
Loading summary
A
This week on We Fixed it. You're welcome. We're getting personal about a very beloved company. I'm the grandson of H.B. reese, and I have no interest in buying another Reese's product. Our guest, Brad Reese, has the world's attention and he's got ours, too. It's laughable. I mean, you're paying more for a product that's inferior. Of course we're going to try to fix this situation. Hopefully Hershey will pay attention. Hopefully Hershey will address it. Go listen to this very special episode wherever you get your podcasts. We fixed it. You're welcome. Are you boys ready?
B
We're ready. Johnny. You gotta bring some energy down.
A
I'm bringing energy, baby. I got it.
C
I love that Dale is next to me. He makes me look good.
A
You look beautiful. Yeah, That's a good way to start the show.
B
Look at the size of Dave's head.
A
It is pretty big, but I look
B
like a light bulb.
A
Hey, everybody. Welcome to that sports thing. It's the podcast known as the John Holmberg Show. Along with me, John Holberg, wildly successful host at 98 KUPD is Dale Hellstray, three time world champion, co host of the main event with Steve McCollum. And then next to him, the Angry Patriot. That's Dave Nash, the madman that will end this show. And you do other things as well, but you don't like to talk about it. Did I just get brushed off?
C
Yeah, immediately. Get to it.
B
Let's go.
A
What do you mean we in a hurry? The hour's gonna be an hour no matter what.
C
Is it?
A
Yeah, yeah, okay. What's wrong with you?
B
He's down about the world.
A
What happened now? Just get it off your chest. Let's start the show with five minutes with a madman.
C
We'll save it for five minutes.
A
Well, are you waiting for that? You got something for us? No, probably not. You're upset.
B
He's got 10 minutes. He's gotta pare down to five minutes.
A
How do you get brushed off in the introduction?
B
I don't. And you're D. John Holmberg.
A
I know. It says it on the screen. How do you get brushed off with a hey, Dave, how are you? That's enough.
B
Move on.
A
Yeah, I feel like I'm a Dutch brothers. You should be fired anyway. Well, let's get right to it. Free agency is right around the corner. People are being replaced. Brushing off?
B
Seriously, why? Can the NFL say do whatever they want to do? People just buy in. How do you have a legal tampering? Tampering? Just A great tampering is inherently illegal.
A
It's an oxymoron in its way. We're going to tamper with that. We're going to do it in the most lawful fashion ever.
B
And everybody's, everybody's biased into it because it's, it.
A
Well, and the crazy part is it's clear and you would know better than anybody that the, the contracts are done like you sign the second it's allowed. All of it's been illegally tampered with.
B
Right. It's still been illegally tampered.
A
And if you illegally tamper, the only thing can happen to you is you lose a six round pick in a few years. It's like they, they don't care. So all. If you ever get caught, nobody's looking into that and who cares?
B
Right?
A
Right. I mean, I guess you could go talk to a player of who's going to be a restricted free agent and that would be bad. But unrestricted free agents are just. Their agents are telling them not to talk to anybody. The agent will handle it. This is such a great time. And you're right. The NFL is allowed to do whatever it wants. And it is now dominating March.
B
Yeah.
A
Like this is fun. March Madness is here. I remember when I realized that the NFL had us. When I was at a spring training game. I was at a Cubs game. Beautiful day. And somebody screamed out, this is years ago. We just got Jay Cutler. And they lost their minds at a baseball game. And the whole area buzzed with Bears fans talking about Jay Cutler. Oh, this is it. We finally got a quarterback. We're doing that. Our defense is ready. We got Erlocker. We have. They went nuts. Of course, nothing really happened with that. But no, I realized right then and there, I'm like, we're at a baseball game.
B
Yeah.
A
And nobody can stop talking about next year's football season. They're brilliant.
C
That's what baseball is.
A
Yeah.
C
You don't go there to really study every pitch to hone in. You go there and you're talking and you're carrying on about all other stuff and. Oh, and then. Oh, you watch it.
B
Watch a pitch.
A
Yeah.
B
But, but football, back to that. What other sport can you televise a combine for five days and have people actually tune in?
A
Not even that. They loop it. If you missed it, they're going to replay it. It's like 18 of 24 hours. Is playing combat.
B
I mean, how many, how many reps on the bench did he get?
A
How many is. Here's the thing I always say to people, how Many reps did. I don't know, Reggie White get. Does anyone ever remember the results? Even the guy who did it year combine, you had to look at your own numbers and you're like, what did I do right? You don't know?
B
No.
A
They used to, up until 10 years ago, not reveal the times to the players.
B
Right.
A
They didn't even know because they didn't want them to act like they had done something good or bad. They just wanted to react normally and assume. Yeah, it doesn't make sense. But this free agency thing is nuts. This is a wrong year to be hunting a quarterback. A bad year for teams who want a quarterback. Cause there aren't any.
C
They're giving away Tua. They're giving away Kyler Murray now, I'll
A
say that about those two guys.
C
They're giving them away.
A
Those two guys. If you're a team hunting, my Steelers are in that mix. There's a few others. I look at that and I'm like, if the Cardinals are going to foot the bill for Kyler Murray, right, I'll pay two and a half million a year for Kyler Murray. No skin off my back. And if it doesn't work, it can't be worse than Aaron Rodgers or better than Aaron Rodgers. Be about the same. His leadership skills aren't as good. You probably won't have the same locker room presence.
C
Pretty sure he's not going there to be a backup.
A
Oh, no, no, no. He's not going anywhere to be a backup. But I'm just saying, like, as far as keeping Aaron Rodgers or keeping Kyler Murray, people like, oh, you got to keep Aaron. He's 42, 43 years old. There's nothing to get excited about. So Kyler Murray coming in is at least athletic. He's played well. He's shown he can win. I don't know if he's a product of the Cardinals being the Cardinals forever or if he needs that fresh start. Sam Darnold's made everybody believe it's the location, it's not the player. And there's been a couple other guys. Daniel Jones, same thing. He kind of left that crooked, toxic mess in New York and went over to Indianapolis and in the first eight games looked like he'd never looked like
B
Sam Darnold the year before.
A
Could not touch Daniel Jones earlier in the year. The injury stopped him. He's not going to be back in time for everything else. But you start looking around the league and you're like, man, there's some quarterback needy teams. Miami went out and got Malik Willis.
C
Yeah, I can't wait to vet them.
A
Under.
C
Under winter, under the win.
A
You don't think that was a good move at all?
C
The Guy completed like three good passes in his career.
A
He had like an 85% completion percentage this last year. Okay, I know he didn't have a huge sample size, but he is accurate. The one thing Malik had going for him, at least with the packers, right, was it was accurate. He got thrown to the fire way too soon.
C
Only maybe a 50% completion in. In 10.
A
So, yeah, I mean, he wasn't great in Tennessee, but Tennessee was pretty terrible and said, hey, dude, who's not ready? It's yours. And that's what they did to Darnold.
B
And what is Miami? Are they closer to Tennessee? Are they closer to Green Bay?
A
What is Miami? What happened to Miami? That is a. The Raiders and the Dolphins, in my lifetime are probably the two most disappointing, say goodbye to prominence franchises in sports, especially growing up.
B
Yeah, we're both always good at different times.
A
Up until the late 90s, the dolphins were something. You'd be like, they're always around, right? And it wasn't just Dan Marino in the 70s, they were that way. The Raiders were always up. 2003 is the last time they was super bowl. And then they've been awful. My.
C
The one. Am I the only one getting frustrated? And when I hear, oh, there's a. There's a salary cap and you gotta, you gotta, you gotta fit everything in and then they just make these signings and then they just go, you know what? We owe him 50 million a year. We'll just, we'll just pass on it. We'll just, we'll just forget about that on our salary cap. I. I don't know who, who gets to keep their job. When someone does. That's the question I have.
A
They kick the can down the road. So they're going to lose their job if they don't get a championship. You know, the Ravens had that situation with Flacco a few years ago, right, where it all got moved down the road to where Joe Flacco was going to be. 60 million against the cap. And they're like, sorry Joe, we can't do thing about. He's still playing. But.
B
Right.
A
They got that same thing with Lamar Jackson now. But you keep moving it and moving it in hopes that you get the big one. But if you don't, you cripple a franchise and you lose the G for
B
three to four to five years.
A
I mean, right now there are Four or five teams that are, fingers crossed, this is our throw. The Ravens are one of them. The Max Crosby trade was clearly next year or. And they're putting Jesse Mentor in quite a spot.
B
Right.
A
They hired a brand new coach that has not got any head coaching experience and said like a one year window here, maybe two, and we don't have any. We're not doing first round picks. Now. They've been a clever franchise for years, so I'm sure they'll get around this.
B
Remember, that was an Aussie Newsom franchise. True. You know, so it's, it's changed.
A
Yeah.
B
But I think that they're looking at. Okay, so the AFC Central, Pittsburgh, they're still undecided at quarterback. Are they going to be playoff viable? Cincinnati, what's going to happen there? Yeah, maybe this is our year to strike.
A
I firmly think that if you're going to go after that division, right now's the time. The Bengals, I don't know what they're doing right. This all proves what I've always said. The Lions are going through it. Bad franchises have blip years, two, three year windows where they're like, hey, look, we've figured it all out. We're no longer the sucks of the entire league. Then stuff starts happening where you're like, guys are giving it away. The Detroit Lions lose in Anzalone and they lost their linebackers. Like, he's awesome, right? The heart and soul of them. David Montgomery doesn't want to be there anymore. They already lost a couple guys last year. They're getting weaker and weaker every year in a division that's getting better. The Bears and Packers and probably Vikings, who knows, are even up with the Lions now. And they had their chance. And it was a brief. The Bengals, super bowl team, you get, you get.
B
You hit it out of the park at the quarterback position.
A
Huge.
B
And that. You got to strike that. Yep. You got to strike them. Because then all of a sudden you got to pay him. Yep.
A
Well beyond.
B
You got to.
A
You got to not only pay him. That's a given. Right. But who else are you going to pay? And look what the Bengals are doing. Trey Hendrickson, what is he, 31? They had to. He had to beg to be, you know, in the conversation last year. This year they're like, no, we're going to let you go. And they pay the guy from Seattle to replace him. 30 million. And Seattle was like, good riddance. Like, you were the. Probably our worst on a good defense. The guy we didn't need on the line.
B
I'VE always told this about free agency, the number of high, talented, decently prized free agents that are healthy. It's in the. It's in the. In the single percentage points.
A
Yep.
B
When it. When a team lets a guy go, there's something wrong, whether it's locker room, whether it's injury, whether it's. There's something. Talent levels dipping sometimes.
A
It's to what Dave was saying, though. They've. They've trapped themselves with the cap and they can no longer actually afford a guy. But in this day and age, you can manipulate.
B
But I tell you what, like in. In Arizona here, if in fact Kyler Murray was the answer, the Cardinals could find a way to keep him under the cap. But he wasn't the answer.
A
Something's wrong there with that relationship or him. Him or the Cardinals or a little bit of both. Or it's a whole bunch true all over the place. But one thing can happen here with Kyler Murray. He can get a change of scenery. The Cardinals are still here. They can't renew a thing. They can keep getting rid of coaches and everything else. There's the linchpin to why they're what they are. But Kyler Murray can go somewhere else and be that athlete. So I don't know if the injuries have him banged up as much, but two years ago, when he was healthy, he actually played really well. Not this past year where the Cardinals were horrible and he was injured almost all the year. The year before his. I didn't realize he put up a pretty good season.
B
He has had. He has had glimpses. The one year when he had two wide receivers and Christian Kirk and. And D. Hop. They were whatever, 10 and 2.
A
Yeah.
B
And then D Hop gets hurt, and the next thing you know, they lose
A
out and that's no depth. GM didn't get the job done. You didn't have. You didn't play for a rainy day. You know, it was just, we lose one guy, we can fall apart. The lug nuts were super loose on that car. Do you take a chance? People are talking about the Vikings with Kyler Murray. That sends a whole new message. Why Dale you. You as a pro. But I don't think you were ever threatened, were you? Like, your job was never. Like, we just brought in another long snapper.
B
No.
A
Like you were the guy.
B
Yeah.
A
And you were like, we're comfortable with you.
B
You're right. Yeah.
A
Why is it. Why is there so much fragility in football to say? Because I know they did it with Kenny Pickett with the Steelers and he turned out to make the dumbest decision maybe of all time, which is, if I'm not going to start, I'm not going to be here. They traded him to a team where he was the backup, and now he can't get a job doing anything. Because you should have stayed in the one spot. I look at the thing with J.J. mcCarthy, you're like, we're going to bring in Kyler Murray. Let's say they tell him that his agent's going to tell him to leave, or they see something in J.J. mcCarthy, they're like, there is no future here. There's no reason to bring. That's a bad message to the whole team.
B
Well, here's the thing, because you look at it, they had to make a decision last offseason.
A
Yeah.
B
Are we going to resign Sam Darnold or are we rolling with JJ? Right. They'd seen enough. Whatever they thought. We think JJ's the guy. Right. And I actually, last training camp heard from different players.
C
Everybody.
B
Everybody's bought into it.
A
The players.
B
Yeah. That's what I said here.
A
That they were on the. On going on the record of saying there's nothing to worry about. This is the man. Players won't do that.
B
No, no.
A
Would not do that if it wasn't happening. Yeah.
B
And so something happened.
A
Yeah.
B
And then the injuries happen and all those things. So again, from a bonoffice standpoint, you go, well, why not roll the dice on Kyler Murray? It's going to cost us a couple million dollars. That's not even backup money.
A
Didn't they learn the lesson from Sam Darnold, though, that you can't just expect a guy in nine games to show you his entire career arc. You mean, you know, for J.J. mcCarthy for the Vikings to look and go, man, that's. Man, we've seen enough. It's not fair. The guy was injured. Maybe that injury is worse than we know.
B
Or maybe his true color showed when he got the starting position. And they are not enamored with it.
A
Interesting.
B
You know that he's a jerk.
A
Her Dale. Hell, right here.
B
You never. You never know.
A
No, you don't. And you know, we don't know what's going on on the inside, but I think if he was a jerk is the best decision to bring in a guy who's going to. You don't bring. Like Dave said, you don't bring Kyler Murray in for. To be the backup.
B
No. But you could say, hey, you're going to have some competition. Where else is Kyler going? To go well, Pittsburgh.
A
Pittsburgh's an answer. Pittsburgh's a thought. Geno Smith's getting thrown around a little. This is a. The names that are falling out of my mouth. You do not want to be quarterback.
C
Oh, got sent to the. To the.
A
Did he go somewhere? Jets. Is he with the jets now?
C
I did where he started. It's like. I know, but he was like a crap sandwich.
A
I didn't see that. Yeah, he's. He's bookending.
C
Right.
A
His career with crap.
C
Right.
A
Oh, I didn't see that. That just happened then.
C
Allegedly. I don't know.
A
Maybe I'm reading that makes me happy. Because then the Steelers won't waste time with Geno Smith.
B
Right.
A
Because that was rumored.
C
And can somebody tell me who the. The. The Cardinals starting quarterback is going to be next year?
A
And they're still talking about Garoppolo. Yeah, it's Jacoby. And then Minshew is the backup. You know, if I, if I was going to do what they did, I keep Kyler. You're paying him anyway.
C
Correct.
A
And then go get Gardner Minshew as the backup because Kyler's not reliable with his legs as far as his health. Gardner's a good backup. You're not going anywhere with him.
B
Right.
A
But he's a nice guy to have back there. He get. He'll get a system. He'll play the game. You know, he'll get you through three, four game stretch of not being embarrassing. Maybe win one or two. The Cardinals aren't doing anything anyway. This is embarrassing again.
B
Right.
A
That you got $33 million against the cap playing somewhere else.
B
Yes. And those checks are becoming Arizona Cardinals
A
and you pay someone to not be here.
C
That's the point. I don't get.
A
I hate him.
C
Well, either that or they're just.
B
That's.
C
I'll go back to that question. How do these teams just go, well, you know what? We're going to pay you to go away.
A
Yeah.
C
Don't get it.
B
We don't know is how miserable did Murray make it in that locker room towards the end of last year when they.
C
That sounds like a parenting problem.
A
That too.
B
Yeah.
A
I agree. Somebody listen.
C
If he's. If he's a bad child.
B
Yeah.
C
Then the parent has to be smarter. The parent has to be better. And it sounds like they don't want to be parents.
A
Well, they didn't. They let him in on decisions with coaching. Remember when a few years ago, they're like, Kyler's going to sit in. In the meetings to pick the next Kid like, no, what are you doing? And he hadn't proven a thing yet. And nobody is in Kyler's camp saying, knock it off.
B
Whether the homework clause was a real deal, made up deal, whatever. Name me one other franchise quarterback who signed a $200 million deal who study habits, workout habits are questioned slightly, even a bit.
A
Doesn't you just. That's one thing you cannot have. Is like, is he at least looking into things? Is he studying film?
C
When he says he.
B
That's what I've always said. If you're going to sign it, and I don't care what position, but obviously quarterback.
A
Yeah.
B
If you have any questions about his work ethic, his attitude, his locker room presence, any of that, if you have a question, then you can't give it to him because guess what? Right? You gave him now $150. 150 million guaranteed.
A
Yeah.
B
You think it's gonna get better?
A
See, that's. To me, that's. This is a weird thing, but that's the danger of the wildly athletic quarterback. Because Steve Young said this years ago and I always remember it. I want a quarterback that defaults to quarterback, not athlete. Like when, when the chips are down, I want him to hit, control, alt, delete, and default right back to quarterback.
B
Except for Steve didn't do that.
A
Steve didn't. But Steve studied and knew what he was up against. And a lot of overly athletic guys rely on that for so much of their lives. You've done it all through high school, never been questioned.
B
You've done it in college and now
A
you're one of the most athletic guys on the field. And somebody who out studies you is going to figure you out. Then you're only relying on athleticism. And I think Kyler's. Again, that is parenting. Dave's right. A coach has to say, you can't lean into this anymore.
B
Right.
A
You have to learn how to be a quarterback and your athleticism will happen naturally.
C
Well, I'm going to, I'm going to argue the fact that he doesn't like to run, he doesn't want to run. He's. He is offended when Cliff Kingsbury wanted him to run more. And so I think it's the opposite. He thinks he is a drop back pocket quarterback.
A
Well, his arm says he is. He's got a throw, a great guy, has a whip. I agree though, that. Mix it up.
C
He's not using, he's not using all his skills.
A
No.
C
And to me that's, that's, that's hurts the team.
A
Yeah. But that's where a coach comes in and says, you're going to use these skills and I'm not going to listen to you say, no, I'm not. And we're going to, we're going to coach this into or out of you. As I see for our system, I love a guy like Mike McCarthy. For Kyler Murray, I think that's a really good fit. I think the guy in Minnesota is a real, he's a quarterback guy, he's a good fit.
B
Yes.
A
You have people that will look at Kyler Murray and go, what have you done?
B
Well, here's what you also find out, guys, is the fact that you get these athletic quarterbacks. Kyler Murray, who probably runs a 4, 5, 4. Yeah, maybe he slowed down a little bit with the injuries and all that. Four, six. Well, there are 265, 270 pound defensive ends and outside linebackers who run four, six.
C
Oh, believe me, I know that because I've not seen this guy get out of the pocket too many times. No, there's. For someone who is supposed to be very quick and very fast and very shifty, he, he doesn't fool anyone in the pocket.
A
I will say this though, there's an awful lot of scheme that comes with that. And if you can't block for him and the play is designed to be a, you know, intermediate pass, right. And he's taking steps backwards, his athleticism will get him out of trouble backwards just as quick as it will forwards. But you don't want to go that way. And as a quarterback, he's like, well, this play, nobody's blocking for me. Like you know that. You know, if you understand the play, you're like, if I run this way, I'm dead. Those receivers are looking away from me. Everybody's, he knows where everybody's going and everybody looking at him knows he's in trouble.
C
He has a terrible pocket presence.
A
And see, I think that's coaching. I don't think that's a hard thing to coach.
C
Well, I, I don't know, but I, I'll just, I'll compare him to Patrick Mahomes, who is not that fast.
B
Right. Not.
C
But, but you know what it seems like when, when, when the crap hits the fan when he's in the pocket, he escapes almost every time and creates a big play. But it's subtleties and he's almost the antithesis of Murray. Yeah, Murray does nothing like that.
A
He panics and he goes the wrong directions or just eats it. It's box. It's boxing. It's footwork. It's so subtle. The guys that always duck and stay and step up. Tom Brady, no one was better than magically alluding he could move two yards, step up, slide, slide up, slide back. Sometimes it's faints, it's parries. It's the same as boxing. When a good boxer.
C
Have you ever seen Kyler Murray move around in the pocket and give himself more time?
A
But he was trained on a team that made him run for his life. That's how he learned the game in the pros. And I think there's something to be said for throwing a guy in too early. And if you go back and look at that first year, Kyler Murray show on a good team, good receivers, but that guy was ridiculous. And all you said was, man, when he gets that kind of puppy energy under control, that arm of his is.
B
It's.
A
That's not questioned. He's got your baseball player. He's got that same thing Russell Wilson had all those baseball players that get John Elway, that just rip it. It's easy for Kyler Murray to throw a football, but. But then the next year he takes a couple more hits, he gets injured. Suddenly it's not about running away, it's running not to get hit.
B
Well, and again to talk about, you know, they had 2,000 yard receivers, D hop and another guy. And then Christian Kirk was your third guy. Yeah. So how was his guys to throw the ball to last year? Who do you throw the ball to?
A
It was the Wilson, but he wasn't there.
B
But as a tight end. Yeah.
A
Zach Hertz.
B
Yeah. Yeah. They.
A
They not Zach or not Zach Hertz? Yeah. What the heck?
B
From Notre Dame.
A
Oh, my God.
B
We're out of Cardinal tight end.
C
Come on, McBride.
B
Yeah.
A
Zach hurts Trey McBride. Yeah, you're right. The.
D
My name's Mackenzie and I started a GoFundMe for the adoptive mother of a non verbal autistic child. The mother had lost her job because she wasn't able to find adequate care for this autistic child. So she really needed some help with living expenses, paying some back bills. So I launched a GoFundMe to help support them during this crisis. And we raised about $10,000 within just a couple of months. I think that the surprising thing was by telling a clear story and just like really being very clear about what we needed, we had some really generous donations from people who were really moved by the situation that this family was struggling with.
A
GoFundMe is the world's number one fundraising platform. Trusted by over 200 million people. Start your GoFundMe today at gofundme.com that's gofundme.com gofundme.com this podcast is supported by GoFundMe. The system was, for me, I used to say it all the time. I'm like, cliff Kingsbury basically said, here's your first read and then make something happen.
B
Right.
A
And the scheme was terrible. Like, because they didn't have a line, the receivers weren't there. Injuries always got them. I think Kyler's got something. I've always said he's the most athletic guy on the field. Whether he's the best guy is different. But the most athletic, he has to have a coach tell him, I got you the lines, got you. Take. Take a step. You don't need to be in panic mode.
B
Here's the one thing that I keep hearing about him, and I'm not arguing that he has talent. I'm not arguing that he can't throw one of the prettiest deep balls in the National Football League. I'm not arguing that from. And I argue the fact that I've heard so many people come out and say, he's different. He's different. He's. He's. He's odd in the locker room. And the one thing, your quarterbacks. I don't care what you say. Yeah. Your quarterback's got to be the leader of the offense.
C
Hundred percent.
B
And if. If he's not your guy. Yeah. If he's an oddball, if he's a loner, if he doesn't engage with people.
A
But doesn't that come out early to where teams, even in free agency, like, the Vikings, would not fight for him if that was the case.
B
Yeah, but they're not. They're. They're. They're saying, hey, we'll give you $2 million. We can't work with you.
A
But they're clamoring for that. Just they'll. Because everybody. Because almost. I think every NFL GM is like a crazy woman. They think they can fix you well, so I can change you. And some do, and some women do. So you meet a guy, suddenly he's wearing shirts, sweaters tied around his neck, and you're like, that isn't the Dale I know.
B
Yeah.
A
Because, like, the girl made him do stuff that's different.
B
Right.
A
Usually after that ends, they re back to what they liked being. But it's usually money in football that'll kind of make a guy either go one way or the other. He'll try Harder or he'll stop trying. All together.
B
Right.
A
Kyler Murray's an enigma. He's a complete question mark. Because I keep wanting to. Like I listen to Cardinal fans, I keep wanting to believe they're right, how terrible he is. And it's a deep inside my heart. I think, man, there's a common denominator here with this team where he might have that opportunity somewhere else to at least be good.
B
Here's what I have not heard anybody do you go back three years ago, Sam Darnold.
A
Yeah.
B
Three years. Just even two and a half. But three years ago, nobody thought Sam Darnold would be leading a team to a winning record.
A
Not. Yeah.
B
Much less. Much less. The most wins in the league. The last two years were two different teams.
A
Went to San Francisco to watch the game. Yes.
B
And.
A
And. And accepted that. And didn't outshine anybody in practice to get the job. Didn't show up as the Sam Darnold we just watched for two years.
B
Right.
A
Did the same thing in Carolina when they were trying to kill Bryce Young too soon.
B
Right.
A
And then they put him in here. He steadied the ship a little. Like, this is what you do. You're basically, you're going to be kind of a Steve deburr for the rest of your career. You're going to. You're going to float around. You're Fitzpatrick. You're going to be the guy that. A team that needs a dude. Just in case. Break glass. Yeah, Break glass. In case. Emergency quarterback. For him to go do what he did has a lot to do with the fact that he went to a franchise that said, just calm down. Take it. Take a. Take a year. Calm down. If we need you, we're going to call on you because we know you can play, but settle down. And he took that breath. I think Mitch Trubisky had that opportunity in Buffalo and then got thrown back into a Steelers situation that wasn't right for him with, like, knowing that he wasn't the man. I think there's a lot mentally that I think if Kyler goes to Minnesota and JJ stays, that's. If you've got a weird dude, it's the worst thing you can do to him.
B
Right.
A
Is say, we're counting on this dude. You're here for a minute, and then he's not going to try to prove it. A weird dude's going to be offended by that and not listen and say, well, you're not going to be my coach for a long time. I'm going to do it. My way. A guy who gets.
C
Well, I'm pretty sure he's not going to go there then. Not going to sign.
A
Oh, I don't know. But I mean if I don't. You think a guy like that needs someone to embrace him almost in a weird kind of like. Like look, you're an abused child. We know where you've been, we know what you went through. It's all over.
C
They already embraced him here.
A
As you said, tried, but he wasn't ready. You can embrace a guy who's not ready and then coach him right into like we don't know what we're doing either. I think, I think these, this, this is that he just was in a car wreck kind of thing. We're going to take care of you. We're here for you. Like he needs not to be babied but to be understood.
B
Well and the last thing. And I know we can go move on. I think for the last year and a half with Petsing and this, this coach staff and all that, I think Petsing runs a certain offense.
A
Yeah.
B
And he did not make any moves, adjustments, anything for Kyler's no talent.
A
No.
B
And to me that's a horrible coach. If you got a talented guy and you can't morph your offense or your defense into the personnel that you have, it's scary. Yeah. So.
A
Yeah. And so we got this free agency is going to go on for a little bit.
B
It's big.
A
Like first few days have been ridiculous. Stuff moving around. You guys seen anything that you're like surprised by? The Mike Evans thing kind of shocked me. I didn't see that coming.
B
That, that quietly. I know it's not quiet. Yeah. With all the other hoopla going on, that might be the most impactful free agent move of this early. Yeah.
A
You're going to San Francisco.
B
Going to San Francisco. But Brock Purdy is the perfect quarterback.
A
Don't you think that says Debo Samuel's gone or Brandon Ayuk.
B
I mean Samuels was.
A
Who's the receiver that they were talking about is going away.
B
Ayuk.
A
He is gone. He did go.
C
All right, listen. They can't wait to get well.
A
I know they've been trying for a long time but nobody's made him an offer and he's been.
B
Yeah, well they might just out now release.
C
Why.
A
But that's for Mike for.
C
They'll either release him or run him over with one of their like first aid cars.
A
But that's my point. It's like.
B
Or go dump him in the Electrical
A
field right by their back, the one that's breaking everybody. Don't you think Mike Evans on a team that can't stay healthy is sort of a joke?
B
You can, you can make that at his age and last year he was dinged up.
A
One thing he's been is sort of there.
B
Well, but I'm sorry, John, that'd be like him not answering the head coach's call or the general manager's call, not returning calls. That'd be like Tripp calling you. You, you missed Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. And Tripp calls you and you answer, where's he going?
A
And you answer, where's my guy going? I'll pick it up when I'm ready. No, I, I get that, but I'm just. I looked at that 49ers. I, I thought it was peculiar on both ends. Yeah, it's a. Look, he's a, he's a great receiver, but he's old, especially in receiver years.
B
But in San Francisco, they're looking for about two years. Yeah, they got about a two year window and then they're going to have to.
A
I guess they're going to redo it again. I guess. But I mean, man, I look at that and I'm like, watch. Wouldn't you rather go second, third round receiver?
B
No, not. But not when you're talking about Evans.
A
It's just, to me, it's just one of those things where we kind of have an Evans in house already. We don't like him. Bring another one in here, he's going to get hurt. Mike Evans is going to get hurt.
C
Young guy, speaking of mistakes, you got. What's his name getting all these quarterback Joneses and is it Matt Jones over there in.
A
Mac Jones?
C
Yeah, Mac Jones.
A
Yeah.
B
He.
C
You got a guy that a lot of people would. Wouldn't mind taking a shot at their starting quarterback.
A
That's going to happen on draft day.
C
You think because they said they're not
A
getting rid of him, there's a price that's going to happen on draft day. I firmly believe he gets moved on because you're going to see with the Malik Willis signing in Miami was so fast, it shocked me. Like I'm, I figured everybody kind of sit.
C
Would you rather have Mac Jones or
A
Malik Willis flip a coin? What? I like Malik Willis.
C
Okay.
A
I think he's good.
C
Well, if you like him, then he must be the most friendly guy because I have no idea why anyone would like him for any reason whatsoever.
B
And everybody said it's going to be 30, 35 million dollars a year for him. They got him for 20. Got him 20.
A
They got a great deal. He's incredibly athletic, super smart.
B
Who does Miami have?
A
I don't know. And that's why I'm like. As his agent, I'm like, you must have wanted to go to Miami, right? Because that was fast. And Malik Willis was going to be able to pick his spot,
B
two or
A
three spots, but he. Miami was the spot he chose, and coach was, like, kind of a weird hire. They're not sure he's from Green Bay. I know it's their guy. So it's this. It was immediate. So once that happened, I'm like, oh, yeah, yeah. The 49ers are in the catbird seat now.
B
You're right. I could see a secondary pick for Mac Jones for sure.
A
And you sit and think to yourself, like, they sat back and said, yeah, we're not moving him at all. I think raises the price.
C
I think he's worth even more than that because he's already under contract for, like, nothing. That there's a value.
B
There's a second round, third round, or fourth.
A
That's a good pick. Listen, you're not giving up a one for Mac Jones.
C
He's making nothing.
A
You're not giving up. If you need a quarterback, you're the worst GM in football.
B
You go back to all.
A
Yeah, there's no way out of the rocks. I wouldn't give up a 2 if I had a 3 upper end 2. I'm not throwing that away. If I have a lower end two, I'm considering hanging on to that. Mac Jones is okay. He's an unknown, just like Malik Willis. You saw him in New England with a team, you can't blame him for it. He played okay, played well enough, but he also struggled. When the team struggled, he was not helping them get better. You didn't see flashes of like, oh, he can handle this. So I'd see Mac Jones and Malik Willis. I'd be like, if I'm a gm, I'm like, all right, Malik Willis, at least he's a little more athletic. He might fit their system better. I think I'd go with that. But I think what San Francisco did is. Is what Malik signing did was just boost Mac Jones stock. That's a trade somebody makes. Because if Pittsburgh's still waiting for Aaron Rodgers, the Vikings don't get the Kyler Murray deal and surprises everybody and he signs in Cleveland or something. Now all of a sudden, you're like, oh, geez, all right, what's out there? Shoulder Sanders like what's tradable out there and you look at Mac Jones and all of a sudden he starts looking pretty good and everybody's down on the draft. I don't know if Ty Simpson's going to be. No, I don't. You know, everybody's already said that. But we're talking about Brock Purdy on one end of this thing, right? Right.
B
Again, that's a crap shoot. But just on surface, yeah, there's not a difference maker out there other than
A
what you think too important a position to waste the pick. I mean we saw what Cleveland did. A terrible franchise picking two guys in the first round and it's going to screw them up. Right. Because they're both going to be gone. So you just basically wasted two quarterback picks. It's an interesting.
B
So tell me this. I want to ask you this because you do live, breathe, die the Pittsburgh Steelers.
A
Yeah.
B
Last year Aaron Rodgers kept that hanging until Aprilish May ish after the draft.
A
No. As it turned out, he and Tomlin both had talked like it was going to get done. It was a done deal.
B
Okay.
A
He just wanted to be. Oddly enough, this is where Aaron's a weird guy. He wanted to be left alone about it. But by not saying I'm just going to be a Steeler, he caused the problem to be big. Like all he had to say was I'm just going to sign with him the Steelers. I've known that organization well enough to know last year I kept telling friends I'm like Aaron Rodgers already he signed with us.
B
Right.
A
Like there's no way Mike Tomlin's going to sit back and nope, we're not doing anything about. We're just going to run with Mason Rudolph and Will Howard.
B
Right.
A
Mike Tomlin's not going to the season with that knowing that Aaron Rodgers is already had that deal.
B
So do you think he waits that long this year to let them know?
A
I don't think that the team will let him do that again. So if he's not on the team by the draft, Mag Jones might be a Steeler.
B
Right.
A
They've got 13 picks, 12 now next year and the draft is in Pittsburgh. They're going to want to make some noise. You go ahead and make a move with that, you give up a three and maybe you know, some of they're talking about trading Pat Fryermouth and I mean but for what I. I don't. There is not a quarterback I'm, I'm giving up any capital for no. And there's nobody in the Draft that I'm really. We gotta have that guy.
B
Because there's. That there's usually what comes along with that is. Is trash coming behind you and usually a large salary.
A
Yep, yep. You know, and Aaron Rodgers is a suitable fit going into next year's draft, considering. I mean, what I would do this year is pretty much make sure I try to swing and hit five or six of these picks. And I know they do that every year, but I mean, I'd be super serious about filling needs.
B
Right.
A
Next year. I'd trade the whole draft to get up into the top five because there's going to be.
B
There's going to be three or four
A
quarterbacks that are there that you'll be. You know, that's the same Rivers, Manning, Roethlisberger, draft kind of thing.
B
Just make sure you pick Manning instead of Rivers. Well, if you want.
A
If you like rings, if you like hardware. But the. Yeah, Arch Manning will be.
B
You know what's crazy about that? You know, I. I'm still kind of. Remember that draft and how the whole leading up to it, everybody said I'd rather be number two. So I don't know.
A
Well, you're talking about Manning and Leaf. Yeah, no, I'm talking about Manning. And when Manning, Rivers and Roethlisberger were all in the same.
B
Oh, okay.
A
Manning and Leaf.
B
Yes.
A
That was a debate.
B
Everybody at that point was going, I want the number two pick, so I have to make the decision.
A
I'll just take whoever, whichever one falls to me. We're both going to be good. And that is not the case. But, man, that's where you start looking at Ty Simpson and you think, is everybody just overanalyzing this guy who actually just went and won games and played really well?
C
It's really easy to be a quarterback at Alabama.
A
That's what I think too, because you got five professional offensive linemen in front of you. Ohio State, Alabama, there's a few. USC up to a certain point, but they've got a couple like kind of outliers. You've been treated to a protein. Tim Tebow and everybody's like, greatest quarterback I've ever seen. Like, he's playing with nine professional football players.
B
Well, that's Ohio State. You see, I think four guys are supposed to go in the top 10.
A
Yeah, four. And from one team, and next year the other guys that were on this team will go, you're going to have. You literally have played with nine professional football players on either side of the ball. So, yeah, I don't trust Ohio State. Quarterbacks at all. They're oh for all of them. CJ Stroud is the only one that has had like a wow, he's pretty good. And playoff game made me think maybe that was a. We'll see which one really shows up this year. I love free agency. You could talk about free agency all day and hasn't even started. We're legally tampering with it right now. That's how this works. There are other things going on. Are there kinda basketball is. It's in trouble. It is a product that you cannot watch. I remember loving basketball. This is not me going back. All right. So hold on. The Suns are fun.
C
Okay.
A
They have made it a singular event for the fans. I cannot watch teams. I. I don't follow. Right anymore. And there was. Sadly it was Detroit and Houston. That's a good matchup.
B
Yeah.
A
That was a boring basketball.
B
Right.
A
I love Oklahoma City. But if they're not playing somebody that's decent, it is a slog. There is a lot wrong. And you know what the thing is, and I know, Dave, you're going to say it's this three point thing. I always complained that the zone defense ruined things. I'm going to tell you what wrecked it. When they started getting unqualified referees and tolerating them and then adding rules. There is nothing worse than being. I go to a lot of Suns games and there's nothing worse than sitting there trying to have fun and having someone lean too close to a camera. Their big face is going, we're going
B
to review this for a hostile act. Yeah.
A
What in the hell are we doing? And it happened four times in one game. The guy I was sitting with, like you talked about this on your show. And I'm like, I know. And he goes, let's go. And we went and we drank because it was better to just check in on TV than it was sit in this mess.
B
I bet you if they did, if they looked at every game that the average we're gonna review for a hostile act is three times a game.
A
What's a hostile act again?
B
A hostile act is I punch you in the face.
A
Yes.
B
That's a hostile act.
A
And you need to review that. It has to be something that would be illegal on the streets.
B
Yes. I don't have to review that. I see it.
A
I don't need to. If it's a hostile act, there's nothing to take a look at. You see it. Yeah, exactly. You see it when you, when it happens. If it's questionable whether it's hostile or Not.
B
It wasn't that hostile that I think the acting. Trying to draw charges.
A
It's gotten. And you know, and I was. What I was going to go down the road and say is, you know, who ruined this? Europeans.
B
You know, when they came in. Yes.
A
Fundamental basketball is their game.
B
Right.
A
And part of that was to incorporate these fast athletes. Will run into us, throw yourself on the ground.
B
Right. And you'll get. More times than not you'll get a foul clock.
A
It's happening constantly. They did a thing the other day. I don't know if you guys saw that Marine that was being escorted out of screaming and yelling that I won't fight for Israel. And he has arm stuck between a door and a wall. And somebody picked him up and moved him and it snapped his arm. Ulnar radius, both gone. Didn't make a noise. Just somebody said his arm is they. Other people noticed before. I watched that side by side with why Anthony Davis isn't playing right now for six weeks. And it was because his fingernail bent backwards.
B
Yeah.
A
And they want to argue with you that look, all these. All these rules about, oh, he was in his landing zone. He's too close, he could hurt him. Are you load management? Are you seeing injuries go down? No worse than it's ever been.
B
Yes.
A
And I'm like, get them back into banging into each other and being men.
B
I tell you what. The Jordans, the Magics, the Birds, the
A
Barclays, when did they ever flop?
B
They didn't flop and they didn't miss games. And guess what? They flew Coach. Un American.
A
All seven feet of them on those tiny. The stuff that makes Dave mad. Dude, he's got to sit in it.
B
The thing is, I watched for my first time this season. I watched probably three quarters of the spurs game because I wanted to watch Wemby. He's an unbelievable basketball player to watch. But then I'm looking at the spurs and I'm looking at their uniforms. They're ugly and nasty. And then I think back to the sun. Spurs debacles. Back in the day.
A
Fundamental basketball.
B
Boring.
A
But it was fun to watch.
B
But what do you do if you're the commissioner? I mean, he's come out a couple times. He's tried to address.
A
I could fix one move.
B
One move, really? One move.
A
No more zone defense. Man to man defense.
B
The game is fishing. What about the.
A
It all gets better. Man to man defense makes everything better.
B
I think it draws more fouls. I think it slows the pace.
A
You absolutely see one guy on one guy. It becomes obvious Rather than these crossing and sliding. And these three point shots are like, look, if you've got a guy you're responsible for and you guys can't just stand back and fade into these. The zone. The zone. In the NBA, it's good for college because you got so many weak every. Even good teams have a weakness. Some will protect it. Otherwise you would just take full advantage of that. The reason the Bulls were so great, the reason the Jazz were so great, they took advantage of the man to man. The Lakers post up, post up players. Everybody's like, oh, that's the old way. It is the old way, but it was better. Just because it's the old way doesn't mean it wasn't better.
B
How many times do you see a guy basically have a layup and then fling the ball out to the three point line?
A
And that's the thing. If you ever, if you ever hear a coach talk what I was. And again, everybody always says, oh, that's, that's old thinking. TV used to be better. I got to show you this. I got, I got this thing now to start my car.
C
Yeah.
A
What was wrong with keys? Like, I had no problem with keys. Like, this is fine. I know, I like it.
B
Yeah.
A
But when this breaks, the whole thing shut down. I can't just, I can't manually do anything. This was unnecessary. Tickets on my phone. Yeah, it was better before. There was nothing wrong with it when I had tangible tickets in my hand.
B
Right.
A
It's so easy.
B
If you lost one, you lost one.
A
I tried to get into a spring training game. I was arguing with an old man who's just doing his job. I'm like, the stupid thing won't download because you don't have wireless. And like, well, we don't know what to do about. Ah, sometimes things before were better.
B
Yeah.
A
Just because you've moved on to a new thing doesn't mean it's a better thing. The zone defense wrecked everything. Three point shooting's great, but they teach you now that the 20 foot shot, which was the staple, the min range, the mid range, which made Chris Paul an entire career. Kevin Durant is a mid range shooter. All these guys you remember forever were mid range shooters. Michael Jordan, the greats. If you take it, it's the biggest wasted. Analytically, it's the stupidest shot you can take.
B
Right.
A
Get me back to a time where you'd break a defense down by standing by the, by the free throw line. And these guys had to make a decision. Do I leave the post player? Do I Kind of double this. And they were. It was awesome to watch. The chess game of. You can't leave your man. Man to man brings the game back to normal. Europe broke it. International basketball broke it. Well, Europe broke it.
C
Basketball fan, what do you think?
B
Well, I do like that idea now. I don't think that's a total fix. I think you have to adjust officiating and you have to say, I've always said this. If a grown man gets bumped into and he hurls backwards as an official, I'm looking at him and said, get your ass in the weight room. Yeah.
A
Yeah.
B
No grown man should be hurled backwards by a dude bumping into him.
A
Isn't the game more fun when a guy is trying to. I loved the old post games where the guy would hold his ground and the other guy would just drive. Charles Barkley. Drive his shoulder into guys. Everybody has that generational thing where my game was better than yours, but in this case, it's true. People say it about baseball. Oh, it was the golden days of it. No, no, no. Baseball's never been a more talented and better sport than it is now.
B
Right.
A
There's more talent on the field today than ever.
B
And. And. And again, you talk old school baseball versus new.
A
Yeah.
B
The pitch clock, all the old guard was just screaming and kicking.
A
Football, it is a better product today than it has ever been. Basketball is hockey. I mean, it's otherworldly. How good, you could never say. The Broad street bullies of the late 70s would beat anybody in today's game.
C
They would beat them up, they would
A
physically beat them, but these guys would skate them off the ice.
C
That is correct.
A
Wayne Gretzky came in and skated around that Philly team and that he had five goals in a game and ended up with 51 goals at the halfway point one year and was the fastest of 50. They televised the game because they thought a week later he'd get it. He got it that night with five goals. And if you ever go back and watch that game, you see the evolution of hockey.
B
Yeah.
A
That day. Basketball is the only sport professionally that you can say. There's eras that would kick the living crap out of today's teams.
C
I'm going to agree with you on all facts except for football.
A
You think the old teams would. You think those old schemes would hold up?
C
Yeah.
B
The one thing you have to take into account, because people have asked me that. Yeah. The athletes today are. They're in nutrition, they're in the weight room, they're in plyometrics. They're in stretching all the things that none of us were really maybe till halfway through my career.
A
You guys all had a massive amount of steroids and uppers and your pads were huge.
B
Because we hit hard.
A
Exactly.
B
You had to.
A
But I don't think that your schemes because the evolution of the game has schemed out so much of what you guys did. I mean Bill Walsh came in and changed football with one idea, completely changed it because it was all linear for the most part. I mean had a few crossing with them. All the good teams in the 70s were offenses were straight. They changed the Mel Blunt rule and it became even straighter because you couldn't get roughed up as much. So I mean it was like easier to get these passes out and curls and everything because nothing was moving. Bill Walsh moved in, said, we're going to pass to run.
B
Right.
A
Unheard of.
B
You run across. Yeah.
A
Try running that west coast offense now it gets destroyed. Try running the three four blitz schemes that was so successful for Pittsburgh in the early 90s. It gets killed.
B
But again some of those things are because now your linebackers, right. Or 250 pounds, they run like safety.
A
That's evolution. Football drafted its way into who's winning all the time. Okay, these teams are winning all the time. What beats that? Oh, spread out the defense, give me five wide receivers and these guys suddenly are neutered.
B
Right.
A
And now the 34 has an Achilles that's so obvious. The rest of copycat league, everybody gets it.
B
Oh yeah.
A
Remember when the Wildcat was such a big deal got solved?
B
Oh yeah.
A
Everything in was a short term. It was. But it was a gimmick that worked until it got solved. And that's true of schemes and everything else. Today's Sean McVeigh who you love so much in Los Angeles would out scheme any coach from the 70s and 80s. Shula, Landry, Noel, all the greats hold on because they didn't have.
B
Yeah, but Sean McVeigh doesn't teach the linemen stand up before they get into
A
their stand that you guys used to do.
B
We didn't.
A
Dumbest thing I've ever seen. That was. You know. But again they ran very base package defenses. These are super complicated. Back to the argument of basketball, which has simplified itself away from a better game. And now there's better shooters now. But who knows if that's true because guys, back then Eddie Johnson could probably launch 15 threes a game for the Suns back in the 80s and hit seven or eight on a good night.
B
You would think.
A
And that, that's, that's career stuff. All you're looking to do is get 40 something percent from three and you're a hero. You just want to chuck up 50 of them because mathematicians got involved. Basketball is the only pro sport that is not. The teams today would not beat the teams before.
B
Now let's bring it locally real quick because our Phoenix Suns are going on a pretty brutal six game road trip. Yeah. And we were talking about it on the main event this morning. What do you, what, what's an acceptable record? It's a six game road trip. They finish it off with the Spurs.
A
Yeah. All, all, every road trip. Any team goes on, come back 500, it's a success. If you're going to make excuses and say, oh, we're injured or we shouldn't do, and you come back, you know, two and four and you're okay with it. You didn't have expectations. Road road games, you, three and three, you come back, you're happy. Four and two, you're thrilled. Anything better than that is like maybe better than they think they are.
B
Spurs, I think you got the Knicks. Yeah.
A
Do they go in the Texas run here? They don't go. Dallas. I don't know.
B
We called out earlier, but either way, three, it finishes with three really good basketball.
A
It's going to be a tough run.
B
Yeah.
A
And they have to be at their playoff team, so you got to play everybody. This is a tough little stretch. I don't see them as anything special, but they sure are fun.
B
Yes.
A
And they're way ahead of schedule. Now the Dylan Brooks thing's a little weird because he gets pulled over for the dui. I'm happy that he was injured and this team was kind of in a. Well, we'll wait till next year. This has been fun kind of mindset for fans because if this happened and they were a completely healthy team and Dylan was banged up and got his dui, this is the type of stuff that he comes back from and it's news and everything. This is kind of almost buried.
B
Yes.
A
Because it's like, man, we don't expect much from them anyway. And, and the. He did a great thing on the body cam. He came across this and I happen to know somebody with the team that's kind of saying there's more to the story.
B
Oh, really?
A
Yeah. There's, there's not a lot going on here that is going to get pushed.
B
Okay.
A
You know, so I just like that the distraction can't happen yet to this team because I think if they went into the playoffs and got trounced and they had a DUI. They won 50 games and surprised the world and then just get bounced.
B
Right.
A
They could have that mental. So in a weird way, things going wrong for them right now may help
B
down the road, but it's funny because we all went in this season. I got them at plus minus 31 and a half.
A
I think you six games up.
B
But is it game over?
A
Yeah, it's over.
B
Is it weird though, as the season goes along so you're having success, your expectations.
A
Yeah. Change completely.
B
And your expectation are they legitimately should be a six seed or five.
A
They could jump to five if they're completely healthy. That's the problem. And they're. They're a team that if they can't get everybody on the floor at the same time, it's not going to matter. They're good, but they're not serious.
B
No. There's obviously 10 other teams that are better than.
A
You go up to Denver, you go to Oklahoma City, you go to San Antonio and you got to win four times. It's not happening. They could scrappy around a 4 and 2, best of 7 and give them a fight, but that's what they are. They're the fighter, they're the right, they're the underdog.
B
I would like to see them healthy together.
A
It would be fun to watch. But add a couple pieces and that the man. Man Malawa and I didn't real. I stood next to him the other night. He's 19 and he has got. He looks skinny on TV. He's not. No. He is thick. And he's gonna. When he gets. He's Shaq thick. I didn't realize that. Like, when Shaq came in the league, he was a little bigger than him. This kid's 19, his legs are huge. And I'm like, oh, man, he isn't filled out yet. That he's gonna be something special if he can keep his athleticism and put on probably £25.
B
Right.
A
He's gonna be Giannis O'. Neil because he's got that same kind of feel about. He's a big dude. I didn't realize.
B
Tell me what we're gonna do with
A
Green. Yeah, well, you got to teach him to pass. There's a problem there. He loves trying to score. Yeah. He likes when Jalen has the ball more than anyone else, really. It's like just pass it. Suns are an interesting thing, but the NBA game to me has a problem. And then stuff that goes.
C
I've got a problem with with the whole tanking thing.
A
Oh, that's.
C
It's. I don't even think we have time to even go over that.
A
I think the only way to fix that is to find franchises like massive amounts of money or take away first round draft picks. If you're, if you're.
C
The problem is this. It's been a problem for a while and there is no answer.
A
There is no answer.
B
Oh, I think this commissioner is trying to get, trying to do something.
A
Well, relegation, if you want to go international basketball, you have to get, you know, or if you have the bottom six teams have to go into some sort of lottery draft where they have to give up six players. You can protect one if you miss the playoffs, you know, completely. There's only what now with the play in games?
B
There's only five teams, 20 of the 30 teams.
A
Yeah. There's only five in each conference. So you take those 10 that don't make it and say, okay, you get, you can protect two. It's a free draft on your team
B
or something to the point where, hey, if you don't make the playoffs for consecutive years.
A
Yeah, well that's the thing. You can only protect your guy once.
B
Yeah.
A
You can't protect him two years in a row. So if the Suns didn't make the playoffs, they'd probably protect Booker last year. He couldn't do it this year.
B
Right.
A
And then if a team in the playoffs wanted to draft your guy, they give up their first round pick. There's what you have to punish them with your franchises in trouble.
B
Right.
A
Because there's no other way to fix it. There just isn't. The NBA is in a. It's not so much that there's no talent. There's tons. It's just in an absolute nightmare of they over adjudicate the game. It's just managed terribly and it's not fan friendly anymore. You know what it is? It's a CNB scene when I'm there. It's people dressed up, looking at each other.
B
Right.
A
It's. It's not for the game and baseball's that way in a little bit. But it's kind of people, ah, peanuts, beer, goofing around, talking. It's more.
C
No, everyone's going there. They're just.
B
And that's the one thing I was telling this the other day because. Because even going to my grandson's first coach pitch season baseball and you look around, the only time people pay attention
A
is when their kids, their kids batting.
B
Yeah. And I was telling my wife and my daughter I go here all this time when I was playing, I thought people were at the game to watch me. Nope, not necessarily me, but us. Nope. And it's like, no, it's a place to gather and have some fun and cheer or whatever.
A
You just get outside, enjoy the weather, the boys playing. Speaking of baseball, you're not a big fan of it? Maybe, maybe not. Wbc. It's pretty remarkable.
C
What, what, what, what? You know, I don't like when a bully beats up a nobody. And that's seemingly so.
A
You watch a Dominican Republican in the Netherlands the other day.
C
You know, America's playing Britain.
A
Britain put a team in there. It's their fault.
C
Is there anyone that is actually from Britain that's on that team?
A
I have no idea.
C
Martinez, Castetello. And I mean, where are these guys from?
A
When? The Netherlands. I thought to myself, honestly, I said, why are there so many black guys in the Netherlands playing baseball and nobody here? It's all because they own the Dutch islands. And I'm like, oh, this is like, basically Dominican Republic, stuff like that. So you go down there and like, that's where the. Cause like, where did these guys come from in Holland that they. They got really good baseball players and we don't. We, like. They're always saying, we got a problem with, you know, no black guys want to play baseball in the United States anymore. I'm like, well, Netherlands isn't having a problem finding out. Well, they got an island. I didn't think of that. But I watched them get trounced by the doctor. And there's. There's some good baseball, though. You're. No, you're going to get some clunkers. Obviously, Great Britain's team is weird.
C
I can't. I can't watch American fans going ape crap over, you know, them beating some guy that maybe he just picked up a baseball for the first time.
A
Well, there's. They're not just dragging dudes out with.
C
I know, facetious, but point is wrong. They're not. They're not, you know, come on, Britain. Or, you know.
A
Well, there's a couple of them.
C
Australia.
A
Thanks for coming. Australia's got a pretty thriving baseball thing, but it's not to the level of the.
B
Well, what about all the hoopla about people so upset with the Dominican Republic show a little exuberation.
A
Well, they're. That's their spicy Latin. Like, they love that. That's their Latinos. They get behind their stuff.
B
Yeah, but. But the old Nashes of the world.
A
Oh, they don't like that. They don't like that.
B
Baseball waving, all that.
C
I was never that way. I, I thought.
A
Except for the time it took you three and a half hours to trot around the base.
C
Yeah, see, that was, that was. That was insane. Yeah, exactly.
A
But the. It's like again, go back to boxing. You watch somebody from Cuba fight somebody from Mexico. It's tribal. European sports are tribal. When we throw a USA on a jersey, we don't have it like the rest of. We kind of did with hockey this year in the Olympics. But you don't have that. We wait until. If they're in the finals, we're spoiled. We're not going to get.
C
Because I'm watching us speed up on nobody's and I'm like, there's nothing to
A
be excited if Mexico beats up on a nobody. And they've probably got as much talent as us. The Mexican fans love it because they love waving that flag and they love stomping.
B
All right.
A
We're Americans.
B
Okay.
A
We know we can probably stomp you.
B
Yeah.
A
So we don't care. Until it matters. Against Mexico. Against Dominican Republic. Japan.
B
Yeah.
A
The evil empire of Japan. And that is one hell of a baseball team. When you watch them. Yes. Oh, my God.
B
You know, it was funny because I did notice this. That Chinese tap.
A
Taipei.
B
Taipei, yeah. Struggled in the World Baseball Classic.
A
But literally, literally, they're dominant.
B
They're. They're in the finals every stick.
C
As soon as they graduate that championship Little league game, they forget how to play baseball.
A
It's also because I think all of them, like, nobody's really doing a thorough check. There's probably a couple 20 year olds that are on that team that are. Yeah, exactly. That. You know, you're not going to have the 6 foot 5 inch when Chinese.
C
When their kids are cheering for them.
A
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. When they've got a head. I mean, you know, they'll go older than what you. You're 100% correct. But the World Baseball Classic is blast. If you get to the ending of it. But I love, like Italy's got players that have never been to Italy, but they have eyes at the end of their last names. It's just, it's a fun thing that baseball kind of needs. I think baseball gets a little bit slow early the spring. Spring's a blast. Although they've priced every out of spring training.
C
Really?
A
Oh, my God. Tickets for a game were 83 bucks the other night, spring training, because it was a night game and I went to go see the Padres and cubs. It was $83.
B
I've heard it's $85 to sit on the grass and the dimebags if they're
A
playing the Dodgers and if the Cubs are playing the White Sox, they surge the prices. It's 75 bucks to sit in the outfield to watch teams practice. And with the World Baseball Classic going on, a lot of times, a lot of the good players aren't there.
B
Right.
A
So you're watching. You're just there for the event. I get it. But the, the WBC has got something that's a real. I think it would be more fun to do in the middle of a season. Get people invested in baseball a little and then take two weeks off like hockey does and do your classic and then come back. That's a better All Star game than what you're putting together. Have a two week tournament, you'd be fine. And you know, I know they're already running baseball into the end of October and November now anyway, but it would be a blast to put together. I love the I love the tribal nation kind of idea behind it. It's a fun sport and people have caught up to us.
C
Well, I know I, I was just trying to think, are there better ways to do it? You do. At the end of the year, everyone is really on top of their game, but you're going to start wearing people out. So I don't see that middle of the game there's going to be a lot of fans are like, not, not
A
up in the middle of the season.
C
Yeah. You don't think so? I don't.
A
I think if baseball's at its peak and you can take that week off for the All Star Game, which is just pointless, then you could add another week to that.
C
Certainly works more now because guys are getting ready for their year. So it's like, okay, this is, this is, this is even better. Doesn't that mean some nonsensical spring training games?
A
Yeah, but doesn't it tell you that spring training is nothing to do with getting ready for the year? It's just a business venture. They pay for two free agents per team with the money they made on spring. And fooling us, it's the same thing with.
B
And I'm surprised that the NFL owners, I understand they want another regular season game, but the preseason games, they charge the same prices.
A
Yeah.
B
And guess what? They're paying that guy who's making $50 million during the year. They're paying them 2,500 bucks a week during preseason.
A
Yep. And it's to me, in the NFL, I Understand more of we got to get a little rust off our belts and take a few hits. Baseball, you can play a game or two. You don't need 30. No, at all.
C
But I will say when you go, it should be an all year thing where guys will be playing all year, but they're going to take time off. And when you come back and you look at you're starting to face 95 mile an hour fastballs and 88 mile an hour sliders. It takes a little bit. Takes a little bit of.
A
Because the World Baseball Classic is proof it doesn't. These guys are in mid season form when they have to be. They look pretty damn good in this thing.
C
I'm pretty sure they just didn't. Didn't walk up to World Baseball Classic and say, hey, I better get loose.
A
No, but nobody does that in spring either. They go up and they get the BP for a week. Pitchers and catchers report early. You've got BP and then you start playing games. You need a week. I would say you need a week.
B
You.
A
The practice. A week of games season.
C
You gotta, you gotta see live pitching. Not just. But you gotta see live a week.
A
Dave. I'm watching these guys go up against Otani and he's throwing three or four innings and all of a sudden nobody's worried about, you know, his regular season with the Dodgers. This is important to them. Like Japan wants to win this thing that.
C
As they should.
A
And it's fun to watch. I like that. It's meaningful. Baseball in March, that's fun. And it only happens every couple of years, so it's no big deal.
C
Hey, listen, all of our teams go ape crap to sign all of their best players.
A
Yeah.
C
So they're pretty good over there. And, and, and they, and no one thinks of them that way.
A
If the United States plays Japan in the finals. Are you in?
B
Yes.
A
You're watching that? Yes.
C
That's just as I was for the Olympics. I was all in on America, Canada. But leading up to that, I'm not excited about America beating up on Spain or whoever the hell they were playing.
A
Is Ohtani pitching in this?
C
I think so.
A
I would buy. I don't know what the price would be, but I would pay a lot of money to watch Skeens and Ohtani go at it with something on the line. You imagine that, I mean that, that they need to put on TV for 24 hours because that's, that's Babe Ruth, Cy Young stuff for our generation. Both those guys are legitimately great players. And you look at you don't, you know, and you put something on the line. Odds are Skeens and Ohtani are never going to meet in a meaningful game as long as Skeens is in Pittsburgh.
C
Maybe it's an opening day and, well, it's not enough.
A
You still have 161 makeup games. So if he gets blasted one. But I would, I would drop everything to fly to that game to see that. That's a. I, I was there right moment. And if those two go, man, that's something special. And we wouldn't get that otherwise without this. I think the baseball Classic is one of those deals that baseball's not even giving it its due. And they're selling stadiums out for this. You look around like that, like around the world, like these guys are showing up, like the flags from the nations are. There are people showing up. When Mexico plays baseball here, there's Mexico jerseys everywhere. They're there. So it means something to people, and I think it's kind of fun. In the end, we just get back into baseball. What are you going to do? All right, it's just about that time to wrap this thing up before we do, I'll say goodbye. My name is John Holmberg of 98 KUPD. That's Dale Hell Astray. The main event, three time world champion with the Cowboys right there, Dave Nash, who's just had this sour puss all day. Five minutes with a madman. Dave, take it away.
C
Well, if anyone's driving a car these days, they see that gas prices shot up like a dollar in a week. And, you know, obviously there's some uneasiness in the Middle east, but I'm trying to figure out, we don't get any of our oil from Iran, and no tanker has yet to have been a problem traveling its routes and giving, you know, getting its oil to its destination.
B
How does the.
C
How does the gas price go up that fast, that quickly? I just don't get that.
A
Well, it's all just based on the futures of fear because they have to set their price in case it does happen so they can pay for it. It's a gouging. That's.
C
I guess that's my point. Yeah, I mean, you can, you can tell me all you want about, well, we have to be prepared for a shortage. Well, all right, well, let's deal with the pricing. That.
B
Right.
C
I don't know how. You just go, we're just going to charge everyone 25, 30%.
A
It's all fear because it never comes down correct. So they've already had the price of oil go from 120 a barrel to 90 in a day.
C
Right.
A
And they say it's going to take two months to see that.
C
So. Yeah, that. Right.
B
They'll take two months to see the down.
A
Yeah. Because they've got to reassess every three days. Hold on.
B
Yeah.
A
Because nothing. It was all based on the Straits of Hormuz. And are they going to keep production the world oil market and everything except.
C
And we have no oil coming from Iran and our price. I just don't. I don't understand that. And I don't understand how people aren't questioning more of that of our government or our oil companies and saying, what is this nonsense? Is this all just smoke and mirrors like normal? Because that's what I think it is.
A
Yeah. But what you'll see is emails going around saying, protest gas prices by dot. Don't shut at Exxon on Monday and we'll just get their money. The next day. Somebody's gonna get. It's all coming from the same guys. So it's just, you know, you're not gonna have fan loyalty. It's just whenever you need gas, you find the spot. Yes. I don't know anybody that's like, I don't get.
B
No, I only use mobile.
A
Yeah. My grandpa used to be only marathon. Like, only marathon until. And then he drove out here and he's like, you don't have marathon gas stations. I'm like, well, oh, we're gonna have to get gas somewhere. No, I'm just gonna walk. And then you kind of realize it's sort of all the same. There's some places that are a little bit probably cleaner. I don't know. But I don't notice a difference. Nobody does. Yeah. Oil prices going up 88 cents in. In LA the day they announced that there's trouble. Yeah. It's all basically like, we gotcha and gas price and that that's a way so they can raise prices on everything else too.
C
Correct. So that's again, back to the show that I do, the real matrix that we're just in. We're just pawns in a game that they're playing with us. And there's no rhyme or reason to it other than they're screwing us and we're sitting and taking it because nobody questions it.
A
Get your gas. Grab an apple pie or some Funyuns or something at the Circle K and get a Coke and relax, Dave. You can't do anything about it. You're a pawn. You said it yourself.
C
I get it. And it's annoying. I don't like being a SAP.
A
The angry pawn.
C
I don't like being a SAP. And that's.
A
I. What.
B
What?
C
It feels like I'm. I'm a SAP right now, taking all this.
A
Are you're married?
B
Oh, yeah.
A
You're a SAP. You had to be. You had to be to get it. You had to be. I tell you what you were. Yeah. You wouldn't. You didn't ever say, I got a
C
way better deal than she did.
A
You did a great job. This is what a SAP would say. No SAP would. A non SAP would say, hey, what's in this for me? To her. But no, you bowed down to everything because you know what? You're a pawn. And her game.
C
She. She got the raw end of the stick.
A
Of course she did. That's what a SAP would say. Because we all praise. They can do anything. They'd raise the prices on us. We'd pay them. We raise the prices on women, they're not paying anything. No, it's not. Sap2 over there saying that. It is not even close.
B
Who got the better end of the deal, you or Megan?
A
She hit the jackpot. What? Oh, my God. She has to look at you, dude. That's the only bad thing about it.
C
Everything else.
A
And everybody's got to look at me. It's not nobody's time. I'm gonna win a beauty contest.
C
No.
A
We could have done this a day in her life.
C
This could be audio only.
A
Yeah.
C
You brought this nonsense.
A
This is it. This is. Please, please.
B
You're a sapper.
A
No way. I'm a strong man. What's in his it for me? I say not wrong. I know we all kind of hit lotteries in certain aspects, but come on. They did all right. Give yourself some credit. They're afraid of their wives.
B
That's it.
A
We're done. Have a good one.
Episode 28 – March 13, 2026
Host: John Holmberg
Co-hosts: Dale Hellestrae (former NFL OL, 3x Super Bowl Champion), Dave Nash (AZ media personality)
This week’s episode dives into the wild ride of NFL free agency, the chaos and contradictions wrapped up in “legal tampering,” the never-ending quarterback carousel, and some pointed local Arizona football talk. The crew also takes time to lament the fading appeal of NBA basketball, debate the mechanisms fixing (or breaking) pro sports, and wrap up with some gripes about gas prices and the economics of spring training. Witticisms, gentle roasting, and sports cynicism abound.
(02:05 – 37:30)
Main Beats:
NFL “Legal Tampering” is a Joke:
NFL Steals the Offseason:
Bad Year for QB-Hungry Teams:
Frustrations with Salary Cap Kung-Fu:
Window of Contention is Tiny:
Why Do Some Teams Pay Guys To Leave?
Cardinals and Kyler’s Leadership Issues:
Athletic QBs: Blessing or Curse?
Roster Fit and Coaching Blunders:
Who Else is Out There? (QB Market Talk):
Steelers’ Perpetual QB Search:
(39:09 – 57:50)
Main Beats:
NBA is Unwatchable?
Zone Defense Ruined the Game:
Midrange Game Is Dead; Analytics to Blame:
Tanking and Lottery Woes:
Local Suns Perspective:
(58:34 – 67:20)
Main Beats:
Spring Training Economics:
World Baseball Classic: Is It Worthwhile?
Club vs. Country: Fan Investment:
(68:21 – 73:07)
“How do you have legal tampering? Tampering is inherently illegal.”
— Dale Hellestrae (02:17)
“Basketball is in trouble. It is a product you cannot watch.”
— John Holmberg (39:09)
“They just make these signings… and go, we owe him 50 million a year. We’ll just pass on it, forget about that on our salary cap.”
— Dave Nash (07:39)
“If you have any questions about his work ethic, attitude, locker room presence… then you can’t give [$150M] to him. You think it’s gonna get better?”
— Dale Hellestrae (18:09)
“Just because you’ve moved on to a new thing doesn’t mean it’s a better thing.”
— Holmberg, on NBA rule changes and sports nostalgia (45:58)
“We’re just pawns in a game they’re playing with us… and there’s no rhyme or reason, other than they’re screwing us and we’re sitting and taking it.”
— Dave Nash (71:02)
The crew alternates between playful mockery, sincere sports insight, and wry “back in MY day” nostalgia. There’s Arizona-specific context for struggling football and surprise Suns success, while keeping broad appeal with national sports talk and cultural commentary. Listeners get equal shares wit and wisdom.
Even if you missed the episode, you’ll know why this year’s NFL free agent market is so wild and frustrating, why nobody trusts Kyler Murray—and why the Cardinals themselves might be the real problem. The NBA’s decline comes under the microscope: not just analytics, but officiating and culture have sapped the joy out of pro basketball for these sports lifers. Meanwhile, spring training price hikes and the WBC’s oddball team lineups get a comical skewering. For fans of Arizona teams, this is one of the sharpest, funniest roundups of what matters (and what bugs) in the local sports landscape.