Latest / The Ian Furness Show / Ian Furness 9/30 H1: We are live from the VMAC with some NBA talk and a visit from Grey Zabel.

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Ian Furness 9/30 H1: We are live from the VMAC with some NBA talk and a visit from Grey Zabel. · The Ian Furness Show

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Now, from the Star Runnels Sports Desk, your 93.3 KKRFM
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Sports Headlines. Headlines are brought to you by Frost Brew
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: Coors Light Cold as the Rockies. Day 2 MLB playoffs.
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: Wild card round continues. Phillies, Braves. Do we have a
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: score update on that? I don't have a TV in here.
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: Last I saw it was 1-1.
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: Okay, that's good enough. Good enough.
• 0:20
  Speaker 3: 1-1.
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: We'll get to that later. White Sox Astros at 2.
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: White Sox up one game to none. Yankees with the
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: Red Sox one game to none. Game 2 at 5.
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: Padres up. 1-0 over the Cubs. That game is at
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: 7 p.m. tonight. NHL season got underway yesterday. We had
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: a couple pretty good games. Panthers beat the Hurricanes 1-0
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: in overtime. That was a so-so game. Wild game last
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: night in Edmonton. Oilers are still the Oilers. They can't
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: stop the puck from going in the net. Canucks get
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: a 6-5 win in overtime. Three NHL games today. Kraken
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: season starts tomorrow. They drop the puck in Calgary. 6 p.m.
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: right here on 93.3 KJR FM. Jayden Reed's season is
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: over for the Packers. His wide receiver suffered a neck
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: injury week two. He's going to undergo surgery, so he
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: is done for the year. Not expected to be career-ending.
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: And we're at the Virginia Mason Athletic Center getting ready
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: for week four matchup with the Chargers on Sunday. Head
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: coach Mike McDonald speaking to the media in a little bit. Also,
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: hopefully we'll get an update on Julian Love and other
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: injuries for the Seahawks. Here we go.
• 1:17
  Speaker 3: Oh, man.
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: Here we are. Football season week four already. I heard
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: Jess talking about the college season.
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  Speaker 3: It's true.
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: We've got Stuart Mandell later. College season, as we end
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: on this, the last day of September, 2026. College season
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: is already about a quarter of the way through. So
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: we've got all kinds of storylines there. But the NFL season,
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: game four of 17 coming up on Sunday against the Chargers.
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: So we'll touch down on that a little bit. I thought, Ashley,
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: about invoking something today, and then I realized I can't
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: because we've got one more baseball guest before we say
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: goodbye to our weekly baseball guest. That's Eno Saris tomorrow. Yeah.
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: I thought about invoking refuse to talk. I thought about it,
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: and I'm holding off for now. Okay. I'm holding off
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: for now. The refuse to talk is on the back
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  Speaker 1: burner as we speak for now.
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  Speaker 3: Okay.
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  Speaker 1: It still could come to fruition, but as of right now,
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: it's not going to. Okay.
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: I'm very intrigued.
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: Well, refuse to talk, we used this years ago. I
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: don't know, pre- God, it was pre-Depoto, I think. Well,
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: I'm sure it was. It was pre-Depoto. Just one of the–
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: like I heard the promo right today, and it's true.
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: I mean, there's 50 years of Mariners history. They've been
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: to the playoffs six times. So at some point, you
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: just don't want to talk about every loss, right?
• 2:35
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: Football is different because there's a game once a week.
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: And once a week deserves all of your attention on Monday,
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: most of your attention on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, leading into
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: that one game. So it's hard to ever refuse to talk.
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: If we had a really bad NFL team, like I
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: guess we did during the last year of Holmgren and
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: the one and only year of Jim Mora, but you're
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: still talking NFL. Baseball's a little harder, but at some
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: point you're just saying the same things over and over again.
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: And I will talk to Eno tomorrow. We're not going
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: to invoke the refuse to talk hashtag yet, but we're
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: getting damn close because this particular show is not going
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: to play the who's the manager going to be game?
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: Because I really don't care.
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  Speaker 3: Right.
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  Speaker 4: Well, I don't care, nor do I have any idea
• 3:24
  Speaker 4: who would be a good fit to be a manager,
• 3:26
  Speaker 4: other than I would like it to be somebody who
• 3:27
  Speaker 4: has managerial experience.
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: Well, everyone seems to love Tori Lavella, right?
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: Yes, that's what I keep hearing.
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: And I think it's because a recognizable name, had some
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: success in Arizona. There's some similarities between the organizations, although,
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: wait for it, they've won a World Series.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: And had our best pitcher of all time go down
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: there and, you know, win Cy Youngs and stuff and MVPs. But, yeah, no,
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  Speaker 1: we'll talk to Eno tomorrow and wrap it up. There
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: is a little baseball thing. You sent it to me
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: last night. Actually, I saw the long story about it
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: today that we'll get into because it goes, it flies.
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: One of the things I love about Joe Sheehan, before
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  Speaker 1: we get to football, one of the things I love
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: about having Joe on, Joe is, Joe and I can
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: have a back and forth and disagree. And we're okay. Like,
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: we live in a world now where there's not a
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: lot of disagreement that's allowed to be.
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: Oh, no, you have to think the same.
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: Well, and if you don't think the same, then you're
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: just an idiot.
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  Speaker 3: Right.
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  Speaker 1: No room for differences. No room for differences. None whatsoever.
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: I'm going to yell at you. You're going to yell
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: at me. Here we go. That's what's going to happen.
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: But we're not going to do that. I disagree strongly
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: with Joe on his take on the baseball day games
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: in the playoffs. I'm going to get to that in
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: just a couple seconds. Because if you like and if
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: you enjoy seeing a certain group in Houston play not
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: be happy, then we got a story for you we'll
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: get to in a second. But I think it goes
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: back to the bigger picture, too. I think it goes
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: back to the bigger picture as well on how baseball
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: runs its playoffs and just how baseball runs things, period.
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: It's just not done well. Let's just put it that way.
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  Speaker 1: It's just not done well. So we'll get to that
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: in a couple seconds. Gray Zabel, I'm told now. Late word.
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: Gray Zabel is going to join us at 1230-ish, guessing
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: 1235-ish or so. So we'll get him coming in here.
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: That'll be fun. I've got to talk about the offense
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: running the football. They went from having an incredible run
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: game against Arizona to close out the game to a
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: nothing burger run game. We'll talk to Gray about that
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: and what he sees with the LA Chargers coming up
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: this weekend. So looking forward to talking to Gray Zabel
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: coming up here at 1230 today. So that's our Seahawk guest.
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: We'll hear probably at the 1 o'clock hour a little
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: bit from Our guy, Mike McDonald, he's speaking to the media.
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: Things are pushed back here a little bit today. Normally,
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: on a Wednesday, we've got a player right now. I
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: don't know why. They do their own thing. But they
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: push things back a little bit today. Looks like we're
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: going to have... Gray's able at 1245. My apologies. I'm
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: just texting back and forth. Oh, 1245? 1245, we'll have
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  Speaker 1: Gray on. That's coming up at that point in time.
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: We'll get to Mandel in the 1 o'clock hour. Just
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  Speaker 1: real quick on that. Your two schools, Ashley, your favorite
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  Speaker 1: school growing up, the Huskies of Washington.
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  Speaker 3: Yes.
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  Speaker 1: Taking on your alma mater, the Trojans of USC.
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  Speaker 2: Correct.
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  Speaker 1: Can you give me the reason? And this is me.
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: This is a safe zone. Okay. This is not softy
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: killing Fane like in the afternoon. Although, to be honest
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: with you, deservedly so. For his Gonzaga love. Yeah. What's
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: your beef with your alma mater? Because I listen to
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: Petros every Wednesday. He's got a beef, but it's more
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: like they kind of, he says things they don't like,
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: and so then they fire him from his PA job
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  Speaker 1: for basketball, and then he's mad at them, they're mad
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  Speaker 1: at him, blah, blah, blah, all that stuff. What's your
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: beef with the Trojans of USC?
• 6:56
  Speaker 4: Well, I just, one, I don't think that they've done
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  Speaker 4: a good job with the coaching hirings since Pete Carroll left.
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  Speaker 3: No, no.
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  Speaker 4: Um, and then two, they, it's them and UCLA that
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  Speaker 4: brought down the PAC 12 and I fully blame both
• 7:09
  Speaker 4: of those schools for it equally. Um, and I just,
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  Speaker 4: I don't, I think, you know, it's interesting cause I
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  Speaker 4: will say this, you know, I grew up a Husky fan.
• 7:19
  Speaker 4: I went to Husky games with my dad and my
• 7:21
  Speaker 4: godfather all the time. And so I just, I love
• 7:25
  Speaker 4: the Washington Huskies. When I got to school at SC one,
• 7:28
  Speaker 4: I didn't know if I was going to be able
• 7:29
  Speaker 4: to go there because of the duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh. Um,
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  Speaker 4: But I went there for water polo. So it wasn't
• 7:35
  Speaker 4: like I was like, Oh my gosh, I'm a lifelong
• 7:37
  Speaker 4: USC fan. Can't wait to go to USC. I went
• 7:39
  Speaker 4: there because Washington didn't have water polo and they had
• 7:42
  Speaker 4: a club program and USC actually had a, had it
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  Speaker 4: as a sport. And I went to my first USC
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  Speaker 4: game and I called my dad after, and I was like,
• 7:50
  Speaker 4: I can't do it.
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: He said, what?
• 7:52
  Speaker 4: I said, they play that song over and over all
• 7:53
  Speaker 4: the time and I'm going to go insane. And I said,
• 7:56
  Speaker 4: and I, I don't know if I can cheer for
• 7:58
  Speaker 4: this team. Well, Luckily for USC, they put all their athletes.
• 8:03
  Speaker 4: I mean, you are intermingled in everything. So then it
• 8:06
  Speaker 4: was like, well, I'm cheering for my friends.
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  Speaker 2: That's different.
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 8:09
  Speaker 4: You know, and then when I left and then I
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  Speaker 4: like Pete Carroll. So I kept cheering for him. Then
• 8:12
  Speaker 4: Pete left and I was like, well, let's see what
• 8:14
  Speaker 4: they do. And they just bungled it time after time
• 8:17
  Speaker 4: after time. They they had a great coach right there
• 8:20
  Speaker 4: in front of them at Orgeron.
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: And they just screwed him over.
• 8:25
  Speaker 4: So I just, I don't know. I just don't support
• 8:29
  Speaker 4: a lot of the things they do.
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: I find fandom so fascinating. And look, I've been guilty
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: of throwing stones at people for questioning how you can
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: be a fan of this or why don't you do that.
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: We all do that. We've all done that at some point.
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: Fandom's an interesting dynamic. College fandom's the most interesting to
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: me because you grow up probably around a team, and
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: then you're a fan of that team. It doesn't mean
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: you have to. I know everyone likes to bash Softie
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: because he didn't go to the school.
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it's one of the dumbest things ever.
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: It's an easy thing to do. The only thing I
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: ever take exception for is when people rip the actual
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: school academically and what have you that didn't go to
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: the other school.
• 9:11
  Speaker 2: They didn't have a dog in the fight, yeah.
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: They don't have a dog in the fight. If you
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: want to talk about athletics, that's a different thing because
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: we're just talking about sports and fandom. All bets are
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: off at that point.
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  Speaker 3: Right.
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: There's, there's nothing. I mean, I'm the same way. I
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: grew up a Husky fan. I mean, I, I grew
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: up in Seattle and I grew up a sports fan and,
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: you know, we went, uh, you know, my dad worked
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: at Como TV and, and we were always the Husky station.
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: The Don James show aired every Sunday night at five
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: o'clock with Bruce King and Don James. And they would
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: take the coach's tape from high above Husky stadium and
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: they go through every damn play. It was an amazing show. Really.
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: If you think about it in today's world, uh, you know,
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: Bruce go, okay, uh, Don here, it's a third and
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: two from the 25. What do you see? Well, here's
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: what we did. We had Hugh Millen here, quarterback, and
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: he handed it off and you know, gave it to so-and-so. And,
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: you know, Robin Earl up the middle. I like that play.
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: All right, that gives you first and now. Like, that's
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: literally what they did. It was, in today's world, it
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: would be considered boring. But I was fascinated by it.
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: It was an awesome show. And I was a Husky fan.
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: And we went, because they were the affiliate, we got tickets.
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: And we went to probably two or three games a year.
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: I was a Husky fan. And, you know, growing up
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: in Seattle, I went to Wazoo, and probably for the
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: first week or two I was a Husky fan, and
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: then my life was threatened, and I had to become
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: a Cougar fan. Yeah. And then you learn to hate
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: your rival is what you do. Honestly, you learn to
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: hate your rival. Yes. And that's what it is. And
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: sometimes with the schools that you root for, it's because
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: of what you just said, some of the things that
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: they do. The Lincoln Riley hire at the time felt
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: like a great hire for USC, right? Just like, okay,
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: you're going to solidify yourself. We'll talk about this with
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: Mandel later. You know, much like, honestly, the Jed Fish
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: hire felt like a pretty good hire. What he had
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: done at Arizona to turn that thing around. I mean,
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: that thing was an absolute dumpster fire and turned it around.
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: Sometimes it's not your program. Sometimes it's what your neighbors
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: are like. And, you know, I think Stu will probably
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: bring this up because he wrote about it in his
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: piece today. You know, with USC, some, you know, the
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: hires along the way are one thing, but you just
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: mentioned it. Going to the Big Ten has not helped USC.
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: At all.
• 11:11
  Speaker 2: Not at all.
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: It hasn't helped Washington at all. I always feel like
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: I've got to take a pause and put a disclaimer
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: in here. I understand why. We all understand why. The
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: business of college sports. That's not the discussion. The discussion
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: is why are the teams having the lack of success
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: that they're having right now? Well, Lincoln Riley is a coach.
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: Part of it is he went from Oklahoma and the
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: Big Dogs and they were the Big Dogs along with
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: Texas in the Big 12. They've obviously moved to the
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: SEC and Oklahoma hasn't been nearly as dominant since. And
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: now they've got all kinds of problems down there with
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: Brett Venables. John Mateer can't, can't play at all. And
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: they're kind of becoming an all-Soran in the, in the
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: SEC this year. And maybe on the course of that
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: for a while, Lincoln Riley's case, he goes, his last
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: year in the Pac-12, uh, the USC's last year in
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: the Pac-12, they had success. And the games that they
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: lost were against good teams. I mean, Michael Penix's team,
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: they were pretty good. Last I checked, I do believe.
• 12:06
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I think so.
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: Yeah, they were really, they were, they were really good. Um,
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: They lost to, I believe, a pretty good Oregon team
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: that year, too. And, yeah, I think Bo Nix was
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: the quarterback. And then they lost to a 10-win Notre
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: Dame team. So you're like, okay, you can live with that. Well,
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: now you go to the Big Ten. Now you go
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: to the Big Ten. And just because you're USC doesn't
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: mean you're going to be great.
• 12:25
  Speaker 3: Right?
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: Yeah. It doesn't mean you're going to be great because
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: you've got Ohio State. You've got Michigan. Iowa is in
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: a resurgence. If Penn State has found their coach, they
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: might become a problem again. We go through the list.
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: And then Oregon. Oregon seems to be somewhat bulletproof, but
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: they can't get over the top. I bring all that
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: up for this. The game on Saturday we'll talk to
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: Mandel about with Washington and USC. It's not making headlines
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: across the country, but it's a huge game here locally
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: and a huge game in L.A. Lincoln Riley is on
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: the hottest of hot seats across the country, and I
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: don't think Jed's seat is hot. But I do believe
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: there's some, and you can tell me better than most,
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: I believe there's some growing discontent with what's going on
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: out at Montlake. And that's a big game. And both
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: those teams only have one loss. Yeah. But that second
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: loss is going to be critical because of what the
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: remaining schedule is for both teams.
• 13:14
  Speaker 2: It feels like it'll be huge.
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: It's one of the bigger college games of the weekend.
• 13:18
  Speaker 3: Yeah. It just is. I would agree.
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: But, yeah, the Lincoln-Riley thing is, and I can see
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: not liking coaches, coaching hires, how a school goes about
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: its business. There's a lot of things about Wazoo I've
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: got a problem with.
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: I got a lot of problems with you people.
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: I've got a list of grievances here. It's 10 pages long.
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: That's why we had John Harlow in studio a couple
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: weeks ago. He and I talked off the air, and
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: I said, listen, I get it, man. You got this.
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: I got this. Let's talk about it, and away we go.
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: But it's a huge game this weekend. We'll talk about that.
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: For the Seahawks, meanwhile, we were talking about this with Greg.
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: Speaking of Oregon, Justin Herbert has not translated. Good regular
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: season quarterback most of the time, but has not been
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: able to get over the hump, right, in the postseason. Now,
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: you're playing in the AFC West. You've got Patrick Mahomes
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: in your division. You're playing in the AFC. You've got
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: a guy named Josh Allen in the league, right? I mean,
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: you could make an argument over the last decade, two
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: best quarterbacks in the league are both in the AFC,
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: and one of them is in your division. One of
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: them for sure is in your division along the way.
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: This Seahawks team, that's why I'm excited to talk to
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: Gray Zabel. Ashley, they've got to figure it out because
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: if you look through this year, How many good quarters
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: or even halves of football have they played, do you think?
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: Just off the top of your head.
• 14:37
  Speaker 4: Well, they played three games, so I'd go, I think
• 14:40
  Speaker 4: they have six quarters.
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: Maybe. I mean, the last two quarters against New England.
• 14:48
  Speaker 3: Yep.
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: The second half against Arizona. That was a 7-7 game, remember?
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: That's right. Yeah, going, yeah.
• 14:58
  Speaker 2: Because I was pissed that they didn't take the points
• 15:00
  Speaker 2: at the end of the first half.
• 15:02
  Speaker 3: Right?
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: And then I don't know when they played well against Washington. Yeah,
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: you're right.
• 15:07
  Speaker 2: No, they probably didn't. Yeah, I agree. It seemed messy.
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: They've fallen into a 2-1 record, and I say fallen
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: into because they're so much better than what they've shown
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: so far. They're such a better football team. We talked
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: about it on Monday. They've scored seven points total in
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: the first half. quarter this year. So only one touchdown,
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: only one, only one time that they scored in the
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: first quarter this year. Like that's not good enough. Uh,
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: they've got 10 points total combined. They got in the
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: second quarter, they got 17 first half points. That's the
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: thing I'll ask Gray's able about. They've got to be
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: better in first halves. They have to be getting off
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: to better starts. You can afford it against Arizona. You
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: can afford it against the 2026 version of Drake may, uh,
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: even though you were completely dependent on him throwing, you know,
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: basically pulling a Sam Darnold, except for he did it
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: in one quarter, and throwing a bunch of, turning the
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: ball over a bunch of times. I'm not sure if
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: you can do that against Jim Harbaugh and Justin Herbert
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: and this team. I'm not sure if you can do that, Ash.
• 16:07
  Speaker 2: I don't think so.
• 16:07
  Speaker 4: I mean, yes, the Chargers have not looked good at all, but, yeah, they're,
• 16:13
  Speaker 4: I mean, they're probably just.
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: They're not going 0-17, I'll tell you that right now.
• 16:15
  Speaker 2: No, they're definitely not, and their defense is good.
• 16:18
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 16:19
  Speaker 4: Decent, at least.
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: Seahawks have been outscored 31-17 in first halves. Gross. 31-17
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: in first halves. Now their second halves have been phenomenal.
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: They've outscored the opposition 58-19 in second halves. They have
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: the Seahawks. And it's only three games, a small sample size.
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: But their first halves have been outscored 31-17. That's just
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: not good enough. Rasheed Shaheed so far hasn't been good enough.
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: I heard Greg talking about it earlier.
• 16:45
  Speaker 3: I'm 100% with him.
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: And I think Dick Fane brought it up earlier this
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: week or maybe last week, and maybe it was Dick Ansofty,
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: but I know Dick's brought it up a couple times.
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: Rashid Shaheed investment has not turned out well. It has
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: not helped you in any way, shape, or form. He's
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: averaging less than 10 yards of return on his punts
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: this season. Kickoff returns, he had a 36-yard return after that.
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: Everything else has been sub-20. And more importantly, he's been
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: a non-factor in the passing game. Six catches for 53 yards.
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: They've got to get more out of him. So there's
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: a lot of upside, but there's probably reason, a little
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: bit of reason for concern as well. I would agree.
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: All right. Gray's able to come to Brown 1245. We'll
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: do this. We'll take a quick break. We'll come back.
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: If you like misery for teams that you hate, we've
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: got that for you next. All right. A team that
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: nobody likes. Oh, I'm sorry. There you go. No, you're good.
• 17:40
  Speaker 3: Go ahead.
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: You know what? You're getting used to the cadence of
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: Ian sometimes. I know.
• 17:43
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: I apologize. It's all right. We'll talk about. A team
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: that you hate, we all hate, and how the fans
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: have turned on them, and it's absolutely glorious. That's next. Hi,
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: back at the Virginia Mason Athletic Center. Graves Abel is
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: going to join us here in about 15 minutes. They
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: push stuff back a little bit today. Normally, you guys
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: follow along in here with us on a Wednesday. Greg
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: Bell on 10 to 12 here from the Virginia Mason
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: Athletic Center. I jump on at noon to 3, and
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: usually right around 12.05, we get a Seahawk player sitting
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: down with us here. We'll do that today with Graves Abel,
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: but they push everything back about a half hour, 45 minutes,
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: so Mike McDonald normally speaks at noon. He'll probably talk
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: around 1245-ish. So that's coming up a little bit later
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: as well. So lots going on out here at the
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: Virginia Mason Athletic Center. Two things I want to get
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: to because we're going to get kind of slammed with
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: some other stuff here in the next little while. Producer's choice,
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: NBA or the story you sent me last night? Where
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: do you want to start? They're both quick. We'll get
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: them both in this segment.
• 18:46
  Speaker 2: Yeah, but let's start with the NBA then. Let's start
• 18:49
  Speaker 2: with the NBA.
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: My buddy Tim Booth had a story in the Times today,
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: but a longer story today in the Athletic in regards
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: to the expansion process as NBA people... I don't even
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: know how many people not named. Oh, hey, quick. I'm
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: going to mention this guy's name on the air. I
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: haven't said anything. Not named Chris Kidd. Chris Kidd's back.
• 19:10
  Speaker 3: Yeah, he is. That's right.
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: How awesome is that? He's on in the mornings now
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: with Anders and Chuck. Chris is– and I'll say this.
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: I mean, listen, this is a crazy world of media.
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: It doesn't matter what media you're in, print media, all
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: kinds of issues in the print media these days. In fact,
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: I was giving Booth a hard time saying, shouldn't you
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: be out on the picket lines because they're– They're having
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: picket lines right now for the Seattle Times.
• 19:32
  Speaker 3: Oh.
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: Because they're protesting the use of AI in the newspaper
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: of record.
• 19:38
  Speaker 3: Ah, yes. Yes.
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: And so there's tough times in that world. There's tough
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: times in broadcasting. And one of those tough times was
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: a few months ago when Chris uh, left us, uh,
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: not on his own doing. It was, as they say
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: in the business, those budget situations, but he's back and
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: it's awesome. Like just awesome to see Chris back. He's
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: one of the nicest human beings on the planet. Uh,
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: Always a positive vibe and energy and big NBA guy,
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: which is good because we're getting the NBA back at
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: some point here in Seattle. Story today, NBA expansion to
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: Vegas moves forward as three bidders emerge as finalists. I
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: believe it's just two. They talked about three. The former
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: owner of the Milwaukee Bucks, Mark Lassery, and a Canadian businessman.
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: I don't think they're actually involved. Bill Foley, owner of
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: the Vegas Golden Knights NHL team, and Nancy Walton-Lorey and
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: her husband, Bill Lorey. They, of course, of Walmart. fame.
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: They have connections. They live in Henderson, Nevada. Foley obviously
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: has the Vegas Golden Knights and controls the one arena
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: that could host a team right now. It's down to them.
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: This is the line that I thought was interesting, Ash,
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: from The Athletic today. The final phase of the Las
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: Vegas expansion process is expected to last at least several weeks. Well,
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: I'm checking my notes here. September 30th. That takes us
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: probably into November.
• 20:58
  Speaker 2: I would assume so.
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: And assuming they're doing this in tandem with Seattle and Vegas,
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: any thought of hearing some news in October seems to
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: be a little bit far-fetched now. So just something to
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: keep an eye on there. Vegas is just so different
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: than Seattle because there are multiple bidders. There are arena issues, a.k.a. concerns,
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: in terms of where they would play. I mean, they
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: could probably temporarily play. You're at T-Mobile Arena or maybe MG,
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: they could probably find a place to play temporarily if
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: they're going to build a new building. Because if they
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: started today, buildings are still not going to be ready
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: probably for two, two and a half years. But they
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: talk about the money involved here as well. There's this
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: line that keeps being used that I just, I don't quite,
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: I don't quite understand. And it says that the, I'm
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: going to find it again because it just, it's, here
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: it is. This was used by Shams last week, too. Okay.
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: I don't understand the... Okay. Listen. You can make your
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: O'Day and Wazoo jokes if you like right now. Maybe
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: that's just me. I'm not the smartest tool in the shed.
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: I get that. But I don't understand why this keeps
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: being used. The Las Vegas expansion process seems to be
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: ahead of the NBA's efforts in Seattle.
• 22:20
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 22:20
  Speaker 2: We've heard that several times now.
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: The only thing I can... Derived from that is when
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: it says seems to be ahead of the NBA's efforts
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: in Seattle. I think that that means, I believe, because
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: I'll read this next line. Silver said earlier this month
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: that any new owner in Las Vegas would have to
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: determine where that team plays because, unlike in Seattle, there's
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: no ready-made option. So it says ahead of the NBA's
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: efforts in Seattle. I think it means more of a
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: priority because Seattle's already kind of ready to go. Does
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: that make sense? Yeah, it makes sense.
• 22:50
  Speaker 2: It makes sense. I would hope that's how it's supposed
• 22:53
  Speaker 2: to be.
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: Okay, that's how I'm reading that. I think that that's
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: what that means. I could be wrong, but I do
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: believe that that's what they're talking about right now. So
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: just with that as your framework, basically, waiting still on Vegas.
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: We're still a few weeks away from the NBA figuring
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: out which one of the two groups. It doesn't mean
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: they're going to be approved, but which one of the
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: two groups that they prefer, and then that group will
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: submit its final decision. stuff that they've got to submit.
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: Keep in mind, and this is one of the things
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: that's hard in this process, is that, yes, there's kind
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: of a deadline at the end of the year, the
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: self-imposed deadline by the NBA by the end of the year,
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: by the end of 2026, and we're here starting tomorrow's
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: October 1st. So there's a little bit of a time
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: crunch here, and they want to have at least a
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: year and a half lead up before expansion takes place.
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: But the other thing is that these guys, all these groups...
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: My understanding is they're all under NDAs. Like they can't
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: discuss stuff publicly.
• 23:51
  Speaker 2: That makes sense too, yeah.
• 23:52
  Speaker 3: Right?
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: So you're not going to get the best information and
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: the most accurate information out there. What I believe is
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: happening is we're in Seattle. We're ready to go. Samantha
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: Holloway spoke at a luncheon yesterday or some sort of
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: summit or conference yesterday. And Booth had the stuff in
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: the Times, some of the quotes. And if you even
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: look at what she's saying, it's very general. Like it's
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: in very general terms. You know, we'd love to get
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: the NBA here, blah, blah, blah, all those things. So
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: I think we're moving ahead. It's just the timeline just
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: does keep getting pushed a little bit.
• 24:29
  Speaker 2: That's why I can't jump on.
• 24:31
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: And I think there's a lot of people like that
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: that aren't ready to. I know people have some cautious optimism.
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: My message always is be optimistic, be excited. I understand
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: all the cautious optimism and how people would feel a
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: little frustrated, and it feels like it keeps getting– and
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: it's been 20 years. We all understand that. Or it
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: will be 20 years once we get to the finish line,
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: probably in 2028. At the same time, it's frustrating because
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: I think people are all kind of in the mode
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: of that. All right, let me do this. Ash, we'll
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: get to the other story later on. Practice wrapping up,
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: so let's take a quick break. We'll come back any
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: minute now. We'll have Gray Zabel on joining us here
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: in the studio. That's coming up next on 93.3 KGRFM.
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: All right, back here at the Virginia Mason Athletic Center.
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: Ian Furness with you. Until 3 o'clock, Seahawks just wrapping
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: up their walkthrough. You should ask Grace Abel. What's a
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: walkthrough like? You can't watch the walkthroughs. We're not allowed.
• 25:32
  Speaker 2: What do you think they do there?
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: Well, there's the famous story. God, when was this? This
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: was years ago. Like, you know, Earl would go 1,000
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: miles an hour.
• 25:45
  Speaker 3: Mm-hmm.
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: And they were doing a walkthrough and Michael Bennett and
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: Cliff Averill were out there. They're chewing sunflower seeds and they're,
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: wait for it, walking through it.
• 25:54
  Speaker 3: Oh, wow.
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: And they almost got in a brawl with Earl because
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: he was like, you guys aren't doing it. You've got
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: to get faster. He's like, it's a walkthrough, dude. Like,
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: shut up.
• 26:04
  Speaker 3: Yeah. Like Earl.
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: I know you're Earl and you're going, you know, you're
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: doing your thing. So, but yeah, so we'll ask Gray that.
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: Gray Zabel's walking in right now. Hi, Gray. Ian Furness.
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: Nice to meet you. We'll throw that headset on there
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: and Grab you for a second as we are live
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: here on KJR. I think that might be it. That's
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: Greg Bell messed that thing up. He's our previous guy. Yeah,
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: just blame. We blame Greg. We always blame the print guys.
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: You know, the newspaper guys. They're a different breed. How
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: are you?
• 26:30
  Speaker 3: Doing well. Doing well. Thanks for having me on.
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: I appreciate you coming by. I know it's in between
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: walkthroughs and practice. We were just joking about this. What's
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: a walkthrough? Because you know when we're out there. Like
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: we're out there for the first 10 minutes of the
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: real practice. We're not out there for walkthroughs and things
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: like that. I was telling a story. It's a great story.
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: I'll just real fast. Back years ago, Cliff Averill and
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: Michael Bennett were here, and so was Earl Thomas, and
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: they were doing a walkthrough, so to speak. And as
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: Cliff tells it, they're walking through. They had some sunflower seeds,
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: and they're just kind of messing around, doing whatever. And
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: Earl snapped on them saying, hey, you've got to go higher.
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: And they're like, wait a second. Relax, fella. It's a walkthrough.
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: And Earl would go 1,000 miles an hour. Tryhard guy.
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: So what's a walkthrough?
• 27:10
  Speaker 3: Yeah. You kind of described it. It's supposed to be
• 27:13
  Speaker 3: a walkthrough, but obviously tempo starts to pick up as
• 27:16
  Speaker 3: you go throughout. Yeah. There's one guy that maybe violates tempo.
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: A little bit. Okay, that's what I was going to
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: ask you.
• 27:22
  Speaker 3: Everyone else matches him, and then coaches start getting frustrated
• 27:25
  Speaker 3: and tell us to back it down. Or it's the
• 27:27
  Speaker 3: other way. They come out and kind of feel sorry
• 27:29
  Speaker 3: for yourselves and maybe taking it a little too slow,
• 27:32
  Speaker 3: and a few guys get on each other, and then
• 27:35
  Speaker 3: it's back to being how it's supposed to be. But
• 27:37
  Speaker 3: walkthrough is a very loose term. Uh-huh. Around the football dictionary.
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: So, there is on occasion, and you guys probably did
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: it in college too, right? On occasion, there's probably a
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: try-hard guy. Like YMCA or LA Fitness basketball try-hard guy
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: that's just going to go 1,000 miles an hour. There
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: is that guy sometimes?
• 27:56
  Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely. Riley Mills.
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: I'll say it. Okay, I was going to ask you,
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: but you want to still?
• 28:01
  Speaker 3: I love him to death too. Good friend. Love watching
• 28:04
  Speaker 3: him play, but yeah, it's life or death out there
• 28:07
  Speaker 3: and walk through and I mean, that's the way it is.
• 28:10
  Speaker 3: Notre Dame guy. Exactly.
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: That's probably what it is.
• 28:12
  Speaker 3: It's just Notre Dame guy, Notre Dame guy.
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: How are you doing? How's, how's year two?
• 28:16
  Speaker 3: Oh, it's good. Um, still some learning curves, some ups
• 28:18
  Speaker 3: and downs. Um, obviously need to play better up front
• 28:23
  Speaker 3: myself and, and our offensive line, but we're kind of
• 28:25
  Speaker 3: getting to a flow of things and it's a, it's
• 28:27
  Speaker 3: a progress. Never, never finished kind of form and always, uh,
• 28:32
  Speaker 3: developing and get better.
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: You, uh, the, the, Arizona's second half, well, the last quarter,
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: the last drive of the Arizona game was like what
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: football linemen's dreams are made of, right? 16 plays. You
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: guys were playing, but I can just tell you the
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: visuals on TV, they kept showing tight shots of the
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: linemen for the Cardinals, and they just had this look
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: on their face of complete defeat and exhaustion. That's what
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: you guys want to do, right? You had that, and
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: then we struggled. You struggled a little bit against the commanders.
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: What was the difference?
• 29:01
  Speaker 3: Yeah. Obviously, like, Two completely different ball games there. Maybe
• 29:09
  Speaker 3: Arizona's a little more base defense, play more kind of
• 29:13
  Speaker 3: forward and understanding that we might not get as many
• 29:17
  Speaker 3: blitzes and pressures and all that stuff. And then you
• 29:19
  Speaker 3: fast forward to Washington where it's not the best conditions.
• 29:23
  Speaker 3: Everyone kind of knows you're going to have to run
• 29:24
  Speaker 3: the football well. And then they're obviously pressuring and blitzing
• 29:28
  Speaker 3: us and showing us different looks and fronts and stuff
• 29:30
  Speaker 3: like that. But At the end of the day, I mean,
• 29:32
  Speaker 3: it's one week, you have good performance, and maybe it's myself,
• 29:37
  Speaker 3: our offensive line, we might be feeling good about ourselves.
• 29:40
  Speaker 3: being able to run the ball like that and then
• 29:42
  Speaker 3: you kind of get a reality check and then slice
• 29:45
  Speaker 3: a humble pie on Sunday against Washington we don't run
• 29:48
  Speaker 3: the ball very well just back to the drawing board
• 29:50
  Speaker 3: back to the basics and understand it's any given Sunday
• 29:54
  Speaker 3: And you've got to bring your best.
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: The Seahawks left guard, Gray Zabel, with me. And for us,
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: with you here at the Virginia Mason Athletic Center. You
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: had two guys filling in for Anthony Bradford and rotating
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: the snaps. One had 60. One had 40% of the snaps.
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: And it's probably more for Sundell and for Abe. But
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: good football players, both of them. We know that in
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: Christian and Bo Stevens, the rookie. Bradford's been there. How
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: difficult and challenging is it? When I always hear about
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: the offensive line, it's all about cohesiveness and teamwork, and
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: now you're missing one of your key guys, a guy
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: that's a massive force, I believe, in the run game, right,
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: in Big Anthony.
• 30:29
  Speaker 3: Absolutely.
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: And then you have guys rotating in, and they're trying
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: to find that combination, and it's all about chemistry. Does
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: that make it a little more challenging as well? Not
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: to take a shot at those guys, it's just it
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: could be any player out there, just to have, basically,
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: you've had three guys playing right guard this year.
• 30:43
  Speaker 3: Yeah. Chemistry, not so much. I feel like our group
• 30:48
  Speaker 3: is extremely tight and close and obviously have a lot
• 30:53
  Speaker 3: of great friendships and stuff in the O-line room. It's
• 30:56
  Speaker 3: more of like maybe play styles, if anything. And obviously
• 31:01
  Speaker 3: whoever lines up out there has got to play well together.
• 31:03
  Speaker 3: And I think Christian and Bo are doing an unbelievable
• 31:05
  Speaker 3: job filling in for AB while he's gone. But maybe
• 31:09
  Speaker 3: a play style a little bit. And I'm not, that's
• 31:12
  Speaker 3: no excuse or anything. It's just some guys, maybe how they,
• 31:16
  Speaker 3: play a certain reach block or a drive block or
• 31:18
  Speaker 3: something like that it's just all different so it's getting
• 31:20
  Speaker 3: into the feel of that and I think kudos to
• 31:24
  Speaker 3: JB for having the ability to put whoever in there
• 31:29
  Speaker 3: and still make everything flow and function and I think
• 31:32
  Speaker 3: that's a testament to how well our coach is of
• 31:34
  Speaker 3: the O-line group but tough spot for those two to
• 31:38
  Speaker 3: come into both Bo and Christian and they've excelled unbelievably
• 31:41
  Speaker 3: can't say enough good things about how well those two
• 31:43
  Speaker 3: are playing stepping up to a plate, but obviously we're
• 31:49
  Speaker 3: missing A.B. and love him to death and hope he
• 31:52
  Speaker 3: can get back and get healthy and recovered, but those
• 31:54
  Speaker 3: two are doing a great job while he's out.
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: J.B., you mentioned John Benton, who's the offensive line coach
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: for fans who don't know. This team, there's a couple
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: running jokes in this town. One of them is that
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: Mariners go through hitting coaches, like most of us change
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: our undergarments or what have you, all the time. That's
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: been the same way. There's been a revolving door not
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: even with head coaches, just revolving door with offensive line
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: coaches for a while, but he's the second one under
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: Mike McDonald, and it looks like this guy has really
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: made a difference. Tell us about John Benton and what
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: he does for you guys as a group.
• 32:26
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I can't speak enough about JB and what he's
• 32:32
  Speaker 3: done for the O-line, myself, this team, this offense. It's unbelievable.
• 32:37
  Speaker 3: He's a truly great coach. He understands the the X's
• 32:41
  Speaker 3: and O's. He understands the personalities, the players, how to
• 32:45
  Speaker 3: coach certain people. It's truly remarkable what he can do
• 32:49
  Speaker 3: in that offensive line room on how to pull the
• 32:51
  Speaker 3: best parts out of everybody and get their understanding and
• 32:56
  Speaker 3: have a different coaching style with every single guy in
• 32:58
  Speaker 3: that room. Love him to death. He's been a staple.
• 33:02
  Speaker 3: I don't think we have the success that we've had
• 33:05
  Speaker 3: here in Seattle if it wasn't for him.
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: It's funny watching Hard Knocks. We didn't see him on
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: Hard Knocks. He wasn't really ever featured. Just how he
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: wanted it, too. That's an offensive lineman's dream, right?
• 33:15
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: I mean, that's kind of what it is. The funny
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: part about that is if you were just watching it
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: and you didn't see anybody in the room... If I
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: saw Coach Hammock, if I saw your running backs coach,
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: I would have thought that was the offensive line coach.
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: The way he's going. Is he always going like that?
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: I mean, you're not with him.
• 33:30
  Speaker 3: Yeah. You can hear him through the walls. Can you?
• 33:32
  Speaker 3: It's a classic, yeah. Everyone kind of goes silent a
• 33:34
  Speaker 3: little bit in the O-line room when he's yelling over there.
• 33:38
  Speaker 3: Sometimes it's good. Sometimes it's bad. Maybe he's yelling and
• 33:41
  Speaker 3: there's a few laughs afterwards.
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: He's got the intensity, though, huh?
• 33:44
  Speaker 3: He's the best. Coach Hammock's the best.
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that was a great part of it. Uh, just
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: a couple of quick things before I let you go, uh,
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: for you in year two, but sitting there every snap,
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: every play practice, walkthroughs, whatever you look over and you
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: see a guy that you played college with, roomed with
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: good friends with, do you ever pinch yourself and say,
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: I'm not just in the NFL, but I'm playing with
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: this guy?
• 34:07
  Speaker 3: Absolutely. Absolutely. And it was so cool just to have
• 34:10
  Speaker 3: the chemistry, um, camaraderie last year with them. And then
• 34:14
  Speaker 3: you add another year, you add another off season, uh,
• 34:18
  Speaker 3: another however many hundreds of plays playing next to each other.
• 34:21
  Speaker 3: It's super cool and I think the coolest part is
• 34:24
  Speaker 3: maybe we took our relationship and bond that me and
• 34:26
  Speaker 3: Jalen have from college and now it's kind of spreading
• 34:28
  Speaker 3: throughout the O-line room. And I will say North Dakota
• 34:31
  Speaker 3: State's extremely different on how tight-knit the offensive line room
• 34:35
  Speaker 3: is and how the relationships turn into being a best
• 34:40
  Speaker 3: friend to a brother to we're knowing everything about each
• 34:43
  Speaker 3: other's families now and I think that's kind of been
• 34:46
  Speaker 3: a thing that has happened here in the past year,
• 34:49
  Speaker 3: year and a half, is we accelerated that throughout the
• 34:53
  Speaker 3: entire offensive line room, so now it's like Charles Cross,
• 34:56
  Speaker 3: one of my best friends, like truly a brother to me,
• 34:58
  Speaker 3: and same thing with Olu and Josh and Abe and
• 35:02
  Speaker 3: AB and all those guys, it's unbelievable, but What a unique,
• 35:07
  Speaker 3: surreal experience to be able to say that you played
• 35:09
  Speaker 3: next to a college roommate and a lifelong friend.
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: And win a Super Bowl together.
• 35:14
  Speaker 3: Absolutely.
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: It's just a dream season all the way around. The
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: offensive line is different than any other position group, I believe,
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: I think. My son played college football and was an
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: offensive lineman, and all I hear about is just how
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: close you guys are. How different is the offensive line, room, group?
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: You just kind of talked about it. Then everybody else
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: on the team. It feels like that. And you said,
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: You guys didn't want to be necessarily part of hard
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: knocks or anything like that. You just do your own thing.
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: But that's just a unique thing in sports. You root
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: each other on, it feels like.
• 35:42
  Speaker 3: Absolutely. And it's five is one, seeing everything through the
• 35:45
  Speaker 3: same set of eyes and understanding how everyone's going to
• 35:48
  Speaker 3: play off each other. I think truly the best position
• 35:52
  Speaker 3: group to be a part of is the offensive line.
• 35:54
  Speaker 3: And obviously that's really important to us out here. But
• 35:58
  Speaker 3: you see it. throughout every single position group. We aren't
• 36:01
  Speaker 3: just the special ones to have that bond. The D-line,
• 36:04
  Speaker 3: the quarterbacks, the wide receivers, the safeties, everyone has that
• 36:08
  Speaker 3: type of bond in their room and I think that's
• 36:10
  Speaker 3: what's truly remarkable about this team.
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: I had one question that came in from the outside.
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: Are you a Bush light Apple guy? Are you a
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: Bapple guy?
• 36:19
  Speaker 3: Not. Maybe one or two. It's pretty sugary.
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: That's not a thing for you?
• 36:26
  Speaker 3: No.
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: You're not standing in line like everybody else?
• 36:28
  Speaker 3: No.
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: Because the person that asked me was asking if you
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: had any insider information, like when it's coming out again.
• 36:34
  Speaker 3: No, I don't. I got a little bit of a
• 36:36
  Speaker 3: shipment after a Super Bowl of Bush Light Apple.
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: Oh, they had some left over.
• 36:40
  Speaker 3: Yeah, that was some strings, yeah.
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: But no inside info when it's coming back?
• 36:44
  Speaker 3: No, I don't. But hopefully here soon, because I know
• 36:47
  Speaker 3: a lot of friends and buddies that absolutely love it. Okay.
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: The guy that's asking me used to be an offensive lineman.
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: I'll just leave it at that.
• 36:54
  Speaker 3: Absolutely.
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: That's their thing. I told him, just drink some cider.
• 36:58
  Speaker 1: It's the same thing.
• 36:59
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: It tastes like cider.
• 37:01
  Speaker 3: Yeah, or just put apple juice in your beer, take
• 37:03
  Speaker 3: a few sips, and throw some apple juice in there. Bam.
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: That's a veteran move right there.
• 37:08
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: That's a veteran move. Graze Abel, thanks for coming by.
• 37:11
  Speaker 1: I appreciate it. And we got all kinds of good
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: insight today, including what a walkthrough is, so I thank
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: you very much for that. Graze Abel, we'll take a
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: quick break. Come back with more.