Petros Papadakis joins Dick Fain.

Petros Papadakis joins the show to talk about the end of the USC-Notre Dame rivalry, going viral, and much more.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's time for our weekly conversation with college football analyst
Petros Papa Nakas.

Speaker 2 (00:05):
I'm a smart guy, I'm stupid.

Speaker 1 (00:07):
Brought to you by Sweet James Accident Attorneys, forty one yards.
If you're hurt in an accident, called Sweet James right
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Speaker 3 (00:21):
Rue, I don't know, Maruto.

Speaker 1 (00:29):
Now with Petros Peers Dave's Softy Muller.

Speaker 4 (00:34):
Hey, welcome back on absolutely gorgeous, gorgeous Wednesday afternoon for
baseball across the street Tea Mobile Park coming up at
six forty Mariners and the Nationals. But it's time now
to talk to our friend Petros. Papa dak is brought
to you, bah.

Speaker 2 (00:52):
Well, the one and only Sweet James, the dense beard
of justice can come through for you. If you've ever
been in a car accident or a motorcycle accident, dog
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James at eight hundred and nine million. That's eight hundred
nine million or Sweet James dot com, Hello Dick, how

(01:12):
are you?

Speaker 3 (01:13):
I am great? You are?

Speaker 4 (01:14):
I am speaking now to the world famous Petros Papadakis.
Because anytime you were picked up on awful announcing and
thrown out throughout the Twitter verse for you.

Speaker 2 (01:24):
Usually it's a football season, you know, I say something
silly in a late night football Yes, yes, and that's
usually how it happens. But this was more of a
legitimate reason.

Speaker 3 (01:34):
This They would call this a hot take.

Speaker 4 (01:37):
You were picked up for a hot take, you know,
ripping on poor how could you rip on poor Lincoln
Riley and calling your alma maters soft because they don't
want to play Notre Dame? And uh, you know, is
it really that bad down there? Are USC fans pissed
to you? Or do they hate Lincoln Rilly just as
much as you do.

Speaker 2 (01:53):
I think it's the latter for the most part. Or
there's a lot of apathy and there are some that
support why do we have to play Notre Dame anymore?
But I doubt any of them are deeply connected to
the program. Not that I really like to pull that card,
like you're not a real trojan, because people say that
to me all the time. But to me, one of

(02:14):
the special things about USC football, one of the most
special things about USC football is the Notre Dame rivalry,
which exists because USC football was such a shining jewel
of excellence on the West Coast for such a big
part of the twentieth century. We're talking about a rivalry

(02:35):
that has survived World wars. And as Brady Quinn pointed
out on the radio this morning when I was on
with him, they used to take a train. We want
to talk about travel. In fact, I think it was
back in the fifties. One of the seminal moments that
created the USC lore of excellence in Los Angeles was

(02:56):
after a victory in Notre Dame. It might have been
before the fifties. I mean, it probably was like the
third I mean something way back, and they got out
of the train at Union Station in LA if you
know the city, and there was a ticker tape parade
down Broadway. Now, the only kind of parade you'd have
down Broadway today is a meth head parade. But one

(03:16):
hundred years ago, you know, it was one of the
seminal moments in the history of the program. The entire
city greeting the team coming home on the train. The
point is USC Notre Dame is very special. One of
the very special things about playing at USC is not
going to Pullman, though it's great if you did it.

(03:41):
It's not playing in the coliseum against UNLV or something.
It's taking the field at Notre Dame, and more specifically,
it's taking the field at Notre Dame in the month
of October, as it's been done for one hundred years.
And that shouldn't have anything to do with conference realignment.

(04:02):
It should have nothing to do with the portal or
the nil or anything. In fact, to me, that was
the coolest thing about playing at USC. If you sign
with USC, you get to play on this gigantic game
every year against the Fighting Irish, which like it or not,
is still the shot the cradle of college football. Not

(04:23):
to mention the fact that they're the only team in
the world cool enough or with a big enough brand
to have their own TV deal, right, I mean, how's
that worked out for the old Longhorn Network. Can I
tune in and see a twenty four hour Ricky Williams
and Vince Young sit up contest or something on there? Now?

(04:45):
What happened to that? You know, and that's the second
and Texas is huge and rich, and the Longhorns are
the second biggest brand in college football and Notre Dame
dwarfs them because of Catholicism and their history. So why
USC would be afraid to play them or act like

(05:05):
they don't want to play them, or gesture at all
from their little castle on the West coast toward them
and go back and forth like they might not want
to play. This rivalry is the most insulting thing to
the history of college football that I've ever I mean, yes,
conference realignment, yes, seismic change, but if we don't play USC,

(05:26):
Notre Dame to me, I don't think. I think they
should wear the jockstraps on the outside of their uniform,
change that you know, wear the helmets backwards, change the
uniforms to the dumbass ones from any given Sunday and
stop bothering us about everything. And Lincoln Riley, who literally
would be is the engine behind this, and he literally

(05:47):
would be fired if it wasn't for his massive idiot
buyout that Mike Boones, who resigned in disgraced a couple
of years back, enabled So the whole thing is just
sad and USC football. Here's the other thing, Dick. I mean,
if you guys are puffed up over in Washington about it, okay,
I mean a couple of years ago, they were a

(06:09):
great team and one of the most memorable seasons. Yes,
it ended tragically, but it was and you know, Calin
de Boor left like a week later, but it was
a really special thing. If Washington wanted to get puffed
up about this or that or say something, I'd be like, okay, whatever,
But USC, like they're going to compete for a national

(06:29):
championship anyway, you can't beat Maryland or Minnesota.

Speaker 4 (06:33):
Well, yes, that's that's a great point that the status
that USC has right now certainly is what is not
what it had in the past.

Speaker 3 (06:41):
I guess I totally agree with you.

Speaker 4 (06:44):
As a purest college football fan, I want to see
USC Notre Dame each and every year. But we do
have to realize that USC's schedule is monumentally harder now
than it was five years ago, especially in seasons where
you've got Hi Oregon.

Speaker 2 (07:03):
Where were they doing five years ago? Were they winning then?

Speaker 3 (07:06):
No?

Speaker 2 (07:07):
You know, were they winning in the Pac ten?

Speaker 3 (07:08):
No?

Speaker 2 (07:08):
Not since Pete Carroll was gone. And who did Pete
Carroll schedule Arkansas? They went to Nebraska, went to Auburn
when Auburn was the number one team in the country,
went to Kansas State. I'm just talking about stuff I
remember from the Pete cale era when to Virginia, they
went places Sea teams would never go in their non conference.

(07:29):
Forget about Notre Dame. This is just how they scheduled.
They scheduled bravely and it never held them back from
competing for championships. And if you're fourth in the Big
Ten anyway, you're and if you I'm sorry, you still
get into college football playoff. If you're fourth in the
Big Ten and you're still scared to play Notre Dame,
and if your schedule is too hard to where you

(07:50):
you can't play Notre Dame anymore, then you should have
never left for the Big Ten. And I know why
they did it, and I know why Washington didn'ts because
there was a revenue gap that was insurmountable and the
Pac ten failed, Pac twelve failed us all. But if
that's the stipulation, you don't get to play Notre Dame anymore,
because we might have to go to Rutgers. F that

(08:11):
f you f everybody like, this is stupidest thing I've
ever heard in my life. The players get paid, Now
collect your money and play Notre Dame. This is USC football.
And if the modern era is too hard for USA
to play Notre Dame anymore, then maybe USC is a
lot more like San Jose State, cal San Diego State

(08:32):
UCLA than they are like what they what they try
to project themselves to be, which is a blue blood.

Speaker 3 (08:40):
Well, under Lincoln Riley, they have been closer to that.

Speaker 2 (08:44):
No, no, I mean in his last in his last
what is it, thirty three games, he's like eighteen and fifteen. Wow,
I mean it's not it's not even close to good enough. Well,
you mentioned big hype right now, Dick about USC football
is that they hired a GM who's saying things that
Lincoln Riley has is too proud to say, which is,

(09:05):
we made a mistake, we need to recruit the area
and things of that nature, and that this guy is
securing a great recruiting freshman class for twenty twenty. Yeah,
that's the hype. You guys have the quarterback that's gonna
throw twenty five picks.

Speaker 3 (09:25):
That hey, don't be mean to demand.

Speaker 2 (09:28):
He's my I mean, I'm just saying, let's see over under.

Speaker 4 (09:32):
Petros babada is you mentioned you mentioned the biot that
got me thinking about player biouts. Now that we have play,
we're gonna have player contracts. Are we gonna have Let
let's say, Petros Papa Dakas is making a million dollars
a year from Montlake Futures And Oregon comes a knocking
and orgon, it's Montlake Futures Montlake Future?

Speaker 2 (09:53):
Is that your guys, nillogy? Whatever happened to the Tayee Club?

Speaker 3 (09:57):
Well that's different.

Speaker 4 (09:58):
That's side of the school of at that department, not
like futures are supposed to be separated.

Speaker 2 (10:02):
No ties to the school department at all, for sure.

Speaker 3 (10:06):
Exactly exactly.

Speaker 4 (10:07):
So an Oregon comes knocking and says, hey, you know, Petros,
we'll pay you two million dollars a year. And you
want to jump to Oregon? Are we going to see?

Speaker 2 (10:16):
What's their name? What's the name of their things?

Speaker 3 (10:19):
Are the Division Street? Is that what they are? Is
that wazoo? I always I always.

Speaker 2 (10:23):
USC is like the Sons of Troy or something. You
no no U c l A is the men of
Westwood to victory that's usc.

Speaker 4 (10:32):
There you go, are we going to get to the
point where you're going to have buyouts and nil player contracts?

Speaker 3 (10:38):
Like we haven't coaches buyouts?

Speaker 2 (10:40):
There has to be you know, like there is, Like
there's consequences for coaches for breaking their contract, right, there
should be consequences for players. I mean I was look,
I signed a letter of intent and played at cal
and and left and was punished for a breach of
contract and had to sit out for a year. They

(11:01):
tried to get me to sit out too, because it
was within the conference, that's right, And that kind of
stuff was just you know, there was a big stigma
involved in transferring. If you transferred, it's like what's wrong
with this guy? Now if you don't transfer, it's like
what's wrong with this guy? Doesn't want to make any money?
So you know, it's really it's really kind of flipped
on its neck. But look, it's if you waive a

(11:25):
million dollars in front of a young person, especially any
young person, forget some of whatever the socioeconomic circumstances. Unless
you're arch manning or something, you're and he's got more
NIL than anybody, you're you're likely going to get that
young man and his family's attention, and none of us
can sit and blame that young guy. But at the

(11:47):
same time, there probably is got to be I mean,
we've lived through the last two or three four years
of real chaos. I mean, talk about last lack of
institutional control. This makes Pete Carroll and Caligula blush. It's
we're in a new We're in a new It's the

(12:07):
wild West. And I hate saying that because it's such
a cliche, but I mean, I thought it was the
wild West when they took targeting away or made it
like targeting and you know, started changing the sport like
that fifteen years ago. But this is really really significant,
and they're going to have to There has to be
some kind of binding agreement between the schools and the players.

(12:28):
But the truth is, if we're still going to play
under this whole hypocrisy that the schools or institutions of
higher learning and they are tax exempt and they don't
have to pay the players, though they are the ones
that collect the billions of dollars in TV revenue and
they don't pay the players. They're rich fans who are

(12:49):
dorks that want to be cool, like the Path to
Victory or the Montlake Algaeos whatever.

Speaker 3 (12:57):
You know.

Speaker 2 (12:58):
What I'm saying like long, is that's the system? Then
what you know? What? What?

Speaker 4 (13:05):
What?

Speaker 2 (13:05):
What are we really doing? When you have a binding
agreement with the school that's paying you, then we can
maybe have some more structure. But I don't see as
much structure when you have Billy Bob's Grain elevator paying
a kid to play football somewhere and then they turn
their back and go work for Billy Bob's brother who

(13:25):
owns a rib conglomerate down it out. I mean, you know,
it never ends. And they're young people that they you know,
there's an urgency to have money and they should get paid.
They're the ones generating the revenue and they're the ones
at risk. I've said this for years, but the wrong
people are paying them. So we're we're all twisted up

(13:48):
like a pretzel.

Speaker 3 (13:48):
Oh we are? We are?

Speaker 2 (13:50):
Hey?

Speaker 4 (13:50):
Did did you happen to hear Old Terry Bradshaw today
say that Aaron Rodgers should just stay in California and
chew his bark?

Speaker 3 (13:57):
Is that what you do in California? You guys? You
guys sit the sit around and chew bark.

Speaker 2 (14:01):
Oh, that's what I was doing most of today.

Speaker 3 (14:03):
You know.

Speaker 2 (14:03):
I know Terry Bradshaw because of Fox. You know, I'm
working at Fox and seeing him over the years, and
he's always been wonderful and just exactly like he is
on the air off the area is very, very genuine
and completely original. And I kind of feel like, on
a much larger scale, obviously, that it's just kind of

(14:25):
whatever Terry Bradshaw says about the Steelers is kind of
like what I say about USC. Nobody cares anymore. I
say so much. I've been criticizing him for so long.
It's been such a long, arduous battle that it doesn't
I don't think it resonates with a lot of people, right.
I mean, I said all that stuff about Notre Dame
for weeks, but I went on John Canzano and said

(14:48):
it and it made news and John Canzano heard me
say it on Fox Sports Radio. But on my show,
where it's all fart sounds and stuff, I said it too,
but it wasn't picked up. So what I'm saying is, uh,
Terry Bradshaw's like, didn't he call for Tomlin's head like
thirty times over the last you know, like does anybody

(15:10):
even listen at this point? I mean, I don't. I
don't know if it matters or not to people.

Speaker 4 (15:14):
He might not be wrong about that. I've always been
a Tomlin fan. Oh no, my god, they haven't won
a playoff game in nine years.

Speaker 2 (15:21):
I don't think that he's wrong, just like I think
that I'm right about USC. But at the same time,
I think that a lot of people just considered that
the guy's crazy and old and he can't see the
forest for the trees.

Speaker 3 (15:31):
Are you talking about Bradshaw? Aaron Rodgers?

Speaker 2 (15:33):
Because Aaron Rodgers and Bradshaw all three of us the
holy Trinity of confusion.

Speaker 4 (15:39):
Okay, So is Aaron Rodgers actually gonna go to Pittsburgh
or is he's just gonna hang this whole thing? No?

Speaker 2 (15:43):
No, I mean I don't think he'd spend the whole
summer keeping everybody on an elliptical without without actually playing football.
I think if you're going to not play football, you
stop playing football and you tell everybody you're done, and
that way you don't have to think about it anymore
and you move.

Speaker 3 (15:59):
On that what far it seems like he's copying everything far?

Speaker 2 (16:01):
Yeah, Well, I mean I remember Tony Gonzalez doing this.
I mean it's hard a lot of guys that have
played for that long. And I'm not defending Aaron Rodgers.
I mean it's hard to I can't put myself in
his shoes, but a lot of guys that play for
a really, really, really long time. And I remember Matt
and I talking to Antonio Gates about this, Tony Gonzalez.
Different people like that. I mean, they love still playing football,

(16:23):
they don't want to go to camp. And the camp
part of it makes it really hard because it's the
tedium of camp, the reinstall of plays that you've reinstalled
for eighteen years in your career, you know, all that
different stuff I think wears on people. But that being
the point. When you're the quarterback, you got to be
in camp. I mean, I remember, didn't Tom Brady leave

(16:45):
because he was having the problems with Giselle was cheating
on him? Yes, and he left camp and he came
back and he was gone for a week. And hey,
if you're the slot guy, and okay, you know it's
not great, but people can wear that in the chest
easier than they can the quarterback. If you're going to
be somebody's quarterback, you got to be committed to them.

(17:06):
So that's what makes the Aaron Rodgers thing awkward. But yeah,
I think these older guys, if they want to play,
they string it out, string it out, string it out,
and then they make a decision. Obviously, Aaron Rodgers is
always a thousand times more complicated because he makes it
that way, and he goes on TV and makes cryptic
messages and things of that sort. But beyond that, I

(17:26):
think we'll see him playing out.

Speaker 3 (17:28):
Why do you think Ryan Clark keeps making videos?

Speaker 2 (17:30):
Petros Well, I think that people. I think that there's
a I think that there's an audience for it. I mean,
if there's an audience for what he does. I think
there's an audience in dividing people. I think there's an
audience in acting like a jackass. There's an audience of
making on air stuff very dramatic. There's an audience for

(17:52):
acting ridiculously self righteous and self important on it. I mean,
who's getting paid the most in sports media. It's Stephen A. Smith, right, Yeah,
and he's the he's I mean a lot of I
mean he's the most insufferable, right, he's the most riled up,
you know, so it's hard to uh, I mean, it's

(18:14):
it's it's hard.

Speaker 3 (18:14):
You're saying it's planned.

Speaker 4 (18:15):
He's like keeping he's just trying to He's trying to
be on the edge to keep himself in the news.

Speaker 3 (18:20):
So you know, adults like us keep talking about it.

Speaker 2 (18:22):
It feels, Yes, I'm a real adult, it feels it. Look,
it's hard to imagine anybody taking themselves that seriously, but
it feels like he does. And I think he genuinely
loves himself and loves the position he's in, and loves
taking videos of himself and loves his his cool pen

(18:44):
that he wears on his chest, and he's getting paid
millions of dollars a year to do it. I hope he.
I don't know how long it'll last because it doesn't
seem like something that has a lot of staying power
as far as being your brand is attacking everybody about race.
But it's worked for him so far.

Speaker 3 (19:01):
It certainly has.

Speaker 4 (19:02):
I'm wondering before we let you go, I'm wondering if
the whole NBA Finals is going to work for the NBA.

Speaker 3 (19:07):
Do you think because we have gotten.

Speaker 4 (19:10):
You know, we've gotten really good basketball over the last
three weeks that maybe people will continue to watch even
though it's going to be Indiana and Oklahoma City. Have
we gotten past the point where market size matters as
far as ratings go, because we've gotten past the point
in the NFL we know that any market can play
any market in the NFL.

Speaker 2 (19:29):
The NFL, the NFL has been the the the gold
standard of not worrying about the market size, worry about
the brand of the of the pro league. I don't
think the NBA is going to get there this year
with this. They're desperate for New York and they're not
going to get it. And they haven't spent the year

(19:52):
celebrating Halliburton. They haven't spent the year celebrating Shay Gilges
Alexander Great, maybe as much as he should have been.

Speaker 3 (20:00):
Absolutely.

Speaker 2 (20:01):
You know, they spent the year orchestrating trades for the
Lakers and draft picks for the Dallas Mavericks, and.

Speaker 3 (20:06):
All they's talked about all year is Joker and Lebron.

Speaker 4 (20:09):
And when you talk about Joker and Lebron all year
and you don't get Joker Lebron in the finals, then
you're gonna get burned.

Speaker 2 (20:14):
Probably, Yeah, And I would say that this is the
NBA Finals that the NBA deserves. Undoubtedly, this is the
brand that they deserve, and it could be great basketball.
And of course we're sports guys, so we're going to
monitor it. But beyond that, you're probably not going to
get Shall met and Spike Lee and I mean Larry

(20:35):
Byrd might show up.

Speaker 3 (20:37):
You'll get a Caitlyn Clark siding.

Speaker 2 (20:39):
Yeah, Kaitlyn Clark might show you know, you.

Speaker 3 (20:42):
Get a Clayton Bennett's siding.

Speaker 2 (20:44):
Hayden Fries dead, but you know, I mean, uh, that's
what it's gonna Maybe a Barry Switzer. Barry Switzer shows up,
but uh yeah, it's gonna be a real Middle American
McAfee fest. So good luck to everybody involved.

Speaker 3 (20:57):
Beautiful. Good luck to you, my friend.

Speaker 4 (20:59):
And and I'm glad you've reached international superstardom and theme.

Speaker 2 (21:03):
Oh thanks, Dick, I appreciate it. Usually it has to
be a rainy night in a San Jose game for
that to happen.

Speaker 4 (21:10):
Great stuff, man, Always a pleasure to talk to you.
I won't get to talk to you for a while
because Squish he's going to be back now.

Speaker 2 (21:15):
Well, you never know what's going to happen. I have
a great week.

Speaker 3 (21:18):
Thanks buddy. We'll talk to you soon.

Speaker 2 (21:19):
All right, Go Mariners.