First Things First - Lakers win 9th straight, Jaxon Smith Njigba signs extension,Team USA wins Flag Football Classic

Episode Date: March 23, 2026

(0:00) Lakers win 9-straight, LeBron breaks most games played record, JSN signs record extension (26:13) Team USA dominates Fanatics Flag Football Classic (39:01) Kevin Durant passes Michael Jordan on scoring list (46:41) Is Luka Doncic the best player in the world? (01:04:50) March Madness Surprises, Disappointments (01:16:40) Jayson Tatum’s struggles concerning?  (01:21:47) No Cinderellas in March Madness left, Team USA wins Flag Football Classic (01:43:32) Is JSN the best receiver in football? (01:54:07) He Said We Said (02:02:15) What does Team USA’s win mean for the NFL? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Live from New York, it's a show that's buying more stock in the Yukon Huskies. This guy is the worst. But I'm still on Duke and everybody knows it. He's trying to have two teams. That's what I told it. You're painting it like you got two teams. And by the way, it's not like two teams that only could meet in the final. They could play Saturday.

And then he'll just go with the winner. I have. This is unbelievable. You guys ever heard, don't put all your eggs in one basket. That's the terrible sports TV advice. I also, if I said one word about Cohen Carr in Michigan State, no, I'm all in on Yukon. You just did say something. But I've been on Michigan.

Gianna, I've been on Michigan State for months. Let him win. Do you like Rick Petino? Not particularly. No, totally honest with you. Really? I do. I like defense.

Don't get me wrong. Defense wins championships. You can't just have a region. I got one team in this tournament. Houston. Yeah, me too. And I had the first. Okay.

So when they lose and I'm out here. with a bounty. It's fine. Of correctness. It's called the final four. Is it called Final Four? Is it called Final Four? Is it called Final One? Yeah, but you're picking two teams in the same region. And you get four. No, you get to pick four teams. And I have two, I have five teams. You can't have five teams for the final four.

And everybody knows I'm on due. You've had some strange. You've had some strange habits. This is a new low. JSN becomes the highest paid wide receiver in league history. What does this mean for the Seahawks and the rest of the NFL and who's the most happiest about this deal. Post-happia. Yeah, Puka.

Meanwhile, let the madness begin, let it begin. I don't know what that song and that is from. Nobody does that. I don't know what it's on. Who's the best team left in March madness? Purdue Boilermakers. Purdue's not bad. I liked the little point guard, Braden.

Most assists ever. Most assists. And he broke one of Gottlieb's records. Did he? Yeah. Most assists in a conference tournament. Yeah. Don't hate on Gottlie.

He was a nice assist. Great college. And finally, Kevin Durant passes Michael Jordan for all-time points. What does this mean for Durant? What does it mean for Michael Jordan? Who got another win at NASCAR? How many wins is that now? Brew.

Nick's aiding this. He has more win. Nick is aiding that he's winning on the NASCAR all-time wins list than the NBA scoring list. He might be. He might be. He must left and right. Brew, can you ask Michael Jordan, just be like, listen, we just want to talk NASCAR and we'll sneak a few. And tell him he can.

He's hard to get on. He's hard to get on the air. If he gets one more win. If he gets one more win. He's enjoying the wins. I will say that. How about this? I got it.

Hey, Michael, I bet you won't come on. Boom. Now he's going to do it. We start in Orlando yet another win by the Lake Show. This time it's Luke Kinnard. A lot of people saying he went Luke clear. No. What are talking about?

No. His name is Luke. Come on, God. Guys? Nuclear Junior? Yeah. How's that? Luke at 33, not totally nuclear, but adjacent.

Here's LeBron. This guy's name is Luke. Once we had the movement going to my job is to try to, you know, make a hard dive at the rim and hopefully I can, you know, take my grass. So hopefully my move to the rim can pull gravity towards it. And it did. And it did. A couple guys went with me and they left Luke wide open. One of the best shooters in the NBA.

So, you know, just try to do my job. do my job. When I turn and saw who the ball was in his hands on a wide open three. I pretty much knew it was cash. Has this winning streak now at nine changed how you view the Lakers? I have an announcement. Excellent. The last time I had one of these announcements, I said, right before Tatum came back and I said I'm picking Boston to win the championship. Oh, this is going to be grand.

That is unchanged. This is a different type of announcement. Okay. I have been classifying the NBA as OKC, the Spurs, and Boston in this top definitive contender tier. And then whatever the next group of teams was during this winning streak, I said the Lakers have to be atop that next group. Yes. That is no longer how I feel the tier should be. I think OKC, even though they're not my pick because of the different patterns,

and all those things. OKC is the favorite by themselves. For the title. For the title. No, no, no, no. The favorite by themselves for the title, even if the time I pick. And right beneath them are the Spurs,

the Celtics, and the Lakers. The Lakers can look eye to eye with Boston, and I believe, I don't know, brew might not, can look eye to eye with the Spurs, and everyone else in the league, the other 26 teams are looking up at the United States. So it's Denver you kicked out of that group? Oh, they moved the Lakers up.

I moved the Spurs, the Thunder into their own thing, and I moved the Lakers into the Spurs and the Celtics. Wow. So the Thunder here, Lakers, Spurs, Celtics, not left to right, even imaginarily, is to me your true top flight contenders. They're jelling. I believe, and we're going to argue more about this later, that they're going to have the best player on the court. in just about any series they play and maybe any series they play to go along with the guy who I believe is the best leader in the history of the league. You have all that and credit words do.

Some of this clutch stuff and those plays and the fact that the Lakers at the end of that game, brew, got two wide open looks. One for LeBron where he got fouled, one for Knard, a coach that is drawing some stuff up and getting guys to buy in. Credit to JJ. they don't blow leads, they dominate close games, they're unbeatable if their lead going into the fourth quarter. I think that they are a legitimate front line contender

and eye to eye with the spurs and the Celtics. What I would say to that, though, is if they can beat San Antonio and Boston, or they can beat OKC? Oh, I think they can. I'm just saying I don't think OKC should be in its own tier. Okay. If you want to put those four all together, And I still have the three, Boston, not as much Boston, but OKC and San Antonio, I think, are the best teams in the West.

I would put the Lakers a definitive three right now. Although, look, I think if they get Houston, they're going to beat them in five or six. I think Denver could be a toss-up. I might pick the Lakers, but I think Denver could beat them. And Minnesota would be interesting. And obviously right now they're playing without Ants, so it's hard to judge them. But I think they could play with the Lakers too. But I think the Lakers right now are the third best team.

On a micro level, let me say this first. Last night, I know they were overjoyed to see Luke Karnar hit that shot. One, he played a great game, 13 points for him. He was three for four from three. And he had hit the game winning three-pointer, of course. But he had scored 11 points in his previous five games. He had shot three for 12 from three in his previous five games. He's the best three-point shooter in the league by percentage.

He's almost 49% from three for the season. So if they can get him being consistent, I get it. Sometimes it can be tough for a shooter off the bench because your minutes are a little limited. And he tends to only want to shoot when he's truly open. Yeah. Like that's why he doesn't shoot enough. Right. But he should get with Luca and LeBron and Reese.

on the floor, I mean, he may not be out there with all those, but they got enough guys drawing double teams that he should be able to get open looks. If he can get hot, Nick, and stay hot, stay consistent. That's a whole other little weapon or level that they have. But look, Luca's been phenomenal. LeBron is obviously playing smart, but what he's doing is he's reading what they need. So the three previous games, Austin Reeves was struggling,

shooting like 35-ish percent average 15 points. LeBron averaged 22 points had the 30-point game. Yesterday or against Orlando this weekend. Austin got hot. Shot 50 percent, scored 26 points. LeBron only scored 12, was it? Yeah. So he's reading what they need him to do.

And look, if he doesn't have to give it all up on offense, he had three steals in this game. So he's got a little more energy for D.E. defense and to run the floor. So he's being smart and then you mentioned it, Reddick. Great out of time out, after timeout plays. And also defensively, like, I got to give him credit for their improvement defensively. I kind of challenged him a few weeks ago. Look, this is on you to fix it. He's done that because he's kind of keeping the offense off balance. Like sometimes he'll throw a little zone, a little matchup zone on there. He'll double. We saw

that against Houston. Like, he's really throwing different looks at the offense, and that's keeping them a little bit off balance. And that's been good for their deal. So do you think that's sustainable? First 62 games, they were 37, 25, 22nd best defense. Not a ton of personnel changes. In fact, we did a few segments saying that we thought Polinka should have been more aggressive

to help the defense. But last nine games during the win streak, they've got the ninth best defense. is it you're not my words not yours gimmicky where it's just like wow jj is just throwing a lot of stuff at us and confusing us and eventually people will have counters to that well they're going to have to be a bit gimmicky to use your word because they they can't just line up and have five athletic guys to defend you like i said defense is heart its technique is communication yeah want to you i mean yeah seriously and and communicating and your technique being in the right place and then him throwing the different looks out there.

I wonder if it translates to the playoffs. So here's what I would say are personnel changes. I think by his own account, going from a non-locked-in to locked-in DeAndre Aiton helps your defense. Yeah. Even though he's not a great defensive player. Sometimes he's really good. But he has been the fact that he seems more bought in helps.

That's true. They have leaned on Marcus Smart more, who has been excellent. and LeBron's role has changed. You know what I mean? So all of that, I think, it helps it to where, again, can they be the 15th best defense like over? So because, and here's the thing, because while the Lakers have been red hot,

you know, the Spurs have won 20 of their last 22. OKC has won 15 of their last 17. The Lakers have won 12 of their last 13. Here's where, you know, their ranks across a lot of categories in that stretch. The second best record, the best or third best offensive rating. Like that is a championship caliber team. And then there is this factor, brew.

And I was alluding to it earlier, which is here are the things they're best in the league at over the entirety of the season. And shout out to Wimby or Wimby, Wendy, who pointed out the 14 plus point. I heard Wendy say it. Josh looked it up. So I stole that stat from Wendy's podcast. But so if it's close, they win. If it's close late, they win. If they're leading by any margin going into the fourth, they win.

And in a league brew where you say, always say no lead is safe these days. If they get up big on you, that's interesting. They win. Yeah. And so there's just a lot of different ways that it. Those are, that's a weird combination, isn't it? That like, but they're not, if they lead by far, I'd like to see. They don't turn a lot of those 14 plus points.

14 plus point leads into 14 plus point wins. Yeah, but they turn them all into wins. They don't, they don't take a big lead early and then run away and hide. No. Like some teams, but they haven't blown again. The 14 plus seems like a ridiculous thing, but 30 and 0, it's 30 and oh. I heard Wendy mention it and I thought it was interesting. Yeah, so.

But their margin of victory is not. Well, the thing that hurts them there, I think is more so than any of the other best teams. They get blown out a case. It hasn't happened lately, but they, they get blown out more often than I think the other best teams in the league. Interesting. All right. LeBron also breaks the record for most games ever played. Robert Parrish, the previous record holder, had this to say to Rob Perez.

Shout out to Rob. Take a listen. I'm happy for you. And I'm proud too. Because no player is better deserving to break that Iron Man record that 100, that's one. 1,611 games played record than LeBron. He deserves, in my opinion. So hell yes.

That is great. It's great to see him so excited. Some people are like, I got a hold on. That's great. Your reaction to LeBron breaking the record. Look, there's a lot of things you could say about his durability and all of that. But what this record speaks to me and says loudly is his love for the game. like what is driving him to work this hard where he still can be as effective as he is at this late stage or even the play

I have met players and covered players who after they got their first max deal relaxed and didn't really work to improve he's got made more than a half a billion dollars playing in NBA he's done things broken records that no one you know no one in the history the league is done. And yet I was reading when they played Miami a few days ago, he was the first to the arena to show up and get ready and work out. And so his love for the game, I think that's what this record speaks to. And that's why he's been able to play so long at such an effective level. And so I think that that's what this record really means to me is how much LeBron genuinely loves playing basketball.

And I, listen, I think, I understand that because he breaks all these records and everything's, you know, every few weeks it seems like we do some type of segment like this, that not naming names here, but some folks could start the season saying, I'm making a commitment. I'm going to savor every moment of LeBron. I'm going to take my sons to a game so they can see it. And I did. And then by the time we get here on the call, he's like, boring. No, we just, we get to chance. We didn't stop the game for most field goals. But here's, listen, here's what I think is noteworthy.

He now has, just like he has unimpeachable, best teenager ever, he now has best 40-year-old, 40-plus-year-old ever. He averaged 31 a game at 21, and averages 21 a game at 41, which is those things. And I know people talk about completely. or longevity records, there is a different flavor to it when you're still an excellent player. This doesn't feel like a, I mean, by definition, this is a compiling record. But he doesn't feel like he's in that stage of his career. That's the point that I, right. That's exactly the point I was trying to make.

Because so all the other five, the top five all time in games played, their final season, now this probably isn't LeBron's final season, but there's their minutes and their points, Again, shout out to Kareem for still. I think Kareem was. 42? Yeah, 41 his last championship. 43, I think, in his final year. But regardless, for still putting up double digits.

So I just wanted to throw this at you before he moved on. This is your 23. If he wanted to, do you think he could play 25 years of all-star level basketball? I know he didn't make the All-Star team as a rookie, but it was, you know, the, basically... I don't know if he'll... I mean, he may make the All-Star team just because he's LeBron. Yes, but I'm asking like... But I don't think...

I think there was an argument he wouldn't have earned it this year. Sure. Now, it was close. I mean, it was an argument. Next year, because here's the thing, whether he's with the Lakers next year, now if they keep playing like this, he stays on the Lakers. And this role, I think he could make an All-State. team, but he may not be with the Lakers next year.

And if wherever he goes, it's not going to be built around him. He's going to this same role he's playing with the Lakers, he's going to have to play that wherever he goes. And so in that role, I don't know if he'd be an all-star. I think that's arguable would he play at an all-star level in year 25 or even 24 next year? I mean, I think he could. I'd have to line it up like, all right, whose spot are you taking?

Like, are you taking Cooper Flagg Spot? Oh, you mean spot on the All-Star? would make it, like I said, because he's LeBron, I think. No, I know, but who's the first guy out? But I also... Yeah, no, this year there were arguable, I mean, Kauai, and there were a lot of other guys. I also, none of us

want this for LeBron's final chapter, but I am really interested intellectually on if his for his final year, if he did go to year 25, if he did like rust that year with the Wizards

type of situation where it's like, no, we're not actually a good team. The ball is going to be in your hand the whole time. Yeah. Like what type of... I don't think you can handle that work on. Okay, so that's what I was going to say. Do you think I mean...

Well, I don't think he would do what rusted with the Wizards average triple level. But I'm saying, we're saying his numbers would be depressed because he'd be on a role on a good team. Right. Like, LeBron on a... Like if he was 40 plus and went to the Wizards, you think he would light it? So year 25, him on the Wizards. Year 25, him on a bad team.

I think he, I think he could... Do I think he could average 25 a game in year 20? Yes. I think absolutely. I don't. I think the workload with, yeah, wizard's working. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I mean, maybe, I mean, maybe.

You know, I think, yeah, I think that'd be hard. Head out to Seattle where JSN got a ring and the richest contract in NFL wide receiver history. Four years, just shy of $169 million. Here's the list of highest paid wide receivers. JSN now number one, about $2 million more than Jamar and then Justin Jefferson with a deal, 35. CD, D.K. McHaf, and Garrett Wilson, rounding out the top one, two, three, four, five, six. Your reaction to this deal.

Look, I think this was smart by Seattle. People look at the numbers like, oh, my gosh, that doesn't kick in for what, two more years? So you spread it out over six. Yeah, in two years, that's going to look like a bargain. Maybe not two years, but in four years, it's going to look like. Well, we're two years removed from Garrett Wilson signing his. And Garrett looks like, oh, wow, he's only making it.

And he's better than Garrett. CD just signed, it feels like. And we're looking at that as a bargain. So the sooner you do it, if you got a young player who is great, high character guy, yes. Do it sooner rather than later because it's only going to go up the price. So I think this was smart on Seattle's part. So, yeah, I am less interested in this from Seattle's perspective and more what it means. for a bunch of different persons.

Because this is the obvious move. Like you draft the player, he's awesome, you win, he's eligible. Which, by the way, guys from his draft class who are eligible for, well, everyone from his draft class is eligible for an extension, but guys who we expect would be discussing them just in order that they were drafted, really. C.J. Stroud, who's probably going to have to wait. Will Anderson, who's going to become the highest paid defensive player in league.

history. Devon Weatherspoon, his teammate, who's probably going to become the highest paid corner. Bejohn, Jalen Carter, Christian Gonzalez. Your guy, your team's guys, Zay Flowers. Four guys on

the Lions. Jamir Gibbs, Sam LaPorter, Brian Branch, and Jack Campbell. Remember they had those four first and second round picks? All those guys have played well. And then there's Puka. which I think breaks his number.

So what is it at? I put 45. No, I think it'll be 43 on the nose. This was 42.8. I think it'll be 43 on the nose. Well, Jamar jumped too much. Pookas this year? The Pooka's same draft class.

So I just, okay, yeah. So here's the other thing. What it costs to trade for A.J. Brown, I think, just went up. Went up. What it costs to trade for him. Oh, sure. the contract is now a better value. Yeah.

You know, I think my team drafting a wide receiver at nine likelihood just went up. Because if top receivers, Patrick Mahomes makes 45. If the top receivers are making 43, then the value you get on tape, you know, if Carnell Tate's there. And I think getting a deal done with George Pickens just got that much harder. Interesting. I didn't think about that. You know, like, if George Pickens, like, okay, I don't have to be the highest paid. But should I, you know, 30 million is now a huge bargain.

Like the- But you can't, so you're going to pay CD and George Pickens to combine 604? No, I'm not, but I'm saying I think he's. Well, his franchise is going to, what, 28? I don't know what the wider series tag number is. That sounds right. Yeah, 20. So all those, like, those are the kind of ripple effects of a move we all kind of anticipated. I loved all those.

I had Pooka at 45. I don't know. I would just demand 45. I'm not signing for 40. I mean, look, if he demanded it, he might get it. But I also think they have a little bit of leverage on him in that because he was a fifth round pick. Like, Puka, you're really going to play out this year and then play out a franchise tag? Like, he hasn't made.

Right. He hasn't made any money. So, like, he, not that in general. But he had made a ton of money, but he at least was a first round pick and made, you know, 12, 14 million bucks. Puka's made like $2 million. All right. So you have a list of top QB wide receiver duos you want to fly? Oh, I do.

I forgot we were doing that. Yeah. We're up against it. All right. Yeah. Top quarterback wide receiver duos for us. See if you like this. Number five.

Golf and Almanorah St. Brown is number five on this list. And by the way, what you're going to notice, I don't know if we have a graphic for this or not, is maybe the best. you'll see the best of either category might be left out. Number four, Sam Darnold and JSN. I have them coming in at number four. Number three, Dack and Cid Eland. Number two, Burrow and Jamar Chase

and number one, Stafford and Puka. So I don't have... This checks out. Justin Jefferson might be the best receiver in football. He's not on there. No. Patrick Mahomes is the best quarterback and Josh Allen is his second.

best. They're not on there. What you know, and I'm sure you noticed this in looking at it, because I looked at it too. A lot of the best receivers and quarterbacks don't have like an elite compliment at the other position. You know what I mean? Like Lamar, Mahomes, Josh Allen, none of them are on that list. Josh Allen, DJ Moore doesn't to me. We have to see.

Let's see what I do this year. I look, I get, if you want to say Burroughs injured. A lot. But if you, yeah, I would have them won if you just take injury out and you're counting on Burrow playing 17 games. But do you think on that, do you think Pooka's like Chase is definitively better than Puka? They're different. Yeah, Pooka's awesome.

I mean, I like, I mean, they're both great. I like Chase. It's almost kind of what your personal preference is. If I was JSN, there's no argument that weren't me and Sam Darl. they're not number one. Number one in targets, number one in receptions, number one in receiving yards

or percentage. And percentage-wise, number one receiving. How could the Rams? The Rams got an argument. Stafford was MVP and Pooke. I don't know. If I'm JSN,

I'm like, I provide the most offense for my team. Like, we are the question. I know, but like the duo. Darno's not as good as Stafford. Right. Or Borough. If JSN,

and Chase are all. you know, within a couple percentage points of each other. With respect to defending Super Bowl champion, Sam Darnold, he's not as good as the other two quarterbacks. I thought you were going to say that they should be ahead of DAC and CD. Like that's a, I'm putting them ahead of everybody. I'm putting them at number one. Wow.

Well, they played a game and they won. They can't be number one everything because they played a game. In that graphic, it definitely is too one. They didn't play any of those guys. They played some. They played the Rams. They played the Rams. I put Drake and Stefan on there.

Chair the podcast. Wow, Gianna, this looks great. Podcast is doing great and we have original content. Those trivia things. Can I get in on the trivia? Let him in next week, but you have to run it unedited. But not nerd trivia. Not like, hey, you are studying this for 10 years of your life.

Well, you should have been outside. Now let's flex your muscles. No, like cool trivia. Okay? Like me and bro. Can't compete. Fanatic flight football this weekend. Team USA and my guy, Daryl Doucette, my guy,

cooked two teams of NFL superstars by a combined three-game score of 106 to 44. One game was a mercy rule. Team USA scored on every drive besides one kneel down. Brew, we had previously talked about NFL players playing in the Olympics. This first hit our radar when Daryl Doucette said he was better than Patrick Mahomes. And now he referenced that quote. after winning League MVP yesterday. Take a listen. I made some remarks back in 2023.

It was totally misconstrued and misunderstood. All I was speaking up was giving my brothers a fair chance to make 2028. We came out this weekend with that on our mind to say, hey, let's show these guys that we are talented, that we are flag football and not to be overlooked by anyone in the world. I was a run through a wall for my guy. I love that. Brew?

We kind of thought, or at least some people at this table, thought the NFL players would dominate, not me. Did these results change your mind about the 2028 Olympic squad? First of all, I get why he was so emotional. It looked like he was crying or whatever. Because, yeah, I mean, I thought, like I'm sure most people, including the NFL players who got pulverized. I'm sure they all thought, and I thought,

they were going to go out there and hand it to the flag football player. Yes. And instead, they got it handed to them. So shout out to Team USA and my man Doucette, who's from Louisiana, Creole from Louisiana, went to the same college. Xavier shout out as my family, my parents, where they met. So I don't, I won't take you. I will not take it from you.

I'll let you have him all. I got all tight. I supported him. The Doucette dip. I'm like, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, you're right, but also Brew. Listen, Brew had a take this weekend that Kyle Van Nu.

Everybody who's mad at Brew. So I want that take now. Because I think it's – I think it's – well, first of all, to answer the question. Yeah. No, we don't need the NFL players in the Olympics. Number one, we just don't need them, all right? The team is fantastic without them.

And two, why would I, as an NFL team, there's the injury risk? So I'm not going to want my players out there. It would be one thing if it was like a – redeem team or dream team situation where this was a huge sport and we felt like man we're getting beat all of a sudden we got to send but although we're sending our best all right we don't need the NFL players my now my take this week I just think I just think it doesn't look good I think this is like look I I I don't believe that the best dunkers by and large are in the NBA. And if you had a dunk contest where you just brought out random people for the flight team,

air flight team, all these guys that just dunk and put them up against the NBA's best and they embarrassed the NBA's players in a dunk contest, it would not look good. And so I just this, I just think it was, it was shocking. And I know people are trying to, you know, it's a different sport is football. And look, I'm not under the impression these guys could go play in the NFL. No, no, I'm not saying that. But it is a form of football. And I just think it's a tough look for our players to go out there and get beat down like that.

So here's why I don't think it's a tough look. Oh, because my big take, like this did change my mind on the Olympic team entirely. I think that team that won it with Doucette should go. And it also changed my mind on what the sport that they're playing in the Olympics should be called. Because if I were Roger Goodell, I would be talking to the people, the March Madness people that are filing all these copyright lawsuits against people who are tweeting out clips about intellectual property, be like, hey, who's your lawyer? Because I think the brand of football has a case here, because that ain't football, that's tag.

So I would, I think they should be our flag. tag team. Okay. Because DeBrews comp is almost, in my opinion, almost correct. Except it's not a dunk contest. It's Papa shot. And I don't think the NBA guys would win at Papa Shot. I think the best Papa Shot guys would.

And I think there is more... Pickleball has more in common with tennis than this has with football. This is... Watching this, it is tantamount to being like, hey, Rory, why didn't you do better in that Frisbee golf competition? golf is in the name. This ain't football. And so you were right, KW, that it is totally different.

Yeah. But it is, there is, it is, the skills that make you great at this are closer to parkour than they are to football. Here's what I, where I disagree with you. Look, obviously there's no tackling, which is a huge part of football. But I'm saying, Nick, all of those NFL players grew up playing football like that. Now, it wasn't flag probably, but it was two-hand touch or something like that. Like, again, I hear what you're saying.

I'm not saying these guys. They're clearly not better football players than the NFL guys. But it is a form of football. I think it's closer than you're saying. It ain't tag, which is why I think it wasn't a great look. Felt like tag with a ball. Well, the rules were open for everybody to see. Yeah, that's true.

It wasn't like surprise. We're changing the rules before the game. and you shouldn't have brought your helmets. Here's what my main take. Hard work beats talent when talent doesn't work hard. Our guy, the NFL players came in here with a ton of hubris and didn't, they didn't know the plays. Everybody was looking at their wristbands. My team doesn't have to look at their wristbands.

They're 13 years old. They didn't know the rules several times. Just penalties. We saw it in practice when Sequin was like, you can't jump. Like, no, it's like number one rule. There's another play when they were. playing defense. They're like, watch the rusher.

Like, it's a no run zone. You guys should know that. They didn't have the skills. They couldn't flag pull. They didn't have a game plan at all. Shout out to the coaching squad. You should have drawn something up. They did later on in the game.

And they didn't have the personnel. Here's Luke Keekely. God bless him. Great player. In the Hall of Fame already? I think this year got in, right? Getting absolutely cooked. Watch.

Watch. There's no way. There's just no way. He's in the table. They're set like that. Hey, guys in the Hall of Fame. And you were saying I didn't belong in the Olympics. I guess what?

I'm cooking all of Fame or not. Here's my counterpoint. Because Justin Jefferson said that he wanted to be in the Olympics. And I think he wasn't just, he had no hubris about it. He was like very serious about wanting to be in the Olympics. Wear a gold medal. Team USA was out there treating this 100% seriously. They had USA on their jerseys.

They were playing against a group of NFL players and some influencers who had Cain's restaurants, chicken fingers on their jerseys. Bit of a difference. One USA football with the flag. Another one, delicious chicken fingers. Bud Cros. I was like, someone got routed up. I'm like, ooh, who was that?

Jalen Rand? I couldn't quite see it. Like, there was Bud Crawford. Nice guy. Someone else got right up. Like, it's I Show Speed influencer. There was a play early on where Logan Paul, YouTube boxer.

Logan Paul decided to open up a Pokemon pack while Team USA was going for an extra point. So if I was Justin Jefferson, I'm like, hey, I want my fair shot. These guys were not taking it seriously. We've got guys open Pokemon packs up. We've got influencers. I still want my shot at an open tryout. I'm not willing to say that all NFL players didn't play. I don't need that.

Listen. Listen, I take what Doucette said to heart and how much it meant to him. And that this is, and maybe I went a little extreme calling it tag. But the point that I am trying to make is it is a totally different sport. Yes. Totally different. It's not totally different. Brew, the rules are different.

It's different, but it's a form of football. And again, it is different. I'm just saying it's not totally different. Bro had a pick six right away. It was a bad pass across the field that he shouldn't have made. Like it was plain as day. It's a form of football that all those football players, NFL ones, grew up playing to some degree.

I mean, not the same rules and all that stuff. But I guess what I'm saying is I'm fine with these guys. These guys to me this weekend did prove to me. I don't think that adding a Justin Jefferson makes them markedly better. because I what I thought was what I and listen credit to you I also am now wondering

why you're always picking me in Jeannie's brain about plays it's probably why your team has won the championship yet listen to you won the championship last year oh you didn't my apologies did you? Did you? Of course we did.

Oh I'm sorry my bad I got several raining changes but I it is such a drastically different sport and I thought the reason I thought one of the U.S. teams would win is I was like

Well, they'll obviously score every single time. One of the NFL teams, I mean. It's just like every time you just throw it to grunk, he stands there and catches it. But it is nothing like that. No, and no yak. Yeah, and no yak is a huge piece of it. So it's time for the rubber to meet the road.

D'Rourl Doucette was very upset because he caught a lot of criticism for saying that he was better than Patrick Mahomes at flag football. Did he say better? I believe that's what I believe that's what said everything up. Are you willing, and you were very upset about that? Yeah. Because, and we all thought it was extreme. Have you changed your mind on this?

Are you willing to say that Daryl Doucette is now better than Patrick Mahomes at flag? So I'm trying to find, see if I can, if the statute of limitations is gone, hold on. You know what? It's been a year. year. I think this is fair to say. Okay. I text Patrick when this first happened about I've never, it's been a year, I don't think he'll be mad. Um, and he said back then, I'm not doing flag. By then, I'll be 32 and I'm not scrambling around all day in July. So, I like that. I think that he, I think that I, Patrick, please don't be mad. I've never revealed any

private communications. I feel like it's and it was respect to those guys. So while people got mad at Doucette for what he said about Patrick, I think I can report Patrick was not mad at him and at least he won't be coming for his job. The team is fine

as it is. Obviously. We don't need one NFL player on the team. Maybe Justin Jefferson. I mean without due respect to friend of the show Justin Jefferson. I mean, there's the injury risk. So if I'm the Vikings, I don't want him playing in this Because you could easily pull something, you know.

Joe Burroughs. I'll tell you what. Joe Burrow was out there getting hit. I know. All right. Coming up next, we are talking about Kevin Durant passing Michael Jordan. Brady looked good. Brady looked great.

Honestly, he looked like he could go. He's ready to go. He's ready to go. Kevin Durant hits a corner three and passes Michael Jordan for fifth most points all time. 27 on the night. Rockets won in the last second. Here's Durant post game. It is pretty sweet to be in the same category with the greats.

I've been inspired by all of these players that I'm either coming close to or passing up. And MJ is in the world of his own. He's in the planet, a galaxy of his own, and somebody that I look up to in respect and who basically shaped the game for me. What's KD passing Jordan mean to you, bro? I mean, it's just testament to his greatness as far as one of the absolute best scores we've ever seen. All right. And he's going to, if he stays

healthy, he's like 1,400 behind Kobe roughly. He'll pass Kobe next season and get to number four. I don't know if he'll get any higher than that. Carl Malone's a few thousand ahead of him. But. But he's not slowing down. I mean, he's 26 and he's played. I mean, he could probably

drop 25 a game for a few more years. And he's been played more games this, like he's been healthy all year. He's played 67 games or something already. I think, I've got him as top 20 player of all time. Some people think that's high. He's that he's better, you know, maybe knocking on the door to top 10.

Nick, it's interesting and he did what he wanted to do. More power to him. His happiness is the most important thing. But had he stayed in Golden State, you've talked a lot about like playoff wins after that. He might have four, maybe five rings at this point. And then I think all, like Steph. being viewed as top 10 all time after he won that championship, that fourth championship. I think had Durant stayed there, that would be Durant.

Because Durant was generally viewed as the best player on that team. He was winning the finals MVP's. And people would have moved past the, oh, he went to a great team, you know, all that as time went on. And he would be that guy probably viewed his absolute top 10 had he stayed there. And I'll say this finally, Nick. I think Kevin Durant is the evolution of Dirk Novitsky. Dirk was like that first seven-footer who was primarily a perimeter player and who was so great at it that you didn't mind him not posting up,

not playing inside for the most part. Durant's the same way. I think better shooter than Dirk as far as three-pointers, like just percentage-wise, much more efficient than Dirk. And I think not to, I think Wimby's like the evolution of Duran. We're not going to see a ton of Wimmy. I'm just saying he's like the evolution of Durant because he's obviously taller, but he's another guy that plays so much on the perimeter and has those skills.

So Durant's a historic figure, and this is just testament to him. I was watching the Tennessee game last night. Gosh darn it. I forgot the kid's name. But the 610 super skinny freshman for them, who's the McDonald's All-American. I was watching him and I said I was watching with my daughter, my wife, and my wife's friend who went to Tennessee. I said, he plays like Durant.

And then the announcer said, like, within 10 seconds, he's like, when Rick Barnes was recruiting him, his big cell was this guy, his favorite player growing up was Durant. I'm like, well, of course. And there is, you want, he, there are more guys who I think modeled their game after Durant than probably Brown. Like guys, the tall, like the tall guys that wanted to like be, I want to be, I want to be. be a shooter. I want to be like the ultimate like stretch four, stretch five

guy. And it is funny when we talk about the best shooting big men ever. We basically have decided Kevin or ain't doesn't count because it would be unfair. Even though he's damn near, he is basically seven feet tall. He is obviously a better

shooter than all of the other guys we talk about is the best shooting big men, but we're like, yeah, but he's in his own category by himself. He's not usually you think of bigs that playing on the block some. And here's now your top six all time scoring list.

And one piece of this is going to stand out. Field goal attempts. So LeBron is the most points. He's taking the most shots. Kareem is second. Carmelon third. Kobe, fourth. Jordan 5th. Kevin Durant has gotten there on the 13th most shots. That's interesting.

Yep. And so he is, I think, brew going to be all-MBA this year. He is 26 and a half a game. He's eligible for it, which will be his 12th, okay? He already has 11

all-MBA teams, and by the way, zero third teams. So it's all first or second team. Probably be third team. Right, but he has 11 first or second team all-MBAs. If he makes an all-MBA team this year, the only guys in league history

with more will be Bron Kobe, Carl Malone, Duncan, Karim, and Shaq. That's it. He already has more than Magic, Bird, Wilt, Russell, Jordan, Oscar, or he will have more if he, I'm sorry,

if he gets one this year, he has the same or more than all those guys. And it does feel like a lot of Kevin Durant commentary, and I'm a part of it as well is where it hasn't gone right, where he's, you know what I mean, where he's lacking or why hasn't his team succeeded more at this portion of his career.

But it's undeniable how brilliant he is at the most important thing in basketball, which is scoring the ball. My biggest takeaway from this, and maybe it's because we were talking about Tatum and how he struggled yesterday with his Achilles' comeback, that when Durant first popped his Achilles in that playoff game, I thought his career was going to. going down a different path. And people would say, well, no, Dominique came back. I'm like, yeah, all right, Dominique.

But what about everybody else? And I think he has supplanted Dominique as the sort of poster child for what a post-Achilles career could look like. I think so, but the one difference is, and this is a credit to Durant. He took, I think Dominique people look at, yes, the production. Because he came back fast.

But he came back so quickly. Durant took his time coming back and almost twice as long as there was a little bit of the pandemic in there real quick and shout out to Jasmine Wimbish of CBSSports.com she did all the math on this Durant's average about 1,600

points the last eight seasons he's going to pass Kobe next year if he's continues. How high do you think he can go? I think he can get to third. I think can be Bron, Kareem,

Duran. I think that... It just depends on how long he plays. Yeah, but I mean, it doesn't... He would... He would...

Five thousand points. Three more years to pass Malone. I think he's going to play three more. I don't think Durant... He loves the game. Yeah. You know what?

And he's still great. Third most all time is... Third most all time be unbelievable. Yeah, good. Three best scores ever. Bron, Crane, KD. I was that. I mean, that's what the list would be.

I'm not saying the top three scores. I mean, that's the facts. It's just what it is. Live from New York, it's a show it's been on Duke for months, and everybody knows it. Yeah. And now, I'm feeling. No, I'm feeling it. You're clearly.

A lot of people don't like Duke, you know, and I feel that sometimes. But you also think Yukon's going to win. Well, we're not there yet, one game at a time for the Huskies, but. You're totally off of Duke. Here's the thing. Duke's going to lose to St. John's. No. St. John's, shout out to Troy, have an issue of scoring the basketball.

Yeah, but they have a great defense in one of the best coaches ever. But the scoring is tricky. It was a lot of air balls in that game. It was a rough watch. A lot of air balls. Second hour of first things first. Today, what was the surprise of the tournament? I have one.

Camboozers great. It's not really a surprise. Yeah, that's not the one of us. What are you talking about? I did try to turn. Ooh. Nice. Look at the boiler maker.

Little French pastry. That is a little. All friends with a little crumple cookie there. Meanwhile, well, Luca or Wemby look more like the MVP tonight in a story that we already floated out of the rundown. To me for the post show Instagram post. It's still an interesting idea. And we're kind of going to talk about it right here. Yeah, we'll address it.

Don't worry. We'll get so. I tell you you get tons of letters. Yeah. What happened to that tease? We're headed down to Orlando. So Luke Kennard's three sealed the Lakers ninth straight win. Luke had 33.

People have been saying he's gone lukelier during this win streak. They're right. Averaging 40 points. Actually went down a little bit. Yeah. Was that 41? 8 rebound, 7 assists, shooting 49%. That was up to 50 before.

60% in the fourth quarter overtime is insane. And he's been playing a ton of minutes too. Does Luca have a case for the best player in the world? Good for Bruce face. And it's just a case. You're not all right. Luke Legend. Yeah.

It's on the pro reference page. I came up with that. Yeah. Luke a legend? Yes. Yeah. Brew did come up with it on undisputed and he and it is on his basketball reference page. That all is true.

Okay, good. Here's what's also true. Brew asked for this question to be in the show just so he could rip me. Yeah. This is. I'm not going to rip you at all. Okay, all right. Maybe I could be wrong. I think, I think obviously he has a case.

I believe Nikola Yokic is the best player in the world, okay? So I am going to now make the case for Luca, even though I believe it's Joker, and I'm going to make the case for Luca against the guy that Brew believes is the best player in the world, which is Wimby, right? Because I'm not going to be able to, able to, I think it's a fair rebuttal to the, to if someone won't say Joker or Shea to be like, Luca hasn't won a championship. And I think for best player in the world, typically, that's a

prerequisite. And not always, I thought LeBron was the best player in the world well before he won a title. I think people thought Joker was the best player in the world before he won a title. Luke has at least been to the finals, but I understand some people that will just use that as like the big Joker Trump card. And it is because often, for an individual player simply matters more than defense for an individual player. And the NBA tells us that

every year, which is why you have your All-MBA team and your All-Defense team. You notice how there's no all-offense team? Because they're like, that's taken care of when we name the All-MBA team. We need a special carve-out for defense because

when we name the 15 best players, we're mostly talking about offense. Defense, matters. And when you look at the list of guys who have won MVP in league history, none of them are you like, man, that guy is an unbelievable defensive player and flat, bad on offense. But a lot of the MVP's are flat, bad on defense. They might try more than people think Lucas tried in the past. But I don't want to neg MVP's, but we've talked around him for it. Dirk Novitsky was not a good good defender. Steve Nash, not a good defender. Steph Curry, particularly in 2015 when he won it,

was not a good defender. Nikola Yokic, at least two of the years he won it, was not a good defender. James Harden, when he won it, was not a good defender. Yokic, I think, got better as a defender, but I thought, and so we have plenty of MVP's that were negative defenders. And I think Lucas, the gap between Luca and Wimby's offense is so massive. To me, it offset. the even bigger gap between Luke and Wimby's defense because I think individual offense matters more. And so let me just show the numbers that I give it to brew. Here are their numbers for their season offensively. So Luke averages almost 10 more points per game and almost triple the assists with the exact same effective field goal percentage. The reason I showed effective

field goal percentage is all that is it incorporates threes being worth more than two. So you're not penalized by being. Now both these guys shoot a bunch of three so it wouldn't matter as much. And so here is, Luca creates 20 more points per game than Wimby. Now, you can argue Wimby erases. Is it 20 more points per game than Luka? 20 is a big number. And so I just think, I think that there are 10 guys in the league group that are right now better offensive players than Wembe at a minimum.

And I think you'd probably, if I don't have to go through them now, I think you'd probably agree with that. So I just don't think Wimby can be right now the best player in the world. And so I think that's the case for Lipp. You brought up MVP's. That's different than best player in the world. That's true. Every one of those players except Yokic, who I think was better defensively

than Steph, Nash, and Dirk. Because of Yokic is the best or one of the best, defensive rebounders in the world. That's true. That's a part of defense. That's ending the possession. If you don't end the possession, no matter how good you played,

it doesn't matter, right? And so his sheer size also made him a good, a decent defender, where he's not a liability. Steph, Nash, Dirk, nobody, when they won their MVPs, nobody viewed them as the best player in the world.

So that's what we're talking about. We're not talking about, Can Luca be an MVP? Absolutely. Can he be the best player in the world? And if we go back, I'll just go back to Kareem. If you go back to Bill Russell or Wilt, they clearly were good defenders.

And Russell was astronomical. Kareem was the best player in the world. It was a very good defender. Magic and Bird. Bird, say what you want. You're going to be surprised by this. He made all defensive team three times. No, I think he was a better defender than Matt.

Magic. Magic led the league in steals two times. His first, like, five years, he was always above two steals again. One year he averaged three and a half steals. But that's not the. But that's still better than Luca. That's like you're not a, you might not be a great lockdown defender, but you are a decent defender.

Like, that's a head of Luca. Like, Luca's never going to be in. But I think, I don't think Magic was a good defender. But he was better, much better. And Magic, I've talked to him personally. Like, he wanted to be a good difference. Like, when guys gave him buckets, it bothered him. So he was not kind of like whatever the other guys will handle that,

kind of like Luca is at least a lot of the time. Every other, yeah, go ahead. Then everybody else, I mean, Jordan, obviously, Tim Duncan, Shaq, Kobe, LeBron. And then I mentioned Yokic and Janus, obviously. All of them have been. Not bad defenders. So I just think to be the best player in the world, you have to be. So I think there's an argument for SGA.

I think there's an argument for Yokic. I think there's an argument for Wembe. Luca is arguably the best offensive player. And I think certainly the scariest offensive player. because Yokic isn't as aggressive of a score. Like when Luke is at his best, he's probably the scariest score in the league. And I think Nick, there's very few offensive players, I think, have been better than them in history. Perimeter-wise, only one I think definitively, like Jordan.

Like, Luca, when he's got it going offensively, is something like Harley we've ever seen. But I can't say because of the other end, he's the best player. in the world. So by that best player in the world list you just gave, though, I think you would agree. Every single one of those guys when they were considered the best player in the world was way ahead of where Wimby is right now offensively. See, I think you're, I'm not saying he was equal to these guys. I mean. But I think you're giving short shrift to Wimby's offer.

Are you just looking at the numbers? Because he is a very, like you said about Luca being a best. better three-point shooter than SGA, even though its percentage is lower. Wimby is a very good three-point shooter. He's a better three-point shooter than his percentage says. There's nothing he can't do. And unlike most teams, and I get it if you want to say, well, I'm not talking about ifs or coulda. But the fact that he can play a style that allows his teammates to get theirs is big.

No, so but here, so it's not. A lot of our best players don't do. Luca doesn't do that. So, but I also, so this is where, this is where I do think the hypothetical parts of it are a little hard to argue against. Because what we're saying is Wimby plays a style that is best for the Spurs to win. And one of the reasons he is accelerated on the best player in the world timeline is because of the Spurs record.

Look at how good they are. They are real contenders. But if Wimby was more selfish, maybe then the Spurs record would be worse, but he would have more points. But then all of a sudden it's like, well, if their record is, They have the same record as the Lakers. And I also think that there is an element of the style he plays offensively, which also allows him, gives him even more ability to go all out defensively.

So he gets all credit for that. And then the hypothetical credit for what he could be doing offensively, but he's not. I'm not saying hypothetical. What can't Wimby do offensively? Consistently score 30 points. His team doesn't ask him to do that. Okay, but that's right. That doesn't mean he couldn't?

Consistently average half a dozen assists. He's 24 points and three assists. Right now, I think maybe you just. But you're only looking at numbers. He can handle the basketball. He can shoot the three, the mid-range, he can post up. So like, there's nothing. He's got moved.

He has the best skill set. But that's right now, I'll ask you, KW, if offense is the only thing that we're talking about here, I'm going to name players who I think are better than Wimby. And you tell me when I name one that you just offense. Just offense. I'm saying offense. Okay.

Luca. Joker. Yes. Shea. Ant. Cade Cunningham. Well, the Cade is interesting. No.

As far as like percentage of points, if Wemby had to play for the Pistons or if the Spurs played a piston style. So you think Wimby's a better offensive player than Cade? I'll take him out. He's far more efficient. But if it's like, hey, we need you to get buckets. All right, Devin Booker. You think you think. Not overall.

I mean, Booker gets buckets. You don't think Booker is a better offensive player than Wimby? No. Okay, well, then you're definitely, I mean, I think I was going to include Steph and Jason Tatum and Tyrese Halliburton. None of them, no. Are not better offensive players? Why?

Tyrese Halliburton? Yeah, I mean. Tyrese Halliburton? Is a better offensive player? Yes, of course. I don't, I don't know. I thought they're very similar. They're in systems.

I think you're just looking at numbers. I think that you are looking at a type of that. No, I'm not looking at that. You're just looking at numbers and saying, why are you saying Wimby, like what can't Wimby do? I can tell you what Halliburton can do. Consistently score 30 points. No, Halliburton can't do that.

Just because somebody scores 30 points doesn't necessarily mean they're a better offensive player than the guy that scores 24. What about efficiency? What about playing a style that Larry Byrd? never led the league in scoring. Larry Bird never averaged 30 points a game, yet he is clearly one of the best offensive players of all time.

I totally agree with that. Why? Because he never averaged 30. No, no, but he never consistently scored 30. Brew, I think that Larry Bird was also, and I think you agree with me, every year one of the best passers in the league. Yeah? Wimby is not one of the 30 best passers in the league.

So like Larry Bird was not a super eye volume score, but he was a higher volume than Wimby is currently at his peak. And he was a great passer. So like that's why you're saying he's a great offense because he was a great passer, Byrd? No, I'm saying his whole offense. My point is this, if you play a style. Yeah.

That allows your teammates to be the best version of themselves, that in and of itself is a strength. I think it's a weakness. Like, I think one of LeBron's weaknesses during his prime was that he played a style that didn't allow everybody else, like if they could really create some stuff, to be the best version of himself. I don't think Bosch could be the best version of himself with LeBron and Dwayne Wade. I don't think Kevin Love was the, because when you have one ball dominant guy, it limits other

guys, unless I'm just a catch-and-shoeat guy or a rebound. I think Luca does the same thing. LeBron has had to change his whole style of play to fit around Luca, and that was difficult to do. it took them a year to figure it out. So I'm saying Wimby plays a style that allows Stefan Kassel. Stiffin wouldn't be doing this with Luca? D.A. Fawkes wouldn't be doing this with Luca?

D'Aren Fox wouldn't be doing this with Luca? Oh, I'm sorry. How was Jalen Brunson with Luce? No, no, no. We had no idea Jailen Brunson had all this in here. I thought you were saying D. DeR and Fox wouldn't be doing this without Wimby. I agree with you.

With Luki, certainly wouldn't do it. That's all I'm saying. That's a strengthening of itself. that I can give you 24 points without having to dominate the ball. I agree. Tim Duncan never averaged higher than 25 points a game. He was a great offensive player. But Duncan was not on your list of best players alive.

He wasn't. No, he was at one point he was the best player in the league. I list to him. Okay, well, then I, okay, Duncan's the only guy who I think's offense is similar. When Duncan was winning those NBA. But you're just looking at number. Duncan was a great offensive player. Hold on.

You keep saying I'm just looking at numbers. I promise you I'm not. Well, your only answer is he can't consistently average 30? Hold on. Or score 30? I think you saying these guys who have the same efficiency as Wimby and average more points and more assists, your answer to Wimby being better is because you believe he is.

I'm not saying he's the best offensive player in the world. And I gave you an answer. I didn't say I just think he is. I said he plays a style that allows his teammates to get theirs offensively. That is an offensive strength. That was Magic Johnson's whole thing. I get Kareem his. I get worthy his.

I get Byron Scott his. But Wimby is not getting those guys theirs. Really? He's not playing a style. If he dominated the ball like Luca, they wouldn't be getting it. I agree, Brew, I agree that he obviously does not dominate the ball like Luca. but to compare a guy who averages three assists a game to magic style is I think unfair. Did I compare their styles or did I say they make their team, they allow their teammates to be their best version of the same?

And so the point that I am trying to make, Brew, that if you'll allow me, is I think you are, I'm not disagreeing with you on the things Wimby does well. you seem to be certain but if they want if they were like hey we need you to play a 30 point of game style he's ready to do that right now I'm not certain

I feel that way because to use one of your favorite phrases I watch the games if you watch the games I bet there are very few people that would say he couldn't average if not 30 close to 30 and what I'm saying is

I am for a guy who's yet to play in the playoffs and yet to do check any of those boxes, I need to see some proof of that on the court before I can call him the best player in the world when we are at a place where... Proof of... That he could. The player... That he could average 30? Is that a prerequisite for being the best player in the world,

averaging 30? I think having either some sustained playoff success or being a dominant offense, player has been a prerequisite for everybody else. Hey, if you're missing football, great news. We got your fix. United Football League returns with a new season of pro football on the spring. Got all those new rules, got concerts at halftime. UFL kickoff weekend starts Friday, 8 Eastern continues Saturday at 4 on Fox.

Birmingham Stallions just again running away with it. Quick March madness fast break. Iowa eliminates number one Florida, surprising upset. But was it the number one surprise? What was your number one surprise, Nick? Well, now I feel a little badly. Why? Because I just got a text from Star of First Things First Overtime.

You'll see in about 35 minutes, Danny Parkins. He said how much he loved that segment we just did, Brew and I yelling at each other, which we try not to do. And my biggest surprise of the weekend is that Danny was right about something. So I feel badly. You should. Oh, you should. That's my biggest surprise.

Because Danny did a monologue last week before the tournament about how Cinderella's dead. And about how because of NIL and the transfer portal, the age of the mid-major, you know, going on a run and the 14 seed making a run to the Sweet 16 or the 11 seed, 12 seed making a run to the final fours, we're not going to see it much anymore. And he's been exactly right. The two teams that weren't supposed to be there that are there are Texas and Iowa. Yeah. Two giant schools with huge budgets and huge programs. Nebraska doesn't have a history, but it's still Nebraska. And they were a top five seed in their...

They're not a mid-major. And I think he's exactly right in that somebody had an infographic today of the 16 starting lineups that are left. and in place of the players, it was the school they started at. And four of them were five different schools. Three of them didn't have a single player that started his college career at the school he's currently at. It doesn't exist really.

And so the mid-major team that gets a great class of high school kids, they grow together, and then you have three seniors, two juniors that go on a run. Those guys get plucked elsewhere. Now, maybe it will lead to great basketball these next two rounds, you know, where it's really the cream has risen to the top. But it has taken some of the, I don't, character out of the tournament the last couple of years, and Danny predicted it, and he was right.

No, that's a good point. Whenever he's right, it's a surprise. And I think the thing is it's good for those kids from the mid-majors that get to go to a bigger school, you know, because they've played well at the mid-major level, and then they get transferred to a big school. I know, but it's a little bit reminds me of, like, like baseball a little bit. Don't you dare.

Brew, keep going. He's about to rip the Royals. I'm not ripping the Royals. But there are some team, there's the halves and the half. So you're calling the Royals of mid-Mays. I didn't say anything about the Royals. They're not in the major leagues.

They're in the mid-Majal leagues. The Angels are like, thanks for bringing O'Tani over. We will now tell you. But, Bruce. But on that, you're saying it's good for him? Yes, in theory. But also, don't you think individually some of these guys, if they don't end up making the league,

would have been like, man, being at one school for four years and having like putting up numbers. Putting up numbers and also having a place that like, hey, that's where I went to college. You know what? You know what I prefer to have? What? A couple million bucks.

No, I understand. Yeah, go ahead. But go ahead. Darling from St. John's. Oh. The game winning layup, is it Dylan Darling? Yeah. The game winning lay, I don't know if we're going to show it or not.

Yeah, we are. Here's why it surprised me. Because he was 0 for 4, I believe, with four air balls going into that shot. And so for him to have the guts, and obviously he didn't shoot a jumper wisely, he went to the rack. And so that, look, I thought Kansas Nick had done a great job of eating up the clock. Now, I think

in hindsight, they would have wanted to eat up even more. They fouled a little quicker. Right. I thought that was actually. Those first two fouls, they fouled two quick. Way too fast. But it looked, but for the most part, it looked like, okay, this is going to go to overtime and he just straight beat him. And I think you said it earlier whilst.

St. John's, look, they hit 11 in that game, so that was good for them. But you want them to take a three, even though they hit a few. So they should have stopped Darling from getting to the hole. And if it came to forcing a three, so you live with that. You saw that Petino was calling a different play. And Darling said, run power, give me the ball. Give it to me.

And, I mean, to have the gumption to do that when you haven't made a shot all game, pretty good. Had it to a real. Dusty, do you want me to do this? Yes, do yours. Dusty's, Dusty. Do yours. Dusty's mad that we didn't talk about the boiler makers. He's ticked off.

He's fired up today. Yeah, he really is. We thought that A-Cuff scored a ton in the regular season, dynamic freshman. The fact that he has somehow over-delivered in his first two games was my most surprising performance. 36 points. It's the most in Arkansas history. That includes like the famous. Corliss Williamson, Nolan Richardson teams, never got 36?

Second most points for. freshman for a tournament, only Darren Fox had more with 39. Second freshman, back-to-back 20 and 5 games, the other, Chris Paul for Wake Forest. So he's really came in here, all eyes on him. Can he have a Carmelo-esque run as a freshman?

You have him ahead of Darren Peterson now in the draft? No, I do not. But, again, defense. I'm more of a defensive guy. A-Cuff. Not just, not just scoring. All right, moving forward. Vandy, Nebraska. Commodore's last second shot to win it.

This is in before it is out. Disappointing bounce. What was your number one disappointment of the tournament? That the referees do not understand that allowing the game to flow naturally is more important than stopping and seeing if you need to add two tents to the clock. So I have a lot on this.

And if you were watching the late game last night, Iowa upsetting Florida, Iowa hits a three with four and a half seconds left. Florida does not have any timeouts. They are down one. They're going to have to go. And the referee does this, stops it for two minutes to review if there needs to be 4.6, 4.8, or 5.0 on the clock. the idea that you are going to get a more true and fair result by getting the clock right, but giving both teams time to draw play,

gather themselves, talk about it, all of it, is just incorrect. I agree. You're just wrong. That is not we've got to get it right. That is using technology in the worst way imaginable. And so I just, listen, this is a cudgel of mine. I don't like replay in sports in general.

But in particular, when you are stopping it without the game being stopped otherwise. It's one thing, oh, someone's called time out. We're going to take a little extra time and look at this. I hate it. Now, I can't even say it didn't matter because I'm like, oh, it didn't matter because Florida missed. But maybe if they don't stop it, maybe Iowa's a little off and Florida goes and scores. Like, we don't know how that game would have ended. Just to open this up a little bit.

I view this as a cousin of sports gambling. That with sports gambling blowing up, if I'm the ref, I'm like, you're not going to be on me, yelling at me. It should have been an extra half second. I'm going to do my best. The reason I don't. The reason I don't is because this predates the legalization of gambling from a few years ago. Like the moment the

What's the phrase If you give somebody a hammer everything's a nail Yeah The moment Referees were given Added this was added to their tool belt They went to it They were like oh wait we got to

And so I just don't I just don't like that No I think that's fair Mine is quick AJ DeBonsa being eliminated He obviously played great 35 points 10 boards for BYU they lost in the first round

but it's disappointed because I wanted to see him play longer and so it's just he was unbelievable I will lean on another superstar this is glass half full glass half empty glass half full St. John's defense

is unbelievable they were great in the Big East tournament they were great all year turning ranks right now among the remaining teams 59 points is crazy you can't no assist and you can't make threes on them.

That being said, Kansas had 16 turnovers. They couldn't inbound the balls like it's junior varsity basketball. They're just throwing the ball out of bounds, just inbounds where it's super dramatic. Darren Peterson disappeared for a lot of this game. Again, and then maybe that's just a great defense from St. Johns. But it gives me pause when we talk about his future, like, man, you struggled against St. John's. The thunder.

But you still got him hit an ACA. Dust. Yeah, but I mean, St. John's a good defense. They're not the thunder. Dust. Can we just go to the next one very quickly just so we can get Wilde's answer? Because I'm very interested in it. Please, Dust.

He's going to charge the last thing. Arizona. The best team. Brew and I both say Houston. Brew and I both say Houston. Well, I'm saying Duke. Okay. Everyone is.

Slash Yukon? Yes, slash Yukon. See? How? Number one pick is. the number one, Duke Blue Devils, but also a little bit of Yukon. Yukon's got Michigan State. Duke, I'd be a fool.

I would be a fool. As you like to say, I owe the audience, honestly, on the mayor fair. And Blue Devils Nation and I, quickie marriage. Okay. But I have been on a Blue Devil. They haven't looked great in the tournament. They were down at half against Seattle. Yeah. They barely pulled it out.

This game was close until they pulled it out to TCS. Yukon, a little bit of a rougher pat. Well, UCLA, it wasn't great, but Carabana had 25 points. Talk about guys. You've been there four years. You should have just stuck with Yukon. I've been on Duke for months and everybody knows it.

Is this actually your answer, Duke slash Yukon slash Michigan State? No, not Michigan State. Although I have been on Michigan State for months and Cohen Carr and time is so. Everybody knows that. You just have that region. Yes, that whole region. You just want the East region.

Yes, if it was a roulette wheel, table, I'm just like taking that first third or whatever. Take the first 12th. Head to Boston where the Celtics hosted the wolves. Story of this game, Bruins, Bones and Achilles. Bones Highland had 23. Tatum was scoreless in the first half. Tatum said it was going to take some time. Obviously, he's coming back, take a listen.

I wanted to be perfect and, you know, know first team all the media jason like that but it's going to take time i didn't rush to rehab process i can't rush this um you know it's all going to work out okay is anyone worried about tatum no and i i think his um mindset is the exact right one what he said there is the exact right one i think it is going to i think it will be difficult but not impossible for him to keep what he said out loud in his head. I said that awkwardly, but you guys know, like to be able to not himself get self-conscious or like, you know, or feel like, man, this isn't going the way.

You knew it was going to take time whenever you came back. It's going to take even more time by coming back as early as you did. but the upside is maybe you help this team win the championship. And I know those numbers brew for the last two games are grizzly, but even if we expand it to his entire comeback, the shooting percentage has been bad.

Right. But he's averaging 19 points. Correct. He just hasn't been efficient and he hasn't been old Jason Tatum. I think that's fine. I think that it gives him this is the things,

the lumps he had to take. And we talked about. When he comes back, they probably will be worse for a few weeks. Now, their record has been fine. They're six and two. Right. So it hasn't shown up in wins and losses, really.

Losing to the Timberwolves without Ant is not great. But still, but this was the tax that the Celtics were going to have to pay to be their best selves in May and June, in my opinion. No, I agree. That's why you wouldn't have forced him back. But that's the blessing, or this is the blessing, of having him come back with a month and a half. left in the season. Yes. You work.

This was coming no matter what. There's no way he was going to step out there and not have his rhythm be a little bit off the speed of the game. You got to get used to. He's shooting 39% 29% from 3. 39 overall, 29% from 3. That's legs. Your jump shots off so your legs are getting fatigued

so it affects your jump shot. Now he's never been the most efficient guy. He's a career 46. percent shooter and he's missing some stuff at the rim. But he's always, as great as he is, he's always frustrated me a little bit because he'll miss some shots at the rim, right? And he's doing that now. But I just think this is something you work your way through.

And he won't be himself probably until next season. Back to the Jason Tatum, who's like first team all-NBA caliber player. But I think Nick, by the time the playoffs come, I think he'll be playing better. than he is now, and the Celtics will be better for it. So this is just something you work through. And look, overall Nick, I think he's playing very well for the, under the

circumstances, 19 points a game. Everybody can't, most guys can't go out there and score 19 points a game, even on inefficient shooting. That's right. So I don't think he's playing poorly at all. When I open up the worried folder in my mind,

I do have an index card now that says Jason Tatum. In what regard? about him? I'm worried because he is the opposite of Terry Rozier, where he's like, I'm the best player on the court and this ball is going up. He can get in his head a little bit. We've seen him go cold. He thinks a lot on the court.

We've seen him. You know, this dates back to him when we did detail and like, and he changed his game around Kobe's stuff. And in the finals, he was, he can. press a little of it. I think he can't, I think he's a very thoughtful guy. I also think he really cares deeply about his place like in Celtics history and those things. And so that, that's, that's why I said what I said. I don't think he wants to disappoint anyone and that's an extra weight, which is why he needs to remind himself of what he said right there, which is it's going to take time. We knew it. The question I have for you with 30 seconds left is you were

worried about him coming, if it was smart for him to come back at all. Do you, do you feel less, more the same worried? Because I would think maybe less because physically he's looked fine. He's just looked rusty. I'm probably the same. Okay. I'm not, although I am the editor of Hobble Watch, we cover all sorts

of from the toes up to the knees, the progress not always linear, right? So like some days are looking? What about HIP. No, I don't do that. Someone else. That's Hip Watch. Special Monday episode of First First Overtime. We're on every Monday. I know, but still special today. What does Cinderella's mean for the tournament. Danny predicted this and then said, I got an idea for A1 in the show.

How about my take? Yeah, I mean, I'm sorry. Everyone's talking tournament. Meanwhile, JSN got a brand new contract. What does this mean for the NFL? B1. And is he now the best wide receiver in football? The stats say yes. And finally, could the Vikings be adding another top wide receiver to team with Kyler Murray? Yes. It's DeAndre Hoppins. How can you not like this? I just, it's a great high. highlight. I look at all these highlights, empty stadium. Well, because that's last time Kyler was awesome. But he was awesome back then. He was awesome.

But we're starting with, oh, I'm sorry, Chris, we're sorry, Kevin Wilde, Danny Parkins, Nick Wright, no Cinderella's in the tournament. Yeah. Second straight year. Here's Arizona head coach Tommy Lloyd, take a listen. I think that that parody is great for the game, but things change.

And you know, I think once, you know, finances become part of it, you know, there's going to be a breaking point for some of the lesser programs that just don't have the finances. And I think that's just a obvious statement. Okay. Is this good or bad for the tournament, Danny? What was your take on this? It bums me out. Like, I loved, and still do love, but just it's different. It has to evolve. Like, I would say that the Thursday to Sunday of the tournament is just a really special thing. Like it's every year I look forward to it, have taken off work for it in the past. Like 64 teams down to 16 over four days, right? You have 48 basketball games. All these teams

get eliminated and it's great and it's unpredictable and we've taken some of the madness out of March Madness. And that doesn't mean it necessarily has to be worse, but I think this weekend it was. Like we just, because not only are we not getting Cinderella anymore, much like the rest of society where like the wealth inequality gap is growing, we're getting more blowouts. These games are not as competitive. And so, yes, I did the take on the Wednesday before the tournament about Cinderella, and that has come through.

Like the coach said, like not terribly hard to see this unintended consequence going when some of these Power 5 schools have guys making six figures riding on the bench, right? It's not a revolutionary thought. But just look at this tournament and how the mid-major is fared. We know that there's none alive right now. They won five games and lost by an average of 16 a game. Those are both the worst since, forget when NIL came in. That's the both the worst since the tournament expanded in 1985.

And then if you go back to the NIL era and take the 10 tournaments leading up to NIL, because that started the 2022 tournament. And then the five cents, the one that jumped out to me, there's the 20-point wins. You had 59 blowouts over 10 tournaments, and you've had 50 in the last five. So it's just not competitive anymore. And I think the tradeoff needs to be, instead of David and Goliath, we now get Goliath and Goliath. And, like, Duke Yukon needs to deliver. And if we get Arizona, Michigan, like, that game needs to.

Houston, Illinois should be an amazing Sweet 16 game. and that's just going to fundamentally change how I look at the tournament because the madness early is the thing that was like the one shining moment, Sister Gene Loyola, Florida Atlantic, like those special stories that we remember. And now it's going to feel more like pro basketball because it is. I mean, that's not a bad take. Thank you.

Now, obviously, you got a few outliers high point, you know, had a shot. Right, one win and then had a shot to get further. I think the ideal though was something like Siena and Duke that we really it was suspenseful and we're on the edge of our seas like oh my gosh Duke is about

to lose to freaking Sienna but Duke wins because as nice as it is to see a Kent State or Akron or something win and get to the Sweet 16 with all due respect I want the Blue Bloods in the final four or the elite

eight. Remember years ago I don't know, a decade or so ago, it was George Mason. Oh, yeah. It was 20 years ago. Butler, was it, all that final. It was great as they kept winning it. Oh, my gosh, all these, you know, Cinderella's and these mid-majures. But then, to me, the final four wasn't as exciting because you didn't have the blue blood.

You didn't have the guys you were going to necessarily see in the NBA at the top of the upcoming draft. And so we've always said, and Nick and I've talked about this and other people, The upsets are great for that first weekend. But when we get to the Sweet 16, Elite 8, Final 4, you want a majority of Blue Bloods. So if we get a Final 4 full of Blue Bloods, as we all have kind of predicted or even just top tier Division 1 programs, I think that can be more exciting than having one or two Cinderella's in there. I think it can lead to better games. But I don't know, you know, I'm parsing, excited.

versus quality. I do think the crazy, the team that you can just tell is a bunch of guys, none of whom can be pros, coming together as a group who's been together for a long time, upsetting the guys who are definitely going to be pros, is something special about this tournament. That's really the only place you get it in sports. It obviously doesn't happen in pro sports. college football doesn't really give you the opportunity for it.

And so flag football. But so KW, here's where I am internally conflicted. Because I, for my entire career, well before NIL, thought it was outrageous the way men's basketball and men's football players were not allowed to profit off what they were creating. when everyone else did. The non-REV sports, you know, profited via scholarships, obviously the administrators, obviously the coaches. I felt there was some very uncomfortable, if not intentional racial dynamics at play

at these majority black sports, these kids creating all this wealth and not being, it's like, well, you get room and board in the scholarship. And so I thought that was inherently unfair, and in a capitalistic society, it was outrageous. that this was something where capitalism was denied. With that said, I think in college basketball, not only has it made it feel less like college basketball,

but I also do wonder how many of these kids, 10 years from now, will have said, man, I wish I would have been at one place for four years, and that that was my college, experience and that I did have I had real, there was a kid that played for, I think, Kentucky who said he's like, yeah, you know,

this is probably my last game here, he had transferred. And it just felt like he at 17 years old, he was put on the mercenary track. Like, all right, who's paying the most? I guess that's where I'm going. And then the next year, that's where I'm, right, so that's, so that that's why I'm asking you. I don't begrudge

the kids that at all. And I, but I also feel badly if there's a kid that his whole life, he's like, man, I want to play for Michigan, but then feels at 17 years old an obligation to his family, like, well, Michigan's not offering me the most money, but, you know what?

And so like that, it's just a weird element, and when you see how many of these kids change school to school, that's the other reason the mid-majors are getting picked off, it's that because they're getting picked off, they can't have those three years to learn the old Princeton, like Princeton when they had the crazy upsets. Like, well, those guys have been running that damn backdoor cut for four years and you guys just came together.

That did take some of the character. That's what I specifically thought of that Princeton team of being together. Do you think, Danny, the antidote to this, because the toothpaste is out of the tube, maybe there's contracts and it feels even the answer is actually to become more like a profession. like, hey, you're signing a contract with, you know, Maryland for three years, so you're not bouncing all over the place. Do you think the antidote to this could be a, like, a Princeton-style offense? Like, look, like a little money ball style. Like, we can't play like Duke.

We don't have the size of Michigan. We are going to have to run something very unique and try to upset. Yeah, maybe. And that would be cool if it, like, innovated the sport in some way. And the coach at High Point was, like, we've been. ready to play all of you guys all year, but you're afraid to play us. And so, like, there's not as much incentive for the power schools to schedule those teams to even give them the shot to show that they belong. And so I think we're kind of like mind on this. It is a tough thing

to quantify, because of course they deserve it, but, like, it just felt a little less special. It felt a little bit like the sport had lost some of its soul. And it just felt like I was watching professional basketball, which is fine. I love professional basketball, and I love the tournament. But that part of it, I don't think, is the best version of college football or college basketball is to just be

a slightly worse played version of the NFL and the NBA. But don't you feel like that's what this was? So that, so that, I do think there is something to be said for learning, like seeing a team

lose a heartbreaker in the tournament, and even if you're not a diehard college basketball fan, the next year being like, those are the guys that lost, you know what I mean? That's something Those days are long, it's gone. That's something that I think, it's one of the reasons I thought the women's tournament

had started to gain so much steam and popularity was, like, that Angel and Caitlin rivalry was started from the previous year's tournament. And I know the oh, the Haley, Haley Van Lith.

I think she did change schools, but you remembered her from the previous year's tournament. Like, it's recurring characters that I understand the best freshman one and Duns. That's been gone for a long time.

But the mid-major teams were, it's like, oh, we knew those, the Butler team, Gordon Hayward was there for multiple years. And that stuff is, it does feel like that's, maybe I'm just an old man yelling on the cloud,

like a bygone era of the sport. Okay. That was a good conversation. Danny, you were right. I got one. Good call. Thanks. Head to the flag football field.

Team USA, my guy, Daryl Doucette, also bruised guy. Cook two teams of NFL superstars and some influencers by a combined three-game score of 106 to 44. Team USA scored on every single drive. They did have one kneel down. Here's Daryl Doucette post-game. Those guys that we competed against, they didn't know what they was getting themselves into. They just thought that they was going to come out and, you know, play. But I think that they were going to come out and, you know, play.

I think we gained a lot of respect from those guys. Of course, we are fans of those guys, and we love to just be in their presence. Not necessarily just speaking upon going to compete against them, but just being in their presence and them accepting us. This might be my favorite athlete in America. Danny, what was the biggest surprise from Team USA's dominance? I mean, I will say...

Did you expect it? Okay. I mean, but I also didn't think much about it. I was like, their quarterback's 5-7. Ours is Tom Brady. I kind of like our chances. You know what I mean? I love that the hours that you are identifying correctly is the NFL.

More with the NFL than Team USA. Not me. I was Team USA. Yeah. Obviously. But then you like watch it, whether you watched it live or went back and watched highlights or clips. It was like one team was clearly playing like they were playing for the gold medal.

And the other team had Logan Paul on. You're like, oh, maybe I should have... You know what I mean? Maybe I should have thought about it a little more about how big of a difference. And the NFL players don't really know the rules and guys are retired and guys are influencers and they're getting penalties. And it was just, it was clearly they were playing two different sports and one side was there for like money and to have fun and the other side was there to prove a point.

But also if you go into those press conferences, all the teams, USA coaches did say, like, listen, like, if they worked at this, they would be the best. Like, I have no doubt. I don't know that I agree with that. Yeah, but, yeah, but, I mean, listen, that's what the team, that's what the team, that's what the team USA. Oh, team USA flag. That's what the team USA said that. Team USA flag football people were like, listen, we have the edge now because we know all of the

rules we've been practicing, we've been playing. And the, these guys just dropped in. Like, we had Sean Payton on OT last week. He was coaching one of the teams, and he was like, yeah, you know, I've been looking at film on this for, like, the last five or six days. These guys have been playing it for years and years and years. So I absolutely believe that if for the 28 Olympics, they decided the best thing to grow flag football would be to have name guys attached to it. And they had to really practice and dedicate time like Team USA basketball does in the offseason, learn international rules, study, do camps, work out. I don't know that NFL teams would allow it.

But I absolutely... Just for the fun of it. Let's just for the fun of it for the exercise. I absolutely believe that Jaden Daniels and Justin Jefferson and Devin Witherspoon and those guys would be better than the team of USA flag football team. I no longer believe that. If they practiced and learned the rules and like a long period of time of practicing, maybe better. If they quit the...

No, you're not to quit the NFL. Well, the absent of that, then I don't agree with you. I thought that... the NFL guys were going to trounce these guys. And then I watched it and I learned something that I didn't know, which is flag football has almost nothing to do with real football. And that doesn't make it bad. That doesn't, it's not, but that is the, it is, and Brew got, I think,

annoyed to me when I said this earlier. That has more similarities to tag than to professional football. The skill sets, if you, Let me put it like this. I don't know that there is a professional tag league. There is. Okay. I feel very confident that the best team of professional tag players

would give Team USA Flag Football a better game than our NFL guys did. Because the skill sets are more. They might not even be able to catch. We're through. And here's the thing. as I feel like I learned watching this, being able to catch and throw are nice, but not all that important. It's a lot of tosses to the side, little flips, and then doing parkour on the football field. We can't jump. Well, you understand what I mean. It's evasive maneuvers. And so I just don't,

the skills that I thought would translate don't. It also, to me, was an odd reminder of what a critical element of everything involving the strategy of pro football that the line is. And the fact that removing both lines and line play How about the tackling? It's more to tackle because a lot of NFL

teams and even coming up they'll play seven on seven where it's limited line because here's where like I think you're just overstating. I agree with your sentiment overall but I think you're overstating it because a lot of and I've talked to even ex-NFL players who are like

yeah, my kid's not playing tackle until high school. But guess what he's going to grow up playing? Flag. So they think it's close enough to real football where they'll develop the skills, certainly as a skill player, develop the skills where once they become a ninth grader, they can play and be effective in tackle football. And these guys grew up. All those NFL players grew up playing two-hand touch to some degree.

We all did, right? And so I was just overall shocked by the fact that they got pumbled. I mean, and I don't, Danny, I'm like, I think the NFL players should just wash their hands of it. Now, as competitive as they are, even though they, you know, they had Logan Paul and some other guys that I show speed and all that. I got to believe as competitive as NFL players are that that boil their skin inside, like to be. getting embarrassed like that on national TV by flag football players. Like, I get it. It is two different sports.

No one in their right mind would say these guys are better football players than the NFL guys. But it's a form of football and they got it handed to them with top NFL coaches on the sidelines as well. And so I don't think, I think we should, NFL should wash its hand. They can be involved with flag football overall. but forget the Olympics. We don't need the NFL players, clearly. And so why risk the injury? Justin Jefferson going out there and twisting an ankle,

high ankle sprain, let alone a knee or whatever. Leave it alone. Leave it to Team USA. You can promote it NFL, but these guys don't need you. KW., can you ask you a question? Yeah. Because you're a resident play football expert. Yes.

Okay. Thank you. And when Bruce says, you know, they grew up playing two-hand touch, you know, even though playing tackle football for their team, playing it in the street and with their friends. Right. So two-hand touch that I played as a kid,

we tried to make it look like run plays, like or whatever, like the football we see on TV. The flag football you coach, are you guys running, like, what they're doing or like little kid version of the NFL? Because that's the distinct, like, the plays they're running of like so much. trickery and this and that. It was so different than what I expected. So right now, in the

evolution of flag football, there is no Little League, right? So Little League, if you go to Kalamazoo, Michigan, you go to San Diego, you go to Portland, Maine, Little League is on top of everything. The governing body, you mean? Everything is the same, and you can call up. There's a real commissioner, and everyone's playing the same. The fences are similar. What should we do? It's, you know, it's about to get dark and we're up by five runs, all that. Flag football right now, my kids have played in three different leagues with three different rules. Some are six. Greg's kids play five.

We play with linemen. Now we're playing this underarmored thing with another six. It's different. This is totally different and really leans into trichinery. Right. That's what I, that's the point. But you don't think that like if Kyle Shanahan was like, I'm going to spend six months coming up with the best? Yes, I do think in a fake world where the players and coaches quit the NFL and dedicated themselves to it.

But it wouldn't need to be Kyle Shanahan. It could be like, I don't know, if Andy Reid retires then wants to coach the Olympics. But I don't think Andy Reid has an advantage over our current champion coach. Who do you think the second best flag football team is in the world? Like Team Canada who's playing by that rules or the NFL team that just got smoked? No, the team USA's backups. Yeah, Team USA's backups and then their third string. and then someone from another country.

Here's what I asked you. People that are playing this silliness. If I said, Danny, you want NFL players in the Olympics. And I think NFL players want to be in the Olympics. And I think golfers like being in the Olympics and soccer players like being in the Olympics, even if the masters is bigger. The golfers aren't trying to play Frisbee golf. But going into it, Danny, if I said, hey, what would you need to see,

if I asked you this on Friday, what would you need to see this weekend to chase you off of that? That was pretty close to it. I mean, right? Yeah, I just, I just, I just, gee whiz, bro, I mean, yeah. No, I'm just, I, I, I, listen, I would, some of the highlights of what Jaden Daniels was being asked to do,

and Joe Burrow getting popped, I was like, I'm glad Caleb's not out there. Joe Burrow threw a pick six. Caleb would be awesome at it, dude. Of course he would be awesome. You could get yourself a championship, that'd be pretty space. That's, that's- That's- That's-

Tyler would be awesome. D-Hop's already there. Yeah. It was wild. Non-competitive. Thanks for hanging out with us on the OT. I got Willie Colon out here. Let's go to Seattle, home of the champs, where it pays to be the best player on a Super Bowl champion.

Jackson Smith and Jigba. Four years, Willie, paid $168.6 million. $1, highest paid wide receiver in NFL history. Obviously had an absolute monster of a season. His teammates are thrilled. You see Devin Witherspoon and Nick Iman Worry. you know, emojis, shouting them out on Instagram, as the kids are likely to do. So here's the thing.

I can't imagine you don't like it, but it's a record-setting contract. Do you like it for Seattle? I do like it. I like the fact that they're rewarding somebody who just won the officer player at a year, 24 years old. You know, they could have kicked this thing out of the road like the Cowboys would have done and botched the whole situation. Listen, that is a great point. But you know what I mean? Like this, they didn't do that.

We should not take it for granted. and that it was just done correctly. Correct. Right. And so I like the fact that, you know, one, they have a face of the offense, right? And now he's the engine that drives his offense. He had 119 catches. He almost had 118 yards receiving. So that was big 10 touchdowns with that.

But I like the fact that, you know, you talk about rewarding somebody who's a class act on and off the field, somebody that can grow with Sam Darnel. And when you have, and we've talked about this a little bit too, DP, they lost Clint Kubiak, right? They lost Kenneth Walker. You're coming. you're the Super Bowl champ. You now have a target on your back, right? And being a guy who went to a Super Bowl and also lost the Super Bowl, man, that turnaround

is tough because not everybody's dialed in. You need somebody to be that lead cab. Like, hey, man, if things don't go according to playing, I still have this guy right here that can get us over the hump. That's JSN. He's young. He's reliable. And I think right now, Seattle did it the right way and they rewarded a young man who

obviously is well deserving. Yeah, so he obviously deserves it. He's remarkable. And this is not to take away from Sam Darnold. But what I would say is JSN is a better receiver than Sam Darnold as a quarterback. Obviously, obviously everybody would agree with that, right? JSN 1, 2, 3 or 4 as a receiver.

No one would have Sam Darnold in your top four. And if you look at how Sam Darnold was able to be as productive as he was, we don't talk about Seattle as like, well, they got three great receivers and a tight end. And like, Donald throwing to JSN was where the offense was special. Correct. His numbers to the rest of the team, the right end account, those numbers are good. Like a passer rating of 96 is good.

Right. But it's not win a Super Bowl spectacular. A 1.5 to 1 touchdown interception ratio, it's fine. But to JSN, it's a 2.5 to 1 touchdown interception ratio. It's a pass rating of nearly 120. It's the best yards per pass of any quarterback receiver duo in the league. So when you can like show, this isn't like Jamar Chase. Is Jamar Chase as good as JSN? Maybe. It's an argument. It's an argument.

But when Jamar Chase has missed some time, everyone's like, well, T. Higgins is a true number one. And Joe Burroughs numbers are amazing throwing at T. Higgins. And they'll still score 30, right? And so JSN is so clearly the thing that makes Seattle's offense go and what makes Darnold able to elevate that there was no choice but to pay him. Would you say, because it's a, it's probably as deep of a wide receiver group. Right. At any time in NFL history, simply because more passing offenses. So there's more, there's more dogs that that position in we've seen around the league.

So would you say, because he's now the highest paid, would you say he's the best? To me, to me, number one is Pooker, right? Okay. If I was to say, top five, I'm saying Puka, I'm saying Justin Jefferson, Chase, JSM falls in that. I think number five will be Mike Evans, right? Oh, wow, okay. That's my top five. But, I mean, you know, so Citi, like there's a lot.

There's a lot of guys who are amazing. I also think you talk about his skill set, right? Like, he's a flawless route runner. who plays big. I don't like people, it was interesting, when you talk about a guy of his size, and I'm not comparing him to Antonio Brown,

because Antonio Brown was, to me, was just a different creature. But one skill set that Tonyo Brown had was he played big. I mean, AB was about 511, maybe that, right?

But he played like a 6-5 receiver. That's what I see in JSA. Like he's a cheat code when he's on the field. And because even though if you could bracket him, trap covers, whatever you can do, he looks like a cheat coat out there.

So that's why I fall in love with him. But to me, Puka is the most impactful of the five in my eyes. And it makes sense that you as an offensive lineman would love Puka because he feels like an offensive line. He's playing, play and receiver. He's just so unbelievably physical. I will, I try to grade this stuff on a curve. And it's like, I've seen JSN and Justin Jefferson.

Okay. Be elite, without elite quarterback play. Whereas Jammar Chase, he's got Joe Burrow. Puka, he's got Matt Stafford. Now, that does not mean that I don't think that Puka could be great with Sam Darnold or with her cousins or whoever. But I haven't seen it. And so, like, Jefferson and JSN being able to be as productive and dominant as they've been without having a top five quarterback or an MVP Galbra guy makes me the tie goes to the guy that has the worst quarterback in my own personal rankings. Part of me also feels like when you look at Justin Jefferson with all.

not having that continuous quarterback that guy that's going to be there year after year, you fall in love with the fact that he doesn't cry. Like, he's not a distraction. He's unbelievable. Yeah, he's a pro. Yeah, he's a citizen. Let's talk about another receiver who's had an unbelievable career,

but clearly is not in that conversation anymore. DeAndre Hopkins, you know, he's speaking highly of Kyler Murray, and he's kind of saying, you know what, maybe it would be a good idea if you're bringing him to Minnesota to bring me. Here is DeAndre Hopkins talking about his former teammate for a couple of years in Arizona. He's on a one-year deal from now.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, you know, man, whatever I can do, you know, for someone like that, you know, if Kyler needed me, he know if I don't need me, they know I'll be there. I think Kylofen ain't perfect there, man. I think Kyler is, shi-it, man, one of the best accurate quarterbacks in the game, and his stats showed up. Do you think it would be dangerous? A D' Andre Hopkins, Kyler-Murie, Reunion in Minnesota?

Am I wrong for saying no? No. Because I feel like... Well, Minnesota doesn't need a reunion to it. They need clarity, right? Do we do... In my eyes, we forget that Kyla Murray was benched for Jacoby Mosec.

We forget that he's been an injury prone quarterback that, yes, at his best, I think he's a top 10 quarterback, but we haven't seen Kyle Murray at its best. So your argument against this working is the Kyler Murray piece, not the DeAndre Hopkins. No, because I think D. Hop is D. I think, like, yeah, his best years are probably behind him.

I think he's a productive. receptive receiver. I don't think, you know, right now I would love to see him land on the charges or Miami or maybe with the Panthers. The Vikings have to figure out what are they getting out of Kyle Emerg? Can he fit in COC system? And by the way, they have weapons, right? They have Justin Jefferson and Addison. They have a run game. They have a tight. And so him being a possible number three, sure, it looks good because you get a savvy vet at that position. But I need to see Kyler play, be a quarterback at an efficient level to be a demanding, presence in the pocket and to be somebody they can rely on through all four quarters.

So it's not about, yeah, is his off script abilities and asset? Sure. But we need to see him be on time with the football, be a legit fit for KOC, and can he deliver for the Vikings for one year? Because like you just said, this is a one year audition, right? So it definitely is. So I looked at this more from the DeAndre Hopkins side of it because I'm guessing he's thinking, oh, I'm glad TMZ asked.

Because my guess is there's not a lot of people. for DeAndre Hopkins' services. Well, he had a rough year in Baltimore. You can find him on tape. Right, and he's had a couple of rough years. Like, why he could sell this to the Vikings? Look at what I did with Kyler Murray. So we went back and looked at what he did with Kyler Murray.

And it was really good when Kyler threw to DeAndre Hopkins. All of that is really impressive. The problem is, those little numbers at the top, 2020 to 2022. You know, in football years, that's in. eternity. We're coming up on 2026, 27 football season. So what has DeAndre Hopkins been? That was him with Kyler. But what has he been recently? Over two years, 78. Digest there, D.P. Over two years, 78 catches, seven touchdowns, three different teams. It's just, he's a name. And I loved DeAndre Hopkins. Some of the best hands I've ever seen.

Coming out of Clemson, that Deshawn Watson season in Houston where they had 5,000 yards together. Like he's a borderline Hall of Famer. But Father Time's undefeated. So I think that it would, it would serve DeAndre Hopkins for him to go to Minnesota. I don't know that it would serve Minnesota to bring in DeAndre. And I've said this on the show before.

Sometimes nostalgia can get you in trouble, right? Like that old thing sometimes was good when it was good. But now that you're older, you get into more injuries. You've been different situations. You may not be that guy. I remember you once was. So I think college college in the Vikings. should put pause on that, send D-Hop up the road.

Yeah, listen, there's no formal ties. Again, it's a TMZ report. But it was like, you know, it's an interesting thought, and he's a big name. Yep. But I do think, it's not like you need a veteran in Minnesota. No. You have Justin. They have more than enough.

Yeah, you have Justin Jefferson. So I would go, if I'm looking for a third wide receiver, it's like a skill set that complements Jefferson and Addison, a big body, a young guy who could be like an era parents there who could learn from him. I don't think you need to bring in D'Andre Hopkins. Well, I consumed a lot of the tournament this weekend, and frankly, there was a lot of blowouts. But the coaches are talking tough,

and we should be set up for an amazing Sweet 16. We get into it coming up on the OT. Time now for a little edition of He Said, We said the best sound from the NCAA tournament and our reaction. First up, St. John's head coach, Rick Petino, on the game-winning shot from Dylan Darling that shocked Kansas to advance the Johnny's to the Sweet 16.

So we're going to run a play, but they got fouls to give, and Bells comes up to me and says run power, which is a high back screen pick and roll. So I walk away, I said, okay, Powell, I walk away and said, wait a second, he hasn't scored a bucket and he wants to run a play for himself. And then I'm thinking as I'm walking, I said, but he's Bells. He is, I got to say, classic ending here, Willie. Yep. Not to focus on the negative. The media can be too negative. Where's the defense?

Is that what you're worried about? I'm doing, can he get. This kid was one for five from the field. He has the bells to tell Rick Petino, give me the ball. By the way, he earned the name Bells because he had a buzzer beater

against Xavier in the regular season from three. Nevertheless, man. I don't know. You turn your back on the ball handler? Come on now. This kid, nobody doing his kid's name. Like, this is March Madness folklore.

Like, he will, It was great. He will forever be remembered because of this shot. And you're worried about help defense. That's called being negative. Okay. I guess guilty is charged. Did you know who Dillard was?

I saw St. John's play in person this year, and I did not know about it. But I would just say, like, I don't. Guard him. There's not enough time. And Kansas executing the fouling strategy there, you had all those fouls, third foul, fourth foul, fifth foul, sixth foul to get to get to that spot. Started with just over 10 seconds. they still have the ball with 3.9 seconds. It should take you more than six seconds

to commit four fouls in that spot. So I know I'm focusing on the negative. You are. It was an amazing play by Darling. It was a good game. It was like St. Johns could have ran away with this. Kansas crawled back in. It got really tight at the end.

Their star players from the Johnny stood up. Zuba had a big, a couple big buckets late down in the game. I mean, it was kind of a blowout. I thought there were a lot of games that were better than it, frankly, but the ending of it was incredible. and I just, I feel like Kansas blew it.

Like Kansas blew the late game execution. Now again, St. John's made the play in Kansas, didn't. I understand that. So there's a story in the winning locker room and a story in the losing locker room. But Kansas, I mean, play a little defense. Execute your foul strategy better and you're in the Sweet 16. Well, they had to play defense to even get in that position. So they did something.

Yeah, they played poor defense. And then St. Johns ended up making the layup. Right. Next up, Yukon head coach, Dan Hurley. He's in the Sweet 16, but he's always. already talking about the Elite 8 and the rematch that he wants with the Johnny's. Take a listen. It'll be a live building.

I would only probably, it's probably a little bit early. But obviously, I think we've got to try to support each other. It's pretty brutal on Twitter, I think, and social between our fan bases. But I think we've got to kind of try to come together on Friday night against our opponents so that then we could have a bloodbath. So that is one of the fun things about going to. NCAA tournament games is that the crowd like so there'll be you know Duke fans will be there you con fans will be there Michigan State fans will be there and St. John's fans will be

there yes a metley of fans so you got four fan bases in one building so when the early game is happening who are the the fan bases of the other teams are they're usually rooting for the underdog so that their team would face the lesser team but does that mean that you know you con fans are going to root for St. John's, your hated rival. You should. Yeah, because you want to play St. John instead of Duke because that's an easier matchup. But it's going to, it does add an extra element to it. And Dan Hurley, looking ahead.

Yeah, I don't buy the whole looking ahead. You're talking about the elite eight. They lost the St. John's in the biggest championship. This is a robbery that I think is brewing, which is necessary for college basketball. Yeah. We fall in love with the one and dunes, the stars. It's good to feel like, all right, we got two teams who have some history, especially during the season, that say, you know what,

if I see them down the road, there's legit smoke. Like, we don't like each other. Like, it's good because I grew up, like you, North Carolina versus Duke, right? There's always these robberies that you say, but I'm staying up late to see this game. If that's the case, if, say John gets past Duke, if Yukline advances, like this feels like a juicy rib eye with peppercorn sauce, right? Like, you just want to sink your teeth into it.

So I'm all for it. I hope it happens. Well, listen, in the East region, there's no bad. I mean, you have Izzo, Shire, Hurley, and Petino. So obviously, that's powerhouse and great. And you're right. This would be the fourth matchup this year between Yukon and St. John's. First game was awesome.

St. John's beat a up. St. John's won in the Garden. Husky smacked them up at Hartfoot. Yeah. And St. John's didn't make a basket for like 17 minutes, 17 minutes without a field goal. Then at the Big East Tournament, final. St. John's got him back and blew about. So if we got Chapter 4, it would be great.

Lastly, Florida head coach Todd Golden. He had a shot to go back to back just like Billy Donovan, and then he lost to Iowa. Take a listen. Obviously, in the last play, we wanted to take a foul to prevent them from getting off a three, and they got away from us. We weren't able to take it, and they knocked it down.

So credit to them for that. And just a tough way to go out. But really proud of my group, I love these guys. They did a great job for us all year, gaining a second one seed in a row. And a tough one for us to swallow. And, you know, we'll be thinking about this one for a while. Fascinating foul spot here that they just blew.

Like they said they wanted to file and then you give up the wide open three in the corner. So that's just terrible execution of your coach's plan. And it's a pretty interesting debate there if you're going to file with that amount of time left. But also, Iowa is not Cinderella. Can't be. I'm making the rules right now. Texas. I think you're allowed to say that.

I'm making the rules. I don't care. I don't care. I don't care. Iowa, not Cinderella, Texas, not Cinderella. You can't be from the big 10 and be Cinderella. I know it's an upset. I know you're not upset.

Todd Gold is upset because he thought his ball club was tougher, especially late down the stress. But they allowed Iowa to hang around. Oh, no doubt about it. And Florida scored the ball. Addis Cardone had a big game. They had some guys that showed up for him. But I was just a tougher outfit.

Tougher outfit I got no problem with. So give him the slipper. No. I refuse. The slipper is too special. The slipper is a reserved, sacred thing that is special to. Call me a hater. I guess, I guess if they earn this one.

I'm not saying they didn't earn it. Don't part. Don't take away. They're not Cinderella. They earned it. Great game. Outplayed him. You want to say tougher?

Fine. But the big upsets based on seed can't be 11 seed Texas, the richest athletic department in the country and Iowa from the plucky upstart Big Ten. Like that's not Cinderella. It's something different. It's an upset. It's an unexpected. But it ain't Cinderella. Not in my tournament.

I don't mind your argument. There's some truth to that. But nevertheless, when you beat a big time opponent in Florida and the defending champs, the one seed. You go 12 rounds and you come out the end of it, like, put the crown on them. They can have a crown, throw the slipper on. No, no, no slipper. I like how you're holding the velvet rope on this. We live in a society.

We live in a society rules. We're talking to society now. Cinderella can't be a Big Ten school. I actually do make the rules on this one. Welcome back on the OT. Fanatics Flag Football Classic was this weekend. Team USA, not made up. up NFL players, went 3 and O and dominated your favorite football heroes.

Joe Burrow took the field for Team Wildcats and told the Cincinnati Inquirer about his dreams to be a part of the Olympics. I've always wanted to play in the Olympics. I've never necessarily played an Olympic sport before, so when this got announced, I was pretty excited. The opportunity to win a gold medal is something that I've thought about. I think it would be something very special. There's the problem, though, Willie. Yep.

He's not good enough. Based on what we saw this weekend, he's not good enough. I'm curious, you are a part of the NFL player alumni. You watched your fellow players. Brady, Grank, Hertz, Sequin. They're all out there. The guys we talk about every day. Every day.

Every week. And they got boat raced, not once, but a few times. It was tough, man. And listen, I understand wanting to go out there and say, why not? It's the offseason. Let's throw it around and see what happens. but this was tough to watch. One, from a standpoint, like, Joe Burrow being out there with his injury record,

if he would have got hurt in this game, like, I don't know how you, it would have been catastrophic, right? Especially in a flag football game. He took a couple hits. Right. I saw him spin around in this game, and I just, and I said, oh, my God. I was seriously worried about Joe Burrow getting hurt in this game. And on top of that, and once again, DP, you can please be my conscience in this.

Like, I just suspect our boys to be Alpha Delta Force elite, no matter what the playing field is or what's going on it. Like, I just expected our guys to have a different level of skill, have a different skill set. And they didn't raise, like, they didn't raise the floor. Well, I think, I think the number one takeaway is it's a different game. I get that, but like, there's no tackling. There's no blocking.

It's a different game. What I, what I am curious about is like, what's the objective? Is the objective just at all costs win the gold medal in flag football in 2028? Because then clearly the safest thing to do is to play the send the people who have been playing flag football for forever. But if the goal is also to grow flag football's popularity, then... Then do it with our retired players. Well, you know, Luke Keeakley's out there. I don't know.

Brady's out there, Gronks out there. And they also lost in this game. I just, I tend to believe that if the NFL players spent a bunch of time learning how to do this, they could do it. And you didn't have YouTubers out there playing with them. Like one team was taking it seriously and the other team was the NFL players. Yeah, but I look at it like this. Like if, and this is just me thinking, like if, if we had the Greek freak out there playing

three on three basketball, I don't care how short the court is or what the rules. I spent the Greek freak to be better than what's on the floor. Oh, listen, I absolutely agree that the difference between five on five basketball and three on three basketball is less than the difference between the NFL, whatever that was this weekend. That this weekend was not the sport that you played. Correct. It wasn't. But I do think that the players who were on the team that lost could figure out how to do it. But think about quickly, like think about if you just, you just paid Alex Pierce a lot of money, right? Like, what happens if Alex Pierce goes out there and he gets to clamps put on him by the pizza man?

That's embarrassing. That's embarrassing. And if I'm the guy writing the check, I'm like, we may have a problem. Well, they got a big problem this weekend.