Rahimi, Harris & Grote Show - Full Show — February 10, 2026

Episode Date: February 10, 2026

Leila Rahimi, Marshall Harris and Mark Grote reacted to the latest developments in the Bears' stadium saga.

This hour is brought to you by Menards. See, big money at Menards. The views and opinions of Laila Rahimi, Marshall Harris, and Mark Grotty should not be taken too seriously, especially when they give advice. Do not take Marshall's analogies, literally. Especially when it comes to Russell Dorsey. The sports thoughts of Rahimi Harrison Grotie may change at any time. It's just sports.

Gay, thanks. Bye. Bye. Rahimi Harrison Grotie. 10 to 2 on 1043, The Score. Dan, thanks for joining us. Hi, guys. Welcome to the NFL offseason.

Oh, we've made it. Look at that. The weed man has spoken. The season is over. Dan, Mark is trying to call you the weed man. And I'm pretty sure that refers to something else. How do you feel about this? Weed man, weed man, weed man. Come on in, man.

All of the people that knew me in childhood just call me weed. And so my nickname has kind of evolved over the years during various markets and on this station as well. When I was in college, I used to get wicked hammered. My nickname was puke. Probably would have gotten expelled and I'd let it affect my grades, but I aced on my horses. They called me ace. It was totally awesome.

We got straight bees. They called me buzz. You can call me just about anything you want, and I won't be... Wait, wait. What is your preferred nickname? Because I don't want to call you weed if you don't be called weed. What are you talking about?

We've got to call on weed now. I think it's a little more endearing, but that's also Mark Brody who put me onto the weeds. Is that supposed to be my nickname? That's your nickname. Adam, Dan, we appreciate the time. Sorry, I was just reading something from Adam Schephard. Nothing of note there, unfortunately.

Sorry, guys. No problem, Dolores. We'll talk to her. Not Dolores. That's wild. Officer Torres is wild. Her name is Dolores. Okay, listen, I can't just call you weed and be like, okay, thanks, weed.

I'm a no on weed. I just want to be on the record now. Like, thinking weed just seems unstable. I have to deal what's right. Weed is for the people. It's the people's weed. Leila Rahini, Marshall Harris, Mark Grody, Midday's 10 a.m. To 2.

on Chicago Sports Radio 1043, the score. At least Dan found out what the texter had sent to us yesterday. You sent him that, right, sent him that offline, so that's good. We have that going for us, team. What rhymes with Dolores? Mm-hmm. No, not that one. Oh.

Oh, the other one. Yeah, you know. I'm sorry, it's just not safe for work. There were two texts that I showed some serious restraint and not reading. I thought before I read, I think that's a better version of, I guess. Yeah, yeah. Because I'm like, I think you still read it though. I did, but not, I don't think I read it on the blanks.

You just didn't read it out loud. On the microphone. But yeah, and as I heard that Great Open by Tyler Buterbaugh, I was like, it just made me thinking again, where did weir come up with Dolores of all names? Like, why did, why was that the name that came to his head? Yeah, that was pretty amazing stuff, wasn't it? It really was. So that is a, I guess that is just one of the conclusions that we have come to as a show is that my alter ego will be Dolores.

Dan will be the weed, man. I love it. Or just weed, I guess. I love what we're building. By the way, I take the north because people love this. Our episode of what we got right and wrong from the beginning of the season is up. So if you like talk show hosts admitting things they got wrong and playing back bad predictions and good ones and good ones, it's up and running on Take the North right now. This is Rahimi Harris and Brody.

on 104 The Score. We thank you for joining us on this Tuesday. And I know that it is a topic that is tedious. It's just basically a lot of people speaking in front of microphones. Gee, why would we be interested in that? Oh, we're a lot of people speaking in front of microphones. We're entertaining. Interesting.

So the latest on the stadium is that there is some movement. Everybody's saying multiple reports that the Bears and the Illinois lawmakers are closer on a stadium deal. And this is really birthed from what J. Brie Pritzker had to say yesterday when he talked about there being a little bit of movement closer to the concept of the bears getting some work done in Illinois. So J.B. Pritzker was at an event downstate. He talked about the so-called pilot legislation that would give the team ability to negotiate property tax levels within the village of Arlington Heights. at the land they've already purchased for a stadium. Parrish Shuts was on with the afternoon show, Spiegel and Holmes. Let's listen to how Paris, the Fox 32 reporter who's been following this,

explain what the details are now. I mean, all signs, Lawrence, and thanks for that introduction, Lawrence, and Matt point to the fact that this Indiana play has motivated Illinois to change its tune. You see Governor Pritzker and State Rep. Cam Buckner going from saying, We're not helping out a billion dollar corporation to today saying, you know, we feel there's progress and let's find a deal that's going to be good for the team and good for taxpayers. So what I've been told, there are talks that are going on. And I've been told these talks have been going on pretty regular between a deputy governor, Andy Minar, in the governor's office, and Cam Buckner and then State Senator Bill Cunningham and the Bears. And they've been hammering out the details.

And what sources close to these talks say is that there is an agreement. Lawmakers are on board the idea of infrastructure spending. Governor Pritzker has said that. You know, he's not opposed to that. And they're on board the idea of this pilot legislation, as it's called, that would give mega developments like the Bears the ability to negotiate property tax levels with the community as opposed to getting their giant piece of property assessed and then having a $100 million tax bill.

they would negotiate these things going forward. That's the thing that Kevin Warren is called, property tax certainty. So those, it's just the details of those things aren't agreed to. But the principle of those things lawmakers are now saying, okay, we can do this. That was Perishuts on with Spiegel and Holmes yesterday. So he kind of translates for us. Now, keep in mind a couple of things. The Bears bought Arlington Heights in 2023.

So we, it's February, I believe, of 2020. 23. So we're to the three-year mark of there being nothing construction-wise. Property taxes have been a major sticking point, as we know. I don't necessarily know how much them threatening to go to Indiana mattered in this. I think there's also been a reiteration on the state's part of what they're able to do. But that part about the, quote, property tax certainty, and that just basically means they want their rates to be some sort of guaranteed or set. Which is normal. Yeah, usually though you do it before you buy the land. And that's the thing here, is that I've always maintained this.

They did it out of order. So these are the three aspects of this you have to keep in mind when you hear this. I think it's understandable that they want the tax certainty, of course. Yes, they are out of order. But this franchise has been out of order and a lot of things at a lot of time. So that's unsurprising. Pre-Cevon, we'll say. Kevin Warren is brought in to get this thing rolling,

and it has not rolled as of yet. But it feels like they are getting to the starting blocks here. And I think that's progress. And this idea that the Bears are going to build in Arlington Heights is not one that is lost on anyone. That's been the assumption, because why would you buy all that land if you weren't going to build on it? But at the same time, this Indiana thing was a game changer. Let's be honest. I agree.

This moved everything that was stalled into motion. I completely agree with that, that it just happened to be because one of the new reports was, and I happened to read the Chicago Tribune article, that the Bears and the state of Illinois have been meeting regularly since December. What happened in December, Mark? When the letter came out from the Bears as regards to Indiana. And as Paris said, yes, they did change their tune. as the state was being a little smug about it.

Like we're not going to help a billion dollar industry. And then all of a sudden, J.J.J.B. Pritzker is back to the table here. I think this is good, though, because you guys are both right if it's out of order. But the bears now have, will have had, if they are allowed to the megaprojects legislation, if they are able to negotiate with the local municipalities, won't they have had two out of the three, things that they wanted out of this. The other one being the Soldier Field debt payments

from the renovation, which occurred in 2003 that they want out of that as well. Yeah, that was an add-on. That is. So that's the other part that they have to talk about. I concede that that has to be, that should not necessarily be a

slam dunk. But that's the point of this, is that in negotiation, all these other pieces of this have developed that originally we knew that the state of Illinois hadn't changed position on we'll give you up around a billion dollars i know that that is not a fun number to round but that they'll give you around a billion dollars for the infrastructure that we knew like that that that was said that was maintained by jb pritzker that was maintained by the state of illinois then there was the issue of the property tax rate and that's where

a lot of this has come from that's where we are that's where i argue most of this has come from then there was the pep rally that they had with Brandon Johnson, where they also decided to ask the IFSA, which is the bond, you know, the bond issuing entity that created, say, guaranteed rate field, which, by the way, is the equivalent of what Indiana just created is the bond issuing outlet that they had to put that legislative position forward to move forward on this. So once you create an entity to issue the bonds, that becomes a little more real. So they asked them for a bunch of money in between what the Bears wanted to contribute, what the NFL wanted to contribute, and then what they wanted for the building.

The building discussion is now off the table, as I am to understand. Fox 32 reporting, Warren has vowed that the team will pay for all costs of actually building the stadium structure. So we keep getting all these bits and pieces as to what the deal is. And now we're finding out more things. Remember when we found out Marshall that the concept of the Bears paying the debt left on Soldier Fields renovations from 2002 was a thing.

500 million in public debt. Yeah, and they wanted to essentially throw a couple of bucks at it because was it 25 million they offered up? What the Bears offered on the 500 million? Yeah. It's like me paying a credit card bill. It was like, oh, is this what you're coming to the table with?

And now because Indiana is involved and because that legislative session ends at the end of this month. And there is an actual bill drawn up that the Senate has approved. That means Illinois, J.B. Pritzker, Cam Buckner, all of the associated parties, they got to get it together and quick. They do. And it should be pointed out as well in all of this. Like there are, you know, from both sides there's issues. The Bears did have promised, and this was forever $2 billion in private investment towards the stadium projects. So it's not like the bears are asking for everything.

And I know I told you guys about this, but you mentioned the word pep rally. There is going on in Arlington Heights tomorrow night. The mayor and some other speakers as well, representatives from Arlington Heights will be there. I guess the way it is posed to me, urging the state to play ball and to keep the bears in Arlington Heights

as opposed to Indiana. I do plan to attend just to get a feel for what's going on. I don't know exactly in what form I'm going, reporter, just myself, just curious citizen. Curious citizen, but just to hear what they're saying, see who might be there as well. So, yeah, it's just things are, that my point is to say things are happening right now. Yeah, and part of this is because the state of Indiana decided to, the state of Indiana has a, self-proclaimed deadline on when they've got to figure stuff out, which is February 27. But here's the funniest part.

They've actually upped the speed because they're like, we got places to be. We would like to get this decided by the 17th. Isn't their season over though? No, because the legislative session in Indiana is February 27th. That's what I mean. That's the end of February. Right. But they have said they would like to get this done by the 17th.

They got their own deadline. So that's what I'm trying to explain. So yeah, they decided to even advance that somewhat to try to, get this process rolling. Now the thing about their entity that they created is that entity can then act, get the land, tax people for the stadium, do all

the things that are necessary to make it happen. But the point of it is, is yeah, the bears have been willing to try to contribute $2 billion. But the cost estimate on this project as a whole has come up to way more money than that. There was an argument said originally after that PAP rally with Brandon Johnson

that the bears were asking for $5 billion additional. Additional. And like originally it was $3 billion. It was two. And then the Illinois bond

issuing entity said it was going to be upwards of way more than that. And that's what this is. It's negotiation. And we're all along for this ride. We're all on the table, ladies and gentlemen.

When we talk about being along for this ride, if it comes out that us as taxpayers are going to be left with yet another bill, an exceeding bill, let's say

the Bears pay for 70% of the stadium and the taxpayers are left for the other 30% of the actual stadium. Not the infrastructure, the stadium itself. You know what I'm going to say? Yeah, y'all go have fun in Indiana. And who knows? So might the Bears.

I'm curious, too, what the people think. What the people think. Yeah, we need opinions on this because there's a lot of people dealing with real issues as far as where the tax money is going specifically when you talk about the state money in Illinois. So, yeah, we definitely.

need to hear from the people. I'm sure they're texting us already. I don't know that the budget is in the business of guaranteeing discounts for a lot of people, which is what the bears and that have argued for and the state of Illinois has maintained they cannot do. So that's the other part of this is, well, what kind of tax certainty are you going to get? Is it year to year? You know, like, what is that actual law that they want to draw up look like that would make this all make some sense? So that's another question that I would have in all of this. Yeah, I mean, that's all going to be negotiated and hopefully come to the light soon if they could agree on all this. Yeah, so we'll get into more on what we expect to happen with this.

We'll take your calls as well. 312, 644-67 is our number here on 104.3, the score. We're still on 670. And frankly, if the whole state's going to pay for this, I know we got some people down in downstate who are listening on 670 who might want to share. Shout out, Springfield, Peoria, Lincoln. I'll see all you. 670 is for the distance. 1043 is for like our building.

We couldn't get anything behind our building. So, you know, we fill in the gaps with everything else. So that's how this goes. This is Rahimi Harrison Grotie on 104.3, the score. As I mentioned, we want to get your thoughts on just whether or not the stadium should be here. Should it be in Indiana? Do you care? Do you want to pay for it?

Yeah. Well, and you're already paying for it. Chances are if you're listening to us, 312, 644, 644 is. 67-67 is the number. Our producers are Ray Diaz and Tyler Buterbaugh. You just heard Marshall Harris and Mark Grotty. I'm Laila Rahimi. You can join us on Twitch as well,

Twitch.tv, slash the Score, Chicago, or YouTube. The Score Chicago is our address there as well. Connor O'Donnell, Jacob Stutz, and Max Curtis are our video team. Braden Friar helps us out as well. And we have more coming up on this topic, which is sponsored by almost free teeth.com, affordable implants, life-changing smiles.

Do we actually think shovels will be in the ground this year? Let's start with that concept. I'm done with that game. Well, three years later, after you buy a property is always would you like to build, right? It sounds like the shovels are going to be in the ground. It's just going to be a matter. Are they going to be in the ground in Illinois or in Indiana? Hold your thought.

Let's discuss that next. Rahimi Harris and Groot. This is Rahimi Harrison Grotie on 1043, The Score, talking about the latest happening with the Bears and Arlington Heights. Illinois, J.B. Pritzker, Cam Buckner, who's going to be on the afternoon show at 4 o'clock, by the way. You won't want to miss that on Spiegel and Holmes. He'll give us some more explanation. Cam Buckner has been outspoken about this and sports. I always like to hear what he has to say because I feel like he's a good sports fan.

And so are you. 312, 64, 64, 67, 67 is our number. We're going to start with Mike on the south side. Mike, this is Rahimi Harrison Grady. How are you? Hey, I'm good. What's up, Mike? Yes, I was listening to you guys.

You know, I think that I'm sick of watching people get pushed around by private interests. And it's supposed to be the government who defends us from them. So I think that the city should use eminent domain to take control of the, team. It's the Chicago Bears. Bears. And a domain to take the team? I mean, I've heard of some land plays. How do you get to the team, Mike? I mean, the CPD, that's a what, like a 3,000 strong, personal, private army that the mayor controls.

What are they going to do? It's the government. You can't fight City Hall, like they say. You can't fight City Hall. That's the first time I've heard it used to talk about taking over an entire football organization. We'll take that back. Thank you very. So we have the meatball of the day. The city of Chicago marches into Arlington Heights and takes their team back. I don't know. I feel like there's more meatbally things that are going to be said in these airways. Oh no. Now using using the concept of eminent domain, which domain defines property to take the team. Okay. You know one of his buddies told them that. The problem with that is what are the bears evaluated at against? Nine billion? Nine billion. Yeah. And the five.

$9 billion. You got to pay for it when you, so that's still coming back on the taxpayers at that point. Eminent Domain. They did use Eminent Domain to build Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, the Death Star, if you will. That's adjacent to where the Rangers play. So that was, and that was met with a lot of pushback too because it was people's land. Like there were some houses in the way of that project. Wait, what? The Death Star is what? We lovingly refer to the Cowboys Stadium in Arlington as the Death Star.

Oh, that's hilarious. You've been there, right? And the death turns out to just be the cowboys playing in the windows because they face east-west and not north-south. That's hilarious. Yeah, that's one of the few stadiums that I have not been in, Jerry's World. Or the Death Star, apparently. You can call it either or. Jerry World, Death Star.

I believe it's called AT&T Stadium, but who calls it that? Nobody. But the point is, eminent domain does get used in these cases from time to time. I just don't know if it's for the team. For a team? You're taking over Hallis Hall. You're taking over all the things. Okay.

We're off and running. We are indeed. 312, 644, 67, is our number. Let's go to Jeff and Evanston. Jeff, you're on Rahimi Harrison Grotie. Hi there. Yeah, I've been following this stadium question pretty carefully because if you remember, back in the day when Chicago wanted to host the Olympics,

I was the economist who had the unfortunate job of telling Mayor Daly. I didn't think it was going to be good for taxpayers. So that's a central theme. I think we need to be careful about no taxpayer money for the Bears Stadium. And the studies that people use to figure out if there's going to be economic benefit or not tend to be gused up by whoever wants it. So we've got to be really careful with whatever numbers are being tossed around. What is it about this specific stadium idea that makes you think that this is not going to be a good economic

situation if they build at Arlington Heights or in the state of Illinois as opposed to going to Indiana? Well, I think the bottom line is if you just look at the data around all stadium builds, most of them do not return value for the surrounding community. And if they do, it's just kind of weakly positive. So that may be okay. And versus Indiana or Arlington Heights is probably about the same. But the point is, I don't think we can use taxpayer dollars to boost that up.

Jeff, thanks for your call. Yeah, there's there is pushback, especially from the state here, using public money to privatize profit. And that's where this has become a real sticking point. Kim Buckner's talked about it when he talks about, you know, kitchen table issues, inflation, the cost of actually just living your life. There's not a lot of appetite in this state when it comes to public money to fund a business where you only get eight to nine guaranteed regular season dates. for example. They can say they want to fill it with all this other stuff, concerts and all of that. But when you build another entity as well, you build another arena, you build another stadium, guess what that means? That's another place for an act to go. They still have the opportunity to go to a soldier field, for example. You still have all these other places where, like, your concerts can go. It's not as guaranteed as a lot of times they make it out to be.

I do think he's right about that. I think the biggest thing is, and I think he's right overall, is there's a fine line between investment because I'm good with the infrastructure money. Like that's going to service more than just the Chicago Bears, the idea of that infrastructure building up many other businesses. Right, right. That helps everybody.

That helps everybody. But when the investment becomes kind of this donation, this welfare, if you will, for the billion-dollar company, that's where I draw the line. Me personally, I wonder if people out there feel the same way. And I think the fact that this is dragged out so long, I think a lot less people are sympathetic with the bears as opposed to saying, hey, just go to Indiana.

Well, that's why this is, that's why the details of a bill like this are so important. Like, for example, Pritzker, let's just reread the quote. We're in constant conversation with the Chicago Bears. Pritzker said to reporters at an unrelated event downstate. The most important point I would make is we're not going to do anything that's bad for the taxpayers. We are helping build infrastructure and other things. that are available to any business that's growing or building something new in the state of Illinois that is putting people to work. Those are normal incentives, and that's what I'd expect we'll end up

with for the bears. So then the question becomes, what is the pilot legislation going to dictate? And does that number even get the bears to come to the table? Because if that's not a number they like, they still have the concept of Indiana being a part of this. Yeah, and I know a lot of people think Indiana is just a complete bluff. I think at the end of the day, money talks, and you know what walks. And if Illinois doesn't come up with something that the bears find, I don't know favorable is even the right word, but to their liking, the Indiana thing is just a sweetheart deal.

It really is. I mean, depending on what it is, though, we don't have the details. Illinois did not, obviously did not treat it as leverage as a bluff. Like, they might think way in the back of their head it is. But there's a big part. We can't afford to lose. Yeah, like this one, they are taking the bears very seriously, or they wouldn't have gone right to the table in December when the bear's note came out

and we were all mad at the bears because the bears were winning games. How dare you ruin our vibe? Distraction actions, what we like to call that. But as it turned out, it was a bold move by the bears. Now the Fox 32 report says, so it's close to the bears, say the only site that they're considering in Indiana is near Wolf Lake and Hammond, which is right across from the Chicago border. So I guess the entity that they want to create in Indiana,

the bond issuing authority there, that would be the land that would be part of this discussion. So that's something to consider as well. But all of this is still a far cry from the Bears obviously holding property in Arlington Heights that they built and told us with the expressed intent of a stadium. That's why I just don't budge much on this. If I'd known this over the weekend, because I was literally in Hammond, Indiana over the weekend,

I would have taken a stronger look around the place. A site survey? A site survey of my own. To be clear, I still think it ends up in Arlington Heights. Like, I think at all stops of this thing, even when I was going through my God, I'd really like to see the stadium stay in Chicago. And really, who wouldn't if we could afford it in everything? Because it's beautiful being in the late.

But at every turn, even though it's gotten very interesting, I have. said, when pressed, where's the stadium going to be? It's going to be Arlington Heights. Because they bought the land. They've got the land. And it's the best place for the Bears. And they also at one point said repeatedly, when asked about a stadium or even renovations to Soldier Field, our sole focus is Arlington Heights.

That was the quote from George McCasky every single time it came up until Kevin Warren came into the picture. And that's why I maintain, this stuff usually gets done before you buy the land, not after. Because guess what they've already done? Pay taxes on the land that's vacant for three years. That's the part the Bears did screw up. And Kevin Warren is even if it has been awkward on his part, he came in and he was like, wait a minute.

You guys didn't even consider any other possible place to build your stadium before you bought Arlington Heights. So Kevin Warren was playing from behind when he came in. And George, to his credit, said, yeah, go ahead. Go ahead. Play the game if you'd like. When the Bears hired Kevin Warren, and they realized they were playing from behind.

Oh, yeah. Went into part of it. I think the decision to hire Kevin Warren. But the point is, too, is like, oh, you can blame Ted Phillips, who was an accountant before he became the Bears president. But then he still has somebody to answer to. He's still managing somebody else's money.

This may have been a McCaskey family thing or the board or whatever you want to call it and been like, oh, there's a stadium property available. Let's build it here. Kind of like 847 on our text line. I'm telling y'all, there's an industrial, neighborhood at Chicago Avenue, Justice of Cicero, that could easily be bought out through eminent domain, which would be large enough for the stadium. I feel like that was the decision-making

process that went into it. And I maintained this the entire time. Since public money has gone towards so many stadiums in the country, you can Google this. You can Google it. You can find out what the process is supposed to be, because you can read the stories about other entities who did this in a different order already. But I knew this would come to this. I knew it would come to everybody just wanting to build the stadium at different spots. When you start to tell us that you want to take down your ex's house to build the Bear Stadium, I just don't know that it's going to happen. 312644-67 is our number.

This is Rahimi Harrison Grotie on 104-3 to score as we try to figure out what the latest is regarding the Bears Stadium possibilities. Are there going to be any shovels in the ground? Let's continue our conversation on the phones. Let's go to Tony and Joliet. Hey, Tony. Hey, Leila, Marshall Grody. What's up, Tony?

Hey, buddy, thanks for taking my call. I'm going to go different with this one, guys. It might be a shocker, but I've talked to a lot of my friends. Nobody likes to see a big corporation like the Bears have to take money because they're worth billions and they're printing money there. But I'm being honest, and I told Ray, it's kind of ridiculous to start saying, and like what you said, Marshall, you know, if I got to come on my pocket, hello, Indiana.

Well, you're not really from Illinois. And I'm telling you right now, go. go to any jewel store, ask any dude walking out with the Bears hat and say, hey, listen, man, if the difference between the Bears was going to Indiana or you missing one night out a year at a steakhouse with your wife, if you couldn't do that once a year, would you rather him at Arlington Heights or would you miss the one dinner? Because when we talk about the taxpayers having to take on something like, let's say it's $2 billion, it'll come out to about $25, $50 a person. And if you take it, well, we pay for taxes every year and the stuff, if people can,

could see what our money's going to that has nothing to do with us. It's ridiculous. Something like this would be so little per person that I don't think that could be an issue in talking point unless you're just focused on the fact that billionaire companies should not have to take from people. But that's kind of where it's at. And I would have no problem giving up $50, 100 bucks a year to make sure the bears aren't the Indiana Bears. Sure, they still be the Chicago Bears. But man, it's not like your daughter getting married and getting another last name. the bears are bigger in the town of people's daughter. I'm just kidding.

But honestly, I really look at that way. You know, I don't think it would be that much per person. So, guys, thanks for me to have my call. I just want to make that point because, like, Jeff came on earlier, the financial guy. And I was really thinking when he was talking, I was like, man, just ask him what do you think that would be per person? Because I bet it's under 50 bucks a person. It's not under 50 bucks a person. It's not under 50 bucks a person.

See you, Tony. That's Tony. Yeah, that's the point. It's not under 50 bucks of person. Mars, he came at your stake. And his response. Unfortunately, it comes out in the CTA not having enough

infrastructure to, I don't know, have trains run at a normal speed because there are so many tracks that need repair. Or it's CPS's budget and then you end up paying for it in ride share fees that keep going up and up and up. Wow. Like that's a lot of times

and the studies have been done, there are articles about this as well. You can read about how stadium funds usually take from other funds and it's typically public schools, it's typically public infrastructure and other things that end up being in more states of disrepair

because they don't have proper funding to maintain them, even though we pay for them. And then guess who ends up paying a little bit higher CTA fare, for example, or a little bit higher Uber Fier, suddenly you have a Chicago surcharge and another surcharge and another surcharge. You do.

And that's why this is such a tricky topic. I hear you though, Tony. I mean, it's hard. It's hard for people to consider the possibility of the team moving out of the state. And that is like, I mean, there are opinions on every side of this. And there is the part two where, and he joked about it, it is the Bears. It is a massively appealing entertainment product that makes the state of Illinois very happy. We all, we know how much.

The Bears fuel us. The Joy Tax. The city of Chicago and the state of Illinois is fueling. by the joy. Like, I understand this is peripheral stuff. It is part of it. But it is part of it. Civic Pride is real.

The entertainment part is real. The fact that everybody loves the bear. Like, we can all agree that we love the bears. No, I agree with everything you're saying. I didn't even disagree with like the sentiment that Tony was bringing. But the bottom line, the cold hard facts of how cash works. Come on, man. Did you hear what, do you listen to though?

He took away a steak dinner from you, man. But you say that now. you don't understand how you pay for it later. Like, CPS is a best example I can give, because a lot of times the two are adjacent in a budget. You know, like that, we pay for it, and then we hear about it constantly. They're still paying off Soldier Field last I checked, correct?

To the tune of they still owe $500 million plus dollars. That's what I'm trying to, like, let's not act like that doesn't exist in reality right now. Before any shovels go in the ground? Yeah. There's still money being paid on Soldier Field. buy tax dollars. Also, what's the tax going to cost you on that steak dinner you want to buy? The sales tax keeps going up and up as far as I recall. Who is paying for that right now? Is that the entertainment tax? Well, there was a grace period on the, there was a grace period on the grocery

tax that I know, but that recently stopped. I thought it was a hotel thing that was more so driving it. That's what's paying for it right now. And with the pandemic and other things, hotel business has not been as booming as it was, say, 10 years ago here in the studio of Chicago. So are you Marshall? Like you want them in Indiana if people are going to get hit with the taxes? It's a guaranteed nine games a year. Say what you want about preseason. But when it's, I've read all the studies. Like this was part of my field of study. And I lived in a state where I've paid my tax dollars, have paid for many stadiums. So because of that, yeah, I understand that teams move. I just don't want to be the one on the hook for it,

especially in a state where the budget is such a problem. 312-644-67 is our number. We continue with Stadium Talk on Rahimi-Harrison Grotie on 104-3 The Score. Layla Rahimi, Marshall Harris, Mark Grody, Rahimi-Harrison Grody on 104-3, The Score. This is Rahimi-Harris and Grotie on 104-3 The Score, talking about the latest news from the state of Illinois regarding the possibility of the bears getting some legislation that would help with their property tax discussion regarding the property they bought in Arlington Heights. Cam Buckner is going to be on the afternoon show on Spiegel and Holmes to give us some more clarity.

That will happen at 4 o'clock today. In the meantime, we're taking your calls because it's your money. So if it's your money, then you should be able to call. 312-644-67-67 is the number. let's go to Mario and Hyde Park. Mario, you're on 104-3, the score. That sounds so crazy. 104.3, the score.

Wow. I like that. You sound great, man. You sound, Mario. You are made for FM. More than you know, Mark, girl. Oh, yeah? I feel like,

I feel like what I said a year ago is kind of still in play. They're not leaving Illinois. I agree with Mark. Indiana is not a bluff at all. That's real. I think it's more real than it's ever been. That's why this new move from the state legislature to maybe come up with a bill to pass aside the needs of the bears is going to probably happen. I don't think if J.B. Prisker is thinking about an extended run here in Illinois being governor or perhaps going national and maybe running for president. of it, I don't think that he thinks it's a good idea to have that on his list of things that he

let the Bears lead in the, I'm sorry, Illinois. But I go back to the beginning. The Bears are a cash cow for the state. They'll do what they have to do to get them to stay. Where it gets kind of cloudy is what are taxpayers willing to accept, not what are they willing to pay if you follow? What would they accept as, okay, that's enough for me. I can deal with that as opposed to outright going, I'm not going to pay for any of it because I don't believe the bears stay unless the taxpayers do pay for some of it.

And then the other part, and I'll leave, that $500 million, do you think people's minds would change about footing some of this bill if the Bears were to say we will eliminate that $500 million debt on Soldier Fields and that's it. Thanks guys. No, I think you're right, Mario. It is what is the public willing to accept? The other problem is

you know where one part of it would be going if you watch the Bears and we talk about them every day and you understand that part. What you don't know is where that money goes if you're not taking it to the Bears. And that's where it gets hard and gets tricky. And frankly, it gets hard for for politicians to hammer the point home as to why it's not necessarily sound business. You know, and that's what makes it difficult.

We all talk about the Bears. We all understand why the stadium would make sense from a Bears standpoint. That part of it is easy. It's just trying to figure out how the budget gets stretched and moved and repurposed and who pays, who loses, who benefits. That's where this gets hard to discuss. And Governor Pritzker does have, just addressing the other. sort of part of Mario's call there. He does have a needle to thread here, a very fine one at that because he's right.

The part of the reason the state of Illinois is rustling up is because not on my watch, the Chicago Bears. I don't want to be known historically as the governor who let the Bears go to Indiana. So not on his watch, but also simultaneously, you're not going to raise. the taxes beyond belief to the state of Illinois, while I do have bigger aspirations, possibly, or I want to leave a strong legacy in Illinois. So he has two things that, or the state of Illinois has two things that they are trying to negotiate. In the stare down, though, don't you think there's more pressure on J.B. Pritzker and the politicians to keep the team Illinois than

there is on George McCasky and the Bears to stay in Illinois? That's a great question. I don't necessarily know because it's just like what Mario was saying. Like, what is it really, I think the number one thing a politician could do if he really wants to take this out of his hands, give the power to the people, you put it on a ballot, you make the public vote

for it. And then it's the public's decision as to whether or not they want to pay for. That's the best way to do this. If you really want to do it. But they don't have time to do it now. I think there's a survey. There's an undisclosed survey. That's not the same though as putting it on the ballot. When you put it on the ballot, it is end

of discussion. It's also about those who conducts the survey. Like if Mark Grody's conducting the survey for Mark Grody and Dave the cat to have a bigger house. That's Dan Levy the Cat, by the way. Yeah, Dan Levy the Cat, Martin. Then you're probably going to publish a survey saying like, oh, here are the reasons why we need a bigger place.

It would have to have some neutrality to it. Yeah, it would have to be. No, you would have to do that because that's your principle. But I'm saying, like, an entity that, like, guess what? High Furchose corn syrup is good for you, according to those who are in the business. of selling high-furtosed corn syrup. Like, that's what makes this tricky.

That's why you put it. It's not good for you. That's why you put it to a ballot and then let the people decide. Like, if J.B. really wanted to do that. If he was really concerned about his political aspirations, that's how you fix it. What do you think they would say? Well, the problem is, the taxpayers, they would say, no, thank you. What happened in Kansas City?

In Missouri, the taxpayers resoundingly said no. I can't think of the last time one of these ballots passed favorably for the team. Maybe, I'm trying to remember. if Tennessee had had a ballot thing going on with the Titan Stadium. But it's remarkable that people, and I get it. A lot of people are texting us right now and saying, I'll gladly give up a steak dinner. There are people who cannot afford a steak dinner who would be like, what are you talking about? That's the point. The haves and the haves not, the gray area between has been as spread as it ever has been between the haves and the have-nots. The have-nots are like, yes, I can afford

bear season tickets. Bring me my stadium. There's also just a lot of people with bad information. 773 is like, well, the Bears already paid it off. No, they didn't. Like, no, we still as a county owe $550 million on the renovations for 20 years ago. That's not true. Like some people just have bad info.

All they have done is promised $2 billion towards the stadium. That's the Bears contribution or offered contribution. And is it going to cost more than $2 billion? Of course. I'm just saying, like for the record, we have to give the. whole story. So the bears are offering $2 billion. So where's the other $3 billion coming from is my question?

What's being worked on right now? I can't wait to see. The state of Illinois is not coming in to fill in the gaps on that. That's the point. Unless, and if you want to, if you guys really want to, either start a go fund me or put it to a ballot. Find your local lawmaker and ask them to put it to a ballot. And then the biggest thing for me, Lela, Mark, is the understanding that if the

$3 billion, we don't know where it's coming from. I do want to see how. this process plays out because I do want to see how exactly you're going to fund this. Because in Indiana, they've been very clear. We're going to pay for it. You're going to rent to own and we'll pay for it. Bells and whistles. That's what I'm saying. Them going to Indiana sounds really appealing right now. You can sell that land later.

And in A5 is right. Illinois is much more than Chicago. It really is. And that's something too. You know, should the state pay for something that's in the city? man, this conversation is, I love it. I love hearing from all the people who have been texting and calling us and letting us know they're very much varied opinions on this matter.

But that's why the best way to do it is to put it on a ballot, but traditionally they fail. Yeah, I looked up the Titans thing, by the way, they bypassed the ballot referendum because they're just like, we're going to go ahead and do this. And that's how they got around the ballot thing. The ballot does not do well for people who own billion dollars. teams. Yeah, that's it. You know, that's part of it. And now we're just getting to the hot take. So coming up next here on Rahimi Harrison Grotie, we are going to switch gears a little bit. George McCasky did speak. He did not speak about the stadium, but you know what?

You know what he did? He did get asked about this. That's his employee, swearing publicly about the team he hates. That and much more from George McCasky next. This hour is sponsored by Riverfront Chrysler Jeep Dodge Ram. This is Rahimi Harrison Grotie on 1043 The Score. We spent a lot of time talking about the stadium, so thanks to everybody who called in. Because right now, if you're in Cook County, that's your money. We're still on the hook for. So that's something that matters to me.

And in the meantime, Walter Payton's son, Jared, told us when he was giving out the Walter Payton Man of the Year award the day after at the NFL honors. that he was going to be interviewing George McCasky, as part of his trip to the Super Bowl, to do the annual NFL honors show. He was going to be interviewing George McCaskey, and it was going to air on WGN TV sports. So he warned us about it. He let us know, and he also said it was going to be posted that day, that night on GN sports, and then additionally, on YouTube.

So the WGN YouTube page has it as well. And it's important because we had not seen George McCasky speak. And how long, Mark Grady? How long, Bears reporter Mark Rody? Yeah, when was the last time? I think we went the entire regular season without hearing George. We talked to him at the end of last season. That might be, unless I'm forgetting something.

I don't think he spoke during training camp. I could be mistaken, but I think, yeah, this has got to be the first time in a year-plus that we've heard from George. McCaskey. I totally agree with that, Grotie, because just in the general media sense to the beat, for sure. Yeah. George McCaskey does do his annual kind of like final preseason game of the year with Fox, like where it's a little bit like in between the game action. Right. It's very cleaned up though. It's very cleaned up and I don't know how many people are sticking because it's usually late in the final preseason game. I don't know how many eyes are on that. Well. Yeah. So that probably, yeah. And that's not for reporters. Like we have not.

We still haven't talked to George as the beat, but luckily we have somebody who did. Right. And that I also think should happen. George, who has made himself public, I mean, for goodness sake, he'll be in a tailgate at Soldier Field, he'll sit in the stands. He should probably as chairman of the Bears talk to the beat reporters as well. Which he usually does. And it's ironic that in a good year, he didn't.

And it might be because he didn't want to take attention away from the guys that were really responsible for it. And Layla, it could be because he didn't want to take questions on the stadium. Yeah, he did not get asked about the stadium by Jared, but he did get asked about something else, which is important because, as we all know, under Virginia's watch, swearing was not allowed on the Bears. I feel like Jalen Johnson was the only one who would occasionally take it for the team. Every now and then you get a post game interview where somebody would throw out a swear word or two, but even on hard knocks on HBO, not to be found. Guy Taven Jenkins, I was like, hey, are you going to be on hard knocks?

He's like, you kidding me? I swear too much. So it was very well known. Do you know how HBO works? It's awesome that we have passed that era. We're in a new era of following the bears and understanding. Cursing is allowed, if not encouraged. Be authentic.

Be yourself. Okay, if that's the biggest knock on Virginia McCasky, that she didn't let her team swear I get. or why it was such an issue for the chairman, for example, in George, to want to execute that order. I get it. And she took away the honey bears because people will text that. So I just wanted to get that out there. I know what you're thinking.

I know what you guys are thinking. Bears too would never. Should they bring back honey bears? Bears too would not only have hunting bears. They have those people who catapult themselves and shoot buckets and stuff. It's like 3.1, 267, 67. Should the bears bring back the honey bears? I don't see why not.

I'd love it. I mean, they were classic, you know. Every other team's got them. Maybe we don't call them the honey bears. Maybe that's the difference. What would you call them? Just bears. Or the bears, like the Spirit Squad or something?

I don't know. Spirit Squad. The Bears Spirit Squad. You see how quick that came to me? That's disturbing. But cussing was something we all joked about. It was just like one of those commonly held inside jokes, for example, was you just knew. You just knew that that wasn't something that made bears management happy.

Well, your coach Ben Johnson publicly proclaimed blank the Packers pretty loudly, and Jared Payton did ask George about it. We talked before the season, and a couple of things that I share with them are if you look at 100 years of history, whether the Bears have a successful season has a lot to do with how we do against Team Voldemort. Not 2 and 15 or anything like that. But if you sweep, you get a pretty darn good chance of having a successful season. If you split, you still have a good chance. But how that series goes has a big impact on how the season goes. And the other thing I told them was, when you're with your players, you've got to be authentic.

They can spot a phony. You've got to do what comes naturally. So yeah, we talked and we're on the same page. Just so everybody's aware, team Voldemort is the Packers. And George referred to the Packers as Team Voldemort several times in the interview. Today, who shall not be named. George answered that even better than I thought he would. You knew he was going to somehow some way support his head coach that just got them into the playoffs

and beat the Packers in the playoffs. him saying that you have to be authentic with your players is perfect because I thought for sure he was going to say something to the effect of we understood the heat of the moment. We prefer that he didn't use those particular words, but we do understand and we do support his dislike for the Green Bay Packers. That would not have been my choice, but he didn't do that. No, the best part about it is that he actually used the same phrasing that Ben Johnson used when he was asked the question.

both men saying we're on the same page. Oh, I thought you meant the Packers. Well, no. Are we going to get into the fact that you slightly got into a little bit of a George McCasky impression? It's just the cadence. Actually, my Dan, weed man. Has a really good, George. Yes.

Okay, we've got a lot of names for the possible Bears Spirit Squad team. Oh, okay. The Chippin Bears? Chippin Bears. We got the Bearettes. Chippin Bears, chipping is a football term. I kind of like that. This Daily Spirit Squad.

Appropriately, we've also got the honey bears. You've got to at least acknowledge it if you're going to change it or consider it. And then 708 says they would like to have the bears have a marching band like the Ravens. A marching band would be awesome. That would be sick. Hey, I was in marching band. I support marching bands. 630 says just have some nuns instead of cheerleaders.

The bear nuns. I get it. I get the joke. I love it. I love it when people name plays. is that they want to blow up for stadiums, and I love it when they have ideas about what to name a bear's cheerleading

slash Spirit Squad group. We're all those would have loved you. Did you guys know there's only one NFL team that's never had cheerleaders? Is it Texas A&M? Oh, no, that's not a football team of the NFL. Oh, wait. So there's an NFL team that has never had cheerleaders.

And there's eight current teams that don't have cheerleaders, but there's only one that's never had cheerleaders. And it's an expansion team, I'm imagining? No, not an expansion team. This team's been around and has had Super Bowl success. This century. This century? Like in the 2000?

Wait, don't tell me the Patriots? No. They have cheerleaders. Cash money to take a number for the 9-9 in the 2000s? Did you just say Robert? I sure did. I said yes. Oh my God.

I have solved the problem between Jordan, what's her name, and Robert Kraft. Bill Belichick's girlfriend. Do you know she does the adult cheerleading thing? Oh, my goodness. Just get on the Patriots cheerleaders. Where your big boat? Problem solved. Is the team Philadelphia?

No. Oh, no. Philadelphia, they got cheerleading. I'm trying to think a teams that have won Super Bowl. I may have dated a Philadelphia Eagles show. Well, well, well. Hey, man. Good for you.

Good for you. So the team that's never had cheerleaders is the New York Giants. What? I was going to guess that, but then I was like, no, there's no way. And then the other seven teams that don't have cheerleaders. Obviously, we know the Bears. The Chargers. the Jets

in L.A. with the team that doesn't even have fans, you probably need cheerleaders. The Steelers? You also have a plethora of professional dancers in L.A. Yeah. The Bills and the Browns and the Packers. So those are all the teams that don't have cheerleaders.

There's eight of them. All right, we got bare necessities slightly inappropriate, so I'm intrigued. Oh, bear necessities is a great call. The baronets, B-E-A-R. That's it. Naked cheerleaders. soldier. No, but... The bear's...

Yeah, the drum line is great. Yeah, we love a drumline. They can play a little balloon when they come out. Oh, yeah, drumline is very... The bear necessity. How do we feel about Team Voldemort for the Packers?

Team Voldemort. You're saying, how do we feel about him calling them that? I kept thinking it was Baltimore. I was like, what? Have you never seen Harry Potter? Team Baltimore. I had to look... No, I have not seen Harry Potter.

I'm not surprised. Have you read the books? I have not. I am also not surprised about that either. Also, way to radicalize, George, use the language that the kids know, you know, like your younger players and such. I had to look it up. How do you think he knows about Voldemort?

Now that I'm thinking about this. Oh, okay. That actually, he has kids and great kids. Yeah, he's watched the movies. I do enjoy his pettiness. His and JP. JP won't say Packers either. They just can't.

It's just, you know. If the Bears really wanted to be serious about the stadium leverage thing, if they really want to get people emotionally fired up to pay. Bring back the cheerleaders? No. To pay money. to keep them in Chicago and Illinois, they threatened Kenosha.

There's plenty of land up there. But that is a bluff, right? If you really want to do this? If you really say you're going out of town? So people are like, I got a secret savings account. He's like, I can handle those taxes. Not Kenosha. Not Kenosha.

They'd have to roll out George himself for the press conference and say, I didn't really want to do this, but I'm going to have to do this. Not going to happen. Yeah, you know me. I've said, okay, if you're serious about the leverage, sell Arlington Heights. And then I'm like, if you really, if you really want to threaten, if you really want to. If you really.

Want to party with me? Is that really where you're going? Yes, I was. And I was afraid I was going to mess up the lyrics. So I let Layla take it in the middle and she took it. Thank you, Leila. Wait, let's get back to some of what George McCasky to say to Jericho on WGN Sports. I really appreciated his, first of all, one of the things he kept repeating was how much

he loved talking to fans about the Bears, how much he loved seeing all the viral videos that everybody has created, the tribute videos, and seeing how much those meant to everyone. So that is something that I want to reiterate. Because he was very, very adamant about that, and you can see that in their interview on

YouTube. He also continued to share which one of his favorites was the Caleb Williams throw that he liked the best. The two-fourth down throws in the playoffs, the pass against the Packers, the crazy one against the Rams that I don't know how that got to Co-Commet.

Which one of those made you yell the loudest? Probably the one in the playoffs to beat Team Voldemort because my first thing was, okay, no flags. And then they left too much time on the clock. So then we had to have, you know, this play at the goal line where he's got all day back there to throw. It's just a great result. And I just collapsed in my son's arms and let the celebration begin. Team Voldemort. You're just going to add Team Voldemort to everything, like Go Cats.

He just likes saying Voldemort. He really does like saying it. He said it at least four times by my count. He does feel good about it. You could tell he's like, I came up with a clever idea. Yeah. He's like, yeah. Good for you, George.

No, that's... It's cheesy, man. It's cheesy, but that's George. George is kind of cheesy. It works. like Jared talked to him about how George famously, this has become viral push day photo bomber who was

wearing a Packer's hat out of the way of the picture with the Bears fans at the tailgate. And George says he wishes he shouldn't have done it. No, George. You should have done it. You're good. You should have. I think that might be people's favorite George McCasky moment is seeing him do that.

He's not just talking to talk. He's actually walking the walk about how he feels about Team Voldemort if you will. No doubt. I'm pretty sure. the bears view me, like I view most of our listeners who text us with crazy stuff. So like, for example, the ones who are like, oh, you don't know anything, I'm like, cool, you know, I get that.

So in this case, you know, I think they probably think of me as a carnival barker. But if they hear anything, is that George McCasky, 100% should have pushed that person out of the way. They invaded your personal space first. No doubt. No doubt. Can I give you, what I listened to that whole interview, I noticed that Mr. McCaskey,

George was really he was hitting the nail on the head with the adjectives that he used for two separate answers. You don't even need the questions because if there's a word that George is about to use here in this montage that I had Tyler put together that is not befitting of the bear season,

you guys just tell me. I don't know how any objective observer can look at that. Magical, improbable, unbelievable. miraculous season and not conclude that there was some divine intervention there was more though there was also maddening exhilarating exhausting and satisfying he also cited the profession of

cardiologists yeah yes yes he cited that as well so divine intervention miraculous magical improbable unbelievable maddening exhilarating exhausting and satisfying were all you words that George used throughout that interview. He verbally ran the gambit. He did, but he's, are any of those words wrong? Which is your favorite? Yeah, which is your favorite. What is your, that's a good question. I think the exhilaration for me. That's a good word. You're right. Exilerating is good because exhilarating implies that there was effort that was spent on it with a satisfying result. I would have it's, I would hope it's not improbable because you hired a guy who was good at what he was doing. Yeah, you don't want to think that that wasn't real. I thought about that too. Exhausting is interesting

too, because there is an exhaust. There was an exhaust factor, a stress factor, if you will, watching the Bears this year. People aged watching the fourth quarter of Bears games. Yes, I did. And we all came out okay when the game was over.

Maddening is like the 10-game losing streak. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I guess maybe the maddening could qualify because they did not, because George talked about that too in the interview, that the goal is that we fell short. Our goal is to win the Super Bowl.

Super Bowl, that's maddening to George. The great thing about... The maddening. Where we are this season is we've gone from asking one question to asking another question. The question we were asking at the end of last season is, can the bears lose normal? Now we're asking, can the bears win normal? Can the bears win normal? Does it have to be a last minute drive to win the game?

They've been asking that too. In press conferences after games, they don't want to win like this either. Well, see, then that's why we know that there's the obvious areas where the bears, we know can they get better? We don't know, but we know exactly how they need to get better. Faster starts, better defense. I don't think the bears are going to name their mythical new cheerleading squad. We've created Bear Naked, 574.

I just don't, I don't think that's going to happen. It's been several years. Layla, you're supposed to fill in the lyrics. I'm sorry, one week. Thank you. Oh, it's been one week. It's been. Oh, 847 has a whole plan.

Honey Bears Field, sponsored by Haribone, Kenosha, and it will be called Blank the Packer, Staddle, and I can't say that word. Okay, you've got a pitch there. I'm interested. Coming up next here on Rahimi Harrison Grotian, 104-3, the score. We talked a lot about, and the NFL has, too,

the discourse around this Hall of Fame class, notably the lack of Bill Belichick, notably how it's only five individuals. So, to get more understanding about it, and to also reassess what happens to a lot of bears you know, who have been on some of those lists already,

Jack Silverstein is joining us to talk about all of that next. Rahimi Harrison Grody. The great Kevin Harlan. I just pulled through the Taco Bell Drive-thru, and I've got a couple of big, nasty, Supreme Burritos right here waiting to beat. You know, the first thing

they ask you now, are you using the app? The app, no, I just want my burrito. I don't want to use an app. Bring a lot of mild sauce because I'm going to escort it all over the way. Put some hot sauce on my burrito, baby. Rahimi Harrison Grody, Midday's 10 a.m. to 2 on the score.

And the Colts have had a hard time all season covering kicks. It's Hester trying to work it back to the middle. Gets past the first wave and here he goes. It's Hester. Inside the 30, Hester's going to take it over away for a touchdown. And no flag, 92 yards. Devin Hester, the call courtesy of CBS. This is Rahimi Harris and Grody on 104-3 to score. and the Pro Football Hall of Fame class was introduced, as it tends to be during the Super Bowl and the Super Bowl festivities. And for more on that, we decided to bring in our Chicago sports historian Jack Silverstein. You can check out Jack's work at readjack.com. He also is joining us via the Circa Sports Illinois hotline.

Download the Circa Sports app today. Hey, Jack, how are you? Hi, everybody. I'm doing well. How are you all? Good. I think we're still trying to figure out, you know, the process, it got front and center in the news when it came to the discussion surrounding whether or not Belichick should be in it, the process overall, which has gotten a lot of scrutiny, rightfully so. You know, how would you describe the selection process and the results we're seeing as far as these Hall of Fame classes being put together?

Well, first of all, this is a great class. the controversy about Belichick and Robert Kraft aside this is a really wonderful quintet of players I mean the whole purpose of a Hall of Fame is to honor the very best and here you've got Drew Breeze one of the greatest quarterbacks ever one of the most accurate a player who at one point you know we all look at the the 70% completion percentage is a good metric now for who's doing well Drew Breeze retired he had more than half of all of the 70% seasons in NFL history. You've got Larry Fitzgerald, who is one of the very, very greatest wide receivers ever.

I ranked him last summer with a group of historians as the second best wide receiver ever after Jerry Rice. You've got Adam Vinatari, who's probably the greatest kicker ever, has some of the greatest kicks in NFL history, arguably the greatest in the snow and two Super Bowl winning kicks, all-time leading score. you've got Luke Keekely who was dominant. And then you've got Roger Craig, who's really the purpose of having a senior committee, which is to say some players have fallen out of favor for some reason. They didn't get elected, but now with fresh eyes, let's look again.

There's something essential about someone. They stand the test of time. And that's Roger Craig, the first ever 1,000,000 season. and he had the 1988 NEA MVP award, which is the one that's voted on by players. So he didn't win what's considered the actual MVP, but he won an MVP that's voted by players. And it is a phenomenal class. I'm happy for all five of them. The controversy has overshadowed the fact that this is a great, great group.

And we look at that. And the first thing that I've been trying to kind of work through is how do they fix the process? because I think Bill Belichick's own mission is more about what voters were faced with and tasked with than it is about whether or not Bill Belichick is a deserving Hall of Fame. He is. But like you just said, so are the people who got into the Hall of Fame, Roger Craig being the one that came out of that. And we still, I don't believe we know if he even got the 40 votes because they just give it to the person with the highest number of votes if no one gets to 40 out of 50 votes.

That is correct. So we don't know. All we know is that he had the highest. and that no one else was at 40. How do you fix the process? So the first thing that they would need to do is they should go back to having five modern era candidates, basically get in.

You don't need these smaller classes. I think one thing that the Pro Football Hall of does a really good job of compared to basketball and baseball is really getting the best of the best in. You're talking about a sport with 53 players on a roster, 11 on each side, with so many different job descriptions. And you really want to be able to honor all of them

because they all factor into whether you win or lose on Sunday and whether you win or lose all the way into the playoffs into a Super Bowl. So to me, you want to be able to honor all of these different positions. And that means that you need enough slots for all of them. So that would be number one, I would say, get back to that. You definitely want to separate the seniors from the coaches and the contributors, you don't want to force voters to combine those.

Voters should definitely have a non-voting meeting annually, so a meeting where they're just discussing all the candidates, all the new candidates, and all the candidates who are in danger of slipping away. And there needs to be more communication, certainly between the hall and the voters. and I would like to see more Hall of Famers involved in the process. Man, the thing with Bill Belichick, I was shocked that Bill Belichick did not get in. I organized last year, last summer and into the fall, a group of 19 NFL historians. So some of the very, very best historians.

And we put together a recommendation list for the hall. This was when there were 34 seniors, 21 contributors, and 12 coaches. And I asked everyone to take every candidate and vote, yes, you approve, no, you don't approve, like of them getting in, or you have no preference. And of all of those candidates, the only person who had yeses across the board was Bill Belichick.

And then when they got that final group of five, I had that same group of historians vote in the exact same way that they do it. And the only person who got to 80% was Bill Belichick. So I was very surprised, even though for about a year now, we had heard whispers of these kinds of complaints from voters. SpyGate was a real one.

Pitting a coach against players was a real one. I know that fans will look at this and they'll say, how could you not vote for Belichick? I agree they should have voted for Belichick. But if you're a San Francisco fan, you're over the moon right now that Roger Craig got into the hall. And if Ken Anderson had gotten in or Elsie Greenwood, than those fans would have.

But to put it in Chicago terms, let's say Belichick was on the ballot two years ago. And voters were being asked to choose between him and Steve McMichael. Obviously, Bill Belichick has a better hall resume than Steve McMichael. There aren't five people in NFL history with a better resume than Bill Belichick. But if you'd ask Bears fans, would you be okay if Bill Belichick waited one more year to make sure that we get Steve McMichael in or Jay Higgenberg or.

or Wilbur Marshall or Joe Fortinado, whoever your bear senior is, you probably would have said yes, that's okay. And every fan base in the NFL has three or four, five seniors who they think this person has been overlooked, let's get them in before they pass away, et cetera. And in that respect, voters are doing their duty to make sure that they get people in when they're alive

and able to appreciate it and celebrate it. And I don't think that San Francisco fans are complaining that much that Bill Belichick didn't get in. And this was part of my surprise because the Hall of Fame president came out. You know, Laila, you mentioned that people are now paying attention to the bylaws in the process. The Hall of Fame president came out and really put the onus completely on the voters. And it is on them because they vote. But he came out and said, you know, you need to vote for who is most deserved. that's what the bylaws say.

I've read the bylaws. I read the new bylaws when they were issued in August 2024 with almost no voter input. And that's not what the bylaws say. I mean, they just say that you have to vote for five of seven or in the other group, three of five, and that you have to focus on what's on the field. And SpyGate is something that is on the field. So that's fair, that's fair game. I've read the bylaws.

I don't, I don't know what he's. don't I don't know what he's saying and saying that voters violated or need to be investigated. He specifically called out Bahay Gregorian, who's the Kansas City selector. And Gregorian wrote, you know, I didn't vote for Bill Belichick. And the reason was I voted for these three seniors. They might not ever get another chance. And the Hall Fame president said, like, you can't do that. But you absolutely can do that.

So there's this weird battle that's coming between the president and the voters. With other gold jackets, Hall of Famers, kind of in the mix, too. I would just go back to making sure that you're getting five moderns in, go back to evaluating seniors, see who's really missing. As of this year, there were 81 all-decade players from the 1920s to the 1990s who are not in Canton. and Sterling Sharp wasn't even all decade. McMichael wasn't all decade. Ken Riley wasn't all decade.

Chuck Howley wasn't all decade. I mean, these are all seniors who have gotten in in the past few years. So think of how many players, for a variety of reasons, have fallen through the cracks. And voters take that really seriously. And I know the Hall takes it really seriously because they want to honor the game's greats. And that's kind of the standstill that we're at right now. Well, yeah, and Mongo is Steve McMichael, one of those guys that almost did fall through the cracks, and it's great that he didn't. And now, using your phraseology, Jack, in Chicago terms, there are three bears players, retired bears players that we could all look at right now and think maybe there's a chance.

And I'm talking about Lance Briggs, Charles Tillman, and our guy here at the score, Olin Crutes. who has the easiest path to the Hall of Fame and who has the most difficult road? I think Charles has the easiest path. And his path incredibly has, his case has gotten stronger in retirement. I've never seen anything like it, but it's because people are starting to wake up to what he was doing. How many times, Bears fans, how many times from 2005 to 2010 were we saying Charles was a pro bowler this year and he got past over for a corner who had a career year in interceptions. It happened all the time. And people didn't realize what they were looking at with Charles because they didn't account for force fumbles.

He was able to, he wasn't the first person to punch the ball out, but he was the first person to make it like, you know, an operational weapon that could be used anytime he needed. And his case, You know, we talk about in the media world about Earned Media versus Paid Media. Charles Tillman is the king of Earned Media because every football game now, in the NFL and college football, every weekend, you're hearing announcers mention his name. Yeah. The peanut punch is it's coached. And the NFL a few years ago even put out a memo to teams saying, this is how you coach the peanut punch. This is how we want to avoid people just punching each other.

Like, this is how you do it correctly. It was also a memo to like officials. This is how you officiate. It was amazing. So Charles's case has gotten a lot better. Lance's case has gotten a lot harder because they've started to really look at outside linebackers based on sex. And Lance wasn't, he could rush the passer, but he was a much more of an all-around outside linebacker, like Derek Brooks. And I really hope that voters slow down.

I mean, the reason that I rail against Eli Manning or, you know, this year, Frank Gore and Jason Witten, these guys are of varying levels. But the bottom line is that they don't need to be in the finalist room so soon. And you can't elect someone without making them a finalist. And voters have shown that when they hear new cases, like in the senior pool, that they become open to those new cases. Roger Craig as a modern was only discussed once. Sterling Sharp was never discussed. McMichael, Riley, Cleco, Howley.

These guys were never discussed. Gratashar was. So when they hear new arguments, they adapt to those new arguments. That's why I think you need to really slow down with Eli Manning or Gore or Witten or next year, Rothlisberger, or whoever else. Slow it down. Make sure you're getting all these guys in the room. Lance Briggs is a big one. And that is, as Olin can tell you, you guys should ask Olin about this, I don't know why centers get overlooked.

Hildenberg, too. I didn't even mention J. Hilgimer and all that. They guys a six-time pro bowler. Absolutely. If you look at all the position groups and you go backwards and you say, all right, how far back do I need to go to see five players elected? So, for example, cornerback. You've got Eric Allen, Ronde-Barber, Revis, Charles Woodson, Champ Bailey, Thai law, all. since 2019. Wide receivers, you only have to go back to 2018, inside linebackers, 2018. The position

group that you have to go back the farthest is center to 1987. That's the last five modern era centers. And basically what the voters do is they sort of figure out, this guy's a Hall of Famer, we're going to bring him in the room, we're going to elect him within five years, and we're not going to talk about any other centers. The only centers they talk about are the ones that they elect. And they hit slam dunks. Kevin Mouye, Dermani Dawson, Bruce Matthews, he played all the positions on the line,

so that's not quite fair. But they don't have this, like, range of players, the way that they do now with wide receivers or pass rushers. And if Bears fans want to support Olin Crutes, start talking about all the centers, not just Olin, Tom Nalen, and Jeff Saturday, and Matt Burke, and just like, there are tons. and tons of centers. We're going to see Jason Kelsey get in in a few years.

Where's Nick Mangold who just tragically passed away young? Like where are the centers? The center is the only player who touches the ball on every play. And we've seen here as Bears fans what happens when you don't have that strength up the middle. We saw what a difference Drew Dalman made this year. And it's bizarre to me that voters just, they don't go for centers. Ask Olin about it. I'm, you know, I'm sure he'll have some thoughts. So that's what, it's almost like Olin would have an easier job if they valued his position. It's not even him, really. It's the position. Jack, this has been incredibly informative.

Thank you so much for joining us. If you want more of what Jack brings to the table and you do, go to readjack.com, as an R-E-A-D, readjack.com. And get the book, why we root. Yes, why we root is Jack's book, and he also has, where are you socially posting right now? Because I know your Twitter account got taken hostage. My Twitter's dead. Oh, no. I got one of those, like, I got like one of those crypto hacks.

Same. And it came, no, this is crazy. It came from Richmond Webb because we've been in touch on Hall of Fame stuff. And he tweeted me, he DM me and was like, hey, I'm in like in the running for this podcast thing. vote for me. And usually I don't do that, but it was the day after he hadn't got into the hall. And I was like, oh, man, Richmond Webb, he's such a nice guy. He should be in the hall. By the way, voters, vote for Richmond Webb. You have one more year. So I went and clicked on the link like a dofus, which I never do. Richmond Webb needed the Miami Dolphins social media

team to get him unlocked. So, hey, Bear's social media team, help your boy. Like, get me out of me but uh yeah but otherwise um my substack rejack dot substack dot com driving to my 90s bulls book is the best uh i started tic tic tic tac listen to me uh i'm on instagram at a shot on elo um you know all over the place but not on twitter these days well good to know jack and uh yeah tic talk is what you're trying are you on tic talk is that what i meant i am that is what i meant i said tic tach because are you that happens uh okay so you can check out jack's work on TikTok and also the places we just mentioned. Jack, thanks so much. Thank you, everybody. Thanks for having me.

Great to hear from you. Coming up next, it's halftime. Yeah, there's a reason people are saying John Moran should be traded to the Utah Jazz and it has everything to do with the fact that if one official has his way, you'll be able to pack. Next. What time is it? It's a halftime. That it is. We spent our first hour talking with you about. the latest on the Bears and Illinois lawmakers getting close to a stadium deal. And there's more. Cam Buckner will join the afternoon show at 4 o'clock so you won't want to miss the latest with

Spiegel and Holmes. I, for one, will be listening. So at least it's just me, if nothing else in my thoughts. Nobody wants to hear that either. We also talked about George McCasky's interview with Jared Payton. That was tremendous. And everybody came up with bear's honey bears possible names, which some of them were inappropriate, but a lot of them were funny. And George calls the Packers Team Voldemort. And then we just spoke with Jack Silverstein about the Hall of Fame voting process and where a lot of the bears are as far as their candidacy is concerned. Guys, there's something going on in Utah right now.

Just one thing? Well, there's several things going on in several places everywhere across this nation right now. But in Utah specifically, I got this one thing. that caught my eye. And I mentioned going to break that John Morant, this would make sense if you wanted to become a member of the Utah Jazz because there's legislation on the way. A bill introduced in Utah would allow holders of concealed firearms permits

to bring their weapons into publicly funded venues, including the Delta Center in Salt Lake City, home of the NBA's Utah Jazz and the NHL's Utah Mammoth. Wait a second. don't they like I can't bring my pepper spray into the United Center right this is different but in Utah they're like bring your guns bring your gun you don't need a permit just bring it what could go wrong state representative Candice Perucci sponsored the bill which quote prohibits a private entity that receives a certain amount of public funds from restricting a concealed

carry permit holder from carrying a concealed firearm on property owned, leased, or operated by the entity in certain circumstances. Basically, if you want to go to a jazz game, if this is signed into law, you can bring your gun. What's stopping, like, I can't believe I'm saying this. If they're going to go here, like, why are they stopping us from bringing anything into an arena then? Second Amendment is a strong one, apparently. But you know what I'm saying?

Oh, no pepper spray, but the gun's okay. Ah, I see. So like when you walk into the United Center, you got to plop all your stuff on the little conveyor belt. People are just dropping their Glock on the belt at the Delta Center. Is that what I'm too? If this bill becomes law, that's exactly what will happen. And now if signing the law,

the measure would directly conflict with policies currently in place by the NBA and NHL. The bill also could apply to home matches for Major League Soccer Team, Real Salt Lake and the Utah State Fair or even some private hospitals because there was public funding that went towards these things. Since Utah, excuse me, since 2021, Utah has allowed individuals to carry concealed firearms in most locations without a concealed permit. And last year, it granted permit holders the right to carry their weapons on college campuses. First thing that came to my mind, and this is probably me being a tad in the degenerate bucket, is my parley didn't hit. Yeah, this does not seem like a good idea at all. Also, like, crime, you know, like if you're, well, theoretically, if you're a concealing

carry permit holder, like, that kind of holds you accountable, but what's, what's the oversight here? Like, are you checking the license as well as everybody else bringing guns in? Like, who's stopping you from holding up somebody outside of the arena? Yeah, other locations, by the way, such as schools, churches and daycare centers have remained completely awful. And according to the Salt Lake Tribune, Olympic venues at the 2034 winter games in Salt Lake City might be exempt from the proposed change because the federal government traditionally designates the Olympics as a national security special event and they are in charge of security. Ah, it's like the FBI.

We'll take over from here. And we're not, you know what we're not allowing? Guns. Right. It's probably a good idea. Yeah, the Jabberampon is unstoppable there. like I understand the connection, but this just doesn't seem like it's going to end well.

Certainly not starting well. Yeah, no. All right, well, that's a disturbing thought I now get to sit with. In the meantime, five on it is next, and we have less disturbing questions for you. Guess what we have? A lot of baseball talk. That's right, that thing that started today in Glendale,

Arizona. You know, they're over there, the warm place. We'll do it all next. The score! It's time for five on it. Rahini Harrison Rooney. Bring you five topics on their minds today. On 104-3, the score.

Number one. Illinois lawmakers and the bears are reportedly close to a deal on public infrastructure funding and property tax legislation tied to a proposed Arlington Heights Stadium with the team pledging to cover construction costs. Governor J.B. Pritzker says talks are ongoing in any agreement must protect taxpayers,

while lawmakers continue working through details like ticket affordability and tax certainty. Indiana has advanced its own stadium proposal to lure the bears adding pressure as its legislative session nears an end through Illinois. Though Illinois leaders say they're not negotiating out of competition. Thanks to Fox 32 for all those details I'll just laid out for you there. So here's the question. On a scale of 1 to 10 on the BS meter, where do you rate the idea that Illinois law lawmakers are not all of a sudden uping their game because of Indiana. Well, that's what we need clarity on, right?

Like, so when Cam Buckner says in his story, we're not in competition with Indiana, well, the Bears made you guys somewhat in competition. So what does that mean when it comes to the discussion about the tax rate? What does that mean as far as what the Bears want? Here's the other part of this. If the Bears have to give up more than they wanted in this deal, if they're like, okay, we'll stay in Illinois, okay, we'll go to Arlington Heights, you know, to that place we got. I don't think we're going to hear that from the Bears, you know, so.

They're going to spin it differently. Correct. So I don't, I think at this point, it's really, what is the property tax discussion going to look like? What are the rates that you're trying to negotiate do? Like, what do those do? How much profits should the state get from this? And profit's not the right word. How much should the state get as far as their, their taxing entity share? and then where does that go from here? So really it's a question of, again, who pays, who loses, who benefits? Does the state of Indiana lose,

even though they decided to go full steam ahead with this? Does the state of Illinois lose the bears? Do they think they're not losing because they don't want to pay for this? So those are the questions that I think we further need answered. All of this, by the way, should have happened three years ago when they bought the property or before.

Just to reiterate. But, you know, that's not an option right now. So what's your number? The number on the meter? BS meter. Trademarked. It's very important. We need a number.

I mean. Where do you rate the idea of Illinois lawmakers are not all of a sudden up in the game because of Indiana? I don't know. Five. Okay. It's a neutral for me.

Like, either the bears could be wanting to come to the table. Them saying they're covering all of the property costs, given that at one point, the difference in that was several billion dollars. I think that that's a fair trade. on a scale of 1 to 10 on the BS meter, trademarked. I rate the idea that Illinois lawmakers are not all of a sudden upping their game because of Indiana at a 9.5

because there was no rush. There was no impetus. There was nothing moving this thing forward. There's a reason that shovels weren't in the ground in 2025, and that's because Illinois was like, yeah, you guys got to come back to the table with something better. And they did. They came to the table with an offer from Indiana.

that apparently has an expiration date end of this month. So now they're moving. So that's the BS meter is at 9.5, Grody, because you know what? You wouldn't be moving this quickly, Illinois lawmakers, if this wasn't something that was contesting what you're trying to do,

which is wait for the Bears to say they'll pay for everything except for infrastructure. It's a 10 on the BS meter. Very simply, one sentence. The Bears and the state of Illinois have been meeting regularly since December when the Bears put out the press release that they were interested in building a stadium in Hammond, Indiana.

Don't forget about the photos. The photos. Those really set it off. Roger Goodell. By the way, he visited Arlington Heights as well. But it was just the Indiana did it better in terms of publicizing where they were looking. And they put their money where their mouth was. They sure did. When you decided to create a bond issuing authority and you put the law to it, then the net shows how serious you are.

The House didn't vote on anything, but the Senate said, yeah, let's do this. because it's their bill. Illinois State rep, Cam Buckner, will join Spiegel and Holmes this afternoon at 4, so more stadium discussion to come then. Number two. Do you think this idea from Packers Pass rusher, Micah Parsons, could actually work for the NFL? This is on front office sports. I almost think we should create an international team.

I know it would be uneven in divisions, but I look at it like, make it like the Notre Dame of the NFL. I'll be the first one on board to go over. So Micah Parsons with front office sports, what do you think of this whole international team idea? Okay. I don't hate it. Is that wrong? Micah, right there in that soundbite,

said he'd be glad to be a member of that team. Yeah, I think there are actually a lot of people would probably want to play for the team. But then does the international team really just not deserve any home? Like, that's, like at some point you need some regularity with your life. You know, you have to, like, know where you're practicing each week and, like,

have some routine, some routine, right? Like, that's the whole point of football teams is to provide schedule and routine, bears. So they don't have a home base or they just come together? Well, he said it's like Notre Dame. So I guess they have a home base. I assume they'd be independent. But, like, they're always traveling to other places? Like, do they have their own home stadium?

Maybe it's every year or every three or four years you move the location. Now, I understood that Notre Dame has its own home stadium. I'm not saying that. I'm saying like the concept of them being independent. Yeah, like what's their home then? Like where do they practice? Pick a city. Pick an international city that's had longstanding ties to the NFL.

Do you have to vote on that? It'll be like the Pope. Or we don't vote on the Pope, but I'm saying like anybody in the world could be awarded the team? Yes, I think that it's more like an expansion team situation. I'm old enough to remember people saying the Jacksonville Jaguars are going to go to Europe. Yeah. Well, they're London's team.

Yes. So that's what I'm saying. Does London want the Jack? They have a good relationship. They like the owner. Yeah. Shot Khan. Yeah, they have a very good relationship.

So I think this is somewhat doable. Maybe not in the way that Michael Parsons is thinking about it, but certainly if a team decided to move. Now, expansion, you wonder how Roger Goodell looks at this. I mean, I'm old enough to remember when they came up with NFL Europe. It's kind of like this minor league system, which also was supposed to get. Europeans more excited about American football. The Ryan Fire.

RIP to the Ryan Fire. The only NFL Europe team I can remember. But understand this. This is the goal. Bad Bunny was out there, bad bunny in for a reason. They want this thing international. And it may take close to the next decade, but I expect between half decade to a decade,

there will be an international franchise somewhere. Yeah, I think that there would be a team in London proper before there would be an international team. I feel like that's a plausible direction. I don't know if it would be Jacksonville necessarily relocating. I doubt that. Maybe they would just make a whole new team there. But I could see that happening.

The international thing is definitely intriguing, but does not feel plausible. Look, we got our hands full with Bears too as well. We can't be thinking about another team to put together. Bears, too, will play anywhere the stadium is built. They are ready. Bears 2 would probably play Hammon. Bears 2 is saving all of their own money. Bears 2 doesn't care.

Bears 2 might even play in Kenosha. They've been camping out in Haman. Trying to get Bears' leftovers. We'll be there. Bears 2 will have cheerleaders. We're Bears too. And maybe some of the inappropriate names are you guys suggested. Bears 2.

Number 3. This is 5 on it on 104 3. The score with Leila Rahimi, Marshall Harris, and Mark Grody. Here's question number 3. Which Cubs player do you think has a higher likelihood of signing a contract extension this spring, second baseman Nico Horner or outfielder Pete Crow Armstrong, aka PCA. Well, if it isn't part two of the discussion that plagued our lives last year on the midday show,

I look at Marshall with a smirk and he looks back at me with a smirk. It was the extend PCA conversation. He deserves all this money and the price were way up and then the price went down. And now I don't know what the price is. It might even be taken off the board in trading, yes, sir? Let's not forget the time last season that PCA rounded the bases doing the make-it-rain symbol as he crossed the second base. That was first-half. First-half PCA was a good, a good, first-half.

First-half PCA is a good... He didn't have any spots to pull it off in the second half. But what about the totality of the season, Nico Horner, A? Especially with his name being brought up by all these other teams. These other teams want him. They told you that your guy has... value. And this is a guy the Cubs drafted and developed. So

it would make sense that Nico Horner may get the extension before PCA does. But what if first half PCA comes back in the chat? Then we have a whole other discussion. If first half PCA comes back in the chat, it's all good

because spring will be over. So I think Nico Horner is the answer here because I think the Cubs are much closer to making a decision on whether they really want keep him beyond this year. And I don't think either of these things are likely to happen during spring training, but if I had to pick one, it's got to be Nico Horner.

Mainly because I don't think Pete Crow-Arpsong has signed anything. He's like, let me run back that first half from last year and get my money back up. And then I might agree to a deal. But if it's not starting with nine figures, I don't think PCA signing. So we're doing this with the idea that they can't possibly give extensions to both of these guys. First. Because I think that they're more interested in the future of and the projection of Pete Crow Armstrong. Because Pete Crow Armstrong has superstar potential.

We saw it in the first half, right? Nico Horner does not have superstar. He has, he's a very good baseball player. And maybe that's what PCA turns into. Who knows what he is. But I would almost still say that the Cubs would invest in, give an extension to Pete CAA. Carr Armstrong before Nico Horner at this point, just on their projections. And I'm also calculating the possibility that Nico Horner gets traded eventually.

And I don't want that, but that's, you have to listen. Jed kind of backed you up on inside the clubhouse with our friends, David Hahn, Bruce Levine. Jed Hoyer did back you up on that. He's like, it's my job to listen. That's all I've said throughout this whole process. And I'm like, is it really, Jed? Is it really your job to listen? And it's hard.

A hundred percent is his job to listen. We have a relationship with Nico Harmer. So that makes it even more difficult. He has. He birthed us many good pizzas from Rinali. He has. He's a staple on the afternoon show, all of that. But let's not get silly.

You have to listen to the offers. And if they blow you away, you take them. Now we got people moving all the teams to other places. I love the concepts of A, where you want to build your stadium, B, what you're calling the new honey bears, and C, which teams are you moving where? This is very compelling to me as listener feedback. Number four. We bring you all the hot button issues on Rahimi Harrison Grotty,

including this question, former White Sox shortstop, Alexi Ramirez. Lexi! Yes! It's set to become the oldest player in world baseball classic history when he suits up for Team Cuba at the age of 44. What retired former White Sox or Cub would you most want to see come out of retirement for the WBC? So let's be real, guys. I think there's people out here with Axis to Grind

who want to remind you who they are. So the list starts for me with Frank Thomas. Frank, Frank, Frank, Frank. Frank. Frank Thomas is 57 years old. But Frank Thomas looks like he could still hit that ball a long ways. Remember, he's a contact hitter who just happens to hit line drives that go out of the park. I love the idea of seeing Frank Thomas on Team USA.

say let's go. That's a hard answer to top because also just like you, Frank, ages and reverse. Like Frank is- I'm aging at a perfectly normal rate. No, and you're all your friends joke with you about aging and reverse. You know this. And Frank, Frank also is ageless. And after his response the other day on the internets to Alec,

I have a feeling that Frank probably has a few good home runs left in the tank. If there's one thing I know about Frank, He can still put contact on a ball. There's no doubt. I just want to introduce that the best insult that I've ever seen came from Frank Thomas on Twitter last week when he said to someone, you plant! I will now be calling people plants. You plant.

Yeah, he was just like everything else he does. Frank was Hall of Fame level at his commentary online for sure. We always have time for Frank. I work with a man for many years. If you ever wants to talk to us, it's always there for him because, that's what he deserves. So Frank Thomas, I think, is like the easy number one answer. Like, just for fun, just to enjoy my life. I will go back and look at Frank Thomas's stats. And the sad part is his OPS during the strike shortened season. That's the one that's the most

tragic because of what the socks were doing that year. But in the meantime, Frank could still put a hurt on a ball. So here's where I'm intrigued and just travel with me on this path real quick. How old do we really think Ruben Sierra is? Oh, wow. He's listed at 60. He's got to be 70. Exactly. And Ruben Sierra did play for the Wise Sox in 2008. So I nominate Ruben Sierra.

If nothing else, so we can figure out how old he really is. If we're ever going to find out, I'm pretty sure Rubin is timeless. So I would be willing to, like, see how old Rubin Sierra really is. Or if he's still got anything left in the tape because I think the man is timeless and also doesn't age. So Ruben is my guy. I submit Ruben Sierra for the discussion. The four-time All-Stars, Silver Slugger, ALRBI leader. He's also in the Texas Rangers Hall of Fame for whatever that's worth,

which at the time was not much because it was like Rubin and Juan Gonzalez and some other dudes. Boba Chet's dad. Boa. You got the idea. Nolan, Ryan, obviously. That's all. I'm going to go with in that same vein in Alexia Ramirez teammate. Let's see Pauly out there.

Let's see Pauli Canerco get up and go. Let's see what he's got. An honorable mention to, this doesn't just be White Sox, right? No. It can definitely be, Kerry Wood. Oh, yeah. Carry Wood still looks like Carrie Wood. He does.

You know, like he always just looks like Carrie Wood, tall, skinny guy. And does he have the arm? It would just be, it would be very interesting. Wait, isn't he like, just for the love of the game and out at New Trier? Isn't he like an assistant coach at New Trier? Maybe. I'm not sure. Do those kids even know how good they have it? They don't.

Spoiled North Shore. What was it? Frat Boys? That was a Parkins thing. Parko. He went to Newtrier, didn't you? I know. So, yeah.

Number five. It's five out of nine, 104.3, the score. We haven't had our first spring training game officially yet, but there's already been an error in honor of the White Sox, misspelling Munataka Morikami's name at his spring training locker. What's the worst way someone may? messed up your name.

Well, having the name Leila Rahimi growing up was not the easiest, especially in suburban Dallas, Texas. So I got a lot of variations. Is it Leila was usually the most common? Substitute teacher, everybody in the class would say

it's Leila. I just stopped answering because, you know, your friends helped you out. But Beela was probably the worst. And I also say it because it's not like, it was bred by somebody who had read my name like multiple times a week in school. And I'm like, how did you call me Bayla? Bayla. Also, in the spirit of messing up names, I was thinking of Steve

Bouchel and not Dante Bichette. Sorry, the brain is reloading. Football. Football brain is reloading to baseball brain and it's a transition. But the point is, yeah, Bayla, which I still laugh at. I got the mispronunciations, but what's the way, worst way they misspelled it? Bayla with a B. like they just wrote down they heard Bayla like you said Layla and they heard Bayla Mrs. Krep

who used to read the announcements and attendists and all this other stores she was the school secretary and somehow after reading my name hundreds of times

in this point called me Bayla and that's the best like I can't top that oh even with Texas Layla being in our life

the spelling because that's but the way they messed up my name Bayla but so the spelling for me and I looked at it

I was like this is what, like, you know, you go to a coffee shop, whatever. Yeah. Sometimes they write your name on stuff. Right. And it was M. E. R.

C-H-A-L. Merchal. Merchal. Merchal. I was like, you know, I have my stuff, so I'm happy. But I was like, how did you hear Marshall and write that? Merchal Harris. Maybe that's what it was.

Is it child or shall at that point? I don't even know. I don't speak enough Spanish. Medchal? I can't do the R on the tip of my tongue. I have to do it at the back. Merchal? You know, I can't roll anything.

I mean, the only way my name gets pronounced, mispronounced, constantly growing up was grope because my name is spelled GR. Yeah, yeah. Mark Rote. A lot of people say Mark Rotei. But Chack made it famous, of course.

So, yeah, most people do not. It's G-R-O-T-E. so people are afraid to use the long E. So a lot of groat going on in my life. It went fine. I am Groot. Yes. Ryan after Sandberg.

I was called Renee. No. Oh. And another text of clarity. North Shore Winnetka frat boy. That's what it was. I think it was a caller. It was a list.

Yeah. Yeah. We got Tanny back. He can confirm. Thank you, Tanny. Oh, yeah. Sweating that one out. I forgot that everybody always used to

assume I was Leah Remini. And I know I would get a lot of social media posts. And they were like, shut up and go back to Scientology. And I was always like, still not Leia Remedy. Did you get Princess Leila? No. No, Leah, none of that. No.

No, I mean, no. There were jokes about the first syllable of my first name being Lay. But Mark wrote is my favorite. Are you with the score? Yeah. Yeah, you heard it right there. You heard an example of how exactly how my name is occasionally mispronounced. I feel so bad for him.

You're famous now. Now people know me. Give me my long E. Yo. Yeah. Well, he didn't want to do. Accent. Accent.

Excellent. Ague. Mark Grote. I think the actual German, it's a German name, is Grota. Grota is the actual way that they say it. I think it is. Yeah. That's it.

Yeah. I prefer Grote. Coming up next on Grota, Mert Chal and Bela. We are going to talk about. An addition to the Caleb Williams-Drake-May discussion we had yesterday. If Caleb Williams were Drake May for the Patriots in the Super Bowl, would he have done better? I say yes. Kurt Warner chimed in.

Okay, so a guy who's played quarterback in the Super Bowl. Okay, fine. We'll listen to him. Next. North Shore Winnetka Frat Boy. Rahimi Harris and Grody, Midday's 10 to 2 on 1043, the score. He's at his own 44. The New England quarterback, second down and three in the gun, winds up long pass down the middle.

It's intercepted at the 30-on-line coming up the middle of the 40. With the return right here now, it's Julian Love. He's out of bounds on the air sideline going into Patriot Territory, and he's knocked out of bounds about the 32. It's the second turnover by the second year. Patriot quarterback, great name. And another great start for Seattle Deek in Patriot Territory. here in Super Bowl 60.

That is our friend Kevin Harlan on Westwood One. This is Rahimi Harrison Brody on 104.3, the scorers. We like to call ourselves Bela Mercal and Grote. People get our names wrong. Whose name we don't get wrong? Caleb Williams. Drake May. Sam Darnold.

Drake May did not have a great day. Now, we know that he said that he got a shot in his shoulder. his throwing shoulder before Super Bowl 60. Seattle beat the Patriots 29 to 13. May had a rough first half to say the very least. 18 net yards passing. He was sacked three times in that first half for a loss of 30 yards in case you're wondering how that number came to be. He ended up with 295 yards passing, two touchdowns, two interceptions, sack six times, and also had a fumble. We talked about how Drake May and Caleb Williams, both in the same draft class are always going to be linked, especially when Drake May came so close to

becoming the league's MVP. That was not the performance we saw in the Super Bowl. And I tend to think that Caleb Williams would have done a better job for the Patriots under duress from that Seattle defense in the Super Bowl. Just to make sure everybody's clear, let's go around the horn and reset our opinions when it comes to that before we bring in another voice. What opinion specifically are you asking for? Because I don't want to get this wrong. do you think Caleb Williams would have fared better than Drake May did as the quarterback for the Patriots in the Super Bowl on Sunday? The answer is yes, but I don't know about how much.

I just, I think his escapability, one, and his propensity to make the big play, too, would have had him fare better. I just don't know that that meant that they would win or anything. I just think he would have looked better than Drake May. He would not have taken six sacks. The Patriots were dying for, a big play, a big throw. And I know they had the

Mac Hollins play, which was ahead of the touchdown. So you started to get it. That's the Caleb magic, though. He would just come on. He would make big throw after big throw. The answer, Lela, is yes, I think Caleb Williams could have fared better than Mr. May. This was also a question that was not just asked by us, but probably anybody who's paid attention to the draft class of 2024 conversation. And that included our afternoon show, Spiegel and Holmes. So they decided to take it up with a guy who's played quarterback in a Super Bowl and won.

That seems reasonable. Seems like a good idea. Credibility is set. Yes. Also played in Super Bowls and lost. That too. And has observed Caleb Williams and Drake May extensively. Kurt Warner.

So he was asked, could Caleb Williams, does he think, could he have done a better job in the Super Bowl on Sunday? I do believe Caleb probably would have struggled. if he had to play the same kind of game as Drake May through those the playoffs. I think the beautiful thing about Chicago was they didn't force you know Caleb to have to play that way.

They were a run-first team and allowed him to be a complimentary piece, which is huge. It's very much what Sam Darnal did most of the year. Drake May had to carry that team most of the year. They could get some home runs with their running backs at times but a lot really fell on Drake to have to carry them more in the dropback game.

And that's a tough place to play against really good teams. And that was for the majority of what they had to do yesterday was dropback. And that's tough against good defenses when you can't bring everything to the table. I think the other thing is, you know, Caleb's ad lib, although Drake is good in that area. You know, Caleb's ad lib is special, you know, the kind of throws he can make with pressure in his face. The ability to elude that pressure and create also give. him, you know, an advantage over, you know, more of a pocket passer like Drake May is. And so you should feel very good about where Caleb's at.

But again, I'm not a guy that likes to do the, oh, you know, let's compare this to this. And, you know, I hear people now saying, oh, this is why Matthew Stafford should have been the MVP because look what he did against Seattle's defense and look what Drake May did. And there's too many things that aren't apples to apples that if we're just going to say, oh, let's just throw this against this and let's, you know, show this guy against these guys. Because matchups and styles are so important when you're playing against different teams. And, you know, one quarterback may not be as good, but their style or their matchups may be better against a good defense. And now they look better against that defense.

And we want to go, oh, see, he's a better player. It doesn't always work like that. And so you have to watch snap by step, play by play of all these guys and who they are, and then make your assessments from there. But, I mean, I think New England should be, you know, over the moon with, what Drake May did this year, his growth, what Josh McDaniels did with him. They just ran into some better teams than they were offensively. And it happens.

I think Chicago should be over the moon with what you guys accomplished. And you guys are, both these teams, I think, are ahead of schedule. And their young quarterbacks made huge improvements in year two. So, you know, fan bases should be excited about both. But we always just have to be cautious because, you know, you have to know who players are. or, you know, Matthew Stafford, Fugina Cua, and Devante Adams, you know, whereas, you know, Drake May doesn't have those dudes against the dudes, you know, from Seattle. And so there's just so many things that aren't apples to apples when we try to compare things like that,

that you try to just look at situation at hand, what's going on, what this player is and has done, and make your assessments from there. You know what? I agree with Kurt Warner specifically about his apples to apples warning and the comparison. And that's why I said, I think he would have been better, but I was like, I don't know how much better he would have been, because the weapons at his disposal are not the weapons that he had at his disposal in Ben Johnson's offense.

And Ben Johnson is a different type of play caller than Josh McDaniels. And so all those things lean to, I know he is better on his feet as far as escaping. The sack numbers are ridiculous. And he takes way better care of the football than Drake May. And he makes bigger plays more often than Drake May. and fourth quarter, Caleb is a thing. But still, very different situations to be championing that not great Patriots offense and the Bears offense, which was one of the better ones in football.

Kurt didn't really want to play our sports talk radio game, did he? No. That's what I got out of that. Would you like to play a game? Shall we play a game? Shall we play a game? Thank you. Two versions of that.

Look who's getting the quote wrong now. It's me. You got one of them right, actually. One is a saw derision. Right. And one is the war games. Right. The war game's the original. Matthew Broderick, right? From the 80s? Yeah, you're not responsible for knowing that this is where they was just a little younger than us.

And I think elementary school. Okay. They're like, see kids, see what that computer and that internet does. TRS 80, man. You joke around and the next thing you know, you're starting wars with other countries. And I was like, God, I can't be around that internet. I'm going to stay on my Apple 2E and play this Oregon Trail. Shall we play?

Oregon Trail. Oh, the Oregon Trail. Don't die of dysentery on me now. Man, so good. There was a higher likelihood of me dying from dysentery than starting World War III. Yes. Fair. So other than Kurt, not really wanting to play the game, but playing the game as best as he could,

the one thing that I would say, and he mentioned the ability to run, I know you mentioned that too, Marshall. That's a huge deal in all of this, and I know Drake May could run as well, but I don't know that there's any quarterback this year who was as elusive, who was as escape artist as Houdini. as Houdini as Caleb Williams was this year. I'm not saying that Seattle doesn't get to him, but maybe three times instead of six times.

I don't know. There were some unchecked blitzes, too, that were run by the Seahawks. As we've discussed ad nauseum here, whether it be Caleb Williams, Justin Fields, Mitch Trubisky, name your pick. Whose job is it to slide protection? Whose job is it to check that blitz?

Whose job is it anyway? Can't wait to see the next episode. Good idea. True carrying numps. Wayne. Yes. But like who's job is it to make sure that that blitz is picked up? And it's hard to,

it is hard to divorce Caleb Williams from Ben Johnson in this conversation. But it is not hard to call out Josh McDaniels for me in this conversation. He is not getting enough of the. He is your pet project. Listen, she's like, I'm going to cut out a piece. She's like, I'm going to cut out a piece of this blame pie. I'm going to keep it the slice. I'm going to get the rest of the pie to Josh McDaniels.

Something tells me not only am I the only one. doing that, but some of his former players may also have been doing that a time or two. Let's remind you of his time with the Raiders. Okay, so the point being, if you're assistant of the year and you've been out this a long time, you get the benefit of the doubt, then maybe the play calling stands to be discussed as well. But do I still think Caleb Williams would have gotten out of it differently? Yes. I think he knows how to escape that kind of pass rush better.

Did it all year? The better question becomes, what does he look like against the Seattle defense? And that's what we're all trying to figure out because now it will happen next season. On opening night. Opening night Thursday night football. We don't know that. That is the wishful. That's my wishful projection of Bala, Mercal, and Grotha.

As long as we're not doing 2019 buildup all over again. Get it right this time. It's the new bears. Is it the new bears? Wait. So now the conversation, remember it was like, oh, the season feels like 2018. Yeah. I'm not doing that anymore.

I'm not doing it. So you've moved on to... Broken free from the chains of 2018. But now it's 2019. But this team, this team won a playoff game. Now all they got to do is not screw up the lid lifter to the season and I'll be happy. I will be complete. I'm going to die laughing when this game is the last game of the season.

The Seattle game. Yeah. It better not be the last game in the season. And the number one, then the first in the season opener is going to be Team Baltimore. Team Baltimore is a reference to Team Baltimore. which is what George McCasky calls the Packers in his interview with Jared Payton. You got all that? We shall not say that name.

We shall not say that name. Jared, I know you don't say that name. None of us says that name. Team Voldemort. Really sounds like you're developing a George McCaskey impression. Yeah, you're catching up with everybody else. You're workshopping it. Yeah.

Yep. Yeah, I am. I'm just throwing just little bits and pieces, just trying to get the rhythm right. Talk to us, George. We'll tell you that you should have pushed the photo. Bobber out of the way. Talk to me. Talk to me. You know that one song? Yeah, it's a good song. It's a really good song. Be the man I need or whatever. She won best new artists of the Grammys the other night.

Be the man we need. It's just a simple, beautiful song. It really is. I love that. I love that for us. Me too. You know what I don't love? I saw a report come across the way from somebody who's broken news before about Zach Allen. And if this is the case, then that's not good for the Cubs because I wanted him to get them to get him. So let's discuss that and more next. Me, Harrison Grody. Can you imagine Lovey Smith doing the whole good, better, best thing? And saying bleep the Packers.

Come on, guys, good better best. Never let it. Never let it rest. I'll see you on Tuesday. Middays 10 to 2 on 104 3, the score. There's a deep fly ball to left center field. It's got a chance. It's gone.

Matt Shaw. Cubs late 6 to nothing. That is courtesy of Pat Hughes, whose voice you will hear soon. This is Rahimi Harrison Grotie on 104-3 The Score. And a little bit more on Matt Shaw in a second, because that is also a topic that was brought up by one, Bruce Levine, but there is some development regarding, I don't know if it was a proclamation, Bruce made.

As much as it was, be on the lookout for this. Bob Nightingale. The Dark Angel of White Sox News. Talks are heating up for Zach Gallen, the best remaining free agent on the market. Team showing the most interest. San Diego Padres, Baltimore Orioles, Chicago Cubs, Arizona Diamondbacks.

A likely story. He could just go back to the Diamondbacks? Is this like when Ahoyanosu just went back to the Reds? No! So the word was that, He wanted a three to five year deal. And he got to free agency and guess what? Nobody was out here trying to give him a three to five year deal.

Got any more of those three to five year deals. They, in fact, have not had any more of those three to five years deals. And then he starts looking around. And I guess the idea is, well, if nobody's going to give me what I actually want, why not just stay in Arizona where I'm already comfortable and roll into the 2027 work stoppage season with one strong showing to get my money on the backside. if there's no salary cap, which precludes me from getting the money I think I deserve. I like it because it's swimming downstream.

Wouldn't doubt. Do nothing. Yeah. No, I'm with that. Although some people would say if you do nothing, you're already moving backwards. The way time move forward. The 30-year-old Kyle Mooney looking, Zach Allen. Look up Kyle Mooney, former SNL guy.

He does those hilarious interviews at stadiums and whatnot. Looks just like. You're so right. I know it. I didn't even look at the, I didn't even do it. need to do the side by side. Like, yes. I was looking at the picture.

I was literally on Zach Ellen's baseball reference. And I was like, who does this guy look like? And then you, Mr. Mark Grody. Kyle Mooney. Oh, yeah, I see it. Yeah, he looks like a lot. And Kyle Mooney is hilarious. He read my mind, Grody.

That's how I was like flabbery cast. I was like, what did you hear in my head? If you like sports humor, you've got it with Kyle Mooney. Is that Gallen hilarious? I don't know about that. But remember that one time we had Bruce on? Yes. I don't remember if we were all three together or not.

but we asked the question of Justin Steele. And I asked Bruce, I said, when Justin Steele comes back, who will have been the ace of the team? And he said Zach Gallen. He said Zach Gallen. And then he starts throwing around terms like six-man rotation. Yeah, he did. I enjoyed that part of the conversation because I think that's what the Cubs should do.

But there goes Bob Nightingale, just swooping in, swooping in to let you know that other teams are part of the discussion. Dang. There's one thing that Bruce Levine did report on that I think is also. So very worthy of discussion. The biggest question we've had since the Cubs signed Alex Bregman is, where's Matt Shaw going? How are they going to manage his at bats?

They want to get him regular at bats. Well, how about this from Bruce Levine this morning on Mullian Haw? Is Matt Shaw possibly a candidate to start opening day in right field? If you can tell me that they're going to face a left-handed pitcher, I can probably say yes, right? because there's going to be some platooning going on. I mean, look, Biasteros is considered an important part of this offense going into 2026. That is DH.

That is left-handed bat. But when you're facing a left-hander, that dynamic changes. I'm expecting Suzuki to go back and be the DH those days, or it can be Shaw, and then Shaw in right field. So, and, you know, again, Alcantra is being missed and dissed right now by me, but I just, you know, I don't see him as making it ahead of Shaw. The big story, as you just pointed out, David, is going to be Shaw in spring training and whether he can handle three or four different gloves. Is that Bruce's hip-hop album, missed and dissed? Is it bad that made me slightly uncomfortable when I heard him?

said like I was like not not cringe worthy but just like just a little like I had a little something in my eye at least at least he acknowledged sandy alcantara in the discussion that was his point kevin oh yeah yeah yeah he would be nice so sandy is definitely yeah let's be honest old kevin that is a 40 and slip on my part I would like to acknowledge sandy al conterra as a cub's pitcher even after they've made all the additions they've got one of they've got edward cabrera they did not get sandy no they got the actual ace of the staff so but you know I want more more so as you should Even more, the Matt Shaw thing, the Cubs believe he can play. They had him just last year as part of their lineup.

They will have him this year as part of their lineup. It's just going to be kind of a role where he plays different places, different times. And I think that because of his athleticism that's been on display, because he has a cannon and a great glove, I think it will transition well to many different places, whether that be right field, second base. I could see it. Don't you think it also comes down to whose bat needs the most regular reps? Is it going to be Sayah Suzuki? Sayah's already proven he can be a DH at times.

Michael Bush, I think, is playing at first base. That seems to be settled science. So who needs the constant play? You know, is it Sayer or is it Matt Shaw? So that may be the question that has to get answered. Yeah, what is the projection from the Cubs on Matt Shaw? Like, what did they still think that he, even though they've replaced him at their base. Did they still look at him

as an everyday ball player? Did they still look at him as a member of the core of this team? It's trending. No. And I would suggest that say Suzuki should have a lot more at bats than Matt Shaw. At least that should be the blueprint, the game plan going into next year. But how much do they want to develop Shaw as well?

Exactly. How are they projecting it? It's what I'm asking. Yeah. I don't know. He was obvious their plan B when last year they didn't get Alex Bregman. And I don't think abandoning developing as bad as a good idea either. So therein lies trying to figure out how they make this happen. Like, does it become, does it become he's going to have to develop without having regular

baths or regular time in the field? Like that, we might not necessarily know until we start seeing just a pattern develop in spring training. Can I present something to you? And this is something that we talked a little bit about last year, but I just want to reemphasize these stats for Sayas Suzuki. Yes, sir. last year, as a right fielder,

he hit 304 with a 360 on base and a 664 slug. That was in 32 games, 139 plate appearances, an OPS of 1024. That's as a right fielder. In 102 games, 444 plate appearances, as a DH, he hit 232 with a 322 on base and a 423 slug. that's a 745 OPS. That's a drop-off of nearly 300 points.

Listen, it's a smaller sample size than maybe you would like, but I think that sample size does say something. In a third of the at-bats, he hit 13 home runs compared to 16 home runs as a DH. 13 home runs in right field in 13-9 plate appearances, 16 home runs and 444 played appearances as a DH. He was a better hitter when he played in the field. And he said as much.

He talked about the benefits he got from playing in right field and also being at the plate. The bigger issue I have is his bat just fell off the second half when Kyle Tucker wasn't giving him consistent protection in the lineup anymore. Like that's what we can't see. We can't see his offensive production be married to somebody else's. Yeah, I mean, that was the theme of last year. Just extraordinary start for the offense. oh my God, they can't be stopped. Are they really going to average seven runs a game?

And then they all fell off the table. And he's certainly symbolic of it. Let the league and RBI at the All-Star break, right? What's that? Led the league in RBIs at the All-Star break, right? Sayya, that sounds right. Hit 213 after the All-Star break. 2-13.

The good news is defensively, you got two gold glovers out there in Ian Hap and PCA if you're not sold on, and I'm not sold on Seas Suzuki's defense. It's opportunity costs. I get it. I would rather have him out there. and have the hit tool. The offensive production. Because it's so good, as you just outlined very well.

But that doesn't mean his defense doesn't scare me still. See, it's a real problem. It's a problem. I have a feeling, thanks to Grotty's consternation. This is a story we will continue to track. TBC. Just a feeling. Absolutely.

Coming up next year on Rahimi Harrison Grotie, we're excited to talk to Kalin Kaler, a VSPN. She was the pool reporter for the Super Bowl and had many interesting experiences. So we'll get to all of those next. Oh, I see what you did against the sideline. It's above the ball in the NFL.

The Seahawks, Super Bowl champions for the second time. Oh, I see what you did there, Mike Tariko. That courtesy of NBC, this is Rahimi Harrison Grotie on 1043, The Score. and we go to our Circa Resort and Casino Hotline, circa Las Vegas.com. That is where we find Kailen Kaler, reporter for ESPN, the senior writer.

She was also the pool reporter for the Super Bowl. Very exciting. And she was on the bad bunny beat for a while. So Kalyn basically did it all. Kalan, how are you? I'm doing well, Lila. How are you? Good.

Out of your reporting assignments, what was the most compelling for you? Yeah. Being a pool reporter was actually really interesting. I had never done it before. So for those who don't know how it works, because I don't think a lot of us do know who are just general NFL fans, but you get to actually watch practice during Super Bowl week.

So, like, during the regular season reporters at most teams are not able to watch, like, literally any part of practice. You can watch them stretch so you can, like, take attendance and, you know, make sure nobody's injured that you don't know about, but then you're ushered out of practice, like, very quick. quickly afterwards. And so training camp is like the only time of year where you can see a full practice. I actually think Mike Tomlin with the Steelers, he would let reporters watch the whole practice, but that was like the only place in the NFL that you can do that. So during Super Bowl

week, the team's practice is open to just one reporter per team. And so the pro football writers of America, that group basically, you know, people who are members of that, you know, rotate with that assignment. So I got to do it this year, which was my first time doing it. And it's really cool. I was very stressed because obviously Sam Darnold came in with an oblique injury. And then on Wednesday, the first day of practice, rookie safety, Nick and Monroe, who's a huge part of that Seattle defense, he went down with an ankle injury during practice. So I'm like, oh my God, I'm like sweating. Like, I'm the lone representative who has to like deliver this information to everyone. And so it actually was pretty stressful, but it was a very stressful. But it was

really cool experience because you just don't get to see practice at all during the year. So I got to see how they run their practice. I got to, you know, take a bunch of notes that I'll probably never be able to use because you're really not supposed to use anything that didn't make it into the actual pool report that was sent to all the other reporters. So it's a little bit tricky, but it was really interesting to be around them. And I will say I wrote this in the, I think the Saturday report, the Seahawks were just like, so they kept saying, they kept calling themselves,

loose and focused is like their identity, which, you know, a lot of times when I, when I hear those sort of terms, I'm like, all right, I don't really mean anything. Like, you know, it's like, what does any of this culture stuff really mean? But I will say the Seahawks on Saturday, Friday and Saturday, they have this thing where they shadow box all the time. And they did it actually during one of the media availability, if you have their defensive players, like, literally we're at the podium, like shadow boxing each other. And then another one from across the room was like narrating it. And so on Saturday and Friday and Friday, day at practice, once they got into kind of the back half of the week and things were like

less serious, they were doing more walkthrough pace. They were shadow boxing like crazy on the sideline. Like the players who weren't involved in the plays that were going on on the field were just nonstop shadow boxing each other. And I was like, okay, these guys are in like a really good mood. They seemed very confident. Like there was no, I don't know, it just seemed like a very normal week for them. They were very relaxed. Kaelan, that's what I was actually going to ask you about, because I read about the shadow boxing and this whole loose and focused idea that Mike McDonald brought to the table, and I was going to ask, did you get to witness the shadow boxing? Here you are telling us about it.

Yeah, so much of it. How much did it surprise you, or did it surprise you because you had heard about this and just how they approached the biggest game for most of these guys in their lives? Yeah. I guess I wasn't surprised to see the shadow boxing because I had heard them talk about it like the morning that they started doing it because i think mike mcdonald was asked like what are you going to remember about the 2025 seahawks and he said shadow boxing and he said that like he'd asked his players that he was like what are you guys going to remember about this season and that's like what their answer was to each other so it was kind of cool to see it actually kind of organically happening in practice but it was like literally

rampant on the sideline um and even like nick yeah and like even like even like Nick M. Warrney, you know, he missed the practice after he got hurt that Thursday. He missed Thursday practice. He was not there at all. He comes back Friday. He does, he's a full participant Friday. And, you know, he's part of the walkthrough they had on Saturday as well. And like, even he in the midst of like, you know, trying to come back from this ankle injury that he himself, I talked to him Sunday night after the game. I was like, how bad was it actually? You know, like, what type of treatment were you doing? He's like, oh, my God. was doing cryo therapy.

Like I was searching up every remedy that I could. I was spending like, basically his entire day was devoted to getting his ankle ready to play on Sunday. And so, you know, it wasn't like a nothing injury. They, you know, they downplayed it publicly. But, you know, after the game, he's like, yeah, I was spending like all my time, all my free time, all my time I was spending trying to rehab this ankle. But even he, when he came back to practice was extremely loose.

He's like throwing, there was one kid who was at practice, which, I assume was someone's son. I'm not sure exactly who he was, but he's probably like eight or nine years old. And Nick was, you know, throwing the ball with him on the sideline a bunch, just like really chill. So even he was really kind of, you know, looked like he was in good spirits and really relaxed. And I will say, too, I think it's pretty normal for teams to like bring in former players or, you know, certain guests to practice. Like I think on the Patriots side, I was reading their pool report and they had Julian Edelman there one day. the Seahawks brought

Milin in. They had NBC production crew and that was it. Like there was no extra people there. There was no sort of like hoopla in terms of oh, this is Super Bowl week.

And I asked Mike McDonald if that was like intentional. I was like, yeah, did you purposely not bring any guests? And he was like, well, I don't know. I'm not aware of anything. And so, you know, because he was very,

he's a really interesting coach. Like he's very Belichican. in the sense that he does not want any information out there. You know, and even after I talked to him during the, you know, because you get to talk to the coach for a few questions after practice as part of being the pool reporter. And so, you know, I would ask him questions about injuries. He would give me absolutely no further information.

And then, you know, even when I'm trying to ask about, like, what pace the players were, you know, what I'm like, is this a walkthrough pace? Like, what percentage of work were they doing? And even that, he doesn't want to define. so he's very, very careful about what information he wants out there, and he's going to give you as little as possible. But he's also just a really funny kind of guy

because he's got a very dry sense of humor. And so I think he's kind of very similar to Bill Belichick when he was with the Patriots in that way where he's like wanting as little information to get out as possible, as little strategy to get out as possible, but it's also going to have a sense of humor about it. Yeah, yeah, that is, that's really good stuff, Kailen, a nice job with the, like I could, like, you see,

said the word stressful. That's what I would think. That's a huge responsibility, especially at that level. We're not just talking about just a rank and file game in week seven or whatever. Right, where a pool reporter is you. So, man, I was feeling the stress so good on you to get it right. And then as you're there and you're watching the Seattle practice, was it also obvious to you that Kenneth Walker would be the MVP and the defense would dominate. What did you think of the Super Bowl? So I actually had an MVP vote. So I did not, I tweeted this yesterday.

I did not vote for Kenneth Walker. I thought he had a good game. Absolutely. He was clearly the best player on offense. There's no argument about that. However, he didn't score a touchdown. He did not score a touchdown. I think if Kenneth Walker had scored a touchdown,

I would have been sold on him as the MVP. but to me this was, I mean, to everyone who watched this game, this was a defensive game. So I was like, I think a defensive player deserves to be the MVP in this game. And I think the reason it was Kenneth Walker and not a defensive player is because there were too many defensive players on Seattle's side that were having amazing performances. So because I know for fast, so I voted for Derek Hall, the linebacker who at the end of the third quarter had what I thought was the most important play of the game. where he strip-stacked Drake May and Byron Murphy recovers it and gives the offense incredible field position for their only touchdown of the game. So, and at that point, they had a 12-point lead, I believe it was 12-nothing when that happened.

So it was like, this game is certainly not put away. Like a 12-point lead is, you know, I mean, with the state of the New England offense, it did feel like a comfortable lead probably, but it wasn't, you know? So, like, I felt like Derek Harrow. Hall's strip sacks turnover was the most important play of the game, the most pivotal play of the game. So I voted for him for that reason, and he had two sacks. He had two of Seattle's six sacks for 17-yard losses and a combined 17-yard loss. And then, you know, he was just a force during the first half, too, really disrupting May. But I know Chad Graff,

who covers the Patriots, he tweeted that he had voted for Derek, or not Derek, sorry, Devin Witherspoon. And Witherspoon also had a great day. It was hard. It was hard to choose between Derek Hall and Devin Witherspoon, I thought. And I went with Hawks, I thought his play was the most important. So I think the voters, I only know of Chad, who also voted for defense. I'm sure there were more because they don't release how many players got votes.

Like, you can ask the NFL for who the panel was, and they'll tell you who the panel was, but they won't tell you who voted for what player. So I'm sure that the defensive players can't let each other out because there was too many to choose them and I think me and Chad voting for two different ones obviously didn't help one win. So I think that's probably what happened there is there was no clear consensus

on who the best defensive player of the game was, whereas there was on offense. No kicker talk, no chat amongst you guys. I would have loved to vote for. I literally was chatting with the people next to me. A couple of YSFM people, I was like, God, because I would love to vote for a kicker for MVP. Like, that's so mean.

I would love to do that. However, Jason Myers, like, I mean, his longest field goal was 41 yards. Yeah, I didn't even have a 50-yarder. You're right. You're right. He made them all. Yeah, he made them all, and he set a record. That's amazing.

But he didn't even have a pressure kick. Like, there was nothing. There was no high pressure that. he faced no long distance. So I was like he really did nothing to deserve this. Sorry to Jason Myers. You know, and the punter had an argument too, which is crazy. Because he had a great day.

He had some incredible punts. So you had a punter that had an argument. You had a kicker that had an argument. You had the running back who ended up winning. You had two defensive players. Like, it was really, when you thought about the game from who should be the MVP perspective, you kind of realized like why Seattle won because so many different elements of the game.

we're playing well. And, you know, I don't think Sam Darnold deserved MVP, but if you wanted to, you could argue that Sam Darnold, by not turning the ball over and just getting them through that, you know what I mean? Like, and I mean, his escapeability on offense, honestly, was like the X factor for them on offense. Obviously, Kenneth Walker is the reason they got down the field

and extended drives. But, like, Sam Darnold escape pressure so many times where Drake May just crumbled. and got fat. So I thought Donald actually had kind of an impressive performance despite missing a couple throws. We're talking to Kayling Kaler. She is the senior NFL writer for ESPN. You can catch her content on TikTok.

K-Dog Reports is her TikTok name, which I believe it was her dad who tweeted at us and said that Peter King is the one who gave you that nickname. So we love that. Yeah, he did. Additionally, so I'm just minding my own business on Instagram yesterday and I'm like scrolling through stuff. And then what do I see?

Well, if it isn't our plucky friend, Kaylin Kaler, falling down. Okay, so there's a Yahoo Sports headline that she reposts that says Sam Darnold checks on reporter who fell at his locker. And at first I'm thinking, oh, this is just Kalin posting this funny story from the Super Bowl until I realized the person falling down is you. What happened? Yes.

Okay, so you guys know how, like, crazy it is in a locker. room post game where you're like just trying to get into a scrum and you can't hear anything. So Sam was the last player to come into the locker room and I was writing about Sam. I had pretty much finished my story, but I just wanted to add in some scene from postgame. So I'm like, oh, I really need to hear what he says because I didn't go to his podium because the podiums were kind of far from the locker room and I was like, I'm just going to go into the locker room. Anyway, so I start approaching the scrum.

I can't hear anything. So I'd go around to one side of him where it's like closest to his locker and there was a folding chair in front of the locker. And I was like, great. If I kneel on this folding chair, I'll be able to get my phone in there and get some good video. And I also wanted to get a couple questions. And so I needed to be heard.

I needed to be close. So I kneel on the folding chair and the folding chair collapsed underneath me. Oh, man. Yeah, because you could never, you should never trust a folding chair, honestly. But it collapsed right away. And I went like hands first into his locker. because it's like a cubby. It's like a stall.

Oh, yeah. Right? So, like, I went, I went straight into his locker, and he had a beer sitting there, and I knocked his little beer. Oh, no. Oh, you spilled the beer. It gets worse. Yeah. Yeah.

And so then he had to kind of stop what he was doing because, like, I think his clothes were sitting there. And they were going to give me. Yeah, so then he mopped up the beer. He was actually really nice about it. He was like, are you okay? And I was like, yeah, I'm fine. And I was like, sorry, I knocked your beer over.

And he was like, don't worry about it. What's important is that you're okay. So he was actually really nice about it. And that's why Yahoo had posted it being like, it's the little things that matter. Because, like, Donald really is like a really, like just from, you know, reporting teammates, talking to teammates, talking to former coaches. Like, he really is a nice, genuinely nice guy who cares about others.

So his reaction to me falling into his locker was really in line with what I've already heard about him. Good. It's important that you had the right human there at that moment, I think. There's so many things. Oh, we call that cascading effects, Kaelin. You know, you're in the chair, and then the chair buses up, and then you're falling, and then you're falling into the beer. It's tough in those locker rooms, you know? It's like, there's a lot of hazards. There's a lot of hazards post-game in the NFL locker room. There really are. You have to really watch yourself, because if it's not falling into a locker, it's tripping over shoulder pads. No doubt.

You know, getting hit with a towel that someone threw. It's all very real. It's all very real. It's the part people don't want to know, but it's very real and it's very true. Definitely don't want to experience. Yeah, no, you don't. Right. No. The amount of times I've been in the path of somebody throwing dirty laundry into the hamper is like every time.

You said the amount of times is every time. Between Bad Bunny, pool reporting and then finishing with spilling Sam Darnold's beer, you had quite an experience. Yeah. I needed a beer. I was like, I was like, I need a beer now leaving this locker room. They have a whole cooler of drinks in there when the team wins. But, you know, I didn't take one because that wouldn't be professional.

Right, right. I certainly earned one, I think. Yeah, you did. I'm just picturing you, like, just finishing the job, like taking the beer out of the cooler and then leaving. Savage. I'm over it. Yeah. Wow.

Kaelin, thank you for sharing this experience with us and the info about the shadow boxing running rampant on the sideline. That's incredible. Thanks, Kaelan. Keeping them loose. Yeah. Thanks, guys. Thank you. If you want more of what Kaelin-K-K-L-L-L-E-D-R, and yes, on T-L-N-K-A-H-L-E-R, and yes, on TikTok at K-Dog reports. K-D-D-D-O-K-D-D-S. That was K-D-D-D-O-K-D-R-K-D-R-K-D. That was K-D-D-R-K-D-R. That's, that was K-D-R-R. Man, that was K-E-L-L-R-E-L-R-R. That's, man. It's true, though. You got to be careful. You got to be delicate walking in those locker rooms. Not down, but you get up again.

Oh, yeah, sing it. I get knocked down. Nobody knows the words after that. None of us. Because you're never going to keep me down. Isn't it? Because you're never going to keep me down? I get knocked down.

And I get up again. Because you're never going to keep me down. Isn't it? I just know who drinks a whiskey drink. He drinks a vodka drink. He drinks a logger drink. He drinks a cider drink. So you weren't listening.

Oh, man. You are listening. I hate my brain. I'm hearing show karaoke night, anybody? Come on. Yeah, it is. You're never going to keep me down. I just looked up the lyrics.

It's a shame about race. That's what I was working at earlier, Lemonheads. No, the one we were just singing. Which song was that? I get knocked down. Oh, yeah, Rumba Tumba or something like that. Tumbo Womba. I did it for the plot.

That's he? Sometimes you got to do it for the plot. Wait, what is it? Chumba Wamba. Because I wasn't too far off. But I knew you were not going to say that. It was exactly wrong, but I... Leila, I knew he wasn't going to say that.

That's why I asked the question. Aren't you glad I asked the question? What did I even tumba? What did I say? You know, I feel like I was in the ballpark. Yes, there was an um in there. I feel like sometimes I'm so out of the area code with some of the things that I think that in this case, I should get credit for being close.

You stay out. I want to. Stay out. Put on it up again. And? It's the next one. You're never going to keep me again. That's what I said.

I was right. I was not affected by your illness. Okay. Oh, my God. There's Dalentary news. My illness. Oh, there's Dalentary News? He got a job?

Now what happened to Dalai Terry. Ray has written this question, and it's the best question the way you wrote it. So I'm going to ask it. Are the bears? Wait, it shouldn't say bears, though. Should I? Must be the Bulls. Are the Bulls willing to tank like the NBA's tankiest teams?

I love it. Bulls. Put some Rumba Tumba. Put some tank eye on it. Next. Rahimi Harrison Grody. Midday's Tyndall 2.

On Chicago Sports Radio 104 3, the score. Eight seconds left. 123, 115 Nets. And this is going to be the ballgame here as the Chicago Bullsville have now lost five in a row and the Brooklyn Nets

win the season series. Three games to one. as the Nets came in, Bill, with only 14 wins now 15 wins, three against the Chicago Bulls. Okay. I see what's going on here. You two troublemakers. Na, nah, na, na, nah.

So, this is Rahimi Harrison Grotie on 1043, the score. That was Checks Swirsky and Bill Littington on our Bulls Radio Network. And what's the symbol of the no-limits? soldiers. Oh, that's right. It's a tank. I see what you did. You two. You too. Sneaky sneaks. The opening line of the song from Master P is he's the colonel of the bleep tank. Campaign was the original tank commander. And we salute him. Let me explain something to y'all. Back in the day, the campaign, Joffrey LaVern, Togh Gibson, and Doug McDermott trade. You know, of course. Of course that was the balance. Campaign. What y'all know is that if you have a tank,

You therefore need a tank commander to operate said tank. Campaign. So we have a Bulls team now that has designated themselves as tankers by decree of the vice president of basketball operations. Our church, Connor Chavez, who said we no longer want to be where? In the middle. In the middle. But what he said was, I don't want to call it a rebuild. And then we're like, oh, okay, what about the word tank?

We're driving the tank. Are we driving the tank? No, we are not, but you know what? The Brooklyn Nets helped them do that because the Nets only got their 15th win of the season last night, and three of those 15 are against the Bulls. The Bulls have lost three of four games. That season series is over.

So you have successfully... Mercifully. You have successfully tanked that portion of your schedule. You really did. You really showed out with the tank. And so you're thinking to yourselves, okay, the Bulls are going to take the required, nose dive in the standings to catch up with some of these other tanking teams that have been

in tank mode long before you thought to even explore that avenue. Like the Nets, for example, who are way ahead of the tank, the nine games ahead of the tank. The Nets have the fifth worst record in the NBA. And what that does, just to give you guys a sense of what that means, if the Nets finish in their current standing fifth worst record in the NBA, they will have a 10.5% chance at getting the number one overall pick. one in ten, better than one in ten, and they will have a 42.1% chance of getting a top four pick. Now here's the issue for the Bulls.

They are 24 and 30, and despite having lost five straight and eight of their last nine games, 24 and 30 only puts them at the 10th worst record in the NBA. If the season ended today, they would have a 13.9% chance at a top four pick and a 3% chance of the number one overall pick. That's just not bad enough. It's not bad enough. And the issue is they already have 24 wins. The teams directly behind them in tanking efforts, and they're not even necessarily tanking,

are the Hornets with 25 wins, only one more than the Bulls. The Clippers also have 25 wins. The Trailblazers and the Hawks each with 26 wins. So if you win a little too much more, you won't even have the 10th worst record in the NBA. And you're thinking, well, why does this matter? Bulls traded all their players. They've got seven new players on the roster. This isn't a Bulls team that looks like it's tanking,

even though they've lost five in a row. They are 0 and 3 since the deadline. I want to remind you, they're playing severely undersized because Jalen Smith is dealing with a hamstring injury. At the end of the third quarter of that game against the Nets last night, they were tied. At the end of the third quarter of Saturday Night's game against the Nuggets, they had a lead.

They just ran out of gas because the new players on the team are not quite there yet in terms of style of football. play. I still think they would have lost to the nuggett. Okay. Josh Giddy is not back yet. Trey Jones is also sideline. When those two guys come back, they're going to be a better team. Marshall, I love you, but you're dangerously close to.

Just wait until we get Lanzo back territory. No. What? So, no. The reason I'm bringing this up is because they have to make a conscious effort now in the way that the Utah Jazz have made a conference. concerted effort to commit to the tank. Here's what I mean by that. The Utah Jazz in their last two games,

I know you heard they traded for Jared Jackson Jr. from the Memphis Grizzlies. He hasn't played the fourth quarter of either of those games. And Lowry Markinen has also not played the fourth quarter at either those games. They're like, if the game is close, our stars all sit in the fourth quarter. And if that means the Bulls need to adopt a similar philosophy, I am all for it. if your desired goal is to tank. Understand this.

Last night, Billy Donovan played nine players. Six of those nine players weren't even here last week. They're going to get better because they've got the All-Star break and they're actually going to get time together on the practice floor. Billy Donovan is not going to tank. Those players are not going to tank. Front offices tank. Coaches and players do not.

Archerich Karas Chavez has to make the tough decision to tell Billy, guys are not allowed to play their full allotment of minutes, except maybe modest. Well, Patrick Williams didn't even start last night. That's how you tank. You put Patrick Williams in the starting lineup. But even for everything we just talked about,

losing to the Nets, giving them their 15th win of the season. They didn't even start Patrick Williams. If you want the TEN, just looking at, they've lost five in a row. There's a real scenario here where this losing streak gets to nine.

At least, at least, like I'm just like at Boston, like the next game. Then after the All-Star break, Home against Toronto. Toronto, Toronto, very good. Home against Detroit.

Home against the Knicks. I guess Charlotte is the next one where I would say, eh, Bulls could probably beat Charlotte, but I don't see them beating Boston, Toronto, Detroit, or New York right now. No, I don't either. Right?

So you might have nine-game losing streak on your hands, whether they're trying to tank or not. And that's still not enough. And I'm telling you, when Josh Gideon and Trey Jones come back, and just when these guys they have come together, because they have not, this is like pick up basketball

what you've seen the last three times out of the Bulls, basically. I think you have to make a more concerted effort. And what I mean by that is they have to make the decision and Billy Donovan probably is not going to like it, but they've got to sit guys who can actually help them win. I don't know that that, I don't know that Billy Donovan from a basketball sensibility standpoint

is going to allow that to happen. That's the other part of this. I agree with that. As much as players are not wired to take, Neither has Billy been. Yeah, I watched his entire post game yesterday, and if I had to, well, we'll play a little bit of it here, but if I had to just personally consolidate

what he was trying to convey to the assembled reporters and to all of us, he would say, do you know how hard this is? What we're trying to do right now? Get off my back. Just listen to here. Here it is in Billy Donovan language, though. Billy, another fourth quarter where the other team, you know, ran away from you guys a little bit.

Are you seen any kind of consistent theme in these fourth quarter stretches? Yeah, I don't know if it's necessarily the fourth quarter. You know, we got back in the game. I even thought the third quarter they got up by maybe, I think, 12 or 14 in that third. And then I thought when Nick was out there with that group, I thought his rim protection really helped us get out and transition and kind of climb back into the game. You know, again, I think we had some turnovers. That's just going to be something we're going to have to work through

is these guys get familiar with one another. You know, defensively, we've got to be better. Listen, it's an unprecedented situation. We're in right now, and I, like, just told those guys in there, you know, we'll have choices to make, you know, because if we just think we're going to have a bunch of guys come together with no training camp and we're just going to go out there and win basketball games, it doesn't work that way. We're going to have to show a level of resiliency and toughness to, you know, expedite

some of this stuff, you know, through film and through some of these walkthroughs. But just kind of the way it is. So I do think there's, like, a lot of things. it was probably some defensive coverage breakdowns. It was some turnover's on offense. To me, the thing that we've got to do a better job of that I'm, I don't want to say concerned about, but just stands out to me a lot more is I think when we're getting into the teeth of the defense and the paint,

one of the things we're doing a really good job of was spraying the ball back out. You know, we're not taking enough threes, not enough assists. Now, we didn't shoot a great percentage. The assist numbers are not going to be great. But I'm anxious to see what the potential assists were. Like, how many shots did we actually generate for each other? But those are just areas. we're going to have to work through the stuff, and it's not going to be smooth sailing.

I mean, it's just not. It's going to be a real challenge, and we all got to lean into it, the coaches, the players, and we can't just expect it to happen. We're going to have to make things happen a lot quicker than probably is fair to them, but that's just the reality of the situation. Does that sound like a coach trying to tank, or does that sound like a coach trying to get his guys better and better and better until they start winning some games? The Bulls had 20 assists to 18 turtovers.

22 Brooklyn points. That is not acceptable. They assist a turnover ratio. Like, that's how you, but you're right. Like, the question becomes, how bad do you really want to take? And that's why it's got to come from upstairs. It can't come from Billy, because it's not going to come from Billy. And it's definitely not coming from players a whole bunch of them who will be free agents at the end of this season.

Right. And that's the other issues. You traded away a lot of value for expiring deals, even though that value also was expiring. So that makes this even more difficult because they do genuinely want to, try to figure out who is a real long-term solution for this team. And they don't have a lot of time to do it. And I don't know how you do it accurately with this collection on the floor. Here's some news that we want to pass along.

Adam Aronson is reporting that he's of the Philly Voice. The Sixers are signing Dalyan Terry to a two-way contract. All right, Dalyan. He's back in the game. Yeah. I need a slower clapping that, Lela. What a wild ride. And then the reply from Dunkadelphia was, interesting.

This means no Lonzo, and it all comes back to the Bulls. It's not going to be smooth sailing. Yeah, you write that one down. That's going to get a lot of play over the next 28 games. Yeah, understand. I'll answer your questions. I got you. But at the end of every answer was, if you think that we could just put this together

without one practice, you're crazy. Listen, it's an unprecedented situation. It is. I like Billy's answer. and then I like Grody's dramatic interpretation. Yes, because that's what I was feeling as I was watching it. I'm like, Billy, Billy wants to order the code red. He wants to let you know what's really going on

and how difficult it is to do what they're attempting to do, and that's why they've lost five. Billy is the dogged doctor from Gray's Anatomy, who spent a long time doing triage before he got to a fancy hospital, and he is going to save the body no matter what. They have the 21st worst record in the NBA right now, which would get them the 10th best odds at the number one pick

and top four pick and all that. But I want to tell you all something. They're only a game up. And when I say game up, they're only a game behind the Charlotte Hornets. They're an 11th place in the East. And if they were to win some games, they could end up in the very place

that AK says they don't want to be, which is the play in. Do we just need you to like have 20 minutes uninterrupted on the mic to just air it all out and then figure out how you want to feel about it? Because I'm okay with that. But the thing is, I just don't know if I'm okay. with understanding they want to change directions now with who they have in charge

because there's no guarantee if you do end up with, say, the number six or seven pick in the draft that you're going to know what to do with it. Yeah, I think you need 20 more minutes open mic where you just talk this out amongst yourself. And I'll be angry Billy. No, we don't. No, we just let them think it through. Yeah. Do you know how hard this is?

The city deserves better. The city deserves better. Billy Donovan is now playing a basketball coach with a taking team in the future. And I don't know how that happens. You think this is easy, Casey Johnson. They switched my players. I'm like going back with Colonel Jessen. We live in a world with rules.

We didn't have any of that practice yet. You can't handle the turn. Get off our backs. You need me on that wall. Why don't want to know about the fourth quarter? Turnovers. We haven't had a practice yet. Why are you asking about that?

Assists ratio. Get out of here. He couldn't have been more polite. I don't even met some of these. guys. He couldn't have even been more polite. Now here's Mark Grody, who is, who is answering and politely for Billy Dodovin, consummate professional. Inner Billy was crying. The anger translated, the Billy Donovan anger translator. The inner Billy is like, I am a, I'm a Hall of Famer. Do you folks understand what they've done? Seven new players I got to deal with. I got to answer about second

round picks. Oh, we've got to have more of this. This is difficult. I got a guy flipping off the rim, shooting free throws. I don't even know what the hell is happening. This ain't reality. All I learned is y'all going to be real mad if they mess around and beat the Boston Celtics. Real mad. You're going to be real mad. That's when you're going to need your time. Okay, that's fair. That's fair.

So Marshall's got to figure this out for himself. Mark is now taken on speaking for Billy because Billy's too professional to do it for himself. I just get to sit here and listen and try to suss it all out, knowing that I don't know what the result is going to be, but they're not going to lose enough. So that's really the bottom line here. Oh, you want to know why Billy by Josh Giddy is still sitting out? You know, this is very difficult. There was something else I wanted to say. 7.08 has now called you Billy Larravee.

More arrogance from the reporters. You try this. You try to... What's the line from airplane? I don't even know right now. You try to run with Lanier and somebody else. Good luck. We're all counting on you.

I just want to make sure people understand. because one of the texts are said that the jazz is a stupid example. Their top eight, their pick is protected. It's top eight. They've got to end up in the top eight. That's why they are tanking. That's why they're not playing their stars in the fourth quarter. They need to have a bad record to get their pick this year in a loaded draft.

And to answer the Dunkin Delphia tweet, 630 says the jazz added Lanzo ball, too. They're probably a top 16 in the West next year. Go on, Daly and Terry. Go enjoy the cheese state. and the life in Philly. We're out here trying to figure it out amongst ourselves. Coming up next on Rahimi Harrison Grody.

This is a story, a tale. We have to tell you next. Rahimi Harris and Grody. Middays 10 to 2 on 1043, The Score. This is Rahimi Harrison Grody on 1043, The Score. And I'm not going to lie, we just keep laughing at Grody, doing an impression of whatever

this character is supposed to be. as inspired by Billy Donovan. This inner Billy, what he's really trying to tell reporters and everybody is, you think this is easy? I got seven new players. It's unprecedented. He used the word, unprecedented. Billy Donovan, anger translator, Mark Greene.

I am, like, honesty translator. Like, he's trying to be really nice about it and answer everybody's questions, but it's more, do you know how difficult this is? He is the consummate Pro and teacher, Billy. Like, it is hard to figure out when he's incredibly frustrated when he's just explaining the scenario.

He seems like he's... Who knows, like, in all seriousness, like, what Billy Donovan thinks about all of this? Like, does he want to be part of this into the future? I think he understands it, but he still it's a lot to stomach. It is, but he does seem capable. Like, his

versatility as a coach, say what you want about him as a coach. He can take on any type it feels like he's a teacher so he obviously having come from the college ranks he knows how to teach fundamental basketball but he also knows how to hang with with veterans and be a coach of a team that is winning so he is he does have quite the the skill set as a coach it's a matter of whether he wants to put up with all this well you say put up with all this the bottom line here it's a matter if grody wants to put up with well no because listen i got his back you know i mean i'm saying for him what he wants to say. But everything

that Grotty has translated and everything quite frankly that Billy Donovan said after that loss to the Nets made sense. It was logical. It was practical. And the only thing that's going to be impractical is that the Bulls start bringing players along who can help them win games at this point.

Don't do that. You mean, Amphrey Simon's getting 11 threes and three games? A Bull's record, by the way, is nonsense isn't it? But come on, man. Sign, but also, and I'm not arguing for this. But I'm just going to point out that to sign Josh Giddy to a long-term deal where they gave

him more money than his arguable market value, if they sit him for the rest of the year? I'm not saying that's even counterbalancing their intent on signing him to begin with. I'm not saying that he needs to sit for the rest of the year. I'm just saying it would be very convenient a la Utah Jazz if he didn't play as much as he has been playing and maybe not in key sequences as he has been playing. I know. It's just crazy because they theoretically could have just signed him before they really wanted to do this and now they're in the midst of it. That's another question I would have. From the Department of What Year is it that I would like to discuss with Matt Spiegel next.

If you told me that Justin Verlander would get paid to play baseball in 2030, I would have said what the hell is going on? Reportedly, according to John Hayman, signing a deal with $13 and $11 million deferred with the Tigers and the payments start in 2030. How old is he going to be then? 90? I don't think I'll be 90. Yeah, I got you. Yep, yep, 90. 94 and a half.

Just put it right in there. Let's discuss it with Matt and Lawrence next.