The Best of The Dan Patrick Show

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Speaker 1: You are listening to the Dan Patrick Show on Fox Sports Radio.

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Speaker 2: Our one on this Tuesday, Dan and the Dan That's Dan Patrick Show, Fritzie Seaton, Marv Paully, yours truly Dan Patrick Show, and of course the very valuable backroom guys, Bill Cower will join us next hour. Reggie Miller will stop by your phone calls always welcome. Operator Tyler sitting by. He'll take your calls at each seven to seven three DP Show email address Dpadanpatrick dot com and our Twitter handle at DP show got to play the day poll question stat of the Day. Good morning. If you're watching on Peacock. Thank you also the NBC Sports Network and our radio affiliates around the country, numbering over four hundred cities that carry this award nominated program. Texan's Roll the Steelers last night. It was a very deceptive final score because it didn't feel thirty to six. We went into the fourth quarter two minutes in. It's a one point game. The Texans played great defense.

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Speaker 3: C J.

00:01:02
Speaker 2: Stroud didn't play well at all. The Steelers were kind of The Steelers defense played pretty well. They just weren't threatening and you don't have a you know that pass rush against Aaron Rodgers, they hit him twelve times. Twelve times when you're forty two is like twenty times when you're twenty two. So Rogers is at his last game, I'm sure people are going to say the following, Oh, you can't go out that way. What makes you think he's going to be any better next year. It's same thing with Travis Kelcey. Oh you can't go out this way. We use this. We say this as if I'm going to stay, and then you stay and you played well and maybe your team wins, and then you go, I can't go out this way, Yes you can. Aaron Rodgers, I'd be surprised if he played again. And look, those numbers weren't bad during the regular season. I think if you said, and I think I did, say, if he replicated what Russell Wilson did and you got, you know, twenty five twenty six touchdowns and six or seven interceptions, you play good defense, you're gonna make the playoffs, as they always do. And that's kind of who they were. But the more you look at it, they probably overachieved. They're not a good team, but they somehow got in. You know, the Ravens missing the kick they get in and they went against a really good young defense. That's a great defense that'll keep them in every game. It'd be really I'd be really surprised if they would get blown out. You know, CJ. Stroud played terrible. When you have five fumbles lost a couple of them, you allow the Steelers to stay in that game. And I think all of us in the back of our minds kept thinking, man, you're going to give Rogers a chance. You're gonna give them a chance, and then all of a sudden, you get a couple of defensive touchdowns and you get a blowout there. So thirty to six the final, the Texans rush for one hundred and sixty four yards, and that's your difference. What he marks went for one to twelve. That's the most by a rookie in a playoff game since twenty twenty, and Rodgers' final numbers one forty six, the fewest passing yards of his twenty two playoff starts. Also, that pick six the final pass, the first that he has thrown in eight hundred and seven career postseason passing attempts. So let me focus on Rogers right now, and then we'll look at Mike Tomlin. Here is Aaron Rodgers ask about what he's going to do next year?

00:03:34
Speaker 4: And does that game affect your decision for what to do next year to anyway?

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Speaker 5: No, I mean, I'm not going to make any emotional decisions. Disappointed, you know, obviously such a fun year, you know, a lot of adversity, but a lot a lot of fun. Been a great year, you know, overall, my life in the last they last year, and this is you know, a really good part of that coming here and being part of this team. So it's disappointing to be sitting here. What's season over?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, he's not going to make a quick decision there because he hasn't made quick decisions before this drags out. But you wonder, if you're Pittsburgh, Let's say you're Mike Tomlin and you come back, do you want Aaron Rodgers to come back? If you're the Steelers, do you want Mike Tomlin to come back? Do you want Aaron Rodgers to come back? Now? I certainly get the feeling, and I don't have any insight, any information other than what you probably have available to you. And that is, if Mike wants to come back, he can come back and if he wants to take a year or two often do TV that's going to be available. Aaron Rodgers, his prospects aren't very good because if it's not Pittsburgh, who's going to bring in Aaron Rodgers? Who will then be forty three? And he did look forty three last night. He looked even older than that. His lineman looked forty three. But Aaron Rodgers, I don't see him doing TV. It feels like he'll do He'll be Joe Rogan, He'll do something like that and probably, you know, he has the freedom to do that. He can then you know, have an audience, have a platform, and probably make a ton of money. As for Mike Tomlin, I see him doing TV probably for a couple of years, and then you know, and being around Tony Dungeye and some of these other coaches when I was at the mother Ship, they really needed it. They needed to almost disengage from all of that. And then you're able to watch, You're able to you get to enjoy, you get to see, you're watching football, you're talking football, and you don't wake up on Monday or Tuesday morning feeling like he does. And I'll talk to Bill Kauer about that next hour of you know that sort of disengage and then you kind of settle in. And we've seen a lot of coaches who do that and then they go back in and then you'll there's going to be six or seven openings next year and the year after that six or seven openings. The question is does he want to coach again and if so where? But I don't. I don't see him coaching another team this next season other than if he does, it's it's Pittsburgh. But I started to watch and just say, I know he had a you know, he has a winning record, he got into the playoffs. They're they're just not a threatening team. Now I'm not a DK Metcalf fan. Just didn't feel like they could do anything where you go, wow, that team is that they can they can get they can put some points up there, and the defense played pretty well, but it feels like an old team and maybe because you got Rogers, but it feels like your window is small. Just to ask the Detroit Lions, because we make this mistake, we go and they'll be back next year. There is no guarantee of next year, and the Lions are further removed from Super Bowl contention, and they were healthy this year. There's no guarantee, Oh, Pittsburgh will have a winning record next year. Okay, But as I said to you either early this week or last week, if you said to a Steeler fan, hey, I'll give you ten years of making the playoffs, but you don't win a playoff game, you're going to sign up for that? And the answer is no, you're not. But how many franchises would sign up for that? You're relevant, you make the playoffs, you play in big games, but you don't win playoff games. And that's where Pittsburgh is. Mike Tomlin, I think with that roster probably overachieved. Now, the division wasn't very good because the Bengals weren't good, the Browns certainly weren't good, and the Ravens were average as well. But if you're the Steelers, do you want to bring back Mike Tomlin? Do you hope that he decides to take a TV job? Aaron Rodgers got a little frosty on Mike Tomlin possibly being on the hot seat.

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Speaker 5: I mean this, this league has changed a lot in my twenty one years. You know, when you hear conversation about the the Mike Tomlins of the world, Matt Lafleor's of the world. Those just two that kind of have played for And when I first got in the league, there wouldn't be conversation about whether those guys were on the hot seat, you know. But the way that the league is covered now and the way that there's snap decisions and validitly given to the you know, the Twitter experts and all the experts on TV now you make it seem like they know what the hell they're talking about.

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Speaker 3: To me, that's an absolute.

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Speaker 2: Joke, Okay. Is he blaming the so called experts or the people who listen to the so called experts, because we can say whatever we want if you get some team president or GM going. You know, I was listening to Dan Patrick, you know what, I'm thinking that ain't happening. There are a lot of experts out there eron you, but I don't think any front office is going, uh wait, what did they say? What did Ryan Clark say on get up Damian Woody? What are they what should we do?

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Speaker 3: Yeah?

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Speaker 4: Suton, right, And why would you compare guys like Ryan Clark and Demian Woody or say like Teddy Bruski or Jeff Saturday. Their opinions are the same as random people on Twitter. Yeah, why would you like lump them all together? They're they're former players, just like you're eventually going to be. Why do not have the respect for them too?

00:09:32
Speaker 3: Yeah?

00:09:33
Speaker 2: Look, you know, I understand Aaron's going to take a shot at the media. I get that, but you know, be fair in who you're taking a shot at here, Because if you're a front office and you're waiting to listen to Dana Orlobsky and you're going to go, that's the decision we're going to make. I'm going to put that on the front office, not Dania Rolobski or if you get somebody who's never played the game like me. Yeah, I don't.

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Speaker 4: We keep linking them, but I think it's because they're in such sim situations. With John Harbaugh and Mike Tomlin, And sometimes I don't know that you can make a snap decision on a coach that's been there for twenty years. I don't really know that nobody this year is just like, whoa one bad year with Tomlin?

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Speaker 2: Better get him out of there.

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Speaker 4: Sometimes I think that Harbaugh and Tomlin are in the exact same situation in that sometimes it just runs its course. It's been twenty years or almost twenty years, fifteen twenty years, whatever it's been. You know, maybe we've just kind of gone as far as we can and maybe you go look somewhere else now.

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Speaker 2: And it's happened down through history with coaches. I mean, this isn't anything new. And he didn't just sit on a hot seat. The seat the temperature was being raised locally in Baltimore and Pittsburgh, not nationally. That the conversation about Mike Tomlin locally is far different than nationally because all of these former players and they're all saying the same thing. Man, that's guy you want to play for, a great job. Man, he always wins. Locally, they're going, we haven't won a playoff game in ten years. Yes, we have a five hundred or better record.

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Speaker 1: Yay.

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Speaker 2: And see Pittsburgh is always like they're never going to be bad enough where they can get better because they're kind of in the middle, Like you're not going to be drafting in the top five, and that's part of the problem. Like it's weird to say they got to get worse to get better. But this happens with NBA teams all the time. You get worse to get better, Like the Spurs got bad, they got the number one pick and then they got the number two pick, and go back to when they had Duncan and David Robinson. They had to be bad to get good. Pittsburgh's never I mean, it's a credit to that organization and I don't see them doing a rebuild. And if they do, does Mike Tomlin want to be around for that? Yeah, Paulie.

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Speaker 6: I was looking at what coaches from the past who got fired who were really shocking, and probably the biggest one all time is Tom Landry in Dallas, and I wanted to look because I don't remember that well. He missed the playoffs three straight years, seven to nine, seven and eight, but his last year he was three and thirteen, And like you said, there's the opening, because Tom Landry never had a three and thirteen season. And then finally that was the one.

00:12:27
Speaker 2: Our stat of the day brought to you by Panini America, the official trading cards of The Dan Patrick Show and the first home We're brought to you by the great folks at tire Rack Prover forty years helping us find the right tires for how and what and where we drive, ship fast and free back by free road hazard protection with convenient installation options like mobile tire installation. Tire rack dot Com is the way tire buying should be. Poll question, Seaton, what do you have for me?

00:12:51
Speaker 7: You know?

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Speaker 4: I think we're going to go with a couple of yes no options right out of the gate. Pretty basic, pretty standard, what you expect. Has Aaron Rodgers played his last game as Mike Tomlin coached his last game with the Steelers.

00:13:03
Speaker 2: Yes, no, yes, no. We gotta get everybody on record, Okay.

00:13:10
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00:13:41
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00:13:46
Speaker 2: Subscribe, hit that thumbs up icon and comment away. More of your phone calls coming up. Reggie Miller will join us. Coming up next hour, We make way for the Hall of Famer Bill Cower NFL Today on CBS Udio analyst coach good to see again. If I didn't see the game last night, how would you describe it to me?

00:14:08
Speaker 3: A tail of two halves. I think missed opportunities by the Pittsburgh football team in the first half, two turnovers, they had taken away twice, and yet they were still losing at halftime. So I think it was kind of what we thought going in. There was going to be a defensive battle. This duo had the hottest team in football in Houston, Texans coming in with the nine game winning streak, arguably maybe the best defense as well. And as we talked about the team, no one really wanted to play, and I think they lived up to that billing last night.

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Speaker 2: What's the one question, the main question you would want answered today in regards to the Steelers.

00:14:45
Speaker 3: Oh, I mean, I think we have to sit back and assess where are we going from here? What is the plan moving forward. There was a lot of things. I think we try to piece this football team together the last couple of years in terms of some of these free agency brought in, which understand, but I think now we have to have kind of a long term plan in place as to what we want to do. And it doesn't mean that you're going to lose a lot of these pieces. I think there's a lot of things to build on, but I think you need some kind of consistency on the offensive side of the ball that you can kind of take over to the next year. Now that they can stare at to Arthur Smith to sit there and take out the whole quarterback room and change it, the whole receiving room and change it and expect you just to pick up where you left up. And I think we try to piece this together. I think we have to philosophically go into this next year with a plan in place as of how we want to do this and if changes need the deed to be made and we didn't need to do that.

00:15:36
Speaker 2: If Rogers wanted to come back, what would you do if you were still the head coach?

00:15:42
Speaker 3: U If everything I've heard and talk to people that are in that building. He's been exeplanatory. I mean he's been he's been a tremendous leader, holding people accountable, playing at a high level. I think it's some of you have to kind of make sure that he's all in and one thing I would say, you could give him his time, but to be able to have a bet I can play in place and turns of the development of the next person. And if you can bridge it with them for one more year, I think that would be ideal.

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Speaker 2: What question would you have for the Steelers with Mike Tomlin, Well.

00:16:12
Speaker 3: Those questions will be talked about. I think you can't be impulsive. I think you can't take nineteen years of being together and make a decision in nineteen hours. I think you got to make sure we sit back, take some time off, come together and again this will be something with art Omar and Mike will sit in a room, they'll talk and what they see, I mean, they know it better than I know it from the outside looking in, and try to put in place a player moving forward. And if they can do this together, they'll do it together. And if they can't, they won't. So I mean, I think there's a lot of soul searching. It needs to be done at this point, but I think Mike's earned the right to do that, and I think from a standbou standpoint, also Art and Omar have a chance also to talk about what's the direction that we have, So those conversations will be had. It's a long standing relationship. There's a lot of respect that Leslie saw in Baltimore. Sometimes these things have a life cycle when they come doing in Well.

00:17:05
Speaker 2: That's what I was going to bring up. You know, they're parallels here, these guys, you know, kind of in the same position for the same number of years. Both have a Super Bowl win, but that was a long time ago. Not sustain success in the postseason. Baltimore moves on. Could you see a scenario where Pittsburgh does as well?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't think it's just been John Harball. I mean, we talked about Pete Carroll there for fourteen years and he won a Super Bowl. You talk about Bill Belichick been there for twenty four years and they moved on. So you know, again, there is a life cycle with everything. Again, I think there's a lot of respect and I think the people that have been there have the right to sit down and talk about what they want to do, and so sometimes it becomes a partying of the ways, and sometimes it's in the best interest of everybody. So but again, those are things that I think you need to be able to sit down and make sure you put some thought into it and get a period of time where you can get away from it reflect objectively, not subjectively, and emotionally with what you can going through. I mean, listen, that was a that was a cut crunching the loss that they went through. If they get there the week before the epitome of the highs that they had went into the vision. And also you sit there and it's seven days or eight days later, you sit there and you're eliminated and you're losing playoff games. It's like it's it's like a crash, Dan, You're going sixty five miles an hour. You're on this a drenaline rush, and it's like hitting the wall and all of a sudden it comes to an end. So I think that's why it's really good to kind of back away and not let the emotions of the moment seep into something and saying something or doing something that you may not give enough really thought into.

00:18:34
Speaker 2: Yeah, but Pittsburgh has been good enough to not be bad enough to get in a position to get somebody like a quarterback, a franchise quarterback. They've been searching for a long time, and they get Aaron Rodgers on the tail end of his career, Russell Wilson on the tail end of his career, Like, there's no, it's not sustainable if you keep having musical chairs at that position.

00:19:00
Speaker 3: Well, I think the attempt was made with Kenny Pickett to do that. I think Mason rudolph attempt was to do that. And I think again, you're looking at also maybe looking at a roster where you were trying to kind of expedite that process because of you know, Cam Hayward, because of TJ. Watt, trying to make sure that they're in the prime of their careers and later part of their careers, and so, you know. So I think there was an attempt to kind of have that sense of urgency. But also I don't think that they're not because listen, they've they've got some young offensive linemen, they've got some young defensive linemen. I think Joey Porter Junior stepped up to be a very good defensive back. You've got dk Metcalf now moving forward, So there's a lot of pieces in place right there. I think what you've kind of tried to do, I think again was piece this thing together these last couple of years. And I think again that we've seen it before. There's been a lot of four win teams, and you know, everyone's looking for the quarterback. There's not like there's thirty two of them in the National Football League. There are still some guys even trying to prove themselves now in these playoffs, and these young guys. So you've got to be able to build a team around you that allows you to win and get into the playoffs, and you create that culture, create that expectation, and when that guy does come along, you don't build it around him. You insert him into that team. And that's how to me, that's what we were able to do with Ben Roethlisberger. And you know, for many years, we want a playoff game with Neil Donnald, we want to playoff game with Mike Thomas that we're going to a playoff game with the Cordell Stewart won a playoff game with Tommy Maddox. Do we get eliminated, Yeah, we did. But we won a championship because we had a special quarterback that came in and got us over the hump. Defenses will get you into the playoffs. Quarterbacks will win your championships.

00:20:31
Speaker 2: So I got to Bill Cower, the Hall of Famer, you stepped away from football? What were you forty nine or forty nine fifty when you stepped.

00:20:39
Speaker 3: You're going down You're not going down this path again.

00:20:40
Speaker 2: No, I'm just I want to know what you thought as far as your coaching future when you stepped away from the Steelers. Like that week, if I would have asked you, what is your coaching future, what would you've said?

00:20:55
Speaker 3: Well, I mean, I love coaching into this day, I've got too much respect for My mind was a lot more involved with that then. It wasn't justify coaching. I made a decision that I prioritized my family and particularly my wife at the time, who needed me to be there. And it was very It was a time where we moved to Raleigh. My youngest daughter was going in tenth grade, and we made a commitment for three years with whatever we were going to do with our kids, because coaching could be one of those professions that I didn't want my kid going from three different high schools in their tenth, eleventh, and twelfth grade. So they went down and so I coached that last year in Pittsburgh and I sat back at the very end, and I think it was a case that did I love that team? Yeah, And it was a team. We didn't go to playoffs, but Ben also had the off season injury, they had the accident, and we finished out six and two, and I knew it was a good team, it was a good staff. But I had to sit down and prioritize my life from what I thought was important. And I had no regrets to this day having walked away. Did I think I would probably come back? I did, But the more I got involved with this life I'm living right now, the normalcy that was involved with my wife, who I had met and had been there before. I've enjoyed this platform and been on now at CBS for nineteen years because I do have normalcy. I do have an off season and I still love the game though, and I did miss coaching, and I still to this day at times I missed the strategizing of it. I talked to a lot of coaches around there. There's nothing better than the scheme up of blitz when you get a guy running free, you know, or or Bucket's friends, and all of a sudden, we were going five wives when nobody was doing five wives in the Super Bowl against the Dallas Cowboys because we're supposed to be a running team. I love to do what you didn't expect, the illusion of one thing in doing something else. That to me, with football's all by, it's just to this day, I still miss that part of it. That's why I think that's what the It's the greatest game that's out there. And so that being said, I love my life and I understand and respect the hours that these coaches put in the sacrifices that their families make as well, because it's more than just you, it's your family. Because I think your family are doing the football season becomes those guys that you're seeing every day you walk in there, and you're asking them to make the sacrife nice in the commitment to what we're asking him to do. So it's those wives that are at home, they're right raising their families, and all of sudden you have to bun back into that normalty degree of normalcy in the off season even though there's not much of an off season these days for coaches, So it's a very demanding job. It's a very absorbing job. I respect that, understand that, and at the same time, it's a performance related job, and we all know the consequences that go with that.

00:23:23
Speaker 2: There's an opening on the NFL Today Scent. Could you see Mike Tomlin joining you on the set next year?

00:23:31
Speaker 3: I don't know. Hey, listen, He's welcome. Mike and I we could share a lot of stories, like I have a lot of questions for him through his nineteen years and we all early and talk that often. So I did. I actually left him a beer and the refrigerator. So I don't know. If he does leave, he's got I wonder if that beer is still there. I mean, he might even still be. It's probably skunk by now. I'll just tell the next guy. You might not want to open it. It's kind of like just a memorable thing. Just leave it there.

00:23:57
Speaker 2: It might have been an Iron City.

00:23:59
Speaker 3: It wasn't Iron City. Yeah, Actually, I got I got now, I actually got a commemorative can I have to send you one. It's got my face on it, so you know, I'm sorry. I Actually, I really feel like I made it in life. I got an Iron City beer can with my commemorative camp with my face on a beer can. What else can you do in life?

00:24:16
Speaker 2: Man, that's really appealing to be drinking a beer with your face staring right at me.

00:24:20
Speaker 3: Coach, I'm gonna send you a six pack.

00:24:23
Speaker 2: So, uh, if you're John Harbaugh, what's the best place?

00:24:30
Speaker 6: Ah?

00:24:32
Speaker 3: I don't know if it was the best place. There's a lot of openings right now. I think for John, he's going to go through it, and I think he has to sit down to see where he's most comfortable working with. You know, I look at the players. You can look at quarterbacks, well, who has a quarterback and who doesn't have a quarterback? But I look at John like you've done this with multiple quarterbacks. It's more about developing the team and building something that's got like you're talking about longevity, that's got sustainability, and that to meekes me able to get with the front office that you can work with that you feel comfortable with. There's transparency, there's also collaboration. There's also creativity and what you're trying to do in terms of what you have on your roster, who you want to bring in and a manner with which you want to do it. So I'm sure you'll have a choice of many, just like Kevin Stefanski, I would think would have the choice of places to go as well. These are very successful coaches that had success in the National Football League. They're not like the first time head coaches. But there are a lot of really good first time head coaches as well out there. So listen, there's eight openings right now, and it's kind of like them. What it's usually is, it's you know, I love seeing young guys get getting opportunities for the first time, not just have to be offensive coordinators. As a matter of fact, these eight teams now Dan for these head coaches have defensive backgrounds, okay, so just make sure leave the fact we're not looking for the offensive.

00:25:49
Speaker 2: Guru all the time.

00:25:50
Speaker 3: So sometimes developing a young quarterback to best and you do is have a very stout defense and a good running game and let them come along and a very nice posture with what you can do developed them along the way and not ask me to do too much too early.

00:26:03
Speaker 2: You talked about raising two daughters. What were you like when guys were three daughter, Oh, three daughters. Yeah, what were you like when guys came over to date your daughters?

00:26:16
Speaker 3: Well, I told them the same thing that I told my daughters and nights I told my guys at the work because I actually had the same theory three things, choices and consequences. So you got my daughter, choices and consequences. Just remember that. Okay, that's first and foremost. The people you surround yourself with so I don't know, we're sure where you guys are going tonight is the people you surround yourself understand and recognize what you're walking into. Same thing with players, same thing with coaches. And the last thing, the most important thing is understand something nothing good happens after midnight night. Expect her back here by midnight. So there you go, those three things.

00:26:57
Speaker 2: You treated these guys like they were your place in Pittsburgh.

00:27:01
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, because I like my I always said I had three daughters at home, I had fifty three boys at the work.

00:27:09
Speaker 2: Did you write it on a chalkboard? Did you diagram anything?

00:27:13
Speaker 8: No?

00:27:13
Speaker 3: I just I was always very good with my expressions, so they do. And I was not happy about the pace because I wore my emotions on my sleeve. So that was never a problem.

00:27:24
Speaker 2: I remember asking Charles Barkley about that, you know, when somebody was going to come by, and he said, if I shoot the first one word will get around. Don't come over here anymore. Not the greatest philosophy, but that's Barkley's approach to this.

00:27:39
Speaker 3: I think we get the idea.

00:27:42
Speaker 2: Give me who you like in the NMC, who you like in the AMC.

00:27:45
Speaker 3: Now, you know, it's so funny. I always go back to my R run in two thousand and five and you start to look at some of the teams and I'm seeing two six seeds again. We were six seeds, and I look at the Denver Brock Buffalo Bills. They played the third seed Jacksonville. We beat the third Seattle or Cincinnati. Our first round, the visional round, we had to play a net best team in the AFC. That was in Indianapolis Colts, who are fourteen to two. They're playing the best team in the AFC and Denver. And then we went on to play Denver in the championship game and if they weren't that we would have to go play the Tember two seed, who we did play to. That would be New England, so in San Francisco kind of the same thing. I think these two teams, these wild card teams, I think arguably you could say I think every one of them you could look at and say Buffalo Josh Allen maybe puts his cape on San Francisco. Right now, you're looking at a team that they're going against the Seattle Seahawks the third time they meet divisional game, so they know each other very very well, and Kyle Shanian's got them playing very well. Last week. Robert Sali is taking this no name defense and they're playing the highest of levels. And then you look at Houston best defense maybe left and the deep and the team going up against the New England Patriots, and all of a sudden, you got Drake may is only a second playoff game. Then you may have the MVP Stafford going into Chicago. So again, I think this weekend could match what I thought was one of the most exciting wildcard weekends last weekend. I think this league could be just as much even more so.

00:29:22
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, aside from the Chargers Patriots, everything else was crazy great.

00:29:27
Speaker 3: Yeah, and last night, and I think last night was another game that kind of got away in the second half. So but I think, like you said, we have four game winning drives. We sat there and watched Caleb Williams do it. Then we saw Matthew Stafford do it. Then we saw Josh Allen do it. Then we saw brock perty do it. Fourth quarter game winning drives, the lead changes that went back and forth in the course of these games. That's what I'm saying this. The margin in the National FOOTB League this year in the playoffs is more here. We've been first seed, sixth seed, seventh seed, they all right there, they're right there. I think any crew on of these teams could get on a run. As we can see right now, it can beat anybody on any given Sunday.

00:30:03
Speaker 2: Before I let you go, you saw the sort of handshake between Ben Johnson and Matt Lafleur, and you know he's embracing the rivalry. Did you have one of those moments with another coach that you know you just didn't? You did sort of a drive by with the handshake.

00:30:21
Speaker 3: Do you ever see our Baltimore games?

00:30:25
Speaker 1: So you and.

00:30:27
Speaker 3: You and Billick, like I said, watch our Baltimore games.

00:30:33
Speaker 2: But did you not like him or you didn't like the Ravens.

00:30:38
Speaker 3: They were all the same. To me, Dan, they were all the same. One guy's leading us. I probably didn't like him because he was leading them, Okay, So I embraced Robberies. I don't think there was anything wrong with that. I hope right now that Matt stays there, Ben stays there, and it's cold and it's mad, and they don't even shake next time. They just wave and salute each other. And that's the way it should be. That's how robbers are made, because you know what, when you're two good teams fighting for that division, that makes those games special.

00:31:07
Speaker 2: But are you okay with Billick today? If you ran into Billock?

00:31:10
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, you know, we're great today, okay? And that I was great with him in the off season on that particular day, I didn't like anybody even over there. I knew Kevin Byrn was a pr guy. He was a good friend of mine from Cleveland. On that particular day, stay on your side of.

00:31:29
Speaker 7: Field, stay one.

00:31:33
Speaker 2: You're fired up again. I got you, I know, yeah, thank you.

00:31:36
Speaker 3: I appreciate that. Robbers, there's nothing wrong with it. San Francisco, Seattle, watch that game this week. Kyle and Mike McDonald. Let's let's take we'll see it. They shall they shake after this game?

00:31:48
Speaker 2: All right, what are you going to do the rest of the day.

00:31:53
Speaker 3: I don't know, Pubby watching tape, scheme up, give up a blitzer too, somewhere along the way. I love this time of the year. I'm gonna probably watch some of these games. I'll watch Pittsburgh see what happened last night. But you know, but I love it. I think this is the greatest time of the year for playoffs. You put all the hard work in, there's finality to it. One less thing to just leave you this and I do have this pet peete. The fourth downs, Okay, I think the one thing we talk about it. I'm okay with analytics, but fourth downs, when you don't go for it, and you you go for it early in the game and you don't make it, you lose momentum. And momentum is one of those metrics that you can't quantify. Momentum creates pressure. Okay, you create momentum, you put the pressure on them every time. That's what momnum does. It creates pressure. And trust me, playoff pressure is greater than regular season pressure. So anytime I have a chance to take the points, pin them down in there, make them go ninety yards and punt the ball. I'm putting the pressure back on you. So I think, to me, we stay focused, cold comic. Let trust our special teams, trust our defense, trust our offense, trust our kicker. Any chance I have to put pressure on you, which is take momentum, control of the momentum, because I just scored or I pined you, I'm going to see I'm gonna seize it. And so that to me is one of those things. Never lose a feel for the game. I get the regular season because there's always next week, and these things tend to even out. They don't even out in the playoffs, this finality. And to me, the biggest thing is that momentum is one of those metrics you can't quantify, and playoff momentum is greater than regular season momentum.

00:33:32
Speaker 2: You take a laugh.

00:33:34
Speaker 3: Okay, yeah, I'm gonna watch the tape.

00:33:36
Speaker 2: Take Thank you, coach, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you for leving me, thank you for thank you for let me vent a little bit.

00:33:42
Speaker 3: Thank you.

00:33:42
Speaker 2: You're I'm here. I'm here for you. A therapist. Uh, let's build counter all of famer.

00:33:50
Speaker 1: Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in the nation. Catch all of our shows at Foxsports Radio dot com and within the iHeartRadio app. Search FSR to listen live.

00:34:02
Speaker 2: Got a doubleheader on NBC and Peacock including the Spurs and the Thunder. Reggie Miller will be on the call. Wait, how often do the Spurs and Thunder play?

00:34:14
Speaker 8: And they play one more time after this February fourth in San Antonio, and I'm here for it. Look, I know they've played well three games over the last two to three weeks, but it has been much to watch TV between these two and if you are listening to both sides, they like to kind of downplay and saying, look, it's not a rivalry, because I agree with them. A rivalry really starts in the playoffs, like they have to face one another in the playoffs and then continue to play multiple times. But it feels like it's a playoff type series because they've gone against each other three times over the last two and a half weeks, with the Spurs winning all three. So tonight again, I think even though they're the champs, this means more to OKC and they've had the best record all season, they got off to the unbelievable start twenty four to one, but since then, since the Spurs, they haven't played championship like basketball. So tonight is, to me, in my opinion, a bigger game for the champs because they kind of want to send a message.

00:35:29
Speaker 2: It's probably an obvious answer, but I'll ask it just to get you on record if you were buying these two stocks, San Antonio or OKC, which.

00:35:41
Speaker 8: I'm still going with OKC because they're approving commodity. I've seen what they've done under duress. I've seen what they've done over a long stretch. I've seen what they've done in game sevens, both against Denver and my beloved Pacers.

00:35:57
Speaker 7: So I think there's more of a track record with the Thunder.

00:36:01
Speaker 8: As much as I love what the Spurs have done, it's unproven. In case in point, just their last time out on the road in Minnesota, you're up eighteen plus, you're up thirteen with about three to four minutes ago, and you lose the ballgame.

00:36:17
Speaker 7: Those are games that you have to win, you should win.

00:36:21
Speaker 8: You're the second best team in the Western Conference behind these Thunder.

00:36:26
Speaker 7: You've got to win games like that.

00:36:28
Speaker 8: So if you want to be taken serious, you can't let up on the gas and you got to finish.

00:36:33
Speaker 7: Games like that.

00:36:35
Speaker 2: The Lakers put a patch on their jerseys commemorating Lebron's twenty third season. Why I have no idea.

00:36:46
Speaker 7: That's odd.

00:36:47
Speaker 8: I mean, maybe it's a pat on the back, or maybe they're signifying this is it?

00:36:55
Speaker 7: King?

00:36:56
Speaker 2: Do you think it is?

00:36:58
Speaker 7: I don't think so.

00:37:00
Speaker 8: I don't the way he plays again, he's not the same the wrong that we've seen four years ago, eight years ago, ten years ago.

00:37:08
Speaker 7: I get that.

00:37:10
Speaker 8: But he is still a top thirty player perhaps, and he can still help your team win. He's just not the unquestioned number one, maybe number two on that team if Austin Reeves is healthy. But I mean, that's a nice paddle in the back by the Lakers to put a patch on their jersey.

00:37:34
Speaker 2: Why don't they put it on the back. Then it'll be a patch on the back? Okay, Todd, are you kidding me?

00:37:43
Speaker 3: I like that a lot.

00:37:43
Speaker 1: I was quietly got it in my head.

00:37:46
Speaker 2: That was very clever, Reggie patch on the back. Yeah, it was just kind of like, Okay, we're commemorating twenty three years but does he want to continue to play this way? Like we always talk about do you want to go out a certain way like Aaron Rodgers last night or Travis Kelsching, How does Lebron want to go out?

00:38:09
Speaker 7: Look?

00:38:09
Speaker 8: I will say it like this, The greatest last game that I ever saw was Kobe Bryant's when he dropped. I believe it was sixty one versus the Utah Jazz. That was the best closing game I may have ever seen. And every aging superstar wants to have a go out game like that. Not that's saying that this is Lebron's last season, but I think he wants to have an opportunity, a shot at competing at one more championship.

00:38:42
Speaker 7: Is this Lakers team built for that.

00:38:46
Speaker 3: Time?

00:38:47
Speaker 7: Will tell us that.

00:38:49
Speaker 8: I think defensively they're not just they're not quite there yet, And I think Lebron just wants another shot, another opportunity to play for that ring.

00:38:58
Speaker 7: But the way they're it's going to be very difficult in the Western coffin.

00:39:02
Speaker 2: Yeah, the Lakers are terrible defensively. You called out Luca. If your best player can't play or doesn't want to play defense, that doesn't bode well.

00:39:12
Speaker 7: But I just can't.

00:39:13
Speaker 8: He has what he does off the court is almost as big as what he does on the court, and he has so many connections to.

00:39:20
Speaker 7: The Hollywood Arena.

00:39:23
Speaker 8: I just can't see him leaving the Lakers, unless unless maybe one of his old teams come calling, like the Cavaliers and saying, look, we have all this talent here, we just don't have a guy that knows how to assemble the locker room and get these guys to play the right way. Could I see Lebron going home to Cleveland with Donovan Mitchell with Evan I don't know, possibly, but that wouldn't be a bad team to go back and try to win another championship with.

00:40:00
Speaker 2: Can you see Lebron once the NBA does expansion and if they put a team in Vegas, if you're the commissioner, you kind of lean towards Lebron and an investment group that that you would want to keep him in the NBA.

00:40:20
Speaker 8: I think so why not? And especially because he wants to be a part of it. I mean we kind of saw that with Jordan in Charlotte right at one point he was like half co owner there and then eventually bought out. I believe it was Bob Johnson was at the r RV bought out mister Johnson to be the controlling interest of the Bobcats, Hornets, whatever you want to call them. I think the same could be said for Lebron. To have Lebron in his knowledge. Think about this twenty three years. I mean, he's seen everything and how the game has changed. Why wouldn't you want to have his fingerprints on a team and building a team, bringing, you know, especially to Vegas. Yeah, yeah, absolutely if I'm the commissioner. But again, there will be a lot of bidders for that. The way that these worst teams and what they're going for, there'll be a lot of bitters. But I would love to have Lebron James still a part of this game after he retires.

00:41:22
Speaker 2: Talking to Reggie Miller, the Hall of Famer, He's got the Spurs and ok C Tonight at eight Eastern on NBC and Peacock James Harden is now the ninth leading scorer in the history of the NBA. Wow, But I don't know how we're going to remember him. And what I brought up is he did change the game with the step back jumper that everybody said he's traveling, and now everybody does it and it's apparently not traveling. What should.

00:41:59
Speaker 7: They just get away with it?

00:42:01
Speaker 2: Okay, okay, the commissioner told me that it was not traveling, So I was taking just like they're not carrying the basketball either. But I'm going to remember James Harden probably more for the step back jumper than I am anything else. And I don't know if I'm being fair to.

00:42:23
Speaker 7: Look, that's a ton of points.

00:42:25
Speaker 8: Congratulations if you are in the top ten, if you were in the top twenty five of scoring in the NBA, that's an unbelievable and hell of a career. But top ten, we are talking about rooms and levels that only certain people get to, and you've got to have number one a game to get you there. But you've got to be healthy, and you've got to have luck to get you there, and you've got to be on successful teams where you were the man where he came off the bench for this Thunder team went to Hugh and really made That's where he made his name. That's where he became a bona fide superstar. And then he's he's had trips elsewhere to Brooklyn and to Philadelphia and now he's he's back home in Los Angeles. Shack was known for power and brute force and all those points of being dominating. Look, I think I'll remember James Harden number one. The step back is great. I think a lot of people will probably head roll because his playoff record is not great and people will say he kind of shrank when the lights got the brightest.

00:43:40
Speaker 7: But he still has chapters to write. And that's the beauty of this game is that he's not finished yet. And the way the Clippers are starting to rebound.

00:43:49
Speaker 8: Now, remember they got off to that six and twenty one start, and now Kawhi and James Harden and Zubots they're starting to figure it out and make a push and can one of those scary teams at the bottom of that Western Conference.

00:44:05
Speaker 7: They would be a hard out.

00:44:07
Speaker 8: I'm not saying they can win, but that's a hard out to go against Kawhi and James Harden.

00:44:13
Speaker 2: Would you rather have the career of Russell Westbrook Junior the third or James Harden.

00:44:19
Speaker 7: God, you can't have them. Both both are MVPs, both are first ballot Hall of Famers.

00:44:27
Speaker 2: Nope, he got a pick, John.

00:44:33
Speaker 7: How do you pick that they're almost one and the same.

00:44:37
Speaker 8: I would go with I'm gonna go with the guy who's in the top ten in scoring.

00:44:43
Speaker 7: I would go with.

00:44:44
Speaker 2: James Harden, but Russ is gonna be up there all time stats too.

00:44:49
Speaker 8: I mean trouble double two and a half years, you know, Avergine.

00:44:54
Speaker 7: I mean that's almost unheard of.

00:44:56
Speaker 2: Rebounds and assist for guards.

00:44:59
Speaker 7: I mean, look, you can't go wrong.

00:45:04
Speaker 2: Who would you not as your two? Would you want as your teammate.

00:45:09
Speaker 3: The way.

00:45:11
Speaker 2: You don't want Harden?

00:45:13
Speaker 8: The way I would probably go with Russ.

00:45:16
Speaker 7: As my team?

00:45:19
Speaker 8: Yes, what about because you're not gonna find very many guards that do with what Russ does, the sacrifice he makes on his body when you're rebuilding like that, that's it's a different gene.

00:45:34
Speaker 7: It's a different mindset.

00:45:35
Speaker 2: I had Bill Kower on last Hour and we were talking about when guys came over to date his daughters, his three daughters, and he treated them like they were players on the Steelers, Like these are the things I tell my players. This is what I'm gonna tell you about date dating my daughter. Your kids are what nine and five? Ah, Now you got a little bit of time before you had a lot of.

00:46:03
Speaker 7: Time, but you're scaring me.

00:46:05
Speaker 8: What coming getting ready to come out your mouth because I am not ready for it. And I know you've got a house full of beautiful young ladies as well. And I already told my wife two things. Have the lawyers number on speed dial, and I'm not playing. I'm serious about this. I look, I'm I'm just stop playing when it comes to my girls. And nothing will ever be good enough for them. That's just how I feel. And any misstep Dad is stepping in. And if you like it, I'm not playing with it. I just I'm not have the lawyers number on speed doll.

00:46:44
Speaker 2: You'll be better as you as they get older, you trust I was right there with you, and then all of a sudden you trust them, you raise them right, and you you just you want them to make the right decisions. That's the biggest thing. But it's it's.

00:47:03
Speaker 8: I hope I'm laying are I hope I'm laying a great foundation foundation for them.

00:47:07
Speaker 7: Just see how I interact with mom and how we treat me.

00:47:12
Speaker 2: That's key.

00:47:13
Speaker 8: That's big, But also too in today's age of all these damn documentaries and scary it's just the world is too volatile for me to handle right now. And I'm just telling you Theodore for all you young boys, don't come. Don't don't come half stepping because I am not playing. I'm not playing. I've lived a great life. I'm saying.

00:47:39
Speaker 7: I don't care about going into Poky. I don't care.

00:47:43
Speaker 2: You're gonna do some time. You're willing to do time. I'm willing to do time.

00:47:48
Speaker 7: I don't care.

00:47:49
Speaker 2: You'll go. You'll be soft young.

00:47:51
Speaker 7: Brothers that are willing to do the same.

00:47:57
Speaker 2: I got you twenty sixth on the all time scoring list.

00:48:01
Speaker 7: I'm just outside.

00:48:02
Speaker 2: I know you're not gonna You're not gonna stay there, though.

00:48:06
Speaker 7: Is there any way I can come back?

00:48:08
Speaker 3: Well?

00:48:08
Speaker 7: How many points them behind twenty five?

00:48:10
Speaker 2: Marvin? Would you check? How how many.

00:48:13
Speaker 7: Points them all behind twenty five? If it's if it's a year's worth?

00:48:18
Speaker 2: No, no, no, no, So you're pretty close to alex English. Oh, you're at twenty five two seventy nine.

00:48:25
Speaker 7: Alex English is at twenty five six thirteen. That is that's that's like thirty thirty five games.

00:48:35
Speaker 2: Yes, Marvin, that's a night at the garden for Regis. Oh, it'd be a great story. If you came out of retirement.

00:48:45
Speaker 3: That happened in Hey.

00:48:47
Speaker 8: But but you know, I saw you talking earlier about Aaron Rodgers, and I hope this isn't it. You know, you're talking about Lebron and the patch pats on the back whatever. He doesn't want to go out. How last night unfolded.

00:49:01
Speaker 2: Yeah, but there's no guarantee it's any better next year, right, I know, but you.

00:49:05
Speaker 7: Kind of want to script how it ends.

00:49:09
Speaker 2: And did you script?

00:49:10
Speaker 8: Ye? Yes, how I ended in my losses to the Detroit Pistons in the playoffs. I couldn't have asked for a better script. Thank you, Larry Brown. The timeouts so the fans. It happened at home them defeating us. I believe it was in game six or something, and the extra the timeout by Carlisle, the extra time out by Larry Brown, the Pistons walking over to our side of the floor.

00:49:39
Speaker 7: In the state.

00:49:40
Speaker 8: Yes, it was unscripted, but it was scripted. Well that's how it went out. I made the playoffs. I gave everything I got. Last night was not Aaron Rodgers' best because we've seen him at the very high of his game, and I just hope this isn't it.

00:49:55
Speaker 2: But did you have to retire?

00:49:57
Speaker 7: I didn't have to retire.

00:50:00
Speaker 8: Why the game was changing, it was getting younger and again. I retired when I was thirty nine. Aaron Rodgers is forty one, and some of those hits he was taking I felt. I felt watching the game from the steakhouse, I was like, you feel that when the older you get, Every bumps and bruise you feel, and every day trying to get up and go to practice and training camp, it just takes a toll on your body the older you get. So that's why I applaud James Harden, Lebron Russell, these guys, Stephen Curry, these guys are getting long in the tooth. And trust me, when I tell you this, they feel it, you feel it.

00:50:45
Speaker 2: It'll be a knock knock, knock, Hello, mister Miller, is your daughter here? And they're gonna be so nice and they're gonna be polite. They're gonna say all the things that they think you want to hear.

00:51:01
Speaker 3: Yep.

00:51:02
Speaker 8: That's why I've been blessed to have done this game and save some money. That's what pi's are for. Trust me, they will have eyes on them. I don't play. I don't play when it comes to my girls. And the good thing that I had a boy first, and I've.

00:51:18
Speaker 7: Told him, don't be a funk. You better protect these girls because if you don't protect the girls, you and I are gonna have fun.

00:51:28
Speaker 2: But Cheryl protected, You didn't.

00:51:30
Speaker 7: That's right.

00:51:31
Speaker 8: How should be protects family and our two older brothers protected Cheryl.

00:51:36
Speaker 7: See the trickle down the fact that we have.

00:51:41
Speaker 2: Yet another Spurs thunder game tonight with reg Noah Eagle. Have fun tonight, good to talk about.

00:51:49
Speaker 7: It's gonna be a good one. It's gonna be hot.

00:51:52
Speaker 2: That'll be uh tonight, It'll be okay. See that's an eight Easter or non NBC in Peacock