Good evening everybody, and welcome to another edition of Fire Up. Yes,
I'm fired up all right here on Thursday, August third, and I'm pleased
to be joined by my regular crew Tonight. We'll talk about a lot of
different things in the sports world and we'll leave it off with George Korn.
George on for round two of our Thursday Night double Up. Looking forward to
it. Scott, round two, Fire it up, there you go,
and Jeremy Ball rec Round two. Are you fired up? I'm fired up?
Let's go. That's a spare. You'll be fired up more on Sunday
when we do a Professor and the Pupil returns to our network as well and
his Thursday A spot. Ralph Williams, the Steel City buddy. Oh yeah,
absolutely, it's great to be here, always on with you, Scott,
Thank you, George, well we enjoy you. Well, all right,
we're gonna get down to it. Got five pretty good topics to get
too, will go through him, and then of course tonight's party shot will
come from Ralph and then he can talk about whatever he wants. If he
wants to go back to Steele City, more power to him. So first
and foremost, the New York Yankees pitcher Domingo German agreed to voluntarily submit to
impatient treatment for alcohol abuse and will miss the remainder of the twenty twenty three
season. According to gm Brian Cashman, George, it's a shame for Domingo
Germaine. Yeah, sure is. That was kind of startling news. I
mean, here, the kid pitched a perfect game not too long ago,
and obviously overcame some you know, some problems that he had throughout the season.
And I don't know how far back this goes, but but to be
able to pull that off and still have these issues. But the important thing
is not that he pitched a perfect game. It's important that he gets the
help that he needs now, as we see in pro sports. We've seen
it in the NHL, the NBA, major League Baseball, whatever sport.
I mean, he needs to get the help that he needs right now,
and so I think he will and hopefully he'll be able to come back to
the sport that he loves. Jeremy, you know what, anybody's willing to
check themselves in, I give them credit. Any demon you're trying to be
in any addiction is a demon. It's a monkey. On your back.
It's something that demoralizes you. It hinders you not only physically and health wise,
but it also does mentally and emotionally. Kudos to him for recognizing he
needed to help to quit. Yeah, you know, I agree with you
guys on all that too. You know, it can ruin your career.
I mean, if you don't get help and you don't do something about it,
your career is finished. I mean, regardless of what you do in
life, whether it's working in business, as an athlete or anything like that.
If you don't get help for something like that, forget it. It's
over. It's done. I remember many years ago and Steve Howe had that
problem with the Dodgers Embloy. That just was a tragic story for Steve Howe,
the LA Dodgers for sure. All right onwards we go. The Toronto
Raptors in the Sacremento Kings will play a preseason game in Vancouver, while the
Oklahoma City Thunder and the Detroit Pistons will play in Montreal. Is Canada auditioning
for an NBA team, George, I don't know if it's an audition more
more so than just to keep the product game out there. Obviously they have
a team in Toronto with the Raptors, and they used to have a team
as we know in Vancouver the NBA. I'm excited for my team, the
Pistons, playing in my trial. Montreal, as far as I know,
was never really thought of as being an NBA town, mostly because hockey is
so dominant there with the canadi Ends. I think it could be a bit
of an audition Scott, but I really don't see the NBA going to Canada
for an expansion team. But what I think it does is keeps that international
presence there, and that's what Silver and the NBA likes to do play games
on and so do all the other leagues. Now they're all playing games on
foreign soil. I think it's a good move. But no, I don't
think it's an audition. I'm lug you, Jeremy. I think it is
an audition for Montreal. We already know Vancouver can carry an NBA team because
they did it once and it actually wasn't nonprofitable. They were actually very good
to their fans. They had a very fan friendly state arena there for their
basketball team. They used to pack it up even when they were well hot
garbage, right, that team meaning the Vancouver Grizzlies. So real, Yeah,
you know, Montreal wants to get the Expos back. They're looking at
building a new ballpark and all that stuff, so it might be an audition.
It just might happen. And you know something, you know, they're
hockey friendly, like George said, and uh, you know they have a
football team in the CFL, so why not why not add another team to
the fray if they can, if they can draw, I mean, if
the NBA is willing to put a team there and they control you know,
here in Pittsburgh, we've talked many, many years about having a you know,
an NBA team here and it just never panned out because we don't know
if the fans can draw. We don't know what the what what you know,
what what can happen? I mean, you know, we we barely
peep up with the three teams we have. The Steelers sell at all time,
the Pirates here and there, and then uh, you know, the
Penguins lost thousands of fans from last year because of how bad they play.
I mean, not not bad, but what I'm saying is didn't go to
playoffs, they didn't get the Stanley Cup, and you know we were losing
two three thousand fans of games, so I don't even know if we could
support it. Yeah, Montrenal expos Again, it all comes down to the
stadium situation. They have nothing suitial, so until they get that result of
what I could I see an NBA team in Montreal. Yeah, maybe you
could create an arrivalry between Toronto and Montreal. But that's but I agree with
George Adam. Silver likes to place games in certain areas internationally. More power
toil, all right, Patty Grimes, Seattle in Las Vegas, NABA expansion,
Yeah there's I think. Yeah, there's no doubt about that one.
Patty. That's not a matter of if. It's a matter of when so
and let's see we'll move. Anybody else want to talk about it or now?
Those are the two teams that I've saying about the two cities. I'm
sorry, I agree Scott that those would be the two logical places for Silver
to put new teams. But if they are, this is their audition in
Canada. If you think about it, they won't do for it. One
felt swoop, Jeremy, that won't know. No, I'm just saying if
they're going to do to the ones a year and then two a couple of
years down the road, that type of thing to expand, right, Well,
they've brought teams back in the past, guys, you know where you
know, like Cleveland Browns came back and then you know, several other teams
have come back, So why not in Seattle? And Las Vegas is hot
right now. They have the Raiders, they're getting they're getting the A's,
so you know, yes, exactly, and they have even have a USA
USL soccer team, our Pittsburgh Riverhounds, while we're down and down there this
year to play that. So Vegas is getting hot with teams. Yeah,
but you know what, Seattle Super signings are inevitable, all right, James
Burgess, Pitturg has an NBA team. Yeah, we had the Pythones in
the pie season that we've made the movie The Fish to Save Pittsburgh. Interesting,
Yeah, thanks, that was back in the eight but ABBA days,
yeah, the old ABA days, Yeah, exactly, they were one of
the teams that got absorbed. We have an ABA team here. It draws
very small. It's called the Pittsburgh Hornets. So we do have a team
then, So yeah, I think I'm sorry, Well that's okay. I
mean, I know Pittsburgh once had an NBA team, but I think they
where they're at with their professional teams right now. So you know, i'd
be curious on the closing this topic out to see what kind of a crowd
Vancouvers does draw. That to me, I would be interesting to see that.
I know Montreal, I mean both of them. So on to the
next. Joe Nameeth applause Aaron Rodgers for taking thirty five million dollars pay cut.
But Joe, would you take a thirty five million dollars pay cut?
I don't know, but yeah, So I'll lead it off with George and
I'll go around the horn again. Okay, George, Joe Nameeth thirty five
million dollars pay cut? Well, yeah, Joe is a He's a Jets
guy through and through. I see that. He even offered his number,
a uniform number, but Aaron Rodgers turned it down. He didn't want to
take Joe Willie's a number. But I do know about that. You know.
The you know, the thing is is that we all know it's going
to be I think a tough year for Rogers, that team. The Jets
is not the kind of team that is going to instantly be a challenger to
win the division like he always had in Green Bays. So Joe's entitled to
his opinion, and obviously he has given one. And I still like him,
and I still admire him as a as one of the original Super Bowl
heroes. But I know he's a Jet guy at heart. He really hopes
for Rogers to do well there. Jeremy. I think Rogers will do well
there. I think it's great that he took a pay cut, because I
think that's like given the middle finger to the Green Bay Packers. But that
being said, one of the reasons why I think Rogers will have success with
the Jets is he's got his old offensive coordinator where he won back to back
MVPs running that offense. I think that is a huge thing that everybody's forgetting
about. And if you actually look at the way he called the plays in
Nomber, he looked like he was calling the plays for a quarterback like Rogers
and not like Russell Wilson. You know you're right. You're right on that
one, Jeremy. And let me say this, Nathaniel Hacke, it's a
very good coordinator, horrible head coach. Okay, and you know I've said
this many times. Some guys can be coordinators and others can be head coaches.
And some people can make a cake and some people can't. All right,
And that's the story with Nathaniel Hacket. Now, as far as Aaron
Rodgers goes, you know, he's you know, he took a pay cut.
He wants to resurrect his career. Farv went there to resurrect his career,
and several other you know quarterbacks have gone other places that were around and
you know, on different teams for many years and resurrect at their career.
I think Aaron Rodgers can do it with the Jets. Robert sala is a
strong coach. He has that team ready to go. They're always organized.
I heard that from assistant head coach from Denver, Mike Westoff. He told
me directly that Robert Salah is an organized and very good coach. All right,
let me before we go any further, I just want to you know,
the Fireup is being broadcast around the world. The audio version of fire
Up can be heard on iHeartRadio, Apple, Spotify, Google, wherever you
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We're striving for a thousand subscribers. Please also comment, like, and
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Twitter at Tribute and South Canadian Bilings. Behind the scenes, I'm in the
process of writing a book called Adjusting the New Media. I'll give you more
details when it gets released. Coming up later, the show The Motor City
Madmouth will be debuting on the Eagle Court Media Studio in Bolkware Town, which
is a tech company based in Boca On the president of broadcasting for Media Studios,
and I'll be working with doctor ed when Hernandez. With that said,
you guys talked about Rogers will go a little deeper into him now Rogers Sean
Payton needs to keep his mouth shut about my coach, Nathaniel Hackett. Okay,
and keep his name out of his mouth. Well, definitely, you
guys segue to that beautifully. So George, with that said, you know,
Rogers is definitely glad he has his coach back. But I think that,
truthfully, Sean Payton was way out of line. I do too,
Scott. I don't think that was appropriate. Any current coaches should not be
condemning or making fun of or belittleing other coaches. You know, even though
he's not a head coach any longer, we know that he's done a great
job, just like Gralph alluded to as a coordinator, And so I do
think that was uncalled for. I you know, Sean can you have his
opinions, but on something like that, he would be better served by just
keeping it to himself. Okay, Jeremy who started it and continue it?
I actually love it. I think it's hilarious. He broke the bro code
in the NFL. He broke the bro code. Yeah, it's it's disrespectful,
but when it happens, it usually ends up being funny. And you
get something like that where it's that's my quarterback and he's defending me. I
love him. Well, he's back with him and he's gonna defend him because
that was when Rogers was at his best, and that's when nith Daniel Hackett
was at his best. Some people belong together in the NFL as coach and
player. All right, well, hold on, Ralph, go ahead with
the comment. Jeremy on the screen, Sean Payton spoke accidental truth. He
wasn't wrong, but it was horribly tactless and won't be part of the Dale
Carnegie classes names James James. That's the comment of the night, That bad
boy. I really think that one's goad So all right, well, go
ahead. He can feed off the one that he had before. Rogers needs
to use the run a little more with the personnel the Jets have. Well,
it's funny because when he had his MVP season, Aaron Jones and AJ
Dillon those two years combined for almost seventeen hundred yards and fourteen plus touchdowns each
year. So he did use the run more with Nathaniel Hackett. You know,
it was when it was Matt lafleur ran that everything went off the rails.
Yes, exactly, all right, So Ron, go ahead, what's
your take on ye head coaches should be head coaches. I mean, if
you were a coordinator, all right, I understand that, But what you
need to do is be the head coach, bringing a guy that is that
you can trust, that can run your offense the way you want to run
it, and bringing it a good defensive coordinator. And you know, it's
just like college. Some head coaches can recruit, others can't. The ones
that can't recruit, they bringing assistant coaches that can. So what I'm saying
is is that Sean Payton he needs to worry about the Denver Broncos and not
worry abo when Nathaniel Hackett's doing or anyone else is doing. And he's worried
about his own team because right now he has a mess to clean up.
And we'll see how how good he is a cleaning it up. Okay,
all right. Final topic of the night Angles Joe Mixon took a paid cut
and it was a sacrifice for Super Bowl hopes. Well, you know what,
I'm glad he did take a pay cut. I like Joe Mixon as
a running back. He's an all purpose guy that catch a football as well
as running, So I applaud him. Cincinnati and Angles to me, I've
been relevant the last few years, are George Gohad. Yeah, No,
I think that was very good too. As for him to do that,
you've got Joe Burrows who's obviously laid up right now with his injury. But
that being said, uh, you Mixing is a good guy. I really
think that, you know, you know, the AFC is so loaded,
but I look forward to Cincinnati again getting into the into the battle with Green
with Kansas City as usual, and Buffalo of course has a lot to say
about that as well this new season. So no, I think I think
it was a good thing. I really do. I think he'll he'll help
the Bengals out a lot. Jeremy, I still don't understand how Joe Burrow
hurting a baby cow makes a mistime. I just don't get it. But
that being said, it's a great job by Joe Mixon. The same the
team some money because he was scheduled to make almost seventeen million this year and
he cut it back to ten point five. Coincidentally, right after he did
that. That's the exact same thing the se Quon Barkley signed for. Very
good. I like that, all right, very true. Yeah, yeah,
I respect Joe Mixon for being a what they call a team guy.
Okay, he took a pay cut and he's on and he's staying on a
team and he's being part of it. Now, that's a team guy,
all right. Somebody that's not a team guy as someone who says, oh,
well, I'm gonna stay out and who cares about what happens with the
team. I'm going to worry about myself number one, and that's it.
Screw the team. There's a lot of guys out there that are like that.
But I respect Joe Mixon for that. I'm not a Bengals fan because
they're in our division, Okay, but I agree with you, George.
I think the Bengals are gonna go. They're gonna go keep going where they're
doing what they're doing, and you know they're gonna be tough competition for the
Steelers this year. Let me ask a few things here, Zach Taylor.
I think the most underrated coach in football. Two. Remember Jamar Chase is
still there, right, So it's not like there who te Yeah, yeah,
I don't think the company is totally The cover is totally bear. No,
the covert's not bear, not at all. Covers, not bear.
The only thing I worry about with them was losing their star safety. They
didn't want to resign for big money to Atlanta Jesse Bates. I think,
yeah, that's gonna be a huge loss. And that's where you're gonna see
what happens with center field in that secondary because they're good, but they're not
great at pass rush. They do, Joe enough as a defense is number
one thing that helps a secondary a great pressure rate from your front seven.
Oh yeah, absolutely, all right. Well, you know what, I'm
not sure what to make of this, Jeremy. Maybe you're a lot smarter
than I am with this one. Go ahead and take a shot at it.
What about a Lions expansion team? Um? I think we did didn't
Don't we have the USFL the Michigan Panthers. Well, I'm right here,
and that's an audition because that's where the supplemental draft comes in from XS BEL
and US BEL. Right, Well, unless she's talking about sol same old
Lions, Because you remember how many people said the Ford should sell theme on.
I wrote a big article about it. You forgot it already. I
know I'm not agreeing with her, Jeremy, but I think I think she's
talking about, but I don't know why she's bringing it up now because the
Lions are on an uptick. I mean, they're we know. He'd saying,
do we need a Lions expansion team? And I'm saying the answer is
the USFL is already here with the Michigan Panthers that play out of Fordfield.
It's kind of like a spring league for tryouts for that expansion draft. They
do well, then she should have said a farm team, not an expansion
team. She means a farm club. Farm team. Yeah, that's what
they're called. But Patty, we love you, we love you, Patty,
keep up that Patty's he lives in Grand Blank. I'm sorry, I'm
sorry, yep. I just wanted to correct it before he did an that's
all right, all right, Well that said, we go to our parting
shot segment, and I say shot because Ralph Williams the only one that's going
to deliver it. Go ahead, Ralph. Yeah, I want to talk
about this year Steeler team. We have an expensive defense once again, brought
in some free agents. The thing that I'm a very um unsure about is
the fact that they focused on a lot of defense and didn't focus too much
on offense this year, other than the offensive line, which of course is
important. All Right, they went on, They got a few guys.
We got Allen Robinson, who I think can resurrect his career here with the
Steelers. My concern is Mack Cannon, of the offensive coordinator. He was
never a NFL coordinator. He's a good quarterbacks coach. But now Kenny Pickett
gets to reunite with his offensive coordinator from Pitt in the first two years he
was at Pitt, Mack Cannon, that was his offensive coordinator at Pitt.
And we're gonna see are we going to see the real Mack Cannon offense where
he's going to open it up and let Kenny Pickt do his thing instead of
handcuffing him like he did last year. We have I think the best quarterback
threesome in the entire NFL with Trubisky, Mason Rudoff, and you know,
we got another guy from Minnesota we talked about last week that I think is
going to be very good on the practice squad, right, yeah, the
guy, yeah, yeah, the guy from Minnesota. And unfortunately our seventh
round pick, Trice from Purdue, he ended up hurting the leg or a
knee and he's hot for the season and a lot of scouts didn't pick him.
Omar Kahn went ahead and tried, you know, to get him in
the seventh round. He was injury prone. But I hope he comes back
and next year he'll be good. But we have a secret weapon this year
and Calvin Austin. And Calvin Austen is a short, small guy from Memphis.
We drafted him. Last year. He didn't play because of a foot
injury all season. But this year I'm told from some of my colleagues at
training camp that he is so fast you can't catch him. And he's in
he's so small you can't tackle him. So let's see what he does this
year. And he's gonna be kicking, but doing kicking punt returns as well.
Line up in the backfield. Let's see what MT Canada has this year.
If not, I think Matt Canada should go. Okay, well,
we'll find out to make a break here for Matt Canada and we'll find out.
Yes, we'll find Austin also, Rol Austin was it was never a
good defensive coordinator. I mean he he played for Pittan he was a defensive
assistant to Pitt a few times. They wanted to make him a head coach
before they hired Nardoozi and uh, you know, and he turned it down.
So you know, but you know, I heard in the NFL's track
records not real good. Now he gets to take the realms because Brian Flores
is in Minnesota. So let's see what he does now this year. Well
that's okay. I know, George, we had Taryll Auston Detroit. What
were your observations, George and Jeremy of Charyl Auston Detroit. George, you
go first, I got mine. I think mixed. My feelings were mixed
about what he what he brought to the table. You know, but it's
you know, again, it's a situation where you're bringing in a lot of
different coaches. The Lions went through coaching staffs and coordinators there, and we
guys, we know that that has a negative effect on if you're developing a
game plan, if you're developed your quarterback. And I remember we had many
discussions about this, Scott, you and I even when whoever named the quarterback
Eric Kramer all the way to Matt Stafford, going through all these different coaches
and all these different coordinators. But Rodney Austin, Yeah, Austin to me
was okay, but nothing special. Jeremy Terrell Austin. Let's see, when
he was hired by A. Caldwell to take over for the defense after Schwartz
left, he was given a Lamborghini of a defense that had darned at that
time the NFL record for lois rushing yards against at fifty nine point eight yards
per game, less than sixty. Now it's third in the NFL because two
Ravens defenses beat it. But that's enough. That's all. Great. He
did great, but it was what he did as he started to lose talent,
because the best thing a coordinator can do is coach up what he has
on the team to fill those roles in the next man up thing. And
he failed. We went from third to sixteenth to nineteen. Yeah, it's
nice to have talent, Jeremy, But you know what if you can't,
uh, like you said, coach up what you don't have, you know,
that's like, uh, you know, if you have a bull of
cereal and you eat Raisin brand, but you got to eat cheerios because the
Raisin brand isn't there. You know, that's that's what you have to do,
you know, and he just didn't do it. You know, the
biggest vocal cereals, the biggest made. I was just using that as an
example. We doing that. So take the lions made back then. If
you think about it, is when we got Helodi Nada because when he had
that transitional tag on him, that was like one of the first years the
transitional tag was out right. We could have gaven up that pick for Fairly
and another pick later and gotten Helodi Nada to be next to Sue then right
and had five straight years of great defensive tackle play. Instead, absolutely got
Nick Fairley, who when he wanted to play, was one of the best
in the game, but when he didn't, he was sewn baby Rogers taking
a nap. Yeah, that's funny. All right, Well, you know
I like to end the show on a humor. I'm going to do it
while I can now. So at that said, Ralph will let everybody know
how they can go get ahold of you. Go ahead, Ralph Williams at
seven three seven at gmail dot com. Also you can reach me on Facebook,
on x which she used to be Twitter and LinkedIn, and I have
my own YouTube channel, and you can also reach me on my website www.
Dot rw media dot org. That's how you can reach me. Okay,
Jeremy, I'm gonna do it the easy way tonight. If it's a
South Florida Tribune, guess what you'll find me on it. Whether it's dot
com, YouTube channel, a show, a podcast, my writings, whatever
it is, you'll find me number two mecap biting with the Detroit Lions on
Facebook. If you want to join a good page where it's a lot of
positivity and more news and podcasters than it is haters, it's Motor City decap
Biters. And I am on seven days a week. If I could,
I'd be on twenty four seven, but I gotta make a living, so
I have a day job. All sent, All right, George from one
alfort to another. Author author Detroit Sports Podcasters on the Air as the name
of my book, and it covers everything from football to basketball, baseball,
hockey, all the sports in between. And Scott's in here great great vintage
photographs of the young Scott morgain Roth with brown hair. And I'm not one
to talk, guys. I'm full of Gray right now. So yeah,
anyways, there's a link to the book. Yeah, Jeremy, there's a
link to the book at the end of my column, which as in the
Southforida Tribune, the Motor City Tribune, also right locally for the Detroit Monitor.
You can reach me gi Corn at yahoo dot com or you can reach
me on x at sange Sports ninety nine. And I look forward to being
on this show as well as many other shows inside the Pigskin in one hundred
eight stitches, the Sports Exchange, and the Fire Up. Thank you well.
This edition of Fire Up is a refreshing show because we really enjoy the
input from Ralph Williams of course Georgia and I and Jeremy while we work together
just about everywhere anyway, so I appreciate always did literally welcome Ralph to the
club and put them on it poculate we did so one more time. Just
you know. Fire Up is being broadcast around the world. The audio version
of Fire Up can be heard on iHeartRadio, Apple, Spotify, goog where
we get your podcast. Please hit the red subscribe button on YouTube. South
Florida should being worst driving for a thousand subscribers. Please also come in like
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tribute and south kand Emily is behind the scenes and coming up later. The
Motor City Badmouth Show will be debuting on the Eaglo Media Studios and bok Ratan
Florida. On My co host will meet doctor Edwin Hernandez. For those that
you want to know about Eglo, well, it's a technology based company for
which I'm the president of Broadcasting for the Media Studios division. So great show
tonight, and once again I'll give you more details on my book Adjusting the
New Media Soon enough, All right, Jeremy, we'll let you get the
last word, and it's a number. Guys. Try every day to be
a better person than you were the day before. That's the only way in
the world to me make the world a better place. It starts within here,
yes sir, and of course James. We're just thank you very much
for being a big contributor, as you always are on every other show.
God bless all right, well let's write out the comments for another second evening
Man Thursday. All right, there you go. Hey, a Lions and
Sparty bar in Baltimore. There's Lions bands everywhere. Great ri with the show
and DC. Glad that you're in here to cap it off. So once
again on behalf of George Korn, Jeremy, Ralph Williams, my man is
smoking my right hand man, among others. Thank you very much for joining
us on this edition. Fire up that we will catch you next Thursday night,
folks, Thank you, thank you for joining us. Two