OverDrive - OverDrive - August 14, 2025 - Hour 3

Episode Date: August 14, 2025

Join Bryan Hayes and Dave Feschuk for hour three of OverDrive! The guys are joined by ESPN NFL Reporter Dan Graziano to discuss Taylor Swift appearing on the Kelce Brothers podcast. The guys were then joined by Rex Hoggard to discuss the BMW Championship.

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bringing you everything from the opening line of the final score. Brian Hayes-Dade-Festruck in here, Dan Gratziano of ESPN in a few moments. Bucks Hoggard of the Golf Channel later this hour. Best Betts still to come. Jays, where they win this afternoon. Against the Cubs, they beat Chicago 2-1. They take 2-3 in that series and back at it tomorrow night with the Rangers in town.

Big time, man. Just keep it rolling, man. Keep it to love it. It's impressive. impressive run and just, you know, they're giving you more and more reasons to believe that they could sustain it through the meaningful, meaningful baseball to come, right? And there's just nobody that's, there's nobody that's popping up in the American League haze that scares you, man. It's just, it seems like a perfect storm for an opportunistic team

to have a magical run. Yeah, that's right. And I think today there were two markers that really make you feel confident. The first is Max Scher pitches seven innings today. Very efficient. Yes, give up a home run, but a few strikeouts through under 80 pitches and seven

innings. That's incredible. That's very efficient. They allowed him clearly to go through the rotation a couple more times and he looks and feels very comfortable on the mound. There's no debating anymore if he's going to pitch every fifth day. I don't recall the last time

John Snyder was really questioned on that. Like anything going on, any reason to worry about something flaring up? It just hasn't been happening. So Schurzer with a really, really positive day again today. And then Vladie Groh Jr. hits a clutch, two-run, home run on the seventh to effectively win the ball game for him. So you got Schurzer pitching, going deep in games, looking very good, looking very comfortable.

And you got Vladie continuing to mash and continuing to show up and be very clutch post-all-Star break. And best player playing like the best player, most talented best resume looking like a very talented guy who's going to the Hall of Fame and Max Scherzer everything kind of went to Blue Jays way this afternoon I know what it's you know the way Scherzer pitched today it doesn't we're having that conversation about who are your top three

starters when it comes down to you know an ALDS if indeed you get there and they're on track to get there as it sits I mean Scherzer is making a case that he's got to be one of yeah like he really is and you know we're going to see Bieber pitched tomorrow night in Buffalo. Probably his last start in Buffalo. Maybe he goes one more but I think we might see him on the road next

week. I mean it's exciting times when you're excited about guys pitching in Buffalo and tonight you get Trey Savage pitching in Buffalo and there's you know growing sentiment that he may be part of the playoff picture

late season picture for the Blue Jays probably as a reliever. It has to be their number one prospect and a guy who just absolutely mowing them down as he makes this incredibly quick climb through, you know, from low A at the beginning of the season to high A Vancouver to double A and now AAA in Buffalo. I mean, it's been an incredible sense, hasn't it? Yeah, it has.

But you're right. Like you add a power arm like that to a bullpen that has power arms and Hoffman, Varlane can throw, Dominguez can throw, you throw you savage in there. You know, Little's going to pitch. Then you, you know, that's, there's your guys. Yeah. know, like maybe you transition one of your starters into a bullpen position, like if you need long relief, possibly. I don't know if that's Chris Bassett. Is it Jose Barrios? I don't know.

And the beauty of your savage is, of course, he's going to come up and no one's going to have a book on it. Yeah, exactly. And I've been watching some clips of him on YouTube. He's an impressive looking. He throws heat, man. Those heat, he's six, four, looks like a big boy. And he throws it, he's got a really interesting delivery. It's really over the top. And, you know, everybody says it's really hard to pick up the ball coming out of his hand. First of all, because it's, you know, miles in the sky, because he's a huge man on a mound, you know, throwing from the top

of his reach. And it just seems to, it just seems to flammocks people. Yeah. At least at the minor league level. And, you know, AAA is pretty as close as you're going to get to know on what it's going to do with the Major League level. So we'll see how he does in Buffalo tonight. Absolutely. But you're right. When you're tracking the Bisons on a daily basis,

you're in a pretty good position right now if you're a Blue Jay fan. The Bison stink. They're having a tough year. It's completely irrelevant. Completely irrelevant. Nobody cares if they were to lose. Just make sure these guys

stay healthy and get out there and get some pitches in or whatever it's going to be and possibly contribute to this team down the stretch. So another big one for the Jays today. Again, they're back in action

with the Rangers in town tomorrow. We'll get to our best bets a little bit later this afternoon. You see the Taylor Swift New Heights podcast? It's not the Taylor Swift podcast. I've been calling it that, which is very disrespectful

to the Kelsey brothers who have done a great job of building up that platform. But when Taylor Swift comes on, it's her podcast. Yes. Right? She is the show and the other guys are going to prop her up. But they were playing that live on YouTube last night.

At one point it had like 1.2 million live streams. Saw that. Which is absurd. And it glitched out apparently. And Caitlin Clark and other famous. Everyone was getting worried about it. I was saying like, are we breaking YouTube tonight? Right. And the podcast numbers are like anything, unlike anything we've ever seen before. And I thought I saw Stephen A. Smith say on

ESPN today, that there are people in NFL circles that believe Taylor Swift has been worth $1 billion in terms of value to the NFL. I can imagine. A billion dollars, just her dating Travis Gelsian being in the stadium every once in a while. Well, like somebody had the demographics of their podcast, like the female viewership listenership for the New Heights podcast, went about 700%. No kidding. Shockingly.

Probably a drop off next week. Yeah. And to hear her talking football, like she's talking. and she's legitimately talking about being excited about the chiefs drafting Xavier Worthy and she's talking to cover two defenses and she's talking about how she could be an NFL analyst if she give her 16 months and why I guarantee you she could be.

Maybe she'll go to ESPN. Maybe she'll be working with our next guest before you know it. Hey, here he is. NFL national reporter for ESPN, Dan Grat-Sian. Are you preparing for that, Dan? You and Taylor Swift at some point in studio up in Bristol? I think if Taylor, If Taylor once in, I'm not sure what any of us could do about it.

She's a force. Yeah, I don't think that Kelsey Brothers would mind you calling it to Taylor Swift podcast if she's going to bring 1.2 million live viewers. I think they're fine with that. No kidding, man. What a scene. And I don't know how often you're talking with people within NFL. I know you do all the time about NFL and players and personnel and games

and wins and losses. But in terms of her value to the league, you know, like, Are they basically praying that Travis Kelsey plays another three or four years or what? It's free money. It's unbelievable. When it started a couple of years ago, I remember people like, is this a setup? Is this real? Like, is the NFL?

If it is, then whoever at the NFL came up with, it deserves a massive raise. Because just bringing in viewers that the NFL could have never imagined pursuing, just, I mean, Taylor Swift fans. So, yeah, it's been there, it's a happy accent. but their head over heels about it at the league offices for sure. No, it's incredible. I mean, let's talk about Kelsey. I mean, obviously, you know, he's been getting a lot of publicity,

not only because he's dating the most famous celebrity on the planet, but because he's kind of going through this reset, I guess you could call it, with the GQ cover and talking about how he slimmed down. He wasn't happy with the way he's played these past couple of years. Damn, but he is 35 years old. He is coming off a Super Bowl where he was essentially a not. entity out there, as were many chiefs, as they got drilled by the Eagles, but do you think like a career rebirth is a legitimate hope for Travis Kelsey at this stage?

So I think at this stage, if you're Travis Kelsey, you're operating year to year and see how I feel at the end of the year. And I think, look, you see the pivot his brother has made. He's with us now and he's doing Monday night countdown. And if you're down here watching football, he's on every other commercial. I'm sure Travis has big. plans in mind for when he's done playing football. But I also think he didn't want to go out like that. Like the Chiefs got embarrassed by the Eagles, I think he wants to take another run at it. Maybe it goes well. Maybe he feels good enough at the end of this coming season to do it again. But yeah, I think you have a guy here who is, they say he has slum down, and is in better

shape this year. We'll see. I mean, you know, father time undefeated, especially when we're talking about this sport that wears you down and the position he plays and the way he's played it, where is you down? So maybe he's a great player, Hall of Fame player, maybe he has one great run left in him with the greatest quarterback we've seen, and they can go out on, or he can go out on top.

But yeah, we're looking at a guy who's much closer to the end than the beginning, and, you know, GQ, the podcast, like, you know, there's stuff he's going to want to do when he's done. He's not going to be, like, sick of money. No, he won't be, and it will be thrown at him left, right, and center. There's

no questioning that. And when he does retire, though. You mentioned Mahomes. Like, he'll still be around. Patrick's 29 years old. He's going to play for another decade, you presume, and at a very high level. And, you know, for my money, he's the best player in football.

You know, some might argue, Alan, maybe Jackson, maybe Burrow, I don't know, maybe there's defensive players that could put their hands up, but for me it's Mahomes. But I'm curious where you think his mindset is moving forward. Like, has he transitioned away from regular season stats, chasing regular season MVP? Do you think

that's still a part of his future, or is he just hyper-focused on Super Bowls? You know, earlier in my career, I covered baseball. I covered the Yankees, the Joe Torrey, Derek Jeter Yankees, and they got to a point where if they didn't win the World Series, they considered the season of failure. I think that's a rotten thing to put on yourself, but I also think it's a natural outgrowth of this level of success. Patrick Mahomes, they traded away Tyreek Hill, and what Patrick Mahomes did was change his game, elevate his leadership, bring up a lesser group of receivers, and go to the next

three Super Bowls and win two of them. So this is a player who has had to make pivots throughout his career. When you look at what they had on offense last year, particularly on the offensive line, particularly at the tackle spots, the fact they won 15 games in the regular season and got to the Super Bowl is a testament to his greatness. He elevated that group. And I think he sees himself as that kind of player justifiably so there are going to be years where they have better groups around him and i think this coming year should be one of them and they're going to be years where it's more on him to elevate a more of a substandard group which is what happened last year so but yeah i think he's he's a guy that when you've won multiple MVP's multiple

super bowls before you turn 30 you're thinking about how far can i take this can i get to brady can i be the greatest ever to do it. And I think those are the things that you're Patrick Mahomes, Andy Reid, the folks that run the chiefs, I think those are the things you think about right now. And obviously, you know, this area that we preside in, a lot of bills interest, a little bit north of the border. Yes. You know, the chiefs are a big reason why they haven't fulfilled the potential that they

clearly have shown in the Josh Allen era with the chiefs going to five Super Bowls. and being in seven straight conference finals. What is the kind of the path in your mind, if there is one, if you're being a Bill's optimist, what is the path to the Bills finally getting that an elusive Super Bowl in the Chiefs era? There's an old gag in the Charlie Brown comic strips where Charlie would try to kick the football, and Lucy would just yank it away at the end,

and then, like, you know, he'd go back later and try it again. And this time I'm going to get it, and she always pulled it away at the end. Like the chiefs are losing, and one of these days the bills feel like, you know, I'm going to kick that football. And look, they have every reason to feel that way. Their program is in a great place. They are, look at what they did this offseason.

They just extended guys. Like, we have our core. We have our team. We know we're good. We just keep doing one of these years. The ball will bounce our way in that January chiefscape. They know they can beat them. They beat them in the regular season every year.

So they're not scared of them. So I think that's right. I think they're doing the right thing. I don't think it would be a good decision for the bills to kind of change what they do because they keep losing this one game every year. Maybe I'm naive, but I think they're clearly one of the very best teams. They're clearly one of the very best organizations, which amazing. I mean, you go back and think about before Sean McDermott, Brendan Bitt got there, you know, 17 years without the playoffs.

Who would have thought that we'd be talking about the bills this way? But they've built a culture. They've built an organization that is the envy of. the league in a lot of ways. People hire their guys to be GMs and head coaches elsewhere. So I think they feel good about where they are. I was at the game,

Kansas City, the AFC championship game last year, and I saw Brandon Bean on his way out of the stadium in the game. And he was devastated, of course. And it's just, you know, he's sitting that moment thinking, are we ever going to do this? The Chiefs are on one of the all time runs. Like the bills have the misfortune of having arrived at a

time when this version of the Chiefs is also there. So So I think the schedule looks good. They could be the one seed, get a buy, have a conference championship game at their building. It would be the last game in that stadium. Like, you know, what a story it would be. And I think they have every reason to dream big dreams.

With Dan Gratziano of ESPN, if I were to ask you, which of these two teams would you apply the label Super Bowl or bust to more? Bills or Ravens, which one would get that label first? So I'm going to ask you first what bust means. Basically. You mean like somebody gets fired? Yeah, I guess you could go that far.

Yeah. Yeah. I don't think either, we had this conversation on our radio show this morning on sportsman like, and that was the definition they applied. And they said the bills were the one at greatest risk because the Raymond is not going to fire a harbour. But I don't think that Sean McDermott is like a hot seat coach to the extent that sometimes he seems to be perceived to me. I have never heard anything from inside the bills. building that reflected discontent or disappointment with Sean McDermott.

He has built a culture there, and I think ownership appreciates what he's done there in a place where it had to be built from scratch. So I think he gets a lot of rope. Now, look, if it gets ugly, right? Like, they have a bad year, if they drastically, Andy Reid's last couple of years in Philadelphia, those teams were a lot was expected, and they didn't win enough games. But if you go 13 and 4 and get to the conference championship game, you know, I don't know. I mean, like bust. I still don't agree with the idea of making major changes for the sake of change.

If you could show me the proof that a head coaching change would fix it, then fair enough. But I don't know that you're going to be able to have those data points. Yeah. And again, it comes down in Kansas City standing in the way the bills. No, I hear you. Well, and some of it is simply hypothetical. I guess, you know, it's a figure of speech, Super Bowl or bust. the point being like what's the mentality in the room like where is it more palpable like you've got to win i would argue it's buffalo because again harbaugh's got a ring like lamar doesn't but the ravens have won two super bowls this century the bills have never won one and it's only the cheeses in their way where the ravens they got the bills in their way too they can't beat them either in the

playoffs but they're feeling in baltimore too i was just at their training camp a couple of weeks ago talking to john harbaugh and he was saying like after the season after they lost in buffalo He's talking to the owner, and he's like, we've got to do something. And the owner said to him, it's one lousy game. Don't beat yourself up. But Harbaugh feels it. He's like, you know, look, I've got to figure out a way to play the game in January, the way we play it in September, October, November, December.

And so that's driving them nuts just as much as it's driving the bills nuts. Dan, when you look at the league in full, we just had Davis Sanchez in here, former NFL, and he was basically making the case that it's, you know, Philly as the prohibitive favorite to repeat just because of the way they've sort of set themselves up as the gold standard. And then he sees Baltimore as the second best team. How do you see it? I think repeating is very difficult.

There's no reason not to like Philadelphia, but there's change on defense. There's a new offensive coordinator. Sequin Barclay had 482 touches, regular season and postseason combined. Like that's a ton. And we have a lot of data on running backs with 400 plus touches and the way they drop off the next year. So there are some challenges that await

them. But yeah, on paper, look at their roster, nothing not to like. Baltimore, same way, loaded, stacked at every position. It feels like there are a lot fewer questions heading into this season about the Ravens roster than there were even just a year ago. I would put Buffalo in that group with the elite contenders, and I think they belong there. And of course, you have to say Kansas City, they've been to the last three Super Bowls. So, yeah, I think that's the group, but Baltimore is a very popular pick. People really like their roster, really like their team, obviously like their coaching. When they've kept, when Lamar Jackson has played a fully healthy season, he has generally been MVP or close to it of the league, and the Ravens have

generally been one of the very best teams in a league. So as long as he stays healthy, they have every reason to believe they're in that conversation. Contending teams, like I say Buffalo, Cincinnati, if they get the defense fix, that NFC North with Detroit, and Green Bay, I wouldn't be surprised to be either one of those teams got to the Super Bowl. And, you know, we'll see. I mean, the Eagles look fantastic, but no one has repeated as division champions in the NFC East in 21 years. Something weird always seems to happen there.

Always does. And I'm curious about the other team in that state, and that being the Pittsburgh Steelers and where you stand on Aaron Rogers as their quarterback and the chances of them having success this year. The list of NFL quarterbacks that have had championship caliber success past the age of 40 has exactly one name on it, and it's Tom Brady, and Aaron Rogers will turn 42 before the end of this season. It is a long shot to think that he can elevate the Pittsburgh Steelers beyond where they've been, which is, you know, 9, 10 wins, first round exit. He himself doesn't have a great history of postseason success, and what he does have is very early in his career, so it's a very long. long time it goes. I'm a skeptic. Now, Mike Tomlin deserves a benefit of the doubt. He puts

together a good team. His team's always pete, and I know their fan base gets frustrated that they don't win more in the postseason. Fair enough. But I think his teams get at least as many wins as their talent level dictates they should, and oftentimes more. So we'll see. I've talked to people there. The vibe in the building sounds good. They have to figure out their young offensive line. If that doesn't come together, it's going to be a rough year for everybody, Aaron, in particular. defense has a little bit of age on it. We'll see that that tends to be pretty consistent, but one of these years you might cease a decline from some of these key guys.

They have to put a running game together. You know, I have to figure out their receiving group around D.K. Metcalfe. I think they have a lot of questions to answer. Mike Tomlin is very good at answering questions and solving problems as season goes along. So we'll see. I'm a little skeptical that a 41-year-old Aaron Rogers can elevate them beyond where they've been.

What's your level of skepticism around the Cowboys, Dan? I mean, coming out the seven-win season and in the middle, yeah, and in the middle of the circus. One-word answer. The Jerry Ringmaster Circus, the counterpoint would be they won 12 games, three straight years before last year's seven games, debacle. And Jerry's done this before, and they've been able to overcome it. Yes, and when Dak Prescott has been healthy, this is like what I said about Baltimore a couple minutes ago. When Dak Prescott's been healthy, they've generally been a very good team.

They've been a division champion, playoff caliber team. If you look at the seasons, he has started and finished healthy. So if that happens, they have the right to expect big things. They've had offensive line injuries in camp. That's always a red flag. Can they get that unit healthy in time to start fast? I mean, three weeks from tonight, they're playing the Eagles in Philadelphia. I mean, that's, you know, let's go, guys.

There's no easing into this thing. They're running back room as new. Is there going to be some high-level producer out of that? And then the defense, if Michael Parsons is going to sit-out games, which sounds like he says he is, we'll find out. Can they generate a pass rush? Do they have enough on the back end? They have some key guys coming back from injury on defense,

but some of them might not be back week one. So I think when DAC is there, I think you have the right to expect the offense to be high-powered and the team to be good. new defensive coordinator Matt Iber Fluse I think they'll upgrade in terms of their production on that side of the ball but the question is do they have enough to overtake Washington and Philly I think I think it's fair to be skeptical and so we see it yep I'm with you on that always great catching up with you Dan we're almost there a couple weeks in its go time thank you for doing this it's my pleasure guys thanks for having me there is Dan Graciano of ESPN joining us here on the maple Toyota hotline and I think Dan's been involved in the fantasy stuff they've been doing on ESPN and I was down in the States watching that a little bit

that was they were going essentially 24 hours of fantasy 24 hours fantasy talk yeah it was wild it's crazy man like fantasy like this is this is the wheelhouse yes this is the eye of the storm for fantasy football now because in two weeks your teams have been made you're either going to win or you're

going to lose yes you can pick up on the wire maybe you can make a trade or two but if you don't pick the right team man everything's a bust So I heard your boy Al's brother's in four fantasy leagues. That seems excessive. I was going to say any concern that the focus on Hayes and Bro will be kind of wondering. Not really because that's just all this guy does.

It's just gamble and fantasy and football. Like he just lives in that world. So if anything, I actually take that as somewhat of a positive. He's dialed in. Yeah, he's so dialed in. Like he's literally doing nothing but tracking football. I heard him on the morning show. He said five is too many.

Oh, that's the line of demarcation. Five year. Generate loser. Right. Or you're a really cool guy. Four teams is good. You're just a really stable, cool guy. Stable guy.

Yeah. I'm in two, and there are two very different pools, which is confusing because there's, you know, some people are crazy, like, keeper stuff. Oh, yeah. You know, you're doing futures drafts and stuff like that. Yeah. And like there's, you know, obviously somewhere it's like money, there's a cap, and you got auction type drafts and stuff like that.

I just, I do not have the wherewithal for that kind of stuff. I don't have the time. Big commitment. Like that's a big issue for me is the pulls I'm in, a lot of older guys, which means their kids are older. So they all want to do it Labor Day. Like everyone's like, yeah, I'll just do a Monday night at 9 p.m. I'm like, dude, I got, my kids are going to school the next day.

Yeah. You know what it's like. Oh, yeah. Like when your son was younger, he's older now. So you can do whatever you want. Yeah. He's in college. Yeah, you'd be that guy.

You'd be that guy. You're like, yeah, let's do whatever. It doesn't matter. I know what my husband. house is going to look like Labor Day. Right. You know what it looked in your house 10 years ago. For sure.

Bedlam. They're going back to school. My wife's going to be like, we got everything right. And the idea of me being like, I'm on the clock. That's right. Probably not going to go over so well. You know, so I'm kind of nudging away at maybe we do, maybe Saturday night. How do we feel about that?

And I'm getting a lot of pushback. Okay. Because I only have one vote. The other guys are like, figure it out. Right. But you can't auto draft. Nothing worse than getting. If you're in an auto-draft situation, what's the point?

Yeah, just go buy lottery tickets. Yeah, what's the point? I can't be there. I'll just auto-draft. Well, then don't be in this. No. Like, what's the, you're just wasting everyone's time, including your own. Anyway, big-time fantasy.

And it changes every year. Like, this year's board is completely different. Yeah. Like, there's so much turnover every single year. It's crazy. And now it's like Robinson, Gibbs going first. There's Chase go. Where does Jefferson go with this quarterback?

The research pays off, right? Research pays off. Big time. You guys got any crazy stakes involved? Like, I love those. I love you here, some of these, the penalty for finishing last. You got to spend 24 hours in a waffle house down in the States and you get an hour off. You don't do any of that stuff.

It's kind of cool. Like, I kind of appreciate the camaraderie that comes with it. Yeah. And it also forces you to stay in it. Right. Like, that's a big part of fantasy. You don't want this last. Yeah, there's like, you know, there's kind of a binding agreement.

Because put any fantasy is tough. If you're 12, 13 weeks in and you realize your team surrender us, it's tough to, stay on it. Put the time in. You know, where this is kind of a reason for you to actually fill out your roster and try to get out of it, try to get out of the bottom. Yeah. Because it's a long season. If you know your

team stinks, a couple of injuries, bad picks, you're done. It's just like you get no chance. Exactly. All right, Rex Hoggard coming up. Does anyone have a chance of beating Scotty Sheffler this weekend or down at Eastlake? Or at any point over the next five, six, seven years. Rex will answer that

and more. We'll catch up with him next. All right, best bets a little bit later in the hour. with a big win today. Max Scherzer. Looked really good. Give up a solo shot. But went seven innings strong, looked like himself. Vladigaro Jr. with a two-run, home run in the seventh inning. Jeff Hoffman comes out in the ninth to close it. You couldn't ask for three better check marks.

Like that's what you're looking for. Shurzer to have an outing. Vladdy for a clutch hit. Hoffman come in and close the door. Boom. Playoff style. Good recipe. Very good recipe.

And Jays again are in action tomorrow night with the Rangers in town. A recipe for success clearly in the golf world has basically been just bet Scotty Schaffler to win. And if he's not going to win, he's certainly going to be top five or top ten. Last week, I was shocked he didn't win last week. He's right there. He's chasing down Fleetwood. Shout out to Justin Rose. Incredible story.

If he beat McElroy at Augusta, think about this. This would be the year of Justin Rose. You're right. Like if he found a way to come back and win the... green jacket. At age 42. Absolutely. But now you look at what's going on at the BMW Championship and there's Scotty Sheffler at 4-Under.

Now, Tommy Fleetwood's at 4-Under right now. Top 10, Tommy. Top 10, Tommy. Bob McIntyre's at 4-under. Victor Hovlin's kicking around, but Sheffler clearly the Pace Gar and a chat about it. We're joined now by golf reporter. He's a podcaster. He does it all for the Golf Channel NBC. Here's

Rex Hoggard. How you doing, Rex? How you guys then? We're doing very well. Sheffler versus the field the rest of this tournament, who would you take? I think what you just said resonates because that's the way we used to think about Tiger, right? You would always take Tiger against the rest of the field. I would say Scotty Schaeffler for the rest of the season, and it's a very short season. It's just this week and next week, but I would pick Scotty against the rest of the field.

I guess the only thing that would hold me back, and the one thing we've learned, the one thing we know about Scotty is he's a creature of habit. And he loves routine, routine, routine over everything else. And being went out as caddy last Sunday, Ted Scott, he had to go home for some personal reasons. So he had to have a replacement caddy. He had a replacement caddy this week. That, in my mind, is the only thing that you can sit and point to you and be like, well, maybe Scottie's a little uncomfortable with another caddy on the bag.

And if that's what you're banking on, I don't know if the field has much of a chance. Yeah, no, it's a great point. I mean, when you look at this playoff format, Rex, as much as we're, we're, talking about Scotty as a guy who's going to be very tough to beat between now and the Tour Championship at East Lake. Does it need a tweak given the way Rory treated the event last week at Memphis and the way maybe that didn't speak to the importance of the so-called playoff run in the PGA lexicon?

After watching the playoffs for the last two decades, and it seems like they have changed something every single year. They have evolved. They've moved. The points have changed, the formats have changed, the tour has done everything to try to turn this into something closer to a true playoff. And I think that's probably the issue right here. I guess I'm in the minority here, and we've talked a lot about it the last two weeks. You had one player out of 70 skipped the first playoff event.

And let's be clear, Rory had said he was going to skip the first playoff event, I think pretty much after last year's first playoff event. He made it clear that there's no reason for me to be here if I'm safely inside that top 30. At that time, I think he was inside the top five. He dropped one spot. He had a really bad week in Memphis, so it made no sense to him. I think we've created a lot of solutions looking for a problem because I don't see this right now as a problem. I was actually a little surprised.

More players didn't skip the first playoff event simply because of the way the season stacks up. You have so many big events back to back to back that the top players are probably really tired. So the fact that it was only Rory, one out of 70 players, I think it's pretty encouraging if you're at the tour, certainly if this becomes an issue, where next year if you have two or three players

doing it, and the tour has to look at it, but I don't think it's an issue right now. Well, I think it's particularly an issue with the players we're talking about here. Like, Macquarie's a needle mover, right? Like if, you know, you can name, I can give you 25 different names where if they're

seventh on the FedEx list and they don't show up, it's not going to resonate. But if Rory doesn't show up, if Shephler doesn't show up, if Shafley doesn't show. That's the issue, isn't it, Rex? It's the guys we're talking about that could skip. And twofold. One, you're right. The guy that moves the needle, him skipping is a big deal. The other one is the event he chose to skip. How he chose to skip, chosen to skip this week, the BMW championship, that too would have been surprising,

and we probably would have talked a lot about it, but it's not FedEx. And FedEx is a pillar on the PGA tour. It's called the FedEx Cup season. So we all know how important this is to them. So those two things, I certainly see where you're factoring into it. I guess I turn the conversation the other way. I don't know how you can compel the players to play all three playoff events. Simply because they're independent contractors, and it's not as though you can mandate, you have to play here. And one of the solutions that have come up, and I feel like this is the cleanest solution, is after the regular season, you just restart, you do away with the points altogether.

And you go to that first playoff event in Memphis, and if you finish inside the top 50s, and you advance to this week's playoff event, the BMW Championship. And then if you're inside the top 30, after that event, you go to the Tour Championship. That, to me, seems like the cleanest way to do it and turn it into a real playoff. But as we discussed this week a lot, the idea that what if last week, Scotty would have finished 51st, 40 seconds, and Zander 53rd, then the sponsors aren't happy. The TV partners aren't happy. The fans aren't happy.

So I don't know if there's a clean solution. with Rex Hoggerton and with the Ryder Cup this year and it's always a massive event it just feels I don't know why it feels bigger this year maybe because of the Keegan Bradley connection and that story because it's in New York it's at Beth Page because of what happened the last time they played the Europeans

laid a beating on the Americans I mean let's call it what it is it just feels like it's so much more amplified and I think Sheffler was talking about it this week that like there's a big layoff after the tour championship until you actually get to the end of September. And he was mentioning maybe they play in Napa, I think it is.

There's a tournament halfway through September. Like if you, in your conversations with players who know they're going, how much of the next couple of weeks is even in some ways preparation for the Ryder Cup? I think coming out of Rome two years ago, and you referenced it, yes, the European tour ticket to the United States team that week. And there were a lot of issues that went into that. One of them was that they were rusty. The Americans hadn't played, most of the Americans hadn't played in a few weeks, really, since the Tour Championship.

And you look at the Europeans going into that Router Cup in Rome, almost every single one of them had played the week before at the BMW PGA Championship, which is the European Tour's flagship event in England. So they had all had a chance to essentially have a scorecard in their hand and go out and compete, have some pressure, knock some rust off. This time around, I think both teams, it'll be interesting to watch both teams because Keegan Bradley has spent a lot of time talking with players. I think most players who will be on the team will play that event in Napa, as you just pointed out, just to get some reps in, just to get a scorecard in your hand, to go out to feel a little bit of pressure. It's interesting, Europeans will actually do something very, very similar. They'll leave the BMWPGA championship this year and fly over as a team and spend pretty much four or five days before going to the Ryder Cup at Beth Page together. So every team is trying to find an angle, and I think this is a good one. Hey, Rex, Tommy Fleetwood, up at the top of the leaderboard, yet again here at the BMW,

but of course, you know, made headlines for the wrong reasons last week in Memphis, having the lead multiple times and not being able to close. He's earned 32 and a half million bucks on the PGA tour, and nobody has ever earned more in the history of the sport without winning on the PGA tour. 162 starts. And yet he tweets out, hey, with every disableness, appointment. I feel like I'm getting closer and closer to finally winning. Do you buy that or is this guy just never going to get it done? It's tough because in sports fandom, it's easy to point

to the guy who can't get it done and just say, oh, well, something's wrong with him. He can't finish it up. But I think Tommy Fleetwood is a legitimately nice person. He's a literally good person to be around. I think he truly believes in his mind that he's moving in the right direction. And I guess that's the only thing you can do. I'll just go back to last Sunday. And I would compare it also to the Sunday at the Travelers Championship where he also took a three-stroke lead into the final round. And you don't have to connect a lot of dots to figure out what goes wrong with him on Sundays. It's not necessarily as driving. It's not necessarily as ball striking, but his short game, which is brilliant, 90% of the time, just seems to abandon him at the most

crucial moments. We saw it on Sunday last week in Memphis, where he had an opportunity to get up and down on a par five, which in make a birdie that you had to make. A par on that hole was pretty much giving a stroke away to the field. And he just didn't have that short game. He didn't have the touch. And that's, of course, where you're going to feel it. And you don't have to be a sports psychologist to understand where pressure manifests itself. And it does it on the little shots.

It does it on the little puts and the little chips. And then, of course, ebogie 17. And that was pretty much the difference right there. I don't know how you get over the hump. Because it's always, if we go back two weeks to the Wyndham Championship, and Cameron Young, I would have argued, was probably the same. second best player on the PGA tour without having one PGA tour event, and he pretty much blew away the field.

And it's an entirely different scenario when you're walking down the 18th T, I mean the 18th Fairway with a six-shot lead. Like that is an entirely different pressure. This, what Tommy has gone through, eventually I think he does get in a position where he has that three or four shot lead coming down 18 and he can't finish it off. But certainly there is something there, a hurdle, hump, a distraction, whatever it is, he can't get over.

with Rex Hoggard of the Goal Channel. Roy McElroy speaking today or this week about, you know, being asked in the past to be a playing captain for the European team at the Ryder Cup. And he said, no chance. Now paraphrase him, you can't do it. Not possible. Shot it down. Keegan Bradley was asked about that. I like Keegan's answer, somewhat diplomatic, but also I think there was honesty there.

He goes, no one's ever really done it. I don't know. Like, what do we know over the last 20, 30, 40 years? what is your instinct telling you, what is your reporting telling you on if Keegan Bradley is in fact going to play for the Americans at the Ryder Cup? At this point in time, I truly believe he's going to play for him and I don't even think it's really his decision anymore.

A few weeks ago, I made the comment and I still believe in it and don't quite have as much base in my voice now as I did before, but it'll be the players who automatically qualify. Scottie Schaffler, Zandis Scha, J.J. Spawn currently, but there'll be three more who automatically qualify. they'll be the ones that will say, of course, Keegan is one of the top 12 American players right now. I can break it down for you however you want.

He's a top 12 American player according to the world ranking, according to strokes gain total on the PGA tour, according to the DataGoff. I can keep going on and on and on. There's no way to splice it up. Now, the difficulty here, and I tend to agree with Rory, I think in the modern era, I don't want to say impossible, but they're going to have to figure out how this works

because what's going to have to happen is Keegan is essentially going to have to give up, his captaincy when it comes time to play. And I don't know how you do that. There aren't any really machinations. There aren't any rules or regulations to govern this exactly how he gives that up. And there's also the issue, and I thought Rory did a good job of bringing this up. Essentially what you're doing, if you do, if Kagan is a player, and I do believe he will be, you're kind of limiting him to only one match a day on Friday and Saturday because he has other duties to do. He can't play both sessions. That makes sense. You're kind of tying your

hands with a player. Why would you want to do that? So there's a lot of things they'll have to figure out over the next couple of weeks because I do believe he'll be on that team. Why did the U.S. do this to themselves, Rex? When you think about it, they got an assistant captain list for 2025 that includes Jim Furek, Kevin Kisner, Webb Simpson, Brad Snetiker, Gary Woodland. There's plenty of good names there. Like Fierer, couldn't they just name Furek, the captain, and sort of end this sort of conundrum? I don't think they wanted to go back to Furek because that didn't go very well in Paris. No offense to Jim Furek, but, I mean, America's lost pretty bad there as well.

I think what the PGA of America was looking for was something different. They felt like they needed to change gears for whatever reason. And Kegan Bradley was going to be that guy because he wasn't the guy who was on the inside track. If you'd have asked me three years ago, like name the next four U.S. Rotter Cup captains, I would not have mentioned Kegan Bradley's name. And clearly, the PG of America wanted to zig why everyone else thought they were going to Zach. And there's a lot of reasons for it. I don't think they anticipated this, though.

I think when they made the decision, they didn't anticipate him, not just winning once, but winning twice in this cycle. Go back to last year, he won the BMW championship, of course, the Travelers this year. And he's been really consistent. And I don't think they anticipated that at all because it brings such, as I mentioned, it brings such a level of issues. It brings such a level of distractions. And the Europeans won't have that at all. Oh, we had this debate this week on golf today, where the idea that the Europeans are coming in, A, with a captain,

we know he's a good captain, and he can win, Luke Donald. And their team is virtually the exact same team that they had two years ago in Rome, with the only exception of one of the Hogarth twins, like pitch whatever one you want. That, to me, is frightening if you're the Americans, because all the Americans have right now is distractions and questions. Rex, it's always great catching up with you.

Enjoy the rest of the season. I'm sure we'll catch up well. before the Ryder Cup, we can't wait. Appreciate it, guys. There is Rex Hogger of the Gull Channel. Yeah, you bring up a very good point, though. Like, you could eradicate the whole issue by just saying, Keegan, you're on the team,

and he's not an automatic bid yet, so that complicates things. Someone's going to have to choose him. But nothing's going to change. As Rex pointed out, all the data points, he's got to play. He's top 10 in points for the Ryder Cup rankings. He's top 10 in everything, so there's no way you wouldn't put him on the team.

always an option. The second day and made this announcement, the first question was, well, what if you're playing? Right. And no one's done it

to your point since Arnold Palmer in 1960 something. Yeah, 60 years ago. Yeah. So, yeah, just eradicate the problem altogether.

Tell Kagan, you're playing. We'll find someone else to deal with it. Well, any of those guys can do the job. Like,

I mean, I understand, Furik is a losing captain. Well, he was a winner at the President's Cup. Yeah. You know,

I get it's different. But still, he did run the operation there, and it went fairly well for them. I don't respect a guy. I mean, Kisner's a very respected guy. What is a captain? What exactly, what qualifications do any of these former player captains have? It's like the conversation we have earlier today about Dwayne Casey being the president. Yeah.

Brendan Shanahan. Like, they're all just, they're players and coaches. Right. What the hell do they know about, like, you know, running the operation of the Ryder Cup? Oh, you need a guy with, you know, that went to an Ivy League school that can really determine and they don't know what the hell they're doing. You're right. They can put the best players together,

try to figure out a formula, raw, rod, and go out and play. Well, as everything in sports, Hayes, people like to overcomplicate things. And when you hear about, you know, the way these teams approach these, you know, mano on mano, you know,

international tournaments. It turns into a big, oh, we got a massive analytics, cash, like Mike Weir apparently was drowning in the analytics at the President's Cup. What the numbers look like, pairing guys together, get off the tea they can pot up and down right and sometimes to your point like maybe just you know

gut instinct might be a better judge right who to pair who to pair them against yeah how to sort of strategize and yet we're not going to gut instinct too often these days in sports and especially when you get these big staffs right like it's a big operation well i think that's a that is a big part of it is that you have to justify the budget and you have to justify the amount of people that are around. Right. And there is, there is this, this bar that has been said that you got to prove how smart you are. It's also a copper in a lot of ways. You know, because if it doesn't go right, you can say, well, I did my job. Like I just thought, you know, what do you want out of me? The numbers say. Hey, I get it. You know, I went to Kikuchi over Burios, but like, look at this

map over here. Don't, don't ask me why I made this bonehead play. Talk to the calculator, the computer. It's a, it's a shield for people. And it's allowed so many coaches and managers to abuse it the opposite way. Oh, yeah. Where at some point you are dealing with human beings, yes, you've got to be informed. Yes, it's very beneficial to have that information. Study it and know it.

That's what you're there for. But then there's also some times where the door creaks open where you're like, I've got a gut instinct this a little bit. Yeah. And say, screw it. Yeah, the numbers over the course of the year would suggest this guy's better, but that guy's playing better right now. Right.

This guy feels better. This guy wants it. He just came up to me and said, put me in. I'm ready. The other guy looks like he's cowering. little bit. That doesn't show up on your stat sheet. A hundred percent. You know? Read the room. Read the room. Read the room. Yeah.

Do you how they look. I mean, there's a lot to that, right? There's still, there's a lot to that. A lot to that. And your competition, reading your competition. That's another part of it that I think has been lost in some ways. You know, it's just looking at, you get caught up in your own stats,

then you get caught up and looking at the other stats, and you're like, I don't watch that guy. He looks jittery. See that guy in the practice? screaming. He looks nervous. He's pacing. I think we can get this guy. Well, I don't know. If you look at his stats this year, and then, okay. It's hard to win on the road in the Ryder Cup, but I'm telling you right

now, like Europe's on the way to setting it up. They're relishing that opportunity. They're planning the right seats. That's for sure. All right, Best Betts powered by Fandul coming up. Overdrive continues. TSN 1050 and on TSN2. All right, Best Fets powered by Fandul. Make your picks and assemble a same game

parlay in seconds on the Fandul's Sportsbook, yeah. We had Davis Sanchez in earlier this afternoon, and he said, giving you a freebie, red blacks plus the points tonight. At that point, I think they're like plus three and a half on Fandau. They're up to plus four. You're getting four points tonight. Wow. I'll take the red blacks. I'm going to trust my guy, Davis Sanchez. He knows. Yeah, he likes the way Ottawa's plan. He said Winnipeg has not been looking great. They haven't. They're 500 club right now. Getting plus four. I will take Ottawa tonight. Best Bet's powered by Fandle.

Fargo's in Edmonton tomorrow night. Two and seven versus two and six. Two awful teams. Two worst teams in the CFL as it currently stands. Miserable.

Someone's got to win tomorrow night. Or somebody's, so Dinwiddie has called his team pretenders. He said they've got to create chaos. If they're down to two and eight, what is he going to say? Yeah, what's more

damning than those comments? I don't know. Sounds like it's pretty dire. Yeah, it sounds pretty nuclear. He knows it's like, we basically have no chance to turn in this season. No shot. Yeah, if you're 2 and 8, you're done. It'll be tough.

Yeah. You have to go on a miracle run and there's just no signs that there's a run in them. That's the thing. Exactly. Like the cliches would be out there. Well, CFL starts on Labor Day. Well, not if you're like 2 and 10. No.

You know, it doesn't start. But if you get the three wins and then, you know. Yeah, the flip side of it is if you run off like two wins in a row, you're back in the playoff. You're two weeks away from being right on the border that's what I mean. The 19 league. They got a chance. They got a chance. You're saying we got a chance.

All right, Dave. Good stuff, man. I'll see you tomorrow. Great seeing you. There is Dave Festruck of the Toronto Star. Thanks to everyone behind the scenes for helping out. Everyone for tuning in today, TV radio, podcast, web, and of course up on YouTube Live. We appreciate it. We're out of here. Enjoy your evenings. Enjoy the games tonight. We're back tomorrow at 4 p.m. We'll chat then. serious? This Weekend Gaming is the podcast for you. We break down the latest in the world of video games, from basics to beyond. The hottest gaming news, insight and industry leaders, and more

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