Loading summary
Transcript56 lines
- [00:01]
Mike Wilbon
Good. Liberty, our WNBA champion.
- [00:05]
Tony Kornheiser
We can't get enough of the wnba. A fresh draft class has arrived. Dallas Wings select Paige Beckers. Teams stacked with new talent.
- [00:16]
Mike Wilbon
Julia's a complete dog.
- [00:17]
Tony Kornheiser
The Valkyries take flight in the bay. We've got more stars and more heat than ever. WNBA on espn, presented by Google. We can't get enough.
- [00:32]
Mike Wilbon
Pardon the interruption, but I'm Mike Wilbon. It's great to be back. I missed our viewers.
- [00:39]
Tony Kornheiser
I'm Tony Kornheiser. They're not here. We're on espn, too.
- [00:44]
Mike Wilbon
Oh, you think they can't find us? Cause you got rabbit ears at your house? Ralph Cramdon.
- [00:51]
Tony Kornheiser
No, they can find us. I'm not sure they want to find us. That's the part I'm saying I don't know. They want to. Maybe they do, maybe they don't. Yeah. Welcome to pti, boys and girls. In today' episode, the brewers pass the Cubs and Caleb Williams gets subbed out, which makes it a tough day for the return of the man we have all been missing, Mr. Michael Wilbon. But we begin today with another setback at quarterback for the New York Jets. No, not Aaron Rodgers. He's gone. This time it's Justin Fields, who was carted off the practice field, later diagnosed with a dislocated toe on his right foot, his plant foot. The jets are listing Fields as day to day and expect them to be ready to go week one. Fields is a running quarterback, so a dislocated toe may mean more to Fields than to a pocket quarterback like Tom Brady. Wolvine, you love Fields. How concerning should this injury be to the Jets?
- [01:44]
Mike Wilbon
They should be concerned anytime your starting quarterback has a leg injury and a foot injury, and as you mentioned, a guy who can run 4,000 yards like Justin Fields, but he's still young, what his fields now maybe 26ish. And he's still athletic. And he still probably can get over this more quickly than, say, Aaron Rodgers, who's 438 years old, who you mentioned earlier. And so, yeah, Tony, look, it's July. Can we pipe down? And by the way, people, some of the reporting that I hate from really good reporters at every network and every outlet and every newspaper, if there's still remaining any, is that people are healthy now and they declare players healthy now, as if there's not week one, in week two and week eight and week eleven, players, particularly in football, get hurt. That's what happens. You don't want to start that way with Justin Fields and the jets, your franchise or your Youth who seem cursed. But let's just pipe down and see where it goes. And day to day means day to day.
- [02:49]
Tony Kornheiser
So I had a doctor's appointment this morning and so I was incommunicado. When I got out, I looked at my phone. I had a text from my friend Adam. This is the extent of the text. I'm quoting it. Jets are cursed. It just doesn't stop. I had no idea, Mike, what he was talking about. Obviously I do now. But I think that sentiment is shared by jets fans all over that they are. They're a cursed team.
- [03:12]
Mike Wilbon
Yeah.
- [03:13]
Tony Kornheiser
You know, you don't, you don't want to have a dislocated toe. When you use your feet to run and move around because you're that kind of quarterback. You obviously don't want to have something like that because there's no DH in football. You can't slide to another position. You got to be a quarterback. That's what you are. I am imagining, Mike, that if it's less significant, if you're an offensive guard, you know, you can live with the fact that one of your toes is broken. It's more significant, obviously, when you're a quarterback. And for those old enough to remember, and you are and I am and not many others, the great Dizzy Dean basically lost his career as a pitcher because of a broken toe. He had won 30 games a year or two before broke a toe and was essentially done. I don't think that's going to happen here. I think that Fields is going to be fine. But Mike, if you're a Jets fan and you remember just a couple of years ago, Aaron Rodgers, four plays. Four plays and he's out for the year and you see a guy being carted off, you think you're cursed. You do.
- [04:13]
Mike Wilbon
You think Tony carted off might be the most serious one, but it might have been a precaution and we just. There's so much you just don't know. And you're right. I love Justin Fields in any uniform. I hope he gets healthy quickly. Let's move to Dan Lanning's suggestion to improve college football. The Oregon coach tells Yahoo that there's too much time between the end of the regular season and the beginning of the College Football Playoff. He'd like to condense things by starting the season a week sooner and the playoff the first or second week of December. Oregon had a 25 day layoff with its playoff by last season and lost tone. Do you see this suggestion as smart or self serving?
- [05:01]
Tony Kornheiser
Well, I see it as Both. I think it's smart. I think it's self interested. I mean again, he's got a team at Oregon that gets a buy and gets blown out. And he sees that the four teams that got buys, they all lost. So you know, that's a very small sample size because it's the first year of the playoffs. So it may turn out that that's just superstitious and not just self interested if five years from now the teams of the buys don't get blown out. But. But I do think it's smart to start the season early. To end the season early. To be like golf. To avoid the pillaging and marauding NFL. Because the NFL will schedule right opposite you. They will try to ruin your life because they're the NFL. They have obliterated the NBA from Christmas day. So yeah, if you can do that, yeah, it's smart. Which leads me to this, Mike. If it's smart, they won't do it in college football. Cuz people who run college football, they're not smart. Because smart people would have anticipated NIL and the transfer portal and had a better plan to cope with it.
- [06:06]
Mike Wilbon
Yeah, well, Tony, I would slide the season two, but not the way Lanning is going to do. And I thought of this weeks ago and, and actually talked to some people in college football about it. Start the season later. You're not going. If I'm college football, I'm not going to give up. December, you can schedule with the NFL. The day is long. Everybody got has lights. It's not 1930 in Wrigley Field. You, you schedule games in concert with the NFL so not to butt heads with them. And that takes, yes, our bosses because ESPN and the folks at Fox, it's the same people. The partners are the partners in large part. So start the season later. Start it in September, Labor Day or later. Tony. And then stop giving away the Army Navy week. You can't do that. And the Heisman week. You can't do that. You, you got to use those weeks for your games and not just have a day to watch I Love Lucy reruns.
- [07:09]
Tony Kornheiser
So you're going to have to mike.
- [07:11]
Mike Wilbon
Better scheduling if you do that.
- [07:15]
Tony Kornheiser
You got to be willing to go on a weeknight. You gotta, you have to avoid the NFL. You have to be willing to go on weeknight. Well, you can do Tuesday. They're college kids. They're not going to class. They're professional athletes. Let's stop getting that. Let's move to baseball. After wins yesterday, the Mets and Brewers are now in possession of first place in their divisions, the Mets passed the Phillies, who lost last night to the Red Sox. And the brewers passed the Cubs who lost to the Kansas City Royals. Well, Vaughn, which team should be more concerned, the Phillies or your Cubs?
- [07:48]
Mike Wilbon
Well, Tony, the Cubs. And by the way, I know you're trying to get my goat. The Cubs and Brewers have swapped places for three days in a row. So let's, you know, let's not get crazy. They didn't just pass them yesterday. They've been hot for a long time, as you noted before I even went away for a few day hiatus. But it's the Cubs. The Phillies are a veteran playoff team. They have a sense of who they are, what's going on all around them, what they can get out of certain people as we get down the stretch. You know, Bryce Harper in August. And they're a veteran team. The Cubs are not that. The Cubs are new to this stage. This is not the 2015, 16, 17, 18, 19 Cubs. Whole new team with no holdovers and they got to go out and get at least one starting pitcher. And if they can get a bat at third base, Suarez, even though our rookie is playing pretty well, the Cubs need to do those things. Jed Hoyer will have to do that, Tony. And, and even then the Cubs won't know. And they're in a just a killer division, not just with the brewers, but the Cardinals are not done. Cincinnati's not even done. And everybody's up against each other in the wild card. So the answer to that is the Cubs.
- [09:07]
Tony Kornheiser
I'm going to differ slightly because I'm going to say that neither the Cubs nor the Phillies give me particular concern. I don't think it's possible that Milwaukee can sustain the heater that it has been on for a while. They've won 12 out of 13, 36 out of 49. That's the best in baseball. I'm not saying they peaked too soon. I'm just saying I don't think they can keep that up. So to me, if the Cubs play the way they've been playing, they're going to go in and out of first place as well. And if I'm not mistaken, they have three games in a row in Milwaukee next week. So it's on their rackets. They have a chance to get back into first place and do some damage there. I agree with you about the Phillies. The Phillies are a better team than the Mets. The Phillies have better starting pitching than Mets. And ultimately starting pitching is the most important thing that you can have going near the playoffs that came last night was sort of fluky. The Phillies were up five nothing, looking to sweep Boston. They lose nine, eight and 11. Mike, how many times is a team going to get nine runs from the fifth on the so I think they're both in good shape. I do. I wouldn't. And they're playoff teams.
- [10:12]
Mike Wilbon
Hope you're right.
- [10:13]
Tony Kornheiser
They're certainly playoff teams.
- [10:13]
Mike Wilbon
I want you to be right.
- [10:14]
Tony Kornheiser
Let's take a break. Coming up, should we expect a better second season out of Jaden Daniels or out of Caleb Williams?
- [10:23]
Mike Wilbon
And the Steelers will be wearing some real questionable throwbacks, but will the packers be wearing worse? Damn cheeseheads.
- [10:32]
Tony Kornheiser
Whose idea is throwbacks? Do you like throwbacks? Sometimes I do, but often it depends.
- [10:38]
Mike Wilbon
On what they do. There are few, very few marketing people. Marketing people.
- [10:45]
Unknown
ESPN fantasy football is more than just a game. It's thousands of stories in the making. Like that one league that hasn't missed a draft since the 20th century. Or the one that decides their draft order by competing in a legit athletic combine. Or the league where if you come in last, you have to sit in a closet and assemble a 300 piece puzzle in the dark. Yeah, that stuff really actually happened. The football may be fantasy, but the stories are 100% real. So download the ESPN fantasy sign up and start your story today. Insights with IBM WatsonX.
- [11:24]
Tony Kornheiser
It's time for toss up. Two men enter, one man leaves, finishes the show, then faces a forlorn Friday without work and wonders whether he's used his craft as an escape from emotional intimacy with those who love him. But he also looks forward to watching the Nats and the Twins. What's first? Toss up. Which quarterback do you expect more from this season, Jaden Daniels or Caleb Williams? Okay, well, certainly, certainly the Bears expect more from Caleb Williams. As we talked about yesterday on the show, they are expecting 4,000 passing yards and a percentage 70% completion record. As you know, Mike, the Bears have been in business for over 100 years. Not one time have they had 4,000 yards from a quarterback. Not one time have they had a 70% completion record for a quarterback. So good luck on that. Jaden Daniels was better last year as a rookie than Caleb Williams was. He won the Rookie of the Year over Caleb Williams. He passed for almost 3,600 yards and had 69% completion record. Look, I think it's going to hurt him if Terry McLaurin isn't there. I also think that will probably be resolved. So if you're asking me to answer this question, I'M going to say Caleb Williams because I think there's greater movement up for him that's possible than Jaden Daniels. And I also think, Mike, the league has had a year to look at Jaden Daniels and they're going to come up with specialized defenses for Jaden Daniels. If the next question is who would you rather have? I would still take Jaden Daniels, but it's by a very thin margin.
- [12:58]
Mike Wilbon
Jayden Daniels is going to be hard for him to have a better year than he had last year. You mentioned what he had. Let me just see CJ Stroud on this, who was great as a rookie and had some backsliding because everybody almost has some backsliding even after a great rookie year. And even the people who played football who are all on the airways act like they don't know this and they just want to go with the analytics and a forward projection. Stop. Jaden Daniels likely to not have as good a year and he might be better. He might be the mvp, but not likely. Caleb Williams and people, once again, you talk about 4,000 yards. Caleb Williams, with no offensive line and no coaching to speak of, threw for 3,500 yards last year. Two better games, he'd have gotten to 4,000 with. Let me say it again, no coaching and no line. He has a dramatically improved line. He has weapons and he's a coach who threw the first team out of practice. Good. That's what he ought to do. Thank you, Ben Johnson. It's called getting better. It's called coaching. That's what Caleb Williams is going to have the benefit of this year. I don't care whether he throws for 4,000 yards. I want the team to get better and him to get better. And he will. And they will.
- [14:26]
Tony Kornheiser
What's next? Toss up worst throwback uniforms, the Steelers or the Packers. Okay, so I don't know how many people have seen these. I'm sure that everyone is going to see them. Now. They're both terrible uniforms. You cannot put the Steelers in canary yellow jerseys. You have to have some black in those jerseys. That's what people associate with the Steelers and that thing, that design on the front chest of these Dealers throwback uniforms. It looks like they have a backpack strapped to their chest. It's a very odd looking thing. Now I will also tell you the packers is worse for this particular reason. It's blue. It looks like the University of Pittsburgh. The packers are green. What are you throwing back to blue for? On the other hand, I do like the helmets because the helmets are designed to look like old time leather helmets. And to me that is creative. Whereas what the Steelers have done is they've taken their contemporary logo and slapped it on the back of the helmet so it's not a throwback. They didn't have that logo in the 20s or 30s or 40s or 50s or 60s. You can't actually do that. That feels like cheating to me.
- [15:38]
Mike Wilbon
Tony, you had me come back today off a little mini break and you get me screaming about the Brewers. You start the show with one set of cheeseheads. Then you include the packers, the real cheeseheads. I'm gonna recuse myself there. I'm not gonna recuse myself from attacking the marketing people at 345 Park Avenue in New York. Cuz they all should be fired. All of them. Anybody who came up with throwbacks for teams like Steelers, Packers, Bears, Giants, whatever Washington is. Teams that are 100 years old, they don't need throwbacks. They sell enough jerseys. It's a disgraceful money grab by the NFL, which. Oh, they need more money to sell more jerseys to be like the NBA, who you talked about them crushing on Christmas Day, but yet they're imitating the NBA. Let's have more jerseys. They both look like garbage. You want to do something nice with leather? Then wear the leather helmets. Put the leather helmets. Cover the real helmets in leather and wear those marketing people.
- [16:49]
Tony Kornheiser
It's really nice to see.
- [16:51]
Mike Wilbon
Get out.
- [16:51]
Tony Kornheiser
It's really nice to see that your time away has mellowed you and calmed you down and given you the perspective to look at things you've said before. And perhaps I threw raw meat in front of me.
- [17:01]
Mike Wilbon
That's what you did.
- [17:02]
Tony Kornheiser
That's it. Let's take one last break. Still to come, Dan Campbell ends. Lions practice early for the second time this week and we will tell you.
- [17:11]
Mike Wilbon
And Bill Belichick, your boy was at the podium today. Did he have anything intriguing to offer up? Throwback.
- [17:21]
Tony Kornheiser
This is not a throwback jacket. This is new. This is new. Do you like it? What do you think?
- [17:27]
Mike Wilbon
What's a throwback jacket?
- [17:29]
Tony Kornheiser
I'm saying it's a new jacket. I got a new jacket, not a throwback jacket. Do you like it?
- [17:33]
Mike Wilbon
Oh, I was going to say, yeah, I do. You've had lots of new jackets. New to me.
- [17:44]
Tony Kornheiser
Happy time, people. Happy 24th birthday. Drake London, the Falcons wide receiver was the 8th overall pick in the 2022 draft out of USC. London had gone to USC to play both football and basketball, where he played one season as a reserve. Last season, London caught 100 passes for 1271 yards and nine touchdowns in three seasons, with the Falcons being thrown to by five different quarterbacks, Marcus Mariota, Desmond Ritter, Taylor Heinecke, Kirk Cousins And Michael Penix Jr. London has 241 catches for just over 3,000 yards and 15 touchdowns this season. Penix will be the primary quarterback as the Falcons move away from Cousins.
- [18:28]
Mike Wilbon
Do you think Pennix is going to really establish himself and just leave Cousins in the dust to be released or traded? You think Penix is that good and gonna have that kind of early fall?
- [18:39]
Tony Kornheiser
Tony I think he's gonna get that chance. I mean, I think they're gonna give him a long leash on that and get that chance. I do. Happy Anniversary to Alex Rodriguez and Jason Veritek on this day 21 years ago, a rod reacted to being hit by a pitch from Bronson Arroyo by jawing at the mound. Varatek stepped in in front of a rod and shoved his mitt in a rod's face, setting off yet another bench clearing Yankees Red Sox Brawl after this, the game turned into an epic. The Yankees were up 3 nothing when the brawl occurred, but an explosion of big innings culminated with the Red Sox walking off Mariano Rivera 1110 after a Bill Miller 2 run homer. This was one of only four 4 blown saves by Rivera that year when he led all of baseball with 53 saves. Of course the Red Sox came back from 03 in the playoffs against the Yankees and they took down Rivera there as well.
- [19:38]
Mike Wilbon
I mean to those of us off of I95 a little bit, Tony, it's what happened in October. That's all that I remember from 2004 with the Yankees rest side. I don't remember that whole thing with a rod. I'll try to bring it up with him the next time I'm hanging out in Minneapolis and we're with his basketball team. The Timberwolves didn't remember that at all. So I guess that's a good trip down memory lane for some people.
- [20:02]
Tony Kornheiser
Here's what you should ask him. How did the mitt taste? Ask him that. I bet he remembers it. I bet he remembers it. We should note the passing of Hulk Hogan at the age of 71. Hogan, whose real name was Terry Bolaya, was the biggest pro wrestling star of the 1980s and beyond. Even non fans knew Hogan by his golden hair, horseshoe mustache and shirts that he would invariably tear off. A heel turn eventually followed, and in 2015 the WWE fired Hogan following the leak of an audio tape in which he used the N word. Though the organization later brought him back as an ambassador. That same year, Hogan also won a huge judgment against Gawker, which had published a sex tape featuring him.
- [20:45]
Mike Wilbon
Yeah, Tony, that was after my wrestling obsession of the 1960s and 70s when I was a kid. And it seemed to me that Hogan completely ripped off a guy named Billy Superstar Graham, who you'd know if you were a wrestling fan of, like, the awa. And then Hogan later in his years, as you mentioned, got involved with some stuff that was seemed unsavory at best. So, you know, not really a fan. But I understand he held a large position in wrestling when people obsessed over it. Like you said, the 80s and beyond.
- [21:20]
Tony Kornheiser
I will tell you this, I'm making no value judgments about what he has done, good or bad. But when he walked down the street, he's one of the five most recognizable people in the entire country. Hulk Hogan. Everybody knew what he looked like. Everybody had a sense of him. Let's go to the big finish. Dan Campbell ended Lions practice early due to several scuffles. Is that significant?
- [21:42]
Mike Wilbon
Not in the least. Bill Belichick spoke at ACC media day today. Your takeaway?
- [21:49]
Tony Kornheiser
My takeaway is that he's going to coach North Carolina, that all this other stuff is irrelevant at the moment and he's going to be the biggest story in college football. The Rockies beat the Cardinals in Colorado's first shutout in 2002021 games. You impressed?
- [22:03]
Mike Wilbon
Seems like teams get shut out twice a week in the rest of the league. And Colorado's not on the short end. On the good end of any. At long end, it's a long streak. Aces fever tonight. Caitlin Clark out. Still no timetable for her return. Your thoughts?
- [22:19]
Tony Kornheiser
She's the biggest star in the league and she's on the show. Biggest star by far. Last one. Venus Williams goes for a second straight win at the DC Open. You like her chances?
- [22:28]
Mike Wilbon
Not really. Against this ranked player. If I was there, I'd go see. I want to see Venus Williams play while you still can. And Rod o' Connell beat on soccer today. I love going to that tournament. I'd have been begging Mark Ein for some good seats if I was at home.
- [22:42]
Tony Kornheiser
We are out of time. We'll try to do better the next time. I'm Tony Kornheiser.
- [22:46]
Mike Wilbon
I'm Mike Wilbon. Off til Monday, Knuckleheads.