OverDrive - OverDrive - August 25, 2025 - Hour 2

Episode Date: August 25, 2025

Join Bryan Hayes, Jason Strudwick and Dave Feschuk for Hour 2 on OverDrive! TSN Baseball Insider Steve Phillips joins ahead of the Blue Jays and Twins' series, Shane Bieber's strong start with the Blue Jays and and Cal Raleigh and Aaron Judge's MVP race. They also dive into Micah Parsons' turmoil with the Cowboys, if he plays Week 1 with Dallas, Trey Hendrickson and Terry McLaurin signing contracts with the Bengals and Commanders and Auston Matthews' ranking in the league on the ice.

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Loud, crowd, and all yours. No passports required, just press play. Tap into Made in Canada now on iHeartRadio.ca. Or the free iHeartRadio app. Hour 2 Overdrive continues, powered by Fandu, bringing you everything from the opening line to the final score. Brian Hayes, Dave Festchuk, and Jason Strudwick. We've got Steve Phillips coming up here in a few moments, and we'll get to something to chew on by Boston Pizza, or powered by Boston Pizza a little bit later in the hour.

One of the options in our poll question of the day features Cal Raleigh, who hit his 48th and 49th home run over the weekend, which sets a new record for catchers in terms of home runs in a season. It's still August. He's got to hit, what, 14 more to pass Judge, and he's got 31 games left. He's running out of time, but he's, you know, somewhat on pace.

Pretty close to the pace he's been on all year. Multiple home runs as a switch hitter in a game. He's done that more times than Mickey Mantle ever did in his career. It's incredible. It's incredible. And Seattle's been on a heater post-trade deadline. And, you know, Cal Rale, it's going to be an interesting topic. The MVP,

You know, it was just kind of handed to judge all year, right? Because who he is and what he does and what he's represented. But the Yankees, they're straddle on a playoff spot. And Judge hasn't been playing at the same level he was earlier in the year, some injury problems at times. I don't know. I'm curious to see how that one plays out. Yeah.

Judge has not looked quite as scary, although he's still scary. And the Yankees can still mash at their best. But when they're bad, they're really bad, right? And this guy, I mean, Shreda, you know it, like, how catching is just such a tough thing. We've been talking about how hard it is to find a guy like Alejandro Kirk and he's been, you know, in the conversation.

As Blue J's MVP, I mean, to catch and then to do what Cal Rally is doing, to me, you know, to me the MVP race is a lot closer than maybe we thought it was. And I think rally is really picking up Steve here. Yeah, because I think there's a lot of nicks and bruises to come at being a catcher, right? the balls catch your finger the wrong way or whatever, and you're in that squad all the time. You know, I try to think like the best catchers of all time, you know, and the guy I'm not saying he's the best, but one that pops into my head is always Mike Piazza, you know, really, really obviously good catcher, good offensively, good defensively, but he has never really had

an offensive season like this before. So it's, you know, the guy that you really respect is putting up these kind of numbers. It's pretty incredible. Yeah, you look at Fandul, as of this moment, And Aaron Judge, still a favorite to win the MVP, minus 175. Raleigh's plus 135. So it's real close. And close. Yeah, it's real close. And it's obviously a two-man race.

I mean, Scoobel's third, and he's, it's, I mean, there's wasted time to even discuss that. Scoobles has been great. Taggart's been a great story. But it's clearly one of those two guys. And it does speak to the greatness of Judge, though, that he's having a phenomenal season. And halfway through the year, he was putting up numbers that were. you know, going to possibly push it on a pace of like maybe the greatest offensive, statistically offensive season we've ever seen, dropped off a little bit.

But I would think Ty should go, and generally it does with voting. Ty goes to the new guy, right? You get a little bit of fatigue. It's like it can't be judging Otani every single year. Ty goes to the new guy. And I think Ty deserves to go to the position he plays. Yeah. Like if you're a catcher that is going to mash like 57, 58 home runs,

Seattle has been a team that, you know, they've been up and down in the last few years. And this year they were kind of just straddling that 500 line for a while. They've been on a heater again for quite some time. And he's a big proponent of that. So if you have a team that's going to make the playoffs, he's going to do things we've never seen before at a position that's very, very unique. I would think that that's probably going to win out. Yeah. You probably should a month from now.

I think it's going to depend a little bit on how the Yankees finish up here, right? If they kind of do the death spiral of bad defense and bad pitching and they fall out of the race, which is very possible for them because they've looked really, really subparate times lately. I could see Judge falling out of the race too. It's not going to be his fault that they fall out of the race, but he's going to be affected by it, right? Whereas because if Seattle stays where they are and Rowley continues to do what he does, I mean, it's a way more impressive season. And to your point, we've seen Judge.

do this before, and we've seen better from Judge. And I think that always factors in whether or not it should. Right. Fairly or unfairly. Like the best of the best, the McDavid's, the Mahomes, you know, LeBron, he was a victim of this. That's a strong term for considering, you know, what we're talking about here. But when you're so good for so long, you're just, you're held to a standard that is almost

impossible to reach. You know, it's almost impossible. That's why I've had these chats. before i'm not sure mac david wins another heart because we're going to think of the guy when you know four or five years ago 160 points and 69 goals and i can tell he does that again which i don't think he ever will it's going to be held against him in a weird way you got to beat yourself right yeah yeah you got to beat the the old version of yourself or not old but previous version that's right that's pretty tough to beat you're not to beat your your people you're

your contemporaries you're playing against yourself that's exactly it when you're that good. That's who you're playing against. All right, Jay's twins tonight. Max Scher's on a mound. Vlad, he's back. He will DH tonight. Joining us here on the Maple Toyota Hotline, here's our baseball insider, Steve Phillips. How you doing, Steve? I'm doing great, guys. Good to be with you. Yeah, great to have you. We're excited up here in Toronto. Shane Bieber not only made his debut, but, man, he looked really good. They got two out of three down in Miami,

including Friday night when he won, and he went out there and went deep into the game. pitched really, really well, and Schneider was pumping his tires afterwards. Is there a glass half-empty element to his start? Can you pick anything that wasn't perfect, basically, across the board? No, I think that, you know, I did a lot of work on it last week in anticipation of his start on radio, on dot CA, I wrote a column, and then obviously did a hit on Sports Center. And, you know, what I said was that in his rehab starts, he looked like the old Shane Bieber. Velocity was where it should be.

The breaking stuff was where it should be. The swing and miss was what he used to do. He had picked runners off base, which is one of his strengths of controlling the running game. He's a gold glove caliber pitcher. And he's a first pitch, strike-throwing machine. And that's exactly what he did. I mean, he came out and did all of those things that make him an elite-level pitcher. and it is such a great sign because, you know, look,

is he going to hit a dead arm period where maybe he'll run out of gas a little bit? Maybe. Then he'll have to just, you know, get a second wind, and he will. But, I mean, if not, I mean, he looks like a guy who's a front end of the rotation starter who could start a game one, two, or three in the playoffs for the Jays, and that's exactly what they hope they were trading for. Yeah, exactly. And it is early.

He's running on adrenaline. It's a new team. But, you know, when you consider the fact that he's not returning to even Cleveland, you know, who's not really playing for anything, if you're returning to a team, you know, like the White Sox or Colorado, it's literally you're just preparing for next year. You may not even return at that point. How much of the fact that he's on a new team and that they're winning the American League east, they're chasing the top seed in the American League, how much do you think that factors in to keeping the adrenaline going for him and allowing, you know, his attitude. and his approach to the game to be sharp because, you know, he's playing for something. He's not just out there warming his arm up for 2026. He's got a bunch of new teammates who are looking at him saying,

do we need you every time you're on the mound? Yeah, I think that that certainly has to be part of it. Now, you know, I'm sure he's excited even just to get back on a mound, any mound in any location. You have to have a not fit since April of 24. But I think that, you know, and I think in some ways, I think we have to take note to, for me, it would be a way to make sure you're protecting him. Don't assume anything about him emotionally. Don't assume anything about him physically.

Don't assume anything that I think you've got to keep checking in with him because he's such a veteran. And he looked like the old guy that he used to be. You know, there could be that assumption that, but not to worry about him. I mean, he's fine. I mean, look at him. It looks great. It looks like the old guy. Let's just let him go.

But I think they need to really make sure that they're protecting him, that, you know, the recovery period between starts is something that's important when you're coming back from Tommy John, that, you know, he may have some days where he feels better than others as he starts to recover between starts. And so I think that, you know, that energy will be there for him, but there will be a start along the way that won't feel like it's his first one back, that won't feel like, you know, you're battling against the Yankees of Red Sox in a playoff game and where he's going to start against somebody who may not be a great team, but I don't think you can

assume that he's going to be okay through all of it. So I think they've got to do a lot of checking in with him. But certainly, you know, this playoff race is going to energize him and his stuff to another level. Steve, I think it's safe to say that Blue Jays, you know, barony kind of entries are fairly set with their starting pitchers. The relievers are maybe an area where they need to find some kind of help. So I know they can't trade for anyone, but how would you approach what's happening

with the relievers and try to prop them up so they can meet what the starters are doing here? Yeah, I think you're right. I mean, a 6.21 ERA since July 27th for this bullpen, the worst in baseball. And so I think that, you know, they're still winning and they're overcoming that and, you know, they're building up margin of error for the bullpen. But I think that, you know, they have to start thinking about what, how they're going to line up their rotation for the playoffs, who's going to go to the bullpen.

And for me, at some point, I do that transition. to start to prepare those starters because I think that they're going to have to be like other teams that have been in the postseason where starters become relievers, where starters become answers in the bullpen. And for me, that's going to be lower and that's going to be, you know, Jose Brillo's. It's just a matter of when do you make that transition. You know, they've got a couple turns where they've got six straight games on an off day, six straight games and an off day. And then they've got like a Thursday off day, three games against the Yankees and a Monday off day. And somewhere within there, I think they need to start looking at starters as potential impact pitchers out of the bullpen just to start, one, to get down the stretch here and two, to get ready for October. Steve, there's word out of Jay's camp that Anthony Santander's back in Toronto, he's been hitting off high-velocity pitching machines back from the shoulder injury that's kept him out for months now.

what would be your level of interest in having him to be part of the ride through the stretch run and into the playoffs if he is healthy again? Do you think that's plausible that he can contribute here? Are you more looking, you know, let's get him ready for 2026? Well, I would send him on an extended rehab assignment. You know, I wouldn't just say, oh, you know, let's rush him back in there, give him a couple of bats and run them back in there. they're not in a dire need for that.

And so I would want him to go down. You know, the AAA season extends until like September 24th or something like that. So, you know, most rosters are, you know, they extended the AAA season because they stopped expanding the major league roster to 40 players. So they're going to keep players playing at the minor league level. I'd send him down and make him, you know, show that he's healthy and so that he can produce. And if he goes down there and he's not really hitting that I'm not. I'm not going to squeeze them into the lineup.

This isn't about feelings right now. This is about trying to win games. And so if he goes down there and he starts to crush it, then welcome back. Get in that lineup and go get them. But if not, then, you know, the guys who are there who are getting the bat should continue to get those.

Steve Phillips are TSM Baseball Insider, Jay's Twins tonight. Vladie, back in the lineup, he'll DH tonight. And I don't think there's any reason to believe he won't be back playing first base. likely this series, certainly by the weekend when Milwaukee's in town. But it does raise an interesting question. If Vladdy is in a position where he can only DH, he's going to DH,

which means George Springer is going to play. I think he's in left field tonight. And Ty France is going to play first. Like how, I guess bringing the Santander conversation into it, as we look ahead to a playoff roster, if for whatever reason Vlad is in a situation where he's got a DH, how complicated, how complicated does that? that make things for John Snyder, trying to fill out his roster and his lineup, you know,

depending on who they're going up against, the right, or the left, you, what have you. But where does France come into play? Where does Springer play in the outfield coming to play? Where do you stand on that? Yeah, and, you know, and if Santander is hitting, can he get out in the outfield? Right. And put him in a corner. And, you know, if you've got a ground ball pitcher on the mound, can you, you know,

and Bieber gets more ground balls and flyouts, can you afford a little less defensive? in the outfield, a little more offense in the outfield. So I think it's, you know, it's not going to be that difficult because if Vladdy can only DH, then that's what he'll do. And then the rest will be working matchups as to what's the right way to go, understanding that if you get a lead, you're going to get Santander out of there defensively and cover for him in that game, that France would probably get the Abbas at first base in, in Vladdy's absence.

But I'm with you. I think that Vladdy didn't seem to, you know, pull the muscle. I think he tweaked it a little bit. And if he can dh, I think it's a matter of days before he can get in there and play first base. But I'm with you. You've got to be nimble. You have to

be aware. You have to gauge it. I think there will be times maybe to protect Vladdy, even if you come back and play first, that they give them some time off. You know, the other thing that really keep mine, you know, when a guy's deaching, it's not as simple as, oh, you know, we'll keep them off the speed a little bit. You've got to keep

them stretched out and hot, right? You've got to keep his likes that because you're going to have to run the bases if he puts the ball in play. And sometimes you're better sort of playing in the field just because you're constantly moving around and your legs are staying stretched out and warmed up. So, you know, they'll manage that. But, look, everybody's gone through this sort of situation with the player before, and I'm sure they'll manage it properly. Steve, we're about a month left in the Steve and give or take a few days.

And, you know, as you look at this Blue Jay team and Schneider, are there areas of the game you like to see them maybe put players in or situations? Or is he just trying to get as many wins as he can to get across the finish line here? Yeah, there's nothing about opportunity or development that matters right now. You know, in Chicago with the White Sox, in Colorado, in, you know, Miami, in Washington, you know, they can give players opportunities. They can get a look at a guy. and they can give a left-handed hitter, a crack in face of the left-handed pitcher that they might have earlier in the year when they thought they might compete, you know, have platooned or pinched for somebody. But I think that the Js are in a point right now, you know, just like, for instance, the Yankees, you know, the Yankees, Aaron Boone, their manager, benched Anthony Volpe yesterday.

And when he was asked about, is it just a day off or, you know, is this a move that you're going to make moving forward? He's like, we'll see. Because he can't worry about Anthony Volpe and his development right now. He's made 17 errors. He's hitting a little over 200. And sure, you'd like to rebuild his confidence to get him on track, but if Jose Caballero can get the job done, and you don't want to lose your foothold on your playoff spot,

then you play Caballero. And I think the same thing for John Snyder. Whatever best suits this team to win, both in a lineup to start the game and in-game decisions to pitch hit, make a pitching change, whatever, you do it. Hoffman walks a couple guys. You don't leave them out there.

I don't. I go out there and get them. and I'll rebuild his psyche between outings. I'm not going to do it and try to leave him out there and try to work his way through something. So, you know, every game means something right now, and you can't give anything away. Steve Phillips, the Yankees, I guess, gave away a few games to the Red Sox,

you know, gave away that second seat in the American League East over the weekend by losing three or four against Boston. Of those two teams, with about a month to go, if you're the Blue Jays, who scares you more in terms of possibly chasing you down? Boston or New York? I think Boston. I do. And, you know, Yankees have more name recognition and, you know, they've got judge.

But Roman Anthony's a dude, and Jaron's a dude. Bregman's a great leader. They've got the ace and crochet who's actually pitching like an ace, where Max Fried fits like one to the All-Star break, but he's not been the same guy since then. And I think that Chapman is the most stable reliever between the two teams, and he's with Boston. So I actually think Boston right now would be more concerning.

You know, the Yankees at times feel like they're competing against themselves. The Red Sox feel like they're just a travel team showing up ready to play. And somebody says, oh, you know, they ask who we're playing today. I'm like, oh, it's the Yankees. Oh, okay, we'll play the Yankees this. We don't care. Just tell us who we're playing and we'll go play them. And I think that they're young enough not to know any better or to overthink it,

but really just go out and play and relax. I think Alex Corr has done a terrific job with this young team. Well, we were talking about the MVP pursuit with a month ago, and Judge is still a favorite. Like on Fan Nuley's minus 175 and Cal Raleigh's plus 135 right behind him. But for me, I think Raleigh should be the favorite, as far as I'm concerned. Like he hit 48, 49 last night. That's a new record at that position.

He's got a month ago. I don't think he's going to hit 63 home runs. I don't think he's going to track down Judge's record and catch him or pass him. I just think he's running out of time, but it's possible. Seattle's a half game back of the Yankees, I believe, the position he plays. Where do you stand on it as of today? Raleigh or Judge? Who's your MVP in the American League?

It would be Raleigh for me right now. And, you know, Vegas has it at Judge at like minus 185, and Raleigh. at a plus 120 or 115, at least what I saw. You know, in Cal Raleigh, before the game yesterday, it was a plus 250. And then after the two home runs in the game where he set the all-time record a single season for home runs by a catcher, it would drop to like 1.30, 120, you know, and so the gap has been narrowed. I think that I understand why Vegas has it separate.

But because Judge is deaching now with the sore elbow, I think it devalues him a little bit, diminishes his value. And I think there's that recency bias that exists where, you know, writers will look at it and say, it's really close. If Seattle gets in the playoffs, what Raleigh did is so unique in record setting. We've given it to Judge before. Let's give it to Cal Raleigh. And so I do think that Raleigh likely gets it over Judge right now.

And I can understand an argument why somebody might vote that way. Yeah, I'm with you on that. I think, again, we'll see. There's a lot of baseball left to be played, but the Raleigh story is incredible. I mean, the fact that he's doing what he's doing is a switch hitting, you know, everyday playing catcher. It's pretty incredible, Steve. I mean, we're so used to seeing Judge do what he does, and we've seen what Otani's been doing.

And the fact that it's new blood and it's a guy that plays the position he plays and he's a switch hitter, you know, like where do you think this is going a month from now in terms of, you know, all-time great seasons or most. unique kind of out-of-left-field seasons, considering the way Raleigh's been playing all year. Yeah, I think, look, I think that, you know, because he doesn't have that, that pedigree name of Otani and Judge, you know, I always think, well, you know, is it, how great can I say it is?

But think about a guy being a catcher and the rigors of doing that, and then doing it out of Seattle, where it's the most travel of any team in all of baseball. It puts more stress and pressure on any player ever. Annie, oh, by the way, he's a platinum glove defensive catcher. And yesterday, when he hit the two home runs, his manager, Dan Wilson, wanted to talk about how great he was at blocking the ball in the dirt when Logan Gilbert struck out 13 batters, 11 on the slider, and many of which were bouncing in the dirt that he would block keep in front of him

for the third strike. And so I think that it is one of the best seasons we've seen in a long time. And, look, we're going to talk about a guy. He's going to probably get to, you know, 55 home runs with 30-some games left, at least that. And you start thinking about, you know, how close it is to the American League record for home runs, which is 62. And he did it as a catcher. And he's doing it as a switch hitter. He's going to pass Mickey Mantle for the most home runs by a switch hitter.

He's going to have the most multi-homer games for a switch hitter ever when it's all said and done. And so I think that, you know, it's hard to put it in perspective, but I'm with you. I think it's going to go down as one of the best seasons we've ever seen by a player. Yeah, it's incredible what he's been doing all year. And Seattle and the Hunt, they're currently in a wildcard spot right now. We're at the Yankees with the Red Sox, and we got just over a month ago. Always great catching up with you, Steve. We'll do it again later in the week.

All right, thanks for having me, guys. Appreciate it. Steve Phillips, joining us here on the Maple Toyota Hotline, Drive the Built-in Canada Fuel Efficient, to drive Toyota Rav 4 gas or hybrid models available visit maple toyota.com. So yeah, Jay's back in action tonight, Max Scherzer on the mound. This Santander story, you know, we'll see. I'll believe it when I see it that he actually ever plays for him this year because it's the end of August and what can you expect out of the guy?

Like I don't know if you can apply the Bieber mentality to Santander. Like it just, it feels different to me. Now, they have more of a contractual commitment to him, but he was so bad prior to the injuries. And, you know, you're taking a bat out that's been pretty good. You know, like who are you taking out? Nathan Lucas out of the lineup? Who are you taking out to put him in? It's not always fair.

It's the same reason why Barrios gets the nod to stay in the rotation because they got a contractual commitment to him. Yeah. And they don't, you know, to other guys. I mean, they paid Santander $92.5 million. I mean, they got to get something out of that. And the idea that, you know, look, if he's healthy, if he's hitting off high-velocity pitching machines, he's got to be getting pretty damn close to healthy.

I'm a Steve. There's a runway here to send him down to Buffalo for an extended period. But you can't tell me that, look, if you believed in him when you gave him $92 million, only a handful of months ago, why wouldn't you believe in him now? And, you know, the idea that he is a slow starter, that's concerning, because he's starting again.

And if he's slow out of the gate in his return to the majors, that could be a problem but you got to at least test the waters here yeah test the waters it just it'll be at the expense of someone else that's the thing like beaver i guess technically is at the expense of lauer at least for one rotation you know but lauer's still here and he's going to start in a couple of days but um you know once you make that once you solidify your playoff roster there's no turn it back you know like that that's going to be an interesting story you know you send it in and you're like this is who we're going with for this round and you can adjust it as you go on. But you're taking someone out and you're putting him in and your trust

level is, well, we sign them and we gave him all his money, so I guess we have to. He better play for you. He's going to get at bats and he better perform. There's going to be a lot of pressure on him. There's going to be pressure on Bieber, Scherzer, everyone. It's, it's Major League Baseball, and it's the playoffs that are around the corner. But this one, this one's going to be an interesting, you know, twist and turn, I think, for the next month. See what happens with him. All right, we'll come back with something to chew on, brought to you by Boston Pizza. We've got Brad Faxson in just over half an hour.

His take on Tommy Fleetwood, winning the Tour of Championship. Brooke Henderson winning the Women's Open out at Mississauga, what we can expect with the Ryder Cup moving forward as we turn the page on the PGA tour season. And we've got Joe Thomas coming up. We got some big news out of the NFL in terms of signings, and it appears as if there's one big name who's still out there. And we all know who it is. He was sleeping watching his team play the other day.

We'll get into that and more still to come this hour. Overdrive continues. TSN 1050 and on TSN 2. All right, Brad Faxon coming up in about a half an hour. Joe Thomas in about an hour. And things are happening in the NFL. We're still waiting on Micah Parsons. He's the only guy who, as of now, has still not been signed,

and we don't know if he's going to play. And I saw Dan Orlovska and ESPN today. opining that he's not sure he'll ever play again for the Cowboys, which I think is recency biased because Parsons is sleeping and it's getting ugly and he's got a rookie head coach down there and Brian Schottenheimer and Jerry Jones is a mess and it's a circus all the time. But generally things do get resolved. But Trey Hendrickson, who led the NFL at Sacks last year,

you know, has been waiting for a new deal with Cincinnati and it sounds as if he's worked one out, a one-year deal about $30 million, and I'm guessing 30 million guarantee. I haven't seen all the details yet. But Hendrickson, Don, Terry McLaren, got done in Washington today. So their number one wide receiver is back in camp and ready to play to start the year. And the NFL season starts next Thursday. And Parsons is the lone man out.

And he's been the face of this whole conversation because of the team he plays for because of who he is, how outspoken he is. His agent's been, you know, revealing different things and making public statements. um it's the lone circus and i'm not at all surprised it's the only one that we're still waiting for and i don't know like our lovsky knows what he knows i respect his opinion but i would be shocked if this doesn't turn out the way almost all these things turn out with jerry jones he's going to cave at the last minute he's going to give micha parsons every last dime that he's demanding and he's going to chalk it up to all publicity's good publicity and you know my

circus is my circus and I make many, many millions, scratch that, billions off it. And I love being the ringmaster and nothing's ever going to change. Yeah, I'd be worried about this with my best player. And, you know, whether it's, you know, let's say the deal gets done. What does that affect the relationship moving forward? He's still a young player. There'll be other contracts. I just, I don't like handling it this way.

Dax, yeah, he's a good quarterback. C.D. is a good receiver. but this guy, I think, is a game changer on that side of the ball. Yeah, like analytically, when he's on the field, they're one of the three or four best defenses in the league. When he's off, they're one of the three or four worst. That's how impactful he has been. Like, he is the definition of a game changer.

There's very few of them in the league. Miles Garrett's one of them. T.J. Watts, one of them. Parsons is one of them. You can look at corners, too. Like there's, you know, Certan and others that literally lock down half the field. It just changes everything. If you have a pass rusher that every single snap is going to affect your coverage,

what your quarterback's thinking, how your playbook is going to be unrevealed or unveiled. You get a corner that can shut down half the field. There's two positions on the defensive side where that really, really makes an impact. And Parsons plays one of them, and he does it at an incredibly high level, and he's younger than all those guys. Garrett's older, Watts older. He's the youngest of the bunch. and they play opening night in Philly. They open the season in Philly,

which I can't help but think is a part of where this is going for Jerry Jones where I think he's concerned they might get pumped opening night, but how do you soften the blow? You sign them the day of the game. Yeah, right? And then who cares?

It doesn't matter that they got pumped. Of course they got pumped. Parsons wasn't really ready to play. Now they've got a long week. He'll be ready for week two. It's all good. That's how he would be thinking. That's how he would operate.

Opening night in the NFL, all eyes are on the champs in Philly. Actually, we're going to steal that for you. We're going to sign our best player day of an hour before kickoff. There's Jerry Jones and Parsons right there knocking out details on a contract. And he's out there. He runs out and plays. And then that becomes the story of the night. And I wouldn't be surprised at all of that was the long-term plan here for Jerry Jones.

That's exactly the plan, Hayes. I mean, that's how you expect this to turn out because it's turned out like this so many other times. And, you know, you see Jerry at the preseason game where Micah Parsons is putting on a show, you know, on the side line, lying down. That wasn't a great, that's an amateur look. It's silly. It's goofy. Like, you're laying down and pretending you're falling asleep. Like, that's not professional.

It's not professional. It's not professional either in the way he's trying to, like, he's basically, he's like disobeying NFL, you know, collectively bargain rules about trying to cut out the agent from a negotiation, which is ridiculous. You can't be doing that. but he's also like he's playing around with Micah Parsons' mom making jokes about how Micah wants money and but Gary just sees it as a show man he sees it as a reality show he's got a Netflix show that's doing great right now based on his time with the Cowboys really good by the way I highly recommend it and that's all it is to Jerry and that's the sad thing for his football team and the people that want it to win because that's not priority number one in Jerry's mind

right the challenge it's chaotic right I I think the teams need to have as little distractions as possible, and this has been a big distraction. Players are being asked about it. It's on that coach's mind, M.I.M. I'm not going to have this guy here. So I don't understand how the guy in charge of the team, I'd want to have this kind of chaos around my team

before even start the season. Even if it's 5% disrupting or disruptive to your team, whether it's practice or games, it's not worth it, especially when you know you're going to do the right thing, which is to get them back here. Yeah. Like where are the circuses in the NFL right now? Dallas, Cleveland.

Yep. Right? Maybe Miami. Yeah, maybe Miami. Like teams that never win, never do anything, aren't expected to do anything. And this is their time to shine. And it's almost like a sign of insecurity, I think, in terms of like where Dallas is going. Like, let's just try to distract people, you know, by get them concentrating on this stuff

as opposed to looking at the fact that you might have the worst team in the NFC East. You know, you might. Like the Giants might miraculously be better. They've added some talent on that team. You know, I think we all expect Philly to be very good. Washington, as long as Jane Daniels continues to play the way he did last year, they should be at least a formidable team in the East. So, yeah, it's all about distraction.

It's all about, and Cleveland, the same thing. Like, no one expects Cleveland to do anything this year, yet it's going to be a circus because it's Cleveland, and that's the way they operate. And yet, you watch this hard knocks. So-called, the show is called Hard Knocks, but because it's about the Buffalo Bills, it's not very hard. Nothing. There's nothing in it.

Just totally routine. It's just like, wow, look at these guys. They all get along. Yeah, they had a small little hold in with James Cook, but they ended up paying them, you know, happy ending there. Yeah, two weeks ago got rid of that problem very quickly. And everybody loves everybody, and they all work hard. And there's zero drama in Orchard Park, which is why they're one of the Super Bowl favorites. Exactly.

Exactly that. Like you look at the way the championship teams, they separate each other. It's like great poker players. It's not luck why the same guys are in the final table every single time. It's because they operate differently. You know, the best teams, the teams with championship pedigree, the teams with that type of culture, they just, they're run differently. They're well-oiled machines.

And Buffalo miraculously is won. You know, 10 years ago, they were wearing a different jersey. You know, they were looked upon differently anyway. and Brandon Bean and Sean McDermott and Josh Allen you bring the three of them in they connect rest is history you know they are who they are now so yeah only Parsons is still I guess a hold in waiting to see what's going to happen with the Cowboys but we're talking earlier and I want to get back into you know the the listening to the outside noise if you're Austin Matthews and Stratt I want you to jump in on this because I made the point earlier just based on again ranking that are out, that are not outrageous at all. Like the NHO Network reveals them every single year, the top 20 wingers, centers, defensemen, goalies,

and their consensus based on voting had Matthews at 7. All right. So they had McDavid 1, McKinnon 2, dry saddle 3, Barkaw 4, Crosby 5, Eichol 6, Matthew 7. Now, on a couple of guys individual lists, and we do this every single year at TSN, our top 50 will be doing it in a month, and I'm curious to see where Matthews will land

on that list. But some guys had Braden point ahead of him. Mike Rupp said he would take a healthy Jack Hughes over Austin Matthews. I would like to see Austin do something that he's never done before, and I'm

not holding my breath that he will. But come in with a chip on your shoulder, man. Like this is the league telling you that they think you're moving in the wrong direction, right? That you had a down year, that your playoff performances are not good enough. Now Marner's left.

And I'm surprised Marner didn't get kind of hit with the same stuff we apply to Austin because I saw he was ranked third, I believe, in terms of wingers in the NHL. Maybe that was right wingers. But, you know, Mitch has the exact same reputation and resume in terms of playoff performances. But I'd like to see Matthews come in and day one at camp say, just mature and be a killer. You say, I've heard it. I've seen it. You want to bet against me?

Go ahead. You want to bet against us? Do you think we're going to fall apart because Mitch isn't here? And they're all playing the same thing. I heard him when he's up in Brampton recently. I heard Willie. You know, I get they love Mitch. I get that.

But the world is looking at you. A lot of people outside of this market and within it. I said, what are you going to be during the regular season without Barner? Like, can you be good enough to hold on to that top seat? You were the top team in the division last year. That's the base car. If I'm the Leafs, I think you should expect to show up and win your division again. Can you do it?

A lot of people are doubting you. And Mitch is gone now. You can be friendly. You can be nice. You can say the right thing. but when would you expect them to turn that off and say enough of Mitch? We don't want to talk about him anymore. He chose to leave, and we're going to win without him.

I'd like to hear that from these guys. Yeah, I don't know if you'll ever hear that. I mean, but I think that, to be honest, I don't think they were the best team of their division last year. The team, the one of Stanley Cup, was Florida. I think Florida paced themselves down the stretch. Now, I get it's a regular season title, but when the Stanley Cup Champions Union Division, you're number two at best, at the very best, going to the season. season. And I think Florida is at least as good or maybe better than they were last

year, considering where they're at. So I think for Matthews, it's an interesting point. When I look at everyone on that list, I think when those players, like we talked about the two others, McKinnon, Barkoff, Crosby, I'll even put Eichel and point in there. When they step on the ice, I think they're trying to prove that they're the best player on the ice all the time. I think that Matthews has to develop that same one, especially in head-to-head confrontations. And I'll use a specific time when they were in the four, you know, in the playoffs. Four nations, yeah.

Four nations. And then the playoffs, like, you have to rise up and embrace that challenge because it's an opportunity to show that you're the best. And I'll go back to, I think it was Drysettel's first or second year. He played his first game against Ante-Cobotar. It looked like a men versus, like a dad versus kids game. Copatar had his way with Drysiddle. And Leon, now I know that Matthew's further down to his road, but Leon after said I had a lot

to learn from that game from this player. And then now, you could tell when he would play him, you know, with the years ago, and it was a big matchup. He wanted to take Copa Dar down because they're both big, strong, heavy guys and good players. So I think for Matthews, he needs to go into those one-on-one matchups of those top centers on that side and have his way. Like, I think Hughes is a really good sentiment. He's not even close to the same size as Matthew. They're both skilled.

No. There's no way that Hughes shouldn't win that battle. when it's like i i can't i can't um compare or challenge how the guys vote but head to head there's no reason that matthew shouldn't have his way with hughes night in night out he's as skilled he can skate he's way bigger all those things show it and do it every time every time he go on and play take that list put it on your sticker and say okay hughes they poke you ahead of me or whatever and then do the same with point do the same i mean Connor and leon mckinan crosbie Yeah, you've got to be reasonable, but there's like, but you can still show up,

and not that he doesn't show up, but just have that, have that. He needs to have that mentality. Like, I think that's what this team has desperately been missing for years, you know, and I don't know if Neelander thinks that way. I don't believe Marner ever thought that way. You know, I think of anything, they looked internally, and so I just got to be better than the guy beside me. You know, that's who I'm thinking of.

I got to be better than Matthews, or Matthews's got to be better than Willie or Tavaris or whatever, and they can say, well, we took care of where we were supposed to within our own pecking order. But that mentality and that attitude, and it's right there for you. Like, to hear Mike Rupp say he would take a healthy Jack Hughes over, that is an insult to Austin Matthews. It is. It is.

Jack Hughes has won nothing in his career, and he's a really good player. He's nowhere close to Matthews, like nowhere close to him. And yet, you know, and Rupp knows the game. Like, it covers the game well. And, you know, it's a provocative comment. He stands by it. I vehemently disagree. But it's on Austin to go out there and prove what a lot of people are saying, like, hey, you don't have, you're closer to that group than the other one.

That's what that comment is. You're going that way, not the other way. Yeah, I mean, that's kind of an, it's an outlandish comment because Jack Hughes doesn't exactly have a playoff resume. Not even close. He's been in the playoffs once in his career. And look at him at the Four Nations. He was terrible. He's a young guy, but still.

Let's not be silly here. And let's not forget, like Matthews, you know, like at his best, he's been, to your point, Hayes, like there's been moments where he's been number two to McDavid and it hasn't been particularly close, right? Like, because nobody has scored goals like Matthews has scored goals. Now, he's coming off a year where you have to assume a lot of the performance was related to an injury or injuries, plural, that, you know, he's not going to tell us about, which I think is a mistake, but that's his right. And so there's a factor that, you know, again, we don't know much about. he says he feels good.

I think the good was the word he used the other day when he was asked about his health. He did not elaborate on that. But you're right. The question is, Brendan Shanahan was asking about killer instinct, asking about killer instinct and where to find it on this club,

you know, five years ago. You know, four or five years ago, we've been having the killer instinct conversation. And that's very not so subtly aimed at the best players on the team. And it really hasn't shown up. So the question is, in year 10, because you had a down year and now people are bleep talking.

Does that make the killer instinct show up? I mean, I guess we'll find out, but I wouldn't bet big money on it. No, again, that's been his approach has been more kind of too cool for that and more of a laid-back, nonchalant guy. You know, that's kind of been his approach and attitude. Not that he's not Uber professional. He works his ass off, like he's in incredible shape, you know, when he's a great player. But, yes, I mean, that's an ingredient.

that moves you up the list. In one year, it can be a one-off. Two years becomes a trend. You know, like now people are looking at, okay, you got hurt, wasn't a great year, Mitch is gone. You get back on it and you play 82 games or 80-82 games and score 55 goals in your dominant force. People will come, you know, back to you. But ultimately, it's going to come down to the playoff performances. That's why Barcoves ahead of them, clearly.

Like, Barcove is a great, great player. but Barkov's a winner. That's his reputation. Like he's a winner. He's a guy, like he had 71 points last year. He's never, he's never been up for the heart. You know, I don't think he'll ever win a heart. He doesn't want to Kahn Smyth, but he's a winner, and that's your reputation.

And he's earned that. And Austin has to win in order to break down a lot of the barriers. And that's on him. And it's on his teammates, his organization. But I'm looking forward to seeing what he's got. You know, like I'm looking forward to see if he shows up and he is healthy. in the last handful of years of his career, it's been on one year, off the next,

on one year, off the next. And generally he comes off a, quote-unquote, down year for him, and he launches back into a stratosphere like we saw a couple years ago. And when he won his heart, when he scored 60. So that's got to be the expectation. That's what I'm thinking he's going to bring to the table. If he does that, I think a lot of people will change their opinions. but if he doesn't, scores 35 and is banged up all the time,

then he's going to continue to move down the list. That's what's coming. It's a great challenge for him this year. It should be excited. Great opportunity. It's a great opportunity to kind of push through. Yep, big time. All right.

Brad Faxson in 20 minutes, Joe Thomas on the NFL scene, including Shadour Sanders, and whether or not he's going to actually make the team in Cleveland. Will we see him play games at all this season or down the road for the Browns or any other teams? And what happens with Michael Parsons and the Cowboys? That more still to come. Overdrive continues.

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A week tomorrow, school's popping up, man. It's a big thing. We were out today and buying some school supplies. And my oldest will be in grade five. My youngest is going into grade one. So both in the big yard, which is very, very substantial, right? Both going into the big yard. And my wife and I were laughing the other day because we're, we've had a great summer.

It's been an awesome summer. A lot of travel. They've been in camps. We've been out of town going up north, seeing a lot of friends. We're at the end of it. That's enough now. Like we're ready for school. You know, we're ready.

Let's get back into some normalcy here. You know what I mean? Let's find a normal schedule. Back to school. Back to work. Let's turn. The weather's starting to turn. It's cooled down substantially now.

It's raining for the first time in like two months. I'm ready for the fall. I'm ready for football. I'm ready for the NFL. college football this weekend let's get going here well there's always that time right that time you have to get

the kids settled in school their activities and then just kind of a schedule because we know we have three kids my wife and I are both pretty busy so it's always trying to find the schedule the works and I find it takes about a month that once you get that settled in everything calms down and get into October

it's like okay we're in a rhythm which is it's tough because otherwise it's just like the summer I find it's chaos driving people here and there I want to see my buddy you got to do this, got to do that. It's a lot. So I look forward to the schedule. Yeah, I'm with you. Find a rhythm, Dave.

Find a rhythm. I know a lot of parents that they're in your situation, Hayes, they're starting to look down at the states and they're saying, wait a second, the Americans send their kids back to school in August. Sign us up for that. Yeah. I know. That's a completely different ball game.

And that affects players, right? Like I had a conversation with an NHL player over the summer who said, you know, they got to get down to the states early because they're. kids have to go to school. Yeah. You know, so like where if you play on a Canadian team, you can be up in Muscoq on Labor Day, and it's all good. You don't have to worry about it.

Kids are going to school when, you know, day after Labor Day, it's fine. You play in the States, you got to go down there, you know, first second week of August. Yeah, they've been back for a week or two depending on where you live. Yeah. It's a different world down there. But I think, I think it speaks to the problem that parents have.

You know, like the summer's long, man. Yeah. And cutting it a little shorter by a week or two. Well, a week, anyway. way. This week, and this is purely personal bias, but my kids have been in camps. They've done, it's been an awesome summer. This week, we got nothing planned.

Right. Nothing. And it's just like, what are we doing? My wife and I are working. We're trying to figure out how we're going to get to the finish line. You know, we'll get there. It's all good. But, yeah, it's the most wonderful time of the year.

That's why that jingle always pop. Right. It always pops. Put the girls in the back air with a couple of golf clubs and, you know, you might have a couple of Brooke Anderson's. I'm working on it. They were inspired by Brooke, right? We went out and played yesterday and played a few holes, and they were hitting bombs and rolling putts, and Brooke Anderson's an incredible inspiration. So more on that into the next hour. Brad Faxon coming up, Joe Thomas on the NFL and our best bet still to come. Overdrive

continues. TSN 1050 and on TSN2. Seasoned gamer or just video game curious, this week in 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 weekly join me Naomi kyle and stay ahead of the game with all the latest updates even if you're a total newbie stream this week in gaming on the free iHeart radio app or wherever you get your podcasts