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Sean O'Connell Show - Full POD 6-2-26 · The Sean O'Connell Show

• 0:26
  Speaker 1: Have a Tuesday. Everybody. Welcome to the Sean o'connas Show.
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: Very happy to have you with us on the Sean
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: o'connall Show.
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: Got a fun one lined up for you today.
• 0:41
  Speaker 3: Gordy Chias as we still got in b a basketball,
• 0:45
  Speaker 3: Brian Dunseith, our guy Donny to talk a little World
• 0:48
  Speaker 3: Cup as we're right around the corner, will be nine
• 0:51
  Speaker 3: days away from the start. By the way, tickets still
• 0:54
  Speaker 3: available to USA Paraguay. The first USA match is not
• 1:02
  Speaker 3: even sold out. In a North American World Cup, your
• 1:09
  Speaker 3: host nation, it's team's first game is not even sold out.
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: FIFA.
• 1:13
  Speaker 3: If that doesn't tell you that your prices are ridiculous,
• 1:17
  Speaker 3: I don't know what will about thirty five hundred seats
• 1:21
  Speaker 3: available on the actual FIFA ticket website and then the
• 1:26
  Speaker 3: resale market is unlimited effectively.
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: Is that is that the one in so far that
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: you were looking to get tickets too?
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: Yes, I just needed to wait.
• 1:39
  Speaker 3: Those prices at least the resale prices are gonna have
• 1:42
  Speaker 3: to come down.
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: You didn't You didn't buy tickets at a higher price,
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: did you? You didn't? Never got them?
• 1:48
  Speaker 3: No, I never got them because I was like, all right,
• 1:51
  Speaker 3: even with free accommodation, travel, food, and the prices to
• 1:59
  Speaker 3: the game just gets a little bit gnarly. You know,
• 2:06
  Speaker 3: I think that you actually will. I don't know what
• 2:10
  Speaker 3: Uber prices are going to be like on the day
• 2:12
  Speaker 3: of the match. I'm sure that they'll be premium times
• 2:14
  Speaker 3: premium times premium, But I imagine that take getting a
• 2:20
  Speaker 3: ride to the game is probably going to be more
• 2:22
  Speaker 3: cost effective, even if it is crazy expensive, than trying
• 2:25
  Speaker 3: to rent a car and park.
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: But uh, I don't know. We'll see.
• 2:30
  Speaker 3: Maybe maybe we'll do a Maybe we'll do a surprise
• 2:34
  Speaker 3: broadcast from LA if the tickets drop far enough, maybe
• 2:37
  Speaker 3: we'll do one on the road.
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: USA versus Paraguay. I don't want to get I don't
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: want to make any problem. The vacation home and the
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: lavish vacation home in southern California. Yeah, not my lavish
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: vacation home, but somebody else's.
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, Hellotle Friday show on June twelfth, Well, I
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: mean why not? Why not?
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: Sounds great right after right after you get back from
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: Big twelve media days.
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: You know what's no? No June twelfth, July twel what
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: am I saying? July June? They're both j.
• 3:12
  Speaker 3: They're both j it's summertime radio people. We don't know
• 3:16
  Speaker 3: why we're actually going places. We don't know what we're
• 3:19
  Speaker 3: actually talking about.
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I seriously, I've done that so many times thinking
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: about when World Cup games are though, like, oh that's Jay,
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: that's June. Whatever I've been in my mind, I've gone,
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: oh that's July. No, it's June.
• 3:35
  Speaker 3: So on the World Cup official website here the get
• 3:39
  Speaker 3: in price to the game, despite it not being sold out,
• 3:42
  Speaker 3: is the get in price is still one thousand, almost
• 3:46
  Speaker 3: one thousand bucks nine and fifty five dollars for the
• 3:50
  Speaker 3: cheapest seats. Oh nope, nine hundred and thirteen. Okay, we're
• 3:53
  Speaker 3: coming down, baby, we're coming down.
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: Let's check in ten minutes, nine hundred even, eight and
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: seventy seven. Let's go baby. Whoa, that's a lot. This
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: is going down a lot quicker than are they listen?
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: Is FIFA listening to us right now? Did they hear you?
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: It's like, come on, FIFA, And now they're responding. What
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: it's the opposite of an auction.
• 4:15
  Speaker 3: It's just like just going down Hey eighty, Hey, no
• 4:21
  Speaker 3: one's taking that.
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: How about eight hundred and fifty five do I hear
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: eight hundred and fifty five? No, okay, how about eight hundred.
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: You know how cool it would be if they did
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: a live auction for cheap seats.
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: A cheap seat that I was just about to say,
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: we need to figure that out. O.
• 4:37
  Speaker 3: How many million dollar ideas we've come with accidentally on
• 4:40
  Speaker 3: the air?
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: That might be the best one. I haven't even written
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: down one. What am I doing?
• 4:45
  Speaker 4: Yeah?
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: What are we doing?
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: We need to put these at the bottom of the
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: show page, just in case.
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: A good thing.
• 4:51
  Speaker 3: Our broadway media salaries already make us millionaires.
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's why we don't write it down. That's why
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: we'd all write it down.
• 4:56
  Speaker 3: We're good already, We're already fleshy good speak of millionaires.
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: There's momentum.
• 5:02
  Speaker 3: I didn't report on this the first time I saw
• 5:04
  Speaker 3: it because I kind of wanted to see if it
• 5:08
  Speaker 3: gained legs, if it got any more conversation. But I
• 5:11
  Speaker 3: think it applies kind of. It's something that applies across
• 5:14
  Speaker 3: all sports.
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: Even if it is.
• 5:18
  Speaker 3: At the moment being talked about for Major League Baseball, which,
• 5:22
  Speaker 3: by the way, Utah Salt Lake City is the alleged
• 5:29
  Speaker 3: front runner for MLB expansion now, perhaps even higher on
• 5:32
  Speaker 3: the list than Nashville, who for several years has been
• 5:36
  Speaker 3: considered to be a virtual shoe in. Now I think
• 5:41
  Speaker 3: that we're golden on the western half of the United
• 5:44
  Speaker 3: States because they're going to give Nashville a team and
• 5:48
  Speaker 3: then they'll want a Western counterpart for that team.
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: And Portland was hopeful.
• 5:55
  Speaker 3: Sacramento is right now hosting the Oakland Slash loss Vegas Athletics,
• 6:01
  Speaker 3: and Sacramento was hoping, like, if we show that we
• 6:05
  Speaker 3: can accommodate this A's team for a couple of seasons,
• 6:09
  Speaker 3: maybe Major League Baseball will gift us a permanent franchise.
• 6:13
  Speaker 3: That's how Oklahoma City got the thunder.
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: Yeah, the Oklahoma City Hornets after Katrina, that Chris Paul
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: you know, got those got those folks really excited. They showed,
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: they showed, Hey, we will show up for NBA games,
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: and now they're arguably the best home court in NBA
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: basketball right now.
• 6:39
  Speaker 3: So Major League Baseball is proposing potential expansion and also
• 6:44
  Speaker 3: there is some thought into putting a hard salary cap
• 6:48
  Speaker 3: into Major League Baseball. Now, why am I bringing up
• 6:52
  Speaker 3: this up right now, because we're also talking about a
• 6:54
  Speaker 3: time in college sports where the powers that be, and
• 6:58
  Speaker 3: we know who the powers that be are are starting
• 7:00
  Speaker 3: to wonder if a hard salary cap is going to
• 7:04
  Speaker 3: be the key to parody moving forward in college sports.
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: And the beauty of it is, if you're.
• 7:11
  Speaker 3: College sports, all you have to do is look at
• 7:12
  Speaker 3: Major League Baseball, because effectively they operate the same way
• 7:18
  Speaker 3: as the power teams and the other the power by
• 7:24
  Speaker 3: name teams, kind of like you know, the bottom of
• 7:27
  Speaker 3: the Big Twelve, the bottom.
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: Of the ACC.
• 7:28
  Speaker 3: They're technically power conference schools, right, but we know that
• 7:33
  Speaker 3: there is a gap between those teams and the big
• 7:38
  Speaker 3: time teams, even the teams at the top of the ACC,
• 7:40
  Speaker 3: in the top of the Big twelve, there's a gap.
• 7:44
  Speaker 3: The gap between Houston and Texas Tech is probably just
• 7:50
  Speaker 3: as large. And maybe I'm using maybe Houston's a wrong
• 7:54
  Speaker 3: example because Houston is just like one big time Houston
• 7:58
  Speaker 3: billionaire away from being to Exos Tech. So Kansas State
• 8:03
  Speaker 3: might be a better example. Whoever you decide. The bottom
• 8:08
  Speaker 3: spenders in the power conferences are just as far away
• 8:14
  Speaker 3: from the top of their own conferences as the top
• 8:15
  Speaker 3: of their own conferences are away from Michigan and Ohio
• 8:19
  Speaker 3: State and Alabama, and we see that in Major League Baseball.
• 8:24
  Speaker 3: We have seen that in Major League Baseball for many
• 8:27
  Speaker 3: many years now, and it's not quite so direct a
• 8:34
  Speaker 3: correlation as the top payroll in baseball every year wins
• 8:40
  Speaker 3: the wins the Major Leagues wins the World Series.
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: But there is.
• 8:47
  Speaker 3: Precious few examples of the frugal team, the underspending team,
• 8:55
  Speaker 3: actually having great success.
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: I mean, how rare is it?
• 8:59
  Speaker 3: Well, it's so rare that when it does happen, you
• 9:02
  Speaker 3: get Brad Pitt to play your manager and you make
• 9:06
  Speaker 3: a whole movie about it. Yeah, the only the only
• 9:10
  Speaker 3: team that's been able to do it recently with any
• 9:13
  Speaker 3: kind of regularity is the Tampa Bay Rays, but they've
• 9:17
  Speaker 3: had to turn over their roster every three or four years,
• 9:20
  Speaker 3: so it's not That's been probably why it's hard for
• 9:24
  Speaker 3: teams to latch onto the Rays because just like college football,
• 9:27
  Speaker 3: it's like we don't even know who we're watching here.
• 9:31
  Speaker 3: Like Randy Rosana, remember him, great Tampa Bay Rays star,
• 9:35
  Speaker 3: he's with the Mariners now. So anyway, that's that's been
• 9:40
  Speaker 3: the best example. But even they're not doing it every
• 9:43
  Speaker 3: year where they're competing for a World Series and they
• 9:45
  Speaker 3: haven't won a title yet. So if you go back,
• 9:48
  Speaker 3: if you go through the top payrolls in Major League
• 9:50
  Speaker 3: Baseball right the twenty twenty sixth season, top payroll is.
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: The New York Yankees. Woo.
• 9:58
  Speaker 3: The New York Yankees have the top total payroll and
• 10:01
  Speaker 3: the top active payroll. They're also paying forty million dollars
• 10:05
  Speaker 3: to injured players right now, which is so.
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: They have a higher payroll than the Dodgers.
• 10:10
  Speaker 3: Then well, because oh, because of the deferred money deferred money,
• 10:15
  Speaker 3: I'm glad you brought that up, Because because the Dodgers
• 10:18
  Speaker 3: have done this thing, and specifically sho Heo Tani has
• 10:22
  Speaker 3: he signed a three quarters of a billion dollar contract
• 10:26
  Speaker 3: that is deferred until like twenty thirty four, So he's
• 10:30
  Speaker 3: making like two million dollars in salary from the Dodgers
• 10:35
  Speaker 3: until probably his retirement age is baseball retirement age, not
• 10:41
  Speaker 3: his like real world person retirement age, and then getting
• 10:45
  Speaker 3: hundreds of millions of dollars on that date and then
• 10:48
  Speaker 3: it's just like, oh, here you can have all THEO.
• 10:50
  Speaker 3: And by the way, he doesn't exactly have to suffer
• 10:53
  Speaker 3: the estimate on sho Heyo Tani's endorsement deals. Remember he's
• 10:57
  Speaker 3: got US endorsement deals, and he's got a huge amount
• 11:01
  Speaker 3: of Japanese endorsement deals, and of course international that crosses
• 11:05
  Speaker 3: over to both audiences. The estimate on his endorsement deals
• 11:09
  Speaker 3: is about one hundred and twenty five million dollars this year,
• 11:12
  Speaker 3: so he doesn't exactly need his Dodgers pay which, by
• 11:17
  Speaker 3: the way, anyone who works a regular job and then
• 11:20
  Speaker 3: works a side hustle, if you can, if you can
• 11:24
  Speaker 3: make it so that one pays for your life and
• 11:27
  Speaker 3: the other one is one hundred percent for investment money,
• 11:32
  Speaker 3: for leisure money, for whatever, whatever you decide your priority is.
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: Like that really doesn't matter money.
• 11:39
  Speaker 3: That's a really great setup, right, if you have one
• 11:42
  Speaker 3: income that pays for your entire like your bills, that's
• 11:46
  Speaker 3: the boring stuff, all right, insurance, mortgage, car payments, phone bill,
• 11:52
  Speaker 3: you've got a job. Maybe you're you're a two income household,
• 11:56
  Speaker 3: and one person's income pays for all of those things.
• 12:00
  Speaker 3: And then the secondary income and hopefully it's just as big,
• 12:03
  Speaker 3: if not bigger. The secondary income is just like this
• 12:07
  Speaker 3: is for the future, this is for investments, this is
• 12:10
  Speaker 3: for fun, this is for our kids' future. Whatever, Like
• 12:13
  Speaker 3: that's a win man for sho Hao Tani. His secondary
• 12:18
  Speaker 3: income is one hundred and twenty five million dollars. It's
• 12:21
  Speaker 3: one hundred and twenty three million more than his current
• 12:25
  Speaker 3: salary for the Dodgers because of the deferred money.
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: We're gonna talk about this in the Daily Dump as well.
• 12:30
  Speaker 3: Steph Curry, who's made an insane amount of money in
• 12:34
  Speaker 3: NBA basketball, just reportedly signed a one billion plus dollar
• 12:39
  Speaker 3: deal with Leaning. Right onto was in Nike, was in
• 12:45
  Speaker 3: under Armour, was wishing he would come back. New Balance
• 12:48
  Speaker 3: was in trying to get Steph Leaning, the Chinese shoe
• 12:51
  Speaker 3: manufacturer who also has Dwayne Wade and also has Jimmy Butler.
• 12:56
  Speaker 3: Leaning gets Steph Curry and for over allegedly a billion
• 13:00
  Speaker 3: dollar Steph Curry's secondary income from shoe deals, and that's
• 13:05
  Speaker 3: not to say any of his side projects with his wife,
• 13:08
  Speaker 3: with you know, his other endorsements not in the shoe world.
• 13:13
  Speaker 3: He is now made between under Armour and this new
• 13:16
  Speaker 3: Leaning deal that goes over a decade. Under Armour was
• 13:19
  Speaker 3: thirteen years. He's gonna have made like almost two billion dollars.
• 13:28
  Speaker 2: And it's a shoe brand that yes has be as
• 13:32
  Speaker 2: has been established before I don't know a ton about
• 13:34
  Speaker 2: shoe brands, but it's it's one that, even though recently
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: it's gained a lot of steam, it's behind all those
• 13:43
  Speaker 2: other ones, at least in like mainstream cache. It's behind
• 13:50
  Speaker 2: all those other ones you mentioned, and they're getting now
• 13:53
  Speaker 2: they're getting Steph Curry like watch out for Leaning.
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: So the money with all of this stuff gets ridiculous.
• 14:00
  Speaker 3: But circling back to the main point of what I
• 14:03
  Speaker 3: wanted to start the show with today, Gordy Chays is
• 14:05
  Speaker 3: going to join us in about fifteen minutes, so I'll
• 14:07
  Speaker 3: try to organize my thoughts and get.
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: It all in.
• 14:10
  Speaker 3: Major League Baseball is proposing a hard salary cap with
• 14:14
  Speaker 3: a ceiling and a floor like we see in NFL football.
• 14:19
  Speaker 3: This would cost this year. If the proposed model was
• 14:23
  Speaker 3: adopted this year, it would cost players five hundred million
• 14:27
  Speaker 3: dollars in salary. Right, the proposed range would be twenty
• 14:33
  Speaker 3: twenty seven.
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: The salary cap.
• 14:37
  Speaker 3: The salary floor would be one hundred and seventy one
• 14:39
  Speaker 3: million dollars. On your payroll, the cap would be two
• 14:42
  Speaker 3: hundred and forty five million. Now we go back to
• 14:44
  Speaker 3: what people are actually paying realistically this year, there are
• 14:49
  Speaker 3: five teams that are over that two hundred and forty
• 14:52
  Speaker 3: five million dollar hard cap. The Yankees, the Phillies, the Braves,
• 14:58
  Speaker 3: the Mets, and the Blue Jay are all over the
• 15:01
  Speaker 3: cap right now.
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: That's wild.
• 15:04
  Speaker 2: Even though we just established most of the money that
• 15:09
  Speaker 2: players like shoe Heyo Tani are making is not officially
• 15:13
  Speaker 2: on this hower cap. It's wild that the Dodgers are
• 15:16
  Speaker 2: not even in that five.
• 15:18
  Speaker 3: Well, the Dodgers' real number is three hundred and two million,
• 15:21
  Speaker 3: which makes them number one in the league. Yeah, but
• 15:25
  Speaker 3: because of the deferred salary, the Dodgers are actually sitting
• 15:28
  Speaker 3: down at number seven. Their actual payout as one hundred
• 15:31
  Speaker 3: and seventy one million. So there's all these weird mechanisms,
• 15:35
  Speaker 3: and I'll be transparent. I don't know if the total
• 15:39
  Speaker 3: payroll versus the active twenty six man payroll would be
• 15:44
  Speaker 3: weighed against this proposed cap.
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm sure.
• 15:47
  Speaker 2: Part of this part of the league's proposal with this
• 15:50
  Speaker 2: cap will be stricter rules around deferred money like that.
• 15:55
  Speaker 2: Why why would they do this if they're just gonna
• 15:58
  Speaker 2: let the Dodgers continue to do with have that massive loop,
• 16:02
  Speaker 2: exploit that massive loophole. I would think that they're going
• 16:05
  Speaker 2: to try to close that.
• 16:07
  Speaker 3: Just as interesting for me if we talk about the
• 16:09
  Speaker 3: teams that are below the salary floor. This is where
• 16:13
  Speaker 3: it gets a little bit more interesting because we always
• 16:15
  Speaker 3: discuss these hyper inflated, insane Major League Baseball salaries. The
• 16:21
  Speaker 3: Seattle Mariners are below the floor.
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: Are they really they're under twenty what'd you say it was?
• 16:26
  Speaker 5: One?
• 16:27
  Speaker 3: See see their payroll this year is this is their
• 16:31
  Speaker 3: actual payroll. This is not the active twenty six. This
• 16:33
  Speaker 3: is one hundred and sixty two million dollars. Now, I
• 16:36
  Speaker 3: started with the Seattle Mariners because they're a relevant team
• 16:39
  Speaker 3: in Major League Baseball. They might go to the World Series.
• 16:41
  Speaker 3: They're a team that's got some stars. They're a team
• 16:44
  Speaker 3: that's ready to win. They're They're very interesting. The Baltimore
• 16:48
  Speaker 3: Orioles are below the floor. The Kansas City Royals are
• 16:51
  Speaker 3: below the floor. The Pittsburgh Pirates are sixty eight million
• 16:55
  Speaker 3: dollars below the floor. Milwaukee is below the floor, Cincinnati, Colorado,
• 17:04
  Speaker 3: Tampa Bay of course, the Las Vegas slash Oakland Athletics
• 17:10
  Speaker 3: are almost one hundred million below the floor. The Cleveland
• 17:13
  Speaker 3: Guardians are almost one hundred million below the floor. The
• 17:18
  Speaker 3: Minnesota Twins, the Miami Marlins, the Chicago White Sox. So
• 17:23
  Speaker 3: what were I anticipated when I started looking at this
• 17:26
  Speaker 3: that there would be a bunch of teams over.
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: The cap, over the hard cap.
• 17:31
  Speaker 3: There are more teams below the salary floor in Major
• 17:35
  Speaker 3: League Baseball than there are teams over the cap.
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: That is insane to me.
• 17:41
  Speaker 3: We're talking about and the reason that these caps and
• 17:44
  Speaker 3: floors exist is because the leagues want parody. They want
• 17:49
  Speaker 3: some doubt to the outcome of a season beyond just
• 17:53
  Speaker 3: like three or four teams. And again, this is the
• 17:56
  Speaker 3: crux of college football's problem right now. Even though NIL
• 18:00
  Speaker 3: has established more parody around the nation, and even though
• 18:04
  Speaker 3: it has shifted the power structure a little bit away
• 18:07
  Speaker 3: from the SEC and now favoring the Big ten a
• 18:10
  Speaker 3: little bit more. While the SEC, as much as we
• 18:12
  Speaker 3: like to make fun of them, they're still firmly in
• 18:14
  Speaker 3: that conversation. BYU has found a way to keep themselves
• 18:18
  Speaker 3: in the talks. Texas Tech has found a way to
• 18:21
  Speaker 3: keep themselves in the talks. Clemson, Miami, North Carolina, Duke,
• 18:25
  Speaker 3: depending on the sport you're talking about, right, but the
• 18:29
  Speaker 3: floor and the ceiling are designed to keep everybody in
• 18:33
  Speaker 3: the same corridor when it comes to their assets and
• 18:37
  Speaker 3: their spending. If you're going to establish a salary cap
• 18:42
  Speaker 3: in Major League Baseball and enforce that, you also have
• 18:46
  Speaker 3: to enforce the floor because all these there's a bunch
• 18:48
  Speaker 3: of greedy owners. There's a bunch of these miserly people
• 18:53
  Speaker 3: that see their bank accounts inflating. And you know, Jed
• 18:57
  Speaker 3: Lowry is the guy that we always rag on for this,
• 18:59
  Speaker 3: but he's not even the worst defender.
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: This year, the.
• 19:04
  Speaker 3: A's have fifteen million dollars more on the books this
• 19:07
  Speaker 3: year than Miami or Cleveland.
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: So if major League Baseball.
• 19:16
  Speaker 3: The time honored tradition of just like, hey, do your thing,
• 19:19
  Speaker 3: spend what you want to spend, if even they are
• 19:22
  Speaker 3: looking seriously at hey, well what about a salary cap
• 19:27
  Speaker 3: and by extension, a salary floor that kind of keeps
• 19:30
  Speaker 3: everybody at least in the same spending category.
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: College sports very obviously needs this now.
• 19:41
  Speaker 3: An introduction of a salary cap in Major League baseball
• 19:45
  Speaker 3: again would be very informative for the college players for
• 19:50
  Speaker 3: the college world, because the reaction to a salary cap
• 19:54
  Speaker 3: in Major League Baseball will not exactly be let's roll
• 19:57
  Speaker 3: over and.
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: Take this from the players. Oh y, I just told you.
• 20:00
  Speaker 3: It's a five hundred million dollar disparity in the collective
• 20:04
  Speaker 3: player pool. If this salary cap was enforced, now more
• 20:09
  Speaker 3: likely than a hard cap, you would probably find an
• 20:12
  Speaker 3: NBA structure where there's luxury taxes, there's aprons, and the
• 20:17
  Speaker 3: Dodgers and the Yankees and those types of teams would
• 20:21
  Speaker 3: perennially find themselves spending over the cap and being taxed.
• 20:25
  Speaker 3: But even that, at some point you got to pay
• 20:27
  Speaker 3: the piper, you know what I mean. And that does
• 20:30
  Speaker 3: I think increased parody even in the NBA.
• 20:32
  Speaker 2: Certainly in this newest iteration of the salary cap, with
• 20:36
  Speaker 2: the luxury tax tax aprons, it certainly has made owners
• 20:42
  Speaker 2: think twice about just spending, you know, exorbitant amounts over
• 20:46
  Speaker 2: the cap. Yeah you say, you mentioned that the players
• 20:50
  Speaker 2: aren't going to roll over and just take this. Remember
• 20:53
  Speaker 2: was it last season? Middle of the season Rob Manfred
• 20:57
  Speaker 2: went visited the Phillies clubhouse and Bryce Harper told him
• 21:01
  Speaker 2: to you know what off which, by the way, like
• 21:04
  Speaker 2: without him really even saying much about the salary cap.
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: He's like, get out of here.
• 21:09
  Speaker 2: That's I mean, it's been it's been a little bit
• 21:11
  Speaker 2: of time since then, maybe there's a little bit different
• 21:14
  Speaker 2: feelings about this negotiations and maybe softened some of the
• 21:18
  Speaker 2: players staff.
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: Maybe they maybe.
• 21:19
  Speaker 2: They haven't, but this is the players do not want
• 21:23
  Speaker 2: this absolutely.
• 21:24
  Speaker 3: Which, by the way, for Bryce Harper to hear salary
• 21:27
  Speaker 3: cap and go off when he's made literally two hundred
• 21:32
  Speaker 3: and fifty million dollars as a baseball player, Bryce, I'm sorry,
• 21:36
  Speaker 3: I don't want to hear that from you. I know
• 21:38
  Speaker 3: it just I know that people applaud that reaction because
• 21:43
  Speaker 3: there's a general consensus like, oh yeah, fight the power
• 21:47
  Speaker 3: and screw the corporate you know, the corporate big wigs
• 21:51
  Speaker 3: and all that kind of stuff.
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: And I'm totally fine.
• 21:53
  Speaker 3: If you have that stance and you you don't like
• 21:55
  Speaker 3: the commissioner in any league because you know that they
• 21:58
  Speaker 3: work for the owners and the owners are America's like
• 22:01
  Speaker 3: corrupt oligarchy, that's fine.
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: We like, you can go down that rabbit hole if
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: you want.
• 22:06
  Speaker 3: But if you have like a ten day contract guy,
• 22:09
  Speaker 3: if you have a dude who just got called up
• 22:12
  Speaker 3: for the miners from the miners like him getting mad
• 22:16
  Speaker 3: about the proposed salary cap, all right, I'm with you.
• 22:20
  Speaker 3: Bryce Harper, you don't get to scream about somebody maybe
• 22:24
  Speaker 3: taking a small percentage of your two hundred and fifty
• 22:27
  Speaker 3: million dollar earnings.
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: And that's Look, that is something that.
• 22:32
  Speaker 3: I can't relate to, and it is something that we
• 22:35
  Speaker 3: find always being the reaction of folks that were just
• 22:39
  Speaker 3: like us normals are like, what.
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: Are you talking about? Man?
• 22:42
  Speaker 3: Even if you get taxed at forty percent, you're a billionaire.
• 22:45
  Speaker 3: Why are you crying about this? Even if you get
• 22:47
  Speaker 3: taxed at fifty percent, you're a billionaire. And the stance
• 22:51
  Speaker 3: is always like, well, I deserve this, I've earned this.
• 22:54
  Speaker 3: You can't take this away from me. And I'm sure
• 22:57
  Speaker 3: that's how Bryce Harper feels. And you know what, I'm
• 22:59
  Speaker 3: Bryce Harper. We're probably generated more than the two hundred
• 23:02
  Speaker 3: and fifty million dollars that he's paid for Philadelphia and
• 23:05
  Speaker 3: their ownership and for Major League Baseball. So but the fact,
• 23:09
  Speaker 3: it's almost comical to me for somebody like that to
• 23:13
  Speaker 3: just be, Hey, you know, we're gonna discuss this salary count?
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: What you get out of here? Salary count?
• 23:19
  Speaker 2: Dare you I want my urnage to be completely unfettered?
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: It's like, well, yeah, we all do.
• 23:25
  Speaker 3: But like, let's be realistic here, if you only, if
• 23:28
  Speaker 3: you're the commissioner, it is in your best interest, and
• 23:32
  Speaker 3: I think by extension, it's in the best interest of
• 23:35
  Speaker 3: players to have every team kind of matter a little
• 23:38
  Speaker 3: bit in Major League Baseball, And.
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: The same obviously is true.
• 23:41
  Speaker 3: And the reason why this interests me so much right now,
• 23:44
  Speaker 3: the same is true in college football. The same is
• 23:47
  Speaker 3: true in college sports in general. And we are watching
• 23:50
  Speaker 3: kind of this uncomfortable transition happening at the University of
• 23:54
  Speaker 3: Utah as they try to stay in the same spending category,
• 23:57
  Speaker 3: in the same conversation as some of their peers. The
• 24:01
  Speaker 3: private equity deal, whether anyone's gonna admit it or not,
• 24:05
  Speaker 3: whether you get that in the official Utah letterhead or not,
• 24:09
  Speaker 3: the private equity deal.
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: Is keeping up with the Joneses. That's what it is.
• 24:14
  Speaker 3: It's acknowledging looking around and saying, you know what, we
• 24:17
  Speaker 3: don't have a Cody Campbell at this university. We don't
• 24:21
  Speaker 3: have a Ryan Smith or a new Skin family or whoever. Right,
• 24:26
  Speaker 3: We've got very generous donors, but.
• 24:29
  Speaker 2: We've rung them dry every single year, and it's not
• 24:32
  Speaker 2: realistic to expect that the echos and the gardeners and
• 24:37
  Speaker 2: the garths and all these people are just gonna be like, yeah,
• 24:39
  Speaker 2: we'll just okay, we'll get the check book out and
• 24:42
  Speaker 2: we'll keep writing you.
• 24:43
  Speaker 3: How much do you need for that quarterback? Okay, here
• 24:45
  Speaker 3: we go. How much do you need for this softball pitcher?
• 24:48
  Speaker 3: All right, here's another million dollars for that. That's what
• 24:50
  Speaker 3: Cody Campbell is doing right now. And if you don't
• 24:53
  Speaker 3: have that, you have to get creative. Right So, Utah
• 24:57
  Speaker 3: is trying to keep up with the Joneses in a
• 24:59
  Speaker 3: world where like we see it in pro sports, we
• 25:02
  Speaker 3: see who the Joneses are in baseball, right we know
• 25:05
  Speaker 3: what it looks like. And the Mariners right now, I guess,
• 25:08
  Speaker 3: are the outlier that are spending a quote unquot a
• 25:12
  Speaker 3: nominal amount in order to have a hyperrelevant and interesting
• 25:16
  Speaker 3: and competitive team. Everybody else is doing these salary mechanisms
• 25:21
  Speaker 3: with the third pay and they're just sending spending, spending
• 25:25
  Speaker 3: to try to keep their team at the top. And again,
• 25:27
  Speaker 3: that's your right right in baseball right now, that is
• 25:29
  Speaker 3: you're okay doing that. And unfortunately, in college sports right now,
• 25:34
  Speaker 3: you are also okay doing that. And I know It's
• 25:37
  Speaker 3: always been that way to some extent, and there was
• 25:39
  Speaker 3: always a loaded deck favoring the SEC because of the
• 25:42
  Speaker 3: one hundred dollars handshakes and one thousand dollars handshakes and
• 25:45
  Speaker 3: the million dollar handshakes and the bagmen, and nil has
• 25:50
  Speaker 3: leveled it out a little bit temporarily. And when I
• 25:54
  Speaker 3: say a little bit and temporarily, you know exactly what
• 25:57
  Speaker 3: I mean. Yes, it's awesome them that we see an
• 26:01
  Speaker 3: expanded college football playoff and more teams getting involved, But
• 26:04
  Speaker 3: the teams that actually have a chance to win it
• 26:06
  Speaker 3: are the same teams that they always.
• 26:08
  Speaker 2: Were, the only new ones Indiana, and they they happen
• 26:12
  Speaker 2: to reside in the wealthiest conference in the nation right now. Well,
• 26:16
  Speaker 2: and also they happen to have Mark Cuban, Yeah they have.
• 26:21
  Speaker 2: They have the billionaire alumni who is by the way,
• 26:25
  Speaker 2: a massive sports fan. Yeah, like Mark Cuban. He he
• 26:30
  Speaker 2: doesn't have to do the thing because he's older, he's
• 26:33
  Speaker 2: more established, he's had the fame, he's had the power.
• 26:37
  Speaker 3: He doesn't have to do the thing that Cody Campbell.
• 26:39
  Speaker 3: Cody Campbell is relishes, he loves He's gonna be a
• 26:42
  Speaker 3: big twelve media days why you're a booster? Why are
• 26:46
  Speaker 3: you there? Because he wants his photo taken. He wants
• 26:49
  Speaker 3: people asking questions about him. Mark Cuban, he kind of
• 26:52
  Speaker 3: waited until it worked out at Indiana.
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and then he was just like, yeah.
• 26:56
  Speaker 3: I paid Bernana Mendoza's and il do he guess what
• 27:01
  Speaker 3: the check I wrote them after they won a national
• 27:03
  Speaker 3: championship was even bigger. He kind of does that with
• 27:07
  Speaker 3: a half smile on his face because he's Mark Cuban
• 27:09
  Speaker 3: and he doesn't need the notoriety to say.
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: It's a little bit more of a quiet thing, but
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: it's the.
• 27:13
  Speaker 3: Same thing, right, Indiana is a new player because Indiana
• 27:17
  Speaker 3: is playing by the same set of old rules. Oh
• 27:20
  Speaker 3: you have this massive, massive And I think Mark Cuban
• 27:23
  Speaker 3: was probably a guy that before the rules allowed it,
• 27:28
  Speaker 3: he wasn't going to get himself involved in that. I
• 27:32
  Speaker 3: could be wrong, but I think the timing of why
• 27:34
  Speaker 3: Indiana suddenly has a bunch of dough has more to
• 27:38
  Speaker 3: do with it being legal now than it being like, oh, yeah,
• 27:42
  Speaker 3: suddenly all of these people that love Indiana athletics got rich.
• 27:47
  Speaker 2: Yeah, And I mentioned this before. I just wonder if
• 27:50
  Speaker 2: that's more the sentiment more. That's what more of the
• 27:55
  Speaker 2: big ten donor bases, what they're more willing to do. Obviously,
• 28:01
  Speaker 2: they still had their bag men at places like Ohio
• 28:04
  Speaker 2: State and Michigan over the over the decades, but it
• 28:08
  Speaker 2: just their meteoric not meteorc rise. Their rise above the
• 28:13
  Speaker 2: SEC from second from second best conference to now clearly
• 28:18
  Speaker 2: the best conference in college athletics suggests to me that
• 28:22
  Speaker 2: they just had their donor bases are like, Okay, we
• 28:26
  Speaker 2: weren't completely comfortable getting our hands completely dirty with this.
• 28:30
  Speaker 2: Now that it's legal, all of a sudden, we got
• 28:32
  Speaker 2: all so even more money coming out of the woodwork.
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: I mean, those schools look no further than BYU.
• 28:38
  Speaker 3: Much to the chagrin of all of Utah fans out there,
• 28:42
  Speaker 3: there were always going to be schools that when it
• 28:44
  Speaker 3: became legal, they were going to elevate themselves. By you
• 28:51
  Speaker 3: made me look smart. I predicted that when nil became
• 28:54
  Speaker 3: a thing. I also predicted Stanford, and I was dead
• 28:56
  Speaker 3: wrong about that because Stanford's alumni base has more money
• 29:00
  Speaker 3: than by us. They just care a lot less about support.
• 29:03
  Speaker 3: Might as well be in the IVY League at this and.
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: By the way, they don't. There's at Stanford.
• 29:09
  Speaker 3: There's no ecclesiastical mission attached to it, and not every
• 29:15
  Speaker 3: BYU donor believes in that part of the whole mission.
• 29:19
  Speaker 3: Some of it it's just I love sports, I want
• 29:21
  Speaker 3: my alma mater. I want BYU sports to be a
• 29:23
  Speaker 3: big deal. There's also plenty of people I've talked to
• 29:26
  Speaker 3: folks who give money to BYU, who are big BYU fans,
• 29:31
  Speaker 3: who are just like, yeah, I feel better giving money
• 29:35
  Speaker 3: to this athletic program because it is a missionary tool.
• 29:39
  Speaker 3: And it's like, well, I mean, most school most schools
• 29:43
  Speaker 3: in the country, even though there Dame doesn't really have
• 29:45
  Speaker 3: that front of mind for their donors.
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: Right, it's hard. That's hard to compete with is.
• 29:50
  Speaker 2: It's impossible to compete with. We've we've seen how it
• 29:53
  Speaker 2: looks in like the real world. When someone is like, yeah,
• 29:56
  Speaker 2: this mission that I'm on is ordained by a higher power.
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: They'll do anything.
• 30:02
  Speaker 3: And that's kind of what's going on in provo to
• 30:05
  Speaker 3: some minor extent. So again, try to circle back to
• 30:10
  Speaker 3: the main point here, the whole thing. With a major
• 30:13
  Speaker 3: league baseball salary cap, with a potential college sports salary cap,
• 30:17
  Speaker 3: watch closely how it is reacted to and how it
• 30:21
  Speaker 3: is handled with Major League Baseball, because if you think
• 30:24
  Speaker 3: Bryce Harper's reaction was kind of funny in an outlier,
• 30:28
  Speaker 3: it's not. That's how everyone is going to react to
• 30:31
  Speaker 3: a Major League Baseball salary cap, and that's how everyone
• 30:34
  Speaker 3: is going to react to a college football salary cap.
• 30:38
  Speaker 3: The athletes, the parents, and by the way, there's no
• 30:42
  Speaker 3: collective bargaining agreement. So the salary cap is going to
• 30:47
  Speaker 3: be this figment of everyone's imagination until it becomes a
• 30:51
  Speaker 3: real pro sports league, which I don't think is in
• 30:54
  Speaker 3: the best interest of the fan. Keep an eye on
• 30:58
  Speaker 3: all these things. Nothing's in a vacuum. It's all intertwined.
• 31:06
  Speaker 3: I could go on forever, but we're gonna take a
• 31:08
  Speaker 3: break here. We're gonna talk with Gordion CHIASA NBA Finals
• 31:12
  Speaker 3: matchup is set now. Gordy and I have probably spent
• 31:15
  Speaker 3: at least a couple of minutes on every show that
• 31:17
  Speaker 3: we've had together talking about Victor Weinbinyama because of the
• 31:22
  Speaker 3: obvious reasons. Now, Victor Weinbinyama, at twenty two years old,
• 31:26
  Speaker 3: has his first opportunity to win an NBA championship.
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: Does he rise to this occasion or to the New
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: York Knicks. Find a way.
• 31:34
  Speaker 3: We'll get to all of it with Gordon chiays the
• 31:35
  Speaker 3: next on The Sean O'Connell Show, ESPN seven hundred and
• 31:38
  Speaker 3: ninety two one AFF.
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: He's out.
• 31:46
  Speaker 6: Let's get the latest on the Utah Jazz with former
• 31:49
  Speaker 6: Jazz assistant coach Gordy Chiasa. He's forgotten more about the
• 31:53
  Speaker 6: NBA than any of us will ever know.
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: Let's not get crazy.
• 31:56
  Speaker 6: Come for the hoops talk, stay for his list of
• 31:58
  Speaker 6: the day. Here's oc with basketball. So on Gordy Chiaysa
• 32:03
  Speaker 6: on The Sean O'Connell Show.
• 32:11
  Speaker 3: Our conversation with Gordy chiers is brought to you, my
• 32:13
  Speaker 3: friends out Aladdin Industries. If you're looking for a skylight
• 32:17
  Speaker 3: to add to the home, your Utah v Lux dealer
• 32:20
  Speaker 3: is Aladdin Industries.
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: Gordy, welcome to the show. How are you, sar Sean.
• 32:25
  Speaker 7: I'm doing well. Thank you.
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: We have an.
• 32:28
  Speaker 3: NBA Finals matchup set. Game one will be tomorrow. You
• 32:31
  Speaker 3: can listen to it right here on ESPN seven hundred
• 32:34
  Speaker 3: and ninety two one FM. New York Knicks San Antonio
• 32:38
  Speaker 3: Spurs two franchises that well. For the next it's been
• 32:42
  Speaker 3: a long time since they won a title for the
• 32:44
  Speaker 3: San Antonio Spurs, good things seem to happen to them
• 32:47
  Speaker 3: at least once a decade.
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: But what do you make of the matchup?
• 32:52
  Speaker 7: Classic masterpiece? Everyone is a static, including the TV partners.
• 32:58
  Speaker 7: It's a two different teams with star players that all
• 33:04
  Speaker 7: play defense and to be one for the ages. And
• 33:07
  Speaker 7: I wanted to just illustrate right now how the Knicks
• 33:10
  Speaker 7: were built and how the Spurs were built, totally opposite,
• 33:15
  Speaker 7: both highly effective. Quickly, I'm just going to mention the
• 33:18
  Speaker 7: key players, how they acquired by the Knicks and also
• 33:22
  Speaker 7: with the Spurs. During Nickobacus free agency, they added Jellen
• 33:27
  Speaker 7: Brunson og Andnobi Landon Shammitt and former jazz man Jordan
• 33:33
  Speaker 7: Clarkson via trade Nick Obacus. They traded for Carl Anthony Towns,
• 33:40
  Speaker 7: Josh Hart, Miquel Bridges, Jose Albarado, Miles McBride, and only
• 33:49
  Speaker 7: one draft pick and that is Mitchell Robinson, the thirty
• 33:54
  Speaker 7: six pick in twenty eighteen, So the top ten players.
• 33:58
  Speaker 7: That's how the Knicks were built. The Spurs via draft
• 34:05
  Speaker 7: Calden Johnson back in twenty nineteen. The twenty ninth pick
• 34:09
  Speaker 7: at a draft, Devin Vichelle the eleventh picket a draft
• 34:15
  Speaker 7: in twenty twenty, which we call the COVID nineteen draft,
• 34:20
  Speaker 7: Victor Wenbiamber the first pick in twenty twenty three, Stephen
• 34:25
  Speaker 7: Cassel the fourth pick in twenty twenty four, Dylan Harper
• 34:30
  Speaker 7: the second pick in twenty twenty five, Caughtter Brian the
• 34:34
  Speaker 7: fourteenth pick in two twenty five. So they had six
• 34:38
  Speaker 7: guys drafted by the Spurs quickly trades Daron Fox and
• 34:43
  Speaker 7: Harrison Bonds and two guys with free agency Julian Champagni
• 34:48
  Speaker 7: and Leek and the Luke Cornette. So one guy picked
• 34:52
  Speaker 7: by the Knicks, six guys picked by the home team,
• 34:56
  Speaker 7: the Spurs.
• 34:59
  Speaker 3: The Knicks are the NBA equivalent of what we're seeing
• 35:02
  Speaker 3: the Los Angeles Rams do right now in NFL football.
• 35:06
  Speaker 3: There they picked like once in the first round. I
• 35:10
  Speaker 3: think they've actually picked four times in the first round
• 35:12
  Speaker 3: in the last like fifteen years, and they're they're acquiring
• 35:16
  Speaker 3: proven talents instead. So, Gordy, which is a better way
• 35:20
  Speaker 3: we're going? We're supposed to find out through this series.
• 35:23
  Speaker 3: But what do your predictive abilities tell.
• 35:26
  Speaker 7: You for a draft with the Spur. But again with
• 35:33
  Speaker 7: the Spurs though they have once in a generational talent
• 35:35
  Speaker 7: and they if they wen beyonda and so I've just
• 35:38
  Speaker 7: find it fascinating that again you have to go through
• 35:41
  Speaker 7: the draft, which is long term success. However, if you
• 35:46
  Speaker 7: get the right guys as far as trades or undervalue
• 35:49
  Speaker 7: guys via trade or freegency, that they add also you draft,
• 35:54
  Speaker 7: that's also recipe a blueprint for a long term success.
• 35:58
  Speaker 7: So there's really no set way. It's about people and
• 36:02
  Speaker 7: how they play as a unit. And so the Spurs
• 36:05
  Speaker 7: did via draft and jazz basketball. They're trying to tempt
• 36:09
  Speaker 7: to do it via draft with their top draft picks
• 36:12
  Speaker 7: with a few guys as far as trading and or
• 36:15
  Speaker 7: free agency. Now with the with the Nick Obocca's, they
• 36:19
  Speaker 7: went literally via free agency and trades and it has
• 36:25
  Speaker 7: worked out for them.
• 36:27
  Speaker 3: Okay, so the matchup itself, we've got the youth of
• 36:32
  Speaker 3: San Antonio. You just elucidated quite well how they built
• 36:35
  Speaker 3: this roster with that youth comes like very little playoff experience. However,
• 36:42
  Speaker 3: here they are in the NBA Finals, and of course
• 36:46
  Speaker 3: they do have Victor wibin Yama for the New York Knicks.
• 36:49
  Speaker 3: Your coach is more experienced. You've got players who are
• 36:52
  Speaker 3: a little bit more experienced wh've kind of been around
• 36:54
  Speaker 3: the league. They've seen it, they've done it. The x's
• 36:57
  Speaker 3: and o's matchup, how do you coach? How do you
• 37:01
  Speaker 3: get the most out of each roster given their strengths
• 37:03
  Speaker 3: and their weaknesses.
• 37:05
  Speaker 7: Yes, well, first, it all sout and hands on defense.
• 37:08
  Speaker 7: It's the most amazing thing shown during a regular season.
• 37:11
  Speaker 7: It's a left fest three point shooting, offensive basketball. You
• 37:15
  Speaker 7: get to the postseason, whether it's the NBA or the NFL,
• 37:20
  Speaker 7: defense usually rules, especially in the fourth quarter. So the
• 37:25
  Speaker 7: matchup's going to be classic. Also, Sean, I know your
• 37:28
  Speaker 7: southport is that you realize that both point guards starting
• 37:34
  Speaker 7: point guards on each team is left handed. Jalan Brunton
• 37:37
  Speaker 7: left handed, and so it's the Aaron Fox. So we
• 37:40
  Speaker 7: have two lefty point guards, which means that Sewan, often
• 37:44
  Speaker 7: they start the offense to their their dominant side, which
• 37:47
  Speaker 7: is right the left side of the floor, versus right
• 37:50
  Speaker 7: handed point guards where they start the offense with their
• 37:52
  Speaker 7: natural hand to the right side of the floor.
• 37:54
  Speaker 3: Is there any advantage or disadvantage to that, Gordy, where
• 37:58
  Speaker 3: you know, like an opposed team in their defensive set
• 38:02
  Speaker 3: is just a little bit unaccustomed to it. Like, I'm
• 38:04
  Speaker 3: sure they know how to play defense when the offense
• 38:07
  Speaker 3: starts from that. If you're playing defense, it's off to
• 38:10
  Speaker 3: your right.
• 38:12
  Speaker 7: Yeah. What happens though for the catch and shoot players though,
• 38:15
  Speaker 7: they're coming up their natural shoulder to catching fire. So
• 38:18
  Speaker 7: that's why it's so that's why it's so important to
• 38:21
  Speaker 7: understand that. So catch and shoot fire. So someone like
• 38:25
  Speaker 7: example a Devon Cell and Julian Champagny, when those guys
• 38:30
  Speaker 7: come off screening action, their feet are set and so
• 38:33
  Speaker 7: it's absolutely critical. And that's what those guys. It's an
• 38:35
  Speaker 7: interesting phenomena that both guys are left handed. Now the defense,
• 38:40
  Speaker 7: they're going to adjust to everything for the right hand
• 38:42
  Speaker 7: or left handant. It's irrelevant in that sense. So the
• 38:46
  Speaker 7: question is, as always, the game is won by the margins.
• 38:50
  Speaker 7: So here's the first thing I mentioned to you. Who
• 38:53
  Speaker 7: wins the fifty to fifty loose ball game, that's especially
• 38:57
  Speaker 7: the fourth quarter. What team's going to be the most
• 39:00
  Speaker 7: aggressive team to go after those loose bowls to gain
• 39:04
  Speaker 7: extra possessions? Second question, which team gets the more offensive
• 39:09
  Speaker 7: rebounds when a defense showing is so fierce and physical
• 39:13
  Speaker 7: that most people shoot erratic. Okay, And so now who
• 39:18
  Speaker 7: can get the most offensive rebounds at the most opportune
• 39:22
  Speaker 7: time to get an extra possession? And we called get
• 39:25
  Speaker 7: a do over? And the more drops you get in
• 39:28
  Speaker 7: a playoff game, the better it is. Next question which
• 39:32
  Speaker 7: team shoots more three throws and what percentage? So again,
• 39:37
  Speaker 7: that three point shot, even though it looks beautiful, the
• 39:40
  Speaker 7: teams that are gritty, they get to the foul line.
• 39:42
  Speaker 7: So Brunson is a natural foul creator, that's the first thing.
• 39:47
  Speaker 7: And so is Victor Wen Beyond because he creates so
• 39:51
  Speaker 7: much havoc in the length. So so interesting, the two
• 39:55
  Speaker 7: best lane players in the game are going to be
• 39:58
  Speaker 7: six foot two Brunson and seven for three and a
• 40:01
  Speaker 7: half Victor Wenbiyamba. So we've never seen this forever in
• 40:05
  Speaker 7: basketball where the dominant player in the lane is six
• 40:08
  Speaker 7: for two, meaning Brunton plays of two feet. It's not
• 40:11
  Speaker 7: calls the town showing that we seven for elects to
• 40:14
  Speaker 7: play outside and Rome rome on perimeter. Victor Ren beyondber
• 40:18
  Speaker 7: starts outside, but when it's crunch time, he's in the
• 40:21
  Speaker 7: lane doing something, whether it's a law pass catch impossible
• 40:24
  Speaker 7: to guard. And the next part next put about it,
• 40:27
  Speaker 7: who can get fourth quarter baskets in the fourth quarter?
• 40:30
  Speaker 7: And that's what makes it so interesting, what team so, Sean,
• 40:34
  Speaker 7: in the fourth quarter. Here's the shooting percentage of the
• 40:37
  Speaker 7: playoffs of these guys in the fourth quarter this twenty
• 40:41
  Speaker 7: twenty sixth postseason. Jalen Brunson shooting in the fourth quarter
• 40:45
  Speaker 7: fifty nine point six percent from the field. Bill Harper's
• 40:48
  Speaker 7: shooting fifty eight point three percent in the fourth quarter,
• 40:52
  Speaker 7: Calden Johnson shooting fifty eight point one in the fourth quarter.
• 40:56
  Speaker 7: Victor wen Byamba, where everyone's trying to stop him, is
• 40:59
  Speaker 7: shooting fifty three part one percent in the fourth quarter,
• 41:03
  Speaker 7: and the Iron Fox is shooting in the fourth quarter.
• 41:07
  Speaker 7: So there's so many options that team have and that
• 41:10
  Speaker 7: the team that be able to slow down the natural
• 41:13
  Speaker 7: scores are going to win the game. It's gonna be fascinating,
• 41:15
  Speaker 7: It's going to be intense. I just I'm geeked about it, Sean.
• 41:20
  Speaker 3: So, is there a way that New York can somehow
• 41:24
  Speaker 3: mitigate the Victor wen Minyama effect. Do they have the players,
• 41:28
  Speaker 3: the formation, the skill, the experience with their coaching staff
• 41:33
  Speaker 3: to not stop Victor web Minyama on the offensive or defensive,
• 41:38
  Speaker 3: but just to slow down his effect, to confuse him
• 41:44
  Speaker 3: when he's on defense, to throw the right bodies at him,
• 41:47
  Speaker 3: to make him less of a factor offensively, or is
• 41:50
  Speaker 3: the cheap code going to come through in these finals?
• 41:55
  Speaker 7: It'd be hard to stop him. I'm saying that they'll
• 41:57
  Speaker 7: start with They'll start with uh comfy towns guarding him,
• 42:02
  Speaker 7: but that will affect this offense. And Mitch Robinson Broke
• 42:05
  Speaker 7: is a peinky finger. They say he's gonna play. I'm
• 42:07
  Speaker 7: sure he's gonna play. The question is how effective. I'm
• 42:10
  Speaker 7: saying this sounds almost blasphemy, but the best, the best guy,
• 42:15
  Speaker 7: the god Victor and beyond It is og n and
• 42:17
  Speaker 7: Obi at six foot seven and a half, almost like
• 42:21
  Speaker 7: a much bigger version of of the Thunder trying to
• 42:25
  Speaker 7: slow down with Crusoe trying to slow down Victor and beyonder.
• 42:29
  Speaker 7: So don't be surprised if they cross match, and during
• 42:32
  Speaker 7: the course of the game you see n Andobi trying
• 42:34
  Speaker 7: to trying to go body on body to slow down U,
• 42:38
  Speaker 7: slow down Victor and beyonda either rim running but also
• 42:42
  Speaker 7: make them hard dribble the bomb perimeter. Victor plays outside.
• 42:45
  Speaker 7: He has a really good, great handle for guys seven
• 42:48
  Speaker 7: to three and a half. However, now he's being guarded
• 42:50
  Speaker 7: by somebody with that hand. Handing on both sides will
• 42:53
  Speaker 7: make it dribble much more less effective. So they have
• 42:57
  Speaker 7: they have enough bodies to try to slow him down,
• 43:00
  Speaker 7: saying that the Spurs might slow down Jail and Brunson
• 43:03
  Speaker 7: with Stephen Kassel and Devin Vassel getting after getting after
• 43:10
  Speaker 7: Brunson in the lane, that's an interesting factor. Next part
• 43:13
  Speaker 7: of it. Can Brunton's score when Victor and Beyonda is
• 43:17
  Speaker 7: the health defensive player in the lane? That's the question.
• 43:20
  Speaker 7: So all that footwork dancing by Jail and Brunson, which
• 43:23
  Speaker 7: is spectacular, can you get it up and over helpside
• 43:27
  Speaker 7: defense led by Victor when BEYONMBA. There's so many subplots
• 43:31
  Speaker 7: in this game. It's going to be fascinating and anybody
• 43:33
  Speaker 7: as a basketball person, we all can't.
• 43:35
  Speaker 3: Wait a finals game at the Mecca at the Garden.
• 43:41
  Speaker 3: What is that atmosphere going to be like crazy?
• 43:44
  Speaker 7: That's Game three. Besides, besides New York Virgia, Hollywood Row,
• 43:49
  Speaker 7: there's nothing like it now again I know I'm biased.
• 43:52
  Speaker 7: I'm a New Yorker. I've coached in the Garden many
• 43:54
  Speaker 7: a time as the college coach, also with the Utah
• 43:56
  Speaker 7: Jas other teams that I coach. There's nothing like it.
• 43:59
  Speaker 7: It's magic, it really absolutely is. And you play well
• 44:04
  Speaker 7: in New York, you're known globally and you know the
• 44:07
  Speaker 7: NBA Finals. I make this point about this, the NBA Finals.
• 44:11
  Speaker 7: Really it is. It's a global stage for players, owners, coaches, executives, referees,
• 44:19
  Speaker 7: and broadcasters. It transcends any individual. It's way beyond just
• 44:24
  Speaker 7: one person. It's everybody involved. There's nothing like in the
• 44:28
  Speaker 7: jazz basketball. You know, back in ninety seven and ninety eight,
• 44:31
  Speaker 7: a long long time ago, I could privilege the coach
• 44:33
  Speaker 7: in twelve playoff games. It was magical showing. Speaking of
• 44:38
  Speaker 7: the finals, I just wanted to share with you something
• 44:41
  Speaker 7: showing about about memory Lane for you. Okay, memory Lane,
• 44:47
  Speaker 7: so showing. In nineteen seventy three, Okay, the first pick
• 44:52
  Speaker 7: of the draft was Doug Collins seventy three. The price
• 44:57
  Speaker 7: of guests was thirty nine cents. Again Gallon. People like
• 45:02
  Speaker 7: me wore Bell bottoms. In seventy three. The debut of
• 45:08
  Speaker 7: the Home video game Pong was in play. The iconic
• 45:13
  Speaker 7: film of that year was American Graffiti. The President United
• 45:18
  Speaker 7: States was Richard Nixon in twenty and fourteen, which you
• 45:24
  Speaker 7: remember very well. The first pick of the draft was
• 45:27
  Speaker 7: Andrew Wiggins. The price of guests in twenty fourteen was
• 45:32
  Speaker 7: three thousand and thirty six cents a gallon. The thing
• 45:36
  Speaker 7: about twenty fourteen was a als ice Bucket Challenge where
• 45:42
  Speaker 7: they raised one hundred and fifteen million dollars for Worthy Cord.
• 45:46
  Speaker 2: That showing I remember, yes, everyone pouring ice buckets over
• 45:49
  Speaker 2: their own head.
• 45:51
  Speaker 7: Absolutely. The hit song in ninth in scree Me twenty
• 45:54
  Speaker 7: fourteen was but Pharrell Williams Happy. The iconic movie was Frozen,
• 46:01
  Speaker 7: and the president Ied States with Barack Obama. So that's
• 46:05
  Speaker 7: how far things change. Nikobocers won in seventy three and
• 46:10
  Speaker 7: twenty and fourteen, the Spurs won it, So it's going
• 46:13
  Speaker 7: to be. It's going to be again a fascinating thing.
• 46:16
  Speaker 7: And it's all based on defense. Who can play defense
• 46:21
  Speaker 7: without overly fouling and who can make clutch plays out
• 46:26
  Speaker 7: of nothing? Usually in playoff games show, especially in the
• 46:28
  Speaker 7: NBA Finals, I caught you score out of chaos It's
• 46:32
  Speaker 7: not some beautiful set play. It's like the whole game
• 46:35
  Speaker 7: is basically set plays. No different in the NFL. Sewn
• 46:38
  Speaker 7: quarterback and you've got to make plays with what beside
• 46:41
  Speaker 7: your head, with your feet because the edge rush is
• 46:44
  Speaker 7: so coming at you that you can You have no
• 46:46
  Speaker 7: time to want to just let the play develop. You
• 46:49
  Speaker 7: have to make plays yourself.
• 46:53
  Speaker 3: Gordie Victor Weman Yama at twenty two years old, could
• 46:56
  Speaker 3: lead a team to his first NBA Championship. And I
• 46:59
  Speaker 3: was looking at a lot of the all time greats,
• 47:02
  Speaker 3: a lot of the guys that we we say are
• 47:04
  Speaker 3: synonymous with NBA greatness and success, and only Magic Johnson
• 47:10
  Speaker 3: was the only guy I could find that was in
• 47:13
  Speaker 3: that age, was younger than that. Actually he was not
• 47:15
  Speaker 3: even twenty one years old when he won his first
• 47:17
  Speaker 3: NBA championship. But you know, guys like Lebron had to
• 47:20
  Speaker 3: wait a little longer. Michael Jordan had to wait until
• 47:23
  Speaker 3: his mid to late twenties. Wilt Chamberlain was like thirty
• 47:28
  Speaker 3: before he did it. I mean, I was looking all
• 47:29
  Speaker 3: these guys up. Larry Bird was twenty four. If he
• 47:33
  Speaker 3: could be the number one player on a championship team,
• 47:36
  Speaker 3: at age twenty two. What kind of message does that
• 47:38
  Speaker 3: said about the league and his future in them?
• 47:43
  Speaker 7: It's a generational, once in a lifetime phenomenon, and that's
• 47:46
  Speaker 7: Victor when beyonder. But also he's likable. There was like
• 47:50
  Speaker 7: everybody showing that I know that that touched that basketball.
• 47:54
  Speaker 7: Even a casual fan was hitting me. They love Victor,
• 47:57
  Speaker 7: we and beyonder the words where about it showing probably
• 48:01
  Speaker 7: your wife when she watching the game with you and
• 48:04
  Speaker 7: Victor falls to the ground, she comes she says, I
• 48:08
  Speaker 7: hope he gets up right now because I like him
• 48:10
  Speaker 7: too much. Right And that's how people think he's likable.
• 48:14
  Speaker 7: Character Victor m beyond because people cheer for him and
• 48:18
  Speaker 7: that he has a good personality and he's and also
• 48:22
  Speaker 7: he's almost like a diverse person. He's that European guy
• 48:25
  Speaker 7: that that loves basketball but has other interest You see that.
• 48:29
  Speaker 7: You see the viral thing where he's playing chess. He's
• 48:32
  Speaker 7: playing chess with people in New York City, Uh, basically
• 48:35
  Speaker 7: on the in the in the park. Yeah, it's it's
• 48:39
  Speaker 7: heard of refreshing he's doing.
• 48:41
  Speaker 3: He went and studied martial arts with the monks and
• 48:45
  Speaker 3: all that kind of stuff.
• 48:46
  Speaker 1: Yeah, he's a he's.
• 48:47
  Speaker 3: A fascinating character, and Gordy the thing that for me
• 48:51
  Speaker 3: translates so well and makes it I don't want to
• 48:53
  Speaker 3: be like cheering for the Spurs because they're going to
• 48:55
  Speaker 3: be a problem for the Utah Jazz for the foreseeable future.
• 48:58
  Speaker 3: But how much he cares, how much is he wants
• 49:02
  Speaker 3: to compete, how much he wants to win in a
• 49:04
  Speaker 3: league that I know all the guys want to win,
• 49:07
  Speaker 3: I know that all of them are competitive, but he
• 49:09
  Speaker 3: not only his physical skill rises above, but it seems
• 49:12
  Speaker 3: like his want to and his dedication and his passion
• 49:15
  Speaker 3: for the game are on display every.
• 49:17
  Speaker 7: Night, very much, absolutely, and that helps his teammates. When
• 49:21
  Speaker 7: the main guy is engaged and he's team orientated, everyone
• 49:26
  Speaker 7: else around him now joins the party in a great way.
• 49:30
  Speaker 7: And that's why that's team building. And you can never
• 49:32
  Speaker 7: underestimate the power of the star player that he's one
• 49:36
  Speaker 7: of the people versus what he's elite. So example, Sean,
• 49:41
  Speaker 7: think about this where some people in sports have their
• 49:45
  Speaker 7: own locker room where they don't address with the other
• 49:48
  Speaker 7: players on their team, and whether and when teams allow that,
• 49:52
  Speaker 7: whether it's the star quarterback or Chris Paul used to
• 49:55
  Speaker 7: address in different locker rooms and end of his career
• 49:58
  Speaker 7: with the Phoenix Suns, and so you can and allow
• 50:00
  Speaker 7: that you got to be with your teammates in locker
• 50:03
  Speaker 7: room where you're you're everybody's looking at you, that we're
• 50:06
  Speaker 7: going to do this together as a as a team.
• 50:09
  Speaker 7: And that's what makes victory MBMA so unique. And I'm
• 50:13
  Speaker 7: assuming also in fantasy to the Nicobocker's or their guys too.
• 50:17
  Speaker 7: Here you are, you're in the biggest city in the world,
• 50:19
  Speaker 7: and suddenly you're you're you're you're thinking about what only
• 50:23
  Speaker 7: your teammates and they gets with the Nicoboxers even more
• 50:26
  Speaker 7: special because there's three guys been blowing over big East
• 50:29
  Speaker 7: type school whether there were college teammates and now they're
• 50:32
  Speaker 7: now they're in the n b A and they try
• 50:34
  Speaker 7: to win the first they're trying to add to the
• 50:36
  Speaker 7: legacy of biling over Wildcats. And most of those guys
• 50:40
  Speaker 7: win two NCAA championships, can get one in the n
• 50:43
  Speaker 7: b A. So it's going to be it's gonna it's
• 50:45
  Speaker 7: gonna be one to the ages this this uh, this series.
• 50:49
  Speaker 7: I'm taking the Spurs definitely in the first game, I'm
• 50:52
  Speaker 7: taking Spurs in a hard fort seventh seven game battle
• 50:55
  Speaker 7: where the Spurs that win the championship.
• 50:58
  Speaker 1: Gardy, before we get to your list, how well did
• 51:01
  Speaker 1: you know Rick Adelman?
• 51:03
  Speaker 7: Very well? Absolutely shows alluding to Rick Adam and passed
• 51:07
  Speaker 7: away yesterday at age seventy nine. I know him very well,
• 51:11
  Speaker 7: is that we talked often over the years. He was
• 51:14
  Speaker 7: a Jerry Sloan's teammate with the Chicago Bulls back and
• 51:18
  Speaker 7: back in the mid seventies. So when we're in summer
• 51:21
  Speaker 7: League all the times in Las Vegas, we all got
• 51:23
  Speaker 7: together and talked to basketball and also in social life together.
• 51:28
  Speaker 7: So when he and also when he was out of
• 51:30
  Speaker 7: work in between jobs, he used to come to Utah
• 51:33
  Speaker 7: and watch practice. And when I coached the Seattle Sonics,
• 51:36
  Speaker 7: him and the head coach of the Denbor Nuggets, his
• 51:38
  Speaker 7: son David Alleman, would come to the Sonics practice and
• 51:42
  Speaker 7: watch the watch us practice and was a student of
• 51:45
  Speaker 7: the game. So it's unfortunately he passed away. He's in
• 51:49
  Speaker 7: the Hall of Fame. He won one thousand and forty
• 51:51
  Speaker 7: two games, which is absolutely hard to do, and he's
• 51:56
  Speaker 7: in heaven right now looking down on us.
• 52:00
  Speaker 1: A great coach.
• 52:02
  Speaker 3: He put certain franchises that are like not the Staples, right.
• 52:06
  Speaker 3: He had a lot of success with Portland, he had
• 52:07
  Speaker 3: a lot of success with Sacramento, some of these places.
• 52:11
  Speaker 3: And you know that those were fond days for me
• 52:15
  Speaker 3: as an NBA fan before I was in the business
• 52:17
  Speaker 3: really where you're just a fan at that point and
• 52:20
  Speaker 3: you're seeing some of these other teams get a little
• 52:22
  Speaker 3: bit of shine partly because their coach was so great.
• 52:25
  Speaker 7: Well, think about the segmento Kings is that they struggled
• 52:30
  Speaker 7: for the last twenty five years. However, when he coached
• 52:33
  Speaker 7: the Kings eight straight years, he went to the playoffs
• 52:37
  Speaker 7: and they were a factor. And back in two thousand
• 52:39
  Speaker 7: and two, Sewan, let's go conspiracy theory, because I know
• 52:42
  Speaker 7: you love that sewing your luck conspiracies. We remember the
• 52:46
  Speaker 7: time when Ron Polly made that jump shot, that three
• 52:50
  Speaker 7: points shot for the Lakers and gave them a Game
• 52:53
  Speaker 7: seven championship. Where the controversy was, was there a foul
• 52:58
  Speaker 7: before that they didn't call to help the Lakers versus
• 53:02
  Speaker 7: the Kingston Get the Kingston get the ball back? And
• 53:05
  Speaker 7: so it just shows you that the Kings are very
• 53:08
  Speaker 7: very close and in the early two thousand. They were
• 53:11
  Speaker 7: a powerhouse with the Lakers who won three straight with
• 53:15
  Speaker 7: the Kobe and his Crime and Shack also as air
• 53:17
  Speaker 7: trusted sidekick.
• 53:20
  Speaker 1: Gordy. What's your list today?
• 53:22
  Speaker 7: Okay, I'll list today with the finals the most Korea
• 53:26
  Speaker 7: NBA Final games by a player. So what players have
• 53:30
  Speaker 7: played in the final games. I cut it off only
• 53:35
  Speaker 7: a top twelve at number twelve tied. Derek Fisher and
• 53:40
  Speaker 7: Tom Sanders played in forty three finals game eleven all time.
• 53:46
  Speaker 7: Elgind Bala and Casey Jones played in forty four final games,
• 53:52
  Speaker 7: number ten all time. Michael Cooper played in forty six
• 53:57
  Speaker 7: finals games, number eight all time tied. John Halchek and
• 54:02
  Speaker 7: Frank Ramsey played in forty seven final games number seven.
• 54:07
  Speaker 7: Magic Johnson played in fifty final games, number six all time.
• 54:13
  Speaker 7: Tom Heinsen played in fifty two final games, tied the
• 54:17
  Speaker 7: fourth all time. Jerry West and Lebron James they played
• 54:21
  Speaker 7: in fifty five final games. Number three all time. Kareem
• 54:26
  Speaker 7: Abdul Jabbar played in fifty six final games. Number two
• 54:31
  Speaker 7: all time is Sam Jones. He played in sixty four
• 54:37
  Speaker 7: final games and the number one player of all time
• 54:41
  Speaker 7: with the most ever the final games is Bill Russell.
• 54:44
  Speaker 7: He played in seventy final games and in the finals.
• 54:49
  Speaker 7: In the seventy games, he averaged for his career sixteen
• 54:53
  Speaker 7: point four points per game and twenty four point five
• 54:56
  Speaker 7: rebounds in the seventy final games. And with the Bill
• 55:00
  Speaker 7: Russell he won eleven championships in thirteen years quickly. What
• 55:07
  Speaker 7: about Michael Jordan. He would have played in more, but
• 55:10
  Speaker 7: he retired at a He retired a younger age and
• 55:13
  Speaker 7: Michael Jordan never played ever in a game seven. Ever
• 55:17
  Speaker 7: at a game seven. Michael Jordan played in thirty five
• 55:20
  Speaker 7: final game appearances. Kobe Bryant played in thirty seven, and
• 55:25
  Speaker 7: Steph Curry and Tim Duncan they played in thirty four.
• 55:28
  Speaker 7: So Michael played in thirty five and let's say all
• 55:31
  Speaker 7: thirty five. He was very impactful. Thus that's my list
• 55:35
  Speaker 7: of today.
• 55:36
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's an understatement. Pretty impactful player. Gordy, you're the man.
• 55:40
  Speaker 3: Enjoyed game one and obviously we'll chat on Thursday in
• 55:44
  Speaker 3: a recap for that.
• 55:46
  Speaker 7: Thanks you on peace out.
• 55:47
  Speaker 3: Say well, Gordia Jaysa our resident NBA insider at Guru
• 55:52
  Speaker 3: and Yoda, brought to you by our friends in a
• 55:57
  Speaker 3: Laddin Industries. Okay, we're gonna double up here, We're gonna
• 56:00
  Speaker 3: come back. We'll start our number two with Donny. Brian
• 56:03
  Speaker 3: Dunsith joins us to talk World Cup and a little ourself.
• 56:07
  Speaker 3: It's a Shan O'Connell show on ESPN seven hundred and
• 56:09
  Speaker 3: ninety twofm.
• 56:14
  Speaker 6: You tuned to the Shan O'Connell Show from the Murdoch
• 56:17
  Speaker 6: Chevrolet Studio of ESPN seven hundred and ninety two one
• 56:21
  Speaker 6: a half am.
• 56:33
  Speaker 1: Welcome back to the Shan O'Connell Show. World Cup right
• 56:38
  Speaker 1: around the corner. Time to talk a little soccer.
• 56:42
  Speaker 2: Nobody better in this market or any market to talk
• 56:45
  Speaker 2: soccer with than our very own good friend.
• 56:47
  Speaker 1: Brian dun said, Donny, welcome to the show. How are you, sir?
• 56:51
  Speaker 8: My man, it's been too long, it has.
• 56:54
  Speaker 1: It's been way too long. Our things.
• 56:58
  Speaker 8: Things are good, man. I'm in the finals throw of
• 57:01
  Speaker 8: trying to get ready for these next two months. I
• 57:03
  Speaker 8: head out on Thursday to Chicago for US Germany. Then
• 57:08
  Speaker 8: I come home for a day, packed my dad, my bags,
• 57:12
  Speaker 8: head down to Moderate Mexico for four games, and then
• 57:15
  Speaker 8: in my World Cup experience out in Philadelphia on July.
• 57:18
  Speaker 1: Fourth, awesome the fact.
• 57:22
  Speaker 3: I mean, did you ever did you ever think that
• 57:26
  Speaker 3: this would be a role that you would have for
• 57:29
  Speaker 3: a World Cup. I know that you know you had
• 57:32
  Speaker 3: an illustrious playing career and USA hosted back in the
• 57:36
  Speaker 3: early nineties and all that kind of stuff, but you
• 57:39
  Speaker 3: know your career has taken off on the broadcasting side
• 57:42
  Speaker 3: of things. Did you ever your playing days think that
• 57:45
  Speaker 3: this would be something that you had an opportunity to do.
• 57:49
  Speaker 8: No, listen, Sewan, I'm glad you brought it up, because
• 57:52
  Speaker 8: I was a young kid. I was sixteen in nineteen
• 57:54
  Speaker 8: ninety four when the Rose Bowl was hosting the US
• 57:58
  Speaker 8: men's national team, and I'd already fallen in love with
• 58:01
  Speaker 8: Tony Miola and Alexi Lawless, Marcella Bulboa, John Harks, Caabramos,
• 58:06
  Speaker 8: Eric Winalda. I was volunteering at the La Convention Center
• 58:12
  Speaker 8: because I couldn't afford tickets at the Rose Bowl, and
• 58:16
  Speaker 8: as a sixteen year old, I'd parked my car at
• 58:18
  Speaker 8: the top of the bowl, I'd walk down and I
• 58:20
  Speaker 8: just experienced the game day atmosphere around the Rose Bowl.
• 58:24
  Speaker 8: I came up short as a player. My closest chance
• 58:27
  Speaker 8: was ninety eight underneath Danson where I was one of
• 58:30
  Speaker 8: the alternates. But I and even in moments where I
• 58:35
  Speaker 8: thought I was going to be involved in twenty eighteen
• 58:39
  Speaker 8: and I kind of felt like the ship that sailed.
• 58:43
  Speaker 8: So to get that email to be a part of
• 58:46
  Speaker 8: the broadcast was something that I was never expecting. In
• 58:51
  Speaker 8: tiering A, your first question, no, man, listen, you know
• 58:59
  Speaker 8: this swindled continues. I never thought it on the opportunity
• 59:03
  Speaker 8: to stay in the world of soccer.
• 59:08
  Speaker 5: And all sporting.
• 59:11
  Speaker 1: H we lost Dunny.
• 59:14
  Speaker 2: That sound that sounds boom, that means technology has failed you.
• 59:20
  Speaker 1: Well, we'll get Dunny back on. It's great to hear
• 59:23
  Speaker 1: from him.
• 59:24
  Speaker 3: And and look, there's when you're a player of his caliber,
• 59:28
  Speaker 3: when you're an analyst of his caliber, when you're someone
• 59:31
  Speaker 3: who's a soccer fan of his caliber. I'm not going
• 59:34
  Speaker 3: to pretend that I have like a real understanding of
• 59:37
  Speaker 3: how significant a World Cup on US soil is for
• 59:43
  Speaker 3: the hardest of hardcore soccer fans are the people who
• 59:45
  Speaker 3: helped grow the game here in the United States and
• 59:48
  Speaker 3: then to be able to work it. I mean, Dunny's
• 59:50
  Speaker 3: one of the best there is. So he's a great dude,
• 59:52
  Speaker 3: and I'm excited that he gets to be on these
• 59:55
  Speaker 3: broadcasts and we're gonna we're gonna grab and we're gonna
• 59:57
  Speaker 3: get it back on. We're reconnecting with him right now.
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 3: But what he says, he's being self deprecating when he
• 1:00:04
  Speaker 3: says this, Windle continues because obviously, if you've watched any soccer,
• 1:00:08
  Speaker 3: especially my favorite thing about it is even though you're
• 1:00:11
  Speaker 3: getting expert analysis, it's not this like talk down condescending.
• 1:00:16
  Speaker 3: So even the soccer novices like me can understand the
• 1:00:19
  Speaker 3: point that Donny's trying to get across. Do you do
• 1:00:21
  Speaker 3: that on purpose? For the low IQ soccer fans like myself, Donny.
• 1:00:29
  Speaker 8: Nothing I do was with intent. Listen, I when I
• 1:00:34
  Speaker 8: started in this business. I started in a pregame post
• 1:00:36
  Speaker 8: game with Spence after my quote unquote career came to
• 1:00:40
  Speaker 8: an end. And at the time I realized that when
• 1:00:45
  Speaker 8: I listen to other people talk about soccer and talk
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 8: about games, there was always something that was missing for
• 1:00:51
  Speaker 8: me as an analyst, and I was looking for matchups.
• 1:00:54
  Speaker 8: I was looking for margins. I wanted to understand what
• 1:00:57
  Speaker 8: was happening to players where they weren't playing or they
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 8: were carrying an injury. Or they were in recovering motor inuities.
• 1:01:03
  Speaker 8: And then I dumped it down to one simple thing.
• 1:01:06
  Speaker 8: I just acted like I was talking to my wife.
• 1:01:08
  Speaker 8: I was trying to explain the game to my wife,
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 8: where I wanted to show her kind of a nuance
• 1:01:13
  Speaker 8: of the game and you know, the margins of how
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 8: slim a win versus A losses. And at the same time,
• 1:01:19
  Speaker 8: I wanted to make sure that she was still my
• 1:01:21
  Speaker 8: wife and I wasn't disrespecting her, and she wanted to
• 1:01:24
  Speaker 8: continue to spend some time with me. So yeah, I
• 1:01:28
  Speaker 8: wanted to make it fun. I mean, I'm fortunate enough
• 1:01:30
  Speaker 8: during the LS broadcast on Apple TV that I'm with
• 1:01:34
  Speaker 8: a guy named Max Brados. I call him TiO Max.
• 1:01:37
  Speaker 8: You know, we've called probably six hundred games together, and
• 1:01:41
  Speaker 8: always the idea is probably a little bit more like
• 1:01:44
  Speaker 8: on the Spanish side than the English side, where we're
• 1:01:46
  Speaker 8: having fun and we're mixing languages, and you know, we
• 1:01:50
  Speaker 8: just we wanted the fun experience to where you're sitting
• 1:01:54
  Speaker 8: there and you're entertained, but also you know, if you
• 1:01:56
  Speaker 8: walk in to grab a beer or you're working on
• 1:01:58
  Speaker 8: your car in the garage, that you're still like we're
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 8: descriptive enough to paint a picture for our listeners to
• 1:02:04
  Speaker 8: kind of keep an eye on.
• 1:02:06
  Speaker 1: Okay, let's get into the roster construction.
• 1:02:08
  Speaker 3: Obviously, there are a lot of RSL people, a lot
• 1:02:10
  Speaker 3: of soccer fans in Utah that wanted to see the
• 1:02:13
  Speaker 3: moon Man on this US men's national team roster. And
• 1:02:17
  Speaker 3: when we were having these conversations six months ago, it
• 1:02:20
  Speaker 3: seemed like a foregone conclusion that he would be And
• 1:02:24
  Speaker 3: then he's left out of the final selection.
• 1:02:26
  Speaker 1: What insight can you give you what happened?
• 1:02:29
  Speaker 8: Yeah, listen, I think it's a competition for spots. And
• 1:02:32
  Speaker 8: what I've always said is that with Diego, he hasn't
• 1:02:36
  Speaker 8: done anything wrong. There's not. And again, I've been around
• 1:02:39
  Speaker 8: this team for the last three and a half years.
• 1:02:41
  Speaker 8: I've been around Maurica Pustino from the first day that
• 1:02:44
  Speaker 8: he took over in Austin, you know, two years ago. Diego.
• 1:02:49
  Speaker 8: The hard part is for guys like Diego, for guys
• 1:02:53
  Speaker 8: like Diego Luna, for guys like Aidan Morris, is that
• 1:02:56
  Speaker 8: they you know, in terms of professionalism, in terms of
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 8: like human compatibility, they were all there. You know, there
• 1:03:03
  Speaker 8: was there was never a step out of bounds. There's
• 1:03:05
  Speaker 8: nothing malicious there was There was never like any like
• 1:03:08
  Speaker 8: ill intent from anybody involved. And I think it came
• 1:03:11
  Speaker 8: down to the same conversations that I've been having with
• 1:03:15
  Speaker 8: everybody about this roster is it's not about the best
• 1:03:18
  Speaker 8: players available, it's about the best group that Marisa Pucatino
• 1:03:21
  Speaker 8: and his staff have mulled over, thinking about the opponents,
• 1:03:25
  Speaker 8: thinking about the referees, thinking about the turnaround time, and
• 1:03:27
  Speaker 8: trying to do their due diligence with injury concerns. You know,
• 1:03:31
  Speaker 8: listen for Diego. He missed the first game because of
• 1:03:34
  Speaker 8: the knee injury, and at the end I think he
• 1:03:38
  Speaker 8: we all saw Lake and US Soccer were managing whatever,
• 1:03:42
  Speaker 8: you know, the small niggles that he was dealing with.
• 1:03:45
  Speaker 8: And if you would have told me before the game
• 1:03:47
  Speaker 8: against Senegal that, in terms of player profile, alex and
• 1:03:51
  Speaker 8: dejas from Club America is the most like FORFE because
• 1:03:54
  Speaker 8: they're so similar in terms of their stature, I would
• 1:03:57
  Speaker 8: have understood it. But then watching the game against Senegal
• 1:04:01
  Speaker 8: the other night, you start with the three in the
• 1:04:03
  Speaker 8: back system, you switch at the four in the back
• 1:04:05
  Speaker 8: when he brings in dejas In, you're thinking about guys
• 1:04:07
  Speaker 8: that are competing with Luna, and those guys are named
• 1:04:10
  Speaker 8: Christian Polisic, Jill Raina, Maleick Killman, Weston McKinney, then alexand Dehaus,
• 1:04:16
  Speaker 8: and on top of that you got to think about
• 1:04:18
  Speaker 8: Brendan Ronson and Timmy Wea. I mean that's I don't
• 1:04:22
  Speaker 8: my math isn't great, but I think that's eight guys
• 1:04:24
  Speaker 8: right there for Mi cal state Fullard's impasser fail math.
• 1:04:28
  Speaker 8: I mean, that's a lot of guys in a similar position,
• 1:04:30
  Speaker 8: so similar to Tanner Testament, Nade Morris. When you think
• 1:04:33
  Speaker 8: about the midfielders of Sebastian Burghlter, of Tyler Adams, of
• 1:04:38
  Speaker 8: Christian Rodan, of these type of guys, you know you
• 1:04:42
  Speaker 8: can only get so many people on the field at
• 1:04:43
  Speaker 8: one time. So, however, the only way I can articulate
• 1:04:47
  Speaker 8: it correctly is whatever Marisa Puctino and his coaching staff
• 1:04:52
  Speaker 8: put on their board in terms of preparation and kind
• 1:04:55
  Speaker 8: of projecting, they felt as though this was the best
• 1:04:58
  Speaker 8: roster to put together. I feel horrible for Diego. I
• 1:05:02
  Speaker 8: thought that he had done everything right, especially with the
• 1:05:06
  Speaker 8: amount of games that Mariso Bottino had leaned in on
• 1:05:09
  Speaker 8: him over the course of twenty twenty five, and there's
• 1:05:13
  Speaker 8: got to be an incredible, you know, source of not
• 1:05:15
  Speaker 8: only disappointment because something like this happened heading into the
• 1:05:18
  Speaker 8: Olympics a couple of summer to go into France, but
• 1:05:21
  Speaker 8: also the embarrassment that comes along with the projection that
• 1:05:24
  Speaker 8: we all had that he was going to be a
• 1:05:26
  Speaker 8: major player in this World Cup here in the United States.
• 1:05:30
  Speaker 2: Thankfully, he's young and he will be wearing a men's
• 1:05:34
  Speaker 2: national team shirt at some point, right.
• 1:05:36
  Speaker 8: Yeah, under percent. Yeah, this this next cycle, both ingozo
• 1:05:40
  Speaker 8: are going to play a major, major part in what's
• 1:05:43
  Speaker 8: happening and in real time for Rialsa Lake. I mean,
• 1:05:47
  Speaker 8: you talk about those two guys, but then you have
• 1:05:49
  Speaker 8: Aiden Herzecani, you have Brittain Dillon, you have Luca Moisa.
• 1:05:53
  Speaker 8: You know, you have a really strong foundational base of players.
• 1:05:58
  Speaker 8: I mean, even if you think about the guys at
• 1:06:00
  Speaker 8: the Red Bulls, like guys like Julian Hall, guys like Mametti,
• 1:06:04
  Speaker 8: this next generation of players pretty extensive. When we talk
• 1:06:08
  Speaker 8: about what the next roster is going to look like
• 1:06:10
  Speaker 8: in September and October ahead of this end of cycle
• 1:06:14
  Speaker 8: for Marisa Pactino in the US men's national team.
• 1:06:18
  Speaker 3: You mentioned you referenced the friendly Aueainst Senegal. How much
• 1:06:22
  Speaker 3: should we be reading into these final friendlies?
• 1:06:28
  Speaker 8: So it's se endless debate. I mean, you're never going
• 1:06:31
  Speaker 8: to see guys play ninety minutes because they're managing and
• 1:06:33
  Speaker 8: obviously the fear of injury. We saw that with Scotland
• 1:06:36
  Speaker 8: with Billy Gilmour going down the other day. We saw
• 1:06:39
  Speaker 8: it the other night for Canada as Marcello Flores fertigdis
• 1:06:43
  Speaker 8: blew as acl and he was going to be a
• 1:06:45
  Speaker 8: starter for Jesse Marsh and Canada. So you're you're kind
• 1:06:49
  Speaker 8: of walking, Sean this really crazy line of how do
• 1:06:53
  Speaker 8: I figure out my pairs? How do I in actuality,
• 1:06:58
  Speaker 8: you know, see the group that I putting on the
• 1:07:00
  Speaker 8: field versus the projection, and then ultimately how do we
• 1:07:03
  Speaker 8: get performances and wins because that obviously is the first
• 1:07:07
  Speaker 8: thing that the US soccer fan base is going to
• 1:07:09
  Speaker 8: moan about over on social media. And then still protect
• 1:07:13
  Speaker 8: the guys and not give too much away for Paraguay
• 1:07:16
  Speaker 8: to prep. If I look at that starting eleven, I
• 1:07:21
  Speaker 8: could see four changes from the other night. I could
• 1:07:24
  Speaker 8: see Matt Freeze and goal instead of Matt Turner. I
• 1:07:27
  Speaker 8: think if Chris Richards is healthy, maybe five changes. If
• 1:07:30
  Speaker 8: Chris Richards is healthy, he's starting in that back three,
• 1:07:33
  Speaker 8: probably over Mark McKenzie, Weston McKenny in that midfield alongside
• 1:07:39
  Speaker 8: Tyler Adams, although I thought Sebastian Berhalter was excellent, Tim
• 1:07:43
  Speaker 8: waya maybe for Sirgenior Desk on that right hand side,
• 1:07:46
  Speaker 8: and then ultimately flow Balligant instead of Ricardo Peppy. So
• 1:07:50
  Speaker 8: we saw a little bit of opportunity versus maybe a
• 1:07:55
  Speaker 8: little bit of dialing in whatever the way the coaches
• 1:07:58
  Speaker 8: are thinking about for that first game against Paraguay. But
• 1:08:02
  Speaker 8: this weekend Saturday afternoon over in Chicago against Germany, I
• 1:08:08
  Speaker 8: would assume would be his as long as he feels
• 1:08:12
  Speaker 8: comfortable about the fitness and the health of certain players.
• 1:08:15
  Speaker 8: But that'll be the closest to the starting eleven that
• 1:08:18
  Speaker 8: we would see against Paraguay for the opening game in
• 1:08:21
  Speaker 8: Los Angeles at so far over on June twelve.
• 1:08:26
  Speaker 3: There are still tickets available to that game. Obviously on
• 1:08:29
  Speaker 3: the resale market there's always going to be, but the official.
• 1:08:33
  Speaker 1: There's Yeah, it's dumb. Should we worry about that?
• 1:08:38
  Speaker 3: I mean, like you want to put your best foot
• 1:08:40
  Speaker 3: forward as a soccer nation, a host nation, et cetera.
• 1:08:44
  Speaker 3: And your first home game is not even sold out,
• 1:08:48
  Speaker 3: you know, a week ahead of time.
• 1:08:50
  Speaker 1: Are we worried?
• 1:08:51
  Speaker 8: Yeah, listen, I get it. And I'm not trying to
• 1:08:54
  Speaker 8: be an apologist for any of this. Just some clarity.
• 1:08:58
  Speaker 7: You know.
• 1:08:58
  Speaker 8: The dynamic pricing that FIFA has really tried to hold
• 1:09:03
  Speaker 8: on to is for obvious reasons. And listen, I don't
• 1:09:07
  Speaker 8: We can get into the weeds about the morality of
• 1:09:09
  Speaker 8: all this stuff, but I don't really think it matters.
• 1:09:13
  Speaker 8: At the end of the day. FIFA is going to
• 1:09:15
  Speaker 8: do what every club around the world is doing, of
• 1:09:18
  Speaker 8: what every like. You know, when you go to Disneyland,
• 1:09:22
  Speaker 8: you know you're going to Disneyland. You know you're paying
• 1:09:24
  Speaker 8: for disney I just.
• 1:09:25
  Speaker 3: Got back from Disneyland, and yes, you know what you
• 1:09:28
  Speaker 3: get it?
• 1:09:29
  Speaker 8: Yeah yeah, And you could get the basic ticket or
• 1:09:31
  Speaker 8: you could upgrade the fast path for you know, the
• 1:09:35
  Speaker 8: whole you know, for for California and Disneyland, and you know,
• 1:09:38
  Speaker 8: drop a few more hundred dollars. The dynamic pricing is
• 1:09:42
  Speaker 8: what it is. The secondary or secondary market, there's always
• 1:09:45
  Speaker 8: going to be someone who looks at it as an
• 1:09:48
  Speaker 8: opportunity to to you know, earn monopoly money.
• 1:09:52
  Speaker 1: Here.
• 1:09:52
  Speaker 8: Here's what I would say. There's two things. The perception
• 1:09:56
  Speaker 8: about following the US men's national team is different in
• 1:09:59
  Speaker 8: a moment moment like this, Uh, it's not Copamtica, it's
• 1:10:03
  Speaker 8: not Gold Cup. This is going to be the World Game,
• 1:10:05
  Speaker 8: which means that there are going to be you know,
• 1:10:09
  Speaker 8: fans that aren't US men's national teams fans, and they're
• 1:10:12
  Speaker 8: they're just football fans, they're soccer fans. They're not gonna
• 1:10:15
  Speaker 8: they're not for Paraguay. So the stadium is going to
• 1:10:20
  Speaker 8: never going to be one hundred percent in favor of
• 1:10:22
  Speaker 8: the US men's national team. And it's just unfortunately a
• 1:10:26
  Speaker 8: stark reality. The price gouging, I think is great when
• 1:10:30
  Speaker 8: we're talking about all of these hotels that are available,
• 1:10:34
  Speaker 8: all these buses that are available that are going to
• 1:10:36
  Speaker 8: charge you like one hundred dollars for a one way
• 1:10:39
  Speaker 8: trip into the stadium and another one hundred dollars one
• 1:10:42
  Speaker 8: way out. Like it's all bs in the big scheme
• 1:10:45
  Speaker 8: of things. You know, we understand where we're at in
• 1:10:48
  Speaker 8: the world in terms of inflation and everything else that
• 1:10:50
  Speaker 8: comes along with it, But no, I think that we're
• 1:10:54
  Speaker 8: going to see as the tournament goes on, more and
• 1:10:57
  Speaker 8: more of these stadiums where you're not going to be
• 1:10:59
  Speaker 8: seeing empty seats. You're going to be seeing every human
• 1:11:02
  Speaker 8: body in these seats because you know, the expanded format
• 1:11:05
  Speaker 8: is going to create a little uncertainty for certain games,
• 1:11:08
  Speaker 8: but ultimately, butts are going to be in seats because
• 1:11:10
  Speaker 8: everyone's going to realize that this is the version of
• 1:11:13
  Speaker 8: the Summer Olympics, the Winter Olympics, the super Bowl, the
• 1:11:16
  Speaker 8: NBA Finals, whatever other sporting event you want to add
• 1:11:19
  Speaker 8: to it, crunching the ball loaded up with steroids and
• 1:11:21
  Speaker 8: put it on a rocket ship to the moon. Because
• 1:11:24
  Speaker 8: I think that's how quickly people are going to be like,
• 1:11:26
  Speaker 8: oh my god, this World Cup is here in the
• 1:11:28
  Speaker 8: United States, and I think it's going to take over
• 1:11:31
  Speaker 8: a lot of the water cooler conversations.
• 1:11:33
  Speaker 3: Ryan Dunzeth our guest here on the shan Ocddle show
• 1:11:37
  Speaker 3: World Cup Talk, brought to you by Beer Bar, who's
• 1:11:39
  Speaker 3: going to be helping us cover the World Cup throughout
• 1:11:42
  Speaker 3: the tournament. They're great, So what is this What is
• 1:11:48
  Speaker 3: this men's squad truly capable of? In this world Cup
• 1:11:52
  Speaker 3: on at least partially on home soil.
• 1:11:55
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 1:11:55
  Speaker 8: I mean, the reality is that in the last three
• 1:11:58
  Speaker 8: World Cups they've made it to the round of sixteen,
• 1:12:01
  Speaker 8: so they've made it, you know, into the knockout rounds.
• 1:12:04
  Speaker 8: We as insecure soccer fans here in the United States
• 1:12:08
  Speaker 8: are always trying to convert those that aren't fans of
• 1:12:12
  Speaker 8: the US soccer team to you know, really buy into
• 1:12:15
  Speaker 8: what they're doing. This group's got a bunch of great personalities.
• 1:12:19
  Speaker 8: In the fall, they were in a fantastic run of form,
• 1:12:21
  Speaker 8: winning five of their six matches the March windows. I
• 1:12:25
  Speaker 8: can explain them, but at times fans don't want to
• 1:12:29
  Speaker 8: hear the explanation. With the substitutions and the tests and
• 1:12:32
  Speaker 8: the real value in the losses against Belgium and Portugal,
• 1:12:36
  Speaker 8: both games being played in Atlanta at Mercedes Benz Stadium.
• 1:12:40
  Speaker 8: What we saw against Senegal in that first forty five
• 1:12:42
  Speaker 8: minutes was Christian Weston Tyler, all those guys absolute geo flying.
• 1:12:49
  Speaker 4: It was.
• 1:12:50
  Speaker 8: It was the most inspired, urgent type of performance that
• 1:12:54
  Speaker 8: we've seen in a while, and it was something that
• 1:12:56
  Speaker 8: I felt like, check the box for a leave. Some
• 1:13:00
  Speaker 8: of the fears of this fan base expanded format again
• 1:13:04
  Speaker 8: adds a new round of thirty two, so one more
• 1:13:07
  Speaker 8: game to kind of navigate through. I think we'll see
• 1:13:09
  Speaker 8: some surprises. I think in this group the US could
• 1:13:14
  Speaker 8: either find themselves in second or third position, or they
• 1:13:16
  Speaker 8: could win the group outright. The good news is that
• 1:13:19
  Speaker 8: they've played all three teams within the last calendar year,
• 1:13:22
  Speaker 8: so they've They've beaten Australia, they've beaten Paraguay. They lost
• 1:13:26
  Speaker 8: to Turkey, but if var was in that game, they
• 1:13:30
  Speaker 8: probably would have won that game. So there's a blessing
• 1:13:33
  Speaker 8: the curse and the knowledge and experience of having played them.
• 1:13:36
  Speaker 8: But I think they'll realize that the pressure is on,
• 1:13:40
  Speaker 8: and I think that they're unlike Copamedica, where you know,
• 1:13:44
  Speaker 8: tim Way's hand gets caught up in the face of
• 1:13:46
  Speaker 8: an opponent and it's a straight red and all of
• 1:13:48
  Speaker 8: a sudden wheels fall off. Those margins of success and
• 1:13:52
  Speaker 8: failure will be there. But listen, I don't want to
• 1:13:55
  Speaker 8: be a true Americana Homer, but the reality is I am,
• 1:13:58
  Speaker 8: and I hope all these kids, you know, do what
• 1:14:01
  Speaker 8: we all do is when we start playing, we recognize
• 1:14:04
  Speaker 8: as little kids we want to play at the highest
• 1:14:06
  Speaker 8: level of the sport that's going to be the World Cup.
• 1:14:08
  Speaker 8: The fact that they get to do it in the US.
• 1:14:10
  Speaker 8: Hopefully these guys, you know, attain the opportunity to etch
• 1:14:14
  Speaker 8: their name and cement the way that Tony Meola is
• 1:14:17
  Speaker 8: the Alexi Loless's, Marcello Balboa's, Harksy's, Winaldo's Tabromos's, all those guys.
• 1:14:23
  Speaker 8: You know, they became iconic for a reason. It is
• 1:14:26
  Speaker 8: because what they did in nineteen ninety four.
• 1:14:29
  Speaker 1: Who's the best team in this term?
• 1:14:31
  Speaker 3: I mean, we would all love to see Team USA
• 1:14:34
  Speaker 3: win the World Cup. I don't think that is the
• 1:14:36
  Speaker 3: realistic hope for even the most diehard fans. So who
• 1:14:40
  Speaker 3: is going to leave North America as World Cup champs.
• 1:14:44
  Speaker 8: I'll give you a couple of names that I think
• 1:14:47
  Speaker 8: are going to be the teams to keep an eye on.
• 1:14:49
  Speaker 8: I think first and foremost, France for me is the
• 1:14:53
  Speaker 8: favorite as of right now. If you went back to
• 1:14:55
  Speaker 8: March and you watch them diabolically take apart both Brazil
• 1:15:00
  Speaker 8: and Columbia. I thought it was a real, real statement
• 1:15:03
  Speaker 8: of intent. And I know they lost Liverpool's at Gatke,
• 1:15:07
  Speaker 8: but they have like effectively five teams right now, out
• 1:15:10
  Speaker 8: of Africa, Senegal and Morocco would be the two teams
• 1:15:13
  Speaker 8: to keep an eye on. Out of South America. We
• 1:15:15
  Speaker 8: can always talk about Brazil, but I think they're light
• 1:15:18
  Speaker 8: in a couple of areas. I think Argentina because of
• 1:15:21
  Speaker 8: Messi and Messi playing at Inter Miami is going to
• 1:15:24
  Speaker 8: be probably the biggest draw. And then you've got to
• 1:15:27
  Speaker 8: keep an eye on maybe some of the outliers. I
• 1:15:30
  Speaker 8: would say that Belgium, Portugal, England in Spain are going
• 1:15:35
  Speaker 8: to be the ones that I think could make deep runs.
• 1:15:38
  Speaker 8: But then I would feel like I'm disrespecting a Germany
• 1:15:41
  Speaker 8: if I didn't point, you know, point that you know,
• 1:15:44
  Speaker 8: one of those teams out I'm intrigued about South Korea. Obviously,
• 1:15:48
  Speaker 8: Southern young men from LAFC is going to lead the line.
• 1:15:51
  Speaker 8: They play El Salvador down in Provo. I think tomorrow
• 1:15:56
  Speaker 8: they just played the other night, and we're comfortable in
• 1:15:59
  Speaker 8: the five Mili win and Trendad and Tobago, and then
• 1:16:03
  Speaker 8: you know, Canada and Mexico and the United States are
• 1:16:05
  Speaker 8: the weird ones because of these kind of hosting capabilities.
• 1:16:09
  Speaker 8: So is there like a momentum that they can fabricate
• 1:16:12
  Speaker 8: because of the home field advantage. I would say those
• 1:16:15
  Speaker 8: are kind of the teams that I'm keeping my eyes
• 1:16:17
  Speaker 8: on that. I would say that if you're neutral and
• 1:16:20
  Speaker 8: you have no skin in the game, at least you'll
• 1:16:22
  Speaker 8: enjoy that style of play. But I think there's going
• 1:16:25
  Speaker 8: to be, you know, some great games, some games that
• 1:16:28
  Speaker 8: I'm a part of, where it's like Sweden against Tunisia,
• 1:16:31
  Speaker 8: South Africa against South Korea. You know, what does this
• 1:16:34
  Speaker 8: look like for Holland during these World Cups? There's just
• 1:16:39
  Speaker 8: so many good teams, but the good teams from the
• 1:16:42
  Speaker 8: elite teams, it's I would say, it's just going to
• 1:16:45
  Speaker 8: be about the margins, margins of victory, along with the
• 1:16:47
  Speaker 8: good old referee and var involvement.
• 1:16:51
  Speaker 1: Well, that was going to be my final question for you.
• 1:16:53
  Speaker 3: There's you know, we talk about what we're in the
• 1:16:56
  Speaker 3: NBA finals right now, you talk about playoff basketball. Style
• 1:16:59
  Speaker 3: of bistically is very different than regular season basketball. Hockey
• 1:17:05
  Speaker 3: may be more so than anything else. Yeah, Stylistically, World
• 1:17:09
  Speaker 3: Cup soccer versus obviously MLS is very different. But even
• 1:17:14
  Speaker 3: you know, Champions League or what these guys are more
• 1:17:17
  Speaker 3: accustomed to playing at the elite levels in Europe is
• 1:17:20
  Speaker 3: there a market change in the style of World Cup
• 1:17:24
  Speaker 3: soccer versus every other product.
• 1:17:27
  Speaker 8: It depends on the teams and it really does depend
• 1:17:29
  Speaker 8: on the matchup. I mean, we just saw that in
• 1:17:31
  Speaker 8: the Champions League final this weekend between Arsenal and PSG,
• 1:17:36
  Speaker 8: two very different approaches for the interpretation of how they
• 1:17:39
  Speaker 8: want to play. What I would say is that the
• 1:17:43
  Speaker 8: the you know, the the outlier teams, the teams where
• 1:17:47
  Speaker 8: you're talking about Chrisau or you're talking about Haiti, you're
• 1:17:49
  Speaker 8: talking about Cape Verdi or you know, teams like that,
• 1:17:51
  Speaker 8: there will be a very defensive approach for them to
• 1:17:54
  Speaker 8: survive because the margins of survival for those smaller countries
• 1:17:59
  Speaker 8: are you usually going to be about goal differential. How
• 1:18:02
  Speaker 8: can they get a draw, how can they minimize you
• 1:18:04
  Speaker 8: know that lose one nothing as opposed to losing you know,
• 1:18:08
  Speaker 8: five to two, because the gold differential will have a
• 1:18:10
  Speaker 8: huge say and who will go on in second place
• 1:18:13
  Speaker 8: and who will go on in third place? And if
• 1:18:15
  Speaker 8: you go on in third place, you know you're going
• 1:18:17
  Speaker 8: to you know, be dealing with the heavyweights, you know,
• 1:18:19
  Speaker 8: the Argentinas and the frances and those type, as opposed
• 1:18:22
  Speaker 8: to maybe if you get a second place team. You're
• 1:18:24
  Speaker 8: dealing with a Japan or a South Korea, so the
• 1:18:28
  Speaker 8: margins are going to be incredibly slim. And on top
• 1:18:31
  Speaker 8: of that, the reality is that it's the end of
• 1:18:34
  Speaker 8: a really long season on top of last summer's FIFA
• 1:18:37
  Speaker 8: Club World Cup, so you have so many games, so
• 1:18:40
  Speaker 8: the physical fatigue will be there, the mental fatigue will
• 1:18:45
  Speaker 8: not be there. And then, by the way, you got
• 1:18:48
  Speaker 8: these weird stories that will pop up during the tournament
• 1:18:51
  Speaker 8: and don't have nothing to do with anything on the field.
• 1:18:53
  Speaker 8: It'll be off the field. It could be, you know,
• 1:18:55
  Speaker 8: marriage is crumbling. It could be you know, kids being born,
• 1:18:59
  Speaker 8: or be you know, grandparents dying. You know, you just
• 1:19:02
  Speaker 8: don't know what's happening behind the scenes with these guys
• 1:19:05
  Speaker 8: when we just dumb it down to like the human
• 1:19:07
  Speaker 8: being nature of being involved in a tournament where they're
• 1:19:10
  Speaker 8: away from their families for the better part of another
• 1:19:13
  Speaker 8: thirty days, So some of the outliers to think about
• 1:19:17
  Speaker 8: and we'll see how it all plays out.
• 1:19:19
  Speaker 3: Donny, I very much look forward to picking your brain
• 1:19:22
  Speaker 3: throughout the World Cup and appreciate your time today.
• 1:19:25
  Speaker 1: Thanks for joining me.
• 1:19:27
  Speaker 8: As always, my man. Great to catch up with you.
• 1:19:29
  Speaker 1: That is Brian dun Seth.
• 1:19:30
  Speaker 3: We will have the US versus Germany friendly that's coming
• 1:19:35
  Speaker 3: up right here on ESPN seven hundred and ninety two
• 1:19:38
  Speaker 3: one FM. Cover starts at twelve fifteen on Saturday, last
• 1:19:43
  Speaker 3: friendly before the World Cup, and then of course we're
• 1:19:46
  Speaker 3: off and running. And yeah, there are tickets available for
• 1:19:50
  Speaker 3: USA Paraguay's. We discussed a little bit earlier in the show.
• 1:19:54
  Speaker 3: If you want to get to a World Cup game,
• 1:19:56
  Speaker 3: I don't know when the next one in our lifetime
• 1:19:58
  Speaker 3: is going to roll around. And yeah, you gotta pay
• 1:20:01
  Speaker 3: the price to live in Paradise. As they say, it
• 1:20:04
  Speaker 3: is gonna be expensive to get to these games.
• 1:20:08
  Speaker 2: I love the way that Dunny put that he talked
• 1:20:11
  Speaker 2: compared it to you're gonna pay for an experience to
• 1:20:14
  Speaker 2: go to Disneyland. You're gonna pay for going to Disneyland.
• 1:20:18
  Speaker 2: It's it's pay for the price of going to Paradise.
• 1:20:21
  Speaker 2: And by the way, I will say this, we have
• 1:20:24
  Speaker 2: been duped. I'm as big a Disney fan as like
• 1:20:28
  Speaker 2: it's acceptable for a forty two year old father of
• 1:20:30
  Speaker 2: three to be.
• 1:20:32
  Speaker 1: I enjoy watching Disney movies.
• 1:20:34
  Speaker 3: Don't get you know, all the political weird stuff that
• 1:20:36
  Speaker 3: they're trying to do with some of their products.
• 1:20:38
  Speaker 1: But like, I love Disney songs. It's the most adorable
• 1:20:42
  Speaker 1: thing in the world.
• 1:20:43
  Speaker 2: The way that the kids interact with the characters at Disneyland,
• 1:20:46
  Speaker 2: all of it, right walking into the Star Wars.
• 1:20:49
  Speaker 3: I'm just like, I'm a total nerd for that stuff.
• 1:20:51
  Speaker 3: It is great, it's a it's a wonderful experience. But
• 1:20:55
  Speaker 3: the fact that, especially here in Utah, you've been duped
• 1:20:58
  Speaker 3: into believing that you have to do it like once
• 1:21:01
  Speaker 3: a year or multiple times a year or whatever. You don't.
• 1:21:06
  Speaker 3: You don't it should be. It's not gonna be, but
• 1:21:10
  Speaker 3: it should be for my kids like a once maybe
• 1:21:15
  Speaker 3: twice in their young childhood. And then you're just like, hey,
• 1:21:18
  Speaker 3: remember that trip to Disneyland.
• 1:21:20
  Speaker 1: They've already.
• 1:21:21
  Speaker 3: I went to Disney World when I was six years
• 1:21:23
  Speaker 3: old because my dad had like a work conference in
• 1:21:26
  Speaker 3: Orlando and they decided to make it a thing. I
• 1:21:29
  Speaker 3: didn't go again until I was like twenty five. I
• 1:21:34
  Speaker 3: still remembered the six year old trip, right, Yeah, my
• 1:21:37
  Speaker 3: kids have been to disney four times already. You know
• 1:21:41
  Speaker 3: how expensive that crap is?
• 1:21:43
  Speaker 1: What am I doing? What are we doing? You don't
• 1:21:45
  Speaker 1: have to go that often. Yeah, Yeah, although I do
• 1:21:48
  Speaker 1: love the turkey legs.
• 1:21:50
  Speaker 3: If somebody would just make it, If somebody would just
• 1:21:53
  Speaker 3: make it so I didn't have to spend two hundred
• 1:21:55
  Speaker 3: dollars to get into the place where I buy a
• 1:21:58
  Speaker 3: fifteen dollars turkey leg.
• 1:22:00
  Speaker 2: Just bring me the turkey leg? Can we door dash
• 1:22:02
  Speaker 2: the turkey leg?
• 1:22:04
  Speaker 1: And how cool that would That would be really cool? Cool?
• 1:22:07
  Speaker 1: And look, it's magical there it is.
• 1:22:10
  Speaker 3: There's like they really do they get you because they've
• 1:22:13
  Speaker 3: got the products in the stores that you can only
• 1:22:15
  Speaker 3: get when you're at the park.
• 1:22:16
  Speaker 1: You can't get them elsewhere.
• 1:22:18
  Speaker 2: I guess if you go on eBay you might be
• 1:22:20
  Speaker 2: able to on the secondhand market, but man, they get you.
• 1:22:22
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 1:22:22
  Speaker 3: And the World Cup, I would say, for me for
• 1:22:26
  Speaker 3: the sports fan, feels like, even though I've never been
• 1:22:29
  Speaker 3: in a World Cup game, feels like it would be
• 1:22:31
  Speaker 3: a much more worthwhile expenditure if you have that money.
• 1:22:37
  Speaker 3: Right when I go to Disney, I'm glad my kids
• 1:22:40
  Speaker 3: have fun, but I cannot help it be like, why
• 1:22:43
  Speaker 3: did I just spend three grand on that?
• 1:22:47
  Speaker 1: That drives me nuts?
• 1:22:48
  Speaker 3: You know, and you have fun while you're there too,
• 1:22:51
  Speaker 3: And It's not like I'm just being a grump and
• 1:22:53
  Speaker 3: hating it.
• 1:22:54
  Speaker 2: I'm I'm like, oh, that's so cute. Look Chewbacca, like, oh,
• 1:22:57
  Speaker 2: this is wonderful. It's afterwards and then you're just like,
• 1:23:00
  Speaker 2: oh my gosh.
• 1:23:02
  Speaker 3: If you could tell me, hey, you got you got
• 1:23:04
  Speaker 3: your whatever, you're three to five thousand dollars, you're gonna
• 1:23:07
  Speaker 3: spend it on a trip to Disney, or you're gonna
• 1:23:09
  Speaker 3: spend it on, you know, a pair of tickets to
• 1:23:12
  Speaker 3: a World Cup soccer game to see Team USA on
• 1:23:15
  Speaker 3: American soil. I'd probably be like, yeah, do the soccer.
• 1:23:19
  Speaker 3: I'll do the soccer. And I'm not even the soccer guy.
• 1:23:21
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 1:23:22
  Speaker 2: No, that's the power of this event though, like me
• 1:23:26
  Speaker 2: and you not soccer people. But there's the fact that
• 1:23:31
  Speaker 2: it's the biggest sporting event in the in the world
• 1:23:34
  Speaker 2: by far, and also just the patriotism of it.
• 1:23:37
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 1:23:37
  Speaker 2: I have always been into US men's national team, and
• 1:23:41
  Speaker 2: in World Cup years, not necessarily the friendlies in the
• 1:23:45
  Speaker 2: years before, in the year in the lead up, and
• 1:23:48
  Speaker 2: a little bit of the of the other national tournaments
• 1:23:52
  Speaker 2: that that that go on in non World Cup years,
• 1:23:55
  Speaker 2: a little bit into that too, but I've always been
• 1:23:58
  Speaker 2: into the saw the US men's national team soccer in
• 1:24:03
  Speaker 2: the World Cup because it just it feels like we're
• 1:24:06
  Speaker 2: one as a nation pulling for our team. You don't
• 1:24:11
  Speaker 2: have to be a soccer fan to feel to feel
• 1:24:13
  Speaker 2: the greatness of that, which whis why I'm looking forward
• 1:24:16
  Speaker 2: to this World Cup being on North American soil.
• 1:24:19
  Speaker 3: I am bummed that, like that whole patriotism that USA
• 1:24:23
  Speaker 3: first kind of thing that we got with the hockey
• 1:24:26
  Speaker 3: teams run to a gold medal. It's probably gonna end
• 1:24:29
  Speaker 3: in the round of sixteen here, yeah, but it's still
• 1:24:33
  Speaker 3: gonna be fun. It's still gonna be fun, you never know.
• 1:24:35
  Speaker 3: Big thanks to Dunny and to Beer Bar for making
• 1:24:38
  Speaker 3: those conversations possible. We'll be checking in with our soccer
• 1:24:41
  Speaker 3: insiders and experts throughout the World Cup and in the
• 1:24:44
  Speaker 3: lead up.
• 1:24:45
  Speaker 2: We won't just a point of clarification, we won't have
• 1:24:48
  Speaker 2: World Cup games on the station, but since we're a
• 1:24:50
  Speaker 2: West would want affiliate, they're your home of US men's
• 1:24:53
  Speaker 2: of US soccer in everything but World Cup. That's why
• 1:24:58
  Speaker 2: we've got Saturday's friendly again Germany, which should be a
• 1:25:01
  Speaker 2: really good one. Germany obviously a big Soccer Nation should
• 1:25:04
  Speaker 2: be a really good last tune up for Team USA
• 1:25:08
  Speaker 2: heading to the World Cup.
• 1:25:10
  Speaker 1: All Right, Daily Dump is coming next.
• 1:25:12
  Speaker 3: The Women's College World Series has given us one of
• 1:25:15
  Speaker 3: the most impressive athletic feats we've seen recently, and perhaps
• 1:25:19
  Speaker 3: the strangest sports superstition you've ever heard. We'll get to
• 1:25:24
  Speaker 3: that in the Daily Dump on The Shan O'Connell Show
• 1:25:26
  Speaker 3: ESPN seven hundred and ninety two one.
• 1:25:27
  Speaker 6: Feeling out of the loop, Let's catch up on today's
• 1:25:36
  Speaker 6: biggest headlines in the Daily News Dump, where we flush
• 1:25:39
  Speaker 6: out the biggest stories of the day on The Sean
• 1:25:41
  Speaker 6: O'Connell Show and Utah's number one Sports Talk ESPN seven.
• 1:25:46
  Speaker 4: Hundred and ninety two one FM.
• 1:25:48
  Speaker 6: Brought to you by Bally Plumbing, Heating and Cooling. Just
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• 1:26:38
  Speaker 3: Valley Plumbing dot Com for the website. This is really
• 1:26:45
  Speaker 3: unique to women's sports, obviously, but it is worth noting
• 1:26:50
  Speaker 3: and is impressive, especially if you have children and you
• 1:26:54
  Speaker 3: have been involved in the process of you know, having
• 1:26:57
  Speaker 3: a pregnant spouse, or you yourself have been pregnant, you
• 1:27:01
  Speaker 3: would know how much better than I would how impressive
• 1:27:04
  Speaker 3: this is. But Nebraska has an ace pitcher in the
• 1:27:09
  Speaker 3: Women's College World Series. Her name Jordi from She pitched
• 1:27:13
  Speaker 3: a no hitter shutout over six innings in this World Series.
• 1:27:22
  Speaker 3: Nebraska was eliminated, and then her next social media post
• 1:27:27
  Speaker 3: on Instagram was an announcement that she is expecting that
• 1:27:32
  Speaker 3: she's pregnant. Her and her husband, who's a former Nebraska
• 1:27:37
  Speaker 3: baseball player, announced the cute little like It's cowboy boots, Dad,
• 1:27:44
  Speaker 3: cowboy boots, Mom, cowboy boots, and then baby size cowboy boots.
• 1:27:48
  Speaker 8: You know.
• 1:27:50
  Speaker 3: Baby is due apparently December twenty twenty six. Trey and
• 1:27:58
  Speaker 3: Jordie are expecting. Why is this so noteworthy? Why is
• 1:28:03
  Speaker 3: this so impressive? Well, because she pitched in the Women's
• 1:28:07
  Speaker 3: College World Series while pregnant, and I think I'm not
• 1:28:12
  Speaker 3: great with math, but this would suggest the first trimester,
• 1:28:16
  Speaker 3: which again there's a lot of mourning sickness. Sometimes it
• 1:28:20
  Speaker 3: can be one of the more demanding and grueling portions
• 1:28:24
  Speaker 3: of the pregnancy, especially for a first time mom. And
• 1:28:28
  Speaker 3: no big deal, she still went out there and pitched
• 1:28:32
  Speaker 3: for Nebraska as their ace. They lost three to one
• 1:28:38
  Speaker 3: to the reigning champions Texas in an elimination game, but
• 1:28:44
  Speaker 3: shortly after on Monday announced that she pitched wild pregnant.
• 1:28:49
  Speaker 1: That this is impressive.
• 1:28:51
  Speaker 3: We saw Serena Williams win a tournament playing tennis while pregnant.
• 1:28:57
  Speaker 1: Again, I've never done it.
• 1:28:58
  Speaker 3: I've never been pregnant, but when you are pregnancy adjacent
• 1:29:04
  Speaker 3: and you see how demanding it is on a woman's
• 1:29:06
  Speaker 3: body and how tiring it can be, the fact that
• 1:29:10
  Speaker 3: she just went out there, no big deal and was
• 1:29:12
  Speaker 3: pitching in high stakes games for Nebraska incredibly impressive for me.
• 1:29:19
  Speaker 1: What a performance by Jordi.
• 1:29:22
  Speaker 2: I've said this before about Serena Williams's run to the
• 1:29:26
  Speaker 2: US Open Final after she had a very tough pregnancy
• 1:29:30
  Speaker 2: with her first child. What was at twenty seventeen? After that,
• 1:29:35
  Speaker 2: we should have stopped talking about how great Michael Jordan
• 1:29:37
  Speaker 2: was in the flu game, Like seriously, and this, I
• 1:29:42
  Speaker 2: mean this is like you said, we don't know what
• 1:29:44
  Speaker 2: she's experiencing in the first try in her first trimester,
• 1:29:48
  Speaker 2: Jordi from this Nebraska pitcher, but generally it's not a
• 1:29:53
  Speaker 2: good time for the woman who's pregnant.
• 1:29:55
  Speaker 1: There and she pitching a shutout in the College World Series,
• 1:30:00
  Speaker 1: like Michael Jordan wishes he could do that.
• 1:30:04
  Speaker 3: Pretty amazing, Pretty amazing, And congrats to them. Having a
• 1:30:08
  Speaker 3: kid is the greatest thing on the planet. So I
• 1:30:13
  Speaker 3: feel bad for the softball because now softball is not
• 1:30:15
  Speaker 3: gonna seem as cool. Yeah, speaking of the women's College
• 1:30:21
  Speaker 3: World Series, you get some absolute gems during these broadcasts
• 1:30:26
  Speaker 3: when you get the human interest pieces, the stories around people.
• 1:30:31
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna I'm not gonna tell this story.
• 1:30:32
  Speaker 2: Well, I'm gonna expound on it, but I'm gonna let
• 1:30:36
  Speaker 2: Holly row tell the story first.
• 1:30:40
  Speaker 9: I have some sources in the Texas Dugout who have
• 1:30:42
  Speaker 9: given me an incredible story on Hannah Weld. She has
• 1:30:46
  Speaker 9: a superstition dating back to childhood that if she sees
• 1:30:49
  Speaker 9: a ladybug, she eats it for good luck, as follows
• 1:30:52
  Speaker 9: a hole. And so I was told that at the
• 1:30:55
  Speaker 9: SEC tournament in Kentucky she had a nice home run
• 1:30:58
  Speaker 9: and she had j to the ladybug before that.
• 1:31:01
  Speaker 1: So this is a superstition.
• 1:31:03
  Speaker 9: It's on two different sources in that Texas dugout what
• 1:31:05
  Speaker 9: are cute and weird superstition?
• 1:31:08
  Speaker 1: It doesn't have to be cute, Ollie, it's just weird.
• 1:31:12
  Speaker 3: H Hannah Wells of Texas eats ladybugs for good luck?
• 1:31:17
  Speaker 8: What?
• 1:31:20
  Speaker 2: First of all, why you eat ladybugs? Lady bugs are
• 1:31:24
  Speaker 2: our friends, very nice creatures. They're pest control bugs. They
• 1:31:30
  Speaker 2: go they eat the a fids off of your flowers
• 1:31:32
  Speaker 2: and things like that.
• 1:31:33
  Speaker 1: Lady bugs are awesome.
• 1:31:34
  Speaker 2: They're also there's I mean there's some meaning behind it
• 1:31:40
  Speaker 2: for like it's their omens for you know, good things
• 1:31:44
  Speaker 2: are gonna happen to you or your family's gonna expand
• 1:31:48
  Speaker 2: kind of thing. I've learned this recently, so like we
• 1:31:51
  Speaker 2: don't need to eat them, but hey, I guess it works.
• 1:31:56
  Speaker 2: For she had home run after she ate one recently,
• 1:32:00
  Speaker 2: I mean crazy and also shout out to TALLI row
• 1:32:04
  Speaker 2: former ute, love her. I'm with you. We don't have
• 1:32:09
  Speaker 2: to say it's cute. It's just it's just weird. It's
• 1:32:15
  Speaker 2: just weird and kind of unnecessary.
• 1:32:16
  Speaker 1: Well, the thing is, if lady bugs are your good
• 1:32:19
  Speaker 1: luck charm, that is cute just seeing them.
• 1:32:22
  Speaker 2: Oh I'm gonna I'm gonna do something good because I
• 1:32:24
  Speaker 2: saw a lady.
• 1:32:25
  Speaker 3: But every time I pick up a lady bug something
• 1:32:27
  Speaker 3: good happens for me.
• 1:32:28
  Speaker 1: It's like, oh cool, but you decide to eat it,
• 1:32:31
  Speaker 1: you take away the cute. It's just weird. It's like, oh,
• 1:32:35
  Speaker 1: look a squirrel. They're cute. Oh no, why did you
• 1:32:39
  Speaker 1: do that? Poor lady bugs?
• 1:32:43
  Speaker 2: The parents her parents when she first started eating ladybugs,
• 1:32:47
  Speaker 2: however young she was as a cute little kid, no
• 1:32:50
  Speaker 2: doubt they probably had that first reactually.
• 1:32:53
  Speaker 3: Like oh no, did you just eat the lady bug?
• 1:32:56
  Speaker 3: And it just kept it going. It's a very summertime
• 1:32:59
  Speaker 3: radio thing. But you know this is you come up
• 1:33:02
  Speaker 3: with these sports superstitions that people get very weird about.
• 1:33:06
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 1:33:07
  Speaker 3: If I was like, okay, let me just let me
• 1:33:09
  Speaker 3: just remind myself of some weird sports superstitions that people
• 1:33:12
  Speaker 3: have had, and there's just so many.
• 1:33:17
  Speaker 2: It goes well beyond the I wear the same underwear
• 1:33:22
  Speaker 2: every game with you know, with that with I don't
• 1:33:26
  Speaker 2: wash it. I don't wash my underwear to keep wearing
• 1:33:28
  Speaker 2: it every game. That kind of gross stuff. It goes
• 1:33:30
  Speaker 2: well beyond that.
• 1:33:31
  Speaker 3: Ed belfour used to never watch his his NHL gear,
• 1:33:36
  Speaker 3: which stanky. Man, that's gross. The aforementioned Serena Williams would
• 1:33:42
  Speaker 3: wear unwashed the same pair of unwashed socks throughout an
• 1:33:45
  Speaker 3: entire tournament.
• 1:33:46
  Speaker 1: Yeah, also gross, that gets itchy.
• 1:33:50
  Speaker 3: Wade Bogs he made sure to eat chicken before every
• 1:33:53
  Speaker 3: single game, and he took exactly one hundred and fifty
• 1:33:57
  Speaker 3: ground balls, not one more, not one less.
• 1:34:00
  Speaker 1: Okay. Uh.
• 1:34:02
  Speaker 3: Patrick Waugh would have full fledged conversations with his goalposts,
• 1:34:07
  Speaker 3: thanking them for when they deflected Puck's Okay, I love that. Uh,
• 1:34:11
  Speaker 3: this is a gross one. Mois Moises Alou Oh yeah,
• 1:34:15
  Speaker 3: used to pee on his own hands.
• 1:34:17
  Speaker 1: Yep. Remember this story.
• 1:34:19
  Speaker 2: Former Chicago Cubs great moist Is to loo some noises
• 1:34:23
  Speaker 2: for Moises.
• 1:34:24
  Speaker 1: Gross.
• 1:34:24
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's that I learned was a was a not
• 1:34:29
  Speaker 2: uncommon practice among baseball players. At one point because they
• 1:34:34
  Speaker 2: thought it helped you grip the bat better, you didn't
• 1:34:37
  Speaker 2: have to wear gloves necessarily and really cross, I.
• 1:34:43
  Speaker 3: Guess I was guilty of one of the gross things.
• 1:34:46
  Speaker 3: I I didn't feel like it was a superstition thing
• 1:34:51
  Speaker 3: as much as it just was. Like maybe it was
• 1:34:53
  Speaker 3: because part of your your game day attire is very
• 1:34:57
  Speaker 3: much part of your routine. But you know, everybody puts
• 1:35:00
  Speaker 3: on everyone chooses what they're gonna wear underneath their football pads. Yeah,
• 1:35:05
  Speaker 3: some guys do, like the weird baggy shirt thing, which
• 1:35:08
  Speaker 3: I don't know how you do that.
• 1:35:11
  Speaker 1: It's the craziest thing in.
• 1:35:12
  Speaker 3: The world to me when, like, especially a freak athlete,
• 1:35:17
  Speaker 3: like the really smooth guys are wearing like a hoodie
• 1:35:20
  Speaker 3: underneath their pads, or they're wearing a loose, long sleeve shirt,
• 1:35:25
  Speaker 3: Like doesn't Jalen Johnson do this?
• 1:35:28
  Speaker 2: Possibly the one I can think of. Jamison Williams has
• 1:35:32
  Speaker 2: a weird undershirt coming out of his pads. It's like
• 1:35:35
  Speaker 2: a loose only the sleeve only goes down to his elbow,
• 1:35:39
  Speaker 2: so it's very odder than a short sleeve, but not
• 1:35:42
  Speaker 2: a long not a full long sleeve.
• 1:35:43
  Speaker 1: It's like a baseball tea and it looks like, why
• 1:35:46
  Speaker 1: are you doing that? It looks strange, it looks odd.
• 1:35:48
  Speaker 3: Right, some guys, most guys wear just like the under
• 1:35:51
  Speaker 3: armour or whatever.
• 1:35:52
  Speaker 1: I would not wear anything.
• 1:35:54
  Speaker 3: So my pads were actually on skin, which is gross
• 1:35:56
  Speaker 3: because then your sweat is just going straight into the pads.
• 1:35:59
  Speaker 2: There's sticking to you. Oh was it uncomfortable? No, I
• 1:36:03
  Speaker 2: preferred it.
• 1:36:04
  Speaker 1: I don't know why.
• 1:36:06
  Speaker 2: I don't know you did this, like not just in
• 1:36:09
  Speaker 2: high school, like it all the way through, all the
• 1:36:10
  Speaker 2: way through, no matter.
• 1:36:11
  Speaker 1: The temperature, no matter the situation, always just on skin.
• 1:36:16
  Speaker 1: What's a weird.
• 1:36:19
  Speaker 2: Mm a uniform thing because obviously you're you're just wearing trunks.
• 1:36:24
  Speaker 1: Right, Yeah, you're you're just wearing trunks. Uh.
• 1:36:27
  Speaker 3: So there's a guy who just fought for us in
• 1:36:29
  Speaker 3: the PFL, Benson Henderson. He's past his prime now when
• 1:36:33
  Speaker 3: he was he's a former UFC champion. And here's the
• 1:36:36
  Speaker 3: he had one of the weirdest things in the world.
• 1:36:38
  Speaker 3: He would fight with a toothpick in his mouth. Oh,
• 1:36:43
  Speaker 3: like he's wearing a mouthpiece and he would have a toothpick.
• 1:36:47
  Speaker 3: And I guess his mouth is exactly the right width
• 1:36:50
  Speaker 3: to where he could put the toothpick sideways on like
• 1:36:54
  Speaker 3: the roof of his mouth. But then he would like
• 1:36:59
  Speaker 3: be sitting in the corner between rounds and he'd pop
• 1:37:01
  Speaker 3: it out and just have it.
• 1:37:02
  Speaker 6: Was.
• 1:37:03
  Speaker 3: It was very odd. So that was that's one of
• 1:37:06
  Speaker 3: the most iconic and strange things. We had a guy
• 1:37:09
  Speaker 3: in the last PFL fight who didn't wear his mouthpiece.
• 1:37:12
  Speaker 3: They this is that's just a dumb uniform thing. He like,
• 1:37:19
  Speaker 3: the referee doesn't let you get into the cage. There's
• 1:37:22
  Speaker 3: an inspector at the stairs, and you have to knock
• 1:37:26
  Speaker 3: on your groin protector to show them that you're wearing
• 1:37:30
  Speaker 3: a cup. You have to smile with your mouthpiece in,
• 1:37:33
  Speaker 3: and then they inspect your gloves to make sure you
• 1:37:36
  Speaker 3: don't have any like razor blades in there or whatever.
• 1:37:39
  Speaker 3: I'm terrible. Yeah, And it's a it's a ritual. It's
• 1:37:43
  Speaker 3: a process that every fight goes through. This dude mouthpiece in.
• 1:37:47
  Speaker 3: Here's my mouthpiece. He gets into the cage, he takes
• 1:37:50
  Speaker 3: the mouthpiece out and he hands it to his coach.
• 1:37:54
  Speaker 2: So that's the loophole. You just have to have it
• 1:37:56
  Speaker 2: on when they inspect you.
• 1:37:58
  Speaker 3: Some referees will double check and obviously with him, you
• 1:38:00
  Speaker 3: need a triple check.
• 1:38:01
  Speaker 1: But what the hell? That's crazy. I was like, why
• 1:38:03
  Speaker 1: are you not wearing a mouthpiece? That's just dumb, that's crazy.
• 1:38:08
  Speaker 5: Uh.
• 1:38:08
  Speaker 3: There's also a guy who used to he used to
• 1:38:11
  Speaker 3: fake that he was wearing a cup.
• 1:38:13
  Speaker 2: Oh again, why yeah, that's don't you want to have
• 1:38:19
  Speaker 2: your mouth and that area you want fully protect this
• 1:38:22
  Speaker 2: It's like when you talk about the two parts of
• 1:38:25
  Speaker 2: your body that you don't want to have, it's like, well,
• 1:38:27
  Speaker 2: there's three. You don't want your eyes to get compromised,
• 1:38:30
  Speaker 2: like your vision, right, you don't want your teeth to
• 1:38:32
  Speaker 2: get knocked out, completely messed up, and you certainly don't
• 1:38:36
  Speaker 2: want the family jewels to be compromised. And this dude,
• 1:38:41
  Speaker 2: I they're just actually kind of know him pretty well.
• 1:38:44
  Speaker 2: He he But because the universal test is you stand
• 1:38:50
  Speaker 2: there in front of the referee and you knock on
• 1:38:52
  Speaker 2: the protector, right, But they're not always paying close attention.
• 1:38:57
  Speaker 2: So he would just knock on like his own pelvis
• 1:39:00
  Speaker 2: bone right above, and so they just assumed.
• 1:39:03
  Speaker 1: He was doing that. No, on a cup, they're not like.
• 1:39:09
  Speaker 2: Reaching down to test themselves, and they're not listening closely.
• 1:39:12
  Speaker 2: Oh that doesn't sound like a cup to me. Yep,
• 1:39:16
  Speaker 2: that hollow sound. No, it was just like so he
• 1:39:19
  Speaker 2: would just fake it. What are you doing so weird?
• 1:39:24
  Speaker 3: Also public service announcement, don't eat ladybugs kids, Anna Wells
• 1:39:28
  Speaker 3: of Texas.
• 1:39:28
  Speaker 1: Why are you eating ladybugs?
• 1:39:30
  Speaker 2: All right, there's some strange sports superstitions you this one
• 1:39:34
  Speaker 2: you put in the notes. The w w E USSO
• 1:39:38
  Speaker 2: brothers who are very very famous, they're a big deal.
• 1:39:42
  Speaker 2: Apparently their younger brother, little brother, Samson Fatu is going
• 1:39:47
  Speaker 2: to Weavers State.
• 1:39:48
  Speaker 1: Yeah great, great, great coach care genius move.
• 1:39:53
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it really is though his father, their father, Rakishi,
• 1:39:59
  Speaker 2: that was his wrestling name. He a wrestling, high profile
• 1:40:05
  Speaker 2: wrestling guy in his day.
• 1:40:07
  Speaker 1: For sure.
• 1:40:08
  Speaker 2: He broke the news on his Instagram and Facebook. So
• 1:40:14
  Speaker 2: shout out to shout out to the to the USO brothers,
• 1:40:18
  Speaker 2: Samson fought to the whole Fatu family.
• 1:40:20
  Speaker 3: So for places like Weber State, right, you're not competing
• 1:40:25
  Speaker 3: on the nil front in a traditional sense. You're like
• 1:40:29
  Speaker 3: this kind of stuff. If you could pull it off,
• 1:40:32
  Speaker 3: this is actually pretty neat because if you get just
• 1:40:36
  Speaker 3: like a couple of photos of international WWE superstars maybe
• 1:40:44
  Speaker 3: supporting their brother or wearing some Weber State gear or whatever.
• 1:40:49
  Speaker 2: It's a kind of a win. It's great marketing. Yeah,
• 1:40:52
  Speaker 2: it's kind of cool.
• 1:40:53
  Speaker 3: Good for you, good for Weber State, good for Samson,
• 1:40:57
  Speaker 3: fought to you get to go play some college football.
• 1:41:00
  Speaker 1: You wanna should? We should?
• 1:41:02
  Speaker 2: We leave time to talk about the treasure hunt for
• 1:41:04
  Speaker 2: next next segment.
• 1:41:05
  Speaker 1: Do you want? You want to talk about it now?
• 1:41:07
  Speaker 3: I want to talk about one more thing here because
• 1:41:09
  Speaker 3: we mentioned it in the first segment. Steph Curry is
• 1:41:14
  Speaker 3: he's ending his shoe free agency. He has signed with
• 1:41:19
  Speaker 3: a shoe brand, a Chinese shoe brand called Leaning. They've
• 1:41:22
  Speaker 3: got the Dwayne Wade shoes, They've got the Jimmy Butler shoes.
• 1:41:28
  Speaker 3: The deal is allegedly ten years for over a billion dollars,
• 1:41:33
  Speaker 3: and he gets to have his own golf brand. They're
• 1:41:36
  Speaker 3: doing a Curry brand. He gets his own It's like
• 1:41:38
  Speaker 3: Jordan has his own stores, his own thing. They're doing
• 1:41:41
  Speaker 3: that with Curry and he will be able to sign
• 1:41:45
  Speaker 3: other athletes under the Curry brand through Leaning. It's it's
• 1:41:49
  Speaker 3: very very similar to the Nike is the parent company
• 1:41:52
  Speaker 3: of Jordan brand.
• 1:41:53
  Speaker 1: Yea kind a model. I love that model.
• 1:41:55
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and it's it's cool now the design of Leaning
• 1:41:59
  Speaker 3: is not really my aesthetic.
• 1:42:02
  Speaker 2: You'd have to pay me a billion dollars to wear
• 1:42:04
  Speaker 2: these dang shoes. They're hideous.
• 1:42:06
  Speaker 3: But this is groundbreaking at his landmark. It is Steph
• 1:42:09
  Speaker 3: Curry in his late thirties cashing another billion dollar pay
• 1:42:15
  Speaker 3: day because of who he is as a basketball player.
• 1:42:18
  Speaker 3: This guy goes into the first ballot Sports Business Hall
• 1:42:22
  Speaker 3: of Fame with what he's done, not only with his
• 1:42:24
  Speaker 3: under armoured deal, with his contracts with the Warriors, with
• 1:42:28
  Speaker 3: everything he and his wife have built from a brand perspective,
• 1:42:31
  Speaker 3: but now him signing with Leaning as a Chinese shoe
• 1:42:36
  Speaker 3: brand that will be the official signature shoe of Steph
• 1:42:39
  Speaker 3: Curry and a whole line of products beyond that.
• 1:42:44
  Speaker 1: Pretty impressive. All right, We are going to take a
• 1:42:48
  Speaker 1: quick break. We need Lowry Marketing's help, and so do
• 1:42:52
  Speaker 1: a lot of people in the world.
• 1:42:53
  Speaker 3: Get Lowry Marketing on the phone. If you can't find him,
• 1:42:56
  Speaker 3: a former Utah mammoth man, Holy Mata we got. We
• 1:43:00
  Speaker 3: need a finished person to help us. I'll tell you why. Next,
• 1:43:03
  Speaker 3: it's the Shawan O'Connell Show on ESPN seven hundred and nine.
• 1:43:07
  Speaker 1: Sobb mis Man, you.
• 1:43:10
  Speaker 6: Were listening to the Sean O'Connell Show from the Murdoch
• 1:43:13
  Speaker 6: Hunting Studio of ESPN seven hundred and ninety two to
• 1:43:17
  Speaker 6: one a f.
• 1:43:18
  Speaker 1: M boys with drinking whiskey and ride sing in this sube.
• 1:43:22
  Speaker 1: The day that I die, this.
• 1:43:27
  Speaker 2: Sob the day that I die?
• 1:43:33
  Speaker 1: Did you write the book of love? You have fading
• 1:43:38
  Speaker 1: God love?
• 1:43:40
  Speaker 5: The Bob tells you, so.
• 1:43:44
  Speaker 1: Honey, you believe in Rocking Road?
• 1:43:47
  Speaker 3: All right, this is a wild story that it's not
• 1:43:51
  Speaker 3: really sports, it's sports adjacent.
• 1:43:54
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 1:43:55
  Speaker 3: There's a place in Finland called uh Levi Levy. They're
• 1:44:00
  Speaker 3: inviting tourists, you, me, whoever, to come on a twenty
• 1:44:05
  Speaker 3: three thousand dollars bar of gold treasure hunt. It's called
• 1:44:11
  Speaker 3: the Midnight Sun Hunt and it's up in the lapland
• 1:44:15
  Speaker 3: of Finland, Okay, above the Arctic Circle in the summertime.
• 1:44:20
  Speaker 1: The sun does not go down land of the midnight Sun.
• 1:44:26
  Speaker 3: On June eighteenth, you're gonna start receiving clues to where
• 1:44:29
  Speaker 3: the treasure is, and then the last clue will be
• 1:44:31
  Speaker 3: given on August twenty second. No rules on when you
• 1:44:37
  Speaker 3: can find the gold, as long as it's after June eighteenth.
• 1:44:41
  Speaker 3: So we need some Finish experts here, Okay, I need
• 1:44:47
  Speaker 3: Lowry Marketing. I need somebody in the marketing clan to
• 1:44:51
  Speaker 3: be like, yeah, I'll help you find this thing, because
• 1:44:55
  Speaker 3: if you are a random American, a lot of these
• 1:44:58
  Speaker 3: clues are gonna be.
• 1:44:59
  Speaker 1: You to you unless Lowry's just.
• 1:45:03
  Speaker 3: Like, oh yeah, Now, Finland is a massive country, so
• 1:45:08
  Speaker 3: he may not know anything.
• 1:45:09
  Speaker 1: He may never have been to Lapland. We have no idea.
• 1:45:12
  Speaker 3: But Finland also home to a lot of really cool
• 1:45:15
  Speaker 3: and distinct dog breeds, which would be fun to go see.
• 1:45:18
  Speaker 3: You're almost certain to see reindeer while you're up there,
• 1:45:22
  Speaker 3: all right, if your kids are a big fan of
• 1:45:25
  Speaker 3: the Frozen franchise. The North Uldra people are at least
• 1:45:31
  Speaker 3: partially based off of the indigenous folks of northern Scandinavia,
• 1:45:36
  Speaker 3: so let's go.
• 1:45:39
  Speaker 2: You might even run into Santa Claus while you're up there,
• 1:45:42
  Speaker 2: and you're that high up.
• 1:45:43
  Speaker 3: Finding a single bar of gold in the random expanse
• 1:45:49
  Speaker 3: of Finnish Lapland is it's a needle in a haystack
• 1:45:52
  Speaker 3: kind of a thing.
• 1:45:53
  Speaker 2: It's this is an awesome marketing tool. It's it's visit
• 1:45:57
  Speaker 2: visit Levi, visit Levy however it's pronounced in Finland. There
• 1:46:03
  Speaker 2: Tourism Bureau, that's that's come up with this treasure hunt.
• 1:46:07
  Speaker 1: Brilliant marketing. I hope that they.
• 1:46:09
  Speaker 2: Get what they expect out of this. You know, countless
• 1:46:14
  Speaker 2: numbers of people from around the world going on this
• 1:46:17
  Speaker 2: treasure hunt and whoever finds this like twenty three thousand
• 1:46:21
  Speaker 2: dollars Are you serious? Like that's that's a lot of money,
• 1:46:25
  Speaker 2: even if you had to spend, you know, however much
• 1:46:27
  Speaker 2: you needed to spend to get to Finland and stay there. Uh.
• 1:46:32
  Speaker 1: Have you ever seen the movie Cisu? No, it's cool?
• 1:46:37
  Speaker 1: Is it a good one?
• 1:46:38
  Speaker 3: It's about uh, it's the like the tail end of
• 1:46:41
  Speaker 3: World War Two. It's about a finish a finish gold
• 1:46:44
  Speaker 3: prospector guy who has to basically keep the Nazis from
• 1:46:50
  Speaker 3: stealing his gold. And it's a it's just a wild ride.
• 1:46:55
  Speaker 3: It's like a John Wick sort of level of superfluous violence.
• 1:47:00
  Speaker 2: Sounds amazing, but in you know, in Finnish Lapland. So
• 1:47:04
  Speaker 2: maybe we could go do a little sea sue thing, well,
• 1:47:07
  Speaker 2: a little research project. Watched the movie. Okay, maybe it's
• 1:47:11
  Speaker 2: there anyway, Finland. Are you you're on deck? Lowry Marknen.
• 1:47:18
  Speaker 2: Let's let's make it a buddy comedy. Let's do a
• 1:47:20
  Speaker 2: bros trip.
• 1:47:22
  Speaker 3: We'll go out there and uh, if we find the gold,
• 1:47:27
  Speaker 3: we can split it.
• 1:47:28
  Speaker 2: I guess I one half bar of gold each. Yeah,
• 1:47:31
  Speaker 2: our buddy.
• 1:47:32
  Speaker 5: Uh.
• 1:47:32
  Speaker 2: Eric Walden former Jazz Beat writer. He visited Lowry in
• 1:47:37
  Speaker 2: Finland a few years ago when he was still on
• 1:47:39
  Speaker 2: the Jazz Beat. Maybe maybe Walden has some knowledge.
• 1:47:44
  Speaker 1: Get Lowry on the phone calling him now.
• 1:47:46
  Speaker 2: Okay, tell me everything you know about the finished Lapland
• 1:47:51
  Speaker 2: June eighteenth.
• 1:47:52
  Speaker 3: You got nothing better to do. The last clue is
• 1:47:54
  Speaker 3: going to be given on August twenty second. I wonder
• 1:47:56
  Speaker 3: if it's like more and more obvious where the clue
• 1:47:59
  Speaker 3: on August twenty seconds?
• 1:48:01
  Speaker 2: That's what the press release to visit Levy Levi press
• 1:48:04
  Speaker 2: release that that I'm on a list.
• 1:48:08
  Speaker 1: For for some reason.
• 1:48:09
  Speaker 2: That's what That's what it suggested that it will get
• 1:48:12
  Speaker 2: it will get easier with the with each clue, because
• 1:48:16
  Speaker 2: they want this, They want this bar gold to be
• 1:48:18
  Speaker 2: found eventually. They don't want to have all these people
• 1:48:20
  Speaker 2: come and then oh, no one ever found it.
• 1:48:25
  Speaker 3: It would be pretty epic adventure. Yeah, I've never right
• 1:48:29
  Speaker 3: up your alley. I've never been to a place where
• 1:48:31
  Speaker 3: the sun doesn't go down. I've never been north of
• 1:48:34
  Speaker 3: the Arctic Circle. I would like to experience that at
• 1:48:37
  Speaker 3: some point in my life.
• 1:48:38
  Speaker 2: And this also this press release also said that they
• 1:48:42
  Speaker 2: get the majority of their tourists come in the winter
• 1:48:45
  Speaker 2: time because there's a great skiing that you get the
• 1:48:47
  Speaker 2: northern lights. But summer it's also beautiful. There's lots of
• 1:48:52
  Speaker 2: trails and stuff. So this this seems to be like
• 1:48:55
  Speaker 2: an adventure to be like, we need more people to come.
• 1:48:58
  Speaker 1: We need to show.
• 1:48:59
  Speaker 2: More the world how great we are in.
• 1:49:02
  Speaker 1: The summer too.
• 1:49:02
  Speaker 3: All right, So we'll do a World Cup game from
• 1:49:07
  Speaker 3: la and then we'll fly straight from there, straight from
• 1:49:11
  Speaker 3: there to Finland. We'll come back with the bar of gold.
• 1:49:15
  Speaker 3: Some great pictures with Lowry Markinen and a Corelian bear
• 1:49:19
  Speaker 3: dog puppy.
• 1:49:20
  Speaker 1: Look it up.
• 1:49:20
  Speaker 2: They're awesome dogs and ones you probably haven't seen before.
• 1:49:23
  Speaker 2: Maybe a picture of us riding a reindeer.
• 1:49:25
  Speaker 1: Two why not? Yeah, all right, we got to take
• 1:49:29
  Speaker 1: a break.
• 1:49:29
  Speaker 3: Tom Callahan joins us next to preview Stanley Cup Final
• 1:49:33
  Speaker 3: game one tonight.
• 1:49:35
  Speaker 1: You can listen to it right here on ESPN seven
• 1:49:37
  Speaker 1: hundred and ninety two one.
• 1:49:38
  Speaker 4: F this Sean O'Connell Show, you were home of the
• 1:49:49
  Speaker 4: best inside of your hughes, Let's get back to OC
• 1:49:52
  Speaker 4: from the Murdoch Chevrolet Studio of ESPN seven ninety one,
• 1:49:57
  Speaker 4: am Oh, welcome back to the Sean O'Connell Show.
• 1:50:07
  Speaker 3: Welcome in Tom Callahan, ANHL insider trend of the program
• 1:50:13
  Speaker 3: as we get ready for Stanley Cup Final Game one.
• 1:50:16
  Speaker 3: Can't believe this season is winding down to a close,
• 1:50:20
  Speaker 3: but not until we figure out who will hoist Lord
• 1:50:23
  Speaker 3: Stanley's Cup. Game one can be heard tonight on ESPN
• 1:50:27
  Speaker 3: seven hundred and ninety TWOEFM puck drops right after six.
• 1:50:31
  Speaker 1: Tom Callahan, welcome back. How are you, sir?
• 1:50:35
  Speaker 5: Doing well? I'm pretty excited and like you, I am
• 1:50:38
  Speaker 5: shocked that this is the end of the hockey season.
• 1:50:42
  Speaker 5: It's crazy.
• 1:50:43
  Speaker 3: Yeah, we're almost there, which is not doesn't feel like
• 1:50:46
  Speaker 3: a good thing. You know, we're we're finally on this
• 1:50:48
  Speaker 3: hockey bandwagon officially in Salt Lake City. And then we'll
• 1:50:52
  Speaker 3: have to wait and see how things play out in
• 1:50:54
  Speaker 3: an offseason. And I guess Mammoth fans are championing at
• 1:50:58
  Speaker 3: the bit to see what next year looks like after
• 1:51:01
  Speaker 3: the first four a into the playoffs and here we
• 1:51:04
  Speaker 3: are watching the team that eliminated you, the team that
• 1:51:07
  Speaker 3: you gave a really good series too, and they could
• 1:51:10
  Speaker 3: that series with you know, a different result in Game
• 1:51:13
  Speaker 3: four could have been very, very different. But they are
• 1:51:17
  Speaker 3: contending for a Cup and I think in a lot
• 1:51:19
  Speaker 3: of people's mind they are on their.
• 1:51:20
  Speaker 1: Way to winning another Stanley Cup.
• 1:51:22
  Speaker 3: But Vegas versus Carolina will start on the Vegas side
• 1:51:26
  Speaker 3: of things. In your mind, what's going to be the
• 1:51:29
  Speaker 3: key for them to not only take game one, but
• 1:51:31
  Speaker 3: to set the tone for the series.
• 1:51:34
  Speaker 5: You know, to your point and just to you know,
• 1:51:37
  Speaker 5: talk about Utah answer a second here, I mean, really
• 1:51:40
  Speaker 5: think about it. Utah is the team that's given Vegas
• 1:51:42
  Speaker 5: the most trouble so far for a couple of reasons.
• 1:51:46
  Speaker 5: And this is what Carolina is going to bring to
• 1:51:48
  Speaker 5: the table against Vegas is they have the ability to
• 1:51:52
  Speaker 5: use speed. They can for check and when they do,
• 1:51:55
  Speaker 5: they're very effective with it. Same thing with Utah. When
• 1:51:59
  Speaker 5: Utah was using it speed, when Utah was for checking aggressively,
• 1:52:03
  Speaker 5: Vegas had some issues with it. And so from Vegas
• 1:52:05
  Speaker 5: to me, it's a lot of can they handle what
• 1:52:10
  Speaker 5: Caroline is going to throw at them. And I don't
• 1:52:12
  Speaker 5: mean that from a standpoint of maturity. I think both
• 1:52:16
  Speaker 5: of these teams had plenty of veteran presence. I think
• 1:52:19
  Speaker 5: a lot of them have seen the Elephants before, and
• 1:52:21
  Speaker 5: I'm not too concerned about it, although you do wonder.
• 1:52:26
  Speaker 5: You know, Tortorella coming in as the new Vegas coach,
• 1:52:29
  Speaker 5: he obviously jumps started that team. He put some electricity
• 1:52:32
  Speaker 5: into that room, got him going. And now you've got
• 1:52:36
  Speaker 5: a guy in, you know, Mitch Marner or Jack Eichel.
• 1:52:40
  Speaker 5: You know, you want to see how they're gonna do it,
• 1:52:41
  Speaker 5: but especially Marner, right, he has been the key to
• 1:52:45
  Speaker 5: Vegas' success in the playoffs so far. Vegas has a
• 1:52:49
  Speaker 5: core of guys who've won a Stanley Cup now and
• 1:52:52
  Speaker 5: this is their third appearance in the finals in nine
• 1:52:54
  Speaker 5: seasons that they've been around, so it's a pretty impressive record.
• 1:52:59
  Speaker 5: They've won one of those three. They'd love to make
• 1:53:02
  Speaker 5: it two out of three. But really the X factor
• 1:53:04
  Speaker 5: guy is Mitch Marner. He's had an excellent playoffs and
• 1:53:08
  Speaker 5: believe me, people in Toronto have been kind of krusty
• 1:53:12
  Speaker 5: about it, but he's excelled. He's excelled in the Desert.
• 1:53:16
  Speaker 5: He's done really well for himself, and I think that
• 1:53:18
  Speaker 5: for Vegas to succeed, he's got to be their best
• 1:53:22
  Speaker 5: player once again in this series. And that is no IFFs, hands.
• 1:53:26
  Speaker 1: Or buzz, which is these two teams is deeper.
• 1:53:31
  Speaker 3: We saw Carolina take advantage of some of their fourth
• 1:53:34
  Speaker 3: line production in the Eastern Conference semi finals, and I
• 1:53:39
  Speaker 3: think that the depth of this Vegas team, especially against
• 1:53:44
  Speaker 3: a banged up and injured Colorado Avalanche squad, helped them
• 1:53:48
  Speaker 3: get through to this final. So when you look at
• 1:53:50
  Speaker 3: this matchup, who do you believe in? Further down the line.
• 1:53:55
  Speaker 5: I actually look I like Carolina a little bit better.
• 1:53:58
  Speaker 5: I think in the playoff pedigree here, it's been a
• 1:54:02
  Speaker 5: while since the Hurricanes have lifted a cup and now
• 1:54:06
  Speaker 5: they have a coach who knows what it's like, but
• 1:54:08
  Speaker 5: he was a player last time it happened, So I
• 1:54:11
  Speaker 5: think that edge goes to Vegas and experience. But I
• 1:54:14
  Speaker 5: really do like Carolina's lineup, and they do it with
• 1:54:18
  Speaker 5: a bunch of guys who might not be household names
• 1:54:21
  Speaker 5: but are very effective. They are very deep throughout this
• 1:54:25
  Speaker 5: lineup on defense, at forward, They've also done it with
• 1:54:30
  Speaker 5: a goaltender that I think a lot of people myself included,
• 1:54:33
  Speaker 5: didn't think had this kind of a run in him.
• 1:54:35
  Speaker 5: But also Freddie Anderson, who's a veteran guy and number
• 1:54:39
  Speaker 5: one has been calm when he's been called upon, but
• 1:54:41
  Speaker 5: he hasn't even been called upon that much. And I
• 1:54:43
  Speaker 5: think the buy in from Carolina top to bottom playing
• 1:54:47
  Speaker 5: their system is what has really enabled their playoff success.
• 1:54:51
  Speaker 5: And I believe that every player on this roster plays
• 1:54:55
  Speaker 5: the way Rod Brindlemore wants them to play, and they
• 1:54:58
  Speaker 5: do it every single night and they are seeing the results.
• 1:55:01
  Speaker 5: So I do like Carolina from that standpoint. Not that
• 1:55:08
  Speaker 5: Vegas is a slouch in this department. I think both
• 1:55:10
  Speaker 5: of these teams are very good, but really the secondary scoring,
• 1:55:15
  Speaker 5: the scoring from the blue line, could make a difference
• 1:55:19
  Speaker 5: in this series. And I mean, honestly, I'm not jumping
• 1:55:24
  Speaker 5: the gun here to say I don't know who's gonna win,
• 1:55:27
  Speaker 5: but man, this is going seven. I don't see any
• 1:55:29
  Speaker 5: other way because these two teams are going to just
• 1:55:31
  Speaker 5: be going at at Hammer and Tom.
• 1:55:35
  Speaker 2: Well, we talked about this already with the couple of series,
• 1:55:38
  Speaker 2: you know, going so smoothly for the Hurricanes, and they
• 1:55:41
  Speaker 2: got a little stiffer test from Montreal. But they haven't
• 1:55:45
  Speaker 2: had to play as much playoff hockey as Vegas has,
• 1:55:48
  Speaker 2: or as much as most teams that make it to
• 1:55:51
  Speaker 2: this point in the Stanley Cup playoffs have. Is that
• 1:55:55
  Speaker 2: a significant advantage for them, knowing that at this point
• 1:55:59
  Speaker 2: in the year, nobody's one hundred percent healthy, nobody's one
• 1:56:01
  Speaker 2: hundred percent fresh. They've had more rest and you know,
• 1:56:05
  Speaker 2: they've played less hockey, which of course a few opportunities
• 1:56:09
  Speaker 2: to get those bang up injuries.
• 1:56:11
  Speaker 5: Yeah, that is part of it, right, And we discussed
• 1:56:15
  Speaker 5: as we have actually a couple of times, not only
• 1:56:18
  Speaker 5: during the playoffs but even after the Olympic break, what
• 1:56:21
  Speaker 5: is that rest versus rust argument? How much is too much?
• 1:56:26
  Speaker 5: And I honestly thought Carolina was going to have more
• 1:56:28
  Speaker 5: of a problem with it, but they haven't. It seemed
• 1:56:30
  Speaker 5: to have played right into their hands. They have found
• 1:56:33
  Speaker 5: a way to come out, keep their momentum high, and
• 1:56:37
  Speaker 5: just really come out and play their best possible game.
• 1:56:40
  Speaker 5: The flip side of that for me is that Vegas
• 1:56:43
  Speaker 5: is have they faced a little more adversity? I think so,
• 1:56:47
  Speaker 5: at least as far as the number of games they've
• 1:56:50
  Speaker 5: had to play. But I don't think that Montreal was easy.
• 1:56:53
  Speaker 5: I think some people have kind of almost dismissed Carolina's
• 1:56:57
  Speaker 5: path to the Stanley Cup, saying, well, Autumn it was easy,
• 1:57:00
  Speaker 5: Philly was easy. Montreal, I mean, you know, nobody even
• 1:57:03
  Speaker 5: have Montreal on the radar. Montreal was a really really
• 1:57:06
  Speaker 5: stiff test for Carolina and it was a difficult series,
• 1:57:11
  Speaker 5: but Carolina happened to come out on top, and so
• 1:57:16
  Speaker 5: to me, I think that just says how well they're playing.
• 1:57:19
  Speaker 5: And you know, as far as rest versus Russ, I
• 1:57:23
  Speaker 5: honestly believe Carolina hasn't been affected by it. So does
• 1:57:26
  Speaker 5: Vegas have any kind of edge for having had to
• 1:57:29
  Speaker 5: play a few more games? Not necessarily?
• 1:57:33
  Speaker 1: Whose goalies hot are going into this series?
• 1:57:37
  Speaker 5: Well, I talked about Anderson a minute ago there and
• 1:57:40
  Speaker 5: said he really hasn't been called upon that much, so
• 1:57:42
  Speaker 5: it's hard to say he's hot. He's been good. I
• 1:57:46
  Speaker 5: think Carter Hart has had to make some of the
• 1:57:48
  Speaker 5: bigger saves. I think he's been called upon a little
• 1:57:50
  Speaker 5: bit more. Probably, if you wanted to like talk about
• 1:57:54
  Speaker 5: a guy just I mean hot for many many reasons,
• 1:57:59
  Speaker 5: you know there's a lot the storylines following Carter Hart
• 1:58:01
  Speaker 5: throughout this playoffs, but Anderson just had to do much
• 1:58:07
  Speaker 5: and his team has been taking care of him and
• 1:58:09
  Speaker 5: what he has, he's come up with some big safe
• 1:58:11
  Speaker 5: don'ting me wrong, but I really feel like the goaltender,
• 1:58:14
  Speaker 5: who if you're shining a spotlight on one guy coming
• 1:58:17
  Speaker 5: into the final, it's probably on the Vegas side of heart.
• 1:58:23
  Speaker 2: By the end of these playoffs, we've got to decide
• 1:58:25
  Speaker 2: who the MVP of the Playoffs are, and that person,
• 1:58:28
  Speaker 2: of course gets to add a con smythe Award to
• 1:58:33
  Speaker 2: their resume. A lot of the guys in this series,
• 1:58:36
  Speaker 2: of course, you can make a case for, but is
• 1:58:40
  Speaker 2: it Mitch Marner's award to lose?
• 1:58:42
  Speaker 1: At this point?
• 1:58:44
  Speaker 5: It does feel that way, doesn't it. It does feel
• 1:58:46
  Speaker 5: that way. He's really probably been the most impactful guy
• 1:58:50
  Speaker 5: in either conference as far as the team winning and losing,
• 1:58:56
  Speaker 5: the points he's been putting up, just showing up in all,
• 1:59:00
  Speaker 5: you know, facets of the game. For Vegas. I think
• 1:59:03
  Speaker 5: that the Golden Knights have really loved having him emerge
• 1:59:09
  Speaker 5: as a playoff performer and they've really needed it, and
• 1:59:12
  Speaker 5: he's done a great job. I mean, yes, there are
• 1:59:14
  Speaker 5: other players we can talk about on both sides, and
• 1:59:16
  Speaker 5: of course the Carolina wins. I think Logan Stankovin's probably
• 1:59:21
  Speaker 5: all of a sudden at the front of the conversation,
• 1:59:22
  Speaker 5: the guy who most people, unless you were a Carolina fan,
• 1:59:25
  Speaker 5: didn't even know before the playoffs. But at this point,
• 1:59:29
  Speaker 5: I really do think you're right. I think Mitch Marner
• 1:59:31
  Speaker 5: is the guy right now.
• 1:59:33
  Speaker 3: And if he can pull that off, what kind of
• 1:59:35
  Speaker 3: redemption story are we looking at here? Because he was
• 1:59:38
  Speaker 3: really I mean even his teammates have come to his
• 1:59:41
  Speaker 3: defense and said he was not treated fairly. He was
• 1:59:44
  Speaker 3: blamed for a lot of Toronto problems that weren't really
• 1:59:47
  Speaker 3: about him. He has acknowledged that, you know, it's better
• 1:59:50
  Speaker 3: for him in Vegas than it was in Toronto.
• 1:59:52
  Speaker 1: Maybe the fit is better, whatever.
• 1:59:54
  Speaker 3: But if he can pull this off, and he probably is,
• 1:59:57
  Speaker 3: you know, a Stanley Cup champion, if he ends up
• 1:59:59
  Speaker 3: with con smite, although you could win it without also
• 2:00:02
  Speaker 3: being a champion, what kind of redemption arc are we
• 2:00:05
  Speaker 3: really talking about with Mitch Marner here?
• 2:00:08
  Speaker 5: It's I mean, it won't be too much of a
• 2:00:11
  Speaker 5: surprise to the league outside of Toronto. I don't think,
• 2:00:17
  Speaker 5: because he's always been an exceptional player. The surprise may
• 2:00:21
  Speaker 5: be the level he's played to in the playoffs, because
• 2:00:25
  Speaker 5: I think a lot of the criticism around him as
• 2:00:28
  Speaker 5: fairly or unfairly. I mean, Marner and Matthews were inseparable.
• 2:00:32
  Speaker 5: As far as these guys should carry the leafs, these
• 2:00:34
  Speaker 5: guys should be able to just pick them up and
• 2:00:36
  Speaker 5: get them to the Santa Cup Final all by themselves.
• 2:00:39
  Speaker 5: Carolina is showing that that doesn't work. In the East.
• 2:00:44
  Speaker 5: It's a team game and everybody needs to be pulling
• 2:00:47
  Speaker 5: equally on the rope. I think Marner has come over
• 2:00:50
  Speaker 5: to Vegas, and remember he didn't even necessarily get the
• 2:00:54
  Speaker 5: jump start. I think everybody thought he might getting into
• 2:00:57
  Speaker 5: the playoffs. But I mean, twenty one points now, and
• 2:01:00
  Speaker 5: he's distributed well. He's got fourteen assists. He's putting up
• 2:01:04
  Speaker 5: points in the power play, which is huge for them.
• 2:01:08
  Speaker 5: He's got four short handed points, which is crazy, and
• 2:01:11
  Speaker 5: all those are assists. But that also tells you that
• 2:01:14
  Speaker 5: he's playing big minutes on the penalty kill and for
• 2:01:17
  Speaker 5: him to be able to do this, and even if
• 2:01:19
  Speaker 5: they don't win, even if they get swept by Carolina,
• 2:01:23
  Speaker 5: Mitch Marner has already silenced the critics. In my opinion,
• 2:01:29
  Speaker 5: I think he has shown this is the guy who
• 2:01:31
  Speaker 5: he's always been. This is the player that maybe the
• 2:01:35
  Speaker 5: pressure in the market to Toronto did get to him.
• 2:01:36
  Speaker 5: Maybe he wasn't properly supported, maybe they weren't using him
• 2:01:39
  Speaker 5: the right way, or there was just too much pressure.
• 2:01:42
  Speaker 5: But in Vegas he has been thriving and I think
• 2:01:45
  Speaker 5: that for him, winner lose the Stanley Cup Final, he's
• 2:01:49
  Speaker 5: already got his redemption.
• 2:01:51
  Speaker 3: Tom Callahan our guests here on the Sean O'Connell shell
• 2:01:53
  Speaker 3: Talk in the upcoming start of a Stanley Cup Final.
• 2:01:57
  Speaker 3: You can listen to Game one right here on ESPN
• 2:01:59
  Speaker 3: seven High and ninety two one FM tonight. Tom is
• 2:02:02
  Speaker 3: of course, also the host of Lockdown Mammoth Mammoth Insider
• 2:02:06
  Speaker 3: NHL Insider. I don't I don't know that John Tortorella
• 2:02:11
  Speaker 3: needs any boosts to his reputation in NHL circles. But
• 2:02:14
  Speaker 3: if he can take over eight games before the end
• 2:02:16
  Speaker 3: of a regular season and then lead this Vegas Knights
• 2:02:19
  Speaker 3: team all the way to a Stanley Cup, what does
• 2:02:22
  Speaker 3: it do for him?
• 2:02:26
  Speaker 5: It would just make him laugh. Honestly, I mean, he's
• 2:02:31
  Speaker 5: just laughing at everybody else at this point, because for
• 2:02:34
  Speaker 5: all the guff that has been given to John Tortorella
• 2:02:37
  Speaker 5: over the years, he did win a Cup with Tampa Bay,
• 2:02:41
  Speaker 5: but it's been a while, but he's really he has
• 2:02:44
  Speaker 5: taken teams in the past and turned them around, and
• 2:02:46
  Speaker 5: it's almost funny. Everybody hates how honest he can be,
• 2:02:50
  Speaker 5: whether you agree with his opinion or not. Number one
• 2:02:53
  Speaker 5: is never boring. Number two he basically called out the
• 2:02:57
  Speaker 5: Flyers and said, I can't coach team and I don't
• 2:03:02
  Speaker 5: think this isn't the team that's going to win, and
• 2:03:04
  Speaker 5: no one else has been able to really, you know,
• 2:03:07
  Speaker 5: turn them around. And all of a sudden, he goes
• 2:03:09
  Speaker 5: into Vegas and really with a TV analyst the week before,
• 2:03:14
  Speaker 5: but he doesn't lose his coaching chops. He goes in,
• 2:03:16
  Speaker 5: he gives this team a boost of energy. He asks
• 2:03:20
  Speaker 5: a lot of his players, but he will also go
• 2:03:24
  Speaker 5: and stand behind his players. He will back them up
• 2:03:28
  Speaker 5: one hundred percent as long as they give him the effort.
• 2:03:31
  Speaker 5: He is a coach that, believe it or not, I
• 2:03:33
  Speaker 5: think guys want to play for unless they get in
• 2:03:35
  Speaker 5: the doghouse. And if you get in the doghouse, it's
• 2:03:37
  Speaker 5: kind of hard to get out. But for the most part,
• 2:03:41
  Speaker 5: with the success he's having right now, I think that, no,
• 2:03:45
  Speaker 5: he doesn't need another Stanley Cup, but I could easily
• 2:03:48
  Speaker 5: see him getting it. And I love Towards. I absolutely
• 2:03:52
  Speaker 5: love just from the media perspective. He's a lot of
• 2:03:55
  Speaker 5: fun and I think it's wildly entertaining to have him
• 2:03:59
  Speaker 5: over there coaching Vegas and seeing the success he is.
• 2:04:02
  Speaker 3: How much of a copycat league is the NHL, like
• 2:04:05
  Speaker 3: the NFL is a notorious copycat league, where you see
• 2:04:09
  Speaker 3: somebody have success with something, and half the teams in
• 2:04:13
  Speaker 3: the league try to jump on that bandwagon and follow
• 2:04:15
  Speaker 3: that exact same model. I don't know if you can
• 2:04:18
  Speaker 3: do that right now in the NBA and try to
• 2:04:20
  Speaker 3: follow the Spurs because seven foot five inch aliens don't
• 2:04:24
  Speaker 3: grow on trees.
• 2:04:24
  Speaker 1: But that's another conversation.
• 2:04:27
  Speaker 3: If either of these teams, you know, hoist the Cup
• 2:04:30
  Speaker 3: is a bunch of team, a bunch of the other
• 2:04:33
  Speaker 3: franchise is going to say, all right, how did Vegas
• 2:04:35
  Speaker 3: do it?
• 2:04:35
  Speaker 2: Let's also do that. How did Carolina do it? Let's
• 2:04:38
  Speaker 2: also do that?
• 2:04:39
  Speaker 3: And are they are either team you know distinct enough
• 2:04:42
  Speaker 3: in their approach that you would have to even adjust
• 2:04:45
  Speaker 3: anything from what you're already doing for like the Mammoth
• 2:04:47
  Speaker 3: for example.
• 2:04:49
  Speaker 5: You know, I love the quote about Carolina and they
• 2:04:54
  Speaker 5: basically saying they haven't changed the way they played in
• 2:04:57
  Speaker 5: eight years since Robert Indamore has been the coach of
• 2:05:00
  Speaker 5: this team, and they've played the exact same game. And
• 2:05:05
  Speaker 5: it's not catching anybody by surprise. But they play hard,
• 2:05:09
  Speaker 5: they go at it, and it's you if you believe
• 2:05:14
  Speaker 5: that hard work brings results, this is the absolute model
• 2:05:20
  Speaker 5: for that. What they've done is they have drafted into
• 2:05:24
  Speaker 5: a mode of player, and they've signed into a mode
• 2:05:26
  Speaker 5: of player that fits the kind of hardworking, scrappy game
• 2:05:30
  Speaker 5: they want to play, and they have executed that to
• 2:05:33
  Speaker 5: a tee and they have the guys that are bought in.
• 2:05:35
  Speaker 5: That is the Carolina model. And if you're going there,
• 2:05:39
  Speaker 5: you know what you're getting into and with they is
• 2:05:43
  Speaker 5: you know that the expectation there is nothing less than
• 2:05:47
  Speaker 5: a Stanley Cup. They are absolutely only in it to
• 2:05:51
  Speaker 5: win it every single season and they are cutthroat about it.
• 2:05:55
  Speaker 5: So if you go to Vegas, you know that you
• 2:05:57
  Speaker 5: better bring your a game. The pressure will be there
• 2:06:00
  Speaker 5: or perform, or they'll just get rid of it. They
• 2:06:02
  Speaker 5: will fire the coach right before the end of the
• 2:06:04
  Speaker 5: regular season. They will trade players, whether they're popular or not.
• 2:06:07
  Speaker 5: They will make the unpopular decision to sign Carter Hart
• 2:06:10
  Speaker 5: and they don't care because they feel like he gives
• 2:06:12
  Speaker 5: them the best chance to win. That is all that
• 2:06:14
  Speaker 5: matters to Vegas. So that's what the role or that's
• 2:06:17
  Speaker 5: what the blueprint is there. So it's it's kind of
• 2:06:21
  Speaker 5: two different ways of accomplishing the same goal. And there
• 2:06:26
  Speaker 5: are other ways you can accomplish the same goal. You
• 2:06:28
  Speaker 5: can be big and physical and hard to play against.
• 2:06:30
  Speaker 5: You can be you know, a fast speed team. You
• 2:06:34
  Speaker 5: can be highly skilled and pop possession, whatever it is.
• 2:06:38
  Speaker 5: But what makes these teams different that reach the Stanley
• 2:06:42
  Speaker 5: Cup Final, especially on a consistent basis, is the buy in.
• 2:06:46
  Speaker 5: You don't make deep runs without being bought into and
• 2:06:49
  Speaker 5: committed to a system. And so whatever the u John
• 2:06:53
  Speaker 5: Mammoth want to accomplish. We hear a lot of talk,
• 2:06:58
  Speaker 5: you know, about the culture and about what this team's
• 2:07:01
  Speaker 5: identity is, and you know, there's still a lot of
• 2:07:04
  Speaker 5: discussion about it. Once they figure that out, they need
• 2:07:07
  Speaker 5: to make sure they get the buy in from most players,
• 2:07:09
  Speaker 5: and if they don't, whether it's popular or not, some
• 2:07:12
  Speaker 5: guys are going to have to move. Some things are
• 2:07:14
  Speaker 5: going to have to change. And that's why teams like
• 2:07:17
  Speaker 5: Carolina and Vegas have repeated success, have repeated defense. Tampa
• 2:07:21
  Speaker 5: Bay is another one. Florida got crushed by injuries this year,
• 2:07:24
  Speaker 5: but you know, for a couple of years they had
• 2:07:26
  Speaker 5: the same thing. They said, we're going to play this
• 2:07:28
  Speaker 5: way and if you want to follow us, jump on board.
• 2:07:33
  Speaker 5: This is going to be winning hockey and they commit
• 2:07:35
  Speaker 5: to it.
• 2:07:37
  Speaker 3: Can you maintain your reputation of, like, you know, family
• 2:07:41
  Speaker 3: friendly and culture based and all that while also having
• 2:07:46
  Speaker 3: that sort of ruthless mentality in the NHL while having
• 2:07:49
  Speaker 3: a little bit of that Vegas cold heartedness you're if
• 2:07:52
  Speaker 3: you're not helping us, where you're just going to get
• 2:07:55
  Speaker 3: rid of you can? Can those two things coexist in
• 2:07:57
  Speaker 3: one franchise in your mind?
• 2:08:00
  Speaker 5: I don't think Vegas worries about that. Honestly, I don't don't.
• 2:08:06
  Speaker 5: So I mean me, having covered the Golden Night three year,
• 2:08:09
  Speaker 5: I can tell you that they don't. Can Utah do it?
• 2:08:12
  Speaker 5: Yes they can? Because I believe Carolina does it. You
• 2:08:16
  Speaker 5: look at Rod Brindmore and he is someone who is
• 2:08:19
  Speaker 5: committed to his team and I'll just use and I
• 2:08:24
  Speaker 5: don't like the word, but I'll use it family of
• 2:08:26
  Speaker 5: the Hurricanes and that whole organization, that group. He embodies
• 2:08:31
  Speaker 5: what it is like to be a Carolina Hurricane. Same
• 2:08:34
  Speaker 5: thing with John Cooper and Tampa Bay. One of the
• 2:08:37
  Speaker 5: nicest guys you're ever gonna meet, a great salt of
• 2:08:40
  Speaker 5: the earth human being, and he's won cops with Tampa
• 2:08:45
  Speaker 5: Bay and that's the culture he embodies. So yes, I
• 2:08:47
  Speaker 5: think it is important to have the buy in of
• 2:08:50
  Speaker 5: whatever that culture is. You can't nice guys can finish first,
• 2:08:54
  Speaker 5: but you have to work extremely hard along the way
• 2:08:57
  Speaker 5: to do it, and you have to be bought in
• 2:09:00
  Speaker 5: and behind your coaching. Look, sometimes someone has to do
• 2:09:04
  Speaker 5: something you're not gonna like, whether it's they're going to
• 2:09:06
  Speaker 5: have to play physical hockey when maybe they're not a
• 2:09:08
  Speaker 5: physical player. They're gonna have to work hard when maybe
• 2:09:10
  Speaker 5: they're tired and they're injured. But that's what gets you
• 2:09:13
  Speaker 5: over the hump, and that is that is the buy
• 2:09:16
  Speaker 5: in the Utah needs. I do believe you can be
• 2:09:19
  Speaker 5: family friendly and fun and entertaining and have a great
• 2:09:24
  Speaker 5: show and put that show on and still find a
• 2:09:29
  Speaker 5: way to win a Stanley gup.
• 2:09:32
  Speaker 1: So who's going to win it?
• 2:09:34
  Speaker 5: Oh, you're gonna say that, you know. I mean, honestly,
• 2:09:40
  Speaker 5: this feels like such a coin flip series. I feel
• 2:09:43
  Speaker 5: like a lot like Vegas is the sexy pick right now,
• 2:09:45
  Speaker 5: and for that reason, I almost want to go to Carolina.
• 2:09:48
  Speaker 5: I really do feel like this this has to go seven.
• 2:09:52
  Speaker 5: There's there's just so much going on here in the
• 2:09:55
  Speaker 5: context of everything, but one thing that I am a
• 2:09:59
  Speaker 5: little hesitant and about with Vegas. They have been a
• 2:10:02
  Speaker 5: little streaky, especially in the secondary, and they I really
• 2:10:06
  Speaker 5: do believe Mark Stone is a big, big driver for
• 2:10:10
  Speaker 5: the Simo hasn't been talked about as much lately because
• 2:10:13
  Speaker 5: of Marner, because of kle but he's been in and
• 2:10:16
  Speaker 5: out of the lineup, and I think if he's not
• 2:10:19
  Speaker 5: healthy enough to play, because he's not one hundred percent healthy, clearly,
• 2:10:23
  Speaker 5: but if he's not healthy enough to play, that is
• 2:10:25
  Speaker 5: a big difference for Vegas, and I feel like just
• 2:10:28
  Speaker 5: over the course of seven games, Carolina will be able
• 2:10:30
  Speaker 5: to wear them down and end up winning it.
• 2:10:34
  Speaker 3: Well, we get to figure it out starting tonight right
• 2:10:37
  Speaker 3: here on ESPN seven hundred and ninety two one FM.
• 2:10:39
  Speaker 3: Tom Callahan always appreciate your time and your insights, sir,
• 2:10:42
  Speaker 3: thank you very much.
• 2:10:44
  Speaker 5: Oh see, thank you very much for having me on.
• 2:10:46
  Speaker 5: We'll talk to you here.
• 2:10:48
  Speaker 1: Great stuff as always from Tom Callahan.
• 2:10:51
  Speaker 3: All right, we spent a lot of time yesterday talking
• 2:10:53
  Speaker 3: about the Miles Garrett trade. He is going to the Rams.
• 2:10:59
  Speaker 3: The Rams are sending Jared Verse and some picks to Cleveland,
• 2:11:02
  Speaker 3: and Cleveland has very very clearly laid out their strategy.
• 2:11:06
  Speaker 3: They've stockpiled young talent, They've stockpiled picks. They are expecting
• 2:11:11
  Speaker 3: to be good three years from now. The Rams are
• 2:11:14
  Speaker 3: all in on a Super Bowl. Well will they be
• 2:11:18
  Speaker 3: getting another piece to come out of retirement and help them?
• 2:11:21
  Speaker 3: And this time I'm not talking about Eric Weddle. We'll
• 2:11:24
  Speaker 3: discuss it next on the Sean O'Connell Show ESPN seven
• 2:11:27
  Speaker 3: hundred at ninety two one FM.
• 2:11:35
  Speaker 6: You are listening to a Sean O'Connell show, your source
• 2:11:39
  Speaker 6: for the best utes football cover reach. Here's oc from
• 2:11:42
  Speaker 6: the Murdoch Hyundai Studio of ESPN seven hundred ninety two
• 2:11:46
  Speaker 6: to one half m.
• 2:11:57
  Speaker 3: The Los Angeles Rams have acquired Miles Garrett. They now
• 2:12:01
  Speaker 3: have the defending MVP in the NFL. They have the
• 2:12:08
  Speaker 3: defending defensive MVP, the returning sac leader, the receptions leader,
• 2:12:20
  Speaker 3: and the receiving touchdowns leader all on one team heading
• 2:12:24
  Speaker 3: into twenty twenty six.
• 2:12:26
  Speaker 1: Okay, cool.
• 2:12:29
  Speaker 3: They might also get a little extra help if you
• 2:12:32
  Speaker 3: are one who likes to read the tea leaves on
• 2:12:34
  Speaker 3: social media and get conspiratorial, and all of you know
• 2:12:38
  Speaker 3: that I am very much in that category. Suddenly Aaron
• 2:12:43
  Speaker 3: Donald started posting a bunch of workout videos with just
• 2:12:47
  Speaker 3: the random captions like stay ready, that kind of stuff.
• 2:12:53
  Speaker 3: Aaron Donald is thirty five years old. He is in
• 2:12:57
  Speaker 3: better shape than most twenty five year olds. He appears
• 2:13:00
  Speaker 3: to not have lost a step at all in his
• 2:13:03
  Speaker 3: intense workout routine since retiring from the NFL. And you
• 2:13:09
  Speaker 3: could make an argument that even though he was physically
• 2:13:11
  Speaker 3: very much a freak, he didn't rely on that necessarily
• 2:13:15
  Speaker 3: to make him a great arguably the greatest defensive tackle
• 2:13:19
  Speaker 3: of all time, because there were times where he was
• 2:13:22
  Speaker 3: playing at like two hundred and fifty five pounds. He
• 2:13:25
  Speaker 3: wasn't relying on physicality the same way that other people
• 2:13:28
  Speaker 3: do so. Are the Rams about to get Aaron Donald
• 2:13:33
  Speaker 3: to come out of retirement to play on the same
• 2:13:35
  Speaker 3: defensive line as Miles Garrett. If so, there should be
• 2:13:39
  Speaker 3: some kind of compensatory pick situation for the rest of
• 2:13:43
  Speaker 3: the league where you're not allowed to pull someone else
• 2:13:47
  Speaker 3: out of it, to pull someone like Aaron Donald out
• 2:13:49
  Speaker 3: of retirement. If I'm McVeigh, I'm making this phone call
• 2:13:53
  Speaker 3: every single day, I'm saying.
• 2:13:57
  Speaker 1: Dude, we're all in. We're going to do one more
• 2:13:59
  Speaker 1: year of this.
• 2:14:00
  Speaker 3: And if I'm Marion Donald, I'm saying, yeah, dude, I
• 2:14:03
  Speaker 3: would love to come back and get a ring. Call
• 2:14:05
  Speaker 3: me in the playoffs like you did with Eric Weddle.
• 2:14:08
  Speaker 3: I don't want to have to do it for a
• 2:14:09
  Speaker 3: whole dang season. I already retired. My body's banged up enough,
• 2:14:14
  Speaker 3: I've already made enough money. It's not about that I
• 2:14:16
  Speaker 3: want another ring. I will come out of retirement in
• 2:14:19
  Speaker 3: the playoffs and help you, and you can pay me
• 2:14:21
  Speaker 3: the one hundred grand or whatever the collective barging Agreement
• 2:14:24
  Speaker 3: says for that.
• 2:14:27
  Speaker 1: Just keep a roster spot open for me. What's preventing it.
• 2:14:33
  Speaker 1: There's nothing like you can do this in the NFL.
• 2:14:36
  Speaker 3: Aaron Donald, marked my words, is going to play football
• 2:14:39
  Speaker 3: for the Los Angeles Rams at some point this year,
• 2:14:45
  Speaker 3: probably later in the season, maybe even when they start
• 2:14:49
  Speaker 3: a playoff runt, and that will be a thing to behold.
• 2:14:53
  Speaker 2: Does it bother you? It bothers me? Spoiler alert just
• 2:14:57
  Speaker 2: a little bit. How you bought you? I'll use the
• 2:15:02
  Speaker 2: word bother again. You bother to post a bunch of
• 2:15:06
  Speaker 2: workout videos where you're just getting after it right after
• 2:15:10
  Speaker 2: where right after a big deal like this, where it's
• 2:15:13
  Speaker 2: where people are already going. Can you imagine? Can you
• 2:15:15
  Speaker 2: imagine if Aaron Donald was still on the Rams he
• 2:15:18
  Speaker 2: posts a big workout video like this, and then he
• 2:15:21
  Speaker 2: says stay ready, and then you have like you're giving
• 2:15:26
  Speaker 2: yourself plausible deniability, like just say that you want to
• 2:15:29
  Speaker 2: come back, like I don't.
• 2:15:31
  Speaker 1: I don't know. Well, the thing is, it's just it's
• 2:15:34
  Speaker 1: just he's just he's just hinting.
• 2:15:36
  Speaker 3: Yeah, he's just he's just putting breadcrumbs out there for
• 2:15:39
  Speaker 3: the fans, which, by the way, the fans love and
• 2:15:42
  Speaker 3: by the way, as a forty nine Ers fan, I'm just.
• 2:15:44
  Speaker 1: Like, no, please, it's it's great. Seahawks fans are just like, no,
• 2:15:47
  Speaker 1: stay retired, you're ugly.
• 2:15:50
  Speaker 2: It's great emotional manipulation. Yes, yeah, I mean it's it's
• 2:15:53
  Speaker 2: the soap opera of pro sports.
• 2:15:55
  Speaker 3: And and he's in a situation right where he doesn't
• 2:15:59
  Speaker 3: have to. I'm somewhat facetious when I say, don't come
• 2:16:03
  Speaker 3: out of retirement until the playoffs.
• 2:16:05
  Speaker 2: But also, you're Aaron Donald, do you have nothing left
• 2:16:08
  Speaker 2: to prove? First ballot Hall of Fame?
• 2:16:10
  Speaker 3: You want to come back, and you want to maybe
• 2:16:12
  Speaker 3: hit the reset button on your health insurance and all
• 2:16:14
  Speaker 3: that kind of stuff.
• 2:16:15
  Speaker 1: Why not?
• 2:16:18
  Speaker 5: He is just.
• 2:16:21
  Speaker 3: Exceptional, transcendent as a player, and we very heavily publicized.
• 2:16:28
  Speaker 3: I think it was just early last season where the
• 2:16:31
  Speaker 3: twenty three year old Jared Verse, who was supposed to
• 2:16:33
  Speaker 3: be kind of the air apparent to defensive line dominance.
• 2:16:37
  Speaker 3: Now he's off to Cleveland, but he went to work
• 2:16:40
  Speaker 3: out with Aaron Donald and he was just like, I can't.
• 2:16:43
  Speaker 3: I can't complete his workouts. Why is a retired guy
• 2:16:46
  Speaker 3: working out that hard? Anyway, Well, he's cut from a
• 2:16:48
  Speaker 3: different cloth. That makes the transition back in a little
• 2:16:51
  Speaker 3: bit easier. He wouldn't have to go to OTA's. They
• 2:16:54
  Speaker 3: wouldn't make him come to training camp. He would probably
• 2:16:57
  Speaker 3: get days off that nobody else gets off.
• 2:17:00
  Speaker 2: Play in the preseason. I'm sure they'd prefer him too,
• 2:17:02
  Speaker 2: because he hasn't played in a few years.
• 2:17:04
  Speaker 1: But still, honestly, he could. Knowing how McVeigh works.
• 2:17:10
  Speaker 3: And knowing what a person like him is with teammate
• 2:17:14
  Speaker 3: respect and all that kind of thing, he could just
• 2:17:17
  Speaker 3: make the call in like week eight to be like, Okay,
• 2:17:20
  Speaker 3: reverse my retirement papers, I'm I'm coming back. And and
• 2:17:25
  Speaker 3: by the way, he would be an asset for the team.
• 2:17:29
  Speaker 3: I mean, we watched this people with a guy who
• 2:17:32
  Speaker 3: is I say this with all due respect to my dude,
• 2:17:36
  Speaker 3: Eric Weddle, who is far less physically ready with his
• 2:17:39
  Speaker 3: daily routines. When Weddell came out of retirement, he was
• 2:17:43
  Speaker 3: he was definitely working out. He was definitely in shape.
• 2:17:46
  Speaker 3: He was not killing himself in the gym every day.
• 2:17:49
  Speaker 3: He was full dad mode.
• 2:17:51
  Speaker 5: Man.
• 2:17:51
  Speaker 2: He was like he was the stories where he was
• 2:17:55
  Speaker 2: playing the thing. Besides, he was definitely working out in
• 2:17:58
  Speaker 2: the gym and stuff. But besides, is more a lot
• 2:18:01
  Speaker 2: more toned down everyday workout routine. In retirement, he was
• 2:18:06
  Speaker 2: playing pick up basketball. That was his main that was
• 2:18:10
  Speaker 2: his main source of staying ready. I guess you will
• 2:18:15
  Speaker 2: if you will, And that's obviously well below what we've
• 2:18:21
  Speaker 2: seen Aaron Donald do, and we've seen and heard about
• 2:18:24
  Speaker 2: Aaron Aaron Donald doing. Even before these workout.
• 2:18:26
  Speaker 3: Videos came out, Michael Brocker's former teammate of Aaron Donald,
• 2:18:34
  Speaker 3: went on a podcast and said, I have some knowledge
• 2:18:37
  Speaker 3: that others might not have. My guy is staying ready
• 2:18:39
  Speaker 3: so he doesn't have to get ready. Okay, I just I.
• 2:18:44
  Speaker 2: Prefer the Von Miller approach of things. You heard this
• 2:18:48
  Speaker 2: story how he's lobbied. He's saying that he's been lobbying
• 2:18:53
  Speaker 2: Sean Payton and other people in the in Broncos management
• 2:18:57
  Speaker 2: to sign him, have him come back to the Broncos.
• 2:19:03
  Speaker 2: I prefer the public like hey, I want to play
• 2:19:07
  Speaker 2: approach versus the hey I want attention, I'm gonna say it,
• 2:19:11
  Speaker 2: stay ready, instead of just saying, hey, I would like
• 2:19:14
  Speaker 2: to play on this team like Aaron Donald. I know
• 2:19:19
  Speaker 2: what you say. He's he's wanting to get that engagement.
• 2:19:23
  Speaker 2: He wants to get people talking about it. But it's
• 2:19:26
  Speaker 2: like you'll get people talking about it if you say
• 2:19:28
  Speaker 2: I'm ready to play coach, I'm just waiting for the
• 2:19:31
  Speaker 2: Rams to call me, like you get the same kind
• 2:19:33
  Speaker 2: of thing.
• 2:19:33
  Speaker 1: Plus, it's why do you got to be so cryptic?
• 2:19:36
  Speaker 1: I don't know.
• 2:19:39
  Speaker 3: Adam Schefter talked about how they don't have money for him,
• 2:19:45
  Speaker 3: which is potentially a problem. But again it's why I say,
• 2:19:49
  Speaker 3: it's not outside the rem of possibility where he would
• 2:19:51
  Speaker 3: come back in a limited capacity, even for just a
• 2:19:54
  Speaker 3: playoff run like Weddell did.
• 2:19:57
  Speaker 1: And mean the saur cap rules with the playoff roster is.
• 2:20:01
  Speaker 3: It you get so in the playoffs you're playing for free?
• 2:20:06
  Speaker 1: Oh right, So there's no salary anyway.
• 2:20:08
  Speaker 3: You get everyone gets the same amount of right, It's
• 2:20:12
  Speaker 3: like you get fifty thousand dollars for the first game,
• 2:20:16
  Speaker 3: twenty five thousand if you lose.
• 2:20:17
  Speaker 2: I don't know what the exact numbers are. We went
• 2:20:19
  Speaker 2: through the salary. The playoff shares table totally space that.
• 2:20:24
  Speaker 2: So he's so when Wettell came back just for the playoffs,
• 2:20:28
  Speaker 2: he wasn't signed to any kind of deal. He's just like,
• 2:20:30
  Speaker 2: you get a share of what the whole team gets. Yeah,
• 2:20:33
  Speaker 2: for each round that we get in, you get He
• 2:20:35
  Speaker 2: made like fifty grand to do that. It was not
• 2:20:39
  Speaker 2: a lot of money because I was like, oh, you know,
• 2:20:41
  Speaker 2: I ignorantly it was just like, dude, they got did
• 2:20:45
  Speaker 2: they like at least give you like a million dollar
• 2:20:46
  Speaker 2: signing bonus to come out.
• 2:20:48
  Speaker 3: He's like, they can't. It's collectively bargained you're not allowed
• 2:20:51
  Speaker 3: to do that. So if Aaron Donald does this, if
• 2:20:55
  Speaker 3: he comes out of retirement to play, he's going to
• 2:20:57
  Speaker 3: be playing at a discount. He's not gonna be playing
• 2:21:00
  Speaker 3: anywhere near his market value, anywhere near what he quote
• 2:21:04
  Speaker 3: unquote deserves.
• 2:21:07
  Speaker 1: Because they paid.
• 2:21:08
  Speaker 3: Trent McDuffie, he's now the highest paid corner in football. Obviously,
• 2:21:12
  Speaker 3: Miles Garrett is making crazy money. He's got a four year,
• 2:21:15
  Speaker 3: one hundred and sixty million dollar contract that it sounds
• 2:21:19
  Speaker 3: like he's.
• 2:21:20
  Speaker 1: Willing to rework.
• 2:21:22
  Speaker 3: So the thing is in the NFL, though, you can
• 2:21:24
  Speaker 3: always The Patriots did this ten times with Tom Brady
• 2:21:30
  Speaker 3: and we we were just talking about this at the
• 2:21:31
  Speaker 3: beginning of the show. With baseball deferred salaries or whatever,
• 2:21:35
  Speaker 3: you can convert salary to signing bonuses. You can convert
• 2:21:40
  Speaker 3: salary to bonuses. Like what Miles Garrett could do is
• 2:21:46
  Speaker 3: he could say, all right, well, if you need money
• 2:21:48
  Speaker 3: for Aaron Donald.
• 2:21:48
  Speaker 1: I'd love to play with him.
• 2:21:50
  Speaker 3: By part of my guaranteed salary now comes in the
• 2:21:53
  Speaker 3: form of a bonus when I make the roster June
• 2:21:56
  Speaker 3: first of next year, when the new league starts or whatever.
• 2:22:00
  Speaker 3: That's there's ways you can manipulate contracts. Also, let's be honest,
• 2:22:05
  Speaker 3: NFL contracts are not fully guaranteed, so you could just
• 2:22:10
  Speaker 3: cut a bunch of dudes now to find all the
• 2:22:13
  Speaker 3: money that you need to pay a justifiable salary to
• 2:22:17
  Speaker 3: Aaron Donald, you would probably have to cut.
• 2:22:19
  Speaker 1: Like ten guys. So that doesn't make sense.
• 2:22:23
  Speaker 3: He's gonna have to pay, He's gonna have to play
• 2:22:25
  Speaker 3: at a discount if he plays. But Pat McAfee was
• 2:22:31
  Speaker 3: talking about it on his show. He reached out to
• 2:22:33
  Speaker 3: Aaron Donald directly. Aaron Donald said he it for sure
• 2:22:36
  Speaker 3: got him thinking when he saw Miles Garrett. The thing is,
• 2:22:41
  Speaker 3: when it comes to professional athletes and flirting with the
• 2:22:45
  Speaker 3: return right, maybe means yes. In every other part of
• 2:22:51
  Speaker 3: your life, maybe means no, Hey, are you gonna show
• 2:22:53
  Speaker 3: up to my kids baptism this weekend?
• 2:22:55
  Speaker 1: Maybe that means no, all right, hey are you gonna
• 2:22:59
  Speaker 1: Are you gonna give me that bonus? Boss? Maybe that
• 2:23:02
  Speaker 1: means no.
• 2:23:03
  Speaker 3: But when it comes to professional athletes, Hey, are you
• 2:23:06
  Speaker 3: thinking about coming out of retirement? Maybe means yes? Yeah,
• 2:23:10
  Speaker 3: are you thinking about making another run at it? You
• 2:23:12
  Speaker 3: want to take another fight? That means yes, because the
• 2:23:15
  Speaker 3: answer is for everyone else who's already done it and
• 2:23:18
  Speaker 3: has already closed that door. You say, hey, if we
• 2:23:22
  Speaker 3: gave you a you know, one hundred grand, would you
• 2:23:24
  Speaker 3: come out and would you fight this person? You just
• 2:23:26
  Speaker 3: say no because in your mind it's no. You don't
• 2:23:29
  Speaker 3: say maybe until the number gets big enough. But that
• 2:23:33
  Speaker 3: can't be the reason for Aaron Donald.
• 2:23:34
  Speaker 2: So him saying maybe means he's already talking to his
• 2:23:38
  Speaker 2: wife about it.
• 2:23:39
  Speaker 3: He's already talking to his kids about it. He's already
• 2:23:42
  Speaker 3: talking to Sean McVay about it. He's already had that
• 2:23:44
  Speaker 3: chat with Miles Garrett. He's already said, Hey, matt Stafford,
• 2:23:49
  Speaker 3: Matthew Sorry, Hey, Matthew Stafford, I'm thinking about it. How
• 2:23:52
  Speaker 3: much of the season do you think you need me for?
• 2:23:55
  Speaker 1: Hey? Are we actually gonna run for the Super Bowl?
• 2:23:58
  Speaker 2: Is Raheem Morris the decordinator again?
• 2:24:01
  Speaker 1: I think that's right.
• 2:24:03
  Speaker 2: Yeah, he's talking with the whether it's Rhem Morris or
• 2:24:06
  Speaker 2: someone else, the defensive coordinator who, by the way, was
• 2:24:09
  Speaker 2: the defensive coordinator when they won the Super Bowl, when
• 2:24:12
  Speaker 2: he's one of the people who called to Eric Weddle
• 2:24:14
  Speaker 2: and like, hey, do you want to come back?
• 2:24:15
  Speaker 1: And Well said.
• 2:24:17
  Speaker 2: Maybe, Whattle said maybe at first, and then it was
• 2:24:21
  Speaker 2: a yes, yeah, wait, by the way, we should we
• 2:24:24
  Speaker 2: should see given this news, we should uh, we should
• 2:24:27
  Speaker 2: see if we get our guy on good idea, maybe
• 2:24:29
  Speaker 2: I'll try to grab morrow or Thursday or Thursday.
• 2:24:32
  Speaker 3: Yeah, but uh yeah, it's a the saga the NFL
• 2:24:36
  Speaker 3: soap opera, It's June second Man soap opera, is like, yeah,
• 2:24:41
  Speaker 3: let's go. One of the greatest defensive players of all
• 2:24:44
  Speaker 3: time might be back.
• 2:24:46
  Speaker 2: He's thirty five playing with another one of the greatest
• 2:24:49
  Speaker 2: defensive players of all time on the same line. That
• 2:24:53
  Speaker 2: can you imagine how scared the quarterbacks and offensive linemen
• 2:24:57
  Speaker 2: are going to be.
• 2:24:58
  Speaker 1: Here's the thing.
• 2:24:59
  Speaker 3: If you get Miles Garrett and Aaron Donald and McDuffie
• 2:25:04
  Speaker 3: and everything else they've got going on, Nate Lamon is
• 2:25:07
  Speaker 3: a great linebacker, right, Omar Spates is a great linebacker.
• 2:25:10
  Speaker 3: If you have all that, and you've got Matt Stafford
• 2:25:13
  Speaker 3: and you've got Puka a coup and you got Davonte
• 2:25:16
  Speaker 3: Adams and you don't win.
• 2:25:19
  Speaker 1: It's because you have a bad offensive line. Yeah, like
• 2:25:22
  Speaker 1: that's it.
• 2:25:23
  Speaker 2: Maybe, and then and then that gives us spodder to
• 2:25:26
  Speaker 2: be like, oh, maybe you should have traded for a
• 2:25:28
  Speaker 2: Browns lineman that they just took number nine overall instead
• 2:25:32
  Speaker 2: of maybe you should have said the Browns, maybe you
• 2:25:34
  Speaker 2: should have drafted defensive end.
• 2:25:36
  Speaker 1: Maybe you should have drafted Caleb Lomu instead of Ty Simpson. Idiots.
• 2:25:42
  Speaker 3: No, I mean, also, this is funny. Somebody on Calshie
• 2:25:47
  Speaker 3: after the Miles Garrett trade.
• 2:25:48
  Speaker 1: Did you see this?
• 2:25:50
  Speaker 3: Somebody on Calshie bet two hundred thousand dollars that the
• 2:25:54
  Speaker 3: Browns will not win the Super Bowl. The payouts on
• 2:25:59
  Speaker 3: a two hundred thousand dollars predictive bet is only two
• 2:26:03
  Speaker 3: hundred and one thousand dollars.
• 2:26:05
  Speaker 1: So what are you doing with that two hundred grand? Yeah?
• 2:26:09
  Speaker 2: Seriously, Mike Shula still the defensive coording to Rams, it's
• 2:26:14
  Speaker 2: Raheem Morris just got hired by your niners.
• 2:26:17
  Speaker 1: That's who it was. I knew he was back on
• 2:26:19
  Speaker 1: the West coast, that's right.
• 2:26:20
  Speaker 3: Raheem Morris came to replace Robert Sala, who came back temporarily.
• 2:26:25
  Speaker 2: Yeah, shout out to Kevin on the text line for
• 2:26:29
  Speaker 2: thank you Kevin there. Yeah, I forgot yet. Shula has
• 2:26:33
  Speaker 2: been there for a few years now. Yeah, I say
• 2:26:38
  Speaker 2: Mike Schultz. Chris Shula one of the so many of
• 2:26:41
  Speaker 2: the Shula's who've coached.
• 2:26:42
  Speaker 1: Chris is the latest. Yeah, it's not Don Shula.
• 2:26:46
  Speaker 3: That's all we know, all right, Rams, you stink and
• 2:26:52
  Speaker 3: I hate you and nobody likes you, and don't bring
• 2:26:55
  Speaker 3: Aaron Donald back at Aaron Donald, do the right thing
• 2:26:57
  Speaker 3: and come play for the forty nine ers instead.
• 2:27:01
  Speaker 2: This makes you and and sales guy Chad unlikely allies
• 2:27:05
  Speaker 2: with your NFC West fandom.
• 2:27:07
  Speaker 3: Well we can be, we can be mutually hateful of
• 2:27:12
  Speaker 3: the Rams, but he's a Seahawks.
• 2:27:14
  Speaker 1: Guy, so so you're not allies. Okay, can't be allies
• 2:27:18
  Speaker 1: officially doesn't feel right.
• 2:27:22
  Speaker 3: Scary movie coming to theaters Friday, ESPN seven hundred and
• 2:27:26
  Speaker 3: ninety Twoe FM want to send you to see it.
• 2:27:27
  Speaker 3: First Text movie to three three nine eighty six for
• 2:27:30
  Speaker 3: your chance to win. We're also going to give away
• 2:27:33
  Speaker 3: some tickets to Smashing Pumpkins October twenty ninth, at.
• 2:27:37
  Speaker 1: The Delta Center.
• 2:27:38
  Speaker 3: I actually want to go to that show, so I'm
• 2:27:41
  Speaker 3: probably gonna win, but I'll still give you a trivia question.
• 2:27:45
  Speaker 1: Now, was just kidding.
• 2:27:45
  Speaker 3: We'll give away some tickets next on The Sean O'Connell
• 2:27:48
  Speaker 3: Show ESPN seven hundred at ninety TWOEFM.