The Press Box - This Week in Ringer Sports (Nov 6, 2017 - Nov 10, 2017) (Ep. 378)

Episode Date: November 11, 2017

In the first installment of ‘This Week in Ringer Sports’ we feature ‘One Shining Podcast with Titus and Tate’ on Louisville without Pitino, ‘The Bill Simmons Podcast’ with Dan Patrick on their favorite NBA shooters, ‘The Ringer MLB Show’ on Shohei Otani’s potential move stateside, ‘The Ringer NFL Show’ on the Packers without Aaron Rodgers, ‘The Ringer NBA Show’ on the Eric Bledsoe trade, ‘The Masked Man Show’ on the new Ric Flair documentary, ‘Ringer FC’ on the fresh new faces of the U.S. men’s national team, ‘Ringer University’ on Notre Dame vs. Miami, ‘NBA Group Chat’ on Porzingis, Lowry, and Ball, and ‘Against all Odds with Cousin Sal’ on who’d win a fake fight between Tony Romo and Deion Sanders.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to this week in Ring Your Sports. I'm Liz Kelly here to bring you a compilation of the best offerings from the sports side of things here at the Ringier Podcast Network. First up on one shining podcast, Tate and Mark chat about Louisville heading into the new season and Petino's comments about his firing. The Louisville Cardinals. My favorite team in basketball this season. I cannot wait to watch what happens.

My first thing, Dave Padgett, the interim head coach for people that don't know, he took over for Petino. All the headlines I've seen. The team is much more relaxed with Dave Padgett. Now, folks, there's no way. So let me get this straight. Can we play a quick? So basically, Rick Petino is obviously out at this point.

He has some thoughts about the situation at Louisville. Let's hear his thoughts on this, and we're going to chime in afterwards. When you say to University of Louisville, the people there are in love of my life, the other coaches, I worship the ground that my players walk on. That's how much I love them. But to me, this board of trustees locking me out of my office, telling me I'm dismissed, before facts came out, let it develop. They're not the University of Louisville.

They're a board hired by the governor to deal with the president's situation a while ago. They're not the University of Louisville that I know. Oh, my God. I worship the floor that my players walk. on, okay, Jay? Why is it? Who is handling their firing worse? Rick Petino from Louisville or Bob Knight from Indiana?

Because just shut, just shut up, Rick. Just stop talking. This is not the Louisville that I know, Mark Titus. Just stop talking. Like, everybody knows that you know. Everybody knows that you know. We have evidence that you know. We all know that just like, just be like, you got me.

I honestly think that the FBI has like text messages between Rick Patino and the kid and Godo, the adjo. I think they have actual paper trail on this whole situation, and he's still going down. And he's not, he's not, he's just like, he's that co, he's not caping anything. And he's trying to, I don't understand it, why he's giving interviews. And the guy is, to Jay Billis. It's ridiculous. I love Jay Billis.

Like, that's maybe not the place to go out. Like, Jay's, Jay just sat there. He was so stunned that he was having this conversation with him. He was like, I can't believe Rick Patina wants to talk to me and all people. He probably thought he was dying in front of him. I mean, you see him like crying and he's got the white face and the puffy eyes. I said it's like Voldemort. Like, he's on his last whorex.

it's like the end. The end is near. I'm so curious to see how Louisville fans feel about Rick, because I'm sure right now, I'm sure right now they still love him, but when you realize what's about that happened, I still love him. Nothing's changed. He provides us with content.

Let me tell you. Rick Petino is who I thought he was. On the Bill Simmons podcast, Bill is joined by fellow ESPN alum, Dan Patrick, to chat about his NBA player comparison and some players with the best shooting form in NBA history. What 2017 player, represented your game at its peak and pickup. I've heard good stories about your game, by the way.

I didn't like playing defense. Oh. I did it. Well, you know what? My coach would always put me on the best score because he wanted me to understand that he got to be at both ends, and I just didn't appreciate that.

But then he knew that my – Yeah, well, my ego would get in the way and then I'd want to play some defense there, And I realized then I could get tired at the offensive end. So you've got to sacrifice something. And who would I be? Like Jay? I would probably be maybe, what?

I was going to say J.R. Smith? No. You went to the home more than J.R. No, it's a better shooter than J.R. Maybe a Reddick. Maybe a Reddick. Okay. Reddick.

Yeah. I like it. Yeah. I had to pick a white guy, I guess. Isn't that the way it always has? Hey Allen with the heat. How's that? Miami Heat Ray Allen.

That's good. I can see that in my head. Yeah. Sharp-ass shooter. You won't see it on the floor. Absolutely. I think Ray has the greatest shot in NBA history. The final shot.

Well, I was going to say, I think he probably, yeah, he top three greatest form ever, but also made the greatest shot of all time. I really do think that finals game six was the only shot. First of all, it swung the title. Second of all, he might have been one of like four people on the planet who would have even thought to do it and had practiced that specific shot and made it. I don't know who else. I just don't know who else you would have grabbed from the history of the week to put in that specific instance who could have said, hey, I've practiced this shot for the last 20 years of my life. I'm going to go make it now.

It's just crazy. The whole thing's crazy. Who else do you have form-wise? Besides Ray Allen, you said he's one of the top three. Who are the other two, in your opinion? I love Mike Miller's jump shot. I love Bradley Beale's jump shot. Early Mike Miller, like the Memphis Grizzlies Mike Miller.

I always thought he just had a gorgeous one. I love Bradley Beale. And even though it's not a traditional jump shot, I think Curry's release is, I'm always transfixed by it when he's really going. Like how just the mechanics of it, how he's basically stripped everything out of it other than just these

two steps of bringing the ball near his chin and just firing it with his wrist. And it's like 0.08 seconds or whatever he gets it off. Nobody shoots like him the release he has. It's unbelievable. How long have we been watching him for 10 years? It still remains unbelievable

to me watching him. I love it. Yeah. I would put Dale Ellis in there. I always thought Dale was one of the great deep shooters of all time. So I'd put him on my short list, along with Ray Ray. Yeah, that was a good one. Reggie's probably the one who became a little, I know he's one of your staples on your show.

He's became a little overrated over time. I think the fact that he went into MSG and laid the smackdown two straight years and had the eight points in 13 seconds kind of vaulting him up. I would not put him in like the top six or seven. I think the stats back it up. Definitely, he's on the list of. Uh-oh, we're up too, but that guy's wide open. He's definitely making that.

He's on that list. This week on the Ringer MLB show, Ben Lindberg and Michael Bauman talk about Shoheyotani, the Japanese pitcher and outfielder, and the financial implications involved with Otani's potential move to the big leagues. I think we have to talk about Atani. Obviously, we are interested in what he will do. Interested as two week a word to see what he'll do in the majors. And so selfishly, we want him to be in the majors as soon as,

possible. Financially speaking, that may not be in his best interest because of the new extremely strict and team-friendly and player-unfriendly rules and international spending limits that have been imposed by the new CBA. O'Tani is in line to make much, much, much less than he is worth. He would be getting hundreds of millions of dollars, most likely if he were a free agent as it is. He's looking at a maximum payout of $5 million something in that range. It won't be that because almost every team has committed a large chunk of their international bonus pool to other players. Yeah. So like we're talking about probably a high six figure signing bonus once everything settles down.

Yeah. So now it becomes, well, is he so eager to get to the majors that he will pass up the possibility of making much more money a year down the line when he is 25 and those international spending rules no longer apply to him. And from everything we've heard, it sounds like he wants to come over and like his team, the Napanahem fighters, are willing to send him over. But there is a hang up, as reported by Joel Sherman. Really, it's kind of a complicated issue in that the posting agreement between MLB and NPB has expired this year. And so in the past, it was teams and MLB could bid whatever they wanted for a Japanese player when he was posted by his team. and it would just be the highest bidder gets to negotiate with him and no one else does. Then the system changed to every team that is interested in the player can post $20 million or bid $20 million.

And then they all get to negotiate with the player. That agreement expired recently. But MLB is willing to kind of grandfather Otani in under that old agreement reportedly so that teams, anyone who wants him, which any team would be willing to pay $20 million for Shio Atani. So every team would at least be interested in talking to him for that amount. But it sounds like from Sherman's report, the MLB Players Association is not happy with this and needs to give approval to this, which is something that is stipulated by the CBA when you have a contract with a player from another country. And the MLBPA is putting up something of a fight here, showing some resistance because, to quote Sherman, they are concerned about the precedent and fairness of the player receiving, say, $300,000.

and his former team $20 million. And I'll just clear the floor for you right here because I think you have a well-justified rant here about how if the Players Association didn't like this system, they shouldn't have allowed themselves to be negotiated into it. Yeah, that's, wow, you know, it's shocking that they're now a year after they negotiated the new CBA that explicitly, you know, created this system for players like Otani, which within, oh, I don't know,

about 12 hours of the, the broad details of the CBA leaking, everybody was like, wait, doesn't this completely screw Shohei Otani in particular? You know, this just, I just imagine, I'm going to make a comparison that I want everybody to know is like, is not based on Tony Clark's appearance at all. But you know how in return of the Jedi where Jabba the Hut's sleeping and somebody wakes him up and he goes, whoa. And, oh, yes. Yeah. And that's how I imagine Tony Clark operating at the helm of the players association.

Because, like, he is the last person to figure everything like this out. And he always figures it out, like, I don't know, somewhere between three weeks and in this case, 11 months after it's too late to do anything about it. like, yeah, that is concerning that a Japanese, frankly, it's concerning that a Japanese team can only get $20 million for Shohei Otan. But that they can get $20 million while Otani himself is only getting $300,000, you know, yeah, like that's what you get for completely screwing every single baseball player on the planet who isn't a member of the MLBPA right now when you're negotiating, you know, like, and Otani's going to be. Like he's not, we're not even talking about, you know, the kids coming out of Dominican Republic in Columbia who are have no guarantee of future earning potential who don't have, you know, five years of earning a professional salary behind him. Like, you know, Otani's not going to be poor by any stretch of the imagination, but he's not going to get paid anywhere near what he's worth. He's not going to get paid five percent of what he's worth as a, a player. So like, it's great.

It's great that they're concerned about this right now. It would have been more useful if they were concerned about this 12 months ago. The Packers haven't won a game since Aaron Rogers' injury in week six. On the ringer NFL show, Kevin Clark and Robert Mays discussed the value of Aaron Rogers to the Packers over the past decade. If you're Mike McCarthy, what level of gift should you get Aaron Rogers on a yearly basis? Now that we have a clearer picture of exactly what he is to that football team, I think we all knew, but again, there's really no way to appreciate him until he's out of the picture.

So if you're Mike McCarthy and you know that you've had a job for 12 years because of this man, what do you buy him? Is there anything you can do? So Mike McCarthy, Google tells me, makes around $6 million a year. Let's say after this season, the Packers move on. I'm not saying they will,

but I'll just hypothetically, the Packers move on. And the Packers say to the next coach, Aaron Rogers is going to be your quarterback, but you're going to make like $70,000 each. or they just give that offer to Mike McCarthy does he take it I don't think Mike McCarthy

I think there are humans in the world that would take him of Mike McCarthy would not I think there are good coaches who would take the $70,000 offer for Aaron Rogers it really is incredible there's no way to know just how bad the Packers would have been

over the last decade if they hadn't found Rogers I think they would probably have been fine but cheese they just don't know what evidence do you have that they'd be fine I guess it's just the Packers are always fine, but again, that's because of Aaron Rodgers. There's no way to know. That's because they've had a quarterback every year of our lot. Do you remember?

This is serious question because I don't. Do you remember the Packers before Brett Farf? No. No. We were too young for that. I would have been four years old, which speaks to my constant hell. Of course I don't remember the Packers before Brett Farf. The Magic Man.

All I remember is them being good. Don Medi-Kalski. I don't remember those days. One of the first, I mean, Brett Farf playoff playoff game was one of the first games. remember watching. So that's that's sort of where I'm at on that. So I don't remember the Packers, with the exception of like the Ray Roads year and then the year that the bottom fell out. And then they get able to get AJ Hawk. Like there aren't really, there aren't really times where I've been like, oh, the Packers suck. That hasn't happened

in my life. It doesn't happen very often. Yeah, one of my first games was Bears, Halloween. I think that was 1994. Yeah. In Chicago, week nine. I'm looking at it right now. So that was on my first game. So yeah, my earliest football memory is. involve the Packers and they involve Brett Farr. Unfortunately, they also involve the bears. You got far too many bears memories, buddy. On the ringer NBA show, Kevin O'Connor and Chris Vernon assess the value of the Eric Bledsoe trade to the bucks.

Eric Bledsoe, once he was banished from the Phoenix Suns after his tweet saying he wanted to get out of there, I don't want to be here anymore. Well, now, you know, listen, in NBA, terms, it is great to move from Phoenix to Milwaukee. I will not imagine that non-job related. A lot of people have made that choice. But for his purposes and getting to play play playoff basketball for the first time since he played for the Clippers, you've got to imagine Bledsoe will be pretty happy about that. On the other side, Phoenix is able to obtain Greg Monroe and a first round pick. Heavily protected first rounder. I still think good value.

you because you can get something for Monroe if you want to flip him. I mean, I thought this guy's stock was killed, like, you know, their leverage of being able to get something for him. So I was kind of impressed that Phoenix got something, you know, that's a real like possible starter, certainly eight-man rotation guy and a pick for him. So I thought they did. I thought Phoenix did pretty good. And, you know, it's cool that Milwaukee was the place that he landed because sometimes, you

know, in the NBA, when you hear a trade room or you think about, oh, here's a team that makes sense for a guy. Here's another team. And one of the first teams that came to mind was Milwaukee for Eric Bletso, because they were a team that needed really another guy, another playmaker. And look, I'm not, I'm not the biggest Bletzo fan because his off ball shooting is quite average. And so if you're taking the ball, if you're keeping the ball in Janus's hands, Bletso doesn't really help you space the floor.

But the fact is, is that, like, they needed another playmaker. And Bletzo is really, really good in the pick and roll. And he's another guy who can attack off the dribble. So it's a risk worth taking from Milwaukee, especially with the protections on that pick where Bletso's a good player, man. Like he's the 12th or the 13th best point guard in basketball. He's got injury problems and there's concerns with that. But he's good. And so I'm excited about this trade for both teams.

Like you said, Chris, Phoenix had no leverage and to get a first rounder out of it. It's pretty damn good. My first instinct is I'm thinking, my God, they're going to be able to throw Bledsoe and Brogden out as a back court. Two guys that can, you know, you feel. comfortable with them on ones, you feel comfortable with them on twos. You know, if they get switched, you know, they're not easy guys to post up on. These guys are both got these condor-like wingspans. They've shown a willingness to be able to defend, certainly Brockton.

I mean, it's demanded by kid. We just haven't seen it in so long from Bledsoe. Once upon a time, I thought he was as difficult a perimeter defender to go against in the league. And then I don't think he's lost the ability to defend. I think he's lost the will. And so if he gets that back, I get the offensive side and the playmaking. I'm more interested in the defensive side because I think they could throw out lineups where, you know, I don't even know how great they have to be offensively because they might be able to just strangle you out

and you not be able to score for four and five minutes stretches. I think they could be devastating with all that length and speed that everything they've got defensively. That's a great point, Chris, because there's going to be so much focus. on the offensive end of the floor, as there should be, right? But at the same time, there's also another end. And that's where Bledsoe, in the past, was elite. When he was a younger player with the Clippers, he was probably one of the better perimeter guard defenders in the league.

And it wasn't just he could defend point guards either because he's so strong and because he's really so long, he's able to defend some bigger guys, too. So I think it makes a versatile Bucks team even more versatile having someone like Eric Bletzo. at the point guard position now. The thing is, as you said, he lost the will to defend in Phoenix. So will he turn it back to the level that he did? He could, and let's hope that he does. But there's no guarantees of that. It could be something where he can't flip the switch right away. But, you know, I'm essentially just playing devil's advocate to myself because I'm with you where he's going to be able to turn it on. Defense is about effort. And I think he's going to really,

you know, feel a lot of new energy playing on this new Bucks team. ESPN premiered their new 30 for 30 documentary Nature Boy early this week on Rick Flair. On the masked man show, David Chumaker and guests, Steve Kazee, shared their thoughts on the doc and its best moments. There's no way to watch Nature Boy and not in every little segment say, like, I wish I could have seen more of that. Yeah, that's the thing that I took, my couple of takeaways was, number one, it really made me miss KFabe. It really made me miss those days of like believing to a certain extent that these people are these people. people. Sure.

Last night was really about seeing the flawed man behind the nature boy more so than I think it was celebrating like, you know, the wildness of Rick Flair. Yeah. So that was my first thing. It just sort of made me long for those days because I do think that when Rick Flair goes, he's sort of the last of a breed. I don't know who would be the next closest guy who lived his gimmick, lived his gimmick, like in a way that like people just don't do anymore.

Yeah. You know, Finn Baller doesn't live his. his gimmick. His gimmick stays in the ring with him. And so it made me sort of long for those days in a nostalgic sense. But the second thing that I sort of took away from it was that, you know, it's a, it is such a dark industry. And as fans, we sort of, we, it's like people who still like watch football. You can't watch football these days without thinking about CTE. Sure. So I can't watch wrestling without thinking about these guys that suffered and everybody who's died early and you know the toll it takes on bodies and things so to me it was like a stark reminder of

like just how much these guys give for our entertainment and how sometimes we're we're we're not very appreciative of that we don't sort of see that side of it you know when we badmouth people or trash talk you know decisions and things like that so those were my two biggest takeaways from it I thought it was a flawed documentary much in a way that is a flawed man but how do you encompass that guy's life in 90 minutes, like you said. Yeah. He's such a legend. He's almost like a Sasquatch, you know?

It's true. Is it a real thing or is it not? And I don't even think he knows. You know, he tried to fight me in a bar once. We've had that conversation. Have we had it on the podcast? I don't know if we did or not. But I don't want to go into it.

Living the gimmick. Well, I mean, and that's part of what I wrote about in my piece was that I felt like the documentary actually spent a little bit too much time. Like, I mean, it's, it's, It was interested in the concept of wrestling in a lot of ways and tried to use Rick as the vessel. And so they spent a lot of time on this Rick Flair versus Richard Fleeer thing, which I don't really think is that significant a distinction. I mean, Rick was, Rick said in the documentary that, you know, Richard Flair was a guy that finished a year of college and then Rick Flair took over. But it's like that's not this like evidence of some like split personality.

That's evidence that he like grew up and just fully became the character. Yeah. I mean, he said, you talked about him being living the gimmick and him being flawed. But, I mean, he did live the gimmick. I mean, I don't think anybody would have watched a Rick Flair promo in the Crockett studio in the 80s and just be like, I bet he's a great dad. You know, I mean, it was, I mean, it was. I don't even anybody knew he was a dad. Right, right.

I mean, but even if you did, you'd be like, oh, I'm sure he barely ever sees kids. Or, you know, and if, and you would assume he was out drinking every night because he talked about it. You know, I mean, this was the gimmick and the guy were just basically the same thing for almost his entire life. Yeah. I think that, you know, there's two quotes that I really loved from the documentary was the one, I guess it was an ESS. Spian writer. Marty Smith. I didn't feel Hulk Hogan, man. I felt Rick Flair. I felt an authenticity in Rick Flair that he was really living what he was saying. Couldn't have agreed more with that statement. Like, I never felt Hulk Hogan, but I felt Rick Flair, and I still today feel Rick Flair

when he's in the ring. There's just something about the magic of him being inside of a ring even at 70 years old. And then the other one is at the end when they ask him, What does he want to be remembered for? You know, it's easy to say you'll want to be thought of as the best father that I've ever lived, but I wasn't. And I certainly wasn't the best husband. So I guess I'll just have to settle for wanting to be thought of the greatest wrestler and the most entertaining wrestler that ever lived.

And I thought it was the most honest moment of the thing because he's like, look, I was not a great dad. I wish I could say I was. And I was a terrible husband. So I guess I just want to be known as the greatest wrestler of life. all time. Yeah. And that sums it all up.

That sums it up why he's still doing, still kicking, still fighting. You know, he's not going to get pinned until I think he wants to. He's proven that time and time again. The U.S. men's national soccer team will play a friendly against Portugal on November 14th, featuring several new players. On Ringer FC, Chris, Micah, and Ryan discuss the move towards youth in U.S. men's soccer and what players to watch during the match.

We're going to get into the Premier League overreactions, but I just want to, I want to shoot you guys a couple of names by way of news here. I just want to get your just raw reactions. Raw reactions. Weston McKinney, Tyler Adams, Josh Sargent, Cameron Carter Vickers,

Jesse Gonzalez. Who are these people? 2022 World Cup champions. They are playing. They are young dudes who the USMNT has called up to face Portugal and they're friendly.

This is a, is like exactly what we wanted them to do. I am firmly in favor of Josh Sergeant playing for a U.S. M&T friendly in a very long time. And Poulosick isn't even playing. Yeah, because he's had a hard year. He's had a hard year. They said interim coach

Dave Sassarin. Saracan. Saracan. Sorry. I've really done it as that. He is getting experimental and he is bringing in the kids. And God bless him, man. I mean, like, why not? Yeah. I mean, nothing to lose.

These kids are like, it's going to be really exciting to see a group of new USMNT players. Yeah, I mean, it's the next time the U.S. plays a game that actually matters. So a World Cup game. Well, I guess World Cup qualifying, because that is now an issue, is in five years. So the players on this team should only be guys that have a chance of being a starter, essentially, in five years. And Josh Sargent played for the U-17s, the U-20s, and now will be making, Hopefully his senior debut. Under 17.

He turns 18 in either January or February, and then he can officially start playing for Ward of Bremen because he's currently still underage, so he's not allowed to play for them yet. Okay. Is there anybody else besides Sergeant that we should be keeping an eye out for this? Bill Hamid?

Of course, always Hamid. Weston McKinney, too. I mean, he's started for Shalka a bunch this season. Has he? Yeah, he's at number six, which is sort of the position the U.S. never had a wholly midfielder. The Beckerman. Exactly.

Beckerman, but good. I still haven't seen pictures. Is he trying to pretend like he's 17 now? He's trying to fool his fellow holding midfielder. All right. We'll be really excited to see this UMNT Portugal game. We'll be talking about that next week, probably. On Ringer University, Ben and Roger chat about arguably the best college football.

sideline prop ever, the Miami Turnover chain, and start their picks for week 11 by discussing the marquee matchup between number seven ranked Miami and number three ranked Notre Dame. There's something that I think I and all of college football came to love over the first nine weeks of this season. And I am here to say that I believe it's jumped the shark. And that thing is the University of Miami turnover chain. No. Why?

Why? I love it. I love the turnover chain. I love it when players get it. But this week, I came to learn that the University of Miami is selling replica turnover chains to fans for $100. There's a huge industry now in Miami of selling people turnover chains or shirts, Adidas-branded shirts with a turnover chain. And this is where you cross the line with me because, first of all, you can't wear the turnover chain unless you've created a turnover. didn't earn that. You did not earn. You can't buy a turnover chain. You have to go onto the field and take the goddamn ball from Virginia Tech to get that turnover chain. Second of all, you know, the players need the money. Give the players the money and you can sell the turnover chains all you want. But I, I, it was such a cool, organic thing. The players loved it. The coaches loved it. I love it. And now it's it's gone out into the world of of enormous commercial sports. And I'm,

I'm hurt. It's hard for me to argue with that. The one thing I will say, though, is... The chain is awesome. It's still pretty endearing, and Jennifer Lopez was wearing it at the Virginia Tech game, so shouts to huge Miami Hurricanes fan, J-Lo. What turnover did Jennifer Lopez create? She turned over from, what was it, Mark Anthony, to Alex Rodriguez.

I'll give her the chain for that. Yeah, I mean, I actually can't. If one person who has it intercept. except at a pass is allowed to wear the turnover chain. It's J-Lo. It's J-Lo. We're both in agreement there. We are going to get into our week 11 picks now,

and since we've just been talking about Miami, we might as well start there. They have a big one this weekend. They just proved themselves for real more than they have at any point in the season. And now they host Notre Dame. The Fighting Irish, the spread as of Tuesday, is Notre Dame by only three and a half points. Roger, can Miami,

despite the fact that the turnover chain has jumped the shark. Can Miami keep this thing rolling against the Irish? You know, that went over Virginia Tech. It reminded me actually a lot of a Jennifer Lopez song. Please go on. I'm real. Because they're real. Yeah. They're for real now. But I, as we said. Zach Mack will drop in the, uh, this, I'm real. And I can't go on without the you. Wow. That's really good. Yeah. Anyway, I don't think they're as good as a Notre Dame. I would pick a Notre Dame. in this game. I think they're

not quite as real as J-Lo or J-Lo or J-Rul. No one is as real as J-Rul. No one is up there with John. No one is up there with J-N-W. That's yeah, I have a Notre Dame. Sorry, I got off. That's one of my favorite songs of all time. Yeah, well,

you used it, you used it properly. I applaud you for it. I'm going with Notre Dame, too. I think Miami, the turnover chain is working. They have 20 turnovers. That's not the best in the country, but I think it's like 10th best or tied for Pentass. But yeah, the Irish are not winning close. They're winning big, and their combination of Brandon Wimbush and Josh Adams has been absolutely incredible. Adams is averaging 8.69 yards per carry,

which is a huge number. And we talked a little bit about sort of how a lot of these other running backs who were in the Heisman Trophy conversation have fallen off, right? Sequin has had a couple bad weeks in a row. Bryce Love was held to 69 yards in that loss to Washington State. He had a big touchdown, but Josh Adams is just killing people. He has almost 1,200 rushing yards, nine rushing touchdowns, and yeah, he's gaining, I think he's sixth in the nation in yards per carry. So I think he has a big game. I think Notre Dame wins this pretty comfortably. As much as I have sort of talked myself into Miami having a real college football playoff chance, I think Notre Dame is a better team. I think Notre Dame is a top four or five talent.

I think Miami is the top 15 talent, I think you'll see that on the fence. I'm rooting for the U. I don't think they're going to do it. On NBA group chat, Chris Ryan, Justin Barrier, Haley O'Shaughnessy, and Paula Ugetti play a round of Take Tank

and pitch their takes on Chris Staps, Brazingis, Kyle Lowry, and an interesting LeVar Ball conspiracy. So let's start with you, Justin. What's your take, though, at the NBA that you want to offer up to the sharks? Hello, sharks. So in Connecticut, we value excellence, especially in the basketball court.

We're all about rings, success. What? I'd like to focus on the MVP race. What's your evaluation? I would like to focus on the MVP race. Yeah. I think that it's going to be one of the more interesting ones to date.

I think if you look at it's wide open, LeBron James, obviously a candidate. Yonisand Sikoupo, obviously another candidate. Let me tell you about this guy I know. If you say Jeremy Lamb, I'm... I'm not going to go that far this time. Maybe next week. But he's organic.

He's locally sourced in Latvia. His name is Christopheus Porzingis. Top three MVP candidate. He's going to finish third on the ballot. I'll buy it, man. You can take my money. Also, we are feeling the power of New York right now. When they talk about, like, New York's Bigot's Media Market, like, watch.

This dude is blowing up. I'm buying into it. Yeah, I buy it. Can I make problems with that? No, I'm in. Take my money. He wore a shooting sleeve sometimes. this week and I ordered one on Amazon.

Really? Yeah. I'm just gonna wear it as a headband around the office. That's a look. Really? How much of those calls? I didn't really buy it. We could get you one of those with your steak dinner after the next day

in case you missed it. What's your take that you want to sell? Okay, so this is not like something you'd go into a take. Take tank. It's like a thing that I can't say that. Take tank. Take tank. This is not something you're going to be like, oh, I want to do this and like sell

this chocolate. everywhere. I'm really big in the shark tank. Here's just a quick thing I want to say, don't ever go on shark tank. I would be so, I feel like the person they were like, no. Have you guys seen the sleeve? Great. You can wear it around your head. Anyway, I think that Kyle Lowry is super disinterested this season. Super disinterested. And I mean, his offense has seriously not clicked at all this season.

He hasn't had one game above 20 points averaging like 11. And I was looking up quotes because the other. day Kevin O'Connor brought up on Slack that he seemed upset that the spurs weren't interested in him this summer. Malays has settled on him. Yes. So he told a reporter when the person asked him why his offense wasn't clicking, he said, I don't know, man.

I think the way we're moving the ball, the ball's not in my hands as much. They just want to try to get everyone involved. And for me, I'm used to having the ball in my hands. What a weirdo. I know. So I think that he's a little bit disgruntled and upset. And the spurs thing? Yeah.

I mean, why bring that up? Weird. You should not bring that up. Somebody basically asked him, like a tossed off spurs. Like, oh, you know, weren't you rumored to be linked with the spurs this year? And this past summer. And he was like, yeah, I wanted to go there, but they didn't want me. Like, not really.

And so now I'm back here. Some pent up frustration. Buy it or sell it. You know, I've spent a lot of time around the New Orleans Pelicans. So I've invested heavily in sadness and just misery. And so I have to say, I'm going to buy in. But I need 50% of your company. Equity.

That's the last presentation. I want to make it. I made 10 cents on every dollar that you make off of Kyle Lowry's next contract. I might agree to that. Okay. I got to talk to my partner. I don't know if I'm buying only because I think he's kind of having like a regular season LeBron syndrome without actually earning the ability to do so.

Right. He's like, okay, I'll get around to getting good once the playoffs come around. But he's not good in the playoffs. And also if he was LeBron, he would be so much more passive. Yeah, well, that too. But I just more engaged. Maybe not necessarily good, but just more engage. Sure, sure.

I like how the only thing interesting about the Raptors is just a guy saying. Kyle Hauer is midlife crisis. Poor DeMar. Powell, what's your tic tank? Gosh, okay. So mine's a little outside the box. Guys, you got to walk in, you make eye contact you big.

You say, I have the deal of a lifetime for you, and you'll never forgive yourself. The Leangelo Ball situation in China is merely a distraction to distract away from Lanzabal. balls poor play on the Lakers right now. He got arrested. He's a lot of ball right here. Wow.

I don't want to say that it was engineered per se, but I think that engineered like a shark in deep blue sea. Exactly. Coincidentally, we seem to be talking a lot about the other balls right now and not about how Lonzo was struggling. However, like my take on Lonzo specifically is that he's going to be fine. So you think that LeVar Ball saw that Lonzo. Ball struggling for the Lakers, and he engineered a geopolitical international incident

where possibly Donald Trump will have to weigh in to save Leangelo Ball from a big sentence for stealing an L'V bag. I mean, it's 2017. Don't talk about Lanzo missing some shots. You know what? Like I said, a little outside the box. I like what you're selling here, Chris. I'm buying.

Former NFL players turned analyst Tony Romo and Dion Sanders traded verbal jabs this week. and Cousin Sal and the degenerate trifecta break down an interesting fake gambling prop between the two former cowboys if they actually traded jabs. What would happen if these two fought? Let's start with you, Brother Brigh, what do you think? These are two great athletes, two of the better NFL athletes, right, overall, between Dan with baseball and the Roma with golf and basketball stuff. I'm going to, you know what, I'll give you a few pros and cons for each of them,

and then I'll let you know what I'm going to take here. Obviously, the pros for Dion, I mean, obviously, he's a far superior athlete. I mean, the speed and stamina would be, like, such a big advantage. It would be ridiculous. The con with Dion, though, is obviously he doesn't like to get hit. That's one. And the other is, have you ever seen him throw his left hand? I don't know if you guys remember the fight he was in with Andre Ryzen.

And if you look at that, he throws this really, like, soft left-looping hand. So it doesn't seem like he's been in too many fights in his life. So I don't know on that. If you look at Romo, though, obviously he's going to have a huge size advantage, right? He probably is about 30 pounds more than Deanna, I would say, at least. And then also, you know, obviously he's got some perseverance. You know, I think he'd train a long time for the spot. I think Deion would take it for granted that he would win easily.

So I think that's a pro there. But then on the cons, you know, I'd say Tony lacks elite athleticism. And then also, I doubt Tony's ever got. into a real fight in his life. I mean, you would probably know that, Sal, but I would say he's never got into a fight. So I'm going to lean towards Dion in this one. I'm basically going to say that Dion's going to jab him, move around and run, jab him for about two rounds. Tony eventually will tire out, and then I'm going to say what happens.

He trips the Leon's foot and then that's it, and then that stops it. So I'm going to say Dion minus 170. I hope it doesn't wind up like that. All right. All right. Paul, the kid, what do you say? Dee, I think I know what you're saying, but let's hear. You kind of nailed this with the whole thing.

I mean, Romo didn't say anything mean-spirited. You know, he was just doing his job, and he said something. Dion, like you said, it was kind of mean-spirited what he kind of came back with Romano. But that being said, neither guy really said anything that wasn't true. I mean, but I just thought the way Dion came back with it, you know, that really wasn't necessary. Dion, you're a Hall of Famer. Relax.

You're in the Hall. You don't have anything to prove. But listen, tail of the tape, Romo 6-2-230, Dion 6-1, close to 200 pounds. And I think that's in their prime playing days. Dion's one of the greatest athletes of all time, right, along with Bo Jackson when we grew up, right? Two tremendous athletes.

But Tony Romo is probably the most underwent. rated all-around athlete of all time. There you go. All right. NFL quarterback. Oh, boy. Very nifty. Very nifty on his feet.

He's nimble. He's nimble. Okay? He's a gym rat. Karan Butler himself. And forget about what Harry's going to tell you. Karan Butler himself said Tony Romo would have been a very good NBA basketball player. Right.

Okay? That's, we know he's a very good golfer. And Tony Romo's best buddies growing up personally told me, personally told me that he was an excellent soccer player and an excellent baseball player growing up as well. Probably, to me, one of the most underrated athletes all the time. Dion showed by this war of words that he is not mentally tough. That's what he showed me. Plus, how many times do we have to listen to Dion have hamstring problems, right?

Oh, my hamstrings, they hurt. Tony Romo, this guy, and we all know this, he's played with broken fingers. He put himself back onto a field with a broken collarbone. He's played with a punctured lung and broken ribs. He played six weeks like that. He played with a game-winning drive against the Redskins with a broken bone in his back. This guy is as tough as they come. You put these two guys in the octagon?

I don't care. Neither of them have fighting experience. Romo's going to pound him. He's going to pound him and put him away quickly. I love it. And can you please make sure Romo literally? to this whole thing? I'm going to try. I'm going to try to get him to listen to this. I'll say this also. Honestly, he would pound. Yeah. I'm sorry, I am. I think Romo, there's

a thing like, yeah, yeah, what Dion said was true, but not for lack of trying. Tony Romo didn't try to lose playoff games. Dion, you tried to not tackle guys who were right in front of you. And I would say, so that's it. So that's another week of Captain. Oh, wait, Harry, you want to speak? Oh, shoot. I was not going to let Harry speak. Go ahead, Harry. Let's hear. Let's hear what you have to say.

Well, you're not going to believe what I'm taking Romo at plus the 150. Yeah, it's going to be some snide bullcrap. Go ahead. However, however, you guys are just missing the obvious. And the obvious is that he'd called his ex-boss, Jerry Jones. he would get involved in this sort of thing. He would talk to Dion, and it's obvious it would be fixed

because Pretty Boy Tony doesn't want to get hurt. Jerry would set up a payoff system between him and Dion, and then something like that, and then Jerry takes care of it, because there's a, you know, it would just be, Dion would just be another long list, another one of the long list of puppets

for Jerry like Romo, like Garrett, like Troy Boy, like Switzer. Jimmy Johnson wasn't, and that's why he went by-bye. So it's going to be a fix. It's a setup. And of course I'll take Romo plus the $150 because Jerry will take care of it for him. All right.

Well, that's ridiculous. That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard. That's it for this week in Ringer Sports. Thanks for listening. You can subscribe and find all of our shows at theringer.com slash podcasts.