This is I on the Wall with Steve Rivera and Jagon Zalis on Fox Sports
fourteen fifteen powered by Nova Insurance Services Ensure Your Most Prized Possessions, Katz R
two SAD and iHeart Radio Station. Hey, good afternoon, everybody. Welcome
to I on the Ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera,
he's Jagon's ass. Bit's bring your kids to work today. So we
have two. We have two, dude, Noah, you know what,
I've got underwear older than both of us. Hope you watched that. Under
Noah and Sid we'll have some opinions of nineteen year olds, twenty year olds
and hope they guide us and get us our names correctly, save us from
ourselves kids. Yep, yeah, weah. You have an apology to make
or a clarification clarifica. Oh yeah, you know last night or yesterday when
we were talking about bad players out there and pay the next cancers and YadA,
YadA YadA, we mentioned aj We Okay, I you agreed, so
you're a part of it. I said, Ajay Brown plays for Arizona.
We were thinking of Antonio Brown the Steelers. Later Tampa Bay receiver who walked
out in the middle of a game. That guy. This is like a
correction on the paper, a little little three paragraph. Yeah, we got
we we uh. Some somebody emailed the radio station, uh, and we
got it forwarded to us and so uh, let's see this came from somebody
named uh. Who's the woman Pattie Stevens listener. Thank you Patty for listening.
Thank you for correcting us. But you know, join a large group
of people who have done that over the over time, we get a lot
of corrections. Do you now have a grudge on A. J. Brown?
Because that's just that's the that's the name that that came to my head.
What was it like? What were you guys? We were talking about
guys who are painting the ass on teams and guys who wrecked teams. You
said Odell, Yes, he said Aaron Rodgers. No Rogers. We did
say Irie Irving, I talk about Okay, made too. It started.
The conversation started with Kyrie Irving And then would you want him? Would you
want him compared to Kauai? That was the conversation. No, would you
rather have somebody good who's a total pain in the You know what would you
have somebody who's not there all the time but really damn good and a really
good guy. I'd rather have Kawhi quite quiet. You know, the one
thing about him is like he's never gonna be the reason why a team falls
apart. They just like, well, he might be because he's if he
doesn't play didn't show right, if he doesn't play that best ability. It's
a different, different reason for reason, but not a bad reason. Hey,
welcome to Thursday. We have a big show. We have a lot
of stuff corns to talk about with the NFL draft here right, Um,
Well, in fact, a better text Pat Finley, So he's ready.
Pat Finley, our friend Formers, a daily star writer covers the U,
the Bears and the NFL for the Chicago Sun Times. He's he's in Kansas
City for the UH for the drift to draft. So he's gonna be on
talk from more from a national perspective. Uh and uh just give us mean
you know some some of the Bears, some of the Bear stuff, but
you know, more from nation a national uh standpoint. And then at four
fifteen we're gonna have justin spears, which you know I couldn't decide if this
was weird or not, you know, because he's got the radio show.
But he's in the morning now, not really a competitive our good friend.
He's in Kansas City as well, covering it for THEIRS on a daily star,
pretty much covering Beijean Robinson and what happens with Beijeon. So we want
to talk to him. We'll talk to him more about Beijean. But Robinson,
you know, I think they're friends. You know they've had yeah,
no, no, no, he's twenty seven, Bijan's about twenty. But
yeah, but you know they had like STAPs, a little bit of a
relationship when Justin's dad passed, and uh, and he's just written some nice
things about him. He's covering him in Kansas City. He was there when
Beijean did some promotion at Keynes I think yesterday, So he's he's over there.
So we got boots on the ground in Kansas City for the draft.
Yeah cool, okay, Uh, And hey, I think Tucson. You
woke up today and Tucson felt a little bit better as brighter. You can
see the heat, no clouds, the sun birds are singing bright. Carter
Bryant decided to commit to Arizona and Facebook. Shut up. It did for
a little bit, just completely quiet out until they started here. I started,
Oh, he's the one and done. Uh uh, he's not committed
yet, she's not signing. Well, somebody did say it's official. Not
it's not official. He just said he's coming. You know, I'm dating
Miss America, but she has a pitbull on her nose. Shut up enough
enough exactly exactly, which which kind of leads me to, you know,
with all this conversation about Arizona basketball since the season ended, something that I
wanted to to talk about, and that was this is the conversation said,
yeah, okay, and that was um, I don't know. Did you
see the clip of Jannis after after Yeah, fantastic? All right, I
want to I want to That's what I want to talk about. It.
I set it up. What I want to talk about is that. So
let's play the clip and then let's talk about uh, you know what.
Let's just play and then we'll have a conversation. Okay, go ahead.
It's I just asked about the exact same question. But I'm curious for you.
Do you view this season as a failure? Oh my god? Oh
okay, because I'm not at you ask me the same question last year,
Eric, Okay, Uh do you get Do you get the promotion every year
on your job? No? Right, So every year you work as a
failure, yes or no. No. Every every year you work, you
work towards something two ars ago, right, which is to get a promotion,
to be able to h take care of your family, to be able
I don't know, um, provide the house for them, or take care
of your parents. You work towards ago. It's not a failure. It's
steps too, you know. And if you've never I don't know. I
don't want to. I don't want to make it personal. So there's always
steps to it, you know. Um, Michael Jordan played fifteen years,
one sixth championship. The other nine years was a failure. That's what you're
telling me. I'm actually your question yes or no? Okay, exactly,
So why are you asking me a question? It's a wrong question. There's
no failure in sports, you know, there's good days, bad days.
Some days, some days you are able to be successful, so that you're
not some days it's your turn, so days not your turn, And that's
what sports about. You don't always win. Some other other people's gonna win,
and this year is somebody else is gonna win. Similar as that we're
gonna come back next year to try to be better, try to build good
habits, try to play better, not have a ten days stretch with playing
bad basketball, you know, and hopefully we can win a championship. So
fifty years from ninety seventy one twenty one that we didn't win a championship,
it was fifty years of fail No, he was not he will steps do
it, you know, and we were able to win one. Hopefully we're
given another one. I thought there was a fantastic response, incredible answer.
I obviously I think first of all, I'd say I agree with everything he's
saying about it's steps success. I do think a lot of it sounds like
someone who's trying to justify his you know, disappointment and like lack of success
verseason, which is true. But the thing is like the way he's he's
justifying, he's kind of like who he is and what he's done for the
franchise, kind of what's what's happened with the franchise. Everything there is like
you can't really argue that it's it's facts. Like he's go ahead, and
well, President used used a work because and and I've heard a lot of
different conversations about this today. There's failure and there's disappointment. Clearly a disappointment.
Okay, let's say you know the Bucks were the number one seed in
the NBA. I mean they were the top you know, they were had
the best record in the NBA, number one seed, They're supposed to win
it. It's a huge disappointment, no doubt about that. Is it a
failure? And I and the reason I the reason that the conversation caught me
because it brought me to Arizona. Right, Arizona is a number one seed
in the tournament. Last year, didn't win the national championship. A lot
of people still see that season as a failure. Is a disappointment? Yes?
Was it a failure? I don't think it was a failure the same
thing this year. Was it a disappointment to lose to Princeton? Absolutely?
Was it a failure in that game? Absolutely? But did that make the
entire season a disappointment the way so many fans continue to see it months later
or a month later, you know today? And I thought his answer was
great and I particularly thought where he said Michael Jordan won six championships and fifteen
where he didn't, or nine where he didn't. There were fifteen total nine
where he didn't. Were all nine of those seasons where he didn't win the
championship failures? Was was Jetfishes five and seven season last year because they didn't
win a PAC twelfth championship? Was that a failure? And I really thought
what he said, I hope a lot of people listen to that. Go
ahead. I think, well, I think I think because the two things,
it's kind of like two things make it so this answer is is kind
of great and not like could be the opposite. One of them is that
Jimmy Butler is the reason why they lost. Like you can't you can't tell
me that that performance in a playoff series is like not one of the best
of all time, right, And like, second of all, I think
this NBA is probably the most competitive it's like ever been because usually there's like
you know, there's maybe a few teams, like the eighth seed has been
the one seed several times the last couple of years. That's never happened in
NBA history, you know, Like besides, but you can see these guys,
you can see Miami winning the whole thing. So so let me throw
a few things out because we've talked about this before. Yeah, I thought
it was a fantastic answer. There was no right or wrong answer, because
you could have blown up and say I don't need and I'm probably happy that
he didn't because he could have. So many others could tell you is a
good dude, because another bad, bad, not so good dude would have
just said, hell with you. I'm not answering this, quint answering the
question, So let me next question. Let me throw some things that you
We've covered basketball here for a long time. I'll give you ninety seven surprise,
right, they went into all and everybody's happy. Ninety eight is at
a disappoint appointment or a failure. It's a disappoint it's a huge disappointment because
they were they were the best team two thousand there were the number one seed
overall. They didn't get past Wisconsin second round. That was kind of a
surprise, you know. Two thousand and one, they had the power might
arguably the best team ever, but they ran into a pretty good duke team.
Right, But no one talks about that fantastic team in one thousand and
one. So that my question is you're saying, like like disappointment, disappointed,
what would you define as a failure, Like what would be an example,
like, Okay, as I said a minute ago, losing to Princeton,
that game was a failure, right, they failed that they failed on
that day, but that game did not make the entire season. So a
failure you're saying, like like the game or whatever an event, could you
can have a failure? You can you know, you can miss a three
foot to win the Masters. Yeah, like like the Bucks letting Jimmy Butler
score basically like forty points a game. It's like you can say that is
a failure, but their season ending in the first round is not a favor,
right, And that's and that's that's what the question was, is this
season a failure? And I loved his answer, Well, so two thousand
and one, okay, then a ninety eight, which was it was probably
a combination of a lot of things. Uh, two thousand and one,
we can go through. It's funny because I asked this question of of of
Miller in twenty seventeen, but I didn't ask it a winner of failure,
because that's not a no win situation. How do you reflect on a year
that you did? You know, how do you reflect on this season when
you were expecting when that's a legitimate way to answer ask that question, I
hope, And I asked if you look at the transfer, I asked Tommy
Lloyd the same thing. You've had a lot of success. How would you
reflect on this when you have time to reflect? How would you look at
this? And he talked about winning the PAC twelve tity you know all that
stuff. Yeah, yeah, grand scheme of things. There's more checks on
the good parts than on the bad parts, right, And that's the thing,
and that that's and that's what bothers me about about not just Arizona fans,
fans in general. It fans. It's either you're a success or a
failure. Well, there's a lot of stuff in between. What like what
they say, a lot of it, like most of it, it's basically
all situational. You know, it depends on like who you are, what
you've done, who the opponent is, what the outcome was. Well,
other factors influence it. If you're looking at the bucks, like there's there's
so much more to it. You can't just no one. No one here
is like completely shocked that the Bucks lost in five to Miami, Like it's
shocking, it's a disappointment. No One here is like there's no way I
never saw that happening with you know, but failure is such a strong word,
right, It's like, I hate this postion when you're trying to put
failure on something as large as an NBA season, I just don't feel like
you can do that. You can put failure on a specific thing. You
know, you strike out to end the game in the game in the World
Series, that's a failure. That at bat was a failure. But you
can't say because he struck out and you lost the World Series that your entire
season is a failure. Well, go ahead, I was gonna say,
I think. I think, like like you're saying the whole season. It
takes it takes so much for you to say a whole entire NBA season was
a failure. But you can easily say, like a game, an event
in a series, like after the trade deadline, you know, the Kyrie
and Luca thing, You could say that part of the season was a failure.
That was what like one third of the season, say the whole season
was a failure. That trade, well, let me say this to San
Diego State got to the finals of the NCAA Tournament. Was that a failure?
Hell no, exactly who expected it? Right? Right? You got
there, you did it as best you because that was not a failure.
That was just, uh, not even a disappointment. And we look at
the Kansas Kansas is thirty four and two season or whatever that was in ninety
seven when Arizona beat him in the sweet sixteen, they lost in the sweet
sixteen to Arizona, the eventual national champion. Did that make that entire season
the failure? It was a disappointment, and that game was a failure,
But the whole season as a whole, it was not a failure. And
that's what I think. That's the way Jannis put it yesterday is I think
we've been trying to say that, at least I've been trying to say that
for a long time and haven't been able to say it that way. He's
way younger than me and obviously smarter than me right now. He's been too,
but you know, he's been, he's been, he's been a professional
athlete, and I love the perspective of the athlete in that comment. I
thought it was great. Let's just really, I think I think it's a
lot easier to find to find a single event or shorter set period of time
or action as a failure versus like disappointment. Is it should be used more
for a season or I can say exactly, and that's it, and and
so Arizona fans, I'm talking to you, all right. The seasons can
be disappointments, but they're not. It's not a failure every time they don't
win a champion. Yeah, there's only one right, and only one right,
only one team wins. It's I'm gonna go back to loot all the
time. But real quick, that's why he doesn't want this type like the
PAC twelve tournament. You have the bowl games, you have one winner and
who doesn't win? Right? Uh? And not no tournament right, just
because there's too many disappointments, right right, All right, let's let's hit
the We're gonna come back. We're gonna have Pat Finley talking. He's at
the NBA Draft tonight. We'll talk to him about more from a national perspective.
Who's going to go early whatnot, so we'll be right back with Pat
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This is I Am a Ball on Fox Sports fourteen theory. Hey,
welcome back to I on the Ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm
Steve Rivera, He's Jackon's Aarsen. Now on the phone, we have Patrick
Finley, of the Chicago sometimes pleasure. How are you doing? I'm good?
You go, oh, we're doing okay. Do you think you're gonna
be surprised with what the Bears do tonight or not? And probably yes?
Number one nobody knows anything. I mean a couple of years in covering the
NFL to know that nobody knows anything. And number two, as long as
you pick us far back aince the Bears do and they're at number nine,
euro are subject to the winds of what the eight people do in front of
you. And I think this draft, more than most I can remember,
has a lot of volatility between two and eight. I think we all know
who's going first. Beyond that, I wouldn't want to be the guy gambling
on who's going two, three, four or five six seven? Right,
Well, the Bears traded down from number one, so you know when that
happened or since that happened, is there a sense of the strategy there they?
You know, they you know, they didn't have any you know,
they've got their quarterbacks, so there wasn't anybody else that they would want to
go number one. So they're down to number nine. You know, will
they get the level of guy that they want to get at that at that
number. But the reason they made the trade is I'm not sure that they're
convinced to Justine Field does the guide quite yet, but they want to give
them one more chance. We'll figure it out. And as long as you
make that trade with the Panthers, this means they have the panthers number one
pick next year, and they have their own and they have great insurance if
something happens to Justin Fields or if he just doesn't take the step that they
want him to take, they can go get a quarterback. Right So part
of the rationale for trading the pick was that right there. The other part
was DJ Moore, you've got to get Justin Fields some help, and they
did with Dj more So that's the rationale there. They think that they're somewhere
between six and eight kind of no doubt picks in this draft. Maybe not
all of them or future all pros, but they're they're kind of blue chip
guys in their grading system. They're drafting nine. So we'll see whether any
of those six or eight get down to them. Their hope is that quarterbacks
go fast. I think in a perfect world they'd like to trade back you
know, maybe go from nine to twelve something like that, because that range,
I believe they have a lot of guys ranked similarly in that range.
So what are their main helping in their main areas if they need to fix
Well, when you're the number one, when you've got the number one pick,
you had a lot of needs, right, Yeah, when you're the
worst team in football, is a long you have you'll have ten minutes.
Yeah, they need All they need to do is figure out how to block,
how to rush the past, or how to cover passes. Is that
that list? No, you know you probably start on at left tackle.
They don't. They had a rookie last year who was a fifth round pick
who did okay, but they can shift him over to write. They really
need help blocking for fields if they're going to figure out exactly what fields is
and that regard, you're looking at probably Paris Johnson, the Ohio state tackle.
Peter Skurovsky, the kid from jess down the street here at Northwestern,
and he grew up in Chicago. You know, I know a lot of
people who think he's more of a guard than a tackle. The cheese.
If you could get Quinton Nelson at nine, I mean that I think that
that's still worth it. Um, So you're looking at tackles. If one
of the two corners it's available, I think that they will think long and
hard about it. And then the two edge rushers at the top of the
draft, both Will Anderson in Tyree, the kid from from Texas Tech.
I don't think either of them are getting down to nine, but if they
get close, they got to think about it. The Bears passed us last
year was like the second worst they've ever had and this team has been around
for one hundred and two years, so that's saying something. So yeah,
they gotta they gotta fix everything. But let's start on both lines. You've
seen that meme from the woman from the Titanic. It's been eighty four years.
You're like, Finley, it's only been one hundred and two years.
Okay. So if if we gave you a three thousand dollars to bet on
draft Kings as two, don't do it. Put on the number on the
next quarterback drafted after Bryce Young at number one? Who is it? And
where you think he's gone? That's tough. I'll tell you what I think
of the guys. First, I think Anthony Richardson needs to be a good
college quarterback before I would draft him two, three or four. Right,
his skill set is great, but me and he fifty two percent of his
passes. I mean, did you watch him at Florida. It's it's it's
amazing to be there's a pretty big disparity. He reminds me if I may
of Mitch Trubiski of somebody who you watch him during the college season and you
go, you know, pretty good, but definitely not a top five pick.
I think c J. Strout is probably going to be in the second
quarterback taken. I'm gonna go too. I hate to him and haw here,
but I feel like the buzz we've gotten last week that the Texans weren't
going to take a quarterback second might have been a little bit of smoke.
I think there's probably pressure from ownership there to do something other than trotting out
Davis Mills for another season. And if I'm the Texans, I'm just not
confident that one of the four top quarterbacks will get to number twelve, which
is where their second pick. So and then well, and then there's Will
Levis. Yeah, I Indianapolis. It seems like something Indianapolis would do you
read the out you know, all the things that the Manning, all the
nice things that Peyton Manning says about him, and you wonder whether that takes
Indianapolis's own owner into the stratosphere in terms of wanting him. You know,
I think Levis can be a pretty good NFL quarterback, believe it or not.
But I think the buzz around him the last couple of days, he's
seen some of the gambling markets move that actually give him an outside chance of
being drafted first or second. I think that's a little bit over the top.
Yeah, So you talked about smoke. How much smoke is there in
the league on today for a daylight today and tomorrow and beyond. I think
the smoke was mostly the week leading up to today. I mean, you
hear stuff kind of at the last minute, but you know, you see
teams planting stuff. I think that they're teams hoping that certain players will fall
that might put out some negative opinions of that guy, to see if there
could be some public opinion there. But I get back to this, and
you know, as somebody who's written five mock drafts in the last twelve weeks,
I hate to admit it, but really there are very few people in
the world who know exactly what's going to happen, and everybody else is guessing,
and the idea of guessing has become its own cottage industry. And that's
fun. And I think NFL fans have fun with this in a way that
they don't have fun with any other event, right, So I really do
like it. But I think that the idea of people rising or falling,
I think it's kind of a myth. I think if I were a GM,
at least, let's see what you did on tape, you know,
And I don't know what you can do short of what Jalen Carter did to
move your stock up or down too far. You know. One of the
things that you hear is that this is this is a draft that is kind
of almost unprecedented in terms of the mystery after the first pick, that everybody
knows the first pick, that after that nobody has any idea, and it's
you know, usually you can say the first four or five, maybe even
more. This year's you got one, and then that's all nobody knows.
What the hell is going to happen after that, you know, and part
of the two, and that's a nice way of saying it's not a very
good draft. You know, I think will Anderson has the chancel. I
think Willi Anderson is the safest. If you wanted to sit there and say
who's going to make a Pro Bowl? I think Willie Anderson is probably the
safest pick there. You know, I think that Bryce Young is absolutely the
right pick at number one. But man, let's see, you know,
how his body can handle the NFL. I don't think anybody can stay with
any sense of authority, then they'll be able to make it through the riggers
of the league. And beyond that, I mean there's a you know,
any one of eight guys could go third, and I wouldn't be surprised at
all. Haven't been through a couple of these things with the drafted and back
in the day. Are these fun? I know they're hectic because you don't
know what to expect. You can't really pre write your story, you know,
get filling some stuff. But it's kind of crazy, isn't it.
Yeah, you can try to pre write a little bit, Steve trust me.
Um, Yeah, it's fun. Here's what's fun about it? In
Chicago this year, Bears fans, some Bears fans at least started rooting against
their own team, and probably second week of October last year, because there
were some sense that if they were as bad as they could be, they
might end up with the number one pick, and that was something that got
people through the year. I hadn't really experienced that in the NFL before.
I think that that's something that we often associate with the NBA, you know,
is there's an entire year where the fan base wants their team to lose.
But that happened here, and you know, we watched a lot of
horrible football off and so I think the Bears fans have been waiting for this
for like nine months and you know, just to have a name in a
face to put your hopes onto tonight, that is really really fun. And
it's fun to watch these guys get generational wealth. It's fun to watch fans
build up every draft pick into a surefire Hall of Famer when we all know
that that doesn't really happen. Um, the hype in all of that for
the middle of April. It's a lot of fun. So here happens after
the season, during the season. Okay, so who's who's more nervous tonight?
The guys that are getting drafted or the guy's doing the drafting, you
know, the GMS and whatnot. Who's you know, if if it all
goes wrong, if they you know, put a you know, pick a
guy number one and he sucks and they're bad for years because of it.
You know who's more nervous tonight? Oh? Man? I mean the general
manager has got to be one of them, you know. The general manager
here, Ryan Polton has talked openly about kind of the pressure and the stress
that that comes with the job. You know, he speaks to a sports
psychologist once a month or every other week something like that. He actually has
somebody he talks to to help deal with that. I think it's I think
the fastest way to get yourself fired is to draft a famous slop, and
that is what we are talking about. That's what we're looking at with Ja
and Carter here. You know, he's probably the most talented player in the
draft. You know, he might be a steal for someone, but if
he's not, he's also the fastest way to gets fired. You know,
It's one thing to draft a flop or a bust. It's another to draft
somebody who is who would be famous for it. I think Jayleen Carter,
given the circumstances of this offseason, would be famous for flopping and it'd be
really hard to shake that as your GM. Well, yeah, no,
I can see that. I mean, you know, you take a guy,
he's got the baggage, he's got the history. He said, Okay,
we're going to take a chance on him, and then he lets you
down. I can see how that would be. Just man, how do
you know, how do you deal with that? I mean, the interesting
thing about the NFL is that gms typically get you know, four or five
years minimum. You know, let's you know, look at the hy in
Arizona. He lasted probably twice as long as I would have expected him too.
So you'll get a chance, but it's really hard to undo a mistake.
And you know, I think you even see that with free agency now,
is that GM are wary of throwing a whole lot of money at people
in free agency then aren't at the very top of their class, because you
know, the best way to doom your team is to make a big,
big mistake like that. So over the last few hours has been some buzz
that the Cardinals are going to try and move down from three. Are are
you hearing anything like that? I had heard that earlier this week. I
mean, to me, it makes sense. If you don't want a quarterback,
see what you can get for It's it's too bad that I think financials
have you know what Kyler Murray is thought has probably locked them into Kyler Murray.
Whether he's better than whoever they could pick here or not, but yeah,
see what you can get moved back. I know the Bears are happy
with what they got, and if the Cardinals can get in on that,
maybe move back five, six, seven spots and get a future one for
their troubles. I think that would accelerate the rebuild here. Pretty good?
Test you real quick. This is like a commenting on your neighbor's lawn and
the weeds that they have. But if you feel if you feel like it,
how can you comment on the Cardinals quarterback Murray? You just mentioned him.
Is he any good? I don't think he is. I think I
may have. I think I may have told you a year or two ago.
I don't see it. I just don't think. I don't see it.
I think here's here's my football analysts take on it, which I'm going
to try and make this sound super serious, so bear with me. I
think you need to build an offense around him to make him work. And
I think it's just so complicated when your entire scheme has to be based around
a quarterback who, because of his size limitations, just can't do some stuff.
And you're going to run into that too with uh with the first round
or with the first overall pick tonight. With it with Bryce Young? Is
good luck putting putting him on her center if you can't see over his blind
you know, good luck trying to a type formation when his skill set is
being able to run around. You have to customize everything for Kyler Murray and
I think that's just really hard to do the NFL. And then there's the
you know, the idea, mean, he's very fragile, and you know
that's what people, you know, obviously saying about Bryce Young Lamar Jackson,
who's bigger than both of those guys and he can't stay healthy. I mean,
it's a you know, it's a tough go, but yeah, I
think it. I know that there were a lot of people who weren't surprised
that Kyler Murray got the money he got last year, But then there are
a lot of people who were like, that's too much, you know,
too much of a commitment to a guy that you know he can break any
minute. Yeah, and you know, that's what the NFL is becoming now,
and the Bears are gonna have this problem next offseason when Justin Field is
eligible for the contract extension. He's good to Bears, be happy to pay
him. If he's bad, you got a decision to make. And just
the price to play ball, even in the middle class the quarterbacks now is
a ton of just an absolute ton of money. Look what Lamar got today.
Yeah, I think Lamar's really good. I think I mean, Lamar's
is the unanimous MPP. I don't mind him getting that money, but kind
of that next year really scares me. I mean, what do you pay
to next year? I mean, what do you pay Trevor Lawrence? What
do you pay fields? If you're good, that's that's that's that's a big
risk. And you know, I think Murray is one of those examples,
as was Carson went of you throw a lot of money at a at a
quarterback who's a bee, hoping that he turns into an a and he just
never does. What A last question before we go. You've been covering the
team for a while now you can tell me him in the years, But
are the Bears gonna be of ten years? Are there gonna be any good
while you cover them? Um? Maybe in year twelve or something like that.
I have covered the Bears. The Bears have played in two playoffs games
since I got here, and they've lost both of them. I believe the
Pars Bears won three playoff games in thirty years something like that. So um,
yeah, maybe history is not time. I think they're at least another
year into the into the rebuilt year, and um, you know, maybe
when they have those two two first round picks next year, maybe then they
can use that as a springboard to be competitive. I think when you look
at the NFC North now, even without Aaron Rodgers, it's really easy to
look at the bars and see that they're going to be number four. Wow.
Okay, Well, good luck Patrick, guys, always Pad, we
appreciate it, Man, always fun to talk to you. Bet will be
well, thank you, Jean, But but we'll do yeah, we'll get
playing for you just so okay, all right, let's take our break.
Um coming up, we'll take your calls five to two zero four and six
seventy four forty Maybe go back to the conversation about you know, when is
the is the season of failure or is it just a disappointment? And then
we're going to breaking news. And then we're gonna have Justin Spears, our
old friend, Uh, young friend, are you young friend? Right?
He's he's at the NBA NFL Draft in Kansas City, and so we'll talk
to him about Bejean Robinsons. I'll stick around for all that. If you're
an Arizona Man's basketball fan, you know it's been successful for newly forty years.
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four H two nine zero Again Rescue Home Improvements in HVAC. Called it Hey
streaming live on the iHeart Radio lap This is I on the Ball with Steve
Ribera and Jay Gonzalez on Fox Sports fourteenth fiftyy. Hey, welcome back to
I on the ball here, Fox Sports fourteen fifty On Steve, he's Jay,
we have a call. You're on the air. Hey guys, what
that be? Hey? Beck, how's it going good? Really good?
What's on your mind? I just wanted to kind of expand on on the
Yannis thing. And Uh, first of all, let me tell you,
Jay, You're never coaching my kids ever with your participation, that sophy attitude.
I wouldn't let you. I wouldn't let you near them with that ball
team. You got me wrong, and I'll go ahead, go ahead with
your I just want to say the first thing is that, uh, disappointment
and failure are intertwined. Okay, they're they're they're almost the same exact thing.
And I can guarantee you Jannis went home even after he kind of bit
off the reporter's head, and he doesn't feel like a disappointment. It's a
failure. He's not gonna stay it on national team. He just like the
reporter was probably kind of dumb to ask it because everybody knew the answer.
But it's intertwined. I remember a game and you're a baseball guy, j
my kid went four for four with three doubles against their arch rival, and
we lost the game. And she came home and tears. Adn't care that
her performance was was great and and it was a success. It was a
failure by her team. And you know her team. But your your your
apartment one or the other. You're agreeing, you're agreeing with what we said
though a game like that, yes, you can be a failure because you
lost. But did the whole season become a failure because of that one loss.
That's the point that we're trying to trying to make. And for the
records, I mean, I'll tell you you don't you really think that because
Zoo got all American and they whipped cows, but by twenty that the succeedson
was a success. If you asked Tommy going home, he might not say
it to you or out loud, but I can guarantee you he thought losing
the Princeton the whole season was a failure. M I'm not sure. I'm
not sure I agree that he would that he would say that. I'm not
I'm not sure that he would agree that the dollar I'm not sure that he
would agree that the whole season was a failure because of the way it ends.
You have successes by whooping cow by forty points, Well, you have
success by winning a PAC twelve tournament championship. Your season was a good season?
Was the total was a season of total success? Absolutely not. But
I don't think you're gonna call he's gonna call his season of failure. I'm
pretty sure. Well, I was pretty damned disappointing. It was absolutely Victor,
aren't you a Dodger fan. I love this Dodger on Dodger crime.
I love this Dodgers Nudger crime. And it's been a lot of disappointments and
failures the last few years. Just stick your terminology, your terminology. We
have thirty three years of disappose of failure from the Dodgerent guys know all.
You guys know all about it. You know what, say, you opened
the door for Steve to pile on us. That's what happened there. That's
what happened right there. And he's and he is happy to do very much.
So thanks. It's some antics, it is it is, And some
people say a disappointment is a fair I just liked the way it kind of
separated the two. I really do like the way there was a problem with
the question because he's that he'd asked that the year before, right, so
that he had set himself up for it. You know, if you could
have changed it a little may Yeah. Now, a piece of where I
disagreed with for Yanni said was, you know, as as a sports writer,
you're not trying to win every day. Yes, Or you're trying to
write a good story every day, yes, but you know you're not trying
to you're not competing to to you know, you're not winning a game,
you know, every single day. So I thought that that was that part
of it was a little tough. But I you know, I liked what
he I liked what he said. I disagree with Vick. I don't think
that Tommy thought his season was a failure. Did it end in disappointment?
And you know, was you know the disappointing. I think there's a lot
of it that was. But I don't think he thinks the season with the
fan. But if you ask the fans one hundred fans in the room,
ninety ninety of them are gonna say was a failure. Failure, right right,
Only smart guys like you and me are gonna say, ye, disappointment
was unfortunate, whatever it is, what is I've been through thirties five of
them, seeing them all. You only win once, only one once?
Yeah, So yeah, you know I mean that, you know, the
game against Santa Clair nineteen ninety two, that was a total failure on that
night. But they were you know, they were seventeen and one in the
league, and they were a number number two seed in the in the tournament.
So does the season feel like a failure? It sure does, but
I don't think it really the total thing is a failure. There were some
you know, they won a championship and a number of other things. So
again that gets to a point of difference of opinion in terms of you know,
what's a blue blood what isn't you know, the all the all the
arguments that we have Steeves. I just really liked the way Jannis put it,
and in a tough spot, you know, he could have just thrown
the finger at the gang, got up and walked out right right. He
answered the question I didn't see as you guess Shock talked about it. Do
you guys hear that. I didn't. I didn't see what he said,
what he talked about it. I think Richard talked about it too, Richard.
Richard Jefferson, I'm talking about it, Richard. One night after losing
too. I think he was Oregon State, maybe at Moregan and things,
Organ State. Uh. Quirky and I were on the road and Quirky asked
him one of those type of questions and Richard went off on him, and
I'm thinking, Richard, come on, you know, come on, you're
better than this. Yeah, but you know what, You've just lost a
game, a game and there's a there's no really cool enough period because you're
pissed. Yeah, and that's this. That's I mean, you know they
they've got to do it, but it's hard. I remember Gang got up
and walked out right. He answered the question. I didn't see, as
you guess, shock talked about it. Do you guys hear that. I
didn't. I didn't see what he said, what he talked about it.
I think Richard talked about it too, Richard. Richard Jefferson, I'm talking
about it, Richard. One night after losing too. I think he was
Oregon State, maybe at Moregan and Things, Organ state. Uh. Quirky
and I were on the road and Quirky has him one of those type of
questions and Richard went off on him, and I'm thinking, Richard, come
on, you know, come on, You're better than this. Yeah,
but you know what, You've just lost a game, a game, and
there's a there's no really cool enough period because you're pissed. Yeah, and
that's this, that's I mean, you know they they've got to do it,
but it's marked. I remember another guy who we talked to kind of
often, rich Rod, who hates who hates Losy. He lost to b
Yu and I mean, have you never listened to him? Talk to him.
I'm not talk to him, but you know, listen to his press
conferences and stuff like that. So that was really cool. I have another
caller, Hi are on the air and I on the ball. Hey Jay,
this is done. How are you doing, Steve good Good? Are
you gonna let Joe? Are you gonna let your kids? You know what,
if you play to win and if all the kids get to play,
but you get to play to win, and by that I mean you know,
against the lesser team, you let some of the lower kids come up
and play, some and get some experience, but you don't let the game
get away. You put the starters back in and make sure that you win
the game. Hey, can't let him my team. There you go,
all right, So it's on your mind. I'd like to I'd like to
ask ask Rick a question is how does he feel about being an Arizona fan
and they've only ever had one successful season? Right? Well, let me,
I know that victories have sting, and that wasn't even the best team
they've ever had. So no, I agree, I totally agree. A
good question because that's are all those other seasons failures and I just don't know
that they are, right. I know he's a softball guy. So that's
a good question for the softball team because if they've won eight they had this
great run. Now they haven't been back or done well in years. Yeah,
and then it's so it's so hard because Arizona was so dominant in those
years and now and now the talent is there's so much more talent and it's
more spread out. Yeah, let me ask you, don right, You're
you're a realistic guy. I know you are because you call it and you
sound realistic. Tell me the temperature of the Arizona fans because you kind of
agree with me that it's been it's old, dudes, it's history, but
they still want to live with it. So tell me what's the gauge of
a typical Arizona fan, football, basketball, whatever? I think. I
think football fans are hopeful. I think we've always been hopeful as far as
football goes, because we haven't had sustained success. We've had success here and
there, and so I think football wise, we're a hopeful bunch. Basketball
wise, I think we're a little bit entitled. I think most Arizona fans
um, I mean, how far do they got to get into the tournament
where it's not a disappointment to lose? Right? But you know, you
know if they if they lose in the regional final, is that worse than
losing in the sweet sixteen? Kind of yeah? Yeah. You know.
It's funny because when Steve asked you that question, I'm sitting here saying to
myself, I hope he uses the word in title talking about the years on
a basketball fence, because that's what they are. And you tell them that,
they'll they'll deny that. Oh yeah, I mean. The thing is
is is and then the game is so much different now than what it used
to be. You could develop players, and you could develop teams, and
nowadays it's so it's such a quick turnover that if you're not on top of
all the recruiting and everything else, and you know, don't know these guys
like, I'm not gonna go I'm fifty seven years old. I'm not going
to watch kids that are forty five years younger than me play baseball or basketball
to see what they're gonna do when they come to Arizona. I'm not doing
that. It's too much, too much homework for me, exactly. And
you have better use of your time exactly that too, I mean, and
any of that stuff. So now it's like, well let's see what they
do. Yeah. Um My my younger son as a six month old baby
girl, she loves watching Arizona basketball and the TV. Yeah, And so
he sends he sends us in a group chat. He sends us a picture
of her laying on the floor watch and you can see the game in the
background. And my older son, he calls, she watches more basketball than
I do. And they care about the same exactly. All right, don
Hey, we appreciate the call. As always, we got to go top
of the hour, so but thank you for the call, as all the
guys. I'm not disappointed and you done. Thank you so that you know
again, Uh, he's he's the exact words that I would have used if
you said, give me one word to describe a football fan is and a
basketball fan. I said, hopeful for football and entitled for basketball, and
he's those and those are the that you said that I said that on Facebook
people. Yeah, no, and then they are I mean, they're incredibly
entitled and that's uh, you know, but that's who that's who they are.
So and I use days in as in not us. Well, you're
a fan and your guys, your group you hang out with, right right,
Okay, Um, top of the hour. We've got breaking news coming
up with Nate and I think citizen here helping them with that. And then
we're gonna have Justin Spears from the NFL Draft in Kansas City where he's been
working and hanging out with Bejean Robinson as Bejon gets prepared to possibly go in
the first round. So let's stick around. We'll be right back