Rahimi, Harris & Grote Show - Andrew Brandt talks Ravens nixing their trade to acquire Maxx Crosby (Hour 2)

Episode Date: March 12, 2026

In the second hour, Leila Rahimi and Mark Grote were joined by former NFL executive Andrew Brandt to discuss the Ravens backing out of their trade agreement to acquire Raiders star defensive end Maxx Crosby after he failed a physical with Baltimore. After that, Rahimi and Grote discussed Team USA advancing to the knockout stage of the World Baseball Classic thanks to Italy’s win over Mexico on Wednesday evening. Later, they reacted to the news that the Cubs have named left-hander Matthew Boyd their Opening Day starter.

What's up, Little Psychos? I'm Investigator Slater, host of the Psychopedia podcast. Psychopedia is a true crime podcast delivering raw, real, and absolutely gripping episodes every single week. I dig deep to uncover fascinating details of heinous true crime cases while exploring criminology and psychology theories. I take you into the absolute darkest corners of the human psyche, my favorite territory, and present cases like you've never heard them before. Follow and listen to Psychopedia everywhere you get your podcasts. This hour is brought to you by Joel Osco. I've got a responsibility to the Ravens, to this community, to our fans, and to Steve Bichotti, to do what we think is best for the club. And that's what we always try to do.

Every decision we make is based on this idea. Is this the best thing for the Ravens? Very, very challenging. Again, I understand how people might, maybe from the far would feel that way. Nobody's more upset about this than me. That is Eric DeCost. from his press conference yesterday. He is the GM for the Baltimore Ravens.

This is Rahimi Harrison Grotie on 104-3 The Score. We broadcast live through the Scores Hyundai Studios, brought to you by your local Hyundai dealers, and we go to our hotline. That is where we find a guy who I think can help us out with a lot of these questions when it comes to Max Crosby and what happened in Baltimore, what the process is with the salary cap for a lot of teams right now,

how guys are creating space. Andrew Brandt, he is the executive director of sports law at Villanova. He's an NIL consultant, the author of the Sunday 7 newsletter, host of the Business of Sports Podcast, and the former Packers, Executive, and Player Agent. Thank you so much for joining us, Andrew. Yeah, happy to be with you. It's always a busy time, this time of year.

You know, for people in the business of sports, whether it's agents, whether it's team executives, now on the college side, which I'm doing, sort of negotiating player contracts, The busy time of years when there are no games. So it's counterintuitive to coaches and players, but this is where it all happens, where front offices in the NFL massage architect mold their teams for 26, and it's the busiest week of the year for them. Well, Andrew, the reason I also thought about asking to have you on, and we thank you again for joining us, was sometimes we just need the nuts and the bolts and the process of how

something like this would happen, say, with Max Crosby, where we know he had a menisical repair injury that he tended to. We know that there was a surgery. We know that he wanted out. We know that there was a process as to whether or not he was worth two first round picks in a player and then obviously the physical. So from an executive standpoint, how does this process go where it gets to the point where it does where Baltimore decides to pick a different lane? Well, there's agreed upon trade parameters. They go through it. I mean, I'm sure the Raiders were talking to a bunch of different teams, and they got the best offer from the Ravens. But any trade, and this is something that so many people don't truly understand, any trade is contingent on a physical, and every physical

is subjective. There's no standard NFL physical. There's no physical that, say, the Raiders do, and everybody has to abide by it. So every team does its own physical, and this has happened many times. Maybe not so much a trade of this magnitude, but players are signed. They think in free agency, go take a physical and it's not a pass. We saw this in the NBA last year

when the Hornets traded Mark Williams to the Lakers. Lakers sent them back. So it happens. So the Baltimore physical was a fail. And that's kind of the end of story. And then all the, you know,

all the media attention on what really happened or they get cold feet or, you know, I just think in these situations you have to take people for their word, which is we're giving up two first-round picks, it's going to be a very intense and comprehensive physical, and the report back to the GM was it's a fail. And obviously it gets a lot of attention, but these kind of things happen all the time in sports. Well, Andrew, I think you're saying then what I have been thinking, And I do like Eric DeCost. I think he's been a good GM with what you said. The physicals are subjective.

Trades are always contingent upon a physical. Even though Baltimore is getting hammered for this, and there are conspiracy theories out there, did Baltimore do anything wrong? I mean, we don't know all the details, and we don't know the, you know, some of these things are not black and white. There could be some gray there. and maybe if this was a trade for a six-round pick, you pass them. You know, it's all related. Like the magnitude of the trade is related to the importance of the physical.

And maybe if it's a fifth round pick, you're like, okay, we know he's not ready until July or whatever it's going to be. Yeah, for that risk, we'll do it. But it's all related. you know so would eric de cost to be doing this if it was a low-level player for a future seventh-round pick probably not but i don't think they're sitting there saying jesus you know two next two first round picks we really want to get rid of those even if the players is healthy no i don't think that so they're getting some slam out there but i think if i'm in the raven's front office I'm saying, okay, we can go through with this and keep our reputation clean out there,

but maybe have thrown away two first round picks for damaged goods. Or we can take whatever PR hit it's going to be and feel good about failing the physical on them. Well, Andrew, I think that's part of it, too, is Mark and I were just talking about how we were trying to quantify the Bears playmakers who left the building, for example, with the one score wins that they had, how many interceptions that just left the team, how does that translate into wins and losses, right? Which I feel like is a massive part of your job as a former executive. And if you're on the agency side, you're trying to sell wins and losses, points on the scoreboard.

When it comes to quantifying this, for example, I think any insight you can give us on the concept of how much does a failed physical cost you in a two first round price? How much does that physical matter? Any sort of exchange there or mental process that you can enlighten us with really helps us understand how this would go. Well, it's a massive investment. And we've seen two this year already. Micah Parsons and Soss Gardner, unfortunately, both got hurt. Micah got hurt late in the year when he was on the way to being the defensive player of the year.

I think that's still looking like a win for the Packers. Soss Gardner got hurt right away. We don't know. I said at the time, that looks like a real win for the Jets. I don't think he'd trade two ones for a cornerback. unless he's a certain Hall of Famer. For a pass rusher, you know, it's probably more of a sell. You can trade two number ones, but it's a massive investment.

And as we've been saying, it's all part of the investment. You're not going to do anything that you're entirely sure. And this is not even a rookie player where you're going to be limited on the financial side because of the rookie pool. This is a player making top-end money in addition to the two number ones. So I think that all goes into it. You know, and the reports I saw were not only the Ravens medical staff, but they brought in some other medical staff.

So obviously there was concern, and they bring in an outside doctor to basically, I would think, say to them, like, are we seeing this the right way? And it's all these terms that you and I don't know about conjural defects or whatever is going to be inside that knee. this is some heavy medical talk. You know, the one thing at the Packers, I told our coaches, we've got to empower our medical staff.

Like, if our medical staff says he's out, Sunday, he's out. Like, we're not living in these days in the 1960s anymore, or 70s or 80s, where the coach overrules the doctor. Like, so, you know, medical is something people don't know about running a team in any sport is how much time is devoted to medical. Yeah, sorry, Andrew. Yeah, just too much money involved, right? Yeah, and I think that the one thing I always say, in sports, especially football,

hey, listen, I'm old. I've been a triathletal. I've been a lot of years, and I'm a little bit beat up. So if you're injured, you're going to be more injured. later. Like if you're injured and you're earlier in your career, you're going to be more injured later. It's just a fact. And I don't know age and I don't think Max Crosby's aging, but this is a long-term play. You're not giving up two number ones for like two years of play. You're giving up two number ones for a long term. And I think that went into it. It's not about now. He's probably going to

be a good player in 26. But this is about the future. Yeah, I was reading I love the tweet that you. If I may read one of your tweets back to you, Andrew, that's what I think I'm going to do right now. Raiders, you write, colon, quote, we're now not trading Crosby, close quote. And your translation, this is from Andrew Brandt, offers have dried up. Is that what you think is going on, obviously, because everybody trusts the Baltimore doctors? Well, I do think it's interesting that, you know, these sources are kind of slamming the Ravens, but no one steps enough to get Max Crosby.

So whatever the Ravens came up with, people are like, you know, if the reports were true that the Ravens outbid all these teams, you know, you hear about the Cowboys, you hear about the Packers, you hear about Eagles, like they don't seem to be wanting to get Max Crosby now. So maybe later, I mean, I'm looking at, I didn't even know about this, guys. I didn't know he had a surgery in January.

So to me, this is a trade that's made after a couple more months of rehab. Well, and that's a good point that you make, too, Andrew. And when we're talking to Andrew Brandt about this, if you guys are just joining us, Andrew Brandt, NFL executive, NIL guy for Villanova, executive director of sports law there as well. I think that's the part that makes this hard is, number one, there's a couple things in play here. Trey Hendrickson was available at a free agency price,

so you don't have to pay any first rounders for him or any draft pick. Number two, Max Crosby set the market. It seems like nothing really moved after that. But then when it did, everybody moved so quickly. I wonder if there are some teams who, had they known, Crosby might have been available for a cheaper price, like you mentioned based on the physical, if they would have still gone in the direction they did.

Yeah, you never know. I mean, I think there's also a lot of questions I get all the past couple days about are the Raiders now taking on this $30 million that they have back and get out of any of these deals they've signed. No. I mean, listen, people figure out a way around the cap. It happens. So I think people get too caught up and like, oh, my God, what are we going to do?

No. They understand it. If you make a trade in the NFL, it's subject to physical. If you're trading a guy who's had surgery a month ago, it's got to be something the Raiders thought was a risk. you know, how do you, and I'm sure in the conversations between DeCosta and the Raiders, like, tell me about the knee. Yeah. And there's a reason he flew out to Baltimore, you know, other than to celebrate.

This was something that had to be looked at. Yeah, and he, and this is part of why he's great, but he plays with a ferocious motor, too, then that has to be taken into account all the snaps that he's taken as well. I love what you're saying about the cap and anything can essentially be manipulated. And the bears have been in this situation that their cap number grew in the offseason. They were able to, you know, by waving players, trading players, things like that. My specific question is about restructuring contracts. What's the percentage of players, Andrew, that when they are approached for restructure,

just flat out say no thank you well very few but you know it depends what restructure means the pure cap restructures a paper transaction uh if a restructure includes a pay cut then you're having a different discussion and i've done a lot of both when you're going to a player for restructure that has no cash impact and this what people don't understand cash and cap they're very different things if the cash is the same you're just trying to move over way around cap, players will usually do that. Sometimes they may hold you up for, hey, if I'm going to do this for you, kind of get better payment terms. So if you're converting a, you know, salary of $10 million to bonus so you can prorate it out, a player agent may say, hey, you know, instead of

paying that through the season, can we get some of that now in March? So cash flow usually can be an issue. But I've never had, you know, I never think a player would say I'm not going to do a paper transaction. But if you're talking about a pay cut, that's a deeper discussion. We're talking to Andrew Brandt. He is our, he's, I feel like you're our cap guy. You know more about it than we do, that's for sure. And when I thought about what you said on a previous interview with us, you said when you were at Green Bay, your cap was your budget. Like the end. That was it. And it really made me think, because, because you've talked to us about teams who can do the whole kick the can down the road thing.

But it's my understanding, and you know this better than we do, that there are some teams where they're more fluid to be able to do that, like I think of the Eagles, for example, who come to mind. And maybe there are teams like the Bears who don't want to get in that position. What dictates whether or not a team does that and gets into these long restructures? You know the New Orleans and Drew Brees, for example, as opposed to other teams who don't? Yeah, I mean, each organization has to decide it, and sometimes they talk about windows and, you know, eagles in a window of a dominant team and pushing out with all these voids. And voids are just like creating these dummy years at the end of the contracts you can per rate further out.

In other words, you can reload more cash now and push out cap. It always comes back to bite you. You know, the feeling is the cap's going to be going up so you can take push out. Now, I just looked at it on a cash perspective. I was with a team without an owner. We had to set how we're going to spend. And I just looked at the cap. So this year's cap's $300 million.

And I wanted to be true to our fans in Packer Nation. Like, yeah, we're going to spend the cap. And the cap is accounting. So I think for fans, what you want to know is your team spending the cap. As to what they do on the accounting side, that's really up to them. I always told agents, you know, agents will always tell you, hey, I can make it cap-friendly for you. And I'm like, I don't need your help.

It's my job. Like, you worry about your player. I'll worry about our cap. The issue is what's the cold, hard money going out in a contract? Cap is just for teams to figure out on their own. I get a little, I smile sometimes when people are all crazy about teams cap or not, they'll figure it out. Okay, that's good to know.

Well, and Andrew, there's some... They may figure it out by barring from the future, but that's okay. I mean, this is what team have three, four people in their offices doing all day. So it's just accounting. It's not... The key is, what are they spending? Well, and it's funny because we have... We even have, and I'm sure you've probably seated too, the discussion among NFL fans,

some say, well, the cap isn't real, or you can always... restructure under the cap, or they have a more fluid concept of what the cap is. But I think in practice, we haven't always seen that out of teams. So that's why I ask the question, because I feel like for some, yeah, that's probably the case. But to apply that theory to every NFL team, I don't think is the truth. Well, I get the question all the time, is the cap real? And I think the answer is this.

If the world's going to end in a couple years, well, the cap's not real. So it's kind of like individual debt is basically what you're saying. Yeah. You can't just hit file delete in three years. So, you know, you've got a heart, you've got Tua Taga Lovovia, however he says his last name. Taga Vila. It's going to count 99 million on the, 99 million on the cap. Like that's a third of the cap.

And he's not, he's going to be playing in Atlanta. So that's real. I mean, if people don't think the cap's real, the Miami Dolphins are playing with two-thirds of a deck this year because of that one contract. Now, you add on Tyree Kill, you add on Bradley Chubb. You know, the Dolphins may have playing with half a deck this year. Half a deck. So that's real. So you're saying I have to pay my credit card, Bill?

Unless you die. Eventually. Fair enough. Unless the world counts. I tend to, I am kind of like you. I tend to believe, you know, the cap is the number. But when you've got cap guys like this, I think it is a fair question to ask. Yeah.

Andrew, this is always informative. Thank you so much for joining us. And if you want more of Andrew's work, you can check out the Business of Sports Podcast and the Sunday 7 newsletter. And what's the latest at Villanova? What are you guys working on for this semester? Well, I do my teaching, but I'm now obviously doing all the NIL deals. So the transfer portal would be hot and heavy in a couple weeks. And you think that NFL

players have it good. These college players, oh my God, they're free agents every year, unlike NFL and NBA players that have contracts because we have an unregulated transfer portal. The college situation has some tough negotiations compared to the pros, I even. Well, hopefully at least somebody's making some money out of the thing. And we also hope that you have a somewhat peaceful offseason ahead. Thanks so much. And I'm doing all those things, the newsletter for people who are tweeting at me, it's at My Sunday 7.com.

And then I do these reels on Instagram at Andrew Brandt, too, if you want to check them out. Nice. Thanks, guys. Thanks for coming on with us, Andrew. We appreciate it. Love a good reel. Thank you so much. Andrew Brandt, too, on Instagram, Sunday 7 is the newsletter.

So that is Andrew Brandt. I feel like he's our cap guy. Can we call him that? Oh, absolutely. I'm certainly not the cap guy. He's a Packers exec, though. Yeah, I was almost going to say to him, as we were talking about Villanova, the farther you get away from Packers'ness, the better.

So stay where you are. Don't worry about Green Bay. I understand that you're the base of knowledge and you need to allude to it. I almost also asked him what his greatest cap manipulation was when he was with the Green Bay Packers. But there's just not enough time to ask all the questions. That would have been an excellent question. Yeah, they're just the time they're telling us to stop asking questions. So I stopped asking questions.

And the other thing, too, is that a lot of this really is tell us how this works. And it's like every time I think I have a hold on it and understand it, part of me, like I take two steps forward, one step back when it comes to understanding all of the intricacies of the cap and what it means and what it doesn't mean. But he always helps. I know more. I just took two steps forward. For the record, I like the. paying my credit card off every month. Oh, I enjoy doing that too. I don't like having extra

stress in my life. I assume as like for instance, my parking that I pay for in the city of Chicago goes right on the card. As soon as I see that, I'm paying it off right away. Gotcha, credit card. You're not going to get me. Not anymore. You used to get me. You did. Not anymore.

Now, is that always possible? No. No, it's not. But that is where I stand with it. I am with you. Lales. I'm with you. But it sounds like according to the Eagles, the cap-in sometime in 2098. So we've got that going for us. That's good.

Coming up next year on Rahimi Harrison Grotie, something completely different. Number one, as much as I didn't enjoy cheering for Bryce Terang, I kind of enjoyed cheering for Vinnie Pasquintino. Even though he's a socks killer, even though Team Italy comes through for Team USA at the World Baseball Classic, we will listen to an interview that I want to play specifically because I think it will entertain Mark.

So we'll do that next. I'm Dana Carvey. I'm David Spave. Flying the Wall's back for another season now on audio and video every Monday and Thursday. So many incredible guests will be joining us. Follow and listen to Fly on the Wall everywhere you get your podcast. Too good. Be true. That sounds so crazy.

104.3. The score. Wow. I like that. Midday's 10 to 2 on 1043, the score. Rosareda hits it hard. Fisher throws across. Ball game.

Italy, 4 and O, into the quarterfinals, and Mexico has been eliminated. You see, we'll beat. Mexico and 2 and 2, United States in. They get Canada on Friday, Italy gets Puerto Rico on Saturday afternoon. That is courtesy of Fox Sports 1. It was supposed to be on 2B, our favorite network. But it changed to Fox Sports. in my. Yeah, that's right. I'm a tubier.

Oh, yeah, I did hear you talking about that. Yeah, you and my other. Get on board with tuby. Come on, bro. Tooby, bro. We're not getting paid to say this. Pulling tubes, yo. Is that what you're saying? That sounds inappropriate. It's legal, but anyway. This is

in some states. This is Rahimi Harrison Grotie on 104-3 the score. And that was Italy's 9-to-1 win over Mexico at Dikin Park in Houston for the World Baseball classic. And why was it important that we kept an eye on this game? And why did it get moved from 2B to Fox Sports 1? And why did we all watch it? Because team Italy needed to help Team USA in order for

them to advance. Italy needed to beat Mexico by at least four runs. And that's what happened. So they were able to advance. They got the run differential in their favor. And Team Italy firing up the espresso, 4-0 wins pool B. Team USA was 3 and 1. And they both advanced in the World Baseball Classic. And Vinnie Pascentino, who, of course, I know from watching a billion socks and royals games, it's not great baseball typically. How dare you? You just farted on it.

It's been good for Vinny. It just hasn't been as good for the socks recently. Vinny Pasquintino had struggled in the World Baseball Classic. He was due, and he ends up paying three home runs in the win and had quite the interview with friend of the score, John Paul Barrosi after the game. Three espresso shots in. How are you feeling? I'm caffeinated.

I'm beamed up right now. So, yeah, we're in a good spot. So how many more boxes of those espresso pods are now on order? As many as we need. As many as we need, we'll make it happen. So that was unbelievable, huh? You're welcome, USA. We were thinking of you guys.

over at your hotel. We were thinking of you guys. So I'm glad you guys could join us in the party. So when you get back to your phone, Vinnie, what's that text message going to say from Bobby Witt, Jr.? I'm hoping he's got a room key for me at his hotel. That's what I'm hoping for. That's it.

I'm just joking around, but I don't know. I don't know. I don't even know what I'm feeling right now. I've never felt this before. Like, I know we didn't win anything. We won the pool and we've advanced, but just we weren't supposed to, right? I mean, we had expectations that we could, but we did.

We knew what we needed to do tonight. And once we scored four runs, it was like, all right, we better win this thing. So it's, I don't know, it's pretty special. This is a really cool group. Whatever happens next, we're going to be ready for it. And I'm honored to just be a part of this. Sometimes when someone who's hit as many home runs as you have, Vinnie, you know when it's going to be a special day.

I saw you bunt on your first pitch. So what were your thoughts, your emotions heading into this one? I'm pretty sure everybody knew how I had been hitting so far in this tournament. I knew. Any way you can get a hit, you just try to get on base and help the team. I've never hit three home runs in a game before, so that's kind of cool. But more importantly, we were able to put some runs on the board early, and we didn't, you know, we scored more than them tonight, and that's the goal,

and I'm super proud of this team. I know how much pride you take in your defense, Vinnie, as well. What did that mean to you to, who? Hey, thank you. Thanks. Gatorade, dump, I assume. For the captain, for the captain. Celebratory.

Your defense, Vinny, all over the place last night, doing the splits last night, and then again today, what is the results, what is that the result of in terms of all the work that you put in? It's just hard work. I mean, it's just getting out there and doing the work. Jose Agucile with the Royals, our infield coach, Vance Wilson, who's helped me out over the years. Those two guys just pushing me every day to try to get better and to, you know, do what I can to not be a designated hitter

because I really don't want to be that right now. So we're just happy. I'm glad I was able to help contribute, especially when I wasn't doing anything offensively. And I'm just really happy. Finally, Vinny, you're one of the many Italian Americans on this team, but I thought it was very poignant that it began with Aldegeri on the mound and ends with Quaterini. Right.

What have you learned about the Italians who have come over and join this team and now wear the same jersey as you? They're not scared. I mean, that's the loudest environment I've ever played in. I can only imagine. So for those guys tonight, I mean, it couldn't be better. I know this game was on national TV in Italy, which doesn't happen very often. And for the Italians who were able to stay awake or wake up early to be with us, those are your guys, right? I mean, we're your guys, but those are your guys.

Just a bunch of special, I mean, Andres, Gabriela, Claudio, Mateo's here, Renzzo Martini, Sam Aldegari. I mean, these guys are awesome. And like I, I just, I'm just so proud of this group. Well, it's always a joy to watch to play Vinny, and Italy is lucky to have you as the captain. Congratulations. We'll see you in the quarterfinal. Thank you. I appreciate it. I like Vinny. I'm glad you played that for me, Lely. He's got a place right here on this microphone anytime he wants.

It was the right amount of incredulous and then also not quite understanding that they won. And then I feel like their only their only concept was to get enough runs for Team USA. Yeah. You're welcome USA. And then he made the joke. We were thinking of you guys. You're welcome to Rosa. Trolls Team USA at their hotel that is like, hey, can I stay with you?

Like that took some twists and turns. And then it's just also beaned up, which I had never heard. He's talking about espresso beans. I'm beamed up right now. You're welcome, USA. And then the headline said, beaned up, Vinnie Pascentino, blast three homers in historic WBC effort for Italy. You're welcome, USA.

Oh, yeah. The Derocia got bailed out, ladies and gentlemen. Those four runs to get the four runs for Italy, the bailout has occurred. And he was over 12. Oh, is that what he was? coming in? When he says not doing anything offensively, he meant it. He was buttoned. Now, I know. I know that I am being hypocritical here. I know that I'm being hypocritical because I told you that I can't cheer for Bryce Terang. Noted PITA award winner here

on the show. Pain in the ass. Because that's what he is for the brewers whenever they face the Couch. You and I are on same page to that one. And Vinnie Pasquintino is definitely that for the Royals when they face the White Sox. But he never hit three home runs in a game before. And I just have a laugh because you could tell in watching it, Mark, that he really didn't believe they won. I don't even know what I'm feeling right now. I don't know what the hell happened here. That's why it made me laugh so much on Rahimi Harrison Grotie. And I'm glad I got to play that for you. Thank you. That was great. Can I bring up a few other things from watching? I saw, I watched the majority of the game last. I obviously did not see that the post game, but Italy wins nine to one.

Stayed for the whole deal. I did. Good for you. I was flipping around. But Javier Sade started the game. He gave up two home runs. I'm sorry, Ray. I know this is a sensitive topic for you. But I did notice this about Javier Assad. Maybe this has been brought up and I haven't been paying enough attention. He has slimmed down a little bit and he wasn't wearing the glasses. He was not wearing the signature Javier Sad black glasses last night. He looked good, but it just felt a little bit empty that that was going on. I also have a beef with something that was going on in the game. I don't know if you noticed this. An Italian beef, absolutely.

We should have an Italian beef with something going on. Baptized. With some jardiner. That would sound, that sounds lovely right now. That does. It's 3-1-2 day. Oh, my. Oh, yeah, spot on.

They kept showing an Italian fan. I assume it was an Italian fan wearing a Pope uniform. So they think they still have ownership of the Pope in Italy? I don't think so. I don't think so. That is for us. It is for Chicago. Chicagoans to dress up as the Pope until further notice.

Wait a second. The Pope is a socks fan. Yeah. Can he cheer for Vinny Pass? No, he cannot. That's what I'm saying. The whole Pope and the stands thing, you think that's cute. No, no, we get to do that here.

We are the Pope, okay? Chicago is the Pope. America is the Pope. Not Italy. Sorry. Not even the Cubs. The White Sox. Yeah.

Yeah, I'll allow for that. Yes. White Sox, you are the Pope. So what happens if somebody asks Pope Leo, hey, did you watch Team Italy? And he's like, well, I can't be cheering for Bobby Wood Jr. and Vinnie Pasquantino.

It's true. Kyle Teal, Sam Antanachi, my guys. Shout out to John Birdie. Once a Cub, hitting a home run last night for Team Italy. Don't know how the Pope feels about John Birdie at this point in time. I can tell you how I feel. How you feel about it.

Team Italy, you can keep John Bertie. You know who else is on Team Italy? Ray, your favorite. Tu favorite. Miles Master Boney. Oh, yeah. Team Italy, you can keep both of those guys. Thanks.

Oh, Miles Master Boney. Why do you hate Miles Master Boney? What did he ever do? He was not enough. Just not enough. Tries hard. I mean, isn't that what you want, Ray? Tried hard is not good enough, Mark Grady.

I think you should know that as a long time Cubs fan. But we just talked about Max Effer. Yeah, with two X's, baby. And then USA versus Canada, it could be the X-Cubs. slash socks pitcher Michael Soroka getting the start for the Canadians. Well, don't forget James and Tyone. Or Jameson Tyeown. And apparently Owen Casey has had himself a heck of a series for Team Canada.

Yeah. Big Red looking good. Although he did in the last WBC 2. He hit a home run to Straightaway Center in the 2023 WBC that looked like it went about 25 million miles. I forget who it was against. But if you know what I'm talking about, you probably remember. We all liked Owen Casey more than the Cubs did. I mean, like, they liked them, but they liked them that much.

Old Owen Casey. I like the way the ball came off his bat. He had good opposite field power and the bats he had with the Cubs. Yeah, yeah, they may have, well, this happens, right? They had a pitching and they had a trainer for pitching. I'm not sitting here saying the Cubs are going to regret it. I just like them. I'm curious to see what he does in his career.

And that's, yeah, you're right. That's what you do with prospects. You've got to flip them and make your team better. I think the Cubs are, I'm not going to say it. I'm not making any Cubs predictions right now. Fine. I was hurt before. I'm not going through another year of that.

Uh-uh, Ray. You know what I'm talking about. Oh, I know. You guys are getting ready to press that button. The Grosy condescending. Big red record button. The season is over. The Cubs have won the division.

A-4-7 is making me laugh. When Pasquantino started listing the names he wanted to acknowledge, I thought he was reading Mike North's Christmas card. Yeah, I think victory beef for team, you know, the Italian beef for Team USA and for, and for us, and for Team Italy, maybe the move here. Do you take- I don't even have any espresso today. I had just coffee. I made it on my espresso machine.

Yeah, and your vat of oatmeal. Yes, I made a vat of oatmeal. I like the way you operate. I do. Yeah, let's see the vat. Show everybody. That's a nice vat, actually. The container that you have is beautiful.

It swells, so it's insulated and it has dancing off the coffee. Yeah, look at that. Look at the vat. What else have you used that vat? I bet you can put some chili in that vat. I haven't done that yet. If you're going out to a tailgate, you could have your little chili out there. You know.

Yes. So, yeah, I have oatmeal that I bring for my breakfast because I'm a very exciting individual. The Pope loves Sam Antanachi. Yes, that is true. All right, we're going to parse this through. Half time is next. I'm Rahimi Harrison Grotie. I'm Emigreid, host of Aspire with Emigre, a podcast where I sit down with people who don't just dream big, they build big.

From culture shaping voices like Mel Robbins to leaders, redefining. in success like Tracy Ellis Ross to game change in entrepreneurs like Mark Cuban. Aspire is about mindset, ambition and doing the work that actually moves the needle. If you're ready to raise your standards and take charge about the life and career you're building, Aspire is where you start. Follow and listen to Aspire with me, Emma Greed and Odyssey Podcast available wherever you get your podcasts. What time is it?

It's a halftime. It is halftime here on Rahimi Harrison Grotie and we have some breaking news. Breaking news on The Score is brought to you. by Wildfire. Enjoyed a delicious meal at Wildfire restaurants with five Chicago land locations. This happened while we were chatting

about other things, the world baseball classic and whether or not I need an Italian beef and mostly espresso. According to Marquis Sports Network, Matthew Boyd announced as the Cubs opening day starter. Hey, go Matthew Boyd. You know what? He earned it.

I know he fizzled out towards the end of the season, which was what you could say. the entire Cubs team did. Looking at you, showed him in Aga as well. 14 is you got to take a side swipe while I'm doing 14 and 8 with a 321 ERA last year. Game 1 of the DS was catastrophic.

Yeah, 31 starts last year was the most starts or at least the most innings. I don't know that right in front of me here, but the most innings he had pitched last year. So that's interesting. I'm now interested in how the rest of the rotation will set up. It was the second most. Second most in his career?

Yeah. Was it? Okay, I thought. He had some really robust years with Detroit. Oh, I know. I just for some reason I thought last year was his most. But I'm willing to be incorrect. I'm always willing to be.

Yeah, 2019 Detroit, when he led Major League Baseball with strikeouts at the break, he had 185 in a third innings that year. Okay. He had 179.2 last year. But the point is he had 179 in two-thirds innings. That was a lot of work he did. Yeah, he did. The All-Star, also, as many of our listeners like to say,

Matthew Boyd isn't the stepdad. He's the dad who stepped up. That's right. You and Marshall started that. I love that. According to our text line, Matthew Boyd taught a lot of people how to tie their tie.

Okay. Told them not to let the air conditioning out of the front door. You better shut it. Told them to leave lights off whenever they turn the light off when you leave a room. Put an extra $20 bill in your shoe

when you go out. Yeah. Walk outside and put your hands on your hips when the storm is rolling up. Oh, yeah. Look around. smoking a pipe. I'm not on top by the regular pipe,

like with cherry tobacco. So what do you think? Kate Horton? Second. Probably. That's what I would assume. Then you go Tion. Third or Edward Cabrera.

Yeah, it's got to be, okay, let's do this. You want to do this? Let's do this. All right. Number one, it's got to be Matthew Boyd, now that we know he's the opening day starter. Number two, probably Kate Horton.

11 and 4 with a 267 ERA last year. I don't sound super confident in that, but it just makes sense. a lot of us thought Kate Horton might be the ace of the opening day start. Right, right. Number three, I think it's probably James and Tyo. Over Cabrera. Oh, Cabrera.

You forgot about Cabrera. I got to go Cabrera. Like, you know what I mean? In that case, maybe it goes Boyd Cabrera, Horton, Tyone, and then Shoda. I think you got to have Horton. Unless they're still trying to be conservative with him and not put the pressure on him. Because he was on an innings watch limit. How would you put it last year?

but that was last year. And he did give up three home runs the other day? Everybody gave up home runs. I know. We're told it's just spring training. Some have been more stressful than others. James and Tyre might be working on his 12th pitch. Shoddy, Minaga, I'm a little more concerned.

We know he's the fifth, he's five, right? Shoda? I would assume so, yes. And then Justin Steele is not back, yeah. I don't think Justin Steele probably comes back based on how he was talking. When he said June, I would assume June. Because it's never, it's never before. schedule. It just isn't.

And then who's the who's the first guy that starts when there's an injury or they want to sit a guy? Is it, does Ben Brown get another nibble at the apple? Colin Rea? Javier Assad. Yeah. Wicks, not going to be Wix. He's hurt.

Also, Raya is a nod to the morning show. That's a dust. Oh, I was going to say. I didn't want to correct you. No, that's a dustinism. I don't know why he started saying it, but I caught on. That's hilarious. 3-0 says I dig Boyd, I did old-school pitching, but he is such a quintessential Cubs soft tosser. Can we get one guy who throws nasty stuff?

Might I introduce you to Edward Cabrera? That is a plus-plus fastball, and that change-up is insane. I think it has a north-south-east-west break at the same time. Hell yeah. Owen Casey, who? Well, see, here's the thing. Good point, right. He's having a lovely little world baseball classic. Yeah.

Plus he seems like a likable guy who got some thunder in that bat. Big Red. We've taken care of the Cubs starters. So yeah, I think that that's, now we have to suss this out in probably a larger segment. Probably. But that is the breaking news. And as we mentioned, it is courtesy of wildfire. Enjoy a delicious meal at Wildfire restaurants with five Chicago land locations.

I watch some college basketball. Welcome to Mark's College Basketball Corner, starring Mark Rodi. This won't last that long. But I was, I enjoyed watching a fifth. 15 seed Northwestern beat a 10 seed Indiana yesterday, 74, 61. Great job.

Shout out to Chris Collins and the Northwestern Wildcats moving on, advancing. One of the things that I really enjoyed seeing yesterday, and I don't know, maybe he's been doing this and I didn't notice. Sorry, not sorry.

Bruce Weber! I saw Bruce Weber out there doing analysis on the pregame show. I have always just so happy when I see that man, Bruce Weber, back from, of course, famously with the 2005 Alignite, another team that I got to cover their entire run here in the Midwest. And Bruce Weber, I am just happy when I see him. He just makes me smile. And I know, like, he had, he did, he had the benefit of Bill Self's players when he adopted that Aligni team, all those guys. Indeed.

Darren Williams and D. Brown and James Augustine and that whole crew. They were all guys that were his, but I love Bruce Weber. He's a delightful man. And then I did watch, man, oh, got to talk to Lawrence about this, but DePaul, the Paul, a six seed. They get the highest seed they've ever had in the Big East tournament, a six seed. And they lose to the 11 seed, Georgetown, 63 to 56. DePaul seemed to be controlling the ball or controlling the game in the first half.

And then they decided to do nothing in the second half. So this is what happens when I invest back in my DePaul Blue Demons. And I'm allowed to say that because I did grow up loving DePaul. Yeah, you also claim Notre Dame on occasion. Well, don't worry about that. Mark Aloysius, Grote, Dave the Cat's Dad. I'm a frontrunner. I am a front runner too when it comes to college sports.

Bears. I'll drop some Notre Dame knowledge on you later. Emma send me something quickly. Chris Emma. I was sad to see DePaul lose last night. That's it. We have more hope for a DePaul basketball program than we've had in a while with Chris Holden. They were over 500.

They did get the six seed. And they did split the regular season 1-1 with Georgetown, but Georgetown just took it to him in the second half. So I was disappointed. I was disappointed. but I will root to them in the future. I will be on the wagon, the bandwagon, if they're good again someday. I'm also laughing at the tournament schedule for the Big Ten,

which you can check out at the United Center. I hear it's been a lot of fun for everybody who's gotten to go. You know, there's triple buys because the Big Ten is so big now. The Big Ten tournament lasts like two and a half weeks. So the Aligni don't even play until tomorrow. Yeah. Michigan gets a triple buy. Aligni got a triple.

by. And so the winners of, in this order, Penn State Northwestern, Northwestern, Indiana, Northwestern Purdue, for example, the winner of that Northwestern Purdue game gets to face Nebraska. That's the 530 game tomorrow. The Hoybergs. Aligni, that is a midday game. Don't be listening to that game instead of us now tomorrow. Yeah. Don't be doing that. Don't worry about it. You could, we'll, I was going to say we'll update you on the game, but we probably won't. But when the top four seeds get a triple buy, that just kind of lets you understand how large the conference is. That tells you what's up.

By the way, the Vikings officially released Jonathan Allen and Javon Hargrave yesterday. And Kyler Murray seems to be visiting Minnesota. Yeah, they had to release a lot of people because they were insanely over the cap. Yeah, they were. Also, I hate to inform you guys, but Jire Franklin is always entertaining on his podcast and informative. And the Packers posted officially that they have him. and then he posted a really funny Photoshop or edit of him

holding Culver's bag and shake and then drew a Packer's uniform on him and there's somebody tubing at a snow tube on his leg. It's going to go a long way to our friends in Green Bay. We can't have those guys being funny too. We don't want to like you, but it's hard not to like that.

I've already used his podcast for a lot of information. Yeah, about Matt Eberflus. Remember that? The guy knows what he's talking about. Yeah, he said he sucked. Let's take care of all of this gossip and more with a man who can also spray to all fields. Clay Harbor from ZHSN is in studio with us for five on it next. Hey everyone, I'm Josh Radner and I am so excited to tell you about how we made your mother a rewatch podcast looking back at how I met your mother. And I'm here with Craig Thomas, who co-created the show along with Carter Bays. Hi, Craig.

Hey, Josh. Somehow, it has been 20 years since the show premiered. I'm going to check the math on that 10 years since it went off the air, and we thought that made this a perfect time to look back see what the hell we did and why the show still seems to resonate with fans around the world today. Follow and listen to How We Made Your Mother wherever you get your podcasts.