Steve Rivera and Jagon Sallez. They have their eye on the ball on two
Suns Sports. Stay ye, Fox Sports fourteen fifty streaming live. I mean
I heard radio Appkay, welcome back to our on the ball here a Fox
Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera, you're Jagonzos, and I'm hoping you
have breaking news. I think I do. I up. This is I
on the Ball baking news on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. All right, Um,
first of all, the NBA playoffs tonight, there are three series that
could close out tonight. Um. The Celtechs are at home against Atlanta with
a three one lead. Denver is at home against the Timberwolves with a three
one lead, and the Sons are at home against the Clippers with the three
one lead, who are once again playing without. Yeah. Well, I
don't know that I love the guy, all right, good player. I
love the guy, good guy, good player, but I wouldn't want him
on Mike. But yeah, because if you don't, what's gonna play?
I mean, just completely unreliable player, whether it's the fault of his own
or not. He's not a guy that you ever know that you're gonna have
on the court from day to day. I got some breaking news just from
a friend of mine text me. I guess he was trying to get in
and he couldn't get in. Maurice Claret tried from Ohio State to apply for
the NFL hardship to enter the draft early tried, but he he tried to
go in after two years. And part of it was because he got in
trouble at Ohio State. Yeah, and so yeah, they declined that.
I remember that one, but he was he yeah, I'm from a hardship
sample, but it was he had only been out two years of school for
two years. Remember, Yeah, that's what I remember all that. But
anyway, so these three series can go tonight. Um, they're all over,
They're all over, but it's not worth betty. Yeah. Um uh,
Sacramento, i' mean Golden State one last night, so the last night
night before, who's the Lakers one last tonight tonight it's the Celtics against the
Hawks. Yeah, Celtics that comes on at four thirty Denver. At six
o'clock Denver at home against the Tea Wolves. Then at seven o'clock the Suns
against the Clippers. And the teams that are up three one are all at
home. So you you you put that together just to see the pas on
the money, Lyne parlayl those two are not even worth patty right, No,
no, no, if you put twenty bucks, you get ten bucks
back. Yeah. Not fun, no fun, no fun at that?
All right? Okay? What if I told you, Steve, you were
at a job and you could get a twenty nine hundred percent raise? Okay
to pictures? Do have to give Joe Burrow? She will be paid a
million dollars on his contract this year. The Bengals picked up the fifth year
option for on his contract, so he'll be a million this year. He
will make twenty nine and a half million nicks. What if you told me
or that you're going somewhere with I say, sign me up. Get her.
He's gonna make twenty eight million dollars more in twenty twenty four, twenty
three. I guess that's a motivation enough to not get hurt. But the
Bengals picked up the contract um and then you know, by the end of
twenty twenty four, probably before twenty twenty four, they'll one they'll want to
sign him to a new long term So give me just because we We're just
talking here the top four or five teams in the A and AFC. Now,
now with with Rogers going to the Jets, are they in the top
five. I wouldn't put him in there. No, some people did this
morning. A bunch of people are I don't see because the Jets almost got
to the playoffs. But I don't. I you know, I don't know
if they've got enough of the sporting cast. There's still the Chiefs, the
Bills, the Bengals. Bengals were two Chargers are still kind of there.
Yeah, who knows if two if TWA stays healthy? Right? The Dolphins
the Dolphins, right, and uh, there could be who else? Um,
that's about it. Maybe who knows what's coming about the Ravens. Yeah,
you know where where Lamar Jackson's going. But but the Jets just because
of Rogers, I don't know. I don't nine years old and he's a
pain. I mean people because of it. You know this guys are good
enough. We need somebody else, Yeah, I you know that. There
was a discussion on on um on Dan Patrick this morning. Right, what's
what's a what's good enough for the Jets this year? And Dan Patrick said,
no, Pat said they got to get to the AFC champion or or
that, or it's a failure or that the trade that that the trade didn't
do what it was supposed to do. Where do we go with this?
Uh? Oh, with with Phoenix, the same kind of thing. If
they got this guy to kind of sell the ranch. If they don't get
there this year, maybe they built a prediction. But same kind of thing,
right, I guess yeah, And then you know, I mean one
of the other guys said, look, you know, they didn't even get
to the playoffs last year, and now you're saying they go get Rogers and
they gotta get to the champions much a little money. And so then he
backed down, he said, Okay, they got to get a win,
a playoff win. I get that. Maybe that's more, you know,
more in line with what what you would expect from picking up. I mean,
you don't all of a sudden when guys is not gonna change the whole
thing. Right, But but then I think they went seven and ten,
right, seven and ten last year? Yeah, they didn't go to ten
and seven, seven to ten. If they go, uh maybe ten and
seven, get to the playoffs, win the game. Okay, let's remember
that he didn't win. He didn't over the last couple of years. Rogers
didn't do what he was supposed to do doctor two or three years ago when
he should have ran that Pa that you're still upset. Yeah, the Jets
won seven and ten. They actually finished last in the year. So you're
gonna tell me in the AFC, you're gonna tell me they're gonna go that
to go to Yeah, No, I know. I mean there's a there's
a whole bunch of teams in there that you gotta throw in there, you
know. Uh, the Jaguars, right, they got to the playoffs with
with what's his name, Trevor Lawrence all of a sudden, you know,
are they are the Jaguars a team that you gotta you gotta mess around with.
So I got another text. Doesn't anyone remember when five went to the
Jets? There were still the Jets? Exactly? They exactly, they exactly
were the Jets, all right? Getting back to the NBA stuff, Um,
so if you want to do, if you do want to go bet
on these, the Celtics are minus nine fifty money line given away thirteen and
a half point. The Nuggets are given away ten and there are minus four
nine d do on the money line, and the Suns are giving twelve and
a half their minus. That's why, that's why those all double digit points
spreads in these three games. Somebody one of the underdogs will cover. The
question is which one? Yeah? Um, all right, uh oh no,
We're gonna get to this last because it's something that may take a little
bit of a conversation. Speak continue to talk about the NBA. D Air
and Fox have busted a finger. He's saying he's playing tomorrow against the Warriors.
Need him, He's not going to sit out as opposed to Kawhi Leonard.
Yeah. They need him play because he's their guy. Yeah. Yeah,
Um do you remember this great? This this is ah this this day
forty seven years ago, this day in sports forty seven years Okay, baseball
related forty seven years ago, nineteen one seventy something. Yeah, Rick Monday
Okay, oks. No, he was with the Cubs Cups. Okay,
No, I don't He's with the Cubs. Are playing at Dodger Stadium,
Okay. And two guys run out on the field. He's in center field.
Two guys run out on the field and try to set an American flag
on fire. Oh and he and he runs buy and swipes the flag.
I can see the video now, yeah remember that. Yeah, forty seven
years ago to day. I thought you were gonna say, what's in the
kissing band with the Yeah? Yeah no no, So there's a there's a
picture of Rick Money. He still has the flag. Cool, he still
had the flag anyways? Um, all right, Uh according to the Wildcast,
uh Justin Spear, the five star UH lineman from South Point, Uh
Elijah Rushing has Arizona on his list of visits official visit as he should as
he should have. But you know what, way better than what you know,
butthead did and all those guys yeah you know, uh way back when.
So he's uh, you know, jetfish. At least they're at least
they're in on him. Okay, let me bring this one up because we
ran out of time yesterday I wanted to talk about it. So we're bringing
We're bringing up Alabama. So two days ago I saw the player who's coming
out of the transfer portal going to Alabama and basketball from which to state?
From which state gets busted? Got He's with some guys. They got pot
in the car and three guns. Yeah, okay, so yeah, the
pot is a misdemeanor possession and they've got three guns. Nobody got shot,
Yeah, nobody got hurt, nobody got murdered. They kick him out.
He said, you're not coming to Alabama. We're not recruiting, right,
We're not recruiting anymore. We don't want you here. You're a bad guy.
Get the hell out of here. Brandon Miller, Well, that's takes
a gun to him, takes a gun. Well, that where a murder
occurs. And guess what you had. You're our guy. This this They
had no choice but to not take this guy. They had no choice because
of Brandon Miller that situation. Are you saying that they're hypocritical? What are
you saying? Exactly? They had no choice because that would be horrible to
do. And obviously the right where they got it wrong, right, of
course, the Brandon Yeah, you know, of course that's where they got
it. Of course. And now he's now they're calling him out on that
head. Oh yeah. Now the guy who hasn't gotten you too, you
know, that doesn't have a chance, isn't gonna win you a national championship.
That guy is out. But this guy got to stay when somebody got
murdered. No, I hear you, I hear you. I'm made hear
you. I hear your tone. Hypocritical. Um uh the you have an
athlete program. They did what they call the cat Sea last night and a
bunch of awards given out. Football got the Freshman and Sophomore Player Athlete of
the Male Athlete of the Year with a team Mac got freshman and Jane Delora
got uh got sophomore. Um. There were a whole bunch of them,
you know, Uh, I think um, I think Delaney Schnell, she
got a senior athlete, right female se um kind of know it's cool stuff.
You know. They did a whole you know, red carpet thing.
I was following who who hosted it because uh um um um Todd Todd Walsh
was the MC last night, which I'm like, Steve, you know,
Stephen, I were local, we could have got it. I got to
suit. You gotta be cleaned, iron iron patch. Delane Snell got the
Ruby Award, which I guess is the best female athlete, and Jordan Guys
got the Sapphire Award. Well, A lot of which is the male athlete.
A lot of locals. The shell is from Andy Morrass. Allie Skaggs
from iwood Ridge was named the Junior of the Year. Grace Hallelufia from Mountain
View throws. She was the Vale Victoria Diego Mark mark as your your your
friends son edmund Son, you're the Male Community Service Award, right and condemn
carry right. We can't get him on the show. And he goes to
this thing and out over there. What the hell? It's funny because some
people ran into him. I see him kind of often as you're gonna come
on my show. Yeah, yeah, don't hear from him. Zula got
the Male Junior Athlete of the Year. Yeah, so that's it. That's
a kind that's okay. You know what all this says. Now schools as
sober. In two more weeks, it's going to be over. Yeah.
Carolina Male Grotty who we just talked about with the golfer with with she was
the sophomore, a female sophomore at Okay, okay, all kinds of cool
stuff. Okay, have you done. I'm done? Okay, So I
have a couple of Wolfgang Webber. Our guy from South Point was indected to
the Arizona Coach's Hall of Fame. He's won a few titles, nine titles,
know exactly because it's all pretty much Phoenix based. Right. Oh yeah,
let's let's let's try's find somebody in two seven hundred and thirty three wins,
uh, eighteen and twenty seven. Just what a what a heck of
a heck of a run here? Uh Randy Ridi, David David Hines,
all Phoenix guys, Richard Taylor just you know, mostly Phoenix guys. But
but he was it was good. Uh. The South Point Women's girls volleyball
sound volley, well, we have to coach on last year when they won
the title back in the championships again, so you know, they kind of
have a little dynasty there. I think I think the meal Box daughter plays
with them. I think I'll have to check with Matt. Yeah, um,
you know, uh what else I think that's about it. Oh,
he looks like he's think that nack sin and he looks great, you know,
small smiles. You and I are both better looking than Todd Walsh.
Todd, don't listen to that. I need you. I'm just saying,
Steve, just say well, just say okay, uh go right before we
came out. I was listening. Uh, there's a reason we can't get
b John Robinson on our show was doing all these national shows. He was
on another show and he got asked if he could pick a quarterback to be
to play with that's not Patrick Mahomes, who would it be? And he
said, Jalen Hurts from the Eagles. And you know, you know,
he's only had in person visits with two teams, one of them being the
Eagles picked. So there's a lot of a lot of uh belief that that's
where he's going. But did you watch him much? Did you watch him
a lot? Jed a lot. I saw a lot of the game because
I wanted to see him, you know, I want to see him.
He was obviously I didn't watch him religiously, but I watched him, and
he was obviously he was. There were some runs that he had. There
were like Reggie Bush kind of ye right, but he's also you know,
Reggie was a little guy, right, so Reggie had to you know,
he had to be out in the open and stuff like that. Bejon'll run
your butt over, He'll kill you. But he also had not he doesn't
have the it doesn't do everything that Reggie Bush was able to do. But
he had some Reggie Bush type runs that were just like, you go,
how does a guy do that? I saw? I I you know,
I made it a point to watch him. If there's a Texas came on,
I watched some of it just to see him get there, you know.
And I told you you know, I had an intern at the Sugar
Sculls. It was a quarterback at CDO. And when when, uh,
you know, signed with Texas? I asked him, I said, it
is he Texas good? And he just like he smiled, He said,
he's Texas good. Texas Texas. That's a different way, different thing than
Arizona. Right, Okay, let's go, let's go. We got all
right, we got John Feena coming on. We're gonna talk NFL draft.
John was the first shund pick in nineteen ninety two, so we'll talk to
them all about that. We'll stick around. For more than twenty years,
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Business Coalition. Stream lives on me. My Heart Radio Whip. This is
I on the Wall with Steve Rivera and Jacob Zalles on Flox Sports fourteen bid
days. Come back to watching the ball here Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm
Steve BA, He's Jakin's often. Now on the phone, we have John
Peena, nineteen ninety two first round pick back in the day from the NFL
and a former Ulva football player. John, how are you? Oh,
I'm fantastic. How are you? Thirty one years? John? Does it
feel like it? It feels like every day where I wake up? Still
right? Still? Ye? Absolutely so, John, thinking back to that,
did you know? Did you know you're gonna be a first round draft
pick? I had an inkling. I had an inkling. M I did.
I did a workout with the illustrious Bill Belichick, and I had a
great combine. And then Bill worked me out and he tried to kill me
over the course of a round ninety minutes. Every position on the offensive line,
D line throwing me passes and any kind of snarled and you know,
a little bit of profanity under his breath, and I said, just coach,
what's wrong? Everything okay? And he's like a or a first round
pick, and I was shocked. I was frozen. I couldn't believe it.
I was paralyzed. I didn't even know how to react. He walks
away. My agent comes up and looks at me. He's like, he
looked like you just saw a ghost. I said, I can't believe what
Belichick just said to me. So that was that was my only indication.
Of course, you know, he can. You know, one person loves
you, and you know at the time twenty seven others might not. And
then you slip into the second round, in the third round, in the
fourth round, or what have you. So it was great, man,
it was fantastic change, life changing obviously. Yeah. Yeah. And what
a great organization to be drafted too. I remember on draft day, you
know, getting that phone call. My agent's like, hey, the phones
for you, and I was like, who is it? You know,
it's John Butler with the Buffalo Bills, you know. And they did get
on the phone with you and they're like, hey, we're our pick is
coming up, and we have we've ided you. We want you to be
our guy. What do you think about that? And I'm like, are
you kidding me? Come on my way, I'll run across cold and naked,
covered in far and fettered. So did you, I mean, what
did you know about what the Bills thought of you, you know, going
into that then did you got a sense from them that you know that that
that could happen? Well? I met I met with them at the combine,
and of course Glenn Parker uh was with the Bills, right, so
I stayed fairly close with Glenn. Glenn was gracious enough as a as a
teammate to take my phone calls during the season and give me an idea of
what being an NFL player was like and what Buffalo was like. And he
seemed very happy. And I trust Glenn. So when that call came,
I was, you know, I was beyond thrilled. So let me ask
you, a character plays a big part of it. I'm curious because you're
a smart dude. You know, I teach you about it, but you're
very smarted. How much did you how much you think that played in the
interviews, the interview process. Well, I think it matters. You know,
references matter a lot um. The way you present yourself matters considerably when
it comes to the type of offense that the Bills ran at the time.
You had to hate to use the expression. You had to think on your
feet. We ran such a such a fast, no huddle offense, and
defenses would throw something at you and you had to You had to have absorbed
the playbook and every permutation of defensive alignment before the snap, so you were
blocking the right guy. And a lot of that was independent thinking because there
wasn't a time for There wasn't enough time always for the center to see the
defensive adjustment and get everybody in the right spot. You had to know it,
so you had to know the playbook. So yeah, so you get
drafted by the Bills in the first round. You're would you watch it here
from Tucson? Is that where you were? I was in Steenix. You
see, my agent had a big party about twenty players at the time,
and you know we were sitting in a big ballroom and just kind of watching
the draft. Man. So then what happens, Uh, do you immediately
whisk you off to Buffalo or you give me the next few days after you
got drafted? What how did that go for you? Well? You know
they initially just gets you okay, yeah, well I'm good, draft me
sure love it. And then you know, after the draft, basically they
call you or called I think they called my agent and he said, hey,
you know, they've got a ticket for you. You're going to Buffalo
and you fly in there, and you know, a guy picks you up
from a van at the airport and takes you to the hotel and handy an
itinerary and you just you're like, you're like a kindergartener. You know,
they put the little uh V leashes on kids. That's what we were like,
leaving us around. We didn't know what the hell to expect. Uh
you know, you're you're the new kid on the block. So three quarters
of the veterans just ignore it. If they're not ignoring you, they're making
fun of the intel you're doing the wrong thing and going the wrong way.
So it's a trial by fire, I can tell you though. Man,
it was. It was April, right and I get to Buffalo, New
York and it's freezing. Call that just didn't expect it. For for the
end of April, we went out to practice and the wind was whipping through.
It had to be about twenty eight degrees freezing rain. Then I said,
man, what if I said no on that phone? Call man that'd
be in San Diego right now. Yeah, damn temper that he called me.
So what do kids going through uh now, like the first people expected
to go early, what are they thinking? Well, you know, if
you're if you're one of the quarterbacks or you're one of the defensive ends or
wide receivers, you know, you're just you know, you're a top ten
pick. I mean it's pretty widely understood who probably the top fifteen guys are.
Um, you know they feel a little bit better. It's when you
when you feel like, oh man, am I first round? Second round?
You know, that's that creeping of doubt that gets into your you know,
your being and it's a little unsettling. You know, it's made a
little hard to sleep. Now it's different now. I think the the number
of visits that the teams have with players, the interviews and all that stuff,
it's so much more exciting and it's so much more public. I think
that for the player it's got to be even even more. It's got to
be worse, right, the belt that butterflies in your belly, because if
you've visited ten or fifteen different teams, you know less and less. By
virtue of the more teams that you've met with. So so as as the
draft is going on, had you got to do a point where you're hoping
or thinking you were going to get drafted and then didn't, or was when
you got that you were like, holy crap, it's way earlier than I
thought. What was going through your head as players were being drafted? Because
you gotta taken on like twenty seventh, they think, right, yeah,
twenty seven. For me, everything was a gift, yeah, because,
uh, you know, coming off my senior season, I was relatively unknown.
I was widely regarded as you know, third fourth, fifth round pick,
and I kind of made my own story, you know. I went
to the combine, I had a great combine, interviewed really well, and
my stock just sort of started to rise. But I never really believed,
um that I was going to be a first round pick. I was hoping,
you know, late second third. So for me, heck, it
was all it was all just you know, it was all cupcakes and and
soda. You know, it was a huge party. I didn't I didn't
have any expectations, and the surprise was far better than what I could have
ever dreamed. And then you have this nice career of the but you never
imagine that too or you know, it takes a lot of hard work to
get there and to stay there, it really does. You know. I
don't want to I don't want to sit on your call and sound like an
egomaniac or anything. But you you've got to keep it together for a long
time in the face of a lot of adversity. You've got you know,
you've got responsibilities to understand what you're doing all the time. You've got to
be a great student of the game. You gotta stay in shape. You
gotta be lucky. You know I was. I didn't have any really bad
injuries. Um, you gotta be smart. Um. Some guys eat their
way out of the league. Some other guys dumb their way out of the
league. You know, I just I just realize that if I could stay
off the ground, if I could at least be trying to block the right
position person and not have an assignment error, and if I didn't cause penalties,
then then you got a chance, you know, if it don't hurt
the team, be in the right place and stay stay off the damn ground.
Yeah, So you get there, Glenn Parker's there did he not feat
you as bad as maybe some of the other veterans did, or did they
participate in that stuff and give you a hard time? Oh? You know
he participated. I mean, you know, you have to a little bit.
It's a you know, you can't you can't be like a total suck
toad as we used to say. You know, you got to be a
little bit tough. So Glenn gave me my rations. But on the side,
Glenn was Glenn was a great mentor, you know, a great colleague
and a great friend. And Buffalo, Buffalo had really strong leadership in the
locker room. Matters, Steve, It matters the way guys carry themselves.
It doesn't hurt to be winning, of course, you know, the more
the more you win, the better the culture is in the locker room.
And Buffalo did a lot of winning before I got there, and did a
lot of winning while I was there. So we were able to keep players
focused and if guys really wanted to figure out a way them to get out
of the NFL, they they could figure it out. Yeah right, right,
who's your who's your first phone call? Were your parents with you at
the party? Who's your first phone call? Once you got drafted. So
it's a great story. I gotta tell you, it's a fantastic story.
My parents, Um, we had exchange students from Spain and they had this
big trip plan to go to Spain, and then, you know, the
date of the draft comes out and my parents are like, oh my god,
should we stay? And I'm like, I'm not getting drafted Spain?
Are you kidding me? Go I have a good time. So my parents
were actually in Lisbon or somewhere in Portugal at the time of the draft.
Um, they weren't here to celebrate it with me, but we celebrated,
you know, for a decade after and still continue to. I think the
first person I called was my brother David, whom you know, I was
pretty close with. And then I called Mark and Charlie and Jimmy and my
sister Christine and let them know. And it was it was pretty wild,
you know that we weren't really in tune with it because I think I approached
it with such a sense of there's no way. I mean, I'm never
gonna make it in the NFL. Why would I even be drafted? So
everybody kind of, you know, I kind of leaked off on everybody,
and it was all just like, hey, John's doing this activity. We'll
see how it turned out. Wow. So so you had to be kind
of pitching yourself, like, but when you put your head on the pillow
last night, could you even sleep? I really I couldn't believe it.
I I after the draft was over that day, I sat and talked with
my agent for a while and drove back down to Tucson, and I was
just thinking to myself, this is this is a dream. I was like,
what's next? I I the anticipation of everything was it was a little
overwhelming. I got home, I met up with some friends and we went
to some you know bars down to the university, and we were all just
kind of laughing about it. You know, it's well, you know,
pie eyed, thinking, how is this even possible? Well, it's hilarious.
It's a It was a great it was a great day, great week,
I mean, and then of course training camp started and that all turned
around. Enjoy what you can. Right, by the way, so how
was your son enjoying UCLA brows doing terrific? You know, he's he's battling
the spring for a starting job. I'm very close with him, so we
do teams meetings and review film together or team zoom, whatever you want to
call it. Skype Um, we look at film, give him. You
know, I always ask him, what's your coach? Say, you know,
what are you trying to achieve? There's different philosophies of technique, and
I don't want to try to break anything and say, you know, he's
teaching it wrong. There's there's more than one way to skin a cat.
And you know, he's doing really well. My younger son is going into
his junior year at sell Point and he'll be playing UM varsity football. And
my girls are doing great. Everything's everything's you know, I can't complain.
How's that? So? Do we have another draft pick in the making over
there at UCLA? You know, it's it's so hard to tell them.
I mean, you got so a thousand things have to go right for you
to even get in that position. You know, it really has to be
the right timing. It's going to be developmentally, the timing for you,
opportunity for the timing of you. You know, you've you've really got to
be able to put everything in the right place. Um, I'm not gonna
lie though, I mean I did talk to the Buffalo Bill's leadership when I
was there about eight months ago and said, hey, keep this kid on
your radar, and they're like, who's that. I'm like, my son,
sure, br guy, exactly exactly? Who what? What? What
did you get at Arizona? You're planing at Arizona. What was the most
important thing that happened to you there that you know made you a first round
draft pick? You know what? Was it a coach? Was that a
scheme? Was that? What the position you played? Me? What made
you? What was it of theirs one that made you went to into the
first round pick that you eventually became. Wow, that's a that's a big
question. That's a big open ended question there. Don't you know what you're
supposed to answer? Yes, small question. Well, look, the first
thing, give credit to Anna Chuck Fena. I mean they raised five boys
and a daughter and we busted our asses around the house. Yeah. Um,
you know, we worked our butts off. A lot was expected of
us, both in the classroom and around the house. And you know,
you started there so you had the ethic, you had the leadership and family,
and then you get to the opportunity to play Mark Lunsford was my recruiting
coach, and Mark believed in me, and he lobbied for me and helped
me get that opportunity. And then you know, with Dick Toomey's leadership of
toughness, of discipline, of resilience and the types of practices. You know,
Dick was a sweetheart, but not on the field and not at practice,
and and that's a better official for a football player. You know,
you got to be ridden pretty damn hard. And then, as luck would
have it, you know, the venerable Pat Hill became my coach and and
we spent an intensive year together. Or he challenged me and said, you
know, you could play this game at the next level, and you just
gotta you gotta come in early and learn. You gotta watch film and learn
defenses, and you gotta stay late, and you gotta hone your craft.
And it was, you know, the confluence of great coaching and great parenting
and you know luck and timing, and you know, just a great big
cauldron of wonderful stuff cooking up for me. And I took advantage of it.
And and it's been a wonderful run. The last time, just last
last question, we talked to you on a sad note. But it's a
miracle Hamlin. How about that? Um? You know, as I watched
the game and I saw DeMar Hamlin go to the turf and people thought you
know this or that, I immediately knew that it had to be something else,
um with some sort of heart condition, because you don't, you know,
you stand up and it's it's you know, you're waiting for the oxygen
to deplete, and that's what caused him to pass out. Right, So
if it was a neck injury or anything of that nature, he had never
stood up, So there's just a moment it happened. And seeing him fall
the way he did, I thought, oh my god, this is this
is cardiac um And initially I thought, oh my god, and then it
kept going on and I thought there's no way. I mean, how's he
survived. And then the miracle that he survived, all the healthcare professionals and
everybody in the world really coming and paying attention to it. And now that
he's recovering and and and he's cleared to play, I think it's an amazing
world. It's the medicine, the teams that were around him, it's it's
really just it's invigorating, right, I mean, it really makes you want
to believe in something greater than yourself. And you know, it's nice that
it's nice that happen around football and kind of a weird way, you know,
because people get very emotional about the game and you know, they see
they see great things and sad things, and I don't think always people understand
the type of physical danger that players are in. And then one of my
teammates, Mark Maddox, he had a Bill's Watch party during the playoffs and
they raise money to get ads at you know, every school, every not
playground. But you know, makes me sure that when kids go out and
play a soccer game that there's an ad there and there's somebody trained to use
it. Right. Well, John, great to have you on the show
is always I'm at a Google confluence right now, and well have you got
on suit? I always love talking to you. Well I don't even know
if I used it right, but I ad to Google. That was it?
Thank you, Thank you, I will, Thanks John, Thanks a
Bouch. Sorry you guys, take care of go Cultron exactly. Oh my
gosh. All right, let's let's go ahead and hit the road before we
get ourselves in any Moore trouble. So wait, we're right back. We'll
take your calls last second five two zero, four, one, six,
seventy four, forty h some of your thoughts on the NFL draft. You'll
be Jean Robinson being talked about as a number one draft pick. Hopefully that
he gets that and we'll see. Uh, you know, and I think
it was great to you for John to share his experience in this stick around.
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It's Steve Rivera and jagonzomis. This is I am a ball on Fox
Sports fourteen th Hey, welcome back trying the ball here on Fox Sports fourteen
fifteen. I'm Steve Rivera, you're Jagon's as we got about ten and ten
to eleven minutes. If you wanting to call us, please do five two
seventy four forty. Let us know what you're thinking about NL or how Arizona
is gonna do. Tomorrow's a big day apparently. What if they don't get
them the car? Yeah? Two song burn down. I don't know,
you don't what I don't want to know? Ye, sick of our fans.
They're probably sick. They're not my fans are Yeah, they're probably sick
of me too. So that's all right, or at least they're sick of
me saying that. Um you fun conversation with John because you know, I
mean, look, we're a little we're little kids. We're growing up.
You're playing football, playing baseball, whatever, and you thought you I'm gonna
be a I'm gonna be a pro baseball player and be a pro football player.
Right. But to know that he went into the drafting and I'm a
second or third round pick, a Sidden his name comes up in the first
round. I can't even imagine, but that that would have been like,
no, I know, uh, here you are, first round making that
type of money. Yeah, I'm living in a nice life, but but
realizing I gotta work. I got some work to do because as you said,
you know, and as you said to him, it's not just getting
there and staying there, right, And he stayed there for a long time.
Yeah, um got to some super Bowls and stuff, but uh,
you know, it's it's, uh, you think about the work that it
takes to get there, you know, and there's so many and I guess
you know, there's so many people that you know, it's like it's expected,
right, they take things for granted. Then they get there and they
screw it up, and as he said, there's a million ways to get
out of the league, right, Um, you know, and uh,
I just it's just great to see that somebody that he really had an appreciation
for it. I guess that is what I'm trying to say, because it
was unexpected. Um. I mean I remember when he got you know,
when the draft came round, He's like, really, phena win in the
first round, right right? But that's cool. I'm thinking that he he
went off, it was I can't remember this. Maybe you do. What
did he play a different position and then he moved him to an offensive line?
I think so because he was he was a thin dude. Yeah,
early on. I think I should ask. But he was recruited as right
right right, and then like you said, Dick, tell me has that
knack of finding the right figger out where somebody should go right right? I
think so I could be wrong. If anybody knows, keep us a call.
But if you were, these are of Arizona and how to fix this?
N I L what would you do? Within reason? Do you have
that a solution? So you have that answer, let us know because everybody
has these answers. Um, or questions and no one has a solution,
but he's got the answer. No, it's not that easy. Oh,
the best looking dude is not always gonna get the best girl. It just
doesn't happen anyway anymore. Yeah, yeah, you know. Yeah. Now
I'm like, I'm googling John Feeney. It looks like he was a line,
right. I think he might have been a defensive line maybe maybe maybe
you know, when you're at you're that good. Yeah, probably so I
think they moved to they made him an offense. That makes sense. That
was probably yeah, but uh, you know again he named off his whole
family and his dad was an orthopedic surgeon, I remember, yeah, and
stuff. So they had the season tickets of basketball right behind the team all
these years. I'm pretty sure they still do. Yeah. But again,
it's fun, fun to talking about all that. I can't even imagine what
that day would have been like, if you know, because when you think
about something like Aaron Rodgers, right, who dropped, you know, way
low in the draft, He's like sitting there every every you know, every
uh team that was picking. He thought this is the one. Yeah,
that's why I asked him that he said was there a point where you're going,
Okay, I should have been drafted. I should have been drafted.
He's no, I got drafted way earlier than sure. Right, Yeah,
I thought that was very cool. Right, that's very cool. You know.
Good luck to be Jean Robinson, right, all accounts a great kid,
you open. It goes well for him. On Thursday and we got
a call her hire on the army on the ball and how's it going today?
What's up, Brian? When are you getting drafted in the NFL draft?
Are are you getting Are you getting drafted this week? Uh? Well,
they don't have a senior league, do they? What's up? I'll
just talk about my favorite topic, the n I lay us. As Jay
said, there is no answer. And the problem they have no answer with
this is because there was no uh guidelines to begin with. Right, And
so you're gonna have a hard time putting restrictions on kids after you haven't had
any. And that's gonna be because they'll wind up in court. Again,
that's true, that's true. And who's who you were talking about. The
students don't want to get into a union, They don't want to do anything
like that, right, They just want to live their life and they want
to I want to play and get paid, right, Yeah. One of
the problems and you know, I I see with the NFL and you know,
and a lot of and not a lot of schools that will happen.
It's gonna be player jealousy. Well, yes, that was the first thing
that I thought of. Yeah, way back when it first, when it
was first happening, you said, wait, what's going to happen when the
center is getting nothing in the quarterback, even a quarterback who sucks, is
getting something? What the what the hell? You know? I think I
think there needs to be guidelines in the sense. I know football has that
apply April fifteenth. You got that two week period. Okay, yeah,
yeah, well you can enter, you can try and get in the transport
port portal. But what they need to do is have it for every sport.
I don't I don't know if they do or not. But you know,
once basketball season is over, after the last championship game, you got
a two week period of being the portal. That's it that you know,
and that kind of stuff they can do, right, that kind of stuff
they can do. I mean, I mean, I have no idea what
baseball is like you know, I mean, because you don't hear a bunch
of about it because it's not one of the major sports, right, Yeah,
so no, you're right, You're right again. We talked about putting
the toothpaste back in the tube. It's just it's just not gonna happen.
I don't I don't know how. They never gonna happen, right, never
gonna happen. But I think if you put more I did. Notice that
was it? Colorado had uh thirty one players who entered the portal in the
last week. Yeah, forty eight total total. Yeah, since he got
there, Yeah, the whole new Yeah. Actually forty eight scholarship players is
what they're saying have left. Yeah, and they had like eighteen of them
were after the spring game. Yeah yeah, yeah, so just incredible.
I mean, you know, I have no idea if Colorado is going to
be good or not. I don't expect him to. You know, well,
if they if they if they, if they are, it's with all
new players because they don't have anybody left, right all right, Hey,
Brian, thanks a much, man as always calculator. Here, something just
came across um the the the Remember there was that rec where Georgia football staff
member was driving while the player. The family of the player who was killed
in that crash has us has notified the University of Georgia that they planned to
sue for at least two million dollars. I'm gonna say that's probably not enough.
Shoo the who, the school s, the school because they were not
supposed to be in that car, right and that right, and and it
was a school employee was out there. Anything was dui right? Uh yeah,
they were speeding day right, right, So that that just came across
on some of our breaking news manas right, well, we'll see what happens.
The draft is Thursday, right, Thursday, The first round only is
on Thursday, and uh, you know, widely considered be John Robinson the
top point could widely consider the first uh running back to be picked. Um
or people think he's gonna be picked. Just the question is how high will
he go? Uh, you know, there's more people saying he'll be lower
in the first round, but that he'll be a first round pick. And
a lot of people are saying the Eagles, right, and we talked about
this, ESP destroyed a generational player. He just came out in the wrong
generation, right right? Yeah, just how he been again? I mean,
you know, does he does he get five years in the league,
you know, I mean there, I mean Ezekiel Elliott is already maybe out
of the league this year, right right, he yeah, he got he
got cut by the Rams and I mean the Cowboys, and nobody's picked him
up. So, I mean, it's it's it's a it's a tough goal,
you know, especially I when we look at cadem the dude was very
very good, right, and he lasted maybe three four you maybe he'll be
it out of him and I you know, I don't know. It's just
but you know what going get in there, may your money and get out
with your health. That's the main you know. You know, I was
watching there was a somebody posted a highlight of Earl Campbell one of those runs
where he just ran over like ten people on the way to the end zone.
And now the guy can't even walk. Yeah, you know, and
you think, in the end, how great was it to you know,
to get paid, But in the end of your life is just well that's
part of it. I mean he John joked about it, joked about getting
out of bed. Of course, we all suffer those problems. But these
guys are major. Yeah, that's big, that's way. My little shoulder
is not nothing to compare to. I was with John with I was with
the Huney brother said Rickie had just gone through knee surgery. He talked about
all the injuries that he had and he's sixty one like you or sixty whatever
it is, sixty three, and uh, there's still effecting all these times,
for all these years. Yeah, more players and I don't have to
go through that because I'm a weenie. More players from Colorado going into the
portal today. Oh my god, yeah, oh my god. I don't
know. I guess what what do you know? What's he doing right?
Either he's pushing him or they said, I don't need any of this quote
he's kind of saying, and he did get quoted as saying, look,
if somebody doesn't want to be here, I don't want to be here,
sure, which everybody says that, right, sure, but said, you
know, I hope they do well wherever they go, But if they don't
want to be here, then what else can you do? Right? I
don't want him hear either that you have That has to be the philosophy.
That's your philosophy, has to be the philosophy. All right, good show
went fast, went really fast again. So we're we're gonna be back tomorrow,
more guests. We'll talk some more NFL draft and will hopefully have some
more great guests. We know we'll have some more great guess all right,
so be sure to come back tomorrow and we'll have some more good stuff for
you. So see you tomorrow. Don't stop, don't running the world, running back