PTI - Should Injured Cam Skattebo Really Be On WWE?

Episode Date: November 20, 2025

Michael Wilbon and Tony Kornheiser discuss this weeks CFP rankings and Alabama's drop, recent NBA injuries causing issues, and whether Cam Skattebo should be on WWE. 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. I'm told it's World Toilet Day, Tony. You don't have the favorite toilet, do you?

I'm Tony Cornice. I don't use them anymore. I'm a diaper, man. No, stop it. You've seen the ads? For what? The ads about adult diapers on television? I haven't seen them.

Especially late in night. So you're not up for the late game. It seems to have special appeal to people watching from 11 to 2 a.m. I can't imagine why. You know, come on. Welcome to PTI, boys and girls. In today's episode, Steve Kerr thinks he knows why stars are getting injured. Cam Scataboo mixes it up at Monday Night Raw,

and Steve Young joins us for five good minutes. But we begin today with the latest college playoff rankings. The top three remain unchanged, Ohio State, Indiana, and Texas A&M. Georgia moved up to four because the previous four Alabama dropped to 10 after losing at home to Oklahoma. The first ACC team is again out of the top 12, Miami at 13. Who should be most upset with their ranking?

I sat down last night because you loved this show so much. I watched it in between basketball games. This was right between. And so I started taking some notes. And then after about three notes, I was so angry. I just tossed the notebook. And I said, you know what? I'm going to let Tony deal with the just absurdly self-absorbed

particulars of this. I'm happy to. I know you are. I'm happy to. I know you are. I don't want to hear from Notre Dame. I don't want to hear from Miami. I get that Alabama could say, wait a minute, what are you talking about? We have more quality wins than Notre Dame or anybody else that might be sort of ranked around us and ahead of us. I get it. But when you've got two losses now, I don't want to hear it. So I'm sure you have an empathetic ear. I'll let you take it from it.

If I were Miami, I would be steamed. I have two losses. Notre Dame has two losses. I beat Notre Dame head to head, yet Notre Dame is nine, and I am, what, 13 or 14? They're in, I'm out. But you're also being penalized because you're part of a stinky conference. And I will get to all of this. But I would say what happened to head to head.

For example, Oklahoma beat Alabama head to head. Now Oklahoma is eight, and Alabama is 10. A couple of weeks ago, Texas Tech beat BYU head to head. So now Texas Tech is what, six, something like that, and BYU is 11, and they both have one loss. So again, I'm angry if I'm Miami. Now, Miami's losses are to SMU and Louisville. They are not ranked teams. And Notre Dame's losses are to Miami and A&M, and they are far greater losses.

But I grew up in this culture where if I beat you head to head. That's why a tiebreaker goes to head to head. And you're within the charm circle, and I am not. Now, I heard what you said about Alabama. Yeah. I wouldn't be that angry if I'm Alabama, and here's why. They take a tumble to 10. 10 is the critical number.

Because one of the 12 is the ACC and one of the 12 is the gang of five. They're still going to get in. So, well, they are poised to get in right now. They can't lose again. I'll tell you what would, I might be upset if I was USC. USC is 8 and 2 and I think they're 15. Beat Oregon that you won't have to worry about. Wait for the next sentence.

What? If I beat Oregon, can I jump up enough to get to 10? because I got to get to 10. That's my point. I took the whole segment. Don't worry about it. That's good. No, I'm glad you did because that whole show is starting to irk me now,

and you just roll around in it. I like the show. I know you do. Let's move to Steve Kerr's concern with a fast pace of play in the NBA. I'll take this whole time. Kerr wonders if the faster play over the same condensed schedule is contributing to what seems to be a plague of injuries. At the moment, Yanos Santacucoo is out with a groin-strain,

Victor Wambayama out with a CAF strain, Anthony Davis, John Morant, also out with CAFs. They're all out. Kerr said the Warriors medical staff, quote, believes that the wear and tear, the speed, the pace, the mileage is factoring into these injuries, unquote. Wilbon, how does Kerr's argument sound to you? Steve Kerr, I'm going to nominate on the short list of smartest people in the NBA over the past 35 years. Yeah. Say, I want to argue with Steve Kerr. And I have some sense because I've been around the Warriors so much the last 11 years of that stack.

and how respected that staff is in terms of the industry and within the league among players, even opposing players. I'm not about to argue with that. What's the solution? Let's jump ahead. Okay, Steve, if I was sitting with Steve, and I hope to sometime soon, I would just say there's one solution. Steve Curtn knows what it is.

Take out the three. No. No, that's my solution. I know that's yours. I'll tell you why. Why? Because the pace of play is such, because everybody's running down the court to fan out for three.

No, but you, wait a minute, you love the three. Doesn't matter. It's bad for the game. If you take out the three, the pace slows because you have to work for mid-range two. I got another one. That's the radical. I got a better one. That is the radical one.

That's the radical one. I got a more reasonable one. What? Cut 12 games out of the damn schedule. Owners aren't going to do that. And the players either. Owners put up the money. Because everybody's got to make 50 million on the back end now.

If you want to have a, first of all, it would improve the product. It would improve the health of the money. players. But nobody gives a damn because they want to continue making the same amount of money. You constantly criticize the NFL. You say that they have no concern for player safety. Now I'm criticizing the NBA. And it's exactly the same thing. No concern

for player safety. I say you take at the three. But I think the NBA has made peace with this. And you know why? Because networks like this one throw money at them to have their product. And fans throw money at them to sit in those courtside seats. And so they are

able to pay Joel Embed and And everybody else, 100 million. And they never play. And they never played. 60 million. Everybody's out. You can't count on going to a game seeing anybody you paid for in the NBA now. I think that fans, if you promise them, as has been the case so far, that everybody plays in the playoffs, they're okay.

And that's what the league is banking on. But how great would the playoffs be if you had 70 and guys charged in with a healthier moment? I don't disagree with you. I think the radical cut is the three. I do. Can't cut the three? It's changed the game. What do you do to Steph Curry?

Steph Curry is like, Steph Curry is no lower than the second most important player in the league the last 15 years and maybe one. Steve Curry's had his whole career with the three. He's rearranged the game. It's not going to matter. He's out. It doesn't matter. I'm talking about next time. Go ahead.

No, what guy? I've gotten used to the three. Now let's grapple. Grapple. Grapple. With Cam Scataboo's appearance on Monday Night Raw, the injured Giants running back, wearing a protective boot around his dislocated ankle,

gave a shove and took a little mini shove. During the WWE event at the Garden, some sports talk radio hosts, of course, in New York, are calling it stupidity and carelessness. Scataboo posted, If you don't like that, I'm having a good time while dealing with a tough time, then just go ahead and unfollow.

and casually move on. Tony, any problem with Scatibu mixing it up? This is pro wrestling. This is entirely scripted. I am sure that Scataboo and that comedian fellow he was with were told beforehand this is what's going to happen. I'm sure they did everything but rehearse it and maybe they even rehearsed it. Right? Now, because I have notes on this.

If the question is, does Scataboo put himself in danger? Not really. It's a small shove. It's a small shove. Nobody got hurt. It's, you know, it was ballet. That is wrestling ballet. My sense, look, he's out for the whole season.

He's not coming back in two weeks to save the giants. The giants stink. 500 scatibus can't save them. He was always going to come back next year. Does it look sort of dumb? Okay, it looks sort of dumb. But it doesn't affect his timeline at all. It doesn't.

I'm going to agree with you right down the line. It's the optics. That's all it is. That's right. That's all it is. Anybody who knows anything about wrestling and those New York talk show hosts have to know about wrestling. No matter what generation you followed, I didn't follow John Cena and all these, the undertaking. I didn't follow any of that.

I follow Bruno San Martino. Ricky Star. I can identify with that in New York, even though he wasn't in Chicago. It's all choreograph. That's right. Yes, but you still could have stuff happen. But it didn't look like it did. People still get hurt.

But it didn't look like it did. Even in the choreography. I understand. So when I saw it, I was. went, whoa, scataboos out there, but you're right. This stop. Just get over it. He's out for the season. You know what Giants fans ought to worry about?

Who's the next coach going to be? Don't worry about this kid. This kid will be there in September. Let's take a break. Coming up, Patrick Mahomes regrets a decision made late in the Chief's loss to the Broncos, and we will ask Steve Young about that. We'll also ask him whether a bad call that went his way ever made him feel guilty.

You know my wrestlers were? Dick the Bruiser, Nick Bowers. Bach Winkle. Remember the Black Jacks, Molligan, Lanzah. Remember him, Lex Langevin? Or maybe he was just a New York guy. Welcome back to Part of the Interruption, presented by Crown Royal, part of Happy Hour. We've got some NFL questions for our great friend, the man who just edged me out for second in the 1983 Heisman Trophy voting.

Hall of Famer, Steve Young. Let's start with this. Patrick Mahomes says he regrets a moment on the Chief's final drive when he noticed a pre-snap shift with one of Denver's safeties that could have opened up a long pass, but he didn't trust it. He threw a short pass in completion instead. Do you recognize that feeling that Mahomes had? I'm smiling because that's the, that's the, that's the job of quarterback is like managing happening all the time. And I love that the vulnerability of Patrick to express it to actually tell people like that happens. How many times does it happen? You know, you think about every Monday is that time when

the team comes together in the offensive team room. And they watch the film in the dark, in the silence. And as the coach goes back and forth, how many times would we be in the middle of a, you know, in a place coming that ruined the game? And it was me throwing interception or something. And you could see the read and you could hear the offensive lineman, like, groan. Like, oh, here it go.

Oh, like you play quarterback. Or you know the read or that you know what's coming. But everyone can play quarterback. And so you, it's not just worrying about it in the game and missing it moment. You got to worry about it on Monday. because now the whole team in silence, you got to wait for the groan for everybody. So I started after time

when someone to make a mistake or drop a ball. I'd just like, oh, I'd just, you know, because someone had to groan about somebody else than just the quarterback because everybody, I mean, Brent Jones and Jerry Rice and, like, Corey Harrison Hurst, they thought they could play quarterback, which I understand, like, everybody wants to,

but, you know, like, in the meeting room, just let the quarterback screw up go by every once in a while. Like, it doesn't have it. We don't have to groan every time it was a team. Feet to the fire, Steve. Feet to the fire, baby.

We're going to stay with the Chiefs for a second who, of course, five and five. Playing the eight and two Colts on Sunday, is there anything different that a leader or leaders would do this week knowing that they're all

going into what pretty much is a must game on Sunday? So you think about the Chiefs, they have the mantra, we had back in, you know, the 80s and 90s with the 49ers, like, Super Bowl or bust. We own it. And that's a fact. And because you own that, you're, every game is a must win.

Every game is the play is the game of the week. Every game is being covered by, you know, your Sunday night or Monday or, you know, it's like the national game. So you get used to having that be the norm. And so you get to this moment, which is a must win game. And the chiefs are built for it. They're that team. That, yeah, we're five and five. We've screwed up.

Super Bowl or bust. And now we've got to prove it to one of the better teams in the league. And it's on us. And I think the best comes out in the teams that are ready for that kind of thing. And the worst comes out for the guys that aren't ready. And I just think the chiefs are that team that can respond. Speaking of teams with Super Bowl or bust attitude, the Eagles benefited from just a awful.

affairs call against the Lions late in Sunday's game. As a quarterback, if you get the benefit of a call, does any part of you ever feel guilty that you got it? Or, I mean, does it average out? What's, what's the feeling there? This is, you're asking me, but pre, you know, review, you know, with microscopic review of the, but, but you, you started to believe in the rub of the green. Like, you believe that in time it would even out, but the pain of a screwed up call that you knew changed the game. As a quarterback, your number one relationship was with the head referee because he's standing right next to you. And so the best relationships I had on the field were with the head referees through the years. Ongoing conversations from game to game,

talking about plays, what happened, and you loved that. The art of the great head referees were that they got the sense of it. They knew it was like, oh, we screwed that one up. Yeah, sorry about that, Steve. That was, or you locked out there because, you know, you know, like you had that going on. But I love what a hate. with the robots, the head referees that were robots, because then they weren't going to be contextual to the moment. They feel it. And that's what happened against the Phillies game.

The moment overwhelmed that referee, that, you know, backline judge or whoever it was. Because it's like, yeah, that's a call that you don't make most of the time. You certainly don't call it in the fourth quarter, and you never do it with a game on the line, because it's a rub of the green, bro. Like, that's not something you don't get in the way of. Leave it alone. But they're trying to get rated so they can get a playoff games. They're like, oh, that's officially, I think, by technicality, that's a foul.

And he throws the flag and games over, is like, no, bro. That was not a foul contextual to the moment. We will get you out of here on this, and we've talked about this all week. You've been a starter and a backup in your career. Shadur Sanders had zero practice snaps with the first team when he entered that game on Sunday. What sort of a position does that put you in as a quarterback? back? Well, Tony, that's super hard, right? Like to as if prepare for a game that you don't get practice snaps, you don't get the opportunity. Like, that's a tough spot. The best advice I ever got,

and I'm sorry if I've said this before, was when I was backing up Joe Montana, I hated that because that wasn't the job that I wanted. It wasn't the job that I thought I was going to have. And one of my mentors grabbed me and says, you know what, Steve, the problem with you is that you don't understand that the job that you want that you think you deserve, you can't have until you're the best in the world of the job you have today. And so to be a great backup was painful for me to hear like, like backup great. But what I did was I took his word. It stung me.

I'm going to be the greatest backup. And what you do is you prepare as if every week. You'd memorize the game plan by Wednesday. You help the core and in helping the starter get ready. and then Social Dior is going to be in a much better spot if he's gone through the rigor of being the best backup quarterback in the world, in that mind. So then when you're called on to not be a backup

to be a starter, you're actually ready and you can deal with it in a better way because you're right, Tony, if you just sit back and don't prepare and just watch the trigger leaders and then all of a sudden you get called on the field and you haven't had the snaps, it's a disaster.

And you've seen it. It's bad. Yeah, no, it was hard to watch. Can't get worse. If he gets in again, he can't be worse than that. I can't imagine it. And it gets worse fast. Yeah.

Steve, as always, great pleasure for us. Thank you, Steve. Appreciate it. Okay. Thank you, Steve. I'm going to be with you guys. Let's take one last break still to come. Team USA takes it to Uruguay.

And two young NHL stars post hat tricks on the same night. One of them I care about. It is interesting to me that a quarterback sees a situation because we had Jeff Saturday speak to this differently than a lineman sees this situation. Yeah. That is empathy and is different. at that point. Because one guy played the position. Yeah, and one guy, nobody else has empathy for on the field.

Right. Nobody I mean. That's right. You are watching Part of the Interruption, presented by Crown Royal, part of Happy Hour. Happy time, people. Happy 67th birthday, Michael Ray Wilbaum. Oh, geez. Wilbon was one of the original co-hosts of Part of the Interruption Program.

Was? He spent 14 years there before leaving to become a linguistics professor at his alma mater, the University of Northwestern. Wilbound taught a course entitled, The Following Things Are Garbage, included in the syllabus where college teams running the table, all odds coming from Las Vegas, and anyone who thinks LeBron is better than Jordan.

Amen. Wilbaum's class was so popular, he added another one entitled, hocus, pocus junk. Included in that syllabus, most coaches of the Bears except Lovie Smith, anyone who thinks today's starting pitchers are any good, Yeah.

And cheeseheads and people in marketing. Again, amen. Wilbon is currently working on a biography of Richard Dent entitled, Welcome to My Text Chain. That's pretty good stuff. What scares me is the gray over time in those pictures. By the way, this is the culmination of a lot of birthdays. Ahmad Rashad, Patrick Kane.

I just mentioned a few. Says your birthday. Don't worry about it. Happy anniversary, George Blanda. This is posthumous, but on this day 64 years ago. The legendary quarterback and kicker through a record-tying seven touchdown passes for the Houston Oilers against the New York Titans in the AFL. Blanda who started his career in 1949 for the Bears originally retired because George Hallis thought he was washed up as a quarterback and only wanted him to kick. Blanda joined the Oilers of the newly formed AFL in 1960 and proceeded to win three AFL titles.

Two in Houston, one with the Raiders. Blanda, who once threw 42 interceptions in a single season, played 26 seasons. His final one is a kicker for the Raiders in 1975 at age 48. Blander remains the oldest player to ever take part in an NFL game. I remember the end of George Blander when he was kicking, when he was kicking, when he was with the Raiders. People threw the football down the field. There were no swing passes for two yards. There's no, there's no West Coast offense.

No, no. There's none of that. Chuck the ball. So therefore, sometimes it got intercepted. 42? You know? 42. It's a lot. Happy Trails, Miko Ranton. The Dallas Stars Forward was ejected from last night's game against the Islanders

for shoving Alex Romanov into the boards. Romanov had to be helped from the ice. Islanders coach Patrick Waugh was furious, appearing to yell at Ranton, and quote, you're not going to bleep and finish that game, apparently in reference to the rematch between the teams later this season. Randon's coach said he had a different take, saying Randon had clipped skates and was off balance so we put his hands out. He looked off balance. It looks like

a collision, not a shove. Patrick Wong. He's going to go crazy anyway. He goes, he gets floored. He's, no, don't mess around with Patrick, White. Don't mess around with that. Let's go to the big finish. Let's do it. LeBron, 11 points, 12 assists, three rebounds in his

season debut. Are you impressed? I'm impressed the way he fit in. He has diagnosed what the Lakers need and did exactly that. I'm impressed with the Lakers period. The U.S. men beat Uruguay 5-1. Is that a big I don't know. I'm waiting for the World Cup. You get a while to wait. It's a month. I just, I don't know.

Connor Bedard and Mackham Sellebrini. Both had hat tricks last night. You're impressed. The Blackhawks are only a couple points out of third. You're the first wildcard team. And Bard is the engine. Yes. Okay. Duke beat Kansas. Michigan State crushed Kentucky. Bigger deal from last night. Again, I don't know. Michigan State looked very good. It did. It's very early. I don't know. Last one, nine and three rockets at the 10 and five Cavaliers tonight. Who he got? The Rockets, I just like the way, they were Owen two.

And they got Kevin Durant, and there was a lot of sort of attention given to them. I'd even say some pressure. They have won nine of ten cents. I know it's not Detroit hot. Rockets look good. As advertised. We're out of time. We'll try and do better the next time.

Let me get this name like Tyler Haynesworthy. Thank you for the letter. I'm Mike Wilbon. Same time tomorrow, knuckleheads.