Latest / The Ben Maller Show / Hour 2 - Bowled Over

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Hour 2 - Bowled Over · The Ben Maller Show

0:00
Speaker 1: Yeah, but that would do. It's our number two. And
0:04
Speaker 1: how do you do here in our number two as
0:08
Speaker 1: we are off the beam on the Ben Maller show
0:11
Speaker 1: with the big Maller meet and greet coming up this
0:12
Speaker 1: Saturday in Vegas, the 29th of August at the Steakout
0:16
Speaker 1: Bar and Grill there in Sin City. So what was
0:19
Speaker 1: the official cause of death for the NFL's Pro Bowl?
0:23
Speaker 1: The National Football League announced they're not doing it anymore.
0:28
Speaker 1: And with the Pro Bowl officially headed six feet under,
0:30
Speaker 1: do you have any scrapbook memories of that event? As
0:35
Speaker 1: it will never come back in our lifetimes. And what
0:38
Speaker 1: exactly is Bob Myers and basketball smoking when he calls
0:42
Speaker 1: Philadelphia the hardest path for LeBron James Jr.? We'll get
0:48
Speaker 1: to all of that and more right now as we
0:52
Speaker 1: fast forward ahead on the Ben Maller Show Hour 2 podcast. Well,
1:00
Speaker 1: after years and years of speculation and tap dancing around
1:06
Speaker 1: the snuffleupagus in the room, it has finally happened. Bold over.
1:13
Speaker 1: Bold over. That would be pro bold over. Welcome in
1:19
Speaker 1: the beginning. of another hour of the Ben Maller Show.
1:24
Speaker 1: We are in the air everywhere.
1:30
Speaker 2: Literally.
1:31
Speaker 1: Yeah, we're just talk mates here as we have an
1:34
Speaker 1: audio hoedown, coast to coast, border to border, and beyond,
1:38
Speaker 1: on the best and noisily powerful. microphones of FSR emanating live.
1:46
Speaker 1: Do it live! From the song as we sing for
1:50
Speaker 1: our supper, guaranteed human, from the world-famous Fox Sports Radio
1:56
Speaker 1: studios as we hang out together with Mikey Cano, don't
2:00
Speaker 1: you know, who says, hey, Maller, we need some bulk.
2:05
Speaker 1: And I said, you know, Mikey Cano, as long as
2:07
Speaker 1: Filler Up Phil and Wayne, the curmudgeon from Duluth, and
2:10
Speaker 1: even our buddy Monkey Biz Doug there in South Korea
2:14
Speaker 1: all agree, we will give you bull. And so they
2:16
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2:18
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2:43
Speaker 1: So our lead this hour is from the Starless Knight Foundation. Now,
2:49
Speaker 1: I went back and I checked through my many copious
2:53
Speaker 1: notes that I've done over the years for these screaming
2:56
Speaker 1: lunatic monologues. And no less, no less than 12 times
3:02
Speaker 1: over the last number of years have I ranted and raved,
3:06
Speaker 1: howling at the moon regarding the Pro Bowl and how
3:11
Speaker 1: fugazi it was. Well, the NFL has decided now to
3:14
Speaker 1: finally listen to me. This event, which is as dull
3:17
Speaker 1: as dishwater. The NFL has now excommunicated the Pro Bowl.
3:23
Speaker 1: No more Pro Bowl or whatever that thing was that
3:26
Speaker 1: they had, the Pro Bowl games, beginning with the upcoming season,
3:30
Speaker 1: which will cap off with the Super Bowl in La
3:33
Speaker 1: La Land. Now, if you didn't hear about this, maybe not. Now,
3:37
Speaker 1: the league will still designate 88 players as Pro Bowlers.
3:42
Speaker 1: so 88 players will be announced that'll happen in late
3:45
Speaker 1: December however there will be no replacement selections unfortunately ending
3:51
Speaker 1: any chance that Shadur Sanders have ever ever sniffing a
3:54
Speaker 1: pro ball so that's you knew when Shadur Sanders made
3:58
Speaker 1: the pro ball that it had jumped the shark that
4:01
Speaker 1: somebody had royally effed up and of course there were
4:03
Speaker 1: other examples than him but it turns out that's the
4:07
Speaker 1: one that pushed everything over the edge. And so they will, again,
4:11
Speaker 1: announce the Pro Bowl players. They will have no replacement selections.
4:15
Speaker 1: That was always the problem. You'd announce the Pro Bowl
4:17
Speaker 1: and then the top 12 players at every position were like,
4:20
Speaker 1: screw you. I'm not going to the Pro Bowl. What's
4:22
Speaker 1: wrong with you? That's not appealing to me. And so
4:26
Speaker 1: they're not going to do that anymore with replacements. And
4:30
Speaker 1: that tradition is now over. The NFL defending the move.
4:33
Speaker 1: They call it an evolution of the event tradition.
4:37
Speaker 3: So after 88 years, 88 years, that's four generations, the
4:44
Speaker 3: league has become the first of the American Big Four,
4:48
Speaker 3: the industrial complex of sport, to eliminate its annual all-star event.
4:53
Speaker 1: It is dead. The all-star game in pro football is dead.
4:59
Speaker 1: And that is a good jumping off point. So let
5:01
Speaker 1: us discuss the questions. What was the official cause of
5:07
Speaker 1: death for the NFL's Pro Bowl? Nudge, nudge, wink, wink.
5:13
Speaker 1: So I've got corporate retreat, Kodak Classics, and body armor.
5:21
Speaker 1: And we'll combine all of these things together, and we
5:26
Speaker 1: are going to play Connect 3. Not Connect 4, because
5:30
Speaker 1: we only have three things. We'll do Connect 4. So
5:32
Speaker 1: we always start out with number one. Number one. Let's
5:36
Speaker 1: try that again.
5:37
Speaker 2: One, one, one, one, one.
5:38
Speaker 4: Number one.
5:39
Speaker 1: I said one, one, one. Number one. All right. That's good.
5:42
Speaker 4: That's good.
5:43
Speaker 1: So the Pro Bowl did not technically die on one
5:46
Speaker 1: hand of the aisle. You can say it was euthanized
5:50
Speaker 1: after years, years of terminal irrelevance. Now, if you do
5:55
Speaker 1: need an official cause of death, I would argue that
5:58
Speaker 1: on the death certificate for the Pro Bowl, you have
6:01
Speaker 1: to write down player empowerment with complications from terminal apathy.
6:08
Speaker 1: And that's it. Just write that on the death certificate.
6:11
Speaker 1: The average NFL salary is around $ 5 million. So that
6:16
Speaker 1: means if you're poor in the NFL, you're making about
6:18
Speaker 1: $ 5 million. And players decided long, long ago, they did
6:25
Speaker 1: this collectively, that they were not going to risk any
6:28
Speaker 1: kind of boo-boo in their financial future to play in
6:33
Speaker 1: the NFL All-Star Exhibition game. So they essentially staged A
6:39
Speaker 1: sit-down strike. I believe that's the proper term. You can
6:41
Speaker 1: correct me if I'm wrong. I believe that's called a
6:43
Speaker 1: sit-down strike. This took place at the infamous Pro Bowl
6:46
Speaker 1: in Lost Wages, Nevada, as that was an absolute puke
6:52
Speaker 1: fest in Vegas, and players stopped caring. Even before that,
6:57
Speaker 1: they stopped caring. Fans, as a result, stopped watching, as
7:01
Speaker 1: many as had in the past, and Eventually, it took
7:04
Speaker 1: several years, the NFL even noticed, like, wait a minute,
7:07
Speaker 1: this is not good. So Roger Goodell tried to do
7:09
Speaker 1: CPR with the flag football, but that was not the solution.
7:17
Speaker 1: It was merely hospice care for the NFL All-Star Game.
7:23
Speaker 1: And then came what I just laughed my ass off,
7:26
Speaker 1: thinking that the NFL thought it was a good idea
7:30
Speaker 1: at a boardroom in midtown Manhattan to Somebody said, hey,
7:33
Speaker 1: let's do some dodgeball. OK, that seems like a good idea.
7:36
Speaker 1: Let's get into dodgeball. Oh, I got a better idea.
7:38
Speaker 1: How about tug of war? Oh, that's really good. Let's
7:41
Speaker 1: do tug of war. Seems like it'll be very popular.
7:44
Speaker 1: How about tic-tac-toe? Everyone loves tic-tac-toe. Wonderful. And they had
7:49
Speaker 1: all these other goofy skills competitions. It's basically like watching
7:54
Speaker 1: your coworkers do one of those trust falls. You ever
7:57
Speaker 1: seen that, the trust fall thing at a corporate retreat?
8:00
Speaker 1: It's essentially what the NFL did. They made it like
8:02
Speaker 1: summer camp and all that. I was told by somebody
8:05
Speaker 1: that works in the NFL, the idea was for it
8:07
Speaker 1: to go viral on social media and that that's really
8:10
Speaker 1: what it was for. It was for the kids. For
8:12
Speaker 1: the kids! I did it for the kids! Well, it
8:14
Speaker 1: didn't really work the way they thought it was going
8:16
Speaker 1: to work, so I say good riddance. There's no candlelight
8:20
Speaker 1: vigil being held outside NFL headquarters in Manhattan right now
8:23
Speaker 1: because the Pro Bowl has met its demise. And the
8:26
Speaker 1: NFL finally admitted it. What everyone knew, the game sucked.
8:33
Speaker 1: The game sucked. It's because the players didn't want to
8:35
Speaker 1: play it, and a lot of them didn't show up.
8:38
Speaker 1: Anytime you get to the point where Shadur Sanders is
8:41
Speaker 1: being called the Pro Bowl quarterback, you know you have
8:43
Speaker 1: a problem. You know you have a problem. And the
8:45
Speaker 1: NFL has a license to print money. So simply just
8:49
Speaker 1: releasing the schedule, they make money. It does not need
8:53
Speaker 1: a charity exhibition. And as we have preached from atop
8:59
Speaker 1: the bully pulpit, the all-star games are relics. They are.
9:05
Speaker 1: And I recall talking to some of the old-timers when
9:07
Speaker 1: I got started. I was a kid. I started at
9:09
Speaker 1: 19 years old in this stupid business. And I should
9:12
Speaker 1: have become a lawyer. So at 19, I remember telling
9:14
Speaker 1: these old-time guys, and they would talk about how one
9:17
Speaker 1: of my favorite stories, there was a gentleman that played
9:21
Speaker 1: for the Lakers when they first moved from Minneapolis to L.A.,
9:25
Speaker 1: And he told me the story. He said nobody wanted
9:27
Speaker 1: to go watch the basketball. They liked college sports. They
9:31
Speaker 1: didn't like pro basketball. So at 4 o'clock in the afternoon,
9:36
Speaker 1: they would get on a flatbed truck with a megaphone.
9:40
Speaker 1: This is in like the 1960s. And they would drive around,
9:45
Speaker 1: early 1960s, they would drive around L.A., like the neighborhoods
9:49
Speaker 1: in L.A., And they would say, hey, we're playing so-and-so
9:54
Speaker 1: tonight at the sports arena. You want tickets? Come on
9:57
Speaker 1: out and support us.
9:59
Speaker 2: Yeah.
10:00
Speaker 1: And they had all-star games. The all-star games were a
10:02
Speaker 1: showcase to let people watch the greatest players in the product,
10:07
Speaker 1: to grow the brand. Well, these leagues are so big.
10:11
Speaker 1: These are monsters, these leagues. They don't need that. They
10:15
Speaker 1: don't need that at all. And so it's like, oh,
10:18
Speaker 1: who cares? And mark my words, now that the NFL
10:22
Speaker 1: has done it, they've hit the kill switch, I will
10:24
Speaker 1: guarantee you, keep an eye on the NBA, the NHL,
10:28
Speaker 1: and even eventually Major League Baseball. And they're all going
10:31
Speaker 1: to look for the same off-ramp, and every one of
10:33
Speaker 1: them is going to say, well, the NFL did it,
10:37
Speaker 1: so we can do it. And sure, why not? All right,
10:42
Speaker 1: page two, keeping the beat going. So the NFL played
10:45
Speaker 1: what turned out to be the final Pro Bowl flag
10:48
Speaker 1: football game in the most appropriate spot, the basement of
10:54
Speaker 1: the convention center in downtown San Francisco. We were there
10:58
Speaker 1: for Radio Row while the event was going on that week,
11:03
Speaker 1: came into San Francisco for the media event. And it
11:08
Speaker 1: was just great because you juxtapose the dog show, which
11:12
Speaker 1: was going on that same week, if I remember correctly,
11:16
Speaker 1: at the Mecca, Madison Square Garden, the world's most famous
11:19
Speaker 1: arena in midtown Manhattan. And then you have the NFL's
11:23
Speaker 1: All-Star Game being played in the basement of a convention center.
11:28
Speaker 1: The ceilings were so low you couldn't have any kicking there.
11:32
Speaker 1: No punting in the game. And the place where they
11:35
Speaker 1: held boat shows and plastic surgeons, like doctors would come
11:40
Speaker 1: in and try to sell people on getting nose jobs
11:42
Speaker 1: and tummy tucks. And that's what they held. That's where
11:45
Speaker 1: the final Pro Bowl was played. And it looked like
11:48
Speaker 1: a nuclear fallout shelter, which is just outstanding. Just outstanding.
11:53
Speaker 1: So the question, with the NFL Pro Bowl officially headed
11:59
Speaker 1: six feet under, Do you have any scrapbook memories? Do
12:03
Speaker 1: you have any scrapbook memories of the Pro Bowl? So
12:07
Speaker 1: I absolutely do. This wasn't, again, a cancellation. It was
12:10
Speaker 1: more of a mercy-killing, euthanasia situation. Appropriately, though, the final game,
12:16
Speaker 1: as we said, played in that convention center in San
12:19
Speaker 1: Francisco and all that. Now, we remember, barely, we remember
12:25
Speaker 1: when the Pro Bowl had some juice. And for better
12:29
Speaker 1: or worse, I was assigned one of my side gigs.
12:32
Speaker 1: I was working here at Fox Sports Radio. I took
12:34
Speaker 1: a side gig. And what a gig it was. I
12:38
Speaker 1: was doing some NFL halftime, some college football halftime stuff
12:41
Speaker 1: at another network, which is long out of business. And
12:43
Speaker 1: I was assigned to go to Honolulu for the week
12:47
Speaker 1: and do broadcast like a one hour show each night.
12:52
Speaker 1: It was on the local radio there in Hawaii. And
12:55
Speaker 1: we broadcast from Aloha Stadium where the Pro Bowl was.
12:59
Speaker 1: This is many, almost 25 years ago now. So it
13:02
Speaker 1: was a long time ago. And this is how relaxed
13:05
Speaker 1: it was at the Pro Bowl at Aloha Stadium. So
13:09
Speaker 1: I was doing interviews. I happened to be in the
13:11
Speaker 1: NFC's locker room at the Pro Bowl in 2002 in
13:14
Speaker 1: the bowels of Aloha Stadium. And there was this very
13:18
Speaker 1: large man named Andy Reid, who was the coach of
13:21
Speaker 1: the Philadelphia Eagles, who had just lost the NFC championship game.
13:24
Speaker 1: Back then, if you lost the championship game, you had
13:26
Speaker 1: to go coach the pro. So flew off to Hawaii
13:29
Speaker 1: to coach the NFC Pro Bowl team. And so I'm
13:33
Speaker 1: in the locker room and Andy Reid decides to call
13:35
Speaker 1: a meeting. And so the players all get to the
13:38
Speaker 1: front of the locker room. I'm standing in the back
13:40
Speaker 1: of the locker room. And I'm like, well, I. I
13:44
Speaker 1: got to leave. Somebody's going to tell me to leave.
13:46
Speaker 1: Nobody told me to leave. I just stood there. Stayed.
13:50
Speaker 1: And I was in an NFC meeting during the Pro Bowl,
13:52
Speaker 1: which was not the most exciting. It sounds exciting. It
13:55
Speaker 1: sounds really exciting. It's not exciting. And I had some
13:58
Speaker 1: great times there. It was fun. It was a great week.
14:00
Speaker 1: Everyone was awesome in Hawaii. The players seemed to generally
14:03
Speaker 1: enjoy Hawaii, not the game. That was so many years ago.
14:06
Speaker 1: There were players like Javon Curse, who was a big
14:08
Speaker 1: star for the Titans. Lawyer Malloy, safety for the Patriots
14:12
Speaker 1: were there and I've told the story. Javon Kurse autographed
14:17
Speaker 1: everything on the table. We had a little card table
14:19
Speaker 1: in the end zone at Aloha Stadium. And the guy
14:21
Speaker 1: I was working for, of course, was trying to get
14:23
Speaker 1: stuff signed for charity. I'm sure he kept all the crap.
14:26
Speaker 1: And Javon Kurse just started signing everything. And it was crazy.
14:30
Speaker 1: But then you have the Kodak moments, the Kodak classics.
14:34
Speaker 1: And I think we all agree, those of us that
14:36
Speaker 1: have been around a number of years, that the greatest
14:39
Speaker 1: moment in modern Pro Bowl history happened today. I think
14:43
Speaker 1: it was like 06 or 07 when the late great
14:46
Speaker 1: Sean Taylor, the Redskins safety, absolutely went kaboom and just
14:54
Speaker 1: unloaded one of the all-time great hits on the punter
14:59
Speaker 1: for the Buffalo Bills, Brian Mormon. It was a fake
15:05
Speaker 1: punt play. Didn't work out so well. And The things
15:09
Speaker 1: I remember about that play were the fact that the
15:13
Speaker 1: punter for the Bills, a guy, Mormon, he congratulated Sean.
15:18
Speaker 1: He jumped right up, and he congratulated Sean Taylor on
15:21
Speaker 1: the hit. Today, you'd hire a lawyer and file a lawsuit,
15:26
Speaker 1: and you'd get lots of thoughts and prayers on social media.
15:30
Speaker 1: Back then, you jumped up. You said, boy, that was
15:32
Speaker 1: a great hit. Way to go. And that was also
15:34
Speaker 1: the era where players actually tried. which is really shocking.
15:39
Speaker 1: I know. Yeah, if you remember that, you can tell
15:42
Speaker 1: your kids or your grandkids, I'm old enough to remember
15:44
Speaker 1: when players actually gave a crap about the Pro Bowl.
15:48
Speaker 1: And they said, well, what's the Pro Bowl? And then
15:49
Speaker 1: there was that famous incident with Peyton Manning publicly roasting
15:54
Speaker 1: Mike Vanderjack as his idiot kicker for saying some outrageous stuff,
16:00
Speaker 1: apparently all liquored up. And the Pro Bowl actually had,
16:04
Speaker 1: at one point, personality. It was a badge of honor
16:09
Speaker 1: and competition. There was hostility. There was a certain razzle
16:13
Speaker 1: dazzle to it. And then the money kept going up,
16:16
Speaker 1: up and away. And it all went away. And now
16:19
Speaker 1: they've finally pulled the plug on the Pro Bowl. So
16:22
Speaker 1: it is gone. And you can't really bring it back.
16:24
Speaker 3: Right.
16:24
Speaker 1: What would be the scenario where you brought it back?
16:27
Speaker 1: The NFL would have to be on life support. You'd
16:31
Speaker 1: need to lower the salaries and desperately try to save
16:34
Speaker 1: the league. I don't see a scenario where the Pro
16:37
Speaker 1: Bowl ever returns in my lifetime. Maybe you're planning on
16:40
Speaker 1: living a longer time than I am. All right. Final
16:42
Speaker 1: point to the pro bouncy ball world to Philadelphia, where
16:47
Speaker 1: Bob Myers, good old Bob Myers, boring Bob, they call
16:51
Speaker 1: them on TV. So Bob Myers left TV because he
16:53
Speaker 1: was so bad at it. He's now back working for
16:56
Speaker 1: a front office and he just happens to be working
16:58
Speaker 1: for the Philadelphia basketball team. They're, And he called Bob
17:02
Speaker 1: Myers the Sixers the, quote, hardest path LeBron James could
17:08
Speaker 1: have chosen this offseason. Yeah, I'm not making this up.
17:13
Speaker 1: Myers argued that LeBron picked Philly for essentially one reason, winning.
17:19
Speaker 1: He said rather than going to a place he was
17:21
Speaker 1: familiar with or friendships or returning to a former team,
17:26
Speaker 1: the longtime NBA executive who rode the coattails of Stephen
17:29
Speaker 1: Curry and Clay Thompson and Bob Myers said the hardest
17:35
Speaker 1: referred partly to the massive expectations LeBron willingly accepted by
17:42
Speaker 1: joining a roster that includes the newly acquired Jalen Brown,
17:46
Speaker 1: who was given as a tax-deductible donation by the Boston
17:49
Speaker 1: Celtics to Philadelphia, Tyrese Maxey, Joel Embiid, Vijay Edgecombe, all
17:54
Speaker 1: those guys. Question. What exactly is Bob Myers smoking for?
18:02
Speaker 1: At the time, he decides to call Philadelphia the hardest
18:05
Speaker 1: path for LeBron James. So we're not sure. We can
18:11
Speaker 1: only speculate that Bob Myers is moonlighting for the Mexico
18:15
Speaker 1: Tourism Board because the man appears in this person's opinion.
18:22
Speaker 1: of enjoying some extra-strength Acapulco gold, if you know what
18:26
Speaker 1: I mean. Can we stop with the LeBron hero worship
18:28
Speaker 1: for a couple of minutes here? It's unbecoming. You're an
18:31
Speaker 1: executive in the basketball world, and Myers is portraying King
18:35
Speaker 1: James like he's basketball's Lewis and Clark, bravely choosing the dangerous,
18:43
Speaker 1: unexplored trail into Philadelphia. Very dangerous. Like LeBron, here's what
18:50
Speaker 1: he did. He changed lanes. He went to the right
18:54
Speaker 1: there and then right on to the Autobahn with Embiid, Brown,
19:00
Speaker 1: and Tyrese Maxey and all these other guys. So if
19:02
Speaker 1: Myers actually, if he thinks this, is he expecting anyone
19:06
Speaker 1: outside of Philadelphia to buy the sales pitch? Apparently so.
19:12
Speaker 1: Apparently so. So Bob has officially, Bob Myers has officially
19:16
Speaker 1: become the president of the LJAS. What is the LJAS?
19:22
Speaker 1: That is the LeBron James Appreciation Society. The Sixers exec
19:27
Speaker 1: is going to, I assume he's going to throw out
19:30
Speaker 1: his back carrying all the water for LeBron as he
19:33
Speaker 1: wanders around here. Now, fortunately... Some of us use common
19:36
Speaker 1: sense and realize what this is. And it's also good
19:38
Speaker 1: to note that we understand Bob Myers wearing protective equipment.
19:43
Speaker 1: Myers has strapped on the body armor and a pair
19:47
Speaker 1: of gold-plated labors. knee pads for that Hawk Tua. So
19:54
Speaker 1: good for him. And the hardest path, police! Now next,
20:00
Speaker 1: I'm telling you, the next... a conversation Bob Myers has
20:03
Speaker 1: with media people. He's going to tell us that LeBron
20:05
Speaker 1: actually crossed the Delaware barefoot in a blizzard to sign
20:10
Speaker 1: the contract, and he did it for the children. He
20:13
Speaker 1: did it for the kids. It is the Ben Maller Show,
20:17
Speaker 1: as we ride the audio waves all night long. And
20:22
Speaker 1: if you'd like to be part, 877-99-ON-FOX. That's 877-996-6369. Well,
20:31
Speaker 1: another day, another story about a guy named Brady. And
20:34
Speaker 1: yet again, Tom Brady getting the royal welcome back to
20:39
Speaker 1: the Golden State. And what a welcome California gave Tom Brady.
20:43
Speaker 1: You're not going to want to miss this story. Brady,
20:45
Speaker 1: a California boy, returning back to the Golden State. And boy,
20:49
Speaker 1: was he given a nice welcome. We'll get to that,
20:54
Speaker 1: and we will take your calls at 877-99 on Fox,
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21:00
Speaker 1: Ben Maller. That's at Ben Maller. We'll get to it all,
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Speaker 1: and we will do it!
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21:40
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21:43
Speaker 6: Rob Parker on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get
21:48
Speaker 6: your podcasts.
21:49
Speaker 1: The Ben Maller Show on Fox Sports Radio. And a
21:53
Speaker 1: reminder to step right up. Ladies and gentlemen, I'd say
21:59
Speaker 1: boys and girls, but it's a bar. The Greatest Gathering.
22:02
Speaker 1: Of all the oddballs and characters in one location coming
22:07
Speaker 1: to Las Vegas this weekend, the next Malheur meet and
22:11
Speaker 1: greet coming up Saturday. A couple days from now, August 29th,
22:16
Speaker 1: 3 to 5, stakeout Bar and Grill right near UNLV.
22:20
Speaker 1: And you'll get to see legends like... Lorena and Coop,
22:25
Speaker 1: they'll be making special appearances. Lorena will be signing autographs
22:29
Speaker 1: and she'll be selling her CDs. Yes, I will. I
22:33
Speaker 1: realize it's 2026 and nobody listens to CDs anymore, but
22:36
Speaker 1: she'll be selling them. Coop will be there as well.
22:38
Speaker 1: Robbie the Mariner fan. who's basically my co-host on the
22:42
Speaker 1: podcast now. What else do we have? Slug, of course,
22:45
Speaker 1: hosting this. Big Lou, he's on number two. Natron coming
22:49
Speaker 1: in from Stockton, California. Mouthwash Mike. And we just learned
22:53
Speaker 1: last hour that Nathan and his lovely wife, Brandy, flying
22:57
Speaker 1: in from Florida. So they'll make an appearance. Excited about that.
23:02
Speaker 7: Last minute decision, by the way.
23:06
Speaker 1: You got to enjoy life.
23:07
Speaker 7: I love the spontaneity of it.
23:10
Speaker 1: Why not? And it's a good excuse to go to Vegas.
23:12
Speaker 1: Everyone needs an excuse to go to Vegas, so why not?
23:15
Speaker 1: It's going to be a lot of fun and got
23:18
Speaker 1: an international crowd that will be there. Our friends from
23:23
Speaker 1: Vancouver coming down as we talked yesterday or a couple
23:28
Speaker 1: days ago, Robin and Ruthie flying in from Vancouver. Met
23:30
Speaker 1: them at that great meet and greet we had with Nico.
23:32
Speaker 2: Yeah.
23:33
Speaker 1: In that beautiful, beautiful city of Vancouver, British Columbia.
23:36
Speaker 7: I had a drink with him the other night.
23:38
Speaker 1: Really? Well, I don't know if we can talk about that.
23:40
Speaker 1: And let me point out, Stanley Park, better than Central Park.
23:46
Speaker 1: What an amazing park they have in Vancouver. Just outstanding, beautiful. So, again,
23:53
Speaker 1: check that out. It is the Ben Maller Show. If
23:55
Speaker 1: you would like to be part of this, you can
23:57
Speaker 1: call up at 877-99-ON-FOX. This hour, we talked about the
24:02
Speaker 1: Pro Bowl at the top, the end of the Pro Bowl,
24:06
Speaker 1: which has been many years in the making. The employees
24:09
Speaker 1: just said, we don't want to do it. And the
24:11
Speaker 1: NFL said, OK, we'll change it. We'll make it like
24:14
Speaker 1: a summer camp thing. And they futched around with that
24:18
Speaker 1: for a couple of years. And it just was so ridiculous.
24:22
Speaker 1: Just the perfect ending, though, for the Pro Bowl to
24:24
Speaker 1: play the final Pro Bowl in the basement of the
24:27
Speaker 1: convention center in San Francisco and to be outclassed by
24:33
Speaker 1: the Westminster Kennel Club dog show. It's so good. The
24:40
Speaker 1: dog show was at Madison Square Garden, the Mecca. And
24:44
Speaker 1: the all-star game for the NFL was played in the
24:47
Speaker 1: basement where they normally have the boat show in San Francisco.
24:52
Speaker 1: Just freaking great. Just freaking great. Well, Tom Brady gets
24:56
Speaker 1: a royal welcome back to the Golden State. And we'll
25:00
Speaker 1: explain what that's about coming up in a little bit.
25:04
Speaker 1: And we'll take your phone calls as well. But a
25:06
Speaker 1: lot of comments coming in on the X machine. The
25:08
Speaker 1: people would like to speak, and so we must give
25:10
Speaker 1: the people the voice here to speak. And let's see here.
25:15
Speaker 1: We're in democracy. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Jill in Minnesota
25:21
Speaker 1: writes in. She's a Yankee fan. She says, okay, go.
25:23
Speaker 1: Never heard that played on your show before. Good job. Well,
25:28
Speaker 1: if it's good, I guess I'll take credit. I don't know.
25:30
Speaker 1: You play the arena. I don't know. Who do we
25:32
Speaker 1: take credit for?
25:33
Speaker 7: Which song?
25:34
Speaker 1: I guess I'll take. She said, OK, go.
25:37
Speaker 7: Oh, I love that song. It's a great music video, too.
25:39
Speaker 2: OK.
25:39
Speaker 7: You should check it out, Ben.
25:43
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm sure it will. A Baltimore Freeloader account writes in, says,
25:46
Speaker 1: do you remember how much you made in your first job?
25:49
Speaker 1: I bet you just hit the ground running. and your
25:52
Speaker 1: first radio job paid you as much as you're earning
25:55
Speaker 1: now on an overnight millionaire. For some of us, the
25:58
Speaker 1: struggle is real, and the food was not always free.
26:02
Speaker 1: It's in the Baltimore Freeloader account. Yeah, so the first
26:06
Speaker 1: job I had, I ran the board at Kogo in
26:09
Speaker 1: San Diego, the first paying job. Well, actually, I had that,
26:12
Speaker 1: and then I ran the board at the Mighty 690
26:15
Speaker 1: in the border blaster station back when that mattered, from
26:20
Speaker 1: Baja to the Canadian Rockies with Lee Hacksaw Hamilton. And
26:26
Speaker 1: then I became a radio stringer, and I got paid
26:30
Speaker 1: like 50 bucks a game. So you had to multitask.
26:33
Speaker 1: You had to work like multiple networks to get any
26:36
Speaker 1: kind of real money. 50 bucks a game?
26:39
Speaker 7: Don't even get you gas nowadays.
26:42
Speaker 1: Well, now, yeah, that's a long time ago, but it's
26:44
Speaker 1: still peanuts. So, yeah, like $ 50 a game. But I'd do, like,
26:50
Speaker 1: there used to be this thing called sports fan radio.
26:52
Speaker 1: So I'd do that. I'd do the AP stringing. So
26:55
Speaker 1: I did my local. AP would pay, like, $ 100. And
26:59
Speaker 1: they'd pay extra if you got them a guest. So
27:01
Speaker 1: you had to go in the locker room and hand.
27:03
Speaker 1: Back then, we didn't really have cell phones. We had
27:04
Speaker 1: to do, like, landline phones. So you'd have to get
27:07
Speaker 1: some ball player to come out into the, like, the
27:10
Speaker 1: bowels of the runway to talk on the phone, which
27:13
Speaker 1: was a pain in the ass. They didn't want to
27:14
Speaker 1: do that. But it paid extra, so you try to
27:16
Speaker 1: do it. Incatera writes and says, hey, Benny, if the
27:20
Speaker 1: MLB gets rid of the All-Star game, how will I
27:22
Speaker 1: know when the Malheur Palouse is? I scheduled my whole
27:26
Speaker 1: summer around it. That's a great point. Well, they'll still
27:30
Speaker 1: take a week off. Just because if they get rid
27:32
Speaker 1: of the All-Star game in baseball, Incatera, you know the
27:34
Speaker 1: players are still going to demand. We need a week off.
27:36
Speaker 1: We need a week off. Monkey Biz Doug writes and says,
27:39
Speaker 1: I was at the 06-07 Pro Bowls while stationed in Hawaii.
27:44
Speaker 1: And I still have about 20 shirts I bought for
27:48
Speaker 1: $ 20 for the entire bunch. And I held on to
27:51
Speaker 1: them all these years. And now they feel less like
27:54
Speaker 1: shirts and more like treasured family heirlooms filled with memories. No, listen,
28:01
Speaker 1: I'm right there. I have a few things I picked
28:03
Speaker 1: up when I was at the Pro Bowl. And I
28:06
Speaker 1: hold on to them. And it's like, wow, that's something
28:09
Speaker 1: that it's like a ghost. I went to this ghost
28:12
Speaker 1: mall once. It's actually ironic. The Puente Hills Mall? No,
28:16
Speaker 1: not that. But I drive to Vegas. I don't fly
28:18
Speaker 1: to Vegas from L.A. It's like a suburb. Vegas is
28:21
Speaker 1: like a suburb of L.A., so I drive through the desert.
28:24
Speaker 1: And you get right to the California-Nevada state line, and
28:27
Speaker 1: there's this prim Nevada where they had Whiskey Pete's, Buffalo Bills,
28:32
Speaker 1: a couple big hotels there, and there's this giant shopping center.
28:36
Speaker 1: And it used to be bustling. It was all these
28:39
Speaker 1: outlet stores, and it was great. I always stopped there.
28:42
Speaker 1: And I got some, I got clothes. They had good
28:44
Speaker 1: stores and things, good shirts and things and pants. And
28:49
Speaker 1: ever since the pandemic, it's a ghost mall. It's wild.
28:52
Speaker 1: It's like, what the heck happened? Michael in Tulsa writes
28:56
Speaker 1: and says, Ben, I am fairly certain the NFL nixed
28:59
Speaker 1: the Pro Bowl because there were not enough Hawaiian shirts
29:02
Speaker 1: for Shadur Sanders, his daddy, and the schmucks who actually
29:05
Speaker 1: watched that crap. Okay. There you go. Just Josh in
29:10
Speaker 1: Cincinnati says, the last time I can remember the Pro
29:12
Speaker 1: Bowl being relevant, QB competitions on the beach were Saturday
29:17
Speaker 1: morning filler and Tecmo Bowl was the biggest football game
29:22
Speaker 1: on the NES. Yeah, it has been a while. You
29:26
Speaker 1: remember there was a Patriot running back that ruined his
29:28
Speaker 1: career playing beach volleyball? Yeah, I remember that. Yeah. Matt
29:34
Speaker 1: Jack writes in. He says, hey, Maller, I plan on
29:36
Speaker 1: showing up in Vegas. How about that? Saturday, along with
29:39
Speaker 1: the daughter. and niece respectively the famous zendejas kickers how
29:43
Speaker 1: about that that'll be great the kicking zendejas legends in
29:47
Speaker 1: the nfl when i was a kid the late marty
29:50
Speaker 1: zendejas and tony zendejas both pro bowlers hawaii was his
29:56
Speaker 1: children I don't know how old anyone is.
29:59
Speaker 7: Well, I'm just curious if the bar has age limits
30:01
Speaker 7: during the day.
30:03
Speaker 2: Oh.
30:05
Speaker 1: Well, we're going to be upstairs. I'm not sure. I
30:08
Speaker 1: don't know how that all works.
30:09
Speaker 7: I'm not sure either. Leave the air conditioning on in
30:11
Speaker 7: the car for them.
30:12
Speaker 1: Do they have an elevator for some of the guys
30:14
Speaker 1: who might need an elevator?
30:15
Speaker 7: No, we're going to have to carry them up the stairs.
30:17
Speaker 1: There's no elevator, really?
30:18
Speaker 7: No, there's no elevator.
30:20
Speaker 1: Are you sure? I thought there was an elevator in
30:21
Speaker 1: the back. Where would they have put it, Ben? That's
30:23
Speaker 1: a good point. I feel like you kind of have
30:25
Speaker 1: to have an... All right, well, if we have to
30:27
Speaker 1: carry people upstairs, we're going to carry them upstairs. Then
30:29
Speaker 1: we'll do it. Yeah, we'll get a whole... You guys
30:31
Speaker 1: will do it. We'll get like a bucket brigade of
30:33
Speaker 1: people because I want my people to be with me upstairs.
30:36
Speaker 1: And that means, I guess, we have to carry them
30:38
Speaker 1: downstairs or we'd be a bunch of douchebags if we
30:40
Speaker 1: just carry them up and don't carry them down. So seriously,
30:43
Speaker 1: if anybody needs us to carry upstairs, I don't know who,
30:46
Speaker 1: like Lance the bus driver or somebody, we'll carry them up.
30:48
Speaker 1: I thought there was an elevator in the back. There's
30:50
Speaker 1: no elevator? Are you sure? I'm positive. 100% no elevator?
30:55
Speaker 7: I had heels on. I definitely would have taken the
30:57
Speaker 7: elevator if I could have.
30:59
Speaker 5: Hmm.
31:00
Speaker 7: Downstairs, when you walk in, you got the bar, you
31:02
Speaker 7: got the poker area, and you got the bathrooms in
31:05
Speaker 7: the back.
31:06
Speaker 4: Yeah.
31:07
Speaker 1: You go up the stairs.
31:08
Speaker 7: You got the waiting area, like the seating area, and
31:11
Speaker 7: then the bar in the corner, and the, yeah, no,
31:14
Speaker 7: there's no elevator.
31:14
Speaker 1: All right, well, fine. You know what? We got big, strong,
31:18
Speaker 1: burly people that love this show. I'll deputize Robbie the
31:21
Speaker 1: Mariner fan, and I'm going to get Jay Scoop, and
31:25
Speaker 1: we're going to carry people upstairs. Yeah. Or we'll just
31:28
Speaker 1: go downstairs. You know, we'll figure it out. Now I'm
31:32
Speaker 1: suddenly worried that some people won't be able to get upstairs,
31:34
Speaker 1: and I would feel terrible. I would feel absolutely horrible
31:37
Speaker 1: if that's the case. I want everyone to be able
31:39
Speaker 1: to go to where we're at. Well, now I'm going
31:42
Speaker 1: to worry about that. Well, that's no good. I don't
31:46
Speaker 1: need that. We'll figure it out. All right. Yeah, we'll
31:49
Speaker 1: get to the bottom. Let's take some calls. It is
31:50
Speaker 1: a call-in show. Well, boy, look at the time. I
31:53
Speaker 1: got time for one call. Eeny, meeny, miny, moe. Let's
31:57
Speaker 1: go to... Who do we– I don't know. Let's see here.
32:02
Speaker 1: Let's see. Let's go to– oh, Big Balls Bob. Big
32:06
Speaker 1: Balls Bob. Big Balls Bob. Hello, Bob. Hello.
32:11
Speaker 4: How are you guys?
32:14
Speaker 1: Listen, are you trying– are you going to show up?
32:16
Speaker 1: Are you announcing you're going to show up, Bob? I'm
32:19
Speaker 1: going to be there.
32:20
Speaker 4: I'm going to be there. There you go. The one-hit wonder.
32:27
Speaker 1: No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Encore, encore, encore.
32:31
Speaker 4: Encore. Hey, I was going to go to Boston, but
32:36
Speaker 4: my gallbladder said no. So I wasn't able to make
32:40
Speaker 4: it that way. Welcome.
32:41
Speaker 1: Welcome to the club. I had my gallbladder taken out
32:44
Speaker 1: in 2019. I'm alive and well. So that's great.
32:48
Speaker 4: I made it through. So I'm looking forward to seeing
32:51
Speaker 4: you guys. I listen to you guys a lot. I
32:53
Speaker 4: just don't call on that often. uh i retired and
32:57
Speaker 4: i went back a little bit to work so a
32:59
Speaker 4: little extra cash yeah.
33:02
Speaker 1: No good no it's uh we'll look forward to it
33:05
Speaker 1: you were the star breakout star last year you absolutely
33:08
Speaker 1: killed it bob and Everyone's looking forward to seeing you.
33:11
Speaker 1: Just do the same song. You don't have to do
33:12
Speaker 1: a new song. That's your song. You killed it. Just
33:14
Speaker 1: do the same song.
33:15
Speaker 4: That's it. That's my calling card.
33:19
Speaker 1: Exactly.
33:20
Speaker 2: Right.
33:21
Speaker 1: Don't be that. You know how you see some of
33:23
Speaker 1: these old musicians and they get upset because everyone wants
33:26
Speaker 1: to hear the old songs and they want to do
33:28
Speaker 1: the new songs? No, just give the people what they want, Bob.
33:31
Speaker 1: That's what you're known for.
33:33
Speaker 3: All right.
33:33
Speaker 4: Well, I'll be practicing between.
33:36
Speaker 1: Now and then. All right. We'll see you on Saturday.
33:40
Speaker 2: All right.
33:40
Speaker 4: Thanks. Have a good night.
33:42
Speaker 1: The great big balls, Bob, there. Well, Tom Brady got
33:45
Speaker 1: a royal welcome to California, opened a new card shop
33:49
Speaker 1: in Palo Alto. And just one week after it opened,
33:52
Speaker 1: it was ransacked by burglars. Yes. Thieves said, welcome back
33:58
Speaker 1: to California, Tom, with your business. They smashed the windows
34:00
Speaker 1: to get inside. The break-in occurred overnight on the weekends.
34:05
Speaker 1: at the town and country village location. They had just
34:09
Speaker 1: celebrated the grand opening on August 15th. The hoodlums went
34:13
Speaker 1: in there, smashed a bunch of display cases, stole dozens
34:16
Speaker 1: of trading cards, valued at more than $ 12, 000. Oh, my gosh. Yeah.
34:22
Speaker 1: So the burglary is not the first. In New York...
34:28
Speaker 1: They did the same thing. Burglars in 2025, they stole
34:31
Speaker 1: nearly $ 10, 000 worth of baseball and Pokemon cards. And Brady
34:37
Speaker 1: owns 50% of this company, this card company. And you
34:42
Speaker 1: wonder if these things are related. I don't know. But
34:44
Speaker 1: there you go. People smashing and grabbing Pokemon cards and
34:49
Speaker 1: baseball cards. Welcome back to California, Tom. It is the
34:52
Speaker 1: Ben Maller Show. We have Maller to the third degree.
34:55
Speaker 1: That is right around the corner. Time now for the
34:57
Speaker 1: Insta trivia. Blank is the only NFL player with 60
35:02
Speaker 1: or more tackles. Seven or more sacks in each of
35:06
Speaker 1: the last three seasons. Again, there's only one player, blank,
35:10
Speaker 1: the only player in the NFL with 60-plus tackles, seven-plus
35:15
Speaker 1: sacks in each of the last three seasons. That is
35:20
Speaker 1: the instant trivia, the answer. We'll get to it, and
35:24
Speaker 1: we will do it. Next.
35:27
Speaker 5: Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
35:30
Speaker 5: the nation. Catch all of our shows at FoxSportsRadio.com. And
35:34
Speaker 5: within the iHeartRadio app, search FSR to listen live.
35:38
Speaker 1: The Ben Maller Show on Fox Sports Radio. Not only
35:43
Speaker 1: a radio show. No, no, no, no, no. We're on
35:46
Speaker 1: YouTube as well. Subscribe to the Ben Maller Show YouTube page.
35:51
Speaker 1: The marketing people came up with Ben Maller Show as
35:54
Speaker 1: the name for that page, and what a great marketing
35:56
Speaker 1: move that was. I really thought they really nailed that.
35:59
Speaker 1: So check that out, and you can enjoy the fun
36:03
Speaker 1: of the Ben Maller Show YouTube page. Subscribe. You'll get
36:07
Speaker 1: updates when you're not being productive at work. So check
36:11
Speaker 1: it out on YouTube, Ben Maller Show. Help us out.
36:16
Speaker 1: All right, time now for the payoff on the Insta Trivia.
36:21
Speaker 1: And here it is. Blank is the only player with
36:24
Speaker 1: 60-plus tackles and 7-plus sacks in each of the last
36:28
Speaker 1: three seasons. That is the Insta Trivia. What is the answer?
36:34
Speaker 1: And let's see. Micah Parsons, guest by Femi. Justin Elvis
36:38
Speaker 1: Cooper from ALF, the alien opiner. Kevin Green from Mediocre Kabuki. Whitecastle.
36:45
Speaker 1: From Just Josh, you said Saks. What else do we have?
36:48
Speaker 1: Let's see. Page down. Trucker Joe says, got to be
36:52
Speaker 1: Caleb Williams. Andrew Van Ginkle from Eke in Roseville, Minnesota. Dr.
36:57
Speaker 1: Frankfurter from Stevie Meatballs. The late, great Billy Ray Smith,
37:01
Speaker 1: San Diego radio legend from DJ Spin. Patrick, Mr. T
37:05
Speaker 1: from JT the Wingman. Lane Kiffin from Michael in Tulsa.
37:09
Speaker 1: Do you have an answer, Lorena? It's not the Pat's
37:12
Speaker 1: Pulpit guest by Alf the Alien O'Piner.
37:14
Speaker 7: I was going to go with Serena Williams.
37:18
Speaker 1: No, that isn't correct. It's Byron Young of the L.A.
37:21
Speaker 3: Rams.
37:22
Speaker 1: Byron Young of the Rams. Here we go.
37:25
Speaker 2: It's Mellor.
37:27
Speaker 1: How about that? To the third degree.
37:30
Speaker 5: This is when Big Ben gets grilled. Cool.
37:34
Speaker 2: Cool. John Gruden made an appearance on Tampa Radio this
37:37
Speaker 2: week where he predicted that Baker Mayfield and the Bucs
37:39
Speaker 2: would get a deal done and that the two sides
37:41
Speaker 2: are closer than you'd think.
37:42
Speaker 1: Ben, do you think Baker gets his contract? It's 50-50.
37:47
Speaker 1: I will tell you, Gruden knows all these people. He
37:52
Speaker 1: did a Bucs game on TV. I'm just concerned because
37:55
Speaker 1: he's always Mr. Sunshine. He's Mr. Zippity-doo-dah, Zippity-day guy. And
38:00
Speaker 1: so he always is Mr. Positive with his stuff. So
38:03
Speaker 1: I'm skeptical. that they'll get a deal done. Baker should
38:06
Speaker 1: sign a contract and protect himself, but I say it's
38:10
Speaker 1: actually not even 50-50. It's like 40-60. Next!
38:14
Speaker 2: The closest division race in baseball belongs to the AL West.
38:17
Speaker 2: The Astros and the Rangers are essentially tied at the
38:19
Speaker 2: top of the division. Mariners two and a half games back. Ben,
38:22
Speaker 2: who do you think comes out on top?
38:24
Speaker 1: Well, you were asking, who do you think I want
38:26
Speaker 1: to see? I'm going to take the Seattle Mariners. Come on.
38:29
Speaker 1: I don't want the Astros or the Rangers. I want
38:30
Speaker 1: the Mariners to sneak back up. Between those two, I'm
38:34
Speaker 1: going to take the Rangers. But listen, the Mariners are
38:37
Speaker 1: only two and a half back. Cal Raleigh is starting
38:38
Speaker 1: to hit again. So here we go, Mariners. Here we go.
38:43
Speaker 1: I got my trident right. I'm holding my trident.
38:45
Speaker 5: Next.
38:46
Speaker 2: In a recent podcast appearance, former Denver Nugget Michael Porter Jr.
38:49
Speaker 2: said that he thinks getting rid of Contavious Caldwell Pope
38:52
Speaker 2: in 2024 was the beginning of their downfall. Ben, do
38:55
Speaker 2: you think KCP was the glue guy that held everything
38:57
Speaker 2: together in Denver?
38:58
Speaker 1: Yes, yes, yes. It's like taking a pillar out of
39:02
Speaker 1: a White House. Come on. What are we doing here?
39:05
Speaker 1: Contavious Caldwell Pope. Have you lost your... What was he smoking,
39:10
Speaker 1: Michael Porter, when he said that? You've got to be joking.
39:13
Speaker 1: How did we do? He passed this edition. That is
39:16
Speaker 1: a win. Put it on the bar.
39:19
Speaker 5: Winner, winner, winner.
39:20
Speaker 1: Winner, winner, winner.