Furness Show 1-21: Rick Rizzs, Hugh Millen, Mike Sando.

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome into the show. It's a Tuesday afternoon. It's a
cracking ticket Tuesday. You will hear every hour a sounder
play easy to understand. You'll be the tenth caller at
two o six two eight six ninety five ninety five,
and if so, you will have a chance, not chance,
if you're the tenth callor you're gonna win a pair of
ticket see the cracking arena. All right, how's that sound?

Speaker 2 (00:19):
Good?

Speaker 1 (00:20):
Back on salb Bredie having a good year, good good
at hockey, really good at hockey. That guy really good
at hockey. Yeah, yeah, you can go watch him in
a team that Seattle needs to go knock off because
it's getting a little tight.

Speaker 2 (00:31):
In the in the old I think they're turning it around.
Looks like they're kind.

Speaker 1 (00:34):
Of We will get into that at one today with
twelve forty power played to buy a Kwahana. That's why
because Hugh Millan joins us at one o'clock, Rick Riz
at twelve twenty, and Mike Sando at two o'clock today.
It's been a while since the gang's all been here.

(00:55):
Who's that guy?

Speaker 2 (00:55):
I don't know.

Speaker 3 (00:56):
I think he goes by Anders, But yesterday I was
informed it was Anderson.

Speaker 4 (01:00):
Well, I introduced myself as Anderson on the Correct and
Audio Network broadcast.

Speaker 1 (01:04):
Were you in Network Central yesterday?

Speaker 3 (01:06):
No?

Speaker 2 (01:06):
Was that the game?

Speaker 1 (01:07):
Well, wasn't that Network Central? Where is Network Central's here?

Speaker 3 (01:10):
Oh?

Speaker 1 (01:10):
It is what happens if it's the thirty two bar
and girl, that's just thirty what he decides he's hungry,
he wants to do the show there.

Speaker 2 (01:16):
Actually, yeah, he was on the concourse. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:19):
No, Yeah, we had a good time, good, good game,
crack and scored some goals, Matinee.

Speaker 2 (01:23):
Affair as you say earlier, Matinee.

Speaker 1 (01:26):
Yeah, we have another one another Saturday day, another Saturday
Day game coming up. Let's go this week. They've got
a Saturday Day game this Saturday as well. Yeah, well,
of course that would be a Saturday game anyway. Yeah,
I got it. I finished our show, got in the
car and just the time you hear you sign off
last night, you go perfect. Yeah, it was a good
game for them. That was national championing team. I'm gonna

(01:48):
spend more time on that tomorrow because we got at baseball.
Did you get to today? But I do want to
spend some time on Wednesday with that because it was.
There's a lot of stuff that went on on with
the game last night. My dysfunctional relationship with college football
just continues. It just continues. It is so bad. God,

(02:10):
is it bad. It's so bad. I find mysel and
I go back every time. I'm just I'm going back
watching it and enjoying it. And yeah, there's certain parts
of it. God, Herb Street shut up. Oh God, you
are just now. Please know I love him on game calls.
I'm done with him every other minute of the day, like,
I'm just done, like just the whole I went through

(02:31):
so much. Like it's hard having twenty million dollars payerroll
on college. Dude, Yeah, you lost your arrival. You know what,
half the country lost to the rival this year. That's
how it works. God, shut the hell up, man anyway,
But there's other things about that game. The three local
guys that were on the team that didn't stay in

(02:52):
state that shun the well, especially the one big in
state school that go to Ohio State and stay there
the whole time, you know, to their credit, GJT and
A Mecca. I mean, they stayed there the whole time
at Ohio State. I am happy for them in that regard.
I'm a huge JT fan, watched him since he was
in middle school play basketball. You know, the kid was

(03:13):
that big then, by the way I mean, but it's
in a mecca, the fact that he went to that
same small high school down in Pierce County and didn't
go somewhere else. I love his story too. But yeah,
we'll get to that. More of that tomorrow as well.
So Baseball Hall of Fame today will announced their twenty
twenty five inductees. I know the guy. What's the guy's name, Thibodeau,

(03:36):
Ryan Thibodeau, the guy that does the tracking of all
the votes. Oh yes, yeah, so so far last I
checked with him, everybody that he has checked with has
had each row on the ballot, so you know, there
is a good chance it's going to be one hundred percent.
Although I think that the people that do tell him
if you're not going to vote for each ro, you

(03:56):
probably wouldn't have the stones to tell him publicly, right now.

Speaker 5 (03:59):
You'd think so, except for those people that make it
all about them and want to make a thing about it.

Speaker 1 (04:04):
I've kind of come to the realization, and I think
just my advice to Mariner fans if he's not unanimous
because this is this is the the hairs were splitting.
He's in. Yeah, Suzuki is a Hall of Famer. He's in.
If he's not unanimous, we just move on, right, like
we just if Junior is not going to be a

(04:26):
unanimous and Jeter's not going to be unanimous, and nobody
be before those guys or you know, Willie May's any
of the like nobody was if Hank Aaron forgot. If
you're not unanimous, that's just an embarrassment to the person
that doesn't vote for him.

Speaker 2 (04:41):
Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 1 (04:42):
But Ero is going to go in deservedly. So what
he did in this country or North America is so
to speak, obviously playing games in tromp, but what he
did in this country after having what effectively was a
Hall of Fame career in Japan, is just incredible. And
I think back that how lucky were we to get

(05:03):
to watch this guy up close and personal. And we
joke about the age all the time. I don't know
what your memories are, and as you're younger.

Speaker 2 (05:10):
Well, I remember almost everything.

Speaker 4 (05:13):
Okay, Tro's career in Seattle, Okay, yeah, I went to
the twos in one season. I was pretty young. I
was four years old at that point, but I like
I grew up with him. I grew up at the
tro and the Mariners, and it was my first team
that I ever loved, the Seattle Mariners. So yeah, I've
I remember most of his career, I think.

Speaker 1 (05:28):
I mean, my daughter, I think is similar to h
Tou and played fast pitch from a very young age.
And she, you know, she was a left handed hitter.
She was with me, tall skinny kind she's kind of
tall and thin like you, I mean, and she emulated
the swing. And for a girl to do that, that

(05:48):
always was a thing that to me was cool, you know,
because growing up watching baseball, a lot of us were
playing litle league. You kind of emulate, try to emulate
somebody you're watching. I don't know if that happens as
much anymore. I remember my son and he would pitch
in baseball. He did the Felix thing, tugging on the
shoulder and had the hat sideways and all that, and
that's kind of that was really cool. That's what baseball

(06:10):
should be, you know, if you have certain mannerisms. But
the Echiro swing and the reaching out and the whole
thing and you know, Bree tried to nickname herself. Shouldn't
You're not allowed to nickname yourself, but she tried. Breechiero
is what she called her. Yeah, you know, she had
a sweatshirt at one point, a hoodie for one of
the teams she played for that had Breechiero on the back.

(06:31):
And she always wanted to be fifty one nice. I
love that and I love that, and she has a
love and here's the thing, kind of like you, and
this is probably a good thing with that generation of fans.
She is the biggest baseball fan in our family to
this day, and I think it's because of him. And
to me, the legacy for a player isn't just the

(06:52):
stats and the numbers, it's what did you do for
the game. What did you do for a generation of
young fans? Did they become fans because of you? I
think Marshawn is in that category, to be honest with you,
I think Mark Shawn made people not just Seahawk fans.
But you know, kids these days, and I'll get into
it later, they don't watch sports as much this other thing.

(07:15):
So to be that athlete that can transcend everything, that's
as important to me as any number, but the numbers
through the roof. Rick Riz got it up close and
personal and a front row view of Ichiro Suzuki, and
we'll talk to him coming up.

Speaker 6 (07:32):
Next live from the R and R Foundation Specialists Broadcast Studio.

Speaker 1 (07:41):
Back to Ian Fernantz.

Speaker 6 (07:42):
Power Advice, Seattle's closest sportsbook, Snow call Me Casino on
Sports Radio ninety three point three kJ R FM.

Speaker 1 (07:56):
All right, we're back on this Tuesday. By the way
we are, it's a cracking Ticket Tuesday. In just a
moment ago Andrews did play the sounder. So we've given
away our first pair of tickets on a Cracking Ticket Tuesday.
Every hour throughout the day, when you hear the sounder,
play two six two eight six ninety five ninety five,
and we'll take a tenth caller. You'll win a pair
of tickets see the crack and play January thirtieth against
the San Jose Sharks. I mentioned this to Greg Bell

(08:19):
in our cross talk segment earlier. Anytime I get a
chance to talk to this gentleman, anytime I hear his voice,
it just kind of puts a smile on your face,
makes you feel good about life. Because I'm not sure
if he's ever had a bad day. Our good friend
Rick Riz, voice of the Mariners, joins us right now
in the Beacon Plumbing hotline. Hi, Rick, how are you?

Speaker 3 (08:37):
I'm doing fine, Ian and Jesman. It's great to be
with you, especially on a day like this where we're
looking at each show to be in the Hall of Fame,
not only be in the Hall of Fame, but hopefully
it be a unanimous choice for only the second time
in history. So it's great to be with you.

Speaker 1 (08:50):
It's great to have you on, Rick, great to hear
your voice. We'll be hearing that those tones soon enough.
Here is just a couple months away from baseball season.
I believe is at thirty nine years you've been with
the Mariners, Is that right now?

Speaker 3 (09:02):
Yeah? Thirty nine Yeah, thirty nine years with the Mariners,
in three in between with the Detroit Tigers, which I'm
trying to push way back on everything, and then eight
years of the Miron League. So this will be my
fifty first year in baseball coming up there. Wow, forty
third in the big League. So yeah, it's been a
great journey. It's been fun.

Speaker 1 (09:21):
Well, your perspective is perfect, then, for today. You're right,
this is a. It's a. It's a. I think it's
kind of an odd day, Rick in this sense. The
only the only thing that we're wondering about is will
each euro be unanimous? We know he's a Hall of Famer,
we know he's in. That's the only thing we're curious
about is will he be unanimous? Right, it's a. It's
different than when Edgar got in. When Edgar got in,
it's Junior. We knew was gonna get in, the same thing. Junior,

(09:43):
we knew he's in. It will be unanimous. Obviously it wasn't.
But uh, with with Edgar, there was a stress every
year the last few years. The PR Department did a
great job of kind of pumping it up and making
people realize it. But how different is this? This is
a little different than the other guys.

Speaker 3 (09:58):
Yeah, it really is, because it just doesn't happened very often.
I mean, Junior came very close. So only three guys,
three writers did vote for him. And it was shortly
after that Ian and j justsment I found out who
they were, Larry Mow and Curly and.

Speaker 1 (10:15):
Exactly.

Speaker 3 (10:16):
Oh you guys remember the three I do? I do,
But I thought you'd be too young.

Speaker 1 (10:20):
You too, I'm not too young. Jess might be, but
I didn't.

Speaker 2 (10:23):
Watch them, but I'm very well aware of them. How
about that?

Speaker 3 (10:26):
Yeah, But you know, how could you vote for Junior?
And you know marioo Ribera, you had his choice, And
I'm hoping that each hero is because my gosh, how
can you not vote for each hero? Three eighty nine
hits starting at the age of twenty seven. You know,
he came over here after nine years in Japan, where
he had twelve hundred and seventy eight base hit something

(10:49):
like that. So he had more hits professional hits than
anybody in the history of the game of baseball. What
he did offensively getting on base and throwing people out there, defense,
a great arm, great teammate discipline. He was the love
of the history of the game of baseball, and on
and on. He's got to be, to me, unanimous choice

(11:11):
for the Hall of Fame today.

Speaker 1 (11:12):
Rick, tell a story from your perspective working for the team,
and you know, the end of the year two thousand,
but going into the two thousand and one off season
and spring training, you know, each year comes over here.
There was a lot of hoopla about him. He was
such a huge megastar in Japan. Obviously Pacific rim close
to what we're doing here. When you first started hearing

(11:34):
about him and coming here, walk us through that process
and how he got here and when you first laid
eyes on him down in Peoria.

Speaker 3 (11:43):
Yeah, that's great. I've got to go back two years
before that, because of nineteen ninety nine and the spring
of ninety nine he came over here just to visit
to see what major league spring training would be like,
and he spent time with the Mariners. He got sick,
he had foot poison, so we didn't get a chance
to see him play. However, we had a chance to
see him take batting practice and show off that arm.

(12:04):
And one day, you know, he's out there in right
field during drills and he throws this baby on a
one hop to the catcher and I remember doing a
double taker. So who was that? I look out there
and it was each along with Jay Buni. My goodness,
what an arm. And he threw the third base, same thing.
And then now here comes two thousand and one and

(12:26):
he's carrying the weight of all the position players. Open
the door for position players to come over from Japan.
We had Masunuri Mori Kami pitch for a short time
in nineteen sixty four with the Giants, and then at Dale.
Noma came over in nineteen ninety five and pitched for
the Dodgers, but no position player of it came here,
So we were wondering, who was this guy? You know?

(12:49):
Would those numbers in Japan he had three eighty seven
the year before in ORYX in two thousand, would that
translate to a three hundred average or what would it
be in Major League Baseball and Major Lege pitching every
day and first day of spring training, I'll never forget it.
Ian and Jessman walked down to field one and already

(13:09):
with the media that was there. There was a battery
of cameras five feet apart all the way from the
left field corner all the way down to third base,
all pointed at each row. And I remember walking in
front of all these cameras just to get to the
dugout to watch the workout and everything like that. But
he had that kind of pressure on him. And then
we start the season. He gets his first two hits

(13:31):
in his first game in the big leagues, but he
really got on the map. Two things that really got
him on the map were playing I think it was
the eighth game of the year in Oakland and turn
as long as on at first base, you might have
to clip there, and Hernandez comes up, gets a base
in the right field. Each row charges that ball, gets

(13:51):
to it long races of a third and it was
I call it a blazer beam throwed. Daveney House on
TV said, I threw something out of Star Wars and
it was a perfect strike that David Bell and Terrence
Long was out at third base. It was one of
the greatest throws I've ever seen in baseball. I asked
David when he was managed. Since then I read the

(14:12):
last few years I talked about that player. So what
was that like being under receiver? And he said, Rick,
I never moved my glove. I was like a catcher.
I just caught it and dropped the glove. And that's
how perfect it had to be because it was just
in time again Terrence Long. Then the other thing is
that early in the season, one of the first series
of the year, we're playing the Yankees, and to show

(14:32):
off his speed or to realize what kind of speed
he had, he had a routine ground ball to Derek Jeter,
and each row was racing up the first baseline and
Jeter got to it, a Hall of Fame shortstop through
the first base and just nipped him at first base,
just got him. And I remember looking at Jeter and
I could read his lips. He went wow. And if
you recall, if Eachi ro put the ball in play

(14:54):
on the ground, he had a chance to get base.
Sid two hundred DIDs he had in ten years in
a row. Nobody's ever done that. You know, a lot
of them were infield singles, or he could hit the
blind drive of the gap, or if he wanted to,
he could hit the ball out of the ballpark. But
he chose to get on base. That was his game.
Didn't walk that much, but his on base percentage was
always really good. Great at rookie season. He was the

(15:15):
Rookie of the Year in the MVP his first year
in the big leagues. The only guy to do that
was Freddy Linn with the Red Sox in nineteen seventy five.
So it was just amazing what he did and how
he did it, and my goodness, he was fun to
watch each and he played every game too. He was
so disciplined, he was able to stay healthy.

Speaker 1 (15:33):
I'm just looking through the list. Yeah, I mean, you
look at the you know his years games played, one
fifty seven, one fifty seven, fifty nine, one sixty one.
He had a one sixty two, one two three four
different times. He played every game, I mean, and played hard.
This is this is a very cliche question, but I'm curious.
You know, he came over with all the hype. When

(15:56):
did Rick Riz, who by that time had seen thirty
plus years baseball, And when did you first say or
maybe you had a conversation or a dinner somewhere with Dave,
And when did you guys say that this guy's a
Hall of famer. This guy's we're watching a Hall of famer.

Speaker 3 (16:14):
After the first few years he had two hundred hits,
but when he connected us with the history of baseball
in two thousand and four, I said, this guy has
a chance to really do something special as being a
one percenter, those are one percenter. That's the guys in
the Hall of Fame. In two thousand and four, he
not only had his two hundred hits deep into the season,

(16:37):
but he had still time to go to break a
record that stood for about eighty years, and that was
George Sisler's record of two hundred fifty seven base hits.
So he's getting closer and closer to the record, and
then sure enough, toward the end of the year, handful
of games left to go, and he gets a base
hit up the middle for two fifty seven, a tie,
gets a base in a left center field for number

(16:58):
two fifty eight, and he breaks the single season head
record that stood for eighty years. Mister Cisler's family happened
to be at the ballpark. I mean, the great grandchildren.
You know, we're at the ballpark. He had a chance
to go over and say hello, to honor them. But
you know, right then and there, I go, Okay, this

(17:19):
guy is going to be a Hall of Famer. And
then he's also a Hall of Fame guy because he
understood the history of the game of baseball. When we
were in Saint Louis that year, he went to go
see George Sisler's grave. You know how many guys do
that to honor George Sisler. And he understood the history
of the game of baseball. I don't know how many
times he went to the Hall of Fame now he's

(17:41):
going to go in in July as a member of
the Hall of Fame.

Speaker 7 (17:44):
But he made a number of trips there.

Speaker 3 (17:45):
But it was at that point where Dave and I
went in the world, not just Dave and I, but
you and Jess, Ben and everybody who followed this baseball
team with intro here that he was going to be
something special. And he was because he connected not only
generations of great players, but the history of the game. Yeah,

(18:06):
from the early nineteen twenties to two thousand and four,
when he broke.

Speaker 1 (18:10):
The record Rick Griz joining us voice of the Mariners
here on the day that each row at three o'clock
Pacific time, it'll be official. He'll be in Baseball's Hall
of Fame. Only question is will it be unanimous? Rick, I,
you know, because I'm old enough to remember these things.
Jess probably remembers the name, but not old enough. And
our young producer Andrews in there, way too young. But

(18:31):
you know, I grew up remembering hearing so much about Sanajara, oh,
the great power hitter from Japan, And there was always
a conversation, you know, And that was before you had
the ability to come over here and play and you know,
could he translate to this country. I kind of think
he would watching what each ro did. But but why
do you think the transition was so easy and seamless

(18:52):
for each row? Is it because of his preparation or
why do you think that was?

Speaker 3 (18:57):
Yeah, it was his discipline that led to the preparation.
I don't know easy. He worked his butt off each
and every day. I mean, if you go to the
ballpark right now at one thirty in the afternoon, he's
going to be hitting in the cage. Now. I went
to the ballpark a few weeks ago to go to
the Mariners team score to pick up a few things,

(19:17):
and when the clubhouse and each row was down at
the banning cage with Alan Turner asterpreter, you know, hitting.
But it was his discipline. He never ever wavered from
what he did from the time he got to the clubhouse.
He had this rolling pin that he loosened up his
back in front of his locker and be on the ground.

(19:37):
He had this apparatus where he massaged his feet. His
shoes were even different, they were so light. I said,
how many shoes do you go through each row? And
I think he wore a different pair of spikes, the
special spikes about maybe once every three or four games
or something like that. But and then he would get walked,

(19:58):
run through the tunnel, run through the out at a
certain time. I'll never forget the number of Japanese reporters
there with their cameras. They had to get each ro
running out of the dugout and run out the right
field where he would run and get loose and then
play long toss and then get ready for his drills.
So I was kidding around. This went on month after month,

(20:18):
year after year with these guys. The Japanese reporter is
getting the same shot. I'm talking about four or five
guys with a camera, maybe more, each and every year.
And so jokingly I went to a friend of mine
who I got to know because he covered each row
for so many years. I said, why don't you use
your video from yesterday? You know, why don't you use
your video from a month ago or two years ago?

(20:40):
You know, it's the same thing. Yeah, And he explained
this to me. This was interesting. He said, Rick, if
each ro comes coming out of the dugout and he
trips and falls and I don't have it and the
other guys do, they're going to fire me. I said, wow,
that was the kind of interest. That was kind of
pressure that each had on him. Everybody wanted to know

(21:01):
everything they could about Intro, you know, back in Japan.
So you know, he lived with that pressure. He handled it.
He worked so hard at it. I mean, he was
more prepared than anybody. He took care of that bat
like Stratavarius took care of his violins. You know. He
take a bat and put it in the humidor looked
like a violin case, brought it on the plane with him.

(21:24):
Of course he had other bats, you know, along with
the guy's bats in the belly of the plane. But
he always took a bat on the plane so he
could go to the hotel room swing in front of
a mirror. Every time he got a hit or walked,
he would lie down his bat parallel with the baseline.
He always did that. He did everything he did, you know,
there was a purpose to it, and that's why I

(21:46):
think he was so good at what he did. Remember
when his stance, yep, he pulled that bat out in
front of him, the bat straight up in the air,
and he looked down his arm like was the peril
of a rifle, and I said, why do you do that?
He said, I'm focusing at a spot on the bat,
and then he pulled the bat down and he was
focused on the release point of the picture. So, I mean,
everything that he did had the purpose to it, and

(22:10):
that's why he was so great. And nobody put the
barrel of the bat, of the sweet spot of the
bat on the ball better than he did. Because I
never in what nineteen years, but all those years with
the Mariners, a lot of those years with the Mariners,
I never saw him break a bat ever, And so
he was just something special the way he did it

(22:31):
and how he did it. And my good is a
mess in all those base hits and have an Hall
of Fame career offensively and defensively with his legs too.

Speaker 1 (22:40):
Yeah, and we were lucky enough to watch it. You
were lucky enough to watch it on a daily basis.
Ten gold gloves. And see that's the other thing that
jumps out, the ten goal gloves. I mean, we know
about the throw and the throws. The Terance long throw
was just one of the most iconic plays in Mariner history.
But you know, ten gold gloves. You don't get that
just by having a good throwing arm. You have to
be able to track the ball and do everything else
and play that position. And he did it. He did

(23:01):
it so well.

Speaker 3 (23:02):
Rick.

Speaker 1 (23:03):
I want to ask you this before I go, because
I'm it's I don't won't say it's gona be a
bittersweet day, but there is a little bit of stress
for Mariner fans out there. I think any of us
that watched the best right handed pitcher in baseball for
a period of time and Felix Hernandez are wondering and
hoping that he has enough votes. It sounds like he
should have enough votes to stay on the ballotsk I'll

(23:26):
ask Rick Riz make the case it won't happen this year,
but make the case for Felix Hernandez as a Hall
of Famer.

Speaker 3 (23:32):
Felix Sernandez is a Hall of Famer in my mind,
there's no doubt about it. I've got this few criteria
for the Hall of Fame. I can't just jump down
the kitchen table here and it's covering my papers.

Speaker 1 (23:43):
No pid.

Speaker 3 (23:44):
So my criterias. Were you the dominant player or pitcher
at your position in the decade in which you played,
And there's no doubt about it. That Felix was that
from age nineteen to thirty three. Now it's peak years thousand.
For speak years, from two thousand and seven to about

(24:05):
twenty and fifteen, he was the best pitcher in the
American League. He was one sixty nine and one thirty six.
He had a three four to two ERA, over four
hundred starts, over twenty seven hundred innings, over twenty five strikeouts.
He had a whip of one point two, which was incredible.
He was a Sying Award winner in twenty ten, should

(24:28):
have won again in twenty fourteen. It was robbed. He
was fifteen and six. He had the best the area
in the American League two point one four. He had
thirty four starts. He made all those starts that kind
of cost him later on where the numbers fell off
when he fell off the last three years. But I
still think he was great enough long enough, long enough

(24:49):
to be a Hall of Famer. He was a six
time All Star and a ten years stretch from two
thousand and seven to twenty sixteen. He was one thirty
eight and ninety one. But you got to rem all
the no decisions he had. Yeah, where he went eight
or more innings he gave up one or no runs,
one or no runs at eight in eighty one starts.

(25:09):
You know, give him, give him another forty wins, and
he's at two hundred, and he's at he's over two
hundred wins, you know, so well were two hundred wins.
So I think, you know, he had a long enough stretch.
He was great enough. And how many guys number one
would have a section of the ballpark named for them,
like King's Court and live.

Speaker 2 (25:30):
Up to it.

Speaker 3 (25:31):
How many guys would have a nickname like King and
live up to it, you know, like he did. And
he spent his entire career in Seattle. Now there are
chances where he could have, if he was healthy, pitch
for Atlanta, but it never happened. But if you looked
at the back of his bubblegum card, it's going to
be Seattle, Seattle, Seattle his entire career. Plus on top

(25:52):
of that, he was a great teammate. He was accountable,
the strikeouts, the ability to take them mount every five days,
never complain to complain about the lack of run support.
And he was one of the best pitchers, if that
the best pitcher in the American League for at least
an eight, nine, ten game stretch, and that puts him
in the Hall of fame.

Speaker 1 (26:12):
For me, I'm with you, and I think the thing
that that jumps out at me with Felix is what
you said there. It's probably the only good thing that happened,
by the way, during cod for COVID in twenty twenty,
because he would have been in Atlanta and said he
didn't play and that was it. He finished his career
in Seattle in twenty nineteen. But the King's Court and
the ability to carry a franchise and put people in
the seats and embracing it, and how he embraced that section,

(26:36):
how he embraced being King Felix in a sport that
sometimes I think Rick is a little bit void of
true personality. This guy had personality times ten.

Speaker 3 (26:46):
That's no, no doter.

Speaker 1 (26:48):
I just I mean, he's one of my favorite, if
not my favorite base marrion players of all time, just
because if you know, I remember going down and I
would go down with my old buddy Pocket. We covered
spring training a bunch of times, and it was like
we'd get hey, we're gonna talk to Felix sometimes this week.
We're gonna get Felix and it was a game to him, Yes,
it was. It was like yeah, and he put hesd
like eight phones. I'm busy, I got my phone. Get
eight phones, dude, put one phone down. I'll give us

(27:09):
five minutes. And he would just mess with you and
he was just he kind of refrained do it though. Yeah,
there's almost like a third person reference, like he kind
of almost refer to hell. You know, I'm okay, you know,
king good.

Speaker 2 (27:20):
You know.

Speaker 1 (27:20):
He almost like he was just bigger than life, but
full of joy and boy and Rick. He competed like
like he never wanted to come out of a game,
did he.

Speaker 3 (27:31):
No, No, he always got deep in the ball game.
He was the epitome of a starter. And you know,
and he was in there as long as he possibly
could go, and like I said, it costs him. Later
on Ken Grippy Jr. Was the same way to me.
He would always yank my chain a little bit and
do an interviews, but he always.

Speaker 1 (27:47):
Did him the one fun manner.

Speaker 2 (27:50):
Yeah, he did it in a fun manner until.

Speaker 3 (27:52):
Years later I learned how to take care of him.
One day I went in there and said, hey, Junior,
you know, can I do a pre game show with you,
and I'm not talking to him, And I said, Junior,
I end up going to the dug out. I'll see
him five minutes, and I walked away. He was there
in two minutes the end and he came in and
sat down behind me, ran, you know, slid up into me, goes,

(28:12):
what do you want to talk about? I said, well,
last night you had two home runs and drove five.
Let's start there. So yeah, Junior was the same way.
But Felix loved the game, and he loved the city
of Seattle. He loved the fans, and he after his
last game, remember he went down the left field line
and stood on the fence with the fans, took a
picture with the yellow shirt on the K cards and

(28:33):
everything like that. We did an interview toward the end
of his career, just he and I in the endless pavilion.
Was two chairs and a lighting on us and everything,
and we were talking about his career and we both
got really emotional at the end of the interview because
of how much he loved the city of Seattle. Asked
him something about tell me a little bit about your
connection to the fans, and he started to well up

(28:56):
and get emotion. He started crying, and that's how much
you know he appreciated and loved the fans in Seattle
to do what they did for him. You know, it
was truly amazing. And when you have that kind of
love and emotion between a community, a ball club, the
fan base and a player like that, it's really something special.

(29:18):
We saw that with Felix, We saw it with King
Griffy Jr.

Speaker 1 (29:21):
And E Troe and true well, it's gonna be a
special day for each roll and hopefully soon enough for
Felix as well as it has been for Junior and
for Edgar along the wave. Guys that that we're here
for so long. Rick kept you for a long time today,
But I just I love love having the conversation, love
hearing your voice, and thank you so much. We'll talk
about we'll talk real baseball soon enough.

Speaker 3 (29:40):
All right, Okay, Jesse MC called me up and asked me,
if we I do this, I do anything for just.

Speaker 2 (29:45):
You're the best. Are you going to be down there today?
I assume you will.

Speaker 3 (29:50):
Oh yeah, I'm gonna. I'm gonna go down there right now.
He's waiting for you guys to call it. So I'm
gonna get down there and wait for their pocals.

Speaker 2 (29:55):
Big hug coming your way. I'll see you down there, hey, Rick,
that's Rick.

Speaker 1 (29:58):
That's why. That's why we that's why I wanted her
on my show because I know that, you know, even
if people don't like me, I can get people on
because of Jessman. You know how that works.

Speaker 3 (30:06):
I love you. I love you too, buddy, and you
too great on the crack and telecast.

Speaker 1 (30:10):
Oh wow, that means hey from you, that means everything.
So thank you so much.

Speaker 3 (30:14):
Man.

Speaker 1 (30:14):
We'll talk to you soon. Thanks.

Speaker 3 (30:15):
Rick.

Speaker 1 (30:16):
All right, that's Rick riz Man a treasure in our
city as well. He, by the way, should also be
in the Hall of Fame as a Ford Frick Award
winner at some point as well. Like that's a that's
a guy that should be there with Dave in the
Hall of Fame in the broadcast wing. All right, we'll
take quick break, come back, quick daily power play on
a Cracking Ticket. Tuesday next.

Speaker 5 (30:36):
Faulkin Streets went in on Golden Puts today.

Speaker 4 (30:38):
Stop it's Crosby.

Speaker 3 (30:42):
Stop.

Speaker 1 (30:43):
This is the daily power play.

Speaker 3 (30:46):
Deep Slot.

Speaker 1 (30:52):
Now Ian Sports Radio nine point.

Speaker 6 (31:00):
Gr FM behind the Buffalo Zone defended by Power Left
side right center Alexiacs.

Speaker 4 (31:13):
I can come right back again in the big REGs
on the board.

Speaker 2 (31:18):
Jammy Alexiak fourth.

Speaker 3 (31:19):
Goal in the season, set up by Shane Wright with
three twenty six left in period two?

Speaker 1 (31:27):
Who is that guy? Why is he yelling at me?

Speaker 3 (31:29):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (31:29):
Sounds familiar.

Speaker 1 (31:30):
I never heard of him. No, very exciting, huge, huge
response goal by Jamie Alexiak yesterday.

Speaker 2 (31:35):
He did that twice, three times.

Speaker 1 (31:37):
Yeah, the empty net goals now was a responsible too, technically, Yeah,
three response goals yesterday. The Crack can get a win yesterday.
With they could play Buffalo every game, they'd be a
Stanley Cup contender.

Speaker 2 (31:47):
I think everyone would.

Speaker 1 (31:50):
In their in their history. They are now seven to
one all time against the Sabers. They are averaging over
five goals a game after the six goals they scored
yesterday all time against Buffalo. Play the same. Move to
the Eastern Conference, right to the East, cracking big win.
Mattinee Affair next up the Grade eight and really good,

(32:10):
really good team, the Washington Capitols are here and a
guy that's gonna set the all time record for goal
scored in the NHL.

Speaker 4 (32:16):
I can feel about that, by the way, because there
are a lot of people that are Wayne Gretzky truthers,
and I understand he's the greatest.

Speaker 3 (32:21):
Of all time.

Speaker 4 (32:21):
But the records are meant to be broken. Okay, is
it gonna feel weird to have a different points records
never gonna get broken, But so is it gonna feel
weird to have a different guy that's the goal scoring record?

Speaker 1 (32:31):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (32:32):
Yeah, but.

Speaker 1 (32:34):
That's fine. Yeah, he'd beat Gordy how right? So I, oh,
Vatskin's good for the game. Yeah, he plays the game hard,
plays it differently than Gretzky did, and the game is
different than it used to be. Absolutely, so what he's
it's remarkable he's able to accomplish. Guy's got more great
hair than I do. And uh and and yet he's
gonna set that record. I should let you do the
daily power play. Hell, you host the show yesterday?

Speaker 3 (32:55):
I did.

Speaker 2 (32:55):
Yeah, I had a good time with it.

Speaker 1 (32:57):
Was what was the theme in the post game?

Speaker 4 (32:59):
Well, you mentioned nit the response goals, because I think
that's been something that's bit the bit the kracking on
the other side before, where like, you know, after we score,
we can see right away. I think that was the
thing last year. But they've axed all a lot where
it was like every time they're actually good out of
this year, Yeah, they get they're coming back. And that's
another thing is kind of making sure the momentum doesn't
shift too much when you're kind of following the deep
end a little bit.

Speaker 2 (33:19):
I think the return of Joey to court's huge man.

Speaker 4 (33:21):
I like Philip grubauerd has been good and he performed
admirably in Joey Tocord's absence, but with a team that
has to make a little bit more risks going forward
to score more goals, you have to have your goalievalue
out a few times, and I think Joey does that
a little bit more.

Speaker 1 (33:36):
Joey does that a lot. Yeah, he does that a
lot this season. It is a cracking ticket Tuesday. By
the way, what does that mean? That means that we're
giving away to cracking tickets every hour when you hear
the sounder play be the tenth collar tool six two eight,
six ninety five, ninety five. We'll take the tenth collar
every hour to win. No, not now, not now, to
see the cracking play January thirty. I think it's a
San Jose Sharks interesting schedule, as they would say, in

(33:57):
the business schedule in the National League for your friends
the Seattle Kraken, I say that only in the sense
they've got a couple of weeks here left. Was it
nine games left now before the Four Nations break? There's
a two week break in February, right after the Super
Bowl and actually the day before the Super Bowls when
it starts for the Four Nations International Tournament. They play

(34:19):
tonight or Thursday against the Capitals. Speaking of legends, Sidney
Crosby never know when that's gonna be his last game
in Seattle, and the Penguins are here for a one
o'clock game to their matinee on Saturday. They go to
Edmonton on Monday. Unfortunately mcjesus, who just got a three
game suspension, will be back for that game.

Speaker 2 (34:35):
That's Conor mcdaack.

Speaker 1 (34:36):
Yeah. Then back here they got back to back games.
Then Tuesday they play against the Anaheim Ducks. Thursday, a
week from Thursday, San Jose, that was the tickets were
given away. Sunday. Calgary is here, so they get a
bunch of home games, a chance to kind of get
a little bit of a role here, stack up some wins.
Pittsburgh the team they should beat as well. In fact,
they killed Pittsburgh's goalie. They cut Tristan Jarry the next

(34:58):
day after they beat him last week.

Speaker 4 (35:00):
Should beat Sharks, they should beat Flames. There's a lot
of questions on there. Fifty to fifty game. Yeah, so
a lot of fun here coming up. So make sure
you go check out the cracking at Climbing, played Aerina.
All the games right here and you're home for the
cracking night three point three k and I was telling
one of my buddies yesterday is like, yeah, I know,
I've just been busy and stuff. I'm like, now is
the time to go to games, because like, you don't
know what's going to happen at the end of the season.
Right now, we're not in a playoff spot, so you

(35:20):
want to go now so that these are the urgent
times these.

Speaker 1 (35:22):
Every game means something like every game is stressful and
every game they need to get points out of.

Speaker 2 (35:27):
All, right.

Speaker 1 (35:28):
Hugh mellon Hardcore Football Seahawks defense. We've talked nothing but
offense the last two weeks, normally on a Monday, but
we were off yesterday. Cracking we're playing at this time yesterday,
So Hugh Mellon is normally Monday one o'clock slot. Tuesday
at one we'll talk Seahawks defense, looking to the offseason.

Speaker 6 (35:42):
Next now from the Star Rentals Sports to us Jordan
ninety three point three KJRFM sports headlines.

Speaker 1 (35:53):
All right, here we go a headlines My Team by
Frostpruit cores Light Baseball Hall of Fame three o'clock today,
When Softy and Fan on the air again, I joke
about we're gonna get off the early. Make sure those
guys are ready to go for the announcement. When each
ro goes into the Hall of Fame, we'll see where
the votes are for Felix. Sounds like you should be
good enough to keep on the ballot for the coming years.
And you know, remember I think it was I think

(36:17):
Edgar was still like at twenty seven percent, like seven
or eight years in. So just stay on the ballot,
get going, don't pull a Johan Santana and get knocked
off right away. So we'll see what happens today. But
Etro's gonna go win. The only question is will it
be unanimous. Seahawks continue to interview offensive coordinator candidates. Hank Fraley.
Maybe I think he's gonna be in Chicago. Let's see,

(36:38):
we got a college football national champion. It's Ohio State
knocked off Notre Dame thirty four to twenty three the final.
In that game last night, Washington Husky basketball team takes
on their good friends. They're best buddies, the Oregon Duckies
tonight eight o'clock tip off, seven thirty pre game right
here at your home for the Huskies. Nine three point
three KJRFM Oregon ranked good at basketball Washington looking for

(37:00):
an upset. We'll see what happens again. We'll have that
game for you here in KJR. Let's get to them,
Humail and standing.

Speaker 6 (37:05):
By your home for the twelfth Man in the NFL.
Proudly presentence Hardcore Football with Hugh Millon, brought to you.

Speaker 1 (37:14):
By Hunt Services.

Speaker 6 (37:15):
Hunt Services is proud to offer the Hunts Care Club
for all your plumbing, heating, cooling, sewer and electrical needs
for less than thirty dollars a month. They'll help you
avoid costantly repairs and stressful emergencyes. Get on the horn
and call Hunts or visit Hunt Services dot com. Now
here's you with the inf NEETs on Sports Radio ninety

(37:36):
three point three kjr FM.

Speaker 1 (37:41):
Hugh Millen joining us right now. Hello, sir, how are you.

Speaker 2 (37:45):
What's happening to Ian? I'm doing well, Thank you.

Speaker 1 (37:47):
We've got a lot to get to at the end,
probably the last emisad for the last segment I think today,
but I do want to get your quick thoughts on
the play. Everyone's talking about the last play, the two
point conversion with Baltimore and in the Ravens the other
day the Mark Andrews place, So we'll get to that
at the last segment. I want to get We've spent
the last couple of weeks, just because of circumstances with

(38:09):
Hardcore Football talking about the Seahawks offense. Two weeks ago,
Ryan Grubb got fired. We spent the whole show that
and then we spent the last week just talking about
the Seahawks offense. I want to go and kind of
wrap up Hardcore Football, which we do every Monday after
games looking back at the Seahawk defense, because we haven't
had a chance to do that as a whole, you know,
toatality yet, Hugh. And so I'm going to start with

(38:30):
this and we'll kind of see where it takes us.
You've said it numerous times on the year, and you
wouldn't say this if you didn't truly believe it, and
not just believe it, but also have you know, film facts,
other things to back it up that you believe Mike
McDonald is, if not the one of the best defensive
minds on the planet as far as football is concerned.

(38:52):
Why is that?

Speaker 2 (38:54):
Well, when I made that statement, it was prior to
this year, and we'll talk about this year. But I
think and I always said, hey, there's an asterisk there.
If somebody wants to say Steve Spagnola, I'm not going
to argue because if you said, okay, if it's not McDonald,
who's in the discussion? And my first response was, is
Bagnola defensive coordinator Kansas City when you and had been

(39:18):
with the Giants and those two victories over the Patriots
and seven and eleven in the Super Bowl, So I
would have no problem with him or maybe somebody else.
But the basis of my contention was this, as a
defensive coordinator coming into there's a young guy who'd only

(39:39):
had three seasons as a big time defensive coordinator. What
did he do in Michigan in twenty twenty one? He
took a team that the year before, in twenty twenty,
they had averaged thirty four and a half points per
game yielded defensively the Wolverines, which was ninety third in
the country. In one season, he took him from ninety

(40:02):
third to seventh, seventeen point four points per game defensively,
just one season. And that drop or improvement seventeen point
one that was the best in FBS, out of all
one hundred and thirty teams. In fact, if you go
around the surrounding years, it was the best in a
few years. I didn't count up all the years. But

(40:26):
and then the rank improvement eighty six bus to go
from ninety third to seventh, that was the best not
only that year but in the adjacent years. And okay, coincidentally,
just as I looked at my spreadsheet, Wazoo was number two.
By the way, that year they went from one hundred
and eighteenth to thirty ninth, which was a seventy nine
spot increase. That was the second best in all of FBS.

(40:49):
But again Michigan had been the best. So now John
Harbaughs says, whoa, whoa, whoa, Because McDonald had been on
the raven staff. John Harribus says, whoa little brother, that
dude back. So McDonald comes to a team that in
all the important rankings, the Ravens had been in the
low twenties in the rankings. Halfway through his first year

(41:11):
in twenty twenty two, the Ravens were ranked twenty third
in points allowed. The second half of twenty twenty two,
So the second half of his first year ever as
a defensive coordinator twenty twenty two, Ravens number one in
the NFL fewest points allowed. Then he follows it up
in twenty twenty three with winning the Triple Crown fewest

(41:32):
points allowed, most turnovers, and most sacks, with journeyman defensive
ends by the way, producing those kind of sacks. So
I think that's the basis for my contention. Just literally
a guy that is a total rock star, albeit a
young guy, but just demonstrating his grasp. And then when

(41:56):
I watched, you remember how the Ravens had just dismantled
the Seal in twenty twenty three, just watching how well
that team was tied on a string, and then just
real quickly, I'll just say, well, what did he do
it for the Seahawks in weeks one through eight the
Seattle defensive points allowed twenty three point one. This is

(42:17):
weeks one through eight. Seattle sat at twenty first. What
did I say about the first half of his Ravens season.
In his first year, they were at twenty third. Now
weeks nine through eighteen, Seattle goes from twenty first to fourth. Now,
if you want to kind of cook the books a
little bit and take out week eighteen, the JV game

(42:39):
against the Rams, they are actually second in points allowed
at sixteen point eight. Their Eagles were sixteen point seven.
So if you've cooked the books a little bit more,
weeks nine through seventeen quarters one, two, three, and four
for all teams, not just the Seahawks, because the Seahawks
has surrendered an overtime touchdown to the Rams. But if

(43:01):
you just go quorters one, two, three, and four, Seattle
is actually number one in the NFL. Now that's over
nine weeks number one fewest points allowed. Now, let's go
back to reality weeks nine through eighteen. All right, that
this includes the Ram game. Weeks nine through eighteen. Here's
some important stats. Yards per game, Seattle fifth defensively, third

(43:24):
down conversion Seattle fourth in the league. Opponent first downs
Seattle fifth, red zone defensive touchdown percentage Seattle fourth in
the league. Opponent explosive rushes one point four per game,
that's second in the NFL. So there are a number
of stats I mentioned the points, all the important stats

(43:47):
Seattle over the second half of the season this year
is the top five defense. Now there's I could give
a slight little addendum to that. Sacks at two point
seven seat was tied for tenth, and yards per rush
defensively they were tenth. And then as I mentioned sacks

(44:10):
where they were tenth, they had in hurries they were eighth,
and QB hits seventh. So so most of the important
stats they're in the top five. There's a few other
important stats where they're they're they're somewhere in the top ten.
And so look, I'm not going to die on the
beach and say Mike McDonald's the premier defensive mind on

(44:32):
planet Earth. I mean you have to say, oh, where
does Kirby smart fit? You know, well, he's got great players,
like like, there's other guys that are in the discussion.
But I will say that if we're sitting around a
table of sharing a pitcher of beer, if if somebody says,
Mike McDonald even to this day with the Seahawks, I don't.

(44:52):
I don't think you're gonna be throwing it in sale
as album. There's a lot of evidence to support the contention.

Speaker 1 (44:59):
It's a humane, hardcore football, all right, So this is
hardcore football. So as we're talking about, first of all
those numbers, it's been a long time since they've been
top five in defense. I don't care if it's half
a season or not, Like it's been a while, uh
since since those numbers were jumping out. Devin Witherspoon was
a pro bowler, not an All Pro, but a pro bowler.
He was the only one a couple of other alternates,
but let's just for argument's sake, they didn't have an

(45:21):
All Pro player on their defense. They had one Pro
bowler in Devin Witherspoon, and that was it. So I'm
at which tells me that the personnel is individuals. Hugh
doesn't jump off the page, like they don't have dudes
that jump off the page that you personnel wise, So
what is it that he's able to do with guys
that are I don't know, I mean, I don't know.

(45:42):
Schneider just sid have kind of had not We've talked
about this before. It hasn't had the best couple last
couple off seasons. So what is it that that he's
able to do with that defense personnel wise.

Speaker 2 (45:54):
Well, I think that he has them playing together. Well,
I think from a standpoint point of I'm always more
intrigued by the coaching of zone defense. The NFL, as
as college football, it's a zone league. In fact, that
the Seahawks were uh sixty eight sixty seven point eight

(46:15):
percent specifically running zone and in the commercial break, I'll
tell you the the NFL average, but it's it's it's
zone football, And I think that takes a lot more coaching, uh,
because if you can play man man, well, okay, you
got great, you got your dudes are better than their dudes.
But having a defense tied to a string where you say, okay,

(46:37):
the hook defenders, those are the guys that shallow and
in the middle of the field. They they you know,
they have their landmarks on some zones. Okay, two yards
out outside the hash mark. Okay, Now, how are you
pattern recognizing where's your help to your side? On either side?
Where's your help behind? You don't carry a guy to

(46:58):
little in your zone, don't carry him too much, grab
him and release him at exactly the right time, and
be aware of the combinations. There's just so much more
orchestration to defensive football. And so that's where it really
admired what McDonald had done at Baltimore. It wasn't the
man to man stuff, it was its own stuff. And

(47:19):
so yeah, I would just say from a personnel standpoint,
I mentioned that they were able to be, you know,
top ten over the last half of the year in sacks,
hits and hurries, but there's no edge rusher that's in
the top twenty and win pass right, that's a next

(47:39):
gen stat. If you go by PFF and they have
a pass rush production formula that combines sacks, hits and
hurries relative to how many times they rushed the passer,
you got MAFE is thirty fifth in the league. That's
the best, you know. So they're just kind of pedestrian
in that regard. And that's you know, you mentioned Snyder.

(48:02):
I'll pause and say and address this. I'll just one
fans opinion. You want to want to say analysts as well.

Speaker 1 (48:09):
I'm gonna say analysts If you listen Givers. You're not
just a fan. I know you're a fan of the Hawks.
This is what you do, this is how you study,
you played the game. So I'm gonna you you're not
just Joe fan sitting there on Twitter or something like that.

Speaker 2 (48:22):
So let's okay, here's my analysis. Then I think that
any Seahawk fan, if you're just being objective, if you
didn't at one time love John Snyder, you're crazy. I
mean in his first seven seasons, which of course mirrored
Pete Carroll's first seven seasons, nine playoff wins, and of
course the Super Bowl championship, and in the in the

(48:43):
draft years twenty ten to twenty twelve, eight Pro Bowlers
out of three drafts. Now that the draft went to
seven rounds in nineteen ninety four. From that period, here's
the teams that have had a more Pro Bowlers in
a three year span. You had the Chargers in the

(49:04):
in the mid two thousands. That's the Ladanian, Thomlinson, all
those Cats, right sewn. Merriman's right, they had they actually
had ten. They're the only team with ten. Then you
had the San Francisco forty nine ers in the culminating
in the seven year they had eight. You had the
Packers culminating in the twenty fourteen year they had eight.

(49:28):
That's the company.

Speaker 3 (49:29):
That's it.

Speaker 2 (49:30):
That's the set. That's the set of eight or more
Pro bowlers. And oh, by the way, many of those
Pro bowlers were multiple Pro bowlers, right, Russell Wilson, Bobby Wagner,
Cam Chanceller was four times, you know, Earl Thomas right
like Sherman was a five time Pro bowler. So these
guys were multiple deep Pro bowlers. I think it was

(49:50):
forty two combined. So if you didn't love John Schneider
as of about seven eight years ago, you're, in my opinion, respectfully,
you're an idiot. But follow where the evidence leads. What
has happened in the last eight seasons? One playoff win?
You mentioned, no All Pro players on the roster this year,

(50:14):
no second team All Pro, all Pro, one Pro bowler.
The Seahawks sit right now third worst salary cap in
the NFL. The median is plus thirty four oh seven
to zero million. Okay, got me just rounded to thirty
four million. That's the median. It's a high of New

(50:35):
England is at one twenty four point nine in the
clear of the cap. The Seahawks are one of seven
teams and with negative number to six are negative twenty
eight and a half million in the cap, and that's
third worst. Only Cleveland and New Orleans are worse. And
so you're sitting there with a roster that doesn't have

(50:56):
star players, that is in allowsy cap space, that doesn't
have a franchise quarterback or or quarterback of the future.
And then you just had, you know, a very very
pedestrian offseason when you weren't you know, I would say
uncoupled from the shackles of Pete Carroll. I mean Noah

(51:19):
fant one hundred and thirty fourth and run blocking forty
three catches, four in thirty seven yards, zero touchdowns, Faraoh Brown,
you know, sixty five yards of rushing.

Speaker 3 (51:32):
You know.

Speaker 2 (51:32):
Tremayne Ackrom was signed as a left guard. He's released
in July oh replaced by Lake and Tomlinson. He's a
forty eighth rank guard in PFF. You acquired Jonathan Hankins
mid season. He's spent a sixth round pick. Hell, we've
had six round pick start at cornerback in the Super
Bowl for US. Right spent a six round pick on him.
He had three hundred and sixty seven snaps or excuse me, no,

(51:57):
not Jonathan Hackins. I'm sorry, Roy Robertson Harre. I'm I'm
alluding to Roy Robertson Harris. You spend a six round
pick to acquire him weeks week he's he's been there
ten weeks, ten weeks. Uh, the first half, the first
five weeks he played thirty four percent of the snaps,
the set second five weeks fifteen percent, and then the

(52:18):
last the last at the end of the season in
Minnesota six snaps, Chicago four snaps, Like he was barely
playing and you acquired him. You had the Dodson and
Baker d Williams. You know, your Laviscus Snaltan d Williams,
your returners cut mid season Connor Williams. Okay, it's it's
really rare for a guy at twenty seven year old
to retire at the bye week. Well, you got to

(52:39):
know that, you and me and you know, we're just like,
it's not our job. Didn't know that, it's your job.
Didn't know that, and so you know, so Taylor the
right guard. So tayol Le Maya ends up being your
right guard. Well, he's a ranked one hundred and thirty
two out of one hundred and thirty five guards, and
out of one hundred eighty six guards had one hundred
and twenty five snaps. For morel Maya had the worst

(53:02):
pass block grade of all eighty six guards, and so
the lines a mess all these things. So I would
just I'll just conclude this. I think that the objective conclusion,
if you just follower the evidence leads, is John Snyder
was a rock star. He's a likable guy, fun guy.
You're likely to see him down at Dino's throwing down

(53:23):
a beer. Who doesn't like John Snyder got the great hair,
you know, I mean like like, he's a really likable dude.
But follow where the evidence lead. Where are we right now?
What have we been doing for the last eight years?
What's the state of the roster? What's the you know,
Draymond Jones, he said, all time Seahawk record for free
agency for an outside player, Draymond, Just what do you do?

Speaker 3 (53:45):
You know?

Speaker 2 (53:46):
You just you just keep stacking up, You just keep
stacking up all these objective facts about the state of
the Seahawks, And I don't think you can be left
with any other conclusion that John Snyder. You got to
pick it up, dude, or your next.

Speaker 1 (54:02):
Let me get a couple of minutes here. Let me
let me start with personnel. Then as we look at
the defense and head into the off season, let's just
start with the defensive line. It's if Boye Mafe is
your top pass rusher, what did you say, thirty fifth
is the ranking for him.

Speaker 2 (54:20):
Thirty thirty fifth in the past rush in terms of
win rate of win rate? Right, well, the win rate
is a that's an ESPN and Next Gen Stats calumn
and e RP is a Pro Football Focus. That's that's
that's a that's a formula.

Speaker 1 (54:37):
So you get the look, he's the he's the best.
He's the best you have. He's ranked thirty fifth in
something right in terms of past I.

Speaker 2 (54:43):
Mean, I mean it's kind of hard for me because
I I watched the tape, right make my assessments. But
then it's like, okay, I go on the radio. I
of course want to be convincing of on my opinion,
and I said, well, I need somebody to write shotgun
with me, you know, And so you know Pro Football Focus,

(55:04):
you know, is is for example, one of the outfits.
And by the way, Pro Football Focus is hired by
every single third team in the NFL, and every college
team subscribes to their service. So I don't think that
there they get everything right. I could give you examples
where I think they get things wrong. In fact, I
know factually they get things wrong, but they get more

(55:25):
right than they get wrong. And so when I bring
up Pro Football Focus, it's not just I'm just sitting around. Well,
I only derive my analysis from a computer screen on
a service like that. I watch the tape and I
have these conclusions. I say, okay, well let me see
if there are numbers to support my hypothesis. This is

(55:46):
what I see. Can I find stats to butcherss that
that point? And so you know when I when I
look and I say, I don't. I don't think there's
any star power as a pass rusher, as an edge rusher.
And I keenly watched Jared Verse for the Rams where

(56:07):
he was available for Seattle as sixteen. And I'm not
against the Byron Murphy draft pick. I think he had
a solid year. You could say he had a B
B plus year what have you. But there's no way
you want to say one year in and maybe it's
not conclusive, but there is no way you can even
remotely objectively say that Byron Murphy had the impact that

(56:31):
Jared Verse had for the Rams and Seattle could have
had Jared Verse. Now this is just chapter one of
a long book, and I don't know what kind of
career Verses have. Nobody can tell you that, nor Murphy.
But it is at least for a guy like me
looking at Seattle just kind of having I think, good
but not great pass rushers, and you see a guy

(56:53):
like Verse who just hit the scene with a big
splash for your division rivals.

Speaker 3 (56:59):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (56:59):
I mean, look, I'm not I'm not declaring that that's
a that's a mark against Schnyder, because again, I think
it's too early to say that. But I do think
that that's the area that could help the defense the most. Well,
let's just say as a legit star at as an
edge rusher, a guy could really put the fear in
opposing offensive tack.

Speaker 1 (57:20):
Let's do this, let's take a break, we'll come back.
I want to go through the defensive personnel, yep. And
I want to get your thoughts, you know, like almost
like like like it's Noah's ark, all right, Like who
are we keeping.

Speaker 2 (57:34):
And we're keeping just two's at every position.

Speaker 1 (57:37):
Well or just one or two. And you know what,
if we only have one, then so be it. We're
not gonna we're not gonna pro create that particular position,
all right, but but we're gonna keep who we're keeping
and who's gonna be left on the shore when this
thing happens, all right, because I want to I think
that's the important thing. I think we'll all agree. Draymond
Jones is going to be a cap Casuley, thanks for coming. Uh,
So we'll just we'll use that one as the jumping

(57:58):
off point. Draymond's not gonna to be back with us,
but let's come back and go through it. Who do
you like and who needs or where do we need
upgrades on that defense? For what Mike McDonald wants to do,
we'll do that.

Speaker 3 (58:08):
Next.

Speaker 1 (58:08):
Hardcore Football continues.

Speaker 6 (58:14):
Now back to Ian Ferness on your home for the
NFL playoffs and Super Bowl fifty nine. Sports Radio ninety
three point three KJRFM your touchdown.

Speaker 1 (58:27):
All right, Hardcore Football continues with Hugh Millen joining us here.
All right, here, let me go through the defense, knowing
the zone concepts and the communication needed from the Mike
McDonald defense. We've discussed. I'm gonna just read through a
list of guys that are kind of key contributors on
the defense, and you tell me who. If you're sitting
in a personnel room, you're saying, all things being equal, yeah,

(58:48):
we're bringing this guy back, and all things being equal,
we need to upgrade Leonard Williams, Biron Murphy, Jaren Reed, Chinnanuosu.
Kind of up front. You mentioned Roy Robertson, Harris, Jonathan Hankins,
Mike Morris, Draymond Jones. That's that's kind of your front
guys along with boy Mafe Derek Hall are all guys.

(59:10):
And again I'm including outside linebackers with that front group.
Of of however you want to kind of look at it.
But of all those guys, you know, Reed, Nuosu, Murphy, Williams,
you know, Mafe Hall, et cetera, where do they need
upgrades at?

Speaker 2 (59:27):
Well, I look at the edge rushers and whether they're
outside linebackers or and uh, it's kind of immaterial to me.
I think I think edge rushers, I think they're they
have good depth, but I don't think they have great
star power. So I think Mafey and Hall, you know,
those are guys. I think News is gone, I really do.

(59:51):
I think he and Draymond Jones, I think just cash uh,
I think they're casualties and and so I think that
and mafe are guys that would be good as like
you know, think of it like receivers, where you say, okay,
if you're a if you're a number two, right and
you're working the opposite of a of a number one

(01:00:13):
who really takes the attention, then I think they can
be more effective. But I don't think that they have
the skill set to be a feature number one guy.

Speaker 7 (01:00:22):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (01:00:23):
So so I think that that would be the biggest here,
Like if I was drafting on the defense, that would
be the number one thing. Okay, edge guy, I think.
I think obviously you've got in Leonard Williams. You've got
a star there right now. He's older. I don't know
how you know he's if he's going, he's gonna fall
off the shelf fast, I don't know. But he was

(01:00:45):
so good at the end of the year that I mean,
he's not just he's not just a foundation. I mean
he's he's a star, right and oh, by the way
I mentioned there's no Seahawks in the top twenty in
pass rush, win Raid on the edge, but Leonard Williams
was the only defensive tackle in the top twenty. He

(01:01:05):
was six or eighth. Sorry, I don't have it in
front of me, but he's, you know, clearly a top
ten guy. Byron Murphy, I'm a believer we could have
a hell of a debate and say, hey, should have
they taken Murphy over Jared Verse? You know that's the
same as Witherspoon versus Carter for the Eagles, right right,
Like you could have had Carter, but but Murphy. Yeah,

(01:01:30):
I think they're fine. Jared Reed probably has one more
year in there, so I think you bring in some
depth there. But I think that the primacy centers around
an edge guy opposite two good rotational number twos in
Hall and Mafe, but not much more so.

Speaker 1 (01:01:46):
You're inside line in my opinion. Okay, perfect, So you're
so upgrade the past the edge rushers, the inside linebackers,
which they did a complete overhaul in a sense, getting
rid of Baker and Dotson, elevating the rookie fourth round
pick from utah UTEP and bringing in Ernest Jones. Jones
is an unrestricted free agent, says he wants to stay here. Well,

(01:02:07):
we'll see, you know, if that works out or not.
So Jones and Knight, those two guys, and they're backed
up by basically nothing. There's no depth behind I mean,
there is zero depth behind those guys. Uh as well,
So those two guys.

Speaker 2 (01:02:19):
Your thoughts, Yeah, I think you you signed Jones, and
I think you feel really good about it. I don't
know that. I mean, he's He's no Fred Warner, but
who is you know, there was there's some current concerning
plays down the end of the year where where I
don't I don't think, you know, he's completely elite, but

(01:02:39):
I think that he can be certainly a top half
of the league guy, maybe a top quadrant guy, which
would be fantastic. I do think Mike McDonald really values
inside linebackers, and so Tyree Knight was a guy that that,
uh if you studied him back where he was at
UTEP right right, Yeah. And I remember studying him in

(01:03:01):
the Arizona game because that because that was a you know,
tick up in competition, and and then you watch him
in preseason and early on, and it was the same evaluation.
Here's a guy whose physical traits exceed his linebacking instincts, right,
Like it was easy to get his eyes displaced. Uh
anytime there was eye candy with you know, fake reverses

(01:03:22):
or what have you. But you say, okay, that that
can be improved and and and I really think he did.
I think he got a lot more discipline. I think
he improved as a cover guy. I mean they tried
to get him when when Seattle played their cover four
forty even that you're going to be matched up that
weekside linebacker is gonna be matched up in the slot,

(01:03:44):
uh in a quarters coverage and and he doesn't have
help in certain formations, the mike linebacker is going to
be away, so way away and Tyree Knight. Hell, I
remember him matched up against I'm on Rossaint Brown on
an option route with a tonness but no help anyone,
and he gave up a completion for one yard. Like

(01:04:04):
that's a win all day, right, And so yeah, So
so there's there's there's there's a skill set there that
I think is gonna be interesting to develop. So I
think you can go in and you can say he's
your will linebacker. It wouldn't shock me if if McDonald
fell in love with another off ball linebacker and wanted

(01:04:25):
to in the draft, wanted to to get somebody in there,
ostensibly to replace him. But I think that you can
feel cautiously optimistic. So if you still have a Night
as your weeks outline, So if you.

Speaker 1 (01:04:35):
If you resigned Jones and you have Night, You're okay.

Speaker 3 (01:04:37):
There.

Speaker 1 (01:04:37):
It's not It's not like I think unread flag. You know,
like like we're talking about the edge rushers. All right,
let's go to the secondary. I'm gonna I'm gonna separate
and let's just start with the safeties. Julian Love. I'm
assuming he's back contract. What Kobe Bryant stepped up and
ended up being your starting free safety Kavon Wallace and
Rayshawn Jenkins were kind of relegated.

Speaker 3 (01:04:54):
To the bench.

Speaker 2 (01:04:56):
Yeah, I think Kobe Bryant surprised a lot of people.
I certainly surprised me. I didn't know, you know, he
was kind of buried and then what was it that
Falcon game that he got the chance and and and
balled out. I mean, I don't think he's any threat
to be an All Star level player, but I think
he's solid. And I think Julian Love is a borderline

(01:05:16):
All Star player, you know, in in in a you
could have justified him making another Pro Bowl. So so
Julian Love is is definitely a foundation for that secondary.
You know, he's he's ad or near the best.

Speaker 3 (01:05:32):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (01:05:32):
Kobe Bryant, I think is kind of a mid grade safety,
but it's not some red flag that has to be replaced.
And then yet Jenkins and Wallace, I you know, those
those were acquisitions that I think are relatively cheap to
move on from. They're just kind of depth guys.

Speaker 1 (01:05:48):
So you're okay there, Love and Brian, you're good there. Okay,
I'm gonna throw all the corners in a blender here,
and you tell me who's getting left on the beach.

Speaker 3 (01:05:56):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (01:05:56):
We'll assume Devin Witherspoon. We don't have to talk about him.
He's I know your feelings on him. He's We're fine,
like you, Devin, You're good, Get on the boat. Everybody
else here, We Goreek Wallen, Josh Job, Trey Brown, Neamiah Pritchett.
Pritchett already burns well.

Speaker 2 (01:06:14):
Pritchett I really struggled at the end. Of the year,
and you'd have thought, Okay, if is he going to
have you know, he's on practice squad for a time.
I don't know. I didn't see anything there at the end,
So I think he's on very very thin ice.

Speaker 3 (01:06:31):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (01:06:31):
Josh Job is an interesting guy. He got his break
in the Falcon game as well. He is a an
Alabama product and and you know, you go the secondary coach.
Oh God, damn it, he's from Alabama.

Speaker 1 (01:06:48):
That's fine, I'll find him in a second. That's fine,
go ahead.

Speaker 2 (01:06:51):
Yeah, I can't believe I forgot his name. But but
he is a great coach. And so I think that
there's a little bit of an affinity there and and
a familiarity. I think Job has a greater skill set
than Trey Brown, you know, taller, longer, arms, faster, you know,
spinning his hips.

Speaker 6 (01:07:10):
You know.

Speaker 2 (01:07:11):
So I think I think another year with him, i'd
i'd be interested to see where where he can develop.
And then and Thenreke Woollan, you know there he's a
little bit mercurial. You know, his ceiling is is about
as high as anybody's. There's some focus issues sometimes and
in some competitiveness issues. Uh, he'd probably bristle this And

(01:07:33):
what do you mean not a competitor. I don't know
if Devin Witherspoon is a ten as a competitor. There's
no objective way that you could say. Rik Wollan is
obviously no ten. He's no nine. I mean he's on
a good day, he's a seven. If Devin Witherspoon is
a ten. So I think I wish Woolan would get
a little bit more Witherspoon mentally in him, because the

(01:07:54):
Lord just blessed him. You don't. You don't see guys
that are six four that long, you know, and he's
I mean, now you also jump forty two inches this guy.
This is crazy. Twenty six years of studying the draft,
I look at these these numbers and I see, you know, percentile,
and I see a lot of ninety fourth percent on
ninety six percent, ninety seventh. I mean, hell, they're getting

(01:08:16):
drafted right, so you'd expect them to be I never
see what I saw with Wolan. This dude was in
the one hundred percent isle in height for corners, one
hundred percentile in arm length for corners, Yes that matters,
one hundred percentile in forty yard dash and ninety ninth
percentile in vertical, like, there is no I don't I

(01:08:38):
think it's possible of all players on all teams at
all positions, it is possible that Rieke Wolan has a
higher athletic traits as measured by that relative to their
position of any player in the NFL. That's just insanity,
even even DK. I don't know that DK was in

(01:09:03):
thee hundred percentile in three and ninety nine percent So,
and I know you had the fastest forty time of
any player ever overturn twenty five pounds.

Speaker 1 (01:09:11):
Well, let me let me wrap up the defense of
this because I want to get to a break. Here's
a couple of things I want to hit on the last segment. So,
if we're just kind of prioritizing defense and what McDonald
wants to do in the offseason, edge rusher top of
the list, correct, that would be yes, absolutely, And depth
at corner, safety and linebacker and interior the defensive line

(01:09:33):
would be behind that, Right, That's what that's what we're
looking at.

Speaker 2 (01:09:36):
Okay, Yeah, you're always always looking for depth.

Speaker 1 (01:09:38):
But I mean, yeah, so like we're kind of prioritizing
just even draft and off season edge rusher, star power,
difference maker, top of the list, number one on the
defensive side of the football. Everything else is kind of
depth that we're talking about, and that brings us if
we're looking at the you know, the totality of it.
Offensive line, edge rushers like those are those are the

(01:09:59):
two biggest priority these offseason.

Speaker 2 (01:10:00):
Correct offse for me, interior offensive line, number one tight end,
got to get better at tight end. I think Barner
can be a number two, but I think they need
a number one tight end. I want them to using
the first round pick on an offensive lineman. But if
they were to take uh Ty Warren Warren from Penn State,

(01:10:23):
yeah you'd be okay. I mean that guy has Gronkowski
written all over him. It's like like the bust the
bust fact for Ty Warren is almost non existent.

Speaker 1 (01:10:32):
Okay, So let me do this. Yeah no, then we
got that. So let me do this. Let me take
a break, come back, because we've got one more segment
to go and I don't want to run out of time.
I got two things for you, all right. One would
be this so you can you can percolate on this
in the break. One would be I want you to
walk us through the two point conversion with the Ravens.
Was it all Mark Andrews or was some fault elsewhere?

(01:10:53):
And also Jeremy Foller from ESPN just did a thing
a minute ago, and it was it was talking to
guys around the league, maybe coordinator in the league, and
he predicts that Dk Metcalf will be traded to the Chargers.
I want to get your thoughts on that as well.
Coming up next.

Speaker 6 (01:11:10):
Now back to Ian Fornesz on your home for the
NFL playoffs and Super Bowl fifty nine. Sports Radio ninety
three point three KJR FM. Down.

Speaker 1 (01:11:21):
All right, Cole thing, I want to get to you.
Let me start with this, the most talked about two
point conversion in a long time in the National Football League.
Ravens have a chance to tie the game Hugh on
Sunday against the Buffalo Bills, and as we all know
the past, Mark Andrews Andrews couldn't handle it. Game set match,
We move on, and so can you walk me through that,

(01:11:42):
because I mean, I know market first of all, boy,
if Baltimore wants to get rid of Mark Andrews anytime soon,
I'll raise my hand here. I take him in Seattle
I'll take him in Seattle. I don't care about that whatever.
But what happened on that play? Yeah, about the punch out, Yeah,
the punch out fumble. He can cut the ball over
the middle in his zone cover, you just got to
go straight north, don't go try and go sideways. Wide

(01:12:03):
receivers do that in man, tight ends, don't do that
in zone. That's just fundamental.

Speaker 2 (01:12:08):
This is yeah, this is.

Speaker 1 (01:12:09):
Hardcore football because we don't know and so like that's
what I'm gonna ask you about the past, because it's
not just a drop by Andrews.

Speaker 5 (01:12:15):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (01:12:15):
Yeah, I was referring to when he got punched down. Yeah, yeah,
but the two point yeah, so that's uh, that's a
pick play where Andrews he is lined up number three
count outside in one two three and near the core
of the formation, and the balls on the left hash
the Ravens had had elected to put it. So that's

(01:12:36):
an indicator you might have a sprint out to the right.
It was trips to the right, but you also had
the running back Derrick Henry to the right, creating a
four by one. That's also a trigger indicator for a
sprint protection because you have the running back to the
side of a right handed quarterback in Lamar and so
you get the pick and it is man coverage and

(01:12:59):
Rashad Bateman was lined up as number one. Again, that's
a far far uh plus split relative to a left
hast play. Sad Bateman the receiver for the Ravens, he
comes down inside to pick the man who's covering Andrews,
who happened to be Damar Hanlin and uh they get

(01:13:20):
the pick that they want. Now, Ordinarily, if you're coaching quarterbacks,
you say, hey, we've got to have a plan if
they switch it defensively, very similar to out on a
three point line when you have screens. You know, do
you fight under the screen over the screen do you?
Or do you just switch it? And if they switch it, well,
then you were going to have Isaiah likely on a

(01:13:42):
corner out in the back of the end zone with
a with a against a safety. Uh So it wasn't
going to be great. So from a bult More perspective,
if I'm in the press box and I and and
uh and and I and we just called that play,
I'm like, please don't switch it, Please don't switch it. Well,
the Bills don't switch it. I don't have the number,

(01:14:03):
but forty seven the corner for the Bills. He rides
the play. He what we call reduces, meaning getting closer
to the ball, expanding is away from the ball reduces.
So the corner reduces just like you want. Mark Andrews
is wide open. Now now I'm gonna suspend the story
and I'm gonna say a hypothetical, and it really isn't

(01:14:23):
a hypothetical. I promise you this happened. I want to
take you into an August scrimmage with the Ravens, the
Ravens offense against the Ravens defense in a routine team period,
eleven on eleven in a red zone period. And I
want you to imagine that Lamar comes out on that play.
There's no upfield pressure. He throws the ball on the

(01:14:45):
back hip to Mark Andrews. This is in practice. Now,
he makes Andrews turn around, and Andrews catches it, and
you score. Everybody say, okay, routine. Now let's go to
the tape session of that play. And now do you
think the quarterback coach just says, hey, all good, we
got the touchdown out of it. No, you can say, hey,

(01:15:07):
you're gonna watch the end zone copy. You say, Lamar,
you threw that on your ninth step. So as he's
sprinting out, it's gotta be on off his right foot
right because he's right handed quarterback. So his first step
is is step one. That means it's gonna be an
odd number. If you watch that play, it is possible.
Had he had up the field pressure that Mark Andrews

(01:15:29):
was ready to catch it, he could have thrown it
on the fifth step. If I was coaching Lamar, I
would not say throw it on the fifth step. He
might have had to. Ideally, I'd say throw it on
the seventh step. That's how we always do it. That's
how we do it and walk through that's how we
do it. And I bet you in in August practice session,
I'll bet you Lamar Jackson threw that office seventh step instead.

(01:15:51):
It was so wide open. He goes to his ninth
step and now, like the timing I'm just imagining, in
Mark Andrews mind, he's like, dude, what's up. Now it's
on the back hip. He might have been worried about
being out of bounds. Now he's a professional football I
want to I can't stress this enough. If you ask
me to explain the play in two seconds. All I

(01:16:11):
get is two seconds. I'd say Mark Andrews dropped the ball, period.
But there's more to the story. And Lamar Jackson, he
did not execute that play the way it's supposed to
be executed. He held on the ball too soon. And
you know tight ends generally want to have the ball

(01:16:32):
up higher, twelve inches in front of the numbers. A
back hip throw late kind of just mess it up.

Speaker 3 (01:16:39):
Ian.

Speaker 2 (01:16:40):
I think you can compare it to think of this
in spring training. My final thought on in spring training.
In baseball, every team will go through the ground ball
to the first base and the pitcher covers. Well, there's
a certain pace at which the first baseman says, Okay,
I'm gonna I'm gonna take it. I'm gonna underhand it
to you here, and then the pitcher's expecting. Now, imagine

(01:17:00):
you've fast forward to a playoff game. At the end
of the game. The game is on the line ninetheening
bottom of the ninth, and now the first baseman he's like,
he's so concerned about making it happen. Now all of
a sudden he's late, and the pitcher's getting closer and
closer to the first first base, and go, dude, what
happened to our normal rhythm of this? And now he's

(01:17:21):
worried about whether he's going to step on first base,
and all of a sudden the pitcher drops it. Now
still a drop by the picture. But you say, wait
a minute. That didn't fit the normal cadence of and
rhythm of how we execute that play. So I think
I think in many quarterback meeting rooms the market's a
minus for that.

Speaker 1 (01:17:39):
I'm just looking at it. I froze it right there
on that seventh step, and he's not throwing it. He's
got it still, his arm still cocked. I mean, if
he throws it wide open, is it I mean he's
going to catch it, DeMar Hamlin's inside, he catches it
and falls. It's easy. It's not even close. He's got
separation close just then close. If he throws it right
there on that seventh step, I froze it right there.

(01:18:00):
I mean, throw the ball with some with some pace
on it, like you said, like you know, in his
hands up near the you know, shoulder, like higher.

Speaker 2 (01:18:09):
It's just around his Adams apple.

Speaker 1 (01:18:11):
And he's also got about fifteen yards about ten yards
of space before he gets out of bounds as well.
He's not worried about the pylon or anything like that.
He just walks in. Yeah it's it's yeah, catch the ball,
Mark Andrews, catch the ball. But yeah, it's I think
it's important to point out there was a minus there
as well. I'm gonna I'm gonna leave you this just
to percolate on, Okay, because i gotta go. I'm got
i gotta break, but I Jeremy Fowler from ESPN talks

(01:18:34):
executives every year. I don't know, probably voices his head
like Peter Vessi or something. But all these different predictions.
DK Metcalf will be traded from the Seahawks to the Chargers,
quote from an NFL exec Seahawks can still get good
value from him, and he could pare it well with
Lad mcconkeye for a good inside out tandem. An NFL
coordinator said of the move of the Chargers, Justin Herbert
to Metcalf would be scary. I think Los Angeles would

(01:18:54):
be looking to help the quarterback in a big way.
That's all great. That's like back in the day when
people said he you should probably aid Felix nandis of
the Yankees, because he would be great for the Yankees. Sure,
it'd be great for the Chargers for Justin Herbert to
have him. Right, I'll just leave you with that. You
trading DK metcalf, All right, Well.

Speaker 2 (01:19:11):
Well, I'm a big fan of Lad McConkey, and I
absolutely think the Chargers that is priority number one to
get another number one receiver at the end of the
conference or Mike McDonald has said in the season, he
said DK is one of one. At the end of
the season, McDonald said he talked about how DK affected coverage,

(01:19:34):
and I'll get to that second, but he said, quote
this is the word for word for Mike McDonald. It's
not just good enough to get the coverage tilted to him.
We've got to figure out more ways to get him
the ball consistently and let him impact the game with
the ball in his hands. End quote. So I don't
I don't think that's gonna happen. I think it would
be foolish. I think you would Gino Smith if you

(01:19:58):
if you rate him against all courquarterbacks and you filter
for against cover six, he had the highest reps against
Cover six of any quarterback and the second highest.

Speaker 1 (01:20:09):
They're not trading him the Chargers. I'll just leave it.

Speaker 3 (01:20:12):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:20:12):
And in week seven and week eight, if you if
you take those weeks out for all quarterbacks, that's when
DK missed. Sorry, Gino was number two in the league
for the whole season. But if you filter out week
seven and eight, uh, when DK was out, then now
Gino is number one in the NFL. Is facing cover
six this guy when when Mike McDonald says it's not

(01:20:32):
good enough to get the coverage tilted to him, and
he had just thirty seconds before said he DK's affecting coverage.
This is what he's talking about. It's rolling that the
zone coverage. We've talked about it, it's it's it's garnering
the opponents number one corner traveling with him to either side.
And I would just say this, you know, he he's

(01:20:53):
impacting jsn uh in these ways. I think I don't know.
I got nomination of us and sad and if it happened, and.

Speaker 1 (01:21:04):
I'm giving myself a minus because I got you going
on that I knew we get you going. That's a
minus for Ian to to get you going on DK.

Speaker 2 (01:21:09):
Do you know that's we're pon deck.

Speaker 1 (01:21:12):
That's a rooky.

Speaker 2 (01:21:13):
That's a rookie movie.

Speaker 1 (01:21:14):
That's a rookie.

Speaker 2 (01:21:15):
That's a minus.

Speaker 1 (01:21:16):
That is a minus on my part, Hugh, I love
you talk guys all right, Mike sat will coming up next.
No from the Star Rentals.

Speaker 6 (01:21:28):
Sports Tests Your ninety three point three k j R
f M sports headlines.

Speaker 1 (01:21:33):
Headlines are brought to you by Frost Brewed Cores, Light choice,
Chill on this, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls. Cracking
ticket Tuesday when you're the Senator to make sure the
tenth color two six two six nine nine five year old. Also,
don't forget where it's ready to brings you one thousand
dollars Weekly Power Daily Power playlist in each weekday hour
between six a seven p nationwide keyword and on our

(01:21:54):
website your chance on one thousand dollars credit is this
hour's word. Don't text it. Go to ninety three to
three KJRO dot com. We will find out in rite
about less than an hour's time that each ro O
Suzuki is a Hall of Famer. Will he be unanimous?
We'll find out at that point in time. That's really
the only thing also waiting to see if Felix Ornandez
has enough folks to stay on the ballot. He should

(01:22:15):
uh needs. But was it twenty twenty five? It's one
of the two. I think it's twenty five or twenty
five to stay on the ballot as well. That's the
that's the that's coming up in an hour's time. Well,
I'll state your national champion in college football and knocking
off Notre Dame thirty four to twenty three. Crack can
get a win last night actually yesterday afternoon six '
four and then Mattine over the Buffalo Sabers. They're next
in action coming up on Thursday against the Great Eight

(01:22:35):
Alexandro Vechkin and the Washington Capitals. Mike Sandals standing by.

Speaker 6 (01:22:43):
It's time for our Monday visit with Mike Sando of
the Athletic brought to you by Hunt Services for HVAC, plumbing,
sewer and electrical needs. Get on the horn and call
Hunts or visit Hunt Services dot com. Now with Mike Sando.
Here's the notes.

Speaker 1 (01:23:01):
Mike Ceno normally joins us Monday as we had a
hockey game yesterday at two o'clock on a Monday, so
Mike was kind enough to switch over and jump on
with us today as we talk NFL Playoffs, Conference championship
weekends coming up. The Divisional round just finished off as well,
so there's a time to get to Hello, Mike Sando,
How are you pretty good?

Speaker 5 (01:23:18):
I've been a hole on hold for twenty four hours
waiting so very patient by me.

Speaker 7 (01:23:22):
I used to just stand by.

Speaker 1 (01:23:24):
Missus Sando and the boys, going what are you doing?
I'm waiting for you, and just waiting for Ian as
we go, still waiting for you.

Speaker 5 (01:23:30):
It was so great, though, was when I first clicked
in today. You know, I usually can listen for the
last minute or so when it comes in and I'm
hearing Hugh talk about Cover six, I'm like, I'm on
the right station. I'm on the right station near a Hughes.
The only Cover six reference in media anywhere today will
be here exactly.

Speaker 1 (01:23:46):
And I threw the chum in the water and teased
him with the story that, you know, Jeremy Fowler, I'm
predicting that DK Metcalf will be traded, and then that
just it's it's like that's like going swimming with with
you know, blood in the water and the sharks are circling.
I knew what I was doing.

Speaker 3 (01:24:05):
I know what.

Speaker 1 (01:24:05):
I stressed out my producers and away we go.

Speaker 7 (01:24:08):
But it's not his fault.

Speaker 5 (01:24:10):
It's not Hugh's fault.

Speaker 1 (01:24:11):
No, it's my fault. There's a minus on my part.
It was one hundred percent of supervision needed here, you know,
and that falls one hundred percent on the host. I
take full responsibility. All right, let's get I don't know
how many words it was. You wrote a lot of
words Sunday night into Monday early morning on Patrick Mahomes
and the referees, and I was fascinated and there for

(01:24:34):
every second of it along the way. Now, I must say,
in all all transparency, I do a fantasy football playoff
draft or playoff thing we do, and I've got Pat
Mahomes Xavier Worthy, so I hope that they go far.
But I understand people's reservations. I was actually with former
Wazoo linebacker Peyton Palor has been there for a million

(01:24:56):
was there for a million years, coached in US Mississippi State,
now the head coach of Scott We're watching the championship
game last night. I was with him and some other
folks next door, and we're talking about Mahomes and he's
a formal, I said, this must drive people crazy how
he plays. And that's kind of one of the gist
of it a lot, right, is that I'm gonna go
out of bounds. No, I'm gonna cut back inside. Now
I'm gonna slide. Two guys gonna running each other as

(01:25:17):
a penalty because it's Mahomes. What are you hearing around
the league about Pat Mahomes and that?

Speaker 5 (01:25:21):
So Like, if you really look at all the penalty
stats and even the number of roughing calls that Mahomes gets,
you don't really find anything. You know, it's not really
out of the ordinary, it's not skewed.

Speaker 7 (01:25:33):
Totally to help the Chiefs.

Speaker 5 (01:25:35):
But you know what you see when you watch the game, right,
you watch the game the other day, you know that
there's two fifteen yard penalties that really probably shouldn't.

Speaker 7 (01:25:44):
Have been called.

Speaker 5 (01:25:44):
And then you know that he's a master along those
sidelines of exaggerating the effect. And he's not the only
guy to do it. I saw it today on X
somebody put out a big compilation of Josh Allen flopping too.
But I think this is what at the crux of
it is. The Chiefs feel so inevitable anyway and they've

(01:26:07):
had this string the last year year and a half
where all the close games they win. It's like, mathematically
not really possible.

Speaker 1 (01:26:15):
Nope.

Speaker 5 (01:26:16):
And so when that when you have that frustration of
like what does it take to beat these guys? And
then you see him inviting the flags by flopping and
then a couple in big spots in this game that
really probably shouldn't have been called or easily could have
not been called, do get called. I mean, you can't

(01:26:38):
convince anybody that's right, right, And so you know, do
I think there's some kind of a league wide conspiracy.

Speaker 1 (01:26:47):
No?

Speaker 5 (01:26:47):
Do I think he is very skilled and intentional in
his way of inviting the penalties.

Speaker 7 (01:26:53):
Yep, yep you And it's frustrating.

Speaker 1 (01:26:56):
You mentioned the numbers and you wrote about this, and
it's the totality the numbers, right that they're almost identical,
like the yards penalize the Chiefs.

Speaker 5 (01:27:05):
Yeah, yeah, in close game. I even people then say, well,
you got to look at when it happens. It's all
the critical moments. So I just looked at what's the
number of penalties on each team when it's the fourth
quarter and it's close game, right, And so it was
almost identical, Like there was like forty seven penalties on
the Chiefs and forty eight on the other team, something
like that, right, And I saw someone else today drilled

(01:27:26):
down on the number of the roughings and there's nothing there.

Speaker 3 (01:27:29):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:27:30):
I even went by referee because everyone was saying, hey,
Clay Martin was the referee seven and oh with him,
what gives But he's five and oh with another guy,
he's four and oh with.

Speaker 7 (01:27:40):
Four other guys. You know, he's ten and two with
this guy.

Speaker 5 (01:27:43):
He wins all the games anyways, So he's got great
records with almost all the referees. There's a couple where
I think his worst record is four and four with
Brad Allen and six and five with Cleate Blakeman. But
all the other ones are you know, ten and three,
eight and two, ten and two, five and oh. You know,
there's nothing there. There's not some league wide conspiracy on
that sort of the thing. It's just, you know, I

(01:28:06):
think it's just people have to have Mahomes fatigue. Even
when you go to commercial it's mahomes, right, I Mean,
you can't get like you can't beat mahomes even when
it seems like they should be beaten. You can't beat them.
That's why I think a lot of people will be
very happy. It'll feel refreshing if the Bills win this week.
And I actually like their chances. I think they're gonna

(01:28:27):
I think their offense is good. I think they maybe
even should win the game if they outplay them the
whole game though, and Mahomes somehow pulls it out and
there's a controversial for call. We're gonna have this conversation
next to this next Monday.

Speaker 1 (01:28:38):
You know, well, I yeah, the rough free stat that
Mike hasins call him is amazing, but it goes back
to what you just said. They win anyway, Like of
course he has a winning record with all these I mean,
they don't lose. That's that's why the Kansas City Chiefs
the two time defending champs. I'm gonna go jump off
a little bit here because you kind of mentioned it.
The conspiracy. I mean, we you know, you and I

(01:28:58):
are old enough to remember many of our listeners are
the Jordan rules back in the day. You know, Michael
Jordan got every call, and you know was David Stern
Was he trying to fix the game. So the Bulls
were the finals, and you know, maybe Lebron or other
guys have gotten those over the years. You you you're living.
Your job that you have in this world is to
is to cover the NFL. You talk to guys every

(01:29:21):
week around the league, executives, coaches, personnel, guys, et cetera.
When fans tell you, Mike Sando, there's a conspiracy, they
the officials are out to get anybody they want to
get the chiefs in there. I think NFL officials aren't
very good. That's just my own opinion. I think they
I wish they were full time. I wish we didn't
have that little that little asterisk next to it where

(01:29:42):
they're you know, as there's a humill in term where
their goat farmers by by trade during the week and
then we know most of them are actually lawyers and
other things. But you know, that was a full time job.
Have you when people tell you about the conspiracy, what's
your reaction when you talk to people around the league.

Speaker 5 (01:29:57):
Yeah, I think that they're human and so I don't
think there's a conspiracy, but I do think there is
a that they have publicly said that they want the
officials to air on the side of calling fouls when.

Speaker 7 (01:30:11):
There's hits on quarterbacks.

Speaker 5 (01:30:12):
So that's a fact they're they're saying that even if
you're if you're not sure, but you think it might be,
they want you to call it. So that's a part
of what's happening. And then the human nature component of
this has to be a factor at some level in sports.
I think when I think when you get berated by
the greatest players, whether it's Michael Jordan on a referee,
or it's Andy Reid or Bill Belichick bearing down, you know,

(01:30:35):
chewing you out on the sideline, right, I think I
think it's possible that that could influence you know, some
some something along the way, as opposed to you know,
me or you yelling at the official versus some guy
who's going to be in the Hall of Fame. There's
probably some kind of a human component to it.

Speaker 3 (01:30:53):
But when But when you really.

Speaker 5 (01:30:56):
Look at it and analyze it and apply a rigor
to it by looking things statistically and that sort of way,
you don't find anything. So I think it's really unrealistic
that you know that this league is that on that
level trying to flip the game.

Speaker 7 (01:31:14):
A certain way.

Speaker 5 (01:31:15):
And if you go back shot when I think it
was December of last season. Remember the Chiefs had that
amazing pass play with a Kelsey latter wiped out because
the officials called offensive offside. Yes, yeah, which is it
was a good call, But it's like you don't have
to call that. How many times you get off the homes?
Was like offensive offsides? What are we talking about? So,

(01:31:39):
you know, I think it's this streak of they just
keep winning all the time that really is a part
of it. Like if they had taken their lumps and
lost a few games and maybe had a bad call
ruined their end of game one of these, I think
it would not feel so bad. But this is an
amazing run of winning.

Speaker 1 (01:31:58):
Oh, it's it's insane. I mean, it's out and I
understand why people are getting upset along the way. I
you know, you mentioned Buffalo God. I mean, is there
a franchise not named the Detroit Lions that have had
their hearts broken more times? I mean, they're one game
away from the Super Bowl, where we all know what's
happened over the year, you know, years and years ago
with the Buffalo Bills, and you said you like their chances, Why.

Speaker 5 (01:32:20):
Well, they've Josh Allen has played great in the playoffs
as a general rule for years, and then in specifically
in their matchups with Kansas City, their offense has really
lit it up for a number of games, including this
year they only team to beat the Chiefs thirty one
to twenty. So I think that they you could make
a case that they're at their best. They're certainly better

(01:32:41):
offensively right now than the Chiefs have been, so I
see a lot of I'd be very encouraged by their chances.
I think their chances are as good as you can
be playing Kansas City right now on the road.

Speaker 7 (01:32:55):
But they can score, so I really do. Look, you
don't want to bet against Mahomes or any of that stuff.
Kansasity can still.

Speaker 2 (01:33:04):
Win the game.

Speaker 7 (01:33:05):
But I think if I had to bet on a
winter I might go to with Buffalo.

Speaker 1 (01:33:10):
Mike Sander joining us from the Athletic Pick six call
him every Monday at the Athletic Theathletic dot Com. Uh,
there's an interesting quote in here that you have. I
thought it was from an exec entering entering the season
talking about Washington. I just think they reek of average
across the board of a team looking to rebuild. Lots
of respect for d Q Dan Quinn, but that could

(01:33:31):
be the least talented roster in the NFC outside of
the South, and here we are.

Speaker 7 (01:33:37):
Yeah, it's great.

Speaker 5 (01:33:38):
It's a great story, you know, and there were others
who picked them to be a little bit of a
potential surprise team, but no one saw this.

Speaker 7 (01:33:45):
You know what it made me think of ian is.

Speaker 5 (01:33:47):
I think when you're starting out with the franchise and
you draft a quarterback, you kind of have this idea that, hey,
we've got a lot of time and this isn't really
our year that we're running for, and we've got a
window here and we hope to.

Speaker 7 (01:33:59):
Really hit stride year two, three, four. That's sort of
the thing.

Speaker 5 (01:34:02):
But this reminds you that you really should be striving
to win every year, and they did that. They did
a little bit of a different type of build on
their team. They've got some age on the team, you know.
You know, they went for some veterans, probably Wagner among them,
but others, and it wasn't exactly how you would draw
it up if you had unlimited time somewhere. I think

(01:34:24):
they really made a push to be relevant this year,
and by hitting on the quarterback obviously made it all possible,
but you know, they they maybe they jumped to year
two or three.

Speaker 2 (01:34:38):
It is.

Speaker 1 (01:34:39):
How much of it though? Is it just Jane Daniels,
You know, like I've heard people say, oh, it's just
Jane Daniels, Jane Daniels carry. Yeah, it's odd because I mean,
we all know how football works. Yeah, you have a
great quarterback, and you look at the quarterbacks left. You know,
here's the presumption of rookie of the year right at quarterback.
But then throughout the rest of the guys Mahomes and
Allen and Hurtz, you still have to have a supporting

(01:35:01):
cast around you. I think Dhu's done a hell of
a job in a great redemption story.

Speaker 5 (01:35:06):
I think so too. I think the coaching is a
big part of it, because we saw last year with Washington,
you know, with Eric the Enemy running that offense. They
passed so frequently, they were taking tons of sacks. Their
offensive line was really overwhelmed, and people thought the offensive
line was terrible. And they came in and did a
totally different offense around the quarterback. They committed to running
the ball, including quarterback runs, and now no one's talking

(01:35:28):
about how awful their offensive line was. I think they
really helped themselves with their style of play, which is
interesting and topical around here. As they're making a change
on offense, maybe they can do something similar that helps
out their offensive line and their personnel in Seattle. But
I think you do have to give that staff credit
for having a vision for how they wanted to play

(01:35:52):
that was sustainable for their team.

Speaker 1 (01:35:55):
Where do you think the Lions go from here?

Speaker 5 (01:36:00):
I think they're still going to be good, but there's
a lot of uncertainty now with just how much you know,
just how important I think Ben Johnson was to having
their offense really be ahead of the curve.

Speaker 7 (01:36:16):
I think they'll be good, though. I think they'll be good.

Speaker 5 (01:36:18):
They're not going to win fifteen games again, but I
would think they'll be in the mix for the playoffs
next year.

Speaker 1 (01:36:26):
Mike, it was for a few years, always felt and
I think you have numbers. Do him back this up
that the NFC West with Seattle and San Francisco and
then kind of take your pick with SAT either Saint
Louis at the time or even Arizona. All playoff caliber
teams or playoff teams hell Seattle, and we all know
what happened eleven years ago whatever. It was right that
the Seahawks and the and the forty nine ers met

(01:36:46):
the NFC Championship game, the epic game with the tip
and all those things. I kind of think we aught
of us thought that, hey, we're going to see something
similar this year with the NFC North and yet they
go zero and three. Was that an indictment on them?
Just matchups? What do you think that the end result?
What's the takeaway from that?

Speaker 5 (01:37:01):
Yeah, well, A little bit of a takeaway for me
is I think they're there. Their quarterbacks got exposed a
little bit, you know, and I think you know, Sam
Darnold and Jared Goff, you know, had really good seasons
for them, and you know, Jordan Love did some good things.

(01:37:21):
But those are not the Those were sort of those
tier two guys who, in the case of Gough and
Donald can really be threes easily two.

Speaker 1 (01:37:32):
Yeah, where were they in your quarterbacks here? So they
those guys are all those guys are tier two guys.

Speaker 5 (01:37:36):
Well, Gough was like low tier two, you know, had
kind of come up to that. Donald was, you know,
like a tier four more like, hey, let's there was
some optimism form. But remember he hadn't really played in
a one, right, So, but I think we know that
those guys are not the real guys, right, We know
we know that they can be good, but I think
we saw that get exposed a little bit for their

(01:37:57):
teams with turnovers, uh, you know, in big spots. But yeah,
this was the most dominant division since at least nineteen seventy.
The NSC North was by what their average victory average
point differential was when they played non division teams. They
won by over a touchdown a game number two and
they didn't. They went on three in the playoffs. Number

(01:38:19):
two was twenty thirteen NFC West, which had you know,
like you said, Seattle in San Francisco in the championship
game that produced the Seahawks winning the Super Bowl. And
really the the other four or five top most dominant divisions,
and we're going back to like the nineteen seventy six
AFC Central, right, they all produced at least a team
in the championship game, and they also produced multiple Super

(01:38:43):
Bowl winners. So this was a real flop, a real
face plant by the NFC North given what they were
in the season.

Speaker 1 (01:38:50):
Yeah, and this Mike articulation, you can read a story
part of it for the Lions was looking at their
too deep on defense.

Speaker 2 (01:38:57):
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, they just ran out a piece.

Speaker 1 (01:39:00):
I just yeah at some point.

Speaker 5 (01:39:01):
I mean, I mean, imagine if the twenty thirteen Seahawks
had lost seven defensive starters, you know, going into the playoffs,
they probably wouldn't have beat the forty nine.

Speaker 7 (01:39:10):
Ers to go to the Super Bowl.

Speaker 1 (01:39:11):
Well, and I think I think, you know, one of
the things people looked at is like, you know, cause
you talked about this with Russell Wilson in the defense,
and I'll wrap it up to this is that, you know,
they in twenty twelve and Seattle got to that divisional
round they lost to the to the Falcons in overtime
or last second whatever it was with the Matt Brant
field goal. You know, part of that was, well, the
defense that year for Seattle wasn't that good. It wasn't
It wasn't a legion to boom yet. And what did

(01:39:32):
it take. Well, it took the next year when they
added Cliff and Mike, you know, like like they added
those two guys in, it changed. And then another you know,
Bobby Wagner in a second year kJ and his third year,
all of a sudden shirms like it. It took another year,
and it took two editions. You take good players out
of your lineup Aiden Hutchinson and others, at some point
it might catch up to you, like at some point,

(01:39:52):
it just make ketch up to you.

Speaker 7 (01:39:53):
So that Atlanta game was amazing.

Speaker 5 (01:39:56):
I remember that because my oldest son was about eleven
and he was rooting for the c X and he
was just crestfalling the way that ends. I remember remember
that look in his face. It was just they were
so close. But then hey, they went to the next
two super Bowls, got it going and you know, had
A had had many successes after that. I don't know
if Detroit is, you know, in that same spot.

Speaker 1 (01:40:16):
Right now, I don't think.

Speaker 3 (01:40:18):
So.

Speaker 1 (01:40:19):
They got some stuff, especially with the coordinators. Although that
feels GUSS and and uh and DQ you like a
little bit as well, my friend. Great stuff is always
Next week we talk about a Super Bowl matchup in
conference championship weekend, we'll be done and over with. Can't wait.
Have a great week, sir, Thank you, you two.

Speaker 3 (01:40:33):
Thanks

All Episodes

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

On Purpose with Jay Shetty

Dateline NBC

Stuff You Should Know

.css-15opob5{left:0;position:absolute;top:0.8rem;} All Episodes

.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Furness Show 1-21: Rick Rizzs, Hugh Millen, Mike Sando.

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

.css-r6mb8g{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:1;overflow:hidden;}On Purpose with Jay Shetty

Dateline NBC

Stuff You Should Know

All Episodes

Furness Show 1-21: Rick Rizzs, Hugh Millen, Mike Sando.

On Purpose with Jay Shetty