05-07-24 Hour 1 of Broncos Country Tonight

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Welcome to It Brockos Country Tonight shortshow edition on the podcast here thanks to
the Colorado Rockies Benjamin all right herewith you Grand Smith five six six nine
Zeros text line you guys want toget involved in the conversation. Had an
interesting day on social media today.Austin Rivers went on the Pat McAfee Show

(00:28):
and claimed that he could take thirtyplayers right now in the NBA and throw
them in the NFL. Then hewent on to say, you can't take
thirty NFL players and put them inthe NBA. We're in a unique position
here at Kawas we have Dave Logan, who was drafted by both the NFL
and NBA Major League Baseball as well, and I think Dave Logan would vehemently

(00:50):
disagree with Austin Rivers. Obviously,this has been a topic of debate on
social media all day today. PHILP. Dorsett even got out there and said
that he witnessed Ostar Rivers quit afterone day because football was too hot for
him. It's uh, it's prettyfunny because I get people in my mentions.

(01:11):
I just was, you know,you know, me im in it
for the jokes. I was like, so the same dudes whining fifty times
a night about getting touched during ashot are going to survive tackles in the
league, which led the basketball people, of course, to fall right into
my deviously constructed trap jump in mymansions. And you know, tell me
how there's there's no way that NBAplayers could play in the league, and

(01:34):
excuse me, NFL players could playin the in the NBA, and I
just like I appreciate the skill setsrequired for both, but at the end
of the day, I do believeyou could put some people in the in
the NFL in the NBA. Infact, I mean there are hyper athletic

(01:56):
people in the NFL that I thinkwould be borderline on in the NBA.
You just have to get them todevelop certain types of shots and all that
kind of stuff. I mean,Ricky Piersol is an old world athlete who
can jump out of the gym anddunk. I think we all saw the
video of a thirty eight year oldJosh McCown, you know, hooping it
up. Drew Locke was even ashooting guard prospect before he committed fully to

(02:21):
football. He might be able tomake a team like a competitive team,
and of just quarterbacks. What allsaid and done. And that's not to
say that it can't go both ways. So you can find special athletes that
can go across. But the ideathat you could take thirty guys and drop
in the league either way is ofcourse ludicrous. We've seen examples of people
who played basketball or have a basketballbackground play in the in the NFL.

(02:44):
Guys like Antonio Gates or you know, Chris Maynards actually recently here for the
Broncos. You know, we've seenguys like Tony Gonzalez. We've seen guys
do both at the collegiate level.Malik Monk the Sacramento Kings. His brother

(03:08):
Marcus Monk did both in college atArkansas, and he played wide receiver for
the Chicago Bears briefly. Monkst teammateMatt Jones played college basketball and football,
played quarterback, and then he playedreceiver in the NFL. Receiver tight end

(03:30):
in the NFL for a couple ofyears. So, I mean, it's
it's been done. You can seeit done. It's just it's just rare,
and it's rare to have somebody thathas the skill set for both.
Not something that you find every day. I thought it was interesting as a

(03:53):
premise, But the idea that youwould just be so sure as to go
in and say that I could dropthirty guys from the NBA the NFL right
now, I mean, I guessyou could. And if the idea was
that they're going to go run routesand practice and then that kind of stuff.
Sure, But the minute the hittingstarts, I think you're going to
see a lot of those guys quit. It's a different mental Football is a

(04:15):
different mentality. You have to havea different mentality to play a contact sport.
There is a vast, vast differencebetween the the the mental toughness needed
to play football and the mental andand what it takes to play basketball.
And it's not to diminish basketball players. It's not. I I respect what

(04:43):
they do in the NBA. Irespect basketball players. And it takes a
different skill set and there's there's uhtechnical ability to it that you know,
you have to have that that Ithink that people uh in the NFL would
would be hard pressed to find thesame token. There is a mentality required

(05:04):
to play football that I've found andyou'll and you'll see this and comments made
about players that have made that switchfrom basketball to football, that sometimes they
lack that toughness matters. Might bethe one example of somebody who didn't.
Julius Thomas, you know, famouslywas knocked for his inability to block and
kind of his toughness. Uh assomebody that, you know it didn't really

(05:30):
have the football mentality. And you'llsee that thrown around, you know,
sort of derisively. You'll see thatat the pro ranks, you know,
and you talk about guys that havea basketball background in the draft. You
talk to people and they'll say,oh, he's a basketball guy. They
mean it derogatorily that they lacked thewhat that really is his code for?
They don't have the toughness to makeit in the NFL, or they don't

(05:53):
believe that they have the toughness tomake it in the NFL. I don't
know that that's factually accurate. Idon't know that that's one hundred true,
but I think that there are elementsof that, and certainly there has been
a case history of guys who've triedto make that switch. I think more

(06:16):
people have tried to make the switchfrom basketball to football than vice versa.
I'm trying to think of the lasttime somebody quit football to go play basketball,
and I'm struggling off the top ofmy head. There have been over
the years just a very few peoplewho have been drafted into every major sports

(06:39):
league, Guys like Dave Winfield andof course Dave Logan here Ack k Way.
They've talked about it all the time, and you know, Dave was
an incredible athlete. He was draftedin Major League Baseball by the I believe
it was Cincinnati Reds. I'm nota hundred on that. I'd have to

(07:00):
go back and look. But outof high school he was he was considered
a pitcher in an infield prospect,was drafted in the first twenty rounds.
I can't remember nineteenth. I thinkI'm not a hundred on that. Somebody
have to fact check me. Butyou know, he decided to go to
college instead of instead of baseball,so he went to Colorado and he was,

(07:24):
you know, a Playboy All Americannineteen seventy four, nineteen seventy five,
Sporting News All American, and thenin seventy six he was drafted by
the then Kansas City Kings, whowent on to become the Sacramento Kings and
the Cleveland Browns, and he electedto play for the Browns and he played

(07:47):
I played for Cleveland four I believeit was seven years, might have been
eight. Then he came to Denverfor for one season, got four games
in and did did have one loanreception as a Bronco. But when he
was when he left Cleveland, heranked in the among the top five at

(08:09):
the time in every receiving category onthe on the franchise books, played in
what two playoff games. I thinkeighty and eighty two. Best season was
arguably seventy nine, when he hadfifty nine receptions, nine hundred and eighty
two yards seven touchdowns. But Dave, I think would tell you, and

(08:31):
I don't want to speak for him, but we've had conversations similar to this,
and I think he would tell youflat out that the NBA guys are
just not surviving in the league,and the NFL guys, if they could
develop that shot, might be ableto survive in the NBA, but they
would have to develop that for whateach would need to cross over NFL people,
you're probably your best bet is eitheran offensive lineman becoming some type of

(08:54):
power forward, or you know somebodywho's a quicker, faster guy becoming a
a smallish guard. You know,you go back and you talk to people.
Alan Iverson was one of the bestquarterbacks in high school football history.
Whether he would translated to the NFL, I you know, I don't know.
Charlie Ward is probably the most famousmodern case, although the Seahawks had

(09:20):
a guy that that did both.I believe it was the first guy in
seventy years to suit up in bothleagues. I'd have to go back and
I'd have to go back and look. But I believe he suited up at
tight end in the preseason and thenhe was I'm trying to remember the guys
names like Mark Vital so I'm notI'm not a hunter on that. I'd

(09:46):
have to go back and I'd haveto go back and look, which I
guess I could try to do rightnow while I'm talking to you guys.
I just think that there's a mentalitythat that most guys coming from the NBA
are coming from basketball backgrounds struggle withyou know, and I think that's I

(10:16):
think that's the thing. If youdon't if you don't have that background,
you don't have that that toughness.That football tight it's it's tough, yeah,
Mark Vittal uh he was part ofBaylor's twenty twenty one NCAA championship.

(10:39):
Declared for the NBA draft, hewent on drafted, He get signed to
the UH to There's the Blazers forthe summer league, and then when that
uh didn't work out, he wentto the Seahawks. H tried to make
it as a tight end. Ididn't really make it neither. But you
know, probably the closest thing toclosest thing to either. Charlie Ward of

(11:03):
course won the Heisman in college football, and then you know electrical pro and
basketball. Well, like I said, we have a unique asset here at
KOA and Dave Logan who was draftedboth and you know, could probably tell
you that would probably tell you thatthere's a toughness in the league that just
most basketball players struggle to couch,would struggle to capture and ultimately whether or

(11:31):
not people could make the crossover asan exercise and hypotheticals anyway, But it
was certainly all the rage on socialstoday and I found the discussion, you
know, sort of fascinating, especiallywhen people were as adamant as they were
about their opinion on it, aboutwhether or not there who could go to

(11:52):
their sport and not the other sport, and all that kind of stuff.
It was certainly it was interesting towatch the certitude with which people had that
they were going to be able tomake that crossover or whatever bit of crossovers.
One guy trying to crossover to theNFL, although from the college ranks,

(12:18):
Tali Attackava Law, the younger brotherof Dolphin's quarterback Too I talking about
the Talia participated in the Seahawks rookiemini camp on a tryout, but was
not offered a spot on the ninetyman roster. He will participate in Cardinals'
rookie mini camp this weekend on atryout basis. Mike Garifolo reporting on them.

(12:46):
Tahia played college ball at Alabama andthen Maryland. He petitioned the n
state of LA for a six seasonof eligibility, but was denied and then
declared for the NFL. After that. Other quarterback news, today, the
Giants lamed quarterback Nathan Rourke off Waiverswork was a favorite in the CFL for
the BC Lions. He's on thedepth chart, fourth behind Daniel Jones,

(13:11):
Drew Locke, and Tommy DeVito forthe Giants and be a camp arm to
make a long shot, long shotto make the regular season roster, but
we'll see how that works out forhim and then. In other news,
Chad Kelly, also of the CFL, former Broncos quarterback that has been suspended

(13:33):
a minimum of nine games along withthe preseason following the CFL's investigation into a
lawsuit filed by former strength and conditioningcoach against the player and the club,
the Toronto Argonauts. Kelly was suspendedfor the two preseason games as well for

(13:54):
violating its gender based violence policy beit acquired undergo confidential assessments by an independent
expert and attend mandatory counseling sessions conductedby a gender based violence expert. Both
the counseling sessions and assessments must besatisfactorily completed before the NFL will consider Kelly's

(14:15):
reinstatement. Kelly was the CFL's mostoutstanding player last season, leading to Toronto
leading Toronto Excuse Me to a leaguebest in franchise record sixteen and two overall
record. Argo season ended with athirty eight to seventeen home loss to eventual
Great Cump champion Montreal in the EastDivision. There was no announcement regarding any

(14:37):
pelties or sanctions against the Argonauts asa team. The club's conduct is going
to be reviewed, however. Kelly, of course, played at Clemson East
Missippi Community College annal miss was misterIrrelevant in the twenty twenty excuse me,
the twenty seventeen NFL draft, ofcourse by the Broncos. The Broncos released

(15:01):
him in twenty eighteen after he wasarrested for criminal trespassing. People remember that
as being part of the had VonMiller party that year. After he left
the party, Kelly it thrived tothat point at the you know in the
CFL, but just as struggled.And for those that don't know, the

(15:24):
CFL had been investigating allegations made bya former strength and conditioning coach who alleged
to have been wrawfully dismissed after beingharassed by Chad Kelly. The coach file
a statement of claim in the OntarioSuperior Court of Justice back in late February,

(15:45):
alleging a pattern of harassment by Kellythat began with unwanted romantic advances and
escalated in it to instances of threateninglanguage. Coach said the club did not
act when told of Kelly's behavior.At accused assistant general manager John Murphy of
saying the report opened at can ofworms. It didn't he to be opened.
Argonaut said in a statement the clubwill cooperate with the CFL's investigation.

(16:06):
Chad Kelly's agent, Chris Lamberis,said neither he nor Kelly could comment,
and obviously we have the result todaythat nine game suspension, which for the
CFL is a half season suspension.Those of you wanting to know that would
be the expected suspension for those askingof Rashi Rice, the wide receiver with

(16:30):
the Kansas City Chiefs, Adam Schefterscome out and suggested that he will probably
receive a suspension that gets close toa half season as well. Listen to
Broncos Country Tonight, Benjaminal Bright,Grant Smith here with you abbreviated show version.
We will be back after this righthere on eight fifty am ninety four
one FM News Talk Sports. Welcomeback to it Broncos Country Tonight. Benj

(16:56):
w Albright, Grant Smith here withyou. Short showing again tonight obviously post
Rockies. We have a full showThursday. Myself, Nick Ferguson will be
back full show Thursday tomorrow. Weare expected to be joined by Ryan Edwards,
the og the Godfather got to beback to UH do a segment.

(17:18):
It'll be podcast in late broadcast,but h expecting Ryan to uh to join
us, so that ought to beought to be fun. Five six six
nine Zeros of text Line had ahad a private iHeart event earlier today and
I can say, Uh, that'ssupposed to talk about a lot of stuff

(17:41):
that came out of there. Butone of the things I can talk about
is Bonex has not picked a numberyet and the team doesn't know what number
he's going to end up with uhinfinality. But as it sits right now,
Bonex has not picked a number.So there's reports out there that Bonix
was going to wear number one,which he may wear, are not true
at this point. He has notpicked one to where, has not picked

(18:03):
the number one or a number towhere just yet. Ten was his collegiate
number. Zach Wilson currently has thatnumber, So we'll see if they are
able to work something out. Atweeter got me thinking about this earlier today
when they started pointing out that youknow I X and you know in BO
Nix's name is nine, and Iwas like, well, ah, well,

(18:25):
interestingly enough, if you go backto about I think it was seven
twenty five a D, there isno Roman numeral n right however, save
today, In about seven twenty five, A D began the use of the
letter N for null, because there'sno Roman numer for zero. Like,

(18:47):
the Romans didn't have a number fornothing. It was just you know,
you had one or there was theabsence of but they didn't have a real
manumal for that. So around seventwenty five, what are the saints there
in the church popularized the use ofN for now or zero. So if
Bo were to get Riley Dixon,who currently wears nine, to give him

(19:08):
that number and instead of wearing ninemore a zero nine, then he would
be spelling out digitally nicks on hison his chest there, because you know,
null I X, I X isa Roman no more from nine,
so and I X would be nicks. And I thought that was sort of

(19:30):
fascinating. Maybe I'm the only DORCwho sort of appreciates that stuff. One
of the other things and I know, want to get too far off the
beaten path. We'll get back tofootball a minute. One of the other
things that tis fascinated me of late. I was never a big soccer guy,
but I have in recent years startedstudying other sports basketball, hockey,

(20:00):
soccer, especially because soccer is theone I'm the least first in, or
was the least first in, inan attempt to study, you know,
kind of spacing concepts with these sportsand see if anything is applicable to the
NFL at American football, and I'vegone, I've had a sort of gone

(20:26):
down the rabbit hole, as itwere, with soccer, and specifically this
this club in Spain, Gorona,and its manager a guy who goes by
the name of Michelle but is spelledm I c h e l. His

(20:48):
real name is like Michael Munios.He's a former midfielder soccer midfielder of the
you know, who had a aI don't want to lengthy a decent career.
Wasn't like a decent career in thatlike, you know, but he
played at some minor clubs and youknow, and had had a little bit

(21:08):
of a professional career and all thatkind of stuff. But now as a
manager, what he's doing is fascinatingto me. Uh. He's gotten one
of the you know, a clubthat was lowly ranked although they did have
significant financial assets, and has completelyturned him around. He said. A
six year managerial career. He's beenfired twice, like two different clubs,

(21:32):
including the club that he played at. But he has found a way to
take a lowly rated team and makethem one of the best teams in soccer.
And what he's doing is wildly unconventional. It's you know, soccer had

(21:56):
a lot of soccer is about coveringas much of the pitch as possible and
symmetric, being symmetrical and and allthese things. And what he has done
I find I find it's fascinating.I won't get into too too much of
it because I don't have bore youguys with with stuff that you're not tuned
in for. But if you geta chance to look it out, look

(22:17):
it up. GARNA G I,R O n A uh and their their
manager and and how he if youare a soccer fan, how he does
what it is that he does,He's absolutely fascinating to me. I'm like,
so far down the rabbit hole inthis I'm talking about. I've got
to, uh, the soccer equivalentof All twenty two. I'm I'm sitting

(22:38):
here, guy, you know,I'm sitting here deep diving on all this
kind of stuff and how this guyattacks the game of soccer as a manager,
and you know some of this,some of the unconventional taxic he's doing,
pulling his goalie out and he well, I say, pulling school.
His goalie becomes a center back defender, one of his defenders goes forward to
become a central midfielder. How theywrote Tate the formation to the right and

(23:00):
an effort to create imbalance and thenyou know, use crossers to get to
the wide winger. It's just it'sfascinating stuff to me, and maybe maybe
it's not as fascinating to you guys. It's something during the break that I've
been during the breaks that I've beenshowing Nick and Grant over the last couple
of days, and so I thinkthat for me, I think that it's

(23:29):
I don't know, it's one ofthose things where you know, you ever
you ever see something and it's notsomething that you would consider yourself an expert
on, right, Like you havea passive interest in it, but it's
not something you would consider yourself anexpert on, but you recognize genius and
that's sort of the thing I havehere, and that's sort of why I'm
so I think I'm so fascinated byit. It's because I like, like

(23:51):
it's one of those things where I'mwatching something and I'm like, that guy's
a genius and I know enough toknow what I don't know about this,
but I'm interested to see and solike that's why I'm kind of doing a
deep dive on this and wondering whatthe counter tactic is going to be for
it. All that kind of stuff. Anyway, five six six nine zero
is a text line not looking touh to get all the way down the

(24:12):
rabbit hole on soccer unless you guyswant to talk about soccer. But I
I just it's something that I foundUH fascinating, you know, and I
have just I've gotten to the pointwhere what I'm trying to do with with

(24:33):
some of these other sports is,UH is learn at a level and a
technical level that I would try tolearn that I that I already I guess
kind of have about football. Andso for me, I think I think
getting down the deep dive on this. So if you guys have any tips
on managers in in soccer that Ishould, you know, I should watch

(24:56):
something they're doing that's innovative. I'dlove to for you guys to text them
to me. Give me an opportunityto take a look at some of that
kind of stuff. Five six sixnine zero. I do want to get
back into some football stuff. We'retalking the other day about the Patriots and
what they're gonna do for their generalmanager. Most people believe it'll be Elliott

(25:18):
Wolfe is the presumed front runner forthe job. The Patriots have complied with
the Rooney rule and will say thatand it is something that you have to
you have to do for GM,not just for your coach. I don't
know who they satisfied the Rooney rulewith because I have not seen the you

(25:42):
know, a report on who theydid, but they are according to sourcing,
they have. They expressed interest inBill's director or player personnel Terrence Gray
and Greg declined. So it's interestingto me how you know, Elliott wolf

(26:08):
is the presumed favorite for the joband all that, but at least three
people, at least three candidates thatthe Patriots have tried to the interview have
declined, and it got me wonderingas to why they would decline for that.

(26:29):
Is it because the head coach hasalready picked and you're walking into a
situation that probably needs an entire offensiveoverhaul. They've already drafted a quarterback that
may ran up in your guy,and so you don't want to tie your
general managership to a coach and ata quarterback you didn't pick. Possibility,
You don't want to follow Bill Belichick. You never want to be the guy

(26:53):
that follows the guy. Possibly oris it just the presumption that you're wasting
your time that Elliott Wolf is alreadygoing to get the job, because that's
the widespread perception and you don't wantto waste your time. Well I sort
of get that, except that interviewingI don't. I mean, it's experience,
and it's experienced our future interviews,so I could never and getting your

(27:15):
name out there is always a positive, So you know, for me,
I don't know. I just foundI found that to be to be interesting.
One other thing I wanted to getinto we didn't get into earlier.
I mentioned Rashi Rice in the lastsegment, but the chiefs receiver, who

(27:37):
is already facing eight felony charges fora multi car crash back on March thirtieth,
is now being investigated for allegedly hittinga photographer at a nightclub in Dallas
on Monday. According to TV stationWFAA, down in Dallas, police are

(27:59):
interviewing witnesses after an incident at somethingcalled the Lit Kitchen. Rice's availability for
this season was already in question afterhe lost control of a Lamborghini while allegedly
driving one hundred and nineteen miles anhour, caused a six vehicle crash on
a Dallas highway. Two victims inthe crash have already filed civil suit against

(28:21):
Rice and suspended Southern Methodist corner TeddyKnox, who was driving and speeding in
Rice's Corvette when he lost control,so he was racing, basically racing his
buddy. He was in the Lambeauand Rice was in the corvette. Rice,
of course, could face punishment ofthe league's personal conduct policy. Adam
Schefter has already reported that they expect, you know, something like a half

(28:45):
season suspension. Rice has been workingwith Pat Maholmes near Fort Or, Texas,
and participating in virtual meetings with theChiefs team. The Chiefs will have
to decide before May twentieth whether hewill participate in practices at the team facility.
The Chiefs try to cover their bases, I guess by trading it up

(29:08):
in the first round to select Texaswide receivers and if you're worthy after they
signed Hollywood Brown and free agency,Rice of course, led Kansas City's wide
receivers with nine hundred and thirty eightyards and seven touchdowns on seventy nine receptions
last season as a rookie. Ijust I don't if you're ra she Rice,

(29:33):
what are you doing at a nightclubon a Monday night, much less
going after a photographer like I mean, and I get it. I work
in media. I know the sleazierparts of media and the reputation that they
have, especially a lot of thesephotographers trying to get a shot, crowd
and space, that kind of stuff. That said, if you're a sheep,

(29:57):
Rice, what are you even doingyourself in that situation? You've got
two civil suits hanging over you,eight counts in criminal court. It is
ludicrous for you to be out theredoing that kind of stuff. But I
don't want to say you can't havefun, but man, like what you're
doing putting yourself in a position ina public place where you're already partially a

(30:22):
target, You already have things hangingover your head for decisions that you've made,
just feels like he is not thinkingin a way that he should be
thinking. Like right now, man, you got to be doing your best
to get out there and be seendoing charity work, be seen doing things

(30:52):
that add value and not things thatare putting you at risk for more trouble
to who compounds your legal issues.I don't understand it. The NFL,
and it's never any pursuit of revenuestreams is moving closer to grabbing some money

(31:18):
from private equity funds. Bloomberg dotcom reporting that quarterly meetings held later this
month could result in the passage ofa rule allowing owners to sell up to
thirty percent of a team to approvedinvestment collectives. The most anyone fund could
own in any one team would potentiallybe ten percent. Now it's possible that

(31:38):
a fund could hold equity in multipleteams, and those percentages could change as
the NFL Special Committee for considering theissue continues. It's work the issue was
not finalized at the league meetings backin March. Roger Goodell spoke at the
conclusion of that event pegged May orOctober as more realistic targets. Owners obviously

(32:01):
meet four times a year March,May, October, and December. And
this potential shift comes at a timewhen franchise values are skyrocketing to the point
where it's difficult for individuals that cansatisfy the league's ownership rules. So if
when the rules allow private equity investments, existing owners could peel. If a
slice of the equities sell to privatefunds, new owners could recruit equity funds

(32:24):
to become part of the initial teaminvestors. Over time, it will make
the purchase of one hundred percent ofa team far less common, since private
equity funds will remain in place aftersort of control. If they do shall
share those sell those percentages. Sothose funds could eventually end up with plenty

(32:45):
of sway regarding who is or isn'tconsidered you know ownership in the NFL,
and it is it's getting more difficultfor people to be able to sell,
simply be because the value of franchisehas gotten so high that very few can
afford it. So I mean,I sort of get what they're what they're

(33:16):
doing here, and try to createways to do all that. I think
this creates its own complications down theline, and there's a reason that the
league has has avoided it thus far. But I also get how it could
offer a reprieve in terms of sellingoff and percentages and all that kind of
stuff. And we're at the pointwhere I'm not saying that at any point

(33:40):
teams will be treated like stock orsell stock, similar to what the packers
have with their you know deal,which is something that's wildly different. It's
a printing press for them though.But the end of the day, this
will provide a cash infusion, itwill help owners. I just think that

(34:01):
thirty percent mark is a little high. Like when I look at this stuff,
I'm like, I, you know, I don't know that I would
be getting involved at beyond the tenpercent mark, let alone twenty twenty five
thirty percent. It remains to beseen some of the hurdles and challenges of
how that will go about, butI believe that that's going to be coming,

(34:23):
probably not this month, but Ido believe in October they'll have worked
out the parameters of that, andthere'll be something they'll be up for a
vote at that point. Listen toBroncos Country tonight right here on Kowai A
fifty a M ninty four nfl owsTalk Sports,