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Speaker 1: Hey, Maddie, Hi Ross, how you doing, Matthew, I've been better.

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Speaker 2: Technical difficulties at the station.

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Speaker 1: We're back on air, though, baby, all right Kevin or no? No?

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Do we want to call Kevin? Do we want to

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just do nothing?

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Speaker 2: Let's yeah, we'll try call him. Let's call Kevin or

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you want to try to break real quick? I mean,

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we just went on a very link like a wrong

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ass break. Let's let's stay here.

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Speaker 1: For a mene.

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Speaker 2: Technical difficulties up at the station. But we're all good now.

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And I sound a little bit different, but you know whatever,

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it's fine.

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Speaker 3: All right, I'm going to send Why don't you talk

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for thirty seconds while I sent Jonathan and Chris Kevin

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Harlan's number, So stay with me, you talk for a

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few seconds.

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Speaker 2: Okay, we're gonna talk. Yeah, we're supposed to have Kevin

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Harland here on the station here on Sports Talk seven ninety.

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But we had some technical difficulties. We had to get

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the engineers in here, all that type of stuff. So

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everything is gonna be all all right. Soon enough, we

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will get Kevin Harlan on here. That should be well,

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a real fun conversation coming up with him. We had

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Rockets head coach Emma Adoka on the show early. You

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can catch that on the Sports Talk seven ninety dot

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com podcast page. I think some of the will be

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posted up on our social media as well. Looking forward

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to talk to Kevin Harland. We've had some NCAA news.

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We've been talking about Rockets losing last night a heartbreaker

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in Portland as the tip in from Tarry Eason went in,

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but just with about I mean milliseconds, literal milliseconds after

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the buzzer. Back in the olden days as it was

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called a win, it would have been fine, but justice

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was served. Rockets didn't get the shot off in time,

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so they lost the game to the Portland Trailblazers.

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Speaker 1: As they stay in.

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Speaker 2: Portland and they'll be taking them on tomorrow at nine

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pm here on Sports Talk seven ninety with yours truly

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on the Rockets launch pad coming at at eight o'clock,

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and I'm guessing you're gonna hear from Rockets head coach

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Imyadoka there too.

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Speaker 3: Imagine that taking a nice conversation with the Rockets head

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coach and replaying it for the Rockets launchpande tomorrow.

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Speaker 1: I mean, people want to hear the programming. What do

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you mean.

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Speaker 3: I should have had that second cup of coffee this morning?

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Because now are you really wired?

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Speaker 1: How many him do I hear? Kevin Harlan?

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Speaker 3: Thank god? You know what Kevin does, these radio interviews

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all across the country. Nothing is more as fluid than

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right now, Kevin, it's Mack.

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Speaker 1: Can you hear me? Okay?

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Speaker 4: I can't. Yeah, let me assumed connection didn't work? Huh

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it didn't.

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Speaker 3: Well, no, I'm gonna peel the curtain back. All right,

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our borgeous fried seven minutes ago.

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Speaker 1: All right, when you do.

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Speaker 4: Oh, I'm so sorry.

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Speaker 3: When you were doing Football Sunday when I was a

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kid board hopping thirty five years ago, your board fried too.

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Speaker 1: So I don't want to. I don't want you to

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judge me at all.

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Speaker 4: Not gonna. I won't judge nothing worse than a fried board.

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I said that. I really mean, I really mean it.

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Speaker 1: Right now, give me give me credit. I listen.

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Speaker 3: When I was a young board operator twenty years old,

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football Sunday was on my radio on seven and KSV

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in Houston, Texas. So I remember, young Kevin Harlowe.

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Speaker 4: Those are wonderful memories. I always tell young broadcasters that

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sometimes if you dream and you're lucky enough in the

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business to achieve those dreams, you don't look around and say,

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is there more? You say, I'm so thankful for every

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step that got me to that position. And whether you're

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a board out when you're twenty, whether you're just trying

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to climb the ladder step by step from job to

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job and team to team and assignment to assignment, you

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you appreciate the journey. And I think anybody in the

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business would tell you that same thing, that the journey

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truly is such the reward, and you enjoyed being at

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the end of it and where your dreams, you know,

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all kind of come together. But it's it's approaching. It's

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approaching that which is really fun. And I've enjoyed the

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journey much like you. I'm sure I have. And it

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is an honor to have you on. I tell this

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to Jim when he's on with me, because we're fellow

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you of h guys. I mean I on a couple

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of times, you the three of you, can't retire. You

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just can't. I don't care if you reduce your schedule.

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Speaker 3: You've cut back in your Amazon Prime, which I'm not

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happy about But that is what it is. You just

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can't quit on me because I need you guys in

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my business. I need people to go. I wanted Kevin

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harn Ulman. I almost had one yesterday. Tari Eastan's tip

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in almost gave me a chance to be on Sports Center,

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except it was one tenth of a second too late,

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so I was.

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Speaker 1: I wasn't able to get the Nationals.

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Speaker 4: Too bad. Yeah, oh that's too bad. That's too bad.

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You would have enjoyed it in the call. I know

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would have been phenomenal.

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Speaker 1: Hey, what is your favorite?

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Speaker 4: There's more as good as good as that team.

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Speaker 1: Oh yeah, there's.

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Speaker 4: More in store. There's no doubt.

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Speaker 1: What's your favorite buzzer beater?

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Speaker 3: Whether it be football, you've called field goals, you've called

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buzzer beaters in your career.

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Speaker 1: Give me give me your top one or two if

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you can think of it.

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Speaker 4: Two. In Big Moments, Playoff Game Toronto, Game seven, Philadelphia

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Toronto Raptors fade away falling out of bounds, heavily defended

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Kawhi three in the corner for the Raptors to and

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the ball bounced about three or four times on the

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rim and went down and won the series, and the

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Raptors went on to win the championship, but Kawhi hit

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that shot in the final seconds to win the series,

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got into the finals and the rest is history. And

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then we had a game in the Eastern Conference Finals

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a couple of years ago in Miami, Boston Derek White

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beating at the buzzer the Heat to force I think

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it was a three nothing series lead by the Heat,

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and Boston came back and won the series. They won,

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they they they won four games to three, but that

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game six in Miami forced the game seven and White

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got through the inbound pass, drove to the basket, retrieved

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the pass, took it in and they didn't count it

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at first look back, and it was good. So those yeah,

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those are two kind of recent times. And you know

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you got, you got. I've always been told you call

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it as if it's good, because if they rule it

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no good, then it'll it'll just disappear. If it's really good,

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you say, oh, I don't know that he got it

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in time, then it lives in that world and you

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don't have the oomph on the call. You assume it's

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good until you're told otherwise. So you make the call

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if it's good in a game winner scoring in whatever sport,

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and I've kind of stuck with that motto.

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Speaker 1: It's good words, great advice.

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Speaker 3: The great Kevin Harlan with us here on the Matt

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Thomas Show with Ross here from Portland. Kevin, you've seen

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the Texans a few times this year, and everybody that

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calls a game, whether national or local, regional, brags about

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the defense. You have called the NFL football for thirty

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plus years. Size up this Texans defense. And again, you

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don't even necessarily play he to a Houston audience, but

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the facts are, especially at the ends, Daniel Hunter and

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Will Anderson have made life miserable for about seventeen or

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eighteen different quarterbacks this year, and.

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Speaker 4: They're about ready to make life miserable. I think for

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Rogers Monday night, I think he's going to be pinched

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all night long. And these kids are excited about the

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platform on a Monday night, standalone game, not in a

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busy weekend, but standalone game. The weather's not going to

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be like it is in Houston. They're not going to

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be indoors. It's going to have a frigid feel to it.

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But I think that when you get to this stage,

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and you've got the momentum that the Texans have right now.

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I don't think anything's going to stop them. I think

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Rogers is a historically special player, and I think getting

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DK metcalf is going to help them. And I think

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the third component is the Texans stopping the run game,

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which showed life against Baltimore in Week eighteen and that

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big win on Sunday night. Those two kids are special,

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Warren and Gainwell, and the quarterback has a very good

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He's playing exceptional football right now. Rogers is. So that's

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the matchup. Nothing against CJ and what that offense does,

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and not a shot at Watt and what he means

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to the Pittsburgh defense. But to me, the game centers

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around how effective can Rogers be? Is though momentum strong

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long enough, is the confidence great enough that they can

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contend with those two ends? That will just cause I

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think havoc all night long from the Texans defense. And

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of course we know about the glitter and the secondary

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and what they mean, how they can change a game.

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I love this game. I love it for many reasons.

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Being outdoors hall of Fame quarterback, rising young quarterback in CJ.

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This defense, which has just been a terrific It checks

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every box and what you want in an early playoff

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game like this one.

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Speaker 2: Ross with you here as well, Kevin Harland with us

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here on Sports Talk seven ninety and keeping with that matchup, Kevin,

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you mentioned CJ.

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Speaker 1: Stroud.

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Speaker 2: I'm just curious your perspective of somebody who's called a

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lot of his games and watched him, of course on

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fire in his rookie season. Since then has gone down

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and shown flashes of that franchise quarterback elite level play,

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but just not consistently enough.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, you know, hard to figure out whether it's uh,

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it's always a combination of a lot of things, right,

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It's probably he's he's reacting to.

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Speaker 1: Uh.

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Speaker 4: These defensive coordinators who have watched a lot of tape

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on him, have have a good feel for what he

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did as a rookie, and they counted it, you know,

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the last couple of years and and and maybe not

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the the eye opening numbers, but to me, uh, he

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is incredibly effective. Still best years are ahead of him.

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They've surround him with some talent wide receiver clearly and listen,

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I I we did. We did a game with him,

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uh uh often last year one in New England another

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places along the way. So I'm I'm a fan of

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his personally and and professionally. He has sat next to

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me at a rocket scheme uh and loves basketball and

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we talked during commercial breaks. So I've got a real

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affinity for him and he's he's become one of my

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favorite players. But but you know, listen, this is this

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is a big stage and a playoff game on the road.

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Imputs for that place will be bananas on Monday. But

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I think we're going to see the best version of him,

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and I I I'm still a huge fan. Upside is gigantic,

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and I'm I'm clearly on his side on that conversation.

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I listen, these these coordinators spend so much time, uh

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figuring out what's what they've got to deal with and

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and uh, the regression is probably not the right word,

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but just make maybe that the rocket was too heavy

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off that off that launch pad and and he had

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to you know, probably just feel you know what now

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is going to be a more complex, a more studied

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version of what he was going to face on Sundays.

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And but I like what he's done this year. Clearly

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they're winning they're in the playoffs, and I think I think,

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like I said, I think we're going to see his

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best version on Monday night.

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Speaker 2: Kevin Harlan with us here on a Sports Talk seven ninety.

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Have privilege to have you on the show, Kevin, and

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one of the great things about you is covering the

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NFL and doing college basketball, NBA, I mean, all these

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different sports. So I did want to switch gears to the

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NBA real quick because we were talking about this earlier

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in the show, and I'm just curious your perspective is

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somebody who's followed the league for a while, the state

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of the league, how do you feel right now? I

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feel like the talent level is very high. There obviously

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are some negatives, and one of the things we've been

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talking about is all the foul calls. Shay Gilgess Alexander

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has been someone who's coming to the limelight as far

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as foul hunting. And what was the word Victor Wmbinyama did.

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It was I can't remember the exact phrase, but just ball,

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like a reputable ball or whatever it was that he

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used about not using.

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Speaker 1: The foul hunting.

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Speaker 2: Your thought like the state of the NBA where it

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is right.

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Speaker 4: Now, you know, more so than the fouls, because that

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changes crew to crew, game to game, and and sequence

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the sequence. Uh. Like, just the other night, I did

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a game for Prime in San Francisco with the Warriors

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coming off a road trip day in between, and they

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arrested Curry and Butler and Green, and my first thought is,

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all right, we got a crummy game. Now it because

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they're playing Oklahoma City and they're completely healthy except for

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Hartenstein and and they're ready to go, and they're on it.

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They're on a path to trying to defend a title,

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so every game for them is huge, and they're taking

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on a Golden State team that with those three big ones,

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are going to be, you know, a formidable team. But

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they're going to come in and they're gonna play hard.

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And they won by thirty seven points. There are too

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many games in the league, and and and and quite

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frankly for the league to schedule on a national game

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with the age of that team Butler, Curry and Green,

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and to schedule him in the first game back against

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the world champs. Then they're already on the West Coast

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playing and I get it, you're dealing with arena schedules

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and the NHL and college ball in some cases, and concerts,

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and we all understand that there are too many games

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in this league. The players are different than they were

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twenty thirty, forty years ago. The speed of the game

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is not even close. The pace of the game is

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not even close. And you would think that with the

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insertion of the playing the NBA Cup thing, and you know,

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adding the play in a playoff tournament just to get

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into the playoffs at the end of the season, like that,

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the money and now that the Gigantic TV contracts they've signed,

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that the owners could look the quality of the game

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and say, you know, we've got too many games. And

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you can go back and look at what Elijah on

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and Jordan and Berkley and and and and Kareem and

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like all these guys they were playing seventy seven, seventy eight,

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but the game was a different game then, and and

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and but and the I'm just there are too many games.

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They can't practice, they can't get healthy, they can't catch

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their breath, and it's it's it's too much. But the

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owners will never relent on having those and losing seven

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eight nine home games. They just won't do it. So

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I don't know. I don't know what the answer is.

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But it's a shame that when you've got Hall of

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famers like Green and Curry and and a terrific player

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like Butler, and all three are out not only in

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a nationally televised game, but just what about the family

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that's taken the kid or their family to go watch,

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you know, maybe at Christmas time, Hey, we got four

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tickets to watch the Warriors and the Thunder they're defending

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NBA champions, and then those guys don't play. I mean,

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I mean, I'm sorry. It's just it's not good. It's

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not it's not healthy for the game. The players are exhausted,

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the soft tissue issues issues, uh uh, these injuries continue

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to compound. They they it's it's it's too much. And

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and every coach agrees. I just talked with Steve Kerr

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about this the other night, and and every coach agrees.

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So more than the fouls and more than we can

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that's that's going to be a constant conversation. Uh. But

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but the number of games is it's it's just it's

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it's it's it's hurting the product. And I and I

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I feel for fans in this case, because those tickets

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are expensive, and the park is expensive, and the food

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is expensive, and AND's a big deal, and we've got

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grandkids and when and and they went to a game

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at Oklahoma City the other night. A couple of those

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guys didn't play. They're heartbroken. I mean, that's that's what

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That's what drives the needle. That's what moves the needle.

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Is is is the these big name players, the Kevin

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Durance and I'm and on and if they don't play

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because they're taking rest or maybe that they're a little

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Nick Dupp and they can't go, you know, it's it's

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it's heartbreaking, it really is for these kids. And that's

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I think about the thing. You lose the fan, that

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the game's gonna suffer, and that becomes I think I

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think issue number one right now. We're playing too many

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games and maybe two compact to schedule, and it's it's

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got they've got to relend and that they've got to

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cut back.

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Speaker 3: One final question here for the legendary Kevin Harland with

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us here on the Matt Thomas Show with Ross and Kevin.

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I'll be honest with you. I tried to watch some

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of the game. It was one thirty one to ninety four,

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and it's big of a Kevin Harley Fanisama. I had

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to turn it off. I was like, good god. I mean,

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my wife's like, you call games, you don't need to

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watch blow outs, and I'm like, but it's Kevin because

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I don't care to turn it off. So sorry, this

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is Thomas Loves You've been Let's be.

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Speaker 4: Honest you guys. Matt you're too good. Hey, you're a

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good friend.

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Speaker 1: Hey.

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Speaker 3: Okay, so I don't know if you make predictions, but

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you're going to be calling another super Bowl. This will

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put you in with thirteen fourteen, fifteen range somewhere in

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those super Bowls on radio?

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Speaker 1: Is that correct?

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Speaker 4: This will be my sixteenth?

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Speaker 1: Wow? Okay, So who's going to be there?

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Speaker 4: I think the NFC Championship is a Seattle Philadelphia one

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or the other. I think it's hard to knock out

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a defending champion. Thank you Rudy for that comment from

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years ago. The heart of a champion could never be extinguished.

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It can't be. It can't be second guest, and the

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Eagles have it, but the Rams appear to be you know,

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like like like, But Seattle's number one, and they're gonna

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sit and watch this weekend. And but but I like

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the Eagles or Seattle out of the NFC, And I

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guess in my heart, i'd love to see Josh Allen

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super Bowl for the Bills. Their fans deserve it. This

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guy's had, he's a reigning MVP. I'd love to see

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him in there. I don't know if there's a team

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in the AFC right now that you'd have to say

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is the front runner. I think they're all going to

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be in there fighting, and I think it's going to

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be terrific to watch. Uh. And then you know, there's

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a part of me about about Aaron Rodgers. I don't

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know that Pittsburgh's got enough, but uh, we could be

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watching his final snaps as a Hall of Fame quarterback.

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Be fun to see what he can do. But I

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don't want to be at the expense of the Texans

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because I love the team in that quarterback so and

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and Dimiico is just as good as they come. So

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I don't know. I'll go Philly in the NFC and

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the a f C. I'll go Buffalo and and and

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and or Chicago's got a tough one against green Bay.

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Coming out, I'll go Philadelphia, and I'll go and I'll

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go Buffalo. Uh. But we're just beginning, and I think

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it's gonna be a roller coast. I think it's gonna

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be a wild ride.

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Speaker 1: Man.

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Speaker 4: You gotta gotta harness yourself in on this one, because

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it's gonna be There's no Ma Homes, there's no Lamar.

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We have some new new teams in there. Jacksonville's in.

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Houston's gonna make some waves. It's gonna be a thrill

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and I cannot wait to get it started on Saturday