PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - SAVE THE DRAMA FOR YO MAMA

Episode Date: February 16, 2022

The Valley Can't Escape Any Arizona Sports DRAMA. Arizona Cardinals fans are upset about Kyler Murray's social media. Suns fans are upset about Deandre Ayton and not getting a contract extension. Hockey fans are making fun of the Coyotes playing in ASU Arena... all while baseball fans mad at the world.Join host Makayla Perkins and the PHNX Crew as they discuss how Arizona sports fans are fairing through the drama. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Welcome in to the Phoenix Sports Podcast presented by Drop King Sportsbook America's top-rated sportsbook app. Don't forget to subscribe wherever you get your podcast and definitely leave us a five-star review. We appreciate it as always. I'm your host, Michaela Perkins. And joining me today is Tierston Sue Selle, Petey and Derek Montia. We're going to get into our Valley Sports temperature check. Thanks for everybody letting me know that my mic wasn't working. All right.

here we go. Let's start it off with the Sons. The Sons they took on the Clippers last night. I was there at the game. It was my first Sons game of the year. Super excited that I got to go and watch it as a fan. The Sons were struggling a little bit in the beginning, but they kind of got it together. They did end up beating the Clippers in a close game. The Sons are now 23 and 3 in clutch game situations. I mean, talk about an exciting team to watch. What were your guys' thoughts on the game last night? I saw some people like just disappointed they didn't win by more. And that just goes to show where we're at with the suns now. Right.

Like clutch wins. You know, you have bad losses throughout the season or just nights that you're off or whatever. Like you said, that seemed to be the start of the game. But to be able to pull it all together and still pull out the victory, you know, there was criticism about their lineup not having, you know, Quai Leonard and obviously, you know, PG not in there. But I don't know, man. I think that this is one of those situations where it's nice for the sons to be this. that they can still pull out wins. And the only thing we're upset about is that, well, this felt like it should have been more.

Right. Yeah, absolutely. Suns knocked the clippers out of the playoffs last year. So I don't care who they were missing. I think anytime they're going to face each other this season, they're going to remember that and play them tough. For me, you know, you don't want to get to the point where like your, you should like this, your opponent stinks and you should be blowing them out yet you're there's, you're still within a couple points. You don't want it to be that, but the clippers are still a very good team.

So I think it's encouraging that they are still able to come away with the win. And the fact that they are so good in the fourth quarter, closing out games, in clutch situations, it's all positive for me. Yeah, absolutely. And I think the longer the season goes on and you're finding different ways to win, I think that's an important task for a team that's trying to enter the playoffs the right way. Look, when this team gets completely healthy and they're on a role, they're going to be incredibly difficult to beat. The expectations, however, are extremely high. So then can they continue that pace yet to be seen?

But this is what we talked about. And this is part of the point of the show. It's when things are going well and you can still find things to bitch about. Yeah. And things to complain about like, what do you think the coyotes would be doing to get a few wins in a row? Like, by seven, by two and shoot up? Like, just get a win.

Like the point is to win. Don't talk to me and Petey about loss. Yeah, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. When this team finally gets together, this son's team, It's like if everything clicks, I don't want to speak too early, but it's going to be really fun to watch what they can do this season. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, the Sons, they're the best team in the NBA.

I've said it all along on this podcast. I know the Sons podcast says it every time that they're on two, but they really are the best league, the best team in the league. I have some stats for you guys to hopefully blow your mind because I don't know if you guys know this. But since the bubble, so including the bubble games, the Sons are 120 and 39 in games. that to me is wild. That winning percentage, I can't do math, but I'm assuming. Good job, Monty Williams. Is through the roof.

And James Jones for continuing to add to that success. They only need to go 16 and 9 for the rest of the season to set a new franchise record and wins if they do it, which I mean, I feel like they can. They're on a six-game win streak right now. Their next six opponents are not great. So, I mean, I feel like by the end of the next two weeks, they will be out on a 12-game win streak, barring any crazy change. just, you know, knock on wood.

But I mean, this team is unstoppable right now. And I hate to relate this back to the Diamondbacks, but that's three games away from a full baseball season. And that's pretty terrifying. Wow, that was fast math. I would have, yeah, fast math could not have done that in the fly. I would have even thought that. So that's what we have you on the show.

Our Diamondbacks have 110 losses in their season were not quite as good as the suns have been over that same stretch. Yeah. Wild. For me, there are three things that stand out about this team that I feel like our characteristics of championship teams. Like one is the chemistry and we've known that all along. And James Jones has done a phenomenal job of bringing guys in that have not disrupted

and only made the chemistry stronger. Just closing out games, right? And I think that's something that maybe they've struggled with in the past, like teams that can close out game that's that that's big. And then depth, right? And now they've just added to that depth. They've got three things that are just such big factors in championship teams. Like this team has every bit of.

expectations to win it all this year. And they have everything that they need to win it all. Yeah, absolutely. I agree. This is the year for the Sons. Shane in the comments saying the clippers without Kauai and PG are sneaky good. I agree. Like people were trying to discount that last night.

They were trying to say like, oh, like you guys wouldn't like it was an easy win. Like they didn't have their two best players. But like I still think the Clippers are a really great team even without those two on the court. Charles Wadall Pike saying the sun's being able to crush the last five minutes has been so fun to watch. I agree. I love watching this fourth quarter, like, when the sons are playing, because even if they're a little bit behind or whatever, I still have so much faith that they're going to just win it.

Like, I have just complete faith in this team, which I will say is so nice to experience because as a Valley Sports fan, I am scarred and jaded. And so when I can finally just like let my trust walls down because I have so many trust issues and just like enjoy this team for what it is, it's so refreshing because I genuinely have not been able to do that before. But do you not have the feeling in the back of your head that they're going to hurt you again? Does not still sneak in there? I just have like a feeling. Yeah. I just have a feeling. I just want her to feel pain, Derek.

That's kind of what I want. I want her to remember the sting of last season. But now I had that same thing last year. Like last year it's like this feels different. Yeah. I never felt this confident about this team. Yeah. Like sometimes it was even when they were really good with a really good record,

you still kind of had like some crossing your fingers type moments. Yeah. Absolutely. No, there's just something about this team. Like it's even, I mean, obviously it starts with CP3, right? But the biggest thing about him. is even when he had an off night, kind of like he seemed to start having last night,

you can just annoy him into being better. It's like he's kind of toying with the other team until he realizes he has to kind of turn it on and then he does, and he's just incredible. The Draft King's Sportsbook line on his assist last night were 13 and a half. And I was like, no way. He got 14.

Yeah, he got 14. That's the other thing. He's a way to ruin my bet. They've got a confidence right now. And one thing about pro sports at any sports at any level is winning is contagious. And they've got an inner belief now that they can come back and win. They can win with a depleted lineup.

They have found different ways to win. And most importantly, they can look across the bench and go, okay, it's your turn. Yeah. I did it. You do it. And once you get an accountability within the room from the guy sitting next to you, not from the coach, not from the manager or the owner, it's from the guy sitting next to you.

Once you have that, man, that's dangerous. And that's what this team looks like they have. It's like, okay, let's go. It's your turn. Let's pick it up. I agree 100%. And the depth, too, by the way, is incredible, right? Like, they've traded and made moves now to actually make their depth valuable.

And it seems like they don't have guys on the bench as much that, you know, that they might have thrown in just in garbage time. It seems like everybody could have, could be an asset to this team at some point during a playoff run or at least late in the season when we want to give, you know, some of the guys some rest going into the playoffs. I think that's where my confidence comes in, too, is like, Sun teams in the past, like they seem to just be missing one piece of. the puzzle or like two pieces of the puzzle. But to me, this son's team has every piece of the puzzle. They've got everything from, you know, James Jones down working for them. They have the perfect coach. They've got the perfect lineup. They've got the perfect person making roster decisions. I just think that this is it. Like they just have every single piece of the puzzle and this is their year to do it. But as Derek mentioned earlier, we also have CP3 on this team. And CP3 is the point

God. And obviously we need a shirt that celebrates his epicness. So if you haven't seen it yet, this is our new shirt that just dropped this week. The Point God, oh my God, this is the favorite shirt we've ever released. I'm obsessed with it. Praise him. Praise the point God. Our point God is a mighty. My God. It's amazing. I love it. Check out our new shirt. If you go over to the PHNX locker, that's where it's available. If you sign up to be an annual member at go phnx.com, you get that shirt for free, which I 10 out of 10 recommend doing because with a free shirt, you also get access to a ton of great stuff on go page nics.com. All right, let's move on to the coyotes really quick

on our temperature check. Pedy and Craig were out at the new arena. So if you missed it, which I don't know how you could have. But in case you did, the coyotes will be sharing the arena that ASU hockey slash multipurpose arena are building. You guys were out there. You did a little tour. So here's a video that Pedy and Craig put together of the new arena.

Steve Peters, alongside Craig Morgan. with P HNX Sports. Just got a tour of the new ASU hockey arena. Craig, initial thoughts? Well, I had the luxury of getting to tour this in August virtually, and now that you see it coming together, you really think, wow, what an unbelievable facility. This is going to be, especially for a college team, right?

Look, you understand some of the concerns from an NHL standpoint, but for us, as media, for fans, it's going to be an unbelievable experience to watch NHL hockey in this arena. Yeah, you look at from the college perspective and what they're going to be able to do for recruiting, for a college kid coming here, this facility is going to be second to none in the country. For the NHL, sure, there's going to be concerns. I mean, the fans, though, I tell you, what a fan experience.

They're going to be right on top of the players. Do you have any idea of some of the main points of the new building, things we can look forward to seeing from the inside? Yeah, I know, well, right now we're still waiting to see what seating capacity will be for an NHL game. It's a little over 5,000. I think it's 5,08 for college games. It's like 6,000 for concerts, things like that. They'll have to add cameras, broadcasters, scouts, all those things.

But in terms of the arena itself, there are 20 luxury squeets. You saw some of the club areas that are really nice. The party deck for students, which is going to be unreal with a drink rail. There's the community rink on the other end of the arena from where we are right now that will house a lot of the youth programs that used to be over at Oceanside. This is really going to be a hub of hockey right here. And if you extend it out even further, if the coyotes get their permanent arena built, I think it's a mile and a half down the road.

Imagine Tempe basically is the hub of hockey in Arizona. Did you get any idea of what the coyotes annex would look like and where that's going to be located? Yeah, it's actually really close to where we're standing right now. I think if people, rather than giving them directions, I think people know where Packard Stadium used to be, the home of Sun Devil Baseball. Basically, it's right next to that, right next to the grandstand. So it's off that corner of the building where they'll have all of their team areas at the cost of $20 to $25 million.

They will have easy access, the players to part. So that was the tour of the new arena. Pedy, I know you were out there and you gave us a great comprehensive breakdown of it in that video. But what were your overall impressions and your honest, honest opinion if you think NHL games are going to be successful in that arena? First, it's a beautiful facility in an unbelievable location. Like your stand is right next to the football stadium. You get to see the mountain there.

It's gorgeous. It's a great college rink. It's a really good college drink. when you walk in and go, oh shit, this is small. And it's stunningly small. I've talked to a lot of people around the league this week because people called me and said, they're not really doing this. They can't really play there.

I heard from coaches, managers, they're not really going to do this. Like this is an embarrassment to the league. The league can't do this. The players won't let them. But the last thing every one of them said, every one of them can't wait to watch a game there. Yeah. This is going to be an NHL experience that you will not ever say. again, you are so close to this action from anywhere in the building. If you're lucky enough to get in,

it's going to be phenomenal. And one of the things I'm concerned about is I read, oh, it's going to be full of drunk ASU students. Like hell it is. How are they going to get tickets? How are you going to get into this building? Right. This is going to be one of the hardest sports tickets to get for one of the worst teams in sports, which is a dichotomy. But it's true. It's kind of brilliant from that perspective. The environment in that building is going to be insane if you can get in. Will it be the same watching a 1 in 22 team? Maybe not, but you can see Alex Govechkin, Sydney Crosby. You can almost reach out and touch.

Connor McDavid? Like, you're kidding me? The experience is going to be phenomenal. So the naysayers are people that, one, have no idea. How does this affect the fan in Canada? What the hell do they care? How big the Arizona Coyote Stadium is? Well, you know, the reason why is because they think it should be there.

Yeah, they think that it's. something that they're just waiting to poach this team for some team in Canada for some city in Canada and so there that's why they're in all the coyotes mentions and everything like that I get it but you know maybe maybe look towards expansion or something else I don't know the coyotes though do have an issue right now right it is become one of those situations where it's kind of like you said it's kind of laughed at a bit for sure the size of it and I all I could think is how much I want to be in there. Like you said, that's all I think about.

Right. I mean, it's a, I guess it's a weird metaphor because it's not like watching the Beatles because you can't compare the coyotes of the Beatles. But, you know, in a way with the maybe with some of the opposing players or everything combined, it's like getting to see somebody incredible in a very small venue that you would never get so intimate, like 50 seats in some bar and some, you know, famous band or something got a chance to play there one night, right? Like, that's the appeal there.

And I, like you said, I don't see this stadium being empty. So, like, that's not a bad thing either, that it's going to be filled with people every game and not, you know, not have that same capacity issue where, you know, half the stadium is empty. So I was talking to Coyote's former GM, Don Maloney on the phone earlier. And he sort of echoed those sentiments and said that, first off, since he has ties to Arizona, he's in Calgary now. but he's like the go-to guy where everyone's coming up to him being like, what the hell's going on in Arizona? So there is a part where people just kind of think it's a bad look for the NHL. And you have your superstars that do have to go in and play in this rinketing,

5,000 will be less than 5,000 seat arena. And some of it, some people just look at it as a joke and some players don't want to play there or just think it's a bad look for the NHL as a whole. But then you also have, and he echoed the same sentiment where it's, become like, you know, it's going to be a hot ticket thing to get into one of those games. But yeah. So the conversation here in Arizona and the conversation around the league might be a little bit different. But we'll get into the conversation later when we talk about the drama surrounding this.

But I think my greatest concern is just I don't think Coyote's fans realize how small it is. And I'm just worried that they're going to be disappointed when they go in there for a game. because, I mean, you walk into Healer River Arena and that thing is massive. Like, and it feels like I'm in a professional sports venue. And half of the appeal of going to a game is to get that experience that, you know, some people can only afford to go to once every year. And it's, you know, they have like the whole thing in this giant arena, this whole experience.

And then, you know, you're going to go to ASU Arena. And it's perfect. Like you said for a college hockey team, especially coming from Oceanside, because Oceanside is a rinky dinky little community rink. So it's going to be great for ASU. hockey, but I'm just, I'm worried that Kyiv's fans are going to be disappointed when they go in there and they see the size of it,

how many people are in there, and I'm just, that's what I'm the most concerned about. I might be wrong. Once again, you're going from alienating a certain part of your fan base because you're out in Glendale. Now you're moving to Tempe, you're closer, more accessible, but now you're going to alienate and alienate a different

part of your fan base for the people who can't even get in to see a game. Yeah. And let's go a step farther. You're alienating that group. Should we talk about the fans getting in? you're not getting in. Yeah. This is going to be so hard to get in for one. And then let's take another step further.

Well, I'll just watch them on TV. Good luck. Try. Try getting them with Sinclair and getting into a regional sports network without paying. I mean, people are cutting the cord. How do you watch your favorite teams?

It's a problem. It's not a problem if you want to go see them in Glendale. You can't see them in Tempe because you won't be able to get a ticket. And you can't watch them on TV unless you have direct TV or cable. So what are you going to do? Yeah. So how many. fans, are you going to alienate over the next three, four years that five years from now,

if you get the new building in Tempe, if you get it, then all of a sudden you go, okay, we're ready to start winning, we're really good now, here's a building, come back. Right. I don't know, though, because we have three seasons of playing there, right? That's what the deal is for. So after three seasons, don't you think to a degree that there's going to be people that have been wanting to watch these games so much that there'll be more people attending games at a bigger venue once that's available?

Let's hope so not if you can't Not if you like straight up can't watch any of them And don't feel invested because you can't watch any of their games So I doubt like three years of being like Yeah I just who even plays anymore because I haven't even seen them in three years Like it could go I see what you're saying But I feel like the risk of of people just not being able to watch Is greater than the opposite

I just compare it to this Like merchandise companies do these drops now And it puts you when you miss drop after drop whether it's shoes, hats, it doesn't matter what it is. You stop caring even about if you like the thing and you're so like dead set on getting it. Just like a ticket, you know, that you might not be able to get into. But once you get there, you're so excited that you get to go to it. Like crumble cookies when they release their cookies every week.

I had crumble cookies for the first time last week. I understand the hype. Those things are amazing. They were out of banana cream when I went and I was so angry. And I was like, what do you mean you're out? Just make more. How is it that hard? Coyotes are crumble cookies.

Yeah. Make them desirable by not having them in stock. We're going to talk more about this arena stuff in a little bit. But before we get into that, I do want to talk to you guys about Jock King Sportsbook. Hoops fans. The latest offer from Jacking Sportsbook, the official sports betting partner of the NBA, is too good to pass up. I'm talking between the legs, 360 windmill good, new customers or McHale Dunkett.

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I don't even know what's happening. I feel like all the drama in the universe is centered in the Valley right now, and it's all surrounding our sports teams, and there's a lot of it. Celebrity Big Brothers on right now. I'm watching that show. I haven't watched it recently, but I'm hoping Todrick wins. Oh, it gets dramatic soon. Oh, no. Oh, no.

You've got to get caught up. Well, just like Celebrity. You guys, oh, I am a reality. I am addicted to reality TV. That is like the only thing I watch on television besides sports. It is a problem. I love reality TV. But I do feel like the Valley Sports are starring in one of my favorite reality TV shows right now

because holy cow, what the heck is going on? Obviously, we need to start with the Cardinals because that has been a ton of talk recently. Kyler Murray, obviously, has been the center of this. He deleted some pictures off Instagram, which we all know, our own Johnny Venerable. posted about this made an observation and the story went national obviously you can see there johnny's tweet and then some reaction on the side um i what's it i can't see the um saying that that was his favorite storyline of super bowl which i agree because i thought it was drama filled which i love um like i mentioned before so obviously you have kailer deleting pictures off instagram and this becomes a national

storyline and people start talking about it there's like a lot of different things that are coming out of this like is he unhappy does he want more money and uh we all we all have kind of chimed in on this but i mean cherson you don't really think um it has anything to do with anything besides money right like this is all of a ploy to get more money no i have absolutely no idea what his intentions were the only thing that i feel like is pretty apparent is that he knew that he was making some sort of a statement that wasn't going to go unnoticed by deleting everything out of his profile. I don't care who you are. If you work for ESPN even and you're like one of my go to people that I, all of a sudden I go to your profile, I'm like, oh my God, doesn't say ESPN anymore and

everything's deleted. I don't care who you are. People are going to pick up on that. When you're a quarterback for an NFL franchise, people are going to notice. So I don't know what his intentions exactly were. I mean, you could definitely say, oh, it's probably got to do something with a contract situation. Whatever they were, he did it intentionally. And then, then I have a hard time talking about this without also talking about the statement that he released, which I'm sure that we have. Yes. So he, to update everybody on the drama, obviously we all know this happened.

There's been some thoughts and comments from a lot of different people saying that this shouldn't been a story. This is a story. Whatever. But Kyler Murray did release a statement yesterday. He posted it on Twitter and it says, I play this game for the love of it, my teammates, everyone who has helped me get to this position that believed in me to win a championship. All of this is nonsense is all of this nonsense.

is not what I'm about, never has been, never will be. Anyone who has stepped between those lines with me knows how hard I go, love me or hate me, but I'm going to continue to grow and get better. So that was Kyler's statement. So please tell me why he's not about this nonsense and everything when he is the one that started it. You know what you're doing when you are a celebrity of that caliber, whether you're a pro athlete, whatever, you have a celebrity status.

When you make a move like that, you know dang well what you're doing. So my whole thing is at least take a little bit of ownership. Like at least say, I understand how that might have been perceived. It was not my intention. But don't now pawn it off on everybody else for like creating drama and, you know, I'm not about any of this. Like at least take a little bit of ownership for that. What are your thoughts on it, PD?

This is what's hard for me. Like Cherston's in, like she gets the cardinal vibe. I'm a fan. I stand on the periphery and go, okay, to me, what the hell are you talking about? We talk about a guy that's supposed to be a young leader of his team. That's what a quarterback is. And we compare him to there are some pretty darn good young quarterbacks in this league right now that are leading this team. This is not a move of a leader to me.

This is, if I got a problem with owners, management, money, whatever it is. I'm going to knock on your door and let's talk about it. I'm not going to do this. I don't know how this binds teammates. I don't know how this binds the message of group and togetherness. Whether they are together or not is beyond the pale. It doesn't matter. It's what a week.

perceive it as and now the perception is what the hell are you talking about you don't like drama what the hell you're tweeting it for right yet like it's just dumb like so how am i going to buy into him and now he's got to get behind center next year i'm going well you know the piece that i don't most concerned about is where's the team in this yeah where's the team going hey we we saw this message yesterday he's a cry baby and he's a finger pointer where's the team going hey hey we're behind kiler he's our guy he's great in the room he's our leader where's that well there was it they did the team itself released a little bit of a statement basically saying that like he's our guy. We're behind him.

And then his teammates have come out and said, yeah, it's okay. That's what that's why we've got a group here. It's not just one person. We bring our minds together. And some of us, his teammates have come out in response to him. And a lot of fans are saying like, who the hell cares if he deleted something on his Instagram? He's a good player.

It's just like, yeah, I get that. And I'm not saying trade him because he deleted something out of his Instagram. it's just you already have and he knows damn well that the the conversation surrounding him is like does he lack leadership qualities you know that is a thing whether you want whether you pay attention to everything that's said about you or not you know that's a thing so when you're making a move like that be a little more conscious of it yeah i mean it is a storyline it's happened to other athletes have done it in other leagues i mean von miller did it with the broncos when he was unhappy with the broncos and it is a story of it's storyline. It is worth talking about. And I do believe there is intentionality behind the actions. Kyler knew what he was doing when he archived those posts. He was intentional with those decisions. And then when he came out with his statement yesterday, I also was a little off put by that because he said he's not about this nonsense. Well, if you're not about the nonsense, don't archive those posts. Yeah. Like, if you don't think there's going to be any fallout from those actions when you're a professional athlete on the highest stage in front of thousands and thousands and millions of fans, like I just, I don't agree with that. because like, you know, it's the same thing with me.

Like, if I'm dating somebody and I all of a sudden just delete all the pictures of me and my boyfriend off Instagram, people are going to be like, oh, my God, Michaela broke up with her boyfriend. Like, it's the same thing. Like, I just don't think it's fair to like be like if, and obviously I can't speak for Kyle and I don't know how he feels. But like if you don't want to be about this nonsense, don't do stuff like that because you're going to get some nonsense out of it. Like we're all going to react to it. I'll say this just in defense of Kyler. I also don't have a boyfriend, by the way. She's putting that up.

Can't anyone was on me? She's been single and still is. Kyler is 24 years old. And I think that's the thing to keep in perspective here. Like he's not going to always make the most mature decisions at 24. I understand. We want everybody to be grown up. And when you're in this position, in this spotlight, you should be mature and you should be able to handle it.

And that's part of, you know, the reason why NFL teams analyze these guys when they draft them and put them through 50 interviews. use to figure out how they are as a person besides just their athletic abilities, right? Yeah. I just think that in this case, it wasn't immature decision. It's not, I don't think anybody can say he didn't do it on purpose with some meaning. But at the same time, too, sometimes when you're 24 years old and you're just angry about something, you just make a dumb decision that you don't really care if it's going to cause drama or not.

Right. However, you didn't think. You don't, right. Well, and I mean, that's kind of, again, another image, you're stacking immature moves on top of amateur moves, right? But you also don't think that you deleting your Instagram stuff or archiving it is going to make it on ESPN. And then it does, right? And so again, he knows, he knows, he knows.

It's like, I think someone in the chat said he did this, a similar move when he was in college at Texas A&M. And to be honest, yeah, I actually saw someone bring that up yesterday. And it's it. When he was transferring? Yeah, it was like part of his. Oh, no one's going to say a thing. Whoa, yeah. It's not going to be on an ESPN or the NFL network.

And again, it might be a well-calculated move. It might be beyond him just being immature and doing it. He might have done it with intent and purpose. But it also doesn't, I also don't feel like his age and handling things that this don't play a role. Well, and also he needs to understand that, like, he's the quarterback of the team. And the quarterback of the team is usually seen as a leader. And so decisions like this are going to infect everybody in the organization, including his teammates. And obviously, like, you know, his teammates have said very positive things about him, Zach Ertz, JJ White.

I mean, JJ Watt even came out with a video while this drama was going on. I think we have it. If you want to play the video, JJ Watt's reaction. I just tried to FaceTime Kailor. He didn't answer. What does it mean? Are we still friends? Does he still follow me on social?

Maybe it's just at dinner. Obviously, that's a hilarious reaction from J.J. Watt. To be fair, that's my exact reaction when my friends really don't answer the phone when I call him. So, I mean, I kind of feel that way. First of all, what neighborhood does he live in? I don't know, but it sounds like Leah's with his street gang outside of the sirens. Are you okay, JJ? But, I mean, obviously, his actions are going to affect everyone.

I love that JJ Watt had fun with it. But, I mean, this is now a story that has become major drama. And I feel like the drama is justified because if you are a leader of organization and you do something like that, people are going to react to it. Whether it's a justified reaction or not, I can't tell you, but everyone can react how they want to something like that. This is why people aren't on social media. This is why people delete their accounts.

Which is fine. But he could do something similar because he plays Call of Duty. So I mean, he could do something similar like in a Twitch thing that he's on. And then all of a sudden that becomes viral too, right? He says something because he's being honest. Like Booker has at times said funny things in there that kind of maybe nothing that makes him look bad. But Devin Booker at times has like videos of him saying funny things when he's doing when he's playing video games. It could be anywhere because sometimes that's where you let down your guard and that's where you do something that you might regret.

I've seen the PR guys coach these guys even when they're veterans about what that they should be saying and not saying to the media. So it's not like it's something that the teams try to do something about to not have this kind of reaction. I also don't feel like there's anything wrong with fans wanting a franchise quarterback to be more supportive of the team he's playing for. and the community he's living in. So for everybody who's saying, everybody's just on a smear campaign, leave him alone, he's young, he's this and that. If what you want out of your quarterback

is a guy like Josh Allen, is a guy like Joe Burrow, where you're getting more of a leader of a person that's out in the community or a person that is, I'm all in on this city, there's nothing wrong with a fan wanting that. Right.

And I'm Kyler, honestly, I don't know that he's ever going to be that. It doesn't mean that he's not going to be a great player, a great talent, and have success in this league. Yeah. But it doesn't, it doesn't have to be one way or another. Yeah, Petey, I think you're going to. No, but I just think that that's kind of our right as a sports fan to criticize move like. Yeah. I mean, this is part of unfortunate.

This is part of what sports is. It's not always between the lines. And I know people want to keep it there. And this is how I play is how I play. Bullshit. Like we earn the right to criticize move like this. And honestly, that's why the four of us are sitting here right now. And that's why networks like ESPN and watch TNT basketball and TNT hockey, because we can do this.

Yeah. For me, this is my soap operas. This is the storylines I follow. And it's, I've earned the right. That's what sports does to people. I've invested my time, my money, and my energy into this team. Yeah, I can complain about it if I want to. Yeah.

And on this particular thing, he's a guy. I want to root for the Cardinals. I want to be, hey, this guy's got it. He's on it under control and he's going to go win for me. He's going to fight for me. Now you're like, eh, is it more about him or is it the team? Don't give us the opportunity to see that. And to say he didn't see that, come on.

Yeah. Like my 18-year-old, when my son was 18, he's older than 18. Now, when he was 18 in high school and tweeting stuff, you go, hey, everything you tweet there affects things. Yeah. Be aware of that. I thought him that when he was 16. He knows.

Come on. Well, William Jasper in the comment saying, a huge lack of ownership from Kyler. Leadership is lacking from the organization as a whole, just show up at this level. I mean, that's a great point. I do think there is a lack of ownership on Kyler's behalf, especially with a statement yesterday. And that's what I wanted to ask, Cherston, coming here. Where does any of this lie on or a representation of the coaching staff?

Of Cliff? I mean. Should he have come out and said something? Or should he have handled the situation? Or I've heard people saying, well, it's a reflection of the coach. Is that fair? I would say you could make that argument a little bit. I would say that Kyler's been his own person and he's been that way,

he's probably his entire life and career. You could make the argument that Cliff is not the right leader for him and doesn't have the capability of calling him out or putting him in place or making him have a reality check. So in that way, you can certainly, and that's just a conversation. So, you know, I have not heard that. directly from the organization, but that's what the conversation is right now, is, is Cliff the right coach to be able to give him what he needs to mature into a leader? And so, yeah, from that

standpoint, you could, you can, you could argue both ways. I would also say that this is just kind of who Kyla is. And it is what it is. Perplexed damage in the comment saying, he said he was going to have to grow. That will help him be a better QB. I think that was a short joke, if it was. I love it. But I wanted to go off of this because Pedy Graham brings up a great point in this, maybe being a coaching issue, an organizational issue. NFL, AZ Cardinals in the comments asking,

do you guys think this drama might steer away free agents from coming here? And I wanted to bring up that question because, although it might not necessarily, in my opinion, deter free agents from coming here, it might affect the free agents that are on the roster. So today, this is more drama, you guys. or just add into the drama. Taylor Jones tweeted something that was very interesting. He said something I guess was like a sub-tweet,

but I couldn't really tell which NFL team had the number one pass rush this off season. I feel like he was alluding to the fact that he contributed to the best pass rush in one of the best pass rushes in the NFL. He is due to be a free agent. And there have been a ton of criticisms about his performance this year, whether he deserves to stay with the Cardinals and get more money, if the Cardinals should let him go because of his performance. And so I feel like now we're adding another layer to our drama cake. And Chandler Jones is starting to hint that maybe he,

and we know that he hasn't been the hobbies with the Cardinals. He did request to trade last season. But I think now he's starting to bring up the fact that he feels maybe disrespected and he deserves more money and he should get more money for, you know, the job that he's done throughout his career. What are your thoughts on Chandler Jones, maybe sub-tweeting the league. I will say this.

Chandler Jones knows that whatever he puts on social media is going to be presumed in that way. There's no doubt about that. So, and he uses social media often. And I like it. I think he very much knows what's going to come of it. This is a read between the lines. What is he hinting at?

And I think he wanted people to start talking, right? So whether it means like, oh, who had the best? because the Cardinals didn't have the best pass rush. So, like, I don't know. They're definitely up within, I think, the top five. So, and that might not, that's off the top of my head. I don't quote me on that. They had one of the better pass rushes.

And so in that regard, maybe he's hinting at that, or maybe he's just saying, like, hmm, scoping for places. Like, I don't really know what he's saying, but I think it has something to do with the fact that he's going to be a free agent here in a few weeks and is going to have to. to make a decision. And I don't think the Cardinals are in a place to re-sign him. He got upset because he wanted a long-term big money deal.

Cardinals wouldn't give it to him. He requested a trade. They decided for what the Cardinals wouldn't give him the trade. And he played out this season. And I, I love the guy. I don't know that he's worth what he wants. But the Cardinals just don't have the money to get into any sort of bidding wars with anyone or anything like that.

So if there's another team that's interested in him and the lot, what I've seen kind of floating. round is there's a possibility maybe the Patriots would be interested in bringing him back to New England. I think he's going to go wherever he feels wanted and where whoever's going to pay him. Yeah, I agree. Bees in the comments saying the entire situation reminds me of the office finger gun standoff meme. I totally agree. That's hilarious. A great observation. Jordan Karchner commenting, how can you discipline someone for immaturity when your GM didn't face a discipline for a DUI? That's also a great point. I mean,

Is it an organizational issue? The tea is hot today. The tea is hot. Thank you, Jordan, for adding to our hot tea over here. We need to have like a reality TV show name for this podcast today. Yes, Charles Woodall Pike saying actions have consequences, especially when you're in the public eye like a sports athlete. It's also a great point.

But if you want more of an in-depth analysis on the Channel Jones situation, Johnny Vennerable wrote an article that's up on go p-hnx.com right now. If you want to go check that out, I'd highly recommend it because it kind of does a more in-depth analysis on the entire situation that Chandler Jones is facing as a free agent. I want to play a little bit of a game with you guys as we're going along here talking about this drama. I call it the macometer of drama. And we're going to go through and we're going to talk about where we think these stories lie on this beautiful macometer of drama. One, obviously being this isn't a big deal.

Five being like a middle of the road. 10 being like, oh my God, this is the most drama I've ever seen in my life. So when you look at the Cardinal situation as a whole between the Kyler-Marie social media thing, possibly you could throw in Chandler Jones in there. What score do you give this on the macometer of drama? I give it an eight. It's a lot of drama. And it's a lot of concern, especially considering how good this team was for a period

of time last year and how it's kind of all falling apart since then. And it's not just the performance on the field and injuries. It's also all of this drama. And I mean, they really had something good. Someone brought up about recruiting, you know, and that's something the Cardinals have been doing well lately. And a lot of that is the players on the team recruiting other guys that they've played with or bringing in guys that they, you know, want to help make this team better.

I just don't know if this entire situation is going to help at all with the free agency, you know, the gaps that they're going to have as far as position players. go next season with those that are leaving. Yeah, absolutely. Before we get to Chirson's number, I want to say if you guys are in the comments, which I see a bunch of you now. So thank you for watching. Let us know what your score on the macometer of drama is when it comes to the Cardinal

situation. I want to know how you guys are feeling about it. If you think it's a story, if you don't think it's a story, give us a rating on the macometer of drama for this whole situation. Tierston, where are you at? I think when the Kyler situation first happened, I would have called it an eight because not only did you have the fallout from that, but you had the Cardinals chiming in and archiving their post to match up with Kyler's,

which even which furthered the conversation and the question marks is like, oh, well, the team responded, is, are they making light of it to like try and make everything go away or, or, because like if I was Kyler and I did this because I was pissed and all of a sudden I feel like you're mocking me, like the team's team account is now mocking me for it. Like, did that, would that make things worse? like who the hell knows but then Kyla released his statement various people teammates were like asked about it they brushed off so like it was very much a thing so I would call it like an eight or a nine when it first started I think it's dwindling down a few notches notches a little bit so like

a six or a seven but this is now going to be something that's not going away and anytime Kylear does something throughout this off season, throughout the next season, et cetera, and he's, you know, wanting this contract extension, it's going to be magnified, in my opinion. Yeah. Where are you at, for me, especially with the NFL, the bar is set pretty damn high. Yeah. If you want a nine or a ten, you need to take your jersey off during a game, throw it in the stands, and walk out on your team.

That's a nine or ten for me. Jeez. Tyler's a seven. Antonio Brown, we're looking at you. It's a big deal because he's a big player. It's a big deal because he's a big player. Yeah. And he's supposed to be the guy.

Yeah. And you saw the playoffs that this team just went through. And a lot of fingers got pointed to Kyler Murray for that performance in the playoffs, whether it's justified or not, they were. And you look for a quarterback and Joe Burrell on the flip side of that coin leads his team. Maybe he shouldn't have been there, but he puts him on his back and carries him. So I think that magnified what the expectations are of Kyler Murray as a leader. Yeah.

And I think that's what elevated this story to be as big it was. Hey, if this team is the coyotes and no, offense to the coyote. Well, actually, a little offense to the county. But if this team, if this team has two wins on the season, people are, yeah. Yeah. But this team's expectations were so high for this cardinal team halfway through the year that I think that makes this even a bigger deal. Yeah. than if they were just a two in 14? Yeah. Well, and the leadership aspect was already in question, and I mentioned that.

It's not like this came out of nowhere, and it's like, oh, all of a sudden they're questioning is leadership. It was like, first off, it's been since he came here. And yeah, people weren't really talking about it when they were 7 and 0 or 10 and 2 to start the season because it might still be there, but if they're winning, then we're not really going to talk about it. Why would we? And then as soon as they started going on the downhill trend,

okay now we're kind of talking about it is this a leadership thing is it cliff is it kiler but that that conversation ramped back up and continued on and then all of a sudden a move like this it just solidifies the story well and i i want to quickly move on because we have like three other topics to get to but i want to make sure that we include your guys's comments um charles little pike saying he's giving it an eight uh stephen vicing it's a five so we're kind of all over the place um with the reactions which is totally fine like i said you guys can react however you want just like we're going to react however we want when we read into things like this but I definitely think it's an interesting story.

It's made national news for a reason. So lots of drama when it comes to the Cardinals. And I did want to go on really quickly and talk about the Sons because there's not a ton of drama surrounding the Sons right now. However, I do believe there will be some drama when we do get to our pre-agency period in the off season because obviously we all know D'Andre Aitin was expecting a rookie max contract extension earlier this year. and when he didn't get it, he was reportedly very unhappy with the Phoenix Suns. Obviously, he felt like he was getting slighted and deserved a rookie contract. I don't want to speak for him, but I do feel like there was probably some feelings of like maybe he deserved that rookie max contract extension. And when he didn't get it, he probably felt a little bit slided, which I could say I would probably feel the same way if I was in that position.

So this whole time in between him not getting the extension and now, you know, people have been looking at his performance as a reason to either justify him getting more money or him not getting more money because if he doesn't, he can't, he, he will be a restricted free agent. So the Sons will have a chance to match any offer that comes D'Andre Aten's way in the offseason. But people have been using this as a time to really look at D'Andre Aiton and figure out if he deserves more money or, you know, if the Sons are going to let him walk. We've had a couple tweets throughout the season, obviously, pointing out D'Andre's performance. We had one from Gerald last night talking about, you know, his, sorry, his, his percentage of made hookshots this season, Suns Mode Suna saying, pointing out a wide variety of things of why D'Andre Ait deserves more money.

So I guess my question to you all is, you know, do you think that this story is drama? Do you think that he deserves more money? Do you think the son should spend open up their pocketbooks and make sure that he stays a problem? part of this roster, has his performance gardened that? Or do you think, you know, the sons might let him walk at the end of the season? I don't think the sons are going to let him walk. I think that they should pay him. I think he absolutely deserves it because of his maturity and his growth.

Like his, I don't know, I was commenting last night, but I was just really impressed with his footwork and his hands lately. His ability, his balance. There's just a lot of things there that he looks like he's come so far as far as a player goes. I don't know where to rate the drama because it doesn't really feel like the difference here with the Kyler situation and other stuff is that we have physical evidence of that person being angry. All we have really is people saying that he's upset with the organization or whatever. And I mean, again, that's that person's opinion about the comment he made or whatever. Of course he's upset. He feels like he's done a lot for this team.

And he expected to get that. And when you don't get that contract extension you were expecting, you're going to be upset. you're not going to be thrilled about it. I think that the sons might have wanted to see this season if he was capable of still progressing and still getting better and earning this money like he hasn't already earned it with his past performance. But it's I think a difference of doing it one season

versus being able to put it together consistently. Yeah. Tristan, do you think that DA has earned the bag? I do. And I also am very impressed. And while we're getting off the topic of, Kyler and, you know, a maturity and a leadership thing. Well, we're getting back to that. Hold on. Just a second.

Oh, we are. Okay. Well, I was going to loop that in with DeAndre. Am I overstepping things? No, actually, no, you're good. We have a tweet from Espo actually who pointed that out. The same thing. DeAndre Aiton and Kyler Murray are an interesting case study on how guys in similar situations handle themselves in vastly different ways. This was drama because Espo caught some heat on Twitter for this, which I feel is very undeserved because he does make a good point. And, Cherson, I know you're about to make that point for him. Yeah, I've been talking about before anything that happened with Kyler this entire season. Deonre was considered an immature player and again he's young as well but one knock on him his entire career has been that he's immature and he needs to grow up and the way that he's handled not getting the contract he felt

like he deserved and that is a thing he and his agent were after a five-year max deal they were talking about maybe a three or four year deal for less than he wanted and, you know, he didn't like that. So to see a guy who's had in the past, and trust me, being around that organization and being, he didn't like the media, I mean, trust me. I mean, they were justified in saying that he had some maturity issues. He had some growing up to do. He's now a dad. You know, he had Chris Paul come into the locker room. He's had Monty Williams as his head coach. He said people around him that have helped him develop into a mature player and human being. And I give him props for the way that he's handled everything this year.

You can definitely be upset with feeling like you're being disrespected in terms of what kind of deal. I mean, that's just a part of sports. But when it comes to wanting to win games and being and not allowing that to affect the team culture or anything like that because you're after this deal, I think he's done a really good job. He hasn't deleted anything from social media. He hasn't made a fuss about it.

He just went on, put his head down and kept playing the game and said, you know, I'll prove it to you. Hopefully I get an extension and we're all good at the end of the season. But either way, I'm going to go out there and I'm going to give it my all. I think that he's a staple of this team. I think moving forward after, you know, Chris Paul is at the tail end of his career. So in the next couple of years, you're going to have to sort of get into a situation where you're looking at rebuilding.

And I think Devin Booker and DeAndre Aiton should be your. build your pieces that you're building around. And so I think he definitely deserves it. I believe that he's going to to get that deal and that it will not end up being drama at the end of the season. But I do think he's still under a little bit of a test. Yeah. I think if he, one thing with him has been consistency.

I think if they get to the playoffs and all of a sudden he's super inconsistent, I don't know. Maybe there's some questions there. I mean, this is very much a trial season for him. Yeah. But I think to this point, in my opinion, personal opinion, I would say they get the deal done and Aiton is here to stay. Yeah, B's in the comment saying Aiton's approach has been refreshing. Yeah. He has maintained a professional demeanor and that is evident in the evolution of his game throughout the year.

William, Jasper making a good point saying the difference between those situations are Monty Williams and James Jones and Cliff and Kline. Yeah. Pee, what are your thoughts on that? No, I completely agree. And that's what we talked about before. It's the organization. It's the coaching staff. It's the leadership group in the culture.

and CP3 brings some of that to the locker room. So there's an expectation. We don't know what goes on behind closed doors. We're not privy to those conversations. Was DA a problem in the room in CP3? He goes, hey, here's how it should be. Here's how you handle it. Yeah, but here's the thing, too.

DA said he doesn't want to disappoint. Chris Paul. He doesn't want to disappoint Monty Williams. It's Kyler, he doesn't want to disappoint himself, maybe. But does Kyler want to not disappoint his head coach or, you know, Andre Hopkins or whatever, I don't think that that accountability even exists where he, I want to be the best leader I can be and the best player I can be for you and for you and for you.

And it's going to change who I am as a player, my approach and help me grow as a human being. And so maybe we just totally uncovered something here. Well, Chris, Chris Paul, like you said, he is willing to discipline him on the court. So I can only imagine, like you said, we don't know what goes on behind closed doors. but if he's if he's so willing to coach him on the court during a game you can only imagine the advice and the you know at least call him out tutelage yeah right and and just everything but the other thing there too on the flip side is the support from those guys right chris paul devon booker we heard from all these guys that said pay d a right so they're behind their guy and they showed him the support and we didn't get that contract those might have been the same guys that picked him up and said that's fine we'll get it for you this year

Yeah. Well, your performance this year will get you that money. And to have guys around you like that, making you kind of calming you down so that you're not having those moments of, you know, immaturity or just kind of lashing out. Like sometimes you can you can take stuff for a while, but then you just have those weak moments where you all of a sudden were really angry about it because you thought about it too much or whatever. And it, you know, caused you to do something dumb on social media. I will say I'm really impressed with Yondrey Aitin and the way that he's handled this situation this year. He could have been way worse. and he could have done the typical NBA superstar thing where, I mean, look at James Hardin. I'm pretty sure James Hardin's not hurt. And he just wanted to not play. That's why he's been with 15 teams. Yeah. I mean, we could have had another mini James Hardin on our hands.

And DeAndre Eaton, you know, one of the biggest questions surrounding him was his maturity level and, you know, his ability to be grown up and make grown-up decisions. And I think the way that he's handled this entire, I guess, slight of not getting that Rookie Max contract extension has been nothing short of mature. And I'm super proud of him for handling it that way. And again, I do think you can accredit a lot of that behavior to the people around him in the locker room, to the leaders that he's been given in his coach and his GM. And I do think the sons have established, at least from the GM level down, a great organizational culture that, you know, really supports their players. And accountability is their main focus at the end of the day, which I really appreciate. So I am proud of DA for the way that he's handled not getting that Rookie Max contract extension. And he does deserve that bag.

So I really hope the sons open up that wallet. it because he freaking deserves it really quickly on the macometer of drama let's bring back the meter um where do you guys think this falls on the meter of drama i don't think it's that high but i'm interested to see you no it's nothing right now i mean it could be like let's revisit at the end of the season but i don't think it's i don't think it's drama now i don't think it's because the way he handled it yeah exactly it could have been drama like i said he could have been james hard and two point oh big deal yeah he publicly we don't hear about it he just goes out in place And you want to pay, do two things.

Put up really good numbers and win. If this team wins, can you imagine the pressure on this group to pay DA? Yes. They win? Oh, my God. But going back to Chirsten's comment about rebuilding, you don't need to rebuild with how young this team is. Right. Like, yeah, you might lose Chris Paul, right?

But the windows open to bring in somebody else to replace him that I'm not going to say there's ever going to be a Chris Paul. But by that time, these guys might be. Well, Bridges, Cam Johnson, guys that are still on rookie contracts, you're going to have to, I mean, you will. And the next few years, you're going to have to maneuver a lot. And I still think your two anchors for sure, whether you are able to keep both or two, like, the team's going to change inevitably. And I think those are your two anchors. Yeah, I agree. McHale Bruges needs to stay too because that guy.

Oh, my God. I love McHale. He is a meme, a walking meme. I swear to God, his face is iconic. Please, please, please let McHale stay because I love that guy. Before we move on to the Coyotes and we do have some baseball stuff to talk about. Sorry, guys. We have a lot of things.

Michaela didn't realize that she has the three most long-winded people on the top. Hopefully you all watching Don't Mind. Hopefully you all watching Don't Mind. We might go a little bit over today. Sorry, guys. Before we go on to the Coy's Baseball, I do have to tell you about our newest partner because I love them so freaking much, you guys. I'm so happy we're partnering with this company because they have a product that I use literally every day. I started taking Athletic Greens because I am tired.

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content so we'll just keep going. All right, when the Arizona coyotes, an NHL team announced that they were going to be sharing an arena with a collegiate hockey team, the internet was on fire. There were so many memes, gifts, like comments from everybody from Joe Shmo down the street to national media members who were roasting the Arizona coyotes for sharing an arena with the ASU Sun Devils. This was probably some of my favorite one at 13 pats. on Twitter saying they will have a nice practice facility, obviously with their bubble hockey game, Oreo speedwagon saying Clayton Keller coming down the middle. Obviously, they're playing kneeball hockey.

I didn't see those. They're so good. The drama was at an absolute all-time high because for whatever reason, just kidding, not for whatever reason, people were really like making fun of the coyotes. Wait, what's the game where you, what is, what's the name of that? Table hockey. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. That's the Coyote's new practice. Is it, is it drama here, though? Like, Kyler blew up in Arizona. Is this a big deal here? Well, I think generally Coyote's fans are happy about it, but they were also super pissed about the national reaction.

Like, they were all over Twitter defending the organization, defending the team's decision to move. Like they, and, you know, along with, you know, the bubble hockey comments that were also, well, we have a perfect stadium here in Quebec for them or they could share the arena with the rockets. That's really what it comes in. easiest way to piss coyotes fans off is to talk about relocation. So, you know, Coyotes fans were upset. They were saying this is great for us. People were saying this isn't

great. So there was a lot of debate going on if this was a good move or not. It's absurd. It's a great move. I don't understand how, I mean, I get it. But Glendale is miserable. People don't like going out to Glendale. That's the fact of the matter. Your season ticket holders are located in the East Valley. You're making them happy. You're giving them an opportunity not only to be season ticket holders, but to have a completely unique experience that all of these same people who are getting their jokes in are going to be, just like Petey said, they're going to be the people that are going to be like, hey, Petey, can you get me tickets? They are going to be the same people, right? Because that's what it's going to come down to. You're going to see it and you're going to want

to be there. It kind of reminds me sometimes of making fun of the winter classic. And then no matter what, no matter the conditions, no matter how weird it gets, you're still like, this is pretty freaking cool. That's the way that this came together. Outdoor hockey is cool. And it's always great to see it's not feasible to do it for all games, but man, we kind of wish they did, right? Like the field of dreams game in MLB was the same way, right? It was a very small,

like they could have sold 150,000 seats if they could have put it on that field for people to come to because everybody wanted to go to that. Yeah. But part of that was the exclusivity and not being able to attend it. I'm not as warm and fuzzy

as Derek is on this, that this is great. I don't think it's great. I think this is, for the future of this organization in this city, it's great. because it keeps them here. Do I think that this was a business error years in the making?

Yep. Absolutely. This started when Steve Elman moved the team to Glendale. That's where it started. That was a mistake. Huge mistake. But ownership group after ownership group, after ownership group said we can't play here. We can't generate enough revenue to play here.

Well, where's the building? Where is it? We've talked about it for almost 20 years. Where is the building? We've talked about, oh, it's going to be in Salt River. For sure, it's going to be. Oh, it's going to be a Mesa. Well, it might be in Tempe.

I think it's going to be downtown. Build the damn thing. Yeah. So this thing should, we should be in the ground. We should see framework. And they go, okay, we've got to play ASU for a year. I'm sorry that the beautiful building in Tempe is not built yet, but we're almost there. For it to get to this point is a big, big business error because I think there were some egos involved.

I think there were people that really thought the deal between Glendale and the coyotes was going to happen again, whether it's right or wrong. They thought they'd be in that facility for a few more years until they'd. bridge the gap to a big facility. Unfortunately, by the time the Arizona Coyote Management finally realized, oh shit, they're serious. We're really not going to play here. They shut the door on some more feasible facilities, including the Madhouse on McDowell, which is going to seat 13,000 needs a lot of money. But if you play there, you go, okay, it's not that much different Long Island Coliseum.

Could have been good. It's not different than, you know, where Detroit was playing and Joe Lewis, it's not that much different so we could do that. So then you understand the negativity that surrounding this movement. Don't forget. They also got kicked out and that's the reason why all this is happening. And like you said, the Glendale was petty. Glendale made, they were

petty from day one. The minute that this entire process started to go south, they had no problem saying in their like city council meetings and stuff how they didn't want the coyotes here. But they deserve to be petty. The coyotes were paying them money. It all started when the city of Glendale

basically sued the coyotes and to get out of this long-term deal. And after that, they went year to year. And that happened what, like six years ago? At least. Okay. So then what are you doing the last six years? Obviously, if they sued your butt to get out of a 15-year-old deal that they just signed, it's not a long-term feasible thing to work out with the city of Glendale.

So what have you been doing for the last six years? And why did you get to the point where things got so bad that they've now kicked you out and you literally did not have a place to go? And thank God, ASU just so happy to be building this complex or else then what would have happened. They would have been shit out of luck. So yeah. So people I think are trying to look at the bright side of things, right? And just it is what it is. And so we'll make the most out of it.

But anyone who has any ill things to say about what's going on right now is also justified. Well, speaking some ill things to say, I do have a couple more tweets for you guys that I absolutely want to be harmless here. Glendale's a fault too. Well, that's what I'm saying. That's what I'm running a lawsuit and everything. I'm not painting the coyote's organization at the bad guys. I'm not doing that. They should have fixed this a long, long time ago.

But do you think in a way this was posturing and everything that they were doing was just trying to make it so that maybe they could get this deal with Glendale done? 100%. I think they believed that this was BS and they were going to play in Glendale. And I believe that was during this hockey season. Yeah. I agree. Here are a couple more of my favorite tweets from people reacting to this. What do you guys think of the Arizona Coyote's New Barn?

It's a mall skating. It's a mall skating. And then someone tweeting Arizona's next arena deal in 2024, 2025, and it's a basement hockey rink. And Paul Bissonette was so kind to quote tweet it and say delete this. That makes me miss Metro Center. Metro Center used to have an ice skating rinketing. Let's hope five years from now, this team has big draft picks.

They've surrounded them with the great surrounding cast. and the building that they have proposed in Tempe is phenomenal. Yeah. The area is amazing. The location that they want to put it at is perfect. If that happens and this is the bridge deal that gets them there, they're going to play in brand new facilities at ASU. They've got brand new locker rooms that they're building themselves on their own dime

that they have to pay for in advance. They're going to be an unbelievable atmosphere. All of those things are true and they will be here long term if they get the deal in Tempe because if they don't, they will not be. Again, they will not finish that three-year deal at ASU. I'm going to say this just again going back to the ticket thing or the size of the venue. I have never once walked into a venue and been disappointed by how small it is. Not once.

I've never been because, I mean, I don't know. Derek is not disappointed by the size of things. You heard of here first. First time I heard that today. Sorry. I saw my shot. And you're liking it to a concert. The better concerts are the smaller venues for your favorite artists.

That's fantastic. So I just feel like to a certain degree, that's kind of the experience. they're trying to maybe maybe maybe that's their thought process here is that they can sell this out constantly and then that makes it look like hey look it we've had three solid seasons of sellouts and like that makes moving to that new venue you know better on the macometer the macometer of drama what score do you give this and i think we should include the entire thing though so from like them not paying taxes to glendale to like all the way up to this point and then glendale exposing them for not paying their money giving them their money where do i think it's pretty

high. I would probably give this like maybe like a seven or an eight. If it were football or basketball we were talking about in this town doing this, it'd be a 10. Yeah. But it's not. So it's not. So what's your scores? I mean, I still think it's pretty dang high for any sport to have this happening to them. So I'm going to go

ahead and say like a nine. Yeah. I mean, I think it's pretty high because the thing is we're still in the thick and we just all talked about it. We're still in the thick of like, is it going to work or is it not going to work and we're seeing like a situation that's happened that's that's happening that's never happened before so I'm going to say it's at an all-time high um and I'm just going to get a nine yeah the embarrassment and cringe level is at a 10 oh yes it's definitely 10 on the embarrassment level PD what are your thoughts well I'm impressed that everybody knew this much about the hockey team in

the arena so that makes me feel good for what the hell I do because we're kind of like the stepchildren here we get it like we're the few of the proud we're the hockey fans So that's really cool. The drama around your season happening right now. Excuse me. Of course we're going to pay attention. You know barely. But the drama is very high around this franchise for an incredibly long time.

Yeah. And I, as a person that's been around it for a long time, I hope that at some point the drama fades away. Yeah. Because it's been nonstop drama for 20 years. Yeah. And it's been no no drama. And it shouldn't. It's too bad.

Yeah. There's a lot of good people that work there. There's a lot of great players that have played there. And there's a lot of great fans that support this team. And I hope at the end of the tunnel that they don't have to, it shouldn't be drama anymore. Yeah. It's sports. Let's have fun.

The sons are our model in a way, even though they can't get away from the drama with Sarver and everything else that's happened as of late. Right. But we're not hearing about it right now. Right. It's like 10 years. They did get away. 10 years. Yeah, it really did.

I mean, you got to say like that the DA news and that, they handled it in a way that made it go away. No matter how they handled it. They definitely handled it in a way that made it kind of just disappear. I feel bad for Katya as fans. Your existence is drama, but hopefully we're on the lower side of this and we can move forward in a positive way. All right. I know we're getting a little longer, but I do want to talk about this one thing because it does affect a lot of people here in the valley. And that is the fact that you can go ahead and put up the tweet for this.

Today, yes, today was supposed to be the official first day of spring training for all 30 teams. Instead, we are heading into the 77th day of the MLB lockout. Spring training is officially delayed. My heart is in pieces on the floor because 15 of those 30 teams are here in the valley and we're supposed to start spring training today. And obviously that is not happening because we have the dumbest and the worst commissioner in the history of sports all time in charge of this league right now. And we are without spring training, which affects a lot of people, a lot of businesses in the

valley. And I'm upset about it. And I feel like I'm justified in being upset about it because what the actual F is going on. You're not stoked about minor league mini-camp? No, I am not stoked about minor league mini-camp. I'm so sorry to the amazing minor league baseball players out there. I love you, but no, I'm very salty that I will not get to sit outside in the warmth with a beer and watch Major League Baseball players play spring training games. They're not allowed to call it spring training. So minor league mini-camp it is. Well, for now it actually is minor league mini camp because they're not playing any games and they might not play any games should it stay minor

league mini camp. I've been had a chance to be angry about this for 77 days now. So I'm a little calm about it. But what I will say is MLB, Major League Baseball has absolutely taken the villain role in this entire situation. They seem to not care at all that they were the ones that the initiated the lockout and that are holding the season hostage. They also don't care about their public image right now so much so that they're letting it be known that they don't want to pay minor league players for participating in spring training or for participating in postseason. They literally said that it is to the players benefit to not get paid. Minor league baseballers to not get paid because they benefit from us. They benefit from the training that they receive.

You benefit from being here playing games to us. Are they in that big of a financial situation? No. Or this is the reason they're doing this? Here's the thing. The one thing that was before all of this. was the decision to start paying minor league players housing. So they are now paying minor league housing,

but now is like the other side of it, like the pendulum swinging the other way. Well, there has to be cutbacks. It's like basic economics. People want more minimum wages, then people got to slot. I mean, listen, I get it. And I don't mean to get political,

but that's just kind of how it works. You want more. We want housing. We want this. And they're like, okay, well, now we got to take something from somewhere else. Correct.

But there's also just this general idea that they don't need to do that because it doesn't really cost that much to run all like all four or five of your minor league teams in your organization. Yeah. We're talking about $2.5 to $3 million, you know, what you would pay a pretty decent player, but not even like a, you know, an all star on your team. So it doesn't seem like it costs that much. Now, they also want to reduce the number of minor league players. They said they want to cut jobs out of the minor leagues. basically back to 150 From 180.

Yeah. And not every team has that. Two teams have less than 150 players in their minor league organization. Five have over 180. So those five would be parting away with 30 plus minor leaguers in their system. And then across the board, across 30 teams, it's a couple of hundred probably that they're cutting, which like you said, right there is the cost. Paying those players is the cost that they're going to turn around. It seems like we are foreseeing like a major like impact in terms of the money and revenue that we're bringing in and we need to jump ahead of it.

Otherwise, why would they continue to be slashing? I honestly think it's greed. The way minor league pay is structured is absolutely absurd. These guys even at AAA level don't make more than like $15,000 a year. Right, exactly. So then you're, we've talked about recruiting and how like things you do affect recruiting. Well, Kyler Murray's not going to play baseball when in this, you know, here he is going through the drama of being the starting quarterback for the Cardinals and leading them part way through an undefeated season, whereas he would probably be toiling away in a double A team. He'd probably be in Amarillo or the equivalent for the Oakland A's organization, just learning how to be a baseball player.

The way that they treat young players and such in baseball is ridiculous. To me, it's like if you want a good product, invest in your problem. product. Like these minor league players are out here starving, like sleeping on floors of hotel ballrooms. It's not a joke. During their season. Like how are you expecting them to be mentally in the right place to compete physically in the right place to compete when they're starving themselves because they're not fed when they're sleeping on the floors of ballrooms because their housing wasn't provided last season. It is now. Thank God. But like I just don't understand the logic. Like and you expect these players to be competing at the highest level that they can at whatever

BAL, whatever A, AA they're assigned, but then you're not going to support them or invest in them in the literally human basic way to feed them and house them. That blows my mind. Most minor leaguers have to have a second job. Yeah. They're playing baseball. And then after they're done playing baseball, they go drive for Uber Eats. Yeah.

You have Fernando Tatis Jr. who actually took out a loan guaranteeing an investment firm future percentage of his earnings for him to be given this loan that would allow him to have proper housing. he was able to get a trainer, personal trainer. He was able to eat well. And that was one of the biggest things, which he said a lot of his teammates were, you know, you're eating Jack in the Box and McDonald's and fast food and things like that. And it's just not the life that a young athlete.

I'm also going to go ahead and say that as a journalist trying to make my way, also had to have second jobs. I mean, you see it everywhere. It's not the only, okay, having a second job is like. Can you get a 98 mile per hour fastball? No, no, no, no. What I'm saying is it's not like, inhumane conditions to like, oh, somebody's got a second job. Do you want it or do you not want it?

And the ceiling for journalism, I will make this comparison if you make it to the highest of heights. And maybe I am super talented. Maybe you just don't know that. Okay. Maybe you just don't know how talented I am. Okay. I will say that like young journalists, they're trying to make it, et cetera. I'm not like comparing the two like necessarily. But that's not the only career. But it also doesn't excuse it. Like, young journalists to get be paid more. It's not the only career path. You're saying I'm going all in on this and I've got to work a second job because this is my dream.

It's by like not even by a long shot is that the only industry that that applies to. I had to work five jobs, by the way, all of once. There you go. So there you go. But here's what I'm saying is the problem at its core is how is that making a young athlete? some kid that's awesome at everything he does, pick baseball over football or basketball. No,

then you got a great point for that. When your path there is so much better, it looks so much. It's damaging for the sport overall in every single way. And if you're pulling out of smaller cities that don't have other teams that maybe you're going to their, your single A, double A, whatever affiliate in another city, and now you're bringing fans in that way because they've got a minor league team.

They're maybe not in a big city where there's an MLB team. But if you're deciding that you want to diminish the amount of, teams that you have and pull out. I mean, I get, I think that they're trying to, this is my personal opinion. I think they foresee economic impacts, you know, we're not doing well. Our sport continues to trend in the wrong direction. So we're going to get ahead of it by slashing costs. And I think it will. Like I'm saying I get some of the moves that they're trying to make without, with leaving my emotions out of it. I'm not saying that it's right or wrong from a business standpoint. I get it. but I do think that it will end up backfiring on them in the future.

Well, okay, hold on. I won't Pee to get a word in edgewise because Peety is a baseball fan. It was a great content. Okay. But I'm about to shut you guys all down. There's a lot of, Pete is a covert baseball fan. There's a lot of stuff to digest here.

And one of the things Cherson said is important to take in that, yes, you have to to earn your way. And if that's what you want to do, that's a way to do. The difference I see in that is that the money is at the top of these organizations. organizations. If you want to be a journalist, there's people in here that are working for free or working really hard to try to make their way that I work with every day. But the people that are making it are ABC, ESPN, T&T. Right. 100%. The ceiling's very high. Yeah. Agree. But it's not let the people down the hall from here are making $2 million and I'm trying to get to their level and

they're paying me $5 an hour. Yeah. The difference here is at this level of your franchise, you are paying people an exorbitant amount of money, exorbitant. And in the same franchise, in the same job that you want these players to become these guys, you want these guys to be the lifeblood, you want these guys to be the guys that are earning you money, but we're not going to treat you fairly is a concern to me. And I'll go to a sport that I know better as hockey. The Tucson Roadrunners are the coyotes minor league team. Do they get paid as much? Absolutely not. Liveable wage? Sure. Do some of the guys live together, five guys in a house? Yes, they do.

But the one thing that this team, at the American Hockey League level, to compete, they do provide food. Their meals are good down there because they want them to be healthy and strong and be able to work out because they know that player is an asset that's going to help the big club potentially down the road. That's the part that I think is the disconnect. For me with the minor league players, that's their asset to build them in the future. So what I'd like to see, which you won't see, is where's the give and take from the player

that's been there, gone through all that, And now I'm 26, 27. I'm making my $14 million. No, you can't make $14 million. You're going to have to make $13.5. And some of that has to go back into, no, no, no, no. No, no, no. You don't have anything from me.

Yeah. I made it now. So hell with you. That's where I'd like to see a little bit more of the give and take from where are the players down? And I don't know. And I'm not a baseball guy. No, wasn't it the players union or the ones that were saying that like we need to, am I totally off? No. No.

I'd like to see the players get back to. Weren't they fighting for? Well, the players are fighting for like the younger guys that don't necessarily make money yet. Pre-arbitration years. Right. So they are not eligible. They're still in their rookie contract.

And all they want is if they become one of the top performers in the league, that they should receive a bonus. They want a bonus pool to pay out to some of these. And they also don't want what happened to Chris Bryant to happen to other people. So it doesn't extend into like food and living wage, things like that necessarily. Not right now. Not for, not for major league players, but for minor. But at least they've got the like the players that are.

ahead of this or it's not benefiting them. Well, the players that are arguing on their behalf are like the highest paid players in the A, like, lectures or air-coals. That's the other thing that makes me so mad about this entire situation is like, Miley baseball doesn't have a seat at the table. Nobody is there advocating for them. And it has,

it affects them so much. And nobody there can, and I know the PA represents. The PA is technically advocating on their behalf. But the PA only cares about the, the major league baseball players that are there talking on the behalf of the PA. Like, my league baseball doesn't have a seat of the table.

and nobody is there sticking up for those kids. They're trying. That's what they're trying to do. And that's the thing is, is like the owners don't even want to acknowledge a lot of the things they want to do because they're like, like they're not countering back. We're not hearing them meet halfway in the middle. They basically want like, you know, the players want a hundred plus million and the owners are like, how about 10? Yeah.

You know, it's like literally the Jack Donagie from 30 Rock thing of starting negotiations with a dollar on the table before you go. But right now, like what Petey said, the lifeblood of small market teams are those young players, right? They're not like teams like the Diamondbacks. They're not spending the money on the big free agents that are over 30 years old. They're going to make up their team. Like a lot of teams are based on the Astros kind of blueprint and other things of holding, you know,

the minor league players back until they're ready so that their time doesn't start on their contract and doing all these things to manipulate their careers. So essentially they don't have to pay them as much over the course of their career, right? But you have things like the competitive balance tax, which is one of the biggest things that they're arguing over. There's no cap, right? You just have this amount set, and if you go over it, you have to pay this percentage of what you went over, right? Well, I don't know. Maybe like, okay, maybe a way to come in the middle is maybe still have the competitive balance tax would have that money go to something other than the other teams that aren't spending as much.

Because, again, that's the worst part about baseball, in my opinion. That's the financial model for a sport that's deteriorating in fans and viewership and where they're going. Their financial model doesn't work, but the only ones that can fix it, guys are, hey, I don't want to. spending more money, but here's $200 million. What? Right. Well, don't stop paying them that then. And again, like, teams like the debacks can stay in the black as far as financially because they're getting revenue sharing. They're not spending a lot on the players. And, you know, honestly, they're also getting players from the draft and they have this

great class of prospects that are going to be coming up soon. But for now, they can just kind of, you know, kind of roll along, lose 100 games in a season and still be making money on the financial side. And we don't even know that. The model for me for baseball, different than hockey tanking, baseball tanking, your team's out of it by April. And it's not one or two teams. It's half of the league is done by April. Correct.

Well, that's a problem. You've got that many teams losing a hundred team. And you're okay. And you know what? We're selling it to your fans. We're losing. They were out of it even before April, just like the coyotes were on this season.

They just don't say it publicly. And that, to me, when you have over half of the league is out of the playoffs before the All-Star break, that's a problem. My thing with all of this, I'm just trying to recognize that there are financial issues with the sport itself and with it the way that it's constructed. And I'm not saying they're going about like figuring certain things out in the right way.

But they're in a spot right now where they've got to make changes one way or another. Yeah, I agree. Look at that airport hangar that they can't fill up, right? Like most nights I was there. There was like 6,000 people there most nights. Like you talk about the issue with the venue. I mean, that venue that the coyotes are playing at, the debacks couldn't even fill up a lot of nights because they don't have more than 5,000, 6,000 people show up. Baseball is making me very sad, and I'm very upset about it.

I have a reaction from a couple of people. I think it's the fourth one, Emma. People reacting on Twitter to spring training not starting on time, which I agree is very sad. I don't know if we have it before. Mack, I'm with you. And I don't want this to be harsh. I love baseball. I'm a bigger baseball fan than I'm a hockey fan.

Sincerely. Yes. I would rather be at spring training. That breaks my heart. You're a bigger baseball fan than a hockey fan? Love baseball. That's why I want to pete you way in there because he loves baseball. I watch baseball.

It's on MLB Network all summer. Yeah. And it's just, it's so miserable. By the way, Cheers, and it's warm. Here's some of the reactions to people on Twitter, by the way,

about baseball not starting on time. Shoot me $0. I like the album. I want them to get it salt. I want to be in a beer and eating a hot dog tomorrow. I know. I'm pissed about spring training not starting on time. I genuinely love watching baseball games.

It's the best way to spend springtime in Arizona, and it's really sad that it's not only affecting me. It's affecting my coworkers. It's also affecting the businesses in Arizona. The local economy. The local economy is going to take a hit, which is really sad. But if you're wondering where the updates of the talks are, there's nothing on the books. They have nothing scheduled. It's been 14 days.

No, there's nothing on the books. Yeah, as, here's the thing, though, that's crazy about this. Like you said, about Rob Manfred being the worst. They don't need a new CBA in place in order for Rob Manfred just to call the lockout over and get the season started. They could also get a federal judge to get involved and make them play like they did during the strike because the strike ended back in 95 without them having a new CBA done. So when they made the decision to do it, they had to continue under the current CBA until a new one could be done. They could have done this the whole time. Yeah.

There was no reason to lock the players out other than you wanted to apply pressure on them so that they would concede on these issues that they want you to take into consideration. And that's all we've seen up to this point. mostly has been the players saying, okay, not 125, but how about 100 million? Okay, maybe not the top 30. If they're not in the top 30, how about if they're in the top 20? And we're talking about the 7% of players and stuff. The players are trying. Yeah.

You know, but then the owners. It's very much on the league. And I hate the league right now. It's the same reason why they didn't want a mediator because a mediator isn't going to look at it fairly. They're just going to want the sides to like meet in the middle. And when the owners are starting at zero and the players are starting at $125 million or $100 million, right?

Meeting in the middle is a bigger concession on the players part. Well, baseball's frustrating. It's really pissing me off. And one thing we all can agree on is Rob Manfred is a fucking moron. Yeah. The worst commissioner in the history of sports. Just not interested in the game. And honestly, like we've alluded to, there's a real issue with popularity, both with

wanting to play it and wanting to watch it. Yeah. Well, hopefully they can figure this out. Thank you guys for all of you who have sat here for this very long episode. We appreciate you so much. We have to let Jacob go eat. Otherwise, he's going to murder us. on the macometer drama

I give us a 10 I'm so frustrated that baseball's not here but hopefully we can figure it out if you are still here we love you and it's because your family if you're not a part of our family

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