The Josh Innes Show - A Weekend Of Booze, Betting and Ball

Episode Date: August 11, 2025

I know it's just preseason, but damn it was nice to spend the weekend betting on football. I have a few thoughts on: Shedeur Sanders debut Graham Mertz being awful My disdain for baseball Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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I left my, my, my, my, uh, traeger that I had for about two years. It just, um, I don't know, it was kind of beat up and I figured I'd get a new one. Then I get to this house and I realize there's no, there's no outlet outside. So if I'm going to use a pellet grill, I'm going to have to run a cord, an extension cord, into the house to use one, which I may still have to do. Because in my mind, I told myself, Josh, Go out and learn to use one of these little charcoal smokers, like the Weber Smoky Mountain. Everybody keeps telling me the Weber Smoky Mountain is as close to a set-it-and-forget-it, a charcoal smoker.

You throw a little bit of wood in there, too, and boom, you'll be fine. But I still don't know that I'm, not that I'm not ready for that, just that I don't know that I want to. I like, like, part of me wants to learn it and learn all of it. Like, I want to learn offset smokers, and I want to learn all that stuff. But then there's another big part of me that's like, I just kind of like the convenience of a pellet grill and a set it and forget it and truly set it and forget it. Now, the purest would tell you, Josh, that is just basically using an oven. And you're not wrong, but the stuff tastes pretty good.

So, I don't know. That's kind of where I am. So I've been just grilling some and just had a nice little weekend, Nice little weekend of beer consumption. Friday got a little hazy, and it wasn't supposed to be. The turnup got really, really real on Friday to the level that I ended up singing karaoke, singing some Vince Neal Motley crew karaoke. Maybe I'll get that audio for the next episode of this.

I didn't even think about that, but I have video of it. And then it all started. I'm just on my way home from another bar. I'm like, I'm going to go home and I walk by and there's this little dive right down the road from my house and I hear singing coming out of it. And it's, I'm hearing a song. I'm like, is this? Why don't we get drunk and screw by Jimmy Buffett? And then boom, it is.

And I'm like, I got to go check out whatever's happening here. And it was some people watching. It was something. And then I end up getting up there and singing too. But anyway, so beer, lots of football, lots of betting on football. You know what's wild is that we are only two weeks away from the start of college football. On the 23rd, less than two weeks away, we are from college football. Hot damn, this is beautiful.

Let me play a couple of commercials, and we will continue. Summer is Tim's ice latte season. It's also hike season, pool season, picnic season, and yeah, I'm down season. So drink it up with Tim's ice lattes, now whipped for. a smooth taste. Order yours on the Tim's app today at participating restaurants in Canada for a limited time. So college football, week zero, is

12 days away. August 23rd, week zero, I do not care who is playing. There aren't a ton of amazing matchups in week zero. But I don't care. That doesn't matter to me. All that matters to me is that football is on the horizon, college

football. I've been watching a lot of preseason football. I thought we've got two episodes left in the SEC show. I mean, it's been all football all the time. I watched a little bit of baseball last night, but I'm just, I'm, I'm, I'm in a weird spot because Cardinals are my team. You know this. They're on last night.

If they win, they're three and a half back in the wild card. I know they're not very good. I end up betting on the Cubs to win. So in my mind, hey, I win either way. But by the time the end of the game came, around. I was rooting to win the money. I would have preferred the money than the Cardinals who aren't going anywhere. Like, baseball is just does not have my interest. Like, I'm in Detroit right now. Baseball team is fine. I mean, they're kind of, I mean, they're not kind of

sputtering. They're a 500 team over the last 60-something games. They're not very good. You look at their lineup and you're like, who the hell is in this lineup that's worth the shit? You've had some weird kind of reclamation projects like Glaber Torres and Javier Baez. But then you look at Javi Baez and you're like, okay, he had a little moment, but we know who Javier really is. He's been dog shit to the point that he's been benched before, despite having a huge contract. Their pitching staff isn't very good. Their bullpen is not good. They're starting pitching this not good to the point that they brought in Charlie Morton, who in his last start was hideous. You want to talk about an awkward start. So Charlie Morton,

at one point in the game, when I was in from Walking Ross, I guess this would have been Friday. I come in from Walking Ross. I think it was Friday. Actually, it might have been Saturday. I'm not positive. But Charlie Morton, and when I turn on the TV, they're like, Charlie Morton has struck out seven in a row to the point that they're looking up the most consecutive strikeouts in the history of baseball, which happens to be 10 is the actual record for the most strikeouts consecutively. But they're like, wow, he's at seven now. He proceeds to give up like a ton of hits in a row.

And before you know it, they've given up four. runs in the inning. Like, I don't want to go deep into baseball because, honest to God, I just don't give a shit. And maybe when October rolls around, I will give a shit. But I'm sitting there and I'm just like, I don't care. And I don't think that the tigers, while the tigers are in first place in a bad division, and they won yesterday, which keeps them at six games up.

They were like 15 games up not that long ago. Now it's down to six. It was down to five before yesterday. and if not for the fact they pulled off a miracle on Friday, it would have been four going into yesterday. So I'm struggling to find baseball interesting. I'm struggling. And even with a good team, at least the team's good here, so it's something.

At least the Astros are still good. So whenever October rolls around, that will at least be something. But if there's preseason football on TV, like Friday, we were at a bar. And, I mean, it took a while for them to flip over to the Alliance preseason game. And I'm like, listen, guys, I respect that the baseball team is in the heat of a peon drive. All right. I totally get that and I respect it. However, some of us are here to watch anybody playing football.

I don't care that Jared Gough is not playing. I don't care that it's Hinden Hooker that's playing. Put the damn game on. There was also the Browns game on Friday, which was Shadur and people are blowing Shudur. whatever, fine. Look, here's what's going to happen with Shooter Sanders, right? No matter how he plays, there's going to be a group of people that have this mindset that the guy's dog shit and that he's terrible and he's never going to be anything and he's something because of his dad. And that's that. Then there will be a group of people that think everything he does is incredible

and that any sort of criticism towards him is either racially driven or they just don't want to see him succeed, right? Like, that's how this is going to go. That is the two camps you're going to get in the shudder thing. Then there's people like most of us that kind of live in the middle that are just like, dude was fine, whatever, you know. But then you don't do the guy any favors when you got dipshits like Stephen A. Smith on TV saying dumb shit like, they're setting him up to fail by starting him in a preseason game. They're setting him up to fail.

So I can only imagine what the conversation would be like today from Stephen A. Smith saying more dumb shit. But I watched that on Friday. I watched the Lions who just look woeful. times on offense. Now, I'll give the Lions the benefit of the doubt because they're not playing any of their starters. They're not playing Jared Goff. They're playing Hinden Hooker, who as it turns out fucking sucks, which is what? Now, who knows? Maybe he goes elsewhere and thrives. But when you go back and watch Hinden Hooker in college, if he doesn't get hurt, he's right there in the thick of the

Heisman race. Tennessee's a damn good football team when he's the quarterback. He's putting on a show. You get him in the NFL, and he's dreadful. He just looks like shit Hinden Hooker does. And then their other option is what, Kyle Allen, but nothing worth of shit there in that game, except for the fact that it looked like a dude died. They actually ended the game early because the dudes were so shook up over, like one of their pod and is almost dying on the field. As it turns out, he's fine, but it was pretty gnarly and scary, and they called the game with about six or seven minutes to go. That actually happened once when I was in high school. We were playing basketball, and it was a blowout game. our asses kicked and some dude from the other team like breaks his leg in like a fucking

scary ass creepy gnarly way like this thing's bent in a 90 degree it's nasty and they're like you know what fuck it let's let's call it a night guys you're getting your ass kick let's just go home so because this dude broke his leg they were like looks like we're out looks like we're out uh so saturday uh football wise i'm trying to think of what stood out on saturday there were any uh players Well, we will say that Cam Ward was kind of iffy If we're looking at quarterbacks, young quarterbacks And what kind of impact they made Cam Ward's playing on a very bad team for what it's worth

I'm going to reserve a ton of judgment on Cam Ward I think he was fine But he's kind of the name that kind of pops to a lot of people When you start talking about the young quarterbacks And who played well God damn Graham Mertz though Holy shit dude like I was watching him on the SEC

show and I remember betting on him a lot. Now, mind you, a lot of my, my thoughts and decisions and just overall view of things comes from who I bet on. Like, I'm watching the SEC show. You want to know how, like, sick my mind is as it relates to betting, right? I'm watching this SEC show last night after, you know, the football games watched the Saints. Hey, Tyler Shuck didn't look terrible compared to Spencer Rattler who looked like shit. Tyler Shuck looked okay. So, I mean, Look, the Saints are going to be terrible. They might lose 15 games this year. So I'm not looking at anything like they're going to win any games.

But I thought Shuck looked okay. And he should. He should have veteran leadership. He's 25 years old. He and I are damn near the same age. But I'm watching the SEC show. And it's not like I remember every game that happened for every team last year. But as I'm watching these highlights of these games, I'm like, oh, I remember that.

I remember what I bet on. I remember where I was. Like I'm watching highlights of Missouri, South Carolina. which was a great game and I'm talking to Jilly and I'm like you know Jilly I was sitting in the parking lot over in Illinois because I just left the house because it looked like my bets were going to fail so I had to put in some new bets on on the games so I drove back over to Illinois and I remember sitting in the car listening to the South Carolina Missouri game the radio broadcast of it from the Missouri side and at one point in the game like late in the game I hear the rooster by Allison Cheney. in South Carolina, and that shit hit hard. I believe it went from separate ways journey, so you had the, like, which is a great stadium anthem. Like, I don't need any of your, like, give me journey.

Give me, give me, not don't stop believing. Give me fucking journey separate ways. So it's late in the game, tight game, 30 seconds to go. And I remember just, dun, dun, dun, dun, here we stand. And I'm like, that was intense. then it goes from that to the rooster and then considering that they're cocks and that's their mascot that like i've never thought of the rooster as a badass stadium song but the rooster as a badass stadium song fucks it is amazing and that's what i remembered about that game and that i live bet on

south carolina my boy lenores sleeper for the heisman by the way that i bet on my boy lenoris to come back and win that game and they did like all these high I can just remember them based on what I bet on and where I was when I bet on it. And it's fucking sick and disgusting and disturbing. But Graham Mertz is in that show. And I just remember I bet on him in week one against Cam Ward in Miami and like Cam Ward through for like a billion yards. And Graham Mertz sucked. And then Graham Mertz got hurt.

And now he plays for the Texans. Maybe not for long. Holy shit was he bad. So that was kind of like maybe we'll get into that in a little bit more detail at some point. but oof, oof, Graham Mertz. But that happened, and then yesterday you had the Bears. The Bears are one of my favorite preseason teams to bet on. The key in betting on preseason games is you have to look for teams that have veterans and guys like that.

I mean, you look at their quarterbacks, and this is without Caleb Williams. The first two guys they put in the game, I believe, were Bejant, and then it was like Case Keenum. I feel pretty good about getting passing yards from Bayesian and Case Keenum, because Bayesian is still trying to prove a point. And Bayesian is still a very popular guy with Chicago fans. If Caleb Williams sucks out of the gate, people will want Tyson Bayesian. That's just how it is. By the way, so I'm listening on the XM.

I'm still in this loaner car that has XM. So I'm listening yesterday to the Bears broadcast. These dudes are taking phone calls at halftime of the game. Can you imagine, like you're listening to, I don't know, an Eagles game, a Texan's game, whatever, and you hear some demote calling during halftime. Like, let's go to the phones. Here's Bernie and Brumall. And like, you're just ripping the Eagles at halftime.

I was fascinated by that. But that was an easy victory in that one. And then the Saints, as it turned out, were pretty easy too because shuck through for a bunch of yards, including a bomb for like 60 yards and put it over the top. Lots of beer, lots of football, lots of betting, my kind of weekend. and pretty soon that's going to be every weekend, and I can't wait. I got a chubb thinking about it. Let's pause, and let's do something else.