OverDrive - OverDrive - September 3, 2025 - Hour 2 - Steve Phillips

Episode Date: September 3, 2025

Join Bryan Hayes, Jeff O'Neill and Jamie McLennan for Hour 2 on OverDrive! TSN Baseball Insider Steve Phillips joins to discuss the Blue Jays and Reds' matchup, George Springer's excellent stretch and the bullpen issues in the spotlight. The guys go around the sports world in the latest edition of Gerry's Percentages and Bryan gives his FanDuel Best Bets.

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Visit bell.ca for more details and to check availability. Bell, Internet just got better. Power 2 Overdrive continues. Powered by Fandul, bringing you everything from the opening line to the final score. Brian Hasey, O'Dog, Jeff O'Neill, Jamie Noodles, McClennon. Jerry's percentages making its triumphant return in about a half an hour. Steve Phillips coming up in seven or eight minutes ahead of the third game of the series, Jay's Reds tonight.

You know, if you watch the show on TSN, on YouTube, you find our stuff online. You can notice that we're kind of fawning things differently. Look at the show is different. I like it. You know, I like it. We're adjusting here. And the reason we're doing this is, you know, again, like we talked about in the last hour, is there's a big push here that we're grateful for from TSN to kind of spice up the show

and get the show moving in the right direction, not that it wasn't, but just try to explore every avenue we can to reach as many people as we can and modernize, you know, the production of the show and the way the show operates, which is going to include a campaign coming up. I can't wait for this one. That we need to come up with a tagline for the show. And we want people to contribute because generally the best stuff, like one of the great bits we ever did was that lunatic around Toronto that was crapping all over the place, like literally going to the washroom on street corners.

Constipator. Exactly. And this guy was really causing, it was disgusting. And we asked people to help us because always going to crack the case and go track this guy down and we needed to come up with a name for it. Some guy wrote in and said, oh, it was the constipator, because the crap stops here. That was hilarious. And I guess we're looking for the same kind of thing

because, you know, we've had some contributions from people at TSN and some of the marketing, and I don't know. I don't know if some of these are going to fly that are being thrown around. I've had one in my mind for a bit. I don't know if it takes a shot at us or not, but it is it's how we are should i say can i start for it absolutely what do you got the show of unfulfilled promises and what i mean by that is how many times we've been like guys

let's meet for dinner we're going to golf we're going to go on trips we're going to do this five hundred dollars for this shake here like all of this stuff and there's just nothing that's a tough so it's a tough sell it really is it's accurate but i don't know if we want that No, imagine like going through a guide and saying sports show, unfulfilled promise. I don't know if I'm going to click on it. I don't know. It does ring true, though. If you've been following us for a long time, you're probably nodding your head.

See, but O also, like you wouldn't know this as much as Hayes and I because we are Seinfeld guys. Remember when they were pitching the show about nothing? Like, they were like, yeah, it's a show about nothing. Nothing. They're like, well, what do you mean? Why are we putting it on air? Well, it's not on air. Well, O said that in the meeting yesterday.

right we had all this you know because we're all excited to be back and you know we're we're going to have this campaign and oh kind of ended it by saying something of the likes of like not a lot of thought goes into this which that might be a decent tagline i think we should it's got to be something like that along with a little spin on a jerry comment like it's not that good but you're going to want to hear it right something like that okay i like there's not a lot of thought but you're going to want to hear it and that's maybe you're going to want to hear this that's don't want to hear this you're going to want to hear this yeah not this it you're going to want to hear it see then is it too inside baseball i don't know um possibly you know is it this is why we got

fans they can come up this is what exactly because here's here's some of the things that were sent our way like overdrive we're off side is on side no like that's not that's not going to work for us um you know sports served with chirps no no that just sound it doesn't sound right it doesn't roll off your tongue. No, it doesn't, and it's not, I don't think it kind of smooth grabs what we're all about. Unfiltered, unscripted, unmissable? It's unmissable a word?

Is that even a word? That would actually be actually pretty good for us because we blurt out stuff that is not, you know, like, oh, comes up with new words every two weeks. So that actually may be a pretty good one. Anyway, yeah, a solid six out of ten looks and opinions. I like that. That one can fly. That's not bad.

But so anyway, you can text us 1050-50-50 to contribute. You can find all this kind of stuff online, Twitter, Instagram. You can find TSN, T-S-N-1050s accounts. And we're going to do this for the next week or so. And the more that come in, we'll read them out. We're going to have fun with this. And, you know, we're seeking out help. Because, again, this is basically what we're all about.

We're going to try our hardest. But if we can't get it over the finish line, we need someone else to kind of get us there, right? And push it if they can. So we're excited about it. It's going to be a cool campaign. And we'll see what people are. write in i i have a feeling we're going to stumble across something online like a fan of the show is going to write something in and just capture it beautifully well and then that'll be it a lot of the

fans are really good with their like helping out with the process yes they're going to be coming up with two hour frauds the fraud stuff is going to be everywhere that's yeah there was one already thrown in there i thought i read it earlier it was like two good guys and a fraud i know the fraud stuff it's over this year like it's well i'm okay with it but it is Again, I feel like there's always an explanation on the genesis of it, what it means, are you okay with it? I can't avoid the fraud stuff, man. I was out at the Women's Canadian Open out of Mississauga.

I brought my oldest with me. Everley came, and she was really excited, Brooke Anderson. She ends up winning. It was a phenomenal tournament. And fraud comments are coming out of nowhere, and I'm like, yeah. Yeah, and my daughter's old enough. She gets it, and she has fun with it. And I'm like, you can't say, Hayes.

a fraud. You're a Hayes. He's talking to you as much as he's talking to me. So we'll see. I don't know if the fraud is ever going to go anywhere. And Luke's with us tomorrow, for those wondering, Luke will be back tomorrow. Al's brother will be in. We'll make our picks, I believe, Haysenborough

on the clock for the game tomorrow night. So we look forward to that. I don't know if Luke is even, I think we're going to pump you guys because Luke's a CFL guy now. He doesn't follow the NFL. He doesn't know anything about the NFL. He's a CFL guy. He's a CFO guy. Like, do you want to talk about a layup, like Philly will absolutely destroy.

I think we're going to lay the points tomorrow. I have not seen what the line is ever since the Parsons deal. Last time I checked, it was seven, seven and a half, eight, eight and a half. We'll see on Fandle with him. You think it would be any different with him? Yeah, I know. Dallas will get crushed. I think we're going to lay the points tomorrow.

I think we're on the champs to take care of business. But then you guys have the game on Friday, neutral site, Kansas City, San Diego. or L.A. Chargers. So we'll see what comes to that. All right. We've got a lot of tweets already coming in. People posted on Instagram. We'll blow this out.

You know, you can follow along, and over the next seven or eight days, we'll try to stumble across a tagline that describes our show, you know, as accurately as possible. Self-deprecation, likely going to be a big part of us. Likely a big part of it. Jerry's percentage is in about 20 minutes, best bets later in the hour. Jays Reds tonight, Bieber on the Mount. Here's our TSM Baseball Insider, Steve Phillips, joining us here on the Maple Toyota hotline.

What's happening, Steve? Hey, guys, good to talk to you again. Great to talk to you. What a wild ride that was last night. The Burrios conversation. I hate to start with a negative because they won and there was a lot of positive, and we will get to it. But when you look at Barrios and where he stands now, for me, clearly the fifth guy in the rotation, if he continues, you know, in this kind of dark place that he's in for the rest of September.

what kind of role can he have, will he have come playoff time? Yeah, I think that that, I mean, he's not going to be on the rotation for the playoffs. And I mean, if it ended right now, I don't see him making the playoff rotation. And because of that,

it's why I keep saying that I think that he could use a change, the bullpen could use a change, I would put Lauer in the rotation, and I would put Rios in the bullpen. And I would give him the experience of going out there, warming up, start an inning

to begin with for the first couple of times. Doesn't have to be high leverage. But I think that he's got the kind of fastball that will play up if he only has to go out there and air it out for one inning. And he's got the breaking ball with that sweeper that can be a wipeout pitch that, you know, look,

you've got a couple things that can fix the bullpen right now. One is the change in philosophy. They've got to be more aggressive. They were better yesterday. But you've got to attack, throw strikes, don't walk anybody, work a head. head in the count. If you give up a hit, give up a hit, but you cannot walk anybody because you've got a better chance of putting runners on with a walk and giving up hits

if you find hitters in 2-0, 2-1, and 3-1 counts. So you've got to throw strike. Then you've got personnel. And there's nowhere to go now to fill a spot. Now, they signed Baraki to a minor league deal after he was let go and they call him up. That's great. He actually is fared pretty well against lefties this year. Righties have torched them. So they've got to find the right run in the lineup to be able to put him into a game, so he's not going to get too many right-handed bats. But I

think Brioz could be a weapon. I'd at least want to find out because we've had all year to look at the other guys to know who's part of the solution, who's part of the problem, and I would like to see Brioz get a chance to go out there and maybe the change out of the role will get him back to being aggressive

and attacking. He'll use two pitches and just try to use the sweeper and the fastball. But, But, yeah, I think otherwise, you know, he's a non-entity for me, because I don't know that I even start him again the way that he picks. I would run Lauer back into the rotation right now after the clunker yesterday by Burrios. So, Steve, you know, I don't mean to double down on the negativity considering where the Js are. But as a manager, how concerned would you be about the closers and what's been going on there? Yeah, I mean, listen, they've got the worst bullpen ERA since July 27th, second worst since the All-Star break.

They have the second highest walk rate for their bullpen. And, you know, they've blown 23 saves on the year. I think it's eight or nine now for Hoffman. And, you know, the one thing about Hoffman, I give him credit, like he'll blow a save and he'll come back out the next time. And, you know, he may get into difficulty, but he's gotten a job done. It's just that he's proving that he's resilient too much, right? Too many blowing saves to be able to keep showing us he can get the save the next time. And so I'm very concerned about it.

I think that now, you know, these guys are all capable. And so, you know, I would do, you know, motivation isn't a big thing in baseball or 162 games. But there's not 162 games left. And now I think that trying to rally the troops, trying to motivate, trying to get them to run together, to, you know, to become a closer-knit group, to all, you know, hang on each other's pitch. I think you've got to try that now. I think you've got to try the emotional aspect of it because, you know, it doesn't work in a marathon, but it works in a sprint. And you're kind of in the sprint right now.

And so I would challenge them to let's see if we can't, you know, get a 70% first strike rate percentage. Let's see if we can't retire hitters on three pitches or less by attacking the zone and get to 70% of the time doing that. And really, as a unit, make them have a goal that they're trying to accomplish that would lead to the success that you want, but not trying to find the success, but just trying to do one pitch at a time to find success. And so I think they've really got to try to do everything they can from a mental state as well as a physical state to get this bullpen back on.

track. Steve, unlike these two, I'll stick with some of the positives, and Boba Chette certainly has been one of those. You know, I expect that out of you. It's Mr. Positive. I fully expected that. Mr. Positive. What is his performance, which has been incredible, like, what is that doing for him as far

as numbers that's going to be coming up for him and his next deal, and especially, like, what, like, his numbers versus Vladdy's numbers? I'm talking about contract numbers. Like, what is he doing for himself as far as. particular numbers coming up in his next deal. Oh, yeah. So he's added zeros to the back end of it, and he keeps changing the number at the front of it, you know, where it might have been a $100-plus million deal.

I think it's well over a $200-plus million deal, and it's got a chance to be a $300-plus million deal. He's going to play it at, you know, what, 29 next year for the full year. And I think that, I think he turns, Nick is 28. It turns 28 in March. I think it was March as his birthday. But, I mean, he's still young, so it's going to add on the years on the back end of the deal. The fact that he stayed healthy all year and the fact that he's gotten better and the fact the power's coming, it's going to be a mega contract.

But I still think it's within the range of what the Blue Jays can afford to pay. I do. I think that, you know, this is a large market team. Sure, Blatty's making a lot, but they've got some pitching coming off the books. and you know you hope maybe treat him in at some point can work his way in your savage can work his way in you've got and so I think there's a way to keep Bichette there and and still do it but you know I think teams are going to look at him as a shortstop teams are going to look at him as a second basement as a third

basement so you're going to get a lot of demand for him and it's going to run the price up but you know I think it's it's one that the Js could and should still You just mentioned Vladdy, like, what are you seeing out of him? I just, I have, everyone's got the expectations, and they know he's the face of the franchise, and he's got the contract, but there's been a few instances the last couple of games where he's doing his full, like, point to God after running out a dribbler and getting the first base, and it's just like, that's not like Otane Soto like. Like, it's just, it's kind of got a weird look to it, Steve.

Yeah, so, I mean, right, when you get the nibler, or infield hit, that's, you know, I don't know that I'm going to the heavens on that one, but I think that, you know, I think he's in between right now, so I don't really know how healed that hamstring is, right? It's a little unclear. You know, as he playing it through it, is it still bothering him some, but he's caught in that in-between space with his approach at the plate. And when he gets that way, when he strides, his center of gravity drifts toward the middle, as opposed to striding and keeping his weight on his back side to be able to then hunt the bottom of the baseball, rotate, and drive it.

And so when he gets to that point where he drifts forward and his center of gravity changes, he can still deliver the bat through the zone with great bat speed, but the angle of it changes. And instead of the uppercut swing, it becomes the level to down swing, which means he hits a lot of hard ground balls. And so, and he gets that way. way, when he's not healthy sometimes in the bottom half, the legs of the foundation of the swing and the kinetic links that start with your feet to your calves, to your quads and hamstrings

to your hips, all are part of delivering the bat to the ball, right? The hips lead the hand, and so the bottom half matters. So if there is something wrong there, it's messing up his ability to drive the ball. But when he's not confident to just stay back and drive it not seeing the ball well, he does get to that midpoint where he drifts a little bit. And that's where I see him right now. The good news is that he's due to get out of it, and he's due to get hot, and he's due to drive the baseball. And he was there for a while, and I suspect he'll get back there again.

And it probably happens at just the right time when some of the other guys cool off a little bit. Well, that's exactly the ebbs and flows of the other guys picking him up, because George Springer is on such a heater right now. This guy, you know, he's not going to get, you know, high-end MVP votes. But I was reading something out of New York, you know, last week people saying maybe Stanton should get MVP votes. Are you nuts? If he does, Springer should get a million of them with the way he's played this year. And I love arbitrary staff.

Didn't Stanton just come out into the lineup? Well, he's been hurt all. But when he's playing, he's mashing. You know, the point is he was picking up, Judge. The point I'm making is that if you're going to find someone not named Judge or not names, you know, O'Tani in the National League, and, you know, it's got to be... Raleigh. Yeah, exactly.

It's got to be Springer with the way he's performing it. Two more home runs last night. I love arbitrary stats in baseball. They're the best because you can come up with whatever detail you want. But we stumbled across one last night. Opta stats tweeted this out that over a 45 game stretch, the last 45 games for Springer. He's got 66 hits, 50 runs, 39 RBI, 16 home runs, nine stolen bases. The only other MLB players to reach all of those numbers

over a 45 game span in a single season are Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig. Babe Ruth in 1920, Lou Gehrig and 31. I get it's an arbitrary stat. I get it's only a certain amount of time. But Ruth, Garrig, Springer. That's how good he is.

That's how electric he's been. And with Bo doing what he's doing, if Lattie catches up and they stay at this level, Steve, this is a three-pack that is going to explode. I don't know how opponents are going to stop them with how well they're playing. Yeah, and then here's the thing. On either side of that, you've got Nathan Lucas, you've got Addison Barker, you've got Varsho, who's now homered in back-to-back games and really swing of the bat.

Well, Varso had 17 home runs and 171 at Bats. Think about that. One every 10 of bats is hitting a home run, and that's a huge rate, one of the best rates in the game. And so, you know, Barso's doing it. And, you know, Clement will come up with a hit. Kirk's come up with some big hits and obviously clearing the bases with the double over the center fielders had yesterday. And so a lot of good things with the offense.

And I'm with you. Springer has, you know, and he really made an effort in the off season to change. To change his approach, to change his efficiency with the swing. His bat speed is better. He's driving the ball better. There's less movement. and he's in a place where he just gets the bat to the ball almost on every swing. And so it's been a remarkable story.

And he certainly, you know, think about two for me. The other one that I think is remarkable, he got beamed in the head with, what, 95 to 97, went on a concussion protocol. And, you know, I always worry about guys coming back from that where do they flinch, right? When they see the breaking ball come, and it's a natural inclination that you give a little bit, that you hesitate just for a second when that ball looks like it's coming at you. He's not missed a beat.

Like there's no fear whatsoever in his mind. And he's been on a heater since he's come off that concussion protocol. And he's been a great leader for this team. And, you know, there's something about when he dives in head first, scoring at home plate, he gets up and he looks out that roar, then it pulls everybody along with him, including the 42,000 to 45,000 fans at the stadium. He's been fantastic.

It's been a great, great story. Unbelievable story. His stats are off the charts, and this is what they brought them in for. I just thought it would be three or four years ago as opposed to this year. But full credit to Springer. And I guess nights like tonight or why you go out and get Shane Bieber and you're trying to win a series, you've got an off date tomorrow, then you're at Yankee Stadium, the biggest series of the year. The biggest series in years, I would suggest starting on Friday.

This would be Bieber's third start, you know, since coming back from Tommy John. He's been great through the first two. Any reason to believe we'll see anything but, you know, electric stuff out of Beaver tonight. No, I think he'll be good. You know, you work in the extra off day and at least he's, you know, on the sixth day. And so I think that it's always helpful for him coming back just to get the extra day when you can do it. And so, you know, I'm looking for him to go out there and throw strikes. You know, if he can do that, then, you know, it comes down to, you know,

he's got good enough stuff, so maybe they can hit him, but I don't know that they can as consistent in as many different looks as he can give hitters where he can throw the fastball with pinpoint control. He can throw the curveball, the knuckle curve, with that 12 to 6 break from top to bottom falling off the table. Then he can throw the sweeper and start it on a plate and break it off the plate.

He's got a feel for the change-up as well, and he can throw any pitch at any time in the count, 60-pitters off balance, which allows him to go through the lineup into the third. time because he's got so many different sequences that he can go to and use all of his pitches in a way to neutralize the hitters. And so he's a fun guy to watch. And if you're, you know, if kids want to learn how to pitch, he's the guy to watch.

Great stuff, Steve. Enjoy the games tonight, buddy. We'll do it again soon. All right, terrific. Thanks, guys. Steve Phillips, our TSN Baseball Insider, joining us here on the Maple Toyota Hotline, drive the built-in Canada fuel efficient, fund-to-drive-Ref 4. Gas or Hybrid Models available visit Maple Toyota.

dot com. All right, best bets coming up later in the hour. Jerry's percentages next. You're going to want to hear this. Jerry's percentages. I don't love being commissioner as much as I used to. I actually love it even more. That's the voice

of a Fri. Hall of Famer. Are you kidding? Have you been out drinking? Jerry! Jerry! Jerry! You're all pigeons. Filthy, filthy pigeons. It's Jerry. R-Y.

All right, here we go. It's been a long summer. Jerry, I'm sure, has been very busy. Great to hear from him again. You know, there's a lot going on in the sports world. We've hit Labor Day. There's playoff chases in the CFL. You've got pennant races in baseball.

You've got the NFL back. Felix, Ojeal, Aliasim, into the semifinals. Love it. And likely to play Sinner. It's going to be Felix versus Sinner. And on the other side is Djokovic Alcarez, which is phenomenal. but shout out who would you rather take out of the three

if you had to handpick one to say this might be my best chance to get in Djokovic just because of his age yes because of where he is like Sinner is going to be a massive massive favorite like that guy just doesn't lose

in slams unless Alcaraz gets him in the final of a French open in like a masterpiece five set circus match Hey never know Felix is there though that's why you play the game And he's a great talent. So shout out to Felix.

You can watch that match, of course, on TSN. You can watch all the U.S. Open on TSN. So a lot going on in the sports world. Let's hear from Jerry. Well, wow, wow. This Clive Show has returned for another season, and here comes Jerry to put it over the top. Jerry spent the summer doing his three favorite things,

grinding out the CBA details, expansion blueprints to southern markets, and devising this year's plan to make sure no Canadian team wins my Stanley Cup. That's not true. He doesn't devise a plan to keep it out of Canada, Jerry. What a boring summer. Do you think Jerry would support an Ottawa Winnipeg final? I would love to see his face.

I would know. You never know. I'd love a Winnipeg Ottawa final. I'd love that. All right, Jerry, enough of the funny business. Let's get to the hot takes. John Tavares will score more goals than Mitchell Marner this year. That's a good one, man.

That's a spicy one for Jerry. I'll go 75% on that. John's always got more goals. He's, for the most part, got more goals than Mitch Marner. I don't think that's a secret. And I know John's no kid anymore, but I will, I'll go 75% that John DeVar. And this is not taking a shot. am so done like this isn't a shot at Mitch

Martin Mitch was coming up at some point today it took us 90 minutes it's a new record new record Jerry brought him up not us someone's got to keep track of how many shows it takes for us to not mention his name in one show okay that should be a bit we do now we're oh for two now yeah like I don't think there's a reason to talk about him tomorrow unless he's at the US

Open or something we'll see he's coming up tomorrow somehow some way you you think I'm going to bring him up I don't know. Let's have a contest. It's like the contest. Who can go the longest without mentioning Marner?

What if Christie Pitts all of a sudden was, you know, Kelly McCrimmon is standing in Christy Pitts? We need Pablo Torre on this. There's no trees in the desert, man. I'm joking. If there's some tree front in Vegas, Pablo Torre is going to find out about it. You're right.

I'm, I don't know. This percentage, I'm lower on this. and it's because, I mean, Marner's career, what's the most 35? That year, John had 27 or something. He has outscored him before. Yeah, John had 38 last year.

I don't know. I'm interested to see what role Mitch plays with Vegas. Well, that's the thing. He's going to get there and he's going to be thought of as the setup, man. Get Eichael to puck. Get different guys the puck. Eichael's a good playmaker, though, man. They've got playmakers in Vegas.

I think he might straight. up good players. Say it is. I'm saying 45%. I mean, John's a year older. You know, who's it going to be playing with? I mean, that's the other thing, too. Who's Tavares playing with?

Who's passing him the puck? If it's Neelander, fine, no problem. But Neelander's a shooter, too. They both like the puck. But who's on their line? Like, there's a lot of, and we talked about this yesterday, there's a lot of good players there. Chief has to figure out who's going to play with who.

and who's got chemistry right away. That's my biggest thing. I'm leaning more Mitch, but not much. I'm talking 45%. Yeah, I'll go a little bit lower, but I would not be surprised at all. I'll say 35%. You know, I am curious about Marner's transition in. You know, maybe he takes off running.

Maybe he just gets there. He eases in. He's comfortable immediately. It puts up a great year. Or maybe, you know, there's a marshal element. So, yeah, maybe it takes a little bit of time. Like, it's a big change for him, man. he's living in a different country playing in a different conference very different scenario so

it's not it's not a lock he just gets there and is immediately a rock star um i think tovarez obviously he's very comfortable here so i think he'll play well so yeah i'll say what i say 35 percent 35 percent go ahead jerry that wannabe roger giddell can expect to hear from my lawyers because he's stealing jerry's bits lately like trying to play coy about Taylor Swift playing the halftime show. But here's the thing. Jerry's buying it. Swiftie hits the Super Bowl this year. Maybe without the Kansas City Chiefs. I like that. I don't want to see Kansas City there. I'm so over that. Well, he's saying that Swift is playing it. I already told you my thoughts on this. I'm 80% slam dunked that this is going to be happening. What a win for the NFL if it does.

Like, what a win if you get Taylor Swift to play the halftime show. It'll be the most viewed halftime show of all time. Yes. There's nothing she does that doesn't break records. Most watch game of all time. Yes. Yes. Especially if you have some people.

What kind of change is they got to pay the halftime show? I don't know the whole story because I've heard different things over the years that they don't get paid, that it's about the promotion and the platform that you're getting the biggest audience of your life. They're paying her. Yeah, and if someone's paying them, it's probably whoever is sponsoring it, Apple or Pepsi or whatever, right, they're paying. Maybe there's some kind of tree farm involved. There'll be a shell corporation that happens to money. Maybe there's a shell corporation.

It is in California this year. It's in the Bay Area. I don't know. I just, I'm low on this. I don't think she's going to, like, why would you do it? Because what if your fiancé isn't in it? What if he is in it? And then you can't really watch because you're preparing.

for the halftime show right like what then that's where your energy is going as opposed to Kelsey actually playing it again I'm at 8% on this she doesn't need it she doesn't need it does not need it and doesn't probably doesn't want it like you know I don't know who knows like are they going to start a family are they going to get married first what are they doing when are they getting married are they getting married at Super Bowl that would be great I said that the other week I want to see like macho man miss Elizabeth style like just get married during the halftime. I'd be absolutely beautiful.

I'm going to go a little bit higher than, I'm going to say 20%, but I'll believe in when I see it, man. I think if you're the NFL, sure, entertain that you would do it, entertain the idea, get people talking about it, it's provocative, you know, and if they're going to be married and together forever, she'll be connected to the NFL forever. But I don't know. It's weird to say it because it's the Super Bowl.

It's as big of a gig as you can get, but it almost feels like, beneath her in a way or too small for her like she's she's too big to play the halftime show all right jerry what else do you have the NBA will investigate punish the clippers over this kawai letter tree planting payment story what a gift for kai just the hearing someone describe it that way a tree planting yes jerry of all people a tree-planting payment story. A scandal. All right. You think the NBA is going to launch a full investigation

and actually penalize bomber and the clippers over this? I don't see how they don't. Although there might be some heavy hitters, and you guys talked about it earlier, how some other guys might be up to some nonsense, but you can't have this going on and send a message throughout the guys that are doing business by code and say there's nothing

going to happen here. What the hell kind of precedent you're going to set? I'm going to say 90% they have to have to come down with some kind of punishment. They have to. How embarrassing that is? Yeah, I just, I'm

high on this too. I might be 95. Would you say 90? I'm 95%. I'm 90. You have to. If this is verified and it sounds like it's verified, there's a lot of... The smoking gun is smoking, man. Smoking gun, but the level of, I guess, punishment, that's where the jury's out.

Because, like I say, if it's a slap on the wrist and, hey, $5 million fine and a first-rounder type of thing, but don't do it again, that means the rest of the owners are like, hey, let's take it easy here, folks. Well, here's a, here's an analogy I would use, an example of something we've been through recently, where my initial reaction was the, The whole world's going to explode. This is going to be the craziest story ever. I can't wait to see where it goes. And it went nowhere. That would be the Shohei Otani gambling story. When that broke, it was he's done.

Show Hay's the next Pete Rose. This is going to end baseball. And then they just said, actually, it's this guy and nothing to see here. Show Hay's fine. And he just moved on with his life and his career. That is possibly going to happen here, right? Because you're going to get zero cooperation from Kauai Leonard. Zero.

You think he's picking up a phone from Adam Silver. He's not answering that call. He's not saying anything. He's not going to talk about anything. No one in his group is going to talk about it. Balmer, if he's got receipts on while this was actually legitimate and we actually tried it and we went bankrupt because it didn't work, maybe he can talk his way out of it. And I'm not naive enough to believe 100% that he's the only guy that's ever done this.

That's where it gets spicy. If everyone else in the NBA has done it too, then he may get clipped with a wink-wink, nudge, nudge for the whole community. Hey, take one for the team here because it went public, but we're not going to get crazy because we don't want Balmer exposing everyone else. That's fair. I'll say 49%, but I'm skeptical because, you know, the initial reaction to a lot of these stories is, you know,

the earth is falling or the sky is falling. and then it doesn't materialize. And Shoah is a perfect example. Different context. But remember when that came out, the gambling and the wiring and the money, I could not believe that story. And I thought it was going to have serious implications on him

and his life and his career. They swept that under the rug in a week. I had somebody the other day still tell me that they think that he was the one that was gambling. I think there's a lot of people that believe that. The book is on the record saying he believes Shohei, knows... He's a bookie.

So, like, the integrity of that guy. You know, it's not necessarily going to hold up in a tracts. Hey, here's Jimmy the bookie. And it's not like judging or anything like that or stereotyping, but like how many interpreters are getting involved in that kind of high dynamic gambling stuff? You know what I mean? Like, yeah. And it's a lot of money.

It's your account. I know. I know. I know. So think about it, though. That was the biggest signing. the face of baseball, the best player, arguably, to ever play the game. They just want that to go away.

They don't want, you know, months and months of investigation and all of that type of stuff. Now, how could you do this if you were Kauai? Like, blame it on the uncle. Isn't there like a weird uncle that hangs, Uncle Dennis that hangs around him? Yes. Listen, that may end up happening where Kauai goes, hey, it's my LLC or whatever, but I don't really have control over it and you know blah blah blah but kawai's signature is did you see there's a signature kawai leonard on the like to me uncle dennis gets pinched for it and he maybe gets

you know in trouble for it that's kind of what happens it's like that wasn't me as the uncle yeah i mean is is it if you if someone's just going to give you money for a no show job yeah it sounds shady but you know i don't know how illegal all this is but um you know as for the nb and bomber it's an explosive story man like it's explosive the idea of circumventing the cap with a lot of money it was a hundred grand it's still a lot of money and you look at it and think that's a problem 28 million is huge cash yeah huge and if it's cash cash like an actual like right I got money like are you filing for that or this is good point is the IRS in the states looking into this now I don't know yeah all right Jerry what else do you have

My boy, Josh Allen, is going to go back to back winning the MVP. Might even go ahead and mix in a Super Bowl, too. I heard an old hazy B saying he thinks it's Buffalo's year. Yep, I did. I made that proclamation last night on Jay on SC. Good to see Jay and the crew back last night on SportsC, too. It was great. Yeah.

But Jerry's got him going back to back. You won the MVP last year, and he thinks Josh Allen will do it again this year. difficult to do man as talented as he is and as much as he's like this big strong dude that does it all but i kind of do like his chances i'm going to give him 60% chance because there's the usual suspects man you got patrick mahomes in the fold marjaxon yeah it's a small amount of guys who can win this thing yes what are you talking about hayes five tops yeah it's quarterbacks and yeah burrows in there and burrows in there Who knows what the kid's going to do in Washington, Daniels?

He might have a letdown. He might be outrageously good this year. He might toss himself in there, but other than that, I don't know. 60%. I'm high on it, too, because I do believe Buffalo's going to win, or maybe it's just wanting them to win. You know whose name we haven't brought up in two days? And it really is kind of invisible for me as your old boy from Green Bay there now in Pittsburgh.

Oh, Aaron Rogers. Yeah, you're right. They start their season in New York against the Jets. Got to watch it. You've got to watch it, but it hasn't been noisy around here. You're right. It's been very quiet. Now, maybe that's a Tomlin effect or whatever, but like I don't know what it is,

but this guy who's always been front and center, disruptor, distraction, all of that. I haven't heard much out of that. I think that's a good sign. It is if you're a Steeler fan and you're the Steelers, because the Steelers have cachet, man. Mike Tomlin's, you've got to respect that guy. Like he wins and he runs a great program And I think Rogers respects

I don't think he respected the Jets Jets weren't the right place for him It just he looked down on them They were a mess Well that all comes That coincides with the losing and all the nonsense If they were winning I'm sure there would have been a lot more respect

From all levels Sure And he's got to own that too He's the quarterback of the team And he blew his Achilles out Four snaps into his first year there Crazy But as for Allen

Yeah it's a short list There's six seven guys who can win this thing for the most part you know maybe baker has a great year Jared go off this Brock party have a bounce back year possibly but it's a quarterback every year and it's one of the seven or eight best guys and he's one of them so um I'm high on this too I'm gonna say I'm gonna say 61% because I think he's just gonna be a beast man I think he's no one perfects the position but he's real close to doing it I'm 70 I went the highest yeah that's really high the three of us are all that high on one guy winning the

MVP. That's, I just like that. That's McDavid's stuff. I have a little mini football jerry's. Okay. Christian McCaffrey plays 85% of his team's games this year. No.

He's such a Band-Aid, but when he's healthy, he's so good. When he's healthy, he's so good. And last year was a right-off year and, yeah, I'm going to be pretty, I'm going to say 25%. Yeah, I was going to say 20. You just can't do it.

You can't do it. Yeah. I was going to say 20% too. That's disappointing, but that's what we believe now. That's what you expect. That's his rep. He yo-yoes a lot, though. To be fair to him, he's still relatively young.

He's 29, I think. But even when he was in Carolina, it was injured year, unreal year. Injured year, unreal year. I think it's easier to do that at 23, 24, 25. They need them, though, in San Fran. Like, they got a soft schedule. They have a soft schedule in San Francisco. You got Purdy there.

You still have a lot of talent and weapons. You got good coaching staff. But, yeah, that's a good mini-Jerry. And if you're a fantasy player, that was the ultimate conundrum. I know you guys don't do pools. But, like, where do you draft them? Can you trust them? I don't know.

That purdy's going to be fascinating, too, Hayes, with that money attached to him. Yes, you will. Because for years, it was like $743,000. And now it's like $43 million. Making a fortune. And now guys have to leave. because he's getting paid, you know, where before guys could stay because he wasn't getting paid.

It flips, and now the pressure is always on you because of the position you play. But we know this. Your dollar amount always counts. It's always filtered through the evaluation, who you are, what you do. Yeah. Purdy's making bank now. All right, there you go.

Jerry's percentages. Good to have Jerry back. And we'll continue to do that roleplay level of concern coming up. All the good stuff as we move forward. with overdrive. We'll get to our best bets powered by Fanduel. TFJ's Reds tonight. Overdrive continues. TSN 1050 and on TSN2.

All right, best bets powered by Fandul. Make your picks and assemble the same game parlay. In seconds on the Fandul Sportsbook app. Looking for value here. I'm on Bichette to record a hit. Springer to record a hit. It's huge minus money because they're so hot, but I think that's going to continue. I'm parlaying

that with Bieber over five and a half strikeouts tonight. That's paying plus money. So you've got to find plus money, you know, parlay's here with the Jays. They're a pretty heavy favorite to win. I do think they'll win tonight. And it's a big one to get this because the Yankees aren't slowing down. The Red Sox aren't slowing down.

They're an off date tomorrow than you're at Yankee Stadium on Friday, biggest series of the year. So Bichette to record a hit, springing to record a hit, Beaver over five and a half strikeouts tonight. Best bets powered by Fanduel. The first inning means as much as the ninth when you bet baseball in the Fanduel, Sportsbook. Yeah, please play responsibly 19 plus. physically located in Ontario. All right, we've got Jay's Reds tonight. We've got the NFL tomorrow.

Luke will be back. Al's brother will be back tomorrow. I think there's a spicy meatball brew in here. We talked about that Pablo Tori story with Kawhi. You see in the reports that he goes, he's looking into the Knicks and Jalen Brunson next. Because remember, Brunson famously left a lot of money on the table. Yes.

And they sold it as Good Samaritan, just wants to be a Nick, wants everyone else to get there. Your boy Jimmy Dolan might be right in there. Could you imagine? Like this, like I say, this could open a big door here. Yeah. That could be, I think that's why maybe the NBA just goes, hey, you know, don't do that anymore. You know, is this going to like unearth a lot of fun of business?

Go down to the swamp. There's not a dead body, but there's something you like. Yeah. Head on down to Christy Pitts. Well, here's the thing. I never thought that we'd have a Christy Pitt segment. Stupid talk is now reality. Yeah, there it is.

Stupid talk is now reality. There's a tagline. Stupid talk is now reality. Overdrive. I like that one. That is a good tagline. Add it to the list. All right, we've established a contest.

Who's going to mention Mitch Marner last, I guess? You know, like if you mention them, you're out of the contest. Get the buzzer ready, doogie. Yep, get it ready. Whatever brings up Mitchie. Starting tomorrow. Because someone's going to get jammed with something that's totally reasonable to bring his name up. You know, whatever it is, talking about.

Well, you know what's going to happen tomorrow. All three of us are purposely not going to say his name. I know. But news will break that he, you know, something's going on or Pablo Torres in Vegas sniffing something out. We'll bring in Struddy and he'll call him Mariners or something. Mitch Mariner. Yeah, exactly. He'll jam that.

Anyway, speaking of the NHL, I can't believe you're like, maybe we should get Pierre on tomorrow or something to go through, like, the ins and outs of what's happening. There's 84 games. Yeah, the CBA's changing. They're going to 84. They're going to start earlier. Playoff, like salary cap.

Like, maybe we should get into some of that stuff tomorrow. Oh, no, tomorrow's football. Tomorrow we got Luke, and listen, we're coming off the Jays, but I think there's time for that tomorrow because there's a lot of people wonder, like, is Iko going to get paid in Vegas before the year starts? Is Caprisoff going to get paid in Minnesota? Minnesota. It's not just McDavid, right? There's a lot of big, big dogs in the NHL that are looking for deals.

Yeah. Like those are the two best players for the respective teams. What is Connor going to do? Kyle Connor in Winnipeg. He's going into his final year. You know, so there's quiet there. Nobody talks about that. I know. I'll bet you they are in Winnipeg, though. Like, Jonathan Taves is a really is a great story, and I saw him skating around in jet skier, and it looks great. Yeah. Looks very natural on him. But, you know, Eilers just left. what does Connor do now you know you got to get in front of that if you're the winnipeg Jets so yeah we'll get into all that tomorrow Luke will be back we got the NFL starting we've got our picks tomorrow we're coming off a blue jay game we got a contest right we got a lot of things going here we're looking for taglines you text us 1050 50 50 tweet us email us

Instagram TikTok wherever you find us there you go all right good stuff thanks to everyone behind the scenes for helping out today we appreciate it everyone for tuning in today TV radio podcast web. We're up on YouTube live on TSN's YouTube channel. Every single show up on YouTube live on TSN's YouTube channel. You can find us everywhere. TikTok, Instagram, Twitter. We're all over the place.

We're out of here. Enjoy your evenings. Enjoy the games tonight. We're back tomorrow at. Tomorrow Owen Wilson comes alive. At? 4 p.m. We'll chat then.

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. Thank you.