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Sean O'Connell Show - Full POD 4-22-26 · The Sean O'Connell Show

0:08
Speaker 1: He's the Shan O'Connell Show, brought to you by Big
0:11
Speaker 1: Willies on Utah's number one sports talk and home of
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Speaker 1: the ESPN seven hundred and ninety two one half m
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Speaker 1: a proud part of Utah's ESPN Radio Network.
0:37
Speaker 2: Happy home, and welcome to the Shan O'Connell Show. Happy
0:43
Speaker 2: to be with you on the show that has brought
0:45
Speaker 2: to you today and every day by our friends over
0:47
Speaker 2: at Big Willies. Seventeen seventeen, South Maine. If you weren't
0:51
Speaker 2: in Vegas last night for Utah Mammoth first ever franchise
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Speaker 2: playoff victory, how about that for Milestone? If you weren't
1:02
Speaker 2: they're in Vegas. Hopefully you were at Big Willies participating
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Speaker 2: in the food specials, the drink specials, and perhaps most importantly,
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Speaker 2: the autographed gear giveaways that are going on throughout the playoffs.
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Speaker 3: From the Big Willies crew, Patrick.
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Speaker 2: And Michelle know exactly what this playoff is about, how
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Speaker 2: meaningful it is to our state, and they're rolling out
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Speaker 2: the red carpet for everybody during these playoffs. Seventeen seventeen,
1:31
Speaker 2: South main Tell them OC sent you at Big Willies.
1:35
Speaker 2: What a night for hockey fans in the state of Utah.
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Speaker 3: Look, being in.
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Speaker 2: The playoffs wonderful, cool to see. We already crossed that threshold.
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Speaker 2: That milestone was achieved in game one in the Las
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Speaker 2: Vegas T Mobile Arena, the not so friendly confines of
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Speaker 2: the Fortress down there, and then that third period in
2:02
Speaker 2: the first game didn't look great, got pulled around a
2:06
Speaker 2: little bit. And the question I was asking the question
2:09
Speaker 2: you were probably asking the question we were trying to
2:11
Speaker 2: get to the bottom of with Tom Callahan and others,
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Speaker 2: was what's the response going.
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Speaker 3: To look like?
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Speaker 2: How are you going to make good on this opportunity
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Speaker 2: in the Stanley Cup playoffs? And it's a seven game
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Speaker 2: series and there's plenty of hockey left to play, and
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Speaker 2: is always the case in seven game series, you can't
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Speaker 2: judge the entire product by a twenty minute period or
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Speaker 2: a fifteen minute quarter or whatever. And the response, Look,
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Speaker 2: Bear Tourney has been kind of up and down this
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Speaker 2: year in terms of his popularity with the fan base.
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Speaker 2: I think right now you should be feeling really good
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Speaker 2: about what your coach is doing, what the leadership on
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Speaker 2: this team is doing, because that response in game two
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Speaker 2: was absolutely phenomenal. Obviously, yes, because it's a win three
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Speaker 2: two victory for your Utah Mammoth for the first ever
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Speaker 2: franchise victory in the Stanley Cup playoffs. But more than
3:12
Speaker 2: just the fact that you figured out a way to win,
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Speaker 2: was that you reversed some of the conversation that was
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Speaker 2: already starting to take root about the physicality, about the
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Speaker 2: size difference, about the Hey, are you really built for
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Speaker 2: playoff hockey? Are you two speed based? Is it two
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Speaker 2: finesse based? With the Utah Mammoth. They got Tuna back
3:34
Speaker 2: in the lineup right. I think that's more of a
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Speaker 2: health thing for McBain than anything else. Brandon Tanev obviously
3:44
Speaker 2: probably probably hurt our discussion or.
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Speaker 3: Somebody sent him a clip.
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Speaker 2: You can find them, by the way on the ESPN
3:51
Speaker 2: seven hundred app or at ESPN seven hundred sports dot com.
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Speaker 2: That you know, you're supposed to be one of those guys,
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Speaker 2: a cantankerous little honey badger skating around on the ice. Let's,
4:00
Speaker 2: you know, get under some people's skin, Let's lay some
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Speaker 2: hits down, Let's do this thing. You saw him haranguing
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Speaker 2: and harassing and causing more problems in game two than
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Speaker 2: he certainly did in Game one, and while there were
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Speaker 2: a couple of lapses, especially on the barbershev three on
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Speaker 2: one goal.
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Speaker 3: Yikes.
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Speaker 2: You also had a penalty kill, which has been problematic
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Speaker 2: as of late. I think coming into the game they
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Speaker 2: were thirteen to the last twenty one penalties killed, and
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Speaker 2: that penalty end of the first period. Most of the
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Speaker 2: of the penalty kill was actually conducted in the early
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Speaker 2: second period.
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Speaker 3: When you open the second period.
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Speaker 2: Vegas didn't get a shot off during their own power play.
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Speaker 3: Let me repeat that.
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Speaker 2: Las Vegas not able to generate any offense during a
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Speaker 2: power play because of what did we talk about the
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Speaker 2: effort of this Utah Mammoth team on that penalty kill,
5:02
Speaker 2: and yet helps that Kerfoot wasn't the guy who sustained
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Speaker 2: the penalty. But in any case, the Utah Mammoth with
5:10
Speaker 2: a successful steal of Game two down there in Vegas,
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Speaker 2: and it changes the calculus in the series. It changes
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Speaker 2: the ticket prices on the two playoff games that are
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Speaker 2: here in town. It changes your outlook potentially on how
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Speaker 2: far you can make it in these Western Conference playoffs.
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Speaker 2: Most importantly, you get the monkey off the franchise back
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Speaker 2: of knowing that, all right, not only can we make
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Speaker 2: it to the playoffs. We can win games in the playoffs.
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Speaker 2: Now let's turn our focus to winning a series in
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Speaker 2: these playoffs. And of course that the team already has
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Speaker 2: that belief and they came into the came into the
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Speaker 2: the month of April, really February and March. With all
5:54
Speaker 2: this in mind, we're gonna check in with Adrian Denny
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Speaker 2: between the pipes. And even though I would like to
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Speaker 2: spend the entire show talking about the ins and outs
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Speaker 2: of this mammoth tusks up baby victory, there's a lot
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Speaker 2: of other things going on right now and here in
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Speaker 2: the state of Utah. What has been for most people
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Speaker 2: a secondary or tertiary or fourth place type sport is
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Speaker 2: taking center stage tonight down in Sandy. Leo Messi's in town.
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Speaker 2: As far as sports legends go, there are very few
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Speaker 2: people that belong higher on the Mount rushmore of like
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Speaker 2: international sports legends than Leo Messi.
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Speaker 3: He is an icon of all icons. Now.
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Speaker 2: MLS soccer is still a growth sport in the state
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Speaker 2: of Utah, in the United States of America. I think
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Speaker 2: the franchise is they're off to a great start right now.
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Speaker 2: RSL is They're headed in the right direction hopefully with
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Speaker 2: this young core of talent. That's its own conversation that
7:08
Speaker 2: we will have with Jason Chrice, the president of RSL
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Speaker 2: Soccer and Utah Royal Soccer and Jnolly.
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Speaker 3: So we're going to double up in the noon hour
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Speaker 3: on some.
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Speaker 2: Soccer talk Jason christ and j Nwlly, both back to
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Speaker 2: back twelve and twelve thirty. Then we'll go between the
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Speaker 2: pipes with Adrian Denny at one o'clock. Ryan Fowler is
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Speaker 2: going to swing by in about twenty minutes to talk
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Speaker 2: NFL Draft because of course that is tomorrow, and now
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Speaker 2: you're getting more conversation at the top of this draft
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Speaker 2: about you know, they're actually teams like maybe the Kansas
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Speaker 2: City Chiefs sitting at number nine, who are a little
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Speaker 2: bit more offensive line that maybe tackle needy than the
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Speaker 2: people have been talking about. Everyone's been getting really excited
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Speaker 2: about these edge rushers. They've been getting excited about the
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Speaker 2: wider class at the top. It's this sort of foregone
8:02
Speaker 2: conclusion that Frenanda Mendoza is going to be off the
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Speaker 2: board number one, and then quarterbacks are going to not
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Speaker 2: hear their names called for perhaps the rest of the
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Speaker 2: first round, or at least laid into the first round,
8:13
Speaker 2: and that brings in the conversation, you know, where is
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Speaker 2: Spencer Fano. We started this draft process with him winning
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Speaker 2: the Outland Trophy, being a unanimous All American and the
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Speaker 2: voters saying, this is the best offensive lineman in the country.
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Speaker 2: Didn't give up a sack this year. Neither did Caleb
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Speaker 2: blow Move, by the way, graded out incredibly high, no
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Speaker 2: matter which scouting service or which Pro Football focus or
8:43
Speaker 2: which metric you like the best, graded out exceptionally well.
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Speaker 2: Had a wonderfully athletic combine, And the conversation began with
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Speaker 2: him being tackle number one or tackle number two. Now
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Speaker 2: it's tackle number one or tackle number two, or tackle
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Speaker 2: number three, or maybe even tackle number four, depending on
9:06
Speaker 2: how much you like the competition, how much you like Mawingoa,
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Speaker 2: and how much you like the kid from LSU, and
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Speaker 2: how much you like some of these other guys, Cayden Proctor,
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Speaker 2: And of course is he even a tackle at the
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Speaker 2: NFL level? Is he going to be a swing tackle?
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Speaker 2: Is he going to be a career right tackle? Is
9:27
Speaker 2: he someone you can have play at left tackle? Is
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Speaker 2: he going to be a guard? At the combine? They
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Speaker 2: had him taking Center reps. I don't think anyone in
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Speaker 2: Utah doubts that Spencer Fana is going to have a
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Speaker 2: long and fruitful career in the NFL, regardless of position,
9:44
Speaker 2: but where he is viewed by individual franchises now, not
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Speaker 2: by the NFL scouting community as a whole, because that
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Speaker 2: basically goes away tomorrow all that conversation. And by the way,
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Speaker 2: it's continuing today. You're seeing it with Adam Schefter and
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Speaker 2: mel Kiper and field Yates and every draft knick that's
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Speaker 2: out there, and we're gonna have Ryan Fowler on here
10:10
Speaker 2: in just a little bit. And everyone's got their opinions
10:13
Speaker 2: and they formed their kind of big boards, and those
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Speaker 2: things all go out the window tomorrow because what happens
10:20
Speaker 2: is one team likes you, or two teams like you,
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Speaker 2: and it becomes a conversation about where your value is
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Speaker 2: for that team. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder,
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Speaker 2: and all you need is for someone in that first
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Speaker 2: round to behold your beauty as such a thing they
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Speaker 2: cannot live without. I've got high hopes right now that
10:42
Speaker 2: my San Francisco forty nine ers have fallen in love
10:44
Speaker 2: with Caleb Blomo in his future I would like to
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Speaker 2: see that became a big fan of him in a
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Speaker 2: Utah uniform over the last couple of years. It'd be
10:53
Speaker 2: lovely to continue that in San Francisco. So I'm not
10:58
Speaker 2: gonna lie. It's weird when one of your favorite players
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Speaker 2: on your favorite pro team is a hardcore koop. Fred
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Speaker 2: Warner is that he waives that BYU flag as much
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Speaker 2: as anyone else does. As the best linebacker in the
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Speaker 2: league on my favorite team, playing my favorite position, it's weird.
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Speaker 3: It's a little bit weird.
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Speaker 2: I'd like to place some of that fan enthusiasm and
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Speaker 2: affection on at least a former Ute when it was
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Speaker 2: Mitch Wishnowski as the best former Ute on the forty
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Speaker 2: nine ers roster. Again, we love the punters from down Unders,
11:39
Speaker 2: but still not the same. So we got a load
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Speaker 2: it up show for you today, Draft talk, messy talk,
11:46
Speaker 2: hockey talk, football talk, of course, because football is year
11:50
Speaker 2: round here on ESPN seven hundred, there is no offseason,
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Speaker 2: and we are officially your home of football here in
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Speaker 2: the state of Utah.
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Speaker 4: I think it's been made clear that we're the ones
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Speaker 4: you want to listen to that way, But uh yeah,
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Speaker 4: let's get messy today?
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Speaker 3: How long you been waiting to say that?
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Speaker 5: Just?
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Speaker 3: How excited were you to say that? Just so excited?
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Speaker 1: Uh?
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Speaker 3: Do you know what the.
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Speaker 2: Get in price for inter Miami at Reale salt Lake is?
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Speaker 3: Actually first?
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Speaker 2: The next home game is Sunday, Real salt Lake.
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Speaker 3: Oh sorry, excuse me.
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Speaker 2: The next home game is May second, So next Saturday,
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Speaker 2: Portland Timbers at Reale salt Lake. What do you think
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Speaker 2: the get in price is for a May second, Saturday
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Speaker 2: afternoon springtime. I'm sure the weather will be lovely game
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Speaker 2: against the Portland Timbers down there, Western Conference rival.
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Speaker 4: Yeah, Portland Timbers usually have a pretty good team up there.
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Speaker 4: I'm gonna say teen dollars thirty one?
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Speaker 2: Okay, you're selling it, you're selling it short. I'm sorry,
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Speaker 2: thirty one dollars get in price? How about double that?
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Speaker 3: You jerk? Yeah, I'm sorry.
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Speaker 2: Okay, Now tonight seven thirty pm and nobody can control
13:15
Speaker 2: the weather, but it appears like it might be a
13:17
Speaker 2: bit cool and blustery, potentially into Miami and Leo Messi
13:25
Speaker 2: at America first field in Sandy God's Country, Real salt
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Speaker 2: Lake to get in price. According to seat geek dot com,
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Speaker 2: what do you think that is James today right now?
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Speaker 4: Two hundred dollars, you are way off seven hundred dollars.
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Speaker 3: It's five hundred and three dollars. Okay, five hundred and
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Speaker 3: two dollars.
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Speaker 2: Okay, nope, prices right rules would make that your best bid,
13:52
Speaker 2: but you can't do the elimination thing.
13:56
Speaker 3: I got to pull a question up for you.
13:57
Speaker 2: I've got a couple of ticket and in just related
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Speaker 2: poll questions up right now. You can always text me
14:04
Speaker 2: instead at eight seven seven three five three zero seven hundred.
14:07
Speaker 2: I love when you vote on the polls at REALOC Sports.
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Speaker 2: Would you have to spend big money on a sports
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Speaker 2: ticket like we're seeing people do potentially tonight to see
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Speaker 2: a legendary athlete, or would you rather spend that money
14:21
Speaker 2: on a concert ticket to go see a legendary musical act?
14:24
Speaker 2: All right, I'm asking you effectively, would you rather see
14:29
Speaker 2: Taylor Swift or Leo Messi? Are you gonna spend your
14:35
Speaker 2: hard earned cash to go to the next era's Era's
14:39
Speaker 2: tour or are you gonna spend that harder in cash
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Speaker 2: to see Leo Messi?
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Speaker 3: Who, Let's be honest, he's gonna be either.
14:48
Speaker 2: Like this World Cup is probably kind of the end
14:51
Speaker 2: of his major international competitions, right, and then however long
14:56
Speaker 2: he stays in MLS soccer after that. Yeah, I mean
14:59
Speaker 2: he's kind of he's in the Lebron realm of things
15:03
Speaker 2: where it's like where for the past what five years,
15:07
Speaker 2: we've been saying this could be the last year for Lebron.
15:10
Speaker 2: That's where we are with we know Messi is that
15:13
Speaker 2: any year could be the last year. So any especially
15:17
Speaker 2: in World Cup, we thought we thought last World Cup,
15:21
Speaker 2: the cutter one in twenty twenty.
15:22
Speaker 3: Two was his last World Cup.
15:24
Speaker 4: He finally wins it for Argentina, but it turns out
15:28
Speaker 4: he might play this year. I don't know if there's
15:31
Speaker 4: been an update on that, but yeah, certainly an international
15:35
Speaker 4: competition he's probably done, if not this being his last one.
15:41
Speaker 2: So your opportunities to see Leo Messi play live are
15:46
Speaker 2: becoming a lot more rare now. Lebron James became a
15:53
Speaker 2: rare commodity, specifically here in Utah. But there's a lot
15:56
Speaker 2: of people when Lebron makes his intentions clear to be
16:00
Speaker 2: part of that farewell tour, everyone's gonna be like, I
16:04
Speaker 2: got to get there and see him one last time.
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Speaker 4: Gota do what we did here when Kobe had his
16:10
Speaker 4: farewell tour and pretend we liked him, give him the
16:12
Speaker 4: standing go.
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Speaker 2: It's actually one of the most is nauseating back. It's
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Speaker 2: one of the most obnoxis. And by the way, it's
16:19
Speaker 2: gonna be a little obnoxious if you're an RSL hardcore tonight,
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Speaker 2: like a real hardcore.
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Speaker 4: Fan supporters, uh, the supporter in a supporters group on
16:29
Speaker 4: that end of the field behind, If you're the goal
16:31
Speaker 4: the riot, yeah, you're gonna be like if you're pounding
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Speaker 4: drums every game and you're you got the streamers and
16:37
Speaker 4: the banners and all that kind of thing, You're probably
16:39
Speaker 4: gonna be like, why are we filling this place extra
16:42
Speaker 4: bleachers five hundred dollars tickets for somebody who's even not
16:46
Speaker 4: one of our own.
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Speaker 3: I get it for the enemy, for the enemy, I am.
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Speaker 3: I am with you to some degree on that sentiment.
16:55
Speaker 2: But we all have to acknowledge that there is something
16:59
Speaker 2: like if you would go back, if you could get
17:01
Speaker 2: in your time machine and you could go back and say, man,
17:05
Speaker 2: I really would like to see Wayne Gretzky play some
17:07
Speaker 2: live hockey, you would you would do it knowing now
17:11
Speaker 2: that there's not been someone since him that has been him.
17:17
Speaker 3: Hindsight's always twenty twenty.
17:19
Speaker 2: I think even as hated and as obnoxious as Michael
17:23
Speaker 2: Jordan was, the thorn in the side that Michael Jordan
17:26
Speaker 2: proved to be for your greatest ever Utah Jazz teams,
17:29
Speaker 2: I think a lot of people would go back to
17:32
Speaker 2: at least Bulls Michael Jordan, maybe not Wizards Michael Jordan,
17:35
Speaker 2: but would love the opportunity to go back and be like,
17:37
Speaker 2: let's watch let's watch mj play. And then you get
17:40
Speaker 2: back in your time machine and you fast forward and
17:42
Speaker 2: you say, Okay, last night I went and saw Jordan
17:44
Speaker 2: play in his prime, and now I'm gonna see Lebron play,
17:47
Speaker 2: and I'm gonna make a real cojin argument about who
17:50
Speaker 2: my greatest of all time is based on more of
17:53
Speaker 2: a side to side comparison.
17:55
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, why haven't we just done that? That
17:58
Speaker 4: would end the goat debate that we keep going on here.
18:02
Speaker 4: To be fair, if you're a jazz fan in the
18:04
Speaker 4: games here in Salt Lake City, the Jazz probably beat
18:07
Speaker 4: Wizards Jordan.
18:09
Speaker 3: Well, I hope so so.
18:11
Speaker 5: So.
18:11
Speaker 4: I mean, if you're jazz fan, want to see Jordan
18:16
Speaker 4: play in his prime in Salt Lake City, you probably
18:19
Speaker 4: would prefer the Wizards one.
18:22
Speaker 2: And look, some people are not go to live sporting
18:25
Speaker 2: event people. Some people are are like I would rather
18:28
Speaker 2: just watch it at home, and that's totally fine. You're
18:31
Speaker 2: gonna get elite television production in most broadcasts these days.
18:36
Speaker 2: You're gonna get a unique perspective during halftime, especially or
18:41
Speaker 2: between periods.
18:42
Speaker 3: If we're talking hockey.
18:44
Speaker 2: There's a lot of reasons why it's more fun, or
18:48
Speaker 2: not more fun, but equally satisfying to watch a game.
18:53
Speaker 3: At home.
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Speaker 2: But I don't think that the core memory thing falls
19:00
Speaker 2: into place quite as successfully unless you're button the stands,
19:06
Speaker 2: unless you're down there, maybe suffering through some cold, maybe
19:09
Speaker 2: sitting in some rain. Hopefully not, but as long as
19:14
Speaker 2: you're dressed properly, that just kind of adds itself to
19:16
Speaker 2: the memory. Leo Messi is selling out the place tonight
19:22
Speaker 2: at fifteen times the normal price point because people want
19:30
Speaker 2: to go, and they want to see, they want to be,
19:32
Speaker 2: they want to breathe the same oxygen as greatness.
19:36
Speaker 3: We have this very.
19:38
Speaker 2: Human fascination with the mega the icon, the mega celebrity,
19:44
Speaker 2: the star that is darn near. It's the closest you
19:48
Speaker 2: can get to like non sacrilegious immortality, right, Leo Messi
19:55
Speaker 2: will be cast in bronze, he will go down in history.
19:59
Speaker 2: He's on sports Mount Rushmore, and that might be across
20:03
Speaker 2: all sports. And you get a chance to go down
20:06
Speaker 2: to little old Sandy and see him tonight, as long
20:09
Speaker 2: as you're willing to fork out some fat no, or
20:13
Speaker 2: yeah if you if you already forked that out along
20:16
Speaker 2: a long time ago. They started advertising this a year ago, remember, Ocie.
20:20
Speaker 2: Oh yes, now let me ask you this. Okay, you
20:23
Speaker 2: can get the cheapest seat in the stadium for.
20:29
Speaker 3: Five hundred dollars, or.
20:31
Speaker 2: You can get like a really really good seat for
20:39
Speaker 2: twelve hundred dollars, Like I'm talking like front ish row,
20:43
Speaker 2: like front few rows.
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Speaker 4: I mean, if we're obviously assuming it's not going to
20:48
Speaker 4: break the bank for you either way.
20:50
Speaker 2: Well, look, be responsible. Don't be one of these people
20:53
Speaker 2: who's just like the kids don't need to eat, I
20:55
Speaker 2: don't need to pay the mortgage. Let the car get repossessed, honey,
21:00
Speaker 2: I gotta see Leo Messi.
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Speaker 4: We're not doing that. You can watch on you can
21:04
Speaker 4: watch on Apple TV Plus. If that's the case, no,
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Speaker 4: I I think seven hundred dollars more and it's a
21:12
Speaker 4: significantly better seat. I mean I I might fork over
21:17
Speaker 4: the extra seven hundred bucks.
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Speaker 2: Okay, so section thirty six, Row A, you are right there.
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Speaker 3: You are the front row above the field.
21:28
Speaker 2: Effectively the only thing in front of you is like
21:31
Speaker 2: the vip loge.
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Speaker 3: You could get that for eleven forty.
21:38
Speaker 2: Now that's a massive ticket price, yes, but it's not
21:44
Speaker 2: like when you when you look at super Bowl tickets,
21:47
Speaker 2: if you want to sit front row fifty yard line,
21:50
Speaker 2: it's a mortgage payment.
21:52
Speaker 4: It's something ridiculous. It's like it's in the tens of thousands.
21:55
Speaker 2: It's more usually it's usually like you're getting into like
21:58
Speaker 2: six figures potent act for those or at least high
22:01
Speaker 2: five figures and the get in price. I've done this
22:04
Speaker 2: with the last two forty nine or super bowls. It's like,
22:07
Speaker 2: can I justify a crappy seat for five or six grand?
22:11
Speaker 2: And the answer for me is no. But I couldn't
22:14
Speaker 2: even think about the good seat. The good seat is
22:17
Speaker 2: just like that's unattainable. That is for the people who
22:20
Speaker 2: are flying in on private jets. Those are the tech
22:24
Speaker 2: company owners. Those are the VIPs, Those are the professional abs.
22:29
Speaker 2: The buildings on the hill are those are people who
22:33
Speaker 2: don't even worry about their tax bracket because the taxes
22:38
Speaker 2: you pay are a rounding error. Okay, that's a different
22:41
Speaker 2: level of luxury. Not the case though at America First
22:46
Speaker 2: Field tonight.
22:47
Speaker 4: Yeah, I to be clear, I neither of those prices
22:51
Speaker 4: are something that I can afford right now, this sort
22:55
Speaker 4: of thing.
22:55
Speaker 2: You got a family, you got a gun child, you
22:57
Speaker 2: got a regular job.
22:59
Speaker 4: But if I could, I think I'd buy the more
23:03
Speaker 4: expensive seat that's that's basically right on the field for
23:07
Speaker 4: that price, because it's not about it's not about the
23:10
Speaker 4: it's not purely about the money there. It's about what
23:15
Speaker 4: seat you're getting and what kind of added experience you'll
23:19
Speaker 4: get for just about double the price of just getting
23:23
Speaker 4: into the into the stadium.
23:25
Speaker 2: Okay, now, I told you I complained yesterday on air
23:27
Speaker 2: about how my Twitter polls are just now not getting
23:29
Speaker 2: any activity. I must be in like Twitter prison or something.
23:32
Speaker 2: I need to get back on people's algorithms. But you
23:35
Speaker 2: maybe pay for it. You get a little a little
23:37
Speaker 2: boost there. I don't know if it's worth my nine
23:40
Speaker 2: bucks a month or whatever it is. But this I
23:43
Speaker 2: think is a much more interesting question, at least for me,
23:45
Speaker 2: and I want you to answer it, James, Sports versus
23:49
Speaker 2: concert right now, everyone loves sports. Okay, you get to
23:53
Speaker 2: go to one of these things and only one. So
23:56
Speaker 2: if you're getting tickets, you're attending live the one. It
23:59
Speaker 2: means you cannot go to the other two. Which are
24:04
Speaker 2: you choosing the home playoff debut of the Utah Mammoth
24:08
Speaker 2: on Friday Leo Messi in Sandy tonight, which is the
24:14
Speaker 2: most expensive ticket of these, or Utah BYU game coming
24:20
Speaker 2: up this year. Messi is probably never coming back here again.
24:24
Speaker 2: There is going to be a Utah BYU game every
24:27
Speaker 2: year for the foreseeable future, until Utah gets invited to
24:31
Speaker 2: the Big Ten and we go through that whole thing again.
24:35
Speaker 3: Mammoth playoffs, I think.
24:36
Speaker 2: They're going to be part of the playoffs for the
24:39
Speaker 2: next several years. However, never again will you be able
24:45
Speaker 2: to attend the very first home playoff game in franchise history.
24:49
Speaker 2: Never again will you be able to grab that t
24:52
Speaker 2: shirt off the back of the seat, or that towel,
24:55
Speaker 2: that commemorative towel that shows exactly that the first ever.
24:59
Speaker 2: Like James U and I were both at the first
25:01
Speaker 2: game in franchise history.
25:03
Speaker 3: We have the shirt right there, towel right behind you.
25:07
Speaker 2: Got the towel, got the shirt, got the commemorative puck.
25:12
Speaker 2: In fact, I tried to get greedy and grab an
25:13
Speaker 2: extra puck and got run down by a security guy.
25:16
Speaker 3: My bad put up against the wall, almost cuffed.
25:20
Speaker 2: I got physically accosted by a middle aged man like
25:24
Speaker 2: hold on, I'm sorry. I was like, dude, there are
25:26
Speaker 2: literally a thousand pucks on that table, and I grabbed two,
25:30
Speaker 2: and my wife, who was in attendance with me, is
25:32
Speaker 2: right there, like, can you chill anyway, It's neither here
25:36
Speaker 2: nor then. One of these two things, well two of
25:39
Speaker 2: these three things are once in a lifetime literally never again. Now,
25:46
Speaker 2: you could always go on Monday and you still had
25:47
Speaker 2: a Mammoth playoff game in their first playoff series.
25:50
Speaker 3: You could go next year, maybe they get a little
25:52
Speaker 3: bit further.
25:53
Speaker 2: You could go to the first Stanley Cup final playoff
25:56
Speaker 2: game that the Utah Mammoth get into.
25:58
Speaker 3: At some point future pulled that's not this, that's the future.
26:01
Speaker 2: So MESSI and Sandy Tonight Mammoth in the Playoffs on
26:05
Speaker 2: Friday for the home opener, the home playoff opener, or
26:08
Speaker 2: the Utah BYU game, which is every year the best
26:12
Speaker 2: event on the Utah sporting calendar, which which one you choose.
26:16
Speaker 2: It's a free ticket. You don't have to worry about
26:18
Speaker 2: the call. Okay, I was gonna say, is it? Is
26:20
Speaker 2: it five hundred dollars?
26:21
Speaker 3: Get in? No? No, you don't know I.
26:26
Speaker 4: And I understand objectively the answer should probably be messy.
26:31
Speaker 4: But I'm just I'm not a socker. I didn't grow
26:33
Speaker 4: up a soccer fan. I'm still not a big soccer fan.
26:36
Speaker 4: I like watching US men's national team and the World Cup.
26:40
Speaker 3: But that's about it, right, very casually that way.
26:44
Speaker 4: So for me, it's it's Mammoth Playoffs, first first playoff game,
26:49
Speaker 4: and it might just be biased because it's happening right now,
26:52
Speaker 4: But Messi's happening right now too, and I'd still pick that. Okay,
26:56
Speaker 4: we got a couple interesting text messages eight seven seven
26:58
Speaker 4: three five three zero seven. Hundre Gus says, as a
27:02
Speaker 4: die hard hockey fan and a Utah alum, MESSI game
27:07
Speaker 4: takes top billing, then the first Mammoth game, then the
27:10
Speaker 4: rivalry game, Darren, a resident BYU fan, This one is
27:15
Speaker 4: easy for me.
27:16
Speaker 2: I'm going to the hockey game on Friday. I think
27:18
Speaker 2: it is going to be absolute bedlam in the Delta.
27:22
Speaker 2: I think the atmosphere on Friday, and I know I'm
27:25
Speaker 2: prone to hyperbole on this show, I think the atmosphere
27:29
Speaker 2: at the Mammoth game on Friday is going to be
27:33
Speaker 2: singular and unique and the like. We will never have
27:37
Speaker 2: seen that exact energy in the Delta Center.
27:42
Speaker 3: Ever.
27:43
Speaker 2: I really mean that, and I don't I'm not trying
27:46
Speaker 2: to tell you it's going to be better than like
27:49
Speaker 2: NBA Finals when Carl Malone and John Stockton were battling
27:54
Speaker 2: it out with those bulls. The building was legendary at
27:57
Speaker 2: that time. It was deafening. It was an intimidating palace
28:02
Speaker 2: of destruction for opposing teams. But the hockey fan energy,
28:07
Speaker 2: the hockey culture is different the way that people have
28:11
Speaker 2: really jumped on this bandwagon, but it is still kind
28:14
Speaker 2: of a new thing for the vast majority of the
28:16
Speaker 2: fan base. Whereas basketball was not right when the Jazz
28:20
Speaker 2: were playing NBA Finals, Basketball, your fan base was well established.
28:24
Speaker 3: They knew the rules, they knew the players, they knew
28:26
Speaker 3: the thing. I think we're.
28:27
Speaker 2: Gonna get just sort of like a strange room spring,
28:32
Speaker 2: a frenzy happening at the Delta Center on Friday night
28:37
Speaker 2: where people are just cutting loose man, where they're just like,
28:40
Speaker 2: I kind of know what I'm watching. I'm really excited.
28:43
Speaker 2: This is the playoffs. The players are fighting, we're fighting.
28:48
Speaker 2: I see somebody in a Vegas sweater. I'm gonna say
28:51
Speaker 2: mean things to them about their gambling and drug habits.
28:56
Speaker 3: And it's just gonna be I think it's gonna be
28:57
Speaker 3: a like a.
28:58
Speaker 2: Truly singular experience and I cannot wait for it. And
29:02
Speaker 2: I say that based on what happened the first time
29:05
Speaker 2: the Mammoth skated on home ice ever.
29:09
Speaker 3: James, you were there.
29:11
Speaker 2: It was a win against a kind of crappy Chicago
29:14
Speaker 2: Blackhawks team, at least a team with great history, but
29:17
Speaker 2: kind of a crappy actual team, and it felt like
29:21
Speaker 2: a super Bowl. It felt like a Holy War win.
29:25
Speaker 2: It felt like the Utah Jazz like Michael Jordan didn't
29:29
Speaker 2: push off. It felt like something like the beginning of something.
29:33
Speaker 3: It was.
29:35
Speaker 2: Transcendent, almost the way that the swell in that building
29:41
Speaker 2: for Game one at home no playoff implication. No championship
29:48
Speaker 2: runs started just like, hey, look what we got.
29:51
Speaker 3: We got hockey now, and it's going to be the.
29:53
Speaker 2: Same because we're coming back one to one in a
29:56
Speaker 2: wide open series, in a very winnable. Now series already
30:00
Speaker 2: was winnable, but feels even more so. I'm over selling
30:05
Speaker 2: it to myself. I'm gonna do my best to be there.
30:08
Speaker 2: I've told you the scheduling issue, but man, it's gonna
30:13
Speaker 2: be amazing.
30:13
Speaker 4: Your family. You have family and friends that'll be there
30:16
Speaker 4: in your place. I'm just just FaceTime me. Yeah, no,
30:20
Speaker 4: this is I don't think you're wrong about it, though,
30:24
Speaker 4: I don't think you're wrong about that atmosphere. I think
30:27
Speaker 4: that a couple of things. The finals were now the
30:32
Speaker 4: last finals for the Jazz was now basically thirty years ago.
30:34
Speaker 3: Thirty years ago.
30:35
Speaker 4: That was long enough that many of the people who
30:39
Speaker 4: were around may have forgotten, may have forgotten what it
30:44
Speaker 4: was like a lot a lot of the details of
30:46
Speaker 4: what it was like, and or they weren't even born. Yeah,
30:49
Speaker 4: a lot of people.
30:50
Speaker 2: And even if you were born right, you don't actually,
30:53
Speaker 2: in my opinion, don't actually create the hardcore sports memories
30:56
Speaker 2: until you get into like at least nine, ten eleven,
31:00
Speaker 2: and that's early.
31:00
Speaker 3: Ye see, I was the exception.
31:02
Speaker 4: I was an exception with that because the ninety eight
31:05
Speaker 4: finals in particular, that those playoffs, but the finals in
31:08
Speaker 4: particular was my first course sports memory.
31:11
Speaker 2: And I was I was six, okay, so like but
31:13
Speaker 2: but yeah, I got six. I got a six year
31:15
Speaker 2: old right now, Like my six year old. I could
31:18
Speaker 2: take her to the craziest like BYU Utah game and
31:23
Speaker 2: put her on the field with me, and she's just
31:25
Speaker 2: gonna be like, wow, that was fun and then just
31:27
Speaker 2: like dump it out of her mind probably the next day.
31:30
Speaker 2: I we don't have this frenzied professional sports playoff atmosphere
31:38
Speaker 2: as like a a part of our sports culture recently.
31:41
Speaker 4: And so I think that I think it's long enough
31:43
Speaker 4: that a lot of people forgot and many people weren't
31:46
Speaker 4: born right, And so it's as if it's as if
31:50
Speaker 4: this is the biggest postseason that this biggest postseason game
31:55
Speaker 4: these fans have ever had, even Jazz fans.
31:57
Speaker 3: He had the Western Conference Final and d Will and
32:01
Speaker 3: those guys like it, just.
32:03
Speaker 2: You had that run, you had that one year they
32:05
Speaker 2: make it to Western Conference finals. Other than that they've
32:07
Speaker 2: been losing in the first or second round or not
32:09
Speaker 2: making the playoffs. The inaugural, the inaugural Stanley Cup playoff game,
32:13
Speaker 2: even though it's a first round game, is gonna be
32:16
Speaker 2: a bigger deal than that, especially if they come out.
32:18
Speaker 3: With a win and then they end up winning this series.
32:20
Speaker 2: This coming in from sixteen forty nine as someone who's
32:24
Speaker 2: an RSL season ticket holder and will be at the
32:26
Speaker 2: game tonight. The thing nobody's saying is that Messi may
32:28
Speaker 2: not even play tonight. He played the full ninety on Saturday,
32:32
Speaker 2: bad weather. He may just sit it out. That's what
32:34
Speaker 2: your five hundred dollars might get, you can I Okay, So.
32:37
Speaker 3: I think he's playing. He's gonna play.
32:39
Speaker 2: I would be shocked and quite frankly appalled if Messi
32:46
Speaker 2: didn't at least play like a half. That's a different
32:51
Speaker 2: conversation and maybe one that we could have with Jason
32:54
Speaker 2: christ and j Nali when they join us. But I'm
32:56
Speaker 2: way over time here getting everyone pumped up for things
32:59
Speaker 2: that may or may not be as.
33:02
Speaker 3: Awesome as I think they're going to be.
33:04
Speaker 2: Ryan Fowler, NFL draft analyst, joins us next to talk about.
33:08
Speaker 3: You guessed it? Tomorrow's first round.
33:10
Speaker 2: It's the Sean O'Connell Show on ESPN seven hundred and
33:12
Speaker 2: ninety two one FM.
33:13
Speaker 1: Yoh you a tune to the Sean O'Connell Show for
33:22
Speaker 1: the Murdoch Chevrolet Studio of ESPN seven hundred at ninety
33:27
Speaker 1: two one half an.
33:33
Speaker 3: Welcome back to the Sean O'Connell Show.
33:34
Speaker 2: Welcome in Ryan Fowler, NFL Draft Insider, a day ahead
33:39
Speaker 2: of the first round in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
33:42
Speaker 3: Ryan Fowler, Welcome back to the show. How are you doing.
33:45
Speaker 6: Well, Sonald? You could you set me all man best
33:47
Speaker 6: time of the.
33:47
Speaker 2: Year, best time of the year, indeed, especially if you
33:50
Speaker 2: are a draft junkie, this one in Pittsburgh. I love
33:55
Speaker 2: the idea that the NFL likes to tour this thing around.
33:58
Speaker 2: Now we'll the Pittsburgh flavor be unique in any way.
34:04
Speaker 6: Well, I think as you look as far as a
34:06
Speaker 6: passionate football city, I don't think there's any questions that
34:08
Speaker 6: Pittsburgh obviously is a talent at that lot of success
34:11
Speaker 6: and in the decade that Steelers have been in town.
34:13
Speaker 6: So I think there's gonna be tons of fans. Well,
34:14
Speaker 6: we have the crowd that we had maybe in Detroit
34:17
Speaker 6: a couple years ago, a million people. We'll see what happens,
34:20
Speaker 6: but I think it's gonna be a lot of fun
34:21
Speaker 6: this weekend.
34:23
Speaker 2: So uh, the foregone conclusion with the number one pick
34:26
Speaker 2: is that Fernanda Mendoza will be selected and become a
34:31
Speaker 2: franchise guy for the Raiders.
34:34
Speaker 3: How much of that do you believe in?
34:36
Speaker 2: Are you buying or selling on somebody like Fernana Mendoza,
34:38
Speaker 2: who obviously has been incredibly impressive at the at Indiana.
34:42
Speaker 2: I followed him even when he was in the Bay
34:45
Speaker 2: Area because I was working in the pac twelfth country
34:48
Speaker 2: at that time. When he becomes an NFL player and
34:52
Speaker 2: the aushucks boy scout type thing is not you know,
34:56
Speaker 2: maybe as well received by a particular fan or in
35:00
Speaker 2: the locker room, or is not as easy to pull
35:03
Speaker 2: off because you're losing a bunch instead of dominating your
35:06
Speaker 2: way through college football. Do you think it's going to
35:09
Speaker 2: work out for Banana Mendoza?
35:12
Speaker 7: Yeah?
35:12
Speaker 6: I think he definitely is an interesting individual, right, interesting
35:15
Speaker 6: young man. I wish the absolute best for him. But
35:19
Speaker 6: as you said, you know, the boy scout type of
35:21
Speaker 6: character thing with him, it's a little corny at times,
35:24
Speaker 6: I think that may not work in tech NFL locker room,
35:27
Speaker 6: specifically if it does go bad quickly. However, Sean I
35:30
Speaker 6: will say that when looking at Vegas and looking at
35:32
Speaker 6: any team across football that's searched for quarterbacks since the
35:36
Speaker 6: really good donated football is either you got a guy
35:38
Speaker 6: or you're looking for a guy. And I think when
35:40
Speaker 6: you look at Vegas, when you look at brock Bauers,
35:43
Speaker 6: you look at Ashton Jens Now adding Mendoza, you have
35:46
Speaker 6: for cousins in the building. You have Tom Brady to
35:48
Speaker 6: lean on. As far as just getting some tips and
35:50
Speaker 6: tricks here along the trade. I think Banana Mendoza at
35:53
Speaker 6: his ceiling is probably a top fifteen quarterback in football.
35:58
Speaker 6: For me, He's a mid first round raid for me.
36:00
Speaker 6: He's not a guy and a lot of different classes
36:03
Speaker 6: that I would have at the number one bona fide
36:04
Speaker 6: overall selection. But again, Vegas wants their guy Klint Kopix.
36:07
Speaker 8: Now in the building.
36:08
Speaker 6: They're going to get the ball out of his hands quickly.
36:10
Speaker 6: He's Bernana Mendoza as tough as nails, just walking his
36:14
Speaker 6: tape over the middle of a field. The processing the
36:16
Speaker 6: arm challenge is very average, But he's just someone that
36:18
Speaker 6: gets it under center, and I think that's going to
36:20
Speaker 6: translate into an offense. Whether there are some decent correlating
36:23
Speaker 6: surroundings right now, I just don't think right now, Sean,
36:26
Speaker 6: he's going to be a guy that's going to be
36:27
Speaker 6: ever a top five to seven quarterback in the NFL,
36:30
Speaker 6: which teams obviously look for. Potentially if you're drafting a
36:33
Speaker 6: guy number one overall, what.
36:35
Speaker 2: I do like, or I think I'm going to like.
36:38
Speaker 2: We'll see how the draft actually plays out, is that
36:40
Speaker 2: you know, there's a lot of questions almost immediately after
36:43
Speaker 2: that number one spot, and you know we're seeing is
36:46
Speaker 2: that RBL Reese or David Bailey?
36:48
Speaker 3: And where does Jeremiah Love go?
36:49
Speaker 2: Because he's best player available on a lot of people's boards.
36:53
Speaker 2: But you can't spend number two or even maybe number
36:56
Speaker 2: four on a running back, but maybe you should. I
36:59
Speaker 2: love these conversations in the modern NFL. So I turn
37:03
Speaker 2: it over to you once we get past number one.
37:07
Speaker 2: Where do we see a run? What position gets valued
37:09
Speaker 2: in the first round? Are we getting surprises and trades?
37:13
Speaker 2: And is this going to be kind of a free
37:16
Speaker 2: for all?
37:17
Speaker 6: I think it is, and a draft does start at
37:20
Speaker 6: two with New York. I do think it is one
37:22
Speaker 6: of re surveilia. I know that's not breaking any news there,
37:24
Speaker 6: but I would be missided and say, hey, look, we're
37:27
Speaker 6: twenty four hours from this thing. I'm not really sure
37:29
Speaker 6: exactly where they're going to go, but right now, I
37:31
Speaker 6: do think you're going to see some trades. I think
37:33
Speaker 6: there's some teams in the top ten that would like
37:35
Speaker 6: to trade out. Specifically, when you look at Cleveland at six,
37:38
Speaker 6: you look at Washington at seven, New Orleans at eight,
37:40
Speaker 6: maybe adding some more capital, but you've got to have
37:42
Speaker 6: two to thing go right. You've got to have some
37:44
Speaker 6: teams to come up. But as of right now, there's
37:46
Speaker 6: just not a lot of teams looking to come up.
37:48
Speaker 6: I think there's going to be a run on the
37:49
Speaker 6: tackles and that ten to fifteen range where you could
37:53
Speaker 6: see a guy, you know, like a Spencer Fono come
37:55
Speaker 6: off the boarders potentially top guy in this class. The
37:58
Speaker 6: herniated disc information with CC now we know what from
38:01
Speaker 6: Miami is making its way around teams, and that absolutely
38:04
Speaker 6: will I expected to affect his stock a little bit.
38:06
Speaker 6: I don't expect him to be the guy right now
38:08
Speaker 6: that go at three to the Arizona Cardinals if they
38:11
Speaker 6: in fact stay there. So I think it's going to
38:13
Speaker 6: be an active, fast, heavy first round, and there are
38:15
Speaker 6: going to be some moves. And I think as far
38:17
Speaker 6: as some names even working into the back end of
38:19
Speaker 6: round one that you'd expect maybe go in the forties
38:21
Speaker 6: or fifties, like a Keelan Rutledge from Georgia Tech takes
38:24
Speaker 6: the Santis and second A and M. Maybe a couple
38:26
Speaker 6: of those guys you could sneak into the back end
38:28
Speaker 6: of round one. I think it's gonna be a lot
38:29
Speaker 6: of fun tomorrow night.
38:30
Speaker 2: There's several teams with several with a couple of first
38:34
Speaker 2: round picks, or with a nice little haul of first
38:37
Speaker 2: round and maybe second round picks they could they could
38:40
Speaker 2: put together to potentially move up. And we see that
38:44
Speaker 2: happen for franchise players. We see that happen for once
38:47
Speaker 2: in a lifetime quarterbacks, or maybe even a once in
38:50
Speaker 2: a lifetime tackle. There's not even a lot of agreement
38:52
Speaker 2: on who that I think you just made this point
38:54
Speaker 2: on who the best tackle in this class is. We
38:56
Speaker 2: know that we're biased towards Spencer Fano, and he won
38:59
Speaker 2: the out Trophy, but some teams see him more as
39:02
Speaker 2: an interior alignment and things like that. Regarding the teams
39:07
Speaker 2: that have draft assets and draft capital tomorrow night, do
39:12
Speaker 2: we see someone package a couple of first round picks
39:15
Speaker 2: to climb up into the top ten? Potentially maybe the Cowboys.
39:18
Speaker 2: I know the Giants have too, but it seems like
39:20
Speaker 2: they want to use both of those two where they're
39:22
Speaker 2: at number five and number ten. Do you see upward
39:25
Speaker 2: mobility for teams that are capital heavy.
39:29
Speaker 6: I think there's one team to keep an eye on,
39:31
Speaker 6: and you mentioned them with the Dallas Cowboys. You know,
39:33
Speaker 6: as long as Jerry Jones is in town, he will
39:35
Speaker 6: always be about splash and that's going to get a guy. Now,
39:38
Speaker 6: how far do they move up? And who four? I
39:40
Speaker 6: think if there's two names to know there that they
39:43
Speaker 6: would like to move up and try to get is
39:45
Speaker 6: if you see a little bit of a fly from
39:46
Speaker 6: ronaldrel Reef or at Sunny Styles. Those are really the
39:49
Speaker 6: two names floating around the Dallas Cowboys really here over
39:52
Speaker 6: the past few days. But I will say this, and
39:54
Speaker 6: just talking to teams here over the past few days
39:56
Speaker 6: or so, it's going to be very interesting. Even if
39:58
Speaker 6: you have a lot of capitals year on Night one,
40:01
Speaker 6: or even a lot of picks inside the top one hundred.
40:03
Speaker 6: Looking towards the twenty twenty seven draft and the talent
40:07
Speaker 6: that is expected to come out specifically in the top
40:09
Speaker 6: fifty for next year, I expect teams to be very
40:12
Speaker 6: frugal as far as trying to trade up and relinquishing
40:16
Speaker 6: capital for next year's draft, even if it's on Day
40:19
Speaker 6: one or Day two next year. And how does that
40:21
Speaker 6: affect Night one tomorrow night? So that's something to keep
40:24
Speaker 6: an eye on. And also, you now have eight minutes,
40:26
Speaker 6: you don't have ten minutes on the clock for first
40:28
Speaker 6: round picks. Does that two minutes affect anything as far
40:31
Speaker 6: as trying to iron out and finalize those deals. So
40:33
Speaker 6: those are just a couple of things to keep an
40:35
Speaker 6: eye on there for movement up and down the board
40:37
Speaker 6: tomorrow night. But again to answer your question, John blankly Sis,
40:40
Speaker 6: really Dallas Cowboys at twelve and twenty going to maybe
40:43
Speaker 6: to get their guy in the Sunny Style when rl
40:46
Speaker 6: reach just how high will they have to go up?
40:48
Speaker 6: We'll see what happens.
40:50
Speaker 2: When you see guys like Sunny Styles who have production,
40:54
Speaker 2: but then they go to the combine, and that production
40:58
Speaker 2: takes a back seat to thee to the freak athleticism too,
41:02
Speaker 2: the oh my gosh, I didn't know where they build
41:05
Speaker 2: the lab that creates these types of individuals. Are you
41:08
Speaker 2: a buyer on him being an elite NFL prospect the
41:11
Speaker 2: same way some of these teams might view him.
41:14
Speaker 6: I'll say this, I mean, I think in his game
41:16
Speaker 6: right now, Seans is a great question. I see a
41:18
Speaker 6: lot more freak athlete than outstanding football player right now.
41:23
Speaker 6: I'm not going to sit here and say that I
41:24
Speaker 6: see Isaiah Simmons or I see Tyrie Wilson in a
41:26
Speaker 6: different position just in recent memory. But when I watch
41:29
Speaker 6: his tape at his size and the speed and athleticism,
41:32
Speaker 6: and watching that Ohio State tape where of course they
41:34
Speaker 6: had tons of ballplayers everywhere, four and five star recruits
41:36
Speaker 6: at every single level of that defense, I just see
41:39
Speaker 6: a little bit more ability. As far as in the
41:41
Speaker 6: first few years of his career, he'll match NFL athletes,
41:45
Speaker 6: But as a football player, a potential green dot in
41:48
Speaker 6: the middle of your defense, I want to see some
41:51
Speaker 6: more progression there as far as identifying the IQ in
41:54
Speaker 6: the middle of the field. That's why Caleb downs potentially
41:57
Speaker 6: on that same defense to really serve that same role
42:00
Speaker 6: inside the middle of your defense, and white teams have
42:02
Speaker 6: downs higher than a sunny style. So again, more so
42:05
Speaker 6: an athlete right now for me than a really darn
42:07
Speaker 6: good football player that I think if thin he could
42:10
Speaker 6: just find a decent happy medium in his game, I
42:13
Speaker 6: think he still has a Pro Bowl type of ceiling.
42:16
Speaker 2: What's the best case for Spencer Fano and what's maybe
42:19
Speaker 2: the worst case for Spencer Fano in your mind?
42:21
Speaker 6: Yeah, it's really where the run is going to start
42:24
Speaker 6: on these offensive linemen. Does that start at at three?
42:27
Speaker 6: Does Everson going to stay and grab a guy or
42:29
Speaker 6: does Cleveland nearly have the run at six? Is that Fano?
42:32
Speaker 6: Is that d C? Malanoa? Is that Monroe Freeling? Is
42:35
Speaker 6: that Caden Proctor? I think for Spenser, even if he's
42:38
Speaker 6: not the first lineman off the board, the earlier the
42:41
Speaker 6: other linemen go, the better off and higher he will
42:44
Speaker 6: go ultimately for teams trying to get the run on
42:47
Speaker 6: the Monroe Freelings and names along those lines, and even
42:49
Speaker 6: guys like Maxi Hanacho or and Blake Miller are those
42:52
Speaker 6: names that will go on later on in round one,
42:54
Speaker 6: so I think he's in a good spot. I still
42:56
Speaker 6: expect him to come off the board. He could go
42:57
Speaker 6: up six to Cleveland, or he could go even a
42:59
Speaker 6: star in the late teams. Keep an eye on Baltimore
43:01
Speaker 6: seems like as well, Miami of course as well, or
43:04
Speaker 6: early portions of Day two. If sometimes the slip happens,
43:08
Speaker 6: which has as crazy things as we know Seawn has
43:10
Speaker 6: happened on draft Day. But I think he's in a
43:12
Speaker 6: really nice spot.
43:14
Speaker 2: A lot of the mock drafts have got me in
43:16
Speaker 2: love with the idea of Caleb Lomo to the forty
43:19
Speaker 2: nine ers, as I'm a Niners fan and obviously we've
43:21
Speaker 2: been following his entire career at the University of Utah.
43:24
Speaker 3: Is that a likely landing spot for Caleb Lomo.
43:27
Speaker 6: I think it'd be a nice landing spot. I think
43:29
Speaker 6: when you look at the future for the Niners up
43:31
Speaker 6: front and the Trent Williams situation kind of very similar
43:34
Speaker 6: to where he could also go at twenty three to
43:35
Speaker 6: the Philadelphia Eagles, right when you look at the Lane
43:37
Speaker 6: Johnson situation, I think either spot for him will be excellent.
43:41
Speaker 6: I think when you look at both schemes specifically San
43:43
Speaker 6: Francisco with Kyle Shanahan having just elite athletes at the position.
43:47
Speaker 6: To expand your ground game, the footwork, the ability to
43:50
Speaker 6: skip and pull get to the second level. I think
43:53
Speaker 6: that times Caleb Blomo a little bit too much for me,
43:55
Speaker 6: got rocked back a little bit by power. I think
43:58
Speaker 6: that's something to work on. He will get bigger, faster,
44:00
Speaker 6: stronger as he continues to mature still a young player.
44:04
Speaker 6: That athletic profile in San Francisco is exactly why they
44:07
Speaker 6: prioritize Trent Williams years ago from Washington. I think Caleb
44:11
Speaker 6: blow will be a really nice sit there, whether he
44:12
Speaker 6: plays either tackle spot.
44:13
Speaker 2: Right away, every draft analyst that I talked to, I
44:18
Speaker 2: feel like you've got somebody in the back of your mind,
44:21
Speaker 2: maybe the front of your mind, that you feel is
44:23
Speaker 2: being underappreciated or you're just fascinated by for whatever reason.
44:27
Speaker 3: Who is that? For Ryan Fowler?
44:29
Speaker 6: Yeah, for me, it's a guy I think is going
44:31
Speaker 6: to come off the board early portions of Day three, Sean,
44:34
Speaker 6: and that's Eli Heidenreich, the running back, slash receiver, slash
44:38
Speaker 6: everything for the Navy midshipman. A guy that's one of
44:42
Speaker 6: two players ever in Polish football history to record more
44:45
Speaker 6: than nine hundred and seventy five receiving yards and four
44:47
Speaker 6: hundred and twenty five more rushing yards in a single season.
44:50
Speaker 6: A guy that had thirty two targets in his final
44:52
Speaker 6: four games for the Midshipman. Again as a running back,
44:55
Speaker 6: he's going to come in right away at six foot
44:57
Speaker 6: two oh six with very similar athletic and tangibles when
45:01
Speaker 6: Christian McCaffrey was coming out of Stanford. I'm not comparing
45:03
Speaker 6: the player, but just from an athletic and tangible perspective
45:06
Speaker 6: and the versatility, the hands, the explosiveness. Watching him at
45:10
Speaker 6: Shrine against corners and safety, they couldn't cover him all
45:13
Speaker 6: week long. So if you're an offensive coordinator, that's going
45:16
Speaker 6: to have a plan for a guy like this that
45:18
Speaker 6: played that flop back snipe z position is what they
45:21
Speaker 6: called it at Navy Eli heyden Reich early on portions
45:25
Speaker 6: of Day three. I expect him to outplay his draft
45:27
Speaker 6: slot very quickly.
45:28
Speaker 2: Is this one of those situations also that he had
45:30
Speaker 2: to get like military service exemption because he's an academy guy.
45:35
Speaker 2: Does that still a thing when we talk about Army
45:38
Speaker 2: Navy Air Force players.
45:40
Speaker 6: I don't think so. I don't think so as of
45:42
Speaker 6: right now. There's things obviously that could be in there
45:45
Speaker 6: as far as the Naval Academy and Air Force guys
45:46
Speaker 6: like that, as you mentioned, but I'm not sure that
45:48
Speaker 6: that's actually a standard right now for these Naval Academy guys.
45:50
Speaker 2: Okay, interesting, well, I love that you have now planted
45:54
Speaker 2: that seed in my mind that I'm going to be
45:56
Speaker 2: looking for where Eli Heyden Wright goes awesome. Besides Fano,
46:02
Speaker 2: besides Lomu, there's a couple of Utah guys that are
46:06
Speaker 2: a little bit further down.
46:07
Speaker 3: There's also BYU's best players.
46:10
Speaker 2: In my case, I think Jack Kelly is a guy
46:12
Speaker 2: who's going to have a successful NFL career. I don't
46:14
Speaker 2: think he's going to make a big splash in the
46:16
Speaker 2: draft from like a high pick standpoint, But the best player,
46:20
Speaker 2: best linebacker in the league right now is a BYU
46:23
Speaker 2: guy in my opinion. In Fred Warner, where do you
46:25
Speaker 2: think Jack Kelly goes?
46:27
Speaker 6: I think somewhere on day three, you know, I think
46:29
Speaker 6: he's someone even talking about him last year with scouts.
46:32
Speaker 6: Is a guy that had some late day two grade
46:34
Speaker 6: for teams. I think when you watched Jack Kelly. You know,
46:37
Speaker 6: for folks out there listening that know BYU, they know
46:39
Speaker 6: how explosive right that he is, And I think the
46:41
Speaker 6: instincts pop off the screen. You just mentioned Fred Warner.
46:44
Speaker 6: I'm not going to compare Jack Kelly to Fred Warner,
46:46
Speaker 6: but if you're explosive, you have instincts, and you're consistently
46:49
Speaker 6: beating guys to the spot, you're beating guards that are
46:51
Speaker 6: pulling opposite side of line of scrimmage, that stuff usually translates.
46:54
Speaker 6: Now it's he gonna have to cut his teams teeth
46:56
Speaker 6: on special teams, excuse me, early on in his career potentially,
47:00
Speaker 6: But I think those instincts exposed to this overall are
47:03
Speaker 6: going to allow him to make a roster. And once
47:05
Speaker 6: you get a guy in the football field like that,
47:06
Speaker 6: this tight a lot of ball in his career at
47:08
Speaker 6: a lot of different spots. Even can flash down the
47:10
Speaker 6: edge and put his hand in a dirt if you
47:11
Speaker 6: have to. I think Jack Kelly's going to stick on
47:13
Speaker 6: a roster somewhere, likely early portions of day three.
47:18
Speaker 3: Ryan.
47:18
Speaker 2: I know it's a busy, busy time for you, and
47:20
Speaker 2: I appreciate you giving us a few minutes today.
47:22
Speaker 3: Enjoy the draft and we'll chat again soon. Absolutely.
47:26
Speaker 6: Thanks as always, Sean.
47:26
Speaker 5: Take care.
47:27
Speaker 2: It's Ryan Fowler, NFL Draft Analyst over at NBC Sports
47:32
Speaker 2: Hot Lunches. Coming next, We've got Funnel Cake Festival coming
47:36
Speaker 2: this weekend at Lagoon. We're gonna give away tickets for
47:39
Speaker 2: that later. Jason Christ joins us in nine minutes, I'll
47:44
Speaker 2: go anywhere. It's the Sean O'Connell Show on ESPN seven
47:47
Speaker 2: hundred and ninety two one FM.
47:49
Speaker 8: Sing Us the other Piano Mass sing Us.
47:53
Speaker 3: This up tonight as you were.
47:58
Speaker 1: Listening to the Sean O'Connell Show from the Murdock Hunting
48:01
Speaker 1: Studio of ESPN seven hundred and ninety two to one, alf.
48:05
Speaker 2: Am, guys, I got bad news. Turns out I would
48:14
Speaker 2: be a really awful professional sports owner.
48:18
Speaker 3: So I guess I guess it's good.
48:21
Speaker 2: For all of you that I am not a billionaire,
48:23
Speaker 2: because one of the first things I would want to
48:24
Speaker 2: do was become a professional sports owner. I would try
48:27
Speaker 2: to buy the San Francisco forty nine ers and make
48:30
Speaker 2: them the Salt Lake City forty nine ers, and it
48:32
Speaker 2: probably wouldn't work out well for anybody, but I know
48:35
Speaker 2: you've seen this. It's been talked about. We have not
48:38
Speaker 2: really touched on it yet. I didn't know what kind
48:40
Speaker 2: of a story he was going to grow into. But
48:42
Speaker 2: the new Portland Trailblazers owner Tom Dundon is being dragged
48:48
Speaker 2: because he's a cheap skate. He spent four plus billion
48:52
Speaker 2: dollars to acquire the Portland Trailblazers, and then immediately, like
48:57
Speaker 2: he did with the Carolina Hurricanes by the way, he
49:00
Speaker 2: started to employing a bunch of cost cutting measures. And
49:03
Speaker 2: now now that people have caught wind of this, everyone's
49:08
Speaker 2: digging up to see how deep it goes, and it
49:10
Speaker 2: goes pretty darn deep. So deep in fact, that there
49:13
Speaker 2: are reports out there that right now the Portland Trailblazers
49:18
Speaker 2: have two in arena mascots. I didn't know this. I
49:22
Speaker 2: don't really care about this, but they have two, and
49:27
Speaker 2: apparently he's like trail and a Blazer. Apparently he's like,
49:30
Speaker 2: why do we need two of those? Because he's like,
49:33
Speaker 2: I don't want to pay I want to pay two.
49:36
Speaker 2: He's he's not flying two way players out for the
49:40
Speaker 2: playoff games. He notoriously did not sign off on the
49:46
Speaker 2: idea of giving fans the free T shirts that are
49:50
Speaker 2: often draped over the back of the seat, as we've
49:54
Speaker 2: seen tons of this with the Utah Mammoth and even
49:57
Speaker 2: Utah Jazz.
49:58
Speaker 3: Who are nowhere near the playoffs.
50:00
Speaker 4: Yeah, by the way, it cost probably costs like five
50:02
Speaker 4: dollars a shirt, Like these are not my shirt.
50:05
Speaker 3: I promise you even less.
50:07
Speaker 2: Yeah, like they're they're probably anywhere from one to three
50:11
Speaker 2: dollars a shirt. And you know there's seventeen thousand seats
50:16
Speaker 2: or whatever. This is a billionaire. We're not talking about
50:19
Speaker 2: you or I trying to fund these measures that are
50:24
Speaker 2: designed to increase the fan experience. I guess, I guess
50:31
Speaker 2: he wants people that are like employees that are traveling
50:35
Speaker 2: to not pay bag fees when they're not on the
50:40
Speaker 2: team charter and they're they're flying commercial. He's like, nope,
50:43
Speaker 2: I'm not going to sign off on paying your baggage fees.
50:46
Speaker 2: Like that's a different level of cheap. I know business
50:50
Speaker 2: owners who have like four employees who.
50:52
Speaker 3: Are just like, yeah, upgrade your seat, let's go. We're
50:55
Speaker 3: all a big family.
50:56
Speaker 7: We're in this thing together.
50:57
Speaker 3: Now.
50:57
Speaker 2: Maybe that means you never become a billionaire if you're
51:00
Speaker 2: pinching pennies aggressively. But Tom, you've made it, okay, you're
51:04
Speaker 2: a billionaire. You're rich enough that you bought the dang team.
51:08
Speaker 2: You don't have to now look for every possible line
51:13
Speaker 2: item on the balance sheet to cut costs. You've got
51:17
Speaker 2: to make yourself popular with your families. You have to
51:21
Speaker 2: endear yourself to your players, to your employees. And he's
51:25
Speaker 2: not doing that, and he has it owned the team
51:28
Speaker 2: very long, so this is already getting really ugly. And
51:30
Speaker 2: Thiago Splitter was asked about it, the Trailblazers' interim coach,
51:35
Speaker 2: and he's like, ah, I mean, it's kind of messed
51:38
Speaker 2: up to ask him that, because then he's got a
51:41
Speaker 2: rag on his boss if he wants to tell the truth.
51:44
Speaker 2: So he had to plead the fifth effectively. So I'm
51:46
Speaker 2: just gonna be a professional. We're just doing our thing.
51:51
Speaker 2: But it means like cheap skates like myself, I guess
51:54
Speaker 2: are bad sports owners. And we will update you on
51:59
Speaker 2: all the new call cutting measures that are out there
52:01
Speaker 2: for the Portland Trailblazers. They're going to become like the
52:04
Speaker 2: the NBA's budget team. All right, I gotta take a
52:11
Speaker 2: quick one that's your hot lunch. Here on the Sean
52:13
Speaker 2: O'Connell Show. Reminder to all of you that the fourth
52:17
Speaker 2: annual Funnel Cake Festival is back this weekend at Lagoon.
52:20
Speaker 3: We want you to go with your family.
52:22
Speaker 2: We've got a four pack of tickets to give away
52:24
Speaker 2: during topical trivia around one forty five. They've got a
52:28
Speaker 2: bunch of different funnel cakes. You can sample them all
52:31
Speaker 2: Saturday ten to seven Sunday ten to six. Tickets are
52:34
Speaker 2: available online right now at Lagoonpark dot com. The discounted
52:37
Speaker 2: price is eighty three to ninety five each plus tax.
52:41
Speaker 2: No promo code needed, but still TELEMOSTI sent you all right.
52:46
Speaker 2: It is messy night down in Sandy. Jason Christ, president
52:50
Speaker 2: of Soccer for RSL and for the Utah Royals, joins
52:54
Speaker 2: us next to talk about one of the biggest sporting
52:57
Speaker 2: events of the year in the state of Utah.
53:00
Speaker 3: Off, don't go anywhere.
53:01
Speaker 2: It's Sean O'Connell Show on ESPN seven hundred and ninety
53:04
Speaker 2: two on FM.
53:05
Speaker 1: Thanks please please, by Sean O'Connell Show. You are home
53:12
Speaker 1: of the besting inside of your hues. Let's get back
53:15
Speaker 1: to OC from a Murdoch Chevrolet studio of ESPN seven
53:19
Speaker 1: hundred ninety two FM.
53:23
Speaker 2: Welcome to our number two here on the Sean O'Connell Show.
53:26
Speaker 2: Our next guest is the first ever one hundred goal
53:30
Speaker 2: scorer in Major League Soccer. He is the head coach
53:34
Speaker 2: who guided RSL to an MLS Cup back in two
53:38
Speaker 2: thousand and nine. He is the current president of soccer
53:41
Speaker 2: operations for the Clareton Cobalt. Jason Christ kind enough to
53:46
Speaker 2: give us a few minutes on what is already a
53:48
Speaker 2: very busy day down in Sandy. Jason, Welcome to the
53:51
Speaker 2: Sean O'Connell Show. Thanks for your time.
53:52
Speaker 5: How are you, Thanks, Shaan, good to be here. I'm
53:55
Speaker 5: doing great. Excited for tonight.
53:58
Speaker 2: I've been trying to figure out out the right way
54:00
Speaker 2: to characterize what this night is because obviously it's a
54:05
Speaker 2: regular season professional soccer game. You have a really good
54:09
Speaker 2: club right now, off to a great start, a lot
54:12
Speaker 2: of promise on those fronts, but also you know they're
54:15
Speaker 2: special bleachers in the stadium.
54:17
Speaker 3: This was announced a year ago.
54:18
Speaker 2: It's the highest get in ticket price I've ever seen
54:21
Speaker 2: for a sporting event in the state of Utah, and
54:24
Speaker 2: a lot of that is because a global icon in
54:27
Speaker 2: Leo Messi is coming with his club. So how are
54:31
Speaker 2: you in the building characterizing and compartmentalizing what tonight is
54:35
Speaker 2: relative to a regular season game.
54:39
Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean, there's obviously two perspectives. Perspective number one
54:42
Speaker 5: is from a soccer perspective for our coaches, for our players,
54:46
Speaker 5: for our front office staff. On on the sporting side,
54:49
Speaker 5: this is just another game, you know, this is another
54:52
Speaker 5: opportunity for us to pick up three points, continue our
54:55
Speaker 5: very strong start, continue a very good home winning streak
55:00
Speaker 5: we started, and so it's another soccer game. But obviously
55:03
Speaker 5: from a more global and more business perspective for our
55:06
Speaker 5: club is some massive deal. You know. It's easy, I think,
55:09
Speaker 5: to characterize if you just say, basically, this is Michael
55:12
Speaker 5: Jordan coming to town twenty years ago, where we have
55:17
Speaker 5: the greatest player of all time coming into our building
55:20
Speaker 5: with a team that won MLS Cup last year. So
55:23
Speaker 5: the fans are going to be treated to, I think,
55:25
Speaker 5: a fantastic game tonight, and it's obviously an occasion that
55:29
Speaker 5: we should all celebrate and enjoy.
55:34
Speaker 2: The home field advantage has been incredibly strong, and again
55:38
Speaker 2: I don't want to keep hammering on the point that
55:40
Speaker 2: it's messy, but it is. It's messy. We got to
55:43
Speaker 2: at least acknowledge it. And there's a lot of people
55:45
Speaker 2: that are going to be in the building. They're going
55:47
Speaker 2: to be there because they want to see messy. How
55:51
Speaker 2: will that affect the atmosphere? Do you anticipate what that
55:55
Speaker 2: might look like?
55:56
Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean, there's a couple of things to think about, right.
55:59
Speaker 5: I mean, we now know that he is definitely in Utah.
56:02
Speaker 5: We see pictures of him at the training facility down
56:04
Speaker 5: in heairment, so you know, the perspective is that he
56:08
Speaker 5: will play and most likely he will start, just as
56:10
Speaker 5: he does in all of the regular season games that
56:13
Speaker 5: he is fit for. And I think in thinking about
56:16
Speaker 5: how you know, I would expect that there will be
56:19
Speaker 5: fans in our building a lot earlier than is typical,
56:22
Speaker 5: because I would expect that everybody would want to see
56:24
Speaker 5: him on the field warning up and so I'm excited
56:27
Speaker 5: about that and excited of having a full stadium before
56:31
Speaker 5: the game kicks off. We typically have a group of
56:34
Speaker 5: fans that likes to come a little bit late, and
56:36
Speaker 5: I've always wanted them to be there early at the
56:38
Speaker 5: start of the game, to impose himself and to make
56:41
Speaker 5: the atmosphere a difficult one for our oponent. So lots
56:45
Speaker 5: of exciting things tonight to see.
56:48
Speaker 2: When when we think about the players compartmentalizing versus the
56:54
Speaker 2: business side and the fans and whatnot, I mean, I
56:57
Speaker 2: don't know what it's like to try to compete against
57:00
Speaker 2: someone that you grew up watching and probably in some
57:02
Speaker 2: ways idolizing. I know that these guys are professionals. You
57:06
Speaker 2: have some very promising young stars on this team that
57:11
Speaker 2: probably have had Messi posters on their wall, and it's
57:15
Speaker 2: not the first time. Some of these guys will compete
57:17
Speaker 2: against him in various places. But how is that handled
57:22
Speaker 2: by players coaches because it happens for different generations with
57:26
Speaker 2: different players in soccer.
57:29
Speaker 5: Yeah, from an idealistic point of view, you want all
57:31
Speaker 5: of our players and coaches to understand this is just
57:33
Speaker 5: another game. From a realistic perspective, you know, I think
57:37
Speaker 5: this probably isn't just another game. This is an opportunity
57:39
Speaker 5: for all of our players to put themselves in the
57:42
Speaker 5: same field, as I said, with the greatest player of
57:45
Speaker 5: all time. And then there are also some other stellar
57:48
Speaker 5: players in enter Miami, which you know our players don't
57:51
Speaker 5: Maybe perhaps don't often get a chance to play against
57:54
Speaker 5: the likes and the names of some of these players
57:57
Speaker 5: on a weekend and week out basis, so will be
58:00
Speaker 5: excitement for sure. We played down in Miami two years ago,
58:04
Speaker 5: and what I would say is, and it was also
58:06
Speaker 5: the first game of the year, so I think that
58:08
Speaker 5: ads some part of it. But what I would say
58:10
Speaker 5: is it looked to be a very nervous team. My
58:12
Speaker 5: hope is that this team has been a different place
58:15
Speaker 5: with some different players and will handle the occasion very well.
58:19
Speaker 2: Was there anyone in your career that you ran up
58:22
Speaker 2: against it was a rough equivalent of what we're talking
58:25
Speaker 2: about with Messi tonight.
58:28
Speaker 5: Oh, I don't think so. If I'm honest and humble,
58:32
Speaker 5: I would say that I probably never played against anybody
58:35
Speaker 5: that I thought was one of the one of the
58:36
Speaker 5: best in the world.
58:38
Speaker 2: Jason christ is our guest here on the Sean O'Connell
58:41
Speaker 2: show RSL hosting inter Miami tonight. Leo Messi is in Utah.
58:47
Speaker 2: He is expected to be there, expected to play. Why
58:50
Speaker 2: would he make the trip if he wasn't going to play.
58:53
Speaker 2: I know that we got a couple of text messages
58:55
Speaker 2: about people worried about exactly that, especially with the high
58:58
Speaker 2: getting price. Is there any management of these situations from
59:03
Speaker 2: the MLS level, because you know, the league is obviously
59:06
Speaker 2: hyper aware of the economy around Leo Messi and what
59:11
Speaker 2: happens when he makes a unique trip to some of
59:14
Speaker 2: these places like he is in Utah. Does the league
59:17
Speaker 2: do anything with Miami with Leo to say, hey, we
59:21
Speaker 2: really need you on the field.
59:24
Speaker 5: No, I don't think that that's implicitly said. But to
59:26
Speaker 5: be honest, I don't really know.
59:28
Speaker 8: You know, I'm very.
59:29
Speaker 5: Much focused on the soccer side, not the business side.
59:31
Speaker 5: But I would have to think that Messi is aware,
59:34
Speaker 5: as is inter Miami, as is the league that you know,
59:37
Speaker 5: every time he steps on the field, that's a that's
59:39
Speaker 5: a huge financial and business windfall for the league. So
59:43
Speaker 5: I would have to think there's some implicit, implicit conversations there,
59:46
Speaker 5: implicit what the right word is, nudging perhaps, But you know,
59:52
Speaker 5: at the end of the day, this is professional sports
59:54
Speaker 5: and he is a human being, so you know he
59:56
Speaker 5: isn't going to be healthy for every single game. But
59:59
Speaker 5: I do get the feeling just by watching what he's
1:00:02
Speaker 5: done the two years he's been here. This guy doesn't
1:00:05
Speaker 5: sit out games. So it's not like he's a guy
1:00:07
Speaker 5: that's saying, Hey, I'm just gonna rest that game because
1:00:09
Speaker 5: I need to save myself for the next one. He
1:00:11
Speaker 5: seems to put himself out there every single time he's available.
1:00:15
Speaker 2: Let's talk about your squad off to a great start,
1:00:18
Speaker 2: as we've mentioned a couple of times, five to one
1:00:20
Speaker 2: and one on the season, unbeaten in the last six
1:00:25
Speaker 2: to what do you attribute the hot start if you
1:00:27
Speaker 2: can pinpoint something.
1:00:30
Speaker 5: I think a couple of things we in the off season.
1:00:32
Speaker 5: We were very critical of ourselves and evaluated where which
1:00:36
Speaker 5: particular areas we needed to get better at, which led
1:00:40
Speaker 5: us to coming up with a new tactical formation for
1:00:43
Speaker 5: our team, which then further led us to a very
1:00:48
Speaker 5: specific recruitment process. And so I think we really checked
1:00:51
Speaker 5: those three boxes pretty well. In particular, what I would
1:00:55
Speaker 5: shout out is, I think the recruitment that we've done
1:00:57
Speaker 5: in this winter to bring in the likes of Giovogi
1:01:01
Speaker 5: and Scenabria, Sergey Solons, Steinspearring's, Lucas Engel, all of these
1:01:08
Speaker 5: guys have turned out to be winners. And what I
1:01:10
Speaker 5: would say is that's that's in direct contrast, So I
1:01:12
Speaker 5: think what happened in a couple of windows before that.
1:01:15
Speaker 5: So the process has been very good, and I think
1:01:18
Speaker 5: we're seeing the results of some of that process.
1:01:20
Speaker 2: For the novice and uneducated soccer fan. How how massive
1:01:26
Speaker 2: and undertaking is it when you do change a formation,
1:01:29
Speaker 2: when you say, all right, we we're gonna kind of
1:01:31
Speaker 2: strip something down and we're gonna we're gonna alter the
1:01:34
Speaker 2: way we approach our like regular run of play, especially
1:01:38
Speaker 2: if you have you know, holdovers and guys on the
1:01:40
Speaker 2: roster that have been here at homegrown prospects that maybe
1:01:44
Speaker 2: have come up and expected game day to be a
1:01:47
Speaker 2: certain way and run through a certain system. How how
1:01:50
Speaker 2: serious of an undertaking is that for those of us
1:01:53
Speaker 2: who don't really know.
1:01:55
Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean, I wouldn't want to oversell this. I
1:01:57
Speaker 5: do think it's a challenge, but I don't think it's
1:01:59
Speaker 5: a mass is undertaking so to speak. I think that
1:02:03
Speaker 5: you have to be smart about how you do it.
1:02:05
Speaker 5: I feel very strongly about that because you know, in
1:02:09
Speaker 5: our from our perspective, we want to make those decisions
1:02:12
Speaker 5: based upon the most important players that we have and
1:02:15
Speaker 5: the players that we're trying to build around.
1:02:18
Speaker 3: So we would never.
1:02:18
Speaker 5: Want to go out and say we want to play
1:02:20
Speaker 5: this system and now we need to get all new players.
1:02:23
Speaker 5: So we look at it from the perspective of the
1:02:24
Speaker 5: Diego Lunas, the Amchanelli's and Justin Glads, the Rafaka Brals,
1:02:29
Speaker 5: DeAndre Yedlins that are coming back from last season, those
1:02:33
Speaker 5: important players. What would be a better system for them
1:02:36
Speaker 5: going forward? And how do we address specifics, which was
1:02:40
Speaker 5: how do we create more high quality goal scoring chances.
1:02:44
Speaker 2: Speaking of high quality goal scoring chances, you just mentioned
1:02:49
Speaker 2: Sergi Solon's and he's he's scored in the last three
1:02:52
Speaker 2: and two two games, two goals in the last outing.
1:02:58
Speaker 2: So the team's hot you could say that in the
1:03:00
Speaker 2: last three games especially, he's even hotter.
1:03:03
Speaker 3: What's working for him right now?
1:03:05
Speaker 5: You know, he's a very interesting person to talk about
1:03:09
Speaker 5: because you know, we got a little bit fortunate, I'd
1:03:13
Speaker 5: have to admit by drafting him two years ago, and
1:03:17
Speaker 5: at that point we wanted to bring him in basically
1:03:20
Speaker 5: as a second team player for the Monarchs, and he
1:03:22
Speaker 5: said he wanted to go back and play college, so
1:03:25
Speaker 5: he went back, changed schools, actually the UCLA, and then
1:03:28
Speaker 5: had just an incredible year last year so we approached
1:03:31
Speaker 5: it a little bit differently this year and said, you know,
1:03:34
Speaker 5: it looks like there's a great opportunity for you to
1:03:36
Speaker 5: come in now rather than go back to school for
1:03:38
Speaker 5: one more year, and have an opportunity to actually get
1:03:41
Speaker 5: minutes because we were missing Victor Olatinji form the majority
1:03:46
Speaker 5: of preseasons. So Sergeiya has come in and taken advantage
1:03:49
Speaker 5: of the opportunity and done an amazing job. But what's
1:03:54
Speaker 5: really interesting is that he has five goals, but if
1:03:57
Speaker 5: you asked him, and I'll tell you from my perspective
1:03:59
Speaker 5: as a former strike here, he should probably have ten.
1:04:02
Speaker 5: So you know, the upside is still really really large
1:04:05
Speaker 5: on this guy. And what's so admirable about him from
1:04:09
Speaker 5: all of our perspective is not necessarily just the goals,
1:04:12
Speaker 5: but the defensive work that he puts in is so
1:04:15
Speaker 5: critical for our team's success.
1:04:19
Speaker 2: Who has shouldered the load of player leadership or on
1:04:24
Speaker 2: field generalship in a way that I think, you know,
1:04:28
Speaker 2: you were considered to be that guy, and obviously guys
1:04:31
Speaker 2: like Kyle Beckerman and Nick Rimondo and some of the
1:04:33
Speaker 2: legends of this club. When when we think about the
1:04:37
Speaker 2: Claret and Cobalt those are the faces and the names
1:04:39
Speaker 2: that we're thinking of. Who are those guys on this
1:04:42
Speaker 2: year's team.
1:04:44
Speaker 5: I think it's the group has done a really good
1:04:47
Speaker 5: job of spreading it amongst a few players. Those players
1:04:50
Speaker 5: are Ralpha Cabral, Justin Glad, DeAndre Yedlin and a Mecca
1:04:54
Speaker 5: and Nelly are the names that jump right out, And
1:04:57
Speaker 5: with the addition of a guy like Lucas and who
1:05:01
Speaker 5: I think adds another nice dynamic of leaderships. I wouldn't
1:05:04
Speaker 5: say that there's one particular guy that I could point out,
1:05:08
Speaker 5: but I do think it's they're getting the job done
1:05:10
Speaker 5: by committee. If you force me into I probably would say,
1:05:14
Speaker 5: and would have to I would have to commend Ralpha
1:05:16
Speaker 5: Cabral is probably the most vocal leadership leader guy that
1:05:20
Speaker 5: we have out there.
1:05:22
Speaker 2: Jason christ our guest here on the Sean O'Connell Show
1:05:24
Speaker 2: for another couple of minutes. It's a big night down
1:05:26
Speaker 2: in Sandy at America First Field RSL hosting inter Miami
1:05:31
Speaker 2: Leo Messi in town. Tickets are available on the secondary market,
1:05:36
Speaker 2: but be ready to break the bank because it is
1:05:38
Speaker 2: a hot item and this RSL team needs your support.
1:05:43
Speaker 2: They have looked really excellent so far, and a big
1:05:46
Speaker 2: opportunity against the good Miami team as well coming.
1:05:50
Speaker 3: Up in a few scant weeks.
1:05:52
Speaker 2: Obviously, you've got the FIFA World Cup from the RSL perspective,
1:05:57
Speaker 2: from the MLS perspective, and I guess for you, know you,
1:06:01
Speaker 2: as the president of Soccer Operations, how how difficult to
1:06:04
Speaker 2: challenge is it to incorporate this massive global event right
1:06:08
Speaker 2: in the middle of the season.
1:06:11
Speaker 1: Yeah.
1:06:11
Speaker 5: I mean, obviously, the World Cup is the most important
1:06:14
Speaker 5: sporting event in the world, and so I'm not going
1:06:17
Speaker 5: to sit here and tell you that I'm frustrated by it.
1:06:19
Speaker 5: But truthfully, when you start off the way we are,
1:06:22
Speaker 5: we would love to just continue on the momentum that
1:06:25
Speaker 5: we've created and kind of keep rolling through this season.
1:06:29
Speaker 5: So it will be viewed as a challenge by us.
1:06:32
Speaker 5: We can, you know, we will be able to take
1:06:34
Speaker 5: the time and have players take a couple of weeks off,
1:06:37
Speaker 5: actually get some rest, and then come back in and
1:06:41
Speaker 5: focus on and put the players through basically another mini preseason.
1:06:46
Speaker 5: We are also trying to make some decisions so that
1:06:48
Speaker 5: we can have some games leading back into the second
1:06:51
Speaker 5: half of the season for us. So what it does
1:06:53
Speaker 5: is it makes a little more work than what we
1:06:55
Speaker 5: would like, but we have to consider the benefits of
1:06:58
Speaker 5: what will happen from World Cup to be to be
1:07:00
Speaker 5: ultimately a positive thing for us.
1:07:04
Speaker 2: In other pro sports, we talk all the time about
1:07:06
Speaker 2: the you know, things like salary cap, we talk about
1:07:10
Speaker 2: contract situations. We talk about in baseball, especially the farm system.
1:07:15
Speaker 2: And there's been some significant proof of concept with the
1:07:19
Speaker 2: RSL academy and homegrown players becoming important guys on the
1:07:24
Speaker 2: MLS squad. And you're in this role now, we're kind
1:07:27
Speaker 2: of overseeing all of it. Do you stay the course?
1:07:31
Speaker 2: Are there changes necessary down the line? How do you
1:07:34
Speaker 2: view I guess the growth of the RSL product, especially
1:07:37
Speaker 2: from within.
1:07:39
Speaker 5: We're extremely proud of it, extremely proud of it. I
1:07:42
Speaker 5: would say it's you know, when I came in to
1:07:45
Speaker 5: two years and a couple of months ago, that was
1:07:48
Speaker 5: my first and primary focus was to try to make
1:07:51
Speaker 5: sure that the academy, the way we were playing, the
1:07:56
Speaker 5: players that we were producing and developing, the identity of
1:08:00
Speaker 5: the whole thing was in a strict alignment with the
1:08:05
Speaker 5: first team and Monarchs, and was able to implement that
1:08:10
Speaker 5: over probably what took about six months to make sure
1:08:14
Speaker 5: that all the coaches are speaking the same language, the
1:08:17
Speaker 5: positional profiles are the same for all the players. And
1:08:21
Speaker 5: before that, you know, a couple of years before that,
1:08:23
Speaker 5: when mister Blitzer came on as the majority owner, he
1:08:27
Speaker 5: and Tony Beltran, Kurt Schmid, people like that put a
1:08:30
Speaker 5: big focus on trying to get that academy headed in
1:08:33
Speaker 5: a good direction. So I would say that currently and
1:08:37
Speaker 5: I think for the next several years, we have and
1:08:40
Speaker 5: are going to be able to reach some massive benefits
1:08:44
Speaker 5: from a lot of very intentional work that was done
1:08:47
Speaker 5: four years ago and again sort of refocused on as
1:08:50
Speaker 5: I came into two and a half years ago.
1:08:53
Speaker 2: I know I already asked you a World Cup question,
1:08:55
Speaker 2: but this slipped my mind at the moment. Do we
1:08:59
Speaker 2: know what countries, what clubs are going to be using
1:09:04
Speaker 2: RSL facilities in order to sort of camp and uh
1:09:08
Speaker 2: and prepare themselves for the World Cup here in North America?
1:09:12
Speaker 8: Yeah, we do.
1:09:12
Speaker 5: We have two. We have South Korea that's going to
1:09:15
Speaker 5: come in as like a pre World Cup. They want
1:09:18
Speaker 5: to get some elevation trainings. I think there they maybe
1:09:20
Speaker 5: play a game or two down in Mexico's city, so
1:09:23
Speaker 5: they're going to do like a pre World Cup training
1:09:25
Speaker 5: camp with US here down in Harriman and Zebra, and
1:09:29
Speaker 5: then we will have Bosnia and Herzegovnia. This that their
1:09:33
Speaker 5: their home base. Training camp will be here, but it
1:09:36
Speaker 5: won't be at the training facility, It'll actually be out
1:09:39
Speaker 5: of our stadium.
1:09:40
Speaker 3: Oh cool.
1:09:41
Speaker 2: Do you do you have relationships with anyone in those
1:09:45
Speaker 2: or is this going to be kind of like a
1:09:46
Speaker 2: you know, expanding your personal network when when that happens
1:09:51
Speaker 2: in both both cases, the Bosnia herz Arena and the
1:09:54
Speaker 2: South Korea.
1:09:56
Speaker 5: Yeah, I do not have relationships yet or connections yet,
1:10:00
Speaker 5: but do plan to try to try to establish some.
1:10:03
Speaker 5: I have an off, sort of weird connection with a
1:10:06
Speaker 5: player from Bosnian Herzegovinian named Van Jeko. He was a
1:10:10
Speaker 5: player at Man City when I was over there for
1:10:12
Speaker 5: six months doing my implementation with City Football Group.
1:10:19
Speaker 2: Are you better at coaching, playing soccer or being in
1:10:24
Speaker 2: an administrative role? When you look back at all of
1:10:27
Speaker 2: what you've done, which one suits you best?
1:10:29
Speaker 3: You think?
1:10:31
Speaker 5: Oh? Man, I don't know. I mean obviously, being a
1:10:33
Speaker 5: professional player was probably the most enjoyable time of my life.
1:10:37
Speaker 5: Felt like you get to focus on something for very
1:10:40
Speaker 5: very short amounts of time and spend a lot of
1:10:42
Speaker 5: time with your family. So I love that. From a
1:10:45
Speaker 5: coaching perspective, I love, you know, putting a group together
1:10:49
Speaker 5: and leading them and trying to establish identity and culture
1:10:52
Speaker 5: and those sorts of things. In the role that I
1:10:54
Speaker 5: am now, I'm probably you know, still doing a lot
1:10:56
Speaker 5: of those things with identity, culture alignment and all of that.
1:11:01
Speaker 5: And I think from a legacy perspective, I would say
1:11:05
Speaker 5: that I would like to walk away from this job
1:11:08
Speaker 5: at some point feeling like I had a really positive
1:11:11
Speaker 5: influence on a large number of people. And you know,
1:11:15
Speaker 5: the greatest opportunity for that is in the exact role
1:11:18
Speaker 5: that I'm in now. So I just can say anything
1:11:20
Speaker 5: more than I'm very very happy with what I'm doing
1:11:22
Speaker 5: and I'm extremely happy with where I'm at.
1:11:26
Speaker 2: For the league itself. When you were a player in
1:11:28
Speaker 2: the more foundational days of MLS soccer, did you in
1:11:33
Speaker 2: those days anticipate that, you know, at some point there
1:11:37
Speaker 2: would be you know, five hundred dollars a seat stadiums
1:11:40
Speaker 2: being sold out across the land for MLS soccer.
1:11:45
Speaker 5: Absolutely not, absolutely not. I would never have seen a
1:11:49
Speaker 5: you know, never thought that a player like Lionel Messi
1:11:52
Speaker 5: would come here at an age that he still has
1:11:54
Speaker 5: a lot to give to the game and in a
1:11:57
Speaker 5: competitive way. I mean, those early years of the league,
1:12:01
Speaker 5: we had some global stars, but you know, those global
1:12:03
Speaker 5: stars were really quite pasted it from a physical perspective,
1:12:07
Speaker 5: and it was obvious to everyone.
1:12:10
Speaker 2: When Team USA trots out for the upcoming World Cup,
1:12:14
Speaker 2: what are our chances? The World Cup for me is
1:12:17
Speaker 2: a lot like the Olympics, where for a few weeks
1:12:21
Speaker 2: have become a passionate expert on gymnastics and everything else
1:12:26
Speaker 2: in the Olympics, And so I will pretend that I'm
1:12:29
Speaker 2: an expert on soccer for those few weeks. But give
1:12:32
Speaker 2: me the real skinny on how Team USA should fare
1:12:35
Speaker 2: in this upcoming World Cup.
1:12:37
Speaker 5: You know, that's a difficult question because I would have
1:12:40
Speaker 5: said a year a year and a half ago, I
1:12:43
Speaker 5: would have told you that I think We've got a
1:12:44
Speaker 5: chance to make a real big impact on this tournament
1:12:47
Speaker 5: at home. But now, having watched the team this last
1:12:51
Speaker 5: month or two, my hopes and aspirations have probably gone
1:12:55
Speaker 5: down significantly. But I also know that, you know, you
1:12:59
Speaker 5: can have a couple of bad games that our friendly
1:13:03
Speaker 5: and that can look extremely different from when you put
1:13:06
Speaker 5: the team out there and there's there's pressure and competition
1:13:09
Speaker 5: and the support of all of our fans and the
1:13:11
Speaker 5: biggest sporting event in the world. So I'm still hopeful
1:13:14
Speaker 5: that our guys are going to make a mark, make
1:13:16
Speaker 5: it out of the make it out of the group stages,
1:13:18
Speaker 5: and I think that we.
1:13:19
Speaker 3: Have to kick on.
1:13:20
Speaker 5: We have to establish a new level of expectation, which
1:13:24
Speaker 5: isn't just to get out of our group, but we
1:13:25
Speaker 5: need to start winning some of these knockout games. So
1:13:28
Speaker 5: I'll project that we're going to win that first knockout
1:13:30
Speaker 5: game as well.
1:13:31
Speaker 3: Well.
1:13:32
Speaker 2: Your word is gospel on this show, So now that's
1:13:35
Speaker 2: the expectation for everyone who's listening, and we will be
1:13:38
Speaker 2: sorely disappointed if it doesn't happen.
1:13:41
Speaker 5: That's unfair pressure, but I'll take it up.
1:13:44
Speaker 2: Look, enjoy tonight, enjoy the season because obviously that's the
1:13:49
Speaker 2: more important thing in your world, and it's going really
1:13:51
Speaker 2: well so far. I know you're very busy, especially today,
1:13:55
Speaker 2: so again I very much appreciate your time.
1:13:57
Speaker 5: Thank you, You're welcome, You're welcome, Thanks for having me.
1:14:01
Speaker 2: That is Jason christ an icon in RSL Claret and Cobalt,
1:14:07
Speaker 2: current president of Soccer Operations. Of course, he was a
1:14:11
Speaker 2: player for RSL, he was a coach during those title
1:14:14
Speaker 2: run years and for the title and now he's overseeing
1:14:18
Speaker 2: it all. And tonight, as we have talked about at
1:14:21
Speaker 2: nauseum on, the show is as big a night as
1:14:24
Speaker 2: it gets, not only for RSL but for sports in
1:14:28
Speaker 2: the state. I mean, this is way way up there.
1:14:32
Speaker 2: I have the poll question out I would like for
1:14:33
Speaker 2: you to go vote on it, or you can text
1:14:35
Speaker 2: me at eight seven seven three five three zero seven
1:14:38
Speaker 2: hundred at real OC Sports on Twitter. I'm gonna give
1:14:42
Speaker 2: you a free ticket. You can go see Messi tonight
1:14:46
Speaker 2: in Sandy. You can go to this year's Utah BYU game,
1:14:52
Speaker 2: or you can be in the building at the Delta
1:14:55
Speaker 2: Center on Friday for the first ever home playoff game
1:14:59
Speaker 2: for the Utah Mammoth. But if you accept my free ticket,
1:15:05
Speaker 2: you don't get to go to the other ones. So
1:15:07
Speaker 2: you only get to go to one Messy Mammoth Holy War.
1:15:12
Speaker 2: Which one are you choosing? Eight seven seven three five
1:15:15
Speaker 2: three zero seven hundred at real OC Sports on Twitter.
1:15:22
Speaker 2: All right, we're gonna stay on this because it is massive.
1:15:26
Speaker 2: J Knolly RSL Radio Color Analyst is going to join
1:15:28
Speaker 2: us next. But a reminder that ESPN seven hundred and
1:15:32
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1:15:34
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1:16:29
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1:16:36
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Speaker 1: About Shaan O'Connell show. It's your source for the best
1:16:40
Speaker 1: utes football company. Here's OC from the Murdoch Hyundai Studio
1:16:44
Speaker 1: of ESPN seven hundred ninety two to one a half am.
1:16:52
Speaker 2: It is messy day down in Sandy RSL hosting into Miami.
1:17:00
Speaker 2: Leo MESSI expected to play tonight seven point thirty first
1:17:04
Speaker 2: kick America first field is right now. It's a hot
1:17:10
Speaker 2: ticket if you can get your hands on one. Hopefully
1:17:12
Speaker 2: you don't have to break the bank to do so.
1:17:15
Speaker 2: Maybe you can just text our next guest if you
1:17:17
Speaker 2: have him in the phone, and see what he can.
1:17:19
Speaker 3: Do for you.
1:17:20
Speaker 2: J Nley Rsel radio color analyst kind of enough to
1:17:22
Speaker 2: join us here on the Sean O'Connell Show.
1:17:25
Speaker 3: Jay Welcome, How are you good?
1:17:27
Speaker 8: John? Good to be here too. And I will say
1:17:30
Speaker 8: I am worthless in getting tickets probably like everybody else
1:17:34
Speaker 8: right now.
1:17:35
Speaker 3: Yeah, I was.
1:17:37
Speaker 2: I was making fun of our guy Trey Fitzgerald because
1:17:40
Speaker 2: he sent me the link for like the media you know,
1:17:43
Speaker 2: the media Credential pass and was like, hey, if you
1:17:45
Speaker 2: want to, I was like, I thought you would get
1:17:46
Speaker 2: me free front row tickets, dude, And he said maybe
1:17:50
Speaker 2: any other game.
1:17:51
Speaker 3: But not this one.
1:17:53
Speaker 8: Yeah, I was just happy they approved me as well.
1:17:57
Speaker 2: Before we get into any soccer. I don't know the
1:18:00
Speaker 2: last time we had you on the show. It's probably
1:18:02
Speaker 2: my first stint with ESPN seven hundred. But if I
1:18:06
Speaker 2: take you back to two thousand and four and I
1:18:09
Speaker 2: say you are Indiana Hoosiers football, obviously soccer national power.
1:18:17
Speaker 2: Someday this is going to happen for your American football
1:18:20
Speaker 2: team as well.
1:18:21
Speaker 3: What would you have told me?
1:18:23
Speaker 8: I would have said that the football team was the
1:18:27
Speaker 8: lowest on the totem pull of what we were focused on.
1:18:30
Speaker 8: You know, it was basketball school when I was there,
1:18:33
Speaker 8: Soccer swimming very strong. I was a part of two
1:18:37
Speaker 8: national championships and the second place as well. I was
1:18:41
Speaker 8: in four final fours as well, so really strong, and
1:18:44
Speaker 8: it was just never felt the resources is going that way.
1:18:47
Speaker 8: But you know, the new era of nil and hitting
1:18:51
Speaker 8: on the right coach changed. It Probably the most incredible
1:18:56
Speaker 8: two years I've been able to watch Indiana, especially at
1:18:58
Speaker 8: Clipson beating Miami in the championship.
1:19:01
Speaker 3: So be honest with me.
1:19:02
Speaker 2: When you're a proud alum, right, and obviously you're watching
1:19:06
Speaker 2: soccer and you're watching basketball because it always was a
1:19:09
Speaker 2: basketball school. Are you just like, all right, I'll surprise
1:19:13
Speaker 2: jump on this football bandwagon that we never thought was
1:19:16
Speaker 2: going to be a thing. Like your from your fan perspective,
1:19:19
Speaker 2: what is it like?
1:19:22
Speaker 8: My kids think I'm the weirdest guy ever now. I mean,
1:19:25
Speaker 8: I've always been a proud alum like Indiana, just because
1:19:29
Speaker 8: we were really tight knit with the soccer community. I
1:19:31
Speaker 8: still get text messages probably monthly. They send updates, so
1:19:35
Speaker 8: you're always involved. They brought me out about a year
1:19:37
Speaker 8: and a half ago for the fiftieth anniversary, showed the
1:19:41
Speaker 8: new upgrades to the stadium, you know, Assembly Hall, everything
1:19:44
Speaker 8: they've done there. So they do such a phenomenal job
1:19:48
Speaker 8: with their alumni, and I think it's one of the
1:19:49
Speaker 8: biggest alumni bases in the in the country. And I
1:19:53
Speaker 8: think now they're starting to see the fruits of the
1:19:54
Speaker 8: labor of you know, more donors investing. You know, there's
1:19:58
Speaker 8: some very high end donors. Obviously Mark q Been, which
1:20:01
Speaker 8: now has kind of helped support that team. But you know,
1:20:04
Speaker 8: the basketball teams had had one of the best transfer
1:20:07
Speaker 8: portals as well, so they're they're one. You know, if
1:20:10
Speaker 8: you missed the NCAA tournament it's kind of like what happened.
1:20:13
Speaker 8: So the Big Ten is just so strong top to bottom,
1:20:17
Speaker 8: really so competing in there.
1:20:19
Speaker 3: I just love to.
1:20:20
Speaker 8: See that the university I went to is now on
1:20:23
Speaker 8: the same level of like a Michigan, Ohio state when
1:20:26
Speaker 8: when you look across the board in sports.
1:20:28
Speaker 3: It's fascinating.
1:20:29
Speaker 2: It's awesome to see, and I'm sure it's not going
1:20:32
Speaker 2: to slow down anytime soon, especially if Kurtz Signetti sticks around.
1:20:35
Speaker 2: But let's talk about what you're here to talk about.
1:20:37
Speaker 2: It is a massive night in Sandy at America First Field.
1:20:41
Speaker 2: And Leo Messi for the non hardcore soccer fans, he's
1:20:46
Speaker 2: a guy that still crosses over. We know that he's
1:20:49
Speaker 2: an icon. We know that he's somebody that you know.
1:20:52
Speaker 2: It's kind of a treat to get to watch him
1:20:54
Speaker 2: and to be in the building to do it. Certainly
1:20:56
Speaker 2: it's a high price point, but a lot of people
1:20:58
Speaker 2: are ready to do it. What is it actually going
1:21:00
Speaker 2: to look like on the field, I mean, give me
1:21:03
Speaker 2: a sense of where Leo Messi is still at in
1:21:06
Speaker 2: this season so far, He's not the spring chicken that
1:21:09
Speaker 2: he once was. But we just had Jason Chrice on
1:21:12
Speaker 2: and he feels like there's a lot left for Leo
1:21:15
Speaker 2: Messi to give the game. Give me your perspective on
1:21:18
Speaker 2: what kind of a soccer player you're getting to see
1:21:20
Speaker 2: tonight in Sandy.
1:21:23
Speaker 8: Yeah, I think you know, when little kids grasp onto
1:21:27
Speaker 8: soccer and and you know they want to continue it on.
1:21:31
Speaker 8: You know, what are the types of stars they look
1:21:32
Speaker 8: at Messy's you know obviously up there Ronaldo, those types
1:21:36
Speaker 8: of players. Messy is just different from you know what
1:21:40
Speaker 8: we traditionally grow up with, you know, the tall, tot strong,
1:21:43
Speaker 8: you know, the physical forwards. He is just two three
1:21:47
Speaker 8: steps ahead, so smart. What's interesting if you just kind
1:21:51
Speaker 8: of watch how he plays as well too. He starts stop,
1:21:56
Speaker 8: you know, kind of lingers in an area, and then
1:21:58
Speaker 8: all of a sudden, it's just incredible bursts of speed
1:22:01
Speaker 8: and his control, his body control and then touches. He's
1:22:05
Speaker 8: always thinking ahead of like, you know, the player is
1:22:08
Speaker 8: going to move in this area, so I know if
1:22:09
Speaker 8: I cut back, my forward's going to be available in
1:22:12
Speaker 8: this It's just phenomenal the way he connects people, and
1:22:16
Speaker 8: you see defenders kind of swarm to him and it
1:22:18
Speaker 8: opens up other players. But even when they just swarm
1:22:21
Speaker 8: to him, he wiggles his way through and creates an
1:22:24
Speaker 8: incredible opportunity. He can shoot from anywhere with his left foot,
1:22:28
Speaker 8: put it on his right foot as well. It's just
1:22:31
Speaker 8: that guy that has an incredible work rate when he's
1:22:33
Speaker 8: on the ball, but also when he sees the space
1:22:39
Speaker 8: where and you just love that he gets kind of
1:22:42
Speaker 8: that free role where he can kind of float around
1:22:43
Speaker 8: and everybody's kind of aware. But it helps shift the
1:22:46
Speaker 8: defenses in certain positions to help his team. But also,
1:22:50
Speaker 8: you know, he's got an incredible cast around him too,
1:22:52
Speaker 8: which helps with inter Miami. But he's you know, he
1:22:57
Speaker 8: is older, but I don't see much slowing down right now,
1:23:01
Speaker 8: even if you go back to the last game squarreter PK.
1:23:03
Speaker 8: But also the second goal that he scored, the game
1:23:06
Speaker 8: winning goal against Colorado was just phenomenal. Two guys closing
1:23:09
Speaker 8: in on him, cuts back on his right foot, splits
1:23:11
Speaker 8: the gap, beats the goalkeeper back posts like that is
1:23:14
Speaker 8: just world class finishing. And hopefully the fans get to
1:23:18
Speaker 8: see a little taste of that tonight with RSL leaving
1:23:21
Speaker 8: with a win.
1:23:24
Speaker 2: So how does it work if you're a goaltender against
1:23:28
Speaker 2: inter Miami with Leo MESSI on the field, I know
1:23:32
Speaker 2: absolutely nothing about playing the position. How much of your
1:23:36
Speaker 2: attention has to be like a quarter of my eye.
1:23:39
Speaker 2: I got to know where he's at at all times.
1:23:41
Speaker 2: Are you just following the ball and the formation and
1:23:43
Speaker 2: the past, I mean, give me a sense of trying
1:23:46
Speaker 2: to keep the ball out of the goal when he
1:23:49
Speaker 2: and those guys are on the field in front of you.
1:23:52
Speaker 8: Yeah, and I think, you know, I'll give some credit
1:23:55
Speaker 8: to Rafa Cabral who I absolutely think has been phenomenal
1:23:59
Speaker 8: since over to RSL. You know, it's really positioning and
1:24:04
Speaker 8: not not baiting yourself into trying to think what he's
1:24:08
Speaker 8: going to do. You know, you've just got to keep
1:24:10
Speaker 8: your feet. You got to keep the correct positioning because
1:24:15
Speaker 8: at any moment he could pull the trigger. But also
1:24:18
Speaker 8: you may think he may slot at one area and
1:24:20
Speaker 8: he's going to hit it back post for for a
1:24:22
Speaker 8: player coming in, and so if you're trying baiting one
1:24:25
Speaker 8: way or leaning one way, he's going to wrong foot you.
1:24:29
Speaker 8: Just like defenders as well. So it's really you know,
1:24:31
Speaker 8: taking the high percentage save, you know, and if you're
1:24:34
Speaker 8: you're in good positioning, you've got good angles, you know,
1:24:37
Speaker 8: then you can you can give yourself at least a
1:24:39
Speaker 8: high percentage save in this If you start guessing or
1:24:42
Speaker 8: baiting to a certain area, he's going to slip one in.
1:24:45
Speaker 8: And you know that's when you kind of look like
1:24:47
Speaker 8: with your your your pants held down when he makes
1:24:50
Speaker 8: it kind of look silly because he does that to everybody.
1:24:53
Speaker 8: So for Rafa, it's really you know, focusing on which
1:24:56
Speaker 8: way he can probably cut in, which way the defender's
1:24:58
Speaker 8: kind of supporting him, and then keeping his seat. And
1:25:00
Speaker 8: he's phenomenal with reactions saved. So that's why I think
1:25:03
Speaker 8: he's going to come up big if Messi gets free.
1:25:06
Speaker 2: For everyone else, you know, you probably grew up at
1:25:09
Speaker 2: some point with a Messy poster on your wall or
1:25:13
Speaker 2: playing the FIFA video game and like making sure that
1:25:16
Speaker 2: he's the guy who's piling up all the goals and
1:25:18
Speaker 2: now you got to you got to go slide tackle him.
1:25:21
Speaker 2: You got to try to keep the ball away from him.
1:25:23
Speaker 2: What's the right way to approach it when you're going
1:25:25
Speaker 2: up against someone like him in a game like this
1:25:28
Speaker 2: one where your team, I mean, it's high stakes, it's
1:25:31
Speaker 2: early in the season, but your team's off to an
1:25:33
Speaker 2: excellent start.
1:25:35
Speaker 8: Yeah, and and the I think you said it too
1:25:38
Speaker 8: there for about RFL off to an excellent start, and
1:25:41
Speaker 8: I think you know, it's been building. You know, the
1:25:42
Speaker 8: beginning of the season didn't really have everybody had some
1:25:45
Speaker 8: young guys lifted up, and now it's really kind of
1:25:47
Speaker 8: lifted all the guys that have come in, you know,
1:25:50
Speaker 8: the winter signings, even even some of the young guys
1:25:53
Speaker 8: that are in you know, pretty much year two of starting,
1:25:56
Speaker 8: we've seen that lift. So the work rate for RFL,
1:26:00
Speaker 8: it's incredible from what it was, you know in prior
1:26:02
Speaker 8: seasons as a team, as a group, in the way
1:26:05
Speaker 8: that they're showing up for each other. And so that's
1:26:09
Speaker 8: going to be a big piece is when if he
1:26:10
Speaker 8: breaks free in space, you know, how do you get
1:26:13
Speaker 8: him to a position where you know he's not being
1:26:16
Speaker 8: able to attack the goal, you know, pushing him out wide,
1:26:18
Speaker 8: making him playoff to other players. But you know, when
1:26:22
Speaker 8: you dive in, you just see how tight his touches
1:26:24
Speaker 8: are and how quickly he can get around you. And
1:26:27
Speaker 8: that's when you're just scrambling as a defensive unit. You know,
1:26:30
Speaker 8: if he gets around you know, one of the pivots
1:26:33
Speaker 8: in spirits or kala scan, you know, and Justin Glad
1:26:36
Speaker 8: has to step out. That means DeAndre Yedlin has to
1:26:39
Speaker 8: slide in her angle and then that's opening up the outside.
1:26:41
Speaker 8: So that's where he is just so smooth. When he
1:26:44
Speaker 8: beats one two players, it just creates so much space
1:26:47
Speaker 8: for everybody, So you know, it's really kind of keeping
1:26:49
Speaker 8: your feet, not making him find that little hole to
1:26:53
Speaker 8: get in and around you and try and push him
1:26:54
Speaker 8: into areas where you get additional support. But you know,
1:26:57
Speaker 8: if you're diving in or you know, reaching on him,
1:27:01
Speaker 8: he's so strong on the ball and with his body.
1:27:04
Speaker 8: Even when it looks like he's gonna go down with
1:27:06
Speaker 8: a foul, he ends up just getting through and keep going.
1:27:09
Speaker 8: And so for RSL it'll definitely be a tough test,
1:27:13
Speaker 8: especially when they break out into a counter. They do
1:27:16
Speaker 8: play a lot of high press and that's going to
1:27:18
Speaker 8: be hard as well. If there's turnovers in the midfield,
1:27:20
Speaker 8: they're immediately down your throat, and so RFL's got to
1:27:24
Speaker 8: be clean on the ball. When they're playing out of
1:27:25
Speaker 8: the back because both teams like to play out of the.
1:27:28
Speaker 2: Back, obviously you're going to do your best to slow
1:27:32
Speaker 2: him down, slow his teammates down, But it won't matter
1:27:36
Speaker 2: that much if you can find the back of the
1:27:38
Speaker 2: net yourself, and this RSL team has done a really
1:27:40
Speaker 2: good job of that, especially in these last three games.
1:27:43
Speaker 2: But so far this season again unbeaten through six, five
1:27:47
Speaker 2: to one and one. What was the key for them
1:27:50
Speaker 2: offensively against Miami's defensive formation.
1:27:54
Speaker 8: Yeah, and I think for RSL again too, it's it's
1:27:57
Speaker 8: been the work rate. And you know, going with meeting
1:28:00
Speaker 8: with Pablo yesterday as the stadium, you know went through
1:28:05
Speaker 8: the Guilabogee goal and the backtracking from uh Solons and Guilbogie,
1:28:12
Speaker 8: you know, knowing that Diego Luna's kind of caught up,
1:28:14
Speaker 8: both of them dropped back into the channel to win
1:28:16
Speaker 8: the ball, It's a quick out to Luna switches the field,
1:28:21
Speaker 8: you know, and then uh Solons is running out the
1:28:23
Speaker 8: defender and opens up for Guiliboge. So you know, both
1:28:26
Speaker 8: side defending is going to be huge for RSL. Miami
1:28:30
Speaker 8: is susceptible to counter attacks. You know, when they start,
1:28:34
Speaker 8: they push a lot of people up the field. When
1:28:35
Speaker 8: they high press, they get their their mid part up
1:28:38
Speaker 8: high as well too. And when you see teams be
1:28:41
Speaker 8: successful as they break through that that's when the defense
1:28:44
Speaker 8: gets a little bit stretched, and that's why it shows.
1:28:47
Speaker 8: You know, they've given up sixteen goals the season in
1:28:49
Speaker 8: eight games, so averaging two goals a game. You know
1:28:52
Speaker 8: they they have risk reward. They know that they can
1:28:55
Speaker 8: go and score and they try to kind of outscore you.
1:28:58
Speaker 8: But I think RSL is actually set up really well
1:29:01
Speaker 8: the way they've played their formation to high press to
1:29:04
Speaker 8: win those balls, but also if they're backtracking, they can
1:29:07
Speaker 8: also spring into the counter attack pretty quickly to get
1:29:10
Speaker 8: in behind that midfield.
1:29:13
Speaker 2: Jay Nolly for another minute or two here on the
1:29:15
Speaker 2: Sean O'Connell show. RSL into Miami tonight at America First
1:29:20
Speaker 2: field starts at seven point thirty. I would imagine you
1:29:24
Speaker 2: want to leave early, get down there, watch the warm ups.
1:29:26
Speaker 2: Leo Messi expected to play. He is here in Utah.
1:29:31
Speaker 2: So when you get to the big picture of what
1:29:34
Speaker 2: this team is actually capable of in today's MLS, I
1:29:39
Speaker 2: know it's early in the season, but if you're projecting
1:29:42
Speaker 2: out in your maybe best case scenario, what do you
1:29:45
Speaker 2: see this group being able to accomplish.
1:29:47
Speaker 8: Yeah, I think this team, you know, definitely has the
1:29:51
Speaker 8: capability to push into that top four when we're talking
1:29:55
Speaker 8: about a playoff push, and you know, I think the
1:29:59
Speaker 8: beginning part of the season really kind of tailored the
1:30:01
Speaker 8: way they're going to They shift the formation obviously, you know,
1:30:05
Speaker 8: from last season into preseason and here, and I think
1:30:09
Speaker 8: the addition to of a few players and also some
1:30:12
Speaker 8: you know we commonly talk about, you know, Justin Gladd
1:30:15
Speaker 8: is such a pivotal piece in that center back position
1:30:18
Speaker 8: for what they can do because attacking wise, there's a
1:30:21
Speaker 8: lot of times they're there two v two in the back,
1:30:23
Speaker 8: you know, with Angle and Glad Or Yedlin and Glad
1:30:26
Speaker 8: Or Quinn and Glad you know, and that's because they
1:30:28
Speaker 8: have the confidence in them, and you have to do
1:30:30
Speaker 8: that to be able to push forward. So I think
1:30:33
Speaker 8: RSL getting some of those young guys out, you know,
1:30:36
Speaker 8: and and Salon's getting that opportunity with Victor Olatunji having
1:30:40
Speaker 8: an inn. You know, he's got five goals on the season,
1:30:43
Speaker 8: leading the team in is technically his rookie season, you know,
1:30:48
Speaker 8: even knowing that he was going to be a pro
1:30:50
Speaker 8: a couple of years ago, but had a phenomenal year
1:30:52
Speaker 8: in college last season, came in and has just done
1:30:55
Speaker 8: great with his opportunity and now it's kind of hard
1:30:58
Speaker 8: for victors to get on the field, but you have
1:31:00
Speaker 8: him and hether Konnie, Dylan, Junkwall, all these types of
1:31:03
Speaker 8: players on the bench as well. You know it's Scenabio
1:31:06
Speaker 8: is going to be on the bench too. So I
1:31:08
Speaker 8: think the talent is something that has really lifted up
1:31:12
Speaker 8: this year. They've done a phenomenal job and picking up
1:31:16
Speaker 8: some players. Gilbogie is incredible. I don't think we've seen
1:31:20
Speaker 8: the best of him yet. He's got one goal in
1:31:22
Speaker 8: the season, probably should have four or five from his opportunities,
1:31:26
Speaker 8: and that's only going to continue to happen. And then
1:31:28
Speaker 8: you've got Diego Luna, who's potentially going to be, you know,
1:31:30
Speaker 8: with the men's national team during the World Cup. So
1:31:33
Speaker 8: the pieces they have are elevated from last season and
1:31:38
Speaker 8: then this formation and then the way the team is playing.
1:31:41
Speaker 8: I do think that's why they've had such a good start,
1:31:44
Speaker 8: but also why they can really compete at a higher
1:31:46
Speaker 8: level against you know, even inter Miami tonight. I fully
1:31:52
Speaker 8: expect this to be a great game back and forth.
1:31:55
Speaker 8: Both teams, probably high pressing. If you watch the San
1:31:58
Speaker 8: Diego game, be a little bit like that, but just
1:32:01
Speaker 8: the commitment from each player and supporting each other in
1:32:03
Speaker 8: the in the ways they need to go. It's just
1:32:06
Speaker 8: been really impressive to start the season.
1:32:11
Speaker 3: Who's the best player you ever stoned when you were
1:32:13
Speaker 3: in goal?
1:32:16
Speaker 8: I think so. So luckily for RFL, I know you
1:32:20
Speaker 8: had Jason Glad Jason christ On earlier. My second year
1:32:24
Speaker 8: at RSEL, we got to play Real Madrid and I
1:32:29
Speaker 8: got to play the second half of that and you know,
1:32:32
Speaker 8: David Beckham had a free kick that I saved up
1:32:35
Speaker 8: and over the wall. Robinho had a one on one
1:32:37
Speaker 8: that I saved, Venis Nora and I got got into it.
1:32:41
Speaker 8: So some of those you know, impactful games where you
1:32:44
Speaker 8: know you're with an MLS team and you get to play,
1:32:48
Speaker 8: you know, one of the top one of the top
1:32:51
Speaker 8: teams in the world. It's just incredible. Also got to
1:32:54
Speaker 8: play against man City when I was with Vancouver when
1:32:58
Speaker 8: they came off that twenty twelve of epic comeback to
1:33:02
Speaker 8: win and to win the Premier League at the death.
1:33:07
Speaker 8: I got to play against that former team and walked
1:33:10
Speaker 8: off the field with Joe Hart and got his jersey.
1:33:12
Speaker 8: So luckily I've I've been able to play with play
1:33:15
Speaker 8: against some some incredible guys. But you know, Beckham, just
1:33:19
Speaker 8: the impact that he's had in the league. I was
1:33:22
Speaker 8: also with DC United when he played his first game
1:33:25
Speaker 8: for MLS uh in d C, so I got to
1:33:29
Speaker 8: see some pretty cool things. But you know, I played
1:33:32
Speaker 8: overseas a little bit as all two training. But you know,
1:33:34
Speaker 8: I think that Real Madrid was one of the most
1:33:36
Speaker 8: stacked teams I've ever seen.
1:33:38
Speaker 3: So wait, Beckham never scored on you, That's what I'm hearing.
1:33:42
Speaker 8: He did not, but he didn't get many opportunities.
1:33:44
Speaker 3: Well that's in and out of a one technicality. That's
1:33:48
Speaker 3: that doesn't matter.
1:33:49
Speaker 2: That's top line on my resume if i'm you is
1:33:53
Speaker 2: Beckham never scored on me.
1:33:55
Speaker 8: Boom, and I have a great I have a great
1:33:57
Speaker 8: picture from that game to me and him walking on
1:34:00
Speaker 8: off the field with his armor on me, but then
1:34:01
Speaker 8: also him just about to strike the free kick over
1:34:05
Speaker 8: the RSL one and me already leaning that way to
1:34:09
Speaker 8: go and try and save it.
1:34:11
Speaker 2: That's awesome, that's really cool. Thanks for sharing, appreciate your time.
1:34:16
Speaker 2: Let's get you on again soon, and especially when we
1:34:18
Speaker 2: get into this World Cup situation.
1:34:20
Speaker 3: I'd like to pick your brain on that too.
1:34:22
Speaker 8: Absolutely look forward to appreciate you having me.
1:34:25
Speaker 2: J Knolly, former RSL goalkeeper and color analyst on the
1:34:31
Speaker 2: RSL radio broadcasts.
1:34:35
Speaker 3: It is messy.
1:34:37
Speaker 2: It's gonna get messy down at America First Field. The
1:34:44
Speaker 2: current get in price is five hundred and three dollars
1:34:47
Speaker 2: if you want to go watch into Miami and Leo
1:34:50
Speaker 2: Messi play against a red hot RSL team, unbeaten in
1:34:55
Speaker 2: their last six. They are five one and one on
1:34:58
Speaker 2: the season and they're scoring goals right now.
1:35:01
Speaker 4: So that price just to be able to sit in
1:35:04
Speaker 4: your car on State Street outside the stadium by the way.
1:35:07
Speaker 2: No, that's a that's if you want to go park
1:35:11
Speaker 2: at that weird lot that used to be a trailer park.
1:35:15
Speaker 3: Yeah, right off of ninety of South.
1:35:17
Speaker 2: And you can hear the stadium announcer mentioned Leo Messi.
1:35:23
Speaker 3: You can hear the roar of the crowd.
1:35:25
Speaker 2: Put I put the pole questioned out and I really
1:35:27
Speaker 2: I appreciate the responses I'm getting again eight seven seven
1:35:31
Speaker 2: three five three zero seven hundred at realo C Sports.
1:35:33
Speaker 2: If you want to vote on the pole itself, you
1:35:35
Speaker 2: get a free ticket, but you can only attend one
1:35:38
Speaker 2: if you attend this one, you got to skip the
1:35:39
Speaker 2: other two this year Leo Messi tonight Utah Mammoth in
1:35:44
Speaker 2: their first ever home playoff game on Friday, or this
1:35:48
Speaker 2: year's Holy War, which is of course the best event
1:35:52
Speaker 2: on the sports calendar in our state every single year.
1:35:54
Speaker 3: And by the way, this is the first one.
1:35:56
Speaker 2: Or Morgan scali and Kalini Satake will be going at it,
1:36:00
Speaker 2: Morgan Scalley's first ever head coaching opportunity in the Holy War.
1:36:05
Speaker 3: I mean, there's firsts.
1:36:07
Speaker 2: All over the place in Messi's case, and we got
1:36:10
Speaker 2: a couple of texts reflecting this. But Jeff said exactly this,
1:36:15
Speaker 2: The Utah Mammoth playoff game feels like the biggest game
1:36:17
Speaker 2: in the state. Holy War seems like the biggest national implication.
1:36:21
Speaker 2: Messi and Sandy is the biggest worldwide implication. Hard to
1:36:26
Speaker 2: argue with that people in Argentina have no interest in
1:36:31
Speaker 2: what's going on in the BYU Utah football game. Although
1:36:36
Speaker 2: I guess I'm probably underestimating the impact of missionary work
1:36:39
Speaker 2: down there in Argentina. There might be some in Argentina
1:36:43
Speaker 2: that care, but more care about Messi.
1:36:45
Speaker 4: Yeah, you know, there's people in Argentina that have heard
1:36:49
Speaker 4: of Utah.
1:36:49
Speaker 3: We'll just put it that way.
1:36:51
Speaker 2: Argentine NHL players, Let's see if we've had those. Oh,
1:36:59
Speaker 2: there are no players born in Argentina currently playing in
1:37:01
Speaker 2: the National Hockey League. I wonder if they've ever been
1:37:06
Speaker 2: any I'm gonna have to look. I'm gonna have to
1:37:09
Speaker 2: dig into this things you didn't think you'd be wondering
1:37:14
Speaker 2: about on a radio show.
1:37:15
Speaker 3: I've done.
1:37:16
Speaker 4: I've done this because you know, I served my mission
1:37:19
Speaker 4: in Hungary, so I've done this. Like how many Hungarians
1:37:21
Speaker 4: have played NBA hockey?
1:37:25
Speaker 5: Not?
1:37:25
Speaker 4: I thought maybe some in hockey, but not really any. Okay,
1:37:30
Speaker 4: that's interesting. So here's what I just did, all right.
1:37:34
Speaker 2: I clicked on a link the top ten Argentinian hockey players.
1:37:39
Speaker 2: Guess what sport they play? Field? Hockey, field. Not one
1:37:44
Speaker 2: of them are ice hockey. It's gotta be grass soccer.
1:37:48
Speaker 2: I think it's safe to say that down on the
1:37:51
Speaker 2: pump us of Argentina, there's not a lot of interest
1:37:53
Speaker 2: in the Utah Mammoth game.
1:37:56
Speaker 3: All right, I gotta take a break here.
1:37:57
Speaker 2: Uh Aj Debanza has teased a major announcement.
1:38:02
Speaker 3: What will he be announcing? We'll discuss it.
1:38:03
Speaker 2: Next on The Sean O'Connell Show ESPN said, oh wait, wait, wait,
1:38:10
Speaker 2: I forgot to give away our free round of golf
1:38:12
Speaker 2: to the Festival of tease. Eight seven seven three five
1:38:15
Speaker 2: three zero seven hundred. Who is RSL's current leading goal
1:38:20
Speaker 2: scorer in this young season? If you know the answer
1:38:23
Speaker 2: to that, eight seven seven three five three zero seven hundred, nudge, nudge,
1:38:27
Speaker 2: wink wink. I mentioned him by name when we've talked
1:38:30
Speaker 2: to Jason christ If you know that answer, we will
1:38:34
Speaker 2: give you a free round of golf at sun Hills.
1:38:38
Speaker 2: Three minutes from now we'll be talking aj De Bonds.
1:38:40
Speaker 2: It's the Shaan O'Connell Show ESPN seven hundred and ninety
1:38:43
Speaker 2: two one FM.
1:38:48
Speaker 1: You attune to the Sean O'Connell Show for the Murdoch
1:38:51
Speaker 1: Chevrolet Studio of ESPN seven hundred at ninety two to
1:38:55
Speaker 1: one a half m.
1:39:03
Speaker 2: You want to talk about two tastes that go great together,
1:39:06
Speaker 2: beer and hockey. How about this awesome news if you're
1:39:11
Speaker 2: a fan of beer and you're a fan of hockey.
1:39:13
Speaker 2: Our friends at Epic Brewing just finished a major bar expansion.
1:39:17
Speaker 2: They now have an outdoor patio beer on tap liquor
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Speaker 2: and wine available and a brand new space for you
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Speaker 2: to enjoy This Friday. Check out the new Epic Brewing
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Speaker 2: Bar and the new Epic Experience. They'll be giving away
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Speaker 2: for all the upcoming playoff games, and of course, a
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Speaker 2: great place to pregame on Friday before the first ever
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Speaker 2: playoff game at the Delta Center. First ever NHL Playoff
1:39:45
Speaker 2: game at the Delta Center. ESPN seven hundred and The
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Speaker 2: Drive with Spence Checkets are going to be broadcasting from
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Speaker 2: two to about five thirty. Also, while you're there, the
1:39:55
Speaker 2: Utah Hipcheck Ice Lager seven and a half percent Imperial Lagger.
1:40:00
Speaker 2: It's celebrating NHL Playoff hockey in Utah. Boom gotta be
1:40:04
Speaker 2: twenty one. That is Epic Epic Brewing dot com for
1:40:10
Speaker 2: more details, AJ DEBONSI, You're not gonna fool us, all right,
1:40:16
Speaker 2: we saw I saw your little tweet.
1:40:18
Speaker 3: AJ.
1:40:20
Speaker 2: He says he's got big news tomorrow at nine to
1:40:23
Speaker 2: forty five a m. And that he's going on Instagram
1:40:27
Speaker 2: live right after that. Apparently, AJ, we know what this is. Okay,
1:40:37
Speaker 2: this is an opportunity for you to get people to stream,
1:40:45
Speaker 2: to get people to follow you. And you're not gonna
1:40:48
Speaker 2: fool me into thinking that it's anything but in NHL
1:40:52
Speaker 2: draft declar NHL he.
1:40:56
Speaker 3: If it is.
1:40:57
Speaker 2: If it is an HL draft declaration from AJ to
1:41:00
Speaker 2: that will surprise some people.
1:41:02
Speaker 4: I love Ryan Smith so much that I will play
1:41:05
Speaker 4: for his hockey team.
1:41:07
Speaker 3: We're working something out.
1:41:08
Speaker 2: It's gonna be crazy, all right, Lowry Market and AJ
1:41:13
Speaker 2: debonca it's a trade to the Utah Mammoth for Tanev
1:41:20
Speaker 2: and Spicy Tuna. We're gonna see what he looks like. Actually,
1:41:23
Speaker 2: I don't even need I know exactly the kind of
1:41:25
Speaker 2: basketball player Spicy Tuna is because I am that guy.
1:41:30
Speaker 4: Yeah, I was gonna say, is he a football player
1:41:32
Speaker 4: who plays basketball?
1:41:33
Speaker 3: That type of guy?
1:41:33
Speaker 2: You know, you know the ones is fouling everybody, Terrible
1:41:38
Speaker 2: at shooting, terrible dribbling, good rebounders, decent defenders.
1:41:42
Speaker 3: But because that's just Deffert, Yeah, you don't.
1:41:45
Speaker 4: You don't really need a whole lot of skill to
1:41:47
Speaker 4: go grab the ball and the harassed people on defense.
1:41:50
Speaker 2: Yes, that's he says. Also, AJ debonsa first of all
1:41:57
Speaker 2: major faux PA. This is maybe the first issue I'm
1:42:01
Speaker 2: taking with AJ. He's been a remarkable representative of all
1:42:05
Speaker 2: things good in this weird and somewhat poisonous process. Like
1:42:10
Speaker 2: AJ has kind of risen above it, right. He stays
1:42:13
Speaker 2: focused on talks about his parents, the leadership. He talks
1:42:17
Speaker 2: about his family, he talks about his faith, he talks
1:42:19
Speaker 2: about what how grateful he is to have the opportunities
1:42:22
Speaker 2: that he's got. I'm incredibly impressed with AJ. Obviously as
1:42:26
Speaker 2: a player, he's massively impressive. This is the first grievance
1:42:31
Speaker 2: I'm gonna air with you, Aj, He says, Big News
1:42:35
Speaker 2: Tomorrow eleven forty five am Eastern Time, Instagram Live noon
1:42:40
Speaker 2: Eastern Time.
1:42:40
Speaker 3: Nope, can't.
1:42:42
Speaker 2: You're a Mountain time guy. You can't announce things Eastern time.
1:42:45
Speaker 3: I know I thought the same thing.
1:42:47
Speaker 2: You can't put your you can't do it, And don't
1:42:50
Speaker 2: pander to the East Coast mafia, don't pander to the
1:42:54
Speaker 2: big media on the East Coast.
1:42:57
Speaker 3: Hey, you better put it in Eastern time.
1:43:00
Speaker 2: Eleven am Eastern Time, with no mention. I think the
1:43:06
Speaker 2: last time we saw him publicly, he was on the
1:43:07
Speaker 2: West Coast at a Laker game.
1:43:09
Speaker 4: Yeah, Hey, AJ, if you know what's good for you're
1:43:12
Speaker 4: gonna announce this an Eastern time.
1:43:13
Speaker 3: Okay, you're gonna put it in this literally, he says,
1:43:18
Speaker 3: big news tomorrow.
1:43:20
Speaker 2: By the way, if BYU can somehow pull this off
1:43:24
Speaker 2: and somehow get him to stay, it is the single
1:43:29
Speaker 2: most impressive feat in recruitment in the history of college.
1:43:34
Speaker 4: I think his mom deserves it an IL deal from
1:43:37
Speaker 4: BYU if that happens.
1:43:39
Speaker 2: I mean, look, there are now rules in place, or
1:43:43
Speaker 2: a lack of rules in place, that if they wanted to,
1:43:48
Speaker 2: BYU could pay him whatever he was gonna make his
1:43:51
Speaker 2: NBA year. But the thing that they could not make
1:43:53
Speaker 2: up for is the year lost with his NBA contracts.
1:43:58
Speaker 2: Because the quicker you get into the NBA, the sooner
1:44:02
Speaker 2: you're qualified for the Supermax extension. He's going to be
1:44:06
Speaker 2: in that group that is approaching the big bat billion
1:44:10
Speaker 2: dollars of basketball salary. Victor Wenbergyam is probably gonna be
1:44:14
Speaker 2: the first one. We'll talk about him in our Daily
1:44:16
Speaker 2: Dump a little bit later. Got to take another break
1:44:21
Speaker 2: because our guy Adrian Denny is here for between the pipes.
1:44:25
Speaker 2: You got a playoff win, You've got playoff hockey coming
1:44:29
Speaker 2: to the Delta Center on Friday. Everything's coming up, Mammoth Baby.
1:44:34
Speaker 2: It's a Sean O'Connell show on ESPN seven and ninety two.
1:44:45
Speaker 1: She was listening to a Chard O'Connell show from the
1:44:47
Speaker 1: Murdoch Hyundai Studio of DESPN seven hundred and ninety two
1:44:52
Speaker 1: one half am.
1:45:02
Speaker 3: Welcome back to the Shot O'Connell show. Time for Between
1:45:04
Speaker 3: the Pipes.
1:45:05
Speaker 2: Adrian Denny Utah Mammoth Insider, brought to you by Valley Plumbing,
1:45:09
Speaker 2: Heating and Cooling and our friends over at Aladdin Industries.
1:45:12
Speaker 2: Your Utah Vlux dealer. Adrian Denny and I are both
1:45:15
Speaker 2: wearing hockey gear today. Yours happens to be Stanley Cup
1:45:20
Speaker 2: Playoff Utah Mammoth Gear excellent fresh threads, because that's exactly
1:45:27
Speaker 2: what we're in right now, the Stanley Cup playoffs.
1:45:28
Speaker 3: How are you good? Buddy?
1:45:30
Speaker 9: Had a fun Tuesday night watching the game, I know
1:45:32
Speaker 9: everybody did. Coming back home with the split. That's all
1:45:36
Speaker 9: we ever wanted, right.
1:45:37
Speaker 7: The road teams. When you're the road team, it's so easy.
1:45:41
Speaker 9: You go in and you lose the first game, you're like, well,
1:45:42
Speaker 9: we just want to split anyway, So that's right, dammit.
1:45:45
Speaker 7: They able to.
1:45:46
Speaker 9: We're okay with the split, pull it through and then
1:45:48
Speaker 9: and then if you come back down to oh, it's like, well,
1:45:50
Speaker 9: it's not a series till somebody loses the game at home, gotcha.
1:45:53
Speaker 9: But Mammoth much happier that the series is is one
1:45:57
Speaker 9: one gotta win three of five now instead of four
1:45:59
Speaker 9: or five.
1:45:59
Speaker 3: Okay.
1:46:01
Speaker 2: I tried to articulate this when we started the show today,
1:46:03
Speaker 2: the response from the Mammoth, after quite frankly being dominated
1:46:09
Speaker 2: physically in period three of game one, I was asking
1:46:13
Speaker 2: the question, how do you dial back that like playing
1:46:19
Speaker 2: Vegas's game? How do you avoid them playing so aggressively
1:46:24
Speaker 2: to their strengths? And the easiest answer was, well, lean
1:46:28
Speaker 2: into your own speed a little bit, try to get
1:46:30
Speaker 2: some more spacing. Easier said than done, And it felt
1:46:33
Speaker 2: like the Mammoth did a much better job of that
1:46:37
Speaker 2: in game two, not just in the first and second
1:46:40
Speaker 2: period but obviously throughout. And then when you've got Dylan
1:46:43
Speaker 2: Gunther going one hundred and ninety four feet or whatever
1:46:46
Speaker 2: it was, and you get Coolly putting it away on
1:46:49
Speaker 2: a rebound, that was awesome to salt this game away.
1:46:52
Speaker 2: But rewinding to the response from the Mammoth, what'd you think,
1:46:57
Speaker 2: what'd you like.
1:46:59
Speaker 3: In the first period.
1:47:00
Speaker 7: I was a little concerned.
1:47:01
Speaker 9: Uh Vegas scores on their first power play, just like
1:47:05
Speaker 9: they did on Sunday to tie up the game.
1:47:08
Speaker 7: They drew three of the four power plays in the period.
1:47:11
Speaker 9: They had the puck in the Utah offensive or in
1:47:13
Speaker 9: the Utah defensive zone for almost three more minutes in
1:47:16
Speaker 9: the first period, and head coach Andre Turney was talking
1:47:20
Speaker 9: to our own Sarah Marrifield at the under ten time
1:47:23
Speaker 9: out in the first He's like, we just got to
1:47:25
Speaker 9: calm down.
1:47:26
Speaker 7: We just have to relax here.
1:47:28
Speaker 9: We have we have to stop worrying about them wanting
1:47:31
Speaker 9: to impose a physical presence. And Utah was able to
1:47:38
Speaker 9: somehow as they were you know, pinned into their zone
1:47:42
Speaker 9: and taken penalties, got some staves from Curl and Milk
1:47:46
Speaker 9: and they were able to keep it a one nothing game,
1:47:47
Speaker 9: and then they were able to tie it in a
1:47:50
Speaker 9: period where they didn't generate any offense. Eleven shot attempts
1:47:53
Speaker 9: in the first period tied for the fewest in a
1:47:56
Speaker 9: period this year, and Mackenzie Wieger threw one of the
1:47:58
Speaker 9: net downstop for Carter Heart, which is another story stuff
1:48:02
Speaker 9: shouldn't be bouncing off of the goalies in the NHL. Right,
1:48:06
Speaker 9: He's had two bucks bounce off of him, off of
1:48:08
Speaker 9: his d and into the net. And that's how the
1:48:09
Speaker 9: Mammoth of scored, which brings up the point. Okay, now,
1:48:13
Speaker 9: if we could get a few more bodies in front,
1:48:17
Speaker 9: we could get a few more goals like that. But
1:48:19
Speaker 9: oh see, the Mammoth were able to keep that game
1:48:23
Speaker 9: one nothing, and that was that was the biggest part
1:48:25
Speaker 9: of the game, because it felt like it was two
1:48:27
Speaker 9: nothing or more. The way the penalties were coming in,
1:48:30
Speaker 9: the way Vegas was was heavy in the Utah zone,
1:48:34
Speaker 9: and coming out to start the second Mambath able to
1:48:39
Speaker 9: kind of start from scratch and they took over the game.
1:48:42
Speaker 9: They took the lead last for sixty two seconds, but
1:48:45
Speaker 9: they they stayed in control. And I'm watching that game
1:48:47
Speaker 9: in the third period, I'm like, they're doing everything right.
1:48:50
Speaker 9: Just got to get a goal. You need something happen
1:48:55
Speaker 9: to push this game on the top. You're gonna have
1:48:57
Speaker 9: a good second and third period in game two, a
1:48:59
Speaker 9: good first instanced period in game one, and you're gonna
1:49:01
Speaker 9: be down two oh out playing him in for the
1:49:04
Speaker 9: sixth periods so they were able to exploit that speed
1:49:09
Speaker 9: on Vegas. They out hit Vegas. That was kind of
1:49:11
Speaker 9: the narrative around hockey after the game on Sunday. Everybody's
1:49:15
Speaker 9: talking about the physicality in the Vegas Utah series, But
1:49:19
Speaker 9: the series didn't have any more hits than really any
1:49:22
Speaker 9: other game of the playoffs outside of Edmonton Anaheim.
1:49:26
Speaker 7: Yeah.
1:49:26
Speaker 9: Yeah, it had plus twenty for Vegas, which Utah was
1:49:32
Speaker 9: ten above their season average on Sunday.
1:49:35
Speaker 7: But you know, it's just kind of the emotion, the.
1:49:39
Speaker 9: Passion kind of kind of spilled over and the Mammoth
1:49:43
Speaker 9: in the first period on Tuesday might have still been
1:49:48
Speaker 9: thinking about that.
1:49:49
Speaker 7: But you know, Bear had a plan to get his
1:49:52
Speaker 7: guys calmed down, get him back on their game.
1:49:54
Speaker 9: And I really feel that Utah is the better team
1:49:59
Speaker 9: here in just about every category. Goaltending defenseman are solid.
1:50:06
Speaker 9: You've got more speed and skilled than them. They've got
1:50:08
Speaker 9: a good top line that they've been mixing around Mark Stone,
1:50:11
Speaker 9: Jack eikeel Ms, Marnin. But I really believe Utah's got
1:50:16
Speaker 9: a better constructed roster.
1:50:19
Speaker 7: It just comes down to can you win those little
1:50:23
Speaker 7: key moment.
1:50:24
Speaker 9: Battles, and the Mammoth were close to winning two of
1:50:27
Speaker 9: the three periods in the first two games and coming
1:50:29
Speaker 9: home down two to oh but they just kept going
1:50:32
Speaker 9: and when they took that lead in the third period,
1:50:35
Speaker 9: they kept playing the same game. They kept the pressure
1:50:38
Speaker 9: on the final ninety seconds. They did great job Kevin
1:50:41
Speaker 9: Stealin on Jack Keel keeping Vegas the outside. Nick Schmaltz
1:50:44
Speaker 9: and Logan Cooley were huge in the in the d
1:50:47
Speaker 9: zone as well. Big say from Famalca to seal it,
1:50:51
Speaker 9: but coming back one to one and I think I
1:50:54
Speaker 9: think feeling pretty good. Oh see, my question was after
1:50:56
Speaker 9: game one, Vegas is the fourth oldest team in the league.
1:50:59
Speaker 9: They do that against Utah for a complete series. Well
1:51:03
Speaker 9: and a fair.
1:51:05
Speaker 2: Question to ask, And then you know you already highlighted
1:51:08
Speaker 2: the question that was a major part of the conversation,
1:51:11
Speaker 2: like a, are the Mammoth going to get stuck in
1:51:14
Speaker 2: this Vegas type game?
1:51:16
Speaker 3: This is playoff hockey.
1:51:17
Speaker 2: It's going to be this physical and you're gonna get
1:51:19
Speaker 2: pinned against the boards and you're gonna get checked everywhere
1:51:22
Speaker 2: you go. And they just were better in this game
1:51:25
Speaker 2: and you didn't. If a game's gonna be physical, great,
1:51:29
Speaker 2: I think the Mammoth can play a physical brand. Maybe
1:51:32
Speaker 2: they don't have the same size as some of these
1:51:34
Speaker 2: other Western Conference playoff teams, but you can't you can't
1:51:38
Speaker 2: let it be so one sided as it was in
1:51:40
Speaker 2: late in Game one, and clearly they took that into account.
1:51:45
Speaker 2: And I think what you just mentioned with Coach Bear saying,
1:51:48
Speaker 2: you know, you got to relax, not overthinking it easier
1:51:52
Speaker 2: said than done in that situation.
1:51:55
Speaker 3: My favor I had a couple, I had some favorites and.
1:51:57
Speaker 2: Some least favorites in this game the end of the
1:52:00
Speaker 2: first period, beginning of the second period, penalty kill where
1:52:05
Speaker 2: the Mammoth needed to get better in that area. It's
1:52:07
Speaker 2: been inconsistent as of late. Not only did they not
1:52:11
Speaker 2: give up a goal that they weren't giving up shots. Yeah,
1:52:13
Speaker 2: in that penalty kill that was massive. And then the
1:52:18
Speaker 2: least favorite is And it's happened too many times this year.
1:52:20
Speaker 2: And maybe there's an answer for it. Maybe it's just
1:52:24
Speaker 2: what we've talked about in the past. It's just you know,
1:52:26
Speaker 2: letting your foot off the gas pedal. But you already
1:52:28
Speaker 2: mentioned this. You take a lead and it lasts for
1:52:31
Speaker 2: sixty two seconds, you give up the responding goal so
1:52:34
Speaker 2: quickly and that's happened a dozen times throughout the course
1:52:38
Speaker 2: of the season. You don't want to see it happening
1:52:40
Speaker 2: in playoff hockey.
1:52:42
Speaker 7: Especially how that happened.
1:52:45
Speaker 9: You're in your D zone, Kel Sergachev, John Marino, like,
1:52:52
Speaker 9: I can describe it on the radio.
1:52:53
Speaker 7: What you want to do, D to D out, not
1:52:56
Speaker 7: D to D to D to D to D to
1:52:57
Speaker 7: D to D. Flip it to the neutral zone.
1:53:00
Speaker 9: Right, put put some put some spin on the pass,
1:53:03
Speaker 9: get it out like and they turned it over. Vegas
1:53:06
Speaker 9: picked it up and walked right in and tied it up.
1:53:09
Speaker 3: The walks right in was the most saggregating part for me.
1:53:12
Speaker 2: Barbershev's an awesome player, Yeah, but you don't let Barbershev
1:53:16
Speaker 2: weave through two. This is not Sydney Crosby, not Connor McDavid.
1:53:21
Speaker 2: When we saw that happen against the Edmonton Oilers a
1:53:24
Speaker 2: couple of times, you're just like, all right, best player
1:53:26
Speaker 2: in the world, Barbershev.
1:53:27
Speaker 3: Good for you. Don't let him do that to you.
1:53:30
Speaker 2: When it's three on one, you should be taking the
1:53:33
Speaker 2: puck away and sending it back up ice.
1:53:35
Speaker 9: For me, it's not like Vegas had a great response
1:53:38
Speaker 9: shift Utah had the puck and didn't didn't get it
1:53:44
Speaker 9: out of trouble. So you look at you look at that,
1:53:48
Speaker 9: but they were able to get it back and roll,
1:53:51
Speaker 9: and you talk about special teams, they lost the special
1:53:53
Speaker 9: teams battle in the game because the power play goal
1:53:56
Speaker 9: they gave up. They went oh for four in the
1:53:57
Speaker 9: power play, but that had a franchise record twelve shots
1:53:59
Speaker 9: on the power play. At think we could see okay,
1:54:01
Speaker 9: body of work, power plays back and click and like
1:54:04
Speaker 9: it was at the end of the regular season when
1:54:06
Speaker 9: they set a franchise record in consecutive games with the
1:54:08
Speaker 9: power play goal p K. I know nobody remembers this.
1:54:12
Speaker 9: He can November December had some stretches where they're top five,
1:54:17
Speaker 9: top ten, that's what.
1:54:18
Speaker 7: It looked like. They kind of got that back.
1:54:21
Speaker 2: And we've grown to accept the peaks and valley of that.
1:54:25
Speaker 2: We had Nicole chick on and we talked about some
1:54:27
Speaker 2: of the stretches that they've been through with that right
1:54:31
Speaker 2: in both power play and in penalty kill, they've kind
1:54:35
Speaker 2: of gone up and down. And the cliche is always
1:54:37
Speaker 2: will make sure you're playing your best when it matters most,
1:54:40
Speaker 2: and if you have a bad final couple of weeks
1:54:44
Speaker 2: of penalty kill of the regular season. Fine, if you're
1:54:48
Speaker 2: getting it figured out now in Game two of the
1:54:50
Speaker 2: Stanley Cup playoffs, yes, I will accept that wholeheartedly.
1:54:54
Speaker 3: And that's what it looked like, especially in that second period.
1:54:57
Speaker 9: Which is huge because that's one way Vegas ca and
1:55:00
Speaker 9: beat Utah. They were the only team in the NHL
1:55:02
Speaker 9: in the regular season that are top seven power play
1:55:04
Speaker 9: a top seven penalty kill. And while they got that
1:55:07
Speaker 9: early one Utah when it was you know, it was
1:55:10
Speaker 9: still a little physical, emotional chippy in the first period.
1:55:14
Speaker 9: They haven't took one penalty the rest of the game
1:55:17
Speaker 9: in periods two and three and drew three power plays,
1:55:20
Speaker 9: so another way that they were just kind of able
1:55:22
Speaker 9: to to tilt the ice and take control of the contest.
1:55:27
Speaker 9: They allowed eleven shots final two periods of the game.
1:55:31
Speaker 9: There's just really nothing outside of the gosh I can
1:55:35
Speaker 9: I can just tear coaches throughout my career watching that
1:55:39
Speaker 9: and what Utah did to give D to D and out.
1:55:42
Speaker 9: I could just I could hear that stuff in my
1:55:44
Speaker 9: sleep on what you wanted to do with that puck
1:55:48
Speaker 9: and two veteran d didn't do it, but they pushed
1:55:51
Speaker 9: forward and were able to get that next goal from Coolia.
1:55:54
Speaker 7: That's what I'm thinking of the third period. They just
1:55:56
Speaker 7: needed needed a goal.
1:55:57
Speaker 9: They're in so smooth control of this game. They just
1:56:02
Speaker 9: need a goal. So they got it and they used
1:56:05
Speaker 9: their speed to get it. And there wasn't a Golden
1:56:06
Speaker 9: Knight in sight when Logan Cooley hammered in that third
1:56:11
Speaker 9: chance that Dylan Gunther got the first two on that
1:56:15
Speaker 9: on that speed burst up ahead with Yamamoto on a
1:56:18
Speaker 9: perfect tape to tape pass.
1:56:21
Speaker 2: The The decision to take McBain out and put Tuna
1:56:27
Speaker 2: back in was that hell thing for McBain. Was that
1:56:32
Speaker 2: strategic to try to see if you could get Liam
1:56:35
Speaker 2: O'Brien to get under the skin of some of the
1:56:38
Speaker 2: veggat Knights.
1:56:39
Speaker 3: Where did that decision come from?
1:56:40
Speaker 9: Yeah, I don't think Jack McBain was quite one hundred percent.
1:56:45
Speaker 9: He went on Sunday that was that was a huge surprise.
1:56:49
Speaker 9: He didn't skate in mornings, skate, he hadn't ben a
1:56:53
Speaker 9: practice and then he shows up in warm ups and
1:56:56
Speaker 9: he's not taking line rushes with regular forwards.
1:56:58
Speaker 7: He's he's out there.
1:57:00
Speaker 9: He looks like an extra, just kind of you know,
1:57:03
Speaker 9: going out for a twirl, just just to test it
1:57:05
Speaker 9: a little bit.
1:57:05
Speaker 7: So he plays.
1:57:07
Speaker 9: He he played about nine minutes, which is below his average,
1:57:10
Speaker 9: and didn't look quite like like he does when he
1:57:14
Speaker 9: when he's feeling good. So that's that's what I believe
1:57:17
Speaker 9: that wasn't in Game two. So they pop in O'Brien,
1:57:20
Speaker 9: who led the way with five hits, block two shots,
1:57:25
Speaker 9: added that usual energy that that that he did during
1:57:29
Speaker 9: the regular season at one point during the year.
1:57:32
Speaker 7: It was late in the season.
1:57:33
Speaker 9: The updated numbers is probably one more win than this,
1:57:36
Speaker 9: but Utah was six two on one when he had
1:57:38
Speaker 9: been inserted into the lineup after not playing the game before,
1:57:41
Speaker 9: so he was he was a big insertion and uh,
1:57:44
Speaker 9: they so wanted Jack mcpain to be, uh be on
1:57:47
Speaker 9: the ice, but but didn't look like Uh it's quite
1:57:50
Speaker 9: one hundred percent Sunday.
1:57:52
Speaker 2: Plenty left, plenty left to play in this series, and
1:57:55
Speaker 2: you got to anticipate all possibilities. But Logan Coolie right
1:58:00
Speaker 2: now looks like he's a dude ready for playoff hockey.
1:58:05
Speaker 9: I look at Logan Cooley and I think you could
1:58:09
Speaker 9: stereotype him because he's clean cut, he's got a nice smile.
1:58:15
Speaker 3: Voluntarily or not. By the way.
1:58:16
Speaker 2: He might not be able to do anything, but he
1:58:19
Speaker 2: might Yes, he might not be capable of being anything
1:58:22
Speaker 2: but clean cut with the facial hair.
1:58:24
Speaker 9: You see how he skates, and you could type cast him.
1:58:27
Speaker 9: He's a skilly guy that doesn't like to get hit.
1:58:30
Speaker 9: And Nick Daoud from Vegas to just see it after
1:58:33
Speaker 9: the game start some some some threats and stuff like that.
1:58:38
Speaker 7: I thought it was hilarious.
1:58:40
Speaker 3: Dad relaxed.
1:58:41
Speaker 2: You're almost old enough to be his bad don't talk
1:58:43
Speaker 2: to him that way, all.
1:58:44
Speaker 9: Right, I thought it was I thought it was hilarious.
1:58:46
Speaker 9: So he threatens Logan Cooley's life after the game on
1:58:49
Speaker 9: Sunday on the ice. Yeah, and then he tripped up
1:58:55
Speaker 9: tripped up Cooley in the second period of the Mabboth
1:58:57
Speaker 9: got a power plant. I'm thinking that's not gonna do it, buddy,
1:59:00
Speaker 9: gotta do something more than that. But Logan Cooley's a
1:59:03
Speaker 9: pit bull, like he doesn't care, he's not afraid to
1:59:07
Speaker 9: get hit, like he will do whatever it takes. So
1:59:12
Speaker 9: if you watch him, you see how fast he is
1:59:14
Speaker 9: and how skilled he is, and he's clean cut, and
1:59:16
Speaker 9: he looks nice. He's a dog and He's been maybe
1:59:22
Speaker 9: Utah's best player in the postseason so far. How about this?
1:59:25
Speaker 9: So see this, this took some research. I didn't do this.
1:59:31
Speaker 9: This is hard to believe. Youngest American in NHL history
1:59:35
Speaker 9: to score a playoff goal in his first two games.
1:59:39
Speaker 9: Clayton Keller and the Edmonton Bubble in twenty twenty was
1:59:41
Speaker 9: the previous youngest at twenty two.
1:59:46
Speaker 2: Keller's been quiet in the first two games. What do
1:59:49
Speaker 2: they need from him?
1:59:50
Speaker 7: Do you know what?
1:59:51
Speaker 9: Vegas has done a great job of zeroing in on
1:59:56
Speaker 9: that line of Keller, Schmaltz and Krause, and it doesn't
2:00:03
Speaker 9: help our conversation today. Oh see, but this afternoon, I'm
2:00:08
Speaker 9: gonna I'm gonna watch their shifts and just because because
2:00:13
Speaker 9: that clearly right top ten line in the NHL, of
2:00:17
Speaker 9: course Vegas is gonna go into the series.
2:00:19
Speaker 7: Well, we've got to shut them down.
2:00:21
Speaker 9: We've got to take away, you know, their space. We
2:00:26
Speaker 9: we gotta keep them to the outside. We don't want
2:00:29
Speaker 9: them to possess the puck. So for me, that is
2:00:33
Speaker 9: going into a playoff series and saying, those guys are
2:00:38
Speaker 9: number one thing that we have to make sure doesn't
2:00:42
Speaker 9: beat us. And so now you've got two games to
2:00:46
Speaker 9: go back and try and CounterPunch that. But Vegas is
2:00:53
Speaker 9: a really good team defensively of just kind of clogging
2:00:59
Speaker 9: up space because because they're bigger, they do a great
2:01:02
Speaker 9: job on their goalie, who I think is extremely compromised
2:01:07
Speaker 9: the rebounds that he lets up, but it doesn't matter
2:01:11
Speaker 9: because they're right there to clear the pucks away, and
2:01:16
Speaker 9: Utah in only a few instances has had bodies in
2:01:21
Speaker 9: front to knock a puck home. Yesterday on one puck
2:01:24
Speaker 9: that he covered up and didn't give up a bounty
2:01:26
Speaker 9: rebound on Carconi and Kurfoot, we're out in front right.
2:01:30
Speaker 9: So if I think going into games three and four,
2:01:33
Speaker 9: that's that's gonna be one thing that Utah continues to
2:01:35
Speaker 9: work on, and that's penetrating the Vegas zone to get,
2:01:40
Speaker 9: you know, for more of those second chance situations. Because
2:01:43
Speaker 9: the rebounds have been very plentiful and they're not bad bounces.
2:01:48
Speaker 9: Goalies can't give up rebounds that go off the head
2:01:51
Speaker 9: of their defenseman and embarrass him. The poor kid. Caden
2:01:54
Speaker 9: Corsak's second career playoff game. He's worked with John Tortorella
2:01:58
Speaker 9: for three weeks, Like can you imagine puck bounces off
2:02:01
Speaker 9: of your face and goes into the back of the net.
2:02:05
Speaker 3: Their defenseman, well, not just defenseman, they're there.
2:02:11
Speaker 2: There's a lot of guys that in Vegas night sweaters
2:02:14
Speaker 2: that are just they're taking pucks to the shin, trying
2:02:18
Speaker 2: to glove it themselves to the chest. Hannafin had to leave,
2:02:23
Speaker 2: had to go to the dressing room in the game.
2:02:25
Speaker 2: I mean Nick doubt in the in the it was
2:02:28
Speaker 2: in the four on three that then became the five
2:02:30
Speaker 2: on four power play. I mean he he ate one
2:02:33
Speaker 2: that would have been a goal. Yeah, they're doing a
2:02:35
Speaker 2: great job in front of them, their goaltender.
2:02:38
Speaker 9: They do a phenomenal job. And going into the series,
2:02:43
Speaker 9: that was one of my one of my things. Vegas
2:02:46
Speaker 9: is so good defensively. Can they make it not matter?
2:02:50
Speaker 7: Can he ma it?
2:02:51
Speaker 9: He'll make every goal in the NHL, makes the first
2:02:53
Speaker 9: save and then they take care of it.
2:02:55
Speaker 7: Can they make it not matter?
2:02:58
Speaker 9: And in the first two games, if I had a
2:03:00
Speaker 9: pretty good job of it, his numbers look pretty decent.
2:03:04
Speaker 9: But if you watch the body of work, I think like, Okay,
2:03:08
Speaker 9: if we can get to him for a second chance
2:03:14
Speaker 9: or two, that's going to be another goal or two.
2:03:18
Speaker 2: All right, now let's turn the page to Friday, the
2:03:23
Speaker 2: first ever home playoff game.
2:03:26
Speaker 3: We started the show today.
2:03:27
Speaker 2: I think this is going to be one of the
2:03:29
Speaker 2: best sports moments we've ever had in the state of Utah. Obviously,
2:03:32
Speaker 2: we all want to win, and the most important thing
2:03:35
Speaker 2: in this series is to try to advance to the
2:03:38
Speaker 2: next series. I think you know, the team has always
2:03:42
Speaker 2: believed it. I think what we saw from Game two
2:03:46
Speaker 2: probably has more fans thinking.
2:03:47
Speaker 3: That that's a.
2:03:49
Speaker 2: Possible outcome or a more likely outcome, and sold out
2:03:53
Speaker 2: show on Friday, first ever. I've already asked you what
2:03:58
Speaker 2: you think it's going to be like out it's the
2:04:00
Speaker 2: next game.
2:04:01
Speaker 3: What's it gonna be like.
2:04:03
Speaker 9: On a Friday night. Ah, It's gonna be bananas. I mean,
2:04:09
Speaker 9: we know what Vegas does at the Team Mobile Arena, right.
2:04:14
Speaker 9: I think if if we're gonna separate ourselves and take
2:04:18
Speaker 9: Utahu of the equation, are you are you talking about
2:04:20
Speaker 9: anybody other than than Vegas when you talk about a
2:04:23
Speaker 9: playoff atmosphere in the NHL and in an entertainment capital
2:04:29
Speaker 9: world that's buzzing and electric. And I think the Utah
2:04:33
Speaker 9: fans did a great job of going down there and
2:04:35
Speaker 9: being loud, and it's it's pretty cool. You got your
2:04:39
Speaker 9: closest regional rival that you're playing in playoffs for the
2:04:42
Speaker 9: first round, Salt Lake and Vegas especially. You know, it's
2:04:48
Speaker 9: it seems like those of us in Utah like soccer tournaments,
2:04:52
Speaker 9: like there's always something in Vegas that we're in Vegas
2:04:56
Speaker 9: or Saint George, or if we're in Saint George, we
2:04:58
Speaker 9: go to Vegas for a day.
2:05:00
Speaker 2: The Saint George Mesquite Vegas trap that everyone's done one
2:05:04
Speaker 2: hundred times.
2:05:05
Speaker 9: So you've got you've got that. So Utah the first
2:05:08
Speaker 9: two games did a great job. Mountain Blue, you could
2:05:11
Speaker 9: hear you hear some chance, you know, you kind of
2:05:13
Speaker 9: got unto the skin of the Vegas fans. And now
2:05:15
Speaker 9: you know you're gonna have some Vegas fans here because
2:05:17
Speaker 9: that's just gonna be how it is. So that's the
2:05:21
Speaker 9: that's challenge for the Mammoth fans because you know it's
2:05:24
Speaker 9: gonna be electric, you know it's gonna be nuts. There's
2:05:26
Speaker 9: gonna be a party pre game on the ce Plaza.
2:05:30
Speaker 9: So when you come inside, take it to another level
2:05:33
Speaker 9: and welcome your your Vegas counterparts.
2:05:35
Speaker 7: And uh be a lot louder than them. Don't let
2:05:38
Speaker 7: them get on national TV.
2:05:41
Speaker 2: And you're building what are we gonna end up calling
2:05:44
Speaker 2: this rivalry? Because I'm calling it now. This is gonna
2:05:46
Speaker 2: develop naturally. We're not gonna force feed it, but we
2:05:50
Speaker 2: are kind of and this is a rivalry developing. And
2:05:55
Speaker 2: when Utah wins this series over a team that already
2:05:58
Speaker 2: has a Cup and has been kind of the gold
2:06:00
Speaker 2: standard of expansion franchises and new franchises, not only in
2:06:05
Speaker 2: the NHL but in professional sports, the geographic proximity meaning
2:06:09
Speaker 2: all of it can create a nice little rivalry here.
2:06:12
Speaker 3: What are we going to call this thing?
2:06:14
Speaker 2: Gosh, Saints and Sinners is very obvious, but it's you know,
2:06:20
Speaker 2: you lean into the culture in both places. It's not
2:06:23
Speaker 2: the most creative thing. We gotta cut, we got a brainstorm,
2:06:27
Speaker 2: We got to come up with something.
2:06:28
Speaker 9: Mike on the radio has been calling it. The fifteen
2:06:32
Speaker 9: series is a placeholder. Yeah, okay, it's a good placeholder.
2:06:35
Speaker 9: Yeah yeah. These two teams are just the exact opposite too.
2:06:39
Speaker 9: You got one team that's old, you got one team
2:06:43
Speaker 9: that's young and really fast. The other team old, physical, fast, spunky, clean,
2:06:50
Speaker 9: cut don't care.
2:06:55
Speaker 2: I mean, we'll come up with something eight seven seven
2:06:57
Speaker 2: three five three zero seven hundred. If you have a
2:06:59
Speaker 2: good name, we might have to run an official contest
2:07:01
Speaker 2: where we give something away for this.
2:07:03
Speaker 9: Even John Tworderellen Bear two exact opposites the two head coaches.
2:07:10
Speaker 9: Did you see Bear got on Twitter after the game
2:07:12
Speaker 9: last night?
2:07:13
Speaker 3: That was the coolest? Am I too late? He tweets
2:07:17
Speaker 3: once a year.
2:07:18
Speaker 7: Yeah, he's the best.
2:07:21
Speaker 4: Uh.
2:07:21
Speaker 2: The the home ice at the end of the season,
2:07:26
Speaker 2: they played better away than they did on home ice.
2:07:29
Speaker 3: Any thoughts on that.
2:07:32
Speaker 9: I think winning in the playoffs you're going back to
2:07:37
Speaker 9: some of the lessons that you learned in the first
2:07:39
Speaker 9: half of this season last year in terms of, you know,
2:07:44
Speaker 9: playing with the lead when you get home. And we'll
2:07:48
Speaker 9: see if they've kind of shaken in a playoff atmosphere,
2:07:57
Speaker 9: winning at home and not letting the moment overtake them because.
2:08:03
Speaker 7: They want to.
2:08:04
Speaker 9: Take that show that's already there and kick it to
2:08:07
Speaker 9: another level. I think that they're at a point as
2:08:12
Speaker 9: a group where they've learned, Okay, Delta Center's crazy, and
2:08:18
Speaker 9: we want it to get crazier, but we still have
2:08:22
Speaker 9: to stay within ourselves, right, because that's why they've been
2:08:26
Speaker 9: so successful on the road, because they've been simple. They've
2:08:30
Speaker 9: they've just got out and done it. They've not had
2:08:33
Speaker 9: that in the back of their heads. Oh, this town
2:08:37
Speaker 9: is nuts. They love us and this is the best
2:08:39
Speaker 9: atmosphere in the NHL. We have to really impress them now.
2:08:45
Speaker 9: But I think I think they I think they could
2:08:49
Speaker 9: be beyond that.
2:08:50
Speaker 2: The puck drops at seven point thirty on Friday at
2:08:54
Speaker 2: the Delta Center, the first ever NHL playoff game in
2:08:58
Speaker 2: the state of Utah, and your Utah Mammoth comeback tied
2:09:02
Speaker 2: in the series, won one real quick before I let
2:09:05
Speaker 2: you go anything around the entire NHL Stanley Cup Playoff,
2:09:09
Speaker 2: surprising you so far in the early goings.
2:09:12
Speaker 9: Do you know what, oh c So you have Buffalo
2:09:14
Speaker 9: and Boston in the East. You got the Atlantic Division
2:09:18
Speaker 9: champions and the second wild card, and Buffalo came out
2:09:22
Speaker 9: of nowhere first playoff appearance since twenty eleven. Boston kind
2:09:25
Speaker 9: of retooled, Jeremy swam and their goalie had a great year.
2:09:29
Speaker 9: That's been my okay. Boston's winning that series from game
2:09:33
Speaker 9: one and they've led in both games. Buffalo came back
2:09:37
Speaker 9: four goals in six minute Sunday. But Boston another kind
2:09:40
Speaker 9: of tape to tape performance. That would be one upset
2:09:44
Speaker 9: series that I've got. I can't get enough of Minnesota
2:09:48
Speaker 9: Dallas in the Central Division. Minnesota won the first game
2:09:51
Speaker 9: six to one, Dallas countered, so they're won one. That's
2:09:56
Speaker 9: that's gotta be Game seven, triple overtime for that series.
2:10:00
Speaker 9: Two teams one hundred plus points meeting in the first round.
2:10:04
Speaker 9: How about Colorado LA two two one games? Yeah, that
2:10:07
Speaker 9: they've played so far.
2:10:08
Speaker 3: I lied. I do have one more thing.
2:10:10
Speaker 2: Utah's own homegrown Stanley Cup champion, Trevor Lewis made his
2:10:17
Speaker 2: retirement official. He did not play this season in the NHL,
2:10:21
Speaker 2: but he's a you know, before it was cool, before
2:10:24
Speaker 2: hockey was cool in Utah. He was the guy who
2:10:27
Speaker 2: battled his way onto a King's roster for two Stanley
2:10:30
Speaker 2: Cup championships, massively impactful as a grassroots beginning of hockey here.
2:10:36
Speaker 9: He's done Cottwood Heights went to Brighton High before he
2:10:39
Speaker 9: left to play in the USHL first round draft pick.
2:10:45
Speaker 9: Two times Stanley Cup champion, But for Trevor Lewis, he's
2:10:50
Speaker 9: always come back. He brought the Stanley Cup to the
2:10:52
Speaker 9: Mavericks Center in twenty twelve. He brought it to the
2:10:55
Speaker 9: state Capitol in twenty fourteen. He's, he's he's always had
2:11:01
Speaker 9: Utah front of mine, and he's he's been around this year.
2:11:05
Speaker 9: We've had him on on our on our broadcast on
2:11:07
Speaker 9: Hockey Night Utah, on the nash Cast, UH several times
2:11:10
Speaker 9: this year. But he's he's just your your, your hometown boy.
2:11:14
Speaker 3: He's the hometown guy.
2:11:16
Speaker 9: And and he couldn't be he couldn't meet be anymore
2:11:20
Speaker 9: all in on Utah.
2:11:22
Speaker 2: So we're gon we're gonna have more homegrown Stanley Cup
2:11:26
Speaker 2: champs as the years progress.
2:11:28
Speaker 3: But he's the guy who kind of starts it.
2:11:31
Speaker 7: Love Trevor, Love Trevor.
2:11:33
Speaker 3: Congrats to him on a great career.
2:11:35
Speaker 9: Do you wanna do you want a small town Utah
2:11:38
Speaker 9: hockey story? Yeah, So we were having Trevor on the
2:11:43
Speaker 9: nash Cast UH in October one of our one of
2:11:48
Speaker 9: our Hockey Night in Utah, you know podcasts, and our
2:11:53
Speaker 9: boss sends in the group text, does anyone have Trevor
2:11:57
Speaker 9: Lewis's dad's phone number? And I said, oh, yeah, I've
2:12:00
Speaker 9: got his dad, Randy, I've got his phone number right here.
2:12:03
Speaker 7: I texted it like it's like, how cool?
2:12:06
Speaker 3: Is that?
2:12:06
Speaker 5: That?
2:12:06
Speaker 3: Pretty cool?
2:12:07
Speaker 9: NHL in Utah, we've we've got the Mammoth second year
2:12:12
Speaker 9: and we're getting Trevor on the nascast and my boss
2:12:14
Speaker 9: is like, he's like, does anyone have to have Trevor's
2:12:18
Speaker 9: dad's phone numbers?
2:12:19
Speaker 7: Like, oh yeah, Randy got it right here on my phone.
2:12:21
Speaker 3: Here you go, boss, totally normal.
2:12:25
Speaker 2: That's Adrian Denny Between the pipes is brought to you
2:12:28
Speaker 2: by our friends over in Aladdin Industries, your Utah v
2:12:32
Speaker 2: Lux Steeler and of course Valley Plumbing, Heating and Cooling.
2:12:36
Speaker 3: We'll see you on Friday night.
2:12:37
Speaker 7: Can't wait, man see you.
2:12:38
Speaker 2: Then Daily Dump we had to move it because we
2:12:41
Speaker 2: had a jam packed hour number two, So that's coming
2:12:43
Speaker 2: next on The Sean O'Connell Show ESPN seven ninety two
2:12:47
Speaker 2: on FM.
2:12:50
Speaker 1: Feeling out of the loop, Let's catch up on today's
2:12:53
Speaker 1: biggest headline. Sit about Daily News Dump on The Sean
2:12:56
Speaker 1: O'Connell Show, where we flush out the biggest stories something
2:13:00
Speaker 1: day on Utah's number one Sports Talk ESPN seven hundred
2:13:04
Speaker 1: and ninety two to one alf AM brought to you
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Speaker 1: by Vally plumbing.
2:13:07
Speaker 3: Just look for the truck with the duck. Time for
2:13:14
Speaker 3: the daily dump. Look for the truck with the duck.
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Speaker 2: To handle all of your plumbing and HVAC needs, go
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Speaker 2: price the truck with the duck. Valley Plumbing brings you
2:13:40
Speaker 2: the daily Dump. Tomorrow, we have the first round of
2:13:44
Speaker 2: the NFL Draft right here on ESPN seven hundred. We've
2:13:47
Speaker 2: got the entire draft right here on our airwaves. We
2:13:50
Speaker 2: are your home for the draft. And you won't hear
2:13:55
Speaker 2: about this on day one because well for obvious reasons,
2:13:59
Speaker 2: but the NFL has sold the number fifty seven pick.
2:14:03
Speaker 2: It is now being sponsored by the Hines Company, and
2:14:07
Speaker 2: they're having They're gonna make this a thing moving forward,
2:14:14
Speaker 2: where Devin Hester, who's the best number fifty seven overall
2:14:17
Speaker 2: pick in the history of the NFL, is going to
2:14:20
Speaker 2: present the number fifty seven pick with a lifetime supply
2:14:24
Speaker 2: of ketchup with a ketchup red mister fifty seven suit jacket,
2:14:33
Speaker 2: and of course they'll be the fifty seventh pick, So
2:14:37
Speaker 2: their NFL career starts Devin Hester handing out the number
2:14:41
Speaker 2: fifty seven red ketchup red jacket.
2:14:46
Speaker 4: By the way, starting this in Pittsburgh where that used
2:14:50
Speaker 4: to be Heines Field is perfect marketing.
2:14:56
Speaker 2: Kind of weird that they're not doing Hines fifty seven
2:14:58
Speaker 2: sauce they're doing ketchup instead.
2:15:00
Speaker 4: I was gonna say, like, if it's the if the
2:15:02
Speaker 4: fifty seven is the number, I mean, ketchup is what
2:15:05
Speaker 4: we know Heines for, so sure, but also there should
2:15:09
Speaker 4: be some Hinds fifty seven sauce in there too.
2:15:12
Speaker 2: And the folks at barstool actually put together a great
2:15:15
Speaker 2: list of ways that you could sell certain picks. Round one,
2:15:20
Speaker 2: pick fourteen. I don't know what Fortnite has to do
2:15:24
Speaker 2: with fourteen, but apparently it does. Player becomes their own
2:15:27
Speaker 2: thing on Fortnite. Okay, pick twenty one, Las Vegas. One
2:15:31
Speaker 2: hand of blackjack to double your rookie contract. That's awesome.
2:15:36
Speaker 2: It would be a great idea. Round two, pick four,
2:15:43
Speaker 2: that's number thirty six. Overall, the entire Wu Tang Clan
2:15:47
Speaker 2: presents the pick.
2:15:47
Speaker 3: Okay, stop the.
2:15:49
Speaker 2: Six sixty fourth pick overall, Round two pick thirty two.
2:15:54
Speaker 2: Nintendo sponsors picked sixty four, and you get a life
2:15:58
Speaker 2: size Mario Kart.
2:16:00
Speaker 3: We could do the numerology on all this stuff.
2:16:02
Speaker 2: Maneah, every company that has a number associated with them
2:16:07
Speaker 2: at all should be sponsoring the corresponding pick in the
2:16:10
Speaker 2: NFL draft.
2:16:12
Speaker 4: Do you like these big sould though is starting with
2:16:16
Speaker 4: of course fifty seven?
2:16:18
Speaker 2: Yes, I do, and I'll tell you why. Because it
2:16:21
Speaker 2: is a non sporting sporting event. It is just a
2:16:25
Speaker 2: show throw in as much advertisement revenue whatever's helping the players.
2:16:32
Speaker 2: I don't know if a lifetime supply a catchup really
2:16:36
Speaker 2: gets me going. But you know, if you're the sixty
2:16:40
Speaker 2: sixth pick overall, Phillip sixty six now gives you a
2:16:44
Speaker 2: lifetime worth of gasoline, let's go absolutely.
2:16:47
Speaker 4: I don't want to be drafted in the first round.
2:16:49
Speaker 4: If if that's one of the prizes, that's a real prize.
2:16:52
Speaker 4: Even if it's a year's worth, that's a real prize.
2:16:55
Speaker 4: You know, to buy that big old gas guzzler car
2:16:57
Speaker 4: a mister agent man, will you please put it. I'm
2:17:02
Speaker 4: a guaranteed first round pick. Will you please put out
2:17:04
Speaker 4: some kind of smoke screens that says, don't touch me
2:17:07
Speaker 4: till what's it's sixty six?
2:17:10
Speaker 3: Second round or third round? That would be the third.
2:17:13
Speaker 4: Round until till early third round. Please, I've got I
2:17:17
Speaker 4: think I've got a knee injury. Okay, just showed up
2:17:20
Speaker 4: on scans. Hold on pick number four. That is Delta
2:17:23
Speaker 4: Delta Airlines.
2:17:25
Speaker 2: Pick number four sponsors the player gives them, you know,
2:17:30
Speaker 2: like the Delta Gold card where you just get to
2:17:33
Speaker 2: show the pilot and you're on the plane.
2:17:35
Speaker 4: I don't think that even exists, but it'd be cool
2:17:36
Speaker 4: if it did. If it gives you wings so you
2:17:39
Speaker 4: can sit in the cock fit.
2:17:41
Speaker 3: Sell them all, baby, sell all the picks.
2:17:45
Speaker 2: As long as the player gets something good out of it,
2:17:47
Speaker 2: not just Roger Goodell making more money for himself.
2:17:51
Speaker 3: I the only thing.
2:17:53
Speaker 4: And I'm not too I'm not too concerned about this because,
2:17:58
Speaker 4: as you said, it's not like a game where as
2:18:02
Speaker 4: far as how long it did, how long the draft
2:18:04
Speaker 4: takes doesn't matter near as much to me is how
2:18:05
Speaker 4: long a game takes.
2:18:07
Speaker 3: Right.
2:18:07
Speaker 4: But I don't want if I don't want too many,
2:18:11
Speaker 4: Like Okay, we're gonna take five minutes to appease this
2:18:13
Speaker 4: sponsor because we're making because we decided to sell this
2:18:17
Speaker 4: pic to Hines this year, and you know whatever else.
2:18:20
Speaker 4: I don't know that I want that many of those interruptions,
2:18:23
Speaker 4: but I guess we get those kind of interruptions without
2:18:26
Speaker 4: these sponsorships all the time, particularly with the NFL drafts,
2:18:29
Speaker 4: So maybe it won't make a difference.
2:18:31
Speaker 2: This next story here in the Daily Domp makes me
2:18:33
Speaker 2: feel not so bad about the whole murph thing that
2:18:37
Speaker 2: I went through with Utah football. Did you see this
2:18:39
Speaker 2: from Jaguars camp? Yeah, so Trevor Lawrence. I don't know
2:18:44
Speaker 2: how it came up, but Travis Etn. They were talking
2:18:49
Speaker 2: about how long Trevor Lawrence has known Travis Etn. They
2:18:53
Speaker 2: both went to Clemson, obviously, and all of us have
2:18:58
Speaker 2: been saying Travis Etn's name the.
2:19:00
Speaker 3: Wrong way that now you pronounce it.
2:19:02
Speaker 2: This is like, this is the Tyrod Taylor situation all
2:19:06
Speaker 2: over again.
2:19:07
Speaker 3: His name is Tarrod Taylor. Oh I missed the Taylor.
2:19:13
Speaker 4: You know?
2:19:13
Speaker 2: You know who else we're wrong on all the time,
2:19:16
Speaker 2: our very own Carol vmelka.
2:19:20
Speaker 3: Have you have you heard when he says his own name?
2:19:23
Speaker 3: What he says. He says, he.
2:19:27
Speaker 2: Says, the we're supposed to call himmelka.
2:19:32
Speaker 4: And hence hence Veggie. I always just thought because because
2:19:36
Speaker 4: we've said them the milka, well it's spelled veggie, so
2:19:40
Speaker 4: like it would be. I always thought it was the
2:19:41
Speaker 4: spell the spelling, but it's Veggie.
2:19:45
Speaker 2: I was like, when they do the introductions and they
2:19:47
Speaker 2: tell they say their own names, he says, the j
2:19:50
Speaker 2: veg Tyrod. Taylor just went with it when everyone called
2:19:54
Speaker 2: him Tyrod.
2:19:56
Speaker 3: His mom calls him Tarrod. That's who gave him the name.
2:20:00
Speaker 2: It's like, uh, remember Fasenko, Carrilla Fasenko. Yeah, same thing, Carlo.
2:20:05
Speaker 2: He would say Carrilo Faenka and we all said Carrillo.
2:20:09
Speaker 3: Yeah. I mean that a little bit of that.
2:20:11
Speaker 4: Not in the case of Travis etn but in the
2:20:15
Speaker 4: case of these European players. It's just like it's us
2:20:18
Speaker 4: being Americans trying to pronounce it.
2:20:21
Speaker 2: Yes, this happens with Polynesian names all the time. I remember,
2:20:25
Speaker 2: you remember Jason Fanika, So in the phonetic spelling in
2:20:31
Speaker 2: the pronunciation guide game program, they did it wrong. They
2:20:36
Speaker 2: put Fanaika right. So they were like on the broadcast
2:20:40
Speaker 2: even Bill would he would be trying to honor what
2:20:43
Speaker 2: he thought was the correct pronunciation, cause it's like it's
2:20:46
Speaker 2: like a subtle it's a funaka. It's like it's not
2:20:49
Speaker 2: so it sounds like fanika right when you actually say it.
2:20:52
Speaker 2: But everyone was going fanaika and I was it drove
2:20:55
Speaker 2: me nuts because I grew up with fanika's and I
2:20:57
Speaker 2: was like, that's not how you say their name. And
2:21:00
Speaker 2: then I asked him to his face deliberately and like, Jason,
2:21:04
Speaker 2: this is like game eight, how do you want us
2:21:06
Speaker 2: to say your name?
2:21:06
Speaker 3: He's like, however you want. I'm like, no, how you
2:21:10
Speaker 3: want it to be said?
2:21:12
Speaker 2: And players just get to that point where it's like
2:21:14
Speaker 2: if you're just gonna butcher it, fine, I don't care.
2:21:16
Speaker 3: And that's that's what Travis Etn.
2:21:19
Speaker 2: Yeah, his his You say it the French way, which
2:21:24
Speaker 2: as much as we anglicize things, it ends up sounding
2:21:26
Speaker 2: more like a chain.
2:21:28
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's in, it's, it's in, it's not and it's
2:21:33
Speaker 4: not etn. Yeah, it's not. Like it's almost two syllables
2:21:36
Speaker 4: instead of three, it's it's.
2:21:38
Speaker 2: And then you probably gotta like you have to make
2:21:40
Speaker 2: a hand motion and make your face look funny Travis Itien,
2:21:45
Speaker 2: But that's how the correct way to say his name.
2:21:49
Speaker 2: His friend from college, well, they went to the same college.
2:21:52
Speaker 2: He was like, yeah, I I never I don't know
2:21:55
Speaker 2: you're supposed to say it that way. I've been calling
2:21:57
Speaker 2: him Etn for eight years.
2:21:59
Speaker 3: And what did he say?
2:22:01
Speaker 4: He said, uh, he said I got there a year
2:22:04
Speaker 4: after he did.
2:22:06
Speaker 3: And so I just that's how everyone was.
2:22:08
Speaker 2: Saying it exactly, which is when people start calling you
2:22:12
Speaker 2: Murph and you've only met like four people, and then
2:22:15
Speaker 2: everyone hears Murph, They're just like, oh yeah. It's like
2:22:17
Speaker 2: if someone calls you James, I'm like, his name must
2:22:21
Speaker 2: be James.
2:22:21
Speaker 3: That's what happened with Travis Etn. He was a great player.
2:22:25
Speaker 2: So it doesn't make me feel so bad about you know.
2:22:27
Speaker 4: I didn't know that Murph followed you to Weaver State
2:22:31
Speaker 4: until recently, Like, no, no way.
2:22:34
Speaker 3: I thought it was just that a couple of.
2:22:36
Speaker 2: Years us because like six of us transferred at the
2:22:39
Speaker 2: same time. Yeah, and they I was like, guys, leave
2:22:43
Speaker 2: the murf at Utah and they're like, yeah, sure thing.
2:22:45
Speaker 3: And then first day in the weight room, Murph.
2:22:47
Speaker 4: I was like, damn it, I'll say this to there
2:22:51
Speaker 4: we we have to I guess angle and eyes is
2:22:59
Speaker 4: the size are these European names, I suppose. I think
2:23:05
Speaker 4: it'll probably will probably end up settling with ATN and
2:23:09
Speaker 4: not ATN.
2:23:10
Speaker 3: Yeah, probably instead of etn.
2:23:12
Speaker 5: Oh.
2:23:12
Speaker 3: It's not an E sound. It's an A sound, but
2:23:15
Speaker 3: it's it's not really that.
2:23:16
Speaker 2: I don't think you can't unring the bell. I don't
2:23:18
Speaker 2: think you can go back. It's still gonna be ETN
2:23:20
Speaker 2: in a lot of places.
2:23:21
Speaker 4: It's like, Uh, Dirk Novitski, for the first couple of
2:23:25
Speaker 4: years of his career, people were pronouncing the W like
2:23:28
Speaker 4: we do in English Nowitzki even though he's German and
2:23:32
Speaker 4: people should know that w's make a V sound in German.
2:23:35
Speaker 4: But anyway, Uh, there was a lot of Nowitzki's in
2:23:38
Speaker 4: his first couple of years. It was by like twenty ten,
2:23:41
Speaker 4: I was still hearing po dunk broadcasters. I really love
2:23:45
Speaker 4: Dirk Nowitzki.
2:23:46
Speaker 3: I'm like, this.
2:23:46
Speaker 4: Guy's an MVP, this guy is gonna be a Hall
2:23:49
Speaker 4: of Famer, and he like it's Novitsky.
2:23:52
Speaker 2: You should know that Victor Webber Yama left Game two
2:23:57
Speaker 2: of the Blazer Spurs with a concussion. Big Tree all
2:24:00
Speaker 2: hard Man that's scary when you got seven foot five
2:24:03
Speaker 2: going down. That's a long lever. Look like he hit
2:24:06
Speaker 2: his chin. I'm surprised he didn't break any teeth. But
2:24:11
Speaker 2: concussion protocol means, you know, he could be out until
2:24:14
Speaker 2: Game seven of this series if it goes that long.
2:24:17
Speaker 3: Yeah.
2:24:17
Speaker 4: So Dan Patrick had Brian Windhorse on the show just
2:24:21
Speaker 4: for extra context series and what's He asked him, what's
2:24:23
Speaker 4: the difference between NFL and NBA concussion protocol and Windhorse said,
2:24:30
Speaker 4: NBA a lot of the checklist only has to be
2:24:34
Speaker 4: checked off within the first twenty four hours. Oh, NFL,
2:24:38
Speaker 4: it's it's over a couple of day process, right.
2:24:41
Speaker 2: Which I mean, for obvious reasons, the contact in the
2:24:44
Speaker 2: NFL makes more sense to be cautious about.
2:24:47
Speaker 4: So he technically could be back by Game three, but
2:24:53
Speaker 4: the way he fell, the way he hit the floor,
2:24:56
Speaker 4: I would not be surprised if he's not back for
2:24:58
Speaker 4: a couple of games. They are in the only window
2:25:01
Speaker 4: of the series where they have more than one day off.
2:25:05
Speaker 4: So this is kind of fortunate timing for Wemby in
2:25:08
Speaker 4: that regard, but and this version that regard, but no
2:25:10
Speaker 4: guarantee he plays.
2:25:13
Speaker 2: Did you see the Blazers are going to lose a
2:25:15
Speaker 2: draft pick for hurting Victor Wenbindama because the NBA needs
2:25:19
Speaker 2: him to be available at all times.
2:25:20
Speaker 3: Did you see VJ. Edgecombe historic night?
2:25:23
Speaker 4: Thirty points ten boards, he's by the way six to
2:25:26
Speaker 4: four and he's thirty a thirty to ten game. Tim Duncan,
2:25:30
Speaker 4: who was over seven feet tall, only other rookie to
2:25:35
Speaker 4: have that kind of stat line in NBA history.
2:25:40
Speaker 2: Pretty impressive. Yeah, all right, gotta take a quick one here.
2:25:45
Speaker 2: We'll come back and give away a family four pack
2:25:49
Speaker 2: to Lagoon. The Funnel Cake Festival is happening this weekend.
2:25:55
Speaker 2: We've got a four pack of tickets to the Funnel
2:25:58
Speaker 2: Cake Festival at Lagoon if you can answer a trivia question. Next,
2:26:01
Speaker 2: it's The Sean O'Connell Show on ESPN seven hundred ninety
2:26:04
Speaker 2: two one FM.
2:26:10
Speaker 1: This is the Sean O'Connell Show. You were home of
2:26:13
Speaker 1: the best inside of your use. Let's get back to
2:26:16
Speaker 1: oc from the Murdoch Chevrolet Studio of ESPN seven hundred
2:26:21
Speaker 1: and ninety two one f M.
2:26:28
Speaker 2: Final second on the Sean O'Connell Show, brought to you
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Speaker 2: by friends at Advanced Window Products eight oh one eighty
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Speaker 2: oh one A five to zho ninety one hundred a
2:27:20
Speaker 2: family four pack of Lagoon passes for the Funnel Cake
2:27:23
Speaker 2: Festival happening this weekend. Utah Mammoth won three to two
2:27:29
Speaker 2: last night. They come back to the Delta Center on Friday,
2:27:33
Speaker 2: tied one to one in their series against the Las
2:27:35
Speaker 2: Vegas Golden Knights, who scored the first goal for the
2:27:40
Speaker 2: Utah Mammoth in the game last night. Eight seven seven
2:27:44
Speaker 2: three five three zero seven hundred No.
2:27:48
Speaker 3: Cross talk Today.
2:27:49
Speaker 2: Spence is on location at Beer Bar a great place
2:27:54
Speaker 2: for you to pregame, get yourself ready for messy nights.
2:27:58
Speaker 2: Down in Sandy Leo Messi and Interer Miami are taking
2:28:03
Speaker 2: on a red hot RSL squad.
2:28:06
Speaker 3: Tickets are hard to come by.
2:28:09
Speaker 2: Unless you've got a bunch of fat cash laying around.
2:28:12
Speaker 2: It is probably the only time that the global icon
2:28:17
Speaker 2: Leonel Messi is going to be playing in Salt Lake City,
2:28:21
Speaker 2: and you've got an opportunity to go down and see
2:28:23
Speaker 2: it tonight at America First Field.
2:28:26
Speaker 4: Remember, kids, it's messy day and messy nights, So go ahead,
2:28:29
Speaker 4: just go crazy, make make all kinds of messes just
2:28:33
Speaker 4: for today.
2:28:34
Speaker 3: James just he cannot resist a good pun. He can't.
2:28:38
Speaker 2: It's against his genetic code to leave a pun sitting
2:28:42
Speaker 2: out there.
2:28:42
Speaker 4: I will say this now that I am a dad,
2:28:45
Speaker 4: part of me was fighting against even saying that, Hey,
2:28:49
Speaker 4: go ahead and make a mess, because now now I'm
2:28:51
Speaker 4: a dad, Like, no, don't make a mess.
2:28:53
Speaker 3: I got to clean that up. Yeah, you just so.
2:28:57
Speaker 2: Now we do not endorse James Peterson's advice to all
2:29:00
Speaker 2: the children out there to be messy on messy night.
2:29:03
Speaker 2: In any case, enjoy yourselves, stay tuned for the drive
2:29:08
Speaker 2: let's do the Sean O'Connell Show again tomorrow.
2:29:10
Speaker 3: ESPN seven hundred ninety two one FM