Furness Show 1-22: Larry Stone, Steve Palazzolo, John Olerud, Mike Holmgren.

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome in on a Wednesday addition to the show, he
infinnesced with you, Andrews is here, Jess is here. Well,
we left the show yesterday. We were waiting to find
out not if not if he was going to be
in the Hall of Fame echiroll, but whether or not
he would be unanimous to no. One's surprised. He wasn't.
I was surprised it was only one. Am I the
only one here? I'm surprised it was only one. I

(00:22):
thought it would be more. I thought there'd be like
two or three dipsticks. And I'll tell you why, because
not only do we want to always play god if
you're in the Baseball Writers Association of America, certain members,
not all, but that's it. And he's Japanese, and I

(00:44):
think I was like, because it's like, okay, we can't
have the first ever position player being in there. I
think I can't prove it. I'm just thinking, like there's
a there was. I thought it would be more than one.
I thought it would be more than one, and so
I wasn't a. I wasn't surprised as he was unanimous,
and be I was only surprised because it was only

(01:04):
one guy or woman, whoever, or whoever the person is was.
But you know, I that can't take away from it.
It shouldn't, but you know what it does. It does.

Speaker 2 (01:17):
Here's something about it.

Speaker 1 (01:18):
Here's the thing. There's no way you can look at
this guy's resume, much like there's no way you can
look at Juniors or Derek Jeters or Hank Aaron or
Willie Mays or Joe DiMaggio, go on the list. There's
three hundred and fifty one I believe Hall of Famers now, okay,
And out of those three hundred and fifty one, there's

(01:41):
probably about one hundred or so that there's no hesitation,
like no hesitation, and the only hesitation comes from the
limited number of votes, making sure that guys stay on
the ballot, that type of thing. I understand that it's
a different voting process than others, But there's about one
hundred guys that there's no hesitation, zero, Like, yes, you

(02:04):
are a Hall of Famer, and yet no one as
a position player has ever been voted in unanimously. There
is something wrong with the process. There is something really
wrong with the process. You have to take it out
of the hands of the masses. You can't have people
that are school teachers that are not in the business anymore,

(02:28):
that are not covering Major League Baseball, that haven't covered
Major League Baseball for a long time. And I'm not
talking about our guy Larry Stone coming up to twelve thirty.
Guys like that should be grandfathered in. But people that
have never been in a clubhouse. Sports editors, for example,
and there's a bunch of those content editors for the

(02:48):
Athletic that have been in a clubhouse twice in their life.
There's one of those in the Northwest. I go on
and on. You got to take it out of the
hands of the masses. Maybe that wouldn't cure it. Maybe
that wouldn't solve it because or maybe there's a beat
writer that's covering the Cincinnati Reds that's from Topeka, I
don't know, or the Royals. I guess it would be
right whatever it is. But I know that you know,

(03:11):
people were writing and saying it shouldn't matter. It does matter, Yeah,
it does matter. That guy is a flip and Hall
of Famer unanimously every day Sunday and every other day
that ends in a hy he is and I but
I'll move on from that. I have such a huge

(03:32):
issue with that voting process, the fact that Vin Scully,
Dave Kneehouse, Bob Buker, guys that called games, saw more baseball,
were around more baseball than anybody, they didn't have a
vote because they're not BBWAA guys. Nope, they're just you're
telling me Vin Scully isn't qualified to have a vote.

(03:56):
You're telling me Dave knee House isn't Rick Riz isn't
Aaron Goldsmith, isn't Dave Sims, isn't John Sterling isn't on.

Speaker 2 (04:04):
It's, like I said yesterday, antiquated.

Speaker 1 (04:06):
It's very antiquated, but he is. He's a Hall of Famer,
and rightfully so Manners did the right thing yesterday as well.
I mean they just you know, Dick mentioned this Yesterday's true.
We can bitch and complain all we want about ownership
and the baseball side of things, and I'm making good
decisions I'm telling you right now in terms of doing
things event wise in the right way. Their their Hall

(04:29):
of fame in that regard. So right off the get
go we find out he's in, they are going to
retire his number fifty one at te Mobile Park, on Saturday,
August ninth. It's a whole weekend of each Row celebration,
which is awesome. A guy that made a difference in baseball.
And we'll talk about that with Larry Stone coming up
in a few minutes. And I mentioned this yesterday and
I was just talking to Kmart today about this. We

(04:53):
briefly mentioned it yesterday with with anders and and me
talking about my daughter, and we'll get to that a
little bit. Twelve forty five. My thing with each hero
is the numbers speak for themselves. Obviously, the impact he
had on a generation of young people who became baseball fans,
and part of it was because of the intrigue and

(05:15):
the mystery surrounding him. There's very few athletes that have that.
Marshawn kind of had that when he played. He doesn't
have as much any marks. He's got the guys all
over the place, but Marshawn kind of had that. What
made Marshawn bigger than life. He didn't talk. Yeah, he
was this mystery guy. What made eachro that way. Same
thing you just see but you don't hear. You hear

(05:37):
from Alan the interpreter, but you don't hear it.

Speaker 2 (05:40):
That's person.

Speaker 3 (05:41):
Though he was.

Speaker 1 (05:42):
Bigger than life. Each hero was bigger than life. Generation
of young people became baseball fans, imitated, emulated because of him.
This town has that same group, and we make fun
of him, us old people, we make fun of him,
the bros in the pen. But you know what, the

(06:04):
bros and the pen. That's that generation. Yes, that's that
generation with the pen be fullness and probably still maybe
I don't know, maybe it wouldn't be. Who knows, but
people wearing jerseys that are Mariner fans, they've cut the cord,
they've cut the cable. They do this, but eachiro got
them into the game. His lasting legacy to me is
really simple. It's the fact that people became baseball fans

(06:27):
starting in two thousand and one because of ichiros as
Zuki and the mystery surrounding this dude Number fifty one,
the skinny guy that walked in. I think he's the
first guy in Seattle to wear skinny jeans, Honest to god.

Speaker 3 (06:40):
He started a trend.

Speaker 1 (06:41):
Definitely had anders and the rest of you guys could
wear them without any pause because the etro made it cool.

Speaker 3 (06:47):
You know.

Speaker 4 (06:47):
It's a great story that is similar to what Andrews
was saying yesterday, but Rory Brown was talking about how
he was a little kid when Eiro is in his heyday.

Speaker 1 (06:55):
He's one of our sales guys, one of our sales.

Speaker 4 (06:57):
Guys, yes, who also writes some recaps for website on
the Mariners series. He said that because he was emulating
each Row when he was little. Yeah, he swings everything lefty.
Yeah as well, yes, yeah, and everything else is right.

Speaker 1 (07:12):
And Rory was a really good baseball player, and so yeah,
it's it is interesting. I my daughter's left handed, but
so I think she always would have done that that way.
But same thing. Yeah, my son, he played baseball up
through travel ball and all that stuff, and he was
a left He's right handed, but he swings left handed.
I think it's because he watched her and him. Yeah,

(07:32):
and so he and he plays golf left hand and
swings baseball left hand and all that stuff. Yeah, each
he he made us baseball fans, made young people base
and in today's world, that to me is the most
important legacy he has. They didn't win a championship. Ate
must find whatever one sixteen when sixteen means nothing. They
didn't win a title, but his legacy isn't just hit records,

(07:55):
batting crowns and all that. It's the fact that Eachiro Suzuki,
he he basically created a generation of baseball fans in
our talent, and for that, he's a Hall of famer.
Larry Stone covered him from day one. Stoney's a legend.
He's a damn Hall of famer too. He'll join us
Palozzolo one o'clock today, All Things NFL, John Olerude, one

(08:19):
thirty today, Murder Legend, Gokooks at one thirty and two o'clock,
Big Show? Is he here? What's going on with him?

Speaker 2 (08:27):
Big Show? He's gonna be in studio? How about that
once again?

Speaker 1 (08:31):
Big Michael? Be here home at two o'clock. All A
nine three point three k DFM.

Speaker 5 (08:38):
Now back to Ian forness on your home for the
NFL playoffs and Super Bowl fifty nine. Sports Radio ninety
three point three KJRFM touchdown.

Speaker 1 (08:54):
All right, we're back.

Speaker 3 (08:55):
Welcome in.

Speaker 1 (08:55):
On a Wednesday afternoon, twenty second of January two thousand.
In twenty five, I dream of this all the time. Retirement.
What would it be like to be retired?

Speaker 2 (09:09):
I mean, Larry was there yesterday. I don't know if
we can count him retired.

Speaker 1 (09:13):
He's retired. I don't see a buyeline today. I don't
see I've picked up my Seattle Times. I don't see
a byline. Larry Stone, longtime writer columnist for the Seattle Times,
got a mister baseball in terms of sports journalism here
in Seattle, joined us right now to the be component
hogh and a guy you can hear. I think weekly
during the baseball season, Softy and Fain show. But instead
we brought you onto this safe haven where it's a

(09:33):
lot nicer, little quieter today. Larry, how are you?

Speaker 6 (09:37):
I'm doing great? Ian and jeffs and I can say
that retirement is the best thing ever.

Speaker 1 (09:42):
Jealous, damn you, Oh the great Larry Stone. So you
were there yesterday. Let's let me wet. I got a
lot to ask you about with in stories to tell
and so forth. For those I mean all the TV
stations carried people probably se video on websites or television
what have you. It looked like they kind of had

(10:04):
the crowd the staff line in the hallway when each
tro walked in. What was the what was the setting
like yesterday?

Speaker 6 (10:11):
Yeah? It was there was It was jammed with media
lots of Japanese outlets were there. It was their only
chance to get eachro on the day he went into
the Hall of Fame. And you know, this is the
staffers and lining the hall with something I saw before
when Felix signed his contract extension. They did that, and
I think they did it for Edgar one time when

(10:32):
maybe when he got into the Hall of Fame. But
it was a nice gesture and it was I wouldn't
say that each row was animated, but he was as
close to animated as you'll see each throw in a
setting like that. He obviously obviously was very meaningful to him,
and his answers were far more in depth and heartfelt
than they usually are in those kinds of settings.

Speaker 1 (10:54):
Larry, you uh, I want to touch it on the
side story in the second two side stories before I
get to just each throw of the player and the
personality and the icon that he was in a second
and all the baseball you watched and covered over the years.
We'll get to that in a heartbeat. But you mentioned
the Japanese media did to bring you back in time,
seeing all the Japanese media back at Team Mobile Slash Safego.

Speaker 6 (11:14):
Yeah, you know the first first year two thousand and one. Uh,
there was a tremendous media coverage, you know. So now
it's now they've all migrated to uh show hey Otani
and probably uh Sasaki with the Dodgers. But a lot
of those, a lot of those guys became my friends,

(11:35):
you know, the guys who covered the Marriagers and are
still around Kazo and Nobu and guys like that, who
you know, they stuck it out and they're they're great
journalists and great guys and uh uh. I think a
lot of them were there at the beginning with Etro
and I think it meant a lot to them also
to be there yesterday.

Speaker 1 (11:56):
Yeah, I was. I was thinking back the one of
the one of the the things you go back to
in terms of the you know, him being here, the
the I don't want to call a media circus, because
I think that's that you said. There's some great professionals.
Guys worked their butts off. I mean they had to.
They had to cover everything, like every move that he made,
all those things. The competition was crazy. But what was

(12:17):
it like covering eachiro as an American beat writer in
the city of Seattle for the main newspaper, the newspaper
of record, and yet there you were every day in
little old Seattle, and it's an international event any day
every day that each hero was around.

Speaker 6 (12:34):
Well, the difference was that we didn't have to write
about him every day. If he didn't do anything, we
didn't write about him. But those guys had to write
about him every single day. And even if he if
he went over four, they had to write about him.
If he set that game out, they had to write
about it. And you know, Lou Loup Banello, the manager,

(12:57):
wasn't the most patient guys, and he he would get
exasperated when the question you know, at eight to nothing
win where each row was zero for four and he
was getting peppered with questions about each ro. It's like
he didn't quite understand that. But he came, he came around,
and he did well. One thing that happened was, you know,

(13:19):
there was a crowd around each ro's locker early in
the season, and it became distracting to the other players.
So they settled on a system where one Japanese reporter
would talk to each row after the game and then
they'd go into the hallway and he would give the
quotes to the group. So it wasn't as intrusive as

(13:39):
as it could have been, and it was a really
workable solution. But I mean, that's that first year was
just magical. You know, that was the one hundred and
sixteen win season. The each Ro came out of nowhere.
It was the best story in baseball. Was his emergence
and the and the team's dominance was you know, was

(14:00):
such a story. You know, everything kind of faded after
nine to eleven that year, but up to that point,
the Seattle was sort of the epicenter of baseball.

Speaker 1 (14:11):
Larry Stone joining us on the Beacon Plumbing Hotline just
a real quick reaction from you. I don't know if
it's disappointed or what the reaction would be, is as
an esteemed member, one of the esteemed members the Baseball
Writers Association of America, that one person held out. I
actually mentioned this Stays earlier. I was a little surprised,
not that there was one. I was surprised there weren't more.

(14:32):
I thought there might be two or three along the
way that held out, but there was only one. What
was your reaction to.

Speaker 6 (14:38):
That, Yeah, I was not surprised. I had been asked
a lot what I predicted, and I said two. I
thought he'd falled too short. So you know, I was
off by one because you know, the President of Jeter
missing by one and Griffy missing by three. I'm not
quite sure how Rivera slipped through with a unanimous vote

(14:58):
of all people. I think there's been I mean, he
was obviously a worthy Hall of Famer, but I think
you know, when you got the errands and the mazes
who weren't who weren't unanimous, when you have when it's
Mariano Rivera, that's that's a little puzzling. But uh, you know,
I wish he had been unanimously. There's not any justification
you could come up with to not vote for each iro.

(15:19):
He's one of those guys. There's there's a handful of them.
There's just no way you can look at it. So,
you know, I try to figure out why someone would
do it, and none of the reasons are good, you know.
But I think the way I look at it is,
if there's three hundred and ninety roughly four hundred voters,
and three hundred ninety nine do the right thing. Uh,

(15:42):
you know, I'm not gonna I'm not going to waste
too much energy lamenting the fact that one person didn't
you know, the moment belongs to each row, not the
fact that one person didn't vote for him.

Speaker 1 (15:52):
I agree, I agree, Larry Stone joining us, Okay, take
us back. When did you first lay eyes on him?
Was it? I think he was a spring training a
year or two before, like in ninety nine or two
thousand maybe, but I know obviously all one was his
first year here. When did the each year old phenomenon
begin for Larry Stone?

Speaker 6 (16:11):
Yeah, he wasn't. He wasn't camped in the late nineties
sort of as a sort of alone from the Japanese team,
just to kind of acclimate himself to the USB. End
up coming down with food poisoning and missed most of
that camp, and I have no recollection of that. I
was involved in the coverage, heavily involved in the coverage
of them signing him, the whole process of you know,

(16:34):
he was a posted player and all that stuff, but
I didn't see him until spring training, and I was skeptical,
like almost everyone was skeptical, even though you talked to
the Boons and the Camerons and the OLA roots and
they didn't know what to expect from, and Lou was
certainly skeptical. You know, there's the famous story.

Speaker 1 (16:56):
The wait, no, no, wait, lu Panella was skeptical of
a Jeff come on.

Speaker 6 (17:02):
Hard to believe, I know. But one of the most
famous stories of the of the intro sort of the
etro origin table is, you know, in spring training, he
was hitting all these weak grounders to the left side,
and Lou was getting more and more exasperated. You know,
so when does this guy can this guy pull the ball?

Speaker 3 (17:22):
Can he drives the ball?

Speaker 6 (17:24):
And you know he was he said it loud enough
for each other here. And then one game I was
there that day and each ro hit a just a
rocket on the berm in right field after Lou told him,
you know, you got to show me that you could
turn on a ball, and and back to the duck
out and said to Lou, is that okay? Or do
you like that? Or something like that, and he said okay.

(17:47):
He had his own he had his own way to
prepare and he wasn't going to change it for you know,
he wasn't going to come in and accelerate things just
to show Lou that he could do it. He had
he had to. He had stages of preparation, and it
wasn't until you know, the middle of the spring that
he was ready to start pulling the ball. And then

(18:07):
he just took off.

Speaker 1 (18:08):
From there, Larry Larry Stone joining us. So the posting
part of it, and we just went through the you know,
watching the whole rookie Sasaki thing and you know, before
that show, Hey O Tani and others and you know,
each how did Seattle get each roll? Because it's not
a money thing right when they post it's kind of
like the player I gets to choose and all those things,
and it's how did Seattle have all teams end up

(18:28):
with him?

Speaker 6 (18:30):
Now it was a different system back then, it wasn't
it was a money thing. Okay, he went to the
highest bidder, and as the legend goes, Hiroshi Yamauchi, the
chairman of Nintendo and the owner of the Mariners, told
tact the GM, we're getting this guy, you know, don't
We're not not getting each ro Suzuki because he was

(18:52):
so huge in Japan, and so they put in a bid,
a preemptive bid at the I mean it sounds kind
of quaint at the time, but thirteen billion dollars, which
was a huge amount uh uh and and they ended
up getting the bid and then they had to negotiate
the contract once they had his rights, and I can't
remember what they ended up signing him for, but uh,

(19:13):
it was a lot of money for the time.

Speaker 3 (19:15):
It makes sense.

Speaker 1 (19:16):
That makes sense, Yeah, Japanese ownership of the time. So
this is this is how it's going to be period
into story. Thanks for coming right.

Speaker 6 (19:21):
That's what it was exactly exactly. It would have been
a humiliation not to not to land each ero. So uh,
I know there were a lot of tense moments in
the Mariner's front office because they you know, as as
they were pretty sure that their bid was gonna you know,
win the day, but they weren't positive and they sweated
it out to make sure to see until they realized

(19:44):
that no one else had outbid them.

Speaker 1 (19:46):
Uh, Larry, when you watched him rolling grounders over to
the left side, and you know before he had that
that hit to the firm, and uh and Lou and
then obviously the throw with Terrence Long we all saw
in Oakland, A's iconic to this day and everything else.
When did you sit there and say, wow, this this
guy is special? Like when did it really hit you
that because you said there's probably some spec Probably I'm

(20:08):
sure you were talking to players, like you said, like
will it the old Root or Boone or whoever? When
did you just say, hey, this guy's this guy is special.

Speaker 6 (20:17):
I think you mentioned one of those days it was
the Terrence long throw and and and that was really early.
That was early April. It wasn't long into his career.
It was it was like the second week maybe April
eleventh or something like that. And that defensively, that's the
moment when when when that happened. But I think it

(20:39):
was a slow build offensively as you saw him sort
of hit the ball at will, you know. David Eckstein.
Eckstein of The and the Angel said, you know, it
didn't matter where we moved our our defense, how we
aligned he hit it. He always hit it where we were,
where we like he could guide it like where we
just were, that's where he hit it. And you just

(21:01):
saw that unfold and the way he would beat out
ground balls the shortstop early on, nobody knew really how
fast he was out of the box, the way it
would almost be in motion as he was hitting the ball.
And so he beat out a lot of balls, just
the shortstops and even the second basement that had never
had to rush on before because they were routine, and

(21:22):
then he would beat it. So once they he established that,
you know, they they would they would have to rush
things and that led to mistakes they would have to
play in, and he would just flap it by them.
You know, it was apparent by the end of April,
I think that this guy was was something special and
he was on his way to a great season. And
you know, he had hits in thirty nine of his

(21:43):
first forty one games in the major leagues. And I
saw a stat where I think it was Gwynn, Bogs
and Brett and only did that combined five times in
their career at thirty nine hits in forty one games
at any point. So you know, then he did it
right out of the bat, right off the So.

Speaker 1 (22:03):
You touched on a little bit you dealt with Lou
on a daily basis. How did Lou deal with the
guy that prepped differently? I mean his because I always
you know, we had Rick riz on yesterday. It sounds
like his his pregame routine, his pregame preparation, his day
to day preparation. I'm sure his spring training preparation was
just different than anybody else, but it was also maybe

(22:25):
the most important thing to him. That's why he was
etiro right, Like, that's why the way he worked and prepared.
How did an old school guy like Lou Panella deal
with that?

Speaker 6 (22:35):
I think Lou, Uh, once, once he showed that he
was an elite player, I think Lou was fine to
let him do what he wanted. You know, he wasn't
Lou wasn't stubborn in that way. Uh, he realized that
this guy had a method. He eventually realized that. Yeah,

(22:57):
I think it was after you know, he showed him.
But once, once he each that that game where he
pulled the home run, he also had a couple other
extra base hits to the to the right side, And
you know, Lou was convinced at that point that this
guy knows what he's doing. He's an exceptional player, and
I'm just going to leave him alone and let him
do what he has to do. And I don't recall

(23:20):
any friction in that regard at all.

Speaker 1 (23:22):
The stories about each roll and and you know he
deals with the media, and you know, he always had
the interpreter. Did you ever have a chance just to
talk to him? I mean, we all, I mean, he
understands English, and I know of just his preparation is
that he you know, he's more comfortable going through the interpreter.
Even yesterday with Alan and so forth. Be interesting to see
what happens in Cooperstown. But did you ever have a

(23:43):
chance just to talk to each Roll?

Speaker 6 (23:46):
Yeah. One time that stands that comes out comes to
mind is after he was traded to the to the Yankees.
We the Mariners ended up going to New York right
after that, and I happened to be on that trip.
I wasn't the beat writer. I think Jeff was, but
I took that trip and Shannon Dreyer, Greg Johnson and

(24:09):
I went over to the Yankee clubhouse to talk to
each Row and his interpreter wasn't there, but each Row
was sitting there and we ended up chatting with him
for about ten minutes in English, and you know, just
you know, he's happy to see us and had a
nice conversation. And then when we wanted to interview him,
I mean, you know, he wanted to wait till his

(24:29):
interpreter came, even though we had just talked for kids English,
and that's you know, that's the way he's going to
be till the end. I'm sure you know, you recall
that when he went into the Marris Hall of Fame,
he gave a great speech all in English. Yeah, and
I'm sure. I'm sure he's going to do that in Cooperstown.
He'll probably have a short portion in Japanese because there's

(24:51):
going to be a massive contingent of Japanese fans who
are going to come to that, But I think he'll
give the bulk of the speak and speech in English.
And you know, he each still chooses, though to have
the interpreter, which I know upsets a lot of people,
but that's just the way he is, and I've learned
to accept that.

Speaker 1 (25:10):
I look back, and I mentioned earlier. I think that
was part of the mystique about him. That's kind of
what made him larger than life, you know, and which
in some ways is kind of fun and kind of cool.
I mean, we both covered Marshawn Lynch, and you know,
before Marshawn started doing every podcast in the world and
every commercial in the world and every reality show in
the world, Marshawn never spoke no one heard Marshawn speak.
I thought that kind of added to the aura around him.

(25:31):
And yeah, if you're a writer or broadcaster or reporter,
you want to get the quotes. And maybe it's frustrating,
but I think there is a part of it. I'll
wrap it up this, Larry, Larry Stone with us, how
would you write a couple of sentences to describe what
Eachiro Suzuki meant to not just the Mariners, but maybe
the Mariners and baseball as a whole.

Speaker 6 (25:50):
Well, I think he showed that. For one, he showed
that the Japanese position players could succeed in the major leagues,
which paved away for a DECKI, Matt Suey and of
course most notably show Hey Otani. And there was a
lot of pressure on him. I think that's an underrated
part of the each Rows story. That year we were
talking about two thousand and one was just the immense

(26:13):
pressure on him. This is more than a couple of sentence. Sorry,
but he had the weight of the whole country on
his shoulders and he felt that. And to succeed under
that pressure I think says a lot about him. And
I think he also showed a different way to play

(26:34):
the game. He came in the height of the steroids
era at two thousand and one. It was not that
far removed from Sosa and Bonds and MacGuire, and here
comes a guy whose game was completely different. Slacked the ball,
hit it the other way, beat out in field, he
had spun singles. I think a lot of people in

(26:56):
baseball would like to see that aspect of the game
come back now when we have so many so much
of an emphasis on launch angle and exit velocity and
home runs and you know, the e tro manner of
playing is I think is kind of appealing in that
like maybe maybe maybe there there will be a return

(27:19):
to that style of play as there's kind of a
backlash I think to the to the three true outcome
style of baseball, you know, walk, homer, strike up.

Speaker 1 (27:27):
I liked that. I like that a lot too, because
I think one thing with baseball when I grew up
playing is a you know, young kider, playing little league
baseball is a sport that it didn't matter how big
or strong you were. It was hand eye coordination if
you're athletic, things like that, but you know, like little
skills sport. Yeah, it was a skill sport. You're right, Larry,
it's we're now so into the velo and exit angles
and you know, all that kind of stuff. And he

(27:49):
did play that he played the game differently, and he
played at a level that that we haven't seen, in
a different style we haven't seen. And it's a ton
of fun to watch. Great to hear your stories, great
to hear your voice, sir. Enjoy retirement, uh mischy on
the in the newspaper. MISSI writing every day. But I
know you're enjoying yourself and great having you on the
show man. Thank you so much, Larry.

Speaker 6 (28:09):
Thanks great talking to you. Thank you guys too.

Speaker 3 (28:12):
Thank you.

Speaker 1 (28:13):
That's Larry Stone joining us. Good stuff. We'll come back,
put a wrap on the first hour next time. Three
point three KFM.

Speaker 5 (28:22):
Now back to I Inferness on your home for the
NFL Playoffs and Super Bowl fifty nine. Sports Radio ninety
three point three kJ R FM US down.

Speaker 1 (28:34):
Fun show today. We got big Thanks Larry Stone. Mike
hold me at two o'clock. John Oleroude will join us
at one thirty to talk each row, and then one
o'clock see Pelozolo all things NFL Playoffs, Conference Championship weekend.
Let's go h let's go hip for that. Uh huh
day power Play one forty five. We'll hear about Jordan

(28:54):
ever leaves us status as well. Dan Milesman had to
address that today because his CEO threw it out to
a morning show, which I love get him. Hey, Todd,
you're the boss.

Speaker 3 (29:05):
You do what you want.

Speaker 1 (29:05):
Yeah, Todd does what he wants to do. Man period,
end of story. And uh but yeah, we'll get to
that coming up. Sounds like good news for Jordan every though,
Curtesy of both the CEO and the coach, who are
different people, by the way, believe it or not, believe
it or not. Okay, I want to wrap up this
first hour. We briefly touched it on this yesterday. I
thought it was really interesting what Larry Stone said there
at the end about intro and the the impact he had.

(29:28):
And you know, Andrew's you're our numbers nerd. You're are
our analytical nerd, the new numbers nerd in Baseball Land.
You said nerd a couple of times there. Well, that's
because Crawford's not here, and neither is Nate Nerd and
nerd NERD one and NERD two. I don't know which
ones which, but yeah, but it was interesting because eachiro

(29:51):
did play the game a little bit differently back then.
How's the game played now?

Speaker 7 (29:58):
Honestly, pretty similar to the way it was back then.
Maybe there was more emphasis on the single and batting average.
Back then, you see a lot. I heard you in
the break before our show today going through the batting
averages of the one team two thousand and one.

Speaker 1 (30:13):
It was crazy.

Speaker 7 (30:14):
Yeah, And then I think the offense in general was
way higher and pitching was. It was hard to find
a really good pitching staff. There wasn't very many in
the league at that time. But I think nowadays it's
definitely more geared towards pitching. I think all of the
nerd numbers, there's some that help offense. I think more

(30:34):
helps pitchers than it does helping offense in that way.

Speaker 1 (30:38):
The batting average just for the one team, for example,
each Row had hit three p fifty and led the
league in hitting.

Speaker 3 (30:46):
Yep.

Speaker 1 (30:47):
Brett Boone hit three thirty one with thirty seven home
runs and one dred and forty one RBI. A monster,
just a massive. He was finished third in the MVP voting,
behind each who finished first. Edgar had a just a
week year. By Edgar standards, he hit only three oh six. Okay,

(31:07):
so how many how many John olierud hit three oh two?
How many Mariners hit over three hundred? In that line
up of the regulars, Yes, those guys four each, Yi,
roh Boone, Edgar, and Oli Rude all hit over three hundred.
Mark Macklillmore he hit two eighty six. Considered a utility player,

(31:27):
but he had four and eighty seven at bats. So
and and Cammy had a social year at through sixty seven,
which by this year by standards, this year would be
pretty damn good.

Speaker 7 (31:35):
I'm gonna give you a guess how many players in
all of MLB, AL and NL hit over three hundred
that were qualified last year?

Speaker 1 (31:43):
Qualifies? How many bat bats? I think it's three hundred
fifty five? No, four hundred, it's four hundred. Yes, last year, yes,
six seven and Seattle, what did I go through? They
just had four to four?

Speaker 3 (31:58):
Yeah?

Speaker 7 (31:59):
Wowvan in all of Major League Baseball seven players. So
that just tells you. I think there's a there's a
combination of different things.

Speaker 3 (32:07):
There.

Speaker 7 (32:07):
Number one offense in general, I think is a lot
people are scoring less runs.

Speaker 1 (32:12):
What's a good batting average these days two forty. We
talked about this last year.

Speaker 7 (32:16):
If you're in above two fifty, I think you're a
you're a good hitter.

Speaker 1 (32:20):
Okay, yeah, Well, I mean you're looking at every guy
in their lineup that was a regular that year. David
Bell hit two sixty Gian hit two fifty nine. I'm
just looking at the regulars of the regulars. The lowest guy,
the lowest batting average for that team, I believe, was

(32:43):
Carlos Gian at two fifty yep, two fifty nine. Sorry, yeah, lord,
how think game has changed?

Speaker 3 (32:50):
Huh?

Speaker 1 (32:51):
Think about that? Yeah, that's that's nuts. Well, they had
three batting champions in their lineup, right, And my my
friend Alex Mayor from the Mariners said, uh, in two
thousand and three, the Red Sox had Bill Mueller, Manny
Ramirez and no more Garcia Para. He can't find anybody
else that had three batting champions in the lineup, so

(33:11):
obviously not at the same time. He can only have
won batting champion, right, But but Seattle have I mean
they had the three, they had each Euro, they had Edgar,
and they had ol Room one batting title.

Speaker 3 (33:20):
Correct.

Speaker 1 (33:20):
I believe Toronto, either Toronto the Mets. But yeah, so
they all three had won a batting title Boston and
no three did it as well. Like that, that lineup
was a wagon, like just an absolute wagon. You know.
It's it's wild to think the year that Brett Boone
had and he's the third Fittish is third of the MVP.

(33:40):
Brett Boone thirty my god, thirty seven home runs, one
hundred and forty one RBS and he hit three thirty
one with a three seventy two on base percent walk
a lot obviously, but but damn.

Speaker 7 (33:52):
So that's what's interesting. I think now if you put
those same numbers for those all those lineups in today's game,
I think Brett Boone probably wins the MVP and not
Ey tru It's just how different people look at those
kind of stores.

Speaker 1 (34:04):
With the home runs you mean plugging on base, Yeah,
because he Trill had leading off, he had sixty nine
RBIs now he off, Yeah, so like he's not gonna
have the same RBIs right, and he's not going to
have that and he didn't have the same power he
hit he had. He only had eight home runs that
season right on base? What was his on base percentage
was three eighty one. Is that higher than Brettpon? It was, yeah,

(34:28):
higher on Brettpoon. And his slugging was four fifty seven.
His ops was eight thirty eight. Press slappy Dap guy
ops ops plus was one twenty six, and he stole
fifty six bases. That's the big thing I think for him,
is he like, if you put it so today, you
think Boon might have been the MVP.

Speaker 7 (34:49):
I think so, I really do. I'm not I'm not
trying to discredit anything each other.

Speaker 1 (34:53):
No, it's great. It's a great conversation. Like his fifty
six stolen bases, that's a lot. It's massive. But I
just think if you and you want to go glove
by the way too, Yeah, he was the best right
fielder in the game. Yeah. I don't know how you
would have split the hairs there.

Speaker 7 (35:06):
It would have been tough because I still think the
emphasis on slugging and home runs and uh just kind
of the big the long ball nowadays, I think soon
would have been the guy, especially come.

Speaker 1 (35:17):
From the second day's position. I know, do you think
about that?

Speaker 3 (35:22):
How do it?

Speaker 1 (35:23):
Okay, let's get a break in. Our good friend Steve
pelows Aolo talking all Things NFL.

Speaker 5 (35:27):
Next No from the Star Rentals Sports to Jordan ninety
three point three kJ R FM Sports.

Speaker 1 (35:35):
He headlines by you by Frostbrew Cores Light, Choose Chill.
Each year Hall of Famer not a surprise. We all
knew that was going to happen. Unfortunately, not unanimous. One
single voter said no. But he still goes in. The
first Japanese player to when shrine in the National Baseball
Hall of Fame. July twenty seventh, it becomes official in Cooperstown,
New York. MS will retire his number fifty one this year.

(35:56):
A TEAMO will park that Saturday, August ninth before the
TA takes on the Rays. That we evening at six
point forty. Husky's losing yesterday, Number fifteen oregan a men's
basketball Ducks pulling away in the second half eighty two
seventy one. The final Great Osi War had twenty points
eight rebounds. Ducks. God, why did you put this down?
I watched the game. I knew this, but I don't

(36:17):
want to read this. What are you talking about? Ducks
were led by former coup TJ. Bomba with twenty one points.

Speaker 7 (36:24):
Yes, you're doing the what Ian did to Hugh Millen,
you're exacting.

Speaker 1 (36:29):
I can point out for TJ Bomb, but you know
why he left Wazoo two years ago because he wanted
to be closer to his family on the East Coast
when he went to Villanova. Yeah, Eugene obviously closer. Obviously
Eugene's closer. He went into that game yesterday, Oh for
his last thirteen on three point attempts.

Speaker 2 (36:47):
Now, maybe he still got a little cool.

Speaker 1 (36:49):
He did knock down his first three yesterday against Washington,
so I can't hate him for that. Takes on Mick
cronin bitter at the World in Ucla on Friday at eight.
That might be a game. I root for Washington in it,
just to beat the excess to see Mick Carlton owns
his mine gap, I gotta fly all the way to Seattle.
Oh God, the whoreor cracking off until tomorrow. The host

(37:12):
Washington seven o'clock crop the Bucks six thirty pre game.
Breaking news for the NFL. Trent Balkey nicest guy in
football not not out as the Jags GM. Steve Pelozola
standing by.

Speaker 5 (37:24):
We're diving into the numbers and the grades around the
NFL with Steve Pelazolo from the thirty third team, brought
to you by Cascade Ice and Wired X brief forty
four Energy Drink. Are you looking for a caffeine kick,
dry or refreshing locally made sixteen ounce can of Cascade
Ice sparkling water with one hundred and sixty milligrams of caffeine,

(37:44):
no carb, sugar or sodium. But if you're looking for
more of a kick, grab a locally made can of
wired CKX three forty four energy drink loaded with three
hundred forty four milligrams of caffeine. Now that everyone's wired,
let's get to Steve Pelazolo with then.

Speaker 1 (38:02):
See Flazolo joined us former pro baseball player. Are you
a member the Baseball Writers Association of American Did you
not vote Eatro yesterday?

Speaker 6 (38:09):
Sir?

Speaker 3 (38:11):
I am not a member, and I would never do
such things to eat Tro. I know better than to
do that. Okay, goot, I have a funny Etro story.
Actually I love it. Fire away, sir. He came to
when I was with the Giants. He came I know
I was with the Brewers. He came down to. I
think it was like an a ball game or double
a game, and the miners in spring training, because you know,

(38:32):
a lot of times major leaguers will come down to
the minor league games just to get to Matt bats
in and just work on some stuff. So he would
lead off every inning in our game. I think he
took like seven at bats in that game, and he
was facing one of our lefties. And this one at
bat he followed off had had to have been ten pitches,
just kept following it off, following it off, just almost
like playing playing around with him, like I don't like

(38:52):
this one, don't like this one, kept following them off,
and then he hits an absolute bomb, probably four to
fifty feet to right center. And he's power He's not
a power hitter, right, it's but you always he could
do it if he wanted. It was unbelievable just watching
him against us and just kind of like, oh, I
don't like this pitch. Don't like this pitch, and then
hit a bomb. So he would like lead off every inning,

(39:13):
maybe work on some drag bunts and this and that,
and then that one app at he tried it for real,
you know, hit for real and just hit hit an
absolute bomb.

Speaker 1 (39:20):
For people that don't know, Steve was a pitcher, a
professional pitcher, minor league pitcher for it for many years
in baseball. And do you when you just roll fast
when you watched him in that day, for example, did
you feel like he was that much different than anybody else,
Like he could literally do what he just did, like
just if I want to, I want to water the
right pitch to work on it, just I'm working on something,
so until I get that particular pitch, I'm just gonna

(39:43):
screw around here and foul the ball off when like
that's unheard of in baseball.

Speaker 3 (39:47):
Yes, I mean I I was always of the mind
that the the elite players were just in a different world, right,
just playing a different game, and that the rest of
us guys that were just you know, pretty good major
league players and my good minor league players, that there
wasn't a massive difference. A lot of it was right place,
right time, a little bit of mentality, a little bit
of just consistency. But you know, Barry Bond's basically picking

(40:11):
out spots that he was going to hit the ball
off the wall and batting practice and what Eachi Ro did,
like those types of things I can't even come close
to relating to. So I was like, those dudes are
in just a completely different world.

Speaker 1 (40:22):
See Pello's a little thirty thirteen joining us right here,
as he does every week. We're going to talk Conference
Championship weekend. In a second. We're also in the midst
right now. Check the Mike podcast. Go get that, and
you should check it out. The news coming out of Jacksonville.
We don't tell you a lot of Jacksonville conversations here,
but I know you guys talked about it a lot.

(40:43):
Trent bal Key, we know him well. He's the four
forty nine ers GM. He's the guy that famously on
Christmas Eve years ago when the forty nine ers of
the Seact are going toe to toe. I think it
was two thousand and twelve, it might have been when
they won a game. I remember him stomping through the
old press box at Luminfield and saying very Kirk Cousins like,
but it was more like something something m Effer's or

(41:06):
something like that, after the forty nine ers had won.
Always a first class guy, somehow he gets out of
a job in Jacksonville. You guys talked about him a lot.
How surprising is that?

Speaker 3 (41:16):
I mean, it was surprising that it took this long,
I think, and not just us, I think people around
the league completely expected that, Hey, if they're going to
get rid of Doug Peterson as head coach, they're also
going to get rid of Trent Balky. I mean, he's
been there across multiple coaching hires. The team hasn't been good.
They've they've underachieved when they had any kind of expectations,
and they haven't added a ton of talent over the

(41:37):
last couple of years. There's been some good moves, as
any GM makes, but overall it's been terrible. And then
I think you now you see a lot of the
head coaching top candidates Ben Johnson and Liam Cohen said
we don't We're out, we don't want to go. We're
not going to Jacksonville, Ben Johnson saying, quote, I don't
like the structure there, you know. So clearly they finally
came around to well, Trent Balky seems to be an issue.

(41:59):
He's keeping us away from the top head coaching candidates.
He doesn't bring a lot to the table as a bet,
you know, as the general manager evaluator, he's not special
in any regard there. So they moved on and it's
a little bit of better late than ever, and certainly
a little bit of well, they missed a big window
to interview the top coaching candidates and GM candidates for
for a future replacement.

Speaker 1 (42:19):
That's the thing that's crazy, right, I mean, because we're
we're out here in Seattle right now, like a lot
of teams that are looking for teams are looking for
a coach, a head coach or coordinators, and it feels
almost Steve like recruiting season, like and you better be
on top of it, you better, you know. I nobody
wants to make a rash, quick, uneducated decision, but there's

(42:40):
only there's a the talent pool isn't deep in some ways, right,
there's a handful of guys that are like a list guys.
And if you're looking around, whether you're looking for a
head coach or like Seattle for a coordinator now a
GM in the sense, you better be on top of it.

Speaker 3 (42:55):
Yeah, and you know you miss you missed that window.
And obviously all the teams that needed a GM or
a coach, they come in with a short list and
they have the people that they're looking for, and you
just missed the opportunity to bring them in. And it's
funny because a lot of times when jobs are open,
we say, oh, they've got the quarterback, therefore it's a
great job. Well, the Jacks have Trevor Lawrence. And no

(43:17):
matter what you feel about Trevor Lawrence, maybe he's not
the generational talent that people believe, but you at least
have a starting quarterback there that you can win with.
Where as a team like the Raiders, it's like, all right,
we don't know we have the sixth pick. We don't
know who the next guy is going to be. There's
more uncertainty there. The fact that a Jacksonville job with
Trevor Lawrence is not attractive, I think says a lot

(43:37):
about how they've handled this and how you know, probably
just having Trent Balkey in the building and a part
of upper management, you know, affected a lot of the
coaching candidates.

Speaker 1 (43:45):
Okay, I got to ask you about this. Andrews just
sent me this. Apparently there's a bunch of stuff coming
out of San Francisco that the Seahawks are the forty
nine ers have discussed Pete Carroll as a defensive coordinator candidate.
I know they're also talking to Robert Sala, their former
DC who obviously got fired by the Jets. Pete Carroll
is a forty nine Ers DC. Steve, I don't know
if I can handle that, buddy. I don't know if
we can handle that up here?

Speaker 3 (44:06):
Is that too emotional? Is that gonna be emotionally draining?

Speaker 1 (44:09):
I perhaps just there's something about it that feels dirty.
It just don't know, man, that would.

Speaker 3 (44:16):
Be fascinating, especially, I mean from the Niners perspective, who
I think, you know, great offensive league, great offensive mind
to Kyle Shanahan. But they've been trying to figure out
consistency on the defensive side having that second head coach there, man,
And they might need to go that route because Robert
Salad now is the favorite in Jacksonville now that Liam
Cohen's backed out, and who knows if things open up again.

(44:37):
But it looks like sala I'm not saying he's definitely
getting the job in Jacksonville, but are there Things are
trending that way and the Niners might miss out on
him as as defensive coordinator.

Speaker 1 (44:46):
Sawa seems like I feel I feel like he's a
guy that just was in a bad circumstance with that
dysfunction that is New York, right, like guy that looks
like he can probably coach along the way and the
way he goes all right, I want to we'll get
to the matchups in a second. What's your takeaways through
the first three weeks? You know, Wildcard divisional round. I guess,
first two weeks of the NFL playoffs, uh, wild Card

(45:07):
and divisional round. I mean, there's a lot of different
things to look at. The Lions falling short, the NFC
North as a Hall as a whole falling really short,
the upsets that we saw from Washington along the way
Chiefs keep on winning. What's what? What's your big takeaways
from what you've seen in the first couple of weeks here.

Speaker 3 (45:24):
I think it's that the A the A f C
is still very much QB driven, and that's where all
the the elites, you know, reside, the clear elites when
you're ranking quarterbacks, the mahomes Allen's, Lamar's Joe Burrow even
though he's not there. And then the NFC is a
little bit more wide open every year that it's more of,
you know, these compleete teams that aren't as QB driven.

(45:45):
I think that stands out to me and then and
then when that hat and now when that's happening now
maybe maybe Jayden Daniels is that next guy where you say, hey,
this this guy's QB five or whatever you want to
wherever you want to put them, you know, for the
foreseeable future. But it does feel like the the NFC
is a little bit more you know, full team and
then also get right, you know, get hot, get you know,

(46:08):
get hot at the right time. You know. The Lions definitely,
I think had one of the best all around teams,
but they lost so much on the defensive side of
the ball as far as injuries go, and the commander
is just getting hot at the right time. It feels
a little a little old school where you know, you
just don't have it's not it's not as QB dependent
in the NFC. So that's just one of the things
that stood out to me so far.

Speaker 1 (46:28):
Seepello's lillver Bright fed cascadees where the one of the
things that we have seen over the years is, you know,
and this is the way the NFL's built salary cap
hard to keep good players, all your good players, especially
as they give into those second contracts and quarterbacks get
big contracts. All those things happen the you We saw
it in Seattle in you know, thirteen fourteen, fifteen was
still good. In the sixteen he started seeing things falling

(46:49):
off here and in our neck of the woods. The
Lions had all those injuries, and I mean, especially on
the defensive side of the football. We understand what the
injuries were. But now you know, with guys that are
gonna get paid and losing their two most important coaches
not named Dan Campbell, Glenn's gonna get a job obviously.
Ben Johnson already has a job. Is the window closing

(47:11):
it all on Detroit?

Speaker 3 (47:14):
I mean, I don't think the window's closing just because
of what I just said. I mean it's like, all right, well,
you know, if you're in the AFC and you're trying
to compete with the Chiefs and the Bills and the
Ravens every year and you're the fourth team, it might
feel like that you'd.

Speaker 1 (47:25):
Be in trouble in the NFC.

Speaker 3 (47:26):
Yeah. Yeah, I think the NFC is more wide open.
I mean, look, it's gonna be more challenging. It's absolutely
more challenging. Ben Johnson, I think was unreal as offensive
coordinator Aaron Glenn as defensive coordinator. They're gonna they're moving
on for reasons, right, and they've earned them. The other
part is the team building effort from Detroit. You know,
more money going to Tjared Goff in the coming years.
And eventually it's almost like every time when you draft

(47:50):
that well for three or four years, at some point
it's like, oh, shoot, we gotta pay all these guys
twenty million plus a year, maybe thirty million plus a year.
So all those bills are gonna come due over the
next year or two. So it's not even that the
windows closing, it's just that it's tighter, it's more difficult.
And I use, you know, John Schneider and the Seahawks
as an example. I don't think there's just you know,
perpetually always good drafters that exist in the NFL. Right,

(48:13):
you could. Schneider's early years were unbelievable. They hit a
bit of it. But you can't just say, well, because
he found Sherman and because he found Chancellor, and because
he found Russ and Wagner, that's gonna happen forever, Because
it doesn't. And so Detroit, like any team, I think
Brad Holmes has been outstanding. But just because he's he
hit on four top fifty picks a couple of years ago,

(48:35):
does that mean he's going to hit on every pick
in perpetuity. Probably not, So it does make it more
challenging for Detroit. But I do believe the culture of
the foundation that they've set will still have them as
one of the best teams. But yeah, this was a
tough one for by Detroit Lions fan friends because this
felt like their year because of all those pieces still
being in place.

Speaker 1 (48:54):
Seatpella's Will to Check the Mic podcast, by the way,
is up right now that has their end of the
year awards. Is the Check Them Fan of the Year.
My guy Andrews and Hurst that you just spoke to,
is that who it is?

Speaker 3 (49:05):
He's uh we we We did a lot of participation
trophies in this, so he's going to get a participation.
We gave away one award and then everyone else tied
for second. So congrats. I mean, I subscribe. I should
be right up there too. Damn you got one to
thank you. I appreciate that.

Speaker 1 (49:22):
All right, Steve, Let's get to the games, the matchups
this weekend. I'm like, I think everybody else excited for
so many different reasons. We'll just go in order noon
game specific time, three o'clock y your time out on
the East Coast. We've got the Commanders and the Eagles.
Jayden Daniels against Jalen Hurts. Let's start there. Who's got
the advantage at quarterback.

Speaker 3 (49:44):
I mean, I think Washington has the better pure quarterback
as far as playing better. I don't like Jalen Hurts
inconsistency in the past game and everything. What the Eagles
have though, I think he hurts. Experience matters, and the
fact that you know his run thread and a lot
of the way he runs the offense does help. But yeah,
Jaden Daniels is incredible. I mean, he just doesn't take

(50:05):
negative plays, or hasn't right now. We'll see what happens
this week. I'm not putting the ball in Harm's way.
One of his one of the knocks coming out of
LSU is he does take a lot of sacks, and
you know, you offset out scrambles and designed runs. But
he's not even getting sacked a whole lot right now,
and so he's doing a great job of instead of
throwing the ball in complete, just picking up five yards
on the ground. You know, and scrambling and making making

(50:28):
positive plays out of nothing, in addition to his ability
to just throw the ball on time, accurately, beat the
blitz like he did against the Lions where he was exceptional,
and then throw the ball down the field extremely accurately,
deep balls, you know, absolutely pinpoint. Got to be able
to hit those again against the Eagles. So I'd say
Jaden Daniels has the slight advantage. But the Eagles all
around team, their defense, their pass rush, the way they've

(50:49):
built that back seven, their offensive line, though they gave
up a lot of pressures last week against the Rams.
I think the Eagles do have the better all around team,
but I obviously love the way Jayden Daniels is playing
right now.

Speaker 1 (51:00):
To say they get the best player on the field too,
I mean, I don't know. I I talked Tob my
buddy Mike Sandel on Monday from the Athletic about this.
We were kind of talking about the twenty twelve Seahawks that
Dan Quinn, you know, came in as a DC the
next year after gust left, and the twenty twelve Seahawks
got to the Divisional round. Their defense wasn't that good?
It wasn't the legion of boom yet, but they needed

(51:20):
two pieces. They added Cliff Avril and Michael Bennett the
offseason and kind of took that next step. We're kind
of talking about how Washington in some ways a little
similar like their defense, even though they got a defensive
head coach and DQ and everything. Maybe isn't the side
like you just talking about Jane Daniels, the trio of
running back that they have that can hurt you. Obviously
some receivers, a good tight end, can they at all

(51:42):
slow down Saquon Barkley And how do you do that?

Speaker 3 (51:45):
I mean, this Saquon things interesting because he's not He's
not that guy that consistently gets five or six yards.
He's the guy that will go, you know, ten carries
for twenty yards and then break one. And so you
saw in the Rams game if you if you blow
a gap, it can be sixty, it can be seventy
and that's it. And so obviously there's value in that.
It's just interesting that it's not a whole lot of five,

(52:08):
six seven yard runs that keep the get keep the
team on schedule. It's not a whole lot of third
and ones where he's just picking it up. They use
you know, other they have other things for that, but
Saquon Barkley is like testing you. Defensively, you have to
be gap sound. You can't blow one gap. And a
lot of times that's what run defense is, is just
being in the right place at the right spot, defeating

(52:29):
blocks and just not allowing any kind of crease. But
if there's any crease, Saque takes it to the house.
And it's incredible how often he's been able to do that.
I tweeted out the other day, twenty percent of the
fifty plus yard runs in the NFL this year from
Saquon Barker, twenty percent are just him. And it feels
like that right every week it's like, how'd you do
that again? And he just did it twice last week.
So how you stop him is being gap sound, And

(52:51):
it's easier said than done because you're you know, that
involves defeating blocks and beating you know, Lane Johnson and yeah,
you know Jordan Mylatta and just a fantastic tick offensive
line and a good scheme too. You know, Jalen Hurts
had a forty four yarder, yeah, as on a keeper
early and so that is the the QB run threat
is a cheat code that more NFL teams are leaning into.

(53:12):
So that's what makes the whole operation so difficult to
stop in Philadelphia.

Speaker 1 (53:15):
Hello, Bobby Wagner, gonna be a big challenge for you
on Sunday. Okay, three o'clock Pacific, six o'clock Eastern time.
Still early enough for you, Steve, you know, still not
too bad. You get you know at nine, nine thirty.
Should be done.

Speaker 3 (53:29):
I love it. I know, I love it. I know.

Speaker 1 (53:30):
Yeah, we get the second game, and of course that
would be Josh Allen against Patrick Mahomes. Let's just start
their same question, Who's got the advantaged quarterback, Josh Allen
or Patrick mco Patrick Mahomes.

Speaker 3 (53:41):
I mean, I can't say anybody but Mahomes and the playoffs,
the way he plays, and it is just fascinating that,
you know, the Chiefs are able to just play really
clean football in the playoffs, even last year when their
whole season was marred by drops and inopportune fumbles and
they lost five games and it felt like the sky
was Kansas City, and then they just turn it on

(54:02):
in the playoffs and make basically one mistake. They had
one fumble at the goal line. Mahomes had one interception
in the Super Bowl and that was it across the
four game stretch. So to me, it's it's Mahomes and
the Chiefs and in a whole different style of play
these last couple of years. I mean, it's it's it's
ball control. They stay on schedule, they don't create a
whole lot of explosives, but their defense is stout and

(54:23):
really good on third down. And their special teams. We
saw their special teams long kickoff return, kick kick block,
field goal blocks. I mean, they just it's they win
with special teams in defense. But Mahomes can still make
the special plays as needed. But you know, his his
ability to just not make mistakes and not you know,

(54:44):
just play within himself in the playoffs, that think is
always the advantage. And it's also wild and that on
the other ends, Josh Allen has played extremely well in
most of the games against Kansas City in the playoffs
and just not come away with a win. So I
think Allen is probably playing better football than Mahomes over
the last two years, maybe more as far as just
throw for throw, play for play, But Mahomes is absolutely

(55:05):
playing winning football when it counts over the last few
years in the playoffs, I.

Speaker 1 (55:08):
Wonder the quick and tangible, who's got more pressure Mahomes
going for the three peet or josh Allen trying to
get over the head over the hump.

Speaker 3 (55:15):
I mean, I think it's I think it has to
be Allen because there's all those one like at some
point in the game. It's like those one plays. Like
last year we forget because the Chiefs won. You just think,
oh they won their they're unstoppable, like they were literally
one play away from losing all three games, really all
three games, right, like the Ravens fumble in the AFC
Championship or two the Bills. Allen has a wide open

(55:38):
game winning touchdown, and that's the one play where the
left tackle is pushed into his lap and he gets
bumped and it bumps him off the one the potential
game winning touchdown. You know, the the Niners were one
fourth down, third down conversion away from winning the Super Bowl.
And so it's not like pure dominance, but those things
probably resonate in josh Alan far more than they resonate

(56:01):
with Mahomes, who always seems to make the one play right. Yep,
So I think the pressure's on Allen and it's like,
all right, you know we'll miss this one throw. Make
sure you convert every fourth down. Make sure all those
one off plays go in your favor, because that's when
the Chiefs take advantage.

Speaker 1 (56:16):
All right, I'm assuming it's tomorrow that the conference preview
comes out on Check the Mic. You get the worst
show up right now, but I'm assuming it's tomorrow.

Speaker 3 (56:25):
Yes, sir, tomorrow will preview those games in great detail.

Speaker 1 (56:28):
Andrews, you might want to listen to it for once.
All right, sounds good, I'll shine this time. We always
you should be subscribing to Check the Mic podcast NFL Fan.
If you're not subscribing to it, what the hell are
you doing? It's awesome, Sam and Steve do it. Honest
to goodness, it's the best. I think it's the best
NFL podcast out there. You guys do a great job.
You guys do an absolutely great job. Look forward to
the preview tomorrow, and we'll talk to you next week

(56:50):
as we get ready for a super Bowl. We'll have
a matchup next Tuesday to talk about. Thank you, sir,
all right, thank you, and always appreciate the kind words.

Speaker 3 (56:57):
Thanks guys, there you.

Speaker 1 (56:58):
Go check the mic podcast. Go check it out. It's
absolutely awesome. That is Steve Polozolo. Speaking of awesome, my
producer Jessamin right over here, she tracked down a guy
named John oldut I don't know when the last time
he was on the air one. I mean, it's I
don't think he does a lot.

Speaker 6 (57:13):
I had the.

Speaker 1 (57:14):
Pleasure that's I can confirm that he did.

Speaker 4 (57:17):
But I did have the pleasure of speaking with him
last night because he was one of the alums, the
few that were able to make it to each e
Ro's Seattle press conference here and.

Speaker 2 (57:27):
He's just the nicest guy.

Speaker 4 (57:28):
He's really awesome and we are absolutely, you know, graced
with his presence.

Speaker 1 (57:33):
He gets to join us next talking about his old
teammate Ichiro Suzuki. John Lil Rout coming up next.

Speaker 5 (57:43):
Now back to he Inferness on your home for the
three point three kJ r FM.

Speaker 6 (57:53):
That's down.

Speaker 1 (57:56):
Welcome back any for us with you one thirty in
the afternoon. My combrin joining us in studio at two
o'clock today yesterday, a huge day here in Seattle has expected.
Echiro Suzuki joins the National Baseball Hall of Fame, joining
us right down the Beacon plumbing hotline for seventeen years.

(58:17):
A major leaguer, of course, also in my book, one
of my favorite baseball players of all time because he
starred for the great Bubbo Braydon both as a pitcher
and a hitter back in the day at Washington State,
Go Koogs. He is from Interlake High School, local product
John Oleroude, part of that two thousand and one team,
five years playing for the Seattle Manners, his hometown team.

(58:38):
Hi John, how are you.

Speaker 3 (58:41):
I'm doing good? Yeah, how you doing?

Speaker 1 (58:43):
I'm good. I appreciate you jumping on with us. And
I know you were there. Jessman, my great producer, said,
you were there yesterday watching your former teammate and get
an opportunity to address everyone and celebrate his induction into
the National Baseball Hall of Fame. So you knew he
was probably going in like we all did. But what
was it like yesterday getting a chance to revel in

(59:04):
watching Eatro in that moment?

Speaker 3 (59:08):
Yeah?

Speaker 8 (59:08):
No, he uh, you know, without a doubt. I look
at him and his stats and what he accomplished both
in the Japanese League and here in the MLB, and
it is just unbelievable. I think, you know, he was
in no doubt or there was never a question. I mean,
I know he said, you know, he had some second thoughts,

(59:30):
but wow, with the his body of work is is
just unbelievable. So I think he you know, no doubt
or for sure, but it was it was great to
see him. You know, I didn't really get a chance
to visit with him a whole lot because he had
a lot of responsibilities, you know, talking to both Seattle

(59:50):
media and then you know, japan media, so he was
pretty busy. But it was fun to see him.

Speaker 1 (59:56):
You had won a batting title back in two thousand
and or obviously nineteen ninety three with the Blue Jays.
You come here, there's a each row. He wins the
batting title that year. Some guy named Edgar was a
pretty good hitter as well. What was it like on
a team like and we went through the numbers, especially
in today's baseball that two thousand and one Mariners team,
I mean, you're the lowest batting average for a regular

(01:00:17):
player in the lineup was like two sixty, which by
today's standards would probably you know, be top ten of
Major League baseball. But playing with each ro, you and Edgar,
what was that like? You were already a great hitter
and accomplisha or so is Edgar. Then you have this
Etro guy come in. Did you guys watch each other
learn each They're all different to style of a hitting.
But what was it like playing with those two guys
because three of the best hitters in baseball in that

(01:00:39):
era all on the same team.

Speaker 8 (01:00:42):
Yeah, no, it was you know, I think you know,
you hear about people, you play against them, you see
their stats and they're impressive, but until you play with
them day and day out, it's really hard to gain
an appreciation for just.

Speaker 6 (01:00:58):
How good they are.

Speaker 8 (01:01:00):
Watching Edgar play day in and day out, I mean
he was, you know, just made the best contact, you know,
hit the ball the hardest of anybody that you know,
I've ever played with. And then each year Row, you know,
each Row, you know, we didn't know how good he
was going to be when he came and you know,

(01:01:20):
he truly was the you know, the first position player
to come play and uh and I think that was
the stigma back then, was that they didn't know if
Japanese hitters could compete at the big league level, which
you know, looking back, is is funny now, you know,
with each Row and the Hall of Fame and you know,

(01:01:40):
the best player in Major League Baseball is show hit
him and Tommy. But but yeah, it was interesting listening
to each year Row talk about the pressure that was
on him to do well, not just for Japan and
the players back there, but on himself and everything. But yeah,

(01:02:03):
he had a very unique style of hitting and we
didn't know if it was gonna work, but wow, was
he impressive.

Speaker 1 (01:02:10):
There's no John Olrue joining us on the beacon plumping hotline.
Internesced with you this afternoon, John, So i'm he comes in.
There's all this hype, you know, and Japanese ownership for
the Mariners of the time, and we were just talking
with the great Larry Stone, former rider a minute ago
about how like there was no way they weren't going
to get him here. It was a different process back then,
and they were going to make sure each Tiro came here.

(01:02:30):
But like you said, there was this unproven world of
Canada Japanese player come over and make an impact in
Major League Baseball. And as great as Eachiro was, over
in Japan until the age of twenty six. Came over
here at twenty seven. We didn't know baseball's got a
little old school mentality to it. I mentioned Bobo. I
always think of old school. I think a bobo year
old coach. But there is an old and you had

(01:02:51):
a fairly old school style manager in lou as well.
At A one. What was the talk in the clubhouse
amongst all you guys with this guy rolling in as
each Rosuzuki guy rolling in with his own unique set.
Was there doubt or was there skepticism? What were you
guys saying as players?

Speaker 8 (01:03:08):
Uh, you know, I I think that, you know, we
were looking to put together a good year. We'd heard
a lot of good things.

Speaker 3 (01:03:15):
About Eachi row.

Speaker 8 (01:03:16):
I remember talking to my coach with the New York Mets,
Bobby Valentine and Tom Robson, they coached over there, and
they said, Hey, this Eachiro guy is really good. And
I remember him saying, Hey, he's bigger than Elvis in Japan.
That's how good he is, and that's how popular he is.

(01:03:36):
And so I was like, oh, okay, you know, well,
we'll see how he does. And he had the very
unique style of hitting. But you know, yeah, I think
Lou and Ichiro clashed because if you ever watched Eachi
row take batting practice, he would just hit one home
run after the other, pull every ball, hit one home

(01:03:57):
home run after another, and louve that. But then in
the game, especially in spring training, he would just hit
a one hopper to third base, the third baseman running
out of the box and get thrown out. Game after
a game, he would do that, and he was driving
Lou nuts. He would say, you know, would you pull
the ball one time in a game just so that

(01:04:18):
I know you can do it because you'd see it
in patting practice all the time. And then you know
what I heard Ichiro said to Lou was I'm just
setting them up.

Speaker 3 (01:04:28):
For the season.

Speaker 8 (01:04:29):
And you know, I think it was Al Martin that
told me that, And he was just like, wow, that's confidence,
you know, to say something like that. It was a
little hard to believe that he would say something. Maybe
he didn't know exactly what he was saying.

Speaker 3 (01:04:43):
But.

Speaker 8 (01:04:46):
Wow, was he setting him up? You know, couldn't have
been a truer statement. As he goes out and just
I think, what did he get two hundred and forty
hits his first year.

Speaker 1 (01:04:59):
Just unbelievable and on the way to Rookie of the
Year al MVP as well. I mean just it was
it was remarkable what he had, what what each hero
had done that year. I mean, it was just it
was it was crazy. It is John Olrue joining us
here on the beacon play holl Yeah, two hundred and
forty two hits and hit a meager two three fifty
that year as well as well as still stealing fifty

(01:05:20):
six bases. What what's what's the people ask you today?
You know, hey, you played with each hero and and
you know there's the baseball part of it and the
unique hitting style and how he didn't It's interesting because
you know, you Edgar and him, all batting champions, all
different in so many ways. But but is there a
good E thro story that really kind of sums up
you know, what he was like as a teammate, what

(01:05:41):
he's like to be around that you can remember.

Speaker 8 (01:05:45):
Boy, well, I just I just told my best one.
But uh, you know, I would say the thing that
that you don't know about each hero is what a
great sense of.

Speaker 9 (01:06:00):
Humor he has.

Speaker 8 (01:06:01):
You know, he's he's a funny guy and his English
is better than he lets on. You know, he he
talks through interpreter and that type of thing. And I
just think that early on he just wanted to make
sure that he didn't say the wrong thing and that
he came across well and was respectful and all that.

(01:06:23):
But I think his English is really good and he
doesn't need an interpreter. But he don't understand how he
you know, first position player to come over here and
to have the success he did, first position player to
get into the Hall of Fame, you know, first player
to get in the Hall of Fame from Japan. That

(01:06:44):
he just wants to make sure that, you know, he
says the right things, that you know, his feelings come across.

Speaker 3 (01:06:52):
The right way.

Speaker 8 (01:06:52):
But but yeah, he's got a great sense of humor
and and I think he's his English is awfully good.

Speaker 1 (01:06:59):
The best part about the story about him rolling the
ball over the left side, as Larry Stone told us
the same story an hour ago from a writer's perspective,
so to hear it from a player's perspective, that is sensational,
like that is absolutely sensational. Just say I'm just rolling
it over. I'm gonna do that over and then you know,
go ahead and just I mean the fact that guy
could do what he wanted to do with the bait,
like John, he could do what he wanted to do
with a baseball bat. And you were as good as

(01:07:20):
there was, You were as good hitter as there wasn't baseball.
And for you to kind of look at that with
Awe or probably Edgar, that just speaks how great this
guy really was.

Speaker 6 (01:07:30):
Yeah.

Speaker 8 (01:07:30):
No, And you know, I mean, you know, like you say,
old school, you know, coaches would always say, hey, you
practice like you play, You practice like you play, so
you know, work on your game, work on your hitting,
hit the ball the other way, hit the you know,
you know, work on the different things that you're going
to be doing in the game. And then you'd watch

(01:07:51):
each Earrop come in and you know, his style was
running out of the box, slapping it the other way,
putting the ball in play, and then you'd watch him
take batting practice and it was completely different. It was
one home run after another, and you go, I wonder,
you know, just kind of blew away the whole concept

(01:08:14):
of that, Hey, you got to work on what you're
going to be doing in the game. I don't that's
probably something that you know, if I if I had
a chance, I would have asked, was just you know,
what's the story with your pregame routine of hitting one
home run after another? But yeah, I think you know,

(01:08:35):
he didn't have to be slapping around the field hitter.
That's what he chose to do, because he certainly showed
in batting practice that he could hit the home run
if he wanted to. If he just said I'm going
to hit home runs, I think he would have been
a very successful home run hitter.

Speaker 1 (01:08:48):
Yeah, and he did it better than anybody who started
slapping around wherever he wanted to go. What's John ol
Rude up to these days in retirement?

Speaker 8 (01:08:56):
Yeah, you know, I've got you know, just recently my
my youngest went off to college, and so yeah, trying
to figure that out. I've got a real estate, you know,
investment company that I invest in some real estate. We've
got a nonprofit, the Jordan Fund, where we try to

(01:09:17):
help out special needs kids and their families. And and
then I'm trying to you know, serve more church, get
more involved in our church here Antioch Bible Church in Kirkland.
So those are those are some of the some of
the things I got going on.

Speaker 1 (01:09:35):
You're a busy guy these days, and so it's retirement,
but only in name, it sounds like. So keep up
the good work, especially off the field with some of
that charity work you're doing those foundations as well. And
I appreciate you coming on today. John, We really do
Mariner fans and us Kook fans. Great to hear your
voice as well. So thank you so much.

Speaker 3 (01:09:52):
All right, thank you, thank you.

Speaker 1 (01:09:53):
That's John Oldrude joining us here on the Beacon Pulmy hotline.

Speaker 3 (01:09:56):
Grace.

Speaker 1 (01:09:56):
So that is awesome, the exact same story Larry told,
like like just the guy doing like he showed, just
two hiero things. Yep, that's awesome.

Speaker 4 (01:10:04):
And from both different perspectives that from a teammate and
someone who covers the team, that it stood out enough
for that to be a lasting memory, because it's pretty amazing.

Speaker 1 (01:10:13):
Because he's hearing in the dugout from Lou and then
Larry's hearing it in the coaches in the manager's office
from Lou right and Lou just sideways. That's how much
it hit Lou. Well think right, daily power play coming up,
my climb in it two.

Speaker 7 (01:10:29):
Malkin shoots one in on.

Speaker 5 (01:10:30):
Gold of Clucks and I stop, It's Crosby Stop. This
is the daily power Play Deep Slot one timer mckenneth
now Ian fernez Son Sports Radio ninety three point three

(01:10:52):
k j r f M Daily Power Play Your Home
in the Cracking nine three point three kJ r F
Krack and play tomorrow against Grade eight.

Speaker 1 (01:11:00):
Lexandrovechkin and the Washington Capitals are here. You never know
when this Mike could be the final time he comes
to Seattle. He's gonna set the record for all time
goals scored probably the next month or so. If he
does it this year, to think he retires. Yeah, so well,
it depends on the team. The team's really good. They're wagons,
yeah they Yeah, they could win a cup too, So
we'll see. So Washington here six thirty pre game seven
o'clock dropping the buck here on your Home for the

(01:11:21):
crack in nine three point three KFM. The captain for
the Krack in, Jordan Everley, fractured his pulvic bone his hip.
He's missed thirty one games. That happened back on November fourteenth,
number fifteenth. Actually he's coming back. He's doing a little
bit of work here's Dan Bilesma on the latest on
the krack and Captain Jordan Beverley.

Speaker 10 (01:11:41):
Progress for Ebbs is kind of unprecedented. I'll say, it's
just he's dealing with an injury that there's really not
a history for in terms of athletes. So, you know,
the he's progressed really nicely, had six weeks of no
weight bearing and really two more weeks of very very

(01:12:03):
little weight bearing. He's been doing a lot in the gym,
and you know he's been eager to step onto the ice,
but that's happened. If it's really just stepping onto the
ice at this point in time and having skates on
and feeling the ice a little bit, it's not much
more than the moving around a little bit. So it's
you know, his progression is still you know, we're still

(01:12:26):
looking at weeks away in terms of well we're gonna
you know, when are we going to see him on
the ice full It's still it's still a bit away.

Speaker 1 (01:12:37):
An interesting dynamic with that Andrews, because if they cracking,
they cracking. They the cracking. If they stay with their
head above water in the playoff race and the least
the two games they've won recently, they're still well behind
Calgary holds down the second and final wild card spot.

(01:13:01):
Kind of appears as if it's going to be I mean, la,
I guess could drop off. We'll see, but it might
be you know, one, two, three, four, five teams battling
for one wild card spot. Seattle right now sits six
points out of that final playoff spot, but they have

(01:13:21):
played three fewer games, so it's it's still an uphill battle.
They get on a roll, though, get to that break
and are within shouting distance. Shouting distance is what four
or five points probably.

Speaker 7 (01:13:34):
I'd say so, yeah, depending on how late in the season.

Speaker 1 (01:13:36):
But yeah, we'll see what they do and maybe you
try to really, you know, see if if they're out
of it in early March. I wonder if you just
shut them down for these I would, but he's too
important to this team, and yeah, it's gonna be interesting.

Speaker 3 (01:13:51):
Thing.

Speaker 7 (01:13:51):
The other thing is it's not just points, it's about
how many teams you have to jump.

Speaker 1 (01:13:54):
Well, that's the problem, and Utah, Saint Louis, Vancouver all
ahead of you before you even get to count.

Speaker 7 (01:13:58):
I did this kind of break down during the postgame
show on Monday, and it looks like it's really like
five teams battling for two spots. You got Calgary, Vancouver, Utah,
Saint Louis and Seattle, yep for two spots.

Speaker 1 (01:14:11):
You put La in that, Mikes or.

Speaker 7 (01:14:12):
Not h they've spent not good lately, so possibly holds
down the third spot in the Pacific, but then that
leaves open. So that's six for three if you do that.
So yeah, I don't know, I think this cracking can
do that. To be honest, they're not totally out of
it at all, so it just depends on how much
they hold firm. The other thing is you have to
look at kind of trade deadline stuff, and then there's

(01:14:34):
a lot of talks about Brandon Tanna Yonnie gord Is
the two kind of pieces that a lot of teams
are asking about, do you if you're still in the hunt,
if you're within three or four points when it comes
to that time, do you is that considering punting on
the season if you get rid of those guys.

Speaker 1 (01:14:50):
Depends on what the return is. Yeah, tana Is Towns
had a really good year. Yas look good, but you're
gonna want to move on from him if you can
get something and you could slot you know, the way
Hayden's played, you can slot cart Chan into that spot.
You're fine.

Speaker 7 (01:15:06):
I was gonna say, like you could John Haynes kind
of change the dynamics there.

Speaker 1 (01:15:09):
And Mitchell Stevens too. I've been impressed with different miss
center Iceman. But yeah, yeah, I but I think you
can slot car Cha in for Tana. You're not the
drop off and the fourth line is not bad. The
Yanni Gorge is different one because he's also on injured
reserve and he's not close to coming back.

Speaker 3 (01:15:26):
You know. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:15:27):
Ron Francis on with fourzand last week on our TV
pregame show, and amongst all the other stuff he was addressing,
he did talk about Yanni and it did not sound
like Yannie's all that close to coming back. So hard
to trade a guy's hurt. We'll see. Okay, that's your
daily power play. Big man standing outside the door, chomping
at the ball. Mike Holmbrin in studio.

Speaker 5 (01:15:47):
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Speaker 1 (01:16:10):
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(01:16:32):
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dot com and enter the keyword to win one thousand
dollars Powerplay contest. This hour's word is hash. He is here,
ladies and gentlemen, and he wants to talk about officials
in the National Football League. We have an hour. We'll
see if it takes longer than that. Mike c Holone
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(01:17:14):
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(01:17:36):
Comgren on Sports Radio ninety three point three KJR FM.

Speaker 3 (01:17:42):
He's here.

Speaker 1 (01:17:43):
He's back from a trip to Disneyland with the grandkids.
You survived, You're in one piece. That's a good thing.

Speaker 9 (01:17:51):
It was so good. Yeah, thank you. It's good to
be back and to see you guys. But we had
a great time. And you know, you spend a long
time since I've been in Disneyland, you know, and it's Uh,
it's changed a little bit, it's gotten bigger. But it
was really fun my daughter Gretchen to kind of handle
the whole thing, set everything up. Yeah, and that makes

(01:18:14):
it nice, right, Oh no, No, you just had to
go where you're told and go where I'm told, do
what I'm told to do.

Speaker 1 (01:18:19):
That's basically every day for you, is yeah, it is.
But we had it. We had a really nice time.
That's awesome. That's awesome. Well, here, and you gotta watch
football too, Yeah, because.

Speaker 9 (01:18:29):
We started early in the morning and then I get
back to the hotel after lunch and then watch the
games and I'll watch what I could, you know, and
then and then we go out again at night. So
I was able to see some football too, So it
was it was. The whole thing was good.

Speaker 1 (01:18:44):
I got a lot to get today. But let's just
start with let's start with the officials. I know that's
something you love to discuss every now and then. Well
it's you know, I thought I was over it. I
really did. I thought I was. You know, do you
think that every time? Then you watch a game and
then probably takes like one series to see one yellow
flag and you're asking yourself, what in the world's going on.

Speaker 9 (01:19:02):
Here well in certain certain calls. Yeah, and it reminds
me of my days on the Competition Committee, where well,
we talked about a lot about how to do things.
You'd see lists that stayed in house of which officials,
how they did things, and how they ranked the officials
and all this. So, you know, we talked about it

(01:19:24):
a lot. And I think those two calls against that
were called involving Patrick Mahomes in that game definitely gave
an advantage to to Kansas City. And I think both
of the calls were bad calls in one man's opinion. Yeah,
and I understand why they were called. But then in

(01:19:44):
the review process that they have now, they view them
and they stopped the games and they view them that
and they still come up with the same thing that
made absolutely no sense to me.

Speaker 1 (01:19:57):
Okay, let me get to the calls and then I'm
gonna go bigger picture with the officials in a second,
and the competition committee what you kind of alluded to
there and how you know how things are going on
inside those rooms. The the one call where was it
von Miller who is the pass rusher that hit that
hit him? And Will Anderson? Yeah, I hit him up high.
Let's start with that one. So if there's helmet, you know,

(01:20:21):
if there's contact neck area above, that's a penalty. That
felt very gray in that regard. And really if nothing
else soft. What was your thought on that one?

Speaker 8 (01:20:32):
Well?

Speaker 9 (01:20:32):
I thought, I thought, right, he didn't hit him in
the helmet, right, he hit him below that. He hit
him below the collar, below the neck. And then when
his head came down because of the hit below the neck,
there was content there was contact, sure, but he didn't
aim for the helmet, and it just and the thing

(01:20:52):
that crazed. Okay, So that's how I viewed that, right.
And then but the thing that drives me absolutely nuts
because Walt Anderson now is the head of the NFL
officials and all that kind of stuff. And I remember
him when he was a referee when I was coaching, Yeah,
and I didn't like him much then, and then now
I when I read what he says, now, you know,

(01:21:13):
because he just covered, he just covered. Now you know,
we'll kick this to the competition committee. It's a tough call.
All that kind of stuff. Just say it.

Speaker 3 (01:21:22):
You know.

Speaker 9 (01:21:23):
That's that's the thing that used to drive me cuckoo.

Speaker 1 (01:21:26):
The one that I really thought was egregious for a
lot of different reasons. And Troy Aikman kind of went
off on this in the broadcast, was, Mahomes does this
thing where you know where I'm going with this. He runs,
takes off, looks like he's gonna step out of bounds,
then kind of stops, then kind of cuts back, gains

(01:21:47):
another five or six yards, and then kind of does
half a slide and then like you're taunting almost the defenders.
That's the part that drives me nuts. And Aikman talked
about that Mike, and then the other part of it
was the actual play. Not only does he do that
baits these guys into it, but then the two defenders

(01:22:07):
ran into each other right, they even hit each other
right or hit him, they hit each other right. So
those a how he kind of plays the position now
and kind of plays the game and baits guys. Like
if he was your quarterback and I know you and Andy
are friends, what would you tell him? Well, I'm saying
be careful with that. I mean, you bait. You know.

Speaker 9 (01:22:27):
I think he's he's very good at it the league.
I wouldn't surprise me at all if all of a
sudden after this season, there's another rule that comes in
for that sort of play, because that's what he's doing.
And on that play that he that they were penalized.
They had a sack or almost a sack, right, but

(01:22:50):
then they were penalized fifteen yards game of first down.
I think they scored some points after that, if I'm
not mistaken that And you're right, he did that duck down.
Didn't even slide. He kind of ducked down right, and
the two guys hit each other and then fell on
top of him, and and then they call them. They

(01:23:10):
call it so and maybe the officials are so far
away they couldn't see exactly what happened, But then if
you review it and look at it, yeah, it's it's
a slam dumb.

Speaker 1 (01:23:20):
So put yourself in the in the in the in
the committee, Walt Anderson says, we're gonna kick it down
to mic in the competition committee. What's the way to
solve And I'm just gonna use I'll just call it
the Mahomes situation. Other quarterbacks do it as well, But
that whole thing, I'm gonna scramble. Then I look like
I'm gonna step out of bounds or stop. But then actually,

(01:23:43):
I'm not defenders will do a fly by. I'm gonna
gain some more yards. How do you what could you legislate?
What would be the conversation that you guys would have
in a competition committee.

Speaker 9 (01:23:52):
Okay, I think I think it has to be defined.
Right now, it's defined that if the quarterback slides and
and gives himself up and then he's hit, it's a
penalty on the defense. Anything else, anything else, I would say,
it's fair game. Anything else, make it easy, make it

(01:24:13):
easy to call. Then you would tell your quarterback don't
don't mess around because they can come in and get you.
Then then it's defined and it's clear and it's coachable
and everyone can see it.

Speaker 1 (01:24:25):
Because he's not considered like Aikman said, well he's considered
a runner, he's still not really considered a runner. It's different, right,
that's right. So you would just say as soon as
you take off you're a runner.

Speaker 9 (01:24:35):
As soon as you take off you're a runner. You
break the line of scrimmage, you're a runner or any
and then so if you don't want to get hit,
slide otherwise, hey, could you.

Speaker 1 (01:24:45):
Do anything where again, I'm just kind of using my
homes and I think other guys do this, but he's
the one that doesn't more than anybody. Where as soon
as you like when he's and I'm just you can
picture in your mind right when he scrambles and kind
of almost slows down, could you almost bowl a whistle
dead then like like, because he almost has given himself
He's given the indication he's giving himself up by either

(01:25:07):
slowing down, stepping out of bounds. And usually when I
say that, it's by the sideline, right, But his little
trick is he does that, gets to the sideline and
then either goes forwards a few more yards or cuts
back to the left or right or wherever it is
and gains more yards.

Speaker 9 (01:25:20):
I think that's still open. That's still open for interpretation.
I think you make it cut and dried. You know,
if if he runs and doesn't slide, if he's near
the sideline or in the middle of the field or whatever,
he can get tackled, you know, and then the rules
applying to tackling still exists. You can't they're targeting and

(01:25:41):
all those kind of thing, right, but you know, you know,
if you get down and say he gets down late
he gets down late and he gets hit, no foul.
Yeah heats on you. That's amazing. And every coach excuse me,
but every coach would you'd want to protect your quarterback. Okay,
this is the rule, this is how they're going to
call it, so this this is how you have to
play it.

Speaker 1 (01:26:01):
So well, they've really just gone too far in your
mind right in terms of protecting the quarterback. Yeah, you're
a quarterback guy. Like I think people know you, they've
we've had you on the air forever. We know, but
like if someone was listening from out of market, you're like, oh,
what's this homegroun? This is this old school. We're like,
you're a quarterback guy. Yeah, you understand that that's the
most important position. Absolutely.

Speaker 9 (01:26:20):
And then I was on the committee when they changed
basically changed two or three rules on hitting the quarterback.
Why'd they do that because that season before nine starting quarterbacks,
nine or ten starting quarterbacks were injured and couldn't play right,
and people they said, well, you've got to come to
watch the team play because the quarterback's good, those types

(01:26:41):
of things. So they didn't want that to happen. So
you know, you can't hit them below the waist, you can't.
You know, there's a number of rules we put in
that that are functioning now today. Now the sliding this thing,
this thing's just another it's taken and it takes. What
it takes is a big play in a big to
wake everybody up, you know, and then then the competition committee,

(01:27:05):
you gotta bang it out a little bit.

Speaker 1 (01:27:07):
All right, let's go, let's go in that room again
for a second. Because you talked about the officials. You've
heard of a guy named Hugh Millen before. Yeah, okay,
he loves the officials more than I get. He's got
he's got a great reference when he talks about NFL
officials because, as we all know, Major League Baseball umpires,
full time job, that's all they do. NHL officials, full

(01:27:30):
time job. Skate from one rink to the other. That's
what they do, eighty two times a year. And then
they get summers off. Bodies get beat up. That's fine,
but they spend all their time. Actually, I know what
NHL officials do. They spend the next you know, they
spend the summer doing training, skating, getting in better shape
than have you ever seen those guys? Are you amazing
they're like they're then and they watch a lot of

(01:27:52):
film and study the profession, and NBA officials do the
same thing, work their way up from G league and
summer leagues and everything else. And then are you know
all those things happen NFL officials humill in term. Here
they spend the week being goat farmers and then they
go officiate a game. I don't know how many are

(01:28:13):
actually goat farmers. Again, humill in term. He studies this stuff.
He probably has a list of guys who are goat
farmers and where those farms are. Absolutely, But but the
point being is that they're they're they're part time. Why
the most lucrative, most profitable league in all of sports,
why won't they make these guys full time?

Speaker 3 (01:28:35):
Boy?

Speaker 9 (01:28:35):
You got me, because we've talked about that, you know,
ever since I got into the thing years ago, of
that very thing that for those very reasons, right, uh,
you know, I don't know, I don't have an answer.
It's a puzzle because other other leagues do it. And
I think when when they went to the when they unionized,

(01:28:59):
the officials mm hmm, you know, you know they like
the setup. Now they like it, and so because they're
all in a union. Now, Before maybe you had a
shot at changing some things like that. Now it's not
going to happen, I don't think. But you're right. And
that's another thing. It makes no sense, you know. Now
a lot of the officials, this is the thing that

(01:29:21):
came up on occasion. A lot of officials, they have
big time jobs, their corporate executives. They're this, they're that okay,
and they're making a good dough and all that kind
of stuff. Then they'd have to actually take a pay
cut even though they're getting well paid. Right, So they
don't want to do that. They don't want to do that.
Their life is really good and so but still even

(01:29:41):
the way, even the way it is now, the training
and the setup and the study and having the league
office don't defend bad calls, hold people accountable those types
of things, and honestly they do to a certain extent
that no one knows about because they have these lists
and guys get you know, you get playoff games, you

(01:30:02):
get the super Bowl. If you're you know, a.

Speaker 1 (01:30:05):
Pie, yeah likes Ron Torbert's got the super Bowl this year.
I think it's this first or second one, you know,
And it was funny because when they just named it
the other day, just named him the other day as
a Super Bowl referee, and I saw that and it
was it was interesting, I may find it. Yeah, it's

(01:30:25):
Ron Torbert, right, And I remember thinking to myself the
name was familiar, like I recognized him, Ron Torbert, and
I'm like, okay, Ron Torborts got the game. And then
I thought to myself, you know what, I haven't thought
much ever about Ron Torbert. That's probably a good thing.
It probably is, like right, Like that's like like I
can tell you Carl Scheffer's and and and I mean

(01:30:49):
we know some of these guys. You know too many
of these guys, right, And I thought, Ron Torbert, Yeah, good,
haven't heard him much at all, haven't heard him much
at all. Good for him.

Speaker 9 (01:30:58):
But the thing, yeah, good him and the guys. But
the thing that would happen on occasion two is you
you get Okay, we're we're studying again, going back to
the competition. Commany you have Okay, these are the official groups,
however many there are. Okay, this group has called two
hundred and fifty thousand holding penalties. Okay, yeah, because they

(01:31:20):
break it all down right, like everything else. Yeah, this
group is called one hundred. They're watching the same teams,
the same games over the course of the season. And
please answer me why they call these and they only
call this That was my question when the officials would
come into the room, well every game. Wait a second, no, no, no.

(01:31:41):
I granted everyone's different, but over the course of the season,
they shouldn't be that big a discrepancy. Why is it
happening they look at the rule differently than this group
looks the rule. That can't be right, you know.

Speaker 1 (01:31:54):
So that's that's it is frustrating because the game is played.
I just think, you know, you're these guys are making around.
I'm just looking it up here. They're making around one
hundred and fifty to two hundred grand a year, depending
on what you know, if you're a side judge, referee,
what have you. That's a that's a pretty good side hustle,
pretty good side job. I just think it's just, you know,
one of the things that other leagues have done well.
I say other leagues. The two leagues that I think

(01:32:15):
of off the top of my head, the NBA and
the NHL, have done a good job of bringing in
former players, you know, guys that weren't at the highest level,
like good college player in in basketball, or you know,
just maybe played D two, D three, or a good
like a junior hockey player that got drafted and never
signed a cont whatever. That know, the game, played the
game younger athletic and training them and now they're becoming officials.

(01:32:38):
I mean, he was a guy guy, the referee to
the cracking game.

Speaker 3 (01:32:41):
The other day.

Speaker 1 (01:32:41):
He played at Bowling Green with JT. Brown, actually with
the color guy, our color commentator for the broadcast, and
JT Yeah, I play with him for a year at
Bowling Green or Water are one of those places like, yeah,
well look at this guy. He looks like he's an
athlete and devotes his job his whole life to that.
The NFL, you guys have al those you know, between
OTA in mini camps and training camps. I know NFL

(01:33:03):
officials come out to some of those, Mike, but for
the most part, the guys that are officiating those training
camps are the local guys that do high school and
college games, right, Like, it's not the real NFL officials.
They could be at all those games, all those camps, right,
and all those things and honing their craft as well. Well,
maybe you wouldn't want to see him out there.

Speaker 9 (01:33:21):
No, no, well I want to tell you. I think
I'm over the officials, but I'll tell you one more story.
Oh god, Ed Huckley, Yes, remember Ed. Oh everyone knows muscles. Muscles.

Speaker 1 (01:33:31):
Okay, yeah, okay.

Speaker 9 (01:33:33):
In all my years of coaching a lot of games, Okay,
I had someone can had the record of with this official.
This was my record with this official with Ed. I
was zero to ten. They go, that can't be it's
like that, but it is. So we're playing Dallas down

(01:33:55):
there when I'm in Green Bay, and about every other
time they're a big right tackle who was all pros, wonderful.
We grab Reggie Mark's face mask. Just grab it. You
can see it. Grab it. Yeah, no penalty, no penalty.
And I go to Hockley. I go, hey, you can't.
That's a penalty. If I see it, I'll call it.
I said, you're supposed to see it. You're standing, he's

(01:34:15):
the right he's the right tackle. You're on the right side.
That's what you're looking at. So I said, and then
you say it that calmly I did, ok. And so
then I said, please, you know, look at this, and
so then at halftime, I said, if you don't fix
this is going to be a brawl. And sure enough,
there was a giant brawl at the end of the game.
Fast forward to our meeting with the officials and the

(01:34:36):
coaches that came up that play. They showed Reggie White's
film up there, and all the coaches are over here,
all the referees are over there, and and they're going, yeah,
that's that's a fowl. That's a fowl. Everyone they're talking
about some other. Yeah, when the one when the world

(01:34:57):
play after play a lot of plays, all of a
sudden raises his hand, stands up. I meant hockey. I
referead that game, and I wouldn't call any differently. Now, Well,
Rich Brooks stands up with the coach of the ram.
He goes, I'm Rich Brooks and Ed Hockley, you're a

(01:35:18):
bunking he blankly, blankety blank. And so it started this
big d you know, No it was.

Speaker 1 (01:35:24):
It wasn't even you doing that.

Speaker 9 (01:35:25):
No, I would never do that. No.

Speaker 1 (01:35:27):
Well, I mean, but we went back because when you
were telling it in that calm toney, that's a penalty
and that exact tone.

Speaker 9 (01:35:32):
Right, Yeah, I did that was very calm. Yeah, but no,
but it's but you know what, I'm not like Hugh.

Speaker 1 (01:35:38):
I'm more mature. I'm over it. I'm over it now.
You I can tell. I can tell because like all
of a sudden, you came in here. You were calm.
Now you're reading the face, the cars, the cars ride
with your Grandsay is that a great right? I mean
you're all those things now. Now we're getting texting. Goat hurterers.
Goat hurterers, not goat farmers. Goat herders as well.

Speaker 11 (01:35:58):
If you're a farmer, don't you have to hurt the good?
It's just the hum on one encompass the probably huge
texting into me. I broke it down already. I got
an All twenty two here looking at it.

Speaker 4 (01:36:11):
You know a quarterback that played for my dad who
fan he flamed out? You remember Giovanni Carmazzi at a
hastra he became a goat herder gourd really post NFL
flame out. Yeah, I went to San Francis.

Speaker 1 (01:36:24):
You should be an official because that's what they all
are anyway.

Speaker 9 (01:36:26):
But you know what you do, you do study, you
get who's going to be on the crew. And then
you go to your list. They called you have to
tell your team. Yeah, they called this tighter, they call
holding tighter, call this a little tighter this you.

Speaker 1 (01:36:39):
Go as specific, it's like, hey, they really look at
holding on the guards as opposed the tackles or if
they you know, corners, corners are going to be they're
gonna call defensive holding stuff like that.

Speaker 9 (01:36:48):
Those types of things. And you said, okay, so be
We've got to be a little more careful here.

Speaker 8 (01:36:53):
Uh.

Speaker 9 (01:36:53):
And that's just part of it, you know.

Speaker 1 (01:36:55):
All right, Uh, we'll come back. We'll talk about the games,
the matchups this weekend. Josh Alan, Pat Mahomes. It's pretty
good matchup, pretty good matchup, pretty good matchup. And Dan
Quinn and the surprising Commanders of Washington going in to
take on the Philadelphia Eagles. We'll talk about that with
Mike Hombren next.

Speaker 5 (01:37:16):
Now back to Ian Furness on your Home for the
three point three KJRFL shuts down.

Speaker 1 (01:37:44):
Like all of our shows, the best stuff sometimes is
off the record, in the breaks, off the record, Welcome back.
Mike's with us here. We got a great matchup coming
up this weekend. Two great matchups coming this weekend. Let's
let's go through it. We've got We'll start kind of
in the order that they're going to be played. The
NFC Champions Game, our friend Dan Quinn and the Washington
Commanders Jaden Daniel's rookie quarterback Philadelphia Eagle Saquon Barkley, and

(01:38:06):
away we go. Thoughts on that game, Well, it's gonna
be a great game, and the way Washington has played,
Dan has done a great job, first of all, and
this young quarterback is really unbelievable. He's and you know what,
more than that, even in when I saw him in
an interview, I forget who he was talking to, Aaron Andrews.

(01:38:29):
Maybe he's seems like a really together, smart, kind of
humble guy.

Speaker 9 (01:38:37):
And I like that. I like that in players. When
when they and he had he laughed during the interview,
she teased him a little bit. But what a great
player he has turned out to be. And he's a rookie.

Speaker 1 (01:38:48):
Yeah.

Speaker 9 (01:38:49):
To have a young quarterback play as well as he's played,
it's it's you don't see that very often. In fact,
rarely do you see it. And so Dan Quinn give
him credit for that. Philadelphia. Now, bark Uh say KWin Barkley.
I mean, he's what can you say?

Speaker 1 (01:39:04):
What would you do? Just try to slow him down
because it's and we were talking earlier with my guy
Steve palos Olo from the thirty thirteen, and he said,
and it's an interesting thought because I think we can
all picture this, bark. We will go, you know, carry
for three yards, carry for two yards, like Steve said,
he goes, I'll have ten carries and you know, eighteen
yards and then boom, there's he's gone for sixty and

(01:39:25):
then he'll do that again. Boom, gone for forty five,
like like like that's a hard thing to defend. He
just hits home run after home run.

Speaker 9 (01:39:33):
Yeah, and he's gained almost two thousand yards this year,
I think, yeah, or maybe he came to two thousand
and he No, But you have to I think you
have to have eight guys up front. I don't think
you can play a lot of seven man boxes and
then have four guys in the secondary. And when you're
playing Washing, when you're playing Philadelphia, I think you have

(01:39:55):
to say, Okay, if we're going to do one thing
really well, we're going to defend the run and then hope,
hopefully we'll do still a great job with the pass
against the pass long absolutely yeah, and then just but
then even you know you have to you have to
prevent him from running the football. As well as he's running,
he's going to gain yards. But I mean, just keep

(01:40:17):
keep it in line anyway to the game. I think
that I'm pulling for I'm pulling for Dan Quinn and
the and the and Washington on this. They they for
years there is issues there, one one or another. And
now he has come in there and with new ownership,

(01:40:39):
he has come in there and he's a good man
and he's and it's clear that players are reacting well
to him, and I would like to see him get
this done.

Speaker 1 (01:40:47):
I think, isn't this There's something to be said about
ownership in that regard, and we talk about it all
the time in our town with different owners of different
teams and so forth. But for so long, you couldn't
root for that organization because of Dan Snyder, like you
just couldn't. And you know what he was, what he
stood for, what was going on behind the scenes for
so many of their employees, especially female employees, and so forth.

(01:41:10):
You change that you get rid of that, cut that out,
and then you bring a guy like dq In who's
just classy all around. They are the they're kind of
the team you want to root for. Yeah, they really are.
And I think that fan base is stuck through. They're
great fan base out there.

Speaker 9 (01:41:25):
Yeah, And they really do have a great fan base.
And now they're they're dealing with perhaps a new stadium.
There's all those issues. Did you guys find the old one?

Speaker 3 (01:41:33):
Yeah?

Speaker 9 (01:41:33):
Yeah, oh, the old, old old one. Yeah. I don't
think we ever did. We played in the other one.
But that was the other thing. You know, when I
was when I was the president of the Browns, then
I had to go to meetings where you're dealing with
finances all the time. You're looking at sheets, who's making
the most money and all this kind of stuff. And
so I learned a lot. But Washington, they they earned

(01:41:59):
a lot of money. It was a huge stadium. Kind
of now it's kind of falling hard, but but it's
it's what it is. And and and he made a
lot of money in there. They were always near the
top and that. But with the new ownership, isn't it
is it? The Walmart family.

Speaker 1 (01:42:18):
Might be yeah, okay, and look that up. You have
a fact check for me thinking.

Speaker 9 (01:42:22):
But then they have they then they have a president okay,
who who was maybe perhaps married to somebody, you know,
I wanted they announced the president when Dan went in there,
I'm going, okay, depending on how this president looks at
his job, I've looked through it. You depending on how
he looks at this job, right, is he going to

(01:42:43):
be allowed to be everything he is? And it should
be and could be. That's the key thing, and apparently
it's worked. Whoever, however they've set up the how that
procedure goes.

Speaker 1 (01:42:57):
He is the guy, well, I mean I think that's yeah,
like like here now you know, Chuck Arnold's the president.
But that's just the business side, right he has Chuck
has nothing to do with football, right, you know, and
that's what it should be. That's what it should be.
And Chuck me be the first guy to tell he's
a fan. Yep, you know, you know he start as
a ticket guy. You know, probably was a ticket guy
when you were there, intern or whatever he was, and

(01:43:17):
you know he's a great successor it works away up,
But chuckle tay, he's not a football guy. He's not
under studying tape and walking in and telling McDonald and
Schneider what to do.

Speaker 9 (01:43:25):
You know, that's the way it should be, and probably
loving every minute of that study. Have to study tape.

Speaker 1 (01:43:31):
Other game, Uh your friend Andy Reid, Yeah, aforementioned Pat
Mahomes and can Josh Allen finally get over the hump?

Speaker 9 (01:43:40):
You know, I've been pulling for Buffalo all through the
playoffs and now they're playing against uh, my good friend.
And but there's a side of me, there's I'm gonna
kind of edge my bedder. There's a side of me
that says it's it's exciting and your hope that a

(01:44:00):
new face can enter this Super Bowl era, and that
would be Buffalo now. But having said that, look at
Kansas City has just they've won close games all year.
They they Andy does such a good job of preparing
and calling the game, keeping things into control, and uh

(01:44:22):
so that'll be that'll be the game. I'm not gonna
pick who's the winner. I'm not going to tell you
who I'm rooting for. But that's the one that's the
one most of the league want to see.

Speaker 1 (01:44:32):
I'm stunned by this. I went back to look just now,
because I was thinking, Oh, like during your time in
San Francisco, when you guys had that thing humming pretty good,
I would have figured one of the four losses for
Buffalo was against San Francisco, wasn't They lost to the Giants.
They lost to Washington, Mark Ripping Goku's the MVP of
that game. They lost to the Cowboys twice. That's who

(01:44:53):
they lost to, those four, those those four Hart, I mean,
can you imagine you've won a Super Bowl and you've
lost a couple like you all? Can you imagine losing
four straight Super Bowls?

Speaker 3 (01:45:03):
No?

Speaker 1 (01:45:03):
What would that do to a person?

Speaker 3 (01:45:05):
Like?

Speaker 9 (01:45:05):
How did Martin Levy? What would I could even fathom that? No,
it's hard, It's really hard. And Bill Pullian, who was
a good friend of mine, yeah, was the general manager
there and running Buffalo at the time. And uh no,
they had a really good team. You know the first
game when the Giants beat them, We had the Giants
beat We should have played them. Oh, we had the
Giants beat in the championship.

Speaker 1 (01:45:25):
You guys, you guys would have come off too straight.

Speaker 9 (01:45:27):
We were going to go for the third one and
we were down inside like the thirty yard line, and
then Roger Craig, who was a great back fumble the ball. Oh,
otherwise we wouldn't go on to play Buffalo.

Speaker 1 (01:45:38):
I can't even fathom Roger Craig ever fumbling. Well he didn't, Yeah,
of course, that's that's how it happens. Yeah, Mark Andrews
doesn't drop pass it there he drops one one play
one play yep, yep. What was your read on that
one play that Andrews play the other day? Well, it's
the throw could have been better earlier, right, We talked
about it with you the other day, like it was
a little like he kind of hitched a couple of times.

Speaker 9 (01:45:58):
Yeah, and he could have been better. But Mark, he's
a really good tight end.

Speaker 1 (01:46:02):
Yeah. So but the you know, the health economy comes here.
The weather.

Speaker 9 (01:46:08):
The weather was a factor in that game, the whole game,
and uh, you know both games are very cold, very snowy.
And but no you remember Jackie Smith, yes, yes, Dallas, Yeah,
same thing happened.

Speaker 3 (01:46:23):
Yeah.

Speaker 9 (01:46:23):
Remember he dropped that ball in the end zone to
win the game.

Speaker 3 (01:46:25):
Yep.

Speaker 9 (01:46:26):
And he's really he was really great player.

Speaker 1 (01:46:28):
There's a human element of sports, is there not? Yes,
I checked.

Speaker 9 (01:46:31):
It just happens and the thing is you then you
gotta get you got to get over it. And but
it's hard when you lose the Super Bowl. It's it's
it stays with you a long time.

Speaker 1 (01:46:42):
Yeah, Buffalo, it's just the heartbreak that that organization went
through from nineteen ninety one through nineteen ninety four, of
those four years and losing to the Giants Washington and
then twice to Dallas. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, it's just
it's that's a that's a that's a tough one along
the way, I mean, and it's that the fans. I've
that's the one stadium I never covered and never covered

(01:47:03):
a game app but it feels like that fan base
is is it feels Green Bay like, you know, like
kind of smaller town, little little that's everything revolves around
the football team.

Speaker 9 (01:47:14):
That's right.

Speaker 1 (01:47:14):
If you go have you ever, you've ever been there?
Now it's one place and then go, okay.

Speaker 9 (01:47:18):
You have downtown Buffalo and then you know the Buffalo
City and then you drive out, you drive out to
the stadium and it's kind of been a that's where
all of a sudden you go, whoa, here it is
this giant stadium out in the middle of something and
they're doing out there finally, but it was big, a
lot of people, you know, eighty thousand and seventy fives

(01:47:38):
something like that. But and they were they were good fans.
And then the weather. Every if you play them late,
you're gonna have cold weather.

Speaker 1 (01:47:46):
It's one thing. It's one thing, you know. I don't
looked at the weather for Kansas City, but I mean
that's one that's the advantage they won't have. Like if
if it's bad weather or cold and it's in Kansas
City and Mahomes and those guys are used to it, well,
Buffalo is too, yeah, right, and Buffalo is too No,
it is, and so it's gonna be good, all right?
Is he here today or is he on a remote?
Where's he?

Speaker 2 (01:48:04):
I saw him lurking around, so I believe he will
be physically.

Speaker 9 (01:48:07):
I saw him, David, Yeah, yeah, he's outside. He's rare
to come in here always.

Speaker 1 (01:48:12):
I always have. It takes me five six minutes just
to get my energy level up for that. I can't
match Can you match it? I can't match it?

Speaker 9 (01:48:19):
Who can? I mean really, and you do a great job,
but who can nobody can.

Speaker 1 (01:48:24):
Softie's going to join us to wrap things up with
coach Homer next week. We'll get to talk super Bowl
and I love going through this with you. We just
talked about it off yet a little bit. Super Bowl
week weeks plural. Yeah, what's involved is massive? Yeah, like
just what the teams go through, how you prepare. We'll
talk about that next week when we have the matchup.

(01:48:45):
But Softy joins us next

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