Hour 2 – How to Fix the NBA, Cris Collinsworth

Summary

The Dan Patrick Show: Hour 2 – How to Fix the NBA, Featuring Cris Collinsworth

Release Date: December 19, 2024
Host: Dan Patrick
Guest: Cris Collinsworth
Duration: Approximately 50 minutes

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Introduction

In the second hour of today's episode, Dan Patrick engages his panel, including guest Marvin Harrison, to delve into a range of sports topics. The discussion primarily centers on the challenges facing the NBA and explores potential solutions to enhance its appeal and competitiveness. Cris Collinsworth, a seasoned sports analyst, joins later in the show to provide additional insights, particularly regarding the NFL and the evolving dynamics within professional sports.

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Holiday Memories and Personal Anecdotes ([03:07]–[04:34])

The show opens with a nostalgic exchange between Dan Patrick and Marvin Harrison about their childhood holiday experiences. Harrison reminisces about celebrating Christmas with simple joys:

Marvin Harrison ([03:12]): "Growing up, we had like a fake fireplace in our apartment with like a little red light bulb where it looked like a fake fire. And we had stockings and Matchbox cars and McDonald's gift certificates in our stockings."

Dan adds his own fond memories of classic toys, highlighting the timeless appeal of cars like Hot Wheels and their influence on his aspirations:

Dan Patrick ([03:35]): "They were great. They were so cool. I kept thinking, when is somebody going to take those Hot Wheels and make actual cars that look like the Hot Wheels?"

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NFL Quarterback Shake-Up: Kirk Cousins and Michael Penix Jr. ([04:42]–[07:19])

Dan transitions the conversation to the NFL, focusing on the Minnesota Vikings' recent decision to bench Kirk Cousins in favor of rookie Michael Penix Jr. The panel discusses the strategic implications of this move:

Dan Patrick ([04:42]): "Barring that was a big deal yesterday. And Kirk Cousins handled it just like you thought he would. He'd be like, all right, I'm there to help him."

They evaluate Penix Jr.'s performance and speculate on his potential to become the long-term starter, considering upcoming games against significant opponents like the Giants.

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Hall of Fame Debate: Christian McCaffrey vs. Tiki Barber ([06:14]–[10:16])

A significant portion of the discussion revolves around whether Christian McCaffrey deserves a spot in the Hall of Fame, especially when compared to Tiki Barber. The hosts analyze statistical achievements and career impacts:

Dan Patrick ([06:14]): "I don't think he's a Hall of Famer. I think Tiki Barber is more of a Hall of Famer than McCaffrey. If I'm just looking at numbers."

They compare McCaffrey's rushing yards and receptions to Barber's, arguing that Barber's more extensive career statistics make a stronger case for Hall of Fame consideration.

Dan Patrick ([06:14]): "McCaffrey had three incredible years, but let's look at career rushing yards. 6300, almost 6400 yards for Christian McCaffrey. Tiki Barber, 10,000."

Additionally, Seton O'Connor brings up Ladanian Tomlinson as an underrated candidate, further enriching the debate:

Seton O'Connor ([08:47]): "Paulie, you mentioned Ladanian Tomlinson being underrated in 11 seasons, 13,684 rushing yards. You're going in the Hall of Fame right there."

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Listener Calls and Interactive Segment ([11:12]–[19:35])

The show invites listeners to call in with their thoughts and questions. Topics range from player comparisons to critiques of sports analysts. For instance, a caller named Steve Covino expresses frustration with NBA coaches involving politics:

Steve Covino ([25:20]): "I think the NBA has taken the wrong side of this. It's pretty evident where they stand politically."

The panel responds by reflecting on the broader impact of political statements within sports, citing historical examples like Colin Kaepernick and Emmitt Smith.

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NBA Structure Proposals: Fixing the League ([46:19]–[49:48])

One of the pivotal discussions involves Steve Covino's innovative proposal to restructure the NBA's scheduling to mirror the NFL's model. He suggests implementing a series-based schedule to enhance competitiveness and viewer engagement:

Steve Covino ([46:19]): "Instead of doing your overall record out of 82 games, how about we adopt kind of an NFL model and we do eight five game series against division opponents."

Dan Patrick ([46:19]): "I don't want to add games. I think I need to see it on paper with something like that."

The debate touches on the feasibility of such changes, player fatigue, and the potential impact on team strategies and league dynamics.

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Dower Rankings: Expressing Sports Frustrations ([50:38]–[51:50])

In the "Dower Rankings" segment, the hosts share their current disappointments in the sports world. Highlights include:

• Marvin Harrison laments the NBA's attempts to revive the All-Star game with the NBA Cup, viewing it as a desperate move:

Marvin Harrison ([50:38]): "This NBA cup thing obviously has been bothering me and now they're doing this contrived trying to save the all-star game."

• Rich Davis voices frustration with Tua Tagovailoa and the Miami Dolphins, citing underperformance despite having talent:

Rich Davis ([50:41]): "I'm dour on TUA and the Miami Dolphins. They, you know, just had a must-win game. Their season has been a little bit of a disaster."

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Guest Insights: Cris Collinsworth on NFL Politics and Hall of Fame Candidacy ([26:40]–[37:21])

Cris Collinsworth joins the show to provide his perspective on the intertwining of politics and sports, particularly within the NFL. He reflects on past events and their lasting effects on the league's popularity:

Cris Collinsworth ([26:40]): "When you think about Colin Kaepernick, the political venom that was available then towards the NFL and nobody's going to watch and nobody's going to go to games..."

Additionally, Collinsworth weighs in on the Hall of Fame debate, expressing support for McCaffrey's unique skill set but remaining cautious about his long-term legacy:

Cris Collinsworth ([35:24]): "Christian McCaffrey was my first overall pick in my fantasy league. So yeah, I've got a little personal. You're mad at it, having the heart on that one. So. But you know, he is a very unique player."

He also shares personal anecdotes about navigating social media as a sports analyst, highlighting the challenges of dealing with both positive and negative feedback online.

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Conclusion and Final Thoughts ([37:21]–[52:28])

As the episode draws to a close, Dan Patrick summarizes the key points discussed, reiterating the need for the NBA to innovate in response to declining viewership and competitive dynamics. The conversation underscores the delicate balance leagues must maintain between entertainment value, player welfare, and audience engagement.

Dan Patrick ([49:48]): "I think the NBA really has to start, you know, throwing out some ideas just like we are. There's no bad idea. Let's talk about it."

The hosts express optimism that through open dialogue and creative problem-solving, the NBA can address its current challenges and regain its standing as a premier sports league.

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Notable Quotes with Timestamps

• Marvin Harrison ([03:12]): "Growing up, we had like a fake fireplace in our apartment with like a little red light bulb where it looked like a fake fire."

• Dan Patrick ([03:35]): "They were great. They were so cool. I kept thinking, when is somebody going to take those Hot Wheels and make actual cars that look like the Hot Wheels?"

• Dan Patrick ([06:14]): "I don't think he's a Hall of Famer. I think Tiki Barber is more of a Hall of Famer than McCaffrey. If I'm just looking at numbers."

• Steve Covino ([46:19]): "Instead of doing your overall record out of 82 games, how about we adopt kind of an NFL model and we do eight five game series against division opponents."

• Marvin Harrison ([50:38]): "This NBA cup thing obviously has been bothering me and now they're doing this contrived trying to save the all-star game."

• Cris Collinsworth ([26:40]): "When you think about Colin Kaepernick, the political venom that was available then towards the NFL and nobody's going to watch and nobody's going to go to games..."

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Conclusion

This episode of The Dan Patrick Show offers a comprehensive exploration of current issues in the NBA and NFL, enriched by expert guest Cris Collinsworth's perspectives. Through engaging discussions and listener interactions, the show provides valuable insights into the complexities of maintaining sports leagues' popularity and integrity in a rapidly evolving landscape.

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Note: Advertisements and promotional segments were excluded from this summary to focus solely on the content-rich portions of the episode.

Transcript

[Dan Patrick]

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[Paul Pabst]

On and it's only on Prime Video makes the catch. Touchdown. Tonight the Denver Broncos visit the Los Angeles Chargers in a game with big playoff implications.

[Todd Fritz]

This is unbelievable.

[Paul Pabst]

Coverage begins with TNF tonight. Not a Prime member. Sign up for a 30 day free trial to stream the game. It's the Broncos and Chargers tonight only on Prime Video. Restrictions apply. See Amazon.com Amazon prime for details.

[Dan Patrick]

Sonos makes it easy to enjoy a cinematic sound experience from the comfort of your own couch. Sonos works with award winning artists and producers, sound engineers to deliver the highest quality sound. Listen to all the holiday music you want, watch all the holiday movies and you can do that with Sonos. Sonos products work together so you can build your own sound system and they look as beautiful as they sound. Great. Sound looks great. You're going to be the star of the neighborhood. Sonos has great gifts for everyone on your list. Visit sonos.com dan you'll save 20% on select products, so that's sonos.com dan to save 20% on select products, that's sonos.com dan you know our trusted partner Tirerack.com for their fast free shipping, free road hazard protection, convenient installation options and their great selection of the best tires like the highly consumer rated Goodyear Assurance Weather Ready. But did you know they sell other automotive products, wheels, brakes and suspension just to name a few. Everything you need to elevate your drive you can go to tirerack.com dan that's tirerack.com dan tirerack.com the way tire buying should be. You are listening to the Dan Patrick show on Fox Sports Radio. It's hour two on this Thursday. Dan and the Danettes Dan Patrick show. Morale is high once again. Todd would like to be referred to as Merry Fritzmas.

[Marvin Harrison]

That's not too much trouble.

[Dan Patrick]

It's not Merry Fritzmas. You don't even celebrate Christmas.

[Marvin Harrison]

I do, actually. Growing up, we had like a fake fireplace in our apartment with like a little red light bulb where it looked like a fake fire. And we had stockings and matchbox cars and McDonald's gifts certificates in our stockings. We did a lot. We played Perry Como music. We watched all the Christmas cartoons. We did probably more Christmas things than Hanukkah.

[Dan Patrick]

Those Matchbox cars, they're awesome.

[Marvin Harrison]

And Hot Wheels was all great wheels.

[Dan Patrick]

They were great. They were so cool. I kept thinking, when is somebody going to take those Hot Wheels and make actual cars that look like the Hot Wheels? And it took a while. But, you know, some of these car manufacturers did try to emulate that because a lot of times what happens when you're growing up, you see a car but you can't afford it. And then as you get older and you can't afford it, then you might buy a Trans Am or Corvette or a Porsche. But when you're growing up, you can't. There's so many great cars that you see and you're like, I want that. And I remember, you know, a friend of mine wanted a Lincoln Continental Mark 3 that had the tire encasement in the back.

[Seton O'Connor]

Yeah.

[Dan Patrick]

And he wanted a light blue Lincoln Continental Mark 3. And then I see him like 25 years later and he's driving it and I'm going, I'll be damned. You got your Lincoln Continental Mark 3. You're. Yes, Marvin.

[Paul Pabst]

What did he want to be when he grew up? There's only a couple occupations that go with that car.

[Dan Patrick]

All righty. It's hour two. On this Thursday, Chris Collinsworth will join us on loan from Sunday night Football, the Pennix Cousins promotion. Benching that was a big deal yesterday. And Kirk Cousins handled it just like you thought he would. He'd be like, all right, I'm there to help him. And Michael Penix Jr. With three games to go. I'm not going to say it's a soft landing because it's still playing against an NFL team, but a home game against the Giants certainly helps. Now, if he doesn't play well against the Giants at home, that's when. And I, I think this is fluid. I don't think this is. Michael Penck is our starter the rest of the year. And it. I might be in the minority here because it felt like a lot of analysts said, oh, they're not going to go back to Kirk. They are. They will if they need to because you can still win this division. This isn't the Raiders or the Giants. Some of these other teams, they have a chance to win the division and host a playoff game. You got football coming up tonight. The Broncos at the Chargers. The Chargers are favored by three. Good morning. If you're watching on Peacock, thank you for downloading the app. Stat of the day is always brought to you by Panini America. We'll get to phone calls coming up. And at the end of last hour, I'm walking by Paulie and Paulie goes, if Christian McCaffrey's career ended now, is he a Hall of Famer? And I thought, okay, random. And then I realized that Paulie probably wanted to revisit Tiki Barber's numbers with the Giant. I think Tiki Barber is a Hall of Fame running back.

[Seton O'Connor]

You're in a minority.

[Dan Patrick]

Yes, I am. But if I'm going to compare his Numbers To Christian McCaffrey, I don't think it's close. Now McCaffrey had three incredible years, but let's look at career rushing yards. 6300, almost 6400 yards for Christian McCaffrey. Tiki Barber, 10,000 career receptions, 524 for McCaffrey, 586 for Tiki. Now he played two more seasons. I think he played 10 McCaffrey's at eight 1500 yard rushing seasons, McCaffrey zero. Tiki had 32000 yards from scrimmage. Tiki had three seasons. Christian McCaffrey had two. Yes, Paulie.

[Seton O'Connor]

I'm not saying McCaffrey is going to quit the sport, but you could see with this degenerative type stuff he has a future in the media, possibly or something like that. Would he get credit if his career ended early due to injury?

[Dan Patrick]

I don't think it's a Terrell Davis type situation because he did win a couple of super bowls, was instrumental. 2,000 yards rushing. I still go back to Ricky Waters. I thought Ricky Waters, he was. He was kind of there with Roger Craig. You know, they started this whole hybrid where Marshall Falk. I think those guys just felt like they were going to run. And Ricky Waters had 10,000 yards rushing and he had 467 catches. Fred Taylor had 11,000 rushing yards, didn't have a lot of catches, but, you know, the running back is tricky because now it feels like you're grading them differently than you did before the receptions. That's paramount. Now you're looking at yards from scrimmage, and I think that may be where voters go, because it's really hard to differentiate between, you know, somebody who's doing something now as opposed to the way they did it in the 70s or the 80s. And I always thought you got to 10,000 yards, you're a Hall of Famer. I don't know. That's not the case anymore because Tiki's got that, Fred Taylor's got that. I don't know if you're going to, you know. So Tiki, Ricky and Fred Taylor, they all have over 10,000 yards? Yes.

[Seton O'Connor]

Paulie, you mentioned Ladanian Tomlinson being underrated in 11 seasons, 13,684 rushing yards. You're going in the hall of Fame right there. He also had 624 receptions.

[Dan Patrick]

And I was looking at his numbers. He's second in career touchdowns to Emmett. I think he's got like 150 touchdowns, maybe 160. He had 145 rushing touchdowns. So, I mean, you're at 160 touchdowns. But he kind of did it where, you know, you thought of the Chargers and you're like, oh, okay, they're going to lose in the first round of the playoffs. That's one of those. If he goes to the super bowl, plays well in a Super bowl, then it elevates his status there. And it's blasphemous to say, like, let me compare Ladanian Tomlinson to Emmett Smith. They were different running backs. Emmett was just going to get the ball and get you yards. I don't know how many catches that he had in his career. What are 300 catches? Maybe Ladanian Tomlinson feels like a more complete back than Emmett Smith. Although if I have to get a yard, Emmett Smith on the short list of running backs that I wanted.

[Seton O'Connor]

Yeah, Paulie, Emmett Smith had 500 career receptions, but it was, you know, he had a bunch of years where he caught 50 and 60 balls.

[Dan Patrick]

Okay.

[Seton O'Connor]

In his prime.

[Dan Patrick]

Yeah. Four best rushing seasons for Christian McCaffrey. He had a total of 5000 yards. Tiki's four best rushing seasons, I mean, he had 1800-1600-1500-1300. That's 6400 yards. But here's part of the problem is he had the fumbling issues. And also they win the super bowl the year after he retires. And that hurt him. But is McCaffrey a Hall of Famer right now? No, he's not. No, he. He. He feels like a Hall of Famer. Just the numbers aren't there. We'll talk to Chris Collinsworth about that. And by the way, he's not going to retire. At least I don't think. I still think he's trying to play. Just throwing that out there. All right, couple of phone calls. Luke and Charlotte. Hi, Luke. What's on your mind today?

[Chris Collinsworth]

Hi, guys.

[Steve Covino]

Thanks for taking my call.

[Dan Patrick]

I had a fill in the blank, and you can either play or I'll just give it to you.

[Steve Covino]

Only blank is worse than losing to Crackersburg State.

[Dan Patrick]

Marvin, did you want to play?

[Paul Pabst]

Nobody. You?

[Dan Patrick]

Wow, poor Doug Gottlieb. Dougie Fresh at a press conference where he was talking about they needed to schedule up. They need to have better, I guess, games, opponents. Now they've only won two games. And then they were playing Michigan Tech and they're a Division 2 school. And I think people thought that he was referring to them as nobody. You where they lost to Michigan Tech and they lost by two, I think at home. And I think Doug wasn't on his radio show on Fox Sports. And people wondered after the game, why aren't you on during your national radio show? But yes, that's a nobody university. Doug hasn't had a good week. Shefty called him out after Doug called him out over Sacramento State, of all places, in their nil funds, which I think Doug was probably right about this, that did Sacramento State have $50 million in nil money. Maybe down the road, maybe they have pledges for that. But I don't know why Doug got caught up in Sacramento State and calling out Adam Schefter. And then Schefter tweets out Wisconsin, Green Bay's standings, where they are in the Horizon League with two wins. It's like, Doug, get off the Internet and get back in the gym. Yes, Paul.

[Seton O'Connor]

I was watching the ESPN scroll during SportsCenter after the bowl game last night. And on the scroll, which includes like, North Carolina beats whoever. Big college basketball games, men's college basketball. Gottlieb, Green Bay lose to Division 2 Michigan Tech, a straight loss for Gottlieb's Green Bay team that was on the ESPN scroll of news last night.

[Dan Patrick]

How many coaches names are attached to their team on the scroll?

[Seton O'Connor]

Zero, generally.

[Dan Patrick]

I mean, that's definitely a shot to, you know, for Shefty, that's a jab from espn. For Doug, that's not right. Journalistically, that's not right. Got. I mean, it's. It's a good shot.

[Marvin Harrison]

Yes, Todd, unless it's some type of milestone win there. There should be no reason to possibly put the coach's name next to the result.

[Dan Patrick]

Yeah, I don't like if Tom izzo wins his 1000th game. Okay? Doug lost to Michigan Tech like Gottlieb and Wisconsin Green Bay loot. Like that's not fair to Doug. That made the bottom line. Come on. Mothership Chef Shefty can take care of himself. He doesn't need you. Dang. Here's one for you. David Montgomery's preseason prop bet for rushing yards was 775 and a half. David Montgomery season is over. He has 775 rushing.

[Chris Collinsworth]

Here comes that what stat of the day.

[Dan Patrick]

Dang. That's a bad beat. Like, you got 775. You got three games to go, man. I'm gonna. Wait, he's limping. Wait. He's leaving the game. Wait, he's out for the year. Yes.

[Marvin Harrison]

Todd, can you go back to all the plays where the ball was spotted and see if you could challenge any half yards somewhere you could pick up?

[Dan Patrick]

I need a yard. I need a yard.

[Marvin Harrison]

One yard.

[Dan Patrick]

That's it. Well, I don't know how much money you had day. I mean, if you're that much of a degenerate and you go, hey, you know, I'm loading up on David Montgomery. 775 yards. Yeah. What are you putting down? Couple of dimes. Now you go back and ask somebody to NFL Films. Hey, can you. Can you squeeze out one yard? I'll give you. I'll give you $500. Let me see. What do we have here? Steve in Huntington Beach. Hey, Steve, what's on your mind today? Hey, morning, Dan. Morning to you and the boys. Second time caller, longtime listener, 591 7. And you're not related to Gus in LA, are you, Steve? No, sir, but Gus is the homie. Okay, I just got a fight of faith bet for Merry Christmas over there for tonight's game and any other den it that wants to get in. Okay. All right, let me. Let me hear your proposal. Mary Fritzmith, would you like to get in on a pie of the face bet? Chargers over the Broncos and we're going to the playoffs.

[Marvin Harrison]

So straight up bet who's going to win tonight's game? That's where.

[Dan Patrick]

I swear, straight up. But. But a little caveat. You got to wear the Justin Herbert football is fun shirt as well.

[Marvin Harrison]

I will look for that I know I have it somewhere in my closet which I probably can't squeeze into. Hopefully it won't come to that, but I will take you up on that. I have to go all in and.

[Dan Patrick]

Believe my I like it so far. Let's ride.

[Marvin Harrison]

Let's ride.

[Dan Patrick]

Let's ride. All right. Ste to bet. Hey, us tomorrow, pie to the face, question mark. We do we have any of those.

[Marvin Harrison]

Extra shirts around here somewhere? I'm going to have to look and find something.

[Dan Patrick]

I'll see if. I'll see if the back room guys. Oh, by the way, I just heard from Tyra. Tyrack.com just said, hey, are you handing out most valuable danette and most valuable backroom guy? And I said, well, I forgot all about. He goes give away a set of tires to the most valuable denet and the most valuable backroom guy. And you can vote on this and we'll have the results tomorrow at the end of the show. So tyra just said, hey, christmas spirit, you guys have been great. And you go to dan patrick.com and vote on now you're not going to know maybe the BRGs, but you can vote on the danets. But it'll be funny just to have the names of the backroom guys on there.

[Rich Davis]

Well, all of a sudden, this contest got a lot more serious than years past. There's a set of tires on the line. You know, last year it's just like, yeah, I don't really care if I want to.

[Dan Patrick]

Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait. Hold up.

[Rich Davis]

We got tires now.

[Dan Patrick]

Set of tires. Hold up. And I'm not handing out the least valuable dan at this year. Oh, why? Because it's always todd.

[Marvin Harrison]

I definitely get the least. And then it's just a matter of whether I would get both.

[Dan Patrick]

Yes. And you've gotten both.

[Marvin Harrison]

I have.

[Dan Patrick]

Yes.

[Rich Davis]

In the same year.

[Dan Patrick]

Yes. You've been the least and least valuable.

[Marvin Harrison]

It's a wild thing to be able to say.

[Paul Pabst]

You did that.

[Dan Patrick]

It's like being coach of the year and being fired. You know, didn't that happen to George carl? I think he was coach of the year.

[Paul Pabst]

Dwayne casey.

[Dan Patrick]

Dwayne casey. Nick nurse. They got coach of the year and you've been fired. Okay, so you can vote on this. And the. The winner gets a set of tires from tire rack. Yes. Paulie.

[Seton O'Connor]

I wish I knew this in january. I would have tried a lot harder this year. You didn't tell. I would have given it some effort.

[Dan Patrick]

I just. Tire rack just. You know, Dan from tire rack just said, hey, let's spice this up a little bit.

[Seton O'Connor]

Little heads up, Dan.

[Dan Patrick]

I forgot about, you know, most valuable Dan and I truly forgot about it, but we have salvaged it. You have today and tomorrow to vote on the back room. And most valuable Dan. Yes, Paul?

[Seton O'Connor]

If it's a tie, does each person get two tires? Just saying.

[Dan Patrick]

Awkward question. Yeah, okay, sure. You can decide. Do I want front tire? Yes, Todd.

[Marvin Harrison]

You're supposed to kind of replace all the tires at once, so that's not much of a gift. Two tires, it throws everything off with the alignment.

[Dan Patrick]

I know. We're just joking.

[Marvin Harrison]

You got to be generous and do two separations.

[Dan Patrick]

You don't even need to worry about it.

[Marvin Harrison]

I just don't want to wear a footballer sponge shirt tomorrow.

[Dan Patrick]

That's what I'm worried about. I think Todd's wor about I get too tired. You're not. You're not winning, Todd. Don't worry about it.

[Marvin Harrison]

I don't even take my car for.

[Dan Patrick]

A car wash. How about we take a break? Chris Collinsworth will join us. We're back after this. In the Dan Patrick show, Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in the nation. Catch all of our [e-mail] and within the iHeartRadio app. Search FSR to listen live.

[Todd Fritz]

Hey, Steve Covino. And I'm Rich Davis. And together we're Covino and Rich on Fox Sports Radio. You can catch us weekdays from 5 to 7pm EAS 2 to 4 Pacific on Fox Sports Radio. And of course, the iHeartRadio app. Why should you listen to Covino and Rich? We talk about everything. Life, sports, relationships, what's going on in the world. We have a lot of fun talking about the stories behind the stories in the world of sports and pop culture. Stories that, well, other shows don't seem to have the time to discuss. And the fact that we've been friends for the last 20 years and still work together, I mean, that says something, right? So check us out. We like to get you involved, take your phone calls, chop it up, as they say. I'd say the most interactive show on Fox Sports Radio, maybe the most interactive show on planet earth. Be sure to check out Covino and Rich live on Fox Sports radio and the iHeartradio app from 5 to 7pm Eastern, 2 to 4 Pacific. And if you miss any of the live show, just search Covino and Rich wherever you get your podcast. And of course, on social media, that's Covino and Rich.

[Dan Patrick]

Golf's newest league is coming to ESPN and ESPN introducing TGL presented by SoFi. You have three on three team matchups that play on Monday and Tuesday nights. Six teams competing for playoffs in a championship. You're in Atlanta, Boston, Jupiter, Florida, Los Angeles, New York and the Bay. Those are the teams 24 the PGA Tours best. You got Tiger, you got Rory, Colin Morikawa, Xander Shoffley, Ricky Fowler and so many more. 2 hour matches during primetime and the matches take place on Monday and Tuesday nights. There's other sporting elements. There's timeouts, there's refs, there's overtime. Players are mic'd up. They all play in a custom built tech infused arena. It's wild. It's not your average Sunday pickup game. To learn more, visit tglgolf.com and tune in to the inaugural season beginning January 7th. Keep up. It's golf. Sonos makes it easy to enjoy a cinematic sound experience from the comfort of of your own couch. Sonos works with award winning artists, producers, sound engineers to deliver the highest quality sound. Listen to all that holiday music you want and all the holiday movies as well with Sonos. Sonos products work together so what you can do is build your own sound system and they look as beautiful as they sound. Once you hear it, you'll ask yourself how have I survived without this? Sonos has great gifts for everybody on your list. Visit sonos.com dan you'll save 20% on select products. That's sonos.com dan congratulations to 3am Innovations.

[Savannah Guthrie]

On their first place win for Innovation in community at this year's Unconventional Awards by T Mobile for business. 3am used T Mobile 5G to enable Florian, the first AI enabled incident command platform for first responders. Florian's features include real time tracking of personnel on a 3D map and voice activation. AI is used to filter out background noise until it hears a trigger word such as Mayday. Increasing situational awareness on the ground and improving on site safety. This will shape rapid response moving forward and for that, T Mobile congratulates 3IM for their unconventional thinking.

[Hoda Kotb]

Hi everyone, it's Savannah Guthrie and Hoda Kotb from the Today Show. We love this time of year. There's so much to celebrate.

[Seton O'Connor]

That's right, nobody does the holidays quite.

[Hoda Kotb]

Like today all season long.

[Seton O'Connor]

Join us for special performances with the brightest stars.

[Hoda Kotb]

Plus festive recipes to whip up the perfect holiday feast and great deals on the hottest toys and gifts for everyone on your list.

[Seton O'Connor]

So join us every morning on NBC.

[Hoda Kotb]

To make today your home for the holidays.

[Dan Patrick]

The all electric EQS sedan from Mercedes Benz is luxury and innovation on a truly magnificent scale. It's not just the flagship of the Mercedes Benz electric lineup. It sets a whole new standard for all luxury electric vehicles. You're going to marvel at this epic 56 inch touch sensitive hyperscreen featuring self upgrading next generation AI and a beautiful intuitive interface for both driver and front seat passenger. You'll experience next level comfort in an exquisitely spacious near silent cabin that makes this flagship feel more like you're piloting a spaceship. And you'll appreciate the graceful aerodynamic design that almost completely eliminates drag for an outstanding operating range of up to 350 miles on a single charge. The EQS is an object lesson in just how far electric mobility has come. The vehicle is all electric. The feeling is all Mercedes. Take a test drive. Learn more mbusa.com EQS waiting for Chris Collinsworth, Sunday Night Football analyst to join us. He'll be on the call with Mike Chirico. That'll be the Bucks and the Cowboys kickoff at 8:20 Eastern on Sunday. NBC and Peacock also have the Texans and the Chiefs. That'll be Saturday at 1 Eastern with Noah Eagle and Todd Blacklidge. So we'll wait for Chris to join us here, Tom in Rhode island in the meantime. Hi Tom. What's on your mind today, Dan?

[Steve Covino]

I wanted to talk about some of the things you were talking about yesterday with the ratings in the NBA. I think it cannot be underestimated the degree to which politics enters. And the example I want to give is the guy I'm getting tired of is Popovich down in San Antonio. And I think even unprovoked he goes off on who he supports. And I think the NBA has taken the wrong side of this. It's pretty evident where they stand politically. And it goes back to Michael Jordan's statement, republicans buy sneakers too. And until they get rid of Adam Silver, who's clearly taking the other side of the political aisle, I think they're going to have problems. And it also, if I could get one other shot in it, Popovich, he's not even a relevant voice anymore. And Steve Kerr is in the same category. Two prominent coaches that I think unprovoked start talking politics.

[Dan Patrick]

Okay, but let me and thanks for the phone call. Go back to college. You know when you had Colin Kaepernick, the political venom that was available then towards the NFL and nobody's going to watch and nobody's going to go to games, where did that go? So there's been push from both sides here in sports and now it's a valid point. You can be turned off by Steve Kerr and Greg Popovich, but NFL owners and they were pushing back in a different direction with Colin Kaepernick. Yeah.

[Rich Davis]

See, I'm guessing that Tom would be perfectly okay if another coach came out in support of the side that he would be on. It's no different than people like Taylor Swift should shut up. But I love when Kid Rock speaks his mind.

[Dan Patrick]

Yeah.

[Rich Davis]

It's the exact same thing. The hypocrisy of it. It happens constantly.

[Dan Patrick]

Yeah. On both sides. Absolutely. Yes. Paulie.

[Seton O'Connor]

True. Without picking sides, anytime any league leans a certain way, you are in danger of alienating half of your audience, whether you agree or disagree with that side.

[Chris Collinsworth]

Ye.

[Dan Patrick]

Yeah. The NFL was too woke. Right? Nobody left. They're watching. It's just the NBA is down and people are going to kick them when they're down. Let's welcome in Chris Collinsworth, Sunday Night Football. Come on in. Join the conversation there, Chris. Good to have.

[Chris Collinsworth]

Just tell me to shut up all the time. It doesn't matter what I'm talking about.

[Dan Patrick]

Do you look at the comments after a game?

[Chris Collinsworth]

Negative. No, no, no, no, I do not.

[Dan Patrick]

Did you.

[Chris Collinsworth]

It's. Huh.

[Dan Patrick]

Did you?

[Chris Collinsworth]

Well, of course. You know, when I first got on social media, I had four followers and my kids told me that I had to sign up. So I signed up and I signed up. And so after the game, I was sitting there and. And I had four people. So I said hello to all of them. I, you know, I went back on and, hey, how you guys doing? I thought that's what social media was. I had no idea. And they're like, dad, no, you just. You just get on because. And then they started showing me how to do it.

[Dan Patrick]

The.

[Chris Collinsworth]

The thing that, the thing that I found in. In our business is that generally people are very, very nice. I mean, you. We travel all over the country. We go in, they want to talk to you, they want to talk, you know, blah, blah, blah. Hey, love your show. Great. This is a great. But it's still like that one and whatever would be one in 50. One in 50 that goes, hey, aren't you Chris Collinsworth? And like. Yeah. And. And generally the first question is, why do you hate the. Whatever their favorite team is? Right? That's. That's the first one. And, you know, then it's something along the lines of what? You know, honestly, I think you suck. And it just like, it hits you like a ton of bricks because you're so used to people being so nice and coming up and, and, and being friendly and saying nice things. And then it's like the rest of the day you're walking around kicking the can down the road. You know, you're like all bummed out.

[Dan Patrick]

Yeah, because I, and I'm not on social media, but, you know, we have a social media presence with the show. I think if there's something that we make a mistake on or I made a mistake on and somebody wants to correct me, I'm fine with that. But the other stuff, you know, I appreciate people listening or watching, but I don't need to read your appreciation for the show. You're, you're already, you know, showing me appreciation with that. But then you'll get. People say, I hate you so much, but I watch every day. I mean, like, damn.

[Chris Collinsworth]

Thank you.

[Dan Patrick]

Thank you.

[Chris Collinsworth]

Appreciate that.

[Dan Patrick]

Your reaction to Kirk Cousins not only being benched, but to have a rookie who hasn't played much with three games to go.

[Chris Collinsworth]

We did an Atlanta game early on against Kansas City, I think it was. And even then, Dan, they were talking about, oh, my goodness, we've got one here. And they, you know, I'm sure they haven't come out and publicly, you know, done that, but they were really excited about what they were seeing and they really did not want to play him. They really wanted it to, you know, be the whole Jordan love. You know, just let him sit and let him watch and let him learn and, and, you know, because there's a whole cadence to being the quarterback. You know, you have to go to, you know, the press deal on Wednesday or whenever that thing is, survive that. You have to do it after the game. You've got a million different obligations. It's almost like being the head coach of the, of the team. And it's hard. And so then you have to budget your time. And generally quarterbacks are going in on their off day on Tuesday and learning the game plan. And, you know, it's just, there's a lot that goes into it and, and seeing the, the live defenses and what they're going to do and then what they're going to do to him will be completely different than what they've done to other guys. So I think they were really hoping they were going to make it through the year, but once they got to this point and it looked like the season was breaking a little bit and they were, they had to have it. Now I think they're putting him in to win. I, I don't think this is anything like, hey, let's take a look. It's I. I think at this point, they really feel like he best option to win.

[Dan Patrick]

The situation with Minnesota, like, it's a. That would be a good quarterback dilemma, I would think, the way Barkley's playing, J.J. mcCarthy, you know, got a chance to sit this year, maybe sits next year. Like, what do you do with Sam Darnold if you were running the Vikings for the future?

[Chris Collinsworth]

They really like J.J. up there. I mean, really like him. The plan. My opinion of what the plan was was that they were going to let Sam Darnold walk at the end of this thing. At least that's what it was early in the year. And. But not many teams go on a run like this, right? I mean, this is. This is pretty special. And they have a chance with the way they play defense and the way that Brian Flores is so good at just bringing that constant pressure and disrupting and making big plays and all the things that they do. And then Sam Darnold has this, you know, JJ is just unbelievable. And Addison has, you know, proven what he can do. And this is. This is a team with a chance to win it. I don't think there's a team currently that I would just go, oh, nobody's beaten them. Right. I just don't think there is right now. We've seen, you know, the Chiefs struggle, Detroit's got some injuries, Buffalo's had their moments, but Josh Allen's hot and all those sorts of things. But could the Minnesota Vikings win it all? Yes, and that was always my question. Everybody's. That's the whole thing. Everybody's got a plan till they get punched in the face. Everybody's got a plan until you win a Super bowl or you make it to the super bowl or you make it to the championship game. And I was trying to determine what was the cutoff at which Sam Darnold would have to be your quarterback. Right? I mean, there's no going back if you win a Super Bowl. Sam Darnold has to come back and be the quarterback, doesn't he? And. But the. The belief and what they saw out of the draft process with JJ McCarthy was so strong, even if they made it to the championship game. I'm not sure. I'm just not sure that they don't.

[Dan Patrick]

Switch the jj Chris Collinsworth will be on the call with Mike Tirico. That'll be Sunday night. It's the Bucks and the Cowboys. Okay? The Cowboys are still a big rating straw. Is that why. But is that why you don't flex out of that game?

[Chris Collinsworth]

I think it Had a little bit more to do with Tampa in this circumstance and, and believe. Yeah. Do you know how involved I am in which games we get on Sunday?

[Dan Patrick]

Zero.

[Chris Collinsworth]

They give me the same call they give everybody else. It's all sort of driven by the ratings, but ultimately it's driven by the league. And I think sometimes, and I, I'm, I'm just making stuff up. But I do think there are teams that they want to get in front of a national audience before they get to the playoffs. Right. Like Denver. Let's, let's put them somewhere where that people are going to see them because that was a surprise team. I don't think you call Tampa surprise team because they made it to the playoffs a season ago, but maybe not all the national exposure. So let's get them out front and center. You know, Baker Mayfield's player of the week. They've got, you know, Mike Evans had a, had a tremendous game a week ago. Let's, let's get an audience used to that so that when we get to those playoff ratings, people, people know what to expect.

[Dan Patrick]

If Christian McCaffrey's career ended today. Is he a Hall of Famer?

[Chris Collinsworth]

Yeah, I mean, he was the best player at his position for a couple of years, I would say probably at least. God, with what these running backs are doing this season, it's, it's hard to know what the expectation is at the running back position. But Christian McCaffrey was my first overall pick in my fantasy league. So yeah, I've got a little personal. You're mad at it, having the heart on that one. So. But you know, he is a very unique player. Marshall Falk, like is how I would describe him. And you know, when Marshall Falk was healthy and playing well, that ability, that one, two punch, the tough running inside and what he does as a receiver, what, what they probably have missed the most this year is the ability to do, you know, that little horizontal motion that they do with him and they just create one on ones. Well, teams were having to double team him at the running back position, which was opening up Debo and all those guys I you to get one on one routes and it's why you saw some big plays down the field. So yeah, it's tight, but yeah, yeah.

[Dan Patrick]

I don't think he's a Hall of Famer. I think Tiki Barber is more of a Hall of famer than McCaffrey. If I'm just looking at numbers. If I said I'll give you player A and player B, you would go with Tiki Barber's numbers over his, you know, Ricky Waters. Look at his numbers. That 10,000 yards rushing. He was a great receiver out of the backfield. Fred Taylor, 11,000 yard. You know, there's, there's. It's weird how we're trying to grade running backs because Roger Craig was a wonderful running back and was doing this hybrid stuff back then for the Niners. So I, I don't envy hall of Fame voters trying to tell me who a Hall of Famer is at that position.

[Chris Collinsworth]

Yeah, it's my position. My position on the position has probably evolved over time. I. We had James Brooks here when I was playing, and James was a tremendous receiver, and the, the. For him to be basically a wideout helped our offense so much. And I think that today, even though, you know, some of these running backs can certainly, you know, King Henry can certainly catch the ball, you know, Barkley can catch the ball, but McCaffrey's a receiver and a running back. And I think in today's game, where the rules allow you to hold, don't allow you to hit the quarterback, don't allow you to really attack the receiver, would I have loved to play in the era where they couldn't hit you right there? You know, when you. If you don't have to think about that one, Dan, you know, if you're running over the middle and they hit you in the back, I want you to think about your body a little bit behind you, right behind you, the back. Your head's hard, you've got ribs all the way down. You've got soft tissue. If you get hit in the butt, doesn't hurt that much, get hurt hitting the hamstring cap. None of that stuff hurts. It's like it's all made salt. Your eyes are what has to protect the front of your body, right? Because everything here hurts, but that one right there, right underneath the chin, that really hurt. And. But you get hit in the stomach and obviously the privates, and you get hit in the thighs, you get hit in the shin. Think how much it hurts to get hit in the shin. Everything in front of your body has to be protected by your eyes. And I don't even know why I got in there, but that's. It's a really interesting thing. Someday when you're at a cocktail party and you're about three beers in, you're going to love that story. You're going to say, you know what? Think about football players, and they have to protect the front of their body with their eyes.

[Dan Patrick]

Did you wear a Protective cup.

[Chris Collinsworth]

I did not. No. I don't know of anybody that did. I could barely stand to wear it in baseball because it was like, you know, I mean, you always walk like a cowboy. No matter what, you got to kind of walk around that thing, you know, you can't, you can't, you can't just swing straight, you know, that's not good.

[Dan Patrick]

Before I let you go, the first of its kind. Madden NFL cast on Peacock during Texans and the Chiefs. Were you a voice on the, the Madden game at some point?

[Chris Collinsworth]

Yes, I was for like three years. And I know why John quit. Like, it's, it's. The Madden is maddening. So let me tell you what they do. I'm not even kidding. They get it. You get a book. I wish I had a book around here somewhere. I mean, this thing's like this thick and you're there for three or four days and you just take the book and. I'm not kidding you, I'm sitting there and I'm reading this thing. I was like, all right, I'm on this chapter. And it's like, Peyton Manning just, just threw his second interception of the game on that outcut. Peyton Manning back to pass. Oh, he just threw his third interception again. I got up to Peyton Manning just through his 17th interception in the first half. And I said, I am not kidding you. If anybody ever got to 17 interceptions when I was doing it, I don't know if they threw it out of the game. I said, somebody shoot that sop. That ain't Manning out there. I mean, it's like you lose your mind after a little while doing this game. And nobody ever does it longer than like three years. That's it. They're out there. You go crazy.

[Dan Patrick]

It'll be a Noah Eagle. Todd Blacklidge. That'll be Saturday at 1 Eastern. The first of its kind. Madden NFL cast on Peacock. But Chris will be on the call with Mike Trico. Melissa Stark. That'll be Bucks Cowboys Sunday night, 8:20 Eastern. My best of the family. Merry Christmas to you. Thanks for joining us.

[Chris Collinsworth]

Merry Christmas and keep reminding people you protect the front of your body with your eyes.

[Dan Patrick]

Thank you. That's Chris Collinsworth there. Words of advice. Whenever we play our pickup football game here in the field house, we'll take a break. Phone calls coming up. And we'll bring back something that Charles Barkley said yesterday on the show. After this, 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. Golf's newest league is coming to ESPN and ESPN Plus. Introducing TGL presented by SoFi. You have three on three team matchups that play on Monday and Tuesday nights. Six teams competing for playoffs in a championship. You're in Atlanta, Boston, Jupiter, Florida, Los Angeles, New York and the Bay. Those are the teams 24 the PGA Tours best. You got Tiger, you got Rory, Colin Morikawa, Xander Shoffley, Ricky Fowler and so many more. Two hour matches during primetime and the matches take place on Monday and Tuesday nights. There's other sporting elements. There's timeouts, there's refs, there's overtime. Players are mic'd up. They all play in a custom built tech infused arena. It's wild. It's not your average Sunday pickup game. To learn more, visit tglgolf.com and tune in to the inaugural season beginning January 7th. Keep up. It's golf. Sonos makes it easy to enjoy a cinematic sound experience from the comfort of your own couch. Sonos works with award winning artists, producers, sound engineers to deliver the highest quality sound. Listen to all that holiday music you want and all the holiday movies as well with Sonos. Sonos products work together so what you can do is build your own sound system and they look as beautiful as they sound. Once you hear it, you'll ask yourself, how have I survived without this? Sonos has great gifts for everybody on your list. Visit sonos.comforward/dan. You'll save 20% on select products. That's sonos.com dan Congratulations to the University.

[Savannah Guthrie]

Of Miami Miller School of Medicine for the first ever Malcolm Gladwell Tipping Point designation at this year's Unconventional awards by T Mobile for Business. The University used integrated IoT devices and 5G solutions from T Mobile to enable multiple synchronized health monitors allowing for real time remote data collection and analysis. The initiative will shape patient care moving forward and for that, T Mobile congratulates the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine.

[Hoda Kotb]

Hi everyone, it's Savannah Guthrie and Hoda Kotb from the Today Show. We love this time of year. There's so much to celebrate.

[Seton O'Connor]

That's right, nobody does the holidays quite.

[Hoda Kotb]

Like today all season long.

[Seton O'Connor]

Join us for special performances with the.

[Hoda Kotb]

Brightest stars, plus festive recipes to whip up the perfect holiday feast and great deals on the hottest toys and gifts for everyone on your list.

[Seton O'Connor]

So join us every morning on NBC.

[Hoda Kotb]

To make today your home for the holidays.

[Dan Patrick]

The all electric EQS sedan from Mercedes Benz is luxury and innovation on a truly magnificent scale. It's not just the Flagship of the Mercedes Benz electric lineup, it sets a whole new standard for all luxury electric vehicles. You're going to mark marvel at this epic 56 inch touch sensitive hyperscreen featuring self upgrading next generation AI and a beautiful intuitive interface for both driver and front seat passenger. You'll experience next level comfort in an exquisitely spacious near silent cabin that makes this flagship feel more like you're piloting a spaceship. And you'll appreciate the graceful aerodynamic design that almost completely eliminates drag for an outstanding operating range of up to 350 miles on a single charge. The EQS is an object lesson in just how far electric mobility has come. The vehicle is all electric, the feeling is all Mercedes. Take a test drive. Learn more mbusa.com EQS Dower Rankings coming up and we'll hear from Charles Barkley. Something he had to say yesterday. Alex in Louisville. Hey Alex, thanks for holding. What's on your mind?

[Steve Covino]

Hey, good morning, Dan Danitz. I recently was thinking about the NBA and how to fix it and I did come up with what I think is a pretty good idea of how to do so. So instead of doing your overall record out of 82 games, how about we adopt kind of an NFL model and we do eight five game series against division opponents. So you get two against each 10, three game series against the rest of conference opponents and then five three game series against one division of the other conference. So it rotates each year like the NFL. So you get 85 total games, but you are, it's based out of a series record out of 23 with the tiebreaker being the overall record out of 85 games.

[Dan Patrick]

I don't want to add games. I think I need to see it on paper with something like that. Charles Barkley was with us yesterday and we talked about maybe what you can do to make the NBA a little more attractive.

[Paul Pabst]

I think we need to consider, seriously consider starting at Christmas because you get caught. Because listen, you're wasting your time going up against the NFL and college football. They own the weekends now. But if, I think if we started at Christmas, we'd have all the, there's no other sports, I mean, that we'd have to compete with. If we started at Christmas, college football would be over. Pro football is winding down. We'd have the entire calendar late December, January, February, March, April, May, June to ourselves. I think it's something we need to really consider, plain and simple.

[Dan Patrick]

I disagree with Charles because college football is expanding now. You have the playoffs starting around Christmas and it's going to be Starting earlier than that, you got the NFL. Then they go into the playoffs. You will christen the college football season in January and you'll have a national championship. NFL goes into the playoffs, then you got the Super Bowl. They're already going to interrupt the NBA All Star game because the super bowl is going to be moved back another week so they can have it on President's Day weekend so everybody gets Monday off. You know, college football is expanding. The NFL is expanding its footprint here, and the NBA is paying a price here because if you say, hey, we'll have all of February, well, you got super bowl, and then you might have a little bit of time. Then you have college basketball conference playoffs. Then you have March Madness that goes into the beginning of April. Then you got baseball that starts and baseball is on an uptick. Baseball had a really good year, so now you're, you're in competition with baseball. When you get to April, then you got the NFL draft. It's, I mean, you really gotta hold on to a couple of months for dear life if you can, if you're the NBA, if you want to stand out. But once again, if the NBA players don't care, then why should I care when it comes to load management? How many games do you want to play? How many are you going to play? Even the monetary enticement of, you got to play a certain number of games if you're going to be qualifying for these honors postseason. You know, we don't want to watch rich get richer. Where you go, great. I mean, you're getting paid. That we tried to spice up the NBA cup, that there's money at stake. There's no money at stake for us. Like I, I assume you want to play now. You really want to play because there's money attached to it. The All Star game nobody cares about. So, yeah, the NBA really has to start, you know, throwing out some ideas just like we are. There's no bad idea. Let's talk about it. And then I think this commissioner really needs to start to think like Rob Manfred, the baseball commissioner is thinking where it sounds crazy. Maybe it's not as crazy.

[Seton O'Connor]

Yes, Paul, how about not, not fewer games. But you bump the season, the start of the season back so you go deeper into summer when there's more room and more eyeballs.

[Dan Patrick]

I don't. Once again, you've got people who get paid to do this, you know, market research. And I don't know if that's something that you can do, they want to do. But it, you know, once you get to summer are people staying inside and watching. You know, that's another thing to factor. You'll go to a game, a baseball game in the summer because it's outside. It's not like you go, can't wait to go to an indoor basketball game in the summer. All right, time for Dower rankings. Dower. Any sport, like, what are you, what are you down? What, what's, what's making you down?

[Marvin Harrison]

Been down on the NBA lately. This NBA cup thing obviously has been bothering me and now they're doing this contrived trying to save the all star game with the four teams and the GMs from TNT and, and just how did NBA get so desperate and downtrodden?

[Dan Patrick]

Okay, Dower. Seaton Dower rankings.

[Rich Davis]

I'm dour on TUA and the Miami Dolphins, okay. They, you know, just had a must win game. Their season has been a little bit of a disaster. They have a ton of talent. They really seem to underperform grossly and not really get a ton of attention for it the way other teams do. And I think even tua, if you look at what happened this weekend, past weekend with that injury, a lot of people point to TUA not putting balls in the right place and protecting his receivers. It's just an ugly scene there. I'm pretty dowered on tua.

[Dan Patrick]

Yes.

[Paul Pabst]

Marvin, I'm dour on the college football transfer portal this time of year. It's not good. The Penn State backup quarterback had to transfer. He didn't want to, but he had to because of the time restrictions. So that's what I'm double on.

[Steve Covino]

Paul.

[Seton O'Connor]

I'm going to go with the Tennessee Titans. Three years ago, they were 12, 5. They were in the playoffs for the third straight season. They had Mike Vrabel, they had Tannehill, they had Derrick Henry and A.J. brown, and they're really bad. And they don't have a quarterback, it looks like going forward.

[Dan Patrick]

Yeah, I think. Is he going to be benched?

[Seton O'Connor]

Yes.

[Dan Patrick]

Wow. I'm dour on everybody's reaction to Caitlin Clark being named Time magazine's person of the Year. I just think the WNBA should have celebrated this. They didn't. It just, it feels like it's old school, new school. Race plays a role in this, you know, does privilege play? I mean, it's just she had an unbelievable year. It should be a victory lap for the wnba. It feels like they're missing out on that opportunity. Two hours in the books, one more to go. We'll get to more phone calls as well. Operator Tyler sitting by final hour on this Thursday is straight ahead.

[Marvin Harrison]

DAN PATRICK SHOW Introducing TGL presented by SoFi, golf's newest league live on ESPN and ESPN. It's sharp and it's electric. How is it sharp? How is it electric? Picture this, two hours of hammer dropping overtime forcing playoffs on the line. Golf with 24 of the best players from the PGA Tour like Tiger, Rory and more split into six teams, Atlanta, Boston, Jupiter, Louisiana, New York and the Bay. This isn't your average Sunday pickup game. To learn more, visit tglgolf.com and tune in to the inaugural season beginning January 7th. Keep up. It's golf.

[Hoda Kotb]

We've all got a thing, an obsession. For some of us, it's vintage fashion. Our cars, anything we can collect, they all live under one roof. EBay. It's where closets get filled with statement pieces and vintage finds, where must have sneakers wait for you. And designer handbags are the real deal on ebay. Doors open to stacks of the rarest trading cards and a garage stocked with all the car parts you need for any DIY job. EBay's home to whatever thing you're into that keeps you up at night. EBay Things people love, from the versatile.

[Dan Patrick]

EQB to the sublime eqs sedan Mercedes Benz makes electric extraordinary. The vehicles all electric. The feeling is all Mercedes. The choice is yours. Learn more mbusa.com EQ Life is an adventure. Share the journey. Check out the all new Wolverine RMAX 4 1000@ Yamaha Motorsports.com or you can go to your local Yamaha dealer today. Bring the family in. You can get four adults sitting in there comfortably. A lot of cargo space as well. And just remember, always protect the environment. Wear your seat belt, your helmet, eye protection, protective clothing. Read the owner's manual product warning labels before operating. It's The Yamaha Wolverine R Max 4 1000@ Yamaha Motorsports.com oh, you've got plans, all right.

[Seton O'Connor]

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