? Dan Buyer, do you remember what happened?
And then when they had a Mr. Unreliable headline? I
remember that Kevin Durant wasn't happy about it. Romas do
you remember what happened with the Mr I don't. I
(31:11):
do remember the headline, But I don't remember what happened
because of it music. I don't remember specifically other than
I think it was he had like a bad fourth
quarter in a playoff game. No, no, that was it
was four But do you remember what what happened after
they wrote a headline Mr. Unreliable because he had he
had several poor fourth quarters? No, nothing, not not specifically, No, Okay,
(31:38):
the newspaper apologized for the headline. Have you ever heard
of that? Like are you kidding me? Hey? Hey, are
bad that we're so used to you being awesome when
you're not awesome? Remember he he was. He wasn't just
missing shots. He was missing free throws. Free throw shooter
(31:59):
in that series, he was shooting seventy seven one percent.
He was just eight of twenty um even when Tony
Allen wasn't in the game. But like, look, he was
bad and it was I think through five games in
the series he was shooting from the field percent from
(32:23):
three point range. Those are bad numbers for Kevin Durant, right,
And when you're normally reliable and suddenly you're not. Mr.
Unreliable is not a crazy headline, is it? But the
second anybody was critical of him and writes Mr Unreliable,
and people freak out and Kevin Durant got piste. They're like, sorry, ah, sorry,
(32:46):
k d Um, We're sorry that we accurately portrayed the
fact that you're normally awesome and you weren't awesome against
the Grizzlies. So he's never been criticized a day in
his life. I these guys when they're playing AU basketball,
and you're as super talented as Kevin Durant, like, nobody criticized.
(33:07):
Nobody criticized those guys because they're afraid they're gonna leave
and go to the AU team across the street when
things go bad in high school, they transferred to another
prep school. He's only at Texas for a year. Do
you think rick Rick Barnes is just grinding him at Texas? Like, no,
is there anything I can get for you? Mr? Durant.
(33:29):
So the first the if the Warriors are wondering, hey,
why is he acting so weird, it's because he doesn't
understand what being crue. He doesn't understand that he left
a team, He left the city, dramatically changed the NBA,
was vilified for it, and he thought he knew what
he was getting into, but he didn't be sure to
catch live editions of the Doug gott Leaps Show weekdays
(33:50):
at three pm Eastern noon Pacific on Fox Sports Radio
and the I Heart Radio app. It's called Straight out
of Vegas and it's hosted by r J Bells website
at his pregame dot com and they're the exclusive odds
provider for the Associated Press, and he joined us. He
enjoined us every week on the Doug Gottlieb Show. RJI,
how are you you know, Doug? I'm looking forward to it.
(34:12):
I'm saying this unequivocally, and I do many Fox hits,
so people who listen will know I'm being genuine here
because I don't say this kind of stuff. I consider
you to be the best debater on sports radio, and
I listened to a ton of it. And when you debate,
I'm thinking, Hey, he'd be the toughest guy to be.
Now I'm an amazing debater, so I think we're gonna
(34:33):
have some battles. Yeah, you know what you need to
make sure you do. Is one of my first radio
shows I ever did when I was doing local radio
my first year in Oklahoma City, was a guy called
me a master debater, and I said thank you with
a question to bar gotta be very very I appreciate that.
All right, let's uh, let's get to a game, which
is really hard to tell, the hardest game to tell.
(34:55):
Tampa looks really good now. Part of it is I
fall in love with teams on hard knocks. I just do.
And I want Jamis to be as good as we
think James can be. They're taking on the Minnesota Vikings
and Sam Bradford said some weird stuff yesterday, right, he
said he had a non contact injury, Like oh boy,
uh he said, but but he he made it seem
like it wasn't an a c L injury. Last week
(35:17):
they had the m R and like, yeah, we can't
read it because there's so much scar tissue in there,
Like none of this appears to be good news. But
then there's thoughts that he's he's gonna play this weekend.
Is that on or off the board? Does of now
off the board. But we actually have a bookmaker that
does a podcast with us, and I asked him the question,
what's the line if Bradford plays, what's the line if
(35:38):
he doesn't? Minnesota at home with Bradford about a three
and a half point favorite, and if not Bradford, Tampa
a one point road favor. So if you do the math,
it feels like four and a half. But there's a
complicated reason. It's not around pick up. So it's about
a three and a half point adjustment for Bradford. Now
(35:59):
that's with the binary kind of play or not play.
But we all know it's not that right. It's either
not play or play at some percentage of a hundred percent.
So you would think Bradford's not gonna be a hundred
percent in any situation. Well, it's also and it's not
just he wouldn't be playing case Keenum would be playing, right,
So which is always relative? Right? The old joke is
how much was Joe montana Worth Hall of Fame quarterback? Oh?
(36:22):
Half point? You know Steve Young was the backup, right,
So it is all relative. Okay, Let's let's go to
a matchup of two undefeated teams. Falcons so so against
the Bears, Falcons outstanding against the Packers of the Packers
said Packer's head injuries. And then you get the Lions
two wins, including a dominant performance, but they got a
short week coming back home to take on the Atlanta Falcons. Uh,
(36:45):
that's what a three point line. The Falcons are actually
favored on the road against Detroit. But this is the
same week in which I saw Matt Stafford's odds to
win the m v P shoot up. So enough people
are believing that Stafford's gonna have a breakthrough season, and
yet there's still three point home dog to the Atlanta Falcons. Yeah,
and I think you're I was impressed that you said
(37:05):
Atlanta in that first game so so, because the scoreboard
look mighty good in that game, but if you went
in the box score, it was so so. And a
lot of pros coming in the season have big question
marks with Atlanta because of Shanahan I O se leaving
and and and how big of a loss that would be. Well,
Atlanta's impressed. I I don't dismiss that green Bay game.
(37:28):
I mean green Bay had some injuries, Yeah, but still
that was a heck of a win. And I think
Atlanta's defense being better than we expected is one of
the big surprises of the season. This is what I
say about Detroit, and I'll repeat this probably twice a month.
Wase guys, professionals, they don't all agree. They often disagree,
(37:49):
and this is a team, the Lions, in which there's
big disagreement. Doug, on one hand, we had a bookmaker
on who said he believes right now the Lions are
a better team than the Packers. Now that's extreme to me,
and I disagree, but this guy makes a living at it,
so I respect the opinion. Well, listen, I would say
it all depends upon the context of the argument. Right.
(38:12):
R J. Bell joining us from pregame dot com. You
can hear his national radio show Straight out of Vegas
at eleven o'clock Pacific time to midnight on Friday, ten
o'clock Pacific time to midnight on on Saturday. He joins
us here in the Doug Gotlip Show Fox Sports Radio.
If if he's saying, like, look, Judy Nelson is not
playing because he's hurt. You know, they're without five starters
or so like, well, okay, yeah, I think I think
you know, he's saying for the whole season, like if
(38:33):
he could take the Lions or take the Packers, and
if he wins, if they win the Super Bowl, he
wins a million and there's no way so he has
a free role. He gets to take one or the other.
He would take the lines. Now, that to me is extreme.
On the other hand, we've got a guy who's a
professional batter that says he thinks the lines are an
average team at best. I tend more towards that. And
(38:54):
here's why, other than last Monday night. So let's set
that aside for a minute. You know, they'll never be
good teams the prior seventeen games. So the first game
this season and all of last season, they trailed in
the fourth quarter of the line sixteen of the seventeen games.
You can't trail on the fourth quarter sixteen or seventeen
and be that good. Now, hey, they played well last week,
(39:16):
but the Giants are the Giants. I'm skeptical or the lines.
All right, let's go to the speaking of the Giants.
Giants offensive line is uh uh, it's kind of a joke, right,
I mean, it's it's been Eric Flower has just been
getting pushed around. But the Eagles offensive line has been
equally putrid through two games. Uh, Like, this is the
something has to give, right, the movable force against the
resistible force against the movable object in terms of offensive lines. Uh,
(39:39):
Eagles haven't been running the ball well. They have three
injured defensive backs. That doesn't this feel like the game
in which the Giants kind of break out. I think
it's possible, and if they don't hear, you have to
be very worried beyond the practical, you know and three stuff,
because here's why Eagles have three defensive backs hurt. And
we'll talk about this all year. Big name injury from
(40:00):
first team to second team at non quarterback often don't
move the needle, even though the narrative is, oh, I
know this one guy's name, I don't know this other
guy's name. But cluster injuries where you have let's say,
three d backs hurt, so now you're going with second string,
third string and a guy off the practice squad. That
can be bigger, but people don't pay as much attention
(40:22):
because there's not big names. Eagles really limited in the secondary. Secondly,
even beyond getting their main wide receiver back Backham, their
second and third receivers have been kind of hobbled, but
they're getting healthier. So if it is a healthy receiving
corps against a hobbled defensive backfield, this feels like the
game the Giants could do some scoring eight straight games.
(40:44):
Now for the Giants scoring less than twenty points, that's
a that's a that's a bad trend. Seahawks Titans. Seahawks
offensive line has been in shambles. Titans uh slow of
the gate with the loss to the Raiders. Of course,
then they bounced back yesterday. Derrick Derrick Henry was was
really really good. Um, can the Seahawks win a road again?
I know the road dogs here two and a half
point dogs and win a road game with that offensive
(41:06):
line against Titans. I like Tennessee. This is one of
my best bets of the week. I like the Titans.
Minus two and a half less than a field goal,
and three is the most important number in the NFL.
If a line is around three, so two and a half,
three or three and a half, the game ends with
the favorite winning by exactly three almost ten percent of
the time. It's that valuable. So laying two and a
(41:27):
half is so much better than laying three. Every half
point matters. That's the most important half point. Seattle on
the road in September two and twelve straight up two
and twelve against the spread. This is a team that
starts slow, this is a team is not good on
the road, and you know, here's something I'd be interested
to hear your thoughts. Dog, I would rather have a
(41:49):
team that has a bunch of C minus position groups
and then some good ones. I think a team like that,
you know, A, A, A minus whatever, A team like
that can make the playoff. But if the other team
has all above average position groups but one F, I
don't think that team can make the playoffs. I think
Seattle's offensive line is so bad that any NFL team
(42:13):
is going to be able to exploit that in such
a way that Seattle is gonna have trouble. Do you
agree with that generally? Well, uh, look, I I just
I do think that there's there are teams that have
overall you know, we talked about this. Colts have no talent. Uh.
Brown's actually has some talent on defense, but are very young.
Same thing with the Niners kind of reinvigorated. So I
(42:34):
think those teams might have more of the seed level.
But yes, when you have Green Bay Packers had at
a D level defensive backfield in the playoffs and that
got exposed. I do think that you know, look, your
quarterback can hide a lot of your weaknesses, and Russell
Wilson has had to. But if you can't run it
and you can't throw it because the offensive line can't
protect that quarterback, that becomes problematic. All right, what one
(42:56):
more I want to get to before we gotta go?
Um Chiefs taken on the Chargers, and look, I'm one
of these guys that I see the silver lining with
the Chargers. They're badly outplayed in Denver and yet had
a field goal to tie it late. They were actually
the better team than the Miami Dolphins. And that same
rookie kicker that that had his field goal blocked in Denver,
(43:17):
he missed both of his field goals, including what could
have been the game winning field goal at stubb Up,
Kansas City comes in. They're all beat up, and I
think they're overvalued. A three three point line. If it
moved to three and a half you mentioned how big
that half point is, I would like it even more.
But I like the Chargers straight up at home. Am
I crazy? No? I think Chargers are one of the
(43:38):
most underrated teams because people are so affected by wins
and losses, and ultimately that's what a team has graded on.
But you know, imagine, if we remember a couple of
years ago, Arizona and the Patriots, there was a forty
two yard field goal and it was missed, and that's
the the Pats one and Arizona crew. Way did that
really that did that field goal really dictate who was
(43:59):
the better team? But it was one to zero in wins,
which was like a hundred you know, a hundred percent
of the value of the game. If oh, you care
about his wins and losses. But at some point you
gotta start wondering if close games are other than coin flips,
because the saber metric guys believe close games are random. Thus,
(44:20):
a team like the Raiders that did exceptionally well in
close games last year tend to be overrated because people
so care about those wins. They don't realize it should
just be a half a win every time a game
is closed. But if you look at it the Chargers
since started last year, I've had eleven games decided by
one score less, one in ten straight up. Now you're
adding a rookie field goal kicker. As you said, that's
(44:42):
one in four, and you know it's one out of four.
You know what's in his head? Now? I don't want
to play the Chargers like minus two in any spot.
But if you're plus three or plus three and a half,
you can still lose a close game and cover. So
I'm looking to play the Chargers when they're getting points
over a field goal, not when they're in a small
favor All that's r J. Bell. Check out his his website,
(45:03):
pregame dot com, is on Twitter r J in Vegas,
and of course you can hear his radio show straight
at Vegas eleven o'clock on Friday night's ten o'clock on
Saturday Night's r J. Great to have Vian. I do
appreciate the compliment. We'll catch up real soon. Very genuine
thank you, Doc. All right, that's that's r J. Bell.
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at Fox sports
(45:24):
Radio dot com and within the I Heart Radio app.
You may have just heard, and I think this is
going to be discussed, But this story, I think is
fascinating because we are also prone to believe that football
causes brain damage, that brain damage is linked to something
called CT and that when you have c T, anything
(45:49):
is possible in terms of your behavior. Supposedly, Junior say
Out was somebody who had ct That's how Junior say
I went from one of the most beloved football player
years in all the game. I mean really could have
run from Mayor one ten times over in San Diego
to a guy that had kind of an up and
down and before he tragically took his own life. Right,
(46:11):
But um, Aaron and is not nearly as beloved. He
killed himself in jail. We've heard a lot from his side.
There were accusations that he he didn't kill himself, even
though uh, pretty obviously based upon everything that they saw,
he did the letter to suicide. Note that that he
(46:33):
wrote the rumors about his sexuality and maybe that's what's
led to it. There's been all kinds of ugliness. He
was acquitted of a second series of murders that supposedly
predated the actual murder. That said, look, man, he may
(46:54):
have been found not guilty. I don't think most people
thought he was innocent of the first murders, which is
why he allegedly committed the second murder in order to
cover up because Odin the Wood was talking right and
he was paranoid. The the issue is alway the reason
that you don't sue is the same reason that this
(47:18):
suit is the same reason that um aeronr Nandez family
probably won't get any money from a concussion lawsuit. Why
don't people sue, Well, that's because of discovery. When you sue,
everything about you becomes public knowledge. What's the case which
(47:39):
with with this is just like this, we're just talking
about it. I think Zeke Elliot is probably a really
good example of Right now, Zeke was never charged with anything.
There isn't a civil case. But because the NFL essentially
tried this and we now have all these documents, it's
like a lawsuit. Right. This is like and now we
whether you think he hit his former girlfriend or not,
(48:04):
it's hurt her. Right. She looks like a liar. She
looks like whether she's lying about this or not, she
lied about other things. Um and it makes Zekee Elliott
look bad. Like the reason he wants it to he
what should wanted to go away is there's the accusations
by her that he was using cocaine and another drug. Uh,
(48:25):
there's all kinds of lifestyle stuff that's in there that
I'm sure he wishes was not public knowledge. I've said
this all along like, if you look at all these
leaks in this case from the NFL, look at all
the details that we that have nothing to do with
whether or not he hit her, And then he started
(48:46):
to wonder, well, that's why Tom Brady didn't give his
phone up, because that would have been everything in that
phone would have been written in a report and nothing.
It's not safe, just not. That's why he destroyed his phone.
Nobody get the hands on it. It can't get into
the NFL's hands. The campaign he leaks from the NFL
in order to help their case or to paint him
(49:07):
as a bad guy, or to have a text that
has nothing to do with deflating football is like, I
I totally understand why he did that. It's the same
reason though people don't sue And look, it doesn't really
matter if you're Sonora Jenkins, if you if if Aaron
Inez looks like a horrible human being because he's suing
(49:28):
because she wants to get some money for what he's done,
saying it's been caused by football, Like he's already considered
a murderer. You can't really do much worse than that, right,
But there's a lot of accusations about his his drug use. Right,
there was this story that he was using angel dust
(49:49):
and that potentially made him paranoid, which it's the only
explanation for why he would have killed a guy who
he thought was that thought he was his friend and
thought he could get away with it, and then completely
flip and just be normal afterwards walking around his house
kind of muttering to himself afterwards. Um. And I don't
(50:14):
doubt that there will be any of these questions about
his sexuality will will come out in said lawsuit, right,
like once you go in and say, like, all right,
medical records, medical records, there's lots of easy wind, easy
off ramps for lawyers to get off, to get off
on and and make part of the case, which doesn't
(50:35):
really matter in terms of Aaron Hernandez, but he does
have a daughter, and this does get uglier and uglier
and uglier. And if it's simply to get some money
because she thought he was a nice guy and he
turned into be a sociopath. Uh. I don't doubt he
had some level of brain damage, and it wouldn't be
(50:58):
crazy to think football caused some level rain damage. But
I think one of the problems that people have Jim
McMahon has this issue, right. Jim McMahon alleged drug use
or whatever back in the eighties, and he's like, look,
I have I have brain damage from football. How much
of it has caused from lifestyle? How much of it
caused from bran arnandez, did you get into fights along
the way? How much of it is caused from actual football.
(51:21):
It's really hard to prove. It doesn't mean that football
didn't cause any of it, or maybe most of it,
But I don't know. If this is one of those
ones to which it gets destroyed and discovery where you
find out just all the other stuff he was doing.
Host
Doug Gottlieb
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