New Information on Dennis Allen's Saints Tenure: Injury Concern or Coincidence?

Summary

Dan Bernstein Unfiltered — Episode Summary

“New Information on Dennis Allen's Saints Tenure: Injury Concern or Coincidence?”

Podcast: Dan Bernstein Unfiltered
Host: Dan Bernstein with producer Russ Armstrong
Date: August 10, 2026

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Episode Overview

In this episode, Dan Bernstein dives deep into emerging information about defensive injuries during Dennis Allen’s coaching tenures—first with the New Orleans Saints, now with the Chicago Bears. He analyzes striking new data suggesting a strong correlation between Allen-coached secondaries and increased soft tissue injuries, raising questions about training routines and coaching responsibility. The episode also features classic Bernstein and Armstrong banter: from White Sox and NBA legend Don Nelson stories, to a spirited listener-driven segment about the “Car Chicken Challenge.”

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Main Theme

Investigating the Link Between Dennis Allen and Defensive Back Injuries

Bernstein unpacks detailed, original research showing that defensive backs coached by Dennis Allen in both New Orleans and Chicago have experienced disproportionate rates of preventable soft tissue injuries. He questions whether this pattern is mere coincidence or linked to Allen’s methods, and calls for Bears leadership to address it head-on—emphasizing the stakes for a Super Bowl-contending team.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

The Bears' Escalating Injury Crisis

• The Bears’ defensive backfield faces a “real crisis” with a rash of injuries (“something bad is happening right now…” – [00:40])
• Breaking news: Jalen Johnson is healthy but almost everyone else is out; key offensive injuries (Braxton Jones, Luther Burden) noted but focus is on defense.

Revisiting and Expanding on the “Dennis Allen Effect” ([01:40]–[14:30])

• Bernstein shares newly compiled data tracking 55 defensive backs under Allen, comparing their injury histories before, during, and after his tenure.
  • Key Stat: Under Allen, 30.4% of injuries were soft tissue (hamstring, groin, calf, quad, etc.)—versus 19.2% with other coaches.
  • Standard Statistical Odds: “Less than 1 in 10,000 chance of showing up by luck alone…about a 1 in 1250 chance for soft tissue injuries. Anything rarer than 1 in 20 is significant.” ([11:15])
• Cites Saints GM Mickey Loomis’ public comments blaming an “avalanche of injuries” for Allen’s firing.
• Saints made immediate changes: implemented a “pre-practice activation period” under interim Darren Rizzi. Result? “Under his nine games, there were six defensive back injuries, 19 games missed. In Darren Rizzi’s eight games, zero new defensive back injuries, zero games missed.” ([08:40])

Correlation Is Not Causation—But the Pattern Is Striking

• Bernstein takes care not to accuse Allen of malice or negligence:
  • “Correlation is not causality, but there are circumstantial issues of association and timing that are hitting us over the head right here.” ([04:30])
  • “Even if there are methods that Dennis Allen employs that are resulting in more injured Bears—as they did more injured Saints—it doesn’t necessarily mean this is a lack of responsibility or malpractice.” ([05:16])
• Russ Armstrong: “It’s not about, hey, we need to go after Dennis Allen with a lynch mob and get him out of town. No, it’s about, hey, is there something that you’re doing that should be done differently…” ([13:55])

Are the Bears Blind to the Evidence?

• Bernstein calls on the Bears’ staff to be transparent:
  • “A simple question for Ben Johnson…for Ryan Poles…are you aware of this problem? Are you aware of these correlative numbers?” ([14:18])
  • Has the Bears staff implemented best practices from sports science after reviewing what happened in New Orleans?
• Urgency stressed: if no changes have been made, “this frequency of injuries isn’t something that just happens.” ([15:44])

Practice Timing and Injury Onset

• Multiple Bears’ soft tissue injuries occurred on last plays of practices.
  • “I remember a couple guys so far in the past week, Dan, that have had soft tissue injuries towards the end of practice…” ([16:03])
  • Bernstein: “There’s something to that when the soft tissue injury happens towards the end…” ([16:23])
• The importance of sports science and warmup routines is underscored via a comparison to past Bears issues with creatine and injury speculation ([17:02]).

Call for Organizational Accountability

• Bernstein wants honest answers and accountability—mirroring the scrutiny Saints leaders faced (“Why aren’t we asking the same questions as we did then?” – [17:26])
• “My desire is that the Bears be as healthy as possible.” ([19:24])

Notable Quotes

• Statistical Significance:

  • “I’m not going to get into all this about P value …the data that’s been compiled here has a less than 1 in 10,000 chance of showing up by luck alone.” ([11:15], Dan Bernstein)

• On What the Bears Should Do:

  • “All I want is for the Bears to be healthy. I want the Bears to have every best opportunity to win the Super Bowl…In one of the first times in my life where they've got the quarterback and they got the coach.” ([13:40], Dan Bernstein)

• On Injury Prevention:

  • “If you can do something different and say, hey, let’s look at this and…what we’re doing is causing greater likelihood of injury, then we need to adjust what we’re doing.” ([15:52], Russ Armstrong)

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Important Timestamps

• 00:40: Injury crisis lands in Bears’ defensive secondary; new injuries announced.
• 04:30: Delineates purpose of discussion: not a witch hunt, but a plea for transparency and best practices.
• 06:36: “55 [defensive backs] have been tracked in this study over their entire careers…”
• 07:35: Saints’ rationale for firing Allen, Loomis’ quotes, and subsequent practice changes.
• 11:00: Statistical breakdown of soft tissue injury risk under Allen versus others; odds against coincidence.
• 12:07: Current Bears injury list—nine defensive backs, four signed replacements to field a practice secondary.
• 13:40: Bernstein’s bottom line: not calling for Allen’s head, but for urgent correction.
• 14:18: Questions for Bears leadership: are you aware, and have you made changes?
• 16:23: Practice sequencing and injury timing—soft tissue injuries at session end.
• 21:16: “What is new here, what no one has done before, is put together a data set of all the players involved before and after over their entire careers…”

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Memorable Moments & Sidebars

Classic Bernstein Deep Dive

• “I do have everything here, everything here. And I am just going to be curious… I don’t have the facility with data sets, I don’t have the facility with stats to do all this stuff. I’m not trained at it… I’m good at reading through and trying to explain it.” ([23:38])

Baseball Oddities: Manager’s Accountability ([25:55])

• Anecdote on a rare White Sox mound visit blunder, handled with mature accountability by the manager:
  • “That's how you build trust with your players.” ([30:38], Dan Bernstein)

Celebrating Don Nelson & Old NBA Stories ([36:20])

• Fond reminiscence of Don Nelson’s coaching innovations, colorful life, and NBA legacy (“He won in a lot of ways. I want to find some of the famous stories…” – [41:04])
• Tales about Michael Jordan returning to NBA shape post-retirement ([44:01]).

Listener Segment: The Car Chicken Challenge ([56:25] on)

A fan-favorite, uniquely Chicago segment:

• Chicagoans—including truck drivers, train commuters, and a poetic high school English teacher—write in to debate and extol the virtues of eating grocery store fried chicken in various modes of transportation and parking lots.
• Listeners share hacks, etiquette, and the joy/primal release of devouring fried chicken solo on the go.
• Bernstein and Armstrong give detailed, (sometimes Talmudic) rulings on the validity of “train chicken” and “truck chicken.”
  • “It is the complete forfeiture of all self respect as I with reckless abandon attacked the chicken like I was mad at it for being so damn good. A temporary release from all the daily social etiquette…” ([71:15], Brian in Naperville)

Podcast Milestones ([52:37])

• The show celebrates 10,000 YouTube subscribers, thanks listeners, and previews a community party.

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Takeaways for Listeners

• Sports: The Bears’ defensive backfield injury crisis is ongoing and may have a non-random connection to Dennis Allen’s training protocols—a pattern worth intense scrutiny and possibly urgent change if title hopes are not to be derailed.
• Leadership: Both in football and life, accountability and transparency in response to mistakes (or unusual, harmful trends) matter more than blame.
• Chicago Culture: The lighter side—the Car Chicken Challenge—highlights community, humor, and affection for simple pleasures amidst the heavier sports talk.

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Final Thoughts

Bernstein’s deep-dive into Dennis Allen’s injury record is both rigorous and fair-minded: he delivers hard questions without histrionics, insists on organizational accountability, and reminds fans that better outcomes start with honest inquiry (“If we know that…if they say, yeah, we’re doing everything right…then I don’t know what you can say other than there is…a lot of bad luck. But unless we ask, we don’t know.” – [19:24])

All that, plus legendary storytelling, baseball nostalgia, and a passionate ode to messy, unapologetic car chicken. An unfiltered slice of Chicago sports radio at its best.

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For further information, including the data mentioned, listen from [04:30]–[21:16]. For Car Chicken tales, tune in from [56:25] onward.

Transcript

[Dan Bernstein]

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[Russ Armstrong]

Dan Bernstein unfiltered

[Dan Bernstein]

unfiltered on 312 sports it's DBU on 312 and it's brought to you by Chicago Window guys. Call Russ Armstrong, 847-302-9171. Check out his five star reviews at ChicagoNowBeyond.com the injury crisis in the Bears defensive backfield is real. There. There is something bad is happening right now in the Bears defensive secondary. The good news is at least Jalen Johnson looks to be ambulatory for the moment, but pretty much everybody else is hurt and this is not okay. We got the news that broke earlier this morning that Adam Schefter reported on the offensive side of the football that Luther Burden is going to be out through the preseason, whatever that means. Does that mean he then begins to get to start to get better the preseason? Is this somebody who could start the year on the physically unable to perform or PUP list? This is serious stuff now, but I want to put aside Braxton Jones, Luther Burden, everybody you're looking at on offense right now to focus specifically on what we talked about last week and that was the Dennis Allen effect on defensive injuries. So last week, if you'll remember, we I walked you through some research about the correlation between Dennis Allen's presence and injuries to defensive backs and there's further data here. I did put something out on social media over the weekend where I said that we were going to have more information today, which we do have, and I want to be really clear on this. I don't know Dennis Allen. I've never talked to him. I've never met him. I really don't know much about him other than what he's done in his work with the Chicago Bears. This is not based on any desire that I have to do anything other than make sure the Bears can be asked the right questions, that's all. I just. I want to know what the Bears knew, what they know now, and what they think about this information. That's what I want. I want to understand how the Bears work some of this information into the decisions that they make about their hiring and specifically about how they warm players up, how they prepare players for practice. So what further data is crystallizing here is a very clear correlation. It does not prove causality, and that is important to remember. Correlation is not causality, but there are circumstantial issues of association and timing that are hitting us over the head right here. And even if this is also important, even if there are methods that Dennis Allen employs that are resulting in more injured Bears as they did more injured Saints, it doesn't necessarily mean that this is a lack of responsibility or some kind of malpractice or there's no belief he's not trying to get players hurt. So I just want to make sure things aren't misinterpreted here. All we can do is just try to get the information out there and hope in a year that the Bears are trying to win the super bowl that there's some awareness of what the data shows could be happening. So we know the Saints talked about this problem and acted on it. Their own general manager talked about what he called. This is Mickey Loomis's words and an avalanche of injuries as the primary reason why they fired Dennis Allen. The week he left, the Saints changed their practice routine and the moment Dennis Allen left, the volume of their soft tissue injuries in the secondary dropped. When he got to the Bears, the soft tissue injuries in the secondary spiked. Now, if you say show your work, and that's what I'm big on. I'm big on transparency on this, the showing of the work. I have it in front of me and I've got more charts and graphs and data breakdowns probably that I can understand because a lot of this is in much more statistical and analytical language than I'm necessarily familiar. But the abstract here does explain through adjusted games lost and raw games lost in this first of its kind data set. A data set like this hasn't been put together before. Following every defensive back who's played meaningful snaps under Dennis Allen. How many do you think that is? Round number. How many. How many total defensive backs think we're talking about here in this short window in those couple of years and now what is in just over a year here? A dozen? 55. Oh, I'm sorry, what we got 55 defensive backs who have been tracked in this study over their entire careers. Seriously, 55 who've played meaningful snaps? Not everybody, but the ones who played a reasonable amount of time have been tracked across their careers. And the data reveals the same people, the same defensive backs got hurt more and hurt differently under Dennis Allen.

[Russ Armstrong]

Wait, so these 55 are these. These are guys that were. That started at some points?

[Dan Bernstein]

Nope, just every defensive back who played what can be considered by data, meaningful snaps. Meaningful snaps. And this could be happening again. So the quotes when DA was fired, Mickey Loomis said, DA is an excellent football coach. This season we've had an avalanche of injuries. It took its toll. The next day on wwl, the flagship radio station, Loomis said, we've had an abnormal amount of injuries. We haven't been able to overcome that. And so that puts pressure and stress on the organization. And ultimately it was cause for a change. Then, in the 10 days around his firing, they centered specifically on soft tissue injuries. Local reporting implied the Saints were not warming up before practice. And then after Darren Rizzi took over immediately, he introduced what he called a pre practice activation period that he brought up several times previously because it was implied that while Allen was in charge, they weren't doing any of this. Darren Rizzi said, imagine you're gonna work out. You shouldn't just go to the weight room and start lifting weights. That's how you get hurt. The activation's a sports science thing. So when that practice starts, they're already sweating. And he notes eight practice injuries during their two and seven start the activation period. On the Sports Illustrated Saints News Network, they confirmed the activation period was implemented to cut down soft tissue injuries. The beat writers were documenting the scale of the injuries that caused them to change up their routine. And the soft tissue injury problem stopped. And as soon as Dennis Allen left, it stopped. Under his nine games, there were six defensive back injuries, 19 games missed in Darren Rizzi's eight games, zero new defensive back injuries, zero games missed. And this all comes out in adjusted games lost, which shows the pattern in the secondary. It comes out in raw games lost because it's a harder data set to find the reason people use adjusted games lost. This was a stat created by Aaron Schatz at Football Outsiders. It's now published by ftn. And they examine this. It weighs starters and stars. It discounts or excludes reserves, gives partial credit for guys who play hurt. So adjusted games Lost measures the impact of injury on your best players, but it's not as effective as measuring the volume of injuries across a roster and there's it's striking in the graph to show who goes or who's hurt where and when and when we talk about full defensive autonomy. Allen was also the Saints defensive coordinator from 2016 to 2021. And Sean Payton didn't necessarily give Allen 100% freedom to run things his way as he has with the Bears because the Bears have said more than once that he has autonomy to run the defense. And what you can see that in adjusted games lost every Dennis Allen controlled season reaches or crosses the league median in adjusted games lost. And with the Saints and the Bears here, no non Dennis Allen season ever reaches league median. I'm not going to go through the gory math again but following then the players themselves, this is what's new. There were nearly 5,000 potential player games. The one answer to emerge from the data the same players got hurt more and hurt differently when Dennis Allen ran their defense. The 30.4% of injuries under Allen were soft tissue. Hamstring, groin, calf, quad hip flexor, oblique, 19.2% under other coaches. Soft tissue injuries most sports science staffs consider most preventable because they're the most tied to training load and warm up structure. And you say well how do you know it's not bad luck? That's a lot. Well, it's just bad luck, bad timing. Well, the standard statistical test for that measuring how far apart those two rates sit and standard deviations they convert into plain odds. I'm not gonna get into all this about P value. You may know this. The data that's been compiled here has a less than 1 in 10,000 chance of showing up by luck alone. The gap in soft tissue injuries has about a 1 in 1250 chance. Anything rarer than 1 in 20 is a statistically significant pattern. Everything clears the bar. And then you go starters only. You go outside of starters only. And when we get this information with the Bears they reported to training camp July 28th. Now through nine practices, eight different defensive backs have missed time to due to injury. Kyler Gordon, Elijah Hicks, Kobe Bryant, Terrell Smith still an unknown injury. We don't know what Terrell Smith hurt, do we?

[Russ Armstrong]

Correct. No, we don't.

[Dan Bernstein]

We don't know what the injury is undisclosed. Dallas Flowers they just said leg Javerius Owens was carted off and waved. They dumped him in a ditch or something. Then Jalen Jones, then Cam Lewis. If you count Tyreek Stevenson who left and returned the same practice. That's nine injured defensive backs. The Bears have signed four replacements in three days. Just to field a secondary for practice. That's Xavier woods, who apparently walked out and just started picking off balls and running into people. He's 31 years old. So you got Xavier woods, safety Brandon Hill, cornerback William Wright and cornerback Beanie Bishop. And some of these injuries were contact injuries or structural injuries. But the position group is the story. Whatever's happening here keeps happening to defensive backs. And it did happen with the Saints. This thing happened with the Saints. The Saints saw it, the Saints got sick of it. The Saints called it out and linked it to Dennis Allen. It was enough for the Saints to make a move. And then when he left, it stopped happening. They changed their practice patterns and it stopped. It is happening now with the Bears. So you say, what do you want out of this, Bernstein? You want to fire Dennis Gallen?

[Russ Armstrong]

I.

[Dan Bernstein]

Not necessarily. All I want is for the Bears to be healthy. I want the Bears to have every best opportunity to win the Super Bowl. In one of the first times in my life where they've got the quarterback and they got the coach.

[Russ Armstrong]

Yeah, they also signed the kid from Vandy that Marlon Sewell. So that's another body signed in the defensive back. Yeah. It's not about, hey, we need to go after Dennis Allen with a lynch mob and get him out of town. No, it's about, hey, is there something that you're doing that should be done differently to keep your guys healthy when going against each other?

[Dan Bernstein]

It's a simple question. It's a simple question for Ben Johnson. It's a simple question for Ryan Polls or whoever you can find to talk to. And the question is exactly that. What you're saying is, are you aware of this problem? Are you aware of these correlative numbers? Do you know exactly what happened with the Saints? Did you talk to Mickey Loomis? Did you talk, say what happened here and did you presume it wasn't going? Did you make changes? Were there fail safes? Were there guardrails? Were there protections put in place to say, I know that happened there, it won't happen here. Because if we know that and if they say, yeah, we're doing everything right, we have adopted all of these, the pre practice principles that the Saints did after he left. We feel very strongly about our methods. We've run this through our strength and conditioning people, our athletic trainers and our doctors, and we're not going to change anything that we're doing. But something in here, something in the information in this correlation deserves further investigation and a relative concern by the Bears that we're not Seeing or hearing other than, well, this happens, injuries happen. It's just part of the game. This frequency of injuries isn't something that just happens.

[Russ Armstrong]

Right. And it's important to reiterate it's not some type of malicious intent by.

[Dan Bernstein]

On his part. No, he's not coming in here trying to hurt people.

[Russ Armstrong]

If you can do something different and say, hey, let's look at this and. And what we're doing is causing greater likelihood of injury, then we need to adjust what we're doing.

[Dan Bernstein]

Yes.

[Russ Armstrong]

Now, I didn't. I didn't go through and look at each guy when they were injured, but I remember a couple guys so far in the past week, Dan, that have had soft tissue injuries towards the end of practice. If I remember correctly reading this, I don't have it all in front of me, but I remember reading that at least two guys, I recall it was the last play of practice.

[Dan Bernstein]

Lewis was the last play, I believe. And Burden also.

[Russ Armstrong]

So there's something to that. When the soft tissue injury happens towards the end, because obviously going through a really high level, intense practice, your body is depleted of what it needs to stay healthy and stay, you know, able to perform at a level without being injured. So what, like what's happening through the course of practice or what's not happening through the course of practice that towards the end of these practices these soft tissue injuries are occurring. I don't know medically what there is to it.

[Dan Bernstein]

This, okay, this happened, but there's something

[Russ Armstrong]

to that when it happens in practice.

[Dan Bernstein]

And I lived through this because I covered something similar with a onestat team that had a training camp filled with soft tissue injuries. And that's when Russ Reederer was the strength and conditioning coach. It was also when it was the first bump of popularity with creatine.

[Russ Armstrong]

Okay.

[Dan Bernstein]

And all the Bears were using a lot of creatine. And there were feature stories written about bears injuries. Are the bears using too much creatine in their training? And there were experts that came. You can look up these stories, the speculations. Why isn't that happening now? Why aren't we asking the same questions as we did then? When there was a rash of injuries that appeared and it was without all this backup data, we just saw guys going down and kept hearing about the. Because he was a fad at the time, creatine. It was one of these. The latest magic thing that shows up every once in a while and it sounds like it's coming back with all the new, you know, body maxing and looks. Maxing and Everybody's looking for the next thing to pump your body with. But when you say, well, like no one's asking these questions, why do you want. Because I remember it happening and I remember being there on the beat and saying, why? And I would all day, everybody I could find, what the hell is going on with all these injuries and what are you gonna do about it? And this idea, well, this is just the NFL. Now, in the Bears case, there is reason to investigate further and to make sure that the Bears are held accountable for some of these decisions. What are they doing? How are they addressing it? The Saints were asked constantly and finally after they moved on from Dennis Allen and at one point Allen himself grudgingly accepted the activation period. If you remember that, I want to go back to November 1, 2024. This is an article from NOLA.com three days before being fired, Dennis Allen himself announced he planned to add, quote, a little more pre practice stretch activation period, end quote. And that sounds like those things weren't happening beforehand. So he, before they fired him, he's like, okay, I guess we're going to start stretching more and activating a little bit more. He never got to run a practice under that routine because he was fired Monday, November 4th. So even after he's like, okay, all right, we're going to add a little more pre practice stretch, his quote, he was then fired. So look, you can lay this all to rest. If somebody from the Bears is asked specifically about the routine, if they say, yeah, we know that happened with the Saints, it's very possible Ben Johnson could just say, oh, yeah, yeah, of course, we did our due diligence and we're not going to hire somebody without turning over everything and understanding everything because we know they didn't know each other. And it's maybe he just says, yeah, we looked at it, we saw what happened and we do all that, we do the activity. And if that's the case, if they feel they're doing everything they can do everything that is best practices to prevent this, then I don't know what you can say other than there is extreme, extremely unlikely occurrences going on and just a lot of bad luck. And that is absolutely possible, but unless we ask, we don't know. And my desire is that the Bears be as healthy as possible.

[Russ Armstrong]

Yeah, yeah. And just, just to add to that, as we mentioned earlier, Terrell smith undisclosed injury. DeMarco Jackson also undisclosed injury. And I know he's not, he's not in the, in the secondary. He's on a defensive back. But another Guy on the defense that you just don't know. And I forgot about Jalen Jones here as well, too.

[Dan Bernstein]

Yeah. And this is. And I'm doing my best to try to crystallize this with, with all of the actual data of all of the games missed and how the players were grouped and how they were looked at. But, but what is new here, what no one has done before, is put together a data set of all the players involved before and after over their entire careers, looking at all the injuries that they've had and when they suffered their soft tissue injuries. Yeah.

[Russ Armstrong]

Yeah. And, you know, we've heard from a couple different individuals, too, who suffered injuries in training camp this week, the phrase lucky to avoid serious injury. Like, how do they determine that? How do you, how do you. I mean, how do you look at something and say, oh, wow, lucky there. We didn't.

[Dan Bernstein]

Yeah, you pulled your hamstring, but your leg didn't fall off, right?

[Russ Armstrong]

I mean, is that what they mean? Like, what do they mean they were lucky to avoid serious injury?

[Dan Bernstein]

I don't know. And why were they lucky?

[Russ Armstrong]

Yeah, I don't remember hearing that before as a descriptor.

[Dan Bernstein]

No. I can see an injury. Like you can see something and see somebody get rolled up on or see a knee twist and think, oh, boy, that's it for the year. Then you feel lucky. It's like, oh, he's, he's.

[Russ Armstrong]

Oh, he walked away. He's fine. He's in the next place.

[Dan Bernstein]

How many times have him with Caleb?

[Russ Armstrong]

Oh, a lot.

[Dan Bernstein]

A million times. Or somebody, somebody will hit him in the ear hole with a crown of their helmet.

[Russ Armstrong]

That only happens when the guy doesn't miss a single play.

[Dan Bernstein]

Right.

[Russ Armstrong]

These are guys that are losing practice

[Dan Bernstein]

time, and it makes your practices worse. It makes your preparation worse. It makes your team worse. It's a big deal. Every little thing, and not just when they add up like this. Oh, it happens. I know it happens, but nobody wants it and it's not good. And the. And we're going to get into it on forward progress, the actual football X and O effect of some of this stuff and what you're doing at the bottom of your roster, what it does to your special teams when you lose the middle and bottom third, you lose all your fast guys on special teams and you're pulling guys. How many street free agents do they have in uniform? How many street free agent starters do they have right now? Granted, on August 10th is when you want that, but it's, it's not a great sign.

[Russ Armstrong]

Yeah. And we'll talk about the offense too with Braxton Jones, Luther Burden, Xavian Thomas.

[Dan Bernstein]

He's hurting out the knee. So yep. So that's all that football stuff and the injury crisis information is all coming your way nfp. But I wanted to follow up in this space and if as there is more data, if we do drill down a little bit and like I say, this is I do have everything here, everything here. And I am just going to be curious. You want to pick this up and do some of the work on your own and have that kind of curiosity. I don't have the facility with data sets, I don't have the facility with stats to do all this stuff. I'm not trained at it. My brain doesn't work that way. I'm good at reading through it and trying to describe and explain it. I'm good at putting some of this stuff into words, but actually doing the work I'm not. But if it is done, it is always strongly appreciated here. I can tell you that if you're a baseball fan in Chicago, you know this season isn't one in April, May or even June. It's one in the green grind. Every series matters. Every bullpen decision gets second guessed. Every at bat feels like it could swing the conversation the next morning. Whether you're riding with the Cubs through a pennant race or hoping the White Sox give you something to believe in, baseball gives you opportunities every single day. That's why my bookie is for you. Sure, you can bet the game, but the prop board is where things get interesting. Strikeouts, hits, home runs, total bases. There's plenty of ways to get involved without worrying about picking a final score. And and because it's all under one account, you can jump from baseball to live betting or even the casino while you're waiting for the late game to start. Go to MyBookie AG, use promo code DBU and get your first bet covered up to 500 bucks. If it doesn't hit, use your bet back bonus token and run it back. Don't just watch another night at the ballpark. Make it pay with my bookie. With the American Express Platinum card, you can access over $3,500 in annual value with benefits and eligible purchases across travel, entertainment and more. There's nothing like platin. Learn more@american express.com Explore Platinum enrollment requirements monthly and other limits in terms of play we had an occurrence in a baseball game that I don't think I've ever seen before.

[Russ Armstrong]

I have, just not at the major league level.

[Dan Bernstein]

And look, I've Done hundreds of minor league games and I've seen some weird shit in the minors. I have never seen an inadvertent mound visit go quite like that, technically. And correct me, once you cross the foul line, it's a visit, right?

[Russ Armstrong]

Yeah.

[Dan Bernstein]

Once you enter the actual field of play, it's like, do you turn into old Doc Graham?

[Russ Armstrong]

Old Moonlight Graham walked out of the dugout.

[Dan Bernstein]

That's what I wonder, did you cross back on the other side?

[Russ Armstrong]

Oh, Doc, you can't go back in the game.

[Dan Bernstein]

All of a sudden you're Burt Lancaster.

[Russ Armstrong]

Yeah, no, I can't go back because your daughter was choking on a hot dog.

[Dan Bernstein]

Choking to death. Yeah. And now I have to walk into the corn and die. But I'm Burt Lancaster, so not before a little. Just hide the women because old swordsman Bert is not going to go into the corn.

[Russ Armstrong]

Nose.

[Dan Bernstein]

Oh, there must have been. If Burt Lancaster was walking in there. There was some. There was some. There was some out there for him.

[Russ Armstrong]

It was just off camera.

[Dan Bernstein]

Oh, you better believe old Doc Graham. Believe me. You know, there were. There was no medical equipment in that bag. Yeah, no, no, no, no. There was. There was. There was other stuff in that bag. Trust me. So he walks out, Venable walks out, and. Did you read lips when he's. He's like, second. Like, it looked like he was trying to get confirmation.

[Russ Armstrong]

Yeah. Because what. Because what had happened is he, He. In the excitement of what took place when the pitching coach went out, it just. It. He had a. He had a brain fart.

[Dan Bernstein]

Zach Bove had gone out there.

[Russ Armstrong]

Yes.

[Dan Bernstein]

So by the time he crossed the line and everyone's like, what is he doing?

[Russ Armstrong]

What was it? Was it.

[Dan Bernstein]

Did.

[Russ Armstrong]

Did he hit.

[Dan Bernstein]

Did.

[Russ Armstrong]

Did he hit a batter? Is that why the pitching coach went out? I can't remember exactly what it was.

[Dan Bernstein]

It was a rookie that needed settling down.

[Russ Armstrong]

Yeah.

[Dan Bernstein]

So they talked to Noah Schultz.

[Russ Armstrong]

He, like ran out and barely ran out. It was out for a few seconds. Yeah. And then goes back in. But it counts.

[Dan Bernstein]

And then they got to pull him.

[Russ Armstrong]

Yeah.

[Dan Bernstein]

And everybody knew it. And the, the umpires kind of looked at each other like, he's got to come out, right?

[Russ Armstrong]

Yeah.

[Dan Bernstein]

I think he's like, yeah, you got to finish this hitter.

[Russ Armstrong]

The guardians manager was like, whoa, hang on a second here.

[Dan Bernstein]

He knew. Steve knew. He was like, yeah, okay, take him out. So poor David Sandlin has to. He doesn't get injury warmups if somebody's hurt. If there's a line drive off of somebody's foot, they're going to give you

[Russ Armstrong]

as much time as you want.

[Dan Bernstein]

You get as many warmups as you need.

[Russ Armstrong]

Yeah.

[Dan Bernstein]

Not in that case.

[Russ Armstrong]

Not because your manager had a brain fart.

[Dan Bernstein]

And the best part of this is the way venable handled it.

[Russ Armstrong]

100%.

[Dan Bernstein]

The best part of this. You want an example of accountability. You want an example to your players of how not to blame anybody else. And he. He took. That's how you take full responsibility.

[Russ Armstrong]

Yeah.

[Dan Bernstein]

Stupid mistake on my part.

[Russ Armstrong]

All on me.

[Dan Bernstein]

All on me. I have to learn from this. I promise you it'll never happen again in his career.

[Russ Armstrong]

Because, you know, here's what. Here's what's happened. This was funny, too, as a. As a guy who, like, I want to see the White Sox do well.

[Dan Bernstein]

I'm just.

[Russ Armstrong]

I'm not a White Sox fan. I mean, we've. We've known this for decades. I went from laughing at that situation as a non White Sox fan.

[Dan Bernstein]

Because it's funny.

[Russ Armstrong]

Because it's funny.

[Dan Bernstein]

Yeah.

[Russ Armstrong]

To it ended the second he. When he got behind that microphone and said, all my fault. All on me.

[Dan Bernstein]

I'm the idiot.

[Russ Armstrong]

I made the mistake. I went from laughing to like, oh, all right, it's done. I mean, yeah, that. That's how you kill a negative situation. You stand in front of it and say, I fucked up. I made the mistake. All on me. Won't happen again, and you move on from it.

[Dan Bernstein]

There are some.

[Russ Armstrong]

You do.

[Dan Bernstein]

There are some people who said, yeah, well, my bench coach told me we hadn't visited before. Like, there are. There's some people who do stuff like that.

[Russ Armstrong]

Absolutely. But there are guys that are not secure enough to take that. That bullet because they. And he earned it. He earned it. So what are you going to do? Yeah, he could have gone a different route with it and said, yeah, you know, I didn't. I didn't tell him to go out there. I didn't know he went out there. It was a mistake on his part to go out there.

[Dan Bernstein]

Or he can globalize it. He could say, we had a communication issue.

[Russ Armstrong]

No, I fucked up. I made the mistake. All on me. It was great. It was great.

[Dan Bernstein]

That is a. That is an example that. That coaches should emulate at every level. And it's.

[Russ Armstrong]

And you.

[Dan Bernstein]

That's how you build trust with your players.

[Russ Armstrong]

Yeah.

[Dan Bernstein]

That's how you be a grown up.

[Russ Armstrong]

Made a mistake.

[Dan Bernstein]

Be a grown up about it. Yeah, he made a mistake, and it's too bad. But I. I've never seen that. No, I have seen.

[Russ Armstrong]

Never before.

[Dan Bernstein]

We've seen Terry Bevington signal for a reliever that wasn't warming up. We've seen that.

[Russ Armstrong]

Oh, yeah.

[Dan Bernstein]

One of my favorite stories is we had all roads lead back to Mike Jersely here. The father of White Sox third base coach Justin Jershley was the manager in Rockford. One of the managers in Rockford when I was there sometime. We should talk to Justin about this because I have more Jersh stories because that guy was just a maniac. But. And one time, nobody knew who the pitcher was who was in the game. Nobody knew who it was because, you know, it's the Miners. People come up, they come down, they come. But. So he got on the phone and called up to the press box from the dugout because everybody called down. They're like, who is that pitcher? And he didn't know either. So he'd put somebody in. And you know, there's no tv, so you can't really see. You're looking way down. It's dark. The lights at Marinelli Field are not great. And you're looking down there and you're just kind of signaling for the lefty. And the lefty comes in and he

[Russ Armstrong]

pitches to again, he left.

[Dan Bernstein]

And he's like, who was that guy? Because they had just given out a uniform and the number was wrong. And then he says, oh, yeah, that was Kopitzki. Like Kopitzke. He's like, yeah, Kopitzke. And he made up the name and it made it into the Elias Sports Bureau's official stats until it was corrected. Oh, wow, a made up guy. So they eventually like, oh, yeah, this is so and so. That's what I thought, that we saw him before the game. But because of the. I've seen the manager make up the name of a player and have that entered into the official stats because he didn't know the player's name. That's great. Crazier stuff than this. But the White Sox story of the weekend was, I thought, a lovely ceremony for Ozzie Guillen. And it was for those of us that are Gen X White Sox fans that grew up with Ozzie Guillen and remembering what that trade was when Lamar Hoyt, I remember thinking, wait, what do you mean they traded Lamar Hoyt? What, to the Padres? What is this for Tim Lawler and Luis Salazar and this kid like, oh, let's look up all we need to know about Ozzie Guillen. And people are talking like, what the. He's how old? He's how big? Like that kid who looked like he looked like he Was my age. He looked like he was 14. And he was wearing Ben Stiller's mustache from Happy Gilmore. And I thought, like, what? Wait, that, that guy. They traded Lamar Hoyt, a Cy Young winner for this. But then he won Rookie of the Year and became one of my favorite players. You remember when we did my favorite players? I think he was fifth, I think was on, and certainly one of my favorite broadcasters. And to have Chuck Garfine as the master of ceremonies was perfect because those two are like. Are like the Abbott and Costello of post game shows now. And Ozzy's success as a player, how much fun he was to watch and how much fun it was to hear Hawk broadcast him. When Ozzy would have one of those horrible swings in hockey. He just setting him up. Ozzie just setting him up. Look at Ozzie. He just setting him up. And then Ozzy would line a triple off the wall and left or something like that. What do you have? When I saw he had 28 career home runs, I can remember like four of them. How the hell did he get to 28 home runs? I must have missed. Seriously, I must have missed 25 of those home runs. 24, 25 of those home runs. That, that, that shocked me. But World Series winning manager, Caribbean Series winning manager, and so valuable as a broadcasting truth teller that, that, that role, the role he's in now as somebody just completely bulletproof and able to say things about the White Sox that we all see, whether it's good, whether it's bad. He's not there to polish anybody's apple like so many people are on that broadcast. I wish everybody would take Ozzy's cue and just treat us all like you don't have to constantly be selling us or it's not a constant PR effort. Through your description of the action. Just describe what's going on. Be real. And Ozzy is. He's a lot of things, and the most important thing that he's been is real. And I liked it. I thought it was really, really nice to have a ceremony where he was clearly appreciated and he was appreciative and it meant a lot to him. And I just thought that was cool. I thought sometimes those days or those nights don't end up being what you want them to be. And I really hope it was that for him. And it seemed to be that Don Nelson passed away over the weekend as well. You see that a lot of the tributes have come out to Nelly. And if you say, oh, yeah, where was Don Nelson? Well, he retired to Maui where he always wanted to be.

[Russ Armstrong]

He was living a great life.

[Dan Bernstein]

Man. There are so many wonderful stories about him and wonderful bios and there have been people who got, you know, writers who were able to go hang out with this guy in Hawaii. But what a character and what an important basketball figure. He was really just a unique and significant basketball presence. And when you watch modern NBA ball, the Don Nelson legacy is felt in the multi positionality, the speed of the game. Understanding what Red Auerbach did with some small ball Celtics lineups of which he was a part. He wasn't a huge part, but he won five NBA championships as a, as a Celtic. His number 19 was retired by the Celtics. So many of his players had no idea he played. Man, coach you played. He used to get that all the time. And when Paul Pressy was a Milwaukee buck, that was the first use of what was called the point forward. And that was. That ended up becoming in some ways simultaneously with Magic Johnson, who got all the credit for being the first really tall point guard. Paul Pressy didn't pretend to be a guard. They had a forward bring the ball up. Scottie Pippen was one who sort of mirrored that. And now that's just. We just call it basketball now. Anybody can bring the ball up. It's just part and parcel. Perhaps his most enduring legacy is what he and his son Donnie did about scouting European players and realizing that Dirk Nowitzki could change the way basketball was played and could be a. A seven footer who was doing things that you wouldn't normally have a seven footer do. And what they did to make sure that just put a lot of guys on the floor that can shoot and can not necessarily be defined by old school positions or have just the big guy and everybody running around the big guy. Nelly also he would, he would tweak the way he would use the rules. You remember the Bubba Wells game against the Bulls when he was. He kept using Bubba Wells to foul Dennis Rodman and to try to steal possessions in a game. And he fouled his own player out of a game. He picked a player who wasn't important and grabbed the last guy on the bench and said, your job is to foul Dennis Rodman six times and then leave. And there are so many incredible stories about Nelly. You know the retirement on Maui when he became friends with Willie Nelson and he and Willie Nelson would hang out, they would play cards and Don Nelson and Willie Nelson would hang out and just smoke a lot of weed together. He apparently started. Nelly was always a big sort of Carouser and drinker. Because when he was young, he grew up in downstate Illinois, one room schoolhouse, rural, barely. It took him a while to learn how to read. And he was kind of thrown into the whole basketball, you know, got him out of this small town. And Slick Leonard was his first head coach. And if you know anything about Slick Leonard, not his first head coach, excuse me, but he was the. A huge influence on him. And Slick was. Slick liked to go out and he talks about. Nelly, talks about a place in Chicago, of all places, where Slick would bring young Don Nelson and show him the fun things that the NBA lifestyle could bring you. And he started enjoying them. And he also became a notable carouser. And in his old age, somebody. He accidentally ate a couple of special brownies one time. And after that he found himself a new substance where he and Willie Nelson really hit it off. And that became kind of his life in Maui. And he grew his hair long and he started wearing little bracelets and stuff and became really an old hippie in his way. And hey, man, that's kind of winning. You live 86 years and you spend the last 30 years of your life or 25 years of your life on an island doing pretty much whatever you

[Russ Armstrong]

want, right on the island, playing cards, smoking weed with Willie.

[Dan Bernstein]

He won in a lot of ways. I want to find some of the famous stories. There is a great, great bio called Island Time. It was written on thebeliever.net and I read it in full again last night just to remind myself of how awesome he was. But here is a story that came from Darrell Dawkins. This is from the memoir of Darrell Dawkins. And he said, I never had much to do with coaches in the league. I wasn't a big fan of Don Nelson's. This is Chocolate Thunder talking. Wasn't a big fan of Don Nelson's until one night when we're playing the Bucks in Milwaukee. I was squatting in front of the scorers table waiting to come in the game, and Nelly happened to be standing nearby. You know what Nelly asked me? Said what? You guys are kicking our ass and the beer is cold in the locker room. I gotta get the fuck out of here. So he shouts to the nearest referee, hey, you fucking asshole. That was a terrible call. The ref gives him a technical foul. Nelly wasn't through. You're still a fucking asshole. That was still a terrible call. Bah. Second tech. So Nelly's tossed. So before he left, this is Darryl. Dawkins says before he left, Nelly winked at Me and said, see you later. One of a kind man. Meant a lot to the game and a lot to the game. And you're going to hear all kinds of stories about him, but you remember his, you know, he created the whole Run TMC thing and getting Mullen on the floor with Mitch Richmond and Tim Hardaway all at the same time, even though there were similar position overlaps. I don't care. I need you on the floor at the same time. Go. Just get out there and run. You remember him with the. Remember the fish ties?

[Russ Armstrong]

Oh, yeah.

[Dan Bernstein]

That he wore for a while because

[Russ Armstrong]

he was up in Milwaukee with the. With the fish. I mean, he was. He was. He was a notably known poor dresser.

[Dan Bernstein]

Yeah, I didn't really care. Yeah, yeah. It just wasn't his thing.

[Russ Armstrong]

Or gym shoes.

[Dan Bernstein]

Yeah, he would have loved the NBA when they were, you know, started putting on the. The quarter zips and all the easy stuff.

[Russ Armstrong]

Have you. Have you heard the. The stories about when Jordan. After Jordan retired, before he made his. His first comeback, that he worked out with the Warriors?

[Dan Bernstein]

No.

[Russ Armstrong]

Yeah. Tim Hardaway. He talked to Tim Hardaway and said he wanted to come. He wanted to come work out. And so Hardaway asked Nelson if he. If Jordan could just come and work out with the team. And so he did. And Nelson was like, yeah, absolutely, he can. And like, they gave him gear and he had to borrow shoes from, I think, Chris Mullins maybe. Wow. Didn't have shoes. And then he went out there and just tuned everyone up.

[Dan Bernstein]

Of course he did.

[Russ Armstrong]

Like, just. And, yeah, I just, like, beat the. Out of everybody. And it was like, oh. And Jordan's like, hey, you got anybody good on this team? And. And Hardaway was like, well, there's this kid, Latrell Spirit. He's an all star. He's pretty good. He's like, let's see how much of a all star he is. And then just went out there and tuned everybody up, including Spreewell. And then that's when he made his.

[Dan Bernstein]

His return.

[Russ Armstrong]

And they were all just like, all right, well, shit. I mean, this guy.

[Dan Bernstein]

See, I saw some of that, actually, because the Rockford Lightning were used in a Gatorade commercial.

[Russ Armstrong]

Oh, really?

[Dan Bernstein]

And we came to Lake Forest College to film, like, they asked us.

[Russ Armstrong]

They stole the glass bottles or are they plastic by then?

[Dan Bernstein]

Wood.

[Russ Armstrong]

It was in wooden barrels. Barrel staves at the Renaissance Fairy.

[Dan Bernstein]

So we. It was the other day, and they brought us all in and they put us up at the Ambassador east, and we spent an entire day filming a Gatorade Commercial with our players and Jordan. And it was just supposed to be a pickup game and they were just kind of getting. They were going to use all the shots and it was just gross. It was.

[Russ Armstrong]

Yeah, I bet.

[Dan Bernstein]

And he was. And like, oh. And even our coach was like, you know, he's in shape. He's in. He looks like he could. He could really, like, he's in shape. He's. He's coming back. And we started again because it was clear he didn't have any extra weight on him. He was moving great. But that's when you saw the muscle. Yeah, that was the first time I saw the new body. Yeah. When. Because remember when he came back for the second three Pete, and all of a sudden he was. He knew that he had a bulk up because he was going to use more of that post turnaround. And I, And I remember, like, oh, man.

[Russ Armstrong]

Yeah, he looked like a wide receiver.

[Dan Bernstein]

Had there been social media, it said, like, new look, Jordan reveals new body. Like, it's. But I remember knowing, like, oh, yeah.

[Russ Armstrong]

Hey, didn't you, didn't you just recently mention that one of the post games, during a champion. The championship runs, you asked him about Rodman, if you wanted Rodman back. That was you, right?

[Dan Bernstein]

Yeah.

[Russ Armstrong]

Okay. Because that, that video just came across my timeline over the weekend.

[Dan Bernstein]

Yeah.

[Russ Armstrong]

So it's just all you hear in

[Dan Bernstein]

the clip is you want Rodman back. Yeah, well, that's. That's because they tried to cut me off.

[Russ Armstrong]

Yeah. No, you told that story.

[Dan Bernstein]

Yeah, he could hear him do it. And you can hear Michael. And Michael's just like, I got this.

[Russ Armstrong]

Yeah. Because I just, I just.

[Dan Bernstein]

This penis.

[Russ Armstrong]

So all you hear in the, like, you don't. Obviously don't see you. It's just, it's on Jordan and you hear, do you want Rodman back? And I kept playing it over and over again. It sounded more manly than your voice. I was like, wait a second, is that Bernstein? But that was you, right? Yeah.

[Dan Bernstein]

Yep.

[Russ Armstrong]

Yeah, it was funny that you brought that. That was recently too. You brought that story up. And then I heard it. I saw it.

[Dan Bernstein]

I think he wanted to say something about Rodman. Yeah, I knew he did. And no one was asking him.

[Russ Armstrong]

Yeah, because he said something about. He didn't care about the dresses and he didn't care about all the bullshit and.

[Dan Bernstein]

And the best time to get Jordan to answer stuff was after he had a couple. And it happened a lot of post games. You knew if, like, sometimes he and Scotty would start getting the giggles or he would just be silly. And especially during the playoffs when he'd still be in uniform and it wouldn't be like it was in the regular season, where he'd go an hour after the game, he'd come out fully dressed and earrings in and ready to go. But playoffs were different. But he would go and have a couple beers or in this case, champagne. Yeah, and that's when you'd get real answers out of it. One of the things I enjoy most about sports is that every week presents a different puzzle. Everyone has an opinion, everyone thinks they've found an edge. Sometimes they're right. More often, sports remind us they're unpredictable. And that's part of the fun. Whether it's a marquee football game, a heated divisional rivalry baseball stretch run, or a big fight card, my bookie gives you plenty of ways to get involved beyond just picking a winner. The prop board's loaded with player performances, game milestones, all kinds of in game opportunities that keep things interesting from the opening whistle to the final out. And it's all in one place. One account, one wallet. Bet the spread, jump into the live markets while the game's unfolding, or head over to the casino between games or at halftime. If you've been thinking about trying it, now's a great time. Go to my bookie AG, use the promo code DBU and get your first bet covered up to 500 bucks. If it doesn't hit, use your bet back bonus token and run it back. Don't just watch the action, make it pay with my bookie. Sleep Number's new collections are designed to adapt to the changing nature of your life and your sleep needs. Whether it's the personalized comfort of the new Comfort Mode mattress, the targeted pressure relief of the Comfort Next mattress, or the climate collection that actively cools or warms to help you fall asleep and sleep, stay asleep. And now get early access to our biggest sale of the year. Save 25% on the new Comfort Next Luxe for a limited time only at a Sleep number store or sleepnumber.com you know Russ Armstrong is the owner of Chicago Window Guys. You say, well so what? Why does that matter? Why is it important that Russ Armstrong owns Chicago Window Guys? Well, it does matter because a lot of these other window companies are large companies that are advertising through big national marketing companies that then sign a local window placed to you that doesn't know what you necessarily agreed to. And a lot of stuff gets lost in translation. None of that happens when you are dealing with somebody who vertically in charge of Everything. Russ owns the factory that's here in Chicago that's going to custom make your windows. His crews do all the installation. He knows everybody who's in and around your house. And when he makes a deal, when he sits in your kitchen and says, oh, we can do it for this number, we can do it for that number, you're talking to the owner, you're not talking to anybody, say, well I gotta ask my supervisor, I gotta ask my manager. There is none of that. They cut out all of that and you just end up with great windows at a great price like I did. So when you have an opportunity to try to upgrade all your windows or maybe change some style, do it with Chicago Window guys. Give him a call. He's got a lifetime warranty on all parts and labor. There's a price match guarantee. If you want to shop around and take all that time, you can. But I'm telling you right now, I can save you the time because the best price you're going to get the best experience and the best windows will be with Chicago window guys. 847-302-9171 and check out his 5 star [e-mail] also I want to thank him for being the sponsor of our party on the 25th that we're doing a double clutch brewing company in Evanston. If you haven't made plans, 6 to 8pm on Tuesday the 25th. We can't wait. There's, we've got giveaways of all kinds of awesome tickets like Snoop Dogg and Earth Wind and Fire and Cubs tickets. And more importantly, we're all going to hang out. It's our way of thanking you for a year, one year of 312 sports.

[Russ Armstrong]

We were at a wiffle ball charity tournament event yesterday for the kids. They play every year really cool organizations called why Not Project. Check them out at why Not Project. It's the letter y. Why not project.org it's to help prevent and increase awareness about alcohol related boating accidents like in the lakes over here in Illinois.

[Dan Bernstein]

Yeah, it's a problem.

[Russ Armstrong]

Yeah, young, young boy was killed back in 2014 and this foundation started off of that and they've done a lot to raise almost $700,000, have donated some boats to Lake county sheriffs and Breathalyzers and much needed equipment to help prevent and raise the awareness of alcohol related accidents. But anyway, we're at the the event yesterday and the kids are playing and one of the moms of a kid I've coached before in different sports Walks over, she says, hey. I said, hey, how you doing? Happy anniversary. She says. And I was like, happy anniversary. Oh my God. What did I.

[Dan Bernstein]

You're immediately.

[Russ Armstrong]

Yeah. I was like, wait, what did I do? Wait? We got married in June. I'm like, wait, that's August. She's like, yeah. You know, on the podcast, you know, one year on the podcast. I was like, oh, yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah. Thank you. Thanks so much. She's like, yeah, she's a coworker who. They're good friends and he listens all the time. His name is Devin and he's coming to come to the party. He's coming to party. I said, we'll make sure Devin introduces himself. Says hello, but it's very nice. And also on that note, I know you saw this. You shouldn't be looking at your phone though, during the show. What we've hit on YouTube.

[Dan Bernstein]

Oh, I did see that. Yes. We just hit 10,000 YouTube subscribers for this show alone.

[Russ Armstrong]

Yes, the show alone.

[Dan Bernstein]

Just this show. Not overall, it's just this show.

[Russ Armstrong]

So thank you for that milestone. Been keeping my eye on and excited for that and we did it in under the year mark. So thank you.

[Dan Bernstein]

Awesome. Yeah, awesome. That's. That, that's great. Forward progress is knocking on the door too. And we just went over a thousand for organizations win championships too. So we were. I know Jason was excited about that because he was watching it. But. Yes. Thank you.

[Russ Armstrong]

And before you, you get to your final, final point.

[Dan Bernstein]

What I've been waiting.

[Russ Armstrong]

I know I was looking forward to this all weekend. Just looking at the 1985 AL Rookie of the Year voting like I never. I know I. Well, in. I guess I wasn't watching a whole lot of American league baseball in 1985. I mean I started watching the Cubs in 83. So Ozzy to me is more of the White Sox manager than. Than a White Sox player for me as a, you know, as a kid. Yeah, it was a. That was a. That was a slim year for AL rookies. Yes.

[Dan Bernstein]

Who did Ozzy beat out that year?

[Russ Armstrong]

Well, second place. With the second place votes, he had 67 voting points. Teddy Higuera.

[Dan Bernstein]

Sure. The Brewers.

[Russ Armstrong]

Yep.

[Dan Bernstein]

Left handed pitcher.

[Russ Armstrong]

Third was Ernie Riles, also from Milwaukee.

[Dan Bernstein]

Woof.

[Russ Armstrong]

Fourth was Odo McDowell.

[Dan Bernstein]

O to be McDowell in the morning. Yes.

[Russ Armstrong]

Yeah. Yeah. So ozzy. Ozzy got. Man 16 first place votes, 72% share.

[Dan Bernstein]

I think Chris Berman called him. Ode to be young again. McDowell.

[Russ Armstrong]

No. Yeah. 2.3 war in his 150 games. 273. 291. 358. 650. Look at that.

[Dan Bernstein]

Look at the difference between on base and batting average. He never walked, never didn't want to.

[Russ Armstrong]

He one home run, 33 RBI.

[Dan Bernstein]

Yeah, but watching him field was really. That's. You just watch a shortstop just vacuum everything up. Just so much fun to watch.

[Russ Armstrong]

Yeah, I mean. I mean, just going through the whole thing, the all the 1985 vote winners, it's interesting. I mean, Dwight Gooden won the Cy Young that year for the NL. He had a 12.2 WAR, 16 complete games.

[Dan Bernstein]

Was that one of the. Was that the George Brett MVP year?

[Russ Armstrong]

Where's the mvp? Mvp? And the American League was Don Mattingly. George Brett was second.

[Dan Bernstein]

Okay.

[Russ Armstrong]

He finished an OPS of 1022.

[Dan Bernstein]

What was Mattingly or what was George Brett's batting average that year?

[Russ Armstrong]

His batting average was.335. Mattingly finished.324. So it's interesting. Brett beats him in every category with the exception of RBI. He had 145 RBI. So that's where. That's where he got the votes.

[Dan Bernstein]

We talked about this Friday when we looked at The Andre Dawson one where he had a 3.4 wind above replacement.

[Russ Armstrong]

Yeah.

[Dan Bernstein]

87.

[Russ Armstrong]

In the NL side, it was Willie McGee. He was the MVP of the NL with 216 hits. Finished with an OPS of. 887. Pedro Guerrero, he finished third. He had an OPS of. 999. IS on base was. 422.

[Dan Bernstein]

Yep.

[Russ Armstrong]

He slugged. 577.

[Dan Bernstein]

That doesn't matter. Batting average.

[Russ Armstrong]

It didn't matter.

[Dan Bernstein]

Batting average. Damn it.

[Russ Armstrong]

Yeah. William Gee hit.353. That's why to the.320.

[Dan Bernstein]

Because we were stupid.

[Russ Armstrong]

Yeah, that's funny.

[Dan Bernstein]

I also want to congratulate everybody who participated in the weekend. 312 sports. Dan Bernstein. Unfiltered hashtag Car Chicken Challenge.

[Russ Armstrong]

Yeah, buddy.

[Dan Bernstein]

And that was just the first weekend that was opening weekend of Car Chicken Challenge.

[Russ Armstrong]

There was a lot of emails and responses.

[Dan Bernstein]

I was gonna save this for Friday for. I'm not. I can't.

[Russ Armstrong]

Because I mean, there were pictures sent.

[Dan Bernstein]

Dude, when we said do this. Can I just give you everything here? That was sent in by everybody who enjoyed the Car Chicken Challenge and took it to heart that we had that this was something that needed to be done. So this is from our buddy Farris. Farris said, my good sirs, I am a truck driver and the first time I had chicken While driving was in 07 from Bojangles in North Carolina. And it was amazing. That's a very good choice because Bojangles. Awesome.

[Russ Armstrong]

Yeah.

[Dan Bernstein]

So now I'll normally get it from the Juuls or in Indiana Strax, but go to in the semi. Is Chester's greatest gas station chicken out there, in my opinion. So the ruling, I'm asking you, the community leaders, does it count as car chicken if I'm eating it in my truck? Hell yeah. I said it counts double. And truck chicken sounds badass.

[Russ Armstrong]

It sounds. Yeah, it sounds a lot better than car chicken. Although car chicken is just car chicken, but.

[Dan Bernstein]

But truck chicken. Yeah, like that. That sounds like a good nickname for a football player or somebody. Truck chicken put him in the. Put him into the bench. I mean, hit him so hard.

[Russ Armstrong]

I mean, there was some great pictures of the actual chicken being eaten. There was a picture of a guy with the chicken in the car, and it showed the distance from which he parked from the front of the Mariano's. And I scolded him for parking so far back.

[Dan Bernstein]

I think I've got that here. I want to get to that, but one thing Ferris does say is hope to see you guys at Party Machine. Yes, I wanted to call it that so badly. Hope to see you there, too, Farris. Always nice to hear from you. Thank you. The Strangles League. He said personal experience obligates a farmio like warning to all the celiacs out there as you head home with car chicken ample napkins. You don't want to end up in a new Lenox cornfield next to Carlton Fisk. And number two, make certain there isn't a hole in the tray when you place it on your lap, lest you arrive at your Great Aunt Tootie's celebration of life with a Rorschach test of grease stains on the crotch of your light gray dress slacks. Yep. Yes, I think that's good advice.

[Russ Armstrong]

I got car chicken Friday. After we talked about it, I ran the Sunset. So I got some car chicken, and I got a large, large chicken breast. It looked great. And so I was eating it in the car, and I had my wife's car. Her car was in the driveway. And so I just took that one to the store, and on my way out, I grabbed. I mean, a really unreasonable stack of napkins. It's always good to have extra napkins in the car.

[Dan Bernstein]

I think it's pretty hard to make a stack of napkins are that unreasonable.

[Russ Armstrong]

So a huge stack. And then I put them in the center console. And so Saturday we were at the Renaissance Fair, and as we were leaving, she was like, oh, I Need to. Oh, somebody got a bloody nose. And she was like, oh, shoot, I don't have any. Anything in the car.

[Dan Bernstein]

Well, hell.

[Russ Armstrong]

And I'm like, well, babe, hang on a second. Open your center console. And sure enough. And she's. What are those from? Like, well, I had chicken in the car yesterday. She's like, ugh, Come on.

[Dan Bernstein]

You could just say nosebleeds.

[Russ Armstrong]

I always keep these here in case of car chicken.

[Dan Bernstein]

In case of Renaissance fair nosebleeds.

[Russ Armstrong]

I've eaten more fried chicken the last year than I have the last 30 years, so I'm proud of it.

[Dan Bernstein]

Tim And Racine says, I took the car chicken challenge and I found a hack. I held the foil bag over 90% of my chicken, allowing me to eat primarily with one hand. The bag then catches any large crispy bits that fall off. That were quite the prize after the bones were picked clean. And when exiting the car, a simple swipe cleared the small crumbs from my seat. I did inevitably burn my mouth, which may be the one downside of car chicken. Mine came from a local Piggly Wiggly and it was delicious, as it always is. My pick and save, which is Kroger, has a very inconsistent hot bar. But I've heard good things. All right, we'll keep that in mind. Yes, here is Z, who said, I've listened to you two for an extremely long period of time, called into the radio. I've been berated by Dan. Despite not knowing either of you, I feel like we're drinking buddies. I speak to you in confidence. My shortcoming is. I didn't realize you were such supreme chicken supporters. I only think of Dan as a discount meat connoisseur, which I fancy myself as well. I want it out there. I'm no newbie to the game of food takes. In all my years of listening, I can't help but notice you don't give the juuls enough credit for half price Friday wings. The wings aren't stellar, they aren't special, but they're half price. And that's good enough for me. Many days I've spent eating three pound buckets of half price spicy wings on my way home from work. And shame is something I've never felt from it.

[Russ Armstrong]

My man.

[Dan Bernstein]

These wings represent something to me. The freedom to walk into a local grocer, ring up a paper bucket of deep fried spicy season hot wing action, and feel like a badass. I'm not a car chicken guy like I used to be in my young years, but I'm a cheap car Chicken guy through and through. And I can't quit the wings. You want glitz and glamour, Go to the Hollywood Hills. You want to be a true Chicagoan? Head the Jules on a Friday, grab a bucket, crush it in the car and complain later about what you would do differently if you owned our local team's car. Chicken at half cost is the crux of Chicago in sports fandom. If more of us are car chicken people, even at full price, the world would be a better place.

[Russ Armstrong]

Yeah, listen, that's, I mean, it's a, it's a very, it's a great point to bring up about, about the half price chicken on Fridays, but man, I'm going to tell you, you say they're not spectacular, they're not special. Don't, don't discount the wings from Jewel, though. They're fucking fantastic.

[Dan Bernstein]

Yep.

[Russ Armstrong]

No, I love them. And, and the paper bucket. I've gotten those a bunch of times for the boys to have at home. And yeah, there isn't one or two that go missing on the car ride home. And the one time my wife did it, she got, she got free one, she got extra ones. She always gets hit on at the, like the butcher counter, the meat counter.

[Dan Bernstein]

Hey, little lady.

[Russ Armstrong]

The deli.

[Dan Bernstein]

Yeah, she always gets free stuff. Yeah.

[Russ Armstrong]

And so she came home with all these extra wings. It was like. Yeah, the guy just, I just gave them to me and I'm like, well, you should go more often.

[Dan Bernstein]

Bring her with you.

[Russ Armstrong]

Yes.

[Dan Bernstein]

Right, honey, we gotta go get chicken.

[Russ Armstrong]

Yeah, so. And don't. Yeah, I would, I would pay full price for Jewel wings. Yes.

[Dan Bernstein]

It was Steve who sent the picture of how far away from Mariano's he apparently parked.

[Russ Armstrong]

Yes, he did.

[Dan Bernstein]

Like, that must be a popular place. And usually, could you park further away, bro?

[Russ Armstrong]

You see all the empty parking spaces? Come on, man, don't be ashamed that you're gonna eat chicken in the car. Yeah.

[Dan Bernstein]

You lost the parking game or, or you were just. He said, first time car chicken or longtime listener. I'll move closer as I partake in more.

[Russ Armstrong]

Thank you.

[Dan Bernstein]

Fair enough.

[Russ Armstrong]

Yeah, unless, unless like 80 people left the store after he parked. But there was all those empty spaces. Don't be embarrassed. I said, man, be bold about it. Make eye contact with people that are going to their cars as you're eating chicken in your car, like, nod, point, wink, hold the wing up to them,

[Dan Bernstein]

say, you're missing out.

[Russ Armstrong]

Yes, I'm winning it.

[Dan Bernstein]

I've got car chicken. Matt in Lincoln Square said, I need a ruling. It was a pretty typical Saturday Morning. Get up, make coffee, pop a gummy, put something on the turntable, clean my apartment. It's a hell of a life you lead there, Matt.

[Russ Armstrong]

That is.

[Dan Bernstein]

He said the only things on my to do list were get prescriptions at Mariano's and go to a friend's place near Oz park to water her plants while she's on vacation. It's around noon. I'm gonna do the errands. Here's the thing. I don't own a car. I walked the mile from my place in Lincoln Square to Mariano's. I got my meds and I got hungry. And with the DBU grocery store chicken discussion, I went to the hot bar and I bought three drumsticks. Okay, perfect.

[Russ Armstrong]

Yeah.

[Dan Bernstein]

So when I'm stoned, I get obsessive. Here's my first obsession. Where do I eat this chicken? I didn't want to sit inside the store. It's freezing. I don't want to sit on a bench on Lawrence Avenue. There's no shade on the street. It's hot. My next destination is my friend's place in Lincoln park via the Brown line. So I walked a couple blocks toward the Damon stop. And I could have opened the chicken and gone to work while I walked. But then I thought, train chicken. Is this a thing? Does it count as an entry into the car chicken challenge? Is train chicken socially acceptable? I'm a conscientious public transit rider. I use headphones. I give up my seat to less able bodied people. I don't bring food on a crowded train generally, but what if the train isn't crowded? Morning commuters eat bananas or protein bars. Nobody minds. Chicken drumsticks are handheld. If consumed with little care, they don't have to produce a mess. So I didn't even notice that I'd paid my fare, climbed the steps, and now, standing on the west end of the platform, the train arrived. I step in. I'm the last one on. Four people to my right. They're all sitting in the front half. I turn to my left, and I took this single seat from facing the rear of the car behind the little wall, the spot reserved for the guy smoking cigarettes and doing one hitters. And as the train weaved its way southeast toward the Fullerton stop, I stared out the rear window of the car and ate my chicken. What is the ruling? It was a train car. You can make a case that I did eat car chicken. But look, man, take pride in train chicken.

[Russ Armstrong]

So I think it falls under the category of transportation. So we'll. We'll Allow it. We'll accept it now, initially.

[Dan Bernstein]

Now, if it is a crowded car, though, don't do it because you. Because. Okay, so the airplane chick.

[Russ Armstrong]

That's my first thought. My first thought was I wouldn't do it with a lot of people around. I love these. Very conscientious. As a. As a. As a. As a traveler, as a transit, a commuter. I love all the thought he put into it, given the circumstances within the car itself, where he sat, how. How conscious he was of those around him. Yeah, we're gonna. We're gonna award him train chicken. Yep. And welcome him with open arms into the club.

[Dan Bernstein]

Thank you.

[Russ Armstrong]

Yes.

[Dan Bernstein]

Thank you. I like it too. Yeah. A couple more. John in Linkin Park. He says it was a rare day. You guys regularly raise topics of such importance and interest, they at the very least elicit a reflexive chuckle, if not a quip out loud. I am not ordinarily one to write in, but I feel compelled to write in about car chicken. I was unsure my case would be given credit because of the stipulations procured from a grocery store, fried chicken, parked car. But I was reassured that you can give me a ruling. I don't know if you've heard of this place. I grew up in the northern suburbs. I moved out of state for college. I discovered a love for buffalo wings. And when I moved back home, I was testing and sampling all the local wing spots, and I found the best. It's called Frank's for the Memories in Mundelein. High quality meat, flash fried, Importantly, no breading. Smothered in quintessential Frank's based buffalo sauce. And it used to be a weekly endeavor, but I moved away. I came back to Chicago a couple years ago. I live in the city, but I found myself up north. I made a stop. I was going to grab a late lunch and then visit the forest preserve trails. I saved my DBU episodes for when I take a walk. Little did I know, as I was inhaling my order of hot wings from my parked car at the nature preserve, painting my face with buffalo sauce, that 30 minutes later on my walk, you'd be extolling the virtues of what I just indulged in. Car chicken. It's one of the finest things in all of existence. And of course that counts.

[Russ Armstrong]

Of course it does. And we've talked about Frank's for the Memories. I've brought it up on this show, talking about wings, as I mentioned that to you when we were talking about the wings in Buffalo. And I said, these are the Best ones I've ever had in Illinois are Frank's for the memories. They're fantastic. And I even give him extra credit for eating these in the car because they are. I don't know how you like your wings sauced.

[Dan Bernstein]

I don't like them wet.

[Russ Armstrong]

My assumption for you is you like less sauce. Yeah.

[Dan Bernstein]

I don't mind the heat. I just. I don't like them gloppy.

[Russ Armstrong]

Okay. Franks are. Are messier than other wings I've had, which I don't mind at all. You might not like it as much, but I give him extra points, like

[Dan Bernstein]

for eating like Harold's messy. Like, like.

[Russ Armstrong]

I mean there's, there's a lot of. There's a lot of sauce. And I. And I love that because I love their. Their sauce is fantastic. Is the. Frank's based? So I give him more points for eating those in the car because those are. I like to eat Frank's, take down a dozen or more and then shower. Like, I'm just like. So the fact that he did it in the car and then.

[Dan Bernstein]

Perfect for a hotel room.

[Russ Armstrong]

Oh, yes.

[Dan Bernstein]

When you can just sacrifice a whole white towel.

[Russ Armstrong]

Yes. Oh, yeah. You would need one.

[Dan Bernstein]

Oh, yeah.

[Russ Armstrong]

So it's not a criticism of Frank's. I love it. It's a plus for me. So the fact that he did that eight franks in the car and then went on a walk. Oh yeah. He's like. He didn't get arrested because people would have thought there was like dried blood around his face.

[Dan Bernstein]

Yeah. I also wonder too if it's a hot day and a sunny day and you're out walking in the forest preserve. Does that act? Does wing sauce act? Does it as opposite of sunscreen?

[Russ Armstrong]

It attracts it.

[Dan Bernstein]

Yeah. I would think you get. It's almost like baby oil or something

[Russ Armstrong]

that used to put. So thanks for sending that in and yeah, extra points for eating Frank's in the car.

[Dan Bernstein]

My man and I want to close with this very literarily composed piece from Brian in Naperville. He says, I'm a high school English teacher. Before we moved out here to the outer provinces, I lived in Lincoln Square. It was a killer one to two hour commute each day when the Eisenhower was especially hellacious. Meaning it's daytime on the clock. I'd get off at Mannheim and I'd scoot into the city through Maywood, where I would pass a church's chicken off Fifth Avenue.

[Russ Armstrong]

Okay.

[Dan Bernstein]

If it happened to be a Tuesday, the special was two pieces and a biscuit for 2.99. Done while I completely agree. There's something particularly scrumptious about eating fried chicken in your car. There was something deeper going on in my psyche devouring that chicken. It is the complete forfeiture of all self respect as I with reckless abandon attacked the chicken like I was mad at it for being so damn good. A temporary release from all the daily social etiquette. A release from contrived pleasantries, the swallowing of the dignified self as crispy skin dripped off my chin and cheeks. I felt that for those 90 seconds, I was in deep proximity to my animalistic essence. I was primitive. I could feel that perpetual link tethering me to early man. And that is what the car chicken challenge of Dan Bernstein Unfiltered can bring you to. So let this be the beginning and not the end.

[Russ Armstrong]

Yeah. Oh, yeah. That wasn't a weekend thing. This is a permanent thing. If you have not joined the club yet of car chicken, now, the invitation is here. All you need to do is execute and inform. Let us know.

[Dan Bernstein]

Yep. My family knows my proclivity for car chicken. When we used to take Zoe to college outside of Columbus on the six hour drive there and back, I had my spots. I knew where we were going to stop. And Beth knew she wasn't going to stop me. Nobody in the family could stop me. She had one rule. I could eat it leaning up against the car in the parking lot of the gas station.

[Russ Armstrong]

Just not in the car.

[Dan Bernstein]

Just not in the car around her.

[Russ Armstrong]

Or why was it. What was the.

[Dan Bernstein]

Yeah, she just didn't like the smell in her car. And we would take her car and she would. So I, I would literally.

[Russ Armstrong]

Well, when you enjoy something too that you're eating, you're allowed eater.

[Dan Bernstein]

I can be, yes. And chicken especially.

[Russ Armstrong]

Oh, I'm sure.

[Dan Bernstein]

Yeah. That's a different challenge. The Watch Bernstein eat chicken challenge. That's a small group that's past that.

[Russ Armstrong]

That's fair on her part.

[Dan Bernstein]

It is. So I understood it. But man, you weren't gonna stop me. There was one place. Oh my God. Where they had just made. It was like 10 in the morning and they were just putting it out and it wasn't. We had just stopped for gas and she's like, this isn't your chicken stop. And I said, you know what's going to happen today? There's going to be more than one chicken stop on this trip today.

[Russ Armstrong]

There you go.

[Dan Bernstein]

There were three.

[Russ Armstrong]

Oh, I forgot to tell you too, that. So my Friday car chicken I didn't get. I totally blamed. I did. I didn't get the fried chicken. I tried the Vesuvio.

[Dan Bernstein]

I think I saw the picture.

[Russ Armstrong]

I seen the picture of the Vesuvio. Yeah.

[Dan Bernstein]

And you got the. The airline breast.

[Russ Armstrong]

Yeah, it was great. It had the.

[Dan Bernstein]

It was the breast with the wing on it.

[Russ Armstrong]

A lot of garlic. It was really good. They did it like. You would have loved the amount of garlic. They did a really good job with it. I'll go back to their fried chicken, but I wanted to give the Vesuvio chicken a try since we were opening this challenge up to all the DBU listeners. So you need to do it. Execute the plan. Go eat it in your car. You got to let us know.

[Dan Bernstein]

Yeah. Thanks for taking the time to send in your reports.

[Russ Armstrong]

Pictures.

[Dan Bernstein]

So now we have truck chicken. We've got train chicken.

[Russ Armstrong]

Yep. Now you're a pilot. Have you ever done plane or plane chicken? Because what are your thoughts on.

[Dan Bernstein]

My thoughts are smelly food.

[Russ Armstrong]

Plane.

[Dan Bernstein]

My thoughts are that I haven't seen an airport where you can get pieces of chicken. I've seen it. It's chicken sandwich or it's strips because of the speed and the turnaround. I've never, never in an airport, seen people dropping chicken pieces.

[Russ Armstrong]

I've never seen a kfc.

[Dan Bernstein]

And strips don't count. Yeah.

[Russ Armstrong]

No, it's got to be bone.

[Dan Bernstein]

It has to be bone in. It has to.

[Russ Armstrong]

It has to be. So would you. How would you feel about. I would a pilot.

[Dan Bernstein]

Fine. And actually, maybe you're a private pilot or maybe you're a recreational pilot. Have you ever eaten chicken while flying?

[Russ Armstrong]

So how hypocritical am I if I don't want to see or smell someone else's fried chicken? But I'll do it on the plane. I never have.

[Dan Bernstein]

Yeah. I. I wouldn't do it.

[Russ Armstrong]

You wouldn't do it either.

[Dan Bernstein]

I wouldn't do it. I. I don't really like to bring. Maybe I'll bring a thing of pistachio nuts or something. Yar. But.

[Russ Armstrong]

Yeah, I know snacks are one thing, but, like, a full, hot meal. I just. It's to me, on the plane, you

[Dan Bernstein]

sit down and a guy's got, like, four sausage McMuffins and McGriddles.

[Russ Armstrong]

Or a guy's got, like, a giant gyro. Like, bro, what do you. What's going on here, man? Like, it's a. Like, I can't. I can't excuse myself from my seat. Right. It's not like there's a seating area. There's an area I can watch TV away from your smell. Yeah.

[Dan Bernstein]

It's not the smell.

[Russ Armstrong]

Like food's right here, right?

[Dan Bernstein]

Yeah. Oh, they're flying around out there. Well, that is Dan Bernstein, Unfiltered for this Monday. And thank you for being a part of it. It has been brought to you by Chicago Window Guys. That's Russ Armstrong at 847-302-9171. And you can check out five star reviews at Chicago Window Guys.

[Russ Armstrong]

Dan Bernstein, Unfiltered.

[Dan Bernstein]

Unfiltered on 31 2, sports. Thanks for listening to today's episode brought to you by my bookie. With the American Express Platinum card, you can access over $3,500 in annual value with benefits and eligible purchases across travel, entertainment and more. There's nothing like Platinum. Learn more at americanexpress.com/explatin-platin enrollment requirements monthly and other limits in terms of play.