Jason McIntyre (41:19)
You know, J. Mac, I was thinking about this during the break. If you J. Mac and I were talking about SGA is not really a fascinating player. He's just a great player. But if you start looking at a lot of these teams, I just saw a story this weekend, Wemby, is he going to become a monk? That story was on the Internet and SGA and Jokic and Jason Tatum. I'm not disputing how good the players are. They're not fascinating people. Jordan was fascinating. He was a meteor. LeBron and Steph and Magic and a lot of these stars, now, they're international, they're stoic. They're like mature above their ages. I mean, I wasn't as mature as Jayson Tatum or SGA if I'd have had that money at that age. And so what's happening in the NBA is there was a certain level and I think a lot of it's this. It used to be that everybody was fighting for a piece of the pie. Now these guys are all rich and they're not as combative and they're not as feisty and they're tremendous. They're more skilled. They get better coaching, they have better training, they eat better. But there's not, there's not a lot of, you know, it's businesslike. There's so much money in professional basketball now. You don't hear stories of NBA guys as often going broke. You used to do documentaries on that. And the fights and the why would you want to get into a fight? Everybody's rich. The coaches are rich. The commissioner's rich. The owners are rich. The players are rich. The assistant coaches are rich. Between the pensions and the salaries. The league just signed a $76 billion deal. There's not a lot of dysfunction in the NBA. I mean, it overwhelmingly. It used to be almost like hockey, that every NBA team had a tough guy. You had a very low skilled Charles Oakley, or you had a guy that Rodman. I remember there's a guy for Sonics, was it Dennis Autry? I remember you'd have a tough guy. You'd have a tough guy who would protect your star. Like somebody skating with Gretzky and protecting him. And the league now is much more functional. It may be a little too political for some people's tastes, but it's functional. It's more mature. Even though the players come into the league younger, it's more international, it's more European. And it doesn't necessarily make it more fascinating. It just makes it more talented and skilled. Like, everybody looks at Halliburton and they're like, oh, he's a trash talker. How does anybody not like Halliburton? He's like the most likable guy in the league. He's constantly smiling. And so there was something I was saying. This series needs Draymond Green. It needs a second rounder with a chip on his shoulder. It needs Rodman, it needs Bill Laimbeer. It needs a Kurt Rambus. It needs somebody that's a little off center. But these guys now are. There's so much money. They've got trainers, they eat right, they go to bed. They're not going out to the nightclubs. I mean, James Harden, obviously, they've got a jersey retired at a Houston strip joint for him, you know, God love him. But by and large, the players are younger, they're more skilled, they're more mature, they're bigger stars. They make more money with shoes and their contracts. And so I've said this about Jayson Tatum. He's got no aura. He's just really talented. He doesn't have any aura. I keep waiting for Ant. I'm not sure if he wants the mantle to be the greatest player. So I think we've just segued to a different time in the NBA where the skill level is through the roof, but it doesn't always make for fascinating basketball. I was thinking about this, that there's a story. Pro football talk doesn't necessarily love Aaron Rodgers. That's fine. They were saying the acquisition of Aaron Rodgers is more desperado than renegade. Kind of a desperate move. Regardless of what you think, here's what is interesting about Aaron Rodgers to The Steelers. And the Steelers are a huge brand. And Aaron, although a regressing brand, is still, you know, if he's on television playing, he's always interesting to watch. But last year, Justin Fields. Mike Tomlin sat Justin Fields. But if you go to Justin Fields numbers last year in his six starts for the Steelers, it's pretty interesting. Four touchdowns, two picks, 10 total touchdowns, only two giveaways. His completion percentage, I think, was the best of his career at 66 and a half percent. His passer rating was 94. So if you extrapolate that over 17 games, Justin Fields would have had, he'd have been a Pro Bowler. He would have been 11 and 6 with 28 touchdowns and six turnovers with a 94 passer rating. Now. Now, would that have been the case. Necessary? Well, I'm just telling you, if you. Six games is not a small sample size. That's a. That's more than a third of the NFL season. And I'm not a huge Justin Fields fan. But he's young, people like him. He's athletic. I'll argue all day. Dude's got a whip, he's got an arm. You can say what you want about, kid can move, he's got an arm. I don't think he sees the field particularly well. Kind of the Zach Wilson issue. But he's got, he's got traits. And if you go to Aaron Rod, and again, we'll show some video of him, there's no question he does things that are special. It's just. Does he see the field? I don't think he does. But if you go to Aaron Rodgers numbers, last year in New York, they were awful. And just for our radio audience, it's like, passer rating was just 90, 28 TDs, 13 giveaways, 5 and 12. We could say, well, the Steelers are a much better run organization than the Jets. I'm not disputing that. But if Aaron Rodgers numbers are as good of what Justin Fields numbers could have been had he been allowed to play 17 games, you would be overjoyed with that. So my guess on what Aaron's season looks like, I'll put my projection up. He's 8 and 9 or 9 and 8, he'll miss a couple of games. I think the offensive line's pretty average. No? Najee Harris, DK Metcalfe, you know, will be productive with aaron. They're an 8 and 9, 9 and 8 team. They start reasonably well, but Aaron gets banged up, misses a couple of starts. But I do think it's Interesting to note that this idea that while the production. This is why there's a story out that Aaron was the third choice. They look, they wanted Matt Stafford. Well, Matt Stafford's in a different level than Aaron right now. It's not particularly close. But if Justin Fields. This idea that Aaron's going to elevate the quarterback position. Go look at what Justin Fields did in six starts. And I'm not a huge Justin Fields fan, but it's pretty good. And you know, he's bigger than Aaron, he runs better than Aaron. He doesn't have the release of Aaron, but he's a much more dynamic athlete than Aaron and behind an average offensive line with no Najee Harris. There's an argument to be made that Justin Fields would have been the better fit. Just an argument. Okay, so this is interesting. This is interesting. So now the majority of fans are usually not right when it comes to sports gambling, right? Otherwise they wouldn't be building gigantic casinos and the draft kings of the world wouldn't be doing as well. But this is interesting. Betters North Carolina to go under seven and a half wins. Now remember, Belichick and Carolina are in the acc. It is an awful conference. It's the weakest major conference right now of the four. I think the Big Ten is the best. SEC is close. Big 12 is third. Big 12's got some Utahs and Kansas State and you know, I mean BYU's Houston, they're feisty programs. ACC is a mess. So basically the betters to go under seven and a half wins with this dog food schedule is incredible by both the total number of wagers and the total dollars wagered under seven and a half wins. So what's interesting about new coaches, especially star coaches. Let's consider Deion Sanders, Colorado, Mario Cristobal, Miami Lincoln Riley, USC and Brian Kelly, lsu. And LSU is a great football brand. Carolina's not with Belichick. All of them struggled. Crystal Ball went five and seven. Dion went four and eight and we all bragged about that. He tripled wins. Now Lincoln Riley did win 11 games first year, but it was a house of cards. They didn't have any NFL players, not any good ones except Caleb. So. And he's unproven. So Belichick's an NFL coach. So these people pounding the under, it's fascinating because he's an NFL coach. So there's not a lot of NFL coaches that have crushed at the college level. Players have classes, players have distractions. You're on a college campus, you got to deal with the ncaa, whatever that is. Also, there's limitations for practice time. My biggest issue is the staffs. So Belichick's got two of his sons on it and Mike Lombardi's sons. And it may work. Mike Lombardi's son. It may work, but it feels like it's more about like allies and cronies and loyalists to Bill Freddie Kitchens. It's not a great staff. It's sons. It's people he trusts. And maybe that explains the Jordan Hudson relationship and unc and she's his social muse. Whatever. But that's my issue with it. I don't think it's a great staff. And when Ryan Day just won a national championship at Ohio State, he hired Chip Kelly. He didn't hire a relative. And when Jim Harbaugh and you think of John Harbaugh, Jim Harbaugh's rival is his brother. He's not on the staff. So I Football is not a family reunion or a backyard barbecue. Let's all get together. That's just not what it is. So it's fascinating that the most bet in terms of total number of bets and the money wagered, the biggest bet in college football in future bets is under on North Carolina. And again, I think I would go over just because the ACC is so awful, but it's fascinating. Maybe it's the Jordan Hudson effect. He's distracted. I don't know. But that is interesting and I think one thing that is clear. Lincoln Riley, Cristobal, Deion Sanders, Brian Kelly. That first year the Nil. You can go buy players, you can't buy chemistry. Colin Right? Wrong.
