Sean O'Connell Show - Full POD 7-28-25

OC talks breakout players for Utah football, Greg Newman's unfortunate journey with CTE with Chris Kamrani, He reacts to Deion Sanders announcing he's cancer free + more

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:07):
He's The Shan O'Connell Show, brought to you by Big
Willies on Utah's number one sports talk and home of
the ESPN seven ninety two one alf AM, a proud
part of Utah's ESPN Radio Network.

Speaker 2 (00:33):
Everyboday. Welcome to The Shan O'Connell Show.

Speaker 3 (00:38):
Glad to have you with us on a Monday, Glad
to be back from the Pioneer Day holiday weekend. You know,
it's just it's awesome that we get two fourth of
July's in the state of Utah. Hopefully everyone took advantage,
went out, spent some time.

Speaker 2 (00:55):
In the outdoors.

Speaker 3 (00:58):
Maybe uh, I don't know, got on a boat somewhere,
caught a fish, whatever it is. Hopefully you took advantage
of summer. I am blown away that we are. We're
effectively two weeks out from schools starting again for all
you folks with kids. I don't like that one bit.
It feels like summer started last week. In any case,

(01:22):
we're glad to be with you, as is always the
case here on the Sean O'Connell Show. All Right, today's
a special day because we're going to do it every
single year. It is low hanging fruit, but It is
something that we have a little bit of fun with,
and I want you to have some fun with too.
Eight seven seven three five three zero seven hundred call

(01:44):
us text us tweet at me at Real oc Sports.
Media availability for Camp Kyle is going to begin this week.
We are going to be up there at practice getting
sound bites and all that stuff from players and coaches.
As limited as the access will be, we will go
there and we will get it. But because that's happening

(02:08):
this week, we got to get out ahead of things
on our predictions.

Speaker 2 (02:11):
Okay.

Speaker 3 (02:13):
I don't want people being led by the words of
Kyle Whittingham in their predictions here, because we know that
coach wit in the past, and hopefully he never abandons this.
I know that there are people who want him to
because they feel like we lost a certain receiver into
the transfer portal from the University of Utah because there

(02:35):
was too much praise being issued for him during springball.
I do not subscribe to that school of thought. I
think that people already knew who the good players in
the country were, and you're going to get folks coaching.

Speaker 2 (02:50):
Whether you say these kid is good or not.

Speaker 3 (02:53):
Coaches rely on their own opinions of things and connections
they had in previous recruit failures, et cetera, et cetera.

Speaker 2 (03:01):
In any case.

Speaker 3 (03:05):
Before Kyle Whittingham and Morgan Scaley and Jason Beck starts saying, Hey, man,
tell you who had a great day at practice today.
I tell you what who's impressed this during camp? Hey,
you know this cat might actually he might actually be
something for us. I want you, the listener, the fan
at rialo C Sports at eight seven seven three five

(03:27):
three zero seven hundred. I want you to get on
the record and tell me who your breakout players on
offense and defense are for the University of Utah. Now,
be realistic, and the parameters are what they are. Okay.
If it's somebody who's already appearing on a preseason All
conference list, if it's somebody who's already appearing on a

(03:49):
preseason award watch list, they're not a breakout star. Everyone
expects that that person is a star. Devin Dan Pierre,
a lot of the offense, quite frankly, is brand new.
You can't can't say that Caleb Lomo is your breakout
star on the offense.

Speaker 4 (04:03):
Okay.

Speaker 3 (04:04):
These are people who are already predicted to be all
Americans and draft picks.

Speaker 2 (04:09):
Devin dan Pierre.

Speaker 3 (04:10):
You can't say he is your breakout star on the
offense because even though he's new to the Utah offense,
was he was a first team quarterback in another conference
last year. Eight seven seven three five three zero seven
hundred at real OC Sports Give me offense, give me defense.
Tell me who you think is going to break out

(04:31):
in a Utah football uniform this year. And by the way,
I hope you have names, because this university, this team
needs breakout stars this year. You need people, especially on offense,
to show up, to emerge, to be something special, at
the running back position, at the wide receiver position. Whoever

(04:55):
your star tight end is this year is going to be.
If you have one, going to be a breakout. I
don't think that Dallan Bentley counts as having had a
breakout year already. So if that's your pick, go for it.
Put it out there. At REALOC Sports eight seven seven

(05:16):
three five three zero seven hundred. Tell me who your
breakouts are because I need you to get on the
record before Kyle Whittingham tells you who that person's going
to be. All right, otherwise we're we're not testing your
predictive abilities at all, you don't get the credit that
you all deserve.

Speaker 2 (05:35):
One of my favorite things I always.

Speaker 3 (05:38):
Ignore when I'm wrong, of course, but one of my
favorite things is when I go back and I say,
you know who's going to be excellent because I watched
him on special teams last year and now's his time
to break through. And then you end up being right
when you're like, man, this Trevor Riley cat is going
to end up being a really good player for the
University of Utah. Number forty nine. Watch him and people

(06:02):
are like, number forty nine, Why would I watch that guy? Well,
because when he becomes number nine, as he climbs the
seniority ladder in this team, he's gonna end up being
really special. Shout out to the Rattlesnake, by the way,
in any case, get on the record right now. Also
reminder to all of you that as you're trying to

(06:24):
figure out and navigate what your lunch plans are going
to be for a Monday, you're going back to work
after the holiday weekend.

Speaker 2 (06:31):
You don't feel like being back in working.

Speaker 3 (06:33):
You don't feel like sacrificing these final couple weeks. This
summer Big Willies at seventeen seventeen South Main presenting sponsor
of the Sean O'Connell Show. They got lunch specials that
they run every single day, and they brought in meals
for us every day. Last week they brought five days
worth of meals even though we only needed three days
worth of broadcast. And let me tell you, they hit

(06:56):
it out of the park on every single one of
those meals. Cocktails, craft beers, and an incredible food menu,
which matters a lot more to me. Go check him
out at seventeen seventeen South Maine and of course tell
him that OC sent you. Let's get to your predictions.

(07:22):
Colby on Twitter says, give me John new Hall at linebacker.
He's gonna lay people out this year, sitting in the
tone early and often on the offense. I think it's
way Sean Parker and he's gonna be successful with the
dominant O line. Look that is a high percentage pick
behind this offensive line. To just say, whichever running back

(07:45):
you like best is gonna have a breakout year this year.
Because we talk I think in two broad of generalities
about Spencer Fono being an All American a preseason all American.

Speaker 2 (08:02):
I want to make sure people know that.

Speaker 3 (08:06):
His reputation in college football right now is based on
his run blocking.

Speaker 2 (08:13):
When we talk about tackles, most of the.

Speaker 3 (08:16):
Time, people are like, oh my gosh, this guy's got
a perfect pass set, and that's why that's why everyone's
talking about him. Spencer Fano is considered the best run
blocking tackle in the game. He's also good at pass blocking,
so people talk about him being one of the top two,
three four offensive tackles in college football this year.

Speaker 2 (08:37):
But when you talk about run.

Speaker 3 (08:39):
Blocking tackles, he's the guy.

Speaker 2 (08:43):
Everyone else answers to Spencer Fano.

Speaker 3 (08:45):
So being a running back behind that, that's that's great news.
James James Peterson producing, as is always the case, do
you uh, do you know who you're going to put
down as your breakout stars?

Speaker 5 (09:06):
I think I need a little bit more time, all right,
That's fine to decide on it because there's a few
candidates and I need to narrow it down some more.

Speaker 3 (09:13):
Y Okay Steven on Twitter, I love the defensive pick,
he says. Tobias Meriwether on offense.

Speaker 2 (09:21):
Please fingers crossed.

Speaker 3 (09:22):
Yes, whatever superstition or faith based thing you want to do,
for in favor of football. Send it toward your wide
receiving core. Tobias Meriwether is a vertical threat.

Speaker 2 (09:34):
Great.

Speaker 3 (09:35):
Jackson Benny is a name that people are probably not
going to bring up enough. Jackson Benny as a playmaker
on the defense, I love it.

Speaker 2 (09:43):
I love that pick.

Speaker 3 (09:45):
You've seen glimpses and glimmers, and Jackson Benny is a
guy building confidence, putting on a little bit of size.
I think could absolutely be a breakout star on the
defense this year.

Speaker 2 (09:56):
Remember a couple.

Speaker 3 (09:58):
Of years ago when we did this exercise, there's not
a person out there who's like Sioni Vaki is gonna
end up being the biggest breakout star really kind of
on both sides. He's gonna be the Swiss Army knife
that none of us expected. And then what happened. He
ended up being incredible. And he's an NFL player not
at the position of most of us thought he would

(10:19):
be auto tea coming in from peace love and uts
on Twitter. Sounds like he's gonna turn some heads. Switching
to tight end, if you're a big body wide receiver
and I'm talking about two hundred and twenty plus pounds
playing tight end in this offense, playing tight end for

(10:42):
this coaching staff is probably the better move for you.
The security blanket, the comfort with throwing two tight ends
in that route tree, with getting the ball to tight
ends and creating opportunities for tight ends and mismatches four
tight ends. It's just it's something that I know it's
a new offensive staff, and I know it's a new offense,

(11:04):
but this offensive staff and this coaching staff in general,
has been better at that of late than at developing
the breakout star wide receiver.

Speaker 2 (11:12):
So if you're a wide receiver who.

Speaker 3 (11:14):
Has the size to jump in and say I'll play
some tight end, moving to that position, being willing to
block a little bit more put your hand in the
dirt every once in a while is a genius move
for Auto Tea.

Speaker 2 (11:28):
I love it.

Speaker 3 (11:35):
Okay, James just whispered something in my ear. I put
something in the notes today. I was hearing from only
really one source that Dion Sanders, who's doing a press
conference right now, that Deon Sanders might be stepping down
as the head coach of University of Colorado today, And

(11:56):
then you know what little information you could find about
this planned press confienference. I was like, well, Why would
a healthy, totally dialed in, ready to go head coach
have any kind of medical update press conference, Like, why
would if everything was gonna be okay? Why would you
call a press conference to tell everything that tell everyone
everything's going to be okay. So I started to get

(12:18):
a little bit nervous for the Big twelve conference and
for Colorado that that circus was going to take over
the preseason headlines if Dion stepped down, now, yikes. But
James just whispered in the ear and said, no, it
doesn't look like that's happening.

Speaker 5 (12:34):
Yeah, it's it's a little strange, Josie, and I apologize
to the stream. I believe that we may have had
that audio and you talking on the stream over the
top of each over the top of it, because I
was trying to record it anyway. So that's a user
on on my in there if you had some audio
issues watching on the YouTube stream, but on the radio

(12:55):
you did not have such issues. His medical team started
the press conference. They said that they announced that he
had bladder cancer and it was potentially terminal, but the
tumor's been removed and he's okay. Geez. Yeah, So that's
what the medical update is now As to what you're saying,

(13:18):
there were other college football Twitter accounts, people who call
themselves insiders, most of them I was not aware of.
So if you hadn't told me that you had it
on good authority that he was going to step down
today because of this health issue and I just saw
those I might not have believed it, but you. But

(13:40):
I only say that to say, you're not the only
one in the media in the media who feels like
they heard on good authority that he was stepping down
and is publishing that right. So that certainly was the
rumors that whatever health issue that he was going to
announce in this press conference was going to be the
reason why he was going who step down as head

(14:01):
coach for Colorado. What's strange about this oc is he
has not no one has said anything about his intentions
to coach next season, definitively. So they're holding a press
conference to say he had cancer and that he's cured.

Speaker 2 (14:16):
See I don't understand it this.

Speaker 5 (14:19):
Fee but good for him, Like, hey, I mean great,
that's great, but like, do you need a press conference
for that? And I'm not There's a bunch of people
on Twitter online asking that same question, like, so everyone's
kind of waiting for him to say, so, what does
this mean for you as a as coach the Colorado
Buffalo's And since he since he and his team are
not saying anything about that, the assumption is since he

(14:42):
is now, he's cancer free now, which fortunately for him,
good for him. He's probably gonna coach next year, but
we shall see. He stay tuned on follow.

Speaker 2 (14:54):
These follow the people who are at this conference, this
press conference, uh, and and follow their tweets and everything
else they're still publishing about it.

Speaker 3 (15:03):
Just just to tell you where we're at right now
as the sports public in America. All Right, I typed
in Dion Sanders to the search bar on Twitter because
obviously that pulls up whatever has come out about Dion
uh and the first account is verified. Colorado bus insider
Deon Sanders was diagnosed with bladder cancer and aggressive form.

(15:24):
His bladder was removed. He received a new bladder that
has taken well to his body.

Speaker 2 (15:29):
Today. I learned that you can have a bladder transplant.
Did not know that.

Speaker 3 (15:34):
Either He has had fourteen surgeries since arriving in Boulder,
so including the or was that maybe it's not including
he had the toe amputation, the infamous toe amputation. Was
that in Boulder?

Speaker 2 (15:49):
Was that?

Speaker 3 (15:49):
I thought that was Jackson State anyway, Yeah, I thought
that was prior to it might have been, but that
so since he's been in Boulder, he's had fourteen and
then we also know he had his toe amputated because
of complications when before that, So he is he's been
through it in the last five years.

Speaker 2 (16:06):
Oh see, particularly the last three.

Speaker 3 (16:09):
Like you were saying, the second thing down after you
type that into the search bar, is uh a callback
to people's blaming all of all of his uh his
health problems on the COVID vaccine. So that's wonderful just
to see, just to just to tell that, throw that
in there for fun. Uh So look, obviously you know

(16:29):
we wished Yan well the health stuff. It really puts
it into a perspective, right when you're talking about someone
who who.

Speaker 2 (16:39):
Has been known to be uh you know.

Speaker 3 (16:43):
Outspoken, loquacious, maybe overshare at times. And then you know,
prior to Big twelve media days, there was all this
rumor and innuendo out there. They're like, ah, yeah, he's
dealing with some health stuff right now, and that was it,
and you didn't hear much. And then at Big twelve
media dayson was asked about, hey, how you feel and
how's your health, and he's like, I'm here, I'm good,

(17:04):
and he didn't want to elaborate at all.

Speaker 5 (17:06):
Yeah, he almost anyone who tried to ask him for
details and what he's been going through. He he didn't
quite scold them, but he definitely rebuked them and say, hey,
well that's not what I'm here for. So and yet
today he wants to only hold a press conference about that.

Speaker 3 (17:23):
And maybe maybe this is something that needed to be
done for like the Board of Trustees and Colorado. Maybe
this is Maybe it's someone else saying you need to
tell everyone what's going on because it's become a.

Speaker 2 (17:37):
Distraction from their perspective.

Speaker 5 (17:38):
It's become too much of a distraction, and you you
rebuking people for asking about details is not helping.

Speaker 2 (17:45):
Maybe that's part of it.

Speaker 3 (17:45):
I don't know, I mean to me it and I'm
not trying to be conspiratorial here, but it feels like
it's laying the groundwork to say, hey, there's a real
reason why he's not going to.

Speaker 2 (17:57):
Coach or the like.

Speaker 5 (18:00):
That typically is the thing that leads the press conference though,
so I maybe it's maybe that's coming later.

Speaker 3 (18:06):
I don't know, and that's maybe that that decision hasn't
been made. Yeah, but maybe what they're doing is they're
like pre damage controlling right now, where they're saying, hey,
you got to let people know how severe this is
because uh we honestly we have downplayed Dion's health issues
in the past. Losing toes became kind of a punchline

(18:28):
for people like ah Man, but like that that's still
a serious thing if you have if you have a
blood clot issue, if you have a circulatory issue that
is bad enough that they have to take part of
your body off.

Speaker 5 (18:41):
Yeah, a toe is not as bad as like, you know,
an arm, an arm or a leg because of you know,
we all know we we all have heard of people
or maybe we we know people in our personal lives
that for whatever reason had to had to lose an
entire limb. Right, A toe's not as bad that, but
it's still like, obviously the thing that led to the

(19:04):
amputation of even a toe or a finger it serious
enough they had to amputate something. So yeah, it's it's
definitely something that didn't seem very serious but Dean's been
through it. It sounds like, oh see, since that point
for sure, and to hear that he had bladder cancer

(19:24):
like condolences first of all, so that's awful news, but
also congratulations to he and his family for now him
saying he's beaten this. I just don't I don't know
why a press conference was necessary, but your your speculation
about maybe someone else is telling him at the Universe,

(19:44):
maybe someone at the university board of trustees is telling
him he had to do this. Even then, I'm like,
why not just put out a statement. I don't know
why you need a press conference. It's very it's very strange.
It's a little confusing, if I'm being honest, it is.
I mean, while we are all glad that the announcement
is he is cancer free, yes, there was not an

(20:05):
announcement like hey, I have cancer, right, and yeah, maybe
if there was a statement and he's like, Okay, we
want to make this bigger, this follow up a lot bigger.
Do a press conference, but like there was no You're right,
doesn't seem for us publicly, there doesn't. There's not a
clear reason why this had to be done this way.

Speaker 3 (20:27):
I don't know if I'm a Colorado fan, if I'm
a Colorado player on the football side, I'm looking at
this and I'm just going like, what is what is
this telling me? Like, what is the quiet part that
is not being said out loud that we're about to
have an urban meyer pulled on us? That Hey, I
have health issues that have been plaguing me. And I'll

(20:49):
remember I had a press conference about how I had cancer,
and so I just, man, it just feels like there's
some puppet strings being pulled here that I can't quite
put my finger on the where and the why, because again,
I feel a little bit slimy not just saying, oh great,

(21:13):
someone who had cancer no longer has cancer. That's what
we should be celebrating. That's wonderful, But it's also like
the sports media person in me goes, where did this
need for a press conference come from? And it could
be as simple as, remember, this is a man who
signed a fifty million dollar contract extension from a school

(21:36):
that has never paid anything close to that.

Speaker 2 (21:39):
Four a head football coach.

Speaker 3 (21:40):
I mean, Colorado in its national championship years in the
early nineties was not paying their coach anywhere near the
top of the sort of pecking order. Now I would
love to know. Maybe we can look it up who
the highest paid coach was in nineteen ninety one and
what that salary looked like, because now it's you know,

(22:01):
these guys are making thirteen million bucks a year.

Speaker 2 (22:04):
It wasn't anything close to that. But maybe it's as
simple as that.

Speaker 3 (22:07):
Maybe it's as simple as the people that are helping
to fund the Dion Sanders Project and experiment at the
University of Colorado have been worried that, like, hey man,
this guy is not healthy. He's not around the team
as much as he should be. His job is being
affected by his health. We need to know what's going on.
It could be as simple as that. You answer everyone's

(22:30):
question at once, you tell them all, hey, I had cancer,
now I don't.

Speaker 2 (22:36):
And without listening live.

Speaker 3 (22:37):
Because of course it's happening concurrently to this conversation, I'm
not able to tell you whether or not Dion is
giving us real solid, concrete evidence that he has thought
about stepping down, or that he may have to step
down if his health continues to be problematic, although cancer
Free would suggest that that's not something to worry about.

(22:59):
This is this from Yahoo Sports. This is actually intense.
A quote from Dion and Yahoo Sports. I think you
know big enough outlook that we could probably just go
with it. He actually said this, yesterday was tough because
I had to make a will. It's not easy at
all to think you may not be here. Okay, that's heavy.

(23:25):
But again, your cancer free, and you're talking about yesterday
you made a will. I'm confused.

Speaker 5 (23:33):
Maybe it was just this was such a scare and
and listen, I unfortunately had family members had cancer, who
had cancer passed from cancer, and like the first time
you go in remission is not necessarily the end of
your cancer journey, unfortunately. So maybe that so that that
if you take that context, he's probably probably been told

(23:56):
that multiple times, and so maybe even though he's technical
in remission now, he's he's taken the opportunity to be like,
I'm in remission for now. In the event that it
that it returns, I want to have this prepared. I
want to have these steps done, including a will made.
That could be the context around it, but it is

(24:18):
without explaining that it is like I can see why
someone would have that reaction, and and without explaining that
we don't know if his doctors are like, no, this
isn't coming back, because sometimes they can say that pretty definitively, right.
So it's a it's just an interesting thing to have

(24:39):
a press conference about this. If there's not another shoe
to drop, is what like what you're saying?

Speaker 3 (24:45):
See and and by the way, there is also I
guess the more positive slant you can put on it
like that not not somebody in authority was like, hey,
I need these answers, and so that inspires eight Dion.
Dion is telling people don't be afraid to go to
the doctor and get checked out. I'm cured, I'm here,
I'm I'm I'm healthy, I'm cancer free.

Speaker 2 (25:07):
Because I got checked out.

Speaker 3 (25:08):
This this could be nothing more than Dion says, I
need to do a public service announcement for all the
people that are worried about their health.

Speaker 2 (25:16):
They're worried about going to the doctor. It could just
be that.

Speaker 3 (25:18):
It could just be him saying, look what these doctors
can do for you if you go seek treatment. It's
just it is a little outside the box. And so
and obviously he's a I mean, if Dion sat down
and did a press conference about what he had for
breakfast this morning, we would listen, Yeah, I would listen.
I'd be like, Okay, But Dion he likes he likes

(25:40):
the strawberry pop tarts more than the cherry weird.

Speaker 2 (25:45):
You know, and so it goes all durned cherry pop tarrned.

Speaker 3 (25:49):
The durned cherry pop tarts don't do it for junk, which,
by the way, we're gonna have to do. We're gonna
have to do a start bench cut on pop tart fleet.

Speaker 2 (25:56):
We are gonna have to do that. They're good. I
love pop tart, but I will say this too.

Speaker 5 (26:03):
He did the the whole PSA I want to do
a PSA angle is is probably valid too because he
has specifically said African American men, please go get checked out.
And as a prominent African American man, he knows that
a lot of people in that community, uh, don't necessarily

(26:27):
do that. And it's not just that community, it's it's
a lot of men that don't that don't that don't
do that. But he's taken the opportunity to say, hey,
people like me, I know you don't like to go
to the doctor for various reasons. There's there's trust issues,
there's there's other reasons besides trust issues like stop putting
it off.

Speaker 2 (26:45):
It saved my life, which.

Speaker 5 (26:47):
I I think if that, if that, if that was
the purpose behind all of this, then I'm not questioning
that it shouldn't have a press conference for that, especially
if he wants to use his platform to spread some
good like that. It's just maybe, like, tell us that's
all this is for. Don't don't have sources who tell

(27:08):
media members that this is going to this is there's
going to be a retirement announcement with this like like
and then we're all watching to see this retirement announcement
and all it is is you announcing that your cancer free,
which again, great announcement, but like, maybe be upfront about

(27:29):
what the press conference is for.

Speaker 3 (27:32):
Well, I don't know, so this is but here's the thing.
To be fair to Dion and and a various dude
texts coming in on the text line says, when has
Dion ever done anything normal?

Speaker 5 (27:41):
That's a good point. And to be fair to Dion, right,
like nothing's typical with him as a coach.

Speaker 3 (27:48):
Just the idea that you know, we were going to
take this and infer okay, he the announcement said, Hey,
there's going to be a press conference or be on
his medical team with a health update.

Speaker 2 (27:59):
That's what. That's exactly it.

Speaker 3 (28:02):
The inference came as like, well, why would you do
that if it wasn't gonna be something major? And the
the answer to that question is, well, because you're you're Dion.

Speaker 2 (28:11):
That's why. That's why you're doing it. Because you're Dion.

Speaker 3 (28:14):
And hopefully for the reason like that we just mentioned
that he's trying to encourage people to go get health
screenings and things like that. And by the way, that's
good enough for me coach Prime.

Speaker 2 (28:24):
It really is.

Speaker 5 (28:24):
Yeah, that's a good enough reason too, Like that's a
great way to use your massive platform.

Speaker 2 (28:29):
It absolutely is. I applaud him for that. If that's
what if, that's truly what all this was.

Speaker 5 (28:34):
By the way, I'm not seeing any and I didn't
hear it in the press conference. I did join it
like a couple minutes late, so maybe they said it
right at the beginning. I missed it. I didn't see
I'm not seeing any quotes on Twitter. Doesn't see it
sound like you are. But Grock the Twitter ai okay
is saying he confirmed he'll continue coaching the Colorado Buffaloes

(28:56):
in twenty twenty five.

Speaker 2 (28:57):
Okay, well there it is. That's so, that's all. I
don't know.

Speaker 5 (28:59):
I don't know that you assume that Grok is getting
that from somebody who said that, but we don't know.

Speaker 3 (29:06):
I cannot tell you how much I hate that we
are listening.

Speaker 5 (29:09):
I know we're using groc as a confirmation use of news.

Speaker 3 (29:13):
We're using our AI overlords to tell us whether or
not Dionna is going to coach at Colorado. My assumption
is that the gathered media someone raised a hand and said, so,
congratulations on being cancer free. Does this mean you're going
to coach the whole season in twenty twenty five? And
he would have found some creative quote to answer that.

Speaker 5 (29:34):
I would imagine just weird that when you search dion
and when you look at verified college football insiders, none
of them have tweeted he will coach in twenty twenty five.

Speaker 3 (29:46):
It's like it's very strength, Dennis Dodd, Pete Thammil, Adam Rittenberg.
Can you give us some knowledge share.

Speaker 5 (29:55):
Like if he did indeed say I'm good to coach
in enough of a way that an AI like Grock
would be able to say he confirmed it, then how
come none of the human college football insiders whose job
it is to give us these quotes and write these stories.
There's not a quote there to be found, even a

(30:16):
paraphrase quote to be found, which again we learned, is
not a verbatim quote. Remember, remember people speaking of PSAs.
When you paraphrase, you don't put quotation marks. Don't put
quotation marks.

Speaker 3 (30:29):
And by the way, AI, I don't know what the
rules are about AI put in quotation marks.

Speaker 2 (30:33):
But I want them to I want yeah, we need
them to know that too.

Speaker 3 (30:36):
What AI, I don't know what your pronouns are, but
I want AI to know that you're not allowed to
use quotation marks.

Speaker 2 (30:45):
Rock, well, I believe, I believe Allen Iverson? Is he him?
Oh sorry, you're artificial intelligence? Got it? Oh well, this
get really got off the rails. All right.

Speaker 3 (30:57):
Look, I asked the question that is, yay, hooray. We're
happy that Diana is cancer free, genuinely, So the conference
is better if he's coaching the University of Colorado. It's
far more interesting if Dion's on the sideline for Colorado
this year. So let's just run with that. That's the case,
and we're pleased about it. I asked the question of

(31:20):
who your breakout stars are going to be. The answers
have come flooding in. So eight seven seven three five
three zero seven hundred at REALOC Sports. Tell me your
offensive and defensive breakout stars for the University of Utah
this year. We'll throw some out there. We'll debate the
validity of such claims. We'll see what Grok thinks. Grock,

(31:41):
you know what we'll do. We'll see what Gronk thinks.
I don't want to hear from Grok, but I do
want to hear what Rob Gronkowski thinks about Utah football.

Speaker 2 (31:48):
Sorry is it g Rock?

Speaker 3 (31:49):
I don't know. Sean O'Connell show just getting started on
a Monday. It's ESPN seven hundred ninety two one FM,
proud part of Utah's ESPN radio network.

Speaker 1 (32:01):
Another one. You tuned to the Sean O'Connell Show from
the Murdoch Chevrolet Studio of ESPN seven hundred at ninety
two one a FM.

Speaker 3 (32:22):
The phone number is eight seven seven three five three
zero seven hundred.

Speaker 2 (32:31):
At real OC Sports on Twitter.

Speaker 3 (32:34):
Hopefully you're watching on ESPN seven hundred sports Utah on
YouTube or on the ESPN seven hundred app that I'm
sure you downloaded on your phone a long time ago.
Because you are a dedicated fan of the show. Bit
Willies brings you the show every day. Utah's Sports Bar
seventeen seventeen South made Kraft food Craft cocktails, and they've

(32:56):
got every sporting event you could possibly imagine, an incredible
pool hall, all the things you need to enjoy the
upcoming football season and even baseball.

Speaker 2 (33:06):
That's the only real thing happening right now.

Speaker 4 (33:09):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (33:09):
I was gonna say, if you're not want if you're
watching the Dion Sanders press conference on YouTube, you can
probably go away from that because I think they've said
all the substantive things that they're going to say and
you can watch us. So that right, we're the best
thing on YouTube right now, not anything else.

Speaker 3 (33:27):
Yeah, So I asked the question because I want all
of us to be on record before Kyle Whittingham starts
to drop his little nuggets and give the Easter egg
of like, hey man, watch out for this, so and
so on our roster this year. It's one of the
things that we love about having conversations with Kyle Whittingham

(33:48):
at fall camp. The questions are the same people every
time coach out practice go today, how's the offense coming along?
Who stood out to you at practice? The late great
Dirk Facer was always the guy that got that one in.
Shout out Dirk, miss you man. The late great Dirk

(34:09):
Face would always get Kyle Whittingham to say, hell yeah,
who okay?

Speaker 2 (34:12):
Who stood out today? Well?

Speaker 3 (34:14):
And then he would give you five or six names,
And that, of course shapes the expectation in the opinion
of the fan base in a certain way. We had
that in spring. I'm asking who do you think is
going to be the breakout star on offense and on defense?
Eight seven seven three five three zero seven hundred seventy
five sixteen. If you're listening still, you and I are

(34:35):
on the same page. We'll get to that one here
in just a second. I gotta scroll down. Luca Calderella
breakout at wide receiver has come in from a couple
of different people.

Speaker 2 (34:46):
I hope you are right, and you know why.

Speaker 3 (34:48):
I hope you are right because Luca Calderella is the
embodiment of the hardworking player who does the less glamorous
thing and hope he earns his way into the more
glamorous thing. No block, no rock, as they like to
say to wide receivers. He has been all block, no

(35:10):
rock in his career. Luca Calderella was a guy that
last year, if he was on the field and in motion,
you knew it was gonna be a run play. He's
the best blocking wide receiver on the team. Last year
he probably still is the best blocking wide receiver on
the team. And they would motion him and you knew
that they weren't gonna throw in the ball. It was

(35:33):
going to be a run play because Luca Calderella was there.
That's not what wide receivers want, okay. And the thing
is he did it seemingly without complaint, good body language
on the sideline, didn't appear to be locker room lawyering.
Just a guy that would go out there and dude

(35:53):
he was supposed to do as a wide receiver, it
was like playing It was like playing for my high
school team. Our wide receivers got a catch piece every game.

Speaker 2 (36:02):
That's it.

Speaker 3 (36:03):
We ran the veer offense. Their whole job was to
block corners. You know how bad that would suck as
a wide receiver. But Luca Colderella has done it seemingly
without any real issue.

Speaker 2 (36:16):
Hey, but that vea offense It's like novacane. Just give
it time, always work.

Speaker 3 (36:20):
So see Luca Colorrella played in twelve games for the
University of Utah last year. James Peterson, how many catches
did Luca Colderella have for the University of Utah playing
in all twelve games in twenty twenty four?

Speaker 2 (36:36):
How many catches? Two? Correct? Hey, two catches?

Speaker 3 (36:41):
I know that if you get the yard age right,
two catches for how many twelve yards? Okay, twenty six yards?

Speaker 1 (36:46):
Ah?

Speaker 2 (36:46):
How dare you put it in half? How dare you
under estimate our guy?

Speaker 5 (36:51):
All right, all right, Luca Colderella man, Luca the other Luca.

Speaker 2 (36:56):
I really, I desperately hope you are right.

Speaker 3 (37:00):
When there are several people there, We've got three or
four people now that have said Luca is going to
be the guy a bunch of land in king Oh wait, sorry,
that was the last season I'll do that.

Speaker 2 (37:09):
And in the year before then, why are you doing that?

Speaker 4 (37:13):
That was mean?

Speaker 2 (37:17):
Kind of funny. But I think so.

Speaker 5 (37:19):
I think, I think I'm I've got my offensive breakout
player narrow down. I still probably need a little bit
more time to think about the defensive one. Oh see,
but mine would be Hunter Andrews Okay, I think now
you got to take everything with a whole lot of salt.
In spring, in the scrimmages that were able to see
the twenty minutes of basically two minutes drill that we're

(37:44):
able to see a couple of days a week, and
then the spring game of course. But Hunter Andrews looked
really good in those things, and his athleticism stood out.
His size stood out to me and other people in
the on the Utah Football beats. So I'm I know,
I just joked about the guy in the tight end

(38:06):
room of the last couple of seasons that never quite
panned out, that had become a fan favorite. But I'm
going with a different tight end who I think might
break out this year, Hunter Andrews.

Speaker 3 (38:16):
And Hunter Andrews is what I can surmise is that
this coaching staff, Kyle Whittingham has had really kind of
like the entirety of his tenure, he's had a guy
that is a little bit positionless offensively. Sometimes it's the
defensive player that they bring over and have him be

(38:37):
the positionless player, the Sioni Vaki, the Eric Weddle or whatever.
But there's you know, Brent Keith, he was is the
most recent example of this where it's kind of like, yes,
you're listed on the on the depth chart on the
roster as a tight end, but what you really are
is you're a weapon. And Brant Keithy famously wanted to
be identified as an offensive weapon. He pulled the Jimmy Graham,

(38:57):
We're just like, don't call me a tight end, call
me what I am.

Speaker 5 (39:01):
To the point where his open if if you all
remember of the Brandt keith the interview with Bill Riley
on the Bill Riley Show was didn't it joked? So
he tied end he's a offensive weapon. So to that
point he wanted. That's how much he wanted to be
known as that. And and when he was healthy, he
certainly was. So Hunter Andrews can be exactly that. He's

(39:27):
a guy that was.

Speaker 3 (39:30):
I mean, honestly, if he was not a white person,
he would have been recruited as a running back to
pretty much every school in the country.

Speaker 5 (39:40):
Yeah, because of his size and because of how he
just ran over people with that position.

Speaker 3 (39:44):
An incredible production in Texas high school football, right, I mean,
there's still these these biases that we have at the
college level. And he so everyone was like, Okay, you're
gonna be a linebacker for us, which, by the way.

Speaker 2 (39:59):
I don't have.

Speaker 3 (40:00):
When you have a guy with speed and size and
a willingness to put his nose into contact, you say, yeah,
you're a linebacker, dude, And there's nothing wrong with that.
But University of Utah is more flush with talent at
linebacker right now than they are in offensive playmakers, and
he has shown some acumen there, so they're moving him

(40:22):
back to the offensive side of the ball. He's gonna
be a guy who lines up on the end of
the line of scrimmage in the slot, in the backfield
behind Devin Dampier, in the backfield behind Devin Dampierre, but
in front of way Sean Parker. He'll be doing some
full backy type stuff. They'll split him out all the way.
I mean, they're gonna try to create mismatches.

Speaker 5 (40:40):
Maybe they even do some of the Brandt Keithy package
from last year where they take him and have him
do direct snaps if he shows some acumen there, although
that did not. That was not a great play for
Utah last season, so I'm not sure how in favor
I am of a tight end direct snap.

Speaker 2 (40:58):
But uh, maybe it's better. Maybe he's better at it
than and the line blocks better for him and all
that they execute that better than they did for Frank Keith.

Speaker 3 (41:05):
I want to know how good he is at throwing
a ball? Yeah, because that will keep defenses honest. Yeah,
that was part of that. Was probably why that hardly
ever worked.

Speaker 5 (41:14):
Is because they just knew, Okay, he's going to take
this snap and he's gonna run straightforward.

Speaker 3 (41:19):
So I love look, I love Hunter Andrews as the pick.
He was almost my pick for the breakout offensive star here,
but Dadrin Zipperer is the guy for me.

Speaker 2 (41:29):
By the way, we had a text or agree with you.

Speaker 3 (41:31):
Yeah, before we move on to uh, before we move
on to Dadrin Zipperer, James, Uh, you get five James
Peterson bonus points if you can tell me how many
yards Hunter Andrews produced for the University of Utah offense
last year?

Speaker 2 (41:50):
Was he Okay? So he was he listed his running
back last year?

Speaker 4 (41:56):
Was correct?

Speaker 2 (41:57):
He was a linebacker. Oh but he did. He still
got some time on offense. Okay? Uh? Thirty five yards?

Speaker 4 (42:05):
Wow?

Speaker 3 (42:05):
You really overestimated five yards? Seventeen yards seventeen yards?

Speaker 5 (42:12):
I was double I guess double what Hunter Andrews got,
and I guess only half of what Luca Caldorado got.

Speaker 3 (42:20):
Two carries for seventeen yards, eight and a half yards
per carry for Hunter Andrews.

Speaker 2 (42:25):
If you go to Utah, he did.

Speaker 3 (42:26):
If you if you look up in sports reference dot com,
which is the place to find college stats, uh, you
see that every player listed on Utah's offensive stats as
a position that makes sense next to their name, except
for the nineteenth most productive yard gainer, Hunter Andrews, linebacker,

(42:50):
University of Utah. Seventeen yards and he matched his He
almost matched his other worldly high school yards per carry too.

Speaker 4 (42:59):
That some.

Speaker 2 (43:02):
Oh Hunter Andrews.

Speaker 3 (43:03):
I love that pick now, dadron Zipperer eleven games? How
many catches did he have in eleven games? James Peterson,
don't look at don't look.

Speaker 2 (43:13):
At your screen. Look it up. Don't I'll look it up.
Not looking it up?

Speaker 5 (43:18):
Uh, eleven catches? Eight catches, Okay, for twenty two yards. Okay,
that's that's the number. I was gonna say, thanks for
spoiling it, gaz.

Speaker 3 (43:28):
That's fifteen yards per catch. How many touchdowns did he score?

Speaker 2 (43:32):
Did he I think scored a touchdown? Did he that's
also correct, Peterson. You get a lot of James Peterson's
points today. I live for these bonus points.

Speaker 3 (43:41):
You know this, Dadron Zipperer is a guy that we
saw again. That's what the breakout stars all about for me, right,
it's these little easter eggs, these that are like whoa, whoa, whoa?
Did you see that? Did you see the acceleration? Did
you see the separation? Did you see that catch? Did
you see the wiggle Daydren's Zipper is a guy that,

(44:02):
first of all, has the physical profile that this offense
is a little bit more used to dealing with, meaning
coaches who came at He's not this massive dude, right,
So they're gonna find the little seams. They're gonna find
the little spaces between safety and linebacker coverage, and that's
where they're going to put Dadrin Zipper in the route

(44:23):
tree and they're going to give him the ball and
try to make him beat one man and get him
in the end zone. Part of that is maybe wishful
thinking for me, that Utah has a wide receiver actually
emerge as a star this year. That's one that it's
massively important because Devin Dampierre awesome with his legs way,

(44:45):
Shaun Parker. I think special talent Hunter Andrews we just
talked about, I was going to be able to create
some rushing threats. The problem is, no matter how good
your offensive line is, no matter how good this players
are that run the ball for you, if you can't
keep a team honest and you have an eight man

(45:06):
box every single play, or a nine man box with
a corner blitzing off the edge because they know you're
going to run right into the teeth of it, then
even that great offensive line is not going to end
up looking that great. It's just a numbers thing, right.
There's five offensive linemen. You can't ask them to block

(45:27):
eight dudes. You can't ask your running back to make
two and three dudes miss instead of one or two
dudes miss.

Speaker 2 (45:35):
To get to the second level.

Speaker 3 (45:37):
It becomes a math equation if you can't keep teams
honest by having a day drim Zipperer or an auto
tea or a creed with a moor oral whatever break
out and be something that the other team has to
worry about, and it's not only on them. Of course,
the quarterback has to be capable of delivering the ball.
That was an issue for Utah last year, but I

(45:58):
don't think that's an issue this year.

Speaker 2 (46:01):
You also spoke.

Speaker 5 (46:02):
About that someone you left out as another guy who
can recavoc potentially recavoc in the running game, and maybe
you didn't leave them out, maybe it's missed it. But
Nate Johnson is a guy in the athlete position who's
getting a lot of love on the text line as
a breakout offensive player. He's another guy too that you
can put alongside Devin Dan, Pierre wait and Way Shawn

(46:26):
Parker and possibly Hunter Andrews who could be a big
part of this run game in wildcat formations or whatever,
other as a running back whatever. However, other ways Jason
beck uh like has decides to utilize.

Speaker 3 (46:41):
Him fingers crossed that we're giving you two or three
names and that midway through the season there's like seven
we can say, is he the breakout start this year
or is it him? Is it Hunter Andrews, or is
it Dadrian Zipperer, or is it Nate Johnson and who
we're so familiar with but has never really broken out anywhere,

(47:03):
And now he's in the right spot to use his
athleticism and look, what is happening.

Speaker 2 (47:08):
That's that's my hope. That's a guy. Now.

Speaker 5 (47:12):
We talked about when they decided to use Brant Keithy
in the wildcat last year and how it wasn't very
effective because everyone knew he wasn't going to try to
throw the ball right Nate Johnson. That's a potentially dangerous
package because we know maybe he's not an accurate enough
thrower to be a starting quarterback, but he certainly can
throw it a couple couple plays a game that you

(47:35):
do this wildcat and keep defenses honest, especially if you scheme,
if you're scheming something like that where you're gonna get
a wide open guy. So that could be potentially dangerous.
I am a little disappointed that they didn't try that
with Jaquinnin Jackson in twenty twenty three, the last year
of the Pac twelve, you know, the first year that

(47:55):
we expected Cam risen and come back from injury, and
it just didn't happen, right, And they went to the
Sioni Vaki wildcat package and like why not? And they
even went to j Quinnin Jackson playing quarterback in wildcat,
but they never had him throw the ball even though
he initially started his career as a quarterback.

Speaker 4 (48:11):
You know, so.

Speaker 5 (48:12):
It makes me think, now, new offensive coordinator, so things
could be done differently. But it makes me think maybe
we won't see enough of Nate Johnson throwing the ball
in trick play situations, but I would like to see
plenty of it, because this is a guy who is
a quarterback who you've moved to play more of the

(48:34):
athlete position that they're calling.

Speaker 2 (48:36):
All right, gotta take a quick one here.

Speaker 3 (48:38):
We've talked about what we might see as an offensive
breakout player. Let's focus on the defensive side of the ball.
Because even though we have more trust in the defense
you're in, you're out at the University of Utah, this
is still a question who's it going to be in
twenty twenty five. You can't say Landerbarton, you can't say
Smith Nodeen, you can't say Tao Johnson, pretty much everyone

(48:58):
else on this defense, even the logan Fano's a little
bit more established in terms of a talent. He hasn't
had a breakout year yet because he hasn't been healthy
enough to have a breakout year yet. So who's your
defensive breakout player?

Speaker 2 (49:12):
Again?

Speaker 3 (49:12):
It's eight seven seven three five to three zero seven
hundred at realoc Sports on Twitter, and make sure you're
listening on the app if you don't have other ways,
like I don't know, your boss doesn't like it, when
you're sitting with us on your laptop computer, or you're
not driving around right now. ESPN seven hundred Sports app

(49:33):
is available wherever you can download your apps.

Speaker 2 (49:36):
Sean O'Connell Show.

Speaker 3 (49:37):
Continues with the Defensive Playout Defensive Breakout Star Predictions next
on ESPN seven hundred.

Speaker 1 (49:49):
You're listening to the Sean O'Connell Show from the Murdoch
Hyundai Studio of ESPN seven hundred and ninety two to one,
a FMS show.

Speaker 3 (50:08):
All right, this counts as your hot lunch today. Reminder
for you, if you're looking for a hot lunch, go
to Big Willies at seventeen seventeen, South Maine. Check out
the Craft cocktails and more importantly for the hot lunch,
the Craft food menu. Incredible, incredible stuff, a broad range
even if you're looking to stay lean and trim and

(50:28):
healthy and in that summer bod for a little while longer.
Great salads. They gave us the grilled steak salad last week.
The Jilipano cilantro dressing is perfect. Just a teniest amount
of spice but mostly creamy whoop, good stuff. All right,
Defensive player of the year predictions breakout players for this

(50:50):
University of Utah football team. I'm asking the question today
before we hear from Kyle Whittingham at camp fall camp
media availability starts this week, and you know, I just
I don't want us to be led by by the witness.
I don't want Kyle Whittingham to be the one who's
just like, yeah, this is the guy who's playing best
right now.

Speaker 2 (51:10):
I want you to predict for me. So James, predict
for me.

Speaker 4 (51:12):
What do you.

Speaker 5 (51:12):
Got Dallas Baklah? And I'm saying that because he is
a guy that's been talked about as a he played
well last year in the more of a limited role.
He's a younger player, he's a guy that's been talked
about by other people as a potential breakout guy. I
agree with them, but also because they really need a

(51:36):
breakout guy at defensive tackle. Right, that's one of the
holes in this roster. And maybe maybe we see it's
just a perception hole because there's not as much experience
and because of who they just lost and namely Junior
Tafuna to the NFL. But it really feels like a
position of needs, so that I'm gonna go with Dallas

(51:57):
Baca Lahi because they really need it from him, and
because he's gotten some shine. Dallas is and and by
the way, you're allowed to pick Dallas Vokalaki, but but
he is right on the borderline of who is allowed
even to be a breakout player because he almost had
a breakout yere last year. It's true he did get
enough time that you could say he at least burst

(52:20):
on the scene whether maybe maybe he's not quite a breakout,
but yeah.

Speaker 3 (52:24):
You're still allowed the Dallas Vocalahi picked because he played
incredibly well last year ahead of schedule. This coaching staff
did not want to have true freshman Dallas Vakalahi playing
that many snaps in nine games last year.

Speaker 2 (52:41):
They didn't.

Speaker 3 (52:42):
They wanted it to be Kyanutanovasa and Junior Tafuna with
the rotation of Aliki iven Mahi, who is back. All
three of those guys got injured. Aliki got injured badly
and the other two were injured enough throughout the year
that it became problematic and you had to bring in

(53:04):
somebody younger, You had to bring in somebody new, and
that ended up being Dallas Vaca Lahi, who had a
great season. Oh by the way, also simote Pepa got
hurt a bunch last year.

Speaker 2 (53:13):
He only played in nine games.

Speaker 5 (53:15):
So yeah, that was that was supposed to be such
a position of depth for you to us you rattle
off all those names. Yeah, there's no way they planned
on Dallas playing as much as they did last year.
The coaching staff, they.

Speaker 3 (53:29):
Didn't have They did not have a single defensive tackle
of any import play in more than ten games. Just
they didn't have anyone play the whole season.

Speaker 5 (53:40):
Just injury ravaged, as many of the position groups were.
But that one was about his injury ravaged as any
of them on the team.

Speaker 3 (53:47):
The Vida Fo two played three games, eliki I Viimahi
played four games, simote Pepa played nine games. Thank goodness
that Dallas Vaca Lahi was ready to play ahead of schedule.
He played nine games. Kato ton Of played seven games
for the University of Utah last year, and Junior Tafuna
played ten and only about three of those was he

(54:08):
anywhere near full health. Don't even get me started on
the edges. Okay, So Dallas Fakalahi, I like it. Jonaalaaa,
by the way, is a guy that is this year's
Dallas focalachi. Okay, didn't know his name before the season
started for most people, and all of a sudden, he's
gonna start making plays.

Speaker 2 (54:28):
You're gonna be like, what, who's this kid?

Speaker 3 (54:31):
The coaching staff has been really high on jon olaa
Aa for a couple of years now, but he's not
big enough. He hasn't been big enough until now to
really be even close to an every down defensive tackle.

Speaker 2 (54:47):
Is that your pick then, No, I'm just I'm just jumping.

Speaker 3 (54:50):
I'm piggybacking on the defensive the interior defensive line thing.

Speaker 5 (54:54):
By the way, you you brought up you brought up
public enemy number one, ton of Asa. I left him
out of who they lost because just strategically there. But
but you said, you said the quiet part out loud,
obviously a huge loss to.

Speaker 3 (55:09):
I'm not I'm not afraid of the fact that Utah
lost counter Tonabasa. I know it hurts, but like this
is not this is not something that any team in
America is immune from.

Speaker 5 (55:20):
It's True's got a single team. It's a tough less
and Utah fans have just learned.

Speaker 3 (55:24):
Yeah, especially in the Big twelve, right, I mean like
Ohio State is probably mostly safe, Oregon is probably mostly safe,
Georgia and Alabama. But like when you talk about anyone
who has not a deep died in the wool blue blood,
every team in America is going to lose somebody they
don't want to lose to a transfer portal. Now, in

(55:45):
most cases, that guy's not going to go to your
hated in state rival, and it's not going to be
rubbed in your nose with like religious undertones in ninety
nine point nine percent of cases. But still you're not
immune from it if you're anybody, if you're any team.
And Kianu Tonavasa is a great player, but Kianu Tonavasa
gave you seven games last year.

Speaker 2 (56:07):
He was.

Speaker 3 (56:09):
It's not the right way, the correct way to say
it is not part of the problem, but he was not.
He was not an outlier in terms of health or
anything like that. So some of the same issues you
had with every other player on this team you had
with Kianu Tonavasa as well. So I think you're gonna
be able to compensate for that loss.

Speaker 2 (56:27):
I really do that breakout player.

Speaker 3 (56:31):
For me, this is just as much of a hopeful
and wishful thought as as it is something I'm actually
stern and deeply believing.

Speaker 2 (56:45):
John Henry Daily.

Speaker 3 (56:47):
The BYU transfer as a pass rusher JHD yeah, old
JHD jeehood. So again, this is a guy that, as
a freshman was on that BYU football team, and the
coaches at BYU were like, oh my gosh, he's gonna
be unbelievable. But there were some issues in terms of

(57:11):
how well he fit in with that locker room. There
were some issues in terms of his brother was on
the team and he, as the freshman, was being given
a little bit more run than the older brother, and
that created a little bit of an issue, it seems.
And so BYU just was not the place for John
Henry Daily, all right. So he transferred up and you

(57:33):
could have used him last year. He, like everyone else,
got banged up, wasn't able to go last year.

Speaker 2 (57:40):
But John Henry Day is a dude. That's a guy.

Speaker 3 (57:44):
It's an in state recruit that could end up being like,
hopefully a six plus sack kind of individual. And by
the way, I want to say double digit sack, but
you didn't have one of those last year, So then
to take the leap and say you're definitely going to
have one this year with a bunch of under established
talents seems like a silly thing to do. The lower

(58:06):
hanging fruit is Logan Fano, who's went healthy, the more explosive,
perhaps the most explosive rusher they have on this team.
But I wanted to shine a little light on John
Henry Daily because of, you know, the upside, the potential
of what that guy could be if he's really found
his place at Utah, happy, healthy, et cetera. The potential

(58:30):
is unlimited for a kid like that. Yeah, one of
our Texters agrees with you.

Speaker 5 (58:35):
He says he thinks he plays a critical I think
he plays a critical role in the past Rush this year.
Someone else that just came in as we were talking
about that, Paul Fitzgerald in the same room, another guy
who who came in very highly touted as a transfer
and unfortunately did not have much of an impact last year.

(58:56):
I think that's a good pick too, for a breakout
star in the past. In the past Rush, Look, you kind.

Speaker 3 (59:01):
Of need all of them to have some kind of
an impact because you have to have a pass rush
This year, the Big twelve is different than the Pac
twelve was, and the quarterbacks are just better and better
and better every year getting the ball out quickly. I
think we're probably never going to see another Nate Orchard season.
No matter how good of a pass rusher you have,

(59:22):
you're not gonna have anyone, you know, pushing twenty sacks
in a single year.

Speaker 5 (59:26):
I don't think unless they make an absurd rule that
says you have to hold the ball for at least
five seconds, yeah, I don't think.

Speaker 2 (59:32):
Probably not happening. I don't think that's gonna happen.

Speaker 3 (59:34):
But you need do you know who the leading pass rusher,
the leading sack man on Utah's football team was last year?

Speaker 2 (59:40):
In hindsight, James.

Speaker 5 (59:42):
It was not Logan Fono, Nope, man, was it Tafuna
or ton of Vasa.

Speaker 2 (59:50):
It was Van van thal Van. Of course, he was
leading the nation for the first part of the season.

Speaker 3 (59:55):
And by the way, he got all of those in
the first four games.

Speaker 2 (59:59):
Of the year.

Speaker 4 (59:59):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (59:59):
That so he didn't get a sack after the first
After week four, then he had six sacks and then
just and you know, like again, my whole approach to
the Van Fillinger picture has changed pretty drastically in the
last eighteen months or so because he was a guy
that just couldn't stay healthy but played anyway.

Speaker 3 (01:00:20):
Yeah, where other people would have been like, I can't play,
he continued to play. Even in bad seasons, disappointing seasons,
he continued to play.

Speaker 2 (01:00:28):
And last year was more of that.

Speaker 3 (01:00:30):
He ended up playing ten of the twelve games that
Utah played, and he had six sacks. And the bulk
of his production happened early in the year when he
was fresh and healthy, and then it started to, you know,
the bumps and bruises started to accumulate. He didn't sit
out until very, very late, but he had six sacks
and that was I mean, that's that's a solid year.

(01:00:51):
But that's not the year you want from your best
pass rusher on a Utah defense.

Speaker 2 (01:00:57):
You gotta get more than that.

Speaker 3 (01:00:58):
Whoever it is this year, I don't care if it's
John Henry Daily, or if it's Paul Fitzgerald, or if
it's Logan Fano, or if it's Cash Dylan, or if
it's somebody we've barely seen on the field yet.

Speaker 5 (01:01:08):
One of these defensive tackles, even like somebody's gotta get you.

Speaker 2 (01:01:12):
I don't can't detention, I don't.

Speaker 3 (01:01:13):
I don't care if it's land or Barton bending the
edge and they're just like, dude, we're like, we're preparing
you for the next level. They're gonna make you do this.
Remember how they did it with Devin Lloyd. They're just like, oh, look,
turns out this guy can pass rush. Maybe they figure
that out with Landon this year, although probably not because
they're gonna use his specialties in offense instead. You gotta
have your leading sack man for Utah this year has

(01:01:36):
to have more than six sacks.

Speaker 2 (01:01:38):
Oh yeah, where's the where's the love? Text line? For
Lander Barton offensive breakout player of the Year. That's No.

Speaker 4 (01:01:46):
No.

Speaker 2 (01:01:48):
Thirty seven to ninety seven?

Speaker 3 (01:01:49):
Did say Paul Fitzgerald as you mentioned, Uh and look,
Rabbit Evans, his name has come in'd be great to
see John ou Hall as I mentioned earlier, his name
has come.

Speaker 2 (01:01:59):
In a rabbit like Vaka Lahie where it's like he's
just on the edge of what you can call a
breakout player because he played a ton last year year.

Speaker 3 (01:02:08):
It was really effective last year. Yeah, and I think
he is right on that edge. I think he established
himself last year. And if you want to talk about
like breakout year, if he becomes like an all conference
player this year, that's a breakout year for him. Guys
like Tao Johnson also established themselves last year, but people
are like that, dude, might he's gonna be a draft pick.

Speaker 5 (01:02:28):
I would say he established himself the year before and
then last year was the breakout.

Speaker 3 (01:02:35):
Yeah, he was the second leading tackle on the team
last year.

Speaker 2 (01:02:37):
When we're talking about Tao Johnson.

Speaker 3 (01:02:42):
So offensive and defensive breakout players for this Utah football team.

Speaker 2 (01:02:46):
Special teams next? Is that where we're going.

Speaker 3 (01:02:49):
The long snaper. No, we're not gonna do special team.
There's not enough meat on that bone. But coaching staff breakout.
You know, It's really interesting because nobody said no answered
that I've seen come in either via Twitter or the
text line has mentioned.

Speaker 2 (01:03:07):
A corner.

Speaker 3 (01:03:11):
Because everyone's like, guess SMIs Noonan's gonna be good?

Speaker 2 (01:03:17):
And what else, like don't we need that? I don't know.

Speaker 5 (01:03:23):
Is Scooby a guy that I think he would probably
be on that line of maybe he broke out last year.
Maybe he just did enough to establish himself and he
breaks out this year, he might he might be a
guy you say, could be a could be the breakout
player in that room if you if you believe he

(01:03:44):
didn't already break out last year.

Speaker 3 (01:03:48):
Fingers crossed in any case that you have your breakout
stars on both offense and defense. And if I'm wrong
about the names I gave or you're wrong about the
names you gave, at the end of the day, all
you want is to see somebody making plays. So we're
all We're all in the same boat on that one
eight seven seven three five three zero seven hundred. If

(01:04:09):
you want to keep throwing them at us at realoc
Sports on Twitter as well. All right, one guy that
I disqualified. You cannot be on the breakout Stars list
if you're already established, even in another league, because that's
the new realm of college football. That's how it looks now.
But Devin dan Pierre getting a little bit of extra love.

(01:04:30):
We got some junk mail about this. I'll tell you
what I mean next on The Sean O'Connell Show, Utah
is number one Sports Talk ESPN seven hundred ninety twe FM.

Speaker 1 (01:04:46):
This is the Sean O'Connell Show. You were home of
the best inside of your US. Let's get back to
WOC from the Murdoch Chevrolet Studio, the ESPN seven hundred
and ninety two one A m.

Speaker 3 (01:05:03):
All right, keep your breakout player predictions coming in at
esp of seven and ninety to one FM at real
OC Sports or eight seven seven three five three zero
seven hundred preseason award watch lists. These things are sometimes
great and most of the time a little silly, But

(01:05:28):
I never think it's silly when you just named, little
recognition goes a long way. Having your name just on
the radar for people in the national media especially is
a good thing. They might pay a little bit closer
attention to your highlights. So then if they pay a
little bit closer attention to the highlights, they might be

(01:05:48):
more a little bit more likely.

Speaker 2 (01:05:49):
To tune in and watch a game.

Speaker 3 (01:05:51):
And if you're getting multiple people that are ready to
tune in to watch a game, then all of a sudden,
your reputation as a team and as a program grows.
And while you're probably never gonna close the gap in
any kind of significant way between you and you know,
the true blue bloods, you can become that what Utah
has been and hopefully still is kind of that top

(01:06:15):
of a second tier kind of a program. Devin Dampier,
the new quarterback for the University of Utah, has been
named to the Maxwell Award watch List. According to the
Maxwell Football Club, the Maxwell Award has been presented to
the college football player of the year since nineteen thirty seven.

(01:06:39):
It is named in honor of Robert Tiny Maxwell, who
is a former standout.

Speaker 2 (01:06:44):
At Rutgers Swarthmore College, Ah.

Speaker 3 (01:06:49):
Of course, renowned sports writer and a football official. I
cannot tell you how how many times I have mentioned
the Maxwell Award without knowing.

Speaker 5 (01:07:04):
Are you you didn't know anything about Tiny Maxwell. I
didn't know anything about Tiny Maxwell. I only recently learned
about him because of a of a great book I
discovered called The Gridiron Legacy. Okay, oh see, this was
a This was an interview opportunity, like like Basketball Stars
with Chris Navalta last week. Uh we get we get

(01:07:26):
some of the little inside baseball here. We as media members.
We get these uh emails from publishers that say, hey,
there's this book coming out, if you can interview the
author if you'd like, They'll give you a free media
copy to review.

Speaker 2 (01:07:41):
So that was one of them.

Speaker 5 (01:07:44):
You ignore most of them, but that was one that
I'm like, I'm actually interested in this in this book,
let me uh, let me let me jump on this and.

Speaker 2 (01:07:52):
Give it a read. It's the it's the story of the.

Speaker 5 (01:07:56):
Unknown beginnings of American football before the NFL started in
nineteen twenty, well before that. And tiny Maxwell was on
one of these teams in Pittsburgh. That one of the
first pro teams in Pittsburgh. So that's you know, I
knew nothing about the Maxwell the demand behind the Maxwell
Award until I read about that, So you're not alone.

Speaker 2 (01:08:18):
Swarthmore College Swarthmore is a powerhouse in Pennsylvania, so the
powerhouse in the eighteen nineties, no doubt.

Speaker 3 (01:08:28):
Devin Dan Pierre, just to get you excited one more time,
three thy nine and thirty four total yards of offense,
twenty seven to sixty eight through the air, eleven sixty
six rushing, seven point five two yards per per carry,

(01:08:48):
nineteen touchdowns, first New Mexico quarterback to ever eclipse one
thousand yards rushing, and he had six one hundred yard
games in twenty twenty four.

Speaker 5 (01:09:00):
For he told you guys at media, dooc going for
six or seven thousand.

Speaker 2 (01:09:05):
He wants all purpose yards this year.

Speaker 3 (01:09:07):
He says, if this offense can be a six thousand
yard offense, now, that's not an unreasonable thing for a
quarterback like him to ask. If he's like, well, I
figure I can give them four thousand yards. They just
got to find a running back or two or three
that can add in another two thousand for me.

Speaker 2 (01:09:28):
Now, six thousand yards, that's not where I'm setting the bar.

Speaker 3 (01:09:31):
We're actually gonna do overs and unders for Utah football
stat predictions as well. And I'm not gonna sell I
promise you I'm not gonna set it at six thousand.
That is the lofty, lofty, lofty goal. But having in mind,
you know where he can. I mean, if you're Devin
damp here, it makes sense to sit back and be like, Okay,

(01:09:52):
in a perfect world, I was able to generate thirty
nine hundred yards behind a pretty average offensive line. I
know that I have a really good offensive line here.
I know that my receivers are better here. I know
that my running backs should be better here. So let's

(01:10:14):
say that not only can I do a little bit
more offensively, because every player wants to improve, not only
can I do a little bit more, and I can
take care of the ball a little bit better. So
maybe I'm responsible for like forty three hundred yards this
year instead of thirty nine hundred yards this year. Maybe
I can get a receiver, get a running back who's
in the thousand yard category with me, and then we

(01:10:37):
have you know, you go thunder and lightning, and then
I don't know, hail, and you have another running back
who's giving you a few hundred yards, another four, five,
six hundred yards, and now you're really pushing close to
that six thousand yard total. If you got a quarterback
who through the air and with his legs gives you
four thousand plus, and then a running back who can

(01:10:59):
push a thousand and then you just have everyone else
fill it in. Fly sweeps, that third string running back,
that third option rushing right Hunter Andrews has a bunch
of yards. I don't know, man, it's not outside the
realm of possibility. And by the way, if it happens,
you're talking about Utah being in a conference championship game.

(01:11:20):
If Utah ends up producing forty five hundred plus yards
as a total offense this year, they're having a much
better season than what.

Speaker 2 (01:11:28):
You saw last year.

Speaker 3 (01:11:29):
If they're five thousand yards plus as an offense, now
you're talking about them being one of the three or
four best teams in the conference.

Speaker 2 (01:11:36):
Definitively.

Speaker 3 (01:11:37):
If this is a six thousand yard offense, that team
is in the conference championship game to say the very least.
Will it happen? Eh, only one way to find out.
We'll see let them play. But the Maxwell Award Committee

(01:11:57):
has given Devin Dampier the little nod in the preseason,
which now brings his preseason award list appearances to two.
I guess breakout or excuse me, Newcomer of the Year
in the Big twelve Conference, and now Maxwell Award watch list.

Speaker 5 (01:12:16):
Maxwell Award, as you read, by the way, the second prestigious,
second most prestigious award to the Heisman Trophy for an
individual player. It's like at the other national Player of
the Year award. So that's that's quite the watch list.

Speaker 6 (01:12:33):
To be on.

Speaker 5 (01:12:33):
Although you and I have both said on record is
saying watch lists are silly, still quite, it's still it's
still he should consider it an honor for that award
to be saying we are watching him as one of
our national player of the year candidates for our award.

Speaker 3 (01:12:54):
The watch list thing gets really ridiculous because I don't
have the full list in front of me right now.
The Maxwell Award watch list in front of me right now,
it's probably like fifty names. I will find it and
it will be at least three dozen names and probably
much more. I don't remember what year it was, but
you know, the Rimington Award is for a centers, and

(01:13:16):
we brought it. It was when I was doing a show
with Jeff Schwartz on Back twelve Radio and I was like, oh,
so and so from Oregon is on the Rimington Award list,
and he was just like, don't care.

Speaker 2 (01:13:26):
I was like, what do you mean, that's an offensive
line award. That's your guy. I think I would think
that you would care about. That's your guy at your college.

Speaker 3 (01:13:32):
And he goes, I think every starting center in the
country is on that list, and I was like, that
can't be true. I looked it up, James. It literally
was every returning starter. There were seventy names. Oh my god,
at center. There were more teams with a center listed
on the Rimington Award watch list than not.

Speaker 5 (01:13:56):
So Jeff remind me, was Jeff a center. No, no,
he was, he was somewhere else on the line.

Speaker 4 (01:14:03):
He played.

Speaker 3 (01:14:04):
He played tackle in college and guard in the oh okay,
and he but well that's why he wasn't He didn't care.

Speaker 2 (01:14:11):
I don't care about the centers were you are the
best one. They're the ones that actually have to tell
everyone what to do.

Speaker 3 (01:14:18):
In any case, Well, i'll give you the actual number
of Max. I don't want to downplay that. It's cool,
like it's a little bit of an honor. But the
watch lists do get a little bit out of hand
this time of year. So we'll see how many names
are actually on that Maxwell Award watch list and how
many of them are in the Big Twelve, because I
could name off the top of my head.

Speaker 2 (01:14:38):
There's at least three more. Yeah, it's gonna be.

Speaker 5 (01:14:42):
It's gonna be almost every starting quarterback in the Power
four right, at least of the teams that are supposed
to be good in each Power four conference. So you're
looking at at least three to five in the Big
twelve that'll be on it.

Speaker 3 (01:14:58):
Okay, So I just I just googled Maxwell Award watch
list and so far Southern Missus quarterback Florida State's quarterback,
Illinois quarterback, Arizona State's quarterback, Auburn's quarterback, George George's quarterback.

Speaker 2 (01:15:17):
There's a lot of guys.

Speaker 5 (01:15:19):
Yeah, and then there's gonna be since it's Player of
the Year, it's not a quarterback only award. You're gonna
see like Jeremiah Smith's probably on there from Ihowa State.

Speaker 2 (01:15:26):
Guys like that too.

Speaker 3 (01:15:28):
Acc leads the nation with seventeen players name to Maxwell
Award watch list. Yeah, well, all we know is our
guys on it, and that's what matters.

Speaker 5 (01:15:37):
Yeah, the most important of the watch list invites or
I don't know what you call it, and watchless honorees.

Speaker 3 (01:15:47):
I gotta get a real number. Shocking. Arch Manning also
on the list.

Speaker 2 (01:15:53):
No way, yeah, wow, upset if he wins.

Speaker 3 (01:15:59):
Okay, imagine imagine if you are Arkansas state wide receiver
Corey Rucker and you're on this list, You're like cool,
and then you see, like, oh, Arts Manning is.

Speaker 2 (01:16:10):
Also on this list.

Speaker 3 (01:16:12):
Jeremiah Smith is also on this list.

Speaker 2 (01:16:15):
I'm not winning this award.

Speaker 4 (01:16:17):
I'm not.

Speaker 2 (01:16:17):
Devin Dann Piers also on this list.

Speaker 3 (01:16:19):
It's like it's like I was I was nominated last year.
I was one of the nominees for like, uh whatever.
It was the Broadcaster of the Year in the World
MMA Awards, and I was.

Speaker 2 (01:16:31):
Like, oh, that's wonderful, that's really cool.

Speaker 3 (01:16:33):
And then I saw the other people on the list
and they're all just like legends, and I'm like, I
am definitely not. It was it said, don't sesame street game.
One of these things is not like the other. That's
how most of these people are.

Speaker 5 (01:16:46):
You can do the Dan Patrick Stick Award nominated play
by play Man for the for the PFL.

Speaker 2 (01:16:53):
Jon O'Connell Yes Award nominated. It's good enough for me,
all right?

Speaker 3 (01:16:58):
Is Nick Saban gonna be bad back in coaching? Last
week the rumors started to circulate. I gotta tell you,
I really hope Nick Saban never comes back to coaching.
I'll tell you why next on The Sean O'Connell Show
ESPN seven hundred ninety two on FM.

Speaker 2 (01:17:17):
Who we were.

Speaker 1 (01:17:20):
You were listening to the Sean O'Connell Show, your source
for the best Huts Football Company. Here's oc from the
Murdoch Hyundai Studio of DESPN seven hundred and ninety two
one a half am.

Speaker 3 (01:17:49):
All right, welcome back to the Sean O'Connell show on
Utah's number one sports talk. You probably saw this a
little bit last week, Nick Saban. There was some rumor
in innuendo swirling around his name that maybe Nick Saban
was getting bored of that retired life and wanted to
get back on the sideline and coach. He was asked

(01:18:12):
directly about it. His response was the most perfect coach
beak ever. He said, I don't see an opportunity right
now that would bring me back to coaching. He left
the door open by using the right. Now, here's the thing.
If we're talking about college football, we need for Nick

(01:18:32):
Saban not to come back to coaching. His analysis on
game day is incredible. His straight man to the other
like kind of goofy antics is a perfect balance. When
you bring in a comedian as a celebrity picker, when
you have Pat McAfee who thinks he's a comedian on

(01:18:54):
the set full time, it's good to have the straight
man Nick Saban there. Beyond that, and this is a
lot less seen and talked about when it comes to
what Nick Saban is up to these days. Nick Saban
is on a multitude of advisory boards around college football,

(01:19:17):
so a lot of these changes that are happening so
rapidly right now, and a lot of the meltdowns of
old structures and the hastily constructed new things, they need
guidance from someone who knows college football, somebody who understands

(01:19:37):
and has understood for a long time and jumped on
board with this. Before most teams and most programs were
willing to. Nick Saban ran Alabama football like a business,
like a pro team model, long before, long before.

Speaker 2 (01:19:53):
It was like the normal thing to do.

Speaker 3 (01:19:56):
And yes, I'm of the believer that Nick Saban had
a financial structure in place to reward his players, probably
outside the rules. Now, whether that was because or that
was him looking the other way or him actually overseeing it,
you would not be able to convince me otherwise that
nil before it was legal, was still being carried out

(01:20:21):
in places like Tuscaloosa. But even if that part is
not true, what you need, as decisions are being made hastily,
not even rapidly, I'm talking hastily in college sports, what
you need is someone who knows what it takes to
win at the top level of college football, what it
takes to build some continuity in a program, what it

(01:20:44):
takes to manage the demands and the high expectations of
not one star player, not two star players, but like
ten and fifteen star players on a team at a time.

Speaker 2 (01:20:55):
You need Nick Saban to be lending.

Speaker 3 (01:20:57):
That expertise to the overarching landscape of college football. If
he gets back on the sideline somewhere, he's not doing
it right now. He is doing that right now. He
is taking phone calls, he is sitting on boards, he's
working in advisory roles all the way up to like
Donald Trump put out an executive order regarding our nil

(01:21:20):
and like Nick Saban is a voice that is at
least a resource for a lot of this stuff. And
for him to go back to the daily grind of
coaching wherever in the NFL certainly or more likely at
a college football level, it just takes away from the
first of all game day, college game Day, which is

(01:21:42):
our best American sports program. And it also takes away
from the behind the scenes stuff that we never hear
and he's never gonna get credit for, and he doesn't
need credit for, because he's already the most respected college
football coach in history. Probably he's the go. He's at
least on the Mount Rushmore. If he's not the goat.

(01:22:04):
So Nick Saban is in. He's in the perfect retirement
advisory role. Now, don't pull him back onto a sideline,
leave him where he's at, Let him lend his voice
and his expertise, hopefully to just and if it's a
one percent increment, because he's not going to be the

(01:22:24):
major voice of change, but if just something he says,
his little tidbit of wisdom, his little anecdote about when
he had, Ah, yeah, you know I had Remember that
time I had the best defense in the history of
college football. Well, those guys all wanted this and that,
and we had to make sure that we provided them
this and that. And I told him, they actually can't
have that, but they can't have this, and you can

(01:22:46):
make that work. He's important for those reasons, and it's
harder to define and it's harder to put your finger
on then bringing him back to a sideline and taking
a team from four wins to tens to a national championship.
But it's equally as important and probably more important right
now for the landscape of college football because it is

(01:23:11):
dicey and it is shaky, the direction that the game
is headed He's a guy who is constantly pushed back,
and it's why he retired by the way, where he
was continuing to push back even as it was inevitable.
He was pushing back against the idea that you had
to in order to make it worthwhile for college athletes,
that you had to pay them, and that if you

(01:23:34):
were going to pay them, because remember Nick Saban back
in the day said I'm willing to pay my athletes.
In fact, you can take some of my salary if
you want to pay these guys.

Speaker 2 (01:23:44):
But then.

Speaker 3 (01:23:47):
He always was measured in saying, if you're going to
pay them, you have to have it be within a structure,
and you can't buy them. You can't pay them to
come to your school. You have to reward the performance
that they give you. He has always wanted NIL to
be what NIL was intended to be, and obviously hasn't
turned out to be. And then it looked for two

(01:24:08):
weeks like maybe it was going to be forced back
into that box of what it probably should be, and
then lawyers prevailed and we talked about this last Wednesday.
As strong as the efforts were to put safeguards in
regulation on a system that had no safeguards in regulation.
The lawyers were just like, haha, no, no, you can't

(01:24:29):
do that. You can't limit the earning potential of these
young people. Now by saying that's not a legitimate business.
You can't even put another roadblock in the way. You
can't even make the money that they get belaundered through
an official business. What you need to do is you
need to just let these collectives do what they've been doing.

Speaker 2 (01:24:47):
And the lawyers won. So that's the kind of stuff.

Speaker 3 (01:24:51):
That's the sort of and you know, he probably isn't
powerful enough as powerful and as big of a voice
as Nick Saban is. He probably is and by himself
going to create any super meaningful change. But when you
talk about a system of checks and balances, he is
the checks and the balances. He's the kind of guy.
That's the kind of voice. It's like, no, let's think

(01:25:14):
about this before we just say, okay, you can transfer
twice a year as many times as you want through
your college football career.

Speaker 2 (01:25:23):
Should we should we name him the head of the
College Sports Commission. Honestly, so we should be doing if
you want to, if you want to have a college
football czar. You know, when every like every government official
is like, we gotta have a tzar for this.

Speaker 3 (01:25:36):
Yeah, you gotta have a cryptosar. You gotta have a
healthcare czar, you gotta have a border czar. If you
want to talk about a college football czar, Nick Saban.

Speaker 5 (01:25:47):
Absolutely, or you know, once we finally, if we ever
finally get to some kind of centralized structure of governance
for colle college football commissioner, Right, but I don't know
that that. That doesn't seem like it's gonna happen anytime
anytime soon. We're gonna have We're gonna have four, three

(01:26:08):
to four leagues, maybe even two at some point, with
two different commissioners. And that's that's the other thing that's
contributing to this chaos. There's no central leadership for college football.
We're we're assuming that Greg sank And is a petit
in the Big at the Big Ten, they're they're the
central leadership, but they're not really the central leadership because

(01:26:31):
there's two other there's two other conferences in the Power
that we call power conferences, and there's like six other
conferences that have commissioners too, Like we we just need
one just like any other big time sports league and
Nick Saban, I think would be pretty good with that.

Speaker 3 (01:26:46):
Can I just point something out as we as we
talk about college football at large, We've got a television
in the studio. It's on Sports Center or on whatever
sporting events is on the day, like in you know,
daytime eleven to two while we're here on air. University

(01:27:07):
of Colorado football is dominating Sports Center today. Now Deon
Sanders might be playing chess while the rest of us
play checkers.

Speaker 2 (01:27:22):
James, because.

Speaker 3 (01:27:25):
If you're just tuning in, Coach Prime had a press
conference today to update everyone on his health. They announced
it this weekend that he and the healthcare professionals around
his treatment were going to have an update on Deon
Sanders' health, and that led to wild speculation over the weekend.
I talked to one person who has really good sources.

(01:27:48):
I was not able to source it a second time,
which is why I never went public with it. But
there was some suggestion that Dean was going to sit
down behind a microphone and announce that he was step
away from being the head coach at the University of Colorado.
There was a lot of speculation to that end, because
why would you have a press conference to tell.

Speaker 2 (01:28:09):
Everyone, you're healthy.

Speaker 3 (01:28:10):
Well that's what they did, and that's great, and we're
happy that he's healthy, right, And Deon Sanders took his
opportunity and used his platform to offer a little psa
about how you should get your health checked out. And
that's probably a good enough reason to have the press
conference in the first place, as we talked about earlier.
But also there's no other way that on July twenty eighth,

(01:28:38):
Colorado football is the center of anyone's discussion.

Speaker 2 (01:28:41):
And now.

Speaker 3 (01:28:43):
I'm not accusing him of saying like your own health
update is just a marketing tool for University of Colorado,
but it certainly ain't hurting him right now.

Speaker 5 (01:28:53):
It's a byproduct, the byproduct of him making a major
health update, which which the update was that he is
in remission from bladder cancer. He has beat bladder cancer
after having his bladder removed. That the byproduct of that
announcement is that Colorado gets a bunch of attention, which

(01:29:15):
you know what, that's a savvy move by him that
they had. He had to have known that whenever I speak,
he has to know whenever I speak, it's probably going
to lead Sports Center. And that's great for our program.
So savvy moved by them to do this, even though
it didn't offer any substance as far as his coaching future.
We're just assuming because he didn't say that he's stepping down,

(01:29:37):
that he's going to continue to coach Colorado.

Speaker 3 (01:29:40):
Yeah, I mean, it's just it's fascinating. I don't I
don't need to question the motives at this point because
I'm not going to figure it out one way or
the other. But man, the byproduct, like you said, is concrete.
It is definite, it is undeniable. He sits down behind

(01:30:00):
the microphone, and because we don't have any games being
played right now, immediately Colorado, they bust out the highlights,
they bust out the conversation.

Speaker 5 (01:30:10):
They gave you last year's record. We just saw that
on the on the graphic.

Speaker 3 (01:30:16):
Yeah, they were playing Colorado football spring.

Speaker 2 (01:30:19):
Game footage, the most recent game they played.

Speaker 3 (01:30:21):
Oh see, it's like everyone wearing the spongy caps, which,
by the way, in fifteen minutes we're gonna have Chris
Camaranie on and we'll talk about how important those things are,
those ugly helmet things. If you have not read the article,
I would encourage you to take the next fifteen minutes
to go and do so.

Speaker 2 (01:30:39):
It's in the Athletic.

Speaker 3 (01:30:41):
It's about Greg Newman, who was an interior defensive lineman
for the University of Utah during the the I guess
you'd call it the late Oughts. He was on that.
He was a starter on that Sugar Bowl team and
a completely undersized guy who somehow found his way into
a very important role on maybe the best defense that

(01:31:04):
Utah has ever fielded. And unfortunately his life ended prematurely
and in less than ideal circumstances. And Chris Camerannie of
the Athletic, who was joining us in fifteen minutes, wrote
a really great article about it, and did you know,
took a hard look at what football does, the toll

(01:31:26):
that it can take on people, And you know, we're
gonna we're gonna talk about the article. We're going to
talk about Greg Newman, who I knew a little bit,
and we'll yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:31:37):
Well, we'll take some time in fifteen minutes to do that.

Speaker 3 (01:31:40):
But I would say if you have you're on your
lunch break right now, you're headed over to Big Willi's
to grab a sandwich or whatever.

Speaker 2 (01:31:49):
Pull out your phone, go to the Athletic.

Speaker 3 (01:31:51):
Read that article Greg Newman, Chris Comerannie and it's it's
a pretty easy well, I won't say it's an easy read.

Speaker 2 (01:31:57):
It's a quick enough read. It's not an e read.

Speaker 3 (01:32:00):
It's going to make you emotional, and it's going to
make you question some things about our own love for
the brutal nature of contact sports. But it's an important
conversation to have and and.

Speaker 2 (01:32:12):
We'll have it.

Speaker 5 (01:32:13):
Yeah, the the name of the piece he found his
place in the world through football, but CTE would lead
to fifteen years of suffering on the athletics, So it
really is a heavy, very heavy piece. Is as someone
who didn't grow up a Utah football fans, I've mentioned
many times on these airwaves. Oh see, this might maybe

(01:32:34):
my first time learning about Greg Newman and his impact
on that team and also unfortunately his his his suffering afterwards.
So it was if you are if you're like me,
maybe you grew up in this state, but you weren't
you weren't a local college, a fan of one of
the local teams, or you're new to the new to
the area. This is certainly an illuminating read about the

(01:32:56):
impact he had on on Utah football program, and also
you all everything you said about uh just it's just
a sobering piece on our love of the brutal, like
the brutal nature of contact sports, but also the unfortunate
consequences of that for some players, and Greg Newman being

(01:33:18):
one of them.

Speaker 3 (01:33:20):
All Right, So we'll get to that with Chris Cameronnie
coming up now in about thirteen minutes. We'll take a
break here on the other side, Luca a new look
Luka Doncic and the motivation behind it. Shaan O'Connell Show
ESPN seven hundred ninety to one FM, proud part of
utahs ESPN Radio Network.

Speaker 1 (01:33:43):
You're tuned to the Sean O'Connell Show for the Murdoch
Chevrolet Studio of ESPN seven hundred and ninety two one
a half.

Speaker 2 (01:33:51):
Am You.

Speaker 3 (01:34:00):
Live that Advice presenting our twenty twenty five Granary Live
Concerts series powered by Nightingale College and Murdock Hyundai. That's
Utah's number one Hyundai dealer. Outdoor concerts in the heart
of downtown Salt Lake City is rising Granary District. Find
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check it out right now.

Speaker 2 (01:34:20):
Luca new look for Luka Doncic, this is new Luke
for Luca, new Luca.

Speaker 3 (01:34:28):
Okay, so is this a real lifestyle change for Luca
who's now gone sugar free, gluten free, increased his training regimen.
Is this somebody who listened to the criticisms, maybe heard
some as hurt as he was by the whole Dallas
thing and by the fact that they were not only

(01:34:51):
willing to trade him, but they didn't even get back
market value for him, because it was just like, oh,
he's a young guy with a bad body, he's not
a professional too much whatever that clearly the relationship.

Speaker 2 (01:35:02):
Was bad there.

Speaker 3 (01:35:03):
But maybe after the anger and after the hurt of
that reaction, maybe somebody took him aside, or maybe he
took himself aside for lack of a better term, and
he said, you know what, some of these criticisms are valid.
I could put in some more work on my body.
Maybe being around Lebron James and seeing the longevity and
the sustainability of not only the career, but the greatness

(01:35:27):
of the career, maybe he's just like, how do you
do that? And Lebron's like, you work out, dude, This
doesn't happen by accident.

Speaker 2 (01:35:34):
You drink light beer if you drink beer at all,
My guy, Like, come on now.

Speaker 3 (01:35:38):
Like whatever it is Luca Lucas now magazine cover fit.

Speaker 5 (01:35:43):
Yeah, Men's Health magazine, which is famous for putting shredded
guys on their cover. So yeah, that that certainly stood
out to me.

Speaker 3 (01:35:53):
So the other thing about it is right, it could
be like the post divorced body. Yeah, where or people
do this to their like out of spite?

Speaker 2 (01:36:07):
Is this a spiite body? Okay, spie body? Is he? James?
I'm asking you?

Speaker 4 (01:36:12):
Is this?

Speaker 2 (01:36:12):
Is this a spiite body?

Speaker 3 (01:36:14):
Is this a I'm one, I'm now being influenced by
one of the great professionals to ever do this thing?

Speaker 2 (01:36:21):
Body?

Speaker 3 (01:36:22):
Is this a I had a little come to Jesus
moment with myself about you know, some of the criticisms
that were levied towards me kind of body? Is this
an a flash in the pan in his Canter did
this at one time when he was with the Utah
Jazz kind of thing.

Speaker 5 (01:36:41):
Where are we at with Luca the shredded version. I
think that there could be some spipe body to it.
I don't think that that's all of it. I also
think that it might end up being flash in the pan. Not,
I wouldn't say not, I wouldn't say all uh in
his canter and his freedom. Now, I would say I'll

(01:37:02):
shack in two thousand shack the one year he won MVP.
That's the year that in his Lakers career. Anyway, he
and Kobe both acknowledged that, oh, we're on the same
We're on the same wavelength. This guy is willing to
put in the work that I'm willing to put in
from Kobe's perspective, to be the greatest. And Shaq really

(01:37:26):
only did that one off season at least in his
Lakers' career. The rest of it, the rest of the time,
he was famously he was famously out of shape and
that and yet still dominating the league. So I wonder
if it's gonna be two thousand shack where it's like, Okay,
I'm I've heard all of you. I've heard how you
guys think I'm lazy. I've heard how you guys think

(01:37:48):
I don't care that I'm that I'm too fat, too
overweight to be to truly be an MVP, to truly
be an NBA champion. So this offseason I'm gonna show
you guys, and then and then after I get it done.
My suspicion is we might see the old Luca just
like we saw the old Shack.

Speaker 3 (01:38:09):
I'm gonna give you a hot take that is not
supported by any real science, But skinny Luca is more
likely to get hurt. It's counterintuitive because you would think
that a guy who pays more attention and takes better
care of the body shows up in better shape should

(01:38:33):
not get hurt. I'm telling you, man, look at and
basketball isn't exactly a contact sport, but it's also not
a contact sport, right.

Speaker 5 (01:38:44):
Yeah, I think it's if we're going to be technical
about it, I think that it's technically classified as a
contact sport.

Speaker 2 (01:38:51):
It's not a collision sport like NFL. That's probably that's
probably a better like it's.

Speaker 3 (01:38:55):
It's just it's not supposed to be rough, but it
is rough, and there's levels to all that. It's not
gonna take the tax on your body that hockey or
rugby or football does, certainly, but like those, there's some contact,
and the league protects certain guys from certain amounts of
contact whatever whatever. But also like if you look at

(01:39:16):
some of the guys in the roughest sports, Like like
when when Ovechkin takes off his sweater, Okay, he's not
a dude with like some shredded, oh my gosh, like
Greek god type body. Yeah, basically no hockey player has
that body. There's just very few guys that are even

(01:39:38):
impressive when they take off the equipment in hockey. And
yet those dudes are absolute savages contact wise, and incredibly tough,
and most of them incredibly durable when you look at
I mean, there's just so many examples of the dudes
who are like shredded beyond belief and can't stay on

(01:39:58):
the field or on the court or on the whatever.
And then there are guys that look like they could
be your maleman and you're like, oh, how you you're.

Speaker 2 (01:40:10):
A professional athlete. You're a professional athlete.

Speaker 3 (01:40:12):
Oh and you are one of the best in your sport.
I've been playing fourteen years. You're like, what how is
that your body? Then, like, we we joke about this
all the time in the sport of mma, but if
you look at the greatest fighters of all time, like
the best best best fighters of all time, the Mount Rushmore,

(01:40:32):
the top four, the top five, one of them has
a good body. One his name's George Saint Pierre. He
was shredded the rest of them compared to like your
average fighter at the PFL or UFC level, because most
of those guys are shredded, right, Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:40:50):
The best ones, the very best ones.

Speaker 3 (01:40:52):
You're just like, I mean, I can tell you work
out and there's some muscle under that fat. But Anderson
still never, like maybe one fight, had a six pack.
One of the best to ever do it, Fado amilion Ako,
greatest Russian heavyweight of all time, maybe the greatest heavyweight
of all time, never looked like he was even an athlete.

(01:41:14):
Daniel Cormier was a US Olympic wrestler who then went
on to become a great MMA fighter. He would during
fights James pull his waistband of his shorts up over
his belly button because he was embarrassed about his belly,
not because he.

Speaker 2 (01:41:29):
Was out of shape. He had an incredible gas tank.

Speaker 3 (01:41:31):
It's just like some people don't have that shredded body
and the durability and the the I guess ability to
just absorb contact and stay in competition, even at the
highest level is something different when you're a little bit
loosey goosey when you have a little bit more fat.

Speaker 6 (01:41:50):
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (01:41:51):
There's no science behind it, I don't think, or maybe
there is. Yeah, I don't know either. I will say
I learned something.

Speaker 5 (01:41:58):
I believe it was Michelle Smallman on the New on
Sports and Like show on ESPN Radio, which you can
hear four to seven here on ESPN seven hundred and
ninety two one a FM every morning. I've lose her
that said this, and may have been another female that
media member who covers spend a long time covering baseball,
But she said you can't pull fat is a saying

(01:42:21):
in baseball circles as a reason which I think is
probably ridiculous, probably not a reason why baseball players who
are who aren't totally muscular tones don't get injured as
often anecdotally, but that is something that baseball players have

(01:42:41):
said for a long time. Apparently, have some fat on
your body because you can pull muscles, but you can't
pull fat. I mean, I'm not sure how much stock
I put into it, but it is something that some
people believe.

Speaker 3 (01:42:54):
At least in a super smarch, Mike Trout might have
the best physical build of all football, of all baseball players,
Like he's not Jean Carlos Stanton or Aaron Judge, but
I mean, like the most universally athletic build, like he
could he could be any athlete. He could play in
any sport. Probably he's been injured a lot. That's true.
Camp Hey, and that poll fat Mike Trout, that tiny

(01:43:17):
anecdote supports my entire point.

Speaker 2 (01:43:18):
So I'm running with it.

Speaker 5 (01:43:19):
All right, you're gonna I want you to use that
on a PFL broadcast. Now, hey, this guy, this guy
doesn't look as good as this guy, but he's he's
better because you can't pull fat.

Speaker 2 (01:43:29):
So here here's a this is a real thing. Okay.

Speaker 3 (01:43:33):
Coming up in two weeks, we have a PFL title
fight at one hundred and eighty five pounds. The favorite
in the fight is a British guy who's in shape
but not shredded. The challenger, you would call him the
guy who's the underdog in the fight, but is h

(01:43:54):
He's a former college wrestler in college football player, an American cat.
He literally posted on his Instagram the other day he
weighs two hundred and six pounds. He did one of
those those body scans two hundred pounds of muscle, a
lean body mass, sorry, bone muscle, whatever. Yeah, he weighs

(01:44:15):
two oh six. He has six pounds of fat total
in his body. He's the most shredded dude I've ever seen,
even in MMA. And that's the matchup at one hundred
and eighty five pounds, and it's like and he's the underdog,
and he's the underdog, and I mean, he's gonna have
a hard time winning this fight. So it's wild the
way that stuff works.

Speaker 2 (01:44:33):
And I want I want you to use can't pull fat.
I want you to introduce that to the MMA world.

Speaker 3 (01:44:38):
I'll tell you what, that's the perfect fight to do it, James,
I'll say it if I have to. All Right, gotta
take a quick one here. The tone is gonna change
a little bit. Chris Cameroni's joining us. He wrote an
incredible article in The Athletic about the late Greg Newman,
who is an important part of the Sugar Bowl defense

(01:44:58):
and unfortunately his life ended prematurely tragically. Chris Camaronnie talked
to the family, the family talked to medical professionals. CTE
was president in Gregg's Brain. We'll get into some of
the details next. On the Shan O'Connell Show, ESPN seven

(01:45:18):
hundred ninety to one FM, proud part of utahs ESPN
Radio Network.

Speaker 2 (01:45:22):
Up Family, let the nation hear you through the mountains
near and far. Join the Crimson Club today. Visit Utah Crimson.

Speaker 1 (01:45:28):
Club dot com or text eight oh one five eighty five.

(01:45:52):
You're listening to the Sean O'Connell Show from the Murdoch
Hyundai Studio of ESPN seven hundred and ninety two one half.

Speaker 3 (01:46:04):
Number three of the Sewan O'Connell Show. Welcome Back Utah
is number one sports talk. You're home of the Utes.
Question is still out there? Your breakout players for the
year on offense and defense for the University of Utah.
I want you to get on the record before Kyle
Whittingham starts his post practice media availabilities during camp and says,

(01:46:25):
so and so is having a great camp so far.
This guy really impressed me. Hopefully there'll be a true
freshman or two that crack the depth chart that is
usually promising for the pipeline. You don't want too many
of them, though obviously offensive and defensive. Eight breakout players
eight seven, seven, three, five three zero seven hundred at
Real oc Sports. If you want to tweet at us.

(01:46:48):
Hopefully you took some time, as I suggested you should
to go read the Chris Camrodnie article about Greg Newman,
former Utah football player who is unfortunately no longer with
us after he passed. The cause of death was multiple
organ failure because of a I think you pronounced are

(01:47:09):
tome excessive use of kraton or however you say it,
a stimulant.

Speaker 4 (01:47:17):
He had been.

Speaker 3 (01:47:18):
He'd been dealing with some mental health issues, and it
seems like in hindsight a lot of those may have
been exacerbated by CTE and Chris did a really, I
think excellent piece of writing, but also an important piece
of writing for all of us who are huge fans
of college football, and most of you listening probably at

(01:47:41):
one point at least we're huge fans of Greg Newman
and his work as a member of that Sugar Bowl defense.
Chris Camaronnie, the athletic joins us. Now I'm the Sean O'Connell.
Se Hey, Chris, welcome, How are you.

Speaker 6 (01:47:52):
Hey, Sean? How's it going man? Thanks for having me well.

Speaker 3 (01:47:54):
I appreciate you taking the time to join us. I
appreciate you. You know, I'm a big fan of your writing,
and we've got to know each other a little bit,
and this is this was I think the hardest piece
I've had of yours to read for me, because I
knew Greg a little bit, and you know, the head
trauma thing gets close to home for people who played

(01:48:16):
sports like football and maybe did MMA or boxing or
something as well like I did.

Speaker 2 (01:48:22):
And I know for you.

Speaker 3 (01:48:25):
You're a professional about this, but but I imagine this
was not an easy piece to write, no, And I think.

Speaker 7 (01:48:32):
What first attracted me to the topic was I was
the beat writer for the Crownie that year in two
thousand and eight, so this was back when Kyle allowed
reporters to watch practice to report on practice. They often
had practice at Rice Cycles, So I have vivid memories
of walking down the long concrete you know, tonnel down

(01:48:56):
to practice and talking to guys and Greg was one
of the guys that I talked to quite a bit.

Speaker 6 (01:49:00):
And obviously I traveled.

Speaker 7 (01:49:02):
The country, you know, following that team that year they
went undefeated, and Greg was my age. We graduated at
the same time. He was in the Huntsman Center and
his cap and gown the same time I was that
may you know nine, and like so many other people,
I forgot about Greer and and I think in our

(01:49:23):
in our line of work, you're you're usually instructed to
write about the most tantalizing prospect, the person or player
with the highest ceiling, or just the most skilled, intriguing player.

Speaker 6 (01:49:39):
And you know, when.

Speaker 7 (01:49:41):
I saw that Greg passed last May, I just felt
compelled like I needed to to find out more. So, uh,
this this was a a reporting journey that lasted seventeen
months in totality, and it was really illuminating heartbreak looking
on too many levels to really count, and it was

(01:50:05):
I just want to make clear that I've had a
lot of great feedback in lieu of the article, and
it's gotten so many, you know, glowing reviews. But all
of this is due to the fact that Greg's family
was willing to be transparent about what he went through
the last fifteen years. Because if not, if they're not

(01:50:26):
willing to sit down with me month after month for
over a year and talk about the hardest stuff imaginable,
this story doesn't get written and his story doesn't get told.
And like like I've said before, you know, these guys
once upon a time starred with the brightest of lights
shining on earm, and a lot of them their stories
end in the dark, and I wanted to kind of

(01:50:47):
bring light into the darkness through Greg's lens and the
experience that he unfortunately had.

Speaker 3 (01:50:53):
So take me a little bit deeper into that the
you know, there's details in the article obviously, but one
of the maybe most pernicious things about the whole CTE
threat is that you don't know exactly how it's going
to manifest from one person to another. You don't know
when it's going to be most I guess acute. You

(01:51:16):
don't know what situations might exacerbate it might make it worse,
what substances people might use or whatever. And it seems
like with Greg's story there was an interplay of a
lot of factors there. So in this particular case, when
did the signs really start for Greg Newman?

Speaker 7 (01:51:38):
Yeah? And that Sean was like, among the most troubling
initial shock waves for me was a year after we
graduated from college. You know, his mom and sister started
telling me that that's when Greg started having symptoms just
a year after he started playing football, and it ended
his college football career. And Greg, mind you is like

(01:51:59):
most every other football player in this country started playing
around the age ten, and you know, he was fortunate
enough to play through college, so he had a thirteen
year tackle football career, which might seem like a lot,
but it's not that out of the ordinary for kids
who go on to play college football. And the fact
that he started showing symptoms around the age of twenty

(01:52:20):
four was astounding to me, and to have them really
detailed the timeline of how these things manifested, with voices
starting to percolate in his mind, with severe bouts of
catatonia where he just would not be present for minutes
on end for talking to people who weren't there talking

(01:52:40):
to the wall. I mean, it is it was extremely
difficult to have to make, you know, multiple loved ones
relive that because I mean, I think a lot of
people if they've experienced kind of the mental deterioration of
a loved one, whether it be through you know, Alzheimer's
or dementia, or even in case of Greg's with CTE,

(01:53:02):
it is it is among the most painful because that
it eventually becomes that your memory fair or not remembers
that version of the person, and it's harder to remember
the person they were before the symptoms started. So for
the past fifteen years, Greg was on the downslope. The
decline wasn't swift, it took time. There were times where

(01:53:23):
he had really good stretches where he went five to
six seven months with you know, not too many episodes,
and then there would be times where it was just
like this, this is not the Greg that we know.
And his family always kind of believed in the back
of their minds, like because there's no, you know, serious
history of mental illness in their family, because he showed

(01:53:45):
no signs of it as a teenager and as a
young adult before he stopped stopped playing football, they felt
like his playing career had to do something with this,
Like it just made the most logical sense that for
Greg to change and to experi it's something so drastic
and such a short amount of time that like the
likelihood was the repetitive head trauma that he suffered during

(01:54:07):
his playing career. And you know, as you mentioned, we
we still don't know so much about you know, CTE,
and it is a it's a buzzword for a lot
of people. Some some fans have been very turned off
by the prevalence of it, and it's harder for them
to watch football. And then there's some fans who say
it's an overblown kind of you know, science talking point.

(01:54:28):
And to be able to report the story firsthand for
so long over the last year, it's it is. It was,
you know, really heartbreaking. But it's also interesting to meet
too Sean that like, we don't we still don't know
why it affected somebody like Greg and you know you
talk about that.

Speaker 6 (01:54:46):
Oh wait, Sugar Bowl defense. I mean they had seven
guys drafted, like Greg was.

Speaker 4 (01:54:51):
Greg was the.

Speaker 7 (01:54:51):
Only guy on that defensive line that started in the
Sugar Bowl that wasn't drafted. So many of those guys
went on to play five, six, seven, eight, ten years
in the NFL. By all accounts, they're doing okay. So
where we find ourselves with the study of this trauma
and this disease is, you know, they're doing a lot better,
but there's still so many unknowns. But to hear about

(01:55:15):
the day in, the day out, the weekly bouts, the
monthly bouts, and then just to see it kind of
descend into a state of mania over the last fifteen
years of his life was really difficult.

Speaker 3 (01:55:29):
Something that I at least want to bring to the
air because it was an important thing for me to
read in the article, which is probably a personal flaw.

Speaker 2 (01:55:38):
I have mutual friends with Greg.

Speaker 3 (01:55:40):
We knew each other in passing where social media friends,
so to speak, and we would occasionally chat, like on Facebook.
He followed my fighting career, and I obviously was a
big fan of his when he played football and things
like that. I wasn't a real life friend of Greg,
but I would see, you know, you see posts. Again

(01:56:01):
I'm telling on myself here, but I would see what
looked like, oh man, he's losing it.

Speaker 2 (01:56:06):
This guy's on drugs.

Speaker 3 (01:56:08):
And the reason I say that, and I admit that,
is because in the article it seems correct me if
I'm wrong, but it seems like that, like self medication
actually was not part of his journey until very late
in this process, and long after I would have seen,
or people maybe who followed him on social media or
whatever would have seen and maybe assumed, like I shouldn't

(01:56:31):
have assumed, but I did, like, oh, you know, he's
in New York working for this bank. And then the
next thing you see is him posting stuff that makes
no sense at all and seems very delusional. And my
immediate assumption was not, oh, ct, is this maybe the
root cause of this or you know, head trauma accumulated
or accumulated over years could be affecting him. My assumption was, oh, man,

(01:56:56):
he's fallen on substance abuse or something like that. And
in the article it seems like that wasn't the case.

Speaker 6 (01:57:05):
It was not the case.

Speaker 7 (01:57:06):
But it's interesting you say that, Sean, when we talk
about a story of the scope and Sky's like believe
it or not. I think the story ended up around
like thirty five hundred words, which in sports journalism is
like probably like way too long for ninety nine percent
of the editors. But this story in reality could have
been ten thousand words long, just because of the amount

(01:57:27):
of you know, powerful anecdotes and things that people talk
to me about.

Speaker 6 (01:57:32):
And one of the.

Speaker 7 (01:57:34):
Most powerful things that was the hardest thing for me
to cut was the fact that after he died, his
sister Laura and brother in law Jeff got access to
his phone and they had assumed that, you know, a
lot of people had kind of forgotten about Greg and
you know, his teammates weren't checking in on him. But
when they went into his social media accounts. There was

(01:57:55):
just like endless scrolls of unread messages from friends and
former teammates asking what's going on, how can I help?
And Greg didn't read him because he wasn't in the
right frame of mind. And in the last year of
his life, that's correct, like he started self medicating when
he was living on the street, but it wasn't the
first fourteen years of his an unfortunate journey through CT

(01:58:16):
did not feature substance abuse issues.

Speaker 2 (01:58:20):
So that was very.

Speaker 7 (01:58:24):
Hard to hear because the kind of the idea of
Greg's life ending the way it did was so many
fans forget about Greg. So many teammates might have forgotten
about Greg, and a lot of people do. That's just
the nature of the sport. College football is so cyclical,
especially in today's day and age, that it's impossible to
try to ask a fan to remember one of the

(01:58:46):
eighty five scholarship players or whatever the number is now.
It's changed so much, And I understand that two thousand
and eight now is much further away than it was.

Speaker 6 (01:58:55):
A few years ago.

Speaker 7 (01:58:56):
But the fact that people were trying to reach out
to Greg, the fact that people were trying to or
like get to him, and they noticed this, but he
wasn't of sound mind enough to click on it and
see it and try to respond. Is you know one
of you know, dozens of really heart wrenching anecdotes that

(01:59:16):
come along with the story.

Speaker 3 (01:59:18):
And the reason I wanted to bring that up is
because I think that when we don't know the details
of how some of these things go, we assume the
wrong things and maybe attribute it to like some kind
of character flaw in the person. And I felt guilty
about that that, you know. I was like, first of all,
substance abuse, that like addiction issues, are their own illness,

(01:59:41):
and so I should be a lot more charitable than
those things as well. But it's like, I don't know,
I just I thought it was important to say because
there are people that will listen to conversations like this
or read arkirles like this, and they'll say, oh, well,
if you would have done this instead, if you hadn't,
if you hadn't been into drugs or hadn't been drinking,
then brain would be able to withstand some of that

(02:00:03):
damage and stuff. And I wanted to because that wasn't this,
That's not what this was. Maybe it is for other people,
for Greg Newman. That was not the case, That was
not the reason why it went so south.

Speaker 7 (02:00:14):
Well, and even if it was, sean like, the common
denominator is the traumatic brain damage that that forced Gregg's
actual chemical the tissue in his brain.

Speaker 6 (02:00:28):
It cost him to change who he.

Speaker 7 (02:00:30):
Was over time, gradually, so much so that, you know,
like you said, so, I think a lot of people
who knew Greg came across social media posts in recent
years and noticed that it wasn't just it didn't just
seem odd, it was gibberish. It was beyond comprehension. And like, listen,

(02:00:50):
i I've like had to, you know, tell myself the
importance of the story ad nauseam over the last year.
But like the anecdotes in the story speak for itself,
speak for themselves, and like like, here's Greg Newman, a
starter on one of the best stories in college football
in the last twenty five years, had a sack in
the Sugar Bowl. Thirteen million people watched this guy sack

(02:01:12):
John Parker Wilson. And last year he's home in his
hometown in southern California. Another un housed person with a
big beard trying to sell pictures of dragons that he drew,
thinking that it's going to turn the tide, thinking that
the dragons might come back to life, Like this is

(02:01:33):
something that like people need to understand that while we
don't know the science of why it affects some people
and why it doesn't, this is the toll it can take.
And once you go down this road, even as you know,
even as a journalist, like it is hard to ignore
this type of stuff. Like this season, I'll just like

(02:01:54):
be honest, like, this football season will be different for
me because I've always been kind of the sports writer
that takes pride on not buying into the macho mentality
of the sports that I cover, football being the most
obvious one because it's the main part of my job.
But this season will be different because I've seen up
close what this can do to somebody at such a

(02:02:14):
young age. I mean, these things are manifesting in Greg
at age twenty four. There are probably some twenty four
year olds going to There are twenty four year olds
playing college.

Speaker 6 (02:02:22):
Football this year, so this is a very sensitive issue.

Speaker 7 (02:02:28):
It's an important topic, and I think the fact that
Greg's family was willing to talk to me through all
the painful stuff that they went through and saw Greg
go through, only will hopefully shine light on who Greg
was as a person before the symptoms started, as well
as what happened to him afterwards, because both things need
to be told.

Speaker 3 (02:02:49):
I'm going to ask you a really unfair question, but
how how should a story like this and unfortunately there's
thousands of them? Probably, how should a story like this
affect our relationship with what has become America's past time?
I mean it is football is our passion now and

(02:03:10):
not just college football, NFL football, Little league football, et cetera.
How should how can we be responsible as fans and
also realistically not just cut football out of our lives
because most of us won't.

Speaker 2 (02:03:26):
Again, it's an unfair question.

Speaker 7 (02:03:30):
Well, based on the folks that BEU that I talked to,
like doctor and McHugh who's on the cutting edge technology
of CT study, Like she said, really, the only way
you find a way to eradicate this is by eliminating
contact sports. And this is a specific to football. Football
is the easiest one because it's the most obvious one.
But you know, my colleagues at the Times a few

(02:03:51):
years ago ran maybe the hardest series that I've ever
had to read and it was a series of teenagers
and people in their twenties who are diagnoss so ct
who played high school football, high school soccer, high school hockey.
Like this is not specific to football. It is usually
more specific to football. But you're never going to get

(02:04:13):
rid of it. It's it is going to be up
to the individual. It's going to be up to the parents. Really,
at the end of the day, Greg's mom, Yvonne, who
was you know, amazing throughout this whole process, just said that,
you know, in her in her opinion, she would love
to be able to see kids not play tackle football
until they get to the high school level and and

(02:04:37):
and see how that goes. I don't think that's realistic
in this country, just because, like you said, it's a
it's a cultural component, it is who we are. But
it would be cool to be able to have kind
of a coalition of some sort or an independent group
of people, former players, current players, doctors, whomever, to be

(02:05:00):
able to really talk through the impact this can have
on young people, because we're seeing it impacting people younger
and younger. Whereas I think when CTE first started percolating,
you know, you know, fifteen twenty years ago, with the
Concussion movie, Like it was a lot of folks who
you know, were in their fifties and sixties, and you know,

(02:05:22):
then Junior Saub came along, and the Aaron Hernandez case
came along, and we're just seeing this in younger people.
So I'm not the right person to ask, Sean. I
just think like it would be nice to be able
to have people tackle this no pun intended like issue
on a more grandiose level.

Speaker 6 (02:05:40):
But it's it's difficult because you're.

Speaker 7 (02:05:42):
Talking about a billion dollar entertainment industry and it dominates
our airwaves unlike any other sport we have in this country.
And like, I think you can make an argument that
second secondary to politics, football is like the second most
of that thing in the news cycle, like twenty four
to seven.

Speaker 2 (02:05:58):
So yeah, I just.

Speaker 6 (02:06:01):
Hope that Greg's story gets gets read.

Speaker 7 (02:06:03):
By people and and and that people can understand the
toll that the that it can take on some people
and the fact that you know, to your point, not
assume if somebody is going through something and and just
try to, uh, you know, try to figure it out,
try to think outside the box, so to speak.

Speaker 3 (02:06:23):
Uh, this is several years ago now, but we had
at the time, the head of the Boston Brain Bank
on the show I was doing and talked about, you know,
there's no way to diagnose this while someone's alive, and
this is all post mortem, you know, autopsy type stuff
where you discover whether or not somebody's brain shows the
signs of CTE. Do do we know if we're any

(02:06:46):
closer to finding a I guess, a living test to
determine whether ct is present in a human.

Speaker 7 (02:06:54):
It sounds like, based on some reporting from folks in
the science department at the Times, in recent years, they
are getting closer to a potential blood test or brain scan.
But the pathology behind CTE is so intense and so
invasive that you know, you're basically studying pieces of the

(02:07:15):
brain that you've cut over a year's worth of time,
which is, you know, takes a lot of time. So
I hope, So I would imagine that we'll get there eventually,
But I don't think if there's I don't think there's
currently anything around the corner.

Speaker 3 (02:07:32):
The technology of helmets is different. Those dummy caps or
whatever they're called that you pointed out in the article
are now they're kind of ubiquitous. I mean, everyone's wearing them,
at least for practices, and some guys wear them in competition.
Do we know the science on how significant the difference
those will make.

Speaker 7 (02:07:50):
We do not yet. I mean, the Guardian caps only
burst on the scene a couple of years ago. And
I think you can correct me if I'm wrong, Sean,
But I think coaches in general have really toned down
practice like live drills anyways. So I think you would
have to like get hard data from from people who
are wearing them in games, because that's when you literally

(02:08:13):
can't like slow down, Like the whole purpose is to
either run away from the person or to bring that
person down to the ground by any means necessary. So
I think the Guardian caps are positive, but I just
don't know what kind of data they'll have within your future.

Speaker 3 (02:08:28):
What's the what's the next? Will you take another venture
into this particular topic.

Speaker 7 (02:08:34):
I it's you know, it has been a heavy load,
to say the least, because like you just you don't
you just take so much time, your due diligence goes
into something that lasts like this for over a year.
And to be able to do it as a pleasure,
and it's a privilege and it's It's definitely going to
go down as one of my most rewarding stories. But

(02:08:57):
it takes an emotional tool, especially as a parent. Now,
you know, I'd be lying if I said like it
Like there were times where I would be sitting there
with this family and like, you know, myself get choked
up and you just get you It's human nature to
see somebody describe some of the hardest days or years
of their life and just sit there and be stoic.
I'd like to pretend like I am a very stoic

(02:09:19):
person that I might present that way.

Speaker 6 (02:09:21):
Outside, but it was. It was a heavy lift.

Speaker 7 (02:09:23):
So I'm I'm probably going to take a break and
venture back into the realm of silliness for a while,
just because I need.

Speaker 6 (02:09:29):
I need to lighten it up a little bit.

Speaker 2 (02:09:33):
As the Utah football community done right by the Newman.

Speaker 7 (02:09:35):
Family, I think so, because you know, they were part
of the family. Was invited to the reunion that Slide
put together in April. Not everybody showed up. I mean,
it's been almost twenty years now, but they did an
interview with Yvonne and Greg's sister Laura as part of

(02:09:57):
the presentation for folks who are there. They they gave
the family They're cool letterman jackets and signed a team
ball and gave it to his mom, who has it
displayed in her home along with Greg's frame number fifty
six years from.

Speaker 6 (02:10:11):
The Sugar Bowl. These are this is a tricky thing.

Speaker 7 (02:10:15):
I mean, the family wanted to make clear from day
one that they don't blame Utah, They don't blame anybody
at the school. This is a byproduct of football, and
Greg believe it. Like Greg would later tell his mom
that he wished he hadn't played football. But when you're
a nineteen to twenty three year old kid who's really
good at something, it's impossible to tell somebody, hey, you

(02:10:36):
might be really good at this, but it's probably in
your best interest to stop doing it. And if you know,
another interesting part of the story is like Greg horus
hamstring leading up to the Combine in nine, considering how
good Utah's defense was in nine, Like Greg definitely would
have been an undrafted free agent at minimum going into
that camp because even though he was undersize, he was
a big guy. He probably got could have got another

(02:10:57):
look at a different position. But yeah, this is this
is a tricky subject and you know, they wanted to
make clear that.

Speaker 6 (02:11:06):
You know, nobody's to blame.

Speaker 7 (02:11:07):
This is just the reality that can befall somebody who
played football, and unfortunately it hit Greg Well.

Speaker 3 (02:11:15):
I could talk to you for another twenty minutes. We're
up against it. I appreciate you giving us the time.
Another incredible piece. I appreciate everything you do. You're one
of the best in the business. And thanks Man, really
really incredible stuff.

Speaker 6 (02:11:30):
Thank you, Sean. I appreciate it.

Speaker 3 (02:11:32):
That's Chris Camaronie of The Athletic the article. As James
said earlier, he found his place in the world through football,
but CTE would lead to fifteen years of suffering. It's
a really well executed piece about Greg Newman, who was
an important part of that Sugar Bowl defense. I know that,

(02:11:52):
you know, the hardcore Utah football fans actually will not
have forgotten Greg at all because he was He was
the one of these things is not like the other.
He was the guy without the NFL body who was
giving you big time production on that Sugar Bowl team.
He had fifty tackles at defensive line. He had nine

(02:12:12):
and a half tackles for loss. Chris mentioned he had
the Sugar Bowl sack They had eight that day. His
was number five, and you know, he was an important
part of the defense and he was an important part
of the team. And unfortunately he's no longer with us,
and at least part of the reason for that, And
it seems like maybe the primary reason for that was CTE,

(02:12:35):
and football would have been for Greg the source of
that CTE. There are other ways that it can happen.
For him, it was football, and there are other outcomes
for people who play football, obviously, but this is one
and I feel like it's an important conversation to have,
even as we're on the precipice of football season and

(02:12:56):
we're all about to really lean in and love watching
these football games and hear these stories about people playing
and winning and overcoming adversity and being the guy like
Greg was that really kind of has no business being
a starter from a physical makeup standpoint, from an actual
like God given talent standpoint and just works there behind off.

(02:13:19):
I mean, there's quotes from Kyle Whittingham, there's quotes from
Gary Anderson, there's quotes from Mike Wright other teammates. In
the article that I really do encourage you to read
about how everyone like that's what he was known for.
He was the worker, he was the guy that just
wasn't going to give up, and it led to some
pretty significant glory for him on the football field, and

(02:13:39):
I hope some serious happiness for him when he was young,
and then unfortunately it just went the wrong way as
it took a toll on his brain.

Speaker 5 (02:13:50):
I real quick, I wanted to say a couple of
things and also ask you a question oc.

Speaker 2 (02:13:57):
It.

Speaker 5 (02:13:58):
Certainly I already mentioned I was not familiar with him.
I was familiar with maybe a couple of guys from
that Brian Johnson, the quarterback at the time, and not
many other people on that team because Brian Johnson was
obviously that position front facing. So it was so not
being that familiar with it because I wasn't a Utah

(02:14:19):
football fan at the time.

Speaker 4 (02:14:23):
It was.

Speaker 5 (02:14:25):
It was great to learn about a guy's story like that,
to learn about a guy's overcoming adversity to have that
great success, but also very obviously very sad to hear
how it went south for him and it led to
him dying young. But also one thing that Chris Cameronnie
said that hit home for me as a new father

(02:14:45):
is it's he mentioned he's he's a relatively new father
as well. How that's just it hits different when you're
thinking about I want my kid to be able to
look to love sports and play sports, and you go,
but you hear these kind of stories and go, but
I don't know about football. I don't know about I
don't know about hockey. I don't know about combat sports.

Speaker 2 (02:15:09):
You you did both.

Speaker 5 (02:15:11):
You played football, you grew up playing football, you made
a career in combat sports.

Speaker 2 (02:15:17):
How does this hit for you reading about these things? Well,
I was texting Chris about this. You're also You're sorry,
You're to cut you off. You're also a young father,
like the father of young children who you know, girls
don't have as many opportunities to play tackle football, but
they have opportunities to do other things in sports and
other things that hopefully don't do this sort of thing,

(02:15:40):
but could put them at risk.

Speaker 3 (02:15:41):
Right, Yeah, I got emotional several times reading the article,
and I talked with Chris about this privately. And reading
an article about somebody who quite frankly probably I mean,
took better care of his brain than I have and

(02:16:02):
still had this happen to him made me emotional because
I have. You know, you don't think about those risks
when you're young. I honestly, James, I didn't think about
it one time. I didn't think about it in football.
I didn't think.

Speaker 2 (02:16:16):
About it when I started fighting.

Speaker 3 (02:16:17):
I didn't think about it after the first time I
got knocked out because I woke up and I was fine.
I didn't feel post concussion syndromes. I wasn't dizzy, no
light sensitivity. I'm not an idiot. I know that there
are risks, but I didn't internalize those risks because I
didn't feel them. I didn't feel like I know people
who've had concussion problems and they're like wary about getting

(02:16:39):
their heads hit. I never was because I'm lucky, and
so reading that article made me grateful that I'm been
so lucky. But it also it's scary, right because Greg,
I'm sure and his family I'm sure weren't like, Oh,
that was the hit that did it. That's the hit

(02:17:00):
that's gonna make him start changing, right. And I'm grateful
that I retired when I did because I retired before
my children were born. So at least whatever I faculties
remain with me are not gonna be diminished by further
risk taking.

Speaker 2 (02:17:17):
Right, But also, I mean, I don't.

Speaker 3 (02:17:20):
Know how you tell someone or ask someone don't do
the thing that loves that you love, don't do the
thing that really drives you in that moment. Are you
gonna tell a seventeen, eighteen, nineteen, twenty one year old
who's good at something, Hey, this thing that you're really
good at and is gonna give you a free education.
And now, by the way, not only give you a

(02:17:41):
free education, it's gonna give you potentially life changing money.

Speaker 2 (02:17:45):
It's gonna set you up.

Speaker 3 (02:17:46):
You're gonna tell those people you can't do this, it's
too dangerous. I mean, there's all these articles, there's all
of these studies there, there's so many layers to this conversation.
And we've seen it. The trending, by the way, in
current youth participation in American football is in affluent neighborhoods.

(02:18:13):
There's the numbers have fallen, they haven't changed in any
kind of meaningful way in you know, lower to middle
class neighborhoods, because it's still considered like an avenue of success.
It's still something like you can get a scholarship for this,
you can get a job doing this, you can make

(02:18:34):
it to the NFL and things like that. Whereas you know,
if you're from a place of privilege, and this is
not me speaking, this is the numbers saying this. Maybe
your parents are just like you know what, that's not
We don't have to do this. The same, by the way,
has been true of boxing in the United States of
America for.

Speaker 2 (02:18:51):
A very very very long time.

Speaker 3 (02:18:55):
Like the great American boxers are Latino or they're black,
with rare exception, those communities have embraced it in a
different way.

Speaker 2 (02:19:07):
Those communities have not.

Speaker 3 (02:19:11):
Abandoned the risk taking of boxing, specifically MMA will see.
It's still too new, I think, and I'm getting off
topic of what your conversation actually was, but it it
is a sobering reminder that you take risks. And by
the way, Chris did a good job of pointing this out.

(02:19:34):
The Newman family apparently wanted to make sure everyone knew
there's no blame. There's no blame game being played here.
It's not Utah Football's fault. It's not gonna be BYU's
football fault or Utah States Football's fault, or Weber State
or Jordan High School or whatever. When these things happen,

(02:19:55):
it is a cultural component. It is an individual choice
at almost every case whether or not you're going to
participate in something, and for me it certainly was. I
know people who know Greg very very well, and they
spoke glowingly about him and still do. And it's sad
that he's gone, and it's sad that football played a

(02:20:15):
part in that. We never get to ask Greg, you know,
whether or not you know, really, was it still worth
the trade off for you?

Speaker 2 (02:20:24):
I think the answer to that probably now is null.

Speaker 5 (02:20:26):
Yeah, And even if we could have a couple of
years ago, you mentioned that how much his mind had
gone because of CTE, and the article mentions that there
might have been a predisposition to psychosis as well, which
may have made his symptoms worse, we wouldn't have been

(02:20:47):
talking to the real Greg, right, So this is we
will his family that heard him say I wish I
never played football. They they probably are like, well, I
don't know if we can trust that Greg actually felt
that way, because this was not This was not the
same guy that told us that that we knew before
that they loved playing football.

Speaker 2 (02:21:09):
So it's just such a sad story.

Speaker 5 (02:21:11):
Condolences to his family, and I think I echo Chris,
he alluded to parents, this needs to be a long,
thoughtful consideration when you are introducing your kids to sports
as to what sports you would like them to pursue.
And of course, like you said, oh see, if their

(02:21:34):
passion isn't a certain thing, there's no way you can
stand in the way of that. But it should still
be a thoughtful, long considered proposition.

Speaker 3 (02:21:42):
Unfortunately, there's risk in everything that we do, and there's
risk for your brain in every sport, even if it's
not a contact or combat sport necessarily. I mean, you
can get baseball injuries and soccer injuries and all these
kinds of things. It's really it's just sad. And I
close with this. I said this, and again I'm probably

(02:22:06):
telling them myself by saying this, But my first assumption
when I saw what I saw was, oh, this person
is now addicted to something or this this guy this,
you know, I incorrectly thought that Greg had gotten into
substance abuse. I mean, we're talking ten years ago, and

(02:22:30):
not that that changes the equation very much, because that
in itself is a disease for a lot of people.
But it's just a reminder to myself and hopefully to
you by my own mistake, like you just you should
never assume there's always more to the story. And I
don't know that it would have changed anything if you know,

(02:22:52):
he had been there'd been intervention of the proper kind,
because I don't know, man, maybe maybe people thought the
same thing I did and we're like, hey, you need
to go to rehab, and he's like, what are you
talking about. I don't need to go to rehab. I
don't do anything that would require that.

Speaker 2 (02:23:08):
I don't know. I really, I truly don't know.

Speaker 3 (02:23:10):
But thanks to Chris com Ronnie and by extension to
the Newman family for making that article possible and hopefully
that was a meaningful conversation for you to hear and
to listen to it. Thank you for being here. As always,
we'll double up and then we'll come back and close
out the show. On The Sean O'Connell Show, ESPN seven
hundred ninety to ONEFM, proud part of Utah's ESPN Radio Network.

Speaker 1 (02:23:45):
It's Sean O'Connell's show.

Speaker 4 (02:23:46):
You were Home of the best Inside of Roy Hughes.

Speaker 1 (02:23:49):
Let's get back to woe see from the Murdoch Chevrolet
Studio of ESPN seven hundred ninety two one half am, all.

Speaker 2 (02:23:57):
Right before we get out of here.

Speaker 3 (02:23:59):
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Speaker 2 (02:25:00):
Call now and get on the schedule. All right.

Speaker 3 (02:25:04):
Scott Mitchell is filling in on the drive for Spence Check.
It's today, Hey Scott, how are you? I am amazing the.

Speaker 2 (02:25:12):
Host of Down and Dirty Now it's the Down and
Dirty Drive.

Speaker 4 (02:25:18):
The Down and Dirty Drive today. Yes, I like it.

Speaker 3 (02:25:20):
Yeah, we just We had Chris Camranie on for actually
most of the hour talking about the article he wrote
about the late great Greg Newman, former Utah defensive lineman
who unfortunately passed young and the post mortem they discovered,
you know, evidence of CTE and it appears that that

(02:25:42):
was a part of his decline. And Scott, you played
football a lot longer than most human beings on earth,
and you had teammates that played for just as long
as you, and you know, James asked the question of me,
so I'm going to You're much more important to ask
it to, like, how much do you think about this
kind of stuff? A big a part of your life
is this with you know, former teammates, friends, people that

(02:26:06):
are in your cohorts, so to speak, that have had
to deal with some of these issues. Hopefully not to
the same degree as the Newman family.

Speaker 4 (02:26:12):
If I'm being honest, probably not a lot. And I
think a lot of that is because you don't want
to think about it. You know, you don't want to
spend spend too much time dwelling on that kind of stuff.
There has to be some type of impact on your body,
your brain, you know, all of it. I mean, you know,
I'm reminded every morning when I wake up how sore
my body is. You know, it takes a minute, whether

(02:26:33):
it's my knees or shoulders or or my back. You know,
it's ankles, you know, any anywhere there's a joint somewhere,
it seems to have some kind of an issue. So
you deal with it and you realize, you know, there's
some guys that live a long life, and sometimes sometimes
they don't. I don't know definitively, like how much of

(02:26:54):
an impact it has across the board, like, you know,
does it reduce your life? Does it the quality of
your life? You know, significantly? I don't know. I mean,
I don't I'm sure someone does, or maybe maybe none
of us want to know, you know.

Speaker 2 (02:27:09):
I don't think we do not.

Speaker 3 (02:27:10):
I don't think there's a good way to find out
that answer right now, because you know there's and you
know this better than I do. There's guys who stuck
their nose into every pile for twenty years, right, and
their heads got beat all the hell and they're fine.
And then there's other guys like they had the junior
Sayo story. Yeah, and they didn't play that differently, right.

(02:27:32):
So I think genetics have a lot to do with it.
We don't know enough yet.

Speaker 4 (02:27:35):
Yeah, you wonder, you know, is it genetics, is it lifestyle?
Is there a cumulative effect where maybe there's some guys
that use performance enhancing drugs and they have you know,
or their alcohol related you know, having it all together,
and maybe it has an acceleration effect on things. I
don't know. If I don't know, and I don't know

(02:27:57):
that anyone knows how some guys live longer and some
guys live shorter. I know that my brain's been tested,
like I've I've had extensive analysis done it. You know,
it's two days. It was like about ten hours each day,
and I don't have issues, you know, which part of
me is disappointed because I can't explain some of the

(02:28:19):
dumb things. And I'm older than twenty five now, so
I know my brain's fully developed. But yeah, you know,
so I have, I have looked into it. I I'm
very happy about my life. You know. I really work
to live and enjoy a happy and productive life and
and focus on that and it's important to me. But
you know how long that will last. I have no idea,

(02:28:41):
did you.

Speaker 3 (02:28:42):
You know some quarterbacks take big hits and can get
knocked out, and you know, we've seen what's happened to Tua.
We've seen we saw what happened with Steve Young at
the end of his career. And you know, you're you're
too tall for most people that you know.

Speaker 4 (02:28:55):
No, no, I I remember in a playoff game against
Derek Brooks and I it was it was too man
and so no one has a quarterback. I took off
running and you know, got about fifteen yards and I,
for whatever reason, thought, well, I'll just run head on
into Derek Brooks right here. And the last thing I
saw was his eyes. And the next thing I knew

(02:29:15):
it was I was in the hospital and it was
like four or five hours later. Wow, laying on a gurney.
I was like, how did I get here? Wow? And
so so, you know, I've had those. I think everybody
has those issues and and those hits. You know, how
many I don't know, I know, understanding concussions. I had
quite a few concussions, more than I realized. You know,

(02:29:37):
there were a couple of times like that one that
I knew for sure, but there could have been other
situations that you just kind of shake it off. You
get the smelling salts, you just but but I have
symptoms or I had symptoms that told me that I
had I had a concussion and I wasn't even aware
of it. In Better Health News, Deon Sanders is cancer free.

(02:29:58):
I didn't know he was cancer none of us. Yeah. Yeah,
so that's that's a bit of a surprise. And you know,
I'm always happy to see when when people are able
to overcome that. And you know, unfortunately, my sister, a
couple of years older than me, got cancer and didn't
and and and I saw her courageous fight in losing
to cancer and it and it's something that's really stuck

(02:30:18):
with me and I've I've just appreciated how how mean
and vicious cancer can be and and it's it's good
when people are able to overcome it. And I know
there's a lot of work and energy and effort that
goes into fighting and curing cancer and uh and I
you know, I'm just I'm really glad to hear that
with Dean.

Speaker 3 (02:30:37):
It was we had a press conference earlier today for
those of you just tuning in, and the there were
there are all these different voices speculating, including people I
know and trust that were like, hey, he's stepping down today.
I only heard one good source that had it from
their one good source, and so I couldn't and I'm
glad he's not. Yeah, you know, the league is better

(02:30:58):
when Dion's coaching Colorados. So I don't know, just lots
of stuff going on. Yeah, there's always always stuff going on,
and you know, I think there are dangers, there's pitfalls,
there's challenges in all of life. And as you were
talking about this whole concussion issue and cancer and all
that stuff, I wouldn't change what I went through and did.

Speaker 4 (02:31:22):
I just I love sports. I love being a part
of it, I love playing it at the highest level.
It was an incredible experience and I would do it
all over again in heartbeat. I would be like first
in line. You know, it doesn't deter me. I'd actually
be more first in line if I got today's salaries
like that would even be a little bit easier.

Speaker 2 (02:31:42):
What I don't like that idea, because then you wouldn't
be here.

Speaker 4 (02:31:46):
Well, you know, I just put it in my contract
that I could be so, you know, because if you're older,
you don't you know, you don't care. And I would
be honest with you too. I wouldn't. I wouldn't be
like one of these I'd be like Charles Barker, I
tell you the truth. I wouldn't. I wouldn't hold back.

Speaker 1 (02:32:00):
You know.

Speaker 2 (02:32:01):
That would not have been my concern with you at all. Scott.

Speaker 3 (02:32:06):
I never fear that we're going to get a two
filtered version, Scott Mitchell.

Speaker 4 (02:32:13):
I mean why not. It's like, I mean, I'd rather
people hear the truth and then to hear a bunch
of hogwash.

Speaker 3 (02:32:19):
Well, you got four more hours of it with Scott
Mitchell today. He's a marathon man today on a Monday.
It's fun, by the way, to fill in for you,
and I really enjoy it and it's fun to do.
And I hope I don't embarrass you guys, and that
you know we keep at least people on the airway.
At this point we're probably embarrassing you. So stay tuned
for the Drive, this time featuring Scott Mitchell. That's next

(02:32:42):
on utail's number one Sports Talk ESPN seven hundred ninety
twenty FFM, The Shat O'Connell Show, brought to you today
and every day by our friends at Big Willie's. Telemose
sent you at seventeen seventeen South May. Let's do it
again tomorrow people. Goodbye,