Rahimi, Harris & Grote Show - Full Show — September 11, 2026

Episode Date: September 11, 2026

Leila Rahimi and Mark Grote previewed the Bears-Panthers matchup Sunday in Week 1 of the 2026 NFL season.

This hour is brought to you by four seasons, heating, air conditioning, plumbing, sewer, and electric for all the right reasons. Call 8664-4-4-4-4-Seasons. Rahimi and Grody and Grotie on 104-3 The Score. Conspiracy theory. Can we end the show with a good conspiracy theory? That's what we'd like to do here on Raheimian Grotia. Good ending, a good conspiracy theory. Conspiracy, yes. I'm a believer that everybody has at least one or two.

And if you don't, you're the... I'm very into that comedic bit. Now that's just certain people I have no time for. Like if you're sexist or if you don't believe in conspiracy theories. Just don't understand how do you not believe in any conspiracy theories? I understand not all of them, not most of them, but you don't believe in any conspiracy theory? You just think the government's just batting a thousand and telling us the whole truth? We all have a couple.

NBA draft for me is up there. Basketball reasons, David Stern, uh-huh, uh-huh. Okay, you mean to tell me Zion just happens to go to the pockets? Uh-huh. Right, and gambling back in the day. There's a lot of them. Yeah. See, everybody, you all have, everybody's nodding here in the crowd.

Babe Ruth never existed is one that I love. Oh, wow. Really? He never existed. So, D.K. Metcalfe believes that Antarctica has a civilization inside Earth. She's not pancaped under a giant hunk of steel or anything. She's, um... How do I talk about this? Uh, well, there's this, this world.

Under ours? Under the place. The upside down. In an interview with the athletics, Jonathan Jones, Mekap declared that Antarctica is another world. I do think he's right, though, but he's talking about Antarctica, but what he really means is the ocean. But I don't think the civilization is of us.

Isn't there a whole movie about that? We have no idea how many animals are truly down there. That's true. Yes, there are depths of the sea. There may yet be a lock-nest monster. Presenting the ninth wonder of the world. The 8th being Gomer Piles' heavenly singing voice, I'll give you the luckness monster.

Bigfoot, you know that there's a big foot running around the city right now. There may be one in Lakeview right now. That is just running around here. That's just a really drunk guy who got lost. A big drunk hairy guy. He's bare chested and banging his chest. Now he runs the opposite way. He runs with the 50.

He runs at the 40. The guy is drunk, but there he goes. Mark Grody. Midday's 10 a.m. to 2 on Chicago Sports Radio, 104.3, The Score. You know what's up on Rahimi and Grotie on 1043, The Score today. You are 100% absolutely listening to a four-season heating, air conditioning, plumbing, sewer, and electric football Friday, presented by your local Ford dealers and Advent. act accordingly today. Lots of football and bears. We've got Kevin Fishpain at 1025 from the Athletic. He'll be with us all year. At 11 o'clock, the former NFL safety, Eugene Robinson, will be on with us. He is also part of the Carolina Panthers Radio Network. We'll do predictions. We'll talk about Caleb. We'll talk about offense. We'll talk about defense. Layla, we'll do it all. How are you doing on a football Friday on the score and Rahimi and Grody? It's about time. I still can't quite wrap my head.

round it. It doesn't really hit for me until the first real game, which I don't think was yesterday. And I don't think it was the day before that. That we'll get to it. They tried. I told you guys, I didn't want Niners and Rams to be ruined by travel. And lo and behold, it was ruined by travel. Be here for five on it at noon because Layla will have much more to say about that. Hey, one team showed up yesterday. The Brock Purdy team showed up yesterday. The Mike Mike Evans, Debo Samuel, DeMarcus Robinson team showed up last night. They also showed up days in advance, which is why they looked like they had slept. The forever conundrum with the travel.

I remember we went through all of this with the Bears going to London. Should they go early, which they did? Should they go late? What's better? What is better for the team? Do you act normal? Who's going to be more prepared for week two? We'll get into more of that in five on it.

But Layla, I think that the consensus of the Chicago Bears, if there is one thing that we all seemingly agree on. It is that the biggest question mark on this team, and maybe even the part of this team, this Bears team that will make it or break it, will dictate how far you go or don't go in the postseason this year is the defense. Do you think we're on the right track?

Are we at a consensus that is the defense that we truly need to zero in on if we are to talk about a potentially successful Chicago Bear season? Well, I think what the Bears are hoping for is that their offense is so much better that the defense isn't as much of a question. That's where the investment has been. That's where the personnel focus has been.

Even in the draft, you could argue they added a lot to the offense when they could have added more to the defense. And then they trade away guys like Jervon Dexter late in the preseason process. So they've told you that that has been the focus. Ben Johnson is your head coach. The secret's out. You know that this is a more offensive-minded team. So I still think they're leaning on that for the majority of their success.

The question is, is this defense going to do enough? Enough. Ben don't break, whatever you want to call it, to be able to survive the injuries in the secondary, the lack of a pass rush last year somehow turning into with the backups you signed, and Jordan Vanderberg, hopefully, being the guy you thought he was in the preseason, is all of that going to help you? get to a place where you feel better about the team's defensive unit. And I don't know that I'm there yet.

Question mark for me is, is the defense going to be good enough? I'm not even asking for good. I'm just asking for better than in the lower third of the league when it came to the important defensive metrics, which is what they were last season. Can you be the 18th best defense? Can you be what the Carolina Panthers were last year?

The 16th best defense. Can you have more than 35 sacks as you were? had last year. By the way, Carolina had 30, but they did more discernible things to up their defense this year with a couple of guys that they added, obviously, in Jalen Phillips and Devin Lloyd. I was listening to, and I know you were this morning as well, to the Bears defensive coordinator, Dennis Allen. And I thought that by not saying very much, he was saying a lot as the Bears defensive coordinator met with the media yesterday and shared his observations on the Bears defense from last year to this year?

I think it's still to be determined. You know, I mean, we've had, you know, three preseason games, a couple of joint practices. We've had a training camp. You know, I think, I think, you know, the guys are buying into, you know, how we have to play defense. I think there's still some things that we're learning on in terms of, you know, exactly what to do and everything. but how we play and the speed that we have to play at, I think our guys are buying into that, and our guys are playing hard. So, listen, I like where we're at, and yet, you know, we'll find out more after Sunday.

Well, and it's important to point out, too, and that's Bears' defensive coordinator, Dennis Allen, right there, that the question that he was asked at the beginning of that is, how is your defense going to be better this year than it was last year? And he says right off the bat, it is to be determined. That is about as honest of an answer as you are going to hear from him or anybody else out at Hallislaw. Because he very well could have said, oh yeah, we're excited about our linebackers this year. We've got the rookie first rounder Dylan Thineman out there. We've got, you know, Montez Sweat coming off at double-digit sack year. He could have gone the cheerleader route just saying the positives for the sake of saying the positives.

But he's right about that. Like I said it. Look, the Dravon Dexter thing, I don't know if you are a better defensive line without Dravon Dexter. But I am excited to see what these new faces on the Bears' defensive line can do. I am like everybody else. Excited about what I saw from Jordan Vandenberg, the rookie. I am excited about what we saw in training camp from Contavius Street. I am excited about Neville Gallimore coming off a pretty good year last year and what he might add. I am excited about Jaden Loving because he stood out in the practices that I went to.

So I am excited. I've turned the corner a little bit on the defensive line, but I don't know. These are all what ifs. What if Vandenberg is really good when the lights come on? I don't know if he's going to be. I don't know if Neville Gallimore is an ascending player at this point. I don't know if what we saw from Jaden Loving will translate actually to real NFL games. If he'll even be dress on opening day for the Chicago.

Bears is James Lynch some sort of revelation? While I'm excited to see the new guys from what I saw in camp, I don't know. It's to be determined, as Dennis Allen said. I'll say this, Lela, the last thing that I'll say about this, the position group that I am pretty convinced about with the Chicago Bears on defense is the linebackers. I like DeMarco Jackson, two great games last week in particular where he was NFC player of the week. I'm excited about Devin Bush.

And I know Tremaine Edmonds had an excellent year last year, but I think Bush is a little bit better. And getting to see T.J. Edwards look like T.J. Edwards in the last preseason game was heartening for me. So I'm excited about that position group right there. But it feels like the rest of it is, per Dennis Allen, to be determined. Well, and we don't even know what's actually being determined when it comes to the depth chart. We have the unofficial depth chart, which I just pulled out of my backpack. But the bear's defense on the unofficial depth chart has Montez-Weck, Grady Jarrett, Contavius Street.

Do you think that Contavius Street is going to be the guy on Sunday starting? And I asked this to Herb. Herb Howard when he was at Hallis Hall and joined us with a report yesterday. What's up, Herb? We were trying to figure it out. Okay, well, if that's a case, what's the snap count looking like? How much are you going to have to rotate these guys in and out to maybe just also get that tempo, get that pace, get everybody the experience they need? We don't know the rotation yet. It's a great point.

And so when we don't even know that, I appreciate Dennis Allen telling the truth because this is a bear's team that if you look again, Mark, and you've got the numbers as well as anybody else. Let's just start with the obvious one, 29th in the NFL in a loud yards per game in the regular season. We know the run defense was bad. They know they we didn't run, they didn't rush the pass or enough. How comfortable are you going to let Bryce Young get on Sunday? And that is really going to be a key in this. The Bears want to start fast and score fast, but their defense, you've got to be able to keep off the field, too.

Those two go hand in hand, and I really hope the plan works on Sunday. I like some of the chant. And we'll get into this as the show goes on, but specifically the Bears' defense against the offensive line of Carolina. They're inside guys. Their guards are really good, but their tackles are suspect with Monroe Freeling and Rashid Walker having to step up for the injured players. and Tyler Moten and Iku Macuanu out as well for the Carolina Panthers.

So that's an interesting storyline to keep an eye on and if they can take advantage of that Montez Sweat. This segment is being brought to you by Almost Free Teeth.com Save on Dental Implants today. Dennis Allen continued to discuss his expectations for the defensive line for this season. At the end of the day, I want our guys to go out there and play hard, play fast, play physical, and execute their assignments. And then, look, if it's a physical thing, then, you know, that happens in our league. You know, everybody here gets paid. Everybody's under contract.

So sometimes there's some physical things that take place and guys make plays. But I want our guys to be relentless. And, you know, at the end of the day, however many plays it takes, 60 plays, 70 plays. 80 plays, whatever the case may be. You know, hopefully if we continue to play with the relentless intensity and we force the offense to have to execute, that's ultimately what we're looking for. Everybody wants relentless intensity, so he's just using those words. He doesn't know.

Well, he probably has a better idea than he's letting on right now. But you want to see sweat breakthrough early. You want to see Austin Booker breakthrough. And I'm intrigued, Lela, if not optimistic about Diodan. because he's just got to be good, right? He's just got to be better. There's a lot of that with the defense. Are you optimistic or are you just wishing for things?

No, well, I'm optimistic. And I guess maybe this is naive of me, basing it on one preseason game where he made a couple of plays and had that quarterback hits, I believe it was in the second preseason game where it was like, okay, there's an idea of what Ryan Poles told me the first time I asked about him, watch how he interrupts games, even if he's not getting the gaudy saying, back numbers, which he did not do in Indianapolis.

He invited me to watch the tape, see what he does, and he was interruptive in that particular game. So it was a sign of life, I guess, and I'm buying it to a certain degree. I don't think it's a secret that they signed him based on his quarterback pressures and what his potential was. I don't think that at all. But that wasn't a secret. That was what they thought that if he had that kind of potential when it came to

his pressures and just how he looked, making the offense look different. then that was going to be something that turned into more of a pass rush. But the bottom line is it hasn't. So prove me wrong on Sunday. Show me how motivated you are and how this helps. And we've gotten questions, well, what about Carolina's tackles being injured? If they can run it up the middle like a lot of teams did against the Bears last year, I don't know how much that's going to hurt him.

That's the issue. That's why I said that's, I mentioned that in the fact that the guards are really good. I was answering a question on the text line. Oh, I got you. But the point is, you know, Mark, It helps, but not if you have an alternate game plan that's successful against a team that didn't do either well last year. Truth. Opening week on the score is presented by Hands Free Skechers Slip-ins.

Just step in and go. Let's keep the conversation cooking. We'll get into the offense a little bit and other things with our next guest. Kevin Fishbane, senior writer at The Athletic covering the Chicago Bears and more. will join us next year on a football Friday on Rahimi and Grody on 1043 the score. Kevin Fishbein, Bears Beat Rider for the Athletic. He brought back the same group that was 25th in the league and pressure percentage or whatever it was in the bottom third.

But I do think that barring some kind of surprising name, and again, we know Ryan Poles will look at everything. Kevin Fishbane talking Bears. Matt Eber, Flew, George McCasky, Ryan Poles, Kevin Fishpane. On Chicago Sports Radio. It is Rahimi and Grody on a football Friday on 104.3, the score Bears and Panthers noon in Carolina on Sunday. Absolutely cannot wait. We love that Kevin Fishpane is back with us for yet another season here on the score. Fishing Business is the senior writer at the athletic covering the Bears. What's going on? Kevin. How are you, man? Thanks for being back with us. How many bears this morning, Grody?

Oh, my God. I mean, I'm feeling the vibe is 10 bears right now. I can't help myself. I'm probably getting out of control. But will you settle for 10? Is that okay? I think that's plenty. Listen, listen, they're starting the season in Charlotte against the Panthers. So it's, you know, it might be, you know, the number of bears might be a little limited. This isn't like, you know, week one at home against Green Bay. That's true. So it's a good way to temper things to, you know, to pace yourself. when it comes to the number of bears. That's fair. They did beat Carolina a couple of years ago, very convincingly. I think it was an Andy Dalton start then. There was the bad playoff game in 2005. There was the Eddie Jackson game in 2017.

Anyway, Fishy, I loved that you asked Press Taylor, the Bears' offensive coordinator in the press conference about the Bears' very first drive, not just because I'm interested in the first drive. I'm so interested in what the Bears' offense looks like in the first game early on in the season as we head to the next level, supposedly the next level of Ben Johnson and Caleb Williams. What are you thinking about that and what is your take on the Bears' offense early in the season or just for this first game against the Carolina Panthers?

You know, I'm always fascinated by the opening drive of a game, and part of it is having covered this team for so long, And you think of how many times we've watched the opening drive of the game and it just sputters. And I just like always step back and remind yourself like these coaches and players spend all week preparing for this moment, for this opening drive. Last year, as great as the offense was, they went like they didn't score in their first drive, the final nine games of the season. So I'm just fascinated by the philosophies of it, especially when it's the first game of the season. I thought Prest Taylor was pretty interesting where he says they do all this self-scouting. in the spring and they might throw some plays out, really reinvest in some things that they

think they do well. And then they start game playing for Carolina and they go, wait a second, that play we threw out, we actually might want that play because it might work against Carolina's defense. So there was this kind of push and pull and then ultimately on Sunday we'll see. And I did a little research to see how often the Bears have scored in their opening drive in the last 25 years only nine times. But that's actually tied for the most in the division. So everyone just can relax that first drive because it's not, it's just an opening drive.

However, Grody, I also, my research told me five of the six times the bears have won the division this century, they scored on their first drive of the season. So think about that. Heavy, heavy, heavy right there. Mind blowing. That is a nugget, ladies and gentlemen. Love having Kevin Fishbane on our segment with Kevin is. brought to you by Advent, breathe well, live better. Visit advent knows.com. And Kevin, I do think that the importance of the opening drive is that the bears collectively, as you know, want to breathe

easier as a team. They negated the need last year with all of their comeback wins to be able to score on the opening drive and have that mean something. But now, wouldn't you consider, even like what we saw, for example, yesterday in the Rams and Niners game, there's always, there's always an example to be drawn. There's always understanding to be had. Just playing with that lead that they want to play with and having that cushion, I think it is pretty crucial to the plan,

at least initially, this season. Yeah, listen, it's going to help everything because if they can let Amontes sweat, Austin Booker, a diode dainbo, just pin their ears back early in the season just to build confidence for a group that is obviously going to be under a lot of scrutiny this season. So anything you can do to make it easier for those guys,

You've got a secondary that's going to have a couple of guys who we never really heard of until training camp or the draft who are going to be starting. It makes it easier for them, too, if the Panthers are going to be early in the game put into past first situations where the pressure is going to be on Bryce Young. So, you know, it's, I do think like, obviously everybody wants to score early and get that lead early, but I think you're rightly. I think with the way this Bears team is constructed right now, anything that this offense can do, to help the defense. Again, we have to get used to that. This is the new era of Bears football,

where for decades it was, what can the defense do to help out this very mediocre offense? Now the strength is on the offensive side of the ball, and that offense is going to need to do things to make things a little bit easier for the D. And Kevin, I'm glad you started talking with Dio O. Dengbo, for example, pinning his ears back or whoever on the defensive line that may be. I don't agree with Ben Johnson's philosophy in that your sack should come. when you've got the lead and you're trying to ensure a stop. I think they should happen at any time in a game. I think they should be able to happen when you need a stop early if you want to.

It shouldn't always be thought of as a luxury item once you have an offensive lead. I think that's working inside out rather than being aggressive. Yeah, you know, so much of it is game flow, so much of it is the way that Dennis Allen's going to scheme things up. And, of course, these guys got to win their wanted ones. These guys have to show everybody that they are more comfortable in Dennis Allen's scheme, and they are going to be able to improve off last year. And look, that defensive line is that it's going to be so under the magnifying glass because, of course, like, that was the position.

We talked about all offseason. And, you know, when the starters go out there, Cantavia Street is going to be the only new guy on Sunday. And that's not somebody who was signed on a $50 million deal either. credit to him for going out and winning that job and playing well in the summer, but it's not like he comes in here without question mark. So look, anything that group can do early, it's just going to build a lot of confidence that if they can get after the quarterback early. And just because like those guys have said too, like they've heard everything, right?

Like they know how much skepticism everybody has about their ability to rush the passer. They know how much criticism their GM has gotten for not. adding a big-time pass rusher this off season. So, you know, there's a chip on their shoulders. And, you know, now they have the opportunity to prove themselves because this is it. Like, these are the guys. You know, maybe come trade deadline, does polls take a swing at somebody? We'll see, you know, if the defensive line's not playing up to what they're hoping for. But right now, you know, the organization said, we're counting on you guys to be better than you were last year and to be healthier than you were last year. And now is their chance to prove it.

This segment with Kevin Fishbane is brought to you by four seasons heating, air conditioning, plumbing, sewer, and electric for all the right reasons. Call 8664-4 seasons. It's Raheimian Grody on 104-3, the score. And Fishbane, I think you asked about Malik Mohamed as well yesterday. What are you expecting from him? Is he really going to get a full boat of snaps at one of the corner positions on Sunday? It's a great question, Mark. I mean, I would expect him to start at the nickel, just because that's what we,

seen most of the summer. Now, if the bears are really comfortable with Xavier Woods as a starting of safety, does that mean Cam Lewis gets thrown back into that conversation? Because remember Cam Lewis was playing as the number one nickel until Kobe Bryant got hurt? So do they feel better? Is the Lewis at Nickel Woods safety combination better than Muhammad at Nickel or are they going to rotate? You know, I actually, I wonder now that you kind of bring it up, Grody, is a rotation a good idea? Because that kind of can allow Muhammad. to ease his way in? Or do you want him to get in a rhythm and not have to worry about coming out every two or three

series? So that's going to be a fascinating element on Sunday. And really this first month or two as the bears settle in, right? Like, again, I keep talking about how different this thing looks. Like on April 1st, you know, no Bears fan except for the draft Knicks had heard of Malik Mohamed, right? And certainly nobody had thought about Xavier Woods being part of the secondary. And here we are now.

and those guys along with Cam Lewis could be playing some pretty major roles. And it's been a conversation topic this week that if Muhammad is in there, like the Panthers are obviously going to target him. The guy is competitive. He is physical. I think he's got a really good skill set. But, you know, this is tough, right? This is a new position.

It's the NFL. They're going to attack him. And I think it's going to be, he's got to have that short memory that you always hear cornerbacks talk about. And that's going to be a huge thing. for them then and then it goes all the way back to that pass rush right because that pass rush is going to make things easier for malibah but it's going to make things easier for Xavier woods um for those guys and then you know the other thing too is like jalen johnson tyreek stevenson had really strong

summers and that also can help make things easier for everybody else if those two guys are locking down opposing receivers uh the way they were in training camp that can make a big impact well and that again I think Kevin, you're talking about how are they, how are they viewing this? Are they viewing this as a defense that they think is going to get stops at the line of scrimmage? Or do they think that the secondary is going to have to force coverage sacks? And that's part of the construction. I also want to point out, you keep track of past reps and I think snap counts. Yeah.

So that's something that you're always doing on a daily basis, a game basis. I'm wondering, and we talked about this earlier in our previous segment, what it's going to be not just for the secondary, but the entire deed. defense. This might be a surprisingly even snap count for everybody who we've mentioned on the line. Are the linebackers going to get rotated in and out? How is that going to all work? We might see something very well distributed. I think back to that Rams playoff game. That was a Dennis Allen masterpiece. He put together an incredible game plan. And there was a lot of guys moving in and out of the lineup. I remember like I think I lost track. I got

couldn't continue to track snap counts live for the defense because there was so many moving parts and it was really confusing Stafford and the Rams and obviously the weather was on the bare side to give them the ability to do that. So, you know, certainly DA is capable of putting that together and keeping these guys fresh and keep them moving. But Layla, to your point, like, I'm very curious to you like what a Jordan Vanderberg snap count looks like in his first NFL game. You know, do we see a more base defense with DeMarco Jackson? in it linebacker. How much rotating is going to go on

on defenses? Diogenegro going to play more end or more tackle and how are they going to rotate those guys? There's a jammery chroma, you know, get some, get some reps. It's one of the last guys to make the roster after a really strong summer. So yeah, that will be a really good tell of what these defensive coaches

think of what they've got to see, you know, who's the one. Again, you want your Montez-Swetz to be playing the most of that defensive line. And that's going to be a big thing. You know, you want sweat to be playing a high percentage of snaps. You want him to have the most opportunities to make an impact play because he's your guy up there.

Mr. Fishbane, will you do the honor of telling us who is going to win this game on Sunday? And if you have a score and if you have a why, we would love that as well. So, Grotie, I actually picked the Panthers. and part of the reason is I collect the picks for the weekly mailbag that everyone reads Friday mornings at the athletic and everybody sent me their picks and they all pick bears

we can't all pick the bears great point for week one don't let somebody else tell you what to do you're taking the hit now this sounds like Kevin this is your philosophy that's fine yeah I got I had it I wrote it I'll own it

Panthers 29 Bears 26 Okay, good for you. I mean, like, you know. I have no idea. Listen, week one is crazy. The Raiders beat the Patriots in week one last year. It's just weird things happen. And I'm also curious about the humidity factor and just how the bears, you know, how ready

they're going to be for that. To be playing in Charlotte and September is going to be in the low 90s out there. But yeah, I, I, I, I, I, I. I'm okay with being on an island, but anything going to happen in week one. Nothing would surprise me. I guess the only thing would surprise me if the Bears, like, you know, lose 21 to 3 or something. I expect the Bears to put up a lot of points this year. Good for you.

I think his offense is going to be a lot of fun. Seriously, good for you. I mean, it's not easy to pick against the bears in the world in which we live and the critiques and the criticisms that all come our way. So I think that's a ballsy move by you. You will have to deal with Dustin Rhodes. I don't know if you've been hearing him. basically been threatening. I'm just going to say it. Bullying and threatening anybody who thinks

they might pick Carolina. Like he went after Gabe Ramirez. I'm a threat to pick Carolina to win the game as well. So just steer clear of Dustin Rhodes. Okay. I'm just warning you. Good to know. Panthers got a good offensive line, really good front seven on defense. They gave the Rams a run for money in the playoffs last year. It's a road game, week one. My other fun fact of the week, guys, this is the 15th week one road game for the Bears in the past 44 years. Okay. And only the second time they've been favored on the road in week one. And do you have the other by any chance?

What was the other? I do. And this is going to lead to a lot of bears here, Grotie. The only other time? 2006, my friend. Oh, Super Bowl. We all know what happened that year. Well, well, well.

Oh, that is great. They beat the Packers 26-0 and then went on to the Super Bowl. Super Bowl. Oh, my God. You know what, Kevin, just for that, you just got yourself 8.5 bears for this segment that you have performed. There you go. Bears.

So, listen, history is on the bear side here. You want to talk any Cubs before you go? Because I'm a little nervous. Cubs? They still playing? It's a bear season. Okay. When you've been tweaked about the Cubs or something?

I don't know. I saw his pennant and it just reminded me. I've got a lot of my mind today. I don't have my screen up here. I mean, 1984 World Series. The Cubs, by the way, were not in the 1984 World. Oh, shut your mouth. See, I don't need that childhood trauma back in my brain.

Steve Garvey in the San Diego Padres. Kevin, get out of here. Go home. See you later, buddy. All right, PCA for MVP. Bye, Kevin. Hot take. Bye, guys.

Kevin Fishpain, senior writer at the Athletic, covering the Bears, host of the Breaking In with Kevin Fishbane, a Chicago sports media podcast. Actually just a sports media podcast. He goes beyond. Follow that man. If you're new to Kevin Fishbane, follow him now because you get all those good nuggets for him at KF Fishbane.

And on Instagram too, at Kevin Fishbane. When we return, how about Drew Breeze giving advice to Bears quarterback Caleb Williams? We will explain next on Rahimi and Grotie on a football Friday on 104-3, the score. Rahimi and Grotie, midday's Tyndal 2 on Chicago Sports. Sports Radio, 104-3, The Score. It's a football Friday on Rahimi and Grody, along with Leila Rahimi. I am Mark Grody on 104-3 The Score. Thanks for being with us on this football Friday.

Coming up top of the hour, about 10 minutes from right now, Eugene Robinson, color analyst for the Carolina Panthers, played for a bunch of teams at safety, including the Packers at one point in time. All right, we've got to get right to this. Adam Amin with Lawrence Holmes and Carmen a tally yesterday on the Spiegel and Holmes show shared this nugget of advice from Hall of Famer Drew Breeze had for Bears quarterback Caleb Williams. The best message, and I was going to share this on Sunday anyway, was Drew's line at the end of our conversation with Caleb. And he said,

you know what the difference is between a 60% passer and a 70% passer? And Caleb's answer was, he was hesitant, but he goes, is it checkdowns? And which is, yes, in a way, but Drew's answer was three completions. You get three more completions per game when you're probably going to throw the ball 30 times per game. Suddenly, it's like we talk about being a 250 hitter versus being a 300 hitter, which used to be the Hall of Fame trajectory.

You want to be a Hall of Fame hitter. You only need a couple more hits per, you know, 10. Five hits a week. You need five more hits a week. You know, a hit per game or a hit every other day. And suddenly you become a 280 hitter rather than a 250 hitter. That's with the message that he was trying to implore him on. and a lot of that comes from being outside the pocket.

His receivers being a little bit more responsive. Yeah, they were bottom five in drop rate. You've got to be better with that too. But Caleb could be better mechanically outside the pocket too. And a few adjustments here and there are all it's going to take to get small plays that lead to extended drives that lead to four extra points instead of having to settle for a field goal. These are the little things that build up and compound over time. And that's a good entry point to be in a year two in an offense.

It's all great from Drew Brees, Relate from Adam Ameen. So that's usually what happens in these meetings that they have behind the scenes. Great stuff. They get to talk to broadcasters. There's a behind the scenes meeting that goes on. The intent is that it just really helps you speak about what the team has been working on that week. The joke is everybody says they've had the best week of practice ever because nobody wants to say they didn't. But in the meantime, I think there's a lot of really good advice from Drew Brees who, you know,

was a quarterback who played past his physical limitations to say the very least. Shorter quarterback like Caleb too. Well, and Drew Breeze is very short, comparatively speaking. I think what, three inches at least shorter than Caleb Williams, two or three? He's listed it. Well, I don't want to be mean to Drew Breeze. He had a great career, but he also elongated his career, I think, in doing some of the stuff that I think can mirror what Caleb Williams can do.

Another piece of it, too, is his experience with Sean Payton. And that coaching tree is where Ben Johnson and Dan Campbell also originates. So that's good to note as well. One thing that speaking of the short aspect, and Caleb Williams is not as short as Drew Breeze, but on the shorter side for a quarterback, one thing I'd like to see Caleb be better at is not getting so many balls batted down. We saw some in this preseason again,

and having a ton last year in his first couple of years in the league. That's still something that he's working on overcoming. I don't know if it's as simple as Drew Breeze laid it out. It is. The math says it. Yes, three more completions, but I think there's a lot more that really goes into the whole thing. We'll talk more about the bears later. Keep listening for your

chance to win a pair of tickets to see Weezer when the gathering tour makes its stop in Chicago on September 22nd at United Center featuring special guests, the shins and Silver Sun pickups. Tickets provided by Live Nation. Go to Ticketmaster.com to buy tickets. Let's get into

Carolina next. Eugene Robinson, The color analyst for the Carolina Panthers joins us next on Rahimian Grotia on 1043, The Score. This hour is being brought to you by Vasectomy Clinics of Chicago. I respect really just how smart this staff is. And then, of course, the style of which they play. This is not a finesse offense. They run the ball hard. They run the ball with attitude.

It's a really good front and some aggressive running backs. That's the challenge. That's the challenge that our guys have to know. Like, this isn't some kind of, you know, tricky. misdirection, lean thing. That happens too. But at the end of the day, when those backs have the ball, they're running downhill. And then they want to throw explosives off of those things. And so that's something that we try to do as well and try to build those things. So I really respect this whole group. And I can't wait for this opportunity. You better respect this group.

Carolina head coach Dave Canales right there as we welcome me back into Rahimi and Grotie on 104.3, the score on a football Friday. I am excited about, I did pick. I'll give this away from the Take the North episode. I did pick Leila D'Andre Swift to be my Bears MVP for this season. Everything seems to be in place for him. He's had an outstanding preseason. He had a really good year last year. It's just another year with Ben Johnson.

If we're all believe that the offense is going to go up a notch and Caleb Williams is going to go to a new level, then why not DeAndre Swift as well? Well, and he's done it before. He's ascended in years where he had a contract year. he did that in Philadelphia, so I can't say I'm surprised, but all the reports from Camp indicate that that's going to be the case. And if nothing else, he's been consistent.

Say he has the same year as last year. Would you be disappointed? I certainly would not be. No. I mean, he averaged close to five yards per carry last year. One thing I don't want to see, though, is them get off to a slow start with the running game as they did last year in those first four games. It was at the mini-buy when we were literally, I was part of the media core that was asking

questions to Ben Johnson like and shame on me I guess like do you need to bring somebody else in to you guys need to sign somebody in the scrap heap can you really get away with DeAndre Swift and Kyle Manungai and the answer turned out to be a decisive yes with the

signature game being the game against the Philadelphia Eagles where they both had a hundred yard games they did the Walter Payton and Matt Suey on that particular day where they both had a hundred yards all right we are now ready to bring in our next guest here on Rahimi and Grotie.

We're excited to introduce Eugene Robinson, the color analyst for the Carolina Panthers, a 15-year career as an NFL safety for the Seahawks, Packers, Falcons, and the Panthers, and the Super Bowl 31 champion, a three-time pro bowler, and this guy does it all. He's the co-host of daytime lifestyle talk show Charlotte Today. Eugene Robinson, what's going on, man? Welcome back to the score. How are you? Thanks, Grody.

I appreciate it. I'm doing well, brother. How you doing? Oh, man, we are doing great. Football's about to... Okay, good. You know that's right. Oh, I know. I know you, man. This is what it's all about. We have finally arrived.

We are sick and tired of previewing the Chicago Bears. We're doing it one more day today, but I want to hear from you, man, what has this offseason been like for the Carolina Panthers? Because I'd imagine, like with the Chicago Bears, there's a lot of hope. There's some similarities. Both teams were eliminated by the Rams by three points. What's the feeling in Carolina right now? I tell you what, it's been exciting here.

I think because Dan Morgan has done a really good job. People don't know Dan Morgan played here as a middle linebacker, and then he's up in the front office, and now he's the GM. And he's made an effort to go ahead and really bring back the cashet we had at the linebacker position. And so we made some moves defensively. I think that's some of the outstanding moves. One, Jalen Phyllis, we picked up. Devin Lloyd, and we picked up.

We just picked up another guy, Bobby O'Caricay, from the Giants. And so he's really about bolstering that defense. And then when you couple that with the secondary, how well the secondary has been planned, particularly this preseason, I think it only lives itself that we made the right moves because I thought that one of the things that we lacked last year was we could not stop the run, could not get off on third down.

I think our third down percentage was somewhere around in the 30-somethings. And so from that standpoint, if you can't get off on third down, it's hard for you to go ahead and give the ball back to the offense. And so we struggled there. This year, I don't see that being the case. I think that we made some upgrades significantly, defensively. And the people around here are, I mean, the fans, they are excited about what they see. Cody, I'll give you a quick thing.

When we had our fan fest just to see what the team looks like, you come out to the stadium, it's free, and it costs like $5. It was kind of basically free. We had like 47,000 people there. Woo! I'm like, no, I'm like, the goal was filled like, how many people are here at the stadium?

And it was everybody's excited and excited to see what the Carolina Panthers are going to do. And so that's just defensively why I think that we've made some, significant upgrades. Well, yeah, I mean, Jalen Phillips, that was a huge signing. And, you know, I think one, a lot of teams wanted to make. We saw the run on pass rushers, Eugene. The other

part of it, too, is, I wonder if it, I'm assuming that it was part of the reason that they thought that when you have somebody that powerful on the line, then you can have a rookie nose tackle. What can you tell us about Lee Hunter? Well, yeah. So I like having

a Lee Hunter in the mix, too, and I saw one of his latest interview. and he just says, I kind of really can't wait to get going. But when you couple Lee Hunter with Derek Brown, who in my opinion is one of the best defensive tackles in the business, I think it just, I think it only bolsters up our run defense. And we are able to go ahead like we were this preseason to keep rushing at like 82 yards.

And we're somewhat even under 100 yards, that's considered very, very good. You'll probably be within the top seven defensive. principally. And so I like what we have 100. And when you mention Jalen Phillips, I also got to mention another guy named Prissy Oma Mee Allen. And I watched him in preseason. And I just tell you, this young man coming off the edge, I didn't realize how good he was as a pass rusher, so I got to see him a lot this preseason. He's like, he's everywhere. A guy is ubiquitous. The guy is always at the quarterback doing a hurry, getting in his.

the face or forcing to Jalen Phillips side. So I think, look, once again, I think that we've made some considerable significant upgrades defensively, and I thought that was one of our biggest weaknesses that we had last year. No doubt. And, yeah, the Bears in Carolina share that distinction of two teams that did not get to the quarterback enough last year. As we're talking to Eugene Robinson here, the color analyst for the Carolina Panthers, a 15-year career in the NFL as a safety.

Let me ask you about the offensive side of the ball, Eugene, and if the offensive line is a deficit right now, and specifically because of the fact that both starting tackles are injured, and you have the rookie first rounder, Monroe Freeling, replacing Tyler Moton at right tackle. Rashid Walker is in at left tackle for Iku, Macuano. How big of a deal is that for Carolina? Is that going to be a soft spot that the bears can exploit?

Well, I think what's going to, what you have been mentioned, there is that we haven't had Hunt and Lewis who are of our guards. Yeah, really good. Yeah. In the preseason, I mean, I think that there are really the crux of what we do from the office of life standpoint. And the fact of the fact that the Iki Aquano got hurt and also that Moten had the pulmonary embolism, they move Monroe Freeland to the right tackle.

You got R.C. Wallace on the left side. But I think the secret sauce is really Hunt and Lewis. I think having those two guys back because what we saw in preseason was we didn't see the offensive line in its entirety. We saw bits and pieces of the offensive line. We didn't see Hunt or Lewis at all. And so getting those guys back is going to help out tremendously. I think it's going to help out Bryce tremendously. And the author is going to help out, I really believe Jonathan Brooks,

a guy who we were waiting on to get healthy to get healthy to get healthy who's been hurt the last couple of years with knee injuries and now and I can just tell you I remember just watching him in a practice and I was with some of the other legends we were watching him in practice and I said oh my goodness

this doesn't look like he's making people staying still okay is he that fast? No he can't be that fast right really bad injuries man yeah yeah I hadn't seen him and so I was like wow so if he can stay healthy but I really believe the advent

of having those two men Lewis and Hunt back in the mix I think that boasts is off the line and then I would just maybe go one more further you know you got sweat over there about that sweat I know he's a beast and I would imagine that you're going to see

that matchup putting them on the rookie freeland oh yeah I would always try to maybe put a running back to that side or a titan to that side just to go ahead and minimize it because what is a huge deal? There's no doubt about that.

He's a beast. He's a beast. And so I would want to go ahead and not expose my guy to that type of onslaught every single play. But I would also kind of have people be able to help by committee a little bit. We're talking to Eugene Robinson, the 15-year NFL veteran safety for the Seahawks, Packers, Falcons, and Panthers, talking about the Carolina Panthers, where he is their color analyst. And Eugene, I feel like the observation on Bryce. is similar to maybe the observation that we've had in Chicago and some of the years where we expect the quarterback to take that next step.

We know Dave Canales had an excellent reputation working with quarterbacks. What is the mindset in Carolina just surrounding the expectation for Bryce Young this year and what people want to see him do? You know, I think one is that the fact that he's so comfortable with the system now, and this is year three with that system, that's huge. I think that's one of the biggest things that's kind of moving forward is because this preseason, he just looked so dang comfortable in it back there. No matter what was going on, he was just finding the throwing lanes.

And he was targeting and leading the receivers, getting the ball out quickly. And I'm like, oh, my goodness. I said, dude, he's really got to really grasp on what Coach Canales and Coach Brad Isick is going to call and what he likes. And because of that, I think that the expectations are going to be really good. really high. But I think the expectations are high by Bryce Young because I really believe that this is going to be like a year. I think he's like, you're coming out gear. This is, you firmly have a grasp of what this team does and what Coach Canales wants. You have a new coordinator

who's very, very, very offensive coordinator who's very, very aggressive in his play call it. I think that feeds in and lives into what Bryce is able to go ahead and do so. I'm looking forward to seeing our Bryce really take that step of, you know, not having 3,000 yards, but having 4,000 yards with 33, 34 testiles with a low like 4 or 5 interceptions. I really believe that he can get to that. And once again, I think that's predicated on I'm a big fan of Hunt and Lewis and those guys being able to protect him. Yeah, Damien Lewis and Robert Hunt, the very talented guards for Carolina as we talk to. Yeah, right. I mean, that is something the bears have to contend with, and the running game will be based on that for the Carolina Panthers,

as you mentioned, with a couple of the guys, Chuba Hubbard and Jonathan Brooks as well. What do you think, Eugene Robinson of Caleb Williams? Super-duper star. I mean, he had close to 4,000. He had, what, 3,900 yards plus yards, close to 4,000 yards? Yeah, right up against it. And when I see him, like, when I see him take off and his improvisation, It's like he's still, the improvisation, he's still looking to pass the ball, even though he can run.

But when he takes off running, it's hard to stop him. And so I like him a lot too, like that Cam Newton type of player where if I want to be able to run, I can go ahead and get this thing done. And I could go ahead and buy myself some time. I think he can also throw that long ball, too. There's no doubt about that. He can throw the long ball. So you really have a quarterback, I think, and Caleb Williams.

He was the number one guy for a reason. You have a quarterback who really is confident and what he's able to do and confident in the office and also the protection that he gets to. So I think we got one. Yes, our hands full, but like I said, I like the upgrades that we've made on our defense to go ahead and maybe contend what we will see all throughout this season.

Okay, and Eugene, as a former safety, when you're looking at the game and you see the threat of Caleb Williams, we've talked a lot about Luther Bird, we think he's going to have a really good year. You know, there's an SEC familiarity there with him being at Mizzou. What do you think he could possibly do? Are those two do this season, at least on Sunday? Yeah, well, when you talk about, first of all, when you look at Caleb Williams,

let me be an old football player and go back into my career. And I remember John Elway. John Elway is a throwing running quarterback. If he decides to run, he's such a big man that he can run, and he can bring you over and do a lot of good things. But he also throws the ball. So what you typically would do was spy a John Elway. I know I coach spied him.

He would always have like a safety or a linebacker on him to go ahead and make sure if he got out of the pocket, you've got to have somebody to chase him down. Because don't forget, typically you're a man-in-man coverage. You're checking your guy down the field. You can't leave your guy. You've got a plaster. And now you've got a guy like Caleb Williams running.

Well, sure. he can do he's good enough to go score test out you know i don't care 75 50 ys he's that good and so you got to really i think that what we've done in the past and i'm talking about for the seahaddle seahawks when i played in seattle um tom catlin was our defense quarter he will always spy quarterbacks who had that threat to go ahead and run and so i've always been a proponent of that that when you got a good quarterback don't leave them out there don't leave the secondary out there to drive you got to have somebody take a look at him Let's stay down memory lane back when you were playing because you did play with the Packers.

That was a little bit of a problem for Bear Finn. Did you play with Reggie White and Sean Jones? Obviously, that was the Brett Farve era. Were you with Reggie? He was my roommate. Yeah, so Big Dog was my roommate. The Big Dog. Yeah, Big Dog was my roommate.

So Big Dog calls me up. This is what after 95 season we're done. He calls me up a player for CFCR, and I get this call, you know, gee, I'm like, Big dog, Reggie, what do you want to call it? He said, do you want to be a Green Bay Packer? I'm like, you just can't call a person up and ask you want to play for Green Bay?

It doesn't work that way, man. I said, I got to get cut, release or something, got to be traded. I said, it doesn't work that way. Then he said this, the Lord told me to tell you, you're going to be a Green Bay Packer. And so, I kid you not, about three weeks later or so,

I got traded to the Green Bay Packers, so they had some providence that was going on with Reggie White. And I love that time in the year because I was one of those missing pieces that they needed along with Santana Dodson to go ahead and show up the defense and allow Lorraine Butler to do his thing. He can go and get sacks and I was getting interception. So there you go. It was a fun time. That's that's hilarious, man. Reggie White using the Lord to recruit guys to the... I said, why would God tell you, don't tell me? He said, Reed Bay Passer. I'm like, okay, I'm ready. I'm right.

Oh, man. Okay, one more things. Speaking of great voices, there was a gentleman that used to play for the Chicago Bears by the name of Joe Cain, a linebacker, who has the... Joe Cain! Big, deep voice. Is that your guy? Deep voice. I played for Joe Cain in Seattle, man.

Joe Cain ended up becoming a police officer. I think it was in Seattle when he was done, but he had his great voice, man. Yeah? He could narrate. He can narrate any movie at all. You would definitely make sure you will listen to him.

Joe Kane. Absolutely. I play with Joaquin in Seattle. And you're holding it down on a morning show. You're ever here doing Charlotte today. You're killing it too. Well, look, I'm doing a variety show. I get to talk food, fast and fun.

We just finished. We had Mugsy Bowls on, he's one of the Charlotte, he's said for the Charlotte Hornets. Oh, we know who he is, yes. Yes, everybody knows Mugs. So most people are just on our show and this is that we're talking about his gala that he has coming up. Myself and Coles, we're going to be emceeing an event and whatnot.

But we're able to talk about that and then talk about some of the great things that's going on here with the Greek festival and things happen in and around Charlotte. So I get a chance to do all that fun stuff. And it is a blessing. Yeah, as somebody from the Dallas area, Grandma Ma, Larry Johnson, that was one of our people. Yeah, so definitely Mugsy and Grandma Ma. That was a great team. That was indeed a great team.

Del Curry was on that team. They had a number of guys that were just beast. And so his golf tournament is going to be September 21st. And it's going to be a lot of celebrities, Vince Carter, Dale Curry, Seth Curry. There will be a lot of guys coming out there to go ahead and support Buffy Bowls. Dang. Gene Robinson, you are an absolute delight. Did you do a prediction for this Bears Panthers game?

Do you do predictions? No, I don't do predictions. I always say this because here it is. Any team could be anybody. And I've been a firm believer, like, whether you go to somebody's stadium and trying to take the crowd out of it or the crowd becomes so part of the story that they overwhelm you. And so I really believe that it can come down to a field. I don't think there's going to be a high explosive game.

I think it's going to be a tough game. I think it's going to be a game that's going to be somewhere in 17, 2017. I don't think it's going to be in the 30s or like that. And I think whoever has the ball last probably wins the game. Our texter at the top says, and I agree with this, and we'll let you go on this note here. Textor says he's wildly entertaining to listen to. I bet you are great doing the color commentating on the Carolina Panthers Radio Network. Good luck to you.

I wish we played Carolina a couple times. We might just have you out for the heck of it later on in the season, Eugene. All right. Well, thank you. I appreciate you guys indeed. Thank you, Eugene. That was Eugene Robinson. Mugsy Boggs awareness.

I want to hear more about the Greek Fest. Oh, my God. I want to hear more about everything. Reggie White? I mean, this hilarious. I didn't know Vince Carter had a golf game. Oh, man. I guess we should have started with that stuff.

But no, the Carolina scadio part was really good. I feel like starting about, yeah, the current football. We got everything addressed. Oh, man. The texters and our listeners are absolutely loving Eugene Robinson. That was so good. Sometimes you just never know, man. I'd never talk to Eugene Robinson on the radio before.

That was great. We got to look into this Joe Kane after football. career. Oh, yeah. Well, Joe Kane used to host overnights occasionally on the score, and he was so desperate for callers that he was pleading with people on the air. I did hear about this. To please, please call. I can't talk anymore. It's hard, man. It's a hard, hard job. That's the hardest shift to do as a host, period. Oh, man, I used to do it three nights a week after we lost grobber. So, yeah, I was trust to me, I was tested in all sorts of different ways. Oh, man. Coming up next, another precious commodity.

Dave Wonstead was on the afternoon show yesterday, Spiegel and Holmes. And wait until you hear what he says about Kyler Gordon. Wani weighs in next. And when Wani weighs in, you want to listen. It's Rahimi and Grotie on 104. The score. Layla Rahimi, Mark Grody, Midday, 10 a.m. to 2 on the score. With Kyler, are you convinced he's going to play for you?

I don't know. I would hope so. I still have hope there. He's going to have to continue to work hard and get back to mindful book. Yes. You and I just both looked at each other. Nothing has changed, really. Other than optimism, right?

Optimism here. Says Ian Rappaport as Kyler Gordon works out with a personal trainer hoping to get back with the Bears. Yeah, but Dr. Moe, which I do, I do think you can do good stuff with personal trainers. The training assignments do help. Physical therapy and rehab does help. Even if you're not injured, it helps prevent injury, by the way. So all of that is good.

But as far as how we feel about this, I don't know that I've changed much. He's estranged from the family. I want to have optimism so badly that I have probably more optimism than most people, but that might be taken away from me based on what you were about to hear. And you are listening to. to Rahimi and Grody. You're also listening to a four seasons heating, air conditioning, plumbing, sewer, and electric football Friday presented by your local Ford dealers and Advent as we get

ready for the Bears and Carolina Panthers. All right, here it is the latest round or the latest opinion on the Kyler Gordon Sitch from Dave Wanstead, of all people. Dave Wonstead was and Patrick Manley with Lawrence Holmes and Carmen Vitale yesterday gave their thoughts on the Kyler Gordon situation. I think he's done, Pat. I think he's done.

I think, and you know, if I'm predicting he's going to come back and say I'm okay to play and he lasts a week or two, either the injury flares up or something. But I don't think this guy's going to play anymore. I really don't. I mean, and that's a good. case, fine. I mean, you know, I mean, look at our center last year,

Dom, and he came out and just said, I've had enough. You know, that happens all the time in the league. But, you know, I don't see it happening. It's just my opinion. I don't know any, I know less than anybody. And I can see that as well, because I would see Ben Johnson saying, hey, don't break up my locker room.

Yeah. I think he's done a heck of a job of building out locker room and forhesiveness. They all have the same message, all that kind of stuff. And if you have an outsider that, you know, is breaking that up, he's going to say goodbye. I'm in year two. I'm building this thing. Yeah, you're a great player when you're healthy,

but you're not good for the team when you're here. So I can see that as well. And, you know, another point, and Pat just brought up something that started me thinking, when I was at the Dolphins and Ricky Williams decided to take a sabbatical and go smoke dope in India, he, it wasn't, it was bad enough that he was 65% of my offense. But, you know, it was the real kind of the,

the breaker for the team was the distraction. Yeah. The media, all they want to do was who talked to Ricky. Anything new on Ricky. Ricky, Ricky. And that was crazy. They didn't care about talking about the team, how the quarterback was doing, or how's that rookie receiver doing, or whoever. They wanted to just, what's going on with Ricky?

And it was a distraction for our football team. And that's kind of what Pat's in Luton. to her a little bit. You think about it. Every day on the score and TV, Kyler Gordon, conversation comes up. It's part of it. Who wouldn't want to go smoke dope with Ricky? I love the conviction, the conviction with which Dave Wonstead said that. I actually kind of prefer the point that Patrick Manley is making and I buy into it a little bit. Like the idea. Oh, not one. Triggered from previous experience?

Well, no, no, that is all salient as well. But the idea that he's right, like the way Ben Johnson has comported himself of what he has said every time he has been asked about it, says that he is disgusted, he wants nothing to do with Kyler Gordon, and as Patrick Manley just said, quoting him, don't break up my locker room. That makes sense. The part that Dave Wants said was saying, I don't know if I agree with. Like, is it a Drew Dalman situation where Kyler Gordon wants to retire?

And the only reason I push back on that is because of the, the way Kyler Gordon plays football. And maybe that's part of it because he's kind of a reckless player out there, a physical player, a guy who plays with exuberance, a guy who plays like he likes football. So I don't know if I buy into that part of it. I know what I'm

talking about here. Yeah, you do. You do, Dave Wanstead. The low key part of that that's really funny that I didn't hear on the first listen and laugh about was where Wani goes. It was bad enough. He was 65% of my offense. Back when running backs were 65%

set of offenses. That is fantastic. That was so good. Well, you can tell, like, that's just the vein of his existence. And, you know, I actually had a conversation with Ricky Williams' mom. What? I want to say it was around 2010, maybe

2008 or 2009, somewhere in that area, about Ricky kind of being ahead of his time. When it came to him talking about the discourse surrounding marijuana and the use of it, Ricky was a, I mean, he was a different thinker. And maybe mental health too for that manner.

Absolutely mental health. Now, does that change how Dave Wanstand has to view a player's attitude or the communication that happens during a time like this? I don't know. But just as a sidebar, I did have a conversation with Ricky's mom about it one time, just talking to her about he was, even then he was ahead of his time. Well, what did she say? Like, was she like, was she like, excuseing her son and? No, she was like, he's on, he was saying. she was saying he was honest.

And you don't get honesty like that. That's true. In a corporate NFL. Yeah, but isn't there a responsibility of the employee to be more communicative and to like as a number, wasn't Ricky number one overall pick? I think he was at least top three, I would say. Man, when he was on the scene, there was nobody like him. Yeah, I mean, as an employee though, isn't there a responsibility to work,

especially when you're that important and not be a distract? Okay, fifth overall pick is what we're confirming about Ricky Williams. So, I mean, I get it like if there was mental health issues, but I do think that there should be some responsibility from the player. I wasn't really thinking about it from that perspective. Because I was in Austin at the time and I just thought, you know, here's a guy who's talking about stuff in a way that you just don't hear from professional athletes. That was my observation. I wasn't really thinking about the responsibilities. I was at work that day, so I was doing my part.

Well, exactly. I was playing myself. You post up. That's what I'm saying. I was a $30,000 a year with no overtime employees. way. I didn't really have much of a choice in the matter. I needed the monies to, you know, live my life. I love those hilarious conversations about us and the business talking about how little money we made. I started at 18 and worked 60 hours a week when I actually, it was lower than minimum wage with no OT.

But that's another story for another day. You grinded it out. I did, I did. When I heard this initially, I was shocked that coach said that the way he did. Yeah. That's, Wani doesn't usually go off the cuff like that. Right. comes to a thought about a player. No gray area. No, he wasn't like wishy-washy about it. He did use the disclaimer that he doesn't know anything. He hasn't talked to anybody, but...

But he picks up on the way people talk about people in a way that's different to us. And again, we're not getting anything that shows us a different side of why it could be different. We're not getting the alternate opinion about this. We just keep getting more and more evidence that isn't solid on the part of his future. even I know Ian Rappapaport posed to that but it still means he's away from the facility yeah no and that's and you're right ultimately that's not good

I stand by it I did see that as a sign of life at least because I had been imploring on the microphone for Kyla Gordon to do something to defend himself in some way shape or form to give the at least the idea that he's interested in coming back like it seemed like such a simple thing I know people have been like oh, Ian Rappaport is a shill for him.

No, I mean, you go to these reporters to get your message across, and that's all I was asking Kyler Gordon to do. So I did get some satisfaction from that. I think it's kind of like when you talk to Montes' sweat, by the way. Montez knows his stats better than anybody. But the fact that you guys had a conversation where there was an acknowledgement there. Yeah. What do you mean about the media when I talked to them?

Is that what you're talking about? And just the perception of his production based on his contract. Yeah. It just brought us a really honest look at somebody where I now give them more of the benefit of the doubt. Interesting. It's just, and it's not, the problem is, you know, the numbers dictate a lot of the numbers and then salary goes in hand with production and all of that. But it was nice to see. And I think Kyler should know that that's the same idea.

People want to hear from him because right now, the only people talking are not helping or cause. Right. Right. And that's why I, again, gave him the opportunity when I saw him in the locker room that day. Do you have a side to this? Please? Like, please, can you give your side? Because it's a one way, like, way to text you're saying, like he's just getting beat up on.

He is. He is. It's completely one-sided. And that is the bizariness of the whole situation where it, to me, it's unprecedented where bears management, bears coaches have all said, we don't know. You guys know? Ask all the questions you want. Say what you want on your microphones because we don't know what's going on with this guy.

And I've never seen anything like that before. And so to have a sign of life from Ian Rappaport is something. I wish he would talk to one of the local reporters. I wish he had talked to me. You politely declined. I don't want to paint the picture that he was demonstrative. He just, he said he would talk eventually, but he didn't want to talk when I put the microphone in front of his face the other day or last week. Additionally, we're doing this because we want to hear your side of the stories.

Yes. And that's, this isn't a gotcha. We're giving you the opportunity to speak for yourself. So there's that. I have some breaking news. Would you like it? Yeah, please, for favor. Breaking news on the score is brought to you by IDOT.

At some point, everyone is a pedestrian in the day. Slow down and give them space. Share the road. It's not a game. This is from Patrick Mooney. We have baseball news. Oh, Moody. The Cubs are planning to activate Danesby Swanson for next weekend series in Cincinnati.

Oh, wow. Cubs manager, Craig Counsel said today at Wrigley Field, after the gold glove shortstop, completes a short rehab assignment with AAA Iowa. So he had initially the, The estimate wasn't for him to come back for the Braves? I thought it was sooner, yes. Yeah, so who cares? I mean, the fact that he is coming back, that's a crucial part, as good as Nico Horner

has looked at shortstop. It doesn't look the same in the infield without Dansby Swanson playing the position, and Nico Horner in his more comfortable spot at second. Period. Yep, absolutely. Yep. Caller 6 to our score contest line 312-4-0-0-670. We'll win a pair of tickets to see Weezer win the Gathering Tour makes it stop.

in Chicago on September 22nd at United Center, featuring special guests, the shins and Silver Sun pickups, tickets provided by Live Nation, go to Ticketmaster.com to buy tickets. Boy, do I have a story for us, the collective on halftime. These are stats that affect us all. And I think I didn't even realize

that I wanted to have competitive stats for this until they were measured. Okay. It's, we're going to like it. Chicago stats. That's all we'll say. stats. I'll say some Chicago stats.

That we all can use. And really the real contest, the real competition. I've found it. And something that might actually affect our world. If the Cubs and Sox are to play in the World Series against each other. Stop giving it away. I won't. Half time is next.

On Rahimi and Grotie on 104. The score. To football Friday here on Rahimi and Grotie. So we've been talking a lot about the Chicago Bears. And we were trying to figure out if the. Bears defense is going to be any better. We did that in the first second. We had Kevin Fishbane on with us talking about the Bears offense and the first drives and some great nuggets from Kevin Fishbane of the Athletic at 1025 today. We had a great conversation with Eugene Robinson of the Carolina Panthers. He's a broadcaster for the Panthers doing pre and postgame work for them. And we just had another whole conversation about Kyler Gordon based on days. Wansett and Patrick Manley's skepticism about the possibility of Kyler Gordon really playing any discernible football for the Chicago Bears this year. As Ray and I recall in the infamous Jose Orchiti game, that was a quiet crowd for the last game of Crosstown for the regular season.

It was calm, wasn't it, Ray? It was anti-routy, that's for sure. So calm that we could hear the bucket voice playing outside the ballpark. of the bucket boys. In the middle of the game. I always got a dollar for them. Yeah. Exactly. They're good people. They play music. They play joyfully.

They do. Well, Sophie Sherry of the Chicago Sun Times did the thing probably inspired by Crosstown. The real stats that we should have been keeping the whole time. They're not talking about like, oh, how many people are killing in Chicago, Chicago, Chicago. Stop it. And actually those stats are pretty decent this summer too.

Chicago ballparks have seen over a hundred arrests since 2021. And the White Sox have beaten out the Cubs. Oh, no. You got people in the stands competing, too. That is correct. Fans have been mostly charged with battery and trespassing, the Sun-Times found. One man ran onto both Brigley and Raid Fields in one case holding a sign that read Jesus' Lord. another man started a brawl outside of a Sox game after he was caught urinating on a car.

Whose car, sir? Why is it this car in particular? So yes, we all know that there have been some pretty interesting brawls lately in the stands, not just crosstown as we've seen. That was horrible. But then there were other fights in the stands recently. Like Cody Delmindo has been posting some videos. There have been things going on in the stands at both Wrigley and on the south side.

Oh, yeah. Well, the last round, Wrigley round, was the big guy. The big guy just sitting there taking punches from Cubs and Soxsman. What did he do? But there was something that happened earlier. There were some drinks thrown. Like somebody got in somebody's face. I don't obviously have the police reports on this.

But there are more stats. Okay. Since the start of the 2021 season, at least 104 people have been arrested during baseball games at Chicago's two ballparks. According to Chicago police data obtained through a public records request. 56 of those arrests happened at Ritefield compared to 48 at Riggily. It's close, folks. Those arrests have been charged with battering fans and security guards running onto the playing fields and repeatedly trespassing at Riggily. Let me back in! Let me in!

What happens? How are you repeatedly trespassing at Riggly? So that's improvement. Sox spokeperson said the organization is, quote, committed to creating a safe and enjoyable experience for every fan of visits the ballpark, end quote. crediting the diligent game day staff, security personnel and law enforcement partners. Are we still trying to find out who brought the gun into the park, by the way? Yeah, that's still an unsolved mystery. And I think it shouldn't be.

But if I were a dogged news reporter, like I used to be back in the day, I'd be FOIA requesting every single day, like waiting and waiting and waiting. You're so dogged. Freedom of Information Act. I love when you talk about doggedness. More people arrested during ball games in Chicago have been charged with misdemeanor batteries. So that seems to be the one that's the most. In 2021, a 26-year-old man hit a woman in the face after she told him to stop peeing on her car in the Radefield parking lot ahead of an October playoff game and arrest report shows.

It's very simple request. Please stop. When others stepped in to help the woman, the man started fighting them and called for his cousin to join. Oh, no. Did you put everything back away? Did you ultimately stop the act of doing that? Yeah, yeah. Put that thing back in there.

You know, when they call them the cousin. It's not my area to be able to do that standing. That's not really my... You're jealous. A little. Yeah, the women should be jealous. Because here's the thing is what happens during a radio show. It's four and a half hours where I'm drinking coffee and water.

Right. And then I go, how long is the break? And then they're like, oh, long enough. And I'm like, maybe for you. Adult diapers. I'm not there yet. Cubs. Thank God.

As I crossed myself. Back in July 2021, a 31-year-old man, shoved a security guard who tried to break up a cup snake in the Wrigley bleachers, according to a police report. That's such a dick move. His case was dropped months later. At least 10 other fans have been arrested for running on a rate field in recent years compared to only four Wrigley.

Why is everybody running onto the field on the south side? It started with the Lague brothers back in the day as they wanted a piece of Tom Gambo's ear. Or did it start with Morgana the kissing bandit? Didn't she run onto the field at a socks game? Yeah, but everybody allowed that. Everybody liked that because, well, she was hot. You've never sounded more like Bill Melton, my former colleague, than in this moment. Well, she was pretty hot, yeah.

A 29-year-old man was arrested for running on to both Raid and Wrigley with the Jesus' Lord sign. And at Rape Field, he told security he jumped onto the field. Was that the Pope? To repent his sins for Jesus. Popin ain't easy. So you're committing a crime to repent your sins? Wait a second. I don't think that's how that works either.

He was sentenced to 18 months of court supervision. This is a hilarious story you're presenting. And you guys are like, oh, maybe we should get rid of halftime. And I was like, no! Is that what we said? Did we say it like that, too? Yes, you did. All right.

I was being very bearsy today. So everybody wants to know about Crosstown. A two-game Crosstown classic series generated five arrests at Rate Field in May 2020. The most of any Cubs Sox series in recent years. Most involved men beating up security guards after being told to leave the stadium, according to police reports. So you can see what. why the security guards may not have been doing something. Maybe they got a directive,

hey, we don't want you guys getting hit, whatever else. Let the police handle that. That's my own conjecture. The bodies at the floor. There is an update on the viral bleacher, hold on, bleacher brawl at Wrigley. See, like, if I were writing, I wouldn't have written in my voice, or written in that in my voice, because then I wouldn't be able to say it. Alliteration. Part of the hack when you're broadcasting is to write what you can say. Broadcasting lessons from Lela Rahimi. Don't take them. So a four. 41-year-old man was arrested that night for allegedly attacking someone as the game was wrapping up. The victim told police the man sucker punched him, bloodying his nose according to a police report.

The alleged instigator was charged with felony cocaine possession and misdemeanor battery. So there had been varying reports on that. No, there had been some varying reports. About whether he was doing blow or not. Whether or not there was a cocaine possession arrest in connection to that fight in particular. So the Sun Times is reporting that that is the case. but no one got charged in the in the bleacher brawl so that was separate from it the 41 year old man was separate from the original brawl so those two things did not occur at the same time and then they do mention two women being struck by gunfire as they sat in the rate field bleachers the white socks have insisted the gunfire came from outside the park still a 42 year old woman who was shot in the right thigh has sued the team its security firm and the illinois sports facility authority which owns a and operates right field.

That is set to go to trial in January. Okay. So we got follow-ups on everything. Good job. Yeah, sometimes. Way to report the news. The news we can all use. That was very informative.

It smells delicious in here. And a big shout out. It's not me. No, you actually, you often do smell very nice. Maybe not as good as Herb Howard, but you do smell nice. I try to not wear a lot of perfumed stuff to work because you never know. I like your tequila. smelling hand sanitizing and the lotion, the coconut lotion too.

It's very nice. The coconut lotion was in the women's bathroom and everybody used it up. It's lovely. It's lovely. A big shout out to Chef Marcos Asencio of Takaria Shingone. Chef Asencio is part of Chicago's gourmet, gourmet tailgate event this Sunday on the rooftop of Utopian Tailgate in Old Town. That's a great rooftop. Yeah? If you're looking for fun plans for the season opener against Carolina, it's the all. ultimate watch party with delicious game day bites, cold drinks and craft cocktails, multiple screens for you as well, skyline views and more. Some tickets are still available right now at Chicago Gourmet.org. Gourmet Tailgate is presented by Country Financial and is part of the event lineup of Chicago Gourmet powered by Invesco QQQQ. You had a sample. Delish?

Yeah, I had the Alpast store and they're excellent. So big shout out. They do a great job. Ray, you have something even more exotic. Yeah. Duck. Whoa, look out. Ducks. So much for the vegan diet. Yeah.

Oh, yeah. That's out the window in 2026. I hate to break it to you. Remember in Vegas? It varies. Oh, yeah, that's right. I've gone full heel on my diet and I'm just eating out over here eating duck now. Berries at Circa.

The best place to ditch a vegan diet. Studs is yelling. We finally got him. One of us. One of us. One of us. All right. Studs, you also need some tacos over there.

They got steak tacos. These duck tacos? Delicious. Faddy duck. Takaria chingong, you got a fan. You just earned a fan. It sounds like a great event, man.

Chicago Gourmet knows what's up. I'm going to get me out of some of that during the break. But when we return, it is time for five on it bears, Cubs, white socks questions. We'll get into that next on Rahimi and Grotia 1043, The Score. The hour is brought to you by four seasons,

heating, air conditioning, plumbing, sewer, electric, For all the right reasons, call 8664 seasons. I got five. It's time for five on it. Rahimi and Grohmi and Grody. Bring you five topics on their minds today. On 1043, the score. I got five on it.

Number one. It's a football Friday, so that means you're listening to a four seasons, heating, air conditioning, plumbing, sewer electric football Friday, presented by your local Ford dealers and Advent. Here is question number one. On a scale of one to 10 on the fired o. meter. There you fired up.

Trademark. How fired up are you for the first weekend of the NFL season? I am at about a nine. I'm at a nine on the fired up meter, and it's not a 10. I was a threat to be a 10, but then I looked at some of the matchups like Jets, Tennessee. Yeah. Cleveland and Jacksonville. Miami and Las Vegas.

Does that get you going? Let's go, week one. Quite the choice for a week one. Atlanta and Pittsburgh. But then I saw Buffalo and. Houston and what really raises the roof is we all need a Bears game so badly. Bears and Carolina on Sunday. I'm ready, man. And I guess maybe what pushes it down to a 9 from a 10 for me too is that baseball is still hot and heavy. And I'm still going to be focusing on that a lot this

weekend. So it's not at a 10, but it is at a 9 for me for the start of this NFL season on Sunday when it begins in earnest after these first two games that we've had. I think I'm at an eight because of partly what you just said. Also, I was looking at the bear's schedule while I was listening to you. You were very focused. I was distracting myself from your football with football. Bears' paws. Yeah, so that's where I'm at with this.

My football is distracting me from my football. Part of my issue was, you know how I felt about this. I hated this stupid Australia game from the very beginning. I wanted to see Rams 49ers in it. its own place. I want to see it at 325 on a Sunday. It's somebody's home stadium, not some other stadium across the world. Why do you hate Australia?

I don't hate Australia. Is it the toilets? I need to see if they flush the other direction. Why do you hate cricket? I don't hate cricket. That's a cricket stadium I played in. Cricket takes forever to play. I don't know how people find the patient. What's up with that flat bat? I think that's more of an

Indian pastime than Australian. That's what I thought too. No, you're right. It is because my buddy Faz always educates me on such things. Yeah, if you can sit through a cricket match that lasts up to several days, you're a G. Like, baseball's nothing to you. What up, gee?

And in the meantime, in the meantime, I was really fired up for this 49ers Rams game until I found it was in Australia. I was really fired up for the rematch of the Super Bowl with the Patriots and the Seahawks. Those are the marquee matchups I was really here to see aside from Bears, right? Especially since I was getting a healthy

49ers team and what I thought was going to be a better Rams team. team. But instead, the travel became the story. I know we have another question about it, but it's impossible to talk about on the first weekend of NFL season. If we're going to do this crap, which is put one of the best matchups that will affect the NFL season and the best division in football in another place like this, give people time to make it make sense. Kind of like the London game, at least that, had a buy on the other side of it. This is ridiculous for both teams. You could have given them another game. They'd have been happy with a job.

Jets game in Australia? Why'd you give them like a major game? Jets Tennessee could have been there. Could have been in Australia. Would have been more entertaining for all of us. But instead you give them one of the marquee games of the season. Okay, so I 8. I feel like you should go down.

I think you talked yourself down. I'm giving 7. You're at a 7. Don't talk for me. I am. You're a 7. I'm not in your brain. I don't talk for you. Would you like my taco? No, I gave you some chips too. Oh, you did. Which taco did you go with? I think it's a steak Taco.

Nice. Traditional. I think that's what it is. Yeah. No, it's chicken. That's definitely chicken. Oh, it's chicken? I just grabbed the taco out of the box, and when you asked me, I guessed.

This taco tastes like chicken. There was like eight boxes back there. So many jokes. So many jokes. My box. My taco. Pause. By bo-Ranji.

Number two. I don't know that anybody should have had the Jets in Tennessee game. Do the Jets in Tennessee even want the Jets in Tennessee game? No. They should do what they do in, like, pro wrestling. Like, that's not on a. TV one. That's just the one they do at a show where they don't actually have the cameras

rolling. Just let them play. Don't put it on TV. I miss NFL blackouts. Watch that game be the best game of the week. Like that's just our luck. Do you guys know that like there used to be NFL blackouts even in Chicago? I did not know that. If the whole Soldier Field wasn't sold out and it wasn't always sold out in the late 70s

and the earliest of the 80s that the home games were a threat to not be on TV terrifying for a young child like me. What? A lot of FOMO there. Football FOMO. Seriously. Question number two. Will the Bears take the North again this season? Yeah.

Why not? I said it. I don't have a better option. Like, that's it. You tell me who the better option is. We don't know how healthy Green Bay is. The Vikings are making questionable quarterback decisions where everyone involved,

which leaves, well, the lions who are somewhat healthier, but I don't necessarily know if they're going to be. good enough. So why can't it be the Bears? That's how I feel. I love it. I am picking Detroit to win the division this year. I've got the because I mean, they're going to redeem themselves after last year. They are healthier. They have still have all the talent in the world. That talent has not left. Maybe they have finally adjusted to life without Ben Johnson. So unfortunately, I think, and this is a Detroit team that did beat the Bears twice last year. I do have Detroit winning the division, followed by the Bears, followed by the Packers, followed by Minnesota.

I do have the Bears still going to the playoffs, so don't worry. But I do think Detroit wins the division this year. And? I'm still thinking about it, but I don't know. I've argued with myself about this. You said Bears. I don't have a, yeah, but then I'm like, oh, am I a blind spot to myself? I think, like I said, am I being too biased?

But I don't. It's okay. I mean, I do think it's the Lions. I do. I do. I think the Lions loss in December really got to you. You think that I'd decide. No, it's really not that.

Honestly, I mean, I know I just mentioned that the Bears were 0 and 2 against them last year. Like, the band is still there. Like, all the talent in the world is still on that offense. And it's healthy on that defense as well, Aidan Hutchinson. Yeah. Healthy. And they're just good. Like, it's not like there's anybody aging out at this point.

Like, they're still... Their secondary is still questionable, isn't it? I guess. but so is the Bears. Hey, hey. We did a whole segment on the Bears questionable defense. Yeah, but compared to the Lions.

We spent a whole preseason talking about the Bears defense. You're such a homer. Don't bring facts into my conversation. Yeah, sorry. Okay, we're going on question number three. We did the thing. Five on it.

Number three. All right. Wait, is there a limit on sound effects now? No, no. We actually already did it. It's all right. Yeah, you went back and tried to answer the question. Question twice.

Because I'm questioning myself, questioning myself. Okay. And you're going to question yourself again with this question. Oh, no. This is 5-9-1-104-3 to score, by the way. You're going first on this one. Leila Rohimi and Mark Grotie, and it's a fabulous football Friday, but we're going to ask you about this.

What was your biggest takeaway from the 49ers 27-7 win over the Rams in Melbourne, Australia, mate? Such a buzzkill from the competitive game side. Here I was picking some sort of over 30 madness, you know, two teams score and more than 30 points. Neither one of them did. And the Niners put on a damn clinic. I cannot, I cannot say that enough. A healthy 40-nighters defense is a ridiculously powerful one. A healthy George Kittle is an effective man. And Trent Williams absolutely neutralized Miles Garrett. If there's one belief that I had that was reinforced yesterday, it is perhaps, perhaps there is

some equality that is happening between the importance of left and right tackle in the league. But at the same time, the very same time, or in the words of future, at the same damn time, Trent Williams told you what time it was. Here am I, one of the best offensive linemen in the league, a Hall of Famer, a left tackle who gets paid when I want to get paid against the man who just broke the single season sack record on the other side, the defensive player of the year, Miles Garrett. Which one was going to win the matchup? advantage Trent Williams.

And then they started running fancy run screen plays. I don't even know what some of those plays were. I feel like Kyle Shanahan was in his bag. Absolutely. Some of their run game concepts and fits, I'm going to be looking at that film for a minute. Just to see what's going on. Coach Dan Casey is a tremendous follow on Twitter,

and he was illustrating some of the screen blocking that was happening. Just a lot of, like, really creative misdirections. And they could do it all because they did not care. about Miles Garrett, but the problem is that travel is going to be the story. People are going to say that the Rams lost that game because they decided to be the smartest men in the room and travel late and not do the thing that was traditional. And because of it, we didn't get the best representation of two of the best teams in the league. And that bums me out.

Might the Rams, though, or the 49ers pay in week two? Might they? Because they spent all this time in a different time zone. I sure did. Every time I come back from Asia, I sure do. Yeah. That was supposedly part of the Rams science. They're thinking about the way they're viewing it. They're thinking about the USA portion of the season. It's a really, it's a really bold, especially in a divisional game. It's a really bold choice to say we're going to risk losing game one to lower the risk slightly of losing game two.

Right. And so they may not regret this. Who knows. What stood out to me was, you know, there's Brock Purdy again, just being Brock Purdy out there and just being all efficient with his game, 25 of 34. of the three touchdowns and seeing the veterans, man, like Mike Evans, Debo Samuel. Mike Evans. I mean, come on.

Come on. Your guy, Lila. Right? I do love him. The Marcus Robinson with a touchdown. And you know what else? It doesn't go out of style because we've seen the bears pull off such drives like Ben Johnson. A 99-yard drive pulled off by the 49ers.

I made it 24 to 7 in the fourth quarter. That stood out to me. Mediocrity from Matthew Stafford stood out to me, considering the season he had last year. Old coat drives. I'm with you on Miles Garrett. I kept watching him and zeroing in on him, and they were doing a number on him.

So those are the things that stood out to me in the 49ers, 27 to 7 went over the Rams. That run game is going to break my brain for a few weeks. You love it. I'm so good. Let's get you back in the film room. Five on it. Number four.

Which Cubs player needs to have a big weekend in order to ensure a series win over the pirates. Oh, this is a stressfully loaded question for me. What are you got? It's not PCA, he's been doing that. I think you have to have him to survive. So I don't necessarily know that you can just say all willy-nilly that it's

Peacrow Armstrongstri. I don't think it's that simple or easy. I think it's going to, it might have to come down to today's starter. Mm-hmm. It is Showtime. Okay. Show to Imanaga. The pirates are probably feeling pretty good about themselves.

Almost had a little no-hitter yesterday against the old white sock. Jared Jones. Yeah. But in the meantime, this is a great get-back game for a show to Imanaga. Can you face a Pittsburgh Pirates team who is not as consistent hitting-wise and not as powerful, you know, as say the previous opponent that the Cubs have faced? Can you keep it in the yard today? And if you don't, can you keep it to a solo shot? Can you do that?

And if so, winning game one of this series in particular would be so crucial for this Cubs team to just get back on track before a very stressful upcoming Brave series that has my mind on some things. All right, here's my name. Who has to have a big weekend for the Cubs? It's Daniel Polencia. It's Daniel Polencia. Is Jacob Webb on the I L? I forget. Is he hurt? I forget.

You need somebody in the high leverage. And I know, Daniel Palencia pitched the other day in Milwaukee, and he was victimized by an error. But he did give up a hit in that, or an RBI hit in that inning. They need somebody. Somebody needs to stay. step up in high leverage. I'm calling for Daniel Polencia to have his bleep together, to have his competence together. So it is Daniel Polentia for me.

Jacob Webb, I've not seen anything about him on the transaction page for the month. And keep in mind, they recalled Javier Asad on the fifth. What about Assad? Yeah. What about Assad? Put him in high leverage. No, it's what about Assad? Assad is the new danks. I feel like it's the same mentality. It really is. Yeah. Because, right, time we talk pitching and we leave out Javier Assad, we get like 18 texts say, what about Assad? That was the most, yeah, the most recent

transaction on the page. He's always being transacted. Yeah, it was 9-526. Jack Skilly. Yep. Number five. We just became a team. We've been hanging out too much. This is five on it. I want and four, three, the score. Here's our final question.

I'm five on it. What stood out to you from the White Sox being swept at the hands of those pirates? Okay, number one, thank God you avoided the no-hitter. Like, they haven't been hitting well. We've talked about that. I know they had eight hits in the previous game, but the point is they hadn't been scoring runs,

and they also need hits. What was my angry five on a question to you guys? Wasn't it? Do you need hits to win? Yes. No, it was, do you need hits to win? White Sox.

And White Sox was in all caps, and I was mad. And then I tweeted that baseball was making me angry. And partially because I thought it was great to see Hagen Smith, quote, start, end quote, and throw two solid innings. And then how about Eric Fetty coming through? How about Eric Fetty coming through and then doing the damn job as well? So unfortunately, it was a two to nothing loss.

This wasn't some whizbang, give up a ton of runs. So you wasted the Eric Fetty performance where he gave it just two earned runs, which should be enough over five and a third to win with this team. And then Hudson comes in and does his job. And then Hicks does his job. It was a nicely pitched ball game, but unfortunately, the Weizock still could not get any runs across, and that stinks. They only had three total hits or two total hits in the game, rather. Didn't have one until

two outs in the seventh inning. I got hopeful there and thought three, but no. No, you can't have it. Thank goodness for Colson Montgomery. Right. Double. Yeah. Tell you what, Hagen Smith, not walking anybody, stood out to me. Two innings for him in the start. Zero runs. Did give up two hits. Struck out three. Again, zero walks over his 33. He went full count on the first batter that he faced. And I'm like, I'm thinking, this guy is just such an adventure, but he settled in really nicely. The other thing that stood out, and yeah, Fetty was fine, but he, the home run he gave up to O'Neill

Freakin'Kruz. O'Neill Cruz does that, though. We know this. But, but Lela, it was 117.4 miles per hour off the bat. Is that all? Per Jesse Rogers, the hardest hit home run this season. It was a, that stood out to me. That was a blistering bomb of exit velocity off the bat of O'Neill Cruz in that game.

And the socks getting swept just kind of sucked and they've lost 8 of 11 too. It still was a better Eric Fetty performance than once we had seen. I'm just saying like what stood out to me was O'Neill Cruz's home run off of Eric Fetty. I'm sorry. O'Neill Cruz does that though. We've seen him do that. Not like that. That was the hardest hit home run of the year by anybody.

I just don't keep getting to making excuse. Yeah, I know. Keep going to make excuses. That's not a saying. I'm not going to convince you. I'm going to keep making excuses. Fair enough. I just,

they could have won that game. Layla, please allow me to talk about myself now. Tomorrow, join. I don't know why I have to read this, but I will. Because you're getting more things. No,

I'm just doing something tomorrow. Join one all four or three to score. I'm always busy. I'm always available unless I'm doing something. Join the score, Laganitas and Hyniquin at Sluggers with me, Mark, Grody from 11 a.m. until 1 p.m., stop by for your chance to win a pair of passes to Riot Fest.

That's right. I'm not coming in empty-handed while enjoying free samples of Laguanita's Hoppy Refresher and Heineken 0.0. That's tomorrow with me, Mark Grody, at Sluggers, starting at 11. We have come to the moment of truth on the show, ladies and gentlemen. That's why I was looking at the schedule earlier. I was double-checking my work. We have Bears' predictions, plural, including a final score for you for Bears in Carolina. It is absolutely next on Rahimi and Grotie on 104-3, The Score.

Rahimi and Grody, Midday's 10 a.m. to 2 on 104-3, the score. It's a football Friday. On Rahimi and Grotie on 104-3, the score. moment of truth. Bears and Carolina, we are about to with the Bears' 2026 season. And so we will challenge ourselves with four different predictions, with four different people here on the show. Lela Rahimi, Tyler Buehriba, Ray Deas, and me, Mark Grody. Ray, you will be the master of ceremonies. You get to ask the questions,

which we will all answer, sir. Yes. First and foremost, bears. Bears. Oh, the music. Good start. Good start. Here we go. Question number one. Yes. What will the Bears record be in 2026? I guess I will start our predictions.

I have the Bears going 10 and 7 this year. And obviously that is one fewer win than last year. But I think it makes sense to me. It's a more difficult schedule. I mean, the regression areas are real. You're not going to have, probably not going to have the same turnover luck as you did last year. You cannot depend on the crazy 40s. quarter magic. Hopefully that will take care of itself in the first two quarters of the games this

year. But I do have the Bears at 10 and 7, not to mention a pretty difficult schedule as well. And then just the weirdness of the beginnings of seasons. The first five games always scare me in an NFL season and specifically with the Bears. 10 and 7. I double-checked my work during five on it and got distracted because I had a random football thought during my football talk. Football? Football. Bears. Yep. Bears. What you got? And I said, self, did I really do this?

Layla, did you really do this? A done did. 11 and 6 for the Bears again, even with their schedule. Wow. You were such a homer today. I, well. Bears are winning the division. Do you know what happened?

Sometimes my unconscious sports thoughts are actually the ones that hit, like the Jordan Walker home run derby. Do you remember that? I was like, why do I keep thinking he's going to do this? Okay, I guess I'm picking this. Or at the time where I didn't know who was going to the NBA finals. I'm like, I guess it's just going to be the Warriors, and then it was. So I feel

the same way about the Bears at the NFC North. But then I got to like double check myself and it's like, do you really want this? Are you really sure about this? Like you're just going to go slightly unconscious and say these things? Yep, I'm doing it again. And if I'm wrong about 11 and 6, okay, but at least I tried. She done.

Done it again. All right, guys, what do you got over there? Oops, I did it again. I played it with your heart. I got lost in the game. Layla, I'm one up in you. I got the Bears finishing at 12 and five. Oh my God. Tyler Buehlerbaud.

I'm meatballing baby. We didn't talk about this at all. And I also wrote down 12 and 5 on my schedule. I went through. I'll let Tyler give his explanation. Go ahead. I think you're just going to see a big jump in the Bears' offense. You know, last year with Ben Johnson coming in, that was the honeymoon season, you know,

because it's all exciting, the new Ben Johnson and Caleb Williams combination. Now they're serious this year. I think the offense is going to be scoring. ton of points because obviously the defense, I'm still very skeptical about them, but I think the offense is going to be what gets them to win these games. They're going to win the division, so Bears 12 and 5.

You're the best, taking the north and never give it back. By the way, you and Tyler Farrengo, I think, have the Bears. Did Baby T go, he's at 12 or he might have been 13, actually. Why don't you call your mentor and ask him? My mentor. Your mentee. He's around there at 12 or 5.

You know what I mean. That's the word I'm looking for. I got you. Okay, so here's the other thing, too, is I always do this formula where you know the bears are probably going to lose a game they're supposed to win and win a game they're supposed to lose. Of course. Yeah.

And then that's where it gets tricky. But do you guys really think that they won't be in Minnesota twice this year? I think they will. I have them winning twice. Those are some of the money makers for me in my scheduled prediction. Same. I just literally went through each game, put Ws or L's, and I ended up with 12.

and five because I'm drunk on Bears Coolade. Clearly, it's ridiculous. But additionally, okay, Jets, that's a game. That's right. Is there tequila back there with these tacos? Maybe the biggest... Stads where's a tequila? Maybe the biggest toss-up for me is the Buccaneers game because

an extended Baker Mayfield might be a motivated Baker Mayfield, but even that I still like the bear. I do have the Bears beating Seattle at Seattle on the November 2nd. That was my signature win on the Take the North podcast. You have them beating Seattle, but you don't have them What's it 10 and 7?

Because of what we just said that, like, you win games that you're not supposed to and you lose games that you're not supposed to. Do I have them beating the Packers twice, and that's what did it for me? We're going to have to keep it moving. Yeah, yeah, yeah, let's go. I keep looking at the schedule.

Got to be out at 1230, 30, 3830, I was told. That's right. So question number two, how far will the bears go in the playoffs? You know what? I'm going full Parkinson's on this. Parkins and I are on the same page. I'm me. And it's like, why wouldn't they go to the Super Bowl?

No, I think the Bears go to the NFC title game and lose the NFC title game. I also said that they would lose in the NFC championship game. But I also said they had the same record as last year. We've got to audit, you take, I don't know. Guys, what do you got? Same here. I'm thinking they're going to win that. Get to the NFC championship, but they're going to fall.

That's what I had as well. Oh, man. All four of us. We are all drinking the cooler. Guy, give me the tequila. Give me the bottle. Grotie. Oh, sorry.

Oh, yeah. You just need more chips and tacos. If something would ruin my sobriety, it would be the Bears. All right. The Bears cannot ruin your surprise. You're right. You're not going to do it to me, bears. You did not come this far to only go this far.

Well, how about this? Will Bears quarterback Caleb Williams throw for 4,000 yards this year? I mean, he threw for 3,942 yards last year. Yes, he'll have, I'm going to have him for 4,100 yards this year. Give me 4250. Sick. I'm betting on the showcase. On Price is right.

Higher. I'm betting higher. I'm not doing this $1 business. Nobody likes the $1 business. I will say yes, definitely. He's going to throw for $4,200 right in the middle. I'm not going to exceed it. I'm going to go for $4,000 and be quite

happy with what I'm seeing on the field. So reasonable, Ray. Yeah, yeah. So that's a yes. You've got a bear down on a daily nature. The bears open the season against the Panthers on Sunday. So big question. Who you got? Okay. I had been a threat

to pick Carolina, but Dustin Rhodes intimidated me and bullied me. Don't blame Dustin. No, no. No, you have to. Don't let other people tell you what to do. You have to do what's on your mind. And it is the Bears winning this game.

It is the Bears beating Carolina 27 to 24. I know weird things happen on opening day, but there's just too many areas where I think the Bears can exploit Carolina. If they could overcome the offensive line, that is the guards, they have two tackles that are coming off the bench to play in this game, including Monroe Freeling,

who they consider a product. that they didn't want to have starting. So I think that there's that factor. And to me, there's just not a big fear factor on their offenses side of Tederoa McMillian, McMillan, Bryce Young. It was better, but he's still not a great quarterback. I've got the Bears winning this game 27 to 24 over the Carolina Panthers. There, done.

You said 27-24? Yeah. Are you copying me? Oh, sorry. Did you look at my page? I did. I did. I love your information.

27, 24? Bears. The spread is three and the Bears are favored and that essentially means that Carolina lost the home field. So yeah, I think the Bears win 27-24. I think it can be that simple.

Here's the issue is I do think it's going to be a close game because there's defense, bears defense. So that stresses me out. That's part of the sports things on my mind. You use the terminology bend but don't break. There'll be a ton of that. There's going to be so much

betting and not breaking. And they already kind of build for that with their defense. That's what they've been doing. Yeah, you do whatever you want between the 20s and we'll figure out what happens in the meantime. But I don't love that theory either. That's actually a lot of defenses in the NFL. And I get it and it means like your tight ends are going to have a lot of yards, the

opposing tight ends. But I think in this case, yeah, I'm going 27, 24 bears. This is one of my 11. I'm throwing another meatball out there. I think it's going to be a pretty big win by the Bears. I think they're going to win 31 to 17. Whoa. I like the offense here.

I think we're going to see more consistency. Nothing from like the last second. Caleb Williams, Hail Marys that we saw last year. I think we're going to see a nice mature. Ben Johnson offense with Caleb Williams. I have a absolute beating on the Panthers, 31 to 17. My lack of confidence in the Bears defense has me thinking it's going to be a shootout, like a shootout type of game, high-scoring affair.

34-31. Bears, though. That felt good, guys. Today felt good. This week felt good. Thanks to everybody who listened and watched all week here. Thanks for all your support for Rahimi and Grotie. Trust me, we are just getting rolling on this show.

Can't wait for Monday already. Our first Bears Monday. And by all accounts, well, it's going to be a victory. Thank you so much to the people who supported this show and worked on this show today. If only he had an accounted for 65% of the office. Thanks to Ray Diaz and Tyler Bueberbaugh, our excellent score video team of Connor O'Donnell, Max Curtis, and Jacob Studs, the scorechicago.com editor, Cody Westerland.

We thank him very much for all the work that he has done. We thank our guests on the show today. Eugene Robinson was on the program. We had Kevin Fishbane on the program today. Was that it? Is there any other guests that I need to thank? No, I think we should thank Hyundai, though, again. Thanks to Hyundai.

You know what? Thank you to Hyundai. We are broadcasting live from the Hyundai Studios, as we always do. Oh, and before Chicago takes on Carolina, tune in Sunday morning from 9 to noon for your local foreign dealers' pre-game show right here on 104 3. The score all includes Patrick Manley and myself, Mark Grody

will get you set for the game and then immediately following the game will have instant reaction. On the Timber Tech decking and railing post game show presented by the Roarman Automotive Group, this week's post game show can also be seen exclusively on YouTube and Twitch. Have a great weekend,

everybody for Layla Rahimi. I'm Mark Grody. Comes baseball. Next on the score. Bears. Go Cups.