January 13, 2022 • 47 mins
On the Thursday edition of The Best Of The Doug Gottlieb Show: Doug has pointed out more than once this week that most of us are in the people business, and how you treat people and how you empathize with people is important in life and business. Doug points to three examples of that as he talks about Jimmy Garoppolo's candid comments about his future weighing on him, Darren Waller's very raw description of his addiction, and the report that Tagovailoa was told by Brian Flores that the Dolphins should have draft Mac Jones this year.
In reaction to the Kings' DJ playing Foreigner's song "Cold As Ice" when Russell Westbrook touched the ball on Wednesday night, Doug talks about how below average Westbrook has been for the Lakers this year and throws in some other Foreigner cuts to make his point.
Former Bucs and longtime NFL scout GM Mark Dominik joins Doug to talk about the NFL head coach firings, what goes into the dynamic between a GM and head coach, and to discuss some of the major headlines going into the wild card weekend of the NFL.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
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(00:22):
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(00:44):
The Doug got Leave Show is brought to you by
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Indiana or Pennsylvania to play gambling problem called one eight
hundred Gambler. There is a there's a story out of Miami.
There's a story out of San Francisco. There's a story
at Las Vegas. And I think each each story, each
(01:06):
story relates to something we talked about over the past
couple of days, which is we all think that we're
in the we're in the business of sports, or in
the business of medical device sales, we're in the business
of educating people, or we're all in different businesses, when
the truth is we're all in the same business, the
people business. Um story. Mike Lombardi, who we've had on
(01:29):
the show, of course, has his own website and podcast,
the former UH front office executive, long time with the
newing the Patriots, some with the San Francisco forty Niners
as well as the Oakland Raiders. Mike Lombardi said that
apparently Brian Flores at some point in time during this
year told to a tug of Ioloa that he should
have drafted Mac Jones this season. Again, don't know how
(01:53):
it came out, don't know the context of it, but
it does paint the picture of how Brian Floras chose
to motivate his young quarterback, or maybe it was the
real reason why there was such a riff between he
and Chris Greer. Then there's this story from San Francisco, right, Um,
Jimmy Garoppolo is what's the term dead man walking? Isn't
(02:17):
is an a fair turn dead man walk? Uh, It's
more um not not even place holders, short timer. It's
when you're you're we all know you're going to either
be fired or or traded at the end of the
season or let go. He's a lame duck quarterback, is
what he is, right, It's a lame duck quarterback. And
(02:40):
Jimmy Garoppolo played great football last weekend, especially in the
second half, fourth quarter, in leading the Niners to a
comeback win over the Rams. He's led the Niners to
a super Bowl, obviously led the Super Bowl. Go in
the fourth quarter, didn't play well in the second half
and in the fourth quarter. I'm not disputing what most
people think of as the ceiling for Jimmy Garoppolo or
the incessant uh turnovers at inopportune times throughout his career.
(03:04):
But Garoppolo is far more good than he is terrible
quarterback because he's a lame duck and everybody knows it.
It's gotta be a weird existence. Here's Jimmy Garoppolo. Okay,
you know it, does it add any motivation and anything
like that? How much does that weigh in your mind
(03:26):
just throughout the course of a week, going into games
like this, It's always in the back of your mind,
and it has been in mind, you know, really this
whole season. Just uh, I knew what type of season
it was. Knew everything that was going on, you know,
behind the scenes and whatnot, So it was it was
a little different. It's like you're saying, you gotta tell
that line because you don't want to get too emotional
in those moments, and uh, you just gotta go play
football when it comes down to it. But you know,
the human side definitely comes into into play. You feel
(03:48):
it for a little bit after the game, and I
think twenty four hours after that, you gotta moved on quickly,
and you know we have We've done that pretty well. Yeah,
Garoppolo kind of lets you in a little bit. He
knew what type of season would be, He knew what
was going on. It sound like the the the Niners
have done any of this under the shadow of darkness,
right Like there's like like they're quietly manipulating to try
and get a quarterback in the off season. But it
(04:11):
is also fair to to point out that they move
mountains and then drafted his air apparent his replacement, and
whatever the level of competitiveness it was this year, everyone
knows what's going to happen at the end of this year.
On some level that that human element. You know, I look,
I'm as guilty of it as anybody. We we look
at these guys sometimes as machines. They're not supposed to
have the feelings of normal human beings. Some of that
(04:34):
is because that's what we've told football players are football guys.
Are you know, Ronnie Lott? I can't play because my
finger cut off? My finger? Easy? You know, give me
some remember when we were again, when we were kids,
guy would get his bell rung, smelling salts. Are you alert?
Go back in the game. That's that football mentality. The
(04:56):
truth is they're human beings. And when a human being
knows that this is potentially his not potentially likely his
last game if he loses, wearing a San Francisco for
the Night uniform, and it doesn't mean that Garoppolo has
to have some affinity that doesn't have to have grown
up a Niner fan. Like there's only thirty two teams.
The Niners are historically as significant as any franchise in sports.
(05:20):
Go and look at all the guys who have dawned
that uniform and played quarterback for that team, and there's
at least two Hall of Famers. I had to look
and think if there's even more than that. Quarterback of
the Niners is a pretty cool, pretty big thing, and
he led them back to the super Bowl. And the
idea that you know, with anyone mistake, with what anyone playing,
(05:41):
you don't necessarily process it as you're playing, but in
leading up to it, and in those moments of silence
and in those moments where you're on the sideline thinking,
you get lost in thought, you're like, man, this is it?
This similar in terms of topic, but similar in terms
of human element. Darren Waller is a spectacular talent, talent
(06:02):
sort of a tight end, more of a wide receiver,
but a constant mismatch. And of course he's been injured
this year. And Darren Waller is a guy who has
been very open about his own personal issues and demons
with addiction. Here's Waller yesterday talking about those issues even
this year with the Raiders. You know, my disease of addiction.
(06:24):
You know that can have me thinking all kinds of
crazy things, you know, so I got to make sure
that I'm talking about those things when i'm you know,
have all that idle time. So I got my therapist,
you know, I got stay going meetings, uh, staying in
the playbook, working on music. You know, just stay in solid,
keeping my head, you know, just out of that idle
time and just into things I enjoy and stay into
the game of football as much as I can think
(06:47):
about that for a second, like we all think of
all I've thought about Darry Waller, is man, COVID, knee whatever,
getting back on the field, because he's great. You know,
you don't even think about here's an addict who Now
you have a lot more idle time because you're not playing.
You know, what do you what do you do? And
then you factor in he's in Vegas, and look, you
(07:08):
can find trouble anywhere, and you can say whatever you
want about Cincinnati. Pac Man Jones didn't have any problem
finding trouble in Cincinnati. Trouble can be found anywhere, but
in Vegas. I mean it's a text message or phone
call or fifteen minute drive to any sin you can
possibly imagine. And Darren Waller has had to kind of
(07:30):
play through it while not playing. Here's Waller even more.
It's tough, honestly, because I'm a human being at the
end of the day, and I'm still trying to shed
some of my old thinking patterns. So you know, when
I'm not out there, I can think these thoughts of like,
you know, the team is balling without me being in
there is this like you know, am I like useless?
(07:51):
And it's just like these irrational thoughts. So I had
to be willing to stay in the practice that I
have to that bring me back down from that place
is like whoa, whoa. It's not than that anymore. And
it's like I'm not out there performing per se, but
I still have a role on this team. But sometimes
my mind can tell me like, oh man, you ain't
really doing nothing like you out like. So it's just
like staying locked in like you said, like, I have
(08:13):
to do that because my mind can take me to
those places and um, I don't want to be there anymore.
The show is brought to you by one of our
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make sure to play in your trip today to visit
Las Vegas dot com. It's it's a hard thing, right
(08:37):
because um, because part of the mentality allows anywhere from
boys to young men to men to be able to
play any sport, but especially this sport, is you have
to almost disassociate with the human side because you know,
(09:00):
m the human head is not meant to collide with
another human head. You know, they're just not. That's it's
an unnatural act. We're not rams. We're not built with
ram horns to go and collide into each other. We
have to put on helmets for these sorts of things.
On the other hand, you're dealing with human beings, and
human beings all act differently in times of adversity. They
(09:22):
all act differently when their question, They all act differently
when they have free time. They all act differently based
upon where they are in life and whether it's ta
and how he felt after Flores on some level said
they should have taken Mac Jones this year, or Jimmy
Garoppolo knowing that the Niners did take their next quarterback
(09:45):
in a Trey Lance, or Darren Waller in um his
desire to get back out in the field and the
Raiders amazing comeback season with all of their issues, sitting
there going like, you know, hardness to sit here and
not play your teams went like your team's winning and
you want them to win, but then you feel useless.
Plus you're not doing anything. Plus you're an addict, and
(10:07):
you start thinking all kinds of thoughts. Everybody thinks they're
in some other business. We're all in the people business. Now,
you navigate those personalities. That's job number one if you're coaching, leading,
or even trying to have a good feel for how
these guys will will perform. Fox Sports Radio has the
(10:28):
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 Doug Otlip Show Fox Sports Radio.
(10:49):
Can I ask you guys a question. This is a
is a real question. Okay, this has nothing to do
with sports, which you know, Like, look, I mean, I
just so, um ramos, you've been around me enough obviously, Um,
you guys know what I what. I basically live. I
live on two drinks throughout the day that I I don't.
(11:10):
I'm not a big water guy, although I'm trying to
become more of a water guy. I'm not a big
water guy. You guys familiar with the two things that
I imbibe throughout most of the day. I believe you
love to drink um. Is it the Arnold Palmer's Arnold
Palmer coffee? An Arnold Palmer Okay coffee. I didn't get
the cofeever, I knew you'd liked Arno Palmer though. Yes,
I I basically basically like I do UM. But I
(11:38):
think what's interesting about it is so I make uh
Tazzo t this that passion tea at home, or I'll
make the Nesty the instant and like it's the cold
brew tea or whatever at home, and then I mix
it with lemonade. Now I'm very specific with what types
of I only use that simple lemonade. That's it. It's
(11:58):
always simple lemonade. It's always nesty cold brew te or
it's always Tazzo passion tea. That's that's caffeine free. And
I mixed the two and that that's what I drink.
Literally from as soon as I have my cup of
coffee the morning until that all throughout the day, I'm
just constantly sipping on it. UM. And I do know
like how much it costs at Starbucks, that same passion
(12:20):
tea lemonade combination is like four fifty four seventy five
for a Venti And here I am feeling like I'm
getting a deal. Is that cheap of me? Though? To
make it for myself at home, I would say no,
I would drink your tea that you make before I
would drink the other one if you're offer, Like if
(12:41):
if you said, hey, ra almost I have some you know,
iced tea at my house or do you want me
to stop at blank blank to get I'd be like,
knowled drink yours. That's me personally, okay, okay, I you
know I was I was like doing last night. I
was doing something else in terms of like numbers, was
actually doing reimbursements for something ship. And then I got
like like the A D D kicked in and I
(13:04):
started doing the numbers on how much time saving per uh,
you know, per drink in comparison. I was like, wow,
this is probably fifty five cents maybe maybe less per
like gigantic drink. And then you know, like at Starbucks
they put so much ice in it. Unless you do
no ice, and we do no ice, it doesn't taste
really is good. So I can do full ice here
(13:25):
and it doesn't matter. So I'm like saving like four
dollars a drink, and then I'm working out in my
head like if I have three d s a day?
Am I saving twelve dollars? But I wouldn't have three
of them a day if I was actually going to
buy them. I don't know that that was. That was
basically like, and then I was like, what am I doing? God?
I'm either bored or completely distracted, maybe a little bit
of both. Check out the latest lines on World of Sports.
(13:45):
A better sports book. Better was the Trust naming online
sports betting. You must be twenty one, you must be
president Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, or Pennsylvania to play gambling problem
called one Gambler now stuck out live show here on
Fox Spool Orts Radio A lot to get to a lot,
A lot, A lot to get to. Um okay. So
(14:06):
my my point was, by are you you grew up
in Wisconsin? I know that high school football is over
before the actual meat of winter, but how how uh
how did you deal with playing in the cold? Like
what's the the the inside the Beltway secrets? Just if
you're playing in cold? We would play in long underwear.
That's what you know. You throw that underneath the uh
(14:28):
the old the pads. You need to have long sleeves. Uh.
If you're going to a game, like if you're going
to Lambeau, layers is a big layers is the is
the right way to go and make sure that those
feet are insulated. Okay, that's interesting because Bart Scott offered
up another possibility. I don't really know. Uh. Mark Dominic
joins us. Of course, he was a long time scout
in the National Football League, the gentle manager of the
(14:49):
Tampay Buccaneers. But I if I remember, Mark, you grew
up in Minnesota, right, Like you're like your cold weather
cold weather dude, Um, how do you you with playing
football in the cold? Like, what's what's the what's the
keys to it? Yeah? I wish I had a good example.
Remember I went to Tampa Bay for a long time.
It was we never won a game below forty two degrees, right,
(15:10):
so it was certainly hard. Um. Yeah, I was born
in Minnesota and spent some time in South Dakota too,
so I know what cold feels like. Uh. You know,
and it's the hidden layers that you can't see, is
what you know a lot of people do with it,
like you talked about the feet, the thermals underneath, but
when you get to your arms and these offensive linemen
they just leave him out there. And it's just it's
(15:31):
a mental battle for three and a half hours that
you just got to get through. It's funny because it
wasn't Shanna was like he wanted sixty eight degrees in
every room, right, that was this thing. You guys couldn't
win below forty two and he wanted at sixty eight. Right,
he should have cranked that sucker even further down. I
bring up the cold because this was Bart Scott on
TV earlier today with some advice or players getting ready
(15:51):
to play in the cold. Can people get this menstal
by a Gras take some biagraph for the game baby
to fit the circulation going right? You played a lot
of us take via right because opens up the bloodst
A lot of us what do you mean, A lot
of a lot of NFL players, at least in my day,
(16:12):
took BIAGRAGHATI open up the blood vest. There's a lot
of endurance athletes because first heart medicine, right, So it
builds up circulation, which makes sure that it get those
circulations to the feet. Okay, Mark, you were in the
league for a long time where dudes popping Viagray to
get their circulation going. I had. I was in the
league over twenty years, and I've never heard that until
(16:34):
he just said that. And I'm like, I guess I
see what he's saying, but I've never heard that, never
heard our trainer talk about it, or never heard anything
talk about it in the facility. Man. Well, I mean
that's and he played with some stiff defenses when he's
in New York. I mean, sorry, sorry, I had, I
had to, but I just didn't know if if it
was like a trade secret, like right, like in basketball
(16:55):
when he gets cold and dry in the gyms, you
gotta put that utter cream on your hands after you
shower and after you play, because your hands will crack
and you'll get those splits in your finger and it's
really hard to shoot and handle a basketball. I didn't
know if if Viagara was like the end all be
all for circulation in the coal I had literally literally
no idea. All right, let's let's let's move on. Let's
(17:16):
let's get to some football stuff. Um I do want
to react to the Sunday night game, because this is
good a football game, as interesting in football game as
I've seen. If you're the general manager and I do
know tim to let's go pretty well. But if you're
the gentleal manager and you hire a guy who tells you, hey, look,
based on analytics, I'm gonna go for it, and you're
all in, and then you know, in the first half
(17:37):
of the biggest game of the year, he goes for
it on fourth and two from his own eighteen What
are you thinking. I'm thinking that's a really better work.
And those are frustrating ones. Right. If you don't get that,
you're very frustrated because you're like, well, this is a
critical game for us to get in. And you know,
as much as I can appreciate analytics, I'm not a
huge fan of fourth and two on eighteen yard line
(17:58):
no matter where the game is, unless to right at
the end. Yeah, that one was that that's crazy. And
then I would pull him into my office after the
game's over. And usually what I did with with coaches
is after the game was over, I to go down
to briefe the coach after the game, talk about it
before he went to the podeum talk about anything that's
going on from a medical standpoint, and also just his
overall emotions to keep him in check so that nothing
(18:20):
comes out. But that shouldn't come out. And it's the
next day, the Monday morning, where I have the heart
to heart on the on the question to calls and
he knows it's coming. And I always tell him like, hey, look,
we we do free agency, when we do the draft,
and you want to really kind of break things down
and talk to me about what's wrong with this team.
I'm open the ears to hearing that too. So, uh,
you have to ask him about that question. And that's
that was one of two plays I thought that were
(18:42):
very questionable that I think cost the charters when you're
when you're trying to hire a coach, and we've seen
coaches firing, okay, so oftentimes I think, look, I've tried
to tell people that that most of these hires, most
of them, not all of them, are with people they
have worked with before or right, because then they know
how you operate, you know how they operate. There's usually
(19:04):
a tie. Of course, that's one of the reasons that
you have the running rule is like hey, let's bring
somebody in that might not be in the normal cycle,
or let's try and reach out. When you made coaching hires,
what is it like to try and work through, Hey,
I want to hire the best guy, but I need
to fit for our franchise. I need to fit for
our owner. I need to fit from my style, and
I gotta figure out is it a guy that I
(19:25):
knew or don't know? How? How? How? What was your
process like? Yeah? So, um the process where we went
through with Siano. Because when I first got hired to
the box coach Morris for he Morrison, I got hired
at the exact same time. There was no he searched
for me. I searched for him. It was an owner's
decision and we were notified of it. So it was
kind of a different situation there. But when we went
to a regular traditional hire, what I did is I
(19:48):
kind of I do my compartmentalized each piece. So I
grabbed three or four guys that had been head coaches
before because I wanted to kind of pick their brain
and see what they were like and see if they
had some juice that who would make sense for our
organization ation. And then I went out and got three
offensive coordinators and three defensive coordinators. I wanted to see
the differences. And then I went and interviewed, you know,
(20:08):
through or four college coaches, and we have to do
that very privately, very secretly because of recruiting. And you
start to compile your list of what you like, and
then you pare it down. After you eliminate, you know,
some of the coaches, maybe a couple of college coaches,
You go down to about your five health four and
do another round of interviews with him if you have
the time, and then you make your selection. Is how
we did it, so I I kind of looked at
(20:30):
it from every angle and then from a team's perspective. Uh,
you're looking to see how well does this coach kind
of know your team, but how will your players fit
into his scheme, especially your best players to make sure
that you feel like, is this going to be a
good fit for the guys that are a leite on
my team? Because I don't want to put that square
peg in a round hole. You know, Um, you're fascinating
(20:51):
a guy to have on Because Siano comes in and
he had done an amazing job building ructors, Like I
don't think people have a healthy enough respect for what
he was able to do the first time around at Rutgers.
Of course he's back at Rutgers, but when you're building
a football program kind of from scratch at Rutgers, you
have a boss and an athletic director, but he's not
(21:12):
really your football boss, right, Like, he's not helping you.
I feel like that's one of the under discussed parts
of why college coaches oftentimes struggles because when they're in college,
they answer to nobody in terms of football decisions. Football
decisions are their decisions. It's not the case in the pros.
(21:32):
Uh did you when you hired Greg? Was that part
of the thought process of how he would have to
evolve in the pro game? You know, A couple of
things I liked about it was Number one, Greg had
been in the NFL before, is a coach with the
Chicago Bears. I thought that was important that he's actually
had some experience in this football league, so he's seeing
what a draft goes through. He's been part of it.
(21:55):
And then I thought, Uh, what would be good is
because of what you said with Rutgers in terms of
you know, I think at the time we hired Greg,
I think records had like the fifth most most players
in the entire National Football League by college. I mean
that's a crazy thought. Um, when you start to think
of Notre Dame or Florida or whoever Alabama. Um. And
so he was pumping guys in. So I knew from
the evaluation standpoint he'd be good to work with. I
(22:17):
did not think about, you know, how hard it would
be for him to I think, being molding young guys
and feeling like you're the father figure for them, and
how you thought you had to put your thumb on
them all the time. That transferred more heavily than I thought.
It was going to the Nation football again. And a
lot of people don't know that. Greg made tremendous changes
from year one to year two. But the problem was
(22:38):
everybody already had the perception built in you couldn't you
can overcome it, and so he had actually changed. And
it's it's a shame. Yeah, no, it's it's really really hard.
I actually talked about this, uh, I think yesterday the
day before. It is like like, look, you know, um,
don't we wish it's some jobs you can come in.
There's is a book I think it is the first
ninety Days is what it's called right and right and
and and I had somebody to give it to. And
(23:00):
looking in my job, it's a little different. Like you
can come in you kind of feel everybody else's culture
and understand it, and but when you're the head coach,
everybody feeds off of you, so you can't really. It's
a great book, and it's great for different taking a
new job. It's a great idea, but it's just different
in the NFL because the second you get that job,
allies are on you and you set the course and
(23:21):
you don't have time to kind of learn on the
It's a very difficult kind of transis because you don't
have time to sort of learn on the job. I
want to ask you about something um that Chris Ballard
said earlier today where it was the opposite of a
vote of confidence for Carson Wentz. He didn't want to
answer a question about whether or not Carson Wentz would
be their quarterback next year. You've been in that position before,
(23:45):
You've had quarterback issues before. What do you think of
that choice by Chris Ballard to make that verbal decision. Well,
you know, it's a it's a big shot. I mean,
Chris has been in there for a little while, you know,
Jacoby Pursutt was there. Obviously that didn't work out the
way they were hoping it would. They obviously go to
Philip Rivers for a year, and then they make the
big decision to trade a first round pick for Carson
(24:05):
what ends up being a first round pick for Carson Wentz.
And so I think the right news is I think
he said the right thing, you know, meaning we saw
the game, and Carson cost him a football game, and
the whole team cost themselves a football game. But Carson
certainly didn't help with the turnovers back to back. And
I think if I was in Chris ballace shoes, I
(24:25):
think I would uncover every stone and make sure his
Carson the best option. He's gonna be on the roster,
he's gonna go to camp, all those kind of things,
just because of what you've given up for him. But
I wouldn't sit there and say for sure it's his team,
because you've got to speak to Darius Slender, Darris lendso
going at you know, the organization going and I don't know, man,
we're pretty good and we can't quite get over the hump.
(24:46):
And so and this year specifically, I think it's gonna
be fascinating to watch the quarterbacks move around, because I
know we focus a lot on Aaron Rodgers and people
like to talk about the Russell Wilson's I'm still not
sure exactly what's gonna happen with John Watson. Let's see
what jim grow club does in the playoffs, and let's
see what Jimmy where does he end up? You know,
because I don't think he stays in San Francisco because
they've got to make the trade land. So Jimmy Garoppolo
(25:07):
is an interesting guy. You're like, where does he go?
Or what happens to a lot of these other quarterbacks
that are gonna start moving around a little bit. So, um,
it's gonna be a great offseason to discuss that. But
I actually agree with Chris Ballant, and I think what
I would do also is have a quick conversation with
Carson and say, hey, look, it's gonna be open competition
and let him know ahead of time before I announced
that to the world. Yeah, my issue is not with
(25:30):
how he's thinking. My issue is why he's saying it, Like,
what what's the win in telling everybody that the quarterback
position is is likely. I think you're you're trying to
appease the public perception of what's going on in the
public right now. Colton Cold fans are like, oh my gosh,
this are going to be our quarterbacks forever. We're never
going to get it done. And so instead of trying
(25:53):
to say everything's gonna be all right, you just go
out there and say we're not going to guarantee anything.
And and I think that's probably you know, uh ownership
down to sit there and say hey, let's go ahead
and just go out there and just say it is
what it is, and if we can find something that's
going to be competitively better, whether it's the second round
of the draft, third round, or it's a free agent
or trade, we're gonna look into it. Stug gotlip show
(26:15):
here on Fox Sports Radio. Mar dominic Is is our guest,
of course, longtime scout and general manager in the National
Football in the National Football League. Um, when when you
look at this weekend and you look at the Niners,
you mentioned Garoppolo and the idea that he's gonna be
playing elsewhere, Um, they become kind of a hot pick
(26:37):
to go on the road and beat the Cowboys, And
I think a lot of it is because the Cowboys
have a lot of talent. They don't play in a
particularly good division, but it doesn't feel like they're they've
hit that they're a great team sort of stride. What
do you think when you see the matchup between the
Niners and the Cowboys? Yeah, you know, I think Dallas
is going to find their grooves. I really think although
(27:00):
they played an Eagle team that sad a lot of players, um,
they just they have been able to score a lot
of points when they're healthy. They've got two headed monster
at running back. Dalton Schultz has really stepped up huge
for them at the tight end position during this contract
year for him. Offensive line looks like it's coming together
and stayed healthy. That they're healthy right now, and I
think that's a different Dallas team than we've seen before.
(27:21):
And I think that that's the difference maker. And I
think we're also used to Dallas stubbing their toe that
we're assuming they're going to do it again, and it's
a it's a different team and I just I feel
very confident that as much as that's the upset special
pick for just about everybody, they're like Oh, I think
that's going to be the one. I think Dallas will
take care of business because I just think they're too
explosive across the board, and especially on the deepensive side,
(27:43):
where they've got playmakers at all levels, as you know,
with what we've seen a Traylon Biggs in the secondary,
what we see with Michael Parsons and his performance, and
certainly de Marcus Lawrence. So they can get you anywhere.
And I think that's what makes them such a different
team than the previous Dallas. The Tennessee times in the
number one seed in the A s C. And it
doesn't and we're assuming they're gonna get Derrick Henry back,
(28:04):
but does not feel like they've commanded people's respect. Maybe
it's because of you know, some of the other teams
that have beaten them that are in the playoffs. When
you look at Tennessee, what do you see going to
the playoffs. Yeah, I think everything's got to come together
for them. I think they're good football team that has
can't overcome turnovers. When they have turnovers, they become an
(28:26):
average football team. And you know, I happened to be
at the Houston Texans game here in Nashville, where I lived,
and I went to that game, and that was where
Tannehill I think had three or four interceptions. And you're
playing a team that's really had nothing going for it
and they've lost. And it just kind of spoke to
me that here's a team that just can't take a
lot of adversity. That they can play smart and they
can play good, but if they get hit with adversity
(28:48):
in the postseason, especially in the turnover margin, I just
don't think they have the firepower to come back from that.
And that's where I'm I like the Titans. Uh, they
certainly have a little bit of a different role or
maybe an easier rode than you'd shape Boffalore Kansas City,
because they'll end up having to play to others. They
can both wait win, But I just don't feel like
the Titans will represent the A s C. And still
(29:09):
gotlip show here on Fox Sports Radio. That's the voice
of of Mark Dominic. All right, what about the Packers.
The Packers seem to be getting healthy at the right time.
Whitney Merciless was out there at practice today when people
thought he was lost with the torn biceps. Um, they're
getting David back tr back. You know he played a
little bit last weekend. Now he gets a week off
to to get ready. Um, you know JR. Alexander's back
(29:33):
as well. But you know they bumped into that ceiling
of the NFC Championship game past two years. When you
see the Packers playing at home and the number one
seeing in the NFC, what do you see? I think
the Packers have a great shot of representing the NFC
hunting Aaron Rodgers just placed too well, too consistent, doesn't
doesn't have the mistakes. I think when Aaron Jones is
(29:54):
going and like you talked about some of these pieces,
especially coming back, Uh, that's just such a stable just
bring so much stability to that offensive line. Uh. And
they've they've had to throw rookies out there, and they've
done a good job with those guys. So I I
like the Packers of time. I think they have every
right to be considered or will win me uh NFC.
Going into last week's game, it was the Rams for me.
(30:16):
They obviously didn't fall off the Week eighteen victory, so
it slowed my role in the Rams a little bit.
But I still think the Rams could be the team
because of how good they are on defense, that they're
going to create enough turnovers, create enough opportunities in Stafford.
Even though he's gonna give you a chance to pick
get picked off, he's still going to spin the ball
and get you a touchdown to three maybe four in
(30:37):
a game. And I still think the Rams could be
the other team that might sleep sleep in there. Ye,
Rams are. Rams are pretty interesting team. I do wonder
what they look like going into the cold weather of
green Uh you know of Green Bay. I don't. Last
year Aaron Donald wasn't healthy, But you know a dome
team playing out there that it's gonna be an interesting then, Mark,
I hope you had a wonderful new year. Can't wait
to get you on again. Unbelievable resource to call up on.
(31:00):
Thanks for joining us, my pleasure, Thanks for having me
on and enjoying the games. 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 What Up Tug Gotleap Show, Fox Sports Radio.
(31:21):
I hope you're having a great day. The Doug Gotlip
Show broadcast live every day from sunny Southern California Welcome
in an overcast day. Um, I saw this story and
I thought it was it was good sound, and it
was it was you know, I do on some level,
(31:45):
I feel I feel for Russell Westbrook. Okay, and and
stick with me for a second if you will. I don't.
I've heard a lot of things out of the Lakers
and and some other NBA people have mentioned things to
me that aren't great, and I believe I'll get to
what I've heard. Some of the the the bigger issues
(32:09):
are with with Russell Westbrook and with the Lakers. Um.
But I also understand that like when you're a basketball player, okay,
And I don't know how to relate it to anything
in business, but I think I could try. But just
from a basketball perspective, you know, you grow up and
(32:34):
Russell Westbrook grows up in Los Angeles, the Lakers have
Shock and Kobe, and then Kobe wins two more titles afterwards.
I don't think there's any human being who plays at
U c l a is from southern California, grows up
in the shadow of the Lakers that hasn't been like,
(32:55):
you know what, wouldn't it be amazing someday to play
for the the Forum Blue and Gold, right would that be?
Would that be amazing? I mean, I'm obviously substantially older
than Russell Westbrook. Um. I was fortunate during my childhood
to watch Magic and James Worthy and Kareem Abdul Jabar
(33:15):
and Byron Scott and the Kopa Loop, Kurt Rambis A C. Green,
And I remember I wasn't a Laker fan growing up.
I wasn't. I was really kind of a Celtics fan,
right like at East Coast Ties plus the side. It
was just when everybody likes one thing, you're like, uh,
you know, I just I wasn't. But I got the
(33:38):
chance three different times, three different summers, two on some
level workout for play for you know, being a veteran's
free agent minicamp for the l A Lakers. And you
walk through those halls and you see not just the
pictures of Kareem and Jerry Weston, Elgin Baylor and all
(33:58):
the other you know, George, I can all the other
superstars to ever done the Laker Blue and Gold. Then
you see Magic and and then you see pictures of
Kobe Shack. You run into Derek Fisher in the hallway
and he started to think, like what if I played
for the Lakers. There's not a dude alive who plays basketball.
(34:21):
They didn't think about the Lakers. And then you're from
Los Angeles. And for Russell Westbrook, like, look, he's been
to an NBA Finals, he's been an NBA Finals MVP,
he's average triple double three consecutive years. He's done just
about everything. Wouldn't that be cool to play for the Lakers? Oh? Yeah,
they just wanted title two years ago, they got Lebron James.
All of these things like all coming together. So whatever
you think his vision should have been for playing with
(34:45):
the Lakers, everybody thinks you come home, you get a
victory parade, you win a title, and you right off
into the sunset as one of uh the best, if
not the best basketball city in the world in terms
of producing talent as one of their greatest players. Ever,
it is not working out that way. Not working out
(35:07):
that way. Um, But I I can, at least on
many levels hypothesize what could be going on in Russell
Westbrooks head. And like, look, he hasn't been a good shooter,
hasn't been a good finisher for for his career, but
it shouldn't be this bad. The mistakes shouldn't be this
(35:31):
egregious is bad and last night he was really bad.
They lose to the Sacramento Kings and when he got
the ball, the in house DJ, right, you know how
DJ was playing a little foreigner Diddy cold as Ice. Now,
(35:51):
obviously that means he hasn't been playing well. Uh, you know,
his head coach came out and said he's in a
bit of a slump. Take a listen to you. Dan
Wicks covered covers the team for what is he athletic now?
Or is he the Times still the Only Times? Wicks
covered which which is it? Chase too? It's the Times
the Only Times. Um Westbrook, for his part, I'm likely
(36:15):
didn't hear the music, but when he informed about it,
here was the exchange. Us, you're you're in a little
bit of a shooting slump here over these last four games,
the the in arena DJ had fun with it. I
guess sort of where are you at that? Did you
hear what they played? They played like Bollas Ice when
you got introduced and still Arena. Yeah, that's funny they
(36:37):
played that. I hope they played at the last fourteen
years too. It's funny, that's cute. So Russell Westbrook is
in more than a little bit of a shooting stumble late, right,
Like that's that's being about as kind as we can
(36:58):
be to Russell Westbrook. Okay, um, do were are we?
Do we? Jayson? Do we care at all? Yes? John Romas,
you had a question that I know he laughed about
that and kind of played it off. But he can't
be happy about that. That's that's not that's why. That's
why he clapped back like, yeah, yeah, where were they
(37:20):
last fourteen years when we've been busting the right and
I'm not even sure, to be honest with you, I'm
not even sure your own arena guys should do something
like that. Really, I yeah, I'm not in favor of
things like that. That's that's kind of kind of rude. Actually, well,
it's definitely rude, definitely rude. And he's your team. He's
playing for your team unless he's in on the No, no,
(37:42):
he's playing for the it's in Sacramento. Oh I'm sorry.
I thought they were at the Cryptochrome or whatever it's called. No, no, no, no, okay, yeah,
the last four games most definitely sacrament They played Sacramento,
they beat him um four games of Russ was seven
of nineteen. The following game they played Atlanta, he was
(38:05):
four or fourteen, two of twelve against Memphis it was bad,
and then two of fourteen last night. Uh, he has
missed his last ten fifteen three point shots. He's oh
of fifteen. That gates back six games. Six games he
hasn't made a three and seven games and he's missed
(38:27):
his last fifteen threes. So and looked at the what
I have heard from other guys in the league was,
you know, when they played Memphis the previous game, they
were getting blown out, and then he left the bench
and was was in the tunnel like waiting for the
game to be over. And then they go on a run.
He sits on the bench but doesn't stand up and cheer.
(38:50):
And I've just heard that, you know that when when
things go bad, guys, you know, some guys get defensive,
some guys work harder, some guy take more shots. Some
guys won't shoot. The frustrating part for the Lakers is that,
no matter what his assist totals have been throughout his career,
the general feeling around the league is Russ is about Russ,
(39:11):
and when he's not playing well, he's so in his
own head, so in his own world, whether they win
or whether they lose has no effect on Russ. But
this is like it's getting worse, not getting better. This
is not a wait till he relaxes, he gets comfortable.
He plays with Lebron more like with no Anthony Davis.
There's plenty of room for him to get to the rim,
(39:33):
and he's unable to do so even with Lebron playing
quote unquote center. It is interesting that both you and
just many people in general had made that point perfectly
clear before the season began, before this trade happened, and
it has come to fruition like it wasn't. You didn't
say that because you were just making some gas, like
you actually like, hey, this is what this guy is about.
(39:55):
I'm just letting you guys know that. And it actually
everything that people have said about Russell resturant is actually
has happened. And I don't know why people would be
you know, why they would put yeah, surprise like they
would oh, no, you don't because because he doesn't know
he's talking about about that it's gonna be different this time. Yeah,
(40:16):
it's not because I do think that people want they
want the Kurt Warner story. You didn't come back home,
but they want I mean, remember Kurt, Like here's a
here's a Kurt Kurt Warner was kind of out of
the league, and then he goes to Arizona's Matt Leonard's
back up and Matt Lnder gets hurt, and then they
he was pretty good. And then they still want to
(40:36):
give the job to to Line the next year, and
you know he Kurt Warner gets the job, wins the job,
and he takes him to a Super Bowl, like everybody
wants that Disney happy ending story. And I don't. I
don't see it. I don't. I don't see it. I
don't see it happening. And it's one thing for it
to not happen in Washington. They didn't turn around in
(40:57):
Washington last year. There's something to not happening Houston. But
it's not happening in l A, where I think so
many of us wanted it to end up happily for
an l A born kid who has succeeded at u
C l A, succeeded in the NBA and won an
m v P. Boy, it's it's really gone the opposite way.
(41:18):
Obosite way, yes, Jase two. Yeah, I mean I don't
know if you obviously we can't see the video, but
I mean it's Russ sounded like he was pretty cool
with that, but he was actually hot blooded. I thought
it was pretty cool about it. He was, but he
was hot blooded, but he always is. Um, how does that?
(41:40):
How does that change? Let me try this? You know
what I think, Oh, that's a hot blooded We're gonna
do seventies songs now, I think it's a seventies like
late seventies. Yeah. The problem with that thing that the
(42:00):
delivery was that John was so like John was so
busy trying to get the drop that he wasn't there
to laugh at my joke. So it just it fell
on death. Hear you do? That was in the works.
You want to get on this? Uh? Well, the funny
the funny thing I think about this was we're just
a day or two removed from the whole. Hey, we're
(42:23):
the Tampa Bay Buccaneers of the NBA and the and
if Lebron is Tom Brady, there is no doubt Russell
Westbrook was Antonio Brown like in terms of like we
knew how this was going to play out. And now
there may not have been as many highs with Russell
Westbrook in Los Angeles as there were with Antonio Brown
(42:43):
in Tampa. However, how it's ended, or how it's turned out,
is is how we expected. Why I think, I think,
I think you think about this for the me. Let me.
Can I pitch you on him for a second? Okay? Um,
remember when they won the title. Supposedly Dwight Howard had
a deal in place with the Lakers, and then he
(43:04):
tweeted out about it, and then I don't know if
Linkla got mad or he wasn't supposed to. And then
you know, he goes away for a year and he
comes back. Dwight Howard was a guy who I mean, look,
it's gone bad everywhere he's left previously, and now he's
back and he's he's a shell of his former self.
(43:25):
But I guess he was trying to get along more.
I don't know, Um, I mean personally, guys, I mean,
I I don't. I just don't think this is very urgent.
You guys think this is urgent? Yeah, yeah, urgent? Urgent?
(43:49):
Are these all foreigner songs? By the way, Yes. Part
of the problem is Westbrook comes l A and thinks
he's a jukebox hero and win over everything. I think, John, John,
now is the time when you play you know? I think.
(44:10):
I think what happens is what happens is they see
some late season success and Russell Westbrook is really happy
and he's bouncing around, he's running around the arena, and
it kind of feels like the first time. That's what
it does. It feels nice, feels John, You're not supposed
(44:31):
to say very nice. Guys want to find like the
first time. You can also say that when he hits
a field goal, it feels like the first time, feels Yes,
every time he's he's uh waiting for a guy like Westbard. Good? Okay,
too many songs? Yeah? Left over right now, it's left
(44:57):
over Chinese food from last night. I'm sorry, that's sounds delicious, John,
Nothing's quite as good as leftover Chinese food. Um. Do
you guys think they they want to live without loving?
(45:17):
I don't know about that, but I think he wants
to know what love is. Oh? I do too. Yeah.
What's amazing is they are British rock band that was
formed in New York City. Right, so Foreigner actually does
(45:40):
make sense in terms of their name. I didn't even
know that. Yeah, interesting, Yeah, well, I mean, look it
says it on Wikipedia. It was did they who had
did somebody had a drug problem? Did they sleep with
each other's wives? Did they get back together? To Mick Jones,
(46:04):
Mick Jones, Mick Jones, Jeff Pilson, Kelly Hanson not one
of the Hanson brothers. He's the fourth there was, But
Lou Graham, Lou Graham was the guy. But Lou Graham's
not in Foreigner anymore, even tho they still have Foreigner.
How do you how do you? How are you foreigner
known for that guy's unique voice, and you don't have
Lou Graham anymore? Really? Right? But now now, Bob Dylan's
(46:39):
band toured without him and they were known as the band,
right right, But they they became famous all on their
own though, So I mean, they're the band is a
is a Hall of fame rocke Roll hall of fame band? No,
I agree? And the Eagles back Linda ron Stand for
a long time too, and then obviously they're the Eagles though.
That's what made the whole Steve Perry Journey thinks so difficult,
(47:00):
is because when they, you know, hired the guy who
sounded almost exactly like Steve Perry. Like, man, I love
Steve Perry, and I don't like that he and Journey
aren't together, But man, a lot of their sounds and
I'll still sound the same. I mean stuff to turn
away from that, m hm um. But this, this uh
(47:22):
has been brought to you by every state fair bringing
back every old seventies band ever, ever, ever, ever,
Thanks for listening to the best of the Doug Gotlap
Show podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weekday
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(00:22):
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Doug got Leap Show, Fox Sports Radio. Hope you're having
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(00:44):
The Doug got Leave Show is brought to you by
Bett River sports Book bet Versus the Trust, the Name
and online sports betting. Gotta be twenty one President Colorbado, Illinois,
Indiana or Pennsylvania to play gambling problem called one eight
hundred Gambler. There is a there's a story out of Miami.
There's a story out of San Francisco. There's a story
at Las Vegas. And I think each each story, each
(01:06):
story relates to something we talked about over the past
couple of days, which is we all think that we're
in the we're in the business of sports, or in
the business of medical device sales, we're in the business
of educating people, or we're all in different businesses, when
the truth is we're all in the same business, the
people business. Um story. Mike Lombardi, who we've had on
(01:29):
the show, of course, has his own website and podcast,
the former UH front office executive, long time with the
newing the Patriots, some with the San Francisco forty Niners
as well as the Oakland Raiders. Mike Lombardi said that
apparently Brian Flores at some point in time during this
year told to a tug of Ioloa that he should
have drafted Mac Jones this season. Again, don't know how
(01:53):
it came out, don't know the context of it, but
it does paint the picture of how Brian Floras chose
to motivate his young quarterback, or maybe it was the
real reason why there was such a riff between he
and Chris Greer. Then there's this story from San Francisco, right, Um,
Jimmy Garoppolo is what's the term dead man walking? Isn't
(02:17):
is an a fair turn dead man walk? Uh, It's
more um not not even place holders, short timer. It's
when you're you're we all know you're going to either
be fired or or traded at the end of the
season or let go. He's a lame duck quarterback, is
what he is, right, It's a lame duck quarterback. And
(02:40):
Jimmy Garoppolo played great football last weekend, especially in the
second half, fourth quarter, in leading the Niners to a
comeback win over the Rams. He's led the Niners to
a super Bowl, obviously led the Super Bowl. Go in
the fourth quarter, didn't play well in the second half
and in the fourth quarter. I'm not disputing what most
people think of as the ceiling for Jimmy Garoppolo or
the incessant uh turnovers at inopportune times throughout his career.
(03:04):
But Garoppolo is far more good than he is terrible
quarterback because he's a lame duck and everybody knows it.
It's gotta be a weird existence. Here's Jimmy Garoppolo. Okay,
you know it, does it add any motivation and anything
like that? How much does that weigh in your mind
(03:26):
just throughout the course of a week, going into games
like this, It's always in the back of your mind,
and it has been in mind, you know, really this
whole season. Just uh, I knew what type of season
it was. Knew everything that was going on, you know,
behind the scenes and whatnot, So it was it was
a little different. It's like you're saying, you gotta tell
that line because you don't want to get too emotional
in those moments, and uh, you just gotta go play
football when it comes down to it. But you know,
the human side definitely comes into into play. You feel
(03:48):
it for a little bit after the game, and I
think twenty four hours after that, you gotta moved on quickly,
and you know we have We've done that pretty well. Yeah,
Garoppolo kind of lets you in a little bit. He
knew what type of season would be, He knew what
was going on. It sound like the the the Niners
have done any of this under the shadow of darkness,
right Like there's like like they're quietly manipulating to try
and get a quarterback in the off season. But it
(04:11):
is also fair to to point out that they move
mountains and then drafted his air apparent his replacement, and
whatever the level of competitiveness it was this year, everyone
knows what's going to happen at the end of this year.
On some level that that human element. You know, I look,
I'm as guilty of it as anybody. We we look
at these guys sometimes as machines. They're not supposed to
have the feelings of normal human beings. Some of that
(04:34):
is because that's what we've told football players are football guys.
Are you know, Ronnie Lott? I can't play because my
finger cut off? My finger? Easy? You know, give me
some remember when we were again, when we were kids,
guy would get his bell rung, smelling salts. Are you alert?
Go back in the game. That's that football mentality. The
(04:56):
truth is they're human beings. And when a human being
knows that this is potentially his not potentially likely his
last game if he loses, wearing a San Francisco for
the Night uniform, and it doesn't mean that Garoppolo has
to have some affinity that doesn't have to have grown
up a Niner fan. Like there's only thirty two teams.
The Niners are historically as significant as any franchise in sports.
(05:20):
Go and look at all the guys who have dawned
that uniform and played quarterback for that team, and there's
at least two Hall of Famers. I had to look
and think if there's even more than that. Quarterback of
the Niners is a pretty cool, pretty big thing, and
he led them back to the super Bowl. And the
idea that you know, with anyone mistake, with what anyone playing,
(05:41):
you don't necessarily process it as you're playing, but in
leading up to it, and in those moments of silence
and in those moments where you're on the sideline thinking,
you get lost in thought, you're like, man, this is it?
This similar in terms of topic, but similar in terms
of human element. Darren Waller is a spectacular talent, talent
(06:02):
sort of a tight end, more of a wide receiver,
but a constant mismatch. And of course he's been injured
this year. And Darren Waller is a guy who has
been very open about his own personal issues and demons
with addiction. Here's Waller yesterday talking about those issues even
this year with the Raiders. You know, my disease of addiction.
(06:24):
You know that can have me thinking all kinds of
crazy things, you know, so I got to make sure
that I'm talking about those things when i'm you know,
have all that idle time. So I got my therapist,
you know, I got stay going meetings, uh, staying in
the playbook, working on music. You know, just stay in solid,
keeping my head, you know, just out of that idle
time and just into things I enjoy and stay into
the game of football as much as I can think
(06:47):
about that for a second, like we all think of
all I've thought about Darry Waller, is man, COVID, knee whatever,
getting back on the field, because he's great. You know,
you don't even think about here's an addict who Now
you have a lot more idle time because you're not playing.
You know, what do you what do you do? And
then you factor in he's in Vegas, and look, you
(07:08):
can find trouble anywhere, and you can say whatever you
want about Cincinnati. Pac Man Jones didn't have any problem
finding trouble in Cincinnati. Trouble can be found anywhere, but
in Vegas. I mean it's a text message or phone
call or fifteen minute drive to any sin you can
possibly imagine. And Darren Waller has had to kind of
(07:30):
play through it while not playing. Here's Waller even more.
It's tough, honestly, because I'm a human being at the
end of the day, and I'm still trying to shed
some of my old thinking patterns. So you know, when
I'm not out there, I can think these thoughts of like,
you know, the team is balling without me being in
there is this like you know, am I like useless?
(07:51):
And it's just like these irrational thoughts. So I had
to be willing to stay in the practice that I
have to that bring me back down from that place
is like whoa, whoa. It's not than that anymore. And
it's like I'm not out there performing per se, but
I still have a role on this team. But sometimes
my mind can tell me like, oh man, you ain't
really doing nothing like you out like. So it's just
like staying locked in like you said, like, I have
(08:13):
to do that because my mind can take me to
those places and um, I don't want to be there anymore.
The show is brought to you by one of our
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make sure to play in your trip today to visit
Las Vegas dot com. It's it's a hard thing, right
(08:37):
because um, because part of the mentality allows anywhere from
boys to young men to men to be able to
play any sport, but especially this sport, is you have
to almost disassociate with the human side because you know,
(09:00):
m the human head is not meant to collide with
another human head. You know, they're just not. That's it's
an unnatural act. We're not rams. We're not built with
ram horns to go and collide into each other. We
have to put on helmets for these sorts of things.
On the other hand, you're dealing with human beings, and
human beings all act differently in times of adversity. They
(09:22):
all act differently when their question, They all act differently
when they have free time. They all act differently based
upon where they are in life and whether it's ta
and how he felt after Flores on some level said
they should have taken Mac Jones this year, or Jimmy
Garoppolo knowing that the Niners did take their next quarterback
(09:45):
in a Trey Lance, or Darren Waller in um his
desire to get back out in the field and the
Raiders amazing comeback season with all of their issues, sitting
there going like, you know, hardness to sit here and
not play your teams went like your team's winning and
you want them to win, but then you feel useless.
Plus you're not doing anything. Plus you're an addict, and
(10:07):
you start thinking all kinds of thoughts. Everybody thinks they're
in some other business. We're all in the people business. Now,
you navigate those personalities. That's job number one if you're coaching, leading,
or even trying to have a good feel for how
these guys will will perform. Fox Sports Radio has the
(10:28):
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 Doug Otlip Show Fox Sports Radio.
(10:49):
Can I ask you guys a question. This is a
is a real question. Okay, this has nothing to do
with sports, which you know, Like, look, I mean, I
just so, um ramos, you've been around me enough obviously, Um,
you guys know what I what. I basically live. I
live on two drinks throughout the day that I I don't.
(11:10):
I'm not a big water guy, although I'm trying to
become more of a water guy. I'm not a big
water guy. You guys familiar with the two things that
I imbibe throughout most of the day. I believe you
love to drink um. Is it the Arnold Palmer's Arnold
Palmer coffee? An Arnold Palmer Okay coffee. I didn't get
the cofeever, I knew you'd liked Arno Palmer though. Yes,
I I basically basically like I do UM. But I
(11:38):
think what's interesting about it is so I make uh
Tazzo t this that passion tea at home, or I'll
make the Nesty the instant and like it's the cold
brew tea or whatever at home, and then I mix
it with lemonade. Now I'm very specific with what types
of I only use that simple lemonade. That's it. It's
(11:58):
always simple lemonade. It's always nesty cold brew te or
it's always Tazzo passion tea. That's that's caffeine free. And
I mixed the two and that that's what I drink.
Literally from as soon as I have my cup of
coffee the morning until that all throughout the day, I'm
just constantly sipping on it. UM. And I do know
like how much it costs at Starbucks, that same passion
(12:20):
tea lemonade combination is like four fifty four seventy five
for a Venti And here I am feeling like I'm
getting a deal. Is that cheap of me? Though? To
make it for myself at home, I would say no,
I would drink your tea that you make before I
would drink the other one if you're offer, Like if
(12:41):
if you said, hey, ra almost I have some you know,
iced tea at my house or do you want me
to stop at blank blank to get I'd be like,
knowled drink yours. That's me personally, okay, okay, I you
know I was I was like doing last night. I
was doing something else in terms of like numbers, was
actually doing reimbursements for something ship. And then I got
like like the A D D kicked in and I
(13:04):
started doing the numbers on how much time saving per uh,
you know, per drink in comparison. I was like, wow,
this is probably fifty five cents maybe maybe less per
like gigantic drink. And then you know, like at Starbucks
they put so much ice in it. Unless you do
no ice, and we do no ice, it doesn't taste
really is good. So I can do full ice here
(13:25):
and it doesn't matter. So I'm like saving like four
dollars a drink, and then I'm working out in my
head like if I have three d s a day?
Am I saving twelve dollars? But I wouldn't have three
of them a day if I was actually going to
buy them. I don't know that that was. That was
basically like, and then I was like, what am I doing? God?
I'm either bored or completely distracted, maybe a little bit
of both. Check out the latest lines on World of Sports.
(13:45):
A better sports book. Better was the Trust naming online
sports betting. You must be twenty one, you must be
president Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, or Pennsylvania to play gambling problem
called one Gambler now stuck out live show here on
Fox Spool Orts Radio A lot to get to a lot,
A lot, A lot to get to. Um okay. So
(14:06):
my my point was, by are you you grew up
in Wisconsin? I know that high school football is over
before the actual meat of winter, but how how uh
how did you deal with playing in the cold? Like
what's the the the inside the Beltway secrets? Just if
you're playing in cold? We would play in long underwear.
That's what you know. You throw that underneath the uh
(14:28):
the old the pads. You need to have long sleeves. Uh.
If you're going to a game, like if you're going
to Lambeau, layers is a big layers is the is
the right way to go and make sure that those
feet are insulated. Okay, that's interesting because Bart Scott offered
up another possibility. I don't really know. Uh. Mark Dominic
joins us. Of course, he was a long time scout
in the National Football League, the gentle manager of the
(14:49):
Tampay Buccaneers. But I if I remember, Mark, you grew
up in Minnesota, right, Like you're like your cold weather
cold weather dude, Um, how do you you with playing
football in the cold? Like, what's what's the what's the
keys to it? Yeah? I wish I had a good example.
Remember I went to Tampa Bay for a long time.
It was we never won a game below forty two degrees, right,
(15:10):
so it was certainly hard. Um. Yeah, I was born
in Minnesota and spent some time in South Dakota too,
so I know what cold feels like. Uh. You know,
and it's the hidden layers that you can't see, is
what you know a lot of people do with it,
like you talked about the feet, the thermals underneath, but
when you get to your arms and these offensive linemen
they just leave him out there. And it's just it's
(15:31):
a mental battle for three and a half hours that
you just got to get through. It's funny because it
wasn't Shanna was like he wanted sixty eight degrees in
every room, right, that was this thing. You guys couldn't
win below forty two and he wanted at sixty eight. Right,
he should have cranked that sucker even further down. I
bring up the cold because this was Bart Scott on
TV earlier today with some advice or players getting ready
(15:51):
to play in the cold. Can people get this menstal
by a Gras take some biagraph for the game baby
to fit the circulation going right? You played a lot
of us take via right because opens up the bloodst
A lot of us what do you mean, A lot
of a lot of NFL players, at least in my day,
(16:12):
took BIAGRAGHATI open up the blood vest. There's a lot
of endurance athletes because first heart medicine, right, So it
builds up circulation, which makes sure that it get those
circulations to the feet. Okay, Mark, you were in the
league for a long time where dudes popping Viagray to
get their circulation going. I had. I was in the
league over twenty years, and I've never heard that until
(16:34):
he just said that. And I'm like, I guess I
see what he's saying, but I've never heard that, never
heard our trainer talk about it, or never heard anything
talk about it in the facility. Man. Well, I mean
that's and he played with some stiff defenses when he's
in New York. I mean, sorry, sorry, I had, I
had to, but I just didn't know if if it
was like a trade secret, like right, like in basketball
(16:55):
when he gets cold and dry in the gyms, you
gotta put that utter cream on your hands after you
shower and after you play, because your hands will crack
and you'll get those splits in your finger and it's
really hard to shoot and handle a basketball. I didn't
know if if Viagara was like the end all be
all for circulation in the coal I had literally literally
no idea. All right, let's let's let's move on. Let's
(17:16):
let's get to some football stuff. Um I do want
to react to the Sunday night game, because this is
good a football game, as interesting in football game as
I've seen. If you're the general manager and I do
know tim to let's go pretty well. But if you're
the gentleal manager and you hire a guy who tells you, hey, look,
based on analytics, I'm gonna go for it, and you're
all in, and then you know, in the first half
(17:37):
of the biggest game of the year, he goes for
it on fourth and two from his own eighteen What
are you thinking. I'm thinking that's a really better work.
And those are frustrating ones. Right. If you don't get that,
you're very frustrated because you're like, well, this is a
critical game for us to get in. And you know,
as much as I can appreciate analytics, I'm not a
huge fan of fourth and two on eighteen yard line
(17:58):
no matter where the game is, unless to right at
the end. Yeah, that one was that that's crazy. And
then I would pull him into my office after the
game's over. And usually what I did with with coaches
is after the game was over, I to go down
to briefe the coach after the game, talk about it
before he went to the podeum talk about anything that's
going on from a medical standpoint, and also just his
overall emotions to keep him in check so that nothing
(18:20):
comes out. But that shouldn't come out. And it's the
next day, the Monday morning, where I have the heart
to heart on the on the question to calls and
he knows it's coming. And I always tell him like, hey, look,
we we do free agency, when we do the draft,
and you want to really kind of break things down
and talk to me about what's wrong with this team.
I'm open the ears to hearing that too. So, uh,
you have to ask him about that question. And that's
that was one of two plays I thought that were
(18:42):
very questionable that I think cost the charters when you're
when you're trying to hire a coach, and we've seen
coaches firing, okay, so oftentimes I think, look, I've tried
to tell people that that most of these hires, most
of them, not all of them, are with people they
have worked with before or right, because then they know
how you operate, you know how they operate. There's usually
(19:04):
a tie. Of course, that's one of the reasons that
you have the running rule is like hey, let's bring
somebody in that might not be in the normal cycle,
or let's try and reach out. When you made coaching hires,
what is it like to try and work through, Hey,
I want to hire the best guy, but I need
to fit for our franchise. I need to fit for
our owner. I need to fit from my style, and
I gotta figure out is it a guy that I
(19:25):
knew or don't know? How? How? How? What was your
process like? Yeah? So, um the process where we went
through with Siano. Because when I first got hired to
the box coach Morris for he Morrison, I got hired
at the exact same time. There was no he searched
for me. I searched for him. It was an owner's
decision and we were notified of it. So it was
kind of a different situation there. But when we went
to a regular traditional hire, what I did is I
(19:48):
kind of I do my compartmentalized each piece. So I
grabbed three or four guys that had been head coaches
before because I wanted to kind of pick their brain
and see what they were like and see if they
had some juice that who would make sense for our
organization ation. And then I went out and got three
offensive coordinators and three defensive coordinators. I wanted to see
the differences. And then I went and interviewed, you know,
(20:08):
through or four college coaches, and we have to do
that very privately, very secretly because of recruiting. And you
start to compile your list of what you like, and
then you pare it down. After you eliminate, you know,
some of the coaches, maybe a couple of college coaches,
You go down to about your five health four and
do another round of interviews with him if you have
the time, and then you make your selection. Is how
we did it, so I I kind of looked at
(20:30):
it from every angle and then from a team's perspective. Uh,
you're looking to see how well does this coach kind
of know your team, but how will your players fit
into his scheme, especially your best players to make sure
that you feel like, is this going to be a
good fit for the guys that are a leite on
my team? Because I don't want to put that square
peg in a round hole. You know, Um, you're fascinating
(20:51):
a guy to have on Because Siano comes in and
he had done an amazing job building ructors, Like I
don't think people have a healthy enough respect for what
he was able to do the first time around at Rutgers.
Of course he's back at Rutgers, but when you're building
a football program kind of from scratch at Rutgers, you
have a boss and an athletic director, but he's not
(21:12):
really your football boss, right, Like, he's not helping you.
I feel like that's one of the under discussed parts
of why college coaches oftentimes struggles because when they're in college,
they answer to nobody in terms of football decisions. Football
decisions are their decisions. It's not the case in the pros.
(21:32):
Uh did you when you hired Greg? Was that part
of the thought process of how he would have to
evolve in the pro game? You know, A couple of
things I liked about it was Number one, Greg had
been in the NFL before, is a coach with the
Chicago Bears. I thought that was important that he's actually
had some experience in this football league, so he's seeing
what a draft goes through. He's been part of it.
(21:55):
And then I thought, Uh, what would be good is
because of what you said with Rutgers in terms of
you know, I think at the time we hired Greg,
I think records had like the fifth most most players
in the entire National Football League by college. I mean
that's a crazy thought. Um, when you start to think
of Notre Dame or Florida or whoever Alabama. Um. And
so he was pumping guys in. So I knew from
the evaluation standpoint he'd be good to work with. I
(22:17):
did not think about, you know, how hard it would
be for him to I think, being molding young guys
and feeling like you're the father figure for them, and
how you thought you had to put your thumb on
them all the time. That transferred more heavily than I thought.
It was going to the Nation football again. And a
lot of people don't know that. Greg made tremendous changes
from year one to year two. But the problem was
(22:38):
everybody already had the perception built in you couldn't you
can overcome it, and so he had actually changed. And
it's it's a shame. Yeah, no, it's it's really really hard.
I actually talked about this, uh, I think yesterday the
day before. It is like like, look, you know, um,
don't we wish it's some jobs you can come in.
There's is a book I think it is the first
ninety Days is what it's called right and right and
and and I had somebody to give it to. And
(23:00):
looking in my job, it's a little different. Like you
can come in you kind of feel everybody else's culture
and understand it, and but when you're the head coach,
everybody feeds off of you, so you can't really. It's
a great book, and it's great for different taking a
new job. It's a great idea, but it's just different
in the NFL because the second you get that job,
allies are on you and you set the course and
(23:21):
you don't have time to kind of learn on the
It's a very difficult kind of transis because you don't
have time to sort of learn on the job. I
want to ask you about something um that Chris Ballard
said earlier today where it was the opposite of a
vote of confidence for Carson Wentz. He didn't want to
answer a question about whether or not Carson Wentz would
be their quarterback next year. You've been in that position before,
(23:45):
You've had quarterback issues before. What do you think of
that choice by Chris Ballard to make that verbal decision. Well,
you know, it's a it's a big shot. I mean,
Chris has been in there for a little while, you know,
Jacoby Pursutt was there. Obviously that didn't work out the
way they were hoping it would. They obviously go to
Philip Rivers for a year, and then they make the
big decision to trade a first round pick for Carson
(24:05):
what ends up being a first round pick for Carson Wentz.
And so I think the right news is I think
he said the right thing, you know, meaning we saw
the game, and Carson cost him a football game, and
the whole team cost themselves a football game. But Carson
certainly didn't help with the turnovers back to back. And
I think if I was in Chris ballace shoes, I
(24:25):
think I would uncover every stone and make sure his
Carson the best option. He's gonna be on the roster,
he's gonna go to camp, all those kind of things,
just because of what you've given up for him. But
I wouldn't sit there and say for sure it's his team,
because you've got to speak to Darius Slender, Darris lendso
going at you know, the organization going and I don't know, man,
we're pretty good and we can't quite get over the hump.
(24:46):
And so and this year specifically, I think it's gonna
be fascinating to watch the quarterbacks move around, because I
know we focus a lot on Aaron Rodgers and people
like to talk about the Russell Wilson's I'm still not
sure exactly what's gonna happen with John Watson. Let's see
what jim grow club does in the playoffs, and let's
see what Jimmy where does he end up? You know,
because I don't think he stays in San Francisco because
they've got to make the trade land. So Jimmy Garoppolo
(25:07):
is an interesting guy. You're like, where does he go?
Or what happens to a lot of these other quarterbacks
that are gonna start moving around a little bit. So, um,
it's gonna be a great offseason to discuss that. But
I actually agree with Chris Ballant, and I think what
I would do also is have a quick conversation with
Carson and say, hey, look, it's gonna be open competition
and let him know ahead of time before I announced
that to the world. Yeah, my issue is not with
(25:30):
how he's thinking. My issue is why he's saying it, Like,
what what's the win in telling everybody that the quarterback
position is is likely. I think you're you're trying to
appease the public perception of what's going on in the
public right now. Colton Cold fans are like, oh my gosh,
this are going to be our quarterbacks forever. We're never
going to get it done. And so instead of trying
(25:53):
to say everything's gonna be all right, you just go
out there and say we're not going to guarantee anything.
And and I think that's probably you know, uh ownership
down to sit there and say hey, let's go ahead
and just go out there and just say it is
what it is, and if we can find something that's
going to be competitively better, whether it's the second round
of the draft, third round, or it's a free agent
or trade, we're gonna look into it. Stug gotlip show
(26:15):
here on Fox Sports Radio. Mar dominic Is is our guest,
of course, longtime scout and general manager in the National
Football in the National Football League. Um, when when you
look at this weekend and you look at the Niners,
you mentioned Garoppolo and the idea that he's gonna be
playing elsewhere, Um, they become kind of a hot pick
(26:37):
to go on the road and beat the Cowboys, And
I think a lot of it is because the Cowboys
have a lot of talent. They don't play in a
particularly good division, but it doesn't feel like they're they've
hit that they're a great team sort of stride. What
do you think when you see the matchup between the
Niners and the Cowboys? Yeah, you know, I think Dallas
is going to find their grooves. I really think although
(27:00):
they played an Eagle team that sad a lot of players, um,
they just they have been able to score a lot
of points when they're healthy. They've got two headed monster
at running back. Dalton Schultz has really stepped up huge
for them at the tight end position during this contract
year for him. Offensive line looks like it's coming together
and stayed healthy. That they're healthy right now, and I
think that's a different Dallas team than we've seen before.
(27:21):
And I think that that's the difference maker. And I
think we're also used to Dallas stubbing their toe that
we're assuming they're going to do it again, and it's
a it's a different team and I just I feel
very confident that as much as that's the upset special
pick for just about everybody, they're like Oh, I think
that's going to be the one. I think Dallas will
take care of business because I just think they're too
explosive across the board, and especially on the deepensive side,
(27:43):
where they've got playmakers at all levels, as you know,
with what we've seen a Traylon Biggs in the secondary,
what we see with Michael Parsons and his performance, and
certainly de Marcus Lawrence. So they can get you anywhere.
And I think that's what makes them such a different
team than the previous Dallas. The Tennessee times in the
number one seed in the A s C. And it
doesn't and we're assuming they're gonna get Derrick Henry back,
(28:04):
but does not feel like they've commanded people's respect. Maybe
it's because of you know, some of the other teams
that have beaten them that are in the playoffs. When
you look at Tennessee, what do you see going to
the playoffs. Yeah, I think everything's got to come together
for them. I think they're good football team that has
can't overcome turnovers. When they have turnovers, they become an
(28:26):
average football team. And you know, I happened to be
at the Houston Texans game here in Nashville, where I lived,
and I went to that game, and that was where
Tannehill I think had three or four interceptions. And you're
playing a team that's really had nothing going for it
and they've lost. And it just kind of spoke to
me that here's a team that just can't take a
lot of adversity. That they can play smart and they
can play good, but if they get hit with adversity
(28:48):
in the postseason, especially in the turnover margin, I just
don't think they have the firepower to come back from that.
And that's where I'm I like the Titans. Uh, they
certainly have a little bit of a different role or
maybe an easier rode than you'd shape Boffalore Kansas City,
because they'll end up having to play to others. They
can both wait win, But I just don't feel like
the Titans will represent the A s C. And still
(29:09):
gotlip show here on Fox Sports Radio. That's the voice
of of Mark Dominic. All right, what about the Packers.
The Packers seem to be getting healthy at the right time.
Whitney Merciless was out there at practice today when people
thought he was lost with the torn biceps. Um, they're
getting David back tr back. You know he played a
little bit last weekend. Now he gets a week off
to to get ready. Um, you know JR. Alexander's back
(29:33):
as well. But you know they bumped into that ceiling
of the NFC Championship game past two years. When you
see the Packers playing at home and the number one
seeing in the NFC, what do you see? I think
the Packers have a great shot of representing the NFC
hunting Aaron Rodgers just placed too well, too consistent, doesn't
doesn't have the mistakes. I think when Aaron Jones is
(29:54):
going and like you talked about some of these pieces,
especially coming back, Uh, that's just such a stable just
bring so much stability to that offensive line. Uh. And
they've they've had to throw rookies out there, and they've
done a good job with those guys. So I I
like the Packers of time. I think they have every
right to be considered or will win me uh NFC.
Going into last week's game, it was the Rams for me.
(30:16):
They obviously didn't fall off the Week eighteen victory, so
it slowed my role in the Rams a little bit.
But I still think the Rams could be the team
because of how good they are on defense, that they're
going to create enough turnovers, create enough opportunities in Stafford.
Even though he's gonna give you a chance to pick
get picked off, he's still going to spin the ball
and get you a touchdown to three maybe four in
(30:37):
a game. And I still think the Rams could be
the other team that might sleep sleep in there. Ye,
Rams are. Rams are pretty interesting team. I do wonder
what they look like going into the cold weather of
green Uh you know of Green Bay. I don't. Last
year Aaron Donald wasn't healthy, But you know a dome
team playing out there that it's gonna be an interesting then, Mark,
I hope you had a wonderful new year. Can't wait
to get you on again. Unbelievable resource to call up on.
(31:00):
Thanks for joining us, my pleasure, Thanks for having me
on and enjoying the games. 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 What Up Tug Gotleap Show, Fox Sports Radio.
(31:21):
I hope you're having a great day. The Doug Gotlip
Show broadcast live every day from sunny Southern California Welcome
in an overcast day. Um, I saw this story and
I thought it was it was good sound, and it
was it was you know, I do on some level,
(31:45):
I feel I feel for Russell Westbrook. Okay, and and
stick with me for a second if you will. I don't.
I've heard a lot of things out of the Lakers
and and some other NBA people have mentioned things to
me that aren't great, and I believe I'll get to
what I've heard. Some of the the the bigger issues
(32:09):
are with with Russell Westbrook and with the Lakers. Um.
But I also understand that like when you're a basketball player, okay,
And I don't know how to relate it to anything
in business, but I think I could try. But just
from a basketball perspective, you know, you grow up and
(32:34):
Russell Westbrook grows up in Los Angeles, the Lakers have
Shock and Kobe, and then Kobe wins two more titles afterwards.
I don't think there's any human being who plays at
U c l a is from southern California, grows up
in the shadow of the Lakers that hasn't been like,
(32:55):
you know what, wouldn't it be amazing someday to play
for the the Forum Blue and Gold, right would that be?
Would that be amazing? I mean, I'm obviously substantially older
than Russell Westbrook. Um. I was fortunate during my childhood
to watch Magic and James Worthy and Kareem Abdul Jabar
(33:15):
and Byron Scott and the Kopa Loop, Kurt Rambis A C. Green,
And I remember I wasn't a Laker fan growing up.
I wasn't. I was really kind of a Celtics fan,
right like at East Coast Ties plus the side. It
was just when everybody likes one thing, you're like, uh,
you know, I just I wasn't. But I got the
(33:38):
chance three different times, three different summers, two on some
level workout for play for you know, being a veteran's
free agent minicamp for the l A Lakers. And you
walk through those halls and you see not just the
pictures of Kareem and Jerry Weston, Elgin Baylor and all
(33:58):
the other you know, George, I can all the other
superstars to ever done the Laker Blue and Gold. Then
you see Magic and and then you see pictures of
Kobe Shack. You run into Derek Fisher in the hallway
and he started to think, like what if I played
for the Lakers. There's not a dude alive who plays basketball.
(34:21):
They didn't think about the Lakers. And then you're from
Los Angeles. And for Russell Westbrook, like, look, he's been
to an NBA Finals, he's been an NBA Finals MVP,
he's average triple double three consecutive years. He's done just
about everything. Wouldn't that be cool to play for the Lakers? Oh? Yeah,
they just wanted title two years ago, they got Lebron James.
All of these things like all coming together. So whatever
you think his vision should have been for playing with
(34:45):
the Lakers, everybody thinks you come home, you get a
victory parade, you win a title, and you right off
into the sunset as one of uh the best, if
not the best basketball city in the world in terms
of producing talent as one of their greatest players. Ever,
it is not working out that way. Not working out
(35:07):
that way. Um, But I I can, at least on
many levels hypothesize what could be going on in Russell
Westbrooks head. And like, look, he hasn't been a good shooter,
hasn't been a good finisher for for his career, but
it shouldn't be this bad. The mistakes shouldn't be this
(35:31):
egregious is bad and last night he was really bad.
They lose to the Sacramento Kings and when he got
the ball, the in house DJ, right, you know how
DJ was playing a little foreigner Diddy cold as Ice. Now,
(35:51):
obviously that means he hasn't been playing well. Uh, you know,
his head coach came out and said he's in a
bit of a slump. Take a listen to you. Dan
Wicks covered covers the team for what is he athletic now?
Or is he the Times still the Only Times? Wicks
covered which which is it? Chase too? It's the Times
the Only Times. Um Westbrook, for his part, I'm likely
(36:15):
didn't hear the music, but when he informed about it,
here was the exchange. Us, you're you're in a little
bit of a shooting slump here over these last four games,
the the in arena DJ had fun with it. I
guess sort of where are you at that? Did you
hear what they played? They played like Bollas Ice when
you got introduced and still Arena. Yeah, that's funny they
(36:37):
played that. I hope they played at the last fourteen
years too. It's funny, that's cute. So Russell Westbrook is
in more than a little bit of a shooting stumble late, right,
Like that's that's being about as kind as we can
(36:58):
be to Russell Westbrook. Okay, um, do were are we?
Do we? Jayson? Do we care at all? Yes? John Romas,
you had a question that I know he laughed about
that and kind of played it off. But he can't
be happy about that. That's that's not that's why. That's
why he clapped back like, yeah, yeah, where were they
(37:20):
last fourteen years when we've been busting the right and
I'm not even sure, to be honest with you, I'm
not even sure your own arena guys should do something
like that. Really, I yeah, I'm not in favor of
things like that. That's that's kind of kind of rude. Actually, well,
it's definitely rude, definitely rude. And he's your team. He's
playing for your team unless he's in on the No, no,
(37:42):
he's playing for the it's in Sacramento. Oh I'm sorry.
I thought they were at the Cryptochrome or whatever it's called. No, no, no, no, okay, yeah,
the last four games most definitely sacrament They played Sacramento,
they beat him um four games of Russ was seven
of nineteen. The following game they played Atlanta, he was
(38:05):
four or fourteen, two of twelve against Memphis it was bad,
and then two of fourteen last night. Uh, he has
missed his last ten fifteen three point shots. He's oh
of fifteen. That gates back six games. Six games he
hasn't made a three and seven games and he's missed
(38:27):
his last fifteen threes. So and looked at the what
I have heard from other guys in the league was,
you know, when they played Memphis the previous game, they
were getting blown out, and then he left the bench
and was was in the tunnel like waiting for the
game to be over. And then they go on a run.
He sits on the bench but doesn't stand up and cheer.
(38:50):
And I've just heard that, you know that when when
things go bad, guys, you know, some guys get defensive,
some guys work harder, some guy take more shots. Some
guys won't shoot. The frustrating part for the Lakers is that,
no matter what his assist totals have been throughout his career,
the general feeling around the league is Russ is about Russ,
(39:11):
and when he's not playing well, he's so in his
own head, so in his own world, whether they win
or whether they lose has no effect on Russ. But
this is like it's getting worse, not getting better. This
is not a wait till he relaxes, he gets comfortable.
He plays with Lebron more like with no Anthony Davis.
There's plenty of room for him to get to the rim,
(39:33):
and he's unable to do so even with Lebron playing
quote unquote center. It is interesting that both you and
just many people in general had made that point perfectly
clear before the season began, before this trade happened, and
it has come to fruition like it wasn't. You didn't
say that because you were just making some gas, like
you actually like, hey, this is what this guy is about.
(39:55):
I'm just letting you guys know that. And it actually
everything that people have said about Russell resturant is actually
has happened. And I don't know why people would be
you know, why they would put yeah, surprise like they
would oh, no, you don't because because he doesn't know
he's talking about about that it's gonna be different this time. Yeah,
(40:16):
it's not because I do think that people want they
want the Kurt Warner story. You didn't come back home,
but they want I mean, remember Kurt, Like here's a
here's a Kurt Kurt Warner was kind of out of
the league, and then he goes to Arizona's Matt Leonard's
back up and Matt Lnder gets hurt, and then they
he was pretty good. And then they still want to
(40:36):
give the job to to Line the next year, and
you know he Kurt Warner gets the job, wins the job,
and he takes him to a Super Bowl, like everybody
wants that Disney happy ending story. And I don't. I
don't see it. I don't. I don't see it. I
don't see it happening. And it's one thing for it
to not happen in Washington. They didn't turn around in
(40:57):
Washington last year. There's something to not happening Houston. But
it's not happening in l A, where I think so
many of us wanted it to end up happily for
an l A born kid who has succeeded at u
C l A, succeeded in the NBA and won an
m v P. Boy, it's it's really gone the opposite way.
(41:18):
Obosite way, yes, Jase two. Yeah, I mean I don't
know if you obviously we can't see the video, but
I mean it's Russ sounded like he was pretty cool
with that, but he was actually hot blooded. I thought
it was pretty cool about it. He was, but he
was hot blooded, but he always is. Um, how does that?
(41:40):
How does that change? Let me try this? You know
what I think, Oh, that's a hot blooded We're gonna
do seventies songs now, I think it's a seventies like
late seventies. Yeah. The problem with that thing that the
(42:00):
delivery was that John was so like John was so
busy trying to get the drop that he wasn't there
to laugh at my joke. So it just it fell
on death. Hear you do? That was in the works.
You want to get on this? Uh? Well, the funny
the funny thing I think about this was we're just
a day or two removed from the whole. Hey, we're
(42:23):
the Tampa Bay Buccaneers of the NBA and the and
if Lebron is Tom Brady, there is no doubt Russell
Westbrook was Antonio Brown like in terms of like we
knew how this was going to play out. And now
there may not have been as many highs with Russell
Westbrook in Los Angeles as there were with Antonio Brown
(42:43):
in Tampa. However, how it's ended, or how it's turned out,
is is how we expected. Why I think, I think,
I think you think about this for the me. Let me.
Can I pitch you on him for a second? Okay? Um,
remember when they won the title. Supposedly Dwight Howard had
a deal in place with the Lakers, and then he
(43:04):
tweeted out about it, and then I don't know if
Linkla got mad or he wasn't supposed to. And then
you know, he goes away for a year and he
comes back. Dwight Howard was a guy who I mean, look,
it's gone bad everywhere he's left previously, and now he's
back and he's he's a shell of his former self.
(43:25):
But I guess he was trying to get along more.
I don't know, Um, I mean personally, guys, I mean,
I I don't. I just don't think this is very urgent.
You guys think this is urgent? Yeah, yeah, urgent? Urgent?
(43:49):
Are these all foreigner songs? By the way, Yes. Part
of the problem is Westbrook comes l A and thinks
he's a jukebox hero and win over everything. I think, John, John,
now is the time when you play you know? I think.
(44:10):
I think what happens is what happens is they see
some late season success and Russell Westbrook is really happy
and he's bouncing around, he's running around the arena, and
it kind of feels like the first time. That's what
it does. It feels nice, feels John, You're not supposed
(44:31):
to say very nice. Guys want to find like the
first time. You can also say that when he hits
a field goal, it feels like the first time, feels Yes,
every time he's he's uh waiting for a guy like Westbard. Good? Okay,
too many songs? Yeah? Left over right now, it's left
(44:57):
over Chinese food from last night. I'm sorry, that's sounds delicious, John,
Nothing's quite as good as leftover Chinese food. Um. Do
you guys think they they want to live without loving?
(45:17):
I don't know about that, but I think he wants
to know what love is. Oh? I do too. Yeah.
What's amazing is they are British rock band that was
formed in New York City. Right, so Foreigner actually does
(45:40):
make sense in terms of their name. I didn't even
know that. Yeah, interesting, Yeah, well, I mean, look it
says it on Wikipedia. It was did they who had
did somebody had a drug problem? Did they sleep with
each other's wives? Did they get back together? To Mick Jones,
(46:04):
Mick Jones, Mick Jones, Jeff Pilson, Kelly Hanson not one
of the Hanson brothers. He's the fourth there was, But
Lou Graham, Lou Graham was the guy. But Lou Graham's
not in Foreigner anymore, even tho they still have Foreigner.
How do you how do you? How are you foreigner
known for that guy's unique voice, and you don't have
Lou Graham anymore? Really? Right? But now now, Bob Dylan's
(46:39):
band toured without him and they were known as the band,
right right, But they they became famous all on their
own though, So I mean, they're the band is a
is a Hall of fame rocke Roll hall of fame band? No,
I agree? And the Eagles back Linda ron Stand for
a long time too, and then obviously they're the Eagles though.
That's what made the whole Steve Perry Journey thinks so difficult,
(47:00):
is because when they, you know, hired the guy who
sounded almost exactly like Steve Perry. Like, man, I love
Steve Perry, and I don't like that he and Journey
aren't together, But man, a lot of their sounds and
I'll still sound the same. I mean stuff to turn
away from that, m hm um. But this, this uh
(47:22):
has been brought to you by every state fair bringing
back every old seventies band ever, ever, ever, ever,
Host
Doug Gottlieb
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