January 12, 2026 • 40 mins
Number, Word and Song of the Day. LA Times UCLA Beat Reporter Ben Bolch on the surge in transfers for Bob Chesney and the Bruins football program, latest on UCLA Hoops and his upcoming move to CA Post. Chargers Insider Daniel Popper on the disappointing loss to the Patriots and what now for the Bolts
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Love, casts out, fear and gratitude can conquer pride, Conny.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Utes, Petros and money. AM five seventy LA Sports. We're
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we are your home of the NFL all divisional games.
Will three of the divisional games this weekend will be
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February sixth.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
That are other play by play? Is Clippers basketball?
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Once an absolute, unmitigated failure and embarrassment, it is now
hot as any freaking basketball team in the NBA. Clippers
won both over the weekend against the Nets and the Pistons.
They will take on the Hornets tonight. Pregame at six thirty,
tip off at seven thirty, right here on your home
(00:53):
of the fifteen and twenty three Clippers, AM five to
seventy LA Sports.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
Very exciting. Oh we got some breaking news from uh
what do we got? Tim Kats? I don't know if
you're gonna like it, Matt, what we got Corey.
Speaker 3 (01:06):
To Adam Schefter, h jesse mentor the defensive coordinator for
the LA Chargers. It's gonna interview with the Las Vegas
Raiders this week.
Speaker 4 (01:16):
Yeah, unbelievable, unbelievable.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
Believable, shame for shame, for shame, for share the Raiders
four times. Man breaked out when he had the starting roster.
He beat the Broncos all three times, and he just
swept the Chiefs this year. So would not be a
surprise if they wanted to hire jesse Minner to uh,
to get Max Crosby back on board for everything they're
(01:41):
doing in Las Vegas, and that would be incredibly depressing.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
Man. Wow, Man breaked out for shame, for shame, incredible
for shame, pressing for shame. Who will the Chargers hire
Rex Ryan? Rex Rex Ryan is out there at USC
coach and linebackers poorly.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
That would be exciting. Uh, maybe they can get the
the both of the party.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
Sorry Rob Ryan, Rob Bryan. Yeah, Rex and his teeth
throw over at Espen. Maybe those Peter at Espen. Maybe
those guys can save the Chargers Dodgers.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
I would assume not the first of many interviews coming
for jesse min Or. Now that the Chargers have been
summarily dispatched from the NFL's postseason.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
I want to make sure. I credit Ian Rapperport for that,
not to Schefters. So they're in a fight with each other.
They're in a big urination contest. Cheap my name off
your lips. Rapaports fighting with Schefter over whether or not
John Harbaugh lost the locker room in Baltimore. According to Rappaport,
a lot of them tweeted it out and the other
lot of them that's not what I heard. There was
(02:49):
tears and hugs. That's a big thing. Man.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
I remember Brady Quinn and dan Orlofsky getting into it
over Blair Underwood. That was one of the better ones
on Twitter from this last year.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
Blair Underwood from La Law. Yes, a great incredible with that.
Speaker 3 (03:06):
Who are the two guys that got in a fight
at the NFL combine And it was video.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
That was that was that was Rapaport and Schultz. Ah,
that was a star of Howard Schultz, guy worth fifty
billion dollars whose son is in the world of insider
NFL information.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
And that little bald gallum looking guy. Garoppolo was there
as a witness. Yes, Mike, you know, I mean you
know that's yes. He was there to witness the whole
thing and told us about it. We appreciate that his words.
(03:44):
The word of the day, today's word of the day
is this is for you, Matt and for me, it
is still coming. Yeah, I you know, I think I
dropped the ball during the holiday season. I mean we
got Vietnam Chris in, we got the hate List, and
we got the Thanksgiving stuff in. We missed the recipe,
(04:06):
but we got a lot of that stuff in. But
I didn't do enough about the holiday Buffalo Bill's Touchdown movie,
although we did did address it. I mean, it wasn't
dressed that it was coming, but we did not play
any sound. We played some sound. We did. We played
some sound. Yeah, we well, we played the the We
played the trailer, just like we played for the Chiefs one.
(04:28):
You know, we played the one where they acted like
they were in The Godfather. You know, how could you
come and see me the night before the end of
the stadium? You dont remember that? Yes? All right, so
we did do that. Yeah, we did do that, but
not enough, you know what I mean, like, not not
as much as I'd like to. But there is news
(04:49):
out of the Buffalo Bills. As you know, they just
got a big playoff win and all that they're moving
into a new state of the art stadium next season.
They were leaving what it's called now Hi Stadium, which
has been their home for fifty three years. With the
move to the new stadium, the Bills are auctioning off
one of Matt's favorite things in the world, a lot
(05:12):
of memorabilia. They're auctioning off. More than twelve thousand items
have already been posted, with prices starting at five hundred
and forty nine bucks for a seat of chunks of
turf and go post cost one hundred bucks. But the
more rare and unique items will be put up for
auction in the coming weeks. And one of the items
(05:34):
that will be put up, oh here, turn this up
the Bills will make you want to shout why hasn't
anybody else thought of doing this song in football? You know,
like organ or let's go treat. One of the items
that will be put up for sale, Matt, and it's
expected to get the most attention is the trough urinals.
(05:59):
Oh yeah, Now, nobody loves a urinal trough or talks
more about troughing it up than Matt Muney Smith being
alb his fellow sports fans, right peeing in a.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
Trough like a horse. Excuse me, guys, can I squeeze
in here? I really gotta go.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
Of course, we had, like Matt is, you know, longtime
lamentations here on the Pets and Money Show about how
we didn't have the troughs anymore at Dodger Stadium, the Colisseum,
the La Coliseum is a big trough place, and the
big trough urinals that were in Orchard Park are being
(06:36):
auctioned off. So you can buy one of these urinals,
and I guess that all of Buffalo and all kinds
of people a peeding. I'll wash it down. I'm sure
it'll be very sanitary by the time it gets to you.
And set up the trough in your house, I guess, well,
or we get set up the trough in our well.
(06:57):
We're not getting this trough, Matt. I mean there's a
lot if we get a Del Taco, we can get
the trough. Well. I mean, this stuff's going on auction
in the coming weeks, and I don't see us closing
a deal on our Del Taco soon. Why don't you
guys buy a trough for the Del Taco. We're gonna
open in a little while I think the trough will
be collecting dust like Kobe Bryant's special card. Oh where's
(07:19):
that car? Well, I only got half of this. Half
flew out in the back of a pickup.
Speaker 3 (07:24):
Now, if you owned a sports bar and Buffalo, you
have to buy this right so you can put it
into the bathroom and say this is why you got
to come to.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
My bar because a smart guy. Huh, that's exactly right, Kate.
Somebody's buying exactly right. We can't we can't figure that
out for ourselves. We don't even have a Deltaco to
put the trough in.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
What if we open a Deltaco in Buffalo, buy the trough,
put it in the Del Taco, and next thing you know,
Del Talk Taco makes a massive comeback, beginning with its
first establishment in western New York.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
What do you think of that? Oh, son of a bitch,
where were you?
Speaker 3 (08:03):
Here's my number?
Speaker 1 (08:05):
Number of the day. Number of the day is I'll
say approximately four.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
I don't want to embellish or exaggerate, so I'll go
with four. At the game yesterday, the press box, you know,
each press box is different. Some got the the aquafena,
some got the poll. In spring Oh, at the Raiders
press box, they have Raiders water. They got Raiders water exactly.
Speaker 1 (08:36):
Out of the bladder of various pirates throughout the Caribbeane.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
That's exactly right. Yesterday publicly available was the Essentia water
the have you seen it? It looks like the Swiss
flag with the red and white cross, and it is
like electrolyte charged or ion positive, ion chart charged water
(09:01):
that people believe in that it's good for your your
inerts and stuff. And I would say of the twenty
people I was around, I heard at least four comment
on they have a central water here. That is impressive.
Wow that I and each of them walked away with
(09:22):
no less than three bottles.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
Did your feel great?
Speaker 3 (09:26):
Matt?
Speaker 2 (09:28):
I'll tell you what it tasted like water. It was
refreshing because it was so cold. I was able to
put it outside of our booth and just it acted
like an incredibly cold refrigerator. It stayed nice and cold
during the whole broad James.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
Hats has got a big bottle of it right now
and his innards are feeling great.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
Is that right, Kates? You're an Assentia guy. Yeah, I
do it for the alkaline that's what it is, the alkalinity.
So what the hell does that do? And why were
all these people freaking out? And why was I so
taken aback by their their their being?
Speaker 1 (10:00):
You were taking it back because you can't mind your
own business. There is that I do, like the east
drop into every conversation. That's why are you eating palm?
Why do you like this water? Why do you like
essential water? Case? What is the Yeah, what's the deal?
Speaker 3 (10:17):
It's the number one ionized alkaline water in the country.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
All right, well what does that do? What does that do?
Do you? Keep it lit?
Speaker 3 (10:23):
Keep it lit? It removes that bitter tasting acidic uh
flavored of water sometimes. Yeah, it's clean, it's smooth, it
tastes good.
Speaker 1 (10:32):
You know who you sound like.
Speaker 3 (10:34):
Have you ever heard a nylon palmer?
Speaker 1 (10:39):
Uh? So it just tastes different.
Speaker 3 (10:42):
Yeah, it's got more alkaline in it nine point five.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
What does that mean?
Speaker 3 (10:45):
I don't know what it means.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
But you pay a premium for it.
Speaker 3 (10:49):
No, at seven to eleven, they were two for four dollars.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
I got them today, Okay, but.
Speaker 3 (10:55):
Yes, if it's a alkaline of water, they do go
for more.
Speaker 1 (10:59):
And you heard you heard various people like whoa, whoa,
Which you know we said Champagne's not cooks.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
At the sofa. We get the aquafina. And I have
heard people complain like, I hate aquaffina. It's such barf.
It's just water, Guys. They gonna have pictures of tap
water on the tables, and I'm probably gonna be fine
with it.
Speaker 1 (11:23):
When it comes to water, maybe too much.
Speaker 3 (11:27):
Maybe you know, there's a whole thing. If a water's
got a black top to it, a cap or blue
or green, it means different things. What Yeah, black caps
It feels like you might know that much, but you
don't know what it means. Blue caps on a water
bottle indicate spring water. Black caps signify alkaline water. Green
caps on your water bottle signal flavored water. White caps
(11:51):
means processed water.
Speaker 1 (11:55):
What's the process?
Speaker 3 (11:56):
Probably like reclaimed water.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
It's not the original. That's not well.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
I've got a I've got a free bottle of glass
smart water on my hand from my flight back, and
that has a clear top.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
So what the hell does that mean? Process water? That
doesn't sound too smart.
Speaker 3 (12:15):
Oh, you're drinking it.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
Vapor distilled water and electrolytes for taste, purely balanced pH
freaking water.
Speaker 1 (12:27):
Nah, dude, you guys don't know it's water is a
big business. This is the song of the day.
Speaker 5 (12:39):
An Australian female duo from Melbourne called super Wild Horses
supplies our song of the day called mess Around because
it is an I'm a Horse Monday, and the Petros
and Money Show was launched out of the starting gate,
riding the super Wild Horses into the vast open country
where Great Sports Talk is not messing around with the
(13:00):
delivery of three and a half hours of radio salvation
via one segment at a time. As we approach Clippers
basketball back it into a dome having won the last
two in a row and now looking for a third
against the Charlotte Hornets, with our friend Adam Oslin setting
you up with that countdown show that's coming up at
six thirty.
Speaker 1 (13:19):
Thanks Ronnie. Apparently, Matt, the alkaline water helps with people
that have acid reflux, and that would that cats would
qualify for that. Indeed, he's got no gelboe goblin, no gallbla.
Speaker 3 (13:37):
I also has got two techs slots saying as disgusting.
Speaker 2 (13:43):
Yeah, aquafina seems to be the dregs. People regularly lament
that that is the water of choice at so far
in the pressure room.
Speaker 1 (13:56):
Insurance on the alkaline water talk anybody love it? Insurance?
Speaker 2 (14:03):
I should have hoarded a bunch of it and brought
it home and you know, flipped it to you. Kate,
Why help with your assid rebots? Your backpack so heavy,
I'd take it off the Aessentia.
Speaker 1 (14:14):
We'll be back with Ben Bulch with the latest. There's
a bunch of things to talk about with him, and
it's Rider's Day. Brettyston Ellis will join us later. We've
made it even easier to take LA Sports with you.
Speaker 6 (14:31):
Make AM five to seventy or your favorite AM five
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Speaker 1 (14:39):
Auto super Bowl sixty.
Speaker 2 (14:42):
We'll be right here on AM five seventy LA Sports
on Sunday, February sixth tonight. We're going until six thirty.
Got basketball Clippers versus Hornets.
Speaker 1 (14:51):
Joining us right now, California on your Southern California Toyota
Dealers Celebrity Hotline. After twenty six years, leaving the Los
Angeles Times for the California Posts on stereo, the one
and only Ben Boltch. What will that entail? He is
(15:17):
the finest beat rider that's at the LA Times right
in that brillin beat covering UCLA hoops. There's a few
things to discuss, but first the big move to the
California Post from Ben Boltch of the La Times. There's
been a guest on the Petrosen Money Show over the
(15:37):
years that we appreciate. Congrats on the move, Ben, and
tell us about it. What's going on?
Speaker 4 (15:42):
Yeah, First of all, what an intro. Thank you so
much for that. And Petros, I wanted before I get
into that. You probably don't remember this, but when you
played for USC this must have been like training Campyar
circa two thousand. You were down and you see her
by I think you were coming back from a yeah,
(16:03):
and you scored on like a goal line play and
I wrote about you afterward. And I'm sure you probably
don't remember this and had no clue who I was,
but it was one of my first big time assignments
and I got to talk to Petros Papadakas and I
was over the moon.
Speaker 3 (16:19):
That's off the moon.
Speaker 1 (16:23):
That is fantastic. God bless you, Ben Boltch. That's a
great that's the camp I got staples put in the
back of my head. Who can forget uh, but it
didn't keep me out. Ben, that's a wonderful story. Tell
us what's your beat going to be at the at
the California Post and uh, and what do you what
(16:45):
can we expect? I mean, if you're not going to
write Bruins stuff, I mean I might not even pay
attention to the Bruins.
Speaker 4 (16:51):
Well how about this, how about I write some Trojans
and Bruins petro oh.
Speaker 1 (17:00):
Up at Irvine Days go give it to Lincoln Riley
a little Ben. So this is pretty cool. I mean,
this is going to be a heck of a paper.
Speaker 4 (17:07):
Yeah, I mean our plan, uh, just so you know,
is that I'm going to be kind of bouncing back
and forth between both schools for the first six months
or so. Then we're going to staff up some more
add some beat writers, and I'm going to transition into
a college's columnist role. So you know, I will be
the you know, guy out there dropping the hammer when.
Speaker 1 (17:28):
Things go wrong, like our hero, like our late hero,
the greatest Chris Dufrain like that.
Speaker 4 (17:34):
Absolutely, I hope I have some rankings and some lots
of one liners coming your way, Petros.
Speaker 2 (17:40):
Nice Scott, Well, wonderful if there's commentary involved, ben as
opposed to just covering the beat, that means opinions can
be injected. So if we were to make our way
over to the poly market, uh and bet some futures,
which which head coach do you have more faith in
over the next half decade, for UCLA or USC Lincoln
(18:03):
Riley or Bob Chesney.
Speaker 4 (18:06):
Oh, I gotta go Chesney, I gotta go Chesney. I
think he's he's the guy that I wanted. I think
he's off to a great start. He's portalain like nobody
else right now, bringing in lots of people, lots of
his top players from James Madison, got the winning formula
he's bringing to Westwood. I really like the trajectory there.
(18:27):
And obviously he hasn't won a game yet. I gotta,
you know, hedge a little bit and throw some caveats in,
but I think this guy was the perfect hire for
the situation and the man they need over there.
Speaker 1 (18:37):
It's interesting because that's what all the reports say. And
I remember when Deshaun Foster was hired, there was some
you know, tepid kind of reaction and there were some
people trying to be positive about it, but what is
this guy doing to blow everybody away so much? Because
everything has been so positive and people are starting to
feel like UCLA can really do something with this guy.
Speaker 4 (19:00):
Yeah, I mean he's you know, I think the thing
I keep going back to is, you know, he wins
at every level. You know, you think that he's going
to get to a point where it's going to be
too much from him, and he has not reached that
ceiling yet. So you know a lot of people are
throwing out the Kurt Signetti comparisons. I think that's that's low.
That's hold off a little bit on that, right. I mean,
we have we haven't done anything toward toward that at
(19:22):
the you know, at the big ten level. But man,
I think there's just so much to Like I thought,
he knocked it out of the park his intro press conference.
He's been working his tailoffs. As I already mentioned in
the portal, I'm hoping to sit down with him here
shortly as soon as the portal closes. I've been promised
an interview with him, and I'm actually trying to meet
(19:42):
with his family this week in Sixral, Pennsylvania because the
Bruin basketball team is playing at Penn State, so I'm
trying to pick each on the trip to Copemont, Pennsylvania,
which is about ninety nine miles away from state college.
I hope to have the privilege of meeting with them
and hanging out and coach Chesney's hometown to get a
better sense of who he is and where he came from.
Speaker 2 (20:05):
Obviously, the Kurt Signetti comparisons are going to be there
because of the school and the transfers and how he's
building it. But are there comparisons beyond that? And Ben,
obviously you're watching the playoff? Is there another Kurt Signetti
out there? Is that guy a unicorn? A straight one
of one?
Speaker 4 (20:24):
I mean, it certainly looks that way, right. I Mean,
if I'm this, if I'm the owner of some fortune
five hundred company, I want to pay this guy for
offer him fifty million to come set a championship culture
at my organization. Right about We've never seen anything like
this and in two years to get this team to
where it is, it's just I mean, he to me,
he's the best coach in football right now, bar none.
(20:47):
So it is a unicorn situation in my view.
Speaker 1 (20:50):
All right, Ben Boltch, here's our guest. He's going to
the California Post at the end of the month. Been
a great beat rider and a great rider for the
La Times for a long time. It's been covering UCLA
like a champ for some years now. As we talk
more about UCLA moving to SOFI, and I know that
there's details involved in this, and what's happening is probably
(21:13):
not what's best, but what's best is probably not feasible
as far as building a stadium on campus. But it
turns out, and you reported on this, that this has
been in the works for years. These corporate types have
been rubbed elbows talking about this for quite some time.
What are the details there?
Speaker 4 (21:32):
Yeah, there were some court filings that were you know,
came through the system late last week that I was
able to get a hold of and just showed that,
you know, this conversation is not did not start recently,
you know, it went back as far as August twenty
four and appears to be really driven by the new
(21:52):
relatively new CFO of UCLA, Steven Augustini, who came in
and apparently looked at numbers and said we got to
make some big changes. Because his name's all over this thing.
You know, they set up some zoom meetings with Kevin
demof of the RAMS, other people from so far and
you know, I wrote all about the discussions and the
(22:13):
projections that they were looking at. Don't have any of
the specific numbers, but we know that they were multiple
meetings and back and forth and you know, some some
buzz and excitement between those two entities. But the next
step here in court is I believe it's twenty second
of this month, they're going to rule on whether this
case goes to arbitration, which would keep it out of
(22:34):
the public eye, or continues in the public court, which
is what Pasadena and the Rose Bowl want because they
want to get the court of public opinion on their side.
So that's that's where we stand. I think we're nowhere
near the finish line on this. But you know, Megans
of Progress, I know you.
Speaker 2 (22:51):
Know you'd like to have a stadium on campus. It's
been talked about here with Petro's repeatedly. You've written about
why it's just not feasible in terms of the neighborhood
and the infrastructure. Do you think so FI is an
upgrade and if so, how much of an upgrade over
the Rose Bowl. If it would cost them something to
(23:12):
the tune of tens or maybe hundreds of millions of
dollars to make that move.
Speaker 4 (23:17):
Yeah, I'm just not convincing numbers are going to work.
I mean, you guys have read what I've written. I'm
mister rose Pall. I think that it's a huge part
of UCLA's identity, and I think they'd be forced to
give it up.
Speaker 1 (23:27):
Certainly.
Speaker 4 (23:28):
Where so Fi comes with the modern bells and whistles
of an NFL stadium, it's a completely different vibe. But
to me, it's not a college vibe. And I think
that there's a scenario here where UCLA gets levied with
so much damages as a result of court case that
I don't care how much more money you're gonna get
it so Fi, it's gonna be a wash. So if
I were them, I would just kind of say, Okay,
(23:49):
we're gonna we're gonna back off this a little bit
and take a longer view of it, because I think
there is a scenario where this, even if they get
to go to Sofi, it's a net loss for them.
Are pretty close to it.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
In twenty twenty eight so far. We'll have usc playing
there because the coliseum will be hosting Olympics and Paralympics.
They'll have UCLA there, They'll have the Chargers of course,
and the Rams. I'm not asking for too much opinion, Ben,
but I am. How stupid is it that we have
four gigantic football entities in town in southern California, all
(24:21):
playing indoors?
Speaker 4 (24:22):
My god, Yes, the best climate in the world, and
we're not going to take advantage of it. Right, It's crazy.
Speaker 1 (24:30):
It doesn't seem like a great idea, but it feels
like we're victims of this kind of corporate elbow rubbing
that's been happening for some years now.
Speaker 4 (24:40):
Yeah, it's all about the money, as you know, guys,
it's all about the money. And then this is what
they're looking at. But as I've alluded to, you know,
there's some wild cards in play here that could make
this not work out the way they want it to.
Speaker 2 (24:54):
You mentioned, you're going to be out of Penn State.
UCLA coming off a victory over Maryland on and they
will travel to Penn State. Maryland was back here, lost
in Wisconsin at Wisconsin, lost Iowa at Iowa. What kind
of UCLA basketball team. Are we looking at here as
the Big Ten schedule has started.
Speaker 4 (25:14):
Yeah, I'm not gonna lie. They're in a tough spot,
you know, so much, so many high expectations with Donovan
Dent coming in. Obviously the loss of a Dye Marrow
was a big one, but you know, there was a
lot of optimism that they could minimize that because you
got the top point guard in the transfer portal and
kind he kind of makes everybody better, right if he's
at the top of his game. But as we've seen,
(25:34):
Donovan Dent has really struggled, hasn't been the same player
we saw in New Mexico. His percentages have dropped off,
his confidence levels kind of plummet. Now, I will say
we saw some some glimpses against Iowa in that second
half where they made it a four point game after
they were down twenty four, and I'm thinking, Okay, maybe
he's going to take off. But you know, the last
couple of games has been kind of back to the
(25:56):
status quo of where he'd been early in the season.
So something really has changed there. And you know, as
we're seeing, they bought in a couple of new big
guys to take over for a die and they haven't
really you know, kept up at that same level. So
right now, the ceiling for this team, man, it's not
looking pretty. I mean they're basically a bubble team right
now for the NCAA tournament. So unless they can really
(26:20):
find something and put this together, this season is not
headed toward a happy finish here.
Speaker 1 (26:26):
Wow, not a happy finish to the interview either, Ben
Bolt headed to the California Post. Ben, congratulations on all
your success and we hope that that's a great endeavor
for all the writers that are going over there. If
there's one thing we need, it's more newspapers, more outlets
to get information out there. And you've done a great
(26:46):
job covering UCLA for years as the guy asking the
questions that everybody wants asks. Thank you, Ben, and have
a great night.
Speaker 4 (26:55):
Thanks gentlemen. Always Georgia to talk to you guys.
Speaker 1 (26:58):
All right, California Post. Why don't we go over to
the Post man, we can sensationalize anything.
Speaker 2 (27:06):
I could see that happening, you know, like we're not
gonna do sports though, right, you're gonna go to the
Post and.
Speaker 1 (27:12):
Oh yeah, I'm writing entertainment, right, you're writing entertainment. I
don't know what the hell I'm writing. I Men's fashion.
Speaker 2 (27:22):
There you go, Men's fashion, Tech, I'll cover tech. Hey,
check out this robot that serves pepsi tos Son, It's awesome.
Speaker 1 (27:37):
Did you just describe Rocky for Yes, I did the
first real introduction to tech when we were kids. Holy crap.
Can you imagine that alkaline water counteracts with the acid
in your stomach?
Speaker 2 (27:59):
So that's everyone was freaking out. There are a bunch
of acid freaks out there in the Northeast and they're like, yeah,
I mean I've gotten more water text.
Speaker 1 (28:10):
Yeah, they're like super picky about their waters.
Speaker 2 (28:13):
And then people are like, I drink out of the
hose exactly. If you're our age, that's what you did.
You drink out of whatever faucet was available.
Speaker 1 (28:20):
That's why we have high immunity. Mm hmmm. Well that's
Rider's Hour, but it will continue next. Michael Crichton will
join us on the pictures now, Dan, Michael, when you
were writing Congo, Oh, I love the Congo with the
killer ads? Yeah, Congo.
Speaker 3 (28:39):
Sue Crafton's for tomorrow who Sue Grafton and Rice.
Speaker 1 (28:48):
Mary Shelley, Oh Lever Mary Wolston, Shelley Kender, somebody continues next. Hello,
PMS listener, Did you know AM five seventy LA Sports
has a wide range of LA sports podcasts. There's Rogan and.
Speaker 6 (29:10):
Rodney, That one is my favorite, Dodger Talk with David Vassei,
the Dodger Podcast of record, Clipper Talk without a Musk,
follow us all and many more. Just go to AM
five to seventy LA Sports on the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (29:23):
That's Rust and Money.
Speaker 2 (29:24):
HEYM five seventy LA Sports Live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.
Marching toward a six thirty handoff to Clippers pregame. The
Chargers are out, but football is in when it comes
to HAM five to seventy LA Sports. We are your
home of the NFL, and we will have three divisional
games this weekend as we make our way toward being
(29:45):
the home of Super Bowl sixty Sunday, February sixth, the
Super Bowl that will not include one team that at
least one of us was wildly invested in Super Bowl sixty, including.
Speaker 1 (30:00):
Well, the rest of us were very much invested too.
Man I was at the edge of my seat certainly
joining us right now on your southern California Toyota Dealer
Celebrity Hotline. It is Daniel Popper and he just got
done popping off with the players when they just got
done cleaning out their lockers and leaving the building. Tears, disappointment, frustration.
(30:28):
Here to discuss it all from the Athletic is the
best beat rider they've gone. Daniel Popper joining us on
the Petrosen Money Show for a little charge of prospective
be on the Voice of the Bolts. With all due respect,
we got Daniel Popper on us. Say I'm biased? No,
I wouldn't say that. What's cracking, Daniel? How are you? Oh?
Speaker 7 (30:50):
You know, just running on about thirty minutes of sleep
from Boston.
Speaker 1 (30:55):
You know you can't sleep on the back.
Speaker 7 (30:58):
Yeah, I tried, but I was trying to watch the
sale home and kept dozing off, trying to keep my
eyes open as best as again. I got changed into
my sweatpants and the Gillette Stadium parking lot and my
rented Kia Soul at three thirty am Eastern times.
Speaker 1 (31:10):
So that's the wife of a beat writer for you.
Nothing like those sweats, getting those sweats on and the
cold feel good about to the airport. Yeah, same airport
from die Hard too. You know, you could have ended
up what Popper. It's interesting to kind of balance these
things out, because on one hand, you say, wow, the
(31:31):
Chargers accomplished a lot even though they had a lot
of injuries, had to overcome this and that Herbert got
massacred all year long. Or you can say this playoff
disappointment continues throughout the Jim Harbaugh era and it was
probably something they thought was going to be over when
they hired Jim Harbaugh. How do you balance those two out?
Speaker 7 (31:50):
Pop, I think both things can be true, right. I
think you can look at the season that they had
and all the injuries in the offensive line and losing
with Shaan Slater and using Joe Alton, having twenty five
different five man offensive line combinations, and the fact that
the team stuck together and believed and made the playoffs
and that's great and a feather in Jim Harbaugh's cap.
And then you look at the performance yesterday, particularly offensively,
(32:12):
and you can also look at that and say it's
unacceptable and to me, like those two things can be
true at the same time, and losing again in the playoffs,
in the game that they had a shot In, I
think brings up some pretty hard questions that you have
to ask, you know, is Greg Rouman the right person
to be calling plays? Why can't Justin Herbert play better
in some of these playoff games? Are they going to
still have the same level of defensive success when their
(32:34):
defensive coordinator Jesse Minter inevitably leaves for a head coaching
job this offseason. So I think both things are true,
But the loss was unacceptable. Three points in a playoff
game is unacceptable, and it's going to lead to some
pretty tough questions around here at the Bolton Milsogondo.
Speaker 2 (32:49):
You mentioned you were watching the film on the way
back a lot of people and I obviously wasn't watching
the broadcast. We were doing it pop, But it sounded
like toward the end of that game that Chris collins
Worth was, you know, kind of leaning in on Herbert
a little bit for the plays that he left out there.
Just kind of your assessment of the way Herbert played,
And do you maybe see it the same as as
(33:11):
some others that maybe there was some scar tissue there
from a season of getting you know, drilled in the
backfield repeatedly and just kind of finally caught up to him.
Speaker 7 (33:21):
That's the hard thing for me to wrap my mind
around money, because how many hits he took this season,
one hundred and twenty nine hits over the regular season.
The one thing that never wavered was his performance. He
was able to maintain it despite all of the hits
that he took, and that was the most impressive part
of the season. Is so for it all to come
crashing down in one game in the playoffs was so
(33:43):
very surprising, and so to me, I kind of look
at it and say, well, if one hundred and twenty
nine hits are in the regular season didn't affect him,
there has to be something else I'd play here. And
to me, he just looked a little hesitant. He looked
skittish in the pocket. He wasn't, you know, accurate in
the way that he's typically accurate to all three levels
of the field. It so like when he did have
protection early in the game, he was escaping too early
(34:05):
in those downs. But you know, at the end of
the day, right when you have an offensive performance like
that and you only score three points, everyone is to blame.
The quarterback didn't play well enough, The play calling wasn't
good enough, the receivers didn't run good enough routes. The
offensive lineman didn't protect well enough, They didn't block well
enough in the running game, the running backs didn't run
well enough. Everyone is at fault. But to me, at
some point in time, the fifty two and a half
(34:27):
million dollar a year quarterback, it's gonna have to show
up in a big game like this, and we haven't
seen him play that type of game in the playoffs
in his three appearances, and at some point it's gonna
have to come together for him if he wants to
get over the hump.
Speaker 1 (34:40):
The pop Daddy Daniel Popper from the Athletic joining us
right now in the Petterson Money Show, lamenting the chargers
abysmal offensive performance in Jillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts. He
got his sweats on deep deep in the night in
the North East in New England, and he's back here
(35:00):
in southern California to watch the Chargers processional sad march
out of the facility. Popper, overall, what is the biggest
need after that performance? What do you think they'll focus
on in the off season.
Speaker 7 (35:17):
Well, I think you kind of have to talk about
the interior of the offensive line, And I feel like
a broken record because all I did for about four
or five months after last season ended was talk about
building up the interior of the offensive line. They signed
Mackai Beckton and that was an abject failure as a signing.
They ran it back at the other two positions with
Bradley Boseman, Zion Johnson. I thought Zon Johnson took a
big step forward this season, But you feel good about
(35:40):
the tackles coming back. Obviously, there's a little bit of
uncertainty as far as iber Schaan Slater returns from a
really significant knee injury torn to Teler tend and we
just talked to Joe allt sounds like he's going to
be back and in proper shape for OTAs or around
that time in the spring. But how do you get
this interior to a place where Justin Herbert isn't getting
(36:00):
hit like this? And so I think you've got to
start with center. There has to be an upgrade at
that position, whether it's in free agency or the draft,
and they have to look at Zion Johnson and make
a decision there about whether they can bring him back,
and then they have to get a real solution at
right guard. There were other options in free agency, there
were options in the draft. They decided I'm a Kai Becton,
and he really wasn't able to stay on the field.
(36:21):
When he was on the field, he wasn't very good.
So that has to be the absolute priority here. Okay,
Justin Herbert was hit one hundred and twenty nine times
this season and he managed to lead this team to
the playoffs. But you have to protect him. You have
to put him in a position to be successful. And
that starts with creating the protection for him to be
back there and not take the type of hits that
(36:43):
he's taking, because let's be real, he's twenty seven years old.
But this is very Andrew Luckish in terms of how
this is going, the number of hits that he's taking.
A guy that loves football and loves to be out there,
but the stuff that he's playing through is not sustainable
over the long term. So they got to focus on
this offensive line and they have to build a group
that can protect their most valuable asset.
Speaker 1 (37:03):
Full stop Pop some we'll call full stop pop.
Speaker 2 (37:09):
Well, some call him full stop pop, some call it
some say he is an antagonist, say he's just asking
the questions that people want. The answers to you are
you are not afraid in the pressers And it felt
like for the first time you got a little bit
of an answer from coach Harbaugh about the future of
Greg Roman. You mentioned the play caller. You know, you
(37:32):
can dig into Greg Roman's past with either Lamar Jackson
or Justin Herbert or his quarterback in the playoffs, and
his offenses have never scored more than twenty points, and
they've averaged twelve points in those five games he's had
with those two exceptional quarterbacks. Just kind of your thoughts
on the answer you got from Harbaugh and whether or
not you think they'll have the same play caller next year.
Speaker 7 (37:54):
Yeah, I mean the answer told me that they're considering changes,
and I think you have to assessing to me, like,
you bring in Greg Roman for a specific reason, right.
He's built great run games wherever he's been and Jim
Harbaugh wants to play a physical brand of football, and
so they bring in Greg Roman to establish that. On
the offensive line. That's the messaging for the last two
years to these offensive linemen is we're gonna lean on you.
(38:17):
This is gonna be an O line centric building. That's
what run game coordinator Andy Bischoff said, right, And so
if that's going to be the ideology in the philosophy,
then you better lean into that in the biggest moments
of the season. And so the Chargers get a turnover
in the first half, they set the offense up at
the ten yard line. How many runs did they run
in four plays?
Speaker 1 (38:36):
Zero?
Speaker 7 (38:36):
Zero handoffs to the running backs. They've turned the ball
over on downs and then get zero points off of that.
So that to me, that sequence there, to me early
in the game showed me that this ideology and philosophy
that they've been preaching under Greg Roman is not being
enacted on the field in the biggest game of the season.
And that tells me that this identity is completely lost.
(38:57):
And then you get into the fact that Justin Herbert
was dropping back when he'd have protection. No one's open.
You know, part of that is on the receivers, but
part of it is you look across the league at
some of these great offensive coordinators, to Ben Johnson's to
Sean mcvays, and they're scheming people open. How often is
that happening with the Chargers. So at the end of
the day, there were some bright moments for Greg Roman
this season in terms of stringing this thing together, patching
(39:18):
it together with the offensive line. But you got to
show up in the playoffs. And if you scored three
points in the playoff when you have Justin Herbert playing quarterback,
you got to question everything.
Speaker 1 (39:27):
All right, that's good stuff from Daniel Popper and the athletic.
Always nice getting some perspective from outside the booth. Uh,
thank you, Daniel, and we appreciate you. Have a wonderful
night and get some rest there. Brother.
Speaker 7 (39:42):
All right, thanks guys, appreciate having us.
Speaker 1 (39:43):
Right to the liquor store. Get one of those buzzballs.
Speaker 2 (39:47):
Yes, you can follow hops with Pop his sub stack
where he drinks like some others drink when they like
to talk about the Chargers because it leads you to drink.
Speaker 1 (39:56):
Yeah, get then one of those buzzball bees.
Speaker 2 (39:59):
Oh, big buzzball. This is the super sweet sour caramel
apple buzzball. We'll be bacious with more petros and money.
On m five seventy l a sports rider's hour is over.
Oh yeah, the rider's block is back.
Speaker 1 (40:16):
Consider yourself blocked.
Love, casts out, fear and gratitude can conquer pride, Conny.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Utes, Petros and money. AM five seventy LA Sports. We're
live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app. We are your home
of the World Series champion back to back Dodgers, and
we are your home of the NFL all divisional games.
Will three of the divisional games this weekend will be
played right here, as will Super Bowl sixty on Sunday,
February sixth.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
That are other play by play? Is Clippers basketball?
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Once an absolute, unmitigated failure and embarrassment, it is now
hot as any freaking basketball team in the NBA. Clippers
won both over the weekend against the Nets and the Pistons.
They will take on the Hornets tonight. Pregame at six thirty,
tip off at seven thirty, right here on your home
(00:53):
of the fifteen and twenty three Clippers, AM five to
seventy LA Sports.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
Very exciting. Oh we got some breaking news from uh
what do we got? Tim Kats? I don't know if
you're gonna like it, Matt, what we got Corey.
Speaker 3 (01:06):
To Adam Schefter, h jesse mentor the defensive coordinator for
the LA Chargers. It's gonna interview with the Las Vegas
Raiders this week.
Speaker 4 (01:16):
Yeah, unbelievable, unbelievable.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
Believable, shame for shame, for shame, for share the Raiders
four times. Man breaked out when he had the starting roster.
He beat the Broncos all three times, and he just
swept the Chiefs this year. So would not be a
surprise if they wanted to hire jesse Minner to uh,
to get Max Crosby back on board for everything they're
(01:41):
doing in Las Vegas, and that would be incredibly depressing.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
Man. Wow, Man breaked out for shame, for shame, incredible
for shame, pressing for shame. Who will the Chargers hire
Rex Ryan? Rex Rex Ryan is out there at USC
coach and linebackers poorly.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
That would be exciting. Uh, maybe they can get the
the both of the party.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
Sorry Rob Ryan, Rob Bryan. Yeah, Rex and his teeth
throw over at Espen. Maybe those Peter at Espen. Maybe
those guys can save the Chargers Dodgers.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
I would assume not the first of many interviews coming
for jesse min Or. Now that the Chargers have been
summarily dispatched from the NFL's postseason.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
I want to make sure. I credit Ian Rapperport for that,
not to Schefters. So they're in a fight with each other.
They're in a big urination contest. Cheap my name off
your lips. Rapaports fighting with Schefter over whether or not
John Harbaugh lost the locker room in Baltimore. According to Rappaport,
a lot of them tweeted it out and the other
lot of them that's not what I heard. There was
(02:49):
tears and hugs. That's a big thing. Man.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
I remember Brady Quinn and dan Orlofsky getting into it
over Blair Underwood. That was one of the better ones
on Twitter from this last year.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
Blair Underwood from La Law. Yes, a great incredible with that.
Speaker 3 (03:06):
Who are the two guys that got in a fight
at the NFL combine And it was video.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
That was that was that was Rapaport and Schultz. Ah,
that was a star of Howard Schultz, guy worth fifty
billion dollars whose son is in the world of insider
NFL information.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
And that little bald gallum looking guy. Garoppolo was there
as a witness. Yes, Mike, you know, I mean you
know that's yes. He was there to witness the whole
thing and told us about it. We appreciate that his words.
(03:44):
The word of the day, today's word of the day
is this is for you, Matt and for me, it
is still coming. Yeah, I you know, I think I
dropped the ball during the holiday season. I mean we
got Vietnam Chris in, we got the hate List, and
we got the Thanksgiving stuff in. We missed the recipe,
(04:06):
but we got a lot of that stuff in. But
I didn't do enough about the holiday Buffalo Bill's Touchdown movie,
although we did did address it. I mean, it wasn't
dressed that it was coming, but we did not play
any sound. We played some sound. We did. We played
some sound. Yeah, we well, we played the the We
played the trailer, just like we played for the Chiefs one.
(04:28):
You know, we played the one where they acted like
they were in The Godfather. You know, how could you
come and see me the night before the end of
the stadium? You dont remember that? Yes? All right, so
we did do that. Yeah, we did do that, but
not enough, you know what I mean, like, not not
as much as I'd like to. But there is news
(04:49):
out of the Buffalo Bills. As you know, they just
got a big playoff win and all that they're moving
into a new state of the art stadium next season.
They were leaving what it's called now Hi Stadium, which
has been their home for fifty three years. With the
move to the new stadium, the Bills are auctioning off
one of Matt's favorite things in the world, a lot
(05:12):
of memorabilia. They're auctioning off. More than twelve thousand items
have already been posted, with prices starting at five hundred
and forty nine bucks for a seat of chunks of
turf and go post cost one hundred bucks. But the
more rare and unique items will be put up for
auction in the coming weeks. And one of the items
(05:34):
that will be put up, oh here, turn this up
the Bills will make you want to shout why hasn't
anybody else thought of doing this song in football? You know,
like organ or let's go treat. One of the items
that will be put up for sale, Matt, and it's
expected to get the most attention is the trough urinals.
(05:59):
Oh yeah, Now, nobody loves a urinal trough or talks
more about troughing it up than Matt Muney Smith being
alb his fellow sports fans, right peeing in a.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
Trough like a horse. Excuse me, guys, can I squeeze
in here? I really gotta go.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
Of course, we had, like Matt is, you know, longtime
lamentations here on the Pets and Money Show about how
we didn't have the troughs anymore at Dodger Stadium, the Colisseum,
the La Coliseum is a big trough place, and the
big trough urinals that were in Orchard Park are being
(06:36):
auctioned off. So you can buy one of these urinals,
and I guess that all of Buffalo and all kinds
of people a peeding. I'll wash it down. I'm sure
it'll be very sanitary by the time it gets to you.
And set up the trough in your house, I guess, well,
or we get set up the trough in our well.
(06:57):
We're not getting this trough, Matt. I mean there's a
lot if we get a Del Taco, we can get
the trough. Well. I mean, this stuff's going on auction
in the coming weeks, and I don't see us closing
a deal on our Del Taco soon. Why don't you
guys buy a trough for the Del Taco. We're gonna
open in a little while I think the trough will
be collecting dust like Kobe Bryant's special card. Oh where's
(07:19):
that car? Well, I only got half of this. Half
flew out in the back of a pickup.
Speaker 3 (07:24):
Now, if you owned a sports bar and Buffalo, you
have to buy this right so you can put it
into the bathroom and say this is why you got
to come to.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
My bar because a smart guy. Huh, that's exactly right, Kate.
Somebody's buying exactly right. We can't we can't figure that
out for ourselves. We don't even have a Deltaco to
put the trough in.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
What if we open a Deltaco in Buffalo, buy the trough,
put it in the Del Taco, and next thing you know,
Del Talk Taco makes a massive comeback, beginning with its
first establishment in western New York.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
What do you think of that? Oh, son of a bitch,
where were you?
Speaker 3 (08:03):
Here's my number?
Speaker 1 (08:05):
Number of the day. Number of the day is I'll
say approximately four.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
I don't want to embellish or exaggerate, so I'll go
with four. At the game yesterday, the press box, you know,
each press box is different. Some got the the aquafena,
some got the poll. In spring Oh, at the Raiders
press box, they have Raiders water. They got Raiders water exactly.
Speaker 1 (08:36):
Out of the bladder of various pirates throughout the Caribbeane.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
That's exactly right. Yesterday publicly available was the Essentia water
the have you seen it? It looks like the Swiss
flag with the red and white cross, and it is
like electrolyte charged or ion positive, ion chart charged water
(09:01):
that people believe in that it's good for your your
inerts and stuff. And I would say of the twenty
people I was around, I heard at least four comment
on they have a central water here. That is impressive.
Wow that I and each of them walked away with
(09:22):
no less than three bottles.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
Did your feel great?
Speaker 3 (09:26):
Matt?
Speaker 2 (09:28):
I'll tell you what it tasted like water. It was
refreshing because it was so cold. I was able to
put it outside of our booth and just it acted
like an incredibly cold refrigerator. It stayed nice and cold
during the whole broad James.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
Hats has got a big bottle of it right now
and his innards are feeling great.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
Is that right, Kates? You're an Assentia guy. Yeah, I
do it for the alkaline that's what it is, the alkalinity.
So what the hell does that do? And why were
all these people freaking out? And why was I so
taken aback by their their their being?
Speaker 1 (10:00):
You were taking it back because you can't mind your
own business. There is that I do, like the east
drop into every conversation. That's why are you eating palm?
Why do you like this water? Why do you like
essential water? Case? What is the Yeah, what's the deal?
Speaker 3 (10:17):
It's the number one ionized alkaline water in the country.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
All right, well what does that do? What does that do?
Do you? Keep it lit?
Speaker 3 (10:23):
Keep it lit? It removes that bitter tasting acidic uh
flavored of water sometimes. Yeah, it's clean, it's smooth, it
tastes good.
Speaker 1 (10:32):
You know who you sound like.
Speaker 3 (10:34):
Have you ever heard a nylon palmer?
Speaker 1 (10:39):
Uh? So it just tastes different.
Speaker 3 (10:42):
Yeah, it's got more alkaline in it nine point five.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
What does that mean?
Speaker 3 (10:45):
I don't know what it means.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
But you pay a premium for it.
Speaker 3 (10:49):
No, at seven to eleven, they were two for four dollars.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
I got them today, Okay, but.
Speaker 3 (10:55):
Yes, if it's a alkaline of water, they do go
for more.
Speaker 1 (10:59):
And you heard you heard various people like whoa, whoa,
Which you know we said Champagne's not cooks.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
At the sofa. We get the aquafina. And I have
heard people complain like, I hate aquaffina. It's such barf.
It's just water, Guys. They gonna have pictures of tap
water on the tables, and I'm probably gonna be fine
with it.
Speaker 1 (11:23):
When it comes to water, maybe too much.
Speaker 3 (11:27):
Maybe you know, there's a whole thing. If a water's
got a black top to it, a cap or blue
or green, it means different things. What Yeah, black caps
It feels like you might know that much, but you
don't know what it means. Blue caps on a water
bottle indicate spring water. Black caps signify alkaline water. Green
caps on your water bottle signal flavored water. White caps
(11:51):
means processed water.
Speaker 1 (11:55):
What's the process?
Speaker 3 (11:56):
Probably like reclaimed water.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
It's not the original. That's not well.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
I've got a I've got a free bottle of glass
smart water on my hand from my flight back, and
that has a clear top.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
So what the hell does that mean? Process water? That
doesn't sound too smart.
Speaker 3 (12:15):
Oh, you're drinking it.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
Vapor distilled water and electrolytes for taste, purely balanced pH
freaking water.
Speaker 1 (12:27):
Nah, dude, you guys don't know it's water is a
big business. This is the song of the day.
Speaker 5 (12:39):
An Australian female duo from Melbourne called super Wild Horses
supplies our song of the day called mess Around because
it is an I'm a Horse Monday, and the Petros
and Money Show was launched out of the starting gate,
riding the super Wild Horses into the vast open country
where Great Sports Talk is not messing around with the
(13:00):
delivery of three and a half hours of radio salvation
via one segment at a time. As we approach Clippers
basketball back it into a dome having won the last
two in a row and now looking for a third
against the Charlotte Hornets, with our friend Adam Oslin setting
you up with that countdown show that's coming up at
six thirty.
Speaker 1 (13:19):
Thanks Ronnie. Apparently, Matt, the alkaline water helps with people
that have acid reflux, and that would that cats would
qualify for that. Indeed, he's got no gelboe goblin, no gallbla.
Speaker 3 (13:37):
I also has got two techs slots saying as disgusting.
Speaker 2 (13:43):
Yeah, aquafina seems to be the dregs. People regularly lament
that that is the water of choice at so far
in the pressure room.
Speaker 1 (13:56):
Insurance on the alkaline water talk anybody love it? Insurance?
Speaker 2 (14:03):
I should have hoarded a bunch of it and brought
it home and you know, flipped it to you. Kate,
Why help with your assid rebots? Your backpack so heavy,
I'd take it off the Aessentia.
Speaker 1 (14:14):
We'll be back with Ben Bulch with the latest. There's
a bunch of things to talk about with him, and
it's Rider's Day. Brettyston Ellis will join us later. We've
made it even easier to take LA Sports with you.
Speaker 6 (14:31):
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Speaker 1 (14:39):
Auto super Bowl sixty.
Speaker 2 (14:42):
We'll be right here on AM five seventy LA Sports
on Sunday, February sixth tonight. We're going until six thirty.
Got basketball Clippers versus Hornets.
Speaker 1 (14:51):
Joining us right now, California on your Southern California Toyota
Dealers Celebrity Hotline. After twenty six years, leaving the Los
Angeles Times for the California Posts on stereo, the one
and only Ben Boltch. What will that entail? He is
(15:17):
the finest beat rider that's at the LA Times right
in that brillin beat covering UCLA hoops. There's a few
things to discuss, but first the big move to the
California Post from Ben Boltch of the La Times. There's
been a guest on the Petrosen Money Show over the
(15:37):
years that we appreciate. Congrats on the move, Ben, and
tell us about it. What's going on?
Speaker 4 (15:42):
Yeah, First of all, what an intro. Thank you so
much for that. And Petros, I wanted before I get
into that. You probably don't remember this, but when you
played for USC this must have been like training Campyar
circa two thousand. You were down and you see her
by I think you were coming back from a yeah,
(16:03):
and you scored on like a goal line play and
I wrote about you afterward. And I'm sure you probably
don't remember this and had no clue who I was,
but it was one of my first big time assignments
and I got to talk to Petros Papadakas and I
was over the moon.
Speaker 3 (16:19):
That's off the moon.
Speaker 1 (16:23):
That is fantastic. God bless you, Ben Boltch. That's a
great that's the camp I got staples put in the
back of my head. Who can forget uh, but it
didn't keep me out. Ben, that's a wonderful story. Tell
us what's your beat going to be at the at
the California Post and uh, and what do you what
(16:45):
can we expect? I mean, if you're not going to
write Bruins stuff, I mean I might not even pay
attention to the Bruins.
Speaker 4 (16:51):
Well how about this, how about I write some Trojans
and Bruins petro oh.
Speaker 1 (17:00):
Up at Irvine Days go give it to Lincoln Riley
a little Ben. So this is pretty cool. I mean,
this is going to be a heck of a paper.
Speaker 4 (17:07):
Yeah, I mean our plan, uh, just so you know,
is that I'm going to be kind of bouncing back
and forth between both schools for the first six months
or so. Then we're going to staff up some more
add some beat writers, and I'm going to transition into
a college's columnist role. So you know, I will be
the you know, guy out there dropping the hammer when.
Speaker 1 (17:28):
Things go wrong, like our hero, like our late hero,
the greatest Chris Dufrain like that.
Speaker 4 (17:34):
Absolutely, I hope I have some rankings and some lots
of one liners coming your way, Petros.
Speaker 2 (17:40):
Nice Scott, Well, wonderful if there's commentary involved, ben as
opposed to just covering the beat, that means opinions can
be injected. So if we were to make our way
over to the poly market, uh and bet some futures,
which which head coach do you have more faith in
over the next half decade, for UCLA or USC Lincoln
(18:03):
Riley or Bob Chesney.
Speaker 4 (18:06):
Oh, I gotta go Chesney, I gotta go Chesney. I
think he's he's the guy that I wanted. I think
he's off to a great start. He's portalain like nobody
else right now, bringing in lots of people, lots of
his top players from James Madison, got the winning formula
he's bringing to Westwood. I really like the trajectory there.
(18:27):
And obviously he hasn't won a game yet. I gotta,
you know, hedge a little bit and throw some caveats in,
but I think this guy was the perfect hire for
the situation and the man they need over there.
Speaker 1 (18:37):
It's interesting because that's what all the reports say. And
I remember when Deshaun Foster was hired, there was some
you know, tepid kind of reaction and there were some
people trying to be positive about it, but what is
this guy doing to blow everybody away so much? Because
everything has been so positive and people are starting to
feel like UCLA can really do something with this guy.
Speaker 4 (19:00):
Yeah, I mean he's you know, I think the thing
I keep going back to is, you know, he wins
at every level. You know, you think that he's going
to get to a point where it's going to be
too much from him, and he has not reached that
ceiling yet. So you know a lot of people are
throwing out the Kurt Signetti comparisons. I think that's that's low.
That's hold off a little bit on that, right. I mean,
we have we haven't done anything toward toward that at
(19:22):
the you know, at the big ten level. But man,
I think there's just so much to Like I thought,
he knocked it out of the park his intro press conference.
He's been working his tailoffs. As I already mentioned in
the portal, I'm hoping to sit down with him here
shortly as soon as the portal closes. I've been promised
an interview with him, and I'm actually trying to meet
(19:42):
with his family this week in Sixral, Pennsylvania because the
Bruin basketball team is playing at Penn State, so I'm
trying to pick each on the trip to Copemont, Pennsylvania,
which is about ninety nine miles away from state college.
I hope to have the privilege of meeting with them
and hanging out and coach Chesney's hometown to get a
better sense of who he is and where he came from.
Speaker 2 (20:05):
Obviously, the Kurt Signetti comparisons are going to be there
because of the school and the transfers and how he's
building it. But are there comparisons beyond that? And Ben,
obviously you're watching the playoff? Is there another Kurt Signetti
out there? Is that guy a unicorn? A straight one
of one?
Speaker 4 (20:24):
I mean, it certainly looks that way, right. I Mean,
if I'm this, if I'm the owner of some fortune
five hundred company, I want to pay this guy for
offer him fifty million to come set a championship culture
at my organization. Right about We've never seen anything like
this and in two years to get this team to
where it is, it's just I mean, he to me,
he's the best coach in football right now, bar none.
(20:47):
So it is a unicorn situation in my view.
Speaker 1 (20:50):
All right, Ben Boltch, here's our guest. He's going to
the California Post at the end of the month. Been
a great beat rider and a great rider for the
La Times for a long time. It's been covering UCLA
like a champ for some years now. As we talk
more about UCLA moving to SOFI, and I know that
there's details involved in this, and what's happening is probably
(21:13):
not what's best, but what's best is probably not feasible
as far as building a stadium on campus. But it
turns out, and you reported on this, that this has
been in the works for years. These corporate types have
been rubbed elbows talking about this for quite some time.
What are the details there?
Speaker 4 (21:32):
Yeah, there were some court filings that were you know,
came through the system late last week that I was
able to get a hold of and just showed that,
you know, this conversation is not did not start recently,
you know, it went back as far as August twenty
four and appears to be really driven by the new
(21:52):
relatively new CFO of UCLA, Steven Augustini, who came in
and apparently looked at numbers and said we got to
make some big changes. Because his name's all over this thing.
You know, they set up some zoom meetings with Kevin
demof of the RAMS, other people from so far and
you know, I wrote all about the discussions and the
(22:13):
projections that they were looking at. Don't have any of
the specific numbers, but we know that they were multiple
meetings and back and forth and you know, some some
buzz and excitement between those two entities. But the next
step here in court is I believe it's twenty second
of this month, they're going to rule on whether this
case goes to arbitration, which would keep it out of
(22:34):
the public eye, or continues in the public court, which
is what Pasadena and the Rose Bowl want because they
want to get the court of public opinion on their side.
So that's that's where we stand. I think we're nowhere
near the finish line on this. But you know, Megans
of Progress, I know you.
Speaker 2 (22:51):
Know you'd like to have a stadium on campus. It's
been talked about here with Petro's repeatedly. You've written about
why it's just not feasible in terms of the neighborhood
and the infrastructure. Do you think so FI is an
upgrade and if so, how much of an upgrade over
the Rose Bowl. If it would cost them something to
(23:12):
the tune of tens or maybe hundreds of millions of
dollars to make that move.
Speaker 4 (23:17):
Yeah, I'm just not convincing numbers are going to work.
I mean, you guys have read what I've written. I'm
mister rose Pall. I think that it's a huge part
of UCLA's identity, and I think they'd be forced to
give it up.
Speaker 1 (23:27):
Certainly.
Speaker 4 (23:28):
Where so Fi comes with the modern bells and whistles
of an NFL stadium, it's a completely different vibe. But
to me, it's not a college vibe. And I think
that there's a scenario here where UCLA gets levied with
so much damages as a result of court case that
I don't care how much more money you're gonna get
it so Fi, it's gonna be a wash. So if
I were them, I would just kind of say, Okay,
(23:49):
we're gonna we're gonna back off this a little bit
and take a longer view of it, because I think
there is a scenario where this, even if they get
to go to Sofi, it's a net loss for them.
Are pretty close to it.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
In twenty twenty eight so far. We'll have usc playing
there because the coliseum will be hosting Olympics and Paralympics.
They'll have UCLA there, They'll have the Chargers of course,
and the Rams. I'm not asking for too much opinion, Ben,
but I am. How stupid is it that we have
four gigantic football entities in town in southern California, all
(24:21):
playing indoors?
Speaker 4 (24:22):
My god, Yes, the best climate in the world, and
we're not going to take advantage of it. Right, It's crazy.
Speaker 1 (24:30):
It doesn't seem like a great idea, but it feels
like we're victims of this kind of corporate elbow rubbing
that's been happening for some years now.
Speaker 4 (24:40):
Yeah, it's all about the money, as you know, guys,
it's all about the money. And then this is what
they're looking at. But as I've alluded to, you know,
there's some wild cards in play here that could make
this not work out the way they want it to.
Speaker 2 (24:54):
You mentioned, you're going to be out of Penn State.
UCLA coming off a victory over Maryland on and they
will travel to Penn State. Maryland was back here, lost
in Wisconsin at Wisconsin, lost Iowa at Iowa. What kind
of UCLA basketball team. Are we looking at here as
the Big Ten schedule has started.
Speaker 4 (25:14):
Yeah, I'm not gonna lie. They're in a tough spot,
you know, so much, so many high expectations with Donovan
Dent coming in. Obviously the loss of a Dye Marrow
was a big one, but you know, there was a
lot of optimism that they could minimize that because you
got the top point guard in the transfer portal and
kind he kind of makes everybody better, right if he's
at the top of his game. But as we've seen,
(25:34):
Donovan Dent has really struggled, hasn't been the same player
we saw in New Mexico. His percentages have dropped off,
his confidence levels kind of plummet. Now, I will say
we saw some some glimpses against Iowa in that second
half where they made it a four point game after
they were down twenty four, and I'm thinking, Okay, maybe
he's going to take off. But you know, the last
couple of games has been kind of back to the
(25:56):
status quo of where he'd been early in the season.
So something really has changed there. And you know, as
we're seeing, they bought in a couple of new big
guys to take over for a die and they haven't
really you know, kept up at that same level. So
right now, the ceiling for this team, man, it's not
looking pretty. I mean they're basically a bubble team right
now for the NCAA tournament. So unless they can really
(26:20):
find something and put this together, this season is not
headed toward a happy finish here.
Speaker 1 (26:26):
Wow, not a happy finish to the interview either, Ben
Bolt headed to the California Post. Ben, congratulations on all
your success and we hope that that's a great endeavor
for all the writers that are going over there. If
there's one thing we need, it's more newspapers, more outlets
to get information out there. And you've done a great
(26:46):
job covering UCLA for years as the guy asking the
questions that everybody wants asks. Thank you, Ben, and have
a great night.
Speaker 4 (26:55):
Thanks gentlemen. Always Georgia to talk to you guys.
Speaker 1 (26:58):
All right, California Post. Why don't we go over to
the Post man, we can sensationalize anything.
Speaker 2 (27:06):
I could see that happening, you know, like we're not
gonna do sports though, right, you're gonna go to the
Post and.
Speaker 1 (27:12):
Oh yeah, I'm writing entertainment, right, you're writing entertainment. I
don't know what the hell I'm writing. I Men's fashion.
Speaker 2 (27:22):
There you go, Men's fashion, Tech, I'll cover tech. Hey,
check out this robot that serves pepsi tos Son, It's awesome.
Speaker 1 (27:37):
Did you just describe Rocky for Yes, I did the
first real introduction to tech when we were kids. Holy crap.
Can you imagine that alkaline water counteracts with the acid
in your stomach?
Speaker 2 (27:59):
So that's everyone was freaking out. There are a bunch
of acid freaks out there in the Northeast and they're like, yeah,
I mean I've gotten more water text.
Speaker 1 (28:10):
Yeah, they're like super picky about their waters.
Speaker 2 (28:13):
And then people are like, I drink out of the
hose exactly. If you're our age, that's what you did.
You drink out of whatever faucet was available.
Speaker 1 (28:20):
That's why we have high immunity. Mm hmmm. Well that's
Rider's Hour, but it will continue next. Michael Crichton will
join us on the pictures now, Dan, Michael, when you
were writing Congo, Oh, I love the Congo with the
killer ads? Yeah, Congo.
Speaker 3 (28:39):
Sue Crafton's for tomorrow who Sue Grafton and Rice.
Speaker 1 (28:48):
Mary Shelley, Oh Lever Mary Wolston, Shelley Kender, somebody continues next. Hello,
PMS listener, Did you know AM five seventy LA Sports
has a wide range of LA sports podcasts. There's Rogan and.
Speaker 6 (29:10):
Rodney, That one is my favorite, Dodger Talk with David Vassei,
the Dodger Podcast of record, Clipper Talk without a Musk,
follow us all and many more. Just go to AM
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Speaker 1 (29:23):
That's Rust and Money.
Speaker 2 (29:24):
HEYM five seventy LA Sports Live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.
Marching toward a six thirty handoff to Clippers pregame. The
Chargers are out, but football is in when it comes
to HAM five to seventy LA Sports. We are your
home of the NFL, and we will have three divisional
games this weekend as we make our way toward being
(29:45):
the home of Super Bowl sixty Sunday, February sixth, the
Super Bowl that will not include one team that at
least one of us was wildly invested in Super Bowl sixty, including.
Speaker 1 (30:00):
Well, the rest of us were very much invested too.
Man I was at the edge of my seat certainly
joining us right now on your southern California Toyota Dealer
Celebrity Hotline. It is Daniel Popper and he just got
done popping off with the players when they just got
done cleaning out their lockers and leaving the building. Tears, disappointment, frustration.
(30:28):
Here to discuss it all from the Athletic is the
best beat rider they've gone. Daniel Popper joining us on
the Petrosen Money Show for a little charge of prospective
be on the Voice of the Bolts. With all due respect,
we got Daniel Popper on us. Say I'm biased? No,
I wouldn't say that. What's cracking, Daniel? How are you? Oh?
Speaker 7 (30:50):
You know, just running on about thirty minutes of sleep
from Boston.
Speaker 1 (30:55):
You know you can't sleep on the back.
Speaker 7 (30:58):
Yeah, I tried, but I was trying to watch the
sale home and kept dozing off, trying to keep my
eyes open as best as again. I got changed into
my sweatpants and the Gillette Stadium parking lot and my
rented Kia Soul at three thirty am Eastern times.
Speaker 1 (31:10):
So that's the wife of a beat writer for you.
Nothing like those sweats, getting those sweats on and the
cold feel good about to the airport. Yeah, same airport
from die Hard too. You know, you could have ended
up what Popper. It's interesting to kind of balance these
things out, because on one hand, you say, wow, the
(31:31):
Chargers accomplished a lot even though they had a lot
of injuries, had to overcome this and that Herbert got
massacred all year long. Or you can say this playoff
disappointment continues throughout the Jim Harbaugh era and it was
probably something they thought was going to be over when
they hired Jim Harbaugh. How do you balance those two out?
Speaker 7 (31:50):
Pop, I think both things can be true, right. I
think you can look at the season that they had
and all the injuries in the offensive line and losing
with Shaan Slater and using Joe Alton, having twenty five
different five man offensive line combinations, and the fact that
the team stuck together and believed and made the playoffs
and that's great and a feather in Jim Harbaugh's cap.
And then you look at the performance yesterday, particularly offensively,
(32:12):
and you can also look at that and say it's
unacceptable and to me, like those two things can be
true at the same time, and losing again in the playoffs,
in the game that they had a shot In, I
think brings up some pretty hard questions that you have
to ask, you know, is Greg Rouman the right person
to be calling plays? Why can't Justin Herbert play better
in some of these playoff games? Are they going to
still have the same level of defensive success when their
(32:34):
defensive coordinator Jesse Minter inevitably leaves for a head coaching
job this offseason. So I think both things are true,
But the loss was unacceptable. Three points in a playoff
game is unacceptable, and it's going to lead to some
pretty tough questions around here at the Bolton Milsogondo.
Speaker 2 (32:49):
You mentioned you were watching the film on the way
back a lot of people and I obviously wasn't watching
the broadcast. We were doing it pop, But it sounded
like toward the end of that game that Chris collins
Worth was, you know, kind of leaning in on Herbert
a little bit for the plays that he left out there.
Just kind of your assessment of the way Herbert played,
And do you maybe see it the same as as
(33:11):
some others that maybe there was some scar tissue there
from a season of getting you know, drilled in the
backfield repeatedly and just kind of finally caught up to him.
Speaker 7 (33:21):
That's the hard thing for me to wrap my mind
around money, because how many hits he took this season,
one hundred and twenty nine hits over the regular season.
The one thing that never wavered was his performance. He
was able to maintain it despite all of the hits
that he took, and that was the most impressive part
of the season. Is so for it all to come
crashing down in one game in the playoffs was so
(33:43):
very surprising, and so to me, I kind of look
at it and say, well, if one hundred and twenty
nine hits are in the regular season didn't affect him,
there has to be something else I'd play here. And
to me, he just looked a little hesitant. He looked
skittish in the pocket. He wasn't, you know, accurate in
the way that he's typically accurate to all three levels
of the field. It so like when he did have
protection early in the game, he was escaping too early
(34:05):
in those downs. But you know, at the end of
the day, right when you have an offensive performance like
that and you only score three points, everyone is to blame.
The quarterback didn't play well enough, The play calling wasn't
good enough, the receivers didn't run good enough routes. The
offensive lineman didn't protect well enough, They didn't block well
enough in the running game, the running backs didn't run
well enough. Everyone is at fault. But to me, at
some point in time, the fifty two and a half
(34:27):
million dollar a year quarterback, it's gonna have to show
up in a big game like this, and we haven't
seen him play that type of game in the playoffs
in his three appearances, and at some point it's gonna
have to come together for him if he wants to
get over the hump.
Speaker 1 (34:40):
The pop Daddy Daniel Popper from the Athletic joining us
right now in the Petterson Money Show, lamenting the chargers
abysmal offensive performance in Jillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts. He
got his sweats on deep deep in the night in
the North East in New England, and he's back here
(35:00):
in southern California to watch the Chargers processional sad march
out of the facility. Popper, overall, what is the biggest
need after that performance? What do you think they'll focus
on in the off season.
Speaker 7 (35:17):
Well, I think you kind of have to talk about
the interior of the offensive line, And I feel like
a broken record because all I did for about four
or five months after last season ended was talk about
building up the interior of the offensive line. They signed
Mackai Beckton and that was an abject failure as a signing.
They ran it back at the other two positions with
Bradley Boseman, Zion Johnson. I thought Zon Johnson took a
big step forward this season, But you feel good about
(35:40):
the tackles coming back. Obviously, there's a little bit of
uncertainty as far as iber Schaan Slater returns from a
really significant knee injury torn to Teler tend and we
just talked to Joe allt sounds like he's going to
be back and in proper shape for OTAs or around
that time in the spring. But how do you get
this interior to a place where Justin Herbert isn't getting
(36:00):
hit like this? And so I think you've got to
start with center. There has to be an upgrade at
that position, whether it's in free agency or the draft,
and they have to look at Zion Johnson and make
a decision there about whether they can bring him back,
and then they have to get a real solution at
right guard. There were other options in free agency, there
were options in the draft. They decided I'm a Kai Becton,
and he really wasn't able to stay on the field.
(36:21):
When he was on the field, he wasn't very good.
So that has to be the absolute priority here. Okay,
Justin Herbert was hit one hundred and twenty nine times
this season and he managed to lead this team to
the playoffs. But you have to protect him. You have
to put him in a position to be successful. And
that starts with creating the protection for him to be
back there and not take the type of hits that
(36:43):
he's taking, because let's be real, he's twenty seven years old.
But this is very Andrew Luckish in terms of how
this is going, the number of hits that he's taking.
A guy that loves football and loves to be out there,
but the stuff that he's playing through is not sustainable
over the long term. So they got to focus on
this offensive line and they have to build a group
that can protect their most valuable asset.
Speaker 1 (37:03):
Full stop Pop some we'll call full stop pop.
Speaker 2 (37:09):
Well, some call him full stop pop, some call it
some say he is an antagonist, say he's just asking
the questions that people want. The answers to you are
you are not afraid in the pressers And it felt
like for the first time you got a little bit
of an answer from coach Harbaugh about the future of
Greg Roman. You mentioned the play caller. You know, you
(37:32):
can dig into Greg Roman's past with either Lamar Jackson
or Justin Herbert or his quarterback in the playoffs, and
his offenses have never scored more than twenty points, and
they've averaged twelve points in those five games he's had
with those two exceptional quarterbacks. Just kind of your thoughts
on the answer you got from Harbaugh and whether or
not you think they'll have the same play caller next year.
Speaker 7 (37:54):
Yeah, I mean the answer told me that they're considering changes,
and I think you have to assessing to me, like,
you bring in Greg Roman for a specific reason, right.
He's built great run games wherever he's been and Jim
Harbaugh wants to play a physical brand of football, and
so they bring in Greg Roman to establish that. On
the offensive line. That's the messaging for the last two
years to these offensive linemen is we're gonna lean on you.
(38:17):
This is gonna be an O line centric building. That's
what run game coordinator Andy Bischoff said, right, And so
if that's going to be the ideology in the philosophy,
then you better lean into that in the biggest moments
of the season. And so the Chargers get a turnover
in the first half, they set the offense up at
the ten yard line. How many runs did they run
in four plays?
Speaker 1 (38:36):
Zero?
Speaker 7 (38:36):
Zero handoffs to the running backs. They've turned the ball
over on downs and then get zero points off of that.
So that to me, that sequence there, to me early
in the game showed me that this ideology and philosophy
that they've been preaching under Greg Roman is not being
enacted on the field in the biggest game of the season.
And that tells me that this identity is completely lost.
(38:57):
And then you get into the fact that Justin Herbert
was dropping back when he'd have protection. No one's open.
You know, part of that is on the receivers, but
part of it is you look across the league at
some of these great offensive coordinators, to Ben Johnson's to
Sean mcvays, and they're scheming people open. How often is
that happening with the Chargers. So at the end of
the day, there were some bright moments for Greg Roman
this season in terms of stringing this thing together, patching
(39:18):
it together with the offensive line. But you got to
show up in the playoffs. And if you scored three
points in the playoff when you have Justin Herbert playing quarterback,
you got to question everything.
Speaker 1 (39:27):
All right, that's good stuff from Daniel Popper and the athletic.
Always nice getting some perspective from outside the booth. Uh,
thank you, Daniel, and we appreciate you. Have a wonderful
night and get some rest there. Brother.
Speaker 7 (39:42):
All right, thanks guys, appreciate having us.
Speaker 1 (39:43):
Right to the liquor store. Get one of those buzzballs.
Speaker 2 (39:47):
Yes, you can follow hops with Pop his sub stack
where he drinks like some others drink when they like
to talk about the Chargers because it leads you to drink.
Speaker 1 (39:56):
Yeah, get then one of those buzzball bees.
Speaker 2 (39:59):
Oh, big buzzball. This is the super sweet sour caramel
apple buzzball. We'll be bacious with more petros and money.
On m five seventy l a sports rider's hour is over.
Oh yeah, the rider's block is back.
Speaker 1 (40:16):
Consider yourself blocked.
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Milan Cortina Winter Olympics
The 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan Cortina are here and have everyone talking. iHeartPodcasts is buzzing with content in honor of the XXV Winter Olympics We’re bringing you episodes from a variety of iHeartPodcast shows to help you keep up with the action. Follow Milan Cortina Winter Olympics so you don’t miss any coverage of the 2026 Winter Olympics, and if you like what you hear, be sure to follow each Podcast in the feed for more great content from iHeartPodcasts.