The Josh Innes Show - Do People Actually Like Sports?

Episode Date: January 9, 2025

Tonight we get the Notre Dame v. Penn State in the first CFP Semifinal. This game has all the makings of a dull, grind it out game. That means it will probably be a shootout. Last night I was talking with my buddy Mike and he asked me why I thought Houston didn't seem all that interested in the Texans playoff game. I think it's due in part to an kind of epidemic that is sweeping all of sports...I think people care more about the drama, free agency, gambling and fantasy than they care about the actual games. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The following was recorded from inside an ice plunge. Ah! Woo! Okay. All right. When a Coors Light is cold enough, the mountains on the can turn blue. So the next time you want a cold lager, cold filter, cold package Coors Light, just wait until those glorious mountains on the can turn blue.

It's easy to say that fast when you're freezing gold. Hey, friends. What's going on? It is Thursday, day of the first game of the college football playoff semifinals. Due to the fact that this game on paper looks like it's going to be the more boring, bad game, somehow this game is going to be epic. And tomorrow's Ohio State-Texas game, which everybody thinks is going to be epic, is going to suck. That's probably how this thing is going to go.

But tonight, you get that. Really, I have no read on it at all because everything about this game feels like it's boring, two inept offenses. And if you don't want to call them inept, you can say that they're boring offenses, which they are. Everything about this just has the makings of boring, boring, boring, which is an indicator to me that somehow this game is going to be an over. And Riley Leonard, who never really throws throws like the guy is lucky to throw for

a buck 50 in most games he'll throw for a ton and Drew Aller will throw for a ton and they'll combine for 600 passing yards and this thing's going to be a shootout so who knows but I did take one bet so far in this one I took Drew Aller to throw for more than 183 yards. I think they're going to have to throw at some point and he's capable of doing it. It's just a matter of whether or not they're going to do it or not. But I did take Drew Aller to throw for 183, over 183 and a half yards. But everything about this game feels like it has all the makings of being a total drag. Just like the line is pretty much even, the over-unders in the mid-40s. I'm looking at some of the player props on here, and basically Riley Leonard, I'd say could score a touchdown in this one.

Jeremiah Love could score a touchdown in this one. I don't know, man. These are two teams that I have very little interest in. Now, you would think if they're able to throw the ball, Penn State's going to throw the ball to Tyler Warren because that's what they do when they're able to throw the ball. But Warren's an interesting cat because if you look at his numbers and people talk about how good he's been and they say,

wow, look at Tyler Warren's numbers. He had like two or three games that he was just a freak like he had like a 12 catch game actually did he have a 15 catch game this year I know against USC I think USC was his biggest game and in that game that was the most ridiculous offensive game Penn State's probably played in a hundred years of Penn State football like you don't see that very often but But Warren's an interesting dude because, like, his number is really driven up by the fact that he had, like, 300-plus yard games. Like, okay, so here you go. So Tyler Warren on the year, he's the tight end from Penn State,

and he has 1,100 yards on the year, 1,158, and he has 98 catches, okay? Now dig on this. 1,158 yards. In a game against Bowling Green, he had 146. In a game against USC, he had 224 yards. Purdue, 127. And Minnesota, 102. So that's probably, if you do the math on that,

over half of the dude's yards came in a third of the games. And I'd have to assume a huge number of his catches as well, a high percentage. He had 17 catches against UFC. That's the game that people look at and go, holy shit, Tyler Warren is a beast. At the end of the day, the guy's not really a beast. If you look at his numbers, he's not a guy you'd look at and go, wow, this guy's a rock star. Last couple of games, once I started betting him like a schmuck, 63 yards against Boise, 33 against SMU, 84 against Oregon, 68 against Maryland. Like it's fine. That's not earth shattering shit. Dude had 98 catches on the year. So let's do the math on this. He had eight against Bowling Green, 17 against USC. I'm just looking at the ones in his biggest games of the year

and the games that he had over 100 yards. He had eight catches against Bowling Green, 17 against USC. So that's 25 catches. He had eight catches against Purdue, so that would be 33, and eight catches against Minnesota. That is 41. So 41 of his 98 catches came in four games. I don't know what percentage that is. What is 41 divided by 98, 41 divided by 98, 41% of your boys catches

came in four games. Now do the math. I know this is going to require a lot more math on my part here. But 146 yards plus 224, so that's 370, plus 127 is 470. That's 497, plus 100 is 597. So 599 of his 1158. So 599 divided his 1158. So 599 divided by 1158. 51, nearly 52% of his yards came in four games. So like you look at this Tyler Warren and you go, hey, should I bet on Tyler Warren in this game

against a pretty stout defense of Notre Dame? Should you? Let's see, what's his yardage total in this game? Tyler Warren, I'm going to try to guess it. I'm going to say that Warren's number is going to be 62 and a half. It is 63 and a half is his number, right? So 63 and a half. Now keep in mind, Notre Dame did give up a lot of passing yards to the backup quarterback of Georgia. That's another one of the reasons that I'm kind of looking at Drew Aller. I think he's the better option throwing the ball than Riley Leonard.

And you know that I like to bet on overs, and particularly I like to bet on overs and passing yards. We do not bet unders in this house. This is a non-under house. That doesn't mean we force an over that isn't there. If there isn't an over, we don't play it. But we don't bet unders because it's anti-American. It's bullshit. We do not bet unders in this house.

And you might say, well, Josh, that's a stupid way to go about business. Maybe, but I can't sit my ass on the couch and go like, man, I really want to see a boring, shitty, no scoring game, a game with no catches, no passing yards. Bullshit. We do not. man, I really want to see a boring, shitty, no scoring game, a game with no catches, no passing yards, bullshit. We do not. Now, there are some times, there are rare exceptions that we bet unders. I know I'm contradicting myself here when I say we don't bet unders. There are times that the under can make sense, and it's in live betting.

I never take unders from the jump. But in live betting situations, an under can come into play, particularly if you get like a WNBA or women's game of some sort that has a red hot first quarter and the over under is up like 15 points or something from where the game started. That's a time to jump it on an under.

You never want to fall for a situation where you watch girls basketball, women's basketball, college pro, Yugoslavian, it doesn't matter. You don't want to find yourself in a position where you see a game have a red hot first quarter and you go, well, shit, I'm just going to ride this and just take the over

because this game is going to keep going. It will not keep going. It never keeps going. It will not keep going. It never keeps going. It's women's basketball. At the end of the day, it all ends up being women's basketball. No matter how good the first quarter is, don't be a fool that goes, holy shit, the game started at like, it was a minus or it was a over under of like 140 or some shit. And now it's like 152 at the end of the first quarter, man. These girls are just going 152 at the end of the first quarter. Man, these girls are just going to keep scoring.

They will not keep scoring. It is women's basketball. The scoring will not continue. Do not fall for it. If anything, take the fucking under. Like one of my favorite things to do is like late in basketball games, take the over. If it's a close game, because there could be free throws, especially in college basketball where these dudes never stop fouling, like take the over if it's a close game because there could be free throws, especially in college basketball where these dudes never stop fouling.

Like, take the over. And that's how I had that one stretch where I was up like a billion dollars and eventually wasted all of it. Women's basketball is the exception. Do not do that with women's basketball. It is a trap. Do not do it. But back to this Penn State game. Like, I'm looking for anything that I find

interesting in here. You know, Bo Collins at 17 and a half yards from Notre Dame. Bo Collins may not be a bad play. He gets a couple of catches a game and he's a guy that's dealt with some is Bo's the one that was hurt, right? Let me make sure on that. I think Bo Collins was the dude that was dealing with an injury and missed some games. Yeah, okay, so he's, let's see. He's a risk, but he's a guy like he's capable of getting you two, three catches a game.

It's just a matter of how long those catches are, baby. Bo Collins with a small number. I'm a sucker for those little small numbers. Jilly loves those, too, and she tends to hit those. Jilly has a beautiful mind for these things. But that's tonight, and then, of course, Texas and Ohio State, which should be epic. I will tell you this.

For Texas and Ohio State, you've got to look at Jeremiah Love, or Jeremiah Smith, rather, sorry. Jeremiah Smith, and you've got to look at Igbuka. Those are my two dudes. I had a boost to use on FanDuel that had to be used by this morning. So I made a parlay bet on the yards, receiving yards for Igbuka and Jeremiah Smith, each of them to get their receiving yards because they're fucking monsters. And I'm hoping that this game tomorrow night is epic.

I'm hoping this game tonight ends up being somewhat watchable because these Notre Dame games tend to not be watchable and these Penn State games tend to not be watchable. So we shall see. But in a game that everybody expects unders and defense, it would not shock me if somehow this is the game that ends up 45-42, something like that. All right, let's see here. Let's play some commercials and we will continue. All right, if you're ready to win some real cash during the basketball playoffs, you gotta check out Pick 6 from DraftKings. When it comes to basketball payouts,

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Pick six not available everywhere, including New York and Ontario. Voidware prohibited. One per new customer. Bonus award. It is non-withdrawable pick six credits that expire in 14 days. Limited time offer. See terms at pick6.draftkings.com slash promos. Alrighty. So speaking of gambling. So last night I had bet on some NBA games because I had some boosts at like FanDuel or DraftKings or one of them. And last night there was a game with the Cavs and the Thunder.

And this game was a battle of two teams that have won a shitload of games consecutively, even though Oklahoma City did lose in the NBA Cup, yet somehow that didn't count as a loss in the regular season. It's stupid because all the other games in the NBA Cup are regular season games. This one isn't. So technically, even though they lost, they had still won 15 games in a row. And I bet on them they lost, whatever. But one team's like 30-5, the other is 31-4.

They're just two good NBA teams, neither of whom are going to win the NBA Finals, because that's not how it works. NBA regular season records mean absolutely nothing. But it ended up being a pretty good game I watched the fourth quarter of it and I keep seeing these people I heard it on the broadcast last night and then I saw it parroted by Brian Windhorst of the Jonah Hill super bad Jonah Hill looking man that is all up that's all up LeBron's ass like that's his job

and he says if you don't like this game, then you know what? You just don't like basketball. And I heard the same thing on the television broadcast. Like, Doris Burke or somebody says, if you don't like this type of game, then you know what? You're just not a fan of basketball. And NBA people do that a lot. Like, they're very defensive about the sport. Like, they're so desperate for people to care and be interested in the NBA. And they're so appalled and shocked that the world doesn't

find every regular season game to be exciting. And that people don't think that JJ Redick is a likable guy or that Popovich is a likable guy. Like people are trying so hard to figure out why the NBA is not watched. We've talked about it on here, but they're trying to figure out what it is. Like, how could you not love to tune into a regular season game between the Thunder and the Cavaliers, where between them they're like 62-9? How could you not want to watch this game? If you don't, you just don't like basketball.

Well, does it ever occur to you that maybe people just don't give a shit about basketball? Maybe they don't. And there's a thing, and I was texting with Meltzer about this last night, and it kind of reminded me of this when I read that quote from Brian Windhorst, who's like, you just don't like basketball if you don't like a game like this. No, I enjoy basketball. I just don't give a shit about regular season basketball. And for that

matter, I don't give a shit about regular season baseball or soccer or hockey other than to gamble. And it got me thinking about this because me and Meltzer were texting last night about why people in Houston are not all that interested in this playoff game. And I'm like, well, it's Houston. Houston doesn't give a shit. He's like, well, in 2011, they gave a shit. And I'm like, well, yes, they did because it was a moment and it was the first time in the playoffs. And if you remember, there was the next man up movement because Schaub had gotten hurt and then Leinart had gotten hurt. And then TJ Yates had to come in.

So you're riding a third string quarterback who had just marched you down the field in Cincinnati to beat the Bengals to clinch the first playoff spot in the team's history. Then you get a home playoff game in that Texans window. This is before we knew there was a such thing as a Texans playoff window that three 30 on Saturday game, you know, like that's what this was. So it was like, this was that. So it was a big moment. Uh, radio mattered more at the time that people were locked into six 10. Our ratings were great. people were into it. And now people aren't as into it. And we started talking about this and I said, Mike, I have kind of an intriguing way of looking at this. And that angle is, I just don't believe that people care as much about the

outcome of sporting events as they used to. By that I mean, I don't think people care about whether or not their team wins or loses more than they care about the drama that surrounds the sports, the shit talking that you do with your buddies or the people that root for the other teams, or the gambling slash fantasy aspect of it. Like I get, look, I'm a big gambler. I talk about it on here all the time. I like to gamble on sports. It's what I do.

But if you start looking at this and you look around and you look at the number of people who bet and gamble, and look, these leagues are clearly making tons of money off of it. That's why across the country, more cities and more states, and they're all pushing for it. Here in Missouri, the Cardinals, the blues, the chiefs, the hockey teams, the, the fucking soccer teams, everybody in this state that has a professional team was rallying to get people to vote on legalizing sports betting. They're not doing that because

they just want to see people gamble. They're doing that because it makes them money. So there's obviously great benefit for these professional teams to do this. But I think it's also hurt them to an extent. And where it's hurt these franchises and it's hurt these leagues is now a good number of people are watching sporting events, not because they care about whether or not the Thunder win because they love the Oklahoma City Thunder or the Memphis Grizzlies win because they love the Memphis Grizzlies or the Houston Texans win because they love the Oklahoma City Thunder, or the Memphis Grizzlies win because they love the Memphis Grizzlies, or the Houston Texans win because they love the Houston Texans. They're watching games from a gambling slash fantasy aspect,

and I think it's watered down actual fan support for teams. It is taking kind of an axe to the passion that people feel for sports teams. And I'm not telling you that there still aren't places that it exists, and everyone's going to have diehard fans. But I think in a bigger picture aspect, more people are into their fantasy team slash gambling bets for the night than they are what happens with a basketball team that they root for in game number

45 of an 82 game season if that makes sense like last night like it occurred to me when I'm watching this Oklahoma City Thunder game and I'm like I don't give a shit about either one of these teams and the only reason I'm watching is because I bet on this and I guess if the NBA heard that they'd go well good you wouldn't watch it otherwise. I'm like, yeah, that's true. But I also can't find myself watching many sporting events unless I've bet on them. Otherwise, I don't care. And even though I'm a diehard fan and I still get mad about shit

and I get mad about LSU and all that, and the Saints and the Cardinals and all that shit, I still think we're in a position now where more people find themselves interested in the gambling fantasy aspect of sports and the drama. People fucking love drama. Like, people love free agency. Like, look at the portal.

Like, the last two or three weeks, however long it's been that the portal's been active, people fucking love the portal. They love to celebrate that some dude flipped from going to LSU to Michigan. They fucking love it. They're into it. They care about that. Same with the NBA.

That's been the big thing with the NBA more so than any other league because free agency and a lot of other sports aren't as big or as big of a deal as it is in the NBA. But go back to 2011 when the lockout happened, and the NFL lockout happened. Remember when they opened up the league again and teams were just going out and buying players and shit? It was fun.

And that's the thing. People are into the off-field stuff. People are into the drama. People are into the kind of salacious shit. People are into who's signing with what team. And they're more interested in that than they are the outcome of the games. And I think that's universal. I think that's happening more and more. When I say universal, obviously it's not exclusive to everyone, but across leagues and sports, I think that's kind

of what we're running into. I think we're at a point now where there's so much access and everybody thinks they're a GM and everybody's a gambling expert that now people are more passionate about what happens off the field than what happens on the field. People are more passionate about defending their team than they are about whether or not their team actually wins. I think more people care about whether or not their team wins. Because they want to be able to talk shit on the internet. Versus they really give a shit about whether or not their team won. And you see it everywhere.

And in every sport. But like you see people. And because of social media. Like people love to fight for their teams on social media they love to look at some media outlet that says that their team sucks and they want to shit on that media outlet or that fan base you know it's like the astros people the astros people love fighting with these other people about whether or not the astros cheated or whatever right they love that like people are more into, like the symbolism of it and

like the we'll put on for our team type of shit. Then they actually care about whether or not the team wins or loses. And I think one of the biggest aspects of that is the social media and the gambling. So I told you last night I'm watching that game and I'm like, I don't give a shit about this game. And I wouldn't even, I wouldn't even turn this fucking game on if I didn't have a bet on it. And fun fact, I had a bet on it, and I forgot that the game was even on until the fourth quarter when Jilly said, oh, yeah, by the way, this game is on. And I'm like, oh, shit, I bet on that. Like, I think that's how we're kind of trending as a people. We're less passionate about the outcome of the games and the games themselves, and somehow we're more into the process of it and if we're

not into the process of it we're into the how can i make money on an angle or how do i build my fantasy team angle on it like i was thinking about this if i moved to like texas and i couldn't bet on games would i even give a fuck about these games would i even be interested in watching like tonight you got this college football playoff game like I don't give a shit who wins this game if it's Penn State or if it's Notre Dame I have no passion for the outcome of this game I'm not sitting here going my god I really hope Notre Dame loses because I fucking hate the Catholic I don't give a shit I only give a shit from the standpoint of I need Drew Aller to throw for 184 yards. I need Tyler Warren to do this. I need Bo Collins to do this.

I need Riley Leonard to do this. And that's all I give a shit about. I don't care otherwise. So if I move to Texas and like I'm sitting at home on like a Tuesday night and I can't make one of my favorite bets, which is the total goals in hockey, which I'll do tonight because there's, I think, more than 10 games tonight. So it's a good opportunity to take the total goals. If I'm sitting there and I'm on the couch and it's Houston and I can't make that bet, I wouldn't give two fucks about anything that happened in any of those hockey games.

And I think there's a lot of people that are kind of finding themselves like that. Now, you could argue, well, that seems kind of problematic. Maybe. But I guess I'd rather be in that. Now, you could argue, well, that seems kind of problematic. Maybe. But I guess I'd rather be in that spot than be dependent on alcohol or drugs, right? I mean, this way, there's one of my favorite, there's a meme. It says, well, at least mine's the only addiction that could maybe buy us a house. And I'm like, eh, that's one way of looking at it. But, yeah, no one ever, you know, no one ever bought a mansion because they were hammered

or you know they were addicted to crack so but all that said I think that that's kind of why this kind of goes back full circle to the point about why people in Houston aren't as like excited about the Texans the Texans are a unique case as well because I just don't think people get excited about the Texans anyway because they're a boring franchise and they're a stepkid franchise that the city isn't really passionate about but I think that's part of it is we're just in an era where there's so much out there and there's so much access and there's so much shit talking on the internet there's so much gambling and fantasy that the actual teams and the games and the result of those games don't really matter to people so there you go