Latest / The Ben Maller Show / Hour 1 - Ball on the Brain

Transcript

Hour 1 - Ball on the Brain · The Ben Maller Show

0:00
Speaker 1: Oh what is going on? Greetings top of the evening
0:06
Speaker 1: to you wherevery you're listening, top of the early morning
0:09
Speaker 1: hours to you, depending on where you're at. Appreciate you
0:12
Speaker 1: checking out the show. You know, something dawned on me
0:16
Speaker 1: today and tonight I'm getting all these stories ready for
0:21
Speaker 1: the show. And let me just tell you, ball is
0:26
Speaker 1: on the brain, all right, lots of football to discuss tonight.
0:29
Speaker 1: That's not the only thing. Some hoops see their way
0:32
Speaker 1: into the show. A little baseball, but heavy on the ball.
0:36
Speaker 1: Lots of football. And I'm compiling all these stories and
0:40
Speaker 1: I'm looking at him. I'm like, I've never really thought
0:42
Speaker 1: about it like this, because I don't know if you're
0:46
Speaker 1: like me, where I anticipate the season coming up and
0:49
Speaker 1: then after a while, I just I'm like, I know
0:53
Speaker 1: it's getting closer, but based on the stories that we hear,
1:00
Speaker 1: the stories don't get me more excited for the upcoming season,
1:04
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. For instance, well, I'll probably
1:07
Speaker 1: hit on tonight some of these holdouts, some of the
1:10
Speaker 1: second round draft picks that are looking for guaranteed money.
1:15
Speaker 1: The idiotic Bengals what they're doing with their first round pick,
1:18
Speaker 1: Shamar Stewart. These stories don't get me more excited for
1:23
Speaker 1: the season. What do I care whether second rounders get
1:28
Speaker 1: fully guaranteed deals or you know, eighty seven percent gear,
1:32
Speaker 1: I don't care. That has nothing to do with my
1:35
Speaker 1: excitement level for the upcoming season, right And so I
1:39
Speaker 1: thought of that, and I'm like, that's probably why most seasons,
1:44
Speaker 1: even though it seems like I anticipate, all right, it's
1:47
Speaker 1: only like five months away, it's only four months away,
1:50
Speaker 1: get about it, and then boom, it's there. And I'm like,
1:54
Speaker 1: why was I anticipating it four months out? But then
1:58
Speaker 1: like two months out, I just kind of I stop
2:01
Speaker 1: doing the countdown, you know. I think it has a
2:03
Speaker 1: lot to do with the nature of the stories that
2:07
Speaker 1: you hear about, and so I'm gonna try to keep
2:10
Speaker 1: that in mind tonight. I think that some of these
2:12
Speaker 1: stories are interesting even though they don't necessarily get me
2:16
Speaker 1: excited for the upcoming season. So I think if you
2:19
Speaker 1: have an interesting story that also gets you more excited
2:24
Speaker 1: for the upcoming season, that's a double win right there.
2:26
Speaker 1: That is a double win win win, as we say
2:30
Speaker 1: in the business here. But I also think that some
2:33
Speaker 1: of these stories that don't get you excited for the
2:36
Speaker 1: upcoming season? Do have a place? And that's not to
2:39
Speaker 1: be a complete hypocrite, but I'm gonna start with one
2:41
Speaker 1: of those things, just because there are two parts of
2:44
Speaker 1: this story and they both are insane. It's almost like
2:49
Speaker 1: you can't make this stuff up? Are you kidding me
2:52
Speaker 1: with this? So the news tonight is that Lloyd Howell.
2:58
Speaker 1: You're looking at me. Even if a diehard fan, you're like,
3:00
Speaker 1: Lloyd Howell? Should I Did he play for the I
3:04
Speaker 1: don't know the Jags? Was he a backup defensive tackle
3:07
Speaker 1: five years ago? Who is Lloyd Howell?
3:09
Speaker 2: So?
3:09
Speaker 1: Lloyd Howell used to be the executive director of the
3:13
Speaker 1: NFL Players Association as of late Thursday night, No Moss,
3:18
Speaker 1: no more Lloyd Howell. He resigned late Thursday night, and
3:24
Speaker 1: he cited distractions that his leadership has caused in recent weeks.
3:31
Speaker 1: Kind of distractions are we talking about here? So this guy,
3:34
Speaker 1: Lloyd Howell, he faced a lot of scrutiny. There was
3:37
Speaker 1: an ESPN report that came out and it said that
3:42
Speaker 1: Lloyd Howell has maintained a part time consulting job with
3:47
Speaker 1: the Carlyle Group. Who the heck is the Carlyle group.
3:51
Speaker 1: It doesn't matter. All that you need to know is
3:54
Speaker 1: the Carlyle Group is now seeking minority ownership in NFL franchises.
4:01
Speaker 1: So the guy who was the executive director of the
4:06
Speaker 1: NFL Players Association was also a consultant for this group
4:13
Speaker 1: that's seeking minority ownership. There are two very different worlds
4:18
Speaker 1: when it comes to professional football NFL. Here it's player side,
4:23
Speaker 1: ownership side. You can't be the executive director of the
4:27
Speaker 1: Players Association while you are a paid consultant for a
4:32
Speaker 1: group that's trying to become a minority owner in the NFL.
4:37
Speaker 1: You can't have both. It's got to be one lane
4:40
Speaker 1: or the other. Was the old LeVar ball Well, he said,
4:44
Speaker 1: stay in your lane. I guess that's the thing. He's
4:47
Speaker 1: got to stay in his lane. Whether it's player's lane
4:50
Speaker 1: or ownership lane. You gotta choose. Can't be both. You're
4:53
Speaker 1: all over the media, you're in access, You're going from
4:55
Speaker 1: lane to lane over here, Lloyd Howell. So he resigned
4:59
Speaker 1: from the Player Association as the executive director. That's the
5:04
Speaker 1: first part of it where it's crazy that he was
5:06
Speaker 1: trying to do both, and then all these Players Association
5:11
Speaker 1: people they had his back they're like, Oh, all these accusations,
5:15
Speaker 1: this is ridiculous. And then all of a sudden he
5:18
Speaker 1: resigns and they're like, maybe there was something to that.
5:20
Speaker 1: I don't know. There's this other part here, though, it's
5:25
Speaker 1: not just involving Lloyd Howell. There's another story from last
5:28
Speaker 1: month that makes the NFLPA, right, the NFL Players Association
5:34
Speaker 1: look freaking terrible. I can't believe this is even true.
5:40
Speaker 1: So the NFLPA and the NFL the league right, they
5:45
Speaker 1: had a confidentiality agreement to keep quiet when an arbitrator
5:51
Speaker 1: ruled about possible collusion by owners over quarterback salaries. Okay,
5:56
Speaker 1: that sounds like you ever say, like, I've got Oreo,
5:58
Speaker 1: the neighborhood cat. Here, she's taking a nap. She's very
6:01
Speaker 1: comfortable on the couch right over there. She's very fired
6:04
Speaker 1: up for the show tonight, hanging out here. You ever
6:06
Speaker 1: see a cat that gets like hairball stuck in their
6:10
Speaker 1: you know, maybe they licked their paws a little bit,
6:13
Speaker 1: and then it just something didn't work right and they
6:15
Speaker 1: just kind of they just do Like that's what that
6:19
Speaker 1: last sentence sounded like, where it just sounds like leh
6:21
Speaker 1: blah blah, blah blah BLI. So let's break it down.
6:25
Speaker 1: This is now, it's a little wordy. I tried to
6:27
Speaker 1: condense everything to the most important parts so it doesn't
6:30
Speaker 1: just sound like yackitty yackitty yackity yeack. Again, the payoff
6:36
Speaker 1: is unbelievable. So just bear with me for a second
6:39
Speaker 1: over here. So this goes back to March of twenty
6:42
Speaker 1: twenty two. That's when quarterback Deshaun Watson signed that mammoth
6:47
Speaker 1: fully guaranteed two hundred and thirty million dollar contract.
6:51
Speaker 3: Right.
6:52
Speaker 1: The NFL owners were pissed, just incredibly ticked off about this,
6:58
Speaker 1: and so they had the owners meeting in Flo in
7:01
Speaker 1: that same March of twenty twenty two, and so the league,
7:05
Speaker 1: the NFL, was urging ownership to restrict guaranteed contracts. The
7:12
Speaker 1: NFL gave a presentation during the owner's meetings and they
7:16
Speaker 1: even included some speaker notes. Now, it basically is like, yo,
7:22
Speaker 1: you can't be given out these guaranteed deals left and right.
7:25
Speaker 1: This is gonna set a precedent, and then once the
7:28
Speaker 1: toothpaste is out of the tube, you can't put it back.
7:32
Speaker 1: All of a sudden, the next player in line, they're
7:34
Speaker 1: gonna win a fully guaranteed deal, and then the next
7:36
Speaker 1: player who's got leverage is gonna demand a fully guaranteed contract,
7:41
Speaker 1: and so we gotta slow this train down or you
7:45
Speaker 1: guys are gonna be in a rough spot NFL ownership.
7:47
Speaker 1: That's basically what the NFL was saying. I think the
7:50
Speaker 1: paraphrasing works way better than reading the exact things, because
7:53
Speaker 1: it's you can imagine it's a four score and seven
7:56
Speaker 1: years ago and you're like, oh my gosh, this is
7:59
Speaker 1: just so boring. So you go back to they had
8:03
Speaker 1: this presentation, and so an arbitrator made a ruling back
8:09
Speaker 1: in January of this year. Okay, now what I told you,
8:12
Speaker 1: the Deshaun Watson thing, twenty twenty two owners meetings in
8:17
Speaker 1: March of twenty twenty two. Finally, this January and twenty five,
8:23
Speaker 1: an arbitrator determined that this March twenty twenty two presentation
8:28
Speaker 1: was evidence of the NFL's collusive behavior. Okay, that's the
8:33
Speaker 1: way he said it. Evidence of the NFL's collusive behavior,
8:37
Speaker 1: but he did not find the NFL guilty of collusion.
8:44
Speaker 1: This is the first part that blows my mind. Collusive
8:47
Speaker 1: behavior not quite collusion for sure though, that's like saying
8:54
Speaker 1: I engaged in cheating behavior, but I'm not a cheater
8:59
Speaker 1: or better yet, it's an arbitrator oversaw a case. All right,
9:04
Speaker 1: there's this married man. He's fooling around with the secretary,
9:07
Speaker 1: and this arbitrator is like, all right, even though she
9:12
Speaker 1: was nude and on this married man's lap and making
9:17
Speaker 1: sort of I don't know, I don't want to be
9:19
Speaker 1: too raunchy over here, but let's just say, like, you know,
9:24
Speaker 1: certain rowing like motions. You know, I can't say for
9:29
Speaker 1: sure this guy is a cheater. I mean, that's a
9:31
Speaker 1: little bit of a leap right there. Now, this was
9:33
Speaker 1: cheating behavior, for sure, but cheating or a cheater. Ah, Oh,
9:39
Speaker 1: that's a bit of a leap. That's basically what the
9:42
Speaker 1: arbitrator ruled with the NFL. It's unbelievable. How can you
9:46
Speaker 1: not say it's anything other than collusion. You guys are
9:51
Speaker 1: actively talking about restricting guaranteed money. That's collusion. But somehow
9:57
Speaker 1: this arbitrator didn't go that far. Now we get a
10:00
Speaker 1: little bit more evidence of collusion or at least collusive behavior,
10:05
Speaker 1: as the arbitrator ruled. Okay, so this goes back to
10:09
Speaker 1: twenty twenty two July. All right, so we fast forward
10:12
Speaker 1: from March of twenty two. We're in July of twenty two.
10:14
Speaker 1: That's when Kyler Murray, Cardinals quarterback, he signed his contract
10:17
Speaker 1: extension five years, two hundred and thirty million dollars. Only
10:22
Speaker 1: one hundred and three million was guaranteed at signing. Now,
10:25
Speaker 1: I say only because it's relative. You know, if I
10:28
Speaker 1: signed my next contract for one hundred and three million dollars,
10:32
Speaker 1: I'm not putting on clothes for the rest of my life.
10:34
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying. But it's all relative. Deshaun
10:37
Speaker 1: Watson got two hundred thirty million guaranteed. Kyler Murray got
10:40
Speaker 1: one hundred and three million dollars guaranteed. Now, there was
10:44
Speaker 1: a text exchange between Chargers owner Dean Spanos and Cardinals
10:49
Speaker 1: owner Michael Bidwell. Okay, so Bidwell, Cardinals team owner Kyler
10:56
Speaker 1: Murray just signed this contract, right, So Dean Spanos of
10:59
Speaker 1: the Chargers, he texts Bidwell and says congratulations on signing Murray.
11:05
Speaker 1: Bidwell responds, thanks Dino, that's my favorite part of the
11:09
Speaker 1: Thanks Dino. These QB deals are expensive, but we limited
11:14
Speaker 1: the fully guaranteed money and have some pretty good language.
11:17
Speaker 1: Thankfully we have a quarterback worth paying. And then Dean
11:21
Speaker 1: Spano says, your deal helps us for our quarterback next year.
11:28
Speaker 1: Kind of sounds a little bit like collusion, a little
11:31
Speaker 1: bit right, or exactly like collusion. That's when Michael Bidwell
11:35
Speaker 1: he responded via text, I think many teams will be
11:39
Speaker 1: happy with it once they have a chance to review.
11:42
Speaker 1: Cleveland really screwed things up, but I was resolved to
11:46
Speaker 1: keep the guarantees relatively low. Very interesting, right again, this arbitrator,
11:52
Speaker 1: you've found a lot of collusive behavior, but not quite collusion.
11:56
Speaker 1: That's unbelievable. Now, this, this to me, is the ultimate
12:00
Speaker 1: curve ball, and all this stuff where the NFLPA just
12:04
Speaker 1: looks like a total joke. You would think the NFLPA
12:09
Speaker 1: would be screaming with a megaphone here. Now, all this
12:13
Speaker 1: stuff was not released, right, nothing was released. It was
12:17
Speaker 1: Pablo Torre, remember of ESPN and does his podcast. He
12:22
Speaker 1: found this arbitrator's sixty one page document detailing the ruling
12:29
Speaker 1: of this, and so Pablo Torre, he's the one who
12:34
Speaker 1: publicized all of these findings. The arbitrator ruled in January
12:39
Speaker 1: of this year. Pablo Torre released this last month. Okay,
12:43
Speaker 1: now you would be thinking the NFLPA would be screaming,
12:47
Speaker 1: do you see what the NFL is doing here? They're
12:50
Speaker 1: trying to restrict guaranteed money from our players, so forth
12:55
Speaker 1: and so on. Nope, turns out the NFLPA actually struck
13:01
Speaker 1: a deal with the NFL. They struck a confidentiality agreement
13:07
Speaker 1: to hide the details of the arbitrator's decision from the
13:11
Speaker 1: players that the NFLPA represents. Make sense of that. What
13:17
Speaker 1: did the NFL promise the NFLPA here? I don't know what.
13:22
Speaker 1: They're like, Hey, man, if you do us this solid,
13:24
Speaker 1: we'll give you whatever, whatever, whatever, I don't know what.
13:28
Speaker 1: But somehow the NFLPA was like, yeah, we agree to
13:32
Speaker 1: a confidentiality agreement. We won't say anything NFL about you
13:37
Speaker 1: guys working with ownership to try to limit the guaranteed
13:42
Speaker 1: money that our players that we represent are making. That
13:47
Speaker 1: is unbelievable. If I'm an NFL player right now, I'm
13:52
Speaker 1: looking at the Players Association like, do you freaking guys
13:55
Speaker 1: know anything? Do you know what you're doing at? What
13:59
Speaker 1: are you what's happening over here?
14:01
Speaker 4: Now?
14:02
Speaker 1: The last little part of this is just for scorekeeping.
14:06
Speaker 1: I guess the guy Lloyd Howell that we talked about
14:09
Speaker 1: who just stepped down as the executive director of the
14:12
Speaker 1: Players Association. He took over in twenty twenty three. Okay,
14:18
Speaker 1: so that's important. Demorris Smith, Remember old Demorris Smith. He
14:22
Speaker 1: was the executive director until twenty twenty three. Right, It
14:27
Speaker 1: was Demorris Smith from nine to twenty twenty three, and
14:31
Speaker 1: then Lloyd Howell took over from there in twenty three.
14:33
Speaker 1: That's important because again this all traced back to Deshaun
14:37
Speaker 1: Watson in March of twenty twenty two, So that was
14:40
Speaker 1: Demorris Smith overseeing that whole thing, and then it was
14:45
Speaker 1: Lloyd Howell later on. But just so we're clear on
14:48
Speaker 1: that this wasn't Lloyd Howell screwing everything up with the
14:52
Speaker 1: twenty twenty two collusive behavior, not quite collusion, but collusive behavior.
14:58
Speaker 1: It wasn't under his watch. What Lloyd Howell is really
15:03
Speaker 1: screwing up is he's trying to do two things at once.
15:05
Speaker 1: Trying to represent the players and he's consulting a group
15:09
Speaker 1: that's vying for NFL ownership. That is, that is the
15:13
Speaker 1: NFLPA is a total joke right now, You can't make
15:17
Speaker 1: this stuff up. If a buddy told me this, I'd
15:21
Speaker 1: be like, you're getting something wrong. This can't be true.
15:25
Speaker 1: It's true. This is exactly what went down. Unbelievable, but
15:30
Speaker 1: that's where we are right now, and the NFLPA is
15:33
Speaker 1: looking for a new executive director. So I find that
15:37
Speaker 1: to be fascinating and unbelievable, but again, does nothing to
15:41
Speaker 1: get you fired up for the upcoming season. So we
15:44
Speaker 1: will put that to the side, and I'm gonna pinpoint
15:48
Speaker 1: some stories that do get you fired up for the
15:51
Speaker 1: upcoming season. I like one of them coming up next.
15:54
Speaker 1: I saw a column about overrated and underrated teams heading
15:58
Speaker 1: into the season, so that a little bit later as
16:01
Speaker 1: the show goes along fired up to be here malin Militia.
16:04
Speaker 1: You want to get on in, feel free to do
16:05
Speaker 1: so at the no shows where you can find me
16:08
Speaker 1: on X and the phones are open Man eight seven
16:11
Speaker 1: seven ninety nine on Fox. That's right, we promised and
16:15
Speaker 1: we delivered last time I was filling in for Big Ben.
16:18
Speaker 1: You're on hold, we roll out the red carpet. We
16:20
Speaker 1: get right to you. No Yiaki yacketing quickly, that's right fast?
16:25
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, we got we got h I don't know
16:28
Speaker 1: my guy, you know, Emmett, Wan's fine, We're getting to
16:31
Speaker 1: amit great. Emitt's on hold, We're getting right to him.
16:35
Speaker 1: We got Jed who fled on hold, boom right to him.
16:38
Speaker 3: That's right.
16:39
Speaker 1: We got a bunch of all right, we're going four
16:41
Speaker 1: by one hundred meter relay, leg after leg after leg
16:44
Speaker 1: after leg. You know, let's get him on quickly. So
16:47
Speaker 1: feel free to check in coming up next the militia
16:52
Speaker 1: if you're there. And also, you don't know what you
16:54
Speaker 1: have until it's gone. Great example of that coming up.
16:58
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17:01
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17:41
Speaker 1: Brian Noen for Big Ben mallor here on Fox Sports Radio.
17:47
Speaker 1: Ah Man, the picture that Larina just painted right then,
17:51
Speaker 1: it's just utterly disgusting, just terrible. So she's talking about Coop.
17:59
Speaker 1: You're driving in work tonight and what he was probably
18:03
Speaker 1: rocking out to, and this is probably exactly what it was. Coop,
18:07
Speaker 1: do you like, what's the song that you're like, Yeah,
18:13
Speaker 1: what's the Tool song that really gets you fired up?
18:17
Speaker 1: Over there? Do you have one who's probably doing his
18:21
Speaker 1: job right now, probably what's going Yeah, it's maybe it's
18:26
Speaker 1: too long to list. I don't know. Maybe he doesn't
18:28
Speaker 1: want to start an active list of songs from Tool
18:32
Speaker 1: that fire him up.
18:33
Speaker 3: And I mean all of them fire me up.
18:35
Speaker 1: That cannot be correct. That that cannot be Listen. Every
18:41
Speaker 1: band I love has songs that do nothing for me
18:44
Speaker 1: in terms of firing me up. There's no way every
18:47
Speaker 1: Tool song fires you up.
18:49
Speaker 3: That's yeah, because they're all brilliant. There's no way that
18:52
Speaker 3: is correct.
18:53
Speaker 1: I love Metallica even before you know things went wrong
18:57
Speaker 1: after the Black album. You know, mostly there are plenty
19:01
Speaker 1: of songs. Even there are five great albums that were terrible.
19:05
Speaker 1: Escape is awful, Jumping the Fire is a wretched song.
19:08
Speaker 3: Well, I mean we disagree on that, but no, yeah,
19:11
Speaker 3: I mean every band has bad songs except for Tool.
19:18
Speaker 1: Every band Button Tool has bad songs.
19:21
Speaker 3: Unreal, man, you don't feel like that about any band, No, not.
19:27
Speaker 1: One band ever. Every band has some bad songs.
19:32
Speaker 3: I mean I feel like I feel like System of
19:36
Speaker 3: a Down also doesn't really have a bad song.
19:39
Speaker 1: No, there's I could you know, I'd have to go
19:43
Speaker 1: in the archives here. I don't know System as well
19:46
Speaker 1: as you know some of my go to metal bands.
19:49
Speaker 1: But I guarantee you go, you know the B sides,
19:52
Speaker 1: you go C side there, you're gonna find a handful
19:55
Speaker 1: of songs where you're like, mm, yeah, could have done
19:58
Speaker 1: better on this one. Every band has said some of
20:00
Speaker 1: the most legendary bands ever have some duds. You know,
20:04
Speaker 1: it happens, it's true.
20:07
Speaker 3: But I just there's certain bands for me where like
20:09
Speaker 3: every single one. I'm you know, there's ones that I
20:12
Speaker 3: like less than others, But I don't know that there's
20:15
Speaker 3: any that I think like, ooh, this is a bad song.
20:18
Speaker 3: I'm skipping this.
20:21
Speaker 1: Oh man, that's maybe you. Uh, you're either blind or
20:25
Speaker 1: you're more of an optimistic person than I am. You know,
20:28
Speaker 1: I don't know which it is. Maybe it's a blend
20:30
Speaker 1: of blood.
20:31
Speaker 3: It's easier for bands like that though, Like, it's not
20:34
Speaker 3: like they have a huge catalog of songs with which
20:39
Speaker 3: which band either one I mean, System of a Down
20:42
Speaker 3: I mean and even Tool.
20:44
Speaker 1: Really, how many how many albums does System have? I'm
20:49
Speaker 1: checking it out.
20:49
Speaker 3: They've got the self titled, then they've got Toxicity, and
20:56
Speaker 3: then they have Hypnotized Mesmerise, which was like a double album.
20:59
Speaker 3: They've got at the steal this album. So we're like
21:02
Speaker 3: looking at four or five.
21:06
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm sure they have some bad ones, have some yeah,
21:11
Speaker 1: five studio albums. There you go, see, I you are
21:16
Speaker 1: you detailing that? It's faster than me with Google. I
21:19
Speaker 1: am not great with Google.
21:20
Speaker 3: I mean, they were my all time favorite band for
21:22
Speaker 3: long until I discovered Tool.
21:24
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, dude, I did not realize it was
21:28
Speaker 1: this dire. I didn't realize it was we.
21:31
Speaker 3: Need a what is it?
21:32
Speaker 1: Uh, It's exactly what we need, an intervention. We need
21:37
Speaker 1: to get this together immediately, Loraina, I did that someone
21:40
Speaker 1: right now? That's like kicking the Broncos to the curb
21:45
Speaker 1: for like the Titans right now. Why would you do that? Yeah,
21:49
Speaker 1: that's what you did. You took System and said, yeah,
21:52
Speaker 1: I'm kind of over it.
21:53
Speaker 3: I didn't say I was over it. They're still there,
21:55
Speaker 3: my number two, and.
21:57
Speaker 1: You're like, there's someone better out here in these streets
22:00
Speaker 1: named Tool. That's what you think.
22:02
Speaker 3: And then you get out there and Tool left Je
22:04
Speaker 3: high and dry.
22:05
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's that's the way it goes sometimes, unbelievable, Coop
22:09
Speaker 1: I did. The more the more I hear you talk
22:11
Speaker 1: about Tool, the less I respect you. It hasn't completely
22:16
Speaker 1: gone away, but it's dwindling. A statement by statement, sentence
22:20
Speaker 1: by sentence from you, Unreal eight seven seven ninety nine
22:25
Speaker 1: on Fox is your number. If you want to weigh
22:26
Speaker 1: in on whatever you know, Tool, System or sports, feel
22:31
Speaker 1: free to do so. I contend that every song, even
22:35
Speaker 1: every band, even legendary bands, legendary artists, have some dud songs.
22:41
Speaker 1: Everybody does, Tool included, and they are not a legendary
22:45
Speaker 1: band at least in my book, Let me get to
22:48
Speaker 1: You don't know what you have until it's gone. That
22:51
Speaker 1: would be Damian Lillard. So Sham Sharania of ESPN he
22:56
Speaker 1: broke this news that Damian Lillard has agreed to a
23:00
Speaker 1: three year deal forty two million dollars to return to
23:05
Speaker 1: the Portland Trail Blazers. So it's it's kind of a
23:08
Speaker 1: cool story. He's going back to Portland. But here's the
23:11
Speaker 1: thing that's interesting to me. So Dame left Portland and
23:15
Speaker 1: went to Milwaukee. He wanted to be in a better
23:18
Speaker 1: position to compete for a championship. And the reason he
23:23
Speaker 1: left Portland is because they were nowhere close to competing
23:25
Speaker 1: for a championship. When he was ready to re sign
23:29
Speaker 1: or go elsewhere, the Blazers weren't close. They they were
23:33
Speaker 1: going young, all that stuff. But I'm not gonna do
23:36
Speaker 1: you know, Blazers basketball for you. Most of the country
23:38
Speaker 1: doesn't care. But at the time, they weren't in position
23:41
Speaker 1: to compete for a championship. And now Dame is back.
23:44
Speaker 1: Are they in position to compete for a championship?
23:46
Speaker 2: Now?
23:46
Speaker 1: No, they are not. Are they going to be in
23:48
Speaker 1: position to compete for a championship two or three years
23:51
Speaker 1: from now when Dame is still under contract and hopefully
23:55
Speaker 1: healed from that achilles injury. No, they will not. They
23:58
Speaker 1: will not be a championship contending So what's changed. What's
24:03
Speaker 1: changed is Dame's perspective. He didn't realize what he had
24:06
Speaker 1: until it was gone. And a big part of it
24:09
Speaker 1: was his family. His family, his kids. They live back
24:14
Speaker 1: in Portland, and so he was out in Milwaukee by himself.
24:18
Speaker 1: He detailed this a lot. He's a big boxing fan.
24:21
Speaker 1: He's just sitting there watching boxing videos day after day,
24:25
Speaker 1: just like man kind of missed my family. Right now,
24:28
Speaker 1: let me see what let me see what this boxer
24:31
Speaker 1: is up to, and all right, cool, let's watch this
24:33
Speaker 1: next YouTube video and gets old. So that's a huge
24:37
Speaker 1: reason why he's going back to Portland. And you don't
24:41
Speaker 1: quite understand what it's like until that's gone. And so
24:44
Speaker 1: I completely appreciate that. I don't think that Dame's making
24:48
Speaker 1: a bad move. He's just going back to the Blazers.
24:53
Speaker 1: But the interesting part is one of the reasons why
24:56
Speaker 1: he left the team wasn't ready to compete for a championship.
24:59
Speaker 1: That was the main reason he left. That's not even
25:04
Speaker 1: really applying to this decision. Otherwise he wouldn't be going
25:07
Speaker 1: back there he'd be going to the Warriors or he's
25:11
Speaker 1: from the Bay Area, right, The Warriors made a lot
25:14
Speaker 1: of sense. They're in a better spot to compete for
25:16
Speaker 1: a championship, but he said, no, man going back to
25:19
Speaker 1: Portland over here. So I don't know. It just strikes
25:22
Speaker 1: me the reason, the main reason he left, was not
25:26
Speaker 1: even a secondary reason in terms of him going back.
25:30
Speaker 1: That kind of interesting there. So Dame with seven games
25:35
Speaker 1: with the Blazers regular season in playoffs, with at least
25:38
Speaker 1: fifty five points, most enfranchise history, leading scorer, most threes
25:43
Speaker 1: made ever, so the return once he's healthy, that would
25:46
Speaker 1: be really cool. But unfortunately they're not going to be
25:49
Speaker 1: in a position to compete for a title for a
25:51
Speaker 1: long time. So that part I hate. Like Shams's tweet
25:55
Speaker 1: was a storybook reunion home for the thirty five years.
26:02
Speaker 1: I mean, the ultimate storybook story or ending I should say,
26:07
Speaker 1: is Dame going back to Portland and winning a championship.
26:10
Speaker 1: But the franchise is not going to be in a
26:11
Speaker 1: position to realistically compete for a championship. But cool, he's
26:16
Speaker 1: going back there. Awesome, that'll be close to his family
26:20
Speaker 1: and like severely missed that when he was gone totally understandable,
26:25
Speaker 1: so hopefully it works out. Other NBA news, Bradley Beal,
26:29
Speaker 1: he goes to the Clippers. Was Ben? Was Ben talking about?
26:32
Speaker 4: This?
26:32
Speaker 1: Was Ben in last night talking about what was his
26:37
Speaker 1: take on Bradley Beal.
26:40
Speaker 3: I mean, look, he of course he spins it as
26:43
Speaker 3: to oh, Bradley Beal turned down the Lakers because he
26:46
Speaker 3: wants to join the people's team.
26:49
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, uh huh, Okay, that's good.
26:52
Speaker 3: But but I do think he's realistic about how much
26:56
Speaker 3: Bradley Beal is really going to make a difference.
26:58
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, it's man. I'll tell you what. I don't
27:02
Speaker 1: know that there's another man in sports that has screwed
27:06
Speaker 1: up more of my bets than Bradley freaking Bio.
27:09
Speaker 2: Man.
27:09
Speaker 1: I don't know what it is with that guy. I
27:11
Speaker 1: can't make up some of this stuff. I'd have a
27:14
Speaker 1: bet and needed one more bucket, and Bradley Beal one
27:18
Speaker 1: time literally missed a dunk. I'm not making that up.
27:22
Speaker 1: He missed a dunk. I didn't know it was possible
27:25
Speaker 1: from an NBA player, but he somehow managed is against
27:28
Speaker 1: the Brooklyn Nets last season. I don't know how it happened.
27:31
Speaker 1: It just did. And yeah, he's been bad. He has
27:35
Speaker 1: been very bad. And a lot of this trace is
27:38
Speaker 1: back too. He's so banged up. He's averaged like over,
27:43
Speaker 1: he's averaged thirty three missed games a season over the
27:48
Speaker 1: last four years, missus thirty three games each year on average.
27:53
Speaker 1: That's way too much, way too much. He's projected to
27:56
Speaker 1: be a starter for the Clippers.
27:58
Speaker 3: He hey, but back when he was teamed up with
28:02
Speaker 3: the MVP caliber Great Wall of DC, those are those
28:09
Speaker 3: are some good teams.
28:11
Speaker 1: The Great Wall of DC. I gotta try to look
28:15
Speaker 1: up that epic sound like. For those who don't know
28:19
Speaker 1: Coop for a while, a little good stretch, right, you
28:24
Speaker 1: were a big time John Wall fan with the Wizards.
28:29
Speaker 1: Man pretty decent. Now I have we recreated a John
28:33
Speaker 1: Wall call. I think this is it. No, I don't
28:37
Speaker 1: know why we did this. We were like, Coop, get try,
28:41
Speaker 1: I have it. I don't know how, but I still have.
28:43
Speaker 3: Here's Cooper.
28:45
Speaker 1: Coop is doing some play by play of John Wall
28:49
Speaker 1: back in d C.
28:50
Speaker 3: See if you like this, John Wall taking the ball
28:52
Speaker 3: up the court, Wizards up by two, John Wall rises, choots,
28:57
Speaker 3: he buries it. The Great Wall of DC cannot be
29:01
Speaker 3: Conquered Wizards ninety nine.
29:05
Speaker 1: Whoever they're playing ninety five, that's pretty legit, Coop. I
29:11
Speaker 1: think you got a future. Man that's really strong. That's awesome.
29:16
Speaker 3: Man, that was a really good, pretty good besides whoever
29:20
Speaker 3: they're playing against.
29:21
Speaker 1: Yeah, oh man, that's awesome. That's great audio right there?
29:29
Speaker 1: Are you kidding me?
29:30
Speaker 3: My gosh?
29:32
Speaker 1: Yeah, man, I've got other let's I don't know what
29:36
Speaker 1: all these other ones are. Oh, here we go. I
29:38
Speaker 1: don't know what this one is, it says Justin Cooper.
29:41
Speaker 1: Top three Seattle bands, I got. I gotta hear this.
29:45
Speaker 1: Let's chuck it out.
29:45
Speaker 3: First, I gotta go with Nirvana, obviously, second with Jimi Hendrix.
29:50
Speaker 3: Third one, I went with Heart.
29:56
Speaker 1: Look you are Heart Heart Hearts great. It's not a
30:08
Speaker 1: top three Seattle band. Come on, who knows that they're
30:16
Speaker 1: a Seattle band? That's the question. Who's aware of that?
30:21
Speaker 4: Me?
30:22
Speaker 1: I guess so, man, that's yeah, that's strong praise right there.
30:27
Speaker 1: I don't know if wow, this is really going. I
30:30
Speaker 1: don't know what this audio.
30:31
Speaker 3: You don't like this game? Why are you playing all
30:34
Speaker 3: this this old embarrassing audio?
30:36
Speaker 1: So it just says because you used to produce TJ Reeves.
30:40
Speaker 1: TJ Reeves, he's the Tampa Bay Buccaneers sideline reporter, right
30:45
Speaker 1: sideline guy, and so Coop used to produce his show.
30:49
Speaker 1: I don't know what this is. You know, you can
30:52
Speaker 1: see the audio and most of this sound. It's only
30:55
Speaker 1: like a three second clip. Most of it is no audio,
30:58
Speaker 1: So I I don't know, Coop, I don't know. We'll
31:01
Speaker 1: give it a shot. Here you go. How you doing, Justin?
31:04
Speaker 3: I'm doing good?
31:05
Speaker 1: How are you? As Coop totally fired up, just completely
31:11
Speaker 1: geeked out of his mind to do another edition of
31:15
Speaker 1: the DJ Reeves show here on Fox Sports Radio at
31:18
Speaker 1: the time that one man. Listen to the enthusiasm from Coop,
31:23
Speaker 1: How you doing, Justin?
31:25
Speaker 3: I'm doing good?
31:26
Speaker 6: How are you?
31:30
Speaker 1: I think that's it. That's all I got. It's still
31:33
Speaker 1: pretty good. Oh wait, hold on one more. There's one
31:37
Speaker 1: last one random audio from Justin Cooper here on Fox
31:41
Speaker 1: Sports Radio. I think I might have been filling in
31:45
Speaker 1: for OutKick at the time. Otherwise, I don't know what
31:48
Speaker 1: or else. I just grabbed this audio somehow, But it's
31:51
Speaker 1: Coop on Chick fil A. Let's hear a hot take
31:54
Speaker 1: from Coop on Chick fil a.
31:55
Speaker 3: You know, I think this is a regional thing.
31:57
Speaker 6: I think you've got all of your southern, you know,
32:00
Speaker 6: sec country followers backing you up on this. But if
32:03
Speaker 6: you talk to the more you know, cultured people of
32:08
Speaker 6: the of the coasts, they'll they'll tell you that Chick
32:11
Speaker 6: fil A.
32:12
Speaker 1: Is not allow.
32:13
Speaker 4: Wow.
32:14
Speaker 3: All right, so my opinion has since changed. Okay, I
32:18
Speaker 3: love Chick fil A.
32:20
Speaker 1: Good you're on team right side now here. Yeah, what
32:23
Speaker 1: happened with that?
32:25
Speaker 3: I think at the time it had just like we had,
32:29
Speaker 3: you know, the first location. It wasn't even like near me.
32:31
Speaker 3: It was like a good I don't know, twenty miles away,
32:35
Speaker 3: and I drove the twenty miles to go try it,
32:39
Speaker 3: and I was like, okay, like I mean, I wasn't
32:43
Speaker 3: worth driving over here for it. But now I have
32:46
Speaker 3: one like two minutes from my house, and I go
32:50
Speaker 3: all the time. It's delicious.
32:51
Speaker 1: There you go, there you go. I'm glad that you've
32:53
Speaker 1: finally seen the light. If we can only make that
32:56
Speaker 1: happen with tool.
32:57
Speaker 3: I had it for breakfast this morning, did you there
33:00
Speaker 3: you go?
33:01
Speaker 1: Now, you're a hardcore do it on days.
33:03
Speaker 3: That he works all the way through the night because
33:06
Speaker 3: they open at what six thirty? Yes, so they stop
33:09
Speaker 3: serving breakfast at like ten, and I'm not I'm never
33:12
Speaker 3: usually awake, right, I.
33:14
Speaker 1: Don't get that it's so lame that I love McDonald's breakfast.
33:18
Speaker 1: I went, I don't know, a couple months ago, and
33:21
Speaker 1: they end at this weird. I think it's like ten
33:23
Speaker 1: thirty or something like. Why would you end at ten thirty?
33:26
Speaker 1: Why want you at least go to eleven? I think
33:29
Speaker 1: you should have it all day? Yeah, yeah, you should
33:31
Speaker 1: have breakfast.
33:32
Speaker 3: We used to have that. McDonald's did all day breakfast
33:35
Speaker 3: for a while and then I don't know if it
33:37
Speaker 3: was COVID that ended it or.
33:39
Speaker 1: Yeah, or a bad idea that ended it. You should
33:42
Speaker 1: have that all the time. Why not? Why not serve
33:45
Speaker 1: it up? Don't get it all right? Feel free to
33:47
Speaker 1: check in. Mallard Militia eight seven seven ninety nine on
33:51
Speaker 1: Fox is your number? I mean that was I feel
33:55
Speaker 1: that was a pretty strong segment. We've got some random
33:57
Speaker 1: coup audio in there, got him doing play by play
34:02
Speaker 1: of John Wall. I mean, how can your evening get
34:05
Speaker 1: any better? How? I ask you?
34:08
Speaker 2: Now?
34:08
Speaker 1: In honor of Big Ben Malor, we'll keep the who
34:11
Speaker 1: am I game? Tradition going on. So I just mentioned
34:15
Speaker 1: that Damian Lillard he's returning to the Portland Trail Blazers.
34:19
Speaker 1: Who that's right, Dame Dollar, Dame time. I'll be back
34:24
Speaker 1: in Rip City. So he has the most fifty five
34:29
Speaker 1: point scoring games in Blazers team history. He's got seven
34:34
Speaker 1: of them if you include the regular season in the postseason.
34:38
Speaker 1: Which player is next on the list with the most
34:43
Speaker 1: fifty five point games in Blazer's history? Who that's right?
34:48
Speaker 1: Who am? I feel free to guess. At the No
34:52
Speaker 1: Show on X can throw some tweets my way, feel
34:55
Speaker 1: free to do so. We will pay that off right
34:57
Speaker 1: around the corner. I'm Brian no in for Big Ben Maller.
35:01
Speaker 1: This is Fox Sports Radio.
35:02
Speaker 4: Be sure to catch live editions of The Ben Maller
35:04
Speaker 4: Show weekdays at two am Eastern eleven pm Pacific.
35:08
Speaker 1: It is Fox Sports Radio. I'm Brian though in for
35:11
Speaker 1: Big Ben Mahler. All right, we'll get to the militia
35:14
Speaker 1: they're stopping by here. Love it. We'll go rapid fire
35:17
Speaker 1: here in a little bit.
35:20
Speaker 4: Uh.
35:20
Speaker 1: First though, the who am I game?
35:22
Speaker 2: Now?
35:22
Speaker 1: This is it's a little tricky here, but I think
35:25
Speaker 1: you'll appreciate the trickiness. I do think so so Damian Lillard.
35:30
Speaker 1: He's back with the Blazers, agreed to a three year contract,
35:34
Speaker 1: and he has scored the most fifty five point games
35:38
Speaker 1: in Blazer's team history. He has seven of them, including
35:42
Speaker 1: the playoffs. Seven times he's reached at least fifty five
35:46
Speaker 1: points in a game. So which player is next on
35:50
Speaker 1: the list with the most fifty five point games in
35:53
Speaker 1: Blazers team history? Who am I? So we go to
35:56
Speaker 1: the tweets here foxwed he put Clyde the Glide. I
36:00
Speaker 1: like that, Mallard prop he went with Moneyball Mallard not
36:05
Speaker 1: a bad guess, not bad. I can't read that one.
36:08
Speaker 1: Don Juan, he goes with Clyde the Glyde. Also Clyde Drexler.
36:12
Speaker 1: Jason goes with Brandon Roy. Let's see, AUSSI wa was
36:16
Speaker 1: he goes your favorite mascot, the Oregon Duck is what
36:19
Speaker 1: he went with? Bobby and Florida went with Freddy Krueger.
36:23
Speaker 1: That's good, all right? I think Shy Bears went with
36:29
Speaker 1: Bill Walton, I believe. And let's see Matt goes with
36:35
Speaker 1: George Foreman. No, no, not correct? You want does it? Yeah?
36:42
Speaker 1: I love the Foreman grill outstanding the number of meals
36:45
Speaker 1: I had on that thing. Gosh, it's a life saver. No,
36:48
Speaker 1: the answer is nobody. How crazy is that? That's a
36:55
Speaker 1: trick question. I'm sorry, but Damian Lillard has seven fifty
37:01
Speaker 1: five point games in his Blazers career, regular season in postseason.
37:05
Speaker 1: So the guy that's next on the list doesn't exist.
37:10
Speaker 1: Nobody else in the history of the Portland Trail Blazers
37:14
Speaker 1: has a fifty five point game. How can that be?
37:18
Speaker 1: They got They've had some really good players throughout the years.
37:22
Speaker 1: Not one guy who isn't named Damian Lillard has scored
37:27
Speaker 1: fifty five points. That's amazing to me. So there you go.
37:31
Speaker 1: I learned something this evening. He might have also, that
37:34
Speaker 1: blows my mind. I'd like to go and I don't
37:37
Speaker 1: know how I would do this, because again I'm pretty
37:39
Speaker 1: bad at googling. I would like to know if you
37:42
Speaker 1: went franchise by franchise, if you and you counted up
37:47
Speaker 1: like the number of players that have had fifty five
37:49
Speaker 1: point games, which franchises are at the very top, like
37:55
Speaker 1: which franchises are alarmingly are low. Which franchises don't have
37:59
Speaker 1: one guy? I would imagine there's got to be some
38:02
Speaker 1: franchise that doesn't have one. If the Blazers only have
38:06
Speaker 1: one guy and it's Dame, I'd love to know that.
38:10
Speaker 1: If I was good at googling, I would find out
38:12
Speaker 1: that information and relay it back to I suck. I
38:16
Speaker 1: don't know how to look things up. Let's go to
38:18
Speaker 1: the phones here. Andre is in mass first up, representing
38:22
Speaker 1: the militia. What's going onre?
38:25
Speaker 2: Hey? Yeah, Hi, how you doing? Thanks for taking the call.
38:27
Speaker 2: Listen the situation that you started with in terms of
38:31
Speaker 2: the NFL and this possible collusion that they have in
38:35
Speaker 2: terms of keeping the quarterback salaries below again NFLPA, this
38:39
Speaker 2: would be a good opportunity for them to kind of
38:41
Speaker 2: swoop in, gain a little bit of leverage, bring back
38:44
Speaker 2: some rights for the players. But time and again, the
38:47
Speaker 2: NFL players don't band together, you know, when they have
38:50
Speaker 2: the opportunity to make forward progress. So unfortunately, I mean,
38:54
Speaker 2: this is kind of a big deal, right, you know,
38:56
Speaker 2: every team saying that we're not going to do with
38:59
Speaker 2: the Cleveland Browns did proven to be the stuper money
39:01
Speaker 2: at the table, right, keeping that completely guaranteed deal with
39:03
Speaker 2: Deshaun Watson, which didn't end up working out. Nonetheless, this
39:06
Speaker 2: is a could be a watershed moment to get fully
39:10
Speaker 2: guaranteed contracts, if only for the quarterbacks. Then kind of
39:13
Speaker 2: the build out from there. So Pablo tore, you know,
39:16
Speaker 2: doing some tlu thing, you know, digging up and seeing
39:18
Speaker 2: that there's really something here to be had. I just
39:22
Speaker 2: feel like, if this was the Major League Baseball Association, Yeah,
39:26
Speaker 2: and they would tweek down on this, and you would see,
39:29
Speaker 2: you know, there'd be a battle and there'd be threats
39:30
Speaker 2: of a lockout so on and forth, but most certainly
39:33
Speaker 2: it wouldn't happen again.
39:34
Speaker 1: You know.
39:34
Speaker 2: But then also players could see some games you know that.
39:38
Speaker 1: Yeah, No, I'm with you. Andre. Here's the thing, man,
39:40
Speaker 1: is like, I appreciate you checking in. You would think
39:44
Speaker 1: the nfl PA, if there's evidence that the NFL was
39:48
Speaker 1: telling ownership like, yo, man, we got to slow down
39:50
Speaker 1: these these guarantees, fully guaranteed contracts. Man, it's gonna be
39:54
Speaker 1: too much. Like, don't guarantee that much money. It's going
39:58
Speaker 1: to become the norm. You would think the NFLPA would
40:02
Speaker 1: have used that to their advantage and gotten many things
40:05
Speaker 1: in their favor. Instead, they agreed to a confidentiality agreement.
40:09
Speaker 1: That's unbelievable to me. All right, coming up next, No
40:13
Speaker 1: wonder everything fell apart that in the militia that comes
40:18
Speaker 1: your way right around the corner.