PTI - Is Mike McDaniel's Job on the Line?

Episode Date: September 18, 2025

Michael Wilbon and Tony Kornheiser discuss Mike McDaniel, the LA Dodgers, and Messi. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey, sports fans, the ESPN app has all of ESPN all in one place. The ESPN app is your home to thousands of live events, ESPN shows, and originals across every ESPN network and service. And now you can check if you already have ESPN Unlimited as part of your TV package for no additional calls. Visit activate.esPN.com to learn how to access your account or sign up, then start streaming in the ESPN app. It's all of ESPN all in one place. Sign up or activate now. Pardon the interruption, but I'm Mike Wilbon. It's National First Love Day, Tony. Do you remember your first love?

I'm Tony Kornhizer, my high school classmate, Eleanor Roosevelt. And I mean, I'd answer to the problem. And she said she was going Franklin. And I said, what do you mean? Franklin, he'll never amount to anything. Why you do it well. That's a bad scouting report on your part. It really is.

A little bit. A little bit. What can I say? Welcome to PTI, Boards. girls in today's episode. Shoahe considers more ways to contribute. Leonel Messi agrees to a new deal, and Boogh McFarlane joins us for five good minutes. But we begin today with a Thursday night game Miami at Buffalo, a division game with maybe more than just divisional standings on the line. There is talk that a loss here could cost Miami coach Mike McDaniel his job. Miami's 0 and 2 this year,

Buffalo is 2 and 0. Wilbon, what's on the line from Mike McDaniel tonight? A lot, a little, or nothing? Everything. I mean, if you consider his job, everything, potentially. I don't know where this is probably. Here's the thing, Tony, the Dolph has made the playoffs his first two seasons. And then they didn't last year and they've looked, you know, bad coming out of that and bad so far. And even though he had made the playoffs two of his first three seasons, he came into the season with that sort of, you know, label of, oh, he's the coach on the hot seat as the the season begins in the NFL. And I remember thinking it was a little bit overly dramatic, but apparently not.

And here's the thing, Buffalo has owned. We talk about Aaron Rogers, and he, you know, talked his own smack about owning the bears. Buffalo owns Miami in the same way, in the exact same way. Sean McDermott, Josh Allen, Buffalo Bills have owned the Dolphins. So I'm not expecting some great resurrection tonight. I don't know how he's going to get his fanny off the hot seat tonight. Am I expecting Miami with what we've seen so far to beat the bills and what we've seen so far out of them?

No, I'm not. Am I not seeing something here that you are seeing? No, I agree with this. I can see Mike McDaniel getting fired if the bills win by a large margin. I can see that. and to be specific as to how much Buffalo owns Miami, Mike McDaniel in his last six games against Buffalo is 0 and 6, and Sean McDermott, I think, is 15 and 2 against Miami.

So, look, if Miami wins the game, Mike McDaniel is going to be the coach. I also believe if it's a close, taught game, and at the end, Miami just loses. I think he survives and he is the coach. But what you're saying is true, it happened all of a sudden he did have playoff teams his first two years.

Now he's 0 and 2 and he's given up 66 points which I believe is second most in the league. I got relatives in South Florida, Mike. My cousin Marilyn calls me and says are they going to fire the coach? That was after the first game. Not even after the second game.

So this thing seems to have a momentum of its own. It does. It does. Not good for him. Look, that college football. football momentum, it seems so out of control like a brush fire. Let's move to baseball, Tom, where the most versatile player in the game could become more so in the playoffs.

The Dodgers are considering using Shohei as a reliefer to bolster the bullpen, particularly in its first round series, and relieving would have to mean staying in the game to play the outfield, which the current D.H says he wants to do. So, Tom, would the Dodgers be smart to use Shohei in relief and all that it means? Okay. Shohei Atani is a starting pitcher. He's not a reliever. I would be very careful about using him in the playoffs.

I can understand it in the World Series. I can understand it to save a critical game, you know, a clinching game in an earlier series. I'm informed on this, Mike, because I watched the Washington Nationals do this. this when they won the World Series. They used their three best starting pitchers in the bullpen either in an earlier playoff series and or the World Series. That was Max Scher and Steven Straussberg and Patrick Corbin. So I would, you know, I would put Shohey in and all hands-on-deck thing, but that's not the biggest news out of the Dodgers today. The biggest news is that Clayton Kirschaw is going to retire. This is going to be his last season.

Clayton Kirshaw this season is 10 and 2 with a 353 ERA. 10 and 2 is good. He's going to the Hall of Fame. His career number is 222 and 96 and a 254 ERA. He's going to the Hall of Fame. So if I spin it back to Shohei, I would be more inclined to put Clayton Kirshaw in the bullpen than I would put Shohey in the bullpen. You know, Tony, I started thinking about that when I heard about Kirshall. I'm like, okay, how can Kirshaw best help?

A first ballot Hall of Famer. How can he best help his team in these playoffs? And the Dodgers, who looks like they could open against the Mets, I know that looks like a homecoming team right now. The Mets do in part. But Tony, going back to Shohay for a second, don't tell me Shohay can't play in the field somewhere, first base for the outfield because he's done it in his life.

Sure he can. And this is not like some declaration like to pull him out of moth balls. I understand it's been a few years, he's done a lot of it. Well, guess what? If you're that greater player, and we presume Shoah is, and people throw around this comparison with Babe Ruth, Babe didn't come out of the outfield. All right? So, show he's going to have to play some outfield and play it.

I don't want to hear that this is the greatest dilemma in baseball history. The reason we should explain, we should explain that the reason this has to happen is if he goes in in relief and he's the DH that day, if he then comes out of relief, he forfeits his subsequent DH at back. You got to play the field. He did this with the Angels. I'm sure that he can do that.

My position is the reason I talk about Kershaw going into the pen is that the Dodgers have been very methodical with Shohei. One inning, two innings, three innings, five innings, but always as a starter. Always as a starter. And I would try and keep them doing that. There's an emotional component and a psychological component to being a relief pitcher, you're coming in out of the bullpen. It's different. It's different. It's different.

It's something as subtle as whether you're going from the stretch or not. And so, Tony, I agree with you. The nationals, though, that year, you're right. But I thought they were the exception. So often we see starters fail. That's what I'm informed by because I watch that. All right, let's move to soccer in the MLS. According to a report in the Miami, Harold Lino Messe will continue to play for Inter Miami

on a new contract extension. Messy is 38. He leads into Miami with 20 goals in 21 MLS. games this year and Inter-Miamy is currently sixth in the Eastern Conference among 15 teams and solidly in the playoffs. Wilvon, what does it say to you that Messi apparently still wants to play? Nothing special. He wants to play. I mean, that's what it says. I mean, it's like LeBron James at 40. It's like Joker. What is Joach? It's 38. I mean, you know, there are these players, these not just generational, but lifetime players, guys who, you know, people put,

in the argument for goat in their sports. And Messi is certainly not just in the argument. He's at the top of it. He wants to play. And he can still play as evidenced by those numbers of goals and assists. He's the star of the biggest team in his league. He's the face of that league, even at this age. I don't think there's any doubt about that.

So, like, Tony, if there have been another decision that would shock me, Just you keep him he wants to play until he can't play or somebody tears the jersey off him. This is like automatic to me. Yeah. All right. So let's look at this question. What does it say to us that Messi wants to continue to play

and he signed an extension? We just signed an extension, right? We signed an extension because we like what we're doing. We like doing the show and we're much older than Messi. I'm Messi. the 20 goals in 21 games. That's remarkable. And they're paying him a ton of money. $20 million this year, $150 for the whole contract. He's a cash cow for the MLS. And so they're going to pay him even more money next year and more money after that. I mean, this seems

perfectly reasonable to me. I think we do have to say about the MLS that it is a league where great players from soccer countries come as their career winds down and maybe it's done. but he was the MVP of the league last year and 20 goals in 21 games. What more could anybody ask for? Of course you want to sign him up, right? You have to sign him up if you can. Well, Tony, Tony, the value of the franchise. The franchise is so much more valuable exponentially.

As they say about the Wi-Fi is booming. Yeah. So, again, no-brainer. One thing, Mike. One thing. Pink shirts. It's genius. Genius.

Every kid wants a pink shirt. Totally brilliant. Let's take a break. Coming up, the bill's Joey Bosa. He said he's feeling as good as ever. But how does he look on the field? We're going to ask Booger McFarland. Well, they're also asking to break down

the best college football matchups to the week. If I get a pink shirt, I want it to be from Zania. I don't want it to be from Miami. I'm just saying. Really? The pink shirt, I know you hate marketing people. They've been in a story we uncovered in our first segment, and week three of the NFL season kicks off tonight,

which makes it a perfect time to welcome back our great friend ESPN NFL and college football analyst, Booger McFarland, wearing a shirt from El Dorado in Baja, California. Let's start with this. The dolphins are at the bills tonight. Joey Bosa looks like his old self on the Buffalo defensive line. What do you see when you watch him? I think, number one, he's healthy.

I think, you know, that's been a big question mark throughout his career. Could he stay healthy? Number two, he's being used a little bit differently than he's been using the past. When he was with the Chargers, they do a lot of two gaping. They're asking him to play two spots, two gaps. Now that he's with Buffalo, the Buffalo Bill, Sean McDermott's defense, it's a one-gap system. So it allows him to play a lot faster. It allows him to have minimal responsibility, and he can just go see ball and get ball.

And as long as he stays healthy, I think the rebirth of Joey Boas is going to continue throughout the season. and it's going to be great for the Buffalo Bills because they need defensive linemen throughout the season because in the end we all know who they got to go get. They got to go get Lamar Jackson and they got to get Patrick Mahomes and they're going to need Joy Bosa throughout the year. Booker, we entered this season

hearing a whole lot of hype, a whole lot of promise about the Steelers defense and how great it was going to be. What are you seeing so far through two games? Not a lot. I mean, that's the thing about it. Like, you heard a lot about this Steelers team, and they got, they got Watt, they got Hayward, they got Bosa, they got Ramsey.

I mean, you just start naming off all these guys with these accolades. But funny thing about football, football is not played on paper. You actually got to go out there and strap up. And those guys that I named, they haven't been performing. Now, I have hope that Mike Tomlin, who is a tremendous coach. He's a Hall of Fame, First Ballad Hall of Fame coach. He's going to get it fixed. But they're the highest paid defense in football.

Let that set in. There's more money on that defense than any other defense in football. And right now they're not playing that way. They got to get their stars, their big-name players, to play that way. And there's no doubt in my mind, Mike Tomlin will get it done. I will transition to college football for a second. I'm trying to figure out, Booker, what to make of this weekend's games. There's some nice matchups, but not the ones you can hype and say it's the greatest weekend of all time.

So what are you looking forward to this weekend specifically out of these games? By the way, Mike, I'm sorry about what happened to your Northwestern Wildcast last weekend. I was waiting on that text from you. I didn't get it. That's number one. Number two, let's move forward to this weekend. Okay. I'm going to stay in the same conference.

I'm going to be right there in the Big Ten. And I think the Illinois Indiana game to me is going to be outstanding. I'm a big believer of identity. I love teams that know who they are. And Illinois and Brett Bealima, they understand who they are. They're a physical team. Their running backs have 90 carries on this season. Their quarterback only has 78 throws.

That tells you what kind of team they want to be. They want to be physical. They want to control the line of scrimmage. They want to run the football. And they're going up against this Indiana team led by this guy who's the head coach Kurt Signetti. He's a little cocky. He's a little honorary.

And he's got this quarterback named Fernando Mendoza. And I think he's going to try to put up a ton of points. That game really intrigues me because much like the big prize fight that we saw this weekend between. between Crawford and Canelo, styles make fights. And so now you have the rugged Illinois team that wants to run the football, and you've got Indiana that wants to kind of chunk it around a lot. I can't wait to see how this thing plays out.

Booker same here. And I know my bias. I'm looking at these two teams I usually root against, but I'm interested in this game. My follow-up question is, can either one of them emerge and sustain this and be a factor down the stretch as we start moving to playoff talk? I don't think they can.

And just because if you look at the Big Ten, it's going to be top heavy. You got Ohio State, Penn State, Oregon. Like those are the three teams at the top. If there's going to be a fourth team, maybe Illinois, and if Indiana can win this game, maybe it's Indiana. But I do think those three at the top of the Big Ten right now are a step above everybody else. We are going to stay in college football and get you out on this question yesterday on this show.

I didn't say that Davoswino is on the hot seat because Billy Napier is on a hot seat, I said he was on the warm seat. You know, I watched what he said and all of that, and I said he was on the warm seat. How do you see it? Well, I'm going to put it right in you guys' wheelhouse. Like, you guys have won Emmy after Emmy after Emmy. You might not win it every year, but you've won enough.

Like, Dabo's won a lot. He might not win every year, but he's won enough. How would you guys feel if somebody said, you guys won the warm seat, Tony? Like, nobody's putting Tony and Michael Wilbon on the warm seat. So why are we trying to put Dabo in a warm seat? Like, Dabo has done enough. Now, it's not good right now, and he knows that.

But if you look at Dabo's resume, it's been very successful. I think people in Clemson, especially Clemson fans, they get a little small. They want to win a national championship every year because of what Nick Saban did and the success that Kirby Smart's having right now. But the success that Clemson has had, there's probably 100 programs around America, one name Northwestern, that would take that success. So let's back Dabo off the hot seat just a little bit, gentlemen. Okay, that's fair.

That's fair. Thank you, Booger as always. Thank you. Appreciate it. Anytime, fellas. Let's take one last break. Still to come, two NFL head coaches go on the record about Tom Brady's supposed conflict of interests. Uh-oh.

And the Minnesota Lynx did something last night. They'd never done. Booger is right. And that's why people in Clemson need to just chill. Okay? Chill. I understand that. But again, we can't.

We talked about this. It's college football. There's no tolerance in college football in the big... Happy time, people. Happy 73rd birthday Rick Petino. After winning national championships at Kentucky and Louisville, Patino's off-court issues overwhelmed his basketball accomplishments. Petino was fired by Louisville in 2017, and he surfaced at Iona 2020. Petino twice took the Gales to the NCAA tournament and then signed on with St. John's. He's been in Queens for two years now.

Last season, St. John's won the Big East for the first time in 33 years and went to the NCAA's as a two-seat, losing in an upset to Arkansas and John Caliapari of all people. We have known Petino for 40 years. We know all about the personal scandals and we know about the successes. Regardless of where you fall on the Petino continuum, he is a terrific coach. Tony, I'm going to go further. He's a great coach. an all-time great college basketball coach.

I know I was shocked when St. John's lost that game to Arkansas, but I expect to continue to get them right back there. Tony, I wish he'd had a little bit longer try at the NBA because I thought that Rick could actually be one of those guys who, when he got to the NBA in the right circumstance, could really get it done. He was okay with the Knicks, but not what he was in college basketball, where again, he was great.

Happy anniversary Michigan State. On this day, 15 years ago, the Spartans lined up for a 46-yard field goal to tie Notre Dame in overtime, when they instead executed a perfect fake for a 29-yard touchdown pass, a play they called Little Giants. Michigan State stunned first-year Irish coach Brian Kelly 34-31 in East Lansing. The holder, Aaron Bates, connected with tight-end Charlie Gant for the game winner. Bates was three of three passing in his Sparty career. That season, Michigan State and quarterback Kirk Cousins shared the Big Ten crown with Ohio State in Wisconsin. The Spartans went on to win the conference title twice more in the next five seasons, but never since.

This year, Michigan State has opened 3 and O, and will play at 3&O USC on Saturday night. That's kind of a cool game, Tony, I want to watch. It's hard to stay, to sustain anything in the Big Ten where you just keep bumping up against Ohio State and Michigan. And we saw Michigan State do that in that period. You talk about Iowa's done. And people have taken turns Penn State, but it's hard to just remain there with those two. And so it's been a while for Michigan State.

I'm interested to see that game. I yield to you. It's your conference. Happy trails to the WMBA playoffs for the Valkyries. Golden State had a 14-point lead on Minnesota entering the fourth quarter of last night's game. And since 2006, the links had been 0.76 when trailing at that time by that margin.

But last night was different. The links bounced back to win by one and eliminate Golden State from the playoffs. Elsewhere, the Mercury evened its series with Liberty and a laffer, winning by 26 on the road. Tonight, we've got winners take all between the fever and dream and storm and aces. I got both results right last night, Tony.

I didn't want to. I was rooting hard for the Valkyries and Veronica Burton, Northwestern's own, the most improved player in the league who had 13, 6, and 9 last night, screaming my brains out for Veronica, whose family members I went to school with, too, they're like the first family of Northwestern the Burtons. Veronica's got some future ahead of her.

Sorry, they're eliminated. I actually landed on the Liberty game for about four minutes, and it was such a blowout. Man, blowout, total blowout. Let's go to the big finish. Commander's quarterback, Jaden Daniels, out of practice again today. Would you start him?

No, I wouldn't play him. No, no, not in this game against the Raiders, Tony. He hadn't practiced all week. College football is officially moving to a single transfer portal window. But the specific dates have yet to be decided, your thoughts? It's fine to have one window. It's fine. Just started after the playoffs end.

After it ends, Cindy McLaughlin-Levronie became the first woman in the only 40 years to break 48 seconds in the 400. That's a big deal, right? Yes, and she's so great, but she didn't break the world record. How many world records stand for 40 years? Amazing. Amazing. Ben Johnson and Brian Schadenheimer say they're not concerned with Tom Brady's access to information.

Your thoughts. Of course they're not. This is Tom Brady. The NFL wants this to go away. Last one, the Guardians beat Detroit this afternoon for their seven straight winners. That a big deal. Tony, they have one 12 or 13. Only a game and a half back to the Red Sox for that last wildcard spot.

So yes, it is. We're out of time. We'll try to do better the next time. I'm Tony Cornhanty. And I'm Mike Wilba. Same time tomorrow, knuckleheads. And now...