Latest / Brodie Pod / Ep. 39 LeBron Free Agency, World Cup Knockout Preview, & Joey Chesnut Glizzy Champion

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Ep. 39 LeBron Free Agency, World Cup Knockout Preview, & Joey Chesnut Glizzy Champion · Brodie Pod

• Brodie Pod: Welcome back, everyone. Episode 39 of the Brody Pod. Be sure to like, subscribe on YouTube, turn on the notifications, helps out a lot. If you want to follow us on Spotify, please rate the show five stars. If you'll stay up to date on the show, follow us on TikTok, Instagram, Twitter slash X, and Facebook, and YouTube Reels at Brody Pod, at Brody Pod and Everything. And we're back. And we're missing Matt again this week. He's currently moving. So Ethan is once again stepping in and he's gonna make sure we get a podcast episode out this week. Ethan, how you doing? Doing good, doing good. Been a busy week, but it's starting to I guess slow down a little bit right now. Yeah, I think that's with the ⁓ holiday weekend coming up. Hope everyone's gonna have a happy and safe Fourth of July. If you shoot off fireworks, hopefully it's in an area where you're allowed to shoot off fireworks. I saw the The governor of Utah or something was coming out ⁓ telling people that they couldn't shoot out fireworks there, so watch out, don't catch anything on fire. If you do, make sure you contact the authorities, get a fire department there. They'll probably be working a lot on the fourth of July, but Yeah, definitely a lot of calls gonna be put out. Yeah, hopeful maybe we should bring on a fire expert. Right. But you know, maybe just watch the fireworks. You don't need to be shooting ⁓ off. I always see like the ⁓ I don't know, it's like the You see the videos on Twitter of people that light the fireworks off in the neighborhoods. Yeah. Just don't be a Jason Pierre Paul and blow your hand your fingers off. ⁓ was that that was the UFC fighter that No, that was ⁓ the NFL player. Jason Pierre Paul. Yeah, it was the NFL player, yep, yep. Yeah. Was it a fourth of July? He was messed with fireworks and blew off like two or three fingers. I do remember that coming out on Twitter. Well, a tough one, but you know Hopefully everyone has a good Fourth of July. It is America's two hundred and fiftieth birthday. We just celebrated the White House on Flag Day with the U of C fights and now we're getting to celebrate Fourth of July. And I believe, if I'm not mistaken, like the next week after this, Connor McGregor's fight in Max Holloway. Yeah, July eleventh. July eleventh. So that would have been cool if that fight was like this weekend on July fourth. But there's you know, everyone knows July fourth, Nathan's hot dog eating contest, which we are gonna get into a little bit in the show. Yeah. I guess. It's like tr it's like a tradition you have to watch every Fourth of July weekend. Yeah, and then everyone raises the qu we we have some questions coming up. It's gonna be in our our final segment. We're gonna go over some of the Nathan's hot dog eating contest. Can Joey Chestnut defend his title, his mustard belt, as they call it? ⁓ but with that, I guess we're getting a little bit of the show preview. We're gonna be doing some of the top headlines around the sports world, a little NBA and NFL related this week. ⁓ and then we're gonna be bringing on Tavis, hopefully. to talk about some FIFA knockout rounds that are starting up actually have already been going I was surprised how fast the knockout rounds start after the group stage. I thought there'd be like a week break before, but no, they just get right into the knockout round. So Yeah, I guess you probably have to do that 'cause everyone that's coming from different countries and stuff flying over here. So they want to do it pretty quickly to I guess make sure they can watch it all and not have to miss so much. Well it just seemed like the whole group stage is just stretched out. But then the knockout's gonna be compact. It's I think they're playing like every every like other three days or something like that. So Yeah. We're gonna have Tavis on. He's gonna give us a little preview for the knockout. It's gonna be little shorter than the last time we brought him on for the whole group stage preview. ⁓ and then with that, we'll get into a little bit of Wimbledon talk. I kinda am in the Wimbledon theme right now, we're in the all white. So Wimbledon started this week, kind of snuck up on us, but we we got some, you know, information on that. And then like I said, we're gonna finish off with the Nate Nathan's hot dog eating contest. Maybe a little bit shorter of a show. I always say that. We'll see if that ends up happening. But with that, we get into some of the top sports headlines going around the world right now. We're not gonna do Brodies of Week this week just because wasn't too many Brody's to talk about. So you got a little bit though. ⁓ but starting off with some of this top sports headlines. I'm gonna start off with something that was just took it took over ESPN this week. There's some rumblings, some rumors going around. LeBron, of course, it's always LeBron. Could be joining Golden State this offseason. Golden State Warriors. The team that he has faced so many times in the finals, he could be finally teaming up with he did he what, he came back what, three one? Came back three one in was that twenty sixteen for Cleveland? So yeah, Cleveland. Yeah. It it wouldn't be an off season in any sports world if LeBron wasn't talked about. I I think it happens too because after this last ⁓ Olympic ⁓ the Olympics here that came, you know, they are always saying that they like Curry would love to play with LeBron and I guess a couple more of the guys, but ⁓ I guess it looks like it may happen with LeBron at least. Yeah, and it's it's one of my dream team ups. Between them. I mean, we got to see them in the Olympics a little bit, but I was always just like, what if LeBron? I mean, it just seems like if he ends up joining them, this will be a retirement tour, possibly. I don't know. Do you think they win a championship like in year one or two of him being there? Well, so before I answer that, I do need to go over that Golden State is trying to build a big four right now. That yeah. So The reason why this is being brought up, Monday, as we're recording, it came out that Draymond Green declined his twenty seven point six million dollar player option for Golden State. Now that is big because they said it's the first domino to fall in this whole kind of trade world because now opens up Golden State's budget to where they can't afford to bring LeBron in. I think they would be able to offer him like fifteen point one million, which was they they're saying that's an absolute steal for LeBron. Yeah. And I don't think there's no like there's no way Draymond leaves. He's gonna stay with Golden State. He's I feel like he's just gonna restructure the deal basically to I don't think he 'cause obviously I think he's what becomes a free agent after declining, but I don't think he goes anywhere. No, and I think I think this is just Draymond being a being a company man of trying to, you know, help Golden State out a little bit. Now they did say if the Golden State can't go bring in any players with this money that they're getting in. Draymond Green could go through and just go ahead and accept that off that option. Like he still has the opportunity to get that money, but he's just a you know what? I'll hold off for now. See if you guys can build a team. If you can't, I'm gonna take the option. If you can, I'll take my my pay cut. I think Draymond Green sees a bigger picture and is like, Well, if I take all this money, like looking at the roster they have right now and would have, he's like, It's gonna be very, very hard to win and win a championship. So let me take a little pay cut. Try to bring some people in to help that out. And speaking of bringing people in, so this gets to the big four that Golden State's trying to build. So it would be Draymond Green, Steph Curry, LeBron, and then they would be trading for Anthony Davis from the Washington Wizards. There's talks of Jimmy Butler being in a trade package for Anthony Davis. Their salaries are very similar, so it would just kind of be a plug and play, might be a one for one. As someone that's gone through a one for one trade with Anthony Davis before, I'm not the biggest fan of it. But him teaming up with LeBron, Draymond, Steph, and Golden State would be huge. I'm not either. I've always said that Anthony Davis is injury prone. Like he could never stay healthy. And that's something you gotta kinda worry about right there with Anthony Davis, sure he can be good when he's on the court, but the problem is he misses at least, I feel like forty to fifty games a year. And It's a good point you bring up the injury problem. I did see on Twitter they were talking about who could stop this big four and someone quote tweeting and said arthritis. Yeah. That's the that's the stopper of the team. That's kind of another thing is with especially with like I mean, LeBron's good, but he's getting older. I mean, his body's probably slowing down a little bit. It's like five years ago, they probably would have won ten championships in a row. But now it's like I feel like you're kind of taking a big chance on How good they're gonna be all together at their age playing against the Spurs. I mean, New York, like you know, just be trying to g compete in the West would be insane. You have a lot of old guys playing against some great young guys and we'll see, I guess, if experience and So you talk about the age and the experience. Steph Curry, thirty-eight, LeBron forty one, Draymond Green thirty-six, Anthony Davis, I didn't realize he's only thirty three years old. And so the Warriors Big Four would be a combined age of a hundred and forty eight years old. Yeah. I mean Anthony Davis, he's always hurt so much it feels like he's about a hundred and five out there. Yeah, even in the picture of like them putting a big four together, it has Anthony Davis and sweatpants and a hoodie. Yeah. So we'll see what happens with the big four. I would love I would love to see it just to see if they can win a championship. I kind of feel like they could, but then again, there's part of me that's like I don't know. I would just love to see it, just to see how it works out. I would love to see it. However, I do not think that Big Four is winning a championship. If this was like that Big Four ten years ago, ⁓ go ahead and write it in. But I don't think this Big Four is winning a championship. Not at that age. But how long the NBA season is and how stacked the West is now. I mean We just talked about the Spurs who probably their combined age is under a hundred. It's all a bunch of twenty year olds. And then you got the OKC Thunder who's gonna come back. You got obviously Jokic and the Nuggets. Like it's a very stacked West. Now, if this was in the East, even then I don't know if this Big Four would survive in the East. I think they make the playoffs, but I don't know f how far they go in the playoffs. I don't know. I feel like I'd probably say they make it to the finals. They could make it to the finals. You say this Big Four makes it to the finals? At healthy or semi healthy, yeah. That is true. You gotta put the caveat if they're healthy. Yeah. I mean, I feel like if they're fully healthy, I say they win the finals semi healthy. They can make it to the finals. And I mean 'cause you gotta think Curry's good, LeBron's good, Draymond A D. Like you you gotta guard like you can't like you gotta be on twenty four seven and playing against ⁓ I mean, you have four superstars right there that can basically do anything. Right. And a lot of this depends on how much that they would get LeBron for. Like they said, like they could really only offer him the fifteen mil and but I don't think LeBron's ever taken a pay cut in his career. But does he take a pay cut? Is there a way that they does he want Bronny to follow him and keep going? ⁓ I forgot about I forgot Bronny would have to be included in this trace. I don't know. I don't think the Do you think just put Bronny around because LeBron's been on the team? I think so. I don't think they're too high, I mean, on Bronny. Just like the ⁓ The Lakers, you mean? Yeah. Yeah. I don't think I think if LeBron goes and Bronny doesn't go, he'll be kind of released or traded within a year or two. Or moved down to the G League possibly. Yeah. Probably definitely move down to the G League. There's no way I'd see the Lakers keeping him around. Yeah. I mean, honestly, he probably should be at the G League for at least a couple like a year or two, I feel like. That's a fair point. Speaking of the Lakers, too, in this whole situation, the Lakers are apparently also trying to offer LeBron a contract, but it's came out in the article that it's been tough to get in contact with LeBron. He's been p kind of, I guess they said at the golf course every day working on his golf game. Whether it's been in California or in Ohio or they even say he's been golfing in France. So I it sounds like LeBron just isn't even taking a call from the Lakers. Yeah, I was about to say it sounds like LeBron's kind of checked out from the Lakers right now. And I don't even know if the Lakers would be able to offer him 'cause like they said, they they have Luca and they just gave a big contract to Austin Reeves. Yeah. I kinda don't I mean, I kind of think the Lakers are to me, it feels like the Lakers want to kind of move on from LeBron, but they have to put in an offer to make it look decent, like good for ⁓ But I feel like they're like they're planning on not having LeBron. At least right now, because there hasn't been any communication from him because he's been at the golf course. Like you can't tell if the Lakers really, really wanted LeBron, they couldn't like you can get a hold of him. Rather, they're flying their GEM out to golf with him or something. Like Yeah, I think even when Austin Reeves found out about his contract with the Lakers, he was on the golf course and his I think girlfriend or wife ⁓ tweeted out a photo of him laying down on the green when he found out like How big his contract was that he got with the Lakers. Yeah. Which I don't think that was something we talked about last week. Austin Reeves did get a contract with Lakers. I can't remember exactly the dollar amount. I think it was like four years, something like that. Didn't he get like the max? Yeah, I think it was like a max contract. So which I'm excited because I think Austin Reeves and Luca is just a fun backcourt to play with. I think that's good. What do you think? Do you think what's the mess and piece for the Lakers to be? They need a big man. Yeah. They like I know Giannis just went to Miami, and if there was ever a way that they could have made that, like one of my dream matchups would have been Giannis and Luca playing together. That'd have been perfect. Like the way Luca can play with a big man. That didn't sound right, but the way that he can open up the court and throw lobs and and make the passes. Yeah, and the paint, like like L Luca is a very good court general and ⁓ I think that's come ⁓ you kind of run into that issue with LeBron of like who was really driving the Lakers offense. Obviously we saw Luca always bringing up the ball. But then like when the playoffs happened and Luke is out, it became LeBron's show and LeBron had to kind of lead the Lakers a little bit. So time will tell what ends up happening. They said this Draymond Green was the first domino to fall and, you know, by the time this podcast comes out on Wednesday, it could be already a done deal. But yeah. I gotta figure out when the actual deadline is for the NBA. I think we're still a little bit a ways away. Yeah, I'm not Too too sure. I just know the NBA offseason after the finals, it just starts heating up a little bit and people start moving teams shifting around. This has brought out the LeBron haters again. You know, they're like Jordan would have never gone and teamed up with, you know, Carl Malone or who or Charles Barkley back in the day. I was like, Yeah, he ended up going to the Hornets after the Bulls or something like that. Like or the I think he went to the Wizards for a little bit, had a Wizards day. Yeah, I think yeah. Just like, would you want LeBron to just go to some team that has no shot? Yeah, like I and people are calling this a super team. I don't even think this is a super team, this big four that Golden State's putting together. I think it's just a team of like veterans that are past their prime. Other than like, obviously Steph Curry, Steph Curry. Yeah. So the free agent negotiations can start ⁓ June 30th. That also brings me up. Okay, so June 30th, that's Tuesday. The podcast comes out on Wednesday. So we could figure out that brings up another good point. Draymond, LeBron, and Anthony Davis all have the same agent. So that's another like driving force behind this of why it's picking up some steam. Yeah. I mean The agents are probably talk the agents probably talking to all of them whispering and say, hey, let's all go to the Golden State. Let's let's team up a little bit. It's probably a lot easier when 'cause they're all three probably on board with it, so it makes it a little bit easier, definitely on the agent there. Right. I will say if all four of these guys are there next year, Golden State will probably be one of the pr will be the most watched team of the NBA. Well definitely, yeah. Just because of All the prime time games will get. Yeah. Which I mean, definitely a super team if it was five or ten years ago. I mean, I guess technically you could say it's a super team because of they're all four speak super teams. Yeah, it's like ⁓ see how would I how would I put this? Like in like I don't even know how to put that in layman's terms. Maybe like a maybe like a has been super team ish. Like back in the day they could. Like he's not washed, but he's not like LeBron of old that carried the calves to the finals. None of them are really washed. They're just not in their prime. Like But it would be fun to watch all that experience on the court at the same time. That would, yeah. And I mean that's what I'm ex excited to see. Two they kinda have chemistry, like I said, from the like the Olympics and stuff, 'cause they all played for the Olympics. Right. They've all played in the finals together. Well, I guess Anthony Davis wasn't there when LeBron was, but they made it in 2020 in the c in the bubble. Yeah. But I mean they've played on the same team with the Olympics, so they have kind of chemistry and know a little bit. And I feel like it's probably a dream for I know Curry to play with LeBron. And I'm pretty sure LeBron to play with Curry's probably up there for him as well. Yeah. I I just think it's gonna be funny if this ends up happening and just all the LeBron haters that come out. Like they just this would this is just drives them another thing. Like Jordan never would have. It's like, well I mean, yeah, but Jordan also had like Pippen like Rodman, who else was on their teams that were superstars. That's a good point. Like he teamed up with Rodman who was on the Pistons for the longest time and then and stopped Jordan from making it to the finals and then teamed up. So Yeah, like Jordan had his superstars with him too. It's just Yeah. And then once again, I just don't know if you can call this a super team, but just funny stuff there at the NBA. It's I would like to see that happen. But speaking of a trade that has happened John Morant, two time all star, known for a lot of his off the court stuff going on, you know, weapons and whatnot and I mean you are whatever else he's doing. Yeah. He's actually traded from the Memphis Grizzlies to the Portland Trails Blazers for Jeromey Grant and Chris Murray, her shams. He'll be joining up with Damian Lillard, who I learned last week was on back in Portland. I thought he was still in Milwaukee, but turns out he's in Portland. So it'll be John Morant, Damian Lillard, Dumani Kamara, Denny Avita, and Donovan Klingon. I believe they just got in this past draft or two drafts ago. Anyway, he's brand new guy. So be a fun team to watch there too. Obviously won't be like the Golden State show, but It won't, but I I feel like this kinda helps jaw out a little bit more. I mean, Portland's a little bit different than Memphis at all, so Hopefully he keep his act together, but I think he learned his lesson from before the two suspensions. I don't think he I don't think he has, but you know, I think teaming up with Damian Lillard will be a fun duo to watch. Yeah. Once again, it's like two guys that are past their prime a little bit, but exciting. I mean, Lillard has a lot of knowledge and stuff, being a vet and all, that ⁓ Jaw can kind of lean on. And I don't feel like he had that. over in Memphis 'cause it was a pretty young team, I think all around. So this should help him out a lot. I mean you you should see his growth in playing probably trend up pretty good this year. Yes you is do you think Portland is a playoff team now? No. No. I I agree with you there. I think they need a little bit more than Jaw and Lillard. No. Especially like we just said the West is so like There's lot of good teams of the West. Yeah. I think the pretty much the guys that were in the playoffs this year, you probably see a lot more going forward. Maybe you'll have one or two. Changing of the guard in the NBA. Yeah, maybe you'll have one or two wild card. I mean, I feel like the Warriors are a playoff team, so that'll knock out someone, but Yeah, I think Portland becomes a play in team, but as far as like top eight, I don't I don't think so. Or top s I think it's top seven. Trying to remember exactly how the play in works. So it's the bottom four it's like ten through ten through seven. I think ten and seven or not ten and nine play, seven and eight play. So I don't think they're a top six team with those guys. I mean Portland, let's see here. Let's go. So Portland, so in the Western Conference, you have Oklahoma City Thunder, San Antonio, Denver, the Lakers, Houston, Timberwolves. ⁓ I forgot about Houston as well. Yeah. I mean Timberwolves are making some moves with who is it? Lamelo. Lamello. Yeah. ⁓ that's another thing we forgot to bring. Lamello's joining up with Anthony Anthony Edwards. Probably even a bigger trade that happened. That's I feel like that's gonna be I think them two being teammates is gonna be great for I mean, it'll be great just to watch, just their personalities, but also good on the court as well. Yeah, I think that helps the that improves the Timberwolves a lot. Lamello and Anthony Edwards teaming up 'cause a lot of the talk with the Timberwolves is that Anthony Edwards would just get doubled. And now it's you gotta watch out for Lamelo. Lamelo was I thought he was one of the most exciting players in the NBA. Yeah. Especially a couple of years ago when he came out and the way he's been able to turn the Hornets around. I thought the Hornets were really b I was really shocked that the Hornets did this trade and the the reason they got rid of Lamelo. Yeah. I Definitely was too, but I guess with that new guy, ⁓ what's his name? ⁓ Don Knippel. Yeah. No, Conn Knippel. Con, yeah. Khan Knippel. I guess they are gonna build around him instead of Lamello. I just thought pairing those guys up would have been perfect. Yeah, I thought yeah. No, I thought so too. I mean and I feel like you at least keep Lamelo a year or two more just so Conn can really develop a little bit more 'cause what this is his what was this, his rookie year? This is rookie year. It was between him and Cooper Flag for rookie of the year. Yeah. So I don't know. We'll see. I mean The Hornets did get an absolute I wouldn't even say like a a crazy amount for the trade. They did get a bunch of pick swaps and then there were some also picks just included. But I you know, the the Timberwolves got rid of Julius Randle earlier in the week, which was kind of shown that they were clearing out for something and then to be able to go and get Lamello. I think this obviously puts the Timberwolves up there in the West as well. Yeah. Yeah, no, I think they are I mean missed by us. We almost missed that on the show. Yeah. But I've I think Minnesota makes the playoffs and makes a deeper push now with LaMelo and the rest of the guys they have on that team. Right. Yep. So I think that's enough for the trade talk on the NBA. Moving over to the NFL, it's not really trade talk going around, but just some off seasons off season stuff going on. This came out, I believe, like the day after we released the podcast last week. But Terrian Arnold, cornerback for the Detroit Lions, he's now been released from the team after some kidnapping charges have been brought up against him. ⁓ robbery and kidnapping. Yeah, robbery and kidnapping. So if anyone doesn't know, there was something where and I I apologize. I'm trying to remember exactly what had happened with it, but it was Terrion Arnold had some jewelry stolen from him. I think it was like around the is tens of thousands or hundred thousand dollars of jewelry stolen from him. He went and then reported it to the police, said, Hey, this went on, made a statement and then apparently became like a mastermind and had ⁓ some some people lure these guys out of the club and then held him up, robbed him, and he's just been going to all these charges now. He's being also held without bail. Whoa. Yeah. Which his bond that they they just released his bond or whatever, which is a million dollars. Yeah. So whenever that all went down, the police were just like, I think we know who who did this. I think we know who had a motive to do it. And so it just sucks to see, especially someone like of his caliber of player. He was someone that in the secondary for the Lions. Whenever I would watch the Lions game, he jumped off the page at me. This obviously is gonna hurt their secondary a lot. ⁓ you hate to see all the off sea off off the field antics going on, especially the way that this was handled. Like he just got a contract, I think it was like fourteen million dollars a year. Like he had the money to go after these guys legally and ha go through the the court process for it but kind of took it into his own hands and now he's gonna have to pay the price for it and kind of probably definitely ruined his NFL career because of it. Yes. So today he was ⁓ Arnold had his bond set at a million dollars Monday by Hillsboro County Florida judge Christopher Sabela. And there are also some rules with it that he has to surrender his passport within the The next 48 hours. He can't talk to or contact any of the six co-defendants ⁓ or witnesses in the case. And ⁓ not to mention those guys apparently are like ratting him out. Like two of them have already come forward and said, Yeah, Terry and Arnold was the one that was the mastermind behind this whole thing. Cause he had him like hold him up, tie him up, and he was watching from a video camera, like directing the guys how to do this. Now, once again, this is all alleged. It hasn't been proven in court yet, but. ⁓ this is what the report has come out so far saying it all. It was just like an absolute bombshell that dropped on the NFL world. So you hate to see it open that he can get the help that he needs, ⁓ and that he can learn a valuable lesson of don't kidnap and rob people. I think that's a yeah I didn't know we need to say that, but don't kidnap and rob people. I did see where he was where the judge I guess when they gave him the bond and all the judge was like, now I'm gonna go against the state of What was it, Florida or whatever? But ⁓ it wasn't even like in Detroit, it was in Florida. He was like, I'm gonna go against them, their recommendation, and I'm gonna set your bond at a million dollars. He goes, also, don't like basically don't try to do anything tricky. Try to leave the country or leave whatever. He goes, Because and he pointed over to the media and he was like, Because these guys will find you and we will come and get you. Like it don't think as soon as you go missing ESVN's gonna be all over it before you even know you're missing. Like you better do what we say and do what you're supposed to, or you'll be back here and probably gonna end up pretty worse for you. And I the the f the the jail time, not even mentioned like the bond or the fines that he's gonna have to pay out of this, but like he could be facing life in prison. Yeah. And I think that's tough. Yeah. 'Cause I think they were gonna let him I think From the video watched, I think they was talking about how like they may put him on an ankle monitor and all until the trial starts. But I'm not too sure if they officially went with that or not, but it's still it's pretty crazy. Yeah. I feel like this is kinda like the OJ when he had some rail morbid stolen and held him up gunpoint in the hotel room. Was this ⁓ I don't know if I know this one. All I know is the OJ where he's riding in the Bronco. Yeah, so He got off on all that, allegedly, that he didn't do it. ⁓ and then a couple of years later, he had some memorabilia that was s stolen or I don't know, it was sold and he found the people that did it. Well, him and some buddies w I think it was in Vegas were figured out where they were. One of his buddies kinda act like he was gonna wanna buy this memorabilia. They went up in a hotel room, OJ comes out. I think they have like pointing guns to these people, like holding them basically kind of hostage because they stole that memorabilia or whatever. Anyway, OJ went to jail and that's why OJ spent s all them years, what was it, like thirty something years or whatever, however long years were in jail, was because of the ⁓ like memorabilia stuff, basically kidnapping these people. I just don't get it. What's up with the kidnapping? We don't need to do that. I guess they don't think it's kidnapping at the time. Yeah, it's like adult napping or something. Speaking of not handling things the right way, and Ethan, I'd even put this on the show notes. ⁓ Brandon Ayuk, have you heard have you seen what he's been doing? Yeah. And this is nothing like bad, but just the way that he is going on the he's live streaming and posting videos that he no longer wants to be a 49er. Yeah. Like there's been all this stuff going on. He wants to go to the commanders and He was telling ⁓ that like if the forty niners release me right now, I would sign with the commanders tomorrow. Yeah. He obviously wants to go join up with the commanders and yeah, I mean, you got Debo, his former or old teammate. Yeah, you got Jaden Daniels over there too. Yes. Yeah. Like he started to get crazy, like, it seems like. Yeah. He's like I'm like, what? NFL team would wanna sign this guy. If the you see the way he's handling the forty nine situation. Now it I think there was a report that came out today that he's blaming his agent for the way that things are going on and he's blaming the media that he's being painted like this villain in the league. But I mean, didn't he like not show up at all, like half the year towards the end of the year last year? Yeah, he's just left showing up after his injury. Yeah. And ⁓ then you're like speeding around San Francisco ⁓ live streaming it as well. Like Yeah, saying, Yeah, I no longer want to be part of the team. Yeah. Like, come on. Like, do it probably if you would have done it little bit more professionally, then you probably would been released by now. It was also like after they gave him like a major contract. Yeah. Which part of me thinks it's just a bit like he's really wanting the forty eyes to release him, so he's going like these extreme lengths of like trying to look like an absolute problem for the team. And then if he goes to the commanders, I think he's just gonna straighten up immediately. I'm just like this is whatever just happened to, you know, serving out the contract and then or, you know, getting a trade. Yeah. Yeah. Like why don't they which I mean the forty nine is probably want quite a bit for him, but and maybe he's doing all this so they can't trade him. So he's kind of tarnishing. Yeah. Which is why he tells what he's playing. Yeah. I mean maybe it's that little what is it, that plant that they have over there that's the ⁓ the electrical plant or something. Yeah, but it's caused all the injuries. Yeah, maybe that's Dungato's like in his system chemical wise or something. And it just strikes me as like the Antonio now, I don't think he's off as crazy as Antonio Brown was. Definitely not. But he's good and up there. Like when I saw the the first couple of videos that released, I'm like, This guy it reminds me of Antonio Brown a little bit. Yeah. Did you see that the forty nine speaking of Forty Niners and that plant, do you see that they're looking to move their practice facility or whatever away from that? I did not I've I've heard the talks of like they're finally admitting that it might be a problem. Yeah, I've seen the rumors and stuff, which that would be kind of curious on where they would move to. Like I'm not a big Forty Niner fan. I don't keep up with none of that, but I'm pretty sure we have some viewers that would can tell us kind of the ideas of where a good spot would it where it would be. Yeah, where they would move to. I know we covered it a little bit on the podcast last year during the football season, as like when it was just like a minor story that came out and then it obviously blew up and took over the media and everything. So I'm interested to see what happens with the Niners. Seems like they're having some fun off season stuff. And not to mention George Kittle has also come out and mentioned that, hey, why is FIFA get all the grass for the fields and we can't? That's that's also pretty interesting because You know, all these teams that have like cowboys have the the stadiums basically and all, they try to use that as well. We're not a open field, we don't have the like irrigation systems and all, but FIFA just kind of coming over here and making play on all grass, kind of debunked all that. I will say the upkeep, like I did see a video from the guys that are like in charge of the grass for FIFA. They they're talking about like the UV lights that they have to shine on the field all the time whenever there's not play. Like there is a lot of upkeep and not to mention Jerry Jones likes to have a lot of concerts at the I'm just using the Cowboys as an example, but they like to have a lot of concerts at ATT. I can only imagine like the concerts probably wouldn't be able to happen as much w if you have the grass out there. I mean, yeah, I g I guess and no. I mean, I feel like it saves obviously it's it helps your football team and all with injuries and all, especially like Concussion wise, I feel like the concussions would go down tremendously because you're not ⁓ you're talking concussions. You're not even talking like knee injuries or Achilles or anything. Well yeah. Well the concussion like it I feel like it benefits, which and all that other injuries too, it benefits the team. It saves them because your star players that you're paying millions of dollars for is less likely to get injured, but Right. And the upkeep would be only like a couple million dollars, even if like They did switch it all to grass and even with this the the concert venues and stuff that they have, like, you know, just putting the grass up. But two, that doesn't seem like that crazy of an investment when you are paying these players hundreds of millions of dollars. And two, I mean, yeah, you gotta up you gotta upkeep I mean, you wanna upkeep it to look great during football season, but I mean, after football season you can kind of relax and it doesn't have to be that much of an upkeep. Like, you know what I mean? Like you don't have to have to be perfect. Yeah. But yeah, they shouldn't really be having the concerts and stuff I think while the while the season's going on. Yeah. And I mean you in the off season you should have plenty of time to get the grass, even if they do mess it up, get the grass to looking a lot better. Plus, I mean, you could make it to where these stages have to be raised where there's only f four or five like legs coming off, touching the ground instead of like a platform. They're pretty big footprints when they bring the concerts. And I as someone that's gone to ATT and seen the concerts there, or even like the rodeo, the monster trucks, like these are giant footprints that they do use like the whole in like the area of where the field would be. Yeah. But maybe it's something that in the future these NFL owners are gonna look at and if they see all the injuries that don't happen with FIFA, they may take a second look at it be like, okay, maybe the grass is a better option. I mean, I'm all for it. I'm progress. I think it would be a benefit to the NFL Yeah. Let's go put that on the on the card there. We're a progress p ⁓ podcast. Prograss pro podcast. So if Scott's or anyone wants to ⁓ sponsor us. Reach reach out. We're we're trying to get you in the NFL stadiums. Yeah, we got you. Speaking of some other NFL news, this is a little sad and a little inspiring. ⁓ Chris Johnson, you may know him as CJ two K, former Tennessee Titan running back. announced Monday that he is being diagnosed with ALS, which is a degenerative nerve disease. Basically kinda, you know, something that kinda creeps up into the body, start losing function of your body. They did a piece with Michael Straham on Good Morning America on Monday and it was just really powerful, kind of, you know, showing about that he's he's chosen to fight this disease and, you know, that he just wants to raise awareness by going public with his diagnosis and That he's also just the same person from his NFL career, even though his body doesn't act like it normally did. Yeah. It was very sad. I watched bits and pieces of it and it's just sad to see 'cause the CJ that I knew was, I mean, running back for the Titans and looking at him in that wheelchair, not being able to speak, not being able to really move. Like it's pretty sad. And it obviously it's been going it's probably had to be going on for a little while. Well so he said that he had gotten diagnosed in twenty twenty five and I think they've been just kind of keeping it private. And then he's like he's like, I'm I'm shocked by how fast this disease has kind of affected my body. He's like, I used to be able to, you know, hold a glass of water, now I can't I can't hold a glass of water. Or I used to be able to pick up my I think he said seven year old daughter, and now he's like, I I can't even, you know, hold a glass of water or something. So it's a it's a sad it's It's sad to see, but it's very inspiring to see like he still is in good spirits about it and he believes like there by him coming public and raising the awareness, they can help find a cure for this. Yeah. Cause there is no cure at the moment for it. Or none that I guess have been public with it. And he also said, like he said, it's a degenerative nerve disease, like his body's shutting down, but he's said his brain is still functioning. It's he's still the same C J that he was before it. So and it Just I thought it was shocking to see how fast it was that it happens in a year. ⁓ as someone that back in college, my fraternity, we did a lot of work with ALS, MLS, ⁓ these diseases that do it's it's always great to see like when someone wants to fight it and someone wants to take a ⁓ you know, be a beacon of hope for other people that have gone through it. And all I gotta say is, you know, with CJ, we're sending our thoughts and prayers to him. I'm hoping that for the best for him, hoping the best for his family. Shout out to his wife who's absolutely stepped up and been like the been taking all the doctor's appointments, been, you know, kinda holding down the family why he's been going through and battle in this. And and and it just like I said, it's crazy to see how fast this thing can happen. And if anyone that is listening or know someone in your family or know a friend that's going through this, like we stand with you. If there's anything we we wish you the best and and any way that we can help. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. So with that, we will come back and do some FIFA World Cup news and then we will get into closing out the show. All right, we're back to do some FIFA World Cup knockout rounds. And we got Tavis back on, our soccer expert, to help lead us through this bracket as we we've seen it now. And my first question to you, Tavis, once thanks for coming back on the podcast. Appreciate the invite. It was a little tough with the with the time and everything of trying to get work out exactly when you could come on, but My first question, is it called the knockout rounds or is it knockout stage? ⁓ I call it the knockout rounds. I think that's the American thing. I think it's technically the knockout stage. Okay, 'cause I know we have like group stages and then I don't know if it it's knockout rounds. Yeah, it should be knockout rounds. I've been saying knockout rounds, so I'm just gonna I'm gonna quote you. You're a soccer expert. Yeah, knockout rounds, that's what we're going with. Lock it in. Okay. All right, lock it in. So Tavis, I was gonna ask this question. I thought there would be a different answer, but I think I know where you're gonna go with this. What has been the biggest shock of the tournament so far? And let me specify with the group stage. I know we just had a big shock in the knockout round with Paraguay taking out Germany. And as far as group wise, what's been the biggest shock to you? Cape Verde. Cape Ver is it Capo Verde? Cape Verde. Cap Cape Verde, Cape Verde. I mean, yeah. Very cool. Smallest nation to ever qualify, I believe. Yeah, they're ⁓ is it the first time ever they've been in the World Cup? First World Cup ever. First time qualifying, first time advancing, scored their first goal, got their first point. I mean, all milestones. Now they're playing Argentina, so let's not let's slow down a little bit. You don't think they could take down Argentina? No. That'd be the biggest, I feel like I upset. I think that's that would be comparable to like US beating Russia. At Lake Placid. What in Lake Plac are you talking on the Miracle on Ice? Yeah, Miracle on Ice. I think that would be like probably up there. I I think so far my favorite like the the darl I think everyone's darlings from this tournament so far have been Capi Verde and DR Congo. Which was another I think Which is crazy because half their team's ⁓ English and they're playing the English, so that's gonna be cool. That's a fun story. I didn't even know that was the thing going on. It's so I think it's Congo Dominican Republic, right? Yeah, the Dominican Republic of the Congo or something like that. Yeah, I thought they were based out of like they were near the Bahamas, but well once again we're learning all the geography with all the teams that are in here. So my next question, we got our bracket. Turns out Americans and the world, we're the same. We love brackets, right? I love when March Madness comes around. I love I've already gone through and made my twenty five brackets for this. Now, I think I have one left after the big upset of Paraguay taking out Germany. So we're not looking good so far. But as when you look at this bracket, what's like what stands out to you in the first round and then maybe the second round? ⁓ maybe the most intriguing matchups. Netherlands Morocco, which is happening right now as we record. That's okay great game. ⁓ That one wasn't on my list of teams of of games that I thought, but I did hear that was a top ten matchup. France and Sweden will be okay. I think I think France is just gonna power their way through it. Belgium and Senegal. Okay. You think that one's gonna be close? Yeah. I think Senegal's not playing well, but neither is Belgium. So I think it's gonna be a lot closer than some people would expect. I think Senegal's I think what was it, like eighteenth on the leaderboard. Right now. As far as like yeah. Going into this. They were pretty high. And then Belgium was I wanna say they were pretty high as well. People have already said the USA taking on Bosnia. I'm gonna mess up the name. Hers Hercovania. Yeah. That Belgium would be our second round matchup. They've already gone ahead and locked it in. So you're saying there's a possible chance that Belgium gets upset by Senegal. I think that's I think that's fair. I think ⁓ Belgium's a plus one twenty favorite right now. So I think that that's pretty close. ⁓ let's see here. Yeah. One of the games that I had down was Portugal and Croatia. I think that's one that we could see. I don't know if you really call it an upset, but I I think Croatia could seem possibly take down Portugal. Yeah, it'd be the second time in three World Cups if they do it. Ooh, they did it at tw yeah, they did it at twenty eighteen to make the final. And then they ultimately lost to France, but ⁓ but yeah, I mean it's a good matchup, right? I just don't think Croatia can do it. But also for but also Portugal has looked completely bad. Yeah, they they've said that Croatia's a like an older team in this World Cup and probably like a lot of their last hoorahs on that team. Yeah. ⁓ Luka Modric, probably top five best midfielders of all time. Pay's gonna retire after this. ⁓ I mean this is definitely his last World Cup 'cause he'll be forty five at the next World Cup, forty four, forty five. So he's definitely done. ⁓ Ivan Parisic will be done. So there's they've got a couple people on the way out. Okay. And then moving on to the second round matchups. I have to change it a little bit 'cause I had France and Germany as one of my tea as one of my games to watch out for, but now it's gonna be France taking on Par well if France gets past France win, yeah. Which they should. I think France France Paraguay is probably gonna be a blowout. ⁓ and then I had Spain and Croatia or Portugal, depending on who wins that, possibly it'll be a good matchup. I had England and Mexico. And then Brazil and Norway, I think that would just be an absolute electric one, especially with what we've seen from ⁓ who's Norway's top guy? ⁓ Holland. Holland, Erling Holland. He's become one of the darlings of the tournament as well. Just everyone's been saying like if Vikings were still around, this guy would be for sure the top Viking. Yeah, I think with that being said, I think Norway has a pretty good shot to make it to the round of sixteen to face England. I think England beats the Congo. England England beats Ecuador or Mexico, whoever they face in the round of sixteen. So I think England, round of sixteen, and then Norway with how Brazil looked today against Japan. Norway has better strikers and a better attack. I think Norway could sneak into the round of sixteen over Brazil. Right. And then who would they possibly play in the round of sixteen? It'd be ⁓ it'd be England. England, yeah. England, Norway round of sixteen. And then possibly we could see England or not England, ⁓ Norway. Argentina for a semi final. Correct. That'd be fun. That'd be a fun little matchup here. And what about on the other side of the bracket, the USA side of the bracket, man? Listen, I know we talked a little bit about USA. I'm not I said I wasn't gonna make you eat your words or anything about USA. We did look pretty good. All right. We looked we looked pretty good. You know, we beat Paradway, who took down Germany today. We we did. We beat Australia, which, you know, listen, Australia wasn't a cakewalk either, and then we We lost in a tough match at who did we lose to? It was Turkey. Turkey. We also played with our B team. I was actually kinda I was kinda impressed. I know we were after softball, we were at the bar together watching it and watching the first half. So Yeah. ⁓ I was actually kinda impressed. I I don't like the way they lost. I think we I kind of went flat the last ten minutes. ⁓ I was kinda questioning why like lesson stayed on for almost ninety minutes. Christian coming on, I was okay with. ⁓ but I don't I don't think Weston should have stayed on that long. Yeah, it was one of those where it was it was bitter. Like the way we lost in the final minute. It and once again, we had our B team in. I really wasn't that hurt about it. Now, once again, this was the first game I watched live, and now I've said like I'm not gonna watch Team USA because the ones I didn't watch, we won, and then the one I did watch, we lost in heartbreaking fashion. So I'm gonna do my part. I'm not gonna watch Team USA the rest of the way. I'm gonna catch the highlights. I'll listen to it on the radio or something, but I I feel like I can't watch it because I feel like I'm putting out bad, bad juju out there. But tell me about Bosnia, man. Are we this podcast drops on Wednesday? We're we're playing them Wednesday night. It should be okay. Yeah, we should be fine. I think I'm really scared. I'm I'm I said if this would be a USA masterclass. If we get too high, we start looking in the rest of the bracket, we're looking past Bosnia who I found out they took out Italy getting into the tournament. I mean, Italy hasn't made the last three World Cups. They're the highest ranked non three cup in a row team I've ever seen in my life. Right. Which is like we gotta kinda do something for Italy a little bit. Nah, they're okay. They have enough. They've they've at least, you know, competed in the World Cup. We haven't. So looking at this bracket right now, how far do you think this team USA team can make it? ⁓ I I see a real test. Obviously, Belgian Cynigal, you said that it's not that's not a cakewalk either. Yeah. But I think our real test would be like Spain or whoever's I would rather have Senegal over Belgium. I think we beat Senegal a lot easier than Belgium. ⁓ that's you know, obviously if we take care of business on Wednesday. ⁓ if we can get to round of sixteen, I don't know. I I don't want to play any of the three. I'd be happy with all ⁓ with Austria. If they can't say if Austria somehow wins if some if Austria can somehow win too, I'd be happy. But realistically Like it's probably going to be Spain. It really just depends on how defensive we want to play. Right. I've loved and I've been you told us a little bit about this different playstyle we were gonna see from Team USA and we've seen it so far in the World Cup. I've really enjoyed it. It seems like it used to be like whenever I watch World Cups with Team USA, it's like, ⁓ yeah, Wooders out kinda out there. Now it seems like we're out there taking the fight to some teams. Yeah. Yeah, Pochettino was talking about it and ⁓ Alexi Lawless, I don't even think it was Lawless, I think it was Landed and Tim were talking about it ⁓ on their podcast that they have. And when we played Germany, the Germans didn't really know what to do in that friendly rep before the World Cup started. and they said a lot of the Germans were saying that it's just controlled chaos the way we're playing. And I think it is controlled chaos. We're doing a lot of overlapping and some stuff that we're not used to with previous managers, and I think that's just because Pochettino brings in a style that the Americans have never seen before. Like obviously those guys that go overseas and play in England and stuff like that, they see that style and their clubs mimic stuff like that, but it's never been brought to the stage on the like the national stage for us because we haven't had a coach of any merit. And speaking of one of the leaders of Team USA, Balogun, that was a name that you brought up in our first interview. seemed like you called it at the right time. He comes out, has the what, two goals in the first game. Should have had possibly three. Yeah. And then he gets an another one. For sure. I I I said the one thing I was very I would say judgmental on was we didn't have a killer in the box and he came out first game and scored two. You know, next game scored. So I mean he's he's been clinical. ⁓ with Christian getting hurt, I'm glad that he stepped up. I'm glad Pepe came in and stepped up. I still think If we want to have success, we have to continue pushing the ball through Malik. Till then. Okay. But Balogon's just, I mean, he's been good in front of gold. He's gonna get a move this summer, hopefully. And I I love the story of him of like he just barely became a US citizen because his mom was pregnant and they said she was too pregnant to fly home, so he had to stay in he was born in I think it was like New York or something. Right. Or Brooklyn, I think was where he was actually could be. I don't know. ⁓ I love that he's now ours. Like he used his one time transfer, so he's stuck with the US. So we should see him, you know, for the next couple World Cups, you know. Yeah, for sure. He grew up in the England system, so it seems like we have an actual like real soccer I'm not saying we don't have soccer players in past, but it just seems like we had someone that actually grew up with soccer and it's you come back to the US and he's like, This is all I've learned from the overseas. Yep. No, he's definitely helped. ⁓ and I think he'll be good going forward. ⁓ we were talking about it, me and a few few of my guys were talking about it. W I mean, this core we have, we have a good two, maybe three World Cups before they're out. Yeah, re rework everything. Yeah. And then they just announced ⁓ yesterday that we're trying to acquire the twenty thirty eight World Cup to come back in twelve years. I think they said that we did officially get it. Did we d we did officially get it? I think I haven't seen that we I heard something that said that we we'd gotten it or I I knew there was talk so there was chance of like We me and Matt were talking we're like when's the next time we could see it in our lifetime. Yeah. And people in the comments were letting us so it's twenty thirty eight is when we were bidding on. So I think we were one of the fr and I think honestly with out of the how impressed the Europeans have been with our infrastructure and all of our football state it's they're like America's infrastructure is we see the handham ranch coming off the plane, they'll stay. Yeah. That's been like the biggest hit. The ranch. I did see they were trying to smuggle ranch back to the TSA put out a a thing saying please put it in your carry-on or something or in your check bag. I thought ranch was like a universal thing. I didn't know it was just only to America. Yeah, that's crazy. Yeah. What about ⁓ okay, so team USA obviously you think round of sixteen. Who do you think out of that side of the bracket could come out? Obviously, you said France in our initial interview. I watched some of the France games. I think you are exactly spot on. It seems like the only team that can beat France is France. Yep. When they looked when they looked bad, it was the first half of the first game. They looked terrible. And then second half comes out and they score three and now they're just chilling. Yeah. Mape scores one from like thirty-five yards, you know, and then they come out the next game and kind of slow start and then they start scoring. And then that last game with the rain delay, I think that's the biggest thing to take away from it was you had that rain delay. So in my opinion, they played two separate games. I I really think they played they played three games total, but they really played four. as far as a mental capacity because you had two hours in between the first half and the start of the second half. So you're essentially your starters got to rest two hours. Yeah. Cause they didn't start the first game was at four o'clock and the first half ended at five our time, but they didn't start until seven our time, which is when Norway kicked off in that second game. It was a two hour in delay. So realistically they played four four games mentally because yeah, you had the lead going in at halftime, but all of your starters now are rested. even on the other side, right? Like all of your starters are arrested, but on the other side all of their starters are are arrested and now they're gonna come back and the pitch is what? So anything can happen. I mean you saw another drop in the that was Irag game that was the rain delay, right? Okay. I remember the Norway game. Well who was it? ⁓ Dembele had hit a hat trick before the even before the half set I think it was like the second fastest hat trick out there. So it's like it's not even just Mbappe doing it all. I mean for them. Yeah. For sure. I mean it was and then De Bele came out, but I mean also Norway really didn't start. Like Holland didn't start, Odegaard didn't start. I didn't see them several they had several others that didn't start like their key players 'cause they're like, we there's no point. And realistically, like, in my opinion, conceding and taking second place put them on an easier side. No. So you think it's still France and that I guess let's get into maybe who your final predictions are. You know, you s you said France and and I think it was Spain before, but now they're gonna be on the same side of the bracket. So it kinda changes we're getting down to quarterfinals. I think France makes it to the quarter final from that top side. The second second group on that top side, Portugal, Croatia, Spain, Austria, US, Bosnia, Belgium, Senegal. I think we plateau in the round of sixteen and lose to Spain. So France, Spain, quarter final one, quarter final two, I don't even have to really even look at it. It's it's Argentina. And then on the bottom side, ⁓ Argentina I think walks all of those teams. ⁓ the top side's where it gets kind of messy because I think Norway beats Ivory Coast. I think Norway can sneak past Brazil Brazil and meet England in the round of sixteen, and that's where it gets tricky. 'Cause now you're riding on a high when everyone's counted you as counted you out or the dark horse of the tournament and you're coming in against an English team who has not looked good. Right. And so you think it would be then either Norway, England taking on Argentina? Correct. Okay, and so who out of those quarter f or out of the semifinals, who do you think is gonna make it to the final? France. Probably France, Argentina. I mean it's set up for it. You think we get rematch? Yeah, I think it's set up for it. Okay. And who do you think's gonna take it home? I think France does it this time. I mean Mbappé scored a hat trick last time. Yeah. So now it seems like this France team's even gotten better since the last World Cup. For sure. Hundred percent, I think France takes it. I forgot to mention this in one of the surprises just through the group stages, but it seems like Messi is on an absolute heater right now. What has he scored out of the last seven? Yeah, he's got five goals this tournament. Didn't even play the last game. Or no, he did play. He came in late and still scored. He had the PK. Yeah. The free kick from outside the box. He came in late and still scored. So he has six bulls. Yeah. So he seems like another year and records you're a Ronaldo guy. Records thirteen in a tournament. You think he you think he can get it broken? I mean he is playing Cape Verde. I I live on the train and I live on the train that Cape Verde's out of that goalie. He's like a forty years old and he's just he's standing on business, but it's it's one thing to stand on business in the group stage, it's another to try to stand on business against the greatest player of all time. I thought you said I thought you said Ronaldo was the greatest player of all time. I never said that. I said I'm happy that Ronaldo and Messi played at the same time. There we go. ⁓ yeah, that's right. You said you're I just glad he got to see both of them play. Okay. Yeah, it seems like Messi's kind of elevated himself even more with this World Cup. Once again, I'm we're pretty sure it's his last World Cup. I don't know if he's officially said it, but it probably will be. No, I don't think so. Especially if he wins it back to back. If he has the chance to win it back to back. Now if he loses, he might. He might try it. But try and run it back. And if he wins it, I think he he's like, All right, I'm done. Did you ⁓ Couple things in Argentina. I it seems like they have a little bit of a cakewalk to the final. Out out of everyone that I was looking at, I said Argentina seems like they have the easiest path. For sure. I know the USA we got a favorable draw, but I mean once you get to round sixteen, like I you you're gonna have to beat good teams. It seems like Argentina won't have to face a good team until the semifinal. Yeah. I mean I think the only team that they'll play round of sixteen, they're gonna play Egypt. I think Egypt beats Australia. I don't think Argentina has a ⁓ issue with Egypt and then probably Colombia off the bottom side. So they probably play Egypt and Colombia to get to the quarters. Yeah, that's out of out of who you could play possibly, that's a that's a nice matchup. Yeah, for sure. I think the the hardest side of the bracket's our side. Yeah. Everyone's saying it's the easiest. I think it's the hardest. Well, I think just like it seems like the the talent pulls a lot more even. Other than France. It's the And then like Germany like the one team I thought could upset France. And now it's like they're out on a crazy it was the fourth biggest upset in World Cup history. Paraguay taking out Germany. And I did watch the end of the game. I love I'm so glad we're at the penalty kicks. We're gonna get no more ties. The penalty kicks were already just electric. I I called it. We were sitting downstairs watching it. Me and ⁓ the family were watching it, and one guy's like lined up directly at the ball, and I said, Watch, he's gonna jump. two times to the left and he's gonna shoot it right and he did. And they're like, How'd you know that? I was like, Snowball, man. I did say it. He was lined up s level and then shifted over. Yeah, he slid twice and then went and then when ⁓ what's it called? ⁓ Paraguay came up, their last guy to win it, I said he's gonna miss. I was like he's missing till I I said he missed over and he ended up missing to the left. And I was ⁓ yeah. And then they had to go to like the golden goal. Yeah, sudden death one. Yeah and then talk comes up and skies it for Germany. I'm like, well And so what's the rule what what's the rule on PKs? Do you have to have the whole team eventually go through and kick? Yeah, so it's five. Best of five, right? Right. Which I saw that. And then it's yeah, and then it's essentially like playing knockout. Like playing knockout as a kid. And the same guy that kicked baby the first time can't kick again until everyone goes through. The goalkeeper even has to come in and kick. All eleven on the field have to kick and then you start over. Damn, that's That's what makes it. The MLS used to have an exciting one. ⁓ we did it in high school playing growing up here. MLS used to do dribble ups. You start at the thirty and you have five seconds to score. Well, it's almost like hockey where they bring it up the ice. Essentially, yeah. That's where they got it from. So you start at the thirty and you had five seconds to get your shot off. No, dude, I like the one that's point blank range where there's just like all the fans are going to Anybody that's a striker is gonna like the one that's point blank range, but like for a dramatic flare, like And let me ask you this the goalie They just have to guess, right? Like it there's not a reaction time fast enough. No, you'll see coming down to it, ⁓ in the later rounds and you can go back I wanna say it was the Euros two summers ago. ⁓ if you look at the goalies water bottle on the side, there's gonna be a note there's a notepad on his water bottle. And it's every player that's on the field or on the roster and it's their tendencies of where they go. Where they like. So it's it's a calculated jump. Essentially. But but still like it's still they're just jumping. They they have to just guess. A calculated guess there. Yeah. The the biggest thing like growing up is like learning from the coaches here is your belly button doesn't lie. Right? ⁓ that's like football. Yeah. So if you're wherever you point your belly button when you shoot, ninety five percent of the time it's gonna go there unless you're So that's what they're trying to check. That's what I It's like it's all on the hips and the belly button. You know, like you kinda have to guess where the belly button is, right? So it's it makes it a lot harder when these guys are like jumping and stopping almost 'cause you can't fully stop. If you fully stop it's foul. Right. So it's like on the on when they're kicking it. Yep. So it has to be one fluid motion. Now you'll see them like kind of jump and slow down and like transition, but if you watch, they never actually stop because as soon as they stop, it's a foul. Okay. That's see, this is where we learn the ins and outs of soccer a little bit. My last thing that I had here Just on Argentina. Did you see the Messi statue? Which one? The one with the World Cup at his knees. And in Argentina, it's like a mega big statue. It looks like a dong is hanging down between his knees. They did I don't know who I don't know who set this up. I did not see it. You did not see it? Just just look up Messi statue real quick. As a soccer officiant, I just want to see your takes on it. The New York Times. The behind view is absolute. Crazy. Right. That's funny. I feel like they could have chosen something better. Also, like the statue just it did not look like messy at all. I don't know why we we as a civilization have fallen a little bit when it comes to statues. 85 foot statue, a large World Cup trophy. They could have put like the World Cup trophy in his hand or something, but I just thought that was an absolute crazy thing to do. Especially they unveiled it right during the World Cup. Seventy tons of steel. Yeah. Probably gonna have to rework it a little bit. The the back view does does not look like it's a World Cup trophy. There's a little justice. You you're talking about the greatest soccer player of all time. That's crazy. I just thought that was interesting. So ⁓ my last thing, I I know I said last thing. My last thing here, I don't know why people are saying team USA, it's a considered success. We make it to the round of 16. It's only a success if we win. If we don't win, we're gonna lose. That's the type of mentality we need to have now at the World Cup. No. Yeah, we're gonna win it all. I I I agree. Like we need to win it all, right? If Cro Croatia I think we t covered this in the last segment. Croatia's population is the size of D FW, right? Where we all live. And they made it to a final in a semif or quarter final. I think I think there's a lot of excitement around Team USA. You what? I'll go ahead and give my prediction. I think it's gonna be Team USA taking on Argentina in the final. Yep. Well You're gonna cry yourself to sleep. That or one of my brackets. One of my brackets had Team USA taking on England. That would be cinema. That would be fun. For America's 250th. That would be fun. Ethan, do you have a prediction? USA going all the way. O over who? I know you want to say. ⁓ let me look, let me look, let me look. I mean the bottom half's Argentina. There's no. Yeah, there's a I was gonna I was gonna make a like a wild guess of something like. Mexico or something, but Mexico US Mexico final. Yeah. We'd be like you no one else had to even come here. We we already had the champions here. Yeah. ⁓ but I mean even so Canada too. Right? Let's just say if everything was to align perfectly, right? If we could even get US Canada in the round of in the quarterfinals, Canada somehow beats Netherlands or Morocco, goes in to play France, beats France or Paraguay upsets France. And it's Paraguay, Canada, Canada wins and we beat Spain or Portugal or Croatia and make the quarter final and it's US Canada on top side and Mexico makes it a nine. Can Canada take another US loss though this year? I I mean, they're not going to, but they know who Big Bro is, so they can calm down over there. Both of them with their maple syrup. We'd have we'd have to win it. Yeah, but then they just beat us in the I the IHF. Like we won the Olympics and then they just like slaughtered us in the IHF like two weeks ago. It's the IHF. The International Hockey Federation tournament that just happened. During like during during the what's it called? Right in the middle of the Stanley Cup playoffs. No, I was keeping up with the Stanley Cup. I didn't even know the IH listen, yeah. No. But I mean it was like a as teams started getting eliminated from the playoffs, their players started going to their national teams and playing another tournament. I did not hear about that at all. That's crazy. I didn't that was a tournament. I think yeah, I think they like slaughtered us if we're being honest. Well listen, we got it we got ⁓ in the Olympics. That's all that matters. Yeah, that's all that matters. Yeah. But cool. I like to say half our guys were still playing in the Stanley Cup. We're just better. Do you think there will be a lot of chaos in this bracket? I know I love brackets with chaos. It seems like for the most part, people were saying we're chalk, but now we've already got our first major upset, so Yeah, I mean Portugal, Croatia, that's either or. Sweden can beat France. If Sweden wants to play on the counterattack and defend for ninety plus minutes, Sweden can pull it out. It's just going to be a You gotta be careful saying that 'cause this podcast drops Wednesday. That's fine. This game's gonna be on Tuesday. That's fine. Sweden can do it. And they just have to play straight defense. Now, will they do it? I don't know. Portugal, Croatia, Belgium, Senegal. Sinegal can upset upset Belgium. I think Norway could make it to the round of sixteen beating Brazil. Mexico should beat Ecuador. I think we're gonna have an England Mexico round of thirty-two. Argentina just makes slight work of every I just didn't want it to be chalk and I think that's what we've gotten so far with our first it's like the first shot heard around the world. Like, you know, Paraguay taking down Germany. I think we're I think we're in for some chaos a little bit. That's what I like to see. I hope so. I I I really hope so. I also also love how fast all these matches are happening. It seemed like the group stage they get a week off and now it's like Boom, every three days they're playing, right? Yep. Now till what? July I think July nineteenth, or is that the that's the final, I think. The Portugal Argentina. See who's the best. And that's whatever. Any soccer fan, that's what you want. You just want to see some chaos. No, you want Portugal, Argentina in the final. ⁓ okay. I'm gonna say I just wanna see Team USA make it, man. I mean I do too. In my lifetime. But all right, I think we'll wrap up the segment there. Tavis, thank you for coming on once again. And ⁓ everyone's brackets make it and team USA is going all the way. All right, getting into some other sports news here and one final question. So starting off, we got Scotty Scheffler taking on Victor Hovlin. And if no one watched the Travelers Championship this weekend, well, if you watch it on Monday, ⁓ they had a playoff, a one hole playoff between the two. They were tied. You know, they finished I think it was Sunday. They had some bad weather come in. So ⁓ they ended up playing. They were able to finish out the round. Scotty sank like an eight footer to send it to a playoff and they came back Monday morning and played. They both hit their drives, middle of the fairway, actually right next to each other. And then they both threw him their second shots right next to the pen. I think Scotty Scheffler was a little bit closer to Victor Hoblin, so Victor Hovlin had the you know, the start. Or he had to go first, got to put first. Victor Hovlin just barely sneaks his putt in for Birdie. I mean, just barely lips in. And then Scotty Scheffler, probably two feet closer to the pen, misses it. Misses it left. Just lips out. Unfortunate stuff there. Victor Hovlin wins the Travelers Championship, and we are back to answering asking the question again. Scotty Scheffler. He just seems to keep being runner up. This is his fourth time this year being the runner up. It's like he folds under pressure there. I I guess maybe this year you could say that. Because normally this isn't the Scotty that we've seen. Normally when Scotty shows up, he dominates. Yeah. And it looked like he was in the driver's seat a little bit and then, you know, after the rain delay, kind of fell back a little. I think he like a two stroke lead going into the rain delay. ⁓ Colin Moore Cowwood finished pretty much tied with them, but ⁓ he was a couple he was well ahead, a couple hours ahead. He actually finished before the whole rain delay started. But it's just kind of crazy. Victor Hovlin, I think it was his eighth. Career win on the PGA tour. His mom was there to finally get to see it. So happy to see that. Just it sucks for Scotty, who just seems like he's just going through and then it's heartbreak. He just can't he was runner up at the US Open last week and then this week he's runner up at the Travelers Championship. Yeah, that's that's tough to be runner up. I think I would you rather be runner up or be deeper like not even I would probably want to be deeper like Not even in contention. That way I didn't have to show up Monday morning to play. Actually, you know what? I'm not gonna I wouldn't complain that I'm playing golf on Monday morning, but Yeah. I mean it stinks to be runner up, but I'd rather be, I think, runner up than be like not even in contention there. Yeah. I mean he's still he's runner up, but he's still world number one. Like in the FedEx points, he is still running away with it right now just because all the he's all the second place finish. No one else is having the most con I guess you could say Scotty Scheffler. most consistent top finisher right now. Yeah. Just not I mean the champion that he was last year. And I think it's it's tough because last year he was so dominant that this year it's it's kind of taking a step back. It seems like he's a couple like really just a couple strokes off from where he was. And maybe he's just kind of waiting to heat up at the right time further in the season there. Yeah. And it's almost like Victor Hoblin's the complete opposite. He's had like very horrible, like didn't even qualify to what He either wins. So it's which one would you rather be? Scotty or Victor Hoblin? We'd this week you'd want to be Victor Hoblin, but overall you'd want to be Scotty Scheffler. Yeah. It depends on how many wins you pull out. Yeah. With being Victor Hoblin. But everyone knows the next major championship that's starting is the open championship across the pond. I believe that's later this month in July. So that would be the fourth major and maybe you know, I think Scotty, you know, I think he's def defending champion actually, so See if he's able to defend his title. Or does he finish runner up? Does he finish runner up again? I would just start placing bets that he's going to be runner up or like top five. Yeah. Some other sports news going on. Wimbledon started this week. So I got on y'all white. Didn't really plan for it, but it just kind of happened. And ⁓ you know, we're not a major tennis podcast here, but I just thought it was, you know, some notable names that are going on. Obviously, ⁓ center is like the overall favorite for the men and then Arena Sablinka is the overall favorite for the women. ⁓ center, I believe, is defending his title at Wimbledon and Arena Sablinka was runner up last year. So those are like the two names to know going into it. Once again, this Wimbledon it's gonna be two weeks. I think the finals on July fourteenth. But probably one of my favorite tennis tournaments is to watch just with all the pageantry that goes on to it and just like the all white. Also ⁓ Sarita Williams is in this tournament. Yeah, that's a Don't be shocked if she pulls it out. Try to see where she is in the bracket right now. She's July thirtieth, eleven AM is her ⁓ match. July thirtieth or June thirtieth? ⁓ no, June thirtieth, sorry. I about to say July thirtieth is the tournament would be over. Geez, how many people it's crazy how many people are actually in this tournament. Yeah, they're trying to find her name right now. Closer to the bottom there. There it is. She's taking on joint. Joint, yep. Okay, so it looks like a favorable draw. She wouldn't see a ranked matchup until her second match on July second. Shout out to Serena Williams. Yeah. I mean still doing it at what she's she's getting up there. Yeah, we talked about her making her major comeback this year and ⁓ she'd gone to I think it was Queens it was like the Royal Queens tournament or something like that. So but obviously everyone you just kinda need to know the favorites for Wimbledon. It's really just a fun tournament to watch if you if you haven't ever watch it before and it's something nice 'cause it's it's over in Europe, so it's on in the morning. So I like watching it. Yeah. What are these most of these are what, like eight thirty to eleven AM starts? A couple of six thirty AMs in there. Yeah. So something you watch you watch in the morning. Yeah. If you like sports, you start with some tennis and finish off with the FIFA World Cup. That's right. So moving on here, probably to the storyline for the weekend that you need to know. You need to you need to get to this segment before the po before the ⁓ before it happens, before July fourth. ⁓ Joey Chestnut, Nathan's famous hot dog eating contest. The goat. The goat's back. Joey Chestnut, if you don't know who he is, he should be a household name at this point. He is the glizzy champion. Yeah. I mean, if you're not watching Nathan's hot dog competition July fourth weekend. What's wrong with you? Yeah, that that is the real major sports thing going on. And you know, Wimbledon's great and everything, but I I care about Joey Chestnut and defending his title. ⁓ so yes, July fourth, as it always goes on, and it starts at twelve thirty Eastern. So if you're in Texas, it's ⁓ eleven thirty. Yep. I made that mistake last year. I w I I watched it late, so Make sure I set an alarm for 11:30. And he's going to have his own dedicated camera going on. That's how you know you're big time right there. When you're at a hot dog eating contest and you got your own camera. But so he's he's going for his 18th title, his 18th mustard belt title. And really, my question for you, Ethan, this is one final question, the final segment of the podcast. How many dogs do we think he's down in? So last year, before we get into how many we think he's going to eat. ⁓ last year he did seventy and a half dogs and his all time record is seventy six dogs, which he did in twenty twenty one. That's a tough one. Like I want to say a little bit less because like he's getting up there in age. I feel like he'll slow down. But also don't know how eating competitions work when you get older. So you know what? Let's go 72. There we go. I I didn't for some reason that that's like pulling at my heart right there. 72. I like the 72. I'm gonna say I'm gonna say he's also losing a step. I'm gonna say sixty-nine dogs. Sixty nine. See, I almost went six seven there. Sixty seven. That would also be a good one. I don't think we can make that joke. I think we're past that beam. Well, I don't know. I've seen it around sometimes. But even then, I think like last year I think he did seventy and a half. He still beat the competition. I think it was like by thirty dogs. Yeah, he like torches them. Like I'm pretty sure he could like slow down and take a five minute break and then continue. Which is crazy because it's ten minutes. Yeah. Like and that's a lot of dogs to be eating. I mean you gotta eat the the bun And the dog too. So it's not like it's just like hot dog. Like just He is the number one ranked eater coming into this weekend. Ethan, let's just say we were lined up. We had ten minutes, right? How many do we think we're down? How many dogs we think we're down? I don't know. How many do you think you could down? I think I think maybe around twenty. I think I could do about twenty. Do you think you'd do twenty? I think so. I think so. I think I would I think I would start off hot, but I think it would come out to average a dog a minute. I think I could get ten. In ten minutes. Really? I think that and that ⁓ because also like I'm not a professional eater. My stomach for that. I'm not either, but like I feel like hot dogs, they're 'cause it's dog and bun. Yeah. But they're not as like filling. It's not like a big ish, I guess, meal. I don't know. I don't know. Maybe would you would you dunk the buns in the water like how they do? No, I don't think I could do that. Dude, that's so disgusting. Yeah, I don't think I'm a big like texture like smell person and just the sogginess, I I couldn't do it. I would have to put like ketchup on my dog. Yeah. I would I if I dunked it in water, I would have one and then it'd be I'd just be throwing up for the rest of the ten minutes. Like Yeah, I I would not wanna I would not wanna have a bun after soaking it in water. But apparently that's part of the science fun. So ⁓ one of the most American things and also on America's two hundred fiftieth birthday, how could you not watch Joey Chestnut? You know what? Leave us a comment of how many hot dogs you could eat, you think, in ten minutes. Yeah. Let us know let's see what other people think. I bet I I'd be surprised if anyone else is above ten. If anyone says like fifty, you can come on the podcast and prove it. We will set that up. I will give you fifty bucks. I'll give you a hundred bucks if you could do it. I'll I'll double it. Yeah. All right. With that, we can get into closing out the show. Thank you everyone for listening. Ethan, thank you for coming on, stepping in once again. Hey, thanks for having me. Yep. Like and subscribe over on the YouTube turn on the notifications helps out a lot. Follow us on Spotify, rate the show five stars. If you want to stay up to date on the show, follow us on TikTok, Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook at Brody Pod. With that, we will see you guys all next week. Take care. God bless. And since Matt's not here, love you guys. See ya.