PTI - Power Conferences Split on NFL Players Returns

Episode Date: August 27, 2026

Michael Wilbon and Frank Isola break down the ongoing legal battle between college football and the NFL, discuss the Dodgers' recent struggles, and tackle the biggest stories making headlines across sports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Two and five Canadians will hear the words, you have cancer. That's why every step and dollar raised matters. On September 19th, join thousands in Toronto for the Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation Walk. Challenge yourself, friends, and family to walk 21 kilometers in support of life-saving research. Together, we can carry the fire and help create a world free from the fear of cancer. Register today at pmcfwalk.ca.ca. Pardon the interruption, but I'm Mike Wilbon. We've been off for nearly three weeks, and honestly, that's too long.

I'm Frank Isola. Apparently not for everyone. I got called in today. Oh, I guess not. You know, some people need two, three months of vacay, apparently, but not us people in the Cal Ripkin mode, Frank. Welcome to PTI. Tony needs, you know, some days off to recover from his three weeks off, so I'm joined happily by our government. great friend from the starting lineup on Sirius XM, Mr. Frank Isola.

That friend in D.C. Sounds like a good little return cheer. Let's start with college football conferences finding a line they won't cross for now. The ACC and Big 12 have joined the Big Ten and SEC and banning players who have visited the pro ranks from returning to college if things don't work out with their NFL teams. This comes after LSU coach. Lane Kiffin seemed quite excited to welcome back two players from the pros. Frank, are you impressed that the conferences are taking this stand?

I mean, impressed if you mean, did they really have any other choice? I mean, we knew we were headed down this road with NIL and the Transfer Portal. It became the Wild Wild West. But we have a player, Dayquan Wright, who played for Lane Kiffin at Ole Miss, was in uniform on Saturday for the Cleveland Browns gets comfortable. But on Monday, now his intention is to go back to LSU. At some point, college has to be about higher learning and be about school. It just can't be a minor league for guys that aren't making the pros say, you know what, like in baseball,

I can't make in the majors, I might have to go back to the minors for a little bit. Or I can't make in the NBA, I'm going back to the G League. That's not what the SEC and the Big 10, the ACC, the Big 12. They shouldn't be about that. And it's about time somebody took a stand because it's becoming out of control what's happening in college sports. Yeah, Frank, I don't even know they're taking a stand. I think they know they're going to be embarrassed if they don't take this stand now. What's the Chris Lott Rock line that I love so much?

You know, I'm not about giving credit for doing what you're supposed to do. This is what the Big Ten and the SEC and the Big 12 and the whatever left are support big ACC, Biggies. This is what you're supposed to do. And it's not just about football, Frank. What scares me is kids I notice my son is 18 and got a lot of friends who are trying to go to college to play intercollegiate athletics. And you know what happens in more of them

that's just football and thinking about soccer too? That you can be aced out. You can be knocked out of collegiate athletics as a kid who's born and raised in America and is just trying to play college sports and has an offer. can be knocked out by somebody coming from not just a league here, but maybe overseas where they've played professional sports and they take your spot and you have to leave and go

somewhere else because there's no spot for you in the NCAA institution in that sport as a student athlete. These are very real things. So it's awful. It's good. They've done it. Just now, the ACC, of course, had to go along. The SEC had to go along once the Big Ten announced So I'm not going to, you know, give them a big hug. This is what they're supposed to do. I'm glad they did it. And who knows what's coming next, Frank? We don't know.

We don't see around the corners that well because these conferences and their partners and their network partners don't see around the corners very well either. Yeah, you know, this happened in June when the NCAA gave the athletes that fifth year of eligibility. And you're right. This impacted every sport.

What the SEC decided to do was they said, you know what, there's going to be big penalties. If you take a player that was in the NBA or in the G League or in the NFL and put them back, LSU was the one school that abstained from the voting. It was 15-0. LSU does want to get involved. Because both their football and basketball program, you know, want to benefit from it. I think there's probably a lot of other coaches that would do it. But I think they did the right thing, but I think you're right. You're not going to give them a hug.

It's something that they should have done. And thankfully, they did it. No. All right. Let's move to baseball where the Braves could sweep the supposedly indomitable Dodgers tonight in Atlanta. Last night, the Braves pinch hitter, Hassan Kim. He of the 0.066 batting average beat L.A. with a walk-off RBI single to left. It was Atlanta's fourth win over L.A. in five tries this season. Chris Sale and Yosha-Yo-Shonobu. Oh, my God. Yoshinobu Yamamoto take the mound tonight. So, Mike, would it be a big deal, little deal? or no deal if the Braves were to sweep the Dodgers? Increasingly big deal, Frank.

Increasingly big deal. We're on the eve of September, baby. It's time for baseball pennant races for real. So, you know, people who need to avert their eyes because they can't talk about anything but the Cleveland Brown's quarterback race, too damn bad, turn to another channel. Because these baseball races, particularly in the National League, Frank,

you talk about the Dodgers and the Braves. the other teams, frankly, when I say increasingly important, because these results, I don't see anybody pulling away. And if they pull away for a little while, like the Phillies did with their nine-game winning streak recently, they get pulled back. The Cubs have been hot, now they've lost four of six. So you've got the Brewers.

Don't forget the Padres. You've got the Braves and Dodgers we talked about. Who else did I fail to mention it? So the Cubs, we've got all those teams in it. And I think they're in it for good, Frank, for all of September. If all things stay with relative health, they all augmented their rosters when as long as, you know, as late as they could with the trade deadline. I could see any of those teams popping up and having their heads above water as we get to October 1st. This is hellaciously exciting to watch those teams battle it out.

And the Dodgers who were presumptive whatever is, they ain't presumptive anything. in my book when you look at the competition. Yeah, and all right, and let's not overreact too much here because they are 80 and 53. But in the month of August, they are 11 and 12. And I think we do this all the time with

great teams, probably most recently with the Kansas City Chiefs. You know, back in the 90s, we did it with the Yankees, where the last team to win three in a row is what the Dodgers are trying to do. You know, your Jordan Bulls, whenever there was something a little slump, then we're thinking, all right, maybe their run is over. But they are getting

Right now, it looks like Otani may pitch on Sunday. They just got Tailed to Glass Now Back. Scoobel's going to pitch tomorrow against the Tigers. So their pitching looks good. The issue with them is their offense. Mike, think about this. Freddie Freeman, no home runs in his last 42 games. Mookie Betts batting 222 in his last 44.

And then, of course, you know all about Kyle Tucker, who's batting 228 and is out of the lineup tonight against the left-hand or sale. So the big issue right now with the Dodgers is the hitting. And I wonder if that is a lot to do with fatigue, right? Well, Frank, are the Dodgers any better situated than, say, the Brewers, who look like the hottest team? I keep waiting for the Brewers to fall off. They're not falling off anything.

They're falling off knocking people in their head. So to me, the difference between what those Bulls face and those Yankees face is a crowded field of even competitors. At least I believe that now in a week may believe something. Let's move to how NFL players are grappling with bleak new data concerning head trauma. The New York Times reported earlier this week. The researchers concluded that at least 25% of NFL players who died between 2016 and 2021 had CTE. Raven safety, Kyle Hamilton, said yesterday, quote,

It's a dangerous sport. It's something we all acknowledge. I see it as I follow my sword for people who are provided for me and people that I will provide for, close quote. Frank, what do you make of Hamilton's comments and beyond? Yeah, you know, those findings with the research, it's staggering. I'm not surprised by that, and I'm not surprised by the comments by Hamilton. Because I think his comments are shared by a lot of players.

I think they understand the risk. Now, he's only 25, Mike. Now, is he going to feel that way when he's 50? I hope he does. I hope he feels that way when he's 75. But it's one thing to say it when you're 25 years old because a lot of players don't always think about the risk. Roger Craig at the Hall of Fame mentioned it during his speech.

And right now he's dealing with dementia. But the NFL has to do something, whether it's the helmet. They talked about that guardian cap that players wear. Playing more games, Mike, is not the way to go. So on the one hand, I think the league does care about players' safety. but you can't care about it by continuing to play more games. That's not the answer. They pay lip service, Frank.

They're like the previous story about the SEC and the Big Ten, and, oh, we did the right thing. I don't want to hear it. It's garbage. It's lies. Not just the league, the league and it's partners, all of them. So, no, they want to keep adding games for their own financial gain. That's what they're going to do.

Oh, we care about player safety. Let's go to a 17th game. Oh, we care so much about player safety. Let's go to an 18th game. They know these findings. Frank, these findings are frightening. Yes, Kyle Hamilton, I hear him. And you and I have known players general.

You and I have now known decades worth of players. And we know guys who very quietly say, because they realize the risk is they get to be 25 to 28 to 31. They're like, my God, they're going to do it. God bless them. God help them. Keep them. But we know what football is.

And for the NFL to say, but we care about player safety and just lie. And, you know, we're going to have networks full of sets of people. Our friends, guys, we cover it in a lot of cases. Our coworkers who sit there and go, yeah, yeah, they care about playing. No, they don't. That's not their primary concern as player safety because we see the damn numbers. Now, all these people want to live by analytics. Why don't they live by these analytics?

Yeah. They tell you what the dangerous are and the loss potentially of life. Because they don't want to hear that. Because they're ex-football players. They are invested in having played football again. God bless them. And for our entertainment. But don't tell me that this is the overriding concern

as they try to go to Week 18 liars. And Mike, and Mike, think about it too. You know, we're talking about some players here who are making a lot of money. We'll make a lot of money. What about the guys that are in college? You can get CTE in college. You can get it in high school. So there are going to be a lot of people that aren't going to, you know, play for a long time, make a lot of money.

So it's easy to say that now. Yes, they understand the risk and they understand the reward that they're getting. But it's a small percentage. There's a lot of other guys that are going to play football are not going to make money that they can live on. Let's take a break. We're coming up. Lamar Jackson says he's ready to run again. Should we expect them to look like the Lamar Jackson of old?

And the NFL dumps its Pro Bowl weekend. Will other leagues follow suit? Two in five Canadians will hear the words, you have cancer. That's why every step and dollar raised matters. On September 19th, join thousands in Toronto for the Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation walk. Challenge yourself, friends, and family to walk 21 kilometers in support of life-saving research. Together, we can carry the fire

and help create a world free from the fear of cancer. Register today at pmcf walk.ca.ca. At Desjardin Insurance, we know that when you own a nail salon, everything needs to be perfect from tip to toe. That's why our agents go the extra mile to understand your business and provide tailored solutions

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I'm going to get both of them. Let's roll with the first one, Frank. Regarding Lamar Jackson. Are you optimistic about Lamar's ability to run again? All right. So Lamar Jackson said yesterday with reporters that the reason he only carried the ball last year 67 times in 13 games was because he was dealing with injuries.

So he made it sound like he's going to get back to being the Lamar Jackson of old. And this is a guy that has more rushing yards than any quarterback in history, over 6,500 yards. He's 38 carries away from breaking Cam Newton's record for the most carries by a quarterback. But here's the thing, and I think about this all the time with Josh Allen as well. You know, if you're going to run the ball as a quarterback, the chances of your career being shorter, the chance of you getting hurt. There's a reason why Tom Brady and Peyton Manning just stood in the pocket, Mike, and threw the ball.

I understand Baltimore's a rushing team. I understand that's the dynamic of Lamar Jackson, but you've just got to be smarter when you do it, and he's got to avoid the big hits. Frank, my worry's not about the frequency. My worry is that he can't do it anymore. Because if you watch actual film and players always talk about watching film, and now I hear too many ex-players who apparently ain't watching it of Lamar. And I know he had injuries.

And so what I'm hoping is the injuries were what diminished him last year. Not the frequency, not his decision-making. He can't get away from me. He couldn't get away from dudes with a jersey that the first number was a five or a nine. Look at the film. He couldn't run away from them, not up through the middle of the pocket, not on the edge. He couldn't or wouldn't do it or didn't do it.

Now, are those injuries to his toes and ankles and casts, are all those injuries healed up enough that he's going to be able to be Lamar Jackson taken off, running away from him looking like Prime Michael Vick? I hope to God he can. I fear he won't. Seven years of taking shots are seven years of taking shots and they diminish you.

can you want to run away from them dudes? We'll know by Halloween. I hope he can. Because that guy is breathtaking to watch. They were 27 in the NFL last year in passing yards per game. They were second in rushing yards. And Derek Henry has a lot to do with that, but Lamar Jackson has a lot to.

The Baltimore Ravens are a rushing team. That's the key to their offense. I'm not ready to not see Lamar Jackson that we've seen. I just want that not to be. I want him to be Lamar. I just fear that he won't be able to. Seven years are getting popped. Mail this.

Email number two is on the Pro Bowl, Frank. Do you think other leagues will follow the NFL's example now and dump their All-Star Games? Do I think Michael Wilbon's not going to be in Phoenix this February for NBA All-Star Week? And, of course, he's going to be there. First of all, baseball is never getting rid of it. That's the original All-Star game.

That's the best one. The NBA is never going to get rid of it. I understand it from the football standpoint. Number one, you couldn't play the game anymore. So they were playing flag football. Last year, the ratings were way down. Only 2 million viewers. I think that was, you know, it was almost cut in half

from when they actually played the game. And it's asking players at the end of the season to play a football game, which for the most part doesn't matter. And Mike, here was the other part of it. You weren't even getting the guys that were picked to play in the game. You were getting second and sometimes third stringers to replace the play. pro bowl players. So I think they did the right thing here, but other leagues are not going to

follow. Other leagues are going to do that. Other leagues, the NBA All-Star game, and let's talk about, we're talking about the NHL as much. They figured out how to have a product that kind of resembles their real product. They can still play it. And the Midsummer Classic invented. That is how All-Star Games were invented. The Midsummer Classic going back to 1933 in Chicago when the first Major League Baseball All-Star game was played. Frank, the Pro Bowl doesn't have cultural relevance or significance. It doesn't have social relevance or significant. It never had none.

Any. It was an exhibition football game. Three trip to Hawaii. You don't even need the All-Star game. The NBA All-Star Weekend is what is culturally and socially socially significant for a number of reasons. I ain't going to enumerate here. but they are still important things, touchstones in the sporting culture.

That will go on, even if you wanted to get rid of the game, which sometimes is not even worthy of being played, although Wimbunyama is trying to drag his peers back into playing something respectable. Thanks for your email. Let's take one last break. But still to come, Jonathan Cominga picks the T-Wools over the Lakers, among others. Does that make sense? And the Miz is back on the mound for the brewers tonight.

What should we expect? I expect an invitation to Mike's house in February for a media party. He's going to have All-Star weekend. Come on, Mike. Yeah, I know one thing, it won't be around the All-Star game because I ain't watching that. Two and five Canadians will hear the words, you have cancer. That's why every step and dollar-raised matters. On September 19th, joined thousands in Toronto for the Princeton.

Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation Walk. Challenge yourself, friends, and family to walk 21 kilometers in support of life-saving research. Together, we can carry the fire and help create a world free from the fear of cancer. Register today at pmcfwalk.ca.ca. A new podcast series from ABC Audio in 2020 goes inside a case that has captivated the nation. To many people, Luigi Mangione is a modern-day Robin Hood. People were cheering the demise of this person they'd never met who was a father of two and a husband

and had a life and was just doing a job. From the manhunt, ending in a McDonald's in Altona, Pennsylvania, to what authorities are saying about a possible motive. I'm ABC News legal analyst Brian Buckmeyer. Listen to Burdena Proof, Luigi Mangione, wherever you get your podcasts. Time to get happy people.

Happy 25th birthday Franz Wagner. The Magic Forward average 21 a game this past season but plays just 34 games. He suffered a high ankle sprain in December that he had to rehab three different times throughout the season. One of the complications rushing back to play in the league's overseas game in Berlin, where he grew up. He recently told Hoops hype, quote,

I probably shouldn't have played. I hate to say it, but I don't really regret the decision to play. It was a really special moment. for my family and me. Close quote. You know, Mike, the issue is he can't stay healthy. And if you go back to the playoffs against Detroit, he played the first four games and Orlando was up three one. He gets hurt. Orlando was the final, the last three games, and then Jamal Mosley gets fired. It's all because Wagner can't stay healthy. It shouldn't have been Mosley's fault. It wasn't. Got to have him and Bancaro out there. They have to have both of them to make any kind of dent. Happy anniversary,

Three New York Cosmos listened to this, Frank, on this day 48 years ago. The Cosmos beat Tampa Bay, the Rowdies, 3-1 to win the NASL championship in front of nearly 75,000 at Giant Stadium. That Cosmos team featured Georgio Quinaalia and Franz Beckenbauer, but not Palais, who had retired the previous year. Palais was on the sideline, though, as was Rowdy star Rodney Marsh, who missed the game with an infected shin after getting the same. getting spiked, notable, because Marsh famously refused to wear shingards, rolling his socks all the way down to his ankles all the time. Yeah. Yeah, now you have to wear shingards.

You know what? I was not at that game, but my family used to make those trips from New York to the Metaulands. The year before, I was at Pele's final game when they played Santos of Brazil. How great is that? Even have the ticket stuff. How about that? Man, man, that's, come on, Palais, come on now.

Happy trails to last night's game for the Giants. San Francisco was up 9-3 heading into the 9th, when the Reds exploded for 7. Gino Suarez had the big blast at the Grand Slam. It was a bright spot in the dim season for the 35-year-old who put the Reds have put on waivers as he's hitting just 208 this season. It's the Giants' 11th loss of the season

after leading in the ninth the most in baseball. They're 25 under 500. and Tony Vitello's first season as manager. Poor Swarrives, man. It's been tough for Vitello. By the way, he was ejected in the first inning, arguing a check swing call. He has had a rough, rough go in year one.

Man, no errors today. Let's get to the big finish. Jonathan Cominga agreed to a two-year deal with the Timberwolves worth just $6 million per season. Doesn't that surprise you? Yeah, they tell you better on yourself. Meanwhile, he was offered three years 75 by the Warriors last year and turned it down. Kyle Schwabber hit his 40th homer with Tristan Peters of the White Sox homering for a fifth straight game, which is a bigger deal.

Schwabber, he's got a shot at 50. Schwaber. Four preseason games tonight, Frank. Any of them interest you? This means you're going to be texting me all night long. Did you see what happened in the Steelers game, the Niners game? I don't think so. It's going to be.

The Miz is back on the mound for the Brewers against the Mets tonight. What do you expect? I expect it missed to be dominant again. He's 13 and 5 of the 168 last one. Behova and Missick won the U.S. Open mixed doubles last night. You impressed? I'm impressed that the U.S. Open plays a mixed doubles

before the main tournament start. It's a way to squeeze a little more money out of the New Yorkers. Right of time. Thanks for watching. I'm Frank Isold. I'm Mike Wilbon. Same time tomorrow, knuckleheads. PTII.

Two and five Canadians will hear the words you have cancer. That's why every step and dollar raised matters. On September 19th, join thousands in Toronto for the Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation Walk. Challenge yourself, friends, and family to walk 21 kilometers in support of life-saving research. Together, we can carry the fire and help create a world free from the fear of cancer. Register today at pmcf walk.ca.ca.