Speaker 1: You're listening to Later with Moe Kelly on demand from
Speaker 1: KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 2: Let's go beyond the box Score with Jackie Ray. We're
Speaker 2: live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app. Good evening, Jackie Ray,
Speaker 2: It's always good to see you on the Saint Patrick's Day.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, where's my green? Look? I got called anybody that.
Speaker 2: I got a little bit of green on. I got
Speaker 2: some army green Dockers. But you know, my last name's
Speaker 2: O Kelly. How dona green? I'll get my fit free
Speaker 2: drink later on tonight at the Problem.
Speaker 3: I love it. I love it. Speaking of green, how
Speaker 3: about that for a seguy.
Speaker 2: The Philadelphia Eagles are officially committed to visiting the White
Speaker 2: House on April twenty eighth, and this is per Caroline Levitt,
Speaker 2: the White House Press Press Secretary.
Speaker 3: Listen to this. I have two more quick notes before
Speaker 3: I wrap up.
Speaker 4: April twenty eighth, I can confirm that the Philadelphia Eagles
Speaker 4: will be here at the White House to celebrate their
Speaker 4: Super Bowl victory. I know there was a lot of
Speaker 4: fake news about an invitation that wasn't sent or was sent.
Speaker 4: We want to correct the record. We sent an invitation.
Speaker 4: They enthusiastically accepted, and you will see them here on
Speaker 4: April twenty eighth.
Speaker 3: Caroline Levett was very enthusiastic. She said that the Eagles
Speaker 3: were very enthusiastic.
Speaker 2: They enthusiastically accepted the invitation to come to the White
Speaker 2: House on April twenty eighth. We all know that in
Speaker 2: twenty eighteen, the Eagles, last time they were Super Bowl champions,
Speaker 2: did not accept an invitation to the White House and
Speaker 2: decline to attend.
Speaker 3: Should we make anything of this either way? Uh, that
Speaker 3: is a.
Speaker 5: Great question, because I've been thinking about this a lot.
Speaker 5: I was drastically disappointed to find out the Eagles were
Speaker 5: actually going to go to the White House because despite
Speaker 5: what she said, we know that the Eagles originally did
Speaker 5: say that as a team they had decided not to go,
Speaker 5: and I their reasoning for not going made since individuals
Speaker 5: on that team they know that in general there is
Speaker 5: an attack on them, not maybe specifically, but they're part
Speaker 5: of communities that the White House has long tax on,
Speaker 5: so it made sense that they would say no. So
Speaker 5: there's no part of me that believes that in any
Speaker 5: way them declining the offer, because we saw them decline
Speaker 5: the offer that that wasn't a legitimate thing. I think
Speaker 5: what I'm concerned about now, though, is what's the turning point?
Speaker 5: Because we've seen this unfortunately a lot as far as
Speaker 5: this administration. People realize that the things that are coming
Speaker 5: out of the White House are very anti whatever, anti black,
Speaker 5: anti women, anti LGBTQ plus whatever. So they're taking stances
Speaker 5: against that. So now my concern is what power is
Speaker 5: he wielding that is making an entire organization change their mind.
Speaker 5: That's number one and number two. Are there going to
Speaker 5: be individuals who say I'm not going, Because in my mind,
Speaker 5: Jalen and Saquan should absolutely not go because they're the
Speaker 5: faces of the team and who they individually stand for.
Speaker 5: I don't think that they should go. But then if
Speaker 5: they don't go, what does that mean for the team?
Speaker 5: I think everything is just in a very weird limbo spot.
Speaker 3: For me, let's not get ahead of ourselves. And you
Speaker 3: touched upon it.
Speaker 2: Just because the organization said that it has accepted the
Speaker 2: invitation to the White House, it does not mean that
Speaker 2: all the members of the team have accepted that invitation
Speaker 2: and will show up. And also, as I said earlier,
Speaker 2: it's April twenty eighth, the whole world is going to
Speaker 2: change between now and then, and the Philadelphia Eagles individually
Speaker 2: as players and collectively as an organization, did not forget
Speaker 2: that President Trump talked a lot of trash about the
Speaker 2: Eagles and supported the Kansas City Chiefs because of their
Speaker 2: MAGA associations having nothing to do with football.
Speaker 3: So I know that's still going to be an issue.
Speaker 2: We know that Jalen Hurts, to your point, was asked
Speaker 2: about the President during Super Bowl Week and he brushed
Speaker 2: it aside in a very clear way that he was
Speaker 2: not a fan. What this looks like in April is
Speaker 2: going to look very different from now. We're going to
Speaker 2: have other controversies. The President's going to make other statements.
Speaker 2: We might be in the middle of an economic catastrophe.
Speaker 2: We might be in the middle of a war in
Speaker 2: the Middle East, you know, because of things which have
Speaker 2: happened recently. We don't know what it's going to be.
Speaker 2: But this is my takeaway. According to our last conversation,
Speaker 2: I'm more of the opinion we need to be done
Speaker 2: with this tradition.
Speaker 3: It should not be a part of a White House briefing.
Speaker 2: Because clearly it's in all of our consciousness about whether
Speaker 2: the team is going to go or not, and you're
Speaker 2: putting these players in an impossible position.
Speaker 3: Don't tell me everyone's going to agree with it. We
Speaker 3: need to dead this all together.
Speaker 5: And I think the president that has made it his
Speaker 5: mission to say we should keep politics out of sports
Speaker 5: should be.
Speaker 3: The one to dead this.
Speaker 5: He should be the one who says, which now I'm
Speaker 5: being facetious here if you guys can't pick up on
Speaker 5: my sarcast, but he should be the one who says,
Speaker 5: I'm going to practice what I preach. If I don't
Speaker 5: want athletes involved in politics, I'm going to stop making
Speaker 5: this a thing where now people have to choose between
Speaker 5: their morals, their ethics, their ideology, and if they're going
Speaker 5: to stand with their team.
Speaker 3: We are done with this tradition.
Speaker 5: Congratulations for Philadelphia Eagles on your Super Bowl win.
Speaker 3: Go with God. You know, I think that's it.
Speaker 2: That's the easiest way to acknowledge them, to celebrate them
Speaker 2: across the sports. You know, we're going to talk about
Speaker 2: March Madness in the next segment. It doesn't have to
Speaker 2: be just the NFL, could be the NBA, it could
Speaker 2: be MLB, all the sports you have the President acknowledge
Speaker 2: that team and say, congratulations, wonderful season, you are champions,
Speaker 2: You're representing America in a great way on the world stage.
Speaker 3: YadA YadA, yadah blah blah blah, thank you, good night. Yeah,
Speaker 3: you're very very good. You're very good. He could say
Speaker 3: anything he wanted to say.
Speaker 5: But now here's the reason why I think this president specifically.
Speaker 5: Other presidents could have done the same thing, but it
Speaker 5: has been a more Typically when teams have gone to
Speaker 5: the White House, it's been funds. We get a lot
Speaker 5: of one liners from it. It's just this fun anecdotal thing.
Speaker 5: But that's at the time we live in right now.
Speaker 5: We live in a time where hate crimes are up.
Speaker 5: We live in a time where older people are having
Speaker 5: a hard time getting medication, specifically because of this administration,
Speaker 5: they have wiped out history from black Mexican and women
Speaker 5: at the Arlington Cemetery. So we live in a very
Speaker 5: trying time where you're mere association with somebody or standing
Speaker 5: next to somebody all of a sudden puts you in
Speaker 5: their saying stratosphere.
Speaker 3: Whether you believe as or perceived as an endorsement.
Speaker 5: It's perceived as an endorsement, So I would be vastly disappointed.
Speaker 5: Like I said, if there's certain specific players on the
Speaker 5: team that go, in my opinion, the only person that
Speaker 5: should be there is the owner in the GM because
Speaker 5: I would feel like their ideologies might align with that.
Speaker 5: Everybody else should just stay home and watch it on
Speaker 5: television my personal opinion. But I can't be the only
Speaker 5: one that's like that. There's people out there who are
Speaker 5: going to see certain people standing next to Trump and
Speaker 5: they're going to assume that this wave of destruction that
Speaker 5: we're seeing across our country they a co sign on
Speaker 5: that they agree with that and they support it. And
Speaker 5: that's not a fair assumption, but it is an assumption
Speaker 5: that's going to be made.
Speaker 2: Let me put it in real terms, this is exactly
Speaker 2: what is going to happen. Jalen Hurts, the quarterback for
Speaker 2: the Philadelphia Eagles, is going to be asked, point blank,
Speaker 2: are you going to the White House? Do you support
Speaker 2: the president when he's doing X, Y and Z. And
Speaker 2: then he is in the impossible position of having to
Speaker 2: make a political assessment and give a political answer having
Speaker 2: nothing to do with sports, having nothing to do with
Speaker 2: anything he's done.
Speaker 3: It's now been placed in his lap.
Speaker 2: And if he says anything other than I am happy
Speaker 2: to do this, I have no problem to do this
Speaker 2: and not acknowledge the actual question which is going to
Speaker 2: be asked of him. He's then going to be put
Speaker 2: in some sort of box that he endorses everything that
Speaker 2: Donald Trump has said and done, and it's unfair to him.
Speaker 2: And we say keep politics out of sports, but that
Speaker 2: is what's going to happen, and it's unfair to the players.
Speaker 5: And let's just I know, we talk about gambling a lot.
Speaker 5: Let's make a bet. Because what I would assume, how
Speaker 5: I would assume Jalen is going to answer that question,
Speaker 5: is I am not going to support this president. I'm
Speaker 5: going as a member of this team and to support
Speaker 5: my teammates. That's not going to fly to your point, no,
Speaker 5: because it's not going to be this blanket statement that
Speaker 5: might have worked in the past, because now there is
Speaker 5: a very specific overtone undertone, whatever you want to call it,
Speaker 5: in this country, and as a black man, you cannot
Speaker 5: deny the racist undertones. You have to say to me,
Speaker 5: you have to look a black journalist in the face
Speaker 5: and say, I, as a black man, am okay? Shaking
Speaker 5: the hand of this man who has been very open
Speaker 5: that he doesn't even like diversity in the country.
Speaker 2: Well, not only that, has made it very clear that
Speaker 2: he doesn't even like the Philadelphia Eagles, and drag Hurts
Speaker 2: has made it clear that he's not a fan of
Speaker 2: the president. So let's stop playing games here. We got
Speaker 2: to go to a break here. But on the other side,
Speaker 2: it's kind of a continuation of this conversation because it's
Speaker 2: now March Madness. The brackets are out, my team's not
Speaker 2: in it, but I know that the old country is
Speaker 2: going to be wasting time at work watching it. So
Speaker 2: let's talk some March Madness when we come back. It's
Speaker 2: Jackie Ray with me Beyond the box Score Later with
Speaker 2: Mo Kelly CAFI AM six forty live everywhere in the
Speaker 2: iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1: You're listening to Later with Moe Kelly on demand from
Speaker 1: KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 2: It's March Madness. Let's continue to go beyond the box
Speaker 2: Score with Jackie Ray. Jackie Ray, I used to love
Speaker 2: March Madness, and my reasons for not loving it now
Speaker 2: are selfish because my team, my alma mater, Georgetown Hoyas,
Speaker 2: have been horrible for about a decade. They've sniffed the
Speaker 2: tournament once in the past ten years, so I don't
Speaker 2: have any reason to watch. I'm not invested.
Speaker 3: Are you serious right now? Oh? Here you go. Here's
Speaker 3: some history.
Speaker 2: The last time we made the tournament, we lost to
Speaker 2: Colorado in the first round. I know you remember that, yep.
Speaker 2: But all around the country people are filling out their brackets.
Speaker 2: It's easier now to watch the tournament than ever before.
Speaker 2: It's on like six different channels, and because of streaming,
Speaker 2: you're not gonna miss really any of the games. People
Speaker 2: are gonna be watching work or they're gonna call in sick.
Speaker 2: How would you describe the importance to March madness to
Speaker 2: our culture in general?
Speaker 5: March madness is one of my favorite things in the world,
Speaker 5: because this is where you really to your point. I
Speaker 5: can remember being in school, on a job, whatever, and
Speaker 5: I would have either classmates or fellow colleagues that I
Speaker 5: wasn't really close to, but then March Madness rolls around
Speaker 5: and we're all talking brackets. We got a boss one time,
Speaker 5: two jobs ago, I had a boss that was like, Hey,
Speaker 5: are we all getting sick this day? So we can
Speaker 5: go to the local bar and watch games all day.
Speaker 3: Fantastic.
Speaker 5: It's one of those things that we all want to
Speaker 5: be the one person, which is I think the statistics
Speaker 5: are like point zero zero point one, you.
Speaker 3: Have a better chance to hitt into the lottery.
Speaker 5: But go ahead, yeah, yeah, I'm getting your home. Most
Speaker 5: people's brackets are going to blow up on the first day,
Speaker 5: but it's just a fun thing to really sit down,
Speaker 5: go through your brackets, talk shop. You can kind of
Speaker 5: tell who knows a little bit about has been following
Speaker 5: certain teams or certain players versus the people who are
Speaker 5: just doing that crash course trying to get the brackets done.
Speaker 5: It really is a great way, in my opinion, I
Speaker 5: feel the same way about fantasy football, when you guys
Speaker 5: can get together and it just brings people together who
Speaker 5: normally wouldn't hang out together. So I do like the
Speaker 5: unifying spirit of it. I've never won it, I've never
Speaker 5: even gotten close to. My bracket always is blown up
Speaker 5: the first day.
Speaker 3: Same with mine.
Speaker 2: I've never been adept at choosing brackets, and my team
Speaker 2: usually never goes far in the tournament. And also when
Speaker 2: my team is out of the tournament, I usually tune
Speaker 2: out because I'm not rooting for Duke. I'm not, For example,
Speaker 2: I'm not rooting for some other team from the Big
Speaker 2: East Conference where Georgetown plays in the case of this case,
Speaker 2: would be Saint John's. It's the number two seed, it's
Speaker 2: a great turnaround story for the university. And also Rick
Speaker 2: Patino can't root for them, so yeah, don't care. There's
Speaker 2: nothing in it for me. But I'm so invested personally
Speaker 2: in college basketball it's hard for me whenever my team
Speaker 2: is out, I can't even watch ESPN.
Speaker 3: It's a painful reminder.
Speaker 2: But that's how serious it is for a lot of people,
Speaker 2: and I don't know if we for me. Here's the question,
Speaker 2: is there anything more exciting than an NC two way
Speaker 2: final four?
Speaker 5: I don't know, absolutely not, especially if there's an underdog
Speaker 5: in there that kind of flew under everyone's radar.
Speaker 3: What was it like five six years ago.
Speaker 5: Villanova was the underdog and that just had everyone glued
Speaker 5: to the television.
Speaker 3: Who are these people?
Speaker 5: You know, those kinds of storylines that help you fall
Speaker 5: in love with the kids? Now, I do feel like
Speaker 5: the men's game specifically, and I know I've said this before,
Speaker 5: they need that, they need that underdog to try to
Speaker 5: push that storyline because a lot of the kids, we're
Speaker 5: not gonna know who they are next year.
Speaker 3: We're gonna have a whole different lineup next year. Yeah
Speaker 3: they're going to the pros or transit, Yeah they're going
Speaker 3: to the Pro.
Speaker 5: So we don't really have the opportunity in the men's
Speaker 5: game to build those relationship and build those fandoms. So
Speaker 5: the NCAA men's game really does, in my opinion, rely
Speaker 5: on those underdogs to kind of carry the story. So
Speaker 5: if we don't have one of those great storylines, I
Speaker 5: don't even know how interested I'm going to be in
Speaker 5: the men's game just in general versus the women's game.
Speaker 5: You know these players, these women, they have been with
Speaker 5: their teams. A lot of these players have been two
Speaker 5: three years, some of them even played four years. So
Speaker 5: you have the opportunity to just really become a fan
Speaker 5: of that player in that school. So it's an easier
Speaker 5: storyline to carry. But either way, I absolutely love it.
Speaker 2: Question was USC women's team disrespected by getting a number
Speaker 2: one seed but the lowest number one seed? In other words,
Speaker 2: the most difficult path to the Final four, largely on
Speaker 2: the strength of losing to Ucla, who they already beaten
Speaker 2: twice in the Big Ten Championships. Was USC disrespected by
Speaker 2: their placement?
Speaker 3: I think so.
Speaker 5: I don't think you really can say, oh, they've lost
Speaker 5: to UCLA when they beat them. But I've also have
Speaker 5: been one to say for my entire life, this whole
Speaker 5: decision by committee thing is just weird to me. There's
Speaker 5: a lot of things that don't necessarily make sense. People
Speaker 5: will say, oh, well, they lost the last three or four,
Speaker 5: so that's why whatever. None of this is actually logical.
Speaker 5: It is based largely on feelings. However, even though I
Speaker 5: think they were disrespected and their path is going to
Speaker 5: be harder, I think they're going to come out stellar,
Speaker 5: and so this specific path is going to solidify that, Yes,
Speaker 5: this is the team that we think they are.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they weren't ready last season to take that next step.
Speaker 2: They're definitely ready. It's all laid out in front of them,
Speaker 2: and it probably would be even more satisfying yes, to.
Speaker 5: Say, hot, look you try to make this hard, and
Speaker 5: here we are. Last season we saw a glimpse of
Speaker 5: who they were who they are. Now we kind of
Speaker 5: know who they are. I think this is going to
Speaker 5: be a fun series to watch.
Speaker 2: I will be tuning in because I definitely won't be
Speaker 2: tuning in to the Mids because I am petty, I'm salty.
Speaker 5: Name your face favorite NCUBA men's basketball player right now.
Speaker 2: You know what I don't know about favorite. I'm curious
Speaker 2: to see if Duke's Cooper Flag is the real deal.
Speaker 2: If he is, because he's forecast to be the number
Speaker 2: one pick overall, I like his game, I don't know
Speaker 2: if he is as not necessarily as good as advertised,
Speaker 2: will have as an immediate impact as.
Speaker 5: Thought right, And that's that's one of the problems we
Speaker 5: see all the time in the nc DOUBLEA men's game.
Speaker 3: It doesn't It takes a couple of years.
Speaker 5: It does Leangelo in my LaMelo and you know, I
Speaker 5: get the LaMelo ball. Lamela he's the exception to that
Speaker 5: rule in my opinion. He translated seamlessly, but he was
Speaker 5: always also born with a basketball in his hand, so
Speaker 5: that's probably not a fair comparison. But it does take
Speaker 5: a year or two, probably two or three actually for
Speaker 5: them to catch up, but it's because they didn't spend
Speaker 5: enough time in school.
Speaker 3: Yeah, they're only eighteen, nineteen years old.
Speaker 2: You know that's what college would give you two three
Speaker 2: years of legitimate pre NBA experience as opposed to going
Speaker 2: from basically high school to NBA.
Speaker 3: You know, you're jumping two levels in one year, So
Speaker 3: that's what I'll.
Speaker 5: Be at, Alonzo, speaking of the Bob Brothers didn't work out, Alonzo,
Speaker 5: he definitely could have benefited from another year or two
Speaker 5: in college.
Speaker 2: Absolutely chasing that money. It's Later with Mo Kelly, Jackie Ray,
Speaker 2: I'll see you soon, See you soon.
Speaker 1: You're listening to Later with Mo Kelly on demand from
Speaker 1: KFI AM six forty