Rahimi, Harris & Grote Show - Full Show — January 29, 2026

Episode Date: January 29, 2026

Marshall Harris and Mark Grote discussed the Bears' expectations for the 2026 season and what roster moves the organization might make this offseason.

This hour is sponsored by almost free teeth.com affordable implants, life-changing smiles. The views and opinions of Lela Rahimi, Marshall Harris, and Mark Grody 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 Grody may change at any time. It's just sports. Okay, thanks.

Bye. Rahimi Harrison Grody. 10 to 2 on 670. Caleb Williams is the best quarterback. this franchise has ever had. And it says two things. One, it says that Caleb Williams is starting to live up to his draft position. The other thing it says is the bar is kind of low when you look at the history of quarterbacks for the bears.

That is, talk about setting the bar low. It's all happening really fast. You're putting that ring on very quickly. So I am just expressing a little bit of angst, a little bit of discomfort with your decision to cohabitate already. Like, it's just you're two weeks into the relationship. And you're already moving in. Now you're on one knee at the Bulls game. I mean, think about it.

You move in, you start fighting over stupid game rooms. Next thing you know, you break up. Ross, you were right before. It was just a stupid fight about a room. There are no stupid fights. Bob's been waiting. Can we stop with the boomer and unc takes of the 85 bears? You're such a boomer.

You obviously didn't watch Jim McMahon. you're assuming Jim McMahon couldn't keep up with the speed of players today. I guess that's what you're doing, although even though you haven't ever seen the guy play, and I'm guessing you probably haven't even watched highlights. Is it wrong? Okay. Danny P.

Joining us right now. The statement's very simple. Danny. Caleb Williams is the best quarterback the Bears have ever had. I'm not necessarily saying Marshall is wrong, but where do you stand on Marshall's definitive statement? He's obviously objectively correct. Well, I am.

always right, but I forgive you. Jim McMahon, he has a Super Bowl, and Caleb Williams does it. But is that the only art? Because he obviously is not more talented than Caleb Williams. Modern era football as we understand it, Caleb Williams is clearly the most talented player the Bears have ever had to play the position. I mean, I don't even know how I'm supposed to respond to that. Like, that's a false equivalency. Just answer the question, Mr. Reynolds?

Sure. I rest my case. Laila Rahimi, Marshall Harris, Mark Grody, midday's 10 a and 2 on Chicago Sports Radio 670, The Score. Rahimi, Harris, and Grody on the score. It is for today, though, and tomorrow, I suppose, and Monday. Boomer and Unk, it is. Boomer and Unk on the score. Does this country have? I would almost predict it does, that there is something somewhere in this country

called Boomer and Unk. Listen, I think you just made up a new tag with the Boomer and Unk turning Boomer into an adjective. I don't think I've ever heard that before. And to put the boomer in front of Unk? I feel like the caller, by the way, yesterday, he learned the word unc like the day before. And he's like, I'm going to put it right to use.

I'm doing it. And that's all good. Like, I am not. I did not walk out of your angry at Bob. You're a little uncle. So, no. We had it out. on the air, but it's all good, man. I invite him to call back again. Obviously, I didn't appreciate

the way the call was started. When you come out on the attack, let me just get off a quick little insult. Let me go, let me boomer this guy, which using it as... What's wrong with being a boomer? Well, it's insulting to the folks that are, there's nothing wrong with being a boomer. By the numbers, if you're a boomer, you have more money than the rest of us. That's true, and the world still kind of plays to you. You know what I mean? Yeah, absolutely. It's also, they've got the numbers. You vote. That's what I'm saying is like the folks that are actually boomers. It's an insult to the actual boomers to hear other generations like our generation, I assume your generation X as well. I'm an exenial. We've been over this one. I'm younger than you. Don't try

to put me in your boomer category. No one's ever called me a boomer and lived to tell to tell as an honest person. Well, right. That's why I had to give the pushback. Like, don't just generalize me. Don't insult the boomers. Don't try to insult Jen. X, we exist, man. And you're, you're, what are you? What is, what is your generation? I am an exenial. I'm a cross between the, the, the, the, generation X and the millennials.

Exenial. Here's why. Here's why. I'm the oldest of three, my younger brother, my younger sister. They are clearer millennials. And so I have a lot of millennial tendencies. Okay. Okay.

All right. Fair enough. That is. You, meanwhile, are just X marks the spot. That's right. That's right. That's right. I own every single bit of that as I did our Bears talk yesterday, which was fun.

It really was. I had a blast in that hour and just listening back to the Butte right there, Tyler Bueberbaugh, with a really good open. Ray Diaz is in the house as well, but that was fun. Mark, here's what I'll say. The reason why I had to do it yesterday, the reason why I wanted to do it yesterday, because I felt like it was a degree of therapy involved, because here's the bottom line. what I said is absolutely true.

I just want everyone to be at ease with it, comfortable saying it out loud. And I feel like after yesterday's show, people are at ease with it, and they're comfortable saying that Caleb Williams is the best quarterback of all time. As far as the Chicago Bears go. And this is, we're not going to do the whole thing again. I think most people, if pressed, if they had to do the yes or no, then gun to the head. That's the point. Okay, but I think there's still a lot of people, including myself.

And obviously, Dan Weiderer, as he made his opinion known, that are just not comfortable two years into a tenure doing a question or a topic like that. And I stamped the topic. We talked about the night before this wasn't like. I was the one who said, yeah, Marshall, I like it. And as a matter of fact, let's lead with it. And as a matter of fact, let's talk about it for an hour. That didn't mean that my sensibilities weren't a little bit off or insulted.

Not offended. Not offended. But like, are we really doing a topic? about this quarter, after all that we've seen and all that we know and all that we know happens to quarterbacks, are we really doing the topic on is Caleb Williams the greatest bear's quarterback ever? The answer is probably yes, but the other answer is it's too soon to be talking about this. Yeah, no, the answer wasn't no, it's just, it's too soon to be talking about this. You are correct. But I like that today may be a little more in your comfort zone.

So I'm one and more in my comfort zone, and that is, you know, as I reflect on this season, and that's what I have been doing. And it didn't take long for me to come to the conclusion that this was a great season. This was the most I could have asked for out of this bear's season. I could not have asked for more. I'm not mad that they didn't beat L.A. I would have liked it because I was having a blast covering the bears in this, and the whole town was fun.

But there's no part of me that is thinking, because I got a text from my buddy, Steve, and as he's watching the NFC championship game between Seattle and the Rams, and he's lamenting with me. He's really trying to push on me that, dude, the Bears could have won this game. They could have gone advanced onto the Super Bowl.

They could have beaten either of these teams. And I kind of was like giving him the, yeah, yeah, yeah, you're right. And that as he pressed on further, because he didn't feel like he was getting a satisfactory answer from me, my whole thought on it is. This is the first time in a long time, and I'll try to track the specifics on that, maybe 2018, where I wasn't doing that exercise, where I wasn't lamenting watching the play. I had a blast watching the playoffs, both of the title games.

And not once did I think, man, I wish the Bears had that, or I wish the Bears could do this, because that's what we do every year. It's like this required exercise of what did you learn from watching real teams play football? And of course there are things on those teams that you look at on every team and say, yeah, I wouldn't mind that. Yeah, that's a pretty good product right there. But there is for the first time in a long time, and this includes some winning years where I feel there is legitimacy to what the Bears did this past year.

That's a word that I'll use a lot, and I did a lot this season too, because early in the season, you know this. Some of those wins didn't feel legitimate. The bears didn't feel legitimate. They were, on my opinion, a trajectory early in the year to have one of these seasons where you're like, okay, that was great, but how the hell did you do it? As I exhaustively would use the analogy or the comparison to 2001 or 2018. And I know I wore that stuff out, but there was a reason, and that was because it wasn't sustainable.

What I saw this year seemed sustainable, and I also didn't think that the bear, were good enough to advance any further than they did. Like there's no, this wasn't an upset. The bears weren't upset. They, they maxed out their abilities on this team this year. So it's really hard. And I will say, I will say, because I mentioned this backstage before the show, because you asked me the question, when was the last time you felt like that, where you felt

some legitimacy, you felt like it was sustainable. It was 2018. I will admit that because of, mainly because of, you know, of. an elite defense that you had in 2018, that felt sustainable. Because the quarterback, while certainly not as good as Caleb at that moment, there was promise for Caleb Williams. There was like, okay, what does Matt Nagy do when we take him to the 500-level courses or however, whatever phraseology he used?

But, but I will say, just going back to our conversation yesterday, Marshall, Caleb Williams now is more legitimate and better than Mitchell Tribisky was then in that 2018 team. So even then, while I felt good going into 2019 and it flopped on opening night against Green Bay at Soldier Field, it flopped right from the beginning. I feel that there is legitimacy to this season, and I am at peace and happy with what the Bears did this past year. Yeah, I don't think there's a way you can really look at the whole of the season. and I understand if you focus on the last game, you're of course going to run through your head

all of the scenarios in which the Bears would have won a game. You're allowed to do that. In which they lost in overtime. I get it. An overtime loss could be extremely painful because you were right there. You had the football driving for what would have been the game-winning kick

or even touchdown, really, that would have advanced you to the NFC championship game. All that being said, if you go back to the beginning of the season, and I said, hey, they're going to go 11 and 6, They're going to beat the Green Bay Packers in the playoffs, and they're going to lose in overtime to the Rams. You would have been like, sign me up.

Yeah. Yes. If I played at the beginning of the season just a highlight reel of Caleb Williams throws, like his best five throws of the season, you would have said, and without telling you the record, by the way, you would have said, sign me up. Sign me up. And then the key part, again, is not just sign me up,

but then show me in the last half of the season, if you want the last six or seven games of the season. that it's real. And there was a change in my mind. Like, I allowed it to be fluid. Always with the Bears. Always with Caleb Williams. What I saw early in the season is not what I saw late in the season. This is a great text right here. And we want you guys in on this, by the way. You are invited. You are welcome. Let's officially open the phone lines here if you want to talk Bears. And are you satisfied with the Bears season? And do you think that there is, for once, legitimacy with what the Bears are doing, please come join us. 312, 644, 67, Rahimi Harris and Grotie, but I do want to read this

top text from the 312. The Bears spent the first half of the season learning how to win. Most of them had never done so here. By the end of the year, they damn near mastered winning. That's really well put. I didn't necessarily put it as they were learning how to win. For me, some of that was just lucky with the way. The Bears got a win. Let's put it this way. The Bears got away with too much other bad stuff within games, whether it was teams running against them or the penalties that they were racking up early in the season. There was a luck factor. And maybe, I'm listening to the texter, maybe there was learning. But I really love the part where he says they near mastered winning by the end of the season in a real way.

It's got to be real, Marshall. Let me counter you on that. I don't think as much luck, quote unquote, was involved as you are implying. I think bad teams find a way to lose. look at the year before, good teams find a way to win. That's what made the Bears good this season is they found ways to win before they were as juggernautish as they were, say, on Black Friday, right? Before they had the late game antics that happened against the Packers,

all three times, by the way. They found ways to win, and that is part of this process is any given Sunday, man. Any given Sunday, any given Monday, any given Thursday. You look at what the Bears, any given Friday, you look at what the Bears, Bears put it any given Saturday. You look at what the Bears put together on different days of the week as the season went on and you understood that that is a team fully capable of beating anybody in the NFL. But just to jump in on that, there were some things that even when winning that would not have equaled wins in the postseason. They would not have won a game, I don't

believe, in the postseason. If they had continued to give up 200 yards, rushing to teams, that they continue to have double-digit penalties, that they continue to drop footballs, which I guess they did continue to do. Yeah, they kept dropping footballs. That never stopped, by the way. There were some things that had to be fixed where I think it was completely fair of me to be like, huh, really? Like, that's fun. That's a fun win. That was great. That you're right. It's cool seeing the Bears win. But I also know, and have seen too many Bears seasons, or I'm sure other NFL teams seasons where it's all great and you don't know how they're winning and then you find out in the postseason that they weren't anything, which is why it was great to see them

fix a lot of that stuff. I think they fixed some of that stuff. I wouldn't say a lot of that stuff. The biggest fix, obviously, was the development of Caleb Williams from game one to the final game of the season. So there's that. But at the same time, the defense still wasn't really defending until the, what, last three quarters of the game?

Excuse me, three halves of the season. Really did get it together, didn't it? Yeah, well, but they were healthy. And health is such a big factor. That's why I'm so curious to see what Ryan Poles, Ben Johnson, Dennis Allen come up with in terms of making the hard decisions from this season, a great season, to next season, a brand new slate. All of that said, what is the expectation going forward? And that's the loaded question now for the Bears. We're going to hear from one of the Bears' assistants on that very topic.

and something that he said, a very big game that this Bears coach believes should be the norm. We're going to get into that. And also, like I said, if you want to come hang out here on Rahimi, Harrison Grotie, we are open to you at 312, 644, 67. I see the text messages starting to float in. And if you want to bounce a call into us as well, again, 312, 644, 67, 67. Are you satisfied with the legitimacy of the season that you just saw? Do you feel like it's sustainable?

like, believe it or not, jaded Grody thinks that there is some sustainability with this. And what is your expectation for the Bears next year and going forward, considering the success that they just had? It's all coming up. Rahimi Harrison Grody on the score. Rahimi Harrison Grody. The great Kevin Harlan. I just pulled through the Taco Bell drive-through, 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, I'm using the answer.

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 squirt it all over the place. Put some hot sauce on my burrito, baby. Rahimi Harris and Grody, midday's 10 a.m. to 2 on the score. There is no building off of this. We go back to square one. We're back at the bottom again.

And that's really all 32 teams. If you feel otherwise, you're probably missing the big picture. You know, we're back at, we got to start from scratch. we've got to start from the fundamentals. A lot of guys talked about how difficult this training camp was. I didn't feel like it was anything out of my ordinary. They know what the expectation is. That is the, every time I hear it, I think of it a little bit differently.

I'm going to go, that's the defiant Bears head coach, Ben Johnson, with a stern warning for Bears Nation. Really, that's for everybody. You've been warned, man. What we just did was really hard. And we got to start from the bottom. Rahimi Harrison Grotie on the score. Thanks for being with us.

312, 644, 67, if you want to join the fun here today. Thank you, too, to our video producers. If you want to watch, you can do so on Twitch.tv slash the Score Chicago. The gentleman running the show, Connor O'Donnell, Jacob Stutz, and Max Curtis. And we thank them for doing what they do. do. And as we do, Marshall, we do begin the process of the, I'm going to use a word, the arduous process of starting to define new expectations. I call it arduous. And that might be the wrong word. I don't know. Because they just came off this spectacular season where they want to play

off game. All the things I said, they look legitimate. And now we have to ask for more. Can we get a little more now, please. Can you get to the, can you win two playoff games? Can you get to the Super Bowl because that Marshall Harris will be the expectation for the Chicago Bears next year? Guaranteed. Have you ever played Super Mario Brothers, like the original Super Mario Brothers, the game that came stock with the Nintendo Entertainment System? I am the worst person to speak to. That's why I asked, because I didn't know if you had or not. I have not. I think a certain I played outside. A certain member...

We all played outside, Rooney. No, you didn't. No, most people don't. I have a friend... Now you sound like a boomer. Can I tell you something right now? I don't care if I sound like a boomer right now. Oh, goodness.

I have a very close friend of mine's child was just hurt, and he said he got hurt playing a video game, and he's on crutches, still waiting for more details. And I'm like, wait, what? You know this friend of mine, too. Was this a wee?

This, I don't know. Like, was he doing some physical activity? I was just trying. trying to share sympathy for the child at the time. I wasn't going to go into, I guess I'm doing it now. I'm 50,000 watts. Soon to be on AM and FM, by the way. I'm using the blow torch.

And this person might even be listening. But yes, I'll go boomer on that stuff. I played outside. But anyway, you were the analogy that you were going for, what were. Let me give it to you. A fair portion of our audience, I would believe, has our boomers probably. Well, yeah, maybe. No, we're all over the ledger.

Super Mario Brothers, like a lot of games, you can't save the game, right? Like now, games, you finish it, and it saves automatically. Most games, you either had to put in a password or just start from the beginning again. And so you go through Super Mario Brothers, there's 32 levels. Okay. Four chapters in each level. There's eight, eight worlds you go through, and there's four stages in each world. You beat the game, and it sends you back to the beginning of the game.

Except for this time, they have these little things called cupa troopers, which you just jump on and they're dead. Every cupa trooper that was, it's the same exact game, except for every cupa trooper that was is now what they call a busy beetle. And the beetle, you can hit the busy beetle, but it turns into a shell. It doesn't go away. So it can still hurt you. This is what the bears are doing now. They have beaten the game, and they're going back to the beginning. It's a brand new season.

It's going to be more difficult. You got a first place schedule. And you understand you got to do it all over again with more. more difficult conditions. Because now everybody knows about Caleb Williams and Ben Johnson and the defense. They're more familiar with what you're trying to do. Yeah, and I'm so glad that while it's jarring to hear, you could tell that was my reaction again to it,

the defiant sounding Ben Johnson. I'm so glad that unlike past coaches with the Bears, he's hyper aware of that. His predecessor in, oh, Matt I, Eberfluse? You're going to two coaches back, aren't you? I want to go back to. Nagy?

to Matt Nagy. Yeah. I mean, like, he thought the problem after 2018 was they needed a kicker. Like, that was what he was going to solve. It wasn't like everything start from a new. We can't just depend on what we did last year. He thought his offense was good enough. He thought they could depend, except we needed to put 10 kickers out here on field four

for a bunch of bears reporters, like me, to watch and analyze and to interview while the rest of the NFL reporter world is watching line play and receivers and quarterbacks. wow, I needed to get that off my chest today. No, but you're right. You're right because Ben Johnson and his staff, they all recognize that each individual season is a thing anew. Yes, you may have some of the same cast members.

And those cast members, if you're developing them, may be better than a year prior, right? You look at all the young players on this team. But you're going to lose some of your veterans. Sure. You're going to get new players in here. And the mission at the beginning, it starts anew. It's the same concept winning as many games you can to get into the playoffs,

get the best seed you can get in the playoffs, to make your road easier in the playoffs. But that is the goal every year is to get in the playoffs and make a run as a Super Bowl championship. And only one team out of 32 gets to hold the trophy at the end of the season. Amen to that. Let me fire off a few text messages here in a row. Rapid fire. The Bears didn't beat the game. Okay.

The princess is in another castle. Another video game thing? that is specific to Super Mario Brothers. Okay, I was out playing wiffle ball and shooting baskets. We were all doing that, but we also, on a rainy day, what were you doing, Mark? What were you doing? On a rainy day? We were trying to find a gym.

Try to find a gym and see if we could break in there. Yeah. No, like, in all honesty, like, I'm glad about this about me, but I had Atari, I'm 54, okay, let, let that. So Atari was the thing, the Atari 2,600. With the one button. With the original game. After that, I never grabbed. I graduated.

Like, I just didn't have interest because I knew, I think I knew myself. You were an adult at that point. Well, I just, that's the truth. No, it's not true because I, look, I didn't play video games throughout college, a high school. I just never went back to it because I think I would be overconsumed with it. So that was me knowing me. So there's that. And then, of course, the next text, 847, Boomer Grody.

And then one more text I wanted to read. You can't read every single text that we see on the text line. I have one I want to read too. Here's the last one I'll read. 847. Grotie, you're not wrong for being jaded as we all should be, but I truly believe that the 2025 bear season was all about changing the culture, and they accomplished that with flying colors.

Listen, this one may be the best text that I've seen on here, 847. I would hope everything Caleb learned last year carries over to next year. I would hope so too. And I would also say it needs to carry over, and he needs to get better. I don't think anyone's arguing that specific point. But the game is the same. It's still football,

and now you're going to have a more difficult schedule on paper. Who knows? Maybe more quarterbacks will be heard, and your worst two-game stretch, you won't face, I don't know, Joe Burrow and Lamar Jackson. But next year is going to be more of the same. You're never going to have a chance to really catch your breath and get complacent because there's more to do.

And even when you win it all, there's still more to do. Rahimi Harrison Grotie on the score, let's turn to one of the Bears' assistant coaches. Antoine Randall L runs the receivers for the Chicago Bears. He was on WGN with Jared Payton, and we definitely have permission to play this here right now, talking about the expectations of this season.

We take a break because we lost, and that's the way we look at it, and we know that the team won't be the same. You know, you won't have all the same players, It just doesn't work out like that. But with that being said, there is the seeds that we've planted in terms of this is the norm. And the norm is getting in the playoffs and have an opportunity to go win the Super Bowl. That has to become the norm.

And that's what we want that to be. And obviously, the norm is to win it all. But you've got to get in the dance to be able to do it. Just get in the dance. I've been in the dance, man, as the one. seed, the two seed, have the six seed when it was only six teams in the, on each side in terms of the NFC and AFCs. So you just got to get in. And once you get in, that's when, you know, obviously you want to be able to be playing your best ball. So we planted the seed. We got it done

this first year. Now, starting out in the spring, guess what? We got to build it all over again. Because it's not, hey, we're just going to leave off a little where we left. No, we got to build, build, build it again and get and surpass what we left off the previous year. And we can. We can definitely do that. It's just a matter of us getting back to it. What I like to say is careful planning and hard work, reduce prosperity. You take shortcuts.

It leads to poverty. We're not going to take shortcuts. We're going to plan well, get to work, and expect us to be able to prosper. for sure. Oh, strong finish for Antoine Randall L, the Chicago Bears receivers coach on G.N. with Jared Payton right there. I like that he coupled Marshall the idea of the Super Bowl has to become the norm with Just Get In. And having listened to that, again, I like it. Yeah, because obviously, just get in. It has to be the mantra to get to the Super Bowl, but that he dared to say that the Super Bowl has to become the norm. Like those would just use it. Just

using the word the norm is a different way of hearing it for me. Prosperity versus poverty. Those are your options. There is no in between. And listen, when Antoine Randall L. speaks of this, he speaks of this as an experienced player who played nine seasons in the league. And in his nine seasons, he went to the playoffs over half the time, five trips to the playoffs. And so he's speaking from experience when it was a little bit harder to even get into the

playoffs, if we're being honest. And he's been part of seasons that ended in first round exit. He's been part of seasons that ended in the Super Bowl. And so to understand that, understand he's trying to implore on all of the coaches, the players that he coaches, what it takes to get to the level. And I think he sees, you know, elements of that in his first season with the Bears. He obviously saw it when he was coaching with the Lions. And now he's making sure everybody understands what it takes to get back to that. Is part of what it's going to take to get back to that?

Is it squeezing the football more? Is it changing the gloves? Is it maybe protecting the ball with your body a little bit more? But what about all those drops, Antoine Randallel? Anybody ask him about that? Yeah, they did ask him about that. And he talked about it. And he talked about Rome and what he needs to do better.

Obviously, DJ Moore and the toughness and getting more out of him in a more consistent way. And that's how they got what they got of him, especially the back half of the season when you didn't have Roma Dunzee available. And he is the veteran in the room. He is the one making all the money. So that's why it's so interesting to hear him talk about DJ Moore so favorably and wonder at the same time, will DJ Moore be a part of this team next season. That's really good capsulizing that, and I love that. I think the theme of that is and should be correctly by Antoine Randall L. More.

Give me a little bit more now. That's not even an Antoine Randall L thing. I think that's a Ben Johnson thing. I think that's a team-wide statement thing. Of course. Who are you looking at and be like, yes, you played exactly how we needed you to play this season? Maybe Nashan Wright, Kevin Byer, Joe Tooney, Darnell Wright. Really, the all pro guys.

And outside of that, they should all be trying to ascend to all pro level. Right, right. And that's why I say like Colston Loveland. I said it. I think we're seeing a player becoming a star before our eyes. But more. Like more. Luther Burton.

Wow. I mean, wow, what a revelation he was. Came on. But more. A little more. Come on. DJ Moore. Lord knows.

Like, a little more. And I can pin some of that on the quarterback. Throw it that guy's way a little bit more. But that's, I like that could be part. of the solution if you need that for the bear's offense in some ways that it's not we need to go out and get fill in the blank guy. It's give me a little more. Give me some more. More arrogance. Give me some more. I would say Buster Rhimes would let you know they do need more pass rushers. I'm sorry, they need better pass rushers. Oh, I think that he would definitely think that.

We are excited, by the way, Marshall. Man, it's, it's, there is something blooming every day as it pertains to out there. Well, it's actually sunshiney as I look through the buildings. I don't see any flowers popping through the snow. No, there are no flowers popping through the snow. And it was another rough, rough walk in today. I didn't stop anywhere, though. We are excited about our FM debut this Monday.

And we have lots planned for it. That's why I said, like as I'm walking through the hallways, I'm seeing things. I'm seeing different studios set up that we might be working in tomorrow because of the FM. I'm being asked to show up at certain places tomorrow in the name of this whole thing, of the name of the FM. So there's all sorts of surprises we have for you. Our FM debut, ladies and gentlemen, is Monday on 104-3, the score.

That's right. All score shows, Cubs, Bulls, all the stuff we do here, all those games on FM. High fidelity all the time, including in downtown Chicago. You know how annoying it can be when you don't get to hear the radio in the parking garage or wherever. The score will still be heard on 670 a.m. but starting Monday at 8 a.m. during our show, it is the debut of 104-3 on FM. The simulcast is presented by the official sports book of the score.

Circa Sports betting the way it should be with no bet fees. I can't wait. I know. I feel like the energy has been percolating around here. And, you know, it might take people even a while to, you know, we're still going to be on that 670. That's right. The first time you can't hear it,

It'll be the first time you turned over to 104.3. Then the people were like, what were they saying about that whole F-F-M thing? They made a big deal. Oh, yeah. 1043. Nah, you see what we're cooking up. Because I understand, like, a lot of people listen are like, and 70 is classic.

You can't go away from six. We're just making it bigger and better, and it's already pretty huge. Coming up next, we will continue to talk about bears. Maybe a little bit. There's a little new, there's new news. Is that even a way to say it? There's news as it pertains to the Chicago. Bears and their stadium search.

We can get into that a little bit. We'll still take your calls as well and your text messages, which have all been excellent. 312, 6444, 67. Rahimi Harrison Grody on the score. Rahimi Harrison Grody, Midday's Tyndall 2 on Chicago Sports Radio 670 the score. Hey, what's going on? We're going to talk Bulls and NBA trade deadline coming up in a little while,

1125 with Ricky O'Donnell. We get a full hour of Clay Harborness. He will be in studio with us at noon. He'll do five on it with us, and we'll just go crazy talking NFL and Bears with Clay Harbor. We've also got Ben Verlander. Ben of the Verlanders will join us at 1 o'clock today to talk Cubs and White Sox and Major League Baseball, just to warm you up a little bit. I'm holding a story in my hands right now.

The headline, which reads Indiana State Senate, advances Northwest Indiana Stadium Authority to lure the Chicago Bears. It's advancing, ladies and gentlemen. This is a story from ABC 7 written by John Garcia over there at Longtime Guy from ABC7. You probably know John Garcia, right? From your working over there at ABC 7. I've seen him. Okay, you guys don't cross paths.

I don't cross past a lot of people. It's so funny. It's like my whole thing with Terry Boers. I love Terry. Barely new Terry. We just didn't cross paths physically. But anyway, I will read. I shall read from this, and then I'll stop when I feel like enough information has been submitted to the audience and the we'll react to it here.

The Indiana State Senate has advanced a bill and designated to lure the Chicago Bears to build a new stadium in Northwest Indiana. Last week, the State Senate Finance Committee unanimously approved a measure to establish a Northwest Indiana Stadium Authority, similar to the one that built the home of the Indianapolis Colts. The bill now still must go to the Indiana State House before making it to the governor's desk, Governor Mike Braun's desk in this case. When the Chicago Bears President Kevin Warren wrote in his letter to Bears season ticket holders

that the team was looking into options for building a stadium in Northwest Indiana, he said he was not using it to gain leverage in Illinois, but that certainly seems to be the way it is working out. And that would be the opinion right there from John Garcia and ABC7. I will stop it right there. And I will say what I have been saying now since then, basically, that the Bears began this play for Northwest Indiana,

whether or not they will end up there. That I don't know. And I am inclined to still say, no, they won't move there. But what a move by the Bears. The Bears have taken the leverage lead in this. They don't have the governor scared. They don't have the state scared, but they've got the state squirming a little bit. Arlington Heights is not scared, but they're squirming a little bit now.

The bears have the upper hand right now because of what is becoming, I'll use that word again that I like so much, more and more legitimate with the moves and the conversations that the bears are having with Northwest India. So this is Senate Bill 27. That's right, 27, 28, whatever it takes. And the City of Gary has proposed three locations for a potential Chicago Bear Stadium. I'm a little shock that you're not thinking that the state Arlington Heights isn't scared because... I'm underselling it, maybe. Cash rules everything around me.

Yeah, Dalla Dala Bill, y'all. I mean, it seems like this would be an advantageous... decision for the bears to say, we're going to cross state lines to Indiana and get this thing built for a whole lot cheaper. And maybe in the past when there was stadium talk, whether it was the rehabbing of Soldier Field and the potential of moving elsewhere, it wasn't as big a deal because stadiums were a lot cheaper to build back then. But stadiums cost a lot of money to build right now.

And if you are in a rent-to-own type situation with Indiana, I don't know how that can't be taking very seriously at this stage of the game. And that makes me wonder that if the Bears did do it, I understand the React. I wouldn't like it. I wouldn't like the idea of it of my Chicago Bears, the team that I grew up watching, that's right, the 80s Bears, that they are moving, not just moving out of Soldier Field in beautiful downtown Chicago, but moving to Indiana. Like, it is shocking to the system.

But I also think if it becomes normal after a while, after a year or two, sort of like my analogy Marshall would be rule changes. Like rule changes in baseball. What a wild idea to have a pitch clock. You can't possibly have a pitch clock. You can't put the DH in the National League. And it does feel awkward at first, and it does feel like you push back on it. but then it became normal, and I don't know what it would be like without it.

I think less so, the pitch clock, I don't think anybody was against the, from a fan perspective, I don't think anybody was against the pitch clock. I think the D.H. thing is the bigger. Pitchers hated it. Yeah, that's not us. That's not the fans. It's about the fan experience. You can go to a game now in two hours and 15 minutes as opposed to three and a half hours?

It's the best thing ever. The pitch clock was overdue, in my opinion. It's the greatest rule change in sports ever. And so what I'm saying is, I said it. That's right. Unless you're Mark Grotie, literally walking to the stadium and walking home from the stadium, which most people don't get to do anyway. Once you're in a car, you're in a car.

And this idea that people would be appalled and drop their fandom of the Bears is ridiculous. They're not dropping their fandom. That is correct. I think that's what I meant, and you said it better, that it's going to take maybe a few games. Maybe you'll do not, maybe your buddy will have tickets to go to the new stadium. You're like, screw that, man, I'm not doing it. But you will, once the Bears are nine and two, and you're loving on Caleb Williams. and you're seeing Colston Loveland run for 100 yards,

you'll be like, Bears. Yeah, I don't think the Bears thing. It may affect who's going to the games. I'm not saying that's not a thing. And you're entitled, too. Like, if you're pissed about it and angry, I am not trying to convince people that they should like Indiana. I'm projecting what might happen if it actually came to that,

which I don't think it was. But last I checked, they do sell out every year, season ticket-wise, right? Yeah. There are people on a waiting list right now to get into the stadium. My brother was on one of those for a long time and got in about 15. years ago. It's not unlike the professional basketball team in town. You may love them, you may hate them, but guess what?

Buildings full every night. Buildings full every night. Exactly. And people are happy when the building is full every night. So I think the bears are in a win situation here, and the possibility of Indiana grows day by day. I'm not ready to say, yeah, the bears are definitely moving to Indiana. But you know what, Mark? I'm not far away from it.

Look at the top text. I don't we get a break. 3-3-1. I'll be a Packers fan. Yeah, you get a lot of that. And I am not pushing back on it because, you know, I am a pretty much a purest too when it comes to things like a beautiful stadium in downtown Chicago. That's where I would have preferred it be all along.

But I don't know. Money, money, money, money, money. Is the truth. When we return, there's your stadium update. How about another update on something that we talked about yesterday? The pro football, yeah, the pro football hall. of Fame, released a statement following the Bill Belichick vote report. We'll call it the vote report from yesterday for Belly.

We will read that to you, that statement, and we will talk about it and see what's new with Bill Belichick and not getting into the Hall of Fame. It's next on Rahimi Harrison Grotie on The Score. This hour is brought to you by Menards. Save Big Money at Menards. I don't understand it. I mean, I was with them every day. if he's not a first bottle hall famer, there's really no coach that should ever be a first bout

hallfamer, which is completely ridiculous because people deserve it. And he's incredible. There's no coach I'd ever want to play. I'd rather play for it. If I'm picking one coach to go out there to win a Super Bowl, give me one season, I'm taking Bill Belichick. That is Tom Brady right there talking about Bill Belichick, who will not be a first ballot Hall of Famer. That audio comes to us from...

A radio station called Seattle Sports. That is what they're called. Maybe pretty smart. I mean, where can I hear Seattle Sports? On a place called Seattle Sports. It's very direct and to the point. Yeah. You want Seattle Sports?

Come here. Seattle Sports. Rahimi Harrison Grotie on the score. But do they have FM? I don't think they have the FM signal, which will be coming soon to the score. As a matter of fact, that will be happening on Monday. 1043, I want to say?

104.3, the score 8 a.m. It's going to be a big ceremony and everything. And everything. A lot. A lot. There's going to be food, Grady. A lot. That's what got me hype.

Guests. Yeah. You did perk up today. Yeah. When we were told, yeah, and of course there'll be food. What do you mean? How is that the sidebar part of this? If they leave with that, they'll make sure we never forget.

If you want us to comply with all of this, just tell us about the free food first for crying out loud. Fine, I'll do. You need me to jump around? Fine. Whatever you need me to do. I'm doing something tomorrow. I don't even know what I'm doing. You know what that is?

That's our low bar. It is our low bar. The pro football, this is Rahimi Harrison Grotie on the score. The pro football Hall of Fame, Marshall, released a statement yesterday following the report that the six-time Super Bowl winning head coach Bill Belichick was not voted in the class of 2026 in his first year of eligibility. Per the statement, if it is determined voting members, quote, violated the selection process by laws, close quote.

That, quote, action will be taken, close quote, including removal as a member of this election committee. If you're not completely caught up on it, it was ESPN that reported yesterday, no, Tuesday, that Belichick did not receive the necessary 40 votes from the 50-person panel, news that prompted swift and robust criticism throughout the sport. The Hall of Fame statement did not mention Belichick by name. instead referring to, quote, media reports related to its class of 2026. Here we go now.

The Pro Football Hall of Fame understands and respects the passionate reaction of many fans, media members, and enshrinees of the Hall itself, in light of published reports regarding the voting results of the class of 2026, the Hall said. It's that very passion that propels the game. The Hall also expects the members of the selection committee when they fight, follow the selection process bylaws. They expect them to follow those. It is an honor to serve as a selector.

Each year, the hall reviews the selection process and the composition of the 50-person selection committee. If it is determined that any member or members violated the selection process bylaws, they understand action will be taken. They could include the possibility that such selectors would not remain a member of the committee. Last graph right here. The selection of a new class is the most important duty the Hall of Fame overseas each year,

and the integrity of that process cannot be in question. So this came off to me as very passive-aggressive, because if you got a problem, just say what the problem is. Don't be like bylaws and have it be general. The hall believes, we at the hall believe the following. So let me give you this from Mike Sando. Mike Sando writes for the athletic

he's a Hall of Fame selector he's one of the voters he's 28th NFL season covering he says I don't speak for the Hall of Fame he quotes what you just read but bylaws forbid voters from sharing details of conversations

that took place in meeting this happened in the ESPN story which quoted anonymous voters not as source of Belichick news but regarding what might have been said in the meeting So that is my best guess, based on what Mike Sandoz is saying, he would know, he's a Hall of Fame voter, of what they are describing. But come out and say that next time.

Don't make us out here having to speculate and guess what exactly went wrong. That's my official stance on this. As well as, I think it's to be noted, Grody, that we have more answers at this moment than we did yesterday. Because the Kansas City Star has a columnist. and he did not vote for Bill Belichick. He is a dissenter. He wrote a column about it. And I don't want to mess up his name, but it's either it's V-A-H-E, so it's either

they or Vahy Gregorian. And he said he's one of the guys who didn't vote. And I found his explanation to be quite telling. It's somewhere along the lines of what we were thinking yesterday. Gregorian says, despite only having three votes, remember there's five candidates. All five men, Gregorian stated, were deserving of the hall in his eyes, and he had initially assumed he would be voting for Belichick on his first ballot.

But when it came time to vote, Gregorian said he felt duty-bound to vote for the three, quote-unquote, richly deserving senior candidates, Anderson, Craig, and Greenwood, who could be staring at one of their final chances at the notoriously tough to get into Hall of Fame. And you know what? I respect it.

I understand it. And this goes back to the game theory of it all. You don't know what other people are doing. He might have thought that by giving all three of those guys votes, one, if not two or all three of those guys might get in, whereas Bill Belichick is definitely going to have enough votes because he's Bill Belichick. 40 of the 50 guys are going to vote for him. He'll get the 80% threshold.

But I think this goes back to the people. bigger problem. The way the Hall of Fame puts people in is flawed. Yes. Yes. You got a backlog. Mike Shanan is not in the Hall of Fame. He should have been in the Hall of Fame. And now this, with Bill Belichick not getting in this year, guess what? Creates an even bigger backlog, because he's going to get in. Yeah, he's good. That is the bottom line about all of that. That's what's different with this from, say, your favorite baseball player that hasn't gotten in. That player may not get in. Bill Belichick is going to. Is going to to get in. There's another interesting twist of this because we had surmised, of course, everybody

had that perhaps some of the reason that folks didn't vote for Bill Belichick was because the Patriots cheated, maybe twice. You know, there's one cheating and then there's inflategate, too. So maybe they cheated broke. You just call it inflate gate? Deflate gate. I did just call it inflate gate, yes. Put too much air in the balls. Well, so deflategate. Like that part was all there. But I hadn't heard anybody actually say that that conversation was happening until today. And maybe it had.

But today was the first time I heard it. It was with Mully and Haw this morning. Gary Myers is a former, a retired, I believe New York Times writer, actually wrote a book about Bill Belichick and Tom Brady. He is as close to both of them as anybody. He is a voter who did vote for Bill Belichick, and he tried to shine some light on what was going down, and he was on the score with Mullen Haw. Here it is.

You can argue whether Don Shul or Vince Lamarty or Bill Belichick is the greatest coach in NFL history. I happen to think it's Belichick. It's almost one of those debates that I, and we've had these before the person who's doing the presentation, just stands up, says the guy, name and sits down and the Hall of Fame says, any comments? And, you know, like with Jerry

Rice and Emmett Smith and players on that level, that's what happens. And Belichick was, to me, you know, on that elite level that we didn't really need to have a conversation about it. But it was a very, I don't want to say it was

volatile. Confrontational is probably the best way to say. There were some guys and gals in that meeting. room that were very strong in feeling that, you know, we shouldn't put it somebody in there who was punished for cheating. If we're, if the Hall of Fame is going to stand for integrity and honor and all that, you know, how can we do that? And, you know, just off the top of my head, I can say, you know, after Paul Horning and Alex Caras were both suspended for gambling,

they each got into the Hall of Fame. And O.J. Simpson was not thrown out of the Hall of Fame after allegedly, I think we still have to say he killed two people. So what are we really doing here? You know, and I don't understand if they're moving the goalposts or people are so holier than now that they want to make a stand here. Again, I keep coming back to this that it really just makes us look petty. Gary Myers, very knowledgeable, very good today on Mully and Hogg and the New York Times writer and Hall of Fame voter, a guy who clearly has been around a while and knows a lot.

I'll pick up right at the end there, though, of what he was saying. Is a voter, should a voter really be accused of being holier than thou if they have a little bit of question in the back of their mind over whether or not they should vote for a person who cheated? The voter's not on the ballot. What's on the ballot is the player, the coach, or the contributor to football? But they're not allowed to take that into consideration that the contributor to football, Bill Belichick, cheated. Like that's, I'm just pushing back a little bit on that.

Like, Bill Belichick should be in the Hall of Fame. But if somebody is saying, I'm giving you just a little slap on the wrist because you cheated, then, and you'll be in next year, like, there's part of me that I'm willing to hear that argument and not have it be condescended to, like with the holder of the now comments. No, I, going back to what Mike Sando talked about, and the bylaws and trying to figure out, like, what are these bylaws that the Pro Football Hall of Fame is referring to? Like, I hope Gary Myers isn't going to get in trouble for sharing that with Mullen Hall.

Oh, boy. Well, I have a feeling. Don't you think that. Yeah, you're right, because he did. He prefaced it heavily. He said, all right, I'm doing it. I'm going to tell you guys, because you're Molly at Hall. And also, it might be in relation to the fact that Bill Pollyon granted ESPN an interview.

Yeah. In which he talked about. And it may be, like, setting the stage for Bill Pollyon to get his exit. And he deserves an exit. And in case you didn't hear yesterday, Bill Pollian is the one who literally came in, had an interview, and said he definitely wasn't one of the ones who didn't, you know, stop Bill Belichick from getting in, and then could not remember if he voted for Bill Belichick or not. He said he was 95% sure he voted for the coach and a player, most likely Elsie Greenwood. And I'm like, what? You have this job as one of 50 electors to the Pro Football Hall of Fame? And a few weeks later, you can't tell me who you voted for?

That's a problem. Get all the way out of here. Respectfully, sir. That's a problem. Like, I don't even know if I should say respectfully. It should just be like, it's a problem. Go home. Yeah.

As we used to say when I was a child, go home, Roger. And this is not Roger, but this direct reference to sister's sister is a sitcom after your time. Carry on. Ray, add this to the, if not today, five on it. We got to do what you're. favorite boomer take? Like what is your favorite boomer take? Because I think we all have boomer takes. Yeah, we do. And we got to address those. Maybe that's a question for tomorrow's five on it. Apparently, I'm just packed with them. What I do understand, though, about, and I think it was,

I believe it was Spiegel and Weeder yesterday, sort of discussing this, which made sense that I think this was them. I apologize right now if it wasn't them, but I think it was because I listened to them yesterday. But their take was it doesn't matter if your first ballot, second ballot, all the buses are in the same room. They're all Hall of Famers. I would say that's wrong because it means a lot, I think, for players to say, how you doing? Or you don't think they're going to put first ballot Hall of Fame behind your name. It's a lot more valuable to shake somebody's hand and introduce yourself as a first ballot Hall of Famer in this sports Hall of Fame world in all of our sports,

where especially baseball and football, where we make people wait because they're not quite. yeah, you're pretty good, but we're not sure. We've got to let some more people in. So it's a big deal to be referred to as a first ballot hall of famer. If you're a Hall of Famer, you're a Hall of Famer. Of course. And I understand the difference in perception between a first ballot hall of famer and say, Harold Baines. Like, there's a lot of gray between those two levels, right?

We have an extra plaque. Who are we going to give it to? We got an extra one laying around. We're going to throw it away. If somebody does it, Harold Baines, Hall of Fame. I think part of the issue is when you talk about this committee that got together and dealt with the five finalists, you've got what they call the senior committee, the coach committee, and the contributor committee, and they come up with the finalists. And you got three votes for five people. And I'm sorry, but the coaches thing, it should be its own category.

Like, you shouldn't be in this backlog of coaches. coaches are way too important to football. And I'm not knocking executives and contributors, like the senior committee, but let's be honest, the coaches are more important. So they shouldn't be as backlogged as some of these other categories. That's true.

I'm sorry, I was hung up laughing at the text line. What's the text line got? Actively trying to change boomers' Wikipedia page to a picture of Grody. Don't do me like that. I don't want to be that guy. I like 3-3-1. Yeah, that Hall of Fame voter should be kicked out immediately.

Take 2 Previgin and never call me tomorrow. Oh, do we have time? Do we have boomer time here? Do we have time to play the boomer? Did I screw that up? Did I mess us all up with our timing? If I did, you could tell me yes. It sounds like I did.

All right. No, we're good? All right. Let's listen to, because this is some pretty strong stuff right here from Jimmy Johnson on his his buddy, apparently, Bill Belichick, not getting into the hall fame. We're talking to play-by-play man, Kevin Harlan. You're the best way when it comes to play-by-play of life. We're sending Marshall Harris to D.C. to run out of the field.

Come on, Marshall. Bring it home, baby. We're ready for you. The Rahimi Harris and Grody Show. Midday's 10 to 2 on 670 the score. Murphy again at the strive. It is up and it is good. 113, 110.

Bulls 904 feet away with 2.3 left. Giddy and the past deflected, stolen by Nemhart. The ball game is over. Oh, no! The Indiana Pacers win for only the 12th time this season. Three of those coming at the expense of the Chicago Bulls. Rahimi Harrison Grotie on the score. That one hurt last night.

Did not feel good to see the Bulls go to 0 and 3 against what is now a 12 and 36 Pacers team. Indiana beat the Bulls last night. 113 to 110. Heard right here on the score. Chuck and Bill. Chuck Swerski, Bill Wennington, on the call. I took in some Chuck and Bill yesterday as I was believe it or not walking around

after dark, not ordering Uber from the Jimmy Johns in my building, walking about the town trying to feed myself. The Bulls blew, the Bulls blew, I just go place to, I graze. That's crazy. The Bulls

blew a 14. fourth quarter lead. They had chances at the end and the Bulls did not win. That said, let's talk more Bulls now. Let's talk more Bulls of the future and let's do it with

Ricky O'Donnell, writer, editor, and associate director of programming at SB Nation. He is on X at SBN underscore Ricky and he joins us right now on the Circa Resort and Casino Hotline Circa Loss

Vegas.com. Ricky, hell of a game last night. What did you think? You know, it's just more of what we've seen from the Bulls this season, which is that they cannot beat the worst teams in the league. As you mentioned, now three losses to the Pacers. They have 12 wins all year. You know who else has 12 wins all year?

The New Orleans Pelicans and the Brooklyn next. The Bulls have also lost to both of those teams twice. The Bulls, if you take that 0-and-7 record in those games, you know, it's not unreasonable to think the Bulls could have gone six. and won if they were actually a serious team. And if that were to happen, they'd be sitting kind of pretty in the Eastern Conference standings. Now, at least it wouldn't look like another 39 win disaster.

For Arturis, Karnas Cháovas, they have had some good wins this year, but, you know, this is what a 500 team does. You blow it on games you should win, just no consistency with this roster. So a pretty disappointing loss for the Bulls, but you can't be too surprised right now because as presently constructed, this is a 500 team. We're a week away from the trade deadline. Talk to me, Ricky. Talk to me.

What should the Bulls do? And what do you feel like they will do, given how Arturus, Karnassovis, and Mark Eversley have treated previous trade deadlines and off-season? The Bulls are not close to accomplishing anything this season. And getting the eight-seat in the East is nothing to be proud of. Arturis constantly holds on to his guys too long, refuses to sell high on anyone. and he has to learn from his mistakes, plain and simple. I mean, what was the stat?

Like, four years in a row, the Bulls started the year 18 and 21. That should be enough to get fired just with that stat alone. So if the Bulls were smart, if Arturis knew what he was doing, I think that you got to take a small step back this year to try to improve yourself for the future. So I would make a couple moves. The first one I would do, and it would be painful because he's been a great Chicago Bowl and a great Chicagoan,

but you got to trade Iodos. The guy is shooting four. 46% from three this year. He's having the best season of his career. He's probably in line to double his salary in free agency. I would expect him to get around mid-level exception money, maybe $15 million a year, four for 60. So I'd be looking to trade I.O.

The team I'm looking at is potentially the Portland Trailblazers, who they owe the Bulls a lottery-protected draft pick. I would be trying to lower the protections on that pick, maybe make it top-four protected instead of top-14 protected. take back Matisse Thibel, who's expiring salary, lock in that you're getting, you know, two draft picks in the first round in the 2026 draft. So I think, you know, the Bulls never sell high on anyone.

This is a big opportunity for them to sell high on I.O. If they want to do it, I like that deal. Other guy who's got to go, Kobe White. Kobe, really good player, for sure. He's been a rare Bulls developmental success story. But do you really want to pay him $24, $25 million? a year when you're just a 500 team every single season without much upside. So I'd be looking at the Houston Rockets.

And Houston is fascinating because they have a ton of future draft ammunition. The Rockets have Phoenix's unprotected first round pick in 2027. They have swap rights with the Brooklyn Nets in 2027, who are one of the worst teams in the league. They have a bunch of second round picks. So I think a fair deal would be Kobe White for Dorian Finney Smith. and let's say a top four or top five protected 2028 first round pick from the Rockets themselves. That would give you a few more bites at the Apple. I still think this team could probably make the play in tournaments, starting Trey Jones,

who's arguably been their best player. You still have giddy. So even if you lose two guards, you have decent depth in the back court if they do want to continue to try to compete. So I would love to see the Bulls try to take a small step back and get some more future assets. That's what I would expect from Arturus Carnish Chavez, though, is that he does nothing because the trade deadline every year he does nothing. It's always one of the most disappointing days of the season for Bulls fans, which is saying something because the season doesn't really have many high moments. So my expectations are at the floor, and I dare Arturis to exceed them. That was a flurry from Ricky O'Donnell.

And I like what Ricky's talking about. I don't disagree with any of your suggestions simply because of this. the Bulls, as archeress and Mark Eversley have pointed out, because this is what happens every year, all you got to do is be not one of the worst five teams in the Eastern Conference to make the play-in. I think even after making those moves that you talked about, they can be that. You mentioned Trey Jones, but I'll go further and just say, look at who's behind them in the standings. Now, I think the Hornets are definitely going to be a play-in team because they are showing new life. But the Bucks aren't going anywhere, the Nets aren't going anywhere, the Pacers and the Wizards aren't going anywhere.

So you're still going to be the mix. Because Billy Donovan, honestly, is just too good of a coach to have good players. I would love deals which brought back more future-oriented players. So, like, trade guys who are having careers like Jalen Smith. Trade, I'm trying to think who else is on this Ross. Oh, Vooch! Whatever you can get for Vooch, just get from Vooch. You're still going to have people out on the floor doing things.

Are you opposed to unloading, let's say, four to five of the players whose contracts expire at the end of the season? No, that would be great, but I think, like, if you're going to trade Jalen Smith, who honestly is one of the biggest advanced stars in the NBA this year, he's got a plus 15 net rating, the Bulls are 0 and 7 when Jalen Smith doesn't play, and they win, like, 60% of their games when he does play. So, sure, I'll trade Jalen Smith, but he's pretty good. He's under contract next season for $8 million. You've got to get a good first round pickback for him. Same thing with Trey Jones, who's on one of the team-friendlyest deals in the NBA. That's a rare Arturis success story right there, getting him at, you know, $8 million a year for three years.

So sure, I'll trade those guys, but you've got to get, you know, legit assets back for them. But, I mean, the reality of the matter is that the Bulls are basically the worst team in the NBA that tries to win. And this has been the case for like five straight years. Going back to the Jimmy Butler trade, this is now nine seasons since the Bulls traded Jimmy Butler. They're the fifth worst team in the NBA since they traded Jimmy Butler. they've had one top five pick over that time. So they haven't gotten any lottery luck. They also haven't really put themselves in position to get lucky.

Just an absolutely horrible job by Arturis Karnas Chavez. And you guys asked me for my plan if I was running the Bulls front office. I gave it to you. But from an ownership level, the first move should be firing Arturis Karnas Chavez. He absolutely does not deserve to keep his job. You do understand what the attendance looks like at the United Center. And that's why Arturis Karnasovas doesn't have to go anywhere. I mean, is the attendance that great?

Is it that great? Yeah, I was going to say. Honestly, God, I've been to a handful of games this year, and I don't know if I listened to what the attendance was, but didn't look like the full house that I saw at the United Center the other night when it was Bulls and Lakers. That's for sure. So I do think that the energy is not the same at the United Center. Yeah, I was at that Bulls Lakers game, too, and seeing the United Center crowd cheer for LeBron after all of his dunks. I'm like, how far the place is falling.

And Joachim Noah was in a skybox. I kept staring up at Noah. Noah looked disgusting that the United Center was cheering for LeBron. He's a forever hater. That brought some joy to me. You know what he is, Ricky? He's Hollywood as hell, I believe, was the original quote. Wasn't that directed at, or I think it was just that team, right?

It was that Miami team that he referred to as Hollywood as hell. So good. Ricky, so my point of contention with this team is, I agree with your front office evaluation. just based on, you know, it's not unlike what we saw with the Bears, although the Bears are fortunate that Ben Johnson wanted to be the head coach of the Bears because Ryan Poles got a second chance, just like Arturich-Karnas-chovis is getting another chance with another new contract. And the difference is they hired Ben Johnson and they have a quarterback.

They have their star in Caleb Williams, and obviously we saw how they were able to build on that. With Arturis, it's his aversion to draft capital, which really drives me insane. Because I've been, I was in Philadelphia during the process. I've seen what the Rockets were able to do to stay nimble and be ready to go when James Harden became available on the Oklahoma City Thunder. I think my biggest issue right now is learning what Joe Dumar said on draft night about offering the unprotected pick to teams above where they gave it the Hawks and that the Bulls were one of those teams and did not jump on that. Is that going to change? Can you see that changing? Because you mentioned learning from your mistakes.

Yeah, I actually love the Bears comparison. here because while Ryan Poles have certainly made a lot of mistakes in the draft and free agency or whatever, he did a really good job with the tear down. And that is what Arturis has been totally unable to do. He was in a pretty good position to tear it down

with DeRosen, Levine, Caruso, Lanzo. He got Vooch. He got no first round picks for any of those guys. They required their own first round pick in the Levine deal. Honestly, the Levine trade was pretty good. Arturis has done a couple things that have been solid. But like, you just look at the big picture and the guy starts every season, 18 and 21.

Like, what is this? You should absolutely be fired for that alone. So while the Bears did a really good job tearing it down and then lucked into the only coach who could actually save that franchise in Ben Johnson, the Bulls can't even do the tear down. So they can't even do the easy part. And, you know, it's very, very hard to build from the middle in all sports. I mean, look at the Steelers in the NFL too. When you're going 500 every year, it's tough to find a franchise quarterback.

it's tough to actually get blue-chip talent. The bowls are that version in the NBA. They refuse to tear it down. And building from the middle, you know, you got to make some fantastic draft picks or some great trades. And Arturis can't do it. Instead, he's out here drafting Patrick Williams with the top five pick and then giving him $90 million.

That's no recipe for success. Can they move Patrick Williams? Can they attach him to one of these guys that they're trying to get something for? I think that would be just as valuable, maybe not just as valuable, but it would be valuable to get rid of the Patrick Williams contract in this upcoming trade deadline. Patrick Williams is truly one of the worst players in the NBA and easily one of the worst contracts. He makes $18 million a year. We have to watch three and a half more years of Patrick Williams.

We don't have to. We don't have to. Just get, move him. I mean, no one's going to take him. You'd have to take a worse salary back. And honestly, I'm open to that. I was trying to think of, does anyone have a worse contract in the NBA than Patrick Williams? The first name that popped up was Yacca Purdle,

center for the Toronto Raptors, who's, like, out indefinitely with a back injury. I guess that could be a trade. You could swap Pertil for Patrick Williams. They'd have to basically do a bad money for bad money-style trade to get rid of Pat. He's just been so disappointing. He has no athleticism at all.

Patrick Williams has five dunks this season. He had 51 as a rookie. Oh, my God. He's just lost all his athleticism. He's gotten so heavy. That's so sad. Yeah. It's like,

how is this guy such a good shooter and he's still so bad? It's like kind of shocking that someone with his tools can be that good of a shooter and it's still so often. Ricky. Yeah, tried to ditch Pat, but it's going to be tough. You're the goods, man. This is why we had you on. A lot of positive reinforcement coming your way on our text line, including this guy is the embodiment of embodiment of how Bulls fans should really feel about the Bulls. So nice job, Ricky.

We appreciate you. Thanks, guys. Thanks, Ricky. Ricky O'Donnell right there. Just landed jab after jab. The Bulls not close to accomplishing anything. Boom. Patrick Williams is the worst player in the league.

Boom. The Bulls are the worst team in the NBA that tries to win. Pop, pop! Wow. Don't forget about the Arturus Carnassova shouldn't have a job. Gotta be gone. Yes. I didn't even get to Billy Donovan.

I didn't even get to player. Well, we got to a little bit with the players. I don't have a problem with Billy Donovan in this scenario. area specifically. Always the innocent bystander. No, I'm not. Okay. All right.

All right. Let's see how the play-in series goes. That's what I'm dubbing it. I actually think the Bulls are lucky to have an adult as a head coach and Billy Donne. He's a Hall of Fame. Are you excited about the playing series? Best of three against the heat. Can't get enough of that.

You get the first game at home and then you got to go to Miami and play too, although it might be a nice time to go to Miami and play too. It might be a really nice time to get there. The Bulls get a week in, oh, Miami. Just make sure they don't get the Miami flu while they're down there. I wouldn't blame them if they did. Where are we in the season? We're not that far into it.

Now is the time, kids. Coming up next, I see on our show documentation, it just says halftime, but there's nothing else that is written in there. Do you have something that we're going to talk about for halftime? Because there's nothing. There's just nothing there. I have something. You got something? I'm tired of these.

I'm not tired of these. I'm a little frustrated with Hollywood right now because the lack of originality is startling. and the latest example, I think as a sports fan even, you're going to be like, roll your eyes with what's coming back. Okay, I'm looking forward to hearing this. It is coming up next on halftime. We'll also tell you all the cool things that we've been talking about. Who knows what will run through my brain during the break

that I will bring to the surface here at the score. It's Rahimi Harrison Grotie on the score. That's right. Half time here on Rahimi-Hareem. Harris and Grotie, we began the show by talking about Bears' legitimacy and that they have it, and that they have what appears to be sustainability if you're looking closely enough. We also talked to Ricky O'Donnell about the Bulls. He terrorized the Bulls. He was just on with us. If you need a little bit of Bulls anger coming at you, pulling no punches, you should check that out.

I got what I needed. I hope you did too, Marshall. We also had updates on the Football Hall of Fame and what's going on with Bill Belichick, injecting a couple of new voices into it, including Jimmy Johnson, who was very much in favor of Bill Belichick. We also talked about the Bears and the latest on the stadium situation going on in potentially Indiana. So it's at this time where, you know, I'm a big MCU fan, right? And I've been made fun of countless times on the CU. Yeah, oh, I'm sorry. forget sometimes I'm talking to a boomer Marvel Cinematic Universe

The Marvel Cinematic Universe Are you familiar with that? I was outside playing basketball So Well you're inside Marvel Cinematic Universe By the way according to the The parameters of Generation X

You are, there's no vague area You are Gen X my friend Type in Type in Xenial Just type it in I don't want to right now That's what I thought Yeah exactly

I have an answer for everything Not now Not now Not now Okay So, sequels are a thing. I remember watching The Empire Strikes Back. That's probably the earliest sequel I remember watching.

Quintessential sequel. Can you think of a sequel from your childhood? That's pretty good. I would maybe Rocky. Okay. Rocky, too? Yeah. And all the Rockies were good.

Yes. Never a bad Rocky. There's ones that were better than others. Never a bad Rocky? Never a bad. Oh, well. Rocky Five? Rocky five.

Okay. Yeah, one through four. Super. Super. Super. Goated. Goated. Goated.

I love when we agree. Okay. So there's a new movie that's about to come out that they're going to film. It's going to be, I think, next year. Drago or Clubberlang? As far as what? What are you asking me? An antagonist in a movie.

Which antagonist did you? Which performance did you prefer better? Learning more post the movies, I would say Clubber Lang was the better antagonist. He was a badass. He was. So was Drago in his own little underspoken way. Yeah, I mean, Drago killed a man, but... Yeah.

Yeah. Carry on. So, this sequel that's coming up, there's been 14 movies in this franchise, and you probably didn't know there were 14 movies in this franchise. Go ahead. An open casting call to find a relative unknown to star in this movie. That's what's been announced. The movie series?

The name of the movie, Air Bud Returns. No, I did not know. I don't know if I knew there was one of those. You never heard of Air Bud? The Golden Retriever that plays sports? Oh, okay. Come on, man. Vaguely familiar.

Wow, you're really disappointed me right now. I try to keep those things out of my universe. Airbud was released in 1997. It had the sequel Airbud Golden Receiver. Okay. Adorable, by the way. First one is about him being a basketball player, the Golden Retriever. The second one, obviously, golden receiver football.

Okay. Air Bud World Pup. AirBair. AirBud 7th inning fetch. Airbud spikes back. I just want to go through the Rivel out of hand here. That's what I'm saying.

But if you have a golden retriever, Purebred, you can send them out there and see if he can be the next Air Bud. And I just thought we're out of control. We're out of control with these movies. Just sequels in general. What about the Fast and the Furious?

That's where I thought you were going. with that. But that has like 20, right? It's got less than air bud, actually. It does. Okay. And maybe we're too far down the path. Like, you know, later this year,

later this year, they're calling it Dune's Day. Because Avengers Dune's Day comes out. And then also Dune 3, I guess, comes out on the same day. Warner Brothers versus Disney in that one. And I was like, when is it too much, Mark? What's your favorite?

What's the most recent? sequel you've seen? The most recent sequel I saw actually was the sequel to the movie called The Accountant with Ben Affleck. Yeah, yeah. Batman with a gun, as I call it. Yeah, you did tell me that. Yes, and that's

that's such, that, that's perfect. He was Batman with a gun. And that really good sequel, enjoyed the series. It was good. I haven't seen it yet. Of course, not as good as the original. Like, I think that's what always happens. But, yeah, that was the most recent one that I've seen, and it was good. I'm glad you brought that to the forefront, because I would

recommend that whole series. Like, the accountant is really good. And it's interesting because you have like the nine years between the first accountant and the accountant, too. That's a long time. It is a long time. And so it reminds me of classic, coming to America.

You know, they came out with the sequel to that. Yes. 20-some-odd years later. Yes. Was it good? I didn't see it. I didn't see any of the one. Eddie Murphy did that whole,

I'm still funny tour that he did by having Bedouin Beverly Hills Cop again. Did he do another 48 hours? Beverly Hills Cop. But he did it. He did it because I watched his Netflix special basically indicating that it was to show people that he's still funny because there's a generation of people who think he's like kind of a, could be kind of serious and things like that and that he's still the most hilarious

man in the world. And I didn't have a desire to see them. And I love Eddie Murphy. Isn't it sad? It is sad. We have so much content. Never have we had this much content at our disposal, and that's part of the problem. Is that what it is?

Yeah. Yeah. I don't need another Beverly Hills cop. That's it. You're right. I didn't need it. And Jen Z. Alpha kids now don't know pop culture because they don't have to know pop culture because

they don't have a limited option. They literally open up their phone and that's how they get their content. So they're not seeing classic movies. They're not all watching the same sitcoms that the way we had to when we were children. Man, and I'm not even. Like, you can't even watch the office in order. You're right. You're right.

That's the world in which I live. That's just me, though, really more than anything. That's my problem. I deal with that on the daily. I'll deal with me. You don't have to worry about me. But your point is so well taken. You're right.

There's so many options. I don't, because I question myself. I love Eddie Murphy. He is, I can't, I have never to have been able to get enough Eddie Murphy in my life. But when those movies came out, I was like, that's cool he's doing it. I'm enjoying the nostalgia. I'm enjoying reading about Eddie Murphy. I'm enjoying that Eddie Murphy's doing interviews.

You're on an interview circuit, so I get to learn more about him and hear him being off the cuff funny. But guess what I didn't want to do? Watch the movies. You didn't want to watch it. You didn't want to take the time out of your day. Yeah. You're like, this is going to cut into me watching the rest of the other guys. I get it.

Text her on the phone. This is great. This is great right here. 630. We need a new Ernest Worrell movie. Remember Ernest? Oh, yeah. Oh, man.

He goes to jail. I think we had enough of those. I'm good with Ernest. Hey, how about Lethal Weapon? I was just thinking about, were you a lethal weapon franchise fan? Who didn't watch Lethal Weapon?

Like, Lethal Weapon 2 was the goods, man. You thought it was better than lethal weapon one? I don't know. I don't know. Like, it's always hard to say, I don't know if there's ever, is there, well, I guess the Empire strikes back for a lot of people was better

than the original Star Wars, at least the sequence in which they did it, but that's the only one like I think of. Godfather. Ace Ventura. Not better than the original is still the best, but yeah, I was a sucker for all things Jim Carrey.

That's for sure. That is for sure. All right. I'm glad you have you that was a revelation for me. I'd like to take you down a little nostalgic path sometimes. And I learned. I learned something about me and everybody else. We don't need that stuff. But it's

there for us. It is there. And there's enough people that watch it that it's worthwhile and everybody makes lots of money. When we come back, it is time for five on it. We've got five questions that we will be debating and discussing and thrilled that we will have in studio with us for that

and for the hour, our guy Clay Harbor from CSS and we'll join us for Five On It, then we'll go hardcore Bears and NFL with Clay as well. Coming up next on Rahimi Harrison Grody on the score. Laila Rahimi and Marshall Harris with Mark Grody bringing you five topics on their mind today.

On Chicago Sports Radio 670, the score. Number one. This is a special edition of Five on it with Mark Grody, Marshall Harris, and joining us in the house, co-host of the Big Pro Football Show on CHSN, Clay Harbor. Here's question number one.

This week, CBS Sports published its list of top 50, 2026 free agents, and potential landing spots for them. Number 40 on the list, veteran pass rusher, a name you're all familiar with, Khalil Mack. At the top of CBS's list of potential suitors for Mac, the Bears.

How would you feel about the idea of a Bears and Khalil Mack reunion? First of all, I think that we discussed a potential Khalil Mack reunion last year, or was it two years ago? I think it was our guy, Chris Emma, wasn't it? It was, yeah. The reuniting with the Bears that came up, but he ended up with the Chargers. I don't like it. I don't need it. Khalil Mack is 34, played in 12 games for the Chargers last year, had five and a half.

sacks. I guess the problem with it is for me a couple of things. The Bears have guys that they could probably get to five and a half sacks on the season. So I don't know. That just multiplies the amount of guys that you will have struggling to get to double-digit sacks, I feel like. I love Khalil Mack. I covered Khalil Mack in 2018.

It was a blast of a year. And I don't know if this was in the spirit of the question or not. Khalil Mack didn't seem to really like the Chicagoness of it. all, and I mean being in that fish bowl, dealing with the media. He was never, like, mean to us in any way, shape, or form. But he did like to elude us. He did not like to talk. He was always like, he always had this look like, my God, why do 30 people want to

gather around my locker and talk to me right now? I don't think Khalil Mack at this point in his life is built for Chicago. So no thanks. I'm with my fellow Missouri Valley Conference brother. My God. I'm Illinois State. I'm Missouri State. MVC, baby.

Love you, man. But I'm going to pass on Cleo Mac. I think he had an okay year. He still got a little bit of gas left in the tank. I mean, he's getting close to running on E. If you ever get in a car with Marshall, he's always close to running on E. Classic. But two guys I do like.

I know it's been a lot of him thrown around here. Trey Hendrickson, obviously the history with Dennis Allen. You go back two years, lean the league in sacks, fourth in pressures, fourth and hits. You go back to last year, only played in seven games. but a top five pass rush win rate when he did play in those games. If the medicals check out, bring me him. And then the other guy, I just watched tape on him yesterday. Addafe Owe, I was looking up edge rushers.

He was in a three-four defense, but this guy can play some defense events of edge rusher. He got traded from the Ravens to the Chargers. In the playoff loss to the Patriots, he had three sacks in two forest fumbles. And you look in the year, he was 11th among edge rushers in pass-rush win rate after arriving in Los Angeles. This guy can move. He can play against the run. He can play against the pressure the quarterback. I really like Adolfi Oway.

And he's big. He's one of those guys that Dennis Allen likes Marshall Harris. Listen, man, my answer to your question is a question. At what price? At what cost? This man made $18 million last year. And I just feel like if you've seen the Bears cap table, if you've been to Spot Rack,

you're like, how much are they going to pay a guy who is dead? Definitely on the downside of his career. This is an ascending team. Unfortunately, even though he's only a year removed from a Pro Bowl trip, he is a descending player. He will be 35 next year. And in the NFL, it's impressive that he's around this long. This guy is probably a future Hall of Famer.

But guess what? The Bears don't need him. They need to find other options. I don't think this is the right situation for him to be in. Yes, do they need pass rush? Absolutely. They need young pass rush that will get better and grow alongside Caleb Williams, is my answer to this. If he was 29, okay, you got me, but he's not.

Unfortunately, the problem with the field and good creative thinking on Clay's part, like you look at the list of some of the guys that would be available, there's a Bosa available. There's always a Bosa available. There's Joey of the Bosa's. Jalen Phillips. Jalen Phillips watched his tape. I mean, he was okay.

Oway stuck out to me. Okay. When I looked at both those guys, I want to see which one I'd like more. Right. And yeah, okay, that is interesting because I do like Phillips. Hassan Reddick, 13 games, two and a half sacks last year for Tampa Bay. Yeah, I just don't get crazy excited about these guys, and I think we're all a no on Mac. Number two.

Should the Cubs make a push to trade for repeat American League Cy Young Ace? Terrick Scoobble. Scoobble would be a one-year rental. What would the hall have to be in order for Jed Hoyer and company to get the deal done? done. If you are on board with it. Does the Pope wear a funny hat? I believe he does. I believe the Cubs should go ahead and punch that.

What would it look like to get Tarek Scoobo on this rotation? I think if you can get this done, this puts them at the top of the list of challengers to the Dodgers in the National League. I think right now they're in a poll of teams who are challengers to the Dodgers. But if you get scoobble pitching twice in a seven-game series, maybe even three times depending on how it works out, you feel real good about where the Cubs are and some of the young pitching that might have to go out to get him, I'm good with that

because get Tarek Scoobo on your roster. Get Tarek Scoobo a shot to get you not only into the playoffs, but to pitch you through the playoffs. What do you envision the hall being, though? Like, what are you willing? Oh, prospects? There's got to be somebody on the big league roster.

Hi, Matt Shaw, by Matt Shaw. Of course. Look, man, think about it. From Detroit's perspective, why in the world would Detroit not ask for the world? They're not going to be like, oh, yeah, we'll take your bottom fee, your unproved prospects. Hi, Kate Horton, buy Kate Horton. Oh, wow, okay.

Yes. So you would do that? Wow. Yes. Are you going to wait to see what happens with arbitration? It's the largest difference in arbitration in MLB history. They want to pay him $19 million. He wants $32 million.

There's a $13 million difference here. This isn't saying, hey, you know, I want, you know, an extra $500,000 raise. $13 million difference here. Yes, with Wiggins and Steel, maybe coming back midseason, coming off of injuries, I think you do need some pitching help. I'm just not sure how realistic that is to get, you know, guy like him in the building. I think there are some other opportunities like maybe Zach Gallant,

a free agent that you could sign that could come in and help immediately. I think if they were to get scoobled, they would have to give up for one year. in this climate where you know the Dodgers are going to continue to be nonstop. You know the Mets are going to continue to be nonstop. Back to back.

Si Youngs. Yeah. They're going to be, these teams are relentless. And you know there's going to be a work stoppage in 2027. Go for it. Go for it. Yeah. So I'll do it like this. I'm just looking at the the Cubs roster and thinking, who are untouchable guys?

Guys that I wouldn't trade for. And at this point, man, and maybe this is me being stupid. I'm willing to entertained the possibility. I don't know about Kate Horton going for a one-year guy. I'm a little nervous about that. Bregman stays, obviously. PCA stays.

The rest, though, man, I guess I've got to look at the starting pitchers, too. Is there anybody else beyond Horton that... Well, you mentioned Wiggins. That's one. And then I guess, yeah. There's other guys, but, like, who's stopping you from making the deal? That's your question. Most of the roster would not stop me from making it a deal like that.

Number three. This five out on the score with Marshall Harris, Mark Grody, and CHSN analyst Clay Harbor. Here's question number three. What was the most disappointing aspect of the Bull's 113, 110 loss to the Pacers last night? Oh my God, to just choose one in a game in which they blew a 14-point lead in the fourth quarter. It is painful for me to have to narrow it down. But I think maybe if I have to, you know, blowing the lead is something in itself. But the fact that they had two chances at the very end of the game to win the game on an inbound pass to Modus Bezellis where they were going for the Aleoup at the end, it was no good.

Kobe White then drives down the lane and misses. That was very disappointing for me. And damn it, Nikola Vucovich made a 31-foot three-pointer last night, and he's got nothing to show for it today. That's what disappointed me in the Bulls game last night. All right, for me it has to be this is your third time losing to this team. with 12 wins. Okay, you can lose once to a bad team, maybe twice they get like a three times?

What's happening here? And now you've got three games coming up with the heat who are an eighth. You're in 10th and the standings. So these are three big games. You want to come into some momentum. The last thing was, when I'm watching this game, Io's cooking.

Ios cooking. He's doing great. Why you take Iowa out? He needs a breather here and there, but keep him in. You go on to be outscored 26 to 9 over the final seven and a half minutes of the game.

can happen, especially against a bad team. So watching this game, and I don't know if this is a wrinkle that you guys noticed, but it's been evident to me because I watch all the games. Kobe White's pressing it. He is pressed. He is forcing it. It's been evident for a few games now. Well, he's still on a time crunch here.

He is looking at the trade deadline. He's also looking at his contract year. He knows this is the year that's going to get him paid or not paid as much as he wants to get paid. Either way, you want to look at that. And I felt like he came out taking 32 footers, and he airballed a three. I know you guys saw that. And then even at

the end, I would have liked to see him as he was drawing the double team going into the lane where he maybe stops and pulls up from 15 feet. He can make the mid-range shot. I didn't like his shot selection. Five of 15. He hit one of five threes

in this game. He didn't turn the ball over, which was a problem in the previous game. But I think Kobe White forcing it was, and I'm interested to see how he comes out tonight. Remember, the last time he did play in a back-to-back, that's when he re-injured the cabin had to sit out more time. So I'm interested to see how Billy Donovan manages that. And I think that's the reason why we didn't see Iyo stay on the floor because he's trying to preserve these guys with five games and seven nights.

Number four. When LeBron and Brony James took the court for the first time in 2024, they became the first father-son duo to play together. How much influence did LeBron have on the Lakers selecting Brani with the 55th overall pick in the 2024 NBA draft? ESPN's Ramona Shelburne said this during an appearance on ESPNLA this week. I don't think LeBron asked the Lakers to draft Brunney. I don't think he or Rich Paul-

That is ridiculous. That is an unbelievably ridiculous concept. Are you then saying, if that is true, are you saying that Jeannie, Rob Pawinka, and everybody did that on their own? I'm telling you they did. Let's take it at the premise that that's true. Okay. Did they do it because they thought he was talented or because they thought LeBron would like that?

I think they did this because they thought LeBron would like that. Okay. If the Lakers didn't draft him, would anybody else have? The Golden State Warriors considered him? Sure. The Dallas Mavericks will Nico Harrison over there. Oh, yeah. Okay.

And the Phoenix Suns. All three of those teams had interest in Bryant. Would they have actually taken him? I don't know. You know, this is like your, this is this your sense of? No, I know this. You know this. That is NBA insider Ramona Shelburne on ESPN LA.

Here's our question. On a scale of 1 to 10 on the BS meter, trademark, where do you rate the idea that LeBron James didn't ask the Lakers to draft his son, Brani? I don't think there's any BS involved. I believe Ramona Shelburne. I believe the Lakers did it to make LeBron happy, but I don't think LeBron went to them and said, hey, please draft my son. I don't think that happened. I think there were overtones, maybe. But I don't think LeBron ever went up to the office and said,

hey, you know I got to have Brony with me. You know, this is a good look. But he would have if the Lakers hadn't done it. I think the Lakers... No, the moment passed. I don't think there was a conversation before the draft where they said, hey, LeBron, do you want us to drive? I don't think that conversation was had in earnest.

I really don't. I think it's like you see in football. Like you'll see a superstar player and then undrafted free agent or seventh rounder, his brother, cousin, they'll bring him to the roster. The Hon to the Coompos? Yeah, exactly. Exactly. You know, that's what I'm saying.

It's just something like that. Keep your superstar happy. What are you really getting with this second round pick anyway? Even though you did get eight points out of Brony the last game he played, two for two from the three-point line. Maybe he's coming into some sort of a zone here. We're going to see more of Brony, Marshall Harris. But I think at that moment, yes, do something to make your star player happy. I don't think he had to go there and say, you know, pound the table and say,

give me brownie or I'm gone. But they're smart. I think that there was probably, I'll actually play along on the BS meter, Ray, since nobody else is. I'm sorry, I didn't get my number. It's a zero. Okay. Clay, Clay, what's your number? I'll go higher.

I'll go higher today, Ray. I'll go six. Because even if LeBron James never said the words to the Lakers, you should draft Brani. They knew that he wanted them to draft Brony. They also probably anticipated that if they hadn't, they probably upset their superstar and their up and their superstar probably would have felt disrespected by it. I think that there was probably an assumption, a sort of wink from LeBron, a sort of do the right thing thing coming from LeBron. You know what to do. I don't have to say it. And LeBron was probably relieved that he didn't have to say anything.

because the Lakers kissed up and took care of it. So you know what? The BS meter just went up another knots. Nine, Ray. Wow. Wow. Number five on it. Number five on the score.

This is Marshall Harris, Mark Grody, Clay Harbor, all in the house. Here's our final question. This week, NBC announced that fever star Caitlin Clark is joining the network's pregame coverage for its debut of Sunday night basketball this weekend. How many Caitlin Clark appearances will we? we see before we get another installment of NBC's Michael Jordan feature, MJ, Insights to Excellence. Probably many, and what a sham the whole thing has turned out to be with Michael Jordan. As interesting as some of the tidbits that have come out of the Mike Toriko interview,

it's just too bad that we have to go to this end of the earth to get Michael Jordan to talk about stuff or to be in somebody's presence or just to be with the populace. It's impossible. Like, what do we have? What did they pay him? 20 million? Did we ever, what, 80 million to do the interview? It was something ridiculous for Jordan I'm talking about, right?

It was crazy the number that they had to give a big number. It just, that's all it makes me think. Because as I was talking about Eddie Murphy, always just wanting to know more, hear more, see an accessible guy, wanted to see him interviewed. I'm the same way with Jordan and we just don't get it. He is just unattainable. Various reports say Michael Jordan was paid between $20 million and $80 million. I think it was $80 million.

For being a special contributor. I think that's been debunked, though, the high end of that. Come on. They debunked like the $40 million annually. He's probably paid around what Barclay's paid, which is $21 million a year. For an hour? I think it was like three hours. That's what they said it was.

So what's $20 million to Michael Jordan, who's worth billions? Something. It's worth it. It's worth of taking time out to answer some questions. He can get farther away from the world the more money he makes. Like his whole goal is to never be seen but be seen at the same time. I know, but you're just pulling in so much money. It doesn't, it's irrelevant.

That money to him's irrelevant. But anyways, to just get back to answering the question here, how many Caitlin Clark appearances will be seen before we get another installment of MJ's NBC feature, right? I'm going to go, we're probably going to see it like four or five times before we see MJ. I mean, we're going to see a lot of Caitlin Clark. MJ, he's on his own time. He ain't doing nothing he don't want to do.

I think Kaelin Clark's willing. She's eager to get out there and to do this, and she'll be available. And she's a big draw, a big ticket, big time recognizable face. So I think we'll see a lot of her before we see and hear from MJ. Since she's not playing in the one league and there's a WMBA like work stoppage right now, she ain't got nowhere else to be. Yeah. So I would say eight.

Eight. I think they're holding some MJ for the end of the regular season. actually end the regular season sooner of that. So I'm going to go five. There was a report that there would be more tapings of Michael Jordan. I don't know how much more. There was no clear indication of how much more. But there was something that came out within the past couple of months.

Okay. Always trying to get a little more out of Michael Jordan. It's just so hard. It's so hard to get anything out of Michael Jordan. Sound like David Hall right now. It's very... You want more from him. Who doesn't?

The Bulls got a... Derek Rose's congratulatory message from Michael Jordan. Which I was blown away by. What did they pay him? $40 million to do that? And he said, in his words, I believe the exact words, I can't wait to see the banner. Yeah.

Like, this is one time I'm from TV. He's got league pass. He can see it on any given night. This is actually one time when I sympathize with the Bulls. Imagine what the Bulls go through trying to get Michael Jordan to do anything. To do anything. I got a funny story for you guys real quick. I'm at CHSN before the Pro Football Weekly,

and I'm walking with Coach Wonstead, and we walk out into the atrium at the United Center. That's where we filmed. And Derek Rose is standing right there. And just Derek Rose goes right up to Coach Wonstead. Coach Wonsett goes up to Derek Rose. Wani's saying, hey, big fan there, Derek, I think you're great, man. Your crossover.

It's amazing. Coach, coach, you're just a great player. And D. Rose is like, hey, man, you know, Coach Wonstead, love you, man. You should love your Bears teams. I was sitting there watching. I'm like, this is great, man. Dee Rose, Coach Wonstead. Was it great interaction?

What did you say to D. Rose? I just said, what's up, man? Big fan. Love your crossover. Dee Rose is such a classy guy because there's no way he loved those teams. That is true, man. No, Derek Rose is definitely the accessible star.

I still won't think of Chicago basketball and think of Derek Rose. I'll still think of Michael Jordan, but he is accessible. Stay that way, Derek. They're both MVP. Stay that day there. One day they'll both be Hall of Famers. That's the way it works because everybody gets into the basketball Hall of Fame.

Bill Belichick. Bites. You know what? We got another... We have Clay Harbor here with us from CHSN and for the Eagles and from the Jaguars. We have him here with us until 1 o'clock. So let's get into it with CHSN's Clay Harbor. He has, I love this.

He has three bold moves for the Bears, which include cutting a player, trading a player and signing a player. So Clay Harbor will let us in next tier. It's Rahimi Harrison Grotie on the score. Clay Harbor, former NFL player. Clay Harbor, slot to the left. Here's Vicks pass. And it's caught touchdown by Harbor.

That's a touchdown. Clay Harbor makes that catch. And they've got Harbor for the touchdown. Football analysts for Chicago Sports Network. I think the bears have two really good tight ends. I've been in tight end. rooms, meeting rooms, practice fields, game field. These two guys, three guys, you can even throw Dermasmyth in there, but Colton Loveland and Colk Met are extremely tough and physical players.

These are guys that can do everything. Clay Harbor. Your large adult son, Clay Harbor, pointed that out on the internet, would viral for it. He's bigger than me, but I'll still take him down. On Chicago Sports Radio, 670 the score. You know he's here. Clay Harbor's sitting right here in. studio with Rahimi Harrison Grotty on the score. You see I had to raise this chair up to be higher than both of us. Did you notice that?

Immediately came in and put the chair up. Yeah, I was going to say, is your chair low or did his go to Hall? Is this a CHSN thing? Like, David Haw always has it up like he's a baby in a high chair. That's so I give Haw, every time I come in with you guys and I ask why is your chair so high? My knees can't even fit under the desk here.

It's like pinching off circulation. Why is your chair so high? I don't know. I just like to be up high. He likes to seen. I'm David Hawes. See me. Look at me. Get that man of September. He is Clay Harbor of CHSN. As you heard,

the former NFL veteran of the Eagles and the Jacksonville Jaguars. He played tight end. Now he talks bears here. He's from here. He's from the great Dwight, Illinois. He knows where Dwight is Marshall. I know what's up, right? I know what's up with Dwight. I've been through Dwight many times in

my life and on my trekked Illinois State University. What's going on? Clay. you good? I'm great, man. 31st of this month, I will end my 31-day challenge, Marshall, dry January, mixed with 31 days of workouts, 31 saunas, 31 cold plunges, no alcoholic beverages, and we're almost there. Congratulations.

Thanks. Have you had any THC beverages along the way? No. Okay, just curious. Well, because that would make him hungry and then he would, you know, at eat. That would not be good or encouraging. So congratulations to you. and all of those who practice dry January.

I'm typically worried about the people that feel like they have to, not Clay, because I know you're a beacon of health. The people that do it every year and look forward to it, you might have a drinking problem. If that's the month where you stop drinking, you might want to get yourself to a meeting instead of going on Instagram and telling everybody that you're doing dry January.

Good advice. I'm just saying, I just want you to take a real look at yourself when you look that for it. Not in your case, though, Clay. I appreciate that. Have you always lived this way? Like even before, like when you were growing up as a, when did fitness become so important to you, Clay Harbor?

Before we get into your three bold bears moves. Honestly, it was like post-NFL because everything was so structured and regimented. When you're in the league, you got these saunas, these steam rooms, these massages. Everything's taken care of the best coaches in the world. So you got to like kind of take it on your own. And I did a deep dive to like all these, not hacks, but just these things that you're, the human body works, whether it's cold exposure, whether it's heat exposure, whether it's morning sunlight, whether it's delay your caffeine intake until 12, whether it's all these things.

And you start putting them together and you realize that you're so much more productive, you feel better. And, you know, longevity is a thing. Now that I'm about to be 40 years old, I'm looking at the mirror and I'm saying, man, I'm really going to have to take care of some of this stuff. What a flex at this boomer room where he would say something like that. You know what's Even more important than longevity, though. What's that? Bears. The Bears.

I was going to say, isn't that under the longevity category, the umbrella of longevity? You're just trying to sustain the success the Bears had in year one under Ben Johnson and with Caleb Williams trying to make sure that he continues to get better in year three after a substantial jump in year two under a new head coach. Yeah. And as Grody tease earlier, I came up with three bold moves that I thought Ryan Polchie. should make this off season, right? And I got a lot of feedback on social media. We did this on CHSN, the Big Pro Football Show, with David Hall, your guys very own.

Our guy. Ruthie Polinsky's up here a lot as well. Po, Poe. And I got a lot of feedback. Some good, some bad, but should I just get started? Please, go. Take it away. And then let me hear your guys' thoughts after each move.

Of course. Let's do it. The first one is we're getting out our scissors. You know why we're getting on our scissors? We're cutting somebody. Snip, snip. Okay, this guy's guarantees are done. Tremaine Edmins.

I'm not saying I dislike him as a player. I'm not saying he is a bad football player. Tremade Edmins. But what Tremade Edmonds is, third highest paid offball linebacker in the National Football League. Offball. Right? He's 37th and overall grade. 55th in coverage grade.

29th and mistackle percentage. 45th in catch percentage allowed. Everything you look at when I watch his tape, I think he's fine. But is he that much better than a guy you can get for half the price? No. So my thought process here is if you cut him, you can sign a guy that can do his job for less. You're over the cap already. You need some other positions, maybe a little bit more. You still got T.J. Edwards, hopefully coming back healthy. So Tremaine Edmonds, Marshall, Grotie, getting cut.

You know what? I don't have a problem with it, mainly because I think we saw in some of his absence this season other guys could be effective. DeMarco Jackson is actually legit. Watching his film, the guy can play. In Dennis Allen's defense, he can maneuver some things. And it comes down to two things. That position just isn't as important as other positions that the bears need to address. And if you have that much money tied to it and you can get out from under it,

I don't know if it should be a straight cut, a negotiation for a restructure of some kind. I don't know, but it's hard for me to see someone else coming in here at another position not being a boom to this bear's defense. And if Edmonds has to go away to make that happen, I feel like we can live with that. I agree with that. They showed me, even Amen Ogbog, Bamega. I know he wasn't always active,

but he had a couple of big games. He had a couple big games. He really did. So I do have some trust in Dennis Allen and just the nature of the position not being considered. It's not a premium position. And DeMarco Jackson, we didn't even mention, and maybe people have just given up on Ruben Hippoly.

and maybe that's even fair. It's one year. It's one year. Noah Sewell still? Noah Sewell is there not. He's hurt, but you'll be back? But that's a good example of a guy who made a jump, too. He was not great, but I felt like he had been left for dead until this staff came around

and we finally started to see something from Noah Sewell. So, yeah, I am down with the cut of Tremaine Evans, as likable as he is. And he's a good player, but you can do, he's expendable. Eberflus guy. This is the one. that gets a little bit of hate right here, okay? And I understand it because it's tough for me to say it because I'm a big fan of this player.

I enjoy this player. I appreciate him. As a former player, I respect the heck out of them. But number two, trade somebody. We're going to trade DJ more. What's? Okay? Okay?

I love, like I said, I love big play DJ. I think he's excellent the way he goes out there and gives everything. I know there's been a lot of speculation at last play, whatever. This guy did a good job of buying into the system. He is the 13th highest paid wide receiver. He's making $28 million a year. He was 50th in NFL and receiving yards, 26 in TDs, 25th in pass rating when targeted.

To me, you can find another receiver that can contribute for a lot less money than what you're paying DJ Moore. And right now, DJ Moore, arguably, you got Roma Dunezay, Luther Burden coming on strong. Look at the end of season, Luther Burton, Colston, Loveland. Cole Cometts still under contract. You got all these players. I'm not saying DJ's a bad player. You're over the cap. I think you need help in some other positions.

You've got some playmakers of wide receiver. You can sign another guy to back Rome and Luther and Colston and these guys up. But DJ, if you trade them, you get off the books. Post June 2nd, you get off the books. For his salary, you're probably not going to get much. It's kind of like the Amari Cooper deal when they traded him. He got like a fourth round pick and everybody's like, wait, Amari Cooper with a fourth round pick? They got away from $20-something million.

So Marshall, Grotie, trade DJ Moore. Give me your thoughts. I'm not as sure about this one. I think for a lot of different reasons just because of the way the cap works and what are you really losing? Because last I checked, my lasting impression, of Ben Johnson's final press conference was they got to catch the football. And DJ Moore is a guy who actually, you know, catches the football. And so that's him as a leader.

And I understand he's the highest paid bear. He was the highest paid bear this past season. He's scheduled to be the highest paid bear next season. So I get it. But I think what they need from Caleb Williams, there may be other areas they can address before getting DJ Moore off the roster. Although if they traded him, I would understand it. Dangling him makes sense.

I mean, that does. I mean, it just, it's a logical thing to do. But, yeah, I'm going to go along with the idea that DJ Moore is still, still, and, you know, Colston Loveland might be right on his tail, still their best playmaker, big plays in big moments. And unfortunately, part of the equation for me, too, is Roma Duneze showed me this year that I need to see more from Roma Dunesay. That I need, like that, maybe he's still going to be really good. and he is expected to be really good, considering where he was drafted, like he is supposed to be,

but I'm still not completely sure on that. The cap hit is $28.5 million in 26, 27, and 28. So I like where I get the why. I'm not ready to go with DJ more at this moment. Yeah, so I understand where you're coming from with your creativity of trying to figure out how to get this team under the cap. I just think DJ Moore is too valuable on this roster at this time.

Yep, that is the truth. That is Clay Harbor from CHSN. It's the Rahimi Harrison Grody Show. We will talk more bears with Clay when we return on the score. Rahimi Harrison Grody, Midday's 10 a into two on 670, the score. Third down and four. McCarthy. Time runs out and down he goes.

Just tripped up. And it'll go down as a sack. Pressure by Dio O'Dango, who was brought in by the front office to beef up the pass rush for Chicago. Wow, that was in another time, man. They found a Dio Dengbo highlight? In the first game. Oh, yeah. Against a backup left tackle.

Right. Against a backup left tackle. Let's not forget about that. Give it full context, Clay. The Bears lost. Yes, that was a Dio Dengbo. With the sack, as we welcome me back into Rahimi Harrison Grotty. Just heard the voice of Clay Harbor.

He is with us from CHSN, part of the big pro football show, with our guy David Haw at CHSN and Ruthie Polinsky as well. We've had the luxury of Clay for the last hour, and Clay has to get everybody up to date. Clay has brought us three bold moves that the Bears should make or that he has come up with it. He thinks makes sense, including he has already told us, cut Tremaine Edmonds, trade DJ more.

And there's nuance to it all, so go back and listen if you'd like. But there is one more part to this. There is somebody who you believe the Bears should sign. Yes, I think the Bears should sign. Trey Hendrickson. Oh, yeah. Former teammate of Dennis Allen. He was there when I was in New Orleans when we drafted this guy,

so was Dennis Allen, Trey Hendrickson. He's a hard worker. You go back to 2024. He led the league in sacks, fourth and hits, fourth in hurries. Last year, only played in seven games, had a hip issue. Fifth and pass rush grade when he played. Fifth and pass rush win percentage when he played. Ninth in pressure percentage when he played.

Right. I go back and watch a tape. He's still got it. He's got a quick first step. He's still strong. He's still physical. He is still master's level pass rusher, right? Some of these guys are playing checkers.

playing chess. What I want to make sure, medical's check out, you bring him in on the free agent visit, everything looks good, you say his hips okay, this guy can still play some ball, give him a look. You know, Trey Hendrickson, I think you would fit Dennis Allen, a guy that you can get passers from without having to trade for Max Crosby. I've even seen people saying trade for Miles Garrett, yeah, good luck, you know, without having to give up your entire roster.

Josh Giddy, modest, Prisela, all those guys. The Bulls players. So you wouldn't have to give anything up. And I am. I told you I watched some tape and some edge rushers. Addafe Owe is a little homework for you listeners out there. If you want to see an edge rusher, just type in his highlight if you want to. I wouldn't watch the game against the Patriots.

Is another guy I could see them signing big defensive end edge rusher. Marshall and Grotie, give me your thoughts on Trey Hendrickson. I like the one part that I really, I mean, it's, you know, Trey Hendrickson is terrific. I like the part where you said, make sure this man, is totally and completely healthy and that I'm sure there are ways of projecting such things in terms

of the health, the history, all of that because what goes through my head at the age of 32 is another guy in a different scenario, all that kind of stuff. Jared Allen, once upon a time, came to the Chicago Bears at the end of his career from Minnesota. I don't think he had been as successful in the

previous seasons, taking into account that Trey Hendrickson only had seven starts last year for sacks over that, but the back-to-back seven and a half game sacks as well. So with that all said, and if it checks out, and if he is,

as you said, from watching the film that he's a real one, I'm down with it. So my question, to your question, or your statement, I guess, is how much you want to pay this guy?

Because he just made $29 million last year. How much would you be willing to pay Trey Hendrickson going into his age 32 season? Here's the problem with that, is you already invested a ton into your defensive line. Right. So it is difficult for whoever you want to bring in.

People are saying Max Crosby, even Trey, even Adafay-O-Way, maybe the problem solved here is you have to draft a young guy, cost-controlled guy, because Diobo, Dengbo, even though it's two sacks and one sack and two TFLs all last year and eight games didn't really pan out for you. Grady Jarrett, you know, you can't really do much with that contract. He's still there. Hopefully he gets healthier. Shamar Turner, young draft pick, you hope he pans out.

Maybe you just try to develop these guys. You hope these guys get better. What I saw is I think you have to add to that defensive line if you want to take another step. Those guys aren't talented enough. Dio couldn't cut it from me. Shamar Turner can get better. He's young. Grady Jarrett just seemed a little off near the end of the season.

I thought he looked good in camp. Maybe he can come back, but he is getting up there. So I think it's worth it. And that's why I said, I prefaced it with, you know, cut Tremaine. Edmonds, you need to get that cash flowing somewhere. And then trading DJ. You know, obviously bring in another receiver, but he's the highest paid player on the team. Get that off your books.

And you can bring in a guy like Trey Hendrickson, where I think that is a bigger need position. When you look at the teams in the conference championship game, all of them are top 10 in pressure rate. You're really okay with clearing the money via those first two players in DJ Moore and Tremaine Edmonds just to be able to invest more in your defensive line. have Montez Sweat getting paid on one side and

Trey Hendrickson on the other. I think for Tremaine Edmins, I think if you can get rid of Tremaine Edmins, you can bring another linebacker that can do what he does for a third of the price, probably, half the price. You know, some of the average linebacker, which I think Tremaine is, solid NFL player. And then you can invest that money, restructure

something else, and then bring in an edge rusher, Addafe O'O.A. Trey Hendrickson, I think you really do need an edge rusher. If you're dent in the pocket for the middle and you can find, if Grady Jarrett, you think he's going to come back and be your guy to get pressure, Jervon Dexter, I don't know if I'm seeing it, then that's cool too. But with DJ, I think there's just so much money there for a guy that might not be a top

three option for your team. You can invest in a left tackle even. You got a left tackle and edge rusher. To me, those are the two most important positions on your team right now. We only got a couple minutes left with you. You did it, as you said your words, you had a cup of espresso with the New England Patriots. and one of your stops along the way in your NFL journey. So I have to ask you about Bill Belichick

and not becoming a first ballot Hall of Famer. I think it's unfortunate because only one coach can get elected to the Hall of Fame per year. So now you're pushing the line back even further. And obviously these guys had a bone to pick with Bill Belichick. Nobody thinks that this guy, Don Chula is the only coach in NFL history that has more wins than him.

Eight Super Bowl wins. Six is a head coach. I mean, just being in the room with Bill, the way he handled things, how professionally was, how he handled each player the same. And for me to be complimented this guy, this guy cut me. I play six games there. I got cut from Bill. And I still have so much respect for him as a coach, his system, how he handle everything.

No question this guy deserves to be a first bout Hall of Famer. I don't care if he's dating a 25-year-old or he can't win in North Carolina or what else is going on. That's a big win. Big W for him, yeah. But get this guy in the Hall of Fame, please. Who were the starting tight ends for the Patriots in that year in which you were cut? Yeah, Rob Bernkowski, Martellis Bennett. We drafted a guy, AJ Derby.

And my agent goes when I went there real quick, he's like, you know, they got Gronk and Martellus Bennett. You know, when you're a tight end, when you're in the NFL, you look in the mirror, what do you see? You see the best player. You know, I'm not thinking, I'm not worried. I don't care. If I say healthy, I'm going to beat Martel's. Bennett. I'm going to beat these guys. That's how you feel. That's how you think. That's how you're able to last.

Obviously, I'm not saying this is all correct, but I'm saying you have to have that mindset, you know, just to even be competitive. The next shot is going in. The next shot is going I don't care. The next shot is going in. Yeah, I'm good with going to the Patriots. Who's Martell's Bennett?

Who's the guy they just drafted in the third round? Get me on the field. That's Martel's Bennett. That guy's not missing the team. Martel's Bennett had a heck of a year with the Patriots. You won a Super Bowl that year. That year was on the team. They won the Super Bowl.

That's the year they were down 28 to 3. I was there for six games. ATL, right? Against Atlanta. I did get to double dip, and I made all their playoff checks because I played at least five games. Oh, that's key, man. That's a little bit of a...

I'm so glad I know time to get into this, but I love that you brought that part up. There's so much that goes on in a locker room with players and the death players that you're not even thinking about. And it's money and playoff share. And who should, like, in being part of this with the... for three years. It's like, that guy got cut. Does he still get a playoff share? That's a big deal to players, right? I'm over here at a bar in Chicago, an old town benchmark watching the Super Bowl 20 to 3, and I'm yelling, yeah, we won. Everybody's like, dude, they cut you. Why are you excited?

I go, trust me, I have a reason. We get paid double if you win the Super Bowl versus if you lose. Oh, it's a whole undercurrents with athletes, man. And I love it. I think you guys should get every penny. Clay. Thank you, man. My pleasure. Appreciate you guys having me on and, you know, stay warm out here, out here, fellas, in here. I've raised you well, Clay. You're doing a tremendous job. Continued success, sir. Keep up the dry January, even though some people think that you started drinking. I started drinking again because the DJ Moore comment. I got to get it. I texted. I said that. Yeah, like that. You said it. You're a little ticked. I was

like, no, that's funny, man. That is funny. Yeah, that's funny. That's like, well, sometimes we have to give it to our list. Sometimes you get us. Sometimes you get us. When we come back, we were going to talk to Ben, Verlander major league baseball analyst. He is the host of the flipping bats podcast. Yes, of the famous Verlander family as well. We'll talk Cubs and socks and expand a little bit with him next year. Rahimi Harris and Grotie on the score.

Essentially what we have right now for the Chicago Cubs is the exact same offense as last year, just swapping Alex Bregman for Kyle Tucker. I love both of these guys. I think they're both gamers. It just feels like Alex Bregman might be a, a little bit of a better fit for the team. So they have the same offense, swap Alex Breggman for Kyle Tucker, and the rotation has added Edward Cabrera,

and we'll also get Justin Steeleback. So I've really thought about what the Cubs have done this offseason and my thoughts on it, and I landed on that I really like what the Cubs have done. That's nice to hear. That sounded like the flipping bats podcast to me with Ben Verlander. That's what it sounded like, as we welcome me back into the Rahimi Harris and Grotie show

here on Chicago Sports Radio 6. 60 the score. Let's bring Ben Verlander in. He is a Major League Baseball analyst. He is the host, as I just alluded to, of the flipping bats podcast. He joins us right now on the Circa Resort and Casino hotline, Circa Las Vegas.com. Hi, Ben. Thanks for coming on with us. What's up, guys? Thanks for having me. Absolutely, man. And again, I'd like getting a little taste of your Cubs thoughts right there. But the first thing I want to ask you, man, is, What is the team that you have spent the most time talking about this offseason on said flipping bats podcast? That's a good question. My immediate gut reaction says it's the New York Mets, just because it's been such a polarizing offseason for them. And it's New York. And whether you're a Mets fan, we're freaking out.

Yankees fans jump on board with the comments. conversation. So I feel like I've kind of been like a level head throughout this process of saying, okay, let's wait a second. This team is like completely getting cut down and chopped up and it's not just going to end this way. I felt when Pete Alonzo when they when they let him go and Edwin Diaz and Brandon Nimmo was traded, everyone thought the world was ending for the New York Mets. And my thought was, okay, let's pump the breaks here. It's November, December, you know, Steve Cohen, you know, David Stern, they're going to do something, and I actually think they'll be just fine, and then they make all of these moves,

and it's a totally new-look team. So my gut says I've talked more about the New York Mets than anybody else this off-season. Well, the Mets certainly disappeared for a moment and then reappeared looking as strong as ever as far as a team that can make a push to challenge for the NL Crown. Although when you talk about the NL Crown, I mean, it starts and ends with the Dodgers in my opinion. And I'm curious as to what you think of the Dodgers continuing to just add on to a team that obviously is already the best in the major leagues. Yeah, I mean, if you're a Dodgers fan, this is a perfect world scenario, right? I mean, you look at the Dodgers

last year in the World Series. I look at that World Series and say the Blue Jays were every bit as good of a team as the Dodgers. If not, if there's also a world in which you could say they outplay them for the majority of it and they still lost the series. And then you can come out of that and say, man, the Dodgers have now won back-to-back world series. What in the world is their weakness? And you can immediately say the closer role, they had to figure it out on the fly and then use Yamamoto in back-to-back days. And then they could use another outfielder because Michael Conforto wasn't very good. And they went out and added the best closer available on Edwin-Tiaz and went out and added the best player available probably and Kyle Tucker.

And it's just, if you're a Dodgers fan, it's a dream. And if you're not a Dodgers fan, it's, this isn't fair. And like, I get it, but like they're within the rules. And I commend them as just a fan of the game of baseball. I would put much more of my frustration on teams doing the opposite than them taking advantage of what they can. and they're making their very good team even better. And yeah, I mean, I commend them for putting the team in the position they are

and for going out and making the team better. All of that said then with, you're right, they are doing, when you spend all your money, that's what it looks like. Kyle Tucker is with the Dodgers. The Phillies who won 96 games last year, they bring back Schwabber for all the money. Real Muto is back while we're at it too. We talked about the Mets with Bichette and Peralta and Luis Robert.

if you would like. So steering into the Cubs, the question I have for you, Ben Verlander, is I do think the Cubs are better right now than they were last year. At this moment, I don't know if they could advance further than they did this year. Are they good enough to advance beyond one round of the playoffs? Got a reaction immediately says yes. You know, and that's, in that clip you played, I was kind of like, I knew I wanted to, to talk about the Cubs in the episode. And my thought was, okay, I like the addition of Bregman.

And throughout that segment of the show, I found myself liking the team more and more. And it's interesting because I don't sit here and say Alex Bregman is a better player than Kyle Tucker. But I do feel like I sit here and say Alex Bregman might be a better fit for the Chicago Cubs than Kyle Tucker. And then you go out and think, okay, they've added to a rotation. Edward Cabrera. And you can look at Edward Cabrera's

baseball reference page and say, is that really the piece that excites you the most? And I say, no, but he does have some of the nastiest stuff in baseball and a change of scenery and different pitching coaches and continuing to take steps forward. I do think he can be a top of a rotation guy. Then you look at the playoffs

when they got eliminated in Cade Horton, who was a big part of their second half, wasn't a part of the playoffs. Then you keep going another step further, and say Justin Steele is an absolute ace. They didn't have him for the majority of the year. He's going to come back at some point. So I just really started talking myself into, wait a second,

I think I really like this starting pitching rotation for the Chicago Cubs. I think it has a chance when Justin Steele comes back to be really solid. And then you add Bregman to a lineup that I think can be, again, good. I'm excited to see what Biaseros can. do how to, you know, get more playing time this year and see how he can evolve at the bottom of the lineup and add some thump down there. So, you know, I just found myself like talking through it and realizing I really like this Chicago Cubs roster. In a perfect world, they're not done adding in a world where I know the Chicago Cubs and how they've operated the last few years.

I feel like they are done. And I kind of like this team. Well, Ben, we just heard from them as we're joined by Ben Verlander, host of the flipping bats podcast here on Rahimi Harrison Grotie. We just heard from them at Cubs Convention, and it sounds like they aren't done. And there's been rumors and speculation about possibly adding Zach Gallen. I would like to see them upgrade even more on offense because I just think you never have enough because guys are going to get hurts. Certainly holds true with the arms. But even with the bats, they didn't have that failsafe when Kyle Tucker went down for long stretches. And he was what seemed to be the fulcrum of their offense in the first half when they were doing so well up and down. And we thought

say a Suzuki should have been an all-star. Do you feel like they need the addition of an arm, a big arm, or a big bat more if you're going to continue to add on and ask for more? First off, let's just take a moment to talk about the sentence that you just said that we thought Sayas Suzuki should have been an all-star. Say a Suzuki absolutely should have been an all-star. It was the most egregious snub out there. That was absolutely ridiculous.

So totally agree with you there. I think hopefully everybody does. I look at this Cubs team, and I think in the show the other day, I said, I wish, I hope they aren't done. I think in a perfect world, they add another arm. So my gut says arm, but you're absolutely right, where this lineup doesn't have, you know, if you go into the playoffs with this current lineup one through nine, you feel great about it. But if you go into the playoffs with one of those guys hurt or just coming back and they're not where they need to be. It is lacking. So I totally agree with you there.

So look, my gut still says arm, but if it's a bat, I don't think you can go wrong adding. I would love a Zach Gallen. I feel like Zach Gallen right now. You can get a little cheaper than maybe if he was a free agent a couple of years ago. I still think he's a stud. I think he's an all-star. He has felt like a Chicago Cove to me. Like since trade rumors started, I could see that being a good fit. And if you could add a, if you could add a bat, great. So I think the Cubs are in a, I think the Cubs are in a really good position. And in an addition, one way or another, a top of the rotation arm or a bat for depth is going to be huge for them. What about me? What about maybe adding like a 42-year-old veteran starting pitcher? I hear there's one out there. I hear there's a

couple out there. I see where you're going with this. Justin of the Burlanders. What's your brother up to, man. He is, man, he's feeling great. His year last year, you know, you look at the number. I think everybody looks at age. But to be honest with you, everyone was starting to look at age with my brother when he had to get Tommy John surgery a couple of years ago at 38, 39 years old, and everybody said he's done.

Well, he came back the following year and won the Sy Young Award. So there's just been a few players throughout the history of sports that you can't look at their age and say they're done. Father time catches up with everybody. That may be true, but Justin is doing things a little bit differently, and he's put himself in a position as one of those players in the history of sports that has just pushed Father Time a little bit down the road, and you can look at his numbers last year, especially down the stretch. I don't care that he's 42, about to be 43 and a little bit less than a month. He's going to help a team, and he's not going to help a team because he's a savvy veteran. He's going to help a team because he's a really,

really good pitcher that really focuses on his craft, and it really means a lot to him. And you look at what's still out there. Anything surprised? I mean, we're less than two weeks away or about two weeks away from, you know, pitchers and catchers and then full squads reporting in Arizona and Florida. Are you surprised by anybody that's still out there as a free agent? Because we know sometimes it does take longer for the last guys to get signed. I'm a little bit surprised that I feel like I haven't heard a single thing about Eugenio Suarez. I mean, this is a guy that was a big trade acquisition for the Seattle Mariners. He's a guy that's going to hit you 40 plus homers.

I mean, look, I get it's not the most appealing, like, batting average to say this guy's going to hit you around 220 to 230. But let's look at the OPS. Let's look at this. You can plug a guy right in the middle of your lineup that can hit 40 plus. homers and drive in a bunch of runs for you. And I feel like we haven't been talking about him much. We have talked about him, but I would say it's a little surprising Zach Gallen is still out there. And then one more name I'd throw out just because I was thinking about him the other day and how well he did for the Blue Jays in the World Series and being able to come out of the pen.

But a guy like Chris Bassett haven't really heard much about him this offseason. So there's still plenty of names out there. Fram Braavada is an ace. I think the holdup is just a few different teams fighting for him there. But there's still some big names out there that can really help a team. So if you're a team or a fan of a team that hasn't done much, there's a lot that is still out there to be done. That's the voice of Ben Verlander right there, MLB analyst, host of the Flippin'Bats podcast, which I recommend. You should check it out. If I may, I want to zero in on one player on the Cubs with you, Ben, that I've been wanting to get your opinion on. And that is Pete Crow Armstrong. He had a superstar. He had a superstar,

first half of the season last year, and they just lost it towards the end of the season. What do you think he is? Is that just a guy who hit a rookie wall, or is he still, if we not still figured out who PCA is as a major league player? I think we know who he is. I think he's that first half player. Look, it's a long season. I played professionally for five years, and I, it's very different. But if I could relate to it at all, I would go through the same things because of the length of the season. And it's really difficult to learn how to deal with those. And he's still so young, he is that first half player. And he is a star and he is electric.

It's just as he's young and learning his way through the big leagues, I think he's just going to have to lean on some other players and lean on veterans about how to get through 162 games. because that's part of the difficulty of being a majorly baseball player. It's not just hitting 100 mile an hour fastball, which is the hardest thing to do in sports. It's also playing 162 games in like 180 some days. It's very, very difficult, and that is part of the learning curve.

And I'm really hopeful. I'm hopeful he's able to have that experience from last year and learn from it. And I'm sure he will. And I think having a guy like Alex Spragman on the team, I've said this a bunch, and I think people get confused when I say it about Bregman is Alex Bregman's a great baseball player. He's an all-star. But what he does for a team, in terms of in a locker room, to a pitching staff, what he's able to see from third base, to the rest of the lineup, what he's able to pick up on from pitchers and what he's able to see other guys working

on, I think having a guy like Alex Bregman for Pete Crow Armstrong, which I already heard Pete say they spoke and he's really helped him already, having those veterans there next to him, going through it and saying, hey, this is how good you were last year at the beginning. This is why. And this is how we're going to keep you doing that all year long. I think it's going to be huge for him. So I'm glad he went through it to learn from it. And I'm glad he has veterans on the team to help him and a new veteran Alex Bregman to really help him as well.

Ben, I got to ask you because this is all precursor to 2027, how. How confident are you that we will have baseball and how many games do you think we're going to get in if we do have baseball? Yeah, I, you know, I continue to stay cautiously optimistic. I think the fact that everyone in the world thinks we're not going to, it kind of gives me hope that we are. You know, the league sees that and everybody sees that. And there are issues that need to be fixed, as there are every time of CBA. comes up. These are just in the age of social media and in the age of what the Dodgers are doing right now, I think everybody's just more vocal about the upcoming CBA. We have a year to, we have a

year to figure this out. And I'm hopeful and cautiously optimistic that we are able to. I'm obviously not in those rooms and I'm obviously hopeful and a little biased for love of the sport that we don't miss any games. So look, I hope, I think conversations start, like right around now. I think spring training the year before the CBA is up. And I'm hopeful they can figure it out. So I'm going to say they play 162 games. I don't know if, you know, December 1st when it's technically a work stoppage,

I don't know if we figure it out by then. But at some point throughout the offseason, hopefully both sides can figure this out because the sport just has too much momentum. We have the greatest player of all time in Shohei Otani. We have Aaron Judge on a Barry Bond's-esque run, and he's putting himself in the conversation for the greatest hitter we've ever seen. We just have so much good happening in the sport

and attendance and viewership is on an upward trajectory, and it just gives me cautious optimism that everyone sees that and doesn't want to ruin that. Ben, last thing quickly, and we are running out of time very quickly here. But when we talk about the White Sox around here, it's not going to be another 100-loss season, is it? Is it possible, Ben, that the White Sox, with their young core

and some of the signings, the Munataka Marikami, Sir Anthony Dominguez, Sean Burke in the bullpen? Is it possible that the White Sox are one of those surprise teams this year, or do you think there's still a little ways off? I spoke about the White Sox recently as well. I love the addition of Murakami. I think it's a high, upside, low risk move with the years and dollars attached to him. I love the addition of him with this young core that I'm actually really starting to like. So look, do I see them as a surprise team to get into the playoffs? No. But do I start to view them as an exciting team that might actually

be a little bit fun to watch this year. I view them this year as I did like the A's last year. Like this young core is starting to have some exciting players. I'm now excited to watch them and I don't think they lose a hundred games. That's where I think the White Sox are currently. That's a fair place to put them. And yeah, when I said surprise team, I mean 500 or 10 games. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I can see that. That would be a surprise team. Ben, exactly. Thank you so much for your time. Always good to hear for me keep on rocking on the flipping bats podcast. Thanks, Ben. Thanks, guys.

Really fun being on here. Appreciate it. Yep, that is Ben Verlander. Again, yes, he is of the Verlander family. I told you, I warned you. He's an MLB analyst, obviously very good at what he does. And like I said, the flipping bats podcast is very good. When we return on Rahimi Harrison Grotie, Michael Jordan, Michael Jordan.

We must talk about Michael Jordan. And reaction to Michael Jordan about his famous now. more infamous NBC interview. Can it be both? Let's want to get Charles Barkley in on this too? I think we should. Let's do that. It's next on the score. Listen to Rahimi Harrison Grotie on the Odyssey and IHeart Radio apps. I think...

Looking forward to coming to the United Center and see the Jersey hanging up there with my jersey. But if not now, when? This is kind of a continuation of the... Let's just call it a Rahimi Harrison Grotie series. It's going to be an ongoing series. Oh, incites to MJ? Yeah, it's like a Netflix series. Not, no, it's, we want more from Michael.

We want him to be here. We want him to be accessible. We want you to like us. Sometimes it feels like he doesn't like us anymore. We all do. And not just in Chicago. Obviously, in Chicago, that's a big deal. It's a big part of it.

We want more. And it feels like it shouldn't be this difficult in so many different occasions through the years. We're like, oh, Jordan's not going to be there? Why isn't he not going to be there? It's hard to predict where Michael Jordan will show up. I, everybody in Chicago, everybody in the nation, has always wanted more from Michael Jordan. That's why when the documentary came out during the pandemic, well, that was one of the reasons everybody watched it because it was the pandemic, because everybody wants more from Michael Jordan. And that is why when we started here about how Michael Jordan was going to do this be part of NBC's coverage as it goes.

goes back to NBC, retro as they were during the 90s Bulls, Michael Jordan would be part of it. And we all wonder what it would be. Is it going to be an analyst and all that stuff? No way, it's going to be an interview with Mike Torrico. And then we find out that Mike Torrico interviewed him for about three hours or so, and they're just going to take little segments on the way. It doesn't mean that it's not interesting, but we're still not getting much of Michael and he's getting all the money to do it.

So something about it just still feels like a ripoff, right? Do you agree with that? I don't know that ripoff is. the right word. I just think that if you always leave them wanting more, they're going to want more. That's how that works. That's like, okay, let me give

this very plain terms that you can definitely understand. Our audience can understand. Oh, you're going to dumb it down for me. Well, no, no. Every, I'm just for everyone. You meet a girl. Uh-huh. Okay? You like the girl. Hey, girl. And you get her number.

By getting her number, she has told you she wants more of you. Correct? Correct. But are you going to overwhelm her or are you going to slow roll it with her? Yeah, got to play cool, man. Not even, I don't think it's playing cool. I think it's reading the room and understanding normal social cues of how much to give someone so that they're always wanting more. Oh, wow. So it's like he knows we want him and he's just teasing us and giving us little. He's Michael freaking Jordan. He's checking out his shoe sales. From not only people who are now your age, but also their kids still wearing his shoes.

In the clip we came in from the break, in that message to Derek Rose, he said, I can't wait to go to the United Center and see your jersey hanging next to mine. Okay. When's he going to be here? Exactly. When's he going to be here? Let us know. What's your name? What's your number?

Have you ever felt suffocated by someone? in a relationship? Yes. Okay. Everyone has. I was going to say probably in every relationship because of me.

It's because of me. I'm a single man and there's a reason for us. It's me. This is going to escape you because, again, you're older, the theme of the day. All right.

Enough. There's a cartoon called Tiny Tunes, which a large portion of our listenership are. I know what Tiny Tunes is. I do. There's a character

called El M. Ira. Okay. A little redhead and she gets a hold of animals and she just, I'm going to love you and she's just crazy, right? Michael Jordan knows we're already crazy about him. Population at large, basketball fans at large, Chicago at large. If he gives you too much of him, he's going to feel that suffocation.

That's a good point. Right. He just doesn't need the adulation anymore. He doesn't need it. Yeah. He's not out here. It's not a crisis of confidence for him. It's a crisis of confidence for the city of Chicago to get the return of the love that you gave him for so many decades now.

It's been decades. You know when I think the last of it was, now that I think about this for Jordan, when he may have had that feeling of, I just, I don't need the city. I can't. Honestly, it was the first time he went back to the United Center as a member of the Washington Wizards. And here's why they gave him, and justifiably so. And I recorded it, took it all in because it's the same day as the same day as the... the Bears were playing in the playoffs against the Eagles. And they applaud, what was it, like 10 minutes, 15 minutes?

That's crazy. That's a massive of, and him just having to stand there and smile and take it in. And I get it. This sounds ridiculous. All the poor guy was being honored and cherished. Like, I don't think Jordan is comfortable being the king. And I guess that's probably good. I think there's a difference from being the king and understanding that it's too much.

It's somewhat of a cult. Yeah. It's somewhat of a cult. He's John Lennon. He's Paul McCartney, right? Can't go outside of your place. Like there's not ever so long anywhere in the city, period. There's a few places he can just walk anywhere.

Period. But in this city? And the more money he makes, the farther he can isolate himself too. So that's why when people say, you don't need the money. Like, he doesn't need the money. Yeah, he does. Because he can get farther away from us, the more money he makes. He's going to be on Jupiter in 10 years.

That's how far away he's going to be from us, because of all the money. money he makes. Other billionaires can walk around with a sense of anonymity still in some places. Michael Jordan cannot. Just think of it that way. It's true. That said, other folks have weighed in on this. Charles Barkley

is disappointed by Michael Jordan's lack of presence on NBC's NBA coverage. I was excited. We need Michael Jordan affiliated with the NBA. But now you see this thing coming out with NBC and you're like, wait, y'all did one interview like five months ago

and y'all going to sprinkle it throughout the season. Come on, man. That's disingenuous by NBC. Listen, that's crazy, man. I'm so disappointed that the way that worked out. I talked to NBC. NBC has actually offered me a contract. but that's just it's a bad look for NBC

and it's just a bad look plain and simple all right that's Charles Barkley right there and that's on serious XM radio making his feelings about it clear and I think I understand where Charles is coming from that we expected more and it felt like I think bait and switch is probably too harsh but that's basically what he's saying let me play this for you as well right now. The more react to all of it

because somebody has to give the other side or at least an explanation. Let's have Mike Torrico do that. Mike Torrico is the man that did the interview. He is the man over at NBC and he was on the Pat McAfee show yesterday. He explained the whole process on

the shooting of the Michael Jordan interview for NBC's NBA coverage. A lot of people thought it was going to be something that we never said it was going to be, which is fine because that's the way things happened. That was us. That was us. Yeah, that was 100% on.

We were a part of that group, too, yes, we're saying. I was trying to be passive-aggressive there. Yeah, I heard you. We heard it. Yeah, we heard it. We owned it. We owned it. Oh, listen, listen, so of course, Michael,

anytime he talks about basketball is going to make people stop and listen. Michael's above the day-to-day, hey, Shams said, Yonis is going to be on the trade block. That's not Michael. Jordan? Right, come on. So Michael was interested in doing this because, his connection and legacy with NBC.

If Michael's going to do anything, it's going to be different and special. Michael's not going to throw himself into the ring to be one of the seven or eight guys making comments. That's not who MJ was, is, or probably will be. So the chance to go down and get Michael really wanted to talk about where the game is and where it's going. And he had some feelings about that he is not expressed publicly. And as I said, look, of course we do that, right? And the thing is, every time we do roll out a new piece of it, people are like, oh, Michael said this. This is interesting.

And talked about it. So it makes sense. So was it great? It was awesome to hang out for a couple of days and talk basketball and life and all the stuff with Michael. Off the charts. I never expected, and I don't think anybody expected that Michael Jordan was going to be Shams Sharani or Wojj before him.

Nobody expected that. I think that was a waste of breath by Mike Carrico there. No, no, no, but that's not what he was saying. No, no, but I'll go on. But he did say that. He did make a point of saying nobody, but he also said nobody expected Michael Jordan to be the guy, to be Charles Barkley, to give the opinions. I didn't expect that either what I did expect or really hope for was that he would just

be live in the studio, in person, even if it was doing an interview, if it was just doing a segment, it was going down, you know, going down like old days or whatever it was. I wouldn't have expected that. At minimal, I would have expected Michael Jordan to be present and live during their studio show. I don't know that I expected that. I think 773 on the text line understands. And everyone just needs to accept this. I admit, I'd love to hear Jordan's take on actual players by names and takes on the season.

Never going to happen. I think I went into this understanding that's not what this was going to be. Because- I knew that. Oh, so then what is it that you want? I would have liked to just show that he cared a little bit. Have it every week Michael Jordan is in your studio. And you can ask him, whatever you want to ask him about what's going on in the end.

I guess that would. That's what I'm saying. That would. I mean, but like why at minimum would he not do that? Because he doesn't need to do that. He gets to talk about whatever he wants because he's Michael Jordan. And guess what? You're going to tune in whether it's live or whether it's once they put the clips out on social media.

We're a sucker for it here on the score. That's two segments right there. Write that down, Ray. It's not even being a sucker for it. It's because he left you wanting more. And so the little bit that he gives you, the bread crumbs that he gives you, you will happily, no matter how stale the breadcrumbs might end up being. And I don't think they've been stale, to be fair. But you're going to lap it up.

And you're going to take it and you're going to like it. And you're going to ask, where are some more breadcrumbs that I can find? Let me ask you, do you think that NBC should have been more transparent prior to it about what Barclay? was saying. Barclay feels like NBC was in some way devious, dishonest. I don't know what the word is. No, no. I don't think they were devious, dishonest.

They let your imagination run free, which is great marketing, by the way. No, it's not an NBC thing. It's a freaking capitalist, you could even argue, late-stage capitalist type of thought process. It's like, how do we get our desired result? Guess what? They push the buttons that got the desired result, right? And you may not like it, but guess what? you'll take it, you'll eat it, you'll deal with it.

Because that's the world we live in, baby. That's the world. The same world that's going to have people acting like they're mad about Indiana, but still supporting the bears once they move to Indiana, is the same world that's going to sit here and lap up whatever Michael Jordan's got to say whenever he's got to say it. It doesn't matter if there's nothing in Geraldo's vaults when they break it open. They didn't owe you anything, but we all watched.

Listen, you're telling the story. You know I'm right. Yeah. Do you know what I'm talking about, Ray? You don't want me to be right, but you know I'm right. I remember that that was a huge thing, the Geraldo Rivera, like, in the vault, like bust open the vault. I didn't have any recollection of what was in it. And there was nothing in it. Are you serious? I just remember being a big event. 9-17, by the way, 9-17. Gretzky does the day-to-day analysis. It does cheapen his image a tad. That's the whole point. He's above the freaking frame. I get where you're coming from. I do. Because eventually, right? because eventually he's going to have a take you don't like

and it's going to make him sound like a boomer to keep on theme. That's the reality. He's a player who played in a different era. Yes, he is the greatest of all time. But all you're going to remember, recency bias is the last thing he said about that one player that really is insignificant in the whole scheme of things

when you're talking about freaking Wayne Gretzky. Same thing, Jordan's like, I don't need that. Give me my cash. I'll do my thing and I'll see y'all later. And you know what? When I see you all later, you're going to be so happy that I came back so you can see. So, Marshall, what you're saying is, you know, to bring it all the way, all the way, full circle to another segment on this show is it could, has potential to reach Bill Polian Hall of Fame level. Stop it.

Stop participating. Enough. Enough. Give him a big hug. He's done great things. We appreciate it. I can't see that happening with MJ. Yeah, yeah.

No, nobody would ever say Matt for Björ. Does Jordan think the bear should train D. By the way, I also thought, too, the Haraldo thing. Is there any better place than the Ron Kumer well, drop if like you were doing the... Well, there's two hours of preview. There's five weeks of buildup. There's nothing in the vault. Grotie.

Well, one more. 815. I tune in to watch Michael Jordan talk about the MLB, even though he wasn't a good player, and probably doesn't know as much about the MLB as the NBA. Why? Because he is an idol. He is the guy that made Chicago the place to be and watch for almost 15 years. And I guess the other part of it.

too is there's no way Michael Jordan wants to sit down and watch a basketball game, a late night basketball game, and have to analyze it because that's work. Does Jordan think the bear should trade DJ more? That's the line of the day. We have transition coming up next on the Speedo and Home show. Oh, wait a minute. We have another whole segment before that. What are we doing next?

The show is officially off. I just tried to end the show. Great help, Mark. So you guys tell me. Yeah, we have a couple more fun things. Oh, I see Kevin Durant is on the show. Kevin Durant reads mean tweets and also there was another Charles Barkley related event from, you know, his whole crew on, which is now on ESPN, that there's a funny

moment. We haven't seen very much of the inside the NBA crew on ESPN since they've debuted this basketball season. And when they finally were on for what the third time, Marshall, the fourth time, whatever, was. They had some little snafu happen with a prominent ESPN voice. Oh, yeah. I'm looking forward to that. I'm glad we have more show

left. I saw Spiegel walking with purpose towards the studio. That's what threw me off on the whole. He had that expect... Are you going to the break? Look on his face. So that's what happened. It's Rahimi Harrison Grotie on the score. Midday's 10 a.m. to 2

on Chicago Sports Radio 670 the score. I am Sarah Fee. That's a lotion. That's what Sarah V is. And that was from a, was it a commercial, Tyler? Yeah, a Super Bowl commercial, I believe a couple years ago with Michael Sarah. Sarah V. Sarah, get it?

Yeah. Super Bowl marketing. That's good, guys. We're going to get more of it coming up. That's great. Do you moisturize? I do. How often do you moisturize?

On the daily. Okay. I do. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, like, I have a daily face thing where you put the lotion. A regimen? Yeah, yeah. Rejeman.

Yeah, regimen. Your entire body. No, I don't do that. Okay, so you don't do that. Because you don't ever worry about anything getting ashy. Oh, yeah. Talk to me about ashy. Tell me about ashy.

Well, Ashley is like if you have darker skin, the darker skin, the more ashy you will actually, I mean, you can be ashy without it showing up, but the darker your skin is, when you get ashy, that's a lack of moisturization, your skin turns like a whitish color. So for a lot of Caucasian people, they don't really think about it because their skin's already white. Right. And that is why you see in. locker, one of the most important things in an athlete's locker and the African Americans

is the lotion. The lotion is very important. It's very important to Kevin Durant, Kevin Durant, who is now doing an endorsement for that lotion, Sarah V. And you educated me a little bit on how Ashley is known to be. So there was this video of him where his legging that he wears and his sock don't quite come together. so you could see just like a sliver of his skin,

just like a skinny sliver. And people noticed that it looked like scales. She just looked awful. It was white and scaly looking. And they were like, do you not use lotion? And he's taking so many jokes over the years because all that man cares about is ball. I remember watching a video one time

where he woke, like someone pretending to be Kevin Durant, woke up in the morning like Kevin Durant's day. And like he wakes up, he takes a brush, and then he throws into the garbage can because he doesn't brush his hair. Same vibes, but for moisturization and lotion. But now apparently he's got a lotion deal, a moisturizer deal. He does, and part of it is this, which you were about to hear now,

Kevin Durant, reading off tweets, pointing out his ashyness. Bro, Katie, please put some lotion on your legs, dog. Why are you actually watching my legs so closely? Every time I forgot to put lotion on my ankles, I think about that one photo of Kevin Durant's ashy ankles. I had 35 on 12 shots that night. That is way more important than my ashy ankles. No way Katie can be that ashy.

No way. L-O-L.O-M-G. It was a skin incident. My legs went viral. It's all good. There's Ashy and then there's Kevin Durant. So I set a new scale for Ash. Kevin Durant knows Dan well that running down the core where ashy legs is highly flammable.

I have yet to see that. I've been Ashy in plenty of games. I might not be a millionaire, but at least least I moisturized regularly. That's good. That's an affordable practice. Hopefully you become a millionaire like me. They chant, you need lotion at KD. I'm dying. Oh, is that funny? Okay. No wonder he always wears those long-ass legs sleeves. That is not the reason why I wear legs sleeves. It's because I'm cold in these arenas, not because I'm ashy. Next time you take a matter into your own hands, make sure it's lotion. That's actually pretty funny. I don't have a reply to that.

to be the first NBA player with a lotion deal. I am Sarah Vee. Kevin Durant, you actually fool you. I love how he leans into it, though. I know, man. Isn't this the essence, too, of the world in which we live? Where people, like, he's being dehumanized right there. But it's okay because he's a superstar. He makes Kevin Durant, and he makes millions, and he's accessible, and he fires back.

But what a horrible thing to be inflicted with, I guess. Not to be inflicted with it. It's not like some disease. But the fact that he is the, he's the poster child for ashyness. It's funny because he got made fun of for this, but he turned it into cold hard cash. So now he's laughing. Jokes on. Because now he's moisturized and he's richer.

He's got it all. He's actualized and he's moisturized. I am Kevin Durant. That's why KD is one of my favorites because he will, and you remember the burner accounts, right? Yeah. He will interact with the people. What's the best over-the-counter lotion going these days? Oh, man.

We're talking like a straight-up lubiderm here situation. I've done luberderm, Navia. Navia's a good one. I got the drunk elephant, you know, that's a little bit up there, though. Yeah. Yeah. I have Sarvee at the house, too. Cerrivy's your go-to?

I have, yeah. I keep. I don't want you coming in here, Ashie. I do not. Okay, no. What's funny is I had the Jergins portable. Jergins, that's the other one, yeah. And I can't find it.

So, like, that's what I keep in my bag. Okay. And I don't have it because I like to throughout the day. Yeah, you like fully. You don't want to have the ashy elbows, ashy ankles. Maintain. Maintain. KD is my hero.

He turned into a freaking endorsement. Got paid. Yeah, he did. I hope he keeps on the... How can you not love KD? Right. Having a sense of humor about yourself is like the most endearing thing one can have. But with some people like him who you don't have to have a sense of humor.

If you can't self-deprecate, I don't trust you. That was a skinsident. Skinsident. All right. Now we are going to bring in our guys. The Spiegel and Holmes show is next. Today, starring Matt Spiegel. And Dan Weider's back for more.

I don't know what he wants. But Dan Wheater is back for more. He is in for Lawrence. We'll talk to those two guys next on the score. It rubs the lotion on its skin or else it gets the hose again.