Hour 2 – Underdogs Win, Arch Manning Flexing, Mike Florio

00:00:00
Speaker 1: You are listening to the Dan Patrick Show on Fox Sports Radio Hour two.

00:00:05
Speaker 2: On this Monday, Best and Worst of the weekend. Get your phone calls each seven to seven to three. DP show email address Dpadanpatrick dot com, Twitter handlely tp Show.

00:00:15
Speaker 3: Good morning.

00:00:15
Speaker 2: If you're watching on Peacock as our streaming partner. Stat of the Day is always brought to you by Benini America, the official trading cards of the program Football Tonight, you got the Lions getting four and a half against the Ravens as both teams come in one in one poll question, let's wrap up the first hour of their seating and turner attention to hour two.

00:00:38
Speaker 4: Yeah, we got up there. The game that's going to come back to haunt you in the NFL. Okay, your four options on that are Falcons, Panthers, Broncos, Chargers, Packers, Browns or Rams Eagles. Right now, Packers Browns have about forty one percent of that vote, which is interesting too because that might end up costing the Browns the for number one overall pick.

00:01:02
Speaker 2: I don't know there's some competition there for worst team in football? Yeah, you know, I mean the Saints are there, Titans are there, Brown's are there, Pauli.

00:01:12
Speaker 3: The current draft order is.

00:01:14
Speaker 5: I'm so glad you asked. I went to tankathon dot com. There's a lot of teams in the mix, a bunch of oher and three teams. So based off strength of schedule, the draft today would be Jets, Saints, Titans, Dolphins, Giants.

00:01:30
Speaker 2: Speaking of the Giants, when do you ease Jackson Dart into the starting lineup?

00:01:36
Speaker 3: Can you ease him in?

00:01:37
Speaker 2: You host the Chargers coming up, and then you go to New Orleans, then you have the Eagles, and then you're at Denver. So there's no easing in unless you ease him in at New Orleans. If that's going to be the case, and it probably will be because Russ had some throws last night where things that make you go hmmm. The Bengals situation, the Bengals make a move for Kirk Cousins after what we've seen from Jake Browning the last two weeks. They've got Denver, they've got Detroit, they've got the Packers, They've got the Steelers. So these are four teams that they're probably not going maybe they win one of those games, But do you make a move for Kirk Cousins Because Jake Glazer, I think had an update on Joe Burrow that best case scenario, he would be back by the end of the regular season, best case, but I think you probably have to look at the playoffs and they're not going to be in the playoffs. So that's why if this is just a lost season, if Jake Browning continues to throw it to the opposition like he did yesterday with Minnesota. Now, I'm not surprised Minnesota's defense teed off on him because that's what Minnesota and Brian Flores they are known to do, and they certainly took it. You know, they didn't have to lean on Carson Wentz for anything, just like go out there and play the position.

00:02:58
Speaker 3: Don't do anything stupid.

00:03:00
Speaker 2: But but Jake Browning, they went after him and made him pay. All right, pull question for hour two seedon.

00:03:06
Speaker 3: What's it going to be?

00:03:08
Speaker 4: I think right now we're looking at win of the weekend. You're Indiana Hoosiers, Chargers, Bears, Panthers, others neither neither.

00:03:19
Speaker 3: Well are we looking at the Browns? Is a great win?

00:03:23
Speaker 6: I mean they're not included in it.

00:03:27
Speaker 3: Are they happy they won that game?

00:03:29
Speaker 6: In some respects?

00:03:30
Speaker 2: Yes, But you know the overall front office game plan.

00:03:37
Speaker 3: Do they want to win those games? Marvin?

00:03:43
Speaker 7: The players are happy, oh yeah, yeah yeah, the front office is furious.

00:03:47
Speaker 8: We're supposed to get Arch and Nick Saban Arch.

00:03:50
Speaker 3: Yeah and Nick Saban. Yeah.

00:03:53
Speaker 2: Arch had a really good game against sam Houston State. Yeah, that'll quiet his critics. That's right, Yeah, that's right. He scores a four yard touchdown run and you would have thought, I mean, I've seen backup dancers with Jalo who have less enthusiasm than he did.

00:04:13
Speaker 3: He was he was going crazy.

00:04:17
Speaker 2: And I'm thinking, you just scored on Sam Houston State, not Ohio State. And it's staring down the defensive back and running along the sidelines. I think after the game he did say his mom was going to be upset with him. Now, I don't know how that's not taunting. They called it swag. I go, that's not swag. That's taunting.

00:04:38
Speaker 3: Yeah.

00:04:38
Speaker 4: See, well it's that taunting when your last name is Manning and you play for Texas. For sure, those are two a little just wink at that. Don't worry about it.

00:04:46
Speaker 3: You know what, don't you do? Horns down?

00:04:48
Speaker 4: That's fifteen uhy?

00:04:51
Speaker 6: I hate that.

00:04:53
Speaker 4: I feel like though if there was a fella who kind of needed a moment this, maybe let some stress out. Maybe it was arch Manning in that in that instant, I understand it, but it's still Sam Houston.

00:05:05
Speaker 9: It is.

00:05:06
Speaker 6: It's lame.

00:05:07
Speaker 4: I get it, but he has been under fire a little bit, and I bet that felt pretty good.

00:05:13
Speaker 7: Yes, Marvin, just to repeat with seat and said, man, you run somebody over and it doesn't matter who it is. You get in the end zone. You're pumped up, no matter who you're playing against. You're not looking at the uniform you're looking at you got into the end zone. Hey, big run. I don't agree with it. They called it swag. I was like, that's not that's not gold hunting. Yes, ton, because.

00:05:35
Speaker 10: That's how you gonna take that critics. Look what I did dot dot dot against sam Houston State. You have to got to put in the end of that sense.

00:05:41
Speaker 3: Yes, Paulie, the entire state of sam Houston is upset. I'm sure, damn it.

00:05:45
Speaker 5: Uh Texas next week at Florida, then they host Oklahoma h October eleventh.

00:05:52
Speaker 2: Okay, still time to right the ship. Okay, Okay, So we got football coming up tonight. We talked about the Eagles, the Rams. That felt like that was one and a half Losses Chargers over the Broncos, quietly winning three consecutive divisional games. The Packers, you know, that's one of those where you keep a team in it and then you pay the price. That's all that was. You got to put them away and a bad throw by Jordan Love and then you know, the Browns were like, all right, if you're not gonna win it, then we'll win it.

00:06:24
Speaker 3: Here we go. Bucks over the Jets.

00:06:28
Speaker 2: Even so, Paulie sends a text, so they block a kick, they scored touchdown, and all of a sudden, the Jets are going to win this game. And then Paulie goes, you know, I love Baker in the Bucks, but I'm rooting for the Jets. And then I knew as soon as he sent it that they were going to lose. It's like, I just Baker's gonna go down the field, They're gonna kick it, and then they're gonna win the game. Exactly what happened the Titans. That is not a pretty picture. Now, I didn't know what to expect from them, but I expect a little more than that. The Falcons as well, that was shocking that you lose, and you lose thirty to nothing to the Panthers.

00:07:08
Speaker 3: It's almost impossible to get shut out. I mean it's field goals are so easy. But I'm thinking you didn't score, yes, Marvin.

00:07:18
Speaker 7: Especially with that team. They're not like the Titans. The Titans are bad and born. I got Bijeon, Kyle Pitts, Drake London. I can't get close to kick.

00:07:27
Speaker 10: A field goal, yes, Ud and the Falcons were one of those teams that people were kind of falling in love with in the preseason, like Denver, Atlanta Tos.

00:07:34
Speaker 8: Certain teams are like watch out for these guys. This year, I.

00:07:37
Speaker 2: Watch a lot of the Bears and the Cowboys, and I kept thinking, Okay, this guy got sacked sixty eight times last year and they're not even putting a hand on him. They didn't sack Caleb Williams once, and then you pay those defensive backs Bland and Digs and every time Caleb wanted to throw deep, they were able to throw deep. They hit him once, but they didn't have any sacks. And I mean, I expect the Bears to be aggressive on offense, good on offense. I didn't think that their defense would be that bad because Dallas did. Dallas, you know, was able to do what they wanted to do. Dak just had a couple of interceptions there. But I still came away from that game going I have no idea. I have no idea if the Bears are a six win team or a nine win team. Same with Dallas, I have no idea when you're watching them, and they could have used a pass rusher in that game.

00:08:36
Speaker 3: Yes, it does.

00:08:37
Speaker 5: Feel like Dallas has to score thirty five a game to be in any game and can't afford even you know, running ceedee Lamb. It's a dangerous play as but you lose him in the first first quarter, it's really over because you need a shootout.

00:08:51
Speaker 2: A couple of phone calls in here, Best and Words to the weekend. Mike Florio from Pro Football Talk has a new book out. His latest novel, Big Sheield. It's a tale of gambling, the mob, and a pro football league that Mike says is definitely definitely not the NFL unless you want it to be. We'll have Mike joining us coming up. Dan and Ohio leads us off second hour, Best and Worst of the Weekend.

00:09:17
Speaker 11: Dan Hey just here to represent Qualcom.

00:09:22
Speaker 12: I'm kidding.

00:09:23
Speaker 11: Two best of the weekend. Just got my five month chip for sobriety, inspired partly by Seaton. And the second best was the first hour window or the one o'clock window of the games. That was just phenomenal. Worst of the weekend, well at least my Steelers one, but it took five turnovers to get that done.

00:09:46
Speaker 6: Man.

00:09:47
Speaker 11: Also, those Browns uniforms were just correndous.

00:09:52
Speaker 2: I agree because I love the original Cleveland Browns uniforms. They don't have to do anything different fancy. But Seaton was an outlier. He's he was all in on the Brown's uniforms there.

00:10:06
Speaker 6: Yeah, I think they look good.

00:10:07
Speaker 3: Yeah, I like them.

00:10:09
Speaker 2: I thought I was watching the Falcons when I first looked at them, and they're kind of and they looked dark, they almost look black. And then you had the orange uniform jerseys.

00:10:17
Speaker 4: Yes, seton that is one of those is it is it dark brown or is it black kind of things?

00:10:22
Speaker 6: To me, it looks it looks brown. Muh, And I like that.

00:10:25
Speaker 2: But they have great uniforms they don't need. Cleveland Brown's uniform is sort of like Penn State. You know, some of these other places where you don't have to do anything, you don't have to change anything.

00:10:37
Speaker 8: There.

00:10:38
Speaker 2: Tampa couldn't lose yesterday with those uniforms like they you look too good, you can't lose.

00:10:44
Speaker 3: I would wear that to the met ball and the gala like that.

00:10:49
Speaker 2: I would if I was Baker Mayfield and they were gonna invite me, I'd just wear my uniform and just say, yeah, how about this?

00:10:55
Speaker 3: Who were you wearing?

00:10:58
Speaker 8: Creamsicle?

00:10:59
Speaker 3: Yeah? Gus in La, Hi, Gus, what's on your mind today?

00:11:05
Speaker 13: Good morning, mister Patricks. Hope you and the boys had a great weekend. Hey man, what a weekend for sports. I'm telling that. I mean, like just like you know, my previous guy just said that one o'clock window was phenomenal.

00:11:18
Speaker 3: Great, loved it my.

00:11:20
Speaker 13: Steelers, hey man, wins to winning. The offense forgot to get on the bus. The defense brought the game. Hey, I'll take a win to win. At least. I'm out a ram Center Pakistan today, so I could go with the best of the weekend be in the NFL and my Trojan's winning. But let's go back to Friday night. Clayton Edward kershot with the curtain call you know, I find it me personally to be very privileged whenever you're able to be in the window of a generational talent, to see the beginning, the inception of it, and all the way to the end. And that's what I've been able to watch with Clayton Kersh all the entire time and fraid to finally come to an end on Friday night with something to be behold of. Loved it. It was great. Not a dry eye in the house. Awesome. I'm a lucky at Dodger fanis morning. You boys have a.

00:12:13
Speaker 3: Great week, all right, Gus, Thank you.

00:12:15
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm fortunate that having been in this business for forty years that you see somebody starting their career and that could be in college, and then I've been around for all of these careers start to finish and very lucky. And Clayton Kershaw go out with a strikeout regular season at home. Then he brought his kids out. They dug up the pitchers mound and took the rubber with them. They had like an axe out there, pick axe out there, hammered away and taking that out of there.

00:12:49
Speaker 3: Let's see Keith and Chico, welcome back.

00:12:52
Speaker 14: Keith, Hey, good morning, guys, I got a couple of bests of the weekend and the worst. The Indiana Hoosiers football team putting up six on a ranked Illinois team was pretty impressive, and the other being.

00:13:04
Speaker 15: Texas Tech football getting their win over Utah. Seeing the Red Raiders being relevant again brings me back to the Mike Leach days over at Texas Tech. Worst of the weekend what happened to the Falcons and Michael Pennix? A shutout against the Panthers is not a good look for them.

00:13:19
Speaker 14: Dan have a great day, guys.

00:13:21
Speaker 2: Yeah, got benched. But I wonder if you're the Falcons, you got to be all in with Michael Pennix. But if the Bengals call, would you trade him? And it probably all asked Mike Florio about that because there's you know, there's money involved in that and who's going to pick up what part of that salary? There?

00:13:41
Speaker 3: Zach and Knoxville. Hi, Zach, what's on your mind today?

00:13:45
Speaker 16: Heydp, thanks for taking my call? Best of the two best of the weekend. Best was going viral on the DP Show Friday with my Name's Question? And another best of the weekend. Since I had a grandfather who loved what he hates. Anytime Clemson stumbles and looks like cheeks, then yeah, that is something I'm all on board with. And Lewis Ritick was talking about how Bill Belichick and Dion you know, are both using the portal and it's not working to their favor. But I would argue that Clemson is where those two programs are trying to get to and because of that, Clemson should be able to use the portal to its advantage based off of their national championship credit, pedigree and the resources that they have.

00:14:34
Speaker 2: Well, I agree with you, Zach. You know this isn't an overhaul with Clemson. Clemson should be able to pick and choose. Now, maybe you get seven to ten players, but make sure you don't miss on those guys. North Carolina they got seventy players. Dion had a similar turnover there. That's really hard to say. All right, now, let's get together limited practice time and go out there and be good right away. Clemson's in a different position. There are certain teams Alabama, you know, it's just different. You pick and choose who you want they want to come play for you. You have to decide if you want them to play for you, this isn't an overhaul, but this is making sure. But Lewis Ridick, who did the game, said this was really about the team not being prepared to play like that's on the coach. Syracuse was ready to play Clemson. According to Lewis Ritick, who was there on the call. He said, they just didn't seem like they were ready to play. And this following a press conference where you had Dabosweeney calling out the media for, you know, questioning his resume. I thought that they were going to come out and it was going to be one of those, you know, fifty to seventeen type games, and it didn't go well, didn't go as scripted. Even North Carolina I'm watching that. Ah man, it's not a good situation. Who's North Carolina got next? They got Florida State next.

00:16:07
Speaker 3: They got a tough.

00:16:08
Speaker 2: Game I think coming up next? Oh, Clemson. Doesn't North Carolina play Clemson?

00:16:14
Speaker 3: I think that's do we have that? Yeah? Two weeks?

00:16:22
Speaker 2: All two weeks? Oh great, so you get to simmer with embarrassment. Are both teams off for two weeks?

00:16:30
Speaker 9: Yes?

00:16:30
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh. Well, Belichick's girlfriend look great with her knee high boots on on the sidelines there in a mini skirt. In a million years, if you say, hey, Belichick, he's gonna be on the sidelines and his girlfriend's going to be there in a miniskirt and knee high boots. I go, uh and what alternate universe? Yes, Todd, it's in Chapel Hill at.

00:16:54
Speaker 10: Least October fourth, So maybe a little home field advantage or does that never really exist?

00:16:57
Speaker 2: But that could be even worse if you get, you know, rough up at home. All right, let me take a break. Mike Florio, the popular co host of Pro Football Talk. You can find that program on Peacock that preceeds hours. Good morning, if you're watching on Peacock. Thank you for downloading the app. We'll take a break. We'll talk some more football Steve Young in an hour from now here, Dan Patrick Show.

00:17:21
Speaker 1: Be sure to catch the live edition of The Dan Patrick Show weekdays at nine am Eastern six am Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.

00:17:31
Speaker 17: Hey, we're Cavino and Rich Fox Sports Radio every day five to seven pm Eastern.

00:17:36
Speaker 18: But here's the thing. We never have enough time to get to everything we want to get to.

00:17:40
Speaker 17: And that's why we have a brand new podcast called over Promised. You see, we're having so much fun in our two hour show. We never get to everything, honestly, because this guy is over promising things we never have time for.

00:17:52
Speaker 1: Yeah, you blobber lit lame and me.

00:17:54
Speaker 18: Well, you know what it's called over promise. You should be good at it because you've been over promising women for years.

00:17:58
Speaker 17: Well, it's a Cavino and Rich after show, and we want you to be a part of it. We're gonna be talking sports, of course, but we're also going to talk life and relationships. And if Rich and I are arguing about something or we didn't have enough time, it will continue on our after show called over Promised. Well, if you don't get enough Covino and Rich, make sure you check out over Promise and also Uncensored by the way, so maybe.

00:18:18
Speaker 18: We'll go at it even a little harder. It's gonna be the best after show podcast.

00:18:22
Speaker 3: Of all time.

00:18:22
Speaker 18: There you go, over Promising.

00:18:24
Speaker 17: Remember you could see it on YouTube, but definitely join us. Listen to over Promised with Cavino and Rich on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

00:18:34
Speaker 2: We'll get some more phone calls Coming up, Steve Young will join us next hour Age seven to seven three DP show Best and Worst of the weekend Mike Florio Pro Football Talk Live co host, and you'll find him on Football Night in America. His latest novel once again. It's a novel called Big Shield. It's a tale of gambling, the mob, and pro football league that is definitely not the NFL. The e book is available on Amazon for only ninety nine cents. Have you heard from the NFL at all about this book that's not supposed to be based on the NFL?

00:19:06
Speaker 18: Not yet?

00:19:07
Speaker 3: Okay, not yet?

00:19:08
Speaker 18: And I think their approach will be just ignore it and hope it goes away, and let's not make this into a thing. As you were doing the read though, it struck me because we don't have an audio book yet, and I think that people would expect me to do it despite the very annoying voice that I possessed. Would you like it? Could we work something out? Would you like to do the audio book?

00:19:27
Speaker 3: I think that would How many pages?

00:19:30
Speaker 18: It's four hundred people? No, no, no, how about are you going to do a chapter?

00:19:34
Speaker 3: How about I do a chapter?

00:19:35
Speaker 18: We do a chapter, and we make that the sample and then we do the bait and switch, so they think it's your voice and then when they get it, they're like, oh, no, it's him.

00:19:44
Speaker 2: I've done it before, and it's a lot of work. I had to do it in segments where I'd come in for a day and do three hours, and then wait five days and come in and do it, you know, because it really it's tough on your voice to be able to do that.

00:20:00
Speaker 18: My agent's been negotiating deals for me to do the audio version of my three prior novels, and this went in. In theory it sounds good, but no, yeah, in practice, it's probably going to be an all day thing, frustrating, annoying. You got to get it just right. Oh I got a word wrong. I go back and do that again. So yeah, Fritzie, Well, the offers open if you want to do it.

00:20:20
Speaker 2: Yeah, Fritzie just said that he volunteered. Okay, yet he'd be happy to do that when.

00:20:24
Speaker 8: We come back. Chapter three.

00:20:26
Speaker 18: This is the.

00:20:27
Speaker 8: Sealed on Amazon.

00:20:28
Speaker 2: I little Kevin Harland there, all right. You wouldn't be able to keep up that energy.

00:20:34
Speaker 8: Definitely not.

00:20:34
Speaker 2: No, okay, you talk about gambling and I'm watching the Eagles Rams game.

00:20:41
Speaker 18: I know exactly where you're going, Jordan Davis. And here's the reality. This is the direct result of the NFL going from hating and shunning anything to do with gambling to jumping right in bed and loading the pockets. They're the guy in the you know the old game show where you go into the booth where the money's flying everywhere. They're just grabbing as many dollars as they can while it's there. But yeah, we're all aware now of the points spread, We're all aware of the ramifications and how many millions of dollars changed hands because Jordan Davis decided to do not the smart thing. The smart thing. The game's over, just fall down. You got to win because in theory, somebody comes up from behind. Does the don beebe to leon, Let the ball goes out, the rams take the other way. The smart thing to do is go down. He runs it in for a touchdown, the Eagles cover. Oh, and it was perfectly legitimate. But when you open Pandora's box, this is the kind of stuff that flies out and people are aware of this. So it's just part of the stuff the NFL needs to be concerned about. And sometimes I wonder Dan, Are they as concerned as they should be?

00:21:47
Speaker 2: What change though with Roger Goodell? Because everybody was against gambling and then all of a sudden something changed.

00:21:54
Speaker 18: Well, they were holding the rope as tightly as they could against gambling when difference states were trying to challenge the federal law from nineteen ninety two that basically said no states other than the states that currently have it Nevada can have sports wagering, and that became different levels and types of legal challenges until New Jersey finally won. But back in the days when the NFL was actively fighting it, that's when the commissioner would say, for example, when I'm paraphrasing, but if legalized gambling is widespread, normal incidents of the game will be suspected to have been influenced by other things, like, you know, whether it's a bad call or a guy not going down, when basic football expectations would be you've won the game, go down. But the normal incidents of the game become fodder for the fixes in and once they recognized, I believe how much money could be made. And the one thing that never gets talked about is the fact that owners are allowed to separately own up to five percent of a company that operates a sports book. And they won't tell you who owns what, but they're allowed to be the house too. They don't just have the sponsorships with all the major sports books. The owners individually can own up to five percent of companies that operate sports books. That's where the money is. So it's always followed the money. And I'm not I'm a capitalist. I'm not saying it's wrong, but that's what happened. They realized, you know what, we've hated this, we fought against it. If it's going to be inevitable, let's turn it into a revenue stream. And they've turned it into a massive revenue stream.

00:23:28
Speaker 2: I hear and I read conflicting reports on the Toushbush. Is it going to survive? Like it'll survive this season, but then next season? And I thought when Dean Blandino live during a broadcast said I give up. I don't know how to officiate this play, and I thought, that's the out for the NFL because the safety numbers aren't there. This is about we can't call this. I don't know how you can't call somebody when the guards move on the Eagles offensive line that's easy to call, spotting the football is still a challenge on that play.

00:24:06
Speaker 3: Is it back next year?

00:24:08
Speaker 18: I think right now the wind is blowing in the direction that it won't be and the moment, I believe based on everything I've seen, everything I've heard, and just my own kind of like what's really going on here in the NFC Championship when Frankie Louvou of the Commanders repeatedly jumped offside to the point where the referee threatened the Eagles with what would are the Commanders? Excuse me? With what would be called a palpably unfair act, and we're just going to give the Eagles the touchdown. That's never happened, for it's in the rule book, but it's never happened. I think the commissioner watching that game, and I'm assuming it was him, because he's got the power to make these dominoes fall if he wants. I think he saw that and he said, we can't have this. We just can't have this. So it was that week Mike Pereira was appearing somewhere and said that that moment could be basically the death noell of the tush push. It's like, wait, a minute, Wait a minute, the effort to stop it, because the to stop it goes to those extremes. They're just going to get rid of the play. But then we saw what happened, and it's been one straw man after another. Oh, it's a safety risk. The data doesn't back it up. Well, it doesn't look like football. Well what the hell does that mean? And now Dan, I think you've hit on it. It's going to be we just can't officiate it. We just can't officiate it. And I was told yesterday, Look, it's an extremely difficult played to officiate. And this is what the membership voted for. And I think that's the attitude of the league office. I think the league office generally like to get rid of it. They were two votes short, sixty eight percent of the team's voted to get rid of it, to vote short to get the seventy five percent. And I think once the season ends there's going to be some arm twisting to get from twenty two to ten to twenty four to eight and get rid of it.

00:25:45
Speaker 3: But the Eagles are still going to be successful.

00:25:47
Speaker 18: It's still going to run a quarterback sneak that you can't stop. And the guards are still going to leave early. But there's just something about that play being the symbol and the thing. And you're right, it's not going to change the effectiveness of having a quarterback who can squad five hundred pounds.

00:26:02
Speaker 2: And I think that their success rate prior to this rule or using the tush push was very similar to what their success rate is with it. And it's because you have a quarterback that is unlike any other quarterback. In Jalen Hurts, we're talking to Mike Florio, Pro Football Talk Live, co host contributor to Football Night in America. The latest novel, Big Shield, once again gambling mob pro Football and it's not about the NFL.

00:26:28
Speaker 18: Definitely not.

00:26:29
Speaker 2: Ebook available Amazon for ninety nine cents.

00:26:32
Speaker 18: I'm trying to get you, get trying to get you sued with me. How about that? Oh no, I'll represent us all for free.

00:26:38
Speaker 3: Really?

00:26:39
Speaker 18: Yeah?

00:26:39
Speaker 3: Yeah, you against the NFL.

00:26:42
Speaker 18: Yeah, that'd be a book on its own. So, I mean, I saw the Billy Joel documentary, which was just awesome. And when the Catholic Church tried to push back against only the good Die Young, the end result was him sending a letter to the archdiocese saying Can you please do that for all my songs?

00:27:00
Speaker 2: He got a whole lot of publicity there. I'm trying to figure out if three weeks is long enough three games to figure out a team, figure out who these teams are? Is there how many teams do you not have a handle on.

00:27:15
Speaker 18: I think it's difficult to figure out all of them because the one thing that we know will happen, there will be injuries. And how do you deal with the injury. Is the next man up going to be good enough to keep things rolling? Can you weather the storm until the key player comes back? And we know that happens every year. But I think we kind of have an idea. We've already had an idea. The eight teams that legitimately have a chance. Do they fall off due to injury? The Bengals have I don't know that they were in the eight, maybe they were in the ten or the twelve. But we know the good teams, we know the bad teams. It's in between. Is there a team that is just going to catch lightning in a bottle? Is something going to happen? Are they going to get better on the fly? Teams always change from week one to week eighteen it's such a long season. They're gonna get better, they're gonna get worse, and it could be that one of these teams in the middle of the pack. And I think back to the Patriots the year they won their first Super Bowl. They were like five and five, ten games in. It can break one way or the other. We see that happen. But right now we know the best, we know the worst, and then there's this cluster of we don't know and we'll find out.

00:28:19
Speaker 2: I thought about this yesterday watching games and what's going on with the Clippers with Kawhi Leonard and Steve Balmer. What would prevent owners from doing side deals and circumventing the salary cap in any sport.

00:28:33
Speaker 18: I think if you're smart, you can get away with it. You can always get away with finding a way to funnel money to somebody. After Pablo Toure reported on what was going on with the Clippers, allegedly someone reach asked me. He said, you know what, there was a team twenty years ago that had a separate in house video production company and they would use that to pay players who weren't on the team to keep them from going to play for other teams and it was a great little way to have a side roster that you's stashed and everybody was properly compensated, so they weren't looking for other jobs. But you had these extra guys and how many it was, But that's what they did, and the sense I got is that they weren't the only team. Now I don't believe that's currently happening still, but how hard would it wait?

00:29:21
Speaker 2: Why wouldn't you think that would be happening in any sport if you're.

00:29:25
Speaker 18: Smart and if you're discreet, and if you can trust the people that you're giving the money to. I think that's the key, though, because it's one thing for a guy to keep his mouth shut while he's being paid by you. But I'd think if this was something widespread over the past thirty years of the salary cap, if there was something like that, I'd like to think someone would have spilled the beans.

00:29:44
Speaker 8: By now.

00:29:45
Speaker 18: Somebody would be pissed off about how it all ended. I didn't get that last check, or you owe me a little bit more, or you know, guy just is out one night and he has a couple of pops and he decides to say something to a reporter. I'm surprised we haven't heard more about it because I think it's NICI to assume. And Pablo had a great take last week about Steve Balmer. You know, these really rich guys can buy anything and everything they want except that championship, and it's got to drive them crazy. So what do they have? They have money. Let's find a way to throw more of the money at this thing that we can't buy.

00:30:18
Speaker 2: Tom Brady did the Bears game yesterday with the Cowboys, and then his Raiders are going to be playing the Bears coming up. The conflict of interest is sort of lingering there and probably going to heat up a little bit more next week. How do you see this end or does it end in a different way it was.

00:30:38
Speaker 18: It was hiding in plain sight for all of us to see for over a year. But it just shows you the power of actually seeing something because the moment we saw the incredible shrinking Tom Brady because as soon as he realized he was on screen, he hit that button and down that seat went because he knew he knew this isn't going to end well. Because that woke everyone up to what we already should have known existed. You can't reconcile his two jobs. I think what's gonna happen because the NFL doesn't want to admit we never should have allowed him to pick both lanes. We should have told him when we did the vote last October on allowing him into the club, you got to pick one or the other. You can't do both. I think what will happen. It'll be like the Tush push. If the Raiders ever become really, really good, that's when there's gonna be this ground swell. This can't continue. Tom Brady can't continue to be at these games and gather this information. Dan the one point that gets lost in all this, because there's been a lot of talk about, well, how much do you really get from a production meeting? The real value is being on the field before the game, when you can hobknob, when people are gonna come, they want to talk to you, They're gonna come tell you things they shouldn't tell you. You can see what a player looks like. He looks different on TV than he looks on the field. And so it's not just getting ready to face the Bears. It's which free agents from this team, what I maybe like to sign, Which assistant coaches are the ones who are really really the ones. You know, the media has an idea of who the ones who are up and coming should be, But I'm in a position to find out who's really making this team go. He's in an incredible situation that no other owner is in to gather information that can be used. And Antonio Pierce, the former coach of the Raiders, he said it all last week. He told Adam Shine, I know that it's useful because he gave me that information last year.

00:32:26
Speaker 3: How does Kirk Cousins get traded, Well.

00:32:29
Speaker 18: There's going to have to be a serious season ending injury for a team that doesn't want to go next man up, and the Bengals for now are next man up. And look, the Bengals aren't going to want to give up draft picks because those are cheap young players. They're not going to want to pay Kirk Cousins. And the Falcons are going to want whoever takes on Kirk Cousins to pick up a major chunk of his twenty seven and a half million dollar guaranteed salary this year. But it's going to have to line up just right, and I don't know that it will. I think the one place could be Minnesota because that's the easiest place to pop him back in if, for example, JJ McCarthy back and gets injured again and it's a longer term injury and they feel like they can salvage the season and they don't want to ride with Carson Wentz, who who looked okay yesterday. He wasn't horrible. He didn't throw a left handed interception in his own end zone. So that's progress. So it's gonna be something where it's gotta fall just right. And it could be that the Falcons decide at some point this year that we're not going to trade him because we're gonna put Michael Pennix on the bench like the Panthers did last year with Bryce Young and let him take a step back and regroup because yesterday was rough for Penis and the Falcons.

00:33:34
Speaker 3: Your favorite part of the book is what well.

00:33:39
Speaker 18: The book is told from the perspective of the three main characters, and the first draft of the book it unfolded in a somewhat different way with a different main character. I decided it's a long story, so keep it simple. That part got carved out and I put a new part in with a new main character who's like the mob figure, who's the guy who gathers the professional athletes, because it's not just a professional football player in the league that isn't the NFL. It's a professional basketball player in the league that isn't the NBA, and a professional baseball player in the league that isn't the MLB. But he's the he's the guy that makes this thing go. And he was the most fun to write, the most fun to revise and edit, because when you get a book that you got to read it twenty times, it's like, I really don't want to read this again, But every time I'd read Johnny Motts is the name of the character. Any Johnny Mott's chapter was just fun because he's he's he's malicious, but he's stupid, but he's smart, and he's also got a conscience, and it's this complex character that is just a lot of fun because he thinks like a mobster, he talks like a mobster, and that's just always fun to read and and just kind of envision what that guy's like.

00:34:46
Speaker 3: Did you ever have any dealings with the mob when you were gambling?

00:34:50
Speaker 18: I never gambled. I never gambled. My dad was a bookie though Okay, my dad was a bookie and he was connected to the crew in the town where I grew up in Wheeling, West Virginia, and the first two novels I did are based on inspired by I don't want to say based on I want to say inspired by I don't think any of them are left but just in case. But he was a bookie connected to that crew, and so I knew a lot of the people who when I grew up and was able to like google names and see what they had done or allegedly had done, it was like, oh, almost said a word I shouldn't say, but it was like, man, like, you know, those are some bad dudes. And my dad was on the periphery of it because he was just basically, he was a compulsive gambler who realized it's better to be the house, so he became a bookie. But he was just the gambling side of it. And I'm not condoning it or excusing it. That was the way provided for his family. I was a kid. There was nothing I could do about it, and my mom did a great job of keeping those worlds separate, but there was enough overlap where Yeah, I picked up a lot how they talk, how they act, just the vibe that they have. That I was around a lot of guys like that, and I was oblivious to the fact that, you know, they they were capable of doing some pretty bad stuff.

00:36:00
Speaker 3: The book is called Big Shield.

00:36:01
Speaker 2: It's the tale of gambling the mob in a pro football league that is not the NFL. Once again, it is not. The book available on Amazon for only ninety nine cents.

00:36:10
Speaker 18: Do you read books? No, you have all these books and you don't read them. It's a library here, by the way, I haven't been to this location. Congratulations, because this is incredible. The last place was great, but this is like the last place on steroids. I mean it's huge, and it's open, and you got so much stuff and it's all. You could wander around here for like three hours and not see everything. It really is incredible.

00:36:34
Speaker 3: Thank you, Mike. Great to see you. Great to see you, Mike Floria.

00:36:37
Speaker 2: When we come back, we will give you our best and worst of the weekend after this.

00:36:41
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.

00:36:53
Speaker 2: Let's go around the horn and Todd I'll start with you best and worst of the weekend.

00:36:57
Speaker 10: Best of the weekend in Houston on Saday, the Big Dump Cowroly goes deep against the ms AL West rival Astros. His fifty seventh of the year passes Ken Griffey Junior for the most single season home runs ever by a Seattle Mariner.

00:37:09
Speaker 8: Then he goes ahead and hits his fifty eighth yesterday.

00:37:11
Speaker 10: EMS lead the division now by three games, won fourteen of the last fifteen games. Worst also on Saturday, not taking anything away from QS, but Clemson losing at home in Death Valley.

00:37:19
Speaker 8: They're one in three for the first time under Dabbo Seaton.

00:37:24
Speaker 4: I'm gonna go double best this weekend. My super bestess of the weekend. Isaiah Rodgers an absolute defensive explosion for the Vikings. He returned an interception for eighty seven yards in a touchdown, then added another sixty six yard fumble return for another and had and caused another two fumbles. That's he's the first player I mean, it's a perfect defensive performance. I think as you could get as a fantasy player. I don't think you could be rated any higher. He's the first player to ever do that in a single game, of Vikings being the Bengals forty eight ten. My other best of the weekend Syracuse on the road taking down Clemson thirty five twenty one.

00:38:00
Speaker 6: Davian Kerr with the pick to seal the deal.

00:38:03
Speaker 4: I like that all of a sudden, Almost every week now we're talking about Syracuse something happening with that team.

00:38:09
Speaker 6: It's kind of fun. See.

00:38:11
Speaker 3: Yeah, they had to run their sprints after they beat you.

00:38:13
Speaker 2: Kon Yeah, Marvin beston Worst to the weekend.

00:38:16
Speaker 7: Best of the weekend, also from the Vikings, Jordan Mason. That guy always shows up when it's time to sixteen carries one hundred and sixteen yards, two touchdowns. Worse of the weekend the Tigers. I don't know what's going on if they lost sixth straight, including Guineas sweat by the Braves this past weekend.

00:38:34
Speaker 5: Pauli bestin worst coming off the bench for Texas Tech Will Hammond thirteen of sixteen, two touchdowns to spark their offense in a thirty four to ten win over.

00:38:42
Speaker 6: The utah U.

00:38:43
Speaker 5: It's that's huge for Texas Tech and they're four to zero and then even better, Fernando Mendoza, the quarterback of Indiana twenty one of twenty three, two sixty seven and five touchdowns. He really played perfect. And this guy, he's gonna be scalding hot draft time.

00:38:58
Speaker 13: Yeah.

00:38:59
Speaker 2: I remember Kirk Kurbst preseason and Herbie pointed out how good this kid was. And I saw him play and he didn't have great numbers. And then the last couple of games, I think he's had ten touchdowns, no interceptions.

00:39:15
Speaker 9: Yeah.

00:39:15
Speaker 5: Pauling, Yeah, he's a transfer from Cal. He was pretty good last year, but he is lighting it up.

00:39:20
Speaker 2: Didn't Cal just get shut out this last weekend? Adam in Illinois, Hi, Adam, best and worst through the weekend.

00:39:27
Speaker 12: Hey, good morning, DP guys. I hope you had a great weekend. Well, that's the work is the weekend is obviously for me. The Rams choking in the fourth quarter. How do you give up two blocks kicks? That's uncalled for. It's crazy. I've never seen that before. And then best of the weekend Clayton Gershaw going out in style in LA getting the win with the Dodgers, and the Dodgers now thirteen straight seasons in the postseason.

00:39:53
Speaker 3: Are you guys, Adam, are you jogging?

00:39:56
Speaker 12: I'm actually walking?

00:39:57
Speaker 2: Yeah, I am, oh okay, yeah, all right, Well thank you be careful. Sounded like he was on a treadmill. Nathan and san Antonio. Hi, Nate, Hey Dan, thanks for taking my call.

00:40:12
Speaker 9: My best and worst is in your Florio just kind of touched on it the test push. My eyes have been open. Then I previously believed if you can't stop it, that's your problem. But after watching that play this weekend where Hurtz had two or three efforts on getting that first down before they finally whistled the play dead after the defender had stripped the ball from him. Then they decided the play was over. It had gotten the first down. That's that of my eye. Then this play is impossible to officiate, and yeah, they need to get rid of it. If I'm done with it.

00:40:51
Speaker 2: Yeah, you can't see the ball carrier. He just kind of disappears, and then you're like, uh, I don't know. I guess you've got first down. Not sure. I do think that is the emphasis here to get rid of the play is you can't officiate it. It would help if they actually officiated the play and called when the offensive line jumps.

00:41:14
Speaker 7: Yes, Marvin, if you're the NFL, are you hoping that the Eagles don't win the Super Bowl? So you know what, it won't look like we're out to get you guys.

00:41:22
Speaker 2: Yes, yes, because Dean Blandino said that he thinks that the owners didn't want to take it away because then it looked like sour graves.

00:41:32
Speaker 3: We couldn't stop you guys. You guys won a Super Bowl.

00:41:35
Speaker 2: More phone calls coming up on this Monday, best and worst of the weekend. My thanks again to Mike Florio for stopping by. Steve Young will join us in twenty five minutes from now.