Latest / The Ben Maller Show / Best of The Ben Maller Show
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- 0:00Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to the best of the Ben Mahler
- 0:02Speaker 1: Show podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weeknight
- 0:06Speaker 1: from two to six Eastern eleven pm to three am
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- 0:13Speaker 1: station for the Benmatlers Show at Foxsports Radio dot com.
- 0:17Speaker 1: You can find it there or stream us live every
- 0:19Speaker 1: night on the iHeartRadio app by searching FSR.
- 0:24Speaker 2: This is the best of the Ben Maler Show on
- 0:26Speaker 2: Fox Sports Radio.
- 0:32Speaker 3: Oh what's going on? Welcome in Hope. You're after Christmas Day?
- 0:37Speaker 3: Festivities are going well late night radio, early morning radio,
- 0:42Speaker 3: depending on where you are in the country, right early
- 0:44Speaker 3: Friday morning. I'll tell you what, Malard Militia I came
- 0:49Speaker 3: bearing gifts tonight. Not only did I bring you bad audio?
- 0:53Speaker 3: You know, not hopefully not from what I was saying.
- 0:56Speaker 3: I mean, you could argue that was bad audio itself,
- 0:59Speaker 3: but like the technical aspect of it, right, like technically
- 1:04Speaker 3: bad audio right. And not only do I bring you
- 1:06Speaker 3: that for the first two hours, I haven't even more
- 1:10Speaker 3: special treat for you. I have a list. Huh how
- 1:14Speaker 3: about that? I know, Ben he Get does the Heisman
- 1:18Speaker 3: pose to any lists? He rages against lists you don't
- 1:23Speaker 3: rage against the machine. Big Ben's band is rage against
- 1:26Speaker 3: the list. That's that's what he gets down with. I
- 1:29Speaker 3: don't rage against lists. I embrace lists, not all lists,
- 1:33Speaker 3: but certain lists I'm open minded for and I am
- 1:38Speaker 3: I am receptive to these certain lists. I've got a
- 1:42Speaker 3: list I think makes a lot of sense. I think
- 1:43Speaker 3: it's entertaining. I think it's good. Now, Malard Militia, I
- 1:48Speaker 3: get it. You used to Big Ben whenever a fill
- 1:51Speaker 3: in hosts, whenever a fill in hosts, like you know,
- 1:55Speaker 3: checks in or whatever it's. I compare it to like
- 1:59Speaker 3: eating apricot jam. You know what I mean. If you're
- 2:02Speaker 3: a peanut butter and jelly connoisseer like me, love me
- 2:06Speaker 3: a peb and ja, you know, and I go to
- 2:10Speaker 3: h you know, grape or strawberry. That's what I go with.
- 2:13Speaker 3: Grape jam, strawberry jam. It's only like grape, grape, grape, grape, grape.
- 2:17Speaker 3: And I'll do a strawberry grape, grape, grape, grape grape. Yeah,
- 2:20Speaker 3: now I'll mess around with strawberry. I and fill in
- 2:23Speaker 3: hosts are like apricot jam. So if you're used to
- 2:27Speaker 3: your grape, your strawberry or your Big Ben like big
- 2:30Speaker 3: Ben would be grape like or whatever you're most used to,
- 2:34Speaker 3: and now here I come and you're like, ooh a man,
- 2:38Speaker 3: we're out of everything, but apricot jam oof, gosh, I'll
- 2:43Speaker 3: give it a shot. All right. It's different. It's it
- 2:48Speaker 3: tastes different than grape. I don't know. I don't know, man,
- 2:52Speaker 3: you know, I get it. Like I'm filling in for
- 2:54Speaker 3: big Ben. You're used to big Ben. Big Ben doesn't
- 2:56Speaker 3: do lists. I've got a list, So I understand how
- 2:59Speaker 3: you'd be like, oh, gosh, you know, and me now
- 3:04Speaker 3: Christmas was good and me now I can go. It's fine,
- 3:06Speaker 3: I can go. But no, I'm watching these games, and
- 3:11Speaker 3: I'm watching the Chiefs, and I'm watching how much they've struggled,
- 3:17Speaker 3: just the season that has been for them. Mahomes is
- 3:21Speaker 3: watching the game from the box, you know, he's up
- 3:25Speaker 3: in the luxury box watching the Chiefs. Fresh off of
- 3:28Speaker 3: ACL and LCL surgery. Gardner Minshew was up there as well.
- 3:34Speaker 3: He just had a knee injury. Luckily it wasn't an
- 3:37Speaker 3: ACL injury, but he's got a knee injury. He can't go.
- 3:40Speaker 3: So we've got the backup, backup quarterback in there. Chris
- 3:44Speaker 3: olat Ducan. I don't know if it's Ducan or Dukun.
- 3:48Speaker 3: I don't know what the hell it is, right, but
- 3:50Speaker 3: he's the backup that was his first NFL start. You know,
- 3:53Speaker 3: if he plays well, then we'll get his name.
- 3:55Speaker 4: Right.
- 3:56Speaker 3: If he plays like this, you know, he just got
- 3:58Speaker 3: to be in the ballpark. I think it's Ola due Kuhn,
- 4:02Speaker 3: Ola sorry, Ola Doe Kuhn. Or it's Ola dough Cun.
- 4:08Speaker 3: I don't know. I don't know what it is. Con
- 4:11Speaker 3: you go cun huh. That's how you do it, breathe,
- 4:14Speaker 3: That's how I do it. Ola Docun. I heard Travis
- 4:17Speaker 3: Kelcey in his postgame press conference. He went, Oli Doe
- 4:21Speaker 3: kin is what he said. So we got Kin, we
- 4:24Speaker 3: got coun, we got Kun. I don't know what it is,
- 4:27Speaker 3: Oli Doe Kuhn. I don't know. I'm not sure what
- 4:29Speaker 3: it is. But the backup, backup quarterback who wears number nineteen,
- 4:34Speaker 3: we'll call him Ola Doe Kuhn. Right, not the greatest,
- 4:38Speaker 3: not the greatest performance. Let me give you his numbers
- 4:42Speaker 3: here real fast. This is what uh, this is where
- 4:44Speaker 3: a guy Chris Ola. We'll go with that. Sixty six
- 4:47Speaker 3: yards passing. That's I know, it's the Denver defense. That
- 4:52Speaker 3: is a tough ask for your first NFL start, But
- 4:55Speaker 3: uh so I'm watching the chief season that has been.
- 4:59Speaker 3: That's the point. You know, Mahomes is in the luxury box,
- 5:03Speaker 3: Minshew is in the luxury box. We're watching Oladokun or
- 5:07Speaker 3: however you say his name, you know, do what he
- 5:09Speaker 3: can do sixty six yards passing, And I'm like, man,
- 5:13Speaker 3: what a surprise season the Chiefs have had. You know,
- 5:17Speaker 3: if you told me before the season, oh, yeah, they're
- 5:19Speaker 3: gonna be like six and ten with the game to go,
- 5:22Speaker 3: I'd be like, what do that mean? Like Mahomes got
- 5:25Speaker 3: hurt the first play in Week one and you're like, no,
- 5:29Speaker 3: he started fourteen games. I'd be like what, Like, what
- 5:33Speaker 3: what are you talking about? So I was thinking about them,
- 5:36Speaker 3: and also the Lions on Christmas Day, big surprise. They
- 5:40Speaker 3: had a surprisingly bad season, and so I'm thinking good
- 5:45Speaker 3: and bad. If you ranked your teams, you did the
- 5:50Speaker 3: top five power rankings. Biggest surprises of this NFL season
- 5:55Speaker 3: team wise, not talking individual players, just team wise. Good results,
- 6:01Speaker 3: bad results, and you mix them together hodge Podge city, Right,
- 6:06Speaker 3: We're not doing two separate lists. We're combining the good
- 6:10Speaker 3: and the bad, and maybe even the ugly as well.
- 6:13Speaker 3: What does your list look like? Are the good surprise
- 6:18Speaker 3: bears a bigger surprise than the bad surprise? Lion? So
- 6:22Speaker 3: here's what I came up with my top five biggest surprises,
- 6:26Speaker 3: good or bad in the NFL this season, team wise,
- 6:30Speaker 3: number five a good surprise Jacksonville give me the Jacksonville
- 6:35Speaker 3: Jaguars checking in at number five. This team was four
- 6:39Speaker 3: and three. No one was like, hey man, I think
- 6:42Speaker 3: they're about to go on a winning streak right here.
- 6:45Speaker 3: They they got crushed right before their bye week by
- 6:50Speaker 3: the Rams. The Rams beat them thirty five to seven
- 6:53Speaker 3: in London, crushed them badly. And that one touchdown was
- 7:00Speaker 3: a Travis Hunter touchdown. You might remember the play. It
- 7:04Speaker 3: was like a little post corner and Lawrence threw a
- 7:07Speaker 3: dime and you know, Travis Hunter got in the end zone.
- 7:09Speaker 3: That was a big deal at the time. If I
- 7:12Speaker 3: told you at that time when Jacksonville got blown out
- 7:16Speaker 3: thirty five to seven, they were four and three and
- 7:20Speaker 3: they were just about to lose Travis Hunter for the
- 7:22Speaker 3: rest of the season, if I told you then, like, oh,
- 7:24Speaker 3: don't worry. They're about to win seven of their next eight.
- 7:28Speaker 3: They're going to be leading their division. They're going to
- 7:30Speaker 3: be in the mix to move up to maybe the
- 7:32Speaker 3: two seed, maybe even have an outside chance at the
- 7:35Speaker 3: one seed. If I told you that when they got
- 7:38Speaker 3: smacked by the Rams to fall to four and three,
- 7:39Speaker 3: you would have laughed at me. You would have laughed
- 7:41Speaker 3: in my face. So I got the Jacks checking in
- 7:44Speaker 3: at number five. They've won seven of eight. They just
- 7:47Speaker 3: smacked the Broncos around last week. They smacked the Chargers around.
- 7:51Speaker 3: Remember that game there's a few weeks ago. They were
- 7:54Speaker 3: at home. That's what started the winning streak. They killed
- 7:57Speaker 3: the Chargers, they beat them thirty five to Like that,
- 8:01Speaker 3: that's pretty good. So yeah, I've got Jacksonville at number five.
- 8:06Speaker 3: The fifth biggest surprise of the NFL season. Number four.
- 8:09Speaker 3: It's a bad surprise. I've got the Lions there. So
- 8:13Speaker 3: now a lot of people this was a popular talking
- 8:16Speaker 3: point before the season. Some people saw the Lions taking
- 8:22Speaker 3: a big step back, maybe a couple of steps back.
- 8:25Speaker 3: This was a team that was the one seed last year. Right.
- 8:28Speaker 3: They had a great regular season, rattled off what fifteen wins,
- 8:32Speaker 3: fifteen to two. That's crazy, and Jared Goff again facing
- 8:37Speaker 3: a pass rush'd like fish out of water against the
- 8:40Speaker 3: Washington Commanders. He fizzled, had a horrible playoff game, they
- 8:45Speaker 3: lose at home. They're won and done right, but still
- 8:48Speaker 3: a great, great regular season. They had a ridiculously hard schedule,
- 8:54Speaker 3: especially on the road this season, and before the season began,
- 8:58Speaker 3: there was a lot of talk the betting community of hey,
- 9:01Speaker 3: maybe you bet the Lions to not make the playoffs,
- 9:05Speaker 3: and so this isn't going to be stunning to some
- 9:08Speaker 3: people out there, but I would argue this, the Lions
- 9:12Speaker 3: were eight and five just a couple of weeks ago.
- 9:15Speaker 3: They're eight and five. They've got a good chance to
- 9:18Speaker 3: make it to the playoffs. They're in pretty good standing
- 9:21Speaker 3: at that point. Then they lost a game to the Rams,
- 9:25Speaker 3: no crime in that. They fall to eight and six.
- 9:28Speaker 3: But then they lose at home to the Steelers. They
- 9:32Speaker 3: lose on the road to the Max brosmer Vikings on
- 9:36Speaker 3: Christmas Day, so they've lost three.
- 9:38Speaker 1: In a row.
- 9:38Speaker 3: They were eight and five, looked like, hey, they might
- 9:41Speaker 3: win the division. They're still, you know, right in the
- 9:44Speaker 3: thick of the thing of things for a wild card.
- 9:46Speaker 3: Berth at least, and then the wheels fell off the tracks,
- 9:51Speaker 3: and since then they've lost three straight. They're eight and
- 9:54Speaker 3: eight and their season is done. They've been eliminated already.
- 9:58Speaker 3: So where the Lions were, where the Lions are. Yeah,
- 10:03Speaker 3: that's a big surprise to me. Some might argue with that,
- 10:06Speaker 3: but hey, that's why lists are so good. We can
- 10:10Speaker 3: disagree and state why and maybe make a better argument.
- 10:16Speaker 3: So the red carpet has always rolled out for you, militia.
- 10:18Speaker 3: Feel free to check in eight seven, seven ninety nine
- 10:21Speaker 3: on Fox or on X at the No Show, continuing
- 10:25Speaker 3: the list, because I know you don't win a commercial
- 10:27Speaker 3: break to get in the way of a good list.
- 10:28Speaker 3: I know how you guys are. Number three. Biggest surprise
- 10:32Speaker 3: of the NFL season, good or bad, it's a good surprise.
- 10:36Speaker 3: The Seattle Seahawks. Now, if you look at the Seahawks,
- 10:41Speaker 3: they are the one seed right now in the NFC.
- 10:44Speaker 3: They control their path to the one seed in the
- 10:47Speaker 3: NFC playoffs. Right, that's pretty good. And then look at
- 10:51Speaker 3: their formula. They're not running the ball well this season.
- 10:55Speaker 3: They're tied for twentieth in rushing yards per game, so
- 10:59Speaker 3: they're not running it well. And they've got Donald, and
- 11:03Speaker 3: I want to make Donald sound like a broken down,
- 11:05Speaker 3: you know, beater of a car or something like that,
- 11:08Speaker 3: but he's like, he's kind of like a broken down, uh,
- 11:15Speaker 3: non beater of a car, Like you got a Nissan
- 11:19Speaker 3: Ultima and uh, you know it's it's kind of in
- 11:23Speaker 3: bad shape. You know it needs some upkeeping. Like that's
- 11:25Speaker 3: that's Sam Donald, right. Sam Donald threw four interceptions against
- 11:29Speaker 3: the Rams and they still almost won that game. Like,
- 11:33Speaker 3: just the way it's played out for the Seahawks has
- 11:35Speaker 3: been crazy. Like they they beat the Rams at home
- 11:41Speaker 3: and one of the most ludicrous games I've ever seen
- 11:43Speaker 3: in my life. They're down by sixteen points. Sam Donald
- 11:48Speaker 3: has thrown two hideous interceptions and you're like, Okay, I
- 11:53Speaker 3: see where this is going. Next thing, you know, punt
- 11:55Speaker 3: return for a touchdown and they get to two points.
- 11:59Speaker 3: Then they they score another touchdown. Actually, a beautiful pass
- 12:02Speaker 3: by Sam Darnold finds his tight end Aj Barner in
- 12:05Speaker 3: the back of the end zone. Hey, let's go for
- 12:07Speaker 3: two and tie this thing up. Too bad, it hits
- 12:10Speaker 3: Rams player's helmet incomplete pass. But wait, it's a backwards
- 12:15Speaker 3: pass and somehow the ball trickles into the end zone.
- 12:19Speaker 3: Zach Sharbena just picks it up for the goof and
- 12:22Speaker 3: turns out he's in the end zone. It's a successful
- 12:25Speaker 3: two point conversion. Insanity, and they go on and win
- 12:29Speaker 3: the game in overtime. After giving up a touchdown in overtime,
- 12:33Speaker 3: they score a touchdown of their own, they get the
- 12:35Speaker 3: two point conversion. It was one of the most outrageous
- 12:39Speaker 3: wins ever. That's not overstating anything. For them to get
- 12:44Speaker 3: the second two point conversion the way they got it,
- 12:47Speaker 3: I don't think you're gonna see a more insane two
- 12:49Speaker 3: point conversion ever, I really don't. I think we've reached
- 12:52Speaker 3: the mountain top. So the way it's played out for Seattle,
- 12:57Speaker 3: it's not just Darnald as the quarterback of that team
- 13:01Speaker 3: with a lackluster running game. They do have a good defense,
- 13:05Speaker 3: There's no doubt about that. I just I can't believe
- 13:09Speaker 3: that formula has resulted in right now the one seed
- 13:13Speaker 3: in the NFC. That is stunning to me. So I
- 13:15Speaker 3: put that number three, number two. Give me the Bears,
- 13:18Speaker 3: daw Bears. I got number two on my biggest surprise
- 13:21Speaker 3: list is a good surprise. Obviously, they've had a great season.
- 13:25Speaker 3: But it's the way, again, similar to the Seahawks, it's
- 13:28Speaker 3: the way they've gotten there. It's not just that they're
- 13:31Speaker 3: eleven and four and have made huge improvements year over
- 13:35Speaker 3: year record wise, it's how they've gotten there, you know.
- 13:39Speaker 3: Like look at the latest win against the Packers, a
- 13:43Speaker 3: game they had no business winning, no business even thinking
- 13:49Speaker 3: about winning. They're down by ten points somehow, some way,
- 13:53Speaker 3: facing Malik Willis the backup quarterback for most of the
- 13:56Speaker 3: second most of the game, like the entire second half. Yeah,
- 14:01Speaker 3: Jordan Love concussion situation going on, at least symptoms and
- 14:07Speaker 3: he exits the game, So get Malik Willis in there.
- 14:09Speaker 3: Malik played pretty well. Packers have a ten point lead.
- 14:12Speaker 3: Somehow the Bears they score some points. They got to
- 14:17Speaker 3: get the on side kick right and no one recovers
- 14:20Speaker 3: on sidekicks. They have a point five percent chance to
- 14:23Speaker 3: win this game, like just a little bit more than
- 14:26Speaker 3: two minutes left in the game. Somehow, some way, they
- 14:30Speaker 3: get the on sidekick. Somehow, they score a touchdown on
- 14:33Speaker 3: fourth and goal with Caleb Williams drifting back pass rush
- 14:37Speaker 3: in his face and all of a sudden someone's wide open.
- 14:40Speaker 3: Then then they luck out, Packers are driving and then
- 14:43Speaker 3: fourth and one, Packers just drop the ball, just drop
- 14:46Speaker 3: the snap man. So the Bears get it and they
- 14:50Speaker 3: beautiful pass Caleb Williams the DJ Moore, they win the game.
- 14:52Speaker 3: That was a miracle of a win by the Bears.
- 14:56Speaker 3: They've had six comeback wins in the final two minutes
- 15:02Speaker 3: this season. Let me repeat that. Okay, they've had six
- 15:09Speaker 3: comeback wins. They've been losing in the final two minutes
- 15:15Speaker 3: of these six games and they've won them all. That's
- 15:19Speaker 3: freaking insane. That should not be happening. And yet here
- 15:24Speaker 3: they are with this lackluster defense. They're just forcing takeaways,
- 15:29Speaker 3: forcing turnovers left and right, leading the NFL, doing a
- 15:32Speaker 3: great job in that department. But what happens if, oh,
- 15:36Speaker 3: I don't know, they just don't force any turnovers in
- 15:38Speaker 3: a certain game. What if take it to the extreme,
- 15:41Speaker 3: they lose the turnover battle in a certain game, Well
- 15:43Speaker 3: guess what they are going to crash and freaking burn
- 15:48Speaker 3: is what's gonna happen. But to this point, even after
- 15:51Speaker 3: starting off oh to two, if I told you at
- 15:54Speaker 3: oh to two, oh, the Bears are gonna be eleven
- 15:57Speaker 3: and four. They're gonna have six come from behind wins
- 16:00Speaker 3: in the final two minutes. You would have been like,
- 16:04Speaker 3: you're dumb. I don't think you even watch football, but
- 16:07Speaker 3: that here we are. That's exactly what's happened. So I
- 16:10Speaker 3: put them number two in the list. Now, that's pretty
- 16:15Speaker 3: tough to top. But my number one team in terms
- 16:20Speaker 3: of NFL surprises this season, good or bad, give me
- 16:25Speaker 3: the Kansas City Chiefs. And I know I can feel
- 16:29Speaker 3: immediate pushback on this where it's like, really, Brian, you
- 16:33Speaker 3: just what you just said about the Bears. The Chiefs
- 16:36Speaker 3: have been a bigger surprise. Yes, the Chiefs have been
- 16:39Speaker 3: a bigger surprise. The Chiefs have made it to the
- 16:43Speaker 3: past five Super Bowls and they're a non playoff team.
- 16:48Speaker 3: When Mahome starts fourteen games, that's insanity right there. And
- 16:54Speaker 3: on top of that, it's not just that they're losing games,
- 16:58Speaker 3: it's how the Chiefs are losing games. The way the
- 17:02Speaker 3: Chiefs have lost games steadily this season is by killing themselves.
- 17:08Speaker 3: They never ever ever used to do that. They always,
- 17:13Speaker 3: you know, they always avoided shooting themselves in the foot,
- 17:18Speaker 3: like like really shooting themselves in the Of course they're
- 17:21Speaker 3: gonna make mistakes here and there, but they would never
- 17:24Speaker 3: like get in their own way and kill themselves, you know,
- 17:28Speaker 3: like beat themselves. They just didn't do that. That was
- 17:30Speaker 3: their calling card. They took advantage of you beating yourself.
- 17:34Speaker 3: They didn't beat themselves. But this year they've done it
- 17:37Speaker 3: time and time and time again. You go back to
- 17:41Speaker 3: the very beginning against the Eagles week two, Travis Kelsey's
- 17:44Speaker 3: got a pass catchable ball. He bobbles it, interception leads
- 17:49Speaker 3: to a three point loss at home. Right Jacksonville week five,
- 17:55Speaker 3: they have the right they had a ridiculous pick six
- 18:00Speaker 3: in that game. They've got to lead, They've got to
- 18:03Speaker 3: lead finally in the game. And then Butker just kicks
- 18:06Speaker 3: the ball at a bounce. It's like here, Trevor Lawrence
- 18:08Speaker 3: take the ball at the forty, you know, be our guest.
- 18:11Speaker 3: Then Chris Jones thinks that the play is over, Trevor
- 18:15Speaker 3: Lawrence fell down. No, Trevor Lawrence is live. He runs
- 18:18Speaker 3: into the end zone winning touchdown. Like that game was ridiculous.
- 18:22Speaker 3: The Chiefs last season don't even think about losing that
- 18:26Speaker 3: game on the road against Jacksonville. And then some of
- 18:29Speaker 3: the drops man like Rashie Rice. Now he's on ir
- 18:34Speaker 3: his season is over. But before he got hurt, been
- 18:37Speaker 3: a couple of drops against the Cowboys on Thanksgiving. You know,
- 18:42Speaker 3: you got to have this drive. You're down by seven,
- 18:44Speaker 3: but we're driving. Let's put points on the board. Who
- 18:46Speaker 3: knows third down? Here you go, Rushie Rice, right over
- 18:49Speaker 3: the middle, easy catch, drop, all right, okay. A couple
- 18:53Speaker 3: of weeks later at home against the Chargers, wide open,
- 18:56Speaker 3: over the middle. We got to have this. We need
- 18:57Speaker 3: points on this drive. Drop, okay, all right. That's pretty
- 19:01Speaker 3: much the season right there in Mahomes he did the
- 19:04Speaker 3: surrender Cobra on the field, remember that, Through a ball
- 19:08Speaker 3: right to Rashie Rice, right in the middle of the
- 19:10Speaker 3: four on his chest. He dropped it and Mahomes went,
- 19:13Speaker 3: surrender Cobra on the field like this, his head hit
- 19:17Speaker 3: the ground. He's going to surrender Cobra. At the same time.
- 19:20Speaker 3: It's been that type of season. It's not just that
- 19:23Speaker 3: they've lost, it's how they've lost. They've lost doing things
- 19:28Speaker 3: they've never done in the past, not with Mahomes and
- 19:32Speaker 3: not with this winning streak and five straight Super Bowls,
- 19:35Speaker 3: nine straight Division crowns, all these AFC title game appearances.
- 19:41Speaker 3: They just don't kill themselves, and they've done it repeatedly
- 19:44Speaker 3: this season. There is no way that anybody would have
- 19:49Speaker 3: believed if I told them before the season, Hey, Mahomes
- 19:53Speaker 3: is gonna start fourteen games, but before he gets hurt
- 19:56Speaker 3: for the rest of the season he has a knee injury,
- 19:59Speaker 3: They're gonna have a low using record, and then I'm
- 20:01Speaker 3: going to make the playoffs. Even if he does finish
- 20:03Speaker 3: the season like not gonna happen. No one would have
- 20:07Speaker 3: believed that. So to me, that is the biggest surprise
- 20:10Speaker 3: of the entire NFL season. I go, Chiefs number one.
- 20:12Speaker 3: There you go. That wasn't that bad, was it? Melard Militia.
- 20:16Speaker 3: I think it's an entertaining idea right there, good and bad?
- 20:20Speaker 3: How do you make your list? Out right there? That's
- 20:23Speaker 3: my list. But been a lot of surprises this year,
- 20:27Speaker 3: both in positive and negative ways. Some teams we thought
- 20:31Speaker 3: were gonna be good, freaking terrible Bengals, Ravens, Chiefs, you know,
- 20:35Speaker 3: handful of teams in there. Commanders, I think you can
- 20:39Speaker 3: explain some of the woes of those teams. Burrow was
- 20:41Speaker 3: hurt most of the year, Jayden Daniels hurt most of
- 20:44Speaker 3: the year. Mahomes upright for fourteen starts stunning, stunning that
- 20:49Speaker 3: they had a losing record in that span. That is
- 20:52Speaker 3: just wild to me. So I put that as the
- 20:54Speaker 3: Number one surprise your thoughts more than welcome. Red carpet
- 20:57Speaker 3: always rolled out for you eight seven seven nine on Fox.
- 21:01Speaker 3: Here's your phone number. We keep it rolling. Oh, we
- 21:06Speaker 3: got a movie coming out here. I want to talk
- 21:08Speaker 3: to you about this movie that's coming out. Oh and
- 21:11Speaker 3: sometime a little bit later, Oh, I want to get
- 21:13Speaker 3: to this too. The two things that I thought were funny,
- 21:18Speaker 3: and they're both one's movie related, one's commercial related. But
- 21:23Speaker 3: I'm very surprised in this day and age, athletes are
- 21:25Speaker 3: so brand conscious, right, They're very conscientious of what their
- 21:32Speaker 3: brand is, how they're being portrayed. And I love that
- 21:36Speaker 3: this player made a commercial, but I'm pretty surprised he
- 21:40Speaker 3: made it at the same time. So I'll tell you
- 21:42Speaker 3: about that. Right around the corner that is on the way.
- 21:46Speaker 3: I'm Brian no In for Big Ben Maller. Keep it
- 21:48Speaker 3: locked right here on Fox Sports Radio. Holiday basketball has
- 21:52Speaker 3: arrived and when stars like Kobe White, Jalen Williams, and
- 21:56Speaker 3: Tyler Hero takeover DraftKings sportsbook and official sports betting partner
- 22:01Speaker 3: of the NBA is where you want to be. Don't forget.
- 22:04Speaker 3: DraftKings has your back with early exit. If your player
- 22:08Speaker 3: goes down in the first half, you still get paid
- 22:10Speaker 3: in cash. Download the DraftKings Sportsbook app and use code
- 22:14Speaker 3: mallor that's code malor. New customers can bet five bucks
- 22:18Speaker 3: and get two hundred dollars in bonus bets if your
- 22:21Speaker 3: bet wins. In partnership with DraftKings, the crown is yours.
- 22:26Speaker 2: Be sure to catch live editions of The Ben Maller
- 22:28Speaker 2: Show weekdays at two am Eastern eleven pm Pacific on
- 22:32Speaker 2: Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.
- 22:35Speaker 3: Polly Foods GOHA with Tony Foods Go Yeah.
- 22:38Speaker 5: As everybody knows, we're the hosts of the award winning
- 22:40Speaker 5: Polly and Tony Foods co show. Yeah, but instead of
- 22:42Speaker 5: us telling you how great we are, here's how Dan
- 22:45Speaker 5: Patrick described us when he came on our show.
- 22:47Speaker 3: Quick, knowledgeable and funny, opinionated. What are you doing interrupting
- 22:52Speaker 3: our promo? Yeah, he wasn't talking about you.
- 22:55Speaker 2: You took those clips totally out of context.
- 22:58Speaker 5: Oh yeah, Well, after this promo, I'm gonna take you
- 23:01Speaker 5: out and beat you.
- 23:02Speaker 2: Let me put this into context.
- 23:04Speaker 3: Shut up.
- 23:05Speaker 5: Yeah, anyway, just listen to the Folly and Tony Fusco
- 23:07Speaker 5: Show on I on Radio, Apple podcasts oherever you get
- 23:10Speaker 5: your podcasts.
- 23:11Speaker 3: Yea, Oh, what is going on? Happy Friday morning to you.
- 23:18Speaker 3: Hope all is well, Hope Christmas Day was fantastic for you.
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- 23:25Speaker 3: find the right tires for how, what and where they drive.
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- 23:35Speaker 3: dot com. The way tire buying should be all right.
- 23:39Speaker 3: So I'd love to be spreading Christmas cheer in these
- 23:42Speaker 3: early morning hours, but uh man, oh man, I don't
- 23:48Speaker 3: have a dose of Christmas cheer right now. I've got
- 23:51Speaker 3: a dose of reality. And man, I'm not gonna redo
- 23:57Speaker 3: the exact same segment, but I have to touch on
- 24:00Speaker 3: bits and pieces of it again because there's new information.
- 24:04Speaker 3: There is new news, new developments, if you will. So
- 24:10Speaker 3: I had this thought that Lamar Jackson last game against
- 24:15Speaker 3: the Patriots with a back contusion, a back bruise. Okay,
- 24:23Speaker 3: you got to get back in that game. You got
- 24:26Speaker 3: to get back in the game in the second half.
- 24:28Speaker 3: You gotta find a way. You've got a bruise. You're
- 24:31Speaker 3: day to day with a bruise. So the cliffs Notes
- 24:34Speaker 3: version of that is, look, if he gets back in
- 24:37Speaker 3: that game, it changes everything. Now. Granted, they built a lead,
- 24:42Speaker 3: they led by eleven points, even with their backup quarterback
- 24:45Speaker 3: Tyler Huntley in there. Huntley didn't do anything specially. He
- 24:48Speaker 3: had nine completions for sixty five yards. It was like
- 24:51Speaker 3: the bo Nicks dink and dunk, right, it was a
- 24:54Speaker 3: dink and dunk special. But if Lamar Jackson is in there,
- 24:58Speaker 3: maybe they build a bigger lead, maybe they build the
- 25:01Speaker 3: same lead. But guess what, Lamar Jackson just being in
- 25:05Speaker 3: the game, he affects a defense much differently than Snoop
- 25:10Speaker 3: Huntley does. He is a bigger threat. Even just the
- 25:14Speaker 3: mere presence of threatening the defense affects the defense. And
- 25:21Speaker 3: so he's got to find a way to get back
- 25:23Speaker 3: on the football field. And he didn't, and the Ravens
- 25:26Speaker 3: drop that game, and now they need help. They don't
- 25:29Speaker 3: even control their path to the playoffs. They need the
- 25:32Speaker 3: Steelers to lose to the Browns this weekend or they
- 25:36Speaker 3: are done. And they also before we even get to
- 25:39Speaker 3: Sunday's game with the Steelers. The Ravens have to win
- 25:43Speaker 3: on Saturday or their season is a rap it is over.
- 25:49Speaker 3: So it's a gots the have it game for the
- 25:51Speaker 3: Ravens at the Packers. And now we get the new information.
- 25:55Speaker 3: So okay, day to day with the bone bruise, a
- 25:58Speaker 3: back bruise, lamarsho good to go? Well, think again, He's
- 26:02Speaker 3: missing practice left and right this week. He was the
- 26:05Speaker 3: only player not to practice on Wednesday, the only Ravens
- 26:09Speaker 3: player not out there. And the new information is that
- 26:15Speaker 3: Lamar is listed as doubtful for Saturday night's game at
- 26:19Speaker 3: Green Bay. If he can't go, well, it's Tyler Huntley again,
- 26:24Speaker 3: get the Tyler Huntley Show instead of Lamar Jackson. I
- 26:30Speaker 3: don't know what to say, man, I really don't. Again,
- 26:33Speaker 3: I'm not acting like it feels good, like he's like, ah,
- 26:37Speaker 3: my back feels amazing. He took a knee to the back.
- 26:40Speaker 3: It's painful. I get that, but it's a bruise and
- 26:46Speaker 3: your season is hanging by a thread. You have to
- 26:51Speaker 3: beat the Packers or your season is over. Even if
- 26:55Speaker 3: you beat the Packers, you have to have the Steelers
- 26:58Speaker 3: beat the Browns the next day where your season is over.
- 27:03Speaker 3: That's a result of the Ravens not beating the Patriots,
- 27:08Speaker 3: and so for Lamar Jackson to not get back in
- 27:11Speaker 3: that game, that Sunday night game they desperately needed against
- 27:14Speaker 3: the Patriots with a back bruise and now listed as doubtful,
- 27:20Speaker 3: most likely not playing against the Packers with a back bruise.
- 27:26Speaker 3: It's indefensible. It just is. There are twenty quarterbacks in
- 27:32Speaker 3: the NFL today that would be playing, no question about it,
- 27:38Speaker 3: with the exact same injury, somewhat similar playing styles. So
- 27:45Speaker 3: I just don't get it, man, I don't get it.
- 27:47Speaker 3: And he's gutted his way through multiple injuries this season.
- 27:51Speaker 3: That's what I don't get. He's gutted through a knee, calf, ankle,
- 27:55Speaker 3: He's had hamstring. He's had a lot of injuries that
- 27:58Speaker 3: he's gutted through. He's not cutting through this one. I
- 28:02Speaker 3: just don't understand it. Now. It's not the same injury, okay,
- 28:07Speaker 3: but the concept is the same. I did mention this
- 28:10Speaker 3: a couple of nights ago, but I didn't have the audio.
- 28:12Speaker 3: I went back and got the audio for you. So
- 28:15Speaker 3: this goes back to the two thousand and six season.
- 28:19Speaker 3: The Colts eventually, you know, won a Super Bowl that
- 28:22Speaker 3: year and they beat the Bears. But anyway, en route
- 28:27Speaker 3: to that, it was the AFC Championship game. They're hosting
- 28:31Speaker 3: the Patriots and Peyton Manning got banged up. You're hear
- 28:36Speaker 3: in the audio he's throwing this pass and he hits
- 28:40Speaker 3: his thumb on a Patriots player's helmet. They knew it
- 28:44Speaker 3: was in bad shape, right, and so you'll hear Peyton Manning.
- 28:48Speaker 3: There's music underneath this. It's from America's game on NFL Network,
- 28:52Speaker 3: tremendous show. You'll hear in the audio Peyton Manning's explaining
- 28:57Speaker 3: this injury and almost very philisode, almost like poetic, if
- 29:02Speaker 3: you will. He's weighing do I stay in the game
- 29:05Speaker 3: and maybe hurt the team? Or do I do I
- 29:08Speaker 3: leave and maybe that's gonna help the team a little
- 29:10Speaker 3: bit more. Hey, Jim Sergey, warm up, buddy. And that's
- 29:13Speaker 3: where Jeff Saturday the center is like, whoa time out?
- 29:18Speaker 3: What's happening?
- 29:19Speaker 4: It?
- 29:19Speaker 3: SORGI No, no, Peyton, you gotta suck it up, baby,
- 29:23Speaker 3: You gotta find a way to get back on the
- 29:25Speaker 3: football field. That's basically what's going on here, and so
- 29:28Speaker 3: you can understand where I'm coming from. It ties to
- 29:30Speaker 3: Lamar Jackson. Granted we're talking about a back bruise with Lamar,
- 29:35Speaker 3: a thumb injury with Peyton Manning, but it's Peyton Manning's
- 29:40Speaker 3: right thumb on his throwing hand, completely affecting his game.
- 29:47Speaker 3: And when he was thinking about man, maybe I should
- 29:49Speaker 3: just I should let the backup go in there, that's
- 29:52Speaker 3: when he gutted it out and the Colts benefited from that.
- 29:56Speaker 3: That's what has to happen with Lamar as well. Here's
- 29:59Speaker 3: the audio I'm talking about. It starts off Peyton Manning
- 30:02Speaker 3: AFC Title Game O six season against the Patriots. Here
- 30:06Speaker 3: it's his thumb and you got to hear the payoff
- 30:08Speaker 3: at the end with Jeff Saturday. I just love this audio.
- 30:10Speaker 3: Check it out.
- 30:11Speaker 4: Whatever I can to complete this pass and I got
- 30:14Speaker 4: down the west side, light up throw and fully come
- 30:16Speaker 4: right down the helmet. I know right away I said
- 30:18Speaker 4: this is not good. The fingernail had bent back, so
- 30:23Speaker 4: I was, you know, sucking the blood off my off
- 30:26Speaker 4: my hand. I try to throw a couple on the
- 30:28Speaker 4: just ugly, ugly looking tastes. I'm asking myself, what's fair
- 30:35Speaker 4: to the team. You know what, if I get out
- 30:36Speaker 4: there and Reggie Wayne's wide open, I want to hop
- 30:40Speaker 4: it to him because of my thumb. That's selfish on
- 30:44Speaker 4: my part. So I tell Sergie, I said, I said, get.
- 30:48Speaker 3: Ready, and I was like, wait a minute, hold on, man,
- 30:52Speaker 3: We're in the warrant to change. The game were tied,
- 30:55Speaker 3: and I looked out. I was like, brother, you gotta go,
- 30:57Speaker 3: right Like, that's the that's the most important part at
- 30:59Speaker 3: the Like, brother, you gotta go. You gotta find a
- 31:04Speaker 3: way to suck it up and get out there. This
- 31:07Speaker 3: is football, okay, Like, can you somehow some way get
- 31:13Speaker 3: out there? Could other players with the same injury somehow
- 31:19Speaker 3: find a way to get out there? If they can,
- 31:22Speaker 3: then you can, right, Like, that's what it comes down to.
- 31:26Speaker 3: Would Josh Allen, the Bills quarterback, be out there with
- 31:29Speaker 3: a back bruise, Hell yes, he would, Like it's not
- 31:34Speaker 3: even a question. So if other players would get out there,
- 31:38Speaker 3: why is Lamar not getting out there? He should have
- 31:41Speaker 3: been out there against the Patriots last game. He should
- 31:44Speaker 3: be out there the next game against the Packers, and
- 31:47Speaker 3: with him being listed as doubtful, that's exactly.
- 31:51Speaker 1: What it means.
- 31:51Speaker 3: It almost means out doubtful is the kissing cousin to
- 31:54Speaker 3: out not playing, And it's like, bro, again, he's day.
- 32:01Speaker 3: This isn't oh man. We're talking about six weeks recovery timetable.
- 32:07Speaker 3: And he's like, you know, what the hell with it,
- 32:08Speaker 3: I'm just gonna get out there and gut it out.
- 32:10Speaker 3: It's like, whoa, dude, that's radical. He's day to day
- 32:15Speaker 3: and he's doubtful. What the hell? Man? Like, I just
- 32:19Speaker 3: can't even defend it. TJ Watt. TJ Watt just had
- 32:23Speaker 3: surgery on a partially collapsed lung. He's practicing this week.
- 32:29Speaker 3: He's trying to get out there against the Browns. Like,
- 32:32Speaker 3: does this think about that? The division comes down to
- 32:34Speaker 3: the Steelers and the Ravens. You've got DJ Watt rush
- 32:40Speaker 3: end right, partially collapsed lung, just had surgery. He's practicing,
- 32:47Speaker 3: He's on course to be playing this Sunday. Lamar Jackson
- 32:52Speaker 3: day to day with a bruise, missed the second half
- 32:56Speaker 3: against the Patriots, doubtful against the Packers. What the hell?
- 33:01Speaker 3: I don't even know what to say about that. By
- 33:03Speaker 3: the way, on a lighter note, how about the vampire
- 33:06Speaker 3: Peyton Manning just sucking his own thumb blood? How about that? Okay,
- 33:13Speaker 3: vent the nail back he got to you know, yeah,
- 33:16Speaker 3: gotta do some maintenance over here. But yeah, by the way,
- 33:19Speaker 3: shout out I don't want to be too negative, but
- 33:22Speaker 3: shout out to Cape Cod paper boy. He came up
- 33:25Speaker 3: with the right names, right. I couldn't think off the
- 33:27Speaker 3: top of my head. Our girl, Andrea and Berkeley her cats.
- 33:31Speaker 3: So she had Diva d E v A. She did
- 33:34Speaker 3: mention that I remember that, and Dove. I forgot Dove.
- 33:38Speaker 3: How dare I forget Dove? How can I forget a
- 33:41Speaker 3: cat named Dove? You know, it's not good. Not good.
- 33:44Speaker 3: Got to step it up in the memory department. Many
- 33:48Speaker 3: other things happened on Christmas Day. One thing that I
- 33:53Speaker 3: haven't mentioned at all. I want to get to right
- 33:56Speaker 3: around the corner, the last occurrence. You know, you had
- 34:01Speaker 3: the Last Dance with the Chicago Bulls, right the documentary.
- 34:04Speaker 3: Outstanding job they did with that one, except for you know,
- 34:09Speaker 3: let me digress for a second. I was let me
- 34:12Speaker 3: combine two things on the fly. I was just talking
- 34:16Speaker 3: about Maleak Neighbors Giants wide receiver, and so he's doing
- 34:22Speaker 3: this I Hop commercial and he's making fun of himself. Right,
- 34:28Speaker 3: he got hurt early in the season, and so the
- 34:31Speaker 3: joke is that he lost some people their fantasy football leagues, Right,
- 34:37Speaker 3: that's the joke. And so the tie in with I
- 34:39Speaker 3: Hop is some bets that are paid off, you gotta
- 34:43Speaker 3: stay in eye Hop or waffle House for twenty four hours,
- 34:46Speaker 3: can't leave. And so they came up with this bottomless
- 34:49Speaker 3: pancakes thing at ie Hop. So it's a promotion for that,
- 34:54Speaker 3: and in turn, Molik Neighbors is making fun of himself
- 34:57Speaker 3: for being hurt most of the season, and I think
- 35:00Speaker 3: that's great. A lot of people are like, whoa, whoa, Oh,
- 35:02Speaker 3: I don't want to be associated with that. It's negative.
- 35:05Speaker 3: It makes me look bad, Like, oh, Melik Neighbors, you
- 35:08Speaker 3: made me lose my fantasy league. Like, no one wants
- 35:11Speaker 3: to be known like that. But Malik Neighbors was like,
- 35:13Speaker 3: it's funny, it's not that bad. It's harmless. But the
- 35:17Speaker 3: point is when I mentioned the last dance, the only
- 35:20Speaker 3: thing about the last Dance that was lame is that
- 35:23Speaker 3: Michael Jordan had full control over that thing, and he
- 35:26Speaker 3: wasn't going to let hardly anything out that made him
- 35:31Speaker 3: look bad, you know. So it's sort of like, how
- 35:35Speaker 3: could I paint myself in the best life light piece?
- 35:39Speaker 3: You know? At ten part this is Michael Jordan in
- 35:42Speaker 3: the NBA, and wow, what a superstar? And wow this
- 35:45Speaker 3: and wow that. I want the documentary that is like
- 35:49Speaker 3: the Malik Neighbors ihop commercial where Melik Neighbors is making
- 35:54Speaker 3: fun of himself. He's casting himself in a unfair favor light,
- 36:01Speaker 3: if you will. He's drawing attention to the fact he
- 36:04Speaker 3: was hurt most of the year and he was the
- 36:08Speaker 3: reason that some people lost their fantasy league, right like that.
- 36:12Speaker 3: I like, I think it's respectable, it's being real. But
- 36:15Speaker 3: I want the documentary where someone has full control and
- 36:20Speaker 3: they tell stories that make that person look bad. They're like, yeah,
- 36:26Speaker 3: oh yeah, let let that story be known of the
- 36:29Speaker 3: time where I did something wrong, the time where I
- 36:32Speaker 3: made a terrible choice. Let's go in great detail about
- 36:35Speaker 3: that instead of oh, wow, what a superstar and look
- 36:37Speaker 3: at him glide through the air and wow, like everybody
- 36:40Speaker 3: wanted his autograph, And instead of that, how about the
- 36:43Speaker 3: real stuff? How about the man I gambled millions of
- 36:47Speaker 3: dollars away man that one night in Vegas. What a disaster.
- 36:51Speaker 3: What the hell was I thinking? Here are all the
- 36:53Speaker 3: details of that. That's what I want. I want that documentary.
- 36:57Speaker 3: I want the Moleik Neighbors ihop commercial as the next
- 37:01Speaker 3: Netflix doc That's what I want. I want the real thing.
- 37:05Speaker 3: What I want an athlete with full control over what
- 37:09Speaker 3: gets out, what's publicized, and they're just like, here's the
- 37:12Speaker 3: real here's everything that went on. Whether it makes me
- 37:15Speaker 3: look good, whether it makes me look like the biggest
- 37:18Speaker 3: idiot on the face of the earth, that's what I want.
- 37:21Speaker 3: I want someone with full control that just gives you
- 37:23Speaker 3: the whole story. I might be waiting for quite a while,
- 37:27Speaker 3: but that's exactly what I want. But the Neighbors thing,
- 37:30Speaker 3: it gives me hope, gives me hope that someone out
- 37:32Speaker 3: there might be real enough to be like, here's the
- 37:34Speaker 3: whole story, and a lot of it doesn't make me
- 37:38Speaker 3: look good. I want to see that. I want to
- 37:40Speaker 3: see that coming up in the not too distant future. Okay,
- 37:43Speaker 3: eight seven seven ninety nine on Fox, I do see
- 37:46Speaker 3: a regular is poking around the corner right here. We'll
- 37:51Speaker 3: get to the militia coming up next, and also man
- 37:57Speaker 3: there was a problem. Goodbye, the last installment, the last dance,
- 38:05Speaker 3: if you will, for a brilliant player. We will get
- 38:08Speaker 3: to that right around the corner. I'm Brian no In
- 38:10Speaker 3: for big Ben Malor. Keep it locked right here on
- 38:13Speaker 3: Fox Sports Radio.