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Best of The Ben Maller Show · The Ben Maller Show

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  Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to the best of the Ben Maller
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  Speaker 1: Show podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weeknight
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  Speaker 1: from 2 to 6 Eastern, 11 p.m. to 3 a.m.
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  Speaker 1: Pacific on Fox Sports Radio. And to find your local
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  Speaker 1: station for the Ben Maller Show at foxsportsradio.com. You can
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  Speaker 1: find it there. Or stream us live every night on
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  Speaker 1: the iHeartRadio app by searching FSR.
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  Speaker 2: This is the best of the Ben Maller Show on
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  Speaker 2: Fox Sports Radio.
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  Speaker 1: A story that has been years and years in the making.
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  Speaker 1: I have had many, many people reach out to me
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  Speaker 1: over the years trying to do some kind of voodoo
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  Speaker 1: boogaloo to get rid of the owner in Anaheim. And
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  Speaker 1: it's not that the witch is dead, the witch is dead,
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  Speaker 1: the witch is dead. However, a changing of the halo.
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  Speaker 1: At the Big A, Artie Marino, Artie Marino exiting kind of. What? Well,
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  Speaker 1: the news came out. If you didn't see it, perhaps not.
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  Speaker 1: Artie Marino, longtime terrible owner of the Anaheim baseball team,
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  Speaker 1: is selling the Angels to the guy that owns the Rams,
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  Speaker 1: Stan Kroenke. And the Angels, the most valuable team ever
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  Speaker 1: sold in baseball, which proves winning doesn't matter. The Halos
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  Speaker 1: will be sold for $ 4 billion. Yikes. Now, Stan Kroenke,
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  Speaker 1: the largest independent landowner in the United States, part of
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  Speaker 1: his operation, his empire of sports and entertainment, they will acquire,
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  Speaker 1: we are told, a controlling stake with a deal expected
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  Speaker 1: to close sometime in early 2027. Of course, keep in mind,
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  Speaker 1: there's a work stoppage in baseball that will not impede
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  Speaker 1: the The agreement to sell the Angels, it is pending
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  Speaker 1: Major League Baseball approval. If you've seen some of the
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  Speaker 1: people baseball has approved as owners, it doesn't seem like
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  Speaker 1: the bar is that high to clear. So Stan should
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  Speaker 1: be all right. Stan, the man, already owns, as mentioned,
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  Speaker 1: the Rams, the Denver Nuggets, and the Avalanche, the Rapids,
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  Speaker 1: some Premier League team, the whole thing. He's got a
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  Speaker 1: little bit of this, a little bit of that, and
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  Speaker 1: a lot of money. Now Kroenke issued a prepared statement.
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  Speaker 1: And in that prepared statement, he claimed that the Angels are, quote,
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  Speaker 1: a storied franchise anchored in a great market and promises a, quote,
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  Speaker 1: exciting future. A lot of empty platitudes in that particular
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  Speaker 1: statement from Marty Marino. But that is a good jumping
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  Speaker 1: off point. Let us discuss the question. How much better
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  Speaker 1: off are the Angels today simply because Stan Kroenke is
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  Speaker 1: is going to replace Artie Marino. We'll keep it simple.
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  Speaker 1: So I've got Greyhound Bus, Buzz Lightyear, and Goodyear Blimp.
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  Speaker 1: And we will combine all of these things together, and
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  Speaker 1: we're going to have some funfetti cake. Because the feedback
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  Speaker 1: I've gotten already from you, who reach out to me
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  Speaker 1: and harass me via the email, you've already let me
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  Speaker 1: know that this is one of the great days in
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  Speaker 1: your life as a sports fan. Which is very odd
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  Speaker 1: that just a rich guy buying the team from another
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  Speaker 1: rich guy qualifies as a great day. A wonderful mitzvah.
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  Speaker 1: But here we are. That's how bad the Angels have been.
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  Speaker 1: So my first thought on this, I do agree. There's
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  Speaker 1: no real hyperbole. It feels like a liberation day in
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  Speaker 1: Anaheim for a sad sack pathetic franchise. And that's what
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  Speaker 1: the Angels have been for years and years and years
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  Speaker 1: and years and years. And the Angel fans, a hearty bunch,
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  Speaker 1: are Do I see a parade? See, if I was
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  Speaker 1: doing local radio, I'd set up some kind of parade.
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  Speaker 1: We'd have a parade down Main Street, USA there. What
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  Speaker 1: fun would that be, right? You can declare yourself born again,
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  Speaker 1: born again, fan of the Angels. There you go. Hallelujah. Hallelujah.
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  Speaker 1: And symbolically, you know what you have to do? Symbolically,
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  Speaker 1: you have to attack the Artie Marino statue. Is there
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  Speaker 1: an Artie Marino statue? It seems like there should be,
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  Speaker 1: the way Artie ran the Angels there. Take your sledgehammers.
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  Speaker 1: Get a bulldozer from a construction site and knock yourself
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  Speaker 1: out there. The greatest day for the Halos since the
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  Speaker 1: O2 World Series against the Gigantes back many years ago.
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  Speaker 1: That's an entire generation. Think about it. A generation has passed,
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  Speaker 1: and the Angels have been futile on the field. Wild, wild.
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  Speaker 1: A generation of kids have been born, grown up, made
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  Speaker 1: it through college, and the Angels have sucked their whole lives.
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  Speaker 1: So I am Benny Brightside. I am Benny Brightside here.
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  Speaker 1: I genuinely am happy for my friends that like the Angels,
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  Speaker 1: the long-suffering fans of the Halo there. I'm happy for you.
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  Speaker 1: You've endured this horrific blight of bad baseball, and you've
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  Speaker 1: been fed a constant diet of fertilizer hoagies. I know
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  Speaker 1: Coop's excited. He dusted off all his angel gear. He's
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  Speaker 1: so excited there. He can wear it again. There's no
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  Speaker 1: longer shame. There's no longer shame in that. And to
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  Speaker 1: go from Artie Marino to Stan Kroenke, it's kind of
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  Speaker 1: like going from a 1970s Greyhound bus to a Gulfstream jet.
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  Speaker 1: It's just a big-time upgrade there, big-time upgrade. And Kroenke,
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  Speaker 1: who I've known about Stan Kroenke for a long time.
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  Speaker 1: He's been around much. He's older than I am by
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  Speaker 1: a lot. I remember I was talking to a buddy
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  Speaker 1: of mine about this years ago when the Rams were
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  Speaker 1: in St. Louis, the late, great Joe McDonald, legend. And L.A.
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  Speaker 1: radio legend Joe McDonald, he knew Stan Kroenke pretty well.
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  Speaker 1: Stan was not really involved in sports too much back
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  Speaker 1: in those days. And he's like, well, Stan, you got
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  Speaker 1: to move the Rams back to L.A., Stan. He actually did. Now,
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  Speaker 1: Joe died before that happened. But Stan actually bought the
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  Speaker 1: Rams and moved them back to L.A. and the whole thing.
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  Speaker 1: But anyway, listen, here's the deal. The guy's an introvert. Fellow,
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  Speaker 1: I'm an introvert. He's an introvert. So that's a good thing.
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  Speaker 1: And he lets his money do the talking. And it's
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  Speaker 1: worked out pretty well. And that money's got a big
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  Speaker 1: booming voice. It does. A very shrewd businessman. Of course,
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  Speaker 1: you can be a shrewd businessman when you have unbelievably
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  Speaker 1: huge amounts of money. He's worth around $ 24 billion, give
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  Speaker 1: or take, depending on stock market. And he tapped into
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  Speaker 1: that sweet nectar of Walmart money early on through marriage.
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  Speaker 1: And you would have Seem to think that Stan Kroenke
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  Speaker 1: sees the Angels as they are. Well, they're undervalued. It's
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  Speaker 1: a big market, Southern California, and there's real estate involved
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  Speaker 1: in that. And whether you keep the Angels in Anaheim
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  Speaker 1: or you move them somewhere else, you... You love buying
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  Speaker 1: land and land becomes even more valuable when you put
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  Speaker 1: a baseball stadium in it and put apartments around it
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  Speaker 1: and things like that. Develop a shopping center and hotels
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  Speaker 1: and all that stuff. And so it's kind of like
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  Speaker 1: what he's done with the Rams at SoFi Stadium and
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  Speaker 1: that whole area in L.A., which is a whole to
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  Speaker 1: do with all kinds of things going on there. You'd
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  Speaker 1: imagine he'd do the same thing, and he's so rich,
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  Speaker 1: Stan Kroenke, that when this guy takes a bowel movement,
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  Speaker 1: it's $ 4, 500 for one bowel movement. Yeah, he goes to
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  Speaker 1: take a whiz, it's like $ 1, 000. It's pretty crazy there. Hallelujah.
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  Speaker 1: All right, keeping the theme of the hour going here
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  Speaker 1: on the Ben Maller Show. So another angle to this,
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  Speaker 1: what does the future hold? for the Angels understand Kroenke.
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  Speaker 1: So looking into my crystal ball as a distant relative
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  Speaker 1: of Nostradamus and close personal friend of Nostradamus, the term here,
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  Speaker 1: it's an old TV show, happy days. Yes, happy days
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  Speaker 1: are here again. The Angels actually could sniff a playoff
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  Speaker 1: spot instead of sniffing the worst record in professional baseball,
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  Speaker 1: which is where they have been going neck and neck recently.
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  Speaker 1: At this point in the season, for the last couple
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  Speaker 1: of weeks here, last couple of months, actually, as the
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  Speaker 1: worst team, it's between them and the Rockies, the very
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  Speaker 1: bottom there. So we see in the crystal ball, Stan
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  Speaker 1: Kroenke going full Toy Story, like, think Buzz Lightyear with
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  Speaker 1: the Angels, to infinity and beyond! To infinity and beyond!
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  Speaker 1: Just like that. So first things first, of course, you
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  Speaker 1: need to do the right thing, and that is in
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  Speaker 1: organizational exorcism. And you have to fumigate the entire franchise.
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  Speaker 1: Anything associated with Artie Marino and this era of the
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  Speaker 1: Angels must be fumigated. It has to happen there. And
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  Speaker 1: the argument has been the Angels are one of those
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  Speaker 1: sleeping giants in terms of the amount of people that
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  Speaker 1: could go to those games, support the team, and that
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  Speaker 1: they are in a place people want to play. Prime
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  Speaker 1: location in Orange County. Mike Trout loves it so much,
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  Speaker 1: he doesn't care the Angels haven't won his whole career.
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  Speaker 1: He lives in Laguna Beach. He can go surfing and
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  Speaker 1: golfing and do whatever he wants, and it doesn't matter.
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  Speaker 1: Nobody pressures him. There's no real accountability. It's been great.
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  Speaker 1: The surf and turf right there. Hallelujah. And it's a
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  Speaker 1: big market. So Stan Kroenke, he did not all of
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  Speaker 1: a sudden become oligarch rich and make money on top
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  Speaker 1: of money. By thinking small. So you figure he's going
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  Speaker 1: to think big there. And there's no seven-year rebuilding plan,
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  Speaker 1: all that bull crap. That's all a scam. The Angels
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  Speaker 1: have been pulling that scam. We're building. No, you're not.
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  Speaker 1: You're not building anything. Forget the ceremonial prospect canoodling. There's
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  Speaker 1: no canoodling needed here. Stan Kroenke, I believe he's 79.
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  Speaker 1: And when you're 79, you're not thinking, hey, let's have
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  Speaker 1: a seven-year rebuild. You're in bonus time, and you might
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  Speaker 1: as well enjoy that and lock into bonus time. And
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  Speaker 1: so I think the American League West blows. So the Angels,
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  Speaker 1: I'd give them three years. I think it should be
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  Speaker 1: next time they come back, they should be a contender.
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  Speaker 1: Make a couple of good moves, and all of a sudden,
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  Speaker 1: if you actually are trying, you can make the plus.
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  Speaker 1: There's four slots you have. You have the division and
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  Speaker 1: three wild cards. The bar is to be 500 in
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  Speaker 1: the American League. You're a playoff team. You can't get
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  Speaker 1: to 500?
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  Speaker 3: No.
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  Speaker 2: Come on.
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  Speaker 1: It should be in the playoffs the next time they
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  Speaker 1: play baseball. Whenever that is, 2028 or 2029 or 2030,
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  Speaker 1: they should have a chance to be a playoff team.
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  Speaker 1: It should at least be a playoff team. And then
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  Speaker 1: I think at some point here they win another championship.
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  Speaker 1: And so Stan Kroenke, he has been the owner of
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  Speaker 1: the Rams. They won a championship, the Nuggets championship. Avalanche
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  Speaker 1: have won the Stanley Cup. And even the Premier League
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  Speaker 1: team has won as well. So he's got that going
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  Speaker 1: for him. So good for him. And he's not merely...
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  Speaker 1: You look at Artie Marino, how bad he is. We'll
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  Speaker 1: get to that in a second. But Stan Kroenke, not
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  Speaker 1: merely the Angels' new owner. It's like an actual adult
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  Speaker 1: in the room, which they have not had, it would appear,
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  Speaker 1: for some time here. And do not be surprised, though,
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  Speaker 1: if the endgame involves a major real estate deal with
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  Speaker 1: a spectacular stadium development. State-of-the-art stadium. with a giant big
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  Speaker 1: A like they used to have back in the 1970s
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  Speaker 1: in their stadium. And he could do that. And Stan
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  Speaker 1: Kroenke can fund the whole thing. That's what he did.
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  Speaker 1: People don't understand. You can't get anything built in California
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  Speaker 1: because of the People's Republic and the woke politics in California.
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  Speaker 1: But Stan Kroenke's got so much money. He just built
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  Speaker 1: SoFi Stadium. And with minimal contribution from anyone else, he
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  Speaker 1: just put his money together there and Because you look
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  Speaker 1: at underneath the baseball romance. Oh, it's baseball. Still, this
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  Speaker 1: is the ultimate rich man's game. It's the ultimate rich
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  Speaker 1: man's game when it comes to real estate. And that's
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  Speaker 1: what this is about for Stan Kroenke. Of course, it
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  Speaker 1: also means you're going to have some success on the field.
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  Speaker 1: The baseball team attached to the real estate. All right,
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  Speaker 1: last word. Let's now go to the better story, which
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  Speaker 1: is in losing locker room, the losing locker room. And
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  Speaker 1: so the question, how are we going to remember the
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  Speaker 1: Artie Marino ownership of the Angels? What stands out here?
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  Speaker 1: It's going to stand the test of time with Artie Marino. Now,
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  Speaker 1: he's not fully leaving from what we understand. He'll still
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  Speaker 1: be haunting the Angels as a minority owner of the team.
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  Speaker 1: If he was an NBA person, they'd say he's a
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  Speaker 1: minority governor. but the baseball people haven't gone full woke yet,
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  Speaker 1: like the NBA, so they still call their people that
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  Speaker 1: own the team owners. So a minority owner. So here's
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  Speaker 1: how I'm going to remember Artie Marino as the majority
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  Speaker 1: owner of the Angels. Artie was running his own IHOP,
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  Speaker 1: and he loved serving hotcakes, mistake hotcakes, stack them high
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  Speaker 1: to the sky, mistake after mistake after mistake. Now, you've
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  Speaker 1: heard of the Midas Touch. I assume you've heard of
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  Speaker 1: the Midas Touch at some point here. Marino, Artie Marino
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  Speaker 1: had the Saddam touch. And it's really fascinating to see
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  Speaker 1: how this all played out over the years with the Angels.
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  Speaker 1: Everything baseball related that this guy touched turned upside down,
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  Speaker 1: inside out and completely backwards. It's fascinating. They signed Josh Hamilton,
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  Speaker 1: which would not have been a problem if he hadn't
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  Speaker 1: had a Coke problem and not Coca-Cola. Okay, so that's
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  Speaker 1: one thing. Albert Pujols arrived with much fanfare in Anaheim,
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  Speaker 1: which would have been a great move. The gold standard
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: with the St. Louis Cardinals, Prince Albert. And unfortunately, they
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: didn't check the fine print. His warranty had expired by
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: the time he touched down at the Big A. which
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: seemed to be a bit of a problem. Bit of
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: a problem. Then you have the creme de la creme,
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  Speaker 1: the Mona Lisa, Anthony Rendon, who had the double whammy.
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  Speaker 1: Not only did he seem to hate baseball, he seemed
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  Speaker 1: to hate fun. And he signed him. Because he played
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  Speaker 1: well for a month for the Nationals and they won
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  Speaker 1: the World Series. So they gave him this ridiculous contract
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  Speaker 1: to a guy who didn't like baseball, didn't want to
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  Speaker 1: play on the West Coast. All the boxes you don't
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  Speaker 1: want checked, he checked. And so it's almost impossible. To
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  Speaker 1: think about that, three in a row, free agent signing,
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  Speaker 1: and then also the fact the Angels had two of
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  Speaker 1: this generation's greatest players, Mike Trout and Shohei Otani, together
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  Speaker 1: for years and couldn't win anything. They didn't even get bupkis,
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  Speaker 1: the Angels, with those two guys on the team. And
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  Speaker 1: Artie also had the gift for gab. I'm going to
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  Speaker 1: remember this. One of my favorite quotes since I've been
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  Speaker 1: doing talk radio from an owner was Artie Marino just
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: this year. and it was just great. Remember Artie talked
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: about the fans in Anaheim, and he said the Angel
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  Speaker 1: fans don't care about winning. It's rather odd that an
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  Speaker 1: owner would say the fan base doesn't care about winning,
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: but he said the real housewives of Orange County, the
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: moms of Orange County, they just want cheap tickets. They
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: want affordable snacks at the ballpark, and they want a
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: safe place for their kids to watch baseball. They don't
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: care about winning. Seems like an odd position to take,
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  Speaker 1: but Artie said it. We're glad he did. He gave
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  Speaker 1: a great quote. However, my favorite Artie Marino story, my
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: favorite story about Artie Marino... was how thin-skinned he was. Now,
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: the Angels haven't gotten much media coverage. They always complained
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: about that, even when I was around there a lot
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: back in the day. Oh, we're not getting the proper
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: amount of attention and the bitch and moan and all
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: that stuff. So far. Well, there was a guy named T.J. Simers,
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: the late, great T.J. Simers, who was a buddy of mine.
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: And T.J. was a rabble-rouser, columnist, like a real columnist.
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: There's a lot of soft columnists now that don't really
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: hold anyone accountable. And they go, whee! He wasn't like that.
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: He was an a-hole. And he leaned into his inner a-hole.
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: And he would say things that were accurate. But generally,
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: in polite society, you don't say these things. And he'd
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: rip the angels all the time. And he took some
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: shots at Artie Marino, TJ Simers, in the newspaper. I
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  Speaker 1: guess one too many times. I say that because Artie
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: decided to punish TJ and not just TJ Simers, the
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  Speaker 1: entire media contingent by moving the main press box where
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: the baseball media sit from the standard position behind home
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: plate to above the right field foul pole. You're literally
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: closer to the pearly gates than you are home plate.
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: You can't even see home plate without needing some kind
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: of neck massage to turn your neck. And boy, let
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: me tell you something. Boy, did that work out wonderfully
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  Speaker 1: for the Angels, who went from partially invisible to fully
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: invisible for the L.A. media, who did not make the
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: trip down there because you were better off. If you're
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: going to cover the Angels, you're better off just watching
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: from the Goodyear blimp. And looking down, you had a
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: better view from the Goodyear blimp. Unobstructed. Of course, the
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: ultimate punchline is Artie wins. Artie wins. Owning a major
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: sports franchise is an idiot-proof piggy bank on steroids. It
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: just is. And this is more evidence. Artie Marino turned
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: a purchase of the team. He bought the team. Let's see.
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: He was terrible. He bought the team for $ 184 million
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: in 2003. He is now selling the team for a
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  Speaker 1: $ 4 billion valuation. That is nearly 22 times the purchase price.
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  Speaker 1: What other investment can you have that goes up 22
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  Speaker 1: times in that amount of time? 22 times in 20 years.
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  Speaker 1: 24 years or 23 years. So every wrong decision, the
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: thing you were supposed to do, you're supposed to zigzag
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: and you get a $ 4 billion pot of gold and
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: you don't even sell the whole team. You're still going
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: to be around there and you're going to be hanging out.
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: And so it turns out the Saddam touch. The Saddam
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  Speaker 1: touch finally at the very end became the Midas touch
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: on the way kind of out of town, but he's
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: still going to have a corner office somewhere and he'll
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: still be hiding in the shadows and go boo. He's
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: like the poltergeist. He's still going to be hanging out,
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: but Stan Kroenke. He's now going to be the owner
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: of the Angels.
• 18:50
  Speaker 2: Be sure to catch live editions of the Ben Maller
• 18:52
  Speaker 2: Show weekdays at 2 a.m. Eastern, 11 p.m. Pacific on
• 18:56
  Speaker 2: Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: Hey, it's Covino and Rich from Fox Sports Radio.
• 19:02
  Speaker 3: Now, in addition to hearing us live weekdays from 5
• 19:04
  Speaker 3: to 7 p.m. Eastern, 2 to 4 Pacific on Fox
• 19:07
  Speaker 3: Sports Radio, we're excited to announce a brand new YouTube
• 19:11
  Speaker 3: channel for the show.
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: Yup, that's right.
• 19:12
  Speaker 3: You can now watch Covino & Rich live on YouTube
• 19:15
  Speaker 3: every day. All you gotta do, search Covino & Rich
• 19:18
  Speaker 3: FSR on YouTube. Again, go to YouTube, search Covino &
• 19:22
  Speaker 3: Rich FSR. Check us out on YouTube, subscribe, hit that
• 19:27
  Speaker 3: thumbs up icon, and comment away.
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: And our lead story this hour is from the front
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: office of the NFL. Well, it is an executive. It's
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: not necessarily an NFL story. It's a hybrid story It's
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: about the bounce, bounce, bounce. The bouncy bounce is what
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: it is. So we go to Indy where the Colts
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: general manager, Chris Ballard, who clearly has clearly has incriminating
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: photos of multiple people. Many assumed when Jim Irsay unfortunately
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: met his demise in some drug situation that the the
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: daughter would say all right we got to get a
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: new GM but no Ballard remains as he's produced mediocrity
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: year after year there in Indianapolis but he's a really
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: good guy so Chris Ballard the GM of the Colts
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: blasted the trend of NFL players trying to return to
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: college football it's become a thing it's been the story
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: we've talked about a lot the last couple weeks and
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: it's Crazy. So you get waived by an NFL team,
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: and then you're like, all right, I'll go to Louisiana State,
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: or I would like to go somewhere else to play
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: some college football. Well, Ballard was asked a question, and
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: he did not bite his tongue. He did not go
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: to sportscliché. com. He did not give the standard boilerplate answer.
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: He gave you this. Let's go to the audio tape.
• 20:52
  Speaker 3: Did you have any rookies come to you wanting to
• 20:54
  Speaker 3: go back and play college football?
• 20:56
  Speaker 2: No, that's the stupidest I've ever heard.
• 21:02
  Speaker 4: Your entire life, I know I'll catch crap for this,
• 21:05
  Speaker 4: but your entire life you fight to get up to
• 21:08
  Speaker 4: the NFL.
• 21:09
  Speaker 2: Okay, but now we're going to go back.
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: Okay, that makes a lot of freaking sense. All right,
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: so that was it. That was the money quote, as
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: you heard right there. The key part of that, the
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: stupidest blank in my entire life. There you go. All right,
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: so this is being played out in the court system.
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: If you haven't been paying attention, bad job by you.
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: The lawsuits are taking place in many jurisdictions over eligibility.
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: There was some chatter I was reading the other day.
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: This could go all the way to the Supreme Court.
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: which seems rather absurd, but here we are. Leagues have
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: put rules in to not allow the bounce-back players to
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: go from college to the NFL and back to college football.
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: The door is currently open at the moment, pending legal rulings,
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: and Ballard is the first NFL general manager to actually
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: say what he really thinks. Everyone else has been doing
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: the dance. La-la-la-la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la-la, being politically correct. Chris Ballard not
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: being politically correct. So that is a good jumping off point.
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: Let us discuss the question. I'm curious what you think
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: about the Colts GM here, Chris Ballard, calling the trend
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: of NFL players trying to go back to college the
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: stupidest blank he's ever heard. All right, so I've got PlayStation, Awkwafina,
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: and rubber band gun. And we will combine all of
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: these things together, and we are going to put the
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: biscuit in the basket is what we're going to do.
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: But we always start out with our old friend, number one!
• 22:51
  Speaker 5: Number one!
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: Number one!
• 22:54
  Speaker 2: Number one!
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: Number one! All right! All right, so on the surface,
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: making the NFL and then crawling back into the sewer
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: of college football... It's akin to being promoted to the
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: assistant regional manager and then begging for your old internship back.
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: It would kind of only be like me. Like, you know,
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: I interned at the mighty 690 in San Diego. I
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: would like to leave this job and go back and
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: check out the high-speed sports wire with Lee Hacksaw Hamilton.
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: I want to do that again. Why not? What the F?
• 23:35
  Speaker 2: No!
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: So I understand the logic behind what Ballard said, and
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: you look at it that way, it makes sense. However,
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: we don't live in that world, and you have to
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: look at this through this set of bifocals here, just
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: keeping it real. Because what we do is we keep...
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: Do I like the fact that players are trying to
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: go back to college? No, I think it's dumb. That
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: being said, we're not talking about established all-pro NFL players
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: here that are abandoning the NFL life. We're talking about
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: roster spam is what we're talking about. And these guys
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: are staring into... what many would call the soul-crushing abyss.
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: The reality is that they're not good enough for the NFL.
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: They're good enough for college. It's like a 4A player
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: in baseball, they used to call it, where you're too
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: good for AAA, and you're not good enough for the majors,
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: so you're stuck in the twilight zone, where these guys
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: would appear to be that type of player, where they're
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: good enough to get a look from the NFL... They're
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: not good enough to do anything to make a name
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: for themselves in the NFL, or they haven't been given
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: the right opportunity. And so the top scenario for these
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: type of players is to become what? A practice squad guy,
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: fall into the purgatory. Now, I would say that's a
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: pretty good life for a little bit. You don't last
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: very long on the practice squad. But times have changed.
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: It's purely business. It's called profiteering is what it's called.
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: And if you make the practice squad, which is no guarantee.
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: You know that and I know that. It's no guarantee
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: to make the practice squad. That gig, if you're a
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: first-time young player on the practice squad, pays about $ 250, 000. Now,
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: for most people, if I said you're going to make $ 250, 000,
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: you'd say, oh, my God. I've done very well. That's
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: a good thing. $ 250, 000 a year. That's great. Way to go. However,
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: if an NIL sugar daddy who lives in a bayou
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: somewhere in Louisiana and loves LSU football and Tiger Man,
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: who calls the show, And that sugar daddy who likes
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: eating crawfish says, you know what? You can make $ 250, 000
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: roughly playing on a NFL practice squad. I will double
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: or triple that. And you can go back to college
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: where the women are very attractive and life is good.
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: And you can go play right there. So you get richer.
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: You make more money. you get guaranteed playing time. They're
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: not bringing these guys in to have them walk up
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: and down the sidelines and get 10,000 steps. And you,
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: in theory, would rebuild your draft stock. So win, win, win. Winning,
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: it is not, in their eyes, a retreat. It is
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: hitting the reset. Kind of like you're playing on PlayStation,
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: you hit the reset thing, and then You blew the
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: first game. It didn't go very well for you, so
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: you hit the reset button, and you get another new
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: life and bigger bag. It's all about the bag. What's
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: in the bag? And another crack at the boss level.
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: So that's there. Again, if it's allowed, it shouldn't be allowed.
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: It's rather stupid, but it's allowed right now, and so
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: we'll see how this plays out. And there we go. Now, meanwhile,
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: to L.A., a number of you reached out and said, oh,
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: you're such a holler for the Rams. Anything negative, you
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: don't mention it. Which, A, is not true. I am
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: skeptical of how good Aaron Donald's going to be. I've
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: said that. I did some monologues about that. This is
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: not about Aaron Donald, though. This is about... I know
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: two of these guys who email me regularly are Seahawks fans.
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: The other one, I don't know what team they're like.
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: I'm assuming it's not the Rams. So I had three
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: people reach out to me and say, you buried this story.
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: You didn't mention it because it's a negative.
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: So if you didn't see this, the LA Rams, which
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: is an NFL team that is the favorite to win
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: the Super Bowl, they announced who their captains are. Now,
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: have I ever spent a lot of time focused on
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: captains of NFL teams? Hell no! However, this made news. Now,
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: the reason it made news is how many captains do
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: you think the Rams have? It's like that joke. How
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: many people does it take to screw in a light bulb?
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: How many captains does it take to have for Sean
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: McVay's Ram? So not one, not two. Not three, not four.
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: Not five, not six. Not seven, not eight. Not nine,
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: not ten. Eleven!
• 28:19
  Speaker 4: The L.A.
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: Rams have eleven team captains.
• 28:24
  Speaker 2: Eleven!
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: One, one, oh the fun! Eleven! It's a mix of
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: established veterans and younger players, some new people on the team.
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: Captains are led by The reigning MVP, Matthew Stafford. The
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: timeless wonder, Devontae Adams. Miles Garrett. And Trent McDuffie, the
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: Chiefs defensive backer they traded for in a big trade
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: back during the draft or before the draft. But here's
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: the thing, though. Aaron Donald, not a captain. Puga Nakua,
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: not a captain. Although he'll bite your ass or your
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: shoulder or something like that. if you're into that kind
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: of thing. So the 11 captains, that sounds like a lot, right?
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: Is it true? Is it true that the 11 captains
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: for the 2026 LA Rams believed to be the most,
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: the most in modern pro football history, that there's never been,
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: never been an NFL team that has had more captains
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: than the LA Rams? Well, that's what the story says.
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: So the question is, And I'll just go right into it.
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: Can you defend, here's the question, can you defend Sean
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: McVay naming 11 captains for the 2020 Rams and the
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: answer is I just have two letters and oh and
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: if you want to make it four letters and OPE
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: nope I can't defend this and Sean McVay deserves to
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: wear the dunce cap on this one what are you
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: doing knock this crap off It's unbecoming. The Rams must
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: have gone down to the haberdashery and they saw there
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: was a sale sign. If you buy in bulk those
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: sea patches, okay, we'll buy in bulk. Why not? Eleven captains.
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: It's like that famous episode of when this woman who
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: used to be famous, Oprah Winfrey. A lot of people
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: don't even know who that is anymore. She was very
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: popular at one point in pop culture. And she had
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: a thing called a TV show. And on one episode,
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: you get a car, you get a car, you get
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: a car. You're a captain. You're a captain. You're a captain.
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: Everyone's a captain. So this is the part where I say,
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: if everyone's a captain, nobody's a captain. It's kind of
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: like the people we rant about, like when everyone claims racism,
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: then nothing's racism, right? Well, everyone can't be a captain
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: if everyone has the seat. What are you doing? You've
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: watered down the beer so much, Sean McVay. You're basically
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: serving Aquafina with a foam thing on top is what
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: you're doing. It's ridiculous. If my math is right, what's that?
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: Almost 23% of the active game day roster for the
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: Rams will walk around as Captain Crunch on the sidelines? Seriously,
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: what are you doing? At most, I would say you
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: need what? Three captains. You need an offensive captain, a
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: defensive captain, and a special teams captain. That's it. That's all.
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: Am I wrong? I don't think I'm wrong on this.
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: You need three. That's leadership. That's leadership. Who are the leaders?
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: You establish the leaders and you don't need in a
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: team dynamic to have everyone wear the C. It's ridiculous.
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: 11 captains. Welcome to a participation situation. It's crazy. I
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: think they have assistant captains. They have deputy captains, Captain Emeritus.
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: They've got every type of captain. Seriously, what is going
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: on with the Rams? Why are you doing this? You're
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: such a boomer, Maller. Well, A, I'm not a boomer.
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: That's not true. I was raised, clearly and inappropriately, to
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: think that leadership was an exclusive group. That is something special.
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: It mattered to be a leader. a leader of men.
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: And it wasn't for everyone. It wasn't for everyone. And
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: when almost a quarter of your active roster gets to
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: wear the title and that little patch with the C there,
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: I guess you could say that captain for the Rams
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: does not sound, it doesn't stand for captain in Los Angeles.
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: It stands for congratulations. Everybody gets one. Everybody gets one.
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: All right. Final point. Contract stalemate We go to Houston.
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: The Texans have announced they will not negotiate. Will not
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: negotiate with C.J. Stroud on a contract extension during the
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: regular season. This is according to their general manager, Nick Casario,
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: who says, Ixnay on the talk, eh? If no deal
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: is done, that's it. Houston's deadline is effectively September 13th.
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: Today is September 2nd. So that means as we're doing
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: this in real time, my computer-like brain tells me that's
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: 11 days away. 11 days before it begins the opener
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: for Houston against Here We Go Buffalo in Houston without
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: a deal. By then, we are told negotiations will be tabled.
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: They'll go on the back burner until the offseason. There
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: appears to be no imminent situation where a contract's about
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: to happen, if you believe the the whisperers out of Houston,
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: there will be no agreement anytime soon. So Houston already
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: exercising C.J. Stroud's fifth-year option, keeping him under team control
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: through the 2027 season. So here's the question. What message?
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: Give me the message. What message are the Texans sending C.J.
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: Stroud with this contract deadline, hardline deadline by the Texans?
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: So the way I read the room here, the Texans
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: are saying, welcome to an episode of Let's Make a Deal. Yeah,
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: let's make a deal. Behind door number one, you have
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: a team-friendly discounted contract. That's your option right now. You
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: can take it or leave it. Team-friendly contract. Behind door
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: number two, you are betting on yourself. And you're trying
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: to get all of the Bitcoins you can possibly get.
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: Good luck on that. Now, the Texans, this is something
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: that they're creating. And we talked about this with the
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: Steelers and Joey Porter Jr. And my position is pretty
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: much the same. If you really want the player, you'll
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: negotiate whenever to keep the player. You're not going to wait.
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: And so it's pretty obvious. And the Texans shouldn't sign C.J. Stroud.
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: They should not. They shouldn't pay him. Because he hasn't
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: earned the money. And Casario's like, well, he just put
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: a padlock on the room of negotiations. And that's it.
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: The naked truth is that C.J. Stroud, he didn't even
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: deserve a payday candy bar. Forget the big payday. You
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: know what he's like? He's like a rubber band gun.
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: It's an old toy people used to play with back
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: in the day. And the first shot is, when you
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: get as a kid... Maybe not now because of the
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: information age and all that, but back in my day,
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: you give a kid one of those rubber band guns,
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: and it is freaking so cool. The first shot, bam,
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: fired up. And he was a great rookie of the year,
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: franchise savior, the great messiah of the Texans, C.J. Stroud.
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: The second shot, second year, meh, meh. The third shot,
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: he ran out of ammo, C.J. Stroud, and the third
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: year they're crawling on the floor like a medieval peasant
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: trying to find the rubber bands. Where did the rubber
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: band go? I broke one of them. Mom! Mom! Where's
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: the rubber bands, Mom? That's pretty much it. So Houston
• 36:28
  Speaker 1: is not insulting C.J. Stroud with this. they're challenging him.
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: They're like, hey, if you play well, you're going to
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: cost us more money. If you don't play well, we'll
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: get rid of your ass and you'll go play for
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: the Vikings. Get out of here. That's it. So you
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: want franchise money, C.J. Stroud, go out there, do a
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: pirouette on the catwalk. Otherwise, the Texans are playing the
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: game of, we really like this 2023 scrapbook of photos
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: you gave us. But we're not paying that. We're not
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: going to pay for that. And we're not going to
• 37:02
  Speaker 1: because you're not that guy, pal. You're not that guy.
• 37:06
  Speaker 2: Be sure to catch live editions of the Ben Maller
• 37:08
  Speaker 2: Show weekdays at 2 a.m. Eastern, 11 p.m. Pacific.
• 37:11
  Speaker 4: Here we go.
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: Here we go.
• 37:12
  Speaker 4: Here we go.
• 37:13
  Speaker 2: Here we go.
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: Here we go. Here we go. Here we go.
• 37:15
  Speaker 2: Here we go.
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: Here we go.
• 37:17
  Speaker 2: This is when Big Ben gets grilled.
• 37:21
  Speaker 4: In a statement on Monday, Odell Beckham Jr. talked about
• 37:23
  Speaker 4: being happy to make the Giants 53-man roster and said,
• 37:26
  Speaker 4: I have an opportunity to rewrite some of the last
• 37:29
  Speaker 4: bit of the chapter. Now, Ben, even with a good
• 37:31
  Speaker 4: year for the Giants, does that change OBJ's story?
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: No. And what would a good year be? He's the
• 37:37
  Speaker 1: fourth or fifth receiver on the Giants. He's not a
• 37:40
  Speaker 1: starter unless Malik Neighbors is unable to play here. So
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: he's just a guy on the roster. He's like, no.
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: And it doesn't matter what he does. Giant fans love him.
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: And it's a romance story. The guy's number 13 back.
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: I saw that yesterday, so they're all excited about it.
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: It's like, no, he's there, and he'll maybe make a
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: few plays, but he's not a major player for the Giants.
• 38:04
  Speaker 2: Next!
• 38:05
  Speaker 4: Eagles GM Howie Roseman was asked about the likelihood of
• 38:08
  Speaker 4: a reunion with Zach Ertz, who is still a free
• 38:10
  Speaker 4: agent after tearing his ACL last December. Roseman essentially said no,
• 38:14
  Speaker 4: but called him one of the greatest tight ends to
• 38:17
  Speaker 4: play the game.
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: Would you agree with that statement, Ben? No, I mean, listen,
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: Dallas Goddard's a good player. Zach Ertz was a good player,
• 38:25
  Speaker 1: but he's not like an all-time great. He was a good,
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: solid NFL tight end. Let's not get carried away with hyperbole.
• 38:31
  Speaker 3: Next!
• 38:32
  Speaker 4: In an interview this week, Billy Donovan explained his decision
• 38:34
  Speaker 4: to step down as head coach of the Bulls, saying,
• 38:36
  Speaker 4: I just felt like with a new front office coming in,
• 38:38
  Speaker 4: that person should have the freedom to choose their coach
• 38:40
  Speaker 4: and build out the organization how they see fit, which
• 38:42
  Speaker 4: was fine.
• 38:43
  Speaker 1: Are you buying that explanation?
• 38:44
  Speaker 2: No!
• 38:44
  Speaker 1: They said, hey, Billy, don't let the door hit you
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: where the good loads spit you. And I out of
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: here with that so no i don't believe it i
• 38:52
  Speaker 1: don't think you leave those jobs how did we do
• 38:54
  Speaker 1: you pass that is a way hollering james i won
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: the game james.
• 38:59
  Speaker 2: I won the game fox sports radio has the best
• 39:02
  Speaker 2: sports talk lineup in the nation catch all of our
• 39:05
  Speaker 2: shows at fox sports radio.com and within the iheart radio
• 39:10
  Speaker 2: app search fsr to listen live do us a solid.
• 39:16
  Speaker 5: My finger slipped.
• 39:17
  Speaker 1: Exciting and new.
• 39:20
  Speaker 5: Great song.
• 39:21
  Speaker 4: Queen of hearts.
• 39:25
  Speaker 1: She wants to. talk to you. Lorraine.
• 39:33
  Speaker 4: Soon she'll be making your hearts be one.
• 39:37
  Speaker 1: Lorraine.
• 39:47
  Speaker 6: Ooh, you heard the man love can find anyone, even
• 39:51
  Speaker 6: in a little hole in the wall bar in Vegas.
• 39:53
  Speaker 5: What a great time.
• 39:54
  Speaker 1: Yeah. I had a lot of fun there. Thanks to
• 39:57
  Speaker 1: everyone that showed up and. I hope you enjoyed yourself.
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: We had fun, so that's it. Are you ready, Lorraine?
• 40:04
  Speaker 1: Any opening thought here? You just want to go right
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: to the questions, whatever you want.
• 40:08
  Speaker 5: Oh, yeah, let's just get into it.
• 40:10
  Speaker 1: All right, we'll get into it. What a great question
• 40:12
  Speaker 1: this is. Fergdog says, why are there not more female furries?
• 40:17
  Speaker 1: When we all take our costumes off, it's always a
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: total sausage fest. That's from Ferg Dogs.
• 40:23
  Speaker 4: Interesting.
• 40:23
  Speaker 1: So why are the ladies not into it? It's a
• 40:25
  Speaker 1: great question. Come on, women. Don't you want to dress up?
• 40:28
  Speaker 5: You know, it's probably because men really want to be pets.
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: They want to be pet and women. What?
• 40:33
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 40:34
  Speaker 1: Men want to be pets.
• 40:34
  Speaker 5: So they're dressing up as furries. You know, they want
• 40:36
  Speaker 5: to be cuddled.
• 40:38
  Speaker 4: Women.
• 40:38
  Speaker 5: Girls get cuddled all the time. They're fine. They don't
• 40:40
  Speaker 5: need that.
• 40:40
  Speaker 1: Oh, they get whatever.
• 40:41
  Speaker 5: You know what I'm saying?
• 40:42
  Speaker 1: Any cuddles they want.
• 40:43
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 40:43
  Speaker 6: So men put on a big furry and then they're
• 40:45
  Speaker 6: able to go cuddle and be little dogs and foxes.
• 40:49
  Speaker 1: Interesting. All right. What do we have next year? It's the.
• 40:52
  Speaker 5: There's some pretty cool costumes. Have you seen those?
• 40:55
  Speaker 1: Well, yeah, I was in Pittsburgh years ago, and that's
• 40:59
  Speaker 1: where the head of the furry movement is, and they
• 41:02
  Speaker 1: have the furry convention. I don't know if they still do,
• 41:04
  Speaker 1: but they did the weekend we were there. And it
• 41:07
  Speaker 1: was very odd because I didn't know what that was
• 41:09
  Speaker 1: at the time. This is a long time ago. And
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: I saw a bunch of people walking around that looked
• 41:12
  Speaker 1: like they were like Disney characters.
• 41:14
  Speaker 5: All dressed up.
• 41:15
  Speaker 1: And I was like, what the F is going on?
• 41:17
  Speaker 1: Bunch of freaks in Pittsburgh. And it turned out there
• 41:20
  Speaker 1: was a convention going on. JT the Wingman. How great
• 41:24
  Speaker 1: is this guy? What a personality. Life of the party,
• 41:26
  Speaker 1: JT the Wingman. Wonderful guy. Great person. I'm real mensch.
• 41:31
  Speaker 1: JT says, I am hoping to introduce cosplay into my relationship.
• 41:35
  Speaker 1: What is a better idea, Lorena? Cops and robbers or
• 41:40
  Speaker 1: old McDonald and farm animals?
• 41:44
  Speaker 5: I'm more of a cops and robbers type. But, you know,
• 41:48
  Speaker 5: you could.
• 41:48
  Speaker 6: Have fun with, like, the milkmaid on the farm. Think
• 41:51
  Speaker 6: about it like that. You know what I'm saying?
• 41:54
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 41:55
  Speaker 1: Okay. Kathy in Madison. What a fox this Kathy is.
• 41:58
  Speaker 1: She's the Hey Mona woman. She's famous on our show. Yeah,
• 42:01
  Speaker 1: she is. What up, Kathy? Hey Mona. That's her breakout
• 42:04
  Speaker 1: moment on the show. Little doll there. Every guy in
• 42:07
  Speaker 1: Madison's trying to get their hands on this woman, Kathy.
• 42:09
  Speaker 1: What a babe. And she says, list five ways anybody
• 42:13
  Speaker 1: can look attractive. Lorena, five ways.
• 42:17
  Speaker 5: Inner confidence.
• 42:19
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 42:20
  Speaker 5: Some new shoes.
• 42:21
  Speaker 1: Maybe a shower.
• 42:22
  Speaker 5: A shower would be nice. A nice hairbrush, you know.
• 42:27
  Speaker 5: And always get the crusties out of your eyes. Always
• 42:31
  Speaker 5: get the crusties out.
• 42:32
  Speaker 1: Try.
• 42:33
  Speaker 5: Yeah, put a little effort.
• 42:35
  Speaker 6: But it's all about confidence, all about how you hold yourself. Like,
• 42:37
  Speaker 6: I've seen some people, I'm like, I don't know if
• 42:39
  Speaker 6: you're necessarily.
• 42:40
  Speaker 5: Clean, but you, you know, you're looking good.
• 42:43
  Speaker 1: All right. Shane in Des Moines writes in, he says, Hey, Lorena,
• 42:48
  Speaker 1: why don't you host a weekend podcast like Mallard? Expand
• 42:52
  Speaker 1: the Queen of Hearts brand segment into a 30-minute weekend pod.
• 42:57
  Speaker 5: Yeah, I've done podcasts and things.
• 43:00
  Speaker 6: I'm just a lazy bum on the weekends.
• 43:03
  Speaker 5: You know, I should.
• 43:04
  Speaker 1: So am I, and I still have to do three podcasts. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 43:08
  Speaker 1: So the bane of my existence. You know what I do?
• 43:10
  Speaker 1: I know people at iHeart. I can set you up
• 43:12
  Speaker 1: if you want to do a podcast.
• 43:13
  Speaker 5: Oh, I'm sure. You know, and maybe one day.
• 43:15
  Speaker 1: They'll pay you like $ 2 an hour if you want. Yeah.
• 43:18
  Speaker 1: You'll be good on that.
• 43:18
  Speaker 5: Good money. I was looking for an extra job.
• 43:21
  Speaker 1: Yeah, who knows? Shane also says, my older brother's birthday...
• 43:26
  Speaker 1: Today's 50, but... Been divorced twice. Any advice for the
• 43:30
  Speaker 1: old man there?
• 43:31
  Speaker 5: I like those fun.
• 43:33
  Speaker 6: You know, where you have people sing at their door.
• 43:35
  Speaker 6: Like you sound like a singing gram or you could
• 43:38
  Speaker 6: get one of.
• 43:39
  Speaker 1: Those barbershop quartet type thing. Yeah.
• 43:41
  Speaker 6: Or, you know, you could ask Ben for one of
• 43:43
  Speaker 6: those birthday shout outs or.
• 43:45
  Speaker 4: Oh, yeah.
• 43:45
  Speaker 1: Cameo.
• 43:46
  Speaker 4: Cameo.
• 43:47
  Speaker 5: I think that would be a great gift.
• 43:48
  Speaker 1: Better than a cameo. Yes. Mike, the leprechaun writes in,
• 43:51
  Speaker 1: says you discover a dark secret about your partner. How
• 43:55
  Speaker 1: would you bring it up in conversations?
• 43:57
  Speaker 5: I don't think you need to bring it up. Let
• 43:59
  Speaker 5: it stay in the dark. Was it bugging you beforehand? Yeah.
• 44:02
  Speaker 1: Well, once you know, you know. Alfie Alien O'Piner says,
• 44:05
  Speaker 1: what's your favorite type of pickle?
• 44:09
  Speaker 5: Anyone that I can eat.
• 44:13
  Speaker 6: Name oh my gosh there's vlasic there's dill and sweet
• 44:18
  Speaker 6: there's chopped and there's relish and there's there's pickled chips
• 44:23
  Speaker 6: there's pickles some brands.
• 44:25
  Speaker 1: Here uh some brands rob rob robin the three two
• 44:29
  Speaker 1: one who found our show and seems like he enjoys
• 44:31
  Speaker 1: the show he says if your overall dating life had
• 44:34
  Speaker 1: a permanent theme song playing in the background what would
• 44:38
  Speaker 1: it be lorena Dust.
• 44:40
  Speaker 6: Yourself off and try again. You can dust it off
• 44:43
  Speaker 6: and try again.
• 44:44
  Speaker 5: Something like that, maybe.
• 44:45
  Speaker 4: I don't know.
• 44:45
  Speaker 1: And Mark the Walker said.
• 44:46
  Speaker 5: Another one bites the dust.
• 44:48
  Speaker 1: That could be your song, your theme song for Mark
• 44:50
  Speaker 1: the Walker right there. Another one bites the dust. Well,
• 44:53
  Speaker 1: the segment bit the dust. It's now done. It's over.
• 44:56
  Speaker 2: Be sure to catch live editions of the Ben Maller
• 44:58
  Speaker 2: Show weekdays at 2 a.m. Eastern, 11 p.m. Pacific. Attention, everyone.
• 45:03
  Speaker 1: And the password is.
• 45:06
  Speaker 2: Password. Password, the word game of the stars. Here's Ben Mellon.
• 45:12
  Speaker 1: All right, let's do it. Well, we ripped off Slug.
• 45:14
  Speaker 1: We gave him time with Marcel. Slug, you want to
• 45:18
  Speaker 1: play Password, yes? Yes, I love you. Does that mean
• 45:23
  Speaker 1: you want to play with me, Sluggy?
• 45:24
  Speaker 5: Aw, that's so Anthony for me.
• 45:26
  Speaker 1: I'm going to give you a bro hug, dude. I'm
• 45:28
  Speaker 1: giving you a bro hug. Get over here. Sluggy, you
• 45:31
  Speaker 1: got to teach me how to make those mashed potatoes, dude.
• 45:33
  Speaker 1: I got to make those at home, dude. It's amazing.
• 45:37
  Speaker 6: You got it.
• 45:38
  Speaker 3: I'll give you the literal recipe.
• 45:39
  Speaker 1: Those are great mashed potatoes. Aren't those the greatest mashed potatoes? Oh,
• 45:43
  Speaker 1: my God. I never thought mashed potatoes could be that good.
• 45:46
  Speaker 1: Holy crap. I tell everybody they're exactly like my grandma made.
• 45:50
  Speaker 6: I swear to God, that's the truth.
• 45:52
  Speaker 1: All right, Lorena, pick one or three, Lorena.
• 45:56
  Speaker 5: Number three.
• 45:57
  Speaker 1: All right, you have picked our buddy Mark on the
• 45:59
  Speaker 1: north end of Boston, the guy that runs the north end. Hello, Mark. Welcome.
• 46:04
  Speaker 1: Good morning, Ben. And who would you like to partner
• 46:07
  Speaker 1: up with? You got Coop or Lorena?
• 46:09
  Speaker 2: You know what?
• 46:10
  Speaker 1: I'm going to go with the lovely Lorena today. Look
• 46:12
  Speaker 1: at you, Lorena. You're in the show. Unbelievable. All right. Coop,
• 46:15
  Speaker 1: you're out of the show. Well, we have a list
• 46:17
  Speaker 1: of words. One to ten. And I believe Slug was
• 46:20
  Speaker 1: on the air first. So, Slug, go ahead there. Pick
• 46:23
  Speaker 1: your poison.
• 46:25
  Speaker 5: We're going to go Kobe.
• 46:27
  Speaker 1: Eight. All right. Let's go with Scratch. Scratch. Chicken.
• 46:39
  Speaker 5: Let's go with... Yeah, that was wrong.
• 46:42
  Speaker 1: I'm going to be polite. I'm not going to be
• 46:44
  Speaker 1: a schmuck. I'm not.
• 46:45
  Speaker 5: Can we go with... Ouchie.
• 46:48
  Speaker 1: Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Oh, my God.
• 46:53
  Speaker 6: What?
• 46:54
  Speaker 1: Itchy?
• 46:55
  Speaker 2: No.
• 46:56
  Speaker 1: What did he say?
• 46:57
  Speaker 5: He said itchy.
• 47:00
  Speaker 1: Let's... We're doing eight, right? Okay. Let's go with... Scuff. Scuff. Bruise. Password,
• 47:12
  Speaker 1: the word game of stars? I think I know it.
• 47:16
  Speaker 1: Go ahead.
• 47:17
  Speaker 5: What about slice?
• 47:20
  Speaker 2: Chop.
• 47:22
  Speaker 1: How about graze? Oh, my God. It is not gone.
• 47:28
  Speaker 3: Oh, man.
• 47:28
  Speaker 1: Slug?
• 47:30
  Speaker 4: We're going to go scratch.
• 47:31
  Speaker 1: Oh, my God. Stop. The word was scrape. Scrape. Scratch.
• 47:39
  Speaker 6: All right.
• 47:39
  Speaker 1: Pick a number. Quickly, Mark.
• 47:41
  Speaker 2: Quickly.
• 47:41
  Speaker 1: That was hard. Number four. Number four, Lorena.
• 47:45
  Speaker 5: This is good.
• 47:46
  Speaker 1: Easy.
• 47:48
  Speaker 2: Um.
• 47:50
  Speaker 1: Um. Hurry up. You said it was easy. I want
• 47:55
  Speaker 1: to go Halloween.
• 47:57
  Speaker 2: Wow.
• 47:58
  Speaker 1: Costume. How about treat? Treat.
• 48:03
  Speaker 3: Trick.
• 48:03
  Speaker 1: Yes! That's a walk-up win! He got that because of me.
• 48:06
  Speaker 5: He got that because of me.
• 48:08
  Speaker 1: Oh, my God. I won again. Another win. All-time win. No,
• 48:11
  Speaker 1: you didn't, Lorena. You didn't win the game.