Dan Patrick (1:41)

2026 iHeart Podcast Awards Podcast of the.

Christopher 'Mad Dog' Russo (1:44)

Year by voting at iHeartPodcastAwards.com now through February 22nd. See all the nominees and place your vote at iHeartPodcastAwards dot com Audible is.

Dan Patrick (1:54)

A proud sponsor of the Audible Audio Pioneer Award. Explore the best selection of audiobooks, podcasts and originals all one easy app. Audible. There's more to imagine when you listen. Sign up for a free trial@audible.com you are listening to the Dan Patrick show on Fox Sports Radio Hour 2 on this meat Friday Dan and the Danettes Dan Patrick Show Christopher Mad Dog Russo in a couple of minutes, a Meat Friday Chicken and sausage, gumbo, seafood Gumbo and cornbread. Who has it better than we do. Stat of the day brought to you by Panini America. The official trading cards of the Dan Patrick show. Backstabbing and betrayal are the name of this game. The all new season of the traitors head back to the Scottish Highlands for a murder mystery competition like no other. The Traitors streaming Now only on Peacock 877 3DP. Show operator Tyler sitting by. He'll take your phone calls. And Seaton's got the honors with the poll question for hour two. Hour one we had up there. Which game is most likely to be a blowout right now, Seahawks 49ers followed by Bears, Rams last place in that. So least likely to be a blowout would be Broncos Bills. Okay, this hour we're putting up if you could only watch one this weekend of those same games. Okay. All right. And we'll have the most must win game of the weekend that'll be coming up. And who had the best week in sports? He's Christopher Mad Dog Russo. You can listen to him on SiriusXM channel 82. You also see him usually on Wednesdays on First Take with you, Stephen A. Smith. Let me start with the Dodgers, dog.

Christopher 'Mad Dog' Russo (3:36)

Good morning, Dan.

Dan Patrick (3:37)

Good morning. Good morning, dog. Dodgers decide they need another big ticket item here. Kyle Tucker going there to the Dodgers. Your reaction is, well, it's terrible for baseball.

Christopher 'Mad Dog' Russo (3:50)

I'll start there. I mean, how many guys you're going to have them sign Diaz? And I'm not saying for the Dodgers, it's, it makes some sense. They probably needed an outfielder. They had some issues as a closer last year, so there comes Diaz. But this is, this is ridiculous. Their payroll last year with insurance was over $500 million. And now they add two guys in. One's making what, 80 million or 70 million in Diaz, and he's making 60 million an average salary in dunker. I mean, the Dodgers theoretically aren't doing anything wrong. They're playing by the rules. But the rules have to change. I mean, this is getting to be a joke. I mean, and I. This is going to. In a lot of ways you can make an argument. This helps Manford with the lockout discussions and the contract with the CBA for next year, which obviously concludes, I think, on December 1st. It's right after the season. And this is now going to be a major sticking point. These owners say, hold on now, how am I supposed to compete when the Dodgers. And again, the Dodgers don't do anything wrong. But the rules stick. And you know, they gave, ohtani all that money, but it's all deferred. So he's making basically $10 million a year. So they can defer it, which gives him the best player in baseball at an incredibly low price, which means they can do anything they want. And everybody else did the same exact thing. Playing la, winning team, great organization, good weather, have a chance to be in the World Series every year. Who wouldn't defer all the money? The problem is it doesn't work as far as the basis of the sport is concerned because half these teams can't compete. Why would anybody think they could win the NL west next year with the Dodgers? And who cares what the dodgers do between April 1st and October 1st? You know, once the postseason starts, they're the team to beat. Last year they had a bad year for them. They won 90 something games where they won 95 games and they still won the World Series. So it makes the regular season obsolete for L. A because they're going to make the playoffs and they have the best players. So once they get to the playoffs, despite the unpredictability of baseball postseason, they got a hell of a chance to win. You can't tell me it's good for the sport that the Dodgers, who have won two championships, been in the playoffs, what, 15, 16 years in a row in the last five years, gave 325 million to Yamamoto, gave Sasaki $200 million, gave Ohtani a fortune, and now they give Tucker a fortune and Diaz a fortune. That's not good for the sport and the overall writing theme of it. Good for la, bad for baseball.

Dan Patrick (6:10)

If you include deferred payments, the guaranteed salary for the Dodgers this upcoming season is $2.1 billion. Wow.

Christopher 'Mad Dog' Russo (6:19)

That's amazing. Good job, Dan. I didn't even know that. I mean, how are the Pirates supposed to compete with that? I mean, how are Reds and the white socks, I mean, how are they supposed to compete with that? Baseball wants that.

Dan Patrick (6:34)

Well, you got Tampa Bay.

Christopher 'Mad Dog' Russo (6:36)

How they solve the problem. How they solve the problem is gonna be hard.

Dan Patrick (6:38)

Tampa Bay, 70 million. Yeah. Miami, 76 million. The White Sox 102. St. Louis 102. Washington, 120, Cleveland 131, Minnesota, 154 million. So these include deferred payments, guaranteed salaries. But I don't know how you could get everybody on the same page with this, Chris. Players association is going to fight it. They want these contracts. I mean, I don't know if these owners. I don't know what you can do.

Christopher 'Mad Dog' Russo (7:07)

I agree with you. I mean, let's also Say this the guy who runs the Players Association, Scott Boris. It's not Tony Clark. It's not Bruce Weber. Weber might negotiate it. It's Boris. Yeah, they don't do anything without Boris's approval. And Boris is an unbelievably good agent who. Last time I had this major fight, everybody on the executive board were Boris clients. I think they had five or six, and they were all Boris. You got Max Scherzer on the phone calling Boris to see if he agrees with what they're doing in March. The whole thing is that, listen, baseball, this is what kills baseball. It's great in the postseason because you never know. The best team doesn't always win. But as far as the regular season is concerned, it's gotten to a situation where it becomes obsolete because, you know, certain teams are just going to be in a postseason barring a catastrophe. And one of those teams now, you know, the Yankees and, you know, teams like that, and one of those teams definitely now is la, and it's bad for the sport. You know, a lot of fans are going to be annoyed, and I don't know what you do to solve it. You're right. You know, Manfred's done a great job because he's been a commissioner that has not lost a regular season game since he was involved with negotiating these contracts in the mid-90s. So he has that on his legacy. So, you know, he's not going to want to lose games next year. But he's also in a situation where he's got to do something. So we shall see.

Dan Patrick (8:25)

Yeah, because with the NFL, you can go from worst to first. We've seen those success stories.

Christopher 'Mad Dog' Russo (8:29)

Can't do that in football. You can't do that here.

Dan Patrick (8:31)

Yeah, in the NBA, we've seen success stories. They've had one pick.

Christopher 'Mad Dog' Russo (8:35)

Look at the Spurs.

Dan Patrick (8:36)

Different champion, what, the last five or six years. So you go into a season, you give. The NFL gives you hope.

Christopher 'Mad Dog' Russo (8:45)

Absolutely.

Dan Patrick (8:46)

It gives you. Carolina Panthers fans at the beginning of the year, you're probably thinking, okay, we're in a bad division. Can. Can we win this division? And the answer is yes. You look at the Bears, you know, where they were, where they are. I mean, you could have the rise and the fall. Detroit up, then down. So to say to these teams, you're going to have an opportunity to at least compete for a playoff berth. I mean, that's what you want as a fan. You want hope. Now, there's certain franchises where you go, no, we expect to be in. In the NBA, you want. You want Hope you want to go, hey, I believe in the team and I'll continue to go out and support it. You know, if you're a Pittsburgh Pirate fan, you go out one day, you, you go to see your pitcher, that, that's probably it. It's a great ballpark, but you know, how many times you going to see those games? But if you're playing in big games now, all of a sudden you're buying it. You know, the Reds make the playoffs. Now you're, you're going out to watch a season, not just a couple of.

Christopher 'Mad Dog' Russo (9:48)

Games, 100% watch the Dodgers get school too.

Dan Patrick (9:51)

I did. I brought that up this morning. I go, that's who I thought that they were going to be getting somehow some way.

Christopher 'Mad Dog' Russo (9:57)

And he's going to leave and you know this arbitration issue with him. Yeah, it's a major problem. I mean, last year the Bears didn't make the playoffs. This year they're in a divisional round. You made a good point about Carolina. They won the division to get a home playoff game. You know, Denver last year barely made the playoffs. Now they're into the one seed. Seattle last year didn't make the playoffs. Now they're the one seed. You have so many advantages from that standpoint. Was it normally six in and six out in the NFL, six teams every year and you know that they, you know, have a shorter schedule now you need the quarterback. Without the quarterback, you're not going to win. But you have ways to get the quarterback. You can draft one. You can be bad at the right time. You know, Purdy was the last pick in the draft. They found him. Right? I mean, you can get the qb. Josh Allen wasn't the first pick. You can get. Knicks wasn't the first pick. You can get the quarterback by little lucky somehow a free agent, a trade. Well, you know, Donald, I mean, he was a trade. Seattle, they won. You can get the quarterback in the NBA. You got to get the great player. You know, Wembayama, you know, David Robinson, Duncan. You got to get that great player, the transformational player. There are ways to do it, but you got to get that player. But it doesn't have anything to do with money. I mean, you know, it might have something to do with the market, but Sacramento was good for a long time. The spurs won some championships. So the small market can win in the end. In baseball, it's really about three or four teams. And that's the. And that's the unfortunate thing about baseball. It's got a great playoff system. The playoff system Lasts three weeks, it's done. It's not a slog out, four month process where they play best of sevens, where you know who's going to win beforehand like the NBA might have, you know, it's. The games are unpredictable because there's no guarantee the best team's going to win. So that makes it fun too, you know, the great baseball game. As you know, Dan, you're a great baseball fan. Game 7, Toronto and Dodgers. How great a game was that? Yeah, you know, it gives you incredible drama. But the problem is baseball has become over the long period of time, too much dominated by the big market teams. And I don't know how you solve that problem. I really don't. Without a strike. Without a strike.

Dan Patrick (12:03)

He's Christopher Mad Dog Russo, host of Mad Dog unleashed on Sirius XM channel 82 and also you'll see him on first take. What's holding up John Harbaugh on the.

Christopher 'Mad Dog' Russo (12:13)

Giants hasn't officially signed it yet. Yeah, I don't know. I don't have the answer for you on that. Maybe the money for the assistant coaches. This is a move the Giants had to make. This is going to happen. I mean, you know, I don't think it's going to fall apart. Harbaugh and Mara, I guess really had a great sit down. They had a great dinner a couple nights ago and the Giants need them. I mean, you know, they've gone the assistant route. Whether it's, you know, Dable Judge, you know, Ben McAdoo, it just, it's been a disaster. They have to bring an established coach. Harbaugh is a good coach. I mean he's not a great coach yet. Got a chance to be, you know, hall of Fame. I wouldn't say Harbaugh is a hall of fame coach by my standards. I wouldn't say he's a hall of fame coach.

Dan Patrick (12:55)

Is Tomlin.

Christopher 'Mad Dog' Russo (12:57)

You know, he's going to be in the hall of Fame. They're going to make it. But by you and I standards, do I consider Tomlin right this second a hall of Fame coach? I don't now. That's me. Now he's going to make it because they vote, you know, they vote six candidates a year and you know, Coryell made it. He never won a championship. Cowers anyone. One super bowl. So he's, he's gonna get in. But obviously Marv Levy's made it. He's got 143 wins and four Super bowl losses. You know, George Allen's in. He never won a thing. So they're gonna make it. But do I consider Tom and a Harbaugh myself, as a football fan, a great all time coach? No, I don't. Now, when I think of the great all time coaches, I'm thinking Paul Brown, Belichick, Lombardi, Gibbs, Welsh, Walsh, Parcells. You know, I'm thinking along those lines of, you know, that establishment group, Shula, Landry, those kind of guys. And I don't think that myself, that Tomlin or Harbaugh are on that level myself, but I'm a small room guy. You're a small room guy. A lot of people put all these coaches in. I mean, Bill Cower to me is not a Hall of Fame coach. Very good coach. Do I consider him a Hall of Fame coach? Two Super Bowls, he's one on one hall of Fame, where, wow, he's a great coach. I don't consider him that. But he's in the hall of Fame, so they put a lot of guys in who I wouldn't put in. And Tomlin and Harbaugh are sort of on a very good category right now. And Harbaugh and Thomas will have a chance to get to that next level. I mean, you think Dungy's a great coach? Very good. Is he great in your eyes, Dan? Is Tony Dungy a Hall of Fame coach?

Dan Patrick (14:43)

Well, he was also a great defensive coordinator as well. That Tampa team that he had, that Gruden came in one, you know, Tony, Tony was helped in building.

Christopher 'Mad Dog' Russo (14:53)

Yeah, I think he's an interesting case. Do you think. You think George Allen's a Hall of Fame coach?

Dan Patrick (14:59)

No, he's in the hall of Fame. I know.

Christopher 'Mad Dog' Russo (15:01)

You think Pete Carroll is going to make the hall of Fame?

Dan Patrick (15:03)

Yes. You do? Yeah. Yeah.

Christopher 'Mad Dog' Russo (15:07)

Wow. I'm not sure. I.

Dan Patrick (15:10)

Especially now it is the Pro Football hall of Fame, so they're not factoring in usc.

Christopher 'Mad Dog' Russo (15:15)

Yeah, I know. Forget us.

Dan Patrick (15:16)

But I'm guessing. See, I think the thing is, is you're trying to compare today's coaches with yesteryear and that's. It's hard to do that and come up with a Hall of Fame coach because these guys were established, they didn't have to worry, you know, about all these other things that today's coach has to deal with, getting to two Super Bowls, like Sean Payton. Is Sean Payton a Hall of Fame coach?

Christopher 'Mad Dog' Russo (15:41)

He's been a one Super Bowl.

Dan Patrick (15:43)

Not yet. He's. He's probably going in. Is Mike. Is Mike McCarthy hall of Fame coach?

Christopher 'Mad Dog' Russo (15:48)

No, absolutely not.

Dan Patrick (15:50)

He's got same resume as Sean Payton.

Christopher 'Mad Dog' Russo (15:53)

Yeah. I don't Put Peyton in, though. Again, I'm a small room guy. I want greatness. I don't do. I think Sean Payton's a great coach. He's very good. Great Parcels is a great coach. Gibbs is a great coach. Three Super Bowls, three different quarterbacks. Bill Walsh, that's a great football coach Brown, those are the sort of guys.

Dan Patrick (16:16)

Who has more pressure, either player or team. The most pressure this weekend in the NFL.

Christopher 'Mad Dog' Russo (16:24)

Not San Francisco, Seattle, Buffalo. So banged up. And I heard your thought with Josh Allen. He's great. Anyway, I probably, you know, it's weird. I might say Stafford with the Rams. You can't say there's any pressure on Houston. You can't say there's any pressure on the Patriots. The Bears are a young team. You can't use them. San Francisco, somehow we're in this spot. Seattle, you know, maybe Sam Donald, maybe Donald, because he needs to go out there and, you know, sort of undo last year when he didn't play very well in the postseason. I don't look at Denver young quarterback Allen. I think he's accomplished plenty. Anyway, I know people bring Allen up because there's no Mahomes and Burrow and Jackson. I still think Allen's got plenty of time to win a Super Bowl. I think this is an important. You know, the Rams had a great year and then they kind of stalled. They were not great last weekend. I think there's some pressure on them, and I think there's a lot. I think there's some pressure on Sam Donald. You know, in a weird way, you brought up an interesting question, because I don't know if there's a clear cut. Wow, he's got a win. You know, I don't know if there, you know, if Lamar was in this spot, I'd say three and five in a postseason. Maybe I put him in that category. I don't know if I have anybody right now in the last eight in that category where they. That they have to win. I don't know if I have that right now.

Dan Patrick (17:49)

Good to chat with you.

Christopher 'Mad Dog' Russo (17:50)

Go to Bastion.

Dan Patrick (17:51)

Glad you're feeling better.

Christopher 'Mad Dog' Russo (17:52)

Thank you, pal. You had a rough week. Hiccups, hiccups. Never get them. Never get them.

Dan Patrick (17:58)

Wait, you had the hiccups, which led.

Christopher 'Mad Dog' Russo (18:00)

To some issues, and I was in bad shape for about 15 hours. If I had a missed first take after a division around, you know, I wasn't.

Dan Patrick (18:09)

Have a good weekend. You too, big guy. Thank you. That's Christopher. Mad Dog Russo had hiccups and they led to something else. All right. We'll take a break. We'll update the poll results. More of your phone calls as well. Take a break. Back after this Dan Patrick Show Be sure to catch the live edition of the Dan Patrick show, weekdays at 9am Eastern, 6am Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app. Fox Sports Radio is taking over YouTube and you can be a part of it. Pay attention. Just go to YouTube and search Fox Sports Radio. Hit that subscribe button and smash that notification bell and catch all the videos from your favorite shows. Two pros and a cup of Joe, Dan Patrick, Colin Cowherd, Doug Gottlieb, Covino and Rich the Odd Couple with Rob Parker and Kelvin Washington, the Jason Smith show with Mike Harmon and the Ben Ma Show Fox sports radio on YouTube. Subscribe hit that thumbs up icon and comment away the New year brings new health goals and wealth goals. Protecting your identity is an important step. Your info is in endless places that could expose you to identity theft leading to lost funds. LifeLock monitors millions of data points per second. If your identity is stolen, LifeLock's restoration specialist will fix it, guaranteed or your money back. Resolve to make identity, health and wealth part of your New year's goals with LifeLock. Save up to 40% your first year. Visit LifeLock.com sports terms apply. Everyone deserves to be connected. That's why T Mobile and US Cellular are joining forces. Switch to T Mobile and save up.

Christopher 'Mad Dog' Russo (19:45)

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Dan Patrick (19:47)

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Christopher 'Mad Dog' Russo (19:50)

Check the math@t mobile.com switch and now.

Dan Patrick (19:54)

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Marvin (19:58)

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Dan Patrick (20:00)

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Marvin (20:02)

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Dan Patrick (20:04)

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Marvin (20:05)

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Dan Patrick (20:06)

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Marvin (20:35)

This show contains information subject to but not limited to personal takes, rumors, not so accurate stats, and plenty more. What's up man? This your boy Nav Green from the Broken Play podcast. Look it's the end of the season. The playoffs are. Guess what? It ain't the end of your season. You can always tune in with Broken Play podcast with Nav Green on the Black Effect podcast network. Another team who ain't going to the playoff. The Chiefs. What's a wrap? It's time to rebuild. Who your MVP right now then Drake May up there.

Christopher 'Mad Dog' Russo (21:06)

Josh Allen up there still.

Marvin (21:08)

Oh, my boy Matthew Stafford.

Dan Patrick (21:10)

Where did Nicks at?

Marvin (21:12)

He ain't too far behind.

Christopher 'Mad Dog' Russo (21:13)

He did all this talking.

Marvin (21:14)

What Matthew Stafford is doing statistically, bro is crazy. Bro, you know I ain't no Josh Allen fan, but Matthew staffer got better weapon. Caleb Williams.

Dan Patrick (21:23)

Hey, he should be in that conversation.

Christopher 'Mad Dog' Russo (21:25)

In what conversation?

Marvin (21:27)

Listen to Broken Play with Nav Green from the Black Effect podcast Network on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast or whatever.

Dan Patrick (21:34)

You get your podcast talking some baseball with Christopher Mad Dog Russo. And he worked for MLB Network. He had a show on for probably a decade, High Heat. And you know, we look at the Dodgers. Dodgers didn't do anything wrong. In fact, they're doing everything right. They're reinvesting. They spend the money. Did they find a loophole? Did they get Ohtani to take deferred money? Yes, but keep in mind, they're two outs away from losing the World Series last year. We make and make it seem like, oh my God, foregone conclusion. They're going to win the World Series. They're two ounce away from losing the World Series. If the Dodgers lost the World Series and they signed Kyle Tucker, how would people react? Would they be reacting the way they're reacting now? And that's this is the end of the world as we know it. They'd be like, yeah, well, they lost the World Series. They went out and spent money. 20of 30Major League Baseball teams reinvest less than half of their revenue into player salaries. So that is a bigger problem to me. 20 out of 30 reinvest less than 50% of the revenue into player salaries. Stat of the Day brought to you by Panini America. The official trading cards of the Dan Patrick Show. That is somebody running a successful business. That's all it is. Now, can they catch lightning in a bottle, maybe make the playoffs? Yes. But for the most part, baseball is top heavy. And I don't think it's going to change because the players association will fight this. They're not going to say, oh, let's bring down salaries. Now the owners, if they get together and say, how do we fix this? How does the commissioner help in fixing This, I don't know if you can. The Dodgers are going to continue to spend. They reinvest, and you look at the revenue that they're making. You know, when I looked at what Ohtani was going to be, I remember saying he, he could get $600 million. And we had a couple of baseball analysts on there say, no, there's no way. I said, yes, he's probably getting $600 million. Now all of a sudden, we don't even blink. If somebody gets 500 million, you're like, okay, it's going right. But Ohtani was global. That's the difference. Soto is not global. Kyle Tucker's not global. I mean, there's only a couple of players that move the needle. Aaron Judge, global, but there's very few of them. And the Dodgers got the most unique athlete in sports and he plays, you know, around the world. People who aren't even interested or that interested in baseball. Not even Dodger fans tuned in to watch him play in the World Series. They watched him, they wanted to see him hit, they wanted to see him pitch. The fascination is similar to Tiger Woods. You might not have been a golf fan, but you were going to tune in to try to understand what is the hype all about. You may not understand golf, but you understood watching somebody do something that we had never seen before. Yes.

Marvin (25:04)

Mark and I go back to the term I created wife famous, where my wife has no idea about Major League Baseball at all. Besides maybe Derek Jeter in 1996. But she knows the name Shohei Otani and she knows that, that he pitches and he hits. She was like, do people normally do that? That's what she asked me during the World Series when he had that unbelievable game where he's, he hit three home runs, he struck out 10.

Dan Patrick (25:26)

Yes.

Marvin (25:26)

Do people normally do this? I was like, one person might do this, but they might not do both.

Dan Patrick (25:31)

Yeah, I gotta look at Pittsburgh and you know, Pittsburgh has to look at this and go, Paul Skeens is going to be here for how long? Two years. And it's unfortunate that, you know La Dela Cruz, wonderful player with the Reds. Is he going to be there? No, it's just supply and demand. How much can we pay you? And that team's going to pay you more. You know, Toronto's spending a lot of money and once again they were two outs away from winning the World Series. So baseball, it's not going to be fixed, but they're in a seven game series. Say if baseball was a one game playoff in each series that's when you would get the. Anybody can win this if it was March Madness. Like, instead of seven games over seven games, the best team usually wins. But we went to seven games with the Dodgers and the Blue Jays.

Marvin (26:32)

Yes, Marvin, but like March Madness, you want to see Cinderella's only up to a certain point. Like, I want to see the Dodgers and the Yankees. No offense. I'm really not trying to see the Royals and the Diamondbacks go at it in the Fall Classic. And most people aren't.

Dan Patrick (26:46)

Yeah. But if I go back to that Kansas City Royal team with Brett Saberhagen and George Brett, we did want to see them. We. They were great. I mean, those are. They had hall of Famers on that team. That was a great team. Now, they couldn't keep that team together now. But there are times when I love Cinderella stories. Only if Cinderella wins. Like, I hate when Cinderella goes and they kind of disrupt everything, and then all of a sudden you go, all right, Lob City only got to a certain point here. Or Northern Iowa. Like, all of these, you know, teams that come out of George Mason come out of nowhere in March Madness. Butler, I want to see you take it all the way. But you're right, and I say this every. Every March Madness, what happens, we want to see surprises. We want madness until we want to get the real champion here. We want. We want the blue bloods to play for a national championship here. You know, you can't have these little schools get in here. They're going to ruin everything.

Marvin (27:52)

Yes, Marvin, but when you were talking about the Royals, that was the 80s where you had big time stars that you could name. But in 2015, when the royals won, I couldn't name anybody off of that team. So maybe that was a different generation where you had talents.

Dan Patrick (28:08)

Baseball meant more back then. That's all. It's just everybody's kind of looking for the, you know, the scraps that the NFL leaves behind. Everybody's kind of navigating of how do we get. Where's our piece here? How do we do this? You know, college football expanding, March Madness expanding. Everybody's kind of saying, all right, what do we do with our product? That we can still have an impact here. A college football playoffs ratings were pretty good with a lot of the bowl games I don't know about, you know, the previous two games, certainly the Indiana blowout there. Ratings will probably be good for the national title game. And keep in mind, Indiana was a Cinderella story three years ago, two years ago, and here they are now. We expect them to win the championship. But, you know, sports is ever evolving. Sports that were really popular, and then all of a sudden, you know, boxing and horse racing, man, those are the great sports. Nobody cares now. It doesn't. You know, you got your window, and then, you know, we move on. But I think with baseball, the I. I hope that they're able, and I think this commissioner's done a good job. But I don't know if you can solve this by saying, let's put a salary cap on this. I want to make sure these other teams, franchises, owners spend the money they don't spend. The Dodgers spend. They should be rewarded for spending. There should be a. A minimum that you have to pay. Some of these owners just say, that's all profit, man. I'm not sharing it. Brian in Knoxville. Hey, Brian, what's on your mind? First time caller, longtime listener.

Christopher 'Mad Dog' Russo (29:57)

5, 10, 250.

Dan Patrick (30:01)

In reference to this, in reference to the deferments, why can't there be a cap on these deferments, Keep this more competitive. I'm not sure I agree with your take on it. If they take in $500 million, that they should spend 350 of it. I mean, like you said, they're businessmen, and I'll hang up and listen. You know, it depends on what product you want on the field. That's all. I mean, it's your team, your stadium, your fan base. If you don't care, I mean, then why would the fans care? There's certain franchises that care, and they have the money to spend. I want the teams that don't spend money to maybe spend money to have a better product on the field or sell the team. P in Florida. Ip what's on your mind, Jp. Man? Don't know what happened to P. What. What's the. Our fly is open. Let's go pee. That was Austin P. When they had Fly Williams.

Christopher 'Mad Dog' Russo (31:20)

Yeah.

Dan Patrick (31:21)

Leading score in the country. Our fly is open. Let's go pee. Great rally and cry. Seaton, Would you update the poll results from the first 30 minutes of this second hour?

Marvin (31:34)

I sure will.

Dan Patrick (31:34)

And you know, this is actually interesting. We have up there first hour, we did the game most likely to be a blowout. The game that was Most likely was Seahawks 49ers. The game that was least likely was Broncos Bills. Then we put up there, if you could only watch one this weekend. Mm. Bears and Rams is in the lead with that. And so Broncos Bills is also tied with that. Okay, so I think it's interesting that Bears and Rams is sort of going back and forth as the game that's most likely to be a blowout. And people are also most interested in watching that one game. And then on the flip side, the one least likely to be a blowout, people are most interested to watch that game. You know, it's tricky when you get to this point where you go, I, I know who the Patriots are, or I know who C.J. stroud is. And the Texans. Patriots. Texans. Has been in last place in both of those polls. Yeah, that's the one. And I don't gamble anymore. But I. It feels like too many people love the Texans to pull off the surprise. And that, that's where it gets kind of tricky because you're like, wait a minute. It's like people really fell in love with the defense. Yes, they did. This past weekend. It's like they just noticed the Texans had the best defense in football. Like, damn. Like, oh, that's right. Will Anderson, Danielle Hunter. Yeah, they. They've been doing this for a while. Front four. I love it. Yeah, I know. A lot of Front 4 Talk this week. That's where you're like, they've been doing this. It's just nobody's. What? Nobody's talking about the Texas. Nobody watches the Texas. No, they don't. They don't. They don't. Only the only time you watch the Texans is usually that Saturday 12, 12 o' clock game, the first game of the playoffs. And it's always, that's the Texans time slot. And you know what? They would have been in that time slot had they not played on Monday night. They probably would have been a Saturday game, first game right out of the box for the playoffs. Yeah, Paul. The Texans gave up 295 points this season. Only one other team in the NFL gave up under 300 points a season. Who wants to guess one other Denver NFC team. Is the hint. Okay, who wants a shot? Marvin?

Marvin (34:01)

The Rams. Nope.

Dan Patrick (34:02)

Rams gave up 346. Todd. Atlanta. Atlanta. They gave up 4. 11. They gave up 401 points.

Marvin (34:13)

There'll be some off the wall one.

Dan Patrick (34:15)

I respect it. But Tampa. Tampa gave up 411 points. Satan, you clean it up. How about the Eagles? No, The Eagles did well. 325. Your Seattle Seahawks gave up 292 points. Yeah, we should have gotten that one. We should have. The stat of the day brought to you by Panini America. The official, official, official trading cards of the Dan Patrick show. Sunday night. It'll be Matthew Stafford and the Rams against Caleb Williams in the Bears. Oh, Paul. Oh, Paulie. Oh, could we be in the NFC title game? I can't, can't believe it. Divisional round Sunday, 6 Eastern on NBC. And Peacock, when we come back, who had the best week in sports? We'll talk some football with Chris Sims in the final hour and we will give you the most must win game of the weekend. All of that forthcoming. Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in the nation. Catch all of our shows@foxsportsradio.com and within the iHeartRadio app. Search FSR to listen live. Who had the best week in sports? Todd, I'll start with you.

Marvin (35:33)

I am going off the board with the Clippers, who we make fun of often as many do. Four straight wins, including the Pistons last Saturday in Detroit.

Dan Patrick (35:40)

They're a five straight at the Raptors tonight. Let's see. See, no, Connor, I'm going to say the Houston Texans defense, they're certainly on everybody's radar. Absolutely dominant performance against the Steelers. They essentially got Mike Tomlin fired or well, stepped down, but out of a job. They may have retired Aaron Rodgers and they're going into New England looking like a force. That's a hell of a week, Marvin. Best week in sports.

Marvin (36:07)

The Patriots defense, they had success against Justin Herbert. Milton Williams is looking like Aaron Donald 2.0. Good week for them.

Dan Patrick (36:15)

The immovable object against the irresistible force there with these two defenses, apparently. Paul, I will go Niners quarterback Brock Purdy.

Christopher 'Mad Dog' Russo (36:24)

Little national reminder that he's got some.

Dan Patrick (36:26)

Playing ability and he's kind of back.

Christopher 'Mad Dog' Russo (36:28)

He's one of those guys you question after the big contract.

Dan Patrick (36:30)

Looks like it's full steam ahead once he has a healthy team. And I was talking to Chris Russo about which team or player has the most pressure. I, I think Sam Darnold probably has the most pressure because everybody is waiting for him. Is he going to be the Sam Darnold we know or is this going to be the new and improved Sam Darnold and you have the number one seed, you have home field advantage. You have a ticket to the Super Bowl. All you have to do is take care of business at home and try to play as close to mistake free football as you can. But you have Josh Allen. I don't look at this and say, boy, the window's wide open. Yes, these other quarterbacks aren't playing, but I don't think this is a great Buffalo team and you got to win three games on the road and then if you do, you get to go to the Super Bowl. Josh Allen doesn't need to prove to me about winning in the playoffs. He performs in the playoffs. And as RG3 said yesterday, wins aren't a quarterback statistic. Now, I disagree. I think it, it is, it should be. But you know, he's saying, hey, you can do everything possible. That doesn't mean you're going to win the game. I understand that. And he's put his team in position to win. Lamar Jackson has not. And that's what we're waiting for with him. Sam Darnold, we're waiting to see is he, is he going to be a big time player? Yes. Mark.

Marvin (37:59)

Well, I disagree with RG3 from this standpoint. When we talk about quarterbacks, we talk about what you did in the playoffs. It doesn't matter. Oh man, he played great, but your team lost. This is a results based business and you have to show up and at least get your team to a win in order to be considered a great playoff quarterback. Because people aren't going to look into the stats like that. Like, man, he played great against the Chiefs in a loss.

Dan Patrick (38:20)

Well, I think they might do that for Josh Allen because his, his postseason stats are pretty amazing. So they might give him like, I don't know Dan Marino's postseason stats. I don't know. I don't know Joe Montana's postseason stats. I know that he won Super Bowls. You know, Roger Staubach won a Super bowl and I think he threw for 119 yards and was named the MVP. Okay, Bart Starr didn't have great postseason numbers. He's a Hall of Famer. Bob Greasy, like, I don't know what his postseason numbers are. All we know is, did you win a Super Bowl? That's it. But hey, Your QBR was 128. I, I couldn't care less about that. I just want to know. We've seen Sam Darnold in a couple of playoff games and because of him, his teams didn't advance. Now we want to see what he does. Home field advantage in a game that they're favored by a touchdown. But I'm trying to think of anybody else under a lot of pressure. It feels like Sean McDermott is, just feels like that, whether whether he is or not. RG3 said yesterday, if Buffalo doesn't win that game, he thinks Sean McDermott is gone. And Sean's been there, I think nine years. I mean, that's an eternity now in the coaching circles, like Andy Reid, what do you, He's a. No one's going to be putting up numbers like that. At least it doesn't feel like that. And you know, here's another side topic here with the Green Bay packers and Matt LaFleur and that deal's not done yet. And that is kind of weird. Like you go, okay, what's holding this up? Matt LaFleur wasn't one of the higher paid coaches in the NFL and he probably wants to be compensated, you know, far more than $5 million a year. But you can't go in there after a bad loss. If, if he wanted to negotiate at halftime of the Bears packers game, that would have been a great time where you just walk in. So I'm keeping an eye on some of these situations here. You know, is there another opening that could emerge? I talked to somebody yesterday who said Mike Tomlin's not coaching anytime soon. So Mike Tomlin is not, he's let I believe everybody know he's not coaching, not anytime soon. And no guarantee that he's going to go into TV either. But the Matt LaFleur with the packers, you know, you don't want a lame duck coach where it's the last year. All of a sudden you lose to the Lions and the Bears and then you go to a press conference and then they say, you know, are you coaching for your job? Like then it becomes a just distraction. They're either going to keep him or they're going to move on. But I thought John Harbaugh, for some reason I thought that was in play. And then somebody said to me yesterday about Matt Lafleur with if Green Bay doesn't want him, Pittsburgh would love him or Atlanta would love him or Tennessee in previous stops would love him. So this isn't done yet. This whole coaching cares. We can't even get Harbaugh under contract yet. It just feels like there are a lot of moving parts here and is there a team in the playoffs who could move on from their coach Lucas in Texas? Hi, Luke. Welcome back. Hey Dan. Good morning. Good morning. Two quick NFL things. You guys were talking earlier about the Freezer bowl with the Bengals and Chargers. I still think the craziest stat I've ever heard is that the Chargers in consecutive games in Miami and then in Cincinnati faced a difference in air temperature. Kind of feels like temperature of at least 135 degrees. Yeah. When you think about it. But this weekend, you know, you've been asking lately of the guys, not really what is going to the headline going to be but what is the story or conversation going to be. My theory, the Bears secondary and defense overall is a little bit shaky. We Know that Matt Stafford loves to zero in on one receiver in a game. I think the discussion is going to be he has either sent in Devonte Adams, somebody of the hall of Fame, or in Puka Nukua. He is well on his way. Only three years into a Hall of Fame career. I think that's the discussion that's going to be coming out after this weekend's games. Thanks, guys. All right, thank you, Luke. Have a good weekend. Who had the worst week in sports? Marvin, I'll start with you.

Marvin (42:46)

I'm going to go with the LA Lakers. They had, man, they're one in four in their last five games and the whole Rich Paul, hypothetical Austin Reeves situation did not help.

Dan Patrick (42:55)

Well, I think Max Kellerman, who's the co host with LeBron's agent, came out and said if the Lakers really want to win, they'll trade Luka Doncic because he doesn't play defense. Okay. I don't know who you're getting for Luka Doncic. Like, if we're going to do these, you know, silly local radio show, we're going to trade, you know, Luis soho for Mickey Mantle. You know, you're like, okay, I'll hang up and listen. The Hornets beat the Lakers 135 to 117. Hornets got some scores, but you're giving up a 135 points. Yes.

Marvin (43:38)

Marvin Lamelo ball looked like he was at Chino Hills last night. I know, like he's one of those, like you said, he puts up, never question his talent, but his ability to be the best player on a winning team.

Dan Patrick (43:51)

No.

Marvin (43:51)

Is my thing.

Dan Patrick (43:51)

Yeah, I don't, I don't want him. I mean, I like watching him, you know, first time I saw him, he was a freshman in high school. And I said, he's the best out of the ball brothers. But no, I think he's more of a hey, look at me kind of guy. Not a look at us kind of guy. So. Yeah, but he was, he was dancing, he was dribbling, he was shooting. Chris in California. Hi, Chris. Hi, Dan. Thanks for taking my call. Yeah. Longtime listener, third time caller, 59135. Okay, thank you so much for, at.

Christopher 'Mad Dog' Russo (44:32)

The top of the hour, pointing out.

Dan Patrick (44:33)

That the Dodgers are not ruining baseball because there are plenty of owners who are not making the investment that they should be making in their team. And Marvin, I'm a huge 49ers fan, so I hope that after the game we are celebrating. And Paulie, please, your Bears need to take out the Rams. Thanks so much, guys. Have a great weekend. Well, thank you, Chris. I'll make some calls. Coming up, top of the hour, we'll go over the other candidates who might have had the worst week in sports. Marvin gave us your worst week in sports. We'll get to Paulie Fritzi Seaton as well. Also, Chris Sims, on loan from Football Night in America, will join us. And the most must win game of the weekend. And Todd does rhyme time. NFL playoff rhyme time.

Marvin (45:20)

It's a mix.

Dan Patrick (45:20)

It's a mixed bag. Some of them are NFL related. All right, two hours in the books on this meet Friday. One more to go with Fritzy Seaton, Marv Poly, yours truly and the back room. Guys, this is an I heart podcast. Guaranteed human.