OverDrive - OverDrive - July 24, 2026 - Hour 1 - Mark Schlereth

Episode Date: July 24, 2026

Join Bryan Hayes and Dave Feschuk for Hour 1 on OverDrive! The guys kick things off by discussing LeBron James’ decision to sign with the Philadelphia 76ers, and what this means for the competitiveness of the NBA Eastern Conference. NFL on FOX Analyst Mark Schlereth joins the show to discuss Patrick Mahomes’ health and if he starts the season, what to expect from Aaron Rodgers in Pittsburgh, and if the Rams are the best team in the league. The guys wrap up with an injury update on Addison Barger.

There's no shortcut for saving time, but saving money is simple. Just combine your car and home insurance with Bel Air Direct and save. Get a quote at bellair direct.com. This hour of overdrive is powered by Fanduil. Fan Duel, bringing you everything from the opening line to the final score. Brian Hayes and Dave Feschuk. What's going on, Dave? Big day?

We got our LeBron news. I did not see Philly. We literally talked about it yesterday. I did not see Philly. I will explain why I think it actually makes sense that he did end up actually going to Philly in the end. But I thought he would go somewhere that he knows, thought it would be Miami,

maybe Cleveland, maybe Golden State. He doesn't know Golden State, to be fair, but he is tight with a bunch of guys up there. And he ends up going to hang out with Nick Nurse and Jalen Brown and Juel M. Bid, if he ever wants to play. What a story. And he's claiming this is his,

final decision, this is it. Philly and then retirement. Are you buying any of that? Two-year deal, player option for next year, then he's done. Then he's done. Yeah. So it's in league minimum, which is a lot of money still, but $8 million. I mean, LeBron has spent the last 22 or 23 years getting top dollar, whether it was

an entry-level deal when he went first overall to Cleveland once he became a free agent. And he said in his statement, hey, it's not about money. money. I want to be competitive. I want to grind. I mean, the financial press calculated that he was a billionaire back in 2022. So he doesn't really need the money. He doesn't need that much money. I mean, but it is a huge pay cut. Like, this is a guy who will make $3.9 million this coming season. He's never made less than that. He made four plus in his rookie year in 2003 Hayes. Yeah. Crazy. Think about that. Crazy. He was making $52 million, $53 million in.

LA this year. And now he's making less than $4 million. Like, Brody's barely making, like, Bronnie's making 2.3. Yeah, Brani, Ronnie's kind of looking at him, like, welcome to the club here. Exactly. And a lot of people wondering, what does this mean for Bronny? And his deal was fully guaranteed by the Lakers, you know,

based on reports that I've read, you know, the Lakers are pretty fond of him. I think he had a pretty good development year last year. You know, he's not going to be a star in the league or very unlikely he's going to be a star in the league. But I think this is actually in his best interest. Just stay in You can't follow him to Philly.

Oh, that'd be a bad look. You cannot do that. Like, it was, you went through the whole process of the Lakers drafting you to begin with. And everyone understands why they did. It was LeBron, it was Rich Paul, and the Lakers went with it. And again, I think he's got a fair amount of talent. Like when I've seen him play, he looks like he can possibly be a shooter in the NBA. He's likely a bench guy, a depth guy in the NBA.

No, he's definitely a bench guy. He's 100% a bench guy. But you have to, you got to write. your own ship here now, right? You got, like, LeBron's gone, your dad's in Philly, let them go, you got to stay in L.A. if you're Brony. You have to. Oh, for sure. You have to. I'm not guaranteeing that will happen. I'm not guaranteeing LeBron and Rich Paul won't call up and say, okay, this is a part of the deal. Like, there's fine print in the Philly deal that they're also going to acquire Bronnie. I wouldn't be shocked if that would happen, but I would say if I was

suggesting, if I was being a, you know, a friend to Brunney, I'd say, just let it go, man. Stay in L.A. try to work your way through the Laker organization. Yeah, especially since, you know, Jalen Brown, one of LeBron's new teammates, was caught on camera, appearing to mouth some anti-Bronny sentiment a while back. At Summer League, a couple years ago. I don't think Bronny's a pro, I believe. The lip-readers caught him saying. Which he wasn't wrong. No.

You know, in terms of you're talking about an NBA standard, the guy's been in the G-League the last couple of years. Yeah. If Jalen Brown mouthed those words and he was talking about it. Hawking Courtside. He wasn't the only one saying that, right? That was pretty much a basketball-eyed sentiment. Anybody who actually pays five seconds of attention to the NBA could watch that

Summer League, could watch the Bronny's early days in the NBA and realize he's not quite ready for prime time. Right. Probably shouldn't have come out of school. I think most people understood that. He had medical issues. His game wasn't exactly, you know, off the charts at USC. It was more about his dad's wishes than his own

in a lot of ways. It felt that way, anyhow. It sure did. But in the end, LeBron goes to Philly. And listen, I actually think this makes sense with where he is in his career. You know, the jumping on a bandwagon in 2010, that's different. He was 25 years old at that time. It completely altered the history of the NBA, completely altered his reputation and what he was going to have to fight against for the rest of his career. And that was you couldn't do it in Cleveland. so you had to go team up with D. Wade and with Bosch and run to Miami to get your championships.

And that started the evergreen debate of while Jordan wouldn't do that, Jordan stayed in Chicago. Right. You know, Byrd stayed in Boston. Magic was in L.A., you know, and on and on and on it goes. Ring chaser. Exactly. Kobe never left L.A., etc. Exactly.

He became a ring chaser. He became a guy that wasn't willing to commit to Cleveland. So he had to go and find it somewhere else. and he did that. Then he went back to Cleveland and made amends on that. Then he went to L.A., etc. He's 41 years old. This is actually what you should be doing. Because he's got all the money in the world.

Why go to a team that isn't supposed to be any good or a team that might rely on you more than you can actually supply them? We're in Philly, that's going to be Jalen Brown and Maxie's team. Like, that's the team that they have effectively built. It could be those two guys who are younger than him,

Edgecom. good back court. You get Jalen Brown there. And then you've got to pray if you're Nick nursing company that LeBron and Juel Embed can stay healthy enough to be available come to playoffs. That's exactly. That's the whole game plan here. Let the other guys kind of carry it if 50 plus

wins get to the playoffs and hope that these guys can do something in the playoffs. So at 41 years old, it's actually kind of makes sense to do this at the end of your career. If you're not going to retire, if you want to keep playing, you might as well go somewhere where other guys can carry the load. And I think that's

probably available to him in Philly. It feels a little bit like Tom Brady joining the Buccaneers at age 42, right? Soon to turn 43 because that was a team clearly, well, not only, they were ready when they did win in his first year there, right? And I'm not saying the Sixers are

going to win, but they're in the conversation, man, and probably against all odds. It sounds like nobody in Philly really thought they had a chance to get him until very, very recently. That is what is surprising. Like, clearly Miami was in the hunt. I'm assuming

Cleveland was in the hunt. There have been reports today that LeBron was asking Cleveland to try to find a way to acquire Kyrie Irving. Yeah. And that Messiah and the Mavericks shut that down. I don't know how truthful that is or not. I mean, there's so much stuff already out there surrounding LeBron, including a suggestion

that he may live in New York and commute to Philly. Will Chamberlain did that. I would suggest against that, though. Philly's a town that I don't think they would like that that much. Jay J.J. Reddick did it apparently when he was playing for the Sixers. So that's where he'd be getting it from.

The difference is J.J. Redd, I'm not sure people in Philly really cared about J.J. Reddick that much. You know what I mean? Yeah. Whether you're embracing the market, maybe people in Philly don't care. I don't know. But I don't get the impression Philly and Philly natives love New York City that much. No.

You know? And I know, like, there's examples of that. You mentioned, like, Kauai, by all accounts, was living in San Diego and making his way to L.A. Right. You know, there's, I have heard. over the years there's been a number of Buffalo bills who have lived in Toronto and they make their way down to Buffalo. That's right. You know, I'm

pretty sure that it does happen. But LeBron is such a different beast that when he rolls through your town he takes over your town. And the idea of them tracking his plane flying from New York to Philly. Maybe it's a chopper. Yeah. Or it probably would be.

Chopper. Might be a chopper distance. I just feel like that may not be the greatest way to kind of embrace a new market. Yeah, he ain't taking the Amtrak commuter train. I'm guessing. Probably not. probably not. But I mean, he's LeBron. I mean, he could have two residences. Like, you get a nice pet house in Philly, a nice pet house in Central Park, West or wherever they that cool people live nowadays, the West Village with Taylor Swift. I don't know where they all

live. But, you know, he probably just do both, right? Have a place there, a place there. Yeah. Still get the place in L.A. still get the place in Cleveland, the compound in rural Ohio. I mean, he's a man of multiple residences. He's a billionaire. He can live. Exactly. He's got a lot of options for sure. But I will say, again, you look, at a Tyrese, VJ Edgecombe, Jalen Brown. Like that, that is a good young core where you got your back court and your wing

basically established. I'm not convinced this this guarantees them a championship at all. No. Because Mbid never plays. Like he just ever since his MVP season and even that year he played 68

games or something like that. He never plays. He's never healthy. And he's never won anything. He's never proven that he's a guy that can step up in the biggest, biggest moments. The only MVP Hayes, who's never been to a conference final. Right. In the history of the league. Think about that. Exactly. Which is a, it really, it's a slight on him and his legacy, quite frankly. So if you're relying on Embedd and LeBron at the end of the season to be the ones that are

going to get you over the top through the Knicks, if that's who you're going to play, through Detroit, if that's who you're going to play. I'm not convinced that this is going to work in terms of winning a championship. I am convinced that they'll make the playoffs and they're going to be a very compelling story. Well, it's interesting. But I don't think this makes them the favorite is what I'm going to say. No, I think there's two favorites and they're both in the West. Because Wemby's another year older and he nearly won it this year.

Right. I mean, they didn't blow those. They should have won it. Like, if they had decent coaching and managed the games probably, they should have beat the next. You're talking to Knicks. They should have beat the Knicks. Well, they blew those games. They blew those games.

The Spurs blew the championship this year. They should have won it. I'm sorry to Knicks fans, but that's just the way it is. And OKC is going to be good again, even though they just made an unfortunate trade. They unload Lude Dort for financial reasons, which doesn't obviously help them. But, you know, they'll get, they've got depth, right? They've got, they've got guys. So I think it's kind of the West is a two-team race.

But the East, man, it's nobody in the East is as good as those teams, I don't think, even though the Knicks are the defending champions, but you look at the East, like the Knicks are the defending champions. Miami just got Yannis. They'll still be decent. Yep. Indy's going to be back with Halliburton coming off the thing.

They made a final. They did. They fell off extremely last year. It was all about the Achilles of their best player. 100%. You need Halliburton. I mean, if Kauai, if the deal goes down, like now if you're a Raptor fan,

it's mandatory that this, obviously that goes without saying before LeBron chose Philly. but you need this deal to go through now. Because you can't bring Brandon Ingram back into the program and say, hey, never mind. We've always been a big fan. No hard feelings. He's not exactly the most motivated athlete to begin with.

And now you've got a chip on your shoulder against the organization. It just can't work. It can't happen. And you need Kauai now because of what you said. Like there's been turnover in the East. You know, Yonis has been in East his whole career, but now he's in Miami. Jalen Brown and LeBron now in Philly.

The Knicks are really good. Detroit's still going to be there. Cleveland's not going anywhere. They'll be around. Yeah, like there's good teams in the east. I don't know if there's a great team. I agree with you. The two best teams are clearly Oklahoma City and San Antonio. But there's good teams. But I

think, you know, you put the rap, if Kauai is here and healthy, I think again, Kauai and Scotty Barnes have the chance to be the best two pack in the east. No doubt. Like the best two pack in the, the most effective two players on the same team in the east. And the, and the, and the, and the

the Raptors as a whole have a chance to be the best defensive team in the league without Wembe. Right. Like they're, like, they were the fifth best defensive team in the league this year. You had Kauai, who may not be the defender he was at his height, but still, if he wants to lock you up, Kauai can still lock you up. I mean, they're going to be a scary defensive team. Yeah. And, but on the other hand, you could make a case, like LeBron going to Philly is the worst possible scenario for the Raptors

in every other team in the year. No, exactly. Like, Philly is vastly improved. He's still got a lot of game left. Yes. You know, he's still, and again, he's not the main player. And he hasn't really been in L.A. Certainly since Luka arrived the last couple of years. So he's kind of used to that. And he's probably, I'm sure there's an understanding in Philly.

And they got a coach that can deal with this kind of stuff too. Like Nick Nourst has been through it. He's had that pressure. He's had the pressure. And this is immense pressure for him. This is a put up or shut up here for Nick. He's got to win this year. or that's going to be it.

You know, because he's had some ups and downs in Philly. Big time. Like some big time ups and down. And he was Darry's guy and Darryl Morey was fired in June. That's right. This is Mike Gansy taken over here as the GM. LeBron's old Ohio high school basketball pal. Yep, exactly.

So you've got a new executive administration in Philly. A lot of pressure on Nick Nurse. But if, you know, LeBron is going to give him, whatever he's going to give him the regular season, that's not really why he's there. he's going to be there to try to have something left in the tank in the playoffs. And if you believe the Knicks are going to make it, Detroit's going to make it, Cleveland, Toronto, Philly, five teams.

Two of those teams are playing in the first round. Yeah. You know, and the door's open for another team to jump up and possibly force two of those teams to play. Or four of those teams to play in the first round. It's going to be a really good team. That has a chance to be very compelling. And listen, LeBron still, he still gets clicks, man. Like this is obviously massive news.

It seems to have surprised a lot of people in the NBA. Yes. Because again, I think people thought maybe Cleveland, if it could work, Miami, Golden State. Like, that's been the focus for weeks. And then Philly kind of comes out of nowhere, and he ends up joining them. But you look at it, like, you know, it starts to make more sense when you, the more you learn, right? Like, first of all, they had a proven president. You know, they got the president of Herod's Blitzer Sports.

Bob Myers. Bob Myers, who was at Golden State forever? four-time champion of Golden State, two-time executive to the year. So there's credibility at the top of the organization, which is always good as comforting as a player, right? You know, you got the GM was the runner up to LeBron in

Mr. Basketball High School back in 2001 or whatever it was. So they have a history from Ohio growing up. He was a good basketball player. He played at St. Bonaventure in West Virginia. He's got credibility among players because he was a baller. Not an NBA, but like he was a good high school and college

player. He got proven coach. championship coach and then you look at it maxi clutch client right yeah rich paul lebron's agent guy kind of runs the NBA in some ways or at least thinks he does acts like he does and there's every indication that lebron really likes maxi and so for whatever negatives there are like yeah you may get tired of joel and beat as every other teammates gotten tired of joel and bead you may not be sure about jalen brown but if you're ever going to get jaylain brown but if you're ever going to get Jalen Brown in a good spot. Hey, he's a champion himself.

He's an NBA finals MVP, and he's got a chip on his shoulder because the Celtics just gave up on him for financial reasons, but other reasons. Yep, they chose Tatum, basically. They chose Tatum. So if you're ever going to get him to play well for a season, this is probably the season. Yep.

And he's a really good player, obviously. And, you know, you start thinking about it, like we were all talking about, well, he wants to go somewhere warm, where you can golf. I thought so. I legitimately thought he'd go somewhere warm. But guess what? Pine Valley. Pine Valley's in Philly. It has been brought to my attention that Philly is one of the four or five great golf markets in the U.S.

That's Kyle Lowry. Absolutely. Marion's down there. Aronimic is down there. Mike Trout's got his new spot that he built with Tiger, I believe. Trout International or whatever. Apparently it's a great spot. Like Pine Valley, the thing is, LeBron's just picking up.

I saw, you know, someone was writing about it that he's got no chance to be a member there. Then I let him on. No, because it's such high standards at Pine Valley. And he's still, you know, he's probably a... 40 handicapped. But if he helps him when a title gets his handicap down to, you know, not a single digit necessarily. In the teens. Get into the teens.

I think LeBron's getting into Pine Valley. Yeah. There could be a part of his thought process is I got to get into Pine Valley. You know, because I'll bet you when he retires, again, if he gets his cap down, does Augusta come calling at some point? They called on the Mannings.

You know, they might call on LeBron. Yeah, like they got Lynn Swan down there, former NFL receiver. He's a prominent member. You see him roaming around during the Masters, obviously, Goodell. Commissioners, a lot of the commissioners, I think Manfred's a member. Okay. So there's, yeah, there's always that.

Yeah, there's always that idea. There's always that idea if you play there. And I think he's, I mean, he's got ownership ambitions. He's got ambitions to be in that club. He's a billionaire. I mean, he's got a lot of the resume points that you need to check off to be an be an Augusta, a friend of Augusta. I don't care, you know, how esteemed your club is.

There are people on that board that love stars and love celebrities, and there aren't many, if any, bigger than LeBron. And I'm curious, you know, if they find a way to win what this means for his legacy. If he wins a championship there, that would be a title in four different cities. Wow. And, you know, two of them, well, it's kind of fascinating when you just look at the map. He's been in the Midwest, the southern tip of Florida, as far west as you can go and as far east as you can go.

He's played everywhere. Like Cleveland, Cleveland, Philly, Miami, L.A. is, you know, you're all over the map, so to speak. And you've got to think, like, he's got four, but, you know, Jordan's got six. He's not getting six. Kobe's got five.

You know, a lot of guys have more than him, right? Like a lot of the greats have more than him. he's got he's going to have pretty much every other record he's already the all-time leading score games played he's going to you know there's so many things he plays 25 seasons no one's played he's already got the record for the most yeah you know the most the longest career and i mean this you can't even you can't we could sit here all day and list off all the things he's done that no one else has done right um so i do think like maybe we underestimated it because the funny thing was like when you moved to l.a the narrative was this was about business right

right even though they won one in the ball It was a Disney asterisk. It was about, you know, you wanted to break into this production business and, you know, have the, have multiple podcasts and new documentaries. He wanted to go Hollywood. He did the Space Jam sequel that, you know, which was a Jordan thing that he took over. You know, he did all these, yeah, he did all these entertainment things that that maybe you could only do if you have a network in L.A., right? And he seemed to build that. and him and Rich Paul and their incredible bunch of business partners found a way for him to do that. So maybe that was why people didn't think he was chasing it.

And Rich Paul also said he's not chasing a ring. But this looks like you're kind of chasing a ring. Absolutely. Like why else are you going to Philly? Right. You have no connection to Philly. You're from Ohio. You've been living in L.A. forever.

Like I could understand New York to an extent, you know, again, it would be different now because then it would really look like your ring chase. it would be almost too obvious after the Knicks finally won. Yeah, then it's KD. It's pathetic like KD. Exactly. New York is New York. It's a, you know, that's a market where you can,

the same logic that applied to going to L.A. would apply going to New York. You said, I want to have roots in New York. Okay, I understand that. If you're a billionaire, it's probably a pretty good place to have some roots. You know, if you want to, if you're thinking about the next 50 years of your life, having a connection to New York is probably not the worst idea. Philly, though, on a league minimum,

This is about trying to win. Like, I can't think of any other reasoning behind it. Yeah. Which I actually, again, as I said, appreciate at this point. Like, why shy away from it now? You know, he was embarrassed by it when he won in Miami, I think. I think. Because I think he understood, we literally put a super team together and I came down here.

And then he got out of there. The decision was an embarrassment. Exactly. And then they're not three, not four, not five, not six, not seven, you know, And going back to Cleveland would indicate that too. He's like, I realized this, that wasn't smart. Like, I have to make amends on that. Yeah, that was about reputational repair.

Right. This is, hey, man, you're the oldest guy in the league. You got everything in the world. If you're comfortable in Philly, you think they can win and you think he can still have an impact. Okay. And it's a good thing for the league because Philly's a pretty major market. And they haven't won in a long time. 83.

Haven't won in a long time. and now you've got him on the East Coast again. So he's playing the Knicks a couple times. If you're a Raptor fan, I remember when he rolled through town the last time, you're like, this might be it. Well, he's going to be here a couple times again this year. Oh, yeah. Right?

And if he plays two years in Philly, we might see him four or five times. They might meet him in the playoffs again. Wouldn't that be great? We might get LeBron at Scotia Bank Arena again in the spring playing the Raptors. I never thought it would see that. Let's hope it goes better than the last three times they met him in the playoffs. Yeah, but I mean, he won't. won't scare you like he did in 18.

No, he won't. He won't. Maxie and Edgecombe might. They might. They're getting pretty good, man. Yeah, they definitely might. They're rocket ships out there. They're good. And I think he's going to be like, like, I'm, like, as a, I think you're right. Like, it's kind of, it's heartening that he actually cares about the game enough. Because he, like, he's picked some incredible teammates. Yep.

Like, he, like, one thing about LeBron that people don't realize, like, he still loves the run, man. Like, he led the league in fast break points this year. Yeah. He gets after it. He gets after it. And Maxie was third. Maxie's probably one of the fastest guys in the league. And Edgecombe is right there with him. I don't know. I'd love to see him race.

But so he's got these two young absolute lasers out there that he's going to be doing the, he's speaking of Brady going to Tampa. He's going to be the quarterback. He's going to be doing that precision passing thing. He does so well, right? Yeah. It's something to watch. It will be.

Like it is, there's no downside to it for the sport. Like you still, like cherish you while you still can. Whether you love or hate LeBron, he's, a remarkably compelling athlete and he's going to a team that's going to be pretty good in a conference like we said with the Knicks are really good. Sixers are good.

The heat. They've added Janus. Kauai's up here. You said Halliburton's coming back. You know, there's some pretty good team. Look what Atlanta did down the stretch. The magic are pretty good. The Wizards might actually finally join the party. I doubt it. I doubt it. But you never know. It's going to

be a very compelling season in the east. And LeBron's now a part of it. So let's get that Kauai deal go. Let's get the investigation over here. Well, apparently it's over and now they're just analyzing the data and making decisions on how do we punish the richest man in North American sports

who happens to own this team that's been accused of all these things. Right. Yeah, they're going to, they're going to, I think they have an obligation to hammer the clippers and hammer Steve Balmer. If it's, the smoking gun is so obvious that they've created a company to pay him on the side. I just don't know what Kauai is going to get.

That's what actually matters here if you're a Raptor for them. Because if you go through with the trade, I think most people believe it's going to happen, but he's suspended for 25 games. 25 would be fine, right? You can live with that? Take a few months off. Well, you've got to go through with it now anyway.

You have to. There's no turning back, in my opinion, for the Raptors. You can argue that a 25 game suspension really isn't even disciplined. I mean, in this day and age, where you're actually putting limits you. Well, you've got to play 65 if you want an award, but we're going to let you this guy, we're going to let this guy take 25 off.

Now he's going to lose the money. That may matter to him. I mean, clearly, I was interested in every last dime. He's not going to have a choice. If they suspend him, they suspend them. But I mean, for the Raptors, if you're Bobby Webster, you're like, you mean, he's just going to take the first three months of the season off or two months, whatever would be,

and then we're going to get them back and everything's going to be fine. And especially if they say you're allowed to be around the team and practice and everything, which I don't know what the ruling will be on that. That would be interesting to know. But if you suspend it for games, you're still, allowed to be around the team. I don't know how that applies here if you're getting suspended because of something you've done with the

previous team prior to the trade. I don't know. Like the interesting thing about because you're like the point about how do you punish a man who cannot be fined enough to make it hurt his pocket, right? Steve Baum, you can't find Steve Baum or a number. Whatever changes. A billion dollars, go ahead.

Like yeah, you have to start going into the, you know, into numbers that just are unfathomable that actually hurts Steve. It won't happen. Won't happen. lawsuits and there's no there's no mechanism in the CBA to do that right so and rightly so but but the thing about the thing about the owner is the only thing you really do is take him away from the team like say you cannot step into the arena you cannot step into the practice facility you cannot have contact with anybody involved in your team for X number of months or years

or whatever it is that's probably the only real punishment that would actually make him say damn yeah yeah and that's that's that That may end up what happens here. I could see them a year. You're just out. You're not allowed at the building within the facilities. A fine. They're going to clip them, I'm sure, draft picks.

Yeah, the maximum allowable. And I wouldn't be surprised if that's what went into the Raptor trade. They were like adamant. They're like, we need draft picks because we're going to lose a bunch. You're right. And that didn't mean Bobby Webster had to give them, but he did in the end. Okay, we'll get more into this with Bobby Marks in about an hour. We got Connor Bedard coming up as well today.

Dave Festruck in here. Brian Hayes. Overdrive continues. TSN 1050 and on TSN4. There's no shortcut for saving time, but saving money is simple. Just combine your car and home insurance with Bel Air Direct and save. Get a quote at bellair direct.com. Wherever you're headed, Dejardin is here to assist, helping you with investment, insurance, banking and business services. Dejardin, proud partner of the amazing race Canada. Watch Tuesdays at night on CTV. Stream next day on Crape. And overdrive continues powered by Fanduel, bringing you more ways to play your game your way.

Jay's at Fenway tonight. That's a great trip. It's another one. Like we talked about ticket sales at the Rogers Center. And obviously they're doing great this year. A lot of Blue J fans would have been planning trips this year too. Win or lose, that happens. Yeah.

But you go on a World Series run. People are really trying to find a way to see this team. and I'm sure when they bought tickets, people going down to Boston, they were thinking, Jays would be coming off a 15-game win streak. Red Sox would be at the bottom of the American League. That's right. But it's a reversal of roles. It's a sad thing.

Now, I guess, hey, we're at an optimistic point of the sad phase in Blue Jays history where they're coming off a win. They won yesterday. They avoided a sweep. That's very positive. So maybe you can just say, and look, you know, Bieber looked better. Springer's coming around. There's some signs of life, at least,

where this team looks so flatlined for so long. I'm not saying they're going to start reeling off 15-game win streaks anytime soon. It doesn't feel like they have that in them. But they might make it a little more difficult for Ross Atkins at the deadline than maybe Ross Atkins would even like. Well, Bieber's a big one. That's two starts in a row where he's been really good. And Springer, you mentioned it.

Like his numbers over the last month are starting to get. up there. He's starting to look a little bit more like himself, still not hitting for any power necessarily. It's getting on base a fair amount. The problem is those are two guys who are just if they're coming alive, you're probably going to trade them. Well, that's good though. Like, I mean...

No, it is good in terms of the longevity of the team like trying to get as much as you can. But the idea of, hey, you know, I'll believe it when I see it. We got some positivity going here. We've got some energy. A couple of good stories. Well, if those good stories get shipped out, then those good stories are not going to last that long.

but yeah, I mean, it is a, I think, I can't imagine that they're still swaying back and forth. I just, I don't know how you watch the team who has scored less runs than any other team in baseball and think that they could possibly get back into a race. Well, the reason is because they did it last year and you're like. But they're already in first by this time last year. No, I know. They're the best team in baseball this time last year. I know. So, yeah.

It's a pretty substantial difference. Yeah, there's not enough time between now and August 3rd to probably. change anybody's mind, you're right. But to the point of, if it's now project, be good next year. Yeah. Forget this year, be good next year. Then, you know, what, a little run here where some of these guys started to showcase themselves to a degree so that you can actually recoup some value for your pending free agents, a la, maybe it's, I don't know what they're going to do with Gosman. I mean, I don't know what they're, you know, Springer, it seems like they will. Yeah. Cut bait on him. I think so.

He sold his house earlier this year, too. That's usually an indication from the player that he's preparing for change. You would think. Like coming off a season like he had last year and even then, he's like, I'm not sure I can do enough this year to at least stay on anything more than like a short-term deal. Yeah. Which I think is realistic for whatever Springer decides to do with his career, wherever he goes next, whether it is Toronto or somewhere else,

it's likely going to be on a very short-term deal. I think it's year to know. He's 36 years old. Yeah. Like, no, he's not getting a long-term deal. anywhere. And Gosman, the same thing. Gosman, at his age, the amount of money is built up,

springing the same thing. Those guys aren't getting long-term deals. But the CBA also could dictate how the whole economy is going to look and play out to begin with. They may not be playing baseball in spring. That's the unfortunate truth. So Jay's Red So, Jay's Red Sox

tonight, seeing some news today that down in Kansas City, Andy Reid, announcing that Patrick Mahomes has been cleared to practice coming off those major knee surgeries and major knee injury from late in the season last year. So that would make you believe week one he's probably going to be ready to play. The chat about that, we're joined now by longtime NFLer, Super Bowl champ, analyst with the NFL on Fox back on overdraft. There's Mark Schlerath.

How you doing, Mark? I'm doing great. How are you guys? We're doing well. With that news on Mahomes, you know, being available to practice, does that lead you to believe he'll be ready to play week one? and if so, you know, how does that affect your projection for the Chiefs this year? Yeah, no, I think, I mean, I just assumed he was going to be ready to play anyhow. So it's still, I still look at the Chiefs, man.

I mean, huge defensive changes. They lost both their starting cornerbacks. You know, a couple of guys are getting a little bit longer in the tooth there. I still don't look at them from a receiving standpoint as having, you know, a guy that could be a do-it-all, like a great kind of number one type of, option. Rishi Rice, I'm not sure about his status, and he's been in so much trouble here in the recent years. Xavier Worthy's kind of a one-trick pony down the football field. And Travis Kelsey, you know, he's not, you know, he's older. He's just not the same guy. So I still look at,

I look Kansas City is the third best team in their own division right now. Of course, Patrick Mahomes, if he is 100% healthy, if he doesn't have any setbacks, he makes a huge difference, no question about it. But I still think the Kansas City is, Chiefs, you know, I mean, just age and the success they've had over all the years that they've had it, it leads me to believe that they're probably still the second best team or the third best team in their own division. Mark, we're just talking about the news about LeBron James at age 41, joining the Philadelphia 76ers. And I was sort of harking back to the year Tom Brady decided to leave New England and joined Tampa at age 42, I think, soon to turn 43. and then ended up winning a Super Bowl.

Like, when you look at these two majestic athletes, think about what you know about Brady and LeBron doing what he's doing, I mean, do you see a parallel there? And what pops to mind for you, a guy who played in the league for so long? Yeah, I mean, LeBron is still, he's still an unbelievable athlete, right? He still is dynamic and all those things. And so some of that is, you know, the parallels are definitely there. I think Brady is just interesting.

Having done, I think I did almost five or six Tampa games that year when Brady was playing. And just the effect he had on the other guys. The effect he had on a guy like Mike Evans and some of the other guys, just from the standpoint of him showing up, him working, what they did between, you know, when the offense all of a sudden was done with their, you know, their session in practice, with their 18. 10 plays. And so what they did, why the defense was working, you know, the extra work they put in, the film study, all those different things, that just kind of leadership and that voice where

guys like Mike Evans told me, man, I had to pick up my game. Like, you know, guys were like, I thought we were working hard. I thought we were, you know, preparing. I thought we were doing all this stuff. But Brady elevated the way we prepared to play the game. And so, you know, can LeBron have that effect on an embed, you know, can he, can he stay, healthy and actually show up and play instead of taking so many games off and all those things. There's no question they're incredibly talented. And those guys are both driven. And they're both going to make the right plays.

One of the things that always fascinating me about Tom Brady when I talked to Bruce Ariens about him, when I talked to the office coordinator at the time was Byron Lefich and said, what sets him apart? And it's the boring. It's the simple. And Byron Lefich told me, hey, listen, man, if the first reading, progression is the flat and you're throwing it for four yards and the guys turn it up and get an extra yard or two and it's open Brady takes it 100 out of 100 times he never bypasses a profit he

never turns something down to look for something saucier you know it's always let's stay ahead of the chains let's put drives together let my guys do the work let them catch the ball on a four yard flat route and let them turn up see if they can break a tackle and you know, just that attention to detail and that falling in love with the simple, with the boring. And I think those are the things that work as far as longevity is concerned. And I think that Brady and LeBron probably have a lot of that in common. Chatting with Mark Schlereth, you know, I guess Aaron Rogers now holds that crown of being the old guy who's still playing in the NFL. And the belief is this will be the last dance for him in Pitt.

And he's doing it with Mike McCarthy, who is now joining him in Pittsburgh and McCarthy and him obviously won a Super Bowl. 15 years ago in Green Bay. How much of an impact do you think McCarthy will have on Rogers? And how do you think that duo could work taken over for Tomlin? And, you know, they were a playoff team last year at Pitt. Yeah, I think, I mean, I think a couple of different things. You know, obviously they have D.K. Metcalf. They went out and got Michael Pittman from Indianapolis in a free agency,

who is just a tough, hard-nose, do the dirty work-wide receiver, which I think is going to be very helpful for Aaron Rogers in this. the offense, a guy that you can trust, a guy that you know, is going to go over the middle of the football field and make catches even, you know, under duress, even when he's getting hit. So I think that's a really good thing. I think the thing about McCarthy, having talked to Aaron Rogers, you know, when he played for McCarthy, having talked to Aaron Rogers, when he played for, when he played for LaFleur in Green Bay, one of the things about McCarthy is he always let Aaron kind of control the game in critical situations from the line of scrimmage. So,

Aaron was something that he really appreciated, really liked in second down and long situations, third down in long situations. It was, you know, do I have leverage with a certain receiver? Do I have a one-on-one matchup that I love? Let me dissect the defense. Let me see what they're in from a coverage standpoint and let me call my own plays. And so I think that connection and that belief and having had success in the past doing it that way, I think it's one of the things that Aaron Rogers really loves about football,

and I think Mike McCarthy gives him that freedom. So I think from that standpoint, I think it's an excellent connection between those two, and they'll fall right back into a rhythm. Hey, Mark, I was curious about your take on the whole controversy around all these football stadiums in the states that hosted the World Cup of soccer. And to do that, they had to bring in the real grass, and these beautiful natural turf fields were all over the place. and now a lot of them are getting ripped out in favor of the artificial turf that a lot of NFL teams prefer,

I think, for reasons of economy and other multi-use purposes. Where are you on that? I know some of the data says that playing on natural grass is a lot better for player health. I'm not sure it's conclusive, but, you know, I know you went through a lot of Knicks and cuts in your day. Do you have a feeling that if the NFL went to 100% natural grass, it would be better for player health? Oh yeah, I don't think there's any question. Just having, you know, played on both.

It's just more giving, you know, more forgiving. And it is, it's just a better surface to play on. That being said, you know, the players are going to stomp their feet and they're going to say, hey, you know, you did it for World Cup. You should do it for us. And they're going to wave their fists. And then the owners will lock them out in the next collective burning agreement. And they will offer them, you know, free Gatorade to take home.

and the players will take it. That's how we are as players. That's our union. You got to understand how the NFL works. It's not like baseball. It's not like basketball. 80% of the guys, you know, 80% of the guys make 20% of the money. So when they get locked out of these facilities and, you know,

and finances start to get tight and they need to go to camp to get paid, they're all going to ratify whatever's on the table. So, you know, we just keep accepting deals like no lifetime insurance, you know, none of the things that are really important. We just take less practice time. And players don't even realize that taking less practice time actually shortens your career. They think it's going to lengthen your career because you're not going to take as many hits in practice. But the bottom line is you're not going to be as skilled or good a football player. So ultimately, you kind of squeeze out some of the middlemen, some of the guys that, you know, that are important to this league.

and they get longevity, you're not increasing your ability as a football player. So what ends up happening is ownership, you know, has the halves that make the majority of all the money. And then they fill the rest of the roster with a bunch of guys that, you know, you just pray don't have to get in the game because most of those kids, you know, they last two or three years in the league and they're not worth of score to piss. And so, I mean, that's just the way the league operates. So, like, they're going to make a lot of noise and they're going to complain. And the next collective bargaining agreement, they're going to be shouting on. about grass fields and then they won't get it and they'll get

locked out and they'll accept whatever it is they accept but it won't change anything that's all I'm telling you it's not going to change with Mark Schlerath if Aaron Donald returns to the Rams does it change your viewpoint of who is the best team in the NFL

no no I think the Rams are the best team in the NFL anyhow okay and if Aaron and if Aaron Donald comes back to the Rams, they're just that much better. And, you know, I hear people say, well, he's taking two years. That guy

can take two years off and still be the best player in football. He is a absolute reach show. Athletically, strength, quickness, speed, intelligence, the whole nine yards. So he can come off a

two-year layover and still be the best defensive tackle in football. And there's no question in my mind about that. him and miles garrett man how would you block him like put us go back on that offensive line how do you block garrett and Aaron don't my god how would you do that you would you would I would I would pray that both them were hurt you know I mean just like not anything permanent I'm not an animal but I would pray for sickness um you like listen man there's not a whole lot there's not a whole lot you can do you know you tell your coaches, let's run the heck out of the football.

Let's have a bunch of three-step drops where the ball's going to get out. Let's eliminate all the deep drops with multiple hitches. And, you know, and pray that we have some success. Like, that's, I thought about this bunch. That side, if you put that side, you know, with Donald and Miles Garrett side side, it may be the best side. I think of Ed Tudal Jones and Randy White. I think of

Joe Green and Elsie Greenwood. You know, I think of some tandoms in this league. But I don't know that there's ever been a more dynamic or athletic tandem than that tandem. And I don't think if

Donald comes back. I think it's when Donald comes back because I think he's coming back. I love it. He is Mark Schler at NFL and Fox analyst host of the Stink and truth podcast. Camps are opening up. Football's in the air. It's a great time of year. Thanks for doing this, Mark. We appreciate it.

Anytime. You got to have you guys. Take care. You got it. Mark Schlerert joining us here on the Maple Toyota Hotline. Yeah, Aaron Donald and Miles Garrett, that is absolutely terrifying. Like, yeah, and he's right about Donald. He's been off for a couple of years, but he left early. Like he retired. It wasn't quite a Barry Sanders Megatron retirement, but not far off.

He's only 35. Exactly. Like they, he had just won the Super Bowl, I believe. And he just said, I'm going to take, I'm done. But you know he's still jacked. You know he's still got a first step. And taking the two years off is going to help him likely get through the season. And Garrett's what, 30, 31?

Yeah. Like you still got Stafford. They got McDuffie there now. Like that, that team has a chance. Like you've got Pooka and Akuya. You've got Devante Adams. That's a scary team. Man, Kairn Williams.

It's like they've got tons of talent there. They are by far the favorite. I don't think it's that close. And then Seattle's sitting there saying, we just won the Super Bowl, and we got to deal with these guys. And I get my respect because of it. Yeah, I know. It is strange.

Like, the champs are coming back. Like, someone's looking at another team within their division. Yeah. You know, it's actually kind of parallel to the NBA where the Knicks and Sixers are in the same division. And now everyone's going to talk about Philly. That's right. You know, because of LeBron.

All right. Connor Bedard coming up. And we'll get into the LeBron decision as well coming up around 530 over drive continues up on YouTube live. There's no shortcut for saving time, but saving money is simple. Just combine your car and home insurance with Bel Air Direct and save. Get a quote at bellair direct.com. Wherever you're headed, Dejardin is here to assist,

helping you with investment, insurance, banking, and business services. Dejardin, proud partner of the amazing race Canada. Watch Tuesdays at night on CTV. Stream next day on Crape. All right, so our boy Keegan Matheson has made. He made it down to Boston, and he's got some news here. He just tweeted out that Addison Barger

will undergo surgery on his right elbow. Wow. And he tweets, this could be a full Tommy John, which would come with an estimated nine-month rehab and cut into next season. If only an internal brace procedure is needed, that's estimated closer to six months.

But there you go. Barger's done for the year. It's effectively a completely lost season. played this year. And if he does end up having Tommy John, then he's going to miss the first couple months of next year. Doesn't get a spring training.

It puts next year in question. It really does. And for a young guy who came on the scene last year, effectively out of nowhere, like, was not on a lot of people's radars, and had a huge impact on the team, especially in the second half. In the playoffs, he was great. I mean, hit that Grand Slam in the World Series.

It was amazing. That was one of the bigger pops. Like I was in the building I was in the building for Battista's Badflip for Springer's Game 7 and for Barger's Grand Slam and for Bish, I should say, you got to add Bow's home running game

seven as well. Huge. I'm trying to think of how I would rank those. I was in the, I got to put some more thought into that. Did the bad flip feel bigger just because of the tension that built up to it? Yes, it was amazing

because of what happened in the top inning. And it was a 53-minute inning or whatever. You know, they hadn't been in the playoffs. It was game five, and they were on the, remember, they lost the first two games of that series. Right. But I'll say, I mean, Barger's Grand Slam, now that was a party. They've smoked the Dodgers in game one.

Exactly. But that was electric because that gave off a feeling like, wow, they're going to beat the Dodgers too. We can beat these guys. Yeah, exactly. Like, this is going to happen. They're not, they're not just here, you know, happy to be here. They're going to find a way to beat this team.

And Bichette's home run was just earlier in the game. game and you knew that there was a lot more there to be had, but it was off O-Tonnie. It was game seven. Yeah, that was, I don't know. I don't know how I would rank those. That's a good one. Those are the four research. And then obviously Carter in 90-th is completely different.

But the last 10 years, those are the four that would stick out. Edwin's wild card and 16 was pretty big. That's pretty big too. Yeah, good point. That was pretty big. All right, hour two coming up. Overdrive continues. TSN 1050 and on TSN4.

Mail it in Friday is brought to you by Boston Pizza Canada's favorite sports bar. Enjoy $15 lunch at BP where you get an entree, a site and a drink, and you'll get it all in 20 minutes or less. A fast lunch doesn't have to be fast food. See you for a $15 fast lunch at your local Boston pizza. You've been listening to Overdrive, powered by Fandool. FanDuel, bringing you everything from the opening line to the final score. Hello, Canada. This is Brian Adams Radio.

Hosted by Brian Adams himself. fuel mine, a ton of my favorites, and some must-hear behind-the-scenes stories from the world of rock and roll. I'm coming to get to. One thing about doing rock and roll so long is you end up meeting a lot of the people that you admire. Sometimes you even get to work with him. Brian Adams Radio. Now available on the free IHeart Radio app. Hey, everybody.

How are you?