July 24, 2025 • 51 mins
Carl Lee is joined by Lisa Otey and Hollis Lewis for a deep dive into three big topics in sports. First, they tackle the WNBA's explosion in popularity and debate whether Caitlin Clark truly is the face of the league. Then, they pull back the curtain on a hidden NFL collusion ruling that could have major implications for guaranteed contracts. Finally, they turn to high school football and Teddy Bridgewater’s suspension for selflessly supporting his underfunded alma mater. A no-punches-pulled episode on money, power, and principle in sports today.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Yeah, you gotta work.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
You gotta work, ry Sin. It is mine gotta show.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
Everybody is my sign you gotta work, cry Shine. Another
mind who talk to die this day line don't talk,
you gotta work.
Speaker 3 (00:23):
Welcome to Let's Talk with Carl Lee. Let's Talk is
probably presented by Attorney Frank Walker. Real Talk, real experience,
real results, Frank Walker Law dot Com. Let that conversation
begin on Let's Talk.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Hello, ladies and gentlemen.
Speaker 4 (00:38):
This is Carl Lee and I'm in the building with
Lisa Odie Hello, and Hollis Lewis, my co host of
the show.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
And what an interesting day to day is for me,
at least for me.
Speaker 4 (00:54):
I have kind of waited and been dying to actually
get in to the w NBA.
Speaker 5 (01:04):
Right text threat I have.
Speaker 4 (01:06):
I have absolutely been wanting to to to to get
into it, Yes, because I just can't imagine. Okay, my
my first issue, Okay, the very first issue that I
really have is how is it possible that your best
(01:27):
player Caitlyn Clark. Now I don't I'm not even gonna
say she's the best, but I was going to say
most recognizable. Yes, I'm gonna say she may not be
the best. Player, okay, but she's the most notable player.
She is the draw. And I think the key point.
Speaker 5 (01:45):
Is Angel Reese may have something to say about that.
She might.
Speaker 4 (01:49):
She might, but I'm not watching because of her, you know.
And I don't think I think the people. There are
a few people who may watch her because they like her.
But Kaitlyn Clark is the unique athlete that we rarely
see because she is the one that you eat that
you absolutely love or you absolutely hate. And when you
(02:12):
have that, you have something.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
You know.
Speaker 4 (02:15):
There's a the Michael Jordan thing. You either loved him
or you hated him. You hated him because you knew
he beat your team.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
You didn't really.
Speaker 4 (02:26):
Hate his basketball skills. You hated the fact that he
beat your team. And I think Caitlyn Clark is the
the that person. I think she's the greatest attraction for
the w n b A and I think they lack
(02:51):
they do lack pay and and and I just and
compared to the NBA. Well, I say that's the problem.
You can't I get you. I get I get you,
I get you, But it's too far. If I'm if
I'm a female and I'm I'm a former basketball player,
(03:11):
and I'm watching the game and I realized, how what
the what the w n b A is paying these
these women versus what the NBA is playing them.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
I got a problem. But that's but I got you.
But that's not that comparison.
Speaker 4 (03:25):
And you can't compare it that way because the numbers
don't speak to that, right. And so when you're looking
at like like and we're just attendant, and I would say,
I would argue both points, right, I would argue that
when you're talking about Kaylen Clark being a face of league,
I would argue that college basketball, college women's back, women's
college basketball is the is what propelled this, right and
(03:46):
but who.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
But but let me let me tell them there who
was the person that she was a face to it?
She wasn't defaced, oh.
Speaker 4 (03:56):
Because I think you look at Don Stanley, you look
at Angely, you look at South Carolina, you know at
Juju Watkins. I think the collective college women's college basketball
sparked this and then people started to pay attention to
the WNBA. And I would say, and I would give
her credit, she's definitely a face. But going back to
the numbers of this, right, because when you have a
(04:17):
league that's losing forty million.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
Dollars in twenty twenty four.
Speaker 4 (04:22):
And we're talking about at the height of the hype
right last year, she's rookie all that stuff. That's problematic
when you talk about a league again that at one
time was heavily subsidized by the NBA. I think at
one time it was up around seventy five to eighty
percent of the teams in the WNBA were owned by
(04:44):
NBA ownership groups. That's not the case anymore. That's going
to be different. So I think, and again what we
can argue is that are they getting their fair percentage?
Because I think they're getting nine percent that's to split
between the league, the ownership and the w n B
A p A. So I think that the percentage is
(05:05):
what you could argue. But I don't think and I
think we lose ourselves when you start to do that
comparative analysis between the w and the NBA.
Speaker 5 (05:13):
Yeah, I'm team Hollis here.
Speaker 6 (05:15):
I'm sorry, Carl, but I feel like this past weekend
with the w NBA All Star Game, you know that
the ladies came out wearing those shirts. Of course most
saw that the pay us what you Owe us shirts
crowd chanted, you know, pay them or pay us all
all the things.
Speaker 5 (05:31):
They were supporting the girls.
Speaker 6 (05:33):
But you know what Hollis is alluded to is the
difference in financial gains. I mean, you cannot It's like
comparing apples and oranges when you're comparing the w n
b A to the NBA. Just just for example, he's
throwing out percentages in numbers of attendance and all that,
the difference even in media deals. I mean, you can
look at some numbers I looked at today. You know,
(05:56):
the w n b A had a two point two
billion dollar media deal. That sounds that sounds great, right,
sounds like a lot of money. Compare that to a
seventy five million or billion dollar with the NBA. So
I mean the money that that's not. You know, they
want a piece of the pie, but the pie is
not it's not out of.
Speaker 5 (06:13):
The oven yet. They need to wait a little bit,
you know what I mean?
Speaker 4 (06:16):
And I like I like that analogy, But for me,
I'm thinking it's always been And we'll probably touch on
this on a later topic, but I'm gonna just throw
this out there. Like like the league, the NFL, okay,
the NFL at one point they were there was absolutely
(06:37):
all all the numbers would speak all they can't pay us,
they can't pass, they can't pass this money. Now they're
paying this kind of crazy numbers, just hundreds of millions
of dollars constantly. Right, I'm not sure that what we
read all the time, what they're saying all the time
(06:59):
is correct.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
I think when you have.
Speaker 4 (07:04):
And again I'm gonna make I'm gonna say, Caitlin, I
believe that she is one. She's my favorite player in
the league, specifically because you wouldn't know that because of
her game, because of her game, and I think that.
Speaker 3 (07:22):
She is.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
I think she's I think she's the face.
Speaker 4 (07:26):
I think the fact that you allow her, you allow
her to get beat up to the degree where officials
you gotta you gotta suspend fire officials because they're not
calling fouls on her, Like.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
I don't, hollis.
Speaker 4 (07:45):
You you can't tell me that she's not getting beat
up physically beat up by other players and nothing's getting called,
but I mean agating, Michael Jortan got beat up by
other players, nothing like that, nothing like did you nothing?
Nothing like Michael Jordan got whooped by the Detroit Pistons.
And those early teams in the eighties by the Celtics.
(08:07):
He got beat on. They had to change the rules
because of Michael Jordan. But I'm saying, what did they do?
Speaker 2 (08:12):
They had to.
Speaker 4 (08:13):
Change the rules because because of Michael Jordan.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
She's not that. Oh my god, she's not that. She's
she's not that.
Speaker 4 (08:21):
I don't know if we've seen that person yet, but
I don't think she's she's it. She's going to be
a very good No, she's not because you again, if
you don't have nobody, somebody gets to be the top.
Asian Wilson is the top right now.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
You know what I'm saying. Forrest play on the court.
Speaker 4 (08:37):
You can say other things, but she's not the Michael
Jordan because right now, you even in this even in
his early years, Michael Jordan's win the scoring titles and
doing things before he got to the championship levels. So
she has to get to a point where statistically that's validated.
And it's eventually gonna have to come to a point
where you start to win multiple championships. And we haven't
seen that yet. But but I'll let you go just quickly.
(09:01):
But to my point, it's just like Lisa said, this league,
whether who's whoever's the face of it, they sort of it.
It would be a strategic mistake for them to have
a strike at this moment, because I don't think the
league is strong enough, and I think they're teetering on
the point of being like that fourth or fifth major
(09:21):
sport in the US. They're almost to that point. But
if you start to let it go now and you
have a workstop as now, that could really really damage
the league moving forward, and they going to have to
wait on that money a little bit, and unfortunately some
of them are going to have to sacrifice until the
money can get bigger in the next few years.
Speaker 6 (09:40):
Yeah, I mean, I agree with that point, but I'm
going to go back to the point about her not
being the face of the WNBA, because right now she's
the closest thing to it that they have. I mean,
you know, the problem with her is I think there's
just a basic, I don't want to say lack of respect.
Maybe there's too much respect, and that's the reason she
gets the treatment she does on the court. They know
(10:02):
they have to contain her, and sometimes they have to
hurt her to do that. But I also think that
she doesn't have a whole lot of support, even when
it comes from the commissioner. I mean, you know, Kathy Engelbert,
I think in this past month or so, she was
in an interview with a station of some type and
they were asking her, you know, how do you account
for this viewership being up like one hundred and seventy
(10:22):
percent with the WNBA. Do you know do you kind
of associate that with Caitlin Clark? And her answer was, well,
she and Angel Reese, which which Angel does contribute, but
I'm still saying Caitlin is the reason we're drawing in
the viewership numbers that we are. The other thing she
said was and I thought this was kind of like
out there, but she said she attributed it to their app,
(10:45):
their WNBA app, and she feels like the reason that
more people are watching this because they did these improvements
on their app and now it's more easily accessible to fans. Well,
first of all, the fans aren't going to seek out
the app to watch a game unless they want to
see a particular player or team, correct, I would think.
Speaker 4 (11:02):
So.
Speaker 6 (11:02):
I didn't know what that shade was about, but it
was definitely thrown towards Caitlin in that conversation. But you know,
here's here's your answer. Let's let's let's let Caitlin go,
you know, to an overseas league, you know, maximizer earnings
and see where the w n B a NBA's lapped
after that, I see how the viewership goes.
Speaker 4 (11:19):
I'm curious to what you what you how you answer this, hollis,
if Caitlyn were to sit down and say, okay, right,
y'all don't need me. I'm I'm I'm gonna I'm gonna sit.
I'm gonna sit the rest of the year out, you
think that they would lose viewership.
Speaker 2 (11:42):
Yeah, I think it would definitely lose some. And again
I'm not not gonna say I'm gonna say not some.
I think it would lose some majority.
Speaker 4 (11:48):
But I also think to to the previous point, I
do think this was about women's college basketball, and you
have these two superstars anguries in Kaylyn Clark ascending together.
This is really because because again this is the w
n ba's magic magic in Larry Bird moment. They didn't
(12:10):
do it right now because they both should have went
to different conferences. So in the hopes of one day
they're meeting in the championship. So this was their moment.
So much as we like to talk about, you know,
Kayln Clark, this was about Angel Rees too. This was
about those two entities emerging. You have the girl from
the South, you have the girl from the Midwest. They
(12:31):
met in college. They had this rivalry in college, and
then they're going to have this rivalry in the w
n B. A. That's part of this narrative. This isn't
just about Kaylyn Clark has Okay.
Speaker 6 (12:42):
I mean, once again, I agree to it. I agree
to a point. But then let's look at let's look
at numbers. Let's look at attendance data. Okay, let's do
some comparisons, all right, because.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
Numbers don't lie.
Speaker 5 (12:55):
People can lie. Numbers don't, all right.
Speaker 6 (12:57):
So when we're looking at the Indiana Fever, they're attended
it numbers. Okay, they're averaging sixteen to seventeen thousand fans
per game.
Speaker 5 (13:05):
Okay.
Speaker 6 (13:06):
When you look at the Chicago skot which is Angel
Reese's team, they're averaging seven to nine thousand per game.
Speaker 5 (13:12):
Okay.
Speaker 6 (13:13):
When they play each other in Chicago, they had more
than nineteen thousand fans show up. So taking those numbers.
What could tell me?
Speaker 5 (13:24):
Guys? What what do you take from that?
Speaker 2 (13:26):
It's about the robbery, Well, it is.
Speaker 6 (13:29):
About the rivalry, but if you take Caitlin out.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
Of the try it he is.
Speaker 4 (13:34):
What I'm saying is like sports, sports in general is
about robvalry. Like you have the Commanders and Cowboys, you
have the cowboys and Giants. It's the Packers in the
in the Vikings. It's about rivalries. And I don't think
we've never seen, at least far as in popular culture
(13:55):
the wn BA concertain we never really seen like a
robbery that everybody can grab on to. And those two women,
those two players have a ribvalry that everybody tunes into.
And they got a game Sunday at three o'clock which
I'll be watching. Okay, so I agree, I agree, But
I think that you know that rivalry is made by
(14:19):
Caitlyn Clark. It's it's made one Okay, Okay, I'm gonna.
Speaker 5 (14:26):
Jab back and forth pretty good, don't you like? In
social media?
Speaker 2 (14:31):
But I think here's you know Reese, what she can do.
Speaker 4 (14:35):
She's a she's a rebounder, she's you know, she scores inside.
So she's that quote. What I'm gonna say, is like
the old school basketball. Yeah, man, Okay, that's who she is.
Now who is Steph Curry? So Caitlyn is is that
person who everybody loves.
Speaker 2 (14:59):
Even if you don't like it.
Speaker 4 (15:01):
You know he's gonna hit that three pointer and you
know she's gonna hit it. And so the comparison gets lost,
or to me has it fails because it's a different
type of player. It's like it's like a quarterback who's
a great who's got.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
A great arm, but can't run.
Speaker 4 (15:24):
In today's game, you got to be able to throw
the ball and you got to be able to run.
And I think Caitlyn has everything that you could possibly have, passing.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
All of that kind of She's well rounded.
Speaker 4 (15:40):
And again I'm not saying she's not like a facing
She's not.
Speaker 2 (15:45):
She is. I'm not saying she's not prominent.
Speaker 4 (15:48):
But what I'm saying is like, I don't think she's
it's just about her, Like, okay, I don't think it's
just about her, all right, Well, at least you got
anything else.
Speaker 6 (16:00):
I just want to you know, I found a quote
from Kobe Bryant today that I think fits this perfect,
this whole conversation haters are a good problem to have.
Nobody hates the good ones. They hate the great ones.
So there you have it.
Speaker 2 (16:11):
So, Hollis, thank you. You hate on the great one,
We still love it. All right. So listen, do you
have anything? I'm good?
Speaker 4 (16:25):
Okay, all right, So, Hollis, you you had mentioned something
in the text line about the NFL. So introduce us
into this this new conversation.
Speaker 2 (16:40):
Okay.
Speaker 4 (16:40):
So several several months ago January, specifically, there were some
claims of collusion that I guess the NFL PA were
making against several NFL owners and basically, and kind of
without getting into too much of the weeds, what happened
was that because of that big Sean Watson contract with
(17:01):
the Cleveland Browns, this huge contract and obviously didn't work out,
there was claim that some NFL owners were on a
text line between one another and basically what they were
saying like, hey, we gotta nip this in above, we
can't have these big contracts. Specifically, hasn't relates to quarterbacks.
The claim had so much validally that it actually went
to an arbitrader in January and they had a whole like,
(17:24):
you know, and if you don't know what the arbitrador is.
It's like a you know, sort of like a between
It's like it's like a judge. It's like a you know,
informal court proceeding, if you will. And from there, the arbitrator,
Chris Donnery, ruled that there was no collusion between the
NFL owners and to keep salaries down. However, the sort
(17:47):
of the crux of what this means, why this is
a prominent story because this story was not given dished
out to the media, so nobody knew about this story.
I mean, this happened in January, and you had a
form ESPN reporter actually released these finings in the sixty
one page document I think last month, So for six months,
(18:07):
nobody even knew that this quote unquote court case happened.
So that's kind of an issue, and you know, I
find it problematic within the context of the document, it
seemed like something fishy was going on, although there was
no collusion found. As a former athlete, you could never
convince me that something didn't happen.
Speaker 2 (18:32):
That's not that I mean, the reality of.
Speaker 4 (18:38):
It when you go back to the days when I
was playing, it was so hard, you know, it was
so hard to negotiate a contract to get just a
little bit of money, you know that we thought was
still a lot of money back then. And the fact
of the matter is that I find it problematic because
(19:00):
this report, although they, you know, ruled that no collusion
was found, that the players were blocked from accessing this report.
So I don't I don't know why you wouldn't release
this report if nothing was done. And the reporter who
who brought this to the light of his his name
is Pablo Torres, and I pod I bet you, and
(19:23):
you probably can't get a player to talk about it
because I'm sure that's been a hush thing. You know,
we don't need to be talking about this. We're in camp.
Let's just get ready for the season. Let's forget all
that kind of stuff. That's kind of how stuff dies.
Speaker 5 (19:39):
But the time of year it was released, you're saying yes.
Speaker 4 (19:42):
And and and and there's nothing, there's nothing that that
would would would shock me. Yeah, I just I mean
from Mott Gohilly's I'm sorry, yeah, but I just would say,
you know, again, I know conspiracy theorists per se, but
you know, the idea that owners don't talk amongst one another, right,
the idea that they don't talk about player contracts and
(20:04):
what's good for the league and good for obviously them.
I find it hard to believe. Now, does is that
tantamount to collusion?
Speaker 6 (20:14):
I don't know, Okay, So to help me understand this
in Mahala, so the arbitrator ruled there wasn't sufficient evidence
that the teams colluded to follow the advice, but they
did find evidence that the NFL Commissioner and the General
Counsel encouraged teams to reduce Yeah, they're guaranteed money. So
to me, it's like do as I say, not as
(20:38):
I do. To a degree, it's like saying, okay, we
got caught telling you to do something wrong. But if
you'd have got caught, you would have been punished in
some degree. Absolutely, But they don't even get a handslap
because of who they are. So to me, all of
it's it's just it's a dirty, dirty situation.
Speaker 4 (20:56):
I have always thought that, you know, this will this
will sound terrible, But I've always thought, and I don't
mean this across the board everybody, but usually it is
very difficult, you know. And there was a gentleman who's
passed away, Michael Linn who was was the guy that
you had to go see your contract to get your
(21:17):
contract through.
Speaker 2 (21:19):
And one of the things that.
Speaker 4 (21:22):
He he would do would he he would low ball
you any any chance he thought he could he could,
he he would load ball you to the best of
his ability, and he would end his conversation when he
decided like, Okay, if it's one hundred thousand dollars, that's it.
That's his top level. He would tell a black player
(21:46):
to go drive a bus, Go drive a cab. If
you don't want this, go drive a cab.
Speaker 2 (21:51):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (21:53):
And you you're sitting there and you're looking at this dude, like,
what are you saying?
Speaker 2 (21:57):
What are you saying to me?
Speaker 4 (21:59):
What is what makes you think that I can't go
do something other than just this.
Speaker 6 (22:03):
You guys didn't have a player's association of any come
back then or digit.
Speaker 2 (22:07):
It just it just started and it just started. But
you couldn't There was no there was no fight, Yeah
there was. There was really no There was no way.
Speaker 4 (22:15):
You didn't have an understanding of what the power was
to fight them in these kinds of situation. Like I said,
speaking of power, I mean even if you like looking
I'm looking at an article on the New York Post.
They the arbitrator found that there was no collusion amongst
the owners, but by Lisha mentioned this by clear propondance
(22:37):
of the evidence that Commissioner Roger Goodell and Lee's General
Kowen encouraged teams to restrict players guaranteed contract.
Speaker 2 (22:45):
So for me, see how they do the worst salad,
the worst seal.
Speaker 4 (22:49):
It's like, Okay, the owners didn't, but are the boss,
the GM of the league did it. So I'm saying
to me, I don't know how that's not collusion. It
may not be collusion amongst the owners, but it's collusion
amongst the league and the owners. Yeah, why is the league?
Why is the league worried about what the vikings are paying?
(23:10):
Because because I think because he's between to the owners, yes,
and and and somebody some of the owners are they
they're definitely talking about, Look, we got to stop these numbers.
We can't get we can't let these numbers keep growing
because it's gonna it's gonna hit our pocket. And then
why they don't want to lose the kind of money
(23:32):
that they're making you. So, so now what what I'm
going to do is, let's let's get rid of the
guaranteed contracts because then because okay, so when you get
rid of the guaranteed contracts, who do you think is
gonna be the first guy you cut as soon as
he becomes less than what you need.
Speaker 2 (23:50):
Or guarantee, he's the first guy. He's the first guy gone.
Speaker 4 (23:52):
And and like I said, like I think, like you know,
into our conversation earlier, specifically about the w n b A,
and we we we talk about those numbers. But even
from a situation like this, you really never know what's
going on behind the scenes, right because to your point,
the owners, in the league officials specifically in the w
n b A, they could be saying one thing, like
(24:14):
all these are the numbers, but they could be messing
and flipping and changing. You know what I'm saying, We
don't know what's going on a situation like this where
you have the League of Leagues, right, the NFL is
the League of Leagues is number one, right, and you
have the g M, the president of that league, the
commissioner of the league, Roger Goodell, colluding owners, yeah, basically
(24:37):
telling the owners, trying to dictate salaries of organization type.
Speaker 5 (24:42):
Of punishment, and the arbitrate, I don't know, but to me, to.
Speaker 4 (24:49):
Me the players because the fact of the matters, this
information was withheld from the players. So how how does
that work? Well, you would like to think that you
would like the thing that the NFL. It's coaches can't
say ownership because that is the NFL, but the coaches,
(25:13):
general managers of the teams, those folks should be out
there saying you should not be interrupting, You shouldn't even
be bothered with who and what I pay this.
Speaker 2 (25:27):
They're part of that.
Speaker 4 (25:28):
So then if you if you erase them, you got
all you got is PLoP players.
Speaker 2 (25:33):
Who are the players going to go to? Who are
they gonna report?
Speaker 4 (25:36):
You have an NFL p A And from the looks
of it to the president of the NFL PA was
recently fired for doing something, you know, you know, spending
money he shouldn't have been spending and he and he
looks to be in cahoots with Goodell and league ownership
and different things of that nature. So if I guess
(25:56):
what I'm saying, if I'm a player, particularly if I'm
a prompt minute player, and I'm on the precipice of
possibly getting one of those guaranteed contracts. I'm really looking
hard at the NFLPA and be like, look, guys, this
is crazy because obviously it doesn't appear that and again
we're talking about a bunch of millionaires one hundred thousand
AARs whatever. Yeah, but it doesn't appear like the players
(26:18):
at any level have any adequate representation within that organization.
Speaker 6 (26:22):
That's exactly what I just was going to bring up,
Hollus is you know, you look at this whole situation
and you see that the upper level management is influencing
team behaviors from their owners, and you know it doesn't
constitute direct collusion, but but what does that do to
their players association? Does that like diminish their their role,
(26:43):
their power? I mean, it seems like they're kind of saying,
we don't care. You can file these grievances, but we're
going to say, yeah, that happened, but what do you
want us to do about it?
Speaker 4 (26:50):
And then the players Association made an agreement right ownership
not to release the documents to the players like it.
To me, it hurts the the quality of the league,
and it really this is a stain.
Speaker 2 (27:03):
Ain't nobody talking about it? Well?
Speaker 4 (27:05):
And I think too I think, and I don't know
this as a fact, but this is what I think
when when the player, when a player gets into a
position that has some kind of say, has some kind
of opportunity to fix something, or learns that there's something
really bad happening, I feel like sometimes they're they're caught
(27:28):
in that situation because they don't want to lose that
position because they could always go up another notch, they
could always get to something else. And once you get
out of the league, now you're into the quote the
administrative piece of it. You love it, you know, you
get caught up in it, and now you feel like
you're somewhat the boss.
Speaker 2 (27:48):
And I think some of.
Speaker 4 (27:49):
These guys let us down because they're stuck in their
own excitement and this new place. But I would again,
I would have to go back to the players. And
I'm saying, if you're an executive and in particularly in
the NFL p A, and you're supposed to be representing
me and then you're doing stuff like this, you fouling up.
Speaker 2 (28:11):
You fouled.
Speaker 4 (28:12):
I think the former headed of Lloyd Howie, he found
O lord Howe, excuse me, he fouled an appeal six
months after the fact, but really it seems like he
fouled the appeal when this was came out, so he
had like, oh crap, I gotta you know what I'm saying.
So it's like, if I'm at a player level, you're
(28:32):
not representing me, Like I have no representation within this.
I don't think I don't think players have, you know,
and all these little organizations that quote we we create
and all this kind of stuff, they don't really have
any they don't really have any power, or they're not
exercising the power of exercising, so they're not putting.
Speaker 2 (28:57):
They're not putting there with the.
Speaker 5 (29:01):
Commissioner and you know.
Speaker 4 (29:02):
Yeah, it would seem like somebody on the player side
would be screaming to the to the heapens about this.
It would seem like somebody would just be like, hey man,
this is crazy that this is that this happened. It
seemed like you would have some sort of intellectual person
on this side to say, hey, to review this stuff
and to really you know, because this something like this,
(29:23):
if this would come out like on.
Speaker 2 (29:25):
The NBA side, oh oh yeah about it for three months,
that's what's wild.
Speaker 6 (29:30):
You haven't seen hard anything on ESPN or any of these.
You know that the talk shows that they have not
they barely touch it.
Speaker 4 (29:37):
Like the NBA and and and professional baseball. Oh they would,
they would kill this. They control, they dominate their their organization.
They're gonna get what they want. They're gonna they're gonna
go out and they're.
Speaker 5 (29:51):
Gonna follow out the mighty dollars and football.
Speaker 4 (29:55):
It's it's hard to get guys, it's hard to get
everybody on the same page to fight for the same cause.
Because of the money, well I would I wouldn't say
the money. I would say because of the careers are
so short. Like you if you look at like you know,
NFL careers, like but three years and you're just outside
of the NFL, it's really nowhere to go to make money.
(30:16):
Like you're not going to make because if you're a
professional football player, if you're not playing in the NFL,
there's literally other than maybe Canada, we know those spots
are limited. Then even in Canada, you're not making money,
whereas opposed, if you're a professional basketball player, the world
is your oyster. Essentially, Michael Beasley, he's out of the
league and he's doing these one on ones making a
(30:36):
couple hundred thousand dollars just playing playground basketball. Essentially, we
just had the TVT here, so I think that's part
of the issue. But I but I still think I
can't believe not one player is talking about this.
Speaker 6 (30:50):
I just think the bottom line here is just, you know,
there's no accountability of their leadership. I mean, there's the
transparency's not there. It's it's I just don't know how
they kept it under wrap for as long as they
did with so many parties involved, well.
Speaker 4 (31:03):
And and basically still keeping it right because it's out
there a little bit, but it ain't talk really there's
like you, like you said earlier, there's no paperwork, there's
no you don't know who's who said this, who did that,
there's none of that, and who knows if and when? Well, well,
there there is a sixty one page document that I
(31:24):
think it's you can review. But but other than that,
it's just I just can't believe players.
Speaker 5 (31:30):
It's not a news story, that's what we're saying, and
it should be. It should be out there.
Speaker 2 (31:35):
You should you should see it on it work.
Speaker 6 (31:37):
I mean, I'm sure that document you're talking about, Holl's
got a lot of lead in it, and people aren't
going to take time to believe that because it's hard
to understand six yeah, yeah, yeah exactly, So they need
like a layman's kind of version of it that presented
in talk.
Speaker 3 (31:51):
With Carl LEAs right, let's talk. I'm not saying, attorney
Frank Robert, this would be my results. And Frank Walker cried.
Speaker 4 (32:02):
Or outraised about this because this was attack on how
much money they can make, right, so we're talking about money.
This was just saying, hey, we're gonna we're gonna try
to cap and limit it how much money you can make,
which is I don't know.
Speaker 6 (32:16):
I think I think do you think they're aware of it?
I mean they're aware of it. I mean the players
like the I don't.
Speaker 2 (32:22):
Aware of it. Yeah, I think that they have to
be aware of it. I mean I don't know.
Speaker 6 (32:29):
I mean, they did a really good job of keeping
it out of the public eye for as long as
they did.
Speaker 4 (32:33):
But I'd say, if it's out now, or at least
it's out now, there's some there's some mumbling about it.
Speaker 2 (32:39):
Somebody has to be saying something.
Speaker 4 (32:42):
Out there that out there, But I think it's gonna
what's gonna what it's gonna take it's it's gonna take
that out outspoken person who's willing to risk whatever that
comes with it, and a lot of guys.
Speaker 2 (32:55):
Aren't willing to do that, right, you know. So all right,
so we're gonna take a quick break and we will
be right back.
Speaker 3 (33:03):
Let's Talk with Carl Lee is presented by Attorney Frank Walker.
Real Talk, real experience, real results, Frank Walker Law dot Com.
Comment on episodes or it suggests topics at our Facebook page.
Search for Let's Talk with Carl Lee and remember to
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Speaker 7 (33:21):
Let's face it, bad things happen to good people seriously
injured in a car accident, trucking accident, injured in a
grocery store, or even wrongfully arrested or falsely accused of
a crime. Life happens, and when it happens to you,
you will need sound legal advice and aggressive representation. That's
when you call Attorney Frank Walker at three zero four
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four four one three zero one seven nine. Lock it
(33:43):
in your phone, text it to a friend three zero
four four one three zero one seven nine or visit
online at Attorneyfrankwalker dot com.
Speaker 1 (33:52):
Yeah, you gotta work.
Speaker 2 (34:01):
You gotta work right sign.
Speaker 1 (34:03):
It's mine gotta show everybody is my sign. You gotta
burn right shin another mind whom saga dog day line,
don't tell you gotta Burt.
Speaker 3 (34:14):
Welcome to Let's talk with Carl Lee. Let's talk is
probably presented by Attorney Frank Walker, Real talk, real experience,
real results, Frank Walker Law dot com. Let that conversation
begin on let's talk.
Speaker 4 (34:28):
All right, ladies and gentlemen, we are back, and uh
we're gonna stay in football. And maybe i'd even say
in some in some crazy stuff. I guess Hollis is
gonna talk a little bit about uh Teddy Bridgewater, Well,
NFL quarterback. I think he just got signed, so he's
not a former anymore. But NFL quarterback Teddy Bridgewater. He
(34:50):
was the head coach of a high school in Miami
that recently last year won a state title. And it
came to a light that he had spent upwards to
about two hundred thousand dollars on the program. And this
included buying meals of making sure players had uber rised
(35:13):
practical them from and you know, buying I think equipment
and other things for the program. The money was spent
on the program or or it was spent to assist
players from what we understand, So it wasn't like individual
players were getting in and benefit or anything like that.
It was nothing elicit going on, because I don't think
the state or the school district actually suspended him. It
(35:36):
was the school administration that that suspended him. And it
just you know, physical therapy was one of those phys
one of the things like that. So I mean, what
do you guys thoughts on it? What is what is
so crazy to me is if that person, if I
could find a coach who's going to do that for
(35:59):
my program, because there's one or two things we're either
not getting funding or we just don't have it. Yeah, okay,
So anything that's medical, usually you would think the school,
high school, there would there would be some kind of
insurance of some sort that they could go to to
(36:20):
to help them, you know, whatever the level. Usually there's
something that you could somewhere you can go. This appear
appears to me like there is no resource for medical
or any of those kinds of things. And if you
end up being the person have to pay then I'm
paying it for you in some form of fashion. That's
(36:43):
that's way different than handing you money money. But but
but do you think because he has that level of
resources that it gives his team unfair advantage over the
other teams in similar situation?
Speaker 2 (36:59):
That would be no to me.
Speaker 4 (37:01):
No, because I'm gonna say, let's say Lisa, Lisa is
a donor to GW and she gives one hundred thousand dollars.
I'm a donor of South Charleston.
Speaker 2 (37:13):
I give fifty.
Speaker 4 (37:14):
That's not her fault, that's not that's not South Hill's
fault that she gave a hundred and I only gave fifty.
If you have a person that's donating something, offering something
to you, that's that's that's a benefit.
Speaker 2 (37:27):
That can't be that you know.
Speaker 4 (37:29):
You can't say, well, he can only give medically, he
can only give ten dollars meals, he can only give
five dollars.
Speaker 2 (37:36):
You can't he's feeding kids who are not eating.
Speaker 5 (37:40):
Right, Well, go ahead, you want to finish your point.
Speaker 2 (37:44):
I was just I just think that that's crazy.
Speaker 6 (37:46):
Yeah, And you know, kudos to Teddy because I feel like,
you know, that was a selfless effort that he did
to support his team and community.
Speaker 5 (37:53):
Obviously they're under resource community.
Speaker 6 (37:55):
It was his alma mater, by the way, he did
go to school there, so but somewhere along the line,
you know, I always got the impression that from from
some of the reels that I watched and some of
the articles I read, that someone reported him for this.
Speaker 5 (38:09):
He self reported for whatever.
Speaker 2 (38:12):
Yeah, yeah, I.
Speaker 6 (38:12):
Found that out me too, And I even double checked
it because when I read, when I saw the first source,
I was like, Okay, I better double check this to
make sure that this is correct.
Speaker 5 (38:20):
And I did. I did the AI and it said yes,
he self reported.
Speaker 6 (38:23):
It because obviously, well evidently Florida does have some rules
about this, and they have these rules that prohibit coaches
regardless of the source of funds, you know, to prevent
wealthy programs from gaining unfair advantage. So evidently there are
some rules down there. I don't I don't know what
West Virginia, I don't guess we have any here like that,
(38:45):
you know, similar, But so down there he's self reported.
And now the suspension is they don't know for sure
how long it's going to be. But of course you
said he's on a team now, so probably he wouldn't
be returning anyway.
Speaker 4 (38:57):
Well from my from what I honest did, I thought
he was still on a coach I know he got signed.
Did he get signed to Detroit? Again, I know he
got signed to a team. I thought he was coaching. No,
he coaching, but he got signed in the in the playoffs,
so after the season ended, when the NFL playoffs, So
he actually got signed to a team, so he was
he was playing. So again, I don't know if he
(39:17):
was just signing for that short term or he planned
to play this upcoming season.
Speaker 5 (39:22):
But it's indefinite anyway. They haven't decided how long the
suspension will be.
Speaker 4 (39:26):
So I mean, this is just one of those things
where I mean, procedurally, like you said, if there are
some rules that maybe he didn't like procedural and policy wise,
didn't do some stuff one hundred percent correct, but just
the look of it when you talk to a like
I said, an underfunded program, talk about an under underfunded program.
It's really a selfless act. And it wasn't like he
(39:47):
was like I said.
Speaker 5 (39:48):
And he was self reported.
Speaker 2 (39:49):
Yeah, he's self reported.
Speaker 4 (39:50):
The benefits were like giving kids rides home because if
you have that many kids who need an uber home.
Speaker 5 (39:56):
That's a problem.
Speaker 2 (39:57):
That's a problem that you got.
Speaker 4 (39:59):
Some isshit, right, You're feeding players, you're doing the little
things that you know, because because I always laugh, and
this is kind of a side point, I always laugh
when you know we have these you know, issues around
you know, whatever, race, gender, whatever, and the people always
talk about, well, just just go start your home league.
And what I always tell people, Yeah, do you know
(40:20):
how incredibly expensive it is to start a football team?
Like when you just talk about equipment, when you talk
about trainers, when you talk about coaches, when we talk
about all these things. So even at a high school level,
probably even the two hundred thousand dollars two hundred thousand
that he put in probably wasn't even enough, right, Probably
was it probably just part right, you know, just to
(40:41):
have a competitive Florida football team.
Speaker 6 (40:43):
Doesn't this remind you of NIOL at the collegiate level,
like certain things are allowed and other things aren't, and
we refer to it as the wild wild West. So
you know, I think it's kind of like with the
NIL that we've discussed on here before, guys, that there
needs to be a balance between you know, upholding those regulars,
those athletic regulations and supporting student athletes. There's got to
(41:03):
be a balance. You can't just say the rules are
the rules. You know, it's not black and white. Sometimes
sometimes it's gray. And this is a gray area.
Speaker 4 (41:11):
I'm gonna, I'm gonna, I'm gonna, I'm gonna jump down
to to youth football, okay, And.
Speaker 2 (41:19):
When you get when you get grown men in a
room and.
Speaker 4 (41:25):
Or let me let me rephrase it, when when grown
men go to a room by themselves, right and decide
who's gonna play in a Kanall County league, right, whoops,
and they're going, yeah, they're gonna they're gonna figure out
who's gonna play and who's not gonna play. Right. And
so when they when they put these teams out, you know,
(41:48):
and have been part of it, and and currently still
part of not allowed to be playing in the Kanall
Valley at South Charleston our youth football league. We don't
get the opportunity to play in Kannall County because of
individual people, just our normal people who have jobs in
(42:08):
the day that have no right to be able to
not allow our young kids to play football locally. We're
we're driving to Parkersburg every other week.
Speaker 6 (42:21):
So what is their benefit, what is their end game
in your opinion, what is their end game.
Speaker 2 (42:28):
To win for them to have basically.
Speaker 5 (42:33):
At that level, Yes, yes, not about growth developing.
Speaker 2 (42:37):
They don't care play.
Speaker 4 (42:39):
Some of the parents of our kids can't drive, they
can't get to Parkersburg every other week, they can't get
to Ohio every other week, and or they're not willing
to show up if they've got to go there, they
just assume go somewhere else. And and I and I
and I tie this because you're talking about you're not
(43:04):
you're impacting the kids trying to go after if you're
if your objective is to go after me or a
coach or whatever.
Speaker 2 (43:14):
At the end of the.
Speaker 4 (43:14):
Day, who are you hurting? You're hurting these kids. You're
you're talking about uber rides to go home. You're talking
about physical therapy to help you get back into the game,
or to help you even play the game.
Speaker 2 (43:28):
How are you mad?
Speaker 5 (43:30):
It's a sad don't you think it's sad?
Speaker 2 (43:32):
How are you like making that an illegal thing?
Speaker 4 (43:36):
Are you the only thing I can think of? And
you know, again he's self reported. It does not I don't.
From the reports that we have or our root reviewed,
it doesn't appear that like other teams were reporting him.
Speaker 6 (43:50):
No, no, And that's the way I took it self
reported no one else. Now that doesn't mean someone wasn't
calling him saying, hey, you can either do this yourself
or I'm going to turn you in.
Speaker 5 (44:02):
You know who knows the box story.
Speaker 4 (44:03):
I mean, just to if there was a counter argument.
Similar situated teams who don't have an NFL player coaching
their organizations can't do that. So not to say it's
an unfair advantage per se, but they could argue that
it is because hey, I can't do this. I can't
do this for my So if I come from okay,
(44:25):
so if I'm playing on a youth football team and
I'm playing on the west side, Okay, I'm playing on
the west side.
Speaker 2 (44:31):
Well i'm talking about Teddy Bridgewater. I'm not talking about
I know, but I'm just saying.
Speaker 4 (44:34):
I'm just saying that if and where your money comes
from often is from people who care.
Speaker 2 (44:42):
Yeah, that's true, you know.
Speaker 4 (44:43):
And so now you're going to try to determine a
person that's caring all but he's too connected, he's too close.
That's what I'm saying.
Speaker 6 (44:55):
There's so many it's a Pandora's box that they opened here.
I mean, you know, will there be regulations everywhere now
for high school you know athletics.
Speaker 4 (45:05):
You think will and will it be like, hey, you're
just a rich booster your former alumni.
Speaker 2 (45:10):
No, you can't give that's.
Speaker 4 (45:11):
Too much, right I mean to me, if you if
you're doing this, if you're doing this, then you should
be able to do this to any individual person who's
given Hollis team money. I can coach, you know, because
I'm again I'm thinking, you know, when I go down,
when I get down the state, if I don't have
(45:33):
sterling sharp funding for equipment and uniforms and all.
Speaker 2 (45:38):
Those kind of things, we ain't making it right now.
Speaker 4 (45:43):
Can somebody come in and say, well, hey that you
know that that's illegal right there? He's a former player,
their friends, he can't be he can't be giving them
money like that.
Speaker 6 (45:52):
Correct me if I'm if I'm wrong. But isn't that
the basis of NIO. Wasn't that what was going on
before they started to try to regulate, was you know,
your big donors would come in and give money to
this this you know, foundation, and then the foundation, would
you know, take the money?
Speaker 5 (46:05):
Is that not right home?
Speaker 2 (46:06):
That's pretty much what it was. I was going to say,
So if I gave it.
Speaker 4 (46:13):
It is it does it? Does it matter where you
use it?
Speaker 2 (46:18):
Well?
Speaker 4 (46:18):
I think again that's that's a collegiate example. But I
think far as high school sports, particularly in the state
of Florida, it might be some different rules around it.
So it just depends on that particular jurisdiction as to
what the rules are of where money can come from,
because it could be some regulations. But I think all
in all were probably I think we're all in agreement
(46:38):
that I think his heart was in the right place.
I don't think it was anything malicious. I don't think
he was buying players. I don't think he was trying
to entice players from outside of that community to come
to that school. I think, you know, him being alumni
was probably just Hey, I just want to make this
the best I can be. Now, what I would say
is probably what he should have done is the only
(47:00):
thing I can think of. He's probably should have filtered
that money through the booster association if they even had one.
So that's probably because I think probably what ends up
happening is he's just kind of piecemelling this money as
he needs it. That that sort of it creates the
illusion that possibly something you know, could be going on
(47:21):
and it's just not done right to your point when
you start talking about pregame meals that's probably something that
he's worked out, you know, a deal with with with
what somebody who's going to feed him, you know, and
you know how that works.
Speaker 2 (47:36):
So can that look shady? Can that look it could? Just?
Speaker 4 (47:41):
So I would just say, probably to me, and again
without knowing the details of reading any documents, it's probably
just the way in which he was spending the money.
He was just probably spending has he needed instead of
going through like a quote unquote formal formal process. So
we think that there's a So I'm assuming that you
got are saying that there there is a system that.
Speaker 2 (48:03):
He could potentially follow.
Speaker 4 (48:05):
I don't think there is, but I think I think again,
I boa that I think normally what happens is any
money it gets spent is filled through through some sort
of booster association. So it's it's filled through through the boosters,
and coaches have some limited access to said funds because
That's how coaches get in trouble when they start to
(48:25):
spend that money.
Speaker 2 (48:28):
On things that they shouldn't spend.
Speaker 4 (48:30):
Well, I was, I was. I was guilty at State
because I kept that money. I kept that money in
a in a in an account. I didn't put it
in the in the W club or any of that
kind of stuff because I didn't want Because for me,
when I needed to get equipment, when I needed to
buy this, or I needed to buy that, I needed
to get it.
Speaker 5 (48:48):
To self report, I'm self reported.
Speaker 4 (48:51):
But but like I said, I'm sure it's I mean,
like I said, I'm just guessing that there's some sort
of process.
Speaker 2 (48:56):
I don't know.
Speaker 4 (48:57):
But all in all, I'll just say I appears he
was just doing the right thing for those kids. So yeah,
my hat's off to him simply for the fact that
he would he would feel that passionate about his team
and the players on that team, and he knew what
the challenges were for each and every one of them,
and he took care of that. He took time out
(49:21):
of his life to take care of those particular kids
and they win a championship. To me, my hat's off
to him in more respect than you can possibly imagine.
Speaker 6 (49:31):
For sure, And just to you know, reiterate what we've
talked about, there's a big difference between gifting an xbox
or something to a kid and providing you know, a meal,
a basic necessity of life.
Speaker 4 (49:42):
Right, and if something like that would have happened, it
would have definitely been in the article, you know.
Speaker 2 (49:47):
So, so I'm pretty sure that we were a we
were a.
Speaker 4 (49:53):
I would say we're right on spot on here on
the things that they've listed, at least that that to me,
I think it's every one of those are worthy calls
for a coach, I agree. So all right, well, ladies
and gentlemen, we've had we've had a couple of a
couple of or well, I guess three great topics today
(50:15):
and and we might have even found some common ground,
you know, may there were VI might have agreed on
a few things, you know, because that usually different happens.
Speaker 2 (50:28):
But we hope that you come back and check
Speaker 4 (50:30):
Us out again next week, and uh, we'll get out
of here and we'll be back
Yeah, you gotta work.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
You gotta work, ry Sin. It is mine gotta show.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
Everybody is my sign you gotta work, cry Shine. Another
mind who talk to die this day line don't talk,
you gotta work.
Speaker 3 (00:23):
Welcome to Let's Talk with Carl Lee. Let's Talk is
probably presented by Attorney Frank Walker. Real Talk, real experience,
real results, Frank Walker Law dot Com. Let that conversation
begin on Let's Talk.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Hello, ladies and gentlemen.
Speaker 4 (00:38):
This is Carl Lee and I'm in the building with
Lisa Odie Hello, and Hollis Lewis, my co host of
the show.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
And what an interesting day to day is for me,
at least for me.
Speaker 4 (00:54):
I have kind of waited and been dying to actually
get in to the w NBA.
Speaker 5 (01:04):
Right text threat I have.
Speaker 4 (01:06):
I have absolutely been wanting to to to to get
into it, Yes, because I just can't imagine. Okay, my
my first issue, Okay, the very first issue that I
really have is how is it possible that your best
(01:27):
player Caitlyn Clark. Now I don't I'm not even gonna
say she's the best, but I was going to say
most recognizable. Yes, I'm gonna say she may not be
the best. Player, okay, but she's the most notable player.
She is the draw. And I think the key point.
Speaker 5 (01:45):
Is Angel Reese may have something to say about that.
She might.
Speaker 4 (01:49):
She might, but I'm not watching because of her, you know.
And I don't think I think the people. There are
a few people who may watch her because they like her.
But Kaitlyn Clark is the unique athlete that we rarely
see because she is the one that you eat that
you absolutely love or you absolutely hate. And when you
(02:12):
have that, you have something.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
You know.
Speaker 4 (02:15):
There's a the Michael Jordan thing. You either loved him
or you hated him. You hated him because you knew
he beat your team.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
You didn't really.
Speaker 4 (02:26):
Hate his basketball skills. You hated the fact that he
beat your team. And I think Caitlyn Clark is the
the that person. I think she's the greatest attraction for
the w n b A and I think they lack
(02:51):
they do lack pay and and and I just and
compared to the NBA. Well, I say that's the problem.
You can't I get you. I get I get you,
I get you, But it's too far. If I'm if
I'm a female and I'm I'm a former basketball player,
(03:11):
and I'm watching the game and I realized, how what
the what the w n b A is paying these
these women versus what the NBA is playing them.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
I got a problem. But that's but I got you.
But that's not that comparison.
Speaker 4 (03:25):
And you can't compare it that way because the numbers
don't speak to that, right. And so when you're looking
at like like and we're just attendant, and I would say,
I would argue both points, right, I would argue that
when you're talking about Kaylen Clark being a face of league,
I would argue that college basketball, college women's back, women's
college basketball is the is what propelled this, right and
(03:46):
but who.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
But but let me let me tell them there who
was the person that she was a face to it?
She wasn't defaced, oh.
Speaker 4 (03:56):
Because I think you look at Don Stanley, you look
at Angely, you look at South Carolina, you know at
Juju Watkins. I think the collective college women's college basketball
sparked this and then people started to pay attention to
the WNBA. And I would say, and I would give
her credit, she's definitely a face. But going back to
the numbers of this, right, because when you have a
(04:17):
league that's losing forty million.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
Dollars in twenty twenty four.
Speaker 4 (04:22):
And we're talking about at the height of the hype
right last year, she's rookie all that stuff. That's problematic
when you talk about a league again that at one
time was heavily subsidized by the NBA. I think at
one time it was up around seventy five to eighty
percent of the teams in the WNBA were owned by
(04:44):
NBA ownership groups. That's not the case anymore. That's going
to be different. So I think, and again what we
can argue is that are they getting their fair percentage?
Because I think they're getting nine percent that's to split
between the league, the ownership and the w n B
A p A. So I think that the percentage is
(05:05):
what you could argue. But I don't think and I
think we lose ourselves when you start to do that
comparative analysis between the w and the NBA.
Speaker 5 (05:13):
Yeah, I'm team Hollis here.
Speaker 6 (05:15):
I'm sorry, Carl, but I feel like this past weekend
with the w NBA All Star Game, you know that
the ladies came out wearing those shirts. Of course most
saw that the pay us what you Owe us shirts
crowd chanted, you know, pay them or pay us all
all the things.
Speaker 5 (05:31):
They were supporting the girls.
Speaker 6 (05:33):
But you know what Hollis is alluded to is the
difference in financial gains. I mean, you cannot It's like
comparing apples and oranges when you're comparing the w n
b A to the NBA. Just just for example, he's
throwing out percentages in numbers of attendance and all that,
the difference even in media deals. I mean, you can
look at some numbers I looked at today. You know,
(05:56):
the w n b A had a two point two
billion dollar media deal. That sounds that sounds great, right,
sounds like a lot of money. Compare that to a
seventy five million or billion dollar with the NBA. So
I mean the money that that's not. You know, they
want a piece of the pie, but the pie is
not it's not out of.
Speaker 5 (06:13):
The oven yet. They need to wait a little bit,
you know what I mean?
Speaker 4 (06:16):
And I like I like that analogy, But for me,
I'm thinking it's always been And we'll probably touch on
this on a later topic, but I'm gonna just throw
this out there. Like like the league, the NFL, okay,
the NFL at one point they were there was absolutely
(06:37):
all all the numbers would speak all they can't pay us,
they can't pass, they can't pass this money. Now they're
paying this kind of crazy numbers, just hundreds of millions
of dollars constantly. Right, I'm not sure that what we
read all the time, what they're saying all the time
(06:59):
is correct.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
I think when you have.
Speaker 4 (07:04):
And again I'm gonna make I'm gonna say, Caitlin, I
believe that she is one. She's my favorite player in
the league, specifically because you wouldn't know that because of
her game, because of her game, and I think that.
Speaker 3 (07:22):
She is.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
I think she's I think she's the face.
Speaker 4 (07:26):
I think the fact that you allow her, you allow
her to get beat up to the degree where officials
you gotta you gotta suspend fire officials because they're not
calling fouls on her, Like.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
I don't, hollis.
Speaker 4 (07:45):
You you can't tell me that she's not getting beat
up physically beat up by other players and nothing's getting called,
but I mean agating, Michael Jortan got beat up by
other players, nothing like that, nothing like did you nothing?
Nothing like Michael Jordan got whooped by the Detroit Pistons.
And those early teams in the eighties by the Celtics.
(08:07):
He got beat on. They had to change the rules
because of Michael Jordan. But I'm saying, what did they do?
Speaker 2 (08:12):
They had to.
Speaker 4 (08:13):
Change the rules because because of Michael Jordan.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
She's not that. Oh my god, she's not that. She's
she's not that.
Speaker 4 (08:21):
I don't know if we've seen that person yet, but
I don't think she's she's it. She's going to be
a very good No, she's not because you again, if
you don't have nobody, somebody gets to be the top.
Asian Wilson is the top right now.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
You know what I'm saying. Forrest play on the court.
Speaker 4 (08:37):
You can say other things, but she's not the Michael
Jordan because right now, you even in this even in
his early years, Michael Jordan's win the scoring titles and
doing things before he got to the championship levels. So
she has to get to a point where statistically that's validated.
And it's eventually gonna have to come to a point
where you start to win multiple championships. And we haven't
seen that yet. But but I'll let you go just quickly.
(09:01):
But to my point, it's just like Lisa said, this league,
whether who's whoever's the face of it, they sort of it.
It would be a strategic mistake for them to have
a strike at this moment, because I don't think the
league is strong enough, and I think they're teetering on
the point of being like that fourth or fifth major
(09:21):
sport in the US. They're almost to that point. But
if you start to let it go now and you
have a workstop as now, that could really really damage
the league moving forward, and they going to have to
wait on that money a little bit, and unfortunately some
of them are going to have to sacrifice until the
money can get bigger in the next few years.
Speaker 6 (09:40):
Yeah, I mean, I agree with that point, but I'm
going to go back to the point about her not
being the face of the WNBA, because right now she's
the closest thing to it that they have. I mean,
you know, the problem with her is I think there's
just a basic, I don't want to say lack of respect.
Maybe there's too much respect, and that's the reason she
gets the treatment she does on the court. They know
(10:02):
they have to contain her, and sometimes they have to
hurt her to do that. But I also think that
she doesn't have a whole lot of support, even when
it comes from the commissioner. I mean, you know, Kathy Engelbert,
I think in this past month or so, she was
in an interview with a station of some type and
they were asking her, you know, how do you account
for this viewership being up like one hundred and seventy
(10:22):
percent with the WNBA. Do you know do you kind
of associate that with Caitlin Clark? And her answer was, well,
she and Angel Reese, which which Angel does contribute, but
I'm still saying Caitlin is the reason we're drawing in
the viewership numbers that we are. The other thing she
said was and I thought this was kind of like
out there, but she said she attributed it to their app,
(10:45):
their WNBA app, and she feels like the reason that
more people are watching this because they did these improvements
on their app and now it's more easily accessible to fans. Well,
first of all, the fans aren't going to seek out
the app to watch a game unless they want to
see a particular player or team, correct, I would think.
Speaker 4 (11:02):
So.
Speaker 6 (11:02):
I didn't know what that shade was about, but it
was definitely thrown towards Caitlin in that conversation. But you know,
here's here's your answer. Let's let's let's let Caitlin go,
you know, to an overseas league, you know, maximizer earnings
and see where the w n B a NBA's lapped
after that, I see how the viewership goes.
Speaker 4 (11:19):
I'm curious to what you what you how you answer this, hollis,
if Caitlyn were to sit down and say, okay, right,
y'all don't need me. I'm I'm I'm gonna I'm gonna sit.
I'm gonna sit the rest of the year out, you
think that they would lose viewership.
Speaker 2 (11:42):
Yeah, I think it would definitely lose some. And again
I'm not not gonna say I'm gonna say not some.
I think it would lose some majority.
Speaker 4 (11:48):
But I also think to to the previous point, I
do think this was about women's college basketball, and you
have these two superstars anguries in Kaylyn Clark ascending together.
This is really because because again this is the w
n ba's magic magic in Larry Bird moment. They didn't
(12:10):
do it right now because they both should have went
to different conferences. So in the hopes of one day
they're meeting in the championship. So this was their moment.
So much as we like to talk about, you know,
Kayln Clark, this was about Angel Rees too. This was
about those two entities emerging. You have the girl from
the South, you have the girl from the Midwest. They
(12:31):
met in college. They had this rivalry in college, and
then they're going to have this rivalry in the w
n B. A. That's part of this narrative. This isn't
just about Kaylyn Clark has Okay.
Speaker 6 (12:42):
I mean, once again, I agree to it. I agree
to a point. But then let's look at let's look
at numbers. Let's look at attendance data. Okay, let's do
some comparisons, all right, because.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
Numbers don't lie.
Speaker 5 (12:55):
People can lie. Numbers don't, all right.
Speaker 6 (12:57):
So when we're looking at the Indiana Fever, they're attended
it numbers. Okay, they're averaging sixteen to seventeen thousand fans
per game.
Speaker 5 (13:05):
Okay.
Speaker 6 (13:06):
When you look at the Chicago skot which is Angel
Reese's team, they're averaging seven to nine thousand per game.
Speaker 5 (13:12):
Okay.
Speaker 6 (13:13):
When they play each other in Chicago, they had more
than nineteen thousand fans show up. So taking those numbers.
What could tell me?
Speaker 5 (13:24):
Guys? What what do you take from that?
Speaker 2 (13:26):
It's about the robbery, Well, it is.
Speaker 6 (13:29):
About the rivalry, but if you take Caitlin out.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
Of the try it he is.
Speaker 4 (13:34):
What I'm saying is like sports, sports in general is
about robvalry. Like you have the Commanders and Cowboys, you
have the cowboys and Giants. It's the Packers in the
in the Vikings. It's about rivalries. And I don't think
we've never seen, at least far as in popular culture
(13:55):
the wn BA concertain we never really seen like a
robbery that everybody can grab on to. And those two women,
those two players have a ribvalry that everybody tunes into.
And they got a game Sunday at three o'clock which
I'll be watching. Okay, so I agree, I agree, But
I think that you know that rivalry is made by
(14:19):
Caitlyn Clark. It's it's made one Okay, Okay, I'm gonna.
Speaker 5 (14:26):
Jab back and forth pretty good, don't you like? In
social media?
Speaker 2 (14:31):
But I think here's you know Reese, what she can do.
Speaker 4 (14:35):
She's a she's a rebounder, she's you know, she scores inside.
So she's that quote. What I'm gonna say, is like
the old school basketball. Yeah, man, Okay, that's who she is.
Now who is Steph Curry? So Caitlyn is is that
person who everybody loves.
Speaker 2 (14:59):
Even if you don't like it.
Speaker 4 (15:01):
You know he's gonna hit that three pointer and you
know she's gonna hit it. And so the comparison gets lost,
or to me has it fails because it's a different
type of player. It's like it's like a quarterback who's
a great who's got.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
A great arm, but can't run.
Speaker 4 (15:24):
In today's game, you got to be able to throw
the ball and you got to be able to run.
And I think Caitlyn has everything that you could possibly have, passing.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
All of that kind of She's well rounded.
Speaker 4 (15:40):
And again I'm not saying she's not like a facing
She's not.
Speaker 2 (15:45):
She is. I'm not saying she's not prominent.
Speaker 4 (15:48):
But what I'm saying is like, I don't think she's
it's just about her, Like, okay, I don't think it's
just about her, all right, Well, at least you got
anything else.
Speaker 6 (16:00):
I just want to you know, I found a quote
from Kobe Bryant today that I think fits this perfect,
this whole conversation haters are a good problem to have.
Nobody hates the good ones. They hate the great ones.
So there you have it.
Speaker 2 (16:11):
So, Hollis, thank you. You hate on the great one,
We still love it. All right. So listen, do you
have anything? I'm good?
Speaker 4 (16:25):
Okay, all right, So, Hollis, you you had mentioned something
in the text line about the NFL. So introduce us
into this this new conversation.
Speaker 2 (16:40):
Okay.
Speaker 4 (16:40):
So several several months ago January, specifically, there were some
claims of collusion that I guess the NFL PA were
making against several NFL owners and basically, and kind of
without getting into too much of the weeds, what happened
was that because of that big Sean Watson contract with
(17:01):
the Cleveland Browns, this huge contract and obviously didn't work out,
there was claim that some NFL owners were on a
text line between one another and basically what they were
saying like, hey, we gotta nip this in above, we
can't have these big contracts. Specifically, hasn't relates to quarterbacks.
The claim had so much validally that it actually went
to an arbitrader in January and they had a whole like,
(17:24):
you know, and if you don't know what the arbitrador is.
It's like a you know, sort of like a between
It's like it's like a judge. It's like a you know,
informal court proceeding, if you will. And from there, the arbitrator,
Chris Donnery, ruled that there was no collusion between the
NFL owners and to keep salaries down. However, the sort
(17:47):
of the crux of what this means, why this is
a prominent story because this story was not given dished
out to the media, so nobody knew about this story.
I mean, this happened in January, and you had a
form ESPN reporter actually released these finings in the sixty
one page document I think last month, So for six months,
(18:07):
nobody even knew that this quote unquote court case happened.
So that's kind of an issue, and you know, I
find it problematic within the context of the document, it
seemed like something fishy was going on, although there was
no collusion found. As a former athlete, you could never
convince me that something didn't happen.
Speaker 2 (18:32):
That's not that I mean, the reality of.
Speaker 4 (18:38):
It when you go back to the days when I
was playing, it was so hard, you know, it was
so hard to negotiate a contract to get just a
little bit of money, you know that we thought was
still a lot of money back then. And the fact
of the matter is that I find it problematic because
(19:00):
this report, although they, you know, ruled that no collusion
was found, that the players were blocked from accessing this report.
So I don't I don't know why you wouldn't release
this report if nothing was done. And the reporter who
who brought this to the light of his his name
is Pablo Torres, and I pod I bet you, and
(19:23):
you probably can't get a player to talk about it
because I'm sure that's been a hush thing. You know,
we don't need to be talking about this. We're in camp.
Let's just get ready for the season. Let's forget all
that kind of stuff. That's kind of how stuff dies.
Speaker 5 (19:39):
But the time of year it was released, you're saying yes.
Speaker 4 (19:42):
And and and and there's nothing, there's nothing that that
would would would shock me. Yeah, I just I mean
from Mott Gohilly's I'm sorry, yeah, but I just would say,
you know, again, I know conspiracy theorists per se, but
you know, the idea that owners don't talk amongst one another, right,
the idea that they don't talk about player contracts and
(20:04):
what's good for the league and good for obviously them.
I find it hard to believe. Now, does is that
tantamount to collusion?
Speaker 6 (20:14):
I don't know, Okay, So to help me understand this
in Mahala, so the arbitrator ruled there wasn't sufficient evidence
that the teams colluded to follow the advice, but they
did find evidence that the NFL Commissioner and the General
Counsel encouraged teams to reduce Yeah, they're guaranteed money. So
to me, it's like do as I say, not as
(20:38):
I do. To a degree, it's like saying, okay, we
got caught telling you to do something wrong. But if
you'd have got caught, you would have been punished in
some degree. Absolutely, But they don't even get a handslap
because of who they are. So to me, all of
it's it's just it's a dirty, dirty situation.
Speaker 4 (20:56):
I have always thought that, you know, this will this
will sound terrible, But I've always thought, and I don't
mean this across the board everybody, but usually it is
very difficult, you know. And there was a gentleman who's
passed away, Michael Linn who was was the guy that
you had to go see your contract to get your
(21:17):
contract through.
Speaker 2 (21:19):
And one of the things that.
Speaker 4 (21:22):
He he would do would he he would low ball
you any any chance he thought he could he could,
he he would load ball you to the best of
his ability, and he would end his conversation when he
decided like, Okay, if it's one hundred thousand dollars, that's it.
That's his top level. He would tell a black player
(21:46):
to go drive a bus, Go drive a cab. If
you don't want this, go drive a cab.
Speaker 2 (21:51):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (21:53):
And you you're sitting there and you're looking at this dude, like,
what are you saying?
Speaker 2 (21:57):
What are you saying to me?
Speaker 4 (21:59):
What is what makes you think that I can't go
do something other than just this.
Speaker 6 (22:03):
You guys didn't have a player's association of any come
back then or digit.
Speaker 2 (22:07):
It just it just started and it just started. But
you couldn't There was no there was no fight, Yeah
there was. There was really no There was no way.
Speaker 4 (22:15):
You didn't have an understanding of what the power was
to fight them in these kinds of situation. Like I said,
speaking of power, I mean even if you like looking
I'm looking at an article on the New York Post.
They the arbitrator found that there was no collusion amongst
the owners, but by Lisha mentioned this by clear propondance
(22:37):
of the evidence that Commissioner Roger Goodell and Lee's General
Kowen encouraged teams to restrict players guaranteed contract.
Speaker 2 (22:45):
So for me, see how they do the worst salad,
the worst seal.
Speaker 4 (22:49):
It's like, Okay, the owners didn't, but are the boss,
the GM of the league did it. So I'm saying
to me, I don't know how that's not collusion. It
may not be collusion amongst the owners, but it's collusion
amongst the league and the owners. Yeah, why is the league?
Why is the league worried about what the vikings are paying?
(23:10):
Because because I think because he's between to the owners, yes,
and and and somebody some of the owners are they
they're definitely talking about, Look, we got to stop these numbers.
We can't get we can't let these numbers keep growing
because it's gonna it's gonna hit our pocket. And then
why they don't want to lose the kind of money
(23:32):
that they're making you. So, so now what what I'm
going to do is, let's let's get rid of the
guaranteed contracts because then because okay, so when you get
rid of the guaranteed contracts, who do you think is
gonna be the first guy you cut as soon as
he becomes less than what you need.
Speaker 2 (23:50):
Or guarantee, he's the first guy. He's the first guy gone.
Speaker 4 (23:52):
And and like I said, like I think, like you know,
into our conversation earlier, specifically about the w n b A,
and we we we talk about those numbers. But even
from a situation like this, you really never know what's
going on behind the scenes, right because to your point,
the owners, in the league officials specifically in the w
n b A, they could be saying one thing, like
(24:14):
all these are the numbers, but they could be messing
and flipping and changing. You know what I'm saying, We
don't know what's going on a situation like this where
you have the League of Leagues, right, the NFL is
the League of Leagues is number one, right, and you
have the g M, the president of that league, the
commissioner of the league, Roger Goodell, colluding owners, yeah, basically
(24:37):
telling the owners, trying to dictate salaries of organization type.
Speaker 5 (24:42):
Of punishment, and the arbitrate, I don't know, but to me, to.
Speaker 4 (24:49):
Me the players because the fact of the matters, this
information was withheld from the players. So how how does
that work? Well, you would like to think that you
would like the thing that the NFL. It's coaches can't
say ownership because that is the NFL, but the coaches,
(25:13):
general managers of the teams, those folks should be out
there saying you should not be interrupting, You shouldn't even
be bothered with who and what I pay this.
Speaker 2 (25:27):
They're part of that.
Speaker 4 (25:28):
So then if you if you erase them, you got
all you got is PLoP players.
Speaker 2 (25:33):
Who are the players going to go to? Who are
they gonna report?
Speaker 4 (25:36):
You have an NFL p A And from the looks
of it to the president of the NFL PA was
recently fired for doing something, you know, you know, spending
money he shouldn't have been spending and he and he
looks to be in cahoots with Goodell and league ownership
and different things of that nature. So if I guess
(25:56):
what I'm saying, if I'm a player, particularly if I'm
a prompt minute player, and I'm on the precipice of
possibly getting one of those guaranteed contracts. I'm really looking
hard at the NFLPA and be like, look, guys, this
is crazy because obviously it doesn't appear that and again
we're talking about a bunch of millionaires one hundred thousand
AARs whatever. Yeah, but it doesn't appear like the players
(26:18):
at any level have any adequate representation within that organization.
Speaker 6 (26:22):
That's exactly what I just was going to bring up,
Hollus is you know, you look at this whole situation
and you see that the upper level management is influencing
team behaviors from their owners, and you know it doesn't
constitute direct collusion, but but what does that do to
their players association? Does that like diminish their their role,
(26:43):
their power? I mean, it seems like they're kind of saying,
we don't care. You can file these grievances, but we're
going to say, yeah, that happened, but what do you
want us to do about it?
Speaker 4 (26:50):
And then the players Association made an agreement right ownership
not to release the documents to the players like it.
To me, it hurts the the quality of the league,
and it really this is a stain.
Speaker 2 (27:03):
Ain't nobody talking about it? Well?
Speaker 4 (27:05):
And I think too I think, and I don't know
this as a fact, but this is what I think
when when the player, when a player gets into a
position that has some kind of say, has some kind
of opportunity to fix something, or learns that there's something
really bad happening, I feel like sometimes they're they're caught
(27:28):
in that situation because they don't want to lose that
position because they could always go up another notch, they
could always get to something else. And once you get
out of the league, now you're into the quote the
administrative piece of it. You love it, you know, you
get caught up in it, and now you feel like
you're somewhat the boss.
Speaker 2 (27:48):
And I think some of.
Speaker 4 (27:49):
These guys let us down because they're stuck in their
own excitement and this new place. But I would again,
I would have to go back to the players. And
I'm saying, if you're an executive and in particularly in
the NFL p A, and you're supposed to be representing
me and then you're doing stuff like this, you fouling up.
Speaker 2 (28:11):
You fouled.
Speaker 4 (28:12):
I think the former headed of Lloyd Howie, he found
O lord Howe, excuse me, he fouled an appeal six
months after the fact, but really it seems like he
fouled the appeal when this was came out, so he
had like, oh crap, I gotta you know what I'm saying.
So it's like, if I'm at a player level, you're
(28:32):
not representing me, Like I have no representation within this.
I don't think I don't think players have, you know,
and all these little organizations that quote we we create
and all this kind of stuff, they don't really have
any they don't really have any power, or they're not
exercising the power of exercising, so they're not putting.
Speaker 2 (28:57):
They're not putting there with the.
Speaker 5 (29:01):
Commissioner and you know.
Speaker 4 (29:02):
Yeah, it would seem like somebody on the player side
would be screaming to the to the heapens about this.
It would seem like somebody would just be like, hey man,
this is crazy that this is that this happened. It
seemed like you would have some sort of intellectual person
on this side to say, hey, to review this stuff
and to really you know, because this something like this,
(29:23):
if this would come out like on.
Speaker 2 (29:25):
The NBA side, oh oh yeah about it for three months,
that's what's wild.
Speaker 6 (29:30):
You haven't seen hard anything on ESPN or any of these.
You know that the talk shows that they have not
they barely touch it.
Speaker 4 (29:37):
Like the NBA and and and professional baseball. Oh they would,
they would kill this. They control, they dominate their their organization.
They're gonna get what they want. They're gonna they're gonna
go out and they're.
Speaker 5 (29:51):
Gonna follow out the mighty dollars and football.
Speaker 4 (29:55):
It's it's hard to get guys, it's hard to get
everybody on the same page to fight for the same cause.
Because of the money, well I would I wouldn't say
the money. I would say because of the careers are
so short. Like you if you look at like you know,
NFL careers, like but three years and you're just outside
of the NFL, it's really nowhere to go to make money.
(30:16):
Like you're not going to make because if you're a
professional football player, if you're not playing in the NFL,
there's literally other than maybe Canada, we know those spots
are limited. Then even in Canada, you're not making money,
whereas opposed, if you're a professional basketball player, the world
is your oyster. Essentially, Michael Beasley, he's out of the
league and he's doing these one on ones making a
(30:36):
couple hundred thousand dollars just playing playground basketball. Essentially, we
just had the TVT here, so I think that's part
of the issue. But I but I still think I
can't believe not one player is talking about this.
Speaker 6 (30:50):
I just think the bottom line here is just, you know,
there's no accountability of their leadership. I mean, there's the
transparency's not there. It's it's I just don't know how
they kept it under wrap for as long as they
did with so many parties involved, well.
Speaker 4 (31:03):
And and basically still keeping it right because it's out
there a little bit, but it ain't talk really there's
like you, like you said earlier, there's no paperwork, there's
no you don't know who's who said this, who did that,
there's none of that, and who knows if and when? Well, well,
there there is a sixty one page document that I
(31:24):
think it's you can review. But but other than that,
it's just I just can't believe players.
Speaker 5 (31:30):
It's not a news story, that's what we're saying, and
it should be. It should be out there.
Speaker 2 (31:35):
You should you should see it on it work.
Speaker 6 (31:37):
I mean, I'm sure that document you're talking about, Holl's
got a lot of lead in it, and people aren't
going to take time to believe that because it's hard
to understand six yeah, yeah, yeah exactly, So they need
like a layman's kind of version of it that presented
in talk.
Speaker 3 (31:51):
With Carl LEAs right, let's talk. I'm not saying, attorney
Frank Robert, this would be my results. And Frank Walker cried.
Speaker 4 (32:02):
Or outraised about this because this was attack on how
much money they can make, right, so we're talking about money.
This was just saying, hey, we're gonna we're gonna try
to cap and limit it how much money you can make,
which is I don't know.
Speaker 6 (32:16):
I think I think do you think they're aware of it?
I mean they're aware of it. I mean the players
like the I don't.
Speaker 2 (32:22):
Aware of it. Yeah, I think that they have to
be aware of it. I mean I don't know.
Speaker 6 (32:29):
I mean, they did a really good job of keeping
it out of the public eye for as long as
they did.
Speaker 4 (32:33):
But I'd say, if it's out now, or at least
it's out now, there's some there's some mumbling about it.
Speaker 2 (32:39):
Somebody has to be saying something.
Speaker 4 (32:42):
Out there that out there, But I think it's gonna
what's gonna what it's gonna take it's it's gonna take
that out outspoken person who's willing to risk whatever that
comes with it, and a lot of guys.
Speaker 2 (32:55):
Aren't willing to do that, right, you know. So all right,
so we're gonna take a quick break and we will
be right back.
Speaker 3 (33:03):
Let's Talk with Carl Lee is presented by Attorney Frank Walker.
Real Talk, real experience, real results, Frank Walker Law dot Com.
Comment on episodes or it suggests topics at our Facebook page.
Search for Let's Talk with Carl Lee and remember to
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Speaker 7 (33:21):
Let's face it, bad things happen to good people seriously
injured in a car accident, trucking accident, injured in a
grocery store, or even wrongfully arrested or falsely accused of
a crime. Life happens, and when it happens to you,
you will need sound legal advice and aggressive representation. That's
when you call Attorney Frank Walker at three zero four
four one three zero one seven nine. That's three zero
four four one three zero one seven nine. Lock it
(33:43):
in your phone, text it to a friend three zero
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online at Attorneyfrankwalker dot com.
Speaker 1 (33:52):
Yeah, you gotta work.
Speaker 2 (34:01):
You gotta work right sign.
Speaker 1 (34:03):
It's mine gotta show everybody is my sign. You gotta
burn right shin another mind whom saga dog day line,
don't tell you gotta Burt.
Speaker 3 (34:14):
Welcome to Let's talk with Carl Lee. Let's talk is
probably presented by Attorney Frank Walker, Real talk, real experience,
real results, Frank Walker Law dot com. Let that conversation
begin on let's talk.
Speaker 4 (34:28):
All right, ladies and gentlemen, we are back, and uh
we're gonna stay in football. And maybe i'd even say
in some in some crazy stuff. I guess Hollis is
gonna talk a little bit about uh Teddy Bridgewater, Well,
NFL quarterback. I think he just got signed, so he's
not a former anymore. But NFL quarterback Teddy Bridgewater. He
(34:50):
was the head coach of a high school in Miami
that recently last year won a state title. And it
came to a light that he had spent upwards to
about two hundred thousand dollars on the program. And this
included buying meals of making sure players had uber rised
(35:13):
practical them from and you know, buying I think equipment
and other things for the program. The money was spent
on the program or or it was spent to assist
players from what we understand, So it wasn't like individual
players were getting in and benefit or anything like that.
It was nothing elicit going on, because I don't think
the state or the school district actually suspended him. It
(35:36):
was the school administration that that suspended him. And it
just you know, physical therapy was one of those phys
one of the things like that. So I mean, what
do you guys thoughts on it? What is what is
so crazy to me is if that person, if I
could find a coach who's going to do that for
(35:59):
my program, because there's one or two things we're either
not getting funding or we just don't have it. Yeah, okay,
So anything that's medical, usually you would think the school,
high school, there would there would be some kind of
insurance of some sort that they could go to to
(36:20):
to help them, you know, whatever the level. Usually there's
something that you could somewhere you can go. This appear
appears to me like there is no resource for medical
or any of those kinds of things. And if you
end up being the person have to pay then I'm
paying it for you in some form of fashion. That's
(36:43):
that's way different than handing you money money. But but
but do you think because he has that level of
resources that it gives his team unfair advantage over the
other teams in similar situation?
Speaker 2 (36:59):
That would be no to me.
Speaker 4 (37:01):
No, because I'm gonna say, let's say Lisa, Lisa is
a donor to GW and she gives one hundred thousand dollars.
I'm a donor of South Charleston.
Speaker 2 (37:13):
I give fifty.
Speaker 4 (37:14):
That's not her fault, that's not that's not South Hill's
fault that she gave a hundred and I only gave fifty.
If you have a person that's donating something, offering something
to you, that's that's that's a benefit.
Speaker 2 (37:27):
That can't be that you know.
Speaker 4 (37:29):
You can't say, well, he can only give medically, he
can only give ten dollars meals, he can only give
five dollars.
Speaker 2 (37:36):
You can't he's feeding kids who are not eating.
Speaker 5 (37:40):
Right, Well, go ahead, you want to finish your point.
Speaker 2 (37:44):
I was just I just think that that's crazy.
Speaker 6 (37:46):
Yeah, And you know, kudos to Teddy because I feel like,
you know, that was a selfless effort that he did
to support his team and community.
Speaker 5 (37:53):
Obviously they're under resource community.
Speaker 6 (37:55):
It was his alma mater, by the way, he did
go to school there, so but somewhere along the line,
you know, I always got the impression that from from
some of the reels that I watched and some of
the articles I read, that someone reported him for this.
Speaker 5 (38:09):
He self reported for whatever.
Speaker 2 (38:12):
Yeah, yeah, I.
Speaker 6 (38:12):
Found that out me too, And I even double checked
it because when I read, when I saw the first source,
I was like, Okay, I better double check this to
make sure that this is correct.
Speaker 5 (38:20):
And I did. I did the AI and it said yes,
he self reported.
Speaker 6 (38:23):
It because obviously, well evidently Florida does have some rules
about this, and they have these rules that prohibit coaches
regardless of the source of funds, you know, to prevent
wealthy programs from gaining unfair advantage. So evidently there are
some rules down there. I don't I don't know what
West Virginia, I don't guess we have any here like that,
(38:45):
you know, similar, But so down there he's self reported.
And now the suspension is they don't know for sure
how long it's going to be. But of course you
said he's on a team now, so probably he wouldn't
be returning anyway.
Speaker 4 (38:57):
Well from my from what I honest did, I thought
he was still on a coach I know he got signed.
Did he get signed to Detroit? Again, I know he
got signed to a team. I thought he was coaching. No,
he coaching, but he got signed in the in the playoffs,
so after the season ended, when the NFL playoffs, So
he actually got signed to a team, so he was
he was playing. So again, I don't know if he
(39:17):
was just signing for that short term or he planned
to play this upcoming season.
Speaker 5 (39:22):
But it's indefinite anyway. They haven't decided how long the
suspension will be.
Speaker 4 (39:26):
So I mean, this is just one of those things
where I mean, procedurally, like you said, if there are
some rules that maybe he didn't like procedural and policy wise,
didn't do some stuff one hundred percent correct, but just
the look of it when you talk to a like
I said, an underfunded program, talk about an under underfunded program.
It's really a selfless act. And it wasn't like he
(39:47):
was like I said.
Speaker 5 (39:48):
And he was self reported.
Speaker 2 (39:49):
Yeah, he's self reported.
Speaker 4 (39:50):
The benefits were like giving kids rides home because if
you have that many kids who need an uber home.
Speaker 5 (39:56):
That's a problem.
Speaker 2 (39:57):
That's a problem that you got.
Speaker 4 (39:59):
Some isshit, right, You're feeding players, you're doing the little
things that you know, because because I always laugh, and
this is kind of a side point, I always laugh
when you know we have these you know, issues around
you know, whatever, race, gender, whatever, and the people always
talk about, well, just just go start your home league.
And what I always tell people, Yeah, do you know
(40:20):
how incredibly expensive it is to start a football team?
Like when you just talk about equipment, when you talk
about trainers, when you talk about coaches, when we talk
about all these things. So even at a high school level,
probably even the two hundred thousand dollars two hundred thousand
that he put in probably wasn't even enough, right, Probably
was it probably just part right, you know, just to
(40:41):
have a competitive Florida football team.
Speaker 6 (40:43):
Doesn't this remind you of NIOL at the collegiate level,
like certain things are allowed and other things aren't, and
we refer to it as the wild wild West. So
you know, I think it's kind of like with the
NIL that we've discussed on here before, guys, that there
needs to be a balance between you know, upholding those regulars,
those athletic regulations and supporting student athletes. There's got to
(41:03):
be a balance. You can't just say the rules are
the rules. You know, it's not black and white. Sometimes
sometimes it's gray. And this is a gray area.
Speaker 4 (41:11):
I'm gonna, I'm gonna, I'm gonna, I'm gonna jump down
to to youth football, okay, And.
Speaker 2 (41:19):
When you get when you get grown men in a
room and.
Speaker 4 (41:25):
Or let me let me rephrase it, when when grown
men go to a room by themselves, right and decide
who's gonna play in a Kanall County league, right, whoops,
and they're going, yeah, they're gonna they're gonna figure out
who's gonna play and who's not gonna play. Right. And
so when they when they put these teams out, you know,
(41:48):
and have been part of it, and and currently still
part of not allowed to be playing in the Kanall
Valley at South Charleston our youth football league. We don't
get the opportunity to play in Kannall County because of
individual people, just our normal people who have jobs in
(42:08):
the day that have no right to be able to
not allow our young kids to play football locally. We're
we're driving to Parkersburg every other week.
Speaker 6 (42:21):
So what is their benefit, what is their end game
in your opinion, what is their end game.
Speaker 2 (42:28):
To win for them to have basically.
Speaker 5 (42:33):
At that level, Yes, yes, not about growth developing.
Speaker 2 (42:37):
They don't care play.
Speaker 4 (42:39):
Some of the parents of our kids can't drive, they
can't get to Parkersburg every other week, they can't get
to Ohio every other week, and or they're not willing
to show up if they've got to go there, they
just assume go somewhere else. And and I and I
and I tie this because you're talking about you're not
(43:04):
you're impacting the kids trying to go after if you're
if your objective is to go after me or a
coach or whatever.
Speaker 2 (43:14):
At the end of the.
Speaker 4 (43:14):
Day, who are you hurting? You're hurting these kids. You're
you're talking about uber rides to go home. You're talking
about physical therapy to help you get back into the game,
or to help you even play the game.
Speaker 2 (43:28):
How are you mad?
Speaker 5 (43:30):
It's a sad don't you think it's sad?
Speaker 2 (43:32):
How are you like making that an illegal thing?
Speaker 4 (43:36):
Are you the only thing I can think of? And
you know, again he's self reported. It does not I don't.
From the reports that we have or our root reviewed,
it doesn't appear that like other teams were reporting him.
Speaker 6 (43:50):
No, no, And that's the way I took it self
reported no one else. Now that doesn't mean someone wasn't
calling him saying, hey, you can either do this yourself
or I'm going to turn you in.
Speaker 5 (44:02):
You know who knows the box story.
Speaker 4 (44:03):
I mean, just to if there was a counter argument.
Similar situated teams who don't have an NFL player coaching
their organizations can't do that. So not to say it's
an unfair advantage per se, but they could argue that
it is because hey, I can't do this. I can't
do this for my So if I come from okay,
(44:25):
so if I'm playing on a youth football team and
I'm playing on the west side, Okay, I'm playing on
the west side.
Speaker 2 (44:31):
Well i'm talking about Teddy Bridgewater. I'm not talking about
I know, but I'm just saying.
Speaker 4 (44:34):
I'm just saying that if and where your money comes
from often is from people who care.
Speaker 2 (44:42):
Yeah, that's true, you know.
Speaker 4 (44:43):
And so now you're going to try to determine a
person that's caring all but he's too connected, he's too close.
That's what I'm saying.
Speaker 6 (44:55):
There's so many it's a Pandora's box that they opened here.
I mean, you know, will there be regulations everywhere now
for high school you know athletics.
Speaker 4 (45:05):
You think will and will it be like, hey, you're
just a rich booster your former alumni.
Speaker 2 (45:10):
No, you can't give that's.
Speaker 4 (45:11):
Too much, right I mean to me, if you if
you're doing this, if you're doing this, then you should
be able to do this to any individual person who's
given Hollis team money. I can coach, you know, because
I'm again I'm thinking, you know, when I go down,
when I get down the state, if I don't have
(45:33):
sterling sharp funding for equipment and uniforms and all.
Speaker 2 (45:38):
Those kind of things, we ain't making it right now.
Speaker 4 (45:43):
Can somebody come in and say, well, hey that you
know that that's illegal right there? He's a former player,
their friends, he can't be he can't be giving them
money like that.
Speaker 6 (45:52):
Correct me if I'm if I'm wrong. But isn't that
the basis of NIO. Wasn't that what was going on
before they started to try to regulate, was you know,
your big donors would come in and give money to
this this you know, foundation, and then the foundation, would
you know, take the money?
Speaker 5 (46:05):
Is that not right home?
Speaker 2 (46:06):
That's pretty much what it was. I was going to say,
So if I gave it.
Speaker 4 (46:13):
It is it does it? Does it matter where you
use it?
Speaker 2 (46:18):
Well?
Speaker 4 (46:18):
I think again that's that's a collegiate example. But I
think far as high school sports, particularly in the state
of Florida, it might be some different rules around it.
So it just depends on that particular jurisdiction as to
what the rules are of where money can come from,
because it could be some regulations. But I think all
in all were probably I think we're all in agreement
(46:38):
that I think his heart was in the right place.
I don't think it was anything malicious. I don't think
he was buying players. I don't think he was trying
to entice players from outside of that community to come
to that school. I think, you know, him being alumni
was probably just Hey, I just want to make this
the best I can be. Now, what I would say
is probably what he should have done is the only
(47:00):
thing I can think of. He's probably should have filtered
that money through the booster association if they even had one.
So that's probably because I think probably what ends up
happening is he's just kind of piecemelling this money as
he needs it. That that sort of it creates the
illusion that possibly something you know, could be going on
(47:21):
and it's just not done right to your point when
you start talking about pregame meals that's probably something that
he's worked out, you know, a deal with with with
what somebody who's going to feed him, you know, and
you know how that works.
Speaker 2 (47:36):
So can that look shady? Can that look it could? Just?
Speaker 4 (47:41):
So I would just say, probably to me, and again
without knowing the details of reading any documents, it's probably
just the way in which he was spending the money.
He was just probably spending has he needed instead of
going through like a quote unquote formal formal process. So
we think that there's a So I'm assuming that you
got are saying that there there is a system that.
Speaker 2 (48:03):
He could potentially follow.
Speaker 4 (48:05):
I don't think there is, but I think I think again,
I boa that I think normally what happens is any
money it gets spent is filled through through some sort
of booster association. So it's it's filled through through the boosters,
and coaches have some limited access to said funds because
That's how coaches get in trouble when they start to
(48:25):
spend that money.
Speaker 2 (48:28):
On things that they shouldn't spend.
Speaker 4 (48:30):
Well, I was, I was. I was guilty at State
because I kept that money. I kept that money in
a in a in an account. I didn't put it
in the in the W club or any of that
kind of stuff because I didn't want Because for me,
when I needed to get equipment, when I needed to
buy this, or I needed to buy that, I needed
to get it.
Speaker 5 (48:48):
To self report, I'm self reported.
Speaker 4 (48:51):
But but like I said, I'm sure it's I mean,
like I said, I'm just guessing that there's some sort
of process.
Speaker 2 (48:56):
I don't know.
Speaker 4 (48:57):
But all in all, I'll just say I appears he
was just doing the right thing for those kids. So yeah,
my hat's off to him simply for the fact that
he would he would feel that passionate about his team
and the players on that team, and he knew what
the challenges were for each and every one of them,
and he took care of that. He took time out
(49:21):
of his life to take care of those particular kids
and they win a championship. To me, my hat's off
to him in more respect than you can possibly imagine.
Speaker 6 (49:31):
For sure, And just to you know, reiterate what we've
talked about, there's a big difference between gifting an xbox
or something to a kid and providing you know, a meal,
a basic necessity of life.
Speaker 4 (49:42):
Right, and if something like that would have happened, it
would have definitely been in the article, you know.
Speaker 2 (49:47):
So, so I'm pretty sure that we were a we
were a.
Speaker 4 (49:53):
I would say we're right on spot on here on
the things that they've listed, at least that that to me,
I think it's every one of those are worthy calls
for a coach, I agree. So all right, well, ladies
and gentlemen, we've had we've had a couple of a
couple of or well, I guess three great topics today
(50:15):
and and we might have even found some common ground,
you know, may there were VI might have agreed on
a few things, you know, because that usually different happens.
Speaker 2 (50:28):
But we hope that you come back and check
Speaker 4 (50:30):
Us out again next week, and uh, we'll get out
of here and we'll be back
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