Sean O'Connell Show - Full POD 6-16-25

OC talks Utah Mammoth & Stanley Cup Final with Brogan Houston & Brian Heyward, Utah Football with Scott Mitchell, Did the Magic overpay for Desmond Bane (?) + more

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:18):
You have it Monday, everybody, Welcome to the Shot O'Connell's show.

Speaker 2 (00:25):
I hope you had a wonderful weekend.

Speaker 1 (00:28):
If you're a dad out there in the father's world,
I hope you had a great Father's Day yesterday. If
you are someone who is just trying to make the
father in your life that you know, your dad, your grandpa,
your father in law, your spouse, significant other, whatever, hopefully
you were able to make that a special day for
the dads out there. I had a great one myself.

(00:50):
We got a fun show lined up for you. But
the return of James Peterson the day after his first
ever Father's Day, James, is it daddy now?

Speaker 2 (01:03):
James Peterson, come on, fill.

Speaker 3 (01:05):
Us in.

Speaker 2 (01:08):
Crazy couple of weeks.

Speaker 1 (01:09):
So see, by the way, I have not, I have
not shared your news with the Okay. Olivia, who is
obviously your sister in law, Olivia producing for us. She
was like, I get to say, because we're family, like
baby they had the baby, baby's cute.

Speaker 4 (01:25):
I have not.

Speaker 1 (01:25):
We haven't released the name, we haven't done the birth,
we haven't done the birth story.

Speaker 2 (01:30):
I wanted to leave the floor for you, share what
you like.

Speaker 5 (01:33):
Okay, So I have shared on the show that the
d date was end of June, right a few times
and so and Monday or was it Tuesday? Earlier in
the show, one of those two days, I had brought up,
Oh my gosh, he's gonna be born this month.

Speaker 2 (01:52):
I can't believe that.

Speaker 5 (01:54):
And then if if that was on Monday, then the
next day during the show, I get a call from
my wife. Now listen, she actually called myself. I keep
the phone on silent because I chime in with you
every once in a while. Don't want the don't want
the ringer to go off over the microphone, right, I'm
a professional OC. Yeah, dedicated profession. So I got the

(02:18):
phone on silent. My wife had her her weekly check
up on Tuesday. She goes there, the doctor tells her, hey,
there's some things going on. Nothing nothing emergency or anything
like that, but it was it was urgent enough that
she said, you need to have the baby today. And
so I missed four calls from her because the phone's

(02:40):
on silent. She calls the studio line OC during the show.
See I see I see it on the caller ID,
and I'm like, what the heck? So I look, you know,
I look over my phone. I'm like, oh, I missed
four calls. Answer it on the studio line, and we
got a caller hero see no, and it wasn't for

(03:01):
the air.

Speaker 2 (03:02):
I can answer of the studio line. She tells me.

Speaker 5 (03:04):
She tells me what's going on, and I'm like, well,
do I need to go now?

Speaker 2 (03:08):
Yeah? And she's like, she said no.

Speaker 5 (03:12):
She said she asked me to be at the hospital
in the later in the afternoon. I'm like, well, so
I can finish the show, finish my work day. I
need to finish the show and I need to arrange
some things for the next couple of weeks, right, So
she's like, yeah, you're fine. Olivia is on the phone too.
I'm like, can you drive her to the hospital. She's

(03:34):
like yes, and I'm like, okay, that's all I need
to do to be able to finish the day. Then
I wait, because again I'm a professional OC. I wait
till after the show's over, and I tell you and
Spence at the same time. And it looked like your
eyes got so big. Oh see, it looked like they're
gonna pop out of your head. I was which I appreciated.
You've been in this with me, You've been asking about it,

(03:57):
so I appreciated your excitement for it, but that's what
Tuesday was.

Speaker 2 (04:02):
And then end up having the baby around ten thirty
that night.

Speaker 5 (04:09):
Okay, all right, and he's just the best man, like,
just a little tiny guy, under under five pounds.

Speaker 2 (04:17):
And he's born. I think he's about to the five
pound mark. Now we're reporting his weight. He's five pounds.

Speaker 1 (04:24):
Yeah, okay, that's what we're sticking with on the Sean
O'Connell Show. The official stance of the program is that
we've crossed the five pound threw he.

Speaker 5 (04:32):
Was about at He was about there, just about an
ounce lighter than that at his last pediatrician appointment earlier
this week. So we're assuming, with this rate of weight
gain that he's over the five pound mark. So I
like that officially over five pounds, yeah, yep. You know,
obviously there's concerns when someone's that when the baby's that small,

(04:54):
and I've heard of even smaller babies with multiples for example, yep,
and even more premature than my guy was. It was
three and a half weeks early, being a lot smaller
than that and surviving just fine. But you still get
concerned when they're under what like seven pounds. You're like,
I don't know if they're.

Speaker 1 (05:10):
Big enough to keep going here, and he's been doing great,
especially like this is your first kid, and there's so
much unknown, right, and you're just like every little thing
and every little thing to be concerned about. So I
applaud you and your wife have kept a pretty level,
level head about all of it. And here you are.

Speaker 5 (05:30):
We've we've had our we've had our anxious moments where
looking back, we're gonna probably, you know, especially if we
were able to be blessed with the at least one
more child and experience his weight is a lot different,
will probably be like, man, we freaked out way too much.
We've we've definitely had those moments, but yeah, I'd say
we've we've been able to keep it cool as best

(05:53):
we can. And he's just he's just growing, man, and
we're just so proud of him for fighting and growing.
He of wait, did Nick you time just barely? That's awesome.
So I'll tell that story real quick too. So do
you know the minimum weight for a child that they
require that he gets admitted to that he or she
gets admitted to the Nick you, I have no idea

(06:14):
so I know it in metric in grams, because that's
how they measure everything in the hospital. Now it's about
four pounds even, which is two thousand grams. His initial
birth weight in Grahams was twenty twenty all right, okay,
so he just barely over He just barely crossed that threshold.

(06:36):
Then he had to do that. They had to make
sure he could breathe well on his own. They did
some breathing tests for a little while, and you know,
I'm I'm sitting there watching him just struggle and fight,
and he fought enough to they said it's borderline, but
we're gonna say he passed. Okay, all right, So he
just barely passed that test. And then he had things
like when they're that small and not have much fat,

(06:59):
stores you have things blood, sugar and temperature. And they're like,
we're just gonna he's not gonna be admitted to Nick you,
but we're gonna monitor him overnight and then hopefully in
six to eight hours we'll be able to bring him
your room. So I got a full night's sleep, Uh huh.
Wife didn't because the nurses are checking in every hour's
But I got a full night sleep. In the hospital,

(07:22):
which I was grateful for that first night. As soon
as I wake up, she's like, get down to the
nick you. I'm like you sure you want me to
leave you She's like, yes, go I need pictures. I
need you to tell me how our son is. I'm
like okay, And then as soon as I'm about to leave,
I'm getting my shoes on. The nurses wheel him in
so so avoided nick you time, which like by the

(07:45):
skin of his teeth and yes, skin of his non
existent teeth.

Speaker 4 (07:51):
Yes.

Speaker 5 (07:52):
So it was cool to just see him that early on,
just like fight to be here man, and super proud
of him for that. Name is the name is Owen
Jeffrey Peterson. Okay, love it. Jeff's great name, Jeffrey is Jeffrey.
They're both family names. Owen's wife's great grandfather's name, so

(08:12):
he's a great great grandfather.

Speaker 2 (08:13):
He passed.

Speaker 5 (08:16):
Like a year before my wife was born. Ok he's
he hasn't been with us for a long time. My
Jeffrey's my dad's name. Okay, great pasted a couple of
years ago, so we uh, it's really cool to be
able to honor a couple of ancestors that way, it.

Speaker 1 (08:31):
Is the stuff of life. James Peterson, I'm so happy
for you guys. And look, that's as special of father's
day as you can have. You're a newly minted father,
You've named son for other fathers, including your own in
the family, and you got you got to experience your
first Father's Day.

Speaker 2 (08:48):
Yeah, it was awesome.

Speaker 5 (08:50):
Didn't expect like I was, like first first official fathers.
They will be next year, That's what I was thinking
of the who okay because he's because he's not due
to tell the end of the month, and everything was
tracking fine up until the still last Tuesday.

Speaker 1 (09:03):
Right, I'm assuming your wife Brown gave you the whole
breakfast in bed, sleep all day treatment.

Speaker 5 (09:08):
Yeah, and she she let me sleep And I told
you off air. Yeah, I'm like, is this allowed? Like
I have a newborn, I'm not allowed to sleep. So
I was very really grateful for that. She's also the
kind of person that she wants, very independent, wants to
wants to know that, she wants to test herself. Yeah,
so she knows she can do it because I go

(09:30):
back to work. Yeah, so well, and I'm grateful for that,
but I'm also like, I'll go without sleep like, is
this a trap?

Speaker 2 (09:38):
Yeah? Am actually allowed to take it? It's wrong to sleep.

Speaker 1 (09:41):
Okay, Well, congrats to you guys eight seven seven three
five three zero seven hundred if you want to send
in your positive thoughts and prayers and congratulations to the
Peterson family, because that is as good as it gets. Man,
Welcoming a child into this world is the reason we
are all here.

Speaker 2 (10:00):
What a special, special thing.

Speaker 1 (10:01):
I'm glad it went as smoothly as it could have
given the premature status.

Speaker 5 (10:06):
Let me let me thank everyone here at the station too,
here publicly for holding it down. And you know, I
was I was pretty clear with you guys. I know
that people want to be like, oh, what what can
we do kind of thing, and you start to overthinking
a little bit because you want to be there for
your boss, you want to be there for your friend.
But I just was like, you guys just got to

(10:26):
keep doing Sean. You got to keep hosting a great show.
Spent same thing, producers, keep booking the show great, do
your regular thing, and we'll be fine.

Speaker 4 (10:36):
You guts.

Speaker 5 (10:36):
That's what you guys did. So I appreciate you guys
holding it down. We kept giving me, yeah, giving me
the peace of mind that hey, things are running without
me so that I could focus on my little guy.

Speaker 1 (10:46):
Whether the shows were great or not is up to you,
the listener to the side, But awesome, Texas.

Speaker 5 (10:51):
If you think the shows were great, textus.

Speaker 2 (10:54):
Your agreements is with what happened on the show.

Speaker 1 (10:56):
Well, James was gone and the inmates were running the
asylum over here, all right, So that's a wonderful thing.
Glad we got the story, the Birst story of Young
Oh and Jeffrey Peterson. Okay, now let's talk about seventy
five days to Utah football season begins nine o'clock kickoff
on Fox against UCLA. That to look forward to NBA

(11:19):
Finals to talk about that series has gotten very, very intriguing,
as has the NHL Finals. Brian Hayward's going to join
us to talk about that one o'clock broken Houston in
about twenty minutes as well to talk a little Utah
Mammoths and what's going on. Scott Mitchell's going to join
us at noon and some summertime radio. We're playing this game, James,

(11:41):
and it's been hard. We've only had one round of
it so far, and already people have expressed their their
angst and the difficulty in sometimes making the harsh decision
when we're talking Utah football great. So what we're doing
is we're playing start bench cut on Utah football greats

(12:04):
now at certain positions. As I told you on Friday,
we're going to do this where we separate the eras
of Utah football. There will be the pre Power five
era and then the Pac twelve and Big twelve era
because the positional talent pool has gotten well changed a
little bit, and the accomplishments and the way that you

(12:26):
measure those accomplishments I think have to be altered somewhat
when you're talking about the big leap forward that Utah took.
So at some positions we will probably have start bench
cut like two rounds per position. But right now, we
started with the specialists. I wanted to ease our way
into this thing. So punters last week, Hackett, Wasshnowski, Louis Sakota,

(12:51):
and Louis of course, because he was such a versatile,
he was such a dual threat and incredible All American
caliber player in those two phases of special teams. Louis
is also on the start bench cut for kickers. Now
we're talking about your kicker. We're talking about your field goal,
extra point, and I guess kickoffs. I don't know how
many people care about the performance on kickoffs, although in

(13:16):
recent years it has become more of a thing because
there were a lot of guys that it was just automatic.
You weren't going to get a return against you. You
didn't have to worry about kick coverage nearly as much
in this case. Matt Gay, Andy Phillips, Louis Sicota, start
bench cut eight seven seven three five three zero seven

(13:41):
hundred at Real oc Sports. Let me know how you're
making that decision, start bench cut your favorite Utah kickers,
Andy Phillips, Matt Gay, Louis Sakota. And the real hard
thing here, James, is they're all great, yes, all of them,
but you gotta cut one. And even benching one of

(14:03):
those guys is a tough thing to do.

Speaker 5 (14:05):
Well, you only get one kicker per team, right, so
that of course you gotta cut two, right, No.

Speaker 2 (14:10):
Well, you got you gotta you gotta have the backup.

Speaker 5 (14:13):
Oh you have a backup? Okay, you're asking for mine
right off here. I mean, if you're gonna, I think
I'm I think I'm ready to do it.

Speaker 1 (14:21):
Okay, hold on, hold on, okay, I will say the
field goals made record is not real close. Oh Andy
Phillips eighty four field goals for Utah football over the
course of four years. Louis Dakota fifty seven field goals
made over the course of four years. Matt Gay fifty

(14:43):
six field goals made.

Speaker 5 (14:45):
Wow, I'm surprised. Seasons two seasons. I was just saying,
I was, I'm surprised his is that low. But he
he didn't play four years at Utah.

Speaker 1 (14:52):
He played two seasons for the University of Utah, and
he almost matched Luis Dakota in four years.

Speaker 5 (14:59):
And I think distance wise, he probably he probably outdistanced
those other two guys pretty good too, right, Like he
was that long field goal with money for him in college.
So I think that that's why I'm starting Matt Gay.

Speaker 2 (15:14):
And maybe it's recency biased.

Speaker 5 (15:16):
Maybe it's because I didn't follow not not growing up
Utah fan, didn't follow it closely enough during the Louis
Sakota era, uh specifically, you know, definitely and less than
the Matt Gay era with with Andy Phillips. So that's
what that's the one I'm most familiar with too okay,
but he was on pace to get So he's on

(15:38):
pace to get over one hundred field goals made if
he played four years, and the just the distance he
he made fifty yard field goals look easy in college
in those two years. So that's why I probably start
him and then uh probably bench Andy Phillips because Louis Sakota,

(15:59):
as you said, King, also of you know, the the
most field goals made part of better. I suppose the
team that he's on, like the MVP award. Maybe maybe
that should factor in that Luis Lakota was on some
better teams than any Phillips teams were, So uh probably

(16:21):
bench King Louis, cut Andy Phillips, start Matt Gay.

Speaker 1 (16:25):
So this one's this one's interesting because especially I think
start Matt Gay is the right choice here. He holds
the Utah record for single season field goals made. He's
actually top two the top two seasons there uh single
game record. He's he's the guy, like you said, who
was very reliable from distance. What changes to calculus, though,

(16:47):
and I think has to be brought into consideration, is
the fact that, like Louis Dakota was on a team
that was better offensively relative to its competition. You didn't
have to rely on King Louie as much as you
had to rely on Andy Phillips necessarily, and you could

(17:08):
make the same Nay or.

Speaker 5 (17:09):
Even Matt Gay, because those offenses until twenty nineteen Matay
second year, the when Andy Ludwig came back, Utah's offense
under Tyler Tyler Huntley, by points per game and stuff
was not that great.

Speaker 1 (17:23):
So the Louis Sakota question is, like he was absolute money. Right,
Louie's numbers would have been different if he played on
an offense, or if you played on a team that
had an offense like the Matt Gay teams or like
the Andy Phillips teams. Because Louie was money, you didn't
ask him as often. Like you scored more touchdowns. Brian

(17:46):
Johnson was your quarterback. Ye had David Reid, you had
Eddie Wide, you had Matt Asciata, you had like all.

Speaker 2 (17:51):
These unbelievable players.

Speaker 1 (17:53):
Right, Like that was a more proficient and especially because
you were not yet playing week in and week out,
you were not yet playing Pack twelve level talent. You
weren't playing Power five level talent. So Utah was a
dominant force in those years, and those were really good
Mountain West Conference years.

Speaker 2 (18:10):
B YU was good.

Speaker 1 (18:10):
TCU was good, obviously, like that was it was a
very if you want to call it a mid major,
you want to call it a group of five, whatever
you want to call it. It was probably as good
in those couple of years as good of a mid
major conference as has ever existed in college football.

Speaker 5 (18:26):
Certainly certainly the sixth best conference in college football, if
not sometimes the fifth best, I mean the year.

Speaker 2 (18:36):
Yeah, like because the Big East was the thing back then, and.

Speaker 5 (18:39):
They I guess maybe is supposedly seventh because you had
six major conference but conferences back then, I forget about
the Big East.

Speaker 1 (18:46):
But you were better than them, Like, you were better
than the Big East, and there were probably times that
the ACC wasn't giving you a lot anyway.

Speaker 5 (18:52):
So much so that the Big East took TCU initially,
that's right, like they they took one of those he
is from the Mountain West that was so good in
those last couple of years.

Speaker 1 (19:02):
Yeah, So that's something to think about when you're making
your start bench cut decision. Sixteen twenty four says Start
Phillips bench Sakota cut Gay you're cutting Matt Gay.

Speaker 2 (19:15):
Oh Man, the lou Gros Award winner. You're cutting that guy.

Speaker 5 (19:18):
He says, I'm just not a soccer fan. I don't
know a soccer player kicking for me.

Speaker 1 (19:22):
Longevity, I get it right, Okay, sixty six forty one
start Matt Gay bench, Andy Phillips cut Louis.

Speaker 2 (19:29):
Louis getting cut in some of these interesting the same.

Speaker 1 (19:32):
Way last week there were people cutting Tom Hackett. Oh
my gosh, I was like, what are you doing cutting
Tom Hackett? They're saying he can't hack it. And and
you know, there there are folks that want to keep
Louis because of positional versatility. But we're building the all
time great Utah. But you don't need Louie to punt too.
You don't need like Louis is just gonna be a

(19:54):
place kicker. Louis your third string punter at best. Okay,
he's your emergency punter. And in this case, I mean,
Louis was great at both positions. He was All American
at both positions at that level. And yet because of
the other guys that have come through the program, and
we're just talking about specialists right now, James, you know

(20:14):
how Harry, this is gonna get when we get into
defensive backs, running backs, quarterbacks.

Speaker 2 (20:20):
You know how luckily this is gonna get when you.

Speaker 5 (20:22):
Bloodbath Inevitably, when you cut Sly, we're gonna have to
get him on the show to air his grievance when
we get the linebackers eight.

Speaker 2 (20:32):
I know, I know Sly flies.

Speaker 1 (20:34):
What I'm gonna do is I'm gonna screenshot the phone
numbers of everyone who cuts Sly and I'm gonna send
them to Sly. Yes, and I'm gonna let Sly handle
that himself, all right when people are like, yeah, I'm
gonna because remember Stevenson Sylvester was pre pac twelve era

(20:55):
linebacker and so that's a different calculation.

Speaker 2 (21:00):
That is a position.

Speaker 1 (21:01):
I'm separating the two, the Power five and the pre
Power five.

Speaker 5 (21:06):
See, I knew you were thinking of cutting him already,
now I know for sure, just based on how you
said that. Well, that's your tease. Though we went not
on Linebackers Today, not.

Speaker 2 (21:17):
On Linebackers Today.

Speaker 1 (21:18):
Bill actually came on the show on Friday and he
was like, wait, are you going to do this every day?
And I was like, well, we'll run out of positions
too fast.

Speaker 2 (21:25):
If we do it every like two three times a week.

Speaker 1 (21:27):
So he's like, oh, maybe like a Monday Friday thing.
I was like, Bil producing the show for me.

Speaker 2 (21:32):
I like that.

Speaker 5 (21:33):
So this week Bill was anxious to give his take
every Friday.

Speaker 2 (21:37):
That's what That's what that was.

Speaker 1 (21:39):
And look, we're gonna get Bill's take every Friday. And
he was you know, I was like, wait, you're cutting,
you're cutting. I think he ended up cutting Hackett and
I was like, you're cutting Hackett, cutting his former broadcast partner. Anyway,
So Punters was Sakota, Wishnowski, Hackett, Kickers, Phillips, Matt Gay,

(22:04):
Andy Phillips, not Joe Phillips, who's also in the record books,
Andy Phillips, Matt Gay, and again Louis Sakota start. You
gotta start one bench, one cut one. Who did you
cut out of the punters? I cut Louie. You cut Louie.
I started Hackett, I benched Wishnowski. I cut Louie. See,

(22:26):
those two are.

Speaker 5 (22:27):
So tough to to choose between Tom Hackett and Mitch Witch.
Now Mitch Wichnowski is your starter, and by the way,
I don't it's wild.

Speaker 1 (22:36):
I know that Mitch has gone on to great success
in the NFL and Tom hardly even got a shot,
which is insane to me. But Tom Hackett was it
back to back best punter in the country.

Speaker 5 (22:50):
This is this is what they did while at Utah,
not we're not factoring in their NFL success.

Speaker 1 (22:55):
Which is gonna be hard for people as we play
this game with other positions.

Speaker 5 (22:58):
Steve Smith is going to be started and gonna be
a starter once we get to receivers. It's like, well
he was kind of a return man only at Utah,
and we're gonna get.

Speaker 1 (23:06):
We're gonna we're gonna have those conversations because like your
production as a ute and what you were able to do,
and I don't I don't want it to just be
a numbers equation because your significance to the team and
the how good that team was. If you were one
of the best players on a really good Utah team
like you're you're probably more deserving of the start, or

(23:28):
at least the bench than somebody who was like a
really good player on a bad Utah team, because this
is about program significance. Here start bench cut. We went punter,
now we're going kicker, and we're gonna gradually work our
way into the more complicated positions.

Speaker 2 (23:50):
Oh that's King Louis calling in wondering why I cut him. No,
I'm sorry, Louis.

Speaker 5 (23:55):
If you want to call in Louis Kota eight seven
seven three five three zero seven hundred, lod to.

Speaker 2 (23:59):
Hear from you a rec sports as well.

Speaker 1 (24:01):
If you want to tweet your your start bench cut
decisions on Twitter, Braden Peterson says start Matt Gay bench,
Luis Dakota cut Andy Phillips.

Speaker 5 (24:13):
Did you see the text the guy one of our
Texters who was advocating for keeping Louis. Yes, because of
the injury need positional versatility, man, because the injury problems.

Speaker 1 (24:25):
Hey, here's what we Here's what we're not gonna do.
We are not going to put that negative energy into
the world on the program as we're gonna season approaches.

Speaker 2 (24:37):
I have to break this habit.

Speaker 1 (24:38):
I have a really bad habit that whenever whenever I'm
talking about well, if he stays healthy, this guy's going
to be incredible. If he stays healthy, I'm putting bad
jujo out into the world, even like mentioning the possibility
that that guy could get injured.

Speaker 2 (24:57):
I have to break myself of that hat. We're assuming
hell on the Sean O'Connell. Shit, I want to Yes,
that's a good way to put it.

Speaker 1 (25:03):
We are going to assume health, even though we haven't
had a reason in the last two seasons to assume health.
We are going to assume health. We are going to
break the cycle of trauma for Utah fans.

Speaker 5 (25:14):
Absolutely, That's that's what we're about here, breaking cycles of
trauma on the Sean O'Connell.

Speaker 1 (25:20):
That's yes, Ed esp At seven, Yes, uh, Boldroyd that's
it's probably be Oldroyd, but boldroid is how I'm gonna
say it. Start king Louie bench, Matt Gay cut Andy Phillips.
Cheech is also cutting Phillips, benching Louie and starting Gay though, Man.

Speaker 2 (25:41):
This is tough. This is a Kickers is a tough one.

Speaker 1 (25:44):
I'm I'm and Andy Phillips also, like, are you factoring
in how much of a fan favorite each of these
individuals was, Like how often we heard from them and
interviews and all that kind of stuff. That was another
reason why I couldn't believe people were cutting Tom Hackett.

Speaker 5 (26:00):
He was he still is such a such an amazing
personality and in anything that he's doing it. So it's
the reason why he was He made such a good
had a nice radio career because just the personality yet
and and did a good job on the broadcast for
a little He's the.

Speaker 2 (26:17):
Only Youte that made the All Century Pack twelve team.

Speaker 5 (26:20):
Yeah, he's he's got You gotta at least have him
on the team.

Speaker 1 (26:24):
Admittedly he was you know, the youths had not been
in the PAC twelve very long when they made that team.

Speaker 2 (26:31):
But who else would have made the team?

Speaker 5 (26:33):
Yeah, Like I suppose wish now Ski like if like
there's a number of people out there that probably thought
Mitch wish Was was better than him.

Speaker 2 (26:43):
I suppose that.

Speaker 1 (26:44):
But I think I think if you if you took
all the Utah PAC twelve players, because like Devin Lloyd
was not eligible to be named to that thing, because
when they put the team together, he was not Yeah,
he hadn't been an All American or whatever.

Speaker 2 (26:56):
Like who who else?

Speaker 1 (26:58):
I mean, Tom Hackett deserves a bottom that team because
he was the best punter in the in the land
for two years straight.

Speaker 2 (27:03):
Who else?

Speaker 1 (27:05):
Take away the timing of it, we're talking all the
Utah players. Ever, who else would have made the All
Pack twelfth century team. I mean, you get you have
no shot of getting a receiver on there. You probably
like guys like Garrett Bowles who were only with your
program for one year, are going to be eliminated because
there's not enough sample sized, there's not enough longevity. Like

(27:28):
I guess somebody like a Bradley and I could have
been given a shot. A Devin Lloyd was an All American.
But look at how many All American linebackers And we're
talking like Buckets Award winners. The PAC twelve was produced
Tom Hackett. People were cutting the guy and start bench
cut James. He was sitting next to John Elway at

(27:48):
the dang ceremony.

Speaker 2 (27:51):
Anyway, Elway's starting him.

Speaker 1 (27:54):
Elway is starting Tom Hackett, and he's benching probably everyone else.

Speaker 2 (27:58):
Of course he didn't want him on the Broncos, so
maybe not.

Speaker 5 (28:02):
I don't know what you gotta bring that up? Sorry,
all right, I shouldn't just think out loud sometimes. See
I'm working on that doing that, all right. We got
to take a quick one here. Brogan Houston's gonna join
us on the other side. We'll talk a little hockey.
As the Stanley Cup playoffs. The Stanley Cup Final continues
tomorrow night, and you know we'll talk about the Utah

(28:24):
Mammoth with the draft approaching. Also, are they gonna make
moves in free agency? Which is gonna be here before
we know it.

Speaker 1 (28:33):
Shaan O'Connell Show Utah is number one Sports Talk ESPN
seven hundred and ninety proud part of Utah's ESPN Radio network.

Speaker 6 (28:45):
You tune to the Sean O'Connell Show from the Murdoch
Chevrolet Studio of ESPN seven hundred and ninety two to
one a half m all months ago. Howry mccator.

Speaker 1 (28:55):
This first of the series is seventh point of the
series and is one hundiftieth career Stanley Cup playoff point.

Speaker 2 (29:04):
Bringing the Oiders back with it too. And this building
is alive again.

Speaker 1 (29:09):
Panthers go to work and Ryan Hart scores from the
left circle.

Speaker 3 (29:13):
He beats picker short side, and there's an answer from
the defending champs, who once.

Speaker 7 (29:18):
Again go up by three.

Speaker 1 (29:20):
HiT's four to one, Panthers taking a three to two lead.
John Allers on that call, Sam courtesy of Sports USA,
We have Game six for you on your home with
the Stanley Cup Finals, ESPN seven hundred and ninety twoe
AFM tomorrow at six pm Mountain Time, Broken Houston Stuffs
by talk a little NHL hockey, Little Utah Mammoth Brogan,

(29:44):
Welcome to the show again.

Speaker 4 (29:45):
How are you, Jo?

Speaker 8 (29:47):
Well, thanks for having me back.

Speaker 1 (29:49):
All right, I want to I want to talk about
this this opinion piece you wrote about why the Utah
Mammoths should not try to get Sam Bennett in free agent.

Speaker 2 (30:00):
See, there's been a.

Speaker 1 (30:00):
Lot of rumor, a lot of innuendo. He's got relationships
in Salt Lake City. Excuse me, He's been incredible in
the Stanley Cup Final. So why know Sam Bennett's Salt
Lake City for you?

Speaker 4 (30:12):
Yeah?

Speaker 8 (30:12):
You know what, Sam Bennett is the type of player
that any GM would love to have, and for that reason,
he's going to get way overpaid this summer.

Speaker 4 (30:22):
Now.

Speaker 8 (30:22):
I don't know about other leagues, but in the NHL,
your your wage, your your salary is way more important
than you know, a lot of other things that you contribute.

Speaker 4 (30:33):
So you know, if you if you take up X
percentage of the cap, you.

Speaker 8 (30:36):
Have to contribute more than that in you know, whether
it's statistics or X factor or like there's there's something
that you got to bring, and just the amount of
teams that are that are in on Sam Bennett this year.
He's just going to get overpaid if he hits the
free agency market on July first here, and and he's
he's not really the type of player that would help

(30:58):
U talk to get to the next level yet. So
you know, if Utah were already you know, a second
or third round playoff team and they wanted to kind
of push themselves over the brink to get to the
Stanley Cup, I'd absolutely signed them. Then that's who you need.
He's a playoff performer. He's leading the playoffs and goals
right now. He's an absolute machine.

Speaker 4 (31:17):
Sign him.

Speaker 8 (31:18):
But because Utah is not close to the Stanley Cup,
they're probably still a good you know, three to five
years away at the very least. You know, I think
that if they were to sign that minute, they would
use up a lot of their cap space for something
that won't really pay the dividend now and will hurt
them when they actually are ready for the Cup, because
you know, then he's golden flow and he's you know,

(31:40):
past his best yeries, but he's still making that major capit.

Speaker 1 (31:45):
There's always a discussion we have with players like this
more in the NBA than in like the NFL or something.
But your role on a team is often a huge
part of why you're successful or not. Now we've watched
and he's been absolutely great in these Stanley Cup playoffs,
in this final series, he's been incredible. But and you

(32:08):
pointed this out in your piece in the Dead's News,
the results when he was expected to be the man, right,
like the leader, the guy, the number one skater on
the ice in Calgary, it didn't work out for them.
Like how much of his success in Florida you think
is predicated on the idea that he's surrounded with so

(32:30):
much great talent and they don't necessarily ask him to
be the Lebron James of that team. They don't ask
him to be like the captain in the same way
that Calgary was expecting him to.

Speaker 8 (32:43):
Yeah, no, that's exactly the other half of it is that,
you know, when when he's a second line player, then
he's facing the other team's second defense bearing and the
other team's second best you know, defensive forwards and whatnot,
And that's what he is in Florida. He kind of
has a lot more wiggle room, like you, he can
make a mistake and not necessarily pay for it. Right there,

(33:03):
you know, there's a lot more open eyes for him
to to go for it because he's not playing against
the you know, the the top defensive forwards in the world,
and and if he were on Utah, he would be
the first line center. And you know, then all of
a sudden, he's going up against the Alice Farkov and
the Sam Ryan Harts and you know, the really elite
defensive forwards like that. And same thing with the defense

(33:25):
that he's going up against the Quinn Hugheses and Mikail
mccrs and and he couldn't do that in Calgary. When
he was in Calgary, they had him in that role
for a while. He just never panned out. And then
they traded him for a bag of fox like they
you know, there's there's no real good return on that trade.
And now all of a sudden, he's probably going to

(33:46):
be the playoffs MVP. You know, he's he's a player
that fits in a specific system, and that's not what
Utah is at this time in their rebuild.

Speaker 1 (33:55):
Rogand Houston, my guest here on the Sean O'Connell show.
We're talking to you, Tom Mammoth. Right now we're gonna
into some Stanley Cup final. The series is now three
to two for the Panthers, which means that tomorrow night
the Cup will be in the building. They could potentially
close it out. We will get there. I love this
line about Bennett. There are players who get you to

(34:17):
the playoffs. There are others who get you through them.
And you mentioned that Bennett is the latter. So a
guy that when he's on your team, helps you get
through the playoffs. But right now, the Mammoth need guys
that are gonna get them to the playoffs. They need
guys that are gonna get them over that hump. And
presumably because this is the way it seems to work
out in the NHL, and you and I have talked
about this before. You probably got to make like three

(34:40):
playoff runs concurrently or consecutively, i should say, before you
end up actually challenging for a cup. So you need
someone who's gonna get you there and then get you
back there, and then get you back there again, and
then maybe third or fourth time is when you're gonna
make a deep run.

Speaker 8 (34:57):
Yeah, no, that's exactly. It if you look at teams
that really that have prolonged periods of success, the teams
that win the Stanley Cup. You know, Florida is a
great example, so is Edmonton. These teams they're drafting in
the first, second, third kind of range overall, you know,
ten years ago, and then now you know, ten years later,
they're finally competing for the Stanley Cup. Now Utah, you know,

(35:20):
they're picking forth this year that you know, that's probably
not a great indication just because they moved up in the
lottery tense bos. But you know, they're only a couple
of years out from when they drafted Logan Koley third overall,
and they had a few other you know, picks in
that range, and so you know, if you think about it,
ten years from from when they drafted Logan Cooley, that's
when they're supposed to be competing for the Cup, you know.

(35:43):
And maybe Utah is a little accelerated just because of
how many prospects and picks they have, you know, and
that's maybe a little optimistic even, but you know, that's
that's kind of the timeline that we're looking at here.
So you know, you need guys that can kind of
get you into the playoffs. Teach these young guys how
to play a playoff hockey.

Speaker 4 (36:01):
It's different.

Speaker 8 (36:01):
I know, it doesn't seem like it maybe you know
from the outside perspective, but it really is a different
game in the playoffs. And so you know it's going
to take some some trial and error. Don't expect them
to bring that big, silver shining thing to Utah in
the next couple of years here, It's going to take
a while. And so you know, they need guys to
come in teach the young guys, give them that experience,
help them learn how to win, and then eventually, you know,

(36:23):
I thinks ten years from now, they might be in
a spot to you know, how Logan Cooley be a
first line center that can hoist that Stanley Cup.

Speaker 1 (36:32):
All right, let's get to the Stanley Cup final. Panthers
are up three to two. How much significance is there
for you that when the Panthers are winning these games.
I guess with the exception of Game two, it's convincing.
It's there. They've dominated their other two wins, and for
for the Oilers it's been we need overtime. Now, that's fun,

(36:54):
that's wonderful. For me as a as a fan, as
someone watching as an observer with no real horses the race,
at least in this Stanley Cup Final series. But how
significant is it that the Panthers have been more dominant
in their wins and and the Oilers have kind of
had to rely on overtime heroics to get theirs.

Speaker 8 (37:13):
Yeah, I know it shows how deep these these Panthers are,
Like they are by far the best team in hockey.
You know, there's there's nobody else that can contend they
They've walked through the entire playoffs I guess with the
exception of Toronto that's the only one that went to
seven games so far for the Panthers. But you know,
they they are the best team in hockey. They're they're
really showing that, and you know they're they're playing a

(37:34):
really good shutdown game now. Their coach, Paul Marive he
talked about how big his defenseman are and how how
meaningful that is to have a big, long defenseman, and
the way that he characterized it when he was talking
about Nico Mikola and Teth Jones, two of his bigger defenseman,
and said they can have they can hold hands in
the middle of the ice and touch the two ends
of the board. You know, obviously it's exaggerating quite a bit,

(37:57):
but you know that's that's the type of space that
these guys take up, and teams are trying to copy
that now. And so you see some of these dads
going in free agency, some of these big defensemen, and
they're going to get some big, big contracts coming up
here because it's a coffee tap league and you know,
everybody wants to replicate the success of those of the
successful teams, and so, you know, I think that's a

(38:18):
big part of it.

Speaker 4 (38:18):
And then also I.

Speaker 8 (38:19):
Just think death wise, you know, Edmonton is rolling out
some of these you know, less less experience, ye or
less you know, less elite defenseman, I guess, and and
Florida really, you know, they don't have a weak player
from top to bottom. You know, I think that's a
big difference. And then obviously, if you talk about goaltending,

(38:39):
you know, Florida has one of the best goaltenders in
the entire world and Edmonton, to put it simply does not.
You know, most of Edmonton's two goalies would be backup
goalies on most NHL teams. You know, to put it
kind of simply, and so I think that's another big
factor in this.

Speaker 1 (38:57):
There's that that adage in football, if you have two quarterbacks,
it means you don't have one. And that's kind of
what has happened for the Oilers in this is that
they've had to go bounce back and forth, and look,
credit credit to the coach, credit to everyone else on
that team for managing it pretty well and making this
the series that it is despite you know, having to

(39:19):
swap back and forth. We did see that a little
bit with the Mammoth in the regular season. Different equation
obviously than playoff hockey and especially a Stanley Cup final,
but you know, I guess it highlights for me how
important it is that it seems like you've settled on
Veggie now, like, yeah, you need depth, you need to
have a really good backup, and there's no reason for

(39:41):
me to believe that Ingram can't figure it out and
make it an interesting competition even but when you don't
have I guess a good sense of who's even going
to be the guy starting or whether he's going to
get pulled after a period or two periods, I just
can't imagine the man having to do that while developing

(40:02):
the young talent.

Speaker 8 (40:04):
Yeah, no, I think you're right. There are some teams
that make it work with the two goalies, like you
know Boston a couple of years ago.

Speaker 4 (40:11):
That was a perfect example of those two goalies.

Speaker 8 (40:13):
They rotated every other game. You know, it was scheduled out.
You're going to play that game. You're going to play
that game, doesn't matter how you did the previous game.
That's just how it's going to be. And it really
worked for them, but it usually doesn't turn out as
a Stanley Cup winning team because it's.

Speaker 4 (40:28):
Hard to do that in the playoffs. And I wouldn't
say i'd mentioned quite on a rotation like that.

Speaker 8 (40:33):
They do have the number one and they do have
the number two, but the big problem there is that
they haven't gone and gotten their big goalie, like they
haven't gotten a star goalie whatsoever. So Stuart Skinner, yeah,
he's their number one goalie, but if you put him
on most other teams in the league, he's just a
backup goalie. And you know, I think that's an identity thing.
They think that he's a lot better than he actually is,

(40:56):
and he's just you know, he does have good games
he showed that in the Vega series, but he's not
consistent enough to play in the Stanley Cup final and
and you know, be solid enough there. And so I
think that's something that you know, seems like Utah need
to really be honest with himself about is carel Vinoka
your number one goalie and is he somebody that could

(41:16):
take you deep in the playoffs Right now? The answer
looks like yes, but it's a pretty small temple size.
You know, he had half of the season that was
exceptional and so you know, this coming season will be
very telling for him to see where he actually fits
in this lineup.

Speaker 1 (41:34):
What does what does Connor McDavid need to do if
what the Oilers are going to win this Stanley Cup?
I mean, he's been incredible, but mostly in a support
in an assist role. He's only scored the one goal.
What does he need to do if they're going to
overcome Florida?

Speaker 8 (41:53):
Yeah, you know, it's it's hard to ask anything more
of Connor McDavid than what he's already doing. But you know,
I like he said, he's only got the one goal.
He does have I think it's six assists something like that.
You know, so he's still producing offensively, he is still contributing.

Speaker 4 (42:08):
But if you if you.

Speaker 8 (42:09):
Look at that game where Edmonton came back from three
to nothing, I think it was Game four. Maybe I
might be wrong to go quote me on that, but
they came down, They came back from three nothing, made
it four to three before the end of regulation, and
then one five to four in overtime, and mcdavian and
dry Sedle neither of them scored any of those goals,
you know. So it's it's not that they're not contributing,

(42:32):
but it's it's probably a good thing for Edmonton that
they don't need to rely solely on those two guys anymore.
For a long time, that's what it was was, you know,
ninety seven and twenty nine, they were the only one
the only ones producing, and you know, the team kind
of suffered.

Speaker 4 (42:45):
Because of it.

Speaker 8 (42:47):
And so I don't think it's a question of, you know,
McDavid needs to do more. I think it's a question
of everybody else needs to kind of kind of you know,
remember their roles and not shy away from the big
moment into that kind of thing. And you know, it's
the Stanley Cup is a hard trophy.

Speaker 4 (43:04):
To win.

Speaker 8 (43:05):
If you only have one or two guys that are going,
you got to get the whole team going, and then
the whole team gets to touch the trophy once it's one.

Speaker 2 (43:12):
Brogan, great stuff as always. Thank you for joining me.

Speaker 4 (43:16):
Yeah, of course, thanks for having me.

Speaker 1 (43:18):
Brogan Houston, Utah Mammoth insider, NHL insider over at DAZ News,
a member of the Professional Hockey Writers Association and friend
of the program. He's always given us great stuff. All right,
we'll take a quick one here when we come back.
The most dad US Open victory perhaps ever. And of

(43:40):
course on a Father's day, Sean O'Connell show Utah is
number one sports talk the ESPN seven hundred.

Speaker 6 (43:52):
You were listening to the Sean O'Connell Show from the
Murdoch Hyundai Studio of ESPN seven hundred and ninety two one,
alf Am.

Speaker 1 (44:11):
All right, Don O'Connell show continues here. On a Monday,
we talked Oakmont, We talked about the US Open and
how wild and wooly it was. On Friday we had
Paul Pugmyron and uh, you know he said, Paul is
he's in golf savan.

Speaker 2 (44:30):
He said, I tell you what.

Speaker 1 (44:33):
You throw anyone in the field the opportunity to tell
him that on Sunday they're gonna be even par. These
golfers are gonna take it. And this is when there
were guys, you know, sitting at minus four, minus three.
There was a little bit of a log jam at
two hunder and I was like, wow, really we're gonna
get to par. And then what happened the eventual winner,
JJ Spahn, who was the leader on Friday when we

(44:56):
spoke to Paul, he was the only guy that finished
under par.

Speaker 5 (45:00):
So Paul was dead on So it's crazy because Sam
Byrns started the day four under the final round. I mean,
that just tells you how tough of course Oakmant is
and how good the USGA is making it is it
making those courses just the hardest in the world.

Speaker 1 (45:17):
So spawn hits Bertie on seventeen, and then we all
saw the highlight of the sixty four and a half
foot Birdie putt on eighteen.

Speaker 2 (45:27):
I put it out on Twitter. I said, all right,
make this a football thing.

Speaker 1 (45:30):
This is like scoring a touchdown on fourth and goal
from the what And of course I got the people
correct to me and saying like, well, actually, it was
really third and goal from the whatever, because if he
had missed that, he could have taken an approach putt
and then hit like the ten footer would not have
been nearly the cool high good point.

Speaker 5 (45:48):
It is more like a third down because he had it.
He had a stroke to play with.

Speaker 1 (45:52):
Yeah, right, absolutely right, but unbelievable putt right great, they
got great angles on it. His reaction, his caddies react,
trying to rush the umbrella over because of the wet day.

Speaker 2 (46:04):
Awesome.

Speaker 5 (46:04):
Right by the way, did you know that that at
least one of those holes was as close to the
freeway as it was. I'm watching the I'm watching the broadcast,
and I'm like, that freeway is basically on the fairway.
That's like, I've never seen that in one of these
championship golf courses that they're that close to a road.

Speaker 1 (46:26):
I mean, they're like Salt Lake Country Club is right
there next to the good point.

Speaker 5 (46:31):
Sorry, it's total tangent there. It stood out to me
as I was watching yesterday, Paul told us a great
story about the designer of the golf course. I heard this,
I tuned in for a little bit, heard this story.
It blew me away, just the coolest thing ever.

Speaker 1 (46:47):
If you did not hear that show, you can actually
find it in the on demand section at ESPN seven
hundred sports dot com. You can download the podcast version
wherever you get your podcasts. We are everywhere and the uh,
it's better to hear Paul tell the story then for
me to try to paraphrase it. But essentially, it was
like the dying wish of this billionaire steel magnate who

(47:09):
thought that he was gonna be like his lasting legacy.
He was going to design this golf course because he
thought he was on his way out of this world.
And well we got Oakmont out of it, which is
one of the toughest courses.

Speaker 2 (47:21):
Only only course the guy ever made ye too, like
another insane thing.

Speaker 1 (47:25):
So go listen to Paul tell the full story because
he does a much better job than we do of it.
But look, I don't love watching golf, I don't love
playing golf. I don't love talking golf. This, though, is
the coolest and it's a poetic in so many ways.
JJ Spond has been kind of like that battler, right,
he's a guy who's a really good player. It's been

(47:46):
you know, he hasn't really broken through until now with
the major win and the fact that he did it
on Father's Day and then gave us the most fathers,
the most dad story ever after the fact, James, you're
gonna you're gonna learn this, You're gonna experience this James
Peterson for those just tuning in newly minted as the

(48:07):
first time father. The story is that JJ Spond's family,
of course, is with him, and his daughter was sick
in the middle of the night, and he has to
play his final round where he's in a position to
win it. Absolutely, It's not like this was some major
come from behind situation. They knew, and he knew, his

(48:30):
family knew, his wife knew that he had a shot
of winning the US Open. But guess what comes first
being dad? Absolutely, and his wife needed his help because
his daughter.

Speaker 2 (48:44):
Was sick in the middle of the night.

Speaker 1 (48:46):
He had to go to CBS at three am against
the pedia light to do that whole thing because his
daughter was sick. And then can you imagine you're just like, Ah, today,
of all days, I need some rest. I need to
go on that golf course tomorrow, play a great round.
I'm within striking distance of my first major. Your kids

(49:09):
don't know, and even if they know, they don't care.
And the age and his kids are they're very young,
like they couldn't put it into proper context. And look,
this is in modern American life, all right, the three
am trip to CBS.

Speaker 2 (49:24):
Dad's that's on us. That's it. That's a guy thing.
That's what.

Speaker 5 (49:28):
I'm not gonna leave. The sick child, she's gotta be there.
The kid wants to be with mom anyway.

Speaker 1 (49:33):
And you don't want your wife going to a twenty
four hour CBS at three am. We've all seen the
goblins that are wandering around those parking lots. You're not
sending your wife to that.

Speaker 5 (49:43):
Imagine the the glare he would have gotten if he said,
can't you do it? I got a big tournament tomorrow.
I got a big round tomorrow.

Speaker 1 (49:51):
So it is the modern day equivalent of like you're
leaving the cave and you're the one going out and
hunting the wooly mammoth. Okay, absolutely no, I shouldn't. We're
the mammoth now, so I'm not going to rest for hunting.

Speaker 2 (50:03):
You're out.

Speaker 5 (50:04):
You're going out in you your tabor tooth tiger you're
taking your spirit to get rid of that saber tooth tiger,
which because we hate the buffalo sabers, by the way,
that's why we're cool with saying that.

Speaker 1 (50:15):
Yeah, sure you're out, you're hunting an ancient musk oxen. Okay,
whatever this is. This is now the task of the
modern day Dad. We've emerged from the caves, right, We're
no longer a hunter gatherer society. But every once in
a while, you gotta do a little gathering and you
gotta do a little hunting, and in this case, you
get to go. You have to hunt for some some pepto,

(50:37):
some children's pepto bismol, and some pedialyte. Right before you
gotta perform at the highest level of your career. You
gotta go win that major What a cool story on
Father's Day?

Speaker 5 (50:51):
No, less, I do love that you're that you're programming
the show around my big life event. But you may
have so many Father references on today, just random Monday
in June.

Speaker 1 (51:03):
Yeah, I feel honored the day after Father's Day, Yes,
but good for JJ spawn. That makes it so much cooler,
That makes it such a better story.

Speaker 2 (51:14):
Right, every year he's gonna people.

Speaker 1 (51:17):
Are gonna be like, oh my gosh, you wanted Oakmont,
you won your you won the US Open. He's like, yeah, yeah,
it's pretty crazy. They're gonna be like, tell me, tell
me about it. What was it like hitting that sixty
four foot putt. He's like, well, I was. I could
hardly see straight because I had been up all night.
I was with a sick kid. I was pounding the
monsters whoever, whoever his like five hour energy or whatever.

(51:40):
His energy drink sponsor is red Bull Monster five hour Energy. Yeah,
one of those, now that I think of it, are
they big time sponsors in golf?

Speaker 5 (51:50):
The five hour five hour energy, Like just the energy drink.
I said, pounding the monsters, And I'm like, I haven't
seen one of those.

Speaker 1 (51:58):
Like Monster is very very much in a logo that
I would never expect to see on.

Speaker 2 (52:03):
A golf course.

Speaker 1 (52:04):
That's like that's like X Games, that's that's MMA, that's
X Game and Combat Sports. Yeah, that's absolutely like Monster
is Like I can't imagine even like a Ricky Fowler
putting on a hat that's got like that green hideous
green closing.

Speaker 2 (52:22):
Yeah, Like it just doesn't fit.

Speaker 1 (52:24):
Is there is there an energy drink that is considered
upper crust enough to be on a PGA tour sponsorship
list like his Red Bull there. Maybe because they get
on Wacky's any stuff too.

Speaker 5 (52:35):
I could see five Hour Energy because they're because it's
such a generic looking bottle. It almost looks like a
health supplement bottle.

Speaker 2 (52:45):
If you buy a five hour Energy, I could see.

Speaker 5 (52:47):
I could see golf being like, oh, yeah, that's not
too extreme for us.

Speaker 2 (52:51):
Five hour Energy, let's go.

Speaker 1 (52:53):
I did not think that we would get to this
point on the show, but I'm really.

Speaker 2 (52:57):
He had to have been on some he had to
be on insane my caffee.

Speaker 1 (53:00):
I'm racking my brain and just being like, I don't
even know if I've seen like someone with like a
like a Starbucks sponsorship. Yeah, I don't know if there's
a coffee company out there. Our guys for Black Rifle,
are they on anything?

Speaker 2 (53:13):
Coffee is a little snobbish enough to be part of.

Speaker 1 (53:19):
But why, I mean, the PGA is is not that
different than NASCAR.

Speaker 2 (53:25):
They just class it up. Yeah, yeah, you know. NASCAR's
just like, go ahead, slap that sticker off, man, let's go.
Let's go Yang first your last, Hey, there's room on
my windshield. That's right.

Speaker 1 (53:35):
So like with with with love, fig Newton's with golf,
I don't know.

Speaker 4 (53:40):
I mean.

Speaker 1 (53:42):
Eight seven seven three five three zero seven hundred, who
is the the caffeine sponsor of the PGA players.

Speaker 5 (53:49):
Because we don't want to google, okay, so you you
just tell us if you know.

Speaker 1 (53:53):
I would rather crowdsource my information, which means people could
just send in whatever they want.

Speaker 2 (53:59):
It's not like I have maybe we do wrong answers only.

Speaker 1 (54:02):
It's not like I have as I have a computer
right in front of me, like literally at my fingertips,
where I could find this answer. But I just and
admittedly I don't watch nearly as much golf as probably
even most of you do, yea, But I can't. I
can't recall a time seeing like, oh, look there's a
guy wearing a five hour energy polo shirt or a

(54:23):
little visor with the red bull loco on it. There's
got to be something in any case, JJ Spahn, maybe
you're the guy that can bring monster energy to the
PGA tour.

Speaker 2 (54:33):
He was on.

Speaker 5 (54:34):
He had to have been on an insane amount of
caffeine to get through that round.

Speaker 2 (54:37):
Absolutely.

Speaker 1 (54:37):
I mean, the commercial rights itself be like show the highlight.
I hit that putt to win my first major championship
at the toughest course in the country. And guess what
I was up all night with a sick kid. You
know why I was able to make the putt.

Speaker 2 (54:54):
Prune candy, Prune candy.

Speaker 5 (54:57):
Anyway, if you're not, if you don't chew Big Red.

Speaker 2 (55:01):
No, no, all right.

Speaker 1 (55:04):
Scott is gonna join us next on the Sean O'Connell Show,
our number two. In three minutes, you're listening to Utah's
number one sports Talk ESPN seven hundred and ninety two
one FM, proud part of Utah's ESPN Radio Network.

Speaker 6 (55:20):
Time gonna bring in the big Leffie.

Speaker 2 (55:21):
You'll have to start thinking about somebody else.

Speaker 6 (55:24):
Huge legend, a longtime NFL quarterback, Scott Mitchell's talking pig
Skin on the Sean O'Connell Show at the leftoand now
Here's oc with Scott on ESPN seven hundred ninety two
one AM.

Speaker 1 (55:41):
The Start Your Engines ESPN seven hundred ninety TWEFMM excited
to announce the first ever Monster Jam World Finals coming
to Utah July fourth and fifth. We're gonna be giving
away tickets right here on the Sean O'Connell Show. Tickets
are also available at ticketmaster dot com. R Hour number
two with the Lefty you Taugh, football legend, coloralyst and

(56:05):
all the Utah broadcasts and of course host of The
Down and Dirty Right here on ESPN seven hundred and
ninety two and FM.

Speaker 2 (56:13):
Scott Mitchell, Welcome to the show again. How are you?

Speaker 5 (56:17):
Uh?

Speaker 4 (56:17):
You know, I'm doing wonderful and you know you you
you all you know taut me as the lefty right,
which is what I am, and and it's it's a
it's been a heavy burden in my life to be
left handed. And you and you only understand the burden
if you're left handed, and you only you only notice
you only you notice people who are left handed like

(56:39):
you're right handed, and you just assume everyone's right handed
and you don't care. But left handed people, oh you're
left handed and so and you notice it and you
all of a sudden have a bond. But Sean, I'm
telling you, being left handed has been it's been wonderful, meaningful,
but also comes with a heavy burden.

Speaker 2 (56:57):
Did you know that I am left handed? Scott?

Speaker 4 (57:00):
I see, I didn't know that because I've never seen
you write anything, it's weird.

Speaker 1 (57:04):
I'm left handed, but I'm right armed, so it's a
little bit backwards. You don't care, I mean, but the
writing thing, that's the real burden. When you have to
drag your hand across the paper and you get the
lead or you get the ink on the on the
heel of your hand.

Speaker 4 (57:20):
Are you are you? Do you right left hand?

Speaker 1 (57:22):
I write left handed? I eat left handed. All the
small motor skills I do left handed.

Speaker 4 (57:28):
Look at you, all right? You count, youstand, you understand
the dilemma. All right.

Speaker 1 (57:33):
We're playing a fun game leading up to the Utah
football season.

Speaker 2 (57:37):
We're doing start bench cut. Okay.

Speaker 1 (57:41):
We're taking Utah rates and we're gonna go position by
position and we're gonna start bench cut Utah grates.

Speaker 2 (57:48):
Okay.

Speaker 7 (57:50):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (57:50):
We started last week with the punter. I haven't talked
to you about it, so I'm going to give you
last week's question also, Okay, punter, start bench cut, Luisakota Hackett,
Mitch Washnowski.

Speaker 4 (58:04):
I'm starting with Nowski. I'm benching Hackett, and I'm cutting Dakota.

Speaker 2 (58:09):
Okay, all right.

Speaker 1 (58:10):
That was the answer for several people, although they were
all over the place, Louie gets to make two appearances
on Start Bench Cut because, as you know, he was
also a phenomenal kicker for the University of Utah. So
start Bench Cutting out on Monday. We're here to the kickers,
Matt Gay, Andy Phillips, Louis Dakota.

Speaker 2 (58:33):
What about Andre Gordy not on the list?

Speaker 4 (58:36):
Oh? No, man, he was. He was from my era.
I'm gonna go, I'm gonna go start. Oh gosh, Oh,
this is a hard one.

Speaker 2 (58:47):
It's not easy. It's not supposed to.

Speaker 4 (58:49):
Thought it was gonna be easy because I was gonna go.
I'm gonna go with start Gay okay, and then I'm
gonna go bench uh Louis and cut Andy?

Speaker 2 (59:02):
Okay? Wow?

Speaker 4 (59:03):
Andy? Yeah?

Speaker 2 (59:03):
Sorry?

Speaker 1 (59:04):
Andy, the the all time field goal kicker in the
Utah record books. Andy Phillips has just been cut by
Scott Mitchell.

Speaker 4 (59:12):
He's out locking to it too. I'll stick. I'll stick
with my answer just to be me.

Speaker 2 (59:19):
All right.

Speaker 1 (59:20):
No, I mean, look, the problem with this with it's
not the problem. It's it's why it's fun. There's no
right answer, and there's no wrong answer because like, you're
starting a great guy, but you're also cutting a great guy.
No matter who you decide to cut, because that's the
nature of the game. Well, I'm not giving you easy
questions here, and your name will appear on a start
bench cut in the future as we work toward the

(59:41):
quarterback You're not You're not cutting Scott Mitchell, all right. Uh,
the the transfer portal is once again on the docket
for discussion with the decision makers, the rule makers in
college football, and the support for a one time transfer

(01:00:02):
window in early January is the one that at the
Coaches Conference gained the most steam. In fact, they took
like a straw pole, and it was passed with unanimous
approval at this Coaches Convention. And so we're looking at
a policy change probably coming for twenty twenty six. Won't
be in place for twenty twenty five, but for twenty

(01:00:23):
twenty six. And you know the options are. You stay
with the two windows that exist right now. You do
a post spring football window, you do most people's seasons
are over, but the college football playoff is not yet complete.
January second to like January twelfth window, and just have

(01:00:44):
that one be the one that sets your roster for
the whole year.

Speaker 2 (01:00:48):
Where does Scott Mitchell stand.

Speaker 4 (01:00:50):
Well, if you're well, I definitely stand on that. I
think it's a brilliant idea. I think it's absolutely the
way they should do this. It's very similar to NFL
free agency and and you know all the things that
happened there. People need to realize that you just don't
show up at a school after spring football or later

(01:01:11):
in the summer and and just go, yeah, I'm going
to be ready for the season. Preparing for a season, physically,
learning the system, acclimenting to the culture, doing all these
things as a process that takes time, and you're shortcutting
that time, and you're you're really not giving uh, these
players the best opportunity to really perform. And it will

(01:01:34):
benefit everyone. It's going to benefit the athlete because they're
going to have the proper time to prepare for a season.
It's going to benefit the program because they're going to
have that continuity and they know, you know, okay, we're
not going to have any surprises. We're not going to
get stuck stuck holding the bag like I think Utah
did with Zachariah Williams after spring ball, and and and

(01:01:57):
the fans, you're going to get a better product on
the field you're gonna get better production, You're gonna get
you're gonna get a you know, you know you're not
so you're you know. It takes time to get these
these program or these these offenses and defenses running and
playing at a high level. And that's what you want
to see. You don't want to see guys, you know,

(01:02:17):
going through half the season before your team figures out
how to play well and play together. So I love it. Uh,
if if anyone has half a brain, if anyone can
just say, we got to fix these problems with college football.
This is this is the right solution, And if they
don't agree with it, then they need to They just
need to quit and they need their head examined.

Speaker 1 (01:02:38):
So when the transfer portal opened the first time they
called it officially a transfer portal, the window was sixty
days that you had sixty days to make the decision
and put your name in. And then they coaches didn't
like that, so they shortened it to forty five, and
then they shortened it again to thirty. A ten day
window is enough time for teams gm from these teams, players, coaches,

(01:03:02):
everyone to communicate what they need to communicate and get
people into and out of the transfer portal.

Speaker 4 (01:03:08):
In your mind, I mean, ten days is pretty tight.
But the reality is, even in professional sports, they everyone
knows way way ahead of time. I don't know how
they do it miraculously, but they all know, like as
soon as the deadline hits, all the trades are made,
everything's done. You know, these people are doing their homework,
you know they And if you're not, you're you're also

(01:03:30):
really stupid. So you have a really good idea of
what's available or what's going to be there when when
the window opens. You know, ten days seems a little tight,
you know, maybe you know, I wouldn't be opposed to
thirty days, or or if there's some kind of I

(01:03:51):
don't know, matching window that you know, maybe I don't know.
I'm just spitballing here, but I think they're going to
have a pretty good idea regardless, right as this thing opens,
and I think anyone maybe worth their salt, is going
to be turned and burned, you know, pretty quickly. The

(01:04:12):
highest regarded guys in the portal or you know, probably
probably going to be done with within a short period
of time. But it definitely needs to be short, you know,
dragging it out doesn't do anybody any good. And if
you're if you're a team that maybe you're not going
to get the highest tiered guys, you have at least
enough time to kind of sift through where you fit

(01:04:32):
in the pecking order to get the players that you
are hoping for and want and and still be able
to do that. You know, maybe it's two weeks, maybe
it's your I don't know, they're just but not certainly
not long.

Speaker 1 (01:04:47):
Ryan Day expressed his distaste for this idea. He's one
of the few coaches that was just like, no, I
don't like this. And part of the reason he doesn't
like is because his team is still playing in the
College Football Playoff when this window is happening. Is Ohio
State Buckeyes are still playing. What would you do to
accommodate teams that are in the College Football Playoff, which

(01:05:08):
this year, if I'm not mistaken, didn't end until January twentieth,
so the window would have opened and closed before their
season was done. Most teams in the country are done,
you know, January first, Effectively, what do you do to
accommodate teams?

Speaker 2 (01:05:22):
Or do you do nothing?

Speaker 1 (01:05:23):
Because it's like you guys don't need the help, all right,
you're already It sets up kind of like an NFL
draft situation, where like you get the last pick of
the first round because you're already better than everyone, so
let everyone else figure it out. And then you, guys,
if you're chasing a national championship, you figure that out
and the transfer portal doesn't have to be part of
your world right now.

Speaker 4 (01:05:43):
Well, as a head football coach, I would certainly want
to be able to be a part of that process
and analysis and decision making about these players. I know,
I know a lot of these schools and programs. You know,
they have people on staff that do a lot of
this stuff. You're seeing the general manager now position being

(01:06:04):
a big deal across the board, and and so I
I think that Ohio State's probably equipped to go find
those players. It's not like they're going to have a
hard time attracting quality talent, both from a money standpoint
and just from their program and their prestige. But I

(01:06:25):
don't necessarily disagree with Ryan Day. I mean, what what happens,
what hurts the portal opening if it If it's maybe
you know a little bit later and like you know,
the middle of January I understand they're all trying to
get enrolled in school and and they're and they're starting,
you know, trying to get acclimated into a new a

(01:06:47):
new system. And maybe there's some concessions done there with
the schools and the universities about kind of a mid
semester in roly or type of thing that that that
they they do. But in all fairness to everyone, it
really should be after everything is done. And and it's
almost one of those things where I don't I don't
know that there's ever an absolute perfect window if you're

(01:07:10):
trying to get guys enrolled into school and be a
part of your program through your winter winter conditioning side
of it. But but the best compromise might be something
along those lines, or you just say, hey, you know,
maybe maybe if you're a team like Ohio State, or
if you make the playoffs, maybe you're a transfer window

(01:07:30):
roles later. You know, so maybe maybe you're one of
those exceptions that that you you'll get extra time on
the back end, uh for for players and maybe because
because the player too. You know, there might be a
player that goes I'm gonna most benefit from going to
an Ohio State or going to or there's these players

(01:07:50):
are going to want to go to these high profile programs.
I mean, you know, so, so maybe they go. I'm
willing to wait a little bit longer if I want,
If I get a chance to go, I go to
one of these other schools. So somehow, some way, there's
got to be some concession. Not just sure which way

(01:08:11):
the best is, but I certainly, if I'm a head coach,
want to I want to be involved in that process,
and I don't want to be distracted by having to
try to win a national championship, because winning is the
thing that keeps you employed, and it also is the
thing that attracts the money and the best players to
your program.

Speaker 1 (01:08:29):
Gott mentioned my guests for a few more minutes here
on the Sean O'Connell Show, getting closer and closer to
college football season, and decisions have to be made, although
these decisions will not come into effect for the twenty
twenty five season transfer portal college football Playoff expansion, which
we think is inevitability. Well, one thing, Scott, I mean,
there's a lot of problems in college sports right now,

(01:08:51):
but one thing that I think has improved is better
is that decisions are made and then changes if it
doesn't really work out. Changes are more read available. It
used to be with television contracts and everything else. If
you got a system, you adopted a system that nobody liked.
We were stuck with it for like a decade, and

(01:09:11):
then we had to wait until, oh, that television contract expires.
A BCS computer company we signed with them, so you
got to wait. College sports are now more nimble than
they were when it comes to changing even really large
scale things like these transfer portal windows and things like that.
I think we could probably trace it back to the

(01:09:32):
whole COVID situation, but maybe somebody smarter than me could
tell me when it happened. But I don't know, not
even a question there just isn't it. Is It kind
of refreshing that we don't have to wait forever to
make changes if changes are due.

Speaker 4 (01:09:47):
I think it's a really good point, actually, Sean, that
that there is a willingness for whatever reason to say, hey,
look this doesn't work out, we need to move in
a different direction. I also think it helps kind of
keep the interest in college football that they go, oh,
there's a twelve team playoff that's different. You know, let's

(01:10:07):
you know, maybe maybe people get more interested in it,
maybe more schools do because they have a shot to
be a part of it, that they're in the conversation
and and that they're you know, so it sparks interest.
And and also maybe college football is recognizing a little
bit like the NBA, you know, where they're like, man,
we we got to be open and flexible and nimble

(01:10:28):
enough to realize that we we we got to try things.
We got to try new things. We gotta we got
to find out a way to speak to our fans
to engage them, and and the ways that we've done
in the past clearly aren't so we we've got to
have that nimbleness to do it. And yeah, I think
it's it is refreshing. It is nice because it's a

(01:10:49):
great product. It's a great it's a great thing to have.
And I'm more I'm more bullish on college football. And
everyone's like, oh, it's died, they've killed it. It's like,
you're still going to have the games, You're still going
to have the teams. It's still going to be fun
to watch and be a part of it. Just might
be in a different frame of mind, might be in
a more professional type of feel to it, but it's

(01:11:10):
still going to be a great thing to watch and
and and I think they want to get this figured out.
It's just trying to you know, herd one hundred cats
and get them to go in the right direction. I
think is a challenge. But yeah, if they'll continue to
have this like, we don't know the answers yet, but
we're willing to try attitude, I think we might get
to a good place ultimately down the road.

Speaker 2 (01:11:33):
So belated, Happy Father's Day.

Speaker 4 (01:11:36):
By the way, I know the time, Thank you Sam
to you.

Speaker 2 (01:11:38):
I know that's a role you chaish very much.

Speaker 1 (01:11:42):
The US opened great story about the eventual winner, JJ Spahn.

Speaker 2 (01:11:46):
He had, you know, I take care of dad.

Speaker 4 (01:11:48):
Dude.

Speaker 1 (01:11:48):
He's in the middle of the night because his daughter
was sick, so we had to run the CVS at
like three am or whatever. And I know that the
NFL is different, and you know, usually you're staying at
a team hotel or whatever. But do you have a
a story or stories from your career when you know
you had to be dad first and then worry about
being a quarterback after.

Speaker 4 (01:12:09):
Uh. The one that comes to my mind is my
oldest daughter was born during training camp. Uh and and
and we it was like we were supposed to leave
the next day, uh to go to go play our game,
which was in New England, and it was pre season game,

(01:12:31):
and I just I actually, I was like, Okay, I'm
gonna have to miss this game. Whenever she's born, you know,
I'm just gonna miss a game. And even if it
would have been a regular season game, I would have
I would have missed a game. But fortunately she was.
She was actually born the day before we had to leave,
so she she understood, she understood when to be born

(01:12:54):
and you know how you act and uh. Anyways, and
the scary part was my wife had been in labor
all day and she didn't know it. And we almost
had the baby on the way to the hospital and
she had my daughter, Haley within twenty minutes of if
that the doctor was the doctor didn't get there. The

(01:13:17):
nurses actually delivered delivered Hailey, so so she came pretty quick.
But that was really the only time. And speaking of
JJ spahn Man, he's my new hero because we're all
we're golf fans, are kind of spoiled and snobbish, and
we want the big names to win. And just how
he won that tournament was just so fun and so

(01:13:38):
exciting to watch. It even makes it better now that
I know he had to get up at three am
to go to CVS, so so good for him and
good for fathers everywhere.

Speaker 1 (01:13:45):
Yeah, pretty pretty cool story. Pretty cool to see him
win that thing. And you know, the toughest course in
America in some people's minds. To be able to just
battle it out pretty awesome.

Speaker 4 (01:13:55):
Yeah, very much. Oakmond is brutally hard and I just
love when he needed just the greatest shot, you know,
and he hit that that drive on seventeen and made
the verdie and then eighteen you know, because we've seen
I mean, I'm Phil Mickelson had a massive meltdown when
he should have won the won the championship if it
you know, just get to drive in the fairway and

(01:14:17):
so and then the putt man, what an incredible So
it's just fun. And that's to me, that's what's so
great about sports. That's why we do this, that's why
we love it. That's why we watch just because we
know we might see something like that happen, and it
makes us feel good and it's exciting and massively entertaining.

Speaker 2 (01:14:37):
Is the Aaron Rodgers Pittsburgh experiment.

Speaker 1 (01:14:40):
Now that we have contract details, you know, it's like
ten million bucks can be thirteen with the right performance
or whatever.

Speaker 2 (01:14:48):
How are we going to look back at that when
it's done.

Speaker 4 (01:14:52):
Well, I think it's a good place for him. You know,
they're a pretty good team that could go paces in
the playoffs and and they get the quarterback playing at
a pretty high level, which he's very capable of. Still.
You know, the only thing, the only thing that ever
worries me about Aaron Rodgers is just is he going
to have that Is it going to be his time

(01:15:14):
to get injured? You know, and he kind of went
through that with the Achilles, But as far as his capability,
his skills, you know, he's still still capable. I don't
know how long. You know, maybe this is is a
one year deal for the Steelers and they're probably looking
like we've got a team that can compete right now.
We just need the quarterback position to play hot play well.

(01:15:34):
They're a great organization, they have been for decades and
what and you know, so you can you can create
a really good and healthy environment for a quarterback like
Aaron Rodgers, unlike you know the Jets, wh or it's
just a train wreck and a nightmare. The stability of
this could be could be a place where he could
could really flourish this year and probably about this year.

(01:15:58):
But I would be surprised to see the Steelers competing
and being into the playoffs. And I think the AFC
is you know, I think there's a lot of good teams,
but I think a lot of teams could win the
AFC this year.

Speaker 1 (01:16:11):
Actually, Scott, great talking to you as always appreciate you
joining me on.

Speaker 2 (01:16:17):
The show today.

Speaker 4 (01:16:18):
You got it. Thank you, Sean.

Speaker 1 (01:16:20):
You can tune in at ten am every single day
for the Down and Dirty with Scott Mitchell right here
on ESPN seven hundred and ninety two one FM, immediately
preceding the Sean O'Connell Show. It's a great lead in.
I love when I'm on my way in listening to
Scott Mitchell. He's always got a unique perspective, especially on
things football, because of course he played so long in
the NFL, and he was a great college player as well.

(01:16:44):
The kicker by the way that he wanted me to
put on the list. Andre Guardi sixth all time in
made field goals at the University of Utah from eighty
three to eighty six he played. He was ninth all
time on the single season right kurds and he is
one of how many guys, one of several kickers that

(01:17:07):
made four field goals in a single game.

Speaker 2 (01:17:09):
So he's in the Utah record books.

Speaker 1 (01:17:11):
He doesn't belong next to Andy Phillips, Luis Dakota and
Matt Kay not quite.

Speaker 2 (01:17:15):
But he was a really high quality kicker.

Speaker 1 (01:17:17):
Andre Gardy for the Utes, so got a nice little
shout out from Scott Mitchell. Honorable mention cut for Andrey Wardy.
I'm also cutting him respectfully, respectfully. Also, James, you know
we went off on that random tangent about Monster Energy.

Speaker 2 (01:17:37):
Yeah, I saw a couple of texts we got.

Speaker 1 (01:17:39):
Yeah, lesser known golfer. Some people have heard of him,
some people haven't. Actually did have a partnership with Monster Energy.
Maybe diehard golf fans know him. Yeah, people like you
and I don't know Eldrick Woods. Whatever I mean, It
shows you how much golf I watch. What has a

(01:18:00):
Monster Energy golf bag?

Speaker 5 (01:18:02):
Also a couple of points here because some name calling
on the text line for us not knowing that.

Speaker 1 (01:18:08):
Yes, but if you scroll back at that particular person
that's just kind of there.

Speaker 2 (01:18:12):
That's their moment.

Speaker 5 (01:18:12):
They're a little bit cranky on the text line, Shout
out to you cranky text.

Speaker 2 (01:18:17):
Shout out to our cranky texters.

Speaker 1 (01:18:18):
We have a couple of them that they just love
to be like you guys suck, I hate FB.

Speaker 5 (01:18:24):
Had seven hundred. You fuel us. Okay, that's just like
Monster fuels Tiger.

Speaker 2 (01:18:29):
Thank you for sending us that feedback. But a couple
of points here.

Speaker 5 (01:18:32):
Number one, Tiger hasn't been relevant for fifteen years now,
Like he's.

Speaker 2 (01:18:37):
Still okay, he's careful, careful now.

Speaker 5 (01:18:41):
He's still relevant in a sense that when we talk golf,
we're gonna ask, hey, can he contend, But in a
sense that he's actually on your TV on Sundays and majors,
that's not happening very much. Yeah, so that's number one.
Number two, I'm not sure Monster, I'm not sure he was.
Monster was sponsoring him when he was in his heyday.
We're thinking Nike for Tiger.

Speaker 2 (01:19:02):
Okay. Also my third.

Speaker 1 (01:19:04):
Point, when you're watching golf, are you paying attention to
the logo on their shirt on their advisor? Okay, I
I'm watching the golf. I don't know, I don't care
enough about the golf. Like, so I'm just like KPMG.
What is kp're like the look this up? So the
marketing is for you marketing.

Speaker 2 (01:19:23):
The marketing is.

Speaker 1 (01:19:24):
For me, which is why I was like, wait, who's
the caffeine sponsor?

Speaker 2 (01:19:28):
Who's the energy drink sponsor? Because I do notice those things.

Speaker 5 (01:19:32):
So a lesser known golfer is sponsoring Monster is sponsored.

Speaker 2 (01:19:37):
By Tiger apparently had a monster.

Speaker 1 (01:19:39):
But it's funny because I googled, and you know, energy
drink sponsors PGA Tour, and it's like that's it.

Speaker 2 (01:19:47):
It's like Tiger has Monster. Yeah, so what a weird deal?
Is weird?

Speaker 1 (01:19:52):
That explained to me why that's the case, because golf
has become very much in every man's game. Everybody I
know plays golf except me. Lots of people drink energy drinks,
and everybody drinks energy drinks at some point.

Speaker 5 (01:20:04):
All of us are just like I need that kaffeine
wicks man, I'm dying. Yeah, maybe you want you're sick
of you don't want one more cup of coffee, so
you grab an energy drink instead, like or if you
don't drink coffee or drinking energy drinks like whatever, people
drink energy drinks.

Speaker 2 (01:20:19):
Yeah, it is strange.

Speaker 1 (01:20:20):
You know what else is really wild about the whole
energy drink thing. You would think we've reached a point
of market saturation now where like Monster Rock Star Red
Bull fill in the blank here, there's enough energy drinks
out on the market. You would think, Nope, you could
still start an energy drink company and be wildly successful

(01:20:41):
and have like worldwide distribution. I would have thought the
market was full. Nope, it ain't. We're not here to
talk about energy drinks. But anyway, thank you for correcting us,
especially you cranky textures. Thanks for pointing it out.

Speaker 5 (01:20:55):
Yeah, thank you for fueling us every day, cranky texters
JJ spawn. By the way, if he doesn't have energy drinks,
calling him energy drink companies calling him or his people,
they should be calling him.

Speaker 2 (01:21:06):
They should after they should be capitalizing on that.

Speaker 1 (01:21:08):
Okay, did you did you get while you were at
CBS at three am? Did you get the pedialyte and
get the thermometer and get all the stuff you needed
for your sing daughter? Monster to you also get a
Monster energy drink and he's just like, no, like, can
you say that you did? Did you get Oh? Yes,
I did, Yeah I did. That's right, I did. They're like, okay,

(01:21:30):
we're gonna give you a million dollars.

Speaker 2 (01:21:33):
You're welcome. JJ spawd. We just we just figured it
out for you.

Speaker 5 (01:21:36):
You know, we're not even gonna ask you for a
cut of that. But you know, if you feel so
inclined give some credit to us, go ahead, all.

Speaker 2 (01:21:43):
Right, we gotta take it. We gotta take a quick
one here when we come back.

Speaker 1 (01:21:48):
The trade values in the NBA are one of the
great mystery. It's like who built the pyramids? What happened
to the dinosaurs? And how is that guy worth that
many picks in the NBA. I cannot figure out trade values.
But we'll get into it with what happened with Orlando
and Memphis Sean O'Connell Show, ESPN seven hundred ninety two.

Speaker 6 (01:22:14):
Belong He's Sean O'Connell's show. You were Home of the
best Inside of your House. Let's get back tooc from
the Murdoch Chevrolet Studio of ESPN seven hundred and ninety
two to one f M.

Speaker 3 (01:22:29):
He drives insides well defended home grin of Cruso right there,
come to a chance to take the lead, yogis Alexander
or the drive pulls back thanks line Chopper's going okayse
with our first lead of the second half.

Speaker 1 (01:22:53):
You can listen to the finals right here on ESPN
seven hundred ninety two one FM. We are your home
of the NBA Playoffs. That was a Shay Gilders Alexander
go at Guilds Alexander SGA go ahead shot and the
Thunders comeback win in Game four.

Speaker 2 (01:23:11):
That's hond courtesy of ESPN. Mike bring on the call.

Speaker 1 (01:23:14):
Series is all tied up at to a piece Game
five tonight in Oklahoma City. We've got it at six
o'clock on Utah's number one Sports Talk, ESPN seven hundred
and ninety two one FM. All right, Uh, Desmond Bane
three and d right forty one percent, three point shooter,

(01:23:36):
good defensive player. Orlando is bringing him in to add
to what they think is a really solid core with
Suggs and ben Caro and company. And uh, they are
willing to pay an insane price. The price is four
unprotected first round picks, one pick swap Contavis Caldbell, Pope

(01:23:58):
and Cole Anton.

Speaker 2 (01:24:01):
I'm sorry.

Speaker 1 (01:24:02):
What for Desmond Bane? Never been an All Star? James,
correct me if I'm wrong about any of this stuff.
Never been an All Star? Right, yeah, checking on his credentials.
We keep going, not like I don't know, Rookie of
the Year, Defensive Player of the year, no superlative awards
as far as I'm aware for Desmond Bane so far,

(01:24:24):
and the hall of picks that you get back for
sending him packing is players and picks. This is like
a Hall of Fame level, guys. This is Rudy Gobert
at least.

Speaker 2 (01:24:40):
Yeah, that was that was ridiculous.

Speaker 1 (01:24:42):
We keep talking, and look, every time I think about it,
I still sit back in my chair with like that
little just the corner of your mouth, just to some say, wow,
really fleece them, really and look it has worked out nicely.

Speaker 5 (01:24:54):
Yeah, back to back Western Conference finals. I'm not sure
it's as big of a fleecing as it's seen at
the moment.

Speaker 2 (01:25:00):
It's one of the rare trades where both teams done.

Speaker 5 (01:25:02):
The trade still an overpay, Like I still maintain that
for Rudy Gobert. But that's the point you're about to make.
At least Rudy Gobert is a Hall of Fame level player.
I mean he's not he's not that way on the
offensive end, but he's that. He's absolutely that on the
defensive end. He gets you just enough as a rim
runner on the offense to make you to make him
in all a multi multiple time all start at the

(01:25:23):
time of the trade and a three time defensive player
that year at the time of the trade. He's won
one more than that.

Speaker 1 (01:25:29):
The guy is unde nowhere near that as as long
as you're talking about the defensive defensive side of the court,
the dude is worth it, quote unquote worth it right.
It's one of those things where they probably knew they
had to over they were overpaying a little bit, but

(01:25:49):
they said, you know what, this is exactly what our
team needs right now. And the results since then have
been like, Okay, sure, I honestly I'm hoping for that
for Lando, but because it'd be fun to see, uh,
you know, a random Eastern team, especially when like Orlando
kind of rise the ranks and become a power in
the East, and like, let's see this, but this is

(01:26:11):
it's it. It's one of those weird trades where I'm like,
is this setting a new market for like a lowry
marketing type player, because while Desmond Bain doesn't have the
all star credentials like you could, you would probably put
him in lowry marketing in similar buckets, not the same position.
But like, how good is this guy's an NBA player?

(01:26:33):
Just like how good is he? Well, he's not the
first name that comes at anyone's mouth, but another person
that you look at him, well respected, high quality player,
good work ethic, no problems off the court, that kind
of stuff. It's like, okay, they're similar. Categorically, even if
they're not similar, pains one more also.

Speaker 2 (01:26:53):
Appearance to two of them.

Speaker 5 (01:26:54):
I would I would say that's fair to say, uh Bain,
Just to be fair, I would say he's higher than
just a three and D player. He's a career about
eighteen points a game, four and a half, rebounds, about
four assists a game this last year nineteen six and five.
Those three, those three splits so great. I'd say probably

(01:27:17):
more than just a three and D player. But still
wild overpay for the guy. And this is not gonna
make the magic title contenders. This is it's not even
gonna make them close. I mean, they'll they could be
a fifty win team next year. Sure if if if
Ben Carow and Franz Wagner stay healthy, which they did
not last year, and maybe they maybe they win one

(01:27:38):
more playoff series than we expected them to. Maybe they're
a second round playoffs.

Speaker 1 (01:27:43):
Look, there's not one player on the Utah Jazz team
right now that you would not happily send away for
this return.

Speaker 2 (01:27:50):
Absolutely not, given.

Speaker 1 (01:27:52):
Where, given where Utah is at right now, and given
how long it's gonna take before you climb back into
contention of any kind. If somebody made this phone call
about Lowry's the only one who you're getting.

Speaker 2 (01:28:04):
This kind of an offer for.

Speaker 5 (01:28:05):
I mean, there's there's teams like the Lakers who are
desperate for a center that might that if they if
the Jazz pressed them to, maybe they get something similar
for Walker Kessler too. But yeah, realistically, Lowry's the only guy.

Speaker 1 (01:28:17):
Four unprotected first round picks, one pick swap Contavious Caldwell,
Pope Cole Anthony for nineteen would you say nineteen six
and five?

Speaker 2 (01:28:29):
Yeah?

Speaker 5 (01:28:30):
Nineteen points, six rebounds, five assists, borderline all star numbers?

Speaker 2 (01:28:35):
What am I missing?

Speaker 4 (01:28:36):
Though?

Speaker 1 (01:28:36):
Like good player, solid players, this is not the trade
package you send for a solid player.

Speaker 5 (01:28:44):
It's like the macal Bridges trade with the Knicks last year.
Six first round picks and he's a he was valuable
for that for the Knicks. This year they went farther
than they ever did in the last twenty five years
with him on the team this year. But not the coach.
Not fun reminder, just and then and then they fired

(01:29:06):
their fire, their coach. But not a guy worth six
first round picks. Like the the the amount that get,
the amount that people are teams are starting to overpay
for the third or for a guy who will be
your third or fourth best player at best is wild.

Speaker 2 (01:29:24):
That that's the correct way to frame it.

Speaker 1 (01:29:26):
I think, James, if you tell, if you ask, and
if we put out a poll, okay, UH, Ryan Smith,
let us borrow some like give us a qual tricks
log in And I'm just going to send an anonymous
poll to every GM in the league, every GM, every
UH president of basketball Operations, and I'm just gonna say,
would you give up, never mind the other stuff, would

(01:29:50):
you give up four unprotected first round picks for the
third best player on your roster to bring back a
guy who's going to be your number three. Every single
one of them is going to say no, no, I
would never do that.

Speaker 2 (01:30:05):
But you think of it.

Speaker 5 (01:30:06):
I going back to what I was saying about the
Magic not even being close to a title. Still with this,
think of put that in contrast with the Boston Celtics
when they acquired christophs Porzingis. I think they got two
draft picks, you know, correct me if I'm wrong texters
eight seven seven three five three zero seven hundred.

Speaker 2 (01:30:24):
But not and none of them were.

Speaker 5 (01:30:26):
They weren't even all first round picks. Marcus Smart was
the was the centerpiece guy that they had to trade
away for Christoph Sporzingis. And that that's the kind of
level of player that the Magic are getting in Desmond Band,
a borderline all star player at his very best, who
could be a nice, complimenting, complimentary piece to your stars.

(01:30:48):
But the difference is the Celtics were like that piece
away from winning a title. That and Drew Haldy, they
were that close to winning a title. The Magic did
this paid way more or for a guy who's not
better than Christoph Smorzingis right now anyway, and they're still
not close to a title. This is like, this is

(01:31:10):
not good for the Magic.

Speaker 2 (01:31:14):
I mean, did.

Speaker 1 (01:31:19):
Did the Orlando Magic just pay more for Desmond Bane
than the Lakers paid for Luca?

Speaker 2 (01:31:28):
Yeah? Because I get it, hall of Fame level player
in exchange.

Speaker 5 (01:31:34):
For another reason, for another reason for MAVs fans to
be upset today, other than they feel better because they
have a lot of return own.

Speaker 2 (01:31:40):
It changed.

Speaker 1 (01:31:41):
It changed like Anthony Davis being in there changes that
a lot. Yeah, because you know you have someone that
went healthy, is a Hall of Fame level player in
exchange for a Hall of Fame level player. Yeah, but
it feels to me maybe we should run a poll.

Speaker 2 (01:32:01):
Maybe I should put a poll up.

Speaker 1 (01:32:02):
Did did Orlando pay more for Desmond Bane than the
Lakers paid for Luca? And if the answer to that
question is even debatable, is even like maybe they did?
You've done something wrong? Yes, no disrespect to Desmond Bane.
By the way, Desmond, I know you listen to the
show every day. I don't say any of this disrespect.

Speaker 2 (01:32:25):
We started.

Speaker 5 (01:32:26):
I believe you started listening to you Unpacked twelve today
when he when they when the Grizzlies were playing the
Jazz in the first round what four years ago?

Speaker 2 (01:32:32):
But look, I'm a.

Speaker 1 (01:32:34):
Fan of anyone who goes about their business and does
it the right way in professional sports and is a
team player, and he's exhibited all of that, right, So
no disrespect.

Speaker 2 (01:32:44):
Certainly, a valuable player on a good team, absolutely.

Speaker 1 (01:32:47):
But when you're mortgaging, however many years or even if
you've got a lot of draft capital and you have
this to spend, it's like, it feels like even if
that's the situation for the Magic and I'm not sure
that it is, but like, let's say it is, that's
still like you're a multi millionaire walking in and buying

(01:33:09):
a Kia for one hundred thousand dollars. Yeah, He's like, no, sir,
you could get us for fifty grand.

Speaker 2 (01:33:13):
What are you doing? No, no, no, no, no, no no. I
want this one exactly.

Speaker 1 (01:33:18):
I want I want this exact color colored interior, and
I want this exact exterior, and I want this trim pack,
and I'll pay double for it, and I will give
you one hundred grand for it. They're just like, okay, okay,
that's fine, but there's a Cadillac dealership next door and
they just sold a nicer car for the same price,
for the same price or for less. They're the Los

(01:33:39):
Angeles Lakers or the Dallas Mavericks, Like, what.

Speaker 2 (01:33:43):
Are we doing here? This is nuts?

Speaker 1 (01:33:45):
And if you're if your last name is Ange, you
should be getting on the phone and being like, Uh,
we have a player who's better than Desmond Bayne who
we would be willing to move on from for the
right package.

Speaker 2 (01:33:58):
Yeah, for that price.

Speaker 5 (01:34:00):
You don't say that publicly, but absolutely behind closed doors
you're saying that.

Speaker 2 (01:34:06):
I said that off air. This is probably why.

Speaker 5 (01:34:12):
At the time Danny Ainge and Justin Zanik were so
willing to just keep Lowry when the Warriors called about
him last year. The Kings called about him last year
because they said, look what we got for Rudy Gobert.
We're going to sucker an a team in to giving
us something similar.

Speaker 2 (01:34:30):
We just know we will. Oh my goodness.

Speaker 5 (01:34:33):
And right now they look pretty good if that's what
they're actually thinking. They look pretty good right now. And
they have even more reason to hold on to Lowry
until someone gives him a King's ransom. Kevin Durant still
in a contract with Phoenix right he is He's he made.

Speaker 2 (01:34:47):
That was other big news.

Speaker 5 (01:34:49):
And speaking of NBA trades, his three his top three
teams were named Miami, Houston and.

Speaker 2 (01:34:54):
In San Antonio, So he named his teams. How bad
is he right now?

Speaker 4 (01:34:59):
Yes?

Speaker 1 (01:34:59):
Because and now you're just like, well, Phoenix was willing
to work with me here, but now they're like, oh, well,
if they got that for Desmond Bane, what can we.

Speaker 2 (01:35:10):
Get for you?

Speaker 5 (01:35:12):
Yeah they might, if the Suns would be smart to
play hardball and be like, we'll just keep him. He
doesn't want to be here, but we'll keep him. If
you don't give us the price San Antonio. You don't
give us Victor women Yama, we'll keep him. Would you
rather have on your team next season? Kevin Durant or
Desmond Bane? Obviously Kevin Durant.

Speaker 1 (01:35:32):
There's nobody out there except for the Orlando Magic who're
just like I think the answer to that is Desmond.

Speaker 5 (01:35:39):
The quotes in the ESPN article too, the guy didn't
say we feel like we're gonna contend for a championship,
but he basically said that with this trait're like you're
you are up in the night.

Speaker 2 (01:35:49):
I hope you're right, honest, mister Weltman.

Speaker 1 (01:35:51):
I hope it works out for Orlando the way that
the Ruty thing worked out for Minnesota.

Speaker 2 (01:35:56):
Because that was like both parties are half.

Speaker 1 (01:36:00):
Minnesota's happy with what they've gotten out of Rudi because
he fits into that team, into what those needs were
alongside ant Man, and like, Okay, we needed this and
he's worked well with Julius Randall, like this is good
for us. In two different iterations of that team, it's
worked right, It's worked out nicely for them. Now the

(01:36:21):
Jazz are just like, yeah, we have a bunch of picks.
Obviously it hasn't worked out for the Jazz competitively yet,
but I think both parties are happy there. I hope,
I hope that we are sitting here a year from
now going like, hey, sorry to the apologies to the
Orlando Magic for thinking they didn't know what they were doing,
because it would be more interesting if another team emerged

(01:36:42):
in the East as like a real contender.

Speaker 2 (01:36:44):
I just don't see it.

Speaker 5 (01:36:45):
One of the reasons why I'm so adamant about how
they're not close is that Pelman Carroll needs to get
a jump shot, like he's a star player who you
can eat Lebron when he first came to the league
the Spurs in that seven. Fine, We've heard all the stories.
Remember we remember watching it. Those that those that remember
watching it, they played off of him a few feet

(01:37:06):
and said, be a jump shooter. That's what teams suit
to Powell ban Caro and guess what they win that way.
So like Palel ban Cao is not the star player
that some think that he is yet And that's like
if he was, then sure, making a gamble like this
in this parody era of the NBA, you'd be like.

Speaker 2 (01:37:25):
You'd be like, this is well worth it. But it's
just they're just not there yet.

Speaker 1 (01:37:28):
They that might be parton and they might be recognizing
that this collective bargaining situation right now, the window is
open for an Orlando Magic that's not going to be
open in the future. Although that's also not fair because
there's no reason why Orlando can't be a destination city.
I get it, Miami sexier. You have the same tax
benefits in Orlando that you do in Miami. And look,

(01:37:49):
Miami have Disney World. I don't think there are Look
there's there's a lot of NBA players who have families. Yeah,
and if you're just like we're going to Orlando, tell
them to throw in season passes. The Disney is a
part of your contract and Universal Studios and not SeaWorld though.
Don't support it. I don't support you SeaWorld. Okay, we've
all seen blackfish. Shame on you at sea World. All right,

(01:38:13):
I gotta take a quick one here. The big thing
is happening in Major League Baseball today. Pretty significant. We'll
get into it in three minutes on the Shaan O'Connell
show ESPN seven hundred ninety two one FM.

Speaker 6 (01:38:30):
You were listening to a Sean O'Connell show, your source
for the best use football company. Here's oc from the
Murdoch Hyundai Studio of ESPN seven hundred ninety two to
one half.

Speaker 1 (01:38:41):
Amuh big major League Baseball trade as well. We were
just talking about the Desmond Bain trade in the NBA.
The Red Sox were just like, yeah, we got an
All star, uh San Francisco on him.

Speaker 2 (01:39:01):
You're surprised by this one.

Speaker 5 (01:39:03):
Not quite the same caliber of a Hall for my
Red Sox in this one. A lot of people are
down on the Hall though. Oh see, I definitely was
surprised by this trade. But Harrison Young, starting pitcher, one
of the top prospects of his class in the majors,
has some potential to be really reliable starter, a couple

(01:39:26):
other guys who could be bullpen guys. I think this
could work out well for the Red Sox. Still, I'm
not quite as down on it as other people, especially
because Devers clearly was disgruntled, So dealing to a team
that's desperate for a guy like him, find you would
still would have liked to get a better haul than
they did. This was not the Desmond Baine Hall for
the matchic.

Speaker 1 (01:39:46):
Kyle Harrison was walking to the bullpen to get warm
for a start and they're like, God, just kidding.

Speaker 5 (01:39:53):
Sorry, I can't start you because you're not on the
team anymore.

Speaker 2 (01:39:57):
Actually gonna be gone.

Speaker 5 (01:39:58):
Yeah, so we see as part of this the I
didn't realize it's been this long. The Giants haven't had
a thirty home run season from a guy since Barry Bonds.
That true two thousand and four. Yeah, and they they
won three World Series.

Speaker 2 (01:40:13):
In that time.

Speaker 4 (01:40:15):
Wow.

Speaker 1 (01:40:16):
So not by hitting homers apparently. Yeah, they had some
great pitching in those situations. And I mean, guy, I
was shocked. Buster Posey is an MVP, not a thirty
homer guy.

Speaker 2 (01:40:28):
Wow, those were uh.

Speaker 5 (01:40:31):
You were in you were in the bay during one
of those at least one of those.

Speaker 1 (01:40:35):
Right, here's what happened, Okay, when I I went down
out to San Francisco, Right, it was, I worked for
a single year, and then I came back. And as
soon as I left, the forty nine ers have since
made it to a couple of Super Bowls. The Giants
have won three World Series or two it was twelve,

(01:40:57):
twenty fourteen. Yeah, three of them. Okay, so they won
a third one after I left, everyone got better. The
Warriors then started to be their dynasty. Yeah, I was.
I was the problem apparently for all the San Francisco,
all the Bay Area sports teams, or.

Speaker 5 (01:41:12):
If you want to take positive more positive look to it,
you were the catalyst. You're like, I I got here,
then I left, and everything you needed me here for a.

Speaker 1 (01:41:20):
Year, Okay, I mean, if I had actually actually sticking
to cover any of it.

Speaker 2 (01:41:26):
I did get to see the final home game at
at Candlestick. That was cool. That was great to see.

Speaker 1 (01:41:33):
But yeah, then they all those teams started just winning
championships anyway, or getting close to it, yeah, or getting
close to it.

Speaker 4 (01:41:42):
All.

Speaker 1 (01:41:42):
Right, we're gonna we're gonna talk a little Stanley Cup
final here in about five minutes.

Speaker 2 (01:41:49):
James has done a great job.

Speaker 1 (01:41:51):
He remember he was off welcoming in his very first
child for for the Father's Day weekend and for the
week before that, and immediately right back on the producing horse.
So Brian Hayward is going to join us from Sports
USA color analyst on these Stanley Cup Final games. We'll
get to that here in about five minutes. You'll notice

(01:42:13):
if you live in a house with windows, and most
of us do that, right now is the time of
year when you really need those windows to be performing properly,
and you really need to make sure that you have
high quality windows because your energy costs are about to skyrocket.
We're now rounding into the hot part of summer. Oh,
that southern facing part of my house is just getting

(01:42:36):
baked all day long, and the sun is coming up
early and not setting until nine to thirty PM, so
my air conditioner is working overtime. We know what that does.
That really pushes those energy costs way up.

Speaker 4 (01:42:50):
You know.

Speaker 1 (01:42:51):
One of the best ways to create energy savings for
your house, especially if it's an older home, high quality
replacement windows from Advanced Window Product Advanced Windows dot Com.
Tell them that OC sent you twenty five dollars off
ten windows or more, which is a great deal. And
more importantly, they're gonna come out. Maybe Nate Orchard himself

(01:43:11):
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Speaker 1 (01:44:04):
They're gonna give you a little bit of extra, maybe
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back with Brian Hayward that talks of NHL. ESPN seven
hundred ninety two one FM.

Speaker 6 (01:44:28):
You're tuned to the Sean O'Connell Show from the Murdoch
Chevrolet Studio of ESPN seven hundred and ninety two to
one AF AM.

Speaker 1 (01:44:37):
Jhon O'Connell show continues on a Monday. Stanley Cup Final
heating up getting interesting. I'm happy to see that the
Stanley Cup Finals series and the NBA Final series actually
have delivered a lot more interest and intrigued than some
of the series leading up. But this one is wild

(01:44:59):
and joining us a talk about it. Brian Hayward. You
can hear him on many a broadcast throughout your NHL season,
primarily known for work with the Anaheim Ducks, but we
love him for all of his analysis.

Speaker 2 (01:45:12):
Brian, welcome to the show. How are you.

Speaker 7 (01:45:15):
I'm doing great? Great to be a board all.

Speaker 1 (01:45:18):
Right, before we get into this series, this this Panthers
and Oilers series. Were you surprised to see Hellibuck get
get the double Trouble Go Go, best goaltender and overall
NHL MVP, First time in ten years we've seen it happen.

Speaker 4 (01:45:37):
I was.

Speaker 7 (01:45:37):
I was a little bit surprised, only because you know,
Connor McDavid's in the beat, and you know my opinion,
who had the best season, who's the best player, it's McDavid.
But there's no disputing that Hellibuck had a phenomenal regular season.
And you know, it's hard to say he doesn't deserve
to be the MVP, but it is rare. He played

(01:46:01):
an awful lot a lot of games, of course, and
he had sparkling say percentage and goals against some you know,
and and the team in Winnipeg is one of the
top teams in the league. So I was surprised if
he won, quite honestly, happy for him. And it'll be
it'll be interesting to see who the next goal he

(01:46:22):
is because I'm a little biased, you know, as the
next goaltender that wins the MVP.

Speaker 1 (01:46:29):
Do you like the fact that the MVP award is
a strictly regular season award?

Speaker 2 (01:46:34):
Should we should?

Speaker 1 (01:46:34):
We also incorporate the Stanley Cup playoffs into it, And no,
I think.

Speaker 7 (01:46:39):
When sixteen teams don't qualify for the postseason, you have
to recognize, you know, great performances throughout the regular season.
So yeah, I do like the fact that it's just
a regular season award. And then we have a you know,
we have the Consmite for the best player in the
postseason and McDavid dry Sidle, Sam Bennett, probably Bratt Marshand

(01:47:02):
are are very strong candidates to win that this year.

Speaker 1 (01:47:05):
When you compare the Hart Trophy to the Vesna, look,
obviously MVP of the league overall is a heck of
a thing. But but you you goalies are your unique animals.
So how many individuals come up through you know, junior
hockey and all that saying I want to win NHL MVP?
Is the Vesna more the one like I know that's attainable,

(01:47:27):
I know I can get that. Give me a sense
of the significance of each trophy to the position specifically
to goaltender specifically, Well.

Speaker 7 (01:47:35):
The VEZNA is exclusively for goaltenders and it is voted
on by the general managers, and so that's a little
bit different than the MVP, who the vote, there's a
much larger body of people that are voting to that.
I always thought that, you know, the Vesna Trophy in

(01:47:55):
some ways is more accurate because these are the people
whose lives depend on performance. The gms I'm talking about
that are making the decision, there's only thirty two of
them that pick the winner of the Vesna Trophy, So
it's a little bit unique in that respect. Do goalies
go up dreaming about winning the Vesida, Sure they do.

(01:48:18):
Do they dream about winning the MVP? Yeah, but it's
a long shot. So what hellabuck has accomplished? You know,
there are not too many guys, too many goaltenders that
have won that award in the past, and I think
it speaks to the kind of season that he had.

Speaker 1 (01:48:33):
All Right, let's get into this this actual series today,
game six pm, puck drop, six pm Mountain Time.

Speaker 2 (01:48:40):
At least Florida on top three to two.

Speaker 1 (01:48:43):
Likelihood in your mind that the Panthers find a way
to close it out, or do we get at least
seven in this one?

Speaker 7 (01:48:51):
You know, you never know what's going to happen in
this series, and there's been crazy swings and momentum, but
it's hard to think that Florida won't do It's got
to be in the back of their mind that they
can't go back to Evonton. You know, teams play the
regular season to get whome ice, and although home ice
hasn't meant all that much, last year, Florida had home

(01:49:14):
ice in Game seven and they won. This year, Evington's
got Game seven. I don't think Florida wants to give
them the opportunity, you know, to win it at Bold
in the game seven. I think home ice advantage makes
a difference in Game seven. I can't explain exactly why,
but I think that it does. I also believe, you know,
I just think the Panthers in this what I call

(01:49:38):
a war of attrition, which is the Stanley Cup playoffs,
they're healthier than Evonton. You know, Evington's got a couple
of guys really dinged up that we know of that
are playing, and they're missing Zach Hyman, which is a
key forward. Essentially, they're down one or one and a
half of their top six forwards. I'll call it because

(01:49:58):
Ryan Nugoen Hopkins is not at one hundred percent. Florida
is healthy, They've got all their guys going and their role,
and I think they're the best team. I'll be surprised
if they don't close it out, but you never know.
I won't say for sure if they're gonna win Game six, because,
like I said, this series has been there's been huge swings.

Speaker 1 (01:50:20):
How much does the amount of overtime hockey we have
seen played just in this series effect. I guess at
least partially what you were just talking about, that battle
of attrition, the health, you know, advantage on one side
or the other. We're getting free hockey as fans, but
I imagine if you're on the ice that having it
happened multiple times in one series could get a little taxing.

Speaker 7 (01:50:44):
Yeah, I think it favors the Panthers quite honestly more
having more overtimes. I think they're the deeper team. They're
certainly deeper on the blue line. You know, Edmonton is
everybody knows they're essentially a front line coded team. They've
got arguably two of the best players in the world,
and McDavid and dry Tidle, and you know, as the

(01:51:07):
games get longer and go into an extended overtime period,
you have to rely on your death players to play
a little bit more frequently, and so that puts the
Oilers at a disadvantage, and I think it swings everything
in favor of Florida.

Speaker 1 (01:51:24):
We brought up Conor McDavid a couple of times, and obviously,
you know, he's regarded as the best player consistently in
and out season a half overseason, and you know he's
been incredibly He's been a huge part of the Oilers
being in Stanley Cup finals and back to back years.
It almost feels silly having this question come out of

(01:51:44):
my mouth, but has he done enough in this particular series.
We've seen him with incredible stick work and a bunch
of assists. I guess, just you know, is he scoring
enough goals? I know you're asking a lot of a
guy like Connor McDavid, if you're asking for more than
what we've already seen, but he is the superstar, one
of these superstars in the game right now.

Speaker 7 (01:52:06):
I would say that if the Oilers are going to win,
he has to do more certainly than he has in
the last three games.

Speaker 4 (01:52:14):
And it's not.

Speaker 7 (01:52:15):
Because he's he's not trying to make things happen. It's
more a tip of the cap to what Florida is
doing to essentially just say, Okay, if we contain McDavid,
we'll win the game. If we give them any kind
of room, let them roam free, then we're in big trouble.

(01:52:36):
So you know, they've got new stuff Forsling, They've got
Aaron at Glad. They also happen to have the two
forwards in Ryan Hart and Barkoff that finished one to
two as the best defensive force in the game. And
they're on the ice most of the time when McDavid
is out there, and they have one job. Their job
is not the score. Their job is to, you know,

(01:52:58):
kind of contain him. You can't eliminate them, but try
and contain them. They've done a remarkable job of doing that.
But having said that, if the Oilers are going to
come back, if they're going to win Game six, we
were waiting for Connor McDavid moment. We saw one early
in the series up in Edmonton. We haven't seen one since.

Speaker 4 (01:53:21):
One that just pulls.

Speaker 7 (01:53:22):
Your right out of your seats. And you say, I've
never seen that before, capable of doing that, and I
think he's going to have to do it a couple
of nights from now in Game six.

Speaker 1 (01:53:33):
Brian Heyward is our guest here on The Sean O'Connell Show,
former NHL goaltender also Sports USA analyst. I bring up
the NHL goaltender thing because you've got a really interesting
situation in what they're figuring out in goal for Edmonton
right now. I mean, you got playoff Bob on the

(01:53:54):
other side, and Skinner had a great run up to
this point and then has had a couple bag games,
and so they lean on pickered.

Speaker 2 (01:54:02):
What is that room like when you are going back.

Speaker 1 (01:54:06):
And forth and the substitutions are happening and that decision
might not be coming down until day of.

Speaker 7 (01:54:14):
I think they're used to it, like the players in
the room. I think the goaltenders are used to it
because frankly, this has been going on for a while
with Edmonton. You know Stuart Skinner, he has great moments
and he has a lot of not so great moments,
very inconsistent. He's not the athlete that Sir Gay Bobrovsky is,

(01:54:37):
and he's more of a what I call a shock blocker.
He's a great, big guy, fills up a lot of
a net. But I don't think there's any question that's
going to be Skinner's net for Game six. You know,
he's the guy that that they really count on to
put them over the top. A lot of people have

(01:54:58):
thought that that really is the difference in this series,
and I would agree so far. I mean, Mbrovski has
been terrific. The Oiler's goaltending has been inconsistent, and in
this sport, it makes all the difference in the world.
So they gotta go with Skinner. He's the better of
the two goaltenders that they have, and I'm certain he'll

(01:55:19):
be in for Game six.

Speaker 1 (01:55:23):
When you're going through your routine, going through your warm up,
do you know whether it's going to be a great
day where you're in the flow and you're seeing everything.
Is there anything that's an indicator when it's you who's
playing in goal and now that you're an analyst, is
there anything that you can see as you're watching warm

(01:55:43):
ups or talking to guys before the game or week
of or whatever that's an indicator of like, oh, it
might be a rough night.

Speaker 7 (01:55:50):
I look for frustration in the pregame skate and then
certainly in the you know, hockey players of a morning
skate usually around you know, if you're the home team,
you're on the ice for if it's a eight o'clock start,
you're on the ice at ten thirty. And I watch
the goaltenders because you know, I have an aptitude towards

(01:56:12):
those things, and I look just to see the body language.
If there's frustration. If there's frustration, I anticipate there's potential
for being a long night. If there's not, if they're
having fun and they're joking around and they look loose
and relaxed, and that's that's the best frame of mind

(01:56:33):
that they can be in, and the chances of them
having a really good game are much higher. So that's
about the only thing that I look for. Quite honestly,
I don't look at technique and don't look at how
many goals go in because it doesn't matter before the
game starts. The only thing that matters is that to me,
is that body language is that's that's a window into

(01:56:53):
the mindset of the goaltender before you know he's going
to get the start that night.

Speaker 2 (01:57:01):
Is Brad Marshan going to be a Panther next year?
And beyond? You think.

Speaker 7 (01:57:06):
I don't know? His value is market value is skyrocket?
Now you know It's funny because what a lot of
people don't know is that he spent much of the
regular season not at one hundred percent, and even in
the Four Nations Cup played earlier this year, at times
I thought he looked a little bit slow compared to

(01:57:29):
you know, the best of the best playing in that tournament. Right,
But now he's healthy and he feels great, and he
looks like a different guy than he looked like most
of this past regular season. So his market value is
going sky high. I don't know how the Panthers can
keep Marshan and Bennett, Well, I really don't. It's it's

(01:57:52):
incredible to me. The what wonderful timing those two gentlemen
have is they go into unrestricted free agency that they
are coming absolutely incredible playoffs.

Speaker 1 (01:58:03):
A contract year is a real thing and a lot
of sports, and it seems like it is at least
for those two.

Speaker 2 (01:58:09):
Yeah, there's a lot of Mammoth fans.

Speaker 1 (01:58:10):
You tell Mammoth fans that think that Sam Bennett would
be a great fit here and he's got relationships in
Salt Lake City?

Speaker 2 (01:58:17):
Is that a possibility in your mind?

Speaker 7 (01:58:20):
We'll get in line. I mean, the teams are going
to be lining up to try and sign Sam Bennett.
You know, Utah and the tax situation there gives them
an advantage over a lot of other popes. But and
I don't know. I don't know Sam, so I don't
want to say that money is the only determining factor
for him is to where he But he has the

(01:58:44):
luxury to choose, and he's gonna have a lot of options.
I know that because the way he has performed in
this postseason. There's thirty one other teams right now thinking, man,
if I could pick him into our lineup, he would
really help.

Speaker 1 (01:58:59):
So staying focused on the Mammoth here, it's been absolutely
phenomenal for the community here, for the sports community here,
for us in sports media to have an NHL team,
And it all came together, as you know, very quickly,
and everything was optimism. Everything was all, this is new,
this is great, this is fun. This team has bright
young stars. We're gonna make a little playoff push, which, ultimately,

(01:59:21):
as the GM cautioned us, would be the case, didn't
quite make it into the playoffs. And then you watch
these Stanley Cup playoffs and you're like, man, it was
it was cool watching the Mammoth. This year, But there
is a there's a gap between what Edmonton is and
what Florida is and what this mammoth team is.

Speaker 2 (01:59:39):
What is the best way to make up that gap?

Speaker 1 (01:59:42):
If you're you know, in that same ballpark that we
find ourselves in, you know, the Blues are there and
the Flames are there, and the Sharks are trying to
be in that same picture, et cetera.

Speaker 7 (01:59:53):
You know, I think the hard thing for ravid hockey
fants is that some times it just takes time. Like
the Mammoth of a lot of young stars in their lineup,
but they're in their early twenties. And the one thing
to look at when you look at the Panthers and
the Oilers, these are the two of the oldest teams
in the league, and their best performing players are, you know,

(02:00:17):
in their thirties. So sometimes it takes a while for
those young guys to really become the impact type of
players every night when they play, or most every night
when they play. Just takes experience more than anything else.
The quick fix, of course, is unrestricted free agency, being
able to add the right guy at the right time.

(02:00:39):
And I'm sure that you know you mentioned Sam Bennett,
and I'll talk about the team that I cover most
often in Anaheim, they're all looking at a guy like
Sam Bennett and thinking that gives us a jump ahead,
or Mitch Marner or some you know, these these star
caliber players that become available through free agency can give

(02:01:03):
you a push, but not like basketball. You know, there's
there's twenty players that are dressed for every game that
have an impact of the game in hockey, So they
don't give you the kind of impact that planning a
superstar basketball player will give you, but they'll give you
a certain definitely a certain pop in the right direction.
So but sometimes in the case of the Mammoth that

(02:01:26):
might just take another year or two for these young
players to really become everyday impact players.

Speaker 2 (02:01:34):
Before I let you go.

Speaker 1 (02:01:35):
Team USA, helped out by some Mammoth players, won a
World championship, first time in a long time.

Speaker 2 (02:01:41):
Able to do that.

Speaker 1 (02:01:42):
And you know, we got an Olympic cycle coming up
in what eight months now? So does that does that
change the calculus in your mind on Team USA's Olympic.

Speaker 7 (02:01:54):
Cups in terms of of I'm not sure I understand
the question in terms of how successful we can hope
that they will be in that tournament.

Speaker 2 (02:02:05):
Yeah.

Speaker 7 (02:02:06):
Basically, well, the World Championships are a little bit different
because you don't have all the best players there right,
you know, because they're still participating in the Stanley Cup playoffs.
But it's almost like a showcase for all of those
guys on the bubble. You know, there's probably thirty thirty
five strong candidates to be picked for the team, and

(02:02:29):
there's only maybe a dozen locks, and then there's twenty
or so guys that are all trying to make an impression.
The fact that they played in the World Championships and
won is a feather in their cap that will help
all of those bubble players. But I think what the
general managers are going to look at more than anything
is the NHL regular season leading up to that. I

(02:02:51):
think that will be, you know, the biggest deciding factor
and to who ultimately becomes part of that team USA rosters.

Speaker 2 (02:03:00):
To you, I said that was gonna be the last thing.

Speaker 1 (02:03:01):
But I am obsessed with the artistic expression that is
only allowed in professional sports in one spot, and that
is the goalie mask. And obviously you had one of
the best ones in the history of the league, and
our guy Veggie as this great dinosaur themed mask, and
like just the decision making process, the finding of the

(02:03:25):
artist or the like. Just if you don't mind walk
me through how a goalie or how you at least
decided what was going on that mask before you went
out to skate on NHL.

Speaker 7 (02:03:37):
Yeah, you're you're talking to the right guy here, because
I have. I actually had a business once where we
handpainted miniature replicas of NHL goalie mask That was did
very well for me, actually. But the big key is
is which artist you select, and then you work with

(02:03:58):
the artist. You tell him what components you wanted or design.
Some guys drop their own designs. Other people, you know,
just rely on the artists solely to send something back.
But it is a really unique property. It's the only
only property in professional sports that I can think of
it's not owned by the league. That's that's tied more

(02:04:20):
closely to the individual player. And that's what I think
makes it such an interesting thing. And there are a
lot of cool mass out there and a lot of
great artists. But for those goalies and their agents, if
they know what they're doing, they'll get the they'll get
the artists to sign over the rights to them. When
the mask is done.

Speaker 2 (02:04:39):
So did you find was the artist? Somebody that you
knew was the artist?

Speaker 1 (02:04:43):
Like a tattoo artist, an airbrush guy, from a from
a motorcycle shop.

Speaker 2 (02:04:48):
How'd you find it the artist?

Speaker 7 (02:04:50):
Some guys are, but for the most part now there's
there's probably a network of about I would say about
ten guys that are known around the league as the
guys that will really do a good job. And so
the goaltending for turn. Even though you compete against one another,
it's still a pretty tight knit group and the word

(02:05:11):
spreads quickly. The trainers for each individual teams know who
they trust to do a job on the mask, and
then it's really up to the individual goaltender to decide
who he wants to use. And because masks nowadays are
pretty much the same product, they changed the foam inside,

(02:05:32):
but the actual shell of the mask is pretty much
identical for player to player. It's not so much a
customer shell anymore. It's more of a custom foam inside.

Speaker 2 (02:05:45):
Interesting.

Speaker 1 (02:05:48):
Well, thank you for indulging me with that little bit there,
and obviously my pleasure. Thank you for joining us on
the show today. I think I said puck drops tonight.
It's tomorrow night. It's Tuesday. I'm just I'm getting over
eager for Game six. But Brian appreciate your time. Thank
you so much, and hopefully we can chat again.

Speaker 4 (02:06:05):
So got I look forward to it anytime.

Speaker 1 (02:06:09):
Ryan Hayward Sports USA Analysts, longtime NHL goalie and owner
of one of the most iconic coolest masks in goaltending
history with that San Jose Sharks, gigantic shark.

Speaker 2 (02:06:25):
Biting his face.

Speaker 1 (02:06:26):
Kind of a man, such a great mask, lots more
to get to on The Shat O'Connell Show, ESPN seven
hundred ninety two nffy, God.

Speaker 6 (02:06:38):
You were listening to the Sean O'Connell Show from the
Murdoch Hyundai Studio of TSPN seven hundred and ninety two
to one a f M.

Speaker 3 (02:06:47):
I'll pat the process the qwives pass attended for Bruce
Shard and accept it and Marsha comes the other way
on the rack and scores.

Speaker 6 (02:06:54):
He'd beat two different defenders and then beat Cal Pickard.

Speaker 2 (02:06:57):
It's three nothing, Panther is us an incredible goal by
Brad marsh Anton. That puck was one of those fifty
to fifty bucks in the neutral zone where.

Speaker 7 (02:07:07):
The Corey Perry could not overpower Marshaw down load.

Speaker 5 (02:07:11):
Somehow he slips it right through the legs of Val Picker.

Speaker 3 (02:07:15):
What an unbelievable individual effort for Marshalls.

Speaker 1 (02:07:21):
Brad Marshan, who's played some of the best hockey of
his career in the Stanley Cup Final. That highlight courtesy
of Sports USA, John Awaz Brian Hayward on the call.
Brian just joined us on the show. Florida leads the
series three to two, Game six tomorrow night. We have
it for you on Utah's number one Sports Talk ESPN
seven hundred and ninety two one FM, your home of

(02:07:43):
the NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs. James Peterson, what would you
put on your hockey mask? You get to you get
to select your own motif, your own take four. It's
it's the last place besides your own you can get tattoos, whatever,
but it's the last piece of a of a uniform

(02:08:04):
in pro sports that you really can like it. You
get full artistic expression.

Speaker 5 (02:08:12):
Now, I I think I do the way that a
lot of goaltenders do. It depends on the team they're on.
I think I would go that way, and I'm thinking
like Boston Bruins. Now they have the B logo. But
a Bruin is a is a bear. I think it'd
be cool, like if I was a Bruins goalie could
have a cool bear Bruin bear type thing. Okay on

(02:08:35):
the on the mask, yeah, I think it depends on
the depend on the team. I and and that's one
I think that I haven't seen that because I think
that they the Bruins goaltenders go with the mostly the
B the B logo. I'd probably lean into the what
an actual Bruin is and have a nice bear on there.

Speaker 1 (02:08:55):
I So, I don't know what Veggie's gonna do moving forward.
He had they're really cool, basically drastic.

Speaker 5 (02:09:01):
He needs to have Ahead of Broccoli somewhere in there
because of the broccoli Head guy that shout out to
broccoli Head, the fan who wears the broccoli head on
there in honor of Veggie.

Speaker 2 (02:09:11):
He's gotta have Head of Broccoli on there somewhere.

Speaker 1 (02:09:15):
This past season, especially, you know he became the full
time starter. I loved it every time seeing the effectively
was a Jurassic Park themed mask, but big dinosaur guy,
as I've made clear on the show many times, and
it was a well executed paint job as far as
you could tell, I would pay a pretty penny for
that game worn actually used goalie mask. Put that here

(02:09:41):
in the studio. Anyone knows how I can get access
to that thing. Now, moving forward, does he keep the
dinosaurs or does he go with the mammoth because it's
prehistoric life. Now you have a team, you're the mammoth,
and are you going with like photo realistic depiction of

(02:10:02):
a mammoth or are you going with more of the
logo with the mammoth. I mean, these are tough decisions
that goalies have to make, but it.

Speaker 5 (02:10:07):
Would be really cool have a he needs to have
a mammoth chopping on ahead of broccoli.

Speaker 2 (02:10:14):
I don't know that. I don't know that mammoths.

Speaker 5 (02:10:16):
I know it doesn't it doesn't make any actual sense
with the mammoth. But he's gotta have something. Okay, we
gotta have broccoli part of it because of his you're
the mammoth goalie. You're you're the goalkeeper for the mammoth. Okay,
you have to have.

Speaker 1 (02:10:32):
A fully custom fully unique paint job on your mask.
No one calls you James the broccoli guy, so you don't.
You can't have yeah, we don't have a special Like
what are.

Speaker 2 (02:10:45):
You going with? You could do anything you want, James.

Speaker 5 (02:10:48):
Go maybe a mammoth skull with the tusks, with the
long tusks.

Speaker 2 (02:10:54):
So are you doing like team colors? Are you doing
like bone color?

Speaker 5 (02:10:58):
I'm doing team colors because I I do love the
the the light blue.

Speaker 1 (02:11:03):
All right, three zero seven hundred. Describe your goalie mask motif.

Speaker 5 (02:11:09):
Yeah, if they had different colors, they had different team
colors that I wasn't so psyched about, I might do
something different, maybe a red. But since they have the
light blue, which I've always loved, the light blue Carolina blue,
I think it would I would definitely use that as
a background.

Speaker 1 (02:11:26):
Here's here's what I'm doing, Okay, as a as an homage,
as a little nod to the names that did not
quite make it through. I'm going with a mammoth and
also throwing a yetti in there somewhere, like I don't know,
somebody depict some blizzard situation and maybe a mammoth fighting

(02:11:49):
a yetti on my helmet, with the mammoth clearly about to.

Speaker 2 (02:11:52):
Win fighting a yetti. Yes, you know what I mean,
Just a.

Speaker 5 (02:11:58):
Little shout to the is that is that in every
season thing or just the first season was.

Speaker 2 (02:12:03):
The mammoth thing.

Speaker 1 (02:12:04):
I'm going to season at a time. Okay, all right,
because the other thing about it.

Speaker 5 (02:12:08):
Because they do that, right, the goaltenders get year and
year out right, If not a couple of times a year, I'm.

Speaker 2 (02:12:15):
Sure they'll switch them up.

Speaker 1 (02:12:17):
Ingram I think had like a car's theme, and he
had kind of a neutral one.

Speaker 2 (02:12:22):
If I'm.

Speaker 1 (02:12:24):
And look, if you have kids and your kids are like, like,
if I left it up to my daughters, by my
mask would end up looking crazy. They have a very
broad range of interests, but have a corner for each
of your daughters. It'd be kind of cool too. Write
like a little jigsaw puzzle of the stuff your kids like.
So every time your family tunes in, your kids are like,

(02:12:46):
oh my dad has that.

Speaker 2 (02:12:47):
On his mask.

Speaker 5 (02:12:47):
That's for me. Yeah, a lot of pink in there.
If if it were up to your daughters, would there
be are they one of the only one of them
is like super being obsessed. Okay, one's eighteen months old.
She doesn't know what colors are yet. Okay, uh.

Speaker 1 (02:13:02):
The six year old is all over the place with
her interests. And then the middle child is She's very consistent.
She loves really girly stuff. She loves the color pang,
she loves fancy things. She likes to wear dresses. Yeah,
she carries a purse everywhere.

Speaker 2 (02:13:18):
Like what do you positively? What do you have in
that purse? I?

Speaker 4 (02:13:22):
Uh?

Speaker 5 (02:13:23):
So in the neighborhood there's a food truck night every week, Monday,
Monday nights. Actually might might head over there again tonight.
Uh And went there last week first, little outing with
the uh with the new boy yea, and you know,
didn't stay out too long. It's summer, so you gotta

(02:13:43):
be wary of over of getting too hot and stuff.

Speaker 1 (02:13:46):
So yeah, gotta you gotta worry about them getting too hot,
too cold, dehydrated, too hydrated.

Speaker 5 (02:13:52):
Stayed in the shade, didn't stay it wasn't out there
long long enough to order the food.

Speaker 2 (02:13:55):
And then we went home.

Speaker 5 (02:13:57):
And when while there there was a little girl holding
a very realistic looking baby doll. Okay, And I'm like,
for a second, in this like newborn dad mode, I'm like,
how is and mom's standing right next to her? How
is mom winning or hold the baby like that?

Speaker 4 (02:14:14):
You know?

Speaker 5 (02:14:15):
And then I'm like, oh, that is just a that's
a that's a doll. Of course it's a doll. But
she that's what that's what comes to mind when you
tell me, when you tell me about your your middle child,
who's who into girly stuff and even like things that
are not you wouldn't expect a little girl to have
like a purse like this girl had, like a very

(02:14:35):
realistic looking baby doll.

Speaker 2 (02:14:37):
Man, it's wild.

Speaker 1 (02:14:38):
Even when, like starting about age two, they start to
really have strong opinions sometimes about how their hair should
be done, what they want to be wearing. It's it's wild.
So if I had a goldie mask, I'm sure they
would have opinions on that. How excited are you for
the return of Show Hey Otani to the mound? This
was time since twenty twenty three. Otani's gonna be pitching tonight. Yeah,

(02:14:59):
this is a big deal.

Speaker 5 (02:15:00):
This is a big deal, And it's one of those
rich getting richer situations because you talk about show Hey
Otani being the best player in baseball last year and
a big reason why they won the Dodgers won.

Speaker 2 (02:15:11):
The World Series.

Speaker 5 (02:15:12):
Well, he was only doing half of the stuff he's
good at when he did that, right, So now he's
gonna return to the mound. I think this is a
This is a big deal for the Dodgers. You also
think back to last year they had to for the
third one at least one game of each series they
had to use an opener and have a bullpen game.

(02:15:32):
If Otani is healthy throughout the rest of this season
as a pitcher and is able to pitch in the postseason,
they may not have to have bullpen games. Oh see,
Like that's which is unheard of in in today's Major
League Baseball, you have at least one every team has
at least one bullpen game each series to rest their starters.

(02:15:53):
They may they may have the luxury of going, yeah,
we'll do that this series, but we don't have to
do that next series kind of thing, because they have
because they just added another starter in the middle of
the season.

Speaker 1 (02:16:04):
Pretty incredible sho heo Tani. The thing I'm most curious about.
When you've got someone who's good at everything, right, are
they truly masters of all of it?

Speaker 4 (02:16:16):
So?

Speaker 1 (02:16:18):
Does returning to the mound compromise his plate performance in
any way? Does he end up being like just okay
as a pitcher, but stays consistent offensively able.

Speaker 2 (02:16:29):
To compartmentalize or is this focus split too much?

Speaker 1 (02:16:32):
I mean, look at the end, he's good enough at
both positions. Is he gonna be MVP caliber at both positions?
That's what the expectation is. Its supposed to be the
best player in baseball. So his version of that is
being an All Star caliber pitcher. Maybe not MVP, maybe

(02:16:52):
not cy Young, but an all Star caliber pitcher and
of course an all Star caliber offensive player hitter.

Speaker 5 (02:16:59):
Yeah, he was looking at the ESPN article by Jeff
Passon talking about this, or I believe it's just Jeff Passing.
Maybe it was one of the other Maybe it was
a Dodger writer. Anyway, an ESPN article talked about his
best two His best stretch as a pitcher was he
was able to pitch two years in a row twenty

(02:17:21):
twenty one to twenty twenty three. I guess two and
a half years there to twenty twenty three. Sub three
e r A, two point eighty r A, over five
hundred strikeouts, just one hundred and forty three walks, and
you know, over almost four hundred and thirty innings. Like
that's those are really good numbers for a guy who
that's kind of secondary for him.

Speaker 1 (02:17:44):
Were you listening the other day when we talked about
the because you're a big jersey guy. Yes, when we
talked about the jersey sales in the NFL.

Speaker 2 (02:17:53):
No, I missed that.

Speaker 5 (02:17:53):
I thought I thought you were gonna refer to the
guy who switched jerseys during the hockey game.

Speaker 1 (02:17:59):
I was gonna leave that. I was gonna leave that
to you because you texted it to me as a grievance. Yes,
stay tuned on Friday, folks. No, I so Olivia was
by the way, it's actually wonderful to have someone who's
to have someone produce a sports talk show who's not
a sports fan.

Speaker 2 (02:18:18):
It creates a really silly dynamic. Good time with that
I did.

Speaker 1 (02:18:22):
I was like, if you were going to buy an
NFL jersey, whose jersey would you buy? This was all
in response to a new article that came out, and
she was just like, Ah, do I know one single
NFL play?

Speaker 2 (02:18:36):
And she knows some former utes.

Speaker 1 (02:18:39):
She chose Travis Kelce for the Taylor swot Connection course.

Speaker 2 (02:18:42):
Ultimately, so with boyfriend, I'd get his jersey if I
were to ask you.

Speaker 1 (02:18:47):
James Peterson, who topped the NFL last year, according to
the NFLPA, who topped the NFL in merchandise sales? So jerseys, jerseys,
bobblehead dolls, et cetera. Which player was the biggest star
merchandise sales wise?

Speaker 5 (02:19:05):
Okay, So if I'm if I'm thinking of it as a
sports fan, I'd guess Lamar Jackson or Josh Allen. But
knowing the broad appeal beyond sports, that Travis Kelcey is
gained because he's he's Taylor Swift's boyfriend, I'm gonna guess
Taylor Swift or sorry, Travis Kelcey.

Speaker 1 (02:19:23):
I thought he would be what he was eleven on
them he was eleven, he was eleventh.

Speaker 5 (02:19:26):
I was like, what swifties or they know about him,
but they're not buying his merchants.

Speaker 1 (02:19:31):
He Swift is not as powerful as I thought. I
thought that she would immediately skyrocket him to know one.

Speaker 5 (02:19:35):
Okay, So since you eliminated him, I'm gonna say, Lamar Jackson.

Speaker 2 (02:19:40):
It's Squon.

Speaker 1 (02:19:41):
Barkley supplanted Patrick Mahomes as the top merchandise seller in
the NFL. So as a Jersey guy, you now have
to get Barkley jersey.

Speaker 5 (02:19:54):
Is that is that the requirement now I have to
buy every top selling jersey, every sport.

Speaker 1 (02:20:00):
Yes, so your Cooper flag Dallas Mavericks Jersey boy is
gonna be it's gonna play really well. You're gonna be
so mad. It'd be so bothered by that because you
know what a Cooper flag jersey?

Speaker 4 (02:20:14):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (02:20:14):
Why thing again? Why why are you wearing that? You
should have been a jazz back.

Speaker 5 (02:20:18):
I can just hear the cranky Texters chiming in now, yes,
shout out to you guys.

Speaker 2 (02:20:22):
Eight seven seven three five three zero seven hundred. Oh yeah.

Speaker 5 (02:20:28):
Anyway, little potpourri there, speaking of merch, that might be
a T shirt idea.

Speaker 2 (02:20:32):
I'm a cranky text on the Sean O'Connell.

Speaker 1 (02:20:35):
That's only there's really only like four who deserve the
the honor or anyone who buys the merch when when
we eventually make it and sell.

Speaker 2 (02:20:44):
It, I don't know. I don't know.

Speaker 1 (02:20:45):
If we want to like incentivize being a cranky Texter,
that's good because it's just a few people. I'm easy.
It's easy to like, you know, just let it roll
off your back like whatever. It's that's just grumpy. If
everyone is just like you stick just to get the
title of detext just so that it's actually, you know,
conducive to them wearing the T shirt.

Speaker 2 (02:21:04):
Yeah, I don't know.

Speaker 1 (02:21:06):
I don't want to incentivize people talking trash. I'm too sensitive.
I'm a sensitive soul, so I seem thick skinned.

Speaker 2 (02:21:12):
Don't worry. Don't wear that movie.

Speaker 5 (02:21:14):
Oh yeah, come on, sensitive soul. It's it's a lion king. Okay,
all right, I thought you were gonna go, holy crap.
Why can't I think? Okay, Shout out to Poomba. Great character,
great character.

Speaker 1 (02:21:31):
Also, people don't appreciate that actor, whatever his name is.

Speaker 2 (02:21:34):
He was in the Nike Quill commercials of the nineties.
Was he really? Yeah?

Speaker 4 (02:21:38):
He was?

Speaker 1 (02:21:38):
It was always like the Actually both of them were.
Nathan Lane and Poomba. Whoever played Pumba's voice, Just like
a chubby guy. He looks just like Poomba in real life.
Ernie Sabella, Yeah sounds right. Both of them were in
Nike Quill commercials. Stuffy brother than Yeah, who knew?

Speaker 2 (02:22:00):
Alright.

Speaker 5 (02:22:00):
Shout up to the Timon and Poomba TV show too.
By the way, the cartoon TV show never saw it.
Oh it was one. It was a staple for me growing.

Speaker 2 (02:22:09):
Up all right, we'll take a quick one here.

Speaker 1 (02:22:11):
We'll come back with a little crosstalk close up the show,
Spence Check its ESPN seven hundred ninety twofm proud part
if you tells ESPN Radio Network.

Speaker 6 (02:22:24):
It's the Sean O'Connell Show. You were home of the
best Inside of your hughes. Let's get back to WOC
from the Murdoch Chevrolet Studio of ESPN seven hundred ninety
two one a f am, All.

Speaker 2 (02:22:38):
Right, turn it over to Spence Check. It's in the
drive here on the Sean o'coffee Show. Bence, how are you?
We gotta turn on Spencer's mike. Hello, Sean, can you
hear me?

Speaker 4 (02:22:54):
Am?

Speaker 2 (02:22:54):
I is my microphone on?

Speaker 4 (02:22:55):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (02:22:56):
All right, good, Hi, I'm hi. I'm well. How are
you great? Good?

Speaker 4 (02:22:59):
Good good?

Speaker 2 (02:23:00):
Have a great weekend? Yeah yeah, yeah, Father's Day belated
to you as well. Anything exciting special.

Speaker 1 (02:23:07):
I got some some cool stuff made by my daughters
from pipe cleaners.

Speaker 2 (02:23:11):
I love that. Okay, well, Arts and crafts time for them.
It was great.

Speaker 4 (02:23:14):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (02:23:14):
It's the cutest thing ever.

Speaker 1 (02:23:15):
When they're just like I made you these glasses and
he put them on and they poke your eyes.

Speaker 2 (02:23:19):
It's great. Do you keep all of those things? Of course?

Speaker 9 (02:23:22):
See you know Connor's about my son's about to turn
twenty four.

Speaker 2 (02:23:25):
Yeah, and I have a box.

Speaker 9 (02:23:27):
Of literally everything that he ever made me, any picture
he ever drew from me, even the ones when they're
like two and it's like, oh that's that's really.

Speaker 2 (02:23:34):
It's just scruit bles, just like two lines, you know.

Speaker 9 (02:23:37):
Uh yeah, keep all those because as the age, it's
like the one thing you'll have to remind you of
what it's like now because I'm telling you, man, no,
everybody says this. No, you're gonna blink and they're all
gonna be out of the house. I don't that was
rude of you to enjoy it, enjoy the ride.

Speaker 2 (02:23:52):
No, I do. It's great.

Speaker 1 (02:23:53):
I love We're in the thick of it, I know,
but I love this part of life. It's so great
to have them actually love you and need you so Yeah.
And you know now now it's just three dads here, James, right,
James had his first Father's Day.

Speaker 9 (02:24:06):
That's right, James, Happy Father's Day to you. How was
your first Father's Day experience?

Speaker 2 (02:24:10):
Fantastic? Good, good, good get he's little man.

Speaker 5 (02:24:13):
My presence was his, my present was his presence apparently,
so yet he's awesome. I'm good told the birth story earlier. Uh,
he's just a little guy, and you know, four pounds,
just over four pounds when he was born.

Speaker 2 (02:24:26):
Now we think we're saying he's five. The official of
the show is that he's a five pounder.

Speaker 5 (02:24:31):
It was just about five pounds at the last pediatrician appointments.

Speaker 9 (02:24:35):
So you're saying was he early? He was about three
and a half weeks earlier, and my son was exactly
three and a half. Really, yeah, and he was about
he was just over five pounds, Okay, and yeah, totally
help it guy. Yeah, just ready to roll. I mean
I was concerned and the doc was like, no, he's
you know, he'll gain weight, but he's just he was
ready to come out, ready to roll.

Speaker 4 (02:24:54):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (02:24:54):
So I also, I also hate what you just said
about kid. You blinking kids are out of the house.
Tell you and the enjoy it. I'm just telling you
guys to enjoy it. I'll be the old guy that
reminds you guys to enjoy it. With the one son
who's out of the house.

Speaker 9 (02:25:07):
Man, it sucks because when they age and they leave,
all you do is think about all the times you
wish you would have had with them when they were
when they were younger. So it's a wild thing, man. Okay,
so enjoy the fact that you have it now.

Speaker 2 (02:25:21):
Hang in there.

Speaker 1 (02:25:21):
It's okay, you have it now. Yeah, I do be
blessed that you have that's your takeaway. Yes, all right,
we're playing start bench cut. Okay, kickers, all time great
kickers in Utah football history. Okay, you can start one
bench one cut one.

Speaker 9 (02:25:38):
I think I saw a tweet of yours about this,
but wasn't that last week.

Speaker 1 (02:25:41):
We did punters last week, and we're doing kickers now,
and we're going to get to every position as we
go through the summer because summertime radio. You are good man,
You're good at this start bench cut type. Louis Dakota,
Andy Phillips, and Matt.

Speaker 4 (02:25:57):
Kay.

Speaker 9 (02:25:58):
I'm gonna cut Louie because he hit. My girlfriend wants
Louise cut. Let's see. I'll bench Andy respectfully because I
have the kid, and I'll start Matt.

Speaker 2 (02:26:13):
Yeah, I'm I'm cutting Louis. I just gotta go. Louie,
you hound dog.

Speaker 9 (02:26:18):
I remember she was like, Yeah, this Utah football player
came up to me.

Speaker 2 (02:26:21):
And asked for my number.

Speaker 9 (02:26:22):
I was like, oh, which one, praying it wasn't like
a middle linebacker or something.

Speaker 2 (02:26:25):
She's like, oh, it was Louis.

Speaker 9 (02:26:27):
Please to be Christian Cox, please exactly, please say it
was the kicker, and it was. I'm like, all right,
that's it's barely a football player that had hit on you.

Speaker 2 (02:26:34):
But he did try to get her number one. Oh
all right, that's very funny. I love that. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (02:26:39):
So we'll keep doing these and once we get past
the specialists, I'm not gonna do long snappers, all right, Okay,
thank you for that. We're not gonna We're not gonna
put people through the torture of having to cut their
favorite long snapper.

Speaker 2 (02:26:54):
If you could even get three of them deep in
the archives.

Speaker 1 (02:26:58):
Yeah, uh but yeah, we'll start we'll start splitting off
now there's a little bit more depth, right pre Power
five and Pac twelve Big twelve era, So.

Speaker 2 (02:27:10):
You're gonna have to choose, though, I'll be ready. Every'
all gonna be great.

Speaker 9 (02:27:14):
I don't know that any of the other options have
ever tried to hit on a girlfriend of mine, so
I think we'll be safe.

Speaker 2 (02:27:18):
Well, you never know, you do, never know. Just lesson learned.
For sure, you never know what's coming up on the draft.

Speaker 9 (02:27:24):
Well, massive trade in the NBA yesterday and Brian Winhorst
himself says he's told the Jazz are trying to get
involved in some of these transactions. I think a lot
of teams simply have done the calculation on who Oklahoma
City is and who they're gonna.

Speaker 2 (02:27:38):
Be for a long long time.

Speaker 9 (02:27:38):
Like to me, I view what Memphis did is they
punted on the next few years. So will the Jazz
try to get in the mix to get better or
are they getna waited out like everybody else will with
OKC of course came five or the finals tonight, we
got Smitty Liven studio. We'll do some we'll do some
hockey of course with the drafts obviously NBA draft coming
up too, so US open Man. That was why JJ

(02:28:00):
Spawd gets his first major. So we'll jump around, We'll
do a little bit of everything.

Speaker 1 (02:28:04):
Hopefully he gets an energy drink sponsor in a CBS
sponsorship out of that story.

Speaker 2 (02:28:09):
For sure, let's go JJ agreed

Speaker 1 (02:28:11):
Stay tuned for the Drive with Spence check its Thanks
for listening to the Sean O'Connell show We'll do It
Again Tomorrow on ESPN seven hundred ninety TWOFM proud part
of utah's ESPN radio network,