Good evening, everybody, and welcome to another edition of Fire Up. I
have an all star cast tonight with me and we've got already a comment saying
hello everybody, good evening, well, good evening, Well, thank you
for watching me. So my awesome crew here next to me is drinking as
mister Ralph Williams, You're welcome. Great to have you here, s hear
me. Who is on the underneath in the box underneath me there mister uh
smoking Jeremy b undercandy. But I'm never on bottom next to George. Next
to Jeremy and George iikhorn. Hey, good to be guys, good lady,
I'm in his spot tonight. Good well, we have a loaded show
for you today. But before we get to that, I want to make
sure that you all know that normally one of the co hosts on this show.
Sometimes it's me, but sometimes it's Scott Morgan Roth and he wrote that
book if you Can See Up in the Corner by Ralph Williams, Lessons from
the Microphone. He just published. It's recently out on Amazon or Kindle.
You're picking up gifts for your anybody. You can go to Amazon and pick
it up and it's it's a great read. It talks about how the media
has changed over Scott's forty years being in the media. He's got lots of
good stories, some good pictures. He's got a picture of him and Muhammad
Ali in there, and I'm not gonna give it away and much more because
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Hit that button, like us, share us comment, tell all your
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to talk about, so I'm not gonna keep doing that advertising thing. Let's
start with biggest contract we've seen in whatever show, Hey O Tani, seven
hundred million dollars over the course of ten years, two million a year,
and then yeah, exactly, it's a tenure plane like kan so two million
a year for those ten years, and then from twenty thirty four to twenty
forty three he will get sixty eight million dollars, which is roughly approximately seven
point five million dollars a year for not playing. So basically, when he's
done playing with the Dodgers, he's gonna still get paid, kind of like
Bonnie Bonia. But he also has an opt out clause which I thought was
very interesting, and that's if Mark Walter is no longer the controlling owner or
Andrew Friedman is a president of Baseball Operations, so if either of those go,
he can go and opt out, which I thought was very interesting because
it really if they're on the same page, he can really help control who
else they sign. And let's face it, Brady used to do this all
the time. He used to renegotiate his contract and take less in the year
that they were in so they could bring in players and pay other players to
get good talent around him. This is one thing that I will say,
I'm gonna knock mister Aaron Rodgers because I don't think and maybe he just didn't
want to, because maybe he still battled with Green Bay's front office. But
that's one thing he not do and so therefore he does not have nearly the
same rings as Brady did. But kudos to show. Hey, but I
want to hear your comments about his opt out clause, his signing with the
Dodgers, and we're gonna start with George Oh boy boy, luck of the
draw yep, and listen, I'm gonna share with you what Will Vogel just
said. First, Candy, this contract is absolutely insane. Otani is one
of the greatest MLB players of all time, not only a good hitter,
but also a good pitcher. He has a generational talent. Well, well,
you're contradicting yourself, young man. You said he's got an insane contract.
I think he's a smart man. I think he is. He protected
himself, his family, his interests, his financial team, his agent,
all those people involved. I think he did a tremendous job. Obviously he
knew what he was doing with coming in with these lower two million dollars you
know, yearly salaries contracts as you outlined, Candy payments, if you will,
and then the back end is just loaded with loaded with money. It's
a very unique contract. We haven't seen anything like this for a long time.
I mean, we had Miguel Cabrera in Detroit who got money, but
that was basically because that was the way they structured it at the time,
and not knowing that he would really be falling apart physically and something could happen
here. The part about the owner and the president is very unique. I
haven't seen that kind of stuff in writing, and that's a very unique situation
with those two escape clauses, because, for crying out loud, the president
of the team more than likely is going to be gone by then. I
mean, there are some instances where president stays longer the owner, and again
that's another one you'd never know. Something could happen. Obviously, it could
be a situation where there involves a sickness or a death issue where teams have
to move on from their president ownership. But all that being said, I'm
anxious to see everybody else's comments about this because it's an incredible deal for this
young man. And we already know he got hurt a part of last season
with the Angels, and injuries can happen at any time, so there is
a good deal of risk here involved by the Dodgers, but they are Baseball's
kind of wealthiest team going right now, so if anybody could afford it,
I knew all along. You asked me a week or two ago. I
think who I thought he was going to end up with it. I figured
it was going to be La and then obviously the manager he opened his mouth
when he wasn't supposed to Roberts talking about the interview that they had with him,
and I guess they weren't supposed to do that, and some people had
him going to Toronto. But all in all, it doesn't surprise me Kennedy
that he's with the Dodgers, and what a hell of a deal he got.
I'm anxious to hear what the others panel is say the great train robbery.
Mister Ralph, what are your thoughts? Well, my thoughts are this,
It's nice that they have O Tawny, but is it nice that they
need to get to the World Series. They keep stacking up players every year,
spending millions and millions of dollars and laying an egg. They don't even
get out of the first round of playoffs. So is this going to help
them? Yes, it probably can. O Tawney's had a lot of injuries
too. Most of their team when it comes to the playoff time are all
hurt, and then they can win in the playoffs. So that's my opinion
of this. I you know, I hope he does well there, and
I hope the Dodgers do well, but you know they're there are classic laying
an egg during the play You know, getting into the playoffs and not getting
to the World Series. I see day if this doesn't happen soon. I
see Dave Roberts going bye byes. I agree, I agree, and Denzel's
saying, thank you, Ralph, you cannot buy a World Series anymore.
Jeremy, your thoughts that being said, considering he's having his second Tommy John
surgery and he may not be able to pitch at all this next season.
The only thing he's going to add as an offensive bat this year, granted,
it's a great bat as a DH. Now that the National League uses
the DH, he's gonna be that thirty to forty home run guy one hundred
to one hundred and twenty RBIs you can stick him in the middle of the
lineup. He's gonna bat around that two eighty to three hundred, which should
help them greatly. What it will not help with is what they struggle with
in the postseason pitching. Yeah, do you guys, I'm gonna quick ask
this question, do you guys ever think that MLB will come up with a
salary cap Because if they do, contracts like these will become they won't be
able to have these contracts, or if they do, they'll be paying on
them forever and then they won't be able to afford good players. So it's
just a quick Do you think MLB will ever have the salary cap? Ralph?
Not with men man Freddie or men Man for whatever his name is there.
Uh not with him? Uh huh. I don't see it happen.
And he's a week leader. He's only there for money. He's not there
for any other reason. He knows nothing about baseball and he doesn't care.
So I mean, you know, if the Major League owners cared a long
time ago, they would have already had a salary cap. Okay, they
have revenue sharing, which is a joke. Okay, and let me say
this got a better chance of getting struck by lightning than baseball having a salary
cap. George, what do you think? Oh, I'll never say never,
Candy. You know, Manford's not going to be there forever. But
yeah, I agree with Rolf on that point because he's just he's just,
he's cowardly, I'm sorry, the weakest of the commissioners in pro sports,
and I don't see it happening anytime soon. Tony Clark, former Detroit Tiger,
he's a hell of a players executive director of the Players Association. He's
not in favor of it. None of the players are in favor of it.
So for the time being, no, but I'll never close the door
entirely on it, but it would have to be with new leadership running baseball.
Absolutely, Denzil, absolutely so yes, thank you. To be honest,
all the commissioners are about ratings, and that's all four sports, and
he's absolutely right. It doesn't matter whether it's hockey, baseball, football,
tennis, golf, whatever. They are trying to get as many ratings as
they can to get the TV sponsors to fork out money which can be shared
across the board. That being said, if they were going to do a
salary cap, it was gonna happen in right after the strike, when the
NFL started going that way. It was gonna happen then. And that was
back with the previous commissioner. If I remember, right before Manfred got in,
right, yeah, yeah, that's when it had happened. Because that
guy was a lot more hard knows than Manfred is. He was the guy
that what was his name, Rosenthal, No, see, yeah, but
Sealy was more of the hard nos guy that would have put it in and
now it's all about ratings, revenue and the sharing across the board. That's
all it is. And as long as the players have the edge over the
owners because they really have no leverage, because the players get more money in
their share than the owners do as the whole, not as individuals. Let
me rephrase that, because I think baseball is down to forty eight percent to
the owners and fifty two percent to the players. And as long as the
players union is as strong as it is, there will not be a salary
cap and baseball so these lifetime contracts can continue to happen. I agree,
we have. We have a couple quick comments. I'm going to throw up,
Hey guys, maybe not a salary cap, but I could see it
possibly a show hey Otani rule to stop the deferral or at least limit how
much of the contract can be deferred. And then we have ratings equals revenue
and like stone cold, that's the bottom line, that's right. Yeah,
yeah, good one. We all forget that. We all think this is
sports, and we think it's a sport, but actually it's a business,
and we sometimes forget the business side of it. Whether we might agree with
it, or not. It is a business and they make all a lot
of money. For sure. That's one of the reasons why a lot of
people don't watch sports anymore because of the money. There's no more competitiveness here,
folks. It's it's all about money. And that's why. You know,
when I talk to a lot of folks, they say, I don't
even watch sports anymore. I'm done. Hm Interesting King SJA. When you
get a chance, go over to the South Florida Tribune channel on YouTube and
subscribe there, because in the future we're going to be using a couple of
the shows as a place where fans will get a chance to come out and
have their say about the sports they want to talk about. Oh there you
go. Yes. So, speaking of the almighty dollar, Lionel Messi had
six shirts that he wore during his World Cup last year. They were the
highest priced sports memorabia that sold this year. They sold for seven point eight
million dollars. Wow, Jeremy, your thoughts. If there are sports memorabilia
guys that are willing to pay that kind of money for that type of stuff,
guess what, more power to them. I'm glad you got that kind
of money to burn because honestly, I had the reason why I get into
the sports break memorabilia stuff is because I can get into it at a fraction
of the cost and possibly get a better return on investment than buying it at
an auction. George, your thoughts, Yeah, it's astronomical. I mean
that is you talk about a lot of money. I mean, he is
the greatest player right now. Of course in soccer. We all know that
he's done a tremendous job since he came down to South Florida. I really
think that his value is probably's still going to go increase. But that's that's
a little sticker shock for for a lot of people in sports. But again,
you know, if you're really into that, then then it's worth the
value to you. I mean we're still talking about stuff that Babe Ruth signed
or something that you know, some famous player signed way back in the early
forties or fifties, and and that gets a lot of money too, you
know, major League Baseball. But that is the biggest haul I've ever heard
of for soccer jerseys. So hey, if you got that and that's what
you want and that's what makes you happy, I guess go for it.
I wouldn't do it, but yeah, athletes like that guy have made World
Cup popular. I mean, I remember back in the day a World Cup
was an afterthought and now it's itself. If that guy is selling jerseys like
that, then guess what. World Cup is bigger than you think. And
it's getting even better now and more people are watching it, and it's a
it's brought up soccer in America here, something big time. I mean,
we have a soccer team here called the River Hounds, and at one point
they were a joke and now all of a sudden, everybody's they're selling out
tickets because everybody's into soccer now and and with the World Cup, it's gotten
better and better. So I have a question for the three of you.
What is the record for a game worn item of sports memorabilia? Who wore
it and for what? Do you know the answer? And how much?
And he guesses I want to say it's probably a game warn Super Bowl jersey
by Tom Brady. That would be my guest too. I'd say Ben Roethlisberger
the record. And I'm just taking a guess because I really don't know.
I mean, I'm just doing something. The record for a game warn item
on of sports memorabile remains Michael Jordan's nineteen ninety A Finals jersey, which sold
for ten point one million dollars candy. Yes, it was at Sotherby in
New York last year. Okay, so that was according to the Associated Press.
So interesting. I know, all you guys, that doesn't happen very
often. Okay, I'm not that big into sports memorabilia, so it's trump
me. Okay, let's fuck. There's been some rumors. We all know
the Patriots are not having the season that. Let's face it, the Bill
Belichick hasn't had the season that he had since Brady left, but there is
now talk that he will be out as head coach after this season. Thoughts,
do you think those are true? Do you think they're not true?
If he is gone, do you think he will go to another team?
And if you do, what team? Because remember he is trying to go
for most wins as a coach. So Jeremy, let's start with you.
Well, I heard the rumor prior to the game in Germany, and I
even mentioned it, I think on one of the shows we were on then,
because I said I heard a rumor that Bill Belichick may be fired at
the end of the season if he loses in Germany. One guy actually thought
that was a Patriots insider said he might not even make the plane ride back,
But that was another story. But I had I had that coming out
then, and that's when they said the decision was made by Robert Kraft.
So I think it's one hundred percent feasible, and I think he ends up
with the Chargers. That's the one that makes the most sense. Yeah,
You've got a Tom Brady type of quarterback, a defense that looks great on
paper as underperformed. I think it'd be a great fit for him there,
Ralph. My question is if he does leave and go to another team,
would he take his assistance with him, Bill O'Brien, Would he get Josh
McDaniel back into the fold. You got Brian flore he's up in Minnesota.
You got Eric Mangini somewhere, I don't I'm not sure where he is,
but you've got and then you've got Judge and Matt Patricia. So would he
bring all those guys with him, That's gonna be the biggest question. I
think he probably, and I agree with Jeremy probably go to another team.
Excuse me, LA Chargers looks like it's the best team, so and he's
right about that. But who knows. He might even go to the Jets.
You know, I'm hearing stories he might fire Robert Sala. We'll see
what goes on there. He might go. You know, there's some other
teams with some coaches on eggshell's. Okay, we're on Rivera's on eggs shells,
so you know, Arthur Smith on in Atlanta's on egg shells. Carolina
needs a coach, so who knows. You know, he might go to
one of them places. But as far as the Matt Patrash is concerned,
he's actually the assistant defensive coordinator for the Phillies or Philadelphia Eagles this year.
Oh wow, well that's cool. They canned him after that he got off
the Lions payroll. Yeah, George, your thoughts. Yeah, I think
he's as good as done. I really do. It's a terrible way to
go out for a man that has such pride and such achievements as all those
championships. Media were asking him last yesterday about the situation, and he kept
saying, we're preparing for Kansas City. I'm preparing for Kansas City. He
just would not budge. Obviously he's not going to say anything, but yeah,
it was kind of a comical response to three questions that were asked and
posed to him at the coach's press conference yesterday in New England. You know,
Robert Kraft has given him everything he's wanted, obviously, I mean,
money wise, I agree with you, Jeremy. I think the Chargers need
a new charge on that team. They've been fluctuating with mediocrity, with brilliantness,
but nothing in the playoffs. I mean, they've been one of the
most frustrating franchises in the last half dozen or more years. Down with their
quarterback injured, obviously, they have to prepare for the fact that you know,
he's coming back and he's going to have to rehab a little bit before
next season. But yeah, and I'm not going to go through the same
line that you did, Ralph. I mean, you mentioned a number of
teams that might be looking for a new head coach, right, I wouldn't
worry about too much assistance. He's you're not You're never going to be able
to bring all your assistance with you. Okay. Michigan Spartan's just hired a
new coach. He's got new guys coming in, you know, which is
good for them. But sometimes you can't just bring everybody with you. You
know, that's impossible. And that being said, yeah, I mean it's
even if he wants to coach. I mean he may pull fast one and
well, no, I'm part of it. I don't. I don't want
to keep going or take a year off. Maybe there's that possibility bel Chick
might do that. Oh, absolutely, you know. I would just an
update for you. It's thirty five nothing raiders over the Chargers right now.
Bring Day might be fired tomorrow. Yeah, Oh my goodness. O'connells eleven
of twelve of twenty with one hundred and seventy eight yard and three touchdowns.
Wow. Another one of those great Thursday night games. Guys. Yeah,
but at least they're scoring in this one. L Michael should be happy.
Well so, mister Ralph, you're former quarterback. Ben Roethlisberger came out this
week and said maybe the tradition for the Pittsburgh Steelers is done and gone.
Your thoughts on what he said. He's not wrong, you know, it's
been gone for a while. Last five years. The Steelers have been in
sort of mediocrity. They've gone into the playoffs and got blown out by two
different teams, by Cleveland and by Kansas City. All Right, the last
few years they haven't made the playoffs. This team is going down, sinking
like a ship is sinking. And that's exactly what's happening. I think Mike
Media I call mediocre Mike. I think he has worn out as welcome and
I think it's time for him to move on as well. And if he
goes to another team, so be it. If he decides not to and
take take his time off, and you know, so, I just hope
that he doesn't go to another team and kill us. But that's beside the
point. That could happen. I know it will because as soon as he's
gone from the Steelers, the phones, his phone is going to be ringing
off the hook because I know people. I know teams will fire their coach
just to bring him in. Okay, maybe he needs a new beginning.
I don't know, but I do know the Steelers do need one, and
they need to get back to what they what they were good at once doing.
And that's the standard is the standard, and right now it's not anything
it's nothing, George. Your thoughts, Yeah, I mean, you know
he was on his podcast, yeah, when he mentioned this, Candy,
And I'm telling you, you know, if anybody's got a good pulse on
what's the situation like in that team, obviously Ben does having been there for
so many years, and you tell it. You take a look at their
upcoming schedule, you know, and it doesn't look good. They get Seattle's
in there. The only tough the only softy for them would be the Seattle
game. But I agree with you, Ralph. I don't think they're going
to make the playoffs. I think that they are going to fall short,
and major changes they are going to be needed. I mean, you know,
the aura of the Rooney family and the magic that they had franchise for
so many decades is just a tremendous, tremendous active prestige obviously for Pittsburgh and
the fans there, and right now, it couldn't be further from their grass
right now because things are not going well, I would have to say that,
Yeah, I think I think they should move on and get a new
coach. But you know who that's going to be. We don't know.
But yeah, even if they make the playoffs, Like you said, Ralph,
they're probably gonna get knocked out in the Wildcoud round anyway, so you
know if they can even make it. But they have a tough schedule named
Glost. Three out of the last four. Come on, they're not playing
well at all. No, Jeremy, your thoughts. You know, ben
Is does have the pulse of the team on their right. But at the
same time, I believe ben played three years too long for the Steelers,
and they waited too long to start their rebuild to begin with, and they
didn't have enough influx of young, good offensive linemen to replace the guys that
were aging and starting to get hurt on both sides, the D line and
the old line, and that is why you're seeing their trouble in the trenches.
Now. We're used to seeing the Steel Curtain type of defense that we've
always seen out of Pittsburgh for decades. Now, when's the last time you
heard of a mediocre defense being with the Steelers. Last year, it was
a mediocre offense and a good defense. Still this year, it's mediocre on
both sides of the ball, and you can't have that be a winning combination.
Somehow, they have a winning record. Don't ask me because I don't
see how they did it. Well, well, I want to say this,
Jeremy. The last time this team was this bad or mediocre was Chuck
Noles' final years, all right. It was bad his final years around nineteen
ninety going into ninety two when he stepped away and then they hired Bill Kauer.
Okay, that was the last time this team went this far down,
all right, and it was starting to get bad, and they they they
told Chuck Nole, you got to step down. He stepped away. Yeah,
he had enough, so, you know, and didn't want anything to
do with football. Bill Cower. He took the team, he did,
He won Super Bowl, was in a lot of AFC Championship games. Uh
you know, yeah, he did a lot. And there we are and
yeah, they lost one, all right, and then they won one,
the one against Seattle, and then a year later he had to step down
because his wife was sick. But that wasn't the only reason why. Uh
he was having issues with Art Ruining the second and uh Art was running the
team at the time and he wanted a new coach. So there you go.
The Second whatever you want to call him, they did not get along,
and that that was the deciding factor. He didn't want the stress of
that strife plus his wife being sick at the Yeah, exactly right, right.
Okay, guys, what is either your game of the week that you're
most looking forward to you or your team's game, depending on what it is,
and tell me kind of what you think is going to happen with the
outcome is going to be. So let's start with George. Well, Jeremy
is Jeremy and I are going to fight for this one, I guess,
but yeah, de tried in Denver. I mean it's been pushed to prime
time eight fifteen pm Saturday night at Ford Field, part of a triple header.
Folks. By the way, if you don't know that, there's three
games on this Saturday on the NFL slate, and you know, the Lions
obviously need a quick rebound. Obviously, what happened with Chicago last week the
Bears was a disaster. It was bringing up shades of past Lions teams.
Well, we don't want to go down that road. But the fact of
the matter is the last four five games, the team has not looked as
sharp as it did Obviously at the beginning of the season when the euphoria was
all all Lions all the way. That being said, I expect, I
firmly do expect the Lions to bounce back on this one. It's gonna be
a close game. Again. Denver has been playing very, very well,
as we know, and Russell Wilson and they are obviously. You know,
the thing is, he's got to play a stronger defense, and we know
this. Jeremy's talked about this a lot. You know, Aaron Glenn's defense
just has not lived up to any kind of expectation, especially the last several
weeks. So Detroit's got to get back to that grinding defense. That got
to put more pressure from the defensive line. Obviously, the backfield's got to
do a better job too of a pass protection. And I really think that
the Lions are going to win, but it's going to be a close one.
Again. I'll say they're gonna win by about seven. I'll give you
that, but that's just one man's opinion. Then it should be a good
game though, Okay, Ralph, I agree with George on that that's gonna
be a dogfight game. I think it is the Denver game in the alliance.
I want to go with Jets and the Dolphins and the Chiefs, and
they're in the Texans and the Titans. I think that game, the Texans
and the Titans, that's a division game, and the Jets and the Dolphins
is a division game. So I think those two games right there are going
to be some of the ones to look at division wise. I agree.
I agree Jeremy Well, George didn't steal all my thunder. Thank god.
All five starting old linemen outside of the one on the ir are actually practicing
this week for the Lions for the first time in six weeks. So therefore,
the woes that Jared Goff has had is mostly due to pressure from opposing
teams because our O line is played like crap. You can say what you
want about Jared Goff, but prior to the O line being in flood like
it's been, he had a very productive season. Yes, he's had thirteen
turnovers in the last six weeks, but seven weeks ago was the last time
he had all started five starting old linemen, so there's a big reason for
that. When you're pressure under pressure, you make mistakes. Great quarterbacks look
bad bad, Mediocre quarterbacks look horrible. Golf is neither fantastic nor is he
bad. He's above average. He's a very good quarterback as a matter of
fact. The numbers prove it, and the accuracy that everybody's been flailing about,
he's up in the top four in accuracy in the league. So I
don't want to hear he's a bad quarterback people, no matter how much you
don't like him. And I'm not sitting here tooting his horn saying he needs
to be paid fifty million dollars a year either. But at the same time,
Aaron Glenn is the biggest woe on this team. But at the same
time, the Denver Broncos, they are only games they have lost in been
in the domes this year lately, since they went on this seven game winning
streak off and on. There are there seven and two in their last nine
games, and the last two that they lost were in domes New Orleans and
Minnesota. So Russell Wilson does not have his best games in the Dome,
which is going to behoove our Lions. Because also I heard cjgj is back
practicing with the team and been cleared finally, so he may not start this
week. But he'll be back to help the defense next week versus Minnesota.
So it's no surprise or to none of you guys who I'm gonna talk about,
because I'm gonna talk about my Green Bay Packers, which I know,
Jeremy you just love. But they're playing what used to be an old division,
right because they're playing Tampa Tampa Bay, and Tampa Bay used to be
in our division. We're gonna we're staying at home, though Tampa Bay has
to come up and play in our elements. Now. The one thing I
will say we are we have been playing like I thought we would this year,
very inconsistent with an in with a young, inconsistent offense. Obviously Jordan
Love. But if you look at and I like looking at Baker Mayfield's numbers
compared to Jordan Love's numbers, So Baker Mayfield is two hundred and seventy four
for four hundred and thirty eight for two nine and thirty four yards with a
quarterback rating of eighty nine point seven. Jordan Love is two hundred and seventy
five yards on four hundred and forty seven for three thousand and eighty four yards
with a quarterback rating of eighty nine, so they're both playing about the same.
Jordan Love has a couple more interceptions. He has three more interceptions,
but he also has three more touchdowns. Now, aj Dillon got a little
banged up in New York and so he's questionable. So it'll be very interesting
to see which team shows up, because, let's face it, the Packers
beat Kansas City, which I would have never given him really a chance,
and yet then they go to New York and we didn't fare so well.
Now we missed a field goal. And here's what I'm going to say.
When when there's so much inconsistency and when a team plays, how should I
And I don't want to talk bad about the Giants, but when you played
down to a team because you're not playing at the same level that you thought
you'd play for Kansas City, that's the coaches. That's the coach, strictly
on the coach. That is Matt Laflora not getting everybody up to and playing
what what's my nickname for Laflora. Oh yeah, Matte Lefron. I like
that. I like that. I'm sorry, Oh you're you're fine. So
I think it'll be an interesting game. I think. I think it could
be a good game. But again, there's a reason why we play these
games because you just never know. Yes, they said I would have never
given Detroit. I would have never thought they would have lost to the Bears,
and I'm glad I don't bet. I'm glad I don't bet. The
one thing I want to point out is the disparity between the defenses. Your
defense is very good in the passing game, but guess what, Tampa Bay
is right there with you. And at the same time, Tampa Bay is
better versus the run, and that's gonna be the difference in this game.
I think it's going to be a low scoring, not as high as scoring
game as we're used to seeing, and you may see like a four point
swing between the winner and loser. And unfortunately, I'm not doing this because
I hate Green Bay, but I see Tampa Bay might be enable to pull
this out because they've already won some games versus the NFC North this year.
It also depends on what kind of weather they're going to have. I don't
I haven't heard what the weather's going to be like up in Green Bay.
This is gonna be an evenly matched game. I think I really nothing major
this weekend. Yeah, and you got two teams too, you know,
trying to find our way, and you got one coach and Todd Bowles who's
on eggshells down in Tampa. So we'll see what goes on. You know.
I'm glad. I'm glad the Chargers sent UCLA to pay the Open Raiders
tonight. Forty two nothing at half time. Let's hope it's a sporting game.
In Minnesota's game last week, I said this was going to be a
bad game, but I didn't expect it to be this bad. I expected
like twenty one, not half. It's forty two nothing, Dre. You
might see them put up Miami score versus this team. Yeah, really,
at this point we need eighteen points. Yeah, they scored forty two in
the first team. So parting shots. Anybody got a parting shot for tonight?
Well, you know, we've lost so many players to injuries this year,
all the teams across the board. I'm gonna go ahead and say it
now. I think they need to bring back more practicing in the off season,
not so much more preseason games, because ever since they lowered the amount
of off season workouts, we are seeing an increase exponentially. It's up by
twenty three percent than it was before they changed the offseason workout rules. So
maybe those two A days weren't as bad as everybody thought. Maybe the players
need to stay more hydrated. Maybe they need to quit whining, actually workout,
stay off the phone, stay off of social media. George, do
you have a parting shot, Well, my parting shot is always going to
be, you know, sports. I'm not a big fan of sports on
Christmas Eve or Christmas Day, and I understand the National Football League was a
delta, a tough situation here where Christmas Eve is a Sunday obviously December twenty
fourth, But I think what would have been better instead of spreading games out
from one in the afternoon to eight fifteen at night on Christmas Eve, is
to try to make all those games starting at one. Well, they fail
to do so. So folks at Wantason Santa Claus that live in Tampa,
Chicago, Miami and Denver, good luck, because you're going to be at
that stadium for a long time going into the night. And I just think
that, you know, the NBA has been the grain who stole Christmas for
years. They steal it, But now the NFL ell is doing it too,
because on Monday, December twenty fifth, there are three more games posted
by Kansas City, Philadelphia, and San Francisco. I want a piece on
CBS, Box and ABC. I'll tell you what. I'm a sports fan,
but I'm not going to be watching games that day. But to each
his own. But that's my two cents and I wanted to share it with
all of you. Happy holidays one and all. May I make a comment
on that, George, You know what he could have done was took two
of the games from that Monday and all the afternoon and evening games and played
them all day Saturday. Do you know what, Jeremy, that would have
been a good idea. They've got two scheduled for Saturday. One in Pittsburgh,
Ralph at four thirty on NBC right, and the Los Angeles, oh
god, the terrible Los Angeles Chargers host a game at eight o'clock at Peacock.
Yeah, Jeremy, that would have been a good shift to do a
lot of that shifting. To me, I just think if they'd have moved
all those after everything, after the one o'clock games, the one o'clock games,
are because that's when the families are together, sitting around passing out presents
and having their dinners and stuff like that on Christmas Day. But the evening's
supposed to be about spending time with your family, your children, and everything
else. So from four o'clock on, if all those games were moved to
Saturday, or maybe even put a couple of Friday games on, I wouldn't
have had an issue. Yeah, you're right, they should have been a
little bit more creative scheduling like that. Yeah, exactly, Yeah, yeah,
we're all feel great good. Yeah, my party, my party,
regional. Oh but I agree. I agree with George on this. I
think it's wrong. But my parting shot is, so I'm going to take
off from what George said, but the opposite college football bowl games cease for
Christmas, even Christmas Day, and they have them on the twenty third,
and then after that they don't to the twenty sixth. As bad as college
football is right now, at least they had that kind of common sense,
like George is saying, to at least have no bulk games on Christmas Eve
or Christmas Day. So that's my parting shot. Marks nights. That's a
good shot question here he does, he does. Let's let's do his thank
you. The panel start up there around you guys, got I want to
go panel. Turkey or ham on Christmas? Always was ham in My family
always went so we would really go over the river and through the woods to
grandmother's house. She lived on an acre farm growing up and would always go
up to her house and we would always have ham on Christmas, Turkey on
Thanksgiving, but hamm on Christmas. Yes, same, And it was ham
on Christmas and ham on Easter. And like you said, Turkey Christmas Eve.
I'm half Italian and half Irish, but mostly my in side of my
family. My dad was the last of the Irish. He passed away in
June of this year, so uh, and I never really did much with
the Irish end of it, but I was mostly Italian. We have sausages,
pizza and stuff like fish, stuff like that on New Year's Eve or
Christmas even New Year's even, stuff like that. Then the next day we
have ham New Year's Day. We have sort of similar situations. So you
know what I'm gonna I'm gonna be the odd man out on everything. And
no, I'm not saying Turkey I'm saying a standing rib roast. There you
go. Oh, that's different. That's my perfect Christmas. That's different.
I know people, I know people that real thanks and candy yams. Yeah,
so my parting shot has to go to the NBA. So Giannis Andy
Decompo shot sixty four points in the game previous against Philly. He wanted the
game ball, so after the game he went to go get it because,
let's face it, that was the highest point total any Buck has had in
history. He had an awesome game. So he went to go get the
game ball, but they didn't want to give him the game ball because they
gave the game ball to a rookie on the Philly side who had made his
first NBA basket. So my question, my question to you is, let's
face it, they don't play with just one ball. There's got to be
multiple balls. Why can't they give the balls to the different people. Let's
face it, that's going to be a sports memorabilia for someone down the road
someplace. Why couldn't they communicate to that. Why didn't have to get to
a heat. That's what I fail. That's where the NBA just fails.
Yeah, well, football does that candy. What they do is they find
the players for giving a fan of ball. I don't understand that at all.
Baseball, that's that's not a problem. But football they give you a
fine for that. I just don't get that at all. You're right,
are you sure that you know what? Jeremy chair correct me if I'm wrong.
But then they used to throw a flag a penalty if a player threw
that ball into the stands back of the day, I thought they did.
Yes, the team used to get it unsportsman like there's something, yeah,
but that they stopped that and now they just find the players. And it
started with Terrell Owens doing the sharpie signature and giving it all started back then
and then you know, they stopped doing the unsportsmanlike conduct for that. But
you know what, I think it's bull crap because they got like twenty footballs
out there. They got like twelve or twenty basketballs out there. And number
one, I think every time the ball gets too covered in sweat and to
start sliding when they're doing the bounce passes is when they switched the balls out
on the basketball court. So there's the one that was tipped off, there's
the one at every court at the end of very quarter. There's a minimum
of five that's used every game, not luting the ones that lose their handle
because they start to get sweaty. So I think they use all twelve.
Why didn't they just figure out the one that was tipped off, give that
to Giannis and give the other one that ended the game to the kid that
scored his first basket. I think that would have been the logical and easy
choice to the solution. But at the same time, Giannis has been in
the league how long and had how many game balls. Maybe he should man
up and not be so whiny because a rookie scored his first basket. But
let's also think about how baseball does it. So if you get your three
thousand hit and it's in the field to play, take they take that ball
right then and there, and they take it. I've sat in in the
photo. Well, they you break a bat, the guys come and collect
it, and they put stickers on them, and some of those going to
the Baseball Hall of Fame or they get lodged and recorded. Why after that
guy made his first basket in the NBA, after the whatever stoppage of play,
why then didn't that ball go immediately out? Because how do you know
that the ball that they ended up with at the end was the actual ball
that he made the basket with, right right? You know. It's like
if you in baseball, if you hit a home run, you're not always
guaranteed you're gonna get your ball back because the person that catches it might.
But if it's in play, you have you're gonna get that you can get
the ball back. Why don't they do the same thing in the NBA.
The guy that scores his first touchdown, he's going to try and save that
football, but he has his hands on the football. Why can't they do
the same for the other sports? Good point, I agree with you.
So with that, let's go around the horn and let everybody talk about how
they can get a hold of you. So, Ralph, how can people
find you? Ralph? I' william seven three seven at gmail dot com,
www dot rwmedia dot org. I have my own YouTube channel. I'm on
Facebook, LinkedIn Twitter x platform. I also have a radio show on Tuesday
nights on Beaver County Radio Western Pennsylvania with my co host, smoking Jim Fraser,
and I'm on Block Talk Radio. I have my own block talk radio
channel starting up in January. I mean I started it up now. I
have a few shows running on there now, but I'll be starting it up
full in January with a bunch of shows. So you know, there you
are, and to watch my shows five six three nine nine nine three seven
four zero. To listen to the shows on block Talk Radio awesome, Jorge
talking people. Get a hold of you well. I am a contributor along
with Jeremy and Scott and the others on the panel, to that wonderful website
called Southforida Tribune MotorCity Tribune. You drill down and you'll see my works and
at the end of my column there'll be a link to purchase a copy of
the book. Detroit Sports Broadcasters on the air, And I'm in favor of
book promotion because I know Scott has a good book out there that we all
got to get a copy of and read and tell our friends about as well.
So you can reach me at gicorn at Yahoo dot com or else on
x Twitter at sand g Sports ninety nine and follow me here on fire Up
and Pundit's Pundit and anywhere else that you guys need me. On the shows.
I'm happy to come on, but great being with the three of you
tonight great. Likewise, yes, thank you and Jeremy, how can people
find you? Well, just like that guy, I can be found on
the MotorCity Tribune under the South Florida Tribune dot com heading. There. You
can also find me right here on fire Up or on Inside the Pigskin on
the South Florida Tribune channel. And you can always go over to my YouTube
channel for more Lions and NFL content, which is kneecat Biting with the MotorCity
Lions, where I smoke and Jeremy b do a lot of talking about football
with all sorts of people. You never know who's going to be a guest
because I invite fans of other teens as well as Lions fans and other podcasters.
And then you can find me at Smoking Jeremy on X or Twitter.
I prefer Twitter because when I first saw it switch to X, I thought
somebody put a porn bap on my pone. Everybody thinks that's what kind of
sight it is? Too, Well, it's getting close. I can tell
you that, oh well, guys, And you can also find me smoking
Jeremy be on Instagram. Okay, okay, so our laundry list. First
of all, first and foremost, Scott wrote a book, Lessons from the
Microphone. He's the reason we are all here tonight. Yes, he got
all of us together. He's the one that develops all Florida, came up
with the idea for South Florida Tribune dot com. He's the one that came
up with the YouTube channel. He's the reason why we are all talking and
providing the good content that we do. So go out and get his book.
It's available on Kindle or Amazon. Lessons from the Microphone. There's a
red subscribe button. Jeremy, you're laughing here, you I just looked in
the corner, just started, and they're already on the LA Clippers eighteen.
They're about rays. You might as well say it's the clippers. They're about
as effect as they were in the nineties. But anyways, they by score
agat here shortly. It's a travesty. Oh my god, it's so so
Jeremy and George both right for South Florida Tribune dot com. Well, you
can go to that website and you can see some of the pictures that I've
taken on the field. Let's say, let's see in the rank on the
floor. So I've taken basketball, I've taken baseball, I've taken hockey,
I've taken football. I'm trying to think if there's I think those are the
main I've taken soccer. And I've also taken auto racing too, So you
can find all kinds of pictures there that I've taken. You can find Scott's
writing, you can find we get transcripts from Dolphins, Jaguars, Lions,
so if you ever want any of those, go to South Florida Tribute dot
com. We get great writings from obviously George and Jeremy and Scott. We
get also some from some of the local colleges down here in South Florida,
so us f FAU if you want to follow, like the men's basketball team
or the Hurricanes the football team. So we didn't even talk tonight that Tyler
Van Dyke entered the transfer portal and he is now going to Wisconsin, and
Wisconsin got another transfer today. LSU's tight end so making a splash, So
Luke Fick stacking it up. None wrong with that? Can I quote Robin
Williams, good trying to be a wide receiver. Oh my, okay.
So, but if you want to be a guest or a panelist on any
of these shows, please make sure you're commenting or email us at self flowred
Tribute at gmail dot com. We'd love to hear from you if you have
ideas, suggestions, you know, if you want to. I want to
make sure Jeremy wears a different colored shirt instead of his Lions colored shirt.
Just kidding, just kidding. It's a plane pull. There's no line here.
It isn't but it's the color and imagine it matches the blue and the
logo. Give me hard time, Jeremy. But anyways, no, please,
And if you like podcasting, if you like the audio version, go
to iHeartRadio, Google, Apple, wherever you get your podcasts. You can
listen to us GEO seven, cast Box, podcast Attic where all of those
but that red subscribe button hit it like us, sheariffus because we're trying,
you know, we're all trying to make a little little bit of money and
we're trying to get more subscribers and get the word out. We have a
plethora of shows you can find inside the Pigskin, where we have former NFL
players and NFL coaches on that show, along with Jeremy and Scott and George.
At times we have a one hundred and eight such as Baseball Talk,
which talks about baseball. We have No Limits. We have MotorCity Mad Mouse
Show. We have Professor and Pupil. We have Fire Up. We have
Fire Up Michigan, Fire Up Wisconsin, Fire Up Florida. We have Sports
Exchange, Pundits, Pundits. What else? Professor and the Pupil. Yes,
we heard soon we are going to have a show on Sundays. Oh,
that's right, that's right. We are. We are just you and
me, our own little uh sports Exchange, Fire Up, whatever we want
to call it, It's gonna happen. It is. It is. So.
If you like our shows, please subscribe, watch us more, tell
all your friends. But most importantly, we wish you all a very happy
and healthy holiday season. Merry Christmas and happy. It's forty nine nothing,
forty nothing. She was ten two left in the third quarter and it's forty
nine nothing total yards eighty nine for the Chargers, three forty three oh for
the Raiders. An interim coaching. Interim coaching, the backup quarterback and win
in forty nine. Nothing yep, ohod backup quarterback and one other thing too.
Uh. The Chargers have Kellen Moore Donner. I'm surprised they're not moving
a football better. But don't forget Justin Herberts out for the season, yeaton
sticks first start in the NFL. Yeah, yeah, Well guys, it's
been a pleasure. Thank you for me and talking and having such a good
time. Everybody have have a happy and healthy holiday season. Thank you,
you too. You and Scott have a good one. Thank you, Thank
you, Ralph and YouTube. Jeremy George Jeremy