1-on-1 with DP – 93.7 The Ticket KNTK - DP is BACK from San Diego / Comparing the eras in pro sports - April 24th, 2024

Episode Date: April 25, 2024

DP is BACK from San Diego / Comparing the eras in pro sports - April 24th, 2024Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

It's time to go one-on-one with DP. Coming at you live from the couple Chevrolet GMC Studios. Here is your host, Derek Pearson. Brought you by Mary Ellen's Food for the Soul on 937 the ticket and the ticket FM.com. All right, welcome in to ticket weeknights. Once again, here's around on the ones and twos when six o'clock hits. I will carry you through at least behind the ones and twos here on ticket weeknights. We will have DP joining us shortly, but he's coming back from his road trip down to the San Diego Mojo.

I should call it a work trip. He had called the game there. Unfortunately, Supernova's fall short in that one. They lose the match three to two in that one. Went five sets against the San Diego Mojo. So again, Supernova is still telling about 12 wins on the season, still behind the Atlanta vibe. The Atlanta vibe had a fantastic start to the Pro volleyball Federation, currently sitting at a 17. and five record. And again, Supernovas at two, but still not a spot, bad spots be for the Supernovas.

They got some season left here, but they're in position to go ahead and try to make a playoff run. But the Atlanta vibe have been impressive. And that San Diego Mojo, go ahead and steal one from the Supernova. So, D.P, give or take about 10, 15 minutes here, he'll be joining me in studio as well. And if you guys want to join in the show, as always, you can hop in on these streams, Facebook, YouTube, Twitch, Twitter, and I load channel 961. Sartre Hamann Tech Line will still be open to you guys. 402, 464, 5, 685, and DP gave me a little bit of rundown. It's an awesome time in the sports world. You got NFL draft coming up.

Of course, the NBA playoffs have been exceptional, especially in round one. The West has been, every game has been pretty close for the most part. Even with the East, there's been some prizes there. If you're not paying attention to the Indiana Pacers or Tyrese Halliburton at all this season, they had a big win against the Bucks last night, and it was an all-around clinic. Tyrese Halliburton led the team in assists, but it was all around great ball movement.

Their assist numbers show it. And the Bucks could be in a little bit of hot water because I'm not sure if the Pacers have been given their due respect. Small market team, if you don't have NBA league pass, you probably didn't have a ton of opportunity to even watch the Indiana Pacers. But Tyrese Hall, Burton,

not sure what the ceiling is yet, but he's going to be special, I think, as long as he stays healthy. So with that being said, I'm going to go ahead and dive into the NBA playoffs. And as always, 402, 4, 6, 4, 6, 8, 5. You guys are welcome to join in. But I want to start there.

And like I said, DP will be joining me coming straight from Omaha as well. So shout out DP. The guy never stops working despite calling a game that went to five sets all the way in San Diego. He gets down here in Omaha and what's his first thing heading straight to the workplace. So DP again, we'll be joining us. And shout out to him, always working. But let's go ahead and start here. mention that Bucks Pacers series, a little bit surprised that one. You got the six-seated

Pacers versus the number three bucks. And I think a lot of people are riding off the Pacers, but they did their job. You look at all these playoff series. The main goal, if you're that lower seed, is can we steal one on the road? It's going to set up just statistically, way better odds for success for you to actually pull out an upset. And let's go through the box score in this one, because again, Pacers, clinic in terms of passing the ball. And I don't think Pascal Seacom got enough attention as well. Great move by the Indiana Pacers to go ahead and bring him down there. I think with that Toronto Raptors run with Quai Leonard, a lot of people are really high on him.

And obviously, Quy Leonard moves on. You have some years where they're really trying to force Pascal Seacom to be that superstar caliber player. But I just don't know if there's enough help around him. And now you're seeing him on a team that he fits really well on in a dominant performance by him. 16 for 23 from the floor. Three for four from the three point line. Racks up a total of 37 points, 10 rebounds in six assists. So a solid double double, a 37 point double double at that puts in 11 rebounds.

But this is what I was talking about with the assist. That starting lineup, they play so well together. Seacum, six assists. Nesmith seven assist. Turner, he puts in six as well. Nemhart puts in three. And then like I said, Tyrese Halliburton drops 12 assists on. on the night. And then some good production off the bench. Obie Toppin, now on the Pacers.

He puts in nine points as well. And that's all the scoring you're getting it on the bench. But nonetheless, you're getting some good minutes out there. Even though a guy like T.J. McConnell, not necessarily the biggest threat out there, but plays enough. And excuse me, he did drop six points on him. Two for six from the floor. Just some good defense as well. But what I like about this Indiana Pacers team is just how well they move the ball. If you like to watch pretty basketball. You have to watch the Pacers. And Tyrese Halliburton, when he was on the Sacramento Kings, I was a little bit surprised that they moved on from him so quickly. I understand they had a guy in Deerrin Fox who they want to lead that team into that next chapter, whatever it

may be, but now you're looking at the Sacramento Kings, another disappointing season. Last year, the Sacramento Kings, the number one offense in the NBA. You flash forward to this year, still a lethal offensive team, but the defensive numbers did not do them any favors. And it showed up in the win-loss total and it led to them being a playing team getting bounced out. They got the revenge on the Warriors, but that's pretty much where it ended for the most part. So again, you look at a team like the Sacramento Kings. Yes, maybe they have a shot to stir things up. But I really thought that Tyrese Halliburton went a better move to at least hold on to him and see what you have because he showed flashes of this elite playmaking ability

pretty early and he was all bought in on playing for the Sacramento Kings. That was one of those franchises that he really appreciated, that they took a chance on him and he was playing great basketball there. So again, I think that move from moving on from him, I don't know in hindsight if they're going to look favorably on that maneuver. And I like some of the other things the Kings have done. I think Subonis was a sneaky good trade last season to get him in there. A little another underrated player, great playmaker all round.

Not the best rim protector, but a skilled player in his game with Tyrese Halliburton. Just made perfect sense in the world. But nonetheless, they move on. But the Pacers, they come back, beat the bucks 125 to 108. And it really wasn't close all game long. The Indiana Pacers from quarter one to quarter four outscore the bucks every single quarter. the bucks for the most part couldn't really gain any momentum in their home arena and it does raise some flags you know looking at the Milwaukee bucks you fire your head coach you know after losing to the Miami Heat last

year and then the Miami Heat go all the way on a massive run to the finals now they lose to the Denver Nuggets as expected I mean that's my favorite for this year I think the Celtics have a chance to shake things up and we'll talk about those guys as well because if you haven't heard they're a I think 14 and a half point favorite over the Miami Heat tonight. So the Boston Celtics, if you're going to pick any sort of team to try to shake the nuggets, if they make it to the finals, you're probably looking at the Boston Celtics. But again, give credit to the Pacers. I'm not going to put this series in the books.

I think this matchups a lot closer than I initially gave it credit for. Even though I was a fan of Tyrese Halliburton, it's the other guys around him. And in particular, Pascal Seaccom. He's a great two-way player. He can hit the three ball. He's long, lengthy, and he doesn't really rest on defense. He's a guy that plays solid two-way game all quarter long. And, you know, if you want to factor in conditioning,

he's one of those guys that just doesn't ever seem to get tired out there. So keep an eye on the Pacers. If I were to go through the series in this NBA playoffs, that's a team I'd keep my eyes on. I really like what they're doing. I think they kind of get the bucks in a little bit of a panic. And I'm not entirely sold on Doc Rivers. And that's another move where we can get in.

to the coaching of the NBA, but why they were so eager to move on and then bring in a guy who is, for the most part, pretty unproven. Yes, he gets teams, he brings them to the playoffs, but that game seven record is atrocious. And with the talent Doc Rivers has had in the past,

great roster after great roster after great roster, it didn't seem like a smart move. You want to get a guy in there who has a little bit of a resume that he can develop teams. Now, Doc Rivers, not the worst coach out there, but his whole stint with the Milwaukee Bucks has just been strange this year to say the least. He kind of came in complaining right off the bat

about the management, about the quick turnover, and just some really unusual comments. And then even still, we'll still let those slip out there every now and then calling out his own roster on road games to the media. I get it. Maybe the idea is to fire those guys up. during the regular season, how they're not winning those road games. But it's stuff like that where I don't understand Doc Rivers bringing that to the media.

That seems like a locker room discussion, not where I'm going to go on the podium and put my own roster on the spot for the world to hear. It was still a great record overall, and I get it, you're frustrated with the road losses. But to say, I feel like paraphrasing here that I'm the only one focused. I'm looking around. I see a lot of guys not locked in. I get it. That's a locker room conversation, not one that you have to the media.

So then ESPN can write a bunch of articles about the Milwaukee Bucks, not mentally focused on road games and our source is the head coach Doc Rivers. So I didn't like the move. And I think coaching matters a lot in the playoffs. I talked about this last night with the morning, Pearson, when they got rid of Vogel,

Los Angeles Lakers, two, one season, the bubble, If you want to call it a Mickey Mouse trophy, whatever you will. He gets that team entitled nonetheless. He gives the Lakers with Anthony Davis, Javelle McGee, LeBron, James, just a great veteran crew, if I were going to put it, a team that has a ton of experience under the belt. And he's able to get those guys a ring.

And then you have two bad seasons where in one of those years, you have not only LeBron, but AD as well, in and out with injury. everyone had that meltdown when everyone saw LeBron finally go down with an injury that lasted longer than just a couple of days and then the next season again disappointing but the roster construction around it

never made sense to me and then to bring in a guy in Darwin Ham to think that's the right move no sense it makes no sense I think about this with Bo Polini when we hired Mike Riley we go from Bo Polini

whether you think it was the right move to get rid of him or not. The point is, you got a coach that was under 500 in his coaching career. How is that an upgrade in any way, shape, or form? So with the playoffs, I know the NBA in particular is one of those games where you can almost equate the refs out, especially during the regular season, because it is, in my opinion, a much more minimal role compared to obviously, you compare it to the NFL, the coaches have a massive role in the game. plan. NBA, you want to get your five best players, their veterans, they play the game, their entire lives. You can trust them to make some of those reads on the fly. You just got to

set them up and they'll take care of the rest. But then when you look at how it's gone, hiring coaches that haven't had that great track record, especially in the playoffs, that small amount of upgrade that a coach can provide in the playoffs is what pushes teams over the edge. You look at the Denver Nuggets and Malone, their head coach and how he's developed that team, how he understands how each intricate player's role is, that is massive in the playoffs. You need continuity. I don't think it works very well when you just bring in a coach out of nowhere, especially one with not a great track record, expecting him to fully know the roles of all those players and how to set him up best for success. And now you're kind of seeing the Lakers fans even get upset about D'Arvinham being the head

coach. If you go on any of their threads, anywhere on social media, a lot of people are already calling for the Lakers to move on and get another coach. The constant movement of head coaches in the NBA just feels like a massive mistake for a lot of organizations. And this isn't just on the Lakers, but you want that continuity because when you do get to the playoffs, defense tightens up. You can no longer just trust your best five guys, your best five starters, to go out there and win you the game. You need to have. have a good game plan. You need to understand what do my players do best. And I think that's why the Denver Nuggets just look unstoppable. They have had those players, Michael Porter Jr., Aaron Gordon,

Jamal Murray, Yokic, and even when some of those guys were hurt, Jamal Murray in particular, when Yokic was really starting to come up and be the guy we know him as today, they stuck with it. They didn't make hasty moves. They didn't blame it on the coach. They didn't blame it on a few players. They held on the guys. Michael Porter Jr. You could have easily punted on that guy and not because his play was bad, but the IR report might have scared you a little bit. Anything spinal injury-wise is going to put some hesitancy on whether you want to

keep that guy around or not. But they stuck with him. And then what happens in game two, Yokic, he makes what tries to look like he's trying to gain a foul, chuck it up. Maybe it was trying to get it to Aaron Gorton. It looked like a shot to me trying to get quick three easy free throws. but Aaron Gordon manages to salvage it, kicks it out to Michael Porter Jr.

And he makes a massive shot. And all those players are so aware of their role. You get to the end game situations, Yokic and Aaron Gordon, Jamal Murray, those three guys work incredibly well together. That's one of the things that makes Yokic so unstoppable. It's, yes, he's great in itself, but it's the team around him

and they know how to play around him because they played with each other for so on. along and they have a head coach that understands each player's key elements in their weaknesses. And then you get a coach in Darvin Ham where this is going to hurt his coaching career right off the bat just because, again, he's in there with a bunch of guys trying to piece it all together and he's just getting killed for it. And I can't even entirely blame him because I don't know if I necessarily love the roster construction around the Lakers either.

I think they're a good team. You got LeBron and Anthony David. those two alone to scare most teams in the league. And I do think the Lakers, as we had walk on weekly, Jack Hoyberg, who now works with the San Antonio Spurbs,

brother of Sam Hoybert, by the way. So you can imagine that NBA basketball connection, that's just a basketball family through and through. But he kind of pointed that out, where the Los Angeles Lakers, despite their shortcomings, that's still a good enough team

where they can beat just about anyone on any given night, any series, not even just one game. Lakers were playing the number one seed, OKC Thunder. I like their odds a lot more than the two-seated Denver Nuggets.

That's just a brutal matchup, especially when you look at the stats, LeBron James, the first time ever in his career history to lose six straight playoff games. And it started with the sweep in the Western Conference Finals to the Denver Nuggets,

and now they're down to nothing to the Denver Nuggets once again. It's a tough matchup, but again, I think, even if you had a coach that had a little bit of continuity, I get it, people were upset with Frank Vogel. I still think you keep that guy around. I blame that entirely on roster construction

in players being hurt unexpectedly. And then to kick him out, and then to bring in him again, I don't think he's the terrible coach out there. I think you can probably point to other guys, but it is just a quick turnaround. And let's just be real here. It feels like LeBron's running the show,

as he's done many times. It may be right or wrong, but you would love to have a head coach in there that LeBron trust, that the players trust, that believe that they can set themselves up in the best position to kind of upset this series and find a way to at least just steal one. I mean, I'll be surprised if the Lakers don't get swept at this point.

They put everything they had in that second game to have a 20-point lead and for it to all fall apart on just a incredible run by Yolkage and company that's just deflating. And everyone wanted to attack DeAndro Russell. He's the reason we lost game one. How can we win if DeAndrel Russell, our quote unquote X Factor isn't going to show up? He showed up in game two.

He showed up in game two with great numbers and still not good enough. And you give credit to Jamal Murray for hitting one of the coolest game winners I've seen in a long time over a seven foot Anthony Davis. But it just really put a dagger in that Lakers team. when you have your two best players in Anthony Davis and LeBron James and their post game press conferences with an aggressive mic drop, it doesn't bode well, at least in my opinion. It looks like defeat the way I read it. So maybe there's a chance out there,

but the way I see it, Los Angeles Lakers got some serious problems. As I'm talking here, we got the boss man right behind me. DP rolling in fresh from Omaha coming down from the San Diego Mojo, quick turnaround. The guy just must love work like nobody else out here. But Derek Pearson now joining me one-on-one with D.P.

And as always, you guys are welcome to join in. 402-464-5-685, Sarderhamen text line, face to the voice, Facebook, YouTube, Twitch, Twitter, and I load channel 961. But nonetheless, DP, I know if you had a busy night, busy travel, how's it going, man? It's good to be back. These trips to San Diego are tough. Yeah. Once you say that out loud, you realize how silly it is. Yeah, you're at the beach. Yeah. I'd have a little bit. Yeah, you're going to the beach. It was actually nicer here than it was there. Okay. It was cloudy. There's no sun in San Diego. But, I mean, it's still aesthetically, it's gorgeous. You play, the Superdover's play at San Diego State University in their, in their gym.

Massive arena. Yeah, I will say that. Yeah. I don't know if I, I get it first year, but I do like one of those, especially when it's the first year in it, get a smaller venue. So it just helps that noise in there a little bit more. Well, I mean, here's the, here's the weird thing. Like, so when you pull up, everything around it is busy. Like, because it's a campus.

Now, mind you, I don't know whether the, like the, the Aztec Baseball. softball were had had home matches home games don't know um there weren't a lot of students there like if you go to supernova's there's a lot of students there's everybody yeah those games those get packed yeah and the weird thing was of the you know a third of the people there last night were supernova fans and then if you went back a week or two weeks so we were out there on april 2nd and they had some home matches in between where they drew pretty well, like 3,500, 4,000 folks.

But for whatever reason on Tuesday night, nobody's coming. And it's, it's, Renee and I were talking about last night that it's a weird because it's a bowl. It's a bowl. We got some RICO stories running up and down

that bowl last night too. Oh my gosh, it was so funny. It was so funny. But it's, it's a bowl. It's like the old memorial. It's like the old memorials. It's like Memorial Stadium on the lower bowl. It's like Iowa, right? Is that a good comparable? Yeah, like it's a bowl.

And it's really weird because I don't know what they did with it, right? Like I think it was where the football stadium was and they put a basketball arena inside the bowl. And then when you pull up to the outside of the building, in the parking lot, there's bleacher seat, concrete bleacher seats. So at some point, the thing turned around. or whatever. But literally, there's like a thousand seeds facing the bus.

I was like, that's really weird. Just not really a thing to do. So, yeah, you're providing your own juice and it's really tough. Your pros,

you're trying to figure it all out. And again, everywhere in the league, in the Federation is good. So going two and two again, San Diego, doesn't really, hurt you other than the fact that in the back of their minds if they if they end up matched up

with you in the playoffs it's in the back your head a little bit well i mean you know you're giving hope ren and i talk about it a lot hope giving hope that you're equal or now they've got some players and and you know we knew the the last trip out san diego like i i told minne saunders that listen this is uh different right like when you look at the team play one they started late so that was a big deal and then as their team sort of evolved like i'm like wait a minute they got some players and the girl uh the young lady timmy tom tommy thomas idlera is a banger man she's a banger like it from anywhere on the floor she can sniper you anywhere on the floor and she just is violent

in her swing, she elevates, she takes advantage of matchups, right? And then in the fifth set last night, the difference was that we couldn't get the matchup off with the setter versus Timmy Thomas Sala. Like we couldn't get, she's just over top of them. And the fifth set is a race to 15. If the matchup doesn't go the way, the rotation doesn't go the way you want, well, Saturday night in Omaha, the rotation went well in the fifth set for Supernobos. They got to win.

But in St. Louis, it didn't happen. So there will be a little bit of time Friday, Grand Rapids, who is sitting at 10 and 9, right? Right behind the Supernobos. Because supernovas are still at 12, right? Uh-huh. And, look, this is, well, you used to but think, Atlanta got beat. Well, yeah, that's the one thing. It's good thing we got to.

Atlanta got beat. Atlanta got beat. So you get to see that there is a way to get this thing done. As a matter of fact, I mean, you know, you know, when you look at the matchups, you go, okay, Grand Rapids got them. Caleb Caffey from Nebraska and Texas went on a service run. A couple of them, as a matter of fact. And they're talented.

You know, they're talented. So all of it is that this federation, I mean, who, like, you're in the final 25% of the season, you know, five games left, five matches left. Friday, Grand Rapids in Omaha, then a bit of a break until they had to Columbus, which, you know, last time went to Columbus didn't go well. And Columbus is one of those teams, too. That's, yeah, they've been the best of the best.

I think they got maybe even a couple wins over the Fury. Yeah, and they're scrappy in that they're fighting for their playoff life. So all the games have, all the matches have meaning now. And everybody's scrapping. Like you're trying to, you know, it's an interesting set. So we'll go, Grand Rapids come here. Then on the fourth, we'll go to Columbus. on the sixth we go to Vegas,

on the seventh we play Vegas. And then we go to Grand Rapids. After that. And am I missing a home match? Yeah, you met Columbus Fury on the 9th, and then Grand Rapids are on the road on the 12th. So you got one home game versus the Columbus Fury. Yeah.

When's Columbus here? That's May 9th Thursday. Okay. So, yeah. So that's the, you know, you're going to face everybody that's battling for something. Uh, and an opportunity. Now, on the bright side, uh, the addition of Stephanie, uh, Samaddy from Minnesota. And Husker volleyball fans are very familiar with, with Stephanie Samaddy.

And she in her first, in her first appearance with Supernovas had 10 kills, 10 digs. two blocks. Like she's, and she wasn't the starting rotation. She did this coming off the bench. And they're still getting to know her and she's still getting to know them. But she's going to be a factor. Like she's going to be a factor.

The supernova is also losing Gina Mancuso or Pazoski, losing Daniel Hart, who was who was the starting season middle blocker, losing near read all of those things play into it but everybody in the federation is going through their changes but other players are coming in

and being a part of it so you know it's pretty cool just to be a part of it and watch it up close just I'm fascinated by the phenomenon right and watching something brand new just kind of grow

and explode and I'll say this that's your Friday night it's an 830 first search so CBS sports will carry it let's go that's awesome well and then but here's what you want right and I'm not bigger than the message so I want I know that that's going to draw more eyes and ears to it but this is an opportunity for Nebraska to show out again and if done well. First of all, they're giving out these really cool glow in the dark t-shirts, right? Which means the game presentation is going to be on fire.

Oh, yeah. I will say the supernovas do it right in their venue. Right. It's awesome. Right. And, but this would be the night to go over 13, 14,000. Like, I think it'll happen in the playoffs. Oh, yeah.

Because what's the record right now? 12,000? 12, 12, plus. Yeah, I know, it's like 12, 500. Close to there. So I would imagine that that happens. But I also, you don't want to just rely on that. Plus, you know, it'll be an additional boost,

those extra points to have, you know, to have the crowd there. So, yeah, I'm a big fan of watching people develop and grow and expand and to watch these arenas where it really happens. Um, there were a ton of fans flying back to Omaha who were super Nova's fans. So yeah, like it, like it's starting like it's definitely like, oh, super nervous are on the plane. Like you don't have to explain like who, who are they?

No, no, people know people are paying attention. People are aware of it. People are being supportive. Uh, and then I know that social media responses have been, have been up. Uh, and that people are paying attention to it. So, um, it's pretty cool to watch. and pretty cool to kind of watch it move along.

So through all of that. And then, you know, not for nothing, but tomorrow is the NFL draft. And not for nothing, but you're in the middle of the NHL and NBA playoffs. And not for nothing, but you're in the big drive for Big Ten softball. And you're in the drive for Big Ten softball.

You're in the drive for Big Ten baseball, and the Huskers need to write the ship and get it right and figure out how to just get over the edge and get it over the hump. Shout out to Georgetown baseball. They're coming to Creighton and Coach Edmund Thompson. Of course, he's friends and family. It's Barry Thompson's brother,

is the head coach for Georgetown. And he's like, yeah, I'm going to be in Creighton. I'm like, well, I'm doing a volleyball game at 830. but you know you're there all weekend so you know spring game well okay but they play at night Saturday so there's no conflict so it would be able to pop up to Omaha pop to Omaha and watch the Hoyas and then Sunday probably as well at least make a bid we'll see what happens with that so there's lots going on I let me ask you if the name Roman Gabriel means anything to you.

Roman Gabriel. Okay. So Roman Gabriel in the 60s and 70s, uh, in there was a year in the NFL where Roman Gabriel was the best quarterback in the league in the NFL. And Gabriel played for the Rams and he played for the Philibald Philadelphia Eagles, but Roman Gabriel, he put a big yardage in a time where not everybody

put up a ton, but he led the NFL in passing. I want to say it was 69, somewhere between 69 and 73. He led the NFL, I don't have the stats in front of me, but he led the NFL in passing. And the thing about it to me was, again, in that era of football, I mean, Sonny Jurgensen led a long stretch of leading the league in passing, Johnny United is before him. John Hedle had a run. I'm trying to run through my mind of who was slinging the ball around pretty well in the course of those in the course of those years. Jim Hart from the St. Louis Cardinals. And it's weird, it's weird that that,

that was kind of my birth as a, as a football fan. And so I remember, like there weren't 32 teams. There were 24, I want to believe. And it was a clean split between the AFL and the NFL. And as a matter of fact, they didn't really want to give the AFL credit because the AFL was to throw it around league.

They were the pass at league, right? NBA, NBA, all over again. Right, right? Like you went through it. East Coast, West Coast, you go through it. Same for baseball. And one of these one-on-ones, I'm going to go back and take you back

through the expansion of baseball, major league baseball, to going out west because you have to remember. Everything was pocketed in the east, in the northeast. And that's probably fair for like every pro league at that time. That, that,

core of it for for the NBA was the northeast and for baseball the same because you then you would you'd have a a Milwaukee pop-up right via Atlanta there was nothing in Florida there's nothing south of that right and then the expansion of them deciding to go when the Dodgers moved to L.A. but then realizing that oh we don't have a rival like we don't have any out here. We don't have anybody out here. And if you really want, there's a really cool documentary that talks about Chavez Ravine, the Dodger Stadium, and the process of the Dodgers moving from Brooklyn to L.A.

And them trying to figure out where to put the stadium. Right. And for those that have never been to Chavez Ravine, when it's a Ravis, it's a Ravit. Like, it's really in, you are in, I mean, you pull up to the stadium. to, in the main parking lot of stadium, you're at the top of stadium. They put the stadium into a space that wasn't necessarily natural. Same for candlestick. It's outside of a mountain, bro.

You like living. But for football, it was, it was the, the Northeast, the NFL and the NFL, the NFL was the grinded, I mean, matter of fact, the Baltimore coats was, Baltimore were still in the NFL before they moved over. it was interesting times to watch the afl darrell monica lind dawson i'm trying to name the afl quarterbacks well john hale for the chargers uh let me call my dad hill right but that's that's like for all the old heads out there you think about um you know that even uh the black quarterback for denver like that's a thing that

happen, a receiver who ended up playing quarterback, that if you went around that time, Houston Oilers with George Blanda playing the Orlers, they had a couple of guys for Houston, back when they were the Dallas Texans before they were the Cowboys, they were the Dallas Texans. And it was really kind of cool to watch because NFL played early. So all the early time slots was the NFL. and then, and that was all CBS. And then afternoon would happen and everybody would flip over to NBC, whatever the channel was,

because the AFL was playing. And the NFL was Tom Brookshire and Pat Summer. The AFL was Al Diorgatis or Kyle wrote. And it evolved over time where it ended up being like Merlin, Olson was the dude guy but then as he retired and he went to acting so imagine that you would go there's a TV show of Merlin Olson that came on right after the AFL. So Rogers almost pulled off. Was it Price is right?

He was thinking about it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Like it's pretty cool. But Roman Gabriel for the for the Rams and they battled John Brody and the 49ers. They battled the Atlanta Falcons as much as they could. and they had, you know, Ken Reeves who competed Spurrier.

Atlanta tried everything to get somebody who could throw at the level of everybody else in the league. Craig Morton and the Cowboys before Stalback took over, the Giants, and, you know, they ran their version of it. The Eagles had different quarterbacks come in and come and go. But Roman Gabriel led the league. He was the all pro, the all NFL. Four times made the Pro Bowl. When I went to Carolina to work with the Panthers,

Roman Gabriel was a retired coach, and he was around doing broadcast. And Roman Gabriel gave me more food for thought, outside of Joe Gibbs and the Redskins, Dom Capers, etc. But he was just giving the information because he would just tell the stories of how great players were, just so we knew in the back of your mind that it wasn't just the 80s and the 90s and the 2000s. Go back in time and remember the Harold Jackson, the great receivers, the Harold Carmichael's,

who was six foot seven and a half playing Y receiver back in the 70s. What? like you know and the and the battles of of six foot seven harold car michael against five foot five foot nine pat fisher from Nebraska who played for the red skids and they would play twice a year and the matchups would always end up in like a fist fight between the two of them because it was so hyped up that that one cost you two million dollars right right like it was a thing and back then you know you spit the blood and keep it moving, right? You know, it was that kind of deal. But back then, you kind of identified people who were different, right? And Roman Gabriel, like, that's a name. Like,

you know there's some meat and potatoes to it. There's a story behind it. And I never knew what that story was like I thought he was Italian or you know I thought he was Roman or something like I was like that's your name right makes make perfect sense to me but come to find out he was Filipino and Roman Gabriel is the only

Filipino NFL MVP yeah that would have been 1969 yeah and he had 2,549 yards yeah I mean and those were you know those are 12 game season so you know, you had to get it done in a short period of time against some defenders. And remember back then, it wasn't, hey, barely touched me past coverage.

They could grab you at the line of scrimmage and just tackle you if they want it. Like part, I think that part always gets forgot it. Like you didn't even go 20 years and it's way different. Listen, man, this is the thing. And I listened to Tyree Kill say that he would give Dion some work. And I went, bro, that tells me that you know what you're talking about. hey, you don't know what you're talking about because them dudes back then,

listen, Mel Bunt would have thrown Tyreek Hill into the third row. Like Tyreek Hill would have never gotten off the last group. You know why you didn't see a lot of small receivers back then? Because it was a physical game. Them corners and safeties were bullies, bro. Doing linebacker run a crossing route, they could close hang you while you were running the route

and just like, oops, my bad. Helmut pop off. Yep, keep playing. Yep, yep. I mean, it was a different time, but Roman Gabriel would tell the stories of, one, he would tell the stories of other great quarterbacks. And he would rattle off like these, the stats and the stories of the guys he played against. And he rattled off defensive schemes that he would face. And he would rattle off us down in distance and what they tried to do. Well, the football world lost Roman Gabriel today.

and I wanted to spend just a little time whispering to him because he whispered to me while he was here. Like he, and he had no reason to. Like I was this kid from D.C., you know, folks in Carolina didn't really know me that way. But Roman Gabriel heard me at an event and then came up and said,

you know what? You get it. That's awesome. Right? Like, oh, man. come on. There are certain people in my life that I can say that about in every sport. I'm pretty fortunate and pretty blessed.

And some people said, when I first got here, people said, well, you're a name dropper. No, with this microphone, it's a responsibility and blessing for me to call out the people who got me here. Fair. Right? And there's no way to say, listen, that if John Thompson will sit and feed you back, basketball IQ. If Joe Gibbs can talk to you about so much not football, I'm telling you, if there were 500 conversations with Joe Gibbs, 490 of them were not about X's and O's football. Joe Gibbs would tell you about family. He would tell you about his faith. He would tell you about

reading people. He would tell you about the value of community. He always talked NASCAR, even when he was the best coach in the NFL. So you knew, I'm not surprised he'd go in racing because that was like that's what he talked about. Jerry Sloan from the Utah Jazz and the Bulls. He was a farmer, man. There was a farmer, man. He would come like he'd come to basketball practice cowboy boots and a cowboy hat, a piece of straw in his mouth,

and he would just talk about life. Like if I asked him to break down the triangle, he would do that. But he, it was always stories about humanity. Jerry Sloan would tell you that he always recruited, he wanted to coach good people. And that was how you could identify a good coach who wanted to coach good people. There are coaches that want the rogues

and the thugs and the bullies. And he said, I don't need to do that. That's not who I am. Joe Gibbs wasn't John. That Georgetown basketball era that was elite, people called them thugs. No, that was the racist element. When you talk about a group of guys that bought into team basketball, right?

Like, we really worked to try to get people to play basketball the way John Thompson got that Hoyer team to play defense first. Get me as close to the basket as possible. Defend, hard, take your breaks on offense, but go 100 on defense, right? Like everything that every quality coach, blood and guts coach, all of them were about people. All the great people in sports who, like Don Capers, Don Capers walked into an expansion city. Charlotte had never had football before. That was a NASCAR town. Like that was a North Carolina Duke basketball town.

That was a pro wrestling town. and Don Capers came in and he brought in that old Pittsburgh Steeler mentality of play rough, play fair, play hard often. That was what it was. And he went in and he said, you know what? Give me a little bit of time. And it took him three years to get his team to the industry championship game. Three years, man. They were an expansion team in 94, 96.

They were playing Packers in Lambeau Field. Incredible. Like they beat the cowboy triplets in Charlotte in one of the best nights of my life. And there was, there were stars in that team, but there weren't stars on that team. The best player on that team was Kevin Green, right? Legitimate Hallfamer. Sam Mills. Like, they had stars at linebackers.

But you can't name their receivers. Like, even people who live in Carolina. They're running back. You, like you knew Tim Biaka Patuka, but he wasn't the guy. Willie Green was the guy. Like, they, they were, I mean, this was amazing. Carrie Collins was still a baby. He was a baby.

Wesley Walls, who should be in the, in the Hall of Fame as a tight end, we don't even talk about Wesley Walls. Wesley Walls was elite. You can't name any member of the offensive line, but they were all my best friends because I lived with the center. So I was around it. You can't name any of their front three, the three played in front of the four because they were role players.

They were all guys run stoppers, gap fillers, guys that sacrificed their stats so that those four linebackers could make place. And Dom Capers was that guy all along. It was, I've been blessed. And I, I use, I want to use this. And I,

it's fun, right, that in the NBA, the NFL, major league baseball, right, that guys like Johnny Holliday, Brooks Robinson,

Jim Palmer, Jim Palmer, when I was in Salt Lake City, he came into the station. And Jim Palmer was scheduled to do 20 minutes and then leave. Right? And I'm, I'm giddy.

Like, I'm giddy. It's Jim Palmer. Yeah. And when we talk about great pitchers, you never hear Jim Palmer's name being mentioned, but let me tell you, Jim Palmer was a dude.

Palmer came in, sat in the studio, and it's kind of what I want this to be, right? That no matter if somebody's in town, just to walk in and that you can adapt and have the conversation with him. And I remember the jazz were on the road, and so Ron Boone wasn't there, another great legend that I got to spend,

like the Iron Man of the NBA. So before the most consecutive game street, before A.C. Green was Ron Boone. You know, it's Ron Boone's dad, right? And he's just that dude. But Jim Palmer comes in and so let's do 20 minutes. And Jim Palmer says to me, wait, how's your mom? And my jaw hit the table. Because he had met my mother at an event in D.C. some 15 years ago. And he goes, your mother was so sweet. That's incredible.

And you just went, what? He stayed the entire three hours. Just talking, I mean, we, like him, some of his best matchups,

him talking about the Dodgers World Series, Met's World Series, Reds World Series. Like, and I'm just consuming, right? Consuming, consuming consuming.

And then it I say all of that to say that the message was each of them told me a thing that was consistent. It's about the people. Sports is just the vehicle to watch people excel.

Like that's all it is. And so in how we talk about everything, whether it's the Huskers, whether it's the NBA, Major League Baseball, it's the people that wear the scarlet and cream that make all of this Huskers lore matter. The memories that are created because they were the people that they were.

And then you learn what they go through to be as great as they are because all of them have to go through some stuff. All of these student athletes that come to the ticket, they all go through some stuff. Like we get to see and hear when, they're having a tough week. And they may not share it on air, but we know. We know when it's, when something's leaning on them.

We know when they're struggling. And when people sit out in the stratosphere and just throw dirt at them because envy, jealousy, right, that, oh, well, you're an athlete. I didn't get to do, well, because you're not them. You didn't do the work. You did. You were not them. There's a reason why they, they do and you don't. Right. Every athlete that comes in here is elite. They're an elite academic. They're an elite athlete and they're elite and how they have to deal with things that the average student doesn't have to deal with. It's, if anyone's hung around for take a weeknight, you realize that pretty quick.

Yeah. It's not easy. It's my, but I said it before, but it's my least favorite argument I've ever heard is student athletes got to catered. You don't. That means you're not one. They're waking up, working out before class, then they go to class, then they got another workout. One of my eating, can't get fast food. I got to make sure I'm taking care of my body right.

Then I got to do film. I'm going to talk to my coaches. Then I got to be a leader because I can't just be acting like a hooligan out there because I have a name and I got to represent the university. It's a lot of pressure and a lot of work. And everybody now has access to you. Even harder. Right.

It's just tough. So shout out to those athletes and coaches. and the fans who recognize the people. It is the adage that I coached by and I live by. Never choose the game over the people. The game is just a vehicle for the people. And how you cheer for it, who you cheer for is a statement of what matters to you. And it's important.

And then Huskers have, look, if you're rooting for that rule, remember the person. if you're rooting for Fred Hoyberg, remember the person. Remember he goes home, he got a family, he got stuff to do, and then they're, Rhonda Ravel, remember that, Woolbolt, remember that. Like you go through, like Mark Manning, you go through and remember all of these athletes, all of these coaches,

these are exceptional people doing exceptional things. And if we get it right, we're just going to cheer. Like, we're just going to cheer. And when it doesn't go that way, the right way, you just go, you know, okay, okay. So to Roman Gabriel, to a lot of folks who share stories. Like, that's what this building is for. We get to share sports stories.

And these will be the stories. We can go back in time and pull those stories forward. David Turquide, Ron Brown, right? You got to get Turquhart back on just for my sense. Well, I mean, once once once, once. the supernovas are over, we'll fall back into a regular routine. And I can tell you for folks that want to be a part of it, yeah,

one-on-one's going to be a monster this summer. Because with Barry Thompson, Everick-Bray, Turquite, Mike Menor, Ron Brown, we're going to flow with a bunch, Mark, we're going to flow with a bunch of folks and keep it regular and keep it consistent. And we'll just sit and chop it up. And I'm looking forward to it. I'm really looking forward to it.

Absolutely. It should be a lot of fun. Be sure to hang around because we got more ahead here on Ticket Weeknights. And then Ticka Weeknights going forward, as D.P. said, it's only going to be a better and better product. And, you know, we're talking about the fans and how we got to support the university. Same thing to take a lot. We can't appreciate the support. And you guys only make the product even better here right here on 937 the ticket. With that being said, though, we'll go ahead and wrap up one on one with D.P. Don't go anywhere. We got Don't Punt hour up next with the morning, Pierce, as always. Thank you.