Speaker 1: Thursday Afternoon style ten minutes past the hour of two o'clock.
Speaker 2: Hot day. It's been hot for a while, It's gonna
Speaker 2: be hot for a bit. It's gonna be have a
Speaker 2: little cool down this weekend. Maybe tempts in the eighties,
Speaker 2: mid eighties, as we.
Speaker 1: Are inching closer and closer to fall. Happy Thursday to you,
Speaker 1: and as it is every single day, it's going to
Speaker 1: have you along for the Riots.
Speaker 2: Spence check.
Speaker 1: It's beyond the Mike, Porter Larson, beyond the glass today
Speaker 1: producing the program. And we've got a lot to do.
Speaker 1: Busy Thursday show, really good guest list, a lot going on.
Speaker 1: From a local standpoint. RSL picked up a win last
Speaker 1: night in League's Cup play, but it will not be
Speaker 1: enough for them to advance to the knockout round. But
Speaker 1: RSL unbeaten now and nine of their last ten matches.
Speaker 1: They'll be back in action and MLS play coming up
Speaker 1: on Sunday afternoon at four o'clock Mountain toime against the
Speaker 1: New York Red Bulls. Made the signing a Victor Olatunji official.
Speaker 1: We did see the debut of Iran Cruise, the new
Speaker 1: designated player number nine, for about thirty minutes last night.
Speaker 1: Didn't do much in limited action, but didn't need him
Speaker 1: to do much as it was another Brian o'heita goal.
Speaker 1: Brian o'heada with four goals in his last four games
Speaker 1: after scoring one goal in like his previous eighty So
Speaker 1: ourself continues to find their form for the stretch run
Speaker 1: as we get ready for a little fallse soccer see
Speaker 1: if they can advance to the MLS playoffs and maybe
Speaker 1: make some noise.
Speaker 2: So they played last night.
Speaker 1: We are just over three weeks away, three weeks from
Speaker 1: Saturday for opening Day in the world of college football
Speaker 1: for the University of Utah, in addition to BYU and
Speaker 1: Utah State Week zero prior to that, so college football
Speaker 1: right around the corner. We have some new practice sound
Speaker 1: media availability for Utah players and coaches. I would encourage
Speaker 1: you to go to ESPN seven hundred sports dot com
Speaker 1: for that. Coach wit and the wide receivers made available.
Speaker 1: The positional group that we all probably have the most
Speaker 1: question marks about a young, unproven defensive line as well.
Speaker 1: But as the old adage goes, you don't worry much
Speaker 1: about a Kyle Whittingham or a Morgan Scalley defense and
Speaker 1: that defense in front.
Speaker 2: I'm sure we'll be ready to roll.
Speaker 1: But if you're looking for some University of Utah practice
Speaker 1: sound head on over to ESPN seven hundred sports dot
Speaker 1: com and should time allow, maybe we'll bring some on
Speaker 1: air today. But we have a lot to get to
Speaker 1: on the program, a little preseason NFL action, so we
Speaker 1: start to see some NFL football coming up this weekend
Speaker 1: where Jeddar Sanders will be starting for the Cleveland.
Speaker 2: Browns, a new home for Thomas yasmin former you.
Speaker 1: He signed with the Chargers, so he got some NFL
Speaker 1: football to get to on the program today as well.
Speaker 1: A big week, actually big stretch now in the world
Speaker 1: of professional golf, Round one of the FedEx Satan Jude
Speaker 1: Championship is going on right now. Ak she Batiya with
Speaker 1: a career low sixty two. Our guy went low today
Speaker 1: and he is your leader in the clubhouse.
Speaker 2: This is a.
Speaker 1: Massive, massive tournament for golfers who are looking to get
Speaker 1: exemptions next year. The top fifty are fully exempt with
Speaker 1: every single signature event and your top thirty golfers after
Speaker 1: this tournament, we'll advance onto the BMW Championship TPC South
Speaker 1: win in Memphis, Tennessee. So it's a big, big stretch
Speaker 1: in the world of golf and we are high speed
Speaker 1: ahead to the Ryder Cup coming up in just.
Speaker 2: A little bit.
Speaker 1: Does not look like Tony Fena will be playing in
Speaker 1: the Ryder Cup. One of my main hopes this year
Speaker 1: is that we'd see Tony represent the US, as this
Speaker 1: tournament is back on American soil, a tournament that really
Speaker 1: for a generation or so now has been dominated by
Speaker 1: the Euros.
Speaker 2: So big stretch with the.
Speaker 1: FedEx Saint You Championship going over to the BMW Championship,
Speaker 1: a lot of players playing for their PGA Tour life
Speaker 1: during the next few weeks. All right, we'll start things
Speaker 1: off today with our guy, Chris cameronni Ck, typically a
Speaker 1: Friday staple, but he's going to join us live in
Speaker 1: studio today for an hour.
Speaker 2: Chris will be in Dublin for Week zero.
Speaker 1: He's going to be part of the Athletics college football coverage,
Speaker 1: so we'll do some Utah football. We'll do some college
Speaker 1: football and a little RSL with c K today on
Speaker 1: the program. Brian Dunseeth joins us. Been a minute since
Speaker 1: we've had Donny on the show today, but it'll be
Speaker 1: fun to catch up with Brian. He has been busy
Speaker 1: this summer on a number of different assignments soccer assignments,
Speaker 1: both MLS and the national team stuff as well.
Speaker 2: So we'll bring in Dunny today.
Speaker 1: See our guy's doing Sam Brockhouse for Brouckouse Sports. We'll
Speaker 1: do some football with Sam on the program today, Little
Speaker 1: Sports Core with our friends from Handy and Handy as
Speaker 1: we are wont to do on those Thursdays, and we
Speaker 1: will go from there. So Chris Camaraddie, Brian dun Seth,
Speaker 1: Sam Brockhouse, Little Sports Court on a Thursday afternoon, me
Speaker 1: Spence check. Its all of you, the great listeners, and
Speaker 1: that guy Porter Larson producing the program on a Thursday afternoon.
Speaker 2: NFL preseason football. Do anything for it is? That's been
Speaker 2: your beanie at all? Not really, but.
Speaker 3: You know it's very case dependent, right. There are certain
Speaker 3: storylines that will catch my attention during preseason, you know,
Speaker 3: maybe certain roster position battles, but catch me watching like
Speaker 3: a full preseason game.
Speaker 1: No, not usually, Yeah, no, I'm with you. They have
Speaker 1: truncated the preseason. It's a lot shorter than it used
Speaker 1: to be. If nothing else, it's an excuse to watch
Speaker 1: a little football. So we do have some NFL preseason football,
Speaker 1: but we are high speed ahead to college football. And
Speaker 1: of course as you're home with the utes, we'll have
Speaker 1: you covered. We want to let you know that all
Speaker 1: of the practice sound, whether it's the new stuff that
Speaker 1: we have or the stuff that's been you know, kind
Speaker 1: of out there in the ethos.
Speaker 2: ESPN seven hundred Sports dot Com is where you go.
Speaker 1: All right, Football season is here, and the Utah ESPN
Speaker 1: Radio Network is getting you ready with thirty one Days
Speaker 1: of Football presented by Baskin Robbins. Tune in daily to
Speaker 1: the best coverage for pro and college ball. It's the
Speaker 1: thirty one Days of Football presented by Baskin Robbins on
Speaker 1: ESPN seven hundred. All Right, it's rankings season, It's tiers season,
Speaker 1: it's projection season, prognostication season. USA Today Coaches Poll came
Speaker 1: out on Monday. As we've talked about, that's an unserious
Speaker 1: endeavor and unserious exercise. Coming up on Monday of next week,
Speaker 1: we will get the AP rankings, which at least for
Speaker 1: the most part, consists of people that actually pay attention.
Speaker 2: Hopefully, people that pay attention to do their jobs.
Speaker 1: When it came to the coach's poll, BYU came into
Speaker 1: twenty three, Utah came in technically at thirty, with the
Speaker 1: others receiving votes. We'll see what happens when the AP
Speaker 1: comes out coming up on Monday. But David Hale today
Speaker 1: from ESPN dot com really good college football writer.
Speaker 2: He tiered all one hundred.
Speaker 1: And thirty six FBS teams, which must have been quite
Speaker 1: quite a project and kind of went, you know, tier
Speaker 1: by tier, named his own tiers. Tier one A a
Speaker 1: great matchup for Week one and the championship game. He
Speaker 1: has Ohio State and Texas as the two best teams
Speaker 1: in college football. After that, Tier one B the rest
Speaker 1: of the best three teams Georgia, Oregon, Penn State, and
Speaker 1: as you scroll down playoff expectations, he has six teams there.
Speaker 1: This is mostly SEC Big ten, with a little bit
Speaker 1: of acc sprinkled in Alabama, Clemson, Miami, Michigan, notre name
Speaker 1: in LSU Tier three. He entitled someone in the SEC
Speaker 1: has to lose games, So he has six teams Florida, Oklahoma,
Speaker 1: Old Miss, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas A, and m Tier four.
Speaker 1: Last year playoff surprises. Four teams Arizona State, Boise State,
Speaker 1: Indiana SMU. Tier five so hot right now, four teams Illinois, Louisville,
Speaker 1: Texas Tech.
Speaker 2: And this is where we find the University of Utah.
Speaker 1: So Bill has or David has this to say about
Speaker 1: the Utes. Utah enters the season as the trendy pick
Speaker 1: in the Big twelve thanks to some returning stars and
Speaker 1: expectation that last year's bad luck has to turn and
Speaker 1: finally open his season with someone other than the hollowed
Speaker 1: out shell of cam Riise in a quarterback little little
Speaker 1: harsh there. If luck kept Utah from the Big twelve
Speaker 1: race last year, then luck should be on their side
Speaker 1: this season.
Speaker 2: Essentially kind of regressed in the mean.
Speaker 1: We have to scroll all the way down Tier eight,
Speaker 1: and he actually entitles this regression to the meaning quote
Speaker 1: the bad kind. He has five teams including b Yu
Speaker 1: b YU, Duke, Missouri, Syracuse, Vanderbilt. Here's essentially his reasoning
Speaker 1: is something that we've talked about and something that BYU
Speaker 1: Athletic director Brian Santiagre talked about when he joined us
Speaker 1: in Big twelve media day. Pretty Much every single bounce
Speaker 1: that could have gone BYU's way went their way. They
Speaker 1: were little cardiac kids last year, including here in Salt
Speaker 1: Lake City, with a miraculous ending that led to BYU
Speaker 1: getting that win. B YU tied or trailing in the
Speaker 1: fourth quarter seven times last year, and in those seven
Speaker 1: games they went six and one, and ultimately this where
Speaker 1: this is where the conversation comes in in my estimation
Speaker 1: about the quarterback situation in provo, because you know, you
Speaker 1: hear a people including me, I've said this certainly referenced
Speaker 1: the sat that Jake Rhetz Laugh was eleventh of the
Speaker 1: Big twelve in QBR last year, and I felt BYU
Speaker 1: won games last year not necessarily due to Jake. Jake
Speaker 1: made some big time plays down the stretch and we
Speaker 1: know that here in Saul Lake he did it against the.
Speaker 2: University of Utah.
Speaker 1: BYU's success last year was predicated on a stout defense,
Speaker 1: a really good run game, and a lot of luck.
Speaker 1: And if we're clear, you have to have luck if
Speaker 1: you want to compete and win championships in sports.
Speaker 2: You just have to.
Speaker 1: Most of that luck involves health, and BYU was more
Speaker 1: or less very healthy last year. They lost the Connor
Speaker 1: pay kid for a while one of their better offensive linemen,
Speaker 1: and every football team across the landscape of America will
Speaker 1: lose players. But you just have to imagine that at
Speaker 1: some point the pendulum is going to shift, and this
Speaker 1: unbelievable stretch of bad luck that if we're honest, has
Speaker 1: stretched about four or five years now for the University
Speaker 1: of Utah just comes back down to where the regression
Speaker 1: of the meaning takes place for the utes. Again, no
Speaker 1: one's going to be healthy all year long when it
Speaker 1: comes to just football teams across the landscape of the sport.
Speaker 2: It's the nature of this game.
Speaker 1: I hear people all the time say football is a
Speaker 1: contact sport. No, no, it's not. It's a violent sport.
Speaker 1: Basketball is a contact sport. Soccer, believe it or not,
Speaker 1: is a contact sport. Football is a violent sport. And
Speaker 1: that's why you cannot ever assume full health. But I mean,
Speaker 1: my goodness, you have to assume better health for the
Speaker 1: utes than we've seen over the past four or five
Speaker 1: years now.
Speaker 2: One of the interesting pieces of sound.
Speaker 1: That again you can get on the website ESPN seven
Speaker 1: hundred sports dot com. Coach Witt was asked about the
Speaker 1: wide receivers and then the wide receivers were made available
Speaker 1: to the media. You know, the question marks around this team. Luckily,
Speaker 1: if you're a youth fan, there aren't a ton It's
Speaker 1: a young defensive line. Of course, with Kianotanavas and now
Speaker 1: wearing BYU Blue, you're going to see some new faces
Speaker 1: and some new players in that positional group. But it's
Speaker 1: just not something you ever worry about when it comes
Speaker 1: to this coaching staff. And the first player the coach
Speaker 1: wit reference when asked about the wide receivers was Tobias Merriweather,
Speaker 1: who he talked about yesterday.
Speaker 2: You know, six five, one ninety five.
Speaker 1: He has the measurables in a way that the other
Speaker 1: receivers just don't.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 2: He looks a little bit.
Speaker 1: Like Devon, like Devon Veley, and Devon obviously has been
Speaker 1: able to find himself in the NFL with a nice
Speaker 1: start to a pro career without the ability to put
Speaker 1: out a bunch of tape in college because he didn't
Speaker 1: have a quarterback that was healthy to kind of capitalize
Speaker 1: on his natural gifts, and Tobias feels like he's a
Speaker 1: little bit like that.
Speaker 5: Now.
Speaker 1: Most of these receivers, if not all the receivers are transfers,
Speaker 1: but Coach Wit referenced Tobias. He was the first name
Speaker 1: the coach Wit mentioned as far as how well he's
Speaker 1: played in spring. Paul JJ Buchanan another name the coach
Speaker 1: Wit referenced, So Tobias, Tobias Merriweather maybe wide receiver one.
Speaker 1: He was asked about it and he said, in his mind,
Speaker 1: that's what he's shooting for. But it is a positional
Speaker 1: group that we continue to talk about because there's so
Speaker 1: many unknowns. There's Ryan Davis, who is a transfer from
Speaker 1: New Mexico. Of course that's where Jason Beck was, and
Speaker 1: Devin Dampier was Mississippi State transfer.
Speaker 2: Creed Whittemore is also in the mix.
Speaker 1: They talk a lot about Hunter Andrews, who's a tight
Speaker 1: end that they could utilize in a bunch of different ways.
Speaker 1: Nate Johnson, once upon a time at quarterback here transfers
Speaker 1: comes back, will ultimately be a little bit of a
Speaker 1: utility guy at offense, according to coach Wit. And then
Speaker 1: remember what Kyle said to Sean and I had big
Speaker 1: twelve media day Smith Snowden Lander Barton. Here's what coach
Speaker 1: would have to say about them. Quote Smith Snowden is
Speaker 1: looking good on offense. It's been a good addition for us,
Speaker 1: and Lander Barton is doing some good things on offense.
Speaker 1: So we've got a lot of options right now. It
Speaker 1: just feels like we know what the quarterback is going
Speaker 1: to be. Coach would also had some praise for way
Speaker 1: Shawn Parker today, but ultimately it is that positional group
Speaker 1: on the outside that could make or break this year
Speaker 1: for the Utes. Because we talked about this during Rosstalk
Speaker 1: with Sean today. A lot of the over unders a
Speaker 1: shot is doing on a show as he's moved kind
Speaker 1: of over to the offensive side of the football. The
Speaker 1: lines he's setting would make Utah a top seven or
Speaker 1: eight offensive team in the Big Twelve. Now that doesn't
Speaker 1: sound awesome, but if you talk and be a top
Speaker 1: seven or eight offensive team in the Big Twelve, they
Speaker 1: will be right in the mix to compete for a
Speaker 1: Big Twelve championship and advance on to an expanded CFP
Speaker 1: for the first time in school history. And just like
Speaker 1: everything else, all you want to do is to get
Speaker 1: in the dance and then you've got a shot, and
Speaker 1: that's all you want. Year and in year out. You
Speaker 1: got a shot. That's all you want to hear. Okay,
Speaker 1: you got a shot to get this thing done. I
Speaker 1: continue to be a little bit skeptical only because there
Speaker 1: are so many things about this team that we just
Speaker 1: do not know. And if you've listened to this show
Speaker 1: for years, first of all, thank you, as we're about
Speaker 1: to turn six next week at our six year anniversary
Speaker 1: will be next week here on the show. Every year
Speaker 1: college football, I say the very same thing, observation not
Speaker 1: conclusions three four weeks because fan bases they'll go crazy.
Speaker 1: You know, if Utah goes to the Rose Bowl to
Speaker 1: take on UCLA three weeks from Saturday and either loses
Speaker 1: an ugly game or even wins like thirteen to ten,
Speaker 1: I know what you guys are gonna do, because you
Speaker 1: do it every year.
Speaker 2: It's like, oh, here we go again. Okay, here we
Speaker 2: go again.
Speaker 1: If it's the end of the first quarter of the
Speaker 1: cal Poly game and Utah's up like seven to three,
Speaker 1: the panic will set in. Go to Laramie Porter Larsen Bowle,
Speaker 1: as it is coined on this radio show, and you
Speaker 1: come back with either a close win or a loss
Speaker 1: against the Cowboys, we are going to lose our minds. Observation,
Speaker 1: not conclusion. It's going to take a minute because this
Speaker 1: new reality of college football, not just for Utah but
Speaker 1: every other school is you're breaking in fifty sixty new players.
Speaker 1: If you're Utah State, you are breaking in eighty new players.
Speaker 1: It's just not realistic to expect most teams to come
Speaker 1: out of the gates on fire when there's no more
Speaker 1: continuity in college football the way there used to be.
Speaker 2: Chris Camaradni will be on the.
Speaker 1: Row for the Athletic four Week zero of college football,
Speaker 1: so we'll bring in Ck coming up on the other
Speaker 1: side to do a little college football. We'll get his
Speaker 1: thoughts on the new additions for RSL. I do have
Speaker 1: an update once again. Last night checked out of the
Speaker 1: RSL match they beat Carratiio or whatever from Liga MX
Speaker 1: or MCHIS or whatever. Then afterwards once again attempted to
Speaker 1: watch Happy Gilmore two and I might I might just
Speaker 1: be out on it, man, because I gave it another
Speaker 1: fifteen or twenty. They were playing against this weird golf
Speaker 1: league that is supposed to make fun of live where
Speaker 1: apparently they've clipped like a hip muscle so the other
Speaker 1: other golfers can hit it far and the regular PGA
Speaker 1: players can't. Scotti Scheffler knocked out a play and then
Speaker 1: I just turned it off and I watched the rest
Speaker 1: of the Billie Joel documentary.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't blame you for doing so. Like I
Speaker 3: told you yesterday, I started it and and rolled my
Speaker 3: eyes a few times and fell asleep again. You don't
Speaker 3: have to expect too much. It is a silly flick,
Speaker 3: but I was hoping for a little more out of
Speaker 3: a show that a lot of a lot of folks
Speaker 3: in the sports world, in the comedy scene have been
Speaker 3: waiting for for a while.
Speaker 1: Noted Adam Sandler, fan and golfer savant, Chris Camrodnie is
Speaker 1: in studio.
Speaker 2: Have you attempted to watch Happy Go More too? Seen it?
Speaker 6: You watched the whole thing? Thoughts the vibes? I mean,
Speaker 6: we live in a capitalistic society. A lot of people
Speaker 6: got paid and had fun period period. I mean, I'll
Speaker 6: never see it again. I don't know if I laughed.
Speaker 7: To me.
Speaker 6: The biggest bummer is and Sandler said this in one
Speaker 6: of his rare interviews. Apparently, Carl Weathers was supposed to
Speaker 6: have a prominent role as Chubbs, but Carl unfortunately passed
Speaker 6: away last year indeed, so I think missing his piece
Speaker 6: Chubbs to me was like as integral of apart to
Speaker 6: Happy Gilmour is like even Sandler was, because so much
Speaker 6: of his dialogue is what you repeat, you know, like
Speaker 6: it's all in the hips, you know, just your home. Yeah,
Speaker 6: so many of them exactly, I go to your happy place,
Speaker 6: like you know, like they're they're sitting there at the
Speaker 6: water Barry open and he said, Happy tells him if
Speaker 6: I four pants like that, I have to kick my
Speaker 6: own ass. It's just like the inner there there. Chemistry
Speaker 6: was so electric. And now if if if if Carl
Speaker 6: Weathers hadn't passed, I don't know if it would have
Speaker 6: changed ultimately the way the movie was produced.
Speaker 2: And how it came out.
Speaker 7: But to me it was just a little too golfy like.
Speaker 6: And I'm not not against your your kind, you know,
Speaker 6: I'm glad that kind. Lee Trevino was was made another appearance,
Speaker 6: which was which was cool.
Speaker 2: My kind golf people don't define me as that. Now
Speaker 2: can't do what do.
Speaker 6: You do more than any thing else recreationally outside of
Speaker 6: work golf? Okay, But like the Chefler stuff was funny.
Speaker 6: It was self aware, but then it was kind of like,
Speaker 6: we're kind of I mean, like in the first one
Speaker 6: it was Trevino. I'm trying to think who else they got.
Speaker 6: They didn't get that many real golfers to be.
Speaker 1: In No, no, no, I mean the cameos. They had
Speaker 1: a ton this time around.
Speaker 6: Yeah, and I get it, like it's part of the
Speaker 6: zeitgeist of sports comedies and golf comedies obviously along with
Speaker 6: Caddy Shack. But yeah, I was a bummer man. You
Speaker 6: could tell that they wrote that and film that in
Speaker 6: maybe two weeks tops.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I think forty seven million people watched it,
Speaker 1: which is a Netflix record. You know, we are in
Speaker 1: this current moment in society where the you know, you know,
Speaker 1: it's it's it's an.
Speaker 2: Attention business, you know, That's what it is.
Speaker 1: Like the revenue is generated right or wrong with just attention,
Speaker 1: whether it's good or bad. That's why you see all
Speaker 1: these people releasing just dumb, embarrassing videos online.
Speaker 2: They don't care, They just want you to watch because
Speaker 2: they get paid.
Speaker 7: Is that what TikTok is?
Speaker 2: You know, not familiar.
Speaker 1: We'll have to expend quite frankly with the TikTok situation
Speaker 1: Nate Nate loves himself some TikTok. I do have it
Speaker 1: on my phone, but I'm not looking to add any
Speaker 1: social media to my life.
Speaker 2: I'm rarely on anything anyway.
Speaker 1: You tell me it's not a very healthy habit. I
Speaker 1: don't think it is. I mean, I feel like I've
Speaker 1: been such a great example for you. You have, absolutely, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I deleted it, all of it for the entire week.
Speaker 2: I was out last week and it was wonderful. Yeah.
Speaker 2: So have you experienced TikTok at all or you know
Speaker 2: you on the planet. I don't understand it.
Speaker 6: My cousin send it to me and sometimes it will
Speaker 6: open up in my Safari app, and sometimes it won't.
Speaker 6: So sometimes I have to lie to them. I'll just
Speaker 6: write lol, pretending like I watched it. I don't want
Speaker 6: to have to go through the rigamarole being like, hey dude,
Speaker 6: it's not opening this time. Yes, can you send it
Speaker 6: to me? No, We're just going to move on now.
Speaker 6: That's the move all the time.
Speaker 1: I have some people in my life who recently have
Speaker 1: learned how to send Instagram videos. Oh yeah, and I
Speaker 1: just you know, I hope it's not something serious because
Speaker 1: like you big Dave, Big Dave, who, by the way,
Speaker 1: have you noticed he looks exactly like Shooter McGavin.
Speaker 7: I mean if yes, it's so good.
Speaker 6: If if Dave had I mean Christopher McDonald had the
Speaker 6: curls a little bit, yeah, Dave, Dave doesn't have that,
Speaker 6: but yes, yeah, it's striking image. Can we get David
Speaker 6: gold jacket?
Speaker 1: I would he actually so Initially there was a lot
Speaker 1: of pushback because when Happy Gilmore, the first one came out,
Speaker 1: I'm like, that looks just like that. Yeah, And he
Speaker 1: hated it because it was, you know, it was the antagonist.
Speaker 1: He wasn't the guy you want to be. And then uh,
Speaker 1: and so I would always tease him about it. You know,
Speaker 1: we'd be playing golf and I'd do the shooter thing
Speaker 1: or whatever. And then we were in the airport once
Speaker 1: as a family and a random person with Christopher McDonald's way,
Speaker 1: he's like Shooter McGavin, and I it was one of the.
Speaker 2: Top five moments of my entire life.
Speaker 1: He looked right at me because he hates it so much,
Speaker 1: so we should get him a gold jacket. But to
Speaker 1: his credit, one year he did dress up a shootout Halloween.
Speaker 1: It's great, so self effacing as as he ages as
Speaker 1: we all should be.
Speaker 3: Absolutely, that's good. He leans into it. Do you feel
Speaker 3: like you're self effacing? Can you laugh at yourself?
Speaker 7: I mean yeah, I laugh at myself every day.
Speaker 1: Okay, it's a good it's it's it's a good personality
Speaker 1: trait to have to not take yourself too seriously.
Speaker 6: It is, I think though the there's a line in
Speaker 6: Midnight to Paris where they're in a heming Way character says,
Speaker 6: stop being so self effacing.
Speaker 2: It's not manly. But maybe that's from a different generation.
Speaker 6: Different generations, those guys who are boxing and fighting lines
Speaker 6: and stuff and writing.
Speaker 1: Did you watch the Ken Burns Hemingway? Oh doc, Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: didn't seem like the most well adjusted fella.
Speaker 6: No, well, I mean, dude, like I didn't know he
Speaker 6: was in like six plane crashes.
Speaker 7: Yeah I didn't like and yeah, yeah it was fascinating.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 6: You know me, I'm a burnsy I'll watch anything and
Speaker 6: everything they've been. They've got Revolutionary War coming out this fall,
Speaker 6: so oh doubt on that.
Speaker 1: Did you watch the Prohibition one? Surprisingly entertaining?
Speaker 7: Oh?
Speaker 6: Absolutely, Prohibition, Even the more minute ones like the American Buffalo,
Speaker 6: which came out last year. I've not seen that awesome.
Speaker 6: It's only like a three parter. He you know, they
Speaker 6: make the argument that more than the Bald Eagle, the
Speaker 6: American Buffalo encapsulates what like this country really represents. Huh,
Speaker 6: And I mean they got me convinced.
Speaker 1: So at three part or so, it's twelve hours, not
Speaker 1: seventy some of those.
Speaker 2: Dude, it's like you feel like you're in class.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 6: Well, I'm getting around to the point of trying to
Speaker 6: convince my wife to watch some of the war documentaries,
Speaker 6: but they're all two hours a piece and sometimes ten
Speaker 6: to twelve episodes long. So she's like, you think I
Speaker 6: have twenty hours to watch about the status stuff And
Speaker 6: I was like, it's fair point. It's that or Love
Speaker 6: Island and I it's you know, a relationship is all
Speaker 6: about compromise.
Speaker 2: I hear, it is fair point.
Speaker 1: And it feels like now attention spans, like it's one
Speaker 1: thing to watch a two hour documentary. I feel like
Speaker 1: a lot of people just want twenty twenty five minute
Speaker 1: quick show.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I don't know if that's attention span or lack
Speaker 2: of time.
Speaker 6: No, ally, people at mad now when they have commercials
Speaker 6: on their streamings, when it's like a thirty second interval,
Speaker 6: We're like, I don't have time for you dove soap today.
Speaker 3: Do you are you watching the Handmaid's Tail? You're watching
Speaker 3: anything Handmaid's Tale? What was I gonna tell you?
Speaker 2: Oh?
Speaker 7: I told you about Stick? Did you Stick?
Speaker 2: I did? And it was better than I expected.
Speaker 6: It's easy. It's a thirty minute shows as it is
Speaker 6: to your point.
Speaker 1: And Owen Wilson doesn't go like full himself, yes he
Speaker 1: is instead of trying to add lib I told you.
Speaker 1: My whole deal with Owen Wilson, I know, was him
Speaker 1: trying to keep up with the Vince Vaughan's of the world,
Speaker 1: which and Vince was like a master for like a decade. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so like the Wedding Crasher stuff, great movie, but th
Speaker 1: Owen stuff kind of fell in.
Speaker 2: Not a lot on the on the programming list right now.
Speaker 1: But Stick was good. I finished it. I've been doing
Speaker 1: a lot of traveling. I've been on the road quite
Speaker 1: a bit, Portland, Dallas, Standpoint, Sun Valley, so got a
Speaker 1: lot of downtime. Yeah, caught up on Stick, did the
Speaker 1: whole thing, but c K actually know what we'll do
Speaker 1: entire So you've got a cool assignmer for the athletic
Speaker 1: college football wise.
Speaker 2: Well, let's do that in our next segment.
Speaker 1: We've been awaiting the summer transfer window for RSL, and
Speaker 1: they made two official acquisitions more potentially on the way,
Speaker 1: Kurt said. Kurt was on the show yesterday. He said
Speaker 1: he's looking at a couple of other options. Ruwan Cruz,
Speaker 1: let's start there. A nine and a half, as Pablo
Speaker 1: said on the show, a player who can play striker
Speaker 1: but also can make plays as well. We saw him
Speaker 1: last night in League Cup action for about thirty minutes.
Speaker 1: It was a quiet performance. There was nothing there, right o'heita,
Speaker 1: I don't know what's going on with this dude. One
Speaker 1: goal in like eighty games and he has four in
Speaker 1: his last four. But let's get into new acquisitions first.
Speaker 2: 'ron. Ruan Cruise, let's start there.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I mean, he's a guy that fits their need
Speaker 6: in many ways. He's a guy who can play multiple positions.
Speaker 6: Was part of the most arguably one of the most
Speaker 6: talented teams Brazil, a team that a lot of ourself
Speaker 6: fans know Botafogo where yeah, for since Savarino went and
Speaker 6: he who he who shall not be named, decided to
Speaker 6: go and is not. I don't think he's played a
Speaker 6: single minute your guy, Elias, Oh yeah, but Ruan Cruz
Speaker 6: was not necessarily a regular in that very deep team either,
Speaker 6: and that that's a team that played very well at
Speaker 6: the summer's Club World Cup.
Speaker 2: So it's a very talented group.
Speaker 6: They're betting on him to be able to come here
Speaker 6: and unlock some abilities that they see in him.
Speaker 2: He scored a bunch of.
Speaker 6: Goals when he was over in uh Ludigrets, which is
Speaker 6: one of the considered one of the better smaller you know,
Speaker 6: club division teams in Europe and Bulgaria. And he's uh
Speaker 6: he has the task in front of him, as does
Speaker 6: the other new guy, Victor Olatunji. Is getting used to
Speaker 6: everything that comes with life in the MLS or in
Speaker 6: MLS excuse me, sorry, Trey travel heat, new teammates, guys
Speaker 6: that want to beat the beat the living piss out
Speaker 6: of you. Like not everybody comes to MLS and is
Speaker 6: able to handle the physicality. I mean, I'm next time
Speaker 6: you have Donny On Dunny has really good stories about
Speaker 6: Ozy on today.
Speaker 2: Okay, I mean, like.
Speaker 6: So many times you talk to these guys who come here,
Speaker 6: and that's the one thing that they say they're most
Speaker 6: surprised about is just how physical the defenders play and
Speaker 6: just how kind of ruthless it can be. But the
Speaker 6: good thing about ourselves they signed two really big guys.
Speaker 6: I mean, Rwan Cruz is like six something, Olatunji's like
Speaker 6: six three, like an out and out, you know, striker
Speaker 6: number nine. So on paper, they fit the piece, They
Speaker 6: fit the bill of what Rsel needed on paper. But again,
Speaker 6: adding adding any type of player in the summer transfer
Speaker 6: window is a huge ask because it takes so much
Speaker 6: to get.
Speaker 2: Up to speed financially.
Speaker 1: There's an option to purchase Cruise at the end of
Speaker 1: eighteen months, I want to say, And you know, we
Speaker 1: talked about this couple of weeks ago as we were
Speaker 1: preparing for the summer transfer window for a fan base
Speaker 1: that is understandably skeptical, skeptical about ownership's commitment financially based
Speaker 1: off of the past few years.
Speaker 2: I mean, there, you know.
Speaker 1: Were some players brought in where some money was spent,
Speaker 1: but then those players were moved on from and the
Speaker 1: money was not reinvested in the club. What did this
Speaker 1: transfer window say to you about the miller's willingness to
Speaker 1: invest in talent, if anything at all.
Speaker 6: I think they are in a holding pattern, a wait
Speaker 6: and see pattern, a let's see how this group finishes
Speaker 6: out the rest of the year type pattern, and and
Speaker 6: justifiably so, they were not very good. You know, I've
Speaker 6: been critical of the previous ownership regime and not spending,
Speaker 6: and everything went sideways with so many of the players
Speaker 6: that left last year, starting with chi Cho Rongo. But
Speaker 6: the reality is, does it make sense to open up
Speaker 6: a check book and write a ten to twelve million
Speaker 6: dollar check. You can argue yes if you feel like
Speaker 6: your club is one piece away from transforming itself into
Speaker 6: a Western Conference contender.
Speaker 2: I don't know if Ursel's.
Speaker 6: There yet, but as guys have said on the show before,
Speaker 6: I think Kurt and Jason have been pretty transparent with
Speaker 6: you where they're like, we're not that type of club,
Speaker 6: and maybe they are the type of club that are
Speaker 6: going to try to excavate diamonds in the rough overseas
Speaker 6: or in South America, which they've been able to do
Speaker 6: in the past. I mean, nobody had heard of Albert
Speaker 6: Rusnak before he came here. Nobody had heard of Demir
Speaker 6: cry Lock, nobody had heard of ye person Savarino, and
Speaker 6: like those are all I mean, you could argue, you know,
Speaker 6: top top three to five international signings in the history
Speaker 6: of the club, like outside of hobby, Like the other
Speaker 6: players that have been really good in Ursel's uniform, are
Speaker 6: you know, Nick Kyle some other guys. I guess you
Speaker 6: throw Sabo in. They're from the international perspective, but sooner
Speaker 6: or later you're gonna have to hit on some of
Speaker 6: these guys the way RSL did for a long time,
Speaker 6: even when they were on a shoe string budget, and
Speaker 6: we just haven't seen that necessarily from like a like
Speaker 6: a star playmakers perspective.
Speaker 1: So they're not advancing in League's Cup Nope, even though
Speaker 1: they won last night.
Speaker 2: RP. Yeah, indeed. Kind of this new tournament, I mean,
Speaker 2: it's I mean, it's.
Speaker 6: It's cool, but it's overkilled because we've seen so many
Speaker 6: tournaments like the Club World Cup. You saw some of
Speaker 6: some you know, League and MECHIS teams in it. The summer,
Speaker 6: you saw some MLS teams in it, but like I
Speaker 6: don't know, Seattle hung a seventh spot on Cruise A
Speaker 6: Zool which I think won Champions League last year, and
Speaker 6: it's like, at what point can you start to take
Speaker 6: this tournament seriously like his Mexico just are the Mexican
Speaker 6: teams kind of just like meh, like what what do
Speaker 6: we have to lose? And I know there's money at stake,
Speaker 6: which you know, that's that's great for a lot of
Speaker 6: teams and players, but I don't think ultimately we can
Speaker 6: look at this tournament where you're forcing Lega and Mechi's
Speaker 6: teams to fly all over the country and allow the
Speaker 6: MLS teams to stay put and be like, oh, look
Speaker 6: at MLS holding their own. It's like I think if
Speaker 6: the if it was flipped around, if you had of
Speaker 6: Ursel going from Mexico City to Tijuana to Wahaka or whatever,
Speaker 6: it probably would be pretty ugly.
Speaker 7: So it is.
Speaker 6: It is another I don't want to say useless tournament,
Speaker 6: but I just don't know. I don't think it moves
Speaker 6: the needle at all.
Speaker 2: Comparing the two leagues.
Speaker 1: I think once upon a time, League at Mechi's was
Speaker 1: head and shoulders above MLS.
Speaker 2: Yeah, are they still.
Speaker 6: From a spending perspective, yes, because there's no cap and
Speaker 6: I think if you measured up like the top five
Speaker 6: Mets teams with the top five MLS teams. I think
Speaker 6: I would take the Mexican teams, but the gap is closing.
Speaker 6: I mean you look at teams like Miami obviously, but
Speaker 6: there may be the exception Seattle's had a good League's Cup.
Speaker 6: But other than that, it's like, is FC Cincinnati like
Speaker 6: as stacked as t Grace where they have a bunch
Speaker 6: of you know, current or former Mexican national team stars
Speaker 6: or guys who were in Europe.
Speaker 2: I don't know. So when it comes to the LAFC signing,
Speaker 2: my guys.
Speaker 7: Signed, excited.
Speaker 6: That'll be cool, huge, huge signing for for LAFC, for
Speaker 6: the because there's a huge Korean community in La.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and he's got some juice left.
Speaker 6: Sonny's been one of my favorite players to watch in
Speaker 6: soccer in the last ten years.
Speaker 1: Easy, come on, you spurs my squad, did you see
Speaker 1: I've long been of the opinion that.
Speaker 7: Politicians talking about the clip should.
Speaker 1: Not be part of any of this stuff like politics Hollywood.
Speaker 1: For ugly people go back and act like you're doing
Speaker 1: something important, stay away from sports because you don't know anything.
Speaker 1: There was a politician, there was President that there was
Speaker 1: present for the press conference and ask my guy son
Speaker 1: essentially alluded to the fact that the World Cup is
Speaker 1: coming here next year, win it for us, and we
Speaker 1: really need to win. And I don't know if you
Speaker 1: saw Max Max. Max Bretta stepped up and said, I
Speaker 1: guess we could have a US you know, Korea final
Speaker 1: or whatever. It was, right, So he tried to bro Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: he tried to ease it over. Politicians don't need to
Speaker 1: be a part of any of this stuff.
Speaker 6: Well, I don't know if you remember, but when Bashton
Speaker 6: Schweinsteiger came to the Chicago Fire like four or five
Speaker 6: years ago, is the same thing. They're like, do you
Speaker 6: think do you think you think we have what it
Speaker 6: takes like with you here if you there?
Speaker 2: Yeah? No, do he just won with Germany.
Speaker 1: Yeah this This city councilman thought that because Sun is
Speaker 1: now playing for LA he plays for US in the
Speaker 1: World Cup, which is not how that works.
Speaker 7: I mean, it'd be cool, he'd probably be our he'd be.
Speaker 1: Our best player right away. Thomas Mueller lands in Vancouver.
Speaker 1: So there there are. You know, once upon a time
Speaker 1: it felt like these signings were you know, once every
Speaker 1: two three years with Beckham here this or on recame
Speaker 1: for a minute, it feels like there is like this
Speaker 1: legitimate influx of really good European players that do have
Speaker 1: some gas left in the tank, that have come down
Speaker 1: ls over the past couple of years.
Speaker 6: But I still think it's like two to three tops.
Speaker 6: I mean, Thomas Muller was off the bench at Munich
Speaker 6: the last couple of years and he basically achieved everything
Speaker 6: that any player would want. Won World Cups for this country,
Speaker 6: one Champions League, when Bundesliga titles, Sun's thirty three. Like
Speaker 6: life comes at you fast, and it's cool that they're
Speaker 6: going to be here, don't me wrong, but like weirdly,
Speaker 6: like there was a clip circulating online of Tom Brady
Speaker 6: talking about soccer and he was like what the US
Speaker 6: needs is like they need like a young player like
Speaker 6: Lamina mal at Barcelona, who at seventeen is probably the
Speaker 6: best player in the world. Like in order to transform
Speaker 6: the like soccer in this country, you need somebody who
Speaker 6: is that good, who is from here. And for Tom
Speaker 6: to say that Tom knows the stuff because he's not wrong,
Speaker 6: and like son's cool. Son being in in La is
Speaker 6: gonna be awesome. Maybe when LAFC comes here, we can
Speaker 6: all take the tracks out and go see your guy.
Speaker 6: Thomas Mueller picking easily the best market in MLS, Like,
Speaker 6: can't you can't fault anybody for choosing to live in Vancouver. Sure,
Speaker 6: it's it's the best city in North America. But again,
Speaker 6: like these guys are in their mid to late thirties,
Speaker 6: I think it'd be different if if you know, at
Speaker 6: the height of his powers, for you know, Germany or Munich,
Speaker 6: he was like twenty six.
Speaker 2: He's like, now I'm going over. Yeah.
Speaker 1: You know, if that ever starts happening, then maybe the
Speaker 1: sport does change in a way that a lot of
Speaker 1: people thought it would buy now but just hasn't it.
Speaker 1: For honest, this conversation about changing the calendar MLS calendar
Speaker 1: to the European calendar, how would that even work?
Speaker 2: Like for a city like ours, you.
Speaker 6: Got to put sophisticated, very very very very very expensive
Speaker 6: heaters under there under the turf. I think they might
Speaker 6: already have some, but like enough to the point where
Speaker 6: like you would have to invest millions and millions and
Speaker 6: millions of dollars in stadiums that are cold.
Speaker 2: What is that calendar?
Speaker 6: It starts, they starting, they start in August, start in August,
Speaker 6: they go through me.
Speaker 2: That's it doesn't work well. It doesn't work for us.
Speaker 1: It doesn't work for Colorado, it doesn't work for Minnesota.
Speaker 1: Like there so many cold weather cities in Major League Soccer.
Speaker 6: Yeah, yeah, the the Midwest and then the Rocky Mountains
Speaker 6: doesn't work. I don't think anybody's going to a Yankee
Speaker 6: stadium to freeze their cohonas off to watch NYFC ny
Speaker 6: CF in a blizzard. Things can get can get sideways
Speaker 6: in DC.
Speaker 7: Yeah.
Speaker 6: Basically, if you're I mean, if you if you could
Speaker 6: front load the calendar for these teams to play in
Speaker 6: warm weather areas and.
Speaker 2: Then flip it.
Speaker 6: But again, like you know, man, like we have snowstorms
Speaker 6: in March, we have snowstorms in April.
Speaker 7: Ye, like it is.
Speaker 6: I think the notion of trying to get on the
Speaker 6: calendar is endearing and I don't think it's a totally
Speaker 6: stupid move, but I just don't think it will work
Speaker 6: out wells too. The logistics are way too complicated here.
Speaker 1: I agree with you, And of course I'm approaching it
Speaker 1: through the prism of RSL here in our market. And yes,
Speaker 1: you're right, we have snowstorms in March in April, but
Speaker 1: you can handle two or three as opposed to like
Speaker 1: nineteen or twenty.
Speaker 7: Correct, Yeah, you would.
Speaker 6: I mean I would imagine if they're if you're staying
Speaker 6: at America First Field, you probably have to make those
Speaker 6: overhangs different, more all encompassing, like you would have to
Speaker 6: the bells and whistles at that stadium would have to
Speaker 6: be updated substantially.
Speaker 2: No, for sure.
Speaker 1: So do you think at this point you're ready to
Speaker 1: say RSL will at least qualify for the postseason. I'm
Speaker 1: not saying anything beyond that.
Speaker 7: Where are they in the eight?
Speaker 1: They're unbeaten in ten. They've gone from thirteen to eighth
Speaker 1: in like six weeks. Right now, they're two point shy
Speaker 1: of Austin, who's in seventh, but they're only one point
Speaker 1: out of Colorado who's ninth. Honestly, this dopey league changes
Speaker 1: the playoff, you know, structure. So I don't even know
Speaker 1: how many teams make it. I think it's nine and
Speaker 1: RSL is eight. San Jose's chasing, Houston's chasing, and they're
Speaker 1: just right behind Austin.
Speaker 2: LAFC in Portland.
Speaker 6: With the qualifier of key players staying healthy, and if
Speaker 6: Cruz or Olatunji get their hands on the starting spot
Speaker 6: and start scoring goals, I think they have a chance
Speaker 6: to make it in. But if they're still relying on
Speaker 6: Diego Luna to shoulder so much of the offensive firepower,
Speaker 6: and if they're relying on Brian o'hada, who I think
Speaker 6: had like zero goals or a goal in like his
Speaker 6: first three years here, to all of a sudden having
Speaker 6: this crazy runs, that's not realistic. So again, the pieces
Speaker 6: are potentially there, but you have to see it playut
Speaker 6: in real time.
Speaker 2: One more soccer thing, we'll catch a break.
Speaker 1: C K wrote a really really good piece on a
Speaker 1: former ute that I I think I'd may have heard
Speaker 1: of his name, but I did not know his story.
Speaker 1: So we'll do that, and we'll do some Utah football
Speaker 1: and tell you about Chris's assignment for Week zero college
Speaker 1: football shout out John Paul, the Royals move on from
Speaker 1: Ali Sender and the coach came out and said she
Speaker 1: wanted to be moved. A couple of days after the transaction,
Speaker 1: they got six hundred K spread out over the course
Speaker 1: of a couple of.
Speaker 2: Years or years, I don't know.
Speaker 1: Man, Like the first iteration of the Royals seems like
Speaker 1: it had a lot more buzz than this one.
Speaker 6: We had a lot more buzz. It had superstar talent. Man,
Speaker 6: So what are we doing here? I don't know, that's
Speaker 6: a great question. I mean, like, I think you have
Speaker 6: to do a hell of a lot to convince the
Speaker 6: fan base that this is a team that's going to
Speaker 6: be invested in. Yeah, because once upon a time before COVID,
Speaker 6: that stadium was getting ten to eleven thousand people at
Speaker 6: her home games, second most in the league. And the
Speaker 6: fact that you deal somebody who honestly probably is the
Speaker 6: odds on favorite to be the starting striker at the
Speaker 6: next Women's World Cup. For I don't want to say
Speaker 6: pennies on the dollar because I don't know the proper equivalent.
Speaker 6: But you're trading her to the team that basically turned
Speaker 6: you turned into because the previous rendition of it folded.
Speaker 7: Maybe it was.
Speaker 6: I mean, you didn't see anything from her camp come
Speaker 6: out and dispute the notion that she wanted out. So
Speaker 6: if we're being very hypothetical here and we're pontificating on
Speaker 6: what her thought process might have been, maybe she looked
Speaker 6: at the writing on the wall and be like, I
Speaker 6: have no idea what's going on either. So why am
Speaker 6: I going to stay on a team that has probably
Speaker 6: the lowest amount of talent in the league, at the
Speaker 6: bottom of the table. What am I doing wasting my
Speaker 6: talent here? It's a big question because once upon a
Speaker 6: time the Royals were kind of the destination spot in
Speaker 6: this league, and after everything that's gone on, they kind
Speaker 6: of find themselves on the other end.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I was surprised to get that news. All right,
Speaker 1: we'll catch a break. We'll do some college football with
Speaker 1: Ck coming up next. We got one more segments with
Speaker 1: Chris Camroannie from the Athletic who we spent some time
Speaker 1: with last weekend. We should shout out our gout trapped.
Speaker 1: We got a shout out our got trapped the goat.
Speaker 1: The Goat had us over to the place Juggarhouse.
Speaker 2: Was enjoyable.
Speaker 1: Shout out bench, everybody, shout out everybody except for Trey.
Speaker 1: He was out of town. So it was enjoyable seeing
Speaker 1: you and your bride in a social setting.
Speaker 2: How did a Manda enjoy the group?
Speaker 7: It was great.
Speaker 6: It was it had been so long that we were
Speaker 6: both together in a social setting that. She was like, man,
Speaker 6: I need more reps, and I was like, I do too.
Speaker 2: More reps just like you.
Speaker 6: Well, no, you just forget because like when you are,
Speaker 6: when you're in the throes of putting a kid to
Speaker 6: bed for two and a half years straight.
Speaker 2: Yes, it's it's kind of hard, man.
Speaker 1: But it's also such a great built in excuse to
Speaker 1: get gone early.
Speaker 2: I'm not saying you wanted to leave that one.
Speaker 6: I did. I did, trust me, Man, the mosquitoes were
Speaker 6: biting me.
Speaker 7: They like my blood.
Speaker 1: Look you're talking to a famous user of an Irish
Speaker 1: kol guy, so I'm not judging you at all. And
Speaker 1: as I age, just leaving the house feels like a
Speaker 1: massive accomplishment.
Speaker 6: I mean, leaving the house to do errands to me
Speaker 6: is way way in my wheelhouse. But like, it has
Speaker 6: to be the right group of people for me to
Speaker 6: be like, yeah, I can spend the next few hours there. Sure,
Speaker 6: Other than that, I'm doing forty five to an hour,
Speaker 6: and then I'm gonna be like, oh, man, got got
Speaker 6: this text, but.
Speaker 2: You got you have, but you have the perfect excuse. Sure, yeah,
Speaker 2: I've got a good one with the dog. Yeah, but
Speaker 2: it's not as good it's not near as good.
Speaker 4: Now.
Speaker 1: You know, like you can leave a dog alone for
Speaker 1: a few hours, you can't leave a kid alone for
Speaker 1: a few hours.
Speaker 7: Yeah, you can't use your kid because he's like an adult.
Speaker 1: Now, No, Connor's the one that would be coming home
Speaker 1: for me. Connor's about to turn twenty four, so no,
Speaker 1: no longer can use that as an excuse.
Speaker 2: I know I have a coop button.
Speaker 1: Everyone calmed down, All right, let's start with you wrote
Speaker 1: a piece, You've been working on it for a while
Speaker 1: for the Athletic and I'll tell Utah football fans run
Speaker 1: and read it.
Speaker 2: Chris, I know you don't.
Speaker 1: Like it when I compliment you. You're you're very good at
Speaker 1: things such as this. A feature on Greg Newman, who
Speaker 1: was a defensive tackle for the Utah football team who
Speaker 1: beat Alabama in the two thousand and nine Sugar Bowl.
Speaker 1: And I'll be honest, i'd only heard of him, and
Speaker 1: I did not know what has turned out to be
Speaker 1: just a tragic story. So origin story. When did you
Speaker 1: first hear about it and take us through this process?
Speaker 7: Well, I mean you were off.
Speaker 6: So I was lucky enough to talk about this with
Speaker 6: OC because OCI knew Greg and even Scott Mitchell, Yeah,
Speaker 6: was on and we talked about it. But this starting out,
Speaker 6: the story has been like massively well received, which is
Speaker 6: not dute. I appreciate your your plotits, but it all
Speaker 6: the credit goes to the family for being transparent about
Speaker 6: this stuff, because if they're not willing to open their
Speaker 6: doors up and like pour out their souls of basically
Speaker 6: every piece of heartache that they've dealt with for the
Speaker 6: past fifteen years, stories like this don't get told and
Speaker 6: they don't resonate with people for sure. But the backstory
Speaker 6: is is I was at the Cronny as the beat
Speaker 6: writer of the two thousand and eight Utah team. They
Speaker 6: went undefeated. Greg and I were the same age, graduated
Speaker 6: at the same time.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 6: The anecdote I always say is like, this is back
Speaker 6: when Kyle would let reporters watch practice and we could
Speaker 6: report on practice. So we would walk walk down and
Speaker 6: just talk to people. If there's no big deal there
Speaker 6: were the drugs machine was not clicking in the back,
Speaker 6: that was not going on. Back then, things were more tranquilo.
Speaker 6: But like so many other people, I forgot about Greg
Speaker 6: even though I talked to him, A bunch covered him
Speaker 6: he was a starter on a team that went undefeated
Speaker 6: and beat Alabama, had had a sack in the Sugar Bowl. Like,
Speaker 6: this is a guy who has his hand in history
Speaker 6: for this university, and I forgot about him until he
Speaker 6: passed away last year and I saw that, you know,
Speaker 6: the GoFundMe was circulating and I was like, wow, like
Speaker 6: that's crazy. And his brother in law, Jef Dire, posted
Speaker 6: this GoFundMe and immediately was pretty transparent about what they
Speaker 6: believed was the cause of Greg's demise was. They thought
Speaker 6: it was, you know, CTE, and they were raising money
Speaker 6: to donate to the Boston University CTE Center, which is
Speaker 6: at the forefront of the science of this studying this disease.
Speaker 6: So then like this is May twenty four and I
Speaker 6: just reach out and I'm like, hey, guys, like this
Speaker 6: is who I am. I kind of have this unique perspective.
Speaker 6: I didn't know Greg well at all, but like I
Speaker 6: was basically following him around the country at one point
Speaker 6: as the same age, and would you be willing to
Speaker 6: talk to me? And you know, they were awesome, they
Speaker 6: were great. So basically for the past sixteen seventeen months,
Speaker 6: I was talking to them about this story while they
Speaker 6: donated his brain right after he died, and then they
Speaker 6: waited over a year to get the results, and then
Speaker 6: they got the results the first week of June confirmed
Speaker 6: stage two CTE. And then the hard part came because, like,
Speaker 6: I have a year, nearly a year and a half
Speaker 6: worth of stuff, and I got to put it together
Speaker 6: in some comprehensive story. So that's what I spent like
Speaker 6: the last two months basically doing.
Speaker 1: So for our Utah football fan listeners fill in the
Speaker 1: blanks between Sugar Bowl two thousand and nine, yeah, and
Speaker 1: when Greg passed.
Speaker 6: So, I mean, there are so many alarming points of
Speaker 6: the story, man, But like the one that like honestly
Speaker 6: makes the hair stand up on the back of your
Speaker 6: neck is the fact that his SIMP showed up just
Speaker 6: a year after he stopped playing football. Yeh, So Greg
Speaker 6: stopped playing football twenty three years old, a month after
Speaker 6: he turned twenty three, a month after the Sugar Bowl ended,
Speaker 6: and then a year later he is starting to show
Speaker 6: symptoms and for the next fifteen years he is dealing
Speaker 6: with states of paranoia catatonia, speaking in tongues like stuff
Speaker 6: that nobody should have to see. A loved one go
Speaker 6: through and it is so painful to ask somebody to
Speaker 6: relive all this stuff. But like again, the fact that
Speaker 6: his family was willing to for me to be transparent
Speaker 6: for the story just basically humanizes this disease at a
Speaker 6: level that all the studies in the world, Like even
Speaker 6: doctor An McKee, who is the head like chief neurologists
Speaker 6: at BU. She told me, she was like, these are
Speaker 6: the stories that make people pay attention. We could put
Speaker 6: out all of these studies that say ninety one percent
Speaker 6: of these and a former NFL players who donated the
Speaker 6: brands had ct doesn't resonate. But if you get somebody
Speaker 6: who's willing to share their loved one story posthumously, it
Speaker 6: hits people. And it's this one's hit hit people pretty hard.
Speaker 6: I mean, Greg, you know, he missed so many key
Speaker 6: like inflection points in his life because of this disease.
Speaker 6: He dreamed about having a family, he dreamed about, you know,
Speaker 6: moving to New York and working on Wall Street, which
Speaker 6: he did for a while, but all of these things
Speaker 6: were derailed by you know, mental episodes that were ultimately
Speaker 6: caused by CTE. And he died at age thirty eight,
Speaker 6: and like you know, I last summer I went to
Speaker 6: his memorial. I went to a celebration of life at
Speaker 6: a at a church in Farmington, and nobody was there, Like,
Speaker 6: there were a few former youths there. Gary Anderson was there,
Speaker 6: but like it's a reminder that like, while these guys
Speaker 6: are considered like all the kind of stereotypical macho bs
Speaker 6: that's thrown out thrown around about them, that they are warriors,
Speaker 6: they are brothers. All this stuff is, you know, it's real,
Speaker 6: but the repercussions that come from this sport for some
Speaker 6: people are fatal. And it's like until you know somebody,
Speaker 6: until you followed somebody, until you played next to somebody
Speaker 6: that dealt with this, it doesn't really hit you. But
Speaker 6: for so many Utah fans, for his teammates, for people
Speaker 6: who knew Greg, watching him basically his brain decompose over
Speaker 6: fifteen years was really really painful. I mean I talked
Speaker 6: to Mike Wright and like, Mike was one of the
Speaker 6: few former uths that was that was at the memorial,
Speaker 6: and he was like, I think a lot of the
Speaker 6: one of the main reasons people didn't want to go
Speaker 6: is because they felt like they said goodbye to Greg
Speaker 6: a long time ago, because that greg that they knew,
Speaker 6: they knew was gone for so long.
Speaker 1: Yeah, a couple things stood out, well, a lot, a
Speaker 1: lot stood out. And you can get the links to
Speaker 1: this story if you haven't read it yet on CK's
Speaker 1: Twitter or just go to the Athletic. You can search
Speaker 1: Chris Comaraddi. Yeah, Chris Comaraddi is where you find it.
Speaker 1: So when he passed, he was homeless.
Speaker 2: Yep.
Speaker 1: He was found near a freeway forty five miles north
Speaker 1: of Los Angeles in his hometown thousands of thousands of Oak,
Speaker 1: California Highway one oh one. And at the time, the
Speaker 1: cause of death was multiple organ failure caused by kretum. Now,
Speaker 1: kretum is a stimulant supplement that a lot of people
Speaker 1: have used to get off of opioid pain medication. I
Speaker 1: believe its origin is Thailand's It's yeah, I mean that
Speaker 1: doesn't matter no right, but that it.
Speaker 6: Is a botanical herb. Yeah that is currently not authorized
Speaker 6: by the FDA and is sold.
Speaker 2: I mean I live right get it, Chevron.
Speaker 6: I live right down the street from a CBD store
Speaker 6: that hastom in the blinking lights.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so that initially organ failure caused by kretum and
Speaker 1: again as c K reference, it is not FDA approved.
Speaker 2: You can you can get it anywhere, you know.
Speaker 1: Have they changed the cause of death based off the
Speaker 1: findings of these they have.
Speaker 6: No so CTE like they're the varying stages like CTE
Speaker 6: Stage four is the most severe stage, which basically renders
Speaker 6: like the human basically not functional. Those are very rare.
Speaker 6: I can't remember. I think maybe Frank Gifford when he died,
Speaker 6: had something close to that, but he was so old.
Speaker 6: I don't know that for sure, But like most of
Speaker 6: the cases are anywhere from one to three. But like
Speaker 6: the thing that killed Greg was he was taking so
Speaker 6: much Credom because he felt like it would help him focus,
Speaker 6: he felt like it would alleviate the pain that was
Speaker 6: going on in his brain and body that it caused
Speaker 6: his kidneys and livers to stop functioning. And like I said,
Speaker 6: there the story kind of tells itself, and it's even's
Speaker 6: brutal to say, but like, here's a guy who was
Speaker 6: the star football player at a very affluent neighborhood in
Speaker 6: southern California. He was on the front page of the
Speaker 6: newspaper and he turned out to be the guy twenty
Speaker 6: years later, like you know, trying to sell stuff and
Speaker 6: ask for money in the Whole Food's parking lot, and
Speaker 6: like this is a guy who had a sack in
Speaker 6: the Sugar Bowl. And you know, Kyle Whittingham told me, like,
Speaker 6: we don't go undefeated without Greg without you know, they
Speaker 6: had a bunch of injuries on the interior line that
Speaker 6: year and Greg stepped in. He was a former linebacker,
Speaker 6: like crazy, undersized, and he did well. He had nine
Speaker 6: and a half sacks, tied for the most on a
Speaker 6: defense that sent seven guys to the seven guys got
Speaker 6: drafted off that defense. So the anecdotes are terribly painful,
Speaker 6: but like they're the things that, unfortunately, I think people
Speaker 6: need to read in order for them to like reflect
Speaker 6: on what, for some people is the ultimate reality of
Speaker 6: playing the sport.
Speaker 1: Another interesting anecdote or you know, piece of the story
Speaker 1: because you reference and it was his sister Laura, correct yep.
Speaker 1: So by his twenty fourth birthday, he was only twenty
Speaker 1: four when Laura said to you quote that's when the
Speaker 1: voices started, yep. And Greg told Laura and his family
Speaker 1: that the voices in his mind told him he needed
Speaker 1: to serve a mission for the LDS Church. He was,
Speaker 1: he was sent home and reassigned after four months, right
Speaker 1: a radic behavior.
Speaker 6: He was in Tampa, Spanish speaking, and then got sent
Speaker 6: home and then you know, saw some more, saw some therapists.
Speaker 6: The church helped with that, and then he felt like
Speaker 6: he was good enough. I think it was about eight
Speaker 6: months afterward to serve in a Utah based mission. So
Speaker 6: he served in Ogden, but that was short lived as
Speaker 6: well because of the episodes.
Speaker 1: And in addition, there was you know, years of progress
Speaker 1: right where he moved to New York yep. He was
Speaker 1: hired by Northern Trust, passed the first two stages of
Speaker 1: the Chartered Financial Analyst exam, and those exams aren't easy.
Speaker 1: I mean you've got to put in work, you've got
Speaker 1: to study.
Speaker 7: He was top ten percent in both of those.
Speaker 1: Had a girlfriend, kept himself in shape. So there were
Speaker 1: moments in years of progress where you thought he was
Speaker 1: getting out of it.
Speaker 2: But you also received access to his journals. Yep.
Speaker 1: What are some of your takeaways from reading Greg wrote
Speaker 1: during this this horrible process?
Speaker 6: Yeah, I mean like we like I said, credit goes
Speaker 6: to Greg's family because his words tell the story better
Speaker 6: than I could, and they shared you know, dozens and
Speaker 6: dozens of pages of journal entries from over the years,
Speaker 6: and it's like seeing how he felt ashamed of how
Speaker 6: he was unable to deal with his mental state. Was
Speaker 6: was really was really sad. Like it for obvious, like
Speaker 6: to state the obvious, but to see somebody's de evolution
Speaker 6: in real time just through handwriting is really crazy because,
Speaker 6: like the earlier entries are extremely coherent, he's asking questions
Speaker 6: of why he's feeling this way, but then as the
Speaker 6: years go on, they become increasingly less coherent, to the
Speaker 6: point where he starts basically thinking he's living in an
Speaker 6: imaginary world. Like I said, he's drawing pictures of dragons
Speaker 6: that he thinks will he'll be able to sell to
Speaker 6: people in the parking lot of you know, the whole
Speaker 6: Foods in his hometown got obsessed with crystals because they
Speaker 6: felt like he felt like they could be a healing
Speaker 6: factor with his mind. He was, you know, an an
Speaker 6: unhoused guy at the library, always on the computer, and
Speaker 6: like you see that a lot in big cities and
Speaker 6: small cities too, and like it's it's it's yeah, it's
Speaker 6: it's a it's a stark reminder for everybody that like,
Speaker 6: while we while we celebrate this, this sport and this
Speaker 6: is part of the DNA of our of our country's culture,
Speaker 6: there are people who we lose along the way. And unfortunately,
Speaker 6: there are a lot of people that aren't necessarily leading
Speaker 6: sports center.
Speaker 1: And the you know, one more thing here and then
Speaker 1: we'll get to your assignment for the athletic and do
Speaker 1: a little Utah football before I say you lose. One
Speaker 1: of the things that almost made me emotional reading it
Speaker 1: was he tried. Yeah, you know, he was looking for solutions,
Speaker 1: He was looking for answers. He wasn't giving up. He
Speaker 1: was trying to figure some stuff out out the line.
Speaker 1: I think this is his mother quote. His imaginary world
Speaker 1: was more real to him than this. There wasn't a
Speaker 1: light side to him anymore. He he was he was
Speaker 1: trying to get on his feet. You know, he wanted
Speaker 1: to work, He wanted to be a part of society.
Speaker 1: This wasn't some deadbeat that just you know, was resigned
Speaker 1: to his fate.
Speaker 7: Yeah.
Speaker 6: Well, and again, there are so many like truly like
Speaker 6: horrifyingly sad anecdotes in the story, but like one of
Speaker 6: the reasons why he felt like drugs like Adderall that
Speaker 6: would help him like focus, because his the you know,
Speaker 6: the the damage to his brain wouldn't allow him to
Speaker 6: focus at all. So he would take Adderall and vibe Ance,
Speaker 6: which are stimulants to help you focus. Unknowingly, that is
Speaker 6: what made the voices and what made his episodes more
Speaker 6: and more intense and more and more often. So it's
Speaker 6: it's tough, and it is you know, it's it's a
Speaker 6: privileged to be able to tell his story like I,
Speaker 6: you know, we talk about some of my best stories
Speaker 6: and I often tell you that I can't remember, but
Speaker 6: like Greg will absolutely be at the top of the list.
Speaker 4: It was.
Speaker 1: It was gripping. It was really well done. Once I started,
Speaker 1: I couldn't stop. Yeah, the Adderall stuff, man, I know,
Speaker 1: it's basically accepted in our society is something that people met.
Speaker 2: It's met. It is legalized method.
Speaker 6: It is a stimulant that allows the brand to hyper
Speaker 6: focus on things. But like to me, like the helmet too,
Speaker 6: like the like the fact that they found his helmet
Speaker 6: in in storage after he died, and just the damage
Speaker 6: that still shows you after just one game in the
Speaker 6: game that was like the highlight of his career is
Speaker 6: pretty telling as well.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the anecdote where his parents brought him a meal
Speaker 1: on Christmas when he was living in a tent. Dude,
Speaker 1: it was just like the whole thing is. It's very,
Speaker 1: very powerful. So well done there, It's time to hit
Speaker 1: the pitch on the drive. The RSL Insider today and
Speaker 1: every day is brought to you by Beer Bar Head
Speaker 1: Downtown for watching and game day shuttles to the stadium
Speaker 1: more at beer BARSLC dot com.
Speaker 2: Time now for the triumphant return. He's been a busy boy.
Speaker 1: He's traveling all over the place, but I believe he's back.
Speaker 2: In town now.
Speaker 1: Brian Dunseeth RSL Legends, Dottie, how are you, buddy.
Speaker 7: I'm good.
Speaker 5: I'm good. Yeah, I appreciate that. By the way. Two things.
Speaker 5: Number one, I'm so happy for you man. You're absolutely
Speaker 5: killing it. I love to see the arc of your
Speaker 5: career and how you've established yourself as the voice of
Speaker 5: sports here in Utah and just the role that you
Speaker 5: have in educating people and getting the guests that you have.
Speaker 5: You do such a great job. And then I'll know
Speaker 5: in my own minds, I like to think that a
Speaker 5: tribe call Quest is be open just specifically for me.
Speaker 5: So yeah, man, I'm always appreciative of the opportunity to
Speaker 5: talk without you my man, well.
Speaker 2: I appreciate the kind words.
Speaker 1: And yes, when we think Dottie, we think RSL, so
Speaker 1: it is for you, or excuse me, we think tribe
Speaker 1: call quest.
Speaker 2: It is for you. Are you back? Are you back
Speaker 2: on the ground? Bryan?
Speaker 5: I am, I am. I was just my wife and
Speaker 5: I were just calculating what these last two months have
Speaker 5: been since I did the United States first game against
Speaker 5: Turkey two months ago out in Stanford, Connecticut, and I've
Speaker 5: done thirty eight games in two months times. So the
Speaker 5: FIFA Club World Cup, I think I did twenty five
Speaker 5: games in twenty eight days back to MLS and then
Speaker 5: I just came off doing six games in eight days
Speaker 5: for the League's Cup. So very very very fortunate and
Speaker 5: a very very busy time. And my wife Jade is
Speaker 5: doing what we're can, giving me this opportunity for a
Speaker 5: dream job.
Speaker 1: And it feels like, to reciprocate your kind words, your
Speaker 1: career has really taken off as well. I mean, what's
Speaker 1: it kind of been like to expand this role that
Speaker 1: once upon a time was calling RSL games on the
Speaker 1: radio or doing pre aff and postgames on the radio
Speaker 1: with me. And now to experience where you your career
Speaker 1: art has taken you.
Speaker 7: Yeah, no, man, listen.
Speaker 5: For those that don't know when I retired or what,
Speaker 5: they just basically said, you're not good enough. My first
Speaker 5: job in the business was with you doing prem postgame
Speaker 5: radio for weal sall late games and that was that
Speaker 5: was two thousand and six. That would have been right
Speaker 5: around May two thousand and six. And uh, you know,
Speaker 5: here here this crazy path of not having an agent
Speaker 5: and you know this trying to create relationships and be
Speaker 5: a man of your work and be a man of
Speaker 5: you know good you know, like your morals and sticking
Speaker 5: to it, especially in this business which you know you
Speaker 5: can sell your you can sell your soul pretty quickly,
Speaker 5: as we've seen a lot of guys in our business do. Yeah, man,
Speaker 5: really really really fortunate And the FIFA Club World Cup
Speaker 5: was the first time that I was getting the opportunity
Speaker 5: to be the undisputed number one analyst, you know, being
Speaker 5: able to call some amazing games with Andris Cantor for
Speaker 5: Lionel Messi and then to Miami to being there and
Speaker 5: watching PSG thump Real Madrid and calling the game from
Speaker 5: MetLife Stadium and that four nil thrashing, and then you know,
Speaker 5: four days later, watching Chelsea beat PSG at their own
Speaker 5: game in the sellout of MetLife Stadium. You know, to
Speaker 5: the point where I got invited to a FIFA dinner
Speaker 5: one of those gallays and I said, nah, my Left
Speaker 5: Coast j goes, are you out of your mind? You
Speaker 5: are absolutely going And it's Cipriani's on fifty fifth Wall
Speaker 5: Street and being there with Infantino and Arsen Benger and
Speaker 5: you know, iconic players like Stitchcof and Cafu and being
Speaker 5: around all the guys from the Zone and you know,
Speaker 5: hearing them speak in front of me about you know,
Speaker 5: the job that I do.
Speaker 4: It was.
Speaker 5: It was wild man, so very very very thankful, very fortunate.
Speaker 5: You know, a broadcast that on his own was doing good,
Speaker 5: jillions of numbers doing on T and T almost two
Speaker 5: million eyeballs for the game. Yeah, it's outside of outside
Speaker 5: of Colin World Cup or calling a UA FIT Champions
Speaker 5: League final. This was the biggest game that I've could
Speaker 5: have been a part of. And yeah, hopefully keep the
Speaker 5: ball rolling and continue to grow and evolved as a broadcaster.
Speaker 5: It's been a fun ride.
Speaker 2: Man, it's really cool.
Speaker 1: I wonder, Donnie, how you would articulate because I heard
Speaker 1: you know, Don Garber has told the story when he
Speaker 1: was in for our listeners who don't know. Don Garber
Speaker 1: is the commissioner of Major League Soccer, and when he
Speaker 1: was with the NFL, they went overseas and he saw
Speaker 1: a real Madrid game and I think it was in
Speaker 1: it inz to Don who scored like a crazy scissor kick,
Speaker 1: like thirty yard bomb, and that was like Don's eye
Speaker 1: opening moment to wait, soccer has played like this, And
Speaker 1: my father oftentimes tells the story similarly of being with
Speaker 1: the NBA NBA International prior to his staying with MSG,
Speaker 1: and he was over in Madrid and went to a
Speaker 1: real Madrid game and saw the way soccer was played
Speaker 1: over there, juxtaposed with the way that it's plight here.
Speaker 1: How do you articulate, Like when you're calling a FIFA
Speaker 1: World Cup Championship match between two powerhouses like Chelsea and PSG,
Speaker 1: and then you're asked to call like a Columbus crew.
Speaker 2: I don't know, San Jose game? What what?
Speaker 4: What?
Speaker 1: Are the main differences in the way the game is
Speaker 1: played at the highest of levels in Europe or wherever,
Speaker 1: opposed to the way that it's played here in Major
Speaker 1: League Soccer.
Speaker 2: And are we making progress here?
Speaker 5: Yeah? Let me let me, let me, let me attack
Speaker 5: this from the way you fit or doesn't get the
Speaker 5: respect that it deserves. And you and I go back
Speaker 5: to that first year with Real Salt Lake playing up
Speaker 5: at Rice Cycles and trying to put together a team
Speaker 5: led by Jason christ and Clant Mathis and Eddie Pope
Speaker 5: and Dante Washington myself, you know, mixed in with Brian Candler,
Speaker 5: mixed in with a bunch of dynamic, young, inexperienced, heavily talented,
Speaker 5: heavily egoed kids, and where the modern game is now
Speaker 5: versus then, it's undescribable. I mean I could sit here
Speaker 5: and try to wax poetic verbally and I still wouldn't
Speaker 5: touch the growth that we have in the League Soccer.
Speaker 5: The speed of player, of technical ability, the infrastructure. I mean,
Speaker 5: we were getting dressed in the football locker room, its
Speaker 5: stepping out on that turf and our bodies were breaking
Speaker 5: down on a daily basis because ten months training on
Speaker 5: turf and never being on grass is absolutely murdered all
Speaker 5: of us. And to see now what happens, you know,
Speaker 5: down at the Zebra, the training facility for REALSHA like
Speaker 5: the infrastructure for the academy for the Monarchs, for the Royals,
Speaker 5: the investment, the collective bargaining Agreement, all of these things.
Speaker 5: It's incredible what we've seen in real time. But we're
Speaker 5: also then trying to judge, you know, this juxtaposition of
Speaker 5: a team that's thirty years old versus these infrastructures that
Speaker 5: are over one hundred years old. And even the game
Speaker 5: against Club America the other night, I mean, you have
Speaker 5: one hundred year's worth of difference between these two clubs.
Speaker 5: We all saw laking Club America. So when you're talking
Speaker 5: about Chelsea, you're talking about PSG, it's to spend. You know,
Speaker 5: Chelsea spent over two billion dollars on players in the
Speaker 5: last three seasons, versus a PSG that has an unlimited
Speaker 5: checkbook because it's state funded. So when you're talking about that,
Speaker 5: you're talking about players that are worth you know, anywhere
Speaker 5: from fifty to one hundred million that are sprinkled throughout
Speaker 5: that roster. And to see the speed, the athleticism, the intelligence,
Speaker 5: the technical ability to see and try to put together
Speaker 5: food for thought. When you're talking about tactics and you know, execution,
Speaker 5: it's it's it's just not fair to try to compare
Speaker 5: the elite of the elite versus what we've seen in
Speaker 5: Major League soccer. I know, we're constantly trying to wed
Speaker 5: and this is what the brilliance of the FIFA Club
Speaker 5: World Cup because we say, oh, you know, like Fluminense
Speaker 5: in Brazil, you know, I wonder what they would look
Speaker 5: like against a premier league team, a game that matters.
Speaker 5: This summer was not about friendlies. This summer was about
Speaker 5: the winning team taking home over one hundred million dollars.
Speaker 5: One hundred million dollars. So the balance is the speed
Speaker 5: of play is going to look different, the technical ability
Speaker 5: is going to look different, and the overall quality the
Speaker 5: assets are astronomical versus when you're in Major League soccer,
Speaker 5: you know that there's a really strong starting eleven and
Speaker 5: then it's going to taper off a little bit. But
Speaker 5: I think that's the brilliance of having owners like Inter
Speaker 5: Miami with Jorge mass and David Beckham that are pushing
Speaker 5: the envelope of growth in Major League Soccer. I still
Speaker 5: don't think David Beckham gets the credit he deserves for
Speaker 5: coming at the time in which he did to the
Speaker 5: LA Galaxy. But I also don't think he gets the
Speaker 5: credit for what he's done in terms of building inter Miami,
Speaker 5: because I think that club is really going to push
Speaker 5: the envelop and fast track and rising tide is going
Speaker 5: to lift all ships in Major League Soccer, and I
Speaker 5: think we're going to see I call it nuclear arms spending, Spence.
Speaker 5: I think you're going to see more and more nuclear
Speaker 5: arms spending because it's going to be the necessity of
Speaker 5: MLS teams having to spend between ten to fifteen million
Speaker 5: just to stay with him touching distance, as other teams
Speaker 5: are going to look to push the threshold somewhere between
Speaker 5: twenty five and thirty five million per off season and
Speaker 5: per summer transfer window.
Speaker 2: There have been some.
Speaker 1: Very notable signings as of late, and the sun has
Speaker 1: set in La.
Speaker 2: Donnie see what I did there, my guys, Sonny, I did,
Speaker 2: and I can't. I'm excited.
Speaker 1: He's been my favorite because you know, I'm a Spurs
Speaker 1: guy and I've loved him for a long, long time.
Speaker 2: In a vacuum.
Speaker 1: What sort of effect does this have, not just for LAFC,
Speaker 1: but what does this say about players willingness to look
Speaker 1: at MLS.
Speaker 5: As strong as ever? Rodrigo de Paul leaving Atletico Madrid
Speaker 5: will play in Miami, you know, think about Thomas Mueller
Speaker 5: signing in Vancouver leaving you know, f C Byron. This
Speaker 5: one's a little bit different though, because I don't think
Speaker 5: I know, you know, the power of Ferney with the
Speaker 5: South Korean market. A guy who has one hundred and
Speaker 5: thirty four international appearances for South Korea. He is he
Speaker 5: is a a K pop superstar footballer and I it's
Speaker 5: funny we I do the podcast, the LC Podcast of Expertos,
Speaker 5: and the moment that there was the announcement that Sonny
Speaker 5: was leaving Tottenham Hotspur, we were doing the podcast and
Speaker 5: the jump in numbers on the podcast was extraordinary. Whether
Speaker 5: it's TikTok, Instagram, Facebook or Twitter, the numbers are outlandish
Speaker 5: because out the money. Don't worry about the money, the
Speaker 5: twenty six twenty seven million that's spent, that's going to
Speaker 5: be recouped the Jersey sales. I hope, I hope LFC
Speaker 5: and Adidas are prepared because that black and goal number
Speaker 5: seven in English and in Korean is going to be unbelievable.
Speaker 5: They had a Hello Kiddy night at Pimo Stadium about
Speaker 5: a month ago and it was outrageous to see the response.
Speaker 5: This is going to be a destination demo stadium, a
Speaker 5: destination for not only the Korean fan base in Los Angeles,
Speaker 5: but the Korean fan base as a whole. I think
Speaker 5: it's genius. It's a messy level type impact, and that's
Speaker 5: what I think is the most fascinating, that fans truly
Speaker 5: don't understand the South Korean market and this is so
Speaker 5: much bigger than anybody could truly understand in real time.
Speaker 5: And by the way, that's a branding commercial side. On
Speaker 5: the field, I'm in love with Sonny. I think he's
Speaker 5: fantastic as a human being. As a player, his net
Speaker 5: goal contribution goals in the sists is extraordinarily high. And
Speaker 5: for anyone says, yeah, but he's thirty three, he's thirty
Speaker 5: three with young man's legs, so plenty left in the tank.
Speaker 5: Brilliant execution from LAFC and I'm glad the deal dot done.
Speaker 1: Your guy Max handled that politician I don't know if
Speaker 1: you saw the clip, but there was a city council woman,
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, can we not have politicians involved in signings?
Speaker 2: They don't know their elbow from their rear.
Speaker 1: So she alluded to the fact that now that it'sn
Speaker 1: he's playing in LA somehow he's gonna help us win
Speaker 1: a World Cup. And then Max step steps up and
Speaker 1: brilliant He's like, yeah, we might get a US South
Speaker 1: Korea final.
Speaker 2: I thought your guy handled that so well.
Speaker 5: Del Max Man, he's the best. He's absolutely you know.
Speaker 5: It reminded me of when Bastin Steinsteiger signed with the
Speaker 5: Chicago Fire and a similar thing happened. And so this
Speaker 5: is where, you know, let's I agree with you. Let's
Speaker 5: just keep politics out of sports and just let sports
Speaker 5: be sports.
Speaker 2: No doubt, no doubt.
Speaker 1: All right, before we get to some specifics with RSL,
Speaker 1: we've got a couple of years sample sized with this
Speaker 1: league's Cup tournament.
Speaker 2: Donny, what do you make of it?
Speaker 1: What do you like what we're trying to do here
Speaker 1: with MLS and League Amakis?
Speaker 5: Yeah, I do. I do like the adjustment to the
Speaker 5: format that it is MLS versus League A mechis in
Speaker 5: every single game. I think it's brilliant. I think it
Speaker 5: helps both sides to really understand from a business perspective,
Speaker 5: from an on the field perspective, what's happening. Covering the
Speaker 5: Club America game, Pablo and I talked about it's going
Speaker 5: to make him and his coaching staff better because they're
Speaker 5: going to understand going against Jordonay, the manager from Club America,
Speaker 5: being one of the best in the region. You know,
Speaker 5: the influence, the tactics to shape, the change of systems,
Speaker 5: the substitution patterns, all of that are hugely, hugely beneficial.
Speaker 5: And again, I think it's naive to suggest that there's
Speaker 5: not an opportunity for maybe Club America fans that see
Speaker 5: Real salt Lake beat them to say, hey, hold on
Speaker 5: a second, I'm in Salt Lake City, my family, we
Speaker 5: grew up Club America fans. I'm going to go out
Speaker 5: and support Real Salt Lake. They're going to be my
Speaker 5: local team. And I'm still going to support Club America
Speaker 5: each and every time they're on television, and we can
Speaker 5: go to a game and support them. So there's a
Speaker 5: cross branding effect. Ahead of the World Cup next summer,
Speaker 5: Mexico Canada and the United States holding games, and I
Speaker 5: think within you know, my friend is my rival, with
Speaker 5: my rival is my friend. I think somewhere there's a
Speaker 5: conversation and the relationship between Legan Mechi's and Major League
Speaker 5: Soccer to continue to evolve and grow, as well as
Speaker 5: creating organic rivalries in the meantime.
Speaker 2: How do these two leagues match up currently?
Speaker 1: I think once upon a time the gap between where
Speaker 1: League at Mekis was and MLS was was massive.
Speaker 2: Is that gap closing?
Speaker 1: Do you think these two leagues are at least on
Speaker 1: similar footing at this point?
Speaker 5: Yeah. I think there's certain teams that have passed the
Speaker 5: majority of the League A Mechi's teams, but the superstar
Speaker 5: teams are still the superstar teams. And you know, when
Speaker 5: you talk about the monsters and the giants of Chieves, Taguadalajara,
Speaker 5: Pulamus Cruise, who will think about America, think about Tiga,
Speaker 5: I think about Pachuca, think about Monterey, you know they
Speaker 5: I think more and more you're seeing LEGA Mch's leadership
Speaker 5: adopt ideas that MLS has had. I think you're seeing
Speaker 5: League A Mechi's teams be really impressed with the infrastructure
Speaker 5: and the spend of the way that MLS is doing things.
Speaker 5: And I think more and more as these games happen,
Speaker 5: there's going to be more players that their first instinct
Speaker 5: would be to play for League A Mechs that are
Speaker 5: now saying, hold on a second, I've played against that
Speaker 5: MLS team. They're really good. I'd rather be a part
Speaker 5: of that, And thinking about from a family perspective, off
Speaker 5: the field perspective, and what that looks like of life
Speaker 5: in America. So I think a lot of things are
Speaker 5: happening right now that are wake up calls for league
Speaker 5: at mechis that are wake up calls for Major League Soccer,
Speaker 5: and overall, I think it's going to strengthen the product product,
Speaker 5: both on and off the field.
Speaker 2: So over to ours.
Speaker 1: A couple of minutes left, I've got with you, Donnie
Speaker 1: there unbere et in nine of their last ten. We'll
Speaker 1: get to the new additions. But what do you most
Speaker 1: attribute this recent turn of form two.
Speaker 5: I think it was adapting to who they weren't, and
Speaker 5: by that I mean the departures of Crooks, Chico Anderson,
Speaker 5: Julio Andres Gomez. I thought, and I understand the ownership
Speaker 5: change created its own circumstances, but Pablo was kind of
Speaker 5: put in a lurch to try to compete with the
Speaker 5: big spenders and the strengthening of rosters at the start
Speaker 5: of the season. He's adjusted. And by the way, for
Speaker 5: anyone that doesn't think Pablo is very, very intelligent, he
Speaker 5: and his staff in terms of tactics, just look at
Speaker 5: the response of how they got the best out of
Speaker 5: Paula Luiz when Brian o'haeda was away trying to get
Speaker 5: his paperwork sorted, the evolution of Diego Luna while he
Speaker 5: was gone and coming back to a team, and now
Speaker 5: you know the significant spend on both Rowan Cruz and
Speaker 5: Olatunji and what that means even with maybe a couple
Speaker 5: other domestic spots before this summer transfer window closes. I
Speaker 5: think what Pablo and his team have done if they
Speaker 5: put themselves in a position to get into the playoffs
Speaker 5: when that certainly wasn't a certain It wasn't for sure.
Speaker 5: And now how quickly can they adapt both the new
Speaker 5: players into the team. Can the new players adapt to
Speaker 5: the culture, the dynamics, the training habits, and then the
Speaker 5: structure and go out and be the best version of
Speaker 5: themselves and the reason why they were brought into play
Speaker 5: for Rialso Lake.
Speaker 1: So let's dig into these signings real quick. Ron Cruz,
Speaker 1: we saw him last night for about thirty minutes. It
Speaker 1: was a pretty quiet thirty minutes. He's brought in as
Speaker 1: a DP. Pablo on the show called them a nine
Speaker 1: point five somebody who can play striker but also make plays.
Speaker 1: So designated player there's a purchase option at the end
Speaker 1: of eighteen months.
Speaker 2: What do you know about him? How do you think
Speaker 2: you'll fit in here?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 5: So a player that was a part of Botafogo's squad
Speaker 5: FIFA Club World Cup, didn't play, hasn't played a lot
Speaker 5: of minutes recently, very dynamic, high high high ceiling, spent
Speaker 5: some time over in Europe, scored I think twenty four
Speaker 5: goals and like fifty appearances, came back. If he's coming
Speaker 5: out of Brazil, I would put him. Yeah. I would
Speaker 5: use the example of Colorado's hafe On Navajo, the number nine,
Speaker 5: where it took him a little bit of time to adapt,
Speaker 5: and once he did adapt, these last ten years two years,
Speaker 5: he's been fantastic. So I'm hoping he's like Hafa Navajo
Speaker 5: in Colorado great size, great intelligence, great technical ability. He's
Speaker 5: adapting to the teammates. The teammates are adapting to him,
Speaker 5: similar to Williagatta. Similar. The good news is he's early,
Speaker 5: like Chicho a Latunji, great experience in Nigerian, in Sparta Prague,
Speaker 5: He's got some international understanding of what it means. He's
Speaker 5: kind of a right side underneath type ish player. They
Speaker 5: need that, especially with Dominic mar Chuk being nowhere near
Speaker 5: the player we thought he was capable of being. So
Speaker 5: we'll see how quickly they adapt. Still think they need
Speaker 5: competition at right back. Besides that, everything else looks pretty good.
Speaker 5: I need to see more from Diego Gonzalez. Still haven't
Speaker 5: seen enough from him. But they got some tough decisions
Speaker 5: to make, and we'll see as important players coming in,
Speaker 5: I think is as important as some of the players
Speaker 5: going out.
Speaker 2: So the Olatunji kid, the Victor Olatunji kid, more of
Speaker 2: a natural nine. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And also both these two players Doney are big and
Speaker 1: tall and long, and Pablo on the show a couple
Speaker 1: of weeks ago was kind of bemoaning the fact that
Speaker 1: they just aren't a very big team.
Speaker 2: They actually just scored their first corner.
Speaker 1: Of the year, and it was Ohita who suddenly is
Speaker 1: like scoring goals left and right, which is wild.
Speaker 2: But as far as the natural nine, how do you
Speaker 2: think a tun Gi fits in?
Speaker 5: Yeah, I don't know if he's a true number nine.
Speaker 5: To be quite honest with him, With what I've seen
Speaker 5: so far, I think he's I would probably use very
Speaker 5: similar to the nine point five conversation, or maybe an
Speaker 5: underneath type of guy, or maybe even like on the
Speaker 5: right hand side when he's facing goal, he's frightening, and
Speaker 5: that's what they're going to look Listen. You know, for
Speaker 5: Papulo talking about bodies, you know, a god has good sized,
Speaker 5: pole has been good size, but they need players that
Speaker 5: conversion the opportunity is much higher. And you know, the
Speaker 5: Coma Medica game is maybe the perfect example of the
Speaker 5: Cincinnati game, the perfect example that Willy a Gotta puts
Speaker 5: himself in some great spots, but he's not a natural converter.
Speaker 5: He needs three or four opportunities. And so that's effectively
Speaker 5: what you're trying to buy is guys that need two
Speaker 5: chances to find the back of them, as opposed to
Speaker 5: guys that you have that need three to four chances,
Speaker 5: So that's going to be the challenge for the two
Speaker 5: new guys coming in.
Speaker 1: You may have answered this question because you referenced the
Speaker 1: compet right back that you think needs to be there,
Speaker 1: But Kurt on the show yesterday alluded to one or
Speaker 1: if not two, potential additions before this window closes, which
Speaker 1: I believe is in about two and a half weeks.
Speaker 2: Any thoughts on where that could or should be? What
Speaker 2: does that look like?
Speaker 5: I mean, I'm of the belief since Brooks Lennon and
Speaker 5: Aaron Herrera left Real salt Lake and these are multiple,
Speaker 5: multiple years that Real salt Lake has been extremely weak
Speaker 5: at the right back position. You know, Andrew Brody was
Speaker 5: supposed to be the guy. The body Hidalgo was supposed
Speaker 5: to be the guy. You know, You've gone through three
Speaker 5: or four or five different options. Noel Kalaskin has done
Speaker 5: a fantastic job, but I'm not of the belief that
Speaker 5: he's a right back. Similar to when Mechanelli was being
Speaker 5: played at right back, I didn't think he was a
Speaker 5: right back. So there's going to be players that are
Speaker 5: experienced and that are going to be made available, and
Speaker 5: I'm of the belief that what this roster needs is
Speaker 5: experienced MLS type of veteran guys in that locker room
Speaker 5: that can help navigate some of the lesser experienced players
Speaker 5: as well as some of the foreign players that don't
Speaker 5: know the riggers and the daily ins and outs of
Speaker 5: what it takes in Major League Soccer. I think having
Speaker 5: a couple of really experienced MLS guys are always important,
Speaker 5: and I would use that example. I would use the
Speaker 5: example of Toronto FC, when Toronto FC had Jaavinco and
Speaker 5: they had Michael Bradley, and they had Josie Altador. They
Speaker 5: still have the Jonathan Messorios. They had the Beta Shores,
Speaker 5: they had the Justin Morrows, they had the Drew Moores.
Speaker 5: And I think it's a very undervalued group of players
Speaker 5: that become high value type of players for a team
Speaker 5: in a locker room.
Speaker 1: I believe eleven matches left Dottie before the end of
Speaker 1: the season before we set you loose. Do you feel
Speaker 1: like this recent turn of form, combined with the additions,
Speaker 1: will be enough to get RSL into the playoffs and
Speaker 1: maybe do something I'll just say somewhat interesting.
Speaker 5: I think they're a playoff team with these additions. I
Speaker 5: don't think they're a home playoff team with these editions,
Speaker 5: that creates its own set of circumstances. But as I
Speaker 5: said that, I would reference last year and the final
Speaker 5: was LA Galaxy against the New York Red Bulls. It's
Speaker 5: a different tournament once you get into the playoffs and
Speaker 5: it's all about form. It's all about momentum. And the
Speaker 5: idea of this weekend being a perfect example. If wealso
Speaker 5: LA can go to the New York Red Bulls and
Speaker 5: walk away with three points, that's the type of mentality
Speaker 5: that they need to start creating. It's a free hit,
Speaker 5: it's out of conference, and you need to be able
Speaker 5: to understand that you are going to have to be
Speaker 5: on the road in the playoffs based on that first
Speaker 5: half of the season. So if you start to do that,
Speaker 5: then you build yourself to confidence and the momentum necessary
Speaker 5: to potentially make a run at an MLS Stup final.
Speaker 1: All right, my guy, I appreciate the time as always,
Speaker 1: Welcome back, welcome home.
Speaker 2: Go spend some time with that family and we'll chat soon.
Speaker 5: Be well, okay, appreciate you, ma man, Thank you all right.
Speaker 1: Brian Dunseeth Elvetts played ten years in MLS, was on
Speaker 1: the Olympic team, was the captain of that Olympic team
Speaker 1: and now broadcaster for Apple TV and Turner Sports, doing
Speaker 1: some really really big matches, including the FIFA Club World
Speaker 1: Cup Final between Chelsea and PSG, which is pretty phenomenal
Speaker 1: to see. To see Donny's career spike the way that
Speaker 1: it has, Donnee stops by today courtesy my friends of
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Speaker 1: no obligation estimate at eighth one eight two eight six
Speaker 1: seven zero. That's eighth one eight two one eight six
Speaker 1: seven zero. Preseason games tonight once starts in one hour.
Speaker 1: It's Colts Ravens. Then we got Bengals, Eagles, Raiders, Seahawks.
Speaker 1: So some pro football on your TV, and our good
Speaker 1: friend Sam Bruckouse stops by on a Thursday afternoon. Sam,
Speaker 1: Happy Thursday, man, How you doing.
Speaker 4: I'm doing good man. You kind of broke my neck
Speaker 4: there with the with the Swiss and the music. We
Speaker 4: were playing some Rebecca Black Friday. All of a sudden
Speaker 4: in the tribe called quest I like the range spence there.
Speaker 1: To go, Well, I've got to give my producer the credit.
Speaker 1: Supporter gets the credit there. Hey Sam, what if anything
Speaker 1: can we learn when we sit down to watch these
Speaker 1: preseason games starting tonight.
Speaker 4: Yeah. So we talked about this with some general managers,
Speaker 4: some x scouts and coaches on the Summer Sports Show,
Speaker 4: which you can find on YouTube. We got some excellent
Speaker 4: video packages. Go subscribe at suomer Sports on YouTube. And
Speaker 4: I think the thing you really want to pay attention
Speaker 4: to is after those kind of first stringers come out,
Speaker 4: when do people get into the game. Because the coaches
Speaker 4: are sitting there and they have evaluations that they want
Speaker 4: to have, and they're not just sending people in willy
Speaker 4: nilly or sending in packages. There's times and places in
Speaker 4: which they want to see these players play. So one
Speaker 4: of the things that Mike mccagnan, an external manager who
Speaker 4: had to make these tough decisions, particularly when it came
Speaker 4: to cutting people and who was on the borderline, was
Speaker 4: when they got in the game and who they were
Speaker 4: playing against. And so a lot of the time you'll
Speaker 4: find that if a guy starts getting increasing reps in
Speaker 4: these preseason games against the twos, that they may be
Speaker 4: a player who may be being considered for a starting position.
Speaker 4: But interestingly enough, we found out Spence that a lot
Speaker 4: of the time the guys that are probably going to
Speaker 4: be on the practice squad, who may be getting raved
Speaker 4: about in practice, may actually be getting hidden. And so
Speaker 4: some of the guys who are really contributing on special
Speaker 4: teams but on the stretch of the game, are getting
Speaker 4: in late, they may actually still end up on your
Speaker 4: practice squad roster. A lot of interesting mechanics from the
Speaker 4: coaches and general managers, but I think today, in particular
Speaker 4: the Colts, we'll actually get to see a quarterback battle.
Speaker 4: We'll get to see both Daniel Jones and any Richardson
Speaker 4: trying to play high level football. And I'm excited about that.
Speaker 2: What do you think gets that job?
Speaker 1: That's where I was going to go next, because you know,
Speaker 1: some of the games tonight actually do have some intrigue.
Speaker 1: And you know, we're not going to see Lamar, we
Speaker 1: won't see Burrow. You know, we're not going to see
Speaker 1: like the big name dudes whose jobs are saved. But
Speaker 1: at the end of the day, when the dust settles,
Speaker 1: who's under center for the Colts this year?
Speaker 4: It's a great question as compared to last year, where
Speaker 4: it was, you know, a bunch of quarterbacks who weren't
Speaker 4: necessarily in the mold of Anthony Richardson behind him. They
Speaker 4: now have two quarterbacks who can run the ball as well,
Speaker 4: Daniel Jones obviously coming in from the New York Giants,
Speaker 4: and then Riley Leonard, the Notre Dame product to college
Speaker 4: football fans out there in Utah may remember, was in
Speaker 4: the college football playoffs. I'm really intrigued. I think it's
Speaker 4: still probably Anthony Richardson's jobs to lose. I think he
Speaker 4: is the most talented quarterback. Last year, he really did
Speaker 4: an excellent job of pushing the ball down the field.
Speaker 4: He just couldn't put it together with his accuracy. I
Speaker 4: think if he can improve marginally throughout the preseason on
Speaker 4: his accuracy downfield, it really changes the calculus, even if
Speaker 4: he still misses some of those short and intermediate throws
Speaker 4: given the scheme that Shane Stiken likes to run. But
Speaker 4: I'm really looking at Riley Leonard as well. This was
Speaker 4: a guy who, while he was at Duke was looked
Speaker 4: at as more of a first round prospect. After you know,
Speaker 4: a season that didn't necessarily work out exactly how they
Speaker 4: wanted to at Duke and then a season where he
Speaker 4: struggled to kind of put it all together in the
Speaker 4: passing game. Was but was an excellent runner at Notre Dame.
Speaker 4: I'm interested to see if he can, you know, do
Speaker 4: what Shane Stiken needs him to do in the preseason,
Speaker 4: maybe jump up to the two spot going into the season,
Speaker 4: either behind Daniel Jones or Athy Richardson, or ultimately become
Speaker 4: the starter. I actually think there's a better probability to
Speaker 4: all three of these players get core reps in this game.
Speaker 4: Been't necessarily just the top two.
Speaker 1: Any intrigue on the Raven side of things preseason style
Speaker 1: there second in the Vegas odds to win the Super Bowl.
Speaker 1: I've got the this is DraftKings Bill's first Raven second.
Speaker 1: But it feels like Harbo's got a group that he
Speaker 1: knows what sort of hand he'd been dealt. So maybe
Speaker 1: this is just kind of like a stay healthy type thing,
Speaker 1: and he intrigued to watch the h to watch the
Speaker 1: Ravens tonight.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I was about to say, I think the biggest
Speaker 4: intrigue may be their sports betting odds on the AFC
Speaker 4: title or on the Super Bowl. But a thing that
Speaker 4: I really am going to closely look at is going
Speaker 4: to be their back end depths. They added Malachi Starks
Speaker 4: at the free safety position and then also on their
Speaker 4: front line depths. People forget that this team did not
Speaker 4: get off to the shiniest start last year. It took
Speaker 4: a while for their defense, particularly their pass defense, to
Speaker 4: get right. They made a couple of shifts, playing Nate
Speaker 4: Wiggins more, moving Marlon Humphrey to the slot, and then
Speaker 4: also on the offensive line, some of the young young
Speaker 4: players kind of came along as well as Ronnie Stanley
Speaker 4: at the left tackle position being able to be healthy
Speaker 4: all year. Look at some of those frontline depth players.
Speaker 4: If they're starting to get pushed, that's a good signal
Speaker 4: for them long term, especially if you see guys like
Speaker 4: Ronnie Stanley a little bit older start to go down,
Speaker 4: and then I'm really going to be king in on
Speaker 4: that back end to see if any of those guys.
Speaker 2: Have a lot of juice.
Speaker 4: Should the defense start to struggle again.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna see the Bengals in the Eagles tonight in Philly.
Speaker 1: It feels like the Bengals are kind of like this
Speaker 1: in vogue, pick to do something special this year because
Speaker 1: their Super Bowl odds are pretty low. Obviously they're solid
Speaker 1: under center. But I've heard a lot of people when
Speaker 1: it comes to where the odds but the Bengals to say,
Speaker 1: keep an eye on Cincinnati Philly, just like the Ravens
Speaker 1: and the Bills. As I reference, they're one of the
Speaker 1: top three teams to win the Super Bowl according to
Speaker 1: Vegas at plus seven hundred Accordiona FanDuel.
Speaker 2: That's right beyond in Buffalo and Baltimore. So what do
Speaker 2: you be looking for? Matchup two tonight? Cincinnati Philadelphia.
Speaker 4: I think the Eagles have by far the best roster
Speaker 4: in the league. I think the Lions do rival them,
Speaker 4: but the Lions I don't think have the defensive depth. Now,
Speaker 4: if you told me this last year, I wasn't a
Speaker 4: big believer in the Eagles defense going in. I could
Speaker 4: see some regression happening. They had a lot of rookies
Speaker 4: and guys like Zach Bond who were basically signed off
Speaker 4: the scrap heap that played quite frankly, to an all
Speaker 4: pro level, which is very rare. I could see some
Speaker 4: regression there. But with the Bingals in particular. I think
Speaker 4: my friend Nate Tice from Yahoo Sports said it best.
Speaker 4: If you believed in the early aughts Colts, then I
Speaker 4: can understand why you believe in the Bengals. They have
Speaker 4: two excellent wide receivers in Jamar Chase and t Higgins,
Speaker 4: and the quarterback is good. They have a pretty good
Speaker 4: running back as well in Chase Brown, and an offensive
Speaker 4: line that for the most part does its job. The
Speaker 4: defense just very very badly struggles. And me and Lindsay Roads,
Speaker 4: my co host of the Summer Sports Show, we're discussing
Speaker 4: kind of the fantasy outlooks on these players, and I
Speaker 4: think last year we just saw such a strange year
Speaker 4: from the Bengals. I think it's probably possible that the
Speaker 4: defense could just get slightly better, because it can't get
Speaker 4: much worse than last year. But I wouldn't necessarily expect
Speaker 4: to Mar Chase or Joe Burrow to have, you know,
Speaker 4: the super duper top tier seasons that they had last year.
Speaker 4: Both of those were career and quite frankly, almost historically
Speaker 4: great years, So I think there's kind of a mishmash.
Speaker 4: I don't think they're going to be wildly better than
Speaker 4: they were last year. But last year they were an
Speaker 4: extremely competitive team down the stretch, and I like to
Speaker 4: bet on good quarterbacks and good wide receivers. So I
Speaker 4: wouldn't put them in the top tier of surprise teams,
Speaker 4: or even in the top tier of teams that would
Speaker 4: even make it maybe out of the wild card round.
Speaker 4: But I do think that they will continue to be competitive,
Speaker 4: especially given that we may see an off year the
Speaker 4: Steelers and the Browns in the AFC North.
Speaker 1: The night cap tonight we could call the Pete Carroll
Speaker 1: Bowl or the Gino Smith Bowll. I suppose up at
Speaker 1: lumin Field where the Raiders and the Seahawks will We'll
Speaker 1: go at it. Sam Donald fourteen wins with Minnesota year ago.
Speaker 1: He's now a Seahawks, so same question. And we got
Speaker 1: a lot of Raider fans in this market as a
Speaker 1: result of their move by proximity. They're the closest NFL
Speaker 1: team we have the Salt Lake. Any intrigue with these
Speaker 1: two tonight up at Loominfield in Seattle.
Speaker 4: Yeah. The two things that I'm going to watch bar
Speaker 4: Nune is Number one, how much is offensive coordinator Clint
Speaker 4: Kubiak going to run the ball with the Seattle Seahawks offense.
Speaker 4: Last year, this was a team under Ryan Club, who
Speaker 4: is now at Alabama, was previously with Michael PENNOCKX at Washington,
Speaker 4: slotted in for one year as the offensive coordinator with
Speaker 4: new coach Mike McDonald. With the Seahawks, they passed the
Speaker 4: ball over expected as compared to down and distance and
Speaker 4: time on the clock more than any team in the league.
Speaker 4: Now Clint Kubiak is coming in and they ran the
Speaker 4: ball more than expected, more than almost every single team
Speaker 4: in the league. I think they want a power offense.
Speaker 4: I want to see if that is the direction they
Speaker 4: are going in preseason because it will really change how
Speaker 4: we do Sam Darnold or Jackson Smith and Jigba or
Speaker 4: Kenneth Walker some of the offensive pieces they have on
Speaker 4: the Raiders side of the ball. I'm looking at if
Speaker 4: they can have any weapons for Gino Smith outside of
Speaker 4: Brock Bowers and potentially Michael Mayer the two tight ends
Speaker 4: as well. If we can start to see some juice
Speaker 4: with the wide receivers, I think it shows, you know,
Speaker 4: a little bit of a little bit of shining light
Speaker 4: for a Raiders team that hasn't seen a ton of
Speaker 4: success in the last couple of years.
Speaker 1: Shooter Sanders is going to get the start preseason Game one,
Speaker 1: that is tomorrow in Charlotte against the Panthers. They've just
Speaker 1: signed Tyler Huntleye who played his college ball a mile
Speaker 1: from where I'm broadcasting now. They just signed Snoop, so
Speaker 1: they've got like five quarterbacks on the roster. What do
Speaker 1: you make of Shador getting the start Game one? Does
Speaker 1: that say anything to you and you think there's a
Speaker 1: chance he's gonna start Game one in the regular season.
Speaker 4: I am super excited for this. As the person who
Speaker 4: was talking all draft season about how we don't necessarily
Speaker 4: know which quarterbacks are good who. Once he started dropping
Speaker 4: or saying that, you know, the consensus typically sticks, and
Speaker 4: he was like the twentieth best player. I am extremely
Speaker 4: intrigued by this. I just wish it would have been
Speaker 4: against a different team, because the Panthers spent all off
Speaker 4: season loading up on defensive front deaths. So they're gonna
Speaker 4: be trotting out Princely Umin Mialen, the rookie from Florida
Speaker 4: by way of Ale Miss. They're gonna be trotting out
Speaker 4: Nick score Ten, the rookie from next A and M,
Speaker 4: with the twos and the threes, against Shador Sanders, who
Speaker 4: will also be behind, you know, kind of a rebuilt
Speaker 4: Brown's offensive line. I think the Panthers are going to
Speaker 4: try to really press the gas with the twos and
Speaker 4: the threes and see what those young players can do,
Speaker 4: and I hope that shape Shaedor can. I think it's
Speaker 4: going to be a true test of how the difference
Speaker 4: in system from Colorado, where he was kind of asked
Speaker 4: to do everything and as a result took a ton
Speaker 4: of sex, moving to a more NFL style, Kevin Stefanski
Speaker 4: style offense, which has won Kevin Stefanski two Head Coach
Speaker 4: of the Years, has made Joe Flacco look good at times,
Speaker 4: has made Baker Mayfield look good at times. And let's
Speaker 4: see if he can minimize those negative plays and particular
Speaker 4: sex against a Panthers team who has extremely invested in
Speaker 4: a defensive front and really wants to get after him.
Speaker 1: How do you think that Ben Johnson Caleb Williams marriage
Speaker 1: is going to work? You know, I'm not one to
Speaker 1: dismiss her anoint based off of a social media video
Speaker 1: going around where he made a couple of bad throws
Speaker 1: in practice. And Caleb was a Pac twelve kid. We
Speaker 1: saw him playing saut Lake quite a bit. I know
Speaker 1: he has his detractors. I know he has his supporters.
Speaker 1: Ben Johnson, you know, we know the deal with his
Speaker 1: background and his reputation as an offensive guru. Feels like
Speaker 1: this is a marriage that has a lot of potential
Speaker 1: if things go right. Ye are you bullish on the
Speaker 1: Bears at all this year?
Speaker 4: So? I thowt a really interesting graft today from a
Speaker 4: statistician on Twitter named Joseph Bryan, and he ran like
Speaker 4: a thousand simulations of how the season could go and
Speaker 4: Caleb William's distribution for this season is pretty flat in
Speaker 4: that you know, on average, she'll be about an average quarterback.
Speaker 4: He'll probably do what he did last year. But it
Speaker 4: could go really really good or it could go really
Speaker 4: really bad. And I think a lot of people when
Speaker 4: they hired Ben Johnson, when they brought on Joe Toney,
Speaker 4: rebuilt the offensive line, drafted Colston Lovelin, got him some
Speaker 4: more weapons, just immediately thought this Bears team was going
Speaker 4: to be substantially better. I am of the mind that
Speaker 4: it could be more of the same or worse as
Speaker 4: it stands. And here is my kind of argument. The
Speaker 4: only person I think we can really trust to be
Speaker 4: quite a bit better at their position is Joe Toney.
Speaker 4: We've seen Joe Touney do it on multiple teams. We've
Speaker 4: seen him be an All Pro last year. I think
Speaker 4: he is an excellent addition to that offensive line. However,
Speaker 4: the offensive line wasn't necessarily the problem last year. Research
Speaker 4: shows that quarterback sacks or a quarterback stat quarterbacks do
Speaker 4: have an element of control over that. Caleb was one
Speaker 4: of the most sacked quarterbacks in the league last year,
Speaker 4: and I wouldn't really expect that to change a similar
Speaker 4: wide receiver group, some changes across the offensive line. People
Speaker 4: viewed Jonah Jackson coming in as their new right guard,
Speaker 4: who was with Ben Johnson at the Lions and was
Speaker 4: almost a pro bowler, but then he went to the Rams,
Speaker 4: couldn't even get on the field. Sean McVay wouldn't even
Speaker 4: play him. So I think there's a lot of spots
Speaker 4: where people think this team has gotten miraculously better, and
Speaker 4: I think they've really kind of stayed the same, maybe
Speaker 4: outside of the play caller position. I think a lot
Speaker 4: of the pressure is on Ben Johnson, and I think,
Speaker 4: as you said, that partnership will maintain. I'm a little
Speaker 4: bit more bearish than bullish. The most people bullish on
Speaker 4: the Bears this year.
Speaker 1: Tell me your expectations of cam Ward Year one Tennessee Titans.
Speaker 1: You know, it was an interesting quarterback class. There was
Speaker 1: a debate for a while, then cam Ward sailed to
Speaker 1: the top and it appeared to be a consensus. You know,
Speaker 1: he's He's got Calvin Ridley and Tyler Lockett. He has
Speaker 1: some experience as far as weapons go. But realistic expectations
Speaker 1: year one for Cameron.
Speaker 4: Ward, Yeah, So realistic expectations for a first round quarterback,
Speaker 4: typically they get about twelve starts, whether that's because of
Speaker 4: injury or because of someone else coming in, or in
Speaker 4: the case of cam Ward, ideally he'll play all seventeen games.
Speaker 4: So we'll see what happens. Typically we see slightly above
Speaker 4: a slightly positive touchdown the interception ratio, but very slightly.
Speaker 4: I'd expect him to have, you know, maybe fifteen touchdowns,
Speaker 4: but eleven picks or something like that seems like a
Speaker 4: stat line that makes sense. Quarterbacks are a multi year project,
Speaker 4: especially when you're coming into a situation like the Titans
Speaker 4: where frankly, they're probably going to have the highest probability
Speaker 4: of being the number one pick next year as well,
Speaker 4: unlike kind of the Bears were the year prior, and
Speaker 4: so I think we can expect a lot of them,
Speaker 4: you know, as mad rating is like a seventy two,
Speaker 4: I think that's a little low. As just in terms
Speaker 4: of a consensus ranking. I'd expect him to have an
Speaker 4: okay year, but I wouldn't expect him to really, you know,
Speaker 4: lift the boat of the Tennessee Titans, especially as it
Speaker 4: pertains to an AFC South where you have two excellent
Speaker 4: pass rushers on the Jacksonville Jaguars and two excellent pass
Speaker 4: rushers on the Texans and two excellent defensive tackles on
Speaker 4: the Colts. Some pretty good defenses. I'm not expecting the
Speaker 4: world of cam Ward this year.
Speaker 2: Let's stick with some rookie conversations.
Speaker 1: Also saw Travis Hunter play out this way as he
Speaker 1: was a Pac twelve kid then a big twelve kid
Speaker 1: with Colorado, and Jacksonville is going to play him both ways.
Speaker 1: I guess you don't trade, well, you trade, you know,
Speaker 1: to get him to just use him as a receiver.
Speaker 1: How long do you think this lasts? Is it sustainable?
Speaker 1: Can try Avis Hunter actually do this in pro football?
Speaker 4: So I do think that he's not going to be
Speaker 4: leaned on as the wide receiver. One. Everything we've heard
Speaker 4: from Liam Cohen has been that Brian Thomas Junior, the
Speaker 4: wide receiver out of LSHU, who had an excellent rookie year,
Speaker 4: will be the focal point of the Jaguars offense. And
Speaker 4: I think that aligns with what he did with the Bucks.
Speaker 4: Mike Evans was the focal point of that offense. They
Speaker 4: got the running game going a little bit with Bucky Irving,
Speaker 4: and so I'd expect that Travis Hunter plays more of
Speaker 4: like a Chris Godwin role at the most on offense.
Speaker 4: They've said that he's going to play probably about eighty
Speaker 4: percent of the offensive snaps and be an offensive player
Speaker 4: first and then go to defense. I think that is
Speaker 4: a good expectation. I am very interested to see in
Speaker 4: the preseason how he is played as a defensive corner
Speaker 4: because while he was at while he was at Colorado's Spence,
Speaker 4: you saw it yourself. He was a lockdown corner, like
Speaker 4: he was a guy who would be on a side
Speaker 4: and cut the entire side of the field off. So
Speaker 4: I guess that's not how they intend to use him,
Speaker 4: even though I think that is how he's probably best used.
Speaker 4: I wouldn't be shocked if he's used in the nickel
Speaker 4: or the dime a little bit more as a package player,
Speaker 4: or if there's a quality matchup, particularly with a very
Speaker 4: talented wide receiver two as the season goes on, if
Speaker 4: he's utilized in that way. But I think that probably
Speaker 4: the Chris Godwin mold is what he's going to be
Speaker 4: in for the long term, and then add in a
Speaker 4: sprinkling of defense, at least as it looks currently, who do.
Speaker 1: You like Offense, Defense, Rookie of the year, Give me
Speaker 1: a name for each side of the football. As far
Speaker 1: as Rookies Day you're keeping your eye out for.
Speaker 4: I'm really interested in Tedor Rogan macmillan. Everything I've heard
Speaker 4: out of Panthers camp has been that he has kind
Speaker 4: of separated himself as the wide receiver one. He's starting
Speaker 4: to earn more target share, and I think that's really
Speaker 4: the key piece that the Panthers need, is that quality
Speaker 4: target earner wide receiver one to make Bryce Young make
Speaker 4: the jump. So I think Tedor rog McMillan is going
Speaker 4: to be interesting. Obviously, you got to look at some
Speaker 4: of the quarterbacks that are starting, Cameron Ward obviously as well,
Speaker 4: but I think the person with the chance to be,
Speaker 4: you know, an absolute game breaker this year is probably
Speaker 4: going to be ted Rodan millan. On the offensive side
Speaker 4: of the ball, obviously a lot of great offensive linemen
Speaker 4: as well. They typically don't win, but that was kind
Speaker 4: of the crux of this draft. And I just think
Speaker 4: there's so many good edge rushers out there. I struggle
Speaker 4: to pick one, but I could see, you know, the Falcons,
Speaker 4: James Piercer, Jalen Walker, standing out. Finally, the Falcons getting
Speaker 4: a defensive end, them making the jump on the other
Speaker 4: side with Michael Pennox, and all of a sudden they're
Speaker 4: a playoff team and two of those guys have ten
Speaker 4: plus sacks. I think it's going to be an edge
Speaker 4: rusher on the defensive side of the ball, and you
Speaker 4: can kind of take your pick in the first or
Speaker 4: second round of which edge rusher it might be. And
Speaker 4: then I'm really looking at tedro and McMillan on the
Speaker 4: offensive side of the ball as someone who could have
Speaker 4: a breakout year.
Speaker 2: Let me ask you about a couple of local storylines.
Speaker 1: Jordan Love played his college ball Utah State, and after
Speaker 1: sitting behind Aaron Rodgers for a few years, he gets
Speaker 1: the job. And I would say it's been really, really
Speaker 1: good without anything excellent in the postseason. Do you think
Speaker 1: this is the year that they take that next step
Speaker 1: and maybe win a couple of playoff games.
Speaker 4: I think that if there's any year, it's this year,
Speaker 4: because I think you look at that NFC North, the
Speaker 4: Vikings are starting what functionally as a rookie quarterback. I
Speaker 4: know that people aren't necessarily thinking of it that way,
Speaker 4: but JJ McCarthy has never played a snap in the NFL,
Speaker 4: and moreover, he didn't get a ton of practice time
Speaker 4: last year because he was injured for most of the year.
Speaker 4: I think that could be a real, real setback for
Speaker 4: that team if he's unable to play well and they
Speaker 4: don't have, you know, an absolute ton of depth behind
Speaker 4: him either at the quarterback position. It's an excellent Vikings roster,
Speaker 4: but you kind of come and go as the quarterback goes.
Speaker 4: And we saw, particularly when the tackles got injured, Sam
Speaker 4: Darnold really kind of tanked down the stretch of the
Speaker 4: season last year. I have them slotted as the third
Speaker 4: best team behind Jordan must Packers, and obviously we talked
Speaker 4: about the I think it could be a down year
Speaker 4: as well. I think in the NFC, you don't have
Speaker 4: to deal with the big three, you don't have to
Speaker 4: deal with Alan Mahomes or Jackson, and as a result,
Speaker 4: I think anyone can kind of make a run. I
Speaker 4: think with a young defense led by a guy that
Speaker 4: I think could be an all pro Edrin Cooper at
Speaker 4: the linebacker position on the Packers, I think their defense
Speaker 4: could take a step up. I believe in Lafleur in
Speaker 4: that offense that he's gonna put Jordan Love in a
Speaker 4: good situation to make plays, and I think it's up
Speaker 4: to the wide receiver and tight end group for someone
Speaker 4: really to become a target earner. If that happens, I
Speaker 4: think this could be the year for them, particularly if
Speaker 4: they can overcome or just miss in the NFC playoffs.
Speaker 4: The Detroit Lions.
Speaker 1: Jackson Dharr didn't play his college ball round here, but
Speaker 1: he played his high school ball about twenty miles south
Speaker 1: of where we're broadcasting.
Speaker 2: You think he you think he'll start this year? And
Speaker 2: if so, how long do you think that takes?
Speaker 4: I think it's tough to say. Like I said, first
Speaker 4: round quarterbacks typically do start about twelve games. I don't
Speaker 4: know if this is going to be the case for them.
Speaker 4: I think that Jamis Winston and Russell Wilson are both
Speaker 4: at least trusted veterans there could be trusted to go
Speaker 4: in a starting game, start a game, and be competitive.
Speaker 4: It sounds like this is Russell Wilson's job this year,
Speaker 4: and I don't necessarily see him starting and less kind
Speaker 4: of things start tanking in the season. The Giants have
Speaker 4: an excellent front seven on the defensive side of the ball,
Speaker 4: and they have some talent at the wide receiver position
Speaker 4: with elite neighbors, It's going to be interesting to see.
Speaker 4: Russell Wilson has been known to take sacks and take
Speaker 4: some negative plays, but I think injury or just an
Speaker 4: absolute bottom caving out, I don't necessarily see Jackson Dart starting.
Speaker 1: I'm going to ask you about the other New York
Speaker 1: team because they're my team and I'm a long suffering
Speaker 1: Jet fan, as you know, can you give me any
Speaker 1: hope that this year will be anything other than just
Speaker 1: a dumpster fire?
Speaker 4: So here's the hope is this team is actually pretty talented.
Speaker 4: The consensus is is that the offensive line is pretty good.
Speaker 4: Garrett Wilson is to believe to be a quality wide
Speaker 4: receiver one. The running back room is deep with Brief
Speaker 4: at the top, who I think is didn't necessarily perform
Speaker 4: to how people wanted him to last year, but with
Speaker 4: Braylen Allen behind him, I think that's a pretty good tandem.
Speaker 4: And then the defense has some star talent as well
Speaker 4: that both linebackers are excellent, Quinn Williams on the defensive
Speaker 4: line and Sauz Gardner at the quarnerback position are all
Speaker 4: very very talented players to pretty talented ed rushers as well,
Speaker 4: and Will McDonald obviously had kind of made a jump
Speaker 4: last year. The question is the quarterback position, and I
Speaker 4: think that Aaron Glynn and Tanner Ink should the crew
Speaker 4: coming in from the Lions, will do whatever it takes
Speaker 4: to make this offense move the ball, whether that's going
Speaker 4: for it liberally on fourth down or what I'm most
Speaker 4: excited about is running the quarterback. I think, regardless of
Speaker 4: who is at the quarterback position, if they are unable
Speaker 4: to throw the ball, the quarterback design run game will
Speaker 4: be heavily, heavily utilized by this team, especially if things
Speaker 4: kind of start to stagnate on the offensive side of
Speaker 4: the ball. And we frankly haven't seen that quite a
Speaker 4: while from really any team in the NFL outside of
Speaker 4: the Baltimore Ravens, and I'm really excited for that. I
Speaker 4: think that this could be a year where we see
Speaker 4: like eight to ten carries per game designed for the quarterback.
Speaker 4: I think it's going to be really interesting. It's going
Speaker 4: to keep them in games, and so I could see
Speaker 4: this team being about a five hundred team, but that's
Speaker 4: I wouldn't be willing to say anything over that.
Speaker 1: How does this, Michael Parsons, Jerry Jones, Dallas Cowboys, the
Speaker 1: soap opera, and how do you think this plays out?
Speaker 4: I got I got one note for you, forty two
Speaker 4: million dollars. That's how it ends. Forty two million dollars
Speaker 4: a year in Michael Parson's pocket. There's no way that
Speaker 4: he is not going to remain a cowboy.
Speaker 7: At least is I see it?
Speaker 4: In fact the way I see it Spence's I think
Speaker 4: a conspiracy is happening. I think Jerry knows that he
Speaker 4: can get everyone talking about the Dallas Cowboys, which he's
Speaker 4: smiling like the Sheshire Cat anytime a microphone is in
Speaker 4: front of him, and Michael Parsons realize that he can
Speaker 4: get more people to listen to his post cast by
Speaker 4: kind of milking this and taking it all these crazy terms.
Speaker 4: This ends with forty two million dollars in his pocket.
Speaker 4: I was on Radio Row when Miles Gearrett said he
Speaker 4: would never play for the Cleveland Browns ever again, and
Speaker 4: they had disrespected him, and there were people following him.
Speaker 4: And he's a massive guy, six five, three hundred pounds
Speaker 4: walking through with microphones on him. Guess what, forty million
Speaker 4: dollars hit his checkbook will hit his check book this year.
Speaker 4: It's going to be the same for Michael Parsons.
Speaker 2: Wonder your thoughts on it.
Speaker 1: It's always a tough thing to make serious inroads in
Speaker 1: pro football and go from bad to good, and then
Speaker 1: it's even harder to go from good to grade. Can
Speaker 1: we see the Commanders go from good to grade this year?
Speaker 1: Based off of their editions and that dynamic young quarterback
Speaker 1: who we also had out here in our pack twelve footprint.
Speaker 4: I think it's very possible given the profile that Jade
Speaker 4: Daniels put out last year. You know, we saw CJ. Stroud,
Speaker 4: who was the Rookie of the Year the prior, to
Speaker 4: regress a little bit. I don't think that's going to happen,
Speaker 4: just because of the that Jane Daniels can run the ball,
Speaker 4: and I think to the way that defenses have to
Speaker 4: approach that kind of changes how they approach an offensive
Speaker 4: line which has lost Sam Cosmy but added the all
Speaker 4: pro level talent in Laramie Tunsell. I am a little
Speaker 4: worried about the age of this team. They're one of
Speaker 4: the oldest teams in the league. They're going to be
Speaker 4: relying on Frankie Louvu and Bobby Wagner, who Bobby Wagner
Speaker 4: was an All Pro last year, but frankly I thought
Speaker 4: he had kind of lost a step as the games
Speaker 4: kind of went on. I'm a little worried about that.
Speaker 4: But this is a team that is built to win now.
Speaker 4: They went ahead and added Deebo Samuel, they added Laramie Tunsell,
Speaker 4: They've added pieces like von Miller across the defensive line.
Speaker 4: I could see them really challenging. It's just going to
Speaker 4: be really tough in the NFC East, where I think
Speaker 4: the Cowboys are really good. I think the Eagles are
Speaker 4: one of the best teams in the league, and you know,
Speaker 4: the Giants have a couple pieces, they have a tough schedule.
Speaker 4: I could see them probably playing up to snuff. But
Speaker 4: it's really on the back of if Jane Daniels can
Speaker 4: be an excellent player, and I'm inclined to believe that
Speaker 4: he can. I think they are solidly, solidly a top
Speaker 4: ten to fifteen team in this league.
Speaker 1: Before I say you lose, He's no longer my problem.
Speaker 1: Good ridden Saron Rodgers but he's now a Steeler. How
Speaker 1: do you think this looks.
Speaker 4: I think it looks different than it looks with the Jets.
Speaker 4: With the Jets, he was kind of able to do
Speaker 4: whatever he wanted. He was sitting back there in the shotgun,
Speaker 4: letting the clock run down and trying to pick apart
Speaker 4: the defense pre snap. Don't think that's going to be
Speaker 4: the case. They added John hu Smith and Author Smith,
Speaker 4: the offense coordinator favored at the tight end position. They
Speaker 4: added a zone running, big running back in the mold
Speaker 4: of Derrick Henry and Caleb Johnson from Iowa. And I
Speaker 4: think this is going to be a true Author Smith
Speaker 4: Steelers offense. I think there's going to be a lot
Speaker 4: of running the ball. I think there's going to be
Speaker 4: a lot of deep passes. And I think Aaron Rodgers
Speaker 4: is going to be more in the vein of the
Speaker 4: wiley veteran at the sticks of what the offenseve coordinator
Speaker 4: wants to do than necessarily it was last year where
Speaker 4: he was kind of at the controls. That could change
Speaker 4: on a dime, But everything that they've made around Aaron
Speaker 4: Rodgers shows me that they want to run the ball
Speaker 4: heavily and play Steelers kind of smash mouth offense as
Speaker 4: compared to the way that Aaron Rodgers has played in
Speaker 4: the past. And frankly, you know, we saw when he
Speaker 4: played Matt Lafleur's level of ball he won two MVPs.
Speaker 4: I'm not at all predicting that. I just think he'll
Speaker 4: be substantially, you know, in a better position or a
Speaker 4: position that's not necessarily his own, to make his bed
Speaker 4: for himself as compared to previous years.
Speaker 2: Sam, where can our listeners go find your work pal?
Speaker 4: Yeah, so go check us out and subscribe at suomer
Speaker 4: Sports on YouTube. We'd have some excellent visuals on there,
Speaker 4: and in particular the Suomer Sports Show we talked about
Speaker 4: MADD ratings with analyst E. J. Snyder and Brett Coleman.
Speaker 4: That came out today, and you can catch all the
Speaker 4: latest news at sumer Sports or on the Suomer Sports
Speaker 4: Show wherever you find podcast.
Speaker 2: Thanks for the time, Bob, excited to have you on
Speaker 2: all year. Be well with chat soon.
Speaker 4: Thank you all so much.
Speaker 1: All right, Sam Bruckhaus, good stuff. Pro football preseason starts tonight.
Speaker 1: We've got three NFL preseason games. Of course, is we're
Speaker 1: inching closer and closer to the regular season, wrapping it
Speaker 1: up for a Thursday show, fun show today. A lot
Speaker 1: going on NFL preseason football tonight. You've got three games
Speaker 1: going on as we are inching closer and closer to
Speaker 1: the start of the regular season. But if you're looking
Speaker 1: kind of quench that thirst, you can check out some
Speaker 1: NFL football tonight. Colts in the Ravens going on right now, Bengals, Eagles, Raiders,
Speaker 1: and Steelers. Tomorrow night it's the Lions, Falcons, Browns, Panthers, Commanders,
Speaker 1: and Patriots. So a bunch of NFL preseason action on
Speaker 1: the docket tonight. Some rough news if you're a Chargers fan.
Speaker 1: Ray Sean Slater is out for the season and he
Speaker 1: just signed the richest contract in the history of offensive linemen.
Speaker 1: He has a patella rupture, so he is gone for
Speaker 1: the year. So some rough news there. Rory McElroy sitting
Speaker 1: at the FedEx Saint You Championship. So the sixty nine
Speaker 1: best golf in the world I went out of today
Speaker 1: Round two gets rolling tomorrow. Tony Feno's tie for twenty
Speaker 1: seventh one under par Porter. How much money would you
Speaker 1: pay for a top shelf Master's hospitality.
Speaker 2: Package to go to Augusta. How much would I pay?
Speaker 2: Would you pay? Two hundred and nineteen thousand dollars?
Speaker 4: No?
Speaker 2: Okay, nor could I? Well, I guess I could maybe
Speaker 2: get a loan.
Speaker 1: Well I wouldn't you know. Don't go get a loan
Speaker 1: just to then go to Augusta. That would be an
Speaker 1: unwise economic move.
Speaker 3: Maybe borrow against some assets I could so according to well,
Speaker 3: you tell me I can't go to Augusta.
Speaker 1: Well, I mean you you can go to Augusta, but
Speaker 1: if you want their top shelf hospitality package. The Sports
Speaker 1: Business Journal reviewed a brochure for what's called quote the
Speaker 1: Official Master's Hospitality Program. According to the brochure, the program
Speaker 1: offers a host home for forty five thousand dollars let's
Speaker 1: see one hundred thousand dollars for the week, private transportation
Speaker 1: for fifteen thousand, which includes a weekly driver and either
Speaker 1: an suv or a sprinter van. Full scale private home program,
Speaker 1: so the sample total in this obviously I think it
Speaker 1: includes passes.
Speaker 2: It runs for two.
Speaker 1: Hundred and nineteen six hundred dollars for the week, eight guests,
Speaker 1: three waves of packages of the golf course. The amenities
Speaker 1: include two homes, the host home, as I said, a
Speaker 1: sleeper home, daily cleaning and fresh so for daily cleaning,
Speaker 1: fresh linens, and transportation, it's twenty nine thousand dollars. I
Speaker 1: don't know who's cleaning that house. They'll stock your pantry
Speaker 1: for six grand. You get a full time staff member
Speaker 1: for thirteen thousand, catering for twenty three point five tea times.
Speaker 1: A golf course is thirteen point five and a twenty
Speaker 1: percent service fee for thirty six thousand, six hundred dollars
Speaker 1: to go to Augusta and see the Masters in style.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I might if I ever see the Masters live.
Speaker 3: It might be the credential route. That's probably not too
Speaker 3: likely either. Maybe I can get our our guy Marcomera
Speaker 3: to sneak me in.
Speaker 2: I don't really know.
Speaker 3: I will say that it doesn't it's it's a big number,
Speaker 3: let's be clear. Doesn't surprise me that much because I've
Speaker 3: kind of seen the let's say, the money that's thrown
Speaker 3: around at just like a member guest tournament at Park
Speaker 3: City or you know, in in Hebrews somewhere. The money
Speaker 3: on golf courses is big. It's not a new thing.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that seems a little aggressive. I've never been to Augusta.
Speaker 1: I would very much like to go. I don't think
Speaker 1: I would do it like that. Maybe just a day
Speaker 1: pass there you go where I can just go experience it.
Speaker 1: Because here's the other thing.
Speaker 3: You have to get one of the sandwiches, though, what
Speaker 3: is it? I think cheese or something like forty dollars,
Speaker 3: but you got no, no there, they're actually cheap. Oh
Speaker 3: they've kept the sandwich is reasonable.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 1: Yes, the weird thing about Augusta is you get the
Speaker 1: pomenta cheese sandwich for like two bucks. Then you might
Speaker 1: get a vodka soda for seventy nine to ninety nine. Okay,
Speaker 1: but no, give me like a day pass because here's
Speaker 1: also I always say this, playing golf is better than
Speaker 1: watching golf.
Speaker 3: And watching golf on a golf course. I don't know
Speaker 3: if you guys have ever done it before. That means
Speaker 3: you get to watch like one hole, You get to
Speaker 3: watch one player go walk by. Maybe you watch. Maybe
Speaker 3: you find a spot with like a good view of
Speaker 3: a of a green somewhere, or you paid a bunch
Speaker 3: and your you know you're sitting near a green. You're
Speaker 3: not watching every hole. You're not watching like the story
Speaker 3: of the round develop you're hearing cheers off in the distance. You're,
Speaker 3: you know, kind of trying to figure out what's going
Speaker 3: on on the course around you. It's it's not it's
Speaker 3: not like other sporting events.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think I'd like to go to Augusta, see
Speaker 1: one round, walk the grounds, and then maybe go play
Speaker 1: golf the next day. I don't know that I need
Speaker 1: to watch four rounds of gold, certainly not at the
Speaker 1: price tag of two hundred and nineteen thousand dollars.
Speaker 2: So there you go, little golf.
Speaker 1: Let's see, we got pennant races in baseball if you're
Speaker 1: looking for something. But yeah, preseason NFL football tonight on
Speaker 1: your television. And we are just three weeks in change
Speaker 1: away from the start of college football, three weeks from Saturday,
Speaker 1: both Utah BYU and we should say Utah State in action.
Speaker 2: So we are right right there.
Speaker 1: We're gonna have our welcome welcome event for the Utah
Speaker 1: football season coming up next Wednesday. We should have some
Speaker 1: details for you guys about that coming up next week,
Speaker 1: Reporter before we get out of here for a Thursday
Speaker 1: edition of the show What Comes Our Way?
Speaker 2: On a Friday edition of the program on a.
Speaker 3: Friday edition of the show. You mentioned it three weeks
Speaker 3: from college football. Our guy Trevor Riley is going to
Speaker 3: stop by the program. Aaron Fulk's going to stop by
Speaker 3: the program of the Salt Lake Tribune, as is his
Speaker 3: manion Jason Batakiao, paulp. Hugmyer up by the show to
Speaker 3: talk some golf, and we may have some sound from
Speaker 3: up at Fall Camp as well.
Speaker 1: And reminder if you're just looking for camp sound this
Speaker 1: time of year, when you're waiting for Utah football to
Speaker 1: come back, it's a one stop shop at ESPN seven
Speaker 1: hundred sports dot com. We'll say goodnight and a special
Speaker 1: thank you today to Chris com Ronnie Brian Dunsath, Sam Bruckhouse,
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